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Let’s talk about losing weight with little effort! Here are eleven simple tips and tricks that you can use to lose major weight on Keto (or most diets, really!) | Let’s talk about losing weight with little effort! Here are eleven simple tips and tricks that you can use to lose major weight on Keto (or most diets, really!)
1 — Focus on meats and vegetables not fat
2 — Eat real whole natural foods avoid supplements
3 — Stick to your routine
4 — Meal plan before shopping
5 — Focus on leaner meats
6 — Invest on a digital kitchen scale
7 — Stay hydrated drink more
8 — Keep in hand easy snack like cheese/cucumber
9 — Sleep early
10 — Differentiate head hunger from stomach hunger
11 — Understand your own needs and how to address them
- Fonte do texto: https://ohweightloss.com/keto-11-simple-tips-for-major-weight-loss/ | https://medium.com/@iloseweight/keto-11-simple-tips-for-major-weight-loss-a204762f4327 | ['Holly Mhu'] | 2020-12-27 12:35:14.815000+00:00 | ['Women', 'Health', 'Losebelly', 'Weightloss', 'Fitness'] |
Strictly Business — Women of Influence | Strictly Business — Women of Influence
Kelly Talamas - Editor-in-Chief Vogue Mexico & Latin America
We are running late.
And not just running late for meeting a friend for coffee, or late to get home. We are late for our phone interview with the Editor-In-Chief of Vogue Mexico/Latin America, Kelly Talamas. As we run across the park to get to the conference room, the tension rises, knowing that we cannot turn back the clock and regain the lost time.
One of the girls tentatively asks, “This is the type of thing that people get fired for, right?” Choosing not to dwell on finding the answer, we scurry into the air-conditioned room and take a deep breath.
The moment we first realized that not only had the Editor-In-Chief not only responded to our email, but that she also agreed to be interviewed, the young women of the “Strictly Business — Women of Influence” team were elated and nervous. A few of them dreamed of pursuing careers as editors or fashion photographers, making this interview even more than just an incredible opportunity. There was no shortage of questions; in fact the sheer number was so numerous and interesting, that it proved difficult to edit them down.
The phone rings loudly over the conference room speaker system and a sweet voice, speaking in rapid fire Spanish, states “Condé Nast” announcing that it is show time. We are connected to Ms. Talamas’ extension and the reality that the current EIC has graciously devoted time to have a conversation with us sinks in. A few beeps later, a warm voice fills the room:
“Vogue.”
The girls look at each other giddily, and we begin the interview.
What interested you to study Journalism and Economics? Did you envision a career in the business side of media?
I was always more interested in the editorial side. Since a very young age I’ve always loved fashion. My family on my mother’s side tended to be more creative, so my sister and I were always really interested in fashion more as a hobby, something that we enjoyed on the side. I also loved collecting magazines and I loved writing. So when I started University, I immediately knew I wanted to go into the communications field, definitely into journalism. I used to collect all of the fashion magazines I loved and read the articles from the beginning to end, more than just looking at the images, so I decided the best field for me was fashion journalism. At the university where I studied they had a requirement to do double majors and I’m very happy about this requirement. I was always very interested in business and economics, because I feel like the skills that you learn in that career can help you in anything that you do.
As Editor-In-Chief I have to keep budgets, plan strategies for the magazine in all of our platforms, deal with clients, so having a knowledge of the current economics and business is always a plus in whatever field you are in. So that’s why I chose to go down that route to compliment my journalism degree.
What is one of the hardest experiences you have had to overcome to reach the position of Editor-in-Chief that you now hold as a woman?
There’s not one particular moment in mind that stands out as something that I had to overcome. I think to get to this position it’s a lot of hard work and sacrifice on your personal life to be able to move up.
I am originally from Miami and I started in the Vogue Mexico and Latin America office in Miam, however five years ago, I was offered the opportunity to move to Mexico because they were moving the editorial office here. That was definitely a big decision to make. I absolutely loved my job, but it was never really my plan to move to Mexico.
Given this opportunity, I really had nothing to lose, and I decided to take it not knowing truthfully that eventually I would be promoted to Editor-In-Chief. I was Fashion Editor at the time. That was an important lesson for me because I think sometimes you take risks and you think “Well you know, I would really like to stay in the U.S industry and focus more on the U.S industry.” But you never know, sometimes there are benefits that can come from taking certain risks that you didn’t have in your plan. At the same time
I think it’s important to have a vision of what you want to do with your career, but also be open to the unexpected because you never know how different opportunities present themselves. I would say that it was an important step in my career, which eventually led to me becoming Editor-In-Chief.
You also have to be willing to understand that sometimes it’s difficult. Sometimes you can have it all and sometimes you can’t have it all.
There are certain times in your life where you have to dedicate more to your career and there are certain times where you dedicate more to your personal life.
There are times, as women, we want to do everything and we feel guilty if we can’t achieve everything in the time that we’ve placed upon ourselves. It all boils down to giving yourself those moments in your life to dedicate to your career and understand that you have to make certain sacrifices in both your career and your personal life to be able to achieve everything that you want. We do a lot of articles about this in Vogue because we know this is a predicament and issue many women struggle with.
At this age, I thought that I would have kids already or I would be married but, you know, you have to learn to dedicate your attention and your time to what you need at the moment.
As Editor-in-Chief, you dictate the magazine’s direction. Have you ever made any decisions that you regret, such as featuring or not featuring someone on the cover?
I think I wouldn’t necessarily say regret. It can all be taken as a learning experience. Not necessarily to say that everything happens for a reason, but when we choose the people that we put on our cover we clearly and carefully meditate on them. It’s not just on a whim that we decide to put people there.
Each Vogue — each magazine in the world — also always has in mind the title we represent in order to maintain the quality and know what people look for in our magazine. Do they look for fashion? Do they look for celebrities? Do they look for…you know what exactly are they looking for in Vogue?
In our case we’ve learned to focus mostly on top models because in our market people look to Vogue for fashion and they want fashion figures. We don’t do as many celebrities as Vogue US does, for example, because the US is a very entertainment-based market. The celebrities that are in the US are known for their fashion sense. This is not necessarily the case in Vogue Mexico or Latin America. We do feature them from time to time but they have to have some sort of link to fashion and they have to be relevant to the market also in terms of — Is it a Latin actress? Is it an American actress? Is it an American actress that speaks to the foreign market?
These are all things that we take into consideration when we are choosing our covers. In choosing the local content for the magazine, the person also has to match. If it’s a Mother’s Day issue maybe we will put a model that’s a mother on the cover. We carefully think about it. So we don’t necessarily regret the people that we put [on our cover], but there are times that we’ve said no to a certain model or a certain celebrity that later comes out with a really interesting project that we had the opportunity to shoot with and we missed them.
Of course you always learn those things and again it goes back to not being able to please everybody or do everything.
You do learn maybe to, next time, not make a decision so quickly or to consider it for the future. There will always be those instances; you never know 100%.
I’m also a very picky person with very high standards, who is always looking to improve on how to do better and present exclusive materials. We are always looking to be one step ahead of the game, ahead of the market. I think that’s what drives us everyday, always looking to improve. If we were just comfortable with everything we put into the magazine we wouldn’t be challenging ourselves every day. I wouldn’t say that I’ve regretted putting anyone in the magazine per se because we do carefully decide each person, each article, each time — but maybe yes, not picking up opportunities that have been presented to us and then later not having that opportunity presented again. I guess that happens with everything in life. | https://medium.com/women-of-influence/strictly-business-women-of-influence-c5be4544b5ea | ['Artists For Humanity'] | 2016-05-27 17:59:57.568000+00:00 | ['Fashion', 'Education', 'Womenleaders'] |
A New World of Possibility | This was one of my favorite opening “hooks” to introduce a chapter that I wrote in my book The Future is Autonomous: The U.S. and China Race to Develop the Driverless Car. This is a chapter devoted to the near-term use cases of autonomous vehicles. It describes a hypothetical situation in which autonomous vehicles are the predominant vehicles on the road and the potential benefits they could have over our current, human-driven vehicle transportation and goods delivery systems.
Imagine a situation in which a man wakes up to his alarm crowing like a rooster. He stumbles out of bed and enters his bathroom to take a shower. While he sits down for breakfast, he gets an alert from an app on his cell phone. The autonomous vehicle has arrived at his house with his dry cleaning. He leaves his house, gives the driverless vehicle a thumbs up to open the trunk, takes out the package with his suit and button-up shirts, gives the vehicle another thumbs up to close the trunk, and returns to his house. He then walks to his bedroom and hangs the clothes in his closet. Recognizing it is time to head to work, he uses another app on his phone to order a shared autonomous vehicle to pick him up.
Five minutes later, he receives another alert from Uber saying his vehicle has arrived. He gulps down the rest of his coffee and walks outside. The door of the van slides open, allowing him to enter. He climbs inside and sits next to a blind man wearing sunglasses with his service dog sitting attentively on the floor in front of him. The van doors automatically close behind him and the van starts driving toward his destination.
He pulls out his computer, connects to the van’s WiFi network, and starts responding to emails to begin his work for the day. On the commute, he glances out the window to see the clear blue sky and the van passes a park filled with lush green trees and shrubs. There is a young girl swinging on a swing set in a playground, pushed by her mother. He recalled when there used to be an ugly multilevel parking lot where the park is now. After about thirty minutes on a commute which previously took over forty-five minutes, the van arrives at the stop near his office. Several other autonomous vehicles sped off in different directions with no need for traffic lights or stop signs. He was ready for a productive day at the office.
With some differences, this hypothetical “snapshot” into the future represents a glimpse of the situation that both these U.S. and China are competing over in the race to develop and lead in the autonomous vehicle industry.
One caveat to the hypothetical scenario that I created is that I have discovered (too late for me to change, unfortunately) that the idea of having no traffic lights or stop signs was floated around in the autonomous vehicle (AV) industry about five years ago. However, now people in the industry want both stoplights and stop signs. This is partly a realization of the reality that AVs will be sharing the road with conventional vehicles for the foreseeable future. Also, not everyone will be driving. Collisions with pedestrians and cyclists is also a serious issue in the U.S. and around the world. Stoplights and stop signs make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists to more safely travel in city streets. Oops, I hope I get a mulligan on this mistake.
AVs can still reduce traffic because there would theoretically be fewer vehicles on the road if people switched to riding in shared autonomous vehicles (SAVs) instead of owning their own vehicle. With grocery delivery services like Nuro operating right now, there would be fewer cars on the road because people spend significant amounts of time driving to and from grocery stores. The distance travelled differs depending on a person’s location, but traffic would greatly increase if one Nuro vehicle could carry the groceries of three to five people who would otherwise be driving to and from grocery stores.
Autonomous vehicles could also provide a substantial reduction of global CO2 emissions to combat climate change in the near and long term. An estimated thirty percent of the carbon dioxide and other harmful emissions produced in the US alone come from vehicle exhaust. According to renowned autonomous vehicle advocate Brad Templeton’s website, this figure could be reduced by as much as twelve to fifteen percent. This would be the case if personal car ownership was replaced by shared rides in autonomous “robotaxi” fleets.
Many downtown areas devote 50–60% of their already scarce space to parking structures. Autonomous vehicles would not get rid of this problem entirely, but they have the potential to greatly increase the space devoted to other things. I mentioned a park in my hypothetical, but it could just as easily be a new office building, apartment complex, movie theater, etc.
Many of the benefits of autonomous vehicles presuppose people in the US will choose to ride in a shared “robotaxi.” This might be a difficult transition to make. People in the US have been owning and driving their own vehicles for more than one hundred years.
I spoke with Dr. Yochanan Bigman, postdoctoral research fellow at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. His research focuses on issues of machines making moral decisions. He said in his interview, “I think it might make people a bit slower in adopting this new technology, but I don’t think it’s a big barrier.” He continued to say, “I think if people see the benefits, if we have these traffic jams, and we don’t need to worry about parking, and people that die in accidents, and insurance costs will be lower.” While Dr. Bigman agreed acceptance might be lower because of the entrenched driving culture in the US., in n the end, he feels the benefits of shared rides in autonomous vehicles would win people over. Only time will tell if he is right.
While this problem may be more pronounced in the U.S. because of our long history of owning and driving our own vehicles, it will be an issue that the U.S., China, and every other country will need to deal with. Changing people’s consumer patterns will not be easy and it will not happen overnight. Stay tuned for more on what other problems people might face in consumer acceptance of AVs!
If you would like to read more about this exciting new technology, here are the links to purchase a copy of the book, The Future is Autonomous: The U.S. and China Race to Develop the Driverless Car! There is a special promotional price on the Amazon Kindle eBook version for only 99 cents until December 31st, so get it now while it’s on sale! Please also rate and review the book on Amazon!
Please also rate and review my book on Amazon! It would mean a lot!
Here is the link to the Kindle eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Future-Autonomous.../dp/B08PVRL38J
Amazon paperback:
https://www.amazon.com/Future-Autonomous.../dp/1636766188 | https://medium.com/@phillip-wilcox/a-new-world-of-possibility-e154993ff4e | ['Phillip Wilcox'] | 2020-12-18 14:21:03.903000+00:00 | ['Self Driving Cars', 'Driving Safety', 'Traffic Optimization', 'Autonomous Cars', 'Climate Change'] |
Hot chocolate | Photo of the day 357/366
Sometimes only a hot chocolate will do to warm you up 👍 The temperature has dropped to 20 degrees and it genuinely feels freezing. As someone from the UK that sounds ridiculous but it really does. We’ve even resorted to a hot water bottle and buying slippers and warmer clothes!
When people told us it gets cold in winter I laughed when 20 degrees was mentioned and had visions of still using the pool etc. Now I understand what they meant, lol!
#project365 | https://medium.com/@richardjeaton/hot-chocolate-6f4a4fbc846c | ['Richard Eaton'] | 2020-12-22 23:46:21.995000+00:00 | ['Photos', 'Project365', 'Chocolate', 'Photography', 'Weather'] |
How a Textbook Page Single-Handedly Encourages Racial Stereotyping in Healthcare | How a Textbook Page Single-Handedly Encourages Racial Stereotyping in Healthcare
Why your zip code is more important than your genetic code
Source: Nursing: A Concept-Based Approach to Learning, pg. 161
Take a look at the image above, read it carefully, and consider where it’s from. You can probably suspect that page comes right out of a textbook used in healthcare education.
While we would like to believe our healthcare system and providers are not biased, both implicit and explicit circumstances of discrimination still exists.
A recent study assessed the utility of an algorithm equating health-risk and cost. While African American patients were found to have similar risk levels to White patients, the African Americans were found to still be much sicker.
At a sampled high-risk group, African Americans were found to have 26.3% more chronic illnesses compared to the White individuals within the same group.
Because the algorithm attempts to use cost as a core factor of health, much less is spent on the treatment of African Americans in the same level of need, and an implicit racial bias is introduced.
The data presented focuses on a typical algorithm used in many large hospitals and facilities, and it shows the growing need for attention given to these hidden biases.
While I may not be able to see your initial reaction to this image, let’s think about what it means for us, both as patients and as members of the community.
Advancing cultural sensitivity in healthcare
With an increased richness in racial, cultural, and religious diversity, healthcare schools adopted a systematic approach to teach their students how to treat those from different backgrounds.
Thus, a page like the one shown above was written. It was distributed in hopes of helping students learn the different aspects surrounding one’s culture, and leverage that understanding as a way to facilitate treatment modalities.
While the intention is well and all, many harmful implications stem from having this published in a textbook. First and foremost, facts and observations are mutually exclusive. When we make claims about the nature of the real world, we establish certain facts which then trickle down to future students.
The descriptions provided in the image are clearly based on racial stereotypes. It runs the massive risk of offending patients if physicians treating them are jumping to conclusions about their beliefs.
The teachings in the textbook can potentially manifest into a physician or a nurse refusing to offer pain medication to Jews or Hispanics. Rather than being culturally sensitive, it is passively harmful.
If a patient tells us he is in pain, and we have access to medications that can help him, should we ignore him or not offer him treatment simply because he’s a “Catholic Hispanic?”
Cultural sensitivity as a form of ignorance
Cultural sensitivity is like ordering a non-meat dish when going out to eat with a vegetarian friend. However, skewed cultural sensitivity in healthcare that influences the physician’s choices can ultimately have life-or-death implications.
A textbook and non-proven data are by no means good ways to encourage cultural sensitivity. Rather than attempting to promote sensitivity, what we really need is to train future healthcare professionals to be culturally competent.
Competent healthcare providers can be trained through the exposure to and experience with individuals from different backgrounds. Here are some possible ways to instill this within healthcare education:
Establish mandatory community service in medical school, nursing school, PA school, etc. Community engagement encourages active participation with locals from various backgrounds, often with ones that differ from our own. Empower cross-border, cross-cultural community service. For example, if students come from a predominantly white state, then they should travel to a state near the border to gain experience working with potential Hispanic communities. As a California resident, this is definitely one population set I’ve had a lot of exposure to over the years. Create seminars or workshops involving speakers, advocates, or those who first-handedly suffer from inequalities. Returning to the conference I mentioned in the beginning, we invited a speaker who had personally faced medical prejudice based on race/ethnicity. Shared experiences and stories are a humanistic way of connecting with those around us. Much has changed over the years with cultural competency overcoming the barriers brought forth by racial stereotyping. The examples I listed above were just a few of the many experiences I’ve had or seen with my colleagues. My hope is that everyone entering the healthcare field takes away the value and need for understanding the backgrounds of others.
Where you live affects how you are
When all is said and done, the broadest implications of this textbook page point to a term known as the Social Determinants of Health — conditions ranging from social or economic inequalities that result in health injustices.
Race and culture are determined socially rather than biologically. Essentially, our zip code is more important than our genetic code.
Studies have shown the correlation between the quality-and-length of life compared to the living locations of individuals. In some circumstances across America, there can be a twenty-year average life expectancy difference between cities that are only miles away from each other.
Breastfeeding rates, as well, are shown to have a direct correlation with the race and income of the mother associated with her environment.
An additional study by researchers at Harvard Medical School have shown that 145 of the 560 diseases examined were “modestly influenced by socio-economic status derived by zip code.”
Here are some reasons your zip code matters:
If you live in a culturally polarized neighborhood, the language barrier will prevent you from receiving appropriate access to healthcare
If you go to school in a poor district, you lack the education needed for informed health decisions
If you live in a food desert, you lack access to healthy eating options or grocery stores — instead you’ll resort to primarily fast food for sustenance
If you live in an area with a low physician to patient ratio, there are more barriers to receiving care
We often associate our diseases with genetics or family history — diabetes is a classic example. Yet the onset of such conditions is more, in part, influenced by social factors, such as the environment.
The textbook image failed to consider how socioeconomic status is one of the biggest social determinants that creates health disparities. We need to take a holistic approach to patient care by recognizing both biological and social factors. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/how-a-textbook-page-single-handedly-encourages-racial-stereotyping-in-healthcare-eb9de4652197 | ['Project Hbe'] | 2020-11-09 20:13:00.264000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Racism', 'Education', 'Diversity', 'Social Justice'] |
Canary in a Coal Mine | Canary in a Coal Mine
Photo by Ojaswi Pratap Singh on Unsplash
I am a slave
My life is not my own
It is what keeps others safe
Deep inside the underground
A place where my brethren lay
Other slaves, that came before me.
My presence here is an early grave
I am suffocating in this tight space
Trapped in a little bird’s cage
I am a canary, in a coal mine.
I sing my song, to entertain
I stop singing
When disaster strikes
So my masters can run away.
I guess that means
I was born to serve
Or better yet, born to die
Like a soldier of valor?
No far from,
No remembrance nor grand parades
For I am merely, just a slave.
Abducted from my home
Never to see it again
Brought to a land, shackled in chains
Forced to serve, till my death.
I am talented, I can sing
My destiny is on a stage
What I truly am is a star
Or maybe that is just a dream.
My dream,
A thought that stirs in my mind
When I think of what, I could have been
If I was not taken away from my home
And brought to a place, where I do not belong.
Perhaps if I had remained
I would have been able to fly, sore out in the open sky
Reaching the heights of my fantasies
No goal is unattainable
My wings will take me where no man can go
Where the sun rises and fades to dusk.
If I was not a slave, I might have been
Worth remembering and had a place among the stars. | https://medium.com/blueinsight/canary-in-a-coal-mine-abd2972439d7 | [] | 2020-12-22 20:55:29.137000+00:00 | ['Blue Insights', 'Canary In A Coal Mine', 'Mental Health', 'Slave', 'Poetry'] |
5 things our company learned from Amazon | Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash
Have you ever wondered why some companies have huge profits while others barely struggle to survive?
For sure there are 5 different differences between them.
Foreword
Our company came out to the world less than 6 months ago, initially, it received the title Lampgram, which in terms of the founder’s thinking means bright light of innovative ideas (lamp) and mechanism of innovation (gram). Over the first 2 months, it did generate huge profits so that is why I am sharing 5 tips of success that will definitely change the way your business operates.
1) Innovation in the niche
The success of Amazon hugely depends on bringing new customer experience & extreme convenience for them. In the time of Amazon’s rollout to the real world, there were no alternative companies that would even compete with Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos idea of selling goods online(initially books). So from here, we can easily distinguish the main reason why your company either sucks or completely stays without customers (sucks even more) — it is lack of innovation.
2) Customer relationship
Customer relationship is the key thing in any business, whether you have a washing cars point or a cafe — you largely depend on customers, you cannot be ignorant to your customers, you got to always seek improvement in how you serve your clients. Thus make sure you provide the billion-dollar company customer experience and treat each of your clients as the most important person in the world.
3) Constant improvement
Execution is way more significant that you would ever think. Here we can draw a line between Amazon in 2001 and now, how much it changed? The answer is way a lot, the world does not stay in place, things change — you have to change as well. A very good example of scaling a company is Amazon Web Services (AWS) which is one of the most profitable Amazon’s departments at the moment, maybe even one of the most profitable departments around the globe. Same examples we can find among many other companies, i.e. like Google’s Android which did increase the company’s market capitalization making the price per stock 2.5 higher than it was before (over some years of course). The same pattern persists in every other fairly successful company.
4) Diversification & manifold
Diversification is a part of innovation, Amazon started off from books has now everything from trash food to highly expensive cloud computing services & AmazonGo stores. Isn’t it that easy to diversify your product at least in your specific niche? It is surely possible and worth it since it will bring you unique customers that want to buy more of your products.
5) Mindset
Jeff Bezos owns one of the most invincible business mindsets among many founders and co-founders of various companies, he surely does spread it on the team. If you feel like your mindset is broken, or you are not ready to commit more to your company, or you feel laziness then you must definitely take some time for your personal improvement. As Jim Rohn said: “Income Seldom Exceeds Personal Development”. Take care of yourself and let your business shine like the brightest star in the sky! | https://medium.com/@lampgram/5-things-our-company-learned-from-amazon-a457b7c51387 | [] | 2019-05-25 20:26:24.066000+00:00 | ['Company', 'Successful Entrepreneurs', 'Amazon', 'Enterpreneurship', 'Business'] |
Config Eslint and Prettier in Visual Studio Code for React js development | Config Eslint and Prettier in Visual Studio Code for React js development Manish Mandal Follow Nov 9 · 4 min read
I have come with a tutorial that covers the configuration of Eslint and Prettier in visual studio code for React js development. Errors are a major problem in our usual react js development. This frustrates users while writing code.
When I started using react for my projects I never used eslint or prettier for the development. I still regret that because linting is important for development as it reduces error and improves the overall quality of the code and prettier helps us formatting our code. So let us see how to configure that for your next react js project.
Open the terminal in your project root folder and install eslint as a dev dependency. We also need to enable the eslint and prettier extension for the VSCode. So visit the extensions section of VSCode (ctrl + shift + x) and search for Eslint and Prettier — Code formatter and install it.
npm install eslint --save-dev or yarn add eslint --dev
2. After that we will generate our .eslintrc.json file through the terminal so run this command to generate your eslint configuration file.
npx eslint --init or yarn run eslint --init
This will prompt multiple options so, first select To check syntax and find problems after that select JavaScript modules (import/export) then select React Now it will ask Does your project use TypeScript No/Yes In my case, I am not using TypeScript so I will select No option. Now select Browser and then JSON option. It will then prompt you to install eslint-plugin-react so click on yes .
This is how your .eslintrc.json file will look.
I am currently using React 17.0.1 and It’s currently the latest version of React. In this update, the React Team has made importing React to the file optional. So our eslint is giving an error that "React" must be in scope when using JSX . To fix this we will add a rule to our eslint file. So open your .eslint file and add this line "react/react-in-jsx-scope": "off" inside the rules.
Now if you open your App.test.js file you will find that eslint is giving us an error that test or expect is not defined . To fix this we need to add "jest": true inside env.
It’s time to add prettier and configure it with our Visual Studio Code so whenever we save our code it will automatically format our code.
3. Run the below command to install the required plugins for the prettier setup.
npm install eslint-config-prettier eslint-plugin-prettier prettier --save-dev or yarn add eslint-config-prettier eslint-plugin-prettier prettier --dev
4. After installing all the above modules it’s time to add some prettier configuration to our .eslintrc.json file. So add this line "plugin:prettier/recommended" inside extends.
5. Now if you open your App.js file and add some extra spaces, the eslint will show you some errors. To fix this we need to click over those errors and press ctrl+. and select fix all auto-fixable problems . This will fix all prettier linting issues automatically.
4. Now we need to configure our VSCode settings for prettier to work on autosave. Follow the below-mentioned steps to configure your VScode Setting
Go to File > Preferences> Settings
On your right-hand side, there is an icon to Open Settings in JSON format. Click on that icon.
format. Click on that icon. Add below JSON code there
So now whenever you save your code or change the focus from the code, VSCode will automatically fix the format of your code.
Note: you can also create local settings for VScode. All you need is to create a .vscode directory inside your root project and create a file with the name settings.json and inside that directory and put the above JSON code inside that file as an object {}.
Here is the full code for .eslintrc.json file.
Below I have also shared the GitHub repository and live code for reference. | https://medium.com/how-to-react/config-eslint-and-prettier-in-visual-studio-code-for-react-js-development-97bb2236b31a | ['Manish Mandal'] | 2020-11-09 18:23:56.024000+00:00 | ['Reactjs', 'Eslint', 'React', 'Prettier', 'Vscode'] |
Anti-Union Democrats | Anti-Union Democrats
“Democrats will forge a new social and economic contract with the American people — a contract that… guarantees the right to join or form a union” - 2020 Democratic Platform
The key to putting a stop to the growth of income inequality is turning around our country’s assault on membership in labor unions. “As union membership decreases, middle-class income shrinks,” as has been shown in the decades since Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers. Strong unionization not only promotes increased wages, for both union members and those who do not belong to a union, but helps to “promote political participation among all Americans”. Falling union participation has the opposite effect as corporations gain more power without adequate counterbalance.
The GOP has long been viewed as the party that supports Corporate America and promotes policies that put obstacles in the way of workers banding together to demand fair treatment. Long before corporations began shipping jobs overseas to save on labor costs, they were moving factories from northern states to red states with misnamed “right to work” laws that made unionization impossible. Corporate profits increased at the expense of worker wages and workplace safety.
Democrats are supposed to be the party that supports unions. The party has even dedicated a plank in their platform to support “the right to join or form a union”. Unfortunately, this value is not shared by those within the party who support the privatization of public education through the growth of charter schools. Most of these publicly funded private schools are fiercely anti-union even as they serve low socioeconomic areas that would benefit the most from the spread of unionism.
LAUSD Board Members Nick Melvoin, Monica Garcia, and Kelly Gonez
The seven seats on the LAUSD School Board are all held by Democrats but starting with their next meeting, the first loyalty of the majority of the members will be to the California Charter School Association (CCSA). This group has spent millions of dollars on school board races to ensure that the schools that they represent are not held accountable for their actions. This includes the union-busting actions of the chain of Alliance charter schools.
Teachers at some of the schools in the Alliance chain have been trying to organize for the past five years. In 2018, teachers at three of the schools filed to join United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). They were joined the next year by two additional schools. The charter chain has still not negotiated with the union, sparking charges of unfair labor practices.
According to teachers at these schools, Alliance has taken drastic actions to avoid dealing with UTLA including proceeding with plans to close down one of the schools that had voted to unionize. The chain also changed its structure so that instead of each school having a governing board, all of the schools are now represented by one board. When seeking approval for this change Alliance told the LAUSD Board that this change had nothing to do with its anti-union efforts. However, after the revision was authorized the chain argued before the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) that in order to be recognized, the union needed to get authorization for its teachers across all of the chain’s schools. PERB rejected the argument, but Alliance is now trying to appeal to the courts to have their decision overturned.
Alliance’s anti-union stand is harmful to the students that it serves. The animosity that is building with its employees threatens stability in the workforce that is necessary for a positive educational environment. It prevents teachers from having “a stake in decisions that are now being made solely by [the] administration.” This eliminates a voice that has the benefit of the experience of being “in the trenches…every day with students.”
Despite the blatant violation of the rights of their teachers to organize, the charters of several of the Alliance schools were renewed by the LAUSD Board last month. Only Jackie Goldberg stood up strongly against their practices telling them that “it is time for [you] to finally figure out how to deal with unions.”
In two years, Nick Melvoin and Kelly Gonez will face the voters as the charter school-backed majority tries to hold on to their seats. Progressive voters need to hold them accountable for their continued support of anti-union charter schools and the harm they do to neighborhoods that need the help that unionization brings. If Democrats really believe that all workers have “ the right to join or form a union,” then they must make sure that candidates who support anti-union practices do not run under the umbrella of their party.
________________________________
Carl Petersen is a parent, an advocate for students with special education needs, an elected member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council, a member of the LAUSD’s CAC, and was a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race. During the campaign, the Network for Public Education (NPE) Action endorsed him, and Dr. Diane Ravitch called him a “strong supporter of public schools.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own. | https://medium.com/political-sense/anti-union-democrats-2be8ea950206 | ['Carl J. Petersen'] | 2020-12-12 14:23:02.140000+00:00 | ['Labor Unions', 'Democrats', 'Charter Schools', 'Education', 'Education Reform'] |
Mapping Westminster, London’s pub culture | There are few amenities as integral to British culture as pubs. Once described as ‘the heart of England’ (Pepys, 1661 in Fletcher, 2013), these pubs serve alcohol and food. Beyond feeding British alcoholism, pubs are important places for sociality: having a pint constitutes a ‘social act’, giving a ‘sense of inclusion…independent of our status’ (King, 2008: 3). Thus, pubs act as a ‘social leveller’ by attracting customers from various socioeconomic classes (ibid). However, pubs are associated with criminality: alcohol consumption increases proclivity to commit crime (Wheeler, 2018), violent tendencies (Exum, 2006), and the victim’s vulnerability to assault (Testa & Parks, 1996). Therefore, excessive alcohol consumption within and surrounding pubs may explain spatial correlations between pubs and crime (Gruenewald, 2007).
I aim to investigate the correlations between crime rates and pub locations. To confirm the spatial perspective of pubs as ‘social levellers’, I will investigate correlations with demographics of areas surrounding pub locations.
Fig 1. KDE of pubs. Catchment boundaries indicate 10%, 25%, 50% and 75% KDEs
Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) is used as a spatial smoothing technique to visualise the spatial pattern of pubs. KDE is a non-parametric technique for density estimation: a known density function is ‘averaged across observed data points to create a smooth approximation’ (Cerrito, 2010: 149). Fig 1 shows that the 10% highest density of pubs occurs in Zone 1, where south Camden, south Islington and west Westminster meet, possibly due to the high population of childless residents, and high tourist activity. The City of London has been omitted from analysis because of its anomalous nature, with an extremely high pub rate at 114 per ten thousand residents.
Fig 2. Pub rates per borough.
Fig 2 visualises each Borough’s pub numbers normalised to its legal population. Aforementioned Zone 1 boroughs of Camden, Islington and Westminster have the highest pub rates at 5–6 per ten thousand residents. An outlier is Bromley, with a rather high pub rate (3–4), despite only ¼ of its land area being within the 75% catchment boundary in Fig 1. This is due to the large land area of the borough, so pubs look sparse despite the high number.
Table 1. Boroughs with highest pub rates
Westminster experienced 79,213 crimes in 2019, highest out of all boroughs, due to its large night-time economy with vices like alcohol and drugs, and high number of visitors at 26 million annually (City of Westminster, 2018). To investigate the spatial association of pubs and demographic factors, I will look at the Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) level. Pertinent to this investigation is Westminster, where most crimes and top 10% pubs density are, at 5.07 pubs per 10,000 residents (Fig 1; Table 1), reflecting the size of its night-time economy. Geographically weighted regression (GWR) will be applied with an adaptive bandwidth to account for spatial non-stationarity across wards (Fotheringham et al, 2002).
Fig 3. Crimes in thousands and KDE of pubs.
Most crimes occur in southeast Westminster. Nightlife is rampant here: most of Westminster’s nightlife outlets, including pubs, are located here. This high-crime area coincides with the top 25% pub density. Centre-west of Westminster is Hyde Park, a large green space, accounting for the few crimes. However, crime data accuracy is questionable; crimes are often underreported since it ‘does not always serve the victim’s best interest to report’ (Myers, 1980: 23).
Fig 4. GWR of pubs on crimes, in thousands, in Westminster
Most LSOAs have a positive correlation between pubs and crime, except for northwestern Westminster with a coefficient of -0.2–0.0. Fig 4 shows that globally, each pub located in Westminster increases crime numbers by 1090; this is statistically significant at alpha-level=0. GWR coefficients vary geographically: for LSOAs within 50% density of pubs, every pub located here increases crime number by at least 200. Here, the GWR model explains about 72.0–87.1% of variance in crime numbers.
Fig 5. Proportion of childless households and KDE of pubs
Westminster is mostly a childless borough. About three-quarters of Westminster’s area have childless households at proportions of above 70%, which is much higher than London’s median proportion of 54%. The highest percentage of childless households occur in southeastern Westminster, at 70%-90% childless. The lowest proportions accrue near the northwest at around 40%-60% childless.
Fig 6. GWR of proportion of childless households on pub incidences.
The global coefficient is 0.07, statistically significant at alpha=0. With every 1% increase in proportion of childless households in Westminster, pub numbers increase by 0.07. East Westminster experiences a 0.3–0.5 increase in pub numbers with each 1% increase in childless household proportion. For most of this area, the model explains 50.3%-70.3% of variance in pub numbers. This model has a moderate to high explanatory power for areas with 50% pub density. Anomalous LSOAs, Westminster 004B and 004E at R-squared -9.38 and -57.5 respectively, were removed to prevent skewing the range.
Fig 7. White residents’ proportion and KDE of pubs.
The proportion of white residents experiences a large geographical variation, with the proportion generally increasing from northwest to southeast. Northeast Westminster mostly has 23.6%-49.3% of white residents, while majority of southeast Westminster has a much higher proportion at 61.6%-85.8%. Jenks optimisation method was used to provide a more meaningful visualisation, since the values have a high variance of 414 (Jones, 2010).
Fig 8. GWR of white residents’ proportion on pub incidences
The global coefficient is 0.02, which is not statistically significant at alpha=0.05. Westminster experiences geographical variation in the correlation, with the centre and northeast regions having a positive correlation while the rest experience a negative correlation. The explanatory power of this model is low, ranging from 10%-40% for most regions. An anomaly would be the small, eastern LSOA: each 1% increase in white residents’ proportion decreases pub incidences by 0.06 to 0.08; the model has a high explanatory power for this LSOA at 60–70%. Altogether, this model has high explanatory impotence; white residents’ proportion is unlikely to significantly affect the number of pubs in the area without accounting for confounders.
Fig 9. Mean household annual income estimates and pub locations.
Westminster is a very wealthy borough. Most LSOAs have a mean annual household income of at least £47,800, which is 63% higher than UK median of £29,400 and 35% higher than UK mean of £35,300 (ONS, 2019). In fact, most southern LSOAs earn about £64,900-£140,700 a year. In the eastern region where most pubs are located, income ranges from £47,800-£107,700. However, mean incomes tend to favour high-earners since income distribution has a positive skew (Chiripanhura, 2011), under-representing lower-earning households in this statistic.
Fig 10. GWR of income on pub incidences.
The global coefficient of 0.06 is not statistically significant at alpha=0.5. Northeastern, southern, and some of eastern Westminster experience negative coefficients of income on pub incidences. In the eastern region of its perimeter, every £10,000 increase in mean annual household income tends to result in about 0.2–0.6 fewer pubs in the area. A small area southeast has a positive coefficient of 0.0 to 0.4. This model explains some variance in pub numbers, with local R-squared of mostly 0.3 to 0.5.
Conclusion
This analysis reveals that in Westminster, crime does indeed amass near pubs, and that more pubs are likely to be sited in areas with more childless households, possibly due to lack of time and freedom constraints imposed by childcare. However, there may be confounders not investigated in this study that contribute to the prior correlations. In contrast, no statistically significant correlation has been found between pubs and white residents’ proportion (Fig 8), and between pubs and income (Fig 10). Hence, pubs are unlikely to be a ‘social leveller’ in Westminster. This analysis can help business owners select suitable pub locations to maximise appeal and access to customers.
However, non-resident office workers congregate around the clock in Westminster, so residency may not accurately reflect pub customer demographics. Modifiable areal unit problem may cause statistical bias in GWR, since maps were limited by LSOAs’ varying sizes and populations. Choropleth maps may misrepresent visual information should they suffer from area-size bias, wherein LSOAs with large administrative units are overemphasised (Dykes et al, 2002; Skowronnek, 2015), as exemplified by Hyde Park’s LSOA having bigger visual weight than surrounding LSOAs despite its low population. Removing LSOAs with R-squared < 0 risks cherrypicking data; instead, reasons for negative values should be analysed. R-squared cannot be used to determine coefficient estimates and bias in predictions, nor to indicate the goodness-of-fit of data to model (Faraway, 2016). Assessing residual plots and using multivariate GWR analysis can increase models’ explanatory power. | https://medium.com/@zenn-wong/mapping-westminster-londons-pub-culture-f16a20d72515 | ['Zenn Wong'] | 2021-01-22 13:30:57.706000+00:00 | ['London', 'Kde', 'Pub', 'Gwr', 'Map'] |
Using Python and Spark to research the Climate Change, Part 2 | 1. Retrospective and next Steps
The first part of this series focused on getting some raw weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and on transforming the data into a more convenient file format. This is one of many possible sources, but I decided to use it for several reasons:
It contains (more or less) raw weather measurements from weather stations. Some basic processing has been performed, but (AFAIK) no aggregation has been done.
The data is recorded hourly and goes back until 1901.
The data contains measurements from weather stations all around the world.
Among the measurements are air temperature, wind speed, precipitation, dew point, atmospheric pressure, cloudiness and much more.
Weather stations map — source NOAA
Since we are talking about 100GB of compressed raw data, all processing so far has been performed using PySpark, the Python binding for Apache Spark, which in turn is a very popular framework in the world of Big Data to build typical data processing pipelines.
This time we will be focusing on making sense of the data — not so much in a technical sense (since this was addresses in the previous part), but more in a semantic sense. As we will see, weather data (and probably sensor data in general) has some very unique challenges, which are (hopefully) not to be seen within for example financial data.
So what will we learn this time?
How to aggregate data with PySpark
How to clean data
2. Prerequisites
I assume that you already followed the first part of the series, since we will be building upon the resulting Parquet files. Again, you need some free space left on your computer, since we will create new derived data sets. Those data sets will be smaller in size, but they will still occupy a couple of gigabytes.
3. Daily Preaggregation
Let’s pick up where we stopped last time. You should now have a set of directories (one per year from 1901 until 2020) filled with Parquet files, which have been created from the original raw weather data.
3.1 Inspect Data
To warm up again, let’s start by reading in the data from last time and inspect its schema:
# Read in weather data from Parquet files
weather = spark.read.parquet(hourly_weather_location) # Inspect the schema
weather.printSchema()
The data schema of the converted weather data
The data contains all measurements of all weather stations from all years. Let me explain again, what all these columns actually mean:
usaf and wban are two different identifiers for each weather station. You might wonder where these names come from: USAF actually is the abbreviation of “United States Air Force” and WBAN is the abbreviation of “Weather Bureau Army Navy”. So both data sources have their origins in the US army, but I don’t know if all weather stations actually belong to the US army.
Keep in mind that not all stations have valid identifiers from both institutions, which means that either usaf or wban can contain an invalid value (99999). This in turn implies that only the combination of both fields create a truly unique identifier. We will come back to that later.
and are two different identifiers for each weather station. You might wonder where these names come from: USAF actually is the abbreviation of “United States Air Force” and WBAN is the abbreviation of “Weather Bureau Army Navy”. So both data sources have their origins in the US army, but I don’t know if all weather stations actually belong to the US army. Keep in mind that not all stations have valid identifiers from both institutions, which means that either or can contain an invalid value (99999). This in turn implies that only the combination of both fields create a truly unique identifier. We will come back to that later. ts simply is the timestamp when the measurement was recorded. Although the data is called hourly, the timestamp has a resolution of seconds. We will also discuss some important details later.
simply is the timestamp when the measurement was recorded. Although the data is called hourly, the timestamp has a resolution of seconds. We will also discuss some important details later. date simply is derived from the timestamp and contains the date of the measurement. I admit that I introduced this column rather early, but we will be interested mostly in average daily temperatures.
simply is derived from the timestamp and contains the date of the measurement. I admit that I introduced this column rather early, but we will be interested mostly in average daily temperatures. report_type denotes the type of geophysical surface observation, for example if it is an aerological report, a surface report or if it comes from a specific partner.
denotes the type of geophysical surface observation, for example if it is an aerological report, a surface report or if it comes from a specific partner. wind_direction provides the angle, measured in a clockwise direction, between true north and the direction from which the wind is blowing.
provides the angle, measured in a clockwise direction, between true north and the direction from which the wind is blowing. wind_direction_qual denotes a quality status of a reported wind direction angle.
denotes a quality status of a reported wind direction angle. wind_observation contains the report type of the wind. For example it may contain a 5 minute average speed, a 60 minute average speed or if it was calm.
contains the report type of the wind. For example it may contain a 5 minute average speed, a 60 minute average speed or if it was calm. wind_speed The rate of horizontal travel of air past a fixed point measured in meters per second.
The rate of horizontal travel of air past a fixed point measured in meters per second. wind_speed_qual denotes a quality status of the reported wind speed.
denotes a quality status of the reported wind speed. air_temperature contains the temperature of the air, measured in degrees Celsius.
contains the temperature of the air, measured in degrees Celsius. air_temperature_qual denotes a quality status of the reported air temperature.
denotes a quality status of the reported air temperature. precipitation_... denotes various fields devoted to precipitation — but I don’t fully understand them yet.
denotes various fields devoted to precipitation — but I don’t fully understand them yet. year contains the year (actually automatically provided by PySpark from the name of each sub directory)
Remember that this is only a small subset of all the information contained in the original files, but these columns are sufficient for our purpose.
We will discuss most of these fields in more detail later, and I invite you again to study the official documentation of the original raw data format which provides many details on the meaning of these fields. But I’d already like to mention one important aspect, which might be somewhat unique to sensor data: In addition to the metrics themselves the data also contains quality indicators for each measurements. These indicators tell us if each metric of each measurement is valid or not. There are multiple different scenarios which result in partially invalid measurements:
A weather station might not have all sensors. For example a certain weather station might only measure temperature but not wind speed.
One of the sensors of a weather station might be broken while the other is still working fine.
Different sensors are collected in different time intervals.
Of course we can also peek inside the data:
weather.limit(10).toPandas()
Weather data as stored in the Parquet files
Here we already see that the quality indicators are really important, since fortunately a wind speed of 999.9 meters per second still seems very unrealistic — even with the climate change in mind.
Just out of curiosity, let’s count the total number of records:
weather.count()
As you will see, we almost have 3,5 billion records — that is really a non-trivial amount of data for a single machine, but still manageable with the right tools.
3.2 Cleaning Data
As I explained above, the data contains many invalid measurements which we’d like to ignore. You might wonder why these records are present in the original data in the first place. There are many good reasons for their presence:
Whenever an individual metric of a weather station is invalid, that doesn’t mean that other metrics of the same record are also invalid.
The world of sensor data is more complex than a binary decision between “valid” and “invalid”. This is reflected by the quality codes (which can be different for different metrics), as we will see.
For an operator of a weather station, collecting information on invalid measurements might also be interesting, for example to perform conclusions on the reliability of different components.
The decision how an invalid record is to be handled is not already taken by the data provider, but each consumer can come up with a strategy which fits to the specific problem to solve.
As I said, hopefully the financial systems within the bank of your trust doesn’t produce data which needs to be flagged as “erroneous” or “suspect”.
We will be mainly concerned about the air temperature, which (according to the official format documentation) can have the following quality codes:
0 = Passed gross limits check
1 = Passed all quality control checks
2 = Suspect
3 = Erroneous
4 = Passed gross limits check, data originate from an NCEI data source
5 = Passed all quality control checks, data originate from an NCEI data source
6 = Suspect, data originate from an NCEI data source
7 = Erroneous, data originate from an NCEI data source
9 = Passed gross limits check if element is present
A = Data value flagged as suspect, but accepted as a good value
C = Temperature and dew point received from Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) are reported in whole degrees Celsius. Automated QC flags these values, but they are accepted as valid.
I = Data value not originally in data, but inserted by validator
M = Manual changes made to value based on information provided by NWS or FAA
P = Data value not originally flagged as suspect, but replaced by validator
R = Data value replaced with value computed by NCEI software
U = Data value replaced with edited value
Well that are actually many more cases than I really understand, but this shows how much care has been taken for classifying each measurement. You will find similar descriptions for other metrics like wind speed, precipitation and so on — each metric has its own logic for determining its quality.
Now we still need a strategy how to handle the invalid values. Since dropping full records (i.e. rows in a table) would also remove valid values in different columns, we will use a different approach. Instead we will simply replace all invalid or suspect values with NULL values. This has two advantages over dropping records:
We still keep all valid values for different metrics in the same record
NULL values are ignored by all SQL aggregation functions — and this is what we will do
This replacement can be done with PySpark as follows (some columns are omitted in the example below):
valid_weather = weather \
.withColumn("date", f.to_date(weather["ts"])) \
.withColumn("hour", f.hour(weather["ts"])) \
.withColumn("valid_wind_speed",
f.when(weather["wind_speed_qual"].isin('1','5'),
weather["wind_speed"])) \
.withColumn("valid_air_temperature",
f.when(weather["air_temperature_qual"].isin('1','5','R'),
weather["air_temperature"]))
Note that we keep all wind speeds with a quality code of 1 or 5 and all air temperatures with a quality code of 1,5 or R.
3.3 Hourly Aggregation
In the next step, we now aggregate all measurements to hourly values per weather station and per date/hour. You might wonder why this could make sense given that the data set is an hourly data set. The reason is that the data set actually might contain multiple measurements per weather station per hour, for example when the different sensors (for wind and temperature) are recorded in slightly different time intervals. This can be seen when closely inspecting the timestamp column ts of individual weather stations, which now also explains why they are recorded at a precision of seconds instead of precision of one hour.
By performing an hourly aggregation, all these records within the same hour will be merged together to a single record per weather station and per hour.
We always use the AVG aggregation function for temperature and wind speed in order to obtain the average values within a specific hour. If we were to collect precipitation, we probably would use a SUM function in order to collect the total amount of rainfall within a specific hour.
Remember that all aggregation functions ignore any NULL values, which we used to mask suspect or invalid data.
hourly_weather = valid_weather \
.withColumn("date", f.to_date(valid_weather["ts"])) \
.withColumn("hour", f.hour(valid_weather["ts"])) \
.groupBy("usaf", "wban", "date", "hour").agg(
f.avg(valid_weather["valid_wind_speed"])\
.alias("wind_speed"),
f.avg(valid_weather["valid_air_temperature"])\
.alias("temperature")
)
3.4 Daily Aggregation
In a second step, we now create daily preaggregate of the data. We will also store the result as Parquet files again. While the first step guaranteed that we will have precisely a single record per hour per weather station, this step will now create daily summaries out of the hourly records.
Note that we not only collect average values using AVG but also minimum and maximum values.
daily_weather = hourly_weather.groupBy("usaf", "wban", "date")\
.agg(
f.min("temperature").alias("min_temperature"),
f.max("temperature").alias("max_temperature"),
f.avg("temperature").alias("avg_temperature"),
f.min("wind_speed").alias("min_wind_speed"),
f.max("wind_speed").alias("max_wind_speed"),
f.avg("wind_speed").alias("avg_wind_speed"),
) daily_weather.write.parquet(daily_weather_location)
Again this step might take a while (possibly a couple of hours), depending on the CPU power of your system.
3.5 Read Back
In order to use the preaggragted data set (which will speed up further processing significantly), we read the data back into a PySpark DataFrame.
daily_weather = spark.read.parquet(daily_weather_location)
daily_weather.limit(10).toPandas()
Aggregated daily weather data
A simple daily_weather.count() should tell us that the daily aggregates still contain about 200 million records. But since the data is stored in Parquet files, the pain will be much less while working with the data than with the original 3,5 billion records.
4. Country Level Aggregation
Now we have a nice data set containing daily aggregates for each weather station. In this section, we try to derive a new data set containing aggregated weather information per day and per country instead of per day and per weather station.
Actually, if we wanted to do this correctly, this would be much more difficult than what I will be doing here. Let me try to explain some problems that normally need to be addressed:
The active weather stations introduce bias that changes over time. For example a weather station in the mountains will report much lower temperatures than a weather station in the valley. Every change in the set of active weather stations will change the bias over time.
Especially huge countries like the USA, China or Russia are far from being homogeneous with regards to temperature, wind or rainfall. A global average value in these country might not make so much sense. On top of that the bias introduced by new or vanishing weather stations at extreme places is even stronger.
Simply averaging over all weather station doesn’t incorporate the distance between the stations. If two stations are located within low distance, they will report very similar weather but with twice the weight of a single station.
In order to address these issues, probably a global model would be required that describes the whole weather at uniform distances over the whole globe. This approach by far exceeds my skills and knowledge and is therefore out of scope for this article. We will have to follow a much simplified approach.
4.1 Joining Master Data
The measurements themselves only contain two columns identifying the weather station, but no information on the country is provided. But if you remember from the first part of this series, NOAA also provides a CSV file with the master data of all weather stations containing information like each station’s geo location, its lifespan and the country where it is located in.
We therefore now need to join the aggregated daily weather measurements with the stations master data, which contains the relevant information. The join can be easily performed by PySpark and we now use both ID columns usaf and wban , which only in their combination uniquely identify each weather station.
daily_weather = spark.read.parquet(daily_weather_location)
stations = spark.read.parquet(stations_location) joined_data = daily_weather.join(stations, ["usaf", "wban"], "left")
joined_data.printSchema()
The schema of the joined data
4.2 Country Aggregation
I reiterate that a country level aggregation of weather data (and probably of many other geo data sets) is not the most appropriate way to go. But for the sake of simplicity, we ignore all these concerns and we now aggregate all the data onto country and date. We will see later, how good or bad this approach is.
daily_country_weather = joined_data\
.groupBy("CTRY", "STATE", "date").agg(
f.min(f.col("min_temperature")).alias("min_temperature"),
f.max(f.col("max_temperature")).alias("max_temperature"),
f.avg(f.col("avg_temperature")).alias("avg_temperature"),
f.min(f.col("min_wind_speed")).alias("min_wind_speed"),
f.max(f.col("max_wind_speed")).alias("max_wind_speed"),
f.avg(f.col("avg_wind_speed")).alias("avg_wind_speed"),
) daily_country_weather.printSchema()
The schema of the aggregated data
This now really looks like a neat schema for our purpose, therefore we save the transformed data for further investigations, which we will discuss in the next (and final) part of this article series.
daily_country_weather.write.parquet(daily_country_weather_location)
Since the source data set provided in daily_country_weather is now much smaller, this step should be much faster than all the previous transformations.
Finally, let’s inspect the resulting data set by picking some country:
daily_country_weather.filter("CTRY = 'FI'") \
.orderBy("date", "CTRY", "STATE") \
.toPandas() | https://towardsdatascience.com/using-python-and-spark-to-research-the-climate-change-part-2-e2ac9faba821 | ['Kaya Kupferschmidt'] | 2020-12-11 01:14:11.310000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Data Science', 'Weather', 'Big Data', 'Pyspark'] |
Set up an ETL Data Pipeline and Workflow Using Python & Google Cloud Platform (COVID-19 Dashboard) | SETUP YOUR CLOUD PROJECT
Possibly the most challenging part of this project is to understand how everything works together and what’s the best way to link the services and resources in a way that is efficient. Let’s start with Google Cloud Authentication. If you’re a new customer, sign up for the Free Tier offer by Google and set up using that email. After that:
Create a project ( covid-jul25 ) and specify a region ( us- west3-a ) where your code will live. Interacting with the Cloud Console through CLI will require those information so keep them handy.
) and specify a region ( ) where your code will live. Interacting with the Cloud Console through CLI will require those information so keep them handy. Create a bucket inside the project that will be used for deployment & take note of this bucket
Make sure to enable APIs for the following services: BigQuery, Storage and DataProc
Service accounts should be set up for these services: BigQuery, Storage and Compute Engine (Compute Engine should already be set up by default)
For LOCAL DEVELOPMENT ONLY, download the API json keys for BigQuery & Storage and store them in the same folder as your Jupyter notebook
NOTES FOR API KEYS: These are very important so please don’t post them anywhere. If you’re working in a public repository, add these json file names to .gitignore before committing.
JUPYTER NOTEBOOK SETUP
To authenticate using the downloaded json API keys and set the environment in the Jupyter notebook, use the following:
#Set credentials for bigquery LOCAL ONLY
os.environ["GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS"]="{API-KEY-NAME}.json"
bigquery_client = bigquery.Client() # Instantiates a client
#Set credentials for cloud storage
os.environ["GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS"]="{API-KEY-NAME}.json"
storage_client = storage.Client() # Instantiates a client
After that, your API keys should be authenticated and ready to go. A rundown of a couple of functions you could use with the APIs that you set up:
#Write to a BigQuery table
pd.to_gbq('table_name',if_exists='param') #Read from a BigQuery table using legacy syntax
pd.read_gbq(sql, dialect='legacy') #Run queries on BigQuery directly from Jupyter
query_job = bigquery_client.query("""[SQL CODE]""")
results = query_job.result()
Some tables are more efficient to create in BigQuery while others are easier to transform using Python so you can pick your poison if you’re comfortable with one versus the other. With the BigQuery API however, extract, transform and load become easier. Personally, I use Python for row operations (transpose, string replace, adding calculated columns etc.) while SQL for joining/create/update tables.
In the daily_update script, you will notice that there are SQL codes to DROP &CREATE TABLE in the same code block with DELETE FROM/INSERT INTO statements, this is because some of the tables’ schema needs to be predetermined before they can be imported into Data Studio for visualizing. There are also temp tables that hold data that will then be used to update ‘static’ tables that are linked directly to Data Studio. The idea is that you don’t want to delete tables directly linked to certain visuals on the dashboard.
In the IMPORT & SETUP section of the daily_update notebook, toggle the deployment to ‘local’ or ‘cloud’ :
deployment = 'local' #local or cloud if deployment == 'cloud':
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession #ONlY FOR CLOUD DEPLOYMENT
#Start spark session
spark = SparkSession \
.builder \
.config("spark.jars.packages", "com.google.cloud.spark:spark-bigquery-with-dependencies_2.11:0.17.0")\
.master('yarn') \
.appName('spark-bigquery-ryder') \
.getOrCreate()
#Instantiate BigQuery client
bigquery_client = bigquery.Client() # Instantiates a client
#Instantiate Storage client
storage_client = storage.Client() # Instantiates a client
else:
#Set credentials for bigquery !FOR LOCAL ONLY, DON'T COPY TO PYSPARK
os.environ["GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS"]="covid-jul25-**************.json"
bigquery_client = bigquery.Client() # Instantiates a client #Set credentials for cloud storage
os.environ["GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS"]="covid-jul25-**************.json"
storage_client = storage.Client() # Instantiates a client
Set another code block to set up your cloud working environment (note to change zone and name of bucket accordingly)
#Set working environment
PROJECT_ID='covid-jul25'
REGION='us-west3'
ZONE='us-west3-a'
BUCKET_LINK='gs://us-west3-{BUCKET_NAME}'
BUCKET='us-west3-{BUCKET_NAME}'
BIGQUERY SETUP
To run the script, datasets need to be set up in BigQuery. It’s important for the purpose of this project to set the Data location to US since we’ll be joining data from BigQuery Public Data that lives in the US location. ALL tables that don’t yet exist in the dataset need to be created. For example, the script below will update the rt_results table in the usprojections dataset:
query_job = bigquery_client.query(
"""
DELETE FROM `covid-jul25.usprojections.rt_results` WHERE True;
INSERT INTO `covid-jul25.usprojections.rt_results`
SELECT * except(date), cast(date as date) as date FROM `covid-jul25.usprojections.temp_rt`;
""")
results = query_job.result()
To create the rt_results table, first run the below code then proceed block by block before running on the cloud.
query_job = bigquery_client.query(
"""
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `covid-jul25.usprojections.rt_results`;
CREATE TABLE `covid-jul25.usprojections.rt_results` AS
SELECT * except(date), cast(date as date) as date FROM `covid-jul25.usprojections.temp_rt`;
""")
results = query_job.result()
SET UP WORKFLOW TEMPLATE TO BE RUN ON DATAPROC
After successful local testing, open Cloud Shell on your Cloud Console and set the below specs for cloud deployment:
* Set working environment (replace the bucket_link & bucket with your bucket name)
export PROJECT_ID='covid-jul25'
gcloud config set project $PROJECT_ID
export REGION=us-west3
export ZONE=us-west3-a
export BUCKET_LINK=gs://us-west3-{BUCKET_NAME}
export BUCKET=us-west3-covid-{BUCKET_NAME}
* Create workflow template
export TEMPLATE_ID=daily_update_template
export cluster_name=covid-cluster
gcloud dataproc workflow-templates create \
$TEMPLATE_ID --region $REGION
* Set the managed cluster attached to the template
gcloud dataproc workflow-templates set-managed-cluster \ $TEMPLATE_ID \ --region $REGION \ --zone $ZONE \ --cluster-name $cluster_name \ --optional-components=ANACONDA \ --master-machine-type n1-standard-4 \ --master-boot-disk-size 20 \ --worker-machine-type n1-standard-4 \ --worker-boot-disk-size 20 \ --num-workers 2 \ --image-version 1.4 \ --metadata='PIP_PACKAGES=pandas google.cloud pandas-gbq' \ --initialization-actions gs://us-west3-{BUCKET_NAME}/pip-install.sh
Note: Optional-components includes Anaconda because when you spin up the cluster, the environment doesn’t have it by default. Moreover, initialization-actions are scripts to be run when the cluster spins up. In this case, we need pip to be installed on our cluster. Next, metadata includes some extra sauce like pandas, google.cloud, and pandas-gbq. For initialization-actions, copy the pip-install.sh file from the linked repo to your working bucket or use gsutil cp on Google Shell. Masters and workers specs can be modified according to your needs.
*Add task(s) to the workflow template
export STEP_ID=daily_update gcloud dataproc workflow-templates add-job pyspark \ $BUCKET_LINK/daily_update.py \ --step-id $STEP_ID \ --workflow-template $TEMPLATE_ID \ --region $REGION
Step ID names the step within the workflow and file daily_update.py is store in the BUCKET_LINK folder specified above.
*Run and time the workflow template
time gcloud dataproc workflow-templates instantiate \ $TEMPLATE_ID --region $REGION #--async
*Update on August 28th, 2020:
There will be times when Google Cloud Platform is down. Follow all the steps outlined above but for a new region/zone (note that you would have to create a new bucket in the new region/zone!). For example, use region us-west2 instead of us-west3 & save the same working script in the new location then run the daily template per usual from the new folder. The quickest way to move files is to use the gsutil cp command:
gsutil cp [old directory] [new directory]
VISUALIZE ON GOOGLE DATA STUDIO
With tables created in BigQuery, we are ready to beautify the data using the connections provided by Google Data Studio. As you can see, there are many ways to connect to different sources from Data Studio. To correctly display data on the dashboard, table schema and structures are important for data blending.
As shown on the left, in order to blend data, you need a common field between different tables (in this instance, region code like ‘US-CA’ for California). Note that this blend will also act like a left outer join so be careful when you aggregate data to display on the dashboard (sum vs. avg)
LESSONS LEARNED
Try your best to see what kind of data are out there but don’t get hung up on trying to incorporate all of them
Process optimization comes with experience so don’t sweat it if later you find out what used to take half an hour can now take 5 minutes
Data visualization should be user-friendly and so your back-end data and tables should be revised based on user’s feedback and the interface should be self-explainable
Large amount of data can increase loading time (page 2 of the report) so optimization needs to be done
Table structures and schema are important for blending data and need to be designed before incorporating into the workflow (with a lot of deleting and recreate tables in the process)
NEXT STEPS | https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-set-up-a-covid-19-workflow-and-dashboard-using-the-google-cloud-platform-b0e5165333e5 | ['Ryder Nguyen'] | 2020-09-08 17:27:11.906000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Google Cloud Platform', 'Cloud Services', 'Bigquery', 'Etl'] |
The Tragic Death of ‘The Greatest Cave Explorer’ | The Tragic Death of ‘The Greatest Cave Explorer’
The entrance to Sand Cave. Courtesy Wikipedia.
Floyd Collins was born in 1887 in Auburn, Kentucky, in the days when families got around by horse and cart. He grew up tough, learning to hunt and forage in the forests and exploring nearby caves.
Most of all, Floyd loved caving and dreamed of growing up to discover his own cave.
He had five brothers — James, Andy, Marshall, and (the youngest) Homer — and two sisters, Anna and Nellie. (One brother was also named Floyd).
The Collins family lived within spitting distance of the largest known cave system (then and now) in the US: Mammoth Cave. In the early 1900s, after Mammoth Cave was discovered and commercialized, public cave tours were a hot commodity and anyone with his own cave could charge an entrance fee.
There was no shortage of caves in central Kentucky and by the time he was 30, Floyd had already discovered a sizable one he named Crystal Cave in Flint Ridge. Crystal Cave was visually stunning but far off the beaten track (it’s now been linked with the rest of the massive Mammoth Cave system). He had trouble finding paying customers for his tours.
Floyd needed a show cave closer to the main road.
Floyd exploring a cave in an undated photo. Photo credit
Floyd opens up Sand Cave
At age 37, Collins was experienced in all aspects of cave exploration. This included digging, finding new passages, and assessing the general suitability of a cave for commercial use. In 1924, he made a deal with three neighbors: if he found a cave on their property, they would partner up to develop it. The first promising cave he found came to be known as Sand Cave.
On a warmer and wet January day, he reached the entrance of Sand Cave, ready to spend another 12-hour day digging. At day's end, he turned around and began squeezing his way through a tight passage to reach the entrance. It was then that two pieces of terrible luck befell him.
He was 55 feet underground when he knocked over his kerosene lamp and the only source of light. Floyd remained calm, however — he’d gotten out of worse scrapes and could easily reach the surface in the dark. As he moved through the tight passage, he pushed off a rock wall. In so doing, a 26-pound boulder fell on his lower leg. His left arm was stuck beneath his body. Despite pushing and pressing, he could not free his ankle and calf from the rock. Floyd was pinned, unable to reach behind to free himself.
Floyd Collins. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.
Floyd Collins lay still, in total darkness, alone and helpless. It was January 30, 1925. The cave held a steady temperature of 54 degrees.
A friend, a light, and food
His family knew he was caving but no one got concerned right away. After a full day without seeing Floyd, they began searching. The next day, a 17-year-old acquaintance dropped into the entrance of Sand Cave and got close enough to reach Floyd via voice contact.
It had been 25 hours since his ordeal began. He’d spent the time scratching at rock and dirt till his fingernails bled. He would periodically fall asleep from the effort, wake up and scream, try to free himself — in a torturous cycle.
Homer Collins was the first to see his brother and came back out to get food. He crawled back inside, making sure to bring coffee, crackers, and sausages. Homer dug in the loose rock and gravel around Floyd’s body but his efforts were futile. As soon as he removed loose materials, more replaced them.
And Homer wasn’t impressed by the help his brother had gotten or the prospects for rescuing him. He was deeply worried when he saw where Floyd was, and how he was trapped.
In Trapped: The Story of Floyd Collins, authors and cavers Roger Brucker and Robert Murray explained Homer’s fear:
“A problem immediately confronted Homer that frustrated every subsequent rescuer. If a person came into the chute headfirst, he was forced to work upside down and was compelled upon leaving to push himself feet-first up the sharp slant and then backpedal twenty feet more before he could turn around. If he dropped in feetfirst, as Homer had just done, he could not bring the upper part of his body down to Floyd’s level without contorting himself into almost impossible positions.”
The rescue efforts of Homer and Skeets
Homer Collins, who had made his first foray in around 4 pm, was the only man to have made physical contact with Floyd — and he came out of the shaft hours later, exhausted and hypothermic. He went back in at midnight and spent eight hours hacking at the passage walls and ceiling, trying to open up the tunnel. When he came back out, dozens of strangers had shown up, and the smell of cigarettes and moonshine filled the cold night air.
It was known throughout the region that Floyd Collins was the best caver around. His skill had allowed him to reach a passage few others could. As a result, even though nearly 100 men now stood at the entrance to Sand Cave, none (except Homer) could reach Floyd. Worse, the trapped man could hear them talking and theorizing, without doing anything.
A full day passed and no one else entered the cave, but a reporter approached Homer to find out what was going on. The young man was named William B. “Skeets” Miller, and he was determined to get the story. Homer told him the real the scoop was inside Sand Cave and Skeets Miller was welcome to wedge himself into the hole.
Fortunately, Miller was a lithe 21-year-old and 117-pound featherweight. He was stuck at a job where he rarely got a byline, and immediately grabbed coveralls and a lantern. He slid down the chute, landing on Collin’s head, then wriggled back up to reposition himself. There would be no interview with the trapped caver: Floyd Collins was out of it and not saying much.
But Skeets learned more important information in his short trip underground. He gained first-hand knowledge of how tough the rescue would be, if it was even possible. And he immediately developed an admiration for Floyd Collin’s talents as a caver.
Skeets also impressed Homer, who’d been listening to a lot of talking and no action from the disjointed band of so-called rescuers.
A 100-foot rope
The next to arrive on the scene was a firefighter from Louisville named Robert Burdon, who climbed below and saw for himself how impossible the situation was. He suggested to Floyd they pull him out, upper body first, using a rope which might “take off his foot.” Burdon’s plan was extreme but the choices were fast evaporating and the increasingly desperate Floyd agreed.
Homer led Skeets and Burdon into the cave. The men brought coffee, ham sandwiches, and a 100-foot rope. Floyd ate and admitted he didn’t want to lose his foot. Homer fed his brother a sedative anyway, preparing to rope him out.
The plan failed; Homer called it off after hearing Floyd’s screams, and when he could see that Floyd’s body would be stretched into an impossible L-shape that no man could survive. Despite their efforts, they could not move him one inch. Burdon fainted as he emerged from the pit.
A chain of men
Floyd stated on several occasions that he was not afraid of death. He didn’t expect his death to be so drawn out, however. The next man to reach Floyd felt he could make a difference.
Floyd’s friend Johnnie Gerald arrived and managed to accomplish moving a half-ton of rock. This effort made Floyd more comfortable, allowing him to move his right leg and exposing the lower half of his body. But it did not free him, as debris continued to pile up.
Gerald was an important part of the story, however. While Burdon schemed, and Skeets wrote ever more popular articles, and Homer recovered — Johnnie promised Floyd he wouldn’t let just anyone down the passage. Burdon tried to revisit the idea of hauling Floyd out with a rope but, despite the fireman’s superior knowledge of rescue methods, the crowd had turned against him.
By hour 100, Skeets (the smallest among them) had devised a plan to create a chain of men to transport food in and rocks out of the cave. He firmly believed that if they could clear enough space around Floyd’s lower body, they could remove the rock that was trapping his lower leg.
By hour 108, the chain of men had done just that — exposed the rock. Now, Skeets just needed to transport a jack into the cave to leverage it out of the way. While he had some initial success, the intrepid reporter found there were two problems: the rock, once lifted, kept shifting back into position atop Floyd’s leg. But the greater problem was fatigue. Skeets was the only man who could get into position to wield the jack and he wore himself out as the hours passed.
Skeets emerged from Sand Cave exhausted, but ready to compose the next chapter in the story that was now getting national attention. With bruised fingers, he filed an update into what was happening in Cave City and at Sand Cave. Meanwhile, the National Guard had arrived.
‘Please don’t leave me’
Skeets Miller was not only gaining a following as a reporter, he was hailed by every man on the scene as a hero. “Skeets Miller is one of the nerviest boys I ever saw,” Burdon remarked. “He not only deserves all the credit he has been given but a whole lot more.”
Until now, going on day five, few professionals were involved in the rescue efforts. Henry Carmichael, who directed the Kentucky Rock Asphalt Company, had been watching. He saw that the operation desperately needed an expert in moving rock. He sent men in, and due to the prior efforts of Skeets and his gang, was able to open up the passage further. Sand Cave was also, however, becoming uncharacteristically unstable.
Typically, Kentucky caves are stable environments. But nearby snowmelt from men’s campfires, combined with the body heat of rescuers, had created dangerous cracks in the ceiling rock. Rescuers faced loose pebbles and could see the catacomb becoming more dangerous by the hour.
Rescue attempts at Sand Cave, January 1925. Photo credit
At 4 am on February 4th, the cave walls collapsed as Floyd Collins was begging for something to drink. He had been underground for 114 hours and could be heard sobbing as the sound of falling rubble abated. “Please don’t leave me,” echoed from the wet, dark tunnel.
The story goes viral
Carmichael was in charge, and Johnnie Gerald was back in the cave directing men to remove rocks and shored up walls and ceiling with wood. After eight hours, Floyd could see people again. The respite didn’t last long, however. As Gerald crawled into the pit for the final time, he was dismayed to see a pile of rocks between him and Floyd. Feeling defeated, he tried to figure out his next move — and a rock fell on his head. He yelled for Floyd, who responded with “I’ve done gone home and gone to bed.” Another rock fell, this time landing on Gerald’s back.
Gerald emerged from Sand Cave vowing never to go back inside.
At hour 142, the state of Kentucky took over the rescue operation. Their leader, Lt. General H. H. Denhardt, assembled miners and engineers to dig a shaft directly to Floyd. His team of experts immediately alienated locals, whose experience and input was ignored.
Locals shook their heads as they watched the experts come to a conclusion they already knew: gas-powered heavy equipment would release fumes that would kill Floyd. To dig a shaft, hand shovels and picks were necessary.
A team of 75 men began digging at hour 146. Carmichael estimated they could sink a 55-foot shaft to reach Floyd within 30 hours.
As the clock ticked, Carmichael was proved wrong. At the 30-hour mark, his men had dug 17 feet. The passage continued to become wet and warm and unstable. Meanwhile, the scene nearby had turned surreal. Cave City (population 690) now swelled with 10,000 onlookers. The story of Floyd Collins was being broadcast — live — by the newest media sensation: radio. A crowd of 2,000 pushed against makeshift barbed wire fences, trying to get a glimpse of rescuers hauling Floyd out of the cave.
The finale
Floyd Collins was in danger of death by hypothermia. The 54-degree temperature inside the cave (which likely rose a degree or two) combined with moisture was a deadly environment.
It has been nearly 10 days since Floyd had seen daylight. The shaft was now 25 feet deep. Doctors and nurses waited in the wings, to attend to him when they pulled him out. A crowd of over 500 college students volunteered to help however they could. The crowd, in short, was rowdy but hopeful.
At 288 hours, the shaft reached 44 feet, but the men trying to gauge how Floyd was doing only knew his lamp had gone out. Conspiracy theories burgeoned: the Collins’ family was doing it all as a publicity stunt, to get money. The rescuers — Gerald, Skeets Miller, Burdon, and others — had been interrogated by police due to rumors they’d tried to “murder” Floyd Collins.
At hour 360, the newly dug shaft reached its goal: 55-feet. After clearing rubble and shoring up the passage, rescuers were finally able to squirm their way down to Floyd. It was hour 411, February 13th.
They couldn’t see his light, but they did see a gleam. It was Floyd’s gold tooth, glimmering from the darkness as their rescue beams shined on it. Floyd Collins was deceased.
After examining his body, they determined Floyd had expired three days prior — probably around the time his lamp light faded for the last time.
Headlines on February 14, 1925. Photo credit
After reaching the body, rescuers shrouded it. For many years, Floyd’s remains rested in a glass-topped coffin in Crystal Cave for viewing by tourists.
Vandals stole Floyd Collin’s body, however (it was later found in a field, missing a leg), so he was buried inside a chained casket. The National Park Service eventually took over Crystal Cave and it is now closed to the public. In 1989, the Collins family buried Floyd in Flint Ridge Cemetery. | https://medium.com/chameleon/the-tragic-death-of-the-greatest-cave-explorer-62061ca60bac | ['Jean Campbell'] | 2020-12-24 23:54:50.170000+00:00 | ['Kentucky', 'Memoir', 'Rescue', 'Caves', 'History'] |
How to set a custom scaled screen resolution on MacOS Big Sur | For about three years now, I’ve been using an external monitor with my Macbook Pro.
I have a Phillips 43" 4K display. It was top quality a few years ago and now there’s better newer models, but I’m reluctant to upgrade, because it was expensive and I want to get the most value out of it.
The upgrade to Big Sur
After nine months working from home, I upgraded to MacOS Big Sur.
But something was off, it seems that Apple has reduced the options for screen resolution. And it was a problem, because on such a big monitor, everything was big.
My monitor is huge, so should my screen resolution.
The default options
Out of the box, you can see four recommended resolutions, scaling from Larger Text to More Space.
The four recommended resolutions scale from Larger Text to More Space.
Fixing it
There’s an easy was to customise your resolution.
Open System Preferences Choose Displays Hold down the Option key and click on Scaled option
Note: This doesn’t seem to work for in-built MacBook screens, and for some external monitors that don’t support a custom scaled resolution. | https://medium.com/internetstack/how-to-set-a-custom-scaled-screen-resolution-on-macos-big-sur-ef1013b84f0d | ['Dale Clifford'] | 2021-01-21 22:18:11.193000+00:00 | ['Screen Resolution', 'Apple', 'Mac', '4k', 'Macos'] |
New Year’s Resolutions | The reason they can be great is quite simple. The argument goes something like this:
There are ways in which my life is not perfect (as in the ideal life, according to what I actually value) There are probably simple things I could do to make my life robustly better (again, according to my values) I’m not currently doing many of these things I’d probably be more likely to do them if I a) knew what they were and b) told myself and others that I was going to commit to them
All four of these seem either certainly true or very likely to be true. 1 is probably true for (almost) everyone. I assume 2 to be true for most people — i.e., I take it that most sets of plausible values have associated sets of simple actions that make lives robustly better, according to those values. 3 is certain for me and will be true for all people for whom 1 is true. 4a seems necessarily true and 4b seems true based on my understanding of psychology.
So, all in all, it seems like NYRs — when some time is put into formulating them — are pretty likely to be pretty high-value things. Specifically, it seems like they are likely to be good if you do the following things (rather than just plumping at a generic list of ‘things I probably should do but don’t really want to’):
Work out, specifically, the main ways in which your life is not as you want it to be Work out simple actions which are likely to move your actual life closer to that life-as-you-want-it-to-be Resolve to do (some of) the actions at some specific frequency (ideally with some mechanism to check in or make sure you do them) Tell yourself and others that you’re actually going to do the things
Spending some serious time doing the above seems likely to be one of the best things to do with free time at the end of the year. I find it hard not to get really excited about the idea.
(side note: I imagine many people, including me-from-a-few-years-ago, would get kinda scared more than excited about this idea. I think this is maybe because the idea of living an ‘ideal life’ seems kinda scary and like something you should do but don’t really want to. To this I say that the ‘ideal life’ is not the one you think you should live but don’t really want to; it’s the one that, on reflection, you actually want to live and feel excited about living. I think terms like ‘ideal life’ conjure up the idea of a socially constructed ‘best life’, which is not what I mean. I’m talking about your best life, according to what you actually care about, not what people tell you to care about). | https://medium.com/@tayloralan648/new-years-resolutions-cd91e6efb6b7 | ['Alan Taylor'] | 2020-11-26 23:50:48.875000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Change', 'Rationality', 'Habits', 'New Years Resolutions'] |
Accessibility Discovery | What can we say about our first WUD experience? As relative newcomers to the world of accessibility and user experience, we were not quite sure what to expect but were excited to learn and share experiences with like-minded people.
World Usability Day is a huge event, not only for User Vision but for the wider UX community in Edinburgh and beyond. This year’s theme for World Usability Day was ‘Designing for the future we want’. With accessibility and usability at the forefront of the work we do at User Vision, the theme fitted perfectly with our offering.
Our WUD activity was called ‘Accessible Design with WCAG 2.1’. A topic, which can sometimes seem a little dry, was transformed by an activity with interactive equipment to simulate different types of visual impairments and simulation gloves to represent a motor impairment such as arthritis.
This engaging activity got people thinking about how individuals with different impairments have specific requirements when it comes to accessing digital products. This sparked some great discussions about applying WCAG 2.1 guidelines and their importance when designing digital products and how barriers can be avoided.
The activity was a great talking point with our WUD participants and guests. The room was buzzing with conversations about the new Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations which make WCAG 2.1 a legal requirement and how different organizations are working to meet these requirements.
We also chatted about the services that User Vision offer, including accessibility audits, development and training sessions for designers and developers and user testing. These services aim to help organisations adopt accessible design thinking and implement accessible design experiences for everyone.
It was great to gather different perspectives about accessibility, there was discussion about the notion of empathy and how simulating disabilities can often result in different reactions from individuals. We felt that the activity was a way of raising awareness of accessibility, but most importantly, it is essential to take the time to get to know users and understand their needs. | https://medium.com/@sciennes.communications/accessibility-discovery-eb6cfb1eaf97 | ['User Vision'] | 2019-11-21 13:08:02.515000+00:00 | ['Usability', 'Accessibility', 'Wud', 'UX'] |
Analyzing and redesigning digital focus groups | #1. Aesthetic and minimalist design
“Interfaces should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in an interface competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.” – Jakob Nielsen
What my team was most frustrated by (and what led to more frustrating experiences) was the look and feel of the platform. While other platforms — like Zoom and Google Meet — use clean lines, simple iconography, and straightforward actions, InterVu’s dark colors, crowded sections, and outdated interface made us feel like the platform’s functions itself was outdated—which was not the case, but it certainly felt like that. This was shocking, considering the modern, clean, and fresh feel of their website and what site images suggest the product looks like.
Image provided on InterVu’s website, suggesting this is what the platform looks like
The actual InterVu platform in practice
According to the Aesthetic-Usability Effect, users tend to be more forgiving of usability mistakes when the interface is visually appealing. On the opposite side, this means that users tend to be less forgiving of mistakes when interfaces are not visually appealing. Because the look of the platform did not match industry standards nor the rest of their clean website, my team members and I did view the usability mistakes we faced with more criticism than we would have if we were using Zoom.
In addition, the features available (namely, Backroom reminder information, InterVu Live Marking Pod, and FOR-FV-TECH-ONLY.zip) are unnecessary for most users to have pulled up during the entirety of the interviews. This ends up crowding the space, resulting in small videos of participants and limited space for showing stimuli. Streamlining this section will not only provide more visual real estate, but will meet the usability heuristic by only containing information that is essential to the user.
Suggestions for improvement:
Use clean, simple designs and iconography
Declutter the platform by only providing essential information and features, while allowing for more specifics to be able to be toggled on/off as needed
Allow for video pop-out/minimization for more flexibility and customization of view
#2. Consistency and standards
“Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform and industry conventions.”
Top Navigation Bar within InterVu
Within InterVu, video and audio settings buttons are located in the top navigation bar, which feels logical to an extent—typically, when searching for something, users will look to the navigation bar.
Bottom Navigation Bar within Zoom
However, across most video conferencing platforms (including Zoom, Google Meet, Facebook Messenger, and Microsoft Teams), these buttons are found along the bottom of the video screens. It makes sense—if you want to adjust your video settings, you would first go to where your video lies. This mismatch in what users expect made it difficult for me to find these buttons, although I have used the platform before. If the technician did not call each participant ahead of time to help them walk through and set up the platform, it most likely would have taken them a longer time to find these, potentially resulting in a frustrated participant and/or a late interview start time.
Attendee List and Client Chat in InterVu
In addition to lack of consistency to industry standards, the platform itself has instances where wording is inconsistent, leaving users confused. In particular, the Attendee List and Client Chat uses different terms that are not intuitive. The words “hosts”, “presenters”, and “client” are used to differentiate different layers of authorization, but it is unclear what each means. Clients who are listening in on the interviews are categorized under “presenters” so that they have access to the backroom feature, but this term is misleading because they will not be presenting anything.
Suggestions for improvement:
Move video and audio settings from the top navigation bar to the bottom of the video section
Adopt updated icons that are more standard/universally understood as “audio” and “camera”
Utilize consistent words to categorize people listening in/participating in the interviews that are widely understood
#3. Visibility of system status
“The design should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable amount of time.” — Jakob Nielsen
The client chat is a really helpful feature that allows you to send messages or questions back and forth without the participants seeing, something that we are unable to do on other platforms. However, the downside is that there is no communication of the state of the messages, namely that there is no way to know that there is a new unread message within the chat box. This puts strain on the moderator, who has to guide participants through questions while monitoring the chat in the chance that one of our clients sends a question, which could easily be missed. While there is a notification in the bottom corner of the screen when someone sends a message, the notification box looks too similarly to the rest of the platform, making it difficult to differentiate or notice.
How to improve:
On Mac, make the notification box appear at the top right to match other system notifications and in the same format to make sure it stands out
Add a “new message” indicator to the messages themselves to indicate when there is a new unread message
View Screen Bar located on the right side of the InterVu platform
#4. Error Prevention
“Good error messages are important, but the best designs carefully prevent problems from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions, or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.” – Jakob Nielsen
During our interviews, the moderator accidentally closed out the “view screen” bar, which is essential to change what screens the participants see (from “cameras only” to “cameras and stimuli”). While the Focus Vision technician is available to help change the screens, it is frustrating that there is no way to bring this bar back (at least, no way that any of us — including the technician — knew about).
Suggestions for improvement:
Rather than completely deleting an essential section, either ask for confirmation before deleting or change action to easily hide/unhide the section
#5. Recognition rather than recall
“Minimize the user’s memory load by making elements, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the interface to another. Information required to use the design (e.g. field labels or menu items) should be visible or easily retrievable when needed.” – Jakob Nielsen
Before each project begins, Focus Vision offers a dry run to help walk the team through the ins and outs of the platform and to set up various screens and stimuli. Because I had used the platform once previously and had a heavy workload, I did not want to participate in the dry run. However, I did end up joining because I remembered that the platform did not offer much help in helping users recall features and information. If there were other ways to recall information rather than remember it, I would have freed up time to complete other necessary tasks.
Additionally, for clients who had never used the platform or went through a dry-run of their own, it would be much more difficult to intuitively guess at what each feature does. While they could directly message the technician during the interview to ask for help, this would not be possible if they did not know how to reach the technician (or that there was a technician in the first place!).
While the dry run is a good solution to help users know how to use the platform, it does not take into account recurring users who just need a quick reminder, nor users who do not have the time to participate in a full and lengthy dry run.
Suggestions for improvement: | https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/analyzing-and-redesigning-digital-focus-groups-d05217e0fcfc | ['Amanda Nguyen'] | 2020-12-27 22:08:14.517000+00:00 | ['Usability Heuristics', 'Video Conferencing', 'Redesign', 'UX Design', 'Usability'] |
TIL 19: No stopping this Game | Today I learned that back in 2020 during peak COVID shutdowns, GameStop top executives volunteered to take a pay cut of 50%, while their co-founder and Ex-CEO Ryan Cohen “declined to receive any compensations for his services as a non-employee director.”
BTW Gamestop, with its newfound Capital last year, has some ambitious plans in the coming months. Ryan Cohen wishes to turn Gamestop into the Amazon of Gaming industry.
This means heavy investment in its online infrastructure, shifting to e-commerce from its brick-and-retail stores.
The company is also on a hiring spree of ex-Amazon execs and plans to hire a new CEO soon.
Imagine last year this was the same company on the verge of bankruptcy at the risk of being short by Wall Street. And now a bunch of Redditors has breathed a whole new life into this dying enterprise.
But getting into Online retail would be tough simply because there are too many players out there, and literally, no newbie wishes to compete against the likes of Walmart and Amazon. A lot of people think Gamestop sticking to its physical stores would have been better since it could’ve built its own niche.
Oh well, only time will tell. But so far with where they’ve come, good for you Gamstop. You go, girl! | https://medium.com/@sanchit-agarwal/til-19-no-stopping-this-game-d91f4b69e120 | ['Sanchit Agarwal'] | 2021-07-07 07:00:31.030000+00:00 | ['Now I Know', 'Today I Learned', 'Tilsanchit', 'Facts', 'Til'] |
Working From Home — Covid 19. Working from home has always had its… | Working from home has always had its ups and downs.
From positives like working in sweatpants (if that’s your jam) to negatives like getting “cabin fever,” you’ve surely heard some feedback from others or experienced it yourself.
However, as COVID-19 threats increased for people leaving their homes, so did the number of people working remotely. In fact, “88% of organizations have encouraged or required their employees to work from home [since the outbreak].”
As a result, many more people have gotten a firsthand look at the emotional rollercoaster of working from home.
Working from home has always had its ups and downs.
From positives like working in sweatpants (if that’s your jam) to negatives like getting “cabin fever,” you’ve surely heard some feedback from others or experienced it yourself.
However, as COVID-19 threats increased for people leaving their homes, so did the number of people working remotely. In fact, “88% of organizations have encouraged or required their employees to work from home [since the outbreak].”
As a result, many more people have gotten a firsthand look at the emotional rollercoaster of working from home.
Working from home also comes with some universally relatable challenges.
According to some stats , the following are the top challenges faced by people who are adjusting to working from home for the first time:
Lack of exercise (45%)
Setting up technology (40%)
Managing time effectively (36%)
Communicating with colleagues (31%).
Juggling to keep kids under 18 occupied and working at the same time (63%)
I guess working from home is not the perfect setup some people think it is.
While all of the common experiences might not be funny in the moment, I came across some memes that illustrate them perfectly and were just too relatable not to laugh.
Whatever your current situation, I hope these bring at least a little chuckle into your day.
Challenge: Getting used to video
At IMPACT, we’re lucky that video calls have been part of our daily routine for years. Not only are we used to being on-camera, but we’re used to using platforms like Zoom.
Unfortunately, not everyone isn’t so seasoned with the technology, or ready to hop in a video call at moment’s notice.
Challenge: Working with pets
With their people/person usually at work for a significant amount of time, pets are reacting in different ways to having a lot more company during the day.
For some pets, this means they’re expecting more snuggle time and more attention.
I’ve witnessed this firsthand during video meetings when pets walk across keyboards, cover employees’ faces, and beg for attention right next to them. I can imagine it’s quite distracting when trying to get work done.
While some pets love the added company, some miss their “personal time” when everyone is usually at work.
Working some added playtime and walks (if possible) with your pets into your daily routine might help them to better adjust to the changes.
Challenge: Working with kids at home
Ah, children. One of life’s greatest joys.
And then school gets “canceled,” leaving many parents not only working from home but being first-time teachers.
While there are surely many benefits of being with the kids all day, I have to applaud (and sympathize with) all of the parents who are balancing working, parenting, teaching, and more, on a daily basis.
Challenge: Forgetting what day it is
Do Wednesdays feel like Fridays and Fridays feel like Tuesdays?
Has Christmas happened yet?
I’m sure it’s a combination of working from home full-time and being quarantined, but never have I ever been so confused about what day (or even month…) it is.
Challenge: Blurring the lines between work and home.
Do you feel like the amount of time you spend working has increased since working from home?
While many people joke that people who work from home aren’t actually working all day, I’ve found my experience to be the exact opposite.
At work there are cues for lunch, leaving for the day, even walks and breaks.
At home, I find myself missing lunch and working into dinnertime without even realizing it.
It’s so important for each of us to set boundaries on our work schedules in a way that allows for proper work-life balance.
For me, blocking out time on my personal calendar for breaks has helped keep me refreshed and focused when I get into work-mode.
In addition, managers should closely monitor the workload and hours their teams are working to make sure they aren’t taking on too much and burning themselves out.
Challenge: Working near your significant other
“Do you mind if I weigh in on that meeting you had earlier?”
This is something I never thought I’d hear my boyfriend say, however, when working together in a confined space, it’s almost impossible not to catch the meetings and conversations happening during the other person’s day.
Similarly, it can be difficult to avoid being seen or heard in the background of other video meetings happening at your home.
As many may have already found out the hard way, it’s worth it to go the extra mile to communicate that you’re on a video call to anyone else in the house.
Challenge: Choosing your outfit for the day.
If you’re like me, the second you get home from work (or any event that requires jeans or “fancier”), you immediately change into comfortable clothes.
One of the best perks of working from home is the freedom to wear comfy clothes all day, with the exception of a nice top for more professional video calls.
However, some days i can be a struggle to choose the perfect sweatshirt sweat-pant combo.
Needless to say, these memes really get it.
We’re all in this together
If it’s not a common experience, it probably wouldn’t be a popular meme.
Realize that you’re not alone in navigating the current downsides of working from home, but whenever possible, make sure to stop to appreciate the upsides.
And for those of you who don’t get to work from home right now, know that we all appreciate everything you have done and continue to do.
It’s incredibly important that you focus on your own physical and mental health and the physical and mental health of your teams.
Let’s Live out this Pandemic Together. Until next time everyone :) | https://medium.com/@amnayouzasaif/working-from-home-covid-19-518c292ca371 | ['Amna Youzasaif'] | 2020-12-26 16:51:48.200000+00:00 | ['Work From Home', 'Pandemic', 'Funny', 'Covid 19', 'Memes'] |
Get Ready for Same-Sex Reproduction | Get Ready for Same-Sex Reproduction
When artificial sperm and eggs become a reality, the sex of your baby-making partner won’t matter.
The cluster on the right is a colony of iPS cells. Each one of them could become a sperm or egg cell under the right conditions, which scientists are trying to uncover. (Courtesy of UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center)
Renata Moreira’s 1-year-old daughter is just beginning to talk. She calls Renata “Mommy,” her other mother, Lori, Renata’s ex-wife and co-parent, “Mama,” and the man who donated the sperm that gave her life, “Duncle,” short for donor uncle. The couple’s sperm donor is Renata’s younger brother.
“I frankly never contemplated having kids because I didn’t have any role models,” Moreira begins as she tells her daughter’s origin story. But when she met Lori at a bar in New York in 2013, the gay marriage movement was in full swing. When the couple decided to marry, they saw many of their friends starting families because of the new legal protections that marriage offered LGBTQ families, and they too began thinking about their options.
After months of research and thinking about the values that were most important to their family, they decided that a genetic connection to their kid was a high priority. “It wasn’t that we didn’t believe in adoption,” says Moreira, who is executive director of Our Family Coalition, a nonprofit that works to advance equity for LGBTQ families. “But the idea was that we wanted a child that was related to our ancestors and the genetic code that carries.”
Moreira is Brazilian, of indigenous and Portuguese ancestry, and Lori is Italian. Given that they both wanted to carry on their genetic heritage, they asked Renata’s brother to donate his sperm, to be matched with Lori’s eggs. The family’s fertility doctor used in-vitro fertilization to conceive an embryo in a dish and implanted it into Moreira’s uterus, making her into her daughter’s “gestational carrier.”
Even as the social stigma around gay parenting lessens — the Williams Institute at UCLA estimates that as many as six million Americans have a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender parent — LGBTQ families that want a biological connection to their children have a lot to think about. A same-sex couple who make a baby must work through an arduous puzzle of personal values, technologies, and intermediary fertility doctors, egg and sperm donors, or surrogates.
But that could change dramatically before long. A developing technology known as IVG, short for in-vitro gametogenesis, could make it possible for same-sex couples to conceive a baby out of their own genetic material and no one else’s. They’d do this by having cells in their own bodies turned into sperm or egg cells.
The science of IVG has been underway for the last 20 years. But it really took off with research that would later win a Nobel Prize for a Japanese scientist named Shinya Yamanaka. In 2006, he found a way to turn any cell in the human body, even easy-to-harvest ones like skin and blood cells, into cells known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), which can be reprogrammed to become any cell in the body. Until that breakthrough, scientists working in regenerative medicine had to use more limited — and controversial — stem cells derived from frozen human embryos.
There is a small international group of scientists racing to reprogram human iPS cells into sperm and egg cells.
In 2016, researchers at Kyoto University in Japan announced that they had turned cells from a mouse’s tail into iPS cells and then made those into eggs that went on to gestate into pups. There are a lot of steps that still need to be perfected before this process of creating sex cells, also known as gametes, could work in humans.
If it does work, the first application likely would be in reversing infertility: men would have new sperm made and women would have new eggs made from other cells in their bodies. But a more mind-bending trick is also possible: that cells from a man could be turned into egg cells and cells from a woman could be turned into sperm cells. And that would be an even bigger leap in reproductive medicine than in-vitro fertilization. It would alter our concept of family in ways we are only beginning to imagine.
Today same-sex couples have to involve other people’s genetic material in making a baby. Artificial gametes could let them procreate with their own. (Illustration by Aart-Jan Venema)
Sex cells!
There is now a small international group of scientists racing to recreate the mouse formula and reprogram human iPS cells into sperm and egg cells.
One of the key players is Amander Clark, a stem cell biologist at UCLA. On a Friday afternoon, she walks me through her open lab area and introduces Di Chen, a postdoctoral fellow from China who’s working on creating artificial gametes. We enter a small room with a microscope, a refrigerator incubator, and a biosafety cabinet where students work with iPS cells. Chen invites me to peer down the microscope and shows off a colony of fresh iPS cells. They look like a large amoeba.
Getting cells like these to become viable eggs or sperm requires six major steps, Clark says. All of them have been accomplished in a mouse, but doing it in a human will be no easy feat. (In 2016, scientists reported that they had turned human skin cells into sperm cells, a development that Clark calls “interesting — but no one has repeated it yet.”) And no one has yet made an artificial human egg.
Clark’s group and other labs are essentially stuck on step three. After the steps in which a cell from the body is turned into an iPS cell, the third step is to coax it into an early precursor of a germ cell. For the work in mice, one Japanese researcher, Katsuhiko Hayashi, combined a precursor cell with cells from embryonic ovaries — ovaries at the very beginning of development — which were taken from a different mouse at day 12 in its gestation. This eventually formed an artificial ovary that produced a cell that underwent sex-specific differentiation (step four) and meiosis (step five), and became a gamete (step six).
Di Chen and Amander Clark in the lab. (Photo by Reed Hutchinson/UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center)
Other researchers, Azim Surani at Cambridge and Jacob Hanna at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, have gotten to step three with both human embryonic stem cells and iPS cells, turning them into precursors that can give rise to either eggs or sperm. Surani’s former student Mitinori Saitou, now at Kyoto University, also accomplished this feat.
It’s an impressive achievement: they’ve made something that normally begins to develop around day 17 of gestation in a human embryo. But the next step, growing these precursor cells into mature eggs and sperm, is “a very, very huge challenge,” Surani says. It will require scientists to recreate a process that takes almost a year in natural human development. And in humans they can’t take the shortcut used in mice, taking embryonic ovary cells from a different mouse.
At UCLA, Clark refers to the next three steps needed to get to a human artificial gamete as “the maturation bottleneck.”
Those amoeba-like iPS cells that Chen showed me are sitting in a dish that he lifts off the microscope and carries to the biosafety cabinet. There he separates the cells into a new dish, and adds a liquid with proteins and other ingredients to help the cells grow. He puts the cells into an incubator for one day; then he’ll collect the cells again and add more ingredients. After around four days, the cells ideally will have grown into a ball that is around the size of a grain of sand, visible to the naked eye. This ball contains the precursors to a gamete. Clark’s lab and other international teams are studying it to understand its properties, with the hope that it will offer clues to getting all the way to step six — an artificial human gamete.
“I do think we’re less than 10 years away from making research-grade gametes,” she says. Commercializing the technology would take longer, and no one can really predict how much so — or what it would possibly cost.
Some of these iPS cells have been coaxed to become early precursors to a gamete. The next steps will be much harder. (Courtesy of UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center)
Even then, same-sex reproduction will face one more biological hurdle: scientists would need to somehow make a cell derived from a woman, who has two X chromosomes, into a sperm cell with one X and one Y chromosome, and do the reverse, turning an XY male cell into an XX female egg cell. Whether both steps are feasible has been debated for at least a decade. Ten years ago, the Hinxton Group, an international consortium on stem cells, ethics, and law, predicted that making sperm from female cells would be “difficult, or even impossible.” But gene editing and various cellular-engineering technologies might be increasing the likelihood of a workaround. In 2015, two British researchers reported that women could “in theory have offspring together” by injecting genetic material from one partner into an egg from the other. With this method, the children would all be girls, “as there would be no Y chromosomes involved.”
Yet another possibility: a single woman might even be able to reproduce by herself in a human version of parthenogenesis, which means “virgin birth.” It could be the feminist version of the goddess Athena springing from Zeus’s head.
The genderqueer nuclear family
The question remains whether society will want this technology — and how often LGBTQ families will choose to use it. Current advanced reproductive technologies are already diversifying the ways we reproduce and opening reproduction to groups who previously may not have had access to it. This is expanding the concept of family beyond the traditional Ozzie and Harriet hetero-nuclear family. Many people who are single parents by choice now include their gamete donors as members. Many LGBTQ families are collaborations of friends and relatives who become egg and sperm donors and help raise the kids.
So it’s understandable that social and legal observers are already thinking about the potential consequences of artificial gametes for the shape of families. If the technology means that lesbian couples wouldn’t need a sperm donor, and gay male couples wouldn’t need a donor egg, it could, among other things, make it “easier for the intended parents to preserve the integrity and privacy of the family unit,” Sonia Suter, a law professor at George Washington University, wrote in the Journal of Law and Biosciences.
A single woman might be able to reproduce by herself, the feminist version of Athena springing from Zeus’s head.
Ironically, however, the technology also could create something rather conventional — a biological nuclear family, albeit one that looks more like Ozzie and Ozzie. “Collaborative reproduction has paved the way for radical new definitions of family, which really helped to lead the movement for marriage equality,” says Radhika Rao, a law professor at UC Hastings law school. “Instead of challenging hetero-normative values, IVG could end up perpetuating them.”
That’s why Renata Moreira isn’t sure she would have chosen it. “It might take away from this great opportunity to challenge and expand the notion of what family looks like,” she says.
But new reproductive technologies are invented to expand our choices more than to limit them, as egg freezing and IVF allow women to pause and even extend their biological clocks. In the coming decades, IVG could let us bend biology to bring together the genetic codes, as Moreira puts it, of people who otherwise can’t. This would increase the freedom to shape our families to meet our personal values and desires, and push human evolution in an altogether new direction.
Rachel Lehmann-Haupt is the editor of The ART and Science of Family and author of In Her Own Sweet Time: Egg Freezing and the New Frontiers of Family.
This story was updated on March 1, 2018, to delete a reference to men not needing a surrogate. That would require additional technologies such as an artificial womb. | https://medium.com/neodotlife/same-sex-reproduction-artificial-gametes-2739206aa4c0 | ['Rachel Lehmann-Haupt'] | 2020-10-22 23:14:49.037000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Reproductive Justice', 'Fertility', 'Science', 'Reproductive Rights'] |
What is not changing? | 2020 has been a year like no other — some are even saying: “It’s the end of the world as we know it”. People have endured hardships everywhere. The COVID-19 pandemic has been pervasive with virtually no-one left untouched. Lives and livelihoods have been lost. Economies are under huge strain. The prospects for any quick recoveries look bleak. How should we then be approaching 2021?
Against all odds this year, we have been resilient. We have comforted those who were fearful. We have supported those in need. We have connected digitally where we could. Of course, there were those who behaved badly: corrupt opportunists, who attempted to take advantage of our fragility and plunder funds meant for relief efforts — they will be brought to book hopefully. In this period of uncertainty and as we approach the “new world” with many changes looming, however, what remains the same (or should remain the same) for our planning purposes?
Respect for each other — the dignity of the human being should always be upheld, no matter what the new world looks like. Humans are not pawns on political chess boards, but precious members of society and should be treated as such. Valuing all forms of diversity — we must celebrate uniqueness and difference in whatever form (ethnicity, gender, education, culture, background, upbringing, exposure, experience, etc.). We should not stop at “tolerance”, which means “putting up with someone else”, but rather learn how to love each other. Sincere engagement with all employees — be it remotely or in person, emotional connection is needed to express our humanness and to support growth. Empathy, identifying with the emotional condition of the other person, is essential during times of change. Leaders need to be truly present. Inclusion — giving opportunities for contribution and participation, including decision-making, especially when the decision is going to affect employees. Authentic listening is necessary to grow trust. Recognition — leaders need to grow confidence in employees by acknowledging discretionary effort, successes and energy applied appropriately and thus celebrating growth together. Sustainability — we need to future-proof our world, our societies and our companies. We just cannot behave selfishly anymore and ignore issues that negatively impact sustainability — we have to act in 2021. Care — expressing concern for the vulnerable and finding sustainable solutions for issues like poverty, clean water, sufficient cultivation of food, shelter, safety, etc. Non-government organisations that address these issues, on their own, can’t meet all these needs — governments, companies and communities need to participate together to find viable solutions.
As those in leadership, and employees alike, tentatively step into a post-pandemic “new world” and attempt to re-establish livelihoods and economies, may they continue to uphold the values that respect our humanness — our interconnectedness, our interdependency and our need for a sustainable future. | https://medium.com/@jnmills-36798/what-is-not-changing-5f682b5a0518 | ['Jonathan Mills'] | 2020-12-13 07:25:20.687000+00:00 | ['Employee Engagement', 'Sustainability', 'Care', 'Values Based Leadership', 'Leadership Behaviors'] |
The Flipbook Tree | The Flipbook Tree
A revised version of Flipbook Trees
She gazed beyond her reflection on the rectangle glass. A dog-eared notebook slept on her lap swaying gently with the rhythmic turning of gears. She let the world behind the glass tell her its story; a flipbook of moments.
The grass tree came into the page, neither a grass nor a tree. Yet. As quick as the wheels turned on the rails, the tree animated before her eyes and grew: now
a gumtree peeling, standing naked for sun’s lusty heat
then
a fern green, unfurling the ways of the worlds
here
freshly fallen, a night storm’s debt collection
there
a eucalyptus rising, a future home
she blinked
it died a stone
ahh!
a grass, it rebirthed
a tree
a grass tree — shorter, sturdier this time. | https://medium.com/fresh-darlings/the-flipbook-tree-faa53ce2d2cd | [] | 2017-02-14 01:40:56.736000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Poetry', 'Grass Trees', 'Haibun', 'Fresh Darlings Revision'] |
Object-Oriented JavaScript — Built-in Browser Objects | Photo by Felix Kolthoff on Unsplash
JavaScript is partly an object-oriented language.
To learn JavaScript, we got to learn the object-oriented parts of JavaScript.
In this article, we’ll look at built-in browser objects.
The window.location Property
The window.location property lets us get the URL of the page and redirect it to another one.
For instance, we can use location.hostname to get the hostname.
And href gets us the full path.
pathname gets us the segment before the query string.
port gives us the port.
search gives us a query string.
We can get all the properties of the location object with the loop:
for (const key in location) {
if (typeof location[key] === "string") {
console.log(key, location[key]);
}
}
We loop through each property with the location object.
We set the location.href property to redirect to a new URL.
For example, we can write:
window.location.href = 'http://www.example.com';
Also, we can write:
location.href = 'http://www.example.com';
location = 'http://www.example.com';
location.assign('http://www.example.com');
replace is almost the same as assign , but it doesn’t create a new browser history entry.
We can use it by writing:
location.replace('http://www.example.com');
To reload a page, we can write:
location.reload();
We can also assign window.location.hre to itself to reload the page:
window.location.href = window.location.href;
location = location;
The window.history Property
The window.history property lets us access the previously visited pages of the same browser session.
For instance, we can see the number of pages visited before visiting the current page with window.history.length .
We can’t see the actual URLs to maintain privacy.
But we can navigate back and forth through the user’s session.
We can use:
history.forward();
history.back();
to move forward and back in the history respectively.
history.back() is also the same as history.go(-1); .
To go 2 pages back, we can write:
history.go(-2);
And we can reload the current page with:
history.go(0);
The HTML5 history API also lets us change the URL without reloading the page.
We can use the history.pushState method to change the page.
For instance, we can write:
history.pushState({foo: 1}, "", "hello");
The first argument is the value of the stte property.
The 2nd is the title, which isn’t used.
And the 3rd is the URL path to go to.
Then we can get the state with history.state .
The window.frames Property
The window.frames property is a collection of all frames in the current page.
It doesn’t distinguish between frames and iframes.
window.frames points to window no matter frames are present on the page or not.
So:
window.frames === window;
returns true .
If we have a frame like:
<iframe name="helloFrame" src="hello.html" />
Then frames.length is 1.
We can get the first frame, which is window , with:
window.frames[0];
window.frames[0].window;
window.frames[0].window.frames;
frames[0].window;
frames[0];
We can reload the frame with:
frames[0].window.location.reload();
And the frame’s parent is window , so:
frames[0].parent === window;
returns true .
We have the top property to get the topmost page, which is the page all the other frames from within the frame.
So all of these:
window.frames[0].window.top === window;
window.frames[0].window.top === window.top;
window.frames[0].window.top === top;
return true .
self is the same as window , so:
self === window
returns true .
Also, these also return true :
frames[0].self === frames[0].window;
window.frames['helloFrame'] === window.frames[0];
frames.helloFrame === window.frames[0];
Photo by Martin Péchy on Unsplash
Conclusion | https://medium.com/dev-genius/object-oriented-javascript-built-in-browser-objects-8b35a3565135 | ['John Au-Yeung'] | 2020-11-21 20:20:29.197000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Web Development', 'Software Development', 'Technology', 'Programming'] |
Python & Vectorization | Computer hardware in today’s world leverages parallel computing for faster computation by making use of SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) architectures. SIMD is a class of parallel computing in which the logical processors perform a single instruction on multiple data points simultaneously. We need to vectorize our deep learning code so that we can harness all the computing power that our system provides. The faster the computation, the faster our neural network is trained and the faster we get our results. Therefore, the ability to vectorize a piece of code has become a crucial skill for a deep learning practitioner. In this story, I will be explaining the basics of vectorization using python.
What exactly is Vectorization?
In the context of logistic regression, let us try to understand what vectorization exactly means with the help of the equation below:
The convention for storing the inputs and weights is not standard but I prefer to store it the following way. Let X be the input matrix of dimensions (n,m) where n is the number of features present in X and m is the number of training examples present in our training dataset i.e. we are storing one data point in 1 column. For each feature, there will be a weight associated with it, therefore let W be the weight matrix of dimensions (n,1).
Now, if we were to code the example equation using for loops, we would come up with something like:
The above snippet of code consists of explicit for loops and will not make use of parallelization. Therefore, we need to convert it into a vectorized version. This can be done easily by leveraging the built-in Numpy functions in the following way:
Z will be a (1,m) matrix as per matrix multiplication rules. The np.dot() function performs matrix multiplication of the given input matrices. It not only makes the code more readable and understandable, but it also makes use of parallelization for faster computation. The code snippet below shows how fast the vectorized implementation works as compared to non vectorized one.
import numpy as np
import time # Number of features
n = 1000
# Number of training examples
m = 10000
# Initialize X and W
X = np.random.rand(n,m)
W = np.random.rand(n,1) # Vectorized code
t1=time.time()
Z = np.dot(W.T,X)
print("Time taken for vectorized code is : ",(time.time()-t1)*1000,"ms") # Non Vectorized code
Z1 = np.zeros((1,m))
t2 = time.time()
for i in range(X.shape[1]):
for j in range(X.shape[0]):
Z[0][i] += W[j]*X[j][i] print("Time taken for non vectorized code is : ",(time.time()-t2)*1000,"ms") ''' Output
Time taken for vectorized code is : 5.964040756225586 ms
Time taken for non vectorized code is : 40915.54665565491 ms
'''
The above implementation considers only 10k training examples and 1k features. Although there are code optimization strategies, clearly the vectorized implementation is much faster than the non vectorized one. Numpy is a python library that is used for scientific computation. It offers various inbuilt functions that make it easy for us to write a vectorized code.
As a rule of thumb, we should write a vectorized code for any future implementations using built-in numpy functions.
Vectorizing the Logistic Regression
Now that we have seen how beneficial it is to write a vectorized code, let us delve deeper and write a vectorized code for logistic regression. It is not possible to write a vectorized code for each and every case but we should try to follow the rule of thumb wherever possible. Let us see a non vectorized version of logistic regression and try to figure out the parts which can be vectorized. This way we will understand how to convert a given piece of code into its vectorized version. For simplicity, we will consider only 2 features in X and therefore only 2 weights.
In the above example, we have considered only 2 weights i.e. w1 and w2 but in real life scenarios there will lot more weights, handling them will become a complex task. Therefore, we will vectorize the calculation and updation of weight derivates dw1 and dw2 by:
dW = X[i].dZ[i]
dW /= m
With the help of the above changes, we have managed to vectorize only a small part of the code. Most of part still depends on the for loop which is used to iterate over all the training examples. Let us see how we can remove that for loop and vectorize that as well:
The value A for all training examples can be easily found out by:
A = sigmoid(np.dot(W.T,X)+b)
The cost J can be found out by:
J = -(np.dot(Y,np.log(A).T)+np.dot((1-Y),np.log(1-A).T))
The derivatives dZ, dW and dB for all training examples can be found out by:
dZ = A - Y
dW = np.dot(X*(dZ.T))/m
dB = (np.sum(dZ))/m
The Weight Matrix W and bias B can be updated by:
W = W - alpha*dW
b = b - alpha*dB
These conversions may seem perplexing at first. Therefore, I urge the readers to see how the dimension of each matrix changes after each calculation. This will help in understanding things in a better way. Let us apply the changes and see how the vectorized code looks like when everything is compiled together.
The above code is much cleaner, readable, short and computationally faster.
Broadcasting
Amidst the code, you may have found that two matrices of incompatible dimensions are added, subtracted, multiplied and divided. Numpy has a great feature called Broadcasting. Under some constraints, the smaller matrix is broadcasted to the bigger matrix so that they have compatible dimensions to carry out various mathematical operations. Let us see how broadcasting works with the help of some examples. Let A and B be input matrices and C be the output matrix as a result of any mathematical operation on A and B.
Shape of A : 5 x 4
Shape of B : 4
Shape of C : 5 x 4 Shape of A : 15 x 3 x 5
Shape of B : 15 x 1 x 5
Shape of C : 15 x 3 x 5 Shape of A : 8 x 1 x 6 x 1
Shape of B : 7 x 1 x 5
Shape of C : 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 Shape of A : 2 x 3 x 3
Shape of B : 1 x 5
Shape of C : Error
It follows that broadcasting works on 2 principles:
The trailing dimensions of A and B should be equal or Trailing dimensions of either A or B should be 1.
The best way to understand Vectorization and convert a given code in vectorized format is to keep a track of the dimensions of various matrices that are at the table.
Writing a Vectorized version of the code can be daunting at first but, together with the help of Numpy’s built-in function and broadcasting and with practice, it becomes really easy. It will make the code more readable and immensely fast. | https://towardsdatascience.com/python-vectorization-5b882eeef658 | ['Rochak Agrawal'] | 2019-05-08 13:00:34.042000+00:00 | ['Numpy', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Logistic Regression', 'Deep Learning', 'Machine Learning'] |
3 Ways To Get Featured In Forbes, Business Insider, & More | Photo by CoWomen on Unsplash
How do you get featured in places like Forbes, Business Insider, etc?
This is one of the most common non-job questions in my inbox.
If you want to get featured, there are three ways to do it:
1. Pitch The Publication
Many sites have submission forms or you can find an editor and pitch your piece.
This is a BIG waste of time.
Like applying online, these people get thousands of pitches and most don’t get read.
2. Relationships
Building relationships with people who write for these sites is a great way in.
That’s how I got my first in at Forbes.
I made a list of 20 people who had columns on the site and worked to add value.
I shared their pieces, left positive comments, etc.
It took time, but they started asking to interview me and feature my writing.
3. Go Omni-Channel With Your Content
If you’re creating content, re-purpose it!
Editors at these companies are always scouring sites like Medium, Quora, LinkedIn, etc. to see what pieces are gaining traction.
I landed my Inc. and Fast Co features because an editor saw my answers on Quora.
I landed in Biz Insider because they saw my posts on Medium.
Lastly, be patient. Each of these strategies takes time.
Rather than focusing on the feature, focus on the quality of your content.
That’s what will get noticed. | https://medium.com/@austin-belcak/3-ways-to-get-featured-in-forbes-business-insider-more-9158b0e516e6 | ['Austin Belcak'] | 2020-10-26 12:22:57.542000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Business', 'Personal Branding', 'Branding', 'Content Marketing'] |
Ethereum Upgrade Delayed Until January At The Earliest | Chris Coney’s ‘The Cryptoverse’ crypto podcast curation by CrowdConscious.
On Today’s Episode of The Cryptoverse…
Chris has hand-picked another 6 top crypto news stories for the day. Stories today include:
A game based tutorial on how to build eosio apps Huobi’s weird but clever approach to stablecoins NatWest bank adopts blockchain technology for the loans market 10,000 .NEO domains have been sold ethereum’s next upgrade has been delayed until January at the earliest AND Bitcoinfiles.com lets you store files on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain forever
Episode Transcript, Notes & Links
Block One have released an interactive tutorial which teaches you EOS programming by building a blockchain based game
https://battles.eos.io/
The value of any of these blockchain platform boils down to how much demand there is for them. That is determined by what is built on them, and whether people are using those apps.
The more apps that are built on any given platform, the more chance of one of them doing viral.
With that in mind Block One have created an 8 lesson tutorial which teaches you the basics of blockchain development as well as the specific skills you will need to create a functioning EOS application.
Provably fair games have every chance of being the first killer app for EOS so this announcement is a good one for any EOS token holders out there.
Sponsorship Slot
If you would like to earn crypto rewards for watching Chris’ videos then visit TheCryptoverse.show and then click on the “Get Paid To Watch” button, then there’s a 2 minute video that explains how it works.
Continuing With The Show!
Huobi, currently the 3rd largest crypto exchange integrates stablecoins in a very innovative way
https://huobiglobal.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000170601-Announcement-on-Launching-HUSD-solution-on-Huobi-Global
Instead of creating trading pairs for each of the 4 stablecoins, they are going to list everything against HUSD and then allow you to redeem HUSD for any one of the 4 stablecoins they support.
They are launching support for Paxos, True USD, Circle Dollar and Gemini Dollar.
So when you deposit any one of those coins they show up in your account as HUSD, then when you are done you can withdraw a different stablecoin if you want.
They provide this simple diagram that shows how this works.
This is rolling out gradually over the next 2 weeks including the launch of HUSD trading against Tether.
Stablecoins deposits should be live by the time you watch this video, and I can verify here https://www.huobi.com/coin_coin/exchange/#s=btc_usdt
That the HUSD has already started trading against Tether and has a 24 hour volume of over $4m.
Major UK bank, NatWest have announced their intention to leverage blockchain technology in the syndicated loan market
https://btcmanager.com/uk-bank-natwest-blockchain-technology-syndicated-loan-market/
In this case the problem they are solving with blockchain technology is the inability to share a database in a trustless way.
Yes you could put together a project with the intention of integrating all the private systems but getting all the parties to cooperate would be unlikely because they don’t trust each other.
By having a public blockchain, they all agree that is the central authority when it comes to the state of the loan network.
The reason I’ve opted to cover this story today is to help you draw a distinction between what is good news and what is good news that directly affects your crypto investments.
In this case the headline initially sounds good, but then you find out that NatWest are going to be using a platform called Fusion developed by R3.
So while this is going to help to bring more people round to the concept of blockchain technology, it does little or nothing for any of our crypto investments since NatWest are not building on any of the platforms that we own tokens in.
This is often the conclusion to stories like this that sound good but then end up having no impact on our investments.
I believe it’s important for you to know the difference so you don’t make decisions based on a misunderstanding, which is easily done.
10,000 .Neo domain names have been registered in the first month
https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2018/10/neo-name-service-sees-users-register-over-10000-neo-domains-in-its-first-month/
The paradox for me here is that the whole point of having a decentralised domain name system, especially one powered by blockchain technology is censorship resistance.
But with NEO being in a country like China which has heavy controls on Internet usage, I’m not sure how that’s going to play out.
A company like InfoWars can spend millions on building a resilient network infrastructure but the weak point, in fact the easiest way to bring their website down is to bypass all that and simply disconnect their domain name at the central registrar.
So turning domain names into digital assets that only you have control over is another excellent application for blockchain technology, although how that works in China I don’t know.
The other benefit of blockchain based domain names is to ensure you are paying the right company when shopping online. If you are shopping on Amazon.neo then you could just send your payment to Amazon.neo and it would go to Amazon’s NEO wallet.
That prevents phishing attacks and so on.
This is ultimately NEO’s equivalent of the ENS which is the Ethereum Name Service. https://ens.domains which has been live for a while now.
Ethereum Devs Reach Consensus to Delay Constantinople Hard Fork Until January 2019
https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-devs-reach-consensus-to-delay-constantinople-hard-fork-until-january-2019
This is an update to a story I’ve been following so you’re no doubt already aware of it.
I previously reported that there were some hiccups on when Constantinople was deployed to the testnet, in a move that could be described as ‘better safe than sorry’ Ethereum core developers have decided not to roll it out to the mainnet until January at the earliest.
Bitcoinfiles.com Developers Launch Censorship-Resistant File Storage System
https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoinfiles-com-developers-launch-censorship-resistant-file-storage-system/
So this is live now and you can store any file under 5kb for a Bitcoin Cash transaction fee plus $0.25. Technically it’s then stored forever, even though the economics of that don’t stack up.
I mean how can you accept a finite among of money to provide a service for an infinite amount of time, let me know in the comments below.
On the plus side this is now a place to go if you want complete censorship resistance. Say you are a whistleblower in some corrupt country, you can upload each page of a secret document one page at a time.
Once that’s done, it doesn’t matter what happens to you, there’s no removing that file. In fact it’d be very difficult to figure out who uploaded the file in the first place.
The obvious downside to this is that it’s completely open meaning someone can upload child porn, which has already happened on the Bitcoin blockchain, or someone could upload an instruction manually on how to make a bomb.
Those are very bad things however it did occur to me that if the centralised platforms were free from censorship there would be no market for this kind of service.
Another thing I’ll say is that blockchains are far from idea as file storage.
Blockchains are designed to be resilient databases. Resilient file storage is provided by different technology such as IPFS.
However if you wanted to timestamp a file, store it forever in a way that was completely immutable, a blockchain based service like this is tough to beat. | https://medium.com/the-cryptoverse/ethereum-upgrade-delayed-until-january-at-the-earliest-d34616b525ba | [] | 2018-10-22 17:40:31.780000+00:00 | ['Eos', 'Ethereum', 'Podcast', 'Investing', 'Blockchain'] |
Case study: Learning To Live Up To Privacy Promises & The 2004 Gateway Corp Consent Decree | Factual background
In 2014, Gateway Learning Corporation (Gateway) marketed and sold products under the “Hooked on Phonics” brand name and was based in Santa Ana, California.
Since 2000, Gateway Learning marketed its “Hooked on Phonics” products on the Internet at www.hop.com(link is external).
The site’s privacy policy stated, “We do not sell, rent or loan any personally identifiable information regarding our consumers with any third party unless we receive customer’s explicit consent.” Another statement said, “We do not provide any personally identifiable information about children under 13 years of age to any third party for any purpose whatsoever.”
The policy also said that if Gateway Learning changed its policy, it would give consumers the chance to “opt-out” of having their information shared.
According to the FTC, in April 2003, despite these promises, Gateway Learning started renting personal information provided by consumers — including their names, addresses, phone numbers, and age ranges and gender of their children — to target marketers to send mailings and make telemarketing calls.
In June 2003, Gateway revised the privacy policy on its Web site to say that “from time to time” Gateway would provide consumers’ personal information to “reputable companies” whose products or services consumers might find of interest, the FTC complaint says. However, according to the FTC, Gateway continued to rent information collected under the earlier policy.
The FTC alleged that Gateway did not contact consumers who had already provided their information to say that it had revised its privacy policy, nor did it highlight on its Web site the fact that the privacy policy had changed.
On July 1, 2003, Gateway Learning halted its rentals of consumer data collected online.
Settlement
The FTC charged Gateway with violating federal law when it rented consumers’ personal information to target marketers contrary to explicit promises made in its privacy policy. The FTC also alleged that, after collecting consumers’ information, Gateway Learning changed its privacy policy to allow it to share the information with third parties without notifying consumers or getting their consent.
The FTC charged that: (1) Gateway Learning’s claims that it would not sell, rent, or loan to third parties consumers’ personal information unless it received the consumers’ consent, and that it would never share information about children, were false; (2) Gateway Learning’s retroactive application of a materially changed privacy policy to information it had previously collected from consumers was an unfair practice; and (3) Gateway Learning’s failure to notify consumers of the changes to its privacy policy and practices, as promised in the original policy, was a deceptive practice. The agency charged that the practices violated Section 5 of the FTC Act.
Gateway entered into a consent decree with the FTC in 2004. The settlement:
Bars misrepresentations about how Gateway will use data it collects from consumers.
Prohibits Gateway from sharing any personal information collected from consumers on its Web site under the earlier privacy policy unless it first obtains express affirmative (“opt-in”) consent from consumers.
Gateway from any personal information collected from consumers on its Web site under the earlier privacy policy Prohibits it from applying future material changes to its privacy policy retroactively without consumers’ consent .
. Requires that the company give up $4,600 it earned from renting the data.
The order contains standard record keeping provisions. | https://medium.com/golden-data/case-study-gateway-learning-corp-living-up-to-privacy-promises-and-mergers-d655b224765 | ['Lydia F De La Torre'] | 2020-12-21 02:08:27.294000+00:00 | ['FTC', 'Case Study', 'Consent Decree', 'Unfair'] |
“The stone goblin stood speechless in shock, could the kids be right in saying that he no longer… | in Both Sides of the Table | https://medium.com/touching-doodles/the-stone-goblin-stood-speechless-in-shock-could-the-kids-be-right-in-saying-that-he-no-longer-ab6b662e036b | ['Kyle Freeman'] | 2019-04-14 22:47:47.757000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Cool', 'Weird', 'Webcomics', 'Art'] |
How to Get Into Middle Space | I didn’t find out I was a middle until I was in my mid-30s. And then I felt like I had to figure everything out on my own.
My first hunch was that I was drawn to so many elements of the Daddy Dom, little girl kink.
I love the dynamic created in DDlg relationships. And I adore the aesthetic that goes with it — everything cutesy, playful, and bubbly.
And of course, I’m really into the daddy doms. The way they can be dominant, nurturing, and giving all at once makes me weak in the knees.
But I could never fully identify with the littles I found online. The more I read up on their lifestyles and saw what being a little means in practice, the less it felt like my kink.
I could get down with being playful and sweet, but I wasn’t into the idea of putting a pacifier or a sippy cup to my mouth.
Same with a lot of the activities littles use to get in their favorite headspace. I don’t mind cuddling a stuffed toy or playing with a squishy one, but I don’t really care to color with crayons or watch cartoons and Disney movies.
It was the same with sex. Some of my favorite porn is heavy with DDlg themes and a lot of my recurring fantasies involve being younger and a whole lot more innocent than I really am. But not so young that I want to dress in a onesie and baby talk my way through a fuck.
Eventually, I came across the concept of a middle and it gave me so much clarity.
Littles feel comfortable, relaxed, and happy when they get in a headspace that’s reminiscent of being a child. Middles, though, feel that same way when they can get in a headspace that reminds them of being a teenager.
And that was it. That’s why I felt like an impostor as an adult but I still didn’t feel comfortable sitting at the little kids’ table.
As a middle, I was in between those two states. I’m at my happiest when I feel like I’m seventeen again (specifically, seventeen and three quarters).
I finally felt like I had found my place, my label, and one of the most significant parts of my identity — and then I felt alone again.
I could find loads of information about littles, activities to help you get into little space, and even some very clear indications of what sex as a little could look like.
But not much for middles.
When I did find something, it was clear that the middles who wrote them were closer to being tweens at heart instead of women who wanted to feel like they did when they were on the cusp of adulthood. A lot of the advice I got from them was still way too childlike for my particular kink.
I started to feel adrift and a bit helpless. I had just unearthed this side of myself and had no idea how to fully embrace it. I couldn’t find advice that told me exactly what to do so I could spend more time in middlespace.
Mostly, I found other middles asking the same questions I had and not getting a whole lot of answers.
Then I realized that I didn’t actually need as much help as I thought I did. The more I looked at my life, my habits, and my hobbies through the middle lens, the more I saw that I had been doing things to put myself in middlespace for years. I just didn’t know why I was doing them.
I put this list together for other middles who are trying to find their way (and for the daddy doms trying to give their middles what they need). These are the kinds of things I do to get into my teen mindset and step into the happy comfort of my middlespace.
Be Cute and Expressive With Your Makeup
There’s the way I do my makeup when I want to look understated. It’s what I wear when I don’t want to draw too much attention and look like what people expect a lady in her thirties to look like.
Then there’s the way I do my makeup when I want to feel good in my skin.
It’s not the way I did it when I was actually seventeen — I didn’t have YouTube tutorials and I had no clue what I was doing. But it’s deliberately cute. It feels youthful, bright, and flashy.
If you want to get in middlespace, it helps to look the part. So, consider drawing on some freckles. Apply some long fake lashes. Dab some blush on your nose and the apples of your cheeks.
Use some of the brightest eyeshadow you own. Get some bold lipstick colors.
Forget some of the makeup rules you follow when you’re in your boring grown-up mode. There’s no room for subtlety when you’re trying to get in the middle mindset.
Experiment With Hairstyles
Braids, pigtails, and space buns are perfect hair styling options for a middle look. You can also play up your bangs and give yourself doll curls.
Wearing colorful headbands, scrunchies, and making liberal use of cute hair clips works well, too.
Dye your hair in bright fantasy colors. I used to do this a lot when I was in my twenties. I would try out natural hair colors but they never felt like me. I would always go back to something bright and it felt like a huge relief every time. Now, I’ve settled on purple and it helps me feel like myself when I look in the mirror.
If you don’t want to dye your hair — or you love playing around with your looks too much — you can also get a set of cute wigs. That way, you can switch between a pastel pink bob or long bright blue strands on a whim.
Dress Up Cute as a Button
Stock your closet with all sorts of cute outfits.
Wear poofy dresses fit for a princess. Find a way to match a tutu with the rest of your outfit. Slip on your plaid miniskirt and put together a schoolgirl look.
Depending on your personal style, you could dress up like an e-girl, put together some pastel goth outfits, or wear oversized shirts like a VSCO girl.
Again, it doesn’t have to be the kinds of things you wore when you were a teenager. It just has to put you in a youthful mindset and match the way you feel deep down inside.
Turn Your Bedroom Into a Middle Sanctuary
Make your bedroom into a space that you can escape into and feel like yourself.
String up twinkle lights everywhere. Cover the wall in posters. Stack stuffies on your dresser and stick polaroids into the edges of your mirror. Get a canopy bed and throw soft fuzzy pillows and cushions on it.
Do as much or as little as you want. If you want it to look like a Claire’s or a Hot Topic threw up in your bedroom, go for it.
Part of me would love to turn the volume way up and make my room a bright, bubblegum sanctuary. But I hold back because there are two competing styles that I love surrounding myself with.
I’m into very minimalistic decor with lots of whites, greys, and wood grain. But the middle in me wants everything jam packed with adorableness.
The result is a dark wood stain canopy bed wrapped in artificial vines and strewn with twinkle lights. It makes me feel like I’ve created a teenage love nest and just sitting in it helps me fall into the middle mindset.
Watch Teen Movies
Watching movies aimed at teens is a great way to get in a middle mood.
It’s especially effective if you watch the types of movies that were formative for you during your teen years.
For you, it might be teen slashers like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Or it could be high school comedies like Clueless or Mean Girls.
For me, it was teen dramas that focused on sex. I love revisiting them or watching movies with the same themes. My absolute favorite is Cruel Intentions. It gave me so many sexual awakenings and watching it transports me back to that period in my life faster than anything can.
You can also get in your middle mindset by reading YA novels or watching teen TV shows. I was already in my twenties when Vampire Diaries started airing, but binge-watching a few episodes is a great way to get me some middle comfort.
Embrace Cute Over Sexy
I’ve always struggled with lingerie. It never felt right on me. And I think that’s because I was trying too hard to be sexy when what I really wanted to be was cute.
Some middles can definitely pull off sexy, don’t get me wrong. But a lot of us would rather express our sexuality in a way that feels more sweet and innocent.
Lean into that cuteness when you’re dressing up to have sex or to seduce your partner.
My first real sexy outfit was a fuckable Alice in Wonderland one. And I keep coming back to the thought of being a sexy Little Bo Peep someday. I’ve also got a schoolgirl outfit in the works.
You can also cosplay as whatever character makes you feel hot.
There are a lot of ways to be adorable, cute, and sweet while turning on your partner. Just embrace it, lean into it, and realize that you’re incredibly attractive when you do.
Get in the Right Mindset During Sex
Middle space isn’t always a sexual thing, but it can be.
It very much is for me. One of the reasons I loved being seventeen so much is that I was flushed with so many horny hormones that everything felt exciting.
You can channel your middleness when you’re flirting or fucking by acting shy and naive. Play up your innocence and act fascinated by every part of sex and eager to learn more. Explore your partner’s body the way you would if you were extremely curious but highly inexperienced.
Depending on the kind of middle you are, you can let yourself be bubbly an giggly while your daddy dom leads you through every sex act.
If you’re the bratty type, you can be a little defiant. Tease your partner and challenge them. Make them chase you before you give up the goods. Do what it takes to earn a really good spanking.
No matter what you do, keep your attitude and behavior playful and you won’t have to step out of your middle mindset.
Roleplay Experience Gaps
You can’t undo your sexual experience, but you can roleplay not having it.
You and your partner can pretend to be teenagers on a first date that ends in dry humping and an impulsive fuck.
You can pretend it’s prom night and you’re finally going to lose your virginity.
You can just pretend that it’s the first time a boy is touching you and everything feels incredible and amazing.
But the scenarios that I find work best are the ones with a clear experience gap.
That can be your daddy dom opening you to a whole new world of sexual experiences.
He can pretend to be your dirty step uncle walking you through how to give a blowjob.
Or you can roleplay being the bratty babysitter who got caught masturbating by the man of the house — and you’ll do anything to keep him from telling anyone.
You can act out those roles explicitly if you can get into it without feeling too silly. Or you can just fantasize about them while getting down, which works surprisingly well.
Help Your Daddy Get into His Role
You’ll go way deeper in middle space if your daddy plays along and doms you just right. So, take some steps to get him excited and eager to treat you like the middle you are.
That can mean sharing fantasies, telling him what you like to do and enlisting his help, or having big conversations about the kind of dynamic you want to create in your relationship.
You can send him erotica that has some DDlg vibes. You can dig into some niche ebooks or even just get him to read Fifty Shades of Grey because it’s about a virgin discovering sex and kink for the first time.
If you really want to get him going, watch porn with him that has the right kind of scenarios and dynamics. I find that looking for babysitter porn is usually the best way to find the right mix of innocence, experience gap, and dominant authority.
Recapture Your Teens
Being seventeen was an incredible time for me in so many ways
It’s when I really felt like I could be myself and let my personality shine
It’s when I discovered what it was like to be in love
It’s when I found out that sex wasn’t just fascinating or appealing — it could also feel fucking incredible.
It’s when I was on the verge of adulthood and my future looked so shiny, sexy, and carefree.
And because I never fully felt safe at home, being able to leave, stay out all night, and do more or less what I wanted was the first time I could actually put my guard down and feel comfortable.
I can never go back to that. I have too many responsibilities, too much awareness, and not enough free time to just wander around the mall gossipping with other aimless ragamuffins.
But it doesn’t matter. I can’t be seventeen anymore but I don’t have to give up on the headspace I was in at that age. I can get back into it whenever I need to. All it takes are some bright colors, some escapist YA fantasies, and a partner who can earn the right to be called daddy. | https://medium.com/love-emma/how-to-get-into-middle-space-68f745d7b4ed | ['Emma Austin'] | 2020-11-12 12:02:35.955000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Sexuality', 'Life', 'Self', 'Women'] |
But I Heard It in a Song! | Music can be used to promote both negative and positive things, and currently, the relationship between drugs and music has grown exponentially, and this is only one of the negative things music is used to promote. “Records with drug-related lyrics now make up 5–6 percent of all records produced. In 1980, that number was more like 1 percent” (“Does the Music Industry Promote Drug Use?”). Also, it is very apparent we have a problem today with stereotypes in music. I have personally met people that justify their actions “just because they saw someone else doing it or saying it,” and this included songs. Music is often used to voice an opinion, for example, in the song “Power” by Kendrick Lamar and Lance Skiiiwalker, he says “Badge make police feel powerful in the hood, Guns make us feel powerful but they don’t do no good, I know my blackness powerful and they don’t like that.” This is a perfect example of how people use songs to voice their opinions. But what happens when their opinions are not sane nor just? Music then promotes stereotypes of individuals from different sexes and races, so artists and producers should be more careful about what they include in their products, and how they manage them.
Throughout history, singers and celebrities of all genres and age groups have influenced their audiences. The influence that they have on the individuals could be positive or negative for various reasons. Throughout the psychedelic era into the 1970’s, the singers not only influenced people, but created movements for anti-war protest and the legalization of recreational drugs, encouraging the use of substances through the mindset that drugs will “free the mind.” According to an article by Hoffman, “The psychedelic era evolved out of the social consciousness movement engendered by a commitment to civil rights, anti-war protest, the legalization of recreational drugs, and other issues on the part of the youth subculture” (“Psychedelia”). Despite this quote highlighting the 1960’s and 70’s, it also highlights today’s culture as well. Current celebrities hold a large amount of power and don’t realize the impact that they have on individuals, so it’s important for them to exercise their voices, but they must be cautious about the words they express into the public space. In the year 1988, a group of younger African American individuals called the N.W.A. became well known after releasing a song that highlighted sensitive topics within society. This song was controversial due to targeting police brutality towards minorities, especially African Americans. “‘Fuck Tha Police’ appears as the second song on the album, the narrative highlights the ongoing tensions between African American urban youth and law enforcement. The song stands out amongst the rest because of its controversial message” (Hip-Hop & Politics). This song had such a large impact on society by creating mass controversy. It was so controversial that the FBI became involved by sending a letter to Priority Records advising of the negative and harmful effects of the song. Since the FBI only sent a letter and didn’t get into a legal battle with the record company, the FBI blamed the release of the song as the cause of the attacks on police, no matter if the attacks were actually caused by the song or for a different reason. Even though this song was released 32 years ago, it still has relevance today. Recently after the death of George Floyd, the song “Fuck Tha Police” became popular again to the public, which increased streaming of the already popular song by an outstanding 550% after this event. According to Pandora streaming service, “Over the last week, N.W.A.’s fierce indictment of racial injustice, ‘Fuck tha Police,’ has become the anthem of a revolution, as thousands all over the world have taken to the streets in outrage over the wrongful killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police” (“How N.W.A’s ‘Fuck tha Police’ Became the ‘Perfect Protest Song’”). These movements and the events that occurred throughout history have shown the wide impact that music has in our society and how powerful it has become.
Furthermore, the effects of creating stereotypes in songs has shown that each individual’s perception of an idea varies. For example, someone may create an image in their head that tends to be false, but that image can represent value for a person’s race, gender, etc. This idea has affected segregation in a public society. According to the authors of the article “The Threatening Nature of ‘Rap’ Music,” Adam Dunbar, Charis E. Kubrin, and Nicholas Scurich from the University of California, “While lyrics from other genres are interpreted as satirical or artistic, rap music is considered offensive and threatening. Police, judges, and jurors run the risk of using stereotypes about rap music when interpreting lyrics, particularly when prosecutors present rap lyrics as autobiographical confessions.” This statement describes the dangers that can evolve from stereotypes and how stereotypes can drive up the risk factor when bringing it into a conversation. For example, someone may be stereotyped just based on their looks, without truly knowing the individual. This can bring risk to the stereotyped individual because their looks may present a certain idea to an individual’s mind, but that idea has the potential of being completely wrong. In today’s society, we’re so used to stereotyping individuals, because we grew up hearing certain things about specific races. That article also focuses on another important idea, which is how the lyrics within songs can be used against an individual in the court of law and that many prosecutors have used this method to incriminate many people. “Stereotyping is even found to impact evaluations of a defendant’s culpability” (Dunbar et al.). Songs can create positive effects throughout society, instead of creating negative impacts. For example, “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath was successful at this attempt when they wanted to create something positive that would propel society in a better direction. This song exercises Black Sabbath’s view of the Vietnam War, fighting authority by boldly claiming that this war was a “self-profit war” for the government. They thought that the United States government was using the Vietnam War for economical gain, while American lives were being endangered every day. Many soldiers were living in a constant nightmare, thinking that they were fighting for their country, but instead were fighting for a different reason. This song was an “anti-war song that over a gloomy, dense wall of sound paints a vivid picture of the carnage of war and criticizes politicians and military officials for perpetuating conflicts for their own benefit” (‘War Pigs’ — Black Sabbath). This group Black Sabbath used their voices and talents to combat the US government by making bold statements within their songs and casting a large influence over the minds of individuals. Black Sabbath was aware of the impact that they had over people and used it towards their advantage. They sang in a way that persuaded people into believing their ideologies, as well as spreading awareness about things that weren’t heading in a positive direction for the country. | https://medium.com/music-culture-irl/but-i-heard-it-in-a-song-b2adc522b768 | ['Enrique Rivera'] | 2020-12-18 23:26:57.958000+00:00 | ['Music', 'Movements', 'Racism', 'Rap', 'Drugs'] |
Are these shoes bad? | From weirdo huckster founders and infantilizing workspaces, to burnout-inducing cultures, tech companies can be divorced from reality in depressing ways. Nevertheless, they continue to be some of the most sought after employment destinations.
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Founders, workspaces, and cultures — those are internal aspects of tech companies’ separation from reality, brought on by those working for them. From the outside, consumers help widen this divide by unduly fawning over their announcements and products. This fawning mutates the traditional producer/consumer relationship into something bleak.
This week, millions of people watched Apple debut four new versions of its iPhone 12, as well as a new HomePod mini (a voice-controlled speaker). Spending an hour and ten minutes watching what amounts to a prolonged advertisement for full-priced products requires levels of masochism usually exhibited in only the most practiced of bootlickers.
Unfortunately, this masochism is misconstrued as ‘being a fan of Apple’. Being a fan of a product versus just liking it is an important distinction: the former implies you’re enthusiastically devoted, the latter that you enjoy it for its intended purpose.
This deranged prostrating at the altar of tech companies isn’t confined to Apple — Sony, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google, all have their own events for consumers to gape at their newest products. For more aggregated forms of worship, the year round roster of industry events like South by Southwest (SXSW) and Consumer Electronics Show (CES) showcase several brands at once.
The fandom surrounding tech companies elevates them from beyond consumer products and into the realm of the arts — stuff that would ordinarily evoke enthusiastic devotion. Expressions of devotion to brands are purchases, anything more is sad.
Speaking their truth
In many cases, tech companies’ mission statements put their separation from reality into words. Take streaming audio service Spotify’s:
“Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity.”
Spotify is a software that allows you to play songs and podcasts. It also generates algorithms to suggest new things to listen to based off of your past listens. It’s a great product, but it’s by no means a code-based muse that unlocks our dormant kernels of creativity on the way to composing our magnum opuses. It helps perpetuate the ‘unlocking’ of this same human creativity by paying the artists whose songs it streams an average of $0.00437 per listen.
Slack, a corporate version of AOL instant messenger that distinguishes itself from its extinct relative by its ability to live on your smartphone as well as enabling you to search and infinitely store chat history, has a similarly off-putting mission statement:
“Make work life simpler, more pleasant and more productive.”
This stuff sucks
The average slack user sends and receives between 800 and 2,500 messages a month, and most users respond to a message in slightly less than 12 minutes. These written messages arrive in addition to email, of which the average office worker receives 121 daily.
Rather than replacing email, Slack has at best bifurcated written communication so that you now receive it in two places, rather than one. At worst, it’s increased the volume of messaging you receive in a given day. Not only that, but since Slack lives on your phone as well as your computer, you now have two venues to hear from colleagues at unwelcome times.
Given the above, and that it takes roughly 23 minutes to return to a task after being interrupted, it seems ‘a simpler, more pleasant, and more productive’ work life would be one absent of Slack.
A Pointed Pointless Partnership
Turning its trial-separation from reality into a permanent divorce, Slack last week released their own branded shoes in conjunction with Cole Haan.
Pictured: the shoes
As part of the collaboration, the shoes carry the Slack logo and are colored with Slack’s neon-pastel colorways. More importantly, the partnership proves two important points:
People at Slack thought their company had strong enough brand equity in the wider world to merit a co-branded sneaker (internal separation from reality). And, that a demand for corporation-branded sneakers exists. Companies like Slack and Cole Haan don’t do anything without diligence, which means some data-point somewhere said people would use money to buy these shoes (external separation from reality).
It’s the meta product-about-a-product nature of these shoes that make them so depressing. It’s akin to buying a broom with a Nike Swoosh on it.
That there’s a market for the shoes is yet another sign that Americans have an unhealthy relationship with work. Despite being one of the most productive countries on Earth, US workers spend more hours working per year than any other large nation. Each pair sold is a bleak reminder of tech’s unhinged reality and our sad relationship to work.
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Song of the week: In honor of two troubling themes converging, Natalie Imbruglia’s “Troubled by the way we came together.” | https://medium.com/brandsmeanalot/are-these-shoes-bad-6bfaf5cf209c | ['Jared Holst'] | 2020-10-19 20:09:29.398000+00:00 | ['Branding', 'Politics', 'Work Life Balance', 'Work'] |
Footium — The Beginners Guide (pre-release) | Introduction
In this guide, I shall show how you can use Footium’s core features: Claiming a Club, Signing Academy Players, Trading Players, Trading Clubs as well as a glance at the other interesting features.
Before we begin
Algosigner doesn’t currently offer the functionality to sign group transactions, as a stopgap measure, we are using goal Algorand’s CLI for interacting with all their core services. This will be updated between 20/11/2020 and 22/11/2020.
Signing in
To be able to interact with the game the player needs to sign into their Algorand wallet.
Claiming a Club
We’re ready to get started! Now that we are signed in we can browse the list of clubs, looking for one we like the look which hasn’t already been claimed. After we execute the transaction we can check my clubs which show the teams we already owned and Carlhampton United who we’ve just claimed!
We shall be running the following command:
goal clerk sign -i <( echo “<base64>” | base64 -d ) -o /tmp/signed.txn && base64 /tmp/signed.txn
Signing Academy Players
Now that we have a club, we can sign players from the club’s academy. Signing our players is important if we ever want to trade them. We can’t wait forever though as other club owners can sign your players if they’re over 21 years old!
We shall be running the following command:
goal clerk sign -i <( echo “<base64>” | base64 -d ) -S <address> -o /tmp/signed.txn && base64 /tmp/signed.txn
Trading Players
Putting a player up for sale
If you see a player that you like the look of and they’re up for sale you can buy them immediately.
However, even if they’re not formally on offer don’t lose hope! You can send a bid which the owner can choose to accept or reject.
Trading Claimed Clubs
Putting Clubs up for sale
Part of what differentiates Footium from other football manager games are the levels of play; users can have multiple teams at any given time, playing them in different ways.
Leagues
We currently have 20 clubs in our league, with Carlcoln Rangers clinching first place!
Fixtures
We can see all the games scheduled for the current season by looking at the fixture list.
Results
We can see the results of historical games as well as all their important details.
Thanks for reading!
Check out the game on our website here!
Sign up for updates on new and improved functionality here! | https://medium.com/@james-footium/footium-the-beginners-guide-pre-release-a98b71ddb25b | ["James O'Leary"] | 2020-11-19 17:43:43.333000+00:00 | ['Football Manager', 'Nft Collectibles', 'Gaming', 'Blockchain Startup'] |
Facebook Vulnerability: Disclose “Caption/Description” of a country restricted post | Description:
When a page has enabled the “Country Restriction”, then the users of the restricted country are not allowed to view the description of the post (or) the post as a whole.
But here,users of restricted country are able to disclose the “Caption/Description” of a post published by a page which has enabled the “Country Restriction”.
Impact:
“Caption/Description” of the post are used to summarize the post as a whole. So it’s disclosure to unintended users does pose a privacy issue.
Reproduction Steps:
The endpoint is GET /v2.5/{PAGE_ID}_{POST_fbid}?access_token={TOKEN} HTTP/1.1 Replace PAGE_ID and POST_fbid parameters with the targeted values. The response is as follows:
{
“created_time”: “2019–03–26T02:59:39+0000”,
“message”: “CAPTION”,
“id”: “{PAGE_ID}_{POST_fbid}”
}
4. In the above response, the “message” parameter gave us the Caption/Description of the country restricted post.
Timeline:
28-Mar-2019 : Report Sent
15-May-2019 : Reproduced by Kamala
22-May-2019 : Triaged by Lily
31-Oct-2019 : Bounty of $500 awarded
19-Feb-2020 : Fixed by facebook
Limitation:
An attacker would need to obtain the post IDs in some way in order to load the data and these restrictions may be bypassable in other ways (ie: via the use of VPNs).
How I convinced the team?
Please understand that Facebook Bug Bounty is concerned with the flaws within the facebook infrastructure. Also, if you are concerned with alternatives like VPN, then there is no point of introducing “Country Restriction” feature.
1) Use of VPN is illegal/banned in countries like China,Iraq,Russia etc., (thebestvpn.com/are-vpns-legal-banned-countries). So why would attackers choose illegal ways of using VPN, if they can achieve the same goal within facebook?
2) Also, not all desired locations can be accessed via VPN. I think this clarifies the VPN question.
Thanks for reading! | https://medium.com/@ritishkumarsingh/facebook-vulnerability-disclose-caption-description-of-a-country-restricted-post-122e3ae1c0b | ['Ritish Kumar Singh'] | 2020-02-20 14:45:30.667000+00:00 | ['Vulnerability', 'Facebookpages', 'Hacking', 'Facebook', 'Bug Bounty'] |
Letter From Leah | Letter From Leah
Photo by Anthony Tran on Unsplash
I shared their joy when they were freed
And earnestly prayed to be released
I am Leah, the lone Dapchi girl left in chains
A price I had to pay for my Christian faith
A faith for which I’ve been made a slave
Days became weeks and weeks now years
Each passing day increasing my fears
Whether or not I’ll ever be spared
And return to embrace family and friends
On one of those gruesome nights, I helplessly laid disrobed
As my captors stripped me of my cherished childhood
And added to my burden the travails of motherhood
But I’m more than conquerors, for I trust I’ll be freed
My hope has not failed me
Neither has Christ, for whom
I’m a victim
I am Leah the lone girl left behind
To suffer the fate of Christ divine | https://medium.com/a-cornered-gurl/letter-from-leah-1f5bce9d335a | ['Johannes Mudi'] | 2020-11-09 11:17:21.503000+00:00 | ['Captivity', 'Women', 'Society', 'A Cornered Gurl', 'Poetry'] |
From the Outside Looking in: An Expat’s View on America in 2020. | Nearly four years have passed since the night of the 2016 election, and contrasting the feelings of that moment with today is, in a word, wild. Still living in Vietnam, I’ve been able to watch how the past few years have unfolded from a distance. Frankly, most of the time it hasn’t even felt real, seeming more like I’m watching the events of some made-up alternate universe occur in real time, rather than seeing my country deteriorate into an irrational fascist state that runs on the psychotic ramblings of an unabashed despot-in-training.
As we rapidly approach the election in which yet another corporate Democrat tries to take on the rising tide of far-right reactionary politics (Trump may be the nominee and incumbent, but this election is about much more than just him), I wanted to share my thoughts on what this year has felt like from the other side of the world, as someone whose day to day life isn’t affected by domestic American politics, yet also as someone who cares deeply about the future of the country. Being removed from the news cycles and constant barrage of political discourse that have been an assault on many Americans’ emotional health over the past few years perhaps gives me a different perspective than those who have spent the past four years being gaslighted and mentally exhausted by Trump and his administration on a daily basis.
Photo by Jose M. on Unsplash
One thing that aspiring fascists are quite good at in their quest to erode democracy is the psychological conditioning of the masses to accept their increasingly insane, immoral, and undemocratic policies and demands. While Trump’s general competence is certainly very much up for debate, this is one thing that he’s done exceedingly well, leading us to a point where a large portion of his supporters would support him refusing to vacate the presidency peacefully in the event that he loses the election; it shouldn’t be lost on us that most of these people would have never even considered such thoughts for past Republican presidents regardless of how strong their affiliation to the party was.
It’s not just his supporters that have been conditioned, though. Those of us who oppose him, even his most vehement critics, can easily fall victim to this. The tried and tested method of strategically pushing so far past the boundaries of what is normal, accepted behavior that it allows someone to incrementally push that boundary back in smaller acts that then go unnoticed is what has manipulated the overwhelming majority of Americans into even letting it get this far. Pandemic aside, the fact that we haven’t yet marched on Washington by the millions to demand Trump’s removal from office, for any number of his crimes and failures while in power — ranging from overt corruption and conflicts of interest to openly admitted crimes against humanity — is proof that this manipulation is working, and that the power his political ideology has over the American people will not fade even if he were to lose and peacefully leave office in January.
Speaking of the pandemic, the insanity of the US response, by both the government and a significant portion of the population, is made even clearer sitting in a country that borders China yet has had several stretches without a single local transmission of the virus. The United States’ healthcare system is deeply broken, this much was known by many already and was further highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the country still has a healthcare budget significantly higher than many countries that have contained the pandemic successfully. There’s absolutely no excuse for this abhorrent response that has already left more than 200,000 dead and countless more left grieving, financially destitute, or permanently disabled, especially not after it was proven that Trump knew about the danger of the virus way back in February, and admitted that he’d downplay it for political gain.
I truly don’t think this last point can be overstated: while the exact figure will never be clear, Trump is directly responsible for the needless deaths of an enormous number of Americans, and we have the proof on tape.
This isn’t normal. This is the point I’d like to stress beyond all else. This. Is. Not. Normal. This is not what a functioning, healthy democracy and country looks, acts, and feels like, and while there have certainly been some shining beacons of hope this year, like how acceptance of the Black Lives Matter movement finally hit critical mass and became part of the political mainstream, there is so much fundamentally broken about our country at the moment that’s been made clear to me from looking in from the outside that I have a hard time being excited about the future.
The US has always had its problems, and the building blocks for the rise of Trumpist fascism, and the insanity that has defined 2020, were laid by people with both good and bad intentions. It’s important to recognize how we got here, and that means acknowledging a whole lot of messed up historical context that, as a country, we’ve completely refused to come to terms with, including (but certainly not limited to): the legacies of slavery and systemic racism and how they still affect Black Americans in the present day; the genocide of millions of Native Americans that continued well into the 20th century; and, the habit of the US to both overtly and secretly commit human rights violations all across the globe, both in the past and at present, not in an attempt to act as a global force for good, but rather to protect and expand the economic interests of the global elite. (If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about America by spending time in Vietnam, it’s that the long-lasting effects of that last one are much worse than we can ever imagine from sitting from within the withdrawn comfort of the US.)
Photo by roya ann miller on Unsplash
So, where do we go from here? I’m no Democrat, but it will hopefully start with the election of Joe Biden next week, by enough of a margin that it will withstand the inevitable court challenge by Trump. Given the choice between corporate neoliberalism and outright fascism, I’d say that we should all prefer the former, even if it is the exact ideology that has resulted in the destruction of the environment and has allowed fascism to not just fester beneath the surface, but thrive in some of our society’s key functions.
At least under a Biden presidency, the most vulnerable among us will have some semblance of protection, women’s and LGBT rights won’t be under threat, and common sense COVID pandemic mitigation strategies can be implemented to prevent this catastrophe from getting even worse than it will already be by January.
However, there’s no guarantee that Biden will win, and even if he does, no guarantee that Trump will peacefully abdicate and not fight for the now-stacked SCOTUS to decide the outcome in his favor. There’s a very real chance that, come inauguration day, Trump will be sworn in for a second term despite losing both the popular vote and the Electoral College due to some sham ruling by the Supreme Court about voter fraud or mail-in ballots.
Regardless of who is President next year, however, there’s a ton of work to be done. Electing Biden would just be the first step of the thousands that will be necessary to remake this country in a way that stops the oppression of minorities and the poor, the destruction of the environment, and the violence both sanctioned and carried out by the US around the world for the benefit of the rich and powerful.
There’s a ton of work to be done, and it’s not going to be fun or easy. And while I’m aware this piece has taken on a decidedly negative tone, I do have hope for the future; I firmly believe that in crisis there is opportunity, and the practically uncountable number of ongoing crises both domestically and globally do provide us with a golden opportunity to reshape the world in a healthier, fairer, more sustainable way.
I just hope we start taking advantage of that opportunity on a massive scale before it’s too late. | https://chrisotis.medium.com/from-the-outside-looking-in-an-expats-view-on-america-in-2020-ef480dc0d4b7 | ['Christopher Otis'] | 2020-10-27 10:40:34.352000+00:00 | ['Trump', 'Opinion', 'USA', 'Election 2020', 'Politics'] |
Google’s AR Design Guidelines suffice while Apple’s fall short | The 3D industry hit a huge turning point last summer when Google and Apple introduced mobile augmented reality (AR) platforms. In a matter of weeks, the center of gravity for 3D UX design shifted to mobile.
For the first time, anyone familiar with mobile app development could build immersive 3D experiences, with the potential to reach half a billion Android and iOS users (instead of just a small pool of VR headset owners). These platforms — ARCore from Google and ARKit from Apple — democratized 3D design for the masses.
But enthusiasm quickly gave way to more practical concerns:
What tools and documentation were available to facilitate the embrace of 3D? How could mobile app designers and developers, accustomed to mature tools that formed (mostly) integrated workflows, begin to design for 3D? Not only did they need to learn the important differences between designing for 2D and 3D, but they also had to wade through the hodgepodge of tools and byzantine workflows borrowed from gaming, video/film entertainment, architecture and engineering disciplines.
To answer designers’ first concern, both Apple and Google quickly released augmented reality design guidelines. Apple’s guidelines are the more modest of the two in terms of both content and ambition. These appear under the Augmented Reality entry in their Human Interface Guidelines. Google’s Augmented Reality Design Guidelines (GARDG) caught our attention for its greater breadth of topics, which seem to draw from their inspiration from Google’s real-life experience designing and building apps like AR Stickers and Just a Line.
But both guidelines ultimately fall short when confronting the complexity and ambition expressed by many designers. Apple and Google limit their focus to simple, single scene applications and make no allowance for complex mechanics — or really anything behind simple object placement and sticker-like functionality.
This doesn’t meet the needs of anyone building apps that include interactivity like:
Object selection
Conditional behaviors
Branching scene flows or storyboards driven off of user behavior
Movement between scenes using teleportation
Portals
Physical gestures
Both sets of guidelines lack any mention of multi-scene use cases, which automatically excludes many modes of interactivity or conditional behavior that leads to transitions, complex or more interesting changes of state, personalization, and ultimately a deeper, more immersive experience.
Similarly, there is no discussion of animations (a common topic in our interviews with designers), either triggered or timed, or the notion of a shared or collaborative environment. The latter example is one we frequently encounter. Designers want to allow remote collaborators and clients to see their AR prototypes in the environment for which they were intended, and to provide feedback, all in real time.
Even in the relatively tame realm of static object creation and placement, designers are already searching for the best way to design for complex behaviors, such as selecting objects that might be hidden by other objects.
That said, when it comes to object placement (the most basic interaction in AR), the Google guidelines make assumptions about optimal object placement range — within the reach of the user — that we see no reason to codify at this time. What about throwing objects as a method of placement, or pointing, grabbing and interacting with objects at a distance?
However, compared to Apple’s guidelines, which cover object placement only in relation to ARkit surface plane detection, Google’s treatment looks exhaustive. Not only are there sections covering “tap to place,” “drag to place,” and “free placement” methods, Google also includes a section on creating a sense of realism that briefly touches on the use of physics in object placement.
Despite what it’s missing, Google’s Augmented Reality Design Guidelines (GARDG) is a good starting point, with more practical advice and a more pragmatic layout. Since they launched it in the summer, there’s been a lot of new additions, like an excellent new section on UI components. Meanwhile, a section entitled Designing the Experience covers practical concerns like onboarding.
With its ongoing evolution, we can reasonably expect the guidelines to grow to reflect many of the areas of interest we’ve heard expressed. In the meantime, designers can fill in the gaps left by Google and Apple. We have the opportunity to shape best practices for 3D UX ourselves, and a few industry leaders have already started doing so. For instance, Bushra Mahmood, a designer currently with Unity, took the initiative to develop her own extensive design guidelines (well worth a look, here), while teams, like one at Marino Software, are bootstrapping entire new processes with a mishmash of existing tools.
This kind of grassroots work is crucial, because Apple’s and Google’s guidelines will never keep up with millions of creative people experimenting and innovating. By the time headsets are widely available, the distinction between 2D and 3D UX design will have been permanently erased.
By offering little in the way of resources, Apple and Google are holding the door wide open for anyone who wants to lead the way. Maybe that was the plan all along? | https://medium.com/figma-design/torch-placeholder-296c70710b79 | ['Paul Reynolds'] | 2018-10-22 18:49:57.318000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Tech', 'UI', 'Augmented Reality', 'Design'] |
The truth in vulnerability | Reflections from the 2016 Ashoka U Education Track
Photo: Authenticity by Cindee Snider Re
Gaining momentum
What’s the difference between an organization and a movement? Ashoka U’s 2016 Exchange in New Orleans answered this question and then some.
Imagine higher education leaders gathered together in a living, learning laboratory to consider how our nation’s top educational institutions can serve as vehicles for positive, sustainable social impact and innovation: college presidents, administrators, faculty leaders, researchers, journalists, community activists, Ashoka fellows, students… . the list goes on. A legion of changemakers, alive and in action.
Ashoka U’s scope is inspiring and awesome, with 35 leading institutions having joined the cause as changemaker campuses serving thousands of students, each one embedding social innovation as a core value and showcasing the ways in which they have built supportive environments for changemaking across the entire institution — admissions, curriculum, career services, and community and alumni engagement.
The education track
This year, I had the pleasure of serving on a team of facilitators (joining fellow team members Greg Van Kirk and Paul Rogers) for the Exchange’s Education Track. This special program convened a diverse group of leaders representing K-12 schools, universities, social entrepreneurs, education partners and funders who are creating a world where every young person is empowered to make the world a better place.
The Education Track underscored the unique collaboration between Ashoka U and Ashoka’s Start Empathy Initiative, through which Ashoka has identified more than 170 Changemaker Schools. Similar to Ashoka U institutions of higher education, Changemaker Schools are national models at the K-12 level that prioritize empathy and changemaking as student outcomes. Through innovations in school curricula, culture and systems, these schools cultivate children as changemakers. Ashoka is identifying, selecting, and collaborating with these leading schools, striving to enhance and amplify their models so that empathy-driven changemaker education becomes a reality for all children.
Lusher Charter School field trip
Through a field trip, Ed Track participants explored one such changemaker school in action: Lusher Charter, a vibrant K-12 school in New Orleans. The difference in Lusher’s approach was immediately visible. Empathy is in Lusher’s DNA and embedded in its core values — among the most important, kindness. Lusher also has a decades-long commitment to arts education. Every school day begins with music and dancing, and each student participates in years of theater, music and dance education before selecting a primary arts focus in high school.
Photo: Lusher Gates by BBC World Service
At the site visit, a diverse group of middle school students playing lively, engaging music greeted the guests. Student representatives joined the student musicians for the welcome, introducing themselves personally, smiling and shaking hands. These students then led classroom visits and presentations. In each classroom, Lusher’s teachers and learners were interactively engaged in project-based and problem-based learning.
The Lusher curriculum employs a unique pedagogy designed to foster social and emotional development as well as academic learning. Students in a history presentation were having a dialogue not only about political and economic trends, but also about how people felt about their situation and how they related to one another. A theater class involved students mirroring one another, engaging and developing those important mirror neurons that create the cognitive capacity for muscular empathy. A music class showcased students playing together in small ensembles requiring close teamwork and forging visible emotional connections among the teachers and learners. Teams of kindergarten students learning math used special blocks to construct large numbers, turning the learning into a tactile, playful process. Lusher demonstrated changemaker education as a living practice.
Digging deeper into Changemaker Education
Drawing inspiration from the Lusher field trip, Ed Track participants explored teacher preparation for changemaker education. At Lusher, we had seen some of the fruits of school’s collaboration with Tulane University, and Ashoka U Changemaker Campus. Tulane had recently finished assisting Lusher faculty in integrating design thinking principles into its curriculum. The innovative framework informed many Lusher lesson plans, inviting students to engage in problem-solving projects meaningful to community members.
Track participants also had the opportunity to engage in dialogue with Megan Marcus, founder of FuelEd. Megan is an Ashoka Fellow doing breakthrough work helping teachers master the social and emotional skills required to build impactful classroom relationships. Such bonds between teachers and learners help students become world class changemakers. Megan’s fundamental insight is that relationship building requires teachers to develop their own social and emotional competencies. The strong relationships that students form with teachers form the foundation for academic success. More importantly, these relationships have a deep impact on core changemaker competencies such as motivation, grit and empathy.
The Truth in Vulnerability: Laura White
This brief essay cannot hope to cover all the terrific work conducted during the Education Track in New Orleans, including key insights about college admissions, empathy curriculum and evaluation, among a host of other critical themes and topics. We cannot close, however, without remembering the profound keynote speech given by Laura White, one of our Ed Track participants.
Laura’s inspiring relationship with Ashoka began in high school through Youth Venture, where she received support for Swim 4 Success, Laura’s initiative helping low-income children learn how to swim. This leadership experience led Laura to Tulane, where she scaled the program and became interested in social entrepreneurship. At the Exchange, Laura spoke candidly about her relationship with Tulane Professor Carol Whelan. In addition to being the Paul Tudor Jones II Endowed Professor in Social Entrepreneurship, Carol is a Senior Professor of Practice in the Tulane Teacher Certification Program.
While an undergraduate at Tulane, Laura was a key changemaker promoting social entrepreneurship education and helping Tulane become one of Ashoka’s most prominent changemaker campuses. Laura credited her success in this work to Carol’s openness — her willingness to see that students could have important ideas and serve as leaders in the development of the University’s educational programs.
Carol served as a key mentor (Laura’s “Tulane Mom”), inspiring her interest in joining Ashoka after graduation. At Ashoka, Laura emerged as a key leader within the groundbreaking Start Empathy and Changemaker School initiatives.
But Laura wanted to have an even more personal impact on education practice and the lives of children. So in she went back to school, earning a Master’s in Early Childhood Special Education from George Washington University in 2015. Today she has found a way to unite her passions for social entrepreneurship, empathy, changemaker education and early childhood education: Laura is a front line teacher at a changemaker school, Maury Elementary, part of the DC Public School System.
Laura told the Exchange Community a compelling a story about how she challenged her very young students to design a simple recycling project. Her class then delightfully challenged Laura as well, pushing her with their creativity and passion. Laura was able to take that openness — the gift she had received from Carol Whelan that had so encouraged and inspired her as a Tulane student — and pay it forward in her own classroom with much younger learners. Wow.
“There’s more truth in vulnerability than certainty,” said Laura. Amen.
Upon return from The Big Easy, I spoke about Laura at our Quaker meeting in Radnor, Pennsylvania. As you may know, Quakers don’t speak at a meeting unless they feel moved by the spirit. I felt moved. This is what I said:
“This weekend, in New Orleans, I attended a national conference of teachers, students and social entrepreneurs who are in the process of tipping the whole U.S. education system. They are teaching young people not just academics, but how to relate to one another, how to practice empathy, how to develop as socially and emotionally developed leaders, how to be whole. When you peel away some of the jargon around this work, what it really gets down to is this: helping children deepen their capacity to love. We know that this ability, the power to love one another in the midst of difference, conflict and chaos, is what we need in our society to make positive change. An inspiring young teacher who is also a social entrepreneur, Laura White, spoke with remarkable honesty and integrity about how sometimes we need to admit what we don’t know, about how we need to give up being experts so we can really learn from one another. She said that there is more truth in vulnerability than certainty. Sitting here in our meeting for worship this morning, we know that our society has a lot of problems. But know this also: there are thousands of great people doing amazing work to build a better nation and a better world. Today I want you to know this: There is hope.”
When we are vulnerable, we are open to change, and we inspire others to be open too.
Today Ashoka U is so much more than a program within the organization we know as Ashoka. Today Ashoka U is a vibrant team of teams; it is “Ashoka 2.0,” extending out into the greater universe. Today my friends, Ashoka U is a movement.
Bio: David Castro is the President and CEO of Institute for Leadership Education Advancement and Development. You can learn more about their work here. | https://medium.com/changemaker-education/the-truth-in-vulnerability-281bfcac9465 | ['David Castro'] | 2016-03-24 21:59:39.871000+00:00 | ['Teaching', 'Education', 'Education Reform'] |
Financing Round: Dilution, Timing, & Terms | 🌿 Series-A
💧 Expected dilution? 20–30%
⌚ How long to raise? 3–6 months.
🏃🏽 Runway? 18–36 months
💵 Who invests? VC funds, your previous investors, HNWIs
📆 When? Product-market fit has been found, 1M+ ARR (or on track to), growth phase.
📜 Paperwork? Contracts get more complicated, more warranties & representations, more control given to the Board.
📜 Paperwork? Probably done through a Capital Increase (straight equity) but can also be a convertible note.
🔎 Due Diligence? Deeper, business model, financials, tech, HR
🤼 Team Compensation? If no ESOP has been implemented from the start, investors will ask for one to incentivise managers and key employees (long-run ESOP target size: ~20%)
🎯 Founders’ objective? Find investors who are willing to take you to the next step (B, C,…) and, eventually, to the end.
🎯 Founders’ objective? Find investors who will be ready to follow-on and support through your next financing rounds.
💺 Board of Directors? At this stage, you will have to give up Board Seats. However, don’t see it as negative.
💺 Board of Directors? When smart, professional investors come in, their presence at the Board table will help your company tremendously.
🌳 Series-B and beyond
💧 Expected dilution? 20–30% per round (less if you achieve amazing growth and can command a high valuation)
⌚ How long to raise? 3–9 months.
🏃🏽 Runway? 24–36 months
💵 Who invests? VC funds, PE funds, Banks, Large corporations
📆 When? Expanding internationally, on track to go from a few M+ ARR to 10M+ ARR in 2 years (if you follow the T2D3 model)
📜Paperwork? Contracts get more complicated. Probably done through a Capital Increase, may include warrants, options, anti-dilution clauses,…
🔎 Due Diligence? Full-on. Business model, financials, tech, HR, legal, health & safety, policy, regulation, corporate governance,…
🤼 Team Compensation? ESOP will be topped up to plan for a large expansion of the workforce.
🎯 Founders’ objective? Investors are coming in to set you (and them) upon the path for a profitable exit or IPO. Find people who will help you reach these goals.
💺 Board of Directors? In the future, your Board will look totally different.
💺 Board of Directors? There will be a strong expectation of professional corporate governance which means more non-executive board members and more oversight. | https://medium.com/pitchdecks/financing-round-dilution-timing-terms-22026e904f45 | ['Nicolas Carteron'] | 2020-11-24 13:02:31.565000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Startup', 'Fundraising Advice', 'Fundraising', 'Venture Capital'] |
Maybe NOT Making Jesus the Reason for the Season Will Help | Poor Jesus. Another year filled with so much hypocrisy, so much hate and anger, and much of it lived in his good name.
I’ll be honest: Thank God I am not Jesus. I would have lost it a long time ago and really abused my powers. Now they will start running around saying I am the reason for the season. Please, leave me alone. Maybe this is what Jesus is thinking, but who knows?
Catholicized throughout the first seventeen years of my life, I became one of those hardcore “‘God’ is everywhere” people. On hikes alone through the mountains, moving ever upward and feeling the press of thinning air, I stop to look around me. The precise meshing of colors offset by an endless array of shapes and sizes, all of it so randomly, but precisely, slapped onto the canvas before me, sends my retinas into fits.
Taking a deep breath, the smell of pine as it becomes more aromatic in the warming pockets of sun blazing through the icy forest shadows, fills my lungs. I always feel so lucky at this moment.
“Thank you, God,” I utter. Mountains are proof that a force bigger and better than us, more pure, does exist.
God for me can be a Jesus-figure when needed or a hike in the mountains. A church offers sanctuary from the world like those deep, emerald forests populated with scampering and bouncing wildlife. I don’t need man-made churches to be aligned with divinity but many people do — and that’s fine. I often go to them when city-bound and no mountains are available. If religion can make people kinder, then let’s all do religion. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out that way. Religion seems to cause a lot more problems than need be, especially today in our society.
God isn’t religion. God is divine; divinity is what it is — I challenge any holy-roller to tell me I am wrong.
I mean, if people were as loving and holy as they physically present in churches, then so many of the ills in our society today would be non-existent. Many of the so-called influencers, be they actors, politicians, or TV news personalities, live public lives that are in no way aligned with the goodness of a “God,” a walk in the mountains, or a life sacrificed on a cross — a gift to all of us offering eternal life. These would-be examples of how we could live better are failing us, and many of them are all up in Jesus’s grill, so to speak.
Jesus
Remember when Jesus kind of lost it because his Father’s temples were turned into cash-cows? (Matthew 21:12,13, New Revised Standard Version) What would Jesus say today if he could see the way organized religion has turned the worship of God into such a cold, and in many ways, heartless commercial venture? Discriminate and hate others, but as long as you give money and remember to drop in the appropriate shout-outs to Jesus — all is good.
Many of the most common transgressions the divine power warned us about — gluttony, coveting this and that, failure to treat your body as if it were truly a temple, et cetera — shape the lives of many of the most holy among us.
Humans are weak. 2020, more than many other years, has proven that professed love for thy neighbor for many of among us is just a lie; the way bleached teeth are supposed to suggest a person is healthier, wealthier and happier.
God’s temple is not those mega churches where so few wear masks. It is not the priceless cathedrals being governed by Rome. God’s temple is that walk in the mountains, along a beach— the nature we so willfully destroy. These same people who say they follow God’s words then mock a child, Greta Thunberg, when she draws our attention to this hypocrisy.
Praise Jesus, they rant, getting angry when our political views differ from their views. Anger rises, and emotions barely resembling love flow because we don’t wear Jesus is the reason for the season t-shirts or hang flags in front of our homes.
2020 was not a year in which Jesus could have been proud of us. It was a year lauding everything Jesus was against; and the laziness in understanding these teachings has led to so many unnecessary deaths in our nation. Look at the mask-stupidity, people. I heard some evangelical preacher talking about how “ . . . Jesus would have been against wearing masks — the government never would have told him what to do,” the lunatic shouted. Jesus would have worn a mask — take that to the bank.
But the hate and non-Jesus stuff cannot be relegated solely to masks. Another Black man was murdered by a racist policeman. Some of our country men and women made comments like sure, it was excessive force, but, I mean, you know he had a record and he was high and — yes, these words were actually expressed after watching that man cry out for his mother. A friend of mine told me there was more to Mr. Floyd then meets the eye. The cop who killed George, he said, knew him and held a grudge and so that’s why he strangled him. It surely was not an instance of systemic racism.
You know what met my eye about the murder of a man who looks like George Floyd? That he looked more like the real, historical Jesus than the wisp of a man whose piercing blue eyes and peach-like complexion reminds me of a 1940s Estée Lauder night cream advertisement. What many people don’t know, actually, is that a large portion of the Syrian refugees who flooded into the world back in 2015 spoke the very same language that Jesus spoke — Aramaic. So much of the racist hate we see today in the world was brought to the forefront because of those refugees. Imagine that one of them is kin to Jesus; or that God was testing us.
Jesus in our modern life has been so pulled apart and put back together again like a holy-rolling Mr. Potato head, and each time He is reconstituted, the image of the divine power looks more and more like us in all of our vileness and fallibility. Oh, the behavior being attributed to poor JC, these days.
If I were Jesus, I would be really pissed off. I mean I would be using my powers to punish everyone. Use my name to prove your righteousness and then bend my teachings to fit your flawed and harmful ways? ZAP! If I was Jesus, I would have messed up those people whose idea it was to put those little kids in those cages down at the boarder.
Let’s just say that, for humanity’s sake, thank God I am not him.
Let’s Forget About Jesus This Season
This essay has been one of not of anger but exasperation. Christmas is my favorite time of year, but because of the level of vileness that is committed in the name of that divine force, instead of rejoicing, singing, and feeling the magic of my favorite song, “Silent Night,” I am instead wishing for a 2020 do-over.
Let’s make this December 25th a day for all of us to reconsider how it is we treat each other. Let’s make this the season of our neighbor. Because we can’t see Jesus, and thanks to that wonderful little out he gives us by being all-forgiving, we transgress against those we can see and then conveniently let a few whoops of “Praise Jesus!” fly and all is whole again. Wrong.
We need to re-imagine the ideal of a Jesus. We need to stop hating those nearest to us, warring, impoverishing our fellow citizens, and end the greed and worshiping of wealth. We need to push ourselves to live better lives.
We have let divinity down with our selfishness and this failure gives us so much opportunity to ask ourselves some vital questions this Christmas. Let’s not slip back into habit and start whining about a war on Christmas. Let’s not pontificate about Jesus-Jesus-Jesus. Just ask questions:
Do I need a Jesus in my life? Do I want this divine power to have been born today? You might be surprised that your answer is No — and if so, then you are free. Free to regard the day as a winter solstice and go on being free of conscience.
If you say Yes, I need a Jesus — then think about your behavior over the past year, might any of it have been cringe-worthy to Jesus? Acts that might have been uncharacteristic of the teachings of a good person (Jesus was human, also)? If yes, then make this Christmas about the people you hurt, change your ways, and grow back to Jesus.
Too many of us act with meanness in our hearts and then conveniently use a “Praise Jesus!” to absolve ourselves of those transgressions. Living a life that is aligned with a more divine, higher power for many is a genuine inconvenience. If you find it uncomfortable being kind, then just let poor Jesus off the hook.
This Christmas, let’s give the Nazarene a break from being the scapegoat for our so-so human behavior and let’s make an effort to come back to some form of divinity, a better world in 2021. | https://medium.com/our-human-family/maybe-not-making-jesus-the-reason-for-the-season-will-help-cbde7cbf899b | ['Brian Kean'] | 2020-12-24 07:03:26.167000+00:00 | ['Christmas', 'Kindness', 'Love', 'Jesus', 'Equality'] |
Baked Mexican-Style Beans with Sour Cream and Chiles | Bean lovers take note: The gutsy sauce in this preparation makes these beans irresistible. This would be a good choice for a potluck or party dish, and it can be easily doubled. Serve as is or over hot cooked rice.
SERVES 4
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
28-ounce can diced tomatoes, well drained
1 tablespoon tomato paste
4-ounce can mild green chiles, drained and diced
1 teaspoon chili powder
Вј teaspoon dried oregano
ВЅ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Three 15-ounce cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup sour cream
2 cups (8 ounces) grated Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeГ±o peppers
In a large skillet heat the oil over medium heat, add the onions and garlic, and saut for 5 minutes. Add the drained tomatoes, tomato paste, chiles, chili powder, oregano, salt, and pepper, and raise the heat to high. Cook, stirring frequently, just until the juice from the tomatoes has evaporated, about 5 minutes.Add the beans to the skillet and toss. Remove the pan from the heat. May be prepared to this point up to 8 hours in advance, covered, refrigerated, and assembled just before cooking.Preheat the oven to 375В°F. Put half of the bean mixture in a large casserole, cover with half of the sour cream and half of the cheese, add the remaining bean mixture, and top with the remaining sour cream and cheese.Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. | https://medium.com/@plansvegan/baked-mexican-style-beans-with-sour-cream-and-chiles-ad580e177723 | ['Plans Vegan'] | 2020-06-19 09:17:58.168000+00:00 | ['Foodie', 'Food', 'Dinner'] |
How UX and design education changed my life | Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash
What is this UX thing that everyone’s talking about?
The first time I came across the term “UX Design” was in a conversation with one of my colleagues. We discussed how we could improve the quality of our work. I talked about design, he talked about user experience – we both talked about education.
That happened about six months after I graduated from university. I was working as a graphic designer and was still relatively new to the company. My colleague, an expert from the digital department, had already gained many years of experience and he told me about UX design.
User experience sounded like something that could definitely improve the quality of our products and services. It aroused my curiosity from the very first moment. I wanted to know more.
That’s when I came across the Interaction Design Foundation (IDF), a non-profit educational organization.
Learning with the Interaction Design Foundation
When I discovered the Interaction Design Foundation on the internet and signed up for a membership almost a year ago, I didn’t know much about user experience design and its potential. But the IDF’s offer sounded very promising:
online instructor-led UX courses of Ivy League quality
course material combining the insights and know-how of both academia and high-tech industry
a more than fair price (even if I’m no longer a student… hey, who says no to affordable education?)
and very important for someone who likes to be in control of everything: When and how intensively I work on a course is entirely up to me.
Apart from the courses, IDF offers a lot of open-source material and the possibility to join their open-minded and inspiring community.
The human side of design
First, I took the course Web Design for Usability. Every week I was given access to a new lesson with instructive video content (there are also courses with text-based content or a mix of both). I learned a lot, right from the very first week.
Shortly afterwards, I started taking more UX courses.
The UX design field is incredibly large. It's more than just graphic and user interface design – UX is research, conception, management, development, prototyping, testing, ... and above all: UX without users is not UX. It's all about users. Unfortunately, in our economically driven world, this usually goes unnoticed.
My second course UX Management also taught me this: the whole UX thing, the user-centered design approach, has a remarkable value for the company and the whole business.
Signs of progress
By now, I have completed three more UX courses (including Accessibility: How to Design for All, Mobile UX Design and Conducting Usability Testing) and I am enrolled in many more. I have fully dedicated myself to user experience and my work as a graphic designer has changed a lot ever since.
“True user experience goes far beyond giving customers what they say they want, or providing checklist features.” – Don Norman and Jakob Nielsen
My awareness of user experience has increased. Empathy, usability and a user-centered design approach are now an integral part of my work.
When I design a website now, I always have the user in mind. And I work together as closely as possible with our research and development teams.
The power to make a difference
I am someone who believes that even with the smallest action, you can make the world a little bit better. That’s why I started sharing in my company what I learned from the IDF.
In the beginning, user experience was quite new for all of us. Now, we are taking the first steps towards a UX culture.
The processes have changed (for the better), from first sketches and early prototypes to the finished website. At our company, we now even do usability testing.
UX Design has given my work a new meaning and inspired many of my colleagues to take a new approach. We have the vision to take our work to the next level and offer our customers and our users the best experience they can imagine.
It is an important message: The user is the center of our design and development processes. It is the goal to identify the users’ desires and motivations and to develop a product or service that meets their needs – or better yet: surpasses.
How to stay focused while learning online
UX has become an essential part of my job – and somehow of my life. Still, there’s a lot to learn. How do I motivate myself to keep moving forward? Here are my top three tips:
1. Set a schedule. When you start a UX course from the Interaction Design Foundation, you can decide for yourself when you want work and how much time you want to spend on it. If you are not immune to procrastination (like me), try to set a schedule – and stick to it.
2. Take notes. Every video or text of every single lesson contains an enormous amount of valuable information. It can be hard to soak up that much concentrated knowledge like a sponge. I always take notes and summarize the essential findings. This helps me not only to answer questions, but also to internalize what I have learned.
3. Learn to celebrate every little success. There is no teacher or personal trainer who pushes and praises you. But that doesn’t mean your improvements aren’t worth appreciating and celebrating. The best motivator is yourself. With every lesson, with every question or every discussion within the community, you get closer to your goal of learning something new. At the end, any progress feels like a small success.
Remember: You do this voluntarily – that alone deserves great respect.
The result: It’s just the beginning
Within ten months at the Interaction Design Foundation, I successfully completed five courses, answered 420 questions, collecting 1,676 of 1,702 possible points. (And I must admit: the incorrectly answered questions taught me the most.)
It was a year full of new insights, inspiring thoughts and a lot of valuable knowledge.
The best thing about it: There’s a lot more to learn and to discover. | https://blog.prototypr.io/how-ux-and-design-education-changed-my-life-6ca02a4c19eb | ['Isabel Riedel'] | 2019-04-08 07:59:08.458000+00:00 | ['User Experience', 'Learning', 'UX', 'Education', 'Interaction Design'] |
What DE&I means to Pathrise | The Pathrise team has been growing quickly. We’ve doubled the size of our team over the course of the past year and have learned a lot about what diversity, equity and inclusion mean to us as a company. We want DE&I to be at the forefront of how we grow and scale not only now but also in the future, so I’m writing this blog post to share some of our learnings and also think out loud about the commitments we are making to ourselves and our fellows.
When we started Pathrise in 2017, we wanted to build a business that was not only well loved and impactful, but also one that specifically aimed to solve the systemic challenges faced by many diverse groups in tech recruitment. The manifesto we wrote when founding the company outlines this (10 principles in total). One principle in particular has been a guiding principle for Pathrise and continues to shape how we build our company today:
“Everyone should have a chance, no matter which school they attended, what area they’re from or how much money they have.”
The diversity of backgrounds among our fellows as well as the diversity of the team that supports them is at the heart of Pathrise.
Want to read this story later? Save it in Journal.
What we mean by diversity, equity and inclusion
DE&I is a nuanced topic, one that can take on very different meanings, so it’s helpful to define what it means to us. A core tenant of Pathrise’s mission is to improve equity of career opportunity for a diverse group of job seekers. We’ve built a system to provide access to the knowledge, network and mentorship necessary to succeed in your career for those who need it the most.
Diverse groups of job seekers are our core users.
Diversity is meaningful to us because the fellows that benefit the most from Pathrise naturally come from a diverse set of backgrounds. Because we have built a program to provide career guidance and insider knowledge about the job search to those who need it the most, we must make sure to build a program that is designed for many different types of job seekers, such as underrepresented minorities in tech, international students and workforce returners.
Equity of career guidance is a core tenant of our mission.
Equity is what we provide. Job seekers can face many disadvantages in their job search due to a range of factors from bias to lacking a support system. You don’t learn insider information on company interview processes, cold emailing, or how to negotiate from a standard classroom curriculum. Usually these are things you pick up from the people around you, and not everyone is lucky or privileged enough to have that support network and peer group to pick it up from. Pathrise is a real solution that provides a sustainable and scalable way to provide this type of career guidance and mentorship to level out the playing field.
Inclusive design is a big part of our core methodology.
Inclusion is the essence of our core methodology. When you build a program like Pathrise, enroll such a diverse group of job seekers and work with them on a process as hard and stressful as the job search, it’s not an easy problem. Rather than rely on a cookie cutter curriculum, we focus on personalization, figuring out what works for each fellow and accounting for their diverse backgrounds. Instead of assuming what works for one fellow will just automatically work for the other, we use 1-on-1’s, personal support and create community in order to deliver more inclusive, and therefore more effective, career guidance.
Some context
I wanted to share a little more about the history of our DEI initiative. It was in the spring of 2020 when we decided to formalize what that should look like at Pathrise. From my perspective, I had initially felt that Pathrise upheld these values and they were embedded in not only our mission driven work-culture but also in how I lead our team. It wasn’t until we did a deep dive into our own diversity data that I realized just how much opportunity there was to enhance our diversity at Pathrise.
There were many things for us to work on. Here are just a few examples:
We had room to improve representation of Latinx and black employees at Pathrise. There were some other interesting features of lack of representation as well. For example, our career mentor team was almost entirely women, and we wanted to increase our male representation within that department.
Representation of gender and ethnicity among fellows at Pathrise could have been improved as well. While we were ahead of big tech, that’s an unfortunately low bar.
Even when only considering fellows that did choose to participate in Pathrise, we could improve retention. For example, fellows who were women withdrew from Pathrise at higher rates than men.
Transparency is important
At Pathrise one of our cultural values is “Be a founder.” A big part of enabling our team to be founders in their own ways is to give them founder-level access to information. As a result, we have always strived to be transparent with the employees at Pathrise, whether that be with our exact financials or product roadmap. I want everyone to feel as though they are an owner of Pathrise and that their work should and does matter. We took this same approach to diversity and prepared some data points for the team to view and we kept them up to date on our progress and things they could do to help make Pathrise a more inclusive workplace. This also held us accountable to improvement.
What did we do to foster more diversity?
Firstly, even just the action of making DE&I a priority led us to more intentionality and improvement.
We took time to question our own assumptions and speak with external experts.
Secondly, we wanted to increase representation at the top of the funnel.
Both in our hiring processes and in our customer acquisition channels, this meant forming partnerships with organizations that served the communities we’d like to engage with, creating scholarships or special events for each demographic of fellow or potential team members, and changing our sourcing queries.
Thirdly, we used consistent rubrics to eliminate unconscious bias in evaluation.
To us, creating a fair and equitable hiring process and admissions process that would help eliminate (as much as possible) our unconscious biases meant much more clearly defining and outlining concrete rubrics for determining qualifications, rather than relying on intuition.
Lastly, we revamped our group of interviewers.
Interviewers that took part in our hiring committee or admissions process were selected not only considering seniority and direct role relevance, but also diversity of perspective and background.
What were the results?
Over the course of the last few months with the help from everyone on the team, we were able to make some significant improvements. It was a really good time to explore and define what we meant by diversity and by instilling those pillars throughout the hiring process and within our team we were able to make some great achievements. We were able to increase representation for underrepresented minorities in the team by 20%. We improved gender representation in the career team by 100%. For our fellows, we were able to launch a scholarship system for underrepresented minorities in tech, women in tech and LGBTQ+ in tech, and have already granted a few scholarships. There is still a lot to improve on in the future.
Other notable results
Our team became fully remote, allowing us to hire individuals not only residing in the Bay Area but anywhere in the US. We believe this is an important factor for diversity because not all candidates have access to jobs in tech and therefore by opening up our hiring to more diverse locations we now have individuals from over 15 states represented at Pathrise!
Some members of the Pathrise team enjoying remote work.
Where we want to go
For the future of Pathrise, there is much to attain when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion not only for us as an internal team but also what that means for our fellows who are job searching during these interesting and uncertain times. But we know once we start to reflect diversity “on the inside” diversity on the “outside” will follow.
Some topics and agenda items we have for next year are based around sourcing, hiring, retention and promotion. As we continue to grow we want to focus not only on increasing diversity but nurturing it and facilitating it through active dialogue and open communication.
With that being said, I am very proud of our team’s achievements this year and I can not wait to sit here at the end of the next and tell you all the amazing things our team has accomplished not only for Pathrise but for all our amazing fellows whose lives our team impact on a daily basis. | https://blog.usejournal.com/what-de-i-means-to-pathrise-cf8bfdfdfb8d | ['Kevin Wu'] | 2020-11-30 17:34:25.678000+00:00 | ['Careers', 'Diversity And Inclusion', 'Startup', 'Diversity In Tech', 'Startup Lessons'] |
Bharti Bhatnagar Is A Chennai Based Makeup Artist. | Bharti Bhatnagar Is A Chennai Based Makeup Artist. Born And Raised In Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, She Lived In Delhi For Several Years Before Moving To Chennai, India.
She owned a Salon in Chennai, West Saidapet “Bharti J Beauty Salon & Bridal Studio”
An International Certified Professional Makeup Artist With More Than 7+ Years’ Experience In The Areas Of Wedding Makeovers, Bridal Beauty Makeup, Party & Event Makeup, Collaborative Studio Photo Shoots, And Makeup Education, Bharti Has Learnt From Her Clients One Worldwide Rule: Women Want To Stare Lively, Flawless And Beautiful. It Is This Principle That Determines A Signature Style That Is Womanly And Natural. She Is A Very Down-To-Earth Person.
Bharti Is Known For Creating Exceptionally Beautiful Brides And Provides Make-Up Trials. She Is Adoring About Her Work And Believes In Flawlessness At All Costs. She Always Wants To Make Every Bride’s Dream Come True And Make It The Most Unforgettable Day Of Her Life.
Bharti Always Trusts That Every People Awaits The Influx Of The Bride With Patiently Flabbergasted And Wants To Catch Her First Glimpse; Hence To Make It Impressive And Dazzling Is Her Accountability.
Bharti Genuinely Enjoys Her Ability To Connect People Of All Different Walks Of Life Together Through Beauty And Self-Appreciation. | https://medium.com/@bhartijmakeovers/bharti-bhatnagar-is-a-chennai-based-makeup-artist-11a7a71a1f98 | ['Bharti Bhatnagar Makeovers'] | 2021-11-22 08:19:37.600000+00:00 | ['Bridal Makeup', 'Bridal Studio', 'Bridal Makeup Artist', 'Makeup', 'Beauty Salon'] |
Mignon Du Preez | Mignon or Minx as she is also known is the smiliest cricketer I’ve ever met! She oozes joy and is just the loveliest person. We zoomed with Minx at the end of the Hundred to chat about the previous 4 weeks, her cricket journey and so much more. Mignon was born and raised in South Africa and has even captained her national side. This year, she signed with Manchester Originals as a strong batter.
Not knowing much about cricket for young girls in South Africa, I was eager to hear about her experience with cricket growing up.
“I actually started at the age of 4, so in South Africa, we’ve got a mini cricket program. My dad used to be a coach of a team and my brother was playing and one day, I was always just a supportive sister you know, I went to the games, watched it but I made sure that I also had a nice little white t-shirt with the mini cricket logo on and shorts and then one day, one of the boys didn’t make it to the game in time and my dad asked me if I want to step and I actually ended up being the best better for the day and I think that’s when my love started for the game”.
I wasn’t too surprised that her story was very similar, if not identical to most English players.
The outside perspective she provides is very fascinating, praising the ECB for its efforts with the women’s game.
“I think especially the ECB has put a little a lot of effort towards promoting the women’s game by having the standalone women’s opening feature. I think that really was something special and we just said throughout the competition, we’ve had big crowds in the games and we sometimes don’t even get that amount of people in at South African cricket games so for us to play a domestic tournament and in front of a sold out crowd is something really special so we’ve really enjoyed it. It’s been a fantastic tournament and I definitely think it’s gonna put women’s cricket on the map even further and like you say hopefully in the future a lot of girls will take up the sport because of watching the Hundred”.
As I have mentioned in previous articles, I openly talk about my faith and I am a Christian. Mignon is also a Christian and speaks so well about her faith. For me, she is a role model for me in how to share you faith and live it out within sport.
“I’ve been pretty fortunate that I think in South Africa where I come from, it’s a lot easier that we can just be open about our Christianity so it’s really helpful, it’s maybe not the same for everybody around the globe and we’ve been very fortunate we’ve had the support and for me I think, I’ve got a little slogan that just said that your talent is God’s gift to you and what you do with your talents is your gift back and I see cricket as an opportunity to just use my God-given talent to glorify his name and it’s almost like a method of how I can praise and worship.” I love the way she speaks about giving back to God by using the gift she has been given. Minx went on to mention that “every time I step out, I think you probably saw, that I’ll kneel down and then I just say a little prayer just to say and thank you all that you died for me, now I get to play for you so yeah that’s really special, like I said, I think for me you know when things don’t go your way it’s nice that you know you’ve got somebody else rooting for you upstairs, there’s probably more failures than success but I think knowing that whenever we play, I just got to give glory to God and that really makes it a lot easier”
Continuing on from speaking about her faith, we mentioned fellow overseas player, Jemimah Rodrigues. Jemi is also a Christian and Mignon shared about her beautiful friendship with her.
“I think a few years back at the Kia Super League, she scored that hundred and then she had a little Bible verse at the end of it and obviously I’ve played against India for quite some time but you kind of have this expectation that more of them follow other religions so when I saw that, it was kind of an opportunity for me so I sent them and said listen well I just saw you posted the scripture and then it got us talking so she actually shared a whole testimony with me and her dad’s actually a pastor so that’s a really cool story so I’m sure if you guys get in contact with her, she would probably also love to be on your show. She calls me a big sister and I call her my little sister so we’ve been in contact over WhatsApp quite a few times”. These international friendships are something that these franchise tournaments build and it’s wonderful to see this sisterhood being built all the way from India to South Africa. Minx spoke glowingly of Jemi saying “it’s easy to talk the talk but to actually walk the walk and your actions kind of show more and with her, you can just see just joy follows flows out of her and then and that’s also it’s like there’s another saying that enthusiasm is contagious and you see that with her, I think everybody wants to be around her because she’s such a lovely person so I think that’s one of the things for me”.
Ignorant to the domestic set up in South Africa, Du Preez explained how it works at the moment.
“We don’t have a professional domestic structure just yet, they are looking into creating opportunities and giving some contracts to domestic players but at the moment unfortunately we only have the 15 contracted national players and then there is an emerging team and then provincial teams and hopefully in the next year or so there’s going to be contracts for the emerging/academy players as well as some of the domestic players so unfortunately most of those girls still just play for the love of the sport and hope they can make it to play for South Africa one day”.
I’m sure that other countries, especially South Africa and India, naturally, the next step would be to introduce contracts below the national side and potentially introduce and competition to give domestic players better opportunities.
I am based in Birmingham and in the summer of 2022, the Commonwealth Games are coming to Birmingham with a brand new addition of cricket; but just women’s! South Africa will be playing in it and hopefully Mignon will be too!
“I would have to make the team first but playing in that tournament, that would be, I’ve never played in anything like the Commonwealth or something before so that would be one of the highlights of my career so hopefully I’ll keep on pushing and make sure that I can make that team and be in the Commonwealth Games next year and it’s in Birmingham”
Mignon is a wonderful person and I would chat to her for hours! If you would like to listen to the rest of the chat, there is a link below:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Z6IDBxVxXu6LkGYu2X1aZ | https://medium.com/@polly.starkie/mignon-du-preez-e5dd7dbef446 | ['Polly Starkie'] | 2021-12-30 23:03:57.407000+00:00 | ['The Hundred', 'South Africa', 'Womens Cricket', 'Mignon Du Preez', 'Manchester Originals'] |
I’ve heard so much about him and his books, Jill! | Bylines in Publishers Weekly, the Syracuse (NY) Post-Standard, others. One Sister’s Song (novel). Not Nearly Everything You Need to Know About Writing (ebook). | https://medium.com/@karendegrootcarter/ive-heard-so-much-about-him-and-his-books-jill-11a9bca34747 | ['Karen Degroot Carter'] | 2020-12-21 13:50:18.352000+00:00 | ['Books', 'Reading', 'Fiction', 'Authors'] |
Mobility is not about owning a car, it’s about a person moving from A to B | The way Financial Service providers are used to dealing with cars and mobility is very product orientated: car loans, car insurance, leasing. Innovation and new technologies help them to create better risk scoring engines and telematics provide the possibility of usage-based pricing for car insurance. But does this provide the answers and solutions to the customer questions and needs that are changing?
It’s not about owning
Access to a specific product is commonly becoming preferable to owning that product, e.g. staying in someone else’s apartment for a city break using Airbnb, getting there from the airport in an Uber while listening to Spotify. Platforms connect demand with spare capacity and in doing so create what we call the ‘sharing economy’.
Three things are driving this sharing economy
First, millennials apparently prefer consuming services over owning something. It is convenient, easy, accessible, fast and flexible. Second, new technologies such as smartphones make it easy to find and use spare capacity and sensors (IoT) provide 24/7 feedback on the product’s usage and status. This allows for a seamless user experience, better understanding of customers’ needs, pro-active action and the ability to customize offers. And third, the circular economy where goods are supposed to be taken back and recycled becomes increasingly important.
It’s not about the car
Nowadays there are multiple ways to travel from A to B. And how you travel depends very much on the occasion, budget, distance etc. For instance, you may take a small car for driving your 6-year old to their school, you may hire a limo to drop off your 18-year old daughter to her Prom and borrow your friend’s van to help her move into her dorm. Car sharing, ride sharing, lift sharing are all solutions to your needs. Additionally, traveling by aeroplanes or train has become more affordable. As long as it gets you where you want to go.
Even car manufacturers like Ford and Toyota are looking beyond the car itself and turning their attention to building holistic mobility platforms to transform their companies into operating systems for the future of transportation. For example, by investing in autonomous car start-ups and running mobility projects to solve their customers daily mobility problems.
And while talking about the car: a Dutch study showed that brake assist, lane control, park assist and technologies that are supposed to make driving safer (to prevent damage), lead to more claims. People tend to trust these safety measures (if they know how to handle them and to turn them on) and forget that next to the damage, also the electronics need to be repaired after an accident. Anyway, it is the more luxurious segment that has the equipment to really benefit from the connected vehicle developments and the services it offers and the price tag of these cars is often high.
It’s about the person and his/her behavior and how Financial Service providers can deal with that
How is my driving, when am I driving, where am I driving? Where do I need to go? What do I need the car for? As the user behavior is changing, enabled by technological development (e.g. connected cars) Financial Services providers have the chance to change their offering and maybe even their business models around mobility. Real time analytics, automated response logic, predictive analytics, improved risk scoring should not only result in greater loss reduction, better performing loans, but also in personalized services and the possibility to enhance the total value proposition around mobility by addressing ownership and usage.
Veygo
UK based insurer Veygo (part of Admiral) goes beyond ownership. They offer short term insurance for “drivers with no car”. They focus on student drivers and car sharing leaving the car owner’s main policy untarnished and any no claims bonus protected. This takes out the uncertainty for the person who lets out their car and offers an on-demand insurance if needed.
Metromile & By Miles
Insurtechs as Metromile (US) and By Miles (UK) offer usage-based insurance. For their pay-as-you-drive insurance they use a wireless device that securely measures mileage count and bills based on that. But even though usage-based insurance offers potential, it is not the reality as Matteo Carbone pointed out in his recent article on the topic. Most telematics policies still have a fixed up-front price and the data collected is used for minimising premium leakage, increased retention of good risks and to negotiate lower reinsurance costs.
Enhancement of the value proposition
But it can also be used to enhance the value proposition. The same logic and technology for example makes Metromile’s offer a better claims experience, helps you find your car in a crowded parking lot and it even makes the By Miles’ app Car Medic, offer you an on-board mechanic. It basically gives your less luxury car all the benefits of luxurious connected car, the ones that come with a higher price tag. Indian insurtech Kruzr works with a mobile app that automatically detects driving and begins to play the role of your driving assistant using pattern recognition, machine learning, natural language processing etc. It helps cut down distractions thereby reducing claims. The app for example then manages incoming calls and messages with the personalised bot interacting and alerting inbound callers that one is driving at the moment and hence can leave a message for deferred attention.
Influence on the driving behaviour
At the same time, this technology and logic give Financial Service providers the possibility to change driver behavior. US Insurtech Root’s mobile phone app takes data from the accelerometer and other sensors on the smartphone and gauge an applicant’s driving skills, use the data to understand actual driving behavior and then Root uses this to calculate a quotation.
Root’s app can also recognize unusual phone patterns such as when and how frequently someone is engaging with their smartphone while driving, by using the gyroscope and accelerometer cell. This gives them the opportunity to reward drivers who avoid mobile device use while driving with up to an additional 10% off on their insurance quote. Dutch insurance carrier Interpolis is doing the same with their Automodus app. This not only appeals to social responsibility but also decreases the number of accidents. Research showed that drivers that are in ‘Automodus’ have 25% less claims than expected.
OP
Finnish financial service provider OP also goes beyond car finance and insurance business’ ‘mobility as a service’. As part of their proposition they offer electric cars as a service (including insurance, maintenance, repairs, tire changes, car wash). They help build electric car charging stations in Finland, they support car sharing with tools (app that books the car, ensures efficient use of cars, sharing the costs) and offer the franchise for Drive Now in Finland. Of course, supported by an app for drivers that also manages automatically and securely, all related payments. This impacts not only the very digital drive but also the key economic indicators, Financial Service providers’ ROE and shareholder value. | https://medium.com/@dennisvanavendonk/mobility-is-not-about-owning-a-car-its-about-a-person-moving-from-a-to-b-7a791589a47b | [] | 2020-12-17 07:57:18.135000+00:00 | ['Mobility', 'Insurance', 'Insurtech', 'Cars'] |
Data for Good — Zika Hackathon | Ari Kahn, genomics subject matter expert at TACC
On September 9th more than 70 volunteers united in a Data for Good hackathon to explore new ways to use data in the fight and prevention of Zika virus. The event took place at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TAAC) at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. Cloudera volunteers helped organize the event through its Cloudera Cares program for social causes. Cloudera partners Qlik and Bardess also participated in the event who are already helping organizations use big data in the life sciences, genome and pharma world to discover new ways to improve quality of life.
Through these hackathons we build awareness around the Zika virus and promote data sharing and collaboration. At a prior Zika hackathon on May 15th we analyzed data on Aedes mosquito habitat, breeding conditions, weather data and travel to the US from countries with Zika infected mosquitos. The data was used to plot potential hotspots in the US and found Miami and Houston at critical risk. This discovery was made before the recent outbreak of Zika in Miami.
Zika cases in the US
At the latest Hackathon we saw more ambitious data for good projects with research in the clinical and epidemiological areas of Zika. With projects going from the identification of Zika in water samples using metagenomic data to exploring the Zika protein and docking to identify potential drugs to fight Zika Virus infections.
Volunteers with various skills and knowledge grouped and collaborated on these Zika related projects.
Zika Metagenomic Portal Frontend — Goal: to create a website portal for people who are collecting metagenomic data to submit data to a service that would search that data for traces of Zika. Using agave api to connect the portal to TACC Wrangler system and other computational resources
Zika Metagenomics Portal Backend — Goal: Check water samples against Zika serum using sample training sets to train the model. The team was blown away when the actually found Zika in public available data samples, a breakthrough achievement for the Hackathon
Project Hydro — Goal: Cross comparison in Harris and Hidalgo Texas counties looking at various data sources (floodplains data, women of childbearing age, vegetation density) to assess Zika risk posed to pregnant women based on location.
Zika protein and docking research for drug discovery
Medicines to Zika Protein — Goals: Use High performance computing to facilitate docking process that is involved in Zika virus drug discovery. Deviated from that to use ML to identification of most efficient drug.
Zika Demo part 2 — Goal: add new datasets to demo created from the first Zika Hackathon and provide a platform that can be used to promote Zika awareness and need for open data sets with help from our partners Qlik, Bardess and Data.world.
The identification of Zika in publicly available water sample data was a huge discovery and proof that these projects have the potential of making a significant scientific impact. These projects are hopefully the seed to a future discoveries or insights.
Yet one of the major challenges observed at the hackathons is the lack of Zika public data sets. For example at the first hackathon we had to write scripts to scrape the CDC website for data. We reached out the CDC to request access to the raw data in any file format, but CDC does not share publicly these data files.
New organizations like data.world are making access to data better with easier ways to share and discover datasets. Data.world, who also participated in the hackathon, made Zika datasets available on their platform, but this is just the start, we need more organizations like the CDC, WHO, ECDC to post their datasets in downloadable file formats to promote research and discovery. Data.gov is a great resource for public data sets, with over 186,467 datasets and growing, but there is not much on Zika, if you search “zika” today you will only find one result and it is not a Zika specific dataset.
Texas Advanced Computing Center (TAAC) at the University of Texas
TACC is also making access to large petabytes of data storage easier and promoting collaboration. TACC’s systems, while mostly used by Academia today, are also available to private enterprises. Home of some of the top supercomputers of the world, TACC’s systems with support for Apache Hadoop are hungry for data science projects and data for good research.
The Zika hackathon was a huge success and it was great to see all the volunteers collaborate, knowledge share and unite in a data for good cause. If a small group of people can gather for a few hours and accomplish these results, just imagine what can be done by the health and life sciences industry at large. Cloudera is big supporter of President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative and with hackathons like these we promote the use of new Big Data technologies for this type of research as we saw at this hackathon using metagenomic data for Zika identification.
Cloudera Cares volunteers
The entire world can benefits from open source data platforms like Apache Hadoop with self service analytical and machine learning tools like Apache Spark MLlib. Many times it is the underdeveloped countries with lack of resources where these data for good projects can make the most impact, and hackathons like these help promote awareness and examples on how to tackle tough social problems with data for good and open source data. Get involved in a data for good project near you and be part of the change. | https://medium.com/cloudera-inc/data-for-good-zika-hackathon-33fbf2c5995e | ['Eddie Garcia'] | 2016-09-26 17:03:06.755000+00:00 | ['Big Data', 'Genomics', 'Zika Virus', 'Cloudera', 'Open Data'] |
[!!#LIVE#] Atlanta vs Kansas City Live Stream |~Live Stream TV!~! 2020 | Live Now:: https://tinyurl.com/y2v8qpwc
Live Now:: https://tinyurl.com/y2v8qpwc
The Atlanta vs Kansas City Live Stream are home on Sunday, but with the point spread against them by 9.5 points, it might not be quite the welcoming they would prefer. They and the Cleveland Browns will compete for holiday cheer at 1 p.m. ET at Stadium. The Jets are out to stop a nine-game streak of losses at home.
Atlanta vs Kansas City Live Stream expected to lose against the Los Angeles Rams last week, but instead they received a nice stocking . It was close, but New York ultimately received the gift of a 23–20 victory from a begrudging Los Angeles squad. The Browns are now 10–4 while New York sits at 1–13. Cleveland is still in the hunt for a spot in the playoffs, so these next two games are critical for them.
The Jets have been eliminated from playoff contention.It’s Week 16 in the NFL, which means it’s Fantasy championship time in a vast majority of leagues. What happens this weekend will decide who walks away with a Fantasy title, unless the involves Alvin ; those are likely over after the Saints star gashed the Vikings for six rushing touchdowns on Christmas. But for anyone still competing or for anyone with teams chasing a playoff spot in the actual league, there are some major on the way this weekend, including the Colts facing the reeling , the Rams and battling for the NFC West crown and the Titans trying to beat the NFC-leading Packers in Green Bay.
Each week, we’ll collect all of the best picks and gambling content from and in one place, so you can get picks against the spread from our CBS Sports experts as well as additional feature content for each game, including plays from top experts and the Projection Model, best bets from our staff, survivor picks and more.”Boy the Falcons can’t catch a break, can they? They blew a massive lead against Tom Brady (the jokes write themselves) and then roll right into a road matchup against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. I don’t think Atlanta is going to put up much of a fight in this one, at least in terms of actually winning the game, but I do think the Chiefs have played too many close games to take them as a double digit favorite. They’re in cruise control for the №1 overall seed and I think Andy Reid will win without being too aggressive here.” — Will Brinson on why he has the Chiefs winning but the Falcons coveringR.J. White: “I have a best bet on Under 45. Unders are 11–3 in Giants games this year, and I have no faith they’ll figure out the quarterback situation in this one. We’ll have a banged-up Daniel Jones trying to play, or Colt McCoy, who’s very limited. The Giants defense is great against the run; they’re sixth in yards per rush allowed. … That Giants offense scored seven against Arizona, six against Cleveland. I can’t expect better on the road in a tougher matchup here.”
Kenny White: “You can add me to the best bet … I’m gonna go Under as well. With it being a must-win for both teams, and with both teams’ defenses better than their offenses, I made the total 37.5 … It’s definitely a best bet for me as well.”Will Brinson: “Let’s take the Under as the third leg of the parlay. I actually have Baltimore as a best bet at -11, because what they’re doing right now with their offense, and letting Lamar Jackson run, he’s cranked up his rushing the last four or five games and is starting to get loose.””This is a terrible spot for the Bengals, who are coming off a 110 percent effort game against the hated Steelers where they secured an improbable win. Now they have a quick turnaround to play a meaningless game during the holiday week. I can’t see them showing up at all here, while Deshaun Watson seems likely to carve up a Cincinnati defense that ranks 25th in net yards per pass attempt, especially as the Bengals defense has just 16 sacks on the year. The Bengals scraped together just 78 yards of pass offense in the win last week, marking six straight games under the 210 mark since their bye. Don’t expect them to keep up with Watson in this one.” — R.J. White on why the Texans are one of his best bets for Week 16. | https://medium.com/@mogav27506/live-atlanta-vs-kansas-city-live-stream-live-stream-tv-2020-47712c07e693 | [] | 2020-12-27 10:08:36.616000+00:00 | ['Nfl Live Stream', 'Nfl Live', 'NFL'] |
Locally weighted Regression in Machine Learning | first of all, we need to overview these two topics: Parametric and non-parametric learning algorithm
1-Parametric Learning Algorithm:
An algorithm that has a fixed number of parameters that fit the data. Linear regression is an example of parametric learning.
When we have a fixed number of parameters, everything is going clear and we need just to minimize the prediction error by Gradient Decent Algorithm.
In the above picture, you can see we have normally distributed data with a specific and limited number of independent variables (parameters)
The basic assumption for linear regression is that the data must be linearly distributed. But what if the data is not linearly distributed. Can we still apply the idea of regression? The answer is ‘yes’ but how?
Firstly, let’s define a non-parametric learning algorithm then we go through the model which has solved the problem above.
2-Non-Parametric Learning Algorithm
Formal definition: The number of parameters grows with the size of the training set.
Informal definition: The amount of stuff that our learning algorithm needs to keep around an entire training set, even after training.
In the above picture, it’s clear that there is not a linear distribution and if the prediction would be calculated as before (we have done in linear regression), then we will have a weak prediction by large prediction error as’s obvious by the red line which shows linear regression.
In this case, we can also apply the regression model and it is called locally weighted regression. We can apply LOESS or LOWESS (locally weighted scatterplot smoothing) when the relationship between independent and dependent variables is non-linear such as in the above picture.
Locally Weighted Regression:
This is an algorithm that allows us to worry a bit less about having to choose features very carefully.
Locally Weighted Learning methods are non-parametric and the current prediction is done by local functions. The basic idea behind LWR is that instead of building a global model for the whole function space, for each point of interest a local model is created based on neighboring data of the query point. For this purpose, each data point becomes a weighting factor which expresses the influence of the data point for the prediction. In general, data points that are in the close neighborhood to the current query point are receiving a higher weight than data points that are far away. LWR is also called lazy learning because the processing of the training data is shifted until a query point needs to be answered. This approach makes LWR a very accurate function approximation method where it is easy to add new training points.
Example :
Suppose that you want to evaluate H at a certain point x as we did in linear regression
LR: we should fit θ to minimize
then return θTx.
Now, what should we do in LWR:
First, we need to find the neighbors point(a little bit larger and a little bit smaller)
Then we apply the weight to these neighbors and do the linear regression for this limited area.
Let’s do it in action :
we should Fit θ to minimize
then return θTx
Here, the w(i)’s are non-negative valued weights. Intuitively, if w(i) is large for a particular value of i, then in picking θ, we’ll try hard to make (y(i) − θTx(i))2 small. If w(i) is small, then the (y(i) − θTx(i))2 error term will be pretty much ignored in the fit. A fairly standard choice for the weights is :
Note that the weights depend on the particular point x at which we’re trying to evaluate x. Moreover, if |x(i) − x| is small, then w(i) is close to 1; and if |x(i) − x| is large, then w(i) is small. Hence, θ is chosen giving a much higher “weight” to the (errors on) training examples close to the query point x. (Note also that while the formula for the weights takes a form that is cosmetically similar to the density of a Gaussian distribution, the w(i)’s do not directly have anything to do with Gaussians, and in particular, the w(i) are not random variables, normally distributed or otherwise.) The parameter τ controls how quickly the weight of a training example falls off with a distance of its x(i) from the query point x; τ is called the bandwidth parameter. | https://medium.com/@amirhoseinrashidian/locally-weighted-regression-in-machine-learning-ccafe267231a | ['Amirhosein Rashidian'] | 2020-12-11 16:00:21.541000+00:00 | ['Frank Loesser', 'Locally Weighted Reg', 'Linear Regression', 'Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
The First Signs of Alcoholic Liver Damage Are Not in the Liver | The First Signs of Alcoholic Liver Damage Are Not in the Liver
Myfather died of alcoholic liver cirrhosis four years ago. It came as a surprise to all of us, even though it was clear he had a severe drinking problem for decades. It was especially surprising to me, as a former nurse and a recovering alcoholic. You would think I’d know more about liver problems and alcohol use than the average person. But the truth is, in the months before his death, I had no idea my father’s liver was struggling at all. Most people know about cirrhosis, but few people know how a liver goes from early damage to end-stage liver cirrhosis.
The combination of my father’s death and my personal background lit a fire in me to know more. He was admitted to the hospital on June 24, 2016, and he died on July 18. Only 24 days passed between the first sign there was a problem and his subsequent death.
Now, hearing that he was in end-stage cirrhosis didn’t surprise me, given his heavy drinking. What did surprise me was that he’d visited several doctors and specialists in the months before his death, and no one knew his liver was struggling either.
So what happened? Does end-stage liver cirrhosis really sneak up that fast? Were there other signs that would have alerted someone to his failing liver?
As for why the doctors and specialists didn’t know what was happening, that mystery resolved reasonably quickly. The plain truth is that alcoholics rarely divulge the amount and frequency of their drinking to their doctors. This was the case for my dad. He had many health issues that he was trying to solve, but he protected his drinking habit fiercely. So he refused to spill the beans, even when it mattered.
The problem is that liver damage has numerous multifaceted symptoms that are confusing and associated with many other illnesses. Unless a doctor knows that the patient is an alcoholic, they may not know how to interpret what’s happening until it’s too late.
As he was dying, my father told me that he didn’t think to tell the doctors how much he was drinking. He said it was as if he blanked out and “forgot” to mention it. As crazy as that sounds, this strange “forgetting” is a common part of the alcoholic mindset. It may also be due to the metabolic and physical changes of cirrhosis itself.
There are many signs of liver problems, but oddly, none seem to point to the liver at first. And in fact, many of the first signs of liver damage occur in other parts of the body. Knowing these signs may help educate alcoholics and their families if they want to understand their risk of developing liver cirrhosis.
Liver damage has numerous multifaceted symptoms that are confusing and associated with many other illnesses. Unless a doctor knows that the patient is an alcoholic, they may not know how to interpret what’s happening until it’s too late.
Digestive signs
The liver plays a huge part in our digestive process. It filters out all toxins from food as well as helping to break down fats and glucose.
When a liver starts to slow down due to significant damage, it will reduce its digestive work. Instead, it will divert its energy toward vital functions like metabolizing medications and filtering toxins.
This means that symptoms like bloating, nausea, vomiting, gas, and diarrhea will start to increase. Over time, eating becomes more challenging. In the later stages of liver cirrhosis, toxins that can’t be filtered out begin to build in the bloodstream, which causes more nausea.
Cognitive signs
Although confusion and brain fog happen in end-stage liver cirrhosis, they can also be early signs.
The liver is responsible for filtering dangerous substances in the blood. It also helps regulate hormones, blood glucose, and vitamin absorption. In the early stages of liver damage, these processes can be interrupted. Inevitably, this affects our brain and nervous system.
This means that early liver problems can make you feel tired, confused, slow, and foggy. You may have some memory issues as well.
Neuromuscular signs
The liver stores vitamins required for the functioning of many organs and systems in the body — one of them is vitamin B1 or thiamine. A deficiency in this particular vitamin has been documented in many alcoholics with or without liver damage.
Unfortunately, alcohol inhibits the absorption of thiamine in the intestine. Over time, as the liver becomes damaged, it can no longer store thiamine in enough quantities. Thiamine deficiency is responsible for many neurological issues in people with alcoholism.
Symptoms of thiamine deficiency range from mild to severe and include things like: confusion, mental fog, lack of balance, pain and numbness in hands and feet, muscle weakness, rapid heart rate, digestive problems, flushing, and involuntary eye movements.
Thiamine deficiency happens in almost every alcoholic who consumes frequent and large amounts of alcohol. And if thiamine deficiency due to alcoholism is discovered, you can be sure the liver is suffering damage at the same time.
Many of the first signs of liver damage occur in other parts of the body.
Vascular signs
All alcohol consumption can lead to blood vessel dilation, causing flushing in the face and hands. Over time, this can cause damage leading to permanent redness in the face. Although many alcoholics have rosacea or spider-like veins on their faces, this is often benign.
However, spider angiomas are different from rosacea or spiderlike veins. They’re circular and have a central point called a spider nevus that is darker than the rest of the lesion. Spider angiomas are a sign of liver disease and can be present in the early stages. They often progress to more extensive and more numerous lesions.
Spider angiomas are caused by increased estrogen levels in the blood. When the liver becomes damaged, it can’t properly metabolize estrogens, which causes them to build up in the body.
Many women who are pregnant or taking birth control pills may have a few spider angiomas. However, in alcoholic liver disease, these lesions are often more frequent and accompanied by red palms and varicose veins in the esophagus.
These are a few of the main signs of alcoholic liver damage that happen outside of the liver. It’s important to know this because most of us have no idea how the liver functions and how it communicates distress.
The liver itself doesn’t show signs like pain or swelling in the early stages of liver damage. This contrasts with other organs like the heart or stomach, where any damage will emit pain or symptoms directly from these organs.
What happens with liver damage is that its many diverse functions become interrupted, causing symptoms in other parts of the body. This may explain why most people never think they have a problem with their liver.
Unfortunately, patients with alcoholism are rarely educated about these issues. This is because they often don’t reveal their drinking, to begin with. And even if they do, the symptoms are widespread and complex, which makes patient education challenging.
My goal in writing articles like this is to help educate regular people about alcoholic liver disease to understand their health and make better decisions.
It’s hard to say if my father would have changed his drinking habits if he knew more about his vague and complicated symptoms. But I think having proper education would have certainly helped him understand his risks and health problems better. | https://medium.com/@karinakapur64937/the-first-signs-of-alcoholic-liver-damage-are-not-in-the-liver-9cbd1e6e354c | [] | 2020-12-18 19:35:48.857000+00:00 | ['Addiction', 'Health', 'Body', 'Alcohol', 'Mental Health'] |
Digital Discovery 101: How to Technically Evaluate a Website | Be it for a new or an existing client, proactively assessing the front and back end issues of a website will help to keep that website fresh, fast, and error free. To do this, you should be running a heuristic evaluation of the platform — UX, pathways, content, linking pathways etc. — and a technical evaluation of the platform — meta content, site structure, alt text, speed, coding issues, script load errors etc.
For the sake of this article, we are going to tackle five how to elements of technical website evaluations to learn what to look when under the hood.
1. Rip Apart the Infrastructure to Map the Bones
First things first, get yourself a copy of Screaming Frog. For those of you who do not know, Screaming Frog is an excellent web spider tool which has the definitive goal of analyzing the back end technical infrastructure of a website. Screaming Frog will allow you to evaluate:
Meta Content (Title Tags, Descriptions, Alt Text, H1 — H6)
Status Codes (200, 301, 404, 505 etc.)
Image Libraries (Source, Destination, Alt Text)
Internal and External Linking Structures
Site Depth and Width
Site Speed
Website Content Based on URL Page Source
Although the tool is older than Moz, SEMRush and the like, think of Screaming Frog as your ability to apply the Google indexation algorithm directly to a single website. It is your tool to index and make sense of infrastructural bones of a platform. | https://medium.com/healthwellnext/digital-discovery-101-how-to-technically-evaluate-a-website-7e697854a928 | ['Brad Yale'] | 2017-12-20 14:48:49.305000+00:00 | ['Web Development', 'Heuristics', 'Website Evaluation', 'UX', 'Digital Marketing'] |
Humanitarian Systems: Showing the Value of Localization through System Dynamics | 21st century humanitarian innovation needs imaginative approaches to locate, analyze, and solve global problems. In our naïve perception of engineering, we often fail to appreciate the great breadth with which engineering concepts and methodologies serve us in sectors much more macroscopic than mechatronic design. One such advent is the method of systems thinking.
Humanitarian innovation and the problems that precede it depend inherently on a complex network of actors, issues, and dynamic relationships. Finding a framework that empowers us to see causes and effects across the isolation of space and time is what humanitarian innovation needs to achieve the next level of progress.
A Brief Introduction to System Dynamics
Systems thinking concerns the interconnected variables in complex networks, and how they all impact each other dynamically. More specifically, system dynamics is the computational modeling of complex systems to encode the underlying differential equations which govern a system’s time evolution and stability. To give a relevant example, one of the most basic models to which system dynamics is applied is the evolution of a pandemic:
Image Courtesy of Author. Made with LOOPY. Although this is an oversimplified model, it captures the essence of what systems modeling is.
Epidemiologists must consider a wide array of contributing factors in the spread of diseases, all of which are related. The model I created above using LOOPY only comprises a handful of nodes¹: four of them are populations and three of them are rates. The population nodes are known as “stocks” because they are filled and depleted and if the system is frozen at some instant in time, the numerical value for that stock (i.e. the number of people infected, healthy, etc.) represents a tangible quantity. The rates are known as “flows,” because they quantify how quickly they increase or decrease the stock values.
For instance, a high transmission rate means the “infected population” stock will grow quickly. The arrows represent the interconnected linkages between all of the stocks and flows, and the polarities (plus and minus signs) indicate whether each variable increases or decreases the next link.
In the model above, the vaccination rate represents how external factors such as health policies can stabilize the system. Based on the loops, the infected and susceptible populations may oscillate continually, but the vaccination rate has the power to dampen their effects and stabilize the healthy population via immunization.
System dynamics in its more rigorous mathematical form is known as control theory, which electrical and mechanical engineers employ routinely to model the systems underlying airplanes, robots, chemical engineering plants, and more. But rest assured — the applications of and necessity for systems thinking reach far beyond the conventional engineering disciplines. In fact, system dynamics is an increasingly popular tool for business and policy alike.
Beneath the frustrations of failed humanitarian reforms and ailing populations, how can we reconcile our need to innovate with the abundance of interrelated factors in order to make humanitarian action more effective?
The Case of Migrants in Germany
There is almost no better issue to demonstrate the contradictory yet interrelated nature of humanitarian response than that of today’s refugee crises. Perhaps the greatest challenge in motivating reform in humanitarian innovation is generating a high degree of publicity. It seems beyond shadow of a doubt that the public in western nations should care about humanitarian emergencies, especially those causing refugee influxes. But surprisingly, reports of millions of people fleeing their homes still are not enough to generate a social movement large enough to catalyze change.
While it should not require direct impacts on developed societies for them to care to support overhauling the current international humanitarian framework, those direct impacts serve at least as jarring reminders that real crises exist in the world. Germany is a fascinating case in which these shocks highlighted the values of systems thinking — and systemic reforms.
Photo by Montecruz Foto on Flickr. German citizens embrace the influx of migrants to Berlin, as “Flüchtlinge herzlich wilkommen” translates to “Heartfelt welcome to refugees.”
In 2015, the Syrian Civil War sparked a mass exodus unlike ever before that sent shockwaves across the European Union. In Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel made the historical move to welcome massive numbers of refugees into Germany, which was lauded as a heroic triumph. That is, mostly until some side effects of this policy on migrants became noticeably unsustainable.
It is nearly impossible to analyze the repercussions and values of Berlin’s migrant policy without discussion of the German economy. Germany’s booming economy requires that migrants be integrated appropriately into the workforce. Fortunately, Berlin’s response largely benefitted the majority of immigrants and studies project net positive impact on the nation’s economy resulting from migrants. In this manner, Germany’s system offers lessons to economic integration.
Angela Merkel’s migrant policy and its impacts on Germany modeled as a system might look something like this:
Image Courtesy of Author. Made with LOOPY.
Examining the above system, we can see that a key component to the economic stability altogether involving the refugees is capacity building approaches. The system only models a few specific factors aiding in the integration of the refugees, namely higher education, vocational training, and housing. The key concern for the German workforce regarding asylees is the ability to secure a workforce. The refugees must be encouraged to work, otherwise those who do not will accumulate as contributors to the nation’s economic stagnation, in turn fueling greater resentment from political opposition groups and depleting economic resources. This is why localization is crucial — it starts to answer the question of how best to motivate and provide opportunities for refugees.
Despite the relative success in maintaining a stable society and economy, the question now is: where may have Germany gone wrong? The answer once again lies in localization.
Refugees in a northwestern German State highlight a particular need to localize attention and focus on preventative measures as well. Criminologists conducted a study in 2018 in response to increased petty crime rates in Lower Saxony, attributed to young migrants. They offer insight into the causations and policies surrounding these statistics, which ultimately lend themselves right back to a need for local approaches.
Many refugee youth of diverse origins in Germany have been placed into cramped living spaces. According to researchers at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in their report, the living arrangements combined with an undifferentiated approach to service provision based on cultural backgrounds are conducive tension and occasionally fighting.
Image courtesy of the Author. Made with LOOPY.
The first important point is that the above loop is NOT a complete system! This is just an isolated component, demonstrating one effect. If we “pressed play” on this loop, it would spiral out of control since the connections are circular and have the same polarity (this is known as a positive reinforcing loop). This feedback loop is clearly unstable; the policy of keeping migrant youth in small, undifferentiated spaces increases their hostility toward one another, limiting their opportunities for community engagement. Getting themselves into trouble earlier on, the refugee youth reduce their prospects for leaving refugee centers and remain in crowded living spaces which continues the reinforcing spiral of aggression.
But this is not all; the criminologists point toward a lack of resources that would actually serve to greatly benefit the attitudes of the refugee youth. Greater access to female leaders and community members as well as parental guidance are lacking for the younger boys. Without this kind of social attention, their experience is manifestly different than those of others in their new society.
As opposed to funneling funds into robust aid programs, the state governments of Lower Saxony and other German states should recognize the specific needs of their migrants. Vocational training and university courses may not be what these boys need yet; they represent a unique locale, and the shocking wave of migrants drowns out their uniqueness when the government supplies its deliverance in the form of best practices.
Refugees of all ages and origins face numerous challenges after arriving in Germany. Language, housing, work, and discrimination are some of the major hurdles they encounter. In essence, these may all be modeled with system dynamics tools to provide insight into how the various factors are affecting communities, but this is besides the point for now. The point, having worked through a systems analysis of some of Germany’s policies, is that even via the same logic of engineering which powers technology can lead us to the value of localized policies. Additionally, a crucial conclusion is that humanitarian action is not singular; these refugees represent how their struggles do not simply end when they leave their homes and escape danger.
As humanitarian innovators, we can think like engineers who must recognize that the “workbench” of aid policy is broader than the site of emergencies. The job of aiding communities, especially refugee communities, does not fall to the hands of a single entity, but rather is an interconnected system of policies which must be local. Further down the line, refugee resettlement barriers must be addressed with the same mentality that should be brought to the site of a crisis. With system dynamics, we see the amazing generality of the theory underlying localization. With these tools in mind, we are not just aid workers, government officials, teachers, or community supporters. Together, we are engineers building a newer and better world. | https://medium.com/needslist/humanitarian-systems-showing-the-value-of-localization-through-system-dynamics-b5c6129566 | ['Octavio Vega'] | 2020-12-14 13:47:02.193000+00:00 | ['Systems Thinking', 'Humanitarian Innovation', 'Refugees', 'Immigration', 'Germany'] |
From evolution of species to upgradation of species | This essay is dedicated to biology teachers I met in my school days. Their passion and love for wonders of nature was so infectious and contagious that it left lifelong indelible impressions on students.
Background
Tracking evolution of species has always ignited interest of inquisitive minds. Sages, philosophers and scientists have deliberated on topic of evolution over millennia.
In ancient world, depending on place and environment of origin, two major concepts of evolution of life evolved.
On a major portion of the earth, life survived against all odds as nature was monotonous and harsh, either icy cold or inferno hot. Civilizational thoughts here started believing that only a divine intervention could have created and sustained life in such conditions, which would abruptly end through same divine intervention. That progressive evolution from lower to higher form was also possible, was not pondered upon.
On another part of the earth, nature existed with all possible manifestations indicating rich diversity. There were repeat cycles of seasons. There were species of plants and animals that were beyond compilation. Here another civilizational thought took roots. It found a rhythm in these cyclic processes of nature. A concept of cyclic time (kalpa) that contained iterative events of creation and destruction developed here. Modern biologists believe in life’s origin in water as simpler form and later evolution to complex forms on land. Incidentally, concept of Dashavtar, evolution of life, in form and consciousness, from water to land also originated here.
Theories of Evolution
In post renaissance Europe, two theories of evolution, still being read by every school going child, were proposed. In 1802, French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, after observing life around, proposed theory of acquired inheritance of evolution. This was first such attempt to understand organic evolution of life from most primitive organisms to most complex ones. Though he left the question of origin of life unattended.
Five decades later, in 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin again proposed another theory of evolution in The Origin of Species. He again left the question of origin of life unanswered. Darwin proposed that natural selection was responsible for evolution of species from one type to other. Over thousands of generations, useful traits helping in survival of a member of species, pass on, leading to better and different species. This evolution of different species happened from a common ancestor through natural selection.
Curtsey scientific progress made in biology, transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, the transmission of epigenetic markers from one organism to the next (i.e., from parent to progeny), affects the traits of offspring without altering the primary structure of DNA.
So Lamarck and Darwin were both right in proposing two different theories for evolution of species. Nature was using both mechanisms, passing on acquired inheritance and genetically better characteristics to next generations.
It is quite surprising why schools world over keep teaching students that Darwin proposed correct theory and Lamarck was wrong.
Evolution in 19th and 20th Century
In their long walk on evolutionary trek, humans must have faced frequent incremental challenges and infrequent yet powerful transformational challenges. Some of these challenges must have posed risk to their very existence. One well documented transformational challenge was 1918 influenza pandemic. It is also known as Spanish flu. As the severest of pandemics in recorded history of humans, it wiped out between five to ten percent of world population. As Darwin would have observed, those who survived this pandemic came out better and fitter of species through natural selection.
In 1796, Edward Jenner inoculated for first time, a thirteen year old patient with smallpox vaccine. In 1856, Louis Pasteur patented the process that became famous as Pasteurisation, a method of killing germs and micro-organisms in food, which helped humans avoid life threatening infections. In 1927, Scottish microbiologist discovered first broad spectrum antibiotic penicillin that further helped humans come out of bacteria induced critical illness. Since these initial progress, many antibiotics, vaccines, sterilisation, pasteurisation methods were developed to save humans from microbes.
Evolution in 21st Century
In the game of survival and evolution, humans and microbes have used strategies to outdo each other. Slowly antibiotic driven human evolution started ignoring long term signals embedded in theories of Lamarck and Darwin. However the new game seemingly reached penultimate round in year 2009. Overcoming all possible spectrum of antibodies modern medicine practitioner has in his/her arsenal, a superbug bacteria (NDM-1) was reported in hospitals and operation theatres. This virtually signalled clear defeat of humans by this single cell species in new game of forced evolution.
The story of pasteurisation is at least equally interesting if not more. As humans started storing food for utilisation in scarce times, need to preserve it from rotting appeared. So long as pasteurisation was limited to traditional processes of heating/cooling or adding excess sweet/salt, food remained harmless for both humans and other species. But new pasteurisation techniques involving liberal use of chemical preservatives and feeding antibiotics to animals used as food source killed microbes residing in human intestine. Some of these microbes were considered good for health. As a result, a generation of people grew, who would not think of drinking water directly from a natural spring. Unless this water is collected, pasteurised, bottled as spring water, it remains unpotable. This is second impending defeat of humans in trying to be driver of evolution.
A far more interesting is the third story of viruses when compared to stories of microbes. Viruses are tiny particles siting over the fence where life and death intersect. Since the use of first vaccine by Edward Jenner against smallpox virus, derived from cow (cowpox), innocuous virus as vaccination became norm. Vaccination helped humans fight viruses that caused serious illness. Scientists understood that human immune systems have deep memory and ability to build response to new viruses provided they were forced exposed to weaker form of viruses. Again, viruses slowly became more virulent, and human immune systems became more learned.
21st century has also displayed restlessness of humans as species. A new Windows operating system arrived a bit faster than earlier version. A new model of iPhone arrived in market faster than earlier models. Taking a cue, some American virologists attempted similar faster upgrade in field of virology. For this they needed to bypass, traditional game of one step a time, played by viruses and human immune systems. They forced faster evolution (upgrade) of human immune system by creating and releasing a virus that moved multiple steps in a move instead of one at a time. This event can be compared to a hypothetical situation where Microsoft upgrades users’ computer with Windows10 directly from Windows millennium, without users’ consent. As a result many computers would crash due to legacy hardware in use.
Similarly this forced upgradation exercise of virus, which virologists gave fancy name of gain of function research, has resulted in death of millions of weaker humans and forced survival of fittest ones. To their further astonishment, these much traumatized and upgraded survivors learnt that virus has already upgraded (mutated) to next level. A recently upgraded immune system stood a bit outdated in a matter of some weeks.
This story of gain of function experiment, which hardly led to any (in)visible gains, while losses are stark naked, is the most intriguing and the most interesting one about the evolution of species in the 21st century. | https://medium.com/@pankaj-prasad-in/from-evolution-of-species-to-upgradation-of-species-c9f9df605e4f | ['Pankaj Prasad'] | 2021-08-19 11:34:16.627000+00:00 | ['Microbe', 'Évolution', 'Darwinism', 'Virus', 'Lamarck'] |
Benches/Bed Pt. 4 x Cabinets Pt. 2 x Walls Pt. 2, Day 14 | December 20, 2020
MY SISTER, MISSY, IS HOME!!! The original plan was to take the van on its maiden voyage and drive from Connecticut to Colorado for the holidays but due travel/work restrictions and requirements, CO came to CT. I also have a feeling that she wanted in on the van conversion action. I’m happy that we have four sets of hands on deck as there is still plenty of work to be done.
Missy started her workday off with the final steps of our bed/bench project — drilling ventilation holes in the lids that the mattress/cushions will lay on. We joked that this task is probably unnecessary and the only reason why she was doing it is because Pa wanted to achieve some meager weight reduction.
Where to drill?
Now, all that is needed to complete this portion is to paint the lids and paneling, fix them to the frames, and fashion covers for the mattress and cushions. | https://medium.com/@the-magno-mobile/benches-bed-pt-4-x-cabinets-pt-2-x-walls-pt-2-day-14-8b74239da2d5 | ['The Magno-Mobile'] | 2020-12-21 17:07:26.890000+00:00 | ['DIY', 'Conversion Van', 'Vanlife', 'Campervan', 'Projects'] |
What startups should know about observability | It all depends on your application and business
Stephan: Well, the thing about storage is that it’s relatively cheap. So you can store all your event data on an S3 bucket and retain it for a few weeks in its original format.
And after that, it gets compressed. Even if you need to investigate something further back in time, you can rehydrate that compressed data from storage.
The more difficult problem is deciding what data to collect and observe. Of course, you can get more insights if you have more data.
But you should consider this carefully because it can have a huge impact on costs. You could also choose to have different levels of detail for different systems.
On a production system, maybe you just log critical signals like application errors or warnings. And maybe you only enable debug messages for a specific part of your application — a part that you need to understand better in production
Personally, I prefer a more differentiated approach rather than logging a shitload of information. But there are pros and cons on both sides.
What is also interesting for me is tracking product-related metrics.
For example, you can use observability tools to look at the timing of different events and create a metric such as “successful checkouts” or “successful or failed logins”.
The idea behind this is, that you can look at these metrics in a specific time frame and compare them to the same time frame last week.
That way, you can look for specific trends, and see how your application is performing.
Merlin: That’s interesting — what you’re talking about is a business metric. Checkouts have a direct impact on your bottom line. So you pay closer attention to metrics like that, rather than database requests, or I/O operations?
Stephan: Your focus should really depend on what you want to achieve. Certainly, developers should and will still be interested in the more technical metrics.
But these product metrics can also give you an indication that your application has a problem and it’s probably not a technical issue.
For example, let’s say you’re implementing a new feature and want to see any impact that it might have on the user experience.
You could track the number of successful logins versus the number of failed logins.
If you see a spike in the number of failed logins, you might have to roll back the feature because it’s really affecting your users.
This is a reminder that you’re running a business and not just a system.
An e-commerce business doesn’t care about I/O operations — it cares about sales and purchases.
So, I would say that developers need to monitor both the technical data points AND the business KPIs.
Merlin: OK, so there’s no universal list of data points that all developers should monitor. You really need to think about the metrics that are important for your specific application and business.
Stephan: Exactly, it all comes down to the problem that you’d like to solve.
If we look at a concrete example.
We’re supporting an e-commerce company that is migrating their application from bare metal servers to a Kubernetes setup in the cloud.
As this happens with production systems there is a lot of business risk involved. In that case, we decided to track successful checkouts next to a couple of other metrics.
By being able to compare the number of successful checkouts from the current day with the ones from last week or yesterday gave us a pretty good safety net that prevented us from not running into any hidden problems.
And as we had only limited information available, that metric was easy to track because we just looked at the number of users who saw the “thank you” page and the end of the checkout process.
These kinds of tools also help you to filter out any misleading data, such as cases when users fail to check out because of an ad blocker or similar. | https://insights.project-a.com/what-startups-should-know-about-observability-f2e3e2c41564 | ['Merlin Carter'] | 2021-07-02 16:44:19.602000+00:00 | ['Startup Lessons', 'Monitoring', 'Distributed Systems', 'Observability', 'DevOps'] |
Is ThreeFold a Token Scam? | Is ThreeFold a Token Scam?
ThreeFold Project Examined From a Critical Point of View
ThreeFold’s website ( Screenprint: Author)
ThreeFold token project is about building a new decentralized storage & capacity Internet. Among other crypto projects, it stands out for its ambitious call to become the new Internet for everyone — by everyone. Is threefold the resurrection of Tim Berners-Lee dream of a sovereign Internet for all, or do hidden red flags signal the way to what might be yet another crypto scam, The ThreeFold Token Scam?
Read more here >>>
Thank you for your attention and have a lovely day
Lucien Lecarme | https://medium.com/spirit-of-crypto/is-threefold-a-token-scam-df4f3f548c2 | ['Lucien Lecarme'] | 2020-12-09 14:09:22.346000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Scam', 'Threefold', 'Token Sale', 'Internet'] |
React Native Linux Kurulumu | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/asnus/react-native-linux-kurulumu-a7abda47589f | ['Samet Sunman'] | 2021-01-08 08:37:35.681000+00:00 | ['Debian', 'React Native', 'Android Studio', 'Linux Mint', 'Linux'] |
Beginning your Blockchain Journey — A List of Projects you could do. | Blockchain has come a long way since being initially unveiled by Satoshi Nakamoto. And though it is still counted as a “nascent technology”, the developer community has quickly adapted to this tech and this has seen quite a few fascinating projects coming to fruition.
If you are a beginner in this field and wish to fill up your resume with a truckload of projects, you have arrived at the right place. Here’s a list of projects that you could make and build your skills.
But before you proceed, please make sure that you build a full end-to-end application and not just a piece of code which would demonstrate your familiarity with the subject. The reason is simple, a full-stack solution with a well-defined interface is more attractive than just seeing lines and lines of code. Case in point, writing Solidity smart contracts is easy and demonstrates your skills in the programming language as well as in Blockchain. But a more complete approach would be to make an interface using React or Angular and using Web3.js to communicate with the Blockchain Server.
So, without further ado, here is a list of projects that you could make on Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology in general.
Supply Chain Management Projects:
1. Tracking Land Ownership via Blockchain.
Land ownership is one of the most classical examples where Blockchain can be used. This can be done to not just display the current owner but also to keep a record of change over ownership of a plot of land. Being transparent and decentralized in nature, these records can easily be used to settle disputes as well as get the whole record of ownership of a land, thus, also settling tax claims. Design a Blockchain project which realizes this model.
2. Design a Blockchain-based platform which checks for Counterfeit Medicine.
It is estimated that more than 250,000 children die each year because of Fake Malaria Medicine. The statistics grow worse every year. This is a serious concern for Pharmaceuticals as it not only hampers their repute but also the overall trust of a Customer. Blockchain can address this by uniquely tracking the origin of not just the medicine but even the components of the medicine. If successfully designed, such a Blockchain platform could help eradicate Medicine Mafia and even Middlemen who sell fake medicine. Could you help in successfully building such an innovative and modern System and help in this fight?
3. Secure Medical Data Records.
Medical Records of a Person can tell the person’s life story. A seemingly boring Medical Record is enough resource for misuse as it can be used to administer the lethal dosage. At the same time, forged medical records are not unheard of. Because of its immense use in Supply Chain Management and use of Cryptography, this problem can be solved by designing a platform where
a) User Data would be encrypted. This would mean that even private data like User Medical Record can be uploaded without worry.
b) Medical Records can be tracked. This would essentially eliminate the risk of Forged Medical Records being presented to the Doctor by the patient with an ulterior motive.
4. Blockchain-based verification for authenticity of Wine.
“A person is only as good as the company he keeps and the wine he drinks.”
The saying might seem comical but it’s true. In fact, just like the Pharmaceutical Industry, Wine Industry is plagued by Forgery. This could mean that a local brand might sell their wine illegally terming it as an “International or Imported Brand”. It could also mean that a locally made wine can be shipped with the name and tag of an International Brand (similar incidents have been reported in Pepsico and Leher Pvt. Ltd). Design a Blockchain System to address this problem and explain how it might be useful for the students living in Mess ;) ).
5. Meat Tracking System with Blockchain.
How often have you heard about meat from another animal being sold as edible meat? For people living in Kolkata, this is not so uncommon. “Bhagarer Mangsho” is a term used for Dog meat which was sold as Chicken Meat and this led to quite a situation in Kolkata.
Similar incidents have been reported around the World. Conversely, it can be detrimental to a Food Outlet selling food made from authentic meat to be accused of using the wrong meat. Examples can include Dominoes being accused of mixing Beef in their Chicken Pizza. These incidents have communal implications as well. By designing a Supply Chain Management Tracking System for Meat Industry, such problems can be alleviated as the source of the meat can be easily confirmed along with the preservation techniques and expiration date of the Meat.
InterPlanetary File System Based Projects:
6. Build your Portfolio site and Host it on IPFS.
IPFS or InterPlanetary File System has been for quite some time now and offers Decentralized Permanent Storage. The extensive use of Hashing of files also prevents unintentional duplicates from being stored. Study this storage system. Because this storage is free and permanent, this could essentially offer “Free-hosting” of Static Websites. Make your own Portfolio site and then host it on the IPFS. It counts as one of the easier projects to do but can demonstrate practical usage.
7. Decentralized Renting for Hard Disk Space.
The IPFS is a literal example of this. But can you design a DLT or Blockchain which would track which user is renting out which hard-disk space and what is being stored by observing the hashes (here a record of hashes is enough, you cannot really guess the content of a file using the hash of the file)?
Here’s a list of resources you can read-up on, Thanks to vasa for the list!
Intellectual Property Projects.
8. Tracking rights and shares of a Company.
Shares of a Company being traded publicly or the rights of the Board of Directors can be tracked and maintained by the use of Blockchain. Though seemingly simple, this kind of system can help to settle disputes arising out of ownership of shares and rights given to the Board of Directors when they join. As the state of the Data in the Blockchain is immutable, the disputes can be settled without the evidence being in question.
9. Blockchain-based tracking of Rights for Painting.
Assume there is an Organization which acts as the maintainer of records for Painting and Sculptures. Any painting being sold would have to register with the organization which would recognize the copies in circulation and authenticity of the High-value Painting sold in auctions. This data can be visible to everyone and is easily auditable. Design a Private Blockchain Solution for this classic problem statement.
10. Blockchain-Based Piracy Detection of Movies.
Piracy is a serious concern for Movie Industry. Be it Hollywood, Bollywood or Tollywood — piracy causes losses which amount to Billions to this Industry. But what would happen if every third-party vendor would have to upload a hash of the movie they are selling or something on the lines of that which would be used to uniquely identify the movie and its origin? These decentralized records would be visible to the Original Rights Owner of the Movie and would help curb the sale of pirated movies. There can be more modifications to this basic idea. A permissioned Ledger would help address the problems.
A similar idea can be implemented to put a check on piracy in the Game Development Industry, Music Industry and other fields where Intellectual Properties are concerned.
Ethereum Projects for Noobs:
11. Decentralized Election System.
Voting and Crowdsourcing are the 2 most common applications of Blockchain. There have been many projects on it. It’s even used for introducing students to Solidity Programming for Ethereum (you can check it out on the official documentation page). This can be a good starting point but doesn’t really count that much. Either way, can you implement a similar system with a twist of your own?
12. Simple Auction using Ethereum.
Again, a very common application with huge resourcefulness. Auction on Blockchain is a basic example and many frameworks use it to ease new learners into the field. You can make an auction for Car (check out Hyperledger Fabric or Convector Suite for even easier way), Bidding (Ethereum Official Documentation) and more. The hard part is to bring in your own twist into it and making it more efficient.
Conclusion.
In conclusion, I would like to state that there is a lot of scope in this field but only if you have your basics clear. You need to have a solid grasp over Cryptography, Decentralized Databases and a sense of where implementing these solutions would bring the best results. You cannot just implement a Blockchain or DLT anywhere you want (also, understand the basic difference between a Blockchain and a DLT).
As mentioned before, whenever you try to make a solution, make sure you build a complete one. Writing smart contracts doesn’t count as complete. Show your skills as a developer by making a full-stack solution. That would give you an edge over others.
Last but not least, never be afraid of reaching out for help. There are great developer communities (not just Stack Overflow) and tons of resources from where you can learn. Good Luck! | https://medium.com/nerd-for-tech/beginning-your-blockchain-journey-a-list-of-projects-you-could-do-fa82848dbe4b | ['Abhik Banerjee'] | 2019-09-29 16:22:42.003000+00:00 | ['Getting Started', 'Ipfs', 'Supply Chain Management', 'Blockchain', 'Projects'] |
My Grief Will Last Forever | But I’ve learned how to live with it with grace and peace
One of the few moments that our family drove out of town for lunch and see the sights.
October 10 was my mother’s 6 year death anniversary, and I still grieve over her passing. Grief never goes away, no matter how much I try; I just learned how to live with it over time. It took me a long time to accept that she’s no longer around and forever physically gone from this world.
I won’t be able to completely get over her death because she couldn’t be replaced — she was my mother. Losing your loved ones — may it be your parents, husband, wife, child, close relatives, or closest friends is way more traumatic and painful. It’s the thought that the person who once orbited your circle will no longer be around is something difficult to fathom.
Breaking up with a partner, losing your job, getting sick, or getting into an accident, and other life-altering events also make us lose our grip and could cause trauma, but we can move on. We can fall in love again or find another job, but we can never replace our loved ones who passed away.
Grief dulls over time though, but it lingers. It lingers as a tender heartache tucked away at the deepest corner of my mind. Then one day, just out of the blue, it hits me like a bus that I didn’t see from my peripheral vision — Regina George style. It happens when a memory of an old song plays in my head, and I suddenly tenderly and painfully recall lying on my mother’s lap while she was running her hand through my head lulling me to sleep. The memory seemed so fresh in my mind like it happened yesterday that I could even smell her scent.
Never a day goes by that I don’t think of her. Some days, grief is easy to deal with because the days can be hectic and chaotic and I can push my grief down to make room for productivity. However, on special days like my wedding, I was imagining the entire time what would it be like if she were there. Would she ask me to wear the pesky petticoat underneath my gown’s silk and tulle skirt to make it look fuller or will she let me let wear the gown without it? I could just imagine that we would have spent at least 30 minutes going back and forth discussing the pros and cons of wearing that damn petticoat. Since she was no longer around to debate with, I wore my gown without the petticoat, and I walked down the aisle with the softest silk and tulle fabric as the slight breeze gently ruffled my wedding dress.
My father met me halfway down the aisle, and I got misty-eyed as I was wishing that my mother was also there waiting for me, then giving me a kiss followed by an approving look on my wedding dress. I knew that day she was happy because her weird daughter finally found someone who would love her because he was also as equally as weird.
Also, if my mother were still alive, she would live with my sister to take care of her granddaughter, and she would be the best grandma ever. She would have showered my niece with love and affection, and Marga would be well-taken care of. She may not have even allowed my sister to carry her own baby.
Grief makes me think of all the things that could have happened but never will in a million years. I put the pain somewhere hoping that it would not creep up when I’m in the middle of grocery shopping when I see my mother’s favorite brand of shampoo or whatever.
We all grieve differently — let us all acknowledge that fact. We should not tell anyone who lost their loved ones to not be sad. That person will forever feel sad and miss the person who left this world. He/she will just learn to learn live with the loss with love, grace, peace, and hope that someday, we would be reunited with our loved ones.
To my mother, this article is for you.
I’ll miss you until I see you. | https://medium.com/@mayleencadiz/my-grief-will-last-forever-eefb3f04b59c | ['Mai Cadiz-Valencia'] | 2019-10-15 07:11:19.100000+00:00 | ['Death', 'Grief Recovery', 'Grief Support', 'Grief And Loss'] |
FLEX 2.0 BOB REVOLUTION SINGLE JOGGING STROLLER | The Flex 2.0 BOB Revolution Single Jogging Stroller earned a high position in our running buggy audit. With amazing run-capacity and strong outcomes in mobility and quality, the 2.0 is an incredible running carriage that skillfully explores swarmed spaces and harsh territory. While the BOB has lower usability and weight and collapsed size scores than a portion of the challenge, it offers smooth run-capacity and an increasingly rough look. These characteristics settle on it an incredible decision for those that worth demonstrated toughness over a minimized bundle. We prescribe this carriage for families who love being outside and going off in an unexpected direction.
Test Results and Our Analysis
In 1994, Roger Malinowski and Philip Novotny framed the Beast of Burden Company, which is presently called BOB, in San Luis Obispo, California. They saw a requirement for another sort of carriage, and the BOB Sport Utility running buggy was conceived. The men kept on reforming the buggy world with the primary locking swivel wheel on a jogger, making it more easy to understand. In 2011, the organization was procured by Britax.
Performance Comparison
The Flex 2.0 BOB Revolution Jogging Stroller is anything but difficult to run with customizable suspension following handlebar and locking front swivel wheel. These highlights likewise helped it win a high score for mobility.
Run-Ability
This buggy games a locking swivel front wheel, a structure that is by all accounts overriding the fixed wheel alternatives for genuine sprinters in our tests. The Revolution’s locking swivel front haggle following are both simple to utilize. The following keeps the BOB running straight, and as far as we can tell needn’t bother with alteration frequently.
The movable following on the Flex 2.0 BOB Revolution Single Stroller is anything but difficult to work and holds the buggy straight and valid for quite a while.
Notwithstanding being on the heavier side, the Revolution is anything but difficult to tip back and turn while running, with one of the least moving opposition in the gathering. The Revolution moves easily with elastic air-filled tires and movable suspension, and our expert sprinter feels it is a decent alternative for visit changing starting with one surface then onto the next.
The Flex 2.0 BOB Revolution Jogging Stroller ‘s customizable handlebar gives an assortment of alternatives to guardians of various statures. Tragically the rotate configuration implies that taller guardians will be nearer to the back hub and bound to kick it while walking.
The Flex 2.0 BOB Revolution Stroller offers a movable handlebar that assists guardians with keeping up appropriate running biomechanics. The froth secured handlebar has a wrist lash close to the center that functions admirably with two hands.
The Flex 2.0 BOB Revolution Single Stroller is simpler to use than the past variant of this BOB carriage with a bigger stockpiling canister and simpler to utilize lean back alteration include.
Convenience
The initial step of collapsing the Flex 2.0 BOB Revolution Jogging Stroller is crushing double switches on either side of the edge to open the stroller. The second overlap step for theFlex 2.0 BOB Revolution Stroller is pulling the red overlay handle situated under the seat base. The whole overlay process is simple however will require two hands.
Crease and Unfold
The crease on the Flex 2.0 BOB Revolution Stroller is two-given and requires crushing the switches on the two sides of the casing (above left) to start before pulling the handle under the seat to overlap (above right). The Revolution doesn’t auto-lock or self-stand, and the manual the locking system is kind of difficult to utilize and requires arranging ties to interface.
While the capacity receptacle on the Flex 2.0 BOB Revolution Single Stroller is enormous and accommodated our huge diaper pack we speculate most guardians won’t have the option to tell that it is 15% bigger than the past form (as indicated by BOB).
Storage
The enormous stockpiling receptacle is situated generally far under the carriage and can be difficult to reach. It approaches from the back and sides, and we had the option to accommodate our enormous diaper pack in the two different ways, however, it is simpler to use from the side. The canister has the most extreme limit of 10 lbs, which is normal for the gathering. The Flex likewise has a working pocket on the rear of the seat with a versatile top and inside work front seat pockets.
The Flex 2.0 BOB Revolution Jogging Baby Stroller sunshade is one of the biggest in the gathering and has an exceptionally simple to utilize look a-boo window. The shade can look somewhat tacky when open yet the predominant inclusion makes this plan blemish totally trivial.
Sunshade
The shade is extra-enormous and covers kids over their knees. It is flexible with a huge vinyl look a-boo window with a spread that has a snare and circle conclusion and a stow pocket to keep it open. The shade is made with water-safe canvas and has intelligent materials on the corners.
The Flex 2.0 BOB Revolution Jogging Stroller the outfit is anything but difficult to fix by pulling on the red side rings and the shoulder ties slide here and there for speedy tallness changes.
Harness
The Flex 2.0 BOB Jogging Stroller has a 5-point, a softly cushioned saddle that is anything but difficult to put on, take off, and change. It offers shoulder tallness change, a customizable groin tie, and midriff lashes with red force rings that make them simple to fix. The clasp snaps together effectively and opens promptly when the catch is discouraged without the requirement for over the top weight or two hands.
The sling-style seat on the Flex 2.0 Jogging Stroller is agreeable and satisfactorily cushioned with a practical level lean back and increasingly upstanding stance for better surveys.
Seat
The Flex 2.0 Revolution Jogging Stroller has a sling-style seat with a non-movable leg rest that stretches out down to a plastic hassock. The seat base is softly cushioned however has a crease that stumbles into the base behind the knee twist that could make scraping uncovered skin. The seatback leans back to a snooze cheerful practically level, and it has a progressively upstanding position. Leaning back the seat is simpler than the past rendition with a one-hand catch to lean back rather than two hands. When the seat is leaned back, a ventilation hole opens at the top for expanded wind stream.
Vehicle Seat Compatibility
The Flex 2.0 BOB Jogging Stroller is good with certain brands of vehicle seats. The entirety of the connectors are a two-advance procedure that remembers click-for and ties for legitimate establishment.
BOB 2016 Single Infant Car Seat Adapter for Chicco — This edge style Chicco connector works with the financial backing disapproved Chicco Keyfit 30.
Different Adapters — BOB additionally has connectors for an assortment of Britax and BOB newborn child seats, just as a connector for some Graco seats.
Simplicity of Setup
The Flex 2.0 BOB Jogging Stroller is generally simple to amass, taking 5:21 minutes to assemble. It requires a Phillips head screwdriver and the manual is longer and more nitty-gritty than most, however, this variant is simpler than the past rendition.
The Flex 2.0 BOB Jogging Stroller rolls easily all around with tough maneuvers and a great capacity for the speedy route from a bigger jogger.
Mobility
The Flex 2.0 BOB Jogging Stroller is anything but difficult to push on level surfaces, yet it is 2 inches more extensive than a portion of the challenge, so you have to go a little slower in tough maneuvers and littler spaces. Proceeding onward more unpleasant the landscape is similarly as simple as level, with a generally smooth change starting with one surface then onto the next. This makes it a decent choice for off-road pushing and open-air experiences.
The Flex 2.0 BOB Revolution Stroller has a customizable suspension that is anything but difficult to utilize and improves the quality and solace of the riding experience for travelers.
This Flex 2.0 BOB Stroller offers a generally agreeable ride with a sling-style seat, thermo-shaped cushioning, pneumatic elastic tires, flexible suspension, and cushioned shoulder ties.
Despite the fact that the Flex 2.0 BOB Jogging Stroller is around 500 cubic inches littler than the past rendition when collapsed it can at present be hard to fit it in littler vehicles. Guardians can evacuate the wheels to make it littler however they should likely despite everything twofold check their trunk space before focusing on this carriage. Fortunately, Amazon has a simple merchandise exchange.
Weight and Folded Size
The Flex 2.0 BOB Revolution Stroller weighs 27.3 lbs and measures 14,497 cubic inches. It very well may be made littler with the expulsion of the speedy discharge wheels. The ungainly overlay and heavier weight make the Revolution a harder carriage to lift and convey, yet the littler size methods it may fit in little spaces.
While utilitarian in looks, it is elusive any blemishes with the materials or development of the Revolution.
Quality
The Flex 2.0 BOB Revolution Single Jogging Stroller is a top of the line alternative with great quality. The Revolution’s texture is thick, tough canvas with a thermo-shaped seat and some intelligent edges for evening time permeability. The texture doesn’t catch, is water-safe, and simple to think about. The aluminum outline has no flex and is utilitarian with tight associations and pivot focuses. The texture fits the casing by folding over and doesn’t look very as completed or smooth contenders. The general look is to some degree unkempt, and somewhat crumpled, yet the materials are chosen. | https://medium.com/@harryoscar786/flex-2-0-bob-revolution-single-jogging-stroller-161ab8283dc3 | ['Harry Oscar'] | 2020-02-22 10:33:38.202000+00:00 | ['Stroller', 'Parenting', 'Baby', 'Moms', 'Child'] |
Did Democrats defeat Trump, or did Trump defeat himself? | Did Democrats defeat Trump, or did Trump defeat himself?
I can’t recall where one party won the White House without sweeping at least one chamber of Congress? In 2020, the Democrats easily captured the Presidency yet lost seats in the House and Senate.
The way I see it is that Trump lost the White House and Republicans won the Congress.
In 2020 the Democratic party stood by while the American people elected a government. In 2024 the Republican Party will retake the White House and increase their hold on Congress.
The Republican Party had completely hoodwinked the public before Trump came down the escalator. After January 20th, 2021, the GOP will eliminate all those who cling to Trump's coattails.
The Republican Party will continue on its way to building a one-party Oragargy/Plutocracy, whichever it is that the Republicans are trying to build.
Because most of the American population doesn’t care about others' rights and safety, our democracy/republic is moving downward in a spiral.
The Democratic Party needs completely new leadership at the federal level. We Democrats must define what the Democratic Party stands for, then let the rest of the country know.
The Democrats must never let the Republicans or any special interest group define who we are.
The past is the past. We are about the future.
Reparations for past injustices does not recognize that we are all in this together today. We are from many backgrounds, but today we all have equal rights fighting against those who deny us those rights.
Nobody owes anybody anything. We all owe ourselves to show up and vote on or before election day. We all must fight for everyone’s right to work, health, and education. All races, gender, religion, nationalities have to fight together.
The 2020 election made a convincing case that every vote we cast will count. | https://medium.com/@george8345/did-democrats-defeat-trump-or-did-trump-defeat-himself-c77f4c50ef78 | [] | 2020-11-19 17:35:15.785000+00:00 | ['Election 2020 To 2024', 'What We Owe To Each Other', 'Democratic Party', 'Togetherwebuild', 'Voting Counts'] |
3 Ways to Make an Extra Income as a Developer | 3 Ways to Make an Extra Income as a Developer
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Introduction
There are times when a little extra money on the side is much appreciated. Most of the junior developers find it hard to monetize their coding skills. They have the potentials, but they don’t know how to generate an income from their skills. Sometimes, they know but they don’t have the courage, or they just underestimate themselves.
In this article, we will cover some ways that will help you make an extra income as a developer. Let’s get right into it.
1. Freelance Work
There are hundreds of projects on freelancing websites where many easy jobs are being listed for beginner developers. The problem is that there is a lot of competition. However, don’t let this be an excuse for you, just go ahead and apply for jobs there. But make sure to have a good portfolio that represents you with projects that you have worked on. It might take longer for you to get your first client, but keep trying until you reach your goal.
Platforms like Upwork or Fiverr seem to offer a lot of opportunities, especially for doing things on the sidelines but be aware of the competition over there as I said.
2. Writing
Building software is not the only way to make money from coding. There are so many ways, such as blogging and writing about technology. Most of the developers today have their own blog where they write articles. As a result, many people can access those articles which can help you as a developer to market for yourself and generate an income from your writings at the same time.
There are also some great platforms that help you to easily set up your own blog and start making money from your blog posts. Medium is a good example of that, you can monetize your blog posts by joining their partner program.
3. Record and Sell Online Courses
The ability to teach people online is one of the best skills that are in high demand these days. If you have the skills and you love teaching people, you can create courses and sell them online. There are many platforms available for your courses to be published on. Udemy, for example, has about 75 million visitors a month and anyone can join them.
And even if it seems appealing that once a course has been recorded and people start buying it, it will create passive income for you, that is only true to some extent. The best teachers constantly update their courses because technology changes all the time. Keep that in mind.
Conclusion
There other ways to make an extra income with your skills, but I decided to give you only the ways that I have experienced and I saw people doing them. Keep in mind that things won’t work overnight. It is hard work, you have to invest your time and energy. I believe you can do it if you have the mindset to never quit no matter what obstacles come into your way.
“You can never quit. Winners never quit, and quitters never win.” Ted Turner.
Thank you for reading this article, I hope you found it useful. | https://blog.devgenius.io/3-ways-to-make-an-extra-income-as-a-developer-e8e580b40f61 | ['Mehdi Aoussiad'] | 2021-02-27 19:09:15.990000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Programming', 'Work', 'Money', 'Side Hustle'] |
How to pick the right Roku player from an increasingly confusing lineup | How to pick the right Roku player from an increasingly confusing lineup Terry Oct 27, 2020·4 min read
Roku’s streaming player lineup has erred on the side of maximalism over the past few years. Instead of funneling customers into a small number of options, Roku offers a streaming player for every conceivable need and budget.
Making sense of all those options has never been easy, but it’s about to get even harder with this week’s announcements of a new Roku Ultra, a new streaming soundbar, and forthcoming support for Apple’s AirPlay 2 media-streaming and HomeKit smart-home technologies. The sprawling nature of Roku’s 2020 device lineup means that there will be some new differences between products that didn’t exist before, and prospective Roku customers will need to choose wisely.
There are lots of other streaming devices to choose from other than Roku players, of course, but if you appreciate Roku’s simple software and are in the market for new hardware this year, here’s what you need to know:
2020 Roku features comparedTo help make sense of Roku’s 2020 streaming lineup, check out this chart comparing all the key features for each device.
Jared Newman / IDGThe sections outlined in green represent new features that Roku is introducing this fall. As you can see, they add some fresh complications to the Roku-buying process.
With the launch of AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support on Roku OS 9.4 later this year, for instance, you’ll be able to cast media to or mirror your screen on a Roku device from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac—but only if you have a player with 4K video support. Roku won’t say why its 1080p streamers don’t offer this feature.
Mentioned in this article Roku Express+ (2019) $39.00MSRP $39.00See iton Walmart In any case, the limitation means that the Walmart-exclusive Roku Express+, which was previously an excellent 1080p streamer, is now missing a major new feature. You could spend the same $40 on a Roku Premiere to get AirPlay 2 support, but then you’d get a vastly inferior remote control, with no TV volume or power buttons and no voice control. Your best bet is to spend an extra $10 on the Roku Streaming Stick+, which has both AirPlay 2 support and the better remote.
(The absence of HomeKit support on 1080p devices could be even more vexing for Roku smart TV owners, since they’ll miss out on being able to turn on the TV with a Siri voice command or looping their TV into smart-home routines.)
Similar dilemmas abound with Roku’s Streambar and Smart Soundbar. These devices are soundbars that double as streaming players, so when you plug them into your TV, they’ll provide better audio than your TV’s speakers alongside access to Roku’s catalog of streaming video apps.
Mentioned in this article Roku Smart Soundbar Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $179.99See it Unfortunately, neither of the company’s soundbars support Dolby Vision or HLG, the advanced high dynamic range formats supported by the new Roku Ultra streaming box. And as before, Roku’s soundbars don’t include headphone jacks for private listening, programmable remote control buttons, or a remote finder function. Those features also remain exclusive to the Ultra. And because the Ultra supports Dolby Atmos decode, it’s a better fit with fancier Atmos-enabled sound systems, rather than the non-Atmos soundbars that Roku makes.
In other words, spending more on a third-party soundbar means missing out on Roku’s most advanced streaming features. But getting an Ultra instead means giving up the tight integration between streaming and audio that makes Roku’s soundbars so appealing.
Even the choice between Roku’s two streaming soundbars is somewhat confusing. While the new Roku Streambar is much smaller and $50 cheaper than existing Roku Smart Soundbar, Roku representatives refuse to say whether one sounds better than the other. And yet, the company is leaving both soundbars on the market, expecting customers to figure it out on their own.
Roku Is there any reason to spend an extra $50 on Roku’s larger soundbar? Roku won’t say.
What’s a cord-cutter to do?That’s not to say all of Roku’s lineup changes are for the worse. The new Roku Ultra, with its expanded HDR support, speedier processor, Bluetooth audio capabilities, and improved Wi-Fi reception, can now more appropriately described as a high-end alternative to Roku’s budget streamers. And the idea behind the new Streambar—a combination steaming box and soundbar that doesn’t dominate your TV stand—does seem like a great idea.
But now more than ever, one gets the feeling that large swaths of the Roku lineup don’t exist to fill a need for users. Instead, they’re there to tick off certain boxes for Roku, like giving certain retailers the exclusive hardware they want, or making sure that its streamers are cheaper than everyone else’s, even at the expense of quality.
My advice: Ignore every low-end Roku besides the Streaming Stick+ (it’s often on sale for around $40 anyway), buy the Roku Ultra only if it satisfies specific use cases that you require, and consider Roku’s $130 Streambar only if you don’t own a Dolby Vision HDR TV and have no intention of buying one anytime soon. Everything else is just fluff.
Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter to get more cord-cutting news, insights, and deals delivered to your inbox.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@Terry48998640/how-to-pick-the-right-roku-player-from-an-increasingly-confusing-lineup-5bc9afd3f2f6 | [] | 2020-10-27 16:51:28.328000+00:00 | ['Entertainment', 'Streaming', 'Mobile', 'Home Theater'] |
Seattle Saudade | Seattle Saudade
This month marks the longest I’ve stayed in one place in the past decade, which has been full of false starts and frustrated aspirations, always going back to square one. This is home now. I’ve gotten to know the city well. But I never really moved here; I sort of just ended up here after an aimless peregrination that included working on a boat on the Columbia River, living at a Buddhist monastery for a month, and working on a goat farm for three weeks. After three years I find myself getting restless again.
I’m from a small town in Northern California 50 miles north of Sacramento, surrounded by miles of rice fields and orchards. The town itself is made up of fast food and restaurant chains, grocery stores, banks, two high schools and not much else. 10 miles out of town are the Sutter Buttes, the “smallest mountain range in the world” (though I don’t think that is an official or scientific attribution), a huddle of extinct volcanic outcroppings that rise surreptitiously above the valley that are almost entirely privately owned. I lived in the same two-bedroom apartment with my mother for the first thirty years of my life. My graduating class was thirty people. I was always trying to leave but always found myself coming back, oscillating between answering the call to adventure and the desire for comfort and security.
I first came to Seattle in September of 2015 while doing a publishing internship in Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula. One of my fellow interns was from Seattle and shared a house there with three or four other people and went back there on the weekends. I remember my first ferry ride from Bainbridge Island to Seattle. The sun was shining through billows of clouds as I stood on the deck and watched the city skyline come into view. I am forever proud of myself that I didn’t do the whole Titanic “I’m king of the world” thing like I saw several other people doing. As I know now it’s a dead giveaway that you are a tourist.
Nothing came of the internship and I ended up moving back home and getting a job at Target.Two years later, though, after working on a boat for a summer on the Columbia and Snake Rivers, going back and forth from Astoria to Clarkston and putting away about ten grand, I had the opportunity to move back to Washington to house sit for a few weeks and eventually found a place in the city.
It was the end of November, so of course it was raining. I rode the ferry from Bainbridge Island where I had been staying with a friend, with my suitcase and backpack in tow. I caught the bus in downtown and rode it across the blue and orange Fremont bridge into Wallingford where I was renting out a room on the third level of a craftsman three blocks from Greenlake. I dropped off my effects and caught the bus again to go to my first job interview, but caught the wrong route and ended up in Sandpoint when I needed to get to the Industrial District. If you know Seattle you can imagine my grief, but I was oddly calm and found it pretty comical.
Within a week I got a job at Goodwill loading and unloading trucks and sorting through donations. It wasn’t the best job, but it was full time and paid rent, and the 20% discount was a boon, since I had been wearing the same three outfits for three months.
On my second or third day there I made a small pilgrimage, walking from my house down through the University District, across portage bay to Lake View Cemetery, most well-known as the resting place of Bruce and Brandon Lee. But I was there to pay homage to someone less famous: the poet Denise Levertov.
My first Christmas in Seattle, three weeks after I moved here, it snowed. I’m from Northern California where it snows less than an inch every 10 years. It was Christmas Eve and I was on the dock unloading trucks and saw the snow falling, shining in the glow of the street lights. The next day I walked to a Chinese restaurant by my house and slipped at least 4 times on the way there and the way back.
After work I would explore different parts of the city; Chinatown and Pioneer Square and that zone between the two along 4th and 3rd avenue where all the homeless folks congregate, some sleeping in doorways, some waiting for the bus, some just waiting, then up through downtown, the buildings getting taller and shinier until reaching the manicured chicness of the retail district and sleek stateliness of South Lake Union, aka Amazonia. Sometimes I’d walk up through the Central District to Capitol Hill and pass the evening at Elliott Bay Books, trying to find something to captivate me, then walk the mile down Pike to downtown and catch the bus home.
Before I moved here I matched with a girl on Tinder. In fact we matched while I was in the air on my way to SeaTac. I got off the plane and exited the terminal and noticed a match notification. She had quoted T.S. Eliot in her profile. We kept up a very sporadic virtual correspondence during my two months of wandering, but by Thanksgiving our conversations had gotten more frequent, deeper, and more intimate. But I wasn’t about to move back home, to a place I’d tried to hard to leave, just to potentially get my heart broken. We didn’t meet until the following April when I went back home to visit and we spent the weekend together. She came to visit me a month later and we got stoned and wandered around the market rode the Great Wheel and saw Infinity War. The second time she came to visit me she stayed for one night and left the next day while I was at work. That was the end of it.
Seattle is a gorgeous and lonely city. The people here are nice but keep to themselves and their immediate family and friends. This is commonly known as the “Seattle freeze” and suits me just fine. I’ve always been good at being alone. I am by nature a solitary person and have always had a hard time opening up to people and making friends and keeping friends. I didn’t start dating until I moved here and am not very good at it. It takes me a while to get comfortable with someone, to really be able to open up to them. All of my relationships had evolved from friendships or acquaintanceships with people I knew from school or work or through other friends. But even I often find myself feeling lonely and bereft.
The last time I visited home was the end of February. Anxiety about COVID-19 was in the air but still hadn’t made its way to Washington State or the U.S., at least not officially. The day I flew back to Seattle was March 2nd, the day the first person in the U.S. died of coronavirus. I debated whether I should go back or stay in NorCal but decided to fly back so as not to jeopardize my job. The plane was at about 50% capacity and I had the entire row to myself. I was furloughed two weeks later. For three months I did nothing but watch Netflix, eat junk food, and collect unemployment. I didn’t write, I hardly even read. Each day around 3pm I would walk around Greenlake. There must have been over a hundred other people, masked, all walking in a counterclockwise loop as the signs requested, not knowing what to do with themselves, going in circles until they end where they began.
The other day, while walking to work, I walked past an opening in the trees along Phinney Ridge that looks out over to Ballard and across Puget Sound. It was 7:30am and the sun was rising. I could see the Olympic mountains on the peninsula rising above the low fog, blushing in the December morning sun. | https://medium.com/@m-julian22/seattle-saudade-1ecb1444eefb | ['M Julian'] | 2020-12-07 06:03:04.390000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Personal Essay', 'Nonfiction', 'Seattle', 'Saudade'] |
【人資必備 — 統整篇 】一次擁有人資常用的內部問卷調查，有效提升人員生產力及留存率！ | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://blog.surveycake.com/survey-human-resource-9fa7a2df6f0d | ['Surveycake Team'] | 2021-01-07 05:51:44.132000+00:00 | ['Satisfaction', 'Features', 'Surveys', 'Surveycake', 'Human Resources'] |
지루하지 않게 코노미 사진 4만장 어노테이션하기 (머신러닝과 함께) | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/naver-place-dev/%EC%A7%80%EB%A3%A8%ED%95%98%EC%A7%80-%EC%95%8A%EA%B2%8C-%EC%BD%94%EB%85%B8%EB%AF%B8-%EC%82%AC%EC%A7%84-4%EB%A7%8C%EC%9E%A5-%EC%96%B4%EB%85%B8%ED%85%8C%EC%9D%B4%EC%85%98%ED%95%98%EA%B8%B0-%EB%A8%B8%EC%8B%A0%EB%9F%AC%EB%8B%9D%EA%B3%BC-%ED%95%A8%EA%BB%98-619c60f8a071 | ['Doyoung Gwak'] | 2020-09-21 06:16:44.478000+00:00 | ['Semi Supervised Learning', 'Dataset', 'Image Classification', 'Annotations', 'Machine Learning'] |
Cerebrities | I knew of celebrities but not still cerebrities, in case you don't know who cerebrities are, they are those who remind us of things that matter for us and they often do it by doing things that matter. From all genres, categories, industries, sectors, and geographies they are leading us with what they achieve.
These cerebrities of course are for sure celebrities and really deserve that the Greyio heart expriment shed light on who they are, what they have achieved and now set to achieve. It’s not about biographies but about giving. Giving these pieces of words and links to thank them like what we have done with all these articles below that was sincere and named “thank you articles”
During this experiment here is how we named our headquarter
Cerebrities is just a naming but for algorithms, we prefer naming things accordingly that’s why we don't still use these names of powerful algorithms for exploiting this strange algorithm.
You may say that at Emb.., Book Dojo, Godda Game we like naming things.
we could just say as an answer that we believe in
and we run through our way to success with this belief in mind, leaving footprints for others to also succeed because it is without the what of the article below.
Hope you will be part of those persons but wherever you will be your part of, we agree that
PS: Book dojo’s graphical designer (me) had not enough time for adding a Heart to the featured image because we were not willing to make you wait for reading. | https://medium.com/@mkrdiop/cerebrities-5d982cacd2f3 | ['Diop Makhtar'] | 2021-07-15 11:04:41.516000+00:00 | ['Startup'] |
Why Choose Flutter Development Services for Your Startup? | Here is the comparison of the search volume of feature phones and smartphones. From this, we can estimate the popularity of smartphones.
When we come to startups and businesses, 80% of entrepreneurs always wanted to start their business from e-commerce, finance, entertainment, or other service industries. As a product of Google, Flutter UI framework is on the same path for offering up to the mark UI and UX to the user. Applications like Google Ads, Alibaba, Reflectly, Birch Finance, Hamilton Musical are made by using the Flutter framework.
Why Choose Flutter App Development Services?
Cross-Platform
Flutter offers widgets that are designed as per Android and iOS devices specifications. So a single user interface (UI) will run on both the platforms without any hurdles.
Hot Reload
Hot Reload feature benefits to the developer. Here the adroit Flutter developer will monitor the changes in the application easily. The UI and UX of Flutter will reflect the changes in the fraction of the timing. This saves lots of time and improves efficiency.
Compatibility with Other Programming Languages
The Flutter developed application will not demand redevelopment if it runs on another medium. Flutter is compatible with other programming languages so that the user can consider this as a financial advantage and an essential point for choosing Flutter development services.
Faster and Better Native Performance
With customized widgets and sophisticated interface, it is easy for the developer to develop the application that satisfies the user’s requirements. Flutter framework allows users to operate the application on the maximum speed with extraordinary performance.
Eye-Catching UI
A Mobile application must be user-friendly and Eye- Catchy. With the help of a third party and native codes, Flutter makes the development simpler and better. As discussed, many applications like Alibaba, Google Ads, Reflectly, Birch Finance, has most Eye-Catchy UI that makes better UX.
Functional and Reactive Framework
To develop a sophisticated UI, Flutter offers an effective platform and widgets. With extremely flexible APIs, developers can use all the creativeness in 2D and other animations. Using the functional and reactive framework, developers can increase their efficiency and creativity.
I believe knowledge should be shared with everyone. I hope my readers, businessmen, and entrepreneurs find this information helpful. | https://medium.com/flutter-community/why-choose-flutter-app-development-services-for-your-startup-hire-flutter-developer-53036deb60f6 | ['Priyansh Shah'] | 2020-03-28 15:50:25.628000+00:00 | ['Flutter', 'Software Development', 'Startup', 'Flutter App Development', 'Business'] |
21 of the Most Valuable Lessons for 2021 | 21 lessons (+ great quotes) to remember and bring with you into the new year.
Photo by Jeff Shore
I have high hopes for 2021. With 2020 (possibly the strangest year of all time) wrapping up, I am looking forward to the new year. Despite its craziness, there is still a lot that I learned in 2020 that I plan on bringing with me into 2021. Here are 21 valuable lessons that I will apply in 2021 that I’ve either experienced, re-experienced, or learned in 2020:
1. Life is unexpected
If 2020 taught us anything, it is that life is unexpected. After all, it doesn’t get more unexpected than a global pandemic that doesn’t allow you to leave your house. Still, we have a tendency to adjust very quickly to our ‘new normal’. We won’t always know what will happen next, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“Man plans. God laughs.” -Harlan Coben
2. Don’t compromise your values for a romantic partner
While dating was difficult to do in 2020, I did go on a handful of safe and socially distanced dates. Some went really well, some went pretty bad, and then there was everything in between. My one lesson with dating this year was not to compromise what I am looking for in a romantic partner. Too often in the past I would go on dates that went “so-so” and not listen to my gut that the girl just wasn’t right for me. I even felt a sense of fear ending things and disappointing her. This year I was much more in tune with myself and honest about what I wanted out of my romantic relationships.
“Dating is about finding out who you are and who others are. If you show up in a masquerade outfit, neither is going to happen.” — Henry Cloud
3. There is someone out there that will match your level of weird
We are all weird. We all have weird interests, hobbies, talents, etc. that can make us feel separated from the rest of society. But no matter how weird you might think you are, there is someone out there that is the same level of weird as you and will match your weirdness in ways you didn’t ever think was possible.
“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness-and call it love-true love.” -Robert Fulghum
4. Everything happens for a reason
If you know me or read my blogs, you know I truly believe this. Everything happens for a reason. The universe has a plan for us all, and while it might not make any sense to us today, tomorrow, or even ever, trust that there is a greater power at play.
“I trust that everything happens for a reason, even if we are not wise enough to see it.” -Oprah Winfrey
5. At the end of the day, only your family will have your back
This includes friends who are like family to you. You will meet a lot of people in your life, and some will be super interesting, cool, and fun to be around. You might even consider them family. It is great to have people like that in your life, but when you are facing tough times, that is when you will realize who your true family is. Only your family will truly be there for you when you need them the most. Regardless of any bad or dumb decisions you make in life, only family will be there with open arms to help you get through it.
“Ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.” -Lilo from Lilo & Stitch
6. You are who you surround yourself with
I used to hear this all the time growing up, but I didn’t believe it. It’s not until I got older that I realized this is true. They say you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with. I’m not sure if that math is exact, but it’s pretty close. There is a reason ‘cliques’ exist. There is also a reason ‘successful’ people spend time around other ‘successful’ people. Yes, sometimes opposites attract but they are usually opposites in personality only; their values are similar. We are all products of our surroundings, so the people you associate with and spend the most time with will shape the person you become, whether you like it or not.
“Always surround yourself with people who are better than you. If you’re hanging around bad people, they’re going to start bringing you down. But if you surround yourself with good people, they’re going to be pulling you up.” -Donny Osmand
7. If you aren’t constantly learning, you will be left behind
When I was young, I thought once I finished school I would be completely done with learning. Ah, the joy of being a naïve kid. Learning never ends, especially when it comes to your field of study, but even in life in general. Careerwise, you must constantly be learning if you want to make a difference and/or get that promotion. Along the way, new technology will be introduced, new advances will be found, and new concepts will be tested. If you aren’t up to date on these things, there will be someone else out there who is and will surpass you. You are better off learning as many things as possible because you never know when something will come in handy.
“There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.” — Jiddu Krishnamurti
8. Rest days are just as important as work days
I took a day of rest and journaled my thoughts and feelings on it.
“There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.” -Alan Cohen
9. You can spend your entire life working on yourself and you will never be finished
Self-Improvement is a never-ending journey.
“Self-improvement is the ultimate journey because you are battling yourself every day, trying to become a little bit better than the day before.” -Eric Golban
10. If you really want something, you have to go out and get it yourself
Nobody else can do it for you. If you have somebody in your life that is a crutch, aka somebody that you depend on during tough times, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Like I mentioned earlier, family can help us get through the darkest and most difficult of times. However, you can’t always rely on other people. At some point, there will be something you want really bad, more than everything you’ve ever wanted in your life, and you will have to work for it yourself to achieve it. When it comes to your own goals and your own life, don’t rely on others to get it done for you. Put in the work and do it yourself.
“If you really want something, you’ll find a way to do it. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.” -Jim Rohn
11. You will grow distant from people you were once really close to
I’ve experienced this many times in my life. Just this past week I was remembering a good friend I had that I used to talk to everyday, from morning to night. We always had a great time together. Now, we probably talk once a week and with very little substance. It is sad when you grow distant from those you were once inseparable from, but it happens. It is one of the experiences of life that every person will go through at one point or another.
“We grow apart because we grow in different stages and not all of our stages align.” -Dominic Riccitello
12. People won’t always remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel
I remember the first of several times that I heard this saying, it was like a lightbulb went off in my head. Most people won’t remember your exact words, but they will remember how those words (and actions) made them feel. This is a great reminder to always be kind to everyone you meet and treat them with respect. You never know who might need it.
“At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou
13. There is no true definition of success
What success means to you probably differs from what it means to me, which differs from what it means to him, and to her, and so on. A painter’s definition of what success is will likely be different from a businessman’s. Figure out what success is to you, and then seek out to achieve it through hard work and persistence.
“For me, success is inner peace. That’s a good day for me.” -Denzel Washington
14. Being vulnerable can be a beautiful experience
I am typically a ‘closed off’ person. I could know so much about a person because they have shared their life with me, yet they will know little to nothing about me. This year, I have made a conscious effort to be more vulnerable. In doing so, I have learned so much more about myself as well as have had some deep and meaningful conversations with others. Being vulnerable is not a sign of weakness, it can be eye opening.
“To make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength.” -Criss Jami
15. Happiness is a choice
For a long time I was unhappy. I would look at others and wonder how they could be so happy. It didn’t make sense to me. At one point, I decided to trick myself and lie that I was happy. I lied for a while, until I started to believe it! (I’m a great liar). Eventually I realized, happiness is a choice. Every day we wake up in the morning and we have the decision if we are going to be happy today or not. If we are going to make today a great day or not. Don’t get me wrong, you will experience moments of sadness, anger, frustration, etc. But at the end, choose happiness.
Don’t believe me? Try smiling for an entire day. Smile when you are alone, with others, and regardless of how you feel. You will see that just by smiling alone, your mood is improved!
“If you have absolutely no reason in this world to be happy, be happy for no reason.” -My Mom
16. Talking is easy, action is hard
We all know those people that are all talk and no action. I had a friend growing up that wanted to be a professional fighter more than anything. That was his dream job. But his actions didn’t match his words. He would be in his room most days playing video games, eating junk food and not exercising.
We all struggle with this. I purchased the domain for ericgolban.com for about 5 months before I ever wrote my first blog. I probably had the idea in my head for at least 5 months before that. It wasn’t until I started to take action that I started to see results.
“People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do.” -Lewis Cass
17. Most people argue just to hear themselves talk. You won’t change somebody’s mind.
This is especially true when it comes to politics. Constructive discussions can be a good thing to help stretch your mind. It can be a great thing if all parties involved are actually open to considering countering opinions. Unfortunately, 99% of the time you won’t change somebody’s mind with an argument. So, unless you just enjoy arguing, or you enjoy hearing yourself talk, your time is probably best spent doing something else.
“Discussions are always better than arguments, because an argument is to find out who is right, and a discussion is to find what is right.” -Anonymous
18. You get what you put out into the universe
If you put positivity and good vibes, the universe will give you positivity in return. If you put out negativity, that is what you will get. We are all mini-creators, and we can shape our own destiny and future depending on what we give out to the universe.
“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” -Paulo Coelho
19. Cleaning can be therapeutic
I recently cleaned out one of my closets after years of junk piling up in there, and it felt amazing. I love how organized my closet is now. When I feel like I’m in a slump, I enjoy taking the time to clean my room. To vacuum, make my bed, re-arrange my desk. The saying ‘A clean room is a clear mind’ has never been more true for me than in 2020. I even spent 3 hours shoveling snow last week just to make my sidewalk and driveway spotless, and it felt so rewarding!
“The objective of cleaning is not just to clean, but to feel happiness living within that environment.” -Marie Kondo
20. Consistency is the key to 99% of things that you want to accomplish
Why are athletes like Tom Brady, LeBron James, or Derek Jeter considered some of the greatest players in their respected sports of their generation? Not because they had 1 or 2 great seasons, but because they were consistently great.
How do you build a house? One brick at a time. I don’t post 30 blogs in the first two months of the year and then nothing for the next 10 months. Instead, I stay consistent posting every week on Wednesdays. The things that you really want in life will never be easy or quick. That is why it is important to constantly work at it and build up good habits.
“It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently.” -Tony Robbins
21. Be kind to others, especially when they don’t deserve it
If you fight fire with fire, the entire world will burn. This year, I learned that you should still go out of your way to show compassion and help others, even when you are certain they would not do the same for you. To take it a step further, you should still do this even when they criticize you and show signs of hostility towards you. The way they treat you might be a sign of their character, but the way you treat them is a sign of yours. It is easy to treat people with kindness when they deserve it, but a real test of character is to treat people with kindness when they don’t deserve it. Those are typically the people who need it the most anyway.
“Kindness is caring for others, even when they might not care for you.” -Randomactsofkindness.org
Originally published at https://www.ericgolban.com on December 23, 2020. | https://medium.com/@ericgolban/21-of-the-most-valuable-lessons-for-2021-cb95cf248475 | ['Eric Golban'] | 2020-12-25 14:02:14.136000+00:00 | ['Valuable Lesson', 'Self Improvement', 'Personal Growth', 'Personal Development', 'Self Help'] |
Exorcist has to be a Physicist | In order to analyse a dynamic system, we first need to be able to define it. For this purpose, I start with breaking down the supernatural into three main categories: the haunted objects, the spirits or the force fields acting on the object and finally the curse, the carrier of the force fields.
Haunted Objects
Photo by Artem Maltsev on Unsplash
Similar to the concept of classical objects in physics where you can precisely define an object’s position and it’s momentum, the haunted objects follow suit. If we recall any horror movies/ tv-shows, whether its fictional or based on accounts of people who have had spooky encounters, there are certain objects such as dolls, painting or mirrors, which keep appearing frequently. Most often than not, these objects move around the premises (e.g. in the house/ room) and are only active during a certain time of the day. According to basic Newtonian Mechanics, we need a force to move an object or change its position/ momentum. This force can be mechanical (for example you could move the object with your hand) or less conspicuous, such as an electromagnetic force that acts at a distance. There is likely the hand of electromagnetic force in causing the objects to move stealthily. So now the question is, where is this force coming from? This takes us to our next category, the spirits.
Spirits
Extending our classical object analogy, the spirits are akin to force fields. Mathematically, a conservative force field can be expressed as the negative gradient of scalar potential ( F = -∇Φ). The word potential, loosely speaking, is associated with the difference in the energy levels between the objects in space-time. Water flows from a higher point to a lower one, wind blows from high pressure to low pressure and heat flows from a higher to lower temperature. Greater this difference in energy/ potential, greater is the rate of flow. Using this analogy we can coin the word spiritual potential or spiritual pressure. This change in spiritual pressure will move our so called haunted objects around. So greater the difference in the spiritual pressure more energetically the objects will move. This segues into the next question of why only certain objects move or behave differently and why only certain individuals encounter the spiritual sightings or get possessed in some cases? The key here is the potential difference rather than our absolute states. Over time, energy can accrue and result in a significant enough difference to noticeably drive the object. Just like the hurricanes near coastal areas arising from the difference in air pressure over land and sea , or the lightening discharge from a high electric charge concentration, pent up anger or resentment when let loose, can wreak havoc.
Photo by NOAA on Unsplash
This explains why not every object in the house or place is the chosen one and why not just any person in the movie or in the book gets possessed. So what exactly makes the chosen object or individual special? Assuming that a supernatural entity possesses a higher potential energy, objects or people at a relatively lower potential energy will serve as better mediums. An exorcist will try to change the orientation of the object or place another object (preferably a metal) to conduct away the extra stored energy. Just like metal lightening protectors on top of buildings that conduct the electrical discharge into the earth when the lightening strikes. On some occasions, a crystalline solid is used to change the potential level of the premises. However, when dealing with a person, one has to change the individual’s energy level. This can be done by making certain changes in daily routine; adding or removing certain activities like exercise and changing diet, location or social circle. But what if even after doing all this there is no change in the person’s health or attitude? This brings us to our third category, the ‘Curse’.
Curse
Further extending our concept of considering spirits as force fields, we define curses as the force carriers. When you talk on the phone, the electromagnetic waves carry the information (energy), making the physical barriers disappear. Similarly, we can see the ‘curse’ to be carrying spiritual energy to the intended object or an individual. In the horror movies and tv shows we often see diverse curses with different methods of activating them. Similarly we have many force carriers in particle physics which are collectively called Bosons. The challenge here for the exorcist is to block the curse. In order to block a phone call, one can switch off the phone, put phone on air-plane mode, go inside a basement where the signal strength is weak, change the phone number or simply ignore it. The key is to get the mind off the caller. When one reads or sees something disturbing, the brain somehow replays it with its own version of events influenced by one’s past or present day encounters. This can create an accentuated level of threat or fear which in some cases can result in mental distress. Many people think that believing in a curse might continue to give it energy. Usually, the exorcist gives an individual a ‘talisman’ as an insulation to the curse; this is to keep the mind off from the fear. In some cases, the exorcist goes an extra mile to find the source of the individual’s fear. It’s the thought that one carries with him/her that needs to be dealt with. One way to tackle it is to practice ‘mindfulness’ or any technique that can help calm the hyperactive mind to bring down the level of fear. | https://medium.com/@negi-suchit/exorcist-has-to-be-a-physicist-39eccfe005c8 | ['Suchit Negi'] | 2020-12-10 12:36:30.328000+00:00 | ['Supernatural', 'Metaphysical', 'Halloween', 'Metaphysics', 'Physics'] |
Machine Learning Models. Machine learning is an application of… | Machine learning is an application of artificial intelligence (AI) that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed. Machine learning focuses on the development of computer programs that can access data and use it learn for themselves.
Now when we say, “without being explicitly programmed”, there has to be a system which does the job. Such a system is algorithm. An algorithm is a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer.
Machine learning algorithms derive their strength from their ability to learn from the available data.
We have different types of Machine Learning methods and they are based on various algorithms.
labelled and unlabeled data:
When you know the right answer to a question related to the data, then it is labelled data.
For example, you have an image, and the question is what object is in the image. If you know that the image represents a car, then it is a labelled image.
When you don’t know the right answer to the question, it is an unlabeled data.
For example, you have a lot of images and you don’t know the answer to which images belong to what category, then those are unlabeled data (images).
Types of machine Learning:
• Supervised Learning
-Classification
-Regression
• Unsupervised Learning
-Dimensionality Reduction
-Clustering
Semi-supervised Learning
Reinforcement Learning
1. Supervised Learning:
In supervised learning, the machine is given a dataset (i.e., a set of data points), along with the right answers to a question corresponding to the data points. Supervised learning model uses training data to learn a link between the input and the outputs.
The learning algorithm is provided with a huge set of data points with answers, i.e., a labelled dataset.
The algorithm has to learn the key characteristics within each data point in the dataset to determine the answer.
So, next time a new data point is provided to the algorithm/machine, based on the key characteristics, the algorithm should be able to predict the outcome/right answer.
1.1 Classification Problem
This refers to the ability to classify something into a distinct set of classes or
categories.
1.2 Regression Problem
Regression refers to the ability to predict values of a continuous variable
2. Unsupervised learning:
In unsupervised learning, the machine is provided with a set of data and is not provided with any right answer. Given the huge amount of data, the machine may identify trends of similarity. The algorithm will identify clusters or groups of similar items or similarity of new item with existing group.
2.1 Dimensionality Reduction
Dimensionality reduction is the process of reducing the number of random variables under consideration, by obtaining a set of principal variables. It can be divided into feature selection and feature extraction.
2.2 Clustering
we can use clustering analysis to gain some valuable insights from our data by seeing what groups the data points fall into when we apply a clustering algorithm.
3. Semi-Supervised Learning:
Semi-supervised learning falls somewhere between supervised and unsupervised learning.
Here, the machine is given a large dataset, in which only a few data points are labelled. The algorithm will use clustering techniques (unsupervised learning) to identify groups within the given dataset and use the few labelled data points within each group to provide labels to other data points in the same cluster/group.
4. Reinforcement Learning
Learning has to result in the machine sensing the external environment and choose an action based on its own state and the external environment, with the aim of maximizing a specific predefined goal.
Changing situations: for example, driving, game of chess | https://medium.com/@pinglavel/machine-learning-made-easy-series-3-2bc6bdfa0488 | ['Aniket Patil'] | 2020-02-22 06:36:51.609000+00:00 | ['Types Of Machine Learning', 'Supervised Learning', 'Unsupervised Learning', 'Reinforcement Learning'] |
Day4 for、while、repeat while 迴圈使用＆練習. (待更新錯誤） | 2020/9/4（部分待更新錯誤，迴圈的應用有點理解混亂）
2020/9/5（更新99乘法表的錯誤）
//for 迴圈
for 名稱 in 宣告的名稱{
}
例
// 1. 迴圈基本用法
var name = [1,2,3,4,5,6]
print ＝ [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
// 2.印出1...100
for index in 1...100{
print (index)
}
// 3. 印出 1~99
for index in 1..<100{
print (index)
}
// 4. 99乘法表
for i in 1..<10{
print("\\(i) * 7 = \\(i)")
}
// 5. if 迴圈印出字典內容
var fruitDict = ["red":"apple","yellow":"banana","green":"mango"]
for (key,value) in fruitDict {
print(key + ":" + value)
}
//where and for 迴圈運用
例
// 1. 印出雙數 （％是除 求餘數）
for index in 1...10 where index % 2 == 0{
print(index)
} print = 2.4.6..8.10
// 2. 印出單數
for index in 1...10 where index % 2 != 0{ //不等於整數
print(index)
}
// while 迴圈
// 持續執行到完成條件
var index = 1
while index <= 10 {
print(index)
index += 1 //沒設定這行 就會一直迴圈下去造成當機
} //pirnt 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10
//while迴圈 配合陣列使用
var animalArray = ["cat","dog","lion","tiger"]
var index = 0
while index < animalArray.count {
print(animalArray[index])
index += 1
} //印出animalArray
//while 配合 repeat使用 （跟while迴圈不一樣的點是 就算不符合條件，最少都執行一次）
var myCounter = 1
repeat {
print("just do it \\(myCounter) time")
myCounter += 1
}while myCounter < 11
//print 10次 just do it myCounter time | https://medium.com/@alangprs1/day4-for-while-repeat-while-%E8%BF%B4%E5%9C%88%E4%BD%BF%E7%94%A8-%E7%B7%B4%E7%BF%92-80c3ee56093 | ['燮羽 Will'] | 2020-09-04 16:22:14.831000+00:00 | ['Taiwan', 'Swift Programming', 'Practice'] |
Hackers Infiltrate South Korea’s Bithumb Exchange and Steal $30 Million | Bithumb hacked, over $30 million gone. Will users be compensated for loss?
Bithumb, the second largest cryptocurrency exchange in Asia and world’s sixth largest exchange by trade volume, reported it has been hacked earlier today, and that cryptocurrencies worth $30 million have been stolen; the exchange has suspended all payments and deposits.
Bithumb announced Wednesday morning that it had suspended all trading and transferred all assets to cold storage after determining that
Some cryptocurrencies worth about 35 billion won were seized between late yesterday and early morning today.
The exchange reassured customers that they will be compensated for lost funds in a Tweet that was later deleted.
The hacking incident is the second one involving a South Korean exchange this month. Two weeks ago, Coinrail exchange lost at least $37.2 million in crypto which included a variety of ERC020 tokens. Bitcoin reacted by dropping almost $200 following the revelation losing much of what it had recovered over the previous two days.
Bithumb transferred a large amount of Ethereum to their cold wallet after noticing “abnormal access” as early as June 16, and later announced a quick server check “to maximize security settings”. The maintenance which was meant to end at 9:00 am KST went beyond the scheduled time. They then announced on June 19, 2018, at 12:49 UTC, that they temporarily suspended deposits to facilitate a wallet change with their exchange services.
Due to this dubious behavior concerns are now being raised that the exchange might have hacked itself, and that, judging by the deleted Tweet, the hackers got a hold of more than $30 million. | https://medium.com/bitrates-news/hackers-infiltrate-south-koreas-bithumb-exchange-and-steal-30-million-752d1b9f8e7b | [] | 2018-06-21 09:57:09.458000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Bithumb', 'Exchange', 'Hacks', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
A Puzzle of Two Pieces | Puzzles take time and patience. Photo by Ben Stern
We’re separate pieces
That fit together
About the same size
Yet different shapes
The Puzzler with keen eyes
Snapped us into place
And was satisfied
To let us rest for awhile
Sometimes we get lost
Which is annoying
For what good is a puzzle
With one piece gone missing?
But when we’re together
Combined just right
Perfectly tight
It’s beautiful | https://medium.com/an-idea/a-puzzle-of-two-pieces-2736ec808ac4 | ['Rand Grey'] | 2020-12-22 17:04:06.900000+00:00 | ['Puzzle', 'Relationships', 'Free Verse', 'Poem', 'Broken Relationships'] |
Supplying Assets to the Compound Protocol | Supplying Assets to the Compound Protocol
The Compound Protocol is a series of interest rate markets running on the Ethereum blockchain. When users and applications supply an asset to the Compound Protocol, they begin earning a variable interest rate instantly. Interest accrues every Ethereum block (currently ~13 seconds), and users can withdraw their principal plus interest anytime.
Under the hood, users are contributing their assets to a large pool of liquidity (a “market”) that is available for other users to borrow, and they share in the interest that borrowers pay back to the pool.
When users supply assets, they receive cTokens from Compound in exchange. cTokens are ERC20 tokens that can be redeemed for their underlying assets at any time. As interest accrues to the assets supplied, cTokens are redeemable at an exchange rate (relative to the underlying asset) that constantly increases over time, based on the rate of interest earned by the underlying asset.
Non-technical users can interact with the Compound Protocol using an interface like Argent, Coinbase Wallet, or app.compound.finance; developers can create their own applications that interact with Compound’s smart contracts.
In this guide, we’re going to walk through supplying assets via Web3.js JSON RPC and via proxy smart contracts that live on the blockchain. These are two methods in which developers can write software to utilize the Compound Protocol.
There are examples in JavaScript and also Solidity.
Table of Contents for This Guide
If you are new to Ethereum, we suggest that you start by Setting up your Development Environment for Ethereum.
All of the code referenced in this guide can be found in this GitHub Repository: Quick Start: Supplying Assets to the Compound Protocol.
To copy the repository to your computer, run this on the command line after you’ve installed git:
git clone git@github.com:compound-developers/compound-supply-examples.git
Compound Markets
The Compound Protocol enables developers to build innovative products on DeFi. So far, we’ve seen crypto wallets equipped with savings APRs, a no-loss lottery system, an interest-earning system for donation income, and more.
The smart contracts that power the protocol are deployed to the Ethereum blockchain. This means that at the time of this guide’s writing, the only types of assets that Compound can support are Ether and ERC-20 tokens.
The currently supported assets are listed here https://compound.finance/markets. Based on the different implementation of Ether (ETH) and ERC-20 tokens, we have to utilize two similar processes:
The ETH supply method
The ERC20 token supply method
Like mentioned earlier, when someone supplies an asset to the protocol, they are given cTokens in exchange. The method for getting cETH is different from the method for getting cDAI, cUNI, or any other cToken for an ERC-20 asset. We’ll run through code examples and explanations for the two different asset supply methods.
When supplying Ether to the Compound protocol, an application can send ETH directly to the payable mint function in the cEther contract. Following that mint, cEther is minted for the wallet or contract that invoked the mint function. Remember that if you are calling this function from another smart contract, that contract needs a payable function in order to receive ETH when you redeem the cTokens later.
The operation is slightly different for cERC20 tokens. In order to mint cERC20 tokens, the invoking wallet or contract needs to first call the approve function on the underlying token’s contract. All ERC20 token contracts have an approve function.
The approval needs to indicate that the corresponding cToken contract is permitted to take up to the specified amount from the sender address. Subsequently, when the mint function is invoked, the cToken contract retrieves the indicated amount of underlying tokens from the sender address, based on the prior approve call.
Example code for each method (JS and Solidity) is available, open source, in the GitHub Repository linked above.
Connecting to the Ethereum Network
You will need to use the contract address for the particular network that you’re developing on; start by identifying the contract address for each network in the Docs. In this guide, we’ll create a fork of Mainnet, which will run on our localhost; copy the Mainnet addresses.
If you want to use a public test net (like Ropsten, Göerli, Kovan, or Rinkeby), make an Infura account at https://infura.io/ to get your API key. If you are using your own localhost test net, or the production mainnet, we will also use Infura.
If you are not hosting your own Ethereum node to access the blockchain, make an Infura account before continuing.
For more on connecting to a public Ethereum network, see the instructions in Setting up your Development Environment for Ethereum.
Supplying to the Compound Protocol on a Localhost Network
To run an Ethereum local test net on your machine, we will fork the Main network (a.k.a Homestead or Mainnet). This means that you can interact with the production smart contracts in a test environment. No real ETH will be used and no modifications to the production blockchain will occur. If you haven’t already, install Node.js. Click here to install the LTS of Node.js and NPM.
Let’s install all of the dependencies required by the project.
cd compound-supply-examples/
npm install
npm install -g npx ## or for yarn fans:
## yarn install
## yarn add global npx
This will install all of the dependencies listed in the package.json file, as well as a CLI tool called npx.
Run this command in a second command line window before you start running the code referenced later in this guide. The command spins up a test Ethereum blockchain on your localhost. It also seeds your localhost account with ERC20 tokens referenced at the top of the script file. Be sure to add your Infura project ID and Ethereum mnemonic as environment variables beforehand.
## Set environment variables for the script to use export MAINNET_PROVIDER_URL="https://mainnet.infura.io/v3/<YOUR INFURA PROJECT ID HERE>" export DEV_ETH_MNEMONIC="clutch captain shoe salt awake harvest setup primary inmate ugly among become" ## Runs the Hardhat node locally
## Also seeds your first mnemonic account with test Ether and ERC20s node ./scripts/run-localhost-fork.js
The script that we are running uses Hardhat to run an Ethereum node locally which has a fork of the history of Ethereum Mainnet. We have test Ether and test ERC-20 tokens that are seeded in the first account of the development mnemonic. Wait for the script logs to appear before continuing.
Running a hardhat localhost fork of mainnet at http://localhost:8545 Impersonating address on localhost... 0x5d3a536E4D6DbD6114cc1Ead35777bAB948E3643
Impersonating address on localhost... 0x35a18000230da775cac24873d00ff85bccded550
Impersonating address on localhost... 0x39AA39c021dfbaE8faC545936693aC917d5E7563
Local test account successfully seeded with DAI
Local test account successfully seeded with UNI
Local test account successfully seeded with USDC
DAI amount in first localhost account wallet: 100
UNI amount in first localhost account wallet: 10
USDC amount in first localhost account wallet: 100 Ready to test locally! To exit, hold Ctrl+C.
To change the types of ERC-20 assets provided to the account, uncomment the lines in the amounts object near the top of the run-localhost-fork.js script.
Supplying to Compound on a Public Network
If you are supplying to the protocol on the Mainnet, Ropsten, Göerli, Kovan, or Rinkeby, you should have already located and copied the Compound contract address for that network (see how above). You’ll need it for later.
You also should have collected some ETH for that network by purchasing/mining (Main), or a test net’s faucet (all the others). This is not necessary when using a localhost fork.
For example, here is Ropsten’s faucet https://faucet.ropsten.be/. You can send yourself 1 ETH every 24 hours from a single IP address. This is test ETH that is only applicable to the Ropsten test network.
Next, copy and safely store your wallet’s private key. Don’t do this if you are only testing on your localhost. The private key is used to sign transactions that are sent on the Ethereum network. The purpose of this is to certify that the transaction was created and submitted by a unique wallet.
If you are using MetaMask for your Ethereum wallet, open the menu, click the 3 dots on the right, Account Details, Export Private Key, and input your MetaMask password. This will reveal your private key. Keep it safe! Copy this value and save it for later.
It is a best practice to store a test key like this as an environment variable on your local machine. When a key is stored as an environment variable, it can be referenced in code files by a variable name, instead of explicitly with a string. This promotes code cleanliness, and reduces the risk of exposing your secret.
Again, if you are only testing smart contracts on your localhost Hardhat node today, don’t get your MetaMask private key. We’ll rely on a private key that comes from your environment variable mnemonic (see instructions above).
How to Supply ETH to Compound via Web3.js
Supplying Ether (ETH) to the Compound Protocol is as easy as calling the “mint” function in the Compound cEther smart contract. The “mint” function transfers ETH to the Compound contract address, and mints cETH tokens. The cETH tokens are transferred to the wallet of the supplier.
Remember that the amount of ETH that can be exchanged for cETH increases every Ethereum block, which is about every 13 seconds. There is no minimum or maximum amount of time that suppliers need to keep their asset in the protocol. See the varying exchange rate for each cToken by clicking on one at https://compound.finance/markets.
For more information on cToken concepts see the cToken documentation.
In order to call the mint function, you need to first:
Have ETH in your Ethereum wallet.
Find your Ethereum wallet’s private key.
Connect to the network via Infura API key (see above section Connecting to the Ethereum Network)
There are several programming languages that have Ethereum Web3 libraries, but the most popular at the time of this guide’s writing is JavaScript.
We’ll be using Node.js JavaScript to call the mint function. The following code snippets are from this Node.js file in the supplying assets guide GitHub Repository. Web browser JavaScript is nearly identical to these code examples.
Let’s import Web3.js, and initialize the Web3 object. It’s pointing to our localhost’s Hardhat node, which has 10000 test ETH in each of the test wallets. We get the same test wallet addresses every time we run a Hardhat node with the mnemonic environment variable (from the Connecting to the Ethereum Network section).
If you are using a public network (Ropsten, Kovan, etc.), make sure your wallet has ETH, and that you have your wallet private key stored as an environment variable. Also, have your Infura API key ready if you are deploying to a public test net.
Replace the HTTP provider URL in the Web3 declaration line with the appropriate network’s provider if you are not using the Hardhat test environment.
Next, we’ll add our wallet’s private key as a variable. It’s a best practice to access this as an environment variable.
If you are writing web browser JavaScript instead of Node.js, you can add the user’s private key to the Web3 object by using the ethereum.enable() command. Here is the alternative code snippet.
Next we’ll make some variables for the contract address and the contract ABI. The contract addresses are posted on this page: https://compound.finance/docs#networks. Remember to use the mainnet address if you are testing with Hardhat locally. The ABI is the same regardless of the Ethereum network that we are using.
The next section of code is where the magic happens. The first call in the main function supplies our ETH to the protocol by calling the mint function, which mints cETH. The cETH is transferred to our wallet address.
The three subsequent function calls are not necessary, but they are here for illustration. The first method calls a getter function in the Compound contract that shows how much underlying ETH our cToken balance entitles us to. The second function shows our wallet’s cToken balance. The third function gets the current exchange rate of cETH to ETH.
Our code sends 1 ETH to the contract, and gives our wallet cETH. The ratio of cETH to ETH should be in the ballpark of 50 to 1. Remember that the exchange rate of underlying to cToken increases over time.
Lastly, after the supply operation is complete, we’ll redeem our cTokens. This is what a user or application will do when they want to withdraw their crypto asset from the Compound protocol.
The first method, redeem, redeems based on the cToken amount passed to the function call.
The second method, redeemUnderlying, which is commented out, redeems ETH based on the amount passed to the function call.
Finally, we execute the main function and declare an error handler.
Here is the command for running the script from the root directory of the project:
node ./examples-js/web3-js/supply-eth.js
Script example output:
How to Supply a Supported ERC20 Token to Compound via Solidity
The following will run through an example of adding an ERC20 token to the Compound protocol using Solidity smart contracts. The full Solidity file can be found in the project GitHub repository.
Here’s an overview of supplying a token to the Compound Protocol with Solidity:
Prerequisites
Get some ETH into your own Ethereum wallet by purchasing/mining (or faucets on test nets). This will be used for gas costs. If you’re using Hardhat on localhost, you’re ready.
Get some ERC20 token, in this case Dai. If you are working in the production environment, purchase some Dai for your Ethereum wallet. If you are working with a Hardhat test blockchain locally, your test wallet will receive some Dai when you run the run-localhost-fork.js script.
script. Get the address of the ERC20 contract.
Get the address of the Compound cToken contract. See Dai on this page: https://compound.finance/docs#networks.
Order of Operations
You transfer Dai from your wallet to your custom contract. This is not done in Solidity, but instead with Web3.js and JSON RPC.
Dai from your wallet to your custom contract. This is not done in Solidity, but instead with Web3.js and JSON RPC. You call your custom contract’s function for supplying to the Compound Protocol.
Your custom contract’s function calls the approve function from the original ERC20 token contract. This allows an amount of the token to be withdrawn by cToken from your custom contract’s token balance.
Your custom contract’s function calls the mint function in the Compound cToken contract.
function in the Compound cToken contract. Finally, we call your custom contract’s function for redeeming, to get the ERC20 token back.
Let’s get started. First we’ll walk through the code in our Solidity file, MyContracts.sol.
We added contract interfaces. The first is for our ERC20 token contract, and the second is for Compound’s corresponding cToken contract.
We’ll be able to call the production versions of the 3rd party contracts using these definitions. We need to initialize them with the production address of the deployed contracts, which we pass to each of the functions in MyContract.
The first function in MyContract allows the caller to supply an ERC20 token to the Compound Protocol. We will need to pass the underlying contract address, the cToken contract address, and the number of tokens we want to supply.
The function first creates references to the production instances of Dai and cDAI contracts using our interface definitions.
Then the function logs the exchange rate and the supply rate. These calls are not necessary for supplying. They are there for illustration. You can see the amounts in the “events” output later in JavaScript.
Next, our function approves the transfer of ERC20 token from our contract’s address to Compound’s cToken contract using the approve method.
Finally, our contract calls the cToken contract mint function. This supplies some Dai to the protocol, and gives our custom contract a balance of cDAI.
After we have supplied some Dai, we can redeem it at any time. The following function shows how we can accomplish that in Solidity.
The redeemCErc20Tokens function allows the caller to redeem based on the amount of underlying or the amount of cTokens. This is indicated by calling the function with a boolean for redeem type; True for cToken, and false for underlying amount.
If there is an error with redeeming, the error code is logged using MyLog. Error codes for cToken contracts are described in the documentation.
Now that we have our code written, let’s run it!
Compiling
Hardhat has compilation as a simple command in the development environment. The compiler settings are configured in the hardhat.config.js file in the root directory of the project. Run the following command to compile the Solidity smart contracts in the contracts folder.
npx hardhat compile
Deploying
Once you have deployed your contract, the script will log the new MyContract address.
npx hardhat run ./scripts/deploy.js --network localhost Deploying contracts with the account: 0xa0df350d2637096571F7A701CBc1C5fdE30dF76A
Account balance: 10000000000000000000000
MyContract address: 0x0Bb909b7c3817F8fB7188e8fbaA2763028956E30
Copy this and save it for later. We’ll need it to call the smart contract’s function to supply Dai to Compound.
Executing
The Web3.js code that will invoke our custom smart contract can be found in the examples-solidity/ folder. Let’s run through the Web3.js supply-erc20.js script.
First, the script makes a Web3 object and points it to the blockchain network that we want to use to supply to Compound.
Next, we make a reference to our Ethereum wallet private key. This should be a wallet that has some ETH (for gas) and also Dai (to supply to Compound). Our script’s main function first transfers Dai from our wallet to MyContract.
Next, we make some references to MyContract, the Dai contract, and also the Compound cDAI contract.
Remember, the cToken contract addresses and ABIs can be found here: https://compound.finance/docs#networks, and MyContract’s address was logged when we deployed the contract.
Finally, we call our main function, which first transfers Dai from our wallet to MyContract.
Next we call the supplyErc20ToCompound function in MyContract, which sends 10 Dai to Compound in exchange for cDAI.
The next 2 function calls are not necessary for supplying. They illustrate how to get the balance of underlying ERC20 asset in the protocol and the amount of cTokens that MyContract now holds.
Lastly we call the redeemCErc20Tokens function in MyContract to redeem the cDAI for Dai. The example utilizes the redeem method by passing a cToken amount. Under that, there is a redeem underlying amount example, which is commented out.
Now we’re ready to run!
If you are running this on a public network, you’ll need to acquire Dai for that network.
To execute the script, navigate to the project root directory and run:
node ./examples-solidity/web3-js/supply-erc20.js
If successful, the output of the script will show something like this:
Remember that this code will work with any of the ERC20 tokens that Compound supports. You will need to swap in the corresponding ERC20 token contract address and ABI into the JavaScript. | https://medium.com/compound-finance/supplying-assets-to-the-compound-protocol-ec2cf5df5aa | ['Adam Bavosa'] | 2021-10-13 23:09:18.064000+00:00 | ['Web3', 'Compound', 'Ethereum Development', 'Solidity Tutorial', 'Ethereum'] |
How Fritz Demopoulos found his multi-billion-dollar ideas | Fritz Demopoulos at Phocuswright Europe 2018. Photo: courtesy of PhocusWire.
“We were having a drink at The Den in Beijing,” Fritz Demopoulos recalls. The year was 1999, and The Den was the spot for power brokers to hobnob back then. “Rupert Murdoch has told us that News Corp, one of the biggest media corporates in the world, makes a lot of money from sports. We thought, ‘Wait a minute, if traditional media makes a lot of money from sports, why can’t we bring sports online?’”
Shawei (“brave shark” in Mandarin Chinese) was soon launched. In the span of a year, it became China’s largest sports internet company and sold to Tom.com in a US$20 million deal. Yet Shawei’s success was dwarfed by Fritz’s next venture: Fritz and his co-founders went on to found Qunar, China’s first and largest travel portal valued at US$4.4 billion.
Where did Fritz’s billion-dollar ideas come from? The spark of innovation “sometimes seems as if it comes out of the ether,” Fritz observes. “Does it come from the unconscious? No. I believe there’s a rigorous and systematic way to come up with entrepreneurial ideas.” At Chinaccelerator’s annual 8x8 event, the serial entrepreneur lays out four methods of idea creation and positioning for founders. Let’s dissect them.
1. Visionary founders
Among founders who have passed into legends, Jack Ma, as Fritz puts it, has a “messianic vision to help businesses do businesses better” — whether with Alibaba’s enterprise marketplace, consumer business, or payment cloud. For “super-app” Grab, the vision wasn’t to get people from A to B with ride-hailing, but to “drive Southeast Asia forward.”
“The thing about visionaries is that they see things other people don’t see clearly and they hear things that other people don’t. There’s a fine line between being a visionary and seeing something people don’t see and being considered nuts,” — Marc Porat, CEO and cofounder at General Magic, the “most important dead company in Silicon Valley.”
In 1992, Marc Porat holds up the design of what is now the iPhone in a scene from General Magic–A Film by Sarah Kerruish and Matt Maude. Photo: courtesy of Spellbound Productions.
Now, is your co-founder visionary or delusional? The truth is that you can never tell until the vision is realized. True visionaries almost always have a touch of fanaticism verging on the dysfunctional. Steve Jobs comes to mind: a fanatic with a steadfast, absolute reverence for the vision. Jobs learned from General Magic and eventually realized its vision more than a decade later, in the form of the iPhone.
2. The “can’t-miss genius”
These ideas abound in Silicon Valley or university labs: specialty AI, a superior understanding of certain niche areas such as human-computer interaction or machine vision. “This I describe as a pedigree-driven approach: a solution looking for a problem. It may be a slower approach, and we don’t see it too often, but we do see it,” Fritz observes.
3. The problem-solver approach
As the founder of Queen’s Road Capital, Fritz has been investing in technology companies for a decade. Citing Eric Ries’ classic text Lean Startup, he encourages founders to get up close and personal with customers. Here’s an example of a New York-based company looking to change the personal assistant industry.
What’s amazing about these founders is that they have interviewed 100 personal executive assistants. They video-taped these conversations, they documented them, they prioritized, they created meta tags to figure out the exact pain points and then create amazing products and services around that.
“As an investor, I love that approach,” he says. An intimate understanding of people with real pain points can lead to companies that disrupt several industries at once, creating whole new segments. Think Airbnb and the sharing economy. While the number one reason startups fail is still lack of market need, getting the problem right might sound easier than it is.
4. The “show-me-the money” approach
Also dignified by Fritz as “the businessman approach”, this was how he and his team co-founded three companies over the years.
Just as Shawei.com was born over drinks at The Den, Fritz’s next venture was made in the lobby of the China World Hotel. Having found out that half of magazine advertising spending went to women’s magazines, the team created a digital women’s magazine to catch this wave. Gaogenxie (“high heels” in Mandarin) came about and successfully merged with another company not long after.
Bitten with the startup bug, the team thought that they had it in them for one more. “We keep downgrading ourselves: now we met at a Starbucks at the Hong Kong Airport Express. We thought that the three of us had to make another business,” Fritz remembers. One of the co-founders said, “Google was this huge company. Why don’t we figure out where Google makes most of its money and carve out a piece for ourselves?”
“Google’s biggest areas were travel, financial services, automotive, and medical care. Those were the four biggest verticals in 2004–2005. I said let’s pick one and build a better mousetrap,” says Fritz.
Qunar (“where are you going?” in Mandarin) was launched in 2005 as China’s first travel search engine. The rest is history. The company was listed on the NASDAQ and later acquired by Ctrip in 2015. Years after Jerry Maguire, “Show me the money!” still makes bank.
Honorable mention: the imitation approach
Confucius once said, “By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is the noblest; second, by imitation, which is the easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.”
In entrepreneurship as in life, as Fritz puts it, “you can think about things, you can learn from your mistakes, or you can copy others.” Analytically minded entrepreneurs can go to the website of top venture capital firms, research the top 50 companies they invest in in the last 12–24 months, and find the patterns. “Look what ‘smart money’ is doing. Or write to William Bao Bean,” he quips.
A few final thoughts from Fritz | https://medium.com/sosv-accelerator-vc/how-fritz-demopoulos-found-with-his-multi-billion-dollar-ideas-e1dedfc50c95 | ['Lace Nguyen'] | 2020-12-11 20:30:51.384000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Cross Border', 'China Startup', 'China'] |
Annoying things in Scala 2 that’ll be (mostly) gone in Scala 3 | Photo by JuJu Lyn on Unsplash
EDIT 2020–10–07: corrected to remove factual error in “Underscores” — thanks to Daniel Spiewak for the tip.
Introduction
The original inspiration for writing the article was this blog post by Daniel Ciocîrlan. I was somewhat flabbergasted: are we really still discussing Scala’s underscore ambiguity in 2020? That can only mean one thing — Scala 2’s language definition problems are so fundamental we still haven’t gotten around to mitigating them after so many years.
Luckily, Scala 3 is on the horizon. It introduces a multitude of changes to the language, and promises to make it more usable than ever. Will it do good on this commitment, especially when removing the common pain points?
This article represents an attempt of investigating just that. I have subjectively selected several language features in Scala 2:
that are at least passingly familiar for Scala programmers through all levels of expertise,
make understanding and using the language more difficult, or simply less “fun”,
and explored the equivalent features of Scala 3/Dotty.
Underscores
We’re starting, of course, with a look into Scala 3/Dotty’s handling of the “underscore problem”. Well, the “wildcard” and “placeholder” semantics are still in place (I would personally classify “Lambda Sugars” referred in the aforementioned blogpost to one of the two). However, the ambiguity has been reduced on other fronts.
EDIT 2020–10–07: removed erroneous info about _ being gone as a default value initializer (it’s still there, and works exactly as with Scala 2 — valid only for var , not val ). Thanks to Daniel Spiewak for the tip.
First of all, eta-expansion is much more intuitive now. When reifying a method such as:
all you need to do is:
As the doc examples demonstrate, this even works for multi-argument lists:
Compare the above to Scala 2:
Admittedly, you still have to use the “full” syntax for partial applications:
this is not a problem in practice: the first example follows the “placeholder” intuition for underscore, and the second is arguably a sign of bad signature specification.
Finally, an interesting development are the changes in type parameters, going from:
to:
This brings Scala’s type parameters syntactically closer to Java’s generics, which ever-so-slightly reduces the learning curve of the former language.
More advanced readers will note that, in Scala 2, ? is used by the kind-projector plugin. And good news on that front – not only is the kind projector concept included into core Scala 3, there’s also a dedicated symbol for it: * , which means now we’ll be writing:
for example.
Since the change has significant implications for existing code bases, and Scala 3 aims for as much interoperability as possible, a detailed migration plan has been declared — it’s available here, along with some additional context on the type wildcard changes.
Implicits
The other semantic overload hell in Scala 2.x. implicit can mean, among others:
implicit conversions,
typeclass and ADT definition/derivation,
extension methods,
polymorphic methods,
method/constructor dependencies in the implicit scope (like ExecutionContext ),
), context bounds for generic parameters.
And these are just the semantic variants of implicit – syntactically, it could be virtually anywhere: class definitions, value definitions, method declarations, method signatures etc. etc. etc. Overall, understanding implicit is probably the greatest barrier to entry for mastering Scala 2, certainly more significant than the ambiguity of _ .
Indeed, it becomes apparent that a significant amount of work went into cutting through that tangle. On the syntactic front, the overloaded implicit keyword has been phased out, and replaced by several more localized ones: given … as , using , extension . But this is really more of a symptom of the more fundamental change – the semantic split.
Implicit scope
Let’s look at the “original” meaning of implicits — the scope, and the members supplied within that scope. These are now Context Parameters. To supply a context parameter, you use the given keyword:
Note that, unlike implicitly scoped values in Scala 2, an identifier is optional. Although, if you want or need it, you can always provide it:
On the other side of the equation, you declare demand for a context parameter with the keyword using :
A using clause identifier – in this case, enc – is also optional. This has the same applications as in Scala 2, namely context bounds (although the shorthand for that is still there) and direct invocation of extension methods.
For implicit scope dependencies/”defaults”, there’s a concept of Alias Givens:
which are pretty much like the “old” implicit-scope lazy vals.
This leaves us with actually gluing the usage and declaration together, which, like in Scala 2, is done through bog-standard imports. However, unlike Scala 2, there’s been some usage improvements. While you can still import by identifiers directly:
given s now have an additional explicitly separate import scope:
Take a closer look at the snippet. For given s, we are no longer focusing on the identifier, but on the type – quite a bit more intuitive in the context of given / using .
If you’re so inclined, you can even go with a wildcard import:
which will import only given s in the given (heheh) scope.
More information on given imports, including the migration plan, can be found here.
Extension methods
Let us now consider another popular use case for Scala 2’s implicit , extension methods. In previous Scala versions, extension methods didn’t really exist as a language-level concept – rather, they were more of a design pattern, exploiting several features of implicits (and the features used changed across Scala 2.x versions). In Scala 3, extension methods are a first-class syntax citizen, and defining them is as easy as using the appropriate keyword:
For the nontrivial cases, using implicit conversions is pretty similar to the previous versions of the language: either available for import through some identifier, or inclusion in the relevant implicit scope. More information, including import rules, and writing parametrized extensions, can be found here.
Typeclasses
Typeclass definitions are simply a combination of the concepts outlined above — parametrized given s providing extension methods. So, no more TypeclassOps , and no more being tripped up by multiple implicit scopes.
Dotty also includes some powerful auxiliary facilities for deriving typeclasses. In fact, a proper in-depth treatment of typeclasses in Dotty deserves a separate blogpost of its own (if only due to the required length). Until that’s written, I recommend reading the substantial documentation.
Implicit conversions
Now for implicit conversions. While they are still a part of the broader given (so, implicit) functional concept, they were bestowed with their own little niche. An implicit conversion is now simply a given subclass of Conversion[-From, +To] :
As always, implicit conversions are to be employed in very limited circumstances, such as cumbersome interop with legacy libraries.
NOTE: another identically-titled documentation page appears to be an out-of-date artifact, not representing the final direction in which Scala 3 is going with conversions.
Overall, Scala 3 appears to deliver what most Scala developers wished for in terms of implicits — the detanglement of disparate language features from a huge conceptual blob into a series of small mental “compartments”.
For those interested in more detail, the Dotty documentation page includes both a thorough Motivation section, and a glossary of correspondence between Scala 2’s implicits, and Scala 3’s language constructs.
enums
Ah, Scala 2’s enums. Most mid-and-up Scala programmers are acquainted with at least three enum abstractions — the standard library Enumeration class, sealed traits, and enumeratum (and there’s more!). While quite a number of coders argue that enumeratum is the most comprehensive treatment of enums in Scala 2 [citation needed], no clearly dominant "winner" has emerged so far.
Dotty’s creators are, of course, evidently aware of this problem. So, what’s the revolutionary change in Scala 3? Why, no less than an enum keyword!
of course, fields and methods are also fully supported:
(and yes, there’s also proper Java interop)
Joking aside, this appears to be the way to go. Scala 2 tried to make enums a second-class citizen of the language, and it clearly didn’t take.
ADT
Weirdly enough at first glance, enum is not only for enums in Scala 3. It’s the endorsed abstraction for (G)ADTs:
This works, because, like sealed trait families, enums form fully self-contained hierarchies – implying identical advantages for compile-time checks, serialization, etc. The construct is flexible enough for the main example in the docs to be… an Option implementation.
A word of concern, ‘though. enum , to my mind, does not immediately speak "ADT" – this is something that can blindside new Scala 3 developers. The chosen approach evokes the conceptual overload for _ and implicit in Scala 2, with all of its problems (although admittedly at a potentially smaller scale). Time will tell whether this will be the case.
Summary
Regardless, it’s safe to say we can reach an encouraging conclusion — removing harmful and confusing quirks was on the forefront of those involved in Dotty/Scala 3s development. The vast majority of the outlined changes render the new version easier to understand, and easier to learn piece-by-piece.
Such sweeping changes in a language require careful planning (remember the case of Python 3?). As already noted in this post, each potentially disruptive alteration is treated with either a detailed migration plan or preserving the old syntax with future rewriting facilities.
Many, many more modifications and new features have been introduced in Scala 3 than we’ve covered here. While this post focused on applicability to most Scala devs’ work, a future article will concentrate on more obscure (and/or controversial), but no less revolutionary adjustments to the language.
In the meantime, I invite you to try out Dotty/Scala 3 through these few short steps, and read more about the upcoming changes in the reference documentations. | https://blog.softwaremill.com/annoying-things-in-scala-2-thatll-be-mostly-gone-in-scala-3-e1479a6d855c | ['Mikołaj Koziarkiewicz'] | 2021-03-12 19:43:10.564000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Scala', 'Scala 3', 'Dotty'] |
Linear Regression in Python | In linear regression, we have given an input vector X with only one parameter with n entries, and also the output vector y our task is to find a relationship such that we can find the value of y of a previously unknown x.
Let's now see how this task is accomplished first we will go through the mathematics and see the algorithm from a statistical point of view and then we will see the machine learning point of view followed by implementation in python.
Statistical View Point
This is the equation of linear regression.
here,
beta0 is the intercept of the regression line and it is constant.
beta1 is the matrix of weights of matrix x.
To compute the linear regression hypothesis we have to find the most appropriate weights but the big question is here how? the answer is simpler by comparing the result of the hypothesis with the given output yi and minimize the error.
Mean Squared Error
Now the question is how would the error be calculated? We calculate by summing up the square of the difference between the y_hat and y and divide them by the total number of inputs, it is known as mean squared error (MSE) pretty intuitive name,
The error function is also known as the cost function which we will see when we learn about the machine learning point of view.
To minimize the error function we will use differentiation: differentiating with respect to beta and setting the first derivative to zero.
So the final prediction is
Machine Learning Approach
In machine learning point of view, the hypothesis equation remains the same, and the error function is referred to as the cost function but here is a major difference. The cost function is not minimized with that dreadful-looking equation as it is computationally very very expensive because we have to find the inverse of a matrix and for huge matrices, inverse is a pretty expensive operation. The solution here is gradient descent an efficient algorithm to minimize the cost function.
Gradient Descent
Gradient descent is an optimization algorithm that works pretty well in linear regression let me give you an intuitive understanding of the working of the algorithm. Suppose you are on the tip of a mountain and you want to come down to the lowest point so you would start coming down the best approach here would be a strategy to get to the bottom of the valley quickly is to go downhill in the direction of the steepest slope, that’s exactly what gradient descent does it find the steepest slope to come down fast it finds the gradient of the weight and it goes in the direction of the decreasing gradient until it reaches zero which is minimum.
Now, let’s see how it is implemented. The weight vector is initialized randomly and then it improves gradually taking one step at a time each step attempting to decrease the cost function until the algorithm converges to a minimum.
Learning Rate
Here the most important factor is the learning rate alpha which determines the size or the length of the step it is crucial in finding the appropriate minimum, if the learning rate would be too small the algorithm will never converge while if the learning rate would be too large then it might overshoot and never converge.
Convex vs Concave curve
Concave Error Function with multiple minima
Convex Error Function with a single minima
When the error function is convex then it is easy to find minimum as it is only one while in the case of a convex function there can be multiple minima i.e. there are many local minima and one global minima and the learning rate should be appropriate to jump over to local minima but it should not be large enough that it even misses the global minima.
Python Implementation
So now we have seen both the statistical and machine learning approach let’s implement the algorithm in python and watch it in action.
Linear Regression from Scratch
Linear Regression using Sklearn
>>> import numpy as np
>>> from sklearn.linear_model import LinearRegression >>> X = np.array([[1, 1],
[1, 2],
[2, 2],
[2, 3]])
>>> y = np.dot(X, np.array([1, 2])) + 3 >>> reg = LinearRegression().fit(X, y)
>>> reg.score(X, y)
1.0 >>> reg.coef_
array([1., 2.]) >>> reg.intercept_
Regression Line
You can see here that the regression line made by plotting y_hat against X_train is linear.
If are reading this then congratulations you have made it to the end of the blog and if you have any problem or issue please comment it out, if you like it please clap for me. | https://medium.com/roottech/linear-regression-in-python-a587dc7fe063 | ['Aman Kumar Goyal'] | 2020-11-03 10:45:45.104000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Linear Regression', 'Python', 'Statistics'] |
Who is Lil Truth | Brandon Hack, known professionally as Lil Truth, is a profound singer-songwriter from Toronto, Ontario. The genre bending artist appeals to many, with his smooth vocals and punchy lyrics that capitalize on all sub-genres of pop and rnb music. He is a romantic man of music that can make you reminisce the feelings you’ve had for a former lover while pushing you forward to find new ones. Truth’s music pays homage to the likes of Michael Jackson, George Michael, and fellow Canadian, Drake. The self taught singer is also a vocal engineer and producer. Diving into the messages within his music, it’s clear that he’s emphatic on love while understanding it also can be horrific. “Love is yin and yang, something that appears to be bright and beautiful can end up being dark and atrocious. Someone can love you for the weird things you do then hate you for those exact things.” — Lil Truth
https://www.instagram.com/_liltruth/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/_liltruth?lang=en
https://liltruth.com/ | https://medium.com/@billtan666/who-is-lil-truth-15211fe2fcc0 | ['Bill Tan'] | 2020-12-27 19:35:57.465000+00:00 | ['Entertainment', 'Artist', 'Biography', 'Music', 'Pop Music'] |
Design patterns: Facade. Real examples in Swift | This article is a part of the design patterns post series. Design patterns, in general, are key to stop reinventing the wheel in most of the common developer challenges. I think that design patterns are great as a resource which can spend your time.
Here you can find a post about the difficulties of a variety of tutorials and courses, and there a gave a list of sharableknowledge and technologies which will be useful on any developer’s job and which you can apply to any platform and stack.
But let’s talk about the Facade pattern
Facade is a structural design pattern that provides a simplified interface to a library, a framework, or any other complex set of classes. From book “Dive into design patterns”. (It is not an ad)
The explanation is pretty simple, but the main problem of all design patterns and shared knowledge, in general, is an abstraction. That means that the same definition can be understood differently. That’s why the main goal here is to understand the pattern principle and apply it to real tasks.
Real examples or situations where the facade in any form of implementation should be applied
Let’s remember the “Back to the Future Part III” movie. There is a huge mechanism in a Doc’s garage.
Looks great, but anyone can’t work with this, except you Doc
And only after launching this machine we understood that it is just a refrigerator. You can imagine that this machine is a software of some difficult but useful library or framework. This difficult form of any mechanism (or software) creates a lot of problems:
Only the creator of the library or framework can quickly launch, setup, or adapt this library of frameworks to work. All other developers should learn the implementation of this event if they don’t have to. Different developers can setup this library or framework in a wrong, non-optimal way (because they can’t and don’t want to learn the core of this library and framework, they just don’t have time for it). One day this library or framework can be changed, updated, or replaced on another difficult complex solution, and points 1 and 2 should be repeated, and all code that depends on the old library should be refactored.
Facade Swift implementation part
These problems are pretty common to any software development because we always work with third-party libraries or with custom solutions.
Custom plugin for payments
Let’s imagine that you are working on a project where someone from your team wrote the custom payment library and this library even has documentation. But it is not a key here and you still need to read and understand this documentation, write your setup of this library (or find it in another place in this project). And even if you will be done it is still difficult to replace this library with another later.
This simple facade can solve a lot of problems with difficult complex software. All of these manipulations inside the makePayment function should be written each time in all modules which need payment functionality. But with this facade, you can easily work with it without any knowledge about this library. All that you need here is to understand that you just have a list of customer payment methods and simple function which can do magic for you under the cut.
So this facade should be written by the creator of this library or one developer which can spend time on this. After that, any of the developers only with basic knowledge of this payment system can easily create an instance of this facade class and use it in any place that they need. If the library will be changed (it is important to leave the facade functions signatures as it was before), all places where this facade used will be unaffected. In a worst-case even if the facade will change his functions name, parameters, and return types — that can be anyway easier to rewrite few functions calls then replace all uses of the library without facade.
Third-party libraries
Try to hide third-party libraries behind the facades. Real example. What if we have some ImageSlideshow library. It is super convenient to wrap it in protocol + extension, or some facade class. It easily hides the gallery implementation and you can just easily call this single openGallery method without knowing about ImageSlideshow. If you need to change this library to another — you can just rewrite this class. A library like this should be isolated and then it can be easily changed later.
Photo by DDP on Unsplash
Resources
https://refactoring.guru/design-patterns/book
https://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Object-Oriented-Addison-Wesley-Professional-ebook/dp/B000SEIBB8
My social media
LinkedIn Twitter Original Blog Github HackerRank | https://medium.com/@alexalmostengineer/design-patterns-facade-real-examples-in-swift-c36cf67a3fee | ['Alex Almost Engineer'] | 2020-12-13 18:02:11.715000+00:00 | ['Software Archi', 'Swift', 'Swift Programming', 'Clean Code', 'Design Patterns'] |
Funding Rates: January 16–31, 2021 | In the spirit of complete transparency we continue to publish historical hourly funding data. Here is the 14th data set in our series of funding rate reports.
ETHUSD (DAI) Perpetual
Jan 16–Jan 31, 2021 (time in UTC)
Jan 16–Jan 31, 2021 (time in UTC)
The funding rate is in floating point numeric format. A value at 0.00060000 implies a rate of 0.06% or 6 basis points.
The data is available in csv format in the funding-report github repository.
ETHUSD (USDT) Perpetual
Jan 16–Jan 31, 2021 (time in UTC)
Jan 16–Jan 31, 2021 (time in UTC)
The data is available in csv format in the funding-report github repository.
BTCUSD (DAI) Perpetual
Jan 16–Jan 31, 2021 (time in UTC)
Jan 16–Jan 31, 2021 (time in UTC)
The data is available in csv format in the funding-report github repository.
BTCUSD (USDT) Perpetual
Jan 16–Jan 31, 2021 (time in UTC)
Jan 16–Jan 31, 2021 (time in UTC)
The data is available in csv format in the funding-report github repository.
Don’t hesitate to drop us a note in our Telegram channel if you have any questions.
Please keep in mind
US Persons are not allowed to trade on Leverj. Users from sanctioned country or Specially Designated National (SDN) as per OFAC are also not allowed to use the system.
Before you trade, please make sure you are legally permitted to trade cryptocurrencies, derivatives, and any other instruments offered on this platform from your home jurisdiction.
Nothing in this article constitutes an offer, solicitation, or investment advise. The content is for educational purposes only. Images and screenshots may be from our test environments and do not represent data on the live system.
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Website | Twitter | Telegram | Reddit | https://blog.leverj.io/funding-rates-january-16-31-2021-708932236365 | [] | 2021-02-18 21:43:56.787000+00:00 | ['Rate', 'English', 'Funding', 'Historical Data', 'Charts'] |
Host PostgeSQL database on cloud free Part: 1 | In this article we are going to see how to host PostgreSQL database on Heroku for free. PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system. PostgreSQL comes with many features, it is open source and highly extensible.
Heroku database starter tier provides expected up time of 99.5% and is well suited for development and hobby applications
Heroku hobby tier has following limitations
· Row limits of 10,000 rows
· Maximum storage of 1 GB
· Maximum connection of 20 connections
Let’s take a look at how we can make account on Heroku and deploy PostgreSQL
Step 1: Make Heroku account and create your first app
Click here to create account on Heroku, After you have created your account and login you will see Heroku dashboard screen as below
click on New button and create new app
After creating app you will see below screen
Step 2: Install add-on Heroku PostgreSQL
Click on Resources and search for Heroku Postgres and hit enter you will see below screen
click on provision and you will see Heroku Postgres enabled as below
click on Heroku Postgres and this will redirect you to Heroku data page similar as below
Step 3: Connecting to your database using pgAdmin4
Go to settings and click on view credentials, you will find
Host, Database name, Username, Password, Port
open pgAdmin4 on your local machine
and create new server
after connecting to server you will see list of database as below
now search your database name in the list of database and use your free PostgreSQL Database in pgAdmin4
In next article we will going to see how to host PostgreSQL Database to AWS cloud platform. | https://medium.com/@ajinkya.deshmukh48/host-postgesql-database-on-cloud-free-part-1-ce413256b492 | ['Ajinkya Deshmukh'] | 2020-09-23 13:27:11.345000+00:00 | ['Postgresql', 'Heroku'] |
The Story of Rachel Humphreys: Lou Reed’s Transgender Girlfriend | Photo from the back of Lou Reed’s Sally Can’t Dance (1974)
Rachel hails from Philadelphia. She frequented both Max’s and Club 82, two joints in NYC’s lower districts that welcomed drag. She meets Reed at Club 82. She materializes in front of him, like a forbidden fruit, and he falls into a deep infatuation with her.
I know little else about the beginning. Reed enters the club deliriously tired, most likely due to amphetamine use from days past, his usual state in this period of his career. Rachel was hoping for a boost to stardom, and Reed seemed to be the perfect candidate. He fixated on her, slim with long black hair, out of the pack. There are obvious reasons she stood out to him. For one, this was not the first time Reed took a “liking” to a transgender woman. His magnificent ode to dysphoria, “Candy Says,” offers an intimate portrait of Candy Darling, a Warholian magnate and actress. Then, of course, there is Rachel herself. A stunning figure, often seen in women’s tops, and with heavy yet articulately applied makeup, she was “obviously in another world.”
She was talked up incessantly, seemingly with no response of her own. This wasn’t her first time with the talkative sort. They went to Reed’s home, with his current (unnamed in his journals) live-in partner. He proposed a threesome. Shocked and disgusted, his partner stormed out like many of the others did. Rachel feigned disinterest, but she stayed. What would follow was an intense relationship, but she stayed.
Up to the point where she didn’t. Things get particularly hazy in this period. The relationship soured and ended, presumably between ‘77 and ’78, because of Rachel’s appointment for gender reassignment surgery. Lou did not approve, seeing that his perfectly realized partner was slowly fading into someone else. Or, at least, in his image. However, to say that this should have been a surprise to him is clearly wrong. She was always in drag, regardless of time of day. She despised her penis, and was very vocal about such emotions. In fact, in a conversation with Eileen Polk, she stated that she was “better as a woman than a man.” Rachel wasn’t like the other drag queens because, at the time, she didn’t consider herself one. Reed could never see that. So, he stormed out, he screamed, and left his crutch and companion like a poor friend.
Their relationship was not meaningful in the grand scheme of things. Reed wouldn’t mention her name after 1978 and would go on to have happier, stronger relationships in the future. He decided to go clean on everything, including “f******” behavior. She would die of AIDS, stuck in the brown of a potter’s field for eternity. He would die of tumor in the liver, but became trapped in gray. I know not what happened to Rachel in the twenty years of her life sans Reed. I can only assume not many do. I know not why she loved him, or perhaps why she didn’t. I know not what she means to the transgender community, for she is only briefly mentioned in biographies and repetitious articles. I only know what she means to me. I only know she is unknown, without much of a story beyond the four years she spent with Reed, a trait not many rock and roll appearances can share in. I only know she is the closest representative body of the transgender movement in the 1970s that I have to cherish. I know I want to know her beyond the passing lips and computer screens. Reed would “give the whole thing up” for Rachel, according to his song Coney Island Baby. Why? What was so special about her, what transfixed him so much, what transfixed her about him, and why does she so often transfix me? | https://medium.com/@hakern2003/the-story-of-rachel-humphreys-lou-reeds-transgender-girlfriend-7fb5dc837165 | ['Holden Kern'] | 2020-07-08 14:39:52.203000+00:00 | ['Lou Reed', 'Transgender', 'Rock', '1970s'] |
How to Adjust your AutoPlay Settings in Windows 10 | Autoplay enables the media or other files and documents to launch quickly.
If you connect any of the removable media files to your PC, then Windows 10 will detect the drive you have connected, and then the Autoplay tool will activate. Then it launches the file through its default functionality. It launches your drive’s file or folder with the File Explorer. It also manages your storage and images folder.
In case you wish to modify your default existing settings in order to manage the Autoplay feature, then you may do so. You can adjust this feature through the Control Panel or the Settings application.
Follow these steps to modify your Autoplay settings through the Settings Applications
Activating or Deactivating AutoPlay
If you wish to activate or deactivate removable media like Flash Drive or your memory chip or other various devices from opening itself on Windows 10, then follow these instructions here:
First of all, tap “Settings.” Then, hit the “Devices” option there. Now, tap the option which reads “AutoPlay.” Next, turn the switch dedicated for On or Off as you want. It reads, “Use AutoPlay for all media and devices.”
After finishing these steps, your selected option will get affected according to your command.
Managing New AutoPlay Existing Default Actions
In case you intend to connect your memory chip or USB drive, then follow these instructions given below:
First of all, launch “Settings.” Then, you have to hit the option which reads “AutoPlay.” After that, go to the “Choose AutoPlay defaults” panel. Then choose any of the new default actions available on your screen. It can be accessed from the pull-down menu of “Removable drive.”
Note: In case you are connecting your memory chip, then you have to choose your option from the Memory card pull-drop list.
Now, if you use any of the removable drives and connect to your PC, it will work automatically as per your new configuration.
Modifying AutoPlay Settings through Control Panel
Abide by these instructions if you wish to activate or deactivate your Autoplay from opening automatically on your Windows 10:
Firstly, tap the “Control Panel” to launch. After that, hit the “Hardware and Sound” option there. Then tap on ” AutoPlay.” If you wish to activate the AutoPlay feature on Windows 10, then mark the option “Use AutoPlay for all media and devices.” Then Unmark the option checkbox if you wish to deactivate the AutoPlay feature.
Setting Up your Default Existing AutoPlay Actions
First of all, launch the “Control Panel” on your system. Then, tap on the “Hardware and Sound” option there. Next, hit the “AutoPlay” tab. Now, navigate to the removable drive pull-down list located inside the specific section that reads “Removable drive.” Then choose the new default action options. The pull drop box will be inside the section titled “Removable drives.” Next, you have to mark the box, that says, “choose what to do with each type of media.” In fact, it’s an optional step. Then, go to the existing pull drop menu options and then hit the appropriate option for every media type located there. After that, navigate to “Camera Storage” and then hit the Memory card pull-down menu to expand. Then choose the new automatic action that you are inserting your memory chip into your system. It is also an optional step. After that, go to the “Software” section and then hit the games and software option. Then tap your action termed as default while linking a particular media files with your installation files. Finally, tap on the “Save” tab to save your changes.
Once you finish these steps, then try to connect any of the external drives, i.e., Flash Drive. Now, the AutoPlay feature will work according to the settings that you have made.
Ellen Cooper is a technology enthusiast who loves writing about new advancements and IT threats on a regular basis. Her work focuses on the latest advancements in the realm of technology, social media, and cyber security at norton.com/setup.
Source:- http://en-us-norton.com/how-to-adjust-your-autoplay-settings-in-windows-10/ | https://medium.com/@cellencooper/how-to-adjust-your-autoplay-settings-in-windows-10-d6ba4c6ff9c5 | ['Ellen Cooper'] | 2019-11-22 07:42:36.781000+00:00 | ['Norton Setup', 'Windows 10', 'Autoplay'] |
How To Achieve Your Goals By Facing Your Fears | How To Achieve Your Goals By Facing Your Fears
“I’m not scared; I’m just not motivated to start my goals right now.”
“I’ll start my diet on Monday.” “Watching Netflix on a Friday night is way more fun than going out and meeting someone.” “I don’t have time to workout.” “Paying off that student loan can wait; these shoes cannot. YOLO!”
I’m going to be straight up with you.
Lack of time, motivation, energy, YOLO, FOMO etc. are merely excuses that you use to prevent yourself from achieving your goals.
And excuses are fantastic disguises for your deepest fears.
What do you want to change about yourself?
Make more money?
Get a better job?
Start your side hustle?
Fit into skinny jeans?
Find someone to share your life with?
Start meditating?
Reconnect with your family?
There are basically 3 categories that self-improvement goals fall into:
1. Health
This includes how you feel emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually and intellectually.
From eating better to starting a workout routine to reading more, these are goals that are internal to your wellbeing.
2. Wealth
This includes your assets, career, finances, business, material goods, living situation, home improvements etc.
From getting promoted to renovating the kitchen to saving up for a better car, it’s the environment you are in, how and what you want to change about it.
3. Love
This includes the people in your life, the social environment that you have and the relationships in it.
Goals can be improving romantic relationships, family relationships, friendships, work relationships, relationships with acquaintances, clients, customers, etc.
The self-improvement goal/change always involves more than one category.
It’s never a clear cut goal like “I want to lose 5 pounds.” There are always other mini-goals that play into that main goal.
For instance, you want to start a workout routine because you think when you feel more in shape, you will be more confident to start dating again.
Or you want to work on the relationship with your best friend because the last fight you guys had really tore your health up, mentally and emotionally.
Or you want to save up for a trip to Hawaii because you’ve been burnt out at work and haven’t taken time for yourself in years.
But overall, regardless of which categories the change fits into, the outcome of the change is to work towards achieving fulfillment in life.
As someone who has worked in Change Management for over a decade and certified in coaching since 2011, the hardest moments with making a change in our life is taking action and maintaining the change.
The Real Barrier to Achieving A Goal
Most people focus on the outcome to help motivate them to achieve the goal.
For instance, putting a picture of a fitness model above your bed to remind you of what you would look like if you started working out.
Or another example could be pinning pictures of your dream house on your Pinterest boards to motivate yourself to apply for a better position that pays you more.
But the real barrier to achieving a self-improvement goal is actually the uncertainty in attaining it.
As in, the reason why we don’t take action and start is that we are fearful of what might happen if we actually change.
Humans love stability.
We like comfort.
It’s ingrained in our DNA to seek homeostasis (a physiological state of equilibrium that is resilient against change).
For instance, if your temperature goes up by 1 or 2 degrees, you have a fever and it’s out of balance. Your body immediately tries to course correct (ie. increasing blood flow to the skin and making you sweat like a pig) so you don’t keep heating up.
We’re delicate beings. It’s not just physiologically but mentally.
This exercise will act as a catalyst to help you take action.
So to counter this, what we should focus on when we set goals and want to take action to improve ourselves is to identify these uncertainties.
1. What are the ‘bad things’ you think will happen if you achieved your goal?
Identify those scary/bad things.
For instance, you want to make some new friends. Now imagine you went out there and did that.
Some fears or ‘bad things’ that you think may happen could be:
Your new friends won’t understand your weird hobby; they judge you for it and you have to give it up to keep these ‘new friends’.
You have to spend all your time with these new friends that you won’t have time for yourself.
For each “bad thing”, ask yourself:
2. What is the likelihood or probability of each of these things happening, using a percentage?
Like literally use a number to describe how likely this ‘bad thing’ will actually happen.
0% = never gonna happen; 100% = definitely gonna happen.
Be realistic about it.
3. Assign a “degree of harm” or the impact of it happening.
If you have ‘bad things’ that have a greater than 0% happening, ask yourself,
“How bad is it really?“
And use a number to describe how bad it is.
On a scale of 1–10,
0 = no harm done; 10 = catastrophic, like your world will end
4. Use past experiences where you’ve dealt with a difficult situation to reassure yourself that it’s really not that bad.
I don’t know anyone who hasn’t struggled or endured some sort of life challenge. (If you haven’t, let me know because I’d love to talk to you about that)
Adversity is inevitable.
Adversity is all part of life’s big plan for us, throwing shit at us and watching us dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge?
From the shitty times during highschool or the car accident that made your life a nightmare or that time you just couldn’t land a job, you made it out okay remember?
So think of a time when you’ve had to face a similar situation and how you dealt with it.
It’ll remind you that whatever happens, you’re absolutely capable of dealing with it.
5. Lastly, was this exercise easy to do?
Evaluating the difficulty of this exercise allows you to self-reflect on what really matters when trying to achieve this goal.
If it’s easy, then it gives you insight into how you’re going to approach the goal. (ie. the certainty gives you the courage to face the fears)
If it’s difficult to assign numbers to your fears then it’s not a reality you will be facing (ie. the uncertainty outweighs the fears)
You have to be realistic about these questions.
It puts you in an objective position to rate your fears.
Most of the time, it’s hard to say whether something bad will actually happen and how it will impact us because we don’t know what we don’t know.
No one has a crystal ball no matter how many times you watch Only You.
Here’s an example of how I did this exercise myself to help me take action.
Last year, I told myself that I needed to start doing videos so that I could reach different audiences. People want their content delivered in different mediums because everyone’s attention is different.
So I set a goal to make a video.
Just one video.
And that goal didn’t get achieved. I procrastinated. I set it aside.
I made excuses for myself like:
I’m busy. I don’t have time.
I don’t have make-up on.
My outfit sucks.
Or the lighting isn’t good enough.
Or I have “better” things to do.
I sat down and did this exercise.
I was scared of the bad things:
What if they didn’t like my voice?
Called me ugly and fat?
Told me I don’t know what I’m talking about.
That I’m a loser or an idiot?
How likely was that to happen?
At least 80%.
Probably likely given how others in the public eye have been scrutinized like hungry mosquitoes attacking a juicy naked blob of flesh.
What will be the damage?
Hurt ego, upset feelings, poor self-esteem and a lack of motivation to keep doing them.
So what?
I go back to my days of getting bullied, to the days of being told I couldn’t do this or that because I’m not good enough or it’s “not within my realm”, the mean comments I’ve seen already from my written work.
Plus my history of being my own worst critic…the one who said the worst shit.
How bad can it really get?
Check out all my videos here, proof that I faced my fears and that I practice what I preach (well, most of the time)
So Readers, what is a goal that you’ve been contemplating for a while now? What fear is holding you back? | https://medium.com/change-becomes-you/how-to-achieve-your-goals-by-facing-your-fears-578b7aba43bc | ['Katharine Chan', 'Msc', 'Bsc'] | 2020-12-08 17:22:22.567000+00:00 | ['Motivation', 'Goals', 'Productivity', 'Self Improvement', 'Fear'] |
Numbers Never Speak for Themselves: Thoughts on the Abuse of Numbers, Bad Social Policy and Propaganda | Numbers Never Speak for Themselves: Thoughts on the Abuse of Numbers, Bad Social Policy and Propaganda Chester Davis Nov 14, 2019·3 min read
Photo by Heather Mount on Unsplash
Pundits, politicians, and activists abuse numbers in more ways that one Medium post could begin to cover. Everyone needs to be aware of a couple of popular scams pulled on the public to sell ideas that are bad ideas.
Sex Crimes, Lies, and Xenophobia:
Rape happens everywhere, but not at the same rate. A certain segment of xenophobic and dishonest Americans will take every opportunity to manipulate statistics about sex crimes to remind us that foreign lands populated by Brown and Black people are dangerous. Sweden allegedly has 300% more rape than the United States. This is a claim that pops up sometimes on YouTube and Quora. Search Google and verify this for yourself if you are bored.
It does look like rape is more common in Sweden, but there are a few problems with this hasty conclusion. You’ve probably been taught to examine your assumptions. This is one of those times when you really want to do that. Why might rape seem to be way more common in Sweden? Ask yourself these questions:
Is rape categorized the same way in Sweden and the United States?
Are Swedes and Americans equally likely to report being raped?
The answers to those questions don’t matter for now. What matters now is the idea of looking at the two things being compared and trying to decide if they are truly comparable, or not. One might be charitable and say this Sweden versus USA rape thing is shared in good faith and was created with honest intentions. Many times, when ideologies and religions are involved, people don’t act in good faith. Sometimes people deliberately gloss over important details or pick data points that make their case.
Countries That Ban Guns are Super Dangerous, Right?
No. Another meme that’s gone around the dumber parts of the Web tries to make the point that every country with a higher murder rate than the USA bans guns. The table lists homicide rates for many countries, including El Salvador, Mexico, Rwanda, and the United States. The inventor of this dishonest table may have known it was pure nonsense or not. We may never know if this meme was a deliberate act of propaganda or not.
What we can say for certain is this — the connection between gun bans and homicide here is completely nonsensical. Countries with a high poverty rate or where there is a civil war or where powerful drug cartels can buy off police and politicians can’t really be compared to the United States or Germany or Japan. If someone really wanted to understand the connection between gun bans and violence, they’d have to do far more work than just looking up homicide rates and gun laws in a few dozen nations.
In conclusion, always check to be sure a comparison is valid. The more emotional or important the issue, the more important it becomes to check things out. If anyone throws a bunch of numbers at you in order to make a point about social problems, or social policy, make the numbers mean what the other person wants them to mean.
And…be extra careful if you find yourself tempted to agree that immigration is bad, religion is bad, guns are good, or capitalism is raping the planet. | https://medium.com/@chesterdavis/numbers-never-speak-for-themselves-thoughts-on-the-abuse-of-numbers-bad-social-policy-and-8eddf621fb73 | ['Chester Davis'] | 2019-11-14 02:26:51.892000+00:00 | ['Violence Against Women', 'Critical Thinking', 'Guns', 'Social Problems'] |
AI-ML Implementation in your Product | When your business card bears the presidential seal, mistakes that otherwise won’t matter can snowball into catastrophe in the blink of an eye.
The adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is running rampant across industries and businesses. In the history of technological advancements, “rare” and “unprecedented” are perhaps the words that go with AI and ML.
Business leaders and Decision makers have been long evaluating how the inclusion of AI and ML into their products and services can drive growth.
While the ideas like Autonomous cars and robots definitely steal the limelight and become undisputedly the “girl-everyone’s-looking-at-prom” whenever a debate on the potential of Artificial Intelligence is triggered, there are a plenty of other use cases and opportunities for a myriad of diverse fields.
DAWN OF DISRUPTION: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE POWERED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Every company, group, and teams are intrigued by the idea of software having the ability to self-learn and process data to contribute to revolutionary products and services.
Cloud Computing and Machine Learning algorithms have made the creation of products powered by Artificial Intelligence even more practical. That’s the reason we put up this post to walk you through the process of AI-ML implementation in your product.
Part of the reason they’re important is that they allow the interpretation of overwhelming data volumes possible at manageable costs.
The most crucial internet-based and Data-intensive industries are the ones truly ripe for AI disruption.
Speaking of these industries, be it the Finance & Insurance along with Healthcare, or even the industries like Manufacturing and Education, the percent of time spent by the people in processing and collecting data, as revealed by a Mckinsey survey, ranges from 23% to a whopping 50%.
AI-BASED APPS TO POP-UP
Even the simplest mobile apps of past yearn for the holy touch of AI to be “smart” now. Be it the Google Assistant or Google Photos by the behemoth, Alphabet Inc. Or the interesting case of Amazon Alexa, no wonder the gas pedal of AI inclusion in the software industry has a foot over it.
So, have you considered the idea of making your product better, more user-friendly and obviously “more business-friendly” yet?
Whether it’s a Damn-Yes or Not-Yet-No, you need to read on so you can come to an informed and calculated decision.
Disclaimer: This post is about pondering over the possibility of AI-ML Implementation in your product. And if you’re convinced, we’ll discuss how to go about it.
Also Read: Converting a Full Objective C App to SWIFT
Great, let’s get rolling
First of all, we shall study the most promising and revolutionary use-cases that AI, ML and whatever comes with these has to offer.
USER BEHAVIOR: ABLE TO ANALYZE A LARGE SET OF DATA
Determining User Behavior has become somewhat a normal expectation from any successful company. Part of the reason is the incredible insights that you can generate from user’s data is just invaluable, which often translates to revenue and sales generated.
The importance of ability to analyze large sets of data to get a hold of user behavior has seen tremendous realization partly because of the explosion we saw in the number of smartphones, social media users and other medium which tend to generate data about a person and his likes, dislikes, preference and other things about selves.
Marketers and businessmen around the world are betting big on the capability of AI-ML for the tools to identify and target the right audience with the right content at the right time.
IMAGE RECOGNITION
Image Recognition is another hot-shot use case of Machine Learning which can be used to visualize, share and gain insights from the data.
Image Recognition is essentially a step ahead version of Computer Vision which was about recognizing discrete objects in certain images.
However, with the advent of AI and the technologies it has impacted, it is easy to understand and even describe the content in the form of images and videos.
From making robust safety features in Automobile to even assisting the visually impaired folks, humans have a tremendous amount of advantages to tap in.
Not only this, the availability and easy access (Pascal VOC and ImageNet) to training data is another positive edge for the developers and product managers who are looking to create models for image recognition applications.
Some of the popular open-source frameworks and software libraries that you need to know before you kickstart your image recognition project are as follows:
Facebook AI Research
Google TensorFlow
UC Berkeley’s Caffe.
NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING
NLPs are important because of one reason:
Majority of human activities are performed through language, and language is what NLPs are about.
The computers of the modern age are an amazing tool for bridging the gaps of linguistic acumen among the humans.
You must have noticed the automatic replying options you get in your e-mails, or that you’re prompted whenever you mistakenly try sending an empty mail, or without recipients. That’s all NLPs.
From Automatic Summarization for making reading and studying of huge piles of textual information fast-paced to assisting the decision makers to get a hold of sentiment analysis, NLPs are proving out to be extremely helpful and even instrumental for a multitude of tasks in modern businesses, which signals to the chance that you may use NLPs for AI-ML implementation in your product too.
DATA SECURITY
The sharp rise in the number of malware and other fringe elements in the networks around the world is indeed a disturbing truth today.
In the day when almost everything hinges on data security and other information privacy and protection practices, AI and modules based on it are just in time to save the day. The various problems that the people are facing in the data security and other related turfs like that of employees interacting with the suspicious websites to hackers figuring ways into their databases easily, AI-powered solutions are the answer to all of them.
However, a lot of studies have shown that almost all the malware pieces tend to have almost the same code as the previous versions.
Now, AI and ML-based models can easily predict which files stand the chance of being a part of malware attacks.
A number of products like IBM Qradar are there as an example of AI-Based data security models. There are a few other readymade models in data security which make the idea of AI-ML implementation in your product a practical one.
AI POWERED WRITERS
Content Creation is another very important part of your marketing efforts. Writing Blogs, articles and listicles is something that every business is investing in.
Do you have a blog too? Maybe you need AI-ML Implementation in your product.
The intriguing example of AI Powered tools to assist with grammar correcting, or even brainstorming the topics themselves may not be intriguing anymore when you realize that the latest AI-powered tools are even able to write complete blogs and articles.
Tools like Automated Insights are able to use natural language generation (NLGs) to make the best use of tools since it helps the production of stories and blogs just by feeding data and topics to it.
Using the already built solutions to build your platform.
There have been a lot of tools that the developers can tap into for integration of AI in their products.
Have a look at some of the tools that you can consider integrating with your platform:
IBM WATSON ML — It’s an IBM Cloud offering which makes it easy for the developers and product managers to integrate predictive capabilities into their products. The best part about this IBM offering could be the ability to use command line interface and Python in order to manage the artifacts. Watson Machine Learning REST API can be extended an artificial intelligence application, too. GOOGLE’S ML KIT — Google launched a new SDK which aims at bringing Google’s Machine Learning expertise to the mobile developers in a developer-friendly package on Firebase.
The ML Kit by Google is helpful in providing just the right starting torque that the developers need when they set out for their first ML product integration.
The Google’s ML Kit provides you with five ready-to-use APIs for common mobile use cases:
Text Recognition
Face Detection
Barcode Scanning
Image Labeling
Landmark Recognition.
One of the best things about Google’s ML Kit is that it provides on-device as well as Cloud APIs with a simple interface.
Not only this, the features like that of A/B Testing and Remote Config from Firebase can be leveraged too since the ML Kit is available through Firebase.
3. AZURE MACHINE LEARNING STUDIO — It is a Microsoft cloud-based product that allows the developers to build and tweak otherwise complex machine learning models.
Design, development, and deployment of ML solutions can be executed without any obstacles.
The convenient web browser-based interface and other extension capabilities add to its appeal for developers.
These are mainly the readymade tools that you can use for your AI-ML implementation in your product. Now, it is important to understand that solving product-defining problems using AI-ML implementation in your product is something the-tough-turf you don’t want to take on unless you’re an expert in Artificial Intelligence.
ACKNOWLEDGE THE CAPABILITY PROBLEM AND BRING IN EXPERTS
Solving problems related to great predictive ability models call for an in-depth experience and understanding, which is not feasible for every team to have in-house members with these qualities. However, there’s no reason for you to feel that AI-ML implementation in your product is tough.
SODIO IS HERE FOR YOU!
We have experienced and talented professionals with a knack for Artificial Intelligence products who can create just the predictive models and creations that you need for the AI-ML implementation in your product.
MORE FROM OUR TECH BLOG: | https://medium.com/sodio-tech/ai-ml-implementation-in-your-product-ed98bd332361 | ['Abhishek Kumar'] | 2018-05-20 12:19:00.246000+00:00 | ['Android', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Developer', 'Startup'] |
Stand Up | When I was fifteen about to be sixteen I needed to have surgery on my jaw. In this surgery they would be breaking my jaw and setting it back, afterwards I would be in the hospital for a week or two and my jaw would be wired shut for a month and a half. My surgery would keep me in the hospital for my sixteenth birthday.
My grandmother felt terrible about this, so she planned to take me, my twin brother, and my mother to Florida so that I could swim with dolphins, one of my life long dreams. She wanted me to have a have a beautiful memory to hold onto while I recovered my surgery.
So to Florida we went, our first big trip, I was so excited and happy. It was my first time going to the ocean and to also be swimming with dolphins well it was a dream come true.
The problem is my mom hates to see anyone happy she gets jealous I know this now, but back then I couldn’t understand why she was being so awful. She smoked in a hotel room you couldn’t smoke in, yelled at us for singing in the car, complained constantly. What really stuck with me though was one night we were in a hotel room about to go to bed. I was sharing a bed with my grandmother and I don’t remember what happened but she threw a controller at me so I sat up in bed while she went on a tiraid screaming and yelling about how horrible I was, everything I had done wrong, calling me names and at the end she said I was ruining HER vacation.
I wanted my grandma to help, to say something to my mother but she didn’t she just told me to lay back down as if I had done something wrong by sitting up. I spent the next twenty years laying back down.
I needed someone to help me, to show me how stand up. I needed someone to stand up for me tell her the vacation was for me, that I had done nothing wrong and she needed to sit the hell down. I was only a teenager I didn’t know how, I didn’t know what to do. I had never felt so out of place, so confused, so heartbroken. I knew then no one would ever help me, I thought then that I must be the problem because even my grandmother wouldn’t stand up for me. I thought I was crazy … | https://medium.com/@shefailednotyou/when-i-was-fifteen-about-to-be-sixteen-i-needed-to-have-surgery-on-my-jaw-3144edc8489f | [] | 2020-12-15 00:41:10.291000+00:00 | ['PTSD', 'Childhood', 'Cptsd', 'Abuse', 'Healing From Trauma'] |
#Getting Closer to your Mega Project Problem | #Goal: To think about issues for My Mega Project, I’ve visit communities, and take pictures of the problem that i would want to share with my group.
We are currently living in a very congested and backward society. We are facing numerous issues related to air pollution,water pollution,land pollution etc, but i have chosen the major problem that suffers most of people from that is Water Pollution Or Lack of a Water Purification Plant .
Generally we are discussing some major problems regarding purification plants that are following.
1) Filter Plant Maintenance :
We usually lack fixing filter maintenance/fixing motors timely, due to this we face cleanliness and due to which metal of filter become rusty.
an example regarding rusty metal
2) Area around the filter is usually muddy :
Area around the filter is become muddy because there are alot of spare things and trashes.
3) Due to Increase in Population :
Due to increase in population we have lack of no of filters that is only one in our congested society/village and consumed lot’s of people are careless even none of them taking responsibility for keeping it safe and clean. | https://medium.com/@zeshanarshid184/getting-closer-to-your-mega-project-problem-feca0508e506 | ['Zeeshan Rana'] | 2021-04-08 10:07:06.656000+00:00 | ['Amal Fellowship', 'Amalkindness', 'Amal Academy', 'Amal Totkay', 'Save Water'] |
White Privilege is Not a Black Person’s Problem to Fix | In June 2020, Black Lives Matter protests started globally, protesting systemic racism and racial injustice. Back then, I was semi-aware of some of the privilege that I live in, but I wasn’t doing anything about it.
I thought I couldn’t.
I’m not a politician who can affect policy change or a large business owner who can affect how and who they employ or what they sell. I am a twenty-something woman, living in a small town in the UK. I’m not an activist or a great public speaker. Surely it is those people who will make the changes that are desperately needed?
I then got into a debate with a friend. This person, whose heart was in the right place, said that all lives matter, and that she has never benefitted from white privilege. I asked her what she thought white privilege was. She responded that it was going to a fancy school, most likely private, attending a university like Oxford and Cambridge, and then getting a high paying job.
I said, yes that is white privilege, but only a part of it. It’s knowing that before you step into a bookshop or library, you are guaranteed to find an author like you and characters like you, no matter the genre. It’s walking into any shop that sells makeup, and knowing that you will be able to buy a shade of foundation or concealer that matches your skin tone without asking at the counter. It’s buying plasters and tights that are the same colour as your skin
White privilege is knowing that you can call the police and you know that they will come and help you, no matter what. | https://medium.com/this-is-becca/white-privilege-is-not-a-black-persons-problem-to-fix-c77b776c2622 | ['Becca Grant'] | 2021-03-24 13:53:35.752000+00:00 | ['White Privilege', 'Racism', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Anti Racism'] |
The Design Manifesto: How agile is as much about design as it is about development. | Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash
I’ve been working in design and IT for around 5 years, along the way, I have been a passenger in the fields of agile methodologies with teams using various levels of SCRUM for IT delivery, Kanban for design work and a fly on the wall for the development of DevOps.
Emerging from the fields a few inherent commonalities presented themselves. Overall no matter the methodology, the discipline or the framework they all are concerned with answering questions about how humans work together like How do we work effectively as a team?, How do we deal with the differences in approaches and language that the collaboration of multiple disciplines presents us with? or How can we test solutions as fast as possible to maximise learning to deliver value faster?
Photo by Ferenc Horvath on Unsplash
If you’ve been around tech at all in the past decade you would have heard of agile. The agile manifesto is a set of principles that was released in 2001 to guide the future of software development. These principles emerged out of the mass frustration that was developing from companies that were so focused on excessively planning an documenting their software development that they lost sight of who they were making software for. (If you want to see the original agile principles see here https://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html)
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Whilst agile working originated in the software development field it is not solely a development practice. If we remove the software development specific wordings from the agile manifesto set of 12 Principles we get a set of principles that is suspiciously close to the principles that have developed over the past few years of User/Human-Centred Design and Design Thinking.
I present you.. *Drum roll* … the agile manifesto.
The Agile Design Manifesto
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable services.
2. Welcome changing requirements and insights, even late in Design. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
3. Deliver working insights (Learnings) frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
4. Business people and designers must work together daily throughout the project.
5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a design team is face-to-face conversation.
7. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, designers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
8. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
9. Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done — is essential.
10. The best insights, research, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
11. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly.
12. Customer behaviour (Outcomes)is the primary measure of progress.
Now, much of these seem to align quite closely with many of the principles for Design Thinking, User-Centred Design, Human-Centred Design etc.
I believe at the heart of all of these emerging fields we are all trying to figure out how to work together. There exists a range of principles and practices that lie at the heart of each that connects them together.
This gives us common ground that might show how design will grow in the future and how design and development share a common purpose.
For the next article (whenever that is) lets take a look at putting a design spin on DevOps and see how it matches it’s emerging sibling DesignOps. ;)
Let me know what you think of this article. | https://ben-maclaren.medium.com/the-design-manifesto-a6c5fafbd135 | ['Ben Maclaren'] | 2020-12-21 23:24:06.584000+00:00 | ['Designops', 'Lean UX', 'Design', 'Agile'] |
Best Children Doctor in Aundh — AV Children and Multispeciality Clinic | About Us
AV Children and Multispeciality Clinic is one of the Best pediatric Clinic in Aundh, Pune. Dr. Ashvini Phadnis is one of the best Pediatric dentists in Aundh, Pune with a specialization in Pediatric Dentistry, Cosmetic / Aesthetic Dentistry. Dr. Chandrashekhar Vasant Phadnis is one of the best Pediatrician (Children Specialists) in Aundh, Pune with a specialization in Pediatrics.
That’s why, at AV Children and Multispeciality Clinic, we focus on providing a full range of services to improve your child’s health and get him or her smiling again. We provide Quality Pediatric care you can trust.
For the best pediatric dentistry and Pediatrician (children specialist) in Aundh, come to AV Children and Multispeciality clinic. We specialize in children’s dentistry, Pediatric dentist, orthodontics, vaccinations, newborn baby care, skin diseases, genetic diseases, growth & development management, etc. to help guide your child through all stages of their health journey. Contact us for an appointment today to get started. We pride ourselves not only on our knowledge of children’s needs but also on our friendly, approachable staff. We have a variety of treatment options and work with you to determine the safest and most comfortable procedures for your child. Dr.Chandrashekhar Vasant Phadnis is one of the Pediatrician in Aundh, Pune with a specialization in Pediatrics. | https://medium.com/@phadnisashwini224/best-children-doctor-in-aundh-av-children-and-multispeciality-clinic-a28b541e1395 | [] | 2021-12-10 09:33:57.009000+00:00 | ['Dentistry', 'Children', 'Dental Care', 'Dentist', 'Vaccines'] |
Why forgiveness is the best revenge ? — Sahilsharmablogs | Hello friends, welcome to SahilSharmaBlogs where you get the all informational stuff related to your life problems.
Today we are going to discuss about the importance of forgiveness over taking revenge. How forgiveness is the best revenge to be taken.
We live in the world of problems. There is no one who had not faced any problem ever in their life. As human beings, we always have to deal with problems. And also we face problems due to only human beings not with any places, things, etc.
What is Forgiveness or Mercy?
Once we face conflicts, we have two choices. Firstly, we just keep it in mind because we don’t want to confront it or maybe we are not ready. Second, we can let it go and move on, that is called forgiveness.
There are many questions that arise in our mind regarding the phrase “forgiveness is the best revenge” such as, “ Why is forgiveness considered more powerful than revenge? Is it better to take revenge or just forgive others? How is forgiving more satisfying than revenge? Have you ever forgiven someone and felt better?” Let’s discuss this in detail…
The famous saying goes
“To err is human, to forgive is divine.”
There is no one perfect on the earth, doing mistakes is human behavior and forgiving people is compared to God’s attribute.
Forgiveness is the ability to let frustration, higher degree of conflict goes from the mind. If we do it in lesser time, we’ll able be able to forgive people easily. But some people take time to forgive.
In daily life, we meet a lot of different types of people and sometimes we do not get familiar with them. There arise some chaos and confusion among us that creates a nuisance for us and all others. We get hurt sometimes and sometimes others got hurt by us. In this situation, some people get aggressive and lose their mental balance and treat badly with others.
Sometimes we don’t want anyone to interfere in our life and if they do so, we get angry with them. Getting angry is normal at some level, but when we keep it in our mind it creates problems. We can’t tolerate their interference and want to take revenge for it.
The feeling of taking revenge gives us stress and despair. It makes our mind imbalance; we forget our moral values in the effects of anger. Revenge reduces you to your worst self. But when time passes we feel our mistake and regret that we are not supposed to do.
Not taking revenge does not show that you’re a coward, but it shows that you’re a mature person. Because the attitude of forgiveness comes with maturity. It is difficult to forgive someone when we are in a younger age. Studies show that focusing on taking revenge increases mental stress, inhibits mental functions, and weakens our immune system.
Why is forgiveness considered more powerful than revenge?
We often feel sad and distress until we get the revenge. We keep that feeling of revenge in our minds until we see other people suffering. And if we are not able to take revenge, we feel depressed and this negative feeling will become a problem for our happy life.
Forgiveness is a beautiful virtue one can acquire to live a happy life. The more you forgive people, the peaceful your life becomes. Forgiveness comes with practice. It is difficult to forgive someone who had made us cry or bad for ourselves.
The feeling of forgiveness makes us feel free from the feelings of regret and despair. Often practice forgiving people. If they had done something wrong knowingly or by mistake to you, just forgive them. You can’t correct others, rather you should improve yourself.
Making mistakes is human nature we can’t become perfect in anything. Children often do mistakes and we as elders can’t hurt them for this. Rather we should clarify them. Sometimes our elders do mistakes and we got angry with them, but after a while, we forget their mistakes and become happy.
Some people feel bad after they have been done wrong with you, they regret it. Forgiving such people is a good act. We also hurt our elders or our parents directly or indirectly, what if they don’t forgive us, our life will become hell. Forgiveness develops unconditional love in your hearts.
Forgiveness gives us peace and happiness while the feeling of revenge always makes us tense, distress, and sad. It is hard to forgive someone, who had done bad for us. But with the feeling of revenge, will create more problems for us.
Making harm to us is someone’s foul and forgiving them is our moral. If we treat them like they did to us then there is no difference between them and us. If you feel pain due to their mistakes. Still you’ve to forgive them and the lesson which you’ve learnt from their that act must always keep in your mind, not to take revenge, but not to get into trouble again.
Improving ourselves is in our hands, not correcting others. We are working hard to make our life happy and live a peaceful life. Money can’t buy peace of mind and happiness. Money can only buy us materialistic comfort. To attain real joy work on your mental growth. Happiness is just a state of mind.
Work to understand your true self. Start loving yourself. Explore your inner strengths, while doing this, you’ll get to know that there is no one, who can hurt you if you are a peaceful person. Become free from false ego and this materialistic illusion.
If you’re stable with your thoughts, no one can disturb your mental peace. Thoughts come and go ever in our minds, but a self-realized person remains fixed. Some people got angry with little things and some people forgive even the biggest mistakes. What you think who is great????
The one who forgives, because if he swears to take revenge from the other person, he stops his progress of life and starts leaning to hell. He forgets all the necessary stuff and becomes angry for a negative reason. Make other person feel humiliated by forgiving them and he/she will never cause such pain to anyone else.
How is forgiving more satisfying than revenge?
Forgiveness is the process of upgradation in life and revenge is to degrade you. Address the pain you’ve felt and forgive them and you’ll feel a lot better about yourself. When you know your true self, the eternal self. You’ll be not disturbed by these materialistic illusions.
Think, if you’ve taken revenge of their bad deeds. What will you feel after that? Do you feel satisfied? Is they feel good for you? give your views in the below comment section.
I think you’ll still not be happy by taking revenge. Because how can you delete the bad feeling for them from your mind. Physically or materially you can harm them to take your revenge. What to do to delete it from our minds. There is no solution like revenge to overcome negative feelings for others who hurt ourselves.
The only solution is to forgive them and move on. If you keep taking revenge where will you go in life? Nowhere. If you take revenge, they also want to take revenge from you, and it will become a loop. And also after taking revenge, there is no feeling of happiness.
When you forgive someone and move on. It shows your strong mental attitude that no one can disturb. And in the future also no one will think to hurt you. And the biggest obstacle of your life will vanish. If you don’t react to their wrong acts.
If someone hurts you and you forgive them and move forward. They think that their endeavor to stop you is a waste of time. And out of suspicion, they will follow you. Your good act of forgiving them also impacts positively on their lives.
Writing is also an effective solution to forget your anger. Whenever you get anger write down all your feelings on paper, it will make your mind calm and provides other perspectives of the problem.
Sometimes we get hurt by others while they do it for our benefit. For example- a teacher punishes a student for hiss well beings and for the benefit of students. Likely there are many situations arises in our lifetimes.
Weak people don’t have the courage to forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of strong people. Weak becomes weaker taking revenge in their life, and strong become stronger forgiving people. What will you choose to become in your life?
Human life is temporary, there is no one to stay permanent on earth. The more you become positive in life, the happier you live. Spread happiness in your surroundings and you will also be happy just like the saying whatever goes around comes around. Love and affection is the nectar of life.
Our most lovable person sometimes do mistakes and in anger, we hurt them, but after our anger fades we feel bad. Anger is the biggest enemy of human beings. It arises due to lust. It deludes our intelligence and we do what should not be done.
To make every relationship beautiful, learn to forgive your partner and give love in return. And by this, their feeling of affection for you will become stronger and stronger. You gain respect in their hearts.
THANK YOU
GIVE YOUR VALUABLE FEEDBACK TO US REGARDING THIS ARTICLE. IN ADDITION, IF YOU LIKE THE POST DO SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS SO THAT THEY MUST KNOW THE IMPORTANCE OF SMALL THINGS IN THEIR LIFE AND ALWAYS REMEMBER TO DO THAT. | https://medium.com/@sahilsharma83999/why-forgiveness-is-the-best-revenge-sahilsharmablogs-5c555faf3ed0 | ['Sahil Sharma'] | 2020-12-19 11:44:46.673000+00:00 | ['Revenge', 'Forgiveness'] |
Winter Spiral Day #19 | a WBC writing invitation series for the Winter Solstice
The weight of the year can fall on us within us noticing and putting our tension in check and freeing us for more creative and life energy.
Where are you harboring negativity?
Write into this space. Feel where it is in the body. Name it, manifest it, destroy it.
What is reborn from the ashes? | https://medium.com/wisdom-body-collective/winter-spiral-day-19-3d62208f927a | ['C. M. Chady'] | 2020-12-18 16:01:19.154000+00:00 | ['Winter', 'Writing Community', 'Writing', 'Winter Solstice', 'Writing Prompts'] |
2019 Year-In-Review DreamTeam Report | DreamTeam is excited to start the decade with the addition of a couple of new features and some major feature updates. Before we go into detail about those, which will all be covered in the next development update, we’d like to take a look at the past twelve months. 2019 was a journey that showcased the support of three new platform games, the addition of many new features, the temporary removal of a few old features, the challenge of challenges, a slight shift in our Tokenomics strategy, and much more. Come with us as we quickly summarize the 2019 evolution of DreamTeam.
Platform Games
At the beginning of 2019, DreamTeam supported two games, CS:GO and LoL. By the end of the year, the number of supported games increased to five, Apex Legends, CoD: Modern Warfare, Fotnite, CS:GO, and LoL. As DreamTeam becomes more and more game agnostic, new games will be supported at a faster and faster rate. Adding games faster is one of DreamTeam’s many goals for 2020. The faster DreamTeam can add games, the greater the impact DreamTeam will have on the gaming and esports communities.
Platform Additions
Throughout 2019, DreamTeam added feature after feature to make the platform more user-friendly. The added features are as follows:
Customizable Chat feature — allows DreamTeam to create groups and connect the chat feature with other DreamTeam features
Notification Center — keeps users up-to-date with all DreamTeam activity
DreamTeam Rating — an overall rating of a player’s skill
FACEIT and Discord integration — connects DreamTeam to other commonly used platforms
Player Profiles
By Q4 2019, it was clear that DreamTeam had to add a feature that would attract gamers no matter which games they play. To achieve this, DreamTeam created unified player profiles. The player profiles display a player’s info, gaming reputation, games, achievements, and activity. Players can also add around 55 different games to their profile and have the ability to share their thoughts on each one. This helps show a little bit of every players’ gaming background. Although still in the MVP version, the player profiles will one day be home to a player’s inner gamer and be used by gamers in a similar way business professionals use LinkedIn.
Significant CS:GO Changes
Throughout the first two quarters of 2019, DreamTeam put much focus on and used a lot of resources building, launching, and supporting numerous CS:GO features, only to have them removed from the platform altogether. Upon removal of those features, DreamTeam stated it was only temporarily, which is still true. Many users, especially CS:GO players, have begun to question whether DreamTeam understands the word temporary. We get it. And we get it. We cannot go into detail about why the features remain hidden. However, we can say that once they return, users will be quite happy.
Summary of 2019 CS:GO features:
FACEIT integration — connected FACEIT stats
DreamTeam Practice Servers — set up and hosted practice games
The Coaching Tool — helped set and reach goals
CS:GO Analytics feature — analyzed any match
The DreamTeam Journey — helped onboarding players
CS:GO Training Center — set of tasks that helped improve skills
Player Analytics Dashboard — tracked player improvements
Addition of New Games
In 2019, DreamTeam launched the support of three new platform games: Apex Legends, Fortnite, and CoD: Modern Warfare. All three games now support the following features:
Stats — check stats and follow improvements
Challenges — compete against the community to win prizes
LFG — find better players faster
Leaderboards — see who is on top in multiple categories
DreamTeam Prime and Prime Gold
In Q3, DreamTeam launched Prime and Prime Gold memberships. The DreamTeam memberships grant access to additional stats, Challenges, and LFG features.
Going Social
Another one of DreamTeam’s goals for 2020 is to add more social features. We are aware that a huge part of gaming is, well, the players you meet and the communities you become a part of. As a result, you will soon see the addition of friends and new leaderboard feature, an updated and extremely scalable new challenge feature, the DreamTeam shop, iOS and Android apps, and a few other things that will make DreamTeam the place to be for gamers and the esports community.
The DREAM Token
In 2019, the DreamTeam Token was listed on two exchanges, Liquid and Kuna. In addition to the listings, DreamTeam also updated our token strategy and released the latest version of the DreamTeam Tokenomics Paper. You can find it here. Along with the token updates, DreamTeam has developed a Delegated Transactions feature and a decentralized application. Trickle, one of the winners at the EthCapeTown hackathon, is now available. Please read about it here.
Honorable Mentions
To save time, we didn’t go into detail about any of the features listed above. DreamTeam did much more than work on those points. Here is a list of other things DreamTeam worked on and accomplished in 2019:
Grew the DT social media channels
Updated the DT homepage
Hosted several events, giveaways, and numerous sales
Interviewed and received feedback from thousands of gamers
Conducted hundreds of A/B tests
Updated and tweaked features throughout the year
Worked with dozens of well-known YouTube streamers and media outlets
Was named the Best Blockchain Startup in Ukraine and among countries of Euro Asian region
Visited and presented at different worldwide industry events
And much more
If you would like more details on any of the above-mentioned items, feel free to check out the following links: Dev Report #2, Dev Report #3, Dev Report #4, Dev Report #5, Dev Report #6, Dev Report #7, Dev Report #8, Dev Report #9, Dev Report #10, Dev Report #11, Dev Report #12.
About DreamTeam:
DreamTeam — infrastructure platform and payment gateway for esports and gaming.
Stay in touch: Token Website|Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn|BitcoinTalk.org
If you have any questions, feel free to contact our support team any time at token@dreamteam.gg. Or you can always get in touch with us via our official Telegram chat. | https://medium.com/dreamteam-gg/2019-year-in-review-dreamteam-report-6925aa35137 | [] | 2020-01-10 16:19:10.346000+00:00 | ['Dreamteam Development', 'Game Development', 'Games', 'Esports', 'Blockchain'] |
How does automation benefit the insurance industry? | Photo by Adrianna Calvo via Pexels
Underwriting is a data-intensive, high-focus job. From staying on top of updates to policies and guidelines to managing client data in a safe and effective way, there are constantly a million plates spinning at the desk of any insurance underwriter. Traditionally little-to-no automation is used to streamline the underwriting process. Each underwriter has their own unique way of doing things, meaning the system they use to tackle each new account is honed and perfected over time. This is great for the individual but is difficult to directly transfer to new hires, making scaling a bit of a difficult task and resulting in more busywork than anyone wants to manage.
At Roots Automation, we’ve developed intelligent automation technology that learns and adapts like a real human worker, taking the information, processes, and systems it’s given and expounding on those over time. To explain this fully, let’s take a step back and look at what automation is, its various types, and how it can be practically applied to insurance underwriting.
What is considered to be automation?
According to Dictionary.com, automation is “the technique, method, or system of operating or controlling a process by highly automatic means, as by electronic devices, reducing human intervention to a minimum.” To put it more simply, automation is what gives you the ability to “set it and forget it.”
Automation is used in simple processes ranging from sending out pre-written email blasts on time to triggering that annoying notification that won’t stop telling you your next meeting is coming up in 15 minutes. These are great applications for automation, but limiting automation to these basic tasks is more or less like keeping Seabiscuit in your backyard shed to rent out for pony rides.
RPA vs. AI Automation
Traditional automation, also called Robotic Process Automation or RPA, includes a lot of the simple processes mentioned above. Emails that sort into folders based on filters, scraping data from webpages, and sending out pre-selected paperwork to clients and contacts are examples of this. RPA can handle set processes that have a start point, an endpoint, and consistent input.
The trouble comes when any sort of change or disruption to the typical process happens, leaving the simple automation system unable to do anything other than error out. There’s no intelligent reasoning, no figuring out a solution, no reaching out for help to unravel the kink and get back to work.
That’s where AI automation comes in, specifically the Digital Coworkers we’ve created.
Artificial Intelligence, or AI, takes the time-freeing properties of RPA and gives it a brain, allowing for an experience more like a virtual coworker than a simple robot. Our Digital Coworkers learn, adapt, and grow in their knowledge and abilities just like a human member of the team. Digital Coworkers read, digest information, and act on it. Their ability to use the same platforms, websites, and applications as their human coworkers means no laborious, complicated set-up processes. They even have the ability to, when they run into an issue they can’t work around on their own, engage with a human member of the team who’s best suited to help them.
Applications for Insurance Underwriting
No matter the type of insurance, from P&C insurance to health insurance and everything in between, the underwriting process is one full of data-gathering, organization, and decision-making. As with any job or industry, some points in the process are more engaging and high-touch than others. By using AI technology to automate nearly the entire underwriting process, underwriters are given back the freedom and time to interact with clients, pursue projects that’ll further the company as a whole, and get better results.
Technology has grown to exciting heights, and Digital Coworkers are a perfect example of this. Insurance professionals of all kinds can benefit greatly from implementing automation of any kind, but AI automation provides a new set of possibilities.
Get in touch to find out more: info@rootsautomation.com | https://medium.com/@chazperera/how-does-automation-benefit-the-insurance-industry-438e2df5e1b5 | ['Chaz Perera'] | 2020-12-14 20:07:57.477000+00:00 | ['Automation', 'Insurance', 'Insurance Automation'] |
Complete Guide to Buy a Diamond Necklace for Women. | As we know that the diamond necklace is one of the famous and precious gifts which you could ever give to your partner on a special occasion. Pasha Fine jewelry like the diamond necklace is the most versatile piece of jewelry that can change your outfit’s look in one second. Choosing the most appropriate and beautiful diamond necklaces for women is one of the most challenging tasks for men. Pasha jewelry will provide you with a great variety of necklaces.
The average cost of the diamond necklaces:
The cost of the diamond necklaces will vary from the quality of the diamond and the structure of the necklace. The starting price of the diamond necklace will start from $500. There are several varieties which you can get when you visit the store or the online website. If you want to buy one kind of diamond, you will also get that with a higher price range.
A diamond necklace for a woman also depends upon the choice of your partner. You will also get different sizes and shoes of chains with a wide variety. Nowadays, you will also see the little platinum or gold or silver to the design of the diamond necklaces. This type of necklace, also called modern jewelry, will go with your every outfit.
Types of the Diamond necklaces:
Before you buy a diamond necklace, you should know about the types of diamonds and the designs of the necklaces. You should also know that the prices of the chains. Following are some popular diamond necklaces choices by which you can get an idea of which one you should buy.
Solitaire necklace:
This is one of the classic choices when it comes to diamond necklaces. The diamond is situated at the end of the chain, which will allow maximum light to reflect from the diamond. It can go with every outfit.
Diamond heart necklace:
This necklace represents your love, and it is on elf the favored choice if you want to convey your love to your partner. It has a heart-shaped pendant with small diamonds, which will give an effortless look.
Conclusion:
Pasha jewelry provides excellent and designer diamond necklaces for women with an affordable price range and various designs.
This Content Is originally posted at https://pashafinejewelry.blogspot.com/2021/10/diamond-necklace-for-women%20.html | https://medium.com/@pashajewelryca/complete-guide-to-buy-a-diamond-necklace-for-women-872187e01064 | [] | 2021-11-30 07:27:58.303000+00:00 | ['Jewelry', 'Jewellery Shop', 'Necklaces For Women', 'Jewelry Design', 'Pasha'] |
How to start construction business after completion of civil engineering | Hello Guys,
My name is Mustafa Rajpurwala. In this blog i will tell you how i started my own work so many of you can start their own work and work like a boss. Lots of students thinks that its not easy to start own work after graduation, But basically they are right. But it is also not to much difficult.we just need little efforts.
I have completed my graduation in 2014. After than i have started working in a contracting firm in Industrial construction field. i was joined as a site engineer and my job timing was minimum 12 hours. where my some friends was working in IT firm with job timing of 8 hours a day. so i was filling sad that time.
But before we start our own work we need knowledge in site work about our work such as how concreting is done, how masonry , plaster work and many other work relating construction work is done. also we have to learn about material purchasing and cost of material, labour cost managing site activity for completing work in time. so i keep working in job for learning all those things and developing my skills which was necessary to start own business.
In job there is lots of frustration of seniors and project managers but it prepare us to face difficult situations and taking decision. I did the job for six years and in 2019 i have started my own construction business.
Also civil engineering field has plethora of scope in which anyone can start their work such as we can be contractor, we can be estimator, We can be planner also we can be structure designer. When we are starting our business it is important to have software skills like Auto CAD, Auto desk Rivet, Google Sketch up etc..
Also with construction work , you can start your trading business in building materials. so you will get more benefits in construction with using your own material like if i took a dealership in cement so i can earn from cement company and save material cost in construction work.
So, I suggest anybody who wants to start up their Establishment in civil engineering field, First he/she have to do job and learn basic things. After than he/she have to create their mentality to being an enter-pruner and should take first steps towards starting their own work.
But guys one important thing that first six months to two years of start up Your earning will not start in most cases. so you must have to keep petitions and have to use your saving till than u start earning. once your business is set up than you will start earning.
So guys , set up your mindset and keep moving towards of your goals.
Thank you. | https://medium.com/@rajpurwala-mustafa/how-to-start-construction-business-after-completion-of-civil-engineering-8b6b86f01b9c | ['Mustafa Rajpurwala'] | 2020-12-13 09:08:28.015000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Contractors', 'Civil Engineering', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Construction'] |
Yankees Week In Review | It seems as if the Yankees may have checked out a tad early towards the end of this past road trip. The lineups the Yankees rolled out were less than ideal in Arizona and they ended up finishing 6–3 on the west coast. The Yanks went back home for a series win over the Twins. It’s always good to see the Twins coming to town after a couple losses. Regardless of how good the Twins get, they always falter against the Yankees. Ron Gardenhire still wakes up with night sweats thinking about playing this team.
There was more of the same injury roller coaster this week. As soon as we heard some updates from the good news bear about Andujar and Clint, Paxton went down. I would like a world where I don’t have to replace someone coming back from the DL with another big injury. The early reports on Paxton are that it is going to be a max of 3 weeks which will probably add up to 3 starts.
I‘ve been pretty skeptical of timetables lately but when you throw out the word “max” you better be right. Looking at you CashGawd. Look at all that other news too! Stanton, Hicks, and even Didi’s return is on the horizon. Are we going to see Didi before we see Tulo? I don’t know. I’m not a doctor but Tulo seems real big on aggravating injuries. We saw Greg Bird in the dugout and the Yankees didn’t lose so he’s not all bad luck. Baby steps.
Right at this moment Paul O’Neill said “Hey there’s another IL fella”. Never change, warrior. And immediately after that Mike Tauchman bought himself another week in the lineup with a home run. For the people saying we need to apologize to Mikey T, he’s still batting under .200 so we let’s hold the apologies until he gets above Brendan Ryan numbers. Pineda seemed like he wanted Tauchman to hit a homer. He just kept feeding him meatball after meatball and was subsequently shocked after it went over the wall.
Our young son Miggy Andujar came back this weekend and we are going to give him a few chances at 3rd right? Not just jump down his throat and call for Gio Urshela. Nope, he made a couple errors and everyone went nuts. Albeit they were pretty terrible. I am not saying that Andujar doesn’t need work because he absolutely does but in the same breath he definitely needs a longer leash than one game. He’s coming off more than a month on the shelf and he has a slightly torn labrum. Granted if this continues they’ll have to figure something else out. But let’s look on the bright side, he is always going to hit. It’s awesome to have him back in the lineup.
Look at my guys! Boone said it last year about Andujar “He’s one of those guys that warms the room,” Boone went on and said. “He’s one of those guys I really look forward to seeing every day because he puts a smile on my face.”
If he doesn’t boost clubhouse morale, I don’t know who will. (Didi. Definitely Didi)
Another return from injury today is the wildling, everyone’s collective boy, Clint Frazier. Mikey T is staying up and Tarpley is going down. That’s fine with me as long as Clint gets in there everyday. I think he has proved enough but it would be nice to see him get rolling again with Hicks and Stanton returns just around the corner.
Luke Voit and Gary Sanchez are carrying this team for the moment. Voit just snapped his 42 game on base streak. I definitely down played it but he has been a force in the lineup. I’m also glad that it’s over so it doesn’t hang over his head. I’m sure Michael Kay will say verbatim “Now up, Luke Voit who just had his FORTY TWO game on base streak snapped. The first pitch, called for a strike” He will mention that for at least a week.
Gare Bear hit a single on Sunday and I’m worried. It wasn’t 110 mph off the bat and didn’t go 400 feet. Here’s a home run from Saturday though.
Here’s another. | https://medium.com/@brinthoughts/yankees-week-in-review-e6c3793c310d | ['Matthew Brindisi'] | 2019-05-06 20:18:00.238000+00:00 | ['Yankees', 'Gary Sanchez', 'MLB'] |
Writers, Don’t Skimp On Tools | Freelancing
Writers, Don’t Skimp On Tools
Photo by Thom Milkovic on Unsplash
The whole world is changing, culturally and technologically, faster than we ever thought it would. And that means the tools a writer uses to do their job are changing, too.
My mother-in-law recently called me cheap, to which I replied, “I’m frugal.” But there’s some truth in her accusation: I’m currently wrapped in a blanket as I write this, reluctant to turn up the thermostat during this chilly spell and use up heating oil.
Still, my fingers are curled around an ergonomic Bluetooth keyboard and my laptop is safely ensconced in a docking station. Both sit on an adjustable-height desktop so that I can switch between sitting and standing. My internet connection is the fastest that I can buy for this area. None of these things were inexpensive. I bought them new, rather than hitting the Facebook marketplace as I did for my scratched and clunky dining room furniture.
Like any tradesperson, the tools I use for writing are good quality. I budget for them in my business plan. My computer needs to respond quickly when I open an app. It needs a reliable connection to the internet at all times so I can contact clients and access cloud storage. I upgrade my smartphone regularly because it’s both a primary communication device and a backup for my laptop and data access.
The tools I can’t be without
I’ve been freelancing, on and off, for over twenty years. The world has changed in amazing ways during this time. The rise of digital nomad is one of the biggest evolutions in work that I’ve ever seen.
But the core of the writer’s life revolves around the tools they use to do the job.
Two hundred years ago, that meant a steady supply of quills, ink and paper. One hundred years ago, state of the art meant a portable typewriter. (Only thirty pounds! With its own carrying case!) Today, the tools required are roughly the same — but designed for the requirements of communications today.
Spend Wisely On These Tools
Photo by Marta Filipczyk on Unsplash
Here are the things I avoid skimping on:
Computer . I’ve written before about choosing the best laptop for your budget and writing needs. A reliable device that makes it easy to do online research, input your data and send to an editor is paramount. It doesn’t have to be brand-new or top of the line: I know plenty of fellow writers who, either through preference or budget, use a desktop computer for their drafts. But it needs to be robust enough to handle whatever you need it to do.
. I’ve written before about choosing the best laptop for your budget and writing needs. A reliable device that makes it easy to do online research, input your data and send to an editor is paramount. It doesn’t have to be brand-new or top of the line: I know plenty of fellow writers who, either through preference or budget, use a desktop computer for their drafts. But it needs to be robust enough to handle whatever you need it to do. Smartphone . You need this for communications, as a backup mobile hotspot when the power goes out, as a secondary access for your data, and even as a backup writing device (using a Bluetooth keyboard or voice). You can save quite a bit by looking at last year’s models, but don’t get one released more than two years ago.
. You need this for communications, as a backup mobile hotspot when the power goes out, as a secondary access for your data, and even as a backup writing device (using a Bluetooth keyboard or voice). You can save quite a bit by looking at last year’s models, but don’t get one released more than two years ago. Eyeglasses . Blue-light filtering, scratch-resistant, professionally fitted at the optometrist’s office. A good pair of glasses will save your eyes. I have two pairs: progressives, for wearing most of the time — handy when covering an event or traveling, so I can switch between reading fine print on my phone screen and signage out in the distance — and readers, single-focus lenses for the close work of writing or editing.
. Blue-light filtering, scratch-resistant, professionally fitted at the optometrist’s office. A good pair of glasses will save your eyes. I have two pairs: progressives, for wearing most of the time — handy when covering an event or traveling, so I can switch between reading fine print on my phone screen and signage out in the distance — and readers, single-focus lenses for the close work of writing or editing. Eyedrops . Staring at a computer screen makes you blink less. Your eyes dry out. They can dry out so much that even moving your eyeballs is painful. While taking a break at regular intervals is the best way to avoid eyestrain and reduce dry eye, using moisturizing eyedrops (not allergy or red-eye reducing) helps keep membranes lubricated to prevent that sandpaper feeling.
. Staring at a computer screen makes you blink less. Your eyes dry out. They can dry out so much that even moving your eyeballs is painful. While taking a break at regular intervals is the best way to avoid eyestrain and reduce dry eye, using moisturizing eyedrops (not allergy or red-eye reducing) helps keep membranes lubricated to prevent that sandpaper feeling. Pen, pencil and notebook . Even with backup devices, I keep a notebook handy to jot down thoughts and sketch out ideas. Specifically, a Rocketbook, so I can capture ideas on a page, send them to a productivity app like OneNote, then erase and reuse the page.
. Even with backup devices, I keep a notebook handy to jot down thoughts and sketch out ideas. Specifically, a Rocketbook, so I can capture ideas on a page, send them to a productivity app like OneNote, then erase and reuse the page. Voice recorder. Yes, my smartphone can record audio just as well, and cloud-based recording services like Zencastr are changing the podcast game, but a single-purpose, handheld voice recorder is an important backup when doing standup interviews. It should be pocket-sized, have a reliable, long-life battery, plenty of onboard storage, an onboard microphone for fast pickups (like press conferences), and ports for a microphone and earbuds or headset. Variable audio quality settings are a plus — and because it’s a standalone device, you can opt for a higher bitrate. A good handheld recorder will set you back about $40 to $100.
Rolling with cultural shifts
Photo by Quinton Coetzee on Unsplash
The pandemic has changed the game for everyone, and that stands out in meetings and interviews. I’ve found that my interview subjects are much more comfortable doing video calls on Zoom or Google Meet. A year ago, I could barely get anyone to show their face during a videoconference. Now, it’s a norm.
It’s mostly due to the amount of time we all spend on video chat now, and partly due to the rise of pajama culture during lockdown. No one puts on business clothes to do a Zoom call anymore, except for politicians doing network interviews. And so far, everyone I’ve chatted with is a fan of being ultra-casual while talking business. We’re all more comfortable with each other this way.
These kinds of cultural shifts can happen all at once, or gradually. Changes in the way the world does business, and in the way the world gets their news and entertainment, are naturally going to change some of the tools you need to do your job.
A year ago, I wouldn’t have laid out a dime for a video call service.
But this April, I bit the bullet and subscribed to Zoom. I quickly saw that it was easier for me to coordinate calls between clients by hosting them. I now build the cost of the Zoom subscription and the time I spend on calls into the amount I charge clients. The difference in pricing is small, because it is spread across my client base. My clients paid that small price rise without batting an eye.
Defining the tools that make you a writer
Photo by Babyman Works on Unsplash
Make a list of the tools you use routinely to accomplish a writing assignment. Ask three questions about each:
Is it reliable?
Does it need upgrading?
How much will it cost to replace this tool?
Figure those upcoming expenses into your business budget. If you don’t currently own a specific tool, list what you may need it for. If you have some of these already, budget when and how much it will cost to replace them, because it’s not whether they’ll need replacement, but when.
One final thing: You may have a long list of need-to-have items after reading this, but no budget to pay for them. Trust me, we’ve all been in this spot. The best way to handle this is to:
Make sure you have the minimum tools necessary to do your work today. Gradually purchase each item on the list as your freelance income grows.
I want you to have the most up-to-date tools possible to do your job and be successful at it. But don’t go into debt to get them. Build your toolbox one item at a time. Work with what you have, and set a goal and a timeline to achieve the next purchase. | https://medium.com/@samanthabookman/writers-dont-skimp-on-tools-daceede8897a | ['Samantha Bookman'] | 2020-12-25 16:02:30.779000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Tech', 'Budget', 'Business Tools', 'Freelancing'] |
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