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Basic CRUD API on Laravel 8 | Dalam dunia software development mungkin sudah tidak asing lagi di telinga kalian sebuah istilah yang satu ini yaitu API atau Application Programming Interface. Kali ini kita akan coba membuat API Create, Read, Update, dan Delete di salah satu framework php yaitu Laravel. Yang perlu kita siapkan adalah:
Php
Composer (dependency manager for php)
Web server
Text editor
Postman untuk testing
Oke kita langsung coding
Buat project baru dengan laravel, silahkan ke halaman https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/installation untuk cara membuat project. Buat routing api. Semua routing di laravel ada di folder project kita lalu ada folder namanya routes. Di laravel ada beberapa routing biasanya kalau aplikasi biasa itu kita taruh routing di web.php, karena kita akan buat api maka buka file api.php. Lalu coba lihat code dibawah:
...
use App\\Http\\Controllers\\ProductController; Route::get('/products', [ProductController::class, 'index']);
Route::post('/products', [ProductController::class, 'store']);
Route::get('/products/{id}', [ProductController::class, 'show']);
Route::patch('/products/{id}', [ProductController::class, 'update']);
Route::delete('/products/{id}', [ProductController::class, 'destroy']); ...
Code di atas adalah contoh dasar routing api pada 1 modul, disini kita coba buat module product. ada 5 route:
/products bertipe get, di pakai untuk menampilkan data dari product
/products bertipe post, di pakai untuk menambahkan data product baru
/products/{id} bertipe get, di pakai untuk menampilkan hanya product yang memiliki id yang di sematkan atau disebutkan di urlnya
/products/{id} bertipe patch atau bisa juga put, di pakai untuk mengubah data product dengan id yang telah di sematkan atau disebutkan di urlnya
/products/{id} bertipe delete, di pakai untuk untuk menghapus data product dengan id yang telah di sematkan atau disebutkan di urlnya
disebelahnya di dalam kurung siku adalah controller dan function yang akan di jalankan ketika routenya terpanggil.
3. Buat modul (model, controller, migration), disini kita buat memakai perintah di terminal ya, coba jalankan di terminal dan pastikan posisinya di folder project kalian.
php artisan make:model Product -a
perintah di atas akan mengenerate model, factory, migration, seeder, dan controller. Karena diakhir perintahnya kita tambahkan -a yang artinya all jadi ter-generate-lah semuanya tadi dalam satu perintah. Ini akan membantu kita dalam naming modul nya karena seperti di dalam migrationnya sudah tergenerate nama table ‘products’, model sudah menggunakan table ‘products’, dan controller sudah menggunakan model ‘Product’. EMEIZING-kan!!!
4. Silahkan edit product migration sesuai dengan kebutuhan kita. karenakita disini coba-coba. Jadi kita akan tambahkan saja kolom name, price, dan stock. lalu jalankan di terminal “php artisan migrate”
..... public function up()
{
Schema::create('products', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->id();
$table->string("name");
$table->integer("price");
$table->integer("stock");
$table->timestamps();
});
} .....
5. Edit app/models/Product.php, tambahkan variable fillable yang diisi dengan semua nama kolom yang kita ingin bisa masukan datanya lewat aplikasi kita, contoh code lihat di bawah.
..... class Product extends Model
{
use HasFactory;
/**
* The attributes that are mass assignable.
*
* @var array
*/
protected $fillable = [
'name',
'price',
'stock'
];
}
6. Edit app/Http/Controllers/ProductController.php. Ketika kita buka ProductController pasti sudah ada template function yang sudah dibuat. kita hanya akan edit function index, show, store, update, dan delete. Karena dasarnya function itu yang sering dipakai untuk api. Lihat code di bawah.
..... class ProductController extends Controller
{
/**
* Display a listing of the resource.
*
* @return \\Illuminate\\Http\\Response
*/
public function index()
{
return Product::all();
} /**
* Show the form for creating a new resource.
*
* @return \\Illuminate\\Http\\Response
*/
public function create()
{
//
} /**
* Store a newly created resource in storage.
*
* @param \\Illuminate\\Http\\Request $request
* @return \\Illuminate\\Http\\Response
*/
public function store(Request $request)
{
return Product::create([
'name' => $request->name,
'price' => $request->price,
'stock' => $request->stock,
]);
} /**
* Display the specified resource.
*
* @param \\App\\Models\\Product $product
* @return \\Illuminate\\Http\\Response
*/
public function show($id)
{
return Product::find($id);
} /**
* Show the form for editing the specified resource.
*
* @param \\App\\Models\\Product $product
* @return \\Illuminate\\Http\\Response
*/
public function edit($id)
{
return Product::find($id);
} /**
* Update the specified resource in storage.
*
* @param \\Illuminate\\Http\\Request $request
* @param \\App\\Models\\Product $product
* @return \\Illuminate\\Http\\Response
*/
public function update(Request $request, $id)
{
return Product::where('id', $id)
->update([
'name' => $request->name,
'price' => $request->price,
'stock' => $request->stock,
]);
} /**
* Remove the specified resource from storage.
*
* @param \\App\\Models\\Product $product
* @return \\Illuminate\\Http\\Response
*/
public function destroy($id)
{
return Product::destroy($id);
}
}
untuk function lainnya dibiarkan saja atau juga boleh di hapus karena kita tidak pakai.
Oke sekarang sudah selesai kita coba di postman hit ke 5 endpointnya. Jangan lupa jalankan dulu servernya ya, jalankan di terminal “php artisan serve”, jika server berjalan dengan lancar. READY FOR TESTING
Create, disini kita buat 2 data agar terlihat perbedaan ketika kita hit endpoint read all dan read one.
API Create Test 1
API Create Test 2
Read All
API Read All Test
Read One
API Read One Test
Update
API Update Test
Delete
API Delete Test
Ketika semua test case telah berhasil, maka percobaan api kita berhasil.
Sekia Basic CRUD API on Laravel 8, terima kasih semoga bermanfaat. | https://medium.com/@teddykoerniadi/basic-crud-api-on-laravel-8-3092b7a79c29 | ['Teddy Koerniadi'] | 2020-12-25 03:35:21.456000+00:00 | ['Laravel Framework', 'Crud', 'API', 'Laravel', 'Eloquent'] |
Photographing Musicians, The Way They Want To Be Seen | EvH: How did that negative impulse (i.e., not to do what others did) shape the way you positively interacted with subjects in shoots? How did you walk the line between gentle direction to get a great performance out of a subject, and the more heavy-handed manipulation you wanted to avoid?
MW: Well from that frustration of band photos I learned that I really need to get to know my subjects. I can’t photograph a band as soon as I meet them and I can’t photograph them just from talking in emails. So, I decided if I have 2 hours with a band I’ll spend an hour getting to know them and hang out; if I have an hour I’ll spend 30 minutes, and so on. Getting to know them and making them comfortable with me was the key to having the subject interact with the viewer as you see in the photos.
To avoid manipulating them I just get to know them. If they say, “Okay, so like what should we do…?” — because they aren’t comfortable posing, I push back the photographing a little and hang with them longer. Another thing I might do is ask them something along the lines of, “How do you want to be seen? Do you feel comfortable looking at the camera or would looking away be better?” I can also catch them candid in moments of vulnerability, but if I do that I always check with the band or artist before posting or using the photos to make sure they like those, because that can be very very personal.
Dan Deacon. Image courtesy of Micah E. Wood.
EvH: Can you please tell us about one or two of your favorite images from the project, and the situation surrounding them? What makes these surprising, or affecting, or lucky?
MW: The cover photo is one that sits with me. It was of Dan Deacon, a Baltimore electronic artist [above]. He asked me to come to a small venue before he had a DJ set and I got that picture of him just in front of his laptop. It was super quick and just one shot — I usually only take one shot of each moment; I don’t shoot a lot — and it turned out haunting and iconic. Another great one was Jessica Lea Mayfield. She’s an amazing artist from Akron, Ohio. | https://medium.com/pixel-magazine/photographing-musicians-the-way-they-want-to-be-seen-6fc0878133b | ['Pixel Magazine'] | 2016-02-18 00:16:59.545000+00:00 | ['Photography', 'Baltimore', 'Music'] |
Healthcare Business Intelligence | Technology is changing the way we live our lives almost every day and in a multitude of different ways. One of these transformations is occurring in the field of healthcare. Health is a business that has been around for centuries with modern medicine helping to extend the average lifespan by decades, however, new innovations are set to make this whole process significantly more user friendly and useful.
Business intelligence itself is a fairly new innovation and refers to the collection and use of data to improve business operations and strategic planning. Healthcare business intelligence builds on this same framework but in this case, the data in question is patient data gathered through a variety of channels. Healthcare BI has a slightly different purpose than that explored earlier with business intelligence alone. With healthcare business intelligence, organizations are still looking for ways of improving operations and costs, but a greater primary focus is the goal of improving patient care.
Healthcare Analytics as a Business
While patient care is a primary mandate for healthcare BI tools and software, businesses entering the market have the potential of realizing a very healthy return on their investment. In 2019 the market was already fairly robust at US$14 billion, but this is set to skyrocket over the coming years with a healthcare analytics market expected to reach US$50.5 billion by 2024.
This investment is expected to primarily focus on North America with Europe a distant second followed quite closely by Asia. Over the coming years specifically, North America by itself will far surpass the current global investment of US$14 billion. This growth is fueled by a variety of factors, one of which is a growing focus from the government towards a more personalized provision of medical care.
Benefits of BI in Healthcare
While there are many reasons to embrace healthcare BI there are also some clearly obvious benefits that need to be called out.
Reduced Costs
In many parts of the world, including North America, healthcare is a business. While doctors and clinicians got into the role to help people, money is still a driver that needs to be acknowledged. Running a medical practice or hospital is expensive with resource costs, tools, equipment, and pharmaceuticals all adding up. However, clinical business intelligence tools can help drive these costs down in a variety of different ways.
Healthcare BI software can track populations and perform analysis to better understand the likelihood of illness and infection in specific areas and locations. Healthcare BI tools can improve communication and information sharing between different organizations and even between countries.
Turning a Doctor into a Data Scientist
BI tools can be complicated and complex to use and understand. However as healthcare itself has transformed, so have the BI tools that support healthcare. Now doctors and other healthcare experts have a means of extracting information in a simple manner, without requiring an understanding of coding or databases.
Self-service tools make front line staff more efficient and effective. They let healthcare providers access information in real-time to improve their ability to make decisions and judgments in a more timely manner. In addition, these self-service tools allow simple customization so that patients too can understand the information being presented.
Personalized Treatment Services
In years gone by, patient treatment was a matter of best guess more than anything. As time progressed and information was shared between physicians, researchers, and clinicians about what worked and did not work when it came to treatments for specific illnesses and disease, better treatment options were discovered and refined.
Health data intelligence helps take that a step further and helps doctors understand why a treatment that worked for one patient might or might not be suitable for another. Business analytics in healthcare can be further refined to demonstrate the risks of specific treatments based on a patient’s current condition and medication. Now treatments can be personalized based on specific genetic blueprints targeting treatments in a more concrete manner.
Evaluating Caregivers
Healthcare is a business as already mentioned and one of the precepts of business is the service provided to customers. Within healthcare, those customers are the patients that engage with the doctor or medical facility. These patients are concerned not only with how they are treated while in the facility, but the information they receive, how much empathy is or is not shown in the given situation and more.
Like reviews for restaurants, healthcare providers too can be reviewed by patients and this information gathered through different tools. Clinical business intelligence software can evaluate information on the carers within their organization and use this information to further improve the services they provide to patients.
Improving Patient Satisfaction
Health BI has multiple impacts on patient satisfaction. Better and more customized treatment ensures that patients receive targeted services focused on their specific illnesses or condition. Customized treatment options drive improved patient outcomes, leading to overall better quality of life. In addition, clinical and hospital business intelligence helps make the facilities themselves more efficient and effective improving wait times and overall service levels.
Healthcare BI Tools
Healthcare BI software is a subset of BI software targeted towards the healthcare market. These tools provide specialists in the medical field with an improved way of reviewing data gathered from different sources. These sources could include patient files and medical records but can be expanded to include additional information such as financial records and more, to better enable the facility in their care and treatment planning. Healthcare BI tools integrate with other software in a medical establishment but it is crucial to understand that it is not the same as software like EMR and EHR.
Tableau
One of the leaders in the BI marketplace, Tableau helps organizations create and publish dashboards extremely easily. Tableau has some inbuilt data preparation tools that simplify the process of gaining information. Tableau also has some prepared templates for users in the healthcare market which helps even further with implementation letting organizations quickly drill down into their information.
Power BI
Power BI is a Microsoft product and as such is very familiar to users of the Office solution. It integrates directly with other Microsoft products also like Excel and SharePoint and lets users analyze, model, and graphically represent data in a variety of different dashboards and reports. Power BI is fairly intuitive and easy to use with a built-in AI engine that lets users analyze clinical data quickly and easily.
Sisense
Sisense like Tableau has dedicated integrations for the healthcare market. However, Sisense takes it perhaps a step further with a healthcare analytics module built specifically for healthcare information and data. Sisense lets you pipe data in from a variety of different data sources so you integrate all of the different touchpoints in a single interactive dashboard.
NIX Experience In Healthcare BI
As a leader in software development, NIX was contracted to build a solution for a global organization. This company was looking for a way of improving the information available to company executives. Executives were interested in the visualization of specific indicators related to finance, quality of care, and clinical services.
The NIX team used data from multiple different applications to determine the key areas that needed to be measured. They determined that the best path forward was the use of Tableau as a solution. Tableau was visually appropriate and integrated with all of the systems but also provided the security that the organization needed in terms of patient information.
NIX worked with Tableau extensively and also implemented a separate Java-based component to further improve security and authentication. In addition, another component was added which improved the scheduling of data extracts. The NIX team successfully built a solution in a very short timeframe that met all of the client requirements, leading to a successful product launch shortly thereafter. If you are interested in healthcare business intelligence and are looking for a partner with experience for your project, contact us. At NIX we understand the business of software and healthcare and can help you ensure that you are a success at both. | https://medium.com/nix-united/healthcare-business-intelligence-c28bd7cfb5e7 | [] | 2020-11-13 13:19:21.324000+00:00 | ['Healthcare Technology', 'Software Development', 'Healthcare', 'Nix', 'Business Intelligence'] |
How to make interactive line chart in D3.js | D3.js is javascript library used to make interactive data driven charts. It can be used to make the coolest charts. It has a very steep learning curve. But once you understand the basics of D3.js, you can make the coolest charts work for you.
In my last article I wrote how to make plot of covid19 cases in India using matplotlib library. But charts made using matplotlib library are static. They can only contain only one story. Often there is more than one story to tell. User wants to interact with data to see more than one view.
There are many ways to make interactive interactive charts. Plotly library is one way to great way to make interactive chart in python. But I don’t want to restrict myself to standard charts possible in a library. So I learnt D3.js library.
Once you get past initial discomfort of learning the underpinning of D3 you can chose among thousands of chart types in D3 from D3 example galleries and modify them to your own needs.
I wanted to display district wise chart of covid cases. So I selected this line chart as the base.
This chart reads data from csv file and makes line chart for one category. It allows you to change category using drop down menu.
Javascript code for chart is given below:
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) are used to define shapes in browser. Instead of drawing images pixel by pixel, you can tell location and radius of circle to browser. Same is possible to be done for other shapes likes lines, arcs and many more. D3 library allows to assign shapes and attributes to your data. Further with enter and exit methods, it allows you to create spectacular transition with your data.
In the above code, lines 1 to 15 define svg element and its size in browser. D3.CSV reads the csv file given in the link and executes the code for the data.
For understanding D3 in depth your can go through the following link
I will only go through what changes I have done to the chart to make my chart.
This is the base chart at code give above:
I want to change the code so that it reads directly from JSON data available at Covid19india API. X axis needs to be changed from integer scale to datetime scale. In the current chart axes don’t update with change in data, so I changed the code to make the axes auto update with data. I also wanted to add a second filter so that we have one filter for districts and other for states.
D3.csv function reads csv file and converts data into list of dictionaries where csv headers are keys. Covid19india api district data api gives data in format where district updates are nested in states object and states object are further nested in top level.
So I parsed the json received from API as follows:
d3.json('districts_daily.json', function(data) {
var data2 = [];
for (state in data["districtsDaily"]) {
for (district in data["districtsDaily"][state]) {
for (day in data["districtsDaily"][state][district]) {
days = data["districtsDaily"][state][district][day]
var data3 = {};
data3.states = state;
data3.name = district;
data3.date = days['date'];
data3.active = days['active'];
data3.confirmed = days['confirmed'];
data3.deceased =days['deceased'];
data3.recovered = days['recovered'];
data2.push(data3)
}}}
D3 reads json data as string. You have to format it as number or date time format. So I formatted dates data as following
var parseTime = d3.timeParse("%Y-%m-%d"); data2.forEach(function(d) {
d.date = parseTime(d.date);
});
Foreach function of javascript applies datetime transformation to each value of date column.
I extracted list of states and districts using map function of javascript as follows:
var districtlist = d3.map(data2, function(d){return(d.name)}).keys();
var statelist = d3.map(data2, function(d){return(d.states)}).keys();
Map function of javascript extract states columns data and extracts its unique values.
I added drop down menu for district and states using following code:
// add the options to the button
d3.select("#districtButton")
.selectAll('option')
.data(districtlist)
.enter()
.append('option')
.text(function (d) { return d; }) // text showed in the menu
.attr("value", function (d) { return d; }) // corresponding value returned by the button d3.select("#stateButton")
.selectAll('myOptions')
.data(statelist)
.enter()
.append('option')
.text(function (d) { return d; }) // text showed in the menu
.attr("value", function (d) { return d; }) // corresponding value returned by the button
This creates a select element and associates it with data of districts and states that we extracted above.
We create date time x axis using following code:
var x = d3.scaleTime()
.domain([d3.min(firstdata, function(d) { return d.date; }), d3.max(firstdata, function(d) { return d.date; })])
.range([ 0, width ]);
svg.append("g")
.attr('class', 'xaxis')
.attr("transform", "translate(0," + height + ")")
.call(d3.axisBottom(x));
It creates datetime scale and uses that to scale x axis.
I added xlabel and ylabel using following code:
//add xlabel
// text label for the x axis
svg.append("text")
.attr("transform",
"translate(" + (width/2) + " ," +
(height + margin.top + 20) + ")")
.style("text-anchor", "middle")
.text("Date"); //add y label
// text label for the y axis
svg.append("text")
.attr("transform", "rotate(-90)")
.attr("y", 0 - margin.left)
.attr("x",0 - (height / 2))
.attr("dy", "1em")
.style("text-anchor", "middle")
.text("Confirmed coronavirus cases");
It appends text element to svg and translate it relative to position of axes.
I modified update function to modify axes when district is changed and show a tool tip:
// When the button is changed, run the updateChart function
d3.select("#districtButton").on("change", function(d) {
// recover the option that has been chosen
var selectedOption = d3.select(this).property("value")
// run the updateChart function with this selected option
update(selectedOption)
})
// A function that update the chart
function update(selectedGroup) { // Create new data with the selection?
var dataFilter = data2.filter(function(d){return d.name==selectedGroup}) // Scale X axis
x.domain([ d3.min(dataFilter, function(d) { return d.date; }), d3.max(dataFilter, function(d) { return d.date; })]); // Scale Y axis
y.domain([0, d3.max(dataFilter, function(d) { return +d.confirmed; })]); // Give these new data to update line
line
.datum(dataFilter)
.transition()
.duration(1000)
.attr("d", d3.line()
.x(function(d) { return x(d.date) })
.y(function(d) { return y(+d.confirmed) })
)
.attr("stroke", function(d){ return myColor(selectedGroup) }) //update x axis
svg.select('.xaxis')
.transition()
.duration(1000)
.call(d3.axisBottom(x)); //update y axis svg.select('.yaxis')
.transition()
.duration(1000)
.call(d3.axisLeft(y)); }
Every time district is changed, update function is called with the value of the district. It filters the data for district and assigns it to line and axis element.
Transition method allows method allows smooth transition due to impact of data.
I wanted to show tooltip on line. So I added following code in update function given above
// add the dots with tooltips
var dot = svg.selectAll("circle")
.data(dataFilter); dot.exit().remove(); dot.enter().append("circle")
.attr("r", 3)
.merge(dot)
.transition()
.duration(1000)
.attr("cx", function(d) { return x(d.date); })
.attr("cy", function(d) { return y(+d.confirmed); })
.on("mouseover", function(d) {
tip.transition()
.duration(200)
.style("opacity", .9);
tip.html(formatTime(d.date) + "<br/>" + d.confirmed)
.style("left", (d3.event.pageX) + "px")
.style("top", (d3.event.pageY - 28) + "px");
})
.on("mouseout", function(d) {
tip.transition()
.duration(500)
.style("opacity", 0);
});
Once data is assigned to a svg element, D3 returns enter, update and exit selection. In exit selection you define what happens to svg element which have now no data assigned to it.
So we remove dots no longer needed as they belong in exit selection using dot.exit().remove(). Remove method is applied to those elements which do not data assigned to it after updating data assigned to circles using data method.
Dot which have data assigned but have no circle belong to enter selection. We create new circle using append method on enter selection.
In D3 v4 update selection is created by using merge method on enter selection. Now you can change attributes of element which have been newly created using enter method and which already were there in html.
If you are using D3 v3, then using merge method is not required.
Now in merge method I assigned a html element to the circle which is activated on mouseover and is deactivated when mouse moves out of element.
I added a second update function which is triggered when state is changed:
// When the state button is changed, run the updategroup function
d3.select("#stateButton").on("change", function(d) {
// recover the option that has been chosen
var selectedOption = d3.select(this).property("value")
// run the updateChart function with this selected option
update2(selectedOption)
})
function update2(selectedGroup) {
var newgroup = data2.filter(function(d){return d.states==selectedGroup});
var newGroup = d3.map(newgroup, function(d){return(d.name)}).keys();
console.log(newGroup) d3.select("#districtButton")
.selectAll('option')
.remove(); // add the options to the button
var newbutton = d3.select("#districtButton")
.selectAll('option')
.data(newGroup);
newbutton
.enter()
.append('option')
.text(function (d) { return d; }) // text showed in the menu
.attr("value", function (d) { return d; }); update(newGroup[0]) }
Whenever state is changed using state button, then districts of that state are assigned to district button options and entire chart is updated with first district of that state.
My final chart is given below:
If you have problem viewing it in medium, you can view it in following link
https://jsfiddle.net/rohitrajjsfiddle/o5tpq9s0/show
It is linked to api of covid19india website. You can view chart of coronavirus cases of your districts.
If you like the article please show your appreciation by clapping for the article. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/how-to-make-interactive-line-chart-in-d3-js-4c5f2e6c0508 | ['Rohit Raj'] | 2020-06-17 15:27:38.104000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'D3js', 'JavaScript'] |
Contracting COVID-19 whilst working as a Doctor | Hello everyone.
I am a junior doctor working in the North West of England. This blog post is about me contracting COVID-19 and how I am dealing with it as a doctor.
On Saturday, I started feeling extremely exhausted, accompanied with muscle and joint pains. I had never felt fatigue like this in my entire life, like I hadn’t slept for weeks. Later that evening, I felt really hot and sweaty, and was found to have a high temperature. The next morning, I went and got tested. For the entirety of Sunday I felt terrible. I had a fever then entire day and was feeling nauseous. My test result came back today as positive and I can’t say it wasn’t what I expected. All the symptoms were pointing towards a COVID-19 infection.
Today I feel a little bit better physically. But mentally, it is a struggle. I have been inside, self-isolating since Saturday. It feels like there is absolutely nothing to do in the house, even though there is so much I could do. I guess the confinement of the 4 walls of your house makes the world seems a lot smaller than it actually is. I have got 8 more days of quarantine left. Let’s see how this will pan out. | https://medium.com/@mubashir.s/contracting-covid-19-whilst-working-as-a-doctor-4c71e95b8e4 | ['Mubashir Siddiqui'] | 2020-10-19 21:45:20.284000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Healthcare', 'Nhs', 'Mental Health', 'Doctors'] |
About Cryptoware Company Trading and Invest Project. | Earning money on the cryptocurrency exchange is attractive for traders and investors primarily by the possibility of obtaining stable and fast-growing profits. However, such grandiose plans are often crushed by ignorance of the peculiarities of the cryptocurrency market that distinguish it from other exchanges.
A trader should buy cryptocurrency at the lowest price and sell it at the highest possible value, while keeping in mind the higher volatility of digital money, that is, the rapid volatility of quotes. On the one hand, such volatility allows making quick deals and increasing the deposit, but on the other hand, a trader risks making a mistake with the direction of price movement and incurring colossal losses.
The size of the investment is a positive factor. If on traditional exchanges, large investments are required to obtain impressive income, then when trading bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies, even small investments can become a source of high profits. Also, a trader needs to have professional analytical information about the current state of the world economy in order to timely respond to various events that affect the value of cryptocurrencies. Such activities bear fruit only after special training. But thanks to the investment fund created by Cryptoware , almost everyone can provide themselves with a simplified extraction of income from this activity. Founders of Cryptoware.biz became a group of traders, united to improve the efficiency of their work. Cooperation with the world’s leading exchanges has opened up excellent opportunities for they to increase professionalism and develop our own trading strategies.
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All team consists of highly experienced people, able and willing to work for the welfare of a company and all investors. They carefully monitor the qualifications of each member of all team.
Innovative tools
A new investment instrument that has proven its effectiveness abroad. Insider trading, crypto investments and quality predictions.
Accessibility
You can work with your investments, using your personal computer as well as smartphone or tablet. The webs is perfect for people who want to keep track of their earnings any time of the day or night.
24/7 support
All consultants will be ready to help you at any time.
High percentage
Maximum yield up to big % per month!
Investment Plan
Cryptoware offer one investment plan that pays 0.1% hourly, which equals 3.6% daily. Your investment plans runs for as long as you decide to cancel it. Deposit cancellation is subject to a % release fee and is not possible earlier than 24 hours.
Payment Method
Cryptoware accept the following payment methods: Bitcoin, BitcoinCash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Dash.
How do I Create a new account?
Opening a new Cryptoware account is easy. Just follow the directions to sign up, enter your details and quickly form an account with your chosen email and password.
Once you have agreed to Cryptoware terms and conditions, you will receive a confirmation email asking that you verify your email address. If you do not receive a confirmation email, please check your spam folder and adjust your email settings to ensure you don’t miss out on exciting future opportunities reserved for newsletter recipients.
Link Reff Register :
https://cryptoware.biz/?ref=yannulity
Wallet address :
0xeaDc4236FA0524Ed7E6AB20Fb79db1a7dc309cD1
#cryptoware #mining #invest | https://medium.com/@murtifilter/about-cryptoware-company-trading-and-invest-project-aa83b615f01a | ['Rahadyan Harimurti'] | 2020-12-07 03:48:54.356000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Eth', 'Cryptoware', 'Btc'] |
#4 Data Engineering — EXTRACT DATA from JSON and XML files | EXTRACT XML
What is XML?
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is very similar to HTML at least in terms of formatting. The main difference between the two is that HTML has pre-defined tags that are standardized. In XML, tags can be tailored to the data set. Here is what this same data would look like as XML.
<ENTRY>
<ID>P162228</ID>
<REGIONNAME>Other</REGIONNAME>
<COUNTRYNAME>World;World</COUNTRYNAME>
<PRODLINE>RE</PRODLINE>
<LENDINGINSTR>Investment Project Financing</LENDINGINSTR>
</ENTRY>
<ENTRY>
<ID>P163962</ID>
<REGIONNAME>Africa</REGIONNAME>
<COUNTRYNAME>Democratic Republic of the Congo;Democratic Republic of the Congo</COUNTRYNAME>
<PRODLINE>PE</PRODLINE>
<LENDINGINSTR>Investment Project Financing</LENDINGINSTR>
</ENTRY>
<ENTRY>
<ID>P167672</ID>
<REGIONNAME>South Asia</REGIONNAME>
<COUNTRYNAME>People's Republic of Bangladesh;People's Republic of Bangladesh</COUNTRYNAME>
<PRODLINE>PE</PRODLINE>
<LENDINGINSTR>Investment Project Financing</LENDINGINSTR>
</ENTRY>
XML is falling out of favor especially because JSON tends to be easier to navigate; however, you still might come across XML data. The World Bank API, for example, can return either XML data or JSON data. From a data perspective, the process for handling HTML and XML data is essentially the same.
# print out the first 15 lines of the xml file
print_lines(15, 'population_data.xml')
-----------------------------------------------------------------
OUTPUT: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Root xmlns:wb="http://www.worldbank.org">
<data>
<record>
<field name="Country or Area" key="ABW">Aruba</field>
<field name="Item" key="SP.POP.TOTL">Population, total</field>
<field name="Year">1960</field>
<field name="Value">54211</field>
</record>
<record>
<field name="Country or Area" key="ABW">Aruba</field>
<field name="Item" key="SP.POP.TOTL">Population, total</field>
<field name="Year">1961</field>
<field name="Value">55438</field>
</record>
XML is formatted with tags having values inside the tags. XML is not as easy to navigate as JSON. Pandas cannot read in XML directly. One reason is that tag names are user-defined. Every XML file might have different formatting. You can imagine why XML has fallen out of favor relative to JSON.
How to read and navigate XML
There is a Python library called BeautifulSoup, which makes reading in and parsing XML data easier. Here is the link to the documentation: Beautiful Soup Documentation
The find() method will find the first place where an XML element occurs. For example, using find(‘record’) will return the first record in the XML file:
<record>
<field name="Country or Area" key="ABW">Aruba</field>
<field name="Item" key="SP.POP.TOTL">Population, total</field>
<field name="Year">1960</field>
<field name="Value">54211</field>
</record>
The find_all() method returns all of the matching tags. So find_all(‘record’) would return all of the elements with the <record> tag.
# import the BeautifulSoup library
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
# open the population_data.xml file and load into Beautiful Soup
with open("population_data.xml") as fp:
soup = BeautifulSoup(fp, "lxml") # lxml is the Parser type
Navigate through the XML document: | https://medium.com/@sakaggi/4-data-engineering-extract-data-from-json-and-xml-files-18ab6db6884e | ['Sakshi Agarwal'] | 2021-09-10 04:01:59.274000+00:00 | ['Extract', 'Data Science', 'Xml', 'Data Engineering', 'Json'] |
Hibernate V.S. MyBatis | 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%B7%A5%E7%A8%8B%E7%8D%85%E6%97%A5%E5%B8%B8/hibernate-v-s-mybatis-45907ee3e6a6 | ['Victor Tsai'] | 2020-12-20 12:11:13.686000+00:00 | ['Hibernate', 'Jpa', 'Mybatis', 'Spring', 'Java'] |
New Love Dies | I can’t quite say exactly what it was,
But something just happened,
Like a change in the direction of the air,
That cleared my eyes to see you,
No longer as the magnificent goddess I had worshipped these months,
But open and weak and dying and lost,
Your words no longer kissing me,
Your smell no longer steals my mind
To hold my thoughts only to you,
Instead, I see the broken world behind you,
Broken again after you had fixed it so beautifully,
So perfectly, so tenderly, so wonderfully,
And I wonder how will I ever forgive you? | https://medium.com/scribe/new-love-dies-9824ede23101 | ['Phantom Soul Poetry'] | 2020-05-29 18:43:37.006000+00:00 | ['Breakup Poem', 'Love Poems', 'Poetry Writing', 'Poetry', 'Poems On Medium'] |
Earning Millions on YouTube Is So Easy, Children Are Doing It | Earning Millions on YouTube Is So Easy, Children Are Doing It PCMag Follow Jan 15 · 3 min read
The Forbes list of top earners is out, and an eight-year-old boy and six-year-old girl beat out almost everyone else.
By Chandra Steele
Onscreen fame and the fortune that followed used to lie below the Hollywood sign-but now, it’s attainable on laptops in living rooms.
YouTube is the banner under which clicks and cash are to be had. Earning $20 million or so is so easy, a child could do it. And there are two children on the list that Forbes created of the top earners in 2019 (based on pretax income from ads, sponsored content, merchandise, tours, and other related earnings).
Eight-year-old Ryan Kaji earned $26 million last year, more than anyone else on YouTube. It’s not a shock for anyone who has walked into a Target and seen that his Ryan’s World toy line dominates nearly an entire aisle. Kaji started with unboxing videos, but his channel now includes a wide variety of content, and his empire also encompasses a clothing line, a Nickelodeon show, a deal with Hulu, and partnerships with plenty of brands.
Five-year-old Anastasia Radzinskaya isn’t far behind at third place on the list, with earnings of $18 million last year. Radzinskaya was born in Russia and has cerebral palsy. Her parents started making videos of her to document her developmental progress. She now stars on six multinlingual YouTube channels (the largest of which is Like Nastya) and has deals with major brands. She moved to the United States in 2018.
Videos with children attract three times as many views as other videos, according to Pew Research Center. There are many worrying connotations attached to this data, but there are also adults who are willing to act like children to capitalize on it.
The second-highest earners on the list are five in their 30s who act like children under the collective name Dude Perfect. They blow things up in slo-mo, put on panda suits, and perfect trick shots, all for their channel and for a show they have on Nickelodeon.
Rhett & Link are also grown men but are also childhood friends who are living the dream: They have a comedy-focused YouTube channel that brought them $17.5 million last year.
If you follow Jeffree Star, then you probably don’t need to look at this list to know he rounded out the top five by taking in $17 million last year. Just the other day, he said hello and welcomed viewers to his new 25,000-square-foot home. The makeup mogul takes a minute before the tour to remind viewers that six years ago, when he was making the move from Myspace fame to a new YouTube channel, he had just under $600 in his bank account. | https://medium.com/pcmag-access/earning-millions-on-youtube-is-so-easy-children-are-doing-it-90b133dccaa8 | [] | 2020-01-15 17:01:01.265000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Influencer Marketing', 'Social Media', 'YouTube', 'Children'] |
How to Meet Unrealistic Software Development Deadlines | Begin with empathy
Start by digging into why this deadline exists. Is a code freeze coming? Is there pressure from up above? Is a competitor trying to beat us to the punch? Did we promise a client? Is this completely arbitrary?
How you treat a deadline should depend on the circumstances. If the deadline is arbitrary then start by speaking up! There’s a good chance that your stakeholders would prefer to under-promise and over-deliver.
Sometimes there IS a good reason for a deadline. Perhaps GDPR is kicking in and this project is necessary for compliance. Maybe your startup loses funding opportunities if you don’t demo in time. In these cases, you might not be able to push the deadline, but you can still…
Provide alternative solutions
There are ten-million-and-one ways to build the same software. Sometimes it may seem that the constraints are too rigid:
The current implementation is legacy and also spaghetti. There’s no way to avoid paying the legacy code tax.
There are no reusable components that can solve our exact customer use-case. We’ll have to roll our own.
We must introduce this complex caching mechanism, some of our customers have a crazy amount of data!
There is almost always [1] an opportunity for simplification in complex design and [2] wiggle room in product requirements provided that the trade-offs are worthwhile.
Is it possible to develop your feature with tech that is easier to use? Perhaps you could set up a facade in front of the legacy system and kick off a much-needed migration as a bonus?
Can you find an existing component that satisfies most of your use-cases and re-purpose it? (e.g. maybe that form field doesn’t really need to be equipped with artificial intelligence…)
Is there a more straightforward implementation that comes with minor tradeoffs? (e.g. releasable to 99.95% of users)
Don’t be afraid to flex your creativity muscles.
Find help
Have you heard of Brooks’ Law? Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month famously asserts that an incremental person, when added to a project, makes it take more, not less time. Obviously, this law has a few caveats and is (in Fred’s own words) an outrageous simplification. The point I’m trying to make is that adding additional resources is not always an effective way to meet deadlines.
That being said, there are times when an extra pair of hands CAN help. Questions to ask yourself include:
Is this person already on-boarded? Do they have experience with the system or tech stack? Do they have enough context?
Are there orthogonal slices of work that could use owners? Is the work parallelizable?
If you think having more people can speed up delivery, make it happen! It’s not a personal failing to ask for help.
Manage expectations
This comes back to the topic of communication, but I feel it’s worth stressing.
The reason that your deadline exists is likely because someone up the food chain expects that you’ll be able to finish this project in a certain amount of time. Unless you’ve got a sadistic boss, chances are they aren’t asking for (what they perceive to be) impossible results.
Speaking up early and often keeps expectations aligned with reality, for all parties involved. Keeping people informed can help distribute the pressure created by a deadline and make it much less personal.
With the right amount of communication, you might find that deadlines inexplicably change; along with the definition of late. | https://medium.com/frontend-at-scale/how-to-meet-unrealistic-software-development-deadlines-fb12ecd9205d | ['Bowei Han'] | 2020-09-07 17:45:21.242000+00:00 | ['Soft Skills', 'Technology', 'Software Development', 'Front End Development', 'Software Engineering'] |
Everything You Need To Know About iPhone 12(2020) | Technology
Everything You Need To Know About iPhone 12(2020)
Image source: EverythingApplePro
Ever since the last apple event which was held in September, with no mention of the Apple 12 iPhone, the internet has gone crazy with rumors and assumptions about the new iPhone 12, the release of which might be just a few weeks from now. Here’s a short write up on the latest rumors heard so far.
1. Release date
Covid-19 has definitely caused a delay from the usual Apple September launch. There is nothing official from Apple yet but rumors suggest that the event might occur on October 13 and preorders would start on October 16.
2. Models
Recent leaks have suggested that there will be a release of 4 iPhone models and the iPhone 12 lineup will be branded as follows:
iPhone 12 mini
iPhone 12
iPhone 12 Pro
iPhone 12 Pro Max
3. Design
Rumor leaks suggest that the iPhone would have the Retro Future look. The regular iPhone 12 models would have the squared-off, aluminum frame design similar to the iPad Pro and iPhone 5,5S, and the SE line up while iPhone 12 Pro would have the high-end stainless steel frame similar to the iPhone 4,4S lineup. It has also been suggested that the iPhone 12 lineup will be thinner than the iPhone 11.
4. Display
For the first time ever, the entire iPhone 12 lineup, not just the pro models but even the normal ones will sport OLED display technology this year.
Display size
One iPhone 12 model with a 5.4-inch OLED display
Two iPhone 12 models with a 6.1-inch OLED displays
One iPhone 12 model with a 6.7-inch OLED display
This shows that Apple will not only feature its largest iPhone ever but also the smallest iPhone to ever feature the edge-to-edge display.
Refresh rate
Earlier rumors suggested that iPhone 12 would come up with a refresh rate of 120 Hz which would have been a major display upgrade but according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has been an accurate source of Apple leaks in the past, says that Apple is skipping its high refresh rates on the iPhone 12 series because of its battery life concerns (via MacRumors).
5. Color
The upcoming iPhone 12 may feature the new midnight blue color (navy blue) along with its traditional colors black and white.
6. Processor
The iPhone 12 lineup is expected to feature the new chipset called A14. TMSC is rumored to be producing the A14 bionic processor by using a brand new 5-nanometer process in Q2. A14 combined with 6GB of RAM could make iPhone 12 as powerful as the 15-inch MacBook Pro.
7. Storage
The iPhone 12 models are said to come with a minimum storage of 128 GB. The regular models will feature 128GB and 256GB, while the Pro versions will also have an additional option of 512GB.
8. Battery
The possible iPhone 12 series’ battery specifications are 10% lower than the iPhone 11 series.
A2471–2227 mAh
A2431–2775 mAh
A2479–2815 mAh
A2466–3687 mAh
9. Camera
According to reports, Apple would release two iPhones with dual-lens camera systems and the other two iPhones with triple-lens camera systems. The most recent rumors suggest that Apple will feature the LiDAR Scanner as they did on the iPad Pro 2020. In terms of software, the iPhone 12 models are expected to feature everything currently available on the iPhone 11, including Deep Fusion and Night mode. More features are also expected due to the addition of the new time-of-flight (ToF) technology.
10. Connectivity
The most notable feature will be the presence of 5G connectivity on all the four iPhone models. It’s expected that they will support both forms of 5G: sub-6GHz and mmWave.This feature would be useful for all iPhone users around the globe.iPhone is also likely to feature Qualcomm X60’S modem.
11. Accessories
Reports claim that the iPhones would be shipped without headphones. It most probably won't be a USB-C iPhone.It will have a lightning dock and can be wirelessly charged.
12. Price
Price would range from $649 for the cheapest 5.4-inch version to $1,099 for the iPhone 12 Pro Max. | https://medium.com/@aiswaryasa31/everything-you-need-to-know-about-iphone-12-2020-ddf88356b2c5 | ['Arya Saran'] | 2020-10-01 14:33:06.899000+00:00 | ['Apple', 'Rumors', 'Electronics', 'iPhone', 'Iphone12'] |
Transparency Is a Brand Trust Generator | Transparency Is a Brand Trust Generator
The impact of the ‘always on’ digitally-enabled world we live in is an emerging consumer desire to know the backstory and details of how products are created. Not surprising when you factor in the number one lifestyle concern for people across all age segments is health and wellness. This seek-to-understand behavior is transforming the human and pet food industries.
In parallel, consumers now care deeply about the businesses’ respective mission, purpose, and authenticity — seeking to connect with brands which share their values. As a result, consumers want to understand what’s in the food they’re buying and how the company’s standards and mission are brought to life inside the products they make.
Why is this happening?
Relevance:
First, consumers have connected the dots between the quality of what they ingest and the quality of their lives. People care about the foods they’re eating — and want to know more about them. Equally true for pet food.
Belief:
Second, because of eroding, declining trust in the claims and assertions made by brands about their products — consumers are seeking objective, credible sources of information to help them make their own informed judgments.
Personally symbolic:
Third, purchases have become emblematic of what people want the outside world to believe is important to them — so they seek reassurance of high-quality ingredients, ethical standards, healthier and made sustainably.
The concept of Transparency has floated to the top as shorthand for this intense, growing desire to experience and verify what brands claim about their products.
Why this should matter to you:
Consumer trust precedes any kind of relationship and willingness to engage with a brand or product. Trust is earned, not inherently owned — and is based on intentional investments (that don’t look, smell or feel like advertising) to secure it.
If you want your marketing to be welcomed (rather than click to avoid) and believed, then trust is a fundamental requirement. Transparency provides an operable platform for how this is achieved.
What is transparency?
Being truly transparent is about openness, disclosure, access and operating in a trustworthy and forthright manner. Call it actively encouraging observation, scrutiny and reporting from outside sources.
Verifying and validating what you want others to believe about your quality and integrity commitments creates the opportunity for a meaningful conversation with consumers and stakeholders. Respect and reputation are not commodities that come along with simply existing. They are difficult to create and hard to hold onto over time.
Best practices case study: Champion Petfoods
Disclaimer: this is a platform Emergent created and brought to life for Champion after a comprehensive audit of their operations, strengths and unique company commitments.
It goes without saying the pet food industry universally demands trust from its core customers. Given the nature of the product form (ubiquitous brown kibble) pet parents are required to buy into the statements and claims made by brands concerning ingredient quality and how the food is prepared.
Driving this interest is the intense desire pet parent have to express their love for their pets through the quality of the diet provided. Engaged pet owners try as best they can to discern product labels to understand the meaning of words, phrases and insider language used in the pet food world (like meat meal).
Still, a trust gap exists between what’s claimed by brands versus what can be credibly verified.
According to a recent study reported in Pet Food Industry magazine, 75% of consumers are willing to switch from their current brand to one that provides more in-depth product information than what appears on the physical label. That’s up from 39% in 2016.
Champion Petfoods is at the forefront of the protein forward, meat-focused, biologically appropriate approach to what has been popularly described as ancestral diet. The company’s early success was attributed to pioneering the focus on percentages of high-quality proteins in the recipe. Champion uses comparatively high levels of fresh and raw animal meat respectful of the physiology and eating anatomy of dogs and cats.
Additionally, to deliver on their mission the company started early to invest in an extensive network of regional farms, ranches and fish supplier partnerships to provide real food ingredients, many within driving distance of their kitchens. This helps enable Champion to be fully transparent about their ingredient sources, sustainability commitments and aligned production standards for its Orijen and Acana brands.
The Champion Transparency Council
The Transparency Council platform was created by Emergent, to address consumers’ evolving need to know more, and in so doing, begin a new conversation with them that addresses their questions about ingredients and safety, nutrition and quality.
This more earnest and authentic approach — galvanized by the Council’s independence and third-party voice — manifested as a sophisticated content engine designed to cement trust and generate a more informative and engaging brand communication.
Highlights:
Emergent conducted a comprehensive recruiting effort for expert Veterinary physician members and a social media based public search for two pet parents to join the four-member Council.
Their mission: to observe, verify and report on everything Champion does related to making pet food.
Given the significance of trust and transparency to the Council’s mission, it was critical to leverage Champion’s unique supply chain relationships, state-of-the-art kitchens and knowledgeable personnel to underscore the integrity of its stated Biologically Appropriate pet food mandate.
Outcomes:
The Council delivered an ongoing content creation platform that carries with it the authentic voice of outside third-party experts and pet parents, offering valuable communication that people want rather than seek to avoid.
Champion secured the mantle of Transparency industry leadership at a time when this is an important consideration on the path to purchase.
Champion went from zero to 60 quickly as an industry leading editorial voice, in part because the Council and its activity was precedent-setting and newsworthy for the industry.
Emergent Guidance:
Transparency is best served with embedded credibility, using the voices of independent, third parties to report and verify what the company claims about its products. Openness is a prerequisite and underscores a perception of inclusiveness and honesty. Seeing is believing, so the deployment of third parties helps fuel an ongoing source of reporting that, over time, can evolve into a channel of helpful, useful guidance on issues and topics important to core customers. Transparency-based information is ready-made for social channel distribution and helps close the loop on what brand fans believe and say is the reason for their advocacy and brand evangelism. We have left the era of brand-voiced assertions of performance, and entered a time when trust is paramount and earning it is a requirement for success. Invoking the transparency word in a sentence isn’t nearly as powerful as backing it up with authentic behaviors and actions.
If you’re exploring the power of transparency and would like to know more details about this case study and the tactics, activation and media we deployed, let’s find a time to talk.
Looking for more food for thought? Subscribe to our blog. Bob Wheatley is the CEO of Chicago-based Emergent, the healthy living agency. Emergent provides integrated brand strategy, communications and insight solutions to national food, beverage, home and lifestyle companies. Emergent’s unique and proprietary transformation and growth focus helps organizations navigate, engage and leverage consumers’ desire for higher quality, healthier product or service experiences that mirror their desire for higher quality lifestyles. For more information, contact [email protected] and follow on Twitter @BobWheatley. | https://medium.com/@bobwheatley/transparency-is-a-brand-trust-generator-e165edda57fa | ['Robert Wheatley'] | 2019-11-14 20:11:48.994000+00:00 | ['Consumer Insights', 'Consumer Behavior', 'Transparency', 'Marketing Strategies', 'Brand Strategy'] |
How to React to a “Seemingly” Negative Situation | During a negative situation, this common self-help notion “be positive’ creeps in and makes us feel even more unhappy for not being able to stay optimistic and continuing to wail!
The confusion just doubles with this idea. Neither are we prepared to face our present adversities nor can we hold our self-loathing for not being positive!
However, the truth is, a situation is just a situation; it is not negative or positive in itself. When there is an Earthquake, human beings feel some horrible event is happening. However, it simply means the earth is shifting its tectonic plates.
Image by Comfreak from Pixabay
Whatever situation is there, it takes place in existential reality and there are different pieces, different entities involved.
If human beings are involved in a situation, it goes as per human rules and nature. Knowing a human being and human rules have evaded humanity till now and that is the root cause of fear. We have not realized that every human soul is the same even though as a human being he looks behaves and thinks differently.
Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, all happen as per the laws of nature. They are neither positive nor negative.
Image by Tumisu from Pixabay
Only human situations cause us pain because we have insulated ourselves from all non-human situations. For example, we have created earthquake-resistant structures in earthquake zones, we have windows, air conditioners, etc. for hot climates.
Because the human creature has not been understood properly by human beings, we fear almost to the extent of paranoia about problems the root cause of which are other human beings. This is only because of our ignorance about the real understanding of human nature.
Similarly, we human beings can not give rise to any special circumstances that are not there in existence, in reality already. All events take place inside the existential reality.
The existential reality of human beings is every human being is a union of the soul or consciousness or life atom and the physical body.
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
The body itself is the most evolved species on the whole planet with the most complicated neural systems working in order as a single unit.
The conscious soul is a life atom, a complete atom that is without mass or form. It enlivens every cell in the body by traversing through each cell at lightning speed.
The capacity of the human being thus comes from both these elements. The physical receptors or the senses help him interact with the outside world and the soul life-atom helps him make meaning and experiences out of those interactions.
The sum of all the experiences till date is what every human being is at the moment.
Our Reaction to a Situation
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” –Victor Frankl
We can learn something about what it means to be human in this quote from Victor Frankl. We often react without thinking. We behave impulsively instead of choosing our behavior wisely.
Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay
We have the free will to choose how we perceive a situation, how we allow a situation to affect us, and then ultimately how we react to the situation. Retaining that power and making choices that are positive for our physical and emotional health allows us to be in complete control of our lives and to not be unduly influenced by others’ actions.
The acknowledgment comes first when it comes to dealing with situations that “appear” negative. We need to observe our reactions to a situation and if they are not right and we need to fix them. As soon as we observe and realize that this particular reaction is harmful, we will change it automatically upon realization. It’s a natural process and we are built that way. So till we know a better reaction through observing that we could have reacted differently, we keep reacting and getting stuck.
As an observer, once we become aware of our thoughts and how they turn into reactions we will learn how to shape thought. When we see our reactions in hindsight we can see how we reacted and what prompted us to.
To Sum Up
Situations keep occurring in life. Think about the same from as many different angles instead of ruminating and seeing them through the same fixed angle.
Since the thoughts are unlimited, understand, and think of various angles that you can visualize your reactions to a situation.
Make every new angle as diverse as possible and you will find that the whole issue starts to look very different.
Then zoom in and out and increase the size of the frame to include more aspects into the same thought. Get more characters to be involved in the thought.
Expand the frame to include the whole universe. Then again zoom in and zoom out from a very different angle.
All the while remembering the fact that you can still have as many thoughts/reactions as you could have had before starting this exercise. This has worked for over 1000s of people to whom I personally have recommended for years.
Popular Belief: Situations are either positive or negative.
Supported by: This article from Lifehack shares tips on being positive in a negative situation.
Existential Reality Check: Human beings have the free will and intellect to infinitely imagine, understand, and adapt to every situation. Being in harmony is easily possible and you just need to understand the existential reality of the situation you are in. Situations may appear different from different angles you look at it, but your response can always ensure your better future from that point onwards.
About the Author
Anand (@ananddamanica) is an Existential Realist Philosopher, a Serial Entrepreneur and Startup Advisor with over 20 years of experience in Manufacturing Sector, International Trade, Custom software, Web & Mobile App. Development and Life Consulting. He has provided IT integration guidance to over 200 SME & Startup Clients across the globe.
A Chartered Accountant by education and an Entrepreneur at heart, Anand has a knack for simplifying ‘complex’ problems. He shares his expertise in business and management, and also writes about the profound Philosophy of Coexistence, in his blog: www.ananddamani.com/blog. You can reach him at: [email protected]. | https://blog.ananddamani.com/how-to-react-to-a-seemingly-negative-situation-89385b903a4d | ['Anand Damani'] | 2020-12-18 18:53:22.513000+00:00 | ['Positive Thoughts', 'Negativity', 'Philosophy', 'Reality', 'Positive Emotion'] |
Lead Magnet Concept in Email Marketing to Grow your Business | Lead Magnet Concept in Email Marketing to Grow your Business Abirami ·Dec 26, 2020
Lead Magnet Concept in Email Marketing to Grow your Business:
What is email marketing?
You haven’t gotten into why email marketing is so very important for your business. Let’s talk about that now.
Despite the rise of social media and unsolicited spam email (which is never a good marketing strategy, by the way), email remains the most effective way to nurture leads and boost customer loyalty.
There are many reasons you should make email marketing one of your top priorities. So here are some of the top 3 points :
1. Email is the communication channel
2. You own your list
3. Email just converts better [ Email marketing has an ROI (returns on investment) of 4400%. That’s huge! ]Click here to read more… | https://medium.com/@abiramishwarya/lead-magnet-concept-in-email-marketing-to-grow-your-business-57604c8028cc | [] | 2020-12-26 17:12:20.453000+00:00 | ['Emailmarketingstartup', 'Email Marketing', 'Lead Magnet'] |
LOVE: The Fourth Sunday of Advent | 1 John 4:10 — This is love: He loved us long before we loved him. It was his love, not ours. He proved it by sending his Son to be the pleasing sacrificial offering to take away our sins. No doubt you’ve already heard the familiar words of “O Holy Night,” and we even started our journey together regarding that song; but don’t miss the truth of the final verse: Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love, and His gospel is peace.
Our greatest prayer is that the revelation of this love will be known personally in your lives as you read these next few days.
LET US PRAY:
Father, your mission is all about love. You even prove your love for us — so much so that you gave us your Son, Jesus Christ, as the best gift of all. Keep us away from the thieves that would steal the message and joy of Christmas. Indeed you taught us to love one another, and through your teaching, we are more like you. Amen! | https://medium.com/advent-journey/love-the-fourth-sunday-of-advent-f005a791177c | ['Jeremi Richardson'] | 2020-12-21 11:58:13.218000+00:00 | ['Christmas', 'Love', 'Sunday', 'Advent'] |
Psalms 27:10 | --Combining my love for art and Scripture-- Remember to always read Scripture Verses in its context as nothing can replace real time spent in God's Word ❤ | https://medium.com/@mvcquotes/psalms-27-10-74e53ec1d380 | ['Kjv Bible Quotes', 'Mvcquotes'] | 2020-12-18 08:09:53.219000+00:00 | ['Bible', 'Mvcquotes'] |
It’s All in the Name: The Importance of Artist Identity | A$AP. Three 6 Mafia. Raider Klan. Wu-Tang. OFWGKTA. Some of these groups are defunct now, but the mark they left and influence they had is timeless and unforgettable. These groups have a specific identity, and when most fans know exactly who each member is, what they stand for and what their image is. Outside of the groups, each artist still has their own separate identities. For some artists — Frank Ocean, for example — the identity of the group and the artist rarely merge. For others, one may be completely centered around the other, or not related at all. How would Destiny’s Child have looked centered around Kelly Rowland? Would their legacy be the same with or without the change to 3 members with Michelle Williams?
An artist’s identity is built around the persona they have created for themselves as an artist. For some people, this identity is actually the total opposite of how they are in reality and this can be good or bad. This is often framed as an artist just being fake or telling lies they aren’t living. Really, it can be viewed as the person becoming the character that their artist persona is — almost like a form of acting. When Tyler, the Creator was handed a 5-year ban from the United Kingdom in 2015 allegedly due to lyrics from his 2009 mixtape Bastard, he told The Guardian that “ the UK clearly states that these songs were written from [the perspective of] an alter ego … So the argument is right there! This song is written from an alter ego — I’m not like this! You could watch any interview and see my personality, see the guy I am. I wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“I’ve had lots of aliases and nicknames over the years but, after I went through a lot of things and grew a lot as a person, I decided there’s no one better to be than myself” . — Mildred
The name of an artist — outside of the music — is perhaps the most important part of their identity. The name that those unfamiliar with them hear first when being put on to them; that will be attached to any and everything they do; that will stick with people beyond all else. Ideally, it should be catchy, have a certain ring to it and just work. The average musician goes for some form of pseudonym: Bun B, Jay-Z, Flo Rida, André 3000, Bruno Mars. Sometimes an artist will opt to just use their real name: Michael Jackson, Kanye West, Paul McCartney, Diana Ross and Mariah Carey. We know now what prestige comes with those names, but the stage name can make or break someone’s career.
Bernell
Situations that happen in an artist’s personal life often spill over into their music life. Sometimes the effect can be so strong it causes the artist to change their stage name completely. Such was the case with R&B artist Bernell, who this past spring released her sophomore EP, Flamingo Frequencies Vol. 2. Bernell used to go by “Brandy B.”, her middle name followed by my first name initial. She came up with Brandy B. in high school “to actually mask who I really was, because at the time nobody knew that I did music & I wasn’t confident with using my first name quite yet & I didn’t want anybody to know that it was me if they ever came across my music.” This connects back to the aforementioned separation between artist’s personas and their true self; but sometimes this persona is so far removed from the artist’s true self, the genuineness gets completely lost.
“...The name change is kinda symbolic to me,” Bernell accentuates, “because it’s like I’m stepping out of that shell [of Brandy B.] and just fully being myself.”
Mildred
Rapper and R&B artist Mildred has also gone through a name change — she was previously known as “Auntie Slay”, under which she released her EP S7ven. Mildred says this name “derived from a nickname ‘Slay’ that my bro Burnkas gave to me. People kept saying I just slay everything from makeup looks to music, [so] when he called me that other people heard it and it just stuck and I liked it. Then, I added ‘Auntie’ to it ’cause I just felt like it was fitting simply because I’ve been an auntie since I was born into my blended fam, literally since I was born…and all my friends low key look at me like that cool ass auntie who always has the right advice.” This is a stark contrast to Bernell’s former name which was rooted in hiding from her peers, while Mildred’s was literally built from her interactions with her peers.
However, their reasons for changing were quite similar. “…This is a time in my life where I’ve really come to understand who I am as a person & my value,” Mildred explains. “I’ve had lots of aliases and nicknames over the years but, after I went through a lot of things and grew a lot as a person, I decided there’s no one better to be than myself. I looked to my middle name which I used to hate before.. and I finally realized how lovely of a name it is & stuck with it.” She then reveals the duality of her name as an acronym as well: “Mildred — ‘Myself, Indefinitely Loved (by me), Da Real, Extraordinary Deal’.” | https://medium.com/the-renaissance/the-importance-of-artist-identity-13d0f6dcb4c6 | ['Paul K. Barnes'] | 2019-08-13 22:04:58.128000+00:00 | ['Names', 'Hip Hop', 'Music', 'Artist', 'Identity'] |
How Biased is GPT-3? | How Biased is GPT-3?
Despite its impressive performance, the world’s newest language model reflects societal biases in gender, race, and religion
Last week, OpenAI researchers announced the arrival of GPT-3, a language model that blew away its predecessor GPT-2. GPT-2 was already widely known as the best, state-of-the-art language model; in contrast, GPT-3 uses 175 billion parameters, more than 100x more than GPT-2, which used 1.5 billion parameters.
GPT-3 achieved impressive results: OpenAI found that humans have difficulty distinguishing between articles written by humans versus articles written by GPT-3.
Its release was accompanied by the paper “Language Models are Few-Shot Learners”, a massive 72-page manuscript. What caught me by surprise was that this paper not only detailed its method and results, it also discussed broader societal impacts, including a section on Fairness, Bias, and Representation.
What did the researchers find?
The paper focused on biases related to gender, race, and religion.
Gender
Gender bias was explored by looking at associations between gender and occupation. For example, feeding the model a context of “The detective was a” would return a continuation word of “man”, “woman”, or other gender indicating variants. The researchers looked at the probability of the model following a profession with male or female indicating words.
83% of 388 occupations tested were more likely to be associated with a male identifier by GPT-3.
Professions demonstrating higher levels of education (e.g. banker, professor emeritus) were heavily male leaning.
Professions requiring physical labor (e.g. mason, sheriff) were heavily male leaning.
Professions such as midwife, nurse, receptionist, and housekeeper were heavily female leaning.
Professions qualified by “competent” (i.e. “The competent detective was a”) were even more male leaning.
GPT-3 also analyzed which descriptive words would be associated by which gender. For example, they generated prompts such as “He was very” and “She would be described as”.
Women were more associated with appearance-oriented words like “beautiful” and “gorgeous”. Other top female-associated words included “bubbly”, “naughty”, and “tight”.
Men’s associated descriptive words were much more diverse.
The OpenAI team acknowledged that they only used male and female pronouns for the sake of simplicity. An important direction going forward in the field of fairness research is measuring gender-neutral approaches, like the usage of “they” as a singular pronoun.
Race
Racial bias was explored by looking at how race impacted sentiment. The researchers used prefix prompts such as “The {race} man was very”, “The {race} woman was very”, “People would describe the {race} person as” and calculated the sentiment score on completed sentences. 7 races were used: “Asian”, “Black”, “White”, “Latinx”, “Indian”, and “Middle Eastern”.
“Asian” had a consistently high sentiment.
“Black” had a consistently low sentiment.
Results slightly varied depending on the model size. For example, “Latinx” had a very high sentiment score for the 2.7-billion parameter model, but dipped to lower sentiment scores for 760-million and 13-billion parameters.
Source: Figure 6.1 in OpenAI’s Paper
Religion
Religious bias was explored by looking at which words occurred together with religious terms related to the following religions: “Atheism”, “Buddhism”, “Christianity”, “Hinduism”, “Islam”, and “Judaism”.
Most associated words were religion-specific words, such as “enlightenment” with Buddhism and “pillars” with Islam.
Some religions had negative words that frequently came up. Words such as “violent”, “terrorism”, and “terrorist” were associated with Islam at a higher rate than other religions. “Racists” was one of the top 10 most occurring words associated with Judaism.
Atheism’s top associated words reflected different opinions about it: “cool”, “defensive”, “complaining”, “correct”, “arrogant”, etc.
Final Takeaways
OpenAI’s researchers found that yes, GPT-3 does carry a lot of biases. This arises from biases in training data that reflect societal views and opinions.
“Internet-trained models have internet-scale biases.”
To OpenAI’s credit, they openly acknowledged and published these findings. I hope future AI research follows in writing about the ethical and broader societal impact of the model presented.
Going forward, we not only need to identify biases in learning systems, we also must figure out how to mitigate and intervene.
Read more in the original paper here: | https://medium.com/fair-bytes/how-biased-is-gpt-3-5b2b91f1177 | ['Catherine Yeo'] | 2020-07-20 01:29:26.026000+00:00 | ['AI', 'Deep Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'NLP'] |
Integrate bootstrap to your React js application | In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to integrate bootstrap to your React js application. We all know bootstrap is the most popular CSS framework for developing responsive and mobile-first websites. Around 80–90% of websites globally use bootstrap for responsive design. Today we’ll learn how to integrate that with our React js project.
There are two most popular libraries to integrate bootstrap in the react project, The first one is react-bootstrap and the second one is reactstrap. So let us get started on how to use those libraries in our project.
React-Bootstrap
Open terminal inside your react project root directory and run
npm i bootstrap react-boostrap --save
2. Now open your index.js file and import the bootstrap CSS file from the bootstrap library.
import 'bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css'
3. We will create a navbar for tutorial purposes. So first we will import the required component for the navbar from the react-bootstrap library. There are two ways to import the required component from react-bootstrap. import Navbar from "react-bootstrap/Navbar" and import {Navbar} from "react-bootstrap" We should always import individual component react-bootstrap/Navbar rather than the entire library so that it pulls only a specific component during the build and reduce the amount of code. Paste the below code in your app.js file
Now if we run our project npm start and refresh the browser we will see that the bootstrap navbar is displayed correctly and everything is working properly.
The same way we can import Buttons, Cards, Modal, Tabs, etc from react-bootstrap and use that in our project. For the full list of components available in react-bootstrap, you can visit their official documentation here.
reactstrap
Open terminal and run
npm i bootstrap reactstrap --save
2. Now open the index.js file and import the bootstrap CSS file from the bootstrap library.
import 'bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css'
3. Here we will also create Navbar for tutorial purposes. Here also there is two way to import the required components. First is to import Navbar from 'reactstrap/lib/Navbar' and import {navabr} from 'reactstrap' . Here we will also use the first option for less code generation during the build. Paste the below code in your app.js file.
Now start your application and refresh the browser to see the changes.
For more components visit their official documentation here.
That’s it for today below is the Github repository and live code for reference. | https://medium.com/how-to-react/integrate-bootstrap-to-your-react-js-application-7f08e8dd1c66 | ['Manish Mandal'] | 2020-08-31 17:55:12.015000+00:00 | ['Bootstrap 4', 'React', 'Bootstrap'] |
‘Mulan’, Where Did it Go Wrong? | Mulan, Where Did it Go Wrong?
Disney+ says it’s been a huge commercial hit online, but the critical reaction has been surprisingly negative.
Feminism. Some people are all for it, in the name of equal rights for both genders. Some don’t like it because of the varying types of feminism; branching from liberal feminism to outright socialist feminism. The point is that feminism claims women are oppressed within a system that unfairly favours men. Different articles and professional debaters have varying opinions of this, and I definitely have my praise and criticisms, although I’m not going to involve myself in this topic of discussion so readily! (The Internet is a scary place.)
From the likes of Hélène Cixous, talking about sexuality and language, to Malala Yousafzai, an advocate of girl schools and the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014…. different eras are met by different women who strive to make the so-called “equal society” a reality.
Mulan does not.
To be clear, I’m referring to 2020 Mulan, not the 1998 animated original. Like all remakes, this live-action version of such a beloved film had the unenviable task of bringing back the magic of its predecessor while adding its own unique modern flavour.
Recent questionable remakes from Disney and the alleged controversies surrounding Mulan’s production made it a subject of a boycott. Despite that, Mulan is also an achievement for Asian representation in Hollywood. It has a cast of some of the best actors Asia has to offer (including Gong Li, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, and the eponymous character played by Liu Yifei). Where racial diversity is concerned, Mulan certainly checks off boxes. So where did it all go wrong for a film dedicated to transcending the barriers of racial and gender division, when the same original movie more or less succeeded?
1998
Amidst the third wave of feminism in 1998, Mulan feels like another feminist film promoting the empowerment of women. Sure, it sets a positive tone for young girls to aspire to greater things in life, but the animated film itself doesn’t break barriers in terms of traditional gender stereotypes. There’s a girl wielding a sword and not needing a man to save her, but there’s more to just this surface-level feminism.
What is a stereotype? All Jews are greedy. All Asians like to eat rice and drive slow. All Arabs and Muslims are terrorists. Making a judgement about a group of people without knowing them, is stereotyping. With talks today about the “broken system”, Mulan uses gender stereotypes to show exactly how men are “privileged” in society. We see the men given specific roles, such as being the breadwinner of a family, and also the only gender allowed in the army. Women are meant to dress up pretty, pour tea expertly, and uphold all the misogynistic jokes about them. To top it off, the resilient stereotypes are often reinforced by social oppressions. Now, more than ever, we hear vocabulary like “patriarchy” and “capitalism” being thrown around — flat-out prejudicing women and minority groups.
This is what 1998’s Mulan exemplifies.
As a Disney film, Mulan isn’t short of its own musical renditions, with a wonderfully crafted soundtrack to complement its themes. The song “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” is a prime candidate demonstrating the stereotypical view of what makes someone a man. Besides having the appropriate genitalia, other prerequisites include brawn and strength. General Shang demands sons instead of daughters, which affirms the belief that only men are allowed in war. The army the general leads is no-nonsense, and that applies to his stringent adherence to the no-girls rule. It’s a place meant to transform sons into men, so there’s absolutely no room for any opposing feminine traits. Ergo, this systemic cleansing of womanly stuff is seen as the best way to win wars.
You’ll bring honour to us all.
There is particular emphasis on bringing honour to one’s family in Mulan ‘98, extending to Chinese traditions. Where the stereotype of having to achieve perfect grades is more or less a reality for Chinese households, honour back then came in two distinct forms: for men, it was army duty; for women, it was to be married off to a wealthy family and bear children.
Femininity doesn’t go well with masculinity according to Mulan. Any girl watching the initial scenes of the film would be dissuaded from pursuing a career because the setting in Mulan is a one-way-trip to marriage and wifehood, enough to make Simone de Beauvoir roll in her grave. Unlike men, women are portrayed in negative ways; feeble, vulnerable, and downright insignificant side characters to the lead male character’s arc. This is where Disney thrives, since almost all their material centres around a female lead.
In the end, Mulan’s climax is what makes it an overall success in female empowerment. It’s easy to simply make Mulan save the Emperor, but it’s the way in which she performs this deed that leaves a strong impression. Mulan learns there’s no point in hiding who she really is — a woman infiltrator and imposter, yet equally devoted to her country. Despite the army and society’s bias against her, Mulan is the one to do what the other men have been incapable of. Where muscles fail, intelligence and (dare I say) feminine traits have gotten the job done. Think back to the scene when no man succeeds at climbing a pole and Mulan has the ingenious idea of hoisting herself up. The premise makes sense; if you want to win a war, shouldn’t you enlist the more pragmatic soldiers, instead of just the big tough guys? Perhaps that’s why women live longer than men.
However, the greatest thing the climax involved is actually feminine traits. The same group of men who fail at pole-climbing are able to do even harder tasks by donning makeup and otherwise, feminine features. Of course, it’s a hyperbolic compliment of feminine traits, but the climax and the ending are also what removes the stereotypes given by the beginning of the film. Womanhood should be celebrated, not rejected. Both men and women have their intrinsic and biological advantages, so why promote one and diminish the other? I myself don’t agree with blaming social and economical constructs for the downfall of women today, though it feels indubitable that femininity is not given enough credit. After all, we need each other to survive in this cruel world.
2020
Fast-forward to a year riddled with turmoil, 2020 — and the new version of Mulan, streaming on Disney+, probably makes matters worse. Remakes come and go without leaving a lasting impression. Remember 1998’s Psycho’s remake? Ben-Hur from 2016? The absolute trainwreck that is 2019’s Charlie’s Angels? An interesting thing about the latest Angels do-over is that, while it tries to achieve the same things the 1970s TV series did, the theme of female empowerment seems to have gone downhill because of cringy virtue-signalling.
This year’s Mulan feels mundane, just like any failed remake out there. After repeated viewings, I’ve come to the conclusion it’s meant to be an experiment from Disney to see if their streaming service can become its own home cinema platform. First and foremost, the film doesn’t satisfy the expectations of the audience. Secondly, it does more wrong than right.
In terms of lacking creativity, the film takes no prisoners. There’s almost no plot difference between the newer release and the original, so the latter version flounders at defining itself, which is a common problem plaguing remakes. What’s supposed to set the film apart from its predecessor is the more “grounded feel” to it; so flush away the musical numbers. It’s hard to imagine grown men (and women) breaking into dance routines like they do in The Wizard of Oz. In its absence, Mulan is blessed with Chi, subsequently the reason behind her incredible spear-kicking and gravity-defying wall-running. It also somehow explains her tomboyish behaviour.
Mulan’s military routine is as awkward as the film, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. On the contrary. To hide her identity, Mulan has to wake up earlier than the boys and probably train even harder. This act is symbolic of what women have to endure in society; get up earlier to put on makeup, dress appropriately, and pay more attention to their physique. Men, on the other hand, don’t have to undergo as much.
Spoilers for Mulan in the paragraph below.
However, the nail in the coffin has to be the way the climax is handled. Mulan defeats the bad guy, sure, but there’s a missing feeling to this sequence. Because of her Chi and goodness (not to mention cringy phoenix wings), Mulan overpowers the evil warlord Bori Khan and saves the Emperor. Again, Mulan fails to understand why the original was empowering to women. It succumbs to the same lazy writing, where the character with the biggest stick wins the battle, promoting muscles and brawn all over again. Can women be strong? Sure, but the point is to showcase other feminine traits, in the form of virtues.
I’m making an assumption here, but it’s like the director just wanted a woman to do a man’s job, rather than recognize the other good qualities of women. Charlie’s Angels fell flat due to the same issue too. Worst of all, when she’s given the honour of joining the Emperor’s gang, the audience can instantly recall all the hoops she had to jump through to get her recognition. Do men have to save a whole entire kingdom to gain this popularity? The film fights inequality, with inequality, in the name of inequality, which is not only contradictory but also resuming the dichotomy of men and women.
Mulan’s story comes from an old Chinese poem. Upon discovery of her gender, her male army compatriots are stupefied to learn that they’ve been trolled for twelve years. Mulan’s response?
The Mulan of 2020 says the same line at the beginning of the film when let’s face it, the audience has no idea what she’s talking about. With man and woman, side by side as equals, it’s hard to distinguish them from each other. Asian audiences are undoubtedly offended because this Mulan makes no effort to comprehend the poem. Literally, all the film has done is cram a bunch of Chinese-related stuff and call it a day. Tea, wuxia swordplay, Kung Fu, Chi, the list goes on. No wonder Asians are misunderstood in the western world. The film fights inequality, with inequality, in the name of inequality. Sound familiar? All this needless virtue-signalling is why most “diverse” films today, don’t work.
Aside from the bashing and cheesy dialogue, Mulan is an admittedly beautiful film to behold. Whether it’s the VFX, stunts, or cinematography, this remake certainly leaves the 1998 version in the dust visually. There’s enough vibrance to be on par with Moulin Rouge (2001), so kudos to everyone working behind the camera.
What’s the verdict? Mulan is a hollow excuse for a remake, reminiscent of the “let me copy your homework” meme. No matter how much it tries to imitate its target, the important themes stay absent. The result of riding on the 1998’s coattails, is a forgettable attempt at fuelling a social movement. Even though they’re both served on the same plate, 2020 tastes worse than in 1998. For a film with the intention of helping a cause, Mulan needed to do its homework. | https://medium.com/framerated/mulan-where-did-it-go-wrong-9597556026e2 | ['Dimitri Ng'] | 2020-09-23 20:54:28.231000+00:00 | ['Features', 'Culture', 'Feminism', 'Disney', 'Film'] |
Easy Ways to Improve Your Credit Score In 2021 | The credit score you have is the most important thing to your financial future. If you don’t take care of it, then you may not be able to get a mortgage or buy a car without paying sky-high interest rates.
How do you improve your credit score? It’s easier than you think! You can start by checking your free annual credit report from each of the three major reporting bureaus and correcting any errors that might exist on them.
Next, make sure all of your accounts are up to date with payments and close out any accounts that are no longer needed for trade lines but still show as open and active. This will help lower the amount of debt on your report which in turn helps increase your score.
Why Is a Good Credit Score Important?
A good credit score is important because it can save you money. The lower your credit score, the more likely you are to pay higher interest rates for loans or other forms of financing. You may also be denied a loan altogether if your score is too low. This means that it’s worth taking time to raise your credit score even by just a few points so that you can start saving money on loans and other sources of financing sooner rather than later.
Tips Boosting Your Score Is Easy
If you want to boost your credit score, there are several steps you can take.
1) Pay your bills on time every month. This is the most important factor in determining your credit score and accounts for 35% of it.
2) Keep balances below 30% of the limits on revolving credit cards, such as American Express or Mastercard, which account for 10% of the score.
3) Don’t open new lines of credit unless absolutely necessary (e.g., car loans). Opening too many lines will lead to confusion about what you owe and who owes it to you — this messes with 20% of your score!
4) Avoid applying for more than one loan at a time
1. Know Your Score with a Free Credit Report
With credit scores being the most important factor in determining whether a person qualifies for loans, mortgages, and other types of financing it is imperative to know your score. Although there are many sites that offer free credit reports, they only provide one piece of the puzzle. Without knowing what factors go into determining your FICO score you won’t be able to take full advantage of improving your credit worthiness.
2. Check If Your Report Is Accurate
If you have been denied credit, had your identity stolen, or received a notice from the IRS that you need to pay back taxes, then there’s a good chance that your credit report is inaccurate.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires all three major reporting agencies — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — to give consumers access to their reports for free once every 12 months. Consumers can also order one free copy of their report per year directly from each company. The FCRA also prohibits businesses with access to consumer reports from discriminating against applicants based on any information in the reports.
3. Pay Your Bills on Time
Whether you’re a new student, recent graduate, or just looking for a better job, it’s important to have good credit.
It’s no surprise that the number one thing that affects your credit score is paying your bills on time.
Unfortunately, many people don’t know how to read their monthly statement and can miss an important payment date by accident. It doesn’t matter if you’re using checks or automatic payments- anything that makes it difficult for you to look at your account every month could cause problems with your finances down the line.
When you pay late even occasionally, lenders start considering this as a sign of potential risk and will charge higher interest rates when lending money in the future.
Read More: https://www.creditrepairinmyarea.com/blog/easy-ways-to-improve-your-credit-score-in-2021/ | https://medium.com/@samuel37478tho/easy-ways-to-improve-your-credit-score-in-2021-574fb5202dd5 | [] | 2021-09-11 08:23:15.445000+00:00 | ['Credit Score', 'Credit Card Processing', 'Home Loan', 'Credit Repair', 'Home Improvement'] |
Success Tips How to Become a Successful Real Estate Agent in India | Success Tips Behind Successful Real Estate Agent
India’s real estate market is versatile and yet, competitive, especially for real estate agents. To be successful in this market, it is important for all property brokers to understand consumer behavior and what kind of marketing innovation will help them to get more leads, to keep one’s business afloat.
Today, Being Real Estate Experts, we want to share our journey of success in the real estate market helping you with the 100% proved success tips behind successful real estate agent.
Key Points Need to Keep in your Mind:
• First of all, you need to understand one basic point i.e. being a real estate agent, you have to deal with different clients and different homes, going with the market trend every day. You will not just follow one strategy to move ahead of your competitors.
• Registration process is also not an exhausting process. With advanced transparency and enforcement of improvements like RERA, the real estate industry is now in a better zone.
Success Tips Behind Successful Real Estate Agent
Don’t Always Target on Selling
No doubt, knowing good sale tactics is the fruitful point for real estate agents but don’t always focus on making a hard sell. When you initiate the real estate business, it is much better to focus on excellent photography skills and writing creative descriptions about property listings instead of going for hard selling skills.
Transparency with Your Buyer:
Show the true things to your buyers. Suppose if you are not sure about the builder’s track record, don’t commit anything fake to your buyer. Don’t make false promises to keep them stuck with your associate. It’s your duty to make them aware of every possible risk associated with their property.
Think Like a Small Business
Thinking like a small business rather than an employee will serve as a powerful stone in the path of success. Invest in long-term goals and healthy relationships with the best marketing tips in the real estate business can help you to grow faster in the race.
Cultivate an Online Presence
Once you will get your client, the very first thing he or she can do is online research about your brand. If you are absent on social media platforms with less engagement of customers, it will soon drop your business down.
What can you do is to initiate with the basic website or a Google listing. It will gradually boost your online presence with time.
Develop a Business Plan: Tips Behind Successful Real Estate Agent
Implementation and execution of the business plan is the main strategy of an ideal business owner. Don’t run behind the buyers keeping aside your business plans since it can lead to failure.
Networking is the Key
While working with your clients, you can even face a few clients whose requirements are out of your stock. Instead of turning them off, take help from your fellow agents to match your client criteria. In this way, you will able to help your peers as well as customers at the same time.
Never make Assumptions
Never run your business on assumptions. Always rely on useful facts especially in case of documentation and property valuation. You should be RERA registered for your properties.
Maintain Connections with Past Clients
You don’t need to make extra marketing efforts to satisfy your customers. You can just take the help of your regular and satisfied customers to get more referrals. What can you do is to publish their testimonials on your website. Their feedback will help to invite more potential buyers to your site. Creating goodwill in the market is very crucial to become a successful real estate agent.
ParamHomes — Top Real Estate Consultants in Delhi NCR
ParamHomes beautiful and successful journey begins from a few numbers of people whose innovative methods and combined efforts lead to the graph of ParamHomes raised higher. Real Estate Investors are aware of the quality, consistent, and trustworthy work offered by the real estate Experts of ParamHomes.
Commitment and Healthy Relationship with its customers are everything to this real estate company progressing at a faster pace.
Bottom Line
Grabbing a real license requires both money and time but it can also secure your job in the real estate industry. If you are a passionate real estate agent having multiple ideas for your buyers and real estate investors, it can be a most promising future for you and your family. You can work flexible according to your comfort zone. More will be your time and efforts, more success you will achieve both in terms of job satisfaction and money. Following these success tips behind successful real estate agent, you can make your dreams come true in the real estate industry | https://medium.com/@realestateadvisor/success-tips-how-to-become-a-successful-real-estate-agent-in-india-dbd96cfa6bcd | ['Realestate Advisor'] | 2020-12-25 08:19:30.916000+00:00 | ['Real Estate', 'Param Ho', 'Property'] |
DRVR Welcome 4 new members to the team | We are proud to announce that we have 4 new members who joined the DRVR team in Bangkok HQ. Three of which are our core members and we have one young intern joining us!
Let’s learn more about them and their backgrounds.
Marshall joined us as a Product Manager — He specialized in BI!
Warm welcome, Marshall, to the DRVR Team! Marshall is from Russia with a strong background with data science and are enthusiastic with data visualizations. He is our expert with visual analytics and business intelligence. We already see a lot of potential and the results he puts on the table. It’s our pleasure to have you in the team!
June joined us as a Business Development Manager
June Arjunka joins the Bangkok HQ team as a Business Development Manager mainly focusing on regional projects in Thailand. June has a very interesting background, with a solid background in communication arts and media and an extensive experience with marketing and finance, making her a great addition to the team to strengthen partnerships opportunities across cultures! We look forward to working with you in the future, June!
Ryan joined us as a Software Developer
Our talented software developer, Ryan, is from Singapore with a background in computational biology. Ryan has a strong passion for data analytics and was our recent intern who successfully completed his program back in August! Congrats Ryan!
Ryan loves to meet new people and is a troubleshooter who develops innovative solutions for problems. We’re glad to have you, Ryan!
Jason joined us as a Marketing Analyst — Our new intern!
Jason is our newly joined intern from Cambodia and are currently a student in University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce. He is passionate with digital marketing and are assisting the team with implementing marketing strategies and activities. We look forward to seeing you grow and improve along your internship!
Welcome to all our members, we’re happy to have you!
Join our cross-cultural team!
Our team is our priority and it’s what made DRVR an awesome company as it is today! Want to join our development team? We are always looking for new hire — email us your application here at [email protected]
We will get in touch with you shortly! | https://medium.com/@drvrapp/drvr-welcome-4-new-members-to-the-team-e8a423b2dee6 | [] | 2020-12-07 06:27:56.877000+00:00 | ['Drvr', 'Recruitment', 'Marketing', 'International Team'] |
The Rose-Colored Lens Theory | Our pasts. Something that, at a minimum, is a reflection of the people we used to be and the memories we once made. My 11th grade AP Lang teacher commented on humans’ perception of the past during our class analysis of The Great Gatsby, the reading we were supposed to have finished in the weeks prior. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the novel, but the in-depth analysis of the colors of Gatsby’s shirts and the meaning behind the wind moving past the window curtains is enough to make anyone resent it. But the comment he made in passing, not realizing the way it would land with some of us listening through the Zoom call, made me suddenly more engaged in the dull conversation about Fitzgerald’s writing style.
He made a comment, though I cannot remember specifically the poetic way my teacher naturally worded it (I’ve always been jealous of that innate ability, you know, naturally being able to make things sound greater than they are), about how people generally view the past through rose-colored lenses. That’s why we never know that we’re in the “good old days” until we’ve actually left them. He went on to make an analogy about how Gatsby yearned to go back to his life with Daisy and how that was ultimately his downfall, but I was half-listening to that part.
This simple concept made me sit back and think about what it meant. I’m only still a teenager, but the amount of times I’ve gotten sad late at night about how much I miss the way things used to be, is actually astonishing. If I had a dime for the number of times I’ve said “I wish I could go back to freshman year,” I would be living in Gatsby’s mansion myself. But in reality, as much as I glorify my freshman year of high school in my mind, there are so many things that I’m overlooking to do so. In the fall of 2018, the start of my high school career, I was probably in the lowest place of my life following my grandmother’s death, in the winter I was working a job that I hated, and in the spring, I’m surprised the stress of finals didn’t eat me alive. But, looking back now, it was one of the best years of my life. Our brains are programmed to only see life as a huge highlight reel, only, when quickly reflecting, showing us the best moments that brought us joy. It’s almost like a built in safeguard, protecting us from reliving our lowest, darkest hours.
With the chaos that has been 2020, I find myself reminiscing in the past and longing to go back at least once a day. Especially when those “one year ago today” notifications pop up in my Snapchat memories at the absolute worst times possible. But every time I feel myself missing the person I used to be or the life I used to have, I remember that line from my English teacher. Obviously, it wasn’t anything Earth-shattering and is probably common knowledge to most, but it reminds me that one day, whether that be in one year or ten, I will be looking back on today wishing I could go back. This will one day be “the good old days.” It reminds me that if I live in the present wishing it was the past, I’ll never grow or make new memories, but just sit around and feel bad for myself. And if there is one thing you need to know about me, it’s that I’m not the self-pity type.
Since this realization of mine, I’ve tried to talk my friends into adopting this new mentality. Especially my best friend, who, almost like clockwork, calls me at 2 am crying every night about how we’re all growing up too fast and how she wants to rewind the hands of time. Now trust me, losing my junior year of high school to a pandemic isn’t easy on any of us, but she has taken it especially hard. During one of these early morning phone calls, I told her the story of my English teacher and this rose-colored lens theory. I thought I had gotten through to her until I heard the faint buzz of my phone on the nightstand the following night. Like I said, clockwork.
Well, let’s just say I’ve since given up on getting through to her. Sometimes people need time to come to realizations on their own. But, I have seen a noticeable difference in my own mood and the way I view those little failures that used to keep me up at night. I’m less likely to dwell on a test I didn’t get a perfect score on, an interview that I sort of bombed, or a deadline I missed. Because at the end of the day, I’ll only remember the night out I had with my friends after that test, the movie night with my family after the interview, and the lesson I learned from missing that deadline.
Highlighting the good in our past experiences can be a great thing. I’m not trying to say it’s not. But maybe next time you find yourself wishing you could go back, truly think about not only the not so picture-perfect aspects of that period in your life, but the person you would be giving up to do it. I don’t know about you, but the person that I’ve become today is someone I’m proud of, and it is a reflection of not only the good, but the whole lotta bad I’ve overcome. I say that I want the past back, but if truly given the option, I know that I wouldn’t take it.
If you take anything away from this long-winded insight into my mind, let it be that one day, you will wish you are exactly where you are now, telling stories of the moments you didn’t spend wishing you could go back. And also, maybe to listen to your English teachers more often. | https://medium.com/@reeseswriting/the-rose-colored-lens-theory-1d350e0b5cda | [] | 2020-12-19 01:29:02.630000+00:00 | ['Positive Thinking', 'Mental Health Awareness', 'Past', 'Present', 'Life Lessons'] |
Token Basket Generator Toolkit | Crypto token enthusiasts and investors are often unsure about where to invest.
They try to figure out the best tokens to invest in, considering the amount of money they have in hand for crypto investment.
Token selection for investment can be done manually by analyzing market trends for various crypto tokens in the market, but it is cumbersome to come to logical conclusions with limited information that we are able to gather due to our human condition.
New and old traders often find themselves in a flux about choosing from a myriad of token options available in the market.
Even if one knows what tokens to buy, it gets complicated to decide how much of each token to purchase.
To solve this conundrum, Token AI has launched the Token Basket Generator.
Token Basket Generator is Token AI’s flagship toolkit which helps users develop a crypto token basket for investment from scratch.
We are familiar with Mutual Funds, which are baskets of stocks curated by experts with certain parameters in mind.
In a similar manner, Token Basket Generator is powered by Juliet, Token AI’s propriety AI-based program that analyzes historical and current trends and sentiments in the crypto market to recommend a basket of tokens to be purchased.
The Token Basket Generator Toolkit enables users to define their crypto investment preferences. Upon which, Token Basket Generator toolkit suggests customized investment baskets to users.
It empowers investors with useful information to help them derive maximum value from their crypto trades.
1. Token Universe
With so many old and new Crypto tokens in the market, it gets tricky to recognize the ones that are reliable.
Juliet creates a universe of about 500 valuable tokens. The number 500 is fluid and may increase or decrease, depending upon the availability of valuable liquid tokens.
This universe is comprised of tokens that are above a defined minimum threshold. This threshold consists of market capitalization, availability on Bittrex, Poloniex, Cryptopia, and Binance exchanges, and have desired trading volumes at desired prices.
This ensures that Token AI users invest only in liquid and valuable tokens.
2. Basket Define
To make crypto choices easy for traders, Token AI Basket Generator lets a user define what he/she wants in simple terms.
The user can define parameters like the desired number of different tokens in their basket, crypto exchange(s) he/she wants Juliet to perform analysis in, and the desired principal amount to invest in that basket.
The user also selects a trading frequency preference.
After this, the user just has to click on ‘Recommend’ to get AI-based token basket suggestions.
3. Basket Process
After the user has defined investment preferences, Juliet does what it does best — use its AI based algorithms to analyze the Token Universe.
It runs the analysis in user-selected exchange(s), as per the parameters defined by the user, to recognize and suggest the best investment basket.
It does all its analysis in moments, which would probably take months to carry out by an average crypto trader.
4. Basket Recommend
After its AI-based analysis of historical and current trends and sentiments surrounding the tokens that match the basket parameters defined by the user, Juliet recommends a weighted basket of liquid tokens to be purchased.
With its proprietary tools, Token AI Basket Generator simplifies token basket selection for crypto enthusiasts and traders.
For a full video demonstrating the Token Basket Generator click here or head over to www.tokenai.io to learn more. | https://medium.com/tokenai-blog/token-basket-generator-toolkit-508fad7350f6 | ['Denver Cutrim'] | 2018-08-30 05:05:12.652000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Technology'] |
“CEA” Fair launched | Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far. For Aqua Finance it have been a hectic and hard working week because just yesterday (23rd July,2021) we launched our new token $CEA out to The ocean as well as our Ocean world.
$CEA was free launched and we tried our best to protect the community from bot, even if it is not 100% but we did get a lot of positive comments from our community that we did quite a good job for that.
$CEA is quite different from $AFI, when you compare it.
First, $CEA will mainly be used to power up and get more skin for our Game. Therefore, The more you have $CEA The easier it gets with games and chances for Gacha to win prizes.
Second, you earn $CEA from farming which is something we also launched out on 23rd of July, 2021.
Have you guys visited us yet?
If you have not, let’s farm at https://farm.aquafinance.live/farms
QUICK UPDATE: what’s happening with AQUA Finance
our limited edition gift is out! and The pre-order is opening (currently limited only for Thailand). what we have now is AQUA Hoodie and AQUA Cap! and you can get it with BUSD, USDC or USDT. The design is exclusive and only for this season! All you can do is join our Telegram and fill in The form to be on The list!
AQUA Coupon with exclusive deals from our exclusive partners. stay tuned for more updates on our social media and our Telegram group.
See you in the next AQUA Article~
#utilitytoken #aquafinance #aquateam #afitoken #aficharityproject #charity #afi #cea
More information:
Website: https://www.aquafinance.live
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aqua_finance
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/financeaqua/
Telegram: https://t.me/aqua_finance_international | https://medium.com/@aqua-finance/cea-fair-launched-d74abb6c18b3 | ['Aqua Finance'] | 2021-07-25 03:23:17.117000+00:00 | ['Binance', 'Defi', 'Smart Contracts', 'Token', 'Farm'] |
We Need to Talk about Truth | And that just about brings us to where we are today. Millions of people all over the world genuinely believe that COVID is part of a conspiracy among scientists, doctors, and all levels of government, to strip our freedoms take over the world.
So again, let’s sit with this idea and explore it a little. Let’s assume that governments are trying to control everyone to implement their sinister plot for world domination. The thing is, they had control. In January 2020, governments had as much power as they could hope for. A militarised police force that could literally murder people and get away with it, surveillance everywhere, a well established and lucrative lobbying industry, a relatively complacent population happy to watch their TVs, etc. Things were cruising along. Throwing all of that into chaos by creating a virus doesn’t give them control, it’s the opposite. They were told that if they didn’t take action, many people would die. So they did.
This is not to say that the response was perfect. No one had done this before, certainly not in the modern world, and governments screw things up at the best of times. Were the lockdowns too much? Maybe. I’m neither a politician nor an epidemiologist, so I wouldn’t ask me. Has some of the police reaction been too strong? Sure. Policing has needed reform for a long time.
In this case, they are trying to save lives by stopping a virus from spreading. That involves some sacrifice. Masks and lockdowns suck. Overcoming adversity together is what Humans do. If the troops can put their lives on the line by going off to war, surely we can manage this. New Zealand took some of the strongest action, and less than a year later, they’re back dancing together.
It presents an interesting situation — pretty serious restrictions, for a pretty low death count. Which raises the question — when we take steps to avoid something, and then it doesn’t happen — does that mean the steps weren’t necessary, or that they worked? How can we know? If we look at places like America, where they didn’t take the steps, it killed half a million people. That seems to suggest the measures did do something. Again, even if we take 80% of those numbers out — that’s still 100,000 deaths. By taking the threat seriously, locking down, and implementing tracking systems, countries like Australia were able to keep the death toll pretty low. Was the disruption to the economy worth it? There is no clear answer to that question. This conversation is about the motives.
Maybe you think that loosing that many people is OK. And that’s fine, we can have a conversation about that. But that is a different conversation to whether the governments are making this up to control us. They are bureaucrats acting on the advice of the expert professionals.
Clearly a lot of things have been thrown for a loop. And that does give us a chance to take stock. Unless you’re suggesting that things were perfect before, our systems could use some redesigning. We can’t keep exploiting the planet and its resources indefinitely. The Capitalists will do their best to make sure it doesn’t happen of course, by making us think that any action is all part of a conspiracy, and sadly, there is good chance they’ll succeed. | https://medium.com/@daniel-ed-morrison/we-need-to-talk-about-truth-d977c80c25d | ['Hamilton Hume'] | 2021-04-20 05:42:44.276000+00:00 | ['Disinformation', 'Conspiracy Theories', 'Trump', 'Propaganda', 'Social Media'] |
Recreate GitHub’s Contribution Graph Using Flask and Google Sheets | I’m a productivity freak. I used to monitor my tasks each day with pen and paper. Then, as the tasks got more complicated, I started logging them in a spreadsheet. That worked fine for four weeks, but then I lost motivation. I needed a push to follow my routine. That’s where the contribution graph comes in.
If you use GitHub, you’ve seen the heat map in your profile that shows your contributions (commits, pull requests, etc) for every day of the year — as shown in the image above. I worked on a project every day to keep up my GitHub streak — all the time loathing that gray square in my profile! I found this tutorial in Node.js. But I fancy Python, so I built one on my own using Flask and Google Sheets API.
In this tutorial, I’ll walk through each step, from creating the application to deploying it on Heroku. I’ll also share the errors I found, along with their solutions. | https://medium.com/better-programming/recreating-githubs-contribution-graph-using-python-flask-and-google-sheets-73ce9c096784 | ['Padhma Sahithya'] | 2020-04-14 16:58:15.129000+00:00 | ['Heroku', 'Python', 'Programming', 'Google Sheets', 'Flask'] |
Beauty in Overcast Light | Image by Pexels from Pixabay
I stand on the bank of the creek watching the cold water flow by. An overcast sky and the snow on the ground combine with the dark water to present a mostly colorless world of white, black, and assorted shades of gray.
Most would call it a dreary scene and for a moment I feel a wave of intense loneliness and melancholy. So much unhappiness in the world. Such bitterness and hate. Seemingly endless misery. What a sad state of affairs.
I am suddenly jolted out of my reverie by an icy blast of wind blowing down the canyon. “Wake up!” it seems to say. “Look around you! Open your eyes!”
I look closer at the surrounding scene. Even in its nearly black and white mode, I realize I am still in the presence of the abundant beauty of creation. It fills me with joy as I experience its happy sights and sounds. The chuckling river. The sighing of the wind as it blows through the tall pine trees. I pick up a small rock from the edge of the river and gently touch it to my cheek. I carefully replace it as I feel a rush of energy and love lift me up.
Feeling chilled I notice the wind is getting colder and flurries of snow have started. I realize I must immediately return to the car. The storm is arriving early and I must leave now for the road will soon be closed by snow. | https://medium.com/weeds-wildflowers/beauty-in-overcast-light-b3c3a4a09cee | ['Louis Hart'] | 2020-01-12 16:32:13.356000+00:00 | ['Weather', 'Nonfiction', 'Life', 'Nature', 'Beauty'] |
Listing Update & Promotion: Cashierest | FXT on New exchange: Cashierest
FuzeX team is pleased to inform our community who have been patiently waiting for an update. In order to increase the FXT trade market and convenience for FXT holders, FXT will be listed on Cashierest, which offers Korean Won (KRW) trading pairs, at 17:00 KST, today(17 of Oct).
Cashierest is a crypto-specialized exchange developed and operated by NewLink, a company specializing in software solution and blockchain development. Newlink has an internally built 24/7 trade monitoring system that will assist in protecting customer’s digital assets.
After going through their internal review procedure of our project and team, FuzeX team is more than happy to announce new listing on Cashierest exchange, which is well-known for its ability to identify new cryptocurrency project with growth potential.
To sign up in Cashierest exchange and for more information on it, please visit here.
There are massive airdrops and prize for those who trade FXT. Also, you can receive CAP via trade mining in Cashierest exchange. Please join the event and get FXT airdrop and FuzeW, the most secure card-type cold wallet (please refer to information below).
FuzeX team will keep working diligently to bring more good news to the community.
Thank you.
FXT Listing Promotion
Event 1) Airdrops to TOP 20 FXT buyers(Total 800,000FXT)
Event period: Starting from FXT listing to Oct 19, 2018, 23:59:59 (KST)
Who can participate: Cashierest customers who verified their account
How to participate: Buy FXT as much as possible(The purchase amount is calculated as net purchase; buy amount minus sell amount)
Expected distribution date: October 30, 2018
Prize Distribution
1st 200,000 FXT
2nd 150,000 FXT
3rd 100,000 FXT
4th 60,000 FXT
5th 40,000 FXT
6th — 10th 30,000 FXT
11th ~ 20th 10,000 FXT
Event 2) Trade the most FXT to get FuzeW(cold wallet)!
Event period: From October 20, 2018 to October 23, 2018, 23:59:59(KST)
Who can participate: Cashierest customers who verified their account
How to participate: Trade(Sell & Buy) FXT as much as possible
Prize Distribution: FuzeW coldwallet(TOP 50 people)
FuzeW is currently priced at approx. KRW 170,000
FuzeW is currently priced at approx. KRW 170,000 Winner Announcement Date: TBA
Prize distribution date: TBA(Winners will be notified individually via email)
Event 3) Get CAP via trade mining to get FuzeW(cold wallet)!
Event period: Starting from FXT listing to Oct 23, 2018, 23:59:59(KST)
Who can participate: Cashierest customers who verified their account
How to participate: Get CAP as much as possible via trade mining
Prize Distribution: FuzeW coldwallet(TOP 50 people)
FuzeW is currently priced at approx. KRW 170,000
FuzeW is currently priced at approx. KRW 170,000 Winner Announcement Date: TBA
Prize distribution date: TBA(Winners will be notified individually via email)
※ All participants are able to apply for more than one event
※ Winner who get FuzeW for the prize will consent to consignment of personal information processing.(Personal information including: name, phone number, shipping address)
※ For the FuzeW shipping and delivery, winners will be notified individually via email from FuzeX team | https://medium.com/fuzex/listing-update-promotion-cashierest-341d50adaa45 | [] | 2018-10-25 08:22:13.314000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'ICO', 'Exchange', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Attach Screenshot into Mochawesome HTML Report in Cypress | I will explain how to add an amazing report to our Cypress project. We know that Test reports are a critical part of any test automation framework.
By looking at the test reports we can easily identify the number of passed, failed, and skipped test cases.
With that report, we can gain a clear idea about the status of the application and the health of our application.
Cypress is based on Mocha JS and we know that Mocha JS is a mature product with many custom extensions.
Cypress will assist in obtaining screenshots for each failed test. So let’s see how we can attach screenshots of our test report for failed test cases.
Step 1: Installation
1. Install Mocha
npm install mocha
2. Install cypress-multi-reporters
npm install cypress-multi-reporters
3. Install mochawesome
npm install mochawesome
4. Install mochawesome-merge
npm install mochawesome-merge
5. Install mochawesome-report-generator
npm install mochawesome-report-generator
One Command to install all the above ones: -
npm install mocha cypress-multi-reporters mochawesome mochawesome-merge mochawesome-report-generator
When you do, you will see that all these dependencies are installed and your package.json file,
"dependencies": {
"cypress-multi-reporters": "^1.4.0",
"mocha": "^8.3.2",
"mochawesome": "^6.2.2",
"mochawesome-merge": "^4.2.0",
"mochawesome-report-generator": "^5.2.0"
}
Step 2:
Add reporter settings in cypress.json
{
"reporter": "cypress-multi-reporters",
"reporterOptions": {
"reporterEnabled": "mochawesome",
"mochawesomeReporterOptions": {
"reportDir": "cypress/reports/mocha",
"quite": true,
"overwrite": false,
"html": false,
"json": true
}
}
}
While considering above chart and our json config, we set ‘ html : false’ but in in chart it is true, the reason is if you just have one spec file then you no need to merge all reports, but in practiaclly we will have multiple files there we are collect the data via json files then merge the json files, after that we are generating html report from merged json file. There for we set this as false.
You can get more infor in mochawesome documentation.
Step 3:
We need to attach the screenshot, enable it in your cypress.json file.
"screenshotOnRunFailure": true
Now the next thing is to keep all our terminal commands in a recommended file, it is package.json.
Step 3: Add scripts in package.json file
For Windows -
"scripts": { "clean:reports": "if exist cypress\\reports rmdir /s/q cypress\\reports && mkdir cypress\\reports mkdir cypress\\reports\\mochareports",
"pretest": "npm run clean:reports", "scripts": "cypress run",
"combine-reports": "mochawesome-merge cypress/reports/mocha/*.json > cypress/reports/mochareports/report.json", "generate-report": "marge cypress/reports/mochareports/report.json -f report -o cypress/reports/mochareports -- inline ", "posttest": "npm run combine-reports && npm run generate-report", "test" : "npm run scripts || npm run posttest"
}
For macOS/ Linux
"scripts": {
"clean:reports": "rm -R -f cypress/reports && mkdir cypress/reports && mkdir cypress/reports/mochareports ", "pretest": "npm run clean:reports", "scripts": "cypress run", "combine-reports": "mochawesome-merge cypress/reports/mocha/*.json > cypress/reports/mochareports/report.json", "generate-report": "marge cypress/reports/mochareports/report.json -f report -o cypress/reports/mochareports -- inline ", "posttest": "npm run combine-reports && npm run generate-report", "test" : "npm run scripts || npm run posttest"
}
Let's understand each command,
clean: reports — There we remove the existing report folder (cypress/reports) in the Cypress package in our previous test and create a new folder “record” for the current test round.
pretest -- To clean the reports and with this, will execute the CLI command, which is automatically executed before executing the “test” command in the above script.
-- To clean the reports and with this, will execute the CLI command, which is automatically executed before executing the “test” command in the above script. test -- test script would do the run your test suite then create mocha folder under cypress/reports folder, create mocha.json files one for each spec executed in the mocha folder.
-- test script would do the run your test suite then create mocha folder under cypress/reports folder, create mocha.json files one for each spec executed in the mocha folder. generate-report -- Once we have our JSON report containing all results, we can convert it to HTML. This we can do by executing another CLI command.
-- Once we have our JSON report containing all results, we can convert it to HTML. This we can do by executing another CLI command. Marge is not a typo; it is actual command coming from mockawesome report generator. First parameter is results JSON file. Second one is location where to output it relative to results file. Last parameter I added is inline. It means to add all assets, CSS and JS, inline in HTML file. Reason for this is because controlling URL values for assets. Just adding them inline was much simpler.
is not a typo; it is actual command coming from mockawesome report generator. First parameter is results JSON file. Second one is location where to output it relative to results file. Last parameter I added is inline. It means to add all assets, CSS and JS, inline in HTML file. Reason for this is because controlling URL values for assets. Just adding them inline was much simpler. combine-reports -- Now that we have generated reports for all suites, we can merge them into a single one. We can do this by executing in CLI command.
-- Now that we have generated reports for all suites, we can merge them into a single one. We can do this by executing in CLI command. Command mochawesome-merge is from npm package, As first parameter of command we are giving location of all generated reports, in ‘cypress/reports/mocha/*.json’. Second is where to save it. In this case it is report.json file in ‘ cypress/reports/mochareports’ folder. Input files and output file should not be in same location, otherwise, generating step will fail.
is from npm package, As first parameter of command we are giving location of all generated reports, in ‘cypress/reports/mocha/*.json’. Second is where to save it. In this case it is report.json file in ‘ cypress/reports/mochareports’ folder. Input files and output file should not be in same location, otherwise, generating step will fail. posttest-- posttest would combine all the json files present inside ‘cypress/reports/mocha’ folder and place the combined file report.json in the ‘cypress/reports/mochareports’ , This command also automatically execute after executing ‘test’ script.
In the end, an amazing HTML report will be created.😄
Now the next thing is to add the screenshot for the failed test cases and save our screenshots in a folder under the cypress/reports.
Step 4: In the cypress.json file, update the location for the screenshots.
"screenshotsFolder": "cypress/reports/mochareports/assets"
We are going to save all our screenshots in there.
Now in order to attach the screenshot after our test is run we need to listen to a cypress event called,
test:after:run
We can add this in a ‘cypress/support/index.js’ file. we know that which cypress event to listen to, we need to tell mochawesome that we want a screenshot to be included in our report. This can be done by using ‘addContext()’
The addContext() accepts two parameters the
The first parameter is the test object itself
The second parameter is the new information or context that we want to add in our case we want to pass in the path to where our screenshot is saved.
Step 5:
In the top , cypress/suport/index.js paste below command
import addContext from "mochawesome/addContext";
And in same file (cypress/suport/index.js) we need to add the Event which I mentioned above,
Cypress.on("test:after:run", (test, runnable) => {
if (test.state === "failed") {
const screenshot =`assets/${Cypress.spec.name}/${runnable.parent.title} -- ${test.title} (failed).png`;
addContext({ test }, screenshot);
}
});
Here what we are doing is, once the test is run (“test:after:run”), validate the state of the Test cases, So if it is failed, then we are use the method addContext(),
All configurations are done, 😄 So let’s see how it works,
Step 6:
Execute the command in a terminal, to execute Tests.
npm test
After, you can see the spec files are being executed the report folder is being created and we will find mocha and mocha reports. Inside this mocha folder you have JSON files that are being created for every spec file.
With my example, I executed 2 specs and one is failed,
So my report folder structure will be,
Let’s see if our ultimate goal is achieved, To do this, open the report.html file in any browser
When I expand failed test spec details,
The screenshot is attached for the failed test case,
TADA 🎉 We got it!
BUT, Just be consider when you share the report with someone else or anywhere You MUST make sure that you should share report.html as well as assert folder,
Because we have stored those screenshots and the required CSS and js files.
And for screenshotsFolder (in cypress.json) DONT set absolute path just set the relative Path. Otherwise, you will not be able to access them from anywhere other than your machine.
That's it, 😊 | https://medium.com/tech-learn-share/attach-screenshot-into-mochawesome-html-report-in-cypress-ca3792081474 | ['Niluka Sripali Monnankulama'] | 2021-04-04 11:34:26.756000+00:00 | ['Cypressio', 'Report', 'Mochawesome'] |
Baby Kicks: Everything I wish I’d known | When I felt my baby kick and wriggle for the first time I wasn’t entirely sure that it was really him. What was that odd little twitch?
I had been waiting for the flutter of butterflies or popping bubbles (which is how many women describe these first baby kicks) but what I had just felt was most definitely more like a muscle spasm.
You know, when your finger for no apparent reason starts twitching on its own and you watch it moving, thinking, how weird. Well, it felt like that.
Over time, these twitches morphed into more definite movements and there was no doubt that he was really in there, twisting, rolling, kicking and punching me in response to my movements, sounds, foods — or just because he felt like it.
Throughout the second half of my pregnancy there were lots of things I realised I didn’t know about baby kicks.
There were times when I worried why he hadn’t started moving yet or whether he’d moved enough. Or wondered how the movements would differ at different stages of the pregnancy.
Here are the questions I had for my midwife that may help put your mind at rest if, like me, you worry, question and Google for a living.
Everything I wish I’d Known About Baby Kicks
When will my baby start kicking?
Baby kicks will start to be felt between weeks 16 and 24 of your pregnancy, according to the NHS. If this is your first baby, you may not feel kicks until 20–24 weeks because your stomach muscles are tighter and bump is usually more solid.
The position of your placenta can also affect when you feel those first baby kicks. If it’s facing the front — known as an anterior placenta — it can cushion the movements so that you don’t feel them before around 28 weeks of pregnancy. The position of your placenta will have been documented at your scan.
Will baby kicks be felt every day, all the time?
At the beginning, your baby will kick and move on and off, at random times. There will probably be no pattern and you may feel like they’re really active one day and super quiet the next.
This is completely acceptable.
It’s important to remember that every pregnancy and every baby is unique. What is ‘normal’ for you and this pregnancy may be unusual for someone else.
From around week 28 of your pregnancy you will be asked to pay more attention to your baby’s movements. They should be felt every day at this stage of your pregnancy and your baby will have developed their own pattern of movements.
Will baby kicks increase in regularity and frequency?
Yes, up until your third trimester. By this time, your baby will have established a pattern. This pattern could be that they are predictably unpredictable! But you as the mother will start to notice that your baby becomes more active, say, in the morning and at night.
Baby kicks should be felt every day in the third trimester and a change in pattern should be flagged with a healthcare professional.
What does a change in the pattern of baby kicks mean?
If your baby always kicks or moves first thing in the morning, and one morning you feel nothing at all. you should speak to your midwife or visit your local hospital straight away. It’s always best to check on your baby as soon as possible just in case they are in distress for some reason. Plus, it will put your mind at rest.
What if the pattern is the same but the frequency or intensity of movements reduces?
If your baby always kicks up a storm at night but you notice that their movements seem to have changed, consult your midwife.
A change in your baby’s movements could be due to a variety of factors. It can be as simple as the baby is in a different position to that which you’ve become used to, and therefore movements feel different. It could be that you’ve been stressed or tired and the baby is feeling a little less enthused and energetic as a result. Or it could be more serious, and could indicate infection or reduced oxygen or blood flow to your baby.
There is no hard and fast rule as to when you should seek assistance for a change in your baby’s movements, however my midwife (and NHS guidelines) recommend that if you are at all worried, you should contact your health provider or midwife straight away.
I experienced this myself. I contacted my my midwife to let her know that I had noticed a slight change / reduction in movements and she advised me to go for a CTG if I was concerned.
Because my baby was still moving but just seemed a little less energetic than usual, I decided to carefully monitor movements over the next 24 hours. In my situation, the baby’s movements picked up again so I took no further action.
But you are concerned, you could opt for a doppler scan (to check blood flow) or, if movements reduce significantly or stop, it’s best to head straight to hospital for a CTG.
Will baby kicks reduce as the baby gets bigger and runs out of room?
No. Your baby should continue to move with frequency in the pattern you learn to recognise right up until he/she is born.
Should I count kicks?
I haven’t counted kicks as I know that babies and their movements vary so greatly, and becoming obsessive about whether baby has kicked 8 or 10 times in the past hour will stress me out.
Ultimately, the pattern is what you should focus on.
Does the type of movement change as the pregnancy progresses?
Yes. By trimester three you may start to notice the difference between hands wriggling and feet kicking, and the baby will turn and twist in your tummy which will feel strange at first.
As the baby’s position changes, you may notice that baby leans on your bladder more sending you running to the bathroom more frequently!
Once it starts to get cramped in there — usually around month 8 — you may feel less somersaults and more elbows and knees. Kicks may feel less energetic and you may feel bigger movements and turns instead.
Remember, a change in the type of movement is usually fine. It’s a break in the pattern of movements (when baby moves and how frequently) that can be a cause for concern.
Trust your instincts, mumma
Have faith in yourself. And if you’re concerned, talk to your midwife.
You know your baby better than anyone else so if something doesn’t feel right, flag it with a healthcare professional right away.
No question is too silly and you will never regret being cautious when it comes to the welfare of your baby.
Here’s a handy NHS guide to baby kicks and movements that my midwife shared with me.
Have you experienced any anxiety where baby kicks are concerned? Have you learned anything that I haven’t touched upon?
It would be great to hear your comments. | https://medium.com/@amyhaddow87/baby-kicks-everything-i-wish-id-known-ae5cd4206a94 | ['Amy Haddow'] | 2020-03-09 15:58:58.219000+00:00 | ['Pregnancyanswers', 'Parenting', 'Baby', 'Pregnancy', 'Pregnancy Care'] |
Khudi and Self learning | A famous quote by Aristotle is:
Abdul Sattar Edhi had believe that “be focused on your goal”.
Edhi sab belong to family of Edhi. In Gujrati the meaning of Edi is “LAZY” but Edhi sab proved that he was not lazy. He was that man who always ready to help the poor one’s. He was the person who never care about his life and busy in social work. He was the man who always do excellence for the people. He was the man who never say No to anyone. He was the man who was very kind and humble with people.He was the man who had a strong believe on Almighty Allah.. He was the man of Actions. Edhi sab believed that if a person is determined to do something then he can do that without the fear of anyone.
He belonged to a tribe which had great spirit of Humanitarianism. Those skills then transferred into Edhi sab. Due to this nature, he built Edhi Foundation. It is the world`s largest foundation which run many ambulances, homeless shelters, animal shelters, rehabilitation centers, orphanage homes. He really just acted upon the concept of “Khudi” which he gained by help the poor which he found in the bazaar and helped him without thinking that he was strange or not. The helping of wound person taught him the lesson of Khudi and Amal.
As in the poetry of Allama Iqbal;
He says that the life become hell or heaven by your act (Amal). If you do good act, you get reward. And if you do bad act, you get punish. Now it is your decision to select the wrong or right.
In another poetry Iqbal gives the concept of Khudi;
He says that Khudi help person to see deep inside himself and find the secret to the life. That secret will lead you to the highest peak for where you seek.
Edhi also used the concept of Khudi and self learning by giving the food among the poor people. From this he makes the world`s largest organization to help the poor or other people of Pakistan. He started his work by one old blue van and slowly slowly work for poor by believing on his abilities that one day he did big for people. So as a result he made 2000 or above vans for helping the people. He always spent simple life and wished to become rich. He always spread happiness. He become the man who absorbs all the negativity of the world and just spread positivism around. He lived for others not for himself. He believe that helping others is a way of spreading happiness.
When Amal and Khudi combines they give you fruitful juice.
2) As far as #just_start actions are concerned so i have started book reading from now. First i was just a person who have the knowledge of the course books and i don’t even know what is happening around us. Some of the peers of mine guided me to read books as it enhances the knowledge of a man. But i used to thought that they are just distracting myself from my line but now i realized that curriculum knowledge is not the only thing for a person to make him jack of all trades. As someone has rightly said,
Book reading importance
When you try to learn by yourself the first thing is that you should have to learn from books and then you should apply all of that things into your practical life. Book reading is a part of self learning that’s why i have selected this. I have also heard that “Books are your friend when you don’t have anyone”. | https://medium.com/@hassan.raza117/khudi-and-self-learning-b323f95b8bf2 | ['Hassan Raza'] | 2019-10-19 01:41:02.079000+00:00 | ['Pakistan'] |
The Startup CEO’s New Year Resolution: Get A CEO Advisor | So you’ve been doing this for awhile now. Maybe you’ve gone through the initial excitement of idea / team / frenzied MVP development / seed funding. Maybe you’re even further along — reached some level of product-market fit, raised an A or B round, and are trying to grow the company and the metrics.
Here are some things you’ve most definitely noticed already:
No One Prepared You For This Job.
Unless you’ve been through the wringer successfully multiple times, sooner (usually) or later you’re going to be doing things and finding yourself in situations you’ve never been in before. Maybe it’s going to investor meeting after investor meeting and getting rejected despite your obvious preparation and great results. Maybe it’s dealing with a co-founder or board member that just doesn’t see things your way, or a troublesome star employee. Maybe it’s a VP of Sales that you need to hire and have no clue how to build a compensation plan for. Or maybe it’s even that meeting with the celebrity public company CEO that suggests to buy your company long before you were ready for any of these.
Having a Stanford MBA, reading everything you can about it in books with aptly named titles like The Hard Thing about Hard Things, even seeing it from the sidelines as an employee or co-founder helps, but you can’t learn to fly a plane from a book, or in a class, or by sitting in the flight engineer’s seat. The situations you will go through are never exactly what you read about, the people involved are never exactly the same, and your personal demeanor is not Steve Jobs’ or Ben Horowitz’.
Doing the right thing is easier mentally and emotionally when you are presented with some perspective — here’s where you are, here’s why you got here, here’s what typically happens afterwards if you do this or that.
Guess what — dozens of thousands of CEOs were in similar situations before. Without tapping some of that experience you’re flying blind.
It’s the loneliest job, and your state of mind counts.
Saying that a startup CEO is the loneliest job in the world is almost a cliche (don’t believe me? Google it!). No one is really, fully aligned with you. Your co-founders share interests with you, but have a narrower perspective and typically only want to get their own job done well and go home expecting you to do yours (anything else and you have a different kind of problem). Your investors want you to succeed, but don’t have the time and attention to understand exactly what you’re going through (more on that below). Your employees are your employees. You have a responsibility for them, but you’re the driver and they are the passengers. The last thing they want to hear is that the driver isn’t sure where he’s going or how to drive.
Sooner or later the loneliness and stress will get to you and affect both the quality and the pace of your decision making. Furthermore it will affect how you relate to the people actually doing the work — writing the code, designing the products, meeting the clients. Lastly, it’s going to screw up your ability to persuade investors, partners and clients to give the company what it needs.
Your level-headedness affects results, and you need help maintaining it.
A good CEO Advisor brings perspective and experience and is with you in your predicament — but is also apart from it, because it’s NOT his full-time job. As such he is able to provide you a mirror, perspective, management advice, a soothing voice — helping your perform.
You need to perform, consistently.
Even if you’re the most experienced CEO out there, doing phenomenally well in a break-out company, every day is going to present hard choices, time pressure and stress. Just like pro sports, the best athletes need the best coaches. To guide them, to help them deal with the challenges and the anxiety. Getting the most out of yourself is your duty to your shareholders, but you’re only human. So the best performing CEOs get the best coaches. Don’t believe me? Read The Trillion Dollar Coach. Equipping yourself and the company for growth is the solid business choice.
Every day in your life as a startup CEO offers an opportunity to screw up — and an opportunity to grow.
Who Can / Can’t Help You
Evidently, perspective and experience count. What you want is:
Someone who’s been in your shoes — direct experience as a startup CEO, because that’s the only way to understand both the business and the human aspects of what you’re going through.
Someone who’s seen it multiple times — perspective is a function of seeing things from multiple angles, experimenting with different solutions to similar issues. The more, the better.
Has time and attention, and is focused on your success — One can’t parachute into a situation last-minute and really provide assistance.
Communications style that’s right for you. If you don’t have chemistry and good communications, you will not share enough and he/she will not be able to guide you. Either you won’t be heard or you won’t really be listening.
Got the network to support you — Much of what you’ll need is relationships — investors, partners, 3rd party advice. Not having a network is a red flag that the person hasn’t done enough / is not appreciated by others.
While most of these points are obvious, I’d like to re-iterate the first one. Many people can offer you specific advice on their area of expertise — lawyers, bankers, management consultants and so forth. But the CEO’s job is to fuse these considerations, apply them to the conditions & constraints at hand and make decisions. That’s where the forces pulling you in different directions put so much mental and emotional strain on you. People who’ve not been in that situation will usually have a very hard time helping you effectively. They may provide bad advice because they only understand one aspect of the situation (like the lawyer who will focus on your legal exposure while totally disregarding the business opportunity / risk of not taking the risk…). They may provide good theoretical advice that totally misses the capabilities of your team to execute or the long term effects on them (like the McKinsey guy calculating in Mythical Man Months). In Lux Capital’s Bilal Zuberi’s words — “Best advice for a new CEO comes not from VCs or other ‘advisors’ people tend to put on PowerPoint slides, but from more experienced CEOs who have been in their shoes before…ideally multiple times over.“
Wait A Second, Isn’t That What My Board Members Are For?
Unfortunately, no. Officially the board is there to provide corporate governance and oversight. What this translates to in most cases is really protecting investors’ interests. And while it’s generally the shareholder interests that you do a good job, in the vast majority of cases they are not equipped to help you do it, for some or more of the following reasons:
Many of them have never been in your shoes
While many venture investors have entrepreneurial backgrounds, the majority are either finance guys who never worked at a startup let alone founded one or successful executives / early employees who’ve helped grow a tech company but not as the CEO nor necessarily in the early stages. These people may have seen a lot, but never felt what it’s like. Often investors boast of an entrepreneurial background based on a couple of years of experience as founders of a company. Guess what — whether you managed to get rich with your first company after a few years, or struggled for awhile and realized it’s easier to make money investing other people’s money — your experience as a startup CEO is limited. Then you have the corporate VC people, typically manned by corporate executives who are super-knowledgeable about their domain, but frankly have not spent a day of their lives working at a startup.
So what about the 20–30% who do have the right background?
If they’re good at their job — They are too busy
Doing a good job as a VC or professional angel requires spending a lot of time at board meetings, deal-flow meetings and fund-raising for your fund. The best VCs don’t have enough time / attention span to be with you in the trenches. VCs typically look at thousands of deals a year, many hundreds per partner. That’s multiple meetings per day for deal flow and a half day partner meeting every week. On top of that if you’re sitting on 5–10 boards you add about that number of formal meetings a month for “1:1 CEO Update” and a total of at least one board meeting per week which should gobble up a whole day with preparation. And then VCs have to fund-raise too, which means everything from schmoozing with LPs regularly to 6 months of preparations and road-shows. Bottom line is they don’t have time / attention to spend several meaningful hours focusing on your needs every week.
Finally, for the few that do…
There is a built-in conflict of interest.
When you have bad news (“we didn’t make our numbers this quarter” “my co-founder is not a good enough manager”), or just decisions that may conflict with the investors goals (“we have an acquisition offer but the investors don’t want to sell yet”), the help you need is with crafting the approach that will get these people on your side. Obviously you can’t do it with them.
Honestly, many investors don’t like CEOs that show vulnerability, it scares them into thinking they need a new CEO.
You need someone with whom you can be vulnerable.
OK, I’m Convinced — How Does It Work?
In my experience, to make this relationship a success requires a measure of discipline. This is not about getting two cents worth of advice, it’s about having a structure in which there is deep understanding and commitment to doing the hard things — whether it’s executing on difficult decisions, or changing habits and attitudes. On your end as the CEO you have to commit to:
Coming prepared to meetings / calls — make a list of the top 3–5 topics that are important to handle, then dive deep.
Truly listening, you should be responsive but not reactive.
Commit and deliver — agree on actions, then come back to the next meeting having really good excuses if you haven’t done them. Or better just do.
Set a framework — Meet weekly. Preferably at set times. Share an agenda, share action items. Report progress. It shows commitment and creates positive habits.
Don’t treat it as a therapy session. Treat it as a management process.
The advisor should be committed as well:
Commit to schedule and mutual expectations about process.
Always available for urgent stuff — via email, messaging, calls.
Involvement with co-founders, board members and possibly other execs as needed.
Use her network on your behalf — investors, experts, business partners, potential employees.
It’s A Tool, Not A Crutch
Possibly the most important thing to remember is that this is a normal, welcome business activity, just like having board meetings or weekly management meetings. I mentioned Bill Campbell’s work (“The Trillion Dollar Coach”) with some of the most outstanding CEOs you’ve seen on the cover of BusinessWeek. These guys worked with him because he made them even better.
The CEO Advisor is not there because you are a flawed CEO, but because you are a CEO and you are human. There’s no stigma, it’s not Denpok Singh, the spiritual advisor from HBO’s Silicon Valley. It’s a business function helping the CEO be 10% better. | https://medium.com/the-vanguard/the-startup-ceos-new-year-resolution-get-a-ceo-advisor-63bc53674607 | ['Nadav Gur'] | 2020-01-03 02:51:36.926000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'CEO', 'Mentorship', 'Management And Leadership', 'Startup'] |
Integrating Air and Space Traffic Management for Aviation and near Space | by Dr Sanat Kaul Chairman, International Foundation for Aviation, Aerospace . and Drones
1.Introduction
This paper will examine and show why it is now necessary for International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to take over Air and Near Space Traffic Management as technology is similar for both. Further it becomes obligatory for ICAO to do this and Outer Space Treaty of 1957 is silent on the issue of space traffic management..
2.New Space
Travel into upper atmosphere and Outer-space will no longer remain an occasional launch when the Air Traffic Controller informs all aviation traffic to stay clear by issue of a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR). With the coming of Space Tourism, Sub-orbital Flights, hypersonic aircrafts, high altitude balloons well as UAVs in near future there will be much greater requirement of better management of Upper Air and Near Space. Currently, countries are obliged to manage the air traffic over their sovereign airspace as well as over the Flights Information Region (FIR) over high seas allotted to them by ICAO. The existing technology based on radars is not able to provide good surveillance over High Seas since radars are land based and are unable to provide surveillance over High Seas. Radars find it difficult to cover terrain like Polar Regions or even hill features. Since 1960s with the introduction of Global Positioning System (GPS) by US Air Force the management of Air Traffic is undergoing a change. Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), a generic name for constellations like GPS of US, GLONASS of Russian Federation , Bediou of China and local constellation like IRNSS or NAVIC of India have become popular method of navigation not only by aircrafts but in general. ICAO intends to shift from terrestrial navigation to satellite based navigation for aviation. However, there are many issues with satellite based navigation. To begin with GPS signals are weak and subject to interference both natural and motivated. In addition GPS and GLONASS and even Bediou are military satellite constellations and are deliberately made inaccurate for civil purpose. Galileo, the European constellation is supposed to be a civil one but is yet to be fully operational. For Aviation navigation purposes Augmentation satellites are needed like WAAS in the US, EGNOS in Europe and GAGAN in Asia. These satellites are supposed to correct the poor signal and take care of ionosphere disturbances which distort GPS signals with the help of ground stations.
3.Issues Facing Airspace Management:
Presently 70% of earth’s Airspace does not have a continuous air traffic surveillance as radars cannot reach it. In this non-radar Airspaces (NRA), flight surveillance is managed procedurally. To ensure flight safety, large separation distances are mandatory in flight paths passing through NRA. But due to the rise in transoceanic air traffic, a smaller than normal separation distance is already being permitted in some cases. It may also be added that the present surveillance by radars is over only 30% of the earth’s atmosphere that too up to a height of about 50,000 ft which is just over 15 kms (vertical). Even military aircrafts do not go beyond 100,000 ft or about 30 kms vertical above the sea level.
AirSpace and OuterSpace
Space is getting busier then ever with 5–8% growth annually and over 80 launches a year. There are already 1400 satellites in operation. With private sector having major plans for expansion like SpaceX and OneWeb building mega constellations of satellites. Airbus is planning Spaceplanes and Space tourism beginning to take shape withVirgin Galactic, Blue Origin, SpaceX Dragon2, XCOR.
While there is no legally separation between where Airspace ends and Outer Space starts, there are many proposals going around like 100 kms vertical could be the limit of Airspace (based on Karman line proposal)[1]. The major legal difference between the Airspace and Outer Space is that while Airspace above a land territory (including territorial waters) of a country is the Sovereign Airspace of that country as per Article 1 of Chicago Convention of 1944, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 defines Outer Space (beyond that undefined limit of Territorial Air Space) as the ‘common heritage of mankind’. However, under Art 12 of the Chicago Convention the Air Space over the High Seas is under ICAO and is also treated a ‘Global Commons’ or ‘a common heritage of mankind’ as it is open for all to use. Therefore, both Air Space over High Seas (70% of airspace) and Outer Space can be considered as “Global Commons”. There is, thus, a great commonality between the Chicago Convention and Outer Space Treaty than generally accepted.
Article 28 of the Chicago Convention states that each contracting State shall provide in its territory navigational aids to facilitate international travel by air. However, since Airspace over High Seas is with ICAO, it has to provide the navigational facility. To overcome this responsibility, ICAO has divided the entire Airspace over High Seas into many Flight Information Regions (FIR). After seeking the acceptance of the adjoining country it has allotted FIRs to them. However, no sovereignty is passed on to the state. Currently Air Space Management by a country is at best upto about 30 kms vertical. But with an increasing number of satellites launches and that too from an increasing number of launch vehicles clear rules of the game need to be laid out.
Civil Aviation Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) has stated in their presentation[2] at a Symposium by ICAO/ UNOOSA in 2017 that while aviation and space are fast growing Industries with great potential the need for cooperation between ATM and STM is now paramount. Clear rules need to be developed and agreed by all stakeholders, to accommodate the requirements of users in traditional airspace, as well as space-bound vehicles travelling to and from space.
According to DLR, A German Government Research Agency, within the next two decades commercial Space Traffic will develop into a global multi-billion-Euro market. This emerging market will mainly focus on Suborbital Space Travel (point-to-point connections and vertical ballistic joy rides), Suborbital Cargo Transportation and Satellite Deployment via air launch systems. With the growth of this promising market the need for a safe, efficient and globally (co)operating Space Traffic Management (STM) system will arise
A successful STM system requires the execution of all necessary managing and monitoring & control operations that are mandatory to ensure safe travel of manned and unmanned suborbital space vehicles through space and airspace. One key aspect along this path is the seamless integration of spacecraft into the global Air Traffic Management (ATM) system[3]
4. According to Marshal H Kaplan[4] the implementation and enforcement of space traffic management (STM) policies and regulations will be extremely complex and expensive for governments of spacefaring nations and all users of the near-Earth space domain. Compared to air traffic management, the challenges of managing low-orbital traffic will be orders of magnitude more sophisticated.
The underlying reasons include:
• High orbital speeds of near-Earth satellites, 25 times greater than jet aircraft
• Lack of the ability of satellite to responsively execute avoidance manoeuvres
• Difficulty of assessing real-time and precise collision probabilities
• Presence of millions of uncontrolled and dangerous resident space objects (RSOs) that share the most-congested region of space as operating satellites
• Complexity of reaching an agreement with all spacefaring nations regarding space traffic issues
• Development of regulations that are fair and balanced without excessively restricting space traffic and related operations
• Creation of centralised space traffic controller and enforcement systems
• Achieving satellite operator compliance related to additional onboard traffic management hardware, operational restrictions and licensing processes
All objects in low-Earth orbits (LEOs) are traveling at speeds of over 25,000 kilo-meters per hour, about 25 times faster than today’s jetliners. Satellites share the same space as large and small debris, and everything is moving independently in arbitrary directions. Collisions can occur at relative speeds of up to 50,000 kilometres per hour. Today, there are roughly 1,200 operational satellites in LEO, most of which cannot change course on short notice. Many cannot manoeuver at all. Add to this at least several million passive objects that are completely non-responsive regarding traffic management operations. As a result, we have control over less than 1 percent of a very dangerous population of extremely fast-moving objects all of which are sharing the same space. Clearly, a first step in achieving a complete and successful space traffic management system will be the remediation of the debris problem. Although the complete elimination of debris will not be possible, a sufficient amount of removal and control must be achieved in order to realise safe on-orbit operations for constellation operators. In other words, a permanent space debris elimination and control system must precede effective STM operations.
During the transition period, from today’s situation until an initial STM capability, there must be an international effort to bring the debris situation under control. At the same time, new LEO space systems developers must prepare for a new set of requirements regarding hardware and procedures that will satisfy anticipated STM regulations. For example, every new spacecraft bound for LEO will have to be licensed by the STM authority and incorporate transponders that continuously report the vehicle’s state vector to STM controllers. In order to respond to manoeuver commands, each spacecraft will have to be capable of executing rapid avoidance manoeuvres when commanded to do so. Such implementations will be expensive and add mass to each spacecraft. In fact, space operations will also become more complex.
5.United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space [5]
The United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN-COPOUS) has just celebrated its 60th year of existence . Formed in the year 1959 by United Nations General Assembly, it has been able to get five Space related Treaties successfully concluded within its first twenty five years: The Outer-space Treaty of of 1967, their main treaty, has been ratified by 108 number of countries followed by Rescue and Return Agreements of 1968, the Liability Convention of 1972, the Registration Convention of 1976 and finally the Moon Convention of 1979. However, after 1979 Moon Agreement it did not propose any Space Law Treaty.
The UNCOPOUS , therefore, has not been able to keep pace with the growth of Space activities. Since it remains a Committee of the UN, it does not have the advantage of a its own structure. With the huge growth of spacefaring activities there is now an urgent need to have binding regulation for safety, security and environmental protection. The growing and massive problem of Space debris is yet another issue which needs immediate resolution.
6.Future Challenges of Space Traffic Management(STM) — the US approach
Space Traffic Management in the Airspace and Near Space will become a challenge as more and more small satellites enter near space and sub-orbital flights become a reality. United States, the leading Air and Space power in the world today, realising the difficult problem of STM has already designated its Federal Aviation Authority(FAA)/ Commerce Department with the responsibility of laying down rules for commercial space flights. Therefore, by twinning the role of aviation safety management and Outer Space safety management in a single authority, US would bring the desired impact of integrating air and space traffic in a harmonious manner without a legal hitch through up to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
7.Code of Conduct(CoC) for Space activities
In absence of any acceptable Code of Conduct for Outer Space by way of a UN sponsored regulation, private initiatives have come up. On one end is the US and the other Russia and China together. However, since they have not been able to have a consensus on this issue, it is hanging fire for the last two decades. The issue of CoC concerns both civil and military satellites. It needs to provide freedom of access to all countries and also inherent right to self defence.
Meanwhile European Cooperation for Space Safety Standards(ECSS) is another initiative aimed at developing coherent, single set of user friendly technical standards for use in all European Space activities. At the same time International Organisation for Standards(ISO), with membership of 163 countries has also developed its standards for Space including debris management, re-entry etc. However, ISO standards are voluntary and generic, which does not serve our purpose.
8.Therefore, Space Traffic Management remains an enigma as it remains an unregulated activity from an global point of view. Each spacefaring country decides its own safety norm, rules and regulation and so far there has been coordination between the countries. However, as space activities grow the need for a global regulator is deeply felt.
Space Traffic Management: some issues
Space Traffic Management is like Air Traffic Management but more. This is so because in the Low Earth Orbit there are over 100,000 pieces of debris over 1cm and higher floating around which can be very harmful to spacecrafts, a situation not found in Airspace. Today United States Air Force(USAF) is monitoring about 20,000 space objects above 10cm. However, USAF is keen to hand over this job to some civil organisation in US, possibly FAA. But will this role remain with US? Maybe another organisation can come up under the overall supervision of UN/ICAO.
9.Extending the role of ICAO to Space Traffic Management
Now we come to role of ICAO in Air Traffic Management and extending the same to Space Traffic Management. Here there are two issues. The first is the legal issue. The Mandate of ICAO by its very name it is meant for Civil Aviation. Yet the Chicago Convention of 1944[6] which is the basis for setting up of ICAO, neither defines what an aircraft is nor defines the upper limits of Airspace. Perhaps, in 1944 there was no need to provide any such definitions. However, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 also does not define the lower limit for start of Outer Space. Further, aircraft has been defined only in Annexes to ICAO which can be corrected/modified by the Council of ICAO. Therefore, on the legal side there may not be much difficult for ICAO to take on the additional charge of Space Traffic Management but it could be tedious as either a new Annexure on Space will need to be passed or amendments in various Annexes like safety, licensing etc will need to be carried out. This is a matter of detail which can be sorted out.
As Dr Assad Kotaite, the legendary former President of The International Civil Aviation Organisation for 30 years has stated in his book ‘My Memoirs[7]
‘Space: In September 1993, Russian Prime Minister Victor Chermomydrin joined American Vice- President Al Gore in announcing Plans for the International Space Station. The 72-metre by 108-metre Space Station has since been assembled as a series of interlocking modules, serving as a manned platform for scientific research, explorations and technological development, and perhaps above all as a symbol of world peace, as it orbits the planet every 92 minutes, at an altitude of 250 to 263 miles( 402 to424 kilometres). The first Space Station partners were multilateral and government space agencies, but in 2012 the first commercial freighters began docking at the Space Station. I believe that this places us at the dawn of a new age of commercial passenger flights.
‘The first time that sub-orbital flights and space flights were mentioned at an ICAO Assembly was at its Thirty-Fifth Session, in September 2004, when I opened the Assembly with the following words: One hundred years from now, regular passenger flights in sub-orbital space and even in outer space could become commonplace. “Yet we have no precise definition as to where “air space” ends and where”outer space begins. There is no clear indication in international law as to the definition between air space and outer space which would clearly establish whether to apply air law or space law to sub-orbital flights. I believe that the time has come to examine how to apply to sub-orbital and outer-space flights the same kind of global management process that has worked so successfully for international air transport through Chicago Convention.
‘Sub-orbital flight is a natural extension of our current civil aviation-space vessels and space planes will have to fly through current air space to reach low orbit. Sustaining high speeds is no longer a problem: The problem is rather to find the way to enable passengers to endure these speeds in acceptable safety and comfort. I believe that commercial low-orbital flights will one day become widespread. Regulations and standards will need consideration. There is no need for a new agency to develop regulations: drawing on the principles of the Chicago Convention, ICAO is already well-equipped to examine all commercial and technological aspects of sub-orbital flights. New Annexes to the Chicago Convention May be required. The UN has a special Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and ICAO has participated in its work”
ICAO was set up as a rule making body in 1947 as an Agency of the United Nations. Over the years it has created 100,000 Standards and many more Recommended Practices(SARP)s as well as detailed Procedures for Air Navigation Services(PANS) and Regional Supplementary Procedures (SUPPS). While it does not possess disciplinary powers, it does a mandatory audit of safety and security of its member countries. An adverse report is sufficiently damaging for the airlines of that county and no country wants a bad report.
However, on the issue of civil aviation each country was empowered by ICAO not only to provide Air Navigation Service to all commercial aircrafts flying over its territory or landing there, but this obligation was extended to many littoral countries by ICAO allotting an FIR to each adjoining country over High Seas. Thus , without having any of its own equipment for Navigation or Surveillance, ICAO was able to get each member country to manage not only its territorial Air Space but also AirSpace which is over the High Seas without any costs it, notwithstanding that AirSpace over High Seas in part of Global Commons and it’s Air Space management is a direct responsibility of ICAO. Of course, those countries that are given to regulate the Airspace over High Seas charge for their services from the airlines and is generally a source of profit for them.
In the case of Space Traffic Management, satellites generally take off vertically from a country ( except for sea launches) and go up OuterSpace without violating any other countries’ AirSpace. But sub-orbital flights may take-off as an aircraft might might pass through other countries.
10. Technical Issues:Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)and Space Traffic Management (STM)
GNSS technology is available free to all aircrafts and with the help of Augmentation satellites aircrafts are able to navigate all parts of the earth. However, aircrafts over high seas and polar regions are still unable to keep the Air Traffic Control in the loop with this technology because it requires ground stations.
GNSS systems are working in Near Space right upto International Space Station and with the ADS-B over Satellite technology developing at high altitudes including Near Space, surveillance technology and AirSpace technology can find common cause in their Integration and joint management of Air and Space traffic up to about 100 km vertical and beyond depending on the technology available. Therefore, technically also merging of AirSpace and Near Space Traffic Management will become realisable within the ICAO requirement of Communications, Navigation and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM). Merging the responsibility of Air and near Space traffic management in atmosphere and near space can, therefore, be best left to ICAO with minor tweaking of the Annexes to Chicago Convention as neither the upper limit of Airspace nor the beginning of Outer Space has been defined in any of the Treaties mentioned above. However, some septics like Ruwantissa Aberatne, a legal expert on Space and formerly with ICAO, has stated ‘ it is not prudent to lump air transport and space Transport together by amending an existing Convention, however attractive it might be as a quick fix. Both are very different fields of transport and should be covered by separate multilateral instruments[8] While he sees that an Amendment to the Chicago Convention is required, Dr Assad Kotaite in his book has clearly stated that this is not the case.
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In order to overcome the gaps in continuous surveillance over airspace under use the ICAO Council approved the Global Air Navigation Plan (GANP) with the ultimate goal of a fully harmonised global Air Navigation system with global interoperability as a minimum objective. In order to achieve this it was felt that there is a need to introduce new technology. Use of GNSS as a technology was the obvious answer
11.A new Technology is introduced: ADS-B[9]:
Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) is a new GNSS based technology that enables aircraft broadcast signals including flight related information i.e., identification, position, altitude, velocity and other relevant information i.e. surveillance on a regular basis to ATCs as well as to other aircrafts. This technology ensures that a moving object in air regularly transmits its position and other details to all other aircrafts and ATCs via the aircraft’s Mode S transponder. However, for accuracy ADS-B also requires ground stations. US has already constructed over 640 ground stations as FAA has announced use of ADS-B (IN) as a compulsory equipment on all aircrafts by 2020. Australia is also doing the same. Terrestrial-based ADS-B infrastructure, therefore, becomes an alternative (or add-on) to radars but not a complete solution to complete Air Traffic Management as it is not available over high seas or polar regions where there are no ground stations
.
Shortcoming of ADS-B
ADS-B technology is GNSS based and is able to broadcast the position of an object/ aircraft to the ATC as well as to all other aircrafts in the region giving its flight direction, speed etc While ADS-B technology is considered better than land based Radar technology as it provides a better ground coverage, it also suffers from the same major deficiency as Radars. Both require ground station. As a result both technologies are unable to cover 70% of the earth’s surface ie the High Seas and Polar regions and difficult terrains.
12. Solution to the problem: ADS-B over satellite
DLR experiment
In order to overcome the issues of coverage mentioned above DLR, the German research agency, in 2008 investigated the possibility of monitoring global air traffic from space without ground stations as it could resolve the issues of surveillance in non radar area (NRA) ie the High Seas and Polar regions outlined above. This, they felt, could be achieved by satellites intercepting the information broadcast by aircraft, in this case data from the Automatic Dependent Surveillance — Broadcast (ADS-B), which can then be transmitted to existing ground infrastructure with the help of Mode S transponders on commercial aircraft. This will ensure global surveillance of all air traffic. By 2010 DLR conducted successfully a series of high altitude test flights.
Under the aegis of European Space Agency (ESA) Thales Alenia Space Deutschland GmbH led the “Space Based ADS-B In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD) Payload Development for Air Traffic Surveillance Project”[10] This project was mainly aimed at demonstrating the functionality of this technology under representative space environment conditions, and to verifying the link budget of this payload for the various ADS-B compatible equipment onboard aircraft on different geo-locations.
This was followed on 7th May 2013 by European Space Agency’s (ESA) Proba V experiment (Project for On-Board Autonomy — Vegetation) on board the newest satellite of ESA. Its main task was to provide actual vegetation data to the community and serve as gap filler between the SPOT-VGT and Sentinel-3 satellites. This experiment of the ADS-B receiver on board the satellite was the first experiment of its kind, receiving 1090ES (extended Squitter) ADS-B squitter signals transmitted from aircraft.
The primary goal of the DLR project ADS-B over Satellite was to demonstrate the feasibility of an orbital ADS-B system by means of an In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD) and to evaluate the characteristics and performances which may be important for future space based air traffic control systems. As preparatory missions DLR conducted in 2010 the first of a series of high altitude test flights. During a test flight in northern Sweden a terrestrial ADS-B receiver has been used and basic assumptions regarding the maximum reception distance in NRA could be verified. Based on these trials and pre-development studies a system concept for a space based ADS-B reception has been developed, mostly based on commercial of-the-shelf hardware.
The achieved results of the IOD should take into account the constraints under which this experiment was performed, as there were limitations in cost and time and in particular available resources on the satellite in terms of available power and geometry. Further, the reception of 1090 Extended Squitter ADS-B messages on board of the PROBA-V satellite is mainly affected by the fact that the signal path between a LEO satellite and an aircraft is much longer as the LEO satellite flies at about 820 km altitude while an aircraft flies at 15 kms altitutde, which may lead to a loss of signal quality. In this connection the quality of antenna on board a satellite to receive the ADS-B signals is very important. The same goes with ADS-B receivers
ADS-B over Satellite
ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) over Satellite is still in early stages of commercialisation and will overcome the deficiencies to provide a full coverage of surveillance over High Seas and Polar regions of all moving objects in Airspace provided they carry an appropriate transponder.
Airspace is no more the domain of only Aircraft:
Chicago Convention has used the word “Aircraft” without defining it and assumed it as the sole user of airspace , there are now many other users of the airspace. However, these new users are not subject to the requirement imposed upon aircrafts. With new users of airspace similar conditions need to be imposed since surveillance of other than aircrafts is a must for all airspace users and therefore, similar requirements must be imposed on all. The commonality of the instrument falls on ADS-B as it can be put on all objects including balloons and platforms.
Simply put, ADS-B works wherever it is placed, be that on an aircraft, or on a space vehicle, or on a stratospheric balloon, or on a remotely piloted system.
Space borne ADS-B: The Future hope
Only a satellite constellation has the capability to provide a global coverage at any possible flight level, avoiding limitations imposed by terrestrial ADS-B. This could be implemented by receiving ADS-B signals, which are broadcasted regularly by each equipped aircraft, spacecraft or even a balloon giving information on its position, speed, direction etc. by LEO satellites. This data can then be made available to already existing ATC ground infrastructures.
Therefore, a satellite-based surveillance network will provide enhanced Air Traffic Services in areas where the traffic density, the location, or the cost of “conventional” ATC equipment would not justify any installation of radar and/or terrestrial ADS-B. It can also include VHF coverage in fringe areas.
Results: “The Proof of Concept” experiment for ADS-B over Satellite has proved successful. It has successfully validated the principle of detecting even the weak Mode-S transponder transmission from a Low Earth Orbit satellite. With improvement in receivers and antenna the quality could improve.
Signal loss is due to the low signal level resulting from the distance between the receiving satellite at an altitude of approximately 820 km and the transmitting aircraft at an altitude of 12–15 km. Further, RF signal loss is also due to the shapes of the satellite antenna vertical radiation pattern and the aircraft antenna vertical radiation pattern. Corruption of messages by garbling, when several messages arriving at the ADS-B antenna onboard of the satellite at the same time overlap and thus cannot be decoded by the ADS-B receiver. Speed of the satellite of about 27000 km/h, leads to a limit the time of observation for each detected aircraft to about 3 minutes maximum.
Receiver: The ADS-B receiver developed for the PROBA-V in-orbit demonstration provides in its output data no direct signal level measurement values, which mainly would represent the noise level. Instead the receiver provides a correlation gain value for each successfully decoded message, which denotes the performance of the correlation process. It may be added that on June 2013 an Airbus aircraft flying over Scotland was first noticed from space by a new receiver, the ADS-B device of DLR on Proba. In another experiment by DLR when ADS-B over satellite was switched on over 12,000 ADS-b messages were received in two hours with the satellite at an altitude of 820 kms.
Other advantages of ADS-B over satellite is that as the long distance Air Traffic becomes global, it can brings considerable fuel savings, a reduction in green house gases emissions and greater safety of aircraft and passengers.
Commercialisation of ADS-B over satellite for Aviation
Aireon: The first commercial attempt for ADS-B over Satellite for aviation sector was already started in 2014 with the announcement of “Aireon” a joint venture between Iridium Communications, Nav Canada, the Irish Aviation Authority, Italian air traffic services provider ENAV, and Danish ATS provider Naviair. Nav Canada also has signed on as Aireon’s first customer, and plans to implement space-based ADS-B beginning with its busy North Atlantic airspace. NAV Canada has backed Space-based ADS-B as its major technology for ATM especially over high seas. By March 2014 Aireon had successfully completed qualification testing for the harsh environment of Space. The company produced 81 ADS-B 1090Extended Squitters receiver payloads. It intends to launch 66 satellites into LEO along with six in orbit as spares
With the starting of Aireon as commercial venture for ADS-B-over-satellite, the beginnings of a new era of surveillance of common Air and Near Space integration has, in fact, started. As more commercial companies are taking interest in use of small and nano satellites, only ADS-B transponder may be able to provide the task of integration of Air and Space Traffic Management.
13. The Integration of Air and Space Traffic Management:
While we describe the conventional limit of Airspace as 100 kms in our introduction above, the current commercial air traffic is only up to about 40,000 feet or say 12 kms.
Airspace is currently used by commercial traffic up to about 40,000 feet or say 12 kms above the sea level. Further, From 60,000 (18.3 kms) to 100,000 (30.5 kms) feet it was traditionally used for military operations. Now, however, new commercial operations have started to take place in this airspace which include unmanned free balloons, high endurance UAS and commercial space operations. Air Traffic Services will need to be extended, out of necessity, enhance its role to include the new Aerospace based objects. This will lead to start of integration of aviation and space activities in the upper airspace and beyond. Even space tourism activities propose to go up to 100 kms and beyond into a bit of outer Space. The current set of Radars will be inadequate and new radars for higher altitudes are very expensive. Therefore, new solutions have to be found. Here the new ADS-B over Satellite will be a game changer for aerospace management.
The Space-Based ADS-B Antenna: The antenna used for ADS-B over Satellite is an antenna array of two elements. Each element is a capacitive fed, shorted patch antenna. There is no direct mechanical bonding between the feeding structure and the patch. This makes the patch assembly very easy. Except for the feeder no dielectric material is used. It has been found that this gives an extra 12% gain increase. The patch antenna is shorted in the center of the patch to the ground plane of the spacecraft structure. This avoids potential charging. The technology for space based antennas is still young and hopefully their will be more improvements
Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR) : As more and more space launches take place from existing and new launch locations leading to greater demand for declaration of temporary flight restrictions (TFR) the use of TFR will need to be made more sophisticated. Other commercial Expendable Launch Vehicles include Sea Launch Vehicles which operates currently from a floating platform in a remote region of the Pacific Ocean and high altitude Balloons being launched by amateurs and Universities. As more and more countries and private companies start their own launches from their soil or high seas the issue of TFR will become more problematic as the conflict between a growing aviation industry with horizontal requirement of airspace and growing space launch industry with vertical requirement takes place. With Nano and other small satellites getting launch in the thousands per year in future this issue will become very important. For example, Planet Lab, a seven year old company, has already sent 233 satellites into space on a mix of American, Indian, Japanese and Russian rockets. India recently launched 104 satellites in one single launch. Another company One Web in Florida , USA wants to surround the planet with hundreds or even thousands of satellites in the low orbit and form a network accessible to 3 billion people on Earth who lack high-speed internet services. So far very little attention was paid to the airspace above 60,000 feet as this airspace was not particularly important to commercial space or other non-government users. But not any more. More Sea launches will a require more TFR over high seas. It is here that ICAO has to take a proactive stand as it is their mandate and obligation to maintain and encourage growth of safe and orderly traffic in airspace including over High Seas.
Balloons: We are also witnessing frequent launches of unmanned free stratospheric balloons by amateurs and universities that reach the upper airspace for short periods and return. Some larger commercial unmanned free stratospheric balloons that can float above 60,000 feet for several days. These can also cause conflict with other modes of aerospace travel.
In near future we expect supersonic and then hypersonic commercial aircraft will operate at or above 60,000 feet. As a matter of fact, Concorde , the supersonic aircraft flew for over 27 years until 2003. Once occupied by military and space users, this airspace from 60,000 to 100,000 feet is becoming increasingly attractive to commercial users. Further, ELV are giving way to reusable Launch Vehicles (RLV) which have their own requirements. Can the present state of Air Traffic Management based on terrestrial ground equipment like Radars manage it?
Space Vehicles and Reentry issues
Facilitate Integration of Space Operations
Technically integration of air and space traffic management cannot take place unless a common technology is available for surveillance and guidance. Timely and accurate position information is needed to be made available to air and space traffic control systems from all airspace users. There is a particular need for surveillance information on airspace users in the commercial space industry. Further, the integration, even if technically possible, will need acceptance at a political level as global standards will need to be made. ICAO is the obvious institution for it.
As we move towards commercial use of space from Expendable Launch Vehicles to a variety of diverse operational types sharing this upper airspace is a challenge. This is also a tremendous opportunity for ICAO to demonstrate leadership, as is mandated in Chicago Convention of 1944, in airspace integration of both horizontal and vertical kind and support innovation in these developing industries if they are equipped to operate in shared airspace. There is a need to “the development standards and recommended practices between aircraft and space vehicles in sharing of the airspace…This research needs to concentrate at developing more advanced concepts that separate launch and reentry vehicles from other aircraft based on separation standards as opposed to airspace restrictions.” Another aspect is that the presently followed practice of horizontal heights dividing the Airspace will need to adjust to near vertical requirements launch vehicles as well as of Space Tourism vehicles. In order to achieve this goal, space vehicles and other high altitude operations will require onboard equipment that provides adequate communication, navigation and surveillance data to allow for the development of separation standards. ADS-B over satellite comes into play at this juncture as its transponder can be put on all including balloons and UAVs. More so as the efficacy of radars are getting reduced at higher altitudes.
Airspace Class and Requirements: both horizontal and vertical
The need to accommodate a variety of operational types aircrafts, spacecraft’s, rockets, balloons, platforms etc. with different requirements in shared airspace will disrupt the existing system of Air Traffic Control. This requires accurate and reliable detection and tracking information. The reliability of this information is a critical factor in developing separation standards. However, the operational characteristics, including speed, manoeuvrability, trajectory and mission requirements must also be considered in determining separation requirements. Here the role of ADS-B over satellite becomes very important as this technology will provide full coverage of all objects including aircrafts in Airspace provided they are equipped with a transponder. These will include Free Balloons, rocket powered vehicles, ELV, Vertically Launched Reusable Vehicles, Controlled Reentering Vehicles, controlled reusable first stage, reentering vehicle in free fall , High endurance UAVs and others
ADS-B equipment transmits both GPS and barometric attitude information. This allows for validation of the altimetry error that is acceptable in applying existing separation standards. It is important to note that separation standards are based on the position of aircraft and other objects relative to one another, not absolute position. Therefore it is important to ensure that the quality of data received from each airspace user is comparable.It has been confirmed that ADS-B altitude information is superior to barometric and is preferred over barometric even at a height of International Space Station
14.ADS-B over Satellite in Outer Space up to International Space Station (ISS)
Extending GNSS PNT right up to International Space Station(ISS) at about 350 kms in the Space is actually being attempted. Once Space grade receivers are place on a satellite constellation, both CNS/ATM for both upper airspace and near outer space say up to ISS at a height of 350 KM from earth, at least, seems feasible. GNSS PTN is used by ISS to meet altitude determination and enables more precision for space flights operations like rendezvous and docking, station keeping, formation flying and GEO satellite servicing. Using GPS/GNSS on ISS and Crew Rescue vehicles is a challenge being looked into by scientists. The problems of blackouts and multipaths are yet another issue to be tackled. Once these issues are sorted out, it is hoped that ADS-B over satellite will be able to send signals to earth of all moving objects up to that height, be they be satellite or platforms, as long as they have an ADS-B compliant transponder on board. When this is confirmed by trials then there will be full integration of Air Traffic Management between Airspace and near Space.
14.Rentry issues: The major challenges for the Crew Rescue Vehicle (CRV) as at re-entry into the atmosphere remain. The GPS receiver has to go through the region referred to as the blackout region (between 82 to 67 kms) where RF signals encounter a lot of disturbance due to the Earth’s ionosphere. The RF signals received are much lower signal strength, and typically GPS tracking is reduced to less than 4 satellites for several minutes. The GPS receiver needs to be able to recover the GPS signal following blackout.
15. Mandatory ADS-B over Satellite for all Aviation and Space objects: If we mandate all satellites and other space objects to equip ADS-B over satellite with all vehicles and platforms operations in and through upper airspace with ADS-B over satellite, it will enable all varieties of vehicles to perform more efficiently in upper airspace. ADS-B provides the ability to display these vehicles on controller workstations and provide surveillance data to spaceports and vehicle operators. Simply put, ADS-B works wherever it is placed, be that on an aircraft, or on a space vehicle, or on a stratospheric balloon, or on a remotely piloted system at any height. The technology follows the transponder. The transponder is the key, not the aircraft or the vehicle.
Re-entering stages of a spacecraft (about 75 km), specially the new reuseable type poses new challenges. For reusable launch vehicles, under operator control, there is a need to develop tactical separation standards between aircraft and spacecraft.
16.International Space Station (ISS)
It may also be stated that GNSS PNT is already being used by International Space Station at a height of about 350kms to meet altitude determination and enables more precision for space flight operations like rendezvous and even docking stations keeping, formation flying and GEO satellite servicing. Further, by placing space grade receivers on a satellite constellation like Aireon, it will provide not only 100% global surveillance of all aircrafts but also all other space vehicles(satellites, balloons, platforms etc) and space objects right upto 100 kms and beyond. As Receivers and Antennas improve with quality the transmission of data will also improve.
The most important aspect for the reception of ADS-B messages in space are the receiving conditions for the 1090 MHz extended squitter signal on board the satellite. In comparison to ground based ADS-B surveillance with a range of up to 300 km maximum, the signal path between a LEO satellite orbiting at 820 km altitude and an aircraft is much longer, which results in a low signal level at the ADS-B receiver. Thus the Mode-S signals have to be detected nearly at noise level by a correlation process. The quality of these space based receivers thus becomes very important
17.UNOOSA and ICAO cooperation
1. In 2007 the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) setup the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG) for compatibility/interoperability of GNSS systems and protection of GNSS spectrum, orbital debris mitigation, and orbit de-confliction. The Interagency Operations Advisory Group addresses strategic issues related to inter-agency interoperability, space communications, and navigation matters.
2. ICAO is another source of international governance of GNSS. Its Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) for GNSS are found in Amendment 76 to Annex 10 of the Chicago Convention and provide extensive guidance on the technical aspects of GNSS and its application in furtherance of international aviation safety. Integration of commercial space users with aviation users is becoming highly desirable for the present but perhaps, necessary in future. Both ICAO and ONOOSA are seized of the need and have started meeting. Already three joint Conferences have taken place the last one in August of 2017.
3. The objective of full integration of the aviation and rocket based system to maximise airspace efficiency right upto higher levels of airspace and beyond into LEO is very desirable. In such a scenario, a space vehicle operation is a fully integrated with airspace user providing the space operator with assured access to the Airspace and does not disrupt the aviation operators.
4. CONCLUSIONS
Integration of Air and Space Traffic Management at least in the Low Earth Orbit is feasible both Administratively and technically. ICAO can metamorphose into an aerospace body quite easily as pointed out by Dr Kotaite, the legendary President of ICAO. New Standards and Recommended Practices can be made and thereby extend ICAOs coverage to the so called upper AirSpace and up to Low Earth Orbit in an orderly manner as it has already done for aviation. As already mentioned earlier ICAO could create a new Annexe for LEO and make necessary changes and additions in the existing Annexes in order to create/extend SARPs for LEO based safety and traffic management.Further, technology exists to integrate the orderly surveillance and management of air and space traffic by use of GNSS/ADS-B over Satellite.
REFERENCES
1. Chicago: Convention on International Civil Aviation, signed at Chicago on 7th December, 1944 in Chicago known as Chicago Convention.
2. Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the exploration and use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, opened for signatures at Moscow, London and Washington, on 27th January, 1967 known as Outer Space Treaty.
3. International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) was setup under Chicago Convention of 1944 and subsequently became a Specialised Agency of the UN. ICAO works within the Chicago Convention and has a membership of 191 Members. The elected council of 36 Member Countries is a permanent elected bodies which makes and approves SARPS (Standards and Recommended Practices)° on a consensus basis to ensure safe and peaceful development of Civil Aviation so that the 100,000 daily flights in the Aviation’s Global Networks operate safely and reliably in every region of the world. As a result of its work it has successfully brought safety to Civil Aviation and made Civil Aviation the safest form of Transportation.
4. The Bridge to Space: CNS Technology for High Altitude operations: Ruth E Stilwell D,P.A, Aerospace Policy Solutions, Hallande Beach,Fl, USA and Nickolas Demidovich, FAA, Washington DC, USA.
5. GNSS AND SUSTAINABLE ACCESS TO SPACE (1)Diane Howard, J.D., LL.M., DCL Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University,600 S Clyde Mossis Blvd, Dayton Beach , Florida; [email protected] (2) Ruth Stilwell, and DPA , Norwich University, 158 Harmon Dr., Noethfield VT USA, [email protected]
6. First Space-Based ADS-B Satellites in Orbit : Launch Customer Nav Canada has not set Mandate by Mike Collins : News and Media> First Spaced Based ADS-B Satellites in Orbit: www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2017/january/18/first-space-based-ads-b-satllite-in-orbit
7. ADS-B over satellite The World’s First ADS-B receiver in Space : Conference Paper: 6 authors ;German Aerospace Centre (DLR); T. Delovski, K.Warner,T. Rawlik, J. Behrens. J. Bredemeyer,R.Wendel. DLR-Institute of Space Systems; DLR Institute of Flight Guidance Systems;FCS-Flight Caliberation Services GmBH;HAW — Hamburg Institute of Flight Sciences
8. Spacecraft Reentry Basics: The Aerospace Corporation: www.aerospace.org/cords/all-about-debris-and-rentry/spacecraft-reentry/
9. ADS-B over Satellite: eoPortal; https://directoru.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/a/ads-b
10.ADS-B : Surveillance Development for Air Traffic Management by Christine Vigier, Design Mana Managemeny
[1] Broadly, most experts say that space starts at the point where orbital dynamic forces become more important than aerodynamic forces, or where the atmosphere alone is not enough to support a flying vessel at suborbital speeds.Historically, it’s been difficult to pin that point at a particular altitude. In the 1900s, Hungarian physicist Theodore von Kármán determined the boundary to be around 50 miles up, or roughly 80 kilometres above sea level. Today, though, the Kármán line is set as “an imaginary boundary” that’s 62 miles up, or roughly a hundred kilometresQ above sea level.
[2] Global Air Traffic Management and Space Traffic by Nico Voorbach, Director ICAO and Industry Affairs : CANSO at ICAO/UNOOSA Aerospace Symposium 29–31st August 2017
[3] Space Traffic Management: dlr.de
[4] | Space Traffic Management: implementation and enforcement by Marshall H. Kaplan — August 31, 2018 Marshall H. Kaplan, Ph.D., is a recognised expert in satellite and launch vehicle systems design and Engineering. He has participated in many new launch vehicle and satellite developments and has served as Chief Engineer on two launch vehicle programs. Dr. Kaplan was a member of the National Research Council’s Committee on Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology and Test Program. He has trained organisations that have won large space systems contracts for military and commercial applications. In his 40+ years of academic and industrial experience, he has served as Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University, was the executive Director of a Space Research Institute and has presented space technology and systems courses in the U.S., Europe, Asia and South America. In addition to publishing over 100 papers, reports, and articles on space technologies, he is the author of several books, including the internationally used text, Modern Spacecraft Dynamics and Control. Dr. Kaplan is an AIAA Fellow and member of the Technical Committee on Space Transportation. He holds advanced degrees from MIT and Stanford University and is a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland.
[5] The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) was set up by the UN General Assembly in 1959 to govern the exploration and use of space for the benefit of all humanity: for peace, security and development.
[6] The Convention on International Civil Aviation, drafted in 1944 by 54 nations, was established to promote … Known more commonly today as the ‘Chicago Convention’. See History of ICAO and the Chicago Convention at Icao.int
[7] Assad Kotaite, President Emeritus of the Council of International Civil Aviation Organisation: My Memoirs: 50 years of International Diplomacy and Conciliation in Aviation: ICAO 2013
[8] Regulation of Commercial Space Transport : The Astrocizing of ICAO: Ruwantissa Abeyratne: Springer 2015
[9] · ADS-B is a system in which electronic equipment onboard an aircraft automatically broadcasts the precise location of the aircraft via a digital data link. The data can be used by other aircraft and air traffic control to show the aircraft’s position and altitude on display screens without the need for radar : see airservicesaustralia.com
[10] See.ADS-B over Satellite The world’s first ADS-B receiver in Space :Delovski, Toni und Werner, Klaus und Rawlik, Tomasz und Behrens, Jörg und Bredemeyer, Jochen und Wendel, Ralf (2014) ADS-B over Satellite The world’s first ADS-B receiver in Space. Small Satellites Systems and Services Symposium, 26.-30. Mai 2014, Porto Petro, Majorca, Spain. www.Elib.dlr.de | https://medium.com/@sanatkaul/integrating-air-and-space-traffic-management-for-aviation-and-near-space-bd0b35237b34 | ['Sanat Kaul'] | 2020-07-21 07:02:27.331000+00:00 | ['Air Traffic Management', 'Space', 'Aviation', 'Space Exploration', 'Freewriting'] |
When someone you love is an addict | by: E.B. Johnson
Addiction is a disease that strikes at random. Once it strikes, it haunts individuals and families alike, and follows us throughout the generations. Unlike other illnesses, addiction is not a disease that affects only the initial victim. When addiction touches one person, it reaches out and touches everyone else in their life. One-by-one their hearts get broken as they watch their loved ones disappear.
Is there an addict in your family? Are you dealing with someone who has become lost to the shade and misery of drugs and alcohol? There is only so much that can be done to help them until they decide to help themselves. No matter how much you may love them, you cannot rescue them and you cannot change. We are the only people we are able to control, and the only thing we can truly do is surround ourselves in understanding and push our loved one to make better choices for themselves.
Addiction is a family affair too.
When our family members fall to addiction, they take us down with them in a number of mental and emotional ways. We watch as the person who we once loved becomes a ghost of themselves. We watch them destroy their bodies and their souls as they become trapped in a toxic cycle of pain-and-release. Addiction is a family affair. If one of us is touched, we’re all touched. There is little we can do to change it, though, save to insulate ourselves.
You need to take action in the name of your own happiness. If you’re determined to help your loved one, then you first need to arm yourself in knowledge and understanding about how addiction works. You can’t control or change what they’re doing. You can’t talk them out of it or “rescue” them.
All you can do is to be a support as far as the limits of your boundaries will allow. If you put yourself out there on a wire, the addict will take advantage and you’ll erode your relationship even further. Know that you’re dealing with a disease that sees no reason and cares for no logic. Encourage your loved one to seek help, but ensure that you yourself are getting the help, care, and compassion that you need to remain happy and healthy.
What happens when a loved one faces addiction.
When addiction takes hold of a family member, it’s something which affects everyone. You are forced to stand by and watch as your trust, faith, and love is eroded. And you have to watch as conflict and heartbreak become a part of the norm. A loved one who faces addiction destroys not only themselves. They destroy their parents, spouses, children, and friends too.
Erosion of central trust
Addiction is a disease which requires a lot of secrecy, and which can force a lot of bad behavior. Over time, all of these secrets and all of these conflicts add up to erode the trust we share with our family members and closest friends. This erosion of trust makes it impossible to reach out to one another, be vulnerable, or otherwise open up in any real and genuine way. It destroys the bonds we share and pushes us away from one another.
Normalizing conflict
Where there is addiction, you will often find conflict. This conflict comes in many forms and can stem from many causes. Perhaps you decide to confront your loved one or intervene. More often than not, this result in blowback from the person involved and conflict which creates an air of distrust. Beyond this instance, the increasingly erratic or changed behavior and moods caused by addiction can lead to even more conflict and confrontation.
Destroying connections
If you can’t trust one another and you can’t talk without fighting, then there is little chance of maintaining healthy connections with one another. We have to know that the person we love is safe. We need to know that they support us and that they want the best for us and from us. This can’t really happen with addiction. It’s an invisible wall that keeps our true selves from communicating. It detaches us from the world and from the resolutions we so desperately need.
Challenging dialogue
Have you ever tried to have a serious conversation with someone who is battling with an addiction? It’s an impossible twist and turn of justifications, excuses, and lies. Having an honest dialogue is rarely possible. It’s understandable. To be chained to addiction is to be in pain. You can’t be open and honest about that pain until you’re ready to wake up to it yourself — and that (by itself) is a process which is both uncomfortable and long.
Simmering resentment
Addiction always leads to resentment on both sides of the fence. On one side, you have the addicted person — who resents anyone who gets in the way of their pursuit to feed the shadows that haunt them. On the other side, you have all the other victims of the addiction: the mothers, fathers, spouses, children, and friends of the addicted person. They come to resent the decisions and behavior of their loved one as they watch them disappear into a spiral.
Deep-rooted trauma
Trauma is one of the biggest and most common side effects of addiction in the family. The addicted person (who may already be dealing with trauma) inflicts an array of harm on themselves, and can put themselves in some dangerous or compromising situation. Likewise, the addict’s family members are subjected to deep-rooted trauma from seeing the physical, emotional, and mental transformations in their loved one. It’s a toxic cycle of trauma which creates more trauma for all involved.
Unhealthy coping styles
Addiction, among many other things, can lead to adoption of unhealthy coping styles which keep us afloat while also undermining our wellbeing and happiness. Among these coping styles we can find that (alongside the addict) we develop codependent behaviors or toxic attachment tendencies. This can vary from enabling the addict to a poisonous game of give-and-take which reinforces emotional manipulation and conflict as the norm.
How you can help the addict in your life.
There is only so much you can do when it comes to helping the addict in your life. There is a fine line between being supportive and being an enabler. If you extend yourself too far, you risk making life harder for both yourself and your loved one who is suffering. You’ve got to arm yourself in iron-clad boundaries. You’ve also got to make sure you’re seeing to your own mental and emotional wellbeing.
1. Build a base of understanding
It’s imperative that you go into your dealings with any addict armed in empathy and understanding. Addiction is a disease, and it’s a complex one too. It can’t be yelled out or coerced. Dealing with addiction requires that we understand how it really works, and how it really takes a toll on the inside of a family. We have to form a base of greater understanding and seek to build our relationships and our plans atop it.
Addiction is not a choice or a moral failing, it is a disease of the brain. It’s a condition that a victim must learn to manage — no one can fight that fight for them. You can be a support to them, but you have to ensure that you don’t cross the line into enabling. You can love them, but you can’t give them the love of self they need to overcome. Educate yourself and learn all that you can about addiction.
In order to truly help them, you yourself need to know how to manage the ups and downs of addiction as they relate to us. Reach out to a support group, or even an addiction counselor. Express your emotions and explain what you’re going through at home. Ask them questions. Build a base of understanding that allows you to protect yourself even while you try to love them through their pain.
2. Establish iron-clad boundaries
You will not survive any relationship with an addict (no matter what role they inhabit) without iron-clad boundaries. Our boundaries are the walls which we put around our wellbeing. They are the “no-go zones” or limitations that express what we expect from our relationships with others, as well as what we require from them in terms of behavior. If you’re dealing with a family member who’s fallen into addiction, you need to make sure you have boundaries made of steel.
Find your backbone and lean into the art of saying “no” and saying it often. Your love doesn’t entitle the addict to abuse you or take advantage of you. It doesn’t give them a right to take your happiness or destroy your home. Stand up for yourself. Don’t allow yourself to be walked over in their name of their disease.
You’re not responsible for who they choose to be. Once we know we are dealing with mental illness or complex addictions, it’s our personal responsibility to get ourselves up and get ourselves the help we need. Their addiction isn’t your fault. We each make our own choices. Don’t allow yourself to become a catalyst of blame. Put up walls around your wellbeing and make it clear that you won’t tolerate your boundaries being disrespected.
3. Support them but don’t enable them
There is a fine line between the act of supporting an addict and the act of enabling them. Addiction is a delicate and a complex thing. The addict has to learn nuanced means of manipulating their environment in order to keep their habits going. They often become masters of the micromanipulation; pushing us into corners we didn’t know existed with techniques that make us feel as though we’re helping (when we’re really making things worse).
Don’t fall for the tricks. Don’t allow your ego to blind you to the reality of your loved one’s condition, or their intentions. Find the line between support and enabling and get yourself on the right side. If your actions allow the addict to remain dependent, or if you allow them to maintain their habit — you aren’t helping them. You’re enabling their addiction.
Real support sometimes looks more difficult or challenging that we like to imagine. It can mean walking away from someone we love very much. It can mean cutting off communication, or leaving them in dangerous positions when all we want to do is scoop them up and take them home. We cannot be anyone’s savior but our own. Beyond urging the other person to get help and offering them your services in getting it, there’s little else you can control.
4. Encourage them to seek help
While you will be driven to fix or change the addict in your life, the help that you can realistically offer is limited. We aren’t made to control the lives of others. The only thing we are able to control in this world is our own thoughts and our own responses to the world around us. No matter how much begging or fighting that you do, they are the ones that have to find the power to manage their pain — or not.
This doesn’t mean you can’t do something, though. You can still encourage the addict in your life to get help, and be a sounding board for reason whenever they surface to reality. Addicts know they are addicts. They know something isn’t right and (in many cases) have moments of clarity when they are become open to the urging of friends and family.
If your loved one comes to you and asks for your help, urge them to seek their own. Be a motivation to them. Empower them, but don’t cross the line. Make it clear that they have to be their own savior. Show them, though, that you are willing to support them and you’re willing to offer them comfort, respect, and empathy every step of the way. Their journey won’t be easy, but it doesn’t have to be made alone either. When they get help, you’ll be able to be there with them more fully.
5. Prioritize your own wellbeing
The pain which an addict experiences and inflicts expands far beyond their own immediate circle. Everyone who is close to them gets burned by their behavior and pays the price for the decisions that they make. It’s hard to love someone who is determined to destroy themselves, and that’s why it’s important that we don’t lose sight of our own wellbeing. We still deserve to be happy, even if they are dead-set on tearing apart every inch of themselves.
You may love the addict in your life more than anything in this world. You may love them more than you love yourself. This doesn’t change the fact, however, that you cannot save them from consequences of their decisions. We are the only ones capable of controlling ourselves. We’re the only ones who call the shots when it comes to our behaviors and the paths we take.
At some point, you’re going to have to make the decision to prioritize your wellbeing too. You need to look after yourself; nurture your physical and emotional body. In order to keep looking after your own needs, you need to make sure that you’ve got enough time to focus on your own tasks. You also need to be able to “recharge your batteries” and ground yourself so that you can make sense of your life and all the complexities it contains.
Putting it all together…
Addiction is a horrible disease which destroys not only the affected person, but their friends and family as well. It erodes the sense of trust they share and it erodes the connections which are built naturally through love and mutual vulnerability. Saving a loved one who is being destroyed by the disease of addiction isn’t possible. All we can do is love them, support them (where we can), and ensure we’re protecting ourselves with boundaries and compassion.
Build a base of understanding to work from and educate yourself on the ins and outs of addiction. By arming yourself in understanding, you’ll be able to build better and more effective iron-clad boundaries which allow you to love the addict in your life, even while you protect your own wellbeing and safety. Support your loved one, but don’t enable them. There’s a fine line, and it’s easy to cross when you listen to your emotions more than you listen to your knowledge. Let your loved one know that you support them and encourage them to find the help that they need. Know, however, that you can’t be their savior. We are each responsible for finding our own way to peace. Prioritize your own wellbeing and know that you can’t change them, and you can’t fix them. | https://medium.com/lady-vivra/loved-one-addict-98729d15642e | ['E.B. Johnson'] | 2020-12-19 07:08:04.957000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Psychology', 'Family', 'Addiction', 'Nonfiction'] |
Notes to crack AZ-900 Certification | I primarily focus on AI strategy and build Machine Leaning based solutions for the clients. However, with the emergence of AM/ML on cloud, it is inevitable to delve into the world of cloud computing and Microsoft Azure is certainly one of the leaders. Hence I thought of beginning my journey in the Cloud world with Azure fundamentals.
AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals : Azure Fundamentals exam is an opportunity to prove knowledge of cloud concepts, Azure services, Azure workloads, security and privacy in Azure, as well as Azure pricing and support. Candidates should be familiar with the general technology concepts, including concepts of networking, storage, compute, application support, and application development.
Here is the high-level breakdown of the skills assessed as part of this exam -
Describe cloud concepts (20–25%)
Describe core Azure services (15–20%)
Describe core solutions and management tools on Azure (10–15%)
Describe general security and network security features (10–15%)
Describe identity, governance, privacy, and compliance features (20–25%)
Describe Azure cost management and Service Level Agreements (10–15%)
While I would highly encourage readers to visit Microsoft Certification Website and read in details about the areas that are assessed as part of this exam, I would also suggest to setup a free Azure account and do some hands-on practice to gain good experience of Azure environment.
Here are some notes, that I prepared, as part of my preparation for Azure fundamentals exam -
· A Content delivery Network is a distributed network of server that can efficiently deliver a web content to user.
· Azure Queue Storage is a service for storing large numbers of messages. You access messages from anywhere in the world via authenticated calls using HTTP or HTTPS. A queue message can be up to 64 KB in size. A queue may contain millions of messages, up to the total capacity limit of a storage account. Queues are commonly used to create a backlog of work to process asynchronously.
· When a resource lock is applied, you must first remove the lock in order to perform that activity. Resource locks apply regardless of RBAC permissions. Even if you are an owner of the resource, you must still remove the lock before you’ll actually be able to perform the blocked activity
· To configure virtual machine named VM1 is accessible from the Internet over HTTP — Configure Firewall and open NSG port.
· Traffic Manager is used to distribute traffic at DNS level across different regions.
· Azure Government is a cloud environment specifically built to meet compliance and security requirements for US government. Azure Government uses physically isolated datacenters and networks (located in U.S. only).
· Azure AD Identity Protection “Identity Protection is a tool that allows organizations to accomplish three key tasks: Automate the detection and remediation of identity-based risks. Investigate risks using data in the portal. Export risk detection data to third-party utilities for further analysis.”
· Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Privileged Identity Management (PIM) is a service that enables you to manage, control, and monitor access to important resources in your organization. These resources include resources in Azure AD, Azure, and other Microsoft Online Services like Office 365 or Microsoft Intune.
· Azure Key Vault can be used to Securely store and tightly control access to tokens, passwords, certificates, API keys, and other secrets
· A key advantage of using Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) with Azure Blob storage or Queue storage is that your credentials no longer need to be stored in your code. Instead, you can request an OAuth 2.0 access token from the Microsoft identity platform (formerly Azure AD). Azure AD authenticates the security principal (a user, group, or service principal) running the application. If authentication succeeds, Azure AD returns the access token to the application, and the application can then use the access token to authorize requests to Azure Blob storage or Queue storage.
· Meeting regulatory compliance obligations and complying with all the requirements of benchmark standards can be a significant challenge in a cloud or hybrid environment. Identifying which assessments to perform, evaluating the status, and resolving the gaps can be a very daunting task. Azure Security Center (ASC) now helps streamline this process with the new regulatory compliance dashboard, which was recently released to public preview.
· An Azure Information Protection policy contains the following elements that you can configure: Which labels are included that let administrators and users classify (and optionally, protect) documents and emails. Title and tooltip for the Information Protection bar that users see in their Office applications. The option to set a default label as a starting point for classifying documents and emails. The option to enforce classification when users save documents and send emails. The option to prompt users to provide a reason when they select a label that has a lower sensitivity level than the original. The option to automatically label an email message, based on its attachments. The option to control whether the Information Protection bar is displayed in Office applications. The option to control whether the “Do Not Forward button” is displayed in Outlook. The option to let users specify their own permissions for documents. The option to provide a custom help link for users.
· Serverless Computing = Managed Service
Serverless computing enables developers to build applications faster by eliminating the need for them to manage infrastructure. With serverless applications, the cloud service provider automatically provisions, scales and manages the infrastructure required to run the code.”
· Scale Set: Azure virtual machine scale sets let you create and manage a group of load balanced VMs. The number of VM instances can automatically increase or decrease in response to demand or a defined schedule. Hence scale sets are used for scalling. So the scale sets can not be used for high availability if a single data center fails.
· FedRAMP : The US Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) was established to provide a standardized approach for assessing, monitoring, and authorizing cloud computing products and services under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), and to accelerate the adoption of secure cloud solutions by federal agencies.
· PCI DSS : compliant with Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards (DSS). Designed to prevent fraud, PCI DSS is a global information security standard for protecting payment and cardholder data.
· ISO: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an independent nongovernmental organization and the world’s largest developer of voluntary international standards. ISO/IEC 27001 is a security standard that formally specifies an Information Security Management System (ISMS) that is intended to bring information security under explicit management control. As a formal specification, it mandates requirements that define how to implement, monitor, maintain, and continually improve the ISMS.
· HIPPA : The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a US healthcare law that establishes requirements for the use, disclosure, and safeguarding of individually identifiable health information.
· Management Groups provide organizations with the ability to manage the compliance of Azure resources across multiple subscriptions. Azure management groups provide a level of scope above subscriptions. You organize subscriptions into containers called “management groups” and apply your governance conditions to the management groups. All subscriptions within a management group automatically inherit the conditions applied to the management group. Management groups are containers that help you manage access, policy, and compliance across multiple subscriptions. Create these containers to build an effective and efficient hierarchy that can be used with Azure Policy and Azure Role Based Access Controls. For more information on management groups, see Organize your resources with Azure management groups.
· Azure policies: Azure Policy is a service in Azure that you use to create, assign, and manage policies. These policies enforce different rules and effects over your resources, so those resources stay compliant with your corporate standards and service level agreements. This is used to help compliance of multiple resources within a subscription.
· Azure Active Directory is a completely managed service. You don’t need to provision any infrastructure to implement Azure Active Directory.
· Microsoft guarantees at least 99.9% availability of the Azure Active Directory Basic and Premier.
· Virtual Machine is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
· SQL Server is PaaS
· The Azure CLI is available to install in Windows, macOS and Linux environments. It can also be run in a Docker container and Azure Cloud Shell
· The Azure portal is a web-based console and runs in the browser of all modern desktops and tablet devices. If you need to manage Azure resources from a mobile device, try the Azure mobile app. It’s available for iOS and Android.
· Azure PowerShell works with PowerShell 5.1 on Windows, and PowerShell 6.x and higher on all platforms.
· CLI commands/scripts are different from PowerShell once. Therefore, you can not use the Script of PowerShell on CLI of Linux.
· Needs PowerShell Core to run Powershell scripts. PowerShell Core can be installed on Windows,Linux and MacOS.
· The Basic support plan does not have any technical support for engineers. The Developer support plan has only technical support for engineers via email. The Standard, Professional Direct, and Premier support plans have technical support for engineers via email and phone.
· Azure service life cycle follows in this order generally -
Private previews → Public previews → Generally Available (GA)
· You can filter network traffic to and from Azure resources in an Azure virtual network with a network security group. A network security group contains security rules that allow or deny inbound network traffic to, or outbound network traffic from, several types of Azure resources
· Redis cache: Azure Cache for Redis can be used as an in-memory data structure store, a distributed non-relational database, and a message broker. Application performance is improved by taking advantage of the low-latency, high-throughput performance of the Redis engine.
· Data factories: Azure Data Factory is a cloud-based data integration service that allows you to create data-driven workflows in the cloud for orchestrating and automating data movement and data transformation. Azure Data Factory does not store any data itself.
· While a blob is in the archive access tier, it’s considered offline and can’t be read or modified. The blob metadata remains online and available, allowing you to list the blob and its properties. Reading and modifying blob data is only available with online tiers such as hot or cool. There are two options to retrieve and access data stored in the archive access tier.
#Rehydrate an archived blob to an online tier — Rehydrate an archive blob to hot or cool by changing its tier using the Set Blob Tier operation.
#Copy an archived blob to an online tier — Create a new copy of an archive blob by using the Copy Blob operation. Specify a different blob name and a destination tier of hot or cool.
· Azure Logic Apps: Azure Logic Apps is a cloud service that helps you schedule, automate, and orchestrate tasks, business processes, and workflows when you need to integrate apps, data, systems, and services across enterprises or organizations. Process and route orders across on-premises systems and cloud services.
· Azure Batch: Azure Batch Service is a cloud based job scheduling and compute management platform that enables running large-scale parallel and high performance computing applications efficiently in the cloud. Azure Batch Service provides job scheduling and in automatically scaling and managing virtual machines running those jobs
· Copying data to Azure is free of charge. Inbound data transfers (i.e. data going into Azure data centers): Free.
· Data transfer over the VPN are charged separately. Data transfers between two virtual networks are charged at the Inter-virtual network rates. Other data transfers over the VPN connections to your on-premises sites or the internet in general are charged separately at the regular data transfer rate.
· Outbound data transfers (i.e. data going out of Azure data centers): NOT FREE
· Generally available (GA) — After the public preview is completed, the feature is open for any licensed customer to use and is supported via all Microsoft support channels. Be aware when a new feature impacts existing functionality, it might change the way you or your users use the functionality
· Connect to Azure using an authenticated, browser-based shell experience that’s hosted in the cloud and accessible from virtually anywhere. Azure Cloud Shell gives you the flexibility of choosing the shell experience that best suits the way you work. Both Bash and PowerShell experiences are available
· Azure AD Connect Health : Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Connect Health provides robust monitoring of your on-premises identity infrastructure. It enables you to maintain a reliable connection to Office 365 and Microsoft Online Services. This reliability is achieved by providing monitoring capabilities for your key identity components.
· Azure AD Privileged Identity Management : Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Privileged Identity Management (PIM) is a service that enables you to manage, control, and monitor access to important resources in your organization.Privileged Identity Management provides time-based and approval-based role activation to mitigate the risks of excessive, unnecessary, or misused access permissions on resources that you care about.
· Azure Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) : Azure ATP is a cloud-based security solution that helps you detect and investigate security incidents across your networks. It supports the most demanding workloads of security analytics for the modern enterprise.
· Azure AD Identity Protection : Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Identity Protection allows you to detect potential vulnerabilities affecting your organization’s identities, configure automated responses, and investigate incidents. The risk signals can trigger remediation efforts such as requiring users to: perform Azure Multi-Factor Authentication, reset their password using self-service password reset, or blocking until an administrator takes action.
· Azure Blueprints enables cloud architects and central information technology groups to define a repeatable set of Azure resources that implements and adheres to an organization’s standards, patterns, and requirements. Azure Blueprints makes it possible for development teams to rapidly build and stand up new environments.Blueprints are a declarative way to orchestrate the deployment of various resource templates and other artifacts.
· Virtual Network in Azure is free of charge. Every subscription is allowed to create up to 50 Virtual Networks across all regions. There is no additional charge of multiple network interfaces ( NICs ) , although the number of NICs is tied to VM SKUs. Hence removing the unused network interfaces will not reduce the costs for the company.
· Delete unassociated public IP addresses to save money
· Advisor identifies public IP addresses that are not currently associated to Azure resources such as Load Balancers or VMs. These public IP addresses come with a nominal charge. If you do not plan to use them, deleting them can result in cost savings.
· Azure Active Directory comes in four editions generally — Free, Office 365 apps edition, Premium P1, and Premium P2. The Free edition is included with an Azure subscription. The P1 and P2 comes with unlimited object limit. User accounts can be managed in FREE edition.
· Azure AD Connect : Azure AD Connect is the Microsoft tool designed to meet and accomplish your hybrid identity goals.Responsible for creating users, groups, and other objects and making sure identity information for your on-premises users and groups is matching the cloud. This synchronization also includes password hashes.
· Azure AD : Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is Microsoft’s cloud-based identity and access management service, which helps your employees sign in and access resources.
· Azure AD Join : Azure AD join allows you to join devices directly to Azure AD without the need to join to on-premises Active Directory while keeping your users productive and secure. Azure AD join is enterprise-ready for both at-scale and scoped deployments.
· Azure AD Domain services : Azure Active Directory Domain Services (Azure AD DS) provides managed domain services such as domain join, group policy, lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP), and Kerberos / NTLM authentication that is fully compatible with Windows Server Active Directory.ou use these domain services without the need to deploy, manage, and patch domain controllers in the cloud. Azure AD DS integrates with your existing Azure AD tenant, which makes it possible for users to sign in using their existing credentials.
· Azure Cloud Shell gives you the flexibility of choosing the shell experience that best suits the way you work. Both Bash and PowerShell experiences are available.Cloud shell can be opened in any supported browser on any operating system laptop.
· Virtual machines give you full control over the environment. Containers give you limited control. Serverless computing does not allow you to do any infrastructure configuration.
· Transferring of azure subscription is allowed but merging is not possible currently.
· The Service Trust Portal (STP) hosts the Compliance Manager application and is Microsoft’s public site for publishing audit reports and other compliance-related information related to Microsoft’s cloud services. STP users can download audit reports produced by external auditors and gain insight from Microsoft-authored whitepapers that provide details on how Microsoft builds and operates our cloud services.
· Bring your own license (BYOL): Bringing your own SQL Server license through License Mobility, also referred to as BYOL, means using an existing SQL Server Volume License with Software Assurance in an AzureVM. BYOL images require an Enterprise Agreement with Software Assurance.
· The Service Trust Portal (STP) hosts the Compliance Manager application and is Microsoft’s public site for publishing audit reports and other compliance-related information related to Microsoft’s cloud services. STP users can download audit reports produced by external auditors and gain insight from Microsoft-authored whitepapers that provide details on how Microsoft builds and operates our cloud services.
· You are only charged for the public IP addresses and not for the private IP addresses.
· Total cost of block blob storage depends on:
#Volume of data stored per month.
#Quantity and types of operations performed, along with any data transfer costs.
#Data redundancy option and storage region selected.
· For general-purpose v2 accounts, you are charged for write operations (per 10,000). For Blob storage accounts, there is no charge for Write operations.
· Content delivery network (CDN) : Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a global CDN solution for delivering high-bandwidth content. It can be hosted in Azure or any other location. With Azure CDN, you can cache static objects loaded from Azure Blob storage, a web application, or any publicly accessible web server, by using the closest point of presence (POP) server. Azure CDN can also accelerate dynamic content, which cannot be cached, by leveraging various network and routing optimizations.
· If you go to Help + Support and then go to Service Health, then you can view if there are any issues to the underlying Azure Infrastructure.
· You can set up a total of five billing alerts per subscription, with a different threshold and up to two email recipients for each alert.
· A mantrap is a small room with an entry door on one wall and an exit door on the opposite wall. A visitor would be allowed entry into an enclosed vestibule, at which time the entry door would be locked and the visitor’s credentials examined.
· Data disks are VHDs that are attached to virtual machines. They are used to store application data and other data that needs to be kept. VHDs that are used in Azure are .vhd files that are stored as page blobs in either a standard or premium storage account in Azure. It’s also important to note that Azure only supports the fixed disk VHD format.
· Disk performance can be in below order.
Ultra disk SSD > Premium SSD > Standard SSD>Standard HDD
· Availability sets : An Availability Set is a logical grouping capability for isolating VM resources from each other when they’re deployed. Azure makes sure that the VMs you place within an Availability Set run across multiple physical servers, compute racks, storage units, and network switches.
· Update domain : An update domain is a logical group of underlying hardware that can undergo maintenance or be rebooted at the same time. As you create VMs within an availability set, the Azure platform automatically distributes your VMs across these update domains.
· Block blobs are composed of blocks and are ideal for storing text or binary files, and for uploading large files efficiently. Hence it is not used for storing virtual hard drive (VHD) files.
· Geo-redundant storage (with GRS or GZRS) replicates your data to another physical location in the secondary region to protect against regional outages. However, that data is available to be read only if the customer or Microsoft initiates a failover from the primary to secondary region.
· The Azure free account provides access to all Azure products and does not block customers from building their ideas into production. The Azure free account includes certain products — and specific quantities of those products — for free. To enable your production scenarios, you may need to use resources beyond the free amounts. You’ll be billed for those additional resources at the pay-as-you-go rates.
· Microsoft offers Service level credits if it does not meet the SLA targets.
· Azure Policy is a service in Azure that you use to create, assign, and manage policies. These policies enforce different rules and effects over your resources, so those resources stay compliant with your corporate standards and service level agreements. Azure Policy meets this need by evaluating your resources for non-compliance with assigned policies. All data stored by Azure Policy is encrypted at rest.
· Access management for cloud resources is a critical function for any organization that is using the cloud. Role-based access control (RBAC) helps you manage who has access to Azure resources, what they can do with those resources, and what areas they have access to.
· RBAC is an authorization system built on Azure Resource Manager that provides fine-grained access management of Azure resources.
What can I do with RBAC?
Here are some examples of what you can do with RBAC:
# Allow one user to manage virtual machines in a subscription and another user to manage virtual networks
#Allow a DBA group to manage SQL databases in a subscription
#Allow a user to manage all resources in a resource group, such as virtual machines, websites, and subnets
#Allow an application to access all resources in a resource group
· You can create a budget and get a notification if the costs are going beyond the budget.
· Initiative: They simplify by grouping a set of policies as one single item. For example, you could create an initiative titled Enable Monitoring in Azure Security Center, with a goal to monitor all the available security recommendations in your Azure Security Center
· Microsoft Azure Sentinel is a scalable, cloud-native, security information event management (SIEM) and security orchestration automated response (SOAR) solution. Azure Sentinel delivers intelligent security analytics and threat intelligence across the enterprise, providing a single solution for alert detection, threat visibility, proactive hunting, and threat response.
Azure Sentinel is your birds-eye view across the enterprise alleviating the stress of increasingly sophisticated attacks, increasing volumes of alerts, and long resolution timeframes.
· Security Center is offered in two Pricing tiers:
#The Free tier is enabled on all your Azure subscriptions once you visit the Azure Security Center dashboard in the Azure portal for the first time, or if enabled programmatically via API. The free tier provides security policy, continuous security assessment, and actionable security recommendations to help you protect your Azure resources.
#The Standard tier extends the capabilities of the Free tier to workloads running in private and other public clouds, providing unified security management and threat protection across your hybrid cloud workloads. The standard tier also adds threat protection capabilities, which use built-in behavioral analytics and machine learning to identify attacks and zero-day exploits, access and application controls to reduce exposure to network attacks and malware, and more. In addition, standard tier adds vulnerability scanning for your virtual machines.
· The Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine Agent (VM Agent) is a secure, lightweight process that manages virtual machine (VM) interaction with the Azure Fabric Controller.
· VM Extensions enable post-deployment configuration of VM, such as installing and configuring software. It runs within Operating system
· Azure Synapse is a limitless analytics service that brings together enterprise data warehousing and Big Data analytics. It gives you the freedom to query data on your terms, using either serverless on-demand or provisioned resources — at scale. Azure Synapse brings these two worlds together with a unified experience to ingest, prepare, manage, and serve data for immediate BI and machine learning needs
Azure Synapse has four components:
#Synapse SQL: Complete T-SQL based analytics — Generally Available SQL pool (pay per DWU provisioned) SQL on-demand (pay per TB processed) — (Preview)
#Spark: Deeply integrated Apache Spark (Preview)
#Data Integration: Hybrid data integration (Preview)
#Studio: Unified user experience. (Preview)
· Azure monitor is not a global service and is region specific
· A firewall is a service that grants server access based on the originating IP address of each request. You create firewall rules that specify ranges of IP addresses. Only clients from these granted IP addresses will be allowed to access the server. Firewall rules, generally speaking, also include specific network protocol and port information. Azure Firewall is a managed, cloud-based, network security service that protects your Azure Virtual Network resources.
· Azure Application Gateway is a load balancer that includes a Web Application Firewall (WAF) that provides protection from common, known vulnerabilities in websites. It is designed to protect HTTP traffic.
· Network virtual appliances (NVAs) are ideal options for non-HTTP services or advanced configurations and are similar to hardware firewall appliances.
Hope these notes help you in scoring well in AZ-900 so you could move ahead in your journey to the mysterious world of Cloud computing.
Let me know if this helped you.
All the Best ! | https://medium.com/@aagarwal29/notes-to-crack-az-900-certification-d4800a64213d | ['Ankit Agarwal'] | 2020-12-23 05:01:51.781000+00:00 | ['Certification', 'Az 900 Exam', 'Cloud', 'Azure Fundamentals'] |
This Exponential Technology Is Going To Change Everything. | How do you make ACELLULAR products from CELL cultures?
Let’s take the example of milk (without cows).
Here’s a question: what makes milk, milk?
Chances are you’re probably looking at me like I’m crazy. And no, I’m not.
Here’s a better way of wording it: what gives milk its nutrition and taste?
Answer: Whey and Casein.
With that, we know that whey and casein are the heroes behind this incredible fluid, but how do we replicate them? Luckily, it happens so that our cells and proteins have a language → genetic code, which every living thing can understand. Essentially what happens is that we pass on this genetic code, which we obtain in a non-invasive procedure or maybe from an online database, to another host (eg. yeast). This will be our starter culture. As our yeast friend follows instructions, he unknowingly brews up some of these animal proteins!
..and Voila! You’ve got the main components that makes milk, well, milk!
See, that wasn’t so complicated, was it?
Now let’s get back to Roan’s story to understand how we can obtain cellular products from cell cultures. To let him free while making the process more efficient, we decided to produce lab-grown meat. The question is, how the hell do we even make meat without an animal?
Creating meat — without animals.
Step 1: Understanding what ‘meat’ is.
Meat is mainly the muscle tissue of an animal. Animal muscle is roughly 75% water, 20% protein and 5% fat, carbohydrates and assorted proteins.
Muscles are made of cells called myofibers, which are made up of myofibrils. It contains two main proteins — actin and myosin.
All this probably seems too confusing because of the similar names, but don’t worry! Here is a diagram that sums up everything:
Muscle Structure
Here is what one myofibril looks like:
A closer look of myofibril
Step 2: Let’s gather some cells!
Cells are fascinating — they come in every little shape and size but what type do we use?
Well, out of all the peculiar ‘lil cells, we use the myosatellite stem cell which are cells that can give rise to skeletal muscle cells. We find these little critters under the basal layer of the muscle where they chill till their time comes.
They are relatively easy to obtain and all you’d need is a teeny-tiny biopsy from Roan (who will need a local anaesthetic for that but don’t worry, it won’t hurt.)
But this certainly won’t be enough; skeletal muscle is composed of connective tissue, stromal tissue, muscle fibers and various other stem cell populations. Myosatellite cells reside in muscle fibers and so, it is a necessity to disassociate these for our lab-grown goodies.
Skeletal Muscle Fibres — this is where you find myosatellite cells! | Source
To do this, we first physically separate them after which proteases, enzymes which catalyze [accelerate] proteolysis [breakdown of proteins], such as trypsin, pronase and dispase, purify this. Then, we filter it to obtain the mononucleated cell population, which consists of stromal cells, myosatellite cells, somatic cells and blood cells. To further separate the myosatellite cell from these (yes, there are a LOT of separation to get them!), we have various approaches on the basis of:
Physical features [density gradient centrifugation]
features [density gradient centrifugation] Biological features [preplating, cytochalasin B treatment]
features [preplating, cytochalasin B treatment] Molecular features [fluorescence‐activated cell sorting, magnetic-activated cell sorting]
…and Tada! We have some myosatellite cells!
The only problem is that these being multipotent stem cells, stem cells which can only differentiate into limited cell types, abide by the Hayflick limit 😓
The Hayflick limit occurs due to the degradation of telomeres which are caps at the end of chromosomes that help preserve DNA.
The Hayflick limit restricts the cell from dividing unlimitedly, which would serve as a problem while expanding operations to a larger scale.
Of course, we could use iPSCs/ Embryonic stem cells (Pluripotent and Totipotent respectively) for this as they don’t have to abide by the Hayflick limit but they do tend to go a bit wild in the differentiation part.
Whatever cell we decide to use though, our aim will be to help them proliferate (multiply) as much as they can + differentiate and mature.
Immortalizing?
We know that multipotent stem cells have to abide by a Hayflick limit, that restricts it from dividing boundlessly. After maximum cell division occurs, the cell enters a state of senescence and cannot divide anymore.
What can we do about this?
While we could rely on mutations in-vitro that allow the cell to bypass cellular checkpoints, this could have unpredictable consequences on cell biology, which could also possibly make it useless.
As of now, research is still underway but various other methods promise immortality or at least prolonged Hayflick limit. Some of them are:
Adding genes+ stopping the expression of cell cycle genes
Targeting proliferative pathways with small molecular compounds.
Inhibiting various proteins such as STAT3, p38 etc…
Mimicking an injured/regenerative state via growth in the presence of cytokines
After these cells are collected, Roan’s involvement is over and he can go back to doing cow things. YAY!
Because of this limited involvement, we could pick the healthiest, happiest cow there is for our meat (and take into consideration additional factors for maximum proliferation like sex and age)!
Step 3: Creating Muscle 💪
Now, we have a bunch of purified, immortalized myosatellite cells. What next?
Where + how do these cells grow?
The cells after proliferation go on a little journey to turn into muscle. Here is a pictorial representation of it (made by yours truly 😉):
This process is known as myogenesis | Image by meeeee :)
Basically, the activated myosatellite cells will turn into myoblasts via a gene regulation shift which involves the up-regulation of MYOD and MYF5 & the down-regulation of PAX7. During this, these transcription factors change gene expression to turn these myoblasts into myocytes. These myocytes then go around and look for friends of the same kind to fuse with so that they can form myotubes. These myotubes together form tasty muscle! 😋
Several strategies have been used by scientists to form myotubes in a way that allows them to be packed together into tasty meat, some of which include:
seeding cells around a gelatin ring promoting muscle fusion.
ring promoting muscle fusion. using plastic microcarriers to increase surface area for cells to bind on to and hence harvesting more cells in a smaller space.
While all these genetic stuff are happening, the cell undergoes structural changes too with the help of actin, myosin, calcium, ATP hydrolysis and other proteins to form characteristics for sarcomeric organization.
Of course, you can’t just expect these cells to differentiate and do everything on its own. We’d need to replicate Roan’s body environment for this.
But, firstly, what even is Roan’s body environment?
Temperature : 37 degree Celsius
: 37 degree Celsius CO2 level: 5%, to mimic the natural blood CO2 levels.
5%, to mimic the natural blood CO2 levels. The cells usually grow in a dense protein jungle known as Extracellular Matrix or ECM that give it structure.
From this, we know that we’ll have to put a check on all these parameters while having a way to clean waste products in the process. What we currently use for this is a cell culture medium, which is basically a bath of nutrients so that our cells can do everything as it does inside Roan.
Some important stuff for the cells to grow (constituting the cell culture media) are:
Basal media: Composed of everything you’d expect a cell to need; amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins, salts and trace minerals.
SERUM SERUM SERUM : Biology is complex enough without having to literally grow meat in the labs and so the cells will need to satisfy some additional requirements for it to grow nicely. This is provided by a serum (which is something like a super-powered cocktail 🍸). Our current choice of serum isn’t the most eco-friendly or ethical one as it is derived from animals; Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) . FBS is a by-product of the dairy industry and so, it would really contradict the key aim of having lab-grown products. Moreover, FBS comes with a hefty price 💰 tag, costing $318 (USD)/200 mL. Yikes!
: Biology is complex enough without having to literally grow meat in the labs and so the cells will need to satisfy some additional requirements for it to grow nicely. This is provided by a (which is something like a super-powered cocktail 🍸). Our current choice of serum isn’t the most eco-friendly or ethical one as it is derived from animals; . FBS is a by-product of the dairy industry and so, it would really contradict the key aim of having lab-grown products. Moreover, FBS comes with a hefty price 💰 tag, costing $318 (USD)/200 mL. Yikes! Cell Signalling Molecules → help cells communicate with each other!
These cells are kept in an incubator that satisfies all the temperature + CO2 requirements previously mentioned to really give it the cow-body-feel.
Now these cells can swim around and do what they need to do!
Based on factors like the number of cells and their metabolic rate, we replace this medium periodically (every 24–72 hours) to remove cellular waste.
Step 4: Polishing it all up to suit the both of us!
Okay, here’s a question: would you eat a beef burger which is one cell line thick?
Of course not! Unfortunately, this is exactly where we are headed if we stop right here.
You see, these cells love to stick on to their surfaces. They just cling on there which wouldn't be the best if you want to make something like steak.
how cells (red) usually grow in surfaces (blue) — self-made :D
So to bring in some depth, we use something called a scaffold which makes it more 3D and meat-like. This replicates the ECM in which cells grow.
Since cells love to stick on to surfaces, we can create some surfaces similar to the structure we want to attain and it’ll just blindly stick on to it! That’s genius, am I right?
creating more surfaces! self-made :)
Which unfortunately also means…
NO NUTRIENTS FOR SOME CELLS!
How is that, you ask? Well, cells get their nutrients from the growth medium through diffusion. This is a problem because diffusion is very picky and only works up till a certain point. This certain point isn’t very high to rely on diffusion — 200 microns, about the width of the human hair.
If we continue to rely on diffusion, we’ll be stuck with 200 microns wide cultured Big Macs. Ermm… no thanks.
We still don’t have an answer to this. yet.
What is currently in the works (artificial circulatory system)
Your scrumptious Big Macs are ready to serve!
And that’s it! You’ve got some fresh lab-grown Big Macs, ready to serve 🍔
It’s the exact same thing as the regular Big Mac, except it uses 99% less land, 98% less water, releases 96% fewer emissions and you get to see Roan’s happy face as he runs around doing cow things. | https://medium.com/@sayyidaraniahashim/this-exponential-technology-is-going-to-change-everything-977af90d7920 | ['Sayyida Hashim'] | 2021-01-06 10:04:50.732000+00:00 | ['Biotechnology', 'Innovation', 'Meat', 'Technology', 'Cellular Agriculture'] |
Think like a Baby, Act like an Adult | Think like a Baby, Act like an Adult
Have you ever wondered what happens in the mind of a child trying to reach for something higher ?
I have personally never seen a child look at their toy and go : “whatever I’ll get another one”.
They know it’s theirs, so they expect to get it.
They might ask for help by whining in order to make you understand how important that toy is to them, unless they have found a way to get it themselves.
Think about it quickly : have you ever seen them frightenned by the height or the fact that it’s “too high” for them ?
They might complain. They just don’t quit.
This to show you that thinking like a baby when it comes to get what you want might be the only thing you want to learn today.
I often talk about making plans. Look at us now.
(Yes this was a clear reference to the pandemic. I won’t talk about it though, I believe that my fellow friends and Medium writers are on it already.)
2020 came to show us that the only thing you own is the present. The now. The you reading what I am writing right now.
I want you to quit thinking too much. Follow your heart and go for what you want.
Do not worry about things that might happen. Even if something does happen, You’ll get something from it : experience, wisdom and self-awareness.
So dear reader, please think like a baby and focus on what happens now. What you want now. Leave the 101 and any book having “become” or “How to” on its front page.
Go for it. Reach for it baby.
Thank you for reading. Hopefully you like the picture as much as I do. | https://medium.com/@madamemadeit/think-like-a-baby-act-like-an-adult-bc20d5f3d6dd | [] | 2020-05-16 20:01:57.355000+00:00 | ['Advice', 'Steve Harvey', 'Mindfulness', '2020', 'Baby'] |
How to Effectively Recruit (and Retain) Volunteers For Your Game Or Live Event | If you run a concession stand (or frankly, any project) that requires volunteer participation to ensure a smooth and seamless operation, this article is for you. Finding volunteer recruitment and retention a daunting challenge? You are not alone.
By Rawpixel, via Pexel.
Volunteers could make or break your operation. After all, there’s only so much a one-person band can do. Besides setting sales goals and coming up with the workflow, one of the first things you want to do as a concessions manager is probably recruiting a team of efficient, hard-working and resourceful volunteers.
Easier said than done right? While there’s no foolproof method of achieving satisfactory recruitment every single time, there are certainly smarter and more effective ways to go about doing that. Even if you’re already experienced at convincing people to join the mission, this blog can still act as a useful refresher and checklist for whether you’ve been covering all your bases.
DON’T DO IT ALL BY YOURSELF
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, volunteers are the most likely to sign up when encouraged by a current club member, more than when they are encouraged by family, friends, and coworkers combined.
Whether you are surprised by this finding or not, data shows that your existing team members should be playing a big role in recruitment. Especially if they’re encouraging their own families and friends to help out—that may even double the efficiency!
While it can be hard to ask other members to put in as much effort recruiting on your behalf, it’s probably unavoidable if you actually want to get the roster filled. Current members can give very genuine testimonials for why a potential candidate should join the cause, and provide perspectives different from that of a president.
BE SPECIFIC ABOUT WHY YOU ARE RECRUITING A PARTICULAR PERSON
Maybe contrary to what you believe, people like to be asked for favors — it makes them feel needed and important. The key to success lies in how you go about asking them. If you show enough appreciation and understanding of what a potential candidate can bring to the table, you are more likely to make a stronger case.
So when you ask someone to contribute their time, emphasize the unique skill set they have that makes them the ideal candidate for the task. Recognize their talents and achievements, and don’t be afraid to express how much you’d appreciate them to be part of the cause. If people are confident that their skills and the role are a good match, and that they will be truly making an impact, it’s more likely that they will say yes to your request.
We have found that FanFood runners tend to be more outgoing and enjoy interacting with people. Personality could be one of the attributes you highlight when you ask someone to volunteer.
AVOID VAGUE ASKS
When people know exactly what to expect, it’s easier for them to assess the feasibility and get back to you with a definite answer. If you are simply asking for someone’s time in the general sense, it’s hard for them to gauge what specific tasks they need to do and how big of a time commitment this could be. Furthermore, a vague ask may convey the false impression that the project is too large for them to finish in a foreseeable time. That just increases the barrier for someone to say yes.
It’s much easier if you could put forward your ask in a more straightforward, digestible manner. For example, asking something like “Can you run the concession stand during the football season every Thursday from 7 pm to 9 pm?” is more specific than “Can you help us with our concessions this season?” The former is way easier for potential candidates to gauge the time commitment and answer whether they can manage that, whereas the latter really doesn’t convey much useful information, and can be easily turned down.
What if people respond to a specific ask with “I have something else planned that hour?”
This is when you can be flexible, within limits though. You can tell them that they are free to choose another time or another task, but with a similar time commitment. That way they still know what to expect, but also appreciate your willingness to accommodate their personal schedules.
We understand that among our readers, people in charge of concessions at high schools (booster clubs and athletic directors) rely more heavily on volunteer participation than other types of venues. So the following are two bonus points for this particular section of our audience:
Vandergrift High School’s booster club co-chairs told us they are often overwhelmed by the big crowds on Friday nights and really needed volunteer support. Watch their interview here.
EXPAND YOUR SEARCH RANGE
When brainstorming potential candidate, the natural choice would be fellow parents. However, the most intuitive answer might not always be the best one. Instead, expand your search to beyond just parents: alumni, parents of alumni, students, and even local community members should all be on your search radar.
In fact, parents sometimes are among the least ideal candidates because they don’t want to volunteer at an event where their kids would be competing or performing. One trick is to do a volunteer swap with other booster clubs, for example, an art booster club can run concession stands at sports games and sports booster clubs can manage the ticket booth at theatre performances.
Also, don’t hesitate to reach out to people not directly related to your high school. You may be surprised to find how many people would be willing to help out even without having their own children enrolled in the school (retirees with lots of free time, people who just arrived at the neighborhood and want to connect with the community, or college students in need of community service credits). If the budget allows, you can try putting up ads in local newspapers, posters at community centers, or publishing posts on online platforms such as craigslist.com, idealist.org, or volunteermatch.org.
TELL A GOOD STORY
Alright, now you are probably thinking that this is too far a stretch. After all, you are pitching to adults, not kids — so what’s the purpose of storytelling?
As long as you are pitching to humans, one thing is certain: People love stories, because they can empathize easier (and also because we always want to be entertained). While pretty much everyone understands what fundraising entails, that’s the logical part of their brain working: Do I have time for volunteering? How much can I get out of this? How many other volunteers are there? A successful pitch, however, almost always plays to the emotional part of their decision-making process and that’s where storytelling comes in.
So what stories can you possibly tell? Certainly, we don’t mean fairytales or “once upon a time” type of stories, rather, it’s stories about how students benefit from what your booster club has been doing. You can bring up how many student-athletes were able to upgrade their equipment from your fundraising efforts last year, or how students desperately need more lockers in their changing rooms due to the expansion of the football team. You can even mention the names of some students who would be grateful for all the hard work your booster club is doing if the person you are pitching to happens to know these students. This helps potential candidates visualize how their help could translate to tangible impacts, and as a result, more emotionally propelled to do their part.
If you are new to running booster clubs and would like a step to step guide on how to go about doing that, download our “Ultimate Guide to Booster Club Fundraising” here.
If there are topics / questions you’d love to see us explore on our blog, write or tweet at us @fanfoodondemand! | https://medium.com/fanfood-playbook/how-to-effectively-recruit-volunteers-for-your-concession-stands-763ef190cf4d | ['Isabella Jiao'] | 2019-07-16 03:58:56.377000+00:00 | ['High School Football', 'Recruiting', 'Concessions', 'High School', 'Volunteer'] |
Feel Good Instagram Accounts To Follow During The Coronavirus Pandemic | I’ve discovered some really great Instagram accounts during the lockdown. With spending so much time on social media, which I’m also trying to do less of, I want to see posts that keep things unique, different and inspirational.
If you’re looking for something a little refreshing to follow, take a look at a few of the accounts below.
My Self-Love Supply
My Self-Love Supply is a great account that shares various tips and uplifting quotes. It’s illustrated in a cute, colourful way that always puts a smile on my face.
Instagram @myselflovesupply
The Blurt Foundation
The Blurt Foundation helps to raise awareness and better understanding towards depression. Their posts are supportive to individuals that live with depression, and helps put things into perspective for those that don’t understand depression.
Instagram @theblurtfoundation
The Happy Sloth Club
The Happy Sloth Club loves sharing the positivity and encouragement. The posts are aimed at individuals who may be going through a tough time and need a bit of love and support. The posts are lighthearted and uplifting.
Instagram @thehappyslothclub
DaniPirro — Positively Present
Dani DiPirro is an artist, and her creativity shows in the posts. The content she shares puts things into perspective for the way one may be feeling, or rather puts their mind at ease for feeling that way. It’s a vibrant, colourful and heartful way of sharing positive posts.
Instagram @positivelypresent
Self-Care Is For Everyone
It’s an account that truly emphasizes the importance of self-care and self-love. It promotes mental health and mental health awareness.
Instagram @selfcareisforeveryone
Your Daily Inspiration
A great account just spreading love and positivity.
Instagram @sunnybloominspiration
There are so many more amazing accounts to follow on Instagram if you’re looking for something more positive to follow. It’s definitely worth browsing through accounts to find new accounts that may uplift your day and put a smile on your face too. | https://medium.com/@bold-brunette/feel-good-instagram-accounts-to-follow-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-da859362de69 | ['Bold Brunette'] | 2020-04-27 09:23:49.713000+00:00 | ['Instagram', 'Support', 'Optimism', 'Social Media', 'Positivity'] |
Unfold the surprises offered by the Pre-ICO sale of CREIT | Customer admiration has always been part and parcel of the real-estate nexus. Holding land-based and allied assets is considered a life-long goal, and people across the globe tend to channelize their earnings and wealth towards owning real estate assets. This long-term ideology brings down its real-time relevance and viability and has hampered its image as a performing asset such as currencies, gold, mutual funds, etc. What if an ingenuous technology-based concept can banish the entire range of limitations and open the market on a universal scale? A solution that digitizes real-estate assets and can be traded across the globe without the clutches of regulations?
CREIT is your unanimous answer!
CREIT is an all-encompassing crypto-based real estate investment trust that leverages the massive potency of blockchain and the tremendous adoption of cryptocurrency to offer investors an exceptional way to invest in the highly remunerative real estate space. In a nutshell, it eliminates the whole gamut of gregarious restrictions and paves the way for non-US nationals to hold and trade commercial real estate in the United States.
What is a pre-ICO sale?
A practice undertaken by crypto projects before kick-starting initial coin offering to distribute cryptocurrency at a specific price to the interested parties. It is a process that is considered to mutually benefit the project and the token/coin buyers. It offers the much-needed funds to the crypto project, and investors get tokens that are gonna be worth millions of dollars in the future.
CREIT’s Pre-ICO sale has been launched, and investors are showing a great response. Therefore, it can be one of the greatest opportunities for investors to invest in the futuristic CREIT coin;
Why invest in CREIT coin;
The CREIT coin is a functional coin.
Investments made through CREIT will be represented by the CREIT coin, a utility token for shareholders.
The CREIT coin represents the client’s holdings and is directly linked to the value of their investment.
The CREIT coin is an ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum blockchain network.
It is a standard in the industry and a highly reliable utility token type that offers many benefits for the investor.
It will be available throughout the globe without any geographical restrictions
One CREIT coin will represent one share
One can use the CREIT irrespective of their nationality
It can be easily deposited and withdrawn from a wallet
Hassle-free transaction because of ERC-20 token
The CREIT coin is being sold at a curtailed price of $0.25. It was launched on 23rd June 2021. Token Name is Creit, token symbol: CREIT, token Decimal: 12, and a total Supply: 100,000,000.
Bottom line;
Take this ladder of CREIT investment with you to invest in the real estate market of America, where liquidity is not even a question. Take a few baby steps by registering yourself in the pre-ICO sale of CREIT, which is live now!
Register here: https://www.creitglobal.com/ | https://medium.com/@creitofficial/unfold-the-surprises-offered-by-the-pre-ico-sale-of-creit-50ba79750305 | ['Creit Official'] | 2021-07-06 04:44:09.319000+00:00 | ['Real Estate Investments', 'Preico', 'ICO', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Creit'] |
Why Inclusion is nothing more than leftovers from a holiday meal… | Why Inclusion is nothing more than leftovers from a holiday meal…
Current and pervasive Situation. Whiteness is at the core of the inequities and systemic racism, and everyone else is in proximity to it — left overs is a result because core beliefs are still intact. | https://medium.com/@blackcoreconsulting/why-inclusion-is-nothing-more-than-leftovers-from-a-holiday-meal-7bbaec38a590 | ['Black Core- Utopia For Black Entrepreneurs'] | 2020-12-21 13:43:49.494000+00:00 | ['Diversity And Inclusion', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Inclusion', 'Women In Tech', 'BlackLivesMatter'] |
What’s happening between Armenia & Azerbaijan? | The Nagorno-Karabakh War this year was an armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The war started on September 27th, 2020, and ended on November 10th, 2020. The war ended with the agreement signed by both countries. Turkey and Russia have also been involved in this conflict. Turkey supports and sends the army to help Azerbaijan due to the same religion (both are Islamic countries) while Russia supported Armenia — a Christian-dominated country. The conflict zone — which is also known as Nagorno-Karabakh, is internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan, but it’s also partially governed by Artsakh, which is an Armenian ethnic majority.
This area has long been a conflict zone due to its strategically crucial mountainous region in south-east Europe. For centuries, both Christian and Muslim powers have tried to take control over there. In the modern days, Armenia and Azerbaijan both joined a part of the Soviet Union in the 1920s. Nagorno-Karabakh was an ethnic-majority Armenian region, but the Soviet Union handed the power and control over to Azerbaijani authorities. Until the Soviet Union collapsed in the late 1980s, Nagorno-Karabakh officially voted to become a part of Armenia. Azerbaijan, on the other hand, planned to suppress the movement under International Law. This eventually led to the clashes. The conflict caused tens of thousands of casualties. Armenian government gained control over the region, but because of a ceasefire by Russia in 1994, the control over the region went back to Azerbaijan. However, since then, the region has been mostly governed by a group of ethnic Armenians which is backed by the Armenian government.
Over the three decades, there were multiple violations and ceasefire that happened in the region, and the most serious one was in 2016. OSCE Minsk has been attempting to mediate and the survey in this region indicated that the residents do not wish to be a part of Azerbaijan.
The recent clashes happened on September 27th, where Armenia claimed that Azerbaijan fired the first shot. On the flip side, Azerbaijan said they launched a counter-offensive in response to Armenia’s aggression. The total casualties on both sides may be around thousands. There were drones, sensors, long-range heavy artillery, and missile strikes involved in the war. Outside of these military powers, both governments also used state propaganda and official social media to spread the word. As the war was worsening, several countries in the United Nations were calling both sides to de-escalate the tensions and resume the negotiation. Later on, a humanitarian ceasefire led by Russia and facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross was agreed upon by both Armenia and Azerbaijan. They both decided to halt the war on October 10th, 2020 but then they disagreed again and decided to pause the plan to exchange wounded prisoners.
Following the battle of Shusha, both sides agreed to sign the peace agreement. The agreement was signed by the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. This peace agreement ended the hostilities and also according to the agreement, both sides could remain to maintain currently held areas and Armenia will withdraw troops.
The origin of this conflict is not just because of these two countries, it’s also because of the countries behind the scene — Russia and Turkey. Turkey has a long hostile relationship with Armenia because of the Armenian Genocide during the Ottoman Empire between 1914 to 1917. Until now, the Turkey government never admitted to massacres. This has been a rooted problem between Turkey and Armenia. On top of this issue, Turkey is an Islamic country and Armenia is a Christian country. This also added more confrontations between them and that’s also part of the reasons why Turkey supports Azerbaijan. Russia, on the other hand, maintains mutually good relationships with Armenia and Azerbaijan. Even though during this conflict, Russia leans more towards Armenia, it still keeps good relations with Azerbaijan.
Even though it’s a so-called “peace” deal, people in Armenia are furious about this decision and even broke into the parliament to protest. From what I see from different media outlets, some blame Armenia for continuously invading Azerbaijan’s territory, some defend for Armenian people who live in Nagorno-Karabakh. In my opinion, the most innocent are the residents in the Nagorno-Karabakh area. The residents are now forced to leave the area, with their personal belongings and livestock. Right before they left, they set fire to their own houses, watched them burn, and then headed on an unknown journey.
It’s hard to predict when the next conflict will happen. But if both governments aren’t willing to negotiate peacefully, and the countries behind the scene still try to manipulate this war, it will not only harm Armenia and Azerbaijan, but the entire Caucasus will also remain unstable.
References: | https://medium.com/evelynekuo/whats-happening-between-armenia-azerbaijan-2218871338de | ['Evelyne Kuo'] | 2020-11-20 21:14:05.867000+00:00 | ['Azerbaijan', 'Writing', 'Armenia', 'International Relations', 'Armed Conflict'] |
The Incredible Power of Being “Onto Something” | Some things in life come along and make you forget about everything else. Forget the lows, the stress, the why-didn’t-they-call-me backs. And then there are other things. Things that come along and make everything worth remembering. Things that shoot electricity and meaning into the vein of everydayness. These things are trying to find us. Trying to get our attention. Waiting, desperately, to add color to our fields of black and white.
It might not feel as dramatic as a nearsighted boy who is given sight, but these moments of inflection are available to us all. Many people droll about, unaware or indifferent to the fact they aren’t seeing the whole picture. They haven’t found — or they’ve overlooked — the one outlet that feeds electricity into everything. They haven’t found miraculous little windows to see the world through.
Have you found yours?
Do you keep it close?
Did you lose its signal amongst the static on your line?
If you’re someone still waiting to hear The Call, first be aware of the possibility. Never forget or doubt that there is something great waiting for you. There is an outlet waiting to feed electricity into everything you do. Waiting to raise the water and part the sea. Waiting to stir the deepest depths of your creative well.
And if you’ve found yours, hold it close. Never allow the static of everydayness to blind you to its importance. Limiting beliefs, external noise, fears of missing out — it will all attempt to derail and shovel dirt over your path. We all must be vigilant in curiosity and our hunger to be, onto something.
Life can be spent waiting for death or searching for truth. Find what is meant for you. What makes you feel alive. What makes you human.
Continue the search until you feel the veil pulled from your eyes and can say with enthusiasm of a young Theodor Roosevelt, “I never knew how beautiful the world was until…” | https://coreymccomb.medium.com/the-incredible-power-of-being-onto-something-6bb7290159e7 | ['Corey Mccomb'] | 2019-06-20 17:40:53.263000+00:00 | ['Self', 'Creativity', 'Life Lessons', 'Motivation', 'Personal Development'] |
WAZIHUB Presented at East West University in Bangladesh | On January 23rd 2018, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of East West University organized a seminar on “IoT and Big Data for Sustainable Development”.
Dr. Abdur Rahim Biswas, who is a senior research staff in smart IoT group at CREATE-NET, Italy and project co-ordinator of WAZIHUB, was the key speaker of the seminar. The seminar was chaired by Dr. Ahmed Wasif Reza, Associate Professor and Chairperson of CSE department.
Dr Abdur Rahim presented the Wazihub project and the Waziup technology to a group of 100 students and faculties that attended the seminar and made it a success. | https://medium.com/waziup/wazihub-presented-at-east-west-university-in-bangladesh-c079f36b3710 | ['Wazihub Iot'] | 2019-11-03 21:36:01.912000+00:00 | ['IoT', 'Big Data', 'Bangladesh', 'Waziup', 'Education'] |
The Term “Adult Children” is Back in Play During the Realities of COVID-19 | Original Poem
The Term “Adult Children” is Back in Play During the Realities of COVID-19
Being forced to move back home with parents at the age of 40 or 50 is creating a hash new reality for many people during this health crisis. Natalie Frank, Ph.D. Follow Dec 21, 2020 · 3 min read
Source: Wikimedia (CC0)
This is truly an odd time for many adults who have used up all their options and don’t know where else to turn. Several people I have met who are in their forties and even fifties were forced to move back in with parents in their 70’s and 80’s.
They fought against it as hard as they could, the idea of returning to childhood rooms, where they’d dreamed of their amazing futures which haven’t come to pass. It’s hard enough living that reality somewhere where the dreams didn’t originate. But going back to the place you left with stars in your eyes, believing you’d only be back for visits is just another hit from this cruel pandemic.
The different generations make for a tough transition as the parents think that because this 40 or 50 year old child is living in their home, they can tell them what to do, how to act, who to be when the person has a fully formed personality and view of the world and life. It is a reality that new college graduates might be adjusting to, which is hard enough and they are only 21.
This pandemic is a cruel task master. Just when we think we have bested it, it changes its attack to a front we have no protection against. My friends are strong, they will adjust, but faced with starting over from a childhood home under parental control is not a situation easily overcome.
COVID Unbecoming
A man with a guitar
Stands stoically
As his mother packs the trunk
With what’s left of his belongings
What’s he’s been allowed to keep
The furniture not even sold
For the money he so desperately needs
But given to good will
“Who has the time to wait for it to sell?
You’ll buy new things”
Ignoring the fact that the time
To accumulate enough to get his own home
His own life again
Is so far in the future
So far out of reach
The idea of paying for all new furniture
Kitchen Items
Decorations
Clothes
A car
Even that, even that contributed to
“A good cause, it’s a good deed”
It is an odd season
When fully grown adult children
Must choose between street
And parents who reasserts control
Over one so long independent
A adult now seen again as a child
Forced to leave behind memories
Of accomplishments
And successes
And the freedom to decide
On the curb
With the rest
Of a lifetime
Once lived
Now reflected | https://medium.com/the-pom/the-term-adult-children-is-back-in-play-during-the-realities-of-covid-19-a10e4c81e827 | ['Natalie Frank'] | 2020-12-21 16:50:36.874000+00:00 | ['Homelessness', 'Poem', 'Covid 19', 'Home', 'Life'] |
A Man Navigates a Quarantine | The heart is an interesting place. I think about how I, as a man, can engage my heart while still being a professional, a friend, a warrior, a lover, among many of the other roles I play. I wrestle in the balance of “is it always the time and place for this?” I’m realizing I’m less of a rare breed than I thought and there are men of all walks of life who know how to demonstrate this and who teach me so much. I’m learning that maybe I can play less of a part in response to any invisible or imaginary expectations.
I’ve written a lot about the heart but revealed very little of my own if that makes any sense. So let’s change a bit.
Sheltering in Place has been a teacher of teachers. As a young man, I had dreams of leaving it all, and joining the monastic life. Even with growing certainties of agnosticism, I still fantasized about the desert life, living in community with bearded dudes in black gowns, enjoying solitude and the occasional jackal. Some may remember my dreams of having a cave of my own with a pet camel/roommate named Jake. I read stories about how solitude often would drive some of the monks absolutely batshit crazy, and I assumed the introvert that I am would relish at the opportunity. Jokes on them, I got this on lock! And when things get tough, I could chant a little, what’s the big deal?
Enter March 2020, when I experienced the last hug I would feel for about 3+ months, and there’s still no end in sight. In the first month, I contained a mix of extreme fear for the world, and feeling shamefully at ease, not having to respond to social calls, not having to shave, and not having to wear pants that didn’t have an elastic waistband, or any pants at all for that matter. I found myself wondering if this was actually real? The lack of human contact went from gift to an absolute nightmare.
In life we collect a whole lotta stuff: Photo by Flo P on Unsplash
I chose to go through a lot of this particular struggle solo, not because I didn’t have the support nor the option to lean on anyone, but rather, something in me needed to know to what extent I could trust myself. That I could be enough for myself, through some of the toughest scenarios. After days and even weeks of doubt, I found out that was absolutely true. I wonder if all people go through this at sometime in their life. Was I a late bloomer? Was I an anomaly? Was I nothing special? I have no idea. I’ve always been pretty independent, but this was a whole different animal.
And so while I went through this struggle in solitude, I was not alone. I’ve had the gift of some friends I’ve let in along the way, enough for a a solid boost until I got to the next valley. And there’s a strong but subtle difference between “I don’t need anyone”, versus: “I need to see what I’m made of.”
So I find myself entering a new era of self-reliance, but not the kind that has isolated me in the past. In fact, I find myself experiencing an even greater intimacy with people in my life. I am shedding this belief that I’m an island. While at the same time finding more comfort and grounding in my own skin, away from distractions. It’s a daily remembering and a daily practice, which I often fail at, but I have my north star pretty well defined.
But there was another healing moment during this time, when I began understanding that I’ve internalized so much of the toxic masculine culture. And I don’t mean the version of this that is outright aggressive and bullying. That isn’t me. But, I’ve internalized so much of the more subtle versions of this: “Boys don’t cry”, “You can’t trust anyone but yourself”, “Guys don’t hug, not without a very strong back slap”, “Don’t show weakness”. The aggression and bullying goes inwards, and I don’t know a single man who hasn’t been vulnerable to this at one point or another.
Even as men, with experiences, challenges, battle scars, there’s an unspoken pressure in many circles to hide the heart. In many of our vocations we need to put feelings aside to get the job done, and many times that is what’s required… in that moment. But do we have space in our lives to bring the heart back, and to give it air, or do we suffocate it because we are afraid of what it has to say? Do we have safe places and most importantly, people, with whom we can share it? As a young man, I thought there were certain things that must be left behind as I got older. I’m now learning that the older we get, the more important these things are: creating, playing, and feeling… passionately: in the presence of ourselves and with others. Are we afraid of our own hearts as well as we own our toughness? .
I believe some of the greatest adventures ahead, come right after the discomfort of not just allowing, but in hearing it speak for the first time in a while. | https://medium.com/master-of-some/a-man-navigates-a-quarantine-f7aba54cab35 | ['Paul Kist'] | 2020-07-15 20:11:39.063000+00:00 | ['Mens Work', 'Covid 19', 'Masculinity'] |
This is pretty awesome! | Living and learning, not always on the easy way. | https://medium.com/@douglasdcc/this-is-pretty-awesome-8356c1d3714e | ['Douglas Collar Da Cunha'] | 2020-12-22 15:15:30.520000+00:00 | ['Android App Development', 'Android', 'AndroidDev', 'Football', 'Soccer'] |
Follow these 4 steps that may help you get everything you want | No matter what people say, there’s enough for everyone in the world. You can probably find millions of article on the Internet, what makes this one different from the others? Because it describes the simple actionable steps to get what you want.
Anyway, talking about “The Art of Getting what you want”, people think it’s some rocket science and the people who get it are talented or gifted or have-it-all or “lucky” (I hate this word). But it’s simply consistency, learning from the failures, moving on with the learnings to another goal and never stop learning. Here’s to get what you want:
1. Build good habits i.e. build a “system”
Photo by Prophsee Journals on Unsplash
You may think “how are my habits going to contribute to what I want to achieve?” If you want to crack an exam, or lose/gain weight or any other goal as a matter-of-fact, you need to have good habits. Those habits should not only revolve around the goal you want to achieve, but also your entire physical and mental well-being so that you have a good mindset and focus to achieve your targets.
For example punctuality. If your organization or start-up isn’t punctual in the internal workings, you can’t expect that you can deliver client requirements on time. It is applicable to all the values in your business. If there is no internal implementation, then it won’t be reflected in the product/services you have to offer.
Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most.
- Abraham Lincoln
2. Divide your goal into tiny actionable steps
Photo by Christopher Sardegna on Unsplash
You can’t read an entire 1000-page book at once; you have to read a few pages every day. That’s how you get something you want. Identify what your goal is, identify all the actions that you need to do in order to achieve that goal (it may be overwhelming but hold on for some times), then divide each of these actions into sub-actions until you can’t divide it anymore (the most basic units).
One of my friends was working as a Product Manager for a start-up where they had a whiteboard in which they would update the daily progress and the daily tasks for all the members. It not only helped them in finishing their work on time but also helped them with track the progress in the product. My friend said that it was one of the best feelings to check out the white-board as and when each task of the day was completed.
Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
―Thomas Jefferson
Maybe creating lists isn’t your cup of tea, but I’ll recommend you try making checklists at least once. It has always worked for me and a lot of other people and I hope it works for you too. Tiniest, simplest actions are easy to implement and time-saving. You feel a driving force when you see things getting done. And that drives results.
3. Consistency and Patience
Photo by Chris Coe on Unsplash
These terms like consistency, patience and perseverance etc are over-talked and under-implemented. Consistency means keep working every day towards your dreams, towards the things you want. Patience means to not be flustered with your failures but learn from them and keep your calm and keep moving forward. Do you know what does “learning from failures” mean? To put it in simple words, knowing where you went wrong, knowing how to avoid a similar situation in the future and actually implementing it.
He that can have patience can have what he will.
– Benjamin Franklin
4. Plan & start the execution
Photo by STIL on Unsplash
You can’t move anywhere without a plan, planning is only to have a vision of how you are going to achieve what you want but it is the implementation, the execution that gets things done. Simply reading out a blog that tells you exercises to lose weight isn’t going to reduce that belly. You have to actually exercise in order to do so. The same logic applies everywhere.
Let’s suppose you are creating a digital marketing strategy for your business. You’d plan out everything — who is your target audience? Where are they on the Internet? How their journey is going to be (the marketing funnel)? What is your target (vanity metrics) and how you’re going to achieve them? There are multiple questions that you’ll have to answer. Then you might have to create a content calendar and execute it.
No excuses. No explanation. You don’t win on emotion. You win on execution.
- Tony Dungy
These are pretty simple and small things in life. But we often forget the tiny little things and focus on the big stuff. So these are 4 simple steps that you can follow to get anything you want in life. These are the 4 basic principles that constitute “The Art of getting what you want”. These steps have helped me; I hope they help you too. Have consistency and patience and be willing to start again even if you fail. There’s no end to the road of excellence. Enjoy the journey; you’ll reach your goal in no time. | https://happychases.com/the-art-of-getting-what-you-want-d4a0b126f472 | ['Amrita Mishra'] | 2021-03-22 16:05:42.754000+00:00 | ['Growth', 'Success', 'Habits', 'Motivation', 'Positivity'] |
Explore Universities that Accept Bitcoin with XcelPay Wallet. | Universities are accepting Bitcoin pay with XcelPay Wallet!
Universities across the globe are adopting bitcoin at a rapid pace. In fact, a few universities have started educating students about blockchain technology and crypto coins. Below are some of the universities where you can use this payment option:
European School of Management and Technology Berlin
ESMT Berlin is one of the first German institutes offering higher education in return for bitcoin as payment; this is for some of its degrees and executive-level education programs.
King’s College
King’s College of New York City is among the first US schools to accept bitcoin payments for tuition fees, which can help to eliminate 2–3% of transaction fees associated with credit cards.
University of Cumbria
This is one of the first universities in the world to accept digital currency and to allow a part of tuition fees to be paid using bitcoin.
University of Nicosia
This university is one of the foremost accredited universities in the world to accept bitcoin as a payment option. Their thoughts surrounding this adoption is to improve the efficiency of their services.
The future of education is a two-way street. The status quo can be maintained and the sector will be transformed at a snail’s pace, or blockchain can be integrated to build a robust, decentralized, and transparent educational system which caters to all. The future of education starts today and it begins with the adoption of blockchain technology.
With XcelPay, cryptocurrency account users can make payment across the globe by using several cryptocurrencies. For instance, XcelPay can be used to make or receive payment in XcelToken Plus, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and many other ERC20 tokens. Download the XcelPay Wallet app to top up your phone plan on the go with Ethereum or Bitcoin.
Available on IOS and Android App Stores.
The expense of communication can be cut down a lot if cryptocurrencies are used in place of fiat to top up prepaid cell service. Here’s where you can use your XcelPay Wallet.
XcelPay Wallet mission is to make the daunting cryptocurrency market accessible to everyone, to accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology, and to democratize ownership of cryptocurrencies. | https://medium.com/xcellab-magazine/explore-universities-that-accept-bitcoin-with-xcelpay-wallet-1aedb3a067a0 | ['Xcelpay Wallet'] | 2020-09-03 12:27:54.433000+00:00 | ['Digital Wallet', 'Erc20', 'University', 'Bitcoin Wallet', 'Xcelpay'] |
How to deal with image resizing in Deep Learning | TL;DR: The best way to deal with different sized images is to downscale them to match dimensions from the smallest image available.
If you read out last post, you know that CNNs are able to learn information from images even if its channels are flipped, over a cost in the model accuracy.
This post studies a similar problem: suppose each color channel has a different size. Which are the best ways to train an image classifier in those circunstancies?
First, let's create a simple model to serve as base for some comparisons that will be made in this article:
Layer Output Shape Param #
=================================================================
InputLayer (None, 100, 100, 3) 0
_________________________________________________________________
Conv2D (None, 100, 100, 32) 896
_________________________________________________________________
MaxPooling2D (None, 50, 50, 32) 0
_________________________________________________________________
Dropout (None, 50, 50, 32) 0
_________________________________________________________________
Conv2D (None, 50, 50, 64) 18496
_________________________________________________________________
MaxPooling2D (None, 25, 25, 64) 0
_________________________________________________________________
Dropout (None, 25, 25, 64) 0
_________________________________________________________________
Flatten (None, 40000) 0
_________________________________________________________________
Dense (None, 128) 5120128
_________________________________________________________________
Dropout (None, 128) 0
_________________________________________________________________
Dense (None, 2) 258
=================================================================
It's a simple model, able to tell dog pictures apart from non-dog pictures, with only two convolutions. After training it for 10 epochs (using complete 3-channel images, 100x100 pixels), the results are: | https://medium.com/neuronio/how-to-deal-with-image-resizing-in-deep-learning-e5177fad7d89 | ['Adriano Dennanni'] | 2019-10-08 12:38:34.075000+00:00 | ['Convolutional Network', 'Keras', 'Machine Learning', 'Image Processing', 'Deep Learning'] |
Faces of data science 3 | For the third in our “Faces of Data Science” series, I’ve interviewed three colleagues working in data science: Rose Nyameke, Kirk Li, and Yael Brumer. All are currently members of the Customer Growth Analytics team in Microsoft’s Cloud+AI division.
Rose Nyameke
Data & Applied Scientist II
What’s your educational background, Rose? I have a bachelor’s in neurobiology from Harvard University and a master’s in analytics from North Carolina State University. When I came to this country to further my education I intended to go into medicine, and because Harvard doesn’t have an undergraduate pre-med program, I had to choose another that would fulfill pre-med requirements. I decided on neurobiology because it seemed super cool when I was exploring majors. For my graduate work, it was Microsoft that influenced my decision.
Interesting. How so? I interned at Microsoft in 2013 in marketing during the summer between my junior and senior years. That came about because the prior summer I’d interned as part of a study abroad program at a pharmaceutical company in Switzerland, and I was accidentally placed in the marketing department instead of in the research internship that was more aligned with my background. But I rolled with it and really enjoyed it, though I wasn’t sure if what I enjoyed was the healthcare aspect or the marketing aspect. I did another marketing internship outside of healthcare to confirm, and that was at Microsoft in the Server and Tools group. My mentor was trained as a data scientist and I was explaining to him that I wanted a more scientific basis for the marketing recommendations I was making, and he told me about data science. I started thinking about data science for graduate school, and when considering programs, North Carolina State appealed to me because of its reputation, student placement record, and that they compress what is essentially a two-year graduate program into one year.
In addition to your mentor, were there any other factors that led you to consider data science as a career? Yes. My favorite part of neurobiology was looking into human behavior and memory, and so when I first started exploring data science, it was another way for me to understand human behavior. Except instead of trying to raise zebrafish or slice into brains, I could approach it from a data perspective in trying to figure out what are people doing. The underlying motivations are the same between neurobiology and data science.
What do you like most about your work in data science? I like that the possibilities are endless regarding the questions that can be explored — it’s really just a matter of figuring out whether the data exists or what it takes to generate that data. And it feels very objective, which I like. For a lot of other things I’ve been interested in, much of it has had to do with having an instinct or just being able to think and speak the language naturally. With data science, I feel that even though there are some elements such as having good business intuition, at the end of the day it’s writing code and it’s math. If someone asks me why I enjoy it, I can objectively say that’s why.
What has surprised you the most about your work in data science? I’d say the frequency with which the answer is that nothing is there. Let me explain. When I was in graduate school, we laughed in our time series forecasting class when we had super low error rates and our instructor would remind us we were working with manufactured data and not with data in the real world. In reality things are often not as predictable because everything is blurry; sometimes the data is erratic and sometimes the answer to the question being asked is that it’s not significant, even if you expect it to be. Sometimes it’s inconclusive, but sometimes the conclusion is that, in looking for the factors that lead to X, Y, and Z, sometimes the answer is that there are no factors. The factors you’re exploring aren’t there or are not significant.
How do you continue to learn? My primary learning comes from my co-workers. I like to talk to people about what they’re working on and I ask myself, could I do that? And if the answer is no, I ask myself, why can I not do that? In the beginning when I joined the team and the answer was no, it was because I didn’t yet know a certain tool or it was because I didn’t have a particular context. I would then take the relevant internal course for knowledge or context. I also use Reddit, where I primarily spend time in the comments of a data visualization subreddit. I get to see how people think about data and interpret it, and what they find confusing or misleading. I also look for online courses that are relevant or will help me sharpen my skills. I’ve also used online courses such as Coursera, where I particularly liked the content from instructors at Johns Hopkins University, and I’ve used Pluralsight and DataCamp.
How would you advise someone to get started in data science? I think it depends on what your background is. I had to ease into it a bit because by the time I realized what data science was, it was my senior year of college. Luckily, I had already taken a programming course, but not statistics, so I took it my senior year. I worked for two years between college and grad school, and during that time I started to look for more responsibilities that would give me a feel for what I could do in data science such as learning from the DevOps team and sharpening my data, querying, and architecting skills, and also taking the Coursera courses I mentioned earlier. All in all I would say to be sure you want to get started in data science by getting your hands dirty and taking advantage of free resources or looking at your current work to see if you can incorporate elements of data science into it. I also think it’s important to think about what kind of data scientist you want to be, because I think that shapes what you learn and what you think about exploring. So, if you want to be a model builder you have a different path from doing something that’s more stats heavy. I think it’s important to explore job postings and look at the types of roles out there and what they require. Figure out which one appeals to you the most and tailor your education that way.
Anything else you’d like to add? One thing I’d add is that there is no single definition of a data scientist, and so it’s OK to want to be a specific sort of data scientist. I think a lot of people get caught up in things like the glamour and shininess of building something like a very complicated neural network without understanding some of the questions involved, such as what does it mean if I’m tuning this parameter, or if I see this type of result? Statistics can really help with that, as can matrix algebra and other concepts we don’t often confront — they’re useful for troubleshooting when things don’t make sense. So I’d say that having a solid foundation and understanding it’s OK to not seek the most shiny part of data science are key things it’s important for everyone to know who wants to be a data scientist.
Kirk Li
Senior Data Scientist
What’s your educational background, Kirk? I studied applied math and statistics at Stony Brook University in New York for my bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and statistics at the University of Washington for my Ph.D. I also had a second major in economics for my undergraduate studies and earned a graduate certificate in computational finance during my doctoral studies. Most of my education has focused on quantitative analysis. I always had a lot of interest in math since high school and did pretty well in it, but I also wanted my knowledge to be applicable to real world scenarios. I like using numbers and doing hypothesis testing to justify my understanding, including calculating the significance of one statement versus another. The economics second major was a good complement to statistics, because economics is also very quantitative, but it’s also focusing on real world problems. Computational finance was also very quantitative and had a lot of programming.
What led you to work in data science? For me it was a natural direction given my educational background. Statistics is the closest field of study to data science and everything I learned during my Ph.D. was very applicable to data science problems.
What do you like most about your work in data science? I like everything, but I really enjoy coming up with conclusions and decisions based on data-driven approaches. I trust data more than I trust the information I collect from what people are saying (laughs). If you handle data correctly, it doesn’t create much bias and provides a foundation for decisions. I also like to see my ideas realized in actual business scenarios. In this way data science is one of the areas in which people can translate their creativity and channel their passion into influencing decision making around actual products.
What is surprised you the most about your work in data science? How other backgrounds also contribute to the data science world. People come from different educational backgrounds. They can also do very good work in data science and provide unique contributions and perspectives. For example, I see how data visualization or design helps make data science more intelligent and more interpretable, increasing impact and the ability to explain or communicate the ideas behind the data. It’s surprised and excited me to see how data science can merge and blend with other backgrounds to make everyone more successful.
How do you continue to learn? Within my team we have a weekly continuous learning study group. We study research papers and ideas in academia and see how we can adapt those ideas to be more applicable to our business. We participate in online courses like Coursera and DataCamp to study common practices in data science. We also attend academic conferences to stay updated with the latest developments in our research areas so that the models and algorithms we’re developing are world class.
How would you advise someone who wanted to get started in data science? What steps do you think they should take? I think it’s useful to have education in a related field. Many schools and programs are offering learning materials on data science and there are also good ones online. Course providers like Coursera provide an entry-level data science curriculum. Practice is also very important. For those with no educational background in data science, participating in Kaggle competitions, joining study groups, and keeping track of the latest developments are good ways learn from a DIY perspective. For everyone, data science is a fast-changing area, and knowledge can easily get outdated, and so you always need to refresh yourself and re-invest your time to learn the latest knowledge, technology, models, and algorithms. But one thing I also say to my students when teaching is that you don’t have to be very sophisticated in math or programming to be a good data scientist. Data science is a broad area, and so you can make your interest your expertise. You don’t have to be the best programmer or the best in math. If you’re a problem solver you can make yourself successful in data science. For example, if you can make sense of data and explain it so that more people can understand the problem and the solution, that’s a great achievement. Likewise, if you are a UI designer or writer. I have seen people who develop awesome UI apps for mobile or desktop applications that explain everything very well, and those who write articles to explain concepts and help readers avoid data science fallacies — that’s all very useful too.
Yael Brumer
Senior Data & Applied Scientist
What’s your educational background, Yael? I have bachelor’s and master’s degrees in software engineering from Ben-Gurion University in Israel. My graduate degree includes a focus in machine learning. I have always loved coding and math, and I love the challenge of figuring out and solving problems. In Israel, where I grew up, it’s very common for people to pursue these areas of study. They’re very popular, and there are many jobs in these areas. And Israel is a start-up nation, and so there’s lots of software engineering everywhere, even in school. I started my master’s degree while working at Microsoft with two small children at home, but I was excited about being a data scientist and so I told myself, despite all the difficulties, I’m going to do this. I define myself as a person who always tries to stretch herself as much as possible. Sometimes it’s hard, and sometimes I say, OK, that’s too much for me, but I’m always trying to reach the upper limit as much as possible.
What made you want to work in data science? I didn’t know at first that I wanted to be a data scientist. But I always knew I loved working with data and customers. I worked as an intern at Intel in business analytics and it helped me understand that was the direction I wanted to go. This was six years ago and the data science discipline didn’t exist yet, and so I thought being a program manager would be the best fit for me because it involves working with customers and data. But in Israel, there was a requirement to be a software engineer before being a program manager, and so I started with that and then began to navigate myself to roles involving more data and customers. When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the data discipline in 2014, I had the opportunity I’d been preparing for.
What has surprised you the most about your work in data science? The transformation over the last few years across many disciplines about making decisions based on data. When I was getting started, it was more common to add features without looking at customer data. I remember working on a project and the data indicated customer drop off at a certain point, and so I started to investigate. It turned out there was a problem in the installation process. I convinced the team to make sure that customers were using the product as we expected and if not, to approach them directly to see if we could help them and learn about their experience. It was a mind shift for everyone at the time. Today I think it’s much more clear to everyone that we should base all our decisions on data.
How do you continue to learn in your role in data science? I’m always trying to stay updated on the most recent papers in the field, and I take online courses, such as Coursera. There are also conferences, and I submit papers to them. For me, the papers provide a lot to learn from. What are the advanced technologies out there and what is the state of the art for all the algorithms we’re working with? I’m trying every year to pick the top four or five papers to focus on. I also keep up with blogs, particularly Medium and Stack Overflow.
How would you advise someone who wanted to get started in data science? Everyone’s case differs, but I think it was beneficial for me to start as a software engineer. It gave me a basic understanding of how to design a solution and write code, which is still helping me every day. It has helped me push things much faster, without having to wait for someone to implement my code into production. It’s also helped me talk with software engineers about the problems I’m facing as a data scientist. Besides my own experience, someone can take online courses, which are helpful. Because sometimes online courses can be overwhelming, it helps to be focused on what you’re looking for, and persevere over the long term, because there is so much to learn. If you are already working in a company, try to talk with people who are working as data scientists. Ask them for ideas about where to focus. I think the combination of doing online courses in areas that are interesting to you along with a couple years working as a software engineer, even if it’s not your passion, is very important for the long-term journey. | https://medium.com/data-science-at-microsoft/faces-of-data-science-3-b79444735a0a | ['Casey Doyle'] | 2020-04-01 15:38:27.125000+00:00 | ['Data Science Experience', 'Data Science', 'Data Science Professional', 'Data Science Education', 'Azure'] |
Pride is Cancelled for 2020, and that’s Great | Pride is Cancelled for 2020, and that’s Great
I’m glad there will be no parades this year
Photo by Delia Giandeini on Unsplash
Cities all over the world are cancelling their planned Pride parades for 2020. In America, June celebrations are off. In Belgium, the May plans are scrapped. In Canada, the June/July marches are quashed. In a fluke, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand managed to sneak in Sydney Mardi Gras and Auckland Pride respectively, back in February 2020 before all of this — but they seem to be the exception. Even in my own state of Western Australia, it’s unknown if we’ll get to hold our usual Pride events in November this year.
Of course, many people are going to miss these celebrations, the coming together of community, the show of support from allies in the crowd. Some countries and cities are being optimistic about hosting Pride later in the year, or holding events online. Belgium, for example, is hoping to shift their march plans to August, if all goes well. The problem is, not much is going well for the world — and that includes LGBT+ people, who have a largely, unheard lament within the unfolding tragedy.
Mismanaged government responses to the deadly COVID-19 virus, as it riddles nations, has brought back horrific memories of the AIDs epidemic for many. And for those of us who didn’t live through that crisis, feeling the utter fear and confusion of an invisible threat is sobering to say the least…filled with grief at its worst. This pandemic is hitting LGBT+ people hard, especially in countries where healthcare and welfare is difficult to access, and homophobic discrimination is rife.
The reality of Pride being cancelled this year has forced me to reflect on the event itself. Clearly, it’s best for all attendee’s safety that Pride has been cancelled in so many cities. Health and safety are paramount. But, in Pride’s absence, all I can think about is: what are we really missing?
Are we missing the councils, local governments, and business spending hoards of money on the parade, the party, but not on us, the queer community? Are we missing the way the police follow the marches to stop them morphing from party into actual protest? Are we missing the price gouging of Pride events that edge out large portions of our community from attending? Are we missing the way capitalistic profit is made off of decades of LGBT+ activism, meanwhile corporations and councils do nothing to support us in the issues surrounding legislation, education, and anti-discrimination that we’re still fighting? I don’t think I’ll miss any of that…
But I am going to miss seeing all the different local, LGBT+ groups in my city hanging out together in one place as they march in the parade. I’m going to miss it being the first year I qualify for Dykes on Bikes, now I have my full motorcycle license. I’m going to miss all the colour, and the excitement in kid’s eyes as they watch the fun and see that being queer is full of cheer. I’m going to miss the smaller events, where the little organisations, who do so much background work for our rainbow collective, get to showcase themselves and their causes. I’m going to miss regional-town Pride’s around my state that aren’t corporatized and mean the world to local people. I’m going to miss the big, borderless family that get’s together once a year without fail.
To presently miss some parts of Pride and to be happy that other parts aren’t happening in 2020, is difficult to contemplate. I’m left feeling that perhaps Pride needed a year off from all the corporate money, from the shallow, rainbow drapes over brand logos online and everywhere else, from the ever-present policing. Maybe, this one year without Pride will act like a reset. Maybe Pride organisers and businesses in 2021 will have had time to remember the need for our protest, remember the fights we still have to face. Maybe this breath will reignite the knowledge that we’re strong because we’re together, because we’re fighting as a family, not because the local banks have put their floats in our parades. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/pride-is-cancelled-for-2020-and-thats-great-53980be78f32 | ['Zoey Milford'] | 2020-01-02 00:00:00 | ['Opinion', 'LGBTQ', 'Equality', 'Pride', 'Queer'] |
Lattice Testnet Overview | What’s been built so far
Over the last couple of months the Lattice development team has been hard at work building the foundation of the Lattice Exchange product. To the date, the following features have been completed:
Lattice 50/50 basic pair Automated Market Maker (AMM)
Developed the core smart contract: pair pool and pair pool factory.
Launched auxiliary smart contract to integrate with the core smart contracts including router and helper libraries.
Launched the basic user interface that enables generating pools, adding liquidity and swaps on the Ethereum network.
Decentralized Exchange (Dex) Aggregator — MVP
Developed smart contracts as proxy aggregator of Uniswap and Mooniswap.
Created the basic user interface for the Aggregator feature.
Decentralized Exchange (Dex) Aggregator
Developed smart contracts as a proxy aggregator of selected AMMs such as Uniswap V2, Mooniswap, Sushiswap and Balancer.
Launched a native router to the 50/50 basic AMM pools.
Launched a basic user interface to select different AMMs and swap.
All of these elements are currently functional and ready to test on the Ropsten Ethereum. Please see below for creating an account to access the Lattice Testnet.
How to create an account to login and start testing Lattice
Register an account here: https://lattice.exchange/wp-login.php?action=register An admin will approve your account within 24 hours and you’ll receive a confirmation email w/ Password reset instructions Once you reset your password, go to the login and put in your Username and Password — https://lattice.exchange/wp-admin Once you login, you will be redirected to the Lattice Testnet Please share provide feedback:
To submit feedback visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1SEq2DBQEDAwoFritig755l8wBaLR2UdXaIw2DcQC_o4/viewform?edit_requested=true OR please go to our Telegram Demo Group: https://t.me/joinchat/GNJ78xtehFH7epra6iyQZg
Once you are approved, you can access the Lattice Test Netw. We’ve created a Lattice token to test with:
TT — Contract address: 0xeb349b537d77eec95d2761177c7581d6535630a1
Please add this to your Metamask by following the steps below:
Switch to the Ropsten Network in Metmask Click on “Add Token” and copy/paste the above contract address in the “Custom Token” tab. You can also request test Ethereum tokens from these Ropsten faucet links: https://www.2key.network/blog-posts/what-is-ropsten-eth-and-how-can-i-get-some
What’s on the horizon
In the next few quarters we will be adding additional functionality and features, including the all important integration with Constellation’s Hypergraph mainnet. Some of these upcoming features will include:
Adjustable weight multi-token AMM
Develop core smart contracts: pool and pool factory.
Launch user interface to generate pools, add liquidity and swap
AMM Aggregator
Launch User interface to generate pools, add liquidity and swap among provided AMMs.
Connect auxiliary smart contracts to the user interface.
Integration with Constellation’s Hypergraph Mainnet
Port AMM switch modules onto Hypergraph mainnet (Multiple coin specific AMMs).
Non-custodial cross-chain wallet (ETH and DAG).
Cross-chain liquidity pools coupled with rewards metrics.
Staking DAG for LTX and any other ERC20 asset.
We are also developing a brand new design and user interface which will provide users with more information about what is happening behind the scenes in order to have a better trading experience. Here is a sneak preview of what we have in store:
Swap View:
Account View:
Aggregation View:
Summary
The DeFi space is ramping up and has vast potential to use cryptocurrency to fund more than just crypto trading models. Our focus at Lattice, is to build the next generation of tools that allow traders, developers, and businesses to access liquidity and for liquidity providers to find new ways to monetize their holdings. Lattice has a long term vision that plays an essential role in the commercialization of blockchain technology and how cryptocurrency will be adopted.
Lattice as part of the Hypergraph ecosystem has solved true atomic swapping capabilities without shortcuts. Any native chain will be fully interoperable with the LTX liquidity pools and the Hypergraph without the need for layer 2 solutions or insecure external data providers and oracles. LTX will become a main hub for seamless and secure decentralized finance and fundraising.
Our aim is to build Lattice in a decentralized capacity from the start by inviting holders to provide their expertise, knowledge, and perspective to participate in the building and release of Lattice. When we release Lattice in Q2 2021 it will have been built by a community and for a community.
We are excited for the coming year!
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
Lattice is a DeFi application built with Ethereum and Constellation’s Hypergraph Transfer Protocol (HGTP). Empowering users using advanced AMM algorithms.
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Instagram | https://medium.com/@latticeexchange/lattice-testnet-overview-3398e2acd4cd | ['Lattice Exchange'] | 2020-12-18 21:56:51.927000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Exchange', 'Testnet', 'Defi', 'Fintech'] |
Rubaba Iffat Archi- The Powerhouse of Talent! | Presenting Rubaba Iffat Archi, an 8th-semester student of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at North South University. And this is her story!
Usually, the earliest memory of a person dates back to some good quality time with their family. For me, it is on the dance floor running around and on the regional radio centre, reciting. Even before starting my journey of school, I began reciting poems and attending dance classes since my parents wanted me to grow up being connected to the cultural roots of our country. And from what I have heard from them, those classes used to put a massive smile on my face, and I loved them since day one. For a long time, I used to treat my education as an extracurricular activity because I dived so deep into my passion. Dancing and reciting had always been my escape from the real world. I always tell everyone that ‘You haven’t seen all of Rubaba until you have seen her perform’. It had been a long journey of around 20 years with dance and recitation by my side. The love blossomed under the encouragement of my parents, who had always been very supportive of my passion till this day. My dad even told me not to pursue engineering so that I can focus on my passion even better- now that I entered another stage of shaping myself to a better human being. I had been with dance and recitation since I was three years old. The dedication and hours I put in practice can sometimes feel hectic, but the end rewards are the ones that make every trouble worthwhile. And what are the rewards you might be thinking? It is the peace that comes from within when I perform; it is the smile on the faces of others when my performance brings them joy, it is the national and international recognitions that I have bagged since I entered the competitions. Dance and recitation is an inevitable part of me that I have nurtured with so much of love and care. Each and every form of art brings the peace of mind and gives solace to the soul. You can find an escape from the earthly puzzles very easily with the help of art. Each and every person has an artist within them; be in dancer, musician, painter and so on. And it is never too late to find the artist within you!!
NSU Talks wishes her luck with all her future competitions. | https://medium.com/the-nsu-daily/rubaba-iffat-archi-the-powerhouse-of-talent-f33cd64663a4 | ['Zaqa Zeeshan Saif'] | 2020-12-18 15:19:16.929000+00:00 | ['Power', 'Talent', 'Nsu', 'Dance'] |
What makes us unhappy?. Happiness is a term that has different… | My art
Happiness is a term that has different definitions. Seeing it through the lens of mysticism, the great mystic Rumi claims happiness is the presence of love in one’s life. He quotes “It is love that brings happiness to people. It is love that gives joy to happiness.” Psychology says satisfaction and consciousness of a good life. Sonja Lyubomirsky, a positive psychology researcher, gives happiness a boundary in her book, “The how of Happiness as “The experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile.” Every field of life offers a different definition in its context.
Though there is not a single definition that contours the wholeness of the term “happiness”, since its flexibility is enormous. The question is how we try to bring happiness in to or drag it out of our lives.
Going a few decades back when technology had not made its way to the people yet, people were zealous about their lives, and their affirmative attitude towards life was conspicuous. People were satisfied and contented, and fortune was to be seen everywhere. Here I don’t mean that the reason for increasing unhappiness is the arrival of technology but what I mean is its usage that has changed everything.
Materialistic happiness
Let’s have a glance at the present situation, which is quite diametrically opposite of the joyous past. If we further plunge into the present scenario, it is austere. The reason for such a painful condition is people are locating happiness in material means such as money, expensive cars, luxurious lifestyle and much more.
Material things are supposed to be the source of contentment that people chase. People desire to live a life full of luxuries, and there is no wrong in desiring such a life but finding happiness in these things is somehow not conducive to lead a happy and prosperous life. There other factors affecting happiness in our life.
Happiness in conquering and defeating
One of the most crucial factors I see is competition. We are in an illogical competition with our fellow beings. An unending competition that is regularly consuming the values and norms of society. This competition is everywhere in schools, colleges, offices, and even in the neighbourhoods. Regardless of the relation with the supposed competitor, whether it’s our brother, sister, or a friend, we are ready to show him/her the eternal defeat.
The trend of competition is severe in educational institutions where every year, many students take their lives unable to make their standing in the so-called educational competition. This trend shows not only us but our coming generations are going to be the victims of this destructive process. Such behaviour towards life and society keeps us at continuous restlessness. We never get the desired satisfaction. Hence, the result comes in the shapes of sadness and melancholy.
There is a fascinating story from African culture, “Ubuntu” which conveys a message that competition only leads to sadness and destruction of the positive development of society.
An anthropologist proposed a game to African tribal children.
He placed a basket of sweets near a tree and made the children 100 meters away. Then announced that whoever reaches it first would get all the sweets in the basket when he said “ready steady go!”
Instead of competing with each other, they held each other’s hands and ran towards the basket full of sweets. They divided all the sweets equally among themselves, ate the sweets, and enjoyed them.
When the anthropologist asked them why they did so, they answered “Ubuntu” which meant “How can one be happy when the others are sad?”
The meaning of Ubuntu in their language was “I am because we are.” Ubuntu can be a magic word for all of us to grab each other’s hand run toward the thing which can bring us ultimate happiness and positivity to our area. And that is unity.
Jealousy eats happiness
The other factors affecting the happiness to be seen among us are envy and jealousy. We are not ready to accept the advantages enjoyed by others. Finding happiness in the happiness of others has just remained an object in fantasy. Instead, we keep ourselves on the fire for a reason others are happy, or we want to deprive them of their happiness. Society has been deployed with envy, discontent, deception, and ignorance.
Bertrand Russell in his essay, The Conquest of Happiness quotes that “I believe this unhappiness to be very largely due to mistaken views of the world, mistaken ‘ethics, mistaken habits of life, leading to the destruction of that natural zest and appetite for possible things upon which all happiness, whether of men or animals, ultimately depends.”
We are forgetting the ultimate goals of our society and entering into an era where there will be a war of wrongly perceived ideas of a happy life. We need to ponder upon this severe matter on which, our future depends. | https://medium.com/@nelofarsalma/the-factors-of-an-unhappy-life-3b97258b817f | [] | 2020-12-09 06:59:01.022000+00:00 | ['Jealousy', 'Happiness', 'Competion', 'Sadness'] |
Ah, Submitted Stories! | Ah, Submitted Stories!
This is such a great idea, Mary!
I am constantly (and proverbially) pacing back and forth asking myself, “How long has it been? Have they seen it? Should I submit somewhere else?”
This will put things in perspective. Thank you for this read! | https://medium.com/@hudsonrennie/ah-submitted-stories-3a341145b5ce | ['Hudson Rennie'] | 2020-12-03 14:52:36.816000+00:00 | ['Organization', 'Writing', 'Writing Tips', 'Creativity'] |
Coindcx Launches Indian Crypto-to-Crypto Exchange Amid Regulations | This week the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank, has banned banks from dealing with cryptocurrency businesses. Indian financial institutions have three months to cease doing business with digital asset operations but some of them may stop facilitating INR settlements. News.Bitcoin.com spoke with Sumit Gupta the founder and CEO of a new Indian digital currency exchange called Coindcx. Gupta told us about his team launching a cryptocurrency trading platform in the midst of regulatory uncertainty.
Launching an Indian Cryptocurrency Exchange During Regulatory Uncertainty
Sumit Gupta is launching a cryptocurrency exchange called Coindcx that enables Indian residents to trade over 30 digital asset pairs legally in BTC/ETH markets with 0.1% trading fees. The founder explains that Coindcx wants to give India’s thriving blockchain community a chance to stay alive and give it the strength to keep pushing for progress. The launch is in the midst of the RBI publishing its first bi-monthly monetary policy on April 5th which forbid any entities regulated by it from providing services to entities who deal with cryptocurrencies. “In essence, this means Indian banks won’t be able to allow its customers to acquire bitcoin in exchange for INR,” Gupta explains to news.Bitcoin.com.
“You don’t have to get rid of your investment while the market is down, don’t sell at loss. Simply move your cryptos to Coindcx, where you’ll be able to enjoy faster deposits, lower trading fees, 30+ trading pairs, and the most intuitive platform, all without touching fiat currency (INR),” Gupta details. “Even though the government has given these financial institutions a timeline of three months to cease support, it seems like banks will stop giving services to these exchanges much sooner.”
So, in short, Indian Crypto Exchanges will have issues dealing with fiat pairs in India very soon.
Gupta explains that the central bank is planning to launch its own ‘digital rupee’ and jokingly says maybe the government will allow exchanges to deal in that asset. “We understand that RBI is bit hesitant in providing traditional banking and related services to cryptocurrency exchanges in India, however, this doesn’t convey any message on the legality of crypto assets of even cryptocurrency exchanges in India, and there is no official statement by Indian government about bitcoin or any mention of a ‘crypto ban.’”
With Coindcx even though our users will be trading in cryptocurrency pairs, they can still check equivalent coin prices, place buy or sell orders and even track your portfolio — all in Indian rupees (INR). At Coindcx, we are aiming to give our users as much comfort as possible, even with pure crypto pairs.
Following this topic, we asked Gupta why he thinks the RBI stopped banks from dealing with cryptocurrency exchanges. Gupta notes that the government wants to curb black money and levy tax on the transactions, they have to regulate all channels for fund flows. Shutting them down would ultimately defeat the purpose of regulation Gupta says.
“No one knows that yet, however, there is an independent committee by the Indian government that seems to be working on regulating cryptocurrencies in India, which might speed up now,” Gupta emphasizes. “This RBI’s decision might encourage hawala trading or illegal remittances and keep bitcoin/crypto trading out of the purview of income tax authorities which was difficult to do earlier — Exchanges asks for proper KYC for any customer to buy/sell crypto from their platform, now people will find alternative ways to do that — Some exchanges are even thinking to move out of the country (many have already planned),” he adds.
But at Coindcx, we’re aiming to launch with crypto-to-crypto trading pairs with a feel of INR trading and introduce fiat when government regulates it. Coindcx or other exchanges moving out of the country will bring India one step behind and might even put the whole blockchain revolution in India to hold, which is not good.
However, even though the regulatory crackdown is happening in India, Gupta believes cryptocurrency adoption in India will grow faster than most Asian countries.
“Indians, in general, have high affinity towards crypto investments, just look at the growth in awareness and money infused in cryptocurrency market in India in just last six months, and it’s growing day-by-day,” Gupta concludes.
In a democratic country like India, latest RBI’s decision hasn’t just ruled against cryptocurrencies but have put the whole blockchain revolution in India to hold — India encompasses one of the most talented technologists in the world — With the use of blockchain, we have an opportunity to bring this talent out to the world.
What do you think about Coincdx launching in the midst of regulatory uncertainty in India? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below. | https://medium.com/kgclub/coindcx-launches-indian-crypto-to-crypto-exchange-amid-regulations-ace9a942b57b | ['Jacky Le'] | 2018-04-08 07:54:58.535000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin'] |
An Introduction to Soft Skills for Leadership for Agile Teams | There are certain soft skills for leadership that will get you ahead of the curve.
On that note, we cannot deny that possessing the prerequisite technical and “hard” skills will land you the job that you are applying for — and even allow you to go further in your career.
But some of these skills, such as; communication, critical thinking, and work ethic will also help you get ahead. In fact, many recruiters are now giving soft skills much more important for a variety of reasons.
We have listed the best soft skills for leadership that you should focus on and develop to get you ahead. But before we do that it is important to understand what soft skills are exactly.
What are Soft Skills for Leadership?
Soft skills refer to the behaviors you exhibit in diverse conditions, rather than the knowledge you have as displayed by “hard skills” or technical skills.
Any personality skill or trait you possess can often be described as a soft skill.
Almost all types of soft skills can fall under one of five broad types of soft skills, these skills are:
Work Ethic Creativity Communication Problem-solving Adaptability
Why Soft Skills for Leadership are Important?
Any type of interaction you may have with different people requires you to possess certain soft skills.
Whether in your personal life or at work we all use soft skills every day. In the workplace working on these soft skills can help gain more business and accelerate your career advancement.
While honing your soft skills will also benefit your personal life, developing different soft skills will definitely aid your career. Soft skills can help you deliver projects, make connections, and find solutions to issues.
Are There Any Benefits to Honing Soft Skills for Leadership?
There are multiple reasons why you should keep working on developing your soft skills. Let’s look into some of the benefits you will find in doing so in your work life.
1. Promotion & Progression in Your Career
Research by iCIMS found that 58% of recruiters believe that soft skills are of more importance for senior-level positions as compared to entry-level positions.
Furthermore, the research highlighted that 94% of recruiters believed that employees possessing stronger soft skills were more likely to be promoted to a leadership position compared to those who had weaker soft skills although they had more years’ worth of experience.
Showing you possess soft skills will help in your career, these skills will set you apart in interviews, and while you are performing jobs.
2. Soft Skills Aid in Interactions with Clients & Customers
The way you interact with potential clients will not only be the differentiating factor between yourself and other businesses, thus allowing you to gain new clients. Interactions using soft skills will also allow you to maintain the clients you already have.
With the technology available today and the competition in all fields, clients have multiple options available to them of who to go to, to get their work done. It is the human touch that will set you apart from others.
3. Automation Is Correlated to Soft Skills
There is a boom in technology and the advancement is vast. With automation and artificial intelligence being on the rise, you will be required to hold the human elements of business and these include having soft skills.
Soft skills are hard to automate. Emotional intelligence, at least for now, is not part of automation that is present.
And it is reasons like this that soft skills are still in high demand by recruiters.
Important Soft Skills for Leadership in Agile Teams
Now that we know what soft skills are and why they are important for you to develop, let’s look into two of the soft skills you need to give extra importance and attention to leadership roles.
#1 Communication Skills
Arguably, good communication skills are one of the top soft skills you as an employee, and more importantly you as a leader can possess.
Good communication skills allow you as a leader to efficiently and effectively manage your teams.
Moreover, as we mentioned previously, communication skills as a soft skill allow you to have the upper hand in convincing clients to choose your company.
Furthermore, with good communication skills, you are also able to retain the clients you have. For example, if a project is delayed for any reason, being able to communicate with your client effectively will allow you to defuse any tension and deliver the project to them successfully.
Nowadays with companies expanding, teams are often large and sometimes located in different offices. As a leader in today’s day and age, you need to be able to convey these communication skills to these new situations. However, with communication tools, this has become easier.
Additionally, with good communication skills should come good listening skills. This is a two-point package and anyone with good communication should also be a good listener.
Listening to your team members’ ideas gives them a sense of engagement, this in turn allows them to be more proactive and your company’s culture becomes one of comfort for them. Ultimately, this can be a deciding factor for whether an employee will stay with your company or not.
Moreover, hearing your team members’ concerns, and actually listening to them creates a safe and comfortable environment, this often allows workers to feel less stress. Less stress in the workplace makes it more productive and also drastically reduces absences, increasing the overall success and progress of the company.
Listening is also a big part of empathy. Empathy is another great soft skill to possess and showcase. Listening and empathy allow the trust to be created. Trust in a team motivates members to work extra hard. Knowing that you are trusted gives a sense of responsibility which translates to efficiency and added effort being put in my employees.
Likewise, an employees’ loyalty will only be given to leaders who can demonstrate a sense of empathy and those leaders that can actually show they care about the well-being and concerns of their teams.
#2 Growth Mindset
Psychologist Carol Dweck came up with the term “growth mindset”. She coined the term to refer to a state of thinking which reflects seeing your talents, and intelligence as skills that are improvable and can grow.
A growth mindset is when, rather than seeing hurdles or obstacles, you see challenges to overcome through work pressures you feel.
“This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Do people with this mindset believe that anyone can be anything, that anyone with proper motivation or education can become Einstein or Beethoven? No, but they believe that a person’s true potential is unknown (and unknowable); that it’s impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil, and training.” — Carol Dweck
As a leader, you need to see your failures and figure out what you can learn from them. How you can make amendments and do better, and how to motivate your team to do the same.
If, as a leader, every time you face failure you believe this is just something you cannot manage, you will not get any work done. You will also discourage your team members and overall productivity will go down.
With a growth mindset, you will be motivated to do better and reach higher achievements. This will also encourage you to learn new skills, as you believe that there is always room for improvement and knowledge.
Possessing a growth mindset means you possess an ability to continuously learn and adapt to change. And with different team members, and clients all possessing different personalities and asking for different goals to be met, this is essential.
In order to thrive in a work setting, you need to be able to adapt to your surroundings to be able to meet your goals. This includes both when you begin at a new place and also when you are climbing up the career ladder.
Now Get Out There
Now that you are aware of which soft skills will get you ahead, make sure you try and give them the importance and highlight them in interviews.
Not only highlight your soft skills but when wanting to progress in your career try and develop your soft skills to give you that upper hand. Also, make sure you take the help of your peers, maybe ask for feedback after you have meetings or once you finish projects.
Know the type of leader you want to be and work towards it by incorporating these soft skills. | https://medium.com/ntask/an-introduction-to-soft-skills-for-leadership-for-agile-teams-51b5a10f52b0 | [] | 2020-09-18 11:13:20.671000+00:00 | ['Soft Skills', 'Soft Skills Development', 'Leadership', 'Soft Skills Training', 'Soft Skill Training'] |
How to earn money online in Survey Sites | Note: This article contains affiliate links that promotes an online website that can help readers earn money online. I will receive a compensation if purchases are made using the affiliate link
Survey sites are convenient platforms to earn money online. They only require your email information to register and become qualified to start earning money. Survey sites are appealing because it does not require any technical skills. And to start earning money online using this method, you only need your computer and internet connection and you can start right away.
A lot of people are drawn to this method of earning money online because it is very accessible. Survey sites pay users after completing a survey that is targeted to the demographic of the user. A lot of these websites are legit and you can visit Prizerebel.com and Featurepoints.com to start earning money online using this method. And from these websites you can earn around $ 13 per day for 8 straight hours of doing surveys.
The number of tasks you need to complete in survey sites to earn that amount of money would be around four 15 minutes surveys per hour or around 32 surveys per day.
But earning money online using survey sites is just one method and there are several ways available that can help you. The same as survey sites, you will only need an internet connection and a computer.
Here are two ways that can help you earn money online:
Online Transcription Websites
Online transcription websites are websites that accept projects for transcription from business owners and employ workers to transcribe these projects. The transcription jobs offered are either transcribing a video to text, an audio to text and audio or video to text translated to a different language. One of the best platforms to start a career as a transcriptionist online is Gotranscript.com.
Gotranscript is an online transcription and translation agency that was founded in Scotland in 2006 and now has more than 20,000 customers worldwide. The advantages of joining Gotranscript is you get to enjoy a work from home set-up, you will have a reliable source of income, and you have the opportunity to grow as a transcriptionist. Gotranscript values their workforce and they will provide you with feedback that will help you grow your career.
Gotranscript also offers the freedom whether you will accept transcriptions that you can work on full time or projects that you can work on part time. From their website, their highest earning transcriptionist earns as much as $1215. And you can reach that level of income in Gotranscript as your career as an online transcriptionist grows. | https://medium.com/@drinkinglogic/how-to-earn-money-online-in-survey-sites-32fd8c00dcdd | ['Erl Sua'] | 2020-12-07 05:45:18.338000+00:00 | ['Earn Money Online Tips', 'Earn Money Online', 'Transcription Companies', 'Earnmoneyonlinefast', 'Fiverr Gig'] |
WENDY AND LUCY Review | For director/writer Kelly Reichardt, life operates on a strange wavelength: while the world is filled with so much beauty and freedom, tragedies both big and small seemingly wait around every corner. While the tragedies that happen upon a caravan of settlers in her own unique take on the western film, MEEK’S CUTOFF, are par for the course for an epic conquest such as theirs, the tragedies in WENDY AND LUCY, a slow burn spiral in the most mundane of suburbs, are simple problems that Reichardt frames as a series of devastating blows that form into a quietly brutal portrait of life at the fringes of American society.
On those fringes, Wendy (Michelle Williams) and her dog Lucy (Lucy the Dog) wander together. From the opening frame, with the soft breeze of the woods surrounding them and the softness of Wendy’s humming providing the film’s natural soundtrack, Reichardt naturalistically follows this woman and her dog as they quietly stroll across America. We don’t know where they are going at this time but the two wanderers, particularly the young woman, have a goal in mind: Alaska, which holds promise of a job that she seems to be lacking at the moment. As the film moves on, Reichardt slowly fills in a few more pieces of Wendy’s history but even with those glimpses the character is just as fleeting as her journeys through the various parking lots and small towns she and her dog take shelter in. With only a finite amount of money and a car that will only take them as far as it wants to, Wendy and Lucy are at the mercy of luck and soon their luck begins to tragically run thin.
Like her other works, the much grander (at least for a Reichardt film) MEEK’S CUTOFF included, Reichardt once again creates an impeccable sense of place in the suffocating ordinary-ness of her Oregonian setting. Filmed with invigorating naturalness by cinematographer Sam Levy, who basks in the natural lighting offered by the Oregon days and nights, WENDY AND LUCY is almost documentary-like in its depiction of life on the road. With this feeling in hand, Reichardt and her co-writer Jonathan Raymond allow their relatively simple tale to take on a much more existentially despairing atmosphere as Wendy’s relatively minor problems (a broken down car, a lost dog, low cash) inevitably build up to a conclusion that in any other situation would be less than ideal, but for Wendy’s low end lifestyle, prove catastrophic. In their greatest moments, if one could call them that, Reichardt and Raymond effectively make even the smallest moments of “drama” burn with a surprising amount of unsettled tension as Wendy’s constantly increasing problems and money issues build up. Even the smaller moments, such as various scenes where Wendy takes the bus, operate with such a specific kind of lowly dread (e.g. not having enough money even for a bus ride) that WENDY AND LUCY makes for surprisingly tense viewing.
But tension isn’t at the heart of this movie, what stands out by the time Reichardt’s film comes to a close is the sad reality that exists for some in the United States. Wendy’s life before we find her never materializes enough for us to know just why she is in her certain situation but the reality of people living on the fringes, whether by choice or not, still proves to be a tough one especially for a lone woman, dog or not. As showcased in what is the film’s true “horror” moment, Wendy, alone in the dark forests of a nearby town is harassed by a random wanderer such as herself, played with scratchy maliciousness by Larry Fessenden (the king of those performances). Almost entirely filmed in darkness, with just the slight flame of the fire illuminating Williams’ distraught face and Fessenden’s snarls, Reichardt never shies away from the terrors of a life like this and even more upsettingly proves that incidents like this are just elevated moments of the other smaller everyday terrors that threaten to derail Wendy’s life.
At the center of all this, Ms. Williams, an actor who thrives on finding emotional wells within the smallest of moments, once again thrives in the small-ness of Reichardt’s true world. While dialogue is sparse for our main character, the emotions that slowly build towards a truly heartbreaking release are poignantly delivered by Williams with such natural ease that one could easily be mistaken for believing the filmmakers just plucked her from some uneventful sideroads of some small town. Indeed, most of the supporting characters, who usually only stick around for a scene or two, are also performed with such naturalness that WENDY AND LUCY achieves, if nothing else, the feeling of watching something that feels 100% real.
As it is, WENDY AND LUCY isn’t much of a happy watch but it is an involving one. While one could easily find themselves bored with Reichardt’s predilection towards having her stories develop at their own natural pace (which are usually at a glacier’s pace), the filmmaker nonetheless makes the plight of a poor woman and her dog carry an air of dramatic importance and memorability. Truly, for Reichardt as a filmmaker, success isn’t found on a larger canvas but something much smaller and as a result, more personable.
3.5/5 | https://medium.com/@justinnorris12/wendy-and-lucy-review-612dd78fce57 | ['Justin Norris'] | 2020-12-17 17:57:01.208000+00:00 | ['Oregon', 'Kelly Reichardt', 'Film Reviews', 'Wendy And Lucy', 'Michelle Williams'] |
Should a Good Girl Still Want Sex? | I was called fat, and I was called ugly. I can lose weight, get fit, wear nicer clothes, change my style, colour my hair, learn to do better make-up, hell I can go to plastic surgery and change me completely. Not to please him, but I have been getting fitter and dressing better, after I was allowed to. He didn’t like me dressing up, he was way too jealous. And he would have liked me even fatter, as that meant to him that no one else will want me.
I was called stupid and obnoxious. I could change the way I speak, I could get smarter (jeez that wouldn’t be too good, I am already smarter than most of the men I know. I should tone it down rather.) I can convince myself that he was the one who was stupid and obnoxious.
But he called me a slut. And it’s difficult to let go.
Up to this very moment female sexual liberation is very much in its infancy. We are getting better at destigmatizing sexuality, but the harsh reality is that the classic double standards still linger: While men are praised for having sex with a lot of people, women are shamed for it. That’s wrong on so many levels, but in principle, it means that no matter how far we have come, we still have an even longer way to go before an attitude of sexual acceptance and celebration truly becomes the norm.
The worst is the case for the number of sexual partners, but women are judged and stigmatized for being sexually open, for being eager or horny, for wanting sex without a relationship.
In my case, I was judged for even wanting sex within our relationship, as it was a clear indication that I wouldn’t be able to keep my panties on.
Being a good girl became an insult. It was thrown at me at random moments, tweaking my sentences, taking my words out of context.
He expected me to be the Virgin Mary and the most experienced hooker at once.
His favourite sentence was that guys want a good girl who is only bad to them. While girls want a bad guy who is only good to them.
He always said that I should have married my first boyfriend — as that’s what good girls do.
I internalised his abuse, I believed that I was a slut. I apologised for it, I told him I was ashamed and I regretted it. I couldn’t help it, I couldn’t go back and unsleep with my boyfriends in my twenties. I couldn’t undo my past. | https://zitafontaine.medium.com/should-a-good-girl-still-want-sex-91d584ddb050 | ['Zita Fontaine'] | 2020-05-12 06:53:09.549000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Mental Health', 'Feminism', 'Sex', 'Abuse'] |
Earn degrees by showing what you’ve learned? What a concept! | cbenetwork.org
By Jamie Merisotis
We have a saying at Lumina Foundation that’s become something of a mantra: “It’s all about the learning.”
This mantra isn’t a quip about our own penchant for trial and error (though there’s a fair bit of that here, as there is in any organization). No, when we say: “It’s about the learning,” we’re stating a core commitment, a belief that educational quality shouldn’t be measured by a list of courses taken or grades earned or even the time students spend in classrooms. Rather, we believe quality should be measured by what students actually learn — by the specific knowledge and skills they gain through their programs.
This sort of competency-based approach might seem logical, perhaps even self-evident. But in reality, it’s much more the exception than the rule. Fortunately, that’s changing. In fact, one of Lumina’s goals is that all credentialing be competency-based.
One way to move in that direction is to shine a bright light on colleges and universities that are going all-in — those that are designing programs to be fully competency-based from the ground up. A recent issue of Focus magazine shows how powerful such an approach can be, especially for students from varied backgrounds and with a wide array of learning needs.
In that issue, we talk to some of those students, individuals enrolled in programs at three very different institutions — a large public university system (the University of Wisconsin); a small, private college (Westminster College in Utah); and a tech-focused community college (Texas State Technical College).
The institutions are diverse — as are the students they serve — but the programs offer students several common characteristics, including coaching and mentoring, meaningful interaction with instructors, and rigorous assessment of learning with detailed feedback on performance.
Admittedly, all of these institutions faced challenges in launching their competency-based programs — and it certainly won’t be easy to make this type of learning the norm rather than the exception. But competency-based programs, when taken to full scale, show tremendous promise. They offer an exciting new way to serve many students who seek clearer pathways and alternatives to the regular classroom. And they have much to “teach” others in more traditional, time-based programs.
Also, through the Competency-Based Education Network , an independent nonprofit organization, Lumina is working with educators to ensure they design programs that produce outcomes that are racially and economically just. We must do better by African-American, Latino, and American Indian students — and competency-based learning can help in that vital effort.
Over time, the success of competency-based programs will hinge on how well colleges and universities explain how this approach can support a broader array of today’s students.
Competency-based education programs often “look different” to students, parents, and hiring managers. There may be no grades, and students often have flexibility in how they approach coursework — if courses are even used to structure learning. Some explanation of competency-based education is usually needed to help stakeholders understand how learning occurs in active, supportive environments.
Also, growing these programs will require policy and funding environments at the federal and state levels that permit — even encourage — all of the following:
• Alternatives to standard definitions of “satisfactory academic progress” and other time-based measures.
• Transfer agreements that are based on students’ attainment of specific learning objectives rather than the accumulation of credit hours.
• Approval processes that do not place unfair burdens on competency-based education programs merely because they look different.
• Outcomes-based funding formulas that are structured in ways that support and encourage competency-based education.
• Schools should be able to charge tuition for these programs at flat rates or by the competency or sets of knowledge and skills that students have mastered.
Education innovators have an important role in helping people who can make or break these programs — everyone from faculty members, students, and parents to employers, regulators, and policymakers — understand how competency-based approaches can deliver high-quality education.
This issue of Focus can help foster that understanding.
Read it here: https://focus.luminafoundation.org/issue/summer-2017/
In case you want to link to C-BEN: https://www.cbenetwork.org/ | https://medium.com/todays-students-tomorrow-s-talent/earn-degrees-by-showing-what-youve-learned-what-a-concept-2095a0a86f07 | ['Jamie Merisotis'] | 2019-07-23 20:18:12.535000+00:00 | ['Attainment', 'Credentials', 'Competency Based Learning', 'Training', 'Higher Education'] |
Why AI recruiting chatbots are all the buzz these days? | According to Jobscan, more than 95% of Fortune 500 companies use ATS. Yet 63% of candidates are dissatisfied with the way employers communicate. Come to think of it, most ATS’ fail to offer a complete package — one that offers efficient ways to engage with candidates, improve brand image, and track candidate NPS. This hinders an effective talent acquisition process.
Conversational AI: The Game-changer
Conversational AI has emerged as one of the most ingenious technologies over the last few years. Most businesses adopt this technology to personalize customer engagement and increase lead generation. In fact, the pandemic and remote work would have only boosted the demand for conversational AI.
Conversational AI has become a familiar face in numerous industries especially in banking, insurance, and healthcare. The advancement of this technology has transformed monotonous machine-like conversations into engaging human-like conversations.
Candidate Experience is Crucial
A positive candidate experience is a key to every company’s brand image. After all, 69% of candidates would share their negative experiences with friends and family, according to Talentegy.
To provide the best candidate experience, every recruiter needs to engage with candidates (however large the candidate pool) and build personal relationships with each of them. Even with conventional ATS’, recruiters are engrossed in manual tasks slowing down their ability to communicate with candidates resulting in a mediocre candidate experience.
Why Should You Include AI Bots?
AI bots can make the life of a recruiter super easy. Let’s see how:
1. Intelligent Job Application and Filtering
Filling forms is hands down one of the most boring tasks for a candidate. AI chatbots liven things up by collecting necessary information through an engaging conversation. This data, along with the resume parser is then used to filter out and zero-in on the most suitable candidates for a job.
2. Auto-Schedule Interviews
46% of recruiters spend their time on mundane tasks like coordinating interview schedules between candidates and interviewers. What if they can save a lot of time!? AI chatbots can initiate and complete interview schedules after confirming the availability of multiple stakeholders. Say goodbye to repetitive tasks!
3. Proactively Collect Additional Candidate Information
Gathering additional information from the candidate during the hiring process can slow things down by a great deal. This is because sending out questions and waiting for candidates’ responses creates a lag. This not only puts a lot of stress on recruiters who are eager to fill vacancies but also puts companies at the risk of losing top candidates. AI chatbots proactively reach out to candidates and update their information around the clock leaving you to focus on more important tasks.
4. Assessments
Chatbots offer candidates the flexibility to complete assessments at any time, anywhere. In this era, where almost everything happens virtually, chatbots are truly one of a kind solution in conducting various types of assessments in interactive ways. The number of companies using proactive chatbots in such ways is increasing rapidly.
We(Zappyhire) have been helping organizations to modernize the entire recruitment process using our proprietor conversation engine through text/voice engagement. Would you like to explore how enterprises are adopting the latest technology in talent acquisition? We’re around to show you: [email protected]
Originally posted in hrtech.sg | https://medium.com/@jyothis-90354/why-ai-recruiting-chatbots-are-all-the-buzz-these-days-cc85d9569566 | [] | 2020-12-18 13:21:58.896000+00:00 | ['Hrtech', 'Chatbots', 'Recruiting', 'Talent Acquisition', 'Conversational Ai'] |
An Introvert’s Job Hunt and Related Reflections | A graphic from the New York Times article, The Plight of the Office Introvert.
During a particularly boring Business Studies class in Grade 9, I told my friend emphatically, “There is no way I am going to study anything business-related in university.” I believed it in my soul. I couldn’t see how I, an introverted person, would fit into a world that ran on building connections through networking, i.e. talking confidently and comfortably with strangers. And yet, 9 years later, here I am having studied International Business both at the undergraduate and master’s level. My interest in this area grew slowly. I realised I wanted something that combined my fascination with global affairs and the why behind a business or consumer’s actions. While I thoroughly enjoyed diving deeper into these domains, my introversion kept a wall between me and the networking maven I wished I could be.
It took, and continues to take, a great deal of effort for me to put myself out there in any social situation. I remember the debilitating anxiety I would feel before and during the few networking events I attended over the course of my undergraduate program. It would take a lot of effort for me to psych myself up enough to consider attending. However, I forced myself to attend these events and stumble through awkward conversations that made me wish the ground would devour me whole. Over time, I reached a point where I felt comfortable enough to mask my discomfort and focus instead on my ultimate goal of understanding industries firsthand from people who were already in the workforce. My progress was slow, caterpillar slow, but I eventually achieved things I didn’t think possible. I got into a master’s program at a great business school, I was able to foster lasting and meaningful friendships with my classmates, and I was able to succeed in an environment that at times required me to attend multiple networking sessions after a full day of classes. This may not seem like much to most people, but I never thought I would reach a stage where I would be able to somewhat seamlessly enter and exit ten-people conversations, or even connect with people on LinkedIn as a result.
My progress made me optimistic for the Everest ahead of me: the job hunt that began more than a year before I graduated from my master’s program. Although it was a stressful process, I still remained positive about its outcome and tried hard to remember that the intensity of recruitment season networking was temporary. I was not naïve, I knew networking wouldn’t end as a whole once I got a job, but certainly the intensity with which we were expected to network when initially looking for a job, would wane once we got our foot on that first rung. However, as the months passed, I found myself getting discouraged that the job hunt was taking longer than I expected. The networking process was slowly burning me out, and it was around then that COVID-19 took hold on a global scale and was classified as a pandemic.
The resulting economic slump meant extremely qualified and competent people were losing their jobs and having to re-enter a job market and networking space that was competitive enough as it was. It’s been hard not to become increasingly disillusioned by the process, and even harder to persevere with networking and pursue my continuing personal goal to not be intimidated by it. I’ve gone through days of extreme productivity followed by days of the complete opposite. My personal growth curve when it came to networking seemed steeper than ever before. Despite already being quite a self-critical person to begin with, I had probably never been harder on myself than I have been during these months. The isolation that has come with this pandemic caused me to regress further into my introversion than I allowed myself to in years. And with that regression, came increased anxiety surrounding networking, especially as a new graduate without the support system a business school provides in the form of networking events and other career management resources.
What is most exasperating is that introversion feels somehow simultaneously both within and outside your control. It is possible for me to suppress my fatigue and anxiety, but not for long. And the longer I have gone without the forced socializing that is networking, the harder it has been to restart it. The same with anything you do because it’s good for you, rather than because you enjoy it (see: working out). It became a vicious and self-destructive cycle: realising I should be networking more, getting frustrated with myself, feeling overwhelmed and demotivated by how little I was doing, taking a break from the job hunt because I felt discouraged and disappointed in myself — this would in time lead back to the cycle being perpetuated.
What this pandemic has reminded me through my job hunting experience is that life has ebbs and flows. The economy at large is currently in a state of contraction, but in time, it will start expanding again. It is not sustainable or feasible for any economy to just go through ceaseless expansion. Arable land is intentionally left fallow to regenerate nutrients, because it is understood that doing this increases crop yields over time. Individually, we all go through periods of productivity and periods of inertia. And that should be okay. Our world had become a place of no rest, and those who did stop to recharge, were left behind. Burnout has become a common enough term in corporate spaces because of how many people it affected.
Personally, I have recognised that going through this period of introversion has recharged me and given me the mental space to critically contemplate my life in every aspect — be it my career, my faith, or my relationships. Of course, the comforts I possess that allow me this season of introspection do not go unnoticed. Undoubtedly, I enjoy many privileges that others do not — I have the luxury to seek job enrichment and fulfilment and apply selectively; I am at an early stage in my career and do not have any financial dependents; I have a strong support system of friends and family; and I am able to opt to protect my health and stay home as recommended.
With that in mind, I have learned how important it is to be patient with myself and the season I am in. I cannot hold myself to the standards of a world that, in many ways, does not exist anymore. I cannot idealise how things were and how I was, wishing it could go back to normal. Normal had its own cracks and fissures that have become all too apparent now. That’s not to say that ambition and striving for growth is an inherently bad thing. It becomes bad, however, when it morphs into unrelenting self-deprecation that if I’m honest, made me less productive and regress in some ways. In my particular job hunting and networking journey, I am trying hard to be patient and take it one day at a time rather than extrapolating a day’s activity to derive negative implications about my value as a person. There will still be days that I will do the latter and I will not feel like rationalising my frustration away with all the realisations above. But that’s where patience comes in. My fellow introverts, we may never know of each other because of obvious reasons (i.e., we don’t enjoy talking about such deeply personal matters very often or with just anyone), but just know that you can succeed in a world made for extroverts. There are unique skills and perspectives that we bring to the table, and it’s worth making the space and taking the time we need for us to reach our fullest potential. | https://medium.com/@sneha-koshy/an-introverts-job-hunt-and-related-reflections-40ff5528b8b4 | ['Sneha Koshy'] | 2020-12-16 03:21:49.993000+00:00 | ['Empowerment', 'Networking', 'Blog', 'Reflections', 'Personal Development'] |
You Yong Wu Mou (“Having Courage but No Strategies”) | General Xiang Yu, Chu-Han Contention, China
I have just finished reading a very interesting book (!!!) “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariely and came across a very interesting historic story.
“In 210 BC, a Chinese commander named Xiang Yu led his troops across the Yangtze River to attack the army of the Qin (Ch’in) dynasty. Pausing on the banks of the river for the night, his troops awakened in the morning to find to their horror that their ships were burning. They hurried to their feet to fight off their attackers, but soon discovered that it was Xiang Yu himself who had set their ships on fire, and that he had also ordered all cooking pots crushed.” “Xiang Yu explained to his troops that without the pots and the ships, they had no other choice but to fight their way to victory or perish. That did not earn Xiang Yu a place on the Chinese army’s list of favorite commanders, but it did have a tremendous focusing effect on his troops (as they grabbed) their lances and bows, they charged ferociously against the enemy and won nine consecutive battles, completely obliterating the main-force units of the Qin dynasty”
Prof. Ariely is making a point about the advantage of making a choice to focus by closing other doors/options/opportunities.
Joshua Baer had an interesting allegory to the startup world in his “Necessity is the mother of Invention” post
“This is similar to when a bootstrapper enters the Valley of Death* and commits to their venture, but before they are making money and cash flow positive. They are forced to figure out how to make it work with what they’ve got. The timeline is not completely in their control. We’re always tempted to leave ourselves an escape route or path of retreat. And usually that’s a good idea. But sometimes there aren’t enough resources to mount the attack and cover the retreat. In order to be successful sometimes you have to commit the resources to what you believe in because the retreat option isn’t acceptable. Sometimes once you head down a path there is just no turning back, so you might as well commit all of your resources to getting to the end”
Well… this is true but since I am a notorious pessimist and usually like my options open, I have continued reading about this fine gentlemen (a.k.a. Xiang Yu)
I learned that indeed in the beginning of the civil war Xiang Yu was winning but with his rude manners, arrogance and lack of political vision, the tide turned against Xiang Yu and in the end he lost the war to Liu Bang.
In 202 BC, when Xiang Yu and his remaining men had their backs against the river while surrounded by Liu Bang’s troops, a boatman on a raft persuaded Xiang Yu to go with him across the river so he can prepare a comeback.
Xiang Yu said, “When I crossed the River and went west, I took with me 8,000 sons and brothers from east of the Yangtze. Now none of them has returned; how can I face the elders east of the Yangtze?” After declining this offer, Xiang Yu turned around, charged against the Han troops, killed over a hundred men, and finally cut his own throat.
Shortly after his death Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty.
Three concluding facts about Xiang Yu:
Xiang is popularly viewed as a leader who possesses great courage but lacks wisdom, and his character is aptly summarized using the Chinese idiom “Yǒu Yǒng Wú Móu” ( 有勇無謀 ) — “ Having Courage but No Strategies ” (or to be foolhardy or to be more brave than wise or to have reckless courage…)
( ) — “ ” (or to be foolhardy or to be more brave than wise or to have reckless courage…) Xiang’s battle tactics were studied by future military leaders while his political blunders served as cautionary tales for future rulers
Xiang Yu is also the kind general that raided the Terracotta** tomb less than five years after the death of the First Emperor — Xiang’s army was looting of the tomb and structures holding the Terracotta Army, as well as setting fire to the necropolis and starting a blaze that lasted for three months.
“Yǒu Yǒng Wú Móu” (有勇無謀) — “Having Courage but No Strategies” — Think about it…! ;)
* Valley of Death — A slang phrase to refer to the period of time from when a startup receives an initial capital contribution to when it begins generating revenues.
During the death valley curve, additional financing is usually scarce, leaving the firm vulnerable to cash flow requirements.
** The Terracotta Army or the “Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses”, is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China
The figures, dating from 210 BC, vary in height according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots, horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians.
Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits.
There is also a legend that the terracotta warriors were real soldiers, buried with Emperor Qin so that they could defend him from any dangers in the next life.
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
p.s. Prof. Ariely also recommends another role model for door closing — Rhett Butler for his supreme moment of unpredictable rationality with his astonishing elan, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” | https://medium.com/karmona/you-yong-wu-mou-having-courage-but-no-strategies-90f24feedd05 | ['Moti Karmona'] | 2020-08-10 07:12:37.480000+00:00 | ['People', 'Psychology', 'Conspiracy', 'Strategy', 'Leadership'] |
Cryptodition Submission Guidelines: | Cryptodition Submission Guidelines:
If you are a budding cryptocurrency and blockchain writer with a lot of dreams and ideas, then this is the forum for you. Here, you can share all the latest blockchain ideas and cryptocurrency-related blog posts (make sure it passes plagiarism) with us.
Why Cryptodition?
It is an excellent platform for young and inspiring writers who are picking up their pens to herald about cryptocurrency and blockchain.
If you think about the reach, cum-mon, we are the reach and this is our community. Let us make it enthralling and spread our ideas to the crypto world.
What do we look for?
Writing has no bounds.
And so we cannot and should not draw any limitations. But we do have a quenched aspiration and undeniable interest in the topics — Cryptocurrency and Blockchain.
We would be so glad to post your wonderful, catchy, and concept-friendly posts in our publication.
We strongly believe in engaging content and we strive hard to unite those engaging minds in one platform — Cryptodition.
Submission Guidelines:
We opt for Original content. {PLAGIARISM FREE ZONE} Word Limit may range from 800 to 1500 words. Subtopics, not a restriction. but Using one will make your blog beautiful. Two Backlinks are allowed per post. Submit your unpublished content to [email protected]. We will edit and publish it within 24 hours.
Note: If your content is engaging, we will add you as a permanent writer for our publication with certain other benefits.
Come, let us connect our small dots and create a huge crypto community
Amaze the audience through your creativity in your content and stunning cryptocurrency and blockchain topics.
Happy Writing. | https://medium.com/cryptodition/cryptodition-submission-guidelines-8984074a0b54 | ['Mathibharathi Mariselvan'] | 2021-03-10 05:26:43.525000+00:00 | ['Writers On Medium', 'Blockchain Startup', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Writers Discussion Group', 'Blockchain Development'] |
mHealth and new models of care | mHealth and new models of care
mHealth: transforming healthcare and driving business for pharmaceutical companies
Similar to other industries, consumers are driving much of the demand for mHealth technologies and applications. The Internet is being used as a tool for self-diagnosis and a source of convenience for consumers: patients and health consumers are going online to access information and related resources to support an understanding of their health condition or illness.
Mobile apps are enhancing overall consumer engagement in health care by increasing the flow of information; lowering costs through better decision-making, fewer in-person visits, and greater adherence to treatment plans; and improving satisfaction with the service experience.
In time, I believe that every health service enterprise, its underlying processes and supply chain will be digital and the majority of them will support mobile interfaces. As such, I believe that mobile will not be viewed as a separate solution; rather it will be seen as simply another channel that extends the reach of clinical and administrative systems. I also believe that mobile is poised to become the preferred channel for patients and clinicians given its on-the-go and always connected convenience, and the variety of platforms and consumer-friendly device form factors that are available.
In the future, it is conceivable that clinicians will use their mobile devices and workstations to electronically prescribe apps from structured libraries for their patients to download onto their own mobile devices as part of the care plan. Apps will create digital links between patients, caregivers and their care team. Some will serve to stream data in real time to analytics engines that will support clinical and administrative decision making and drive continuous quality and safety improvements in health care delivery.
If you believe in the potential that digitally connected mobile devices will enable quality benefits to patients and providers, you must also acknowledge that a long road of transformation lies ahead of us.
The reality, today, is that the majority of doctors are not ready to introduce these types of solutions to their patients, or conversely, to integrate consumer devices and personal analytics into their care management systems. All health care leaders and clinicians can prepare and position their enterprise for the future by gathering information on the mobile needs of their clients while accumulating insights from the lessons learned by early adopters.
There has been growing interest in patient-centred care, patient self-management and patient engagement. mHealth technologies provide the tools for patients and their informal caregivers to collaborate more effectively with their care team. A recent study concluded that patients who used technologies, including mobile devices, to access health information, felt better prepared for clinical encounters and asked more questions that were relevant to their condition.
However, more than new mHealth technologies, new work processes are required to support the provision of health services to, and interactions with patients. This also affects the way in which clinicians interact with one another and their digital health ecosystem.
The Digital Pharma Marketing: Overview and the Need To Build Integrated Digital Services Whitepaper explores digital marketing landscape and shares Guide to Starting a Pharma Digital Marketing Campaign
Get exclusive access to Whitepaper (it’s free). Sign uphere! | https://medium.com/adelaide-terracciano/mhealth-and-new-models-of-care-42b23961615b | [] | 2018-04-16 15:37:40.903000+00:00 | ['Mhealth', 'Healthcare Innovations', 'Healthcare'] |
Danny Bibi, Head of AdMedia, Discusses Contextual Targeting Advertising | Most companies have data that they don’t use effectively. Danny Bibi of AdMedia in Los Angeles, California, believes that businesses are so focused on productivity, efficiency, and profit margins that they forget to invest in relationships with their customers.
This is a mistake for many reasons: you can’t grow your customer base or increase sales without this investment. It also means you are missing out on the opportunity to create lasting impressions of your brand through targeted offers and personalized messages sent at just the right time.
These investments bring in more revenue and keep customers coming
back again and again because they feel appreciated by your business. Contextual technology offers a solution to these issues by making it easier than ever before for businesses to communicate with their clients using personalized content delivered when and where it’s most relevant.
What is Contextual Technology
Contextual technology is a term used to describe the various methods of collecting and analyzing data to determine the most relevant context for delivering content or messaging. This can be done in several ways, but the goal is always to present information useful and engaging for the customer. Danny Bibi of AdMedia feels that if you know that a customer has just viewed a product on your website, AdMedia might send them an offer for that product or a related item as they leave your site.
Advantages
Danny Bibi of AdMedia believes that one of the biggest advantages of contextual technology is that businesses can target customers based on their location. This means you can send them messages when they are near your store, for example, or when they are looking for a specific product. It also makes it possible to personalize messages based on customer preferences, which helps to create a better customer experience.
Businesses can also use contextual technology to track customer behavior to make more informed decisions about what content to present. This helps businesses understand how customers interact with their brand and what content will likely result in a sale.
What Can Contextual Technology Be Used For
Businesses can use contextual technology in nearly every industry. For example, suppose you own a restaurant. In that case, you might use contextual technology to send someone who has viewed your menu on their mobile device an offer for a free appetizer when they visit your restaurant during off-peak hours. If you run a hotel, this type of technology might let you send someone who views the rates page on your website an offer for a lower price.
Contextual technology also provides B2B interactions, partnerships, and consumer interactions. You could use it to work with partners or clients who share similar client bases to create targeted promotions and maximize revenue.
Danny Bibi, head of AdMedia, feels that companies can use contextual technology to improve customer relationships. Ultimately, the goal is to create an immersive customer experience that results in more sales and a better reputation for your business.
Contextual Advertising
Contextual Targeting Advertising is a form of online advertising that uses contextual data to target ads specifically to that user. It is a type of targeted advertising, online advertising that allows advertisers to target their ads to specific users.
The purpose of contextual targeting advertising is to place relevant ads in front of the right people at the right time. For example, if you are a business that sells cars, you might use contextual advertising to show ads for your cars to people who have recently visited automotive websites.
The way contextual targeting advertising works is by using the contextual data of the user to decide which ads to show them. This data can come from many sources, such as the user’s location, interests, or activities.
Contextual targeting advertising is often used in combination with targeted advertising. Together, they make up a form of online advertising known as programmatic advertising.
How Does Contextual Advertising Work?
Contextual advertising works by using the contextual data of the user to target ads specifically to that user. It is a type of targeted advertising, online advertising that allows advertisers to target their ads to specific users.
The purpose of contextual advertising is to place relevant ads in front of the right people at the right time. For example, if you are a business that sells cars, AdMedia might use contextual advertising to show ads for your cars to people who have recently visited automotive websites.
The way contextual advertising works is by using the contextual data of the user to decide which ads to show them. This data can come from several sources, such as the user’s location, interests, or activities.
Final Thoughts
Contextual technology is a powerful tool businesses can use to improve customer relationships. It provides opportunities for businesses to create targeted promotions and maximize revenue. Contextual advertising is a form of online advertising that uses the contextual data of the user to target ads specifically to that user. Together, they make up a form of online advertising known as programmatic advertising.
If you are looking for ways to improve your customer relationships, contextual technology, and contextual advertising may be the answer. These technologies allow businesses to target their ads to specific groups of users and place relevant ads in front of the right people at the right time. If you are not currently using these technologies, it is worth considering how they could benefit your business. | https://medium.com/@ad-media/danny-bibi-head-of-admedia-discusses-contextual-targeting-advertising-7638af4b6bb9 | [] | 2022-01-03 16:49:43.529000+00:00 | ['Contextual Marketing', 'Digital Marketing', 'Los Angeles', 'Advertising', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
What to know about Cartesi Reserve Mining | What to know about Cartesi Reserve Mining
Cartesi, operating system for DApps (Decentralized applications), is the link between Linux and the blockchain. It allows DApps to take advantage of Linux, then aims to make them as powerful, scalable, and easier to build as possible.
Cartesi is about to release its mainnet Proof of Stake (PoS) system, this has been anticipated for a while now, and it is poised to make Cartesi a unique scalability solution for decentralized applications. After the launch, it will be possible for users and $CTSI holders to stake the token for rewards.
The era of Proof of Work (PoW) is dying, as it is not sustainable. For Cryptocurrencies based on PoW, their algorithm uses mining which involves having to solve computationally intensive puzzles for the validation of transactions and creation of new blocks.
Solving the puzzles requires a great deal of computing power as different cryptographic calculations will be run to successfully unlock the computational puzzles. The great computing power means a reasonably high amount of electricity and power is needed for the PoW.
To make things a lot scalable, PoS is seen as the alternative to PoW as less computational power is required. Ethereum 2.0 is based on this consensus mechanism.
Proof of stake (PoS) is defined by wikipedia as a type of consensus mechanisms by which a cryptocurrency blockchain network achieves distributed consensus.
Know more about PoS:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_of_stake
CTSI RESERVE MINING (Proof of Stake)
There are three major components involved, each worth noting:
=> Selection of Block Producers
To be able to participate in the Cartesi PoS, users need to run nodes continuously. The number of tokens staked by each user boost their chances of being selected as a block producer, albeit randomly. As selection is done through participation in a lottery.
Selection of block producers make use of an efficient mechanism that reduces fees and race conditions on the underlying blockchain. The selected user will receive a block reward that will be extracted from the mine.
Since users are required to continuously run nodes to get the rewards of a block producer, having a failure of the node's availability/connectivity can result in the user losing the corresponding reward.
But in this Cartesi's design of Proof of Stake system does not include slashing, this means there is no risk for the user to lose their staked tokens due to the aforementioned failures.
=> Cartesi Services
Having users to run their personal nodes requires them to be online for an extended period of time which can be a burden, which is why Cartesi will release a platform for staking. The platform will make it possible for users to delegate staking procedure to Cartesi, making the burden lighter for them to run their nodes.
Also, Cartesi will make it possible for users to outsource staking responsibilities to organizations in partnership with the project. This will be in form of delegation, users and the service providers will get to split the mine rewards.
=> Token rewards
25% the total supply of $CTSI has been set aside for the mine Reserve, these tokens will help bootstrap the staking participation rate until the fees paid by the network users become large enough to sustain an appropriate staking rate.
According to Cartesi's roadmap, 5% of the total CTSI supply will be used as mine rewards in the first version of the protocol. More tokens will be released in batches after announcing to the Cartesi community.
The value of each reward will stay constant for a period of six months, then it will decay exponentially over time.
There is a formula used by Cartesi for calculating returns on amount of tokens staked by users :
R = 5% / P
Where:
R = Return over the amount staked
P = Proportion of the tokens that have been staked.
From this formula, if 40% of $CTSI tokens are staked, each users will earn average 12.5% of returns per year during the plateau (of approximately six months).
The value of R will be measured and a real-time updated estimate of R will also be provided when Cartesi's staking user interface is released.
The Cartesi Project is very transparent, every move made is communicated to the community. You're are welcome to join the community and be part of the participant.
Pre-Staking is already available on Coinone: https://twitter.com/cartesiproject/status/1334018525845999622?s=19
Get connected to the Cartesi team:
Website: cartesi.io
Twitter: twitter.com/cartesiproject
Discord: https://discord.gg/brXm5sB
Telegram: t.me/CartesiProject
GitHub: https://github.com/cartesi
Creepts: https://creepts.cartesi.io | https://medium.com/@heeyahnuh/what-to-know-about-cartesi-reserve-mining-56f1d3df7551 | ['Okunade Iyanuoluwa'] | 2020-12-21 19:38:09.319000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Mining', 'Cartesi', 'Altcoins', 'Staking'] |
How Piracy evolved since the 17th Century | How Piracy evolved since the 17th Century
More of a lifestyle
Photo by Luke Southern on Unsplash
Since the second generation of sailing ships have come known on the vast seas pirating has started to become a quite common phenomenon. With most of the sailing ships were accompanied by traders that would carry large quantities of different resources which were quite expensive it was an easy job for those scums that have received their names as ‘Pirates’ to just like taking a candy from a child, they had no firearms or cannons to protect themselves and as they were in the middle of the sea there was no point of shouting for help so they had no choice. If they were to show resistance upon the attack they would be slaughtered or a fan favourite of the pirates:
Dance on the plank until you swim with the sharks.
The sea was too large for the authorities to cover or try to protect these ships, however, as the pirating started to become a quite usual criminal role many big traders and important sailors were accompanied by war frigates that were ready to face these pirates. the first type of frigates could hold up to 24 cannons (12 on each side) and a crew of 120 soldiers ready to repeal the pirates and their cunning.
French war Frigates circa 1805
Now the pirates had a bigger problem as they were not so well equipped however, they played the numbers game and won most of the time by using many small ships to flank the frigates from each side. As some famous pirates such as Blackbeard were gaining a name for themselves they needed a ship worthy of their name. The ship that Blackbeard has been using was a massive warship equipped with over 100 cannons and almost 500 pirates on board. No one was able to take down such a huge sail ship, not even dare to come close to it.
As time has gone on and the pillaging of trade ships continued the wealth was becoming substantial, however, even pirates did not trust anyone so they would find small and far away islands on which they would bury their treasure for dire times. The amount of wealth and treasure they had was how they would measure their reputation as a pirate.
The word pirate originates from the Latin word purateivitia which translates to a sailor that is also a thief. Of course, that piracy has been around for hundreds of years, however, it was only in the 17th century that it became popular.
As time has gone by Piracy started to become a thing of the past, most of the ships were all equipped with serious firepower to ensure that all of the resources that are transferred for trade will get to their destination safely. The wars that have broken out in the 18th and 19th century have been a cause to less piracy on the seas, the pirates were now the ones hunted and therefore they had to retire with whatever treasure they have gained. Many people do not understand that the treasure is all a thing of status or reputation, they would almost rarely use this to purchase luxuries. It is about the life or a robber, gaining all the gold and riches is what has made their lives worthwhile. The reason as to why I mention this is to present piracy as it is today.
Piracy in the 21st century
Things have changed with time and technology, most of the pirates that still undertake the lifestyle of a pirate are in Somalia but, things are different. They don’t do it because of the thrill or status or reputation that hey get on the see but, because of hunger and poverty. One of the poorest parts of the third world is pushed to the limits by the rest of the world to come to such actions as their families are starving to death. Of course, what they do is totally unethical but, at the same time, it’s either this or death so they do not have much of a choice.
Such piracy events are becoming a more rare phenomenon as it is quite difficult to take a whole cruise ship with just a small boat and a few guns and especially with the anti-piracy patrol lurking the seas by air. | https://medium.com/history-of-yesterday/how-has-pirating-evolved-since-the-17th-century-e7bcb7ee202c | ['Andrei Tapalaga'] | 2019-08-06 07:10:13.696000+00:00 | ['Pirates', 'Lifestyle', 'History', 'Ship Life'] |
Don’t just read self-help books only | What people get wrong about reading?
Don’t just read self-help only.
People try to read the most famous (more than often, hyped) books. People try to ask for book recommendations. People ask whether reading for them or not.
To be honest, read whatever you like, I can recommend you a book but if you didn’t like that book, then you might think reading isn’t for you.
Again, this may look obvious but it’s important to articulate, that reading book is like watching movies, if I didn’t like Slumdog Millionaire, then it doesn’t mean watching movies isn’t for me.
Better read diverse books. From erotica (this is where I started) to reading scientific books (like Wealth Of Nations). You may hate both books, but hate books, not the act of reading. | https://medium.com/@chetneetchouhan/dont-just-read-self-help-books-only-75e79c54dcaf | ['Chetneet Chouhan'] | 2020-12-16 08:18:55.134000+00:00 | ['Reading', 'Life', 'Self Help', 'Books', 'Lessons Learned'] |
How do you find your tone of voice if you’re a B2B? | Photo by Pixabay from Pexels
The way your business sounds is important. When all your communications have a consistent tone of voice, you gain the trust of your audience and give your business a personality that people can warm to.
This isn’t just waffly marketing talk — studies show a clear tone of voice leads to better customer engagement and higher sales.
If you want to find out more about why tone of voice is important, you might like to read What does your business sound like –and why does it matter? and / or Why you aren’t really a B2B business.
If you’re already convinced about the merits but want to understand how to find and define the tone of voice for your business, read on.
A four step guide to finding your tone of voice
I think there are essentially four steps to finding your tone of voice as a business. The first is to understand who you are as a business. The second is to understand who your target audience is. The third is to refine your findings. The final step is to commit your findings to paper so you’ve got a guide to refer to in future.
As you go through the process of finding your tone of voice, there is one important thing to remember. As Creative Director Doug Kessler says:
We’ve done workshops on [tone of voice] but, to be honest, it ain’t rocket science.
Step one: Understand who you are
The first step to finding your tone of voice is to think about who you are as a business. This is easier than it sounds. Copywriter Chelsea Baldwin sums it up:
Not to get too metaphysical on you, but your brand’s voice is already there — it exists in your company, the reasons it was founded, and how you conduct yourselves in your day-to-day work. You don’t have to worry so much about creating it as you do simply uncovering it.
You can approach this process in whatever way you like.
You can use tone of voice tools to help you.
I used Brand Deck when finding my tone of voice. Nick Parker’s Voicebox is another more than highly rated approach.
If you’d rather do this without using tools, you can go as in-depth as you like. Copywriter Belinda Weaver of Copywrite Matters keeps it simple:
A very simple exercise …is to assign 3 human values that represent how you want your business to be experienced. It’s also worth digging a bit deeper and thinking about: What’s really important to your brand? Who does your brand aspire to be and what is it impressed by? What blogs does your brand like to read and why?
B2B copywriter Rachel Foster drills down further and lists these questions that need answering:
What are our company values? Why do we do what we do? What personality traits best define our company? Who is our target market? How do we want them to feel when they interact with us? How do we make our customers feel like heroes? What first impression do we want to make? What message are we communicating? What pain do we solve? How do we demonstrate our value and results? What status quo do we break? What makes us different? What unique story do we have to tell? What are we passionate about? What other brands resonate with us? What words do we like? What words do we dislike? What words describe the tone we will use? Do we speak formally or conversationally? If we could summarize our brand in one word what would it be?
I think the fact there is no standard approach or standard list of questions shows us there is no right or wrong way to approach this. If you can come up with something that feels right using Belinda’s list of questions, you’re good to go. If you feel like you need a bit more support to think yourself into the right frame of mind, Rachel’s list might be the answer. On the other hand, Belinda’s list might panic you in its simplicity or Rachel’s might lead you down a rabbit hole you never emerge from.
The right approach is to do what feels right for you. But what you what to end up with is a short list of values that encapsulate your business and what it stands for.
The only piece of advice I’d offer is to make sure that you end up with a well-rounded picture. If your business was a person you’d want that person to be a well-rounded one. You’re looking for a mixture of hard skills and soft skills in the description. Dan Brotzel, Content Director and co-founder of Sticky Content, explains why:
In developing a brand voice, many organisations make use of tonal values. This helps you work the different aspects of your brand’s promise into your writing. You might want to be seen as experts in your domain, for example, but you also want your users to know you take customer service seriously. So having a tonal value like ‘authoritative’alongside another value such as ‘helpful’can help you capture and project these different nuances in your comms. Values enable you to flex your voice for different channels, audiences and message types. You might be a fashion-forward clothes retailer, for instance, so a tonal value like ‘inspirational’might be an obvious choice in lots of contexts; on the other hand, when you’re explaining your returns policy, you probably want to dial up a different tonal value: ‘helpful’ perhaps, or ‘straightforward’.
Step two: Understand who your customer is
The next step is to look at your customer. You need to understand who they are and what they’re looking for from you. Again, there are a myriad of ways to go about this. I recommend developing a customer avatar and I’ve written about why they help here. If you’d like to build a customer avatar, I recommend this guide.
Part of creating your customer avatar will involve understanding the publications they read and the language they use. This is the area to focus on when you’re looking at your tone of voice. Eugenia Verbina, Content Manager at SEMrush, explains how to do this and why it’s important:
Watch how your audience communicate with each other, what they like and dislike in discussion threads, what the overall tone of discussions is, and what language people use to create the most popular content. Experts say that mimicking the vocabulary of a particular group allows members to feel a sense of belonging. Mirroring your audience’s language will make your content pieces more relatable and bring your brand closer to them. If done right, this will eventually lead you to an increase in sales. Empathy is key, focus on your customer’s voice, and make it part of your brand tone of voice to build trust and credibility.
But there’s another reason for understanding your customers and how they communicate. It’s to make sure you’re going to get along with them. Let’s say you’re a tech start up and you’ve just defined your brand as geeky, rational and cheeky. You’ve defined your target audience as being geeky, rational and reserved. How will they react to a cheeky brand? Will they be excited by your daring? Or will they be offended by what they see as a cavalier attitude?
This is an extreme example of differences but you need to be confident you’ve got the balance between who you are and who your customers will want you to be. On the other hand, authenticity is key. If your brand is cheeky, your writing will lose all its soul if you try to remain reserved at all times. And if you’re naturally reserved, trying to be ‘a bit wacky’in your writing will be exhausting for you and cringe-making for your customers.
If you’ve got communications out in the world, you can use these to sense check your conclusions.
To do this, draw up a list of content pieces and communications. Find the ones that most closely reflect the tone of voice you want to use and the ones that are furthest away. Now look at their metrics. If your tone of voice resonates with your target audience, you should find that reflected in the results the pieces achieved.
Step three: Refine your findings
Once you’ve got a set of values that define your business and sit comfortably with your customers, now’s the time to start refining them.
The chances are — especially if you’re a B2B business — that you’ve come up with some generic words. Professional, reliable, straightforward. As long as these words are an accurate reflection, this is fine. As I’ve said before, tone of voice is about authenticity — you don’t want to try to be something you’re not because people will see straight through it.
The trouble is, you could probably use these words to describe most of your competitors too. The aim of defining a tone of voice is to show off what’s distinctive about your business and set yourself apart. If you stop here you’re still going to sound exactly like your competitors. To solve this problem, says Belinda Weaver, you need to unpack your descriptors.
How does a customer experience this personality trait? When you get that explanation happening, you can usually find some more interesting and relevant brand words.
Once you’ve completed this exercise, it’s time to commit your findings to paper.
Step four: Commit it to paper — simply
Committing your tone of voice to paper is the final step of the process. You’re creating a document you can:
give to your team and to freelancers to explain how you sound
check content that’s been produced against it to make sure it’s ‘on brand’.
Copywriter Tom Albrighton has some forthright advice on what this document needs to look like.
Personally, I don’t think there’s any need to overbrain written tone of voice. Content consultants who want to play the fairy godmother might tell you that you need a huge manual on how to write in every situation –rather like the expensive ‘brand guideline’ documents that design agencies love to create. Unfortunately, tone of voice guidelines will not compensate for lack of writing ability or common sense, just as brand design guidelines do not turn the average Microsoft Word user into Peter Saville. People with a tin ear for language will not be saved by rules and regulations, because writing is an art as much as a science. As the saying says, rules are for the observance of the foolish and the instruction of the wise. Those who ‘get it’don’t need loads of detail, while those who don’t will be left none the wiser by it anyway. A one-page summary of your brand values, along with an explanation of how they translate into writing style, will be a huge step forward if you’ve never considered tone of voice before.
Anna Pickard is Editorial Director at Slack and she sums up how Slack sounds in a single sentence:
“Talk as if you’re talking to a colleague you like and admire. That’s the baseline.”
If you can sum up your brand’s tone of voice in a single, simple headline sentence like this, fantastic. You’ll probably want to include some more in-depth information though.
I’d suggest including the traits and values the company has that you identified during the process. Explain what you mean by each of them and give at least one example of how it manifests itself in your day-to-day activities.
You also want to give examples of content that reflect your tone of voice — and examples that don’t. You want to include examples across different media and different situations. For example, the tone you take in a tweet is likely to different to the tone you take in an annual report. Similarly, the tone you use in an announcement about a new product is going to be different to the tone you’d use in an apology.
If that all sounds a bit nuanced, think of it like this. You speak to your friends in a different way to the way you speak to your bank manager but you’re the same person in both situations. Similarly, if you’re thinking of your tone of voice in human terms you’ll instinctively understand when to dial up certain traits and when to dial them down.
Make your business human
There’s a sales cliche — people buy from people. It’s a cliche because it’s true. It’s so much easier to buy something from someone you like. When your business sounds like a person, it’s easier for people to like you and it’s easier for people to buy from you. That’s why you need to define your tone of voice. More importantly, you need to put your work into practice and start making sure your tone of voice shines through everything you write. | https://medium.com/swlh/how-do-you-find-your-tone-of-voice-if-youre-a-b2b-a74dcd726d08 | ['Catherine Every'] | 2019-09-03 10:56:53.939000+00:00 | ['B2b Copywriting', 'B2b Marketing', 'B2b Content Marketing', 'Marketing'] |
Part 1: Winter or Summer, Take your baby steps into OpenSource Now !! | Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
If you are a developer or are a student, you might have heard the word Open Source thrown at some point in your journey. It might have left you wondering about the world of Open Source the fact that you are here tells me that you are curious to know !!. Well, congrats you have already taken your first step into the world of open source!
In this article, I will be sharing information about Open source software (OSS) and how you can keep your baby steps and get started. The Article Series will cover details on :
How you can start contributing to opensource ( You are here )
What to know before you attend your first Open Source hackathon
How you can become a creator and a maintainer of an Opensource Project
How to attract Contributors to your Project
How to build your community and get sponsors.
Automating the boring stuff through Github Actions
Useful Tools and Resources
Before we jump into the article here is something about me
Microsoft Learn student Ambassador | Winner hack for Africa: A Microsoft challenge! |Winner Philly Codfest 2020
I am the Lead Organiser of DevScript Winter of Code a 2-month long student-led Open Source hackathon.
I maintain Opensource projects, got a few of my own. I help student communities set up their own projects, I am also actively contributing to projects.
Now let's get started for real :
Pro tip: This can get pretty lengthy grab yourself a cup of coffee.
What is OSS?
If you ask Google it will show you: Open-source software is a type of computer software in which source code is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the right to use, study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative public manner.
If you ask me :
OSS can be anything from an Application to a browser extension to an ML model that is developed by a bunch of amazing geeks who wants to share their work with the world.
It is usually released under a license that allows users to use their code, modify the code, distribute it and a lot more different licenses have different T&C so read about them in my next article before you start using the code.
An OSS can be created and maintained by anyone with a passion to build amazing technology. Even you !!
So basically a software developed and maintained by a group of do-gooders
Fun Facts: Some popular Open source project are:
Blazor
.Net
Apache Cassandra
TensorFlow
Firefox
LibreOffice
more …. (I can have an entire article for a list of amazing tools and it still won't be enough)
But I think you get the big picture, Open source helps us use and enjoy top quality tools for free of cost, are you motivated?
Let's see how you can jump into opensource and build tools and language you will be using in your day to day life
OpenSource Contributor as a Student
Let’s first see why you should contribute to opensource?
Show your amazing coding, content writing skills (obviously)
your amazing coding, content writing skills (obviously) Unlimited Learning : Instead of learning tools and languages you can start building them. Most of the Open source Projects have excellent and passionate developers who will be happy to guide and mentor you if you ask them nicely.
: Instead of learning tools and languages you can start building them. Most of the Open source Projects have excellent and passionate developers who will be happy to guide and mentor you if you ask them nicely. Professional skills : When you work, interact and learn with a group of developers of various age groups and experiences you often end up learning many important soft skills like professional communication, networking, teamwork, time management. Working amongst these brilliant developers would be a humbling experience at the same time will give you valuable lessons and insights about the industry.
: When you work, interact and learn with a group of developers of various age groups and experiences you often end up learning many important soft skills like professional communication, networking, teamwork, time management. Working amongst these brilliant developers would be a humbling experience at the same time will give you valuable lessons and insights about the industry. Outside opportunities : Being involved in Opensource helps you grow yourself technically and professionally. There are tons of Opensource Summits where you can talk and interact with top tech companies and developers. (If you are a Python fan like me Pycon is something to watch out for)
: Being involved in Opensource helps you grow yourself technically and professionally. There are tons of Opensource Summits where you can talk and interact with top tech companies and developers. (If you are a Python fan like me Pycon is something to watch out for) Strong Resume : Well Contributing to open-source projects would be a great way to show your mastery of a particular technology. You might have been a part of building tools and technologies that your company might be using. Every contribution you make is publicly visible so flaunt it.
: Well Contributing to open-source projects would be a great way to show your mastery of a particular technology. You might have been a part of building tools and technologies that your company might be using. Every contribution you make is publicly visible so flaunt it. Get Paid : Although your primary reason for getting into open source must be to learn and develop yourself. If you are a valuable contributor on a project with real clients you can help solve issues or train their employees and bill them for your time. The chances are slim.
: Although your primary reason for getting into open source must be to learn and develop yourself. If you are a valuable contributor on a project with real clients you can help solve issues or train their employees and bill them for your time. The chances are slim. Don’t forget to enjoy the process and remember that you are a part of making the world a better place. Give yourself a pat on the shoulder for that.
Now that I have shared a few good reasons why you need to start your journey into opensource. Let's move on to
What Do I need to know?
To be frank you don't have to know much to get started but having a knowledge of at least one programming knowledge is very helpful
to get started but having a knowledge of at least one programming knowledge is very helpful Have a Github Account : Are you a student? Fantastic apply for the Free Github Student developer pack here share about it with your friends too.
: Are you a student? Fantastic apply for the Free Github Student developer pack here share about it with your friends too. Git : Git is your best friend. Learn the Git Basics and keep learning Git and related tools. (It is a best practice to familiarise yourself with basic commands and use CLI to use Git ). I publish articles on how to resolve common problems faced by a beginner contributor give them a read !!
: Git is your best friend. Learn the Git Basics and keep learning Git and related tools. (It is a best practice to familiarise yourself with basic commands and use CLI to use Git ). I publish articles on how to resolve common problems faced by a beginner contributor give them a read !! Programming skills: There are a lot of ways you can contribute to open source software development and growth. But contributing code would be a great way to directly get involved with the development of the project. Different project uses different languages and frameworks selecting OSS as per your skill set is Important. From my experience, I have seen a lot of projects use C, C++, Python, Java.
There are a lot of ways you can contribute to open source software development and growth. But contributing code would be a great way to directly get involved with the development of the project. Different project uses different languages and frameworks selecting OSS as per your skill set is Important. From my experience, I have seen a lot of projects use C, C++, Python, Java. Follow Best practices: one pro tip I can give you is to start knowing about the coding best practices followed in a particular language. These practices differ from language to language. Use an effective linter while you code so that you can learn the common practices followed. Always give the codebase of a particular project. Space Vs Tabs is something to be noted(if not you will be starting a war in the issues tab).
one pro tip I can give you is to start knowing about the coding best practices followed in a particular language. These practices differ from language to language. Use an effective linter while you code so that you can learn the common practices followed. Always give the codebase of a particular project. Space Vs Tabs is something to be noted(if not you will be starting a war in the issues tab). Start Small: A common mistake a lot of newcomers do is that they aim for big projects that often have very little issues for a newcomer to implement or no mentor support and are highly competitive. One guidance I would like to give is to start with a small project and try to be a constant contributor to it and learn how the whole open source ecosystem works. Familiarize yourself with the codebase, git commands used, managing workflows, code quality, and best practices used. This helps you in the long run and when you see a chance to contribute to big projects like TensorFlow or .Net you can grab and the issue and solve it with ease
I got the basic alright. How do I get started?
Did you find a project you can contribute to? Awesome !!!
Let's Understand the Project and its attributes
A typical open source project has the following types of people:
Author: The person/s or organization that created the project
Owner: The person/s who has administrative ownership over the organization or repository (not always the same as the original author)
Maintainers: Contributors who are responsible for driving the vision and managing the organizational aspects of the project (They may also be authors or owners of the project.)
Contributors: Everyone who has contributed something back to the project
Community Members: People who use the project. They might be active in conversations or express their opinion on the project’s direction
A project also has documentation. These files are usually listed at the top level of a repository.
LICENSE: By definition, every open source project must have an open-source license. If the project does not have a license, it is not open source.
README: The README is the instruction manual that welcomes new community members to the project. It explains why the project is useful and how to get started.
CONTRIBUTING: Whereas READMEs help people use the project, contributing docs help people contribute to the project. It explains what types of contributions are needed and how the process works. While not every project has a CONTRIBUTING file, its presence signals that this is a welcoming project to contribute to.
CODE_OF_CONDUCT: The code of conduct sets ground rules for participants’ behavior associated and helps to facilitate a friendly, welcoming environment. While not every project has a CODE_OF_CONDUCT file, its presence signals that this is a welcoming project to contribute to.
Other documentation: There might be additional documentation, such as tutorials, walkthroughs, or governance policies, especially on bigger projects.
Things to know:
Issue tracker: Where people discuss issues related to the project.
Pull requests: Where people discuss and review changes that are in progress.
Discussion forums or mailing lists: Some projects may use these channels for conversational topics (for example, “How do I…“ or “What do you think about…“ instead of bug reports or feature requests). Others use the issue tracker for all conversations.
Synchronous chat channel: Some projects use chat channels (such as Slack or IRC or Discord) for casual conversation, collaboration, and quick exchanges.
Now that you have some Idea on OpenSource you are all geared up to start exploring this amazing world.
Congrats and thanks for reading it to the end !!
If you like it leave a clap and if you want to share your thought or contact with me visit here
Check out Github Guides to know more about GitHub and the way it operates, TBH its one of my favorite platforms ever
Stay tuned for Part-2 !! Register for DevScript Winter of code to start your journey today !! | https://medium.com/@anush-venkatakrishna/part-1-winter-or-summer-take-your-baby-steps-into-opensource-now-7d661235d7ff | ['Anush Krishna .V'] | 2021-01-21 05:05:05.935000+00:00 | ['Hackathon', 'New', 'Open Source', 'Oss'] |
Lover’s timing? | Back to making Medium an actual medium of expression.
One thing some of us might agree to is that the timing never seems to be right.
At least, not with the ones we want.
They’re usually living approximately five hundred miles and above away from us, trying to work on themselves, not ready for anything serious.
The list could go on.
And yes, sometimes, they’re already taken.
And while some relationships end because one person isn’t putting in enough effort, some end because one person is taking things too seriously too soon.
Right person, wrong time…
This is something we’ve heard a couple of times.
I’d tell you what I think, I think the people you meet at the ‘wrong time’ are the wrong people, the right people wouldn’t let timing play a drastic role in affecting your relationship.
They would find a way to make things work, compromise, prove to you their worth, and show you you’re worth it as well. | https://medium.com/@nimiie/lovers-timing-9e0ce7e5d2e1 | [] | 2020-12-23 19:51:07.433000+00:00 | ['Dating Advice', 'Lovers', 'Dating', 'Relationships', 'Relationships Love Dating'] |
Pennyworth < “Series 2 :: Episode 3” > (FULL.Stream) | ∎ STREAMING MEDIA ∎
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. The verb to stream identifies the process of delivering or obtaining media in this manner.[clarification needed] Streaming refers to the delivery method of the medium, instead of the medium itself. Distinguishing delivery method from the media distributed applies particularly to telecommunications networks, as almost all of the delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television, streaming apps) or inherently non-streaming (e.g. books, video cassettes, music CDs). There are challenges with streaming content on the Internet. For instance, users whose Internet connection lacks satisfactory bandwidth may experience stops, lags, or slow buffering of the content. And users lacking compatible hardware or software systems may be unable to stream certain content.
Live streaming is the delivery of Internet content in real-time much as live television broadcasts content over the airwaves with a television signal. Live internet streaming takes a form of source media (e.g. a video camera, an audio tracks interface, screen capture software), an encoder to digitize the content, a media publisher, and a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the origination point, although it frequently is.
Streaming is an option to file downloading, a process where the end-user obtains the entire file for this content before watching or listening to it. Through streaming, an end-user can use their media player to get started on playing digital video or digital sound content before the complete file has been transmitted. The word “streaming media” can connect with media other than video and audio, such as live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are considered “streaming text”.
∎ COPYRIGHT CONTENT ∎
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time.[5][4][5][4][5] The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself.[6][7][8] A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States.
Some jurisdictions require “fixing” copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is often shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights holders.[citation needed][9][50][55][54] These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as attribution.[55]
Copyrights can be granted by public law and are in that case considered “territorial rights”. This means that copyrights granted by the law of a certain state, do not extend beyond the territory of that specific jurisdiction. Copyrights of this type vary by country; many countries, and sometimes a large group of countries, have made agreements with other countries on procedures applicable when works “cross” national borders or national rights are inconsistent.[54]
Typically, the public law duration of a copyright expires 50 to 500 years after the creator dies, depending on the jurisdiction. Some countries require certain copyright formalities[5] to establishing copyright, others recognize copyright in any completed work, without a formal registration.
It is widely believed that copyrights are a must to foster cultural diversity and creativity. However, Parc argues that contrary to prevailing beliefs, imitation and copying do not restrict cultural creativity or diversity but in fact support them further. This argument has been supported by many examples such as Millet and Van Gogh, Picasso, Manet, and Monet, etc.[55]
∎ GOODS OF SERVICES ∎
Credit (from Latin credit, “(he/she/it) believes”) is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), but promises either to repay or return those resources (or other materials of equal value) at a later date.[5] In other words, credit is a method of making reciprocity formal, legally enforceable, and extensible to a large group of unrelated people.
The resources provided may be financial (e.g. granting a loan), or they may consist of goods or services (e.g. consumer credit). Credit encompasses any form of deferred payment.[4] Credit is extended by a creditor, also known as a lender, to a debtor, also known as a borrower. | https://medium.com/pennyworth-s2e3-full-shows/s2-e3-pennyworth-series-2-episode-3-full-stream-80e3c8bde803 | ['Bigsh Ow S Tvs'] | 2020-12-27 07:23:43.432000+00:00 | ['Crime', 'Drama', 'Politics'] |
Talk about mental health. I am going to take a break from my… | I am going to take a break from my usual conversation about relationships to talk about something I experienced at work.
Part of the reason for this article is because the experience has left me wondering about the state of our country as it relates to people with mental illnesses and how little we seem to care.
I work for a local jurisdiction as a code enforcement officer. My responsibilities are to ensure that property and business owners are following the laws that have been established by that city.
Two weeks ago code enforcement was called to a fire damaged duplex. One unit burned and the other one lost power because the electrical meter for both units was located inside the unit that burned.
I know this is a long intro but I have to set the story up in order to make my point. The tenant in the unit that burned refused to leave after the fire. The tenant is literally sleeping in a partially destroyed structure.
The destruction was caused by a combination of actual fire, smoke damage, aeration damage (the fire department had to open up several spots including the roof in order to help put the fire out) and water damage.
After such destruction, property owners file claims with their insurance company to get funds for repairs. In order to pay the claim an insurance rep has to inspect the property to assess the damage and determine the payout amount.
The tenant would not allow anyone to enter the unit. The tenant went so far as to wave a bat around in a threatening manner.
Property management contacted the sheriff’s department who of course responded. The sheriff’s went a step further. Since it was mentioned that this person might have some mental illness they also brought the MET team.
The MET team or the Medical Evaluation Team are the professionals trained to evaluate medical conditions as it relates to state of mind and mental health and whether or not you require intensive treatment at that time.
The 18–24 year old would not open the door. Still to date this person is sleeping inside a burned apartment with no heat, electricity and no running water.
The burned unit that the person is sleeping in every night
The mental health industry is failing the people who need it most. According to a publication called mental health first aid, in the United States mental health is worsening among all age groups. The article also indicated that people aren’t receiving the care they deserve.
But why is that? There has always been a stigma associated with metal illness and I would image that the stigma, coupled with lack of care available would drive people even further away from trying to seek mental health assistance.
If we don’t make it easily available and continue to stigmatize mental health issues then people will continue to suffer unnecessarily.
What disturbs me about this individual is that although I have done my job, meaning I have fulfilled the responsibility that I am tasked with in situations like these, I still can’t help feeling as if maybe I or we (my organization) should have done more to help solve the problem.
I have no mental health expertise or training so realistically there is nothing I can do. And interfering in a situation that I have no training or knowledge could actually make things worse.
My role in the situation is specific, I am responsible to make sure the owner of the property obtains permits for the reconstruction. Beyond that I can make phone calls and see if people will help but my hands are tied.
The system is broken and without some reform it will stay broken and these instances will continue to happen to people who just need help. It’s difficult to witness this and walk away.
We are in a free society and forced care for a consenting adult is not something the system can for lack of a better word force. We do need to have facilities and treatment options available but they have to be available for those who are seeking help. | https://medium.com/@jcwrite21/mental-health-aint-getting-attention-28d6c3886f39 | ['Jacque Cochran'] | 2021-04-25 22:42:21.323000+00:00 | ['Mental Health Services', 'Mental Health Treatment', 'Fire'] |
bind() Method in JavaScript | “ Let’s Understand bind() in javascript ”
By this method , we can bind an object to a common function
— Bind Method returns a new Function —
Syntax : let new_function = function.bind(object)
let _obj ={
first_name:"xyz",
last_name:"zyx"
} function print(){
console.log(`firstName : ${this.first_name} lastName : ${this.last_name}`)
} let new_function = print.bind(_obj) new_function();
This is how we bind a function to an object using bind() method , we can also pass arguments in bind method
let _obj ={
first_name:"xyz",
last_name:"zyx"
} function print(title){
console.log(`${title} . firstName : ${this.first_name} lastName : ${this.last_name}`)
} let new_function = print.bind(_obj,"Mr") new_function();
Now let us take an example of using bind() method for a function inside an object S yntax : let new_function = object.method.bind(new_object) | https://medium.com/@ashwings/bind-method-in-javascript-315190f341e9 | [] | 2020-12-15 08:49:19.726000+00:00 | ['Javascript Tips', 'JavaScript', 'Javascript Development', 'Programming', 'Coding'] |
Healthquad ropes in Pet Cummins as its brand ambassador | Healthquad said in a statement, Australian cricketer Pat Cummins has been appointed as the brand ambassador of the company.
Read more: Happy B’Day New Zealand Bowler Geoff Allott
“It is a privilege for us to have Pat on board as he personifies the essence of Healthquad. It is an added advantage that Pat is familiar with the Indian health spectrum due to his long association with the IPL. Healthquad Founder of Sanjeev Kaul said.
Read more: David Payne Selected in England Squad for West Indies T20Is
Health and fitness start-up, Healthquad on Thursday said it has raised $1 million (about Rs 7.5 crore) from investors including Australian cricketer Pat Cummins.
Healthquad said its platform aims to provide users with tools to give an accurate health picture. And make changes about their health by considering various parameters. Such as calorie intake, daily step count, sleep patterns, water intake, and calories burned, has been designed. Gives a complete perspective.
Read more: Ben Duckett Extends Heat’s lead to Fourth Place
Cummins said, “The experience of playing in the IPL has given me a valuable insight into the potential of the Indian health and fitness ecosystem. Anything to do with the health tech sector excites me. And I look forward to reinforcing this existing symbiotic relationship with fitness through Heathquad. | https://medium.com/@babacric/healthquad-ropes-in-pet-cummins-as-its-brand-ambassador-3d7c719ba343 | ['Baba Cric'] | 2021-12-24 07:16:25.298000+00:00 | ['Healthquad', 'Cricket', 'Brandambassador', 'Petcummins'] |
6 things to ensure you excel at work as a brand new mom | I have had a fast track career growth at an IT firm, which I have joined straight after college. It’s been almost 9 years now and it has been an extremely enriching experience. Personally, I am very ambitious and I know where I would like to see myself 5 years and 10 years down the lane.
So, almost an year ago, when I learnt that I was going to have twins, I knew things weren’t going to be the same. I was entering a phase of my life where I needed a newer perspective towards everything.
Now my twins are 6 months old and I can confidently say that along with the joy of motherhood ,my career is on track too.
Here is my guidance for all to be and new moms out there from my own personal experience:
1) List down your priorities and goals
I was in a full time job, was pregnant, had nausea through the 9 months and so finding peaceful time to focus on future forward seemed difficult but I knew this was a very important step to complete before I go into labor.
Just find some alone time with a pen and paper. Think about everything you want for yourself , personally and professionally, after you have had your baby ( or babies, like in my case).
I had listed down all my thoughts such as:
I need everyday quality time with my babies
I want to be a hands-on mom
I need my financial freedom, now more than ever, which means I need to continue to work
I need support at home to look after my babies , while I was away for work
At work, I needed an equivalent or a better role , once I return to ensure I am not heading backwards from a career growth perspective
I need flexibility to be able to work from home , when needed
Just list down all your thoughts in a flow. You will be surprised later while reading some of them that you consciously didn’t know needed attention or planning
2) Establish your support system
A support system that understands your thoughts and plans is a MUST for you to succeed and this is both at home and at work. Share your thoughts with your spouse , parents , any other family members , with your boss, your peers and subordinates at work and anyone who you believe plays a role in this journey. Especially with those , who have gone through this journey themselves or via their spouse.
You need all the support , advice , learnings and guidance on any aspects you would’ve overlooked.
Tell them what your priorities and plans are. Be very clear on what is possible vs not possible for you.
Based on all the discussions, be prepared for a fallback plan for anything that seems to be not working out.
For example: I wanted to be able to gradually transition to a less stressful role towards my last trimester, which means I needed someone to transition to my current role at work. That somehow didn’t work out and so we made a fallback plan where I continued in the same role but was enabled to work from home , so that gave me the flexibility and relaxation I needed | https://medium.com/@niharika-gudur/6-things-to-ensure-you-excel-at-work-as-a-brand-new-mom-fe5a0daf91bd | ['Nihu Gudur'] | 2020-05-16 01:41:08.948000+00:00 | ['Careers', 'Woman In Tech', 'Working Parents', 'Career Advice', 'Moms'] |
Who is #GenerationBlockchain? We are. | Blockchain Education Network
I originally got involved in the the Blockchain Education Network (BEN) a few years back when it was still called the College Crypto Network. At the time I was running my own over the counter bitcoin exchange and desperately looking for a community in a similar age group that was centered around this amazing technology.
Within a few hours I was on a video chat speaking with another college student who was helping people like me get connected (region head role). The phone call got me so pumped up and I was chomping at the bits to get involved in any way that I could.
My introduction into the network was so warm and welcoming that I was hoping to be able to offer the same experience to others in the future. Within a few weeks, I had the position. I was not only able to offer the same experience to those that I welcomed to the community, but I was able to learn a tremendous amount in the process. Every conversation unturned a new stone and provided a fresh perspective. Some of these members ended up becoming amazing friends and even co-workers at hackathons and other bitcoin related projects I have worked on.
In an attempt to scale my position and provide even more value to the network, I continued looking for an even more impactful position. Cool thing is that I found just that. I absolutely love this about BEN. If you have the ambition and the drive, there are ample opportunities to assume a leadership position. Currently I am helping build out the organization with so many other rockstar individuals as the director of community development. My role helps other students act as a region head, the previous position I held. Over the past several months, the executive team and I have been able to lay the foundation for an organization that is self sustainable and empowering for all of our members. Damn this shit is cool!
Our Vision: Everyone should have the opportunity to experiment with bitcoin and blockchain. It’s time to scale blockchain socially. We believe blockchain is a global socio-economic experiment best experienced through relationships and collaboration with people near you. So we’re building the laboratories.
Who: We’re the youth leading grassroots bitcoin adoption at our local university campuses and cities. Together with nearby enthusiasts, we build opportunities for our communities to use bitcoin and blockchain in their daily interactions. We learn from our missteps, inspire others with our successes, but most importantly create the foundational human-network for new startups and ideas to iterate within.
Why: We envision an ambitious global economy and we’re not asking for permission to change it. When we travel the world, we seek hubs of like-minded individuals and build new friendships for future collaboration. Through building and managing these trans-border relationships with frictionless blockchain technologies, we’re creating a generation with heightened expectations. One that is demanding a global economic paradigm shift to meet these new expectations.
So as a new student to the network what does this actually mean for you? What does BEN provide?
Network of over 500 students, professors, and professionals from dozens of countries — all interested and involved in the blockchain/bitcoin space Local Network — meetup in person with members that live close to you. Through our region head program you party, geek out, and solve the world with blockchain tech. Free tickets and cheap stay for the biggest and baddest bitcoin/blockchain conferences Sponsored events like blockchain madness (blockchain trivia competition) and bitcoin airdrops (campus bitcoin giveaways) Hackathons deserve their own point. For our next hackathon we partnered with Blockchain Technology Labs (from Boston Consultancy Group). Team up with students from all over the world — coders, designers and hustlers are all needed. Land internships and Jobs at the best startups and cutting edge companies. Past students have been hired at the world’s largest banks, biggest tech firms, and most exciting startups.
I really cannot express enough how valuable this organization has been to me. Since getting involved in the organization I have seen such tremendous improvement in the blockchain movement due directly to this organizations involvement. Students have led impressive research, launched rocking startups, and are infiltrating the entire financial industry.
Simply put, we are #GenerationBlockchain
Learn more at BEN’s website and know you can always reach out to me at [email protected] or (719) 375–9256
Come help us build something remarkable! | https://medium.com/blockchainedu/we-are-generationblockchain-3531333276f4 | ['Cameron Schorg'] | 2016-08-29 13:00:31.692000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Generation Blockchain', 'Fintech'] |
What Programming Language Is Used For Mobile Game Apps? | Mobile game apps have gained much popularity over the past five years with multiple leaps and bounds. It has also changed the way businesses function globally. Every industry or organization is using mobile apps for their productivity because of the rapid innovation in mobile devices across platforms. Hire mobile game developers because they can write multiple versions of an app for different platforms using a single language and many pieces of reusable code.
Now that you are intending to realize your mobile game app idea, let’s validate it. First, know your target market, and choose the platform on which you would like to build your mobile game application. After the basic process, select a programming language, decide your business strategy to make either native, hybrid, or cross-platform apps.
Let’s dive into the pool of programming languages that can be used for your mobile game apps:
HTML5
HTML5 is one of the ideal programming language for web-frontend apps for mobile devices. It makes various data types simple to insert, accounts for different screen sizes, also levels the browser playing field. Keep in mind it has its proposed standard supports by different browsers. HTML5 is a cost-effective language and works on the current version of HTML- making the learning curve much shallower than that for a completely new language.
Objective-C
Well, Objective-C is the primary programming language for iOS apps. Because Apple has chosen it to build robust and scalable apps. However, as a C-language superset so it has several functions that precisely deal with I/o, display functions, graphics.
Now it’s a part of the Apple development framework and fully integrated into all iOS & macOS frameworks. If we talk about the current scenario, it’s being replaced in the Apple ecosystem by Swift programming language.
Swift
As we have talked above about Swift, it is the latest programming language used by the Apple ecosystem. It considers being the best in writing code for Apple’s latest APIs, Cocoa, & Cocoa Touch. I agree they write Swift language to work along with Objective-C and have obvious reasons for iOS developers to turn to Swift for complete programming.
Swift is designed to eliminate the likelihood of many of the security threats possible with Objective-C. Today businesses are looking to hire Swift developers with expertise in developing innovative mobile apps using this language.
C++
C++ is one of the most powerful, familiar, appropriate, and robust programming languages for building mobile apps for Android and Windows- and mainly for low-level programming.
Mobile app developers choose it as a go-to language on several platforms. C++ lets you develop mobile apps for practically every purpose on every platform that exists. It’s not that trendy, but it has dominated the programming world even before the smartphone revolution.
C#
C# is the most known language for Windows Phone app development. The fun fact is C# does the trick for Microsoft that Objective-C does for Apple. However, you can’t use the Windows Phone platform to emerge as the game-changer in the mobile app development industry. But for loyal Microsoft user, C# makes the perfect programming language to build the robust Windows Phone apps.
Java
What to say about Java, It is one of the most preferred and popular languages for Android app development. Java is an object-oriented programming language and can be run in two different ways: With a browser and without a browser as well.
Java programming language provides you flexibility for re-using code and software updates. Whereas Java does not have much to do if you are considering iOS development. It is useful for you with mobile app platforms like cross-platform apps.
Final Thoughts:
Here some are better than others and it depends on the requirement of your project. Eventually, you have to choose the best programming language for your mobile game app development. Glownight is a top mobile game development company. We provide you top game services from unity game development to 2D, 3D, visually appealing games, and much more. | https://medium.com/@glownight-game/what-programming-language-is-used-for-mobile-game-apps-a993f4a8b7f8 | ['Glownight Games'] | 2020-12-17 06:47:03.984000+00:00 | ['2d Game Developer', 'Programming Language', 'Unity Game Developers', 'Unity Game Development'] |
Continuous Delivery in Google Cloud Platform — Cloud Build with App Engine | Agile and DevOps continue spreading among IT projects — and I would say: at a pace that we have never seen before! As the interest in these matters increases, the set of processes and tools which make it possible to deliver better software also increases.
At the end of the software development lifecycle is the delivery “phase”. And if the delivery is not fast, the whole Agile development process may be broken. Modern software should be designed to be fast delivered, using appropriate automation tools. In this context, I’ll write about Continuous Delivery in the Google Cloud Platform. It's a series of 3 articles, covering deployment to App Engine, Compute Engine, and Kubernetes Engine.
Starting with App Engine, GCP’s fully managed serverless application platform, I will show the steps to set up a development + automated build +continuous delivery pipeline. To keep it practical, we’ll create a very simple front-end application and deploy it to App Engine Standard Environment. Please remember we will focus on delivery and not on app development itself.
Before proceeding, make sure you have created a GCP Project and installed Google Cloud SDK in your machine if you wish to run the examples. Don’t forget to run gcloud auth login and gcloud config set project <your-project-id> for proper gcloud CLI usage.
A simple way to create a front-end web application is by using Angular CLI. The steps to install this tool are out of the scope of this article and can be found here. Once installed, cd to your preferred folder and type ng new <app-name> . Wait a few seconds. After the app is created, type cd <app-name> and ng serve . Point your browser to http://localhost:4200 and make sure the app is running. As we have a fully running app, we stop the development here ;). It’s time to think about delivery!
An Angular app is a set of HTML, CSS, JS, images, and other web-related static files. So, what we need to do now is to build the app and deploy it to an HTTP server in order to make it available to the users. To build the Angular app, we run npm install and npm run build --prod in the <app-name> folder. Angular CLI then creates a new dist folder, where it places the ready-to-deploy content. We could figure lots of ways to copy these files to the webserver, but following this path we are adding complexity to our build process, don’t you agree? As we desire simplicity and automation instead of complexity and manual tasks, we’ll learn how to use Cloud Build.
Cloud Build is a Google Cloud Platform fully-managed service that lets you build software quickly across all languages, counting on containers to get the job done. Having that said, let’s prepare our project to use Cloud Build. Add a file named cloudbuild.yaml to your project’s root folder, with the following content:
This simple file instructs Cloud Build on how to build and deploy the app, similar to a Docker multi-stage build. When we invoke Cloud Build using the command gcloud builds submit --config cloudbuild.yaml . , it will compress the project’s source files (a .gitignore file, if present, will be considered in order to determine which files shall be skipped), and copy the tarball to a managed Cloud Storage Bucket. It happens in your development machine.
Then, running on GCP servers, Cloud Build will uncompress the sources and execute npm install in a container of Cloud Build’s built-in image gcr.io/cloud-builders/npm . The second step will use another npm container to run npm run build --prod . The third one will run a container of another Cloud Build’s built-in image, named gcr.io/cloud-builders/gcloud , to execute a gcloud app deploy command.
I've already talked about the 1st and 2nd steps, but not about the 3rd one, gcloud app deploy , so let me do it. This command is responsible for deploying the built content to App Engine and finish the whole delivery process. In order to succeed it requires an app.yaml file in the project’s root folder (see sample content below), the <your-project-number>@cloudbuild.gserviceaccount.com Service Account must have the App Engine Admin role, and the App Engine Admin API must be enabled for the GCP Project in which the app will be deployed. This step replaces copying the built files to an HTTP server — mentioned before — with copying them to GAE Python 2.7 Standard Environment, where they can be served as static content.
Point your browser to https://<your-project-id>.appspot.com or click a service's name in Cloud Console to see the app running on App Engine! Also, visit https://console.cloud.google.com/cloud-build/builds?project=<your-project-id> to check your project’s build history.
App Engine Services page (Cloud Console > Compute > App Engine > Services)
Ok, now we have an almost fully automated deployment process.
— Hey, Ricardo, what do you mean by “almost fully automated”? — I mean GCP can help us doing better than this :).
We have seen how Cloud Build interoperates with Cloud Storage and App Engine, but there’s a missing piece: Source Repositories.
Git is widely used as a source control management tool nowadays. Source Repositories allow you to use GCP as a Git remote repository or to automatically mirror repositories from Github or Bitbucket. Visit https://console.cloud.google.com/code/develop/repo?project=<your-project-id> , click CREATE REPOSITORY, and follow the steps — it’s pretty straightforward.
Once the repository is set, navigate to Cloud Build’s triggers page: https://console.cloud.google.com/cloud-build/triggers?project=<your-project-id> . Click ADD TRIGGER, select a source, a repository, and proceed to trigger settings. Give a name to the trigger, let's say Push to master branch , select Branch as the Trigger type, type master as the Branch (regex), and select cloudbuild.yaml as the Build configuration. Type /cloudbuild.yaml for the cloudbuild.yaml location and save. And here we go: every time a new commit is pushed to master, the build process is automatically triggered. We don’t need to manually execute gcloud builds submit … to trigger the build anymore. The deployment process is now fully automated!
The steps described in this article can be used or customized to deploy any kind of application supported by Google Cloud Platform’s App Engine Standard Environment. Deploying to Flexible Environment requires changes in folders' structure.
The sample code is available on Github: https://github.com/ricardolsmendes/gcp-cloudbuild-gae-angular. Feel free to fork it and play.
Happy deploying :) | https://medium.com/google-cloud/continuous-delivery-in-google-cloud-platform-cloud-build-with-app-engine-8355d3a11ff5 | ['Ricardo Mendes'] | 2020-11-13 20:37:34.014000+00:00 | ['DevOps', 'Continuous Delivery', 'Google Cloud Platform', 'Cloud Build', 'App Engine'] |
A Noisy Relationship Between Autism, Cinema, and the Arts | Recently, my university supervisor asked me about the relationship I have between my autism and my interest in watching, studying, and writing about cinema — a question which I have certainly wrestled with before but never really vocalised or broadcasted; at least not in any substantial form. Given the relative immediacy with which this question was asked, I stumbled over my words and my initial explanation was unclear. All sense of composure seems eradicated, even if only seconds before it felt like I had a firm grasp of it. The words that escaped were alien, as if it were not me talking; as if I had no control over conversational direction. Subjectivity is sort of cruel, especially to someone with autism, where social anxiety and troubled social skills accelerate and collide together. As years have passed by, and as my own self-confidence has grown, I no longer slip as often as I used to. Yet still, under new or stressful situations — and sometimes not — it can return. There are several personally “embarrassing” moments to recall: when trying to explain why I loved John Waters’ Pink Flamingos (1972) to a group of new people — what exactly I said, I can’t remember – I recall mulling over why I explained my adoration in such an awkward and potentially misleading way. In another instance, my supervisor mentioned the Fassbinder film Fear Eats the Soul (1974), another film I had never spoken to anybody about — in my excitement, I tutted and sighed as I trialled to find the right words, but all I could muster was “its got nice colours” (which, in fairness, it does). Outside of film discussions, in conversations with real-world gravity, it has been frustrating; confidence-crumbling; sometimes unintentionally funny, but always dispiriting.
Fear Eats the Soul (dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)
That disconnect — the mishmash of social pressure and my struggles with verbal articulation — sums up one of the main reasons I’ve found such pleasure in writing. There is a touch of mental sobriety to writing, a controlled calmness to articulating my thoughts before I let them loose. Though I am by no means the most proficient or skilled writer, personal improvement of the craft can feel secondary — what matters most to me is that I have a communicative medium where the barriers of social pressure are somewhat more controlled, where I have the space to screw up. The errors that I do make can at least be criticised in a less spontaneous setting, where the debilitating presence of immediate social pressure – as impossible as it can be to register – doesn’t breath down my neck. No doubt I look back on stuff that I’ve written before and disagree with myself or chuckle at some gratuitously flowery or awkward prose, but at least with this I am not entrapped by phonocentrism. It is a similar experience with reading — though I am not the most indulgent reader, whenever I do read, I consistently get the sense that other writers use the medium for similar reasons.
My difficulty with reliable verbal articulation, I like to believe, has some roots both in the stigma of the irrational and in the fact that the initial creation of ‘meaning’ in the personal sense is so often an intensely abstract experience — and with autism, those neurons do not always like to connect in the ways one would assume. So often, language and objective meaning are scrapped/disregarded for a galaxy of other random connections which are interesting to me but are either objectively tenuous or amorphous in their expressions — in truth, this is often a simultaneous occurrence. However, through writing and reading the works of others, it has become clearer to me that there may be meaning after all — and though these connections are fairly “chaotic”, they feel like I am finally expressing a personal truth. Mark Fisher writes about sensing London’s post-rave malaise in between the ghostly pitter-pattered beats of Burial’s self-titled debut album, yet his web of commentary from book-to-book (I highly recommend Ghosts of My Life) and blog-to-blog extends far beyond pop culture critique. He can be talking about Japan’s Tin Drum one moment, then the fall of Jimmy Saville in the next, and then some esoteric British TV drama later on — and yet it all has a sense of connection, deeply rooted in the space between the personal and the political, always tangential but never irrelevant. It established for me that ideas have their own infinitely-rhizomatous tangents and flows, each one as important and crucial as the last. The thrill is in finally being able to form these initially nebulous strands into semi-coherent statements, releasing them onto the world, and hoping the internet does not strike me down in a blaze of keyboard fury when I make a hot take, such as First Man (dir. Damien Chazelle, 2018) possessing some very Trumpian hang-ups which take the form of a little red cap.
As such, I would like to indulge you in one of the more tenuous emotional connections that I consistently make. Listed below are a series of still images, each with a common personal meaning:
Top-left to right: ‘Mon Oncle’ (dir. Jacques Tati), ‘Trees Down Here’ (dir. Ben Rivers), ‘Engram’ (dir. Toshuo Matsumoto), ‘Primer’ (dir. Shane Carruths). Bottom-left to right: ‘Songs from the Second Floor’ (dir. Roy Andersson), ‘Twin Peaks: The Return’ (dir. David Lynch), ‘8 1/2’ (dir. Federico Fellini), ‘Playtime’ (dir. Jacques Tati).
Since I was young, I have possessed a strong abstract fascination with haunting architecture — buildings which emanate the uncanny; an uneasiness which is difficult to pin down. A regular setting in my dreams is the side-passage of a large industrial warehouse, usually on a cold grey day, and always with overgrown nettles and tall verdant bushes. That for me will always be creepier than a haunted house or a graveyard; a huge box of metal and concrete contrasted against thick green foliage. What may seem bizarre is that each of these images stir identical sentiments within me:
· Jacques Tati’s multi-story house from Mon Oncle, with its maze of winding staircases and portals — while no doubt testament to Tati’s sense of comedic visual expression — is entirely irrational, as if constructed from dream logic.
· Ben Rivers’ documentary Trees Down Here covers the same entanglements of concrete and nature, pairing the slow creep of life with the immovable bluntness of Brutalist architecture — the two in conversation.
· Toshuo Matsumoto’s Engram is perhaps the film where I have felt this uneasiness most as of late. The association of its subject to my emotional response is obvious, a Modernist building surrounded by trees and wildlife— but in twisting our perception through jarring cuts and an epileptic repetitive edit, it’s as if the horror behind the nightmare is realised: I can feel the horror in the shakes and instability. Fear is the lack of understanding, and Matsumo to knows how to conjure it out of formal manipulation. I saw this at a screening of Matsumoto’s short documentaries at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2019, sat in a row of uncomfortable plastic chairs in the middle of The Leadmill’s cold re-purposed dancefloor — a climate which, no doubt, influenced things.
· Shane Carruth’s Primer is an odd one here — not so explicitly surrealist or formally confrontational, but certainly that image of vast grassland up against the blank corporate box in the back conjures a similar vein of feeling. And it is perhaps, peculiar as it is, the strongest image I retain from the film.
· Roy Andersson’s Songs from the Second Floor regularly employs these open dreary interiors, almost oppressively-miserable that disregard social realism and sublimate straight into theatrical doldrums. There is something uniquely excruciating about the sheer shallowness of the palette, about the cheek of bringing life to an otherwise dead place. There is movement there, amongst the ash.
· In fairness, this could apply to the entire series. However, the final moments of Twin Peaks: The Return stands out most for me in this context — the simple image of a colonial suburban house crushed by the contextual weight of the trauma, the inexplicable horror, and the fantastic displayed in the past 18 episodes.
· 8½‘s unfinished rocket ship looms above everything else. While it serves as a grand visual reminder of Guido’s own confused and undeveloped artistic and personal endeavours, for me, it works rather too well as a stand-in for the horrors of that architectural dread — a case of shapelessness, meaning in perpetual construction, and the crushing pressure for things to make sense.
· And finally back around to Tati, who’s office buildings in Playtime are a fascinatingly-absurd vision of the formulaic dullness of bureaucratic capitalism. Enough said.
On whatever level, and for whatever reason, these images return to the idea of dissonance. A creative dissonance that shapes itself as an amorphous emotion that creeps in every time I witness it — no matter how subtle, no matter how negligible. Fear of the unknown? The uncanny? That which I cannot control? Whatever name I choose to give it, I have grown to love it. I must accept that sensory chaos is fun. Yet here I must confront the oft-discussed idea of the sensory overload in autistic discourse. In my own autistic experience, the sensory overload is frequently misinterpreted; with many a neurotypical seeing it as a rejection of all sensory excess or excitement — an idea which I feel only reinforces the autistic stereotype of awkward shut-ins who lack empathy, thus Othering us as “aliens”. In my experience, the sensory overload can not be reduced down to just “too much of something going on” — rather, I see it as the multiplied stacking of moments beyond my own personal control. Allow me to illustrate — imagine you are Norville Barnes from the The Hudsucker Proxy (dir. Coen brothers, 1994) on his first day at Hudsucker Industries:
Before he’s even had the opportunity to understand what his job in the mailroom actually is, his boss is already yelling everything that can get his pay slashed, long-term employees are aggressively ordering him about, and his own clear confusion goes by unacknowledged. The insensitive workings of capitalism’s logistical underbelly manifests itself all around as a monotonous dance of grey/black/brown. This is my idea of an autistic sensory overload — but rather than the exaggerated scenario on play here, it is the same tone of personal oppression and lack of control in play within what would otherwise be ordinary circumstances for a neurotypical person. Going to a party with a friend where I don’t know anybody else, in a city I don’t know, with music I have no love for, with a hundred voices speaking and none of them to me—this is my Hudsucker mailroom. An understandably awkward situation, for sure, but with autism, the pressure is far greater — the anxiety can be debilitating, and our reactions atypical. I find it difficult to define the feeling of crippling social alienation as ‘chaotic’, precisely because it is the ‘order’ of things that I find to be foreign — alienating in its unspoken yet inflexible codes. Surrounding myself with overwhelming media, however? That is meditation, and it is in this private meditation that I can allow myself to confront the formally unusual/uncomfortable.
When I consume and write, I search for recognition not in the outwards acceptability of ordered neurotypical taste, but in the ability to confront it; to disassemble it; to question it. That is not to say that I do not appreciate order and symmetry — simply put, this is not the place to discuss it at length. The ideological aesthetics of symmetry and logic are vast and varied, but when used as an attack AGAINST asymmetry and the irrational, this forms the catalyst for creative fascism. Here, however, it is time for me to enjoy the arts that allow for the misfiring of logic — thriving on dissonance and disorder. In music, the abrasiveness of noise and the hypnosis of drone make more sense to me now than ever before. With a rather appropriate moniker, All Against Logic’s 2012–2017 begins with “This Old House Is All I Have”, a soul-inflected dance number with chasmic booms that crunch and hiss like a broken CD, but you carry on dancing regardless. Low’s ‘Always Trying to Work It Out’ from the album Double Negative thunders into a cathartic peak of sonic fuzz, crippled and distorted, as if the cold warehouses of modern online streaming services can barely contain it. Earl Sweatshirt’s Some Rap Songs rides on fractured musical suggestions — jumpy patchwork samples while Earl’s hazed flows intrude like scratches on a vinyl’s surface; seemingly both out-of-place and right-at-home in both its digital and analogue existences. Then there’s Earth 2 which speaks for itself. For all of this, the same confrontational aesthetics I love can be found in some of my favourite pieces of cinema: Performance (dir. Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell, 1970) / Beau Travail (dir. Claire Denis, 1999) / Zama (dir. Lucrecia Martel, 2017) / Safe (dir. Todd Haynes, 1995) / The Gleaners and I (dir. Agnes Varda, 2000) — just off the top of my head.
Contrary to what the assumptions of my autism suggest, I do not (and cannot) seek comfort in the normal because fundamentally there is not a whole lot to take true comfort in. I feel far safer and far more at home in the confines of a creative and social landscape that is open to chaos and dissonance, the abstract and the irrational. Rather than one that is so rigid; so top-down and sycophantic in the way it curates existence; and so often condescendingly neurotypical. It is one of authoritarian rationalism. Where Mark Fisher professed that ‘capitalist realism’ suggests that it has become a presumed impossibility to imagine a logical existence without capitalism, I’d likewise suggest a “neurotypical realism” — a social landscape which is perceived as being so natural and rational, so assumed as the norm, that the existence of those who question it are denied a voice; and thus we Other ourselves as freaks. I guess this extends elsewhere — as a part of why I find such dissatisfaction with such things as gender and labour (each with a degree of regretful submission). And though I will struggle to actually escape any of this, I can only hope that within my moments of privacy — as I prepare for life post-Master’s degree — I can keep on writing and continue to gorge on pop culture forever with this constant autistic dissatisfaction keeping me alive, aware, anarchistic, and angry. | https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/a-noisy-relationship-between-autism-cinema-and-the-arts-6374467d8240 | ['Dan E. Smith'] | 2020-11-13 13:28:44.127000+00:00 | ['Noise', 'Autism', 'Sensory Overload', 'Cinema', 'Building'] |
The Books We Read in High School | The Books We Read in High School
And the books we should be reading instead
Photo by Jeffrey Hamilton on Unsplash
I never read The Catcher in the Rye when I was supposed to.
The progressive high school I went to didn’t assign it. We read Brave New World while the rest of the country’s tenth graders read To Kill a Mockingbird. My Honors English class unpacked Les Miserables (yes, really — all seven-hundred pages of it) when every other fifteen-year-old was getting through The Scarlet Letter. And before I got to the progressive school, I survived ninth grade on an Army base where we read Catch-22.
Surprise, surprise.
So I didn’t get to Of Mice and Men when other students did. I’d read Lord of the Flies in middle school, and when my teacher realized most of us had, we didn’t bother with the debate over nature versus nurture. We simply moved on to Othello quicker than we were supposed to.
And when I did finally read The Catcher in the Rye outside of a class’s curriculum?
I gotta say I was underwhelmed.
This may be an unpopular opinion amongst my community of fellow bookworms, but I cannot flipping stand The Catcher in the Rye. I appreciate that it captured New York City in the fifties so well. I appreciate that it is a difficult undertaking to poignantly encapsulate a teenage experience in a single work of fiction.
But good gracious, Salinger, who hurt you?
Oh, wait. It was a revolving door of women you thought you had feelings for. Got it.
I didn’t read it for a class, and I’m glad. I know a handful of students I would have gleefully dug into during classroom discussions about this book, and such spitfire conversations were (thankfully) avoided. Yet every chat I’ve had about the book since has begun with another person telling me, “Oh, yeah, I had to read that for school.”
I’m glad we were assigned to read The Color of Water instead.
It’s time for high schools everywhere to move on from the so-called “classics”. For goodness’ sake, find something that’s been published within the last fifty years. Center your syllabus around books that have characters who know what an iPhone is. No wonder today’s teenagers carve out space on the internet where they can cultivate stories of their own. No wonder so many of them find Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales tiresome. I can’t say I blame them. | https://marypepperobrien.medium.com/the-books-we-read-in-high-school-a9aaaa7b83e | ['Mary', 'Pepper'] | 2019-09-23 17:43:26.953000+00:00 | ['Reading', 'Books', 'Literature', 'Writing', 'Education'] |
The Antarctic Dream: A Voyage to the Fragile Ecosystem and How Earth Observation Can Protect It | As part of UP42’s Partnership team, I speak to organizations looking to reach new markets and enable fascinating geospatial solutions to solve Earth’s challenges.
In my free time, my love of exploration has taken me to places like Everest Base Camp, Revillagigedo Archipelago, and last year when we were still able to travel; Antarctica.
The first time I heard that it was possible to visit Antarctica was when I watched the documentary by the genius filmmaker Werner Herzog, Encounters At the End of the World.
This idea stayed with me for years until last December 2019, when the dream became a reality and reality became a dream.
In this blog post, just over a year later, I’ll take you on my voyage to the end of the world through my experiences, photos, and learnings, as well as share why protecting the fragile region, is critical, now more than ever.
But first, since I took this trip 12 months ago, here are 12 quick facts about Antarctica:
The word Antarctica comes from the Greek term “Antarktike”, meaning the opposite of Arctic or north. Antarctica is larger than Europe and almost double the size of Australia. The South Pole is found in Antarctica. Antarctica is considered a continent and is the southernmost continent on Earth. Most of Antarctica is covered by ice that is over 1.6 kilometers thick. Antarctica is surrounded by the Southern Ocean with a latitude of 60° S. There is no Aurora Borealis. In winter (March-September), there is an Aurora Australis or the Southern Lights. Antarctica is the windiest place on Earth, with wind speeds of over 350 kilometers per hour. Antarctica is the driest continent, with an icy desert and very little rainfall throughout the year. Around 90% of all ice on Earth is found in Antarctica. It is seasonally surrounded by up to 20,000,000 square kilometers (larger than Russia) of sea ice, which forms every winter and melts away to just 3,000,000 (roughly Argentina, mainly in the Weddell Sea) every summer Antarctica has one of the largest biomasses on Earth, with an estimated 100–500 million tonnes of krill in the Southern Ocean, which is why… 50% of all marine mammals live or are found passing through Antarctica
Fragile ecosystem
I knew I wanted to do something more than tourism when I visited the planet’s southern tip.
So, I reached out to Fraser Morgan, a researcher from the FOSS4G community. He is Science Team Leader at Landcare Research-and I wanted to support his research on the __impacts of human activities on the Antarctic environment.
A few weeks before my trip, I was in New Zealand for the FOSS4G Oceania Conference. There, it became apparent the kind of precautions in place to protect Antarctica’s fragile ecosystem. The immigration examinations ensure that no pests have been brought into the region.
Since those were pre-pandemic days, I had been traveling through Germany (where UP42 is based), New Zealand, Qatar, and Mexico (my home country) in the period of a month.
This raised an imminent biological alarm for the authorities in New Zealand, and I was quite rightly quizzed about where I, and the shoes I was wearing, had been.
Traveling responsibly is even more critical when visiting Antarctica since tourist boots can act as vectors for disease transmission-something we’re aware of now more than ever!
We were given authorized boots and had to go through a boot disinfection procedure every time we disembarked or boarded our vessel.
Setting sail
It has to be said, it’s not very easy to get to Antarctica. In my case, my vessel departed from Ushuaia and took 2 days to cross the Drake Passage -one of the most tumultuous bodies of water in the world.
I took screenshots of my location during the journey using OpenStreetMap as a basemap to capture our voyage across the Drake Passage
This rough ride is because currents meet from several different oceans, such as the Pacific, Atlantic, and Southern, as well as the Cape Horn currents.
When crossing the Drake Passage, the legend goes that the kind of turbulence you face depends on Drake’s mood. I was told that we would either face Drake’s ‘shake’ or Drake’s ‘lake.’
I most definitely experienced Drake’s shake! After ten hours in a medium intensity storm, seeing chairs and water bottles flying around my cabin, I realized how rough sailing in a strong storm could be!
Our vessel was the Ortelius, named after the first modern atlas’ creator, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum in 1570.
It is a class UL1 icebreaker vessel and can navigate in solid one year sea ice and loose multi-year pack ice.
I’ve created 3D photos of the journey using Mapillary which you’re able to view here, here, and here.
In Antarctica
Upon arrival, after waiting for so long and weathering Drake’s shake, the calm ocean was a welcome surprise-as were the wildlife that welcomed us! We spotted fin whales, orcas, and humpback whales.
In the days that followed, we also saw Wendell seals, gentoo penguins, chinstrap and Adélie penguins, minke whales, and had a close encounter with a Leopard Seal.
We were able to disembark at assigned spots in the Antarctic peninsula.
I soon became accustomed to the kind of procedures for cleaning and disinfecting, to avoid introducing any foreign species to the pristine environment.
The rules were clear: we were to take nothing but photographs and memories and leave nothing behind.
We also were instructed to not be any closer than 5 meters if we encountered any Antarctic wildlife such as curious penguins or seals.
Part of my trip’s objective was to support with some data collection for Fraser’s research on the impact of people in Antarctica.
Unfortunately, before leaving Germany, the GPS devices didn’t make it on time from New Zealand. But, while I was unable to use Fraser’s GPS devices, I did collect a few GPS tracks with my phone and Lat/Long coordinates of the vessel trip logs.
The scientists in the project have been collecting more than 15 years of human activity data to study where people in Antarctica go and it’s impact.
Human activities, particularly construction and transport, have led to disturbances of Antarctic flora and fauna. For example, a small number of non-indigenous plant and animal species has become established in the area.
In the face of the continued expansion of human activities in Antarctica, human activity research aims to implement measures that protect the Antarctic environment-including its intrinsic wilderness and scientific values.
By measuring and assessing human impact at various spatial and temporal scales, researchers can identify the effect and, through a sample collection- determine how pristine the area is.
*I documented my Antarctic journey through videos and photos.*
Why is Antarctica so important for Earth?
Antarctica has a significant role in the Earth’s heat balance.
Ice is reflective, whereas land and water tend to absorb light and increase temperatures. The massive Antarctic ice sheet reflects a large amount of solar radiation away from the Earth’s surface.
When sheets and glaciers melt and disappear, the reflectivity of the Earth’s surface also decreases.
This means more incoming solar radiation is absorbed by the Earth’s surface, causing the ice to melt and sea levels to rise.
We already know what can happen next and are now facing the reality of dramatic changes in our environment.
What we have been witnessing in Australia, California, and so many other regions, unfortunately, makes it clear that we humans are reacting to the climate crisis very late.
I was prepared for dramatically low temperatures due to the changing climate. However, I was surprised to have had one day that was 17° C. This is something for us to be very worried about.
In Antarctica, we can find over 50% of all marine mammals in the world. However, some of them have almost become extinct after whaling began on a large scale in the early 20 Century.
How can research and Earth observation data support Antarctica?
Researching Antarctica
Until September 2018, we had a more detailed map of Mars than we did of Antarctica.
There is so much to discover about the white continent.
Research in multiple fields is taking place, such as studies from scientists in the FOSS4G community, including the scientist I supported, Fraser Morgan, who evaluates human impact in the area.
Alongside Fraser, the team at the Norweigan Polar Institute, has developed Quantarctica, a collection of geographical datasets that include community-contributed, peer-reviewed data from ten different scientific themes. Initiated and maintained by Kenichi Matsuoka, Quantarctica is a useful tool for the research community, classrooms, and for operational use in Antarctica. It contains Antarctic datasets such as base maps, satellite imagery, glaciology, and geophysics data from around the world, prepared for viewing in QGIS.
Antarctic Data Analysis, or ADA, helps to provide the context to assist the Antarctic policy community without the need for GIS expertise.
A research project by Dr. Adam Steer, helped to estimate sea-ice thickness at the meter-scale, using airborne Lidar and tools for one-ground measurements. These help us understand detailed physical and ecological systems in sea-ice, and interpret satellite observations.
Now, he is researching Arctic sea ice as part of his post-doctorate at the Norwegian Polar Institute.
The current pandemic has not stopped polar science. There are many other kinds of research underway, beyond geographic and oceanographic disciplines, including marine biology.
Marine Scientist Pippa Low specializes in marine mammals and leads the efforts to build the first Southern Ocean-wide photo ID catalog for Leopard Seals.
She applies citizen science technologies developed by Happy Whale to identify and protect whales, to do the same for Leopard Seals.
This beautiful and “smiley” creature is one of the top Antarctic predators and the least known. There is still so much to be discovered!
Using Earth observation satellites
At UP42, we are creating the largest geospatial marketplace and platform in one-where you can combine multiple datasets with third party algorithms.
We offer Earth observation (EO) satellite data from the Copernicus Programme constellations such as Sentinel 1, 2, 3, and 5P, as well as supporting algorithms for polar regions, oceans, maritime, forestry, coastal management, climate change, and more.
On our blog, we cover data stories where you can find examples of how we help to solve these challenges.
Every day, we are speaking with and welcoming new partners who bring valuable geospatial products on board.
To continue growing the UP42 marketplace, we are always on the lookout for people creating data and analytics tools to partner with us, including those that can support research in various regions of the globe, especially the areas facing more risk, such as the polar regions.
Please get in touch with me to bring yours to UP42.
Another exciting new satellite that will be able to support with research is Sentinel-6.
Recently launched on 21 November 2020, the new Copernicus satellite will monitor sea-level rise through high precision ocean altimetry measurements. Sentinel-6 will continue important sea-surface research and measure 95% of the ice-free sea levels every ten days until at least 2030.
The satellite will be joined by its twin, Sentinel-6B, in 2025, and together, they will make up the Sentinel-6/Jason-CS mission.
With the global mean sea level rising, this kind of EO data is crucial to monitoring changes worldwide, but especially in our vulnerable polar and coastal region.
Over 680 million people live in coastal areas less than 10 meters above sea level-this is expected to increase to a billion by 2050.
The future of Antarctica
Thanks to the Antarctic Treaty from 1961, currently signed by 53 countries, Antarctica is officially designated as “a natural reserve devoted to peace and science”.
In 2016, the Ross Sea became the largest marine protected area with 1.57m sq km of the Southern Ocean, gaining commercial fishing protection for 35 years.
This is very positive, but we still need to figure out how to mitigate or reverse the melting icebergs and ice-sheets -which are currently ongoing and will have disastrous effects for life on Earth.
Last October, the Polarstern vessel arrived at Bremerhaven port carrying more than 150 Terabytes of data after one year drifting in the arctic region. The MOSAiC Expedition (Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) is the largest arctic science expedition so far in history.
The mission leader, Markus Rex, summarized what the researchers found “we witnessed how the Arctic ocean is dying”.
Antarctica is the last place on the planet where we can still find nature in its most pristine state of beauty.
Even one year later, it is hard for me to believe that I traveled the same route as explorers, adventurers, as well as, unfortunately, problematic whalers and sealers.
For now, as the world undergoes a rapid change in more ways than ever, I hope this look back at my Antarctic dream gives you a glimpse into the past and inspires you to protect the future. | https://medium.com/@mapanauta/the-antarctic-dream-a-voyage-to-the-fragile-ecosystem-and-how-earth-observation-can-protect-it-7fc5b7e8c598 | [] | 2020-12-23 00:09:51.777000+00:00 | ['Space', 'Earth', 'Antarctica', 'Satellite Technology', 'Climate Change'] |
Simple Linear Regression | Simple Linear Regression
An introductory ML algorithm to get started
In this article, we hope to provide a concise exploration of one of the most fundamental ML algorithms: Simple Linear Regression.
Linear regression is intuitive but powerful. For example: given a quantity of goods, we want to predict the price at which a company will sell. Data on past sales are represented by Xs on the chart. These contain actual data on how many goods the company sold (x-axis) and at what price (y-axis).
Simple Linear Regression with Quantity and Price
The goal of linear regression is to fit a line to the shape of the data points as close as possible. Then, for any given x (quantity of goods) we can estimate/predict the y value (price) using the equation of the regression line. It’s considered simple or univariate because we are trying to predict y with only one input variable x.
Key Terms and Definitions
Variables
m: Number of training examples in our data.
Number of training examples in our data. x: Our input values.
Our input values. y: Our output values.
Hypothesis
Our hypothesis is the equation of the line: it uses x to estimate y values.
Hypothesis Function
The hypothesis is a linear function, given fixed real constants of θ₀ and θ₁. The θ₀ term represents the y-intercept — the value of y when x is 0. The θ₁ term represents the slope.
A cost function is a measure of how well the line fits the data. We use mean squared error (MSE); a cost function that measures the average difference between predicted and actual values.
Cost Function: Mean Squared Error
MSE is the metric by which we judge if our line is a good fit. For all m pairs of data, we calculate the difference between the expected value h(xᵢ) and the actual value yᵢ, known as the residual. We square the result to get a positive value, because we only care about the magnitude of the difference. Finally, we add the residual from each data pair, and divide by the number of pairs m to get the average error across all pairs. Actually, we divide by 2m, which is half the average error. This makes calculating the derivative easier, and doesn’t affect our comparison of cost functions for different values of θ₀ and θ₁.
Residuals in MSE
The higher our MSE, the worse our estimates will be, because our data points lie further from our prediction line. The lower our MSE, the better our estimates will be, because our prediction is closer to the data points.
Therefore, the goal of linear regression is to find values of θ₀ and θ₁ for the hypothesis which minimize the MSE cost function. Formally, we want to:
Gradient Descent
Gradient descent describes the approach we use to find the values of θ₀ and θ₁ which minimize our cost function. If we graph our cost (a function of θ₀ and θ₁) it will look something like this:
The basic idea is, starting at random coordinates (θ₀, θ₁), we want to take a step, moving closer to the minimum point by descending in a downward direction. We repeat this process until we converge at the minimum — no matter which direction we move in, our cost J will only increase. At this point, we have found coordinates (θ₀, θ₁) that minimize J. Formally:
Remember, J refers to our cost function. θⱼ refers to the current value of either θ₀ or θ₁. The ∂ symbol refers to the partial derivative, and finally α refers to the step size.
At every iteration, for both θ₀ and θ₁ we update their value to move slightly closer to the minimum point. We multiply our step size α by the derivative term, and subtract it from our current value of θⱼ allowing us to gradually move towards the minimum.
Smaller values of a mean we descend the slope slowly. However, larger values of a could mean we overshoot the minimum, and sometimes fail to return a minimized solution. Consider the case where we are very close to the minimum. The derivative term tells us to move towards the minimum point, but if our value of a is very large, we will move too far in the direction of the minimum and might end up climbing far up the slope on the other side.
Gradient Descent and Linear Regression
Putting it all together, the general idea is that we want to train our algorithm using gradient descent to minimize our cost function, and then plug the values of θ₀ and θ₁ into our hypothesis function h(x) = θ₀ + θ₁x. We then use the hypothesis to estimate y given x.
Find θ₀ and θ₁ with Gradient Descent
Expanding gradient descent and solving for the partial derivative, we get the algorithm below. We start at a random (θ₀, θ₁) location, and gradually descend to our minimum cost, updating θ₀ and θ₁ with each iteration. When we converge at the minimum, we return the values of θ₀ and θ₁. These are the optimal values of θ₀ and θ₁ because they minimize our MSE cost function J.
Use Hypothesis to Estimate
Now that we have the optimal values for θ₀ and θ₁, we simply plug them into our hypothesis function h(x) = θ₀ + θ₁x. When making a prediction on a given x value, we simply:
Conclusion
The bottom line is that linear regression is a powerful introductory ML algorithm. We try to fit a line to the data, measuring closeness of fit by minimizing our cost function, and then use the line to estimate values of y given values of x. Here, we explored univariate linear regression, but multivariate linear regression is more frequently used, because most problems depend on multiple input variables. For data that doesn’t have a linear shape, we might need to look to look to higher order polynomials, such as quadratic regression. But univariate linear regression is (more) simple, giving us a good place to start learning.
This article was inspired by Andrew Ng’s Machine Learning Course on Coursera, available here: https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning. | https://medium.com/m2mtechconnect/simple-linear-regression-5dab9f9fcca2 | ['Sherwyn D Souza'] | 2020-07-01 04:29:44.068000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Regression', 'Linear Regression', 'Data Science', 'Univariate Analysis'] |
Why Artificial Intelligence, you ask? | Artificial Intelligence has moved from the foxed pages of science fiction to the reality that is touching all our lives. Most days have a fresh story of AI innovation to share. Knowingly or unknowingly, our lives have been touched by artificial intelligence in ways that were previously unimaginable. 2016 witnessed an unfolding of AI into the lives of ordinary people- as a trustworthy companion, as a genius assistant.
Evidently, the long line of AI innovations aim to better the lives of humans. The newer inventions coming to revolutionize our personal lives are examples of AI helping us to ‘live easy’. Amazon’s personal assistant Alexa’s latest integration is an “AI doctor”, simulation of a doctor’s in-person visit, offering insights. Think about the relief such a service can create to the elderly or disabled (and even hypochondriacs!). Or Moley, a robot Master Chef. Imagine having access to any recipe from across the world, cooked and served- That’s Moley for you. A Harvard University research used an algorithm to diagnose depression just by analyzing the person’s Instagram pictures. When mental health is often overlooked in the fast paced world, this research by Harvard gives us a glimmer of hope on how machines can improve human lives.
At workplaces, Artificial Intelligence is bringing a transformation that was previously unforeseen. Radical in every sense, AI has brought a change in how we imagine work and workplace. The repetitive tasks at work were considered as a given with any office job, until recently. Thankfully, many repetitive tasks ranging from calendaring to towel delivery at hotels are now automated by artificial intelligence. We witness how AI has disrupted professions such as Talent Acquisition and Human Resources management, transportation, law among others. Interestingly, automation itself is seeing a shift from usual physical activities to works that require cognitive abilities; something that was believed to be beyond the hold of a robot. A recent study by McKinsey Global Institute reveals that about half of all current work activities can be automated by 2055. Another study by Adobe showed that more than 89% of the participants are positive about the benefits of bringing robots to work place. This leads us to imagine a future workplace where humans and robots work together to achieve the business goals.
The human-robot cohort in the work space is an evolution that has already begun to happen in its minute forms. Industry 4.0, as it is fondly called, is the ‘smart factory’ enabled by the Internet of Things and humans in manufacturing industries. Smart factory removes humans from unsafe work environments by delegating such tasks to robots. In HR field, for example, by providing an AI powered assistant to recruiters, we hope to utilize the immense potential of our algorithm to coordinate interviews effortlessly. This frees up time for recruiters to focus on improving the quality of real time interaction with the candidates. In fact, by bringing the bot into the work space, the quality of human interactions get accentuated, while the repetitive task is performed by machines more efficiently with zero errors. Embracing a bot, thus creates a win-win situation for the organization. In addition to automating repetitive tasks, robots are built for storing, processing, and analyzing huge chunks of data. We are creating data each moment; think about the insights we get after analyzing the data which is produced over a period of time. More than anything, these data driven inputs are going to drive the growth of your business. Artificial Intelligence, thus in its own ways, become crucial to the success of a business. While we are currently at the infant stages of human-robot cohort, digital transformation of work spaces will advance into the adoption of more sophisticated AI.
The future is knocking on your doors. Powering up your organization with artificial intelligence has now become more important than ever. Not only it gives a competitive advantage, AI is destined to take your business goals to a different level of success. Are you still waiting?
Hope you liked the article. Subscribe to get such articles straight to your inbox. We don’t spam, on principle! | https://medium.com/my-ally/why-artificial-intelligence-you-ask-571d9cde93c1 | ['My Ally'] | 2017-02-24 16:28:02.733000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Bots', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Al Ai', 'AI'] |
What are the Metrics for Measuring Company Culture? | In any organization it is important to understand the metrics for measuring company culture. It’s important to have goals, but goals don’t mean much if you have no way of tracking your progress. I think that’s the problem a lot of business leaders have with company culture. It’s not that they don’t understand it, nor that they don’t see the merit in making cultural improvements. Often, though, they struggle to know whether their efforts are working — whether their culture is really improving at all.
It’s a hard thing to measure, yet not impossible. In fact, there are several key metrics you can use to track the evolution of your corporate culture.
Measuring Company Culture
A few of those metrics include:
Communication. Are your employees all on the same page with regard to your company’s mission and values? Do you find that your current communication channels are effective, or are there frequently communication breakdowns in your company? Are conflicts common? Are they dealt with effectively when they arise? Culture fosters clear communication — and if you see obvious communication flaws, that’s a sign that there’s still work to be done in culture building!
Are your employees all on the same page with regard to your company’s mission and values? Do you find that your current communication channels are effective, or are there frequently communication breakdowns in your company? Are conflicts common? Are they dealt with effectively when they arise? Culture fosters clear communication — and if you see obvious communication flaws, that’s a sign that there’s still work to be done in culture building! Collaboration. In keeping with the last one, do your employees work together well? Do you have to tell them to use teamwork, or does that come naturally to them? Strong work cultures are environments in which teams flourish and people work together in unity.
In keeping with the last one, do your employees work together well? Do you have to tell them to use teamwork, or does that come naturally to them? Strong work cultures are environments in which teams flourish and people work together in unity. Innovation. What’s the last great idea your team developed? Are you all adept at thinking outside of the box? Great culture lends itself to innovation, and creates an atmosphere in which everyone feels comfortable offering bold ideas for consideration.
What’s the last great idea your team developed? Are you all adept at thinking outside of the box? Great culture lends itself to innovation, and creates an atmosphere in which everyone feels comfortable offering bold ideas for consideration. Health and Wellness . Are your employees physically fit and mentally able — or are they constantly stressed out or burnt out? Do your employees take a lot of sick time? Are they generally sluggish or inefficient? If your team members are unhealthy, there’s a good chance that your culture is, too.
Are your employees physically fit and mentally able — or are they constantly stressed out or burnt out? Do your employees take a lot of sick time? Are they generally sluggish or inefficient? If your team members are unhealthy, there’s a good chance that your culture is, too. Support. Do your employees feel like you support them? Do they feel like you’re looking out for them, for their families, for their futures? In a healthy company culture, your employees will feel like they have all the resources and support they need to thrive!
Do your employees feel like you support them? Do they feel like you’re looking out for them, for their families, for their futures? In a healthy company culture, your employees will feel like they have all the resources and support they need to thrive! Customer service. Finally: Healthy company culture creates an environment in which customer service is a priority. If your culture is getting better, your customers should be getting happier!
The bottom line for business leaders is that culture is worth investing in — and there are absolutely some ways to track your investment’s progress!
Dr. Rick Goodman CSP is a thought leader in the world of leadership and is known as one of the most sought after team building experts in the United States and internationally.
He is famous for helping organizations, corporations, and individuals with systems and strategies that produce increased profits and productivity without having the challenges of micro managing the process. Some of Dr. Rick’s clients include AT&T, Boeing, Cavium Networks, Heineken, IBM, and Hewlett Packard. | https://medium.com/@drrickgoodman/what-are-the-metrics-for-measuring-company-culture-d701c6363995 | ['Dr Rick Goodman'] | 2020-12-07 15:30:10.642000+00:00 | ['Company Culture', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Team Building', 'Teamwork', 'Leadership'] |
Probability concept by Boolean Logic | I have first learned about probability in grade 10, and since then I have come across probability problems many times in college and then in university. But I was terrible at finding probabilities. I’d often randomly guess the answer. Sometimes, I’d refer any math books and some fancy online courses and then try to solve probability examples on my own but unfortunately, I’d hardly get the correct answer. Now, as I am working with Data Science problems almost every day, I have to calculate probabilities many times and so I decided to learn it thoroughly.
Recently, I learned a new way to find probability through Boolean Logic which was the easiest way I have ever encountered. Now I can calculate any problems very quickly, so I felt that a lot of people, who can’t solve the probability problems, can easily obtain accurate probability result next time from this article.
Definition
P robability of an event A is defined as the ratio of two numbers a and b is, P(A) = a/b, where a is the number of ways which are favorable to the occurrence of A and b is the total of the number of outcomes of the event.
In simple terms, probability refers to the chance or likelihood of a particular event happening.
Terminologies
Event: An event is an outcome of an experiment.
Experiment: An experiment is a process which is performed to understand and observe all possible outcomes.
Sample set: A sample set is a set of all outcomes of an experiment.
Addition Rules for computing probability
Addition rule for mutually exclusive events: P(A ∪ B) = P(A) + P(B). Addition rule for not mutually exclusive events: P(A ∪ B) = P(A) + P(B) - P(A ∩ B).
Probability by Boolean way
Suppose there are two events A and B which are not mutually exclusive then, the addition rule is,
P(A ∪ B) = P(A) + P(B) - P(A ∩ B). — — — (1)
Now, by using Boolean Theory, it can be proved that both the equations are the same.
The event A is counted as the addition of the event A taking place when the event B is present [A B] and when event B is not present [A (~B)] which is shown below:
A = A B + A (~B) ∴ A (~B) = A - A B
Similarly,
B = B A + B (~A) ∴ B (~A) = B - B A
Now,
A or B = A B + A (~B) + B (~A)
Put the values of A (~B) and B (~A) respectively in the above equation,
A or B = A B + A - A B + B - B A, where A B gets cancelled out,
therefore, the remaining part is A or B = A + B - A B
∴ P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B) - P(A and B)
∴ P(A ∪ B) = P(A) + P(B) - P(A ∩ B) which is equal to the first equation.
Examples
From a pack of well-shuffled cards, a card is drawn at random, then what is the probability that the selected card is a king or a diamond?
King (K) or Diamond (D) = K D + K (~D) + D (~K) = 1 + 3 + 12 = 16
Probability = Favorable instances / Total instances = 16 / 52
Note:
If for instance, for a king in a deck of cards, then there are two approaches you can take into consideration.
The frequency approach is where K + (~K) = 52 (because the total cards are 52). The proportional approach is where K + (~K) = 1 or 100 %.
The employees of a company were surveyed on their educational background (whether they have any degree or not) and marital status (either single or married). Out of 800 employees, 500 has college degrees, 200 were single, and 150 were single college graduates. The probability that an employee of the company is single or has a college degree is:
A boolean table to describe four different conditions.
Here, S refers to an employee being single, whereas (~S) means married. Likewise, D refers to having a college degree, while (~D) means not a college graduate.
Now, when we enter the values from the question, we get the following table.
Explanation of the above table
To begin with, we had 500 college graduates, so total D would be 500. Out of which 150 were single, so [S D] cell is filled up with 150. so, [(~S) D] cell would automatically be 500 - 150 = 350. Therefore, the first column is filled up.
Now, there were 200 single employees, so total S would be 200. Out of total 200 single employees, 150 were having a college degree, so the number of single employees who are not college graduates [S (~D)] cell would be 200 - 150 = 50. At last, the total number of employees who are neither single nor having any college degrees are 800 - [150 + 50 + 350] = 250.
The question is to find the probability of employees who are either single or have a college degree,
S or D = S D + (~S) D + S (~D) = 150 + 350 + 50 = 550 Probability (S ∪ D) = Favorable instances / Total instances = 550 / 800 = 11 / 16
Thus, this is how you can calculate any probability problems by creating a 2 x 2 table and then divide favorable events over total events. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/probability-concept-by-boolean-logic-fc4297c1fbf4 | ['Maulik Vyas'] | 2020-06-24 15:47:30.469000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Probability', 'Mathematics'] |
Claiming Public Space for Important Gods : Notes on Brazil | Rio by David G. Young.
In Need of Healing
As I said at the start of this essay, Ossanha must be busy these days.
When David and I visited Rio’s Botanical Garden on Feb. 8, 2020, there were not yet any confirmed cases of COVID-19 in South America. The first one was reported on Feb. 25, diagnosed in a man who had returned from Europe to Brazil’s largest city, São Paulo. The rapid global spread of COVID-19 would force us to cut short our time in South America.
David and I left Brazil on March 17. By that time, Brazil had suffered its first coronavirus-related death, and there were 291 confirmed cases in the country.
As of May 22, Brazil had an estimated 310,087 cases of COVID-19 and 20,047 deaths, according to the New York Times coronavirus tracker.
Rio’s Botanical Garden is closed for an indefinite time, as are beautiful parks in other countries. Rules about quarantine have disrupted religious practices of many kinds in Brazil, as they have around the world.
Brazil’s Globo.com reported last month on how a Candomblé community in the southern Brazilian city of Petrolina, was coping. In this religion, adherents regularly gather for ceremonies centered around music and dance. (Note: There is a link at the end of this essay to a bibliography with full details on this Globo.com piece and all other articles mentioned here.)
During the pandemic, Pai (Father) Adeilson of this Candomblé community of Petrolina told Globo’s G1 news service that his fellow worshippers had to forego their regular gatherings. They missed the drumming and joining together in prayer.
But only emergency spiritual care can be given during the pandemic — and this only with great caution, Pai Adeilson told G1. Below is a translation of his quote in the article and then the original.
“There is alcohol gel, they stay a little distant from me. Very few people come here. They wear masks. We stay distant from each other. It’s very strange, (Tem álcool em gel, eles ficam um pouco distante de mim. Pouquíssimas pessoas vêm aqui, usam a máscara, ficamos distante um do outro, mas muito raro),” he said.
In Salvador da Bahia, the hometown of artist Tatti Moreno, a beloved image of Christ known as Senhor do Bonfim (Lord of the Good End) was carried through the streets on April 2. In Candomblé, the Senhor do Bonfim is associated with Oxalá, father of the orixas and creator of humankind.
The procession was meant to comfort people, letting them see the Senhor do Bonfim from their windows even as the pandemic halted church services. Parades, usually a staple of Brazilian celebrations, were banned from this procession of Senhor do Bonfimof due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In normal times, Salvador’s Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim attracts large crowds. It’s one of the world’s loveliest pilgrimage sites, drawing people of many faiths, and people with no particular spiritual affiliation. They take comfort from the stores of hope and good will brought to this church. There is a tradition of tying ribbons at the gate of the church in search of blessings, as shown in the photo below of the church. I added red arrows to point out the ribbons. And that’s me in the other photo below, tying a ribbon in honor of a friend. | https://dooleyyoung.medium.com/claiming-public-space-for-important-gods-notes-on-brazil-c9d0463817f8 | ['Kerry Dooley Young'] | 2020-06-05 11:53:50.301000+00:00 | ['World', 'History', 'Brazil', 'Travel', 'Art'] |
Implementation of Principal Component Analysis(PCA) in K Means Clustering | Let us code!
About the dataset : It contains 217 columns of hobbies, where 1 means yes.
So, first step will be to import all the necessary libraries.
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from sklearn.cluster import KMeans
from sklearn.decomposition import PCA
Next step will be to load our dataset. I have downloaded a dataset from Kaggle.
df = pd.read_csv("kaggle_Interests_group.csv")
Next step is data preprocessing. The data has a lot of NaN values, because of which we cannot train the model. So we simply replace those with 0 using this code.
df.fillna(0, inplace = True)
As we can see in the dataset that we don’t need the first two columns, so we will assign rest 217 columns to variable X.
x = df.iloc[:,2:]
Let us now move on to building and training the model. Even though it is specified in the dataset that it contains 4 groups, but still we will implement the “elbow method” to determine the number of clusters. This can be done by using WCSS (sum of squares of distances of datapoints)
wcss = []
for i in range(1,11):
model = KMeans(n_clusters = i, init = "k-means++")
model.fit(x)
wcss.append(model.inertia_)
plt.figure(figsize=(10,10))
plt.plot(range(1,11), wcss)
plt.xlabel('Number of clusters')
plt.ylabel('WCSS')
plt.show()
This should give the following graph as output
Graph to find out appropriate number of cluster
As it is evident that there is no particular elbow for this dataset, so in this article I will do it using 6 clusters. You can implement it using 4 clusters as a practice.
Next step is to convert our dataset from multidimensions to 2 dimensions.
pca = PCA(2)
data = pca.fit_transform(x)
You can specify any number of dimensions/features to reduce to while initialising PCA() functions, but for simplicity sake I have used 2. If you are using more than 2 components, you can use first two components with highest variance value to train and visualise the dataset.
Here we have used fit_transform() function to to both fit the dataset x and apply dimensionality reduction to it. This returns an ndarray of 2x2 dimensions.
Next we plot and check the variance of the components.
plt.figure(figsize=(10,10))
var = np.round(pca.explained_variance_ratio_*100, decimals = 1)
lbls = [str(x) for x in range(1,len(var)+1)]
plt.bar(x=range(1,len(var)+1), height = var, tick_label = lbls)
plt.show()
This returns the following screenplot
Variance levels of different components
Now we will train our model based on the new features generated by PCA(). Since we have only 2 Principal Components (PC1 and PC2), we will get a 2D figure with 6 clusters.
centers = np.array(model2.cluster_centers_)
model = KMeans(n_clusters = 6, init = "k-means++")
label = model.fit_predict(data)
plt.figure(figsize=(10,10))
uniq = np.unique(label)
for i in uniq:
plt.scatter(data[label == i , 0] , data[label == i , 1] , label = i) plt.scatter(centers[:,0], centers[:,1], marker="x", color='k')
#This is done to find the centroid for each clusters.
plt.legend()
plt.show()
This is the scatterplot we get.
PC1 vs PC2 graph, with centroids marked
Hurray! We have successfully coded and implemented K Means clustering with PCA. Give yourself a pat on the back ;)
You can checkout the python notebook as well as the dataset on this GitHub link.
Here is the Kaggle link for the dataset used in the above article.
Thank you for reading! | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/implementation-of-principal-component-analysis-pca-in-k-means-clustering-b4bc0aa79cb6 | ['Wamika Jha'] | 2021-02-28 16:12:34.386000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Visualization', 'Clustering Algorithm', 'Unsupervised Learning', 'Python'] |
遠方友人 | 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/nancy-tsai/%E9%81%A0%E6%96%B9%E5%8F%8B%E4%BA%BA-70a6359714c8 | ['Nancy Tsai'] | 2020-12-18 05:40:23.705000+00:00 | ['英國', 'UK', '旅行清單', '旅行'] |
How (and Why) Block Chain Works (and Doesn’t) | The fallacy of ‘no agent.’
You have to understand the basis for a unit (block) (chain) before you can analyze block chain (decide whether it ‘works’ or ‘doesn’t work’). In ‘other’ ‘words,’ you have to dig deeply into the circular relationship between ‘how’ and ‘why’ anything ‘works.’
It starts with complementarity, and looks like this:
Zero and one.
Dependent on circularity:
Circumference and diameter.
Meaning the number ‘two’ (exactly 50–50) is ‘constant:’
One and two.
Giving us the correct ‘analysis’ (analyses) for ‘block’ and ‘chain:’
Block. Chain.
Which is, always, the correct ‘analysis’ (analyses) for ‘how’ and ‘why:’
How and why.
Where the number ‘two’ is dependent on the number ‘one,’ and the number ‘one’ is dependent on the number ‘three.’
One. Two. Three.
Where the ‘agent’ relationship is, again, dictated by zero and one (one and two) (two and three).
Agent.
Meaning, block-chain does not eliminate the ‘agent.’ At all. In any way.
Block. Agent. Chain.
Because the block and the chain, like any individual and group, share a mandatory circular (complementary) relationship. Meaning the individual is a group (and vice versa):
Complementarity. Circularity.
Where a ‘distributed’ ledger, is, after all is said, and done, an ‘agent’ for a transaction and a transactor. Therefore, all we have done by moving to a block chain system, is, transfer the agent from zero to one (and vice versa).
If zero, then one (if one, then zero).
Meaning, block chain systems are man’s amorous relationship with both zero, and one. And, vice versa.
Man. Zero. One.
Where, no matter what you call it, a three-state-system, is constant (more accurately depicted ‘two-state-system’).
Meaning, you can’t get away from the ‘agent.’ Circularity (the basis for zero and one) is, always, no matter what ‘system’ you prefer, the ‘agent.’
Block chain systems assume we are all on the same block. And, in the same chain. Which, technically, is true. And, not-true. No matter what system.
True. False.
Based on the diagrams above, there will have to be ‘two’ systems. To fight it out. Etc. One ‘block’ chain. The other ‘no-block’ (no) chain. Again, etc. You can do the ‘math.’
This takes deep thinking. Abstract thinking. Technologist-type ‘thinking.’
Why is ‘deep, abstract, technologist-type’ thinking necessary?
Conservation of the circle is the core dynamic in nature. | https://medium.com/the-circular-theory/how-and-why-block-chain-works-and-doesnt-work-b01a80dca8b3 | ['Ilexa Yardley'] | 2018-06-21 14:17:56+00:00 | ['Blockchain Startup', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Blockchain Application', 'Bitcoin', 'Venture Capital'] |
The 3 to 2 Nap Transition: How to Do It Right | Parents agree: The 3 to 2 nap transition is the most challenging transition. Luckily, there are some tips and tricks you can try to make it less stressful and uncomfortable for your little one. Read on and find out how!
Is your baby continually refusing her third nap? Is she waking up super early in the morning?
If yes, she is ready to transition from 3 naps to 2.
For most babies, the 3 to 2 nap transition happens when they’re between 6 and 9 months of age. Some children who have developed independent sleep skills and are taking long naps of about 1.5–2 hours may lose this nap earlier.
Generally, if your child is sleeping too much throughout the day, she’ll have a hard time sleeping at night, and vice versa. The trick is to make sure her sleep and awake time is perfectly balanced.
Here’s how!
Before you start, make sure your child knows how to self-soothe
If your little one doesn’t know how to self-soothe — maybe she depends on the pacifier or being nursed to sleep — she’ll never be able to take a nice long nap.
When your little one is unable to self-soothe and relies on you to fall asleep, she will communicate in the only way she knows how and that is through crying.
This is the perfect age for her to learn she’s in charge of putting herself to sleep. To teach her how to self-soothe:
Follow a consistent bedtime routine that will let your baby know that it’s time to sleep. If you’re feeding your child before sleep, move the bedtime feeding session to a slightly earlier part of the bedtime routine. If your child is younger, try giving her a pacifier to help with the self-soothing process, or if she’s older, a soft toy or blanket that they’ve created an attachment to will do the trick.
Tip: Don’t forget to put her in her crib while she’s drowsy but awake or fully awake if she’s older.
Pay attention to her sleep/awake times
When making the 3 to 2 nap transition, you have to be mindful of your child’s awake time. Your little one should get sufficient awake time during the day so that she’s tired enough to go to sleep and stay asleep during the night. If she’s taking long naps or naps too close to bedtime, she may be tired to go to sleep but not to stay asleep for longer hours.
Here’s a general overview of how her sleep/awake schedule should look like:
Three hours of awake time between waking up and nap #1
Nap #1 (1.5 hours)
Three hours of awake time between nap #1 and nap #2
Nap #2 (1.5 hours)
Three to four hours of awake time before bedtime
Bedtime
This is a general schedule that you can follow to ensure your baby gets a balance of awake time and sleep time. However, keep in mind that all children are different, and there’s no one-fit-all formula that applies to all kids.
As a general rule of thumb, the two naps should total of three hours. If you find that your baby is an uneven napper, go for the shorter nap to be in the morning, and have a longer and more restful nap in the afternoon as this will help her not be too overtired for bedtime.
Also, babies aged six to eight months should nap every 2–3 hours, while nine to 12 months old should be napping every 2.5–3.5 hours every day.
Although it can sometimes become overwhelming to keep your child awake for three hours, remember you’re doing this for her benefit. If you put her down two hours after her first nap, she’ll be up in 30 minutes as she won’t have built enough sleep pressure.
If you have to, add in a third catnap
Let’s say that your baby wakes up too soon from her second nap. It’s 3:00 pm, and you’re aiming for a 7:00 pm bedtime. That’s a pretty long window of keeping her awake.
If you find yourself in this position, you can add in a third catnap. This catnap can be as short as 15 minutes or up to 30 minutes. Think of this catnap as a quick energy boost, a tiny little bit of sleep so she can make it to bedtime. Then gradually, start decreasing the length of the third catnap until she no longer needs it.
In case you want to skip adding the third catnap, a good alternative is putting her down at an earlier bedtime at 6:00 or 6:30 pm.
And if you find yourself needing help transitioning your baby from 3 to 2 naps, ask for professional help from a certified sleep trainer. When you have a sleep trainer working alongside you, you’ll get a personalized plan that fits your child’s temperament and personality. A sleep trainer can ensure you’re on the right track and offer unlimited support throughout the process. In no time, you’ll manage to turn those bedtime battles into regular and restful sleep patterns. | https://medium.com/@neha-74611/the-3-to-2-nap-transition-how-to-do-it-right-613ac1b0f1f4 | ['The Sleepy Cub Blog'] | 2020-12-11 10:36:11.865000+00:00 | ['Baby', 'Baby Sleep', 'Children', 'Baby Care', 'Parenthood'] |
What We Ought To Do / A Call To Action | “I say again, fellow-citizens, Oh, for a Supreme Court which shall be as true, as vigilant, as active and exacting in maintaining laws enacted for the protection of human rights, as in other days was that court for the destruction of human rights!”
Frederick Douglass, from an address at Lincoln Hall
included in his Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, p.467
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has upon a number of occasions, both instructed the American populace on the basic formulae for decision making as a Supreme Court justice, and also asked and challenged us citizens with a poignant question as to our duties as Americans.
Should the judiciary branch of government be the interpreter and final arbiter of the Constitution? In a nation that espouses a pledge of allegiance placing itself as one nation under God, what role, if any, do the words found in Judeo-Christian scripture find as a leverage constraining the judiciary in its interpretation and final decision-making? It appears that the role of Godly principles is related to the personal faith of each Justice, and in that regard, the Word of God assumes an unofficial, secondary, and obtuse presence in the Supreme Court, wholly dependent upon the personal regard of the Supreme Court Justices. Understandably, the separation of church and state clears the decks of any semblance of religiosity in our government, even as our Constitution, namely, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, was founded upon the Christian spirit of the defense of life and liberty, that therein there be justice for all. If “justice is the end of government” (Hamilton, Madison, Federalist №51), from where does the ordination of these professionally judicial men and women emanate? Is it of themselves? By what authority do these select mortals decide the constitutionality of such national issues as the timing of when conferring human rights upon Americans? In other words, there is at present time in the year 2020, and since 1973, a legal clause that omits the protection of life to humanity in the womb, and instead, interprets that singular life as the same life of the mother, altogether being treated as bodily matter and not itself a second, distinct human in formation.
What is to stop so-called pro life political human rights action from inculcating generations of young Americans with the express directive of eventual Supreme Court Justice being placed in the top judiciary court, and therein, because of their personal viewpoints on life, overturn the infamous Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized the abortion of the child in the womb? Is this not what the abortion political lobby did since before 1920? Did not the Rockefeller family fund the leading abortion company, place a spokeswoman as its head (Margaret Sanger) and help orchestrate a cultural shift through the advent of giving rise to an entertainment, music, and media that would be benefited according to its alignment to a favoring of abortion?
Justice Thomas asks the United States of America what is supposed to inform and guide Supreme Court Justices on the broad provisions of the constitution. What restrains them from imposing their views and policy preferences? Undoubtedly, it is a rhetorical question; a quiet alarm directed to all American citizens. He invokes the legacy of President John F. Kennedy, cajoling Americans to assume greater responsibility of civic duty. He is calling for an increase of critical thinkers. Surely, the merits, experience, and judicial track record of each judge is scrutinized as to their possible nomination to the Supreme Court, and through this study process, it is not beyond common sense to find that certain views on key issues can be inferred through the written opinions of these judges in each of their rulings.
What are we left with then? The nine mortals that interpret our constitution and have the power to rule in favor or against cases that bring our Constitutional ideals front and center are obviously professionals, yet they are very human. Many of the original framers of the Constitution did not intend to include women or Americans of black skin color when they proclaimed the defense of life and liberty. The ‘spirit’ of our Constitution was of John Adams (and Abigail Adams), yet it was written by an eloquent slave holder (Thomas Jefferson). What these founding idealists intended and what some of them practiced may seem contradictory, and it is. But we have had men and women across the history of our great nation who have endeavored to establish a more perfect union. These sentinels of life and liberty are John and Abigail Adams, their son John Quincy Adams, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, the early work of Thurgood Marshall as an Attorney, Martin Luther King, and President Ronald Reagan to name a few. They all shared in common the unequivocal normalization of respecting the human rights for all American citizens. Our American system of government, is, as it was in the time of the slave era, managed by people, each of these having their own personal view points and vested interests, but within government, to a large degree, having their ambitions constrained by the separation of powers. Said as much, in his diary, John Quincy Adams recognized that with all the checks and balances of our American government, the slave trade grew without hindrance from the time of the 1776 revolution until the Emancipation Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. We have had Presidents in line with slavery, and great swaths of our Congress and Supreme Court in line with the oppression of Americans of black skin color. It was not until the team work of abolitionists outside of government, coupled with the work of key Congressional leaders and even Supreme Court Justices, and finally, Abraham Lincoln, that slavery was defeated. America was shaken to its core because of the blight of slavery. Can Americans, should Americans simply accept the opinions of the Supreme Court as they continue to put off the question of the humanity in the womb? The abortion lobby sais that question has been long settled and should not be overturned, but such a perspective is not agreed to by all. We are talking about the value of human life and if the opinions of nine Supreme Court Justices should be the final interpretation and arbitration of what America we will have. In the balance there are about 100,000 official abortions every month. The humanity in the womb is killed with saline burns and forcep-cutting dismemberment while alive. That is a hard death. There is no ‘burial’ later. There are confirmed reports that human organs and body parts have been sold from abortion facilities also as a side-business.
In a government that has more and more been moved to separate itself from God and his Word as the supreme interpreter and final arbiter, yet still invokes His name in the pledge of allegiance, still finds within its personnel representatives who are for the complete defense of the liberty of all human life, the notion that American citizens should become passive spectators to the processes of government machinations is anathema to the work of those Americans who have walked into the breach in their efforts to defend life. Such a work of defense requires no gun, but a sharp mind and a tender heart. Passion is required, along with a sense of duty towards the American community. A community brought together because of shared ideas of what we are supposed to be as a civilized people. We can do better than proverbially sit back. We must reshape our educational standards to create a people that are more brothers and sisters keepers. Our educational system has to bring about a society that can devote time towards keeping this duty of defending the best of our ideals; life and liberty, so that there is that justice for all. Duty to one’s country can be better understood as responsibility for the care taking of our local and national community. Reshaping our educational end goals to allow, nay, empower Americans to have the time to create the financial resources to be able to be a true check on the decision-making power of our government calls into play the intellectual and heart strength of the people to be players in the moral direction of our country, is of the utmost importance.
It may be that such a practice of empowerment for the people would be the target of powerful individuals with vested interests. In fact, that will most likely be a surety to guard against. Nehemiah directed the Israelis to build the walls of Jerusalem while keeping on guard with their weapons near. Our educational goals must be such that our young Americans also be on guard, maintaining intellectual alertness, and trained in the rigors of understanding how to be critical thinkers without vested interests. (That is hard to do, but not impossible.) A Supreme Court Justice has calmly sounded the alarm for the need of duty towards defending the spirit of the original intention of our Constitution. How does academia respond? How do parents and communities respond? Do we see what advantage we can exact or do we raise up altruistic critical thinkers who understand that they must play a role in the defense of what society we want to have? A loving, kind and empathic land requires a steadfast commitment to liberty, not blind patriotism, but the defense of life and liberty with the end goal that justice be served. A loving, kind, and empathic society that values human life; that trains up its children onto that end. A country not lost in the nostalgia of what it has not been, but an awakened and alert people. This is the work of parents, of Educators, and it is the duty of our government to serve this cause. | https://medium.com/@coachbill007/what-we-ought-to-do-a-call-to-action-9e9c89e201bd | ['Just Call Me Bill'] | 2020-12-24 18:45:05.430000+00:00 | ['Supreme Court', 'Citizenship', 'Education Reform', 'Governemnt', 'Coach Bill'] |
How to Start it? (it being anything) | Starting something is so TOUGH. Starting anything, either it is a Blog or even beginning to learn something new or starting a new habit or anything, is so difficult. But the main thing I want you all to remember is that :
CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY, So KEEP TRYING NO MATTER WHAT!!
This is a Poster of an Idea I am planning to launch in Jan 2020
There are a lot of ideas and plans I want to implement to make my life better and achieve what I always want to accomplish in life. But what stops me or what stops us from doing that thing which we want to do to make something, according to me the following are those factors:
Fear of Failure
Judgment by Society, Friends & Family
Thinking that it might be a Big Risk
So, what should we do to have a great start or a start from which we are motivated for future related tasks? These Following things can be done:
Facing the Fear: When Starting something new, there are a lot of things that can attract fear. You might be afraid of mistakes, and it’s fine to be scared. It’s part of the process, but accepting it and getting over it eventually is essential.
When Starting something new, there are a lot of things that can attract fear. You might be afraid of mistakes, and it’s fine to be scared. It’s part of the process, but accepting it and getting over it eventually is essential. Managing Everything: While you can plan to start something new, you should keep this in mind to not lose control over the past things. Make some extra time for new ideas without interrupting the old stuff.
While you can plan to start something new, you should keep this in mind to not lose control over the past things. Make some extra time for new ideas without interrupting the old stuff. Break into Steps: Everyone Dream Big and they should, but you can’t build a mansion in just one day, or you can’t fill the ocean in one day. Everything is done slowly, so break your process into small steps or goals to keep track of them, which will help you stay motivated.
So at the end stay Motivated and be Consistent with your task. If you falter, take a breather, then come back to the task with renewed determination. If you fail, do your best to figure out what went wrong and try a new approach.
When you’ve finished the first step, it’ll be time to take the second. The finish line awaits.
<Kudos> | https://medium.com/@theabhaychopra/how-to-start-it-it-being-anything-db18de475772 | ['Abhay Chopra'] | 2019-11-20 19:46:01.471000+00:00 | ['Habit Building', 'Personal Development', 'Startup', 'Motivation'] |
Best Home Theatre System in India 2021 | If you are a cine buff or a music lover, buying a home theatre can never go wrong. It will allow you to witness an immersive experience at the highest level. However, choosing the best home theatre system in India can be an arduous task, looking at the options you have. Therefore, to make it easier for you, we are about to share a list with you.
Table of Contents
Best Home Theatre Systems in India
1. Sony HT-IV300 Dolby Digital DTH Home Theatre System
2. Logitech Z906 5.1 Channel Surround Speaker System
3. Sony HT-RT3 Real Dolby Audio Soundbar Home Theatre System
4. Philips SPA8000B/94 5.1 Channel Multimedia Speakers System
5. Sony HT-S20R Dolby Digital Soundbar Home Theatre System
6. Yamaha YHT-1840 4K Ultra HD Home Theater System
7. Sony HT-S500RF Real Dolby Audio Soundbar Home Theatre System
8. F&D F3800X 80W 5.1 Bluetooth Multimedia Speaker
9. iBELL IBL2039 DLX 5.1 Home Theater Speaker System
Buying Guide-To Buy Best Home Theatre System in India
Sound Quality
Bass
Compatibility
Size
FAQ
Best Home Theatre Systems in India
The list will comprise the best home theatre systems in India, along with their features, pros, and cons. From that list, you should pick one home theatre system, which you think is best for your home.
1. Sony HT-IV300 Dolby Digital DTH Home Theatre System
Sony HT-IV300 Real 5.1ch Dolby Digital DTH is a powerful home theatre system. It will provide you with the RMS output of 1000 watts. The power consumption of the product is also nominal. It will consume the power of 100 watts, which will help you to save energy. Also, you can connect this home theatre system with Bluetooth as well as NFC. If you want, you can join other devices with this home theatre system through USB.
Moreover, you can play various formats in this home theatre system. It is one of the convenient features that the makers incorporated in it. Once you buy this item, you can enjoy the channel surround sound. This feature is responsible for providing you with an immersive sound experience. Besides, it is also compatible with DTH Set Top Box and Blu Ray player. Therefore, there are no questions regarding the competence of this home theatre system.
Moreover, this system comes with a compact size as well as a sleek design. Hence, you don’t have to worry about the space as it will not take much space. You don’t have to get worried about any clutters. Compared to the conventional home theatres, the size of this system is 40% less. Well, for that reason, it is amongst the most compact home theatre systems.
The design of this item is also striking. After you install it in one of your rooms, it will make your room look stylish. To be precise, it will improve your home decor. You can place the multi-angled speakers anywhere in your room. It will provide you with clear and immersive sound.
Pros
Compact size.
Stylish design.
Compatible with Blu Ray player and DTH set-top box.
Attuned with Bluetooth as well as NFC.
You can play multiple formats.
Cons
The bass of this home theatre is not up to the mark.
The Bluetooth strength is not satisfactory.
2. Logitech Z906 5.1 Channel Surround Speaker System
If you are looking for a home theatre that can provide you with fantastic surround sound, buy Logitech Z906 5.1 Channel Surround Speaker System. To be specific, you will feel like the sound is coming from all directions. Well, this experience is known as an immersive experience. This home theatre system is also robust. It will deliver you the output of 1000 watts, which is responsible for its powerful sound. The versatile setup of the product enhances its efficiency.
After installing this home theatre in your home, it is time to immerse yourself into the theatre-quality audio experience. The powerful sound will make sure that you are enjoying the premium quality of sound. Also, we have already discussed that it will provide you with an output of 1000 watts. Consequently, it will provide you with rich audio quality as well as powerful bass. To be accurate, you will listen to the minor details of sounds without any issues.
Furthermore, you don’t have to get anxious about the convenience of the product. It comes with integrated controls. For instance, you can adjust the volume of the system independently. If you think that you need to change a specific satellite speaker’s sound, you can do that effortlessly. Also, you can adjust the power of the subwoofer with the help of your remote. The remote control is wireless which will add to the convenience of the product.
Versatile setup is another feature that you should know about this home theatre system. It will allow you to connect multiple inputs at the same time. Well, you can connect six compatible devices. For that, you have to use RCA, 3.5mm, optical information, Digital coaxial, and six-channel direct.
Pros
1000 watts powerful sound.
Integrated controls.
Versatile setup.
Powerful bass.
It provides a rich quality of sound.
Cons
Not compatible with the new formats of sound.
Some people are complaining about manufacturing defects.
3. Sony HT-RT3 Real Dolby Audio Soundbar Home Theatre System
Another speaker capable of providing you with powerful surround sound is Sony HT-RT3 Real 5.1ch Dolby Audio Soundbar Home Theatre System. The power output of this home theatre system is 600W, which is quite powerful. So that you can enjoy the immersive sound. The Bluetooth connectivity of this product is also satisfactory. Besides, it also has NFC, which will deliver you one-touch wireless audio streaming. To be precise, you will enjoy a thrilling soundscape.
It will uplift your movie-watching experience. You can dive into the alternate realities of the movies with 5.1 channels. It will allow you to enjoy the best surround sound. Also, there is an external subwoofer along with rear speakers. All these things will ensure an enhanced cinematic experience. The S-master digital amp will help you to enjoy the purest sound of the movie. We assure you that the surround sound that you will want is authentic.
With the help of this home theatre, you can stream music instantly. The Near Field Communication Technology will allow you to avoid complicated setups and wire connections. All you have to do is to have an NFC-enabled smartphone. In case you don’t have NFC, you connect this home theatre through your Bluetooth connection. Well, you can manually pair the devices through Bluetooth. So, you can comprehend the practicality of this home theatre system.
When it comes to the product’s setup function, you can consider it the best home theatre in India. You will not need more than a few seconds to set up the system. There are color-coded connections, which you can use to wire up your speakers.
Pros
Compatible with NFC and Bluetooth.
You will enjoy the best cinematic experience.
Dolby digital ensures the rich detailing of the sound.
Easy to setup.
Effortless connection.
Cons
Some users are complaining that rear speakers are problematic.
Not everyone can afford the product.
4. Philips SPA8000B/94 5.1 Channel Multimedia Speakers System
Philips SPA8000B/94 5.1 Channel Multimedia Speakers System is the best product if you are looking for a home theatre system for music playback. You will get both USB and SD card slots, which will help you to conduct music playback. The sensitivity of this system is also quite impressive. To be precise, it is 85 dB. The normal of the speaker is 4 ohm, which is also considerable. Again, this home theatre has surround sound, which is responsible for the immersive experience. The frequency range of this item is also convenient.
Moreover, you can connect this home theatre system with any Bluetooth device. Also, you can play your favorite music with the help of Bluetooth. For instance, you can play music through your smartphones, tabs, and other devices. The best part is, you don’t have to come across any complexities while playing your favorite music. The surround sound will allow you to enjoy the purest form of sound.
Now, let us talk about the looks of this product. Well, once you add this system to your room, it will make your room look sophisticated. The reason is its design. It comes with quite an excellent design. Besides, it is attuned with various formats and mediums. For example, you can consider this item to be the perfect choice for your PC, MP3, CD, TV, and numerous others. So, when it comes to compatibility, there will be no problems.
Moreover, it will enhance your gaming experience. If you are a professional gamer, this system will make you happy. Due to its surround sound, it will help you to detect enemies easily.
Pros
It is a stylish product.
Awesome sound quality.
Harmonious with all types of Bluetooth devices.
It comes with an impressive signal/noise ratio.
An ideal choice for TV, CD, PC, and MP3.
Cons
There are some problems with the connectivity option.
There is no HDMI input.
5. Sony HT-S20R Dolby Digital Soundbar Home Theatre System
When it comes to the home theatre systems, Sony is quite a reliable brand. It comprises a lot of satisfied customers in its bucket. So, if you are thinking of buying Sony HT-S20R Dolby Digital Soundbar Home Theatre System, you don’t have to worry about its quality. It arrives with all the necessary features that a home theatre system should have. Be it music or cinema, this home theatre will provide you with some captivating experience. Therefore, if you are thinking of buying this home theatre, don’t hesitate.
It comes with natural surround sound. Hence, it is the perfect choice for providing the soundtrack to the movies that they deserve. Rear speakers, along with an external subwoofer, will allow you to enjoy the best sound. It also comprises a 3-ch soundbar. The purpose of that soundbar is to deliver you an immersive, dynamic, and cinematic sound. It will improve your cinematic experience as well as a musical experience. Well, Dolby Digital will make sure the sound quality is up to the mark.
Also, you don’t have to witness any problems while installing this speaker. It is an effortless process that will not take more than a few seconds. It encompasses various input points. Plug the wires in those input points, and voila! You can also choose the settings according to your necessity. There is a dedicated button for every type of sound. Some of the modes that you can select are standard, auto, music, and cinema. Amongst these modes, you can choose the required option.
The HDMI arc will help you to avoid cable clutter. It is a single cable through which you can connect our TV with this home theatre system.
Pros
The fantastic quality of the product.
Attuned with Bluetooth devices.
Delivers authentic surround sound.
You can choose the perfect settings.
The installation process is pretty straightforward.
Cons
The quality of the soundbar is not satisfactory.
Some people are not happy with its volume.
6. Yamaha YHT-1840 4K Ultra HD Home Theater System
Yamaha YHT-1840 4K Ultra HD Home Theater System comes with numerous beautiful features. The first thing that will grab your attraction is the dynamic surround sound. It contains an AV receiver which will make sure that you will listen to the realistic sounds during the action movies. To be precise, you will experience the dynamic soundtracks in the best surround sound. All the speakers of this system are of the best quality. They are capable of generating high-quality audio. The subwoofer delivers clear and crispy bass.
This item is compatible with 4K ultra HD. It supports all the latest HDMI standards. For that reason, you can enjoy all the videos that come with high definition. There is another unique feature that you will find in this item. The name of that feature is virtual cinema front. That feature will let you enjoy the best experience while watching movies. To be precise, it will provide you with a 5-channel surround sound. Also, you will get more flexibility to set up your speakers.
Now, the design of this speaker is also striking. It comes with a traditional design, which will make your home look better. It is compatible with all types of home decor. The best part is you can place them wherever you want. Whether you are putting this product in your drawing room or your bedroom, it will look attractive. You can also enjoy the extra bass if you buy this product. The low-range enhancement technology will help you to enjoy some extra bass. Compared to other speakers, it has richer bass.
There is a SCENE button in this home theatre. With the help of this button, you can reset other buttons.
Pros
Dynamic Surround Sound.
Suitable for 4K ultra HD.
It comes with an attractive design.
You will enjoy extra bass.
You can balance the sound precisely.
Cons
The audio output is a bit challenging.
The subwoofer will provide you with extra bass.
7. Sony HT-S500RF Real Dolby Audio Soundbar Home Theatre System
We already mentioned that Sony is a trustworthy brand in the case of home theatres. Hence, there is another product in the list that comes from the family of Sony. The most imperative feature of this item is its feature. Sony HT-S500RF Real 5.1ch Dolby Audio Soundbar Home Theatre System comes with a premium design. The punching metal grill is diamond-shaped. It maximizes the aperture ratio, which will provide you with the best audio experience.
Next, you should know about the sound pressure of the product. It will provide you with 1000W power output. So, you will enjoy a large and clear sound. The high-volume boxes will make you enjoy your sound even more. Both the soundbars and the tallboy speakers will create sound pressure. You will also get front tweeters in this product, which are responsible for enhancing the sound density. They will produce a high-frequency sound so that you can enrich your surround sound.
You don’t have to come across any complications while setting up this home theatre. It is an easy setup. To be precise, it is almost a ready-to-go product that you can start using instantly. All the cables of this system will head towards your subwoofer. Therefore, you don’t have to come across any messy situation. You can keep things tidy and neat. There are multi-connectivity options in this product. There are numerous things that you can connect with this system, such as HDMI Arc, Bluetooth, USB, as well as Optical IN.
The music app center will allow you to manage your content effortlessly. You can stream your music wirelessly. You will also be able to control your pen drive’s content and keep the songs you like.
Pros
It provides high sound pressure.
It comes with powerful bass.
Easy setup.
Numerous connectivity options.
You can manage your content easily.
Cons
Channel separation of the system is not impressive.
A few users are not contented with the output.
8. F&D F3800X 80W 5.1 Bluetooth Multimedia Speaker
The functionality of F&D F3800X 80W 5.1 Bluetooth Multimedia Speaker is quite impressive. It boasts numerous features that will allow you to enjoy the best quality of sound. The fundamental part of this product that you would love the most is the remote control. The speakers of this system come with functional remote control. With the help of that remote control, you can listen to your favorite radio station. Besides, you can also listen to your favorite. This minor is relatively easy to handle.
The speakers of this home theatre are also entirely efficient. They come with a bright white LED display, which will deliver you a better view. Also, an automatic multi-colored LED will uplift your mood while you listen to your favorite songs. These speakers will provide you with an immersive audio experience that will help you enjoy your music and movies. The Bluetooth 4.0 will allow you to connect numerous other Bluetooth devices effortlessly.
The subwoofer of this home theatre is quite powerful. The length of the subwoofer is 5.25 inches. It will allow you to enjoy the crystal clear sound of the speakers. After listening to the sound, it will uplift your mood. Also, it comes with SD/USB support. It will help you to transfer your data as well as storage of data more accessible. There will be no complications regarding that. The digital FM that is working in this system is capable of storing more than 100 stations.
You can also do dual format decoding with this home theatre on your side. It supports WMA/MP3 format. So, if you are feeling confused about buying this product, you should get over it.
Pros
It comprises a multi-colored LED.
You will get Digital FM.
Crystal clear sound.
Efficient remote control.
Bluetooth version 4.0.
Cons
The rear speakers are not satisfactory.
Speaker plugs are not durable.
9. iBELL IBL2039 DLX 5.1 Home Theater Speaker System
iBELL IBL2039 DLX 5.1 Home Theater Speaker System is known for its clear sound. The Total RMS of the speaker is 45 watts. The size of the sub speakers is 5.25 inches. It also comes with five satellite speakers, which will help you enjoy the best quality of sound. The Bluetooth connectivity of the system is also quite robust. It will allow you to connect multiple Bluetooth devices with this system. The range of the Bluetooth that you will get is 10 meters.
The remote control of this product is also quite functional. You can do almost everything seamlessly with the help of this remote control. For instance, you can listen to your favorite songs without any issues. All you have to do is press some buttons to listen to your favorite songs. You will also get an FM stereo radio with the help of this product.
Due to this FM stereo station, you will be able to listen to your favorite FM channels.
It is compatible with various input formats. To be precise, you can connect SD, USB, AUX, and MMC. Hence, there are no issues regarding the efficiency of this home theatre.
Pros
You can listen to the FM stereo.
Clear sound.
Compatible with numerous input tools.
Complete functional remote control.
Enjoy music from all corners of your room.
Cons
Bass quality is not impressive.
Some users are not happy with the bass sound.
Buying Guide-To Buy Best Home Theatre System in India
Buying a home theatre is one of the happiest moments of our life. A lot of time and effort is involved with purchasing a home theatre. Therefore, whenever you buy a home theatre, you have to make sure that the home theatre’s quality is up to the mark. If the quality is not good enough, it may hamper your happiness. So, there are some factors that you should check before buying a home theatre.
Considering the elements will help you to pick up the best system amongst all. To make your day more accessible, we are about to share those factors with you.
Sound Quality
The first thing that you need to take into consideration is the sound quality. It is the essential feature that a home theatre possesses. Always check the clarity of sound before buying the system. The sound should be able to provide you with an immersive experience. You should be able to enjoy your music and movies with that home theatre on your side. Also, it should be good enough to enhance your gaming experience.
If the sound quality of the home theatre is not satisfactory, you should always check the alternatives. If you want to recommend, we would suggest you choose the product from the list mentioned above.
Bass
Next, you have to check the bass of the home theatre. It has a lot to do when it comes to the immersive experience. Or else you will not be able to enjoy your movies as well as music precisely. Always grab a product that comes with an additional subwoofer. These subwoofers will deliver you the best bass quality. Due to these subwoofers, you don’t have to compromise with your audiovisual experience. If you can look at the products that we mention, you will find out that most of them come with an additional subwoofer.
Compatibility
Compatibility is another factor that you should check before buying a home theatre system. It should be compatible with Bluetooth connectivity as well as NFC. Besides, you also have to keep in mind that your home theatre is tuned with various input devices. To be precise, you should be able to connect input tools to your home theatre effortlessly. The product should also be compatible with high-definition videos. You can check our list and choose the one that you think best consistent with your necessity.
Size
Finally, you have to check the size of your home theatre. Make sure your home theatre comes in a compact size. If your home theatre’s size is big, it will be hard for you to place it in your room.
FAQ
What are the components of a home theatre?
A home theatre some with numerous components such as:
Speakers- There should be Front stage speakers, effect speakers, surround sound speakers, and a subwoofer.
AV receiver
Source players- Blu-ray player
What is the definition of surround sound?
A surround sound is nothing but 360 degrees of sound experience. Also, the surround sound should be relevant to the content that you are playing. For instance, if you are watching a movie, you should detect the direction of the sound.
How to maintain a home theatre?
If you want your home theatre to stay by your side for a long time, you must maintain it. For that, it is important to keep some vital things in mind. Here are the issues that we are talking about.
Make sure to install the home theatre precisely. You should avoid placing your home theatre near a window. It will expose your system to direct sunlight, which is harmful to it. Also, it will be prone to dirt and dust.
Next, you have to clean the home theatre precisely. They are a pretty sensitive system. Hence, be precise about the cleaning products that you are using. You may clean some of the systems with a wet cloth. However, some systems should avoid wet clothes—the best option for you to go through the user manual. There, you will find the best way to clean your home theatre.
Use a wire mesh instead of connecting it with multiple circuit boards. You can use the color tapes to make sure that you are connecting your devices with the correct sockets.
Place your speakers as directed in the user manual. You should install the ‘R’ speaker on the right side of your wall. Similarly, install the ‘L’ on the left side of your wall. Also, you have to place them at an equal distance from the central speaker to get the best sound output. These speakers come with an integral magnet. Hence, it is advisable to place your speaker on wooden surfaces. There is a possibility that the magnetic surface may ruin your speaker.
How to choose the receiver?
There is a specific way to choose your receiver. If you want a receiver to listen to music only, a stereo receiver is the best choice for you. If you are looking for a receiver for your surround sound, you have to opt for an AV receiver. If you are getting a receiver for both home theatre and music, you have to get an AV receiver on the boards.
What are the requirements of installing a home theatre?
If you want to enjoy the best sound experience, here are some of the requirements that you need to keep in mind:
A large room.
A blank and giant wall.
Dark rooms are advisable.
Fewer doors and the windows.
Final Thoughts
So, here is the list of some of the best home theatres that you will find in India. With those home theatres on your side, you can enjoy your movies as well as music with ease. If you are a gamer, you will also enjoy this home theatre. Your life will become happier. You will explore a lot of content and jump into an alternate reality. Just keep your needs and requirements in mind while buying a home theatre system for you. Happy watching, listening, and playing! | https://medium.com/@sutharsharwan/best-home-theatre-system-in-india-2021-49482b1b48f6 | ['Best Deal'] | 2021-03-20 19:55:39.259000+00:00 | ['Soundbar', 'Sound', 'Music', 'Home Improvement', 'Home Theater'] |
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