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Culturati: LIVE Recap — At The Breaking Point: How Do Managers Lead? | What are some of the challenges facing front-line managers today?
Mayerland Harris reflected on how the pandemic started. With H-E-B being a first-line responder to emergencies, COVID wasn’t supposed to be any different. However, we all entered March thinking this would pass in a few weeks, then realizing this pandemic would be prolonged, we had to adjust our to running a marathon rather than a sprint. We’ve had to adopt a different pace to avoid burnout. This has meant learning a new way to work. How do we manage a crisis like COVID while still maintaining typical operations? How do we provide support for employees in their personal and professional life? How do we discuss sensitive topics such as mental health and racial and social injustice?
We are all dealing with no less than 5 crises at any given time.
Professor Ethan Burris reminds us that we are not just dealing with a pandemic, we are dealing with multiple crises at once. We have the pandemic, the murder of George Floyd and the unrest that followed, the economic crisis as a result of COVID, the blending of work and home life, and the political crisis. We are all dealing with no less than 5 crises at any given time. Darren White, Ph.D. reminds us of a sixth crisis, the information crisis. As managers are trying to support employees, we are also receiving conflicting messages from trusted institutions. Put that on the backdrop of the election and now these messages are being polarized. Managers are in a unique place where they have to communicate these important messages to all types of people with different backgrounds and thinking.
Professor Burris cites recent research indicating that employees, on the whole, feel powerless and as they have been forced into a reality where life is on a screen for everyone to see. That loss of control and loss of contact creates a situation where employees fill in the gaps when clearly receiving communication from the top. As we learned from the last Culturati: LIVE Energy Management for Executives, be transparent and over-communicate.
So what tools can we use to alleviate these challenges?
It is critical to note that creating a culture of well-being and productivity is not as simple as providing one outlet for people to submit grievances in order to check a box. Companies need to create an ecosystem of tools to understand how to better engage employees. Here are a few tips shared by our panelists:
Spend time NOT discussing work. This can look like taking the first 10 minutes of a meeting to discuss anything but work, creating a meeting specifically without an agenda, creating spontaneous interactions such as a Zoom lunch (ex. “I’ll be taking lunch at 12, here’s my Zoom link if anyone wants to join”)
Take walking meetings or if you are within proximity to other co-workers, encourage socially distant interactions. Encourage virtual happy hours. People are starving for connectedness.
Create “in-between moments” to replace what has been lost in commute time or breaks between meetings. Outlook has a function that automatically schedules 60-minute meetings as 50 minutes. Use those 10 minutes to decompress before your next scheduled task.
Engage in both active and passive listening. Darren gives us the acronym, LEAP (Listen. Engage. Activate. Predict). Passive listening is becoming more important, such as using tools with natural language processing to analyze coaching calls or internal communications to gauge internal morale.
When someone gives feedback, don’t sit on the information. Act on it by creating a dialogue to discuss the issue so that your employees know that their voices are heard.
A recurring topic that came up in this conversation centered around mental health and wellness. Many of the tips above are general in their approach and do not address the very real impact that mental health is having in the workplace. As a manager, how do you straddle the line between coaching and treating?
Addressing the issue of mental health and wellness
During this time, it is critical that managers watch for signs of declining mental health and wellness, not just in their employees but in themselves. Mayerland cites that while H-E-B is doing particularly well during this time, that does not mean that an employee isn’t married to someone who has been laid off or is not caring for elderly parents. We used to only see the work-self and we are now being confronted with the whole-self. While this trend of bringing your whole, authentic self to work has been growing, COVID has accelerated this trend.
Part of viewing your employees as their whole-selves means acknowledging the issues that so many people are facing such as depression, loneliness, and a general feeling of disconnect. Leaders have to be intentional about talking about these kinds of issues and focus on the well-being of their teams just as much as their ability to get the work done.
Professor Burris reports that the first question he receives about management relates to cultural maintenance vs any type of performance management. Being more purposeful about how to build and maintain culture is key. Pre-COVID, people could work on culture at the same time, now with everything being segmented, we have to be purposeful about our time together.
For so many, work is an outlet. Now that the work outlet, among social and familial outlets have been diminished, people are feeling its effects. Sometimes as a manager, you may be the only person who sees a difference in an employee's performance or personality. Pre-COVID, if you didn’t hear from someone, you still knew they were ok working in their office. now if you don’t hear, something may be wrong. With the uptick in suicides, it is so important for managers to be aware of any signs and to be vocal if they have concerns about an employee. It can be as simple as “Hey Luis, you’ve seemed a bit down the last couple of days. Is everything alright?” Everything could be fine but you’d be surprised to know that your concern could mean the world to this person.
With the uptick in suicides, it is so important for managers to be aware of any signs and to be vocal if they have concerns about an employee. It can be as simple as “Hey Luis, you’ve seemed a bit down the last couple of days. Is everything alright?”
Both Mayerland and Darren have noted that there is some hesitancy among managers to get involved with their employees past their performance, mostly out of unease at the subject or fear of giving incorrect advice. Managers are asking, “We know something isn’t right, but how do I help them?”
This is where an ecosystem of strategies to deal with mental health comes in and why it is so important to have more than one outlet for employees and managers to turn to.
Consider H-E-B’s multi-pronged approach to mental health. Upper leadership has created H-E-B Cares, shared video vignettes to discuss their own struggles with depression or other mental health issues in an effort to remove the stigma from the subject. All employees have access to 6 free counseling sessions before their deductible kicks in. H-E-B has hired counselors and professional psychologists to help both their leaders and employees, including, specific counselors to help leaders manage their employees. All in addition to offering resources such as webinars, literature, and videos.
Another way to combat the unease of feeling unqualified to coach someone is to have a robust list of resources to refer employees out when it is clear they need a different professional’s help. Darren reminds us that it is equally important to provide training to managers so that they know where and when to refer out.
Discussing racial injustice vs mental health
As attitudes towards mental health improve and companies are more comfortable with discussing this previously taboo issue, both Darren and Mayerland are seeing reluctance in managers and companies to discuss the ongoing issue of social and racial injustice. For many BIPOC employees, these injustices play a large part in their well-being and can be a huge source of stress and other emotional responses.
They cite that people are struggling to have these conversations because they don’t want to say the wrong thing. So how do we combat this?
The first step is to recognize that there is work to do. Darren notes how he had considered himself to be fairly read on the subject of race but after 9 hours of DEI training, he realized how little he actually knew. He recognizes that there are not enough tools out there to help support managers in having these conversations. However, DEI training is a huge step in making progress towards having open and honest conversations within corporate structures.
An important question…
Now that we’re working from home with no commute, when do you take time to reflect on your day?
Professor Burris responded that he is at his best in the morning. By the time he gets to the end of the workday and then the second shift with kids begins, there is no time to reflect. He is reminded of a book by Cal Newport called Deep Work. This book makes the argument for different types of work, “deep” and “shallow” work. The “deep” work is the meaningful work you do whereas the “shallow” work is the work you do where at the end you feel like you haven’t accomplished much. The book gives a number of different tools and techniques to recommend how to organize your time to make sure that you include time for “deep” work.
Mayerland is also a morning person and believes that the best time to reflect is when your energy is highest. She has to put the time to reflect on her calendar otherwise something else will take its place. She has to be intentional about taking this time and is candid about her struggles to maintain this practice.
Darren breaks his reflection time into two categories: decompression and reflection. He admits it is somewhat embarrassing, but his reflection time is in the morning with an extended shower or a bath at night. That is where most of his time for deep thought comes in. To decompress, he recommends doing an activity that takes your full attention. For him, this could be mountain biking or skiing, both of which would be dangerous if he was thinking about how his day went.
Eugene recommends freestyle writing as a good practice for people who want to reflect or decompress.
Closing Remarks
Professor Ethan Burris cites an old Gallup surveying attributes that employees look for in a manager. He says it’s relatively simple. Employees seek trust, compassion, stability and hope. If you break things down into a few questions, what am I giving my employees to make them trust me more, to give them compassion for where they are, to provide them some sense of stability that we’re going to be okay, and to provide hope for a future where we get out of this? When building off of these core questions, things start to get a lot simpler.
Mayerland Harris encourages managers to have grace and mercy for yourself and your team members. We are so hard on ourselves and so are our team members so remember to have that grace.
Darren White, Ph.D. has a lot of hope for the future. He knows how resilient Americans are and having grown up in 3 different countries he has never been more proud to live here. We have been through so many crises and we’re are getting through them. He thinks at the end of this that communities and companies are going to step up and be the north star for others. Leaders are going to develop into incredible leaders and we will build resiliency for a long time looking forward. He believes two major changes will come out of this. The first is that there will be normalization around mental health conversations. The second is that the workforce will be democratized. As we move to remote and have to listen better, we may let go of some not so great structures that are in place. Overall, he thinks we’ll come out of this a lot better than we entered.
What this conversation and the past 8 months have demonstrated is that we now have permission to care. We have the perfect examples and great emphasis on the need to care as a demonstrable management tool that impacts performance. | https://medium.com/culturati/culturati-live-recap-at-the-breaking-point-how-do-managers-lead-5fe67904c9c7 | ['Culturati Team'] | 2020-11-13 18:39:26.683000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Management And Leadership', 'Covid 19', 'Racial Justice'] |
Spring Boot Microservices — Implementing Distributed Tracing | Spring Boot Microservices — Implementing Distributed Tracing
In this article, we will learn an important patten in Microservices Architecture — Distributed Tracing. We will create a sample implementation based on Spring Boot, Spring Cloud Sleuth and Zipkin. This is the fourth part of our series — Spring Boot Microservices — Learning through examples.
Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash
What is Distributed Tracing?
Logging is an important aspect of software development. It not only helps in troubleshooting the issues but also help us in understanding the behavior of our softwares. With multiple microservices, logging becomes a multifold challenge.
Consider the example we discussed in our previous exercise — Developing Service Discovery. In this exercise, Our Shopping Cart Service needs to call Product Catalog Service to get the product details. The request is distributed across multiple services (2 in our case). If each of the services has multiple instances running, request will follow a path determined at run time.
The picture below shows just the 9 user requests getting distributed across 6 instances and it has already started looking complex. Imagine a situation when millions of transactions are getting processed with multiple participating services.
Distributed Transactions — An illustration
If we try to trouble shoot an issue in this environment, our monolith style logging will be as useful as nothing. The Session, Thread, or the Http Request references do not help much when the request is getting processed across multiple services. We will be lost, digging the logs.
We must have a unique request/transaction reference which should be passed across all the calls, to all the dependent microservices, in the call chain. This unique reference is usually referred as Correlation-id or Trace Id.
The Trace Id is created when the request hits the very first service in the chain. For subsequent calls, already existing Trace Id is passed along, typically as an http header attribute. This pattern is called — Distributed Tracing.
Trace Id Propagation — An Illustration
Now that we understood the need of Distributed Tracing, lets see how we can implement this pattern.
How are we implementing Distributed Tracing?
Our sample implementation consists of two parts
Implementing Tracing — In this part we will focus on pattern implementation to the core including Trace Id generation, passing it along the service calls and including it in the logs. We will be using Spring Cloud Sleuth library to achieve this. Enabling Tracing System — In this part we will focus on how the traces are collected and visualized to get better insights into the service interactions. This reduces time in triage by contextualizing errors and delays. We will be using Zipkin to implement this.
Other than this we will also discuss patterns like “log aggregation” and “centralized logging” as these patterns are related and further enhances the trouble-shooting capabilities.
Implementing Tracing
We already developed our Product Catalog Service and Shopping Cart Service in our previous exercise. We do not need to revisit the exercise, but a brief recall is needed to set the grounds for further discussion.
Our Product Catalog Service is responsible to manage the product and provides api to create, update, delete and read the product (source code can be referred here).
Our Shopping Cart Service is responsible to manage the Shopping Cart. We will be focussing on addItem method of this service (Source code can be referred here).
Both these services are based on Spring Boot. We will be updating these services to introduce the Trace Id.
Step 1: Lets add a dependency of spring-cloud-starter-sleuth to the Product Catalog Service’s pom.xml
<project>
... <dependencies>
...
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-sleuth</artifactId>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
... </project>
Step 2: Update getProductDetails method of ProductCatalogService.java and add some sample log statements. We are using slf4j to get the Logger instance.
@RestController
public class ProductCatalogService { public class ProductCatalogService { @Autowired
private MongoTemplate mongoTemplate; private MongoTemplate mongoTemplate; private Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ProductCatalogService.class);
public Product getProductDetails(
logger.info("get product details - process started");
Product product = mongoTemplate.findById(id, Product.class);
if (product != null)
logger.info("get product details - product found");
else
logger.info("get product details - product not found");
@GetMapping ("/product/{id}")public Product getProductDetails( @PathVariable String id) {Product product = mongoTemplate.findById(id, Product.class);if (product != null)else return product;
} }
Step 3: Update src/main/resources/application.properties to use the log level as TRACE and to include the service name as product_catalog.
spring.application.name=product_catalog spring.data.mongodb.uri=mongodb+srv://xxx-user:[email protected]/ecommerce logging.level.org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet=TRACE
Thats all we need, to add Trace Id in our requests and logs. Spring Cloud Sleuth is a layer over Brave, which is a distributed tracing instrumentation library. We do not need to write any custom code to create or propagate the trace contexts as it is done automatically by Brave. It typically intercepts the requests to do it. It also configures the logging context to include Trace Id and other variables. | https://medium.com/swlh/spring-boot-microservices-implementing-distributed-tracing-96c9adbc4ff4 | ['Lal Verma'] | 2020-09-15 23:56:48.251000+00:00 | ['Spring Boot', 'Microservice Architecture', 'Programming', 'Distributed Tracing', 'Microservices'] |
Unidirectional Architectures and time traveling in Swift: I | Time traveling in Swift is possible. This is a series that describe how Unidirectional architectures can be applied in Swift and how we can do very impressive things by enforcing them.
This is the first article in the series, but before deep diving into Swift specifics. I’d like to give you an introduction to the general concepts that make all of this possible.
What is time traveling?
Of course this is not my idea. Time Traveling has been discussed in the Javascript world several times. However, there are not so many examples of it in Swift.
When we talk about time traveling in the context of a Frontend application, this is what we have in mind.
We can record user sessions, and then reproduce the actions, go back, go forward, and “travel” in time, because all the actions are reproducible.
The main components
A word in the previous description is important: Actions. An Action is an object that describes something that happened in the system.
Did the user change the text in a textfield? That is an Action.
Did the user tap the button to create a To Do? That is an Action.
Did the user complete a To Do? That is also an Action.
Given that, if we want to describe something that happened in the system, anything, we need to create an Action that describes the event.
—
In order to time travel, we need to be able to get a certain State for the system by applying the Action objects, sequentially. Nothing else can possibly affect or modify the State. If anything else was able to mutate the State other than an action, then we couldn’t reproduce old states accordingly.
In the diagram above, I illustrate how a sequence of actions resulted in a state with an empty text attribute and an array with a single todo object that is completed. If we removed the toggleTodo action, we could apply all the other actions and get a state which is in turn the previous state. It is an undo event.
We can also store the deleted actions in a separate stack, so we can bring those back to the main actions stack and calculate the state again. It is a redo event.
So, we apply a set of Action objects, and we get a resulting application State. So far, so good. But, we can think of actions as an enum with a number of cases with associated values, and the State of a struct or a class with all the values inside, and that’s ok. However, something is missing: how is state mutated? Where is that mutation described?
The missing piece: The reducer
A reducer is a pure function. That means that its output is only calculated based on its input. It is a function in the traditional mathematical sense of the concept. Each element in its domain has only one element in its image.
Image from “Math is fun”
The reducer is the only function which is allowed to perform mutations in the State. Ok, it doesn’t mutate the State. It actually produces new states based on the previous State and an Action. It does so because it should only depend on its input. If it mutated the current state, it would also depend in a variable from the outside.
For each Action we get in the system, we send that action to the `reducer` along with the current State. The reducer returns the new State, so we store that value and we are prepared for the next Action that we will eventually get.
Due to the functional purity of the reducer, and given that all the events that could possibly mutate the State are expressed through an Action, each step is reproducible. We can travel in time by storing all the actions and calculate previous and next State values by applying all the Action values sequentially using the reducer function.
f(State) = UI
For all of this to work, we need to enforce functional purity in another transformation: the view should be a pure function of the application state.
Changes in the application states will produce modifications in the View to happen. This may sound as a lot of work, but keep in mind to things:
1. The power of programming depends more on the things you can’t do than on the things you are able to do. Applying restrictions to the things you can do is a way of getting properties in your system that allow you to do this kind of things.
2. SwiftUI already does this for you for free. Views in SwiftUI are rendered depending only on the state you have on them and on your ObservableObjects. This is taking that approach one step forward, and centralizing all your state in a single, big State object that can be mutated only by a function called reducer.
The store
There is another component that hasn’t been discussed so far. The Store is an object, that can be implemented in SwiftUI as a ObservableObject, that holds our State, our reducer, and exposes a function called dispatch(action:), which takes an Action and replaces the current State for the result of the reducer function.
To sum up
As said, The power of programming depends more on the things you can’t do than on the things you are able to do. If you enforce functional purity in your application, and express all mutations through actions, the state then becomes reproducible, you can go back and forward as you want, you can record user sessions, and many many many other things we havent covered in this article.
In the next article, we will translate all of this in actual Swift/SwiftUI code, so you will get a more practical understanding on how all of this fits in a real app.
If you want to learn an iOS architecture that applies all of this and is production ready, I would HIGHLY recommend The Composable Architecture. | https://medium.com/@fmo91/unidirectional-architectures-and-time-traveling-in-swift-i-55085d31eff2 | ['Fernando Martín Ortiz'] | 2020-12-21 12:15:15.029000+00:00 | ['iOS', 'Redux', 'Architecture', 'Swiftui'] |
Crypto Q&A: 5 Good Answers With Andrew Jewett | Crypto Q&A: 5 Good Answers With Andrew Jewett
Blockchain lover, cryptocurrency enthusiast and serial entrepreneur has achieved what few have: positively impacting the community
It’s an idealistic pursuit — cashing in on cryptocurrency for more than mere profits. So, what does it actually look like when the Blockchain is leveraged for positive change? It looks like Andrew Jewett’s forward-thinking enterprises, which live at the intersection of real estate, financial transactions and cryptocurrency.
Andrew Jewett
Before we hear from Andrew about what’s working, what’s not and what lies ahead in the emerging, yet sometimes less-than-scrupulous industry, we need a favor: a quick Up Vote for our 2019 South by Southwest Panel, “No Token Gesture: Crypto Leaders Doing Real Good.” (And if you want to share a little social media love for our panel as well, we greatly appreciate it!)
Question: Let’s try and draw a line in the sand. With the state of Crypto’s key players today — the good guys vs. the bad guys — how would you characterize the behavior of those working in the space for the right reasons — and the wrong?
Answer: “Unfortunately, the first thing that comes to mind is not positive. The unfortunate side effect of the hyper growth in the market that we’ve seen in the last few months is the unbelievable amount of dishonest and unprofessional participants trying to make a quick buck. With that said, I’ve also met some of the most genuinely fascinating and intellectually curious people in the world who are attempting to solve some of the biggest questions of our time. From global wealth transfer to water purification in Africa, crypto and blockchain are being used to empower people and improve the lives of so many. We’re still in a period of mass adoption and acceptance by so many but it’s happening quickly and it’s really exciting!”
Q: You have a close friend or family member who’s got the itch to work in the blockchain. They come to you for candid advice. What do you say?
A: “Make sure you do your diligence on the team you’re working for or with. A lot of people have tossed their traditional methods of investigation out the window simply because the word crypto or blockchain is associated with a project. As is the case with any investment, new job or a new venture, you should do your research. Look into the CEO and senior management team. Do they have the relevant skill set and / or background experience to execute on their idea? Does the product or target market make sense? Would you (as an average consumer) buy what they are selling? Take blockchain/ crypto out of the picture…does the concept make sense? Be sure you know the answer to all of these (and more) questions before making any decisions.”
Q: What have you seen in the space that’s given you hope that Crypto is maturing — not just as a currency or business model, but as a movement that cares about more than itself?
A: “One of the single biggest things I’ve heard recently is the impact crypto is having on the environment. The computing power required to generate transactions is incredible. As a result, there is a huge power demand, which as we all know, has an impact on carbon emissions. A lot of people are starting to think about this as a new problem to solve. How do we make transactions more efficient, but more importantly, how do we use renewables and other low-impact power sources to fuel those more efficient transactions? Just the simple fact that these questions are being asked shows me there are good people out there who care about their impact on the world vs. getting rich quick.”
Q: Bold prediction time. In 5 years, Crypto will be…
A: “Ubiquitous. I think you’ll see a mass adoption of not only the use of crypto for payment but crypto/ blockchain implementation in traditional capital markets. Securities markets are such a logical fit for the implementation of cryptography and blockchain based investments that eventually, all securities will be security tokens.”
Q: Looking at your investors, are there any demographics that pop? And do you have any sense of whether these cohorts may over-index based on your mission to create more livable communities?
A: “Given that we are a real estate tech company, I think the first true adopters of what we are doing will be the real estate community itself and then forward thinking blockchain enthusiasts. It’s sad to say but the market for crypto investments has largely been dominated by speculative buyers looking for 100X or 1000X investments who couldn’t care less about the impact their dollars make. Real estate investors and professionals, however, see the real impact of what we are doing (community revitalization) and see the benefit. Not only from a revenue perspective but, more importantly, from a revitalization perspective. So much of America is still recovering from the financial crisis and needs revitalization. If we can use crypto and blockchain to help do that, all the better!”
Thanks, Andrew! We’ll continue bringing you more Crypto Q&A sessions over the next few weeks. Here are a few more to check out:
And if you haven’t taken a moment to vote up our panel for SXSW, we would be greatly appreciative if you could.
About Andrew Jewett
A blockchain lover, crypto enthusiast and serial entrepreneur. That’s Andrew Jewett, who possesses a nuanced first-hand understanding of how the blockchain can be leveraged to improve our communities while also providing innovative investment opportunities. Andrew has a special gift. He’s able to design big-picture blockchain thinking while still getting in the weeds to execute the needed tactics to run the thriving ventures he’s founded: Aperture, a real estate technology and investment company focused on streamlining transactions, as well as Property Coin, a subsidiary company which brings structured finance and securities transactions to the blockchain. Andrew brings 13 years of real estate and mortgage-backed securities experience to the table, including managing all bank facilities, loan sales, and capital markets activities for HMC Assets / Wedgewood, a $1.5B operating and investment company, as well as serving in a Director capacity at Royal Bank of Scotland for six years. | https://medium.com/crypto-for-good/crypto-q-a-5-good-answers-with-andrew-jewett-1265a662e791 | ['Crypto For Good', 'And Plenty'] | 2018-08-16 17:55:05.770000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'SXSW'] |
Blockchain & EU-GDPR: How it can work out | How to overcome the challenges EU-GDPR legislation puts up for the blockchain technology?
It has now been one year since the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (hereafter GDPR) came into effect. This regulation aims to strengthen privacy and personal data protection in the EU countries by giving private persons more control over their data. At first view, some GDPR provisions seem in direct conflict with the fundamentals of blockchain technology, and may even be intrinsically incompatible with what the new GDPR rules seek to uphold. For blockchain the most controversial GDPR mandate is the “right to be forgotten” by article 17, giving individuals the right to request that their data be removed from a record. Because of its decentralized character with immutable blockchains, data, however, cannot be deleted (in general). Blockchains are designed to last forever. That puts blockchain in direct opposition to the EU-GDPR, at first glance.
The new European data protection law raises several questions and in particular the compatibility of the GDPR and the essential feature of blockchain, which practically forgets nothing. The possible compatibility concerns both the legal issues and technical challenges.
Legal and/or dogmatic approaches:
The “data subjects” have a right to obtain from the controller confirmation as to whether or not their data is being processed, including the information on recipients to whom the personal data have been or will be disclosed. They also have the right to ask the data controller to correct his or her personal information in case it is inaccurate (the „right to rectification“).
In this respect, there is first a legitimate question about the legal approaches that allow the co-existence of the GDPR and the blockchain.
Article 23 para. 1 GDPR in conjunction with Recital No. 73 – Restriction of the right to be forgotten
According to article 23 para. 1 GDPR the right in article 17 para. 1 may be restricted by way of a legislative measure the scope of the obligations when such a restriction respects the essence of the fundamental rights and freedoms and is a necessary and proportionate measure in a democratic society to safeguard.
Thus, a theoretical approach is advocated in the literature, which refers to a legal analysis of the expression of the right to be forgotten and the possibility of resetting the right to erasure by resorting to protection objectives in Art. 23 para. 1 GDPR (Martini/Weinzierl: Die Blockchain-Technologie und das Recht auf Vergessenwerden, in: NVwZ 2017, 1251 (1255 f.)). The GDPR already allows Member States de lege lata to repeal the right to erasure by resorting to the protection objectives set out in article 23 para. 1. Article 23 para. 1 (e) in conjunction with the recital No. 73 of the GDPR confers on the Member States, in particular, the right to allow derogations from the rights of the interested parties for “keeping public registers for reasons of general public interest”. This opening clause can be used for many state blockchain applications. In comparison to classic server solutions, a blockchain opens up a significantly higher potential for preventing manipulation of the data structure. Insofar as the benefits so obtainable outweigh the personal interests involved, this may justify a restriction of the right of cancellation by the Member States. As a minus to the complete waiver of deletion is next to a blocking of the data into consideration. Although the GDPR already standardizes such a right to restriction of processing in Art. 18. In very few cases, article 18 para. 1 (c) GDPR can help: insofar as the personal data stored in a blockchain are no longer for processing, but only for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims of the person concerned are required, the GDPR gives the normative way of blocking. Besides, the Member States have a minimal right of restriction in article 23 para. 1.
The author Dennis Hillemann is a blockchain enthusiast. He works as a lawyer in Germany with a BIG4 company.
Modification of the right to erasure to the right to pseudonymization
This approach is logically due to the possibility of restricting the right to erasure and merely represents the variation of the restriction to the right to erasure (Scholtka/Kneuper: Lokale Energiemärkte auf Basis der Blockchain-Technologie, in: IR 2019, 17 (20)).
Article 4 in conjunction with Recital No. 26
Due to the very young age of the GDPR, there is currently no court case law for this topic. Another legal approach is based on the decision of the Austrian Data Protection Authority (GZ: DSB-D123.270 / 0009-DSB / 2018; 5.12.2018), but in non-blockchain case. It refers primarily to the situation of the practical impossibility of access to the data and can therefore insofar be compared with § 275 para. 1 2nd case German Civil Code (in German: BGB). However, the argumentation line is not entirely convincing. The decision was made in a non-blockchain case, so the transfer of the argumentation line of reasoning to blockchain matters should be restrictive. The main difficulty of this approach is the dependence of the application of article 4 in conjunction with recital 26 on the exact technical situation. There are situations where there is a purely theoretical possibility of deriving personal information from some data in the blockchain. However, with all the resources available, this is not possible. The application of recital 26 as an interpretative aid is not convincing in such cases. It is not the purpose of the GDPR to create other grounds for exclusion in recital 26, which are not mentioned in article 2 para. 1. The GDPR does not know the threshold, whether the technical possibilities exist purely theoretically. Even the theoretical option of removing personal data opens up the material scope of the GDPR by articles 2, 4, and recital 26. In a situation where it is practically possible but complicated to derive some personal information from data in a blockchain, there is legal uncertainty. When considering how difficult it is to derive personal data, there is a particular need for regulation solely for the blockchain-based cases. The issue of importance should be located within the scope of application of GDPR. Here, too, the room for legal uncertainty remains, as there remains a dependency on the correct interpretation of recital 26 by the legal users concerned.
Technical challenges:
The possible compatibility of the technology with applicable European law poses several technical challenges.
Forking
Fork describes a process in which two miners create a block almost simultaneously and send it to the network, causing two different chains to exist in parts of the system for a short time (full systematic explanation by Bechtolf/Vogt: Datenschutz in der Blockchain – Eine Frage der Technik, in: ZD 2018, 66 (70)). In regular operation, one of the two chains gets lost due to the propagation speed and the principle of the longest chain, and the other one becomes invalid. Ultimately, a fork is thus a division of the blockchain. In addition to the accidental emergence of a fork, this can also be explicitly triggered. For this purpose, a new program version is provided by the programmers of the software on which the blockchain is running, which alters the validation process of the blocks. In simple terms, new rules are defined for the validation of blocks. With the old version of the program, these new rules are incompatible, which means that nodes with the older software will invalidate the blocks of the latest software and discard them. The result is the division of the blockchain. Due to the consensus principle of the blockchain and its decentralized structure, such a fork cannot be imposed on the participants of the network by the software programmers, but that each node and each miner can decide for themselves if he installs the new software version or not. For this reason, forks are an excellent challenge for the networks and always involve the risk that in the long run, not a program version prevails, which would lead to a final dichotomy and thus devaluation of the values stored in the blockchain.
Hacking “51% attack”
Another option for the technical approach is the hacking “51% Attack” (full systematic explanation by Bechtolf/Vogt: Datenschutz in der Blockchain – Eine Frage der Technik, in: ZD 2018, 66 (70)). It is an enemy attack on the blockchain, which is made possible by controlling more than half of the network’s mining power. A successful “51% attack” with back-calculated blocks would not lead to a permanent deletion or modification of data once stored in the blockchain.
The development of a subsequently changeable blockchain database
Only an administrator with the right to make changes in the blockchain can achieve the subsequent editability of data entries while maintaining authenticity. The essential advantage of a database based on the blockchain – decentralization, and protection against manipulation – would be lost.
Root key
This would allow so-called “root keys” to be created for each transaction, which would ensure that the individual hashs could no longer be linked to each other. It provides the highest level of security and data integrity. Each user thus receives such a key for each transaction, and the hashs cannot be linked. Therefore, the basic idea of the GDPR is correctly adhered to, because the sovereignty over one´s data is held by each blockchain user himself.
Conceptual (mixed) approach
Advanced new blockchain prototype: as it is currently technically impossible to modify data in blocks, the question arises as to whether the structurally new blockchain models cannot solve this problem. The conceptual approach is based on a blockchain prototype, which was presented and patented by the consulting firm Accenture. Under certain circumstances, this prototype enables the subsequent modification of the data in a blockchain. However, this model is based on the model of a permitted blockchain. Thus, in advance, individual administrators should be able to make changes according to agreed rules without breaking or sharing the chain. Modified blocks should have an unchangeable digital “scar” to indicate the change. Blockchain purists reject such changes, saying that in this way one would create nothing but a particularly expensive and inefficient standard database. Despite the blockchain purists´ criticisms, the authors believe that it will be necessary to push ahead with the development of these new models to meet the regulatory requirements (and not just privacy).
Conclusion and outlook
In addition to the problems that blockchain technology creates for privacy law, there is an unimagined potential for its implementation of the privacy protection principle of privacy by design. This principle is now explicitly set out in article 25 GDPR. It standardizes that the person responsible takes appropriate technical and organizational measures to effectively implement data protection principles – such as data minimization – to comply with the requirements of the GDPR and to protect the rights of data subjects.
The first approaches in science show the variety of possible issues that will occupy both law and computer science and technology in the coming years. It is probably only through the decisions of the courts that the first interpretative approaches are developed, which are then applied with the same standards. In line with the current state of jurisprudence and technical literature, the method of resetting the right to erasure, despite the different possibilities of design in the signatory states, is legally founded, especially as the legislature itself creates it.
Regulators should not wait too long in giving clarity on their future approach of blockchain. Long-lasting legal uncertainties around GDPR could signal an early end to blockchain progress. A practical instead of a systematic approach by GDPR is thereby recommended. For blockchain to be able to become compliant, the GDPR should change some of its conceptions, taking account of the specifics of blockchain technology. | https://dhillemann.medium.com/blockchain-eu-gdpr-how-it-can-work-out-877a13d0f3b5 | ['Dennis Hillemann'] | 2019-05-25 11:45:02.842000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Gdpr', 'Privacy', 'Blockchain Technology'] |
Confessions From An Illegal Immigrant | Family Matters
Ty insists he didn’t mean to break the law. His wife was pregnant when his Visa was up. She’s a U.S. citizen and he’s not. The pregnancy was tough on them as a couple and on his wife’s body. Some of their extended family stepped in to help.
As is often the case, that help came with an added dose of more trouble. “My mother-in-law suggested that we aren’t a real couple. That I just married her for a Green Card.” Ty is incredulous at the suggestion. He points to the pregnancy as proof that they are a real couple.
When he finishes a beer, he orders another. He continues to blast his mother-in-law’s insinuation that his marriage is one of convenience. “We have a son for God’s sake.” Once prodded, Ty admits that he made a mistake by letting his Green Card lapse.
“It wasn’t something I was thinking about,” after a drink. “But there is something to be said for this being the best country in the world. I felt right at home.”
Illegally Yours
Ty staying in the country is illegal and putting his family in danger. This is something that he has been tormented with. As he watched news reports of brown people being targeted by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he worried about what would happen to his family.
Then a close call happened. He walked past ICE officers who were stopping a “Latino family. The father was quite angry and swearing in Spanish.” One of the agents looked right at Ty.
“Everything went black. A pit formed in my stomach, I was a wreck.”
Instead of asking to see his papers, the officer told Ty to move along. “There was nothing to see there. That’s what he told me. It was because of the color of my skin that I wasn’t stopped. That I am certain of.”
While there is no concrete policy excluding white people from being arrested and/or deported, Trump has made it clear that his intention is to get rid of people of color.
During an Oval Office meeting, Trump is quoted as saying “Haiti? Why do we want people from Haiti here?” Then they got Africa. ‘Why do we want these people from all these shithole countries here? We should have more people from places like Norway.”
The countries he questioned and insulted are populated with people of color. While Norway is notoriously white.
Family Concerns
Over the past four years, there has been much hand wringing about tearing families apart. Democrats have pushed back against the racist immigration policy set forth by the Trump administration. They argue that it is unfairly targeting people of color, especially Latin families.
Ty walked away from the family being arrested but watched as the mother and father were put in handcuffs, in front of three small children. The image of the crying kids haunts him.
“What if my son saw me being put into handcuffs? Those people weren’t doing anything wrong, they were just living their lives. I go to work and do what I’m supposed to but I could be arrested and torn away from my family at any time.”
It is true that families are being torn apart. Much was written about the children that were put in cages in 2019. Outrage swept across much of the country with very few people supporting Trump in his policy.
“My wife is a citizen, which makes my son a citizen. But I am scared of what would happen to them if I were arrested. Would my son end up in a cage? It would kill me if he was ripped away from me.”
A fear many people can relate to. | https://medium.com/harsh-light-news/confessions-from-an-illegal-immigrant-8db0f992d4a1 | ['Edward Anderson'] | 2020-06-04 12:31:00.870000+00:00 | ['Race', 'True Crime', 'Family', 'Equality', 'Politics'] |
America’s Got Talent — S16e2 : Auditions 2 — NBC’s | ➕Official Partners “TVs” TV Shows & Movies
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America’s Got Talent — Season 16, Episode 2 || FULL EPISODES : A weekly talent competition where an array of performers â from singers and dancers, to comedians and novelty acts â vie for a $1 million cash prize. .
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⭐A Target Package is short for Target Package of Information. It is a more specialized case of Intel Package of Information or Intel Package.
✌ THE STORY ✌
Its and Jeremy Camp (K.J. Apa) is a and aspiring musician who like only to honor his God through the energy of music. Leaving his Indiana home for the warmer climate of California and a college or university education, Jeremy soon comes Bookmark this site across one Melissa Heing
(Britt Robertson), a fellow university student that he takes notices in the audience at an area concert. Bookmark this site Falling for cupid’s arrow immediately, he introduces himself to her and quickly discovers that she is drawn to him too. However, Melissa holds back from forming a budding relationship as she fears it`ll create an awkward situation between Jeremy and their mutual friend, Jean-Luc (Nathan Parson), a fellow musician and who also has feeling for Melissa. Still, Jeremy is relentless in his quest for her until they eventually end up in a loving dating relationship. However, their youthful courtship Bookmark this sitewith the other person comes to a halt when life-threating news of Melissa having cancer takes center stage. The diagnosis does nothing to deter Jeremey’s love on her behalf and the couple eventually marries shortly thereafter. Howsoever, they soon find themselves walking an excellent line between a life together and suffering by her Bookmark this siteillness; with Jeremy questioning his faith in music, himself, and with God himself.
✌ 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 refers to the procedure of delivering or obtaining media this way.[clarification needed] Streaming identifies the delivery approach to the medium, rather than the medium itself. Distinguishing delivery method from the media distributed applies especially 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, audio tracks CDs). There are challenges with streaming content on the web. For instance, users whose Internet connection lacks sufficient bandwidth may experience stops, lags, or slow buffering of this content. And users lacking compatible hardware or software systems may be unable to stream certain content.
Streaming is an alternative to file downloading, an activity in which the end-user obtains the entire file for the content before watching or listening to it. Through streaming, an end-user may use their media player to get started on playing digital video or digital sound content before the complete file has been transmitted. The term “streaming media” can connect with media other than video and audio, such as for example live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are considered “streaming text”.
This brings me around to discussing us, a film release of the Christian religio us faith-based . As almost customary, Hollywood usually generates two (maybe three) films of this variety movies within their yearly theatrical release lineup, with the releases usually being around spring us and / or fall respectfully. I didn’t hear much when this movie was initially aounced (probably got buried underneath all of the popular movies news on the newsfeed). My first actual glimpse of the movie was when the film’s movie trailer premiered, which looked somewhat interesting if you ask me. Yes, it looked the movie was goa be the typical “faith-based” vibe, but it was going to be directed by the Erwin Brothers, who directed I COULD Only Imagine (a film that I did so like). Plus, the trailer for I Still Believe premiered for quite some us, so I continued seeing it most of us when I visited my local cinema. You can sort of say that it was a bit “engrained in my brain”. Thus, I was a lttle bit keen on seeing it. Fortunately, I was able to see it before the COVID-9 outbreak closed the movie theaters down (saw it during its opening night), but, because of work scheduling, I haven’t had the us to do my review for it…. as yet. And what did I think of it? Well, it was pretty “meh”. While its heart is certainly in the proper place and quite sincere, us is a little too preachy and unbalanced within its narrative execution and character developments. The religious message is plainly there, but takes way too many detours and not focusing on certain aspects that weigh the feature’s presentation.
✌ TELEVISION SHOW AND HISTORY ✌
A tv set show (often simply Television show) is any content prBookmark this siteoduced for broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, cable, or internet and typically viewed on a television set set, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are usually placed between shows. Tv shows are most often scheduled well ahead of The War with Grandpa and appearance on electronic guides or other TV listings.
A television show may also be called a tv set program (British EnBookmark this siteglish: programme), especially if it lacks a narrative structure. A tv set Movies is The War with Grandpaually released in episodes that follow a narrative, and so are The War with Grandpaually split into seasons (The War with Grandpa and Canada) or Movies (UK) — yearly or semiaual sets of new episodes. A show with a restricted number of episodes could be called a miniMBookmark this siteovies, serial, or limited Movies. A one-The War with Grandpa show may be called a “special”. A television film (“made-for-TV movie” or “televisioBookmark this siten movie”) is a film that is initially broadcast on television set rather than released in theaters or direct-to-video.
Television shows may very well be Bookmark this sitehey are broadcast in real The War with Grandpa (live), be recorded on home video or an electronic video recorder for later viewing, or be looked at on demand via a set-top box or streameBookmark this sited on the internet.
The first television set shows were experimental, sporadic broadcasts viewable only within an extremely short range from the broadcast tower starting in the. Televised events such as the 2020 Summer OlyBookmark this sitempics in Germany, the 2020 coronation of King George VI in the UK, and David Sarnoff’s famoThe War with Grandpa introduction at the 9 New York World’s Fair in the The War with Grandpa spurreBookmark this sited a rise in the medium, but World War II put a halt to development until after the war. The 2020 World Movies inspired many Americans to buy their first tv set and in 2020, the favorite radio show Texaco Star Theater made the move and became the first weekly televised variety show, earning host Milton Berle the name “Mr Television” and demonstrating that the medium was a well balanced, modern form of entertainment which could attract advertisers. The firsBookmBookmark this siteark this sitet national live tv broadcast in the The War with Grandpa took place on September 16, 2020 when President Harry Truman’s speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in SAN FRAAmerica’s Got Talent CO BAY AREA was transmitted over AT&T’s transcontinental cable and microwave radio relay system to broadcast stations in local markets.
✌ FINAL THOUGHTS ✌
The power of faith, love, and affinity for take center stage in Jeremy Camp’s life story in the movie I Still Believe. Directors Andrew and Jon Erwin (the Erwin Brothers) examine the life span and The War with Grandpas of Jeremy Camp’s life story; pin-pointing his early life along with his relationship Melissa Heing because they battle hardships and their enduring love for one another through difficult. While the movie’s intent and thematic message of a person’s faith through troublen is indeed palpable plus the likeable mThe War with Grandpaical performances, the film certainly strules to look for a cinematic footing in its execution, including a sluish pace, fragmented pieces, predicable plot beats, too preachy / cheesy dialogue moments, over utilized religion overtones, and mismanagement of many of its secondary /supporting characters. If you ask me, this movie was somewhere between okay and “meh”. It had been definitely a Christian faith-based movie endeavor Bookmark this web site (from begin to finish) and definitely had its moments, nonetheless it failed to resonate with me; struling to locate a proper balance in its undertaking. Personally, regardless of the story, it could’ve been better. My recommendation for this movie is an “iffy choice” at best as some should (nothing wrong with that), while others will not and dismiss it altogether. Whatever your stance on religion faith-based flicks, stands as more of a cautionary tale of sorts; demonstrating how a poignant and heartfelt story of real-life drama could be problematic when translating it to a cinematic endeavor. For me personally, I believe in Jeremy Camp’s story / message, but not so much the feature.
FIND US:
✔️ https://www.ontvsflix.com/tv/4551-16-2/america-s-got-talent.html
✔️ Instagram: https://instagram.com
✔️ Twitter: https://twitter.com
✔️ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com | https://medium.com/@Americas_Got_Talent_2021/americas-got-talent-s16e2-auditions-2-nbc-s-37a5c755de1e | ['Agt', 'Auditions', "Full Show On Nbc'S"] | 2021-06-08 12:43:29.633000+00:00 | ['Family', 'Talent', 'Reality', 'Music', 'TV Series'] |
Glass | Glass
Photo by Leo Broadbent on Unsplash
Thou art thy mother’s glass, and she in thee. William Shakespeare
My mother’s impatience and fury have come home to roost after seventy years of trauma, twenty years of which was wrought onto me. Here in December, with my sister’s house alight in cheer, our mom hobbles on a walker. It’s a sliding, grating sound that drives us both back into our childhood.
“Oh, no. Here she comes.”
In mid-October, I left my husband and kids in Lebanon. I came to Texas, ten thousand miles away, to stay with Kathy (my younger sister) to help care for our mom, whose alcoholism and drug abuse have rendered her feeble. Of late, I realize I serve as a buffer to keep Kathy (who is often in a drunken rage) from killing her. It is a pitched stress. I am tied to four horses.
Mom’s nose is now a beak as her skin has drooped to mottled meat under her chin. Her teeth are brown. One is abcessed. I want to bury her under the floor boards.
A week ago, she bitched that I didn’t press the button to make the coffee. Yesterday, she told me to SHUT UP. Her voice sounded exactly as it did when I was six, an anger resplendent with horrors past. I am made to be the child once again.
But I am not afraid of her anymore. Her darts no longer pierce me. I catch them without even looking - like Houdini or 007. I stand in the doorway, my feet planted into the floor. My screams are disembodied. I throw a phone charger at her face.
“You don’t get to have it your way anymore,” I seethe.
‘A singer can shatter glass with the proper high note, but the simplest way to break glass is simply to drop it on the floor.’
Anne Rice | https://medium.com/scrittura/glass-58706370ffe7 | ['Josie Elbiry'] | 2020-12-15 21:26:59.161000+00:00 | ['Fear', 'Mothers', 'Abuse', 'Writing Prompts', 'Family'] |
Surround yourself with people who inspire you | Surround yourself with people who inspire you
“I want to be around people that do things. I don’t want to be around people anymore that judge or talk about what people do. I want to be around people that dream and support and do things.” ― Amy Poehler Amanda Bernardo Follow Oct 16, 2019 · 3 min read
Interview day can be daunting for everyone. You spend your morning worrying about what you’ll wear, what they’ll ask, and how you can make the best first impression.
While some may purchase a brand new power suit to mark the day, others are counting on people like Scott McNaughton to dress the part.
Meet Scott.
By day, Scott works as a federal public servant with the Canada School of Public Service.
In 2012, after losing his father to cancer, Scott was inspired to honour his legacy by helping those in his community.
“I was only 24 when I lost my dad, and losing him hit me hard. As I was cleaning out the family home and making difficult decisions on whether to keep, junk or donate my father’s belongings, I came across his suits, dress shirts, ties, dress shoes, and other professional clothing. My dad was a giving man and so, I wanted to honour him by giving his belongings to someone truly in need. Unfortunately, such an organization did not exist in my community so it was up to me to bring such a charity to life.”
Suits his Style served it’s first client in 2014 and has since helped over 2000 clients in need.
Suits his Style provides professional attire for those looking to dress their best for a job interview or new job. Founded in 2013, Suits his Style helps build confidence in the community to those who otherwise would not have access to professional clothing.
“We rely on donations from the community to stay operational and have enough clothes to help our clients. We partner with over 70 agencies across the city who refer clients to us when they are job ready and actively looking for work.”
Run by a mighty team of 20 volunteers, the team relies on the community as much as the community relies on them. Monetary donations help to cover the team’s operating expenses of running a store-front and storage, while clothing donations help to keep their shelves stocked.
Like many charities, securing these donations is always a big challenge but awareness and partnership continues to help secure the funds and clothing needed to keep Suits his Style operating.
These challenges, however, can be easily solved when at the heart of your outside8 is a passion that drives your purpose forward.
“Find something you deeply care about and are passionate about. Managing a nine to five and outside8 (plus a 10 month old) is hard and time consuming. However, whatever your outside eight may be, it will work if and only if you truly and deeply care about it. It also helps to build allies and supporters in your corner. For Suits his Styles that means recruiting a strong team of volunteers who can keep things running even when my nine to five takes over.”
So, how can you build an army of support to pursue your own outside8?
Share your outside8 with your family and friends. Let them know what you’re working on and why you’re working on it. Having others understand your purpose will help build the foundation of support around you. Find others who share your passion. Growing your outside8 with others who share the same purpose or passion will help build capacity and resources around a shared outcome. You don’t have to go at it alone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you’re building a network of support, don’t be afraid to turn to them when you really do need help.
We never know what will inspire us to start our outside8. Sometimes we see it coming, sometimes we don’t. Most of the time, however, we are driven by a passion that makes it possible for us to succeed and are surrounded by people that support our success. | https://medium.com/outsideeight/surround-yourself-with-people-who-inspire-you-a687ca75a10b | ['Amanda Bernardo'] | 2019-10-16 01:25:12.554000+00:00 | ['Support', 'Charity', 'Inspiration', 'Teamwork', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
Why (and HOW) Artists Should Act on Climate Change | It’s easy to reduce your own carbon footprint — but what about the people around you? Will it help to cut the tires of their SUVs? Hack their credit card so they can’t book transatlantic flights anymore? No, it won’t. By the next day insurance will have made sure that theres a new oversized vehicle in the garage and the plane will fly even without your neighbour.
And that’s were artists com in.
While our individual actions are important, the problem with solving problems on our own is that you also cut down your abilities to connect with like-minded peers. So instead of overthinking your own consumption patterns or trying to reduce your carbon footprint by another two percent go forward by looking out for people who have your mindset.
Or as artist Ricky Kej put it:
I travel all around the world to perform and spread the message of saving the environment.
Ricky Kej is part of the “Artists for the Earth “ — Network. Its participants are convinced that art has the power to influence and to inspire. Or as they put it on their website:
“It acts as a mirror to society, able to illuminate the human condition in ways beyond pure science or fact. It distills experience, and through it, can raise questions, reveal a conflict or a dilemma and communicate ideas across cultures irrespective of borders. It can elicit emotion, deepen understanding and help to galvanize a movement.”
In 1970 the Earth Day Movement started to make people aware of their lifestyle’s consequences for the planet. It became the starting point for a global movement that lead to environmental laws and a wave of activism.
In 2020 — 50 years later — artists use their publicity to promote the values of ecology. Famous french string quartet Quatuor Ébène put it like this:
Ecology — the humanism of the 21st century — encourages us to rethink our frontiers.
The quartet takes part in the Beethoven Pastoral Project, which invites artists all across the world to make a statement for environmental protection. Musicians like conductor Paavo Järvi or jazz pianist Uri Caine elaborate on Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony.
In his masterpiece Beethoven depicts the harmonious unity between mankind and nature — back in the early 19th century. About a hundred artists and collectives have joined the project so far. | https://medium.com/@niklasrudolph/why-and-how-artists-should-act-on-climate-change-cc622724bc85 | ['Niklas Rudolph'] | 2019-11-17 20:34:12.289000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Nature', 'Musicians', 'Art', 'Environmental Issues'] |
Poppies- Chapter 37- | Fiction Series
Poppies- Chapter 37-
Photo owned by Author
-Chapter 37-
“Are you going to tell Mom about Joanna?” Pauline asked Alan later that night as they stood outside their home in the dark. The entrance light shone down on them.
Alan rubbed the top of his thinning hair, contemplating his next move.
“If I am to be honest? It’s not going to be easy,” he replied to Pauline.
“No. I’m glad it’s you and not me.” Pauline her smile weak. She leaned over and kissed Alan’s tired face. He with affection he rubbed back.
“You go on to bed. I’ll deal with your mother.”
Pauline obeyed and went straight to her room. She shut the door leaving it open a crack so she could hear her parents in the next room. Sitting down with her legs folded beneath her, she pressed her ear to the door and held her breath.
Alan placed his hat on the rack and walked into the living room. Jobeth sat silent, listening to the radio, and reading a book.
“Hello, darling,” she said as he walked into the room. She placed her book aside as Alan leaned down to kiss her.
“Jobeth,” He looked serious. Jobeth was a stubborn woman, but it had always been one of the many things he loved about her.
“What is it, Alan? You look odd,” she said, starting to stand. Alan placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Is it one of the children? Are they all right?”
“Joanna is back,” he blurted out, finding no other way to say it.
He watched Jobeth’s face for any sign of emotion.
At first, her face seemed to lighten. The faint creases in her forehead slackened, then hardened again.
She sprang up.
“I don’t want that name mentioned in my house,” Jobeth hissed, looking around to see if Alan-Michael was near. He couldn’t hear the name of Joanna without a slew of vile words spewing from his mouth.
“Jobeth!” He expected her to have some negative reaction. Alan thought that deep in Jobeth’s heart she’d be glad to hear Joanna was back.
“Alan,” Jobeth glared, “I mean it.”
“She has two children, Jobeth. Our grandchildren.”
For a brief moment, Jobeth’s face softened, but then chilled. This caused the soft crow’s feet in the corners of her eyes to look harsh. The torment behind her hazel eyes was evident. She wanted to be happy, but the hurt and anger were still too strong to let go of.
Jobeth thought of Mara-Joy and the child she should have had with Chad. The child that had cost Mara-Joy the ability to ever have children of her own. She thought of Mara-Joy’s wanting children of her own and how she had to suffice with other women’s children. Like the stepdaughters, she shared with her new husband.
“Those children should have been Mara-Joy’s children. Not Joanna’s,” Jobeth spat, refusing to look at her husband, the injustices evident in her voice.
“Think about what you are saying, Jobeth,” Alan remarked, shaking his head in disbelief. “As hard as it was for her, Mara-Joy has come through all this. She has married again and has a life of her own. We have to stop all this nonsense, Jobeth. Our family needs to unite once again. We have other children besides Mara-Joy and Alan-Michael. It’s time we put the past behind us and moved forward as a family.”
Jobeth stood open-mouthed and unable to avoid staring at Alan. They had rarely fought in almost twenty-five years of marriage. She had rarely seen Alan so disappointed in her.
“I know I have other children, Alan. I’ve always been quite aware of them,” There was a nastiness to her tone. She regretted the venom in her voice the moment she heard the words out of her mouth. It sounded cold and cruel. She pulled back. The front of her hand covering her mouth as though trying to stop any more nasty words from coming out.
“Really?” Alan exploded. All the feelings he had toward the way Jobeth treated the other girls seemed to be frothing to the surface. Unable to stop the volcano inside of him, he erupted.
“I’m ashamed to admit that I have sat back and watched you play favorites with our children. I didn’t want to believe that the woman I loved could love her children so unequally. You have always preferred Mara-Joy and Alan-Michael to the others. And Joanna,” he said as he ran his fingers roughly through his sparse hair, “my God, you’ve been the roughest on her. You never let up on how she wasn’t like Mara-Joy. You put the rivalry between them Jobeth, and I helped by sitting back and allowing you to do it. If I had been a better father, I would have put a stop to you and the way you were with those children.”
“I have always loved my children!” Jobeth countered, unable to believe her ears. She clenched her fists to her sides, ready for battle. “How dare you say I don’t love them the same! My love for Mara-Joy is the reason you and I are together. She brought us together! She did Alan! If that child hadn’t needed parents, who knows if we would ever have ended up together.”
“We loved each other before there ever was a Mara-Joy, Jobeth. We would have ended up together eventually. It was meant to be,” Alan said, his voice softening.
He couldn’t stand the anguish on Jobeth’s face.
“You don’t know that, Alan. You don’t know that for sure.” Tears sprang to her eyes. “Don’t you remember those times when everything was taken from me? From us? My baby boy and Jonah . . .” Jobeth hadn’t spoken of either in years and saying their names brought their faces fresh to her mind.
Jobeth rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, trying to erase the memories of those long dead.
“Did you forget them, Alan? Because I didn’t.” Her eyes red-rimmed were full of misery. “When I look at our son, I see the baby boy I lost. I see his tiny body gasping in vain for air as he died in my arms. When Alan-Michael was born, it was like I had him back again, but alive and healthy. I see the man who helped me deliver him. I remember how that man, Jonah, helped me to love again. And Mara-Joy, oh, Mara-Joy. Every time I look at her, I see the child who set me free to love you. I didn’t feel I deserved to love, but Mara-Joy’s presence in our lives forced me to make choices I was too afraid to make. Can’t you see?” She implored, begging Alan to see her side.
“Can’t you see our children have brought me to where I am? Alan-Michael is the baby I lost and Mara-Joy is the baby I found that brought me finally to you.”
“Jobeth, I’m so sorry that you’re still haunted by all this pain, but that is still no excuse. Joanna is our child as well and she needs you too. Think about making up with your daughter, Jobeth,” his voice was cold, “before it is too late and you wish that you had.”
He turned and stomped out of the room.
Jobeth fell back onto the couch. She felt like she had the air knocked out of her. She closed her eyes, listening to Alan stomping up the stairs to their bedroom. Her throat tightened and her eyes began to water.
“Joanna,” she whimpered, “Joanna.”
— -
“I can’t believe the nerve!”
Mara-Joy stormed around the kitchen of her parents’ house. She was livid.
Jobeth and Alan-Michael sat at the kitchen table, caught in the cyclone of Mara-Joy’s wrath.
Her hair swung loose in tight curls down her back.
“Settle down, Mara-Joy,” Jobeth said, feeling a bit annoyed. She glanced at Alan-Michael out of the corner of her eye. He was completely frightened by Mara-Joy’s outburst. They had become quite frequent since Joanna and Chad’s return. “You are frightening your brother,” Jobeth said dulled by yet another outburst.
Alan-Michael straightened in his chair.
“No… she’s… not,” he stuttered, his lips flapping. Alan-Michael, now sixteen, was a handsome boy with light brown hair and hazel eyes like his mother. He didn’t have his father’s distinct eyes or his mother’s long, oval face that his other siblings inherited. He had a broad face like his father and his mother’s eyes. This didn’t make him less attractive than the others, only different.
“But, Mama!” Mara-Joy hollered, throwing her hands up into the air. “She stole the only man I ever loved away from me! I hate her! I hate her! I hate her! Don’t you hate her?” Mara-Joy slammed her fist down on the table, making both Jobeth and Alan-Michael jump.
These outbursts were also becoming more and more violent each time.
“That is enough, Mara-Joy!” Jobeth stood up, shaking. Alan-Michael slunk back in his chair, paralyzed. He’d never heard his mother raise her voice to Mara-Joy.
Stunned, Mara-Joy stepped back, speechless. She was as shocked by her mother’s words.
“Of course I don’t hate my own daughter. I have never hated Joanna. She is my daughter like you are my daughter. I could hate her no more than I could hate you, Mara-Joy.” Jobeth’s chest rose up and down in anger.
Something was breaking inside her, letting go like a damn finally released. “The man you love should be the husband you are with now. Not the one you married so many years ago when you were still a child.”
“But, Mama,” Mara-Joy sobbed in a quiet voice, “she hurt us all.”
Dejected, she plunked down into the nearest kitchen chair.
“What Joanna did was wrong, very wrong. But that was so long ago. You two are sisters. It is time the two of you made up. This family has been torn apart long enough,” Jobeth resigned, rested her forehead in the palm of her hand.
In the weeks since Joanna returned, all she thought of was what Alan said. His words were ringing true. Maybe she had favored these two children more. In fact, if she was true to herself, she knew she had. For whatever reasons, she had done it. She now needed to fix the mistakes of the past before it was too late.
“Enough is enough, Mara-Joy.” Jobeth’s eyes shot to her son who sat mesmerized by what was going on. “Look how you’ve turned your own brother against his sister. He barely remembers her and he has a horrible hatred of her.”
“It isn’t Mara-Joy who makes me hate her, Ma,” Alan -Michael said in a calm voice. “I dislike her for my own reasons. I don’t take kindly to tramps stealing respectful women’s husbands. Especially when that respectful woman is my sister. Besides Ma, have you forgotten how she flung Mara-Joy’s adoption into her face? That was downright cruel. She seduces Mara-Joy’s husband. Gets pregnant with his bastard brat and then screams out a mound of filth at Mara-Joy. And we are the ones who should forgive and forget?” Alan-Michael stood up and put a protective arm around Mara-Joy’s quivering shoulders. He was already taller than her and she appeared small and defenseless in his arms.
“It seems Alan-Michael and I are the only ones not blinded,” Mara-Joy said with defense to her mother. She crossed her arms firm against her full chest.
Jobeth stood staring at them. The hostility steaming off of their very essences.
“I realize your sister has made a lot of mistakes in her life, but that doesn’t change the fact that she is still your sister. Whether you like it or not that isn’t going to change.” She turned and left the room, unable to face their anger anymore.
“You are blind, Mother, blind! And I can’t believe you’re turning against me!” Mara-Joy followed after Jobeth. Alan-Michael grabbed her arm, holding her back.
“I want my family whole again,” Jobeth said her voice sounding tired, “And, like it or not, that includes Joanna.”
Jobeth opened the front door, leaving the two behind flabbergasted. The fresh air hit her like a liberating breeze.
“Did you see that?” Mara-Joy swung around to face Alan-Michael.
“I saw it, but I don’t believe it,” Alan-Michael said, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Bitch! Bitch! Bitch! She has even turned our mother against us. Our mother!” She pulled away from Alan-Michael’s stocky sixteen-year-old body.
“What do you say to that little brother? Isn’t that a fine how-do-you-do?”
“She is really an evil little thing,” Alan-Michael placed his arm back around his sister. She snuggled into his thick chest, letting his warmth protect her.
“It is so true, Mikey. So very true. You are the only one who understands the pain and agony Joanna has caused me. The rest have seemed to forget.” She wrapped her arms around his waist.
Alan-Michael felt himself become stronger under Mara-Joy’s grasp.
“I would love to see Joanna’s brains in a puddle on the floor. I would love to see her squirm in pain as I watch her die,” he sneered with passion.
Mara-Joy looked up and smiled into Alan-Michael’s darkened face. He always had a dark side but the older he got, the more it had grown. Twisting and developing into something unnatural. She’d noticed it when he was small. First in his cruelty to animals and then to other children. Mara-Joy had pushed it aside, choosing to ignore it. He was hers. Her Mikey. Always there to defend her at any cost. So what if sometimes he was a little too weird?
“Oh, Mikey, you do love me, don’t you?” her voice thick with sweetness. She pressed her head to his heaving chest.
“You know I love you more than anyone,” he choked full of emotion, hugging her tighter.
“Wouldn’t it be great if Joanna were dead? Wouldn’t it be great if something happened to her, an accident or something?” Mara-Joy sniffed, closing her eyes, feeling safe in Alan-Michael’s love.
Alan-Michael became confused. Was Mara-Joy serious? It was so hard to know when she was serious or not.
“Then Ma and Pa would be ours again and I would have Chad back with me where he belongs.”
“What are you saying, sis?” Alan-Michael asked, looking at his sister with total confusion. “You aren’t saying we should have her killed, are you?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Mara-Joy sounded meek as she shoved her head under Alan-Michael’s chin. “I know her children should be mine and Chad’s children. Not hers!” She sighed and pulled away from Alan-Michael’s warm embrace.
Mara-Joy flopped down on the nearest kitchen chair. “She ruined me, Mikey. Having an affair with my husband and running off with him. Carrying his illegitimate children.” She placed her head down on the table, letting the cool surface calm her skin. “They left me alone and abandoned. The humiliation I suffered from my own sister’s hand.” She raised her head to Alan-Michael’s frustrated face. A red, angry ball had formed on her forehead.
Alan-Michael listened to every word Mara-Joy said, a wicked thought forming in her mind.
“You know, Mikey, she never did pay any attention to you.”
Alan-Michael’s brows furrowed together, trying to remember his childhood with Joanna.
“She hates you as much as she hates me. Why I bet she is cooking up some way to hurt you next.” Mara-Joy jumped up and grabbed Alan-Michael by the shoulders.
“We have to stop her before she gets me! You have to stop her before she gets us!”
“I won’t let her hurt you again!” Alan-Michael protested, his voice full of emotion and rage. Mara-Joy took his large head and cradled it to her chest. Her perfume made his nose tingle. He felt himself harden when Mara-Joy rubbed her thigh against him. He hugged his sister tighter, burying his face deeper into her fragrant breast.
“There, there,” she cooed, rubbing the boy’s back. She sinfully smirked amused at how much anger aroused her brother’s lust. She rubbed her thigh harder on Alan-Michael’s erection. He groaned, embarrassed, between his sobbing.
“She better not try and hurt me, right Mikey?”
Alan-Michael muttered louder as he held Mara-Joy tighter to him. She entranced him. Made him obsessed with her. He always needed more of Mara-Joy.
Always.
She pulled away from the confused, aroused boy. Alan-Michael stood drunken before her, hands reaching out in vain. She placed a silky hand on his trembling shoulder.
“You have to stop her, Mikey before she hurts me again.”
Alan-Michael yearned to be in Mara-Joy’s arms again.
“You love me, Mikey? You do?” she pouted. He nodded like a trained dog. “I’ve always loved you the most in this world, Mikey. The most. Please stop her!” Mara-Joy fell to the ground and clutched Alan-Michael around the waist. She shook with fake tears her breath heaving through his clothing down to his hungry flesh.
“I will,” Alan-Michael said clutching Mara-Joy’s head tight to him. “I will.”
Mara-Joy looked up at her brother. His eyes screwed shut with intoxication. She grinned to herself and gave him one more hug around his waist. Pressing her lips close to his bulging appendage before standing up. She straightened her dress and looked at the helpless blob of a boy in front of her.
“Thank you, Mikey,” she breathed into his ear, her hand pressed against his chest where it lingered for a moment. She then wheeled and left, aware of what she had done to her own brother.
As soon as the door shut behind her, Alan-Michael ran upstairs to his room. Filled with disgust he stripped his soiled underpants off.
He stood in the bathroom scrubbing his tainted underwear. Bellowing tormented with shame “She’s my sister! She’s my sister!” | https://medium.com/illumination/poppies-chapter-37-100d7d1c5461 | ['Deena Thomson'] | 2021-01-22 04:05:31.696000+00:00 | ['Fiction Series', 'Fiction', 'Writing', 'Fiction Writing', 'Novel'] |
One way to instantly make your week more meaningful | ✨ Tip: Build your schedule around your “core desired feelings.”
If someone asked you what you have going on this week, you’d probably rattle off all the things you have to do. But what about all the ways you want to feel? On Medium, Kristin Wong makes a case for building your plans around your “core desired feelings,” or CDFs, a concept created by author Danielle LaPorte. The practice ensures that you’re not just checking off a list of tasks, but also feeling fulfilled. One of Wong’s CDFs is “awe”: “I’ve made a big list of activities that conjure that feeling: observe the moon through my telescope, go on a hike, take a road trip to the sequoias,” she writes. Each week, she goes through her list of activities related to her CDFs and puts a few of them on her schedule.
Give it a try. If your CDF is “connection,” you might schedule an evening walk with a neighbor. If your CDF is “energy,” perhaps you can plan a couple HIIT sessions before work. If your CDF is “space,” you might set aside an hour or two to take a long walk or stare aimlessly out the window. When you’re intentional with your time, what you’ll ultimately feel is better.
📅 More from Forge on optimizing your calendar:
How to Use Your Calendar to Make Every Day Your Ideal Day
Read more >>
8 Ways to Get Fresh Starts on Your Calendar
Read more >>
A New Way to Schedule Your Workweek
Read more >> | https://forge.medium.com/one-way-to-instantly-make-your-week-more-meaningful-28bd6eb3b228 | ['Michelle Woo'] | 2021-05-20 11:02:10.828000+00:00 | ['Intentions', 'Feelings', 'Meaning', 'Calendar', 'Values'] |
“A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face” -Maya Angelou | Photo by Ilyuza Mingazova on Unsplash
I woke up to severe foot pain on my 34th birthday. As I could barely take a step, I went to urgent care for help. Waiting for the doctor after an x-ray blessed me with some precious “me time” when I flipped through the photos from last year on my phone. I could see the seasons changing, a big lot of nature, screenshots of interesting life quotes from the social media but above all, my frumpy selfies with a downright smile in each one of them. This got me into introspection and some recollections from the last year.
When the COVID lockdown started in early 2020, I felt secured and happy to have my family around at home. In a few months, the experience became exhausting and brain-draining. A friend and I who were in the same boat started weekend hikes to take a break from routines and family. In no time, the morning walks began to stretch out until noon and eventually past sunset. We would still return home with umpteen topics left to discuss.
Once, this friend told me, “You always interact with an impermeable glass around, encaging yourself.Why do you need that?”
That was an eye-opener to me about myself. I pondered over it day and night and still do. I became skeptical about my interpersonal skills, tried out several justifications for situations but finally convinced that it was true. I have always interacted with people setting a boundary. There have been very few people who have crossed that boundary and seen me closer. But no one has ever told me this.
The fair and upfront comment started loosening me up day by day. I started sharing my thoughts, nostalgic memories, everyday life situations, and almost everything with this friend without any restrictions. This constant exchange of ideas, perceptions and actions gradually made me realize that my attitudes and views have been altering ever since. I started to think and speak out loud from my heart, unlike before when the shield around me would filter my thoughts and transform them into a socially acceptable format. I contemplated several life situations where things happened in a way that was approved by everyone around me but not my heart. It is not a state of wisdom to understand that “You wouldn’t be heard unless spoken” but it is practically not always the easiest to do. This revelation enabled me to travel down the lane, build on my memories, show me what my interests were and what my heart really says. Above all, big confidence to implement them step by step.
I recollect skipping opportunities to acquaint with this friend on purpose several years ago. That was due to my busy work and family schedules back then and multiple social groups that I was already a part of. But destiny made us meet through a common friend and from then, we have never looked back.
Sometimes people walk in as strangers and fill in your life.
As it was my Birthday, the same friend gifted me the book “Letter to my daughter” by Maya Angelou. I meditated over the chapter, ”Bob and Decca” which concludes with the line, “I learned that a friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face”.
How coincidental! | https://medium.com/@growingindreams/a-friend-may-be-waiting-behind-a-strangers-face-maya-angelou-e07d0f928cfd | [] | 2021-05-08 01:48:33.378000+00:00 | ['Introspection', 'Birthday', 'Friendship'] |
How to Return Json, XML and Other Response Types from a Dotvvm Application | Dotvvm Logo
Sometimes, It becomes necessary that we create an endpoint in our web application that returns some JSON, XML or other response format that isn’t html. A good example of this scenario is for health checks, we want to create an endpoint that an orchestrator like Kubernetes, can call to find out the health of the system, this endpoint will be required to return JSON formatted response to the orchestrator or health checker.
Creating view models allows us return just html, however, Dotvvm has a nice feature called Presenters which we will be using to implement the desired feature.
Dotvvm Presenters
Dotvvm presenters are a lightweight alternative to middleware that let you intercept an incoming http request at a particular URL and return a response.
Code Example
We will be working with the starter Dotvvm CRUD project that lets us create, view, edit and delete students.
Add a folder called presenters to the root of your project and add the class below to the folder
We make this class a Presenter by inheriting from the IDotvvmPresenter Interface and implementing the ProcessRequest method. I am also injecting the StudentDbContext as I want to check that the database is reachable before returning a healthy report.
You can perform any other checks in the ProcessRequest method, and return a response based on the result of these checks.
For our example, I am returning JSON, but you could return XML or plaintext.
To use this class open Startup.cs and register it in ConfigureServices with the line
services.AddTransient<HealthCheckPresenter>();
We now need to configure the endpoint our Presenter responds to. To do this, open the DotvvmStartup.cs file and add the line
config.RouteTable.Add(“Health_Endpoint”, “health”, typeof(HealthCheckPresenter));
to the ConfigureRoutes method.
Run the application now and navigate to /health and you should see the JSON response. You can now configure other services to call that endpoint to get the health, or any information you want to expose of your web app.
Conclusion
In this post we see that returning other content types with Dotvvm is pretty straightforward, reach out to me if you have any challenges.
Thanks for reading. | https://medium.com/dotvvm/how-to-return-json-xml-and-other-response-types-from-a-dotvvm-application-a47dcf717ec4 | ['Vincent Nwonah'] | 2020-09-01 09:39:15.805000+00:00 | ['C Sharp Programming', 'Dotnet Core', 'Aspnetcore', 'Dotvvm'] |
Modern Life Lament | Some days
the deals you make fall through
and cost more than you spent.
Worse, the time is lost forever
in the yesterday where it went. | https://royreichle.medium.com/modern-life-lament-dd2e49372d46 | ['Roy Reichle'] | 2020-04-22 06:30:40.087000+00:00 | ['Rhyming', 'Modernity', 'Light Verse', 'Pom', 'Poetry'] |
TANSTAAFL | Whatever is given can be taken.
Life is mostly misery soup
doled out every day
concentration camp style.
It could be much worse.
Or so we are told and told.
Those who dispense the gruel
insist we worship, not bite,
the loving hands that starve us.
Do not dare to ask for more.
The masters want the other
ninety-nine percent themselves
and intend to keep it.
They decide your portion.
Your duty is to slurp it
and be glad it is not less.
Or so we are told and told.
The lunch you think is free
only costs your humanity. | https://medium.com/geezer-speaks/tanstaafl-4eac6e673bed | ['Mike Essig'] | 2017-07-02 09:04:55.830000+00:00 | ['Society', 'Illusion', 'Poetry', 'Class', 'Politics'] |
Mas Tapas | Cross-Section of Tech, Policy, & Real Estate Development in Las Vegas
December 14–18, 2020 Edition
Book Your Next Vegas Stay on Airbnb? While last week’s big story was how Airbnb’s shares skyrocketed (going from $68 a share to $146) on their trading debut. Locally, the *RJ reported, hosts (condo owners) listing hotel rooms on Airbnb, without resort fees. A room that goes for $79 per night on the tech platform is $158.50 (not including fees) on the hotel’s website. Is it legal? Yes. (Condo) Owners of these rooms can list them for short-term rentals. Is it fair? You be the judge. Analysis: Airbnb has more of a robust brand recognition and advertising reach than a single hotel brand has. The practice is no different than Raider’s ticket holders reselling their tickets on StubHub instead of on the team’s website. Who wants to pay resort fees anyways?
Why Not Rent Your Next Home?: Even though local home builders have experienced a record-breaking year for new home sales in Las Vegas, one developer thinks there’s a demand for new rental homes. They are not alone, new home communities from some of the largest single-family landlords have emerged in the Sunbelt. Analysis: People want flexibility and the stigma of renting has been erased.
Betting on a Brighter Future for Vegas: Right now, Nevada has the second-highest unemployment rate in the country, behind Hawaii at 12%. It’s no surprise since both states have tourist-dependent economies. Through the lens of unemployment and COVID numbers, the future looks bleak. But how do others see Vegas? On the contrary, Frontier Airlines announced six new routes starting next year for destinations to the U.S. Midwest and Mexico. Amazon announced eight new operation facilities that will create 2,000 new jobs. Separately, the City of Henderson intends to sell land to the owners of the M Casino and Resort who have drawn up plans to develop a new hotel and casino. Analysis: Folks are betting on Vegas yet again! | https://medium.com/@rancholasvegas/mas-tapas-c4b81f93ee09 | ['Cesar Diaz'] | 2020-12-18 22:42:10.998000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Real Estate', 'Las Vegas', 'Policy'] |
How to Hide API Keys of Your JavaScript Projects? (Secure & Easy Way / No .ENV File) | While developing SPA project, we sometimes need to use API keys. Although it is possible to hide these API keys with .ENV file importing method, you must find another method on production process because of the fact that:
.env files’ content are visible to client when they investigate your .js files.
.env importing is used for when you want to hide api key on Github 🙂
Quick fix for this problem:
You can try to create a new express.js project to get request from your client then forward this request this to 3rd party endpoint with API key (on backend side).
After it gets response from 3rd party endpoint, your express.js backend project must forward this response to you.
Here you can find my solution and steps: | https://medium.com/@muumdev/how-to-hide-api-keys-of-your-javascript-projects-secure-easy-way-no-env-file-3b19afafa606 | ['Murat Umutlu'] | 2020-12-21 22:27:37.685000+00:00 | ['Nodejs', 'Expressjs', 'Security'] |
Here We Go Again. Americans Are Done With This Mess. | Here We Go Again. Americans Are Done With This Mess.
We’re post-outrage.
Photo by Brian Wertheim on Unsplash
“Here we go again,” I thought.
A few years ago, some of my coworkers raised a little money for me and my spouse. We were expecting a baby. They tried to give it to me at a meeting, in a little bag with some gift cards and newborn clothes.
My boss didn’t like this.
He snatched the bag from my hands and then stood up in front of the room. He gave a speech about how much I meant to the department, and how everyone — especially him — had chipped in.
Then he presented it to me, as if he’d sewn the clothes himself. He made me give a little acceptance speech.
The whole thing was awkward.
Later, I found out that he hadn’t actually contributed anything. Not one dime. If nothing else, it was a valuable lesson in human behavior. He did this kind of thing all the time, and I finally learned to expect it.
Remind you of anyone?
We have nothing left to say.
As Donald Trump stands in front of a camera days before Christmas, threatening to veto a stimulus package that took nine months to hammer out, we’ve got nothing left to say.
Anyone with a brain knows what’s going on. This is another game. It’s a version of “here we go again.”
And it’s not just Trump anymore.
It’s all of them.
Our faith in our government was already at an all-time low. This takes it down yet another rung, but it really couldn’t get much worse. We’re not sure if Democrats could do more, but they sure do seem to be getting the short end of the stick these days. They always seem to be letting the sharks eat our lunch. Ask one of the few remaining Americans with any sanity, and they’ll shrug and tell you they just don’t care anymore.
It’s always something now.
We’re sick of it.
We live in the land of maybe.
Our government doesn’t function anymore.
Everyone knows it.
We’re on our own. We have been for about a year now. No, we’re not whittling sticks into spears and hunting squirrels just yet, but we know the limits of human kindness. It’s not extinct, but definitely endangered. For those who haven’t lost their empathy, they’re simply stretched too thin to take care of anyone but their closest kin right now.
Can you blame them?
Everything else is a coin toss. Sure, there’s still some institutional oomph left, but not much. Maybe you’ll be able to get some unemployment assistance. Maybe you’ll get food stamps. Maybe your mail will arrive on time, delivered to you by an exhausted postal worker. Maybe you’ll get a job with health insurance. The truth is that all the things that felt like entitlements and guarantees ten or fifteen years ago are gone.
Anyone who has anything today is extremely lucky.
Some of us don’t even know it.
Our politicians don’t care about us.
Does this really need to be said, again?
It’s about time we stopped falling for the circus act. Our politicians take turns grandstanding now. It’s all they do.
Everything is about taking credit and blaming the other side. They don’t care who gets hurt in the process. They spend more time tweeting than they do actually negotiating anything.
We seem to encourage it.
Lots of Americans are on auto-response.
A few days ago, I wrote an essay about how millennials are struggling to live a decent life, even while they work full-time jobs and string together hustles on the side. Millennials aren’t the only ones dealing with an impossible economy, but we’re a disproportionate majority.
Amid the responses, stuff like this stood out:
Stop whining and get out there and do something about your situation yourself.
That happens all the time now. It’s normal to think that way. Americans like this are on auto-response.
They don’t read. They don’t listen.
When they hear about someone else’s struggles, they assume it’s their fault. Like our leaders, they just don’t care.
They want to grandstand.
We’re used to dysfunction.
We’re no longer surprised by anything.
We don’t expect things like stimulus checks anymore. We expect more bad news and hardship. When we hear about the new Super-Covid variant on its way, we shrug. We say, “It figures.”
This is life now, waiting for the next burden. Meanwhile, we enjoy the little moments while we can.
We’ve given up on recruiting anyone else to wear a mask. We’re not trying to use logic or reason on our opponents anymore. We’re protecting ourselves, and the handful of people we care about.
That’s all we can do.
The time for stimulus is over.
This stimulus was always a joke.
Our government is like the cavalry showing up after we’ve lost the battle. See, we lost the fight with Covid. It won. It’s pillaging every town in America. We’re sick. We’re scared. We’re out of work.
Our daycares have already shut down. Our teachers and healthcare workers are already burned out. Many of them are planning to leave. We’re just waiting for the smoke to clear.
We’re not giving up on life, just help.
We’re just giving up on the government. We know what’s up. We’ll be expected to raise our kids and hold down jobs without any kind of help that would’ve made a difference.
We’ve been doing it.
We’re going to be in charge of our own health, mental and otherwise. We’ll just have to make sure we don’t get sick enough to need medical attention anytime in the next year, or the year after that.
That’s not news either.
We’re done with outrage.
There’s always going to be a majority of people who enjoy shouting and grandstanding. It’s no secret that a wide range of Americans prefer to ensure each other’s destruction.
Then there’s the us, the select few who watch it all with a rising sense of apathy. We see what good comes from outrage. It doesn’t change anything. It just saps up our precious energy.
We’re done with it.
Help us, or don’t help us. We stopped waiting a long time ago. We know the only thing we can do is help ourselves. We can help a handful of other people, but we can’t save everyone. It makes us a little bitter, but not angry. That said, we can still express our disappointment.
Our leaders are just like my boss.
They’ll swipe something right out of your hands, only to deliver a speech and present it back to you like a precious gift. Take your “gift,” but you don’t have to say thank you. They haven’t earned it.
Not even close.
Gain Access to Expert View — Subscribe to DDI Intel | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/here-we-go-again-americans-are-done-with-this-mess-b6509bae9584 | ['Jessica Wildfire'] | 2020-12-27 16:04:39.240000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Government', 'Society', 'News', 'Economics'] |
Carta pública contra o posicionamento do DataCamp ao caso de assédio sexual | Public letter against DataCamp stand on the sexual harassment case
On the last week (April 4th of 2019) DataCamp, one of the main platform in Data Science learning, published a blog post on the sexual harassment case involving an executive and an employee. The blog post clearly states that even though DataCamp condemns such actions, the executive didn’t get any strong punishment. Other than that, there aren’t mentions on what measures were taken to avoid this kind of thing from happening again or even what happened to the employee that denounced the harassment.
DataCamp also deliberately blocked the blog post from being indexed by search engines, this means that the official note can’t be found by someone that is searching for it. This fact was brought to the public attention by one of DataCamp’s instructors in another tweet that stated: this behavior isn’t the default in the rest of the posts on the company’s website.
At least two DataCamp’s instructors posted public letters asking people to refrain from using the website and to demand more drastic measures. Noam Ross’ and Julia Silge’s posts also tell that many conversations happened internally with DataCamp in search for a more “pacific” and definitive solution. Many communities also took a stand against DataCamp including Rstudio.
We from Pizza de Dados, the first Brazilian podcast about data science, reject any act of harassment and believe that this can not and should not go unpunished. The way that DataCamp chose to deal with this situation is weak, to say the least. We also believe that this matter should’ve been discussed in a more transparent way and that more effective measures against the aggressor should’ve taken place no matter their role.
We appreciate the position that many instructors had in openly asking their friends and students to boycott the platform risking their income in the process. We are taking part in supporting the movement against such actions by removing all links that direct to DataCamp courses from our official guide to data science materials in Portuguese and also removing links from the episodes postings from our podcast. | https://medium.com/pizzadedados/carta-publica-contra-o-posicionamento-do-datacamp-ao-caso-de-assedio-sexual-7bd6d2b53c2f | ['Pizza De Dados'] | 2019-04-22 15:18:30.972000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Rstats', 'Data Science', 'Metoo'] |
How to use Stripe’s API for download information? | Be able to use Stripe information when you need it!
Stripe is online payment processing for internet businesses, that recollects all the information about our processing money in its platform and which has become a reference on how to create documentation for one API. If you use Stripe for your principal payment processing and want to download information from the platform for creating reports, dashboards, analytics, or simple finance control, the best way is using its API, which has very good documentation on its use, with examples for some good numbers of languages.
The Stripe API has official libraries for the more popular languages and has community libraries for other languages. But, what happens if you want to use this API in one language without a library available? or if you want to use this API without use some programming language.
Stripe API -Client Libraries
If you don’t want to use some programing language for use this API, you can make requests directly into your browser, creating one specific URL with enough information, and if you want to use some specific language for use this API but don’t have one library dedicate for this API, you need to know the general behavior for being able to create all the requests that you need. In both cases, this article has enough information for you, but need to take into account these points:
You need to authenticate to be able to take access to your account information.
The results of this API will be JSON files and you need to be able to use the information in this format. So, if you want to use this information in Excel or Google SpreadSheets, you need to change the structure of the result.
All the API have restrictions in your use. In the case of Stripe, the principal restriction is the limit on the number of objects to be returned, between 1 and 100.
Authentification
Stripe’s API uses HTTP basic authentication. The normal way of using HTTP Basic Auth is with username and password, and if you try to use the API URL directly in the browser without other information, you will have a pop-up for ingress this information.
Stripe API -Use of API directly into the browser
This should be a way to confirm what type of authentification uses some API when we don’t have access to its documentation. If you want to use one API without the need to pass the credentials across the pop-up in your web browser, for example into a script of some programming language without support or library for this API, or for making different calls without the need to pass the credentials for each request, you can pass your credentials across the URL with this form:
Stripe API -Pass username and password across URL
For more information about this type of authentification, you can have a look here.
In the case of Stripe’s API, you only need to provide your API key as the basic auth username value without the need to provide a password in the case of using the pop-up way, and if you want to use the authentification directly in the URL you only need pass the API Key next to API link after at sign.
Stripe API -Pass API key across URL
If you don’t know what is your API key, you can create, view, and manage your API keys in the Stripe Dashboard. Stripe provides one key in your documentation, to test the use of your API, so you can use this key before using your real data. | https://medium.com/@carloseguevarap/how-to-use-stripes-api-for-download-information-d72368a3314a | ['Carlos Guevara'] | 2020-11-24 02:31:09.887000+00:00 | ['Stripe', 'Rest Api', 'Tutorial', 'Development', 'API'] |
Creating a Hyperledger Fabric network from scratch — Part III Chaincode | Photo by Fré Sonneveld on Unsplash
In this new post we will create the “smart contract” chaincode of Hyperledger to define the logic of our application For simplicity, to always use the same language, both the chaincodes and the SDK we will use NodeJs for writing the chaincode.
Update: In this post, I write about how to create a chaincode using the VScode extension
Chaincode
To create our chaincode, we will make a new nodejs project. This project is what will be instanciated in the network to deploy the chaincode, so we will add the necessary dependencies on it, our package.json should look like this:
Once created, we see that its main is defined by pointing to the index.js, this file, retrieves the contract that we define within lib and exposes it so that it is accessible, in the form:
use strict’;
const SupplyChain = require(‘./lib/supplyChain’);
module.exports.supplyChain = SupplyChain;module.exports.contracts = [ SupplyChain ];
The real part of logic is inside the file that we define inside lib. In this chaincode, we will define the necessary methods to interact with the blockchain:
addAsset : Insert the object passed by parameter in the ledger, to be able to insert two types of assets, tuna as raw material and Sushi already prepared, we will make a common method to add the asset, and we will pass an object so that this code is the most simple as possible and only the data in the ledger persists.
: Insert the object passed by parameter in the ledger, to be able to insert two types of assets, tuna as raw material and Sushi already prepared, we will make a common method to add the asset, and we will pass an object so that this code is the most simple as possible and only the data in the ledger persists. queryAsset : Method that will allow us to access the status of the asset in the blockchain, in this case, this method will not access the ledger, so that searches do not penalize performance, this method will return only the current state of the asset, reading the world state.
: Method that will allow us to access the status of the asset in the blockchain, in this case, this method will not access the ledger, so that searches do not penalize performance, this method will return only the current state of the asset, reading the world state. setPosition : It will help us to establish the position of the asset, by passing the id of the asset and its coordinates, it will retrieve the asset from the ledger and update the new coordinates to plot its position.
: It will help us to establish the position of the asset, by passing the id of the asset and its coordinates, it will retrieve the asset from the ledger and update the new coordinates to plot its position. getHistory: It will return all the history of the asset, all the changes that was done before in the ledger, except the current one, this history query the blockchain to see all the modifications that this asset has had.
The complete chaincode code will be as follows:
Now, you just need to install the necessary dependencies for the project and deploy it on the network. To instantiate it, it will be necessary to execute within the directory:
npm i
Installing it on the network is somewhat more complex, the chaincode must be installed on all nodes, and instantiated only in one of them, it is only necessary to instantiate it in one of the organizations, doing so will create a docker container that will be accessible to all.
To facilitate installation we create a script that installs this contract in all organizations through the CLI.
This script will call the installation of each of the organizations, passing the data of each one (peer, name, MSPid, port and version of the chaincode) and once installed it will instantiate it.
The script responsible for installing the chaincode is of the form
As we can see, it receives the data passed by parameter and uses it to set the necessary variables when calling install, then use the install instruction to install the code in the peer and display the result by console.
Once installed, we only have to instantiate, so the last script is responsible for instantiating the contract on the network, with the version that we have specified, this procedure may take more than installation.
With this, we will have instantiated the contract in our network, when can check doing:
docker ps
We will see that there is a new container, with the name of the contract and the version that we have deployed.
In the next post, we will create the identities with the SDK and the rest API to access the methods.
The repository with the entire application can be found on Github
Previous post can be found here:
Nex post can be found here: | https://medium.com/coinmonks/creating-a-hyperledger-fabric-network-from-scratch-part-iii-chaincode-8011ff2f1c90 | ['Iván Alberquilla'] | 2020-08-25 15:53:45.280000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Hyperledger', 'Dlt', 'Hyperledger Fabric', 'Supply Chain'] |
Before the A - Nathan Stevenson from ForwardLane | Before the A, is a show dedicated to telling the stories of fintech founders who’s startups are seeking their “A round” of financing.
ForwardLane, is highly focused on supercharging the relationship manager in wealth and asset management by providing them with personalized insights for their clients.
Full audio interview:
Interview Teaser:
John Siracusa: (1:01) - So what are you trying to do and why are you doing it now?
Nathan Stevenson: (1:04) - At ForwardLane, we’re highly focused on supercharging the relationship manager in wealth and asset management by providing them with personalized insights for their clients. This is a huge problem because there are $17 trillion in assets under management and asset management industry, but intense competition, 165 asset managers, 10,000 funds, they are all competing for the shelf space of these wealth managers. And these wealth managers, 300,000 of them have 200–300 clients each. What do they all once they all one personalized advice, personalized service, and they just is not enough time in the day to be able to do this. So we’ve built an AI platform and an end to end platform that aggregates data, processes this, and delivers it into the workflow.
John Siracusa: (1:55) - So how does it do that?
Nathan Stevenson: (1:56) - We do three things uniquely. We process a very rich and diverse set of data, both unstructured data including news and research from the likes of Thomson Reuters, Dow Jones.
John Siracusa: (2:06) - Do you have integrations into them?
Nathan Stevenson: (2:08) - We do have integrations that are set up and ready to go. And then on the internal unstructured data side, it’s things like CRM notes, emails and other types of content.
John Siracusa: (2:16) - Because you have Salesforce integration?
Nathan Stevenson: (2:17) - We do have Salesforce integration. Exactly. So that’s the first thing we do differently. The second thing is we have proprietary natural language processing for finance developed over three years. It’s pre-trained on Thomson Reuters news and Morning Star Data. It extracts about four times more information than open source competitors. And that’s also because we use a standard called FIBO financial industry business ontology used by 40 different banks. So this is our second, unique proposition.
Listen to the full interview below:
About me:
I’m the host of the twice-weekly “Bank On It” podcast. A financial services industry enthusiast and connector. I’m at the center of the fintech ecosystem, keeping current with the ever-innovating industry.
Follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter or on Medium | https://medium.com/before-the-a/before-the-a-nathan-stevenson-from-forwardlane-8c3f84f104b1 | ['John Siracusa'] | 2019-09-07 17:13:51.753000+00:00 | ['Seed Investment', 'Founders', 'Fintech', 'Podcast', 'VC'] |
15 Facts That Nobody Told You About Belly Fat Reduce | ERROR: type should be string, got "https://bingotan.blogspot.com/\n\nWant to get rid of belly fat ?\n\nLEMON WATER\n\nTake a lemon and squeeze it in one glass of warm water, stir well. Consume this drink every morning on an empty stomach. Lemon helping burning fat.\n\nFAT BURNER TEA\n\nInto a pan add some water and leave it for boil then add some cinnamon, chopped ginger , add crushed black paper , some turmeric powder . allow it to boil for 3 minutes then add green tea leaves for 1 minutes. lastly strain into a cup.\n\nCHILI PEPPER\n\nEat chili pepper with your every meal. chilis are rich in antioxidants and have zero calories. eating chilis can boost your metabolism 50%. when you eat any kind of spicy things body reduced heat which is provided by capsaicin, body fat turn into heat and helps to burning fat.\n\nAPPLE\n\nApple are great fat burning fruit because apple packed with fiber. the pectin in apples keeps cells from absorbing fat and also encourages water absorption which helps remove fat.\n\nAVOCADO\n\nAvocados are high in fat and calories also avocados are high in soluble fiber which helps you to reduce belly fat.\n\nEGGS\n\nEggs are rich in vitamin- D minerals and high quality proteins. one of the healthy food, eating eggs in the morning diet boost your metabolism up to 100 calories.\n\nPINEAPPLE\n\nPineapple is rich in fiber, low in calories high water content with vitamins and minerals. pineapple help you burn fat by cutting calories and affecting your metabolism.\n\nYOGURT\n\nYogurt is rich in calcium, can keep you felling fuller longer and control appetite. 2 cups of yogurt counts calcium and protein servings of the day.\n\nGRAPE FRUIT\n\nGrape fruit contain vitamin-C, vitamin-C is great for burning belly fat low in calories very rich in nutrients. eat a grape fruit after having your meal.\n\nWALNUTS\n\nWalnuts are high in unsaturated fat and calories and high energy food. one walnut everyday could help to burn fat.\n\nPOPCORN\n\nPopcorn is high in fiber, low in calories and refined carbs. help to reduce belly fat.\n\nSPINACH\n\nSpinach are high in fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. helps to maintain an optimal calorie control this calorie keeps you felling full a long time.\n\nBEANS\n\nBeans are rich in soluble fiber, fights inflammation help to reduce bely fat.\n\nSWEET POTATO\n\nSweet potatoes are considered as fat burner rich in important nutrients instant spike in blood sugar levels.\n\nNEEM AND TURMERIC\n\nIn to a pan add some water then add neem leaves and some turmeric powder leave it to boil for 5 minutes strain all the things and keep the liquid in a glass eat it everyday before you go to sleep.\n\nHere some exercise to burn your belly fat.\n\nFOLLOW FOR MORE UPDATES\n\nhttps://bingotan.blogspot.com/\n\nhttps://bingotan.blogspot.com/" | https://medium.com/@debangshu-saha-ds22/15-facts-that-nobody-told-you-about-belly-fat-reduce-f707edc9caba | ['Mini Shree'] | 2021-04-09 13:36:47.081000+00:00 | ['Skincare', 'Fitness Tips', 'Health', 'Diabetes', 'Hygiene'] |
Building a Data-Lake | Data data and data everywhere. Everyone has their own’s data. Also, every organization has its huge cloud storage that is known as data-lake, and all sort of data is present in that data-lake. But, now it’s time to analyze the structure of your data lake. As not only the Cold data is present in the lake but also there are various real-time and ad-hoc analysis requires the HOT data from the lake on their plate.
Why it is necessary to build the data lake in the right way?
Building the data-lake in the right way is very important because it is the first milestone for all your big data analytics, ML, and AI solutions. Once data-lake is created there is a very big cost involved in changing and migrating the data in data-lake and also every time for any new project or new job you are processing the same data again and again. If the governance policy is not applied correctly then things will keep on go messier with time.
Data-Lake is not cold storage, that meant for storing or ingesting data and keeping it for future use for ML jobs and other analytics engine, but nowadays it has become the source for much real-time data processing job. So, Data is best served HOT.
How to Build the data-lake the right way?
We are generating a tremendous amount of data daily and if it was not kept in manageable ways we will be burning a huge amount for unworthy data or processing non-useful data every time. So I will be emphasizing only 3 points (Quality, Cost, and Governance) to build good data-lake
The output of building a data-lake in the right way-
1- Enhance data quality with no time data discovery.
2- Process data once. Not every ML and ETL job doing more and less the same thing in their preprocessing steps.
3- Data is secure and made available in the correct way.
Steps for creating data-lake
I will define the whole process for creating the data-lake in major 5 steps. We have to work on these points one after another for creating our data-lake for handling all the modern use cases.
Define Catalog Governance Policy Retention Policy Format of the data Preprocessing of the required data
DataCatalog
Data catalog plays a very crucial role and the first step for any data lake. If the data is not searchable and also some job has pre-processed the data and if it not known to some other developers they probably will do the pre-processing again and the cycle will go on. At some point later in time, all jobs are only consuming raw data and doing duplicate efforts for pre-processing and filtering data again and again. Also if data is not categorized data-lake will only be used for raw data and all will be writing their custom ETLs to process the data.
So Creating the data catalog make data easily available and searchable. The catalog should be defined as.
raw/<level-1>/<level-2>/
processed/<level-1>/level-2/<format>
transformed/<level-1>/level-2/<format> level-1 = {what kind of data} => transactional, security
level-2 = {origin of the data} => order_history, firewall
level-3 = {endpoint or the software which is generating the data} => malware endpoint
If considering AWS S3 for our data lake, these can be termed as the buckets. You can define as many levels according to your needs.
Catalog must contains => Location + format + Acessibility + Retention + Sources of the data + Sinks
Governance Policy
The catalog should be defined at such a granular level that we can apply restrictions to each level or folder. Data should always present by the principle of least privilege (access only the folder that is legitimate for that process). Bucket policies in terms of S3 should be written in a manner so that it can be derived to provide folder level access.
Retention
Retention is furthermore an important factor for the data lake. Why need to pay extra for the data of no use from the saved money please buy_me_a_coffee. We cannot keep the data forever.
Always keep the most extensive retention for the raw data. All forms can be generated from the raw data. For processed or transformed data the retention should be defined keeping the computation and storage cost in mind.
cost of generation of processed data < cost of keeping the processed data
Format of the data
Data in the lake should always be compressed. Encryption can be applied to the data based on the sensitivity of the data and it has been a proven fact that encryption and decryption do not hamper any performance cost nowadays. So it will be great to keep the data encrypted.
Other compressed formats can also be explored for the data lake.
ORC/Avro/Parquet — Storing schema with the data, major query performance impact in Athena, and Spark SQL.
CSV/JSON — Supported in all programming languages.
Preprocessing of the required data
Data preprocessing should be done to make data readily available for the job to process. Developers and the analyst should be made aware to check the availability of the processed data in a particular format before writing a job to processed or transform data.
The catalog must be updated for a new preprocessed data made available in the data lake | https://medium.com/@ankur-singh1000/building-a-data-lake-70a9d10a5b97 | [] | 2020-12-13 20:30:48.141000+00:00 | ['S3 Bucket', 'Spark', 'Spark Sql', 'Data Lake', 'Data Science'] |
They were here before Us | This poem focuses on the ever present problem of climate change and the lack of response to it by past governments.
A great white mass sits over the Alps,
It covers the Antarctic, reflecting the sun,
Yet it is under threat by the heat of collapse,
Till now our Empires did not see the pointed times.
We are in a midst of great change,
As the food-chains of the ocean crumble, (one by one),
This truth we try to outrun as for it was a joke of hoaxes,
Yet we are not laughing now… | https://medium.com/daily-poetry-meg/they-were-here-before-us-bcc5acc7d47 | ['Hunor Deak'] | 2020-11-27 22:05:53.572000+00:00 | ['Poem', 'Climate Crisis', 'Earth', 'Poems On Medium', 'Climate Change'] |
Dwell | century clawfoot grips
hill carved stark,
a fulcrum of riverbed
traipsed by bridge,
the vascular brace
for sponged city grit
— industry arteries
and sirens undertow —
deepens the view
in dew clad moss
and silt-soaked roots,
commits the sky
to dwell in breadth
of stakeholding limbs,
commits commuting soul
to dwell in breath
of looking up | https://medium.com/loose-words/dwell-2c6d3dcc569b | ['Jessica Lee Mcmillan'] | 2020-12-24 16:31:37.182000+00:00 | ['Meditation', 'Cities', 'Nature', 'Beauty', 'Poetry'] |
Did You See These? | 2020 has been a strange year, but one thing that’s remained consistent year over year is the gratitude I’ve felt for all the likes, shares, support, and interest you’ve given my blog. This project has been quite cathartic for me and knowing that it’s been at least a little helpful to many of you makes it all the more meaningful.
To put a fine point on this year, I’ve pulled together the six posts that most resonated with my readers this year, just in case you missed any of them.
1. HOLLYWOOD QUARANTINE: A LONG, DEEP BREATH
“Though it’s hard to find a silver lining in the time of coronavirus, if there is one, it’s this: we all get to reboot.”
Read the full post
2. HOW TO MAKE CONNECTIONS IN HOLLYWOOD
“If you want success in Hollywood, you’ll need relationships. Here’s my 3-step process to forming those connections.”
Read the full post
3. WHAT THE OSCARS TAUGHT ME ABOUT JEALOUSY AND ADMIRATION
“I often tell actors to pay attention to how they are watching their colleagues’ success. Is it with jealousy or admiration? “ I always recommend the latter, but I have to admit it’s difficult for me to move past jealousy as well.
Read the full post
4. HOW A GREAT COLLABORATION COMES TOGETHER
“When you cultivate the relationships around you, you create greater opportunities to make something magical.”
Read the full post
5. YOUR CAREER IS LIKE BETTING ON HORSES
“In horse racing, you have to bet the right horses or you’re going to wind up going home early with a big hole in your pocket… You have to have the instincts to know who has the discipline, who has the willingness, who has the desire…
Read the full post
6. YOU’RE THE GUN AND I’M THE BULLETS
“People who most inspire me. All of them aren’t afraid of hard work. They weren’t born on third base; they hustled their asses off to get there on a blooper down the right field line. They know what it means to do The Work.
Read the full post
Thanks again for reading, and don’t forget to join my mailing list so you don’t miss out on what I’ve got coming for you in 2021! | https://medium.com/@brianmedavoy/did-you-see-these-aa03ace07be6 | ['Brian Medavoy'] | 2020-12-18 17:38:12.575000+00:00 | ['Actors', 'Directors', 'Hollywood', 'Movies'] |
Here’s three unnamed tech giants which I’m assuming you can name. | I would apologize to Elon, but he’s terrible.
http://www.dieselsweeties.com/ics/847/ | https://rstevens.medium.com/heres-three-unnamed-tech-giants-which-i-m-assuming-you-can-name-9ee0966e899f | [] | 2019-07-22 04:17:16.308000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Tech', 'Comics', 'Ethics', 'Social Media'] |
Attack of the Mutant Meetings | Attack of the Mutant Meetings
Photos courtesy of Unsplash
Mutant meetings are taking over.
Infiltrating the workplace. Extending tentacles into our status updates. Check-ins. An alien, virtual universe. Arranged in Brady Bunch squares. Forcing Dads to stare at our image. Hour after hour after hour. As our hairline recedes. And jowls grow. Morphing us into Zoombies.
Honestly, an alien mind-meld seems the only explanation. For our collective ineptitude. Conducting meetings. Which continue to control our calendars. Consume our attention. Drain our people. And hinder company growth and performance.
Despite all our experience, meetings remain pitifully run. Over-scheduled. Poorly facilitated. Rarely covering the agenda. If there is an agenda. Unclear action plans or take-aways. Leaving participants confused. Frustrated by the wasted time.
Worst of all, meetings are boring. Oh, so boring. Mind-numbingly boring. Teammates allowed to drone on and on. About all their activity. Or 60-page decks. Screen-shared. In a mice-type. With endless spreadsheets to follow.
This mutant meeting assault is working. And the most insidious part; nobody seems to notice.
Critical Connection
Meeting together is good. For all employees. In all businesses.
Huddling up creates connection among team members. Humans need connection. Formal. Informal. Virtual or in person. Collaborating on business challenges. Collective problem-solving. Debating new concepts. Or just checking in with one another.
Gathering as a group forms bonds. Builds trust. Establishes the camaraderie necessary for cohesive teamwork.
So, meeting is good. But meetings are bad. Fortunately, any Dad can make meetings better. Here are some practical steps.
Less is More
The threshold for holding a meeting is too low. In fact, there is no threshold. Anybody can schedule a meeting. And invite basically, anyone.
Choosing to spend the firm’s most valuable asset, people’s attention, on a meeting requires discretion. Scrutinize regularly scheduled meetings. Determine which are worthy of the company’s investment. And how many truly need to attend.
For example, status updates are most efficiently communicated via shared docs. Published on collaborative platforms like Teams, Slack, or Base Camp. All team members have full visibility on headway towards milestones and deliverables. In real time.
Public documentation of progress eliminates the need of weekly team catch-ups. The typical around-the-horn recitations of activity that wastes everyone’s time.
Start by killing recurring meetings. Then say “No.” to others. Most others.
Briefer is better
Research has shown humans cannot focus on a single topic for more than 18 minutes. Yet, meetings are scheduled for an hour. (Or thankfully, a half-hour.) Back-to-back-to-back. No breaks. All day. Every day.
Why do we do this?
The default calendar invite in Google and Outlook is one hour. So, guess what? Meetings are scheduled for 60 minutes. Whether the topic requires an hour or not. Then we mindlessly expand meetings to fill the time allotted. No, I’m not making this up.
Make the firm’s default meeting 25 minutes. In some cases, 50 minutes. Leave time in between for folks to catch-up on their work.
Clarity is King
According to surveys, 63% of meetings don’t have pre-planned agendas. There’s no justification for shirking this responsibility.
Explicitly clarify the firm’s Meeting Ground Rules. For example:
No published agenda, no meeting
Hosts distribute pre-meeting materials for review. Assign pre-work. Facilitate the discussion (or appoint a Facilitator). Ensure post-meeting action steps and responsibilities are designated and communicated.
Participants are expected to review advance materials. Engage with cameras and mics on. No sifting through Inboxes, text streams or feeds during meetings. Participate or bow out.
Purposeful Agendas
Start simple: what’s the purpose of the meeting? Solve a problem. Make a decision. Brainstorm ideas. Learn from customer feedback. What outcome can be expected from the meeting?
Additionally, hosts should:
Lay out the meeting timeline
Publish topics to be discussed (2–4 max — too many meeting topics dilutes effectiveness)
Focus on the most important items first
Distribute presentations and any pre-work so invitees come prepared
Allocate ample time for developing Action Plans, assignments and follow-up expectations
Good agendas make for good meetings.
Facilitation
Meandering meetings are frustrating. The opening topic eats up the bulk of the time. A handful of teammates dominate the conversation. Discussions get derailed by minor issues. Several participants don’t chime in. And the meeting ends abruptly without clear next steps or assignments. Uggh.
Someone has to own facilitation. Keep to the schedule. Involve all participants. Close off topics and move on. End debate with time to finalize action steps. Assign responsibilities. Determine how to follow-up and hold participants accountable.
Facilitation is not trivial. And can’t be short-changed.
Engaging Discussion
Meetings are wasteful without interaction. Limited discussion or debate. When invitees are talked at rather than challenged to think. Or contribute.
To better engage participants, ask their opinion. Everyone has an opinion. And they’re happy to share it. If you don’t need their perspective, don’t invite them.
Robust meetings start with plenty of pre-planned questions. Specific to the topics. With loads of follow-ups. To spur conversation. Solicit input from all. Skeptics as well as supporters. With healthy conflict comes fresh ideas. And innovations.
Well-prepared questions create engaging meetings.
Actionable Next Steps
Too often, meetings end before the most important part. Action plans. STOP the meeting. Make time to complete action planning. Assign responsibilities. Gain commitment. Then publish the action plan so all can see next steps. And hold one another accountable.
Work is stressful. Busy. Hard to turn off. For Dads. And Moms. Mutant meetings are a major cause. Consuming our day. And mindshare.
Applying best practices can end the mutant meeting attack. And free up time. For each of us to focus on our top priority. Being a great Dad.
Go Dads, Go! | https://medium.com/@dave-46615/attack-of-the-mutant-meetings-e223931aba41 | ['Dave Smith'] | 2020-12-05 11:04:33.420000+00:00 | ['Management', 'Company Culture', 'Dads', 'Startup', 'Leadership'] |
A reflection on: Gestalt Organisation & System Development (OSD) | Session 4 – 12/11/20
Gestalt emphasises the whole rather than being the sum of different parts
Does your current mindset serve you to make the change that you want to see? How important are these beliefs with what is happening in reality?
How can I honour who I am? My wants my needs my values
My wants my needs my values How do you centre and ground yourself — what is your ritual?
How did you see the process of Gestalt bring change to a system? — Pay attention to how you are making meaning, everyone is already practising gestalt, how do you empower them to grow in their awareness? Pay attention to your own world view — Meet them where they are at , don’t impose your own language or terminology that gets in their way
, don’t impose your own language or terminology that gets in their way How do you know if it is my work to do in inviting change to a system? Is it my projection that change should happen?
There was a resonant theme of journey back to ourselves, why is this not intuitive to us? And why do we resist so much or do we just forget?
Meaning making after — Journey back to self
A question that arose from the session, was this resonant theme from everyone was on this journey and quest back to rediscovering ourselves. It seems that many of our habits and dysfunctions stem from this longing of a relationship back to ourselves and how we can find the space for self love and care.
And unpacking a bit of that last night for myself was touching onto the questions of
What is my usual pattern?
What do I need to pay attention to?
My usual pattern in life is always the question of: what does life or the people or the systems need from me? Whenever I enter a social setting my natural tendency is to live outwards, sensing the world around me and trying to be relevant by meeting these needs. And this function has always served me in being a people pleaser and to have meaning in my life by knowing that I have helped to meet someone else’s needs. But also in this journey back to self it was for me to extract the flip side of that, what am I giving up in living my life for others? I think the void that I needed to confront was on the question of what do I need? And how can I serve the needs of myself?
I think this conversation of relationship with self has always been a difficult space to sit with, and I am not really sure where that stems from. But it just feels like the really hard question to ask myself is: why am I so hard on myself? Why do I expect so much? And why do I need to be always more? Im just curious where this comes from, and in a sense this guilt of privilege that I need to earn my place in the world and solve everything for everyone. I think in sitting with it, I don’t blame myself for this narrative, it has gotten me to where I am and has made me a better person in some ways. But I guess this phase in my life is an acknowledgement that I should live differently too. And a powerful quote that really stuck with my from last night was “How can I honour who I am?” And to understand that this current habit is not doing justice to who I am, and I don’t serve the needs of others without my own agenda clouding the relationship
Who am I? This brings me to the second question of “What do I need to pay attention to?”. I think for me is really to pull the brakes on my autopilot when I am in presence with others, to not jump out of my body and into the needs of others. And to find the boundaries and permission to actually tune into what I need in the moment. I haven’t quite got a hang of the process yet as I jump into the needs and emotions so instantaneously that I can only catch myself after it has happened. But the awareness and intentions are there, and the practice for me is to find compassion for myself to try again and acknowledge when progress is happening.
The vision would be for me to look in the mirror and know that I have the courage and the dreams to be more, but right now I am also enough. And to embody the phrase: I am at home with the world, and I have found a home with myself.
Overall the Gestalt OSD programme has been a great journey and community to revisit these themes of Gestalt and a reminder that the place to start our work in changing external systems, is the work of self mastery. I guess in going back into “the real world” I kinda get swept away with the global narrative of problem solving and fixing things, but these 8 weeks have given me the space to rediscover the importance in our journey back to self | https://medium.com/the-kickstarter/gestalt-organisation-system-development-osd-d92e8b35a82d | ['Qing Ping'] | 2020-11-13 13:04:13.900000+00:00 | ['Systems Thinking', 'Gestalt', 'Organisation Development', 'Reflections', 'Hope'] |
Interview with the Editors — Viraji Ogodapola | October 23, 2020
Image credits to Uditha De Silva
What drives you to write poetry?
It’s the magic of being able to subtly capture fleeting thoughts, moments, anything. The art of rendering something we grasp itself is what drives me to poetry. To be able to deliver it in proper structure, flow and coherence is a complex art calling for fine skills, infinite imagination, sublime creativity and much patience. It’s a pursuit few take on, but a discipline with many ardent followers as readers. I like to be on both sides there.
2. How do you know you’re reading a good poem, or a good poet?
A good poem makes an impact, an impression on me. So does the poet then. However, I always take every poem independent of its author, so as not to be biased by previous experience. Good poetry is an experience that takes you through some facet of life with rhythm. More often than not, it leaves me with something more to ponder on and think about.
3. Do you have any particularly “unique” habits as a writer?
I doubt writers’ habits are unique! They all seem to chase their muse in erratic ways from time immemorial*!
Habitually, I try to make way for myself at the quietest hours when the world shuts down. I also tend to jot down thoughts sometimes, in a journal of sorts. And when the moment is right, when that chatter in the head gets so intense and dense making itself form into something workable, I move those scribbles around like the pieces of a puzzle until it materializes into something I like.
*Ever come across Sophia Tolstaya memoirs? (You’d get to know how great masterpieces like Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace came into being, directly from the wife’s mouth, so to speak.)
4. As you are working as an editor, what kinds of traits do you look for in submitted poetry?
I’m always on the search for a “good read!” So if the submission does justice to itself in terms of authenticity, ingenuity and effort, it’s always a go under my watch. However, I do pay attention to structure, grammar, punctuation, coherence and even formatting styles and images, here on Medium.com. I therefore tend to do adjustments in these areas to submissions, trying my best not to offend the authors, because I know how important one’s work is to oneself.
5. What kinds of events or reflections prompt you to write?
Feelings, emotions, nature, solitude, situations — anything that has had a deep impact on me or on those close to me. I guess it sums up back again to something that “moves” me much. I tend to linger on and ponder around much on melancholic subjects, I see beauty in sadness — I just happen to be very pessimistic by nature! :)
6. Do you have any advice for the fledgling writer?
Continue to read and write. Never stop at either. Although as readers we tend to pick and choose, if you’re aspiring to be a good writer, it’s imperative that you read a variety, covering a wide scope. Also, continuous writing helps to establish routine practice, (writer’s block or not), and helps you identify and improve upon your weaknesses. This doesn’t have to be published always, it’s for yourself. In any case, you should primarily write for yourself and be able to fall in love with your piece before you think of taking it anywhere — that strategy tends to get the best out of you, every time. | https://medium.com/scrittura/interview-with-the-editors-viraji-ogadapola-b0f6367a5969 | ['Zay Pareltheon'] | 2020-10-23 15:20:17.638000+00:00 | ['Interview', 'Scrittura', 'Poiesis News', 'Prose'] |
I Am a Time Traveler With a Message of Hope: The Best Time To Be Alive Is Yet To Come | I am from the year 2107. Things are looking bright here, and your grand children’s future is safe.
All I can say is that we made it past the Great Climate Crisis.
I am sending you this message as the departing wish from our venerated Mother Yika. You don’t know her yet, but she will play a central role in humanity’s transition as the founding member of the Children of Gaia.
“What are the Children of Gaia?” you might wonder.
I can’t stress enough how critical this movement has been for our survival. Consider them as all the engaged citizens of the world that carried a new collective narrative. They grew from a pocket of activists to the masses that convinced the rest of the world to embark on a salvatory transformation.
If you’re reading this, you might already be a Child of Gaia without knowing it.
There’s so much I’d like to tell you and I’m sure I’ll leave you with many unanswered questions. But time is precious and I’m merely going to explain what happened and its consequences.
Today, our children get taught at school the traumas of the Great Climate Crisis.
I feel for you. Things must start looking pretty bleak from where you stand in the 2020s.
Sorry to disappoint but the tragedy of global warming will perdure for another 30 years.
The melting of the poles, the flooding of cities, the acceleration of climate catastrophes, and the destruction of our biosphere will speed up until 2050. Luckily things will bottom-up thereafter.
Remember the impact and consequences of World War II? Well, the Great Climate Crisis will leave much deeper scars and will reshape the global order in more dramatic ways.
But today, most of our scholars agree that it was a necessary evil to operate the profound shift that humanity needed in order to survive.
Yes, you will face a survival threat.
But keep hope, it will get better!
Today, our living conditions are stable and we live in balance with our planet’s biosphere. We have finally embraced a model that is conducive to life and not destructive. Birds and mammals are back, plants are everywhere, and the air is much cleaner.
We even recently spotted a family of koalas and observed salmons swimming up the river.
All these are the fruits of the work from the past three generations.
That’s right, most of you reading this will likely witness the start of this deep transformation.
How transformed is our world from yours?
The change is profound.
Illustration from Juliana Tekova
In my world, soon-to-be yours, most countries no longer exist. Nationalism has disappeared. We evolved to live in smaller and more decentralized communities. A few ancient mega-cities still exist but have been severely depleted.
Today’s cities mimic forests and we are much better off this way. Humans were never meant to get stacked up in concrete jungles.
Economic growth today is 0% per year.
Why is that?
We no longer monitor GDP. Our measure of success lies in sustainability and optimization, not growth and maximization.
There is no inflation, and thus no incentive to invest your money. Just like human civilizations had no significant economic growth before the Industrial Revolution, our society doesn't look to maximize economic growth anymore.
Our objectives and ideals are much different than yours. We value preserving balance with the living, self-actualization through our connection with Nature, and happiness.
What happened to your high-tech mega-corps: Google, Apple, or Amazon?
Numerous of their employees joined the Children of Gaia and pressured their leadership to decentralize the governance and spearhead the transition towards a sustainable model. After seeing the enormous damage done to our society and our planet burning, they sought to leverage their war chests and billions of users to accelerate the transition.
You might be surprised to hear that this transition didn’t go against the free market principles. Innovation never disappeared.
From the late 2030s, new businesses flourished based on new ecological incentives. That was the start of a new paradigm. It was not a mere transformation but a complete green renaissance.
For this, we had to implement profound structural changes, starting by counting what we didn’t count before in our economic models, the use of natural resources.
That led to a mechanical drop in the value of all the organizations dependent on natural resources and causing climate degradation. It also led to the bankruptcies of all the agrochemical, energy, and extractive corporations.
If economic growth and inflation have disappeared, what happened to central currencies?
Cryptocurrencies became one of the largest accelerators of our decentralized living. They dematerialized exchanges, removed frontiers, and challenged the dominance of government currencies, which were the stronghold of the status quo.
But most importantly, the solutions were not monetary nor technological but social. Education was the biggest driver of climate resilience.
Ever since the Great Climate Crisis, humanity has entered the age of maturity and humility. No longer predators. No longer extractors. We reached another level of awareness. Humanity came of age.
We are now at peace with ourselves and with all the beings. Humans are part of a whole, and we are all interconnected. All creatures that surround us belong to the same living organism. We had that tribal intuition buried deep inside us. But it never entirely went away. It finally resurfaced.
And trust me, we are much happier that way! | https://medium.com/@yoann-clifi/i-am-a-time-traveler-with-a-message-of-hope-the-best-time-to-be-alive-is-yet-to-come-f71454bfc80c | ['Yoann Berno'] | 2021-01-19 11:37:02.092000+00:00 | ['Sustainability', 'SciFi', 'Utopia', 'Climate Change', 'Science Fiction'] |
Early Impressions: How Europe’s Proposed Digital Services Act Can Preserve Wikimedia, or Let it Get Constantly Trolled | Early Impressions: How Europe’s Proposed Digital Services Act Can Preserve Wikimedia, or Let it Get Constantly Trolled
The European Commission recently released its proposal for the Digital Services Act (DSA), a law that will change the legal underpinnings of online life in Europe, and, by extension, the world. One of the main components of the proposal creates a framework of obligations for online hosts — a group which includes the Wikimedia Foundation in its role as the host of Wikipedia.
The current law on the liability of hosts, governed by Article 14 of the e-Commerce Directive, says that online hosts aren’t liable for what their users post if they don’t know about any illegal activity, and if they act upon illegal activity once they know about it. Article 15, meanwhile, says that a host can’t be legally required to monitor its services, hunting for any potentially illegal activity by its users.
There’s a lot to analyze and consider in the DSA proposal, but we wanted to share a few early impressions. First of all, we’re glad to see that the DSA preserves these provisions of the e-Commerce Directive, which ensure that the Foundation can continue hosting the knowledge of countless editors and contributors. Unique, user-driven platforms like Wikipedia thrive under strong intermediary liability protections, and we are happy to see this recognition from the Commission. In addition, there are lots of new provisions in the DSA as well, intended to encourage more effective and responsive content moderation. While some of these improve transparency, such as making it easier for people to understand why they see a certain piece of information, and are intended to promote fundamental rights, there are also others that, if applied poorly, could actually make some hostile aspects of the internet worse.
In particular, our initial concerns center on two things. The first is in Article 12, which says that an online service has to disclose in its terms of service the rules and the tools of its content moderation. While we agree that terms of service should be as clear and transparent as possible, our concern lies with language like that in Article 12.2, which says that online services must apply and enforce their terms of service “in a diligent, objective, and proportionate manner.” That’s an ideal goal, but we worry that “diligent, objective and proportionate” can mean very different things depending on who you ask, and that community-governed platforms would be hurt by unclear standards and a lack of discretion. Terms of use (like the Foundation’s Terms, or even the Universal Code of Conduct) frequently include provisions prohibiting clearly harmful but often hard-to-define and even platform-specific things like harassment, disruptive behavior, or trolling. At what point would a regulator or a litigious user think that a certain volume of trolling meant that a service wasn’t being “diligent” in enforcing its “don’t troll other users” rule? Or what happens when someone whose posts are moderated, or who thinks someone else’s behavior should be moderated, decides that the moderators aren’t being “objective?” These situations certainly happen often enough, but usually don’t give rise to legal disputes. Under the proposed rule, we are concerned that the resulting uncertainty about what “diligent, objective, and proportionate” moderation should be would lead disgruntled users to bring such costly cases while the world waits for more definitive and uniform guidance from the European Court of Justice. Keep in mind this is taking place in the context of an information sphere currently struggling with countless motivated and well-funded bad-faith arguments, disinformation, and conspiracy theories. And the number of disgruntled users is only going to grow.
The other concern we want to raise comes up in Article 14, which says that an online provider will be presumed to know about illegal content — and thus be liable for it — once it gets a notice from anyone that that illegal content exists. There’s a number of different ways that ambiguities in this section can create problems, including potentially contradicting the prohibition on general monitoring obligations. For example, if the Foundation got a notice from someone alleging they had been defamed on one article, what would the Foundation be responsible for, if the alleged defamation was referenced in or spread across multiple articles, or talk pages, that the user may not have specified? There must be significantly more clarity around this provision if it is going to operate as intended and not pose an undue burden on platforms.
Finally, we want to make sure that the particular structure, mission, operation, and community self-governance of Wikimedia projects and other participatory platforms are accounted for in this piece of legislation that was likely designed with very different kinds of platforms in mind. We still see some gaps and omissions in the Commission’s proposal and look forward to collaborating with colleagues and members of the Wikimedia movement in Europe (with a particular shout-out to the tireless work of the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU) to work with lawmakers to ensure that the law can support and foster the kind of free, open, collaborative, and collegial space that is the best of the Wikimedia movement. | https://medium.com/@wikimediapolicy/how-europes-proposed-digital-services-act-can-preserve-wikimedia-or-let-it-get-constantly-trolled-11309e71dbe4 | ['Wikimedia Policy'] | 2020-12-23 19:18:52.164000+00:00 | ['Digital Services Act', 'European Union', 'Internet', 'Wikipedia', 'Content Moderation'] |
Do less | Do less
The second principle of the Tao can be synopsized as do less to do more. For a while now my personal mantra has been: “Do less.” If you know me,you can understand how hard that is for me and also how incredibly productive it has been. It is about reducing busywork, commitments to things and people that you don’t actually care about, and creating space to think and write and act where you believe you can do more. A friend of mine shared a key idea from the Hoffman process: we are human beings, not human doings. Spoiler alert: the overall goal of life is to end suffering by being fully at home in ourselves.
Robert Montgomery creates large-scale, site specific sculptural installations that present texts he writes. They are ideas, poetry, aspirations, thoughts, dreams, and sometimes, for some people, they are truths. I experienced the first one very soon after the death by suicide of my college boyfriend who I still love and it read: The people you love become ghosts inside of you and like this you keep them alive. I saw this one last night and I love it also. | https://medium.com/@heidizuckerman/do-less-874ff242e508 | ['Heidi Zuckerman'] | 2020-12-14 14:58:46.024000+00:00 | ['Art', 'Life', 'Wisdom', 'Connection', 'Love'] |
Get Off the Passion Bandwagon | Photo by Karly Santiago on Unsplash
“Your time on earth is limited. Follow your passion and that’s the only way to put a dent in this universe”.
Great career advice, isn’t it?
This is a common platitude which you would have heard from motivational speakers and fallen in awe of their purposeful outlook towards life. I am sure it has caused many people to join the “I QUIT because I have a dream” bandwagon.
If a purposeful life is a reward one only gets by following one’s passion then who wouldn’t want to follow it. Hey, sign me up too. Because let’s face it, we are engineered to believe that there is a job or something out there which is going to make us happy forever. A powerful and seductive thought.
I wish life worked like that. I wish careers worked like that. I so wish there was a job somewhere that completes us. And, once we stumble upon that magical job — our days become enviable. Full of hope and happiness.
Sadly, it doesn’t work like that.
No job on this planet dishes out happiness in equal proportions every day, no matter how much passion you have for it. There would be days when you will be highly motivated and energetic — like someone had given you wings to fly. And then there would be days where you will sulk yourself to death.
But, the passion mindset makes us a believer in the binary logic-
Passion = Success and Happiness
Lack of Passion = Worthless life
I’m not even sure if passion leads to success or success leads to passion. I know there are a few people in music, sports, and science who tasted success because of their passion. A lucky minority, who always knew what they wanted to do.
But, most of us, develop a passion by accident — there, I said it.
Even most of the successful professionals that I know about or even famous entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs started loving what they do once they heard their inner voice screaming that they could be good at it. You see, they weren’t born with a tattoo on their head claiming a particular job was meant for them.
And, it’s the story of all of our lives as well — we develop a passion for a job when it starts challenging us. To grow. To become better. And in that growth and zeal to become better, we find our successes, happiness, and passion, eventually.
I hope you don’t misconstrue that I’m against being passionate. In fact, I believe passion is the fuel to light up your fire. But, don’t waste your time trying to find only that.
Instead, create a discipline in your schedule and have relentless focus in whatever you do. Our life would be purposeful if we follow the Kaizen approach and try to get better every day in our craft. Albert Einstein said that compounding is “the greatest mathematical discovery of all time.” So each day, just focus on getting better. Even if it’s merely 1% increment.
Passion alone is overrated. Don’t fall for it. If you do, I pray to God that you nurture it with a great deal of discipline. That’s the key to everlasting happiness. And, that’s the only key to greatness. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/get-off-the-passion-bandwagon-8c0cdeec427e | ['Tarun Kohli'] | 2018-04-18 02:31:07.372000+00:00 | ['Startup Lessons', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Work', 'Career Advice', 'Passion'] |
Savory Deceits: Intemperate Redemption (Volume 4) | To cherish what we love, we must destroy what threatens it, And to maintain our resolve, we must remember who we are…
-Ace
~CHRIS~
I could see him standing near the corner of the room watching me as his thugs repeatedly punched me in the face for insulting him. When they finally stopped, I managed to get on my knees and spat out blood. “You might as well kill me now, because I will never give up trying to get her back.” I spoke, glaring at him. Smoothly, he tapped a few more times at the screen of his phone and then tucked it inside his suit jacket. “Make no mistake,” Ace finally spoke while coming up to me. “The only reason you’re still breathing right now is because of her.” He said to me, and then casually stepped aside. Angrily, I glowered at him, but then stopped when Nena suddenly appeared in the doorway with Hinata.
Taken aback by Nena’s beauty, my eyes trailed down her voluptuous silhouette in awe. The body hugging bodysuit she wore fit her tightly in all the right places and those thigh-high diamond encrusted boots she had on made her appear several inches taller than usual; not to mention downright sexy. As Nena came closer, I studied every inch of her. I watched as her long straightened hair blew softly behind her and then my eyes trailed downwards to those sparkling heels that she walked so perfectly in having never missed a step. When Nena stopped short in front of me, her fiery optics stared down at me with contempt and I prepensely kept my eyes on her face. Her dark eye makeup enhanced her beguiling brown eyes and I suddenly found it hard to look away.
“Beautiful, isn’t she?” Ace finally spoke, staring down at me. “I’m not a stranger to her beauty.” I mocked, glaring at him. “Chris,” Nena spoke up, causing me to look back at her. “What happened to you, Nena?” I asked, shaking my head as if I were dissatisfied with her appearance. “Did you try to have me killed?” She asked, ignoring my question. “Are you being serious right now, Nena?” I countered, stalling. “Answer the question.” She demanded as Hinata came forward brandishing a thin silver wire between her gloved hands. Fortunately, for me, when Hinata tried to walk past her to me, Nena raised her arm blocking her path. Obediently, Hinata stopped, but then stared at me with eyes that were unquestionably lethal.
“Please,” Nena said to me with pleading eyes. “I need to know Chris.” She spoke again as if she were afraid for me. “Why would you think…” I began, still stalling, when Ace suddenly opened his mouth. “If you don’t want to die,” he began. “Then I suggest you answer the question.” He angrily warned. “You son of a bitch!” I said to Ace when the woman behind me immediately put a knife to my throat. “Oren!” Nena said, stopping my would-be executioner. “Last chance.” Ace spoke again. It was hard to tell who was giving the orders. One minute it seemed as though Ace was in charge, but the way these killers immediately stopped when Nena spoke to them made me wonder. Nonetheless, I knew that I had to think fast because the look in everyone’s eyes told me that each one of them wanted to be the one to kill me first.
“She promised they wouldn’t hurt you.” I admitted in my most repentant voice ever. I figured by now that my only redeeming quality would be Nena’s love for me, so I had to use that to my advantage. “I just wanted to take you away from all of this and be like we were before.” I began to explain. “Nena, I love you and you know that I would never try to hurt you.” I pleaded. “You put our son in danger.” Nena said, seeming the least bit moved by my words. “And,” she continued, while taking a step closer to me. “You teamed up with a woman that wanted me dead.” She said, angrily. “Isabel promised that she wouldn’t hurt you.” I insisted.
Suddenly, Nena stopped talking and looked into my eyes. It was not hard for me to see that she still had feelings for me. Other than pity, the look in Nena’s eyes was full of compassion. She was such a softy and it was obvious that she still loved me. Determinately, with eyes locked on mine as I stared back at her, I knew that everything would be all right. In reference to our love, Ace was just a roadblock that needed to be demolished. Nena would never leave me. Regardless of whom she was with, I still owned her heart.
~NENA~
He was lying; I could see it in his eyes.
The only reason he was saying what he presumed I wanted to hear was to save his own ass. Chris took me for a fool and had it not been for Ace, I would have fallen for every word he said. “She gave me her word, Nena.” Chris spoke again. “She said she wouldn’t hurt you.” He ensured me. Feeling annoyed, I narrowed my eyes at him and started to get angry. “Even you don’t believe that.” I retorted, refusing to fall for his bullshit. When Chris’ eyes widened in shock, I continued. “You knew she wanted me dead.” I said, glaring at him. “Yet you teamed up with her anyway.” I figured, watching him with contempt.
“Nena,” Chris spoke again. “You put our son in danger.” I interrupted. “No, Nena, please listen to me.” Chris begged, desperately trying to convince me otherwise. “They would have killed him.” I spoke again, ignoring his pleas. “And for that,” I continued, looking him square in the eye. “I will not forgive you.” I said, and then took a step back when Ace came to stand beside me. As I looked up at the man I loved; protectively, he put his arm around me and stared down at me with such devotion. Then, I looked back at Chris who watched the both of us with vengeful eyes.
“Don’t look so surprised.” I said to Chris, reiterating Hinata’s words. “You’ve always said I preferred the dangerous one.” I reminded Chris, as he narrowed his eyes at me. “Hinata!” I suddenly called, when she looked up at me. Hinata’s insatiable dark eyes remained calm and focused as she waited for me to give the order. Then, I looked back at Chris again who now gaped at me with mortification. “Kill him.” I said softly, and his eyes got bigger. “Wait! Nena! No!” He screamed, as Oren held his arms back. “Please! Nena!” Chris screamed, when Hinata got behind him. “You don’t have to watch.” Ace said, pulling me to him. “No,” I responded, looking up at him before turning back to Chris. “I want to.” I told him, and then nodded my head at Hinata.
Seemingly satisfied, Hinata smiled at me and then quickly wrapped her deadly wire around Chris’ neck. “Ne…” Chris tried to say again when the silver wire ripped through his flesh. Callously, I stood by and watched while the life of the man that I once loved with all my heart and soul slowly slipped away. Had it not been for my benign instinct to protect my son at all costs, I would have not been able to stomach the amount of blood that was now gushing through Chris’ neck. I felt absolutely no remorse because my son was the most important person in the world to me. Ultimately, his father had crossed a line that should have never been drawn.
Finally, when Chris’ head dropped low, literally hanging on by a thread, Hinata released the wire and his lifeless body instantly fell forward. Now, with Ace’s hands on my waist and mine resting on his arms, we both presented a united front while several members of the Faceless Tribunal watched us in reverence. Just as Hinata had stated before, the moment I stepped into this building, the old me had died and a new woman was reborn in her place. Carefully, Hinata crouched down to check Chris’ pulse, and then she looked up at me and nodded confirming his death. Now, I turned back to Ace who peered into my eyes once more.
“Are you okay?” He asked me. “Yes.” I replied nodding my head in assurance. “Good.” He responded, pulling me closer. “Take a look around you,” Ace then suggested. Slowly, I looked around at the many faces that now stared back at me with deference. “You are now the Queen of my Empire.” He said to me. Confused, I looked back at Ace drawing my brows together in wonder. “What does that mean?” I asked him. “It means that you have now become the most powerful and also the most dangerous woman in the world.” He told me. “Everything you want is literally at your fingertips.” Ace explained. “If you say it, it will happen.” He concluded.
“Really?” I asked, staring back at him. “Yes.” He confirmed, holding me tight. “Then I want to go home.” I told him. “To the house?” He asked me. “No.” I replied. “To the states.” I revealed. “I want to be close to my family.” I said to him. “Is that even possible?” I then asked him, thinking about what my newfound status could mean for the safety of those I loved. “Yes.” Ace replied, still holding me. “As long as you’re with me, anything’s possible.” He assured me, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.” I told him. “I love you.” He suddenly said to me. “I love you too.” I replied with a smile.
“For a long time now, I’ve been living my life with perilous ambition and conquering every country that I set foot in.” Ace began. “I’ve acquired a massive amount of wealth over the years and have every foreign government you can think of in my back pocket.” He told me. “I can have anything I want all around the world,” he divulged, but then paused to search my eyes once more. “However, I now realize that none of it will ever mean anything without you by my side.” He said to me. “I am yours Ace.” I told him. “Now and forever.” I added with absolute certainty. Then, without warning, Ace lowered his head to mine and kissed me in front of everyone. I almost heard gasps coming from the people around us, and I threw my arms around his neck and showed him my loyalty as I openly returned his passion with no reservations. Kissing Ace in front of his subordinates felt empowering and I suddenly wanted him to make love to me again. The words ‘Queen of my Empire’ rang in my head and I nearly lost myself in his dynamic world of influence. When Ace finally broke our kiss, he looked into my eyes and then said, “Let’s go home.” | https://medium.com/@mizzbttrflychic7/savory-deceits-intemperate-redemption-bea4caf0356b | ['Skye Heart'] | 2020-11-10 14:53:47.724000+00:00 | ['Rape', 'Romance', 'Violence Against Women', 'Erotica For Women', 'Fiction'] |
3D prototyping tools for 2D designers | If you can sketch, you can animate, too (with enough time and patience). Frame by frame animations can be made using Photoshop or any other tools available on iPad such as Procreate and FlipaClip. If we weren’t in a remote setting, we could have used other means of prototyping such as a diorama, acting or bodystorming to think and communicate in 3D. However, they are less effective on Zoom than a simple basic animation. For instance, at the beginning of the project, we were not fully aware of how many permutations of doctor-patient positions there are for a breast examination. I wanted to internally discuss how to cover all of the cases with a minimum amount of animations to make the most of our resources. Making generic animation can be economical, how can we make it adapt to different positions and postures of the doctor/patient avatar? It was challenging to describe the issue via Zoom, but as soon as I showed the below animation, the team immediately understood the point I was trying to make. My main takeaway from all of this was that even if the animation is rudimentary if it helps the team communicate what kind of issue you want to discuss, it serves the purpose.
A frame by frame animation made using Procreate and Powerpoint
If you happen to be good at perspective drawing, you can even make an AR and VR prototype using your paper drawing as illustrated in this video by Professor Michael Nebeling (11:30) at the University of Michigan. Drawing is one of my hobbies and I am glad that I have yet another reason to spend more time doing what I love. However, even if drawing is not your cup of tea, there are other ways to quickly create a 3D scene outlined below.
Character Creators
Our team had to figure out the required actions for a breast exam from reference materials and subject matter expert interviews and get them confirmed by physicians. If this were not a sensitive exam and if we weren’t in the middle of the pandemic, we could have taken a photo of one of the team members doing the required poses. However, the actions included taking off clothes, so a photo was not an option. Drawing poses typically requires too much time unless you are a professional. I sought advice from a peer who had experience working as an animator and he recommended using Character Creators (CC) by Reallusion. CC is sophisticated enough to be used by professional animation studios but easy for a novice like me to create a 3D avatar and have it carry out the necessary poses with appropriate facial expressions in under an hour or two.
A screenshot of a patient avatar touching an area she feels tenderness, made by Character Creator 3
One of the most attractive aspects of the software was how easy it was to make the avatar dress and undress. Making a 3D model dress and undress and getting all of the materials and physics right using other 3D tools like Blender is near to impossible for non-professionals to accomplish within a few months. Our team did not have any professional 3D modellers and animators and the project was only 3 month-long. We ended up purchasing CC and it served the purpose well. It was not only suitable for quick prototyping for a novice but also can be exported to be rigged and animated using Blender so that it can be integrated for final production in Unity.
The catch is if you want to animate the avatar and export it with the animation directly to Unity, you need to purchase another software by Reallusion called iClone plus a pipeline tool 3dxChange that is considerably more expensive than CC and iClone combined! Furthermore. while the default version of CC offers decent customization options of changing facial expressions, body shapes & clothing of avatars, If you are serious about customization, you have to pay for the right hair, skin and clothing. All in all, Character Creator is an excellent tool with beautiful, customizable characters suitable for both rapid prototyping and final production, but keep an eye out for hidden costs. Similarly, DAZ 3D offers easy customization of avatars, but it comes with hidden costs as well and less aesthetically pleasing default models. Unreal offers free, insanely realistic characters called Metahumans, but they can only be used in Unreal projects and still seems to be in beta.
Cheaper Alternatives — Manikin vs. Clipstudio vs. Storyboarder
Character Creator 3 currently costs USD 199 and the free trial only lasts only for a month. I expanded on my research on the available tools after my project and came across a few alternatives.
Manikin is a quick and simple pose reference tool for artists. It is suitable only for quick, low-fidelity character prototyping. Props like furniture are not provided. However, the iPad version offers the most straightforward and easy-to-use UIs for posing characters in a 3D space with decent lighting. The free version offers basic poses like standing, sitting and walking (believe me, it takes effort and time to pose a character from scratch however intuitive the UI is). The app says the paid version (USD 5.49) unlocks a whole array of objects like furniture and over 200 animations.
A screenshot of a Manikin iPad version. Manipulating the cute Manikin with fingers is fun
Clipstudio Paint is a drawing and painting tool mostly used for comics. The Pro version costs USD49.99 and the EX version USD219. It comes with a cool 3D feature that allows for avatar posing and background creation to make comic artists’ life easier. The paid version seems to provide 3D objects like desks or cars. The problem is 3-month trial version does not even provide basic poses like sitting and standing. Manipulating the avatar is on the easy side but I find Manikin’s avatars on iPad easier to use.
A screenshot of Clipstudio Paint trial version. Posing a character from scratch is not easy
Storyboarder by Wonder Unit claims that making “visualizing a story as fast you can draw stick figures.” They are not exaggerating. This free software (yes, free without any hidden costs!) has amazingly useful features, such as making a quick storyboard with fully rigged 3d characters and directly editing it in Photoshop or turning it into a GIF file. It also lets you include a sound file for each scene so that you can easily make animatics without leaving the software. You can even open the scene in VR (if you have a headset, of course) and test the scenes in a VR space. Posing avatars using the feature ‘Shot Generator’ is intuitive and quick although it takes practice to fine-tune the details. It comes with variety of default poses (way more than those offered by Manikin) and 3D assets like furniture, trees and cars. You can make you own poses and save them for later use. Cameras and the items on the scene can be directly manipulated using the top left panel. You can add multiple cameras to quickly generate scenes from different angles. Importing your own 3D assets to the scene does not seem to be supported and there is no iPad version yet. Still, it is an incredibly useful and high-quality free software. Kudos to designers and developers at Wonder Unit!
It took me less than an hour to get the hang of Storyboarder and make low-fidelity 3D scenes
Figma
You can use traditional 2D prototyping tools like Figma to prototype for 3D albeit with limitations. You can make 3D scenes using the above-mentioned tools and make it look like the avatar is doing a certain action when you click a certain button. Our project was building a real-time multiplayer platform where two users see different UIs at the same time, so we didn’t choose to use Figma, but if it were not for multiplayer mode, we would have used it. Figma does offer capabilities to make a prototype for VR as well, but you need 360-degree images to make the prototype. Therefore, you either have to draw it (which can be more challenging than learning Unity) or take a 360-degree picture of physical environment similar to what you envision (which can be difficult too during the pandemic), or create a 3D scene in Unity and take 360 screenshots of the scene using a plugin (you need to know how to make a basic scene in Unity to use Figma this way). | https://uxdesign.cc/3d-prototyping-tools-for-2d-ux-designers-220493c98bd8 | ['G.E. Karen Lee'] | 2021-05-15 05:28:23.740000+00:00 | ['Prototyping', 'Design', '3d', 'UX', 'UI'] |
The Paradox of Tolerance | Popper’s perhaps lesser known, but equally consequential, body of work is about building the foundations of a tolerant society. How do we foster a community that is inclusive of everyone and their perspectives? ‘Inclusive’ was not a commonly brandished word in Popper’s mid-20th century era, but when he speaks of tolerance, I find his meaning is much more aligned to the notion of inclusivity as we understand it today than to the slightly condescending modern meaning of ‘tolerant.’
And this is particularly where his views are underrepresented in the modern discourse about inclusion, respect of everyone’s identity and beliefs, and freedom of expression. Popper argues that:
An open society needs to be intolerant of intolerance.
This Paradox of Tolerance, as it came to be known, argues that intolerant behaviors, irrespective of any judgement of the values that underlie them, ought to be actively fought against in order to preserve an inclusive society. It is important to emphasize this last point: intolerant behaviors ought not to be judged on the merits of their underlying argument, or whether the party who is acting in an exclusionary manner has the moral high ground or not. These behaviors have to be combatted on the premise of them being exclusionary.
Social media shields intolerance from our intolerance.
I would be curious whether Popper would view our 21st century vehicles of intolerant discourse in this light. It is one of our chief new challenges to maintaining an inclusive society.
I take issue with the tone of the many conversations that I see unfolding in public today. Many of the points of views most vocally expressed, from the most horribly prejudiced, all the way to the very ones advocating inclusivity, are fundamentally driving an intolerant wedge into the public discourse.
My antidote has been to not engage, at the cost of not seeing my views represented in public, and of not being able to advocate for those I want to support the most. It weighs on me, but I still believe this is the better path: one of affecting the change I want to see in my community, but which doesn’t expose me to a public argument that would force me into a shouting match that is exclusionary by its very nature. You can’t have a conversation when everyone around the table is holding a megaphone.
May you and I ever be spared
Having to pick a side.
— J-J Goldman
This recent article about Professor Loretta Ross and her plea for calling people in, instead of calling people out, resonated with me in its advocacy of a better path to understanding and social change, through intimacy instead of public shaming. It is surprising how many people I know and appreciate in person, whose public persona on any form of broadcast medium I find plainly offensive. Some may argue that one’s true soul is bared when distilled down to a few characters, but I choose to hold tight to the idea that a person’s true self is the one you meet in person. So much of every person’s opinions is shaped by their life experience, and removing that context often makes them incomprehensible and unrelatable.
The Paradox of Tolerance often pits me against those very people I want to support and help, because I have to stand firm against public shaming and bullying, or lose that very inclusive society that I strive to foster.
And there is much one can do which would never fit on a social media post to enact change. In fact, I probably have more latitude to act for the very reason that I am not out there expounding my views, biased as they are, on social media. As I live and work in an environment that isn’t particularly predisposed to foster the best communication skills, I have also learned to predominantly judge people by their actions.
Most of my personal heroes who are working tirelessly to improve our community are not out in the public eye — they would most likely not have time to keep up with the deluge of it in the first place. It saddens me that so much of their time today tends to be redirected to patching up the damage that purely stems from the toxicity of the public discourse instead of working on the fundamentals of cultural and social betterment. I have to remind myself every single day to remain biased toward action over words, and to keep my objectives grounded in concrete, tangible, and, sadly, largely unspoken outcomes. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/the-paradox-of-tolerance-99f5ad3da19d | ['Vincent Vanhoucke'] | 2020-12-17 22:32:23.580000+00:00 | ['Tolerance', 'Inclusion', 'Science Communication', 'Social Media'] |
THE CRISIS IN VENEZUELA: Some Fresh Options | By Grace Jaramillo, Fellow, CIDP
Originally Published: 18 January 2018
Image Credit: The New York Times Upfront
Venezuela just moved one further step into the downward whirlwind of polarization and civil violence. Just this past week, lieutenant Oscar Perez was executed — all captured on Facebook Live — while the lieutenant was asking for the possibility of surrender to the official forces. Lieutenant Perez was leading one of the many rebel groups which had taken up arms against the government of Nicolas Maduro. Lieutenant Perez did exactly what former lieutenant Hugo Chávez did in 1993, for which he was pardoned the following year. Notwithstanding this precedent, Maduro is meeting all uprisings with the full force of the government — including the military. As the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights has declared that the Venezuelan government may have committed crimes against humanity, it is fair to ask when and how this crisis started and more importantly, what can be done to address it.
If we should mark a date for the commencement of the latest democratic breakdown, it should be April 14th 2013. By this time, the economy was in dire straits. From 2004 to 2013, amidst a boom in oil prices, Venezuela had already run fiscal deficits of around 17% of GDP, according to the Venezuelan economist Ricardo Hausmann. In the preceding months, the regime had contracted immense amounts of debt. Following a dramatic drop in the price of oil, the government desperately overheated the economy in order to guarantee an easy re-election for a cancer-ridden populist leader. Chavez won the presidency for the third time in October 2012, without being able to campaign in person due to his treatment. He would never be sworn into office.
The result was immediate political turmoil. Maduro assumed power and faced the immediate effects of the economic crisis. His economic team halted payment of imported goods almost immediately, expropriated even more private companies and called the crisis an economic war initiated by the so-called ‘oligarchy’ and the United States upon Venezuela. The effects were devastating for the population as a whole: food scarcity and harsh restrictions on basic grocery items like toilet paper and diapers followed. The imposed price controls and ensuing food and supply rationing pushed the country into a full-scale humanitarian crisis.
Amid the chaos, including incommensurable scarcity and inflation of almost 700% a year, the administration called for the election of a Constitutional Assembly in March 2017. The election became immediately questioned not only by the National Assembly — which has the constitutional authority to sanction it — but also by the international community that considered the decision as yet another move into a full dictatorship.
It should be noted that Chavez was himself victim of a coup-d’etat in April 2002 that although only lasting a few days, certainly weighs on Maduro’s mind now. While the military restored Chavez to office in 2002, trust between the military and the civilian leadership remains low. Today, Maduro has been a loyal follower of the steady move towards a socialist regime similar to Cuba where there is no market economy, but more importantly, where democracy in all its content and formalities, is non-existent. In short, he is centralizing power.
For its part, Latin America as a region has failed Venezuela. The polarization and division along ideological lines have poisoned any reasonable path to mediation through Latin American channels accepted by all sides, like the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the newly created Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). Even the Organization of American States (OAS) is staying out of this crisis, even though arbitration of democratic breakdowns is mandatory under its charter. UNASUR managed to get a mission of mediation approved by the Venezuelan government but, for a variety of reasons, failed to bring about a lasting solution.
So what are the realistic options for Venezuela and what can be done internationally to help Venezuelan democracy? There are three important principles that need to be considered in order to start solving the crisis. Albeit difficult to attain, any peaceful solution of Venezuela’s crisis needs a combination of all three.
First, direct US involvement needs to stop. For years, Venezeula has perpetuated a narrative of animosity and open propaganda that blames the US for all Venezuelan ills, including gruesome involvement in Chavez’s death. Moreover, the Bolivarian revolution only wins whenever there is a perception that US will try to meddle in Venezuelan affairs. US intervention disempowers the organized opposition. Moreover, the unilateral batch of sanctions by the US and the unhelpful inclusion of Venezuela in President Trump’s recent address has only made the problem worse by providing the Socialist government in Venezuela the perfect justification for economic hardship, food scarcity and even authoritarian control.
Second, the UN needs to take a leading role. Only a mission backed by a UN Security Council resolution can make the Venezuelan government change course. Mediation has been tried in the past: UNASUR set up a commission of accepted international leaders to set up dialogue but they did not have the leverage to have Maduro’s regime accountable to its commitments and as a result, it quickly lost confidence among opposition leaders. Moreover, the lack of consensus among Latin American leaders about the Venezuelan crisis has resulted in division and polarization in the three international organizations that can oversee a working mediation scheme (OAS, UNASUR or CELAC). These three organizations treated the crisis as a zero-sum game, hence the need for the UN intervention. If there is going to be an enforceable arrangement that prevents a conflict of unpredictable proportions, the United Nations has to get involved. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres needs to secure a mandate from the Security Council to conduct a truly impartial mediation process with committed professionals and leaders acceptable to both sides with a mandate to find a democratic and transparent solution to the crisis. Interestingly, some positive signs that a Guterres-led intervention can make a difference happened just last week when the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Julio Borges, accepted the dialogue proposed by Guterres, advancing some conditions that could make it feasible. It can be a good starting point to a new, enduring solution.
Finally, Latin America should lead the process of mediation but with new actors. The humanitarian crisis is already ongoing with spillover effects in most neighbouring countries. Despite recent quarrels and ideological disputes inside its long-standing organizations, comparative regionalism has demonstrated that regional bodies are the best institutions to guarantee compliance and long-term supportive commitment. The African Union has been far more successful at implementing peace agreements in Sudan, Rwanda and Uganda than UN agencies or foreign forces. Latin America also has a long tradition of post-conflict compliance bodies in border disputes, like the five guarantors in the peace agreement between Ecuador and Peru and the Contadora Group in the Central American Peace Process. Latin American countries can reach common ground through GRULAC, the Group of Latin American States that deliberates and works together at the United Nations. GRULAC could lead UN efforts and move the debate forward to avert a humanitarian crisis like Syria in a near future. Even more, the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, could be an active part of this initiative empowering its own region into action into a wider and authoritative forum.
The three principles of regional buy-in, UN leadership, and frankly, US patience and willingness to step back, are the best hope for the Venezuelan people. History suggests this attempt could work, and only through the will and commitment of Venezuela’s neighbours and the UN itself, will we know for certain. | https://medium.com/centre-for-international-and-defence-policy/the-crisis-in-venezuela-some-fresh-options-9d7b9ff4c01e | ['Centre For International', 'Defence Policy'] | 2019-06-20 01:29:25.693000+00:00 | ['Venezuelan Crisis', 'Venezuelan Politics', 'Archive', 'Venezuela'] |
Start a small scale business, by thinking of how to start a small business around you | Start a small scale business, by thinking of how to start a small business around you | https://medium.com/@rilwanabayomisekoni/start-a-small-scale-business-by-thinking-of-how-to-start-a-small-business-around-you-do-somehing-7e2023b40f9e | ['Rilwan Abayomi Sekoni'] | 2020-12-23 15:27:36.648000+00:00 | ['Business Strategy', 'Small Scale Business', 'Business', 'Business Development'] |
Empty Mind | “If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad.” — Lord Byron
Dear keyboard,
Empty my mind of these repetitive thoughts
Before they all end up in knots
Slipping away unexplored
Or even worse
Dismissed
and ignored…
Dear blank document,
When I open you, it’s only to vent
For I can’t write when happy —
Only when I am profoundly discontent
And, as you can see
That’s becoming
More frequent;
Dear words,
You slip away from my fingertips-
With you it’s hit-or-miss
Nightmare or bliss;
Yet that doesn’t entirely depend on me
But also on those who happen to read
My meaningless shit.
Dear Lord Byron,
You were so right when you said
That if you don’t write
To empty your mind
You’ll go mad
For I feel
Exactly the same… | https://medium.com/the-rebel-poets-society/empty-mind-cb1e82163c03 | ['𝘋𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘢 𝘊.'] | 2020-12-13 17:15:59.146000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Poetry', 'The Rebel Poets Society', 'Poem', 'Mind'] |
My Views Got Lost in Most of Our Viewings | My views got lost in most of our viewings, living through extreme faulting, my silences passed through your silencing, I had my future but I needed to redefine my spirit. | https://medium.com/chalkboard/my-views-got-lost-in-most-of-our-viewings-5b5a7f05195 | ['Francine Fallara'] | 2020-12-31 00:39:36.486000+00:00 | ['Future', 'Poetry', 'One Line', 'Self Improvement', 'Self'] |
Creating a .Net Core REST API — Part 1: Setup and Database Modelling | I’ll be putting together a series of tutorials on creating a REST API with ASP.Net Core and Entity Framework Core against a Postgres database. Microsoft has some great tutorials as well but they weren’t always fully applicable to my use-case of developing an API against an existing database schema.
Anything in this tutorial should be possible on other platforms however I’ll be developing on Windows 10 with Visual Studio Community 2017.
Project Setup
ASP.Net Core has a web application template that can help get us started. When creating your project be sure to select it.
After that select the plain API template.
You should end up with a simple API that returns some hardcoded values. The default configuration should run the API on IIS Express and launch a browser pointing to the API endpoint. You can also use a tool like Postman to test the API. Just be aware that closing the browser window will stop the debugging session.
Database Modelling
Our API will run queries against our database using Entity Framework Core. EF Core supports two models of development; Code First and Database First. Code first generates the database from models that you write manually. Database first is the opposite, generating the models from an existing database schema. We will be using database first in this case.
In order to model and query our Postgres database EF Core requires a Database Provider to be installed. We will install Npgsql which is an open source Postgres provider. You can add it to your project from NuGet using the Visual Studio GUI or the command line.
For the following steps you will need a Postgres database running. You can run one locally on Windows or on another server. I setup Postgres on an Ubuntu server, created a database, and then allowed external connections. Once you have one running we can create a simple schema by running the following SQL script:
You may notice I use plural table names in the database. If you want the model classes to have singular names you can install a pluralizer package to do this when the model is generated.
To model this schema we can run one of the following commands in command prompt, WSL, PowerShell, or the VS Package Manager Console. Make sure you are in the directory containing the project file (*.csproj).
See the command line reference for more options.
Once the modelling is complete you will have 3 classes in the Models directory and one in the Context directory. The Models each represent a row in the database and it’s related data while the DataContext represents the full state of the database.
If you build the project you may notice a warning from a #warning directive in the OnConfiguring handler of BlogContext . EF Core embeds the connection string we used for modeling into the DataContext so that it will work for database access out of the box. This represents a potential security risk so you can remove the entire OnConfiguring handler and we will configure the connection string next time.
The source code for this tutorial is available on GitHub. Up next we’ll start setting up our API controller. | https://medium.com/@kieran.gillibrand/creating-a-net-core-rest-api-part-1-setup-and-database-modelling-47bccf8d5685 | ['Kieran Gillibrand'] | 2019-11-19 04:14:04.905000+00:00 | ['GitHub', 'Net Core', 'Csharp', 'Aspnetcore', 'Postgres'] |
The Perennial City Super Discount Hack | The Perennial City Super Discount Hack
Perennial City is proud to offer the best value we’ve heard of in this budding compost concierge field. When members commit to a 6-month subscription, at $5 per week of pickup it is less than half the cost of home compost services around the country.
As things got topsy-turvy in the world since early 2020, and the price of everything shot through the roof, we got creative and our members stayed flexible, managing to not only keep rates low but even add more service. Over the past year, we built The Market, allowing our subscribers to order the best food and goods from dozens of local farms and artisans, conveniently dropped off with their visit for no additional delivery charge. This helped put wheels on our mission of growing the local food web!
Do you offer discounts?
Beyond new member promo codes floating around, we’ve previously needed to respond that the 6 month subscription is the best discount we’re able to offer.
And then, like most of “our” brilliant ideas, our members taught us a great little hack.
We offer special double bucket option to meet the needs of homes that compost a lot, for an extra $2.50 per bucket each week. Beyond big households that love to cook, we’ve discovered that folks have also been signing up for a second bucket so that their friend or family member outside of our service area could piggy back on their subscription.
The Buddy System Makes Life Better (and composting even more affordable)
So, if friends split a double bucket subscription, it comes out to $15 each per month — hot diggity!
How to pull this off
Find a friend who would also love to keep the good stuff out of the landfill and grow the local food web. (If you don’t have one, you’ll need to find one — and you get a friend by being a friend🥰) With an active subscription, sign in to your account, and click on the Subscriptions tab. Click the “Change” button and you’ll find the extra special double bucket option.
* Any balance on a current subscription will automatically be prorated and applied to your upgrade.
Important notes
You’ll have one single account, so there will be the business of reimbursing the pal making the payments (which is what Cash App is for!)
Your courier will be picking up and delivering to a single address.
You may find your new favorite friendly pastime to be shopping sprees together in The Market.
We hope this clever idea helps save you some money and strengthen bonds! | https://perennial.city/the-perennial-city-super-discount-hack-c236e8f7a1fd | ['Timothy Kiefer'] | 2021-09-14 04:54:37.722000+00:00 | ['Home Composting', 'Perennial City', 'St Louis Composting', 'Discount', 'St Louis'] |
This gets me too, and it’s a crime I’ve also committed. | This gets me too, and it’s a crime I’ve also committed. My first memoir was definitely a learning experience, and while I thought it was perfect and beautiful and polished upon publication, I now have more distance and experience to better judge the work. Working with a developmental editor helps me see my blind spots, and on my final read-thru I now follow a checklist that contains questions about time-place reference, mood, character development and more. I go through the MS several times, flagging sections as I cross off items on my checklist. This is a more orderly approach. It has vastly improved my work and helped me to address any minor irritations a reader might find. | https://medium.com/@ricakeenum/this-gets-me-too-and-its-a-crime-i-ve-also-committed-8afd902369dc | ['Rica Keenum'] | 2020-12-23 18:46:37.926000+00:00 | ['Writers On Writing', 'Freelance Writing', 'Freelancing', 'Writing Tips', 'Writing Prompts'] |
You already have Linux. It’s inside Windows. | You heard it a thousand times. You must get Linux to be a “real” programmer. If we ignore the gatekeeping for a second, this is also a harsh statement toward the Windows OS. After all, Microsoft Windows is not just dominating the desktop ecosystem with ~78% market share for nothing. It must have its merits too.
But guess what? That doesn’t even matter because Windows has had the Linux kernel built-in for a while now. This means that it can exploit all of Linux’s functionalities without using any external software.
You may be saying now that, “so what? I already have a virtual machine, so this is useless to me…” It’s true, virtual machines do incorporate outside operating systems and give you the luxury of using both. However, have you ever considered that virtualizing an entirely separate machine inside yours might be a little bit inefficient? Virtual machines do have their use cases, but they can be extremely bulky and slow at times especially when you just want to use a quick command for your Linux class.
Enter WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) that offers bare-bones Linux capabilities and lets you download a distribution like an app. | https://medium.com/ensias-it/you-already-have-linux-its-inside-windows-6cef206fed5 | ['Yasser Douslimi'] | 2020-12-26 16:25:53.061000+00:00 | ['Operating Systems', 'Terminal', 'Windows 10', 'Linux', 'Wsl 2'] |
November Black Friday Specials | We have a great deal of packages that cater for creative work, personalised branding and accounting solutions for your business.
Our packages range from animation in graphic work, corporate identity packages for beginners and intermediate phase businesses, film and photography work and lastly, accounting services for those who seek assistance in planning and structure of their finances.
Animation
1. Animation Packages will be designed for video clips that range between the following time frames:
Animation clips between 15 to 30 seconds will amount to R3 500.
Animation clips between 30 to 45 seconds will amount to R4 750.
Animation clips between 45 to 60 seconds will amount to R5 950.
Terms and Conditions
The above includes 2D animation design, logo animation, info-graphics, corporate identity and mini adverts in between the different clips. Any royalty-free music and sound design will include music that the client will pay for to include in the video clip. his package does not include character animation, 3D animation and any voice over recording. This can however be provided at an extra charge.
Contact [email protected] should you need any of the above services.
RR Creative Solutions x Hidden Society Studio
Corporate Identity Packs
These packages cover varying graphic design elements different companies may need. From your look and feel, through to emails, social media, websites, as well as having fresh logos for your brand and/or products. Have a read and pick your need this November!
Beginners Pack, for Black Friday Special of only R820–00 includes:
Brand Logo Development Email Signature Design which is used at the end of an email and specifies important contact details. Domain Set-Up, excluding hosting (example: [email protected])
Intermediate Pack, for a Black Friday Special of only R1540–00 includes:
Brand Logo Development Tailored Social Media Logo and Headers (your preferred 3 platforms) Email Signature Design (I.e. bottom contact details section of email) Domain Set-Up, excluding hosting (example: [email protected]) Word Letterhead Development
Professional Pack, for a Black Friday Special of only R2890–00 includes:
Brand Logo Development Tailored Social Media Logo and Headers (your preferred 3 platforms) Email Signature (I.e. bottom contact details section of email) Domain Set-Up, excluding hosting (example: [email protected]) Word and Powerpoint Letterhead Development Digital Business Card Set-Up & Design (3 Business Card Design Options)
Graphic Design — excludes printing, however it ranges from a variety if design work for business cards, flyers, banners and company logos.
Business Card Design: 3 Business Card Design Options — R650 (limited to 3 individuals per company)
Flyer Design: 3 Flyer Design Template Options — R850 (limited to 2 iterations)
Banner Design: 2 changes per design of selected banner — R725 (limited to free stock images)
Logo Design: 2 Design Options : R630 (1 change per design)
Film & Photoshoot Studio Work
For any group or individual professional photoshoots and film work needed, we offer the following special for November:
1 Hour Professional Photoshoot for only R1 500 (this is limited to 30 to 50 high-quality shots)
Contact [email protected] should you need any of the services above.
Personal and Professional Studio Photography
Accounting Services
We take pride in setting up SMMEs for financial success by building an infrastructure and committing to managing accounting, tax and financial management needs. This November, find allow us to serve you with the following Accounting Services at a 40% discount.
Preparation of financial statements starting from as low as R750.
*Please note that this will be adjusted based on the size of the entity where applicable
2. Preparation of Management Accounts will only cost you R500.
*Please note that this will be adjusted based on the size of the entity where applicable
Contact [email protected] should you need any of the services above.
Conclusion
We look forward to helping you achieve your business objectives in brand work, creativity and making your finances easier to understand and manage!
Contact Andiswa at [email protected] and/or Lerato [email protected] should you need clarity or assistance!
With RR Creative Solutions , EVERYONE WINS!
Written By: Pholoso M | https://medium.com/@leratoselialia/november-black-friday-specials-737610f38c1d | ['Lerato Selialia'] | 2019-11-14 13:39:57.776000+00:00 | ['Branding', 'Black Friday', 'Videography', 'Animation', 'Accounting'] |
The party’s over (or is it just starting?) | The party’s over (or is it just starting?)
THE LAUNDROMAT is not his finest, but it is recognizable from a distance as a “Steven Soderbergh Joint”
THE LAUNDROMAT, US 2019, 96 min. Starring Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas. Directed by Steven Soderbergh; written by Scott Z. Burns, based on the book Secrecy World by Jake Bernstein. Streaming on Netflix.
Is it fair to say that Steven Soderbergh got late to the party for once? The Big Short had already done the popular-economics shtick of making the ins and outs of obscure financial products and their role in the Great Recession of 2008 understandable to the average joe; hence, the breezy, deadpan humor of The Laundromat seems to be a bit fusty by now.
But we’d probably be better off by connecting this adaptation of Jake Bernstein’s non-fiction book Secrecy World to an earlier, and also misunderstood, Sodebergh twister, The Informer!, whose fourth-wall-breaking outlandishness and general snarky stranger-than-fiction tone it recaptures. The Laundromat, though, is a much more serious film underneath it all — a sickly-smile deep dive into the scandal of the Panama Papers, and a representation of how the financial system is rigged, that employs a lot of irony to make its point. Nothing is ever what it seems with Soderbergh, which could be the whole modus operandi of his career, seeing as so much of his work is about transactional economics; it’s just that The Laundromat takes it further into rabbit dens of layer upon layer of obfuscation.
Adapting Bernstein’s book as an interconnected series of jet-setting vignettes, Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Burns, a frequent collaborator who also wrote The Informer!, play with expectations (both narrative and the viewer’s) in structuring the tale. It’s all a matter of sleight of hand, passing the baton in often audacious ways. At one point, the odd-couple team of MCs that greet us throughout the film, formed by Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas as real-life offshore specialist lawyers Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca, appear in a supermarket to hand off the film to Meryl Streep as Ellen Martin. Ellen is a fictional viewer-surrogate who just lost her husband (James Cromwell) in a freak cruise accident, and finds she’s losing out on the insurance settlement due to all the elaborate shell games played by investment companies that make millions while stiffing regular joes from their hard-earned cash.
Gary Oldman as Jürgen Mossack and Antonio Banderas as Ramón Fonseca. Credit: Claudette Barius/Netflix
Acting as always as his own DP and editor, Soderbergh shoots the entire merry-go-round of situations as so many variations on stereotypical film genres, from comedy to actioner, but always orbiting around the corporate malfeasance problem picture. One espionage interlude in China even sees the format extend to widescreen before reverting to standard 1.85:1 ratio at the end. This is yet another of Soderbergh’s constant semiotic games that is of greater interest to film students and writers than to audiences, especially because it is not as notable on the TV screen where The Laundromat’s status as a Netflix original means it’ll be more widely seen.
To be sure, the director’s narrative and filmic nous is absolutely independent of the medium he’s working on. Lest we forget, Behind the Candelabra was made at HBO after no major Hollywood studio took a chance on it; and Bubble and The Girlfriend Experience were part of an unfinished series of low-budget day-and-date VOD experiences; while the outrageously underrated Unsane was shot on an iPhone. The Laundromat has enough of Soderbergh’s sparkling formal playfulness to make sure that even director completists will find something interesting to sink their teeth into here. But it’s also true it isn’t grade-A Soderbergh: the relay-race, episodic structure is marred by an under-utilized, all-star cast (Sharon Stone, Jeffrey Wright, Matthias Schoenaerts, Will Forte, David Schwimmer…) that drops by for brief cameos and distracts you from the plot.
Meryl Streep as Ellen Martin. Credit: Claudette Barius/Netflix
More surprisingly, Soderbergh can’t seem to maintain a consistent tone throughout, with the fun and games coming on either too pointed or too detached, too cynical or too blithely innocent. Maybe that was his point all along: you can’t have just one tone on a story ripped from the headlines like this one, in a time where there are as many truths as eyes of the beholder. But it does diminish the end result of The Laundromat, both too earnest and too manic to succeed on its own terms, swaying all over the place like a pendulum with constant momentum but no easy point to get in and/or out of. | https://medium.com/the-flickering-wall/the-partys-over-or-is-it-just-starting-9dca372092f4 | ['Jorge Mourinha'] | 2020-01-03 16:48:59.976000+00:00 | ['Film Criticism', 'Movies', 'Steven Soderbergh', 'Netflix Originals'] |
Bra | The bra is underwear worn to cover or lift a woman’s breasts.
The bra can have several functions, it can be used to enhance the shape of the breast to make it appear larger; to shape cleavage, for fashion purposes, for cultural or aesthetic reasons.
The misconception that wearing a bra helps prevent sagging of the breasts over time has long been held; this has been disproved by science and manufacturers are trying to avoid this in their advertising.
There are many types of bras, such as braced bras, non-braced bras, push-up bras, self-adhesive bras, strapless bras, bralettes, balconettes, nursing bras, or sports bras. In addition, we can also talk about bras with a full, triangular, pre-shaped, adjustable strap, low back, high neck, U-shaped, V-shaped, T-strap, front strap, bandeau, elongated, cross strap, lift, or breast reduction. The bra may be padded or unpadded.
There are also men’s bras, as men’s breasts can also become enlarged. These bras tend to flatten the breasts. Cross-dresser men also wear bras, although they prefer to wear women’s pieces. Male athletes such as runners can also wear sports bras to prevent painful nipple chafing.
There are many types and styles to choose from, the key is to wear a top that is both physically comfortable and expresses your personality.
We need to take care of ourselves because we don’t notice it, but it is a defining element of our everyday life. And that’s just the basics, but there are also special events for which good underwear is essential.
It’s worth learning this from an early age.
There are many different manufacturers and materials, but the one I trust is Pi.An.Bl. Lingerie webshop. Because they listen to me, I can get live help if I need it, they have colourful and varied lingerie, fast delivery and a guarantee, almost free of charge. You need a safe place in your life that you can always count on. Well, that’s why Pi.An.Bl. is the best.
Pi.An.Bl. Lingerie | https://medium.com/@pianbl/bra-6fd0ac69fdb2 | ['Catherine Angel Sivie'] | 2021-12-14 19:36:33.796000+00:00 | ['Lingerie', 'Lingerie Shopping Online', 'Bras', 'Brands', 'Lingerie Online'] |
Extreme Rare Event Classification using Autoencoders in Keras | In this post, we will learn how we can use a simple dense layers autoencoder to build a rare event classifier. The purpose of this post is to demonstrate the implementation of an Autoencoder for extreme rare-event classification. We will leave the exploration of different architecture and configuration of the Autoencoder on the user. Please share in the comments if you find anything interesting.
Autoencoder for Classification
The autoencoder approach for classification is similar to anomaly detection. In anomaly detection, we learn the pattern of a normal process. Anything that does not follow this pattern is classified as an anomaly. For a binary classification of rare events, we can use a similar approach using autoencoders (derived from here [2]).
Quick revision: What is an autoencoder?
An autoencoder is made of two modules: encoder and decoder.
The encoder learns the underlying features of a process. These features are typically in a reduced dimension.
The decoder can recreate the original data from these underlying features.
Figure 1. Illustration of an autoencoder. [Source: Autoencoder by Prof. Seungchul Lee
iSystems Design Lab]
How to use an Autoencoder rare-event classification?
We will divide the data into two parts: positively labeled and negatively labeled.
The negatively labeled data is treated as normal state of the process. A normal state is when the process is eventless.
We will ignore the positively labeled data, and train an Autoencoder on only negatively labeled data.
This Autoencoder has now learned the features of the normal process.
A well-trained Autoencoder will predict any new data that is coming from the normal state of the process (as it will have the same pattern or distribution).
Therefore, the reconstruction error will be small.
However, if we try to reconstruct a data from a rare-event, the Autoencoder will struggle.
This will make the reconstruction error high during the rare-event.
We can catch such high reconstruction errors and label them as a rare-event prediction.
This procedure is similar to anomaly detection methods.
Implementation
Data and problem
This is a binary labeled data from a pulp-and-paper mill for sheet breaks. Sheet breaks is severe problem in paper manufacturing. A single sheet break causes loss of several thousand dollars, and the mills see at least one or more break every day. This causes millions of dollors of yearly losses and work hazards.
Detecting a break event is challenging due to the nature of the process. As mentioned in [1], even a 5% reduction in the breaks will bring significant benefit to the mills.
The data we have contains about 18k rows collected over 15 days. The column y contains the binary labels, with 1 denoting a sheet break. The rest columns are predictors. There are about 124 positive labeled sample (~0.6%).
Download data here.
Code
Import the desired libraries.
%matplotlib inline
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
from pylab import rcParams import tensorflow as tf
from keras.models import Model, load_model
from keras.layers import Input, Dense
from keras.callbacks import ModelCheckpoint, TensorBoard
from keras import regularizers from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
from sklearn.metrics import confusion_matrix, precision_recall_curve
from sklearn.metrics import recall_score, classification_report, auc, roc_curve
from sklearn.metrics import precision_recall_fscore_support, f1_score from numpy.random import seed
seed(1)
from tensorflow import set_random_seed
set_random_seed(2) SEED = 123 #used to help randomly select the data points
DATA_SPLIT_PCT = 0.2 rcParams['figure.figsize'] = 8, 6
LABELS = ["Normal","Break"]
Note that we are setting the random seeds for reproducibility of the result.
Data preprocessing
Now, we read and prepare the data.
df = pd.read_csv("data/processminer-rare-event-mts - data.csv")
The objective of this rare-event problem is to predict a sheet-break before it occurs. We will try to predict the break 4 minutes in advance. To build this model, we will shift the labels 2 rows up (which corresponds to 4 minutes). We can do this as df.y=df.y.shift(-2) . However, in this problem we would want to do the shifting as: if row n is positively labeled,
Make row (n-2) and (n-1) equal to 1. This will help the classifier learn up to 4 minute ahead prediction.
4 minute ahead prediction. Delete row n. Because we do not want the classifier to learn predicting a break when it has happened.
We will develop the following UDF for this curve shifting.
sign = lambda x: (1, -1)[x < 0]
def curve_shift(df, shift_by):
'''
This function will shift the binary labels in a dataframe.
The curve shift will be with respect to the 1s.
For example, if shift is -2, the following process
will happen: if row n is labeled as 1, then
- Make row (n+shift_by):(n+shift_by-1) = 1.
- Remove row n.
i.e. the labels will be shifted up to 2 rows up.
Inputs:
df A pandas dataframe with a binary labeled column.
This labeled column should be named as 'y'.
shift_by An integer denoting the number of rows to shift.
Output
df A dataframe with the binary labels shifted by shift.
'''
vector = df['y'].copy()
for s in range(abs(shift_by)):
tmp = vector.shift(sign(shift_by))
tmp = tmp.fillna(0)
vector += tmp
labelcol = 'y'
# Add vector to the df
df.insert(loc=0, column=labelcol+'tmp', value=vector)
# Remove the rows with labelcol == 1.
df = df.drop(df[df[labelcol] == 1].index)
# Drop labelcol and rename the tmp col as labelcol
df = df.drop(labelcol, axis=1)
df = df.rename(columns={labelcol+'tmp': labelcol})
# Make the labelcol binary
df.loc[df[labelcol] > 0, labelcol] = 1
return df
Before moving forward, we will drop the time, and also the categorical columns for simplicity.
# Remove time column, and the categorical columns
df = df.drop(['time', 'x28', 'x61'], axis=1)
Now, we divide the data into train, valid, and test sets. Then we will take the subset of data with only 0s to train the autoencoder.
df_train, df_test = train_test_split(df, test_size=DATA_SPLIT_PCT, random_state=SEED)
df_train, df_valid = train_test_split(df_train, test_size=DATA_SPLIT_PCT, random_state=SEED) df_train_0 = df_train.loc[df['y'] == 0]
df_train_1 = df_train.loc[df['y'] == 1]
df_train_0_x = df_train_0.drop(['y'], axis=1)
df_train_1_x = df_train_1.drop(['y'], axis=1) df_valid_0 = df_valid.loc[df['y'] == 0]
df_valid_1 = df_valid.loc[df['y'] == 1]
df_valid_0_x = df_valid_0.drop(['y'], axis=1)
df_valid_1_x = df_valid_1.drop(['y'], axis=1) df_test_0 = df_test.loc[df['y'] == 0]
df_test_1 = df_test.loc[df['y'] == 1]
df_test_0_x = df_test_0.drop(['y'], axis=1)
df_test_1_x = df_test_1.drop(['y'], axis=1)
Standardization
It is usually better to use a standardized data (transformed to Gaussian, mean 0 and variance 1) for autoencoders.
scaler = StandardScaler().fit(df_train_0_x)
df_train_0_x_rescaled = scaler.transform(df_train_0_x)
df_valid_0_x_rescaled = scaler.transform(df_valid_0_x)
df_valid_x_rescaled = scaler.transform(df_valid.drop(['y'], axis = 1)) df_test_0_x_rescaled = scaler.transform(df_test_0_x)
df_test_x_rescaled = scaler.transform(df_test.drop(['y'], axis = 1))
Autoencoder Classifier
Initialization
First, we will initialize the Autoencoder architecture. We are building a simple autoencoder. More complex architectures and other configurations should be explored.
nb_epoch = 200
batch_size = 128
input_dim = df_train_0_x_rescaled.shape[1] #num of predictor variables,
encoding_dim = 32
hidden_dim = int(encoding_dim / 2)
learning_rate = 1e-3
input_layer = Input(shape=(input_dim, ))
encoder = Dense(encoding_dim, activation="relu", activity_regularizer=regularizers.l1(learning_rate))(input_layer)
encoder = Dense(hidden_dim, activation="relu")(encoder)
decoder = Dense(hidden_dim, activation="relu")(encoder)
decoder = Dense(encoding_dim, activation="relu")(decoder)
decoder = Dense(input_dim, activation="linear")(decoder)
autoencoder = Model(inputs=input_layer, outputs=decoder)
autoencoder.summary()
Training
We will train the model and save it in a file. Saving a trained model is a good practice for saving time for future analysis.
autoencoder.compile(metrics=['accuracy'],
loss='mean_squared_error',
optimizer='adam') cp = ModelCheckpoint(filepath="autoencoder_classifier.h5",
save_best_only=True,
verbose=0) tb = TensorBoard(log_dir='./logs',
histogram_freq=0,
write_graph=True,
write_images=True) history = autoencoder.fit(df_train_0_x_rescaled, df_train_0_x_rescaled,
epochs=nb_epoch,
batch_size=batch_size,
shuffle=True,
validation_data=(df_valid_0_x_rescaled, df_valid_0_x_rescaled),
verbose=1,
callbacks=[cp, tb]).history
Figure 2. Loss for Autoencoder Training.
Classification
In the following, we show how we can use an Autoencoder reconstruction error for the rare-event classification.
As mentioned before, if the reconstruction error is high, we will classify it as a sheet-break. We will need to determine the threshold for this.
We will use the validation set to identify the threshold.
valid_x_predictions = autoencoder.predict(df_valid_x_rescaled)
mse = np.mean(np.power(df_valid_x_rescaled - valid_x_predictions, 2), axis=1)
error_df = pd.DataFrame({'Reconstruction_error': mse,
'True_class': df_valid['y']}) precision_rt, recall_rt, threshold_rt = precision_recall_curve(error_df.True_class, error_df.Reconstruction_error)
plt.plot(threshold_rt, precision_rt[1:], label="Precision",linewidth=5)
plt.plot(threshold_rt, recall_rt[1:], label="Recall",linewidth=5)
plt.title('Precision and recall for different threshold values')
plt.xlabel('Threshold')
plt.ylabel('Precision/Recall')
plt.legend()
plt.show()
Figure 3. A threshold of 0.4 should provide a reasonable trade-off between precision and recall.
Now, we will perform classification on the test data.
We should not estimate the classification threshold from the test data. It will result in overfitting.
test_x_predictions = autoencoder.predict(df_test_x_rescaled)
mse = np.mean(np.power(df_test_x_rescaled - test_x_predictions, 2), axis=1)
error_df_test = pd.DataFrame({'Reconstruction_error': mse,
'True_class': df_test['y']})
error_df_test = error_df_test.reset_index() threshold_fixed = 0.4
groups = error_df_test.groupby('True_class') fig, ax = plt.subplots() for name, group in groups:
ax.plot(group.index, group.Reconstruction_error, marker='o', ms=3.5, linestyle='',
label= "Break" if name == 1 else "Normal")
ax.hlines(threshold_fixed, ax.get_xlim()[0], ax.get_xlim()[1], colors="r", zorder=100, label='Threshold')
ax.legend()
plt.title("Reconstruction error for different classes")
plt.ylabel("Reconstruction error")
plt.xlabel("Data point index")
plt.show();
Figure 4. Using threshold = 0.4 for classification. The orange and blue dots above the threshold line represents the True Positive and False Positive, respectively.
In Figure 4, the orange and blue dot above the threshold line represents the True Positive and False Positive, respectively. As we can see, we have good number of false positives. To have a better look, we can see a confusion matrix.
pred_y = [1 if e > threshold_fixed else 0 for e in error_df.Reconstruction_error.values] conf_matrix = confusion_matrix(error_df.True_class, pred_y) plt.figure(figsize=(12, 12))
sns.heatmap(conf_matrix, xticklabels=LABELS, yticklabels=LABELS, annot=True, fmt="d");
plt.title("Confusion matrix")
plt.ylabel('True class')
plt.xlabel('Predicted class')
plt.show()
Figure 5. Confusion Matrix on the test predictions.
We could predict 8 out of 41 breaks instances. Note that these instances include 2 or 4 minute ahead predictions. This is around 20%, which is a good recall rate for the paper industry. The False Positive Rate is around 6%. This is not ideal but not terrible for a mill.
Still, this model can be further improved to increase the recall rate with smaller False Positive Rate. We will look at the AUC below and then talk about the next approach for improvement.
ROC curve and AUC
false_pos_rate, true_pos_rate, thresholds = roc_curve(error_df.True_class, error_df.Reconstruction_error)
roc_auc = auc(false_pos_rate, true_pos_rate,) plt.plot(false_pos_rate, true_pos_rate, linewidth=5, label='AUC = %0.3f'% roc_auc)
plt.plot([0,1],[0,1], linewidth=5) plt.xlim([-0.01, 1])
plt.ylim([0, 1.01])
plt.legend(loc='lower right')
plt.title('Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC)')
plt.ylabel('True Positive Rate')
plt.xlabel('False Positive Rate')
plt.show()
The AUC is 0.69.
The entire code with comments are present here.
What can be done better here?
Autoencoder Optimization
Autoencoders are a nonlinear extension of PCA. However, the conventional Autoencoder developed above does not follow the principles of PCA. In Build the right Autoencoder — Tune and Optimize using PCA principles. Part I and Part II, the required PCA principles that should be incorporated in an Autoencoder for optimization are explained and implemented.
LSTM Autoencoder
The problem discussed here is a (multivariate) time series. However, in the Autoencoder model we are not taking into account the temporal information/patterns. In the next post, we will explore if it is possible with an RNN. We will try a LSTM autoencoder.
Conclusion
We worked on an extreme rare event binary labeled data from a paper mill to build an Autoencoder Classifier. We achieved reasonable accuracy. The purpose here was to demonstrate the use of a basic Autoencoder for rare event classification. We will further work on developing other methods, including an LSTM Autoencoder that can extract the temporal features for better accuracy.
The next post on LSTM Autoencoder is here, LSTM Autoencoder for rare event classification. | https://towardsdatascience.com/extreme-rare-event-classification-using-autoencoders-in-keras-a565b386f098 | ['Chitta Ranjan'] | 2019-07-15 18:04:00.202000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Deep Learning', 'Classification', 'Towards Data Science'] |
THE CHANGE I’M SCARED OF | I was a very boring kid. Never looked for trouble, quiet, all I wanted to do was sing in church choir and make sure I came home with excellent results from school. I never even used to play games in primary school; Ice and water, police and thief. If I ever tried it, I’ll most probably end up crying because someone pushed me. I wasn’t bullied or anything. I just wasn’t noticed. Zero personality.
I remember one time in primary 4, I tried so hard to be class captain. Did everything my teacher wanted and still kept up with my grades. She loved me (or so I thought). But I didn’t get to be class captain because she thought I wouldn’t stand up to any one of my mates if I had to.
Queens college changed me so much. I went there with my quiet, boring personality and Naomi made me polish her shoes and wear her shoes for her because she convinced me she was in jss2 and I had to do anything she wanted. She was in the same class as me. Funny how Naomi and I later became really close friends till we finished school. When I first started hanging out with Faith, If you asked who I was, you’ll hear “she’s Faith’s friend”. I didn’t have my own personality. Just plain. I’m not sure how it happened but I changed so much in senior school, it’s crazy.
I remember one time in primary school, my younger sister hit my head with an empty spray bottle and I cried like a baby and my mum told me to hit back and I couldn’t. And everyone insulted me that I was too soft and I cried even more. The joy I felt when I had a fight with that same sister, years later when I was almost done with senior school and I beat her so bad. So much of who am I happened because of the friends I had in secondary school and I’m so grateful for them. Even the ones I don’t talk to anymore. I still remember how I wouldn’t be able to play with my siblings so I’ll just go and sit on the table and read my books for the sole purpose of my parents being happy with me when they came home and saw me studying.
I remember how I didn’t get into the University of Lagos on my first try. To say my parents were shocked is an understatement. It had never happened before. I had never not passed an examination on merit. They blamed it on Queens college. They said I had this “new confidence” and it would put me in trouble. So they wanted to take me to Mountain Top University. So I’ll be an educated Christian on fire for the Lord and let go of this my “new confidence” that made me sneak out of the house or lie to them or worse, fail at school. To be clear, I didn’t fail. Unilag was just a bitch. I missed the cut off mark by two points only.
Since lockdown, sometimes, I feel like I’m changing back to that boring kid and it’s scary. I’m scared of losing my personality. I’m scared of losing this “new confidence”. And to the friends I made at Queens college, thank you. All of you had (and still have) strong personalities that rubbed off on me. Whenever I did anything “wrong”, my mum would always say I was copying my friends. Maybe she was right. But I’m glad I copied you guys. If not, I’ll still be that shy kid who never wanted to play with anyone (not even my siblings) just because I felt inadequate. That kid that took everything as they were, no questions asked.
Now, I’m becoming that kid that my parents warned me about and I’m loving it because I’m beginning to understand that my parents saw what they wanted to see in that kid they warned me about. And just like them, everyone would see what they want to see. And it’s okay. I know me, I’m good. Plus, I’m wayyyyy better than a lot of my age mates. My parents should be thankful for the kind of person I am/becoming. | https://medium.com/@estherbelloortokyodarlin/the-change-im-scared-of-39af74d3895b | ['Esther Bello'] | 2020-12-17 03:04:50.305000+00:00 | ['Change', 'Growing Up'] |
Darshan Raval Biography | Songs | Carrer | GujaratCelebs | Darshan Raval is the current dreamboat of the Hindi music industry. The exceptional singer is also an expert composer, lyricist, and actor. His mere appearance makes his fans go crazy. His astounding voice and brilliant singing have made him achieve limitless fame. The music Darshan composes pierces through every boundary making it too hard to avoid. His popularity can be witnessed in all the concerts he attends. His success is growing with every passing moment making him one of the most loved celebrities in the Hindi music industry. Let’s read more into Darshan Raval biography.
Personal Life
Born to Rajendra and Rajal Raval in Ahmedabad in 1994, Darshan loved music from a very young age. After completing his studies from Shree Swaminarayan Gurukul, Ahmedabad, he entered Yo Yo Honey Singh’s music reality show, India’s Raw Star, in 2014. Darshan earned a lot of exposure through the show. Drashan Raval’s first song, “Pehli Mohabbat”, became an instant super hit. After the show ended, he was approached by Himesh Reshammiya for his singing debut in Bollywood. Later, it turned out he had no idea that he had sung the song, “Jab Tum Chaho”, for Salman Khan for the movie prem Ratan Dhan Payo. Reportedly, his efficient guitar playing had been learned by himself by watching videos.
From then on, Darshan never had to look back. By the time he appeared in Hindi music, he had already debuted in Gujarati music in 2015. He went on to sing for a serial track “Mere Nishaan” for Star Plus. By 2016, his musical career had already taken a big lip, and today his success can be witnessed by the whole nation.
Career & Achievements
Darshan is renowned for his soulful melodies. The singles he sings and stars in touch the listener’s heart and soul. “Ab Phir Se Jab Baarish”, next “Tere Siva”, then “Nayan Ne Bandh Rakhine”, “Tera Zikr”, after that “Ye Baarish”, “Saari Ki Saari”, “Shab Tum Ho”, “Baarish Lete Aana”, “Do Din”, “Hawa Banke”, “Tu Mileya”, “Asal Mein”, “Bhula Dunga”, & “Ek Tarfa” are the ones that have made the listeners swoon. Many singles have been composed by himself. For Gujarati movies, Darshan has sung several songs such as “It’s Time to Party”, “Kevi Thayo Pagal Hoon”, “Maro Glass Kyaan Chhe”, “Bhuli Javu Che”, “Prem Rog” and many more. Darshan Raval hawa banke song also very popular nowadays.
Read: Jigardan Gadhavi Biography
He began his career in Bollywood with composer-director Himesh Reshammiya. In the same year, he sang multiple songs for him which are “Main Who Chand”, “Bekhudi”, “Kheech Meri Photo”. Later, he has worked with various music composers such as Salim — Sulaiman, Tanishk Bagchi, Rochak Kohli, and Pritam. Some of his Bollywood hits include “Chagada”, “Kamariya”, “Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (Reprised)”, “Yaara Teri Yaari”, “Odhani”, “Mehrama”, and “Dil Julaha”.
Darshan was honored with the ‘Times Most Desirable Man of 2017’. In 2015, he received the ‘Transmedia Gujarati Screen & Stage Award” for his excellent singing and great performances.
His latest music album “Judaiyaan” has already become a massive hit. The songs “Teri Aankhon Mein”, “Judaiyaan”, “Mujhe Peene Do”, “Barsaat”, “Maa”, and “Main Kisi Aur Ka” represent affection and heartbreak. The album epitomizes the despair and anguish of a lover. Most of Darshan’s singles roam about these lost feelings, which bring out the depth of his voice.
Sum Up
Darshan’s starry-eyed acts and stirring voice are a combination that earned him a huge bunch of followers. His humbleness can be seen through the way he mingles with his fans. His fandom throughout the social media platforms is called the ‘Blue Family’ as Darshan regards them as family. His incredible singing and overwhelming persona make him the amazing man he is. Darshan Raval’s music itself creates an aura that binds to the core and never leaves. | https://medium.com/@gujaratcelebs/darshan-raval-biography-songs-carrer-gujaratcelebs-c7a4a3b76715 | [] | 2020-12-23 08:08:49.769000+00:00 | ['Biography', 'Darshan Raval', 'Darshan Raval New Song'] |
Elon Musk: The Scientist Behind The CEO | Some say that he’s an alien others say that he’s a man-made intelligence robot but when it comes right down to it Elon Musk may be a scientist. One who is conquering the business world. Elon Musk has become a futuristic industrialist.
A person who took his coding skills to start out building machines most of the people do not fully aware that Elon Musk may be a scientist.
Even his own friends ask him who is that the chief engineer for spacex not aware that it’s Elon himself is that the chief engineer.
We will learn the planet through a scientific mind and the way his scientific way of life fuels his businesses we take a glance at the 2 techniques that elon musk uses to show himself about new subjects and industries.
From learning books like a soviet rocket manual that taught him about rockets when he was starting spacex.
To surrounding himself with experts and other people working within the field which will teach him about the themes he wants to urge into this is often the rationale why he moved from Silicon Valley to L.A so he could get on the brink of people working within the space industry.
Elon Musk may be a scientist and physicist on the within and an engineer on the surface so we’ll also take a quick check out the thinking process behind physics and therefore the techniques that anyone can use to look at the planet .
Elon Musk says that he approaches things with a physics framework even when it involves understanding the longer term saying that if you would like to know or predict the longer term then look to physics.
When Elon Musk was a child he was frightened of the dark on the other hand he understood that dark just means an absence of photons within the visible wavelength which it’s silly to be scared of a scarcity of photons that’s how he viewed and explained darkness to himself when he was just a child .
Elon Musk does this with maybe everything that he cares breaking everything down even right down to the elemental laws of physics here are another samples of the various ways Elon Musk views the planet .
Through the mind of a physicist and scientist when describing schools and education he says that learning is that the downloading of knowledge and algorithms into our brains which schools do a nasty job of it so.
He started his own school on the joe rogan podcast when talking about the birth of his son. Elon Musk compares the baby to the work he has been doing on AI and neural nets saying that an ai neural net is trying to repeat what a person’s brain is doing and you’ll see it learning quickly a bit like a baby.
When it involves happiness the equation is reality minus expectations in describing our way of thinking and using devices. Elon Musk compares us to an OS with bandwidth saying that while computers can ask one another at a trillion bits per second.
We use our thumbs to interact with our phones at 10 to 100 bits that’s why he started neura link to
connect our brains to computers it’d be the rationale why Elon Musk likes memes tons |most”> such a lot since a lot of data gets passed along in only one image he even tweeted saying who controls the memes.
Controls the universe Elon Musk says that the simplest piece of recommendation is to stay brooding about how you’ll be doing things better and keep questioning yourself and he uses the engineering term of making a feedback circuit where you’re taking what you’ve got done and adjust how you’ll be doing it better as people will tell you what you would like to listen to not what’s best there are two techniques that Elon Musk uses to show himself.
New subjects one is thru simply learning books and therefore the other is surrounding himself with smart people.
Let’s first quickly take a glance at how he has used books to make the wisdom and fuel for the companies he has built when he was a child . Elon Musk would read up to 10 hours each day saying he was raised by books he even read two sets of encyclopedia which gave an honest view of how various things might be connected.
Elon Musk’s formal education includes a degree in physics and one in economics there was also the phd in material sciences and physics that he dropped out from yet his first startups out of school were all supported him coding and programming during the first days of the web .
Elon Musk saw a computer for the primary time when he was 10 years old the primary computer he got came with workbook lessons on programming during a language called basic which might take six months to end Elon stayed up for 3 days straight and finished the entire six month course.
When it came time to bring banking online which Elon was performing on when starting company X.com which might later become paypal.
Elon didn’t have much experience in banking so Elon bought a book on the banking system to know how it worked. When it came to starting spacex Elon would study a soviet rocket manual and from friends he would borrow books like reaction propulsion elements and therefore the fundamentals of astrodynamics and he would study for months Elon Musk figures out what he needs to study. So that he can become an expert and get started working on new projects.
This is the same method he used when he was a kid in school Elon did not always get good grades. Especially in subjects where he couldn’t see the purpose of learning them these would be mandatory subjects like afrikaans for those subjects he would work the minimum to get a passing grade saying that he would rather spend his time playing video games coding or reading books when it came to subjects that were important to him such as physics and computers.
Elon would get the very best grade he focuses on studying what’s needed here are a number of the books that elon musk recommends there’s the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy a book called ignition which is about rockets and therefore the biography of Franklin by walter isaacson one book that elon musk highly recommends is called structures or why things don’t fall down this book
gives an easy to understand explanation structural engineering terms based on how day-to-day objects hold together which can include anything from bridges to eggshells.
The foundation books are a sci-fi series set in a future where human civilization is a space-faring society it is a book series that elon recommends
people read. He learn from reading them that you simply should work on things which will prolong civilization and reduce the probability of there being a dark age.
Elon’s way of thinking about pushing humanity forward and doing what is best for humankind comes from books and not just through the foundation books but also from reading comic books. When he was younger because the stories in them were always about saving the planet albeit elon musk was raised by books and used them when he started to teach himself new subjects.
He wasn’t afraid to urge his hands dirty and figure things out by experimenting for teenagers lately who are inspired by space and rockets. It wouldn’t be so hard for them to get their parents to go on amazon and buy a rocket kit that they could then build and launch but for elon musk growing up in south africa they didn’t have the rocket kits.
That were available in the US so elon broke down the parts of a rocket kit and figured out how to build his own mixing different chemicals that would fuel his homemade rocket kits. In his college days to form some money elon would sell computer parts out of his dormitory . He would also build pcs and fix issues this built up his computer hacking background as he was not afraid to just go and figure things out.
The second way that elon musk teaches himself a few subject and an industry is by surrounding himself with smart people albeit meaning moving cities after selling paypal Elon Musk moved from Silicon Valley right down to LA.
This was because LA would bring Musk closer to the space industry which was the next adventure that he wanted to tackle after paypal around LA you had organization that had set up their space efforts from howard hughes and the us air force to nasa they all developed a lot of their aeronautical work here this meant that there were a lot of experts that elon could talk to one of the first things elon did was to join the mars society whose goal was to settle on mars.
The society already had experiments underway and even had a research center in the arctic through the society Elon also got to meet scientists who were working on mars missions for nasa a number of them would later become hired consultants that would teach and coach Elon for his jump into the space industry.
The books and being surrounded by experts is how elon taught himself about the space industry it is the same method that his cousins used to learn about the solar business.
Elon’s cousins spent two years studying solar technology and therefore the industry they visited events studied research reports and interviewed people all before starting solar city which Tesla later bought they used an equivalent techniques that elon had wont to become an expert within the space industry as elon musk began to hire engineers and build spacex.
The knowledge the new employees brought would then get transferred into elon’s own brain. These spacex employees would be experts in their fields and elon figured he could absorb their knowledge which he did by quizzing each engineer about every specific a part of the rocket that they were performing on one employee said that elon musk would quiz you until he had learn 90 of what you knew this made elon musk an aerospace.
Expert beyond what most people had seen when it comes to hiring people for his companies elon musk surrounds himself with the best people. He is ready to do that due to the futuristic tech that he keeps pushing to develop except for someone who wants to figure at tesla or spacex they not only got to be an expert in their specific field they also need to skills the opposite parts on the machines.
They are building work also elon musk expects everyone to be a chief engineer they have to possess a minimum of a basic understanding of how the entire rocket or car works simply because an engineer features a deep expertise in their specialized area of the rocket or car.
They won’t be able to tell if the work that they are doing the ideas and the improvements they come up with are for the good of the product as a whole unless they know how the whole machine works mistakes and design flaws happen when people don’t understand the systems working in the whole machine spacex hires people who have been building physical things in their personal or business life . Regardless of their job position giving shot well who is the president and ceo of spacex. Has a degree in engineering and a master’s in applied math .
Elon says that the majority of his time about 80 percent of it’s on engineering and style not media or business related things. It is gwen shot well who handles the day-to-day workings of spacex this lets elon focus on designing the rockets and motivating the engineering teams Elon states that the trail to the ceo office shouldn’t be through the finance or marketing departments but through the engineering and style.
But even the financial people at his companies have engineering backgrounds the ceo of tesla has degrees in economics and mechanical engineering and applied mechanics continuing with elon hiring and surrounding himself with the simplest another notable mentions include in 2011 spacex hired Garrett Reisman a retired nasa astronaut even investors accompany engineering backgrounds.
One of tesla’s first investors was valor equity who specialized in making manufacturing more efficient. The managing director of operations tim watkins was sent to tesla to work on the roadster production.Watkins has degrees in electrical engineering and industrial robotics everyone is an engineer.
If you would like to know and predict the longer term then learn the thinking behind physics this is often what elon musk advises people when it involves jobs within the future and choosing what to learn elon says that he tries to use the tools of physics as much as possible and that using physics is a good framework for thinking.
Let’s take a glance at the most physics principle that shapes elon musk’s thinking earlier we showed how elon broke down being scared of the dark into its most elementary elements and this same way of thinking was used when it came to putting together battery packs.
For tesla and launching his spacex business it’s called reasoning from first principles the idea is not to follow trends for example being scared of the dark because others have said that there are monsters but instead breaking it down into the
fundamental truths there is just a lack of photons when it came to starting his own space rocket company the problem was that rockets were too expensive and they have always been that way but if you break it down into first principles you then ask yourself what is a rocket made up of.
There is aerospace aluminum alloys titanium some copper and carbon fiber you can’t really break it down any further than that after breaking a rocket down into its most basic elements elon asked himself what is the cost of those materials on the commodity market. The cost ended up being only two percent of the traditional price of a rocket and this also included the value of fuel the rationale why rockets are so expensive is that there are numerous companies involved in making the various parts of the rocket and every company must make a profit for themselves.
There are even companies supplying the businesses who are supplying the parts the value just keeps adding up breaking things down like this using rudiment reasoning does take greater effort as you need to understand the subject on a deep level. But you’ll find yourself with better results as you will be ready to create new knowledge and solutions from scratch spacex may be a next-gen rocket company because they build their own rockets in-house not counting on outside suppliers elon’s advice is to require the position that to a point you’re wrong and your goal is to figure on being less wrong over time.
Try and predict the longer term then make adjustments supported the errors you discover from your previous predictions elon didn’t think that the boring company would work he said they were going to dig a tunnel and that maybe it will work or maybe it won’t they ended up figuring it out as they went along experimenting and correcting along the way and their first self-driving tunnel is almost complete under las vegas.
Elon says that the toughest thing to try to to is to work out what inquirie to ask saying that when you’ve got the proper questions then the simplest answers become available a good book for understanding the basics of physics and understanding the thinking behind it is six easy pieces the essentials of physics explained by its most brilliant teacher the link is in the description.
In the first piece feynman points out that things must be learn only to be unlearned again or more likely to be corrected saying that the definition of science is that the test of all knowledge is experiment which imagination is required and it’s key in arising with the ideas and theories to experiment with within the first place.
This can all be seen with spacex’s public test launches as they keep trying out new things that pushes innovation within the space industry seeing what works pushing until their prototypes fail on purpose and exploring ways on how to improve their designs.
Elon Musk says that too many smart people go into finance law and internet-based companies and wants more people going into making things and innovating in manufacturing too many smart minds are working on making people.
There is a lot of progress that needs to happen in manufacturing things whether it is for high-tech products such as electric cars and space rockets or for more everyday items that can help push humanity forward. The old ways of doing things need to be broken down into their most basic parts using the thinking methods of physics and then built back up with the experimental mind of an engineer. | https://medium.com/@prasadvrijesh/elon-musk-the-scientist-behind-the-ceo-22ff6f3d4f0f | ['Vrijesh Prasad'] | 2020-12-21 12:36:15.983000+00:00 | ['Elon Musk Motivation', 'Elon Musk'] |
What is CARRE4? | What is CARRE4?
A publication on All Things Redefining Humanity.
Founded 2019
Redefinition: “to give new meaning to”
What does it mean to live, interact, and survive in the human world? What does it mean to be human? Well, that’s something we can never really put a clear definition on. Why? Because what it means to be human is always changing. Thinking, innovation, laws that govern the land, and much more challenge how we live everyday. If you’re older than 15 years of age and you’re reading this, you’ve likely had at least 5 major innovative events in your lifetime that have changed your thinking, approach, and navigation of the world.
Let’s take me for example. Say I’m 17 years old.
2003: Human Genome Project
2004: Google
2006: Facebook
2008: Obama, America’s first black president
2010: Instagram
2012: Snapchat; Marijuana is legalized in Washington and Colorado
2013: Shared Economy — Uber and Airbnb
2015: 2/3 of Americans own Smartphones
2017: Brexit
2018: Facial Recognition Technology
2019: 5G standard is released
2020: COVID-19; Amazon taking over the world
And that’s not even the beginning of it!
When we’re thinking about what redefines humanity, what first comes to mind? Tech? Science? Innovation? Sure. But it’s not at all limited to those things. In fact, humanity can’t be redefined if everything that redefines it is well…already defined!
Deriving from the french word Carrefour, meaning: Intersection, CARRE4 is a space where interdisciplinary and forward thinking approach is welcome.
If you want to read about ideas, people, or phenomenons that are going to redefine the ways we interact, socialize, and live with the environment, people, and things around us — follow CARRE4.
Here, all topics from culture, to society, politics, literature, science, technology will be explored in the scope of humanity.
Some questions reading CARRE4 may answer
How will [blank] change the way I live?
How will [blank] change the way society functions?
How will [blank] affect [blank]?
What is [blank] and why is it important to pay attention?
What does redefinition mean in terms of [blank]?
It’s pretty much that simple. Anything that is affected is changed, and therefore is redefined.
Thanks for reading, and follow to read upcoming articles in CARRE4!
Photo by NASA on Unsplash | https://medium.com/carre4/what-is-carre4-5343184b607b | ['Shanel Pouatcha'] | 2020-11-14 21:31:30.941000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Future', 'Humanity', 'Society', 'Change'] |
Playing with Android canvas drawVertices | If you like some simple graphic drawing in Android Canvas, drawVertices is a pretty nice API to use. It could be used as the fundamental for drawing 3D images as shown below.
Anyway, before getting into that complexity, let’s learn the fundamental of the API.
I was searching for some tutorial explaining it and can’t any one for Android. So do some experiments and learn the API to share below.
Have fun!
Prerequisite
Unlike most of the API in the Canvas , in order to drawVertices to draw something, one need to disabled the Hardware Acceleration first using
setLayerType(View.LAYER_TYPE_SOFTWARE, null)
Why? It is simply because it is one of the unsupported feature in Hardware Acceleration as per documented at the point of writing this blog.
The API
The API have 12 arguments. 😱 Wow!
// THIS IS NEEDED
int vertexCount, // usually verts.size
float[] verts, // THIS IS NEEDED
int vertOffset, // usually 0
float[] texs, // can be nullable
int texOffset, // usually 0
int[] colors, // can be nullable
int colorOffset, // usually 0
short[] indices, // can be nullable
int indexOffset, // usually 0
int indexCount, // can be 0
public void drawVertices ( Canvas.VertexMode mode,int vertexCount, // usually verts.sizefloat[] verts,int vertOffset, // usually 0float[] texs, // can be nullableint texOffset, // usually 0int[] colors, // can be nullableint colorOffset, // usually 0short[] indices, // can be nullableint indexOffset, // usually 0int indexCount, // can be 0 Paint paint) // can be just Paint()
Let’s break it down into 4 different grouping.
1. The vertex datas
// THIS IS NEEDED
int vertexCount, // usually verts.size
float[] verts, // THIS IS NEEDED
int vertOffset, // usually 0 Canvas.VertexMode mode,int vertexCount, // usually verts.sizefloat[] verts,int vertOffset, // usually 0
First of all, is the float[] verts . This basically used to store the coordinates of the verts in ( x1, y1, x2, y2, … )format. e.g. if we want to have 3 coordinates as below,
val verts = floatArrayOf(20f, 10f, 25f, 30f, 40f, 15f)
The vertexCount is just to let the API know how many points you have in your verts that you want the API to consume. In the case of everything, then vertexCount = verts.size .
However in case you have a super long array of verts , and only wanted to use a section of it, you could then use vertOffset to indicate your starting point (which by default is 0 ), and follow by the vertexCount points that you are using from the verts . e.g. you have
val verts = floatArrayOf(0f, 0f, 20f, 10f, 25f, 30f, 40f, 15f, 0f)
And you want to use only 20f, 10f, 25f, 30f, 40f, 15f , then your vertOffset = 1 and vertexCount = 6 .
Okay, enough of the vertex data. Let’s jump into the most important ENUM argument for this API. There are 3 of them.
1. Canvas.VertexMode.TRIANGLES
This is the most simplest one, where given the verts , group each 3 coordinate and draw the triangles of it accordingly. e.g.
Give ( x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3, x4, y4, x5, y5, x6, y6 ) coordinates, when draw using TRIANGLES mode, it will draw 2 triangle that groups 3 coordinates each together, where by the below triangles will be formed
( x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3 ) ( x4, y4, x5, y5, x6, y6 )
To make things more interesting, I have created an App and draw some triangles below
Using a different set of ( x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3, x4, y4, x5, y5, x6, y6 ), if you draw on it, it will group all adjacent 3 coordinates into a triangle. Hence some coordinate is reused. Hence the triangle form will be as below
( x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3 ) ( x2, y2, x3, y3, x4, y4 ) ( x3, y3, x4, y4, x5, y5 ) ( x4, y4, x5, y5, x6, y6 )
To make things more interesting, I have created an App and draw some triangles below
Using a different set of ( x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3, x4, y4, x5, y5, x6, y6 ), if you draw on it, it will be using ( x1, y1 ) as the central fan point, and each subsequent adjacent coordinates will be connect to it to form a triangle. Hence the triangle form will be as below
( x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3 ) ( x1, y1, x3, y3, x4, y4 ) ( x1, y1, x4, y4, x5, y5 ) ( x1, y1, x5, y5, x6, y6 )
To make things more interesting, I have created an App and draw some triangles below
You could get the full source code from below
2. The tex shader
int texOffset, // usually 0
paint, // can be just Paint() float[] texs, // can be nullableint texOffset, // usually 0 Paint paint, // can be just Paint()
The texs is basically a set of coordinates (same format as verts ) that could be used to map a given bitmap tiles to the triangles drawn. It is using the paint to perform the needed shading onto the triangle.
In here, I’m using a simple paint with shader set as below
val paint = Paint().apply {
val bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(
resources, R.drawable.pyramid_small)
val shader = BitmapShader(
bitmap, Shader.TileMode.CLAMP, Shader.TileMode.CLAMP)
this.shader = shader
}
If the coordinate is identical with verts , then it is mapped as per the original image there.
However, we could perform some translation by changing the texs coordinate. Swapping the second and third coordinate would result in a reflection image as below
Lastly, the texOffset is similar to vertOffset , where one could choose how where one would like to begin in a longer than needed texs coordinate arrays. The length of texs used is the same one argument apply to vertexCount
2. The color arrays
int[] colors, // can be nullable
int colorOffset, // usually 0
This is used to fill the triangle with the colors provided. Each colors in the array will be designated to each coordinate of the vertex.
Note: Technically, the size of the color should be verts.size/2 . However I suspect there’s an internal issue in Android OS handling it as per stackoverflow. We’ll still need to provide arbitrary color to fill up the entire verts.size to avoid the crash.
For 3 coordinates, and we would like to designate RED, GREEN and BLUE to the first 3 coordinates, below would be as below (note the -0x100000 is just dummy color of no effect as per stackoverflow)
val verticesColors = intArrayOf(
Color.RED, Color.GREEN, Color.BLUE,
-0x100000, -0x1000000, -0x1000000)
Using this we’ll get the below image (Note the color got smooth gradient across).
If we blend together with the texs shader, it will be semi transparent
4. The Indices
short[] indices, // can be nullable
int indexOffset, // usually 0
int indexCount, // can be 0
The indices is an array that let you cherry pick the coordinate from the verts so that you could use them at a different sequence than what is put in the verts per your liking.
The nice bit is, the picked coordinate could also be repeated, making new triangle from different combination of triangle.
Assuming I have 4 coordinates ( v0, v1, v2, v3 ), and I would like to draw 2 triangle from it using the basic Canvas.VertexMode.TRIANGLES mode. I could write my indices as below
val indices = shortArrayOf(0, 1, 2, 0, 2, 3)
This would then from the two triangles
( V0, V1, V2 ) ( V0, V2, V3 )
This is a very simplistic example to clarify what indices is for. A lot of fancy operation could be achieved from it when give more thoughts to it. | https://medium.com/mobile-app-development-publication/playing-with-android-canvas-drawvertices-32266c480ab6 | [] | 2020-10-03 02:40:15.212000+00:00 | ['Mobile App Development', 'Graphic Design', 'Android', 'AndroidDev', 'Android App Development'] |
In Plain Sight: How White Supremacy, Misogyny, and Hate Targeted the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy and… | Bannon found the key to enacting political change in online gaming communities, which would become the stage for Bannon’s so-called 21st century war on culture. More specifically, he found the base he would need to fuel traffic for Breitbart in the infamous attack on women in the video game industry known as Gamergate. Bannon tells author Joshua Green in his book Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump and the Storming of the Presidency, “You can activate that army. They come in through Gamergate or whatever and then get turned onto politics and Trump.”
What is Gamergate?
In August 2014, game developer Zoe Quinn’s ex boyfriend, Eron Gjoni, released a blog post accusing Quinn of receiving positive reviews on their game Depression Quest from Nathan Grayson, a writer for Kotaku, because the two were in a relationship. Gjoni accused Quinn of cheating on him and released personal information about her in the post. The clear angry attack of a disgruntled ex boyfriend was quickly transformed into a frenzy against “ethics in gaming journalism.”
As the attacks against Quinn spread online, Gjoni continued to post personal information about their whereabouts. At one point he anonymously posted on 4chan reports of the hotels Quinn had stayed at. He also gave the legal complaint Quinn had filed against him to “Roosh”, an online personality described as a “male supremacist extremist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The legal complaint was used to attack Quinn on his website “Return of Kings.”
The misogynistic attacks against Quinn spread to other influential people in the video game industry including feminist YouTuber, Anita Sarkeesian.
Sarkeesian is most known for her YouTube channel “Feminist Frequency,” where she critiques video games through a feminist lens. Her platform primarily calls for less sexualization and murder of women in games. These critiques led to bomb threats against her life, which required her to cancel public speaking engagements at Utah State University.
Other women attacked included Brianna Wu, a game developer who posted a meme mocking the group of gamers who were threatening women’s lives. After threats against her life, she was forced to go into hiding.
This event developed the current playbook of how to weaponize the internet to carry out mass threats, doxxing, and abuse against women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. The goal of these tactics is always to stop unwanted progress of diversity into culture that these groups have identified as their territory.
Paul Booth, a professor at Depaul University, explains that, “today, angry internet mobs routinely use the threat of rape, bombings and assassinations as a way to lay claim to whatever it is they think they’re losing to what they describe as political correctness. And along the way, they’ve adopted new approaches that combine old-school write-in campaigns with internet terror efforts like publishing people’s private information online, with the intent of bringing chaos and fear into their lives.”
Vox describes these “angry internet mobs” as “mens’ rights activists, white nationalists, and neoreactionaries” that Gamergate united “around indignation over the inroads that women and minorities had made into video game culture, previously dominated by young white men.”
One of the best examples of this is the rise of male supremacist ideology in gaming spaces during Gamergate led by Mike Cernovich, a 1st amendment lawyer who became associated with the event after he offered legal services to Gjoni.
Cernovich has a history of anti-women and anti-trans beliefs. He wrote on his blog “Crime and Federalism*” in 2010 that, “it is now beyond debate that the culture has shifted. It is — or will soon be — a woman’s world. Women earn 3 college degrees for every 2 that men earn. Women are overrepresented in managerial capacities. Women have taken over.”
He frequently wrote about how to avoid “false” rape claims and that women exist “for [man’s] sexual pleasure.” The SPLC has documented many examples of this including a tweet where Cernovich states “after abusing a girl, I always immediately send a text and save her reply.”
Using the following he built up through Gamergate, Cernovich published Gorilla Mindset, which propelled male supremacist ideas into the mainstream by detailing how men should embrace their “gorilla nature” to find “dominance and power.”
Cernovich went on to push the “pizzagate” conspiracy, a conspiracy created in the lead up to Trump’s 2016 election as President of the United States that democrats were operating a child sex ring inside a DC pizzeria called Comet Ping Pong. The conspiracy developed into domestic terror threat QAnon, a conspiracy theory, which alleges that Satan-worshipping pedophiles hold high positions of power within government and threatened former president Donald Trump.
Cernovich was not the only alt-right associated leader to rise in power during Gamergate. Milo Yiannopoulos, an infamous provocateur known for shameless misogyny, antisemitism, and racism, was given the green light by Bannon as an editor at Breitbart to use the anti-feminist sentiment growing within gaming spaces to increase traffic for Breitbart’s far-right agenda.
Breitbart covered Gamergate extensively, increasing the size of the site’s audience that would soon push white supremacy into the mainstream and be instrumental in the election of Donald Trump.
One 2015 article* applauds Gamergate as the heroes fighting valiantly against the “authoritarian left.” Yiannopoulos writes,
“Gamers have been there and back again. What Bokhari calls the cultural libertarian revolt against the authoritarian left is now underway. I believe GamerGate bears more responsibility for that tectonic shift than any other event in the past few decades. To put it another way, even the smallest people can change the course of the future. Gamers have done something no one else could. They’ve done it fearlessly and brilliantly, even in the face of bomb threats provoked by their enemies. (Okay, so that Washington DC bomb threat turned out pretty awesome for some of us.). They have proved that if you just ignore the scary bad guys with the big media platforms who are calling you names, nothing bad happens.”
Arguably, nothing bad did happen. Mainstream coverage around this event varied from a critical discussion around misogyny and culture wars on MSNBC to a dismissive interview with Brianna Wu by CNN. Ultimately, threats on women’s lives were given a slap on the wrist and Gamergate faded from public attention.
It should also be noted that during this same year, a chlorine bombing attack at Mid-West Fur Fest linked to Nazi radicalization in the furry community put 19 people in the hospital. When the story broke, the coverage of the event was met with laughter instead of addressing the seriousness of a fascist terrorist event on domestic soil.
Indeed, alt-right radicalization within fandom spaces is typically not discussed as a major threat to society, whether it be small, zealous communities of gamers, furries, or science fiction writers. Yet, this extremist radicalization is an important variable in explaining how the United States in particular experienced an attack on democracy in early 2021. This is partially because society still looks at people in fandom communities as inconsequential nerds. This is also because actions of white men are protected. “Boys will be boys,” as we have always said.
Even now after a racist, tyrannical leader has risen to power in the White House and the United States has drifted towards fascism at an alarming rate with malicious anti-immigration policies and racist riots led by self-proclaimed neo-nazis, these “fan” communities who contribute to far right extremism are still discarded as “trolls” or “manbabies” stewing in their mother’s basement.
The lack of attention given to these groups gave Steve Bannon the perfect opportunity to push the limits of racism, misogyny, and hate long held in America’s culture without most people noticing.
And in October 2015, as the anti-feminism built up in Gamergate raged on in the pages of Breitbart, the right-wing’s organized attack on progressive culture was about to enter a new battlefield.
White Nationalism Targets the Star Wars Franchise
On October 19th, 2015 4chan trolls and members of 4chan’s /pol/ board, a Gamergate forum, began the #BoycottStarWarsVII hashtag. A self-appointed troll under the username DarklyEnlighten (now suspended) tweeted that “the new Star Wars movie (#StarWarsVII) barely has any whites in it. #BoycottStarWarsVII.” The tag was meant to direct hate towards people of color cast in the upcoming film The Force Awakens including Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, and John Boyega, with the brunt of the attack focused on Boyega.
The Twitter event spurred dissent from liberals and progressives “expressing outrage” against the hashtag. Analytics firm Fizziology reported that 6% of tweets were considered racist and even then they were simply ‘trying to get people mad.” Mashable concluded that the tag wasn’t an “actual racist movement.”
However, as mainstream coverage was writing off the racist hashtag as the work of trolls, a white supremacist hate group was taking credit for the tag.
On October 20th, 2015, Michael Thompson (who operates under the pseudonym “Paul Kersey”), a noted white nationalist and founder of the blog “Stuff Black People Don’t Like” published an article* claiming credit for the hashtag. This article was published to VDARE, a designated hate group by the SPLC. VDARE is most noted for using Breitbart to spread anti-immigration sentiment with the goal of achieving public approval for White House advisor Stephen Miller’s Trump era immigration reform.
The day before the hashtag trended, Thompson tweeted on his account @BWLH_ “no plans to see Star Wars VII. Why no white males (young white males) cast in lead roles? #StarWarsTheForceAwakens.” The racist hate was picked up from the main Star Wars hashtag and spread through 4chan and Twitter.
Racist tweets against Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens by “Paul Kersey’s” Twitter account under the username BWLH_ including the tweet that started the #BoycottStarWarsVII hashtag
On VDARE, Thompson writes, “say what you will, getting people to think in the terms a movie is “anti-white” is a huge positive, because it allows them to consider the notion of their own dispossession — especially if they’ve never even thought of this reality before.”
On Twitter, people were considering these white supremacist ideas including user @AngryGOTFan who tweeted that weekend in support of the hashtag:
“THE #BOYCOTTSTARWARSVII PEOPLE HAVE A POINT. #PROBLEMATIC”
The text was included above a picture that insinuated that the new Star Wars film was “anti-white” because people of color were being portrayed as the good guys and white actors were playing the bad guys.
This image would also appear on the website* of white nationalist podcast and banned Youtube channel Red Ice. Similar to Thompson’s article on VDARE, the white supremacist site claimed that “#BoycottStarWarsVII has opened minds to the concept of White Genocide.” The site continues with anti-semitic conspiracies claiming that “Star Wars: The Force Awakens is being called ‘anti white propaganda’ and Twitter is ablaze with users calling J.J. Abrams a ‘Jewish activist.’ Abrams, and most of the cast of Star Wars, are Jewish. Does Star Wars propaganda connect with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion?”
The boycott would also draw the attention of Holocaust-denying publisher Chuck Johnson on the former site Got News* where he wrote, “is the very white Star Wars being culturally appropriated by the Jewish J. J. Abrams?…Star Wars is a productive [sic] of a white America whether or not we want to accept it. The action figures that made George Lucas a billionaire were purchased by suburban white families.”
Less than a year after supporting the racist hashtag on Twitter, @AngryGOTFan would be sitting next to neo-nazi figurehead Richard Spencer, VDARE’s founder Peter Brimelow, and Jared Taylor, founder of the white nationalist group American Renaissance, at the 2016 Republican National Convention.
Soon after, @AngryGOTFan would change his twitter name to @JackPosobiec and rise to fame as an alt-right leader pushing dangerous conspiracy theories such as pizzagate alongside Mike Cernovich. Posobiec currently serves as a host on far-right media network One America News Network.
It should also be noted that Posobiec would establish a direct connection to Thompson during the publication of No Campus for White Men: The Transformation of Higher Education into Hateful Indoctrination. No Campus for White Men is a book written by Scott Greer, a friend of Thompson’s, and former editor and columnist at The Daily Caller. The book’s forward is written by Yiannopoulos while Cernovich takes center stage on the book’s jacket. According to Right Wing Watch, Posobiec and Thompson may have also been connected through MAGA3X, a group of white nationalists who tried to manipulate social media to influence Trump’s candidacy.
Posobiec would also play an important role in the next iteration of the 21st century online culture wars: The spread of hate against Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.
The New Gamergate: The Rise of Alt-Right Ideology in Star Wars Fandom
Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi released on December 15, 2017 to universal acclaim from critics and a glowing audience score from CinemaScore, the only statistically sound audience score available to the general public. The movie would go on to gross 1 billion dollars in less than three weeks and become one of the most successful movies of all time.
Yet, even with its obvious success, the narrative surrounding the film claimed that the movie was “one of the most polarizing Star Wars movies ever released.” This narrative was overwhelmingly driven by the film’s Rotten Tomatoes’ audience score (that currently sits at a “rotten” 42%) and calls from vocal “fans” on Twitter to fund a remake of The Last Jedi.
According to @RMTheLastJedi, the account behind the campaign to remake The Last Jedi, the film was bad because the creatives behind the film “lost their way from the hero archetype.” There isn’t much explanation on what this means beyond Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico failing to live up to this fan’s expectations of being a “badass pilot.” In fact, many complaints against the film are aimed at its female characters. One fan illustrated this when he released an edit of The Last Jedi with all women removed.
Yet even as sexist motives behind the backlash were revealed and as an alt-right Facebook account claimed credit for the review bombing of The Last Jedi on Rotten Tomatoes (more on this one later), no one could escape the narrative that The Last Jedi was divisive.
From a data analyst’s perspective, there isn’t much that is divisive about an exit review poll of an “A” and a movie that grosses as much money worldwide as the much-anticipated final installment of the Harry Potter franchise. Nay-sayers will claim that the movie is a failure because it didn’t gross as much as The Force Awakens, but benchmarking a second film in a franchise whose value is partially tied to the fact that the franchise had produced no content in more than 10 years is not the best approach. However, the debate raged on.
So, for the sake of argument (once again — no metric that isn’t an internal brand tracker or segmentation within Disney will be as statistically accurate as the CinemaScore), I wanted to conduct a sentiment analysis on two major social media platforms: Twitter and YouTube. If this movie was truly polarizing, there should be a positive to negative sentiment ratio of 1:1. This means that for every positive tweet or YouTube video, there should also be a negative tweet or YouTube video.
Additionally, if The Last Jedi truly divided fans, we should see a similar mix of the types of accounts spreading positivity or negativity about the movie. In other words, tweets getting the most likes or YouTube videos receiving the most attention in the search algorithm should proportionally come from people with similar backgrounds. “Backgrounds” here is defined as affiliations people have with a certain profession, such as a journalist, or community online, such as YouTubers. We should also see both positive and negative sentiment from average fans rising to the top of the conversation.
Was The Last Jedi Polarizing?: A Twitter Analysis
To get a strong idea of sentiment on Twitter, I analyzed over 1 million tweets from December 2017 to November 2018 collected at various times between 2019 to 2020 (please see the methodology section at the bottom of this article for full details). I used two different methods to analyze sentiment: 1) the positive to negative sentiment ratio of top words by volume and 2) positive to negative sentiment ratio of top tweets (defined as any tweet with > 1,000 engagements).
Both methods allow for manual correction of what constitutes a tweet as “positive” or “negative.” This means that the analysis is not left up to simple matching of positive or negative words. The keyword matching method can be misleading because, for example, a tweet containing the word “liked” would be classified as positive when matching positive keywords in a set to positive keywords in the data. However, most tweets using the word “liked” include the text “I liked a video on YouTube.” This tweet is actually neutral and can skew the model. Furthermore, tweets that are positive can use negative keywords and vice versa.
Method 1: Top Words by Volume
A common practice in text analysis is to see which words are used the most within a sample. In this case, I was looking for words that were used more than 10,000 times. In order to accept my hypothesis that the positive to negative sentiment ratio would be 1:1, I expect to see a word like “love” used as often as a word like “hate.” However, that is not what I observed in the sample.
After removing positive keywords that could be attributed to neutral conversations such as “liked” or “like”, remaining positive keywords used for the sentiment ratio consist of the following: “love”, “favorite”, “enjoyed”, “great”, “best”, “good”, and “amazing.” Negative keywords used for the sentiment ratio include “worst”, “hate”, “shit”, and “bad.”
Most-used positive keywords make up 143,548 total tweets while most-used negative keywords make up 67,246 tweets. This is a positive to negative sentiment ratio of 2.1:1, meaning that conversation about The Last Jedi on Twitter likely leans positive.
Wordcloud of top words used in tweets mentioning “The Last Jedi” from December 2017 to November 2018 (min. frequency = 10,000)
It is important to note, however, that tweets with negative keywords are more likely to have positive connotations. Tweets with positive keywords are mostly positive, barring several tweets that could be considered good-hearted fun vs. a positive statement about the film.
For example, the two visualizations below show all tweets mentioning “The Last Jedi” with top positive keywords (Visualization A) and top negative keywords (Visualization B), respectively. The tweets have been separated into two groups: 1) Tweets that are at or above the number of average engagements per tweet and 2) Tweets that are below the number of average engagements per tweet. There are no statistically significant differences between average engagements (replies + comments + likes) per tweet for top positive vs top negative keywords. Both keyword groups have about 10 average engagements per tweet.
Tweets with negative keywords consist of a handful of tweets that have engagements significantly above total engagements of other tweets. The majority of these tweets are not negative towards The Last Jedi, but instead are mostly tweets in defense of the film that contain negative keywords.
Visualization A: Tweets mentioning “The Last Jedi” with Top Positive Keywords by Number of Total Engagements | https://medium.com/@rewritingripley/in-plain-sight-how-white-supremacy-misogyny-and-hate-targeted-the-star-wars-sequel-trilogy-and-2fd0be4b242 | ['Rewriting Ripley'] | 2021-04-28 20:33:08.956000+00:00 | ['Fandom', 'Alt Right', 'Star Wars', 'The Last Jedi'] |
5 of the Best Coastal Walks in Sydney | Sydney has an amazing web of uninterrupted coastal walks all around the city and beyond. They’re plentiful, they’re well maintained, and they’re absolutely gorgeous.
The ultimate adventure is Sydney’s Great Coastal Walk, which is the interconnected trail of all of Sydney’s best coastal walks. This uninterrupted walk takes 8 days. It stretches from Barrenjoey Lighthouse in the north, all the way down to Royal National Park in the south. Of course, most people do the walk in small sections instead of committing 8 days to the journey. But this shows just how well connected Sydney’s coastal walks are!
I’ve highlighted these 5 best coastal walks in Sydney because of their proximity to the city. They are all within an hour transit from the CBD (which is awesome for us budget travellers).
The perfect way to escape the city for a day is to visit one of Sydney’s best coastal walks. These walks have some of the best viewpoints in Sydney.
1) South Head Heritage Trail
South Head Heritage Trail is my favourite coastal walk in Sydney. It’s short and easy, but with an incredible view payoff. The walk starts with a stunning vantage point of the harbour, passes the red and white Hornby lighthouse, and ends with cliffside views of the open ocean.
This is one of the best coastal walks in Sydney for any history buffs out there. You’ll see the historic lighthouse, an old lighthouse keepers cottage, old military cannons, and well preserved gun emplacements. The fact that the walk is so short (~1 hour) means that you can squeeze it in at any time of the day. I would recommend finishing with a drink at the nearby Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel after your stroll.
Time: ~ 1 hour loop
Difficulty: Easy. Most sections consist of paved/boardwalk pathways, but there are sections with stairs and uneven cobblestones
Things to know:
There are a couple of bathrooms at the start of the trail
There are some food options (fish and chips and cafes) before the start of the trail, but no convenience or grocery stores. Make sure to bring essentials like water, sunscreen, and snacks
2) Hermitage Foreshore Track
The Hermitage Foreshore Track is a bit of a hidden gem. It’s a popular spot for locals, but hasn’t ended up in too many tourist guidebooks (yet!). The views are not as dramatic as the other coastal walks in Sydney, but it has a consistent beautiful view of the Harbour.
On this Sydney coastal walk, I often pass by people walking their dogs, boat parties off the shore, and teens jumping off the small cliffs. There are a number of quiet local beaches dotted along the walk. Parts of the walk are lined with waterfront mansions. It’s like a glimpse into the glamorous life of Sydney’s waterfront lifestyle.
This walk is made for a leisurely stroll and a swim; pack a picnic, stop for pictures, take a dip at a quiet beach, and admire the multimillion-dollar mansions.
Time: ~ 1 hour, one way
Difficulty: Easy. Mostly boardwalk with a few stairs and bush paths.
Things to know:
There is a concession stand at Nielsen Park (Shark Beach) for snacks, but not much else along the rest of the walk
Bring water, sunscreen, and a towel — it is extremely tempting to take a dip along this walk!
3) North Head Sanctuary Loop
North Head Sanctuary is a little bit off of the typical tourist track. It’s another Sydney coastal walk that has some history to it. It passes military fortifications and the historic site of an old quarantine station. There are tours to visit the WWII tunnels and gun emplacements, and even a ghost tour for the quarantine station. There are also information boards along the way, so you can do a self-guided tour. Just make sure to include some time to admire the view!
North Head is an ecologically protected zone, and is home to a number of endangered species. It’s one of the best coastal walks in Sydney in the winter for whale watchers. Of course, it also has a gorgeous view of the harbour.
Time: ~2 hours
Difficulty: Easy, mostly consists of flat boardwalk
Things to know:
Bring binoculars if you are visiting during whale watching season — you might spot some whales off the shore!
There are very limited food options, so bring your own snacks and water
You can continue the walk to Manly Lagoon and Manly beach to get a full day experience in North Head
4) Bondi to Coogee
The list wouldn’t be complete without Sydney’s most famous coastal walk. And it’s famous for a good reason! The beach views are dramatic, and the walk just feels so quintessentially “Sydney”. My favourite time to do this Sydney coastal walk is when the sun is setting. The beaches and cliffs bask in the most perfect golden hour lighting.
I recommend starting from Coogee beach and ending in Bondi. I like ending the walk in Bondi because there are so many options for food and shopping. And the view of Bondi coming from the south is also absolutely gorgeous.
Time: ~ 2.5 hours, one way
Difficulty: Relatively easy, with a few staircases here and there
Things to know:
The Bondi to Coogee walk has the most amenities out of the walking tracks on this list. There are lifeguards at some beaches, lifeguard stations, water fountains, and cafes along the walk
This walk can get very busy, especially on holidays
There is an annual art installation show along the coast called Sculptures by the Sea. The installations are stunning, but it also gets extra busy during this time of the year.
5) Spit to Manly
This is another one of Sydney’s famous coastal walks. It is also the longest on this list (~ 4 hours, one way). Most people walk from Spit Bridge to Manly Beach. I actually recommend skipping the first section (Spit Bridge), and starting at Castle Rock Beach. The section in between Spit Bridge and Castle Rock Beach is a little underwhelming, so I’d cut it out if you’re short on time.
This is one of the best coastal walks in Sydney to see wildlife. This walk includes more bushwalking, as opposed to beach views like the other Sydney coastal walks on this list. I found this walk very quiet, and at some points, I felt like I was all alone in the bush. Whenever this happened I saw birds, small mammals, and so many lizards. Every 30 minutes, a lizard would come running out of the bush and scare the crap out of me. But that was a unique experience that I haven’t had on any of these other five coastal walks in Sydney!
This walk also has some awesome sites of Aboriginal stone carvings, ridiculously scenic lookout spots, and unique flora in the Dobroyd’s Head area.
Time: 3–4 hours, one way
Difficulty: Moderate, with some steep sections of stairs and uneven steps
Things to know:
Make sure to bring water and snacks, there are very few shops along this long walk. Most of this walk runs along residential areas
This is a long walk with very little shade, so good sun protection is crucial
These 5 best coastal walks in Sydney show the best of what the city has to offer ⛵
The coast along Sydney is so beautiful and unique, and it’s the reason why I call it my favourite city. These 5 best coastal walks in Sydney will bring you along dramatic cliffs, sandy inlets, and quiet beaches, and spoil you with a next-level view.
Read my guide to Solo Female Travel in Australia here! 🌞 | https://medium.com/@jasmineharding/5-of-the-best-coastal-walks-in-sydney-fe2fc0158605 | ['Jasmine Harding'] | 2020-05-25 19:26:16+00:00 | ['Travel Writing', 'Travel', 'Adventure', 'Culture', 'Travel Tips'] |
3 best wireless earphones under 5000 in India ( Neckbands) | NOTE :- if you want to buy best neckbands please check-out my honest review. Then buy your best online products. Thanks you…
1. Sony WI-SP510 wireless sports neckbands
PRODUCT REVIEW :- 3 best wireless earphones under 5000 in India ( Neckbands)
. Lightweight design with secure fitting with arc supporters and magnetic housing for tangle free listening
. Support Google assistance for voice access to music information and more
. My ratings 3.9 it’s really good and very comfortable
. 12mm drive unit offers clear sound quality
SPECIFICATIONS :-
. Bluetooth: 5.0
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. Battery life : 15 hours playtime
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Also Read: best wireless earphones under 5000 in India ( neckbands)
2. Sennheiser CX 6.0BT wireless neckbands
PRODUCT REVIEW :- 3 best wireless earphones under 5000 in India ( Neckbands)
. It around-the-neck cable design minimize the drag of the angled ergonomic Earpieces to ensure that they stay in place
. For a personalized fit, it comes with ear adaptors in four sizes ( XS, S, M, L)
. My ratings 4.1 it’s really good and very comfortable
. Qualcomm apt-x to ensure true Sennheiser sound
SPECIFICATIONS :-
. Bluetooth: 4.2
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3. SoundMAGIC E11BT wireless neckbands
PRODUCT REVIEW :- 3 best wireless earphones under 5000 in India ( Neckbands)
. High grad machined aluminium is hand painted to from the housing and tough and lightweight build
. Expect a balanced profile with fine details underscored by comfortable warm bass
. My ratings 3.8 it’s really good and very comfortable
. Ergonomics design and multiple sizes of soft silicon ear-tips for an immersive experience
SPECIFICATIONS :-
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. Battery life : 8 hours playtime | https://medium.com/@studykaro24/3-best-wireless-earphones-under-5000-in-india-neckbands-5b08e42874ff | ['Vicky Singh'] | 2020-12-20 15:35:57.703000+00:00 | ['Gadgets', 'Headphones', 'Review', 'Earphones', 'Technology'] |
Revisit your own work, you will be surprised… | As I was preparing to share a private piece with someone that is going to be its sole recipient, I took the time to navigate my old published pieces (I’ve been writing regularly on Medium since 2017 and not so regularly even before that). To my surprise, I enjoyed it, and the more I scrolled, the more I liked it. Suddenly, I craved it.
The more I saw, the more I wanted to see. The more I remembered, the more I felt and then more I wanted to feel like that again. The joy of creating, the pride of publishing and be able to go back in time to revise my thinking, my ideas, my proposals, offerings and questions to the world. I loved it.
So I did it, and here I am now, putting these words together; asking myself, why, if it feels so great did I ever stop?
The answer is easy, life. Life gets in the middle, and it will always do; the real question then needs to be, “why it took me so long to get back?” or “why it was so difficult to start again?”, because if there’s one thing that I can add beyond joy and happiness, that is the ease that you can feel when let go and started again. That’s all it takes.
All you need is to grab an idea and turn it into a moment. Let that moment be the first one of many more. Just write one word and the rest will follow.
Cheers to you mysterious and magical recipient, if you ever happen to read this, here’s another one I owe you, here’s another “thanks” to you 😉 | https://medium.com/thoughts-on-the-go-journal/want-a-boost-revisit-your-own-work-you-will-be-surprised-131d2a95f1d2 | ['Joseph Emmi'] | 2019-04-27 00:30:01.427000+00:00 | ['Wrtiting', 'Motivation', 'Life', 'Personal', 'Journal'] |
Getting the most out of product teams | Structuring product teams
Company structure
How does the product fit into the organizational chart? In the past, companies typically broke their organization into functional divisions, such as sales or support, that worked within themselves. Gradually organizations began to embrace product roles, such as product managers and designers, by placing them within the marketing or engineering divisions of their organizations. With the growing role of the product people, divisional goals got muddled up. The marketing team expected product people to operate as a marketer and engineers maintained focus on building the ‘product — right’ instead of building the ‘right — product’. However, a product manager or designer needs the freedom to focus on understanding the customer and discovering the right product to build for them. This is why the ‘product management and design divisions’ were created.
The ‘product management and design divisions’ encompass product managers, product designers, data analysts, and an independent VP. This ensures product teams are represented in the executive meeting among all other VPs and the CEO so that the VPs can work together to make sure they know what each employee is working on and assign the right people to the right product teams. This way, employees from different divisions cross-collaborate, working on assigned product teams and equally held responsible for their team outcomes. This allows everyone on the product team to work much more closely and quickly discover the best product to build. Plus, it helps instill a strong product culture throughout the company. This structure needs to scale within the organization, allowing for new product teams to be formed in tandem with prioritizing the product vision and strategy.
The VP of Product (VPoP)
While most businesses begin with their founders as the product visionaries, to grow as a product focused organization, a dedicated VPoP with multiple product teams and product managers. The VPoP tends to oversee all product related roles including product managers, product designers, and data analysts and scientists. The VPoP is a challenging role that needs to be able to perform on the following four areas:
Team development: recruiting and training strong and diverse product managers and designers.
recruiting and training strong and diverse product managers and designers. Setting the product vision and strategy: the product vision is the organization’s north star driving and inspiring the company. The VPoP is the biggest champion for the overall product vision that insures product teams are aligned and that they aren’t doing duplicate work. Moreover, the VPoP needs to pair extremely well with the CEO. If the CEO is a product visionary, the VPoP needs to champion that vision and help the team execute on it. If the CEO is not a product visionary, then the VPoP needs to provide that vision. It’s important to avoid having two visionaries with competing ideas or missing a product vision entirely, leaving product teams without a direction.
the product vision is the organization’s north star driving and inspiring the company. The VPoP is the biggest champion for the overall product vision that insures product teams are aligned and that they aren’t doing duplicate work. Moreover, the VPoP needs to pair extremely well with the CEO. If the CEO is a product visionary, the VPoP needs to champion that vision and help the team execute on it. If the CEO is not a product visionary, then the VPoP needs to provide that vision. It’s important to avoid having two visionaries with competing ideas or missing a product vision entirely, leaving product teams without a direction. Executing the vision: The VPoP needs to be constantly pushing the organization to define the right product and deliver on it. This requires the VPoP to be fluent in all current best practices including lean development, agile methodology, design thinking, prototyping, and design experience. The VPoP needs to know which of these practices to use as the teams grow in size, ensuring they’ll be set up for quick and consistent product delivery.
The VPoP needs to be constantly pushing the organization to define the right product and deliver on it. This requires the VPoP to be fluent in all current best practices including lean development, agile methodology, design thinking, prototyping, and design experience. The VPoP needs to know which of these practices to use as the teams grow in size, ensuring they’ll be set up for quick and consistent product delivery. Creating and leading the product culture: The best product focused organizations have distinct cultures that enforce ‘scientific’ methods by encouraging people to hypothesize, create prototypes, test, reevaluate based on data, and question assumptions with the goal of getting the right answers as quickly as possible. The best performing product teams focus on outcomes rather than outputs.
What are product teams?
Most currently huge products were initially created by a very small product team. For example, in 2012 Instagram had 26 million users on iOS with only 13 employees. Today, Instagram has many product teams working on different aspects of the same core application. Whether a startup or established company, the product team’s ability to work together and bring the best products to market — quickly — can make or break a company.
A product team is a cross-functional group of people that are given the freedom to find a solution to a difficult problem. They possess and share different skill sets in order to create or improve products or specific aspects of a product. These teams are strategic and practical with typically one dedicated product manager, a product designer, a marketing manager and somewhere between two and 10 engineers, and usually, one of those engineers will be designated as the technical engineering lead.
Why do we have product teams?
In the past, many companies worried about building the ‘product — right’ vs. building the ‘right — product’, incentivizing teams to get a product out of the door rather than getting the right product to customers; and consequentially, many products would flop when they hit the market. In response, product teams were built to help companies get out of a project-oriented mindset and focus on outcomes. Therefore, these days, product teams are held accountable for the results of a product launch. They’re responsible for releasing a product that solves a real problem in a meaningful way, creating value for and being loved by the customers.
Today, product teams are simply tasked with a desired objectives, and then it’s wholly on that team to find the best solution to achieve those objectives. These objectives may be reaching a new target market, developing a new offering for an existing market, a solution to a security risk, or launching a current solution on a different platform, such as Android. But whatever the objectives, it’s important to form well-balanced and highly functional product teams. Product teams that trust each other and work effectively to solve real customer problems while serving organizational needs.
Developing effective product teams
High performing product teams are formed when members respectfully collaborate around a product vision that inspires them to create a product people love. Product teams operate best when there is no hierarchy, everyone feels ownership over the success of the product and is committed to one another. In a highly performing product team, engineers continue to report to the VP of Engineering, product marketing managers to the VP of Marketing, and product managers and product designers to the VP of Product. As there is no hierarchy, members will have to work together, trust each other, and get candid input from everyone.
Moreover, product teams should not be created and recreated on a product — by — product basis but rather should stay together as consistently as possible as they take on new challenges. Ideally, same teams should work together on the same product for a long period of time and if a new problem needs to be solved, it’s better to move an entire product team to that issue rather than to reassign certain members. This will allow the team to build trust and a style for working together. Additionally, this approach allows the team to develop a deep specialized understanding and be more creative and innovative.
Product teams should work physically next to each other allowing for a constant sharing of feedback and ideas. The more efficiently a product team communicates and iterates, the faster they’ll find product-market-fit.
Structuring organizational processes
Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash
Product vision and strategy
We know Apple for its innovation, Walmart for low prices, and Amazon as an online marketplace where one can buy just about anything, and these company positionings’ are clear because they have clear visions and missions that they keep delivering on.
When a corporate mission is made, the product vision and strategy help deliver on this guiding statement. Each product a company creates should have its own vision and strategy. The product vision is where you want your products to be in the future, it’s inspirational, can change as the company grows, an lines up with the company’s mission statement. For example, Amazon’s product vision for their Echo could be ‘enabling anyone to order any item online by voice and receive it faster than visiting a retail location.’
A layer below the product vision, we find product strategy, where things become more specific about how the product vision could be accomplished. Product strategy is a step by step process to achieving the product vision over time. For example, Amazon Echo’s product strategy may have been ‘to initially develop a working prototype and then an ecosystem that gives developers the ability to create their own applications for the Echo’.
The product vision
How great leaders inspire action | Simon Sinek — why is Apple so innovative?
A product vision needs to inspire employees and customers and, based on the video above by Simon Sinek, a compelling product vision starts with why a product exists. A product should either address a deep desire people have or solve a problem. In the case of Facebook, the product vision for its News Feed could have be to be ‘the best place for people to stay up-to-date with everyone in their life’, a grandiose vision, serving a core human desire — connecting with other people.
Moreover, a product vision needs to last several years, and once created, companies need to stick to it. Companies that change product visions too quickly risk damaging the company’s product culture. It may not be known exactly how the vision will be achieved on day one, and details will change, but the product vision should not.
Additionally, talk about your product vision a lot within your company. It’s easy to get tangled in everyday work and lose sight of the product vision, but it should act as the guiding north star of the team.
Be stubborn on vision but flexible on details — Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon
The product strategy
The product strategy will help a company achieve its vision. With the vision acting as a destination, the strategy is merely the road to getting there. Product strategy is a logical, step-by-step process for achieving the vision, with the steps acting as the specific projects or initiatives that the company plans to take on in order to get there.
For example, in the case of Dropbox, if the product vision is ‘to become the one central place for people to safely store all of their files’, the product strategy may start by ‘creating a software that can store one single file, scale it, then create the infrastructure to store one gigabyte of data for everyone in North America, then global expansion, then infrastructure expansion for monetization’. And with each new release, Dropbox lays one more brick in the road towards its destination.
The most effective product strategies are based on pursuing a specific target market that is focused on one user persona. They initially lay out the strategy based on those end user needs, and as they grow, they expand into other segments. Trying to be all things for all people will end in failure. Once the target customers are known, the product team should obsess over their needs and create a step-by-step plan to meet those needs.
Again, team members should constantly talk about the product strategy across the whole organization helping to reinforce the product vision.
The OKRs
An organization needs to set clear and actionable goals and measure its performance to make sure new products meet customer needs while staying aligned with business goals; and that’s where the OKRs are used (objectives and key results) — to measure the success of product teams. The OKRs help insure that product teams are focusing on the right things. OKRs will shift the organization towards making better products by working on the most important things first.
Objectives, offer specific goals for the company as a whole and for teams and divisions, use words like increase, decrease, and improve, but don’t provide a specific measure (e.g. increase monthly active users or make it easier to share). Objectives need to align with the product vision and strategy with team members knowing how their projects contributes to the overall goals of the company.
offer specific goals for the company as a whole and for teams and divisions, use words like increase, decrease, and improve, but don’t provide a specific measure (e.g. increase monthly active users or make it easier to share). Objectives need to align with the product vision and strategy with team members knowing how their projects contributes to the overall goals of the company. Key results help measure the degree of success in achieving objectives. Typically, there will be three to four for each objective, they will be quantifiable and tough to achieve but not impossible. For example, some key results of a social media application could be: successful launch of the app within the first month, 50% of users open the app every day, or 30% of users actively engage on the app daily.
OKRs are the frameworks that help set, communicate, and monitor goals across the company. Typically, company-wide OKRs are set annually by the company leadership while the VPoP creates internal quarterly OKRs for the product teams. Also make sure to prioritize product team OKRs over divisional ones so employees have clarity on what to work on.
Monitoring OKRs
The VPoP should constantly be evaluating whether or not the OKRs are helping to achieve the desired outcomes.
Before setting any OKRs, ask whether the company has any major goals such as revenue growth, new customers attraction, or customer satisfaction. OKRs should stem from organizational goals.
ask whether the company has any major goals such as revenue growth, new customers attraction, or customer satisfaction. OKRs should stem from organizational goals. Start small, in terms of how many OKRs you’re implementing. One — OKR — per — team until you see the teams can handle more.
in terms of how many OKRs you’re implementing. One — OKR — per — team until you see the teams can handle more. Create OKRs for the entire company, so that everyone feels like they’re working in the same direction. Try to always include revenue growth goals (e.g. month over month).
so that everyone feels like they’re working in the same direction. Try to always include revenue growth goals (e.g. month over month). Follow company-wide OKRs when defining OKRs for product teams. The product team objectives should be directly impacted by the product strategy they’re following. For example, if the company has a goal of adding new users, and the product strategy is to build a referral feature, the product team’s OKRs could be to increase new user signups by 10% month over month via the referral program.
The product team objectives should be directly impacted by the product strategy they’re following. For example, if the company has a goal of adding new users, and the product strategy is to build a referral feature, the product team’s OKRs could be to increase new user signups by 10% month over month via the referral program. Adjust OKRs, if all product teams are regularly hitting all their OKRs.
if all product teams are regularly hitting all their OKRs. Look back at the OKRs, if teams are not achieving their objectives. Create a safe space and ask members of the teams why they think they’re missing objectives. Reasons of failure could be misalignment, confusion, or placement of aggressive goals.
Structuring development efforts
Structuring the product development efforts — digital product development steps
Customer discovery
42% of startups fail because there’s no market need for their product. The best product focused organizations follow a systematic process to develop products quickly through customer discovery. Customer discovery is the process of figuring out who your customers are and identifying a problem that’s truly important to them. By performing proper customer discovery, companies will know whether there is a place for their product in the market.
Customer discovery is essentially a three-step process:
Finding and honing in on the target customer and building assumptions about their needs, desires and behaviors
and about their needs, desires and behaviors Conducting user research to validate assumptions and hypotheses
to validate assumptions and hypotheses Making adjustments based on customer feedback
Product discovery
Generally, final products are nothing similar to what the founders had expected. Products that break through the market tend to go through an intense period of product discovery. Product discovery is the process of creating, and testing products that ultimately meet customers’ needs.
Spend enough time during customer discovery to fully understand customer problems . You need to know who your customers are, and what problems they have before coming up with possible solutions.
. You need to know who your customers are, and what problems they have before coming up with possible solutions. Choose one pain point to tackle for the user base. You can’t solve all customer problems, but you can solve one and this will become the goal for the product, so the team can start brainstorming ideas.
You can’t solve all customer problems, but you can solve one and this will become the goal for the product, so the team can start brainstorming ideas. Make sure to target a large market size, with high demand volumes and profitability margins, so that later investments make sense.
with high demand volumes and profitability margins, so that later investments make sense. Quickly and cheaply find the best solutions to customers’ problems by creating several prototypes or MVPs , and gather user feedback.
, and gather user feedback. Keep experimenting, the best product teams never stop discovering things about their customers, and continually make new prototypes based on those findings.
Conceptualizing and prototyping
Building a fully functional product takes a lot of resources, and when the product gets in front of customers, things need to be changed or fixed. That’s why making prototypes is an important task for product teams. Prototypes are built so businesses can learn something without all the time and effort it takes to build the full product.
Prototypes are often described by the degree of their complexity as high-fidelity or low-fidelity, meaning how close to a fully functioning product the prototype is.
Low-fidelity prototypes can be as simple as drawings diagrams on a napkin. This simple prototype may be enough to learn if a fully built product would solve a problem for the user.
can be as simple as drawings diagrams on a napkin. This simple prototype may be enough to learn if a fully built product would solve a problem for the user. High-fidelity prototypes are much closer to real products. Sometimes allowing for real user traffic, or pulling in real-time data. High-fidelity prototypes often help us understand whether we can technically build something in a certain way.
More times than not, simply creating a prototype will uncover unexpected challenges and questions, which is much better to discover those things early on before investing heavily in building the full product. The faster and cheaper companies test things, the better off they’ll be in the long run.
Testing and reiterating
User testing is at the core of prototyping and happens with real users testing four main criteria:
Value: does it solve the user’s problem? Does it help them achieve a desire? The product must provide more value than the user’s existing options. Will they use your product instead of other products, or prefer to use nothing at all?
does it solve the user’s problem? Does it help them achieve a desire? The product must provide more value than the user’s existing options. Will they use your product instead of other products, or prefer to use nothing at all? Usability: in today’s world, products can’t just be functional. They need to be easy to use and have a great UX/UI.
in today’s world, products can’t just be functional. They need to be easy to use and have a great UX/UI. Ability to build: make sure your team can actually build the product, understand how the user wants to use the product and what’s technically possible for your team.
make sure your team can actually build the product, understand how the user wants to use the product and what’s technically possible for your team. Investment sensibility: whether or not it makes sense for the company to invest into the final product due to factors such as the rate of adoption.
Ultimately, great testing comes down to great listening. See how your users try to use the prototypes. Ask them to use the product to accomplish something specific such as:
Where do they get stuck?
What seems unclear to them?
What’s frustrating?
What were they expecting?
What else do they wish they could do?
Developing and empowering a ‘product culture’
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
People are attracted to a companies’ culture — its personality, values, what it stands for, and how it operates. In the beginning a startup’s culture is an extension of the values of its founders and to continue that culture it needs to be a central part of both the hiring process and the company structure.
Hire missionaries — companies should strive to hire missionaries over mercenaries. A mercenary is someone who may be opportunistic but is ultimately most concerned with getting the job done, but a missionary is someone who feels acts empowered with a sense of purpose towards the the product or company vision. When hiring for missionaries ask yourself: does the candidate get excited or care about the company’s mission?
companies should strive to hire missionaries over mercenaries. A mercenary is someone who may be opportunistic but is ultimately most concerned with getting the job done, but a missionary is someone who feels acts empowered with a sense of purpose towards the the product or company vision. When hiring for missionaries ask yourself: does the candidate get excited or care about the company’s mission? Build an organizational structure that preserves the culture — if you want to be surrounded by mission driven employees you need to give employees the freedom and ability to act as missionaries. As explained previously, this is why the non-hierarchical structure of product teams makes them so powerful. The longer a team works together the more they feel a sense of ownership. So it’s not a surprise that the highest performing teams are those who have been working together on the same product for an extended period of time and who are trusted to get the job done.
By hiring well and creating team structures that give employees the freedom to find their own solutions for the company’s objectives you empower employees to work as missionaries instead of mercenaries.
Be data-driven
The principles of customer and product discovery should extend outside the product teams and permeate the entire company, and that’s why the best product focused organizations have a data-driven culture. Being data-driven means that decisions aren’t made based on assumptions and are backed with actual evidence.
Moreover, the most successful teams use every opportunity to think critically about why they should operate in a certain way. For example, if someone recommends that you focus on making it easier to create an account, you should ask why? If such a recommendation is based according to fact based data such as what 40 customers have said or what retention rates are saying, are rooted in hard evidence and will unite teams and deliver successful offerings.
This is true of not just the product teams but other divisions as well. It’s not that people’s assumptions are wrong, it’s that data lowers the risk of making poor decision. And with better decisions, an organization will fall upon instances of win and success one after another.
Constantly measure performance through KPIs
What gets measured gets managed — Peter Drucker, ‘The Practice of Management’, 1995
Every team should be measuring its progress towards objectives and making decisions based on real data. KPIs are objective measures of how different aspects of an organization are performing. KPIs impact overall business objectives such as monthly recurring revenues (MRR), customer support calls, repeat customers and more. Note that KPIs are not goals but measures of how you’re doing right now. On the otherhand, OKRs are where you want to be in the future. For exmple,, if your revenue KPI shows that you’re on track for $9,000 this month, you still have some work to do to hit your OKR of $10,000. Here are a list of important metrics to think about when designing OKRs and KPIs.
Anu Hariharan , YC Combinator — nine business models and the metrics investors want to see
Also, you should not need to build KPIs around every company OKR or measures. Businesses should not measure extremely specific things that are relatively unimportant to its goals such as number of mobile app users that have upload photos to their profiles. These kinds of data are good to have but there is no need to set goals around then. Think big picture such as revenue, total number of app installs, number of monthly active users, and so on. Take a look at the video above by Anu Hariharan from YCombinator on the different business models and the metrics investors want to see.
Photo by Josh Calabrese on Unsplash
In summary…
After a company gets its start due to the success of an initial product and scales, it becomes extremely important to put the right processes, people, and culture in place to thrive as a ‘high — performing’, ‘product — focused’, organization. Great product companies excel at both creating an innovative product vision and executing on a strong product strategy. This will only happen if people are empowered to operate as missionaries and find their own ways to solve hard problems. In order to achieve these goals: | https://uxdesign.cc/building-successful-product-teams-30e881607797 | ['Nima Torabi'] | 2020-06-03 19:05:29.612000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Organizational Culture', 'Leadership', 'Product Management', 'Startup'] |
Podcast — Designing Shambala Festival | Photo credit: Jenna Foxton
Shambala is a four-day festival that takes place in Northamptonshire, England with over 200 musical, comedy, and dance acts across dozens of venues and stages. It is a multiple award winner, including the Innovation Award at the 2018 UK Festival Awards, in recognition of its pioneering sustainability practices.
We first met Shambala’s Creative Director and co-founder Sid Sharma back in 2019 when he attended our Design Thinkers Bootcamp. He loved that experience so much, he’s since been back on our Online Facilitation, Advanced Facilitation and Prototyping courses. In this edition of our podcast we spoke to Sid about the origins of Shambala festival, their drive for sustainability, why he wants a Design Thinking tent at the festival and why he’s also signed up for our upcoming Design Sprint Camp.
Listen via:
Photo credit: Andrew Whitton
Photo credit: Andrew Whitton
Design Sprint Camp
If you’re interested in joining Sid and getting involved in our Climate Challenge, then do get in touch about our upcoming Design Sprint Camp. It is a unique opportunity to join world-class experts in design, innovation and sustainability on a real-world challenge as together we share techniques, develop skills and co-create responsible revolutions. Learn to apply Design Thinking for sustainability, develop new solutions to a brief set with The Carbon Trust and meet like minded innovators from around the world. The last day to sign up is 12/11/2021 so don’t miss out.
We are delighted to announce our exciting lineup of speakers for the Sprint:
Gillian Tett
Gillian Tett is a British author and journalist at the Financial Times, where she is chair of the editorial board and editor-at-large, US. She writes weekly columns, covering a range of economic, financial, political and social issues. In 2014, she was named Columnist of the Year in the British Press Awards and was the first recipient of the Royal Anthropological Institute Marsh Award. In June 2009 her book Fool’s Gold won Financial Book of the Year at the inaugural Spear’s Book Awards.
John Thackara
John Thackara is a writer and curator working in the realms of social, ecological and relational design. He curated the celebrated Doors of Perception conference for 20 years, first in Amsterdam, later across India; he was commissioner of the social innovation biennial Dott 07 in the UK, and the French design biennial, City Eco Lab. In 2019 he curated the Urban-Rural expo in Shanghai. Now, as visiting professor at Tongji University in China, he is developing an event called LIfeworlds about ecological restoration and multi-species design.
Gemma Curtin
Gemma Curtin is the co-curator of Waste Age — What can design do? running at the Design Museum from 23 October 2021. The exhibition exposes our ‘take, make and waste’ economy, which has created an environmental crisis. It explores what design can do to rethink the way we produce and consume goods, how waste can be transformed into a valuable resource and how new materials and systems can reduce waste and the impact on our planet. Gemma is a Curator at the Design Museum where she is responsible for many exhibitions covering contemporary architecture, product design and fashion.
John Bielenberg
John Bielenberg is a designer, entrepreneur, and imaginative advocate for a better world. He is the founder of Project M, and co-founder of Future, Common, Thinknado and 3rdActivist. John has won more than 250 design awards in his career, including the 2013 AIGA Gold Medal for leadership in the design for good movement. In 2003, John Bielenberg created Project M, an immersive program designed to inspire and educate young designers, writers, photographers, and filmmakers by proving that their work-especially their “wrongest” thinking-can have significant impact on communities. In 2016, John co-wrote a book called Think Wrong that inspires people to conquer the status quo and do work that matters and in 2021 will launch Thinknado, a “tornado thinking” toolkit.
Tim Ogilvie
Tim Ogilvie is the Founder of Peer Insight, the US-based innovation consultancy, and is a Partner in PX Venture Studio, its venture-building arm. His practice merges creative design thinking with savvy business strategy to help clients explore new services and business models. Tim has launched innovative products, services, and businesses for companies such as Nike, Johnson & Johnson, AARP, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and Procter & Gamble. He is also a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, where he teaches design thinking.
Becky Rowe is a research specialist and the owner and Head of Research at the award-winning strategic research agency, Revealing Reality.
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< Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. | https://medium.com/design-thinkers-academy-london/podcast-designing-shambala-festival-design-thinkers-academy-990725f6012a | ['Design Thinkers Academy London'] | 2021-11-23 11:36:55.113000+00:00 | ['Shambala', 'Music', 'Music Festivals', 'Design Thinking', 'Festivals'] |
Who is brewing a storm for US banks? | The US National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) proposed a new rule on 23 January 2020 stating that “new credit unions” and existing “complex credit unions” (those with a minimum of USD500m of assets) can issue subordinated debt to maintain their regulatory capital requirement. At present, only low-income nominated credit unions (where more than 50% of all members are in the low-income category, according to NCUA regulations) are authorised to offer subordinated debt for the purpose of maintaining the regulatory capital requirement.
There are approximately 122m members in more than 5,100 credit unions under the NCUA. Credit unions with fewer members will likely benefit the most from this new regulation, as they could grow their monetary bases despite having fewer members. After the new rule is implemented, credit unions will have access to institutional investors — for example, corporate debt markets such as hedge funds, mutual funds and pension funds — and would be able to accept investments from them.
Credit unions (low-income nominated) had total secondary capital of just USD290m on their books as of 30 September 2019, against USD1.54tn of assets, indicating credit unions’ low appetite for secondary capital. The new rule authorises another 285 credit unions (which are “complex” in nature and hold USD730bn of assets, almost half of the total assets of all credit unions) to issue subordinated debt. However, it is uncertain whether these credit unions will be keen about this new type of lending, as most of them are already well funded. After the new rule is implemented, credit unions will be able to offer subordinated debt with maturity periods of 5–20 years.
The American Bankers Association (ABA) has argued that the proposed regulation is not based on proper rationale and has demanded that the regulation be revoked, as almost all credit unions (more than 95% of them) comply with the NCUA’s obligation of net worth. Even most of the complex credit unions (more than 95% of them) adhere to the guidelines governing risk-based capital requirements. The ABA also highlighted that the proposed new regulation does not follow the Federal Credit Union Act properly; the Act prohibits debt offering for the purpose of capital raising. In addition, the ABA stated that credit unions have no logical limitations on subordinated debt raising, and that this could create risk in the financial system.
One of the growth tactics of credit unions is to purchase underperforming banks, although the number of current acquisitions is low. Banks are concerned; as the bigger credit unions could acquire more underperforming banks once they have access to subordinated debt funding.
Although credit unions have yet to start raising capital through subordinated debt instruments, the ABA has expressed serious concern, as credit unions could reduce banks’ lending opportunities. Banks could also witness pressure on their margins, as credit unions will have the benefit of tax exemption, resulting in incremental operating profit at the expense of bank profit. Amid the current economic conditions, the US is expected to experience a protracted slowdown and a low-interest-rate regime over the coming few years, when yields on the subordinated debt could attract a large number of institutional investors (to the credit unions), eroding banks’ share in the subordinated debt market.
Institutional investors need funds to invest in credit unions, and banks can arrange that. Acuity Knowledge Partners has dedicated teams of skilled analysts at its several offshore delivery locations that can assist banking teams to scale up the underwriting services they offer institutional investors. Our team of expert institutional underwriters can provide specialised risk solutions to a bank’s clients by creating customer-specific financial models to properly assess their credit quality and can also provide for detailed credit review.
Originally published at https://www.acuitykp.com.
About the Author
Anustup Ghosh Dastidar, Delivery Manager, Commercial Lending has over 12 years of overall work experience including 10 years in Commercial Lending. He has worked in Diversified Lending team undertaking tasks like covenant validation & monitoring, financial spreading & commentary and performing risk raters for a leading European based bank. Currently he is part of the Structured Export Finance team. Prior to joining Acuity Knowledge Partners, he has worked in a couple of multinational companies where his primary responsibility was preparation of credit review reports for corporates. He holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration (Finance specialization). | https://medium.com/@acuityknowledgepartners/ncua-regulation-on-subordinated-debt-issuance-brewing-a-storm-for-us-banks-97052e981b4c | ['Acuity Knowledge Partners'] | 2021-01-12 13:27:31.844000+00:00 | ['Lending', 'Regulation', 'Credit', 'United States', 'Banking'] |
Catching up with Style in Summers/Spring 2021 | Adhering to ongoing trends religiously doesn’t mean one dresses good. In my humble opinion, following each and every seasonal trend blindly can often lead to poor style purely because that’s not “your” style, so to say. That’s somebody else’s which you’ve tried to incorporate in your dressing sense.
The key to retaining your sartorial self-respect is how you differentiate between the fleeting fads and the future classics.
To make sartorial choices easy for you, here are some of men’s fashion trends to embrace in 2021.
Floral
Going back to 1970s has been one of the overarching trends which manifests itself as floral prints a la grandma’s curtains.
Everyone from Tom Ford to Burberry has been at it, splashing bold florals onto shorts, vacation shirts and tailoring amongst others. But I’d suggest keeping it to one statement piece per outfit and, as always, ensuring the rest of your look is nice and muted.
2. Bermuda Shorts
This season, due to scorching summers, we could expect the return of longer, wider shorts, echoing a broader shift that has been taking place across all areas of menswear for some time now.
The key to nailing it is making sure you get the length just right. Aim for a couple of inches above the top of the kneecap and opt for tailored styles that can be paired with either casual or smarter pieces with ease.
3. Vertical Stripes
The reasons for embracing the vertical stripe trend are twofold: firstly, it looks great and presents a simple, refined way to experiment with prints; secondly, it has the nice added bonus of shaving a few pounds off your appearance, making you appear taller and slimmer.
For bonus points, opt for styles with stripes of varying width. Or simply stick to classic stripes, or even seersucker, if you prefer to keep things subtle.
4. Camp Collar Shirt
Classic collar short-sleeve shirts can carry with them some unwanted “lads down the pub” connotations for some. This breezy summer option offers a stylish way around that. Camp collar shirts have been big for several years now, meaning you can rest assured they have some longevity in them and aren’t just a fleeting fad.
The flat, lapel-style collar adds a touch of something different to what might otherwise be a bland outfit, creating a subtle focal point to tie a look together. Perfect when worn with tailored swim shorts for a light lunch at a beachside restaurant. This year, keep an eye out for long-sleeve versions for a twist on the norm.
5. All White
Brunello Cucinelli
One of this summer’s biggest men’s fashion trends is a tricky one to pull off. Get it right and you’re king of the Riviera; get it wrong and you’re Andy Murray on match day.
Despite the risks, going all white is one of the best men’s style moves you can make. It’s also a sure-fire way to keep cool in the heat. Try pairing a crisp white T-shirt with matching chino shorts and a pair of tonal leather sneakers. If it’s all looking too much, throw a navy overshirt on top to tone it down. | https://medium.com/@komaladlakha0827/catching-up-with-style-in-summers-spring-2021-f50361a763e6 | ['Komal Adlakha'] | 2021-07-23 17:27:46.767000+00:00 | ['Style', 'Style Guides', 'Styled Components'] |
It’s Blockchain Baby, Okay Now Baby Steps | Disclaimer: This is NOT financial advice, nor do I endorse ALL of the principles, practices or viewpoints of the people who wrote/filmed/spoke this content.
So you want to get into #crypto aye 🤔 well ❗️Be Warned❗️ at times this market is akin to a roller coaster up/down even sideways. There are a few things you’ll need to know before you get started, such as where the good resources are, who to listen to, what all the jargon means, how to get some crypto and finally the best possible way to secure your funds. In this article I aim to cover all this and more!
On that note, let’s get started but first the bad news:
Bad News
You probably won’t get rich investing into cryptocurrency 💸
You can lose money instantly and irrevocably for not paying close attention.
There are no lambos on the moon 🏎🌚😑
Good News
The community involved with Blockchain and Cryptocurrency is amazing and hilarious.
The possibilities for improving the lives of people and restructuring the current inequalities in our world are HUGE.
There will be cats, sooo many cats. Also rainbows and cats riding llamas with spaceships and all of this will be eloquently captured on T-shirts for your wearing pleasure 🐈🌈👕
Credit: Vitalik Amaze
One of the first places I tell people to start is Reddit, now I know what you’re saying “reddit is like a black hole, how will I ever find anything?”
Well there are these nifty little threads called “subreddits”. Here are my favorite: r/blockchain r/cryptocurrency r/ethereum. I actually found this great analogy on Reddit while gathering resources for this article explaining how blockchain transactions actually function:
See it’s not that complicated, it’s just magic 🧙🏽 Seriously though it’s incredibly important for people (YOU) to understand what’s happening at the moment and what is at stake for the parties involved, make no mistake big changes are headed our way.
There is a LOT of misinformation about crypto so it’s important to get your facts straight, this was recently published in the Mirror UK…
Please don’t be one of these people 🤦🏻
You Speak Blockchain 🗣
The following list will help you familiarize yourself with basic blockchain terms. For a deeper dive into terminology or when you come against words that make you say “what the eff” see The Decryptionary 🛠
The Blockchain: an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value, more on blockchain.
an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value, more on blockchain. Node: a computer connected to the blockchain network using a client that performs the task of validating and relaying transactions.
a computer connected to the blockchain network using a client that performs the task of validating and relaying transactions. Mining: is the process used for securing the blockchain network and validating the transactions essentially 24/7 computer accounting called ‘verifying transactions’, more on mining.
is the process used for securing the blockchain network and validating the transactions essentially 24/7 computer accounting called ‘verifying transactions’, more on mining. Web3.0: is many things but primarily a way of referring to the complete reinvention of the web, more on Web3.0.
is many things but primarily a way of referring to the complete reinvention of the web, more on Web3.0. DApp: is an abbreviated term for a decentralized application that runs on a peer-to-peer network, more on DApps.
is an abbreviated term for a decentralized application that runs on a peer-to-peer network, more on DApps. DAO: is an abbreviated term for decentralized autonomous organization. A business or organization whose decisions are made electronically by a written computer code or through the vote of its members, more on DAOs.
is an abbreviated term for decentralized autonomous organization. A business or organization whose decisions are made electronically by a written computer code or through the vote of its members, more on DAOs. Decentralization: as described by Webster “the dispersion or distribution of functions and powers”, but this definition has grown to encompass a field much wider than power, I recommend reading more on Decentralization and really getting a feel for what it’s all about.
Remember the more you read the more you know (tweets don’t count) and in this space the more knowledge you have the better informed you will be about trades, investments and changes in the market. Think of this as dipping your toe in the pool because it barely scratches the surface.
Who’s Who Round Here
Now that you know what’s what, you need to know who’s who. I like to start with the highly meme worthy, Vitalik Buterin, founder of the Ethereum Blockchain. He’s known for his amazing wardrobe and ruthless criticism of ICO’s and other project he does not support, see twitter go wild.
The BBC even made a nice “intro to crypto” video with him and some others from the Ethereum Project!
BBC Talks Blockchain
For a slightly more technical intro with Vitalik, see this Techcrunch Interview.
The second notable figure is Satoshi Nakimoto.
Satoshi created the first digital currency known as Bitcoin. Currently Bitcoin has the largest market capitalization of any coin at an astounding
$151,640,096,037 as of 04/26/2018. You can check this yourself at Coin Market Cap.
The thing is, that no one really knows who “Satoshi Nakimoto” is, because he has never publicly revealed his identity. Many people believe it is the man in the image to the left but he fiercely denies it.
There’s a slew of conspiracy theories about who he/they are but for the sake of staying on track I’ll just give you this one.
There are plenty of other folks who gladly claim credit for their work though, for starers Andreas Antonopoulos, Omar Bham AKA Crypt0News and Bettina Warburg on Twitter.
The next subject is storage and exchanges, what are they, which ones to use and how to protect yourself from the gov’mnt, “ooops did I say protect yourself, I meant comply with” 😇
The first thing you need to know is that if you are using a website (aka exchange) to store your coins, then you are putting them at risk. Exchanges are huge targets and they get hacked all the time. You want to hold your own keys, I suggest getting a Ledger Nano S, which is a hardware wallet. This is by far the most secure way to store and hide your crypto, just make sure you back it up very well. You will get a string of 24 words that you need to store somewhere safe.. Ideally you put them in 2 safe places!
Ledger Nano S
Next up, markets:
Like I mentioned above it’s NOT a good idea to keep your coins on an exchange long term, but markets are necessary for trading/selling currency when you need to.
I understand not everyone can just #HoDL for life, although I wish they would.
The fastest way to get started is to open a Gemini account. Deposit cash, then buy ETH/BTC/… whichever your choose. Then when/if you’re ready to start trading head over to Bittrex. You’ll have to set up an account and register your identity and everything, so be prepared with your documents. Also, make sure you set up a 2FA security log-in, which is an additional log-in code that is usually sent to your phone or email. Remember all these transactions are now being registered with the IRS, so you should “probably” consult a tax agent at some point.
If you want to go off the books and avoid exchanges then something like localbitcoins.com is a good option, and once again reddit is your friend: ask questions, read other people’s findings or even go out and find others who want to buy currency from you. This will serve 3 purposes:
#1 Helps you avoid paying taxes (which is illegal and I would never advise you to do…🤫)
#2 Allows you to pull some profit from your investment which reduces your exposure to lose.
#3 Brings others into the crypto space which expands the market for all of us!
Think about it…..
At this point the question you need to be asking yourself is, “Why do I need to know this?” and the answer will vary wildly from person to person.
I chose to get involved with crypto because at the time it seemed exciting and interesting during a period when job satisfaction was low and desire for novelty was high. This might not be a good enough reason for you to go any further, but I recommend figuring out if you have one and writing it down. Things can move really fast here, with an unlimited amount of lambo memes and ICO scandals it’s important to remind yourself what you’re here for. There are many schools of thought about what this decentralized movement is all about, so decide for yourself.
The most powerful motivator of all is your own will power: if you believe in something, you can overcome great odds to achieve it. | https://medium.com/coinmonks/its-blockchain-baby-okay-now-baby-steps-539f208da02c | ['Yalor Ethernal'] | 2018-04-29 12:55:56.098000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Blockchain'] |
Hey guys, how you doing your probably reading this cause you want to see so great vegan recipes and… | Hey guys, how you doing your probably reading this cause you want to see so great vegan recipes and possibly making them. I also will share a link to a great vegan diet that is a great help for vegan beginners
Here a great vegan recipe called Chipotle Cauliflower Nachos😋‼️
Ingredients
Chipotle Cauliflower “Cheese” Sauce:
1 cup chopped cauliflower
1 cup peeled and cubed Yukon gold potato
¼ cup raw cashews
3 tablespoons water, more as needed
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 chipotle pepper from a can of chipotles in adobo*
1 garlic clove
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
For the nachos:
Tortilla chips
½ cup diced cherry tomatoes
⅓ cup cooked black beans, drained and rinsed
½ cup Pineapple Salsa
¼ cup diced red onion
¼ cup chopped cilantro
Instructions
Make the sauce: Place the cauliflower and potatoes in a medium saucepan and cover with cold water by about 1-inch. Add a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook uncovered until fork-tender, 8 to 10 minutes.
Drain, let cool slightly, then place in a high-speed blender with the cashews, water, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, chipotle pepper, garlic, onion powder, and salt. Blend until smooth.
Spread the chips onto a platter, drizzle with the chipotle cauliflower sauce, and top with the cherry tomatoes, black beans, scoops of pineapple salsa, red onion, and the cilantro. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
*This sauce is mildly spicy. If you want a spicier sauce, add an extra chipotle pepper or a scoop of some of the adobo sauce, to taste.
Hope you enjoy this recipe and please stay tuned 4 many more
https://d501fo11qv755x3ytewdvrlc78.hop.clickbank.net/
Also here’s a link to a great vegan diet you will absolutely love❤️ | https://medium.com/@lighterjunkiez11/hey-guys-how-you-doing-your-probably-reading-this-cause-you-want-to-see-so-great-vegan-recipes-and-562d2767f56d | [] | 2020-12-17 01:48:26.733000+00:00 | ['Vegan', 'Health', 'Weight Loss'] |
Listing Embeddings in Search Ranking | Listing Embeddings in Search Ranking
Listing Embeddings for Similar Listing Recommendations and Real-time Personalization in Search Ranking
By Mihajlo Grbovic, Haibin Cheng, Qing Zhang, Lynn Yang, Phillippe Siclait and Matt Jones
Airbnb’s marketplace contains millions of diverse listings which potential guests explore through search results generated from a sophisticated Machine Learning model that uses more than hundred signals to decide how to rank a particular listing on the search page. Once a guest views a home they can continue their search by either returning to the results or by browsing the Similar Listing Carousel, where listing recommendations related to the current listing are shown. Together, Search Ranking and Similar Listings drive 99% of our booking conversions.
In this blog post we describe a Listing Embedding technique we developed and deployed at Airbnb for the purpose of improving Similar Listing Recommendations and Real-Time Personalization in Search Ranking. The embeddings are vector representations of Airbnb homes learned from search sessions that allow us to measure similarities between listings. They effectively encode many listing features, such as location, price, listing type, architecture and listing style, all using only 32 float numbers. We believe that the embedding approach for personalization and recommendation is very powerful and useful for any type of online marketplace on the Web.
Background On Embeddings
In a number of Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications classic methods for language modeling that represent words as high-dimensional, sparse vectors have been replaced by Neural Language models that learn word embeddings, i.e. low-dimensional representations of words, through the use of neural networks. The networks are trained by directly taking into account the word order and their co-occurrence, based on the assumption that words frequently appearing together in the sentences also share more statistical dependence. With the development of highly scalable continuous bag-of-words and Skip-gram language models for word representation learning, the embedding models have been shown to obtain state-of-the-art performance on many traditional language tasks after training on large text data.
More recently, the concept of embeddings has been extended beyond word representations to other applications outside of NLP domain. Researchers from the Web Search, E-commerce and Marketplace domains have realized that just like one can train word embeddings by treating a sequence of words in a sentence as context, the same can be done for training embeddings of user actions by treating sequence of user actions as context. Examples include learning representations of items that were clicked or purchased or queries and ads that were clicked. These embeddings have subsequently been leveraged for a variety of recommendations on the Web.
Listing Embeddings
Let us assume we are given a data set of click sessions obtained from N users, where each session s=(L₁,…,Ln)∈ S is defined as an uninterrupted sequence of n listing ids that were clicked by the user. A new session is started whenever there is a time gap of more than 30 minutes between two consecutive user clicks. Given this data set, the aim is to learn a 32-dimensional real-valued representation v(Li) ∈ R³² of each unique listing Li, such that similar listings lie nearby in the embedding space.
The dimensionality of the listing embeddings was set to d = 32, as we found that to be a good trade-off between offline performance (discussed in following section) and the memory needed to store vectors in RAM memory of search machines for the purposes of real-time similarity calculations.
There exist several different ways of training embeddings. We will focus on a technique called Negative Sampling. It starts by initializing the embeddings to random vectors, and proceeds to update them via stochastic gradient descent by reading through search sessions in a sliding window manner. At each step the vector of the central listing is updated by pushing it closer to vectors of positive context listings: listings that were clicked by the same user before and after central listing, within a window of length m (m = 5), and pushing it away from negative context listings: randomly sampled listings (as chances are these are not related to the central listing).
For brevity we’ll skip over the details of the training procedure and focus on explaining several modifications we made to adapt this approach for our own use-case:
Using Booked Listing as Global Context: We used sessions that end with the user booking the listing (purple listing) to adapt the optimization such that at each step we predict not only the neighboring clicked listings but also the eventually booked listing as well. As the window slides some listings fall in and out of the context set, while the booked listing always remains within it as global context (dotted line) and is used to update the central listing vector.
We used sessions that end with the user booking the listing (purple listing) to adapt the optimization such that at each step we predict not only the neighboring clicked listings but also the eventually booked listing as well. As the window slides some listings fall in and out of the context set, while the booked listing always remains within it as global context (dotted line) and is used to update the central listing vector. Adapting to Congregated Search: Users of online travel booking sites typically search only within a single market, i.e. in the location they want to stay at. As a consequence, for a given central listing, the positive context listings mostly consist of listings from the same market, while the negative context listings mostly consists of listings that are not from the same market as they are sampled randomly from entire listing vocabulary. We found that this imbalance leads to learning sub-optimal within-market similarities. To address this issue we propose to add a set of random negatives Dmn, sampled from the market of the central listing.
Considering all of the above, the final optimization objective can be formulated as
booking global context + market negatives optimization formula
where
l is the central listing whose vector v (l) is being updated
(l) is being updated Dp is a positive set of pairs (l,c) that represent (central listing, context listing) tuples whose vectors are being pushed toward one another
Dn is a negative set of pairs (l,c) that represent (central listing, random listing) tuples whose vectors are being pushed away from each other
lb is booked listing that is treated as global context and pushed toward central listing vector
Dmn is a market negatives set of pairs (l,mn) that represent (central listing, random listing from same market) tuples whose vectors are being pushed away from each other
Using the described optimization procedure we learned listing embeddings for 4.5 million active listings on Airbnb using more than 800 million search clicks sessions, resulting in high quality listing representations.
Cold-start Embeddings. Every day new listings are created by hosts and made available on Airbnb. At that point these listings do not have an embedding because they were not present our training data. To create embeddings for a new listing we find 3 geographically closest listings that do have embeddings, and are of same listing type and price range as the new listing, and calculate their mean vector.
What did Embeddings Learn?
To evaluate what characteristics of listings were captured by the embeddings, we examine them in several ways. First, to evaluate if geographical similarity is encoded we performed k-means clustering on learned embeddings. The figure on the left, which shows resulting 100 clusters in California, confirms that listings from similar locations are clustered together. Next, we evaluated average cosine similarities between listings of different types (Entire Home, Private Room, Shared Room) and price ranges and confirmed that cosine similarities between listings of same type and price ranges are much higher compared to similarities between listings of different type and price ranges. Therefore, we can conclude that those two listing characteristics are well encoded in the learned embeddings as well.
While some listing characteristics, such as price, do not need to be learned because they can be extracted from listing meta-data, other types of listing characteristics, such as architecture, style and feel are much harder to extract in form of listing features. To evaluate these characteristics and to be able to conduct fast and easy explorations in the embedding space we developed an internal Similarity Exploration Tool demonstrated in a video below.
The video provides many examples of embeddings being able to find similar listings of the same unique architecture, including houseboats, treehouses, castles, etc.
Offline Evaluation of Listing Embeddings
Before testing embeddings in recommendation applications on real search traffic, we conducted several offline tests. We also used these tests to compare several different trained embeddings to reach quick decisions regarding embedding dimensionality, different ideas on algorithm modifications, training data construction, choice of hyperparameters, etc.
One way of evaluating trained embeddings is to test how good they are in recommending listings that the user would book, based on their most recent click.
More specifically, let us assume we are given the most recently clicked listing and the listing candidates that need to be ranked, which contain the listing that user eventually booked. By calculating cosine similarities between embeddings of the clicked listing and the candidate listings we can rank the candidates and observe the rank position of the booked listing.
In the figure below we show results of one such evaluation where listings in search were re-ranked based on similarities in embedding space and rankings of booked listing are averaged for each click leading to booking, going as far back as 17 clicks before the booking to the last click before booking.
We compared several embedding versions 1) d32 regular trained without any modifications to the original embedding algorithm, 2) d32 booking global trained with bookings as global context and 3) d32 booking global + market negatives trained with bookings as global context and explicit negatives from same market (from our formula). From the consistent lower average ranking of booked listing we can conclude that d32 booking global + market negatives outperforms the other two embedding models.
Similar Listings using Embeddings
Every Airbnb home listing page contains a Similar Listings carousel that recommends listings which are similar to it and available for the same set of dates.
At the time of testing embeddings the existing algorithm for Similar Listings consisted of calling our main Search Ranking model for the same location as the given listing followed by filtering on same price range and listing type as the given listing.
We conducted an A/B test where we compared the existing Similar Listings algorithm at the time to our embedding-based solution, in which similar listings were produced by finding k-nearest neighbors in listing embedding space. More precisely, given learned listing embeddings, similar listings for a given listing l are found by calculating cosine similarity between its vector v(l) and vectors v(lj) of all listings from the same market that are available for the same set of dates (if check-in and check-out dates are set). The k=12 listings with the highest similarity were shown as similar listings.
The A/B test showed that embedding-based solution lead to a 21% increase in Similar Listing carousel CTR and 4.9% more guests discovering the listing they ended up booking in the Similar Listing carousel.
Real time personalization in Search using Embeddings
So far we’ve seen that embeddings can be used to efficiently calculate similarities between listings. Our next idea was to leverage this capability in Search Ranking for real-time in-session personalization, where the aim is to show to the guest more listings that are similar to the ones we think they liked since starting the search session and fewer listings similar to the ones we think they did not like.
To achieve this, for each user we collect and maintain in real-time (using Kafka) two sets of short-term history events:
Hc : set of listing ids that user clicked in last 2 weeks. Hs : set of listing ids that user skipped in last 2 weeks, where we define skipped listings as ones that were ranked high but skipped by user in favor of a click on a lower positioned listing
Next, each time the user conducts a search we calculate 2 similarity measures for each candidate listing lᵢ returned in search.
EmbClickSim : similarity between candidate listing embedding and embeddings of listings that user clicked on (from Hc).
Specifically, we calculate similarity between market-level centroids from Hc and pick the maximum similarity. For example if Hc contained listings from New York and Los Angeles, embeddings of listings for each of these two markets would be averaged out to form a market-level centroids.
EmbSkipSim : similarity between candidate listing embedding and embeddings of listings that user skipped (from Hs)
These two similarity measures were next introduced as additional signal that our Search Ranking Machine Learning model considers when ranking candidate listings.
This was done by first logging the two embedding similarity features along with other search ranking features so we can create a new labeled data set for model training and then proceeding to train a new ranking model that we can be tested against the current production ranking model in a A/B test.
To evaluate if the new model learned to use the embedding similarity features as we intended, we plot their partial dependency plots below. These plots show what would happen to candidate listing ranking score if we fix values of all but a single feature (one we are examining).
In the left subgraph it can be seen that larger values of EmbClickSim (listing similar to listings user recently click on) lead to higher model score.
In the right subgraph it can be seen that larger values of EmbSkipSim (listing similar to listings user skipped, i.e. did not like) lead to lower model score.
Observations from partial dependency plots confirmed that features behavior matches what we intuitively expected the model will learn. In addition, the new embedding features ranked high in ranking model feature importances and our offline tests showed an improvement in performance metrics on a hold-out set when the embedding features were added to the model. This was enough for us to make a decision to proceed to an online experiment, which was successful and lead to the launch of embedding features for real-time personalization to production in Summer of 2017. | https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/listing-embeddings-for-similar-listing-recommendations-and-real-time-personalization-in-search-601172f7603e | ['Mihajlo Grbovic'] | 2018-05-04 23:21:56.935000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'AI', 'Data Science'] |
Three Self-care Script for Long Covid Symptoms on Mental Health | Projections indicate a rise in mental health disorders post-Covid-19. Such projections arise from the potential influence of Long Covid symptoms on mental health. A persisting cough or shortness of breath weeks after recovering from Covid-19 may trigger stress disorder due to hospitalisation trauma. While pain, fatigue and other flu-like symptoms observed in Long Covid will limit employability, causing higher depression and anxiety levels.
The impact of a pandemic on mental health is not new. With more cases of Covid-19 infection in Western countries, Long Covid symptoms and effects on mental health may be more prevalent in such countries. Yet, few countries like Australia have increased the annual budget for Covid-19 induced mental health disorder. The focus on containing the Covid pandemic and current mental health services disruptions may summarise the general response in most countries.
With most countries going into fresh and harsher lockdowns given the detection of a new strain of Covid-19, suggested quality principles against Long Covid syndrome may not be employed nor deployed anytime soon. Such delay will exacerbate mental health disorder in patients who have recovered from Covid-19 and the non-infected, who bear the stress of multiple lockdowns and an uncertain future. This reality is rendered most profound by the possibility and impacts of a mutating Covid-19 virus.
The most prevalent Long Covid symptoms and potential impact on mental health are fatigue, shortness of breath and cough, and widespread pain. Here we consider three self-care scripts that may serve as proactive measures to mitigate or build greater resilience to mental health disorder due to Long Covid symptoms, pending the onboarding of those quality principles within mental health services.
1. Physical exercise: Fatigue caused by mental and physical exertions that arise from early wakes, traffic-laden commute and work-stress should reduce due to ‘home-working’. Ironically, the Long Covid’s fatigue may be off the lack of exercise unconsciously undertaken during the everyday routine to work. Exercises are good for fatigue as they elicit Serotonin and Endorphin — mood stabiliser and pain killer hormone, respectively. While gyms are closed during lockdowns, low intensity and rhythmic exercises such as sit-ups, planking, press-ups, and squats are comparably practical and beneficial. The positive effects of exercise to fatigue may explain why sports athletes who tested positive to Covid-19 have continued to perform in their profession. Engaging in exercise also provides an alternative to time spent on social media. This will promote self-regulation of information overload as seen in social media fatigue.
2. Sleep: This physiological process in human is vital to relieving chronic pain of the joints, chest, and muscle. With ‘home-working’, the lockdown also offers an opportunity for quality sleep that relieves the Long Covid symptoms. A useful tip to quality night sleep begins with an optical absorption of natural morning sunlight. The view of the external environment for about 45mins without the interference of a glass screen is sufficient. Where opportune, a sit out on the balcony or patio while absorbing natural light not only helps improve sleep but increases levels of Vitamin D — a pain reliever — in the body. Avoiding or turning on filters of screens that emit artificial blue lights enables the surging melatonin in the evening to affect sleep induction. With quality sleep raising the body’s pain and inflammation threshold, the motivation for exercise is presented. The benefits of physical exercise, as discussed above, also improves the quality of sleep.
3. Modulation: Modulations are practices that can potentially alter the brains’ function and structure, such as exercise and sleep. Other practices such as breathing therapy and meditation can help manage shortness of breath and cough of Long Covid symptoms. Meditation can alter the brain’s sensitivity and response to respiratory unrest by calming the airway, especially during dry cough fits. The ‘mastering’ of the airways or respiratory system reflexes can be improved with breathing therapy. Breathing therapy has been useful for asthmatics, who also present with traditional shortness of breath and cough symptoms. One such effective breathing exercise includes inhaling for six seconds and exhaling for six seconds for a few moments during meditation — cardia coherence. These modulation practices may be taught to promote the control of the body’s response to respiratory unrest by moving it from an almost unconscious reflex to the conscious.
These three self-care scripts are daily complementary therapies that may be lifelong. While the focus on effective treatments for mental health disorders due to Long Covid symptoms are limited, complementary therapies are a current thread given the partial efficacy and nocebo effects of medicines on similar symptoms. By proactively addressing the symptoms of Long Covid, such complementary therapies may mitigate the onset, severity and treatment course of mental health disorders. For instance, antidepressants may cause insomnia, and such disturbance to sleep increases fatigue and widespread chronic pain. With more studies on the benefits of these three self-care scripts, mainstream health systems can utilise complementary therapies in addition to those suggested quality principles to improve the experiences of Long Covid symptoms on mental health. | https://medium.com/@lawrence-ezedinma/three-self-care-script-for-long-covid-symptoms-on-mental-health-6ef71ac61134 | ['Lawrence Ezedinma'] | 2020-12-27 05:42:17.971000+00:00 | ['Long Covid', 'Sleep', 'Exercise', 'Meditation', 'Mental Health'] |
When Setting Top-line Goals, 3 Perspectives are Better than One | Tis the season…not for jolliness…but for annual forecasting. Countless companies spend the month of December frantically closing out the current year, while scrambling to codify goals for the fiscal year ahead. So, for many small-scale SaaS businesses, this is decidedly NOT the most wonderful time of the year. Rather, when it comes to financial planning and analysis, it can be a time of feast or famine. Famine in this case is represented by simply not doing any intentional planning. A surprising number of small software companies don’t share fiscal goals with their teams, or even set formalized financial plans whatsoever. Feasting, in this case, occurs when a leader’s eyes are bigger than their mouth, resulting in an unreasonably aggressive growth plan based on exuberant hope more than rational thought. Perhaps this is less like feasting, and more like binge-eating junk-food (in that it is based on impulse, offers a temporary jolt, induces sickness soon after, and is terrible health-wise in the long-term). But neither of these extremes is necessary; and a thoughtful plan does not require gobs of bureaucratic process (one of the primary excuses offered for this feast / famine dynamic). Rather, we’ve seen that the simple concept of triangulation can efficiently produce the building blocks of an informed financial plan that balances multiple perspectives on the business. Here’s how it works:
First thing first, this approach focuses overwhelmingly on setting the top-line goals for a business. The long-pole in the financial planning tent is this top-line goal (also known variously as: revenue, bookings, ARR, and sales). This is because sales performance ultimately dictates the money flowing into the business and highly influences the expense levels the business can sustain. Note: admittedly this is more nuanced in businesses with outside funding, but eventually holds true as they mature toward cash-flow breakeven. Bookings are also the most highly variable / least-controllable aspect of any plan, as discussed in this prior post; and getting the top-line goal wrong can unleash a cascade of pain throughout the entire business. For these reasons, setting an appropriate top-line goal is the critical step in developing a sound plan. The reality is, that this goal must be ambitious enough to please financial stakeholders, realistic enough for the team to execute with confidence, and based credibly on relevant historical data (while also not being shackled to the past). A tall order, indeed.
To ultimately arrive at an appropriate goal, we like to start by pulling together three different top-line targets based on three distinct views into the business. Later we’ll compare / contrast / compromise across the three resulting targets, hence the term triangulation. The three perspectives in play are (1) top-down, (2) left-to-right, and (3) bottoms-up, as follows:
(1) Top-Down: Exactly as it sounds, this perspective typically comes from someone in a senior role (e.g. founder, CEO, board member, investor) taking a birds-eye view into the business to determine a revenue growth goal. Unsurprisingly these tend to be quite ambitious and generally unencumbered by on-the-ground realities that could stand in the way of goal-attainment. These are also often oriented to support an impressive growth narrative (“We’re going to grow 100% next year!”) or establish an inspirational milestone (“$10M in ARR or bust!”). The benefit of top-down goals is that they tend to be “stretch goals;” the downside is that they can induce some unsustainable “growth-at-all-costs” behavior or set the business up for failure. Almost always, the top-down goal is the highest of our triad of targets.
(2) Left-to-Right: This is a forecast based on historical performance and trends, whereby past years (on the left side of the spreadsheet) inform future years (on the right). Such objectives typically reflect the perspective of someone in a Financial Planning & Analysis role and are based on some reasonable application of past performance to predict future results (“We’ve grown year-over-year bookings 25% on average for the last 3 years…so we’ll forecast 25% growth next year”). Anyone who has spent time in early-stage SaaS businesses will quickly spot the pros and cons of such an approach. Specifically, although past is prologue, these businesses are operating in extremely dynamic environments; and reliance on past data has only limited utility.
History…only so helpful
Generally speaking, Left-to-Right tends to be the middle-child in our family of goals — neither the aggressive hyper-achiever, nor the black-sheep slacker — just…meh. (Note: this last statement comes from a card-carrying middle-child).
Bottoms-Up: This approach constructs a bookings goal from the bottom up and represents the perspective of the person / people responsible for driving day-to-day sales results (e.g. CRO, VP of Sales, VP of Marketing). This perspective starts from $0 on day 1 of a fiscal year and assumes “nothing happens until someone sells something.” More mechanically, it establishes a bookings forecast from its component parts by building up a notional population of representative sales deals across a time-period. This approach tends to incorporate multiple inputs into detailed models, including:
· Number of fully-ramped sales reps
· New quota-bearing hires / time to ramp new hires
· # of deals a fully-ramped rep can close per month / quarter / year
· Average contract value (ACV) per deal
· Conversion rates from sales opportunity-to-close
· Conversion rates from lead-to-opportunity
· Conversion rates of website visitors-to-leads
· Conference, webinar, user group attendance…related conversion rates…and much more
The resulting forecast from such an approach tends to be quite conservative, sometimes prompting accusations of sandbagging by its advocates. Almost without fail, this will be the lowest among our trio of prospective top-line targets.
Triangulating: Simply quantifying each of these different perspectives is certainly a step toward a more inclusive and informed top-line goal. But a bit more work at this point is what yields the real progress. The truth is that the three different methodologies produce widely divergent results, both in terms of target figures and the rigor used to arrive at them, so compromise is necessary. Graphically, these could be plotted like this.
Top-line goal-setting
Each goal has its own shortcomings, and none of these goals tends to unilaterally offer an ideal bookings target. Without further discussion, these different data points simply shine a light on the misalignment that commonly exists across the various stakeholders. This can look like this:
Top-line goal-setting
But these inputs also provide the forum for an interactive discussion around the drivers of each. Optimally, organizations can move beyond this zone of Uninformed Conflict simply by asking pointed questions of each goal:
· Top Down: What are the specific results needed to support a compelling growth story? What organizational changes are necessary to support attainment of those results?
· Left-to-Right: What conditions are consistent with the past, such that a continuation of past performance is a reasonable expectation? What market / operating changes might raise performance expectations (product improvements / upsell offerings, better sales training, improved marketing collateral) or lower them (increased competitive intensity, unpopular compensation plan, additional funding for a key competitor)?
· Bottoms Up: What assumptions in the models are overly pessimistic? What are the key variables that drive the most performance improvement; and what can be done to with surgical focus to relax constraints on those variables?
This exercise forces people out of their default perspectives and drives productive (albeit, often uncomfortable) discussions. Inevitably, this drives more informed goal-setting and better alignment across the business…and quite frequently, it helps move the top-line goal up and to the right in our now-familiar graph:
Top-line goal-setting
Conclusion: The top-line goal is critical to annual planning efforts. To be fit for purpose, it must balance ambition, credibility, and executability. Only by clearing this bar will it fully serve its multifaceted purpose: to please optimistic financial stakeholders, satisfy the inherent skepticism of internal number-crunchers, and pass the “red-face test” among the troops. Admittedly, this is only a start; and many other components are needed to really nail annual planning. But getting this goal right is a great foundation around which to build; and triangulating across these multiple perspectives is a simple way to inform this process. Plus, doing so is a good way to make the New Year something really worthy of celebration by all stakeholders. | https://medium.com/made-not-found/when-setting-top-line-goals-3-perspectives-are-better-than-one-dae197aebc7c | ['Todd Gibby'] | 2020-12-17 18:51:41.598000+00:00 | ['Growth Strategy', 'SaaS', 'Business Strategy'] |
Pension Central is currently helping employers fulfil their monthly pension remittance obligation. | Pension Central is currently helping employers fulfil their monthly pension remittance obligation. ChamsAccess Jul 5·3 min read
The Pension remittance space in Nigeria is filled with so much great promise, but still faced with inefficiencies particularly in funds reconciliation and delivery to PFAs. For some organisations, pension remittance is a task that is usually dreaded, particularly the continuous monthly cycle of signing multiple payment cheques, processing multiple schedules, and visiting multiple banks to submit each schedule. Ultimately, the manual efforts being done most times lead to funds not hitting Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) till days and weeks, even months.
Indeed, the pension industry deserves a remittance solution that eases and solves problems around pension schedule preparation, remittance and funds reconciliation.
In a bid to bringing efficiencies to this space, Pension Central was launched, with a promise of enabling organisations remit pension funds easily and securely, with few clicks, guaranteeing same-day delivery of funds to all PFAs and eliminating all reconciliation issues.
Organizations can sign up for a free employer account in seconds by inputting just their PenCom code which is then validated to be true, after which they enter their email addresses, reset their default password and they begin to remit! Existing solutions don’t provide a sign-up process as seamless as this, with companies still having to complete some paper and leg work, going to a bank, then having to wait some days before signup process can be completed.
We basically want employers and corporate organisation to focus on the core of their businesses and allow Pension Central take care of their pension remittance processes.”
Every year, organisations are expected to get their PenCom Compliance certificate, a report that attests that those organisations successfully remitted pension for the year. That process is currently filled with lots of manual processing for most organisations who have to compile pension schedules and payment receipts for every pension schedule processed all through the year, then compile for processing. However, those processes have been completely eliminated, all schedules and receipts are accessible in one place, no need for manual efforts, no need for multiple paperwork.
All with few clicks, Pension Central enables organisations to process their compliance reports for the year seamlessly.
Some of the Key Benefits are:
Pandemic Compliant (e.g Covid-19): Pension remittance through your computer from the comfort of your office/home eliminates any form of exposure to any virus.
Pension remittance through your computer from the comfort of your office/home eliminates any form of exposure to any virus. Instant Delivery of Schedule & Payment : By integration, all pension schedules and payments are delivered to PFCs, shortening the remittance cycle of pension from days to seconds.
: By integration, all pension schedules and payments are delivered to PFCs, shortening the remittance cycle of pension from days to seconds. Operational Overhead Reduction: No more preparation of multiple physical schedules, signing of cheques, and physical delivery to the banks. Schedule and payments are purely electronic.
No more preparation of multiple physical schedules, signing of cheques, and physical delivery to the banks. Schedule and payments are purely electronic. Payroll Integration: flexibility of integrating with Payroll systems so that all pension items for all employees are extracted and remitted to PFAs on the fly
Since launching in October 2020, Pension Central has helped over 500 employers to seamlessly fulfil their monthly pension remittance obligation till date with an impressive return rate of close to 90% of signed up organisations month on month.
Pensioncentral.ng is an initiative of Chamsaccess Limited, Nigeria’s leading provider of Identity and Access Management Solutions, located in Victoria Island, Lagos Nigeria. | https://medium.com/@chamsaccessltd/pension-central-is-currently-helping-employers-fulfil-their-monthly-pension-remittance-obligation-4860d094dbfa | [] | 2021-07-05 10:19:14.925000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Pension Tech', 'Pension', 'Startup'] |
Cryptography, Objective Of Cryptography and Types of Cryptography | Cryptography
Cryptography is a technique of encrypting the plain (clear) text data into a scrambled code.This encrypted data is sent over public or private network toward destination to ensure the confidentiality. This encrypted data known as "Ciphertext" is decrypted at the destination for processing.Strong encryption keys are used to avoid key cracking.
Objective Of Cryptography
Confidentiality:
Information can only be accessed by the person for whom it is intended and no other person except him can access it.
Integrity:
Information cannot be modified in storage or transition between sender and intended receiver without any addition to information being detected.
Non-repudiation:
The creator/sender of information cannot deny his or her intention to send information at later stage.
Authentication:
The identities of sender and receiver are confirmed. As well as destination/origin of information is confirmed.
Types of Cryptography
Symmetric key cryptography
Symmetric key cryptography uses a single key for both encryption and decryption.In symmetric encryption, the plaintext is encrypted and is converted to the ciphertext using a key and an encryption algorithm. While the cipher text is converted back to plain text using the same key that was used for encryption, and the decryption algorithm.symmetric encryption primarily used for privacy and confidentiality.
Asymmetric key cryptography
Asymmetric key cryptography two keys are used. One key is publicly known to everyone while one key is kept secret and is used to encrypt the data by sender hence it is also called Public Key cryptography.
Each sender uses its secret key (private key) for encrypting its data before sending. The receiver uses the respective public key of the sender to decrypt the data. Asymmetric encryption primarily used for authentication, non-repudiation and key exchange.
Hash function
A cryptographic hash function is a hash function which is considered practically impossible to invert, that is, to recreate the input data from its hash value alone.These one-way hash functions. The input data is often called the message, and the hash value is often called the message digest or simply the digest. Hash Functions uses a mathematical transformation to irreversibly “encrypt” information, providing digital fingerprint.primarily used for message integrity. | https://medium.com/@pushpaknaliyadhara/cryptography-objective-of-cryptography-and-types-of-cryptography-bd2a88eeddc0 | ['Pushpak Naliyadhara'] | 2020-06-15 10:10:51.108000+00:00 | ['Hash Functions', 'Pushpak Naliyadhara', 'Types Of Cryptography', 'Symmetric Key', 'Cryptography'] |
Asian Markets Driving Bitcoin To $8,000 And Beyond? | Bitcoins latest run to $8,000 has been fueled by growing interest amongst institutional funds like Blackrock, and speculation about a Bitcoin ETF proposal currently being deliberated by the SEC.
Both of these indicators would seem to point to the US markets pushing Bitcoins price up to the $8,000 level. Yet recent reports show that the Asian markets are actually responsible for the bulk of Bitcoins recent trading volume.
EToro senior analyst Mati Greenspan shared his thoughts on Twitter, stating that:
The surge above $8,000 was definitely led by East Asia. Take a look at bitcoin volumes in Japanese Yen and Korean Won at the time of the surge (13:30–15:00 on the chart). In contrast, USD volumes had only a small spike and USDT (tether) remained constant through the movement. pic.twitter.com/fHdD8gRTTL — Mati Greenspan (@MatiGreenspan) July 25, 2018
The first graph shows the Bitcoin/JPY trading volumes are at about 11,000.
Likewise the Korean markets experienced their own spike followed by a steady wave of volume trading in early July 23rd.
The BTC/USD trading volume only experienced a small spike, followed by mediocre trading volume.
Japanese Government devalues Yen
The Japanese Governments devaluing of the Yen may be the key reasons why Japan has experienced a recent surge in Bitcoin trading volume. As seen in countries like Venezuela and China, national currency devaluation usually leads to citizens transferring their money into other assets classes like Gold, Bonds or Bitcoin in order to retain or appreciate the valuation.
Korea and Japan have long been strong adopters of Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Both countries have seen Bitcoin adopted by retailers, tech companies (like Samsung) and even airlines. The Japanese Government has arguably gone the furthest in its adoption by officially recognizing Bitcoin as a legal currency.
This recognition would have likely led citizens to view Bitcoin as the ideal currency substitute during times when the Yen was struggling.
Conclusion
It remains to be seen how much higher Bitcoins price will ascend. However, what is clear is that despite the catalyst for the recent price surge being predominantly US-based events (ETF announcement and Blackrock exploring Bitcoin) the trading volume charts seem to indicate that the Asian markets are the most eager to take us into another crypto bull run. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/asian-markets-driving-bitcoin-to-8-000-and-beyond-cb6bf2c5e4a2 | ['Ric Ruben'] | 2018-07-26 13:09:23.706000+00:00 | ['Trading', 'Financial Markets', 'USA', 'Bitcoin', 'Asia'] |
BOOSTO x Internxt Partnership Announcement | On October 15, BOOSTO announced we have formed a strategic, multi-phase partnership with leading blockchain project Internxt. Internxt is a decentralized cloud storage service with a focus on privacy and security. The partnership will be in two phases. The first phase of this partnership involves the integration of Internxt tokens and BOOSTO protocol. The integrated protocol will allow joint followers to donate Internxt token to the BOOSTO influencer community, and BOOSTO tokens will be allowed to be used in the Internxt ecosystem. The Subsequent phases of the partnership will involve deeper collaborations such as allowing Internxt program to be intergrated and displayed in BOOSTO influencer stores.
The partnership has been discussed by BOOSTO’s head of product management, Rock Zhang, and Internxt Chief Marketing Officer, Conor Doyle during the San Francisco blockchain week. “we are reaching out to up and coming crypto projects that we think would be a great fit for a partnership.” Said Doyle.
In the BOOSTO and Internxt integrated protocol, both users from BOOSTO and Internxt will enjoy the following capabilities:
Within BOOSTO, users will have the option to donate Internxt tokens to influencers they like. Or, influencers will be able to airdrop Internxt tokens to their followers. Within Internxt, users will be able to use BOOSTO token to upload and download files on Internxt and receive a Free forever 10 GB plan for the Beta version of X cloud. X Cloud is a distributed, highly secure, cloud storage service which strives to compete with services such as Dropbox or Google Drive.
Internxt will be a new member of the BOOSTO community.
“Our influencer network is happy to see more good projects to join our network to enrich the variety of tokens flow in the ecosystem,” said Co-founder and CTO, Chen, Wang. “But it is very important that we work with high-quality projects. Internxt is a good project we would like to work with.”
BOOSTO welcomes more great projects as we move forward and to establish more stronger partnerships in the crypto space. | https://medium.com/boosto/boosto-x-internxt-partnership-announcement-10a32859bed9 | [] | 2018-10-24 19:29:46.665000+00:00 | ['Partners', 'Social Media', 'Announcement', 'Bockchain', 'Collaboration'] |
Create a Throttling System for Any Application with no more than 100 lines of Code | Applications are often design with a throttling mechanism involved. Sometimes, we want to limit the number of requests to improve our application’s security and performance. Sometimes your application cannot respond to more than a certain number of connections. For instance, if you polled the message as fast as your can from a queue and did not limit the number of connection, your application will soon exhaust its connection fool and face Denial of Service error. In this scenario, having a mechanism that limits the amount of the number of applications being processed at the same time will help improve your application performance.
In this article, I want to share how we can create a throttling mechanism with FS2 concurrent primitive Queue.
Before we start, I want you to imagine an application that will continuously poll elements from upstream. Then, we leverage FS2 to handle throttling/back-pressure by providing the maximum buffer size that the resources can operate simultaneously. When the internal Queue is full, it won’t enqueue the message until some of the tasks are finished.
Essentially the user of the application can use it like this:
Therefore, when the maximum size exceeds 100, it will stop poll the element until the internal Queue has some space.
There are 2 parts to the process of creating this:
The consumer is a type of class that will subscribe to an upstream by constantly enqueuing the value to an internal Queue.
Subscriber is a type class that will wrap the Consumer and dequeues the chunk from the internal Queue and process that value.
Depending on the use-case of the application, we can encapsulate the Subscriber portion or the Consumer portion. In this article, it will be the Consumer. Meaning the user can specify what upstream their function wants to poll from, and they get to access the result from the Subscriber. The last article was encapsulating the subscriber portion.
Consumer
The Consumer will subscribe to the upstream. Therefore, we want a function that is like this:
The function receives any value from upstream and enqueue the matter to the internal Queue.
Let’s create the initial subscription method. We need to create the instance of the Consumer type class by letting our caller initialized the internal Queue and inject them into the Consumer instance.
We will use NoneTerminatedQueue for terminating the Queue once the upstream stops are sending a message to the Consumer. The Consumer can tell the Subscriber to stop the stream.
Does that sound like resource acquisition?
You are right! Essentially, we want to acquire a resource and want to guarantee that some cleanup action is run if the resource is acquired. Therefore, we will create the resource helper method for subscribe :
We will get the value from upStream and enqueue1 to our internal Queue. Then, we will compile.drain and drain all the input coming from upStream . If all the information is a drain or any errors occur during the computation, the resource will clean up by enqueue1 a None to our internal Queue (Subscriber). The Subscriber then stops its stream.
This is how we call the Consumer :
start here will start a fiber . If you didn't put a start , then the entire process will be sequential, meaning it will enqueue all the value then dequeue. If our internal Queue is full, it will hang there. Therefore, having start will execute the subscribe in another IO thread.
Subscriber
We want the Subscriber to poll repeatedly and return a Stream[F, A] back to the caller.
Therefore, we can create a type class that has will pollRepeat :
Similar to Consumer we will need to create an instance of Subscriber by having the maximum queue size and the upstream as the parameter:
We need to subscribe to the upstream, fire off the Subscriber into another thread, and instantiate the Subscriber.
We create the boundedNoneTerminated internal Queue with the maxBufferSize that the caller provides. Then, we make our Consumer with the help of the Consumer type class, and subscribe to upstream and start off on another fiber. We return the Queue back so that we can wire it with the Subscriber instance.
Then as we create the consumer , we can connect the consumer with the Subscriber . Like this:
This is the program to use the subscriber instance and use it as any Throttling mechanism in your application:
You will need to call unsafeRunSync at the end:
subscriberExample.unsafeRunSync
Conclusion
Adding a throttling mechanism can be challenging, especially if you need to do it in a concurrent environment. Luckily, with the help of FS2, constructing a throttling mechanism on any application can be done in a few lines of codes.
We create the Consumer type class to subscribe to any source. Then, we use Subscriber to constantly enqueue and dequeue in a concurrent manner. We can guarantee the cleanup of the Queue data before we stop the stream with resource acquisition.
I hope you find this post useful in learning more about FS2, Scala, or Functional Programming in general. If there is anything that might cause any error to feel free to point it out so I can also learn from you.
All source code is in GitHub. | https://levelup.gitconnected.com/creating-a-throttling-system-for-any-application-with-no-more-than-100-lines-of-code-ac5b2b6d86d8 | ['Edward Huang'] | 2020-10-19 03:08:07.507000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Scala', 'Stream Processing', 'Fs2', 'Functional Programming'] |
Immortality Protocol — A Philosophy of everlasting Contribution | Did you ever entertain the thought of an immortal life?
When was the last time you contemplated your mortality asking yourself: How to best live your life facing the ultimate fact: we all must die some day? — or:
Is there a way to overcome death?
🗿“Memento Mori” (beware of your mortality), the Stoics keep reminding us. “Carpe Diem” (seize the day) is the answer provided by yet another school of Ancient philosophers, the Epicureans.
Despite this advice or maybe just because of it, the quest for an immortal life has been the ultimate motivation for a lot of people across the millennia.
But what is it that so many people are actually looking for when they want to achieve immortality?
Immortality in Pop Culture
A lot of the our favorite binge-watch series (or multi-part movies) these days tend to come with dramatic cliffhangers in which one of the main protagonists gets killed in a spectacular way. So it seems at least. We remain in breath-taking suspense — only to see that figure being magically revived or returning as surprising survivor in a later episode. Indeed, the best fictional characters (heroes and villains alike) are just very “hard to kill”. This might be why we love them so much.
In fact, the pop culture motive of immortality was already addressed in the most famous narratives of ancient myths: Continuous rebirth (virtual immortality) is actually a super-power possessed by the legendary fire bird “Phoenix”: The creature is continuously being remade, reincarnated from its own ashes after literally burning to death — a most impressive comeback that became part of the popular phrase “rising like a Phoenix” and also the name of the famous capital of Arizona. 🐦🔥
Spiritual Immortality
A lot of people also tend to seek immortality in religion and spirituality. All major world religions take up this concept or theme in their scriptures and teachings. I do not intend to touch too deeply on this aspect, but my core observations are these:
While the ability to become immortal is firstly achieved by a central figure (in Christianity: Jesus), it is then also made accessible to the followers respectively believers — provided they live a life according to the teachings. Thus all followers can eventually become immortal.
A though that might surprisingly bridge spirituality and modern science could be contemplating our origin in the universe itself as a source of immortality.
✨ Since we are all made up of the same particles, namely “stardust” and after our biological death are “converted back” to the very same matter (so that new life can be born from it), we continue our immortal existence — only in a different form. This “infinite cycle” is also a central motive in the teachings of Hinduism.
Counting the Days
Speaking about science. Let’s do a quick math. Shall we? Assuming, you have a life expectancy of 80 years (about the European average), your life has about 29,000 days. Surprisingly, this sounds like a rather limited timeframe while “80 years” might sound like eternity to most people.
By the time you are reading this (under the assumption that you are a mid 20 person), you have already spent more than 7,000 days on this planet (~22,000 remaining). Let this sink in. 🕒
OK, so what is the point here? The point is: Your time is extremely valuable (actually the most valuable good you have in life) and nothing (currently known by science), can bring it back. 😱
Modern Ways to extend Life
OK, so if we cannot bring it back — how about: Adding a few days?
Over the course of the past century alone, humanity (specially large branches of our economy) has come up with countless ways of “cheating death” or “stop aging”. This starts with cosmetics and plastic surgery, it covers the Quantified Self and various health/diet movements and ultimately culminates in the sci-fi phantasy that one day we might be able to “upload our minds into the Cloud” (I am not talking about crematories here, but the digitalization of your soul —that is, if you have one. 😅)
Think about it: When was the last time that you counted your steps, checked your heart rate after/during a run or monitored your sleep ?— Just with the ultimate goal to squeeze out a few more hours, days or — so we hope — years out of your finite lives.
If you gave these options some thought (most of us do this for the better part of their lives because this all sounds super tempting), you will, nevertheless, ultimately reach at the sobering conclusion that none of those methods are “sufficient”, that is, at least not today. (Some of them are not even sustainable!)
Imagine for a short moment, that humanity will eventually manage to prevent our biological death or extend our life span indefinitely and that you actually will be around to witness it and even become immortal.
How would you then spend eternity — procrastinating watching your favorite Netflix hero die to be reborn time and time again?
Immortality already is within our Grasp
The good news is: We are already there. Wait, what?! Not with the Netflix stuff, of course! But immortality actually already is within our grasp.
Yes, humanity has already achieved immortality in two ways.
The first one is based on evolution. All organisms on this planet are designed in a way so that they would eventually pass on their genetic information to their offspring before their death.
That way we are in a sense the continued “cloned variation” or “mutation” of the very first cell(s) that ever evolved, from a biological standpoint. From a social or philosophical standpoint, this means that we continue to live through our children, grandchildren and so on. 👪
It also implicates that sex is the evolutionary “protocol” to achieve immortality — and might explain our biological “predisposition” towards wanting to attain it. 💑
It is the second way, in my opinion, however, that truly deserves the name Immortality Protocol — as an actual guiding philosophy that can help everyone of us achieve immortality.
Large parts of this discussion have focused around how your person, your ego, can become immortal as an individual.
I want you to think bigger. I want you to leave your ego behind.
Think about the contributions you can make or are already making in this life and think about the causes you are dedicating them to. Keep asking yourself:
What is my contribution to humanity?
Beyond Eternal Fame
Our species has created a lot of famous monuments during the course of its existence. Among them are buildings like the great pyramids in Egypt, or more recently sky towers like the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
Those buildings were not only constructed to give pharaohs or architects eternal fame, as an amplifier for their large egos! They were created by everyone involved in the process, every single person that made the smallest contribution. They can be more than proud of these achievements!
The same is true for all organizations that people built: The European Union, the United Nations, charities — every group and entity that is focusing on improving conditions around the Globe.
Also ideas and visions like the French Revolution, the United States of America, the Arab Spring and many more, were only made possible by the contributions of each and everyone who was involved — their legacy and thus their very existences thus become immortal.
We can think of a lot of famous people in history: Marcus Aurelius, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein — if you look closely, they have all become immortal, not through their lives, but through their contributions to mankind.
These are what remains beyond fame.
Make every Day Count
Taking their guiding examples and those of so many other people who inspired us in our lives, we can try to create a philosophy of everlasting contribution that will drive our lives.
Author Brendon Buchard tells us that he keeps reflecting about three questions every day in his life — he would recite them even at his deathbed:
Did I live? Did I love? Did I matter?
The last question could also be rephrased as: Did I make an impact with my life? The answer might be hard for most of us, today.
But every single one of us can find their purpose in this life, an idea which is so much bigger than oneself, an eternal cause that will serve society, a cause that needs our ever-lasting contribution.
Let it be science, let it be education, let it be community service. It does not matter what it is for you, as long as the ultimate goal will be becoming immortal by:
Leaving this planet as a better place than we found it — and helping to take humanity to the next level in the process. 🆙
Let this be our “Immortality Protocol”.
Make every day count.
Cheers!
#thestrugglebeginstoday
I hope this article could help you contemplate or at least give you a few new perspectives on this rather “heavy topic”. I am grateful to count you among my readers. 😌
As always: I am curious about your thoughts in the comments below!
Disclaimer
The “clickbaity” title of this article may sound like it has been taken from the next James Bond or Mission Impossible movie, but it was inspired from somewhere else.
In the now more than a decade old real time strategy computer game, Starcraft 2, it is your mission to command an army of soldiers and machines on a virtual battlefield. One particular troop unit under your command eventually develops the ability to completely repair and rebuild itself, right on the spot, after it was taken out — a full “reincarnation” on the battlefield, like it was never gone. This intriguing capability is called “Immortality Protocol” back in the game. Had a nice ring to it, the term stuck with me. 😅 | https://medium.com/@thestrugglebeginstoday/immortality-protocol-a-philosophy-of-everlasting-contribution-c273960f9b74 | [] | 2020-12-30 15:48:51.048000+00:00 | ['Philosophy', 'Hope', 'Contribution', 'Immortality', 'Mortality'] |
7 Habits That Helped Me Lose 20 Pounds During The Pandemic | 1. I Used Jordan Syatt’s x12 Rule to Decide My Daily Calorie Limit
Even though I just called this a rule, I don’t mean to say you need to stick to this every single day. I try to live by the 80/20 rule. I went into this phase admitting I’m human. The only way to make lasting change is to understand this is not a diet, this is your life. Make small, incremental changes you can sustain for life instead of dramatic changes you’ll give up on in a few days.
How did I decide on a calorie limit?
I follow Jordan Syatt online, he has an insightful video on YouTube to help you calculate how many calories you should eat for fat loss. I encourage you to watch the full video but here’s the short answer so you can start now.
Take your goal body weight in pounds and multiple it by 12. Example: 150 lbs x 12 = 1800 calories a day.
For your protein intake, he recommends you take your goal body weight and multiply it by 1. Example: 150 lbs x 1 = 150g of protein per day. I rarely ever met this amount yet still achieved progress.
Track everything you eat and stick to your calorie limit 80–90% of the time for 30 days and you will see a difference on the scale and in your clothes.
It’s important to include foods you enjoy within your calorie limit. For example, I find a way to include french fries (specifically the Alexia brand) or a protein cookie nearly every day as a treat. The main reason most diets fail is people go to the extreme and eliminate every “bad food.” This might work for a while but eventually, your self-discipline will run out. This is a lifestyle, so find ways to incorporate foods you enjoy and you will find success.
2. I Prepared and Ate Every Meal at Home
All restaurants were closed. The only option for food was the grocery store. Not only did this save money, but it naturally encouraged good nutritional habits. While everyone was panicking and stocking up like crazy on canned foods, I shopped the abundant produce aisle.
3. I Tracked Everything I Ate
And I mean everything. I used the free app Lose It! to scan and input every bite of food I consumed.
Tip for tracking: Buy a food scale. The only way to be exact with what you’re putting in your body is to measure. Measuring cups can be misleading, use weight in grams instead.
Most people have no clue how much they’re overeating. Simply by tracking what you eat for a week will help you lose weight. Once you realize how much a serving size actually is, you’ll start choosing healthier options.
4. I Ignored Every Single Fitness Metric Except One
Before the shelter-in-place order, I went to the gym 5–6 times a week, focusing primarily on strength training and reached 10,000 steps most days. During shelter-in-place, my activity dwindled to almost nothing. Rather than beating myself up about this, I chose to focus on one thing at a time. Physical activity was never a problem for me. Instead, I narrowed in on the most difficult part of weight loss: Food habits and the mindset behind them.
Spending all my time home alone, except for my cat, meant I had a lot of time to think. The motivation behind choosing unhealthy food vs a healthy one became obvious to me. I used a sweet treat or salty snack to ignore a stressful situation at work or feel better after a bad day. I allowed food to soothe my anxiety and depression. By working with a therapist, I learned better ways to cope with my stress and anxiety that didn’t involve food.
Despite the fact there is a world pandemic going on, I actually found more peace at home. I focused on my mental health, investing in myself, and making better decisions, all actions I know will lead to lifelong change including weight loss.
5. I Didn’t Only Rely on Myself
I believe in working with experts especially if you want to reach a new level. I knew I needed guidance so I searched a few nutritionists in my area, called and made an appointment.
Recipe by Ronaldo Linares; plate photography by Renée Comet
The first nutritionist I met offered a few nuggets of wisdom, such as adding more protein into breakfast by drinking a protein shake. She also educated me about the plate method.
The plate method is based on a 9-in diameter plate to help you keep portions sizes in check. Fill 1/2 your plate with non-starchy vegetables, 1/4 with grain and starchy vegetables, and the last 1/4 is your lean protein. I’ll admit I’m still working on getting to this ideal plate but as I said before I aim for the 80/20 rule, not perfection.
Especially while we’re stuck in a rut at home, getting an informed outside opinion on your eating habits can give you exactly the perspective shift to change your eating habits.
6. I Didn’t Expect Instant Results
I weigh myself every morning. Not because I expect to lose weight every day but because I like to look at the data. In quarantine, you’re the only accountability partner you have. It also helped me realize how and why weight fluctuates. For example, if I consumed more carbs one day the scale might go up a pound the following morning but eventually, it would go back down in a day or two.
I also highly recommend you take before and after progress measurements. The scale isn’t the full story. You may notice the scale doesn’t budge but you lose inches in your thighs and waist.
If you focus on food and psychology first, you will notice a difference in your clothes. Remember this isn’t temporary, it’s a lifestyle. Focus on small, attainable changes and give yourself time to see results.
7. When My Weight Loss Slowed, I Didn’t Panic
You’ll lose the most in the first 2 months then less the following. I lost 15 pounds in the first 6 weeks, 2 pounds in May, and 3 pounds in June. You might feel disappointed with slow progress but it’s still progress.
If you take into account that your life will be throwing you off — especially in a pandemic — an average 2-pound weight loss per month actually is the average. Setting attainable expectations will keep you going. It doesn’t matter if you lose 30 pounds in the first month if you gain it back the next when you lose motivation — by setting attainable goals, you can continue to make small changes you can live with. | https://medium.com/in-fitness-and-in-health/7-habits-that-helped-me-lose-20-pounds-during-the-pandemic-6a516c4892cc | ['Monica Galvan'] | 2020-11-26 21:48:01.784000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Wellness', 'Lifestyle', 'Nutrition', 'Fitness'] |
Is NVT indicating a buy zone for large cap cryptocurrencies? | Bitcoin last 3 months, 56d Moving Average. Data from CoinMetrics
In last months, the market cap of the most important cryptocurrencies has been hiking consistently while their NVT is on its way down. Is it a good buy signal?
As described in our last Medium post, NVT is the ratio that measures the value attributed by the market to the volume of transactions executed in a ledger. Mathematically, it is defined as the market cap of a cryptocurrency divided by its on-chain volume, and it can be interpreted as the price of each US dollar transacted in the network.
Thereby, a rising trend for NVT means the token’s market cap is climbing up faster than its inner value, what may indicate FOMO or a price bubble. Alternatively, when the ratio keeps falling down it can mean that a good opportunity of investment is being set, if the volume follows an uptrend.
Dash last 3 months, 56d Moving Average. Data from CoinMetrics
Litecoin last 3 months, 56d Moving Average. Data from CoinMetrics
And that’s exactly what has happened to some large cap cryptocurrencies in the last months. Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dash are good examples of that: in last three months, prices are hiking rapidly while the NVT ratio is consistent on its way down, what indicates the volume of transactions is evolving in a notable pace.
But is that signal sufficient for investors to make good decisions right now? For us to know that, we should analyse other fundamentals indicators, which will be presented to you in next weeks.
Keep checking out our posts for more learning and insights! | https://medium.com/wit-insights/is-nvt-indicating-a-buy-zone-for-cryptocurrencies-a12e97d8b46d | ['Christian Gazzetta'] | 2019-06-07 14:28:36.012000+00:00 | ['Litecoin', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Btc', 'Dash'] |
Memphis Mafioso Richard Davis was struck by love at Elvis Week | Twenty-eight-year-old heartthrob Elvis Presley’s official photo shoot for the “Kissin’ Cousins” movie and accompanying soundtrack occurred between November 8 and 14, 1963, at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Hollywood. Photography by Virgil Apger / MGM / For Elvis CD Collectors message board
Memphis Mafia alum Richard “Broom” Davis [1939–2004] started working officially for Elvis Presley on the Seattle location shoot of It Happened at the World’s Fair on September 5, 1962, and remained on the payroll until the rock icon’s father Vernon coldly dismissed him in a cost-cutting move on November 15, 1970 [Elvis was playing the San Diego Sports Arena and had two subsequent shows to fulfill on his brief eight-city West Coast tour]. Davis juggled multiple job responsibilities — wardrobe manager, gofer, bodyguard, stuntman, stand-in — and remained on good terms with Elvis, even receiving a brand new 1975 white Cadillac convertible. Landing promotion gigs with Stax and Warner Bros. Records, Davis was managing rockin’ 50s deejay and fellow Mafia pal George Klein when his unlucky love streak permanently vanished. In spite of their age difference, Kim Hughes “made him a better man than he ever thought that he could be” and exclusively chronicles their serendipitous meeting for the first time.
The Kim Davis Ward Interview
When did you become an Elvis Presley fan?
I was six years old when Elvis passed away in 1977. I was playing with Play-Doh, and my mom came in and told me that he had died. I really didn’t know who Elvis was. I remember that my parents, Danny and Linda Hughes, had gone to his concert in 1975 at the Mid-South Coliseum [Elvis Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis chronicled Elvis’s debut 1974 stint at the venue; he played there a final time in July 1976], and I wanted to go with them. Not because of Elvis — I just liked being with them.
They had one album — On Stage [mostly recorded in February 1970 at the International Hotel in Las Vegas] — and I played it a lot when I was growing up. I loved Elvis’ voice. My mom walked us up to the Meditation Garden when my brother and I were young [the site of Elvis’ final resting place]. We went a few times because her chiropractor was right down the street.
For my 16th birthday, I wanted to go through Graceland and the planes. My mom took me. None of my friends wanted to go, so I went by myself. I had lived in Memphis my whole life and had never gone inside. I have pictures from that day. This was before the Car Museum existed. His cars were just parked behind the house in the carport.
Richard Davis [at center in the long sleeved white shirt], Elvis Presley, and Memphis rock ’n’ roll deejay George Klein [far right in the dark sunglasses] survey a crowded location while shooting “Viva Las Vegas” in July 1963. Image Credit: Elvis Presley Enterprises / The Kim Davis Ward Collection
What’s a compelling facet of Richard’s career that is virtually unknown?
During his down time on Elvis’ movies, Richard did stunt work and served as an extra. His Screen Actors Guild card was listed under Phil Davis because there was already another Richard Davis. It makes it difficult to obtain accurate info from IMDB and elsewhere online. He did several Star Trek episodes including “The Tholian Web” [season three, aired November 15, 1968].
Richard was an ape alongside Alan Fortas [a Memphis Mafia compadre who joined Elvis in the epochal ’68 Comeback Special, supplying guitar case percussion during the unplugged boxing ring segments] in several scenes from the first sequel to Planet of the Apes — 1970’s Beneath the Planet of the Apes. He did most of James Franciscus’ stunt work — e.g. anytime he was riding a horse. Near the finale when the mutants are praising the rocket, Richard and another bit player are guards dressed in gray uniforms who bring in the good-looking astronaut prisoner [Franciscus]. When Charlton Heston shoots the lead ape, that’s Richard falling off the cliff. You can also barely see Richard as a loin clothed-human lying down in jail.
George “G.K.” Klein used to tell the story on his SiriusXM radio show [2004 to 2018] about how Richard illegally kept a mask from the Apes set. G.K. would borrow it, turn his coat backwards, and scare the daylight out of Lisa [Elvis’ only child]. When he interviewed Lisa she had not forgotten her own personal monster.
Enterprise crew members Mr. Spock [Leonard Nimoy], Uhura [Nichelle Nichols], Dr. McCoy [DeForest Kelley], Scotty [James Doohan], Sulu [George Takei with his back to the camera], and Richard Davis [far right] combat an insanity-causing plague and an attack by the Tholians in “The Tholian Web,” the ninth episode of “Star Trek’s” third and final season broadcast on November 15, 1968. Incidentally, Sulu is cradling the head of a mentally unbalanced Chekov [Walter Koenig]. Image Credit: Cinematographer Al Francis [screen grab] / CBS Television / The Kim Davis Ward Collection
Nova [Linda Harrison] and Brent [James Franciscus] await interrogation from a population of telepathic humans who worship an ancient nuclear bomb in “Beneath the Planet of the Apes,” unleashed successfully to cinemas on May 26, 1970. That’s Richard Davis on the far right guarding the prisoners. Image Credit: The Walt Disney Company / IMDB
Led by guard Richard Davis at left, loin-clothed captive James Franciscus [“Brent” the astronaut] is delivered to the court of Méndez XXVI [Paul Richards at top center, best known for nearly obliterating Marshal Matt Dillon in the debut “Matt Gets It” episode of “Gunsmoke” in 1955] in “Beneath the Planet of the Apes,” the first of ultimately four sequels to “Planet of the Apes” issued to robust box office returns on May 26, 1970. Méndez XXVI was the leader of a sect of nuclear war descendants. Image Credit: The Walt Disney Company / IMDB
How did you meet Richard?
I had lived in Memphis my whole life. I was the only one amongst my friends that was a fan, probably because my parents had one album that I used to play over and over. Anyway, I was 19 and had just gotten back from a girls’ trip to Florida. I asked them to come to Elvis Week with me. No one would. They flat out refused.
So I went by myself on August 14, 1990. I wandered around the plaza and eventually bought two VHS tapes of Elvis: The Great Performances that G.K. had recently narrated. I went to the ticket pavilion where G.K. was and got him to sign both copies. Richard was there next to G.K., but I didn’t pay much attention to him because I didn’t know who he was.
I instantly became friends with so many fans that I hung around the plaza for awhile. I had heard that the Memphis Mafia was going to be playing versus some employees of the Elvis Presley Trauma Center in a game of softball. I love sports so I drove north on Elvis Presley Boulevard by myself and headed towards the game. It was a bit scary because that isn’t a very safe part of town.
As I was approaching where to pay to get in a photographer named Skipper Gerstel stopped me and waved me on through. Perhaps he liked the fact that I had a nice camera around my neck. He gave me a souvenir shirt commemorating the game, and I sat and watched the game and took pictures. There was a flatbed truck, a band, and G.K. was up there emceeing. Richard was almost always by his side. Neither one of them played softball that day.
After the game was over, Skipper introduced me to everyone. I remember meeting several of the guys, including Alan. Skipper walked me over to Richard. He took my hand, kissed it, and was so very kind. Definitely a Southern gentleman. He had such a sweet spirit about him, and his laugh and smile were contagious.
Skipper invited me to the Peabody Hotel for Marian Cocke’s Elvis Presley Memorial Dinner [a registered nurse at Baptist Memorial Hospital who treated Elvis starting in 1975]. I certainly wasn’t prepared. I was hot and sweaty and wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Growing up in Memphis, I always thought the Peabody was such a fancy place.
I agreed to go, but I wanted to drive myself. After all, I had just met this photographer and didn’t know anything about him. He had shown me an honorary sheriff’s badge and was carrying a gun, but I still had just met him.
We went into the ballroom on the second floor of the Peabody. We were sitting in the very back of this vast ballroom. After just a little while, Marian came over and introduced herself. She wasn’t pleased with me sitting in the back. I’ll never know why, but she wanted me to sit closer to the front.
The next thing I knew, I was sitting at the same table with people like G.K., Sam Phillips [Elvis’ Sun Records producer], D.J. Fontana [Elvis’ drummer from 1954 to 1968], some of the Jordanaires and of course, the guy that I had seen a couple of times earlier, Richard Davis. I had heard of most of the Memphis Mafia guys, but never Richard.
I sat there in awe as the only person I really knew in the room was Skipper, and he was up running around taking pictures. I didn’t say very much at all. After the Memorial Dinner was over, I obtained autographs. Skipper brought me over to Richard, and there were women seated and standing all around him trying to get a photo or signature.
Skipper had to keep telling me to ask him. I shyly went up to Richard with my torn piece of paper and asked him for an autograph. He immoderately told me that I would have to sit in his lap to get his autograph. I naively looked at Skipper and all he said was, “He means it. If you want Richard’s autograph, you will have to sit in his lap.” I reluctantly did, and I kind of hovered over his lap while he wrote a sweet note and signed his name. We then had our picture taken together.
The rest of the week I followed Skipper around with my camera, and he got me in all kinds of places including a press conference where Sam Phillips unveiled Elvis’ first acetate record that had just been rediscovered [“My Happiness” b/w “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin,” tracked in July 1953 at Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service aka Sun Studio].
I continued to show up wherever I knew G.K. would be because I knew Richard would be there with him. I later found out that Richard thought I was dating Skipper, and that’s why he was acting like he wasn’t interested in me. He also wasn’t sure if I was old enough for him to even consider. We saw each other pretty much every Sunday night at Alfred’s on Beale Street and any other place where G.K. was spinning records.
Jerry Schilling, Marty Lacker, MGM sound editor Larry Jost, Elvis Presley, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Sutton, and Richard Davis fool around with a kneeling George Klein and “Diamond” Joe Esposito on the July 1967 set of “Speedway.” Elvis married Priscilla Beaulieu two months earlier and was at an all-time artistic low. None of his films or records were connecting with the public. However, by September 1967 his path to the esteemed “‘68 Comeback Special” gained a solid foundation with the fantastic singles “Guitar Man,” “Hi-Heel Sneakers,” and “Big Boss Man,” all waxed at RCA Studio B in Nashville. Image Credit: Elvis Presley Enterprises
Was it love at first sight?
It definitely was for me. I couldn’t stop thinking about Richard.
Did G.K. reveal what made him lifelong pals with Richard?
G.K. and Richard were like brothers. Richard was a Memphis boy who danced on G.K.’s local television show Talent Party. And Richard was so funny. He was always making everyone laugh, especially G.K. They had a mutual love for their friend Elvis and had been through so much together.
Who was the first Elvis insider that you bumped into?
I met G.K. the same day that I met Richard. They were basically standing together in the ticket pavilion. So G.K. must have been the first.
Both my family and Sam Thompson’s go way back. Sam [Elvis’s bodyguard and tour advance man from 1972 to 1977 who eventually emerged as a Shelby County judge] used to sack groceries for my dad. His little sister Linda [Elvis’s girlfriend from 1972–1976 who married Olympic decathlete Bruce Jenner and Warner Bros. record impresario David Foster] graduated a year after my mom from Kingsbury High School, but that was before I was born.
That’s a great question which I’ve never really thought about. I guess I had never met any of them until I went to Elvis Week and in that very first day met so many.
Cleveland Browns fullback Jim Brown, designated the greatest college football player of all time by ESPN in a 2020 ceremony, is shown between takes of his debut film, the action-soaked 20th Century Fox western “Rio Conchos.” Brown was still an active football player when he ventured in dusty cowboy regalia to the nearby Paramount Studios to meet Elvis Presley and the Memphis Mafia on the March 1964 set of one of the King of Rock ’n’ Roll’s most popular movies, “Roustabout.” Left to right are Elvis’ first cousin Billy Smith, Alan Fortas, Richard Davis, Brown, Presley, “Diamond” Joe Esposito, Marty Lacker, and Jimmy Kingsley. Only Smith and Brown survive as of this writing. Image Credit: The Alan Fortas Archival Collection / Courtesy of Alanna Nash
Elvis Presley, Red West, Glen Campbell, and Richard Davis attend the December 5, 1970, wedding of Memphis Mafia member and rock ’n’ roll deejay George Klein to Barbara Little. Presley, sporting aviator sunglasses, black velvet fur overcoat, and flashy gold belt recognizing his record-shattering August 1969 season at the Las Vegas International Hotel [later named the Las Vegas Hilton and eventually the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino], graciously loaned his pal since the eighth grade the use of his International suite for the marriage. West was a founding Mafioso who carried out thrilling stunts on Robert Conrad’s “The Wild, Wild West” and composed “If Every Day Was Like Christmas,” “Separate Ways,” “If You Talk in Your Sleep,” and more for Elvis. Both Campbell and Davis autographed the photo to Don Wilson, host of “Don Wilson’s Hollywood Beat” podcast. Photography by Frank Carroll / The Don Wilson Collection
What was your official first date?
On October 26th, a little over two months since we first met during Elvis Week, we went to the Summer Twin Drive-In. The two movies were Young Guns II [Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, and Lou Diamond Phillips] and Steven Seagal’s Marked for Death.
You actually remember both movies from your first date.
I can’t believe I still recall them, either. I kept a journal from the time I was about 17 on up until Richard passed away. They are all upstairs in my attic somewhere. My 17-year-old son Brandon and I both love to write [the couple had triplets on July 11, 2002 — Dylan and Madison are Brandon’s siblings].
There was even a George Strait song, “Drinking Champagne” [Livin’ It Up, 1990, originally composed by Bill Mack], that came on the speaker during intermission. Part of the lyrics were, “I’m having a fling with a pretty young thing till early morning.” We laughed about that one for a long time and didn’t even know who was singing it until many years later when we looked it up.
Did Richard contemplate penning a memoir?
He didn’t write anything down — maybe just a list of movies that he was in — and never considered writing a book. Richard always said that he didn’t want to make money off of Elvis.
Had Richard been in prior relationships?
He had three failed marriages. I think the last one was in 1975. None of them lasted more than a year. Some of the guys told me that the one preceding me was a gold digger and just wanted to be around Elvis. | https://jeremylr.medium.com/memphis-mafioso-richard-davis-was-struck-by-love-at-elvis-week-1579d6c21bba | ['Jeremy Roberts'] | 2020-11-27 18:15:45.209000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Movies', 'Relationships', 'Music', 'Love'] |
The Divorce Hoax | “God hates divorce” is said to be Malachi 2:16, but the phrase is a phantom of translation.
It’s not in the Bible. Jack Collins, a conservative Christian scholar, notes traditional commentators haven’t liked to talk about it, as this “weakens the Biblical testimony against divorce.”
The scholars knew the line was false, but didn’t want to “weaken” the divorce ban? That’s an admission the other references weren’t too strong.
As Malachi 2:16 is the most recognized anti-divorce teaching in the Bible, it serves as a useful portal into the deception. Because of modern Bible scholarship, some translations have already begun to shift.
“The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect . . .” (NIV)
The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation, has for Malachi 2:16: “But if, since you hate her, you should send her away . . .” (NETS)
Then from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Latin Vulgate, there are many other possibilities. Russell Fuller, in a 1991 study, notes many versions “support the act of divorce.”
One of the dirty secrets you learn in Bible scholarship is there’s often multiple versions of biblical passages. A reading of Malachi 2:16 from the Dead Sea Scrolls is: “If, having hated, divorce! says the Lord the God of Israel . . .”
Divorce is always legal in the Bible.
In the Old Testament law for the Jews, divorce is fine. There’s no investigation or penalties. Two procedures for it are noted in Deuteronomy 24:1–4:
If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce . . .
What these “displeasing” or “indecent” female features are no one can say exactly. It’s not adultery, as that would be a capital crime. An additional procedure is noted in Exodus 21:7–11. If a wife had been a slave but a man finds himself unwilling to provide for her, she can be divorced.
Divorce is required in the regular problem of intermarriages. In Ezra 10:1–44 and Nehemiah 13:23–31, non-Jewish spouses are made to divorce.
Christian people are never prompted to follow Jewish law, but you’d have no reason for thinking God hates divorce.
And you might start to feel like you’ve been lied to?
That’s how I was. Then I started to feel worse, because I realized I’d been part of a system that was deeply injurious to oppressed humans.
Many women, for example, who clearly should have been fleeing abusive husbands were prompted to stay with them because of the supposed anti-divorce teachings. A 2009 column by Chuck Colson, the Christian commentator, discussing the problem, profiles a woman who sought help from a pastor, and shortly afterward was killed.
This was not an unusual event in the Evangelical world. Women are told to ‘submit’ — to their own deaths.
Christianity invented a whole realm of rituals involving marriage, then tries to use them to govern people.
Iin the Bible, there’s no wedding rituals, and clerics aren’t empowered to “perform” them.
Clerics like to say that marriages are “covenants” — another hoax. Nowhere in the Bible is marriage between humans called a “covenant.” Does Solomon make “covenants” with his 700 wives (1 Ki 11:3)?
Did Abraham have a ‘covenant’ with Sarah his wife, or Hagar his slave when he had sex with her? No. He has a ‘covenant’ with God.
Christians call spouses “covenant partners,” etc. But only once, as far as I can tell, is a covenant made between two humans: David and Jonathan in 1 Samuel 18:3 & 23:18.
The Jesus teachings don’t seem to insist on male-female sacred dyads, i.e. “Christian marriage.”
Jesus seems to like his followers to all be together. “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them,” he says in Matthew 18:20.
Love is never seen as confined to or structured by male-female pairings. “Love one another,” Jesus says in John 13:34. He never pairs people off, never oversees marriage, never ’performs’ them.
This isn’t a marriage-centered, child-focused religion. This isn’t a divine effort to get people coupled, popping out kids. There is one “family of God.” All Christians are seen as ‘one body’, as in 1 Corinthians 12:13, or Romans 12:5.
Jesus teachings seem to be, unexpectedly, a prompt to a kind of group consciousness. The word often translated as ‘fellowship’, koinónia, is a usual Greek term for spousal relationships.
“All the believers were together and had everything in common,” as Acts 2:44 says. This is not how Christians live today.
One disciple, Peter, is married, but we only know because Jesus liked his mother-in-law.
“We have left everything to follow you!” Peter says in Matthew 19:27. One would have to include his wife. Certainly, Peter is never told to “work on” his marriage, or anything like that.
Jesus seems, actually, to divorce his followers from their Jewish spouses. Note Luke 18:29–30:
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”
He tells them to avoid making vows and committing to obligations, as in Matthew 5:33–37. This is a prohibition on “Christian marriage” as usually practiced.
Jesus says there’s no marriage in the Kingdom (Mt 22:30), which is the vision of the new world he wants to bring into being.
Jesus does talk about “divorce” in some of his dialogues, and on these few remarks he’s said by Christianity to create a new rule against divorce for all humans. Lets’ take a look at that hoax?
The Bible is the sacred literature of a Temple-based system of priests.
For Christianity, it was something different: a sex manual, to be interpreted by the clerics, who are the sex police.
Though Jesus is viewed by Christianity as the sex police, in the gospel narratives he’s understood to be a prophet, and to speak like a prophet (cf. Mk 6:4, 15; 8:28; 14:65; cf. 13:22; Mt 21:11; 21:46; Lk 7:16; 7:39; 13:33; 24:19; Acts 3:22; 7:37).
And prophets, as it turns out, talk about marriage all the time — as a way of discussing relationships between deities and human communities. The deity is a ‘husband’, and the humans are a ‘female’. The term “baal,” the regular address for a deity, is simply the word for ‘husband’.
Christians know that the Jesus community is seen as the “bride of Christ,” just as Israel was YHWH’s bride. Less understood is that all nations were seen as married to “sons of God,” also called “gods” (cf. Deut 32:8, etc.).
The narrative of the Bible is that YHWH, the Father, is married to the ‘woman’ Israel, as His ‘sons’ have ‘brides’, and havoc ensues as the ‘sons’ lunge for Israel — the usual Biblical problem of sons trying to take the father’s woman. And from Israel — the true divine son is born who inherits everything.
There’s a lot of marriage and divorce talk by prophets. As in Ezekiel 16, Israel is seen as a “woman” who married YHWH at Mount Sinai. They fight over ‘adultery’ — with other gods! God tried to be close, like a ‘husband’.
“In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’ — Hosea 2:16
But it never takes, and God ‘divorces’ Israel (Jer 3:8, etc.).
For more, check out Sharon Moughtin-Mumby’s Sexual and Marital Metaphors in Hosea, Jeremiah, Isaiah and Ezekiel (2008).
When Jesus arrives, he’s seen as a ‘Bridegroom’ (Jn 3:29, etc.).
He is a deity looking for a marriage to a human community.
Jesus sees Israel — from a divine, prophetic perspective — as a divorced woman! This is the context of many of his divorce sayings. The subject the messiah speaks of here is God’s ex-wife. ‘She’ is husbandless, the prey of many ‘men’ (nations) trying to co-opt her. This is the story of Israel.
Christian readers have badly misread many passages employing this prophetic idea of marriage as a divine covenant. Like John 4:17–19, when Jesus is talking with the Samaritan Woman, and says she has had five husbands, and lives with another man. Note her reply:
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.”
His references to her five marriages alerts her to a shift in context. He is speaking in a prophetic mode.
As Brant Pitre discusses, Jesus is speaking of the people of Samaria having worshipped five deities — the story of 2 Kings 17:13–34. The fifth ‘man’ she’s “living with” would be YHWH.
Try to get Jesus’ divorce sayings to work as sexual rules?
First notice the manuscript versions of Jesus’ divorce sayings are highly unstable, and bear the marks of clerics trying to edit out the weirdness.
Just Mark 10:8 alone — as Alan H. Cadwallader discusses in a 2019 paper, “What’s a Single Man Blathering about? Jesus on Marriage” — exists in eight different manuscript versions.
But as they are presented, how do the ‘marriage laws’ seem to work? Take Jesus’ speech in Mark 10:10–12.
Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
Jesus suggests wives can initiate divorce, except this is not possible in Old Testament marriage law. Then the violation works differently for each sex. As David Parker writes in The Living Text of the Gospels (1997): “For a woman it is remarriage; for a man it is the prior step of divorce. Is there any possible sense to this?”
Then please recall the Bible assumes polygamy. If Jesus is saying that divorcing one wife and marrying another is bad, this would only be a prompt to marry both women — like Jacob marries Leah and then Rachel.
If Jesus is saying a divorced person has to be re-classified as an adulterer, then a procedure that was legal in Jewish law has become a capital crime (cf. Lev 20:10; Deut 22:22).
Likewise with Matthew 5:32, where “anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” So a re-married man dies? Or maybe Christians made a mistake in reading this text.
The real Christian message is to avoid human marriage. Paul encourages, in 1 Corinthians 7:8, that Christians be free!
Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do.
Paul here is dealing with the problem that many of Christian converts would have Jewish spouses who are initiating divorce.
“But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so,” Paul says. “The brother or the sister is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.”
Let the spouse go, he says. The marriage is not important.
This is never framed as rules, however. “I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you,” he writes in 7:35. It’s advice.
Let’s catch up to the actual Jesus teachings?
“Love one another” is the instruction to Gentile people, repeated in 1 John five times (3:11, 3:23, 4:7, 4:11, 4:12; cf. 2 Jn 6).
Maybe loving one another — is worth trying? | https://medium.com/belover/does-the-bible-forbid-divorce-fcca5eece4b | ['Jonathan Poletti'] | 2020-12-27 17:58:14.099000+00:00 | ['Christianity', 'Divorce', 'Marriage', 'Life', 'Feminism'] |
Exciting Features of iPhone New Trackpad -Here’s How It Actually Works | This Content Originally published at CodixLab.
On March 18, Apple officially declared iPhone new trackpad for iPad.These modifications in apple’s official trackpad are considerable developments in the technology era. It concluded the half-baked choices in Phone’s function Accessibility that we main saw on the iPad display screen.
iPhone new trackpad maintenance is the most significant entity that takes place on the iPad in an extended period. Superficially, iPadOS cares several third-party trackpads. This is how-to exactly we get the support on the apple’s official trackpad.
How to pair Apple’s official trackpad — Quick Tour
Here’s the full explanation of how to fix it up on your iPad.As soon as Apple’s official trackpad is unpaired, turn it off down, and after that, turns it back on.
Start your iPad and click the Settings app. Keep it to ensure that Bluetooth is switched on (green). Just before the end of the menu, you have to see your trackpad programmed under Other Devices. Click on your device’s name and pair it. To unpair, Apple’s official trackpad, just go to Settings > Bluetooth and, after that, touch the blue “i” in a blue circle to the right of the device’s name.
Your iPhone new trackpad must now work. To unpair the apple’s official trackpad, just go to Settings > Bluetooth, and after that, touch the blue “i” in a blue circle to the right of the device’s name in the Bluetooth list.
Related: How to Reset Apple Watch in 3 Steps? [Smart Solutions]
How to customize Apple’s official trackpad on your iPad
Apple now gives iPhone new trackpad support in the General section of the Settings app. which is a significant improvement. Here’s how to do it.
Press the settings app. Click on the general setting. Press iPhone newTrackpad& Mouse.
At here, you may adjust the setting to sort the pointer move fast or more slowly.
How to use Apple’s official trackpad; multi-touch gestures with iPad
iPhone’s new trackpad maintains the iPad more than just a mouse. Further down, you’ll see the gestures we know about this moment.
Get access to the Home screen. Without clicking on your apple’s official trackpad, press your iPhone new trackpad with three fingertips and put-down in one dragging motion. You’ll instantly be directed back to the iPad’s Home screen.
Using the App Switcher to check all Open Apps at once
This is actually like the previous gesture, but with an indirect twist. Without clicking down on apple’s official trackpad, touch trackpad with your three fingertips and swipe upward, but gentle down before you touch the top of this iPhone new trackpad.
As a substitute for the Home Screen, you’ll see App Switcher with your all open apps. You can swipe-up the complete list by clicking the iPad trackpad with two fingertips and swiping through left or right.
Swipe up without using the App Switcher
Just the once an app is exposed in full-screen style, you can simply swipe up all other open apps that are running in the background by moving the Apple’s official trackpad with your three fingertips and swipe through left or right.
Open-up the control panel
Click down the iPhone new trackpad and swipe through the upper right direction. The Control panel will appear.
Quick action; list of options
Usually, in iPadOS, you must grip up an app’s sign for about a second beforehand you see a pop-up of Quick Action Menu.
By the iPhone new trackpad, we can change the pointer over an image, touch the trackpad with two fingertips, and we’ll quickly see the desired Quick Action Menu list. This works as a “right-click” choice with most apps.
Deprived of click down on the iPhone new trackpad, touch out to zoom on a photo or webpage. Pinch inside to zoom off. This is a similar motion you would usually use on an iPad screen, but it’s trickier on the trackpad because it’s easy to press down it.
However, there are numerous worthy explanations to hook up Apple’s official trackpad. For example, you don’t need to continuously lift your finger to poke the display while you’re busy with your iPad in the “laptop” approach on a place of work.
For an additional, Apple allows organizing the trackpad and mouse to assist you in everyday activities similar to right-clicking.
Conclusion
This Apple’s new trackpad is similar to a significant development over a mouse as it lets you practice gestures that only normal iPad functions like multitasking and Apple enhanced the involvement over what we said in the old iPad promote by assembling the pointer reflects more “Mac-like” in how it relates with contacts and text.
You may like: Amazing Handmade iPhone Accessories that Give Sexy Look to your iPhone[2020] | https://medium.com/codixlab/exciting-features-of-iphone-new-trackpad-heres-how-it-actually-works-2020-c5bb16d3b234 | ['Mustufa Ansari'] | 2020-03-23 08:11:31.979000+00:00 | ['iPhone', 'Features', 'Tech', 'Technology', 'Apple'] |
Why Consumer Emotions Are Difficult to Read | Consumer Emotions Are Highly Contextual
Many theories around emotion psychology have emphasized the universality and innate nature of emotions. They assume that we can detect facial patterns that express each time the same emotion, whether it is fear or joy.
However, when famous psychologists Schachter and Singer had the idea of injecting epinephrine into patients, they realized the deep ambivalence of our emotions. After making them wait in a room in the company of fake actors, they confronted them in two situations.
In one, the actors complained rather loudly about the difficulty of filling out a paper and expressing their anger openly. On the other, they showed enthusiasm and excitement by making paper airplanes and playing with them.
Quite strangely, in the first case, participants affected by adrenaline also experienced significant anger, with no other connection. Meanwhile, in the second case, they showed euphoria in sync with the scene they had experienced.
What the researchers then realized is that our emotions are not self-generated but are largely defined by context. The situation in which we may both feel joy or anger for the same internal stimulus (be it adrenaline, dopamine, or any other physiological reaction).
As a result, our body or mind defines less what we feel, than the interpretation we make of what we feel. In this precise situation, participants inferred from cues in the situation that their beating heart was the result of anger or joy, and thus experienced that sentiment.
Hence, the growing importance of the experience and context of consumption in marketing. Marketers have noticed the power of contextual targeting to get a more emotional impact. For example, P&G’s “Thank you, Mom” campaign played when people were watching the Olympics with their families. As such, it gets a big resonance from mothers thinking about their sons’ bright futures. The ads wouldn’t have had the same meaning when watched at a different time. | https://medium.com/better-marketing/why-consumer-emotions-are-difficult-to-read-dd58183e9026 | ['Jean-Marc Buchert'] | 2020-12-17 08:53:52.499000+00:00 | ['Advertising', 'Feelings', 'Marketing', 'Consumer Behavior', 'Psychology'] |
4 Signs You Aren’t Mentally Prepared To Give This Holiday Season | 4 Signs You Aren’t Mentally Prepared To Give This Holiday Season
Giving for the wrong reasons is just as bad as not giving at all.
Photo by Photoholgic on Unsplash
As Christmas and the end of the year inch closer and closer, we all become inundated with opportunities to give. It’s inevitable in a year like 2020, wherein so many things have gone wrong for so many people. Those of us that are doing well or reasonably so, might feel compelled to give to those whose circumstances maybe different from our own. However, some of us aren’t really prepared to give and sometimes, giving when one is not actually prepared to give freely is more detrimental than not giving at all.
For example, earlier this week, a social-worker friend of mine put out a request in a group chat for help to get a high school student’s books. The child had spent most of this first term of online school without a single book. This was not a particularly unusual request in my network as I work in the NGO sector on an island. The idea of the “village” is still very much alive even in our modern society. The ask was for secondhand books or any help that could be rendered. Another person in our network forwarded the request to her network and the response was a barrage of questions…
“Who is this social worker? who exactly is the child? Where does she live, etc.? Why doesn’t she have books yet?”
As I read the message, I struggled to determine how any of that information was paramount to one’s ability or willingness to give. This was not a multinational organization asking for thousands or even hundreds of U.S. dollars. This was a community social worker asking for secondhand books. When pressed about why all of that information was necessary, the person defensively declared that “people just want to make sure that both people are real! There are all kind of scams these days.” Mind you, she knows the social-worker personally, as we — members of the group — all do.
This statement — she and her network — is a glaring example of a group of people who are not mentally prepared to give. Perhaps, I’m naive, but I was raised to believe that when one gives it is to be done with a pure mind and heart. How can one give freely, if at first suspecting those in need of being scammers?
There is a school of thought out there that as long as people give their motives and/or mindset shouldn’t matter. However, as someone who believes in both intention and energy, I’ve witnessed how things given without positive energy either don’t last or fail to adequately fulfill their intended purpose.
In the Caribbean, we call it maljeaux (pronounced mal joe) — bad eye — in the states, it’s bad juju. Either way, it’s quite literally the throwing of negative energy onto people or things. In a year like this one, many of us are carrying unhealed trauma and unconsciously projecting that pain onto others — hurt people hurt people. Not sure if you fall into this category? Here are four telltale signs that you aren’t mentally prepared to give this holiday season. | https://medium.com/womans-rant/4-signs-you-arent-mentally-prepared-to-give-this-holiday-season-9852904effb1 | ['Melissa A. Matthews'] | 2020-11-29 10:55:53.569000+00:00 | ['Holidays', 'Self-awareness', 'Giving', 'Love', 'Life Lessons'] |
Nonprofit Accounting Software: Guide to Demonstrating Accountability | Nonprofits and government agencies need nonprofit accounting software to demonstrate accountability and compliance. Let’s take a deep dive into what you need to know in choosing the most compliant software.
A compliant nonprofit accounting software system tracks revenue to a designated purpose and prevents misuse of donations.
If a nonprofit wants to be compliant with GAAP and FASB 116/117, all of their funds must be grouped into two categories of net assets: (1) without donor restrictions and (2) net assets with donor restrictions, which replace the three former categories of unrestricted, temporarily restricted and permanently restricted net assets. To be GAAP-compliant, nonprofits only need two funds to report on the breakdown of net assets on IRS form 990.
Nonprofit Accounting Software Identifies Who, What and Why
In order to fully understand why nonprofits need nonprofit accounting, you need to understand three fundamental questions:
Who is the source of revenue? What is the designated purpose? Why nonprofits need to classify revenue?
1. Who is the source of revenue?
Who identifies the source of revenue and provider of services and expenses. This is know as donor designated revenue. Who is donating or granting funds to the nonprofit? Who is the nonprofit paying expenses, such as salaries, payroll taxes, services, rent, utilities? | https://medium.com/@araize/nonprofit-accounting-software-guide-to-demonstrating-accountability-2b655e7214b8 | ['Joseph Scarano'] | 2021-12-14 15:01:02.685000+00:00 | ['Software', 'Accounting', 'Nonprofits'] |
Ache | I know
There are things to do
Important things
Tasks which are necessary for survival
Self-actualization
Happiness
But when you are close
So close
The amount of restraint required
To leave you to your appointed rounds
It physically hurts
There is an ache
It doesn’t start where you think it might
First
My eyes attempt restraint
But they cannot help themselves
And gaze upon my treasure
Tracing over tantalizing curvature
Nature’s blessed gifts
To you and me
I stop to linger at the favorite places
Hands twitch
Fingers remembering familiar paths
Pressure points
Anchors
I feel it all again
Softness
Heat
Oceanic motion
I clench my fists
Shutting it down
Not now
But no
The tension simply moves
Elsewhere
I twist in my seat
And watch you
Lost in your craft
Paint-stained hands
Wheels turning in your head
It is when you are the most beautiful
Save for those…other times
I remember
All of me remembers
Fire
Knotted brows
Sharp breaths
Fingernails sunk deep
Walls echoing
Neighbors woken
Sigh
Looking away
I need to let you work
I need to work, too
So much to do
Always so much to do
So many tomorrows
That we have shunted this work off onto
To bathe in each other’s attention
Immolating ourselves in the present moment
Until the bill comes due
And yet
I think
Remembering the taste of your bare neck
The convulsions when teeth take hold
And you surrender
Couldn’t all the rest wait
Just one more day? | https://medium.com/thinky-thoughts-almanac/ache-46184a4377d7 | ['Matthew Broyles'] | 2020-01-30 23:11:46.865000+00:00 | ['Romance', 'Love', 'Sex', 'Poetry', 'Erotica'] |
online jobs in chennai | online jobs in Chennai, There are many people who keep searching for online jobs in Chennai part-time job
home part-time job full-time jobs in Chennai Such people keep searching on google like this in this way Let’s keep keywords in logo search
If you like to find online jobs or like to do online jobs, then you are thinking right. Many online jobs will be open for Kovid 19. I have found it easier to get jobs online.
Because after Kovid-19, all companies are taking their jobs online, so online green portal, every company is shipping every business model, in which you get the benefit that the online jobs that you get online jobs are nominal.
Now that companies will now get to see that work online more and more, you will now get more benefit from them, in the coming 2021, the first online jobs were 21 percent and now the date of December 25 has gone 70 percent.
You can guess online job goes like yesterday just online jobs should know right online jobs you should know how to do online jobs
how to find what in your nearby today I am going to show you above some more Chennai The one you can do sitting at home If you want to join dozens of loudly inside Chennai, then you will get jobs put by dozens of companies. | https://medium.com/@digitalshubham/online-jobs-in-chennai-1ec5a1a99a00 | ['Digital Shubham Sharma Motivation Speaker'] | 2020-12-25 09:43:44.927000+00:00 | ['Jobs Near Me', 'Online Jobs', 'Jobs To Be Done', 'Online'] |
Async JS, wait what? | Async JS, wait what?
Mod 4 was definitely different. Challenging but in a good way. We welcomed front end development (Javascript!) complementing our knowledge of Ruby on Rails (a backend framework). What this means is that we can now build full stack web applications: starting with setting up our server side code, configuring an API, setting up our routes and controller actions to creating a user interface with Javascript listening in for different user events.
For my project, I decided to make an app to allow users to review Kosher restaurants. Our projects needed to be ‘single page applications’ which means all requests we’re to happen via Javascript without needing to refresh the page. I implemented 3 requests to the Rails API on the backend. One to load all existing reviews, another to post a new review to the database and a third to delete a review.
To make a request via Javascript, you need to use the Fetch method (which is provided by the Fetch API built into the browser). It essentially acts like a client making requests to different endpoints (much like you and I would enter a URL into the search bar and make a ‘request’ for that website). The cool thing about using Fetch is that while a request is being made, other code can run at the same time. This is where we get into the difference between synchronous and asynchronous code.
Synchronous code is run one line after the next. What this means is that line 2 in my code cannot run until the line 1 has been executed. Take the following ruby code as an example:
puts "hello world"
sleep(10)
puts "finally!"
Line 3 will have to wait for the program to sleep for 10 seconds before executing and printing “finally”.
Asynchronous code takes statements outside of the main program flow, allowing later blocks of code to be executed immediately without waiting. How does this help us? Well, when I start up my application, the following code is being run:
function getReviews() {
fetch(`${BASE_URL}/reviews`)
.then(r => r.json())
.then(reviews => {
reviews.forEach(reviewData => {
const review = new Review(reviewData)
review.render()
})
})
}
This is the client-side request my application is making via Fetch to render all the reviews on the page. This process though may take a few milliseconds (or longer with a slow network). I don’t want this to pause my application code. I still want the other parts of my application to run and be listening out for user events. By using Fetch, I’m essentially saying, “you do you, but i’m continuing on with my other tasks”. Once the request has been made, we are sent back something called a Promise (that’s for another blog post) and I can start chaining on different instructions I want to do with the data we receive back from the API.
That’s the gist of it in a very small nutshell. Hope you enjoyed reading this and I hope to be back soon with my Mod 5 project! Happy coding! | https://medium.com/@luzybry94/async-js-wait-what-46545acdf15d | ['Chaim', 'Luzy'] | 2021-04-14 20:35:24.198000+00:00 | ['Coding', 'Flatiron School', 'API', 'JavaScript', 'Software Development'] |
The Secret Sauce Behind Your Productivity Playlist | When I was in college, I used to write my papers in the music library. Not because I was studying music, but because the music library was literally under construction. The study rooms there were cubes of bare white cement — a jail cell, basically — with a desk in it. I liked (and like) working in complete isolation, but heaps of basically-inconclusive-but-moderately-compelling-as-a-whole studies suggest that there’s another way that might be more effective.
There is a growing cottage industry devoted to figuring out what kinds of music make people more effective, more efficient workers. Certain genres — especially those without vocals — are frequently linked with “working.” But the actual scientific evidence concerning the links between music and productivity are varied and tend to be hyper-specialized.
Some studies indicate that music, or at least some sort of organized noise, can raise efficiency; one such study found that those performing repetitive office-like tasks were more efficient while listening to music than while working in silence. Other studies have gone more specific, focusing on specific genres like baroque classical music or even simple nature sounds, analyzing productivity’s correlation with how much the worker likes or dislikes the music (the results: if you want efficiency, don’t listen to music you particularly like or dislike), or whether the listener is an introvert or extrovert (introverts do better with silence, extroverts do better with music).
Muddling the science on this topic even further are the nearly equal number of studies indicating that music doesn’t, in fact, help you concentrate more efficiently. The amount of variables in any of these correlational studies are enough to crush any confident conclusion.
Despite their inconclusiveness, these studies have dovetailed with modern music streaming services in some interesting ways. For one thing, streaming services give listeners access to music they’d not normally buy — which, let’s be real, includes popular “productivity” music like classical and jazz. But because the libraries are so vast, they necessitates some sort of curation to surface music best-suited to getting work done.
Thus, Pandora, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, and others all boast these so-called “productivity playlists,” curated selections of songs designed to help you work — and they’re often very popular. According to Dayle Dempsey at Pandora, ‘Classical for Studying’ has been their top classical station since August 2013.
Most services offer a wide variety of productivity playlists. Google Play has classical, jazz, and instrumental pop stations, but also trip-hop, dubstep, instrumental trap, and quite a bit of metal. Tidal’s playlists under the “Focus” category include “Autumn Piano,” “Blips and Blops,” and “Post-Rock Essentials” along with more expected playlists like instrumental jazz and classical. Spotify’s productivity playlists also fall under a category titled “Focus,” and include instrumental hip-hop, indie folk, a fair amount of low-key electronic music, and even white noise.
The major attribute that seems to signal “focus music” to Spotify is a lack of vocals, as there is a bit of science suggesting that intelligible lyrics can have a negative effect on productivity, and quite a bit of anecdotal evidence suggesting it’s annoying. Furthering this point, Gregory Ciotti, writing for HelpScout, writes:
Research from Applied Acoustics shows that “intelligible” chatter — talking that can be clearly heard and understood — is what makes for a distracting environment. Shifting focus to figure out what someone else is saying is the reason why speech is often considered the most troublesome element of a noisy office; in one study, 48% of participants listed intelligible talking as the sound which distracted them the most.
Consistency between songs is another key attribute. You want a long enough playlist — several hours long at least — with similar-sounding music. Not necessarily mellow music, but music without major shifts in tone or beats-per-minute or genre. Big peaks and valleys can shock a listener out of the productivity zone, which you don’t want.
Given the utilitarian and somewhat robotic nature of productivity playlists, you might think they’re created by algorithms. Not so much. “All the stations are hand-curated,” says Jessica Suarez, who leads a team of in-house playlists editors at Google Play Music. In fact, her team crafts them based mostly on anecdotal information, personal preferences, and determined browsing of comments on the internet. “I’m a big Lifehacker reader, so I go through a bunch of the comments from people about what they like to listen to at work,” Suarez explains. “I also go through Reddit threads on what coders like to listen to at work. That informs a bunch of the stations.”
Even though the playlists are made by humans, Spotify, Tidal, and Google obviously have tons of data on what people are listening to: how much of a song they play, how often something is skipped, when volume changes, when a song is repeated or added to a user’s playlist, all kinds of stuff. “If people are skipping songs you know you’re taking them out of the moment, so we tend to weigh that more heavily and be more aggressive with how we edit [the productivity] stations,” Suarez elaborates.
Pandora — the media company that developed the Music Genome Project—takes a blended approach, drawing multiple data points from humans and machines. What a listener actually ends up hearing on Pandora is the result of a complex interplay between the two. Rhodes Kelley — a product manager at Pandora who works on their radio algorithm — elaborates: “There are more than 60 ‘strategies’ that can fire in tandem every time we need to find a song to play. A human curated strategy can nominate a song at the same time as a personalized data strategy nominates it alongside a musicological content based one. The layers of strategies picking tracks simultaneously allow the algorithm to blend all of our strengths together.”
Ultimately, the divide between algorithms and human curation comes down to how one perceives what music is. Music is different than other forms of data — for example your weather or fitness apps — in that it elicits emotional and cultural responses. For the techno-utopian inclined, the solution is simply to build smarter algorithms to parse the data — thus providing the best possible outputs for the user; but for those who see musical data as an incontrovertible cultural/emotional artifact, algorithms can never match the intentionality of human curation. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle. | https://medium.com/the-sound-of-innovation/the-secret-sauce-behind-your-productivity-playlist-b5dc2e124d8b | ['ᴅᴀɴ ɴᴏsᴏᴡɪᴛᴢ'] | 2016-07-07 16:34:07.741000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Music', 'Science', 'Productivity', 'Algorithms'] |
Project (LGBTQIA) + | Project (LGBTQIA) +
Trigger Warning: I use potentially offensive language and words like “rape” in this piece.
At the time of this writing, I just finished reviewing a rejection letter: “Sorry, we decided to go with someone else….” Ouch. Oh well.
I submitted an application to be a leader for my company’s LGBTQIA+ employee resource group, and the powers that be went with someone else.
What does being a leader for an ERG mean? It can mean many things, actually. But my interpretation of the role was that I would try my best to serve and represent queer-identifying employees at my company through internal programming, communications, and outreach. Essentially (and hopefully) help queer folks at my company feel seen and be seen.
I’m not mad I didn’t get picked. I’ve only been working at the company for a few months, so there are definitely folks with tenure that deserve the spot. Also, I’m sure there were more qualified folks that applied and met the role’s criteria. I’m not exactly your “quintessential queer person,” whatever the fuck that means. I’m cis, bi but straight-passing, and I’m still so very ignorant of queer issues and perspectives. And I can’t even begin to talk about queer pop culture without my gaze jumping to and from Wikipedia. It’s ok that I didn’t get the [extracurricular] job.
But what does that say about my desire to lead such a group? Where do I even get the cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity, and the gumption to apply if I carry all of these noticeable (and many more embarrassing) red marks to my name?
Jailbreak and Representation
Last week’s Jailbreak was my first major Smash event in three or so years, and within minutes of walking into the convention center room where it was hosted, I could immediately tell that things had changed in the best possible way. Friends that previously identified as one gender were now proud to live their truths and express themselves differently, yet authentically, as another. Hair colors — running the au naturale to rainbow gamut — of all familiar and unfamiliar styles were on full display, along with dresses, jeans, stockings, and gamer paraphernalia. Within minutes of sitting down for my stream match, the producer asked me for my pronouns. The absolute best change of all is that no one batted an eye.
When I first started playing competitive smash in 2004, it was pervasive to use words like “gay” to describe craven, cowardly, or undesirable ways of play. You’d “suck dick” if you were a poor player, and you’d “rape” if you were terrific or did something especially notable or brag-worthy. This was not a good time for Smasher slang, and it’s reprehensible and completely cringe when looking back on it, but that is simply how things were. Even as progressive (by mid-2000s standards) and as open-minded as I wanted to seem and be, I still participated in the toxic masculinity of the time because it was just that ever-present.
If you entered the community when I did and see where it is now, you could see how the community is on the right path. There will be detractors that complain about “cancel culture,” complain about being overly PC, or complain about the inconveniences of being bothered to simply let others feel belonging, safety, and inclusivity. But there will always be detractors. There will always be people that argue for being able to say “ah… rape” or stand in the way of progress, but they never challenge their own views, habits, and behaviors for the sake of others.
In many ways, it’s this stubbornness, this overwhelming emphasis of the Self and its prerogatives, that’s coded into the DNA of many hardcore gamers and drives us to pick up the controller before all other tasks. Or, at least, that’s part of my story and my relationship with my own history. You can call it maturity, or you can call it a crash course in pissing off enough people you love that you eventually learn to sacrifice the Me in favor of the Us. Still, I like to call it an inevitability: you will mature, and if you don’t, you will continue inhabiting that liminal space of socially tolerable shades. A gamer community bardo, forfeiting your agency and voice for whatever dumb tradition you think needs to be preserved, and pointing the finger at a woke Bogart when you were the not-so-silent specter all along.
I’m Serving Identity Play Realness
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the similarities between competitive Smash and drag culture. In the time since it first started airing on TV, RuPaul’s Drag Race has done so much for exposing the world to a niche, consistently misunderstood, and heavily appropriated sub-culture. If you’ve watched the show for a few seasons, you may have noticed a common narrative thread during the confessionals or deep-dive interviews: “It wasn’t until I put on drag and started performing that I really started to feel….” And you can end that sentence with words like “confident,” “myself,” “whole,” and the list goes on. Sure, the show producers are notorious for selling vulnerability and relatability as story arcs for the contestants. Still, when I heard these stories, I was reminded of smashers and their own struggles with self-actualization. Like drag queens using drag and their onstage personas to explore what it means to be who they are, I’m convinced that many long-term competitive Smashers use their tags, mains, and skill at a children’s party game to find that ever-elusive sense of belonging. | https://medium.com/major-zine/project-lgbtqia-d1eda8ee82ea | ['Marco Salazar De Leon'] | 2021-11-20 01:15:50.129000+00:00 | ['LGBTQ', 'Gaming', 'Super Smash Bros', 'Community', 'Esports'] |
“And Here’s To You, Mrs. Robinson” | The next tenant in the Dragon House was recommended to us by a casual acquaintance.
Janet was a single mom, with a good rental history.
You bet we checked her references carefully. Her current landlord told us she was always on time with her rent and they had positive things to say about her at the convenience store where she worked. That seemed good so we accepted her application.
She ended up being our worst nightmare.
The den mother to two teenaged boys, she wanted to be their best friend instead of their parent. As far as we could see, there were no rules. The cool mom, she wanted to hang around with their friends, to the point where it was seriously inappropriate.
It reminded me of the movie The Graduate, where a young college graduate has an affair with an older married woman. Only in this case, the young men were in high school.
*Spoiler alert: this trailer summarizes the entire movie.
YouTube Trailer — The Graduate
Janet’s parenting style, if you could call it one, was to open her doors to all the kids in town and let them do what they wanted.
Our beautiful little house turned into a party house. The neighbors would call to tell us that there were kids on the roof in the middle of the night, drinking and throwing bottles. The police became very familiar with the family’s antics.
So did we. Each time there was a complaint, we would take our official clipboard and visit Janet. After a review the rental rules,we would give her an ultimatum that she had to stop causing problems with the neighbors or we would evict her.
It was an empty threat.
The Landlord-Tenant Act in our Province is very lenient toward tenants. We couldn’t serve her notice because of noise complaints from the neighbors. The complaint had to be from another tenant in a building we owned.
The town didn’t have a noise bylaw, so we were unable to use that as a way to get her out. The only way we could remove her was non-payment of rent, or if she did something illegal. | https://medium.com/illumination/and-heres-to-you-mrs-robinson-d203d1550b89 | ['Tree Langdon'] | 2020-11-14 18:59:40.297000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Business', 'Series', 'Fiction', 'Landlord'] |
Conversational Collective turns 3 | I’m totally amazed the Meetup I created back in December 2017 has grown so much AND is now global. We have almost 800 members and received an overwhelming response to our request for 2021 speakers. We’re ready to deliver our best year of programming yet!
The idea for this Meetup all started when I realized I wanted to learn more about voice user interfaces (UIs) and user experience (UX) design. I’m a UX designer that believes #VoiceFirst will be the next big thing to dominate the tech industry. To quench my thirst for knowledge (and to make myself a more valuable asset — hello, job security!), I ventured out to learn more about this up-and-coming technology. In 2017, there was still limited information about conversation design available. I purchased a few books, and read what I could find online from the developers working at Amazon and with Google’s Dialogflow. What I learned through my research was great, but I knew it wasn’t going to be enough for me to get a job in this field.
Years ago, I read a book written by Seth Godin called “Tribes,” which gave me the idea to create this Meetup. His book inspired me to become a Tribe leader and to start my own voice Meetup in Austin, Texas — where I’ve been living and working. The Meetup would be key to connecting those interested in the conversation design with thought leaders in the field and give the community a dedicated space to learn from them. | https://medium.com/@bauerhorst/conversational-collective-turns-3-5a6dff714dc8 | ['Jessica Nunn'] | 2020-12-15 22:45:52.432000+00:00 | ['Conversational UI', 'Voice First', 'NLP', 'Bots', 'Chatbots'] |
Are Servers Next for Apple? | Are Servers Next for Apple?
With the impressive performance and low power usage of the M1 chip, could Apple begin building chips for the server market? And if not, what is stopping them?
Mac Mini rack from MK1 Manufacturing
Okay, so we know that Apple’s M1 chips are really fast. What is stopping them from also taking over the server market in the future with their own chips? To answer this question I will cover a number of different topics:
What makes a good server chip? Will a server make different demands on a microprocessor compared to a desktop computer?
A comparison of ARM and x86 business models, to better understand how competitors in the ARM chip market operate in a fundamentally different way from x86 competitors.
What does the ARM competition look like? We will look at some high profile ARM chip makers: Amazon and Amphere. What is their technology and business model? How do they stack up against Apple’s M1?
A paradigm shift is ongoing in manufacturing. Chips are not made the same way anymore. In fact nothing is. How will this affect the development of the market over time?
What advantages and disadvantages does Apple have entering the server market? We will discuss Apple’s unique vertical integration advantage.
How Apple’s unique advantages in the consumer market may actually work against them in the server market.
What makes a Good Server Chip?
In the server market there are many different workflows. As discussed in my Why is Apple’s M1 Chip So Fast story, servers often have very different needs from a desktop computer. There I used the example of how servers could have multiple requests from multiple users. These requests are frequently not CPU intensive. E.g. serving up a web page or getting data from a database is not CPU intensive. In this case being able to carry out multiple tasks in parallel is more important. Thus CPUs with lots of cores are very advantageous.
This is the opposite of how Apple’s M1 or A14 chips are designed. These are designed to have a few very powerful cores. That matters more when video editing, playing games, drawing etc.
Thus in this space there are other ARM CPU designs which are better. Let us look at bit at some of them and compare with Apple’s M1 chip.
But to make sure you actually know what I am talking about, let me briefly talk about CPU instruction-sets.
Quick ARM vs x86 Comparison
Apple makes chips called Apple Silicon. AMD makes Ryzen Chips. Intel typically makes chips they call Intel Core. Qualcomm makes Snapdragon chips. Ampere makes Altra chips. However all these microprocessor producers make chips which fall into two categories: ARM and x86. This is basically the name of the instruction-sets used by these chips. You can think of this as the language used by each chip.
Here is a superficial comparison. Below you see 5 ARM instructions which loads the numbers 4 and 5 into two separate registers r1 and r2 . Registers are memory locations inside the microprocessors (CPUs) that allows you to perform arithmetic operations.
We add the numbers and later store them at memory location 24 in memory (RAM). I will not go into further detail about this as it is not that important for this story.
LDR r0, #24
LDR r1, #4
LDR r2, #5
ADD r1, r1, r2
STR r1, [r0]
On a chip that understands x86, the instructions used will be slightly different:
MOV ax, 4
MOV bx, 5
ADD ax, bx
MOV 24, ax
In this case we are moving the numbers into registers called ax and bx before adding. The key takeaway here is that ARM and x86 are basically different languages. A program that was written to run on ARM cannot run on x86 or visa versa. If you want to run an x86 program on an ARM based processor you need to use a translation service such as Apple’s Rosetta 2, which translates x86 code to ARM code.
Intel and AMD makes x86 CPUs, which means even if you wrote a program to run on an Intel processor it will also run on an AMD processor. Likewise a program written for Apple Silicon would also run on Qualcomm Snapdragon, Ampere Altra chips and Amazon’s AWS Graviton chips.
That is one of the advantages of ARM over x86, there are a lot of different companies making ARM chips. There is a another element of complexity to this story.
You see the ARM Ltd. company doesn’t just design the ARM instructionset. They also create whole designs, or what we call micro-architectures for ARM chips. Modern CPUs are really made up of multiple CPU cores. ARM will design such a cores. Example ARM has designed a CPU core called the Neoverse N1. Amazon and Ampere pay ARM Ltd. to use this design to create their own CPUs. It is up to them to decide how may of these Neoverse N1 cores to they want on their chip. How much cache memor to they want. How should these cores be connected. They may buy a license for a design to do that from somewhere else.
But this is not the only way to do it. Apple’s M1 and A14 processors e.g. does use the ARM instruction-set licensed from ARM Ltd. However Apple is using their own custom designed CPU cores called Firestorm and Icestorm.
This is important to be aware of when making comparisons. A lot of ARM chips form different companies will be quite similar in performance at the same number of cores. Apple is a bit of an outlier.
In the x86 world there is no sharing of core designs. Both Intel and AMD make their own cores and thus the performance characteristics can be quite different between them.
Okay now we got some background so we can begin to compare Apple’s M1 to existing ARM chips aimed at the server market.
Amazon’s AWS Graviton Processors
Amazon has been making their own ARM processors for the AWS cloud service, called AWS Graviton. The latest incarnation is Graviton2. These processors are based on licensing Neoverse N1 cores from 1ARM Ltd.
So the effort that has gone into making these are not really comparable to what Apple has been doing. And in terms of performance these cores are nothing like the Firestorm cores on the M1. AnandTech has done a number of performance tests of the Graviton2 compared to the competition which you can find here. However this was released before the M1, so I have taken AnandTech’s later performance tests of the M1 and added into the same plot for comparison below.
Okay, what does all this geeky stuff mean, such as 433.milc and 444.namd ? These are names of specific programs written in the C++ programming language. When doing performance tests these same programs are run on different microprocessors. By always using exactly the same programs we are able to compare microprocessors. Each program has been made to challenge the microprocessor in different ways. A CPU isn’t equally good at everything.
Thus each column represents the score each microprocessor got on running a specific program. You can see the Apple M1 in yellow and the Ryzen 9 5950 X in red cover the largest area on each column because they got the highest scores.
The Graviton2 in blue in contrast has quite a small area. This performance test is not of the whole chip but of a single CPU core. In this case we can se that the Neoverse N1 cores used by Graviton is significantly weaker than Apple’s Firestorm cores and AMD’s Zen3 cores.
So it looks like pretty much everybody crushed Amazon. Could e.g. AMD just move in and steal the market with their flagship Zen3 based CPUs? Not so fast! Amazon is not stupid. There are a lot more to take into consideration here. As already mentioned the number of cores matter a lot in the cloud. Here M1 comes up short with just 4 Firestorm cores, while Amazon’s Graviton2 has 64 Neoverse N1 cores.
But more importantly microprocessor today have gotten so cheap relative to how powerful they are that over the lifetime of a chip you are going to pay a lot more for the electricity to drive these chips than for the chips themselves.
Infoq discuss this more in detail, but let me cherry pick a bit. For instance a the Intel Xeons solution compared with the Graviton2 consumes 420 Watt, while the EPYC from AMD consume 180 Watt. In contrast the Graviton2 consumes a mere 80–110 Watt for its 64 cores
These kinds of savings on power and cooling translates into the ability for Amazon to offer more computational power on ARM than on x86. According to Amazon AWS they are able to do the same workload at 40% lower price than an equivalent x86 solution.
Amazon EC2 T4g, M6g, C6g, and R6g instances, and their variants with local NVMe-based SSD storage, that provide up to 40% better price performance over comparable current generation x86-based instances
Towards a New Manufacturing Paradigm
This also underscores the changing computing landscape we are currently part of. Large companies such as Amazon are now increasingly able to build in-house solutions tailored to their specific computing needs. Graviton2 is not something you can buy off the shelf. Because IP (intellectual property) for different chips can now be bought all over the place and combined to create your own microprocessor, the threshold for anyone to make a chip has been significantly reduced.
One of the products of Brick Arms, an example of how manufacturing is becoming available to all.
This isn’t unique to the computer industry. This is happening all over the place. Will Chapman e.g. was a software developer, who discovered that despite being just one guy, he could enter the manufacturing business. He founded BrickArms, which makes historical plastic weapons for Lego minifigs. Today you can design a part with 3D modeling software at home and upload your design to a factory in China which will mass produce it for you. These factories now produce products in small runs so you don’t have to be a big enterprise to get started.
Ponoko examplifies this trend. They call themselves your personal factory. You can upload designs and their facilities will 3D print and laser cut parts according to your designs which others can buy. Thus anyone sitting at home alone with minimal capital can get in the business of manufacturing things and selling them. You see the same with books, where Amazon will print books on demand. Thus even if your books sell few copies, it is still possible to have them printed.
Google, Tesla, Facebook, Amazon and other are simply taking advantage of this global trend. They all make their own hardware today. Google make specialized machine learning hardware used in their data centers called Tensor Processing Units. These are similar in usage to the Neural Engine on Apple’s M1 chip.
Tensor Processing Unit 3.0. Specialized hardware made by Google to accelerate machine learning.
Tesla also makes their own car computers to accelerate the running of machine learning models to help on the massive processing power required for their self driving service. Don’t confuse this with the Tesla cards from Nvidia.
And this trend is simply accelerating. Google is busy making their own ARM chips for their Android phones. I think we will increasingly see large tech companies designing their own custom hardware tailored to their needs, because you can so easily buy ready made designs. When you have a designed a chip, it is just a matter of transmitting the blueprint to a large chip foundry , such as TSMC to build it. Just like BrickArms owner Will Chapman, can ship his Lego weapon blueprints to some factory in China, which immediately starts cranking out the pieces using plastic injection moulding.
Okay, let us look at one of the other competitors in the ARM server chip market.
Ampere Computing
Ampere Computing is a new company started in 2018, which aims to offer ARM server processors to all the cloud providers who are not Amazon and consequently cannot get hold on a Graviton2.
However there are a lot of interesting thing about Ampere which makes it worth talking about especially comparing it to the M1. Performance per core will likely be similar to Graviton2 since it is based on the Neoverse N1 CPU cores designed by ARM Ltd.
But this is where the difference ends. Ampere has some unique choices:
Lots and lots of cores. Their current Ampere Altra has a whopping 80 cores. But they are busy making Altra Max which will feature 128 cores.
You can put two of these Ampere chips on their motherboards. Hence you can get a total of 160 cores in one computer. Their Mt. Jade Platform below is an example of this. With the Altra Max which are backwards compatible you can get 256 cores in one computer!
Ampere Altra is designed to give deterministic performance per core. What does that mean? Often when you got multiple cores the activity of one core can cause another one to suddenly drop in performance. Cloud customers don’t want sudden drops in performance due to activities of other customers. Thus this is a major selling point for Ampere Computing.
Massive expansions abilities. You can connect a lot of memory, hard drives, graphics cards, neural engine style cards and other forms of accelerator cards to it. Accelerators are specialized cards to make particular tasks run faster such as video encoding or machine learning.
Mt. Jade Platform: Dual Socket Rack Server. This is a rack for a cloud computing with two Ampere Altra CPUs. Each CPU has 80 cores which means this has 160 cores in total.
Thus if we are to compare to Apple’s M1 we can see some stark differences. Both the Graviton2 and Ampere may have significantly weaker cores but M1 has only 4 fast cores and 4 slow ones.
Ampere chips, unlike M1, have not jumped on the heterogeneous computing wagon. There are no specialized chips for encryption, machine learning, image processing or video encoding. In my Apple M1 story I remarked that it would be difficult for the PC industry to copy Apple’s heterogeneous strategy as there would be numerous players in the industry, which will need to coordinate and agree what these specialized chips should be, otherwise one creates complete chaos.
This is indeed a problem facing Ampere, since they only make the hardware and don’t control the software like Apple. Thus Ampere Computing have stated that they thought it was too early to add specialized co-prossesors. They are waiting for standards to establish themselves in the industry. Something Apple does not need to do. Apple makes the software that access e.g. their Neural Engine, and thus they can make sure the software and the hardware match up. No coordination between hardware and software vendor is needed.
What PCIe slots look like on a motherboard. You can have e.g. one slot with 1 lane, or a slot with say 16 lanes which can then transmit 16x as much data. You can put a graphics card, network card or other specialized card into these slots.
Ampere Computings solution to this thus far is to put in support for a lots of PCIe lanes. What is a PCIe lane you ask? You can think of a PCIe lane as a data pipe or a data tube. The more of these tubes you have, the more external hardware you can connect. The PCIe standard lets you connect up to 16 of these tubes to one external hardware card such as graphics cards or say a hard drive. They have also added support for a standard called CCIX, which as far as I understand, allows something akin to Apple’s Unified Memory Architecture. It allows the GPU on an external graphics card and the Ampere CPU to share data in memory. You don’t need to explicitly copy blocks of data from one memory location to another.
Apple Advantages and Disadvantages in Entering the Server Space
What we have discussed thus far may start to give you some intuition about the kind of tradeoffs we are facing.
Apple has an advantage in that they control the whole widget, but that only applies if both their hardware and software is used. Thus to get the full advantage of heterogeneous computing power from Apple, you actually need to run macOS in the cloud, not Linux, not FreeBSD and certainly not Windows.
If not, Apple would have to wait for industry standards supported by Linux, BSD, Windows and others to emerge and then tailor their hardware to those standards. This is unlikely to be something Apple agrees with.
Also I am skeptical that Apple would want to sell solutions not running their software. This puts potential users in a bind. It helps that macOS is a Unix operating system. That means a lot of Linux and BSD software will run fine on it with minimal change. Yet macOS is not really optimized for server use. Linux kernel developers are very focused on this and that drives their development efforts. macOS e.g. is highly tuned towards things like low latency to deal with things such as real time audio and video. These are use cases which matter to professionals working on video and audio. That is a deep part of the Apple DNA and heritage.
Thus developers will potentially face the choice of running on macOS and get superior performance, bu miss out on the customization and full openness they love about Linux. Keep in mind that crucial technology for cloud software such as Docker requires a Linux kernel to run.
Docker is just one of many example of technology, which is big in the server space and which is tailor made for Linux.
Sure one can run Linux on macOS through virtualization but then you have also lost access to Apple specific frameworks such as Core Audio, Core ML etc which utilize custom Apple co-processors.
For server workloads which cannot utilize Apple’s specialized hardware there may not be a strong reason to pick an Apple solution. This is what we need to keep in mind. Making large high performance cores, like Apple has done, is not a magic solution. It is a deliberate choice because their users don’t have workloads which can easily utilize lots of CPU cores.
For situations where you can utilize a lot of cores such as for cloud services, the Apple solution likely doesn’t have an advantage. Amazon and Ampere can simply match Apple in performance by having more cores. Currently Apple only wins this competition in workloads where only 4–8 cores can be utilized such as in modern computer games.
Read more: 32-Core Apple Silicon Macs in 2021?
Where Apple Might Shine
All cloud services are not the same. For high performance computing and machine learning services, we want massive number crunching capability at lower power consumption. The M1 chip may be able to beat everybody in this regard. The kind of performance it can offer in doing highly intensive math operations is remarkable much thanks to its special co-processors.
Rumors also have it that Apple will be making Apple Silicon chips with up to 128 GPU cores. GPUs tend to give a major advantage in many scientific number crunching applications. Ampere and Amazon in contrast don’t have any integrated GPUs to leverage.
Researchers may simply have to suck up the fact that they need to run macOS, because there may simply be too much money to save by using an Apple solution.
Hence if Apple is to enter the server space, they should not be targeting the normal server market, hosting web sites, databases etc. They should focus on:
Data analysis.
High Performance Computing (HPC).
Machine Learning (ML).
Why I don’t Think Apple Will Succeed in the Server Space
While I have laid out reasons why Apple may offer a strong advantage, and I am a huge Apple fan, I must try to be realistic with respect to what I know about Apple history. Apple simply does not have a good track record.
They gave up on their Mac OS X Server. They ditched their special server rack computers. And until iCloud their services for synching data had a rather poor track record.
Apple is really good at what they do, but in areas that Steve Jobs never cared passionately for such as business to business and gaming, Apple has never managed to make it big. The Apple TV e.g. could have been a good gaming console that could have competed with Nintendo, but Apple totally failed to grab that opportunity by delivering a standard controller almost entirely unsuited to play games.
Apple is not a good business to business company for several reasons, strongly tied to their DNA. What is it that makes Apple? What we know and love about Apple is the mystique. They work in secret for years on new revolutionary products. Then suddenly they burst onto the stage and show us something we have never seen before, before announcing that you can buy it tomorrow (or in half a year).
For the excitement and awe to actually work, you need full secrecy. You need to have developed a product really far before it gets announced. We see this in typical Apple development. They make a shock announcement with a product that leapfrogs everybody else. We all lineup to get it. But as the years pass we notice that Apple products start lagging behind the competition because they simply don’t do frequent updates.
The Playstation 5 from Sony. Apple products are a lot like Gaming consoles. Revolutionary when they arrive but often start to trail behind the competition over longer time spans.
Part of the reason why Apple products are so good is because Apple take their time to really polish and perfect their products. But that means there will not be a steady stream of improved versions pushed out on regular intervals. In this regard Apple operates a lot like the Console market. Often when a new console is released they utterly destroy gaming PCs in similar price range. Yet over time PCs tend to close that gap.
Consoles like Apple products are ultimate consumer products. Customers want to be delighted and dazzled. That is why these things bring massive improvements and beautiful new designs when released.
This is not how the server market works. The industry wants clear roadmaps and transparency. They would want to know what Apple is planning, what they are currently working on and what they can expect. These guys have to make long term strategic decisions. Waiting toget surprised at Christmas, is not how you run a successful business.
These kinds of completely different needs have always made it difficult for Apple to deal with business customers. Apple wants tight control and streamlined products where business wants open and flexible solutions. To succeed in the server market or in the business to business market, Apple would have to become a lot more like Microsoft, and that I believe is the last thing Apple would want or their fans. Microsoft is the antithesis of what Apple stands for.
Microsoft protect backwards compatibility at all costs e.g. That has a tremendous value in business. But it also drags down Microsoft and creates messy convoluted solutions hampered by legacy. Apple in contrast brutally breaks with the past to create new shiny solutions. They piss off a lot of customers on the way, but after we get our hands on their new shiny products we quickly forget these transgressions.
What Role Can Apple Play in the Server Space?
Instead of making server solutions themselves I think it is far more realistic that Apple cooperate with Amazon, Ampere, Google and others to establish ARM as a strong alternative to x86. They all have an interest in this. With ARM all the big players can build their own custom solutions tailored to their needs in a way they never could with x86.
But there are two parts to this puzzle. You need the server hardware but you also need popular desktop and laptop computers running ARM. If these are not prevalent, then developers will not develop sufficient experience with ARM. Linus Torvalds has been quite clear that your home computer needs to run the same hardware as your server.
With the excitement we now see around the M1, there could be a major uptake for ARM based computers which means Amazon and others will finally have a large population of developers with ARM based machines who can develop services running on their Graviton2 chips. This will get the snowball rolling. It is all about reaching critical mass. As long as you got enough people running on ARM one will reach an inflection point where everybody will want to transition their services to the much cheaper ARM cloud services.
That could mean a massive influx of developers and other professional onto the Apple platform. Or at least until the PC industry is able to come up with a viable ARM alternative. Which as I have discussed in earlier stories I think will take time. Apple now likely has several years where they will enjoy a durable advantage over the rest of the PC industry.
Eventually the PC industry will standardize and catch up. However people don’t generally leave the Mac platform once they have become accustomed to it. Thus this may mean a permanent higher market share for Apple. | https://medium.com/swlh/are-servers-next-for-apple-7992213d72c9 | ['Erik Engheim'] | 2020-12-11 05:23:33.738000+00:00 | ['Google', 'Amazon', 'Apple', 'M1', 'Cloud Computing'] |
ERP and Human Resources | Enterprise resource planning can supplement vital human resource projects. While it’s no replacement for a caring department that supports workers, it’s an excellent supplement, reducing confusion and providing myriad benefits. It’s worth noting that even the term “human resources” may lead you down the path of seeing workers as raw material instead of individuals with the drive and passion to grow the business. (Proper motivation is again worth an entire article, so look forward to it.)
A sampler of opportunities in human resource management
Your company should have standardized processes. (If it doesn’t, ERP is not your current step, but likely the next one.) Especially for positions involving dangerous machinery, it’s often a legal requirement to provide reputable, certifiable training. Keeping a database of who has trained what and how is essential to keeping a job site safe. Good bookkeeping can also find out if a training module is taking too long, or not given enough time to be absorbed correctly.
Even for non-mechanical pursuits, consistency is king. Having newer filing clerks use a different system than older ones can make both of their jobs pointless.
Parsley sage rosemary and time management
Time theft is the biggest form of larceny in the United States. And where there’s theft, there exists the potential for litigation. Middle managers in your business who are penny wise and pound foolish may exploit their workers, opening the company up to millions and millions of damages and reputational damage. And ERP can detect this problem; if all workers seem to work 39.5 hours and qualify for benefits at 40, then bureaucrats within your business are sapping morale and creating resentment. That leads to shabby work, turnover, and a toxic environment. Support and payment have a multiplicative effect on employee profitability.
Better work comes from happier workers. Advia Consulting has mastered employee relations tracking and wants to help your business succeed. Contact them today! | https://medium.com/@adviaconsulting/erp-and-human-resources-6064f1d4aec3 | ['Advia Consulting'] | 2020-12-16 15:35:01.622000+00:00 | ['Human Resources', 'Enterprise', 'Process Management', 'Erp'] |
Nominations for DigitalAgenda Impact Awards 2020 open 15 October | Written by Rachel Neaman, Strategy Director, DigitalAgenda
Next Tuesday, 15th October, I shall be in Paddington at the offices of Nominet for the opening of nominations for the DigitalAgenda Impact Awards 2020.
The DigitalAgenda Impact Awards, held every March, celebrate technology innovations that improve people’s lives and the world around us. Now in their fourth year, the awards are open to any UK-operating business, individual, government or non-profit using digital products or services for positive social impact.
As the DigitalAgenda Power and Responsibility Summit so amply demonstrates, we are seeing a greater focus across all sectors on tech for good and humane technology. The DigitalAgenda Impact Awards 2020 will build on this momentum to celebrate the best examples of organisations and individuals using tech to get the best for society and the economy.
Each year, the DigitalAgenda Impact Awards culminate in an award ceremony. But this is far from the usual black-tie-and-dinner affair. Our fresh and tested format offers an engaging blend of conference and awards, with a chance to hear keynotes, panels and interviews with a range of external speakers and finalists discussing the issues surrounding each category.
Past speakers have included: Professor Sue Black OBE; Margot James MP, former Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries; Tessa Clarke from award-winning app OLIO; the young entrepreneur Ben Towers; National Lottery Community Fund Chief Executive Dawn Austwick OBE; BGV’s Paul Miller; and Eden Founder Sir Tim Smit KBE.
The awards event also includes plenty of breaks, building in time for guests to connect and network and of course to celebrate with the finalists over refreshments at the winners’ reception afterwards.
The big news this year is the introduction of two new categories: Tech for Good Entrepreneur of the Year; and Impact Investor of the Year. These new categories replace a one-off judges’ award for Individual of the Year, previously won by Tom Steinberg (2018) and Annika Small (2019).
We are also changing the way we judge. We will have 20 judges in all doing the shortlisting and, for the first time, conducting face-to-face interviews with our 36 finalists when they are announced in early 2020. From these 36 finalists the judges will then select the 12 category winners.
Entries will be judged against five criteria:
Product or service — the digital innovation on offer; Idea — the core proposition; Team — the skills, experience and diversity of the people working on the project; Scalability — plans to grow take-up and reach; and Impact — how the project is making a positive change to the lives of individuals and society as a whole.
When we announce the 36 finalists in January 2020, we will also open a “People’s Choice” vote to give all of the 10,000+ DigitalAgenda subscribers a chance to vote for the finalist who most appeals to you.
So please keep your eyes open for the call for nominations for the DigitalAgenda Impact Awards 2020, opening for entries at 5.30pm on Tuesday 15th October, and spread the word. Let us and your fellow community members know which are the organisations and who are the individuals making the greatest impact across the UK.
I hope to see you in March at the DigitalAgenda Impact Awards ceremony when we reveal the 2020 winners. | https://medium.com/digitalagenda/nominations-for-digitalagenda-impact-awards-2020-open-15-october-58e9f2d952ff | [] | 2019-10-10 10:48:13.429000+00:00 | ['Awards', 'Tech For Good', 'Social Innovation', 'Social Impact', 'Startup'] |
Handling Flutter Images like a Pro | When building a production-ready app, it is a good practice to keep all the Image assets in a single dart file. This makes debugging a lot easier and faster.
This is how people normally use Image widgets and Asset location in general.
Disadvantages of using this way -
IDE cannot detect String literals so any mistake goes unchecked. Debugging becomes difficult while you have to scavenge through different files to find the Asset location. Bugfixes require multiple commits in different files becoming more prone to merge conflicts.
To fix this we create a class that holds all the Images that our app will contain.
Create a dart file called images.dart in the constants folder.
The file will contain a class with a private constructor and Images used in our app.
class Images {
Images._(); static const String logoLight = 'assets/images/logo/light_mode_logo.png';
}
Images is the class name.
Images._(); is a private constructor which prevents the class from being instantiated.
static means a member is available on the class itself instead of on instances of the class.
const makes the variable immutable.
logoLight is the Image asset name.
‘assets/images/logo/light_mode_logo.png’ is the asset location.
Now that we understand what everything does, we will apply it to our code.
Replace the floating Asset location with Images.logoLight
Advantages of using this way -
Any error is caught by the IDE and is easy to fix. Debugging becomes a breeze since all the Images are in one file and fixing any spelling mistakes or changing any Image variable is very easy. Bugfixes require a single commit as all the Images are available in a single file, thus reducing the chances of merge conflicts.
I hope you liked the article. I plan on bringing more short articles like these to teach tips and tricks used in Production Level Flutter Development!
You can read about Handling Flutter Strings like a Pro in Part #2 of the series.
You can follow me on Twitter, Github, or Youtube to stay updated with all my new articles and videos. | https://medium.com/@maruf-hassan/handling-flutter-images-like-a-pro-c28460b2806 | ['Maruf Hassan'] | 2021-05-22 15:00:38.225000+00:00 | ['Tips And Tricks', 'Flutter', 'Dart', 'Images', 'Flutter App Development'] |
no.11 On Being Late | Crap.
I hate being late for things. I like to run a tight calendar and to-do list…making thought out project plans on how to get things done early, arrive on time, and coordinate others involved. I don’t like it when people are late and I think missing deadlines is inexcusable in most cases.
So it drives me INSANE then when I miss my own deadlines. Like for this post. It’s six days late according to no one but me, but it has since been on my mind every day for the last six days as a constant reminder I dropped the ball.
In high school, my band teacher had this line painted to the entrance of the band room: “To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, and to be late is to be unacceptable.” In music, this is 100% accurate; as it’s not just about walking into the door on time for rehearsal, you need to be in your seat, music out, and instrument warmed up. That is “on time,” and the only way to do that is to be early.
Since those band days, I’ve adopted that motto into most of my life. I’m typically early to most things, I love finishing projects ahead of schedule. If I’m late, every minute that ticks by grips my throat a little tighter, and I never quite feel caught up. My reaction may be a bit extreme, I’ll admit, but the motto is one that may have helped me foster an efficient way to manage my time.
Being on time, hitting deadlines, etc. can be seen as a sign of respect. Whether it’s meeting a friend for coffee or making sure you’re early and prepared for a meeting at work, you’re showing the other person you care about their time, too. Lateness triggers chaos; anger in the one who was counting on you, discomfort or disengagement in yourself, and potentially throwing off greater plans in the process.
Insert a million legit excuses why this post was late (and in this case they were pretty legit…but aren’t they always??), but in the end I broke a plan with myself and instead caused days of the nagging notion this was not yet done. Wouldn’t it have been better to find the 15 minutes I needed earlier to accomplish this goal instead?
Doing the hard work of being prepared and leaving early saves me from the mental cloudiness that comes from missing deadlines and disrespecting others’ time. What can you finish up right now? Or, leave now!
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
This post is 11/52 in the project 52 Musings On Life This Far. Thanks for following along on the journey!
→ If you want to suggest a topic, submit here.
→ Be lazy! Pop your email here and I’ll send you the latest roundup of musings once a month. | https://medium.com/52-musings-on-life-this-far/no-11-on-being-late-a4b2afc77c68 | ['Courtney Cerniglia'] | 2019-03-18 19:35:10.028000+00:00 | ['Efficiency', 'Productivity', 'Work', 'Time Management'] |
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Improve Your User’s Service Experience with Relevant Routing | Have you ever run into this scenario: You’re talking in a customer service chat inside a website. You ask to speak to a human and are routed to an agent who has zero understanding of what you need. And by the time the agent directs you to someone who actually knows what you want, you’re already frustrated with the entire experience.
The thing is, you’ve asked to speak to a human because you need to talk to someone who knows how to solve your problems. So it really does you no good if you get directed to someone who doesn’t have a clue of what you’re talking about. Can we just skip the part where the first “expert” directs you to a second, relevant expert already? What you need is to speak with an agent in the right department, immediately! Someone whose expertise is exactly what you’re looking for.
With Watson Assistant you can provide your users with exactly that sort of service experience! Watson Assistant’s Zendesk and Salesforce integrations automatically detect when and why your users need a live agent, and seamlessly transfers them to agents best suited to meet their needs.
So let’s go over an example to see how you can build such an experience for your users. | https://medium.com/ibm-watson/improve-your-users-service-experience-with-relevant-routing-148c7cf1bcb6 | ['Raymond Chu'] | 2020-10-06 13:34:26.088000+00:00 | ['Tutorial', 'Chatbots', 'Wa Announcement', 'Virtual Assistant', 'Watson Assistant'] |
WE ARE HIRING! | WE ARE HIRING!
AFEX is a commodities exchange firm with a mission to support Nigeria’s food security while promoting a fair exchange of value among players in commodity value chains. To achieve this goal, AFEX looks to introduce products that de-risk the sector, drive financial inclusion for rural communities, develop technology for data collection and market access, and enable the deployment of capital.
We aim to bring together a team of changemakers with as many people as possible working together to change the status quo of commodity value chains across the continent. Find out how we make this happen, by checking out our website, and read below to discover what career opportunities there could be for you as we expand some of our teams.
We are hiring for these positions. If you are qualified:
Send your application to [email protected]. The deadline for submissions is on Thursday, 31st December 2020. Location: Abuja, Nigeria Duration: Full time
1. ASSOCIATE PRODUCT MANAGER
Job Brief
The Product Manager is responsible for the product planning and execution throughout the product lifecycle, including gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision, and working closely with engineering, strategy, and marketing to ensure revenue and customer satisfaction goals are met. The Product Manager also ensures that the product supports the company’s overall strategy and goals.
Duties & Responsibilities
Gain a deep understanding of customer experience, identify, and fill product gaps, and generate new ideas that grow market share, improve customer experience, and drive growth.
Create buy-in for the product vision both internally and with key external partners
Translate product strategy into detailed requirements for prototype construction and final product development by engineering teams
Scope and prioritize activities based on business and customer impact
Drive the execution of all product lifecycle processes for products, including product research, market research, competitive analysis, planning, positioning, roadmap development, requirements development, and product launch
Create product strategy documents that describe business cases, high-level use cases, technical requirements, revenue, and ROI
Analyze market data to develop sales strategies, and define product objectives for effective marketing communications plans
Collaborate closely with engineering, production, and marketing teams on the development, QA, and release of products and balance of resources to ensure success for the entire organization
Managing product road maps and releases
Identifying and filling product gaps
Providing management with analyses and reports and responding to questions and requests from management
Comparing the company’s products to competitor’s products to assess competition in the market
Essential Skills
Strong experience in a dynamic product management role
Proven experience overseeing all elements of the product development lifecycle
Previous experience delivering finely-tuned product growth and marketing strategies
Exceptional writing and editing skills combined with strong presentation and public speaking skills
Solid technical background with understanding and/or hands-on experience in software development and web technologies
Attention to detail and good problem-solving skills
Ability to maintain a keen attention to detail, multitask and work well under pressure
Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams without formal authority
Requirements
Minimum of 3 years experience in a similar role
Attention to detail and good problem-solving skills
Great teamwork skill
Great interpersonal and communication skills
Excellent multitasking skill
Complex problem-solving skill
Excellent time management skills
Exceptional leadership skills
2. MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPER
Job brief
The mobile application developer’s primary duty is to create, maintain and implement the source code to develop mobile apps and programs that meet the needs and requirements of the business using one or more computer programming languages.
Duties & Responsibilities
The developer would be responsible for creating, maintaining, and implementing the source code that makes up the application program.
Deliver across the entire app life cycle –concept, design, build, deploy, test, release to app stores and support
Working directly with developers and product managers to conceptualize, build, test, and realize products
Gather requirements around functionality and translate those requirements into elegant functional solutions
Build prototypes at the tech scoping stage of projects
Working along with web developers to create and maintain a robust framework to support the app
Working with the front end developers to build the interface with a focus on usability features
Create compelling device specific user interfaces and experience
Standardizing the platform and in some cases apps to deliver across multiple brands with minimal duplication of effort
Optimizing performance for the apps
Keep up to date on the latest industry trends in the mobile technologies
Explain technologies and solutions to technical and non-technical stakes
Essential Skills
Strong OO design and programming skills in Java, Kotlin, and Flutter
Familiar with the Android SDK
Knowledge of SQLite, MySQL, or similar database management system
Understanding of other compiled languages
Experience in web service integration (REST, JSON, XML)
Knowledge of build tools such as Gradle
Good understanding of OO programming and design pattern
Good understanding of agile development frameworks including Scrum and Kanban
Knowledge of distributed version control systems including Mercurial and Git
Experience with third-party libraries and APIs
Vast knowledge of the general mobile landscape, architectures, trends, and emerging technologies
Excellent QA/ testing skills
Requirements
Minimum of 3years of experience as a professional mobile application developer
First degree from a reputable university
Great teamwork skill
Excellent Multitasking skill
Complex problem-solving skill
Excellent time management skills
Knowledge of Unix/Linux operating system a plus.
3. LEAD APPLICATION DEVELOPER
Job Brief
As a lead application developer, you would be responsible for directing the development team in the design, development, coding, testing, and debugging of applications. You would also coordinate the development team’s schedule and ensure effective communication between team members and other IT functional areas.
Duties & Responsibilities
The lead developer would be responsible for coordinating other developers in creating, maintaining, and debugging applications for the business
Guide team development efforts towards successful project delivery
Provide technical leadership to teammates through coaching and mentorship
Create a schedule for team meet-ups (scrum) for collaboration and review of designated tasks
Work closely with the product development team to perform product analysis, review, and development of software requirement documents
Maintain high standards of software quality within the team by establishing good practices and habits
Identify and encourage areas for growth and improvement within the team
Collaborate with other software developers, business analysts, and software architects to plan, design, develop, test, and maintain web, mobile, and desktop-based business applications
Working directly with developers and product managers to conceptualize, build, test, and realize products
Gather requirements around functionality and translate those requirements into elegant functional solutions
Perform technical review of programming codes written by engineers
Essential Skills
Strong OO design and programming skills in various programming languages including Python, Java, C++, Scala, and/or others
Good understanding of Rest based Web API and OpenAPI specification
Experience with JWT authentication and common industry-standard encryption algorithms
Knowledge of PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, and other similar database management system
Good understanding of software design patterns
Strong knowledge of algorithms and data structures
Understanding of “session management” in a distributed server environment
Knowledge of Linux Servers and basic deployment tasks
Good understanding of agile development frameworks including Scrum and Kanban
Strong knowledge of Git
Working knowledge of financial payment integration workflows
Vast knowledge of the general software development landscape, architectures, trends, and emerging technologies
Excellent QA testing skills
Requirements
Minimum of 4years experience as a professional software developer
Great teamwork skills
Great leadership skills
Excellent Multitasking skill
Great interpersonal and communication skills
Complex problem-solving Skill
Excellent time management skills
Knowledge of Docker & Kubernetes a plus
4. FRONT END DEVELOPER
Job Brief
The front-end application developer’s primary duty is to create, maintain and implement User Interfaces and convert same to front-end source codes that meet the needs and requirements of the business using one or more front-end technologies/frameworks.
Duties & Responsibilities
Development of new highly-responsive, web-based user interface.
Deliver across the entire product life cycle –concept, design, build, deploy, test and support
Working directly with developers and product managers to conceptualize, build, test, and realize products
Gather requirements around functionality and translate those requirements into elegant functional solutions
Build prototypes at the tech scoping stage of projects
Develop flexible and well-structured front-end architectures, along with the implementation strategies
Translating designs and wireframes into high-quality code
Create compelling device specific user interfaces and experiences
Standardizing the platform and in some cases apps to deliver across multiple brands with minimal duplication of effort
Optimizing components for maximum performance across a vast array of web-capable devices and browsers
Keep up to date on the latest industry trends in frontend technologies
Explain technologies and solutions to technical and non-technical stakeholders
Essential Skills
Strong proficiency in JavaScript, including DOM manipulation and the JavaScript object model
Thorough understanding of React.js and its core principles
Experience with popular React.js workflows such as Redux
Familiarity with newer specifications of EcmaScript
Experience with data structure libraries (e.g., Immutable.js)
Good understanding of unit testing frameworks including cypress
Knowledge of isomorphic React is a plus
Familiarity with RESTful APIs
Knowledge of modern authorization mechanisms, such as JSON Web Token
Familiarity with modern front-end build pipelines and tools
Experience with common front-end development tools such as Babel, Webpack, NPM, Yarn, etc.
Ability to understand business requirements and translate them into technical requirements
Professional experience in benchmarking and optimization
Good understanding of agile development frameworks including Scrum and Kanban
Strong knowledge of Git
Experience with third-party libraries and APIs
Vast knowledge of general software development landscape, architectures, trends, and emerging technologies
Requirements
Minimum of 3years experience as a professional React application developer
First degree from a reputable university
Great teamwork skill
Great interpersonal and communication skills
Excellent Multitasking skill
Complex problem-solving skill
Excellent time management skills
Knowledge of CI/CD tools including CircleCI and Travis is a plus.
5. DEVOPS ENGINEER
Job Brief
The DevOps’s primary duty is to draw up implementation strategies and plans, deploy and maintain software programs developed by software developers as well as working on ways to automate and improve development and release processes.
Duties & Responsibilities
Building and setting up new development tools and infrastructure.
Ensuring that systems are safe and secure against cybersecurity threats.
Working with software developers to ensure that development follows established processes and works as intended
Do regular checks and backups of our systems.
Deploy updates and fixes
Perform root cause analysis for production errors
Design procedures for system troubleshooting and maintenance
Standardizing the platform and in some cases apps to deliver across multiple brands with minimal duplication of effort
Optimizing performance for the apps
Keep up to date on the latest industry trends in DevOps
Explain technologies and solutions to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Essential Skills
Hands-on experience in networking security, databases, and cloud systems
Outstanding knowledge of python, Django, and Django deployments
Profound knowledge in various scripting languages, system & server administration, and mass system deployments.
Strong Knowledge of CI/CD tools.
Working knowledge of automation tools including ansible and fabric
Expert in deploying and managing multi-server applications and microservices
Working knowledge of containerization platforms like Docker and containerization orchestration tools like Kubernetes.
Wide knowledge in operating system administration, programming languages, networking protocols, and cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, etc
Excellent teamwork and communication skills
Requirements
Minimum of 3years experience DevOps Engineer or similar software engineering role
First degree from a reputable university
Great teamwork skill
Excellent Multitasking skill
Great interpersonal and communication skills
Complex problem-solving Skill Excellent time
Management skills
6. BACKEND APPLICATION DEVELOPER
Job Brief
The backend application developer’s primary duty is to create, maintain, and implement the source code for backend systems and programs that meet the needs and requirements of the business using one or more computer programming languages.
Duties & Responsibilities
The developer would be responsible for creating, maintaining, and implementing the source code that makes up the application program
Deliver across the entire app life cycle –concept, design, build, deploy, test and support
Working directly with developers and product managers to conceptualize, build, test, and realize products
Gather requirements around functionality and translate those requirements into elegant functional solutions
Build prototypes at the tech scoping stage of projects
Building clean and reusable code and libraries for immediate & future use
Implementation & Integration of user-facing elements developed by front-end developers with server-side logic
Create compelling device specific user interfaces and experiences
Standardizing the platform and in some cases apps to deliver across multiple brands with minimal duplication of effort
Optimizing performance for the apps
Keep up to date on the latest industry trends in software development technologies/frameworks
Explain technologies and solutions to technical and non-technical stakeholders
Essential Skills
Strong OO design and programming skills in Python and Django
Good understanding of Django Rest Framework (DRF)
Experience with JWT authentication and common industry-standard encryption algorithms
Knowledge of PostgreSQL, MySQL, and other similar database management system
Good understanding of front-end technologies including (but not limited to) HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and React
Knowledge of the OpenAPI Specification
Understanding of “session management” in a distributed server environment
Knowledge of Linux Servers and basic deployment tasks
Good understanding of OO programming and design pattern
Good understanding of agile development frameworks including Scrum and Kanban
Strong knowledge of Git
Experience with third-party libraries and APIs
Vast knowledge of the general software development landscape, architectures, trends, and emerging technologies
Excellent QA/ testing skills
Requirements
Minimum of 3years experience as a professional Python (Django) application developer.
First degree from a reputable university
Great teamwork skill
Excellent Multitasking Skill
Great interpersonal and communication skills
Complex problem-solving Skill
Excellent time management skills
Knowledge of Docker & Kubernetes a plus.
7. BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND DATA ANALYST
Job Brief
The BI and data analyst’s primary duty is turning data into information, information into insight, and insight into business decisions. The successful candidate will develop analysis and reporting capabilities as well as conduct full lifecycle analysis to include requirements, activities, and design.
Duties & Responsibilities
Interpret data, analyze results using statistical techniques, and provide ongoing reports
Develop and implement databases, data collection systems, data analytics, and other strategies that optimize statistical efficiency and quality
Acquire data from primary or secondary data sources and maintain databases/data systems
Identify, analyze, and interpret trends or patterns in complex data sets
Filter and “clean” data by reviewing computer reports, printouts, and performance indicators to locate and correct code problems
Work with management to prioritize business and information needs.
Locate and define new process improvement opportunities.
Provide quality assurance of imported data, working with quality assurance analysts if necessary.
Support the data warehouse in identifying and revising reporting requirements
Assessing tests and implementing new or upgraded software and assisting with strategic decisions on new systems
Generating reports from single or multiple systems.
Troubleshooting the reporting database environment and reports.
Evaluating changes and updates to source production systems.
Training end-users on new reports and dashboards.
Providing technical expertise in data storage structures, data mining, and data cleansing
Essential Skills
Work experience as a data analyst or in a related field.
Good knowledge of Python
Experience with data analytics tools & frameworks including Panda, NumPy, and Scikit.
Experience with dashboard creation tools such as Plotly
Experience with third-party business intelligence tools including Power BI and Sisense
Strong knowledge of and experience with reporting packages (Business Objects etc) and databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL)
Ability to translate business requirements into non-technical, lay terms.
High-level experience in methodologies and processes for managing large scale databases.
Demonstrated experience in handling large data sets and relational databases.
Understanding of addressing and metadata standards.
High-level written and verbal communication skills.
Ability to analyze existing tools and databases and provide recommendations.
Requirements
Minimum of 2years experience in a similar role
First degree from a reputable university
Great teamwork skills
Great interpersonal and communication skills
Excellent Multitasking skills
Complex problem-solving skills
Excellent time management skills.
MCSA and similar certifications are a plus.
If you are qualified for any of these positions, send your application to [email protected]. Application closes on Thursday, 31st December 2020. | https://medium.com/@afexnigeria/we-are-hiring-67a397e9d759 | [] | 2020-12-24 08:07:59.510000+00:00 | ['Job Search', 'Recruitment', 'Careers', 'Vacancies In Nigeria', 'Vacancy'] |
Discovering writing | Introduction
Starting to write, the thought of writing, and the process of writing were things that I became quite familiar with being a Women and Gender Studies major. However, writing has often been an anxiety ridden process for me. Fear is often tied to that anxiety. I was filled with fear that I would not fulfill the given page numbers and word count assigned. My fear is most intense at the discovery of the weight of my own voice which in this essay I will correlate with my identity. I will be defining the term identity as the way in which I am understood academically based on my gender, race, nationality, and immigration status. I also use the terms social identity and identity interchangeably as I am still in the process of exploring the dichotomy of both in my personal life. Giving that I have been a student most of my life, academia has played a major role in the ways in which I reflect on my identity. In this essay, I will be discussing how I am building critical consciousness regarding the role of my social identities as they are represented in both my academic writing journey in the US and lack of a writing journey in Africa.
Gender and Academic Culture in Uganda: Early years
My academic journey began in Africa, where the academic culture is vastly different from the United States. Firstly, parents had to pay tuition and fees three times a year for their children to be admitted into schools. I watched my father single handedly go the extra mile to ensure my siblings and me went to the more nationally acclaimed institutions in the country. The better the institution, the more money it usually cost. Coming from a family with four girls and three boys, education was a hefty expense. I noticed that my father always put more emphasis on my sisters and me going to these national acclaimed institutions compared to my brothers.
In these nationally acclaimed schools, groups of students in the same grade were ranked according to their academic performance based on previous academic year’s scores. These rankings ranged from A to D, A being the best while D was the least performing grade. This division of students based on academic ability was the foundation of incorporating academic performance into my identity. I vividly remember being separated from my friend groups year after year because of the ranking system. Making friends felt tied to one’s academic ability. Through the end of year breaks, my friends and I held our breath in anticipation of whether we would find ourselves in the same classroom. Many of my female friends were not assigned to my grade ranking. In my grade 5 A classroom there were 15 girls out of 50 students. This stark gender disparity coupled with my father’s push for my sisters and I’s educational pursuits left me with questions concerning societal treatment of girls.
Arithmetic versus Writing: Gender
The academic tracks for students were often divided into arithmetic and writing. The decision to pursue either of the two options did not belong to the student but were often decided by the teacher and parents based on the student’s performance. Teachers and parents were often the authoritative voice in the academic culture with students not having major say. I was not that great at writing, but I could recite my way through the multiplication tables. My father thought it would be a great idea for me to break the gender barriers in our household by being the first girl to take the arithmetic track. He sided with the teachers and my classes moving forward focused primarily on math and science as opposed to writing and literature. Because of this I had little to no exposure to writing.
Coupled with my lack of writing exposure, there were only two career options in the arithmetic track: an engineer or medical doctor. The decision was made by my father and teachers nearing the beginning of my high school experience to get me focused on becoming a medical doctor. They thought the United States was the best option for me to fulfill that desire so they started putting everything in place including the teachers writing the essays I would need for my initial admission.
Immigrant identity: Colour vs Color
I was placed in an ESOL class in my first semester of my freshman year because I was a foreign national despite coming from an English-speaking background. Often students can test out of these courses, but I was not given that option. For our class assignments, Dr. L required us to turn in hard copies and called us to her office to give us feedback our papers.
One fateful Wednesday evening, it was my turn to go into her office. I was feeling so confident about my paper that right before going into her office, I, with an ice-cream cone in hand, was chatting with a friend. I run up five flights of stairs and sat confidently in the chair across from hers. She started “When you first walked into my class, hearing you speak and the discussions we have around the book, I thought you were too advanced to be in my course.” She paused, and I half-smiled because I noticed her use of past tense in the statement she made. I thought to myself, “she thought? She thought?” She continued “I am glad I didn’t write the transfer over because you are struggling with your spelling.” She handed my paper back to me with red marks all over it. A few words stood out to me “programme,” “colour,” and “neighbours.” I sank into the chair as I felt a hot tear drop onto my paper. “What was going on?” She proceeded to turn to her computer screen. “Your analysis was great. You are doing well with MLA citations; however, in American English, your spelling was amiss. I will give you full credit for the assignment if you do it over.” I did not have time to explain myself, nor did I want to because I felt a lump form up in my throat. I sniffled and said “thank you, I will have a quick turnaround” as I rushed to the restroom to get myself together before class which started at 5pm. I thought to myself “how can a college professor with the running claim of working with international students be so heartless? Surely it is a known fact that most international students that have a background in English learned British English.”
This was one of the first times I had put myself out there in my writing. As Dr. L spoke, all I could hear was that I was better off reciting multiplication tables. I felt rejected as a writer. My anxiety towards writing assignments increased, I had been misunderstood and undervalued as an immigrant in the United States. I came to learn that this was going to be a huge part of my identity living here.
Women and Gender Studies.
I came to the United States with the expectation that my predetermined abilities would continue to dictate my academic experience in turn my identity. After my first semester taking a couple of science classes, my First Year Experience advisor suggested that I take a Women’s Studies course as an elective to fulfill my course requirements for the semester. I was intrigued by this course because during most of my upbringing I had been in classrooms with mostly boys. My personal objective in taking this class was to be around more women in the classroom and observe interactions. The Women’s Studies course, however, challenged me in a different way. I had to expand my thinking capacity past multiplication tables and equations like I was used to. I had to start writing and reasoning beyond formulas. One plus one no longer equaled two without explanation. I had to give reason for my way of thinking. I also had to harness this into ten-page papers which was foreign to me.
The stark difference between the Chemistry lectures that were formulated and the Women’s Studies lectures that called for curiosity and finding my voice during classroom discussions completely revitalized the development of my identity. I had to start writing and thinking outside the lines which, I was not used to as a woman whose life had been planned from young age. After taking a couple of other Women’s Studies courses over the course two semesters, I found myself empowered by the opportunity to determine my own future. I then switched my major to Women and Gender Studies. I opted out of the predetermined medical school career path; officially abandoning pieces of my identity that had been shaped by my community in Uganda. It was uncomfortable. It felt like a road less walked. I felt like I had started a rebellion against my community; the people that brought me this far. I was scared. This was the first time I was deciding on my own terms.
Finding my voice through the stories of others: Race and nationality
I was in my second year as a Women and Gender Studies major. At this point in my academic writing journey, I had the opportunity to read and cite the works of Gloria Anzaldúa, bell hooks, among others, who wrote with such courage. They took ownership of who they were and, in some cases, used their vernacular English in academically acclaimed work. However, I still did not identify with the writings of these women as an African immigrant. I took up the challenge the summer before junior year to read the works of different female African authors, and especially liked the writings of Chimamanda Adiche Ngozi. She wrote about the nuanced stories of Africans grappling with their Blackness as their salient social identity in America in her novel Americanah (Adichie, 2013). This was a part of my social identity that I had begun to explore with constant discussions around race in my course work. Reading Americanah gave me a better understanding of what it meant to be a Black immigrant in the United States. Adichie (2013) wrote about how on many occasions race-ethnicity would be more salient than gender. She emphasized that sometimes as an immigrant you would have to compromise some aspects of your native culture to embrace a new one (Adichie, 2013). Americanah not only gave words to my experiences but gave me hope for an adjusted life as well.
After the long summer of reading Adiche’s work, I had to submit a term paper in Dr. R’s Feminist economies course during the Fall semester of my junior year. Dr. R gave us the option to explore a topic whose relevancy matters to us. The only requirement of the term paper was that it had to explore the lived experience of a person in Baltimore participating in a feminist economy. Feminist economies for Dr. R’s course were defined as employment opportunities that did not generate profit for sole use within the realms of a capitalist economy. This could include stay at home mothers, social entrepreneurs, worker cooperatives, among others. I decided to tell the story of Gabi, a micro-social entrepreneur and Ghanaian immigrant in Baltimore, who started an African cuisine business. In the line with social entrepreneurship, the proceeds of Gi’s business went to teaching African college students at UMBC how to cook their traditional African meals in thirty minutes or less. Gi’s life closely mirrored the ones I had read about in Americanah (Adichie, 2013). Because of the fast-paced nature of the American society, she had adjusted and learned how to cook Ghanaian dishes in thirty minutes. In contrast with more traditional Ghanaian dishes take at least an hour for a bowl of soup. This assignment facilitated a deeper understanding of my race-ethnicity as a social identity as I chose to write about an individual whose social identities closely matched mine.
The week after submitting the paper, Dr. R called me into her office. When responding to her email, I had flashbacks of my time in freshman year in Dr. L’s office. I walked into Dr. R’s office, and she had a huge smile on her face. Dr. R never smiled; she was on the more stoic side. I sat in the chair across from hers, and she congratulated me for writing the best paper she had seen in a while. This unexpected praise academically was an affirming factor in my developing identity as a Black immigrant woman in the United States.
Conclusion
A geyser of anxiety often erupts deep inside me spurting fear whenever I think of my academic writing journey. I grew up with my dreams already dreamt for me. There was my loving father, whose hopes were that medical school would secure a better future for me and that a life in America would open doors that were never opened for him. My instructors thought I would be better off not improving my writing because I could recite a few multiplication tables. I had to divorce dreams that were not mine, and work to discover my social identities while trying to be a scholar of these very social identities. I have found that I am in a journey with my writing that is closely linked to my understanding and affirming of my identity. This journey is not a static event, but an excursion that requires continual exploration of self. | https://medium.com/@marthankakooza/discovering-writing-95c936f3f9c8 | [] | 2020-12-18 15:04:37.858000+00:00 | ['F 1 Student Visa', 'Raceinamerica', 'Writing', 'Immigration', 'Writing Prompts'] |
Trading and the Sharing Economy | Photo courtesy of Uber
Trading and the Sharing Economy
Brokerages Distributed Model — Phase 1
You’ve probably heard of the sharing economy. If you haven’t, you’ve definitely heard of Uber (transportation), AirBnB (lodging) and a host of other companies, including Didi, which beat Uber at its own game in the Chinese market. Disruption is a term thrown around loosely whenever new technology arrives on the scene, but the rate at which these companies have flipped entire industries upside down is astounding. If you don’t believe me, ask your local taxi driver.
So what does renting out your flat, or hailing a ride from your mobile have to do with Banking, Finance, FinTech, whatever you want to call it? The answer, everything.
Let’s face it, banks and financial institutions don’t exactly have the trust of the people. Global financial meltdowns, bailouts, payouts, etc. have gone a long way to making the general population feel like the “have nots”. Like an exclusive party that they haven’t been invited to, and they won’t be expecting a call anytime soon (well, ever).
I’ve worked in the spot Forex and CFD brokerage industry for about 20 years working on the retail, institutional, management, and product sides in different capacities, and previously started another technology company, tradingwheels, that was focused on helping a trader work on their emotional intelligence in a real-time trading environment (which I was giving away for free).
It’s not an understatement to say that, for years, almost nothing truly innovative has happened in the industry. Sure, pricing is tighter, mobile apps are more prevalent, bandwidth is abundant in many areas, but the business models are largely the same. The ads are the same, the message is the same: Does “trade the largest market in the world, 24/5.5 days a week, and get tight spreads” sound familiar? Yawn!
Compare that to the transportation industry. According to Reuters, New York City cab drivers have seen their monthly leasing income drop as much as 60% in the past few years. Now that is disruption and it doesn’t even touch what is happening with energy, housing, online consumer goods, food, or even space travel!
During this time I have been fascinated in what is also happening in the cryptocurrency space. The openness of a distributed ledger and how it also leverages the assets (computational cycles) of others in the network to make it stronger. This type of model made complete sense for something similar to be brought into the OTC brokerage space not only as a tradable asset or technology with its own set of advantages (much has been written about this) but as a business philosophy as a whole. Treating traders and their volume (akin to computational cycles) as a valuable asset to make the network of traders, as a whole, stronger, and being as transparent as possible (a distributed ledger) without jeopardizing privacy issues could work and scale quite well for the benefit of everyone in brokerage.
So this is the basis for my new company, EQL-X, LLC (“eqlx”).
First, let’s get into transparency. There has been a fog of secrecy surrounding the OTC brokerage industry. From the outside (trader) looking in (broker), it feels like it’s done on purpose. I’m not saying that companies do this intentionally or that is it bad per se, but wouldn’t it be radically different to open the books so to speak? Just show how much we make, how much we spend, what our core costs are from our liquidity providers, if we outsource our risk to a third party, the list goes on. This is in the same vein as a distributed ledger of sorts and is a new way to think about true transparency- and something a lot of legacy brokers do not want to talk about.
The eqlx model is built on trust, transparency, and our unique 50/50 profit share.
Second, share the wealth (compliance hat time- “when or if there is wealth or profit, of course”). If my company, eqlx, can be transparent with the amount of funds coming in (and out), why not take it a step further and reward all of our awesome active traders (what we call “the collective”) their share of the 50% net profits we give back to the collective for as long as they continue to be an active trader? This, though with very apparent differences, is a similar concept to the mining reward in a proof of work (POW) model I saw in cryptocurrencies, and is the most direct and transparent way, I believe, that showcases the seriousness in how eqlx values our ecosystem (the collective) of traders.
There is much more to discuss about our model, and of what we will be introducing in the weeks to come, but I look forward to building this exciting new brokerage model right alongside you.
You + Us = Awesome,
This is eqlx.
Matthew Carstens
CEO & Co-Founder
eqlx
For details on how individual active traders are valued for their potential profit share please go to: http://eqlx.io/the-difference/ | https://medium.com/team-eqlx/trading-and-the-sharing-economy-6f6d8b87a68d | ['Matthew Carstens'] | 2016-10-13 14:34:37.616000+00:00 | ['Fintech', 'Forex', 'Forex Trading', 'Finance', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
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