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[GEEKY] Resfulie GEM for Rails and RESˇ | This is really nice: Restfulie — Rest from Scratch. It’s a package of code for creating REST clients and servers with built in content type negotiation and other goodies. Watch the fun tour-do-force video too:
“Rest from scratch” with Rails and Restfulie — part 1 from Caelum on Vimeo. | https://medium.com/pito-s-blog/geeky-resfulie-gem-for-rails-and-res%CB%87-5b40964ac3b2 | ['Pito Salas'] | 2017-06-08 19:21:15.888000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Rest', 'Rails', 'Geeky', 'Technology'] |
TOP 5 — Must Read for every CEO.. IMPORTANT NOTE BEFORE I GET STARTED… | IMPORTANT NOTE BEFORE I GET STARTED: This is my first list of my own, I consider myself as evid reader and technologist. I hate reading books on Kindle, Google rather than at bookstore or at my study table. I work with IT Consulting firm — Cloud Certitude and works typically in SMB Market and Mid Market.
Hit Refresh — by Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft
Though I’m not a big Microsoft fan but this book is all about individual change, the transformation happened inside Microsoft and the arrival of the most exciting and disruptive wave of technology humankind has experienced — including artificial intelligence, mixed reality and quantum computing. One of the finest words I loved was “Ideas Excites Me.” Empathy ground and centres me”.
2.META HUMAN — Unleashing your infinite potential by Dr. DEEPAK CHOPRA
Well I would say this is the most controversial book in the entire list. I met with Dr. Deepak in United States, SFO for a brief discussion and I become his big fan. In this brilliant book Dr. Deepak successfully argues that consciousness is the sole creator of self, mind, brain, body and the universe we know it. METAHUMAN is a brilliant vision of human potential and how we can move beyond the limitations, concepts, and stories created by the mind.
3. THE TECH WHISPERER — ON DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND THE TECHNOLOGIES THAT ENABLE IT BY JASPREET BINDRA.
This book is all about Digital Transformations and the technologies which can enable it. Companies across the world are being buffeted by new technologies, disruptive business models and start up innovation. Business leaders knows that need to adopt the new technologies, like blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), using them to keep pace with rapid customer and business environment changes. My loved chapter of the book is Brahma and Business Models.
4. HOW TO CREATE A MIND — THE SECRET OF HUMAN THOUGHTS REVEALED
RAY KURZWEIL prevents a provocative exploration of the most important project in human — machine civilization: reverse — engineering the brain to understand precisely how it works and using the knowledge to create even more intelligent machines. Kurzweil also has explained how the brain functions, how the mind emerges, brain computer interfaces, and the implications of vastly increasing the power of our intelligence to the address the world’s complex problems. I would say every page of this is unique and inspiring.
5. Customer — Support — Focused — Driven — Obsessed — A whole company approach delivering exceptional customer experiences. GET AHEAD OF THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE CURVE
This book is for the companies who defines success through business outcomes and put customers at the center of their business realize sustainable, continuous growth. Customer experience is a key driver of technical innovation and business success — customer obsessed teaches organization how to leverage it across all the levels of the organizations to sustain competitive advantage in the digital era. | https://medium.com/doctorsalesforce/top-5-must-read-for-every-ceo-32c758784987 | ['Sumit Mattey'] | 2020-02-28 18:40:52.300000+00:00 | ['CEO', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'AI', 'Microsoft', 'Mindfulness'] |
by Martino Pietropoli | First thing in the morning: a glass of water and a cartoon by The Fluxus.
Follow | https://medium.com/the-fluxus/internet-of-things-4454e73aadf6 | ['Martino Pietropoli'] | 2016-07-11 23:31:08.339000+00:00 | ['Internet of Things', 'Humor', 'Comic', 'Saturday'] |
Why Java is the best Programming language for Beginners in 2021? | Why Java is the best Programming language for Beginners in 2021?
Even after 25 years, Java is still the best programming language to start coding
I often receive questions like which is a first programming language to learn?, Is Java a good programming language to start with?, how good Java is as a first programming language, which is the best programming language for beginners, or shall I start with Java or Python?.
Well, the answer to all these questions is, Java is one of the most popular programming languages, and there are a lot of reasons to learn Java, starting with Job opportunities to leveraging community support.
But, in the context of beginning programming or choosing Java as the first language, my most significant reason is that it’s simpler to learn.
People may argue that Python is even simpler and doesn’t even require to compile but I personally found Java much easier to read and understand.
The last generation of programmers started learning to program using languages like BASIC and then grew up learning C and C++ with Java as their second or third programming language.
One reason for this could be that C and C++ were more prevalent in those days than Java, the other most curriculum was designed to teach C and C++, and there was no Python those days, at least not in our college.
This is true, *often we don’t make a choice, and we learn as part of the programming curriculum at school and colleges. In my time, C was the first programming language in our engineering college, and then we learned C++, VB, VC++, and finally Java.
Now I am saying Java more straightforward and easy to learn, but I still remember saying it was more complicated than C++ because I had to type System.out.println() instead of simpler cout to print something on the screen, but that was just a momentary feeling.
When I started writing and maintaining bigger programs, I found Java much more readable, and you can think about what code is doing. Debugging and finding a problem was also much more comfortable in Java than compared to C++ or C.
By the way, I learn professional programming, or you say real coding only on my first job, and that was when I seriously started learning Java.
Is Java a Good Programming Langauge to Start With?
Here are my couple of reasons, why I think Java is the right programming language to start learning to code:
1. Simple
Java is simpler, the syntax is much more readable than C, C++ or any other language.
2. Object-Oriented Programming
Java is good to learn Object-Oriented programming, but not so good for procedural one, prefer C there. The OOP or Object Oriented programming is a useful skill because it handles the complexity of a real-world application quite well. It’s easier to think in terms of class and objects.
3. Rich API and third-party libraries
Java has a rich API, and you can do a lot more with Java including graphics, sound and most likely writing small games like Tic Tac Toe, Tetris, etc.
Not that you cannot do that with other languages, you often need to download and install different modules and library, which is a tough job for a starter. When you install Java, most of these feature comes as part of the installation only.
4. Community Support
Java has strong community support, no matter what kind of questions, doubt, or issue you have, Google can find answers for you. If not Google, then StackOverflow, Java forums, and a lot of other communities are there to help you out.
This is really the single biggest reason I suggest beginners learn to code using Java because when you are starting to learn to program you will face many different kinds of issues to understand for both programming fundamentals and Java.
Because there are millions of Java developers around and a big community is there to support, most likely you will find answers quickly without getting frustrated and disappointed.
5. Strongly typed language
Java is a strongly typed language, which catches many newbie mistakes. Also valid, to a lesser extent, for static typing. This is another reason I suggest beginners learn Java first then Python because Python is a dynamic typing language, you don’t need to define types which make learning confusing a bit.
6. Built-in Garbage Collector
Java comes with an in-built Garbage collection, which is a big plus for a complete beginner. Dealing with memory management is a big thing at the start of learning programming.
These are some of the reasons why I think beginners should learn Java first than any other language. I may be biased because I am a Java programmer, but I also know Python, and I have also done professional programming in C and C++. From that experience, I can say that Java is undoubtedly one of the best programming languages for beginners.
If you have already made up your mind to learn Java, then you can join The Complete Java Masterclass to start your journey into the beautiful world of Java. This is one of the best courses to learn Java for beginners. It’s comprehensive but at the same time hands-on and suitable for beginners.
Is Java Enough for a Successful Programming Career?
Now the question is the difference, It’s NOT. As a programmer, you must know a lot of things, like data structures, algorithms, memory management, object-oriented programming, scripting, etc. and different language teaches you a different thing.
Once you are comfortable with Java, you can move to other useful programming languages like Scala, JavaScript, or also go towards scripting languages, like Python, which doesn’t need to be compiled.
To be successful in a programming career, you need to keep learning and evolving, that’s the biggest challenge of this field. If you happen to love programming and learn new technologies and languages, then this is the right field for you.
Another important thing for a successful programmer is to develop debugging skills, which is a reasoning based skill. If you want to become a better Java developer, you can also see my recent post about 10 tips to become a better Java developer in 2021.
If you are good with reasoning and can make a conclusion based upon limited available information, then it will be easy for you to troubleshoot issues and find problems.
Having a good knowledge of IDE like Eclipse, Netbeans, or IntelliJIDEA will also help you with your coding and debugging journey, Java is blessed with a really excellent tool.
That’s all on this folks. In my opinion, Java is definitely an excellent language to start programming with, because it’s simpler than many others and focuses truly on programming rather than managing systems, like memory management.
If you are convinced to start learning to code with Java than pick up a copy of Head First Java or join The Complete Java Masterclass and start your journey of programming with one of the best programming languages, Java.
In short, You can definitely choose Java as your first programming language and once you are comfortable, try to learn a couple of more, like JavaScript or Python.
More Resources
Java Tutorial for Complete Beginners (FREE)
Data Structures and Algorithms: Deep Dive Using Java
Java Fundamentals: The Java Language
Java Basics for Beginners (FREE Course)
Practice Java by Building Projects (FREE Course)
10 Free Java Courses for Beginners and Intermediate developers
10 Things Java Developer should learn in 2019
21 Websites to Learn Coding for FREE
Thanks for reading this article so far. If you like this article, then please share it with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback, then please drop a note.
P. S. — If you like books, you can also check out this list of Must-Read Java Programming books to learn Java in depth.
P.S.S. — If you prefer online courses then you can also check out this list of best Java courses on Medium, which contains a lot of free resources to learn Java online. | https://medium.com/javarevisited/why-java-is-the-best-programming-language-to-learn-coding-for-beginners-cba79aed1271 | [] | 2020-12-13 04:58:46.985000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'Coding', 'Programming', 'Computer Science', 'Java'] |
Reverse Proxy(Haproxy) with Ansible | Setting up Reverse Proxy and Load Balance with Haproxy using Ansible.
Photo by Cookie the Pom on Unsplash
A reverse proxy is a server that sits in front of web servers and forwards client (e.g. web browser) requests to web servers.
A reverse proxy operates by:
Receiving a user connection request
Completing a TCP three-way handshake, terminating the initial connection
Connecting with the origin server and forwarding the original request
Some of the benefits of a reverse proxy :
Load Balancing : A popular website that gets millions of users every day may not be able to handle all of its incoming site traffic with a single origin server. Instead, the site can be distributed among a pool of different servers, all handling requests for the same site. In this case, a reverse proxy can provide a load balancing solution which will distribute the incoming traffic evenly among the different servers to prevent any single server from becoming overloaded.
: A popular website that gets millions of users every day may not be able to handle all of its incoming site traffic with a single origin server. Instead, the site can be distributed among a pool of different servers, all handling requests for the same site. In this case, a reverse proxy can provide a load balancing solution which will distribute the incoming traffic evenly among the different servers to prevent any single server from becoming overloaded. Protection from attacks : With a reverse proxy in place, a web site or service never needs to reveal the IP address of their origin server(s). This makes it much harder for attackers to leverage a targeted attack against them.
In this blog I am using HAPROXY(tool) to perform this, haproxy is an open source Load Balancer and proxying solution and to automate this I am using Ansible an automation tool, and using ansible we can achieve this at large scale without repeating the same task again and again. So whenever a new node/server comes up you just need to update the inventory fill and everything will be managed by ansible automatically. | https://medium.com/@d0r1h/reverse-proxy-haproxy-with-ansible-962d83da1b09 | ['Pawan Trivedi'] | 2020-12-09 12:54:19.143000+00:00 | ['DevOps', 'Ansible', 'Web', 'Automation', 'Reverse Proxy'] |
Read More Books: Resist Regression | Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean. — Charlie Munger
Want to Read More Books Without Losing Comprehension? Do Learn to Resist Regression
Please note your ability to read faster can speed up how fast you learn. Reading is not a human ability hardwired into our brains. It is a skill that takes practice. However, rapid reading is not a difficult skill to learn. Reading can transform your health, wealth, and more so productivity. Comprehension has always been more important than just reading. Without comprehension, reading is just a wasted effort.
You read because you want to learn something new, improve a specific skill or enjoy a great narrative or a novel. Comprehension is the core of reading any material. It is also the reason many people spend a lot of time on a single book. The one habit that may be hindering your progress when you choose to read is called regression. However, you can eliminate your reading inefficiencies and increase your reading speed while improving the retention.
Regression (backtracking)
One of the biggest obstacles and debacles to speed reading is regression. It is the habit of re-reading something you have already read in order to be sure you really understood the message you read.
When regression is totally compulsive, the habit can be harder to break.
When you regress like this, you lose the flow and structure of the text, and your overall understanding of the subject can then decrease. Be very conscious of regression, and do not allow yourself to re-read material unless you absolutely have to.
Please note the lack of confidence in your reading skills can cause regression. If you do not fully trust yourself to have completely understood what you have just read, you will regress all the time.
For many readers, this can totally happen over and over again.
Instead of improving their reading habits, many people use this habit to refocus when they feel they are being constantly distracted. In a way as much as you think regression is helping you, it actually slows you down more than you think.
Please note: Regression probably wastes about a third of every hour you spend reading.
It is like taking two steps forward with your eyes and one step back, and for many people, a lot more than one step back. Sometimes, but not very often regression becomes necessary, especially if you are reading about a technical subject and want to understand better. Or say when the author is not engaging better and you have to figure out the message yourself.
More often than not, people regress because it is a habit they have developed over time. If you are aiming to read faster and get the most important ideas in any book that you pick up, you have to quit the habit of going back to the chapters you have already read.
Instead of revisiting pages, what you can could do is to focus better, remove distractions and aim to read a particular number of pages every time you do start reading again. Improve your concentration habit, and you will not have to regress so many times before you actually finish that book.
When your brain develops the habit of re-reading at any time, it does relax and does not concentrate properly because it knows it will go back at some point.
It stops you from immersing yourself deeply in any book. When that happens, you will not fully grasp all the ideas in the book.
How to quit regressing
The simplest approach to stop re-reading over and over again is to choose books or topics you deeply care about. Reading a book must be an experience that provides you joy and even value, not something to labour its way through. If reading takes more effort and it i a struggle, you are going to want to do less of it.
Before you even start reading any book, ask yourself if you are completely curious enough about the topic to give it your full attention or concentration. Passive readers hardly finish any book because they are not curious enough. They read because they have enough time to spend instead of investing in a topic.
So, do get curious before you even start reading.
What do you look for in any book you do choose to read? Let that be your guide and you will focus better on it when you read. Schedule you reading and stick to your allocated time.
Example, you can even set aside half an hour of your time to read your favourite book without any distraction. Start by eliminating all the possible distractions that may prevent you from reading (social media, email notifications, news notifications, background music, etc.).
You can then disable all notifications on your phone.
You will be more focused when it is only you and the book you are reading.
Aim to totally concentrate the whole half an hour.
Do not hurry the process.
Just enjoy the book and the ideas the author is conveying during that time.
To retain and sustain the information better, you can take notes after every reading sprint.
Use the 50/50 principle to retain better and remember the core ideas of any book. You will not have to regress if you are not distracted and intervened.
To reduce the number of times you do backtrack, you can run a pointer (a finger, a pen, or the cursor) along the line that you read.
Your eyes will follow the tip of your pointer, helping you avoid skipping back. The speed at which you read using this method will largely depend on the speed at which you move the pointer. It is important to note that you do not have to finish every book to fully embrace better reading habits.
Closing thoughts (The Bottom Line)
Regression seriously slows down your reading speed. The good news is, you can easily replace it with a better habit, but it takes absolute concentration and practice. Start slow and aim to make total progress instead of trying to change the habit as soon as possible, especially if your brain is already used to re-reading all the time.
Quitting regression can even increase your reading speed and help you read more books every month or year. As you invest more time reading, it will get way easier and you will know what habits are helping you read more books.
The path of least resistance is the path of a loser. — H.G. Wells
About the Author:
Trishna Patnaik, a BSc (in Life Sciences) and MBA (in Marketing) by qualification but an artist by choice. A self-taught artist based in Mumbai, Trishna has been practising art for over 14 years. After she had a professional stint in various reputed corporates, she realised that she wanted to do something more meaningful. She found her true calling in her passion that is painting. Trishna is now a full-time professional painter pursuing her passion to create and explore to the fullest. She says, “It’s a road less travelled but a journey that I look forward to everyday.” Trishna also conducts painting workshops across Mumbai and other metropolitan cities of India.
Trishna is an art therapist and healer. She works with clients on a one on one basis in Mumbai.
Trishna fancies the art of creative writing and is dappling her hands in that too, to soak in the experience and have an engagement with readers, wanderers and thinkers. | https://medium.com/@trishnapatnaik86/read-more-books-resist-regression-1e89cf6d1426 | ['Trishna Patnaik'] | 2020-12-18 20:39:35.087000+00:00 | ['Comprehension', 'Distraction', 'Regression', 'Daily Routine', 'Productivity'] |
Deep Learning: Interesting Research papers to read | 1. A Neural Algorithm of Artistic Transfer:
You can find the paper here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1508.06576
I feel like I have seen more style transfer guides than any other applications of deep learning. This is an interesting one to read and fairly simple to understand. You take two images and create a third one which is inspired by the first two.
What will you learn? This will help you to understand the concepts of how feature maps, losses, transfer learning work.
You can read through the article on Neural Style Transfer here: https://www.tensorflow.org/tutorials/generative/style_transfer
I would suggest you to write your own notebook as well, tinker with style and content weights as well as the images, it will help you to understand more.
2. Generative Adversarial Network:
You can read the paper here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1406.2661
If you heard about this one, I guess no introduction is needed. This paper demonstrate how one can generate samples of data. This can be widely using in generating data, video games, Animation etc.
What will you learn? This will help you get familiar with generative models, discriminator networks and Deconvolutions.
You can read through the article here: https://www.tensorflow.org/tutorials/generative/dcgan
Optional: if you are unfamiliar with Deconvolutions: https://medium.com/thenoobengineer/demystifying-deconvolution-4909a888c83f
3. Attention Is All You Need:
You can read the paper here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1706.03762.pdf
If you are familiar with NLP, You must have heard of RNNs, GRUs and LSTMs. This one takes us to next level. I find the paper itself so interesting that you might not even need any supplementary guide to understand. The building blocks explained in this paper — Transformers are now widely used in modern networks.
what will you learn? This will help you to understand the concepts of NLPs, Transformers, Self-Attention. You might even understand this one without reading about GRU and LSTM. (I do suggest reading about them later on since they were widely popular)
You can read through this article here: http://jalammar.github.io/illustrated-transformer/
4. First Order Motion Model for Image Animation:
Video Sequence generated using First Order Motion Model || Source: https://github.com/AliaksandrSiarohin/first-order-model
You can read the paper here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.00196
If you have seen people posting with videos captioned as Deepfake and you have always been amazed, this paper is for you. Its a bit complex, However, the authors have kept it self explanatory.
what will you learn? You will get familiar with the concept of Image Animation, Keypoints in Images, Image Translation.
This paper is more difficult than the first three. You might feel different depending on your interests. However you will find it very interesting.
You can read through the article where I have explained the paper here: https://medium.com/thenoobengineer/first-order-motion-model-for-image-animations-f3293c12da96
You can visit the github repo and run the demo and go through the code here: https://github.com/AliaksandrSiarohin/first-order-model
5. Open Pose Estimation:
You can read the paper here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1812.08008.pdf
Multiperson pose estimation is one of the applications of deep learning. This paper utilizes Affinity Fields and Confidence maps for this. You will find this very intuitive.
What will you learn? You will get familiar with Single Person Pose Estimation, MultiPerson Pose Estimation, Top-Down and Bottom-up Approach, Affinity Fields, etc.
If you would like to read an article explaining the things, https://medium.com/thenoobengineer/openpose-estimation-model-81de994fea69 | https://medium.com/thenoobengineer/research-papers-to-read-34921facfdc9 | ['Apoorv Yadav'] | 2020-09-06 06:30:02.978000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Neural Networks', 'Papers To Read', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning'] |
RightMesh Bi-Weekly Update: May 3, 2019 | Press
Brianna mentoring students at SURGE
On April 20th, our Manager of Global Partnerships, Brianna MacNeil, spoke and mentored at SURGE in Cape Town, South Africa. The immersive event taught teens and young people about blockchain technology and how it can play a role in addressing global challenges. Brianna spoke on the state of connectivity and gave an overview of RightMesh after the morning session.
At the beginning of the day, none of the attendees were familiar with blockchain. The group, led by UNICEF and ETH Global, took the students through several exercises to teach them the fundamentals of blockchain and the history of money, set them up with a trust wallet, and had them receive currency from a volunteer in the UK to show the speed of transactions. By mid-day the group described the technology as ‘life changing’.
“It was a truly amazing experience to witness their transition from never having heard about blockchain to realizing the transformative power of the technology.” Brianna said, “They immediately grasped the potential and power of RightMesh and connected with the issues of internet shut downs and affordability issues.’
ETH Cape Town
ETH Cape Town
Leading minds within the blockchain space joined together with over 200 internal hackers, developers, and students, to collaborate on building a decentralized future using ethereum. Our Manager of Global Partnerships, Brianna MacNeil, acted as a mentor to the hackers. Winning projects included a decentralized preference-based voting system, a voice to text job creation tool, and an incentivized p2p streaming application.
TF Blockchain
On April 25th, our CPO, Saju Abraham, spoke at TF Blockchain in Vancouver, Canada on ‘Productizing Blockchain.’ He was joined by Paul Walsh of MetaCert and Layne Lafrance of Axiom Zen. The event was a great opportunity to discuss active use cases and network with other technology executives.
Upcoming Events
SATELLITE 2019, May 6–9th
With over 15,000 attendees, SATELLITE2019 unites aerospace thought leaders, entrepreneurs, executives, end-users and engineers together in one place for the largest global connectivity technology event of the year.RightMesh CEO, John Lyotier, will be speaking on a panel alongside David Howgill, President of Huckworthy, J. Armand Musey, President and Founder of Summit Ridge Group LLC, and moderator Michael Potter, Co-Founder and Director of Geeks Without Frontiers.
We’re hiring!
Our team is continuing to grow! We’re looking for passionate problem solvers to join our growing team and help us connect the next billion.
Current open positions include:
How You Can Be Involved | https://medium.com/rightmesh/rightmesh-bi-weekly-update-may-3-2019-dbbd2217d003 | ['Amber Mclennan'] | 2019-05-08 18:13:43.503000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Mesh Networks', 'Rmbiweeklyupdate', 'Wireless Mesh Network'] |
How to Give Feedback | Photo by Portuguese Gravity on Unsplash
Let’s face it: giving feedback is hard.
You want to help that teammate improve their coding skills. You want to tell your manager you feel like they don’t listen when you share an idea. You want to help the newcomer struggling with a concept on the team by sharing your experience.
But how do you do that without sounding like a know-it-all? Or sound like you are just complaining?
While I’m not an expert at all-things-feedback, I’ve grown a lot in the past several years concerning how I give feedback — from technical aspects to soft skills and professionalism.
I want to share some of the tools I have learned to help you give better feedback. Whether you are a senior engineer who just got promoted, a junior struggling just starting, or someone who finds it hard to articulate what you think is helpful, these are for you.
Make Sure It is Your Place to Give Feedback
Before getting too in the weeds, giving feedback needs to have proper boundaries itself. All the tools I share are just that — tools. You need to use emotional intelligence to understand when, where, and what kind of feedback is essential for your role and team.
If you are in a situation where you aren’t sure, the best thing is likely to talk to your manager (or someone from your companies people services team) for some help in understanding the situation. They are there to help you and will help you through it.
Start With a Question
There is a simple question that I have found helps EVERY time I give feedback to someone.
Can I give you some feedback?
It sounds like such a simple question. And it is! But it’s harder than you might think to ask. Instead, we ofter see someone’s behavior and decide you need to “show them the right way.” However, this is a dangerous trap.
When you give feedback without asking if you can, you aren’t respecting the other person. It is likely they aren’t ready to receive it! It’s unwanted! Unwanted feedback is much more like telling someone what to do than giving feedback. Unwanted feedback destroys trust.
If they say “not right now” or “no,” then give them the space they need. Don’t worry if the answer is always “no.” If they are never willing to receive feedback, they will never grow. And while sade, that is their problem. Eventually, it will catch up to them. All you can do is be willing to give thoughtful, honest, and humble feedback when they are willing to receive it.
So what happens when they say “yes”? Keep reading!
State an Objective Observation With Humility
Now that they are willing to receive feedback, you need to make sure your feedback is rooted in objective observations.
Let’s use a simple example. During a technical discussion about a problem, a developer was getting very passionate. This developer, let’s call them Todd, also talked over several others during the discussion — an unfortunately common thing in the tech world. After the meeting, you decide to give Todd some feedback on the event. You want Todd to know that it was frustrating when they talked over others in the group. You ask Todd if you can give them some feedback, and Todd is willing to listen.
Once we have Todd’s willingness to hear our feedback, how do we give it?
First, a warning to stay FAR AWAY from large sweeping generalizations! They won’t help the conversation or the feedback you are attempting to give. Examples might be:
Todd always talks over everyone.
talks over Todd doesn’t respect other people.
Todd is a jerk.
Instead, tell them what you noticed. Stick to the facts. A good approach might be to start with, “I noticed that in that last meeting, you were getting a little heated. You might not have noticed it, but you were talking over a few other people.”
At this moment, we have only re-stated what took place. We haven’t judged Todd or their intentions. We haven’t even offered any suggestions or advice on what to do next time.
By starting with a question (“Can I give you some feedback?”) and then re-stating facts (“You were talking over a few other people.”), we have done our best to create a safe space to now share our real feedback — what to do differently.
Make A Suggestion In the Form of a Question
At this point in the process, I start to second-guess myself. Maybe my advice or feedback is stupid. Maybe Todd doesn’t respect me enough to listen. Or maybe Todd won’t do anything about it anyway.
There is where giving your suggestion in the form of a question is so useful. Instead of telling Todd what they should do, ask Todd if they think your suggestion is a better way of handling it.
As an example, instead of saying, “Maybe you should let other people speak for a change.” you could ask, “I wonder if you think it would be a good idea to let some other people share their ideas too?”
The best part of this form of feedback is that you aren’t telling Todd what to do or what to think. You have asked Todd to think about what they could do differently — just with a gentle nudge towards a specific action.
You do need to be careful, though! Asking questions like this can be interpreted as a manipulation tactic. Remember that your goal is not to convince someone of your ideal reality or to persuade someone to do something in a way that suits your needs best. All of your feedback should be centered around helping others grow. If it isn’t, then take a few moments to consider if you are giving feedback or just angry something didn’t go your way.
Offer Support
If your initial feedback is received well, offer to help further. Don’t leave your teammate alone with only feedback to get better — help them get there!
Support might be as simple as telling them you are happy to field their questions about a particular technology. It could be that you offer to coach them on how to communicate better in a meeting. It might be offering to do pair programming instead of just doing asynchronous code-reviews.
Keep in mind the support you offer needs to appropriate for your role within the team as well.
Going back to our example with Todd, maybe you could spend a few minutes debriefing why Todd got so heated. Was there a specific phrase or statement from someone that made him angry? Can you give Todd a tool for recognizing when a situation has become unsafe for others, and he needs to tone it down and re-center the conversation?
Giving Feedback Takes Practice
Just like coding, there isn’t a magic formula that will solve all your problems. Sure there are patterns and frameworks (just like in code) that can help you, but you have to give feedback to get better at it.
But where do you start? How do you start giving feedback without damaging a relationship or hurting your career?
Start with yourself!
Practice giving feedback to yourself. When you give yourself feedback, you will start to understand what phrases, tools, patterns, etc., help you or hurt you. There is a good chance that what is helpful to you will be helpful to someone else.
Practically one way to give yourself feedback is to self-review your code. Before asking for a review from a teammate, keep your pull request as a draft, step away from it for a few minutes, and then come back to review it in full. Try to review each line and think, “Would by teammates understand this? How could this be better?” You don’t need to take forever on this — just put a few comments (yes! comments to yourself) to get used to giving feedback.
You can also give yourself feedback at the end of each week. I know it seems silly, but take your journal and spend maybe 10–15 minutes giving yourself feedback on what you did that week. Did you do something awesome that you should celebrate? Is there something you could have done better? Is there something you think you could do in the upcoming week to improve?”.
You’ll get comfortable with giving feedback in no time.
Happy coding! | https://dangoslen.medium.com/how-to-give-feedback-5e6a197f9561 | ['Dan Goslen'] | 2020-11-24 18:00:51.642000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Growth', 'Feedback', 'Software Development'] |
How to Come Out to Your Abuelita | In 2017, my Abuelita was in the backyard of her home in Tijuana, doing laundry when she tripped and fell. She knocked out for a while and woke up with a bruised forehead, a black eye, and a broken arm.
I almost cried when I looked at her face. My tias had taken a picture of her and sent it to my family.
Two of her daughters live at home, but they were at work, and my cousins were at school. Once she got up, she called my tias, and they arrived home quickly to take her to a clinic.
She came out with a cast, but a day later, she realized she was in a lot more pain than she should’ve been. It turns out they’d placed her cast wrong, so she went to the hospital to get it fixed.
However, the damage was already done. Her healing process was worse than it should’ve been. To this day, her arm hasn’t completely healed. | https://itxylopez.medium.com/how-to-come-out-to-your-abuelita-b49a8ea08e50 | ['Itxy Lopez'] | 2019-11-30 21:01:00.996000+00:00 | ['LGBTQ', 'Advice', 'Women', 'Equality', 'Self'] |
Setup your Multi-Signature Account on Edgeware | Multi-signature has been around for a while from the old world where it allows groups of users to sign a single document. Its main purpose is additional security for a group of people, i.e. maintaining funds flow or governance power.
In Edgeware it’s possible to create a multi-signature setup, formerly known multi-sig. This article will guide you through how you can create multi-sig and operate it among your team.
board decisions — legal entities such as businesses and foundations use multi-sigs to collectively govern over the entity’s treasury
Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash
What is Multi-signature for
Let’s dive into what are familiar use cases of multi signatures:
securing your own stash — you can use additional signatories as a 2FA mechanism to secure your funds. One signer can be on one computer, another can be on mobile, or in cold storage. This slows down your interactions with the chain but is orders of magnitude more secure.
— you can use additional signatories as a 2FA mechanism to secure your funds. One signer can be on one computer, another can be on mobile, or in cold storage. This slows down your interactions with the chain but is orders of magnitude more secure. board decisions — legal entities such as businesses and foundations use multi-sigs to collectively govern over the entity’s treasury
— legal entities such as businesses and foundations use multi-sigs to collectively govern over the entity’s treasury group participation in governance — a multi-sig account can do everything a regular account can. A multi-sig account could be a council member in Edgeware’s governance, where a set of community members could vote as one entity.
Technically, multi-signature accounts are composed of one or more addresses and a threshold. The threshold defines how many signatories (participating addresses) need to agree on the submission of an extrinsic in order for the call to be successful.
For example, Alice, Bob, and Charlie set up a multi-sig with a threshold of 2. This means Alice and Bob can execute any call even if Charlie disagrees with it. Likewise, Charlie and Bob can execute any call without Alice. A threshold is typically a number smaller than the total number of members but can also be equal to it, which means they all have to be in agreement.
Multisignature accounts cannot be modified after being created. Changing the set of members or altering the threshold is not possible and instead requires the dissolution of the current multi-sig and creation of a new one. As such, multi-sig account addresses are deterministic, i.e. you can always calculate the address of a multi-sig just by knowing the members and the threshold, without the account existing yet. This means one can send tokens to an address that does not exist yet, and if the entities designated as the recipients come together in a new multi-sig under a matching threshold, they will immediately have access to these tokens.
Create a Multi-Signature Account
Now it’s about time to create your multi-signature account and perform a test transaction from the account. As Apps does a lot of heavy lifting, it will be a breeze to create and operate your multi-sig. To not lose any valued tokens, we will demonstrate it on our locally running node.
Prerequisites:
Running local Edgeware node in development mode — this will popup accounts like Alice, Bob, Charlie, Dave, Eve &c
Browser
Open Browser and you will go to the Accounts in Apps to see your development accounts
Accounts
You will choose your signatures, i.e. your team mates accounts, in our scenario we choose Alice, Bob and Charlie. We set the threshold to 2, which means there is only a needed signature from two of three. You can set the threshold to be less or equal to the number of signatories for multi-sig. We call it our Team Funding account.
Choose signatories
Now we will top-up 1,000,000 tEDG to the Team Funding multi-signature account from Alice. Thank you, Alice!
Top-up team funding account
Create Transfer from Multi-Signature Account
Now that the Team Funding account has been seeded, we can pay DAVE 200,000 tEDG for the completion of a project. In our accounts list, hit Send from our Team Funding account.
Initiate Transfer from Multi-Sig
Now we are prompted (as ALICE) to authorize the transaction.
You will see multisig call data with a payload 0x0603ff306721211d5404bd9da88e0204360a1a9ab8b87c66c1bc2fcdd37f3c2222cc201b000000ed95c28f055a2a which is call data that can be supplied to a final call to multi approvals. It's what triggers chain logic to execute commands.
You should hit Sign and Submit.
Authorize Transaction as Alice
It was broadcasted to the chain, you can see the notification on the top right.
Multi-Signature First Call
Now, we click on the right three dots next to our Team Funding account as there is multisig approvals pending (red dot) and select Send
Multi-Signature Second Call
You as another signator (BOB) enter the same amount and destination to get the same final call payload.
Multi-Sig Transfer as Bob
Now we as BOB we can authorize transactions. The UI is smart enough to detect that BOB is signing the final approval. Under toggle Multisig message, you will see the same payload as we’re creating multisig transaction. Hit “Sign and Submit”. This should now be signed by 2-of-3 signatories which is enough for the transaction to be sent to DAVE.
Authorize Transaction as Bob
Funds secured. Woala, DAVE now has money on his account.
Multi-Signature Funds Transferred
You’ve managed to learn how to make transactions for multi-signature account. Multisignature has a broad use case and you can leverage the final call for your use case to trigger whatever you want on-chain.
If you want to dig deeper, you can find more content for Multi-Sig here on Edgewares Documentation.
Author
I’m Matej Nemček 💫🎋 (@yangwao) and I’m taking care of developer relations at Edgewa.re. For more upcoming content follow us @edg_developers on Twitter.
If you want to ask questions, feel free to show up at our Edgeware builders channel on Element or Telegram Edgeware Developers
Why use Substrate?
With Substrate, the runtime is your blockchain canvas, giving you maximum freedom to create and customize your blockchain precisely for your application or business logic. Within the runtime, you can compose any state transition function while utilizing built-in database management, libp2p networking, and the fast and safe consensus protocol GRANDPA.
Learn more about Substrate in recent Parity Technologies post https://www.parity.io/substrate-2-0-is-here/
What is Edgeware?
A self-improving smart contract blockchain.
Edgeware is a high-performance, self-upgrading WASM smart contract platform, in the Polkadot ecosystem.
Participants vote, delegate, and fund each other to upgrade the network.
If you are curious about Edgeware, learn more at Edgewa.re
Follow for more updates twitter.com/@heyedgeware | https://medium.com/commonwealth-labs/setup-your-multi-signature-account-on-edgeware-759df7e62c05 | ['Matej Nemček'] | 2020-12-03 15:14:53.781000+00:00 | ['Multisignature', 'Polkadot Network', 'Blockchain', 'Parity Substrate', 'Funding'] |
Why programmers should not kill people. | What is the difference between a developer and a doctor?
It seems absurd to even ask this question. Obviously, a doctor treats patients, cures illnesses, saves lives; a doctor through inaction or malice could kill a person. This is why they go through 10–15 years of training and take the Hippocratic oath. A developer just creates computer games and mobile apps.
Except, perhaps, developers who write the code for the pacemakers. And maybe the ones who program the firmware on all those ventilators keeping COVID-19 patients alive (along with every other piece of digital hospital equipment). Possibly the ones developing the control system that keeps the airplanes in the air. Probably those who write code for all the machinery for the nuclear power stations. And maybe the ones who program car controls. Did they save a life? Can they through inaction or malice kill a person?
The question should really be: how many people can one doctor save or kill, and how many - one developer?
How many lines of code stand between you and your own death? When you hit the brake pedal in your car, multiple functions are guaranteed to execute before the control module decides squeeze the callipers to press the brake pads against the discs. How do you know that the developer who wrote those functions was trained properly? Is it possible, they just copy/pasted that code from some YouTube tutorial without looking twice? Is it possible that the entire extent of their training was a four-day Python bootcamp? You often get lulled into a sense of security by all the pretty lights on your car’s dashboard and shiny buttons in the cockpit of an airplane, but make no mistake — thousands of lines of code decide whether you will live to see another day.
As a developer, it’s tempting to hide behind the keyboard and push the responsibility for someone’s life on to the QA, or maybe the product manager, or, possibly the integration team, or even the assembly line. Especially if I have an overzealous boss trying to impress his boss with an early deadline.
That’s not good enough. It will take one developer making one mistake to cause hundreds, possibly thousands of deaths. When we’re in a court room giving a testimony under oath and the prosecutor asks, “how did the system failure lead to this? did it ever work properly?”, we need to have a better answer than “but my boss told me to ship it”.
Can we do anything about it? Well, yes, this would be a pretty sad rant otherwise. We start simple — with testing the code. The question then becomes, what should we test? That’s easy — only the parts of the application that we want to work. How about things that are hard to test? But we made them that way, so let’s fix them. Let’s go the TDD route — write a small test for a small behaviour that already exists and re-implement it. Then remove that behaviour from the existing untestable code. Take that knob and dial it up to eleven: refactor the whole system piece by piece to be completely testable with 100% coverage. Now if anyone asks “how do you know it works?” our answer will be “look at this green bar”.
But TDD is not the panacea either. Poorly written tests are arguably worse than no tests at all: they waste developer’s time and give a false sense of security. Plus if I’m writing tests and code that nobody else can read, I have failed as a software developer. Good tests tell me that the code works, not that the code is good. The next logical step becomes cleaning the code. And since now we have the safety net of tests, we can boldly go where no man… basically it’s easy.
Do you ever get this mental fog when reading another developer’s code? Refactor yours to clear that fog for everyone else. If your code is easy to read, it’ll be easy to extend, it’ll be easy to see any logic issues, and more importantly, it’ll be a good example for others to do the same. Don’t stop there though, keep going until you’ve reached the impossible — your entire application is modular, testable and clean. Of course this is an unachievable goal, but it should give you a thirst for perfection. Improve with every chance you can. If you wrote an app, a class or a function that makes you proud, get another developer excited about it. Have them write a function that’s just as beautiful. Imagine a world, where to add a new feature to an existing system, you just go and write that feature, drop it in, everything compiles, you don’t have to dig through 42 other modules and rearrange 73 functions just to squeeze in your new shiny code.
But what about deadlines? Yes, “What about the children?! Think of the children!!” If a manager says that you can’t afford to spend time on tests because of a deadline, you have the power to say “no, I can’t deploy untested code”. It may make them upset, it may get you in trouble, it may even get you fired. But know this, if you get fired, you’re better off now. It was only a matter of time anyway: you were working for a company that cares about its bottom line much more than about its employees or its customers. That company is not going to succeed. Now you can find a better position. Would a hospital administrator come to a surgeon and say “we set a goal of 2 hours per liver transplant, it’ll make us millions”? Don’t be the surgeon who says “sure!”
Until everyone treats software development as a profession, a discipline, we will always run a risk of a fatal car accident or a plane crash from bad code. It will take time, training and frustration, but with small changes we will get there. That small change starts with you. You are the only one who can decide to hold yourself to a higher standard than your colleagues or your manager. So take the first step to a better tomorrow, write a test.
Inspired by: Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob) and Simon Sinek | https://medium.com/@ai78466/why-programmers-should-not-kill-people-86a770a67ebe | [] | 2020-12-24 12:58:32.518000+00:00 | ['Test Driven Development', 'Clean Code', 'Software Development'] |
Riding High on the Anxiety Coaster | Today we’re starting the Ninja Writer Academy workshops, and, I have to admit, I’m really nervous.
I’ve taken part in a million different workshops over the years, basically any time I was there and I could afford to be a part. But this is the first time in my life that I’ve been in charge . . . that I’ve been responsible for leading the group.
And, now, I’ve got a little knot of worry rolling around in my stomach.
It doesn’t stand up to much dissection. I mean, how hard can this be? We’re going to have a handful of people getting together, reading their work out loud, and the others offering critique. It’s not like this situation is going to turn into a race riot or the second coming of the Altamont Free Concert.
Or will it?
In my brain, the possibility is always there. I’m a firm believer in Murphy’s Law: anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Usually at the worst possible time. In my brain, it’s a 50:50 chance between it turning out all right, and being a complete disaster.
That’s anxiety for you.
So I’m preparing for the best — reading some great stories, working with some new writers, and seeing what they have to share. I’m also worrying about the worst: dissatisfied writers who feel like they aren’t getting what they want. | https://medium.com/still-hurting/riding-high-on-the-anxiety-coaster-c2b872082180 | ['Zach J. Payne'] | 2019-06-10 18:32:03.322000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Anxiety', 'Self', 'Creativity', 'Life'] |
Elevated access for dotnet commands | Elevated access for dotnet commands
The article describes the scenario for programming such software or applications in .Net Core.
Install tool Globally
The following instructions guide the way to run, install, or uninstall .Net Core tools that need to be executed with elevated permissions.
Windows Installation
If a folder already exists in %ProgramFiles%\dotnet-tools the path, then checks whether the user group has the permission to write or modify the directory.
To install, run the below command in a command prompt session with Administration mode. It will generate the Dotnet-tools folder during the installation.
dotnet tool install PACKAGEID --tool-path "%ProgramFiles%\dotnet-tools".
Linux or macOS Installation
The global tool package should be installed in a protected location using --tool-path flag
sudo dotnet tool install PACKAGEID --tool-path /usr/local/share/dotnet-tools
By default, the tools have drwxr-xr-x permission. If the folder directory exists already, then use the ls -l command to check the assigned user doesn't have permission to edit. If so, practice the sudo chmod o-w -R /usr/share/dotnet-tools command to remove the access.
Run Global tool
There are two ways to run a global tool, as follows:
Windows
Use full path in the command prompt in Administration mode.
Do the environment variable setting once using setx Path "%Path%;%ProgramFiles%\dotnet-tools\" then use TOOLCOMMAND directly.
Linux or macOS
Use full path with Sudo. sudo /usr/local/share/dotnet-tools/TOOLCOMMAND
Do the environment variable setting once using sudo ln -s /usr/local/share/dotnet-tools/TOOLCOMMAND /usr/local/bin/TOOLCOMMAND then use sudo TOOLCOMMAND directly.
Uninstall the Global tool
Windows
Run the following command to uninstall the global tool using command prompt in Administrator mode.
dotnet tool uninstall PACKAGEID --tool-path "%ProgramFiles%\dotnet-tools"
Linux or macOS
Run the following sudo command to uninstall packages.
sudo dotnet tool uninstall PACKAGEID --tool-path /usr/local/share/dotnet-tools
Elevation during development
During development also there are scenarios in which you may need elevated access to test the application.
RECOMMENDATION: Build the application without elevated permission and run applications with elevated permissions.
For best startup performance, use generated executable
dotnet build
sudo ./bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.0/APPLICATIONNAME
Run the .Net application with no build flag to avoid generating new binaries each time | https://medium.com/@singhsukhpinder/run-dot-net-commands-globally-507b2b71e725 | ['Sukhpinder Singh'] | 2020-10-07 03:41:36.643000+00:00 | ['Dotnet Core', 'Csharp', 'C Sharp Programming', 'Aspnetcore', 'Dotnet'] |
Messages from/for the future (Berlin, Berlin part 3) | And yet — and this is where I’m getting at — there was indeed a sense of premonition at times. Like in the premiere of the late Jóhann Jóhannsson’s starkly beautiful yet dauntingly austere Last and First Men, a strange monolith somewhere between abstract sci-fi, video installation and poignant elegy, previously presented as a live concert at the Manchester International Festival in the summer of 2017 shortly before the composer’s untimely death in February 2018. That performance already had a lot of the raw materials in place for the film, inspired by British writer Olaf Stapledon’s 1930s cult classic about the end of mankind, millions of centuries in the future.
Somberly ravishing, Last and First Men sets starkly photographed tours of brutalist, desolate war memorials in the former Yugoslav republics to Tilda Swinton’s delicately precise narration and Jóhansson’s gravely operatic music to create a strangely poignant time-travel scenario. The time shifts of its tale are not dissimilar to those of Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (whose soundtrack was composed by Jóhanssón), only in a more cerebral, less human aspect, harking back to 1970s dystopian sci-fi like THX-1138. It’s as if Brave New World’s automated civilization makes contact with the modern world, warning about what lays ahead and sending back a map of the pitfalls to avoid — and premiering after Jóhanssón’s death, it makes the film even more poignant, this message from the future being as well a message from beyond the grave.
It’s a beautiful, admirable object, but does it belong in a cinema screen, or does it transcend formats so much it probably should become a multimedia event in itself? No matter: Last and First Men is being released on Blu-ray by Jóhansson’s label Deutsche Grammophon. | https://medium.com/the-flickering-wall/messages-from-for-the-future-berlin-berlin-part-3-1955ae349468 | ['Jorge Mourinha'] | 2020-03-18 17:26:01.027000+00:00 | ['Film Festivals', 'Jóhann Jóhannsson', 'Film', 'Berlinale'] |
A Dark Forest New Year’s Community Round: Death of the Universe | Art by komosotweets.
Welcome back to Dark Forest!
dfdao and friends present: ☠️ Death of the Universe 🪐, a community round which will begin on Saturday, January 1, 2022, at about 12 pm PST. The round will end on Tuesday, January 4, 2022 at 11:59 pm PST. Gameplay will occur at game.dfdao.xyz.
The round theme and name were decided via community vote, which was the first ever use of Dark Forest points for a governance decision. 17% of the v0.6.4 scorers participated!
This article contains information on the round objective, changes to game mechanics, player eligibility, and whitelisting instructions. Information about how to make sure you’re eligible to play is in the final section.
Objective
In this round, the universe is dying: the radius is shrinking and planets can be destroyed by other players.
To simulate the chaotic nature of the Death of the Universe, for the first time ever, there will be 3 separate scoring functions:
Finding artifacts and extracting silver from spacetime rips (similar to v0.6.2 and v0.6.4). Owning a broadcasted, not destroyed planet lvl 3+ based on proximity to the center of the universe (similar to v0.6.3).
3. Destroying the most planets, weighted by rarity (boom).
For each scoring function, the top 7 players will be rewarded with dfdao POAPs. However, only one of these leaderboards will be awarded prize NFTs.
The decision about which scoring function receives NFTs will be decided in-game: whoever owns the level 9 space-time rip located at (0,0) by the end of the game will have the ability to choose the winning scoring function. This final vote will only be possible once the round has ended.
Changelog
Gameplay:
The ruleset is the same as v0.6.3, except for the following changes:
The speed will be 5x the base speed.
Planets can be broadcasted every 30 minutes.
The universe will start at an initial radius of 400k and shrink to a radius of 80k.
Scoring
Artifact and silver scoring is unchanged from v0.6.2
Proximity to the center of the universe is simply the radius of a planet.
Destroying a planet is worth 4^planet level points.
Destroying planets
A planet can be destroyed if:
It is owned by another player; The energy arriving at the planet is twice the amount of energy the planet has when the attack arrives.
This has the same effect as the Black Domain artifact.
Check out a demo here.
Shrinking Universe
The area of the universe will shrink at a near-linear rate via this algorithm.
Moves cannot be to or from a planet that is outside the radius.
Note: This required modifying the move zk-SNARK, which previously only prevented moves to planets outside the radius, not from.
Players can only spawn in a location that has a radius between 75% and 50% of the current radius.
This will provide a measure of equality in spawning while still giving people a chance to explore towards the center and away from the center.
Features
Players will be warned with a purple highlight if their move will destroy an enemy planet at that planet’s current energy level.
The leaderboards will be retrieved via subgraph queries.
Finally, no whitelist keys will be sent by e-mail for this round. Instead, eligible players will have their wallet addresses directly whitelisted into the game. For more details on this, read the next two sections of this article.
Players who are whitelisted will automatically receive $0.15 xDai to start the game, courtesy of POKT Network.
Who is Eligible to Play?
As promised, any player who scored at least 1 point in v0.6 Round 4 of Dark Forest will automatically have the burner wallet address they used in v0.6 Round 4 whitelisted into the game. You can simply visit game.dfdao.xyz, add your address, and the game will load.
New players and players who have lost their burner wallet addresses from v0.6 Round 4 can join the dfdao Discord to request up to 3addresses for entry into the game.
Whitelist Keys for New Players
If you are a first-time Dark Forest Player, if you did not play in v0.6 Round 4, or if you lost track of your burner wallet address from the round, you can request access to the Death of the Universe by taking the following steps:
Join our Discord server. Visit the #join-whitelist channel. Type the command “-join” followed by up to three addresses you would like to be able to play the game.
Once you’ve done this, a discord bot built by Velorum will add your addresses to a .csv file that we use to enable access to the game.
We will run the whitelisting process just before we launch the community round, and then periodically once or twice a day until the round is over. To maximize playtime, please submit your request to our server before the round starts!
Please note that the amount of addresses that we approve to play depends on the volume of requests we receive. We can accommodate a lot of players, but if we end up getting inundated with requests, we will revert to making a random selection of players to whitelist from the request list.
See you in the Dark Forest. | https://medium.com/dfdao/a-dark-forest-new-years-community-round-death-of-the-universe-785af7c2b56e | [] | 2022-01-01 21:40:47.399000+00:00 | ['Web3', 'Xdai', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Dark Forest'] |
10 Writing Tips for Fiction Authors | Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Here are several writing tips I’ve discovered through many years of writing. You may find them helpful. They’re in no particular order.
1. I don’t write myself out every day. I leave something — the very next scene, usually — so when I come back the next day I know what to do. I just pick up and keep going. If you write yourself out, then you end up wasting a lot of time wondering what comes next and trying to get back into the rhythm of the story.
2. If someone says something in your piece doesn’t work, it’s only one person’s opinion. But if two people make the same observation, you need to pay attention to what they’re saying. More often than not, it’s something that needs fixing.
3. Develop a thick skin. It takes courage to write and show your work to the world for judgment, but remember that not everyone is going to like your work, and that’s okay. You have to learn to let criticism roll off you. The nastiest rejection I ever got was from the editor of a literary journal who scornfully said of my experimental fiction submission, “Why would anyone even read this?” I kept submitting it and got the piece and another like it published in other journals.
4. If there’s someone in your life who does not support you creatively, either get rid of them out or distance yourself from them as much as possible. Be ruthless because your art is worth it. I’ve broken up with boyfriends because they were not supportive or had no interest in my writing. In my mind, you can’t be with a writer if you’re not interested in what they write because their writing is part of their self-expression.
5. Don’t give up! It can be hard to keep going amid the onslaught of rejection –agents, editors, reviewers. If you get a particularly bad rejection or setback, allow yourself to wallow in self-pity for a set period of time, say three days. When that’s over, get back to your PC.
6. When critiquing other people’s work, remember to be constructive and how it feels to be on the receiving end. Always state some positive points first then say ‘I thought you could improve this by…”
7. Have a general sense of where your story is going and how it will end. I’ve tried “pantsing,” ie. writing by the seat of my pants, and ended up lost in the plot labyrinth and wasting a lot of time. So now I have a loose outline and I periodically map out the next couple scenes as I go, that keeps me on track and thinking ahead. It makes the process much smoother.
8. Read a wide range of genres and authors. Read poetry to develop lyricism and an ear for language. Read plays to develop dialogue. Read mysteries/thriller classics to improve plot development. Read literary works to enhance character development.
9. When confronting the dreaded writer’s block, do something else for a while, don’t fret and don’t force. I’ve found that getting up and going to the kitchen clears my head enough for the next step to pop in it. You can also use the time to do something else writing-related: work on your website, submissions, an essay, or on another section of your book. The secret is changing your focus so you can clear your blocked channel.
10. This may be the most important tip of all: Believe in yourself. Believe that you have something worthwhile to say. Believe in your talent. Believe that you will succeed and that the rocky road is part of any artist’s journey. | https://medium.com/the-writers-bookcase/10-writing-tips-for-fiction-authors-1bf08aa9fb84 | ['Christina Hoag'] | 2020-04-10 13:02:53.720000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Publishing', 'Books And Authors', 'Fiction', 'Writing Tips'] |
5 Modules for Financial Freedom (How You Build Wealth, Part 2 of 2) | by Randy Gage
Last post in part one of this series, we discussed how to beat your burn rate — getting to the point where you are taking in more money than you’re letting out. Let’s continue the discussion with part two, exploring the 5 modules for building wealth.
Module One: Hone Your Critical Thinking Skills.
If you’re already a critical thinker, move on to step two. But if you struggle separating emotion from logic, are prone to believe conspiracy theories, or have difficulty with linear, lateral, creative, or contrarian thinking — you have to find and blow up the mind viruses that are limiting your thinking process. Herd thinking will keep you sick, broke, and ignorant. Be willing to be different and don’t look for approval from external sources. (And don’t fall prey to being an automatic contrarian either. That makes you just as gullible as the herd thinkers and actually easier to manipulate.)
Start an ongoing learning program with the intent to develop your critical thinking skills. Find or create a mastermind group of critical thinkers. Follow brilliant creative thinkers and smart intellectuals (not all are smart) on social media. Some suggestions: Naval Ravikant, Ava Duvernay, Richard Dawkins, Shonda Rhimes, Ben Hunt, Michael Shermer, Balaji Srinivasan, Sam Harris, Jamie Foxx, Oprah, Paul Graham, Patrick Collison, Ben Horowitz, Marc Andreesen, Lex Fridman, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Jordan Peterson. These are just a few off the top of my head in a hot minute. I have literally dozens of others I study for insights. Turn your social media feed into a university for enlightenment, not political rants and screeds
I didn’t include links for the people above, because different people use different platforms, and I didn’t want it to be easy or automatic for you. Search them out and evaluate. (And if you chafe at following someone because you don’t like them or disagree with their politics, you’ve read 2,800 words and missed the point entirely.)
Depending on the current state of your thinking ability, there are a few of my books you’ll find helpful in this area. If you have worthiness issues and/or guilt about being wealthy, read Accept Your Abundance before you do anything else. If you want to learn how to peek around the corner and recognize the type of businesses that offer breakout growth potential in the future, read Risky Is the New Safe. If you need a sizzling jolt of creative thinking stimulation, check out And for literally everyone reading this, pre-order my upcoming book Radical Rebirth…
Radical Rebirth is the culmination of my life’s work, creating “the through line” tying together all of the relevant issues of a prosperous life: how you inadvertently fall into acting out other people’s story for your life, the way mind viruses are created, why they cause you to develop self-sabotaging beliefs, how marketers, governments and other bad actors use your beliefs to manipulate you, the best ways to locate and eviscerate those limiting beliefs, and finally, manifest the life you really want. The book will show you how to kill off the old you and create the highest possible version of yourself. It’s not focused on building net worth, but it will help you develop a philosophy for life that will make you rich in all areas, including financially. It’s the book I’ve been wanting to write for ten years but didn’t have the chops to do until now.
Module Two: Develop Your Financial Literacy
If you’ve gotten this far in the essay, you’re already 70 percent there. You don’t need to be an accountant, banker, psychic, captain of industry, or even an entrepreneur to become wealthy. What you do need is a:
Friendly relationship with money
Commitment to funding your investment pool every month
Basic understanding of a Profit & Loss (P&L) statement
General understanding of how investing and markets work
Your relationship with money is critical. If you think money is bad or rich people are evil, you’ll continually self-sabotage anything you do in the financial arena. Like everything else in our universe, at its ultimate level, money is energy vibrations which can be attracted or repelled. It’s important you appreciate and respect money. You should view money as an important and helpful resource that helps you build your financial freedom and security, not associate it with negative energy like envy or jealousy.
Here’s a fun and quick little test for you…
Look at the money in your wallet, pocket, or purse right now. Is it ordered in denominational order, all facing one way, the right-side up? Same thing for your credit and debit cards. Are your checkbook entries written neatly, with the check number and date for each one? If not, you’re disrespecting money and are probably repelling it from your life.
Don’t try and keep up with the day traders and professional investors. They devote all of their working hours to the subject and you can’t duplicate that. You just need a big picture understanding. (Or do what I do. Get a friend like Art Jonak who devotes many hours to researching companies, studying stock market filings, and P&L statements and chat them up about what they see happening.)
Don’t study the finance gurus who are all about slashing expenses: no dining out, Starbucks is forbidden, make your own soap, etc. They’re coming from a poverty, fear-based consciousness. I’d much rather you focus on earning more instead of living like a monk. (Unless of course you would like to be a monk, then have at it.)
Some good people in the space to study are Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman, and Ramit Sethi. All three offer common sense approaches geared toward the average person, not complicated investment formulas more appropriate for a Wall Street trader.
Module Three: Create Your “Get Out of Debt” Plan
Debt is one of the most serious threats to your prosperity you will face. It’s a prison best left as soon as possible. It makes no sense to invest $1,000 that is getting you an eight percent return trying to grow wealth, while you have $10,000 in credit card debt that you’re paying 27 percent interest on. I’ve blogged on this topic before so won’t repeat it here. If you are in debt, bookmark these three posts to read later:
Module Four: Set Up Your Investment Trading Accounts
Now it’s time to get sexy. Let’s explore how you can build a portfolio that continually grows your wealth, allowing you to wake up every morning wealthier than when you went to sleep the night before.
Now it’s time to advance your financial literacy to a higher level of wisdom. Earlier I suggested some money experts to follow who are geared for everyday people as opposed to Wall Street investors. But there are a couple people with Wall Street cred you should look at: partners Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger. And Charlie’s book, Poor Charlie’s Almanack is the absolute must read tome on investing. It’s important you have a rudimentary understanding of the investment world and Charlie’s book will give you that.
As mentioned earlier, if you’re working a regular job or business, you’re never going to keep up with all the developing investor news and stock market insiders. That’s all they do all day, every day. So you have to be discerning and work clever. Remember those scenes in “Billions” when Taylor Mason is working with brilliant computer programming “quants?” Quant is short for quantitative analyst, a person who uses computer algorithms and complex mathematical and statistical modeling to predict investing returns. You’re not going to beat the quants.
But you can put them to work for you…
I strongly recommend you set up a Wealthfront account. Wealthfront is a money management company that uses technology to keep your money working for maximum leverage at all times. You basically put your money on autopilot and the software will optimize your money across your spending, savings, and investments. It creates a dashboard that allows you to see your financial situation at a glance.
If you use my link here, you can get your first $5,000 managed for free, for life. You can connect your account with Paypal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Cash App and Venmo, and get up to $1 million of FDIC insurance. I recommend you use your Wealthfront account to manage most or all of your low-risk, moderate-risk pool.
That leaves your high-risk/reward pool. If you do the work in the first two modules — and you feel comfortable doing it — then I recommend setting up a trading account with the Robin Hood app. This is another service I just adore, as it allows you to harness technology to take an active role in growing your wealth.
Most of my investments are on autopilot, but I like having a Robin Hood account to purchase individual stocks. You can even buy Bitcoin on the app now. So when you see a company you think is going to crush, you can invest in some shares and just hang on. As you’ll see in the next module, I don’t believe in daily wheeling and dealing. When I find a great company, well-managed, that has great upside growth potential (Examples: Square or Shopify), I buy shares expecting to hold them for five or 10 years. Sometimes I even set up a recurring automatic order to buy a certain number of shares per month. I’m couldn’t care less about the daily ups or downs of the stock ticker and never check it. Only buy stocks in companies that you expect to perform well over the long term. In this category you’re looking for opportunities to 10X or even 100X your investment over time. If you use my link here to set up a Robin Hood account, you’ll receive one share of a random stock, like Apple, Visa, or Microsoft. It only takes a few minutes to set up and then you’re able to execute trades instantly.
Module Five: Monitor Don’t Micro-Manage
Remember, you’re not trying to be a day trader or make a full-time job for yourself. The goal here is to set up a framework that puts your money to work creating more money, not give yourself another full-time job. Set up your plan and stick with it.
Do not check your investments every day or even every week. That makes you develop an itchy trigger finger. Don’t sign up for daily alerts on your phone or be jumping in and out of investments every time there’s a bump in the road. Here’s my strategy that I encourage you to adopt…
Set up a dashboard on one of the apps and check your “personal P&L statement” monthly. If you are technology challenged, you literally can do this on the back of an envelope. On the left side, list your positive assets: equity in your home, money in the bank, amount of your portfolio, etc. On the right side, list your outstanding debts: credit cards, mortgage remaining, car payments remaining, etc. In 20 minutes or less you can get a rough tally of your P&L. You want to be lowering the debt and raising your net worth every month.
Then evaluate and modify your plan semi-annually. Did the CEO founder of one of your hot companies leave? Has something disrupted a marketplace that lowers the growth potential of something in your portfolio? Has something disrupted a marketplace that raises the growth potential of something in your portfolio? Modify what you need and go back to your day job. Once you set this process in place, you’ll wake up every morning wealthier than when you went to sleep the night before.
Peace,
- RG | https://medium.com/prosperity-success/5-modules-for-financial-freedom-how-you-build-wealth-part-2-of-2-b6d5e19f2a3a | ['Randy Gage'] | 2020-12-13 23:21:28.804000+00:00 | ['Investing And Retirement', 'Investing Tips', 'Investing', 'Money', 'Money Management'] |
10 Reasons Why You Should Switch to Linux | 1. You can download the source for Linux
I believe in transparency when it comes to the digital world. You can go over to https://github.com/torvalds/linux and download over 800k commits for Linux. You will be able to see everything that has ever been done on Linux all the way back from its inception. Why would anyone even care about the source code? Well, the reason you are going to want to care is that there are people who are constantly looking at the source for things like bugs and security issues, and various other matters.
You can see the ins and outs of the system you are using. With Windows, everything is completely closed, which means you are putting a hundred percent of your trust into Microsoft developers to check their own stuff and make sure it is okay. Even if you do not care about the source, know that there are a lot of people who do care, and they make your experience better as a result. In addition to the Linux kernel being open source, almost all software that you will install for your system comes from official repositories, which are also open source.
2. You can install updates without rebooting your machine
This is a game-changer for cloud environments. If you have a windows server, you have to upgrade your software then reboot the system again. This will result in your users experiencing downtime. With Linux, you can update almost anything without a reboot, and for kernels version 4.0 and beyond, you can even update the kernel itself. Isn’t that amazing? I have never liked the Windows prompt for a reboot every time I install or update a piece of software.
3. You can plug devices in without worrying about finding and downloading drivers
The only time it is not true is with highly specialized devices. How is that possible? The whole point of the Linux kernel is to connect hardware to software. In the Linux kernel, there have been over 16,000 unique developers across 1400 companies working on Linux writing their drivers into Linux. That way, when people use Linux, it is just automatically there. When you look at windows, you have to download and install drivers every time you hook something into your computer.
4. You can run Linux from a pen drive, CD DVD, or any medium
I cannot stress the importance of this. I mean, imagine having your whole system on a thumb-drive. You can take your work literally anywhere without the risk of losing it. Of course, it works best if you have persistence configured during installation into the drive. For developers, this can be useful in situations where you are required on-site but cannot carry your laptop. Hackers use this trick all the to boot Kali live or with persistence because that is basically all they need half the time. Another advantage with this trick is that you can install multiple distributions in one thumb-drive so that you can boot into whichever one you wish at any given time.
5. You can run the Linux for a long time without rebooting
This is possible without degradation of performance because Linux is ultra-stable. It has way less memory fragmentation, and it simply does not become slower over time. You will still be able to make changes on the fly without the need to reboot. You are just simply not going to find that kind of up-time on any Windows system. The advantage is that you can run a production server for a long time while making any changes without system reboot and, therefore, no downtime.
6. You could run the Linux on almost any hardware
When I say any hardware, I am referring to both different types of hardware, as well as hardware from various date ranges. There are fully functional Linux installs that are, in some cases, less than 32MB in size. This means that you can go into that closet, dust off that old computer from 1993, and breathe new life into it by installing an appropriate Linux system with respect to your space. You cannot do that with windows. As Windows gets newer, it becomes more resource-intensive, and the minimum requirements go up. Linux has a wide range of distributions from which you can pick one that you need for your particular application.
7. You can fix broken Linux installs with a live CD DVD or pen drive
This is not for Linux alone. You can even fix broken windows installs with Linux in some cases. The reason this is possible is that the Linux kernel runs entirely in memory. So you can use a CD or pen driver DVD to load that kernel into memory, and then go into a chroot environment on your broken system, and then you can use that broken system as if it were functioning. From there, you can take whatever action you need to get that system working again. On windows, you have to go through the windows system repair wizard. If that does not work, you will be required to re-install windows.
8. You can update all of your software often with a single command
In a Debian system, it is so easy to update your software and even upgrade the entire system if you wish. You need only type apt-get update or apt-get update && apt-get upgrade. On windows, you either use the built-in updater for the software, or you go back to the site to download a newer version, which may cost you. As a developer, I cannot stress the importance of using updated software.
9. You can move a hard drive from one Linux machine to another
So, the motherboard from my laptop died about a week ago, and I did not have enough money to get a new one or an entirely new laptop. I had to take my hard drive from the broken laptop and use it on a different laptop. Guess what? It worked without re-installation. I never lost my data, and I am actually using the other laptop to write this article. This is largely made possible by the fact that all the drivers in Linux are built-in. Moving a hard drive from one machine to another does not affect it. It simply sees all your new hardware and re-acclimate to work like it was in the previous machine. On windows, not only will it probably not work, but windows will see that you have different hardware, and then, suddenly, your copy of Windows becomes non-genuine.
10. You can install software without worrying about viruses and malware
Now, this is not to say that Linux is virus and malware proof. It is just to say that it is a lot harder for viruses and malware to get on your system. That is due to two things. Number one, it is harder to escalate privileges on Linux for just a normal user. Number two, most of the software that you download for Linux comes from official repositories, and those are guaranteed. Additionally, software on Linux does not autorun as they do on windows. This also implies that there is no antivirus software needed on Linux, and of course, that saves you money. | https://medium.com/quick-code/10-reasons-why-every-developer-should-switch-to-linux-e037aa748504 | ['Samuel Martins'] | 2020-11-22 08:08:42.612000+00:00 | ['Linux', 'Operating Systems', 'Programming', 'Software Development', 'Web Development'] |
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Your Hair’s Sending Subliminal Messages | Been to the barber lately? Numbers show that on average, guys are at the barbershop almost 6 times a year, while gals go around 4 times a year.
This makes sense, seeing as guys tend to keep their hair short and neat. Gals on the other hand normally prefer longer hair, which doesn’t require cuts as often.
Remember back in ’07 when Britney Spears shaved her head? She was making a statement. She wanted to regain control of her life.
Or how about Frank Ocean dying his hair green? Or pink? The change sparked forum discussions. What is this elusive artist saying to us?
Okay, so our hairstyle signifies something. It’s seemingly connected to our personality. Not everyone has it in them to go blonde. Maybe 1 in 100 people are interested in a mohawk.
Let’s take a look at some of the more popular hairstyles and the aura they give off.
Bald
You might be bald by choice, or, more likely, because it just happened. Whichever it is, knowing what you present to the world is valuable.
And it’s not all bad.
Preventing baldness, or once the damage has been done, reversing the effects with regrowth products, are hot topics for men in particular. Bald isn’t considered conventionally attractive — but that doesn’t mean being bald makes you a lost cause.
Bald men are viewed as more socially mature.
More specifically, bald men were rated as more intelligent, influential, knowledgeable, well-educated, [of a] high[er] social status, honest and helpful.
Sure, a lot of old dudes are bald, and aging detracts from your looks (George Clooney might have something to say about that). Naturally, we’re going to equate baldness with oldness, and oldness with unattractiveness.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Research suggests baldness communicates dominance, masculinity, confidence, strength, and leadership. And that you’re perceived as a tad taller than you really are.
So if you’re balding or already bald, forge on. Having hair’s overrated.
Man bun
Introduced in the 2010s, the man bun is said to have peaked in 2015. While it was all the rage, it enjoyed soaring popularity for its vibe.
Bohemian, offbeat in a cool, catching way. These are some of the descriptors attached to the man bun.
Per Wikipedia, the man bun is “associated with Brooklyn hipsters”. That didn’t stop Chris Hemsworth, Orlando Bloom, Leonardo DiCaprio, and others from trying it out for themselves.
The man bun challenges the concept of gender, as long hair, even when tied up, is typically reserved for females. For this reason, men who grow out their hair and have it up in a knot are viewed as confident in their masculinity.
But how does society feel about it?
Well, it’s inspired a whole range of sentiments on the internet. “Man-buns are the sexiest thing in the world” is the title of this piece. And then there’s this one titled, “How The Man Bun Is Destroying Our Civilization”.
It appears the man bun — most certainly a trend — is split right down the middle. It’s one of those things you either love or hate, with no room for impartiality.
Buzz cut
This one’s been popularized by plenty of celebs, Zayn Malik, Tom Hardy and Conor McGregor among them. It’s a DIY ‘do anyone can rock. It has an instant classic feel to it.
Low-maintenance and sleek, it’s a no-frills hairstyle that’s identified with military men. Now, however, there are endless variations to it so you won’t be clumped into one group.
And compared to longer hair, it’s much more versatile. Business, party, wedding, dinner, vacation: The buzz cut has you covered.
Of course, face and head shape, as well as how you pair it with a beard or no beard, are all factors that determine if a buzz cut is right for you.
For more conventional tastes, the buzz cut is definitely appreciated as a solid, timeless look. It doesn’t draw too much attention and isn’t going to scandalize your parents-in-law. It simply carries you into the day, smart and masculine.
Bangs
All girls and women get bangs sooner or later. From this gallery, you’ll be able to find ones for whom they work, and ones who ought to snip them right off.
As for the types of bangs, a stylist commented,
Short baby bangs will focus on your eyebrows or glasses. Brow skimming bangs will focus attention to your eyes, while a curtain fringe will accent cheekbones or nose.
Basically you should be opting for bangs that enhance your good features and don’t “overwhelm” your face.
There are pros and cons of course. Reviews from men are mixed, though it goes without saying your hair shouldn’t be altered for the other sex’s benefit. It is your hair, after all.
Some argue that bangs reduce you to a child. Others that bangs are “quirky” and “cute”, but that having them symbolizes a “flimsy sense of self”. Having bangs, as a matter of fact, speaks to a whole larger issue of gender politics.
But it doesn’t have to be complicated. Fringe away if it’s you.
Pixie cut
As an androgynous pick, the pixie cut had its heyday in the 90s. Nowadays, embracing it represents nonconformity and outright boldness because really, what woman will voluntarily accept a “boy cut”.
Well, actually, many.
And the perks are more than you might imagine. For one, it’s worlds easier to withstand the hotter days of the year. You don’t have to worry about straightening and conditioning, which means fewer products and the products that you do have last longer.
It’s all about being brave. Maybe being mistaken for a lesbian. Maybe even that you’re enduring some sort of crisis.
But the bottom line is the pixie cut hasn’t fallen off the map. It’s here, and stylistically one of the most iconic options to choose from.
Curly
There’s a tendency to think of straight hair as more professional. Curly hair, conversely, signals the woman is “dangerous” and not “well-behaved”, at least according to this one blogger.
Straightening, though, has gained traction as of late. Jennifer Aniston, famous for “The Rachel” (a shag cut, layered with highlights), couldn’t resist. Straighteners beat blow-dryers every day of the week.
Or so it seemed.
Today more women are about individualism. They concern themselves less with what’s in vogue and more with what crystallizes self-expression.
Then again, it’s been pointed out that Hollywood is pushing the straight hair agenda. Media is to blame for rallying large parts of the population in support of a given look.
All that’s not straight — waves, frizz, curls — speaks to the unbroken side of femininity.
You can have a read of this page about which men like, curly or straight. But from reading the air out and about, the consensus is neither is “better” and both are worth it. | https://prodabbler.com/your-hairs-sending-subliminal-messages-59f6e126bdaa | ['Taylor Barfield'] | 2020-04-06 12:19:59.208000+00:00 | ['Society', 'Style', 'Politics', 'Hair', 'Gender'] |
Looking forward at 2019: Sony | Beyond these three games, Sony have some other announced titles but their release schedule are still a mystery. Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us Part II and Death Stranding…These are the games that could make 2019 huge for the company. Beyond these heavy hitters, there’s also the looming next generation of consoles. Could this be the year for any of these?
For more than 10 years, Sucker Punch Productions worked on the Infamous games. Their last big title, Infamous Second Son, came out on the PS4 and it was a leading game in the consoles’ first year. Now, the studio is working on their new IP, Ghost of Tsushima. It’s open world and you play as a samurai. The game was announced in October 2017 and later had a gameplay demo at E3 2018. Despite being no indication of a 2019 release, it could happen. Sony said in an interview that they didn’t announce this game too soon, which means that releasing it this year would make sense, 2 years after the reveal.
Back at Playstation Experience 2016 (PSX), The Last of Us Part II was revealed. It’s next appearance was almost a year later, during Paris Games Week, and it was only at E3 2018 that gameplay was finally shown. Naughty Dog, the studio behind it, have a pedigree on making exceptional games like the Uncharted series and The Last of Us, so it’s safe to assume that this new one will be a hit. Neil Druckmann, director of the game, tweeted in December a picture of a mocap session. This could mean that there’s still a long way to go in development, putting it at a mid to late 2020 release.
We’ll definitely hear more about the game in 2019
The last announced game without a release date is Death Stranding. In 2015 after a split with Konami, Kojima Productions became independent and stablished a partnership with Sony. Lead by Hideo Kojima, the studio began working on this new game using the Decima engine (created at Guerrilla Studios, same used for Horizon Zero Dawn). It was unveiled to the public at E3 2016 and it had a few trailers since then. It’s hard to grasp how much of the game is done, all we know is that Kojima has been showing the first couple hours of gameplay to other developers recently. It seems to be a big project in scale and Sony would give it as much time as needed, so a 2019 release doesn’t seem possible.
Last but not least, a big factor in this new year is the next generation of consoles. Microsoft already mentioned that they are working on it, so it could happen in 2019. Sony dominated this generation and they probably don’t want to stay behind on the next, so an announcement this year to a release in 2020 seems plausible. All we know is that the next Playstation is a reality and it’s coming soon, opening the possibility for these 3 games mentioned to be also released on next-gen. | https://thales-journalism.medium.com/looking-forward-at-2019-sony-4d4100a15627 | ['Thales Costa'] | 2019-01-29 17:01:51.340000+00:00 | ['Videogames', 'Gaming', 'PlayStation', 'Sony', '2019'] |
Kids at Work | Part of your job as a parent is to instill in your children respect for their belongings and expensive electronic equipment. However, this is easier said than done. What can you do if your kid stepped on their phone during a basketball game? Being a modern 21st-century parent, you try to turn it into a learning experience. It seems straightforward, right?
Sometimes, the master learns from the apprentice.
“You are going to earn 15 dollars per hour for your work in the yard,” Susan told Jack. “You need to pay me back 1000 dollars for the smashed iPhone, so we can buy you a new one.”
“But that’s minimum wage! you told me to never settle for it, I should strive for better things, Mom,” Jack said.
“Well, that’s your lot now, try to remember this next time you even think about stepping on your phone. Accidentally or otherwise. You have several choices, you can work in the garden, fold laundry, or unload the dishwasher.”
Jack lowered his eyes and his shoulders sagged. “Any other options?”
“Nope.”
“Let me think about it.”
“You can start whenever you want,” Susan said.
…
Jack was unloading the dishes. He took a dish, examined it carefully, decided it was clean, then searched the kitchen for where to place it. He left no drawer unopened until he found the perfect fit, where the same-sized dishes were located. He took another dish, and the process started from the beginning. After an hour, the dishwasher was still half full.
Susan was drumming her foot and hunching her shoulders when Megan arrived. “Mom, I want to earn some money too, can I help with the dishwasher?”
“But honey, this is so that Jack will learn to take care of his expensive accessories,” Susan replied.
“But I can do a much better job,” Megan said.
Jack was holding up a dish against the kitchen light and turning it slowly, he brushed off a small mote of dust, and continued turning. Then, he started opening the top drawers. All of them.
With an exasperated sigh, Susan said, “All right Megan, go ahead.”
Megan took three dishes in one hand and placed them directly in the correct drawer. Jack was still in his fourth dish when the work was done.
“Hey mom, can I get a raise?” Jack asked.
“What? But you hardly did any work, Megan did most of it.”
“I spent an hour slaving over the kitchen; this is hard labor. Besides, Megan came in later and took a bathroom break while I was still working. I had to waste valuable work time being her bathroom buddy.”
“I never asked for a bathroom buddy, I am not a second grader anymore,” Megan piped.
“But what if you fell in? Who would save you?”
…
The washing machine and dryer completed their diligent work and deposited a load of clean laundry. Susan moved it to a basket and called: “Jack, please come help me fold the laundry.”
“Would it count towards my debt?”
“Sure”
“Ok, I’m coming,” Jack said.
Jack took a shirt, put it on the bed, and straightened it out thoroughly. He measured the vertical halfway point and folded it in half. Then, he folded it in half on the horizontal axis and went to put it in place.
Susan was putting away jeans, shirts, footers, and socks. Ten minutes had gone by, and Jack wasn’t back yet. She went to see what he was up to and found him closely examining each shelf in Megan’s closet. It looked like a forensic examination.
“Does the shirt fit on this shelf? Maybe the one below it?” Jack was thinking. “Hmm, I think I missed it, let’s start from the beginning.”
“Give me that,” Susan said, and placed the shirt on the correct shelf without thinking about it.
Back at the laundry basket, Jack took the last remaining shirt, folded it, decided that it belonged in Megan’s room, and went there.
Susan was folding the last pair of pants when she noticed Jack still wasn’t back. She found him looking through Megan’s closets. Again.
“I figured it out finally, the left shelf is for the light shirts, and the right shelf is for the darker shirts. I have a blue one, where does it go?” Jack asked.
“That’s not it,” Susan said.
Jack moved over to the first closet, “Oh, I’ll start over then.”
“Hand that over,” she said, placed it in the closet, and sighed. “It isn’t color sorted, you can put it in any of the shirt shelves. We’re done, the laundry is complete.”
“Great, that was an hour of hard labor,” Jack announced, “I’m pretty sure I deserve a raise.”
“Tell you what, there is one last job to do, and then you’re free,” Susan said.
“What is it?” Jack asked.
“Trimming the hedgerow in the garden. Do that, and you are done.”
“All right, I have free time tomorrow, I’ll do it then.”
…
Jack was in the yard working with the hedge shears. The hedgerow was about ten yards long and a yard wide. It was a bit untidy, having had time to grow unrestricted for the last two months. It was time to straighten it so it would look good.
Susan has been hearing the “snip snip” sound of the shears for an hour when she decided to go check on the work. She thought that a lot of work must have already been done, and perhaps Jack would want some nice lemonade to drink. She found that hardly half a foot has been cleared and that Jack was cutting one leaf at a time. “It is to get an exact line, I don’t want to overdo it, then we would have to wait three months for the hedge to grow back,” Jack explained.
“Give me that,” Susan said, and proceeded to clean another foot in five minutes. “See, you use the shears to cut a section at a time, it is much faster this way.”
“I see, that was good work by the way,” Jack said, and went back to work.
After another hour Susan went back to the garden and found that the work has progressed very little. A small dragon lizard has appeared, warming itself in the sun. Jack was afraid of it, so he sat down until it went away. The lizard didn’t show any signs of moving, being a reptile that just really enjoyed basking in the sun.
Susan let out an exasperated breath and made a hard decision. It went against all her educational instincts; the lizard was the straw that broke the camel’s back. “Jack, this is good work, you are done paying your debt.”
“That’s great because I was just thinking about declaring bankruptcy,” Jack said and went back inside.
THE END | https://medium.com/modern-parent/kids-at-work-e628b523fafc | ['Ohad Rodeh'] | 2021-01-29 04:42:21.292000+00:00 | ['Teens', 'Short Story', 'Humor', 'Education'] |
Connected Retail Market Worth $53.75 Billion By 2022 | The global connected retail market size is expected to reach USD 53.75 billion by 2022 according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Increasing adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) across retail sector is expected to drive the connected retail market over the forecast period. IoT offers retailers opportunities in three important areas, the supply chain, customer experience, and new channels & revenue streams. Several retailers have successfully embraced IoT to help customers connect with the next-generation consumers, sophisticated technology, and leveraging connected devices.
Emerging retailing formats such as omni channel retailing are anticipated to fuel industry growth over the next seven years. Omni channel retailing offers a seamless and flexible shopping experience to customers by integrating and aligning channels. It creates opportunities for retailers to capture more sales and increase loyalty and brand awareness.
The widening presence of mobile devices and the expanded use of mobile networks such as e-commerce engines are expected to serve as facilitators for a unified online/offline retailing experience.
However, possibilities of unauthorized access to various IoT applications or breaking into the device connectivity system are expected to challenge the IoT connected devices industry.
Click the link below:
http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/connected-retail-market
Further key findings from the study suggest: | https://medium.com/@marketnewsreports/connected-retail-market-1ace31a10937 | ['Gaurav Shah'] | 2020-12-10 07:56:57.049000+00:00 | ['Hardware', 'Wifi', 'Internet of Things', 'Technology', 'Software'] |
How blockchain combined with red wine?Let “LinkApe” tell you with peace of mind | Image source：Statecraft
【 Published by China Times | Editor: Shi Xin-Qian | Translator: Statecraft 】
In recent years, the application of blockchain has become more and more widespread, but the general public may not know or understand what blockchain can do. A startup company in Taiwan, Eternalink Co., Ltd., specializes in blockchain technology and business model establishment. It was established in July this year, and it also simultaneously established “LinkApe Co., Ltd.” to ensure that food or items can be traced through the blockchain so that consumers can obtain highly transparent information about products. On November 23 this year Announced the first project-“ETERNALOVE” in collaboration with NEKEAS, a well-known Spanish winery, as the first wave of the flagship.
This time, Eternalink specially cooperated with NEKEAS to bring a limited edition of 1268 bottles of “ETERNALOVE” red wine. Not only does it use blockchain technology to issue unique NFT tokens, but it also combines blockchain traceability with traditional wine brewing technology. The production process behind, the experience of each batch of red wine, etc., are all uploaded to the permanent blockchain using Eternalink technology so that consumers can understand the story of each bottle of red wine and enjoy the product with more peace of mind. Innovative blockchain technology, a more perfect combination with traditional products.
When consumers scan the code, they can see every process from planting, cultivating, brewing, bottling to shipping. Eternalink said that this is to allow consumers to grasp the overall process of the item more at ease. It also allows the producer to clearly understand the overall condition of the item, through the new technology to “LinkApe” platform to trace the source of the product, and together with Lootex to develop a unique wine tasting experience and collection records, consumers can use 3D and AR Technology to collect “ETERNALOVE”.
Eternalink also shared that the current “ETERNALOVE” will be the first wave of products. In the future, 3 to 4 wines will be launched, and orders can be placed by scanning the code. Now, except for wine and Taiwan In addition to cooperation with local brands such as chicken essence of Taiwan, in the future, it will also cooperate with local products such as millet wine and tea farmers, so that small farmers and consumers can more easily find their needs, and they can also eat these products that can be traced to the source of the product.
Eternalink specially cooperated with NEKEAS to bring a limited edition of 1268 bottles of “ETERNALOVE” red wine. When consumers scan the code, they can see every process from planting, cultivation, brewing, bottling to shipment. / Source: Eternalink official website | https://medium.com/ktrade/how-blockchain-combined-with-red-wine-let-linkape-tell-you-with-peace-of-mind-7aa953974961 | ['Statecraft Tech'] | 2020-12-16 04:02:36.260000+00:00 | ['News', 'Blockchain', 'Supply Chain', 'Traceability', 'Wine'] |
Some useful Excel formulas for Accounting, Financing, and Financial Analysis | It was a Saturday evening and I didn’t have any plan, so thought to refresh my excel skills. Straight I went to search on google and tried to find out some courses.
Somehow, I ended up on ozbargain.com.au where the course was available for free and I quickly registered and started my course on Udemy https://www.udemy.com/share/102ZzwAEYbeF1VR3sD/.
It is a really interactive course for just 2.5 hours with excellent examples, resource materials, understandable concepts of Accounting, Financing, and Financial Analysis.
I didn’t think about how the complicated formulas and analysis that I learned back in school and University with pen and paper could be so easy and enjoyable with just applying correct formulas on Excel.
Here are some valuable key points from the course that I learned:
Formulas for methods of depreciation:
Depreciation- It is a decrease in the fair value of assets over the useful life of assets. Below given are some methods of depreciation:
1. Straight Line method(SLN): In this method, depreciation is charged equally to each year of the useful life of an asset. SLN: (Cost of an asset— salvage or Scrap)/ Useful life of an asset
With Excel
Calculating Depreciation by SLN in Excel
2. Declining Balance Method (DB): In this method, Depreciation is charged higher in the initial useful life of asset but lower in the later useful life of the asset. DB = (cost of asset — scrap/ salvage )* rate of depreciation
With excel
Calculating Depreciation with DB in Excel
The above picture shows how to get depreciation for the Ist period. For the rest of 4 years, lock the cells “F4 ($cost, $salvage, $life ) and copy-paste till year 5”.
3. Sum of year digits method(SYD): This method charge high depreciation in the initial years of asset life than in the later years as it is assumed that productivity of asset decreases with the passage of life.
In this method, depreciation is calculated by adding digits for each year and then each year will be divided by the total of all year digits so to get the percentage by which asset should be depreciated each year, starting with the highest number in Ist year.
With Excel
Depreciation with SYD In Excel
The above picture gives depreciation value for the Ist period and for calculating the rest of 5 years, lock the cells for “ F4($ cost, $salvage, $life ) and copy-paste for the rest of 5 years”.
Formulas for Finance functions
Calculating Present and Future value
Present value ( PV): Representing the amount of money invested today.
Calculating Present Value (PV)N with Excel
Future value (FV): Value of money that invested today over a period of time.
Calculating future values( FV) with Excel
Calculating Present (PV)and Future values (FV) of Annuity
An annuity is series of annual payments at equal intervals of time.
Calculating PV of Annuity
Calculating Present Value (PV) of Annuity with Excel
Calculating FV of Annuity
Calculating Future Value (FV) of Annuity with Excel
Calculating Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return(IRR)
Net Present Value (NPV): It is used to calculate the current value of all future cash flows generated by the project, including the initial capital investment.
Calculating NPV of future cash flows
Calculating Net present value(XNPV) with Excel
Internal Rate of Return (IRR): It is the projected rate of return that the projects earn.
Calculating IRR
Calculating Internal Rate of Return(XIRR) with Excel
Bond Valuation
It is the determination of the fair value or market value of the bonds.
Price(Market Value) of bond = present value of all the future cash flows (discounted at the investor's required rate).
The following method of the excel formula is only applicable to bonds that are redeemable and which pay periodic interest rates.
Calculating Price / Market value of Bond in Excel
Yield (Investors required rate) is the minimum return that an investor is expecting from the investment.
Calculating yield on investment with Excel
Financial Analysis
Excel is a really very powerful tool, with its help we can analyze the data from financial statements such as profit and loss, Balance Sheets.
Ist way to look and analyze changes is year-on-year change. In which we can see what changes in proportionate of changes in revenue and that's called Horizontal analysis
Horizontal Analysis (%) = [(Amount in Comparison Year — Amount in Base Year) / Amount in Base Year] * 100
How we can do in Excel
The first thing copy & paste Profit and loss (P&L) on a separate sheet by click and control the key and drag, name as P&L_horizontal.
Horizontal Analysis with Excel
Clear all the figures from the sheet and start with applying the formula “=[( revenue of 2018- revenue of 2019)/ revenue of 2019]*100 and Enter”
Horizontal analysis — % change in revenue in 2019
Copy & paste to the right and bottom of cells to get a percentage for years 2019 and figures for 2018 will be 0 as there are no figures for 2017 to perform analysis.
Another way to analyze the data is by Vertical analysis- Analyzing financial statements that list each line item as a percentage of a base figure within the statement.
Vertical analysis (%) = (Statement line item / Total base figure) *100]
Same as in Horizontal analysis, create a new sheet called P&L_Vertical Analysis.
P&L_Vertical Analysis
Clear all the above-highlighted figures and start applying the formula for 2019 = (cost of revenue/Total revenue) and convert in % and Press Enter.
Calculating — Cost of Revenue as a % of the total Revenue 2019
Now lock the cell for total Revenue by F4($C5) and Copy & paste to the right and bottom of cells to get a percentage for years 2019–2016. | https://medium.com/@shainagoel96/one-day-with-excel-a157350a0005 | [] | 2021-04-25 12:24:27.235000+00:00 | ['Learning', 'Excel', 'Analysis', 'Finance', 'Accounting'] |
Guest Blogging: How and Where To Start? | Guest Blogging to a blog in the correct way is significant, on the grounds that treating it terribly can set you back. It can cost you watchers, regard, and Google love.
The incorrect route is to post a conventional post, with nonexclusive connections, to nonexclusive web journals with no idea of your objectives or crowd.
The correct method to guest blog is to do the entirety of the accompanying.
Guest Posting
Know Your Goal in Advance
Your substance ought to carry them to a particular page — not your landing page. Has an arrangement set up to exploit the blog entry by sending watchers of the blog to an exceptionally extraordinary and explicit page?
Give a Special Giveaway
Don’t simply contribute a blog entry, contribute an extraordinary giveaway that is focused on the particular blog crowd you’re composing the guest blog entry for.
This won’t just speak to the blog crowd, yet in addition, the proprietor of the blog since they’ll like having the option to part with something uncommon.
Make Follow-Up Content
When you compose and distribute a guest post, you need to compose follow-up posts about the comparable substance on your own blog. It will assist with relating the new substance to the guest post as well.
Treat Guest Posting as a Long-Term Strategy
Try not to work for the prompt outcomes but instead the drawn-out outcomes that guest writing for a blog can give today, and tomorrow.
An appropriately done guest post can take care of years as it were on the off chance that you do your best.
Guest Blogging
Guarantee that a Guest Post Boosts Your Credibility
When composing a guest post you need the guarantee that it makes you look great and that it makes the blogger for whom you’re posting look acceptable.
The place of a blog entry is to give you the presence of power, information, and somebody aware of everything.
Connection to Your Guest Blog Posts
Inside other substance that you compose on your own site and blog, make certain to interface back to that blog entry every once in a while. It will make the blog proprietor upbeat and it satisfies the web indexes as well.
We have also published an article about this topic on the best websites to earn money online without investment.
Answer Comments
For at any rate the two or three months (if not always), answer the remarks that show up on the blog entry. You can likewise utilize these inquiries as grain for new blog entries, in which case you can answer the blog entry with a connect to your new blog that addresses their inquiry.
On the off chance that you do these things, you’ll not just make every guest post result for you yet in addition for the bloggers you guest post for.
You’ll before long be searched out as a specialist in your speciality and maybe even order pay for guest posts in light of the fact that your posts do so well as far as numbers and profit from speculation. | https://medium.com/@androidpcbox/guest-blogging-how-and-where-to-start-7f8f831e74b7 | [] | 2021-04-06 17:00:35.849000+00:00 | ['Guest Blogging', 'Blogging Tips', 'Guest Post', 'Blog', 'Blogging'] |
The Future of Gaming Is Shib | “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”- Chinese general and military strategist, Sun Tzu (545 BC-470 BC) ART OF WAR
Thanks Mahdi Chaghari for the photo!
Greetings and Happy Holidays Shib Army. Let’s talk about the future of gaming… Shib.
ZOOM OUT
Ryoshi would often tell me to “Zoom Out” back when Shib had more zeroes than I have in my bank account. So, for months while working on various aspects of what has grown into the greatest “meme” token of all time, I’ve continually tried to zoom out. What is Shib becoming? How can Shib grow into more than anyone expects? How do all these aspects fit together?
Well, after lots of thinking, outside the box discussions, and just hours of staring into space swimming in the depths of what could be, I get it.
Now, I won’t be able to go into EXACT details at this time about what we are building but if you listen to our other content, or our many YouTubers who post about what the future of Shib is, you already have a basic idea. Regardless, this article will begin to diffuse the smoke around what Shib 2022 will be and enlighten those who are interested. For this medium article, let’s focus on gaming.
GAMING
The only way to create a 7 figure game that is worthy of 1 Million FriendShibs is to find a perfectly fitting AAA Studio and build it with them. We scoured the internet and sent out messages to multiple studios who, basically, ignored us. However, we found one that is a perfect fit, and are finalizing the paperwork now. To let you know that this is real, we are now under a mutual NDA. This NDA is vital to us having competitive advantage over all the other gaming, “metaverse”, and NFT system clones that will pop up the moment I hit send. (More on my opinion of the Metaverse below.)
However, landing a great AAA Game Studio that has worked with the likes of Disney and Warner Bros. isn’t enough. To manage making a game, from concept to completion, requires dedication, experience, connections and wisdom that only a few people can provide. So, per the request of the Guardians of Shib, I put out a request for a recruiter to find me a person who could LEAD the game design, implementation, and completion of the Shiboshi Game that’s being developed by the AAA Game Studio. (Thanks Ryan super recruiter.)
We had some bites, but one candidate stood out. Ladies and Gentleman, Shibians of all ages, I’m happy to announce that the consultant who will lead the charge for the Shiba Inu Games version of the Shiboshi game is none other than William David Volk. (Good job to those of you who decoded our messages correctly.) William has been an incredible person to work with already and we’ve just begun.
William Volk
Will has seen the vision in full (and knows the AAA studio) so I’m actually excited to share his quote on working with on this unique project:
“I am honored to be working with an amazing team on what will become one of the most significant games of all time.” — William David Volk
That’s huge in my humble opinion because you have to remember that William is no ordinary game developer, he’s a true visionary with decades of top-notch high quality experience on the corporate side (VP of TECHNOLOGY @ Activision) and also on the independent side having run his own game studio as well. (Just for reference he also shares credit for the FIRST iPhone game ever released! So he has years of experience in mobile gaming too.) (SEE HIS FULL BIO BELOW!)
NOTE: He’s also under NDA so don’t try pinging him for information. We simply can’t talk about it.
SHIBA INU GAMES x SHIBA INU
While Shiba Inu is a decentralized community, Shiba Inu Games is focused on working with amazing consultants and contractors to build an incredible first version of the Shiboshi game. This game will be primarily for mobile. To get approved on mobile (iOS and Android) there are requirements that force the Shib brand into the corporate world and the rules therein. However, this is a good thing because it allows us to take some of our prized assets and make them defensible.
What about blockchain you ask? Well, the completed game, will be licensed solely to the decentralized team at Shiba Inu for use on Shibarium. They’ll also be able to add various decentralized elements to enhance this mobile version. *WINK* This will provide unique opportunities within the Shiba Inu Ecosystem ($SHIB, $LEASH & $BONE), while Shiba Inu Games remains completely separate from this activity. Moreover, the revenue gained from Shiba Inu Games in-app purchases also provides opportunities for Shib & Leash burns! Truly a win-win, and this is just a teaser of what we have planned.
Therefore, this unusual but progressive FriendShib is another great example of why Shiba Inu is positioned to take over the gaming landscape in 2022.
“META” VERSE
Just my humble opinion but I haven’t been a fan of the word Metaverse since it was in use way before the guys over at FBI (Face Book Incorporated) decided to steal, uh I mean, use it. However, the idea of having a VR world where people can interact and basically live, is a concept I personally adore. It’s not new either, Second Life, Sims and others were around well before anything we see on this bull run for this simple esoteric term.
Now that my rant’s off, let me get back to the question of “Wen Metaverse for Shib?” Well, I’ve mentioned before of this concept of an “OshiVerse”. The Shiba Inu Core Devs (SICD) have been discussing for weeks the best way to implement this concept on Shibarium, and of course it is already in the works. However, I believe for a “metaverse” to be more than a bent infinity symbol, and way to extract your data, it must provide real value to users and to do so requires a certain foundation that is built prior to the release of the technology. And that’s why we are working on so many aspects of Shiba Inu including Shibarium, Shi, Shibanet, The Decentralized Shiboshi Game, Incubator and much more that won’t become evident until the near future. It is the combination of these elements, when combined with Ethereum as the core, that will ensure the magic of a successful new Shiba Universe unrivalled by absolutely any token or corporation.
SCAMS
I’d love to wrap up this medium, but first I need to mention (yet again) to be wary of scams. The newest is a ShibaSwap scam on Android and/or iOS. It’s not made by us, and we don’t know who made it. Use at your own risk.
FINALLY, ANOTHER FRIENDSHIB 🥚
This Cyber Monday make sure you shop at a website that supports Shib by accepting Shib as payment, NEWEGG!!!
This is a great fit for us because, like myself, many in the crypto world respect and use NewEgg for purchases and prefer them over something like say, Best Buy. Now, with this new FriendShib, this CyberMonday, you can actually USE your SHIB for a purchase.
Now listen, at first glance, burning Shib seems to be the only way that Shib will grow, but by this time next year, you’ll see that being able to spend Shib has it’s place in total world Shibanation. #manicallaugh
I think I’ll have a scrambled egg Monday. How do you like your eggs?
#SALUTE #SHIBARMY
WILLIAM VOLK FULL RESUME:
Twitter: @ william_volk (Give him a follow!) MEDIUM: Video Game Vet
Volk began his career at the age of 22, helping to launch the computer game division of a well-established board game company, Avalon Hill (Now owned by Hasbro). He would create three original game titles there: “Conflict 2500,” “Voyager 1” and “Controller” as well as establishing quality assurance.
In 1995 Volk co-founded Aegis Development, where he authored the Mac adventure “The Pyramid of Peril” and “Mac Challenger,” a Space Shuttle flight simulator.
Mr. Volk began his work in optical media at Aegis, working on CD-I and CD-ROM projects. Mr. Volk accepted a position as Director of Technology at Activision, eventually becoming the VP of Technology. Responsible for the development of the first CD-ROM Entertainment Project (The Manhole, 1989) and the discovery of its talented authors (Rand and Robyn Miller), who would go on to create the best-selling CD-ROM of its day (Myst!). In 1990 Activision lost a significant patent judgment and went through a Chap. 11. As the only previous senior manager retained, Mr. Volk helped to create the products that secured the company’s success, including the highly acclaimed “Return To Zork,” whose user-interface is still considered one of the most innovative.
Joining the educational game company Lightspan, Volk created a process that enabled title production to go from an 18 month to 4-month cycle. His strategy of moving to the Sony Playstation after the collapse of the Interactive Television Market in 1995 and successful management of the conversion was key to the survival of Lightspan. The creation of over 100 CD-ROM educational adventure games leads to a successful IPO in Feb. 2000.
In 2004 Volk launched Bonus Mobile. Along with co-founder Sherri Cuono, they created the mobile social game, The Dozens, based on the card game by the Wayans Brothers. This award-winning title featured animated playing cards, in-game chat, and viral invites in an era of 64kb low-resolution phones.
When the iPhone launched, at a new company … MyNuMo (later PlayScreen) Cuono and Volk designed and released the very first iPhone game, iWhack, the weekend of Apple’s launch. Volk went on to co-design Pigs a Pop’n, Bag Bigfoot, Word Carnivale, and Impossible Hex.
Volk is the founder of Deep State Games and the author of The Climate Trail game. He is an avid cyclist. | https://medium.com/@shytoshikusama/the-future-of-gaming-is-shib-6b35b1cae170 | ['Shytoshi Kusama'] | 2021-11-26 22:49:17.016000+00:00 | ['Gaming', 'Metaverse', 'Shytoshi Kusama', 'Shiba Inu', 'Shiboshis'] |
How I Lost 15 lbs In 5 Months?. Let me share with you my personal story… | Here’s My Story!
It was Spring Break of 2020, and I received a call from my employer letting me know that I have been temporarily laid off from the hotel I was working at due to the effects of COVID-19. It made me feel sad and grateful at the same time, and you’ll understand why in a moment.
Before this, I had become a mom. My husband and I have three children under the age of 9, and we also have a dog.
Between my life as a wife, mom and my career, often, I find myself not having time to exercise or de-stress. When I was living in these moments, I can handle the pressure. But when I was temporarily laid off, I realized how much I needed the time for myself.
Before we had to stay home, I asked a colleague, who is also a Registered Nutritionist, why I can’t seem to lose weight, and she said it’s the effects of stress and hormones that play in our body.
With my layoff, I am now searching for another job or career to help support our family. But I needed something with a flexible schedule, and I can do it from home.
In the meantime, I decided it’s a great time for me to look after myself since I only have one hat to worry about, being a mom, and taking care of my family. You see, I’ve always wanted to lose 50 lbs and get back to a healthier weight, But I want to find a simple system that is easy to follow and sustainable, so I don’t have to plan different meals for our family. As a mom of 3, dog mom, wife, and career searching, I only have so much time for myself but I don’t have the whole day either.
During my maternity leave, my husband and I decided to try and go on a vegetarian lifestyle because we were trying to find a solution for the skin condition I developed during the last month of my pregnancy with our third child. Halfway through, my husband and I decided to bring meat products back into our diet because our son struggled to adapt to this lifestyle.
After my maternity leave, I returned to my career. I had a great plan to continue eating clean, but I didn’t realize I became stressed out between the multiple hats I wear, and my body also felt it. Over time, I gained more weight, and no matter how much I try to lose it, it just wouldn’t happen for me.
Then, the pandemic happened. When we needed to stay home, I decided to use the extra time I have very well. But staying home also caused me to eat more every day with our 3 kids.
Then, the longer we were on lockdown, I noticed I started gaining more weight. My clothes do not fit anymore. They felt tight everywhere. When we would take photos sitting down, I would place a pillow to hide my belly, or I would try to angle myself to look a bit thinner.
Taken: June 23, 2020
Then, one day, I was sitting on our balcony and took a headshot. I was surprised by how big my face looked.
When some of the restrictions were lifted, I went back to my gym. But I could only go during their business hours, which was difficult because I have to schedule it around my husband’s work schedule. When the kids went back to school, I didn’t have the motivation to go physically.
Deep inside, I know I felt insecure with my weight gain, but I’ve always tried to look at the positive side of it and learned to love myself for what I’ve physically become. It’s the only way I know I can keep myself together because my family needs me to be strong.
Besides wanting to look great again on the outside and fitting into my clothes. I want to lose weight because I want to be healthy to live longer and spend more time with my family.
I want to lose weight because I don’t want my marriage to fall apart. This may seem superficial, and I genuinely know he wouldn’t leave me at my worst, but I don’t need to go through those emotions to realize it’s time to look after myself.
I want to lose weight because I want to feel good, genuinely. My husband and I promised each other that we would still upkeep ourselves to be “yummy” parents after having kids. Again, it may be superficial for some, but we want to do something our kids could emulate.
I want my three kids to learn firsthand how to look and feel good because it would be something they’ll take with them when they are older. After all, that’s what my parents did for me.
Later, I realized that my body couldn’t lose weight because my metabolism was slow due to the hormone imbalances that my body endured, plus the stress from my three pregnancies, being a parent, work and aspiring to become a crazy super mom.
By the time I realized this, I was already too heavy and couldn’t motivate myself to do anything strenuous.
Then, as if by chance, something amazing happened…
One day, I was chatting with a friend. I learned how she makes money online by using her phone and promoting products. I also learned about the coolest things; how 1 tablespoon a day will reduce fat mass and improve body composition. I also learned about a product with 2 tablespoons a day will improve joint health and maintain healthy skin. Plus, when customers create their account, they automatically have their own coupon code to share, earn rewards, and don’t have to be in business.
That’s when I realized I have the answer to my desires. I never thought I’d find it so quickly, but it’s exactly what I’m looking for, and the products sound promising for my weight loss journey. The more I learned about their cool ingredient, the more I felt confident about staying behind these products.
So I decided to try their products first to kick start my weight loss journey.
But then, I realized that the products were out of my budget (remember, I was temporarily laid off), and I couldn’t afford the full system, but I had to get creative if I want to change my circumstances today.
Within 3 months, the products helped me gain more energy, motivation to work out and participate and complete a 28-Day Fitness Challenge from home. In 5 months, I was able to lose 15 lbs out of my goal of 50 lbs.
Here’s one of the many photos my husband took of me. Taken: Nov 26, 2020
This meant I found a sustainable solution to losing weight without giving up the foods I love.
In the end, I felt confident again. The clothes I had a hard time fitting into now fits me well. I was ecstatic with my headshots that my husband took, which I shared on my social media profiles. I felt happy knowing that my decision to leap with these products is paying off.
When all is said and done, I created a sustainable system and habit that I can look forward to doing every day. I learned about the power of positive affirmations and made my desires bigger than my excuses.
And in the end, I was proud of my achievements and can confidently teach and show my family what they can do and how to achieve their future goals. | https://medium.com/@genuinelymama/my-weight-loss-journey-9a3f56b415f6 | ['Jc Valeros'] | 2020-12-22 23:01:21.963000+00:00 | ['Weight Loss Supplements', 'Weight Loss Journey', 'Weight Loss', 'Journey'] |
The Pros And Cons of Apple M1 Chip | Pros:
The M1 Chip Is Faster
Researchers have tested these chips in their labs through their test machines. They have measured every single up and downside of M1 chimp while it’s being tested on its pace. And the results were impressive. The new M1 chip is faster than any of the other processing chips that Apple was using before.
Apple’s manufacturing team has also included a memory (SOC) inside the M1 chip which can speed up the transmission of data.
Aside from factory tests. People all over the world are being a positive signboard that the M1 chip is actually faster.
No Thermal Throttling
The M1 chips are super silent, the fan never kicks in, even during the high-performance tasks. While Intel processing base Mac models will start screaming out whenever you start high performing tasks.
But the M1 chips are a lot more smoother and silent than other processors out there.
M1 Chips Are Power Efficient
Long battery life is another best thing that M1 chips are offering to the world. With the most power-efficient chip model, the M1 chips can provide the most power-efficient laptops and you can experience a lot of efficiency in battery life.
The Price of M1 Based Macs are Reasonable
Apple has always provided its products in the perfect price range. $1000 for M1 based Macs is also a good example of it. With a lot more efficient and powerful chip apple is still selling these products at $1000.
I haven’t seen any other $1000 laptop that provides more or even equal qualities like M1 based Apple Laptops. In fact, not The ThinkPad with Ryzen processors are behind M1 (technology-wise) and much expensive.
It Has Neural Network Processing Technology
The Apple M1 chips are built-in Neural Network Processing Technology (Machine Learning). Something that no other company is providing, not Intel nor AMD.
For those folks who have no idea what NNP(Neural Network Processing) is, It’s a CPU-based machine learning technology that uses AI to observe and operates on human behavior. And Apple is going a step further with it using this phenomenal technology in the M1. | https://medium.com/macoclock/the-pros-and-cons-of-apple-m1-chip-5581f502a29 | ['Ghani Mengal'] | 2020-12-09 04:58:43.689000+00:00 | ['Apple', 'Mac', 'Apple M1 Chip', 'Tech', 'Technology'] |
Demand for Trust & Security Drives M&A Activity for Identity Services | The identity industry is deeply intertwined with RegTech and as Simon Hardie, FinTech Disruptors 2018 Lead, stated “investor appetite for RegTech is the start of a long-term trend” Consider that banks spend in excess of $270 billion per year on compliance and regulatory obligations, which is just one of the business cases that RegTech supports. With an expectation that over 300 million pages of regulatory documents will be published by 2020, the need for technologies to keep up to date with requirements will continue to grow.
A CB Insights report stated private RegTech companies have raised almost $6.2 billion since 2013. In 2016 there were 30 RegTech exits, including 29 M&As (mergers and acquisitions) and 1 IPO (initial public offering). According to Corum Mergers and Acquisitions, in 2018 “larger players will be actively looking to add the necessary pieces needed to stay relevant and competitive” pointing to the interest of large internet and fintech companies in the sector.
One aspect of the identity services industry is providing solutions for compliance requirements, such as Know Your Customer (KYC), along with other RegTech procedures. According to a Thompson Reuters report in 2016, the average bank spends $60 million per year on KYC and related customer due diligence (CDD) compliance. With 800 financial institutions included in that survey, that extrapolates to $48 billion dollars annually spent on KYC and CDD.
KYC has traditionally been associated with banks and financial institutions. However, that is far from reality today. Other industries and business models that are obligated to meet compliance requirements include:
Online marketplaces (e.g. Airbnb, Amazon, Udemy, ebay)
Payment services providers (e.g. Stripe, PayPal, Square)
Remittance and money transfer companies (e.g. WorldRemit, Moneygram)
Online gaming and sports betting sites (e.g. Kindred, William Hill, Fanduel)
Cryptocurrency related services (e.g. Coinbase, Binance, Kraken)
Any business, whether it’s a publicly-traded bank or a 2-person startup, that facilitates money movement between people is liable to adhere to these compliance regulations.
In addition, new beneficial ownership requirements now place more demands on banks and other institutions to perform due diligence checks on business registrations. The market for Know Your Business (KYB) services — such as business verification, beneficial ownership identification, and risk assessment for business entities and their beneficial owners — is projected to grow to $11.8 billion by 2022.
Another aspect of the identity space, the identity and access management market, is estimated to be worth $24.55 billion by 2022. The personal identity market, for the creation of physical ID documents, is expected to grow to $9.7 billion by 2021. Then there are closely associated markets in the authentication space, such as multi-factor authentication or mobile authentication, that by themselves are multi-billion-dollar markets.
Identity Verification
One report by McKinsey & Company calculates the identity-verification-as-a-service market will grow to $16–20 billion by 2022. As stated by author Robert Schiff, Partner, “identity verification-as-a-service offers a way for e-commerce providers to outsource the verification function to providers with the necessary scale and security to accomplish sensitive transactions quickly, safely, and efficiently.”
Any way you sort and filter the opportunity, the total addressable market (TAM) for identity is significant.
Beyond the revenue opportunity, there are strategic reasons for M&As in the field. Identity verification is one of the first steps in successfully onboarding a new customer. A quick and seamless onboarding experience can set up a relationship that can deliver ongoing value for many years; building online trust is a foundational element to long-term growth and development. There’s also a lack of talent to do this well and meet ever-changing compliance demands. No wonder major players are jumping in with acquisitions.
Both incumbent verification companies and potential customers have been acquisitive in the space. Incumbent identity verification companies are acquiring smaller players to:
Increase their product capabilities (see: iovation, IDScan)
Enter new international markets (see: CallCredit)
Add to the bottom line (see: Veda)
Customers of verification services are acquiring vendors to potentially:
Optimize their compliance related expenses
Gain a staff of regulatory experts
Due to the growth in the identity services market and compliance costs, we can expect to see more M&A activity in the near future.
Recent Acquisitions
Since 2016, there have been multiple major acquisitions in the identity space, including seven that were over $100 million.
Iovation
This past May, TransUnion agreed to acquire iovation, a provider of device-based information and real-time fraud prevention products.
Callcredit
Another TransUnion acquisition occurred in April, with the purchase of Callcredit, a U.K.-based information solutions company that provides data, analytics and technology solutions to help businesses make smarter and informed decisions throughout the customer lifecycle. The price was reported as £1 billion.
Confirm.io
Kicking 2018 off, social media giant Facebook purchased Confirm.io in January for an undisclosed amount. The company offers a document verification API and was founded three years ago.
InAuth
To stay ahead of fraudsters online, especially via the mobile channel, American Express acquired InAuth. Similar to ThreatMetrix and Iovation, InAuth uses mobile device IDs to identify good and bad actors. They also add the capability to use biometrics for Multi-Factor Authentication.
ThreatMetrix
January also saw London-based analytics company Relx Group acquire ThreatMetrix for £580 million. ThreatMetrix now operates under the LexisNexis Risk Solutions brand and provides an end-to-end platform for digital identity intelligence and trust decisioning.
Cyberinc
Also announced in January, professional services giant KPMG acquired the Identity and Access Management (IAM) business of Silicon Valley-based Cyberinc for an undisclosed amount. Cyberinc was the largest independent IAM technology provider in the world.
Gemalto
The biggest deal, if it closes, will be the French aerospace and defense group Thales’s $5.5 billion bid for digital security company Gemalto announced in December, 2017. The deal requires EU approval, which is currently under review.
Bitium
In September 2017, Google acquired cloud identity startup Bitium for an undisclosed amount. They provide a single sign on and password management solutions for enterprises. According to Karthik Lakshminarayanan, Director of Product Management, “As we add Bitium’s capabilities, we’ll continue to work closely with our vibrant ecosystem of identity partners so that customers are able to choose the best solutions to meet their needs.”
InfoZen
In September 2017, InfoZen was acquired by Mantech for $180 million. InfoZen protects crucial infrastructure by enabling the information-based screening and risk assessment of millions of people.
Gigya
Also in September 2017, SAP buys customer identity management firm Gigya for (a reported) $350 million. Gigya helps online properties manage customer identities and profiles.
Delta ID
Fingerprint Cards acquired Delta ID for $113.1 million in June 2017. Delta ID is an iris recognition company.
Trooly
Airbnb Inc. purchased background-check startup Trooly Inc. in June 2017 for an undisclosed amount. Trooly has been authenticating user identities for Airbnb since 2015 and analyzes data from public records, social media and other sources.
RealFace
In February 2017, Apple bought Israeli startup RealFace, a cybersecurity and machine learning firm specializing in facial recognition technology, for an estimated $2 million.
Lifelock
In November 2016, Symantec acquired Lifelock for $2.3 Billion. Lifelock is a provider of proactive identity theft protection services for consumers and consumer risk management services for enterprises. Lifelock owns ID Analytics who provides verification, fraud risk management and credit decisioning.
IDscan
In June 2016, GB Group acquired IDscan Biometrics for £37 million, with a further maximum £8 million payable based on financial performance. IDscan Biometrics helps authentication of documents including passports, visas, ID cards, driving licenses, utility bills and work permits whilst also capturing facial biometrics which provides proof that those documents are not stolen.
Veda
Equifax acquired the leading credit bureau in Australia Veda Group in February, 2016 for $1.9 billion “to enter an important new region through the proven abilities of a great team.”
The Future of the Identity Industry
The identity industry is a large and growing market. Add to that, identity is critical to building a safe and trustworthy global marketplace for consumers and businesses alike, the number and valuation of M&As is likely to grow. | https://trulioo.medium.com/demand-for-trust-security-drives-m-a-activity-for-identity-services-458824866d6d | [] | 2018-06-29 16:34:46.437000+00:00 | ['Identity Verification', 'Kyc', 'Fintech', 'Mergers And Acquisitions', 'Compliance'] |
Did You Miss Our National Service Hearings? Check Out the Highlights! | In March, the Commission held two hearings on national service in College Station, T.X., each featuring a panel of experts. The Commission was proud to partner with the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University to host the national service hearings. President George H.W. Bush served as a champion of national service and with that in mind, it was an honor for the Commission to host both hearings at the Bush School. President Bush lived his life in service to others and as a strong leader who believed service could unite Americans.
Photo of Commissioners, panelists, and public at the hearing in the Hagler Auditorium of the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center at the Bush School of Government and Public Service on March 28, 2019.
A study commissioned by Service Year Alliance in 2015 demonstrated that fewer than one third of 14 to 24-year-olds are aware of service year options. The Commission wants to assure aspiration, awareness, and access to these opportunities for all Americans. To do this, we are focused on addressing barriers, such as the limited compensation and benefits. Access also includes expanding overall diversity of national service volunteers and members to be reflective of America.
In 2015, nearly a third of Americans (62.6 million) said they volunteered in their community through an organization. While many Americans are inspired to serve their communities — they are also unaware of how participation in national service programs can build skills, assist with career opportunities, keep individuals healthy, etc. in addition to strengthening their community.
National service provides a platform for Americans who aspire to serve their country in a dedicated and short-term capacity. The goal of these hearings was to hear from experts on how to ensure the national service system is the best it can be.
What is national service? National service is “civilian participation in any non-governmental capacity, including with private for-profit organizations and non-profit organizations (including with appropriate faith-based organizations), that pursues and enhances the common good and meets the needs of communities, the states, or the nation in sectors related to security, health, care for the elderly, and other areas considered appropriate by the Commission.” This includes programs such as Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and YouthBuild.
The first hearing discussed how to improve current national service policies, infrastructure, and processes. Commissioners and panelists addressed the challenges of the current national service system in America and discussed options to improve policies and processes, ensuring access to, awareness of, and aspiration for national service.
Panelists included:
Michelle K. Brooks, Chief of Staff, Peace Corps
Chief of Staff, Peace Corps Chris Bugbee, Chief Operating Officer, OneStar Foundation
Chief Operating Officer, OneStar Foundation AnnMaura Connolly, President for Voices for National Service and Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President of City Year, Inc.
President for Voices for National Service and Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President of City Year, Inc. Pierre Nguyen, Disaster Response Programs Manager, Texas Conservation Corps of American YouthWorks
Disaster Response Programs Manager, Texas Conservation Corps of American YouthWorks Barbara Stewart, CEO, Corporation for National and Community Service
Video recording of National Service Hearing: Improving Current National Service Policies and Processes.
The second hearing discussed how to create more national service opportunities, exploring options to support an expansion of national service in America, including access to new sources of funding, new programs, and/or innovative partnerships.
Panelists included:
Kaira Esgate, CEO, America’s Service Commissions
CEO, America’s Service Commissions Brian Larkin, Program Officer of Flint, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Program Officer of Flint, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Natalye Paquin, Esq., President and CEO, Points of Light
President and CEO, Points of Light Shirley Sagawa, CEO and Founder, Service Year Alliance
CEO and Founder, Service Year Alliance Jaime Ernesto Uzeta, CEO, Public Allies
Video of National Service Hearing: Creating More National Service Opportunities.
As always, the Commission is committed to keeping the conversation about our mission open and transparent. Time in each hearing was held for public comments from those in attendance. If you couldn’t make it to our hearings, we encourage you to watch them on YouTube or read the transcripts and leave a comment on our website.
So what do you think?
How can we create more national service opportunities for Americans
How can we improve the current national service policies and processes?
Share your thoughts and feedback on the staff memorandum on our website. | https://medium.com/@inspire2serveUS/did-you-miss-our-national-service-hearings-check-out-the-highlights-c0b6b27a8ab8 | ['Archive', 'National Commission On Service'] | 2019-04-11 15:01:44.416000+00:00 | ['Hearing', 'Government', 'National Service', 'Volunteering', 'Volunteer'] |
Blockchain Interview 2020 with Kory Hoang, Co-Founder and CEO of Stably | Blockchain Interview 2020 with Kory Hoang, Co-Founder and CEO of Stably Stably Follow Mar 19 · 12 min read
Kory Hoang, CEO of Stably, was interviewed by Ashton Addison from EventChain in June 2020. In the interview, Kory shared his journey from the time before Stably was founded until when Stably had achieved certain milestones.
— — — — —
Transcript of video below, there may be some grammatical errors.
00:00
ASHTON ADDISON: I’m Ashton Addison from EventChain for InvestmentPitch Media and FinTech News network. And today on blockchain interviews, we have Kory Hoang, the CEO of Stably. Kory, welcome to the show. It’s a pleasure to have you back and to have you here today.
KORY HOANG: Yeah, thanks for having me on the show, Ashton.
ASHTON ADDISON: You’re very welcome. For the viewers that didn’t see our last interview, I’d love to kick it off with a little bit of background on the Stably project as well as Stably USD. So if we could start, I’d like to get a little information on what is Stably and why is the Stably USD coin an important asset to the blockchain ecosystem?
KORY HOANG: Yeah sure, so Stably is a Seattle-based FinTech startup. We were founded in 2018. We raised a total of 3 million dollar, close to 3 million dollar in venture capital so far. Currently we have a stablecoin product that we start developing in 2018 and it’s backed by US dollars, is called USDS. We managed to launch it toward the end of 2018 and got listed on a lot of major exchanges: Binance, Bittrex, Kyber and a lot of other decentralized protocols as well. And ever since then starting in the middle of last year, actually we started expanding into stablecoin-as-a-service, create stablecoins for other enterprise clients and B2B customer as well as creating a borderless financial account platform where anybody can open an account — or a wallet essentially, a digital wallet that they can open online and already sort of cryptocurrency or US dollar. And they can also redeem stablecoin directly from that account. But yeah everything’s going really great. We actually just closed our most recent funding round earlier this year. And right now we are on path to launch several major enterprise projects that we have been working on with our partners and clients and that should be coming out soon and literally in one or two next months.
02:10
ASHTON ADDISON: And yeah, Stably has done a lot since our last interview last year with your new Enterprise Solutions, Staly Prime and we’ll get into that, but first I want to touch a little bit more on the Stably USD stablecoin. You know, you tell on the website that it’s an asset-backed regulated transparent stablecoin and a lot of people that are just getting into Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are having a hard time understanding the difference between fiat and cryptocurrencies and what backs different currencies, so could you talk a little bit about what are the specific assets that you saw to back Stably as a… you know, a stable value for a cryptocurrency? And how did you decide what was the best way to back the currency?
KORY HOANG: Sure, so the first stablecoin we created, a Stably dollar or USDS is backed by obviously a US dollar. And the reason we set on that was because the US dollar is… you know, very straightforward as simple and easy, as the world’s reserve currency use cases for it. And when we first embarked on this project back in 2018, there were a lot of other projects that we’re trying to create an alternative a US dollar-back stablecoins to compete with Tether. Since then… you know, Tether hasn’t really gotten better and stronger and they’re still grown, so since then, you know, we decided not to directly compete with each other in the US dollar stablecoin game that would be vital. And so we flipped it over to tokenizing other asset classes including commodities like gold,, silver, looking into tokenizing crude oil as well. We’re also advising other fiat currencies recently. We tokenize Canadian dollar for one of our enterprise clients. And we’re working with several other clients in Asia to tokenize Filipino Peso. We’re doing a stablecoin pegged to VND, but it’s actually backed by US dollar and not VND indeed, that was a pretty interesting project. There’s another one that’s a Bahamian, a stablecoin project is backed by Bahamian dollars, which are already pegged to US dollar. Yeah, so you know, we’re getting a lot of interesting requests for a lot of different… and you know, well testing robust method of issuing their own brand of stablecoins with the… you know, two or three months. And we’re able to develop, deliver on that solution based on our existing technology that we’ve already built. Some asset classes like… like oil, gold for example, those are a little bit more unique. It’s not as easy to custody like… you know, cash at a bank, so those projects do take a little bit longer to develop and launch but yeah, I think in three or four weeks, we’ll be announcing one of our precious metal backed stablecoin with my projects with one of our major partners.
05:21
ASHTON ADDISON: Very interesting that there’s all these different currencies and countries that are getting involved with this. And it really seems to be picking up steam and earlier on you mentioned that you’re working on this borderless transaction service that’s a part of Stably model now. Stablecoins seem like a very valuable way to be able to transfer value internationally as opposed to going through some centralized providers. Can you talk a little bit about why you launched Stably Prime and how does that fit into your stablecoin ecosystem?
KORY HOANG: Yeah absolutely, so the reason why we launched a Stably Prime is three primary reasons. First is to create a borderless account and what I mean borderless is an account that is truly you know accessible for anybody in the world. So with this account anyone in the world can open it no matter where they’re from. So let’s say I’m in Vietnam right now at the moment, somebody here in Vietnam wishes to open this account, they can go ahead and do it online. They don’t have to travel to the US like a regular bank account… you know, which book or passport visa money to get the plane ticket, all that kind of stuff, so it’s not as easy for the average person. And you know, a developing market wishes to access US banking products, it’s not easy for them to just go to the US to do that. With this account… you know, we as an account is actually administered by Prime Trust, which is a regulated financial institution from Nevada. They’re a Trust Company so it’s… you know, almost like a bank… It’s not exactly a bank account, but it’s similar to a bank account in that it can hold US dollar. You can deposit disbursed US dollar from this account to anybody in the world. We can receive deposit US dollar from anyone in the world. I have wire ACH check credit debit card etc. And then we also start adding a crypto integration to it. So that you can deposit cryptocurrency as well as dispersed cryptocurrency. And then we build it the ability to issue and redeem stablecoins which is actually a USDS, our own stablecoin. And we’re also going to build into the ability for people to buy sell cryptocurrency. So it’s basically all-in-one solution in one single account that… you know, any a lot of different type of customer will use from crypto customers… you know, like funds, exchanges, crypto marketplaces, over ICOs and STO and etc to traditional businesses like remittance company, payment companies or international companies that does a lot of payments cross-border payments etc. They can all leverage this account. Oh yeah, so that’s our first goal up to being a truly borderless account that could help people transact faster and cheaper and… you know, with global accessibility. (ASHTON ADDISON: Mm-hmm) There’s second reason we created a Stably Prime is we wanted to… you know, offer a way for people to earn better interest on their dollar. So right now, as you may know, you put money into a bank account, if you’re not earning anything, you’re earning less than 1%, probably 0.1 or 0.2% sometimes nothing at all because interest rate environment is all-time low at the moment. But in the market, you see… you know, there’s crypto lending we’re just really taking off, it has grown elastically like for example Celsius Network, which is a partner. They recently crossed one billion dollar total assets, it’s all deposit on their platform which is pretty huge, so for this industry as a whole and… you know, the rates that crypto lending is paying now is significant. You have interest rate going from eight to nine to twelve percent, you’ve been on certain platforms and this is a lot more consciously, is a lot more attractive than traditional interest rate that banks are paying. And of course, this is… you know, crypto lending is not like regular FDIC insured cash. There’s a couple of caveats to it, but that’s the reason we built Stably Prime tol make it easier for people to access this type of product. And you know, make them aware… you know, how this work and what’s in it, what the risks are involved, so that they can make their own informed decision to put their money to work in this system. And yeah… you know, an eight to twelve percent a year and I’m not letting… I said I don’t eat up by inflation. And yeah, so that so earning interest and beating inflation and most importantly is… you know, we have… we basically want to create a platform where we can provide support for the Stably Enterprise project that we are launching. So you know, we’re working with a gold dealer to do gold tokens, working with a silver dealer to do silver tokens. We’re working with… you know, clients in the Philippines and Vietnam and Hong Kong to do various type of fiat currency backed stablecoin. There was all these things are launched. We obviously help our clients and partners connect with exchanges, OTC trading, lending platforms, marketplaces, etc, a lot of ecosystem players in order to integrate… you know, our enterprise clients tokens. And in addition to that, we also want to have our own platform that we can provide access to the users — to our clients tokens so… you know, if you want to buy the gold token, you can… maybe you can buy on Binance, maybe you can buy on Bittrex, maybe buy it directly with the gold dealer or maybe you can go to my platform there too. So it would provide place where we could showcase all of our clients to products and also a place where we could distribute it to the public.
11:30
ASHTON ADDISON: Hmm, that’s great and that’s a lot of information. It’s great to see that you’re integrating cryptocurrencies as well as fiat wire transfers, and then integrating the staking. And it’s definitely been an attractive industry inside of cryptocurrency so far with these stablecoins giving anywhere from eight to twelve percent as opposed to lower than one percent. You’re right, so that’s really interesting that you’re integrating that into Stably Prime. And what you mentioned about the enterprise clients is super interesting as well. And I’m curious what is your take on how important is the enterprise adoption of this kind of service versus individuals? And where do you see the industry growing? You know, is it required to have all these enterprise solutions or will we see more of a ground-up individuals joining and starting this kind of revolution?
KORY HOANG: Yeah absolutely, I guess I’ll answer that question in two parts. First is… you know, I think the reason why… you know, we’re even in the business of creating a stablecoin for enterprises or you know asset-backed tokens for large brands at all. It’s because we believe there is actually value before these companies and their users in doing this and… you know, even for the economy in the market as a whole. When you’re a major brand like Costco or Walmart or Amazon for example, you have a lot of existing users, right, and all these users are paying you with… you know, either they give you cash in person or most likely, they’re gonna pay with card. They’re paying online, they are paying with cards, Visa MasterCard, American Express, whatever. Guess what, each one of those transactions takes up 2 or 3% in fees and the person who has to pay it is actually the consumer. You know, they charge that fee to the merchant, but the merchant marks up the products anyway, so the consumer… you know, has have to… having to pay that to the three percent fee, right? So if a business like Facebook, Walmart or Amazon… Facebook and Walmart, by the way, have already announced their own stablecoin plans like Libra with Facebook, I don’t know what Walmart’s coin is called. I think it’s… I don’t think they have a name yet. We’ll call it Wally coin or something. So yeah Facebook have Libra, Walmart has Wally coin and they all know that if they all get their users to use their stablecoin to pay for products and services in their ecosystem, they save to a 3% from not having to pay to Visa on every transaction… 2 or 3 percent on all those transactions and on top of that, right? So now they’re… first are saving money, second is they’re earning money when their customers put money into a stablecoin, the reserve, the fiat reserve backing that stablecoin that now go to the custody of Walmart or Facebook or… you know, a custodian financial institute or bank that they use, right? So now that… you know, now you have that deposit now that was kind of earn the money… you know, if you have like a couple million or billion or a couple billion dollar of customer deposit sitting on your hand and… you know, there’s a lot of thing you could do with it to generate return and still keep it safe and stable to the end consumer. (ASHTON ADDISON: Definitely) And also, you create your own brand of stablecoin or digital money essentially, you have a lot of marketing power. There is branding, there’s a lot of promotion, there’s a lot of like huge huge potential and possibilities and also the last piece is when you get your customers to use stablecoins, your own stablecoin even better now that data is on the blockchain. Now you can use data and get watching data insight on how your consumers are planning their money or spending their stablecoin, using their stablecoin, what product… you know, there… they’re spending the most money on, etc. So yeah I think, it’s… you know, there’s a lot you use cases for private… private enterprises to issue their own digital money. And so they go and find… you know, someone that can help them do it and then… you know, someone like Stably who’s already here, we’ve been around for two or three years now as long as… you know, the stablecoin world has been around. And you know, we’re one of the early pioneers in this and we have the technology stack available and we work with every client to really figure out… you know, what fits their needs, what they really want and how we can best deliver on that solution on a case by case basis like everybody is different, not… there’s no one shoe fits all size right now.
16:21
ASHTON ADDISON: Definitely well we’re running out of time, Kory, but it sounds super interesting, especially with all these large companies creating their own stablecoins. And I could see how SMBs and… and smaller companies would want to get involved with this as well, so for the viewers and the companies that are looking to learn more about enterprise solutions or just Stably in general, what’s the best way for them to reach out and to learn more?
KORY HOANG: Yeah absolutely, please feel free to visit our website www.stably.io, or you can visit our Twitter, our Facebook. It is twitter.com/stablycoin or facebook.com/stablycoin or you can also visit our community channel on telegram. It is /stablycommunity.
ASHTON ADDISON: Great, thank you so much, Korey. I will leave those links in the description box below for the viewers. I appreciate you coming on to speak about Stably. All the best with the project moving forward and let’s follow up in the near future.
KORY HOANG: Yeah, thank you so much, Ashton.
— — — —
About Stably
Stably is a fast growing FinTech company from Seattle founded in 2018 by a team of former bankers and Amazon software engineers. The team has raised close to $3M in funding to date from angel investors as well as leading venture capital firms like 500 Startups, BEENEXT and Pay It Forward. Stably is also the blockchain developer for a wide range of cryptographic tokens and stablecoins backed by real assets, such as USD, EUR, CAD, precious metals and real estate. Our mission is to make financial transactions faster, cheaper and more transparent through a borderless digital money platform powered by open-banking and blockchain technologies.
For more information, please visit: www.stably.io
— — — — —
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Investors: Kory Hoang, CEO — [email protected] | https://medium.com/stably-blog/blockchain-interview-2020-with-kory-hoang-co-founder-and-ceo-of-stably-2bc96d05949e | [] | 2021-08-26 12:51:27.596000+00:00 | ['Fintech', 'Stable Coin', 'Startup', 'Blockchain', 'Interview'] |
Getting Started in Materials Informatics | Getting Started in Materials Informatics
Understand structure — property — performance — processing relationships in materials with data science. From Wikimedia Commons.
In this post I share resources and recommendations for getting involved in materials informatics research. As it becomes increasingly more expensive and time-consuming to discover and engineer new materials to address some of our most pressing global challenges (human health, food and water security, climate, etc.), we need materials scientists with scientific domain expertise and training in data science. Whether you want to use data science in your own research or simply have a better understanding of the state of play in the field, this post will help you on your way.
I’ve shared a list of resources on GitHub for getting started with materials informatics. The list includes papers and interactive tutorials, helpful Python libraries, blogs, newsletters, podcasts, databases, and academic materials informatics research groups.
What is materials informatics?
Informatics is the science of transforming information (data). In a sense, all materials science involves informatics because all materials science is built on data and theory that explains the data. By “materials informatics,” we specifically mean materials science that is superpowered by modern data science. This lets us accelerate material property prediction, conduct systematic searches through the space of possible materials to discover compounds with optimized properties, and even design new materials based on the properties we want.
Experimental scientists can use materials informatics to reduce the time and effort they spend in the lab on trial-and-error experiments; while computational scientists and theorists can provide better guidance on what materials to make, how to make them, and how to understand their properties. The more you understand data science and machine learning, the clearer it will be that these are tools for efficient science, not replacements for scientists and scientific thinking.
Prerequisites
Data science prerequisites: glasses, lots of monitors, night mode text editors. From Unsplash.
I’m assuming that interested readers are already working in some domain of materials science: nanomaterials, polymers, metallurgy, biomaterials, or quantum materials. To do research in (or develop an appreciation for) materials informatics, you need to start with a basic foundation in data science: statistics, a scientific computing language like Python or Julia with associated numerical computing capabilities and data structures, machine learning, and storytelling with data (visualization).
The good news is that if you’re a scientist, you probably have a lot of the necessary background. More good news is that there has never been a better time to learn data science — there are tons of free courses, tutorials, and blogs to learn from. In some ways the most challenging thing can be to filter through all those resources and find the best ones. There are plenty of guides to getting started with data science.
Depending on your learning style, you might want to start with a bottom-up approach reading textbooks and implementing methods from scratch, or a top-down approach where you pick a fun problem in your own research or a simple problem from Kaggle and start hacking away, learning as you go.
Into the rabbit hole
If you want a brief technical introduction to materials informatics, you can start with the resources listed here. From a detailed definition of materials informatics, to formalized best practices, interactive tutorials, and a three day workshop, this handful of resources will help you get started as fast as possible.
If you’re interested in keeping up with the field, either as a practitioner or a casual observer, there’s a collection of blogs, podcasts, and newsletters to help you.
Pictured here: you after supercharging your research with materials informatics. From Unsplash.
Tools of the trade
Once you’re ready to start doing your own research in materials informatics, it helps to make use of the many amazing open-source projects already available. Python is the programming language of choice in the field, and the Jupyter notebook environment is the virtual laboratory for doing materials informatics. With those tools as the substrate, there are entire software ecosystems for generating and analyzing calculated materials data, building machine learning pipelines for predicting properties and designing new materials, visualizing materials data, and sharing your research in a machine-readable way.
A key principle to strive for is to make sure your data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). In other words, make it easy for other scientists to use your data for materials informatics! Luckily, there are great frameworks available for making clear visualizations of your data and sharing it in a way that makes it explorable through a web interface and a Python API.
It’s all about the data…
The first commandment of data science is “garbage in, garbage out.” It all comes down to obtaining a great data source with some kind of signal, processing it, and applying the Swiss Army knife of available tools to extract some insights. No machine learning method will be able to provide meaningful outputs if that first step is missing: a quality data source. Heroic folks across the world have gone to a lot of trouble calculating and measuring properties for many hundreds of thousands of materials and making that data easily available in databases.
Even now, most materials data, which takes an enormous amount of labor and resources to generate, is locked away in figures, tables, and text in PDFs. There are ongoing efforts to parse PDFs and mine the data, but you can make an immediate impact within your own research group and your field by contributing your data to a database and making it FAIR.
…and the questions
The zeroth commandment of data science is “ask the right questions.” Data science can’t tell you what your research direction should be. It remains the chief job of the scientist to figure out what the most interesting questions are to ask and investigate. Hopefully, by using these resources, you’ll gain a better understanding of what materials informatics can and can’t do.
Materials informaticians
To help students, postdocs, and faculty find all the awesome groups working in this field, I’ve started a short list of materials informatics groups (in no particular order). These groups focus on totally different areas of materials science, with the common theme that they use theory, computation, and data science in some capacity. If you work with a materials informatics group and would like to be added to the list, let me know!
Contributions welcome!
I’d love your feedback! The list of resources isn’t meant to be comprehensive, instead, it’s a curated collection of things I’ve found useful in my own work. There are a lot of cutting-edge methods that I’ve omitted (e.g., quantum machine learning, equivariant neural networks) because they aren’t quite at the maturity level needed for day-to-day use and they aren’t really appropriate for the “getting started” level. If there is a materials informatics resource with some functionality that isn’t covered by anything in the list, feel free to read the contributions guide and share it with me. I’d also like to acknowledge Pat Walters’ excellent list of resources for cheminformatics, which inspired this list.
Getting in touch
If you liked this post or have any questions, feel free to reach out over email or connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter.
The full list of resources is available here on GitHub.
You can find out more about my projects and publications on my website or just read a bit more about me. | https://towardsdatascience.com/getting-started-in-materials-informatics-41ee34d5ccfe | ['Nathan C. Frey'] | 2021-01-20 13:11:53.589000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Materials Science', 'Tutorial', 'Resources', 'Editors Pick'] |
I Lost All Of My Weight | I Lost All Of My Weight
A tragic tale of an obsolescence diet.
This comes to you from nowhere. As I recount my caloric losses, what would have been my remains is instead nothing at all.
I’ve wasted away, got infinitely smaller and denser, died, collapsed in upon myself, exploded like a supernova and became an all-absorbing devouring emptiness.
There’s lots of talk about losing weight to become healthier, or losing too much and needing to gain some of it back. But nobody talks about losing it all and what happens when you do.
Well, let me tell you.
First, you shrink. Then, you become invisible. And in the next instant — kaboom! You become nothing. Like nothing that preceded everything on Earth. Only this time it will be succeeded by nothing. You reverse it all. You suck the life right out of the Universe. The end. Or, is it the beginning? Whatever. Nothing.
So, I am that nothing now, and this is my tragic story.
As I stepped on the bathroom scales day in and day out, the digital readout kept surprising me. My weight was decreasing. I became worried when I broke the one hundred pound mark. Actually, I was worried even before then. The real shocker came one morning when I saw zero.
“Can this be? How am I standing on the scales and registering zero weight? The scales must be broken.”
I turned around, looked in the mirror, and instead of my reflection saw the opposite wall. I wasn’t. Me was not. Gone. There wasn’t what was I. And yet, I (or a facsimile thereof) am (or is) typing this from within the mysterious bupkis.
It doesn’t make sense. But then sense isn’t part of nothing, so it shouldn’t be expected. And expecting shouldn’t be expected. Neither should the word should, or any other word. Or, anything. Nothing. Not even nothing.
“Did I diet myself into a vacuum?”
I did cut out all nutrition to lose weight.
Who would have thought this would turn me into the explosive gaseous matter that would cause an ever-expanding life-consuming black hole?
And now the world will end.
I do so apologize for triggering doomsday with my irresponsible lack of sustenance… | https://medium.com/the-haven/i-lost-all-of-my-weight-7e5a519c5b6d | ['Sergey Bloom'] | 2019-11-28 04:27:04.446000+00:00 | ['Death', 'Nothing', 'Humor', 'Diet', 'Weight Loss'] |
Why and How zk-SNARK Works 1: Introduction & the Medium of a Proof | The article is an adaptation of the PDF version.
Despite the existence of multiple great resources on zk-SNARK construction, from original papers [Bit+11; Par+13] to explainers [Rei16; But16; But17; Gab17], due to the sheer number of moving parts the subject remains a black box for many. While some pieces of the puzzle are given one can not see the full picture without the missing ones.
The first time author discovered how things fit nicely together, one was astounded by the beauty of math, and the more dimensions were uncovered, the more it kept the spirit of wonderment. Hence the focus of this work is sharing the experience by shedding light onto the topic with a straightforward and clean approach based on examples and answering many whys along the way so that more individuals can appreciate the state of the art technology, its innovators and ultimately the beauty of math.
The work’s contribution is a simplistic exposition with a sufficient level of complexity, necessary to understand zk-SNARK without any prerequisite knowledge of the subject, cryptography or advanced math. The primary goal is not only to explain how it works but why it works and how it came to be this way.
Preface
While initially planned as short, the work now spans several dozens of pages, nevertheless it requires very little pre-requisite knowledge, and one can freely skip familiar parts.
Do not worry if you are not acquainted with some of the used math symbols, there will be just a few, and they will be introduced gradually, one at a time.
Introduction
Zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge (zk-SNARK) is the truly ingenious method of proving that something is true without revealing any other information, however, why it is useful in the first place?
Zero-knowledge proofs are advantageous in a myriad of application, including:
1) Proving statement on private data:
Person A has more than X in his bank account
In the last year, a bank did not transact with an entity Y
Matching DNA without revealing full DNA
One has a credit score higher than Z
2) Anonymous authorization:
Proving that requester R has right to access web-site’s restricted area without revealing its identity (e.g., login, password)
Prove that one is from the list of allowed countries/states without revealing from which one exactly
Prove that one owns a monthly pass to a subway/metro without revealing card’s id
3) Anonymous payments:
Payment with full detachment from any kind of identity [Ben+14]
Paying taxes without revealing one’s earnings
4) Outsourcing computation:
Outsource an expensive computation and validate that the result is correct without redoing the execution; it opens up a category of trustless computing
Changing a blockchain model from everyone computes the same to one party computes and everyone verifies
As great as it sounds on the surface the underlying method is a “marvel” of mathematics and cryptography and is being researched for the 4th decade since its introduction in 1985 in the principal work “The Knowledge Complexity of Interactive Proof-systems” [GMR85] with subsequent introduction of the non-interactive proofs [BFM88] which are especially essential in the context of blockchains.
In any zero-knowledge proof system, there is a prover who wants to convince a verifier that some statement is true without revealing any other information, e.g., verifier learns that the prover has more than X in his bank account but nothing else (i.e., the actual amount is not disclosed). A protocol should satisfy three properties:
Completeness — if the statement is true then a prover can convince a verifier
Soundness — a cheating prover can not convince a verifier of a false statement
Zero-knowledge — the interaction only reveals if a statement is true and nothing else
The zk-SNARK term itself was introduced in [Bit+11], building on [Gro10] with following Pinocchio protocol [Gen+12; Par+13] making it applicable for general computing.
The Medium of a Proof
Let us start simple and try to prove something without worrying about the zero-knowledge, non-interactivity, its form, and applicability.
Imagine that we have an array of bits of length 10, and we want to prove to a verifier (e.g., program) that all those bits are set to 1.
Verifier can only check (i.e., read) one element at a time. In order to verify the statement one can proceed by reading elements in some arbitrary order and checking if it is truly equal to 1 and if so the confidence in that statement is ⅒= 10% after the first check, or statement is invalidated altogether if the bit equals to 0. A verifier must proceed to the next round until he reaches sufficient confidence. In some cases, one may trust a prover and require only 50% confidence which means that 5 checks must be executed, in other cases where 95% confidence is needed all cells must be checked. It is clear that the downside of such a proving protocol is that one must do the number of checks proportionate to the number of elements, which is non-practical if we deal with arrays of millions of elements.
Let us consider polynomials, which can be visualized as a curve on a graph, shaped by a mathematical equation:
The above curve corresponds to the polynomial: f(x) = x³ – 6x² + 11x – 6. The degree of a polynomial is determined by its greatest exponent of x, which in this case is 3.
Polynomials have an advantageous property, namely, if we have two non-equal polynomials of degree at most d, they can intersect at no more than d points. For example, let us modify the original polynomial slightly x³ – 6x² + 10x – 5 and visualize it in green:
Such a tiny change produces a dramatically different result. In fact, it is impossible to find two non-equal polynomials, which share a consecutive chunk of a curve (excluding a single point chunk case).
This property flows from the method of finding shared points. If we want to find intersections of two polynomials, we need to equate them. For example, to find where a polynomial crosses an x-axis (i.e., f(x) = 0), we equate x³ – 6x² + 11x – 6 = 0, and solutions to such an equation will be those shared points: x = 1, x = 2 and x = 3, also you can clearly see that this is true on the previous graph, where the blue curve crosses the x-axis line.
Likewise, we can equate our original and modified version of polynomials to find their intersections.
The resulting polynomial is of degree 1 with an obvious solution x = 1. Hence only one intersection:
The result of any such equation for arbitrary degree d polynomials is always another polynomial of degree at most d, since there is no multiplication to produce higher degrees. Example: 5x³ + 7x² – x + 2 = 3x³ – x² + 2x – 5, which simplifies to 2x³ + 8x² – 3x + 7 = 0. And the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra tells us that a degree d polynomial can have at most d solutions (more on this in following parts), and therefore at most d shared points.
Hence we can conclude that evaluation (more on polynomial evaluation: [Pik13]) of any polynomial at an arbitrary point is akin to the representation of its unique identity. Let us evaluate our example polynomials at x = 10.
In fact out of all choices of x to evaluate, only at most 3 choices will have equal evaluations in those polynomials and all others will differ.
That is why if a prover claims to know some polynomial (no matter how large its degree is) that the verifier also knows, they can follow a simple protocol:
Verifier chooses a random value for x and evaluates the polynomial locally
Verifier gives x to the prover and asks to evaluate the polynomial in question
Prover evaluates his polynomial at x and gives the result to the verifier
Verifier checks if the local result is equal to the prover’s result, and if so then the statement is proven with a high confidence
If we, for example, consider an integer range of x from 1 to 10⁷⁷, the number of points where evaluations are different is 10⁷⁷ – d. Henceforth the probability that x accidentally “hits” any of the d shared points is equal to (which is considered negligible):
Note: the new protocol requires only one round and gives overwhelming confidence (almost 100% assuming d is sufficiently smaller than the upper bound of the range) in the statement compared to the inefficient bit check protocol.
That is why polynomials are at the very core of zk-SNARK, although it is likely that other proof mediums exist as well.
Continue reading part 2…
References
[Bit+11] — Nir Bitansky, Ran Canetti, Alessandro Chiesa, and Eran Tromer. From Extractable Collision Resistance to Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge, and Back Again. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2011/443. https://eprint.iacr.org/2011/443. 2011
[Par+13] — Bryan Parno, Craig Gentry, Jon Howell, and Mariana Raykova. Pinocchio: Nearly Practical Verifiable Computation. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2013/279. https://eprint.iacr.org/2013/279. 2013
[Rei16] — Christian Reitwiessner. zkSNARKs in a Nutshell. 2016. url: https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/12/05/zksnarks-in-a-nutshell/ (visited on 2018–05–01)
[But16] — Vitalik Buterin. Quadratic Arithmetic Programs: from Zero to Hero. 2016. url: https://medium.com/@VitalikButerin/quadratic-arithmetic-programs-from-zero-to-hero-f6d558cea649 (visited on 2018–05–01)
[But17] — Vitalik Buterin. zk-SNARKs: Under the Hood. 2017. url: https://medium.com/@VitalikButerin/zk-snarks-under-the-hood-b33151a013f6 (visited on 2018–05–01)
[Gab17] — Ariel Gabizon. Explaining SNARKs. 2017. url: https://z.cash/blog/snark-explain/ (visited on 2018–05–01)
[Ben+14] — Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, Christina Garman, Matthew Green, Ian Miers, Eran Tromer, and Madars Virza. Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2014/349. https://eprint.iacr.org/2014/349. 2014
[GMR85] — S Goldwasser, S Micali, and C Rackoff. “The Knowledge Complexity of Interactive Proof-systems”. In: Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing. STOC ’85. Providence, Rhode Island, USA: ACM, 1985, pp. 291–304. isbn: 0–89791–151–2. doi: 10.1145/22145.22178. url: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/22145.22178
[BFM88] — Manuel Blum, Paul Feldman, and Silvio Micali. “Non-interactive Zero-knowledge and Its Applications”. In: Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing. STOC ’88. Chicago, Illinois, USA: ACM, 1988, pp. 103–112. isbn: 0–89791–264–0. doi: 10.1145/62212.62222. url: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/62212.62222
[Gro10] — Jens Groth. “Short pairing-based non-interactive zero-knowledge arguments”. In: International Conference on the Theory and Application of Cryptology and Information Security. Springer. 2010, pp. 321–340
[Gen+12] — Rosario Gennaro, Craig Gentry, Bryan Parno, and Mariana Raykova. Quadratic Span Programs and Succinct NIZKs without PCPs. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2012/215. https://eprint.iacr.org/2012/215. 2012
[Pik13] — Scott Pike. Evaluating Polynomial Functions. 2013. url: http://www.mesacc.edu/~scotz47781/mat120/notes/polynomials/evaluating/evaluating.html (visited on 2018–05–01) | https://medium.com/@imolfar/why-and-how-zk-snark-works-1-introduction-the-medium-of-a-proof-d946e931160 | [] | 2019-07-20 18:24:07.618000+00:00 | ['Zero Knowledge Proofs', 'Zksnark', 'Mathematics', 'Cryptography', 'Blockchain'] |
Online Soccer Manager OSM Hack Generator Online Club and Private Funds iOS Android 2019 | Online Soccer Manager OSM Hack Generator Online Club and Private Funds iOS Android 2019. Welcome player.
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The Dark Nature of American-Syrian Relations | Resuming with Henry Kissinger’s visit to Damascus in 1973, relations between the two nations oscillated between anxiety that any misstep would overturn the fragile balance of power in the region and a “grudging respect for Mr Assad,” as the New York Times (NYT) put it in Assad’s obituary.
The main point of discussion until Assad’s death in 2000 was the many peace initiatives for the region, of which all US Presidents hoped Assad would be an important part of. Other than this, Syria maintained a carefully distant stance from all major powers.
After his son Bashar took over and following 9/11, Syria had to toe a fine line while the US was deciding who would end up on its axis of evil. Syrian intelligence cooperated on a few occasions with American agencies to foil terrorist plots.
Bashar al-Assad’s opposition to the Iraq War was the first step in a deterioration of the relation. Syria’s continued support for terrorist groups in the region, its interference in Middle Eastern affairs, its terrible human rights record and its production and use of weapons of mass destruction precipitated the end of the American-Syrian diplomatic ties in 2005.
A grim expertise
Photo credit Amnesty International
Extraordinary rendition is a process by which a government outsources the “interrogation” of a person to another country in order to evade due process and the rule of law.
According to the ACLU, the CIA and other US government agencies started using them as early as the 90s to interrogate, torture, and possible disappear people suspected of illicit activities.
The number and frequency of renditions surged following 9/11 and the beginnings of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The ACLU estimates that “at least hundreds of people” were rendered to be tortured in foreign countries by the Bush administration, “both in facilities run by foreign intelligence agencies or in CIA-run ‘black sites.’”
Robert Baer, a former CIA agent quoted in the report, states chillingly that “If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear — never to see them again — you send them to Egypt.”
If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria.
According to a report by the Open Society Justice Initiative cited in a Guardian article, “Syria is said to have been one of the ‘most common destinations for rendered suspects.’”
Why Syria?
As hinted by Mr Baer, it turns out Syria and its secret police, the Mukhabarat, are world-renowned experts in “enhanced interrogation techniques.” A trade skill they learnt from the very best: Alois Brunner.
The Nazi torture consultant
Alois Brunner — By Source, Fair use, Wikimedia
The name might not be familiar to you, but Alois Brunner is one of the worst war criminals of the Third Reich. An assistant to Adolf Eichmann, Brunner orchestrated the deportation and massacre of over 100,000 European Jews. He commandeered the Drancy internment camp in France, from where over 23,000 people were deported.
Brunner escaped capture at the end of WWII by sheer luck. His last name was confused with that of another SS officer, and it turned out he didn’t have his blood type tattooed on his arm like all other SS.
He fled to Egypt in 1954, and then to Syria where he worked as a government consultant, teaching local law enforcements the interrogation and torture techniques of the SS.
Hafez al-Assad was due to extradite him to West Germany in 1989, when, lucky once again, the fall of the Berlin Wall prevented the extradition.
Brunner reportedly died in Syria in 2010, unrepentant and still a Nazi at heart. | https://medium.com/history-of-yesterday/the-dark-nature-of-american-syrian-relations-70c6d4956f61 | ['Nicolas Carteron'] | 2020-09-13 05:01:00.983000+00:00 | ['Torture', 'History', 'Syria', 'CIA', 'USA'] |
Feature Extraction, the Moment of Truth in Natural Language Processing | Part I: Bag of Words
For computers to understand and contextualize human language, the best practice is to convert words into numbers through algorithms constructed with concepts of linear algebra, calculus and statistics.
So if we work with texts, we have to convert texts into numbers in order to guarantee our model the best performance.
The first important concept in Feature Extraction is Bag of Words.
For understanding the meaning of Bag of Words at an intuitive level, think to put into a bag distinct things in disorder. So, the concept of Bag of Words suggests us that at the same way we put things into a bag, we also put tokens into a set in a non-precise order.
For example, we put the tokens of two different documents into our bag or set and we want to know how many times a specific word occurs in each document. To solve this issue, we can create a matrix to compare the occurrence of a word in each document. If that is not clear yet, don’t worry, with an example you will visualize and understand better the concept of Bag of Words.
We have two documents as you can see below.
'blue pill you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe', 'red pill you stay in wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes'
Then, we create a list for these two documents.
txt = [‘blue pill you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe’,
‘red pill you stay in wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes’]
Now we initialize CountVectorizer object, that permits converting a collection of text documents in a vector of token counts. After that we can fit our data.
from sklearn.feature_extraction.text import CountVectorizer vect = CountVectorizer() vect.fit(txt)
out:
CountVectorizer(analyzer='word', binary=False, decode_error='strict',dtype=<class 'numpy.int64'>, encoding='utf-8', input='content',lowercase=True, max_df=1.0, max_features=None, min_df=1,ngram_range=(1, 1), preprocessor=None, stop_words=None,
strip_accents=None, token_pattern='(?u)\\b\\w\\w+\\b', tokenizer=None, vocabulary=None)
In the step below we use the attribute vocabulary_ in order to obtain for each word a precise index.
print(vect.vocabulary_)
out:
{'blue': 3, 'pill': 9, 'you': 21, 'wake': 17, 'up': 16, 'in': 8, 'your': 22, 'bed': 1, 'and': 0, 'believe': 2, 'whatever': 19, 'want': 18, 'to': 15, 'red': 11, 'stay': 13, 'wonderland': 20, 'show': 12, 'how': 7, 'deep': 4, 'the': 14, 'rabbit': 10, 'hole': 6, 'goes': 5}
As you can observe each word has an index but they are not in order. To solve this problem, we can use the attribute get_feature_names().
print(vect.get_feature_names())
out:
['and', 'bed', 'believe', 'blue', 'deep', 'goes', 'hole', 'how', 'in', 'pill', 'rabbit', 'red', 'show', 'stay', 'the', 'to', 'up', 'wake', 'want', 'whatever', 'wonderland', 'you', 'your']
Now it is time to create our bag of words, to make it we have to transform our data in the following way.
bag_of_words = vect.transform(texts)
It is better to view in an array form. So:
bag_of_words.toarray()
out:
array([[1, 1, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 2, 1],
[1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 2,0]], dtype=int64)
As you can see above the word “and” with index 0 occurs once for both the first and the second sentence. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/feature-extraction-the-moment-of-truth-in-natural-language-processing-6b02c0bca918 | ['Papa Moryba Kouate'] | 2020-07-01 18:32:41.643000+00:00 | ['Data Analysis', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning', 'Naturallanguageprocessing'] |
What is the best age for egg freezing, according to fertility doctors? | This blog post is written by our good friends Catherine Hendy and Brittany Hawkins, co-founders of ELANZA Wellness. Experts in egg freezing and fertility, they’re on a mission to reimagine fertility care through technology. Check them out for more resources to help you on your fertility journey.
Figuring out the “right age” to freeze is the most common question we get from women.
The honest answer is that there is not one specific age that is the best age to freeze eggs. There are a multitude of factors that should be weighed against one another to determine if it is the right time to freeze. Things like costs, your own life plan, your health, your doctor’s advice, and even your own feelings of how much your biological clock is driving your life decisions — should all be included in the very personal equation to determine what age is the best age to freeze.
That said, there are some age-related “guardrails” that can steer your decision-making. As a rule of thumb, most doctors say that in an ideal world you should freeze your eggs younger than age 37. That will maximize your chance of being able to have a good number of good quality eggs retrieved. That doesn’t mean there’s no value in freezing after that age. In fact, the average age for egg freezing is 38 years old and some women freeze into their early forties.
Legally, in the US, UK and most other countries around the world there is no upper age cap for egg freezing. However, there is a lower likelihood of success the older you are, so most clinics will only accept women for egg freezing procedures up to a maximum of age 45, and that’s only after they give thorough counseling on the low probability of success at that age.
Let’s take a look at the facts when it comes to the best age to freeze your eggs:
The best biological time to freeze your eggs is in your early 20s
Photo by Matthew Ball on Unsplash
That’s when your egg quality and quantity are at their highest. But of course these “prime reproductive years” in a physical sense don’t always correspond to when you are likely to be emotionally and practically ready for motherhood, especially these days.
If you think about it…our lifespans have tripled but our reproductive years have stayed the same. In my 20s, I felt like I was just getting started in the world, I wasn’t at all ready to start a family! — Brittany Hawkins, former egg freezer
And despite this being the best biological time to freeze, doctors rarely recommend that women freeze their eggs in their 20s because it is not necessarily clear whether or not a woman will need to use them. Unless there is a pressing medical issue such as undergoing cancer treatment or a diminished ovarian reserve, most doctors believe there is still sufficient time in a woman’s prime reproductive years to have children naturally.
The other factor to consider about freezing in your 20s is the total price. Freezing your eggs when you’re younger often means that you won’t need to use them for a number of years. Over this time, they must be stored — and that storage costs money…often to the tune of $500 per year. You can see how quickly that might add up over time, and that’s even if you end up needing to use them at all. On the flipside, if you do need them, there’s a very good chance they’ll be quality!
“Many fertility doctors will discourage women to freeze their eggs in their early 20s because the chances of needing the eggs is so remote.” — Dr. Eleni Greenwood Jaswa, UCSF
The best financial time to freeze your eggs is age 37
Researchers from the University of North Carolina ran a cost-benefit analysis on egg freezing and found that freezing at age 37 is when you theoretically would get the most “benefit” out of egg freezing.
At that age, you’re still hypothetically “young enough” for your eggs to still be quality (🤞), but “old enough” for the likelihood of using the eggs in the future to go up, which means that the initial costs were justified and you’d pay less in storage fees in the process.
HOWEVER, this comes with a big, fat caveat: freezing your eggs past the age of 35 means you are less likely to get “good” results (both in the number of eggs retrieved and the quality of eggs) than women under 35 years old.
That’s not to say it won’t work, but if you’re over 35 years old you may require multiple egg freezing cycles in order to increase the probability of a live birth in the future.
Doctors recommend the best time is between ages 30 and 34
According to most fertility doctors, between ages 30 and 34 is the optimal time to freeze. Despite the fact that a woman’s egg quality and quantity start to decline around age 30, she is still within a window in which she will produce quality eggs. And, because of her age, she is more likely to need them in the future in case she cannot get pregnant naturally.
Our personal experience
We froze our eggs at age 32 (Catherine) and age 33 (Brittany), which is considered pretty early — we were some of the first of our friends to freeze our eggs. But neither of us feel like it was too early.
Practically speaking, we considered the fact that the sooner we froze, the higher the likelihood of it being a successful cycle and the higher chances of it being a successful IVF cycle if we needed to use our eggs in the future.
In terms of how egg freezing fits into our family planning goals, we both know we want to have two children in the future. Perhaps we might be able to conceive naturally with the first child but our concerns stem from the stats around our rates of fertility by the time we’re ready to have the second child.
“Age is the key factor for egg freezing success.” — Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority , UK
Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
From an emotional standpoint, the real crux for freezing in our early thirties were the stats on miscarriages and the fact that older eggs usually equates to multiple rounds of IVF. Knowing we could do something to reduce the chances of these things lit a fire beneath us and got us going on fertility preservation while we were still pretty young.
If you’re worried you’ve left it too late, think on this: you’ll never be younger than you are today. And there’s no such thing as too late to check out what’s going on under the hood, or seek a consultation to discuss your options. Read about how to pick a clinic .
Forecasting your own fertility journey (free worksheet)
When it comes to deciding whether or not egg freezing is right for you, biology only tells you half the story. In writing the book, Everything Egg Freezing: The Step-by-Step Guide to Doing it Right we developed a list of questions that you should ask yourself about what you want and realistically foresee as your future family goals. Questions like: How important is it for me to have a biological child of my own? And if I do want them, how many children do I want?
To help other women navigate through their own fertility timeline, we developed a “fertility forecast worksheet.” Everyone has a pang of anxiety around major life planning, but really, charting out life’s scenarios doesn’t set them in stone. The process just gives you a birds-eye-view similar to forecasting a budget or a business plan, and can help you make the most informed decision. Writing it all out in black and white is a first step in being quietly intentional with this area of your life and can help you get a better handle on the fertility realities of the age at which you might actually try for your first child, let alone when it comes to a second or third. Whether or not you decide to freeze your eggs in the end, fertility forecasting will help you realistically forecast the age you’ll be when you might start trying to get pregnant and what fertility challenges this age represents.
Use our Fertility Forecast worksheet to help you plan your journey. Download the free PDF worksheet from the Resources section and follow the instructions.
For more information on age and egg freezing, plus insights from our expert panel of fertility doctors check out our book, Everything Egg Freezing: The Step-by-Step Guide to Doing it Right.
Originally published at https://www.heymirza.com on December 16, 2020. | https://mirzasayshey.medium.com/what-is-the-best-age-for-egg-freezing-according-to-fertility-doctors-87b6c0fb93dd | ['Hey Mirza'] | 2020-12-17 15:57:05.638000+00:00 | ['Egg Freezing', 'Fertility', 'Female Fertility', 'Ivf', 'Womens Health'] |
Yes, You’ll Fail -And Yes, Your Kid Will Point It Out | One certainty in life: Kids will keep you humble.
Photo by Author
Will we ever figure it out?
Sometimes I think I might be getting the hang of this whole parenting thing. You’d think so, after twenty three years and nine kids. Honestly though, I’m more used to failure and I’m slowly beginning to accept it. I have to. My kids keep me humble by pointing out my faults.
It happens to us all. We’re supposed to be doing the enlightening. We’re the ones full of experience, knowledge, and wisdom. In reality, it’s more like they don’t hear us at all unless we’re in the wrong. They catch us in our moments of weakness and proclaim it so the whole world knows. And then continue to remind us for the rest of our lives. Sometimes, their comments are so full of obvious truth that we have to shut up and listen.
I could probably fill a book with stories of this happening, but one situation came to mind recently. My then-3-year-old was mothering an older sibling. She was (and still is) known for her bossy and blunt attitude. She sounded very rude, so I told her she wasn’t being nice and needed to be polite. She looked at me and said, “Sometimes, you don’t speak nice, either.”
It struck hard because she was right. My instinct was to justify it. I’m the mom; I have to speak like that sometimes…. right?
I realized how ridiculous it sounded as soon as the words popped into my mind. Why would I have to be rude? Do I really think I should be harsh to my kids just because they’re immature or behaving poorly?
But the excuses kept coming. Maybe it’s ok when:
they’re not doing their chores?
they’re fighting?
they’re moving too slow?
they’re making a mess?
Ultimately I gave up. There’s always a better way to handle the situation, and I know that. I can’t expect my kids to learn respect and patience when I don’t demonstrate it myself. Too often, I correct a child for their tone of voice but need to work on my own.
Not that everything has to be said in a sugary, sing-song voice. Honestly, that would get annoying FAST. And I would probably sound even more cynical and sarcastic than usual if I tried.
This time, it’s about our attitude, not theirs.
This isn’t about their obedience- that’s a separate topic. It’s about how we respond as parents. I can’t pretend that my snippy, harsh, and impatient replies are excusable just because I’m a tired mother.
I know I need to be an example and treat my kids with respect, even when stressed. If I can have the self-control to do it for the general population, surely I can do it for the little people that are my world. For those of you that lack self-control and disrespect everyone equally, please- get things figured out. Don’t be an a$$hole that raises little a$$holes.
I ended up apologizing to my daughter. I told her she was right, that I don’t always speak the way I should, and would try to do better. We still discussed her attitude, but she was more open to it since I was willing to listen and accept responsibility for my actions.
Raising kids is a learning process that never ends. It’s a rough road full of detours and pit stops. The trip will be miserable if we insist we are the only ones capable of reading the map, or think we will never get lost. We will. Sometimes it takes a small, ornery replica of ourselves to remind us.
Kids already know we aren’t perfect. It hurts the relationship when we pretend that we are. Be open and honest, admit mistakes, and work on doing better next time. It’s what we expect from them, so model it well. | https://medium.com/an-idea/yes-youll-fail-and-yes-your-kid-will-point-it-out-f2708b3fba6c | ['Adrienne Koziol'] | 2020-12-28 05:40:49.770000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Failure', 'Life Lessons', 'Parenting', 'Children'] |
Is it Time to Call Time on Christmas? | What does it even mean anyway?
Photo by Isadora Tabordes on Unsplash
In these uncertain times, one thing is certain: Christmas will roll around again on 25 December. For many people it will be a different kind of Christmas. My heart goes out to families who are separated at a time of the year that they are longing to be together; even more so for those who have lost someone.
This is a perfect opportunity to re-evaluate what this yearly cultural festival is all about. Apart from the obvious pandemic-driven logistical issues, there seems to be a distinctly different feeling about Christmas this year. Tell me I’m imagining an advertising pitch that is cranking up the novelty and whimsy as a means of temporary escape from the year from hell. Maybe I’ve just seen too many Aldi ads.
For a number of years, I’ve not been quite sure what to do about Christmas. It just never seems to come together. It hasn’t really been the same since I was a child and Christmas was shrouded in the mystery and intrigue of an impending visit from Santa Clause.
Despite the inevitability of Christmas, it has a way of creeping up on me each year. I don’t prioritise it as a good woman should. Before I know it, we’re a week out and I haven’t so much as nodded in the direction of a shopping mall. You would think the constant chatter about Christmas plans would galvanise me into action but it just serves to entrench my inertia.
Around me I hear tales of gifts purchased and ordered and meals planned. It gets to the point where I want to weaponise an angel ornament against the next person who asks “have you done your Christmas Shopping?” or “are you ready for Christmas?”.
These utterances require more unpacking that Santa’s sleigh. They are loaded with the same kind of gendered expectations responsible for the women folk slaving in the kitchen whilst the men loll about out of sight. It’s the women who purchase Christmas presents for and send cards to their husband’s family. Once again it’s a case of women taking on the physical, mental and emotional labour for everything on the home front. Because like everything else in the whole world, Christmas is gendered. No-one ever asks a man if he is ready for Christmas.
The gendered expectations of Christmas come to a head in Angry Christmas Lady. When I worked as a retail sales assistant in my university days this was a recognised phenomenon. This is the woman who has deliberated since October on whether she will serve up a hot or cold meal on Christmas Day (in Australia this is a thing). We knew to treat this customer very delicately lest we be the straw that broke the camel’s back in between her hasty purchase of a shirt for uncle Keith and the rush to the butcher to pick up the pre-ordered ham. One wrong move could push her over the edge.
You can see the weight of Christmases past, present and future weighing heavily on this woman’s shoulders. She is carrying everyone’s Christmas hopes and dreams. It is because of this woman that Christmas seamlessly comes together for them year after year.
I do not want to be Angry Christmas Lady. I want to put my foot right through this house of Christmas cards
For a start, the expectation that you should buy a stack of presents for people purely because the calendar has once again rolled around to a particular time of year is ridiculous. No-one even wants this stuff. This expectation has been responsible for countless awkward workplace interactions, family conflicts and fallings-out between friends. And that’s when both sides come to the party. It’s even more fraught when one side disregards their part of the bargain and fronts up in giftless brazenness.
Doing the shopping for these gifts is a monumental task, particularly for those who are not enthusiastic shoppers at the best of times. I favour the quick dash in and out, preferably on a rainy Tuesday morning. I know what I want and where to get it and the operation is quick, targeted and results in minimal collateral damage. But when you are purchasing for other people there are so many variables: colours, sizes, varieties, empty shelves. Trying to find an appropriate gift for someone is like waiting for a pot to boil. You never find something when you’re looking for it.
Defeated, you head home and resign yourself to the reality of another trip to source two more colours of ribbon, a spare roll of wrapping paper and something else to go with the so far pitiful offering for Aunty Pat. And you still haven’t heard back from your sister-in-law about the precise details of your nephew’s latest obsession.
For those of us with sensory processing issues, a trip to the local shopping Mecca is never going to be pleasant. A dazzling array of light, colour and movement and way too many people. If the shops are in the high street, you have the elements to contend with. In my case, I’m likely to be a sweaty dehydrated mess before I’m through, thanks to the southern hemisphere summer. And you’d better have given yourself a decent buffer of recovery time before knuckling down to the Christmas day prep.
Of course online shopping is an option but with that comes the anxiety of more variables. The postal service is under unprecedented strain and contingency plans are needed for when items aren’t quite what you ordered.
I should be grateful that to an extent, my life circumstances have insulated me somewhat from Christmas-driven expectations. For a start, the absence of a male partner has allowed me to conveniently bypass all the gendered nonsense that goes along with it. My female ex-partner and parent of my child comes from a small family so we’ve been spared the Christmas day tug-of-war.
It would be a simple matter just to avoid the whole affair if I didn’t have a child. I would happily disappear, go off grid for a week, emerging after the rest of the world has seen in the new year. But my child is the tie that binds me to the annual event so I must find a way of negotiating my observation of it.
I realise that there’s a lot of ground between slavishly following cultural practices and throwing them out altogether. It’s about fleshing out that middle ground with your own meaning and building your own rituals.
To be fair, my family of origin has taken a pragmatic approach to Christmas. A few years ago, my two brothers and I acknowledged the zero-sum game absurdity of exchanging gift vouchers with each other. Now that we all have children, we broadly acknowledge that they have too much stuff which in any event is topped up by birthdays. By way of compromise, we tried a scheme based on dividing the buying for our children between the three of us (or in my brothers’ case, their wives). Effectively it meant that each child got one decent present that was more likely to be something they wanted. However, it ceased to work when siblings ended up with four, two and one child. I suppose we’ll come up with an alternative that manages to deliver a present to each child.
Maybe one day we’ll all realise the pointlessness of the gift giving as my siblings and I did. I look around and see people devising easier options. They realise it’s a cultural institution that isn’t going away any time soon but they don’t have the energy to overthrow it any more than they have the energy to spend the Saturday before Christmas at the local shopping mall. So, to the parent who organises other parents to contribute to a gift voucher for the twenty-something male teacher, I say thank you. You are conserving the collective energy whilst keeping everyone happy.
So what can be salvaged from this? What do I want Christmas to mean? If I search myself, it’s the rituals, the atmospherics. It’s drinking a toast in the silence of the last moments of Christmas Eve as the fairy lights blink in the dark. There might be soft Christmassy music in the background and the scent of pine leaves carried by the breeze.
We need rituals and their value is precisely in the meaning that we give them. There is something to be said for marking the passing of one year and looking towards the next, particularly when it’s been such a dumpster fire of a year. There is a need to collectively process and make sense of it all.
In years to come, I picture myself spending Christmas somewhere remote and untouched. Perhaps by myself, perhaps with someone who shares my life path. Whatever. I will look out on it all from my vantage of life experience and wisdom and it will all make sense. I will want for nothing.
Merry Christmas to one and all. | https://medium.com/the-haven/is-it-time-to-call-time-on-christmas-2f1e86e9db4f | ['Justine L'] | 2020-12-08 00:07:19.695000+00:00 | ['Single Life', 'Consumerism', 'Culture', 'Mental Health', 'Christmas'] |
Elliot, Adira, and the Era of Gender Diversity | So, Elliot Page came out as a transgender man this week. The actor, who came out publicly on Tuesday, was nominated for an Academy Award for the film Juno and stars as kick-ass superhero Vanya on Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy.
Elliot Page
Needless to say, this announcement was met with a whole lot of hoopla, mostly positive with usual smattering of transphobic BS. And I applaud Page for his courage in coming out. It is not a sure-fire guarantee the his fame will protect him from transphobic backlash. In fact, the strength of his fame might actually put him in more danger, because he is so recognizable and has so much to lose. So, kudos to you, Elliot. We thank you and we’re rooting for you.
Page’s announcement, though, shows us how far we still have to go as a culture. For instance, the New York Times managed to “dead-name” him in their article about his coming out. There are so many ways to identify the actor without dead-naming, most easily by focusing on his prior work.
Others are accusing Page of “internalized misogyny,” underscoring another problem transmasculine people experience. My friend Jim experienced this very issue with a so-called friend who accused him of “betraying women” to get a piece of that delicious male-privilege all of us penis-envying lesbians are so susceptible to. (Yes, sarcasm totally intended.)
But we’re in the 2020’s, right? We’re just at the beginning of this. Surely it will get better?
Fast-forward to the fictional 32nd Century of Star Trek: Discovery, when Adira Tal (played beautifully by non-binary performer Blu del Barrio) finally came out as nonbinary on this week’s episode, “The Sanctuary.”
Adira, after being misgendered for several episodes, finally comes out to Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), saying “‘I’ve never felt like a ‘she’ or-or a ‘her,’ so… I would prefer ‘they’ or ‘them.’” Then Adira admits they have only ever admitted this to one other person, their deceased boyfriend, Gray.
Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio), CBS All Access
This is the year 3189, people, and we’re still having to have Very Special Episodes regarding this? I know, I know, Star Trek reflects current issues through the lens of the future, but I really just wanted Stamets to say, “Adira, why didn’t you just say so immediately? Duh, we’ll use your correct pronouns.”
I wanted, at least in our fictional future, to see a world where a person can express their true gender and correct misgendering without even the slightest hesitation or fear of pushback. But we work with the world we live in, and project the future we want to see.
In the scene, Stamets immediately corrects Adira’s pronouns. There’s even a “Look How Well We’re Doing the Pronouns” scene later in the episode with Stamets and his husband Dr. Hugh Culber (the fabulous Wilson Cruz). I swear, they must say the word “they” fifty times in three minutes. In fact, Stamets and Culber have practically adopted Adira, which makes me so happy because they are the ultimate Cute Gay Family from the Future.
So, here we are, brave travelers at the beginning of a new era in human gender. (Actually, there is nothing about these genders; we’re just in a new era of recognizing these genders.) And not to be too Trekkie about it, I say we boldly go where all such beginnings should lead: to a brighter, healthier, more welcoming future for all people. | https://medium.com/@deborahbaudoina/elliot-adira-and-the-era-of-gender-diversity-19bd7639ebe2 | ['Deborah Baudoin', 'She Her'] | 2020-12-04 20:13:51.988000+00:00 | ['Blu Del Barrio', 'Star Trek Discovery', 'Elliot Page', 'Nonbinary', 'Transmasculine'] |
Star Wars Squadron Error → Game not starting on PC? Try this workaround. | INTRO
So if you are like me and enjoy buying video games around Christmas time, you might have come across the 40% sale of Star Wars Squadron on Steam. Like a good little capitalistic idiot I am, I purchased this game and install it.
PROBLEM/RANT
There is a bit of vulgarity in the next few paragraphs. #DealWithIt
The problem I ran into was that everytime I tried to start the game I would get an error from the piece of shit anti-cheat software called Easy-Anti-Cheat (EAC). Since EA Games is the type of business that even the devil himself won’t deal with, they have zero ambition in getting rid of this horrific anti cheat software.
This software is SO shitty, that it doesn’t even recognize people like me who use two hard drives for their games. So when EAC tries to load and can’t find the install, OR when it thinks my RGB programs are cheat programs running, it fails to load the game. Every. Single.Time. Fuck those developer right in the mouth. I hate bad code, and I hate bad developers. Get a different profession if you aren’t going to make the word a better place with your code. </rant>
Needless to say, this is VERY frustrating. I have read all over the internet about others being just has pissed off as I am about purchasing a game that you can’t play.
SOLUTION
The solution to at least get the game working for the story mode is as follows. This solution works for those who bought the game through Steam:
Go to the folder you have your game installed from Create a new text file named steam_appid.txt Inside this txt file, enter the following number:
1222730 Save and close the txt file. Then click on the starwarssquadrons.exe file to start the game As of Dec 25, 2020, this worked for me to get the game running. I think this also disables that bullshit of a program EAC.
Happy Playing! | https://medium.com/code-kings/star-wars-squadron-error-game-not-starting-on-pc-try-this-workaround-1bce1a352373 | ['Tony Mucci'] | 2020-12-26 09:14:17.189000+00:00 | ['Star Wars', 'Code', 'Hacking', 'Pc Gaming', 'Steam'] |
America Sucks, Except When It Doesn’t | I’m sober 10 years now but I can go off like an alcoholic dive bar political pundit on all the many reasons America sucks. I’ll start with war — we love it. There is no geopolitical problem too complex that a bomb can’t solve. The U.S. has happily rained fire down on people half a world away so the gas tanks of our SUVs are cheaper to fill. Whenever we ran out of enemies we waged wars on nouns, like terror and drugs. Violence is the love language of the United States of America.
America has been called a shining city on a hill but I’m sorry we’re more like the last house on the left. Are there other countries that are worse than America? Sure. But I’m a person who likes to keep his eyes on his own paper. I don’t think “not being the worst” is, in fact, being the best. America does not treat its own citizens well, and it should.
For a country of pioneering individuals, we love rubber bullets and batons too much. There is no domestic problem too complex that a militarized police force can’t solve. And the primary domestic problem is systemic inequality. When too many throats fill with cries for freedom the U.S.’s first response is to put on steel-tipped boots.
America sucks because we celebrate men who slaughtered indigenous people and kept slaves. America sucks because a few of us have way too much and everyone else next to nothing. The new American dream is becoming so rich and powerful that laws are just suggestions. The only right equally distributed is the right to sneer. The educated look down on the uneducated. The upper-middle-class looks down on the lower-middle-class. And so on. A human centipede ouroboros of resentments.
America sucks because it turned Jesus Christ into Ronald McDonald. America sucks because it will always choose the easy thing over the hard thing. Sure, we put a man on the moon but we put countless men behind bars because of their circumstances. Revenge is easy. Selfishness is easy.
Do you know what’s hard? Doing the right thing.
The U.K.’s wartime prime minister Winston Churchill is alleged to have said, “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after they have exhausted all the other possibilities.”
He was a man of his time: a racist, a misogynist, a xenophobe. But he loved killing Nazis so, you know, respect where respect is due. This quote, though, is one of my favorites even if I don’t believe it. Churchill was a political sentimentalist who understood how to stir the emotions of his island nation but I don’t think he got the U.S. as much as he thought he did. He was a master of rhetoric but this alleged one-liner was more wishful thinking than reality.
When has America done the right thing? Not the necessary thing but the moral thing? America does the politically expedient thing all the time. We do the profitable thing. We’re more than happy to do the wrong thing if it means the status quo of a small powerful minority is preserved. But the right thing? The Civil War? The Voting Rights Act a hundred years later? The legalization of same sex marriage in 2015? Are these “the right things” or just accidents of history? Does America ever do the right thing or does it play moral Russian Roulette, one chamber loaded with love and charity and compassion? When I vote am I just pulling a trigger and hoping for the best? | https://medium.com/humungus/america-sucks-except-when-it-doesnt-fc06a4fa1f73 | ['John Devore'] | 2020-11-09 23:12:35.021000+00:00 | ['Patriotism', 'Election 2020', 'Politics', 'Feelings', 'Masculinity'] |
Americans Love to Suffer, and That’s Why Nothing Ever Changes | Americans Love to Suffer, and That’s Why Nothing Ever Changes
Requiem for the American Dream.
Photo by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash
My uncle lives out in the woods, on a hundred acres my family stole generations ago. There’s a cemetery out there I’ve never been to, but it’s where most of my ancestors are buried.
He doesn’t care about the pandemic at all. It doesn’t affect him. He’s been alone for years, and doesn’t care to be around people. He came back from the Vietnam War broken, and stayed that way. That’s the America I know. You’re supposed to suffer. It’s noble.
The rest of the world looks at us and scratches their heads. They don’t get us. They think something went horribly wrong, but the truth is simpler than that. We were flawed from the start. This pandemic, and all the chaos that comes with it, is a fulfillment of our destiny.
We could change it, but do we want to? | https://medium.com/the-apeiron-blog/americans-love-to-suffer-and-thats-why-nothing-ever-changes-46e8d29c73e7 | ['Jessica Wildfire'] | 2020-12-21 17:50:51.937000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Society', 'Opinion', 'Culture', 'Economics'] |
Best Cold-Weather Gear for 2020 | Even if you live in a mild climate, unexpected cold weather can be difficult to face. For people in northern climates who experience long winters, warm clothing can be a matter of life and death. Working outside in subzero temperatures can quickly lead to frostbite or hypothermia.
If you’re planning to enjoy the cold weather this winter, it’s important to have clothes that will support you. Some winter clothes are built for bulk and insulation, trapping your body heat inside. Others are built for fitness and athletic purposes, allowing a wider range of movement.
A Columbia Steens Mountain Fleece Jacket is a good choice for those who want a relaxed, casual jacket that provides good insulation. It’s not sports gear, but it comes with both thermal insulation and a built-in scarf. The elastic cuffs hug your wrists to keep air from getting inside, and there’s a lot of room in the side pockets.
When you’re looking for a balaclava, the N-Ferno Hinged Fleece option is a good choice. It sets itself apart from other balaclava options by having a hinged design. The hinges change the way you drape the fabric, making it suitable for more weather conditions.
The design is built with wind-resistant panels that keep your face from getting burned. There are also reflective accents for when you’re out in dim lighting conditions. You might struggle if you want to wear sunglasses, though.
The Wicking Thermal Pant from Duofold is a pair of pants that provides thermal insulation. It allows complete freedom in your movements and keeps you comfortable even in freezing weather. The secret is the two layers, which trap a barrier of air around your legs. At the same time, the knitted cuffs keep cold air from sliding underneath.
GI’s Extreme Cold Weather pants are available for people who will be in incredibly dangerous temperatures. These pants are more heavy-duty than most apparel, being military-grade in design. The Primaloft fabric provides maximum insulation, and the garment has been wrapped in a windproof shell. For athletes who might take a tumble, the reinforced knees can protect your legs from injury.
In addition to all of this, these pants have a high water resistance level, and there are side zippers up the full length of the pants. | https://medium.com/@franklynmichelin/best-cold-weather-gear-for-2020-e85a07923da6 | ['Franklyn Michelin'] | 2020-11-04 18:07:33.975000+00:00 | ['Gear', 'Franklyn Michelin', 'Winter Weather', 'Weather'] |
My Experience at Madrasters Lime Light Talk | A talk in front of 100+ Designers.. If you told me this one year ago, I would have laughed hard. But here I am standing in front of audi-full of designers pumped up to listen to what I am gonna talk. So how did an one and half year experienced budding Designer-Developer get here?
Going back exactly one year, I was one of the people in the audi, mesmerized at meeting such talented designers from Chennai. Luckily Madrasters were looking for a new core team at the time and I applied. Few months passed by and I got a call from @JackAnto to join the core team V of Madrasters. Since that I got actively involved in madrasters events especially in the last workshop and this meetup(and I made the website for both the events).
When @JackAnto asked who is interested for the Limelight talk, I volunteered immediately. Why? Just to overcome my fears of public speaking. Little did I know that time, a lot have to do after that ‘yes, i would like to do it’. I have to come up with a talk about myself for exactly 5minutes(yeah..who wants to listen to me talking about me for 30mins).
Slide explaining what I love to do
I came up with the story of why I do what I do, and how did I get into it. After few iterations, I was able to fit it into 5 minutes. Finally, its the D-Day, after pumping speech from Santhosh Palvesh of UMM Digital, I was out to deliver what I prepared. I started of with pun in my name, followed by what my story of design and code. I don’t know how people took it, I felt good as I gave a talk in front of 100+ people.
My works — Eattrips
My works — Madrasters Workshop Website
Oh What did I talk about? Here are the slides.
Thanks for reading. | https://medium.com/madrasters/my-experience-at-madrasters-lime-light-talk-2f4fe072958 | [] | 2019-08-22 06:18:28.931000+00:00 | ['Madrasters', 'Designer', 'Interaction Design', 'Debut', 'Public Speaking'] |
Leaving academia | Tomorrow, I’m speaking at an online event organized by my friend Mark Vernon, called ‘Beyond Flatland’. The event features various interesting thinkers including Angela Voss , who edited a book called ‘Re-enchanting Academia’; Jeffrey Kripal, a professor of the ‘mystical humanities’; and Geoffrey Cornelius, professor of the faculty of astrology.
Albus Dumbledore is the keynote. Then me, adjunct professor of ecstasy.
I happen to be reading a book of Kripal’s at the moment, his history of Esalen, where he’s the director of the Centre for Research.
There’s a line in that book — ‘Esalen existed in the liminal space between academia and the counterculture’ — which made me think of the conference tomorrow, and my own relationship to academia.
I’ve written about Esalen a few times before, but it’s a place in Big Sur, California, set up in 1962, which offers week and weekend-long courses, mainly in personal growth.
It is like an alternative college, exploring topics that academia was scared to touch (ecstatic experiences, psychedelics, alternative medicine, astrology, UFOs, ESP etc), but also exploring new ways of knowing, beyond the lecture format, like the encounter session, the trip, the massage, the ‘Gunther hero sandwich’.
(Yes, the ‘Gunther hero sandwich’ — I’ll come back to that at the end).
Why did it require a non-academic college to explore these ideas?
Academia has a kind of vice-hold on western culture, and on what is designated ‘truth’. It has one dominant mind-set — rational-intellectual and resolutely secular; one main method of learning — the lecture; and one main method of evaluation — the exam.
Max Weber — we’re all in an iron cage, and academics help construct it
Its culture was defined by the sociologist Max Weber, in his very influential lecture of 1917, ‘Science as a Vocation’.
Weber insisted that academia must be committed to the search for objective rational truth. It must have no other values than that. It must resist the temptation to serve other gods, such as happiness or wisdom. The lecture room must not become a church pulpit, he insisted.
This defence of the objectivity of academia sounds heroic but was in fact profoundly disingenuous. Academic culture is not a ‘view from nowhere’. Weber was deeply committed to one view, one ideology — secular naturalism — and he envisaged academics as foot-soldiers for the advance of this ideology. Academia is, for him, a machine for disenchantment. That dogma academics are very much encouraged and expected to preach. In fact, it is so all-encompassing it is simply taken for granted.
Yes, his attitude to disenchantment is ambivalent. Yes, he thinks the modern godless condition is somewhat tragic. But we must face it like adults. To believe in anything except secular materialism is to collapse into childish superstition, he tells us sternly.
So what Weber really means by ‘serving objective truth’ is ‘serving secular materialism’. If you do not commit to that ideology, you are an enemy of academia, a ghost in the machine, a throwback, an evolutionary vestige. You are a male nipple.
Also, academia has long had a tendency to group-think. This is a consequence of the peer-review system, maybe, and the hierarchical nature of PhD supervision. It is very difficult to think outside established lines of thinking. You get bitten, like a husky that has strayed out of the tracks.
That’s why ‘paradigm shifts’ (I hate that phrase) often start outside of academia.
When there was a shift from the Aristotelian to the materialist worldview in the 17th century, for example, it was pioneered by thinkers outside of academia, like Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes and Thomas Hobbes.
Since the 1950s, there has been a slow shift against the rationalist-materialist ideology, to try and re-integrate forbidden ways of knowing — dreams, visions, trance states, mystical, psychedelic and paranormal experiences, and somatic knowledge (knowing with the body).
This has mainly but not entirely occurred outside academia, led by semi-academic figures like Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts and Gerald Heard — the so-called ‘mystical expats’ who helped to inspire Esalen.
These figures had one foot in academia, or a toe at least. They were occasional recipients of fellowship funding which allowed them to spend a year at Harvard (in Watts’ case) or Duke (in Heard’s), or to deliver lecture courses at MIT and UCSB (in Huxley’s case).
But they were more at home in alternative educational places like Esalen, or the California Institute of Integral Studies (initially known as the American Academy of Asian Studies, where Watts was briefly the dean).
The mystical expats were the opposite of the Weberian scientist. They rebelled against the idea it was impossible or wrong to teach wisdom and flourishing and even mystical truth. They also — in Heard and Huxley’s case anyway — critiqued the hegemony of secular materialism and pointed out all the phenomena that this theory fails to account for (like, say, consciousness).
I also believe that it’s possible to explore topics like meaning, happiness and even mystical truth within the confines of academia. However, it’s not easy. I agree with Weber that academics should not be preachers or gurus.
The difference between a guru and an academic is the academic has the willingness and capacity to criticize their own ideas, rather than teaching them ex cathedra, as if they were gospel truth and not to be questioned. There is a greater flexibility and reflectiveness there.
That is what I try to do. Explore wisdom traditions, but in a critical, pluralist, historical way. I explore ecstatic experiences, even my own, but never insist on one interpretation of them.
Talking of academic gurus, I see Jordan Peterson has returned from Russian rehab to teach us meaning and wisdom once more, and his return has provoked my academic colleagues into paroxysms of scorn. The employees of his publisher, Penguin Canada, even tearfully protested against him for being a ‘beacon of white supremacy’ (I think this is a clever marketing campaign — he owes most of his success to hysterical leftist protests).
I have tried to read Peterson and personally find him quite boring and obvious. But it’s worth asking — why is this man so hugely popular? Why can this academic, uniquely, fill the O2 arena with his fans?
It is because he offers meaning, myths, traditions and ethics to a generation fed either boring technocratic career education, or self-lacerating critical theory. I personally think he slips into the guru role, and is on something of a Messianic / apocalyptic trip. He reminds me less of a careful thinker and more of the mad prophet in Network: ‘I’m mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!’
Still, I believe higher education can teach meaning, happiness, wisdom, virtue, even mystical truth. But it takes a certain balance to do it.
This coming month, I leave academia after eight years. Or at least, the grant on which I have been working for the last four years comes to an end. Who knows where I go from here, but I’ll probably be a digital nomad for a while, possibly living here in Costa Rica.
I have been extremely lucky. I was lucky enough to work with a senior academic — Professor Thomas Dixon — who gave me a job when I didn’t have a PhD, and then encouraged me to go off on all my wild adventures of the last five years, and was not put off when I became an evangelical Christian or wrote about my ayahuasca experiences.
Those topics and experiences seem quite far from the academic mainstream. I remember meeting a psychologist at my university, and telling him I’d just been trying ayahuasca in the Peruvian jungle. ‘You’ve been taking drugs?’ he asked. ‘Well, you know, exploring the psychology of transcendence’, I replied. He’d never heard of the word!
It is hard enough to get academics to talk about well-being and happiness, never mind transcendence. I tried for 8 years to get my university to develop a more coherent well-being strategy. I knew that students loved talks and courses on well-being (as long as they were done intelligently and critically), and that it made sense to link together well-being research with well-being courses and well-being / therapy services — so that students can learn how to take care of their minds and the different sorts of flourishing we can seek in life.
Many of my academic colleagues gave their time and support to this collective effort to upgrade our well-being strategy. But for some reason senior management never got behind it. This is pretty standard, I think. As the great Derek Bok, former president of Harvard, points out, well-being initiatives are taken up by some enthusiastic individuals at universities, but they then leave, and universities don’t deem it important enough to put anything systemic in place.
(By the by, did you know Bok grew up with Huxley and Heard as unofficial god-parents? His mother Peggy was one of their best friends. Derek Bok is one of the great thinkers on how to reform higher education to make it more conducive to happiness and wisdom — his new book explores that.)
I do think things will change eventually, and universities will start taking the well-being of students more seriously.
But this year has exposed rather brutally that, if it comes to choosing between the well-being of students or the financial interests of the university, finances come first. I’m not talking about my university here, but I was shocked by how many universities lured students to sign up with them this year with promises of ‘blended learning’, only to shut them into their halls like prisoners, feed them stale sandwiches, and deliver all of their courses online.
That makes all the promises around ‘student well-being’ sound pretty hollow.
The massive industrial modern university is like a Soviet supermarket. Students have to pay high market rates, but they are barely offered any variety in terms of the types of courses they can take. It’s almost entirely three-year full-time courses in one discipline. Tattered Soviet banners hang above the shelves, with slogans like ‘Inclusion’, ‘Skills’, ‘Justice’, ‘Well-Being’ and ‘Diversity’. But there is not much diversity on offer in the politics, nor in the metaphysics. It’s a weirdly monocultural industry.
But it’s changing. The boundaries of which it is acceptable to study are slowly broadening. In the last decade, academia has started to study things like meditation and psychedelics much more. UK academia is even a leader in psychedelic research. Fancy that!
Still, if you want to study wisdom, spirituality or transpersonal psychology, you are probably better off looking to alternative adult education, to places like the Alef Trust, the Weekend University, Rebel Wisdom, the Psychedelic Society, the College of Psychic Studies and so on.
Meanwhile, Esalen is still going. I interviewed the co-founder of it, Michael Murphy, in 2018, and was astonished by his vitality and charm.
In a New Age / wellness landscape where we are sorely lacking in long-lasting institutions, where all too often communities burn brightly then collapse into coltishness, Esalen has somehow survived — it will celebrate its 60th birthday in 2022.
It is committed to reintegrating the body into wisdom, and reintegrating ecstatic states of consciousness and paranormal powers into accepted ways of knowing. Murphy embraces an evolutionary spirituality — he thinks more and more humans are evolving superpowers, and eventually humans will fulfil their glorious potential as superbeings.
Kripal describes Esalen as like the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning in the X-Men — a school for mutants, for the evolutionary superbeings of tomorrow. As regular readers will know, I am a little wary of that tendency in New Age spirituality to see oneself and one’s friends as part of the evolutionary vanguard. It’s a short step from Xavier to Magneto (who thinks homo sapiens have outgrown their use and don’t deserve to survive).
At the same time, I feel that there is a basic tension within spirituality, between the heights and the width.
On the one hand, it seems worthwhile to preserve the idea of spiritual excellence, of peaks which humans can ascend, of mastery in certain spiritual disciplines, and even of reaching something called ‘enlightenment’. All of that implies some sort of hierarchy and an elite who devote many hours to their practice. It implies superbeings like Michael Jordan (his coach, Phil Jackson, was quite inspired by Esalen, by the by).
On the other hand, I like the more democratic idea of wisdom for all, well-being for all, liberation for all. It’s more the iphone app version of wisdom — you don’t go very deep, but you share it very widely.
I don’t think one can resolve this tension. It’s always there, and it’s healthy.
Well, I don’t really have a good end to this week’s essay. I’ll just say, I’ve noticed I have a compulsive tendency in myself to criticize the institutions and communities to which I belong, out of some pathological feeling of being an unappreciated outsider. I find myself compulsively criticizing academia, the BBC, British culture, Christianity, New Age spirituality…
This is the weird fuel I run on — the wood-chip-burner on my shoulder.
But let me put down the wood-chip burner for one moment and say thank you to all my academic colleagues for their friendship and support and our collective endeavours over the last eight years. I’ve met some truly fascinating people, and I’ve learnt a little bit of the critical rigour in which you excel.
Right, back to the Gunther Hero Sandwich….find out more here. | https://medium.com/@julesevans/leaving-academia-db200f819d5d | ['Jules Evans'] | 2020-11-29 14:54:21.193000+00:00 | ['Academia', 'Spirituality', 'Wellness', 'Wisdom', 'University'] |
Rust In Enterprise | Rust In npm, Inc.
As npm grows, it’s engineering team is keenly aware of software that may become a performance issue. Rust’s utility in this space is well documented in the Rust npm Whitepaper.
For most npm operations ( those that are I/O bound ), JavaScript has been a sufficient solution. However, some operations — namely, an authorization service — presented CPU-Bound problems that would fail to maintain performance constraints at scale. In rewriting the legacy Node.js implementation of this service, the npm team considered a number of technologies:
C and C++ were quickly rejected:
“I wouldn’t trust myself to write a C++ HTTP application and expose it to the web” — Chris Dickinson, an engineer at npm. “A C or C++ solution is no longer a reasonable choice in the minds of the npm engineering team. These languages require expertise in memory management to avoid making mistakes that cause catastrophic problems. Security problems, crashes, and memory leaks were not problems that npm was willing to tolerate in order to get improved performance.” — npm Whitepaper
Java also fell short:
“Java was excluded from consideration because of the requirement of deploying the JVM and associated libraries along with any program to their production servers. This was an amount of operational complexity and resource overhead that was as undesirable as the unsafety of C or C++” — npm Whitepaper
The languages that met the criteria outlined by npm were Go and Rust. npm opted for an objective test by rewriting the system in both languages, as well as in Node.js to serve as a baseline.
Go came close:
Go was memory safe, easily deployable, and faster than JavaScript, but it isn’t much of a surprise that npm — a company that offers the world’s largest software registry — was particularly disappointed with Go’s lack of an official dependency management solution ( this was before Go Modules ).
“The prospect of installing dependencies globally and sharing versions across any Go project (the standard in Go at the time they performed this evaluation) was unappealing.” — npm Whitepaper
On the other hand, the team was enamored with Cargo, Rust’s dependency manager, which took inspiration from npm.
Rust:
Compared to Go and Node.js, there was a slowdown in development speed, largely stemming from Rust’s learning curve. The rewrite in Rust took a week, while the rewrite in Go and Node.js took two days and an hour respectively. However, npm credited Rust’s community for making the process easier through “inclusivity, friendliness, and a solid process for making difficult technical decisions.”
On the other hand, Rust boasted a major advantage in terms of time spent solving runtime errors:
“My biggest compliment to Rust is that it’s boring, and this is an amazing compliment.” — Dickinson “npm’s first Rust program hasn’t caused any alerts in its year and a half in production. At npm, the usual experience of deploying a JavaScript service to production was that the service would need extensive monitoring for errors and excessive resource usage necessitating debugging and restarts.” — npm Whitepaper
In the end, npm chose Rust, noting it’s straight forward deployment, dependency management, and few operational issues as causative factors. For npm, it appears that the time and resources saved in debugging and monitoring was worth the extra time devoted to learning the language in comparison to Go. | https://medium.com/@tcsyndicateofficial/rust-in-enterprise-caf2539ffc4d | [] | 2020-07-04 18:15:19.576000+00:00 | ['Rustlang', 'Rust', 'Discord', 'Programming', 'Microsoft'] |
6 Easy to Follow Tips to Help You Improve Your Blog Writing | Intros/Conclusions
Is there power in your hook? Are you saying something that evokes curiosity and makes your reader want to know more? Are you saying it up front? Are you being direct or using mystery to your advantage?
Whatever your tactic, balance is the way you leverage it.
When it comes to introductions, you want to get in, say something that entices, then get the heck on with the show. You want just enough, but not too much. Like spicing up a meal, know what works together, what doesn’t, and always start with pinches and build up. With introductions you want something short, quick paced. You want something that can get right to it.
Here’s a quick tip for both introductions and conclusions: Always satisfy your readers, but leave them hungry too.
Everything should build to something important for your reader. Introductions warm them up, but moves them to the next thing. That thing moves them to the next. But each part of what you’re writing should be building on the previous in such a way that it is adding more and more value — more takeaway — for your reader.
Then, when you come to the conclusion, do just that, give them something solid to takeaway from what you just wrote for them.
Remind them of what you covered, but briefly. Better still, use your conclusion like a magnifying glass on a bright sunlit day.
Focus everything to one powerful point of light. Make it crystal clear, show them what you just showed them. Leave your reader with something to help them win, whether that’s the day, their next task, or just a damn good feeling.
It’s always about your reader, and what you leave them with. Forget everything else if you want to, but never forget this. | https://medium.com/scribblerpress/6-easy-to-follow-tips-to-help-you-improve-your-blog-writing-b098d2585830 | ['Gregory D. Welch'] | 2020-07-08 18:07:52.671000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Creativity', 'Productivity', 'Blogging', 'Writing Tips'] |
Why COVID-19 Data Confuses People | A two-dimensional table like this one can be read two ways: horizontally (where the percentages add up to 100% across the rows); and vertically (where the percentages add up to 100% down the columns).
The horizontal view corresponds to the first headline. It’s the view of politicians and professionals, who are looking across society. Crucially, it’s much easier to collect data in this view — simply count the people in the hospital. The data organized this way is useful for resource and capacity planning.
The vertical view corresponds to the second headline. It’s the view of the general population, including most of the media. It answers the question “What does this mean for me?” Unfortunately, data is harder to collect for the vertical view, and rarely presented this way.
There you have it — same information, two accurate but different views and interpretations. The simple reason that younger adults can make up a large percentage of hospitalizations while having a low hospitalization rate? There are so many more young adults than old people.
We need this critical piece of “prior information” on the overall population to reconcile the two views, yet it is too often omitted — a form of what Daniel Kahneman (and others) call “Base Rate Neglect.” [3]
Mixed-up Views, Mixed-up People
Now that we understand that both views are correct and each answers different but important questions, does that mean there isn’t a problem?
No, there’s a BIG problem: Most of the time the data is presented to us in the horizontal view, while most of us are interested in the vertical view question: “What does it mean for me?” [4]
Mixed up views result in mixed up people. Many simply tune out. Others reach wrong conclusions — in this case, the alarming-but-wrong conclusion that over 40% of younger adults with COVID-19 are being hospitalized. “Mixed messages allow people to follow their biases and believe whatever they want.” [5]
Even worse: when the “expert” (horizontal) view and the “popular” (vertical) view are left unreconciled, it can breed mistrust of experts and their motives. Accuracy without clarity may lead to the boomerang effect, “the unintended consequence of an attempt to persuade resulting in the adoption of the opposite position instead.” [6].
In the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams asked Americans to stop buying masks because “They are NOT effective in preventing the general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk.” He was legitimately worried about the health care system (horizontal view) but blurred the risk to the public (vertical view). [7]
Yet many people were aware of how Asian countries treated masks as essential to personal safety, causing confusion and sowing doubts about America’s experts and their motives. Sadly, some people have responded in opposite to what the experts intended — at first by hoarding masks, and later (after the experts reversed course) by refusing to wear them.
Accuracy and Clarity for Data Scientists
Recognizing that there are two views provides an opportunity for the data scientist to lead in the quest for accuracy and clarity. We mentioned earlier that it’s often difficult to compile the population data for the vertical view. This is especially true when we’re dividing the population into sub-groups.
Suppose the COVID-19 hospitalization data was missing much of the data for the vertical view: | https://towardsdatascience.com/the-simple-reason-why-covid-19-data-is-so-confusing-48a2f614391a | ['Matthew Raphaelson'] | 2020-09-14 20:00:05.441000+00:00 | ['Storytelling', 'Data Science', 'Decision Making', 'Behavioral Economics', 'Covid 19'] |
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Final Price: as low as $25.19 | https://medium.com/@theticketbeast/deals-c27ed138cfef | ['Theticket Beast'] | 2021-03-28 14:11:55.287000+00:00 | ['Sneakers', 'Deals', 'Online', 'Shoes', 'Shop'] |
Lego Set 31 — Phantom. This week I won’t be writing much. The… | This week I won’t be writing much. The last few days have been hectic. Do not forget to check on the REDLINE kickstarter, we’re not too far from being able to make a new badass mecha-themed novella out of that game. But back to the topic — although I did not have much time to write, I wasn’t about to leave you without a build this week.
So, I bring you a simple one, but different enough from the others to warrant some attention. This is because the Phantom has little in the way of offense, but it has other strengths.
Built by Clan Wolf to help rebuild its military strength after the debacle at Tukayyid, the Phantom is a sort of an oddball in Clanner mech design. Although an OmniMech, which means that it can be adapted to any potential role, the major function of this machine is that of a barely-armed heavy scout.
That is because the weaponry of the baseline Phantom is almost non-existent. Instead, it sports a complete array of electronics, for defense and target detection. It is also incredibly fast, faster than most light Mechs, actually. This places it in the evolving doctrine of the clan. The Wolves have always used quick and hard-hitting machines, and the Phantom is a Mech that has the speed to work within this context, and the systems to support other, stronger units.
The model I bring you wears the colors of the Wolves-in-Exile, and uses 31 parts. A bargain for a machine that can run around spotting other troops and has the electronics to defend itself.
As stated above, do not forget to check on the REDLINE Kickstarter and Twitter announcement now that you are here.
This is a cool game and universe we love, and we hope you are as excited about it as we are. | https://medium.com/@metastablemachine/lego-set-31-phantom-5098a3a28fdb | ['Francisco Duarte'] | 2021-09-05 21:47:45.423000+00:00 | ['Lego Instructions', 'Phantom Mech', 'Redline Trading Card Game', 'Lego Battletech', 'Kickstarter'] |
Racist and Sexist AI — A Tale of Algorithmic Bias | Decision-making algorithms trained on large amounts of data regularly shape the world we live in, often unknowingly. From deciding which demographic a social media advertising campaign will target to granting parole to a prisoner, these algorithms are trusted daily to make important decisions in personal finance, health care, hiring, housing, education, policies and much more.
First, let’s discuss the importance of data in AI…
For anyone that hasn’t worked with data science before, some notions are important to define. The subset of AI which allows algorithms to learn by themselves is called machine learning. This technique is behind most of the “operational” AI that we find in our everyday lives ranging from credit card fraud detection, targeted advertising, Facebook news feed generation, image recognition, voice recognition and many more.
Machine learning can be understood as a sort of statistical pattern matching. There are statistical models that are then fitted to a set of training data in order to represent the real world. This is how a statistical model will learn to recognize fraud by having been trained on thousands of transactions, for example. The algorithms are learning and making predictions from the data.
Now you may ask, how can an algorithm even be racist?
There exists an important ethical concern when it comes to determining if an algorithm is impacted by existing human biases and stereotypes. Intuitively, if bias exists in the society, algorithms naively learning from data will surely be affected and will themselves become biased. This is where the concept of data fairness comes into play. This phenomenon has been observed previously in many different spheres.
According to a research conducted by Latanya Sweeney, a Harvard professor of government and technology, a user on website receiving ads traffic with a black-identifying name such as DeShawn, Darnell or Jermaine was 25% more likely to receive an ad suggestive of an arrest record.
As outraging as this example seems at first, when data fairness is discussed in relation to social media or ad campaigns, the issue, unfortunately, seems trivial. Although I disagree that algorithmic bias in social media is trivial, mainly because anything presented to us on social media platforms greatly shapes the way we perceive our world, I would agree that this issue becomes increasingly important when studied for algorithms making decisions for governments and cities.
Jun Cen: Illustration
In 2016, Angwin et al. writing for ProPublica analyzed predictions made by COMPAS (Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions), a tool that creates risk scores to help assign bond amounts in Broward County, FL. The bond amount was determined by a human judge based on a computer-calculated “risk score” ranging from 0 to 10, 10 being a very high risk of a repeat offence. When comparing the offender’s future risk scores to their actual criminal records, the analysis found that the tool was twice as likely to falsely label black offenders as future criminals than white offenders and more likely to falsely label white offenders as low risk.
The article went on to show an example where the COMPAS tool had assigned a risk score of 8 to a young African-American woman who had been arrested for attempting to steal a kid’s bicycle and scooter, totalling around 80$. The same tool assigned a risk score of 3 to a middle-aged caucasian male who shoplifted a similar amount of around 80$. Both had a criminal record, nonetheless incomparable, the male having served five years in prison for armed robbery and the woman having committed some misdemeanours when she was a minor.
So who let an algorithm become racist?
The simple answer is no one — the tricky answer is everyone. Algorithmic bias is described as a bias that is introduced into a decision-making algorithm by data that is tainted with historical human biases. However, it may not always be as evident as attributes such as race or gender — sometimes, other attributes of the dataset correlate highly with sensitive data such as ethnicity or gender, which could be completely unnoticeable by the scientists handling the data. When thinking of algorithmic bias, there is truly no one else to blame other than the historical training data which is, in the end, only a mirror of our flawed society.
For example, let’s take a system that predicts how likely a customer is to fail to pay back a bank loan. If you’ve ever applied for a loan, you have probably seen the bank teller enter your personal information in said system, and almost immediately receive a decision such as “pre-approved”.
Due to anti-discrimination laws, the system would not use race, ethnicity or gender as an attribute to predict such an outcome. However, the system could very well use a person’s postal code. The main problem here is that this feature often highly correlates with a person’s ethnicity. Therefore, removing ethnicity may not do much to remove algorithmic bias, as a person’s postal code is an excellent predictor for this attribute. In many cases, most statistical models would be able to pick up the correlation and therefore infer race. One can imagine how this example can be extrapolated to all sorts of different attributes for all sorts of different applications — city, state and school attended are all features that could be correlated to race.
Now, the previously described algorithm would be trained on historical data of bank tellers making decisions on loans. The dataset contains years of bank tellers’ decisions on approving loans, prior to the system ever existing. It would look something like an aggregate of data related to a past customer and the customer’s financials mapped to an outcome (customer defaulted bank loan or customer paid back everything on time).
As the system is trying to replace human judgement, it would then try to correlate these features to an outcome before approving or denying a loan. Many oversimplified concepts were explored here, but the problem is still clear — the historical data based on bank tellers’ decisions are tainted by unconscious (or conscious..) bias! The moment a dataset contains instances of human bank tellers historically possibly denying loans to a race A more often than a race B with no valid reason, the dataset becomes inherently biased. The system will then learn the bias, even though race, ethnicity or gender was never even mentioned in the dataset!
If data scientists are not mindful of algorithmic bias, an algorithm learning blindly from a deeply racist society can only become racist itself.
These ethical concerns call for a discrimination-conscious development of algorithms and data mining systems, especially when used for governmental and justice-related decision-making. This remains a challenge in the data science community and many novel techniques have been discussed by researchers to address algorithmic bias.
Different solutions range from deemphasizing the data fed to the model to even introducing a second independent algorithm to assess and reduce bias in the first algorithm. However, the problem needs to be discussed far more often as these algorithms are being widely used in making life-changing decisions for the population. | https://medium.com/swlh/racist-and-sexist-ai-a-tale-of-algorithmic-bias-3dc9128cc0ab | ['Karine Mellata'] | 2020-07-22 21:33:47.486000+00:00 | ['AI', 'Ethics', 'Justice', 'Data Science', 'Racism'] |
練習調色大師：切換改變顏色 | 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/%E5%BD%BC%E5%BE%97%E6%BD%98%E7%9A%84-swift-ios-app-%E9%96%8B%E7%99%BC%E6%95%99%E5%AE%A4/%E7%B7%B4%E7%BF%92%E8%AA%BF%E8%89%B2%E5%A4%A7%E5%B8%AB-%E5%88%87%E6%8F%9B%E6%94%B9%E8%AE%8A%E9%A1%8F%E8%89%B2-5ff2e847311d | [] | 2020-12-22 14:58:41.915000+00:00 | ['iOS', 'Swift', 'Xcode'] |
Debate briefing: the historical statue wars | Statue of Horatio Nelson on Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, London
Twice a month, the Great Debaters Club hosts a public debate on a topical issue dividing public opinion as part of the club’s ‘Debating London’ series. The audience are presented with a dilemma facing real-life decision-makers that they must vote on to resolve with the help of our panel.
Instead of inviting guest speakers to sit on this panel, we ask members of our training programme to defend the competing perspectives shaping the debate in their own words. We then invite our audience to interact with those perspectives by asking questions and advancing their own opinions with our speakers staying ‘in character’ throughout when responding to them.
By the end of the evening, we measure success not based on which side wins the debate, but by how confident the audience are to make a final decision.
Our next debate is about public memorials — so, statues, plaques, flags and places e.t.c — dedicated to historical figures whose beliefs or behaviour divide opinion today with some calling for them to be removed. Is it reasonable to measure the past against the values of the present, and is it right to honour the virtues of our heroes in isolation from their vices? These are some of the questions this debate intends to address.
Debate motion
‘This House Would remove public memorials to controversial historical figures’
Why are we talking about this today?
The ‘statues debate’, as it is known, is an ongoing one that periodically flares up in different countries, most recently in the United States following the removal of memorials to the confederate movement and its leading figures. The last time the debate made the headlines in the UK was when Guardian columnist Afua Hirsch called for the statue of Horatio Nelson to be removed from Trafalgar Square owing to his support for slavery in the 19th Century. Perhaps, the most high profile of the recent statues debates in this country was that over the statue of imperialist, Cecil Rhodes, at Oxford University.
In each of these debates, one of the key strikes against the figures honoured by a memorial was that this represented an unquestioning celebration of their lives that overlooked their involvement in what would now constitute crimes against humanity, such as slavery or persecution of minorities.
What do advocates of removing memorials want to do with them?
When it comes to statues, they simply want to relocate them to museums where, they claim, the life of the figure depicted can be placed in proper context with a balanced critique of all their beliefs and actions. However, not all memorials can simply be relocated. Places named after a divisive figure, for example, can merely be renamed, erasing their association forever.
In other cases, in countries that are actively trying to move on from a painful period of their past, such as an occupation by a foreign power or the reign of a violent dictator, the most controversial monuments are moved to a private place or destroyed altogether. In some instances, widely held memorabilia may even be outlawed as is the case with displaying the swastika in Germany.
Why are some people so protective of these memorials?
Either because they hold special meaning for them and their community or because they object to what they see as an attempt to airbrush history.
The former believe the figures being memorialised deserved to be celebrated and either dispute the charges against them or believe that the sum of their achievements outweigh their failings, which may simply have reflected the values of the time they lived in. They also accuse proponents of removing memorials of using the issue to pursue their own ideological agendas.
The latter believe that if we judged historical memorials by modern values, then we would probably have to take them all down and in so doing we would lose a vital record of our past. So, they claim, even the most controversial memorials should remain because the very act of talking about why they are so controversial is crucial to understanding our history and identity.
Watch the debate, then join the debate.
Two days before we meet, a panel of experts and commentators will be having the same debate at Intelligence Squared, which you can book tickets for here or watch on-line later. You don’t have to attend that debate, though, to come and share your views at ours, which will take place in the Tea House Theatre in Vauxhall from 7.00 pm to 9.30 pm on Wednesday 16th May.
Admission is free and open to all, but we ask that you book a place in advance — by signing up here — to help us manage the number of attendees. | https://medium.com/debating-london/debate-briefing-the-historical-statue-wars-67adc02e931e | ['Tony Koutsoumbos'] | 2018-05-09 14:07:36.492000+00:00 | ['Debate', 'Communication', 'History', 'Politics', 'Culture'] |
What is a Sinking Fund? — Just Start Investing | Paying for large expenses isn’t easy, but having a sinking fund can help ensure you are budgeting for them the right way.
If you need to save for a significant expense in your life, whether it’s for a down payment on a house, a wedding, or just a new pair of shoes, below, we’ll walk through how sinking funds can help you accomplish your savings goals.
What is a Sinking Fund?
A sinking fund consists of money set aside on a regular basis to pay for an expected short-term expense.
Typically, you contribute money to your sinking fund every month for the amount of time necessary to save up for the expense.
Sinking Fund Definition: A separate fund that you add money to monthly to pay for future planned expenses.
This fund wouldn’t necessarily be to pay for your regular rent or grocery bill, but instead, pay for a one-off expense.
As a quick example, let’s say you wanted to buy a new appliance for your home in about 12 months that costs $1,200. To do so, you would contribute $100 every month for one year to save up for the purchase.
It’s a simple financial term and saving strategy. Though, it does have a slightly complicated back story…
The term “sinking fund” originated in the corporate world as the counterpart of “floating a bond” to raise money. When a company floated a bond, instead of waiting until the maturity date of it to repay all of their investors at one time, they could contribute money regularly to a fund to prepare for the necessary debt repayment.
The term evolved to refer to any corporation’s regular savings, whether to pay off corporate bonds or save up for a capital expense. For example, to pay for a new factory.
And now, the term has made its way into the personal finance world as a super useful and simple strategy for putting money aside for large one-off purchases.
Sinking Funds vs. Emergency Funds
To be clear, a sinking fund is not an emergency fund.
An emergency fund consists of money that you saved up, usually 3–6 months’ worth of expenses, to pay for unexpected costs that might pop up. These unexpected expenses could include things like medical expenses or even just a general loss of income. It helps keep you out of debt when financial emergencies arise.
A sinking fund consists of money saved for predetermined and planned expenses. These are costs that you can get ahead of because you expect them to happen.
While you might store both of these funds in the same savings account, they are different at their core.
Sinking Funds vs. Savings Accounts
Asking about the difference between a sinking fund and a savings account is not as straight forward as the example above. Building a sinking fund is a savings strategy, while a savings account is an actual financial product (a bank account) where you can store a sinking fund.
That said, a savings account is typically used for general savings on top of an emergency fund and any sinking funds that you may have.
For What Can I Use a Sinking Fund?
There are nearly an endless amount of sinking fund categories that you have to consider.
Below are some of the top uses for a sinking fund to give you an idea of where you can get started.
House Sinking Fund
A house sinking fund is most commonly used to save for a down payment.
The average home cost in the United States is about $262,000, according to Zillow. To buy an average home, you’d need to save 20% of that cost to pay for a down payment and avoid any extra fees like private mortgage insurance.
That would equate to $52,400, which is not a small amount of money. Plus, that’s not including any closing costs that you would have to pay as the buyer.
Other examples of home sinking funds could include saving money to:
Renovate a kitchen or bathroom
Replace a roof or other home repairs
Buy new appliances
Build a new deck
Property taxes
Or anything else related to your home
Vacation Sinking Fund
Planning a vacation can be a lot of fun.
Saving for a vacation can be a different story. Between the hotels, flights, rental cars, meals out, and excursions, the cost of some trips can really start to add up. Building a sinking fund is one way to save for your dream vacation over time.
Car Sinking Fund
Similar to a house, a down payment on a car can take some time to accumulate.
However, you could also be looking to save money for your:
That, or you could just want to pay cash for the car and be done with it — not having to deal with monthly payments. While this might not be the mathematically best thing to do depending on the interest rate you can get on a loan, a sinking fund can help you accomplish this savings goal.
Wedding Sinking Fund
Weddings are expensive. In fact, according to The Knot, the average wedding in the US comes in at around $33,900!
They are so expensive because so many things go into them — the catering, venue, photographer, band, and more. Not to mention the rings and honeymoons that usually come with weddings too.
For most Americans, saving for a wedding over time is the only option.
Other Sinking Funds
While the above are some of the most popular categories for sinking funds, they are not your only options.
Any short-term expense can be saved for through a sinking fund — whether it’s a birthday gift, college tuition, furniture, a bike, or even something as small as a new shirt or new pair of shoes.
How to Set Up a Sinking Fund
Whenever you create a budget, you should consider setting up a sinking fund. Setting up a sinking fund is easy and can be done in four simple steps:
Determine what you want to save for Calculate the cost of it Build a timeline to when you need or want to make the purchase Start saving!
Step one is the only place where there can be complexity, specifically, if you set up a multi-category sinking fund instead of a single category fund.
Single Category Sinking Funds
A single category sinking fund involves saving for one expense.
As mentioned, one sinking fund example could be saving for a house down payment. Walking through the example, let’s say you go through steps one through four and determine the following:
You want to save for a down payment Since you are buying a $250,000 house, you know you need $50,000 You plan to make the purchase in two years You start saving $2,083 a month so that you can reach $50,000 in savings in two years!
Of course, you might go through this process more than once. If, after doing the math, you realize that $2,083 is too much for you to save every month for this one goal, you might need to lower your house budget or extend out your timeline.
On the flip side, if saving $2,083 is a breeze, you might be able to make a down payment sooner than you thought!
Multi-Category Sinking Funds
You would use a multi-category sinking fund if you wanted to save for multiple expenses over different periods.
After learning about sinking funds, let’s say you want to save for a vacation in 6 months and a car in 12 months, on top of the down payment in 2 years.
Going through the same process as above, you would come to realize that you need to be saving $2,783 per month for your multi-category sinking fund assuming:
$2,083 per month for your down payment
$200 per month for your $1,200 vacation
$500 per month for your $6,000 car
Again, you’ll need to make sure this amount of savings fits within your monthly budget. Your living expenses, retirement savings, and emergency savings need to be considered, along with any sinking fund savings.
Where Should I Store My Sinking Fund?
Your best option for storing your sinking fund is in a high yield savings account.
It’s safe, reliable, and provides a better return (higher interest rate) than a regular savings account or checking account would.
High Yield Savings Account: Check out Cit Bank, a leading high yield savings account provider, to see if they are a good fit for you.
If you create a multi-category sinking fund, or if you have general savings or an emergency fund in the same account, you’ll need to divvy up the account’s funds. You run the risk of accidentally spending money on something it’s not intended for unless you earmark the funds for their intended use.
Some savings account will allow you to actually set up categories within an account. Otherwise, an excel spreadsheet or pen and paper can help.
Other options for storing sinking funds include money market accounts, regular savings accounts, and checking accounts.
Summary: Sinking Funds
After all of that, hopefully, you are left with this one takeaway: sinking funds are a simple saving strategy to help you accomplish your short term financial goals.
It’s just an easy math exercise to create a basic savings plan.
It also helps ensure you don’t run up your credit card debt or rack up other unnecessary debts when making large purchases. By planning these things out, you can better avoid unwanted surprises.
The first step you should take to determine if you need a sinking fund is writing down your short term financial goals, whether saving for a house, a new car, or a vacation. This step will ensure that you can get ahead of these expenses and not get caught off guard when making a purchase! | https://medium.com/@juststartinvestor/what-is-a-sinking-fund-just-start-investing-1f2c0207facc | ['Just Start Investing'] | 2020-12-05 17:49:43.043000+00:00 | ['Saving Money', 'Budgeting', 'Personal Finance', 'Saving'] |
GUIs for Python — A Introduction to Tkinter | 4. Positioning our Widgets
To this point all our widgets have been stacked directly under the previous widget, centered in our Window / Frame. Although these GUIs are perfectly functional they do not look all that appealing, so let us cover how to move our widgets around.
To this point following we have been using a positioning method and you may not have even realized it. In order for a Widget to even appear on the Window you must call a positioning method on it, up until this point we have been calling the “ pack() ” positioning method. However, there are numerous other positioning methods, in this section we will cover the 3 most common.
Pack — Simple stacking
The pack positioning method is used to simply “pack” the given widget into the next available space within the window where the widget can fit. Most commonly this causes the widgets to be stacked vertically and centered within the window.
givenWidget = Label( ... ) givenWidget.pack()
The pack method does give limited control over how the widgets are placed, as we saw with the login page example frames, you can use the “ side ” argument to tell Tkinter where to pack in the following widget.
#The default value, packs widget along the top side of the parent
givenWidget.pack(side = "top") #Packs widget along the bottom side of the parent
givenWidget.pack(side = "bottom") #Other acceptable inputs are "left" and "right" respectively
Place — Exact positioning
The place positioning method is used to place widgets at exact positions within either the Window or Frame. There are two different ways to use place, either by pixels or by relative position.
When using pixels, use both the “ x ” and “ y ” arguments with the exact number of pixels in each axis:
givenWidget = Label( ... ) givenWidget.place(x = "pixelAmount", y = "pixelAmount")
When using the relative position, use both the “ relx ” and “ rely ” arguments with a float number between 0 and 1.0 for each axis:
givenWidget.place(relx = "percentAmount", rely = "percentAmount")
Grid — Break down the window into a grid system
By far the most popular positioning method the grid method is used to break down the given Window / Frame into a series of rows and columns that can be used to place elements within that grid.
givenWidget = Label( ... ) givenWidget.grid(row = "numberBefore", column = "numberBefore")
Example of what we have learned so far
Continuing our Login Page example from before lets wrap it up using our positioning we just learned. We will be adjusting the top frame so that each label is to the left of the given entry field.
from tkinter import * def loginHandler(username, password):
#Function that handles the login operations root_window = Tk() #Creates window
root_window.title("Tutorial Login") #Gives title to window
root_window.geometry("250x100") #Makes the window size 500x500 #Create our Frames
topFrame = Frame(root_window).grid()
bottomFrame = Frame(root_window).grid(row = 1) #Create Label and Entry for username
Label(topFrame, text = "Username:").grid(row = 0, column = 0)
userEntry = Entry(topFrame)
userEntry.grid(row = 0, column = 1) #Create Label and Entry for password
Label(topFrame, text = "Password:").grid(row = 1, column = 0)
passwordEntry = Entry(topFrame)
passwordEntry.grid(row = 1, column = 1) #Get inputted data from the Entry widgets
submittedUsername = userEntry.get()
submittedPassword = passwordEntry.get() #Create button that calls your loginHandler Function
fun = lambda: loginHandler(submittedUsername, submittedPassword)
Button(bottomFrame, text = "Login", command = fun).grid(column=1) root_window.mainloop()
Running this code gives a more styled version of our login screen, this is still just touching the surface of the styling options within Tkinter. | https://medium.com/swlh/guis-for-python-a-introduction-to-tkinter-bc9a02ff213d | ['James Denbow'] | 2020-12-18 17:21:13.084000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Tk', 'Programming', 'Tkinter', 'GUI'] |
A wonderfully great piece and what a great way to start my Monday! | A wonderfully great piece and what a great way to start my Monday!
I often wonder though, why we don’t take this wisdom to heart in every area of our day to day? An elderly person who is lonely, a child with disabilities…we choose to see them through the lens of kindness and will lavish love, patinece and acceptance upon them. But how can society make that same shift for those who may not look like us, worship like us or live like us? We have seen many in law enforcement express great empathy towards the disabled yet won’t blink an eye to kill a black man just because he’s black. Many in our society will give to the poor and disenfranchised yet have a hatred for those seeking refuge within our borders.
I believe the solution is in “knowing your own story”. Not just what passionately drives you but what may hinder you as well. Knowing our personal truth and why this is the truth we “choose” to live by is imperative if we want to change. Authentic love has only one lens and it doesn’t work if we pick and choose. Imagine the adventure life will take us on once we choose to let go! Imagine the quality of life we will live, something money and beauty can’t compete with. | https://medium.com/@demetriabridges-5984/a-wonderfully-great-piece-and-what-a-great-way-to-start-my-monday-6aaa00c7a7c6 | ['Demetria Bridges'] | 2019-05-27 13:46:49.456000+00:00 | ['Inspiration', 'Love Yourself', 'Life Lessons', 'Personal Growth', 'Self Improvement'] |
The Hybrid Business Analyst Roles In Demand | Nowadays a new trend has started, the hybrid Business Analyst roles. In this article, we discuss thoroughly about Hybrid Business analyst.
What is a Hybrid Business Analyst?
A hybrid Business Analyst is a professional who has good knowledge and expertise in another field that complements business analysis.
The hybrid Business Analyst is the mirror image of the specialist. A BAs specialist has deep expertise in a specific area of business analysis, at the expense of other areas. The hybrid Business Analyst, by contrast, is a super-generalist–knowledgeable of business analysis generally in addition to a related field. They are all known as a “jack of all trades” but master of none.
Who hires the Hybrid Business Analyst?
Often times the small business organization will hire a hybrid BA. Smaller businesses have made more with less. They are more likely to need an individual with a cross-functional skill set because they can’t afford to hire people who just stick to one thing.
Nowhere is this truer than in the startup world. You will rarely find a job posted for a dedicated Business Analyst at a startup. Why? Because they are shoestring operations that have to rely on individuals with a wider range of abilities, even if that means they don’t specialize in any one area.
Sometimes larger organizations end up with hybrid Business Analysts too, though. In fact, this is often where hybrid BA’s begin and get their start. Given how flexible the field of business analysis is, a BA is likely to float around and do different things as he goes from project to project. Sometimes that will require the BA to step outside the usual bounds and learn new skills that are not non-BA skills. Presto! A new hybrid BA is born.
Here we are discussing five hybrid Business Analyst roles that are in especially high demand.
1) Business Analyst / Project Manager
All of the hybrid roles, this is the one you are probably most likely to encounter. BAs Business Analysts and project managers (PM) work very closely together. They work so closely, in fact, that their roles often overlap with each other.
A BA is responsible for ensuring the requirements get done. The PM (project managers) ensures the requirements get developed on a schedule. A BA negotiates with stakeholders to resolve the requirements problems. The PM (project managers) negotiates with stakeholders to resolve logistical or other obstacles. The BA (Business Analyst) prioritizes requirements, and the PM (project managers) slices them up into project phases.
See the trend here? A lot of what a project manager seems like an extension of work that the Business Analysts start. So why not have the Business Analysts take the tasks to their logical conclusion?
A PM does a lot and is really essential to the completion of a project. But her core responsibility is to “smooth the waters” to make sure things get done on schedule and on time. A BA “smooths the waters” by shepherding the project’s requirements. The hybrid BA/PM can do both.
2) Product Owner
The product owner is one of the three cardinal roles in the Scrum method for doing Agile software development that is increasingly popular. (The other two roles are a developer and scrum master.)
The product owner (PO) is The key stakeholder for a project. He is literally the Voice of the client and Customer. The product owner has a vision for what the solution must accomplish and works closely with others to make that vision happen.
The product owner (PO) requires many of the traditional skills of BAs (business analysis), including the ability to deeply analyze business problems and working with other stakeholders. But he doesn’t merely write down what the business wants. He is the business owner, for the purposes of the project, and its success or failure depends greatly on him. As such, possibly the most important BA skills a product owner (PO) uses may well be the “soft” skills of communication, leadership, negotiation, and advocacy.
The Scrum Agile development method and its major players. Image by Dr. Ian Mitchell | CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Additionally, the product owner must know how to work in a Scrum environment. There are specific things that the Product Owner (PO) has to do to keep his Agile team working properly. Here we explain with an example, the product owner (PO) must keep an ongoing, prioritized backlog of all desired requirements (usually as epics and user stories). These requirements are then committed to the future “sprints” of the software development activity. The product owner will also keep a “burn-down chart” that tracks the on-going completion of committed user stories during a development “sprint.”
The world is increasingly moving to Scrum and Agile for developing software. That’s good news for the product owner.
3) Programmer / Analyst (or Developer / Business Analyst)
When a business needs someone who can run the gamut from the requirements all the way through coding software, it will call on the programmer analyst.
Do some businesses believe that if an analyst can gather requirements, why stop there? The same person could also develop the software solution, especially if it’s not overly complex.
Don’t expect a programmer analyst to bring deep expertise in either business analysis or programming. They are super-generalists, not specialists. The Complex requirements or the coding algorithms may require bringing in the big guns. But for some business requirements, organizations and their solutions are just not that complicated. The system may have been there for a long period of time, for example, and just need someone who can quickly “tweak” it to respond to the business need. You don’t need dedicated BA’s and developers to do that.
In another scenario, especially in places like a startup, the programmer analyst may need more than a passing acquaintance with software coding. It may form the bulk of their responsibilities. In that case, she will focus mostly on software development, while applying “BA-lite” skills to gather technical requirements.
In any case, someone who can do both business analysis and software programming at the same time is valuable, indeed.
4) Data Analyst
In this article on specialist Business Analyst (BA) roles, one field I mentioned was the Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst. This analyst takes data and uses a tool that helps them to create compelling stories and insights based on that data. But how does the data get to where it is ready for use for BI (Business Intelligence) in the first place? Enter the data analyst.
The data analyst lives in the world of databases, columns, fields, bytes, and bits. Data doesn’t just appear spontaneously in perfect condition in the database, ready for a Business Intelligence (BI) analyst to just pluck it. Data is a messy, complex business.
Consider some of the issues that the data analyst contends with:
What is the best source of data? You want data that is as original as possible, not a copy, not a repetitive not a duplicate of other data.
Are there any issues with data quality? Maybe there are some errors in the data that must get fixed before it can be used for Business Intelligence (BI ).
What is the relationship with data to the other data? You can’t have meaningful Business Intelligence (BI) without having a strong conceptual and logical structure for how one bit of data interrelate to a different bit of data.
Where does a piece of data come from? Sometimes an analyst has to trace the data across the multiple systems back to its original source (source of the data), which may not be known.
So where does business analysis come in? Several BA (business analysis) techniques are used for data analysis. They include gathering (data) requirements, logical data models and creating conceptual, and working with stakeholders to make sure the required data is available. But it also, obviously, requires an understanding of the inner workings of data and its relationships. By the same token, while they fully understand the data they may not be the deep experts that someone like a data architect might be.
And yes, sometimes a data analyst and a BI analyst are the same people! Such an individual must master front end BI (Business Intelligence) techniques in addition to knowing the “back end” data stuff.
A simple example of a logical data model that a data analyst might create. Image by Ethacke1 | CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
5) User Experience Designer (UX)
Last but not least is the User Experience (or UX), designer. User experience is the field that specializes in capturing everything about the experience that the system user has when he interacts with some kind of software system. This includes emotions, feelings, and sensations in addition to rational thought processes.
Should the field appear on the left or the right side of the website? Is the user able to navigate the sequence of the event, on the interface with a minimum of confusion? Does the user intuitively understand the purpose of the interface elements? (think of a video gamer quickly grasping what the buttons do). Does the user experience joy or frustration? These (Q&A) questions, among many others, are the ones that the UX designer seeks to answer so, as to build the best interface possible.
The UX designer employs Business Analyst techniques like management and traditional requirements gathering and creating wireframes. But there are some techniques that are specific to UX design such as the use of focus groups for testing out UX approaches. They are also well versed in creating the working prototypes that can be quickly and iteratively improved with Agile methods.
With the advent of exciting new ways of interfacing with technology such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), a lot of UX design hasn’t even been invented yet. It’s a very exciting time to be, in this fast-moving field, and UX design skills are among the hottest on the planet.
For the Business Analyst job, preparation MCAL Global Provide you the best Training, MCAL Global Have there Master Business Analyst Training. They guide you in every situation regarding to the job. In Master Business Analyst Training
For the Business Analyst job, preparation MCAL Global Provide you the best Training, MCAL Global Have there Master Business Analysis Training. They guide you in every situation regarding the job.Master Business Analyst Training is our flagship business analyst course. We have trained 1000s of professionals on the business analysis processes, concepts, tools, techniques, best practices, business analyst certification, and software tools via this program. Through active feedback collected from individuals & corporates, we have perfected this business analyst course via numerous updates and revisions to deliver the best possible results for individuals or corporates. We conduct a classroom for this business analyst course in Pune and Mumbai, else you can join our live online business analyst course from anywhere. We have trained professionals from the United States, UAE — Dubai, Australia, United Kingdom and many major cities from India through our online business analyst course. You can send your interest by registering for the. Online Classroom Master BA Training.
for more information visit: https://www.mcal.in/page/iiba-endorsed-business-analysis-training-cbap-ccba | https://medium.com/@rishi.mukherjee/the-hybrid-business-analyst-roles-in-demand-52485daa2407 | ['Mcal Global'] | 2020-03-11 12:15:19.630000+00:00 | ['Busienss', 'Business Analyst', 'Certification', 'Training', 'Ba'] |
🚀Here are my best finds for a Tech Smart Boss this week — Issue #124 | New Videos from Tech Smart Boss
Have Your Slack Team Stand To Attention, With Standuply (Onboarding and Review) — www.youtube.com
If you watch our videos and listen to the Tech Smart Boss podcast, you know I’m a big fan of Slack. Just listen to Episode 54 ( https://be.smartboss.co/episo...
New Podcast from Tech Smart Boss
Episode 118: 8 Tips To Take Your Customer Support From Good To Great — soundcloud.com
Stream Episode 118: 8 Tips To Take Your Customer Support From Good To Great by Tech Smart Boss from desktop or your mobile device
Top Articles of the Week
What are Low-Code Platforms? How to Pick the Best Development for Your Business | Process Street | Checklist, Workflow and SOP Software — www.process.st
Low-code development platforms can help you build apps without the need for expensive software specialists or long, clunky development life-cycles. Get the lowdown on low-code here.
The best CRMs for small businesses: pros, cons, and what you need to know — PieSync — www.piesync.com
The best CRMs for small businesses: pros, cons, and what you need to know
How Can I Generate Traffic With $0 Marketing Budget? — Encharge — encharge.io
10 tactics to generate website traffic with $0 marketing budget, AND also generate revenue for your startup.
Why You Should Build Your Brand with Video — Wistia Blog — wistia.com
Here’s why playing it safe won’t get you noticed — and what building a brand with video really means.
Employee onboarding checklist — slite.com
Employee onboarding checklist How to onboard new hires and set them up for success.
Cool Tech of the Week
I’ve talked on YouTube in the past about how I’m a big fan of the browser, Opera. I’ve also been pleasantly surprised with the improvements to Firefox the past year.
This week we’re naming Firefox as our Cool Tech of the Week, not just for the quickness of their browsing experience but a new thing we came across this week, Firefox Send.
Sure there are lots of ways to send files safely, Dropbox, Google Drive, I personally use pCloud. But Firefox is now another good option and it’s just plain simple.
Just try it out for yourself and see, it my become your new favorite encrypted file sender.
Firefox Send — send.firefox.com
Encrypt and send files with a link that automatically expires to ensure your important documents don’t stay online forever.
That’s it for this edition
Feedback? Suggestions? Email me at [email protected] and please, please, please, share the newsletter and www.techsmartboss.com with anyone else you may think will like it! | https://medium.com/@techsmartboss/tech-smart-boss-issue-124-b276bb1ab4b5 | ['David Ferguson'] | 2019-03-17 01:06:06.554000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Marketing', 'Technology'] |
The test of my life | Yuvraj’s life has been full of words beginning with C — Chandigarh (place of birth), cricketer (occupation), Cup (passion) and Cancer (life defining moment).
Glorious cricketing career — part of 3 World-Cup winning teams — under 19 WC (2000), ICC World T20 (2007) and ICC World Cup (2011).
Player of the Tournament in 2000 and 2011.
Deal with God. Just like Yuvi gladly accepted the positives, highs in his life. He was willing to accept his lows, the challenges. In illness, he felt he had no right to ask God - “Why me?”
First famous person in India after the beautiful Nargis Dutt to have cancer -Yuvi.
Story about struggle, denial, acceptance and new struggles ahead.
Navjot Singh Sidhu after Yograj’s insistance watched teenage Yuvi play in Maharani Club, Patiala, appraised him and concluded he would be upto no good.
Love for sports in general — tennis (due to passion for Borris Becker, 17yr old Wimbeldon champion), skating and cricket.
How was Yuvi? “Well-meaning, all-consuming, fun-loving and prone to dive head first into trouble. Always seeking balance, I would run and fall, dust myself off and start over. ”
“Cricket is a beast. It demands the labor of building a fortress around a treasure and that treasure is timing.”
In 70s and 80s, fast bowling allrounders were a rage Botham, Hadlee, Imran and Kapil.
Keeps coming back to the time Sidhu wrote him off over and over.
“If I could sweat the bullets and swallow the bitter pills, cricket would take me a long way, to where my dad had dreamt of reaching”
“Anything was better than being home and seeing my parents argue.”
“Cricket stopped being a straitjacket and became a solace.”
“If cricket were all about the under-19 level … then I would have been its Viv Richards!”
To get more, to want more -It is what a cricketing life needs to be built around … seeking more.
Yuvi the fielder- Started as a dropped catch on debut Ranji match. What followed was an intense practice with dad. Ball would be hit like a bullet and he would be expected to stop it. “To the point where you could have hit my palm with a hammer and it wouldn’t have hurt”
“Quite like the Indian cricket fan, he (Yograj) lives between two extremes. I had to find my own way to make my peace with him.”
Anger is a bad quality that all of us have in us but we need to keep it under check. Rule it before it rules us.
Cooch Behar Trophy, biggest event for young cricketers, second only to Ranji Trophy. Final between Punjab vs Bihar (Yuvi vs Dhoni)
These days, I don’t like calling the unfortunate things that happen ‘bad luck’. Because when good things happen, I don’t put it down to luck either. Things just happen, you have to go with the flow, cope, handle it and move on.
In the months leading up to the World Cup I was torn between confidence in my ability and the betrayals of my body
Kevin Pieterson calls Yuvi — “pie-chucker for his bowling action”
Yuvi calls Viru (Lala as he always smiling and happy) and Virat (Cheeku due to haircut resembling bunny cartoon from Champak), Zaheer (Zak, Idea-wale, Idea baba)
Time in the middle — crucial for any cricketer (batsman specifically to find his form, rhythm, get a morale boost)
Controlling the desire to belt the leather off the ball, it was like denying a basic impulse. Maybe like sneezing. Innings against Ireland (5-for in World Cup and match winning 50 was the highlight of WC for Yuvi)
Not try to hit his way out of trouble, but rather play like his dad wanted him to — belt it along the carpet, along the ground, not in the air, carving an innings out of nothing
Pride himself to be a player who has always been able to “change gears”
What is maturity? Instinct and experience.
On Sachin, “He must have been waging his own internal battles. I didn’t understand his battles, but he understood mine”. “Play it for someone you think you owe something to. Make the WC part of that debt you have to fulfill.” Yuvi told himself that he would play for Sachin, who he spent his childhood watching, grown up watching.
Call kit-bags as coffins. Pasted picture of Sachin’s on-driving a ball on Yuvi’s ODI debut alongside Yuvi’s own on-drive.
History’s can be wrongly written and sometimes we get a chance to rewrite the wrongs. We would have to beat the world champions to be world champions. That’s the way the dice had rolled, and so be it.
Neglecting my vomits, neck pains, blood-flecked coughs and sleepless nights, wasn’t I living on the edge? What was more important life or the World Cup? My answer to myself was if life throws me back there again into the same stage, I will end up taking the same decision.
‘C’ Change : from Cricket to Cancer
“As Ratan Tata, the Indian industrialist, says, and I sometimes repeat, ‘a promise is a promise’ — and I wanted to keep mine”
“The way my life has been anyway. Running full tilt and falling, then dusting myself and carrying on.”
“Once again cricket gave me an escape out of medical thoughts. As I kept doing fine on the field, I found it easy to work my way around the off-field trouble even as it grew and intensified.”
Weight doesn’t creep up on me, it pounces.
Test cricket talk starts with Mama (VVS)
Anterior cruciate ligament (every athlete keeps cribbing about it) Why? 1 of the 4 major knee ligaments that holds knee joint together, keeps it stable, supple and moving. Torn ligaments can’t be fixed like fractures with casts. Usually require surgery (time away from sport)
Hindsight is 20–20
FNAC — Fine needle aspiration cystology to know more about the white cloud blocking his left lung.
“Hope, even if its answers are ridiculous and vague, is a very powerful emotion. ”
Feeling trapped between living and dying — needle pierced during FNAC test. Despite the elevated pain tolerance threshold of an athlete, Yuvi suffered and endured incredible pain
Undergoing chemo was like living inside a dead body
There was this tumor which was sometimes tumor and sometimes a rumor. There’s a huge gap between being physically fit and medically fit.
The stigma of cancer can perhaps defeat you more than the disease itself. Denial, hence, is a typical reaction at first.
Thynoma, thymoma, sarcoma, seminoma.
Seminoma — rarest of rare kind of germ cell tumor, manageable tumor. Look, he said, your tumor may not be Sachin Tendulkar but Virat Kohli it is.
From denials, doubts to decisions it had taken me a long time to begin my treatment.
Three 21-day cycles. Day 1–5 (first test match) 3 drugs (3 sessions). 2 day break. Day 8 (single ODI). Days 9–14 break. Day 15 (final T20). Last 6 days break. (63–6)57 days.
Almost 2 months. Like a busy tour. Maybe even like a rare break between 2 series. 57 days. A little longer than a WC. Who remembers 57 days in a year?
IU Simon Cancer Care chemotherapy station outside Indiana Uni
“Chemotherapy may feel like death but it is the only way through to life again for many people when they have cancer. I was told a“bout its power over cancer, but I had not expected its force over the human body and mind.”
Showing 6 home runs to Elizabeth at IU, seeing himself from healthy man tonking Stuart Broad’s deliveries outside Kingsmead to now besides a chemo station was humbling.
People piggyback on you when times are good but they don’t let go even when you have cancer.
Handsome is as handsome does! Putting the bald pic on Twitter to announce the world, cancer is on and he’s fighting it.
Paroon Chadha — typical NRI cricket fan, Yuvi’s Man Friday in Indianapolis.
When you’ve cancer, you just have it. You’re not old or young, you are simply a cancer patient. You collapse, you puke, you angry, you cry, you bombard your caregiver with requests for this dish or that, and the moment it is produced turn away from it, you throw up the dish so carefully prepared seconds after eating a tenth of it.
One thing that kept Yuvi going — This too shall pass.
“You promise yourself that when you are on the other side you will make it up to everyone. But when you come to the other side you realize no one expects anything in return. What you did for everyone who loved you was do the chemo.”
Mumbai’s night is a song of the sea putting you to sleep
How was it like to fight cancer? Honestly, it was like facing the toughest bowling of my life in the worst possible conditions. | https://medium.com/read-with-chai/the-test-of-my-life-a686f42139d | ['Chaitanya Prakash Bapat'] | 2020-12-24 15:38:13.329000+00:00 | ['Book Review', 'Cancer', 'Sports', 'Cricket', 'Books'] |
Learn Solidity: Variables (Part 1) | Learn Solidity: Variables (Part 1)
Start writing smart contracts on Ethereum
Photo by Photos Hobby on Unsplash
Welcome to the second article in the Learn Solidity series. If you haven’t read the first one, I highly recommend that you do in order to set up your development environment and write and deploy your first contract.
In this article, we will have a look at variables in Solidity, their types, how they are stored, and how you can use them.
In Solidity we have two types of variables :
State variables
These variables are declared outside of functions (like the attributes of a class) and are stored permanently in the Ethereum blockchain, more specifically in the storage Merkle Patricia tree, which is part of the information that forms the state of an account (that’s why we call it a state variable).
Ethereum Merkle Patricia Trees : source
You can find more information about the way data is stored in Ethereum blockchain in this article.
State variables can be initialized when they are declared and can have the following visibility:
private : The state variable is only visible for the contract where it’s defined.
: The state variable is only visible for the contract where it’s defined. public : The state variable can be accessed also from outside the contract where it’s defined since the compiler will automatically create a getter function with the same name as the variable.
: The state variable can be accessed also from outside the contract where it’s defined since the compiler will automatically create a getter function with the same name as the variable. internal : The state variable is visible for the contract where it’s defined and all other contracts that inherit from it.
The visibility specifier is given after the type of the state variable, and if it’s not specified, the state variable will be considered as internal.
Local variables
These are the variables that are declared inside functions and have a lifetime limited to the scope where they were declared in. | https://medium.com/better-programming/learn-solidity-variables-part-1-657fc27c2cc1 | ['Wissal Haji'] | 2020-11-05 15:36:15.592000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Ethereum', 'Smart Contracts', 'Solidity', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Saving For That Life-Changing Trip Travel With Cooky | One question I get asked more often than anything is ‘how do you afford to travel as much as you do?’ Saving money seems like a tough topic to talk about for many. Nevertheless, in this article, I will let you into the not so secret ways to save. Whether that is for a trip of a lifetime or even for something closer to home, these little life hacks will help you put money towards whatever your goal may be.
You may have seen my recent article on how I believe that solo travel could be the remedy we all need after such a horrendous year. Many of you may have read this and thought, ‘That’s all well and good but with jobs being lost and money needed to be stretched even further is this really feasible?’ Well I am here to tell you, yes it is! It amount of time you may wish to take a solo travel exhibition really doesn’t matter.
Whether it is a one week getaway to a single destination, 3 weeks backpacking through Europe or several months around south-east Asia, the principle is entirely the same. One thing you do have right now is time on your hand. In England right now we are in lockdown 2.0. There is very little recreationally on offer to spend our money on. Don’t fill your spare time with online purchases to fill the void.
Open an online saver account. Yes, the interest rates are very low right now. However, there is something very satisfying about setting a goal and watching your savings rise. Every time you go to buy something online stop and think. Do I really need this? Is this an impulse buy? What could I get with the amount of money if I were abroad? It could cover a meal while watching a sunset, or even a day trip to something astonishing.
One of the easiest and most obvious things to check when looking over your expenses is your direct debits and subscriptions. You will probably be horrified your paying for old service/app’s or online subscription’s that you no longer use! Start here and make sure there are no forgotten nasties that are silently eating away at your pennies!
Revisit your cable bills, how much are you paying per month just to watch TV? Previously, I was paying £157.50 per year for a TV licence plus around £75 per month for cable and broadband. There are so many LEGAL ways to watch TV online and streaming services nowadays, do you really need anything else? You could literally save yourselves hundreds if not more from just cutting this one bill. I now only pay for broadband and it has helped top up the saving fund no end! Just from going this may save £50 per month at least to get you started. Do you have a Netflix or Amazon Prime account? Find out who is freeloading off you and split the cost, we all know someone who is pulling this trick!
Are you paying too much for your insurance, gas and electric bills or even your food shopping? The answer to this question is most probably YES! One little trick insurance companies have, whether it be home insurance, car insurance or even health insurance, is to auto-renew. Easy for you right… no need to spend that time changing companies and direct debit payments. 99% of the time, this auto-renewal will actually be higher than your previous year. This may not be by much, but this begins to add up over time and over different companies. Companies such as Uswitch are perfect for helping you find a better deal. What’s more, they do all the work for you! These savings add up to hundreds over the year. It is so worth an extra 20 minutes online shopping for better deals.
Supermarket Savvy Shopping
Why not switch supermarkets and or even try using their own branded products rather than well known and usually overpriced brands? One trick supermarkets use is to put the most desirable and most expensive items right there at eye level in the middle of the shelves. Next time you go to pick something up from the middle shelves, look down. I guarantee an almost identical item will be near the bottom of the shelving for a fraction of what you have in your hand.
Keep your receipts and do a comparison shop of what you would usually buy to a cheaper alternative. You will be amazed at the saving in just a weeks shop. In my own personal opinion, some of these are exactly the same if not better tasting. Aldi superstores own branded label good have actually won copious awards in taste tests against everyday household favourites. The proof in the pudding really is in the eating. Try it for yourself, and watch those $/£ add up!
It also doesn’t have to be big savings at once. Are you still getting your daily fix of Starbucks or Costa coffee? at £3–5 per day, this really adds up. This could add up to as much as £35 a week just in coffee! That is £1820 a year! Ok, you’re not going to be buying a coffee 365 days a year, but you get the idea. At saving £5 a day for a year just on something as trivial as a coffee or sandwich at lunch could literally fund a months travel in Asia with flights!
Sucker For A Takeaway?
Tempted by takeaway? How many times a week do you order food in? Why not learn an invaluable skill of how to cook and save yourself £££’s a week just from eating at home? Combine this with your the above advice on your shopping to double your savings! Add up the costs of a Dominoes Pizza and compare that with the price of store brought or even create your own at home. Pizza making is great fun and you’re the boss of the toppings! It can also be fun to save money I promise!
If you are going cold turkey for takeaway Thai, then try this little trick. Head over to your Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just eat accounts, browse and add items to your basket. Then leave the app and wait. I promise you, once the app realises you are looking, don’t be surprised to receive a discount code the next day to tempt you back. But stay strong… think of your waistline and that dress, swimming costume or pair of shorts you’re dying to wear on your dream travel trip! Save pounds in the pocket and pounds on the scales and you will win-win!
Use lock-down as an excuse not to spend money on the little things you really won’t miss and I promise, whatever your savings goal is will come so much sooner. What’s more, if you do allow yourself the odd Starbucks or odd takeaway meal, you will appreciate it so much more!
Grab a pen and paper once you have read this article and literally write down your week’s expenses. Be brutally honest and find out how much of your spending is actually expendable. Then set yourself a target you would realistically like to save in a certain timescale. Aim high… we just saw how much cutting out the Starbucks coffee a day could save you buy just keeping that £5 in your pocket! Start saving today to make your dreams happen tomorrow.
Small changes can go a long way, especially when looking to save. Follow these tips and watch your savings grow! I would love to know any other ideas you may have to help save money. Drop them in the comments below | https://medium.com/@travelwithcooky/saving-for-that-life-changing-trip-travel-with-cooky-742b7fa3dda2 | ['Ryan Cook'] | 2020-11-26 20:22:59.659000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Vacation Planners', 'Budget Travel', 'Saving Money', 'Money Management'] |
Why you should embrace DevOps | A cautionary tale of DevOps negligence & why it should be at the heart of any project
After recently finishing up a HUGE terraform refactor, I was left reflecting on why it’s essential to establish DevOps principles at the start of any large project; and the horror stories that can happen when it’s not.
Over the last decade, DevOps has gone from strength to strength and proven itself as a core component to many success stories. However despite this, in my experience as a software and cloud consultant, it’s still frequently overlooked and ignored in favour of application development.
I’m not talking about Waterfall architecture here, but rather some of the fundamental technical DevOps principles of:
Continuous Integration : establishing tools and process for continuously merging code back to a single code repository and single source of truth (e.g. git, subversion, mercurial, peer review)
: establishing tools and process for continuously merging code back to a single code repository and single source of truth (e.g. git, subversion, mercurial, peer review) Continuous Testing : establishing tools and process for continuously testing code during all stages of the software development lifecycle (e.g. unit tests, integrations tests, system tests, regression tests, chaos engineering)
: establishing tools and process for continuously testing code during all stages of the software development lifecycle (e.g. unit tests, integrations tests, system tests, regression tests, chaos engineering) Release Management: establishing tools and process for packaging and deploying releases
establishing tools and process for packaging and deploying releases Infrastructure: infrastructure configuration, management, and infrastructure as code tools
infrastructure configuration, management, and infrastructure as code tools Monitoring: performance monitoring and logs, end user experience
performance monitoring and logs, end user experience Continuous Delivery: automating the processes in software delivery
Many times I’ve seen these delayed or ignored until development starts reaching a critical mass, and developers start facing the deficits of not having these. They start getting messy merge conflicts. They need to work out how their application lives. What database do they need to connect to (and how do they manage this)? How do they deploy a new version without impacting the customer experience? Then there’s the dreaded cliff edge of deploying to production when they’ve only ever played around on smaller, more lenient dev/test environments.
I’ve seen this result in many “DevOps initiatives”, either in the middle of the application development or towards the end to try and ease some of the burden.
“What’s wrong with this?” I hear you ask.
While it is possible to establish these processes during the development lifecycle, or even afterwards, the time and effort to establish these fundamentals is exponentially increased. It can cause a great amount of refactoring that eats into time that could be better spent elsewhere.
Let’s look at a real life example to see how these principles can be easily overlooked, and the consequences of offsetting DevOps to a later stage. The example is loosely inspired by a project that I was bought on to rescue at a late stage, though largely exaggerated for comedic effect.
Case study — Project Whale
Say we have a standard 3 tier application called project Whale, with the 3 tiers representing;
the presentation/UI/frontend,
the application/business-logic/backend,
and the data/storage/database.
The UI talks to the backend which in turn securely accesses the database.
During development of the frontend, we need to communicate with the backend, and likewise for the backend to database. The team decides to stand up a shared piece of infrastructure (a single EC2 instance) to run all three layers, which QA can also access to view features. Now they are able to continue their relevant development, whilst communicating to the necessary services.
Fast forward a few months and they’re approaching delivery time — great!!!
Everyone’s excited and the CEO’s about ready to pop a bottle of champagne. The developers need to run project Whale somewhere that’s accessible to the public internet. That EC2 they’ve been using for development seems like a great candidate — it’s already mostly set up with all the packages and utilities already configured by hand as and when the team realised they needed them.
They push the latest versions of the frontend and backend, clean out the database, and project Whale goes live.
As the champagne pours they start getting emails from customers about bugs in the frontend system. Small stuff, nothing that stops business, but things that could have easily been discovered if they’d invested in continuous testing, and it’s enough that requires a new version of Whale to be deployed. Except now they’ve got customers on the live system, and deploying a new version means taking the old one offline while they switch over.
Scott Graham - https://unsplash.com/
They’re left with a couple options:
Deploy anyway and annoy customers Schedule a deployment overnight when traffic is low and annoy the developers who have to pull an all-nighter Start up a fresh EC2 instance and turn off the old one
The latter is clearly the best option for reducing downtime and keeping people happy, however upon doing this they realise all those little packages and utilities need to be set up again and reconfigured, and the last time anyone did this was 4 months ago. They documented it though, so even though it takes hours they’re able to get the new EC2 up with the new version of Whale deployed — this is where release management would have really been beneficial right?
Except now customers are complaining more than before, because they can’t login and are being told that they don’t have an account — the database!
Yup, they forgot about the data. While they were able to get the database running on the new EC2, they forgot about the customer account data that had been written to the old database on the old instance — this is a fresh database without any customer information.
BATTLESTATIONS!!!!
As fires seem to spread they realise their mistake, they should have isolated the database from the rest of the stack, so they could deploy any number of EC2 instances running Whale and simply connect it to a persistent database. But none of them are database or networking experts and unsure how to expose the database connection across servers — this is where Infrastructure as Code could have really helped.
Let’s skip forward a few days, all the fires are now just smouldering pits. They managed to provision a managed database service in the form of AWS RDS and got some help with the networking. Whale is really gaining traction, and customers love it, then overnight the user base explodes. They go from tens of customers to a few thousand and are featured on the front page of Reddit.
Then it happens.
Everything just slows down and stops. No alarms, no errors, just nothing. Customers are once again adrift, and causing one hell of a Twitter storm. What happened? There were no recent code changes.
It turns out that they gained more users than the single EC2 instance could handle. As more users joined and started using Whale, the backend started dumping logs at an increased rate filling up the EC2’s local file storage, taking both it and the frontend offline. Something that could have been easily avoided if they’d shipped logs off to a Monitoring solution.
Now they need to work out how to scale Whale over multiple EC2 instances at once, and how to get the logs off of the local EC2 file system to somewhere else. All while Whale is currently offline, and they still haven’t got an automated solution for deploying new versions without users experiencing some downtime. This would have been a trivial task if they had embraced continuous delivery and used containers to run Whale’s individual layers on ECS or Fargate — where shipping logs and autoscaling is given out of the box.
So now the team is left trying to split the frontend and backend, and refactor both applications to run in containers. Then on the infrastructure side they need to set up and configure:
ECS/Farage Clusters to run the containers,
Log routing and monitoring to CloudWatch,
Auto scaling for their customer demands,
Networking to their RDS instance,
Deployment strategies for rolling out new versions.
To make matters worse they’re still running on a single environment — so either they’d have to make all of these changes on their “production” environment, or spin up a separate isolated development environment, which to ensure both environments are identical. They’d really have to invest in Infrastructure as Code.
This is a HUGE amount of technical debt for a small team which could easily stop any future development or bug fixes for 6 months or more — something that could easily sink the project, team, and potentially the company.
How DevOps principles could have helped?
Now, as I said, this isn’t about Waterfall design, but more about involving DevOps principles from the start. By applying DevOps principles from the beginning they could have avoided some of these situations.
By embracing Continuous Integration they could have:
Ensured that any code integrated back to their main branch be fully tested prior to deployment; avoiding small bugs interfering with the customer experience.
By embracing Continuous Testing they could have:
Created isolated Development, QA, and Production environments. This would have ensured that development versions of Whale could be deployed and acceptance tested, rather than pushing untested versions onto their live customer facing Production environment.
By embracing Infrastructure they could have:
Spun up a managed database, such as RDS, instead of running their own on the EC2 server; avoiding losing valuable customer data.
Leveraged container autoscaling to easily scale horizontally, instead of running everything on a single server; avoiding outages due to increased customer usage.
Codified their cloud estate using IaC (Infrastructure as Code) so that they could easily provision multiple dev/qa/prod environments, rather than trying to repeat months old work to manually configure a second environment.
By embracing Monitoring they could have:
Shipped logs to persistent storage such as CloudWatch, instead of leaving them on the single server; avoiding filling up the local application storage and taking Whale offline.
By embracing both Release Management and Continuous Delivery they could have:
Eased the release and roll out of the different layers in isolation; avoiding the lengthy rewrite to separate the backend and frontend layers, and enabling each layer to be developed at its own cadence.
All of these problems could have been avoided if they had merely considered the wider picture outside of their own application code, and embracing these principles from the beginning, when the cost and burden would have been mere hours, rather than months.
Summary
To me this is one of the biggest strengths of DevOps; by embracing DevOps principles we start thinking at a larger scale and building applications in a more holistic view. DevOps doesn’t require teams of DevOps engineers setting barriers or lengthy processes; it just requires individuals and teams to embrace those principles to build better, more scalable, and robust systems.
Now, of course that’s not all DevOps is. It also involves building a no blame culture, doing technical postmortems, and involving the wider business to understand that code doesn’t stop at the application level. However, I really wanted to highlight the impact that ignoring DevOps can have on development and projects.
It’s not all doom and gloom though, we can still bring DevOps into an existing project, but the technical burden will be increased exponentially, and would require significant investment both in time and resource.
So the next time you’re thinking of starting a new project, product, or initiative; don’t put off applying these principles. DevOps and application development are two pieces of the same puzzle. They need to be done together, in tandem, rather than ignored until a later date, because by that later date, your product could already be dead in the water.
Do you have any experiences of where DevOps was applied a little too late? If you are interested in learning more about DevOps, please check out my other blogs on my website, Manta Innovations and reach out to me on Twitter @ Joel Lutman. | https://medium.com/@joel-lutman/why-you-should-embrace-devops-3c560cd17050 | ['Joel Lutman'] | 2021-03-22 17:26:39.935000+00:00 | ['DevOps', 'Best Practice', 'Devops Practice'] |
Plugging Cost Leaks Before Shipping Your Consignment | International traders and shippers are susceptible to losing money in the form of time, resources, and other avoidable expenditures in more ways than they are aware of. These cost leaks can be broadly classified into three categories — those pertaining to planning, processes, and people. Almost all of these cost leaks can be attributed to the lack of transparency and visibility over shipping operations, which has been a concern for global supply chains for years now. By partnering with a new-age digital forwarder like Freightwalla, international shippers can gain greater visibility into their shipping processes and thereby, prevent these cost leaks. Read on to know the different forms of cost leaks that supply chains suffer from, and how a digital freight forwarder can minimize them.
Planning-related cost leaks
Planning-related cost leaks in shipping generally occur due to a lack of accurate information made available to shippers. This information could be regarding the estimated shipping prices during a specific time of the year or the availability of cost-efficient shipping options.
The wild fluctuations in carrier prices on a season-to-season or even a day-to-day basis is no secret. Seasonal demand and changing fuel prices, among other causes, make the total cost of shipments unpredictable and therefore hard to account for while planning and budgeting. As a result, shippers forego opportunities for cost optimization.
Moreover, shippers often have access to limited carrier options, as getting freight quotes from even a single shipping company can take anywhere between a few hours to a day or two via traditional forwarders. Getting quotes from multiple carriers and comparing prices will then, naturally, take longer. This is not only cumbersome and inefficient but also detrimental to any business’ sales, as longer turnaround times for quotes will likely result in customers walking out. This leads to heavy costs in the form of lost business.
Furthermore, hidden local charges not declared clearly by carriers and traditional forwarders also add unplanned components to the total shipping cost, driving expenses further upward.
How Freightwalla helps minimize planning related cost leaks:
Freightwalla’s digital platform provides shippers with all the information they need to plan their shipments instantly while optimizing their costs. By offering multiple shipping options for all trade routes with just a click, it eliminates the need for shippers to spend days on gathering freight quotes through calls and emails. As a result, shippers are quickly able to identify the most cost-effective option for every shipment. Consequently, they are able to quote their customers almost instantly, leading to higher conversion rates due to quick turnaround. Also, these carrier options are accompanied by all the necessary vessel details and full cost breakdown, ensuring there are no surprises during shipping due to unplanned costs, such as local charges at different ports.
Process-related cost leaks
Ocean-based shipping, in general, is riddled with inefficiencies and unreliability — the second half of 2019 saw 1 in 5 transshipped containers rolled over. When cargo misses the cutoff deadline and gets rolled over, it leads to heavy expenditure in the form of demurrage and detention charges to be paid for the extra time that the cargo is held. Cargo delays without advance notification are especially damaging to OEMs and eCommerce businesses, as in many cases, missed deadlines mean canceled orders, lost goodwill, and a damaged reputation — all leading to heavy short- and long-term costs.
While most shipping delays and their associated costs are unavoidable, there are some that can be avoided. For instance, delay in documentation processes due to inaccuracy and non-compliance is an avoidable cause of cargo rollover. And even if there are delays due to unavoidable reasons like bad weather, proactive and timely notifications on expected delays can help in reassuring customers and keeping the supply chain agile and responsive.
How Freightwalla helps minimize process-related cost leaks:
Due to Freightwalla’s convenient online documentation feature, documentation processes take at least 30% less time than when done through traditional freight forwarders. Freightwalla’s digital platform also serves as a unified repository for all shipment- and order-related documents. Shippers can use this repository to avoid confusion in documentation and account management by allowing users to upload and access documents from anywhere. As a result, they don’t just save valuable man-hours that would be otherwise wasted in organizing and finding documents but also avoid fines due to non-compliant or missing documents.
Businesses shipping with Freightwalla receive regular updates on the status of their cargo, even for transshipments. Any expected delays and updated ETAs are communicated in advance through the digital platform as well as email so that shippers can notify their customers proactively and avoid financial and reputational losses.
People-related cost leaks
International businesses that use traditional freight forwarding services are heavily reliant on manual processes for virtually everything — be it quotation, booking, documentation, tracking, or invoicing. Businesses that ship in large quantities have entire teams dedicated to managing their shipments. SMEs with smaller teams that use traditional freight forwarding are swamped with paperwork. And all of this is non-negotiable as a lack of diligence in managing shipments can lead to lost business and even legal trouble.
As a result, such organizations incur heavy opportunity costs that are hard to quantify. This is especially true if they have small enterprise teams that are forced to spend most of their time on managing and tracking customer orders instead of business development and scaling.
How Freightwalla helps minimize people-related costs:
The Feightwalla platform minimizes the need for manual data entry, repeated phone, and email inquiries, and frequent back-and-forth communication to book and manage shipments. As a result, it releases the shippers’ human resources, which can be directed towards more value-adding activities.
International shipping, due to a variety of factors, is an inherently inefficient affair as it is today. The onus is on the supply chain participants to adopt the strategies and technologies that can enhance efficiency through cost-saving wherever possible. Hiring Freightwalla as your digital forwarding partner would be the ideal first step towards a more efficient, agile, and transparent supply chain. | https://medium.com/freightwalla/plugging-cost-leaks-before-shipping-your-consignment-fdc665071984 | [] | 2020-10-15 09:37:46.941000+00:00 | ['Export', 'Digital Transformation', 'Freightwalla', 'Import', 'Shipping'] |
Ahimsa | 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/geraldine-consultancy/ahimsa-95e2885564bd | ['Geraldine Hart'] | 2020-12-21 01:57:18.688000+00:00 | ['Veganismo Ético', 'Hinduismo', 'Vegan', 'Estilo De Vida', 'Veganism'] |
FIND A PAIR IN ARRAY WHOSE SUM IS EQUAL TO GIVEN NUMBER | FIND A PAIR IN ARRAY WHOSE SUM IS EQUAL TO GIVEN NUMBER Farid Khan Jun 12·3 min read
Given an Array A and a number X ,find all pair (a,b) in A such that a+b=X.
A=1 2 10 6 9 11 5
X=8
maximum number of pair can be possible is nc2
Approach 1:
we can find out all possible pairs using these n elements ,then number of possible pairs from these n elements will be nc2,so out of all these pair we can take each pair
one by one and we can find out the sum ,and we will check whether the sum is equal to X or not
and for this the time complexity is going to be O(n²)
nc2= n(n-1)/2 these many pairs we are going to get ,and for every pair we have to test whether that pair is equal to X or not and it is going to takeO(1) time
Approach 2:
A= 1 20 5 6 9 2 10
now i want to find out a pair whose sum is equal to 8
so now i will take each element from array one by one ,
so i take 1 ,since 1 has to be added with some number in order to get sum as 8 ,and what that number should be ?,so that number will be 8–1 =7 ,so in this entire array we can search and find whether that number 7 is present or not ,
now what happens is ,for every number you have to search its corresponding number then time complexity will be O(n²)
when i pick element 1 ,then i have to search entire n-1 elements
when i pick element 20 ,then also i have to search entire n-1 elements in order to find corresponding element
Approach 3:
so using hash the timecomplexity is going to be O(n)
now lets analyze:
take a hash table ,and into this hash table we will push all the elements from array A, and for a given number 1 we will check whether corresponding element is present in hash or not.
let say : 8–1 =7 ,so i will check whether 7 is present in hash or not, and searching in hash take O(1) time
there are n elements and for each number i will find its corresponding number and then i will search in hash whether that corresponding element is present in hash or not.
O(n)*O(1)=O(n)
steps:
insert all element in hash will take O(n) time
for each element a search corresponding element b in hash O(n) time
space complexity:
since all the elements shoulddd be present in hash therefore the space complexity will be O(n):
IMPLEMENTATION OF PRINTING ALL PAIRS IN AN ARRAY WHOSE SUM IS X:
Depending on the size of array ,i am declaring hash table of that size ,which means if the maximum no of elements present in array is 100 ,then the hash table size
will also be 100 ..
#define MAX 10
(in C the problem is ,you cannot declare arrays dynamically ,you are suppose to specify the size of an array statically ,that is why we are using MAX .)
Arr= 1 4 3 3 5 2 6
ind=0 1 2 3 4 5 6
sum=9
size=7
void findpairs(int *arr,int size ,int sum)
{
int index ,temp;
int hash[MAX]={0} ,the hash table initially initailized to 0
for(index=0; index < size ;index++)
{
temp=sum-arr[index] # 9–1=8 now i will search whether 8 is present in hash or not
if(temp >=0 && hash[temp]==1) # temp>=0 because we are considering only +ve no in array
printf(“pair with given sum %d is””(%d,%d)
,sum ,arr[index],temp);
hash[arr[index]==1;
}
}
HASH
0 0
1 0
2 0
3 0
4 0
5 0
6 0
7 0
8 0
9 0 | https://medium.com/@faridias786/find-a-pair-in-array-whose-sum-is-equal-to-given-number-e736ec173789 | ['Farid Khan'] | 2021-06-12 20:33:33.262000+00:00 | ['Interview', 'Arrays', 'Faang Interview', 'Data Structures'] |
Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio | in Change Your Mind Change Your Life | https://medium.com/ampautomotive/alfa-romeo-stelvio-quadrifoglio-109fc9d66824 | ['Amplified Creations'] | 2020-11-03 10:32:26.857000+00:00 | ['Alfa Romeo', 'Automotive', 'Photos', 'Auto', 'Photography'] |
The Dead Bird On Our Deck | When I awoke yesterday morning, the first thought that hit me like a rock between the eyes was, “another damn day in Paradise.”
That’s how it’s been nearly every morning since our discovery that the world was being consumed by a deadly virus.
Before I get into, it, let’s talk “gratitude.”
Sure, I’m “grateful.” There’s that word again. Yep, I’m grateful for my husband, our cats, my sister, and her family, and my friends here. And I’m grateful for another day because every day that we’re vertical is a great day, right?
Yet, I also feel resentful. And that resentment is at a constant, low simmer, inflaming me from the inside and I’m afraid it’s building.
I resent the moronic rednecks who put He Who Shall Go Unnamed in the White House.
I resent the same morons who think masks and social distancing are “electives.”
“Hey, you don’t wanna? Then you don’t hafta. It’s your call, Bubba!”
Until of course Bubba and his ilk infect a mother, a father, or someone else with whom they are close.
Thems the breaks, right? Tough shit.
I resent the bigoted assholes who still don’t get that, “Yes! Black and Brown lives matter! And if you don’t like it, get the fuck out. The world will be a better place without your venomous spew”.
I resent the clueless shoppers who don’t give a shit about the arrows marking the aisles and can’t comprehend that they’re there for a reason.
“Oh, you want to go in the opposite direction? Here. Let me cram myself against the Campbell’s Soup, schmuck.”
I resent the writers here who can’t keep their mouths shut when it comes to their big-ass earnings, here. The rest of us don’t care. Got it?
I resent the fact that Donald Trump was not thrown out on his orange ass months ago.
I resent the journalists who let POTUS shit all over them and their profession, during the few times he emerges from his bunker to meet with the press.
I resent the TV commercial touting a new razor that shows women shaving leg hair “so long you can braid it,” as well as the fuzz over their upper lips. Christ. Whatever happened to “mystery?” Do we really need to see that? What’s next? A Gwyneth Paltrow-endorsed Vagina Steamer?
I resent our cable TV and Internet provider for slapping us with an extra fee this month to the tune of $180.
I resent the fact that when I attempted to discover the reason for said fee, the online “agent,” (as no one was answering the customer service number), completely screwed up our service package as well as our bill.
I resent the fact that it took me a day and a half, and eight other agents to make things right.
“TV and Internet.” That may sound petty, but something tells me you’ll know where I’m coming from. Besides, that’s all some of us have right now. That “connection” to the world outside and all the horrors therein.
I resent the “no see-ums” that gnaw on me as I sit on our deck writing.
I resent the fact that bugs love to suck my blood. The little bastards.
I resent the asshole neighbors who have been shooting off fireworks that sound like bombs, since the beginning of June. I’m all for a little fun, but fucking REALLY? If you scare our cats, I’m coming after you.
I resent women who feel they need to show off their tits and ass on social media to attain some sort of “validation.” For what, I couldn’t say. Yeah, I’m bored, too, but can’t you switch it up a bit? Why pander to the wankers out there? Not that their bodies aren’t beautiful. They are. But I just don’t get it.
Maybe there’s something wrong with me. What do you think?
Which brings me to my last bit: I resent the fact that I totally buried the lead to this story as I didn’t want to think about it.
Yesterday, when I opened the vertical blinds on our deck doors, I saw something that first, looked like a pile of leaves.
I got closer to the door and was able to see what looked like a talon. Then it hit me: It was a bird’s foot. And the “leaves” were its feathers.
My heart sank. I love birds and all creatures. We have feeders all over our property.
I didn’t know what kind of bird it was, but it was sizable, with gray feathers lightly streaked with yellow.
As my husband is as tender-hearted as I am when it comes to animals, I didn’t want him to have to dispose of it. So I put on my Big Girl Pants, got a shovel from the garage and a plastic bag, and went out to the deck to retrieve the poor thing.
I tried to keep my face averted as I attempted to get the bird onto the shovel, which took several attempts. Finally, I succeeded.
When my husband got out of bed, I told him about it and said that I didn’t think the bird had been attacked by a critter of some sort, because why leave it on the deck?
He suggested that perhaps it had flown into our deck doors and broke its neck. And that breaks my heart.
Because, as I sit here writing about all the crap getting to me lately, some of it stupid, it hit me that, in another life, I could have been a bird.
A dead bird. On a random deck, somewhere. Far from its nest. | https://medium.com/narrative/the-dead-bird-on-our-deck-9532b264eb9f | ['Sherry Mcguinn'] | 2020-06-25 17:22:02.090000+00:00 | ['Covid-19', 'Life', 'Emotions', 'Trump', 'Resentment'] |
How You Can Transform Your Apartment Into a Smart Home? | Since the times are changing and technology is making inroads in
everything we do, smart homes have become a reality with the availability of modern gadgets and other digital innovations. The availability of home automation systems, gadgets and apps has made homes smarter and comfortable than ever before. There are certain cool systems, apps, and gadgets available that can make the apartment a little bit smarter.
Let’s begin with Smart Thermostats!
Smart Thermostats are intelligent temperature controllers that can adjust the temperature according to your surroundings and requirements. The technology pays learned attention to the settings you like and gives you the required temperature. This can be adjusted through a smartphone app or through the motion detectors so they can adjust the temperature and energy use based on your location.
Smart Baby Monitors
This technology allows the parents to keep a watch over their babies through a micro camera that keeps an eye on the baby’s nursery or crib. These cameras also come with a night vision that keeps a strong eye on your little one that they are OK at night.
Smart TV
Smart TVs come with a whole lot of features that can be controlled through a single remote. The features include voice activation, interaction and streaming of gaming capabilities. Also, various online streaming sites make it easy for you to choose programs for different members of the family.
Smart Lighting
The modern smart lighting captures your movements and switches it on and off accordingly. That’s called light automation and it saves a whole deal of electricity, helping you to control the electricity bill. The lights can also be controlled through smartphone apps and make it easy for you to control the on/off process.
Smart Locks
A smart lock system works through passwords and numbers and is
accessible to only the family members. You can access the smart lock system from your smartphone to unlock or lock your doors. If you have gone out of the home and forgotten to lock the door, you can do it from your mobile app.
These automation and digital assistance system can make your home more secure and smart. There are certain technologies that make living in a township society much easier, which eventually benefits your apartment.
To Know More: https://www.societynow.in/
Download App: bit.ly/socnow | https://medium.com/@societynow3/how-you-can-transform-your-apartment-into-a-smart-home-d519031c698f | ['Society Now'] | 2019-12-21 07:33:40.499000+00:00 | ['Society Management', 'Smart Home', 'Smart Apartment', 'Smart Society', 'Society Security'] |
4 Narrative Tools That Trick Our Brains | Photo by Joanna Nix-Walkup on Unsplash
It’s a well-established claim that humans are narrative animals. Artists, neuroscientists, ad designers, psychologists, and even political scientists are aware of the uniquely powerful relationship that we have with storytelling. As an English educator for over ten years, exploring the tools and influence of narrative has always been a central feature of my work. And as much as educators encourage children to read for pleasure and language fluency, understanding narrative also helps to navigate the world by understanding relationships, traits, meaning, and values.
But narrative can also be put to darker purposes, especially in political and economic situations employing narrative instead of evidence-driven messaging. We’re used to interacting with storytelling in specific arenas like theaters and libraries, but less accustomed to spotting it in the wild. Since narrative can easily frame our expectations and tap into our emotions, it has the ability to circumvent our higher reasoning if we aren’t aware of the ways it functions.
Below are four commonly-used storytelling tools that can trick us if we’re unprepared.
1. Repetition
This is probably the easiest tool to spot, since it involves saying the same word or phrase over and over. What’s less apparent is the lasting impact that repetition can have on our memories. Repeated information becomes more familiar, and it’s this familiarity that can let the information slip past our mental defenses.
In part of his Nobel-winning research (presented in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow) psychologist Daniel Kahneman points to research that shows how we can confuse our familiarity with an idea and that idea’s factual correctness. In an experiment, subjects were “primed” by casual exposure to invented names before being given a list of names and tasked with identifying celebrities on the list. Primed subjects were more likely to identify the invented names as celebrities due to the familiarity of the name.
Narrative loves to cash in on this sense of the familiar by repeating words or phrases or ideas to increase our associations with the material. It produces a satisfying feeling when we see all the elements of a story fit together into a brilliant pattern at the end.
But the real world is hardly as tidy and clean-cut as a story, with plenty more information to consider beyond just the familiar.
2. Plot-Focused Narrative
Stories usually offer a clear conflict between a protagonist and an antagonist. And while several subplots emerge and resolve along the way, a single conflict typically drives the main plot of the story. From a storytelling perspective, this makes sense so your audience isn’t forced to keep track of several variables of greater or lesser importance over time. Storytelling prioritizes entertainment, after all.
But when this kind of thinking is applied to the real world, it results in the single cause fallacy, in which a simplified single cause ends up being responsible for a problem. A common target of this fallacious thinking is the K-T extinction 65 million years ago, which many people and sources mistakenly conceive of as a single and immediate eradication of all dinosaur life on the planet rather than multiple causes across a period of time.
Photo by Peer F on Unsplash
And when analyzing political issues, with multiple competing motivations and perspectives, the probability of neatly pointing to a single cause becomes all the more unlikely.
Seeking out multiple sources and weighing the many factors that contribute to an issue are part of making informed decisions — noticeable departures from the expectations placed on us when digesting narrative.
3. Paralipsis
This is among the sneakier narrative tools, especially in the modern digital landscape where context is both incredibly important and increasingly rare (see: Poe’s Law). Irony — a powerful narrative device wielded by literary giants like Swift, Twain, and Vonnegut — has become so problematic recently that many publications have taken it upon themselves to put disclaimers or bold-type labels on their satirical work. And while irony has always had to walk a fine line to do its job, paralipsis doesn’t require nearly as much skill.
Paralipsis is the term for emphasis through denial. In narrative, it directs attention and expectations for the audience; by denying that a possibility exists, the audience both puts the supposed impossibility to the side and responds with that familiar “a-ha!” when it eventually happens. This is the device at play in Titanic when Billy Zane’s Cal Hockley declares, “It is unsinkable! God himself could not sink this ship!”
In narrative, paralipsis produces a satisfying turnabout. However, the tool can be co-opted for gaslighting an audience when a speaker attempts to have it both ways by downplaying or disregarding a subject while delivering a jab along the way. A typical version looks like: “I don’t want to talk about [an opponent’s negative quality], so let’s stick to the topic.”
Paralipsis can also flow into red-herring avoidance in ways like: “I don’t know about [the question I was asked], but what I will tell you is [an unrelated idea that is helpful to my argument and/or harmful to an opponent’s].”
This is the same kind of bad faith behavior seen in the final narrative tool of deception.
4. Pathos
Anyone who’s taken a 9th grade speech class knows the triad of ethos, pathos, and logos necessary for delivering a well-crafted argument. And anyone who’s read a story knows the importance of having emotional dimensions to make the reader care about the plot and the characters. So what’s the problem?
The problem comes when the pathos, or emotional content, dominates the message. Our judgment is particularly susceptible to emotions like anger and fear, which narrow our focus toward the short term and impulses rather than the long view. Messages lacking in facts and credibility make it difficult for us to measure their content and determine what’s useful.
And while these difficulties with measuring content aren’t a problem when we consume stories for entertainment, they are problematic when we’re asked to accept narrative for informational or instructive purposes — both areas of our life that are becoming more integrated with narrative techniques every day. | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/4-narrative-tools-that-trick-our-brains-b8b30935f6b7 | ['Aaron Meacham'] | 2020-12-10 20:03:40.429000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Education', 'Psychology', 'Media Criticism', 'Reading'] |
The worst way to get the first row from a table | The worst way to get the first row from a table Andrew Davis Follow Apr 1 · 2 min read
There are a lot of ways to retrieve a specific row from a table in a database. During an incident I recently discovered one of the worst.
Take a look at this Typescript and Knex-esque code. Lets say each row has two unique identifiers. The caller can supply either of them.
async function getSingleRow(id?: number, otherId?: number) {
const query = getTable()
if (id) {
query.where('id', id)
}
if (otherId) {
query.where('otherid', otherId)
}
return await query.select().first()
}
But what happens if you supply neither parameter? What happens if due to a bug you supply a falsey value for both parameters?
The compiler doesn’t complain as that satisfies the types you have specified.
The code even runs without error and a row is returned as expected.
It appears all is well however you have just run a select statement with no where condition then grabbed the first row in the table. Probably not what you want and possibly something you may not even notice unless you are really paying attention.
A Simple Fix
Doubtless there are multiple ways to avoid this subtly broken behaviour. Below is a simple way to make this implicit error condition very explicit. This greatly increases the chances that this will be caught during local development or by automated tests. | https://medium.com/pixel-and-ink/the-worst-way-to-get-the-first-row-from-a-table-bc3650fdf976 | ['Andrew Davis'] | 2020-04-07 08:03:11.459000+00:00 | ['Database Development', 'Typescript', 'Knexjs', 'Web Development'] |
User Experience Design Process | What is User Experience Design?
User Experience is the value that you provide to your user when he is using your product.
“User Experience Design (UXD or UED) is the process of enhancing user satisfaction with a product by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure provided in the interaction with the product.” — Wikipedia
Developing a user experience to the level of customer satisfaction is not a single person or team’s responsibility, instead it is a company’s vision.
Why User Experience Matters?
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” — Steve Jobs.
Great user experience design not only highlights and promotes your product, it has become a key part of building and growing customer confidence.
A great product or compelling content without an appealing user experience may affect the ability of an organization to achieve its business goals.
Best Approach to User Experience Design
Good user experience design is always part of product development process.
You interact with your users to build the unique combination of structure, content and user experience that will accomplish required goals in efficient ways.
“The primary factor of your success lies in the fact that you keep your user in center of your design process.”
This approach allows you to create designs that are clean, simple, intuitive, flexible and engaging, and provide a WOW experience to your users and thus differentiate you from your competitors.
User Experience Design Process
User experience design process is an iterative method that helps you continuously improve and polish your designs.
In the process, you go through different stages repeatedly while evaluating your designs on each stage.
Each stage involves relevant stakeholders in your organization that take part in the process to make your products highly efficient and usable.
The design process involves following six stages.
Stages of UX Design Process
Below is the detail that highlights stakeholders involved, activities being done and outcomes produced during each stage of the process.
1. Understand
Design solves a problem. In order to provide a solution, you first need to understand the problem.
“Before beginning the design work, let your Design team understand the requirements clearly.”
To analyze requirements, follow industry standard user research methods including contextual and individual interviews, while observing the users in real environment.
Conduct brainstorming sessions with clients and show them your existing products (if any) to get their feedback.
Business Manager is the role in an organization that works directly with clients and gets requirements from them. Design team can work closely with Business Manager to understand users and their needs.
This knowledge about user and his environment helps you to provide a clear direction to your design.
“To be a great designer, you need to look a little deeper into how people think and act.” — Paul Boag
Stakeholders
Design Team
Business Manager
Product Manager
Activities
Meet, talk, observe and understand users in their environment
Analyze requirements to understand and clarify them
Define user personas and use-cases
Outcomes
User Personas
User Stories
Use Cases, User Flows
Create User Personas
Define Use-cases and User Flow
2. Research
Research is the basic key step to design user experience.
“It took me a few seconds to draw it, but it took me 34 years to learn how to draw it in a few seconds” — Paula Scher
Design team does their research work to explore how the outer world is working on such features.
Sherif Amin, Product Designer called it as UX Competitive Analysis. He listed three purposes of this analysis:
“(i) Understand market competition (ii) Learn about your domain (iii) Get inspirations and ideas from your competitors”
Keep an eye on the latest UI trends, design principles and your existing user experience guidelines.
While doing research, start thinking about possible layouts and options to provide the desired experience.
Stakeholders
Design Team
Activities
Study of competitors’ approaches
Research on similar features in the world
Analysis of latest UI/UX trends, design principles and rules
Keep an eye on your own UX guidelines
Outcomes
A bunch of ideas and material on which you can build your actual design work
Collect Ideas Related to Required Feature
3. Sketch
This stage involves UI definition of required feature. Design team drives this activity which is based on the last two stages of the process.
Draw paper sketches, white board flows and wireframes to share your ideas with stakeholders.
This stage itself is an iterative process.
“Designing is not something that you just create and start using it. Draw and draft and redraw and redraft, thus creating an unmatched experience.”
Testing and evaluation of wireframes is part of this stage. Design team builds initial mockups and share with stakeholders to get their input.
Throughout the process, it is important to keep your goal in mind — make a usable design to achieve end user satisfaction.
Stakeholders
Design Team
Product Managers
Technical Experts
Activities
Generate ideas and work on basic sketches
Brainstorming sessions with stakeholders to get their feedback from technical perspective
Re-draw sketches and re-test them with stakeholders
Outcomes
Sketches
Wireframes, Mockups
User flows
Create Wireframes
4. Design
Now you have finalized layout and flow of the required interface with you, the next step is to work on final graphics.
Turn the initial mockups and wireframes to great-looking images with theme and styles applied to them.
Preparing and sharing of design specifications (principles, guidelines, colors, typography, iconography) to Development team is also part of this stage.
Stakeholders
Design Team
Product Managers
Business Manager
Technical Experts
Activities
Design UI images
Define final theme, specs, and guidelines required for implementation
Design icons to display on screens
Sessions with stakeholders to get their feedback from business and technical perspective
Outcomes
Design images
Detailed design specs like colors, theme, styles, guidelines
Icons
Design Images Followed by Theme and Style — Windows 8 Box app
5. Implement
Since technical people participate in early stages of the process, they can start implementation while Design phase is in progress.
Development team builds back end functionality first and connects it with UI when they get design artifacts.
It is better that Design team involves in this step to help development phase. While implementing, it is possible to raise the need of minor changes in design.
Stakeholders
Development team
Design Team
Activities
Implement back-end functionality and front interface
Outcomes
Developed UI with complete functionality and experience following the designed theme and style
Code and Implement Functionality
6. Evaluate
When product features are implemented, the end product is evaluated based on few factors:
Whether the system is usable?
Is it easy to use for end user?
Is it flexible and easy to change?
Does it provide the desired solution to user’s problems?
Does the product have the credibility that makes someone want to use it because of the experience it provides?
“Design team validates the product in terms of user flow and experience and identify areas where improvements are needed.”
Stakeholders
Design Team
Product Manager
Activities
Go through the flow and feel the experience
Perform a comparison of implementation and defined interface
Outcomes
User feedback
UI audit reports
Areas marked where improvement is required
Perform User Testing
After this last stage, the process will iterate itself and depending on the required changes, you may go to stage 2, 3 or 4.
The process goes on until the desired experience and customer satisfaction is achieved.
Get more understanding of UX design process and other related topics:
Conclusion
An amazing user experience can only be provided by following an iterative Design process.
All major stakeholders in your company contribute in the process by performing their tasks and duties. This is the only way you can retain your existing users and attract the new ones in this competitive world.
Thanks for reading. You can also read other related essays at uxdworld.com. | https://uxplanet.org/user-experience-design-process-d91df1a45916 | ['Saadia Minhas'] | 2020-08-07 04:59:51.147000+00:00 | ['UX', 'Design', 'UX Design', 'User Experience', 'Design Process'] |
How to use the Style Transfer API in React Native with Fritz | Fritz is a platform that’s intended to make it easy for developers to power their mobile apps with machine learning features. Currently, it has an SDK for both Android and iOS. The SDK contains ready-to-use APIs for the following features:
Today, we’ll explore how to use the Style Transfer API in React Native.
I was only able to develop and test in Android (no Macs here!) and got a working application.
The Style Transfer API styles images or video according to real art masterpieces. There are 11 pre-trained artwork styles, including Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Munch’s Scream, among others.
The app we’ll be developing allows the user to take a picture and convert it into a styled image. It will also allow the user to pick the artwork style they wish to use on the image.
The app will contain a Home page, where the user can pick the art style. It will also include a separate Camera View, where the user captures the image.
Note: The following tutorial is for the Android platform only.
Prerequisites
React Native CLI: run npm i -g react-native-cli to globally install the CLI
Since there is no default React Native module for Fritz, we’ll need to write our own. Writing a native module means writing real native code to use on one or both platforms.
Step 1 — Creating the RN app and install modules
To create the app, run the following command in the terminal:
react-native init <appname>
Move into the root of the folder to begin configuration.
For navigation, we’ll be using React Navigation and React Native Camera for the Camera View.
To install both dependencies, run the following command in the terminal:
npm i --save react-navigation react-native-camera
Follow the instructions here to configure React Navigation for the app. We’ll need to install react-native-gesture-handler as well, as it’s a dependency of React Navigation.
Follow the instructions here to configure the React Native Camera for the app. We can stop at step 6, as for this example we will not be using text, face, or barcode recognition.
Step 2 — Including Fritz SDK in the app
First, we need to create a Fritz account and a new project.
From the Project overview, click on Add to Android to include the SDK for the Android platform. We’ll need to include an App Name and the Application ID. The Application ID can be found in android/app/build.gradle , inside the tag defaultConfig .
Upon registering the app, we need to add the following lines in android/build.gradle :
allprojects {
.....
repositories {
.....
maven { url "https://raw.github.com/fritzlabs/fritz-repository/master" } //add this line
}
}
Afterward, include the dependency in the android/app/build.gradle :
dependencies {
implementation 'ai.fritz:core:3.0.2'
}
We’ll need to update the AndroidManifest.xml file to give the app permission to use the Internet and register the Fritz service:
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
.....
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<application>
.....
<service
android:name="ai.fritz.core.FritzCustomModelService"
android:exported="true"
android:permission="android.permission.BIND_JOB_SERVICE" />
</application>
</manifest>
We then need to include the following method within the MainActivity.java :
import ai.fritz.core.Fritz;
import android.os.Bundle; //import these two as well public class MainActivity extends ReactActivity {
.....
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// Initialize Fritz
Fritz.configure(this, "<api-key>");
}
}
Step 3 — Create the Native Module
Since the SDK only supports iOS and Android, we’ll need to make the native module. To get a better understanding of this, refer to the docs here:
To make an Android Native module, we’ll need to make two new files. They will be within the root package of the Android source folder.
FritzStyleModule : This contains the code that will return the styled image FritzStylePackage : This registers the module so that it can be used by the JavaScript side of the app.
FritzStyleModule
The React method being used has a success and error callback. The chosen artwork style and a base64 of the original image are sent to the method. The error callback is invoked when an Exception is thrown and returns the error. The success callback returns a base64 encoded string of the converted image. On a high-level, the above code does the following:
Initializes the style predictor with the user’s choice of artwork. Converts the original base64 image into a Bitmap . Creates a FritzVisionImage , which is the input of the style predictor. Converts the FritzVisionImage into a styled FritzVisionStyleResult , which is the converted image. Gets a Bitmap out of the FritzVisionStyleResult . Converts the Bitmap into a base64 to be sent back to the JavaScript side of the app.
FritzStylePackage
This class is used to register the package so it can be called in the JavaScript side of the app.
This class is also initialized in the getPackages() of MainApplication.java :
@Override
protected List<ReactPackage> getPackages() {
return Arrays.<ReactPackage>asList(
new MainReactPackage(),
......,
new FritzStylePackage() //Add this line and import it on top
);
}
Now on to the JavaScript side of the application.
Step 4 — Creating the UI
To do this, we’ll be creating/updating the following pages:
Home.js — Display the picker of artwork styles and the final result. CameraContainer.js — Display the camera view to capture an image. FritzModule.js — Export the above-created Native module to the JavaScript side. App.js — Root of the app which includes the navigation stack.
Home.js
This page contains:
Text to display the app description. Picker to allow the user to select the artwork style of the converted image. Button to redirect the user to the Camera page. It will pass the selected artwork style to the CameraContainer. If the navigation prop contains the original and converted image, it will be displayed.
The page currently looks like this;
Home page before taking a picture
CameraContainer.js
The CameraContainer page displays a full page CameraView. It includes a button to take the picture at the bottom of the page. Upon clicking it, a spinner will be displayed to convey to the user that an action is taking place.
The image is first captured using the react-native-camera method takePictureAsync() . The original image is then saved into the state of the page. The setState method is asynchronous and thus has a success callback that runs after the state is set.
The getNewImage method from the FritzModule is run within this success callback. The original image and the filter (artwork style) picked from the Home Page is passed to the method. On the error callback, an alert is displayed to the user to convey that an error has occurred. On the success callback, the new styled image is saved into the state. On this second setState methods’ success callback, the user is redirected to the Home page with both the original and styled images.
CameraContainer on emulator
FritzModule.js
import { NativeModules } from 'react-native'; export default NativeModules.FritzStyle;
This page exposes the Native module, FritzStyle . This allows the JavaScript side to make calls to the method getNewImage .
App.js
import React, { Component } from 'react';
import Home from './src/Home';
import CameraContainer from './src/CameraContainer';
import { createStackNavigator, createAppContainer } from 'react-navigation'; const AppNavigator = createStackNavigator({
Home: { screen: Home },
Camera: { screen: CameraContainer }
}); const AppContainer = createAppContainer(AppNavigator); export default class App extends Component { render() {
return (<AppContainer />);
}
}
First, we create the Stack navigator with the Home Page and Camera View. The key ‘Home’ is used when navigating to the Home Page, and the key ‘Camera’ when navigating to the CameraContainer.
The AppContainer becomes the root component of the App. It’s also the component that manages the app’s state.
Now to see the entire app in function;
To recap, we have;
Created a React Native app, Included the Fritz SDK in it, Created a Native Module that makes use of the Style Transfer API, and Designed a UI to display the styled image.
Find the code repo, here.
For native iOS or Android implementations of Fritz’s Style Transfer API, check out the following tutorials: | https://medium.com/free-code-camp/how-to-use-the-style-transfer-api-in-react-native-with-fritz-e90bc609fb17 | ['Sameeha Rahman'] | 2019-04-02 20:53:56.801000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Mobile App Development', 'Technology', 'React Native', 'Programming'] |
A Great Movie Idea Isn’t Enough — Kenneth Castillo | Film Courage: Let’s say someone has a great story idea, what do they do next?
Kenneth Castillo, Filmmaker/Author: Well the thing is there’s a lot of things they can do. I get people who come up to me with story ideas all the time and I say Well, write it. They have an idea and they think that’s enough and that’s not enough. If you have an idea and you manage to make it into a story and then turn that story into a script, now you have something and then you say Yeah well, that’s my script, it’s so big, it’s a 10 million dollar budget there’s nothing we can do about it. Well what can we shoot from it that isn’t going to cost you 10 million dollars? That’s what I’m doing right now. A script I’d been writing for 10 years that I want to get made I finally just said I’ve got to shoot something from this. The script is done, it’s done. It’s ready to go. I’m not going to get money to do this because they’re not going to understand…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here). | https://medium.com/film-courage/a-great-movie-idea-isnt-enough-kenneth-castillo-f8928f075143 | [] | 2020-12-14 04:17:21.541000+00:00 | ['Screenwriting', 'Filmmaking', 'Writing Tips', 'Writer', 'Writing'] |
Minority Mental Health Awareness Month: Mental Health Among Asian Americans | Minority Mental Health in America
“Minority Mental Health Month is a nationwide effort developed by Mental Health America to shed light on the multitude of mental health experiences within BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities and others that face disproportionate inequities due to systemic barriers and historical adversity”.
Marginalized, oppressed, and disenfranchised minority populations because of their color and ethnicity have unique concerns, trauma, stress, obstacles, and challenges because of historical and cultural oppression on minority groups of color. The Asian American ethnic group is no different and has faced an enormous amount of racism since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Asian American hate crimes on the rise
Xenophobic racism against Asian Americans has surged, as the coronavirus swept across the United States with reports of hate crimes averaging approximately 100 per day. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Asian Americans 15–34 years of age. Clearly, something needs to be done.
In the past year, hate crimes have soared targeting Asian Americans, which has taken a toll on their mental health. An elderly Thai immigrant died after being shoved to the ground. A Filipino-American was slashed in the face with a box cutter. A Chinese woman was slapped and then set on fire. Eight people were killed in a shooting rampage across three Asian spas in one night, and these are only some of the tragic incidents targeted towards Asian Americans in the past year.
Microaggressions, verbal harassment, spitting, hitting and school bullying, as kids return back to school, are common daily occurrences among the Asian American population.
These are just examples of recent violent attacks on Asian Americans, part of a surge in abuse since the start of the pandemic a year ago. Many believe that these hate crimes are directly linked to the widespread and false rhetoric that blames Asian communities for the spread of the COVID-19 virus, of which many have falsely renamed “the Asian virus” or “the Chinese virus”.
Minority Mental Health In America
Asian Americans are less likely to seek behavioral health treatment
Federal hate crime data for 2020 has not yet been released, though hate crimes in 2019 were at their highest level in over a decade. As a result, the need for minority mental health treatment is at an ultimate high point but unfortunately, Asian Americans are the least likely to seek mental health treatment compared to other minority groups in the United States.
A recent study confirmed that only 8.6% of Asian Americans seek mental health services, compared to 18% of the general population. The mental health disparities between Asian Americans and the rest of the general population have to do with the many underlying cultural Asian American stereotypes.
Barriers to mental health treatment in the Asian American community
Many Asian Americans face enormous external and internal pressure to be academically and professionally successful. In order to stay focused and reach these goals, oftentimes Asian Americans will choose to ignore or deny signs and symptoms associated with underlying mental health conditions. Another common reason Asian Americans do not actively seek mental health treatment is that mental health is a taboo topic in their community. Other common barriers to mental health treatment in the Asian American community include the following:
Pressure to live up to the “model minority” stereotype (an inaccurate view that often portrays Asian Americans as well-off individuals who successfully integrated into the mainstream American culture. Many non-Asian Americans assume that Asian Americans have overcome challenges associated with racial inequalities because of their success in academics and professional milestones. Many people believe that Asian Americans do not experience racism, which is false.)
Strict family obligations that are based on strong cultural and traditional values
Discrimination due to racial or cultural background
Difficulty in balancing two different cultures, Asian and American, and developing a bicultural sense of self. Many minorities struggle to identify with their native culture while trying to integrate into American culture
Language barriers for first-generation Asian Americans
The lack of Asian American mental health professionals, resulting in difficulty overcoming cultural differences and finding common ground in the client-therapist relationship.
How to combat the stigma against mental health treatment for minorities
Breaking down roadblocks to mental health treatment and combating the stigma against seeking help for a mental health disorder or an addiction should always start with education. Regardless of our upbringing, ethnicity, social class, gender, or sexual orientation, we are all entitled to seek mental health treatment without feeling stigma or shame. In order to normalize mental health treatment we, as a society, including mental health professionals, must advocate for minority groups while simultaneously educating others and ourselves about mental health facts. We must engage in positive ways with those who are struggling with depression and anxiety and other mental health disorders, instead of shaming them.
Additional ways to combat the stigma associated with mental health and substance abuse include the following:
Talk openly and honestly with friends and family
Tell your story on social media
Speak out against racism
Report hate crimes to authorities
Educate yourself about minority groups and racism
Have tough conversations with your friends and family about racism
Speak out when someone is shaming or stigmatizing mental health
Vote in local and federal elections for laws protecting mental health
Show compassion and empathy for individuals with mental illness
Seek treatment for mental health and when you feel comfortable, share your journey with others
Educate yourself in cultural competency
National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month was established in 2008 to start raising awareness and breaking down the stigma associated with mental health in minority communities. AKUA Mind and Body, we believe that people of color and minority ethnicities deserve access to reputable mental healthcare. We believe in breaking down the barriers and eliminating the stigma and hate that has transpired against Asian Americans. We do not condone racism of any kind and we pride ourselves in providing reputable access to mental health treatment for everyone. AKUA Mind and Body is an addiction and mental health treatment center with multiple treatment locations, treatment modalities, and levels of care. Our staff has helped thousands of people through treatment and being their road to recovery. At AKUA Mind and Body, we incorporate the mind, body, and spirit into our holistic approach while blending clinical excellence and an integrative East-meets-West therapeutic process. AKUA’s integrative treatment approach combines Western evidence-based medication-assisted treatment with holistic treatments such as yoga and meditation.
Check here for more details: https://www.akuamindbody.com/minority-mental-health-awareness-month-mental-health-among-asian-americans/ | https://medium.com/@sudha-pemmireddy/minority-mental-health-awareness-month-mental-health-among-asian-americans-ec2184d701ad | ['Sudhakar Pemmireddy'] | 2021-07-02 21:52:35.193000+00:00 | ['Minority Mental Health', 'Anxiety', 'Akua Mind Body', 'Asian American', 'Mental Health Awareness'] |
Where’s All My Caucasian Brothers? | Where’s All My Caucasian Brothers?
Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels
It was a glorious fall day on Rikers Island. After being cooped up and kept inside without a ray of sunshine for almost a year at MCC federal prison in Downtown Manhattan, I found myself transferred to the city jail on Rikers Island.
And when on my very first day after reassignment, the officer yelled “yard,” I jumped out of my bunk and ran to the front of the unit. He could just as well have yelled “pussy” and I don’t think I’d have been any more excited. I was going out to feel some sunshine on my face. After a year inside, I could see my fingernails getting cloudy. And I knew it was from lack of sunlight. I wanted some!
Most of the inmates in my interim unit at Rikers had just come off the street and thus, were not starved for fresh air and sunlight like I was. As a result, I was the only prisoner who wanted out at that early morning hour. Most guys were lying in their bunks and not inclined to move.
The officer who escorted me (and only me) to the yard was a friendly Caribbean man probably about 30 years old. He wore dreds and a smile — and was vocal as we strode the several hundred yards to join about 100 other inmates from other units before we were searched and dispatched outside.
The yard was really 2.25 acres of patchy grass and a fucked up basketball court with a bent rim. But it was paradise as far as I was concerned. Ringing the grassy area was a muddy circular track guys walked around while rapping with their homies.
Toward the middle of the circle stood my escort, whose job it was to simply watch inmates in case something jumped off (which it didn’t). The demographics of the 100 or so inmates who chose to go to rec on this cold day was decidedly homogeneous. Which is to say, they were all men of color (black and/or Hispanic) save just one other white boy.
After a few laps around the track, I came near my officer/escort, looked his way, and asked “yo, officer. Where all my caucasian brothers?” He smiled a big smile and let out a hearty laugh. I continued: “We don’t commit crimes. Or maybe we just don’t get arrested?” I mused.
“I don’t know, my man. It is what it is. What can I say?” he philosophized.
Rewind a year and a half and my first experience with incarceration was at the Tombs in Lower Manhattan, where I was placed in a 46 inmate unit, 8 South to be precise. Funny thing about the demographic in that jail and unit as well. Again, me and one other white boy.
That is for a couple of days before Charlie had a major meltdown and called the officer a spic, and several inmates niggers and faggots. He was escorted from the unit and placed elsewhere to save his life, and I became the only white boy in 8 South.
Charlie’s racist tirade was a source of utter embarrassment for me. I’d actually befriended the guy and went to the officer to ask if he wanted to enlist my aid in calming Charlie down (Charlie was locked in his cell as several inmates taunted him as if he was a caged animal).
However the totally embarrassing episode went down, a couple of the other prisoners approached me to explain that just because Charlie was an asshole, that didn’t mean I was, too. Luckily, I experienced little to no discrimination as a result of Charlie’s explosion.
I’m happy to say that wherever I was during my grand tour of three different penal institutions, overt racism was not in clear evidence. Yes, certain jobs went to certain racial groups according to which officer was running the program. And the expressions “white boy” and “nigger” were all too common.
But those are just words. Attitudes and actions are what really matters. And mostly, we were all prisoners. Whether we were black, white, yellow, or any color in between was secondary. It’s just that the great majority were not white — and way out of proportion compared to the general population of the USA. That’s all I’m sayin’. | https://medium.com/doing-time/wheres-all-my-caucasian-brothers-b5f7892d0e2 | ['William', 'Dollar Bill'] | 2020-12-15 15:50:20.869000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Culture', 'Prison', 'Incarceration', 'Education'] |
Black Holes Are Broken People | Black Holes Are Broken People
Somewhere in the middle of a million lights of varying brightness, there is a darkness the glow does not touch.
It is guilt, it is anger, it is a hundred messages unacknowledged.
Are you there? Do you still want me?
It is broken promises and dreams shot to pieces, it is a parent’s unspoken apology for years of abandonment.
It’s not that I don’t love you, I just love myself more.
Someone is starting over, someone is ending things, someone’s life is ending - another light flickers and goes out.
The darkness widens and it is not even nightfall.
I wonder where you go when you leave.
A dozen entertainments but manufactured happiness cannot fill the places joy vacated.
Strangers are not always friends waiting to be made, sometimes you are really just alone.
May I talk to you? Anyone.
It is the wish for company that is not behind a screen or trapped in a bottle, the prayer for a mute button to silence the voices in your head.
I took the drug. I feel nothing.
You know people, but it is not the same. Have you ever felt the emptiness of a crowded room?
You are overwhelmed again, laid flat by the weight of existing, and the pressure clocks in like clockwork.
Breathing is a waste of time.
It is being misunderstood and the labels that always follow. It is never feeling like yourself, never feeling like anything.
Who, what am I?
You fall asleep, the darkness within becomes one with the darkness around.
Goodnight.
Maybe for the last time. | https://medium.com/@orefakorede/black-holes-are-broken-people-d55260b0c578 | ['Oreoluwa Fakorede'] | 2020-12-17 18:01:07.642000+00:00 | ['Depression', 'Mental Health', 'People', 'Life', 'Poetry'] |
The Wind | The Wind
We never see the source of the wind
It blows in from nowhere
Be it a gentle breeze or gale force
It can be biting and cold
Or a warm breeze
Jimi Hendrix asked
“Will the wind ever remember
the names it has blown in the past?”
Then he told us
“The Wind Cries Mary” | https://medium.com/blueinsight/the-wind-3a61c9a14fe4 | ['Victoria Ponte'] | 2020-12-17 15:08:10.443000+00:00 | ['Wind', 'Poetry', 'Weather', 'Blue Insights', 'Poetry On Medium'] |
reAlpha Announces New Partnership with Title First Agency | DUBLIN, Ohio , Dec. 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — via InvestorWire — reAlpha, a cutting-edge technology company empowering everyone to invest in the $1.2 trillion short-term rental market, is proud to announce its new partnership with Title First Agency, one of the largest independent title agencies in the nation. The partnership with Title First will allow reAlpha to simplify and streamline its large-scale property acquisition process.
Title First Agency is a nationwide resource for title insurance and real estate settlement services. As a newly acquired division of Stewart Title, they have a footprint in every state and metropolitan area in the United States, in addition to 20 other countries.
“Title First is very excited to partner with reAlpha and its forward-thinking executive team. We have followed the short-term rental markets nationally and believe the potential for reAlpha’s specific business model is compelling,” said Sean Stoner, President of Title First Agency. “We look forward to maximizing our expertise to help reAlpha achieve its growth goals in this expanding market.”
The partnership will give reAlpha the ability to scale with one vendor under a customized process that will benefit each client at the local level throughout the transaction and will create efficiencies so that reAlpha can achieve their national and global growth strategies. The partnership is another step in reAlpha’s quest to modernize and democratize the real estate investing process.
“As reAlpha built our ecosystem to execute at a very large scale, we sought partners that have both a strategic fit to our business model, as well as a cultural fit to our corporate values. The Title First team checks both boxes,” said Mike Logozzo, CFO at reAlpha. “As we start purchasing a large number of properties, their vast expertise in the title space provides a valuable consultancy and their vast network provides a seamless service to all transactions. They are a trusted partner and considered as an extension of our team.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=536jcMaUs5Y
Read more….. | https://medium.com/@realpha/realpha-announces-new-partnership-with-title-first-agency-b9064f3d56f3 | [] | 2021-12-23 10:24:49.491000+00:00 | ['Passive Income', 'Real Estate Investments', 'Airbnb'] |
One HABIT That Will Change Your World — Bob Proctor | Here is a extract from Bob Proctors writeups about one thing that changed his life. So here we go…
Hello there and welcome. I’m Bob Proctor. I wanted to talk to you about forming a habit that’ll literally change your world. I formed this habit a long time ago, and I’m going to tell you, my world changed like night and day. It worked for me. It’ll work for you. But before we get into it, I want you to come back in history with me to September the 12th, 1962. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond. Our leadership in science and industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men. There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind. We choose to go to the moon. (audience applauds) We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not be they are easy, but because they are hard, because that challenge is one that we’re willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.
Do you know what John Kennedy did there? He made a decision. That was a decision. It was a big decision, and it changed everything forever. Well, do you know, decision is something most people never really learn, and for good reason. Stay with me, ’cause I’m going to show you something here that you possibly haven ever looked at before. This book changed everything for me. In this book, it’s Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, There’s 15 chapters. There’s one chapter, the entire chapter is dedicated to Decision. Now, you may say, well, I make decisions. Do you really? You may make little ones, but do you make the real important ones? Do you go after what you want in life? Do you get everything you want in life? See, the truth is, only about three percent of the people are really living the way they want to live, driving the car they want to drive, taking the trips they want to take, living in the houses they wanna live in. Most people do not, and they’ll tell you why they can’t, and they’ll give you a string of reasons a mile long. All seem very practical, very reasonable, and the leader of them all is, they can’t afford it.
Well, the truth is, we live in the richest country in the history of the world. Money is the easiest thing in the world to earn, once you learn how. Well, if you turn making a decision into a habit, you’re going to learn how to do a whole lot of things you may think you can’t do. See, what we’re doing is we’re exploring a side of our personality that we really don’t understand. Now, I photographed a page out of here. Napoleon Hill said “Those who reach decisions promptly and definitely know what they want, and they generally get it. The leaders in every walk of life decide quickly and firmly. That’s the major reason why they’re leaders. He said, the world has the habit of making room for the man or woman whose words and actions show they know where they’re going.” And he went on to explain why we have difficulty here for very good reason. “Indecision is a habit which usually begins in youth.
The habit takes on permanency as the youth goes through grade school, high school, eventually through college, without any definite purpose. The major weakness of all educational systems is that they neither teach or encourage the habit of definite decision.” Now, why is that? Well, the truth is, most people really don’t know. We’re dealing with aside of our personality that most people do not understand. What you see here is not me. This is my body. You never hear anyone say, am hand. You see, we’ve got to take a look at the non-physical side of ourselves. Lincoln, President Lincoln put that very well. He said “To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all, but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing.” Well, let’s look at this. Making a decision, we’re going to into the unseen part of ourselves, using faculties most people don’t even know they’ve got. You see, Einstein said “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift,” while he said, “The rational mind is a faithful servant.” He said, “We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” What is the servant? Well, there it is there. It’s our sensory factors. We can see, hear, smell, taste, touch. What are they for? They’re to help us correspond and communicate with our outside world. But you know that the physical world is nothing but the manifestation of the non-physical world. That’s right. Here, we’ve got something that’s nothing short of a miracle when we look at it properly. This is a little cell phone. It has more power than the computer had that took the first rocket to the moon. Think of that. And I’m carrying it around in my pocket. I can touch a button and bang, like that, send a picture to you, and you’ll get it, simultaneous with me sending it. How does all that happen? Well, it happens because we’re dealing with the non-physical side of ourselves.
If you want to find more information about this, Click here | https://medium.com/@healthymindthinkbig/one-habit-that-will-change-your-world-bob-proctor-healthy-mind-think-big-a376898d727f | ['Healthy Mind - Think Big'] | 2021-02-09 17:40:24.206000+00:00 | ['Books', 'Habit Building', 'Habits', 'Think And Grow Rich', 'Bob Proctor'] |
Latest Interior Design For Hall | SEP 10, 2019
You can never get over of consistently decorating and designing the hall of your home. You just keep on doing and adding things to it until it becomes perfect for your living. And undoubtedly, a hall is the heart of any house and henceforth, it deserves to look the best. Most of the times, a hall is a very first thing which is visible once the gate is opened for guests. Like any other room, a hall is also of various shapes and sizes and thus, offers numerous purposes, like casual or a formal family room. Thus, this becomes quite an indispensable job to make the interior lavish and look grand.
However, in case you want to give your hall a professional touch then you can directly reach out towards Dezine Innovation. They have Best interior designers in Delhi who can transform your home in an attractive manner.
By the way, in this article, I’m about to give you some latest ideas for designing your hall. These are as follows:
Modern Interior Hall With Luxurious Look:
The décor of your hall should grab the attention of your visitors. The artistic frame of walls and inspiring ceiling, cool sitting arrangements which are crafted within the interiors of wood everywhere gives a flawless and mind-blowing look to your hall. This type of interior designing is perfect for the mansions and villas.
Appealing Wooden Wall Interiors For Hall:
Where beautifully crafted and lively looks of your hall that comprises of durable wooden interiors. Even the walls and the ceilings also consist of wooden decors along with the wooden laminated flooring offers an appealing look to everyone. Adding lamps at the corners as well as LED lights on the ceilings offers a bright appearance can help you modify your home with fascinating delights. Such decoration suits the best when you have to design your home.
Attractive Rustic Interior Design For Hall:
Rustic interiors are something which is on trend these days. They have a magnetic attraction that pulls people towards them. Making it more fashionable and satisfying, you can go ahead with the rustic wooden frames wherever you can; be it windows, gates, or TV cabinets. They look perfect and will lend a soothing appearance to the eyes.
Dark Shaded Interiors For Hall:
Darker shades of home designing are perfect for halls. Here, you can add grey fabric sofas to add elegance in coordination with the deep brown curtains, wooden flooring and the lavish glass chandelier that has the potential to highlight every corner of your hall. Such an amazing decoration of hall offers your home a fantastic as well as eye-catching look.
Best Interior Hall Designed By Stones:
Perfect colour combination with stunning and lively hall designs are like making people crazy all around. Designing floors with shiny stones like marbles allow your specific part of your home, that is, hall looks unique. The stone floors collaborated with the versatile furniture makes your home appear incredible.
These were some of the hall specific home décor ideas that are trending and I guess these aren’t going to fade away so easily. However, for a professionally designed hall, you can get in touch with the team of Dezine Innovation as they can transform your home in a fabulous place.
I hope you might have got some amazing, stylish and modern office décor ideas. However, if you want to give your ideas a professional touch, then you can contact Dezine Innovation who are best interior designing firm in Delhi. Adding more to their services, they also take into considerations of the projects like residential, hospitality and others. | https://medium.com/@dezineinnovation/latest-interior-design-for-hall-3e8ec21fdac0 | [] | 2019-09-14 08:19:22.630000+00:00 | ['Interior Design'] |
Celebrity World | I hope one day
I can become
An actor and director
And then
Maybe I can own a movie studio
And make movies and TV shows
And then
Hopefully
We can all have a good time
Hanging out at awards shows | https://medium.com/@darrinatkins/celebrity-world-1b9e69b458ff | ['Darrin Atkins'] | 2020-12-22 17:03:33.616000+00:00 | ['Celebrity', 'Hollywood'] |
How can I forget her words… When she scolded to me. | How can I forget her words… When she scolded to me.
No doubt we have Deep love realtion between we both. We have some time bad words to each other. We can’t imagine even our life without each other. But we have bad time and unlogical fight sometime. But still it’s doesn’t mean we have nothing between us.
It’s a a time playing with us but we have to understand as well when time play then all the things goes wrong. When we never understand the tic ticof time then we ruled out by time only not time rules to us in this situation. What the thing we have to do only in this situation that is more to underatdn and more to care.
One more thing is most important that is don’t try to do push back or get down anyone’s feelings. It’s like a harmful act with the love and realtionship. Mat be there would be any misunderstanding but we think on it casually then we will realise that we were wrong on our part. I never ever understand we putt he slogan of love and ralationship on high level. But we have not even capacity to understand the things happening even we are not able to understand to think it positively.
I can not be angaist her because I love her very much bit her words during fight cruels. And hurt me badly that I can not take Meon my mind set up positively.
So love her constently but give a chcw to your hurt to be alone and go her to after a break.
All will cone to you back as relationship….. | https://medium.com/@ssarab868/how-can-i-forget-her-words-when-she-scolded-to-me-4f36d28706a2 | ['Sam Stenberg'] | 2020-12-18 06:39:05.066000+00:00 | ['Love', 'Relationships', 'Relati', 'Relationships Love Dating'] |
Seeking the Patterns Amidst the Pattern-Seekers | Book Review: The Pattern Seekers: How Autism Drives Human Invention, by Simon Baron-Cohen
“Al” was a weird dude, Simon Baron-Cohen explains in the opening chapter of The Pattern Seekers: How Autism Drives Human Invention.
When “Al” finally talked at age four, he asked a lot of questions. He chanted the same poem over and over. When his mom finally pulled him out of school, because the teachers were frequently annoyed by him, he conducted science experiments in his basement constantly. He read books in order on a shelf. He became obsessed with Morse Code. As an adult, he formed few human relationships and worked on his various inventions for 18 hours a day without the benefit of a shower.
Who is this mysterious “Al?” It’s Thomas Edison, Baron-Cohen triumphantly reveals, and compares Al with his gifts and weirdness to a young man with a form of high functioning autism. While Edison was a highly successful person, who brought great inventions to the human kind, this young man with autism is unemployed and unappreciated.
There are two dominant types of cognition, says Baron-Cohen. The first is the Systemizing Brain that looks for patterns everywhere. The other type of brain is the Empathetic Brain that is more tuned into human emotions. Baron-Cohen says that everybody is somewhere on the spectrum between those brain types with autistic people on the far end of the systemizing brain. (Take the quiz in the image above.) This systemizing brain, he maintains, is the root of all human scientific accomplishment, since some caveman decided to amp-up his spear with a bow thousands of years ago.
Clearly, I have an empathetic brain type, because I have little interest in classifying different brain types with Baron-Cohen’s typology or other popular variants. Baron-Cohen doesn’t offer any evidence that there are two brain types — why only two? why not twelve? He also gets all caught up in some History Channel-style anthropology that is amusing, but not terribly convincing.
Smart guys in history who are semi-autistic or full-on autistic is a well-worn narrative of the autism industry. And frankly, once you have a family member with autism, it really changes your ideas about normality. For a while, I was like that kid from the Sixth Sense who said that he saw dead people. I saw autistic people everywhere, after Ian got diagnosed. Around that time, in the mid-2000s, I was teaching a class on political theory and realized that St. Thomas Aquinas, “The Dumb Ox” sounded like a typical Asperger’s person.
As part of my crash course on autism during those early years of panic and awe, I picked up two books by the economist, Thomas Sowell — “Late-Talking Children” and “The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late.” Sowell argued that kids like his son, who talked late weren’t actually autistic, which he describes as a severe condition marked by low intellect. Rather than autistic, kids like his son were just very smart. Sowell then did a survey of parents of autistic kids and found that these families frequently had family members with occupations in engineering and accounting.
Baron-Cohen makes that same observation about the children of engineerings and accountants, but comes to a different conclusion. He says those late talking kids that Sowell identified as super smart but normal, were actually autistic. In the past twenty years, we’ve come to define autism in broader, and in more positive terms, so that even the misfits at Cornell and MIT meet the autism criterion.
And Baron-Cohen really tries to nail down the autism rate among the children of MIT alumni, but the college administrators shut his efforts to do a formal survey. They thought if he found more autistic kids from MIT matings, it would give the college a bad reputation. I would love to see MIT t-shirt that said “No Autism Here!”
While I may be a skeptic of brain typologies and one who has read too many “Famous People in History With Autism” articles (there’s even a wikipedia page), I do appreciate Baron-Cohen’s efforts to have autism normalized and appreciated, which isn’t always easy given the politics within the autistic community.
There are two camps in the autism world. Parents of kids with autism with intellectual and severe behavioral issues have no patience for “Oh, Look At Their Gifts!” school of autism. They’re like, “My kid just smeared poop on the wall, so don’t talk to me about Bill Gates and his autism.”
While people whose autistic kids have an average to superior intelligence have a different agenda. They are freaked out because their kids, despite their gifts, aren’t finding jobs and aren’t being helped at school. They are upset that teachers, who are empathic brain-types, don’t appreciate their kids’ gifts and aren’t developing their weaknesses either. They need the world to be more rah-rah autism, while the other side wants more money for social supports.
My kid, who has had dozens of IQ tests and other assessments over the years, does have a classic systemizing brain. He scores somewhere between the 92–99th percentile on pattern recognition IQ tests, but in the bottom tenth for conversational and social skills. He taught himself to read at three. He looked at the multiple table once and just knew it. I showed him the first three notes on a page of music, and by the end of the week, he figured out the rest of the notes and was composing his own music on Garage Band.
However, we don’t trust him to get a job in a supermarket, because he’ll be rude to the customers. He’s going to graduate from school in a few months, and rather than watch him fail at college and the job market like other smart autistic kids, we’re going to keep in the public schools for another two years, where they’ll work on his social skills. It’s very tricky to be gifted and disabled at the same time.
As these math and science-types increasingly congregate in tech corridors and make babies together, Baron-Cohen predicts that we are going to see more and more autistic children. He said we need to figure out a world that serves those kids.
Baron-Cohen’s book adds to the growing literature that calls for a greater appreciation of human differences and for changes in how schools and the work world respond to the needs of these unusual, but talented folks. Some people can make you laugh and inspire warm feelings. Other people leave you cold, but can unclog your dishwasher. We need all those types in the world. | https://medium.com/@lauramckennawords/seeking-the-patterns-amidst-the-pattern-seekers-70a751e6caad | ['Laura Mckenna'] | 2020-12-27 18:33:06.746000+00:00 | ['Special Needs', 'Special Education', 'Education', 'Autism', 'Disability'] |
SIDBI Swavalamban | Small Industries and Development Bank of India (SIDBI)
Small Industries and Development Bank of India (SIDBI) mainly focuses on the financing, promotion and development of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Established in 1990, SIDBI’s primary objective is to strengthen the MSME sector by facilitating cash flow. The bank assists MSMEs to get funds for the development, commercialization and marketing of their innovative technologies and products. SIDBI offers customized financial products under several loan schemes and provides services to meet the demands of various business projects.
SIDBI’s Objectives
SIDBI majorly follows four major objectives which are development, promotion, coordination and financing. Some of its key functions incudes:
SIDBI extends financial support to Small Scale Industry (SSIs), and other service sectors
It provides indirect finance through banks, NBFCs, SFCs and other financial institutions
SIDBI aims to create equilibrium in the financial sector by strengthening credit flows and promoting skill development
SIDBI Swavalamban
People aspiring to become small entrepreneurs have a place to visit at the ongoing Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj. Thanks to the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).
To encourage entrepreneurship amongst the youth, SIDBI has set up a stall with “Swavalamban” as the key theme at the ongoing Kumbh in Prayagraj.
Headquartered in Lucknow, SIDBI’s focus is lending to the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs). At its Kumbh stall, the bank has used — “Aaayiye Ganga Nahaaiye Aur Udyami Banker Jaayiye” (take a dip in Ganga and become entrepreneur) — as the tagline of this stall.
Through the stall, the bank is trying to create awareness about Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) and several other schemes.
“Keeping SIDBI Vision 2.0 in mind, we are taking these initiatives to encourage people to venture into entrepreneurship. We believe in a country like India there are vast opportunities to be tapped,” said Mohammad Mustafa, Chairman and Managing Director, SIDBI. “However, directing prospective entrepreneurs to the right avenues is the key and we hope to bridge that gap.”
In the release, SIDBI also said it has reoriented its thrust to MSEs and is doing what is required to make them feel empowered. To infuse entrepreneurship culture, SIDBI has been bringing out the ‘Swavalamban’ print series and three issues have already been published so far. Through this initiative, more than 3,000 respondents have been provided with handholding support in their entrepreneurial journey, the institution said.
The following are the Swavalamban given by SIDBI:
Source: SIDBI portal
For Entrepreneurs
For Startups
For MSME
FundsTiger.com is an Online Lending Marketplace. | https://medium.com/@surekhashetty658/sidbi-swavalamban-b123815c282a | ['Surekha Shetty'] | 2019-09-09 10:14:28.514000+00:00 | ['Sidbi', 'Marketplaces', 'Loans', 'Fundstiger', 'Lending'] |
the state with health care and community partners to help make sure all Vermonters have access to the vaccine. | the state with health care and community partners to help make sure all Vermonters have access to the vaccine. Hadil C Nov 25, 2020·3 min read
Asthe world awaits the results of COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, we need to invest now in systems to ensure equitable global vaccine delivery. Sixteen vaccine experts from the vaccine industry, academic and regulatory agencies interviewed…
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A safe and effective vaccine is a critical tool for stopping the spread of COVID-19.
While there are still things we don’t know about the COVID-19 vaccine, we do know that there is much we can do now to prepare, and we are not starting from scratch in Vermont. We will build on a strong existing primary care and medical home infrastructure, our experience with vaccine distribution in past public health crises, and valuable partnerships across the state with health care and community partners to help make sure all Vermonters have access to the vaccine.
Putting Safety First
The global push to find a vaccine for COVID-19 is unprecedented, but this urgency can not outweigh the importance of vaccine safety and efficacy. That is why we keep a close watch on the vaccine development process and put science above all else when it comes to distributing any vaccine in Vermont. Before it is given to anyone in Vermont, a vaccine must meet strict U.S. Food and Drug Administration safety standards and be recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)(link is external). All newly developed vaccines must also be monitored continuously for safety.
Identifying Priority Groups
Based on what we know now, it is likely that the initial supply of COVID-19 vaccine will be limited, and will be distributed to states in phases, with early vaccine going to certain groups of people. Those groups may include:
people who provide direct care to others (for example, health care professionals)
people who are critical to the COVID-19 response (for example, people who work at COVID-19 testing sites, people who process COVID-19 specimens at laboratories)
people who are essential to maintaining a functional society (for example, first responders)
older adults and people who have chronic illnesses and are at the highest risk for developing severe illness from COVID-19
We will look to recommendations from the National Academies(link is external) and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices(link is external), and gather input from organizations and partners across Vermont, to determine what these groups will be in Vermont.
Ensuring Equitable Access
When a COVID-19 vaccine is more widely available, we will work closely with the health care providers, pharmacies, and others who will provide the vaccine in Vermont, to ensure access across the state. We will also collaborate with community organizations and other partners to make sure people who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, including Black, Indigenous and people of color, have equitable access to the vaccine.
Sharing Information with Vermonters
We are committed to sharing ongoing updates with Vermonters as we make plans for vaccine distribution, and as we learn more about strategies at the national level. Below you will find our draft interim COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan for Vermont. For a quick look at the plan, read the executive summary.
WRITTEN BY
Follow | https://medium.com/@hadil16-c/asthe-world-awaits-the-results-of-covid-19-vaccine-clinical-trials-we-need-to-invest-now-in-3979c1fad608 | ['Hadil C'] | 2020-11-25 19:30:13.451000+00:00 | ['Vacation', 'Life', 'Singapore', 'Social Media', 'Sports'] |
Some Basic concept of React | #1. What is Virtual DOM and How it works?
Sometimes we need to update our UI. In DOM API we have to think in a complex way to update the UI. But In React API(which convert to DOM API) we can easily update our UI. Because In DOM API the updates are created an effect on the whole DOM tree. On other hand, React saves the previous version of the UI DOM tree somewhere in memory. when we tell react to update an element on UI then it creates another DOM tree. After creating two DOM trees React compares the difference between them, then React changes only the different areas and without affecting the Whole DOM tree it updates the target element. Here the created DOM trees by React is called Virtual DOM. The virtual DOM is a programming concept where an ideal, or “virtual”, representation of a UI is kept in memory and synced with the “real” DOM by a library such as ReactDOM. This process is called reconciliation.
#2. What is a Component in React?
In React, We create components to describe the UI. Components are just like simple JavaScript Function. We can call JavaScript function with some input and they give us the output. In the same way, the components are works the input is a set of “props” and the output is a description of UI. We can create small components or large components. Components are reusable, composable, and stateful. there are two types of components. These are Class-based Components and Function based Components. We can create and use both types of components.
Function-based component example:
Class-based Component example:
You can use any name for both types of components.
#3. What is JSX?
You have seen examples of the components above. There you might notice how I wrote what looks like HTML in the returned output of the List Function that is JSX. JSX stands for JavaScript XML. It allows us to write HTML to React. We can create React components without JSX, but that would be very complicated. Every developer uses JSX to develop a web application. Browsers did not support JSX.
#4. What is Babel?
Babel is a transpiler, transpiler means A compiler that translates one form of syntax into another. Babel transpile JSX into React.createElement(). React internally use Babel for transpile JSX. if we write Function like this —
When the function gets rendered In React DOM, the above function will translate like :
#5. What are the props?
“props” stands for properties. React component can receive a list of attributes by a React element is known as “props”. In a React component “props” behave like an object. we can destructure the “props” as an object. to passing the data we can add attributes with component like below:
We can add as many attributes as we need even we can pass an array or object to a React component.
#6. What is Hook in React?
In 2019, React introduce the Hook in React 16.8 version. After introducing hooks Functional components of React become stateful, In the old version of React, the functional components are stateful. But now we can control the state in the Functional component with React hooks. using a hook means a call to a special function. Every React hooks have a prefix called “use” such as useState, useEffect, useCallback, etc. We can manage state, side effect, and so on with Hook
#7. How does useState() work?
useState() is a hook. Hooks are only usable in Functional components, We can not use them in Class-based component. Because the Class-based component has its own features for managing state. useState give us two elements one for initial value and another is a function for set new Value which will replace the initial value. we have to place it before return to the functional components. We can use it like declare a variable.
We can use Numbers, Strings, objects, or any type of JavaScript values as an initial value and any name for the value.
#8. How does useEffect() work?
useEffect manage the side effect of a functional component. In other words, After or before the calls to the functional components the useEffect prepares data for those components. besides, useEffect is called on when its dependencies are changed. useEffect takes two arguments one is a callback function and another is a dependency array. useEffect call the callback function when React updates the dependencies. if you want to know the details you can visit this link.
#9. What are the Benefits of React components?
There are many benefits of React components if we use the React library. React components are reusable. So we can share the component with the different React projects. It’s a good practice that We always create a reusable component. Using components source looks clean and readable. it’s a good sign of a professional web developer. components will not be so large. If we create small components it will more reusable, composable and we can test it easily. We can create large components by using a combination of small components. besides small components are more shareable. Sometimes we need to create the same components but different in data. we can create a list of data then map over the data for the same component. Every iteration of the map will pass one data to the component and a component will get the data by “props”. we don’t need to repeat the same component with different data, the map() function will do that for us. its biggest benefits of components…
#10. How to write JavaScript Expression in JSX?
Many times we need to write JavaScript code in JSX. React allows us to write JavaScript code in JSX. With a pair of curly braces, we can add JavaScript Expression in JSX. We have to keep in mind that JavaScript Expression has to return something. we can use the ternary expression in those curly braces but can’t use normal if-statements. | https://shahin-cmt2.medium.com/some-basic-concept-of-react-ff6ac645104a | [] | 2020-11-05 00:22:41.121000+00:00 | ['Reactjs', 'Basic Concept', 'React Basic', 'React'] |
Top Crypto News Aggregators: How do they compare? | Crypto is a niche industry, and at times the ones who have stayed around are woven into using what is most familiar to them. But as the market begins to turn the ticker up, we should expect the tools we use, and especially the media we consume, to adapt and change being replaced by better tools. In this article, we are going to take a look at crypto news aggregator websites and see what is considered unique at this juncture. We have ranked them based on their Alexa ranking the top 3 news aggregator websites we have discovered.
1) Cryptopanic.com
Alexa ranking: 42,519 (April 23rd, 2019)
Cryptopanic can be considered the number one crypto news aggregator on the market. Their focus is aggregating news sources and media sources. Their news is also ranked by when it is released being updated by the minute, while their media section showcases videos releases from youtube influencers. You can comment under their thread or even vote up or down. Although those features can give a crowd sentiment score, the need for more people to participate can only showcase results more accurately.
News and media all in one place from around the crypto market
One interesting feature allows users to create polls and discuss results or topics from those polls in the comments. Although their UI has its limitations, they have a lot of data feed. Cryptopanic is available both via desktop and mobile, which includes a paid pro-version plan.
2) Coinlib.io
Alexa Ranking: 56,847 (April 23nd, 2019)
Coinlib news aggregator can be considered simple, but it fits nicely with their portfolio management tools. You can star coins, keep track of your portfolio by connecting to 8 live exchanges with more to come in future developments. With both a desktop and app version available they look to be aiming to be an all in one portfolio management tool.
Star coins you want to see news for or search according to your interests
With the news coming in from order of release, you can click and read the summary or go into the news source link to read the full article. Coinlib has both a desktop and mobile app versions are free to use if you don’t mind ignoring ads.
3) Cryptocontrol.io
Alexa ranking: 235,090 (April 23rd, 2019)
Cryptocontrol aggregates news and social media. Their news looks to have less aggregated sources compared to the likes of cryptopanic, but one unique feature allows you to select a coin to see the social media news feed. Currently, they have Reddit and Twitter available for this feature, including Google (although at the time of writing, this article the Google feed is not working).
Displays aggregate social media via 51 coins to choose from
From their terminal icon, they are venturing into similar realms to Coinlib of becoming a portfolio management application allowing you to connect to exchanges and utilize trading tools. Although the lowest ranking aggregator from out top 3 list, there is potential here. They have both desktop and mobile app with a premium version to upgrade for a paid plan
So how does CryptoMood compare?
CryptoMood’s core product is showcasing the sentiment mood score of each news and social media posts by utilizing machine learning to accurately display the public’s mood. In addition to other news aggregators, we showcase headline news (news posted in the most news channels) and trending news, the most viewed in a short period of time.
We are also striving to present the best design and UX allowing ease for our users to navigate and get their determined readings. As we develop and add more feeds we look to jump into the aggregated market. One thing is for sure, we are proud of our sentiment analysis scores and look to be a leader in mood predictions for the foreseeable future.
You can try CryptoMood today by downloading our app on Google Play or IOS. You can also plan your charts by using our Pro Desktop version at pro.cryptomood.com. Don’t forget to join our Telegram and signup to our Newsletter to get more updates from us as we keep improving our application’s experience.
All the best,
Cryptomood Team | https://medium.com/@cryptomood/top-crypto-news-aggregators-how-do-they-compare-83bc3a381826 | [] | 2019-04-26 13:33:59.767000+00:00 | ['Investment', 'Sentiment Analysis', 'Social Media', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain'] |
BlackFin Tech Weekly — December 14th | Airbnb’s long-awaited IPO finally took place last week… and the company surprised everybody with a crazy valuation! Indeed, Airbnb opened at $146 on its first day trading, up from its $68 IPO price: even its CEO Brian Chesky couldn’t hide his shock. This also led Affirm, Inc. & Roblox to postpone their IPO until next year citing Airbnb’s price surge as a sign of mispricing risk. And who would want to leave money on the table, right?
And, closer to home, EU fintech deals came in strong too last week totalling €326m raised across 15 deals, including one of our own!
We are indeed proud to co-lead Modularbank’s €4m Series A alongside Karma Ventures and Plug and Play as well as star business angel Ott Kaukver (ex CTO of Twilio). Created in 2018 in Tallinn, Estonia, Modularbank has developed a cloud-based banking platform enabling traditional banks, fintechs but also non-financial institutions to deliver suitable financial services to their customers. If you want to know more about our investment thesis, feel free to read our article right here!
After this quick bout of self-promotion, let’s go back to European deals! Geography-wise, the UK leads the week once again with 5 deals, followed by Germany with 4 deals, Spain with 2 deals, and France, Sweden, Estonia and the Netherlands with 1 deal each.
Sub-sector wise, there were 7 deals in Banktech, 5 in Insurtech, 1 in Wealth Management, 1 in Payments and 1 in another Fintech sector related to blockchain.
Let’s dive in:
Made with ❤ by BlackFin Tech
Tink raises another €85m round:
This round was co-led by new investor Eurazeo Growth and Dawn Capital, with PayPal Ventures, HMI Capital, Heartcore Capital, ABN AMRO Ventures, Poste Italiane, and Opera Tech Ventures, also participating.
The post-money valuation was €680m.
Created in 2012, the Swedish open banking platform has raised a total amount of $308.5m.
The company already links up 3400 banks, covering some 250 million people, with partners including PayPal or BNP Paribas. Moreover, 8000 developers are using its APIs.
The new funds will be used to expand furthermore its networks of banks and payment services in Europe.
Luko raises a €50m Series B:
This round was led by EQT Ventures, alongside existing investors Accel; Founders Fund and Speedinvest also participating.
Created in 2016, Luko is a French insurtech selling home insurance products. Its customer base jumped from 15 000 last year to 100 000 today.
It currently operates as a broker, which means it collects premiums for an insurer, while getting a cut, typically somewhere between 20 and 30%. If the insurer makes a profit at the end of year, a positive technical result, Luko gets a share of this, which, as a B Corp, it gives to an NGO of its choosing. This highlights the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility to the company and its management.
Today, the company employs 85 people and plans to expand beyond France at the same time Lemonade set foot in this market.
Congrats also to Gohenry, Cleo, Outfund, Hellogetsafe, Finn.auto, Simplesurance, Battleface, Upvest, Asistensi, Payaut, Net Purpose and Bit2me! | https://medium.com/blackfintech/blackfin-tech-weekly-december-14th-ca1e56cd244e | ['Romain Grimal'] | 2020-12-14 10:28:48.152000+00:00 | ['Fundraising', 'Fintech', 'Bftw', 'Startup', 'Venture Capital'] |
The Importance of Last-Mile Delivery for your E-commerce Business and how WareIQ always “Delivers” | Processing and delivering an online order isn’t as direct as it sounds. Once an order is placed, it goes through several stages in the supply chain before the delivery is complete. One of the most important and the final step of this process is “Last-mile delivery”. It involves dispatching the products to the end customers.
Last Mile Delivery
Ultimately it is the last-mile delivery that determines if the product reaches the customer safely and on time, and this doesn’t come cheap. A report from Frost & Sullivan estimates that up to 40% of total logistics costs can be associated with the last mile. Given the importance of the last-mile in the supply chain, businesses including the e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart have been investing their resources to address these key challenges.
How exactly does the last-mile impact your business?
The last-mile carriers generally work towards delivering the product from an intermediate shipping centre to the final destination. There are a lot of things that can go wrong in this phase that can impact your brand and the overall profits. Some of the major issues businesses can encounter in last-mile delivery include-
Return of orders and the rising cost of logistics
While order cancellations are common in e-commerce, one of the major reasons for the return of orders by customers can happen due to the mistakes occurring in the last-mile of delivery. Delayed deliveries, inability to track the packages properly, delivery of damaged goods and misplacing orders- all of them can lead to higher returns. Most of these mishaps can happen due to the negligence of the 3PL partner or lack of technological capabilities that can prevent these issues. Return of orders increases your logistics cost further. They also affect your market share and customer loyalty.
According to a report by KPMG, up to 20% of the total e-commerce shipments are return orders. This shows the scale of the problem and how much costs can be saved by minimizing the same.
Return to Origin (RTO)
This is another major issue that sellers face. It simply refers to sending back the order to the seller when it cannot be delivered to the customer. This can happen due to wrong addresses mentioned in the order or when the customer is not present/denies to accept the order, etc. Such incidents can lead to additional reshipping costs.
Unable to address the rising demand in tier 2 and 3 cities
With better internet connectivity, e-commerce demands have been rapidly rising in tier 2 and 3 cities of India. The last-mile delivery in this case presents its own unique challenges. The fulfilment centre of your 3PL partner might be far from the delivery location. The interconnectivity between them can affect delivery speeds. Flipkart and Amazon are trying to solve this by partnering with local retail owners and creating pickup points from where the customers can collect their order. Remote locations are even difficult to handle.
Not meeting customer expectations
Given the benchmarks that e-commerce giants like Amazon set, customers tend to expect the same elsewhere. They expect fast deliveries and may not care about the complications that can happen in the last mile. For example, harsh weather conditions, or a local lockdown can disrupt the delivery timelines. Customers also expect durability in their deliveries. They seek flexible timings and cheaper costs at their end- like the Amazon prime free delivery. Such a level of service is almost impossible without optimising the supply chain in the last-mile.
What can you do to improve your supply chain?
With a growing fragmented market, there is a lot of unpredictability in the supply and demand trends. Having a decentralized inventory stored across multiple warehouses and demand centres across the country can cater to such dynamic markets. Data-driven and analytics-based solutions can further help with business intelligence and are vital to understanding these trends better. They can guide businesses with smart inventory placement, cost optimization, etc.
Having better order tracking solutions will be beneficial to both customers and businesses by ensuring that the orders are not misplaced or rerouted at any stage and are delivered on time.
How WareIQ is able to solve the challenges in last-mile deliveries?
The distance of the final shipping centre from your customers’ location is one of the major factors that can determine how fast the last mile delivery can be performed. The closer the fulfilment centre is to the final delivery location, the faster it can be delivered. It also implies that you will be travelling a lesser distance to make that delivery, saving some transportation cost. The math is direct, and this directly affects the volume and costs involved in handling your return orders too.
WareIQ is able to bring your inventory closer to your customer with its PAN-India fulfilment network. For example, Organic Riot, a consumer brand was able to leverage this network to perform a 2-day delivery to over 85% of their orders. This was only 22% earlier when they shipped through their central warehouse. With WareIQ handling the logistics, the return rate was reduced to just 3 per cent.
In another instance, a prominent D2C brand faced a high RTO rate (25–30%) due to various last-mile challenges like non-verified COD orders, fake delivery attempts by courier partners, and slower speed. WareIQ enabled COD and NDR verification through automated SMS and IVR calls to prevent these issues. It was also possible to bring their inventory closer to demand centres using the fulfilment network in metros. This resulted in a reduction in the RTO rate to just 6%.
Conclusion
Last-mile delivery is one of the most discussed topics among e-commerce brands due to the high costs it incurs and the scope for innovation. As such, optimising it with the help of modern-day technologies is important to stay ahead in the e-commerce race.
Some of the key metrics to track in this context include the rate of return of orders, failures and delays in deliveries and RTO. With its multifaceted nationwide network of fulfilment centres, WareIQ is a proven solution that can help you deliver your orders faster. | https://medium.com/@wareiq/the-importance-of-last-mile-delivery-for-your-e-commerce-business-and-how-wareiq-always-delivers-70fc6bceb02d | [] | 2020-12-19 04:53:29.946000+00:00 | ['Courier', 'Shipping', 'Customer Service', 'Last Mile Delivery', 'Supply Chain'] |
Your First Credit Card | Your first credit card can be exciting and for some, scary. People who have seen their family overspend and the negative consequences may feel apprehensive about getting a credit card, and if they do, they may not want to use it.
These fears however, should not become a barrier toward you getting a credit card and learning to be responsible with it, instead of using it to spend a ton every month when you’re 30 and becoming irresponsible with it.
I would suggest getting your first credit card when you’re 17 or 18-years-old. The reason is, you want to do it before you buy your first car or need to buy your first home and there is time between the time you turn 17 or 18 and the time you buy either one. If you are a minor you will need your parents to cosign the credit card since you are not yet an adult but as long as they are willing to do so you can easily get a credit card at the bank you have an account with. You could get your first card as young as 13 if, once again, your parents cosign however I wouldn’t recommend that because you’re really young and that is a lot of responsibility for the average 13-year-old.
https://www.moneyunder30.com/when-how-get-first-credit-card
A lot of adults in, 1 in 10 actually, are credit invisible, meaning they have no record of borrowing money and that makes them a high risk person to give a loan to as they don’t have a credit history someone can look into.
If you ever want to borrow money to buy a house, a car or open your first business having a credit history is very important.
I didn’t have to show any information to my bank when I got my first card, but I had been with them for all of my teenage years so they had a record of my money spending habits and I got my first basic credit card with them. I did eventually switch banks and you can read about why in this article:
I still have the credit card with them however and I keep it because even though I don’t get cashback I don’t have to worry about an exorbitant amount of fees.
The biggest piece of advice I ever heard was, don’t think of a credit card like you’re rolling in newfound money. Think of a credit card “as a second bank card. Make purchases on a credit card you would make in your average day to day life”. This has been my mantra and while I may underuse it some I have gotten a bit better. I now try to use it for monthly bill payments for school, such as Adobe Creative Cloud, and at the start of school to pay for books, software and anything else I may need for school. Then when I need to pay my credit card off again the next month I pay it all down.
Some people say pay the minimum off and to carry credit over every month. That is not something that helps your credit score. It doesn’t hurt it as long as you pay off the minimum every month, but it isn’t something that helps your credit.
Also, make sure to actually use the card. There is no point in having the card if you don’t use it.
If you know you would never get a pair of hundred dollar sneakers without a credit card, don’t get them just because you have a credit card. Use it to buy groceries, pay a light bill, that sort of thing. | https://medium.com/@katkell97/your-first-credit-card-6ae6600b0bde | ['Kathleen Kelley'] | 2020-12-11 23:58:41.508000+00:00 | ['First Credit Card', 'Credit', 'Credit Cards', 'Money Management', 'Financial Responsibility'] |
Lighting up the post-COVID-19 era with human-centric design | Photo by kimi lee on Unsplash
Combating the pandemic in a million ways, and yet progressing. That’s how resilient the human race is. It is already thinking of the post COVID-19 era. And why not? We are hopeful beings who have strong survival instincts. The strength of our species is reflected in our actions. While one half of the world is busy in saving ‘us’, the other half is redirecting its energy and resources towards building a -new –tomorrow-.
Lighting is an essential element of this future living; it is deeply experiential and influences how one functions and feels. Lighting design in post coronavirus times will undergo a revolutionary change to complement spatial design. Every aspect of living will encounter a lifestyle transformation, from eating habits, to education, travel, communication, fashion, to most essentially working scenarios. This mammoth task at hand is the only ray of hope that unites us today in resurrecting our planet. Utopia is now!
There is a surge in researches on the psychological impact of this dreadful pandemic. After a century, the human race is being attacked by the unknown. While we are giving it a tough fight, we are also undergoing a humongous change in our perception. We are witnessing a paradigm shift in our perception of our very existence. This is leading to the emergence of the ‘happiness quotient’. The thought of running on the green grass, hugging your loved ones, walking the corridors of our workplace, are more precious than the materialistic notions of driving that posh car, or sitting on that business class seat.
The pandemic’s economic fallout will redirect all the construction funds to other avenues, but only momentarily. The design of cities, buildings, and spaces will now be guided by the principles of ‘smart working’. Hence, the design fraternity must brace itself for the next level of innovation for achieving smart spaces.
This unprecedented pandemic is an eye opener in many ways. It questions our years of medical research and scientific knowledge. Evidently, a healthy body and a sound mind is on a winning streak. Let’s not forget that no matter how dreadful it may sound, we are hopeful beings. It’s time to boost our health and emotional well-being and reconstruct the idea of living. Calibrating the response to our physical and psychological needs, we stumble upon an ideology of ‘comfort’. Design as a mantra for elevated experiences can transform our dwelling units into comfort zones. Be it the co-working spaces, or the dinner table of your favorite eatery, a meeting room, or even the most private space like your bathroom — the need of the hour is to rebuild these spaces with a high level of safety and comfort to allow the body and mind to recuperate.
Building upon this hypothesis that these identified features will be the mandatory criteria of lighting design starting today, we can move forward in ideating their application in the main spatial zones.
High happiness quotient
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) enabled smart spaces
Visual comfort for both physiological + emotional well being
Work Spaces: In the past few years, the lighting industry has done plenty of R&D to deliver AI-enabled lighting. It uses advanced sensors to reduce human intervention and more advanced controls. Post-Coronavirus era is a perfect launch pad for implementing this technology. We need to design safer work spaces with almost no human interaction with the switches. We are even using mobile devices, tablets and AI assistants like Alexa to operate the luminaire and other services. Lighting design must support individual needs for maximum visual comfort. To achieve this, lighting companies have already rolled out wireless control gears and Bluetooth-enabled luminaires. Predictive lighting by learning and replicating human cognitive behavior can be effective in building sustainable systems and personalization. IoT enabled AI will create intelligent buildings, which will soon get connected to the cloud. Fever detecting systems are being extensively installed at airports, work spaces, supermarkets during these COVID-19 times. The urgency is to combine all this intelligence into one robust system for a safer, healthier and happier work place.
Living: Homes are not just homes anymore, the abode is transformed into mini offices with Audio Visual tools, a playground for kids to release their pent up energy, a gym for exercise and meditation, a relaxed haven for cooking and dining, a home theater and much more. Each space demanding a specific functional requirement and visual comfort for an invigorating experience. Lighting manufacturers are introducing flexible lighting systems in homes that include track lighting, channels which can house different modules, and modular lighting structures that can extended across the span of the room. Innovation in achieving an ultimate level of miniaturization of fixtures is valuable in accomplishing personalization. The challenge for lighting designers is to create a conducive environment for us to love, learn, perceive and emote. Finally home will be home.
Museum, Art Galleries, Exhibitions: Reminiscing a narrative from the past or appreciating the artistry of today; these experiences stimulate our imagination at different levels. Advanced lighting can play the most significant role in this scenario. It provides orientation, thus managing the movement of the visitors, guiding and leading them while controlling the gathering. AI and IoT enabled lighting systems can revolutionize the experience, while also taking care of conservation, security and communication. The museums and galleries are increasingly adding a virtual viewing platform, which requires capturing the content realistically in a glare- free environment, thus increasing the demand for luminaires with advanced optics. Be ready to witness the visual metamorphosis in the representation of art and history hereon. Storytelling will surpass the usual.
Hospitality and Public Spaces: These industries will initially require hand holding after the pandemic is over. After the distressing lockdown is lifted, the need for revitalizing will drive travel. These industries will add a new value proposition of ‘safety from germs’. Here, AI will again play a crucial role in reducing human interaction and increasing personalization. They will try to increase the ‘happiness quotient’ by creating exhilarating moments, visual delights, and soulful imagery. Augmented reality and projection (through mapping, lighting, and drones) hold limitless possibilities. We can harness these technologies to create immersive experiences by using illumination as a compelling narrative tool.
While all this sounds good, yet I am compelled to ask this question.
Will the world restart from where it left off?
Initially yes, but will eventually have to implement a disruptive design thinking process in re-framing the problems in human-centric ways. It will empower us to solve future global crisis.
The learnings from this biological invasion compels us to shift our attention to our healthcare systems. They need to be reimagined in the post-COVID-19 era. We, the designers, architects and stakeholders must collectively work towards building the new Guggenheims and Burj Khalifas, except that they will be hospitals. Imagine being admitted to the ICU in the building that feels like the World Trade Centre, or maybe to the general ward of an architectural landmark like the Milwaukee Art Museum. The experience will definitely help alleviate some of the physical pain. The lighting industry will have to step up to offer advanced solutions for creating a comforting experience in the hospitals, which will increase the efficiency of the medical staff and reduces their strain.
The vision for post quarantine is daring us, pushing us to revamp our rusted thought process. It is time to wake up to the new possibilities. Future demands re-thinking.
While this is a global apocalypse, this too shall pass. The harrowing darkness will be repossessed with brightness. Yet, this time we will illuminate the post-Covid-19 world in a human-centric way. | https://medium.com/@vinishree/lighting-up-the-post-covid-19-era-with-human-centric-design-4022efc1c75f | [] | 2020-05-03 13:38:49.462000+00:00 | ['Lighting', 'Lighting Design', 'Covid 19', 'Interior Design', 'Architecture'] |
Is Zillow Making Money? — Market Mad House | Investors ask is Zillow making money because the real estate information platform is flipping houses. In fact, hedge fund legend Steve Eisman tells Bloomberg he is shorting Zillow Group (NASDAQ: ZG) because it flips houses.
“My largest short is a company called Zillow,” Eisman says. “The reason why I think it’s an interesting short is they entered into a new business out of their basic business of being an internet platform company. Where they’re going and buying houses and flipping them.”
To clarify, the platform is testing a service it calls Zillow Offers in cities like St. Paul, Minnesota, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports. In the service, Zillow buys select houses and resells them through a local real estate agent.
Interestingly, Eisman has long held an interest in the dangers of house-flipping. In fact, Michael Lewis’s book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine depicts Eisman’s bets against mortgage-backed securities before the great meltdown of 2008. Moreover, Eisman is the basis for Steve Carell’s character in the movie The Big Short.
Is Steve Eisman Right about Zillow?
I think Eisman’s belief is that Zillow will buy large numbers of houses it cannot sell for a good price. In particular, rundown homes, underwater houses, and properties in markets where real estate is not selling.
Moreover, flipping could increase Zillow’s operating expenses beyond what it can afford. To explain, Zillow will have to pay the property taxes on all those homes and pay to maintain them if they do not sell. In addition, Zillow could have the expense of renting out all the homes it cannot unload.
Therefore, I think Zillow Offers looks like the flipping schemes of the 2000s, which assume there will always be a market for homes. Obviously, the Mortgage Crisis proves that belief is delusional.
Hence, I think Eisman is right about Zillow and competitors like Redfin, Knock, OfferPad, and Opendoor. Unfortunately, Zillows’s 15 May 2019 share price; $38.28, shows some investors are falling prey to that delusion.
Does Zillow Make Money?
Thus, we need to ask does Zillow make money because the flipping looks like the act of a management desperate for cash.
Correspondingly, Zillow did not make money last year. In fact, Yahoo! Finance gives Zillow an operating loss of -$45.628 million and a net loss of -$119.858 million for 2018.
Moreover, Zillow reports a gross profit of $1.180 billion on revenues of $1.334 billion for 2018. In addition, Zillow recorded just $3,850 in cash from operations on December 31, 2018. Meanwhile, Zillow lost -$622.639 million in total cash from investing and saw its cash from accounts receivables fall by $12.556 million in 2018.
How will Zillow Finance its Flipping?
Therefore, people are buying stock in a company that loses money on its investments that is expanding its investing activities. Ben Graham was right “Mr. Market is insane.”
Moreover, it is not clear how Zillow will pay the houses to buy to flip. For instance, Zillow had just $651,058 in cash and equivalents, $66,083 in receivables, and $903,867 in short-term investments on 31 December 2018. Hence, Zillow had assets of $1.892 billion at the end of 2018.
Consequently, I think the only ways Zillow can finance the flips are to borrow money or issue collateralized debt. Thus, Zillow is adopting the business model that led to the mortgage catastrophe of 2007 to 2008.
How Zillow will Collapse?
Unfortunately, it will be easy for Zillow to borrow money or issue bonds to finance its ridiculous flipping scheme. Not surprisingly, Eisman predicts the bond market will collapse and bring down companies like Zillow with it.
“You will see big losses in things like Triple B corporate debt, high yield, etc.,” Eisman predicts. “But you need a recession first.”
Sadly under these circumstances, Zillow could get away with its flipping scheme and even make money from it for a few years. However, the minute there is a recession, an interest rate hike, or a drop in real-estate prices Zillow will stop making money and collapse.
How Flipping Hurts Average People
Worst of all, flipping hurts average people by driving up real estate prices. To explain, Zillow can offer high prices for houses because it can borrow lots of money at a low interest rate.
Consequently, average people get priced out of the housing market. Furthermore, Zillow or its creditors could get stuck with large numbers of houses they cannot unload.
Flippers could dump all those homes on the market at once and drive down housing prices. Notably, such dumping will drive down property values and hurt average people, especially seniors that need to sell homes to raise cash.
I think this could create terrible pain because there are millions of seniors; or Baby Boomers, with big mortgages and no retirement savings. Many of those seniors will have to sell their homes to raise cash because they have “nothing but Social Security” to live on. However, those seniors may receive a pittance for their homes after the flippers get done.
Is it Time to Ban Flipping?
Zillow Offers proves it could be time for the federal government to ban real estate flipping.
We should examine a ban on property flipping because the alternative is for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. To explain, the Federal Reserve can put the brakes on an overheated economy by raising interest rates. If interest rates rise, lending becomes too expensive and people stop borrowing.
Thus, the Federal Reserve could drive Zillow and other flippers into bankruptcy overnight with an interest rate increase. An interest rate increase will destroy home values by making mortgages more expenses.
However, we could avoid the need for an interest rate increase by making flipping illegal. An obvious way to achieve that is to ban home ownership by corporations. Another could be a 90% or 95% tax on home sales by corporations.
Finally, Zillow’s actions could violate antitrust laws. Consequently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) could have the authority to pull the plug on Zillow Offers before it hurts anybody.
Zillow is the anti-platform
I, like Eisman consider Zillow an anti-platform or un-platform, despite the seven billion views, management claims Zillow had in 2018. To explain, Zillow turns the platform business model upside down.
Ideally, a platform makes money and builds value by charging users for access to a good or service. However, Zillow reverses that by giving a service; real estate listings, away for free.
Consequently, Zillow is a great deal for the 195 million monthly visitors and 32 million people searching doe rental units, Expandedramblings estimates it had in March 2019. In addition, Zillow is a superb deal for the two million real estate agents that reportedly use it.
In fact, Zillow visitors could view about 110 million homes in March 2019, Expandedramblings estimates. Moreover, visitors viewed 186 homes a second on Zillow on 5 November 2014.
How Zillow Hurts Communities and Journalism
However, Zillow is a lousy deal for investors; who get stuck with the tab, and communities.
To clarify, platforms like Zillow make it impossible for local information platforms like newspapers to make money. To elaborate, real estate listings are a major source of revenue for newspapers. However, nobody looks at classifieds today because far more information is available online for free.
Consequently, newspapers lose money and end up shutting down newsrooms and laying off journalists. For instance, people lost over 2,400 media jobs in one city; New York, alone in March 2019, Business Insider estimates. Moreover, New York lost 5,000 media jobs between 2014 and 2017, Business Insider calculates.
How Zillow Hurts News
Outside New York, 41 newsroom employees of The Cleveland Plain Dealer lost their jobs on 15 March 2019. Business Insider reports those jobs are besides the 29 newsroom layoffs scheduled for May 2019.
Plus, The McClatchy Company; which owns newspapers like The Miami Herald and The Kansas City Star, will offer voluntary buyouts to 450 journalists this year. Meanwhile, GateHouse Media, one of the largest local newspaper publishers in America is eliminating an unknown number of jobs. Finally, The Dallas Morning News cut 43 newsroom jobs on 7 January 2019, The Columbia Journalism Review reports.
Therefore, the news is unreported because the people who were reporting it are driving for Uber or studying for their real estate exams. Consequently, transparency disappears from local, and increasingly state government, because nobody is covering politicians’ and bureaucrats’ activities.
Zillow Stock is Worthless stay away from it
In the final analysis, Zillow (NASDAQ: ZG) stock is junk investors should stay away from. For instance, Zillow loses money, pays no dividend, and I think Mr. Market overvalued it at $38.28 a share on 15 May 2019.
Consequently, Steve Eisman is right about Zillow. The only value in this stock is in your ability to short it. | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/is-zillow-making-money-market-mad-house-36d5baef9755 | ['Daniel G. Jennings'] | 2019-05-16 07:06:48.071000+00:00 | ['Economics', 'Economy', 'Mortgage', 'Real Estate', 'Stocks'] |
PFX Graphics — Portfolio | I am a New Delhi, India based Graphic Designer. I love creating cool stuffs that people love to see and they can feel, what is going on. If you are searching for a Graphic Designer in Delhi or Graphic Designer near me, you caught the right place!
Here are some of my work that I have done previously, See how it is I always welcome constructive criticism that actually helped me to learn a lot of things in my life. Feel free to comment or email me on [email protected]
Instagram Post Design by PFX Graphics
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Instagram Post Design by PFX Graphics | https://medium.com/@pfxgraphics/pfx-graphics-portfolio-ce86550bcbe6 | ['Pfx Graphics'] | 2020-12-26 07:16:36.656000+00:00 | ['Pfx Graphics Pricing', 'Graphic Design', 'Pfx Graphics Portfolio', 'Pfx Graphics', 'Pfx Graphics Works'] |
What will autonomous vehicles be named in the future? | On August 5th, 1888, a 39-year-old woman named Bertha left her house with her two teenage sons, ages thirteen and fifteen. She left her husband a note on the kitchen table that she was going to her mother for a few days. What he didn’t know at the time is that she had gone into his workshop and taken his new invention — the Benz Patent-Motorwagen model III.
Bertha’s husband, Karl Benz, finished work on his first horseless carriage in December 1885 and filed for a patent in 1886. He had great engineering skills but lacked the business skills to leverage his invention. He wasn’t sure who would want to buy his invention and had difficulty proving its efficiency and reliability. Bertha bravely and enthusiastically stood by his side: she supported her husband in many ways, recognized the importance of his invention, and firmly believed that it would be a success. The only thing lacking was the definite proof that the vehicle was reliable and could also master long-distance routes.
The Benz Patent-Motorwagen Number 3 of 1886, used by Bertha Benz
Bertha Benz decided to go on a lengthy test drive to encourage her husband and to prove to him the capability and sustainability of his invention — albeit without telling him about it beforehand. She already had a destination: Pforzheim, Germany, her hometown.
The journey was a complete success. Not only did they complete the 106 km drive in just under 12 hours, Bertha also invented some improvements along the way like the world’s first pair of brake pads, and suggested adding an additional gear for climbing hills. But the main purpose of her trip was to show that her husband’s work can be made useful to the general public and that even a woman with two young children can complete this never-done-before journey. She returned home to Mannheim a few days later, followed by a crowd of amazed reporters and curious people.
The novel trip received a great deal of publicity, as she had sought. The drive was a key event in the technical development of the automobile. The pioneering couple introduced several improvements after Bertha’s experiences. Her trip proved to the burgeoning automotive industry that test drives were essential to their business.
Fast forward 130 years later: the automotive industry is on a breach of a new era, the autonomous vehicles, or self-driving cars. Not many know, but what we call today a “car” went through many different names along its history. In the beginning, they were called horseless wagons or horseless carriages, just because all carriages until then were pulled by horses. As like other new technologies, such as wireless phone that are at first compared to the old one by describing what the new one does not have. The lack of need of horses to travel caused a mind shift and new names were given to this incredible motor car. Automobile is the term still used in Germany and other places around the world, while other countries used to call it auto car or motor car.
This will be the same for self-driving cars. The lack of a person driving the car will become redundant soon enough. Thus, a new name will arise, and it won’t refer to a human driver.
What do you think it will be?
Write your suggestions in the comments below! | https://medium.com/@mzdanziger/what-will-autonomous-vehicles-be-named-in-the-future-1bbbfa3d5ea7 | [] | 2020-11-24 21:04:53.536000+00:00 | ['Self Driving Cars', 'Autonomous Vehicles', 'Autonomous Cars'] |
Data Driven — How to Use Data to Supercharge Your Business | Patrick Beatty, Sr. Director, Strategic Product Analytics, Naspers -
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickleebeatty
Patrick Beatty, Senior Director, Strategic Product Analytics, Naspers
According to PwC’s Global Data and Analytics Survey, 52% of executives that intend to enter a new industry, service, or product offering by 2020 don’t feel they can understand or manage their risks. Moreover, 61% of executives do not consider their organizations to be data-driven to help address these risks. These stark figures highlight the fact that in today’s business environment, if you aren’t data-driven, you are at a huge disadvantage relative to your competition. This plays out across organizations — if you don’t understand your customers, how can you build products to delight them and keep them coming back? If you don’t understand what interests your potential customers, how can you hope to market to them to get them in the door? If you don’t understand your unit economics, how can you effectively allocate resources? What is more, the impacts of being data-driven are even greater when you look at companies in emerging economies where systems may be less advanced and quality talent may be hard to retain due to a country’s “brain drain”. We talk with Patrick Beatty, our Senior Director of Strategic Product Analytics for his thoughts on creating a data-driven organization.
Q. We hear more and more about ‘data driven’ organizations, why is that?
A. It’s very straightforward — in today’s business environment, if you aren’t data-driven, you are at a huge disadvantage relative to your competition. If you don’t understand your customers, how can you build products to delight them and keep them coming back? If you don’t understand what interests your potential customers, how can you hope to market to them to get them in the door? If you don’t understand your unit economics, how can you effectively allocate resources? The list goes on. THE key question facing businesses of all sizes is how do you become data driven? Thankfully, the answer is a scalable solution comprised of three core steps: team, behavioral, and technical.
Q. Looking at the first of those, where do you start with building a data science team?
A. First of all, you have to get the structure right. Experience has shown me that there are too many ‘ivory tower’ data groups — and that just doesn’t work. It is essential to embed the data science team members across the organization, within the partner teams they are helping support as this keeps them close to the problems they are helping solve. However, while they are embedded, they need to report centrally to a technical leader, not within the partner team.
Once you have the right structure, you have to get your hiring right to fill the roles. The first hire should always be an experienced technical leader and mentor to lead the group, supplemented soon after with junior hires that can learn and have room to grow as the company grows. Across the board, the focus should be to hire for “scrappy”, collaborative, technical team members with a business and customer focus and desire to make an impact. What they do and can figure out is much more important than any school they have attended, so it’s vital to prioritize for a statistical and mathematical background requirement over business familiarity or a particular coding language.
Just hiring talent isn’t enough however, mentoring is critical to attracting and retaining top talent as well as running your organization well. Great mentors have the technical background to help grow their people, foster intelligent risk-taking, prioritize employee growth in a transparent and consistent way, adjust their style to their people, and actively set their people up to succeed and shine in impactful projects and work.
Q. So with your team in place, where do you focus next?
A. It is essential to get teams focused on the right, productive behaviors. Collaboration is the essence of an operationally strong company so that needs to be the first priority. One way to drive this home is the creation cross-functional groups (analysts, product, marketing, engineering, etc.) where analysts routinely collaborate with partners to understand priorities and impact.
Collaborating isn’t enough on its own. You have great communication, consistently provide reporting on how the company is performing towards its goals. Whatever you do has to be high quality, targeted and widespread, because while a lack of communication is often an issue, the problem can also be too much low-quality communication. So, while it is important to build new, quality tools to communicate insights, such as operational dashboards and predictive models that drive resource allocation, it is just as important to actively kill poor communications methods such as useless meetings and rote emails no-one reads. Good communication is clear, thoughtful, impactful, and actionable.
Underlying all this is a commitment to effective process from end to end. This starts with looping the data team into stakeholder initiatives right at the start to ensure success and time for to complete the project. Then you have to build effective team communications into the company’s ongoing processes — from the type and timing of mandatory team meetings, to standardized processes for follow-up on specific actions. The key is to set up processes so all involved know the purpose and outcomes for each part of the process so they can self-police the execution.
Q. What about the technical side of the equation?
A. The first thing I always focus on is data quality. “Garbage in, Garbage out” is not just a cute turn of phrase! Implementing quality data tracking and review has to be standard across the board, not just in more advanced areas like machine learning where clean data is essential. Fundamental sources of truth are crucial across an organization for it to run well. In addition, data needs to be standardized since there are many ways to measure things and each tracking tool may have its own definitions. The data and analytics teams should own the setting of common definitions to make insightful, useful, and actionable business decisions with all groups.
Next up is automation of data and processes to alleviate low-value work and increase efficiency and scale across the organization. Anything manual that is done repeatedly is a great candidate for automation, as is integration of data across systems. Even in Silicon Valley, it is surprising how much mindless work people do, when they could automate much of it away and use their skills on higher value-add work.
Once you have the right foundations in place, you can focus on innovation. Ultimately, encouraging and enabling intelligent risk taking and creativity to problem solve and using the appropriate tools is how data science teams deliver maximum business impact. The key is to empower people to feel safe to take risks if they have done their homework with evidence and can support their decisions. This allows speed in execution and autonomy that fosters leadership growth. Innovation is not only key to business success but to retaining talented team members.
Q. Any final thoughts?
A. If done well, becoming a data-driven business is almost certain to unlock your business potential and enable you to stay several steps ahead of your competition. Your business will be more agile relative to your competition, delight your customers, attract and retain high quality talent, and grow. Without being data-driven, you may still be executing, but without knowing whether your effort is going in the right places. Data science helps you crack the code! | https://medium.com/naspers/data-driven-how-to-use-data-to-supercharge-your-business-1a997384f612 | [] | 2019-06-18 11:34:14.147000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Data', 'Analytics'] |
The interview process for Turing is hard and that’s okay | I want to first start out by letting you know that this was not my interview process when I applied to the Turing School of Software & Design. This is an updated article with resources and links to help potential students. I didn’t have to submit a written GitHub gist or record a video of myself discussing why I wanted to go to Turing like this student. I got lucky when I applied because I went through a “fast lane” process when my friend who attended Turing referred me. My process was talking through some logic questions and a culture fit interview. Turing doesn’t have a “fast lane” process or the video submission anymore. Turing’s process changed because they got feedback and data from the students who attended that it needed to change. I didn’t know how much it changed until I mentored a potential student during their interview process, and for the first time, I heard of a potential student not getting accepted.
It’s hard to be rejected. It doesn’t matter if it’s school, job, or relationship(s), rejection is not always easy to take in. I was proud of my mentee, even though they were accepted to other coding boot camps their number one was Turing so they kept on trying.
So what are the next steps?
Today, there are two parts: a work history/resume, and a logic portion. Most people that apply to a coding boot camp assume that the logic portion is a coding challenge on websites such as Codewars or any of these examples, but it’s actually an LSAT logic test. Yes, the exam that students take to get into law school.
Why on Earth are you taking an exam that is designed for law students when you want to be a developer? Because they want to see how you can logically break down problems and your strategy to solve them. This portion of the interview process is key.
Key things to know about the logic portion
Practice, practice, practice. First, start out with this amazing video where Josh walks you through an LSAT logic test. During the logic portion, you will be timed, you’ll be asked to talk through your process (I like to call it your mental model), and afterward, you might be asked if you would do anything differently. Keep in mind that the interviewer may stop you during the test to ask you some clarifying questions. Do not worry, this can be really helpful to you during the tests.
If you’re more of an introvert than an extrovert, work on talking out loud with a friend on some LSAT logic problems.
If you can get overwhelmed with breaking the problem down into smaller pieces try some logic games on Brilliant.
If you have trouble with taking feedback. Take a moment to realize your emotions and be mindful that the interviewer is trying to help you so you don’t go down a rabbit hole.
I am so pleased to tell you that my mentee made it into Turing all because we worked on these hurdles together!
I hope this article helps other potential Turing students in the future. Feel free to leave any helpful comments. | https://medium.com/@sabrinarob/the-interview-process-for-turing-is-hard-and-thats-okay-e5377a60632e | ['Sabrina Robinson'] | 2019-04-17 02:54:51.797000+00:00 | ['Bootcamp', 'Web Development', 'Programming', 'Turing School'] |
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