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2,100 | Viral Growth of Swedish Startup Is Making Nuclear Energy Cool | Marty Neumeier is a legend in Silicon Valley. He cut his teeth helping companies like Apple, Netscape, HP, Adobe, and Google build their brands, and now runs his own design firm. The best thing about him is he shares his secrets and encourages you to steal his ideas.
To help visualise how controversial ideas are adopted, Neumeier talks about the Four stages of buy-in:
Whenever someone presents a game-changing idea, the first reaction of colleagues is to call it “worthless nonsense.” As it begins to slowly take hold, the same colleagues label it “interesting, but perverse.” Later, when the idea is all but proven, they concede that it’s “true, but unimportant.” Finally, after success is assured, it passes the acceptance threshold and colleagues are quick to brag: “I always said so.” This pattern is so common that you can almost use it as a test for promising ideas. Extreme resistance is a leading indicator of extreme success.
Nuclear power’s journey the last twenty years has seen it move from “worthless nonsense” to “interesting, but perverse”. Can it break through to “I always said so”?
There is no better description of how public acceptance of nuclear power has changed over the last twenty years.
The world has woken up to the problems of climate change and habitat destruction. The scientific community tells us we need nuclear power. The public senses that renewables alone won’t save us. Yet something is stopping us from embracing nuclear power — we’re stuck just below Neumeier’s “threshold of acceptance”.
The threshold can feel like an impregnable ceiling. The harder you push, the harder it pushes back, until one day, when you least expect it, you break through. And when it happens, it happens quickly and it happens dramatically. You no longer need to sell your idea — other people start to sell it for you. In the startup world, we would call it “viral, organic growth”.
Christian Sjolander and John Ahlberg, founders of Kärnfull Energi.
A gap in the market
Christian Sjolander and John Ahlberg aren’t nuclear engineers, but they are proud that their home country, Sweden, is the poster-child for decarbonisation using nuclear power. After both being out of the country for some years, they returned to find nuclear lacking the political support needed to keep today’s plants running and to ensure a new generation replaces them.
“We saw neighbouring Germany failing miserably with Energiewende,” Ahlberg tells me, “locking in fossil gas and coal for the foreseeable future. We didn’t want to let that happen here in Sweden.”
Ahlberg supports an “all-of-the-above” approach to clean energy — both renewables and nuclear: “We need to be rational, not emotional or dogmatic, about how to scale up our stable, cost-efficient and clean power grid.”
Sjolander and Ahlberg knew that, in Sweden at least, there was significant public support for nuclear power (with 71% of people positive about it). They wondered whether they could take that passive support and turn it into something more substantial.
Even though it is low-carbon, nuclear was hidden away like an embarrasing relative. The idea of basing your whole brand around nuclear seemed insane.
In terms of Neumeier’s Four stages of buy-in, Sjolander and Ahlberg perceived support for nuclear in Sweden as sitting just below the threshold of acceptance; with the right nudge, it would burst through to other side. They could make supporting nuclear power go viral.
There was a gap in the market. Though exisiting utilities implictly sold nuclear electricity, all the hype was around 100% renewables products. No one was offering a 100% nuclear electricity tariff. Even though it is low-carbon, nuclear was hidden away like an embarrasing relative.
The idea of basing your offering around nuclear seemed insane. Sjolander and Ahlberg’s insight was to recognise that, while there is a vocal anti-nuclear minority, there is also a critical mass (pun intended) of people who are in favour of the technology and would be willing to support it financially — given the chance.
And so Kärnfull Energi was born: a pure-play, 100% nuclear electricity supplier. The word “Kärnfull” itself is wordplay. It means “vigorous, direct, earnest”, but “kärn” is also the Swedish word for “nucleus”.
The 100% nuclear tariff works in the same way as a 100% renewables tariff: Kärnfull buys certificates that guarantee the nuclear origin of electricty being supplied. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s currently the main way consumers can signal their preference for a given (or group of) energy sources.
Kärnfull’s branding is on point and appeals strongly to their core market: science-savvy, young, and predominantly urban Swedes. These are the people most concerned about climate change and, being young, they don’t have the visceral fear of nuclear held by those who grew up in the shadow of a potential nuclear war between the USSR and the West.
Kärnfull puts nuclear’s benefits front and centre.
It’s hard to put your finger on exactly how, but Sjolander and Ahlberg have managed to infuse some of that “Scandi cool” into their product. You know what I mean. In fact, they cite two of Sweden’s biggest startup successes, Spotify and Klarna, alongside Netflix, Uber and Airbnb, as key branding influences.
So have Kärnfull pushed nuclear through the threshold of acceptance and into “I always said so” in Sweden? Although they don’t share signup numbers, they say “100% nuclear” is now the second most popular choice of origin-guaranteed electricity in Sweden.
Interestingly, Kärnfull’s growth has been almost entirely organic; people are enjoying the product and sharing it with their friends and family. They have garnered a significant social media following and have been invited onto national radio in Sweden.
And if imitation is the highest form of flattery, then the rise of copycat 100% nuclear products in recent months shows Kärnfull are onto something.
Simple is better
If electricity in Sweden is anything like in other countries, the array of products on offer can be overwhelming. “Electricity suppliers have never been of any interest to the public,” says Ahlberg, “and when mentioned it’s always been for the wrong reasons: lacklustre customer service, non-transparent contracts and overpriced add-ons. When we appeared, they saw something different.”
Kärnfull’s approach is similar to that of Bulb, a green energy supplier in the UK: keep things simple, offer a single, low-cost tariff and rely on the strength of your company’s story, as well as quality customer service, to attract and retain customers.
Choose your friends wisely
Another key strategy has been to sign up high-profile supporters of nuclear power to the Kärnfull advisory board. The board is pro-bono and includes well-known authors like Steven Pinker, renowned scientists and even famous musicians like Jose Gonzalez. This board affords Kärnfull trust and credibility through association. More than that, it sets an example: supporting nuclear is the right thing to do. It might even be the cool thing to do.
“There have always been influential people who believe in nuclear,” says Ahlberg, “but what they’ve never had before was something to point to and say, ‘If you believe what I believe, then buy this product or service’. That’s been a strong motivator for our advisors.”
Taking the long view
The image below is typical of the branding Kärnfull uses. It reads “Long-term electricity from 100% nuclear”, but the word “long-term” (långsiktig) is also “long sight” in Swedish, suggesting nuclear power allows for unspoilt views of nature. Unlike low-carbon alternatives such as solar and wind, nuclear delivers huge amounts of energy from a tiny footprint, leaving plenty of space for nature.
Kärnfull is also “långsiktig” in other ways. Although barely a year old, there are rumours the company is planning expansions into other countries. “Was this true?”, I asked Ahlberg.
“It’s humbling, and not something we would have expected a year ago,” he replied, “but, yes, it looks like a handful of countries may need to learn how to say ‘Kärnfull’ in a not too distant future.”
Setting an example
It’s hard to look at Kärnfull’s success and not wonder what it means for the broader nuclear sector. In countries with nuclear power, I’m sure this has made electricity utilities sit up, if for nothing else then out of fear that Kärnfull might appear in their country and start eating their market share.
At least in Sweden, building an entire brand around nuclear power has worked. Being bold about nuclear’s benefits has worked. Not talking about safety all the time has worked (of course they are safe).
Can Kärnfull’s success be repeated in France, the UK, the US? There’s at least a chance. Who knows? Maybe in five years’ time there’ll be millions of us saying: “I always said so.” | https://medium.com/generation-atomic/viral-growth-of-swedish-startup-is-making-nuclear-energy-cool-cd4b57e82cf | ['David Watson'] | 2020-10-29 09:12:44.819000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Startup', 'Nuclear', 'Climate Change', 'Environment'] |
2,101 | The Difference Between Theory and Theorem and What It Tells Us About Data ‘Science’ | The Difference Between Theory and Theorem and What It Tells Us About Data ‘Science’
It Provides Yet Another Argument Against Data ‘Science’ as Science and Against Its’ Practitioners as Scientists
You might be asking yourself how I could possibly turn an article like this (the above linked) into yet another argument against data ‘science’ as science. It hinges on a critical, and sometimes underappreciated, difference between a theorem and a theory. In science, and as actual scientists, we hypothesize and if we are lucky generate enough data in support or against our hypotheses to develop theories which will allow us to explain that data. A theory is essentially just that, a set of ideas used to explain why something is (believed to be) true (if these ideas lack data to back support them they are only hypotheses). In contrast a theorem is a result that can be proven to be true from a set of axioms. The term is used most often in mathematics where the axioms are those of mathematical logic and the systems in question. A different and I think better way to put this is to say that a theory is an explanation that is (at least in principle) verifiable, while a theorem is an explanation that is/must be demonstrable. In this case verifiable means that one can show that there is evidence for it (empirical) while demonstrable means that you can do it again to show people the evidence, and that they can do it too (deductive).
Mathematics and mathematical logic make use of theorems, and are deductive, and they are not science. They are powerful tools of science to be sure, but they are not science. Yet for some reason a different (primarily deductive) tool of science and business and many other professions, data analytics, is said to be a science when the field itself uses primarily/exclusively mathematical and statistical tools to analyze existing data sets for various reasons. The data ‘scientist’ has no hand in creating the conditions that generate the data to be analyzed (i.e. designing or setting up the experiment), and in fact has no formal or informal training in the tools needed to so [e.g. design of experiments (DOE), basics of notebooking/recording/publishing, etc.]. The data ‘scientist’ does not hypothesize about a problem, design an experiment (either practical or theoretical), execute that experiment, analyze the results, and then draw conclusions based on those results to hypothesize further. At most they do two of those things and usually only one or none. From what I can tell most are not even aware of what each of those steps I just described are or how to apply them in any case. They are just not needed to do data ‘science’ as it is practiced today.
You may say that what I am describing only applies to research science and that not all science is research. Yes, you may say that, but all scientists, be they researchers or otherwise, are trained in the mechanics of doing research, the logistics of research, or its cadence. They all know how to do research even if they do not do it everyday. Moreover, many of the principles of research science apply to the work they do actually do. Data science does not train its practitioners in these principles because they are not needed. When one is doing math one does not need to know where the numbers come from only that they exist and the rules for working with them. Similarly when one is doing data ‘science’ the origin/source of the data doesn’t really matter and almost never does the data ‘scientist’ have any hand in (how/why/what/when/where) said data is collected. They do not ‘design the experiment’ and do not have the tools or training to do so. They do not worry about recording their methods and results in ways that other experts in the field can replicate because their methods are already fully described and deductive, and by definition must be replicatable (demonstrable as I discussed above).
As I always try to emphasize whenever I discuss this topic, to say data science is not science is no value judgement as to its relative worth or merit. It is not to suggest that it is inferior or superior to actual science, only to show that it is different, it is not science. Clearly it is an extremely valuable and powerful tool. It’s practitioners are some of the brightest and sharpest and most clever people on the planet. That their work is highly valued is evidenced by the sky high salaries they are paid (especially when compared to actual scientists). To me as an actual working scientist it is puzzling to understand why data analytics professionals want so badly to be scientists. They have the high salaries and perks and flashy silicon valley jobs, all we have is lab coats, low pay, and some of the most low key, low visibility jobs you will find in any profession. | https://everydayjunglist.medium.com/the-difference-between-theory-and-theorem-and-what-it-tells-us-about-data-science-9edd02f43724 | ['Daniel Demarco'] | 2018-11-01 02:27:31.363000+00:00 | ['Philosophy Of Science', 'Philosophy', 'Data Science', 'Technology', 'Science'] |
2,102 | dApp Builder at community meetup in Seoul on May 17 | The dApp Builder team in Korea has presented the Platform at its meetup in Seoul on May 17
The has spoken on a topic “dApp Builder: Blockchain App Store and Smart Contracts Marketplace” at the meetup. They also explored how dApp Builder plans to establish a community reviewed smart contract marketplace and make it in a way where anyone can make an Etherium dApp.
What is dApp Builder
dApp Builder is a platform to create Ethereum dApps from prebuilt smart contracts (no coding) and instantly deploy them to blockchain.
dApp Builder establishes a community reviewed smart contract marketplace.
dApp Builder exists to make it so that anyone can start an Etherium dApp.
dApp Marketplace will enable anyone to create, customize, and deploy their decentralized applications.
If you are interested in trying the released functionality please go here https://dappbuilder.io/ and sign up.
Stay in touch for updates via | https://medium.com/ethereum-dapp-builder/dapp-builder-at-blockchain-summit-in-seoul-on-may-17-9870d7ac7ed4 | ['Dapp Builder Team'] | 2018-05-22 17:15:20.178000+00:00 | ['Development', 'Technology', 'Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin'] |
2,103 | YouTube Stars Promoted Dangerous Gambling Scam To Children | The common rule on the internet is “if something seems too good to be true, that’s because it is”. Very few YouTubers have vindicated this principle more than professional online grifters Jake Paul and Bryan “RiceGum” Le who recently promoted a deceptive gambling site to their millions of subscribers, many of which underage, promising visitors untold prizes and profits the site’s administrators openly admitted they don’t actually own. It was all an outright con-job.
Mystery Brand, a controversial loot box website offering users literally unbelievable gifts, was exposed over the weekend by highly acclaimed YouTubers H3H3 and PewDiePie who questioned the ethics of online creators guiding their young and impressionable audiences towards shady businesses, along with the enabling of such behaviour by the moral arbiters of YouTube. The con was simple, teasing users with the prospect that from anywhere between $12.99 to $250, their “mystery box” can contain lavish riches such as iPhones, iPads, MacBook Pros, Nike Air sneakers, a Lamborghini and even a $250 million mansion credited as “the most expensive Los Angeles realty.”
In their advertisements, Paul and RiceGum are shown investing their thousands of dollars into the website in exchange for these randomised digital prizes. The videos begin showing humble items nobody really wants such as fidget spinners, USB sticks, a Nutella chocolate hoodie, icicles, anything and all to pad the competition with unnecessary garbage, all to make the actual riches appear all the more valuable. It’s the standard risk vs reward practice intended to hook gamblers to the vice. By the end, the stars have won so much tech and apparel they’re supposedly able to either order the gifts to their house or sell it back to the site for profits. You’d be surprised there was no mention of “get rich quick” from non-existent Nigerian princes anywhere!
This rags to riches narrative structure, of course, is by design. As reported by both The Daily Beast and The Verge on Wednesday, Tim Perk, a representative for the company, addressed numerous consumer complaints by his own admission that the prizes listed on their website are sometimes entirely fake, including the luxurious cars and the mansion the publications found was only valued at $188 million and can still be found for sale at Zillow.com. Since this exposure, the prizes have been entirely removed from the website, though consumers should demand justice for blatantly illegal false advertising being perpetuated by the mainstream.
“I received a fake Supreme x North Face Baltoro mountain jacket from Stockx earlier this year,” a Reddit said. “It’s actually so frustrating to see a multi-million dollar company do well despite numerous incidents of fake items slipping through the authentication process. Their lack of customer support is also a joke.”
This is especially concerning considering the target audience of these YouTube personalities. From a simple scan of the website’s terms and conditions, it appears that Mystery Brand is an operation being conducted in Poland, meaning all behaviour is “interpreted and subject to the jurisdiction and the laws” of that particular nation. Thanks to the lawmakers of Central Europe, the website “strictly prohibited for persons under 13 or persons not reached the age of majority”, though this means anyone who actually won any prizes may not even be eligible to receive them, with no news of refunds being conducted by administrators.
This is in addition to other Mystery Brand problems customers have exposed across multiple Reddit threads. The journalists cited examples showcasing the deceptive racket, such as customers being coerced into paying an additional $40 dollars for shipping without guarantees of a refund, entirely faulty tracking numbers and packages which haven’t been shipped for months (assuming they’ll even be received at all). Perk later told The Verge that the delivery of these unspecified “fake winnings”, as well as the failure to deliver anything to their customers, is “completely untrue” and would be “unjustified” if that’s the case, passing some of the blame onto so-called affiliates such as StockX, a popular reselling platform for shoes. A StockX representative, however, denied any relationship with Mystery Brand when The Verge asked, going as far to say they didn’t know the company existed.
It’s all currently a he-said, she-said of illegality.
Even if we grant against all this totally reasonable evidence is just another fake news meme, where the site runs smoothly, customers aren’t being scammed and the admins are entirely good faith actors, it still explicitly violates YouTube’s strict gambling policies imposing a ban on R&G promotion to minors, which both Paul and RiceGum have openly admitted is not only their target audience but also that of prior affiliates of the brand too. These associates include Zane Hijazi, a crewmember of vlogger David Dobrik, Morgz, Reaction Zoom and Guava Juice, a creator knowing for making YouTube videos centred around slime. Obvious adult content, clearly.
All these creators, however, have removed their promotion following these revelations. Paul and RiceGum, however, still maintain the videos on their platform, which remain monetised by the YouTube platform with all the inappropriate links to the website. YouTube even had the gal to make sure these videos were on their trending page, which has jokingly been referred to as the “staff’s picks” section due to suggestions of big tech curation. The platform released their statement to Vox showing more concern the videos were labelled as sponsored rather than the illegal conduct at hand.
“YouTube believes that creators should be transparent with their audiences if their content includes paid promotion of any kind,” an anonymous representative said, refusing to have their name on the record. “Our policies make it clear that YouTube creators are responsible for ensuring their content complies with local laws, regulations and YouTube Community Guidelines. If the content is found to violate these policies, we take action to ensure the integrity of our platform, which can include removing content.”
There’s no word of whether the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the government department responsible for overseeing regulations in regards to both online sponsored content and advertising, has any intention of investigating the promotion of gambling to minors by YouTube and their highest stars. According to Vox, the only response received was “an automatic reply that the organization was closed due to the partial government shutdown”, which is underway since President Donald Trump’s recent demands for funding of the wall across the southern border. Whether action will be taken after the shutdown is unclear, though don’t expect big tech to get their morals together anytime soon without some principled resistance.
Thanks for reading! This article was originally published for TrigTent.com, a bipartisan media platform for political and social commentary, truly diverse viewpoints and facts that don’t kowtow to political correctness.
Bailey Steen is a journalist, graphic designer and film critic residing in the heart of Australia. You can also find his work right here on Medium and publications such as Janks Reviews.
For updates, feel free to follow @atheist_cvnt on his various social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Gab. You can also contact through bsteen85@gmail.com for personal or business reasons.
Stay honest and radical. Cheers, darlings. 💋 | https://atheist-cvnt.medium.com/youtube-stars-promoted-dangerous-gambling-scam-to-children-473394d5f7cc | ['Bailey', 'The Libtardtarian'] | 2019-01-10 20:29:48.394000+00:00 | ['FTC', 'YouTube', 'Gambling', 'Crime', 'Technology'] |
2,104 | Redefining the Idea of Industrial Cyber Security | On the digital platform, things are not as simple as you think they might be or should be. In fact, it is quite complicated. Every year companies lose huge amounts of money in the form of various cyber-attacks.
Especially, industrial units are vulnerable to this particular threat. And for that reason, you need to find the best and Trusted Industrial Cyber-Security Solutions. And that should be our security service. Why should you choose Industrial Cyber as your security partner? Let’s have a quick look at those factors.
Clarity of understanding:
Whether it is for Cybersecurity for Travel and Transportation or for some other industrial unit, you can simply trust us because we know what could go wrong in each sector. It is our understanding f the cyber world and the technology that makes us the best people in the business.
We give insightful Cybersecurity Management Programs that includes the network of the company and the facility. We understand the whole game of security and that is our specialization.
Choosing us would mean finding the best people who know what they are doing. And that is why clients trust us.
Readout top articles on Industrial (ICS/OT) Cyber Security Management & Strategy at https://industrialcyber.co/category/management-strategy/
Better technology and smart people:
We are aware of the fact that it is not only about the understanding of the security system but also about the technology that is used to carry out the job. We have deployed advanced and smart tools so that we can monitor and give the perfect solution to our clients.
In addition, our team members and professionals come with vast experience that helps them in understating the complex organizational structures and give the right management program to maintain security.
All our professionals are trained and they have immense knowledge in this field. We hire professionals who are vastly experienced and skilled because we do not want to compromise with the quality of security service.
Client communication is the key:
When it comes to Cyber Security Strategies, you need to have the people on the job who can give you the thoughtful strategy and here we come into the scene with our analytical approach.
We understand the fact that things can be highly organized and effective only when we understand what clients want and the client’s pain points, hence, we make sure that we communicate with clients so that we understand the exact requirements and give them the right solution.
A few more advantages of our service:
· You are going to customize cybersecurity solution according to what is required for your business
· Smart and intelligent professionals on the job
· Better technological deployment
· We educate our clients on various security aspects so that they can be alert
· We give complete industrial security service at a good and affordable cost
If you have been searching for Industrial ICS/OT Cyber Security, then you should never look in other directions because you have just found the right people. Call our team and find out how they can empower you with perfect security service. It is time to be a little more sensitive to cybersecurity.
Improve industrial control system security with vulnerability management and for that visit https://industrialcyber.co | https://medium.com/@industrialcyber/redefining-the-idea-of-industrial-cyber-security-fc316a94b13e | ['Industrial Cyber'] | 2020-01-14 10:32:24.022000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Data Protection', 'Scada Cyber Security', 'Information Security', 'Cybersecurity'] |
2,105 | Exploring the world of Elon | How Elon Musk is the most important visionary in generations.
ShoutMeLoud
How he got his initial fortune
Born in South-Africa in 1971 and interested in technology, Musk moved to Silicon Valley in 1995 where he started his first company called Zip2. Which he sold just 4 years later for 280 million euros.
LogoDix
He then went on to create what would later be called PayPal, selling it as early as 2002 for an astronomical 1.3 billion euros. Not a bad start.
Risking it all
Most of us who would get this rich this quickly would be punching the air for a few moments. Then going on to either buy expensive items or putting it into a savings account because ‘you can never be too safe’.
But this man was different, he saw our world having three existential problems which no one was making meaningful progress towards solving. These being climate-change, the dangers of AI and our dependency on planet earth.
When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor. — Elon Musk
Seeing this he decided to put it all on red, using his entire fortune to fund Tesla and Space X. His first steps to addressing these existential problems.
Countering climate-change
Arguably the biggest and most difficult problem our world has ever faced. The vision of Elon Musk could be what is getting us out of this mess. If his projects are successfully used on a global scale, the effect his actions will have on countering climate-change would be astronomic. But what exactly are these projects ?
Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster. — Elon Musk
Tesla
Tesla is doing a lot to change the world we live in for the better. Not only are they pushing the sale and innovation of electric cars but profits also all go to countering climate-change even more.
Statista
Driving electric cars is a great way of tackling carbon emissions, Musk’s company is what started the process of achieving this on a global scale. This is incredibly important for shaping a sustainable future in car transportation. The impact Tesla has had on starting the electric car conversation, getting other companies involved and pushing the consumer towards them can not be underestimated.
The Boring Company
The Boring Company
With his other project, The Boring company, Musk is looking to hugely reduce traffic. He’s looking to achieve this by building an entire underground network of tunnels in heavily populated areas. Again tackling climate-change because less traffic equals less emissions and I think that’s something we can all get behind.
Tackling the dangers of AI
OpenAI
What OpenAI tries to do is ensure artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. Trying to pioneer a safe form of AI that isn’t just about innovation but about ensuring it benefits the well-being of humans first. If successful, the dangers of AI could be limited greatly.
OpenAI
Escaping earth
Space X
One of his most famous companies as well as the most exciting is probably Space X. When global governments were suddenly done exploring space at a great pace. Elon stepped in with Space X, working together with NASA to create the first ever commercial space program with the ultimate mission of creating a planet B on Mars.
VOA News
If all goes wrong and we can’t stop climate change Space X could just be the only hope we have left. If that isn’t worthy of being crucially innovating I don’t know what is. There is no planet B ? You could be retracting that statement if Elon Musk works his magic yet again. | https://medium.com/@larsingelrelst/exploring-the-world-of-elon-59291d03d634 | ['Lars Ingelrelst'] | 2021-01-06 14:09:05.496000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Space', 'Transportation', 'Technology', 'Elon Musk'] |
2,106 | HOW CAN WE USE BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY | In a protection scheme money transfer, land, etc., Blockchain technology has been used. It is very difficult to alter whether any information was registered by the blockchain. All the data will be securely processed. Blockchain Training in Chennai Preparation shows you the value of actual encryption.
What are the requirements for Blockchain?
There are several arguments for using blockchain technology because it claims it has a safe way to process any data. Some are, Some
Resilience — One is repeated in this blockchain architecture. In the case of a large attack, most nodes in the chain are run.
Time-saving — Blockchain saves time. It makes quick settlement trades because authentication does not take much time.
Reliability — The blockchain will check and identify the party involved in deleting a double record, where appropriate, and help speed up the process easily and efficiently.
Unchangeable — After you have registered the transaction in the blockchain, the information is certified and it is not so easy to alter or erase any new block or information.
Prevent theft — Any of the information that has been exchanged by a company is likely to be destroyed to prevent this, which makes it very convenient for businesses to safely preserve information with blockchain technologies.
High encryption — Blockchain course can allow you to safely preserve original knowledge over a problem while the standard database will be targeted.
Transparency — Anyone will see Blockchain online. Any transaction would be highly open until the system has been converted to public.
Usage cases of Blockchain
In each branch, Blockchain has been introduced, some are,
They are used in marketing for payroll, tracking, and also for cash transactions. In the government areas, the registry and recognition of the applicant, registration of records, etc. Digital assistants, custom drones, in IoT — smart home sensor. Maintenance of records, health token, contracts for growth. Crowd Analysis and Supercomputing. Payroll, transparency, and payment interdivisional.
Get Certified in Blockchain
Enter FITA Academy, a reputable institute in the city providing the best coaching in IT courses and in language-related classes, to learn more about blockchain training and safely preserve our records. Trainers are competent, and teachers should be qualified as a professional development agent. Students will take weekdays and weekend courses. Once the student has completed the course, the students are accredited. Join FITA in your job development. | https://medium.com/@sdiyasanthoshi/how-can-we-use-blockchain-technology-982091b6de81 | ['Diya Santhoshi'] | 2020-12-23 08:56:18.964000+00:00 | ['Blockchain Technology', 'Technology', 'Training'] |
2,107 | Big Tech Overlords Made a Massive Mistake | The New York Post story about Hunter Biden would have been dismissed as another vast right-wing conspiracy by the mainstream media
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
Facebook and Twitter’s strategy of censoring the New York Post story about Biden family corruption backfired bigly. They forgot basic human psychology which says the more you tell someone not to look at or not to do something, it increases the probability people will do exactly what you don’t want.
Tech companies do the Left’s dirty work by fact-checking everything that could be questionable from conservatives but give the Left a free pass. You won’t find stories that were anonymously sourced about the Russia collusion investigation or anything else unfavorable to President Trump flagged by our big tech betters.
Big tech got power-hungry and decided to flex their muscles. They wanted to position themselves as our defenders against fake news and misinformation. The story wasn’t fact-checked yet, but somehow our betters at those companies deemed it not fit for our consumption.
Their logic was by blocking the story about Hunter Biden’s shady and corrupt business dealings, it would remove credibility from the story because they said so. They made the incorrect assumption the American people are dumb enough to believe everything they say.
They wanted to position themselves as our defenders against fake news and misinformation.
They thought if the story got suppressed, no one would see it. That’s a very high level of hubris since people have plenty of ways of finding information outside of their platforms, such as going to the source and deciding for themselves if it’s credible or not.
Social media is in fact social. When a big story happens, word spreads no matter how hard techies at these companies try to stop it. Zuckerberg and Dorsey made the miscalculation the story would go away if they shut it down on their platforms.
Their miscalculation was by censoring the story, it would go away. It’s not a crazy plan. They thought it would end up another major story ignored by the mainstream media because it didn’t fit their pro-Biden narrative. The media are notorious for selecting stories to cover that advance their left-wing agenda.
They made the incorrect assumption the American people are dumb enough to believe everything they say.
Instead, they incurred more wrath than they could imagine. Dorsey and Zuckerberg thought they could censor a bombshell story, and no one would say a word. They were so arrogant they didn’t think they would face any repercussions.
Big tech’s actions ended up creating more trouble for them and the Biden campaign. Conservative media won’t let this story go and there’s a case these companies need to be broken up. Mainstream media could have drummed up a story from their files of Trump “controversies” to make this go away.
This was a poor strategy on the part of big tech’s left-wing agenda. They should have let the story play out and the mainstream media would have run interference for the Biden campaign. It created an unnecessary controversy and great material for President Trump to capitalize on. | https://medium.com/common-sense-now/big-tech-overlords-made-a-massive-mistake-e97347d91c80 | ['George Chambers'] | 2020-10-22 02:29:50.644000+00:00 | ['Election 2020', 'Politics', 'Government', 'Technology', 'Social Media'] |
2,108 | Serving iPhone 12 Order Enthusiasts, iBox Opens Online and Offline Services | #ibox #iphone12
The first day of opening the iPhone 12 pre-order was greeted with great enthusiasm by the market in Indonesia. This was shown by the surge in orders for the new iPhone, through its official Instagram account ibox announcing a surge in orders for the new iPhone 12 smartphone which caused their official website to experience a surge and now opening pre-orders online and offline. iBox is a retailer that sells official Apple products in Indonesia owned by TAM or PT Teletama Artha Mandiri which is a subsidiary of Erajaya Group.
“Thank you for your enthusiasm. Sorry, we are currently experiencing a surge in requests to iBox.co.id and are working to ensure that conditions can recover as quickly as possible, “ Friday, December 11, 2020.
The latest smartphone from Apple, the iPhone 12, has been long awaited and can be pre-ordered starting today, December 11 to December 16, 2020. The cellphone is marketed in Indonesia by TAM or PT Teletama Artha Mandiri, which is a subsidiary of Erajaya. Group.
So that consumers can immediately pre-order iPhone 12 directly, iBox directs consumers to place orders through their official stores.
iPhone 12 consists of 4 models, namely iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. So, which model is the most popular where the demand is indicated the most?
Analysis from JP Morgan states that the iPhone 12 Pro is currently the most in-demand model on the market, beating the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
“Currently, you can also pre-order iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro in all the nearest iBox stores,”
The iPhone 12 is sold in four variants of cellphone models released globally in October, including the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max.
The four smartphone models from Apple come with the latest designs, a new camera system and the A14 Bionic chip. For the iPhone 12 Mini, the price starts from IDR 12 million 999 thousand, iPhone 12 starts from IDR 14 million 999 thousand, iPhone 12 Pro starts from IDR 18 million 499 thousand, and iPhone 12 Pro Max starts from IDR 20 million, 499 thousand.
Please note, the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini are wrapped in five tempting color choices, including blue, green, white, black, and red. These two models come in three memory capacity options, namely 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB.
Meanwhile, the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max models offer four color variants, starting from gold, Pacific blue, graphite, and silver. In terms of memory, the iPhone is available in three options, 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB.
Let’s immediately pre-order iPhone 12 right now, for those of you who order at iBpx get an exciting promo for free installments of up to 2 months * with 0% installments up to 24 months * with certain Bank Credit Cards or get accessories vouchers worth IDR1 million with a debit card / certain bank credit. For those of you who have pre-ordered, iPhone units can be picked up on 18–20 December 2020 at the nearest iBox stores, for additional information there will be an early morning restock at the iBox Official Shop at Shopee. (fitri) | https://medium.com/@tokosintajuara/serving-iphone-12-order-enthusiasts-ibox-opens-online-and-offline-services-2dff5f6de4 | ['Toko Sinta'] | 2020-12-26 05:35:23.581000+00:00 | ['iPhone', 'Iphone 12 Pro', 'Ibox', 'Startup', 'Technology'] |
2,109 | You’re Creating a New Programming Language — What Will the Syntax Look Like? | You’re Creating a New Programming Language — What Will the Syntax Look Like?
I asked a bunch of programmers about their favorite syntax — here’s what they said
A little while ago I decided to have a little fun and wrote an article titled “My Favorite Pieces of Syntax in 8 Different Programming Languages.”
I published it and then decided to share it on a subreddit — r/ProgrammingLanguages. This led to an interesting discussion about programming language syntax, as users shared their own favorites.
It left me with no choice: I had to write a new article with my favorite pieces of syntax from the r/ProgrammingLanguages community. | https://medium.com/better-programming/youre-creating-a-new-programming-language-what-will-the-syntax-look-like-35199d2a44e9 | ['Yakko Majuri'] | 2020-09-26 22:27:42.961000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Technology', 'Programming', 'Software Engineering', 'Python'] |
2,110 | Machine Learning Up-To-Date — Life With Data | There have been breakthroughs in understanding COVID-19, such as how soon an exposed person will develop symptoms and how many people on average will contract the disease after contact with an exposed individual. The wider research community is actively working on accurately predicting the percent population who are exposed, recovered, or have built immunity. Researchers currently build epidemiology models and simulators using available data from agencies and institutions, as well as historical data from similar diseases such as influenza, SARS, and MERS. It’s an uphill task for any model to accurately capture all the complexities of the real world. Challenges in building these models include learning parameters that influence variations in disease spread across multiple countries or populations, being able to combine various intervention strategies (such as school closures and stay-at-home orders), and running what-if scenarios by incorporating trends from diseases similar to COVID-19. COVID-19 remains a relatively unknown disease with no historic data to predict trends.
We are now open-sourcing a toolset for researchers and data scientists to better model and understand the progression of COVID-19 in a given community over time. This toolset is comprised of a disease progression simulator and several machine learning (ML) models to test the impact of various interventions. First, the ML models help bootstrap the system by estimating the disease progression and comparing the outcomes to historical data. Next, you can run the simulator with learned parameters to play out what-if scenarios for various interventions. In the following diagram, we illustrate the interactions among the extensible building blocks in the toolset.
… keep reading | https://medium.com/the-innovation/ml-utd-23-machine-learning-up-to-date-life-with-data-99300a0d3ee0 | ['Anthony Agnone'] | 2020-11-20 15:45:15.936000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Technology', 'Data Science', 'Programming'] |
2,111 | The Journey Day 17 | The First Blog
A brief talk about progress…
The first ever blog was created by Justin Hall while he was a student at Swarthmore College in 1994. Although recognized as the first blog, Links.net was referred to simply as “his personal homepage.
It wasn’t really until 1997 when the term “weblog” was used. It’s been attributed to Jorn Barger as he wrote one of the earliest examples of a blog nestled between elements of html and css styled into the influential “Robot Wisdom”.
Almost simultaneously a small startup named Catapult Entertainment was working on what would become the precursor to the modern pvp experience. This product would be called the XBAND. The XBAND, was a dialup modem that sat between your cartridge on the Sega Genesis or SNES. It allowed players to connect and play against another opponent on a console for the first time. It remains to this day the only modem released in the United States that was licensed by Nintendo.
I was amongst the first to get on XBAND. By the time I had finished playing Super Street Fighter in 1997 I had racked up over 500 wins with less than 30 losses. There were a few other games, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, and Mario Kart come to mind, but generally I was there for Street Fighter.
Aside from the games, another interesting thing was happening on XBAND. During the same time frame of 94–97, users were beginning to form their own blog network. Given an individual about space on their profile much as profiles today give users to tell about themselves, each XBAND would afford a person up to four accounts. With a 1000 word limit based on 250 words per about page, some of the first blogs appeared on that game changing device contributing to the growth of blogs as we know them today.
I started my first blog in late 1995. I had come across a few during that time. Some were club spaces, others were game and system reviews, etc. A typical antiquated browsing experience. Some were good some were really bad but it was more about people starting to share information in a totally different way than ever before. That was the real beauty of this.
At the time I worked for a video game store named Captron. Captron was originally owned and operated by Capcom USA. It was eventually sold and fell away into the abyss of history that comes to take all things eventually. But at the time, Captron afforded me a unique opportunity to play a substantial number of video games across all platforms. We were told to learn the hot games, have tips and tricks, as well as know the in’s and out’s of all the systems.
As new games came out, I would play test them and write about it once a week. There was a community of us on XBAND that promoted each other and helped each other gain readership and by the time the second E3 convention came around I was taking it all in on press passes. For a 23 year old young man who grew up gaming, it was a pretty big deal.
The Early Blogs pages of XtN rOx, 2, 3, and 4 on XBAND
From those early day’s, my blog writing has always been a thing that I’ve practiced in spits and spurts. Now, at 2:03am, I write for the purpose of documenting my journey on my life path as a developer. Specializing in web development, this recent turn to game development, 3D animation, and cinematography has changed my blogging so that it now serves the purpose of documenting… more games. Life comes full circle.
As I sat in front of my space shooter 2D project, I considered how far life can travel to get to the place that it’s going. With a giant 73% peering back at me, I could see the end of this project coming soon. My list of setup items had taken me through the last of setting up my UI, around the corner through audio, and into post production and design. Backtracking some, I went back into all of the explosion animations and prefabs to really give them some lift with particle effects and fragmentation. I would finish at 90% done today.
Tomorrow’s agenda (today’s agenda) will be music and sound effects. Using placeholder music and sound files, I just wanted to give the game some feel today but really want to capture the right tone of the game through the audio version of the UX as well. How does the music flow together with the course of the game? What is just the right sound for each explosion? All of the fun stuff that the music producer in me has been waiting ever so patiently to begin work on. | https://medium.com/@anthony-8789/the-journey-day-17-12d398118ac6 | ['Tony Miller'] | 2020-12-24 18:45:42.889000+00:00 | ['Full Stack', 'Games', 'Gamedevhq', 'Technology', 'Game Development'] |
2,112 | Creating a Sliding mobile menu in Unity | Often you hay have seen sliding of UI panels when navigating across an app. Like clicking on the settings icon slides out the home screen and slides in the settings menu.
In this article, we will be creating a simple yet scalable sliding menu system that I am personally using in most of my Android games.
I will be using DoTween for making animations. So you need to install DoTween package in your Unity Project
Creating the Home and Settings Menu
To begin with, I have created a scene with two UI elements (Home and Settings menu) covering the complete screens as shown in the gif below.
The Home and Settings are two images covering the full screen containing elements like settings button, back button, and Labels.
Creating HomeUIManager and SettingsUIManager
Now we need to create UI Managers for each of the menu screens. In this case, we will have two Managers, each for Home UI and for Settings UI.
Create a script HomeUIManager.cs and paste the following code into the file.
Create a script SettingsUIManager.cs and paste the following code into the file.
After creating these scripts, attach the HomeUIManager.cs script to the HomeUI panel covering the full screen.
Attaching HomeUIManager.cs to Home UI
Also, attach the SettingsUIManager.cs to the Settings UI element.
Attaching SettingsUIManager.cs to Settings UI
Now click on the Play button and notice how the Home and Settings menu gets position itself side by side with the Home menu completely visible and the Settings menu hiding beyond the screen. | https://medium.com/developers-arena/creating-a-sliding-mobile-menu-in-unity-56940e44556e | ['Kunal Tandon'] | 2019-12-05 05:27:27.361000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Game Development', 'Games', 'Unity', 'Technology'] |
2,113 | Future of Technology. Throughout the past decades, technology… | Throughout the past decades, technology has drastically improved uniquely affecting every individual. Technology has been around for over 200 million years starting from as early as stones and rocks. However, within the past decades, modern-day technology has changed to a level where no human would think would be possible. In my blog, I will research the improvement of technology being able to take over jobs in the future. It is just a matter of time before robots and artificial intelligence will take over humans in the workforce and change the nature of work.
This topic brings personal interest to me and should to you as well because this is a situation that we all will face in the workforce one day or another in your life. Since I want to become an accountant, I may worry that instead of employing me and hiring me, the owner of the bank may have technological replacements that can do the job that was intended for me. This is because technology is more reliable and financially beneficial which may put my job at risk. Others may also benefit from reading this because it is an issue that everyone will eventually face sooner or later. Also, before doing my research, I already know that technology and robots, as well as artificial intelligence, has been on a recent rise as more countries are using that as alternatives to humans, however, I need to research the short and long term effects of the improvement in technology to the effect on jobs.
Some important questions that come to my mind are the short term effect as well as the long term effects of replacing jobs with technology. I believe that it may be more financially reliable however, it’s a different feeling than having a human doing the task and work in certain situations. Another question is how would technology be controlled in the business world? Finally, one last question that will be answered later is how efficient will the use of technology be in the workplace?
A skill that will help someone prepare for the rapid expansion of technology is adaptation. Technology is part of our everyday lives and is just getting more complex by the day. To keep up with the societal trends such as virtual learning on zoom, we must implement the technology in our everyday life. This is why we must adapt and learn how to work in an unfamiliar environment to the best of our ability. This blog will talk about the effect of technology on jobs in the future. | https://medium.com/the-future-technology-vs-jobs/future-of-technology-3e11f612e262 | ['Saad Afzal'] | 2020-11-29 09:43:54.589000+00:00 | ['Robots', 'Jobs', 'Future', 'Technology', 'Future Technology'] |
2,114 | Business functions separated by a common language. | “Two nations divided by a common language”, this quote normally attributed to Oscar Wilde is about Britain and the USA.
Since my daughter has become engaged to a Brit, this is a frequent occurrence in my family.
So when I was reading the latest Gartner CIO survey results and read the below chart -
Top 10 Business Priorities
Rank
Top 10 IT Priorities
Rank
Increasing enterprise growth
1
Analytics and business intelligence
1
Delivering operational results
2
Mobile technologies
2
Reducing enterprise costs
3
Cloud computing (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS)
3
Attracting and retaining new customers
4
Collaboration technologies (workflow)
4
Improving IT applications and infrastructure
5
Legacy modernization
5
Creating new products and services (innovation)
6
IT management
6
Improving efficiency
7
CRM
7
Attracting and retaining the workforce
8
Virtualization
8
Implementing analytics and big data
9
Security
9
Expanding into new markets and geographies
10
ERP Applications
10
My first thoughts were to the quote above. When the line of business, be it finance, marketing or another department talks to IT or vice versa you can see from the chart above that they are speaking English, but not the same language.
On the left business is saying what they want to DO and on the right IT is saying what they should BUY and IMPLEMENT.
The issue is who is ensuring that the right side from IT will DO what business wants on the left side.
That is an important exercise that both line of business and IT must do is not just at budget time, but throughout the year.
Let’s start with Increasing enterprise growth.
What is IT doing on the right to increase growth?
1. Analytics and BI can identify untapped markets, great customer sales potential and run tests to improve market success of new products/services.
2. Analytics, Collaboration technologies and ERP apps tied to Mobile technologies can provide field sales the ability to outshine competitors in front of customers.
Delivering operational results -
1. Again analytics and BI can play a large role in provide visibility to internal processes, tie that to mobile technologies to speed decision-making and leveraging optimized ERP applications to improved processes.
2. The most obvious is that Cloud computing, Virtualization, and Legacy modernization can reduce IT cost and thus help the bottom line.
Reducing enterprise costs — see above
We can go through the entire list, but you get the idea. The important note here is that both IT and the lines of business should have their strategies and tactics matrixed to clearly demonstrate alignment is clear. Also, they need to communicate, measure and promote this alignment throughout the company during your fiscal year and across years for longer range projects.
Performing a constant translation is important, as this year it is Cloud, Analytics, and BYOD requiring translation from the IT to the LOB side. Depending on your industry there are several business terms IT will need the business to ensure they have clear translations. | https://medium.com/convergence-business-technology-and-the-people-who/business-functions-separated-by-a-common-language-fc62a381c268 | ['Paul Oliver'] | 2017-01-07 00:38:00.823000+00:00 | ['Erp', 'Analytics', 'Information Technology', 'Business Intelligence', 'Line Of Business'] |
2,115 | 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'] |
2,116 | Start fixing the news | Start fixing the news
It starts with learning a mutual language to speak critically and constructively about the news. Then creating big ideas.
Cartoon for The New Yorker. February 2017
Do not expect to get out of talking about two big P’s this year at the Thanksgiving table — Politics and Pandemic. But between mouthfuls of turkey, the conversation may turn towards an easier target. During these holidays, there will be much bullying of The News.
The news and its distribution — with the spectacular wrench of social media — are often maligned for being overwhelming, inconsistent, fake, unrepresentative, among many other ills.
A summation of such gripes might be that modern news systems have left us ill-equipped to be informed-citizens.
And there is little denying that the information landscape is barely recognizable from the past decade. Pew research in 2020 shows that one-in-five adults get their political news primarily through social media.
Willing or not, big technology companies have become intertwined with the creation and distribution of news. Therein the purpose of news perhaps faces its greatest challenge, but also opportunity.
When we are truly troubled by the systems that create and deliver the news and find its flaws detrimental to the social construct, we can do something.
Let’s learn a mutual language to speak critically and constructively about the news, and then create big ideas to fix it.
Here is where to start.
For a foundational foray on how established journalists think about journalism, look no further than the work of insiders Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, The Elements of Journalism.
What these authors have done excellently are these two things. First, with a group called the Committee of Concerned Journalists, they conducted the most extensive user research study ever organized across the profession.
Through twenty-one public forums, more than one-hundred in-depth interviews, multiple surveys, a summit, and over a dozen studies, they gathered enormous amounts of qualitative and quantitative data about the news.
Then the authors synthesized and organized that information on our behalf. As output, they offer a transcendent purpose and a framework of 10 principles to evaluate modern journalism as a newsperson or a citizen. Even dated (the latest revision was 2003) the framework holds up well in the digital age.
“The primary purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing”
Let those sink in.
One wonders whether the principles espoused in this book are heard outside of journalism schools’ walls. To be useful standards, they should be.
Agreeing or disagreeing with the principles, names, characters, and ideas espoused in Elements of Journalism goes beyond this column’s purpose. What the book does offer is an insider framework enabling us a gateway to think about journalism more critically and constructively.
So how do we fix things?
Consider an important insight from the book. The Discipline of Verification, the third principle of journalism, comes from the same intellectual roots as the scientific method. Just as with science studies, it is important to create news stories methodologically and ensure they are repeatable. Someone should be able to recreate the story with the same evidence.
How might we make journalism as credible as scientific studies? As a flash in the pan idea, think about how AI could help us do verification by creating an exhaustive list of questions to test assumptions behind each story. There could be a service for self-publishers (like myself) that tests assumptions so that the writer can self-improve their story.
This is the type of idea that can arise from breaking the news into elements, then thinking critically and constructively.
Elements are a starting point.
We should choose to be optimistic that journalism’s transcendent purpose can still be accomplished in modern society. That does not mean that the institutions that deliver it today should not change. Instead, we should boil that purpose down to its raw elements and not be afraid to design new systems that accomplish that purpose better.
Next up, let’s talk about Big Tech. What role should Facebook, Twitter, Google play as creators and distributors of the news? That is enough to make heads spin. | https://jrhaglund.medium.com/start-fixing-the-news-4056f6a367a6 | ['John Haglund'] | 2020-11-26 16:43:51.048000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'News', 'Digital', 'Ideas', 'Journalism'] |
2,117 | What Powers Energy @ OYE! Rickshaw? | The Energy Product
The Energy marketplace product at Oye! leverages the best of Battery, Charging, IoT, and Digital technologies to deliver seamless experience to end consumers and all operating stakeholders.
By design, 100% hardware at Oye! is Connected — starting with BT (to connect via proximate user’s phone) to GPS/GSM IoT for stand-alone assets. Our proprietary integration stack combines all of the hardware and software modules and provides a harmonized experience. The focus has been to modularize as much as possible — right from big stacks to internal construction to aid in hardware interchangeability and serviceability.
Batteries are custom built to suit our use case with no compromise. From the choice of cell chemistry that allows us to extract high cycle life in high temperature regions (affordable pricing per KWH), to internal construction choices that help withstand the Indian arterial roads on leaf-spring suspension vehicles, to carrying convenience, every detail is custom engineered. The BMS CAN through the IoT beams live battery parameters to the cloud for real-time applications and advanced analytics.
Swapping Stations combine the best of smart electronics & power electronics with cloud and software to provide 100% automated self-serve battery collection and dispensing points, allowing for 24/7 and manpower-light operations, and remote management.
Oye! Smart Swap Station
Digital technologies form the key pillars for enablement, efficiency gains and opportunity unlocking for the entire solution stack. The Driver mobile App enables the end consumer to plan hassle-free and efficient trips by providing RT SoC information, Station discovery & automatic/cashless battery swapping.
The IoT sensor layer, cloud platform, and deep analytics layers driven by AI algorithms, is encapsulated in the “Eagle” Command Center. This enables a host of use cases — such as Product optimization, Asset tracking and security, Demand-supply matching, Adaptive pricing, Product health monitoring and management.
Battery Data and Intelligence
At Oye! we are ushering in the future of transportation. So far, our young & growing Energy network has powered over 500,000 Kms, enabled drivers in the NCR to run 250 KM+ at a stretch, and has increased the top box driver partner income by 79%.
And we are looking for harbingers to build this further.
If you want to build the Energy Operating System (a term I picked up from a revered mentor) for micro-mobility and logistics, please gimme a buzz shuvajyoti.ghosh<at>oyerickshaw.com | https://medium.com/khati/what-powers-energy-oye-rickshaw-153a746da180 | ['Shuvajyoti Ghosh'] | 2021-05-31 05:24:24.219000+00:00 | ['Energy', 'Charger', 'Mobility', 'Technology', 'Electric Vehicles'] |
2,118 | What Blockchain technology is and How it Works?(2020) | Introduction
In the course of recent years, you have reliably heard the term ‘Blockchain innovation,’ presumably with respect to digital currencies like Bitcoin. It appears as though Blockchain is a maxim yet from a theoretical perspective, as there is no genuine implying that the layman can see without any problem. It is basic to comprehend what is Blockchain, the innovation utilized, how it works, and how it’s getting imperative in the advanced world.
As per Global Data’s Thematic examination report, the interest for cryptographic forms of money has subsided by 20% during 2018 when contrasted with the earlier years. The explanation being organizations are liking to send conventional methodologies for their prior stage extends instead of going with Blockchain innovation- future technology.
Individuals have better standards dependent on more fragile recognition dependent on the report discoveries, and, in a few years, reality with regards to the Blockchain- an emerging technology, will be demystified. It has genuine worth, and, over the long haul, its extent will become more extensive and more easy to understand as it is a digital technology.
What Blockchain technology is?
Blockchain innovation is a structure that stores value-based records, otherwise called the block, of general society in a few information bases, known as the “chain,” in an organization associated through distributed hubs. Regularly, this stockpiling is alluded to as a ‘advanced record.’
Each exchange in this record is approved by the advanced mark of the proprietor, which validates the exchange and shields it from altering. Henceforth, the data the advanced record contains is exceptionally secure.
In less difficult words, the computerized record resembles a Google accounting page shared among various PCs in an organization, in which, the conditional records are put away dependent on genuine buys. The captivating point is that anyone can see the information, however they can’t degenerate it. It is a digital technology.
Photo by Stanislaw Zarychta on Unsplash
How it Works?
As of late, you may have seen numerous organizations around the globe coordinating Blockchain innovation. However, how precisely accomplishes Blockchain innovation work? Is this a huge change or a basic expansion? The head ways of Blockchain are as yet youthful and can possibly be progressive later on; thus, we should start demystifying this innovation.
Blockchain is a blend of three driving advances:
Cryptographic keys
A distributed organization containing a common record
A methods for registering, to store the exchanges and records of the organization
Cryptography keys comprise of two keys — Private key and Public key. These keys help in performing fruitful exchanges between two gatherings. Every individual has these two keys, which they use to deliver a protected computerized personality reference. This made sure about character is the main part of Blockchain innovation. In the realm of cryptographic money, this personality is alluded to as ‘advanced mark’ and is utilized for approving and controlling exchanges is an emerging technology.
The advanced mark is converged with the shared organization; an enormous number of people who go about as specialists utilize the computerized signature to arrive at an agreement on exchanges, among different issues. At the point when they approve an arrangement, it is affirmed by a numerical confirmation, which brings about a fruitful made sure about exchange between the two organization associated parties. So to summarize it, Blockchain clients utilize cryptography keys to perform various kinds of advanced communications over the distributed organization.
The Process of Transaction
One of Blockchain innovation’s cardinal highlights is the manner in which it affirms and approves exchanges. For instance, if two people wish to play out an exchange with a private and public key, individually, the primary individual gathering would join the exchange data to the public key of the subsequent party. This complete data is assembled into a square.
The square contains a computerized signature, a timestamp, and other significant, pertinent data. It should be noticed that the square does exclude the personalities of the people associated with the exchange. This square is then communicated over the entirety of the organization’s hubs, and when the perfect individual uses his private key and matches it with the square, the exchange gets finished effectively.
Notwithstanding directing monetary exchanges, the Blockchain can likewise hold value-based subtleties of properties, vehicles, and so on
Here’s a utilization case that shows how Blockchain functions:
Hash Encryptions
Blockchain innovation utilizes hash encryption to make sure about the information, depending essentially on the SHA256 calculation to make sure about the data. The location of the sender (public key), the collector’s location, the exchange, and his/her private key subtleties are communicated through the SHA256 calculation. The encoded data, called hash encryption, is sent over the world and added to the Blockchain after confirmation. The SHA256 calculation makes it practically difficult to hack the hash encryption, which thus rearranges the sender and recipient’s validation.
Evidence of Work
In a Blockchain, each square comprises of 4 primary headers.
Past Hash: This hash address finds the past square.
Exchange Details: Details of all the exchanges that require to happen.
Nonce: A self-assertive number given in cryptography to separate the square’s hash address.
Hash Address of the Block: All of the above mentioned (i.e., going before hash, exchange subtleties, and nonce) are communicated through a hashing calculation. This gives a yield containing a 256-digit, 64 character length esteem, which is known as the one of a kind ‘hash address.’ Consequently, it is alluded to as the hash of the square.
Various individuals around the globe attempt to sort out the correct hash an incentive to meet a pre-decided condition utilizing computational calculations. The exchange finishes when the foreordained condition is met. To lay it more out simply, Blockchain diggers endeavor to unravel a numerical riddle, which is alluded to as a proof of work issue. Whoever comprehends it initially gets a prize.
Mining
In Blockchain innovation, the way toward adding value-based subtleties to the present advanced/public record is called ‘mining.’ Though the term is related with Bitcoin, it is utilized to allude to other Blockchain advances too. Mining includes producing the hash of a square exchange, which is difficult to manufacture, subsequently guaranteeing the security of the whole Blockchain without requiring a focal framework.
Unmistakably Blockchain is the future technology for nations to affirm as effective in the coming days.
For more informative Study,
I recommend to read this book : Block and Chain
Also Read: Where bitcoin is used?
My other Recommended sites are:
Kn-Show: Tutorials and Eating healthy
JG-books: Digital Books Shelf | https://medium.com/@huhnr-7c/what-blockchain-technology-is-and-how-it-works-2020-6a7a830c9645 | ['George Williams'] | 2020-12-11 05:31:58.041000+00:00 | ['Guidelines', 'Blockchain', 'Blockchain Startup', 'Bitcoin', 'Technology'] |
2,119 | Salesforce Deployment | Salesforce Deployment
There are many ways to deploy to Salesforce platform, using Change Sets, Eclipse, ANT or any combination of these. All of these techniques have different pros and cons and have been discussed million times by now. I am going to discuss only ANT which looks the perfect tool to me. Here is the three-step deployment process.
First create a list of artifacts in an XML file. These artifacts are classes, pages, workflows, approval processes and e.t.c. This list is called package.xml in ANT language. Its a very simple XML document with very few tags inside. After creating the package.xml, you retrieve these artifact’s source code from your source salesforce server which is your sandbox most of the time and save them locally. This can be done by executing one of the tasks of ANT and package.xml from previous step is used for this ANT task. When you have all the artifacts and source code downloaded locally, you push them to your target salesforce server which is a production server most likely.
#1 is time taking and tedious job and has more chances of important artifacts not being included in the list and is done manually by administrators, architects and developers. When you miss an artifact, you pay the price by a failed deployment.
In order to avoid any error, I have created a tool called Package Generator which generates package.xml file for all the artifacts which have been created/modified since your last deployment. Its an ANT task and works just like other tasks provided by Salesforce. It uses metadata API’s to pull metadata and filter them based on the create/modified date. Its available to download from here.
#2 and #3 are also done by executing ANT tasks provided by Salesforce.
In order to setup for ANT, please follow the steps in this guide. Please note that you will need to install JDK version 8 since package generator task is not supported by older Java versions.
After you are done with the guide, please go to this repository and download packagegenerator.jar file and copy into the lib folder inside your ANT home.
Now you are ready to rock. Execute all three tasks generatepackage, retrievepackage and deploypackage from following build.xml.
<project name=”Deployment Script”
default=”generatepackage” basedir=”.”
xmlns:sf=”antlib:com.salesforce”> <property file=”build.properties”/>
<target name=”generatepackage”
description=”Generates package.xml”>
<taskdef name=”packagegenerator”
classname=”org.sf.tools.PackageGeneratorTask”
classpath=”packagegenerator.jar”>
</taskdef>
<packagegenerator username=”${sf.test.username}”
password=”${sf.test.password}”
serverurl=”${sf.sandbox.serverurl}”
changeDate=”10/31/2014 13:30"
outputFile=”packages/package.xml”
metadataTypes=””>
</packagegenerator>
</target> <target name=”retrievepackage”>
<mkdir dir=”source-v1"/>
<sf:retrieve username=”${sf.test.username}”
password=”${sf.test.password}”
serverurl=”${sf.sandbox.serverurl}”
maxPoll=”${sf.maxPoll}”
pollWaitMillis=”${sf.pollWaitMillis}”
retrieveTarget=”source-v1"
unpackaged=”packages/package.xml”>
</sf:retrieve>
</target> <target name=”deploypackage">
<sf:deploy username=”${sf.prod.username}”
password=”${sf.prod.password}”
serverurl=”${sf.prod.serverurl}”
maxPoll=”${sf.maxPoll}”
pollWaitMillis=”${sf.pollWaitMillis}”
deployRoot=”source-v1”
rollbackOnError=”true”
logType=”Debugonly”
trace=”true”
checkOnly=”false”>
</sf:deploy>
</target> </project>
generatepackage Task
First you declare the ANT target and name it. This name is used to call it from command prompt just like any other ANT task. After that, you define the task using taskdef tag since its not a default task by salesforce but a custom task and than after the definition, you basically invoke it and pass all the parameters needed for the task. Parameters include username, password and server url. This task pull all the artifacts which have been created or modified after the changeDate and create the outputFile. Parameter changeDate can have date with/without time. When time is not mentioned, it assumes it as 23:59.
retrievepackage Task
This task is provided by salesforce. Please take a look here for the details
deploypackage Task
This task is also provided by salesforce. Please take a look here for the details.
Recommendations
Avoid using special characters and spaces in the names of artifacts like email templates and layouts. ANT tries to encode and decode those special characters but fails.
ANT retrieve task retrieves profiles with only the permissions for the objects/artifacts which are part of the package, which means it will not pull the permissions which are not relevant or are not modified, so you do not need to manually set permissions after the deployment. Profiles are perfect to move using ANT.
If you have created a new profile out of an existing one, DONT create it using ANT, instead create it manually and then update using ANT otherwise profile will not have those permissions which were added/modified after you forked it.
Take a look at package.xml file after you execute packagegenerator task and remove all irrelevant artifacts which can appear due to other developers working on the same box or testing artifacts. Keep the list which is relevant to your stuff.
Have fun and let me know if you find any problems with the packagegenerator. Feel free to clone and modify it. | https://medium.com/@msabiransari/salesforce-deployment-e79cc502a952 | ['Muhammad Sabir'] | 2015-05-20 17:18:29.193000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Salesforce', 'CRM'] |
2,120 | Star Trek: Discovery < "Season 3 :: Episode 12" > FULL~EPISODE | ⭐ Watch Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 12 Full Episode, Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 12 Full Watch Free, Star Trek: Discovery Episode 12,Star Trek: Discovery CBS All Access, Star Trek: Discovery Eps. 12,Star Trek: Discovery ENG Sub, Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, Star Trek: Discovery Series 3,Star Trek: Discovery Episode 12, Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 12, Star Trek: Discovery Full Streaming, Star Trek: Discovery Download HD, Star Trek: Discovery All Subtitle, Watch Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 12 Full Episodes
Film, also called movie, motion picture or moving picture, is a visual art-form used to simulate experiences that communicate ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound, and more rarely, other sensory stimulations.[12] The word “cinema”, short for cinematography, is ofCBS All Access used to refer to filmmaking and the film Star Trek: Discovery, and to the art form that is the result of it.
❏ STREAMING MEDIA ❏
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. The verb to stream refers to the process of delivering or obtaining media in this manner.[clarification needed] Streaming refers to the delivery method of the medium, rather than the medium itself. Distinguishing delivery method from the media distributed applies specifically to telecommunications networks, as most of the delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television, streaming apps) or inherently non-streaming (e.g. books, video cassettes, audio CDs). There are challenges with streaming conCBS All Accesst on the Internet. For example, users whose Internet connection lacks sufficient bandwidth may experience stops, lags, or slow buffering of the conCBS All Accesst. And users lacking compatible hardware or software systems may be unable to stream certain conCBS All Accesst.
Live streaming is the delivery of Internet conCBS All Accesst in real-time much as live television broadcasts conCBS All Accesst over the airwaves via a television signal. Live internet streaming requires a form of source media (e.g. a video camera, an audio interface, screen capture software), an encoder to digitize the conCBS All Accesst, a media publisher, and a conCBS All Accesst delivery network to distribute and deliver the conCBS All Accesst. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the origination point, although it frequently is.
Streaming is an alternative to file downloading, a process in which the end-user obtains the entire file for the conCBS All Accesst before watching or lisCBS All Accessing to it. Through streaming, an end-user can use their media player to start playing digital video or digital audio conCBS All Accesst before the entire file has been transmitted. The term “streaming media” can apply to media other than video and audio, such as live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are all considered “streaming text”.
❏ COPYRIGHT CONCBS All AccessT ❏
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time.[12][12][12][12][12] The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is inCBS All Accessded to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself.[12][12][12] A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States.
Some jurisdictions require “fixing” copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is ofCBS All Access shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights holders.[citation needed][12][3][3][3] These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as attribution.[3]
Copyrights can be granted by public law and are in that case considered “territorial rights”. This means that copyrights granted by the law of a certain state, do not exCBS All Accessd beyond the territory of that specific jurisdiction. Copyrights of this type vary by country; many countries, and sometimes a large group of countries, have made agreements with other countries on procedures applicable when works “cross” national borders or national rights are inconsisCBS All Accesst.[3]
Typically, the public law duration of a copyright expires 3 to 12 years after the creator dies, depending on the jurisdiction. Some countries require certain copyright formalities[12] to establishing copyright, others recognize copyright in any completed work, without a formal registration.
It is widely believed that copyrights are a must to foster cultural diversity and creativity. However, Parc argues that contrary to prevailing beliefs, imitation and copying do not restrict cultural creativity or diversity but in fact support them further. This argument has been supported by many examples such as Millet and Van Gogh, Picasso, Manet, and Monet, etc.[3]
❏ GOODS OF SERVICES ❏
Credit (from Latin credit, “(he/she/it) believes”) is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), but promises either to repay or return those resources (or other materials of equal value) at a later date.[12] In other words, credit is a method of making reciprocity formal, legally enforceable, and exCBS All Accesssible to a large group of unrelated people.
The resources provided may be financial (e.g. granting a loan), or they may consist of goods or services (e.g. consumer credit). Credit encompasses any form of deferred payment.[12] Credit is exCBS All Accessded by a creditor, also known as a lender, to a debtor, also known as a borrower.
‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Challenges Asian Americans in Hollywood to Overcome ‘Impossible Duality’ CBS All Accessween China, U.S.
CBS All Access’s live-action “Star Trek: Discovery” was supposed to be a huge win for under-represented groups in Hollywood. The $12 million-budgeted film is among the most expensive ever directed by a woman, and it features an all-Asian cast — a first for productions of such scale.
Despite well-inCBS All Accesstioned ambitions, however, the film has exposed the difficulties of representation in a world of complex geopolitics. CBS All Access primarily cast Asian rather than Asian American stars in lead roles to appeal to Chinese consumers, yet Chinese viewers rejected the movie as inauthentic and American. Then, politics ensnared the production as stars Liu Yifei, who plays Star Trek: Discovery, and Donnie Yen professed support for Hong Kong police during the brutal crackdown on protesters in 31212. Later, CBS All Access issued “special thanks” in the credits to government bodies in China’s Xinjiang region that are directly involved in perpetrating major human rights abuses against the minority Uighur population.
“Star Trek: Discovery” inadverCBS All Accesstly reveals why it’s so difficult to create multicultural conCBS All Accesst with global appeal in 2020. It highlights the vast disconnect CBS All Accessween Asian Americans in Hollywood and Chinese nationals in China, as well as the exCBS All Accesst to which Hollywood fails to acknowledge the difference CBS All Accessween their aesthetics, tastes and politics. It also underscores the limits of the American conversation on representation in a global world.
In conversations with seStar Trek: Discoveryl Asian-American creatives, Variety found that many feel caught CBS All Accessween fighting against underrepresentation in Hollywood and being accidentally complicit in China’s authoritarian politics, with no easy answers for how to deal with the moral questions “Star Trek: Discovery” poses.
“When do we care about representation versus fundamental civil rights? This is not a simple question,” says Bing Chen, co-founder of Gold House, a collective that mobilizes the Asian American community to help diverse films, including “Star Trek: Discovery,” achieve opening weekend box office success via its #GoldOpen movement. “An impossible duality faces us. We absolutely acknowledge the terrible and unacceptable nature of what’s going on over there [in China] politically, but we also understand what’s at stake on the Star Trek: Discovery side.”
The film leaves the Asian American community at “the intersection of choosing CBS All Accessween surface-level representation — faces that look like ours — versus values and other cultural nuances that don’t reflect ours,” says Lulu Wang, director of “The Farewell.”
In a business in which past box office success determines what future projects are bankrolled, those with their eyes squarely on the prize of increasing opportunities for Asian Americans say they feel a responsibility to support “Star Trek: Discovery” no matter what. That support is ofCBS All Access very personal amid the Star Trek: Discovery’s close-knit community of Asian Americans, where people don’t want to tear down the hard work of peers and Star Trek: Discovery.
Others say they wouldn’t have given CBS All Access their $3 if they’d known about the controversial end credits.
“‘Star Trek: Discovery’ is actually the first film where the Asian American community is really split,” says sociologist Nancy Wang Yuen, who examines racism in Hollywood. “For people who are more global and consume more global news, maybe they’re thinking, ‘We shouldn’t sell our soul in order to get affirmation from Hollywood.’ But we have this scarcity mentality.
“I felt like I couldn’t completely lambast ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ because I personally felt solidarity with the Asian American actors,” Yuen continues. “I wanted to see them do well. But at what cost?”
This scarcity mentality is particularly acute for Asian American actors, who find roles few and far CBS All Accessween. Lulu Wang notes that many “have built their career on a film like ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ and other crossovers, because they might not speak the native language — Japanese, Chinese, Korean or Hindi — to actually do a role overseas, but there’s no role being writCBS All Access for them in America.”
Certainly, the actors in “Star Trek: Discovery,” who have seen major career breakthroughs tainted by the film’s political backlash, feel this acutely. “You have to understand the tough position that we are in here as the cast, and that CBS All Access is in too,” says actor Chen Tang, who plays Star Trek: Discovery’s army buddy Yao.
There’s not much he can do except keep trying to nail the roles he lands in hopes of paving the way for others. “The more I can do great work, the more likely there’s going to be somebody like me [for kids to look at and say], ‘Maybe someday that could be me.’”
Part of the problem is that what’s happening in China feels very distant to Americans. “The Chinese-speaking market is impenetrable to people in the West; they don’t know what’s going on or what those people are saying,” says Daniel York Loh of British East Asians and South East Asians in Theatre and Screen (BEATS), a U.K. nonprofit seeking greater on-screen Asian representation.
York Loh offers a provocative comparison to illustrate the West’s milquetoast reaction to “Star Trek: Discovery” principal Liu’s pro-police comments. “The equivalent would be, say, someone like Emma Roberts going, ‘Yeah, the cops in Portland should beat those protesters.’ That would be huge — there’d be no getting around that.”
Some of the disconnect is understandable: With information overload at home, it’s hard to muster the energy to care about faraway problems. But part of it is a broader failure to grasp the real lack of overlap CBS All Accessween issues that matter to the mainland’s majority Han Chinese versus minority Chinese Americans. They may look similar, but they have been shaped in diametrically different political and social contexts.
“China’s nationalist pride is very different from the Asian American pride, which is one of overcoming racism and inequality. It’s hard for Chinese to relate to that,” Yuen says.
Beijing-born Wang points out she ofCBS All Access has more in common with first-generation Muslim Americans, Jamaican Americans or other immigrants than with Chinese nationals who’ve always lived in China and never left.
If the “Star Trek: Discovery” debacle has taught us anything, in a world where we’re still too quick to equate “American” with “white,” it’s that “we definitely have to separate out the Asian American perspective from the Asian one,” says Wang. “We have to separate race, nationality and culture. We have to talk about these things separately. True representation is about capturing specificities.”
She ran up against the Star Trek: Discovery’s inability to make these distinctions while creating “The Farewell.” Americans felt it was a Chinese film because of its subtitles, Chinese cast and location, while Chinese producers considered it an American film because it wasn’t fully Chinese. The endeavor to simply tell a personal family story became a “political fight to claim a space that doesn’t yet exist.”
In the search for authentic storytelling, “the key is to lean into the in-CBS All Accessweenness,” she said. “More and more, people won’t fit into these neat boxes, so in-CBS All Accessweenness is exactly what we need.”
However, it may prove harder for Chinese Americans to carve out a space for their “in-CBS All Accessweenness” than for other minority groups, given China’s growing economic clout.
Notes author and writer-producer Charles Yu, whose latest novel about Asian representation in Hollywood, “Interior Chinatown,” is a National Book Award finalist, “As Asian Americans continue on what I feel is a little bit of an island over here, the world is changing over in Asia; in some ways the center of gravity is shifting over there and away from here, economically and culturally.”
With the Chinese film market set to surpass the US as the world’s largest this year, the question thus arises: “Will the cumulative impact of Asian American audiences be such a small drop in the bucket compared to the China market that it’ll just be overwhelmed, in terms of what gets made or financed?”
As with “Star Trek: Discovery,” more parochial, American conversations on race will inevitably run up against other global issues as U.S. studios continue to target China. Some say Asian American creators should be prepared to meet Star Trek: Discovery by broadening their outlook.
“Most people in this Star Trek: Discovery think, ‘I’d love for there to be Hollywood-China co-productions if it meant a job for me. I believe in free speech, and censorship is terrible, but it’s not my battle. I just want to get my pilot sold,’” says actor-producer Brian Yang (“Hawaii Five-0,” “Linsanity”), who’s worked for more than a decade CBS All Accessween the two countries. “But the world’s getting smaller. Streamers make shows for the world now. For anyone that works in this business, it would behoove them to study and understand Star Trek: Discoverys that are happening in and [among] other countries.”
Gold House’s Chen agrees. “We need to speak even more thoughtfully and try to understand how the world does not function as it does in our zip code,” he says. “We still have so much soft power coming from the U.S. What we say matters. This is not the problem and burden any of us as Asian Americans asked for, but this is on us, unfortunately. We just have to fight harder. And every step we take, we’re going to be right and we’re going to be wrong.”
☆ ALL ABOUT THE SERIES ☆
is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), but promises either to repay or return those resources (or other materials of equal value) at a later date.[12] In other words, credit is a method of making reciprocity formal, legally enforceable, and exCBS All Accesssible to a large group of unrelated people.
The resources provided may be financial (e.g. granting a loan), or they may consist of goods or services (e.g. consumer credit). Credit encompasses any form of deferred payment.[12] Credit is exCBS All Accessded by a creditor, also known as a lender, to a debtor, also known as a borrower.
‘Hausen’ Challenges Asian Americans in Hollywood to Overcome ‘Impossible Duality’ CBS All Accessween China, U.S. | https://medium.com/star-trek-discovery-s3xe12-4khd-quality/watch-%E1%B4%B4%E1%B4%B0-s3-e12-star-trek-discovery-series-3-episode-12-full-episode-61502ecbb073 | ['Naomi Briggs'] | 2020-12-25 22:10:33.762000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Lifestyle', 'Coronavirus', 'TV Series'] |
2,121 | I Fought Technology and Won (for Now) | Microsoft, in its great wisdom, pushed an update in the middle of night last week. The only clue that I had about it was a “reminder” to reboot. There was also a caveat that the restart would take “several minutes” and “Do not turn the computer off” and “The computer may stop and start several times.”
After glancing through all the mail that had accumulated overnight, I sighed, and hit “Restart”, going off to take my shower and dress for the day. 45 minutes later, I returned to the computer and it was still grinding away, doing whatever it was supposed to.
After breakfast, I returned to my desk to find the computer waiting for me, with a note that one of the services failed to start. I checked everything and it seemed fine to me, so I went on about my business.
In my junk mail that morning were two messages threatening me with destruction of everything unless I paid $500 in ransom. The notes said they knew my password. The password they told me was one I used in the past, but hadn’t used in years.
Cyber crime is a real thing and, of course, I panicked.
I ran a new virus scan.
I went through my password list and changed my password for any sites that had used the “stolen” one in the past.
I tried to access the server to see if everything was still there…and I couldn’t reach it.
I called my second-born son who assured me I would be fine. He said the threats were probably phishing from one of the data breaches that seem to be happening all the time.
But still I worried.
What about that message that said all my services weren’t running?
Was the service really one of the programs that was supposed to protect me?
Was it a virus scan that quit running?
Then that night, the computer didn’t back up as scheduled.
I was almost hysterical thinking that all the old photos I had carefully scanned to the server would be infected, or worse, lost forever.
Two days later, I again called my son and almost wept, worrying about my files, bank records, photos, and basically the whole history of my digital life.
Long story short, he was able to fix it, remotely, and it is now chugging along just fine.
And I had the first good night’s sleep in a week. | https://medium.com/@abbiewatters/i-fought-technology-and-won-for-now-a05898e4f57b | ['Abbie Watters'] | 2020-02-20 00:26:46.412000+00:00 | ['Flash Fiction', 'Conflict', 'Technology'] |
2,122 | Neblio Marketing Strategy Update 1 (May 20 2018) | An update on our Marketing Strategy
Now that Neblio has gotten to the point that we have a basic product to “sell”, Marketing has become the main focus of attention. In this update I will give a short overview of our current status and more importantly the strategy moving forward.
Stage 1 — The Basics
In the past 9 months since our project launch the marketing focus was on expanding the community, bringing positive awareness to Neblio, and building a strong user base for the stage that we are in today. I’m happy to say that the mission was accomplished.
Some stats:
Our social channels like Telegram and Slack have thousands of members.
Our desktop wallet has been downloaded more than 40,000 times.
Our brand has positive awareness and has gone from from being pretty much non existent on Youtube during the project launch to now, where there are over 9000 results in on Youtube when searching for the keyword Neblio. This is an average of 1000 Neblio related videos produced every month since we launched!
Over 45 NTP1 tokens were created in Neblio Orion.
8 NTP1-based projects are currently in different stages of their project launch.
Stage 2 — New Frontiers
Our 2nd stage marketing campaign kicked off with our official Neblio Video:
I am happy that overall the response by the community and target audience was very positive. This video delivers a taste of what Neblio is all about and is used to bring potential end users to us.
We are now going to use this video in different campaigns to attract our target audience.
Our main target audience for this stage are the actual individuals and companies that want to transition to blockchain and can use the Neblio Platform. This is the most important audience. Other than the obvious fact that they are the reason Neblio was created in the first place, each and every one of them will boost awareness of Neblio as they promote themselves, thus exposing Neblio to many more people. At this stage, since we are not yet ready to onboard large corporations, our focus will be on targeting developers that are interested in Blockchain technology. We are already finalizing campaigns with some of the biggest dev related sites in the world, to filter and target top developers to come and join us.
The campaigns we are going to run include:
Email marketing — Using large developer mailing lists to deliver the Neblio message. Sponsorships — Sponsoring blockchain related sections to drive targeted traffic. Webinars — We will host webinars for developers who are interested in learning more about blockchain. This will give us a direct and more personal relationship with our target audience.
Strategic Partnerships
We are putting a strong emphasis on long term partnerships. One example, is our latest partnership With Cred. Cred is a micro investing app similar to Acorns (that has over 3M users) except it will allow people to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. They are planning on supporting around 20 cryptocurrencies on their platform, Neblio being one of them. Cred is now backed by Science Inc, which is a powerhouse in startup investment and development. This will help Neblio’s exposure to many people that are currently not in the crypto world. It will also help expose us to our target audience.
From a marketing perspective, the fact that Neblio stood out from over 1500 cryptocurrencies is remarkable and shows that we, as a team and community, stand out and are doing something different.
We will continue to work on and establish more strategic partnerships that will help us grow in the future.
Community
Our community has grown substantially in the last 9 months. Up until now the community was more individual oriented, but as we move forward we are going to improve the community, make it more efficient, and focus on attracting more developers. A healthy blend of quality individuals, users and developers is the recipe for success.
We are currently exploring different options of enhancing our community and we will make a separate post once we come to a decision.
As part of strengthening the community and keeping it more informed about Neblio we will have a Reddit AMA on Wednesday May 23rd at 20:00 GMT in the /r/Neblio subreddit, where we will answer development and marketing questions.
Goals
So now that we covered the basic strategy of our marketing campaigns I would like to set some goals so we can measure the marketing campaigns success at the end of the year.
Network size — Over 100,000 wallet downloads.
NTP1 Tokens created — Over 200 NTP1 tokens created.
Projects — Over 80 Neblio based projects.
We look forward to continuing to spread the word about the great blockchain platform we have built for companies and developers!
Yuval | https://medium.com/neblio-blog/neblio-marketing-strategy-update-1-may-20-2018-f4f995ccf75e | [] | 2018-05-21 01:24:23.268000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Business', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain'] |
2,123 | How Blockchain Technology Is Useful For Mobile App Development? | With the quick acceptance and effect of new technological advancements, for example, IoT, AI, AR, VR, Robotics-a a significant number of us actually misconstrue the idea of Blockchain. Particularly in regards to the Mobile application development process.
Let me ask you, what do you mean by Blockchain? Digital currency, Ethereum, or cryptocurrency … all that? However, it worth searching the blockchain has an extension beyond reach.
First Understand the idea of Blockchain
A blockchain is fundamentally a result of unchangeable data which is governed by a decentralized structure i.e. informational data isn’t constrained by a solitary entity. The decentralization of informational data guarantees data security at all stages and at all platforms, and every data block is bound to one another by cryptographic standards.
“According to Statista reports, the blockchain market is required to climb a revenue development rate of over 23.3 billion US dollars in size constantly 2023”
How Blockchain can help the Mobile App Development Industry?
The fundamental fragments of the business are presently utilizing Blockchain Technology for Healthcare IT Solutions, Automotive, finance; for what reason should the mobile application development market fall behind?
In case you’re into the mobile app development industry, you would have an idea that stays updated with the most recent innovation trends to remain ahead of the competition.
Mobile app development is as yet in its beginning phase with the appropriation of blockchain, and industry influencers are reluctant about this idea. In any case, Blockchain innovation can lend some assistance by offering various secret advantages like performance, efficiency, and productivity, which also elevates the client experience.
Blockchain innovation would permit designers to make smoothed out eCommerce applications that empower purchasers and providers to trade online with no intervention or to pay outsider expenses.
Benefits of Blockchain Technology in App Development
This, but on the other hand there’s significantly more blockchain can accomplish for the mobile application development industry. We should jump further and get familiar with the top advantages:
Advantage 1: Increases Transparency
Security enhances transparency. Blockchain technology tracks each move of assets so that clients can just track them at whatever point they need. The blockchain avoided the chance of any deceitful exchange or fabricated data. The blockchain makes the application and the whole framework sealed and versatile to any false action.
Blockchain innovation can likewise help business visionaries acquire the trust of the buyer. The clients can securely execute through such applications and stay guaranteed the protection of their important information. Additionally, the idea is versatile to deal with different clients without a moment’s delay.
Advantage 2: Increases Reliability
As well as further developing data assurance, technology can extraordinarily upgrade the productivity of a mobile application. It is for the most part in light of the fact that the blockchain’s construction itself is vigorous and solid blockchain design delivers the organization complete against any disappointment or crash. Blockchain Technology likewise has a few squares that own the information in more than one spot, making blockchain safer.
The distributed plan of the blockchain servers and other related equipment forestalls any attempt at any unapproved modification of informational data. Millions are regularly accessible, because of various data centers at various areas, a tiny bit of warning. These highlights make the blockchain strategy viable and reliable for a mobile application development answer for the undertakings.
Advantage 3: Security is the foremost
The underlying advantage of progressive blockchain technology is that it makes the applications more secure. The technology can utilize the most exceptional cryptography. This innovative idea is one way that it can offer the most significant level of security with fortified encryption.
The technology gives a standard series succession or other interconnected block string. Each square has the information and timestamp for another square of exchanges. The information is put away and encoded in a cryptographic hash, which changes each inconceivable block. Presently, for every block, each area has a cryptographic route.
Advantage 4: Block Chain set you liberated from Passwords
Regardless of how amazing a secret key you’re setting for your PCs, there’s still some worry that it could get spilled. Blockchain innovation assists us with disposing of this dread. For Blockchain, the secret key to check any exchange or framework is not really required. The two parties included for bargains ordinarily make the installments through an SSL authentication. What’s more, the blockchain network audits everything while at the same time making it noticeable and available to all, consequently taking out the potential outcomes of being phony.
Advantage 5: Protection of Identity
Security is a fundamental prerequisite of blockchain technology. It is practically incomprehensible for any programmer or hacker to close down the whole framework in light of the fact that the information isn’t in a server, yet it is in each square. Blockchain offers secret key encryption with cryptography on the client’s work. The working of the blockchain guarantees that nobody can misuse any information.
Advantage 6: Blockchain has a digital laser framework
This is a clear method to see how Blockchain Development functions when you consider it. Blockchain is basically a digital ledger controlled by some broad corporate organization, supporting all parsing and information transmission. At the point when some data is changed, the change is communicated to the remainder of the machines in a similar machine and simultaneously to change the worth
Advantage 7: Provides Simplicity
Another significant benefit of blockchain innovation is its effortlessness i.e. simplicity. The blockchain has an extremely high ground over the overall models performing identical undertakings with regard to effortlessness.
On the off chance that the technology is refined, it needs more exertion, time, and money to incorporate, keep up with, and modify. In simple words, complex strategies add to expanding application development and maintenance-related expenses. The blockchain will help organizations free themselves of greater expenses by offering them an element-rich mobile application.
Advantage 8: Keep Blockchain Apps updated
Blockchain innovation is developing at an alarming speed. The cycle by which this day is developing, we can anticipate that it should bring an ever-increasing number of updates soon. The outcome will be a finished enterprise mobile app intended to address the issues of things to come, lastly, you can further develop client service with a particularly up-to-date mobile app.
The innovation behind the blockchain is additionally accessible as an open-source technological innovation. Blockchain application developers can undoubtedly share and utilize the advancement to make the application all the more impressive and secure. As it were, blockchain technology can assist with creating mobile application solutions while making application time and cost.
Advantage 9: Safeguard Digital Information That Is required by numerous clients
Encryption is a Blockchain Technology with extensive intricacy. It is perplexing to such an extent that it makes it outlandish for anybody to trick any decryption key. It fits any framework that should be introduced to various clients and yet requires verification of the data that is coordinated.
In the financial and legal circles, for instance, various marks on a single report or understanding are normal. Through blockchain, this data can be gotten to and altered all the while by various groups to speak with one another. You should simply check the Blockchain and arrange it.
Take away
Since Blockchain technology has grown tremendously in recent years, it has been explored the requirements of the actual market. We can expect a significant number of its advancements and applications to be introduced free of charge over the years as mobile application developers make it part of the worldwide application development cycle.
If in any case, you are seeking blockchain development solutions or a blockchain developer who have the art of incorporating the specialty of Blockchain. CDN Solutions Group is one of the award-winning organizations offering the best blockchain development services. We at CDN are bind to deliver quality solutions and help our customers in meeting their requirements on a pocket-friendly budget. | https://medium.com/@shreyas-cdn/how-blockchain-technology-is-useful-for-mobile-app-development-f213295bad2a | [] | 2021-07-08 05:42:47.854000+00:00 | ['Blockchain Application', 'Mobile App Development', 'Blockchain', 'Blockchain Solutions', 'Blockchain Technology'] |
2,124 | A Robot That Packs Hundreds Of Times Faster Than A Human | Engineers have developed a robotic arm that identifies objects 350 times faster than humans, picks them up and puts them in place, thus revolutionizing lightning-packing.
The robot works in the style of a neural network designed by Ken Goldberg of the University of California, Berkeley and colleagues. Amazon and other shipping companies have been looking for a solution for some time, as the dreaded epidemic of Code 19 has multiplied the trend of home shopping on the Internet.
Earlier, the same team of scientists made some changes to the software and hardware, which increased the grip capability of the robotic arm, and now they can see better with the help of a computer and three-dimensional (three-dimensional). Look at the objects in their original place in style. This way they can lift anything better without hitting obstacles.
The reason is that robotic arms move at lightning speed to lift objects. During this time, due to fluctuations in their speed, the object either rises correctly or collides and falls down. In the same way, the robot’s arm is damaged by the shock.
Experts estimate that it is necessary to estimate the speed, speed and rotation of the robotic arm for each task. Only computers and neural networks can make better decisions at this point. That’s why the team of scientists decided to control the robotic arm with a neural network. They kept thousands of items for months to teach the software and put them to practice.
That’s how the robotic arm finally figured out what to do to save time and lift something safely. This way the computer can now make this decision in 80 milliseconds and before that it used to take 30 seconds to make the same decision. This means that the computer makes a quick decision and immediately commands the robotic arm to pick up the object. This way the packing speed can be increased hundreds of times.
It should be noted that if this technology is adopted by a company selling goods online, its work can be very fast. | https://medium.com/@tehnologijaviews/a-robot-that-packs-hundreds-of-times-faster-than-a-human-8dc7c80ccd6b | [] | 2020-11-20 13:28:37.233000+00:00 | ['Technology News', 'Robots', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Technology', 'Robotics'] |
2,125 | BitClave Weekly Update — May 21, 2018 | Development
Last week we had finished the permission APIs on platform level and had a very significant progress in integration and testing of BASE-Login in Desearch.
On platform side we have resumed the development on REQUEST and OFFER entities and the concept of REQUEST/OFFER matching and verification as per BitClave’s white paper. At this stage we are focusing on interactions between REQUEST and OFFER and on secure data sharing between these two entities. You can see the progress and the latest on our engineering app for API testing at https:// base-bitclave-com.herokuapp.com. Your feedback on the APIs and in general is always very welcome.
Marketing
Last week our Marketing team focused on the Blockchain Week in New York City, attending different events and connecting with the who’s who of the industry. Our Co-Founder Vasily Trofimchuk and Head of Growth were there in New York City for the Blockchain Week.
Ethereal Summit was about knowing the big folks in the industry and interacting with them, speaking about BitClave and our work with MatchICO and Desearch. Our team there met Joseph Lubin from ConsenSys, Laura Shin from Unchained/Unconfirmed, Eva Kaili from EU Parliament to name a few.
We were also introduced to the Consensys mesh and how they are working to build a decentralized future with their hub and spoke model of operation. We are in talks with them to see if Desearch/BitClave can be a part of it in any way.
Consensus 2018 saw over 8000 people in attendance compared to about 1700 in 2017. Though Vitalik Buterin boycotted the event and alerted the community not to attend, what we experienced there was completely the opposite of that warning. The Ethereum community there was also buzzing along with the others. Consensus probably is the biggest Blockchain event in the world today with so many people attending.
We were glad to meet and interact many of our users there and share updates on our existing products and upcoming releases. We also attended a few side events, meetups and parties where we could interact with the active Blockchain community in person. Our Head of Growth was interviewed by CNBC Crypto Trader team as a part of their documentary about Blockchain in general and Consensus 2018. He was also interviewed by a local media team in English as well as his native language Hindi. We have also received good number of media requests that we will be following up in the coming weeks.
The last event we attended during the Blockchain Week in NYC was Crypto Influence Summit where we met a lot of influencers, YouTubers and Podcasters at one forum. We were happy to know most of them know BitClave and few of them have already spoken about us. Pratik met Crypt0 Omar, who was the winner of Best Influencer and the Most Relatable Influencer awards at the event.
In the coming days, we will be connecting with all the people we met during the Blockchain Week. Regarding our push in video communications for our products MatchICO and Desearch, we’ve selected teams to create feature videos to introduce each project and have developed those narratives. We are excited to share them soon. If you or someone you know is interested in joining the BitClave team, check out our AngelList profile for postings.
Our community members active on Telegram should be sure to join the Desearch.com channel on Telegram for the latest updates and to provide feedback to our developers.
Events/meetings
This week we attended the major conference Consensus 2018 in New York May 14–16. Our Founder Vasily Trofimchuk, Head of Growth Pratik Gandhi, our events coordinator, and other team members were there meeting crypto influencers and other leaders.
Head of Growth Pratik Gandhi also attended the Crypto Influence Summit on May 17.
Also, our Event Manager Stanislav Liutenko attended Next Block Conference, which took place in Kyiv, Ukraine on May 18th. The greatest point was meeting Bobby Lee, the co-founder of BTCC, who gave a speech on bitcoin’s future.
We have a lot of events in June to announce — stay tuned!
Want to learn more? Don’t miss our special news updates. Sign up for BitClave here.
Join our Telegram Channel: https://t.me/BitClaveCommunity
Github: https://github.com/bitclave/
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/bitclave
Official Facebook: https://fb.me/bitclave | https://medium.com/bitclave/bitclave-weekly-update-may-21-2018-d22d04ce585a | [] | 2018-08-04 11:36:00.812000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Marketing', 'Blockchain', 'Update', 'Decentralization'] |
2,126 | Announcing the Emerging Manager Circle | By: Rick Zullo, Co-Founder & GP @ Equal Ventures
When Rich and I were starting Equal Ventures, there was a lot we didn’t know about starting a venture fund. Scarier than that was that we didn’t know, what we didn’t know. The prospect of starting a new venture fund is both exciting and terrifying. Each of us had significant track records with our prior firms, but starting and running a great firm is a lot different than simply investing in great companies.
Ultimately, we made a lot of mistakes. To say that our initial pitch sucked, would be too kind. We struggled to find LP relationships but were fortunate to benefit from the help of many of the investors in our network who helped show us the ropes of fundraising. Amidst this process, we realized our lack of knowledge around some of the less obvious, operational sides of a firm as well.
How do you set up your back office?
How much should you pay for insurance?
How do I set my HR policies and performance management systems?
How do I manage LP communications for those who are and are not in our fund?
There are literally hundreds of questions like this that us and every single other emerging fund manager deals with. While some existing GPs are generous enough to share their lessons learned and best practices, many aren’t. Starting a firm is intentionally left as a black box. Making it easier to start a firm only makes it easier for 1) your employees to leave, 2) other firms to compete for your LPs and 3) other firms to compete against you on deals. It takes an altruistic and forward-looking GP to share those best practices and Rich/I were fortunate enough to have access to those folks, but unfortunately, most do not.
Rich and I ultimately realized that we weren’t the only ones experiencing this issue. There were a dozen or so other GPs in NYC raising their first or second funds around the same time we were. We decided we’d all gather in our office, lament over beverages and cheap pizza and share best practices, feedback and potential LP connections. More important than these, was the community and knowing that there were others out there that were going through the same trials and tribulations we were. We referred to this community-driven peer group as a “circle”, a concept I had first come across when hearing about Jerry Colonna and Reboot, an executive / performance coaching company for startup leaders. These circles have tremendous benefits in uniting a shared group of individuals to unlock each other’s potential and provided a welcome resource during the hardest months of our fundraise.
Over the coming months, the group grew one by one, eventually extending beyond the logical bounds of a circle construct. As our small group became dozens of GPs (all experiencing the same issues we were), we realized the size was better suited for monthly meetups with experts than an intimate peer circle. We recruited GPs who founded successful firms, LPs focused on emerging managers and business leaders who could serve as mentors to us and our portfolio companies. We also managed an online community where we shared news, best practices and potential opportunities via Slack. Then COVID hit.
Our last in-person event was at the beginning of March. It was one of our most successful yet. A week later, the world looked different and it seemed that all the momentum we had developed within our community was lost. But GPs in the group started pinging each other on how to respond to COVID. None of us had dealt with a crisis like that. Equal Ventures had announced our firm launch just a month before work-from-home restrictions were put in place and we found ourselves reaching out to both the community and seasoned GPs/LPs for advice. We shared a collection of that feedback with the group and ultimately open-sourced some of the best practices to the broader market. While we had only done in-person events, our peers asked us to organize a virtual session with LPs to share advice on how to weather the crisis. Others outside of the group got wind of the session and we ultimately opened it up to GPs outside of NYC as well.
11 months later, our group is a bit bigger than our initial circle of a dozen GPs. We have over 200 GPs from over 150 firms representing billions of AUM conversing in our community slack and engaging in our monthly virtual events. These events have continued to host founding GPs of successful firms and prestigious LPs looking to engage with emerging managers as well as others, including Jerry Colonna (the very inspiration for the group) himself.
We’ve kept the Emerging Manager Circle in stealth until now to preserve its intimacy. We wanted to create an environment where GPs could ask honest questions and get feedback from their peers. Group members were nominated by others in the group to ensure there was a sense of confidentiality and trust. However, we recently started an initiative for GPs within the group to create their own circles (peer groups of 4–6 GPs) to enable group members to access that level of trust in a more intimate setting. With that, we feel comfortable opening the group to a larger (but still vetted) audience. We believe strongly in democratizing access to venture capital and hope that our group can play a small role in helping other emerging GPs pursue their dreams of starting their own firms.
We’re working on a lot of great speakers and initiatives for 2021 and are excited to share these with our emerging manager peers. If you are starting a fund full-time or planning to do so in short order, please fill out the form below as we look forward to connecting and collaborating with you.
Rick & Richard
Equal Ventures | https://medium.com/@EqualVentures/announcing-the-emerging-manager-circle-d677ce68335e | ['Equal Ventures'] | 2021-02-22 15:37:36.536000+00:00 | ['Venture Capital', 'Technology', 'VC', 'Startup', 'Tech'] |
2,127 | Securing Your Application Secrets With a Secure Vault | How to Store and Access Secrets on AKEYLESS Vault
Like I mentioned earlier, there are various methods you can use to store and access secrets on AKEYLESS vaults and we have been able to set up both the CLI and Python SDK.
One thing I didn’t mention is how you can also manage your secrets using the web dashboard. So we can now manage our application secrets through the web dashboard, CLI, and Python SDK.
Cool, right?
Let’s see how to just do that.
Using the web dashboard
To use the web UI dashboard, you’d need to login to the dashboard. So head over to the login page here and enter your access ID and access key correctly. Once it's successful, it should take you to a dashboard below:
Right from this view, you can see a list of secrets — both their name and types. To create new secrets or keys, simply click on the + New button at the top.
This should show a pop up with a list of types of secrets/keys available. You can click on the one you want to create.
To create a new static secret, click on Static Secret, enter the name, description, the secret value, and the encryption key in case you would like to encrypt it with a custom key.
Then click on Save to create your new secrets.
After successfully creating your application secrets, to access your secrets through the web dashboard, you will need to head to the dashboard and click on the name of the secret/key to open the secret details.
By default, your secret value is encrypted with the default encryption or the one provided by you. You can click on the Decrypt and copy to clipboard to decrypt the value and have it copied in your system clipboard.
That’s all for the web dashboard vault.
Using the vault’s CLI
Now let’s look at how to interface with the AKEYLESS vault using the CLI (command-line interface) application we installed earlier.
It’s quite easy to use this, as the commands are easy to remember. To verify if our CLI is working, you can try running:
$ akeyless -h
akeyless <command> -h, --help
If you get the same message as above, then you are good to go or you can try reinstalling it again.
The first thing we want to do here is to create a secret key using the CLI create-secret command.
To create a secret key, you will need to follow the below create-secret command syntax:
$ akeyless create-secret --name <SecretName> --value "<SecretValue>"
Where:
<SecretName> is the name of your secret. <SecretValue> is the secret key/value.
With this, we can create a new secret key:
$ akeyless create-secret --name AppSecret --value "wiutiJHQ&(Q*&)R*Q7r^Q#"
Then, to get our secret, you will need to use the get-secret-value command structure, as below:
$ akeyless get-secret-value --name <SecretName>
With that, we can run this command to get our secret value:
$ akeyless get-secret-value --name AppSecret
Another cool thing is you can update your secret using the command below:
$ akeyless update-secret-val --name AppSecret --value "new secret value"
Other available commands are: create-dynamic-secret , get-dynamic-secret , create-ssh-cert-issuer , get-ssh-cert-issuer and so on. You can read more here.
Using the Python SDK
So far, we have looked at how to interface with our vaults using the web dashboard and CLI. Now, we’ll be looking at how to do just that with the Python SDK.
Ensure you have followed the Python SDK setup instructions mentioned earlier in order to continue.
We’ll be continuing from where we stopped in our Python SDK setup. Make sure you have this connection code below running:
Like I explained earlier, for every request we will be sending through the Python module, we need to pass along the token as it serves as authentication to be able to access our vaults.
To create a new secret, we’ll be using the create_secret function. Let’s look at the code below:
secret_name = '<secret_name>' # Secret name
secret_value = '<secret_value>' # secret value
secret_metadata = '<secret_metadata>' # Description about the secret (optional)
create_response = api_instance.create_secret(secret_name, secret_value, token, metadata=secret_metadata)
Looking at the code above on line 4, we passed our token to the create_secret function to authenticate our requests. Running this will create a secret with the name provided assigned to the value given.
To access our secret, all we need to do is to pass the token and secret name to the get_secret_value function:
secret_val_res = api_instance.get_secret_value(secret_name, token) print(secret_val_res) # secret value
This should print out our application secrets key.
To update our secret key, we can simply write below:
new_secret_value = "this is a new secret" api_instance.update_secret_val(secret_name, new_secret_value, token) secret_val_res = api_instance.get_secret_value(secret_name, token)
Below are other functions you can call to create different types of secret/keys:
dynamic_secret = api_instance.create_dynamic_secret(name, token, metadata=metadata, key=key) # creates a dynamic secret - can provide `key` for encryption ssh_cert = api_instance.create_ssh_cert_issuer() # create new ssh cert issuer pki_cert = api_instance.create_pki_cert_issuer() # create new ssh cert issuer
You can read more about the available functions here. | https://medium.com/better-programming/securing-your-application-secrets-with-a-secure-vault-74f292c5b84e | ['Oyetoke Tobi Emmanuel'] | 2020-08-11 14:01:01.905000+00:00 | ['DevOps', 'Technology', 'Programming', 'Software Development', 'Security'] |
2,128 | Architecture, Design and AR | Enjoy this excerpt from my new book!
From Convergence, How the World Will Be Painted With Data
By Sam Steinberger
When multidisciplinary design and consulting firm Arup was contracted to work on a new hospital, the team quickly got to work. With over 14,000 professionals around the globe who specialize in a diverse array of roles, from architecture to security engineering, the firm knew it had to meet tight deadlines and work with clients who expected the best while demanding top efficiency.
Because constructing a building is essentially a one-shot process, firms like Arup, which has been instrumental in the completion of famous landmarks like The Gherkin in London, the Sydney Opera House, and New York City subway system’s Fulton Center, undertake iterative steps during the design phase. Those iterations demand a diverse array of inputs, from sound recordings of the site’s ambient noises to 360° street-level videos, not to mention building plans from which to render 3D modeling of the proposed construction.
This particular project saw many of the site elements being put together by specialists in the firm’s New York City office. Among those working on the project was Anthony Cortez, senior designer, and lead visualization specialist. After receiving the job’s specifications, Cortez, along with his colleagues, spent the next 48 hours getting the project ready for a client presentation.
The presentation had to include video and sound for a VR experience that would show clients what the old site looked and sounded like, as well as how the proposal would change the site’s environment. The new project included changes to traffic patterns and it involved the function of mechanical and security systems, like ventilation and CCTV. The only hitch? The project was across the country, in Santa Monica, California.
Using cloud-based collaboration and AR, including augmenting a site’s actual acoustics with modeled post-completion audio, Cortez and team met their deadline. The clients were ecstatic, he said, not only with the team’s efficiency but with the intuitive nature of VR and AR showcasing of the final product. “Clients get excited about seeing and interacting with the design we’re working on and they want more,” he said. That’s just one example of the way AR naturally integrates itself into the architectural design process.
Powerful enough hardware has always been a challenge for both designers and clients. The computing has to handle “heavy” models without being tethered. “The field of view has to be right,” said Ignacio Rodriguez, CEO, and principal at IR Architects, which designs luxury real estate in Southern California. Leading devices like the HoloLens and Magic Leap have a narrow field of view. “VR is ahead of AR,” he said, “in its ease of use and general adoption.” To move inside a virtual building and alter its design, AR lags VR, big time.
For its part, Arup has used a number of AR systems over the years, including Google’s Project Tango headset, iPads, and smartphones. It’s now building uses for its HoloLens system and is interested in exploring how a Magic Leap headset might fit with future projects. Today’s usability of VR, which has found enthusiastic adoption among clients is about five years ahead of AR. “We’re just on the 20-yard line working our way down the field. We want to get to that end zone as quickly as possible. But, we really want a platform that allows us to seamlessly transition from between AR and VR,” Rodriguez said.
Systems aside, Arup has not wavered in its commitment to AR, noted Travis Rothbloom, a senior security engineer and design software programmer. From replacing mockups to modeling the flow of pedestrians, AR has already proven it can provide significant design benefits for the firm.
During the design and drafting process for a project for New York City’s commuter rail, Metro-North, the firm used the Hololens to show the future model of new construction in conjunction with a homebuilt pedestrian simulation model. As simulated pedestrians with intelligent movements modeled after commuter behaviors flooded into the scene, the design team and client were able to see how people moved around in space and where they looked. The latter input can later be used for both optimizing signage.
Even though contracts were made, in some cases, years before the technology was available, clients tend to appreciate the experience of convergently viewing the design and the present state of the site, said Rothbloom. “Getting past the ‘wow’ factor is key,” he added. “While it can be challenging to convince clients to pay extra for AR, once clients actually see how this helps with the iterative process, they’re more inclined to use it.”
AR will profoundly influence the art and engineering of architecture, Rodriguez noted. In a more architectural-friendly analogy than his football comparison, Rodriguez described VR as AutoCAD, a tool with which many inside and outside of architecture are familiar.
Another major advantage of AR is using Building Information Modeling (BIM) in conjunction with maintenance and building assets. Because the BIM is digital and in 3D, building owners and managers can essentially see through walls before and after building construction. Coupled with sensors, information from a BIM could enable the building manager of the future to know when to replace building assets, where to find them in building ceilings and walls and even order necessary parts before beginning a job. Managers could troubleshoot energy use or look at how the light in the building changed as the sun moved through the sky.
Rothbloom demoed an example. During the renovation of a new Arup office, designers made a 3D scan of a room before it was finished, so the room’s ductwork was clearly visible. By adding and removing layers to the BIM, much like adding and removing layers in Adobe Photoshop, Rothbloom was able to give the user a view of the building before the renovation, while it was in construction, and after completion. Any user of the Hololens could see where the ductwork was and Rothbloom could even model the flow of a crowd of workers moving through the office hallways.
The experience is a little like time travel. Using an AR system, a viewer can see how a building used to look, how it looked during construction, as the nerves and muscles of the building were added in the form of rebar, fiber optics and concrete, and how the building looks today. Engineers can even use AR to verify the building was built according to plans and Rothbloom envisioned construction workers of the future with headsets, so they can physically see the building they’re making–better understanding how their piece of the puzzle fits into the overall construction.
Just as a building’s appearance is a one-shot experience, the acoustics within and outside of a building are carefully crafted and reworked. Designers can hear what a site might sound like after it is completed according to the modeling they’ve done. They can explore the addition of certain types of soundproofing or materials. They can also hear what an individual in a crowd might hear, if the space is meant to be shared, like a subway stop or a performing arts building.
Using an advanced sound lab, Dr. Terence Caulkins, an acoustics researcher and sound designer, provided the auditory equivalent of Rothbloom’s visual AR. The scene was outside of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum along Manhattan’s 5th Avenue. First, Caulkins demonstrated what the scene sounds like now: internal combustion-powered traffic moves along the road while pedestrians chat and walk along the sidewalk next to Central Park. Then he showed various modeled scenarios: what if all cars were electric? How noisy are drones? And what if large motor vehicles were banned from the stretch of 5th Avenue altogether?
Combining the visuals of AR with binaural design, using a combination of BIM, recorded sounds and modeled sounds can create a visually and auditorily augmented experience. It’s an experience that allows designers, engineers, clients, and workers to better construct our future.
Designers, architects, and engineers are interested in a process, an experience, that only AR is uniquely situated to handle. VR, on the other hand, is better suited to an end product: a show for a client or a way to help stakeholders visually understand a new space. AR is a tool. VR is a medium for display.
If VR is the future of the clay model or plywood mockup, AR is the future of the pen, paper, and rulers that first turned dreams into design. | https://charliefink.medium.com/architecture-design-and-ar-30ebbe8cff4e | ['Charlie Fink'] | 2019-03-10 16:21:00.719000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Books', 'Charlie Fink', 'Virtual Reality', 'Augmented Reality'] |
2,129 | 4 Things Not to Forget When Your Medical Practice is in Crisis-Mode | Photo by Ivan Samkov from Pexels
Ten months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. is seeing another massive surge. As the holiday season continues, we expect the pandemic to grow exponentially worse. However, providers still need to practice medicine and patients still need to access healthcare.
Medical practices are trying to figure out the best way to safely and efficiently work around the ebbs and flows of this pandemic. While you’ve done what it took to survive the pandemic crisis so far, it’s a good idea to use the end of the year to take a pause and officially update your crisis plans.
Here are a few of our go-to tips to ensure your practice continues to run smoothly during any crisis:
Track Federal and State Medical Board News
Staying up-to-date on federal and state medical board news is always a good idea, but especially important during times of a national disaster or public health crisis to ensure you’re navigating the situation effectively and protecting yourself and your clients as regulations change. There are several good sources including The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). For example, CSM and The Joint Commission may grant extensions or offer more information on ease of restrictions.
A good example of why it’s important to ensure your organization is up-to-date on federal requirements is the recent change within the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) which subsequently affected the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) verification process. You can learn more about how Modio proactively addressed these verification changes here.
Keep Ahead of Expirables!
Providers shoulder the burden of making sure a variety of experiables are up-to-date. Medical licenses, DEA, CAQH, malpractice insurance — there are a lot of balls in the air that need to be regulated to avoid costly penalties, lengthy delays, and periods of not being able to practice medicine. Practices can expedite licensure checks and avoid lapses by investing in technology solutions that streamline the process. Cloud-based solutions ensure expirables are tracked far in advance and nothing slips through the cracks.
Beef Up Your Protections
PPE has been a big part of keeping your practice and patients safe so far this year, but what about protections for other threats? 2020 has had its share of challenges (an understatement) and there was no shortage of healthcare data breaches. Health IT Security recently reported that a behavioral and mental health provider in Colorado had to notify 295,617 patients that their data was potentially compromised after a cyberattack on its technological infrastructure. This is one of many examples of compromised health data. A way to get ahead of the threats — periodically check cyber-security and compliance. Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has many resources including a checklist of steps to take should your organization experience a cyber attack and guidance to better understand the threat of ransomware.
A second important step is reviewing guidelines for maintaining HIPAA-compliance to avoid substantial fines, reputational damage, and security breaches which can result in criminal charges and civil action lawsuits being filed.
Go Digital!
If your practice is still relying on sticky notes, endless paperwork, and back and forth faxing for credentialing, it’s time to find a better way. Getting on the cloud and going digital is an easy way to streamline your organization’s process, keep a clean audit trail, and more easily track and manage credentialing activities. Backup all copies of provider data including, licensure, medical malpractice insurance, important contact information, logins, and passwords. Having all of this information available at the click of a button is a much better option than following an endless paper trail when you need answers fast. | https://medium.com/@modiohealth/4-things-not-to-forget-when-your-medical-practice-is-in-crisis-mode-43055f22f16f | ['Modio Health'] | 2020-12-22 18:21:21.242000+00:00 | ['Medical Technology', 'Crisis Management', 'Provider Data Management', 'Covid 19 Crisis', 'Disaster Response'] |
2,130 | Machine Learning Algorithms for Coronary Heart Disease Prediction | Introduction:
Coronary heart disease (CHD) or simply heart disease, involves the reduction of blood flow to the heart muscle due to build-up of plaque in the arteries of the heart. It is the most common of the cardiovascular diseases. Risk factors include high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, sedentary life, obesity, high blood cholesterol, poor diet, depression, and alcohol.
Image by Pixbay
Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major cause of death in the UK and worldwide is the most common cause of death in the industrialized countries. CHD is sometimes called coronary artery disease.
The prediction of heart disease is considered one of the most important topics in health care because it often involves other pathology. With the help of data mining and machine learning algorithms and having large amounts of health data, it is possible to extrapolate information that can help doctors make more accurate decisions and predictions.
Predicting CHD is a very complex challenge, according to a WHO survey, medical professionals can correctly predict heart disease with only 67% accuracy.
The aim of this work has been to find the most effective Machine Learning models in predicting the risk probability of CHD using the South African Heart Disease dataset.
The data for this article can be found here, A sample of males in a region where many cases of heart disease have been recorded in region of the Western Cape in South Africa.
Objective
Build a binary classification model that predicts heart disease in people. In binary classification, we classifying data into one of two binary groups , in these case are 0’s and 1’s, the target column to predict is ‘chd’, where CHD= 1 is positive response and CHD=0 is negative response.
First step: Understanding the data
Attributes:
sbp: systolic blood pressure,when the heart is contracting.
tobacco: cumulative tobacco (kg)
ldl: low density lipoprotein cholesterol
adiposity:It is measured as percent of body fat.
famhist: family history of heart disease (Present=1, Absent=0).
typea: type-A behavior, It is characteristic of a person who is competitive.
obesity: It is represented as Body Mass Index (BMI).
alcohol: current alcohol consumption.
age: age at onset.
chd: coronary heart disease (yes=1 or no=0)
The data set provides the patients’ information. It includes over 462 records and 10 attributes as mentioned above. For sophisticated statistical analysis such as for the use of machine learning algorithms, 462 records are very few, but the purpose of this work is purely didactic.
First 5 rows of Dataset
Out of 462 people examined only 160 are positive for ‘chd’ (target feature when chd=1) which corresponds to 34.6%, the dataset is slightly unbalanced, but later i will show how to fix this problem.
From histograms I can understand better the distribution of the data.
histogram for data distribution
In addition to our target variable ‘chd’, we have only one category variable, ‘famhist’, while the majority of the samples is between 40 and 60 years old and has low rates for alcohol and tobacco consumption. But let’s take a closer look at the statistics of our dataset.
statistical overview
Summary for the mean of the ‘chd’ values
As can be seen from the statistics in the table above, those who are positive for ‘chd’ also have high values of ‘obesity’ and ‘adiposity’, in addition to having a high average ‘age’ compared to the sample under examination.
Correlation matrix and heat map.
Let’s take a look at some of the more significant correlations. It is worth remembering that correlation coefficients only measure linear correlations. From the matrix, there are no characteristics with a correlation greater than 0.5 with CHD and this shows that the characteristics are poor predictors. However, the characteristics with the highest correlation with ‘chd’ are ‘age’, ‘tobacco’ and ‘famhist’. Additionally, there are a couple of highly related features such as: ‘obesity’ and ‘adiposity’ (obviously).
Correlation Matrix
Density Plot
Age Density Plot
Tobacco Density Plot
From the correlation matrix, I want to see better the density graph for tobacco and age, because they have higher correlation values with chd than the other features. Density Graph displays the distribution of data over a continuous interval or period of time. This graph is a variation of a histogram that uses kernel smoothing to plot values, allowing for smoother distributions by attenuating noise. The peaks of a density graph help to understand where the values are concentrated in the range.
Considering that we have little data available and only 9 attributes, in this case it is not advisable to use algorithms for feature selection and the analysis of the principal components because you could lose useful information.
Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique for Imbalanced Classification
Imbalanced classification involves developing predictive models on classification datasets that have a severe class imbalance. One technique for dealing with unbalanced datasets is to oversample the minority class. The approach involves duplicating examples in the minority class (chd=1), without adding any new information to the model. Instead, new examples can be synthesized from existing examples. This is a type of data augmentation for the minority class and is referred to as SMOTE.
As previously mentioned, the number of positive cases, where chd = 1, covers 34.6% of the total. After using this technique, the resultant data set was much more balanced with 44,5% positive cases, although I remember that unfortunately we have a very small dataset available.
After balancing the dataset with SMOTE, the next step is to scaling the data to improve the training of the classifier, then I split the data into a training and test set with a ratio of 80% to 20% respectively which is a standard subdivision.
Classification algorithms
In this study, using our training set I trained 5 machine learning classification algorithms:
1) Logistic Regression is one of the most simple and commonly used Machine Learning algorithms for two-class classification. It is easy to implement and can be used as the baseline for any binary classification problemIt measures the relationship between the categorical dependent variable and one or more independent variables by estimating probabilities using a logistic function.
Image by Abhigyan via Medium
2) Random Forest creates decision trees on randomly selected data samples, gets prediction from each tree and selects the best solution by means of voting. It also provides a pretty good indicator of the features importance and avoid overfitting. Random Forest use averaging to improve the predictive accuracy and control over-fitting and can handle a large number of features, and is helpful for estimating which of your variables are important in the underlying data being modeled.
Image by Wikipedia
3) Support Vector Machines: SVM is a supervised machine learning technique that is widely used in pattern recognition and classification problems — when your data has exactly two classes. SVM in practice constructs a hyperplane or a set of hyperplanes that best divides a data set into two classes.
SVM- Image by Shutterstock.com
4) Naive Bayes is a classifier based on Bayes’ theorem and very easy to build and particularly useful for very large data sets. it is a probabilistic algorithm. and calculates the probability of each label for a given object by looking at its characteristics, and chooses the label with the greatest probability.
Bayes’ Theorem
5) Gradient boosting is a machine learning algorithm used for regression and problems of statistical classification, it produces a predictive model in the form of a set of weak predictive models, typically decision trees. In each training cycle the weak learner learn from previous predictors and his predictions are compared with the correct result we expect. The distance between observation and prediction represents the error rate of our model.
Gradient Boost ,Image by AI Wiki
Evaluation of the models under examination
I trained each model and fine-tuning their hyper-parameters using the grid search, each model has a series of hyper-parameters that must be set, it is not advisable to use the default values, they often give not good results. After I evaluated and compared their performance via their Accuracy, Confusion Matrix , Roc Curves and F1 score. But let’s see in detail what these metrics tell us, to do this we need to start from the Confusion Matrix.
The confusion matrix detects the count of TP (true positive), TN (true negative), FP (false positive), FN (false negative) in the predictions of a classifier.
From Confusion matrix we can derive the Accuracy which is given by the sum of the corrected predictions divided by the total number of predictions:
Accuracy = TP+TN/TP+FP+FN+TN
And F1score that is the harmonic mean of Precision and Recall where:
Precision = TP/TP+FP and Recall = TP/TP+FN
F1 Score = 2*(Recall * Precision) / (Recall + Precision)
F1 score is usually more useful than accuracy, especially if you have an uneven class distribution as in the above case.
AUC-ROC Curve is a performance measurement for classification problem at various thresholds settings. ROC is a probability curve and AUC (Area under the curve)represents degree or measure of separability. It tells how much model is capable of distinguishing between classes. Higher is the AUC, better is the model to predicting 0s as 0s and 1s as 1s.
Results
Now let’s see the results of the confusion matrices and Area Under the Curve obtained from our models.
Confusion Matrix
Performance for AUCs
Overview results
Comparing all the metrics we see that the best model is Random Forest for the dataset Coronary Heart Disease. Compared to the other models, it also records higher values of AUC and F1 Score, having less FP and FN as can be seen from the confusion matrices. In addition, the Random Forest recorded: Precision =83%, Sensitivity= 81%, Recall =73% and Specificity= 89%. Surely if we had more instances available, the models would have recorded better values, the trained models would have learned better from the data.
Considerations
Artificial intelligence algorithms at the service of medicine are precious allies for doctors to be able to perform early screening and identification of diseases and to better manage resources within the health system. Furthermore, these algorithms could be implemented within smartwatch apps to allow people to have their health under control.
I hope you found this reading useful and understandable, suggestions are accepted.
Sources of inspiration for this work and related articles
§ Prediction of Coronary Heart Disease using Machine Learning:Experimental Analysis: Amanda H. Gonsalves, Fadi Thabtah, Rami Mustafa A. Mohammad
§ NHS https://www.nhs.uk/
§ https://towardsdatascience.com/heart-disease-risk-assessment-using-machine-learning-83335d077dad
§ https://machinelearningmastery.com/smote-oversampling-for-imbalanced-classification/
§ https://stackabuse.com/classification-in-python-with-scikit-learn-and-pandas/ | https://antoniocastiglione-9550.medium.com/machine-learning-algorithms-for-coronary-heart-disease-prediction-ec25f4d7ee42 | ['Antonio Castiglione'] | 2020-12-06 10:46:53.755000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Health Technology', 'Healthcare'] |
2,131 | Disrupting The Future Of Healthcare And Health Insurance Thru Smart Contracts | As blockchain technology becomes more mainstream, the benefits of using smart contracts in healthcare are becoming more widely understood. But many still do not realize the positive impact they can have on the industry.
One of the most powerful use cases for blockchain lies in smart contracts. The security and safety of blockchain technology make smart contracts and their digital agreements suitable for any domain, including healthcare. With the increased number of patients needing medical care, there has been a significant strain on healthcare providers.
Managing patients’ health information, records, and data have become a large task for many practitioners. Additionally, there have been many cases of fraud due to the vulnerability of the outdated systems currently in use. These issues cannot be solved by practitioners alone. This is where smart contracts come in.
Health Insurance
Smart contracts can be used daily in health insurance and could reduce many inefficiencies in the current system. If patients use smart contracts to buy their insurance, all details of their policy will be automatically secured in their patient profile. This is then stored on the blockchain — a safe and secure ledger which is less prone to hackers than a traditional database.
They could also eliminate the stress involved in having to file lengthy insurance claim forms. If an insuree was to go through a medical procedure that is covered by the insurance policy, the smart contract would be automatically triggered. This means that the money from the insurance company’s account will go straight to the hospital. This automation cuts out any delays and hassle and allows for correct payments of medical services. In turn, this would speed up all transactions between parties and ensure the procedure does not get delayed.
Health Records
Smart contracts allow records and information to be stored on a digital ledger. This means if a patient was moving from one hospital to another, they would be able to do so with ease and without having to fill out numerous forms. Records can then also be viewed by the patient’s preferred physician on the blockchain network.
Hospitals and healthcare companies rely on a number of databases filled with patient information. However, these can be too restrictive to allow for the sharing of potentially life-saving insights around the globe. Without blockchain and smart contracts, this information may take a long time to reach the recipient and could potentially be hacked.
If health records were kept in a smart contract and stored on the blockchain, that information would be available to hospitals and research institutions everywhere. With sufficient adoption, an individual could walk into any hospital in the world for treatment, and if they produce their private key, the hospital would have access to their information in a heartbeat.
Telemedicine
Telemedicine is a medical field that is growing by the day. It allows physicians and doctors to reach their patients through the use of electronic devices, such as mobile phones and other IoT devices. It is primarily used for providing care for the terminally ill. Telemedicine allows doctors to take care of prescription compliance and collate real-time data measurements of their patients’ conditions. These modern advancements are helping to increase interoperability and reduce admin inefficiency whilst enhancing patient outcomes.
However, Telemedicine has downsides as the mechanisms involved are a large target for hackers. If smart contracts are used, the safety and privacy of a patient’s information and other important clinical data can be ensured. Smart contracts can be implemented on a large scale and stored on the blockchain to share and protect the data. They can also help to maintain data and ensure patients’ private information is stored securely and in a transparent manner.
Conclusion
Smart contracts combined with blockchain technology represent the future of healthcare and medicine. They embrace high-level encryption and security that allows users, patients, and doctors to have trust that their information is safe and attack-proof. | https://medium.com/@inmediatesg/disrupting-the-future-of-healthcare-and-health-insurance-thru-smart-contracts-4a031625c2e | [] | 2019-07-19 10:34:31.097000+00:00 | ['Insurance', 'Healthcare', 'Smart Contracts', 'Blockchain', 'Technology'] |
2,132 | Towards Datafication? | Does data know best? Photo by Franki Chamaki on Unsplash
Understanding the risks associated with EdTech and the drive towards datafication of education is important.
“Government gets AI in transport, in health sciences, in retail,” he says. “It does not get AI in education — it doesn’t get the potential, it doesn’t get the risks. What’s more, it doesn’t know that it doesn’t get it.” — Political commentator and historian Sir Anthony Seldon’s interview with the Financial Times
During the COVID-19 pandemic schools and universities around the world rapidly closed and moved to online learning. Big tech companies such as Google and Microsoft have updated their education packages and software to accommodate the surge in demand.
The pandemic inevitably created markets best suited to the technology industry which gave these companies an advantage in the education sector. As the months went on new habits and norms formed which created a collective consensus around the need to continue learning during the different stages of the virus whilst maintaining high educational standards. However, the aims of government departments and big tech have longer-term plans to interweave EdTech into the day to day lives of students, teachers and educational institutions. Interestingly, the global technology education market is to reach $341B by 2025 so, it is even more important to understand the motives and the risks of EdTech start-ups.
EdTech Start-ups
AI education start-ups such as Up Learn, Knowledgehook and others aim to improve grades for all students by offering personalisation and customisation of learning for each student. It does this by learning the patterns of when a student remembers or forgets a piece of information, akin to reinforcement learning. This allows for more data about student performance and behaviour to be collected. This in theory is meant to help teachers update teaching strategies and inform students of their strengths and weaknesses. However, there is a risk that data points can also be quantified into behavioural insights. For example, looking at the recruitment industry many employers have adopted gamified approaches to sieve out candidates during the early recruitment process.
For example, the candidate downloads an app such as Sky Rise City. Playing the tasks on this app then allows the company to track and collect 5000 data points on a candidate’s personality, usually based on the big 5 personality model such as openness and neuroticism. The app determines these traits through many variables such as speediness of clicks and time taken to bounce back from failure. The collection of personality traits is highly contested. One of the criticisms is not just about the collection but how it can be used and manipulated without the consent of individuals. Most notably, seen with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Looking back to EdTech tools it shows the slippery slope on how behaviour data can be quantified and manipulated.
Datafication
Focusing now on data and quantification, a popular article by William, Eynon and Potter analyses how the pandemic spurred the biggest EdTech social experiment ever seen. The ‘experiment’ is a chance to create and collect vast amounts of student, teacher and parent data. The experience of the experimental subjects e.g. students will start to leave digital footprints in which data engineers clean up, ready for analysis for future policy. They argue that the experiment will redesign educational policy and culture and what education is and what it will look like beyond COVID-19.
For EdTech companies interested in the monetisation of data the virus is an opportunity for conducting and learning from mini-experiments, it is similar to how social media companies use A/B testing to increase user engagement.
One of the problems researchers and policymakers have is using data to determine causality. The pandemic has created a natural experiment. For example, since around March students were required to sit all their exams online. This allows enough data for comparisons to be made with previous years where exams took place in exam halls. This allows for analysis without the problem of selection bias. Supporters suggest that this is a great opportunity to prove the success of virtual education over in-person education.
What happens if the research shows that students performed better online? Do educationists have a responsibility to adopt EdTech tools and online learning? Is educational success only measured by grades?
These are some questions to ask over the coming years. If these stances are adopted this could have knock-on effects on many parts of the education sector such as libraries as well as jobs within schools such as teachers and cleaners being at risk of becoming redundant. The scientific infatuation of measuring big data to develop accurate models to push education to the online world is further pushed by investors and start-ups to exploit the pandemic as a social experiment. This could lead policymakers to consolidate the use of EdTech and spur the rest of the education sector on the road to datafication which could leave jobs in precarious conditions and change the culture and nature of learning and the process of secondary socialisation.
The education sector through marketisation as well as other means has been the sector most affected by datafication. As it promotes efficiency, competition and standardisation. However, at the same time risks have also emerged such as continuing the culture of surveillance, control, privacy, manipulation as well as new and repackaged inequalities.
The quantification of student’s digital footprints during and after the pandemic shows the long-term motivations to lock in as Collingridgedescribes EdTech tools into mainstream education but instead of disrupting inequality or improving student experience these tools may exacerbate existing inequalities, uproot and embed technology risks and leave jobs in precarious conditions. Therefore, if EdTech becomes locked in it may further disenfranchise groups of people from education, reinforce a specific type of learning and success and favour the interests of investors.
Thoughts
Can we go back once datafication of education expands and EdTech tools become locked in?
‘’Control may still be possible, but it has become very difficult, expensive and slow.’’- David Collingridge, The social control of technology, pg. 18
Collingridge’s quote from the 1980s is still significant and may give us some insight. It seems that change within the education sector more so now that it is governed by market forces may be political.
Who defines the problem within the education system as a problem? Is it the teachers, students, politicians or big tech?
Why might the decision process be slow when it comes to education policy? Do we rely too much on the future of EdTech to solves these problems?
It is undoubtedly true that technology has benefited and aided students before and during the pandemic. However, as technology continues to grow exponentially and becomes embedded in traditional sectors it is important to discuss critically the risks that we know of. For risks that we don’t know of, we could follow Ibo van de Poel’s advice of incremental steps which can help us become less ignorant and more critical around the allure of new technologies. Whilst at the same time instead of relying on numbers solely, we can incorporate views from the social sciences such as anthropology to evaluate how these risks affect our behaviour and the development of society. | https://medium.com/@maishaachowdhury/towards-datafication-235e014a2777 | ['Maisha Chowdhury'] | 2021-03-02 16:26:40.643000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Data', 'Technology', 'Education', 'Edtech'] |
2,133 | Latest technology blogs | This is a blogging website, here for you to amaze with some new topics for you. New topics every time with new article covered in latest content. | https://medium.com/@inabout2020/latest-technology-blogs-860f0b78f314 | ['About In'] | 2020-12-22 17:06:15.118000+00:00 | ['Can', 'Science', 'Solar Energy', 'Technology'] |
2,134 | (In/) Visible Technology | One of the greatest signs of the maturing of technology is its invisibility. When something becomes the new normal, we no longer have to mention it, notice it or even call it by name. Nobody calls Uber or Starling Bank an eBusiness any more. Netflix viewers aren’t ‘online viewers’. You no longer have to specify that your mobile phone is ‘smart’. In fact, you have to clarify if you’re using a ‘feature’ phone, a quaint anachronism for a non-smart phone. When Nicholas Carr polemically stated that “IT Doesn’t Matter” — he was taking a provocative view of the fact that IT had become commonplace rather than a differentiator.
There are of course technologies that thrive on visibility. Mobile phones, televisions, wearable tech, and the latest clever technology in your electric vehicle. The reasons for the visibility of technology are obvious — sometimes it’s a selling point, or it's a fashion accessory, or its display-aesthetics. Sometimes it’s value is in the visibility. An entire set of ‘front end’ technologies are designed to be visible. Your Fitbit or Applewatch, Alexa smart speaker, or your Hive thermostat or Ring doorbell. They are sometimes symbols of your progressiveness and are also used in highly explicit ways. For all these reasons they need to be visible.
Other technologies are naturally invisible. Has anybody actually seen Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure? Or for that matter an RDBMS? A raft of technologies that are quite ubiquitous in making the digital world work on a daily basis just do their work quietly behind the scenes. Some of these have fundamentally changed the mechanics and the economics of the digital world. These include containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), APIs (Apigee, Mulesoft), distributed and non-relational databases (Hadoop, Mongo), and many others. Makers of these technologies have to work harder to be visible for buyers and users. None more famous than Intel who coined one of the most successful and effective technology marketing campaigns of all time with Intel inside.
There is an entirely new generation of invisible technologies around the corner. A search for IOT and sensors will immediately throw up numbers in the billions for sensors which are going to be deployed worldwide over the next few years. Chances are you will be surrounded by them but you will not notice 99% of them. They say a new car today has 200 computers onboard. Of course, you see none of them. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Neural Networks are set to reshape the technology landscape and our jobs, businesses, and societies. Completely invisible. When AI works well, you might not even notice that it’s technology at work.
When technology becomes a part of the operating infrastructure, it is impacted by the referee effect. By which I mean that you notice it when it’s not doing its job. When it works well, you hardly think about it. Like a train station, an airport, or the government. When technology goes into everything, it needs to become fundamentally reliable, and dare I say, boring. Just doing its job. No fuss and no big deal.
Another clear sign of invisible tech is in simplicity. When complex things are well designed and work simply, you can be sure that there’s a lot of invisible tech at work. When you press the start button of your car, when you switch your TV on or when you set up your new iPad by simply bringing it into proximity of your iPhone. These simple activities which achieve miraculously complex outcomes are all the result of great technology working invisibly.
We discovered both sides of this when we recently did a study of using technology to look after elderly people in their homes. It turns out that for some people, who are living perfectly healthy lives, the technology can often be an unwelcome sign of aging. An intrusion, and a source of worry or distraction. For these people, the technology needs to be invisible. An insurance policy that exists somewhere, out of sight, until needed. For other users who are facing a loss of confidence brought about by declines in eyesight, memory or physical capability, the technology can actually be a source of comfort and a reminder that one is being looked after. Rather than the invisible insurance, technology for these users is like a carer — attentive and responsive to their needs.
As we learn to shape and design technology more and more around human needs, we therefore have the choice of making it visible or invisible. This is in some ways a great responsibility for designers and engineers. After all the value of the technology may well depend on its ability to engage with the user. It is also quite possible that individual components of the system might need to be visible or invisible. Or that in future the technology might need to know when to become visible. Could emergency information become more visible in a car after an accident?
There is a clear trend towards decluttering in many parts of our societies. We are rediscovering minimalism. The role of technology in a world that is more ecologically sustainable, less materially extractive and with much less ‘stuff’ is ever greater. As with most things though many technologies will start being visible and soon become part of the environment and we won’t even call it technology. It will not be invisible as such, but just hiding in plain sight. | https://medium.com/@vedsen/in-visible-technology-d37289627b0a | ['Ved Sen'] | 2019-02-06 22:24:37.638000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Design', 'Elder Care', 'Experience', 'Connected Home'] |
2,135 | Means, Ends, and Ethics for a Brave New World | Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash
Let’s begin with the end in mind. To situate our investigation of ethics and its application to technology, we will focus on the individual ends we desire and the means by which we achieve them. That is, we will be the subjects of our own means-ends analysis; a fundamental philosophical concept and a design principle for artificially intelligent systems. We will stand on the shoulders of philosophy’s giants to define the concept, consider developments at Facebook, and finally, reflect on the role of ethics for our own projects. It’s the perfect place to start.
Means-Ends Analysis
The means-ends concept is so overused it’s worth defining to reclaim its utility. To get beyond everyday uses like ‘a means to an end’ or the Machiavellian ‘the ends justify the means,’ we will first turn to influential German philosopher Immanuel Kant. In his Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, he defines means and ends like this:
“Now what serves the will as a subjective ground of its self-determination is an end; and this, if it is given by reason alone, must be equally valid for all rational beings. What, on the other hand, contains merely the ground of the possibility of an action whose effect is an end is called a means.” (Kant 78)
In other words, ends are our subjective goals and means are their causal actions. Aldous Huxley, the philosopher best known for the dystopian novel Brave New World, adds that the means qualify the ends: “The end cannot justify the means, for the simple and obvious reason that the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced” (Huxley 9). Rather than ‘the ends justify the means,’ our means reveal the nature — or values — of our ends. Rather than viewing actions as simply ‘a means to an end,’ we must actively imbue the values of our ends into the work of our means. And so we find that the values of our means and ends are mutually codependent; they rise and fall together.
Now, let’s investigate potential values for our ends. In Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill suggests that: “Questions about ends are, in other words, questions about what things are desirable.” And just what are desirable ends? As Huxley points out, these have been broadly agreed upon throughout the generations:
“About the ideal goal of human effort there exists in our civilization and, for nearly thirty centuries, there has existed a very general agreement. From Isaiah to Karl Marx the prophets have spoken with one voice. In the Golden Age to which they look forward there will be liberty, peace, justice and brotherly love. ‘Nation shall no more lift sword against nation’; ‘the free development of each will lead to the free development of all’; ‘the world shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea’.” (Huxley 1)
If these values are to be useful and truly inform our means, we — as means- and ends-makers — must be more precise. Freedom, peace, justice, love, happiness, and unity are noble outcomes. But for whom, specifically, do we desire them? Invoking the logic of Mill and Huxley, have we chosen means that are values-aligned with those ends? Does our means-ends system benefit specific individuals and, crucially, society at large? Answers to these questions are important because, as we will see, means-ends systems are not fixed or predictable.
Rather, our means — our companies, products, projects, resources, and actions — are highly adaptive; constantly optimizing for our ends. In his seminal book The Sciences of the Artificial, economist and artificial intelligence researcher Herbert A. Simon likens means-ends analysis to a goal-seeking system or an adaptive organism:
“The distinction between the world as sensed and the world as acted upon defines the basic condition for the survival of adaptive organisms. The organism must develop correlations between goals in the sensed world and actions in the world of process. When they are made conscious and verbalized, these correlations correspond to what we usually call means-ends analysis. Given a desired state of affairs and an existing state of affairs, the task of an adaptive organism is to find the difference between these two states and then to find the correlating process that will erase the difference.” (Simon 210)
If our means are dynamic, we must cultivate a heuristic to maintain their values-alignment with our ends. This heuristic will guide the adaptations of our means as the external environment changes and competing incentives are introduced. Aligning the values of our means and ends is the basic role of ethics. Now, cue the cautionary tale of Facebook and its looming privacy pivot.
Facebook’s Privacy Pivot
On March 6, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would shift its focus to the private web — “the digital equivalent of the living room” — from the public web — “the digital equivalent of a town square.” This is a strategic antidote to the growing public ‘techlash’ the company has been subject to. Facebook has been widely criticized for, among other things, the symbiotic relationship between disinformation and its bottom line. The new direction will focus on principles of Private Interactions, Encryption, Reducing Permanence, Safety, Interoperability, and Secure Data Storage. And if there is any doubt Zuckerberg is serious, he alludes to a new and complementary revenue model; suggesting that processing payments and financial transactions are on the roadmap. This vision for Facebook — more cynical and pragmatic — signals a significant change in the company’s means and, in some important aspects, its ends.
Now, compare this to the much more optimistic letter Mark Zuckerberg published in 2012 as the company filed its S-1 to IPO. In the letter, he introduces The Hacker Way and maxims like ‘Move Fast and Break Things.’ While he includes several foreboding references to money-making, he also outlines Facebook’s five core values: Focus on Impact, Move Fast, Be Bold, Be Open, and Build Social Value. Facebook’s founding means and ends are seemingly antithetical to those of the new privacy pivot.
Two weeks after the privacy pivot announcement, Facebook’s Chief Product Officer, Chris Cox, announced he is leaving the company. In the announcement, he highlights the gap between the two visions by both recalling the early days at Facebook with fondness and conceding that the company’s new vision requires “leaders who are excited to see the new direction through.” Facebook had abandoned its mission of “impact,” “openness,” and “social value” for the unlimited potential of its algorithmic advertising platform. Its revenue model, which was its means, became an end; and its community, which was an end, became its means. Still, Cox implores his peers to continue “bending” the means to “positive” and “good” ends. This type of “bending” requires an ethical heuristic that one cannot simply source from company slogans or feel-good mission statements.
It’s all too common, especially in modern capitalist societies, to prioritize ends that benefit oneself or one’s company. Life, as we have come to know it, is a competition for resources (or clicks). And so we should not be surprised when the means we employ natively optimize for our success. At scale, these means-ends systems give the appearance of terrific economic progress. However, we must also insist on social benefit in equal measure. Huxley puts it best:
“Such is the world in which we find ourselves. A world which, judged by the only acceptable criterion of progress, is manifestly in regression. Technological advance is rapid. But without progress in charity, technological advance is useless. Indeed, it is worse than useless. Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” (Huxley 8)
Here we begin our investigation of ethics. That we might learn from those who’ve reflected on the ‘good life,’ engage with today’s technological dilemmas, and pivot-proof our values. If unchecked, means — like technology and capital — too often become ends unto themselves. Similarly, ends — like human beings — too often become instrumental means. To this end, we ought to cultivate a regular practice of reflection — continually assessing our Why and recalibrating our What and How. So, let’s reflect. To which specific ends do you aspire? What forces endanger the values-alignment of your means? Answering these questions is the first step to progress from what is to what ought to be in this brave new world.
Huxley, Aldous. Ends and Means: An Enquiry into the Nature of Ideals and into the Methods Employed for their Realization. London: Chatto & Windus, 1966. [Originally published in 1937.]
Kant, Immanuel. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, in Practical Philosophy, Mary J. Gregor (trans., ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. [Originally published in 1785.]
Simon, Herbert A.. The Sciences of the Artificial. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996. [Originally published in 1969.] | https://medium.com/ethicism/means-ends-and-ethics-for-a-brave-new-world-ee4a088fed7d | ['Jordan Eshpeter'] | 2019-04-06 15:30:08.417000+00:00 | ['Philosophy', 'Tech Ethics', 'Technology', 'Facebook', 'Philosophy Of Technology'] |
2,136 | How to Enable User-Friendly URLs for Websites Through Apache HTTPD Server | How to Enable User-Friendly URLs for Websites Through Apache HTTPD Server
Enable user-friendly URLs for websites through Apache HTTPD Server.
A user-friendly URL is a Web address that is easy to read and includes words that describe the content of the webpage.
Defining the user-friendly URL is the best practice also the recommendation for SEO, the user-friendly URL’s helps to hide the complex internal URL’s from the end-users and search engines. These URLs help visitors to remember web addresses, which they can easily type to access the page.
For example, the long URL /test/en/pdp/book.html?id=123 should be changed to the user-friendly URL /en/book/123
The Apache URL Rewriting (mod_rewrite) along with PT(PassThrough) flag helps to define the user-friendly URL’s in Apache by hiding the complex and lengthy URL’s from end-users. | https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-enable-userfriendly-urls-for-websites-through-apache-httpd-server-1ac05273bf7c | ['Albin Issac'] | 2020-11-07 06:03:11.401000+00:00 | ['SEO', 'Programming', 'Apache', 'Technology', 'Software Development'] |
2,137 | How successful have we been with vaccine development for various pandemics? | INFOGRAPHIC SPECIAL — VACCINE DEVELOPMENT
How successful have we been with vaccine development for various pandemics?
Comparing the vaccine development timelines since the earlier twentieth century
Major technological advancements made in the field of Medicine has led to a significant increase in average life expectancy. However, it is a somewhat perplexing fact for many as to why we have not been able to develop a vaccine for diseases like AIDS for 40 years, whereas multiple COVID-19 vaccinations have already been rolled out in record time. No wonder the recently developed vaccines are being closely scrutinized by the experts for their safety & efficacy.
For comparison purposes, It took approximately 25 years to develop a vaccine for the Spanish Flu which killed between 40–50 million people. Similarly, the first Ebola vaccine — an effort that took 43 years since the discovery of the virus. And we are still waiting for a cure for AIDS and yet we have an answer
Previous vaccines have saved countless lives — 10 million deaths between 2010 and 2015 alone have been prevented, according to the data from the World Health Organization. And we are hoping the case is the same for COVID-19. The infographic above looks at the timeframes for vaccine development for every pandemic since the turn of the 20th century. It also highlights the major steps involved in the development of individual vaccines.
Talking about COVID-19 vaccines, nearly 7.25 billion doses have been pre-purchased by countries and organizations around the globe — as many countries scramble to innoculate their populations. The second infographic below highlights that high & middle-income countries have hogged the purchasing process by ordering dosages according to their purchasing power.
While the hope is that a global vaccine initiative like the COVAX can bring some equality in the vaccine distribution among high-income and low-income countries, it is going to be a long road ahead towards pre-COVID normalcy. In the meantime, here is the link for the COVID-19 vaccine tracker, if you want to follow the development process for various endeavors being undertaken right now.
Image Credit: Visual Capitalist
Stay informed with the content that matters — Join my mailing list | https://medium.com/technicity/how-successful-have-we-been-with-vaccine-development-for-various-pandemics-72a06dc11ff9 | ['Faisal Khan'] | 2020-12-20 18:07:36.619000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Future', 'Technology', 'Innovation', 'Science'] |
2,138 | 2020s — the decade of the Electric Vehicle? | As we enter a new decade on the brink of irreversible climate change, consumers are increasingly looking for new ways in which to make their lifestyles more sustainable and eco-friendlier. Climate groups have been putting pressure on car manufacturers to increase their supply of electric vehicles (EVs) to meet market demands and deliver on their responsibility to tackle air pollution and address climate change. Earlier this month, the UK government announced a ban effective from 2035, prohibiting the sales of new petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles. It is great to see governments taking bold steps to ensure their populations are using a more eco-friendly and cost-efficient mode of transportation.
The year 2019 showed continued growth in the uptake of electric vehicles globally. This coming year is expected to be even better, with more manufacturers and new models entering the car market. With this growing momentum, it is crucial to address lingering consumer concerns which still constrain the market. The biggest issues surrounding the legitimacy of the marketability of Electric Vehicles are the number of charging stations available for use, and the speed at which they can re-charge vehicles. Indeed, many drivers have cited reservations about the short range of electric vehicles on a single charge. Whilst many of the latest models have ranges of over 250km on a single charge, there are still far fewer charging points than there are fuel stations. For convenience sake, this still remains a significant deterrent, particularly to people living in rural areas where charging points are even more scarce. However, as the amount of EV users increases, the number of charging points will also increase. Governments are quickly realising that accelerating the transition towards electric vehicles requires concurrent investment in robust and widespread charging infrastructure to support greater use.
With this in mind, the other persisting concern is the lengthy charge time, with the average EV taking around 8 hours to charge. However, new and exciting technology is on the horizon that can help EVs be more user-friendly and convenient. ‘StoreDot’, an innovative start up backed by my VC fund Singulariteam, has developed pioneering technology for an EV battery that can be fully charged in just 5 minutes. This remarkably fast charging rate is achieved through StoreDot’s use of novel materials and unique battery structure. The EV flash battery architecture used is environmentally safer than a Li-ion battery. StoreDot is set to launch its products later this year, which is expected to dramatically improve the EV ownership experience.
EVs are still a fairly new and innovative technology, and with any new tech, there are always unforeseen challenges and dissenting opinions. However, a shift away from internal combustion engines to zero emission electric vehicles is essential if the world wants to achieve carbon targets and address the climate crisis. We are incredibly fortunate to have start-ups like StoreDot, developing technology that will help make EVs more marketable to buyers and make the transition from fuel-based counterparts that bit easier. | https://medium.com/@kenesrakishev/2020s-the-decade-of-the-electric-vehicle-98fe25596089 | ['Kenes', 'Kenges'] | 2020-02-13 14:12:46.291000+00:00 | ['Electric Vehicles', 'Technology', 'Climate Change', 'Battery', 'Electric Car'] |
2,139 | Construction Technology Market Map: 3 Opportunities Ahead | Today we are pleased to release our construction technology market map. This market map follows our previously published housing market map and commercial real estate market map. A high-resolution version of the map is available here and the full list of companies is available here. This market map includes more than 150 technology companies operating across every aspect of the construction process, ranging from seed stage businesses to public companies.
At Thomvest, we are interested in the supply side dynamics of the real estate industry. We believe that the adoption of technology in construction can meaningfully impact the supply of real estate by breaking down silos in data, providing purpose-built tools for key stakeholders, and eliminating inefficiencies in the fragmented value chain.
While we have surveyed the broader construction technology landscape in our market map, we cover only a few areas of the value chain in this blog.
We see three key opportunities ahead for SaaS and tech-enabled companies:
1. Collaboration software that provides insights around workforce management: In a world in which labor supply is tight and skilled work is invaluable, workforce management becomes a must-have tool for operations teams to forecast costs and drive employee retention.
2. Materials management software that is built purpose-built for subcontractors: The pandemic has disrupted global supply chains and exacerbated the fragmented process of procuring materials — forcing the burden of responsibility to largely fall on subcontractors.
3. Platforms that address the construction payment chain from lenders → title companies → owners/developers → general contractors → subcontractors & suppliers. There are massive inefficiencies involved in the exchange of both information and capital, beginning with the construction loan draw process and ending with subcontractors receiving earned payments.
Setting the Stage: The Construction Industry in 2020
The structural challenges of the construction industry are well documented: The industry is highly cyclical and fragmented, and suffers from a chronic labor shortage. Underinvestment in technology has resulted in poor on-site coordination and execution. All of this has contributed to a massive labor productivity problem. While the construction industry is one of the largest contributors to the U.S. economy, representing $1.5 trillion or 5% of annual GDP, productivity growth has averaged only 1% annually over the past two decades.
The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the productivity crisis in many sectors of the construction industry. The industry has suffered from a confluence of factors: 1) government shutdowns resulting in project delays and layoffs, 2) the disruption in global supply chains, 3) the shift to remote work, 4) enhanced safety protocols in the field, and 5) tightened lending conditions.
At the same time, construction tech investment reached $1.3Bn in 2020, increasing 56% YoY. However, VC investment has tended to flow to similar parts of the value chain: 1) software platforms for managing the field, 2) reality capture and analytics tools that leverage drones, computer vision, and robotics, and 3) vertically-integrated companies that provide a full-stack approach to onsite homebuilding, general contracting, or prefabricated and modular construction.
Below, we take a closer look at a few of the most pressing challenges facing the industry today, as well as the 3 key opportunities for startups to address these pain points.
3 Opportunities Ahead: Workforce Management, Materials Supply Chain, and The Payment Chain
Workforce Management
Government shutdowns, the shift to remote work environments, and enhanced safety protocols surrounding Covid-19 have significantly impacted project schedules. According to a survey conducted by the Association of General Contractors in September 2020, 60% of GC firms report that at least 1 future project has been canceled or delayed and since the start of the pandemic. As a result, over 400,000 workers have been laid off as demand for future projects has stalled.
This has created a greater need for collaboration tools that bridge the field to the office, and provide insights around labor force staffing and utilization. Companies such as Bridgit, help teams answer key questions around which skilled tradesperson is best suited for a particular project or which staff members are over or under-allocated? In a world in which labor supply is tight and skilled work is invaluable, workforce management becomes a must-have tool that allows operations teams to understand their workforce costs and drive employee retention. We believe that this reflects a broader shift from field management to project management, specifically focused on the labor force or “workforce labor management.”
Materials Supply Chain
The pandemic has disrupted global supply chains and exacerbated the fragmented process of procuring materials and building parts. Construction firms have seen material delays, supply shortages, and rising shipping costs. On top of this, the burden of responsibility largely falls on subcontractors.
To illustrate this point, it is important to first understand the unique dynamics of the industry, which are shaped by contractual agreements among a hierarchy of stakeholders. Construction projects involve multiple stakeholders (owners, to developers, to general contractors, to subcontractors) and importantly, a transfer of risk and responsibility from top to bottom. This risk has only increased as projects have become larger and more complex over time, involving subcontractors who, in turn, subcontract work to other subs.
Subcontractors are responsible for ordering and paying for materials, as well as managing their materials once they arrive onsite. As a result of supply chain disruptions, materials have had to be shipped earlier and handled with care to prevent materials from being damaged, misplaced, or stolen onsite. Put simply, the mandate to procure and manage materials has become more challenging amidst tightening supply chains and interrupted project schedules.
We see a clear catalyst for materials management software that is built around the workflow of subcontractors. Materials management is largely handled on pen and paper or antiquated software that tacks on materials management as an ancillary product that is not tailored to the specific pain points of subs. Agora and StructShare stand out as solutions that are purpose-built for subs and address a gap that we see among the existing landscape: while many solutions address field management, there is a disconnect between the solutions that are purpose-built to manage the field and the solutions that are purpose-built to be used by the field. Given the increasing burden of risk that flows from owners to subs, we see the importance of software tools that have bottoms-up engagement, garnering momentum from the bottom of the value chain and expanding to the top over time.
The Construction Payment Chain
The construction payment chain refers to the flow of capital from lenders → title company → owner/developer → general contractor → subcontractors and suppliers. There are massive inefficiencies involved in the exchange of both information and capital, beginning with the construction loan draw process and ending with subcontractors receiving earned payments.
Perhaps the most overlooked, but critical aspect of the payment chain is that financial strain impacts all stakeholders because the financial burdens absorbed by subcontractors in turn drive higher costs for developers and lenders. Why?
Subcontractors must pay wages on a weekly or biweekly basis and materials are purchased on 30-day invoice terms. However, the majority of subcontractors are forced to wait more than 30 days to receive payments from the general contractor. As a result, subcontractors turn to a variety of sources of financing, including lines of credit, credit cards, and retirement savings to fund their working capital needs. Thus, delayed payments from general contractors actually increase financing costs for subcontractors, and increased financing costs drive up total project costs for developers and lenders. In fact, a survey conducted by Rabbet found that this extra cost of floating payments adds an average of 4.5% to total project costs, representing $61Bn in excess cost that is passed through to developers.
As it stands today, several tech platforms are creating purpose-built tools for lenders or purpose-built tools for subcontractors. Built Technologies and Rabbet offer cloud-based SaaS for lenders and developers, streamlining the draw and inspection process. At the other end of the payment chain, a number of startups serve subcontractors, suppliers, and GCs — offering supply chain financing or facilitating speedier, digital payments. Both approaches are critical in closing the gaps in the construction payments cycle.
In addition to these purpose-built platforms, there is an opportunity for horizontally integrated platforms that integrate all stakeholders and provide value across the ecosystem. Platforms such as Vertical focus on document collection and compliance management, and ultimately address a core bottleneck in construction payments: compliance issues stemming from incorrect and manually processed construction documentation. Inviting all participants onto the platform to manage documentation enhances transparency and reduces risk, allowing a more efficient flow of both data and capital from lenders → owners/developers → general contractors → subcontractors, and suppliers.
Conclusion
Looking ahead, there is a seismic opportunity to increase productivity growth in the construction industry and meaningfully impact the supply side of real estate. Workforce management, materials supply chain, and the payment value chain are just 3 key areas that are critical to driving growth by 1) breaking down silos in data, 2) providing purpose-built tools for key stakeholders, and 3) eliminating inefficiencies in the fragmented value chain. We all share in the responsibility of staying on top of the most important needs of the market today and in the future. Now is the time to build and invest.
If you are building in the construction technology space or working to solve some of the major pain points in the construction industry, I’d love to chat! I am always reachable at lauren@thomvest.com. | https://blog.thomvest.com/construction-technology-market-map-3-opportunities-ahead-5aa659c1203c | ['Lauren Weston'] | 2021-03-24 16:34:38.185000+00:00 | ['Construction', 'Venture Capital', 'Construction Technology', 'Real Estate Tech', 'Proptech'] |
2,140 | What on earth are smart contracts? | Probably you already know what a (traditional) contract is, right? Let’s remember it, anyway. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a contract is “a binding agreement between two or more persons or parties, especially one legally enforceable”. Well then, what is the first thing that comes to your mind when we say “smart contracts”?
Is the document on a tablet, maybe? Is it now a robot? An AI, behind a computer? It’s just… connected to the Internet? Not exactly. If you check other sources (like the ol’ reliable Wikipedia), they’ll say something like a smart contract is a “digital protocol” or “computer program” that executes its predetermined conditions automatically when these are fulfilled.
Nice, eh…? And what on earth that mean? Well, we can explain it this way: a smart contract isn’t something you can touch or even properly see. Mostly, you’ll only see the results, much like with the wires inside your TV. The difference is this time those results are completely digital because is a digital agreement based on a blockchain, written with computational code to enforce the previous conditions agreed by the parties. You can think of it as an automatic contract or warranty, that doesn’t need any paper, lawyer, notary, or middlemen in general.
So… how smart contracts work for your average guy?
The short answer is with digital apps or tools. If you don’t know how to write code (like developers or computer engineers), you won’t be in charge to create them, so, don’t worry. Leave that task to the experts. To use them, you’ll just need to pick a smart-contract-based app (usually decentralized apps) or platform and go with it on your device (mobile or desktop).
We can talk a bit about the internal workings of a smart contract, though. First of all, let’s check an image to show you how they look inside. Spoiler: it’s kind of boring. It’s just a bunch of code.
We also can check their data on a blockchain explorer (an accessible webpage), if it’s public, of course. The banks are developing their own applications with smart contracts, so, those aren’t public. But we can check, for example, an average contract on Ethereum.
We discover here an important thing about smart contracts. Besides code, they’re made of transactions and a monetary balance. However, this doesn’t mean the one and only use for them must be financial: the transactions can represent just information as well. As for the balance, the truth is, decentralized smart contracts require some fees to work (usually in form of cryptocurrencies), destined to the miners or validators of the blockchain.
The process is like…
Inside Ethereum, for example, a contract is just another kind of address (wallet/account), with balance and transactions. But is a kind of collective address, designed to work as a bridge between two or more parties, with preset conditions. Therefore, this address isn’t controlled just by one user, but by its own previously agreed terms, enforced by the entire Ethereum network.
The trigger for this address to do something (like automatically transact money) is an event expected by the parties. It could be a sale, a payment date, a record of something, a new product online, a price change, a poll, or even the sports results.
The contract reaches for the information provided about it by the parties involved or by an “oracle” (a software that consults external sources), and acts in consequence, following its preset conditions.
To sum it up, this is the process:
1. The parties negotiate the terms of the contract (or the company/developer make them public for everyone who wants to join).
2. The developer builds the protocol inside a selected blockchain ( Ethereum, EOS, Tron, Cardano, RSK, etc.), using the agreed terms.
3. The contract and its terms are represented inside an address of such blockchain.
4. The event happens.
5. The contract makes the transactions according to the result of said event.
Alice and Bob used smart contracts
Of course, we need a classic example with Alice and Bob. Let’s say Alice is going to bet $500 with Bob about the Bitcoin price for the next weekend. Bob thinks it will be up to X dollars, while Alice thinks it will be down X dollars.
So, they decide to build a smart contract (appealing to a developer or a platform-as-a-service) and set their conditions. The funds ($500) will be deposited in cryptocurrency to the contract, and if the price of Bitcoin is going up X for the next weekend, the contract will automatically transact the funds to Bob. If the price of Bitcoin is going down X, the funds will go to Alice’s address. And that’s it.
Now, another situation, this time involving some Internet of Things (IoT). Alice wants to rent her house to Bob, and she has the advantage of an installed smart lock, controlled digitally to open and close the door. So, they build a smart contract and set these terms: Bob will pay X dollars in crypto monthly.
If he fails to do so for two months, the contract will order the smart lock to keep the door (and the access to the house) closed. This way, Alice assures to duly receive the agreed figure, and Bob doesn’t need to gather any more documents or requisites for Alice.
And well, it’s a type of contract, after all. The imagination is the limit.
Some popular uses for smart contracts
There are already hundreds of smart-contract-based apps, with a lot of categories and functions. Exchanges, gambling, games, investment, real estate, healthcare, marketplaces, polls… they all work with smart contracts.
Maybe some of these Dapps (that aren’t per se smart contracts, but work with them), can ring a bell to you. CryptoKitties (collectibles), Uniswap (exchange), Aragon (governance), District0x (marketplaces and communities), Augur (prediction market), Synthetix (for synthetic assets), Axie Infinity (games), Grid+ (energy) and Actifit (health) are only examples. According to The State of the Dapps, there are over 2,500 of them.
And you know what else works with these contracts? The whole Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem, a boom these days. We can find there a lot of investment tools (for yield farming, mostly), loans, insurance, savings, and more. Platforms like Yearn Finance, Compound, UMA, Maker, Curve, and Pickle Finance belong to this category.
Beyond this, banks and companies like BBVA, Bankia, Sabadell, CaixaBank, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Ernst & Young, S7 Airlines, BitGive, Money on Chain, and OneSmart City are either testing smart contracts to improve their services or using them already in different applications. So, as you can see, we’re already full of these contracts. | https://medium.com/@alfacash/what-on-earth-are-smart-contracts-an-easy-guide-ae3f40d10546 | [] | 2020-12-10 06:23:35.368000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Smart Contracts', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Dapps'] |
2,141 | 10 Essential Jupyter Notebook Extensions for Data Scientists | spellchecker
Also simple, yet useful, is the spellchecker. This extension is especially useful if you are sharing your notebook, pushing it to GitHub, or displaying it to stakeholders. You will want to make sure you have correctly spelled your words in your markdown cells. You will not see misspelled words show up in your displayed markdown, but only in your edit. This feature is beneficial so that if you do have some words that you disagree on with the spellchecker, like Jupyter Notebook (is not actually Jupiter Notebook), you can still display it without a distracting, red, highlighted text.
Spellcheck example. Screenshot by Author [9].
Code Font Size
If you want to change the code font size, this extension allows you to do that. When sharing and collaborating, especially sharing your screen, this feature can prove to be beneficial so that your code is easier to view.
datestamper
This extension allows you to paste your current date and time into your cell. I recommend saving it as a markdown so that the formatting does not run as code with hard-to-see formatting. If you want to keep track of when you started a process that involved different cells and functions, this extension can be useful (on top of the popular tqdm library).
Scratchpad
This extension is incredibly useful. You can use your scratchpad as seen below, by selection Ctrl-B on your keyboard. You can modify the current code that can work off the same kernel as well. It is also useful for viewing side-by-side code and comments if you need to compare them within your notebook.
Scratchpad example. Screenshot by Author [10].
Skip-Traceback
This unique extension allows you to ignore some of the duplicate or long error messages you see in your Jupyter Notebook cells. It works similarly to the Collapsible Headings and Codefolding. In the screenshot below, you can see how the main part of the error is still there on the right, but reduces the duplicate error information that can sometimes cause a headache and overwhelm you from fixing that same error. | https://towardsdatascience.com/10-essential-jupyter-notebook-extensions-for-data-scientists-86b68ec7a66e | ['Matt Przybyla'] | 2020-09-24 23:49:53.259000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Technology', 'Education', 'Towards Data Science', 'Data Science'] |
2,142 | Project Review: Edenchain (EDN) | Token Sale and Economics
Key Metrics
Token Name : EDN
: EDN Token Type : ERC-20
: ERC-20 Token Sale Date : 25.05.2018
: 25.05.2018 Token Sale Price : 10,250 EDN / 1 ETH
: 10,250 EDN / 1 ETH Amount Raised : $24,000,000
: $24,000,000 Circulating Supply: 400,000,000 (40%)
Token Supply Distribution
Public Sale: 40%
40% Team & Advisors : 18% (locked until Sep 2019) → etherscan.io
: 18% (locked until Sep 2019) → etherscan.io Strategic Partners : 15%
: 15% Accelerator Program : 12% → etherscan.io
: 12% → etherscan.io Foundation : 10% → etherscan.io
: 10% → etherscan.io Bounty & Marketing: 5%
EDN Token Ecosystem
At the moment EDN is an ERC-20 token, it will be swapped for native Edenchain coins as soon as the mainnet goes live. EDN is used as the fuel for applications on top of Edenchain (like e.g. ETH on Ethereum).
EDN Token Distribution
Source: Edenchain Blog
Use of Funds
Usage of the $24m raised during the initial coin offering:
Development : 50%
: 50% Marketing, Community, Security, Legal, Operation: 10% each
Usage of the remaining project tokens:
Team & Advisors: Incentivisation of the team and it’s advisors
Incentivisation of the team and it’s advisors Accelerator Program: Encourage adoption of the platform (most likely to fund projects building on top of Edenchain)
Encourage adoption of the platform (most likely to fund projects building on top of Edenchain) Foundation: Future exchange listings, marketing campaigns or other relevant expenses
EDN Token Release Schedule
Edenchain planned to vest tokens from Strategic Partners, Marketing & Bounty for 6 months. But they changed their plans and decided to unlock all those tokens on the 5 Dec which increased the circulating supply by ~20%.
EDN Token Holder Concentration
The Top 10 holders collectively own 559,024,465 (55.9%) of the total token supply. There is a total of 5284 wallets holding EDN.
Source: etherscan.io
EDN Token Overview & Use Cases
Current Token Utility: EDN is currently structured as a utility token. At the moment is has no use case due to the fact that the token is still an ERC-20 placeholder token.
Future Token Utility: EDN will be the fuel for the Edenchain ecosystem. EDN will be required to provide various services (B2B, B2C and C2C):
Masternodes: Once the mainnet goes live there will be two different types of nodes: Supernodes and Hypernodes. Both require to stake a certain amount of tokens in order to secure the network.
Source: Edenchain Blog
Service Providers: A service provider must deposit a certain amount of tokens in order to be able to use the Edenchain platform. The deposit is mainly used for security purposes.
A service provider must deposit a certain amount of tokens in order to be able to use the Edenchain platform. The deposit is mainly used for security purposes. Consumers: A consumer has to pay various kind of fees using EDN when using the Edenchain ecosystem. Most probably the token could also be used for in-dApp payments later on.
Financial Situation
Eden raised $24m in their ICO at the end of May 2018 when ETH was around $600. If they held on all of those coins the $24m would now be worth around $4m. It’s hard to say how much ETH they raised in comparison to fiat and how much they liquidated at which prices or if they liquidated anything at all.
However, after doing some research it seems Edenchain is well funded and not having any kind of funding issues.
Conclusion
Edenchain completed their ICO during the market rally in May 2018. The sale was sold out within minutes and way over-subscribed. It seems they have clever fund management in place, so most likely they are very well equipped for the upcoming months and years to deliver on their platform.
It’s unclear how many of the remaining project tokens (EDN) are really locked. Apart from Team & Advisor tokens, the team says that also Accelerator Program and Foundation tokens are locked. But e.g. a part of the Foundation tokens was used to pay for previous exchange listings — which suggests that they are not really locked. Different coin websites are also not sure about that. CoinMarketCap and CoinPaprika e.g. show a circulating supply of 819,992,054 EDN (only Team & Advisor tokens count as locked) versus CoinGecko showing 622,177,166 EDN (Team & Advisor, Accelerator Program and Foundation tokens count as locked). The team claims the number on CoinGecko is the right one.
Another thing to point out: Looking at all the EDN holders, the tokens is very well distributed and the Top 10 are only holding 55.9% of the total supply, this number is usually a lot higher. | https://medium.com/block42-blockchain-company/project-review-edenchain-edn-5c3d8c9f4534 | ['Christian Lanz'] | 2018-12-22 16:51:21.907000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Money', 'Investing', 'Technology'] |
2,143 | What’s your addiction? Exploring the humanity and science behind a stigmatised topic | What’s the link between ‘Cheers’ and alcohol-related deaths?
Will technology scale addiction services, or create new addictions? Photo by Clayton Robbins on Unsplash
One of my favourite public health case studies is the ‘Designated Driver’ project by Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health. Whilst the idea of a designated driver seems commonplace now, this wasn’t always the case. A concerted effort between major television networks, Government agencies and advocate groups birthed a ‘new social norm’. With an estimated $100m in donated airtime, shows like ‘Cheers,’ ‘L.A. Law,’ and ‘The Cosby Show’ began to insert prevention messaging into storylines, with some shows going further to see characters lost to drunk drivers. Even major FMCG companies get in on the act today, with designated drivers receiving free Coke and other soft drinks for their efforts. So what does this have to do with addiction? As we’ll discuss in today’s article, addiction is a combination of biological processes and understanding individuals’ wider contexts (including social norms) and vulnerabilities across society.
Next week 👉 It’s not just you: community psychology and the social determinants of health
If you just landed here — this article is part of a ten-part series providing bite-sized expert insights on mental health topics (from world-class speakers via Zinc) and my thoughts on the role tech can play in addressing these themes (part of my day job at Kamet). All smart ideas come from the speakers and my peers — all poor phrasings and misunderstandings are my own.
What you’ll learn from this article 🧠
This week’s speaker was Robert West, Emeritus Professor of Health Psychology. The big ideas were around defining and understanding addiction, and public health measures to tackle addiction. Our discussion focused on the role of society in tackling addictions and the line between obsession and addiction. Technology thoughts include the role of digital support for addictions and whether we’re addicted to tech.
The big ideas 💡
Although addiction is a socially defined construct, in public health it is a disorder. Addiction happens because of the way in which behaviours and conditions act on our animal brains. It involves repeated strong motivation to engage in a given behaviour (i.e. not just a result of withdrawals), learned through experience, with actual or potential harmful consequences. Addiction-related processes are often rational: people risking their lives to inject opiates are not making an irrational decision if they feel this is more important than living, or those addicted to alcohol may feel the costs are worth the benefits of anxiety relief / mental escape. So it’s important to look at an individuals’ wider circumstances and life. Addictive substances also impact our brain-reward pathway in a number of ways (e.g. incentive sensitisation, reward-seeking, emotional attachment to addictive substances). It involves both classical conditioning (repeated pairing of cues + effects leading to anticipatory reactions) and operant conditioning (positive / negative reinforcement associated with cues, provoking a strong impulse to engage)
Tackling addiction traditionally requires both demand and supply side factors. On the supply side, there are options to restrict / prohibit supply (however this comes at a huge cost to those addicted, and there is a trend toward moving away from this approach), ways to increase the cost (e.g. taxes on alcohol and smoking), restricting or prohibiting marketing and controlling product features. On the demand side, options include changing social norms, providing treatment, creating media campaigns (especially for illicit substances) and finally, building societal resilience. Addiction doesn’t occur in a vacuum — it exists in a situation where people have vulnerabilities, and there is more we can do from an early age to boost resilience.
Discussion points 🗪
What is the link between addiction and societal structures? Addiction is closely linked to life circumstance: factors like poverty, poor parenting and abuse, adverse living conditions, addictive behaviours among a peer group and lack of opportunities for fulfilment. Social influence is big, and things can spiral when a drug itself impairs control — impacting how we make plans, evaluate things, our wants, needs and ability to exercise inhibitions. When working with the supporters of people who have addictions, it’s important to take a ‘systems thinking’ approach as you’re dealing with family dynamics, wider community networks and individual challenges. You can’t engage everyone, but you can work with some and try to strengthen support networks.
Is obsession the same as addiction? One question asked in our discussion was whether expertise and the ‘10,000 hours’ required for mastery is a pathology or puts you at risk for addiction? One difference is that compulsion is often about short-term immediate gratification whereas obsession is usually linked with a long-term goal. Biologically, these result in different types of dopamine release, where those working toward a long-term goal feel a sense of satisfaction whereas those with an addiction disorder are learning a stimulus impulse association.
Technology thoughts 💻
How successful are digital interventions for addiction? Apps such as Smoke Free, Drink Less and Quit Genius have been paving the way for scalable digital support for addiction, delivering strong results. The gold standard remains a combination of face-to-face therapy + medication, but this isn’t scalable. Engagement is key, and having a strong understanding of the science as well as design principles is important. An interesting insight from DrinkLess highlights the importance of social norms — whilst overall alcohol consumption is falling, there remain sub-populations where groups of people drink more. Therefore people define the ‘average’ amount to drink based on their peers and are likely to over-estimate how much others drink.
Are we addicted to tech? There are an increasing number of papers looking into issues related to internet / phone use. It’s not the ‘internet’ we’re addicted to but specific elements that harness and dive into our brain chemistry. For example, a browser extension found most people spent 80% of their time online on only two websites. This is especially true for online gambling which has had catastrophic impacts on individuals. Public health professionals are mixed on their response to online addictions: compared to other areas the health impact may seem lower, but there is still a mental health toll and opportunity cost associated with how we’re using our time.
Reading list 📚
Speaker bio 🔈 | https://medium.com/@ushmabaros/whats-your-addiction-exploring-the-humanity-and-science-behind-a-stigmatised-topic-6d3c6dae09f7 | ['Ushma Baros'] | 2021-02-16 20:16:49.447000+00:00 | ['Addiction', 'Technology', 'Recovery', 'Mental Health', 'Healthcare'] |
2,144 | ‘Why Can’t I Focus On Them?’ | ‘Why Can’t I Focus On Them?’
It’s an annual consideration the four of us talk about every Christmas…why can’t our eyes focus on the ‘blue ones’?
Since the days of carefully undoing massive ball of glass NOMAs, like Clark Griswold, so not to easily smash them are (mostly) a memory to most households.
The LED Christmas light craze came on scene in 1998/1999.
They boasted a longer lifespan, plastic light coverings which meant almost no breakage, they didn’t fade in colour if left in place all year, less energy was used in their operation and they were smaller in size so took up less room in storage.
A great deal!
I remember one year when I first saw a tree, like the one in the photo, fully decorated with blue LED lights.
A single blue bulb, here and there, amidst the rest of the colours on a strand, I had never paid attention to the fact that I couldn’t focus on the blue ones. Until, that is, that first monochromatic cobalt tree came along.
Thinking at first that my eyes were just tired or getting old (which didn’t make sense because I had 20/20 vision), I soon realized no matter how hard I tried to focus on those blue LED lights, it wasn’t happening.
Well, it just so it happens to be that, “our eyes can easily focus on fine details in red or green light. But our retinas can’thandle blue light very well. Blue light scatters more widely within the eye and tends to be focused in front of the retina, making it appear slightly out of focus.”-assemblymag.com
Interesting.
So if you felt like you were the only one that ‘couldn’t focus on the blue ones’… you are in good company! and happy light-seeing this holiday season.
As a side note: Here’s an interesting history of the Christmas light for those interested: https://www.christmasdesigners.com/blog/from-edison-to-led-the-complete-history-of-christmas-lights/
Enjoy.
-Becky | https://medium.com/@beckyboughton/why-cant-i-focus-on-them-74330c27fe4b | ['Becky Boughton'] | 2020-12-05 18:11:29.659000+00:00 | ['Light', 'Body', 'Christmas', 'Humour', 'Technology'] |
2,145 | Meet the CoProcure Team: Joe Huang | We’re excited to welcome Joe Huang to CoProcure! Joe is passionate about the intersection of technology and government. Previously, he worked at an urban data startup (his geospatial analysis of zoning in American cities was featured in the NYTimes) and with the Metro Government of Nashville and Davidson County. He’s an Oregon native and a proud Vanderbilt University graduate.
We asked Joe about himself and the experiences that brought him to CoProcure:
What led you to CoProcure?
From a young age, I discovered an enthusiasm for civics. In high school, I volunteered for my county’s Democratic Party. In college, I worked on a campaign promoting better transportation in Nashville. Later, I interned in the Nashville Mayor’s Office. Meanwhile, I’d been tinkering with computers since childhood, and I learned to derive an unusual amount of satisfaction from a hard session of debugging.
My political experiences convinced me that my software engineering skills were highly needed, so I’ve prioritized career opportunities that allow me to connect government and technology. While there are many govtech opportunities out there, I knew I wanted to join CoProcure when I met the team. During the interview process, they provided me with the most comprehensive FAQ I’ve ever read. From that document, and the overall interview process, I could tell that the people at CoProcure were passionate, diligent, and highly collaborative, and I wanted to be a part!
Who’s one person you admire, and why?
I really admire my university rowing coach Jon Miller. At the point that I met him, he was already a father of two, a high ranking executive at his day job, and a well-respected coach in the rowing community — and he was just in his early 30s! He could be harsh — the entire rowing team once had to do wall sits because I showed up late — but he was always fair. He constantly pushed me past what I thought were my limits. And he set an example: he held annual contests to row against him for an hour. No one ever beat him.
What’s a goal you have for the year ahead?
I want to be more multilingual. I’m working towards fluency in Esperanto. For those that don’t know: it’s a language that was created in the late 1800s for the specific purpose of uniting people across countries and cultures. It’s an intentionally easy language to learn. Beyond Esperanto, I’m also hoping to learn Scots, since it’s the most similar language to English.
What’s unexpected about you?
I like cold, windy beaches. They are less crowded and I enjoy the way overcast light scatters in seawater. I’ve spent quite a few Sundays netting crab from a Peninsula pier. | https://medium.com/coprocure/meet-the-coprocure-team-joe-huang-e390fc430353 | ['Mariel Reed'] | 2020-04-06 17:40:48.700000+00:00 | ['Team', 'Technology', 'Govtech', 'Startup', 'Careers'] |
2,146 | Clean the Freaking Kitchen 👨🍳 — Student’s Life Used to Explain Blockchain 🔗 | Hello All 👋,
I often struggle to explain what the heck is this blockchain thing. Is it a currency? Is it Bitcoin? Is it a computer program? Or many? How is this useful at all? Those are some of the questions I get. No worries, the concept of blockchain is very simple. A blockchain is:
In 🇵🇹 — escala de trabalho. I’m not sure, but I think the English term is “Work Spreadsheet”. If not, well, new concept. A work spreadsheet is a document saying who needs to do what and when. The idea is that everyone knows what everyone needs to do and when — so if work has not been done, people know who to talk to.
I’ll give you a very practical example. In my apartment, we have a kitchen — a kitchen we share among 5 people. Sometimes, one of us pretends to play the impostor game and manages to get it really dirty:
You see, this is a problem — nobody wants to cook on a disgusting floor. So we discovered that we could use blockchain to solve this problem:
Yes, a paper blockchain. You see, this work spreadsheet is really similar to a blockchain. A blockchain is a system that:
Is immutable ✅ nobody can delete checkmarks because we use ink Is transparent ✅ you enter the house — BAM — you see this paper. It is there, carefully attached to the wall with tape for everyone to see. Resistant to malicious actors ✅ — because actions are validated You can’t say you did not do something you did ✅ this is called non-repudiability — and in practice, this can be possible if we sign our checkmarks with our signature. We don’t do this, but you can see each checkmark has its own style — and we have no incentives to mess around with each others’ tasks (do we? 🤔) Is auditable ✅ this is a consequence of transparency and non-repudiability. All these properties allow us, as a community, to decide what is considered acceptable behavior and what it is not. This way, we achieve a common goal (clean house). And this works even if we have different incentives. For example, each one might want to spend as least time as possible cleaning, but would prefer the others to clean very well).
How is the paper blockchain resistant to malicious actors? let us now suppose that Rafael, on the 2nd of November claimed that he clean “WC G”, which stands for the big bathroom, while in fact, he did not. This is a malicious actor trying to “cheat the system”. Fortunately, we imply a convenient way of dealing with this. If people go to the bathroom and verify that it is in fact, not clean — then a cross is put on my checkmark, and I would have to clean it away.
That is what a blockchain is, in fact. But instead of using paper, it uses computer programs and cryptography, automating this process.
If you have a situation that:
Requires a global source of information (work spreadsheet) Has several participants who do not totally (or at all) trust each other No sensitive information is written
Then you start to have reasons to use a blockchain. A nice list that can shed some light:
If you think carefully, there are a lot of situations where we do not completely trust others.
How are our taxes being managed?
How is my money being managed by the bank (is it really my money)?
Are the Portuguese Justice systems transparent about who access its information?
How is the grading process behind university courses? How can I know the quality of a course and its teaching staff?
Where is the package I’ve ordered from Amazon? The post office said I’ve received the delivery, created a delivery guide, but I didn’t receive my package. I contacted them, and they told the seller to open a dispute with them. Why? What happened?
This last one happened recently — and I feel it is very little to no transparency and, thus, accountability. As you can see, there are lots of different use cases. I believe blockchain will thrive as a decentralizing technology.
Key Takeaways
Blockchain is about transparency, and thus accountability Participants must agree on what is the goal, as a community — blockchain powers self-managed communities Blockchain ≠ cryptocurrencies. Again, blockchain is not a cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are typically enabled by blockchains, but that’s it.
Cheers ✌️,
–rafael | https://medium.com/coinmonks/clean-the-freaking-kitchen-students-life-used-to-explain-blockchain-d90be2cf99f7 | ['Rafael Belchior'] | 2020-12-28 14:41:38.782000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Blockchain', 'Blockchain Technology'] |
2,147 | Is “Google Translate” Homophobic? | How Google and Twitter Erased My Boyfriend
Isla Mujeres, off the coast of Cancún. Author photo.
A couple of months ago, on a vacation in Mexico, I met the man of my dreams. I’ll call him Diego. We bonded instantly, laughed often, enjoyed each other’s company, and pledged to each other our eternal love.
Picture it: there we were, dancing the first of our forever dances, “ ‘neath that tropic, kaleidoscopical sky,” as Ira Gershwin wrote, about a similar beach.
But, um, okay, maybe it wasn’t quite that romantic.
It was only a two-week resort romance, after all. Well, not even that: more like a resort flirtation.
So, calm down, mom; don’t send the wedding invitations just yet.
If Diego and I didn’t actually pledge our eternal love that week, we did promise to keep in touch. So began our WhatsApp and Twitter odyssey.
Our private Twitter accounts allowed us to send self-consciously silly, cute messages to one another.
Messages like:
Me, to him: My friend said I wouldn’t meet anybody in Cancún. I told her Mex-I-Can!
Him, to me: You have a friend in me. You ARE a friend in me.
Usually, Diego sent his texts and tweets to me in English, since his English is much better than my Spanish. But sometimes we changed things up: I’d tweet him in Spanish, hoping I got all the words right, without sounding too formal.
Even in Mexico, we’d tried, often humorously, to flirt in the other’s native language.
I began calling him Day, exaggeratedly drawing out the first letter of his name, D, as it’s pronounced in Spanish.
He began calling me Bee, the English pronunciation of the first letter of my name, Brian.
In texts and tweets, we were D and B.
I started encouraging D to send me his texts and tweets in Spanish, so he did, sometimes.
As in the tweet which read:
Espero que B esté pasando una buena noche y extrañe a su novio
Confession: when D sent me a WhatsApp message in Spanish, I sometimes had to use one of two underutilized tools — my brain or my old college English-Spanish dictionary — to figure out what he was saying.
Twitter, though, at least the iPhone Twitter app I use, has a handy little translate button right there below any tweet that might need translating. (My Facebook app has this, too, and often automatically translates my last name — Fehler — to its German meaning: mistake. So much for keeping that secret.)
When I received D’s Esperos text, late at night, I clicked Translate this Tweet, and peered at the bright screen in my dark room. This is the translation Twitter gave me:
I hope that B is having a good night and missing her boyfriend
Her boyfriend.
I didn’t think too much about it then. I was sleepy and ready for bed, so I just sent a reply in the form of a string of heart-eye emojis.
I seriously send an excessive amount of heart-eye emojis for a man of my age.
The next day, I looked back at the tweet’s translation. It started to bother me.
I messaged D about the translation. He gave me a little good-natured, much deserved, crap for using the translate button at all.
But he sent other messages of a similar grammatical construction, just as a test.
He tried this:
Brian está esperando a su novio
Twitter — powered by Google Translate — rendered it this way, in English:
Brian is waiting for her boyfriend.
Again, her boyfriend.
D tweeted another test, the same sentence, this time changing Brian to a more common name in Spanish, Mateo.
Mateo está esperando a su novio
Twitter/Google Translate recognized the usually-male name of Mateo, translated it to Matthew, but still, it came out this way:
Matthew is waiting for her boyfriend.
Her boyfriend.
There’s reason, to be sure, for confusion. The pronoun su in Spanish can be either her or his in English.
But still: Twitter/Google Translate, even with all the various usually-male names we tried (Pedro, Roberto, Miguel) assumed the correct English pronoun for su was her.
Because, according to Google Translate, since novio is boyfriend, the su in question must be her.
Not his.
Because, again according to Google Translate, a boy would not have a boyfriend. Any su that does have a boyfriend must be a she.
Over coffee, I told one of my best friends about the problem.
How did she reply? “But Diego isn’t even your boyfriend, Brian.”
“That’s not the point!” I said, too loud in the quiet café.
She shook her head, facing her own phone, tapping her own Twitter, not too concerned about mine. “Nobody’s your boyfriend, if we’re being honest.”
I mean: harsh.
I mean, also: true.
“But that’s seriously not the point!” None of my friends or not-boyfriends have ever met a point they couldn’t just completely dull by indifference or irony.
So I drew her attention from her own Twitter to my private one (which, yes, she ridiculed me for having). Faced with the evidence, she came around to my side.
“You should write to Google,” she said. At last.
I hadn’t thought of that. I will. (And I’ll post any updates here, as they come.)
I’ll write to Google because words matter. Language choices matter. Translations matter. Translations are not mechanical; they represent values, ideologies, politics.
Examples abound. From Emily Wilson’s recent (2018) translation of the Odyssey, which does not shy away, as earlier English translations had done, from making readers feel uncomfortable about the existence of slavery in ancient Greece, to Gloria’s Anzaldúa’s important words, in her classic Borderlands/La Frontera (1987; several ensuing editions): “So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language.”
Translations, as Wilson shows, as Anzaldúa shows, can reveal, or obscure, the complexities of slavery in ancient Greece, can reveal, or obscure, the Chicans experience in the US.
Translations can be, as Anzaldúa has it, a light, luz en lo oscuro.
Or translations can erase.
Translations can erase Brian’s boyfriend, Mateo’s boyfriend, by assuming that no Brian or Mateo would have a boyfriend in the first place. Google Translate tells us Brian or Mateo must have a novia, not a novio, a girlfriend, not a boyfriend. Brian’s su would be a woman, surely, not a man.
True, as my friend pointed out, this particular Brian doesn’t have a boyfriend. According to Google Translate, no Brian, anywhere, ever would. | https://medium.com/swlh/is-google-translate-homophobic-8a4feb2e6273 | ['Brian Fehler'] | 2019-07-05 07:28:10.106000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Travel', 'Google', 'LGBTQ', 'Language'] |
2,148 | Digital Marketing Transformation Trends Every CMO Should Be Ready For In 2017 | Enterprises must analyze and use huge amounts of data in their marketing efforts.
According to Ian Michiels, former CEO of Gleanster Research, most CMOs indicated that mobile, social media and the web are their usual marketing channels. However, they also stated that using these channels is a manual and disconnected process.
All of this is complicated by the fact that consumer preferences are constantly changing, meaning that enterprises must constantly look for an accurate and personalized approach to their target audience.
Effective enterprise marketing can be achieved only with the introduction of the latest technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.
If CMOs do not adapt their businesses to suit modern realities, they will not achieve an efficient and measurable marketing approach. In a world of big money and tough competition, one cannot afford to be left behind.
CMOs of the biggest corporations need to quickly change their marketing processes, and this includes looking at digital marketing transformation.
According to statistics from the report “The 2016 State of Digital Transformation”, CMOs spearhead transformation efforts, leading the process 34% of the time, while the figure for CIOs and CTOs 19%.
What Is Digital Marketing Transformation?
Source: pixabay.com
Digital transformation is a fairly broad concept, and even experts have varying opinions.
Brian Solis, Principal Analyst at Altimeter Group, defines digital transformation as “the realignment of, or new investment in, technology and business models to more effectively engage digital customers at every touchpoint in the customer experience lifecycle.”
In essence, this means adapting entire enterprises to modern digital realities. This affects the most diverse aspects of business, from product to finance and marketing.
“For many organizations, digital marketing transformation is about catching up with the reality of today’s customers, marketing, and business,” says Erwin Jansen, Co-founder of These Days.
There are several reasons why top managers carry out transformation.
According to the “2016 State of Digital Transformation” report, 55% of people responsible for digital transformation in their companies consider the core reason for the process to be “evolving customer behaviors and preferences.”
However, “the number one challenge facing executives (71%) is understanding behavior or impact of the new customer.”
We see that many executives believe that digital transformation leads to improvement of provider-customer relations. They also think that it helps to predict new clients’ behavior.
Why Is It Important to Know the Latest Digital Marketing Transformation Trends?
First, it is important to understand that digital marketing transformation is itself a trend.
Tim Howell, a writer and digital marketing strategist, states: “Transformation continues to be both the biggest buzzword and the biggest trend that any industry will face right now.”
Many enterprises are currently engaged in the process of digital transformation. Corporations that delay it will find it very difficult to defeat their competitors.
“Marketers need to transform their businesses, as their competitors are having the same conversation,” adds Tim Howell.
Knowledge of the latest innovations in transformation will permit businesses to adapt to modern market realities.
“Knowing the trends, you’ll be able to consistently create exceptional customer experiences, along with transparency, agility, and accountability at all levels,” says Paul Roetzer, founder and CEO of PR 20/20.
This will allow expanding the company’s area of influence within the market, bringing undeniable benefits to the enterprise itself.
The latest Altimeter Group’s report confirms that 41% of leaders surveyed said they’ve witnessed an increase in market share due to digital transformation efforts. In addition, 37% cite a positive impact on employee morale.
Main Trends That Drive Digital Marketing Transformation
Big Data
The McKinsey Global Institute’s report says that data volume is growing 40% per year. This means that between 2009 and 2020 it will grow 44x.
Source: pexels.com
Big Data is having an increased impact on inner organizational processes and its role is also growing. Working with and analyzing Big Data will be very important in 2017.
Oracle believes that “when big data is distilled and analyzed in combination with traditional enterprise data, enterprises can develop a more thorough and insightful understanding of their business, which can lead to enhanced productivity, a stronger competitive position and greater innovation.”
Daniel Newman, Principal Analyst of Futurum Research, says that measurement plays a critical role. In 2017, Big Data will be essential to understanding how your business operates; all important decisions should be based strictly on data and analytics.
Big Data is necessary not only for successful competition, but also for rapid identification of users’ preferences, which becomes extremely important, for example, if the enterprise wants to improve its presence in social media.
As it is said in CMO’s Guide to Big Data & Social Media by Magic Logix, “The potential for companies to collect data and actionable business intelligence from social media is enormous. The smartest of these companies are already learning how to harness this potential in their respective industries.”
Microsoft believes that companies that base their insights on data can improve customer engagement and differentiate their businesses.
“Processing Big Data efficiently and understanding the meaning of it will be key in the digitalization of companies in the next few years,” concludes Asier Sarasua, Chief Marketing Officer at MainTool.
The Internet of Things
According to “IDC’s 2016 Global IoT Decision Maker Survey”, 31.4% of organizations surveyed have launched IoT solutions, with an additional 43% looking to deploy in the next 12 months. Furthermore, 55% of respondents see IoT as important to their business competitiveness.
Rolls-Royce asserts that due to IoT technology, they can now focus on working on end solutions and delivering real value to customers, rather than on managing infrastructure.
Another consideration when it comes to IoT is that wearable computers are becoming more and more common.
Source: pixabay.com
IoT can help collect raw data from devices and track their performance. Company executives can use the data to create personalized user experiences and improve the device’s functionality.
This is especially important for enterprises that create wearables or provide software for them.
Daniel Newman considers that the Internet of Things drives digital transformation. IoT helps to create more efficient cities and leaner enterprises. He also adds that, “with an estimated 50 billion IoT Sensors by 2020 and more than 200 billion “Things” on the Internet by 2030, it is no question that the IoT will be not only transformative, but disruptive to business models.”
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Andrew Johns, founder of Larkswood Digital, says that, “Virtual (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) will transform the workplace and open up exciting new ways to deliver products and services to customers. It will help immerse users into their surroundings and allow them to appreciate the scale of things.”
Both of these technologies are especially useful for retail enterprises.
They allow customers to examine and even “touch” the product before purchasing. For example, people can remotely measure clothes and shoes so they can make purchases more confidently.
The Sampler app allows “measuring” Converse shoes before purchasing (source: streething.com)
Augmented reality platforms such as Google’s Tango, allow the creation of a very realistic and innovative shopping experience, and will have a big impact on marketing.
The opportunities created by augmented and virtual realities change the very essence of interaction between customers and service providers.
Some experts predict that by 2017 these technologies will go from supplementing marketing strategy to essential considerations.
Enterprises can also incorporate these technologies into their inner processes. For example, training can be improved by using a training augmented reality device that walks new employees through a task step by step with the help of a virtual assistant. Staff can also make colorful presentations in a virtual environment to present to customers.
Artificial Intelligence
Stacy DeBroff, CEO and founder of Influence Central, predicts that “2017 will be the year when we will look more to artificial intelligence (AI) to lend a helping hand.”
AI is already well-established and can provide a variety of benefits.
Machine learning technology uses different algorithms that allow dealing with data efficiently. Unlike data mining, it doesn’t require human analysis, but rather can make conclusions based on collected information. AI can help to automate and optimize marketing processes.
Source: pexels.com
Enterprise executives are also putting a lot of attention into chatbots. Such giants as Microsoft sometimes experiment with this technology.
Jesus Rodriguez, a technology expert and executive investor, states that, “Chatbots can be considered the apps of voice interfaces. In the near future, we should expect enterprises to adopt chatbot platforms in the same way they are currently embracing mobile and IoT platforms.”
However, while it has great potential, enterprises should be careful when it comes to the implementation of AI technology. Even the best can have problems with it.
A hilarious article from The Verge describes how Microsoft’s Tay chatbot went mad and began to offend Twitter users.
It was assumed that Tay would talk to people and learn new words and sentences from them. But troublemakers couldn’t resist tinkering with Tay, teaching the bot rude language, which Tay began to use in conversations with other Twitter users.
Conclusion
Digital marketing transformation is becoming very important in 2017, with many enterprises incorporating it into their marketing processes. To keep up with competitors, CMOs should start adapting their businesses to these new realities, beginning with staying abreast of the latest digital transformation trends.
Here is the summary of the principle ideas from our article, which may be helpful for executives responsible for transformation within their corporations: | https://medium.com/digital-vault/digital-marketing-transformation-trends-every-cmo-should-be-ready-for-in-2017-761de6678857 | ['Hassan Bawab'] | 2017-08-07 18:47:51.207000+00:00 | ['Innovation', 'Trends', 'Marketing Strategies', 'Marketing Technology', 'Digital Transformation'] |
2,149 | Why Blockchain is Not the Answer | There’s a persistent myth that blockchain tech is brand new and that if only given enough time, somebody will make something that’s useful for something other than money. This is what I call the “blockchain, not Bitcoin” syndrome and in this article, I’m going to dispel the myth that uses for blockchain are just around the corner, that they’re going to add decentralization to all the things, and that it’s some revolutionary new tech.
The concept is about as bankrupt as the company whose logo which this imitates. (credit: phneep)
Blockchain not Bitcoin is 5 years old already
Corporate obsession with blockchain started in 2014, shortly after Bitcoin got on their radar. Instead of paying attention to the revolutionary, innovative, decentralized and digitally-scarce money that is Bitcoin, they instead took a concepts from the software and called it “blockchain”.
Multiple industry groups were found at this time, like Hyperledger and R3 as well as companies like Digital Asset Holdings that tried to create a market around this tech.
What they had in common was the use of the word blockchain as a panacea for a bunch of problems in all sorts of industries. In typical corporate fashion, they took the word “blockchain” and bastardized it to mean whatever they wanted it to mean.
Ignorance meets hype
The life that the word “blockchain” took on around 2015 was incredible. Tons of people, especially people that weren’t technical, often with only a vague sense of how Bitcoin worked, were saying things like “I believe in the technology, but I don’t believe in Bitcoin”. This was apparently the “consensus” response for business-types that wanted to seem like they were current on the technology.
You can understand why for two reasons. First, Bitcoin’s reputation from 2011 to 2015 or so, and to some degree today, was unsavory. Bitcoin was associated with activities like buying drugs, paying for an ad on backpage or even being an anarcho-capitalist/libertarian/Ron Paul crazy. Second, by praising the technology, an executive could appear to be on the leading edge of something that’s too technical for others to question effectively.
In other words, endorsing “blockchain” and not Bitcoin gave many business-types the appearance of expertise and knowledge about the topic without all the unsavory connotations associated with Bitcoin at the time. What’s clear from the subsequent actions is that they had no idea what blockchain was and seeded the consequences of their own ignorance.
Their ignorance led to mediocre engineers with very little understanding of incentive systems, game theory or even public key cryptography to masquerade as blockchain experts. These “experts” bamboozled business-types into believing that the solution to the biggest problem for a particular industry could be built with a blockchain, some developers and some money. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Before the full fledged “blockchain, not Bitcoin” syndrome caught fire, plenty of fuel in the form of hype preceded it.
Blockchain: the Panacea for All Ills
This pretense of knowledge led to books like The Blockchain Revolution, which promised fixes to pretty much every sector in the economy while giving just enough tantalizing technical concepts in vague enough terms that many executives felt the adolescent fear of missing out on the new technical trend of “blockchain technology”.
To be fair, many were taken in by promises of solutions to real problems for their industry. For health care, “blockchain” would somehow make patient history available to care providers at exactly the right time without violating patient privacy. For law, “blockchain” would somehow create perfectly fair contracts without the need for expensive lawyers. For supply chains, “blockchain” would somehow prove whose fault it was that some parts were substandard or that not enough parts were delivered. For art, music and TV, “blockchain” would somehow reward the creators what they were due while combating piracy and taking out the middle men. For online ads, “blockchain” would somehow make tracking accurate, reduce fraud and take out the many different middle men that collectively take a large portion of the profit. We could go on and on and on about the impossibly difficult problems that “blockchain” supposedly would solve.
It’s not a coincidence that these promises correspond to giant problems in each industry. Blockchain became a blank canvas onto which any problem could be painted as being solvable. Literally hundreds of startups and industry consortiums, many using ICOs, promised to solve the biggest inefficiencies in every industry using “blockchain”.
Many of these startups were created by veterans of a given industry who thought that the only missing piece was developers to write the blockchain system that would solve everything. They reasoned that they had the expertise to know what the problems were and that getting a few blockchain experts would be all that would be needed to make their industry so much better and create tremendous profit for themselves.
The Reality of Blockchain
This would work if only these developers could deliver on what the industry veterans wanted! How hard could it be to make a flawless, auditable, decentralized, encrypted database that execute terabytes of smart contracts quickly and efficiently using oracles that check each other using zero-knowledge proofs? Surely a few lines of code in Solidity could create a scalable, provably correct, maintainable system that would solve the biggest pain points of industry X, right? Well, no.
No, because no such explanations exist
Blockchain became a meaningless buzzword that meant “solving the biggest challenge in industry X” using fancy jargon to convince people that the challenge could be met. The reality was far different. What most of these startups discovered is that blockchain is not a panacea. They ran head first into problems that we’ve known for a long time like the oracle problem, or the consensus problem, or the analyzability of Turing-complete contracts, or the free rider problem. It turns out blockchain, far from being a panacea is actually a hindrance to creating these solutions because of the requirement, at least nominally, of decentralization.
To make matters worse, the developers tasked with creating these systems were often completely ignorant about user and node incentives and possible exploits in an adversarial environment.
The Utter Failure
The results of such shenanigans are sadly predictable. When you promise more than you can deliver with mediocre talent in a technology that few people understand, you’re not going to be able to deliver much. Most of these efforts have accomplished nothing. The few that created proof-of-concepts have not progressed to full-fledged products. The few products that have launched have very little traction (less than 2000 users per day is considered a complete failure for an app or website).
Despite all this, ICOs touting decentralized blockchains for industry X, enterprise blockchain efforts to optimize Y and even public blockchains for some service Z continue to be touted as the future. Several different arguments generally come up when this discrepancy between promises and results are pointed out.
How can you be sure nothing will come out of blockchain technology other than Bitcoin?
It’s true, it only takes one counterexample to disprove my thesis that blockchain is really only useful for sound money. However, without bastardizing the word blockchain, the essence of what blockchains provide is decentralized, authoritative, expensive to alter data. This is not a surprise as these properties are exactly what you want for sound money like Bitcoin.
Unfortunately, what non-monetary projects generally need, given that it’s software for an industry that’s regulated, changing and growing, is a centralized, upgradeable and scalable system. Each need is made greatly more difficult when combining with a blockchain. In other words, blockchain is the wrong tool for the job.
Even if by some miracle a popular app is created on a blockchain, a centralized equivalent without the extraneous blockchain will be cheaper, faster, more reliable, more maintainable while having the exact same single points of failure as the “decentralized” blockchain-y version. Or put another way, any popular dApp is destined to lose against a centralized competitor on cost, speed, features and scale.
So many people are working on this! Something has to come out of it.
Lots of people working on something doesn’t mean desires magically turn into reality (see: alchemy, cold fusion, flying cars, etc).
That’s even overstating the point. Flying cars are at least possible. What most of these projects are working on are square circles or perpetual motion machines: decentralized services that have centralized control, that is, logical impossibilities.
I can hear my critics now, “Jimmy is against experimentation, entrepreneurship and trying new things!” This is a classic bait and switch tactic. Experimentation is fine to start. Pouring more money into failed experiments is just putting good money after bad. These “blockchain” experiments have a history of being futile and have little basis in reality. They are wastes of capital and human effort and don’t lead to any useful goods or services. All they do is allow charlatans to rent-seek.
Lots of money has gone into it! Someone is going to come up with something!
Certain engineering challenges are simply not a matter of funding, they are a matter of innovation. What’s worse, when a company is handcuffed by being required to use a particularly cumbersome technology like blockchain, there’s even less chance of anything coming out of it. This is the classic error of a solution looking for a problem. And no, more money won’t magically find you a profitable market problem for which a blockchain happens to be the most optimal solution.
Conclusion
“Blockchain, not Bitcoin” is not a new idea. The past five years have produced nothing with this so-called “blockchain” technology and we’re unlikely to see anything in the next five. The only thing that blockchain seems to be good at is promising to fix the biggest problems while delivering very little and consuming tremendous capital.
Blockchain is a solution looking for a problem. Too many people have been taken in by “blockchain” and pretend to see clothes on a naked emperor. The imaginary clothes may seem like perfect solutions to the biggest problems of their industry. Unfortunately, wishful thinking is not reality.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the emperor has no clothes. Blockchain without Bitcoin is a big nothing burger. | https://jimmysong.medium.com/why-blockchain-is-not-the-answer-3b7d5f612d11 | ['Jimmy Song'] | 2019-11-15 20:06:50.679000+00:00 | ['ICO', 'Technology', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Economics'] |
2,150 | BLOCKCHAIN’S POTENTIAL FOR SOCIAL IMPACT WITH DR. JANE THOMASON | Dr. Jane Thomason on the Speaking of Crypto podcast
Dr. Jane Thomason Episode 026
“A lot of people think of blockchain and all they think about is Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and then they immediately, their minds go to the dark web, and money laundering and so forth, but what I wanted to do was put a message out to the world which is, yes, there’s Bitcoin. That’s an important application of blockchain. But, there are all these other ways that it could be used that will actually make the world a better place to live in, so why don’t we push hard, lean in, and try and shape this technology to see if we can’t get those future benefits that people talk about.”
Dr. Jane Thomason, Digital Transformation at ABT Associates and Blockchain Advisor
I got a chance to speak with Dr. Jane Thomason remotely while she was judging the EOS hackathon in Sydney, Australia recently. Dr. Thomason is a blockchain advisor, hackathon judge, experienced CEO and a women’s advocate who was awarded the UN DecadeOfWomen Quantum Impact Champion Award this year. https://www.decadeofwomen.org/hackquantum/
With her global experience both in business and in international development and now the world of blockchain technology, Dr. Thomason sees the world from a birds-eye view, with an ability to zoom out and look at the far-reaching potential of blockchain tech from a wider perspective.
And what she’s seeing right now is that we have a lot of “disconnected ecosystems”, a bit like the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, and that what she believes will help speed up the growth in the space would be for more collaboration, education, co-creation or to use a term she’s coined — hyper-co-collaboration.
We discuss some exciting blockchain use cases and where blockchain’s potential lies in the area of social impact.
Identity, financial transactions like remittances and voting are use cases that Dr. Thomason sees as having a huge impact on changing the status quo. In fact she gives an example of in Australia of the cost being over $200,000 per vote, whereas with blockchain tech, the cost would be around 50 cents per vote and mentions Horizon State’s token-based blockchain voting platform. https://horizonstate.com/ And speaking of voting reforms, Dr. Thomason shares that there is political party in Australia called The Flux Party, which is a Blockchain Political Party. https://voteflux.org/
Dr. Thomason would like to see more accelerator programs and more social impact funds. She talks about the incredible ideas that come out of the hackathon events, but that there’s a gap. There isn’t yet enough support or funding for these ideas to become full-fledged startups or for startups to be profitable ventures and commercialized applications out in the world once the hackathon is over.
One incredible use case she talks about it one that touches the areas of digital identity, medical records and supply chains all attached to one person’s activities.
She uses the example of a long-distance truck driver in Africa who may travel through six different countries. If he’s HIV positive, currently, he wouldn’t be able to get medication in just any country, and his antiretroviral medication helps to stop the spread of HIV. But with blockchain, his identification could be on a blockchain, as well as his medical records and the supply chain information so that wherever he goes, he has access all of these records. What if blockchain really could bring all of these areas together? Well, it can, but what will the world look like when it is put in place?
What does the future look like if all of the facets of our lives could be digital, transparent but private, and immutable?
She talks about education and empowerment and diving into blockchain to find out more and she shares her big a-ha moment with me when she recalls the time after the banda aceh tsunami hit Indonesia. Dr. Thomason was there on the ground during the reconstruction and she explained that at the time there were no records, so although 200 people lost their lives, there was no way to track who they were, what their medical records were, or whether the donor money that came in was going to the right people. She realized that if the blockchain tech were around then that everything around the rehabilitation and reconstruction would have been so much easier. And that’s what got her really thinking about what kind of impact blockchain tech could have on a global impact scale.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/04/pictures/120412-indonesia-tsunami-earthquake-science-world/
Dr. Jane Thomason
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-jane-thomason-85997276/
Digital Transformation Abt Associates
https://www.abtassociates.com/what-we-do/capabilities/digital-transformations | https://medium.com/speaking-of-crypto/026-blockchains-potential-for-social-impact-with-dr-jane-thomason-b04e39534c14 | ['Shannon Grinnell'] | 2018-11-11 21:06:29.474000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Identity', 'Blockchain For Impact', 'Blockchain Technology'] |
2,151 | On the road to the Future of Work and Entrepreneurship | Professor Roberto Acevado, a Professor of Physics with over 40 years as an educator in Chile does two interviews with Dean Rolle on the Future of Work and Entrepreneurship and Effective Teaching and learning.
In the first video, Dean Rolle explains her background from the World Bank to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania Housing Bank, to the US Federal Government, IBM, and a career in academic administration. A first-generation college student, Dean Rolle explains how she believes education changes lives. Disappointments, challenges, and rewards are discussed in the process of delivering education hopes and dreams that lift one out of poverty. She sees her role as a collector of thought leaders to work on the tough questions of wealth disparity globally. Working with a team to develop job creators around the world.
Professor Roberto Acevado interviews Dean Rolle
Work continues across the world on responding to the remote environment. Another theme and presentation are addressed in improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning. | https://medium.com/@jdrolle/on-the-road-to-the-future-of-work-and-entrepreneurship-c8bd43e1090b | ['Joann Rolle'] | 2020-12-21 05:06:30.692000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Learning', 'Future Of Work', 'Teaching And Learning', 'Future Technology'] |
2,152 | Blue bacteriophage | Image by NextGenRnD: https://nextgenrnd.com/insights/insight-no-1/
Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that infect bacteria. Phage research led to ground-breaking discoveries illuminating how genetic information is stored, transferred, controlled (lysogeny), and protected (restriction and CRISPR/Cas systems). Restriction enzymes made genetic engineering possible, whereas phage display technology allowed the development of target-specific antibody medicines. Phages and technologies such as phage display have an enormous potential that has not yet been fully realized in medicine, diagnostics, and materials science/engineering.
In this insight, we would like to ask a very simple question — what is the color of the phage? This question sparked our attention when we came across several papers published from 1967 through 1970 mentioning the blue phage band. Since then, the mysterious blue band of phage had been spoken about in some publications but had never been demonstrated.
To see the blue phage band, researchers used a method called equilibrium sedimentation in density gradients introduced in 1957 and fully developed in 1963. In particular, a transparent tube is filled with 4–7 layers of cesium chloride (CsCl) solutions atop each other (typically, using Pasteur pipettes). The bottom layer has the highest density, whereas the top layer has the lowest density of CsCl. In this way, a discontinuous CsCl step density gradient is formed. Then, a sample containing phage is layered on top of this gradient, the tube is placed into a metal bucket, which is attached to a swinging-bucket rotor, which is spun for 1 hour in an ultracentrifuge at a speed of 40,000 revolutions per minute roughly corresponding to a relative centrifugal force of 200,000 g. As a result, the phage particles migrate toward the bottom of the tube and concentrate to form a band in the CsCl layer with a density equal to the (buoyant) density of the phage particles. Hence, the equilibrium sedimentation is achieved.
The photograph shows the result of such an equilibrium sedimentation experiment. Indeed, the phage particles are seen as a blue band. There are actually two blue bands. The lower, major one, contains at least 10¹³ infectious phage particles. The faint blue band seen above is not infectious as the capsids of the phages with this particular buoyant density are devoid of genetic material (they are empty). Finally, there is a thick pale white layer of cellular debris.
We have just demonstrated that the phage band is blue. This, however, begs two other questions related to the phage band: (1) why is it bright? and (2) why is it blue?…
Read the story in full here: https://nextgenrnd.com/insights/insight-no-1/ | https://medium.com/@nextgenrnd/blue-bacteriophage-b9b2f62aa64 | ['Andrei Nikonov'] | 2020-12-05 10:21:12.780000+00:00 | ['Biotechnology', 'Short Story', 'Technology', 'Science', 'Virus'] |
2,153 | BLOCKCAP PLANS TO HAVE 50K BITCOIN MINERS OPERATIONAL BY 2023 | BLOCKCAP PLANS TO HAVE 50K BITCOIN MINERS OPERATIONAL BY 2023
Executive chair and founder Darin Feinstein said the firm plans to make the U.S. a global leader in making blockchain technology mainstream.
One of the largest crypto mining firms in North America said that it has acquired an additional 8,000 rigs and has begun mining other cryptocurrencies.
In an announcement from Blockcap on Monday, the mining firm said it planned to have more than 50,000 mining rigs online by the end of 2022. Blockcap now controls more than 12,000 mining rigs, generating more than 6.6 Bitcoin (BTC) daily — roughly $380,000 at the time of publication. The firm added that it was accelerating its move to mine other cryptocurrencies including Ether (ETH).
According to the firm, the addition of the ETH mining rigs in operation would account for 1.229 terahashes per second, or roughly 0.21% of that of the Ethereum network. The more than 50,000 Bitcoin miners, when fully operational, are projected to control roughly 2% of BTC’s current combined hash rate.
“Blockcap’s growth strategy is focused on bringing various peer-to-peer digital assets directly to the people who will utilize them to improve their lives,” said Blockcap executive chair and founder Darin Feinstein. “We strive to contribute to the critical infrastructure necessary for mass adoption of these digital asset technologies so people can participate more fully in the global financial system.”
Both Blockcap and Riot Blockchain — two of the largest crypto mining operations in the United States — have announced plans to set up shop in Texas for their corporate offices and their mining facilities, respectively. Blockcap raised more than $75 million in two funding rounds led by Off The Chain Capital and Foundry Digital. | https://medium.com/blockcap/blockcap-plans-to-have-50k-bitcoin-miners-operational-by-2023-ebf89e664ebc | [] | 2021-06-18 17:37:47.517000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain', 'Technology', 'Mining'] |
2,154 | Imagery update: Explore your favorite places in Google Earth | By Christiaan Adams, Developer Relations, Google Earth & Earth Outreach
You often ask us about the age of our 3D and satellite imagery, and how often the map is updated. The short answer is, we’re updating the imagery you see in Google Earth and Google Maps all the time — but starting today here on Medium, we’ll be sharing periodic highlights of what’s new.
New 3D: Paris, Amsterdam, London and New York City
This year alone, we’ve added new high-resolution 3D imagery for more than 100 cities and metro areas — that covers almost 46 million people! Start in the coastal capital city of Lisbon, Portugal. Then head over to the eastern half of Nassau, The Bahamas, with its beautiful beaches. And finally, explore the natural harbor of Nagasaki, Japan.
Our 3D updates often include refreshes to existing cities with better, sharper imagery. Four recent updates we’re particularly excited about: New York City, London, Paris and Amsterdam. Like all cities, these four are constantly changing, so you can imagine keeping our 3D up to date in dynamic places like these can be tricky! Be sure to check out downtown Manhattan, where a lot of new construction is now reflected in the imagery:
New satellite imagery: PyeongChang, Mecca and Bangkok
Since the new year, we’ve added enough satellite imagery to cover more than 888 million people across the planet. We often plan those updates around major world events, including last month’s Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Keep an eye out for more imagery updates in June when the World Cup kicks off in Russia.
Satellites capture images at different resolutions. Landsat, for example, images huge areas at a relatively low resolution of 30 meters — great for viewing large areas like the Amazon. Recently, we’ve been adding very high-resolution 30-centimeter images, captured by our friends at DigitalGlobe. Check it out now in places like Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, just in time for Ramadan.
Behind the scenes
With Google Earth, we’re aiming to build the most photorealistic, digital version of our planet. We’re often asked how we do it. Where do the images come from? And how do you take those images and build that seamless globe? Here’s a helpful video we released last year, digging into the pixels and people that create Google Earth:
More highlights
Recently updated 3D imagery
Austria: Dornbirn, Klagenfurt; Bucharest, Romania
Canada: Moncton, Saint John, Sault Ste. Marie
France: Annecy, Bordeaux, Frejus, Monaco Ville, Valence
Germany: Berlin, Essen, Rosenheim, Stuttgart, Wilhelms
Greece: Heraklion
Italy: Bassano Del Grappa, Caserta, Cesena, Cosenza, Imola, Lecco, Messina, Ravenna, Reggio di Calabria, Reggio nell’Emilia, Savona, Udine
Japan: Asahikawa, Fuji, Fukuyama, Hakodate, Hanamaki, Kirishima, Miyazu, Natori, Ueda, Yamaguchi
Lisbon, Portugal
Nassau, The Bahamas
Netherlands: Almere, Amersfoort, Arnhem, Breda, Hengelo, Leeuwarden, Maastricht, Middelburg, Tilburg, Utrecht, Venlo
Pilsen, Czech Republic
Poland: Bydgoszcz, Częstochowa, Kalisz, Koszalin, Krakow, Lodz, Malbork, Rzeszów, Szczecin, Wroclaw, Zielona Góra
San Juan, Argentina
San Marino, San Marino
Spain: Avila, Cordoba, Lleida, Ourense, Santiago de Compostela, Toledo
Sweden: Lund, Stockholm, Uppsala, Västerås
Tunis, Tunisia
United Kingdom: Belfast, Bristol, Cambridge, Coventry, Glasgow, Manchester, Oxford, Southend-on-Sea, Stonehenge
USA: Ames, Bel Air, Corpus Christi, Elgin, Fenwick Island, Green Bay, Iowa City, Joliet, Monroe, Richland, Sandusky, Saratoga Springs, Williamsburg, Wisconsin Dells, York
Zurich, Switzerland
Recently updated Satellite imagery | https://medium.com/google-earth/imagery-update-explore-your-favorite-places-in-google-earth-5da3b28e4807 | ['Google Earth'] | 2018-04-12 19:44:02.136000+00:00 | ['3d', 'Google Maps', 'Satellite Imagery', 'Google Earth', 'Satellite Technology'] |
2,155 | Why COVID-19 Didn’t Cause Another Massive Economic Recession | The rapid spread of the Coronavirus and the ensuing lockdown, caused a dramatic drop in consumer mobility and economic activity however, most industries saw their prices return to pre-pandemic levels within a few short months. How did this international catastrophe that is actively disrupting all of our personal lives NOT cause an economic disruption of equal magnitude?
You might argue that it did cause such an economic disruption and I’d agree with you… if you had been exclusively talking about the Crude Oil & Gasoline Industry (see Figure 1 below). Otherwise, markets recovered remarkably quickly. The COVID-19 outbreak has taught us two distinct and noteworthy lessons which I will be expanding on further below: (1) wealth disparities across the world andes pecially in America are expanding, and (2) health emergencies disproportionately affect low-income communities.
Rampant and increasing wealth inequality continues to hurt the middle and lower classes, amplified by the effects of the pandemic
Humans are incredibly adaptive creatures — most major operational functions of business have already adapted to the restrictions created by the pandemic.
Figure 1: Max Drawdown of Various Industry Indices
How Did the Economy Recover So Quickly?
The US unemployment rate is still high at 6.9% in October¹, novel coronavirus cases are hitting all-time highs, and cities all across the country are shutting down to prevent the spread. So what gives? Despite the grim picture painted by statistics, the economy appears to continue on an unerring trajectory upward (Figure 2 = major market indices graph). The answer to this question, while it does perhaps instill us with some confidence in the health of the United States economy, it also shines a light on a disheartening truth that most of us are all-too-familiar with. I’m talking, of course, about wealth distribution and inequality.
“Wealth inequality in the United States is high and has increased sharply in recent decades. This increase — alongside a parallel increase in income inequality — has spurred increased attention to the implications of inequality for living standards” — Leiserson et. al
Another Reminder of Wealth Inequality
The wealthiest 1% of families in the United States hold 40% of all wealth while the bottom 90% hold less than a quarter of all wealth². While nearly 23 million Americans are out of work and hundreds of thousands are getting sick, the vast majority of these Americans belong to bottom 90% of the population. Poor communities, most notably those composed of ethnic and racial minorities, have been disproportionately affected by the COVID pandemic. Latinx and Black communities continue to take the brunt of the negative financial impact of the pandemic and are more likely to suffer adverse health effects from the virus³. Although the US and global economy is a complicated beast with many intricacies that most could not even feign to wholly grasp, Occam’s Razor reminds us to not ignore the simple data staring us in the face: the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
Figure 2: Market Performance since outbreak
The economy continues to advance as the poor masses suffer because their success is only a tiny component of the overall success of the economy. The economy ‘cares’ in proportion to the amount of money you contribute. Poor people, by definition, although comprising the majority of the population, comprise very little of the total wealth held. The sad fact is that a country’s economy (specifically the United States) is no longer an indicator of its people’s overall well-being. As wealth disparities increase and wealth distribution becomes even more intensely skewed, this fact will become more and more apparent — even more apparent than it has become over the course of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Humans and their knack for Adaptation
Masks, cohorts, quarantines, prescheduling are the status quo now. And that’s amazing. We’ve all realized that all these things are essential elements to the COVID curve-flattening roadmap. Of course, humans are creatures of habit first so these changes were abrupt and discomforting at first but it’s amazing to see how we as a global society have been able to adapt our lifelong habits to survive in a post-outbreak world. Most businesses have returned to work or are working online, schools have done the same, and people are generally going about their regular lives — save for the masks and hand sanitizer on your hip. I have some reservations about how our government dealt with the whole process however that is another can of worms.
How was this recession different than the 2008 GFC?
The 2008 Global Finance Crisis, by stark comparison, was such a crippling blow to the economy because (well, for a lot of reasons but we won’t go into it) the market that propped up the faulty AAA-rated bonds was one that the rich is and will always be significantly invested in — housing and real estate. The rest of the economy came tumbling down like house cards it had become.
While everyone in the United States — and the world- has felt the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in some capacity, no one has felt its effects greater than the poor. Meanwhile, the Bourgeoisie seem to have walked away — unscathed.
You can see the data and code used to create the graphs I used above on my Github repo:
The Silver Lining:
So a deadly virus is rampaging across the globe while the rich sit in their ivory towers, cackling and counting their spoils. What hope is there for the common man? What’s the silver lining of this grim caricature? Well, frankly you’re looking at it. Free and widespread distribution of information and education is the single most important element of the rightly-labeled information age we live in. Websites like Medium, Youtube, Reddit, Github, while some of them are oft referred to as leisure sites that provide a recreational respite, they serve a much more useful purpose: education and motivation. This pandemic may be separating us and pushing us back into our homes, but the internet provides us a medium to connect with each other and gives us tools to create a better future for ourselves and our children. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/why-covid-19-didnt-cause-another-massive-economic-recession-3692302971be | ['Graham Sahagian'] | 2020-12-23 17:48:13.627000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Economics', 'Business', 'Politics', 'Covid 19'] |
2,156 | To Office or Not To Office | To Office or Not To Office
As Covid is slowly retreating in some countries many of us lucky enough to have been working remotely will be perhaps able return to the office, most likely under some flexible or hybrid arrangements. Should we though? Or should we just stay working from home?
Here’s 10 reasons to stay at home, and 10 reasons to get back to that office.
10 reasons to stay working at home
More family time. I spent 11 years working full time in a previous company that didn’t allow any working from home. I left each day about 7:40am and got back about 6:20pm, so I saw my wife and young kids for a few hours each day and at weekends. Suddenly with Covid I’ve had so much more quality time with them, and we’ve all benefited. No commute — saving time and money. I’ve been saving about 2.5 hours a day and probably a couple of grand a year in train tickets. Healthier food. Let’s be honest, working in the office = McDonalds Tuesday, Thursday, Friday … I’ve been trying at home to vary my lunches, though they do sometime end up like this:
4. Less micro-management — remote working has led to workers getting more autonomy, even just by the fact their managers aren’t sitting in a desk in the corner looking over at them all day.
Which has of course raised the question … do we really need all those managers in the first place?
5. Performance based on performance, not being present in the office. It’s hard to judge someone’s performance mainly on their being present in the office, or coming in early and staying late, when there is no office. Instead, performance has to be now judged on … actual performance.
6. More comfortable place to work. My awesome company let us buy home ‘office equipment’ so of course I bought the largest bean bag I could find …
7. Easier to change job in a remote first world. Employers are realising that all of a sudden they can hire people that don’t live close to their offices — which is win-win for companies and employees, and should theoretically lead to more choices to change jobs more often.
8. Flexibility — the traditional 9 to 5 is out the window, and the “work whichever hours during the day suits you, as long as the work gets done” is in.
9. More inclusive teams and meetings — maybe. This one really depends on what’s going on in your own company, but I’ve seen more efforts to include people in meetings now that we’re all remote, whereas in the “olden days” .. . of last year before Covid … it was actually more likely some people wouldn’t even be asked for their opinion in in-person meetings.
10. Able to watch Loki as soon as it comes out. Have you seen episode 4?! There’s no way I’m waiting until ‘after work’ when the next ones come out.
10 reasons to get back to that office
Some of which are remarkably similar to the stay at home reasons! Which shows why none of this is simple! | https://appsandbiscuits.com/to-office-or-not-to-office-9c186976b8ec | ["Andy O'Sullivan"] | 2021-07-05 14:31:08.635000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Technology', 'Startup', 'Remote Working'] |
2,157 | 什麼是「主網映射」？聽聽工程師怎麼說 | Useful Link
Blockchain Link List
Blockchain Posts List
About me
I am a full-stack javascript developer and one of the contributors for NEO blockchain project.
Build Decentralized Application with Javascript on the top of NEO?
NEO blockchain, programming tutorials, Javascript
If you consider yourself a talent?
Cobinhood Careers
歡迎加入我們的中文官方 Telegram、官方社區 | https://medium.com/cobinhood-%E4%B8%AD%E6%96%87%E5%A0%B1/%E4%B8%BB%E7%B6%B2%E5%88%87%E6%8F%9B-%E4%BE%86%E8%81%BD%E8%81%BD%E5%B7%A5%E7%A8%8B%E5%B8%AB%E6%80%8E%E9%BA%BC%E8%AA%AA-604bafd9ea49 | [] | 2018-06-24 02:40:24.626000+00:00 | ['Cobinhood', 'Ethereum', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Blockchain', 'Smart Contracts'] |
2,158 | Kickstart your Data Science Career — Panel Discussion | We discussed different topics around data science and how can early professionals get started with their careers. We touched on both technical and non-technical aspects of Data Science and tech. The discussion with each speaker introducing themselves and talking about their experiences. The following questions and quotations highlight parts of our conversation.
What does your usual day look like working in Data Science?
Abeer started “I work with different industries where they come with different business problems, and what I do is try to map how data science can help like building dashboards”.
Gabriela “We are developing tools for developers, we are working with data that is open to the world.. Our day-to-day work is creating tools that make AI more accessible to everybody and contributing to open source projects such as PyTorch, pandas, apache-spark... As a manager, I try to be with my team during code reviews”
Jatin said that his day starts with meeting with clients, working with the team on deciding the tasks and which problems to solve, and at the end of the day, they would meet the clients again to review the solutions.
What advice do you have for early professionals and those who are transitioning from academia to the industry?
Sabine said that she has been building a Data Science community over the past 3 years, “There’s not a clear definition of what a data scientist is. We try to create a career path and define the roles of data scientists, they come from different flavors and backgrounds.” Also, she said “A lot of people say they have taken the training and wonder how they can get projects they can work on and gain the experience. First, look for communities, and find mind liking people, participate in competitions like Kaggle competitions and Call for Code, find the network where you can get lots of knowledge transfers.”
Jatin explained that “ Many people dive too deep into the data science role, but not focus on the business part of the role.” encouraging people to understand both technical and business aspects of data science, and then he added, “I would suggest to build your own data as well, not just participate in Kaggle competitions.”
Gabriela talked about her perspective as a Machine Learning Manager “One thing I would like to see is a portfolio, if there’s something that you do, make sure to make it available through GitHub or write a blog about it, communicate your results. What is the goal of this project, why are you using a certain technique, how can you explain something to a non-technical audience”
What does it mean to be a woman in tech? And do you have any advice for women who would like to start their careers in tech?
Gabriela expressed how joining a company where she had allies who can advocate and support her is essential.
Abeer talked about her experience when she first joined the technical sales team in Dubai, “I was the only female in the team, but my team was very supportive, and I was mentored by my colleagues there. Also, It helps a lot when you have a leader who can support and mentor you.”
Anchal mentioned that soft skills are very important, “It is something that I have learned while working at IBM where I started working with various teams, I realized that it is something important, this is where you can actually express your skills. Technical skills can be useless if you cannot express them really well with soft skills.”
Sabine leads Women In Tech in IBM MEA which she described as “Which is currently shaping on few parameters. I spoke to a lot of women and they said they need role models in tech, speaking opportunities… Having mentors and Sponsors as allies have a big impact on the career… Build your social eminence, build your brand in terms of who you are and what you are contributing.”
It was my pleasure to talk with a group of amazing and inspiring IBMers in the world of Data Science. This blog was a highlight of our conversation. To watch the entire session and listen to what our speakers got to say visit Panel Discussion — Your Data Science Career.
You can watch more replays of all sessions in the events on NLP, AI Fairness, MLOps, Data Decision Making, and Auto ML on IBM Developer Crowdcast.
You can also view the resources for the event on GitHub.
I hope you found the article and event useful to guide and inspire you to launch your Data Science Careers! I will be ending my blog with the following quotation. | https://medium.com/@masamh/kickstart-your-data-science-career-panel-discussion-749b088bc1bf | [] | 2020-12-10 10:12:59.644000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Career Advice', 'Conference', 'Technology', 'Careers'] |
2,159 | Chart.js — Fonts and Performance. We can make creating charts on a web… | Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash
We can make creating charts on a web page easy with Chart.js.
In this article, we’ll look at how to create charts with Chart.js.
Fonts
We can change the font settings by setting the options.legend.labels.fontColor properties.
For example, we can write:
Chart.defaults.global.defaultFontColor = 'red'; var ctx = document.getElementById('myChart').getContext('2d');
var myChart = new Chart(ctx, {
type: 'bar',
data: {
labels: ['Red', 'Blue', 'Yellow'],
datasets: [{
label: '# of Votes',
data: [2, 19, 3],
backgroundColor: [
'rgba(255, 99, 132, 1)',
'rgba(54, 162, 235, 1)',
'rgba(255, 206, 86, 1)',
],
borderColor: [
'rgba(255, 99, 132, 1)',
'rgba(54, 162, 235, 1)',
'rgba(255, 206, 86, 1)',
],
borderWidth: 1
}]
},
options: {
scales: {
yAxes: [{
ticks: {
beginAtZero: true
}
}]
},
legend: {
labels: {
fontColor: 'green'
}
}
}
});
to change the color globally with the Chart.defaults.global.defaultFontColor property.
And we change the legend text’s color with the options.legend.labels.fontColor property.
Rotation
We can set the minRotation and maxRotation properties to the same value to avoid charts from having to automatically determine a value to use.
Sampling
Also, we can set the ticks.sampleSize option to determine how large our labels are by looking at a subset of them to render the axes faster.
Disable Animations
We can disable animations with the animation , responsiveAnimationDuration , and hover options.
For example, we can write;
var ctx = document.getElementById('myChart').getContext('2d');
var myChart = new Chart(ctx, {
type: 'bar',
data: {
labels: ['Red', 'Blue', 'Yellow'],
datasets: [{
label: '# of Votes',
data: [2, 19, 3],
backgroundColor: [
'rgba(255, 99, 132, 1)',
'rgba(54, 162, 235, 1)',
'rgba(255, 206, 86, 1)',
],
borderColor: [
'rgba(255, 99, 132, 1)',
'rgba(54, 162, 235, 1)',
'rgba(255, 206, 86, 1)',
],
borderWidth: 1
}]
},
options: {
scales: {
yAxes: [{
ticks: {
beginAtZero: true
}
}]
},
animation: {
duration: 0
},
hover: {
animationDuration: 0
},
responsiveAnimationDuration: 0
}
});
to disable all the animations with the options property.
Disable Bezier Curves in Line Charts
We can disable bezier curves in a line charts since drawing a straight line is faster than with a bezier curve.
We can do that with:
var ctx = document.getElementById('myChart').getContext('2d');
var myChart = new Chart(ctx, {
type: 'line',
options: {
elements: {
line: {
tension: 0
}
}
},
data: {
labels: ['Red', 'Blue', 'Yellow'],
datasets: [{
label: '# of Votes',
data: [2, 19, 3],
borderColor: [
'rgba(255, 99, 132, 1)',
'rgba(54, 162, 235, 1)',
'rgba(255, 206, 86, 1)',
],
borderWidth: 1
}]
},
options: {
scales: {
yAxes: [{
ticks: {
beginAtZero: true
}
}]
}
}
});
The options.eleemnts.line.tension property disables drawing a bezier curve.
Disable Line Drawing
We can also disable lien drawing with the showLines property in the datasets or options properties.
For example, we can write:
var ctx = document.getElementById('myChart').getContext('2d');
var myChart = new Chart(ctx, {
type: 'line',
data: {
labels: ['Red', 'Blue', 'Yellow'],
datasets: [{
showLine: false,
label: '# of Votes',
data: [2, 19, 3],
borderColor: [
'rgba(255, 99, 132, 1)',
'rgba(54, 162, 235, 1)',
'rgba(255, 206, 86, 1)',
],
borderWidth: 1
}]
},
options: {
scales: {
yAxes: [{
ticks: {
beginAtZero: true
}
}]
}
}
});
to disable it for a dataset.
Conclusion
We can change the fonts with Chart.js.
Also, we can disable various animations and drawing to increase rendering performance.
Enjoyed this article? If so, get more similar content by subscribing to our YouTube channel! | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/chart-js-fonts-and-performance-df29e557a097 | ['John Au-Yeung'] | 2020-12-02 18:15:28.520000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Programming', 'Software Development', 'Web Development', 'JavaScript'] |
2,160 | Popular Pays’ content creation platform proves value to advertisers during pandemic and beyond | Popular Pays’ content creation platform proves value to advertisers during pandemic and beyond Beringea Follow Sep 24, 2020 · 3 min read
Producing a 30-second national television commercial could take $1 million, a studio full of actors, and hours of shooting and edit time. New social media platforms like TikTok could require immense research and observation by brands before launching content. Or, it could just take access to thousands of content creators in their homes, allowing brands to quickly procure both advertising and social content that’s faster-to-market, more relevant, and at a lower acquisition cost than traditional methods.
That’s the immense value proposition Chicago-based Popular Pays offers its customers, among them some of the world’s largest consumer brands. The immediate shift in behavior resulting from the pandemic in March 2020, including consumers spending more time on social media and the prohibition of mass gatherings in production studios, meant that advertisers had to quickly change the commercial production model. Popular Pays’ Aana Leech, marketing director, recalls: “Popular Pays has always thought a combination of scalable software and access to a network of content creators is the future of advertising, so I think the transition would have happened eventually. The pandemic just pushed more traditional advertisers along. They’re realizing that on Popular Pays, they can find great content that’s cheaper, faster and more scalable.”
New tools, like Popular Pays’ free TikTok Search Tool, let customers try social media networks with less risk and more access to creators. First movers can take advantage of the power of the platform, go from concept to content quickly, evaluate performance, and change course quickly if necessary. TikTok Search incorporates filters that range from number of followers (starting at 5,000), average views and average number of likes to make discovery quick and easy. Profiles that match a brand’s needs can then be saved to make future activation seamless.
Popular Pays Co-Founder and CEO Corbett Drummey says his team “wanted to give brands and agencies an easy way to discover talent on TikTok since there are so many amazing creators on their platform. The reason we’re so excited to release this tool is that it gives people a frictionless and free entry point for brands to start testing the waters.”
Popular Pays doesn’t just offer tools for digital media creation. When COVID-19 put traditional advertising shoots on hold, brands like Frito-Lay were challenged with shifting their messaging and getting production scheduled to fulfill their media buy for summer. The ad team at Frito-Lay leveraged Popular Pays’ network of creators and to successfully select and collaborate with 25 unique creator partners, supplying 118 video assets. The resulting television commercial was produced in just six weeks, or half the time it might normally take, at one-third of the typical cost compared to an average production studio.
“Since COVID-19 hit, we’ve seen a big validation of our software and creator communities’ value to major advertisers. The Frito-Lay spot was the first-ever TV commercial made remotely by our creators, and it had blockbuster results. The quality was impeccable, and ad recall and attention paid was really high,” said Leech. She expects to see more major brand advertisers take advantage of this style of ad creation during the pandemic and beyond, as Popular Pays continues to expand its platform to allow customers to connect, collaborate, and track the work with influencers and content creators one-to-one or at scale. | https://medium.com/beringea/popular-pays-content-creation-platform-proves-value-to-advertisers-during-pandemic-and-beyond-843ad0d51f45 | [] | 2020-09-28 14:05:30.633000+00:00 | ['Advertising', 'Technology', 'Content Creation'] |
2,161 | Every company will use blockchain by 2027 | Almost a decade ago, Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, silently disrupted trust-providing organizations, like banks, with an eight-page long research paper describing how money can be decentralized (through Bitcoin). At the time, not many people understood the potential that those eight pages concealed within themselves.
No, I am not talking about decentralizing money. I am referring to the decentralization itself. In those eight pages, Nakamoto didn’t just explain how we can regain control over our money — he offered a new way for strangers to safely collaborate with each other.
You might have come across people who deny the potential of blockchains and tell you not to buy into the hype. My advice: do not pay too much attention to them.
The businesses who don’t adapt to the decentralized world of the future will soon become businesses of the past.
In this article, we discuss five different ways blockchain will fit into your company in less than ten years from now. So let’s start with the basics: what is blockchain exactly?
Put simply, a blockchain is a database. It’s an ever-growing database of different kinds of data and it has quite remarkable properties:
Once data is stored in the database, it can never be modified or deleted. Every record on a blockchain is permanent for eternity. No single individual or organization maintains the database; several thousand individuals do, and everyone has a copy of the database themselves.
To understand how several people are able to keep their copies of the database in sync with everyone else’s, imagine this:
There are ten individuals in a network. Everyone is sitting with an empty folder and a blank page in front of them. Whenever anyone does something important in the network, like transferring money, they announce it to everyone in the network.
Everyone makes a note of each announcement on their page until their pages are full. When they’re full, everyone has to seal the contents of their page by solving a mathematical puzzle. Solving a mathematical puzzle verifies that everyone’s page has the same contents and ensures they can never be modified. Whoever seals their page first, gets rewarded with some amount of cryptocurrency.
Once the page is sealed, it is added to the folder. A new page is brought out and the process continues forever.
As time passes, these pages (blocks) that contain important records (transactions) are added to the folder (chain), thus forming the database (blockchain).
For the detailed version, here’s the ultimate guide to understand blockchain.
Because of its unique properties, blockchain technology can be used in many different industries, ranging from banking and accounting to the entertainment industry.
Below, we discuss five different ways blockchain will affect your company.
1) Contracts 📝
“Until the contract is signed, nothing is real.”
— Glenn Danzig
What would you call a business that isn’t “doing business?” Blockchain will have a large impact on the way organizations engage with one another. Doing business means transacting with other parties to facilitate something that wouldn’t be possible alone. In such an arrangement, the two organizations need to be sure they can trust each other.
In 2017, this trust is provided by a set of pages, or contract, that lists all the terms and conditions of engagement. When a party doesn’t adhere to the promises mentioned in the contract it can be enforced by law — but this can result in an expensive and timely process. So in many cases, going to court over a breach of contract simply isn’t worth the trouble.
Using blockchain technology, many of these contracts can be converted into Smart Contracts. Unlike conventional contracts, smart contracts consist of software code and are executed by the blockchain network. The beauty of these smart contracts is that they cannot be modified after they are deployed, which ensures neither party in a deal can walk away without doing their part.
Smart contracts, written in code on the blockchain, are contracts that are completely inalterable once they have been triggered.
Imagine you’re in a band and you want to sell your music to someone, meaning you’ll have to transfer an audio file. How can you be sure the buyer will pay for it after receiving it? At the same time, the buyer might be skeptical too, thinking you won’t send the audio file if they make the payment first. A smart contract ensures that once the buyer has transferred the money, the audio file will immediately be sent to the buyer. Once deployed, no one can stop the contract from being executed. So both parties can trust the code.
2) Payments 💸
“If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments.”
— Steven Wright
If your business requires payment transactions between countries, blockchains will come in handy as well . One of the biggest promises of blockchain is that it will replace money someday. This, of course, would entail such a radical shift that it would take years, if not decades, to happen. But right now, we can already use blockchains to transfer money across the globe within minutes, instead of days.
One of the benefits of decentralized money is that payments can be transferred directly between peers, without any intermediaries, like banks, slowing down the process. Given this, cross-border remittances will no doubt be another area of your business that will adopt blockchain.
3) Recruiting 👩🏻🚀
“We’re going to become caretakers for the robots. That’s what the next generation of work is going to be.”
— Gray Scott
Experts predict that robots will someday take over our jobs. But until that day arrives, CEO’s everywhere will still need humans running their companies.
Unlike robots, however, people do not come with trademarks or reputation badges. Which is why finding the right employees for your company can be a daunting task.
But what if such information about possible new hires became publicly available? As explored in this article, blockchains can pave the way for faster, cheaper and trustless (where you don’t have to trust another human being for authenticity) reference checks. Each person would have a trail of feedback which would be accumulated over the course of their career by past employers. This would enable new employers to quickly review this trail and decide whether this person would be the right match for the job.
Convenient enough for the new employer, but what happens if this trail contains false information? Suppose your previous boss was a hateful, horrible person — will you then be forever haunted by their negative feedback?
To make sure this doesn’t happen, the reference system should be a two-way street. This way employees can also rate their employers, and if needed, each other. A bad rating from an employer with a bad reputation in the system will have less weight than someone who’s proven trustworthy.
4) Cloud storage 💾
“Behind every cloud is another cloud.”
— Judy Garland
If you’re running a business, chances are you have company data stored in the cloud. According to a recent report by cloud services provider BCSG, a growing number of small and medium-sized companies are turning to cloud computing. Currently, 64% of small business owners have an average of three cloud solutions in place, which is expected to increase to 72% in the next three years.
Blockchains are playing a huge role in decentralizing cloud storage because they allow strangers to collaborate with each other. Instead of storing files on a single centralized server, you’ll be able to save your files on thousands of devices across the globe.
Here’s how that works: Every file you upload will be divided into several tiny chunks, and each of these chunks will be stored on several devices in the network. Which particular chunk is stored on which particular device is recorded on the blockchain. If you need to retrieve that file, the system will assemble it for you based on this information.
Your data will be even more secure in a decentralized storage than the cloud storage. While the centralized cloud storage stores your file on several backups, the decentralized storage will keep your data on an even bigger number of devices, therefore, increasing dependability.
Also, in centralized systems, the strength of the system depends on how secure one company’s servers are. Using decentralized networks, there isn’t just one device that contains the complete file, which makes it practically impossible for hackers to obtain the data.
5) Less hierarchy, better governance 👨🏻🔧
Companies will thrive in an environment where power is not limited to the hands of a few, yet this is the way organizations are often structured.
These current authority structures are the result of inefficiencies in coordinating a large crowd. Blockchain itself is not a new technology — it is just a combination of technologies that we’ve had for several decades: peer-to-peer networks and cryptography. Similarly, the solutions on top of blockchains are made up of several moving parts that work together beautifully.
Using a combination of smart contracts on top of the blockchain, communities can have a governance without a hierarchy. It’s very likely that your business will soon have next to zero bureaucracy, and all the major decisions that affect the organization as a whole might be taken through a transparent voting process that gets carried out on a blockchain.
Every proposal gets submitted in the form of a Smart Contract on which everyone can vote. If the threshold defined in the company’s constitution is met, the proposal is approved and further steps can be taken.
Blockchain is coming…
These are the few areas that your business might adopt blockchains sooner than you expect, but the possibilities are endless. There are several mental models that you can use to think of blockchains. When it comes to identifying the potential of blockchains in business, I like to think of blockchain as a method to make strangers work together. Be it your employees, or your partners, or the supply chain, or anybody else, blockchains will soon penetrate your organization in more ways than one. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/your-company-will-use-blockchain-in-less-than-10-years-heres-how-6d9da452fa8d | ['Mohit Mamoria'] | 2020-01-10 08:52:22.480000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Business', 'Blockchain', 'Ideas', 'Bitcoin'] |
2,162 | organizations and other partners to make sure people who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, | Asthe world awaits the results of COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, we need to invest now in systems to ensure equitable global vaccine delivery. Sixteen vaccine experts from the vaccine industry, academic and regulatory agencies interviewed…
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A safe and effective vaccine is a critical tool for stopping the spread of COVID-19.
While there are still things we don’t know about the COVID-19 vaccine, we do know that there is much we can do now to prepare, and we are not starting from scratch in Vermont. We will build on a strong existing primary care and medical home infrastructure, our experience with vaccine distribution in past public health crises, and valuable partnerships across the state with health care and community partners to help make sure all Vermonters have access to the vaccine.
Putting Safety First
The global push to find a vaccine for COVID-19 is unprecedented, but this urgency can not outweigh the importance of vaccine safety and efficacy. That is why we keep a close watch on the vaccine development process and put science above all else when it comes to distributing any vaccine in Vermont. Before it is given to anyone in Vermont, a vaccine must meet strict U.S. Food and Drug Administration safety standards and be recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)(link is external). All newly developed vaccines must also be monitored continuously for safety.
Identifying Priority Groups
Based on what we know now, it is likely that the initial supply of COVID-19 vaccine will be limited, and will be distributed to states in phases, with early vaccine going to certain groups of people. Those groups may include:
people who provide direct care to others (for example, health care professionals)
people who are critical to the COVID-19 response (for example, people who work at COVID-19 testing sites, people who process COVID-19 specimens at laboratories)
people who are essential to maintaining a functional society (for example, first responders)
older adults and people who have chronic illnesses and are at the highest risk for developing severe illness from COVID-19
We will look to recommendations from the National Academies(link is external) and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices(link is external), and gather input from organizations and partners across Vermont, to determine what these groups will be in Vermont.
Ensuring Equitable Access
When a COVID-19 vaccine is more widely available, we will work closely with the health care providers, pharmacies, and others who will provide the vaccine in Vermont, to ensure access across the state. We will also collaborate with community organizations and other partners to make sure people who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, including Black, Indigenous and people of color, have equitable access to the vaccine.
Sharing Information with Vermonters
We are committed to sharing ongoing updates with Vermonters as we make plans for vaccine distribution, and as we learn more about strategies at the national level. Below you will find our draft interim COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan for Vermont. For a quick look at the plan, read the executive summary.
WRITTEN BY
Follow | https://medium.com/@hadil16-c/asthe-world-awaits-the-results-of-covid-19-vaccine-clinical-trials-we-need-to-invest-now-in-3eb6cbe9fbc4 | ['Hadil C'] | 2020-11-25 19:28:24.737000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Vacation', 'Technology', 'Life', 'Sports'] |
2,163 | Liulishuo’s AI App Is Teaching English to 70 Million People | “Liulishuo is the AI English teacher on your phone. You don’t need to know how it works, yet it helps you learn English more efficiently than a human teacher,” says Yi Wang, Founder and CEO of Liulishuo — a Beijing-based “AI + language” company whose name translates as “speak fluently.” Liulishuo hosts the world’s largest speech bank of Chinese speakers speaking English.
After obtaining a PhD in computer science from Princeton, Wang worked as a product manager at Google in California. He returned to China in the early 2010s and found many of his friends asking similar questions: “How do I learn English?”; “Why is it that I pay so much money for lessons and fail to keep up?”; “Should I watch more American TV shows to learn to speak naturally?”
Wang wondered whether people might be able to learn English by speaking with their phones. At the time, AI and online education were much less developed. In 2012 Wang launched Liulishuo with Hui Lin, a Google coworker specializing in voice recognition and machine learning.
Launched six months ago, the company’s flagship app is now teaching English with personalized and adaptive methods based on deep learning to some 70 million registered users in 175 countries. It was selected as an Apple Store “Best App of the Year,” and Apple VP Philip Schiller and his team visited the company’s offices. Liulishuo is the only Chinese Education company to make the CB Insights AI 100 list.
Synced recently spoke with Liulishuo Yi Wang about his company and AI language learning.
A Liulishuo poster in the Beijing subway reads, “I’m my AI teacher’s one and only favorite student, and I’m addicted to learning English.”
How does Liulishuo apply AI to its teaching products?
Liulishuo has the world’s largest database of Chinese people speaking English. Based on the database we created a Chinese-speaking-English recognition engine with the highest accuracy and an evaluation engine which provides users with ratings and feedback.
Initially, we used speech recognition to evaluate the user’s verbal skills. Now our engine can perform a full range of verbal language assessments, and we have a separate engine that can correct writing.
We have a special function tackling the IELTS exams, which tests users on their pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and fluency. The scoring algorithms have passed the Turing Test. The variation in score between our AI and a human examiner is lower than between two human examiners. We offer users individualized suggestions to improve their English using their scores in the four areas.
We launched the world’s first AI English teacher platform in July 2016. Ten million users have already completed our ranking exam, with completion time ranging from 5 minutes to 20 minutes depending on proficiency.
After completing the exam, the system selects a starting level for each user. Users improve their English through the immersive learning of scenes from images and animations, without any subtitles or translations. They must attempt to understand the scenario, which is followed by suggested practices, which is then followed by more progressive scenarios. This back and forth is highly effective in improving the user’s English language skills.
We have the data to prove our effectiveness. ETS TOEFL testing has proven our AI teacher can improve learning efficiency by three times. For example, if it used to require 100 hours of learning to reach a certain level in the CEFR standard, we would only need about 36. Regardless of product and service, we’re the only English learning organization that publishes efficiencies of this caliber, and that really excites me.
Where did you get your first set of voice recognition data?
Before launching the product, we asked some American English speakers to record audio for us to cold start the engine. We also collected limited data from Chinese speakers audio recordings via crowdsourcing.
But since the launch of our product, our users have provided us with massive amounts of incoming data in different skill levels and accents. This data was recorded by users reading what’s displayed on their screen, and so it is also labeled. We effectively received all this data for free from users practicing their English.
Where does the evaluation engine get its standard voice data?
In order to train our model, we invited experts to label our data for us, for example for IELTS we asked IELTS examiners to label our data.
Where did Liulishuo get content like animations, short videos, and scenarios?
We have two types of content. The free content is English conversations written by professional writers, on top of User-Generated Content (UGC) and Professionally Generated Content (PGC). We also have the most active English learning community in China, and many of our short videos are contributed by these learners.
The paid content is created by our own team. We hired Philip Lance Knowles, who has previously proposed Recursive Hierarchical Recognition Theory and other breakthroughs in language learning theory based on cognitive science, as our expert consultant and created our content based on Lance’s theory. Of course, our customized learning material is different from writing a textbook, where all students learn in the same sequence.
Did you ever think of using AI to create content?
This is the general direction, and we are doing some early stage testing.
Many companies are working on translation headphones, such as those presented at the Google I/O event. As AI translation advances, will we still need to learn English in the future?
These headphones can benefit let’s say seniors traveling in another country. But I think they won’t be able to replace the language learning market. Firstly, the Ministry of Education will not remove English from the curriculum just because we have translation machines. Secondly, learning a new language isn’t just about translation, translation is just application.
Learning a new language is about learning to communicate with others, and there are cultural contexts one must also learn to understand in order to learn real communication. In the process of learning a new language, there’s a sense of accomplishment, in which the user builds confidence and challenges themselves. Thus we see the social function of language learning, as many people learn to make new friends. There are people who make friends and even find their partner on our platform. In this sense, you can’t equal language learning with translation.
We want the learning process to be customized and highly effective. To achieve these two goals, we believe that data-driven AI is the key. We’ve only taken the first step in exploring AI teachers. They aren’t intelligent enough just yet, and the learning experience has many areas that can still be optimized. We are working hard at solving these problems.
People have limited understanding of how our conscience and brain actually work. We are working with many experts in neuroscience and education, such as the Dean of Education Faculty at Stanford University and a Professor of Neurology at Yale University, in hopes of bringing in new research results. Our platform is also useful for their research because we have large amounts of user data that helps them create new learning models. We have set up an education and AI lab in the Bay Area, hoping to attract top experts in AI, education, and cognitive science, in order to help us create the most intelligent, most efficient AI English teacher in the world.
What were some turning points for Liulishuo?
The explosive growth of the mobile internet since 2012 has turned mobile device usage into the new way of life. I saw this as an immense opportunity, but I realized that if I only developed small apps focusing on weather, calendar, camera etc, it would be a challenge to make them profitable. Therefore we thought about combining the mobile internet with traditional industries. The markets must be large, with good user paying habits, and room for improving efficiency. We researched applications in finance, health, and education, finally deciding to go with education.
We set forth to create an easy-to-use product. The first week Liulishuo was available, it was recommended by the Apple Store in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, and quickly became one of their “Best Apps of the Year.” Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing soon toured our company. This shows that our product-centered strategy is being rewarded.
The second turning point was the transformation of Liulishuo from a tools App into a community App. Building a community increased user stickiness and activity and created a broad learning environment.
The third point was in 2014, when we made a strategic decision to create an educational research team, to involve education professionals from a content perspective. Before this, we were purely an internet company. We decided to put a heavy focus on the essence of education and personalization of content. If we had not made that shift, we would just be a marginalized tech company.
Were there any detours?
In 2014 we worked with a foreign company and tested two learning techniques which used word games to practice speaking. But they weren’t very successful. From a gameplay perspective, they weren’t as fun as normal games; while from a learning perspective, they weren’t very effective.
During the second half of 2014 we wanted to create a textbook product. Our first instinct was to license the best textbooks from top publishers such as Pearson, Cambridge, or Oxford. After we got to know them a bit better, we realized that these textbooks were written and designed for traditional, offline classroom scenarios and were not effective for users lounging on their couch learning with a smartphone. Therefore, we started to work on our own educational research team and spent two years developing the AI teacher. This was a strategic change, and looking back it was the right thing to do.
What trends do you see in English language learning?
We are seeing three historical opportunities. Firstly, learning is now digitized. In the past we did our homework on paper, whereas today 100% of user learning, actions, and interactions are digitized. This is a huge leap forward and the only way to make it possible to use AI. If you’re not digitized and have no structured data, it will be impossible to talk of AI, right?
Secondly, I think we’re experiencing a historic leap from teacher-centric to student-centric learning. There were many more students than teachers in the industrial era, but many students are now practicing one-on-one with a language tutor. However, this is a transition phase because the so-called “one-on-one” is still not necessarily centered around the student, as teachers may not understand the needs of the student and create suitable teaching plans.
Liulishuo’s AI teacher is not human, it is a system that relies on user interactions to make decisions. Through deep learning and other AI technologies, it selects only relevant content from a huge library and recommends it based on the student’s level. I think the pace of review and practice frequency based on an individual student’s needs, strengths and weaknesses is the ultimate student-centric learning experience.
Third, from a business perspective, we believe that we must develop a results-oriented business model to replace a process-oriented one. In a language training institution for example, if you learn for 100 hours and yet still see no improvement, the institution won’t be responsible as it has delivered its service by selling you the teacher’s time. Hence, these traditional training institutions are just wholesalers of teachers’ time. We think this situation will eventually change, and educators will get paid according to the results achieved by each student.
Our paid product works exactly this way, it does not charge based on instructional hours, but instead, provides users with a buffet. For just CN¥99 a month, users can spend as much time as they like there. A diligent student can learn at a much faster pace, absorbing all that they can. Our paid users on average spend five hours or more learning on our App each week. Who spends five hours a week learning a new skill anymore as an adult? This shows our product is really effective.
What is Liulishuo’s short-term and long-term plan?
I hope that in the next two to three years Liulishuo can assemble a leading team of researchers and product designers with full-stack development capabilities, dedicated to applying AI to education. As for long-term plans, I hope that in the next decade, we can become a global leader in education.
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Localization: Xiang Chen| Editor: Meghan Han, Michael Sarazen
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Subscribe here to get insightful tech news, reviews and analysis! | https://medium.com/syncedreview/liulishuos-ai-app-is-teaching-english-to-70-million-people-31d4fb38a799 | [] | 2018-04-26 15:57:20.024000+00:00 | ['Startups', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Technology', 'Education', 'Voice Recognition'] |
2,164 | The Case for Using Covid-19 Exposure Notification Apps | Last week, I got a text from the New York State Department of Health inviting me to use the state’s contact tracing app. It was the first time I’d received an invitation, and my first thought was: After eight months of Covid-19, you’re asking me to use it now? Today, the case count in the U.S. reached 16.9 million, and over 307,000 Americans have died. Transmission is rampant in a majority of states. If an app notified me every time I had a close brush with someone who tested positive for Covid-19, would it even make a difference in helping stop the spread?
I asked Michael Reid, MD, MPH, who’s heading up the contact tracing programs for both San Francisco and California and is an assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco specializing in infectious disease. The short answer is that it’s not known for sure whether these apps help reduce transmission in the U.S.: Not enough people have adopted them, so there’s not enough data.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GGGvSzeremetafree/
https://www.reddit.com/r/GGGvSzeremetafree/comments/kfsqh8/watch_szeremeta_vs_gg_g_live_streamsreddit/
https://usastream6.medium.com/moderna-vaccine-gets-thumbs-up-states-say-their-allotments-are-being-cut-covid-19-now-nations-1b254868e6a
https://usastream6.medium.com/us-surpasses-17m-coronavirus-cases-just-a-day-after-setting-record-death-toll-as-it-happened-4dd3616918f
https://usastream6.medium.com/modernas-vaccine-is-poised-to-roll-out-in-the-u-s-898f397c02ef
https://mhumayra792.medium.com/a-second-covid-19-vaccine-is-slated-for-approval-165ccd0947cd
https://mhumayra792.medium.com/the-next-conspiracy-theory-i-got-covid-from-the-vaccine-ae31c1258ca0
https://mhumayra792.medium.com/what-to-know-about-serious-adverse-effects-and-deaths-in-the-moderna-vaccine-data-45b3831c72a3
https://ariftokai92.medium.com/vaccine-trial-participants-randomized-to-placebo-should-get-vaccine-now-b44209cfcd8e
https://ariftokai92.medium.com/the-fda-is-expected-to-authorize-the-moderna-covid-19-vaccine-for-emergency-use-friday-7d1a400b39d0
https://ariftokai92.medium.com/do-you-want-to-see-what-covid-19-vaccination-looks-like-ec18b0990aa9
The long answer, though, suggests they may still play an important role in reducing transmission of Covid-19, especially once the country is ready to fully emerge from shutdown.
Reid began his explanation by clarifying that these apps are for “exposure notification,” not for contact tracing per se. “They function to complement existing contact tracing capabilities,” he says. “That’s a useful distinction to make so that one understands that they’re not replacing the need for human contact tracing.”
Human contact tracers — which the U.S. is woefully lacking, notes Reid — identify people who test positive for Covid-19 and interview those people to find out who they’ve had close contact with. Those people are then notified about their exposure and given instructions for self-quarantining. This is a tried and true public health method for reducing transmission of infectious disease, and it’s proven to be a powerful tool for controlling Covid-19 in countries like South Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and Taiwan.
But the contact tracing process has a gap that apps may help fill. When a person who tests positive for Covid-19 is interviewed by a contact tracer, they identify people who they already know, like household members and close friends and family. They can’t, however, identify people they interacted with who they don’t know, like the salesperson at the grocery, or a teller at the bank.
While working as a contact tracer, says Reid, he learned that most people don’t know who they acquired Covid-19 from, and a substantial number of cases also elicit very few contacts. Exposure notification apps can alert people if they’ve been exposed to a stranger with Covid-19 and give them “the agency to take matters into their own hands,” he says, by self-quarantining and contacting their local public health department, which can use that information to track outbreaks. These Bluetooth-based apps allow phones to communicate with other phones that they come into contact with; if one user has logged a positive test result, the other will be notified.
For this reason, explains Reid, apps could actually have even more utility in a situation like the one we’re in today, where there is more widespread transmission of the coronavirus — assuming enough people use them. “If we’re ever going to go back to work or be on school campuses, or on factory floors, then these kinds of tools could be a real asset to be able to determine who you’ve come into close contact with who you might not otherwise known.”
The big caveat, he notes, is that the most important public health interventions are still social distancing and mask-wearing.
Whether enough people will use exposure notification apps remains to be seen. A recent Reuters analysis estimated that about 6 million Americans had used the apps by mid-November and that nearly 50% of the U.S. population would have access to one of these apps by Christmas. In April, a modeling study from the University of Oxford showed that 60% of the population needs to adopt these apps to end transmission. There are numerous reasons why people may not have downloaded the apps (Nature explains them in-depth here). Privacy is one common concern; in a OneZero story published in April, my colleague Will Oremus questioned whether these “opt-in” public health apps would be treated as such by private entities like churches and schools, and another colleague, Sarah Emerson, raised concerns that marginalized groups would bear the consequences of widespread surveillance.
Reid didn’t seem too worried about the privacy issue, though. “Ironically, I think that’s a really peculiar conversation to be having, given that Google and Apple and other technology companies are scraping your data all of the time for information that they’re going to use to target you for new products that you’re going to buy,” he says. “The mechanics of exposure notification technology is such that [the data] is not being centrally housed in some department of public health data warehouse.”
After talking to Reid, two things became clear to me: First, the country needs more human contact tracers and can’t expect apps to make much of a dent in transmission on their own. Second, I should probably just download the app. At the very least, there appears to be minimal cost and risk to me, and doing so would add another layer of protection to myself and the people in my household, plus support the work of the human contact tracers as they scramble to identify where the virus is headed next.
And, looking ahead, it may very well be a tool I’ll encounter again in the future. If exposure notification apps are shown to be effective, “I think they’re going to play an important role when the next pandemic comes around,” says Reid. “And chances are it’ll come around sooner than the last one.” | https://medium.com/@gameus40/the-case-for-using-covid-19-exposure-notification-apps-8dc9f0a619b3 | ['Https', 'Www.Reddit.Com R Nflstreamsredditnow'] | 2020-12-18 20:46:24.991000+00:00 | ['Coronavirus', 'Public Health', 'Covid 19', 'Technology', 'News'] |
2,165 | Transitions | On October 13th 2020 I stepped down as CEO of CircleUp, the company I started in 2011 with my co-founder, Rory Eakin. Leaving the best job I ever had — at the company I helped to create — was difficult and confusing. I wish I had found other stories about how the transition actually went and what it felt like. But I found surprisingly few first-hand accounts from founders or CEOs transitioning from their initial role, and even fewer that shared their full, authentic story of what really happened when they left and how they truly felt about the process. With limited precedent to guide me, I found the process extremely hard to manage, both logistically and emotionally.
That’s why I’m writing this blog. I’m sure I didn’t do everything right in executing my transition, but that isn’t the point. I’m not here to share a playbook — I don’t think one exists. I want to share my experiences and vulnerabilities with full candor in the hope that other founders can have a resource that I lacked; that they can learn from my experience and feel less lonely than I have through this process. I also hope this piece can help build greater empathy and understanding among the investors, teams and families that have backed, supported and lived with founders whose struggles might at first seem opaque or impenetrable but are, in essence, deeply human.
Why I chose to step down as CEO of CircleUp
Over the past year, when I began telling team members, investors, LPs and other stakeholders about my transition, their first question was, inevitably, “Why?” I typically explained that the average founder/CEO of a startup is in the seat for less than five years; I had been with CircleUp for nine, and I was exhausted. But there was so much more to it than that.
I don’t remember the first time I told our board that I was exhausted and needed to step down as CEO. I imagine it was around 2016 or 2017, a period defined by stressful business decisions and physical and mental health issues. I later realized that the board interpreted my complaints as “typical founder/CEO exhaustion”. I blame myself for that lack of clarity. For years I did a poor job of communicating the depth of my stress and exhaustion, a problem only compounded by the fact that, at times, I wasn’t even sure of my own feelings. There were stretches of time where I felt horrible — lonely; terrified; depressed. Depression exacerbates exhaustion. But I tried to put on a brave face to make sure the board felt comfortable. There were also occasional periods where I felt joy, which complicated matters even more. The highs kept me going even though I knew the downs were unhealthy and untenable. It was hard for me to measure how much of my pain was because I had young kids at home, the result of specific business challenges or a classic case of founder/CEO exhaustion. What is normal? There was no way to answer that other than to go by my own feelings. From 2011–17, my exhaustion felt “normal”. Starting in 2017, it no longer did. I no longer felt like a missionary, I felt like a mercenary.
The root of these negative feelings can be boiled down to roughly an 18-month period from mid-2016 through 2017. During that time, we pivoted CircleUp away from the original marketplace. We also had to go through a round of layoffs, the first I’d ever had to navigate as a CEO. They were necessary, but they were brutal. The people we let go had joined because they believed in our product and mission. They had done nothing wrong, yet suddenly there was no longer a place for them. I remember letting go of someone I had known since college. She turned to me and said, “I took this job over something that paid more, and now what should I do?” These agonising decisions kept me up at night for weeks, and I know it was much harder on those affected.
Then we raised our first institutional VC fund (just one of the ways in which we monetize our tech). If you have friends in venture and it looks like a cushy job, see if they’ve raised a first-time fund. It’s not as hard as being a CEO, but it is… not cushy. I was doing both — running a technology company while meeting with hundreds of institutional LPs around the world to raise a first-time VC fund. After the pivot, after the layoffs and after raising that $125m fund, we raised a meaningful round for the parent company from Temasek and TPG. I don’t know how we raised a big round from world-class investors right after a pivot, but we got it done.
Simultaneously, we were forced to deal with a board member who was beyond counterproductive. After we bought him out fully in 2019, I sent this feedback email detailing the ways in which he had disrupted our board and company. Dealing with this issue was one of the loneliest times I faced as a CEO. To be clear, this email is unlike anything I’ve sent in my life, and I’ve thought long and hard about the decision to share it. I’m not doing so to disparage the individual in question; the only objective is to help others who might find themselves in a similar situation. (Nothing has been removed, including typos, from the email except for names.)
That group of professional challenges was more difficult than anything else I’ve faced in my career. At the time, I told a teammate that it felt like I was playing seven-dimensional chess because of the complexity of the negotiations combined with so many conflicting challenges at work. What she didn’t know — and what most people didn’t know — is that during that same 18-month window, I was also juggling personal challenges that were far more stressful than the hurdles at work.
It started with absolutely brutal fertility issues that my wife and I went through, beginning in 2016. As far back as college, I’ve made hard decisions with the goal of building a great family. That emphasis has impacted everything from which jobs I’ve pursued to what foods I’ve eaten — even before I was married. So you can imagine how those fertility issues impacted me and my wife, Kim. We met with five or six of the best fertility clinics in the country. There were so many tests. Eventually, we were blessed with our second child, but it was an extremely painful and isolating process.
One of those tests revealed unexpected, terrifying information. I was diagnosed with cancer. I only remember a pair of words from the first conversation with my doctor: “two tumors”. I struggled to process it at first. I barely drink, have never smoked or done drugs and work out five times a week. How could I have cancer? The doctor must not have been speaking clearly.
But he was. Still in shock, and with my hands shaking out of fear, I took the elevator to another floor for immediate tests — before I could even break the news to my wife. Slowly, reality began to sink in and the enormity of the word “malignant” hit me in full force. I remember crying to the nurse as she drew blood. Then I walked outside the UCSF hospital, hid behind a concrete pillar, and finally called my wife. I was losing control, and while she tried to be strong, I could hear the fear in her voice. I’d never really heard her scared before, and I felt helpless being unable to do anything to change the situation.
Two days later, I flew to a work conference in Anaheim, CA while also trying to schedule further tests and treatment. In a 30-minute Uber ride, I told my story multiple times over the phone to multiple administrators at multiple hospitals (for reasons that aren’t relevant to this blog post, my medical case was uniquely and extremely complex). I remember no one said, “I’m sorry” — they just processed the logistics with an icy, clinical precision that is probably required for someone to work in a cancer center. Finally I lost it, shouting, “why aren’t you just saying ‘I’m sorry’ right now?” It wasn’t fair to them, and I’m not proud of it, but I cracked. For the next several months, my emotions would sometimes pour out in a tidal wave of tears and yelling. Anger, frustration, fear, confusion — there were so many feelings to contend with. Throughout the entire Uber ride, my driver hadn’t said a word. But as we pulled up to the hotel and I climbed out, he opened his door, stood up and gave me a hug. He then said: “Hey, I just want you to know I had the same type of cancer. I’m so sorry.”
The cancer diagnosis became even tougher to deal with because I mistakenly believed I shouldn’t discuss it with others. CircleUp had just gone through our pivot and we were in the middle of raising that first fund and the parent company round. At the time, I worried that the team would use my diagnosis as an excuse to throw in the towel, that my health would become a distraction, cause the company to fail and make things that much worse. I told the board and my co-founder about my diagnosis, but no one else at the company knew. I even hid the information from all but a few friends, fearing that word might get out. In retrospect, I think I would have brought our company closer together by being vulnerable and authentic, and I certainly wouldn’t have felt as lonely.
I had a successful operation. Since then, I have undergone regular testing several times a year. To this day, I cry every time I go to the cancer center at Stanford. In hindsight I should have seen a psychologist to process what I was going through — the emotional toll was far worse for me than the physical.
Dealing with the fertility problem, cancer and issues at work all at once was the hardest challenge of my life. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t relax, and was constantly on edge. For weeks at a time I had blurred vision. The combination of personal and professional stress was far beyond what I could handle. I hadn’t had a headache in 20-plus years and now I couldn’t go through a full day without experiencing crippling pain in my head. The doctors did two MRIs on my brain to see if the cancer had spread there. After the first MRI, they initially thought it had. After the second they said: “Eleven doctors have looked at this and we have determined it is not cancer.” I assure you that wasn’t as comforting as it may now sound as it begs the question, “why did you need eleven?”
The second MRI — it was clean
A few weeks later, I started peeing blood, repeatedly. After more tests, the doctors assured me that this latest symptom was also unrelated to my cancer. These symptoms were one-in-a-million flukes. I told my cancer doctor, “I like data. That’s a lot of one-in-a-million flukes”. I now had a six-month-old boy at home, a relentless fear of whether the doctors might have missed something and an ongoing slew of professional challenges to face.
By the end of 2017, I was completely worn out. Then, suddenly, the major professional challenges were done. We got the round done for CircleUp. We raised the fund. The pivot was behind us. My personal obstacles were under better control and we now had an infant boy along with our daughter, who was three at the time. A great board member, Dan, called me to say, “Ryan, I’ve never in my career seen a CEO as worn out as you. Please, you need to take a sabbatical — at least six weeks”. He, and other board members, tried so hard to do the right thing and convince me to take care of myself. But after a lifetime of gritting things out, I told myself I didn’t need to take a break. I think an element of my reaction is what Jerry Colonna calls “false grit” in Reboot.
But it was hard to turn away from persistence when it has been so crucial to any success I’ve achieved. Grit (along with undeniable privilege) helped get me to where I am even though I have never been the smartest, tallest or most skilled person in the room. When Dan asked me to step back — even just temporarily — I thought about how I had gritted out making the basketball team as a walk-on at Duke just months after double knee surgery and my doctor saying I needed to give up basketball. I thought about how I gritted out getting into business school and securing a job in private equity after being denied by the first 70-plus PE firms I reached out to (even offering my services for free). I thought about what I had said to Rory in 2011 when we were discussing the possibility of launching CircleUp: “I need you to know that I never give up.” Persistence was my superpower. But now I’ve now come to understand that persistence is a double-edged sword, and my decision not to take a break, to not take more off my plate, hurt me, my family and the company. That was the biggest mistake of my career.
From there, my exhaustion only grew. The job itself was nowhere near as difficult as it had been in the past, but depression and burnout can make even small challenges feel like a big deal. Problems seemed to stack one on top of the other. Moments of happiness were fleeting. A few teammates tried to help me focus only on work that brought me joy, but I failed at that task. I absorbed very little pleasure from our wins, and quite a bit of pain from our losses. I remember a top VC, who was not one of our investors, posted something very positive about me and CircleUp online. I read it on my phone and immediately said, “Damnit!” to my wife. I explained that he couldn’t possibly know enough to mean these positive things, and his comments only made me wish that he genuinely did. I had gotten to a place where I only focused on the losses and couldn’t accept positive things.
I’ve eventually realized that for far too long, I wasn’t clear — with myself or others — about what I wanted or needed. At times I thought I was sending up big red flares that I couldn’t sustain my pace, but others were just seeing the normal ups and downs of a founder. I believe hundreds of founders have their own version of this story, but it is rarely told. I hope that my candor helps others to feel more comfortable than I did asking for help and more willing than I was to confront feelings of loneliness and weakening stamina before they reach a breaking point.
For me, that happened in the fall of 2019. There was no final straw at work; frankly the company was doing better than it ever had and my job was actually easier than it ever had been. It didn’t matter: I could only feel pain. Finally, my daughter looked at me and said, “Daddy, you always look so sad”. She was five. It was the push I needed to change.
Making the Transition
In October 2019 I told the board that I planned to transition out as CEO. I prepped for the conversation with my management coach and some CEO friends, but I was still terrified of the potential reaction. I then followed up with this email (included here with their permission). I have changed nothing in the note (not even a typo) other than redacting email addresses. Once again, I’m not sharing this information because I think it was the perfect way to handle the situation, but so others might be able to learn from my experience. I certainly wish I’d had examples to lean on.
The board wasn’t happy when I sent that email. I don’t blame them. I knew it would be a difficult transition for CircleUp, but I also believed it was the right move for the company as much as it was the right move for me. They tried to convince me to stay, but I made it clear that wasn’t an option, that this wasn’t about any issue other than my mental wellbeing.
After several discussions, the board became aligned with my decision but felt I wouldn’t be able to transition within 12 months. Believing that to attract a great CEO we would need more than two years of runway, the board wanted us to raise a round. In their minds, we wouldn’t be able to hire a new CEO until that was done, and doing both simultaneously would be impossible to get done in less than a year. I disagreed: even though I knew how difficult it would be to accomplish both tasks at once, I was confident it could be done.
Raising a round and hiring a replacement in parallel was emotionally draining, in part because I had to show passion and excitement even though I was personally exhausted. I wasn’t misleading them about my belief in the business or my intentions going forward, but I was trying to mask the depression I felt. Who wants to invest in an unhappy CEO? For investors, vulnerability or burnout is often conflated with risk. So I felt I had no choice but to be a source of energy for potential stakeholders even though I barely had enough energy for myself. Have you ever had to put on a good face when guests come over, even though you’re in a horrible mood? It felt like that, with no end of dinner in sight and with much higher stakes than awkward small talk. And, for good measure, we had to get all of this done during a global pandemic.
Still, in less than a year we raised a big round (not announced) on terms both we and the board were happy with. We hired a fantastic president, Nick Talwar, who became CEO on October 13th, the day I became Executive Chairman. While I know this is the right decision, there are huge parts of the job I deeply love and will miss. When it was time for me to sign Nick’s offer letter, I stared at my computer screen for 35 minutes. My wife came in and I cried with her. She took this picture.
Me signing the offer letter
The Next Step
More than a few people have asked me what comes next. First, I am transferring to a full-time Executive Chairman role at CircleUp. I’m still here, just with far less stress. I’ve worked on this transition for a while with my management coach, Ed Batista. I’ve also talked with countless CEOs (including my LIT group), friends and advisors. One of the better books I’ve read is Transitions by William Bridges. In it, he talks about becoming comfortable with living in the “nothingness” and saying, “I don’t know” when asked, “what’s next?” A successful and healthy transition requires one to live in the nothingness between the end of one period and the beginning of another. I need to come to terms with the end of my time as CEO, though I will still be here at CircleUp. Eventually I won’t be. I don’t know when that day will come. And if you ask me what’s after that, my answer is… I don’t know.
Now that I have a chance to reflect, my feelings are complicated. I am relieved that I’m getting help in the form of a new CEO. I feel sad that my journey as CEO of CircleUp has come to an end. I feel fear in that I don’t know what’s next, even though I believe it’s healthy for me not to know. I feel nervous about how people will interpret this transition and what narrative they will tell themselves (and others). When I’ve talked about my journey in the past, I’ve had similar concerns, but these ones are greater. I feel frustrated that there are things I could have and should have done differently. I feel insecure about my answer of “I don’t know” when asked what I’ll do next — that it will be viewed as inadequate. I worry about whether I will ever do anything again that I feel as passionate about: being the Founder and CEO of CircleUp is the greatest job I’ve ever had.
I feel unsure about how others will react. In venture, doubt isn’t respected. I am confident some, especially in VC, will inevitably view my story as a lack of grit. Would their perception of me be better if, instead of helping CircleUp pivot and leaving three years later, the company had failed in 2017? Maybe my experience means some VCs will not fund me again. Maybe it means I now have more empathy for entrepreneurs. Could I have stuck it out if not for the personal issues? I think so, but I can’t know the answer to that any more than I can know how people will react to this account. My only hope is that it might help other founders feel less alone.
Again, everyone has their things. I’m trying to share my experience — the full and honest version — so that you hopefully don’t feel as lonely on your journey. I want you to know that there are other founders/CEOs who feel that they have no choice but to “tough it out” in front of the teams, customers or investors, despite what’s going on at home. For me a perfect storm of personal problems unhappily coincided with some of the most critical business decisions and processes possible. Is that just bad luck? I don’t think so. Lots of people have to deal with many things happening at once. If you are in this seat for long enough, it will happen to you. But if there’s any way to make these things worse it’s to ignore the warning signs. I could have made it through for longer had I searched for help sooner — that isn’t bad luck, it was me choosing not to lean on a broader team to get through the hardest periods.
Primarily, I feel so much pride in what the team has accomplished and have absolute confidence in the company’s bright future. CircleUp has built transformational tech and the team has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs thrive by giving them the capital and resources they need. CircleUp now boasts a new CEO with an incredibly relevant background and skill set and fresh legs to take the company to greater heights. I feel excited about our roadmap. I think the investment to build our technology platform, Helio, has set us up to create extraordinary impact and I feel appreciative of the team members that have been here since our first engineer, Bryce, took a bet on us in 2011. I feel thankful for the partnership that Matt, Andy, Dan and other advisors and investors have given to CircleUp, and to me personally, for years. I truly feel lucky for their help in steering the ship, particularly through difficult times, with skill, vision, patience and resolve. I know I am privileged to be in a demographic, time and geography that makes starting something this audacious feel possible. I feel fortunate to have had the chance to start CircleUp with such a fantastic co-founder, someone who placed our shared values and the Company’s mission above personal glory. I cannot fully express how much I trust Rory and how valuable that trust has been both to me and to the business as a whole.
I feel appreciative of my family and parents for helping me dream and also pushing me to see that I needed to make changes to be happy. And finally, I am thankful for a wife who encouraged me to follow my dream in 2011 and supported me throughout. In the best of times and the worst of times, she has only ever used CircleUp as a positive example for our (now) three kids — to chase their dreams. And most of all I feel proud of my daughter for speaking her mind.
A lot of love
___________
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this post including Ed Batista, Emma Stubbs, Grace Gellman, Henry Davis, Jordan Brenner, Kate Doerksen, Kieran Snyder, Maddy Allen, Sam Hinkie and Will Quist. | https://ryancaldbeck.medium.com/transitions-fa7ce4af435 | ['Ryan Caldbeck'] | 2020-10-15 19:05:15.108000+00:00 | ['CEO', 'Mental Health', 'Venture Capital', 'Technology', 'Startup'] |
2,166 | The advent of Smart Home Technology | The advent of Smart Home Technology
How smart homes with voice activated security and lighting solutions are changing the life of disabled people
Photo by BENCE BOROS on Unsplash
Executive Summary
Smart homes are an advancement in the field of technology that allows older people and people with disabilities to commence an independent life. The versatility in functionality combined with usability has increased the demand for these smart devices. The market is swayed by multiple smart home devices across various brands that can be embedded in the home environment. The saturation of new products in the smart technology market has resulted in confusion, conflict, and apprehension among users and builders. This report analyses the key elements of a smart home along with the popular smart lighting and door lock solutions in the market, their features and vulnerabilities, their returns on investment, and a recommended solution of how these technologies can be integrated.
Introduction
Four and a half million people in Australia, which constitutes 18% of the population have a disability. The current disability prevalence index is 32% with one out of three people with disabilities have severed or profound symptoms. The advent of smart home technology is changing the way people with limited mobility, vision, and spatial awareness are leading their life. Smart houses include technologies, devices, and automatic functionalities that can be controlled and operated by the user using tablets, phones, voice commands, and even gestures (Stefanov, Bein, & Bang, 2004).
The market is currently saturated with new products resulting in a conflict of technology, confusion among brands, and apprehension among builders. The objective of this report is to deep dive into some of the current technological innovations in the field of smart homes, while looking at their adaptability, usage, affordability, and vulnerability to meet a variety of needs and lifestyles. The report aims at covering the four building blocks.
1. Key levers of a smart home
2. Comparison of smart home technologies
3. Cost-Benefit Analysis of the proposed solution
4. Recommendation
Key Levers of a Smart Home
The key to designing a smart home lies in its inherent capability to meet the needs of different disabilities. The requirement for individuals with limited mobility is distinctive from the ones with limited hearing or spatial awareness. It is essential to come up with a design that provides a 360-degree picture of some of the key levers that can cater to all possible disabilities (Stefanov et al., 2004) as illustrated in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1. Key levers of a smart home solution for people with disabilities. These devices are connected to a home network which in return can be monitored by the family, medical staff, and security guard of the individual. Developed by the author using PowerPoint.
Key Requirements of a Smart Technology
All smart devices should meet industry standards and cater to individual requirements to improve user experience and ease of use. Figure 2 below illustrates some of the key requirements of any smart technology (Meensika, Xuanxia, Ponchan & Mahasak, 2012).
Figure 2. Key specifications of a smart home device. These are some of the basic parameters across which the performance and adaptability of a smart home device can be assessed. Developed by the author using PowerPoint.
Comparison of smart home technologies
The advantage and vulnerabilities of diverse smart home products must be evaluated before deciding the class of devices that can be installed and integrated with the existing home network. Since different customers have distinctive financial limitations and luxury requirements, the cost, affordability, and benefits for the same must also be taken into consideration (Null, 2020). Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3 below examines some of the key parameters of the recommended solutions for smart security lock (Delaney, 2020) and smart lighting (Colon & Torres, 2020) across different needs and lifestyle categories.
Table 1. Recommended products for basic category lifestyle (August Home, 2020), (Null, 2020)
Table 2. Recommended products for mid-tier category lifestyle (u-tech, 2020), (Null, 2020), (Colon & Torres, 2020)
Table 3. Recommended products for Luxury Category (Null, 2020), (Delaney, 2020), (Colon & Torres, 2020), (Google, 2020), (LIFX, (n.d.))
Cost & Benefit Analysis
The Cost/Benefit Analysis is done for a year. For smart security, cost includes product cost and cost of accessories like the Wi-Fi bridge. Smart Lighting takes into consideration the cost of device, power consumption cost given the apparatus works for 12 hours a day. Most of the smart lights consume less than 0.5W on standby, the cost of which is not considered in Table 4 below. The cost of Wi-Fi and Smart Home Kit is similar for all three segments as all devices have similar compatibility hence is not considered for cost-benefit calculation below.
Direct Cost = Cost of Smart Lock + (Cost of Bulb x 3), Philips Hue White comes in a pack of 3, hence normalizing cost in the basic and luxury segment by 3
Indirect Cost involves the cost of bridge or dimmer
Retail cost (RC) of electricity in Victoria, Australia — 27.56 c/kWh
Power Consumption/Bulb = (Power Consumed/1000) x 12 Hrs/Day x 365 days
Standard CFL Bulb consumes 61.32kWh (taking 14W as standard) for a year (say STdP)
Savings = (STdP — Power Consumption/Bulb) * RC * 3 bulbs + minimum (Indirect cost savings)
Table 4. Cost and Benefit analysis of the recommended products (all dollar values in AUD)
The cost advantage of redevelopment lies up to 70% (industry standards) when compared to wired solutions with new constructions incurring an added savings of 15%. Utility savings are higher as one moves up the segment.
Recommendation
Wi-Fi & Network setup
Smart home technologies recommended in Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3 requires a local Wi-Fi network and a strong signal strength to stay interconnected with other smart devices. Weakened signals and Wi-Fi dead spots are major issues of a router due to physical obstructions like floors, doors and walls, length of the building, and interference from other devices. Range extenders are effective in increasing the coverage but impacts the performance of the network. Mesh Wi-Fi consisting of a modem, main router, and a series of nodes or satellite modules that share the same SSID and password is recommended for ensuring full Wi-Fi coverage. An NBN FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) that can offer speed of traffic class 2 or 4 (TC2 100/100 or TC4 1000/400) and can include battery back up on the NBN edge device is recommended. The design to integrate the smart home system is illustrated in Figure 3 below.
Figure 3. Conceptual diagram of how different smart devices can be integrated. The use of a bridge or dimmer is optional and depends on the product preferred by the user. Developed by the author using Power Point.
User Adoption
The voice-activated system combined with geofenced features reduces manual labor from end-users providing enough bandwidth for adoption. Most users today are passives or promoters of technology and application-based interface coupled with smart geofencing, schedule creations and ability of the technology to adapt to user’s needs improves its efficiency.
Conclusion
Smart home technologies are a significant goal of development with strong socio-economic motivations. This report specifies the key features of smart devices, their characteristics, and their requirements. An attempt is made to formulate and design the best possible technology and network to integrate multiple devices while keeping usability and affordability in mind. The content analysis of smart home technologies indicates the underlying benefits of their adoption and how it is strongly aligned to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities.
Reference
1. Colon, A., & Torres, T. (2020). The Best Smart Light Bulbs for 2020. Retrieved from
https://au.pcmag.com/lighting/30286/the-best-smart-light-bulbs
2. Delaney, J. R. (2020). The Best Smart Locks for 2020. Retrieved from http://au.pcmag.com/smart-locks/44061/the-best-smart-locks
3. Null, C. (2020). Best smart bulbs for your connected home. Retrieved from https://www.techhive.com/article/3129887/best-smart-bulbs.html
4. Null, C. (2020). The best smart lock for a keyless home. Retrieved from https://www.techhive.com/article/3212828/best-smart-lock.html
5. Stefanov, D. H., Bein, Z., & Bang, W.-C. (2004). The Smart House for Older Persons and Persons With Physical Disabilities: Structure, Technology Arrangements, and Perspectives. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NEURAL SYSTEMS AND REHABILITATION ENGINEERING, 12(2), 228–250.
6. Meensika, S., Xuanxia, L., Ponchan, P., & Mahasak, K. (2012). Research and Thinking of Smart Home Technology. International Conference on Systems and Electronic Engineering (ICSEE’2012), 61–63
7. Google. (2020). Learn about the Nest × Yale Lock before you buy. Retrieved from https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9251009?hl=en
8. u-tech. (2020). U-Bolt Pro: The Ultimate 6 in 1 Smart DeadBolt. Retrieved from https://store.u-tec.com/pages/ultraloq-u-bolt-pro-bluetooth-enabled-fingerprint-and-keypad-smart-deadbolt
9. LIFX. (n.d.). LIFX A19+. Retrieved from https://www.lifx.com/collections/lamps-and-pendants/products/lifx-plus
10. August Home. (2020). Smart Lock + Connect. Retrieved from https://august.com/products/august-smart-lock-connect | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/the-advent-of-smart-home-technology-56557b971851 | ['Angel Das'] | 2020-08-12 18:59:56.208000+00:00 | ['Case Study', 'Internet of Things', 'Smart Home', 'Technology', 'Technews'] |
2,167 | How Blockchain Technology Is Beneficial for Mobile App Development? | With the fast acceptance and impact of new technologies such as IoT, AI, AR, VR, Robotics- many of us still misunderstand the concept of Blockchain. Especially regarding the development of apps.
Let me question you, what do you mean by Blockchain? Cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency, Etherum … all that? Yet it is worth researching the blockchain has a scope beyond reach.
Let’s take a look about what Blockchain is and why it unexpectedly became a buzzword
Understanding the concept of Blockchain
A blockchain is basically a product of unchangeable data governed by a decentralized structure,i.e. data isn’t controlled by a single entity. The decentralization of data ensures data security at all stages, and each data block is bound to each other by cryptographic principles.
“As per Statista reports, the blockchain market is expected to climb a revenue growth rate of over 23.3 billion US dollars in size by the year 2023"
What Blockchain can do for the Mobile App Development Industry?
The main segments of the industry are now leveraging Blockchain Technology for healthcare, automotive, to finance; why should the mobile app development market fall behind?
If you’re into the mobile app development industry, you would be having an idea about how important it is to stay updated with the latest technology trends to stay ahead of the competition.
Mobile app development is still in its early stage with the adoption of blockchain, and industry influencers are hesitant about this idea. But Blockchain technology can lend a helping hand by offering numerous hidden benefits like improved efficiency, productivity, performance, and even uplift the user experience.
Blockchain technology would allow developers to create streamlined eCommerce apps that enable buyers and suppliers to trade online without any intermediate intervention or to pay third party fees.
Now let's See Some Benefits of Blockchain Technology in App Development
Not only this, but there’s also a lot more blockchain can do for the mobile app development industry. Let’s dive deeper and learn the top benefits:
Benefit 1: Blockchain Offers Security
The initial benefit of the revolutionary blockchain technology is that it makes the applications safer. The technology can use the most advanced cryptography. This technology concept is somehow designed in such a way that it can offer the highest level of safety with the strengthened encryption.
The technology provides a standard series sequence or other interconnected block string. Each block has the data and timestamp for another block of transactions. The data is stored and encoded in a cryptographic hash, which alters every impossible block. Now, for the previous block, every neighborhood has a cryptographic route.
Benefit 2: Blockchain Increases Reliability
In addition to improving data protection, technology can greatly enhance the efficiency of a mobile application. It is mainly because the blockchain’s structure itself is robust and reliable blockchain architecture renders the network complete against any failure or crash. Blockchain also has several blocks that own the data in more than one place, making blockchain more secure.
The distributed design of the blockchain servers and other related hardware prevents any attempt at any unauthorized modification of data. Millions are routinely available, due to numerous data centers at different locations, just a little notification. All of these features make the blockchain method effective for a mobile app development solution for the enterprise.
Benefit 3: Blockchain Increases Transparency
Security enhances transparency. Blockchain technology tracks each transfer of funds in such a way that users can only track them whenever they want. The technology excluded the possibility of any fraudulent transaction or fabricated information. The blockchain makes the application and the entire system tamper-proof and resilient to any fraudulent activity.
The blockchain technology can also help entrepreneurs gain trust from the consumer. The users can safely transact through such applications and remain assured of the protection of their valuable data. Also, the concept is scalable to manage multiple users at once.
The use of blockchain technology is not limited to any market. With chief attributes such as secure data storage and transaction, Blockchain technology can be of benefit to any business field. Healthcare, logistics, and real estate can emerge as the most important benefits of the future creation of blockchain apps.
Benefit 4: Block Chainset you free from Passwords
No matter how powerful a password you’re setting for your computers, there’s still some concern that it could get leaked. Blockchain technology helps us get rid of this fear. For Blockchain, the password to verify any transaction or system is hardly needed. The two parties included in deals usually make the payments through an SSL certificate. In addition to this, the blockchain network reviews everything while making it visible and accessible to all, therefore eliminating the possibilities of being fake.
Benefit 5: Blockchain Promote Simplicity
Another major advantage of blockchain technology is its simplicity. The blockchain has a very upper hand over the relative models performing identical tasks when it comes to simplicity.
If the technology is sophisticated, it needs more effort, time, and money to integrate, maintain, and modify. In simple words, complex techniques contribute to increasing app development and maintenance-related costs. The blockchain will help companies rid themselves of higher costs by offering them a feature-rich mobile app
Benefit 6: Identity protection
Security is an essential requirement of blockchain technology. It is almost impossible for any hacker to shut down the entire system because the data is not in a server, but it is in every block. Blockchain offers secret key encryption with cryptography on the user’s work. The functioning of the blockchain ensures that no one can misuse any data.
Benefit 7: Safeguard Digital Information That Is needed by many users
Encryption is a Blockchain Technology with far-reaching complexity. It is so complex that it makes it impossible for anyone to fool any decryption key. It lends itself to any system that needs to be presented to different users but at the same time requires verification of the information that is organized.
In the legal and financial spheres, for example, multiple signatures on a single document or agreement are common. Through blockchain, this information can be accessed and edited simultaneously by different parties to communicate with each other. All you need to do is verify the Blockchain and configure it.
Benefit 8: Keep Blockchain Apps up to date
Blockchain technology is evolving at an alarming pace. The process by which this day is growing, we can expect it to bring more and more updates soon. The result will be a complete enterprise mobile app designed to meet the needs of the future, and finally, you can improve customer service with such an up-to-date mobile app.
The technology behind the blockchain is also available as an open-source technology. Blockchain app developers can easily share and use the promotion to make the application more powerful and secure. In a way, blockchain technology can help develop mobile app solutions while creating application time and cost.
Benefit 9: Blockchain is developing regularly
There are other techniques to compare the rate at which blockchain technology is advancing. Therefore, choosing a blockchain is the best decision. Because in the future, this technology will have a lot of software updates and more advanced services for your mobile application. The processes and tools used to design blockchain technology are readily available, and users can access them. Technology allows its users to make suggestions that can lead to the future success of the organization. With all the emerging technologies, it’s best to keep yourself updated as we move into another digital world.
Benefit 10: Blockchain incorporates a sophisticated digital laser system
This is a straightforward way to understand how Blockchain Development works when you think about it. Blockchain is simply a digital ledger powered by some extensive corporate network, supporting all parsing and data transmission. When some information is changed, the change is transmitted to the rest of the machines in the same machine and at the same time to adjust the value.
There is also a planned approach to this type of mobile technology. As it stands, most systems are not just mobile networks, as are server-side and client systems. The mobile app and phone act as clients and separate the central server data upon request. Mobile networks are tense with many channels trying to receive data wirelessly. This may cause some information to be lost. With the advent of more advanced storage and data streaming, blockchain technology can be improved.
Final Comments
Because Blockchain Technology has grown significantly in recent years, it has explored the needs of the market itself. We can expect many of its innovations and applications to be installed for free over the next several years as mobile app developers make it part of the global app development process. | https://medium.com/flutter-community/how-blockchain-technology-is-beneficial-for-mobile-app-development-26752051e820 | ['Priyanka Patil'] | 2020-11-07 17:33:25.146000+00:00 | ['App Development', 'Mobile App Development', 'Mobile Apps', 'Blockchain Technology'] |
2,168 | How Onlyfans Is Ushering the Creator Economy into a Prosperous New Era | If I told you that Starbucks and OnlyFans hold a lot in common, there’s a fair chance you would look at me like I was crazy.
Yet both companies completely revolutionized their respective industries — coffee and pornography — and altered entire economies. Starbucks pioneered American coffee culture, providing personalized premium beverages within beautifully designed lounges which became the world’s second home office. OnlyFans developed a platform that transformed the pornography star from employee to business owner by offering paywalled subscriptions to its creators.
OnlyFans rose to stardom for similar reasons to Starbucks. Yet OnlyFans stands to make an even deeper impact within our culture — financially, economically, and socially — than Starbucks, because it has provided a necessary building block to bolster the creator economy.
In fact, I’d bet that in a few years we’ll look back and think to ourselves, “Can you believe OnlyFans was originally just for porn?”
We’ll see estheticians, authors, motivational speakers, botanists, bakers, and everything in between utilizing the platform.
Content creators had been asking for a platform like OnlyFans for a long time, hacking old social media platforms to provide them the tools that OnlyFans now officially provides.
Now, OnlyFans continues to pave the way for the future of work, allowing creators to take control of their content. And with such autonomy, these creators are opening the floodgates to an entirely new economy and changing the meaning of having a career.
The rise of OnlyFans
Every day, more than 115 million users virtually flock to Pornhub to get their fix, free of charge.
In other words, porn is free.
So why do people pay for pornography on OnlyFans?
This is where we compare the reasons for Starbucks ' rise to popularity to OnlyFans’ to understand the power of offering a premium, personalized product.
Coffee then and now
Back in the 1970s, there was no option to order a caramel-mocha frappuccino with whip cream and skim milk. In fact, most commercially available coffee was just instant coffee which had been freeze-dried and would contain bitter robusta coffee beans (as compared to the higher-quality arabica coffee beans we use today).
Long story short: it was cheap, low-quality stuff.
Fast-forward to today, and consumers now spend tens of billions of dollars on coffee every year.
This surge in popularity has partially to do with laws and agreements which allowed for the export of Brazilian coffee beans in the late 1980s, but Starbucks founder Howard Schulz played a major part in the coffee renaissance.
In 1982, Schulze was hired to act as the director of retail operation and marketing at Starbucks. About a year later, he jetted off to Milan and was introduced to the world of leisure cafés, and was completely blown away by these stores which not only served high-end, treasured beverages but also had dedicated customers.
Baristas would have vivacious, full personalities. They would take the time to ask customers about their children. Oftentimes, they’d know their customer's orders by heart, facilitating a truly seamless and personable interaction.
Schultz was completely enamored by what Italian cafés had created, and he decided to take this concept to Starbucks. Upon his return, he stressed the emphasis on the creation and presentation of the beverage. Starbucks underwent a complete makeover to transform the stores into an inviting, luxurious buying environment.
Each barista’s job requirements shifted to prioritize personalization and connection. In fact, if you look at a Starbucks Barista application, it says, “deliver legendary customer service…and connecting with the customer.”
It makes sense now why the barista asks for your name after ordering, doesn’t it?
Different products, same framework
We can agree on the same thing: Starbucks is expensive.
Is it the best coffee you’ve ever had? Probably not. Yet we flock in droves to Starbuck’s moody brown lounges, idly standing in line while listening to refined jazz humming softly in the background. We order mindlessly, having memorized our order over the years, and then take a deep sip of our drinks that barely justifies the ridiculously high price point.
Starbucks moody brown lounges are America’s second work office and living room (Via RR_arbrot on Unsplash)
We enjoy the familiarity and find solace in a product that’s nicely presented. We’re willing to pay more for a “better” product.
Porn is the same thing.
Yes, you can get pornography for free thanks to behemoths like Pornhub and Bellesa. Yet, it’s been proven that people are willing to pay more for a premium product. In this case, sex actors providing quality content that truly suits a customer's needs and fulfills their desires.
You see, people were already willingly paying for pornography long before OnlyFans came to fruition. They were just doing so ‘unofficially.’ And OnlyFans provided a brilliant solution that sex actors and content creators were already asking for.
Making it ‘official’
Before OnlyFans arrived on the scene, content creators were hacking their own ways to create a metered paywall. We first saw this with premium Snapchat accounts, where popular pornstars would advertise their “private Snapchat.” If you were willing to pay, you could get access to their (explicit) Snaps.
This then materialized itself once Instagram copied Snapchat’s Stories model and eventually launched the ‘Close Friends’ feature. Once payment was processed, they’d be included in a user’s circle and could watch exclusive content that was unavailable to the general public.
This unofficial guarded metered paywall gave porn stars their first taste of autonomy as they had full control of what they wanted to post for that day. Gone were the days of being on a set all day long, being paid a sliver of their earnings while heeding to a director’s orders.
Now they were the ones who had control.
However, Instagram and Snapchat aren’t made for pornography. These private corners of the internet would be continuously shut down by moderators, leaving pornography actors increasingly frustrated as they would have to build their audience anew.
OnlyFans was silently watching this unfold and came up with a solution for the frustrated content creator that would revolutionize the future of the creator ecosystem.
The ultimate platform for modern-day content creators
When operating behind a metered paywall, both creators and consumers win.
With the middleman now dismissed, the creator can stand to make a lot more cash. This possibility for a larger income — paired with a sense of autonomy — invigorates the creator to produce extremely high-quality content that’ll appease their viewers.
Anyone can be an influencer
OnlyFans also allowed for the democratization of the playing field by allowing anyone to become a creator on their platform.
If these creators can gather a distinct audience that they actively engage with and end up influencing their purchasing decisions, they technically become “an influencer.”
Gone are the days where “influencers” were roles exclusively reserved for the uber-rich celebrities where they’d promote skinny tea detox solutions while tucked away in Malibu mansions. Now, anyone can become an influencer if they forge direct and authentic connections within their niche communities.
These “micro-influencers” (1,000–10,000) followers often report having much higher rates of engagement due to catering to more specific, narrower audiences. In such, they end up housing “true fans,” which is someone who benefits from their content so much that they willingly pay for their creations.
According to Kevin Kelly’s highly referenced essay 1,000 Fans, it only takes around 1,000 of these true fans who are willing to pay you $100 bucks to make a pretty decent living (we’re talking six figures). Kelly believes that if creators embrace their online networks, they could get paid directly from their superfans.
This would consequently eliminate the need for traditional gatekeepers and middlemen who usually take a decent chunk out of the creator’s labor. Right now, OnlyFans takes a 20% cut from a creator's income stream.
The unfair advantage
For every company, their “unfair advantage” is the biggest asset in being able to differentiate themselves from the competition. An “unfair advantage” cannot be easily copied or purchased by competitors and acts as a moat around your company, harboring it from sabotage and allowing it to remain unmatched.
OnlyFans’ has an exceptionally unfair advantage: their lax censorship policies.
Having the ability to post uncensored content and being able to monetize that content wasn’t something that was readily available until OnlyFans arrived to the scene.
Because OnlyFans was built to accommodate uncensored content, they made sure their safety regulations were up to par.
OnlyFans was built with security in mind, allowing pornographic content to flourish as creators were reassured that their content was secure, watermarked, and valued. This security encourages creators to post without fear of their content being wrongly distributed or having to deal with copyright infringement.
Not only this but being able to post content with much lower barriers to entry is a huge advantage for creators.
Having the ability to post uncensored content and being able to monetize that content wasn’t something that was readily available until OnlyFans arrived to the scene.
Esthetician Hadiyah Daché is one of these creators who’s taking advantage of OnlyFan’s model by posting content that would usually get her banned ASAP.
Daché makes a living providing waxing and sugaring services from her beauty studio in the San Francisco Bay Area. A usual day for her would include waxing someone’s bikini lines before finishing it off with a happy trail trim. Daché recently joined OnlyFans to promote her services and educate viewers by creating videos that demonstrate the waxing and sugaring process.
The content isn’t inherently sexual. But because it features genitalia, content like Dachés would get immediately censored if shown on any other social platform.
Daché isn’t used to this newfound freedom but is already playing around with how to promote her business and is planning to create “a mix of tutorials for other estheticians and voyeuristic/ASMR content for intimate services like Brazilian waxing/sugaring.”
And it’s not just the beauty industry which could profit from these breezy censorship guidelines. Consider the medical field, which wouldn’t be able to post a video of an OBGYN changing a women’s Mirena IUD or performing a colonoscopy. Sex toy companies who could use OnlyFans’ to promote their product in detail and showcase their effectiveness. Morticians breaking down the embalming of a human body.
There’s an infinite amount of content that could be newly released to the platform and continue to educate viewers in new ways as they’ve never experienced before.
Other Perks
OnlyFans’ doesn’t have a completely revolutionary platform per se. The company Patreon, for instance, was built for the creator in mind after its founder Jack Conte received a measly $400 payout from a Youtube video which racked up millions of views.
He realized there had to be a better way for a creator to be compensated for their efforts. And in 2013, Patreon was born.
Patreon is one of OnlyFans’ direct competitors yet the two have their marking differences. What OnlyFans does well in comparison to Patreon is:
Charges subscribers on the 30th day of their subscription, regardless of the day they signed up, while Patreon automatically charges the first day someone subscribes. Allows for creators to run promotional sales, discounts, and bulk buys which is helpful for acquiring new subscribers. Lets subscribers decide if they want to be a recurring subscriber, whereas Patreon automatically assumes the subscription is recurring, meaning it saves the creator the hassle of having to handle its fanbase.
However, OnlyFans definitely over-performs the mega-platforms like Youtube and Instagram in terms of allowing creators to monetize their fans.
Creators are already suffering in the hands of Youtube. The creator F*ckonomics who introduced this brilliant analogy between porn and coffee had her video demonetized shortly after it was posted (apparently, for showing too much cleavage). Seriously. Other videos are subject to demonetization for cleavage slip-ups or cursing aloud.
And even if a creator’s Youtube video isn’t demonetized, placing six advertisements in a 20 minute-long video is taxing. Every single time an ad pops up, it subconsciously nudges the viewer to ask themselves, “why am I still here? Do I care?” If the answer is “meh, I’d rather be on TikTok,” they’re out in a heartbeat.
Attention span is waning. Having to force potential fans to sit through advertisements doesn’t make it easy for creators who post on Youtube. Not to mention, the Instagram algorithm is challenging as well. It’s changed to favor celebrities, sponsorships, and advertisements. Creators have noticed.
OnlyFan’s Future is Already Materializing
OnlyFans is continuing to pave the path for the creator ecosystem. It is also serving as inspiration for other startups who seek to also allow creators to directly monetize from their audience.
Take the ironically named OnlyTweets, a spin-off from OnlyFans that aims to let top Twitter users monetize off their tweets. OnlyTweets provides separate, locked Twitter accounts only accessible to users who are willing to pay.
Even the branding of OnlyTweets seeks to mirror that of OnlyFans
This is an exceptionally interesting idea as OnlyTweets is trying to ensure seamlessness between the two platforms.
For instance, every time a Twitter creator says, “click this link to join my Patreon,” they are nudging the viewer to a different platform. This leap can be a transition that many users are simply too lazy to bother with. OnlyTweets seeks to make the process harmonious and uninterrupted.
Creators are also leaning towards Substack, OnlyFans literary cousin. A platform built for independent writers, creators can start building and nurturing their audience by publishing free newsletters. If they’d like, writers can put certain newsletters behind a paywall, giving them more autonomy over their own email list.
Not to mention, Substack also allows for relatively uncensored content, a win for audacious journalists.
OnlyFans and Substack share a similar unfair advantage: uncensored content
Granted, OnlyFans isn’t without its own challenges.
A 20% pay cut is still pretty significant and can be difficult for a creator to swallow. Plus, OnlyFans has a pretty shaky money withdrawal system that works on a rolling basis of eight days. OnlyFan’s competitor, Patreon, allows for creators to take out and transfer their payments anytime. This convenience is huge for creators who oftentimes would like to receive their funds immediately.
And most glaringly, OnlyFans has a heavy stigma enshrouded around itself. It’s associated exclusively with pornography and content of an overtly sexual nature. No doubt, it would be difficult for a botanist to say, “Come check me out on OnlyFans!” without their audience thinking that they’ve suddenly converted to creating sexual content somehow incorporating bonsai trees.
Definitely, the mental block that would allow us to associate OnlyFans with holistic, wholesome content rather than exclusively pornographic would be a difficult one to budge. However, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
Think about Uber which started off as a tiny company dedicated exclusively to providing expensive black car services in San Francisco. Now, Uber is synonymous with the transportation industry as a whole.
If OnlyFans is successful at facilitating the transition between porn stars, to OBGYNs, to estheticians, to botanists (so on and so forth), they could create the foundation of the creator ecosystem. It would become a home for the modern-day creator who makes a living off of their creations.
It’s a rosy world up ahead. Content creators being able to make a living creating the content they actually want for viewers who genuinely want to buy it? We’re all for it.
Does this mean you should create an OnlyFans account and start making money from your passion?
As concluded at the end of F*ckonomics video, “that’s entirely possible.” | https://medium.com/swlh/how-onlyfans-is-ushering-the-creator-economy-into-a-prosperous-new-era-296dda7fad9d | ['Alice Lemée'] | 2020-11-03 12:02:58.964000+00:00 | ['Social Media', 'Onlyfans', 'Future Of Work', 'Digital Life', 'Technology'] |
2,169 | Solving Big Problems Soon: Some Food for Thought | We are all waiting too long to solve everything. With climate change, we always expect an immediate solution to come to us which will magically erase every single symptom of our sick planet. During our current global pandemic, we’re all just waiting for a vaccine, seeing the next moves of the corporations working on this — we’re left in a state of the unknown with inaction — this is not a good feeling at all.
We must start as soon as possible. Problems such as the current pandemic and the ongoing threat of climate change have been the results of us ignoring the calls to action. We’re too scared to approach it, and in the end, it becomes worse.
Credit goes to Pixabay on Pexels. Our planet is literally burning up.
Think about procrastinating on a big project — one that should take about three weeks. In the beginning, you perceive that you have a lot of time, and as a result, you don’t work on it. However, as the deadline approaches, you start thinking “oh shit, this is really hard.” Yet, you ignore it because the harder it seems, the more you’re inclined not to do it. On the final day, you realize that you have to start working on it, and the deadline is tomorrow. You may end up finishing, but it does not really end up solving anything — and you end up getting a bad result.
A quite accurate representation of how projects end up going whenever I procrastinate to the absolute last minute. Well, at least I finish? Source: The Poke.
With the current attitude that people have towards big problems, I fear that this might be the result — except the consequences are way bigger than having a bad grade — it affects the future of ourselves and our posterity.
We currently have 16 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations, a global pandemic, and way too many problems on hand. How do we start solving them? If you thought your fifteen pages of FRQs from physics was overwhelming, wait until you see these. It’s enough to make anyone crack.
If you’re ready though, that’s something different. In order to make an impact, the people first must start. To start, we must have courage.
Courage is defined as the “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty,” according to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary. It isn’t some large, I’m the chosen one conquest — anyone can do it. The accumulation of such mental and moral strength is the key part of this journey.
Building a good habit — or in this case, getting into the flow of solving a problem — is often the hardest to start. Think about the activation energy required to catalyze a chemical reaction — it becomes natural once we surpass a certain threshold. Source: James Clear (I love his blog!).
After bringing the courage to start, we try to get an understanding of the scope this problem provides.
To do this, you must first develop a wider understanding of the problem on hand. This is what we call “deep domain expertise.” They have a fundamental understanding of the big problem at hand — this typically involves a lot of study into EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE THING that characterizes the problem.
Yet, it’s also important to bring in other people — from other fields —into this problem-solving approach. You establish more perspective through that. Think about all the interdisciplinary research — you have artificial intelligence and a multitude of applications into biology, and you have biophysics, and you have the integration of quantum chemistry and physics for a fundamental understanding of nature as a whole, and etc. You cannot have these projects without collaboration — be open.
Getting out of your space also provides a great perspective. In her book “A Mind for Numbers,” Barbara Oakley describes a test-taking tactic in the diffuse mode — when your brain starts looking at problems from the big picture, rather than a closed perspective — where you look at a problem for about two minutes in a test booklet, and if you’re not able to solve it immediately, you move on. As you’re solving other problems in the test that you’re more comfortable with, you notice that you naturally get an intuition towards solving this problem. To be stuck in that same area is inefficient, which is why so many problem solvers go out of their space. Walk around, do some exercise, go into a different environment — you’ll learn that you’ll get a different perspective on your approach.
Based on the accumulation of all of these approaches and taking action through experimentation and real-world applications, you can finally implement a solution framework that would be effective against your problem of focus.
Credits to Mike on Pexels.
Yet, this process is time-consuming — some people spend decades trying to solve a hard problem. Coming up with the theories of logic and non-Euclidean geometry may be something that, in this case, time is allowed.
But with the current situations in the world right now, we’re on crunch time. We need to 100x this framework to our approach and do it fast.
And with the modern situation, it’s really hard to make an impact without early-stage philanthropy, years and years in labs, venture capital, and government funding. The latter is especially hard.
So how do we achieve this? We push for more support, we need governmental support against the inevitable damnation that will occur to us because we’ve waited too long and there will be a certain amount of time. We must make it so that we can create opportunities that will allow everyone to take a part in problem-solving. Remember, this is a collective effort. The more 🧠-power we put into this, the more effective and efficient the solution.
Credits to Josh Riemer on Unsplash.
With the rising generation of Americans, there have been significant trends. These have been the most educated, the most diverse, and the most willing to tackle these hard problems. Combined with the efforts of the older generation, we’ll be able to establish a massive transformation in how our world is established — and we’ll create a better world for our future.
Think about it: if this is a new transformation among Americans, imagine the rest of the world🌐? If we put in the collective efforts of every individual capable of providing some perspective and augmenting it to prime efficiency, we may not be done in no time — but we definitely will be faster.
In doing so, we can finally “establish the general Welfare…for ourselves and our Posterity.”
Sources | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/solving-big-problems-soon-some-food-for-thought-ecb517691fdc | ['Orna Mukhopadhyay'] | 2020-12-28 02:13:54.946000+00:00 | ['Coronavirus', 'Climate Change', 'Tech', 'Problem Solving', 'Technology'] |
2,170 | Google Wants Creators On Chrome OS | Video/Photo Editing
WeVideo (2-Months Subscription)
If you want full video-editing power on any Chromebook, this is your best bet. WeVideo’s entire process takes place in the cloud, allowing even the slowest of Celeron processors to get in on the action.
If you’re using a Chromebook as your primary computer, I think apps like this one are necessary to close the functionality gaps you might run into. If you’re on the fence about purchasing one of the premium tiers, now you can try them out for free. If you want more info on how this performs on a mid-range Chromebook, I reviewed it last month.
Kapwing (2-Months Free With a 1-Year Subscription)
Screen capture by author
Honestly, this app is more of a meme-maker than a serious editor. Plus, you have to drop $200+ on the annual subscription, making this more of a discount than a gift.
Either way, it’s nice that we have the option of using three different editors in the span of a couple of months.
PicsArt (1-Month Trial)
PicsArt is one of my favorite tools for quick edits. Recently, they’ve added video editing functionality too, making this a great pick up if you’d like to dip your toes in both Videography and Photography.
The annual subscription is about $55 as well, so this trial period will help you decide if it’s worth it to you.
BeFunky (2-Months Trial)
Screen capture by author
Designed to be a complete photo-editing workshop, BeFunky describes itself as an all-in-one tool for everyone. Besides working on your photographs, the app has graphic design tools, too.
There are quite a few programs with this same functionality, but it’s nice to get a couple of months to try this one out. | https://medium.com/chrome-o-xperts/google-wants-creators-on-chrome-os-b395f05ddbe5 | ['Ian Williams'] | 2020-12-03 14:59:41.355000+00:00 | ['Gadgets', 'Creative', 'Chromebook', 'Software', 'Technology'] |
2,171 | Behavior Driven Development (BDD) and Functional Testing | Unit testing is a methodology where units of code are tested in isolation from the rest of the application. A unit test might test a particular function, object, class, or module. Unit tests are great to learn whether or not individual parts of an application work. NASA had better know whether or not a heat shield will work before they launch the rocket into space.
But unit tests don’t test whether or not units work together when they’re composed to form a whole application. For that, you need integration tests, which can be collaboration tests between two or more units, or full end-to-end functional tests of the whole running application (aka system testing). Eventually, you need to launch the rocket and see what happens when all the parts are put together.
There are multiple schools of thought when it comes to system testing, including Behavior Driven Development (BDD), and functional testing.
What is Behavior Driven Development?
Behavior Driven Development (BDD) is a branch of Test Driven Development (TDD). BDD uses human-readable descriptions of software user requirements as the basis for software tests. Like Domain Driven Design (DDD), an early step in BDD is the definition of a shared vocabulary between stakeholders, domain experts, and engineers. This process involves the definition of entities, events, and outputs that the users care about, and giving them names that everybody can agree on.
BDD practitioners then use that vocabulary to create a domain specific language they can use to encode system tests such as User Acceptance Tests (UAT).
Each test is based on a user story written in the formally specified ubiquitous language based on English. (A ubiquitous language is a vocabulary shared by all stakeholders.)
A test for a transfer in a cryptocurrency wallet might look like this:
Story: Transfers change balances As a wallet user
In order to send money
I want wallet balances to update Given that I have $40 in my balance
And my friend has $10 is their balance
When I transfer $20 to my friend
Then I should have $20 in my balance
And my friend should have $30 in their balance.
Notice that this language is focused exclusively on the business value that a customer should get from the software rather than describing the user interface of the software, or how the software should accomplish the goals. This is the kind of language you could use as input for the UX design process. Designing these kinds of user requirements up front can save a lot of rework later in the process by helping the team and customers get on the same page about what product you’re building.
From this stage, there are two paths you can venture down:
Give the test a concrete technical meaning by turning the description into a domain specific language (DSL) so that the human-readable description doubles as machine-readable code, (continue on the BDD path) or Translate the user stories into automated tests in a general-purpose language, such as JavaScript, Rust, or Haskell.
Either way, it’s generally a good idea to treat your tests as black box tests, meaning that the test code should not care about the implementation details of the feature you’re testing. Black box tests are less brittle than white box tests because, unlike white box tests, black box tests won’t be coupled to the implementation details, which are likely to change as requirements get added or adjusted, or code gets refactored.
Proponents of BDD use custom tools such as Cucumber to create and maintain their custom DSLs.
For contrast, proponents of functional tests generally test functionality by simulating user interactions with the interface and comparing the actual output to the expected output. In web software, that typically means using a test framework which interfaces with the web browser to simulate typing, button presses, scrolling, zooming, dragging, etc, and then selecting the output from the view.
I typically translate user requirements into functional tests rather than keep up BDD tests, mostly because of the complexity of integrating BDD frameworks with modern applications, and the cost of maintaining custom, English-like DSL whose definitions may end up spanning several systems, and even several implementation languages.
I find the layman-readable DSL useful for very high-level specifications as a communications tool between stakeholders, but a typical software system will require orders of magnitude more low-level tests in order to produce adequate code and case coverage to prevent show-stopping bugs from reaching production.
In practice, you have to translate “I transfer $20 to my friend” into something like:
Open wallet Click transfer Fill in the amount Fill in the receiver wallet address Click [Send money] Wait for a confirmation dialog Click “Confirm transaction”
A layer below that, you’re maintaining state for the “transfer money” workflow, and you’ll want unit tests that ensure that the correct amount is being transferred to the correct wallet address, and a layer below that, you’ll want to hit the blockchain APIs to ensure that the wallet balances were actually adjusted appropriately (something that the client may not even have a view for).
These different testing needs are best served by different layers of tests:
Unit tests can test that local client state is updated correctly and presented correctly in the client view. Functional tests can test UI interactions and ensure that user requirements are met at the UI layer. This also ensures that UI elements are wired up appropriately. Integration tests can test that API communications happen appropriately and that the user wallet amounts were actually updated correctly on the blockchain.
I have never met a layman stakeholder who is remotely aware of all of the functional tests verifying even the top-most level UI behavior, let alone one who cares about all of the lower level behaviors. Since laymen are not interested, why pay the cost of maintaining a DSL to translate for them?
Regardless of whether or not you practice the full BDD process, it has a lot of great ideas and practices we should not lose sight of. Specifically:
The formation of a shared vocabulary that engineers and stakeholders can use to communicate effectively about the user needs and software solutions.
that engineers and stakeholders can use to communicate effectively about the user needs and software solutions. The creation of user stories and scenarios that help formulate acceptance criteria and a definition of done for a particular feature of the software.
and scenarios that help formulate acceptance criteria and a definition of done for a particular feature of the software. The practice of collaboration between users, the quality team, product team, and engineers to reach consensus on what the team is building.
Another approach to system testing is functional testing.
What is Functional Testing?
The term “functional testing” can be confusing because it has had several meanings in software literature.
IEEE 24765 gives two definitions:
1. testing that ignores the internal mechanism of a system or component and focuses solely on the outputs generated in response to selected inputs and execution conditions [i.e., black box testing] 2. testing conducted to evaluate the compliance of a system or component with specified functional requirements
The first definition is general enough to apply to almost all popular forms of testing, and already has a perfectly suitable name that is well understood by software testers: “black box testing”. When I’m talking about black box testing, I’ll use that term, instead.
The second definition is usually used in contrast to testing that is not directly related to the features and functionality of the app, but instead concentrates on other characteristics of the app, such as load times, UI response times, server load testing, security penetration testing, and so on. Again, this definition is too vague to be very useful on its own. Usually, we want to get more specific about what kind of testing we’re doing, e.g., unit testing, smoke testing, user acceptance testing?
For those reasons, I prefer another definition that has been popular recently. IBM’s Developer Works says:
Functional tests are written from the user’s perspective and focus on system behavior that users are interested in.
That’s a lot closer to the mark, but if we’re going to automate tests, and those tests are going to test from the user’s perspective, that means we’ll need to write tests which interact with the UI.
Such tests can also go by the names “UI testing” or “E2E testing”, but those names don’t replace the need for the term “functional tests” because there is a class of UI tests which test things like styles and colors, which are not directly related to user requirements like “I should be able to transfer money to my friend”.
Using “functional testing” to refer to testing the user interface to ensure that it fulfills the specified user requirements is usually used in contrast to unit testing, which is defined as:
the testing of individual units of code (such as functions or modules) in isolation from the rest of the application
In other words, while a unit test is for testing individual units of code (functions, objects, classes, modules) in isolation from the application, a functional test is for testing the units in integration with the rest of the app, from the perspective of the user interacting with the UI.
I like the classification of “unit tests” for developer-perspective code units, and “functional tests” for user-perspective UI tests.
Unit Tests vs Functional Tests
Unit tests are typically written by the implementing programmer, and test from the programmer’s perspective.
Functional tests are informed by the user acceptance criteria and should test the application from the user’s perspective to ensure that the user’s requirements are met. On many teams, functional tests may be written or expanded on by quality engineers, but every software engineer should be aware of how functional tests are written for the project, and what functional tests are required to complete the “definition of done” for a particular feature set.
Unit tests are written to test individual units in isolation from the rest of the code. There are two major benefits to this approach:
Unit tests run very fast because they’re not dependent on other parts of the system, and as such, typically have no asynchronous I/O to wait on. It’s much faster and less expensive to find and fix a flaw with unit tests than it is to wait for a complete integration suite to run. Unit tests typically complete in milliseconds, as opposed to minutes or hours. Units must be modular in order to make it easy to test them in isolation from other units. This has the added benefit of being very good for the architecture of the application. Modular code is easier to extend, maintain, or replace because the effects of changing it are generally limited to the module unit under test. Modular applications are more flexible and easier for developers to work with over time.
Functional tests on the other hand:
Take longer to run, because they must test the system end-to-end, integrating with all the various parts and subsystems the application relies on to enable the user workflow being tested. Large integration suites sometimes take hours to run. I’ve heard stories of integration suites that took days to run. I recommend hyper-optimizing your integration pipeline to run in parallel so that it can complete in under 10 minutes — but that’s still too long for developers to wait on every change. Ensure that the units work together as a whole system. Even if you have excellent unit test code coverage, you still need to test your units integrated with the rest of the application. It doesn’t matter if NASA’s heat shields work if they don’t stay attached to the rocket on reentry. Functional tests are a form of system tests which ensure that the system as a whole behaves as expected when it’s fully integrated.
Functional tests without unit tests can never provide deep enough code coverage to be confident that you have an adequate regression safety net for continuous delivery. Unit tests provide code coverage depth. Functional tests provide user requirement test case coverage breadth.
Functional tests help us build the right product. (Validation)
Unit tests help us build the product right. (Verification)
You need both.
Note: See Validation vs Verification. Build the right product vs build the product right distinction was succinctly described by Barry Boehm.
How to Write Functional Tests for Web Applications
There are lots of frameworks that allow you to create functional tests for web applications. Many of them use an interface called Selenium. Selenium is a cross-platform, cross-browser automation solution created in 2004 which allows you to automate interactions with the web browser. The trouble with Selenium is that it is an engine external to the browsers which relies on Java, and getting it to work together with your browsers can be harder than it needs to be.
More recently, a new family of products has popped up which integrate far more smoothly with browsers with fewer pieces to worry about installing and configuring. One of those solutions is called TestCafe. It’s the one that I currently use and recommend.
Let’s write a functional test for the TDD Day website. First, you’ll want to create a project for it. In a terminal:
mkdir tddday
cd tddday
npm init -y # initialize a package.json
npm install --save-dev testcafe
Now we’ll need to add a "testui" script to our package.json in the scripts block:
{
"scripts": {
"testui": "testcafe chrome src/functional-tests/"
}
// other stuff...
}
You can run the tests by typing npm run testui , but there aren't any tests to run yet.
Create a new file at src/functional-tests/index-test.js :
import { Selector } from 'testcafe';
TestCafe automatically makes the fixture and test functions available. You can use fixture with the tagged template literal syntax to create titles for groups of tests:
fixture `TDD Day Homepage`
.page('https://tddday.com');
Now you can select from the page and make assertions using the test and Select functions. When you put it all together, it looks like this:
import { Selector } from 'testcafe'; fixture `TDD Day Homepage`
.page('https://tddday.com'); test('Page should load and display the correct title', async t => {
const actual = Selector('h1').innerText;
const expected = 'TDD DAY 2019';
await t.expect(actual).eql(expected);
});
TestCafe will launch the Chrome browser, load the page, wait for the page to load, and wait for your selector to match a selection. If it doesn’t match anything, the test will eventually time out and fail. If it does match something, it will check the actual selected value against the expected value, and the test will fail if they don’t match.
TestCafe provides methods to test all sorts of UI interactions, including clicking, dragging, typing text, and so on.
TestCafe also supplies a rich selector API to make DOM selections painless.
Let’s test the registration button to ensure that it navigates to the correct page on click. First, we’ll need a way to check the current page location. Our TestCafe code is running in Node, but we need it to run in the client. TestCafe supplies a way for us to run code in the client. First, we’ll need to add ClientFunction to our import line:
import { Selector, ClientFunction } from 'testcafe';
Now we can use it to test the window location:
const getLocation = ClientFunction(() => window.location.href); test('Register button should navigate to registration page',
async t => {
// Flexible selectors let us select arbitrary things on the page,
// regardless of how the page was marked up.
const registerButton = Selector('span').withText('REGISTER NOW');
const expected =
'https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rYdjYdXFTPiHCsiWsnq0jA'; // Wait for the button click navigation
await t.click(registerButton); // Now check the location.
await t.expect(getLocation())
.eql(expected);
});
If you’re not sure how to do what you’re trying to do, TestCafe Studio lets you record and replay tests. TestCafe Studio is a visual IDE for interactively recording and editing functional tests. It’s designed so that a test engineer who may not know JavaScript can build a suite of functional tests. The tests it generates automatically await asynchronous jobs like page loads. Like the TestCafe engine, TestCafe Studio can produce tests which can be run concurrently across many browsers, and even remote devices.
TestCafe Studio is a commercial product with a free trial. You do not need to purchase TestCafe studio to use the open source TestCafe engine, but the visual editor with built-in recording features is definitely a tool worth exploring to see if it’s right for your team.
TestCafe has set a new bar for cross-browser functional testing. Having endured many years of trying to automate cross-platform tests, I’m happy to say that there is finally a fairly painless way to create functional tests, and there is now no good excuse to neglect your functional tests, even if you don’t have dedicated quality engineers to help you build your functional test suite.
Dos and Don’ts of Functional Tests
Don’t alter the DOM. If you do, your test runner (e.g., TestCafe) may not be able to understand how the DOM changed, and that DOM alteration could impact the other assertions which may be relying on the DOM output.
If you do, your test runner (e.g., TestCafe) may not be able to understand how the DOM changed, and that DOM alteration could impact the other assertions which may be relying on the DOM output. Don’t share mutable state between tests. Because they’re so slow, it’s incredibly important that functional tests can be run in parallel, and they can’t do that deterministically if they’re competing for the same shared mutable state, which could cause nondeterminism due to race conditions. Because you’re running system tests, keep in mind that if you’re modifying user data, you should have different test user data in the database for different tests so they don’t randomly fail due to race conditions.
Because they’re so slow, it’s incredibly important that functional tests can be run in parallel, and they can’t do that deterministically if they’re competing for the same shared mutable state, which could cause nondeterminism due to race conditions. Because you’re running system tests, keep in mind that if you’re modifying user data, you should have different test user data in the database for different tests so they don’t randomly fail due to race conditions. Don’t mix functional tests in with unit tests. Unit tests and functional tests should be written from different perspectives, and run at different times. Unit tests should be written from the developer’s perspective and run every time the developer makes a change, and should complete in less than 3 seconds. Functional tests should be written from the user’s perspective, and involve asynchronous I/O which can make test runs too slow for a developer’s immediate feedback on every code change. It should be easy to run the unit tests without triggering functional test runs.
Unit tests and functional tests should be written from different perspectives, and run at different times. Unit tests should be written from the developer’s perspective and run every time the developer makes a change, and should complete in less than 3 seconds. Functional tests should be written from the user’s perspective, and involve asynchronous I/O which can make test runs too slow for a developer’s immediate feedback on every code change. It should be easy to run the unit tests without triggering functional test runs. Do run tests in headless mode, if you can, which means that the browser UI doesn’t actually need to be launched, and tests can run faster. Headless mode is a great way to speed up most functional tests, but there is a small subset of tests which can’t be run in headless mode, simply because the functionality they rely on doesn’t work in headless mode. Some CI/CD pipelines will require you to run functional tests in headless mode, so if you have some tests which can’t run in headless mode, you may need to exclude them from the CI/CD run. Be sure the quality team is on the lookout for that scenario.
if you can, which means that the browser UI doesn’t actually need to be launched, and tests can run faster. Headless mode is a great way to speed up most functional tests, but there is a small subset of tests which can’t be run in headless mode, simply because the functionality they rely on doesn’t work in headless mode. Some CI/CD pipelines will require you to run functional tests in headless mode, so if you have some tests which can’t run in headless mode, you may need to exclude them from the CI/CD run. Be sure the quality team is on the lookout for that scenario. Do run tests on multiple devices. Do your tests still pass on mobile devices? TestCafe can run on remote browsers without installing TestCafe to the remote devices. However, screenshot functionality does not work on remote browsers.
Do your tests still pass on mobile devices? TestCafe can run on remote browsers without installing TestCafe to the remote devices. However, screenshot functionality does not work on remote browsers. Do grab screenshots on test failures. It can be useful to take a screenshot if your tests fail to help diagnose what went wrong. TestCafe studio has a run configuration option for that.
It can be useful to take a screenshot if your tests fail to help diagnose what went wrong. TestCafe studio has a run configuration option for that. Do keep your functional test runs under 10 minutes. Any longer will create too much lag between the developer working on a feature and fixing something that went wrong. 10 minutes is long enough for a developer to get busy working on the next feature, and if the test fails after longer than 10 minutes, it will likely interrupt the developer who has moved on to the next task. An interrupted task takes an average of twice as long to complete and contains roughly twice as many errors. TestCafe allows you to run many tests concurrently, and the remote browser option can do so across a fleet of test servers. I recommend taking advantage of those features to keep your test runs as short in duration as possible.
Any longer will create too much lag between the developer working on a feature and fixing something that went wrong. 10 minutes is long enough for a developer to get busy working on the next feature, and if the test fails after longer than 10 minutes, it will likely interrupt the developer who has moved on to the next task. An interrupted task takes an average of twice as long to complete and contains roughly twice as many errors. TestCafe allows you to run many tests concurrently, and the remote browser option can do so across a fleet of test servers. I recommend taking advantage of those features to keep your test runs as short in duration as possible. Do halt the continuous delivery pipeline when tests fail. One of the great benefits of automated tests is the ability to protect your customers against regressions — bugs in features that used to work. This safety net process can be automated so that you have good confidence that your release is relatively free of bugs. Tests in the CI/CD pipeline effectively eliminate a development team’s fear of change, which can be a serious drain on developer productivity.
Next Steps
Join TDD Day.com — an all-day TDD curriculum featuring 5 hours of recorded video content, projects to learn unit testing and functional testing, how to test React components, and an interactive quiz to make sure you’ve mastered the material. | https://medium.com/javascript-scene/behavior-driven-development-bdd-and-functional-testing-62084ad7f1f2 | ['Eric Elliott'] | 2019-11-10 15:40:45.110000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'JavaScript', 'Tdd', 'Software Engineering', 'Unit Testing'] |
2,172 | The Case for Miami | Photo by Antonio Cuellar
The story of the future is one of optimism. It is the best story, because there is no ending, only the narrative: “…yes, things may be terrible today, but they can be better tomorrow!”
The impossible becomes possible when we learn to create the knowledge to make it so. If we understand nothing else about ourselves, this is the human condition: a fragile and infant existence on the continuum of life marked by some inexorable need to improve. It’s almost a moral imperative.
Humans have migrated to every known continent and have settled the vast majority of the planet. The historical scale and scope of our ambitions have become our curricula. We have since learned much about our world, and its history, with the knowledge and subsequent tools we’ve invented to survive and progress.
Since the advent of modern cities, and more relevantly of democracy, humans have been trying to compose a harmonious relationship between their ambitions and the governments they elect to administer policy.
American elected officials have more recently fought or belied the will of their people, at federal, state, and local levels, for a smattering of reasons.
Sometimes the purported reason is to keep you safe.
Other times, the reason is to protect you from other people.
The reality in the Bay Area is even more severe. Local officials and residents have raised their voices about the relationship between technology industry workers and themselves. It’s an unfortunate stalemate mired in misgivings.
Photo by Julien Borean
There have been many civilizations, from Indus to Egypt, from Maya to Mesopotamia, and they have all collapsed, for one reason or another.
One reason seems to be their lack of fortification against inevitable change. I believe the question we should always be asking ourselves is, “What’s the big idea?”
What are we doing? I don’t think we know, anymore.
Are we content today with maintaining the bridges and buildings of the past, laboring for a base subsistence? Should we no longer question the progress of science, technology, culture, because we have food, clothing, and shelter?
Would my ideas about the veracity of experts be dangerous if they knew what they were talking about? What is America’s North Star, today, the undeniable unifying theme of a nation, whose heart “vibrates to that iron string?”
Having absolved ourselves of our sins, do we now simply dance in delight over free trade and fair elections, over mien and manners, molding every child into a properly middle-American? Should said child not question that she is being told to aspire to mediocrity?
Unfortunately, these questions only expose what might be broken about our consistency. They answer nothing about how to fix it. I have a few questions about how we might arrive at a “big idea,” how to migrate from consistent to interesting.
Why did Elon Musk invest his PayPal fortune into a fledgling rocket company that he believed had a 10% chance of succeeding?
What possessed a young man with a dream and no technical background to teach himself programming on YouTube, before flying across the country to attend a coding bootcamp he would later fail?
Why do thousands of would-be entrepreneurs from across the world apply to Y Combinator, and OnDeck Fellowships, with maybe a prototype and a little hope? And why do so few of them give up when the chilling winds of failure whisper they should?
The answer for many of us is a belief in the human story.
We push harder when things get hard, because we believe that story can evolve. We want to create an even better world for our grandchildren than the world our grandparents created for us. We want to build the future.
Photo by Muzammil Soorma
We want functioning cities, excellent bridges and buildings, enamoring skylines and clean streets. We want kind and eccentric neighbors, diverse cuisines, and responsive city governments.
We want the future to look different than it does today. We want to build, and to be encouraged, because we need that.
We want to eradicate infectious diseases. We want to build smarter systems of commerce and communication. We want to design healthier foods and drinks.
We want more green spaces, better air quality, family-friendly science fairs, and a delicious adult nightlife. And we want to agree to disagree, without disintegrating.
We believe our ability to innovate and to emancipate, to absolve ourselves of our imperfect past, is a team effort. A great city recognizes these values and could not pretentiously dismiss them.
Where are citizens smart and sexy, independent and helpful, free and civically engaged? Where is the city transcending false dichotomies?
A great city is not a utopia or a dystopia. It’s just great.
The future of Silicon Valley is decentralized. There is no such thing as “The Next Silicon Valley.”
The very phrase is a misunderstanding of the big idea behind it. What makes Silicon Valley great is not any one place, or company, but people.
Silicon Valley is less of a place and more of an idea. There is a loop of high-energy people helping other people here, based on mutual benefit and active policies, such as a ban on non-competes and not taxing shares while they’re vesting.
And this loop creates an agglomeration effect, where suppliers, customers, talent, the very cost of doing business, decreases with scale and efficiency.
Getting a startup off the ground, and into motion, further reducing its drag coefficient that it might reach escape velocity, needs the additional kinetic energy of a great city.
Startups need to believe they are doing the right thing when they are, and to be confronted with the reality that they’re not when they’re not.
Just being a startup and subsequently being told you’re awful is not helpful. It’s also a damaging notion if said startup has the initial wherewithal to make a difference.
One problem the great city will solve is the two cultures of business and art, and the history of their incompatibility. Business is verily perceived as not in the people’s interest to artists. To business, art is what you do or enjoy when you’re not working.
The great city is a blended family of artists and capitalists, where artists can afford to ground us in human stories and capitalists intuitively create better experiences because of them. A great city wouldn't even acknowledge these terms, as they are ruinously divisive and outmoded.
Great citizens are not artists or capitalists. They’re just great.
Photo by Juan Carlos Trujillo
The point is not to look for the next Silicon Valley, but the next great city. The big idea will follow them. Look for people who are generative, open-minded, anxious but earnest, imperfect but good.
You will find them migrating across the world. They are not just Americans. They are scattered, connecting to the internet in search of people like them.
They are builders and helpers, risk-takers and team players, all trying to find each another. And when they do, they are hoping to connect with one another in real life, someplace nice, someplace near.
They are, like you, in search of a great city. Where is this 21st century city, a city born to take risks and to tolerate failure without celebrating it? Who are the people who are there?
I want to be there with them. I want to contribute to the progress of that city. I want to be encouraged. I want to be useful. I want to be proud of that city and I want that city to be proud of me.
I imagine it is a city rich with diversity, abundant in good weather, attractive, clean and competent.
I imagine it dresses interestingly, maybe because there are good cults there, maybe as to distinguish it from less interesting places. I imagine indigenous slang, dances, music, films, fringe science, and bizarre technologies.
I imagine a city where there is too much innovation to commit petty crimes, too many developers to justify not housing people.
I want a city that is fortifying itself against inevitable change.
I want a magical city.
A city from the future. | https://medium.com/@daviddoswell/the-case-for-miami-7797f9e844dd | ['David Doswell'] | 2020-12-22 06:06:58.239000+00:00 | ['Relocation', 'Miami', 'City Living', 'Technology', 'Silicon Valley'] |
2,173 | How To Choose The Right Blockchain Development Team | A major consideration for successfully deploying a blockchain application is in selecting the right team for the work. The required skill set goes beyond simply deploying the underlying platform and development of the actual blockchain applications — it will need to be properly managed, integrate with your existing technology platforms, and address a number of information security considerations.
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There are three key aspects within this topic that a prospective user should consider, which we will expand upon below.
Platform Deployment
The first consideration is where you will be hosting your platform. Building a blockchain solution is far from a simple, straightforward task. Depending on the resources you have a available, you have a number of different options here:
Hosting the infrastructure yourself requires significant dedicated DevOps resources, as blockchains take a lot of setting up to get right. On the other hand, this does allow for more choice, meaning you can tailor the blockchain completely to your own specific needs — if you have the time and resources to dedicate to this.
requires significant dedicated DevOps resources, as blockchains take a lot of setting up to get right. On the other hand, this does allow for more choice, meaning you can tailor the blockchain completely to your own specific needs — if you have the time and resources to dedicate to this. Cloud based Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) solutions , are solutions in which a third party creates and manages a blockchain solution for you. However, you will still need some in-house expertise for the best results. Both Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services have BaaS offerings.
, are solutions in which a third party creates and manages a blockchain solution for you. However, you will still need some in-house expertise for the best results. Both Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services have BaaS offerings. Fully managed services are the lowest complexity tier: not only do they build up the whole infrastructure for you, they also manage every aspect of it for you. This goes a long way in reducing blockchain’s inherent complexity, although it still has some challenges compared to other technologies. Two key providers in this regard are Kaleido and Chainstack.
Development
Having just the underlying blockchain platform is not enough; you will also need code that runs on the blockchain. This code is typically referred to as smart contracts or Decentralized Apps (DApps). The three dominant platforms here are Ethereum (along with its variants, ConsenSys Quorum, and Hyperledger Besu), Hyperledger Fabric by IBM, and Corda by R3. Ethereum uses its own programming language, Solidity, for creating and running smart contracts, while Hyperledger Fabric provides support for JavaScript, Golang, and Java. Corda, on the other hand, only supports Java at present.
The creation of smart contracts can be quite labour intensive from a development perspective. It requires both time and expertise to get right — however, thanks to the popularity of the three aforementioned platforms, there are plenty of freely available example applications for them supported by a number of experienced programmers within these communities. This is especially true in the Ethereum community, which has drawn a huge number of enthusiasts with a thorough understanding of the technology and its inner workings.
Finally, no blockchain platform is self-sufficient; you will need to handle integrations with your existing technology stack as well. As we’ve mentioned, Hyperledger Fabric has native libraries for Java, Golang, and JavaScript, while Corda is restricted to Java. Ethereum, however, supports a far wider range of technologies, again thanks to its vibrant community — it is very well catered for.
Security
Last but not least, the security aspect of a blockchain platform is mostly tied to its key management and network security. Using blockchain at all requires cryptographic keys associated with your blockchain applications, and those keys need to be stored in a highly secure place. Again, there are several different approaches you can take here:
Hardware security models are actual, physical hardware that is tamper-proof, used for storing your keys. In case anyone ever attempts a breach, details of the attempt are stored and your business can also be made aware of it.
are actual, physical hardware that is tamper-proof, used for storing your keys. In case anyone ever attempts a breach, details of the attempt are stored and your business can also be made aware of it. Cloud-based security models offer the same service on cloud, for example by Azure’s Key Vault and Amazon Web Services Key Management Service.
offer the same service on cloud, for example by Azure’s Key Vault and Amazon Web Services Key Management Service. Secret management tools are a form of database for storing secrets — an example would be the HashiCorp Vault.
You will need to also ensure that you’re able to physically connect to the other organizations on your blockchain network. It’s worth speaking with your Information Security (Infosec) teams to ensure there won’t be any barriers here. For instance, not every large enterprise would be happy to establish connectivity with a small startup who happens to be on the network too.
Common Concerns
Some of the main concerns potential users may have are:
We can’t store cryptocurrency in our company. If you’re using a private, permissioned network, this is not really a concern as they do not use cryptocurrencies like the public networks. The encryption keys will be stored in a way that is consistent with the rest of your business applications, in line with what your information security staff are comfortable with.
If you’re using a private, permissioned network, this is not really a concern as they do not use cryptocurrencies like the public networks. The encryption keys will be stored in a way that is consistent with the rest of your business applications, in line with what your information security staff are comfortable with. Blockchain is one of the hottest technology skills in the market — how can I ensure I can control my project costs? If you take on our advice, you’ll be able to select a platform and provider in line with your organization’s existing skillset. If you need more guidance, Web3 Labs can provide it via our services, so you can ensure that you have a successful deployment with a handle on the costs upfront.
Closing remarks
Having the right team in place is vital to ensure your blockchain deployments succeed. As with all new technology or platform deployments there are a number of tradeoffs and considerations you will need to make along the way to get it right. We’ve covered here what we believe to be the most important ones, covering the platform deployment — self-hosted, BaaS or managed, the development capabilities for both the blockchain smart contracts and integrations and finally the security considerations.
Have you already considered these factors? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this. If you’re interested in more, you can come along to one of our upcoming Principles of Successful Blockchain Deployments Webinars. Here, we cover the various considerations of how to successfully deploy a blockchain platform, and cover a number of use cases that it excels at.
This post first appeared on the Web3 Labs blog at | https://medium.com/@flridaaboss/how-to-choose-the-right-blockchain-development-team-fdfda7b23a1f | [] | 2020-12-17 10:27:07.230000+00:00 | ['Blockchain Enterprise', 'Blockchain', 'Blockchain Development', 'Blockchain Technology'] |
2,174 | Make an Impact Using Data Analysis and Visualization Using Python, Spacy and Tableau | Data Cleaning and Transformation
Data set was huge. Data analysis done by picking the data in chunks. Remove all the questions with delta answers negative or zero. Here, Delta answers are calculated by difference between time questions asked and respond to that question. Text is cleansed by removing punctuations and unwanted symbols. Two corpus created one with stopwords and another without stopwords for analysis. Existing python library spacy is used in place of NLTK for data cleansing and text processing. It is very fast and has many more existing useful features than NLTK
Next Steps to Explore More
Data Normalization Step : Normalization of data will help to remove outliers, missing value. In simple, in case data is skewed, normalization will help to make data better for model to perform better. And, as expected, there were huge differences found after and before normalization. And, text became more manageable after normalization.
Score Analysis Step : Score is the upvote given to question or answer. Analysis of score here means count the score and as per analysis, score always lies between 0 and 100.
Question Body Analsis Step : Question body has many insights and findings. As per analysis, length of question results in quick response or not. And, it is also related to upvote too.
Text Summarization Step : Simple technique applied to summarize the text.
Converted paragraph to sentences
Removed special characters or stop words
Tokenized and find weighted frequency of occurrence (TFID or PMI)
Replace words by weighted frequency in original sentence
Below are some of the graphs to analyse more about data.
Modeling and Sentiment Analysis
● Data Ingestion, preprocessing, transformation, clustering, train and test and predict time series.
● Visualization and decision making
Sentiment analysis can be performed using Spacy, afinn and TextBlob. Scores were already there in the data but sentiment analysis helps to give us more insights of data. In simple, get the given sentiments and sum up with sentiments provided using our own trained model. And, it is assumed it will help to give more conclusive sentiment out of responses.
Spacy is library in python which has all the necessary libraries to perform NLP tasks including NER and derive meaning from data. It has pre-trained langualge models for small, medium and large which can be utilized based on problem statement and requirements.
Final Output and Dashboard for Visualization
Dashboard is developed based on the files generated after sentiment analysis and normalization of the data performed using python. Final data frames are stored as csv file for using in Tableau. Tried developing around 12 different views in the dashboard to have good prospects of the problem and have a nicer conclusion. More about dashboard
Interactive Dashboard to Visualize and Understand Data set
Dashboard is there to visualize Total records, total answers, Q&A, Q&A ratio, number of answers count to questions, top 10 technologies discussed, technologies with positive comments, tag counts, tag analysis for filtering dashboard dynamically, and Q&A analysis. This gives good visualization view to understand and interprete data at one glance
Word cloud of different technologies and most used words to give analysis of the data to feed in for modeling and sentiment analysis. It is very good view as you can see whether wrong words are not getting picked up for analysis. If yes, include them in stop-words removal step.
d
Conclusion
Goal in this analysis is to explore the reasoning of community process in question answering at stack overflow. This analysis will be helpful to different technologists to know the trending technologies and technologies those are downgrading or upgrading their popularity. This also helps to determine technology roadmap and journey for future. Also, it could be help to plan resources and capabilities of the organization.
This analysis can be used to determine market demand of lacking skills and which product got lot of bug and issues. So, it will help to a company architect or strategic person in deciding product they can select for enterprise standard and build capabilities in that area.
There is a growing demand in this domain which can be analyzed, and this can be used for informed or data based decision making. This can be taken to the next level to voice-based response using AI powered devices such as SIRI, Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant etc., interfacing with knowledge base. Also chatbot can leverage the auto answering or solution capability using the knowledge base. Overall, this analysis could help every kind of technologists to derive information useful to them. Happy Coding! | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/make-an-impact-using-data-analysis-and-visualization-using-python-spacy-and-tableau-528f837270d1 | ['Laxman Singh'] | 2020-12-28 12:22:18.113000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Learning', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Data Visualization'] |
2,175 | A Code Review Your Colleagues Would Thank You For | A Code Review Your Colleagues Would Thank You For
11 tips for a better code review
“You’re a code review Terminator” — once told me a colleague in response to an especially productive code review. It was a win-win: he learned something useful, and I enjoyed knowing that the review I’ve done allowed my peer to become slightly better himself.
It wasn’t a breeze, though: after submitting review I left the desk for a break, completely exhausted. Was it worth it? Hell yeah!
I wanted others to feel that joy of being thanked for a decent review. So I analyzed my approach to code reviews and broke down core elements item by item.
1. Treat reviews as one of your main activities
Leaving a couple of “a null check here is missing” comments over a cup of coffee is not enough. You need to:
understand what should have been done
understand how it was done
think of other ways it could have been done. Are there better (more readable, maintainable, efficient) ones?
if the current approach is optimal, verify it is implemented correctly. Otherwise suggest another and explain why it might be better.
A high-quality codebase is possible only if the majority of the changes is high-quality. Write good code — and help others do the same. Constantly.
2. Compensate lack of nonverbal signals
Reviewing code sitting right next to your mate is one thing; doing it on platforms like Github or Bitbucket is another. When you don’t get additional clues from voice tone and body language of your peer, it’s easy to misinterpret original intentions.
Let’s take a simple phrase as an example: “There’s a bug in this line”. It surely states that, well, there is a bug in line. But it could have been said with very different emotions attached: anger, surprise, joy of finding a bug and thus preventing an issue on production. Indifference, maybe. Your colleague might make a wrong assumption — and wrong assumptions lead to offences, hidden tensions and in general are not good. Just make your life easier and avoid the issue altogether: soften a phrase a bit (“Hey, looks like there’s a bug here”), make it a question (“It seems suspicious; is it intended here?”), or add an emoji, maybe 🙂.
3. Reserve time
To ensure code is correct and efficient you need to understand it completely. However, it takes time; make sure you allocate enough. Keep in mind that reviewing parts of the application you don’t know will take even longer.
In general, it’s the flip side of good reviews: it’s one pretty time-consuming activity. If you don’t have enough time to do to it well — consider to postpone it or to ask to assign another person. If that’s not an option and you have to do just a shallow review — keep in mind that you’re trading off quality. Probably necessary, but a trade-off anyway. Making it a habit might mean more technical debt to fix in the long run.
4. Don’t assume; ask
When you see something strange in the code or maybe an overly complex approach to a seemingly simple issue — don’t assume that they made a poor choice or a mistake. There’s a chance your colleague did that because of reasons you aren’t aware of. Avoid awkwardness and hidden tensions, ask instead of making assumptions: “Could you please clarify why we can’t call this method directly here? It seems like a simpler approach which could suffice in this case”.
5. Know when to reach out directly
Usually, reviews are done in an async manner. This allows you to immerse yourself into the code and at the same time avoid interrupting the flow of your peer. However, there are several situations when it might be better to reach out to your colleague by either walking by or having a call:
When deadline pressures. Quick feedback speeds up decisions. However, people are already stressed out and distractions could cause irritation and lose of focus.
Gross errors. Discussing them publicly might cause embarrassment. Better to talk to a person privately. It might have been an overlook — or a knowledge gap which is now eliminated with your help.
A completely wrong approach chosen. Communicating that one should throw away part of his job should be done with care, and it’s better to use the power of body language and voice tone to do that.
Frequently it is useful to provide a summary of such conversation as a comment in your review system afterwards.
6. Read ticket first
Some of the requirements might be not covered in an otherwise correct pull request. Ensure you read the ticket first to catch such issues — and to understand what’s going on, at least.
7. Explain the reasoning behind your suggestions
Some mistakes, such as typos, don’t require additional explanations. However, architectural and naming decisions is a complex matter. When you suggest an alternative approach, it might be not obvious for another person why exactly it is better. So, accompany your suggestion with a brief list of its benefits and downsides.
Also, as a proverb goes, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. When you teach your peer a new trick, (s)he would be able to apply it in future to produce better code — with an increase of overall codebase quality as a nice side-effect.
8. Compliment good decisions
Code review doesn’t have to be a mistakes list. If you stumble upon a good place, nice decision, useful piece — communicate your appreciation. Leaving a “good job” comment or a clapping emoji as an overall review response might be worthwhile, too. Just be sure you don’t do that for actually bad pull requests — that would feel mechanical and ruin the whole idea.
9. Be polite
A hint: a phrase like “Can we please get rid of the brain-damaged stupid networking comment syntax style?” isn’t exactly polite.
10. Be helpful
For example, when during review you spent some time to find an alternative decision — provide your colleague with names of classes you’ve checked. Github and other systems make it even easier by allowing you to give a link to the exact line in a file. Acting in a way like this requires little additional effort but helps your colleagues and increases their performance.
My cat Ryzhik is being helpful
11. Suggest, don’t tell
This goes alongside “be polite” advice. When you suggest an alternative approach during code review, provide your argumentation and let your colleague decide instead of telling what to do. Chances are (s)he would accept your advice. If that’s not the case — what was the reason?
Both approaches are more or less equal. If there are no compelling reasons to choose one way over another — keeping existing is fine.
There’s a compelling reason to use your approach but apparently, PR’s author doesn’t understand it. You could try to explain one more time — and check one more time that you’re not mistaken.
Personal conflicts. This is a subtle matter and should be handled cautiously. It’s outside of code review topic for sure.
And that’s it for the list. To wrap up: | https://medium.com/swlh/a-code-review-your-colleagues-would-thank-you-for-b569fea0e3e1 | ['Anton Chuchkalov'] | 2020-06-02 22:33:26.390000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Programming', 'Best Practices', 'Code Review', 'Software Development'] |
2,176 | The Real Tastemakers Behind Artificial Flavors | During the early and mid-20th century, when refrigeration was commercially developed and rolled out into modern homes, convenience became an important selling point for processed, ready-to-eat, and frozen foods. However, the methods used to preserve foods against microbial decay for long-term refrigeration and freezing resulted in the deterioration of flavor. The result? Many of these processed foods ended up tasting bland.
The rise of organic chemistry during the mid-1800s also led to new organic compounds that could be readily and cheaply produced. Many of these compounds made processed foods taste similar to how they’d taste in their original form (prior to heat processing). Over time, it became clear that mixtures of compounds, each at varying concentrations, could be used to both mimic and impart new flavors to foods, preserving their taste. Chemical instruments and methods for analyzing the composition of food flavors became increasingly sophisticated, allowing food technologists to reconstruct the flavor profile of foods with greater precision and accuracy.
A human intermediary is always needed to bridge the gap between chemical analysis and subjective taste.
However, despite advancements in analytical methodology, the human element remains invaluable in flavor design. For example, while only a small handful of signature compounds can be said to “taste” like strawberry, a real strawberry may contain hundreds of compounds that, together, create a unique depth of flavor. These smaller components may only be present at parts per million or billion. They may barely make a blip on a chromatograph, but their impact on our senses is disproportionately large.
While the most sophisticated gas chromatograph has limits of detection of 10 parts per billion, human noses have been reported to smell some aromas at around 0.000000001 parts per billion. For this reason, a human intermediary is always needed to bridge the gap between chemical analysis and subjective taste.
That is where a flavorist comes in. | https://medium.com/s/story/on-flavors-and-flavorists-30affa646d6c | ['Bryan Quoc Le'] | 2018-11-29 07:26:50.938000+00:00 | ['Food', 'Science', 'Work', 'Careers', 'Technology'] |
2,177 | Dealing with Zoom Fatigue: Using Project-Based Learning to End the School Year on a High Note | As schools wind down from a, hopefully, once-in-a-lifetime shutdown, many students and teachers find their motivation also winding down.
by Bruce Arao, Intern at the Progressive Policy Institute
As schools wind down from a, hopefully, once-in-a-lifetime shutdown, many students and teachers find their motivation also winding down. Educators are calling this “zoom fatigue,” referring to the commonly used teleconference platform. To end the year on a high note, teachers could turn to project-based learning (PBL), by asking students to complete a project they are interested in.
Motivation is the key to learning. “If the kids want to learn, you can’t stop ‘em,” former Ohio State professor of education Jack Frymier once said. “If they don’t, you can’t make ‘em.”
So urge students to work on something they care about. Education researchers have identified four main strategies to motivate students: focusing on learning students find relevant; giving them autonomy, or ownership of their learning; using positive feedback; and creating strong student-teacher relationships. So let students pick something they find relevant and give them some autonomy.
Jodi Chamberlin, a Tacoma, Washington, elementary school teacher, provides a good example. She selected projects “based on my students’ individual interests,” she wrote on DonorsChoose.org, a website where teachers can ask for donations for school projects. “I selected car building kits for my students who are interested in physics and mechanics of cars. I selected origami kits for a few of my kiddos who are always folding paper into various games during class time. I selected comic book templates for kids who are interested in being illustrators one day.”
Projects do not have to be physical. Some could be built online, through video games such as Minecraft, in which users enter a blocky, 3-D, computer-generated world in which the user has free reign to create any structure he or she can imagine using the tools built into the game. The first graphic shows a Minecraft world, while the second shows a suggested school project using Minecraft, from Fusion Yearbooks.
Irene Weinstein, a library media specialist at New Beginnings Family Academy in Bridgeport, CT, has used BreakoutEdu, an immersive learning games platform, to get her students excited about learning from home. “I have given students completely digital breakouts that I was able to access for free and the excitement and focus that I saw has been unmatched by any other activity,” she wrote on DonorsChoose.org. “However, there are only a handful of free lessons. With the access that this kit gives us, students can continue their thinking adventures throughout the year.”
Another teacher raised money to give students the material needed to build a terrarium at home, so they can grow plants and record their life cycles in a closed environment. Another raised funds for aquaponics sets, so students could grow their own vegetables.
Larry Berger, CEO of the curriculum and assessment firm Amplify, described a science project for older students from Amplify’s curriculum, in a recent interview. “Every kid participates in what we call an engineering internship for each unit,” he said. “They are on a fictional team at a science and engineering company. In the unit where we’re learning about changing climate, we’ve been tasked with designing rooftops for a city, and we are trying to use the science we’ve learned, but in an applied way, working with our team, designing rooftops, and we’ve set it up so most of the time, the really good idea that your team has fails for an interesting scientific reason and you’ve got to go back to the drawing board, like real engineers.”
Teachers could ask students who are passionate about sports to design the reopening of their favorite professional league. They could give students a series of questions they have to answer, such as how they would keep players and referees from exposure to the COVID-19 virus, whether any spectators would be allowed, how much television revenue each game would generate, whether the teams could make any profit this way, and if not, how the league would keep teams from going bankrupt. As they developed answers, teachers could continue to challenge them, poking holes in their reasoning and asking them to think more deeply.
Some teenage boys, who are disengaged in most classes, might love working on a project like this.
Through PBL, teachers serve as coaches and guides, giving inspiration and constructive feedback to help their students succeed. By posing increasingly demanding challenges and questions, they help students learn many different skills, from math and writing to critical thinking and digital publishing.
Students without computers or internet access could be put on teams with students who do have those resources. For individual assignments, teachers could either have the family photograph or record the student’s project and send it to the teacher or drop it off at a designated pick-up location.
At the end of the year, students and/or teams could showcase their work through an online show-and-tell. Every student or team would talk about their project, why they care about it, and what they were able to learn from it. This would help students develop the confidence to present in front of the class. For the students without internet, the teacher could present the project visually as the students discuss their work through a phone connection.
Whether it is origami animals, a Minecraft world, a terrarium, or an NBA restart, every student has something unique and noteworthy to contribute. Through these projects, students would be able to fuel their passions without ever leaving home.
And who knows, perhaps teachers would learn something they could use to motivate and engage their students in future years. | https://progressivepolicyinstitute.medium.com/dealing-with-zoom-fatigue-using-project-based-learning-to-end-the-school-year-on-a-high-note-c8a88220d70c | ['Progressive Policy Institute'] | 2020-05-27 17:50:53.034000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Learning', 'Covid 19', 'Education', 'Zoom'] |
2,178 | Succeeding at Digital Transformation | INSIDE THE ENTERPRISE
This is the second in a series of perspectives on IT in the enterprise, informed by experiences and observations over nearly two decades working at the intersection of business and IT in a large global energy company.
Introduction
Information Technology is well recognized as a critical business enabler and has been a key component of business transformation efforts since the 1980s. What has changed in the 21st century is the relentless rise of digital enterprises with completely new digital business models, disrupting one traditional business after another. Today the typical transformations of old would be woefully inadequate, and those enterprises that were not born in the internet era are regularly forced to embark on programs of Digital Transformation. Unfortunately, a very large proportion of these programs fail. In this article I examine what are the typical causes behind these failures, and what steps can be taken at the business unit or enterprise level to improve the probability of a successful outcome.
Approach
Digital Transformations are fundamentally Business Transformations so the approach I take is to discuss two perspectives on why business transformations fail and two which are more specifically focused on digital transformation. In the first category we have ‘Leading Change — Why Transformation Efforts Fail’, by John P. Kotter in Harvard Business Review (originally published Spring 1995), and an interview with McKinsey’s Seth Goldstrom on ‘Why Transformations Fail’ (Feb 2019). On digital transformation we have from Christy Pettey in Smarter at Gartner ‘Avoid These 9 Corporate Digital Transformation Mistakes’ (Jul 2020), and ‘10 Reasons Why Digital Transformations Fail’ by Clint Boulton in CIO magazine (Jun 2020).
Next I identify pitfalls which have tended to be persistent, and others which are specific to Digital aspects. Finally I note mitigations or remedies that could reduce their occurrence and impact, and improve the odds of success.
I have liberally re-used material from the above-mentioned authors, my purpose being to give present a concise overview and synthesis of the topic and hopefully saving readers many hours of preliminary research on the internet.
Issues in Business Transformation
Kotter sees the transformation effort progressing through a series of stages, each critical in its own right and needing to be done properly and in the right sequence. He identifies these as follows-
Establish a sense of urgency
Form a powerful guiding coalition
Create a vision
Communicate the vision
Empower others to act on the vision
Plan for and create short term wins
Consolidate improvements and produce more change
Institutionalize new approaches
Pitfalls abound (see Table 1), with the majority directly a consequence of organizational inertia and gaps in leadership composition, alignment, capabilities or communication. A particularly interesting pitfall is the tendency in some quarters to declare victory at the first opportunity, effectively scuttling further transformation efforts, diluting the intended change and hastening a reversion to ‘business as usual’.
Table 1
Now coming to the weaknesses identified by Goldstrom two decades after Kotter, we see that his cautions relate to some softer aspects such as being insufficiently ambitious about outcomes, lacking a growth focus, the need for collaborative working, and needing an ‘and’ rather than an ‘or’ mindset.
Both emphasize the need to systematically proceed with the transformation effort through its various stages, getting the right people in the right jobs, and making changes wherever there is a lack of either will or skill.
Goldstrom makes important points about the need to align incentives with behaviors that will drive the desired outcomes, and the necessity of proper tracking systems.
Issues with Digital Transformation
Some of the points noted by both Pettey and Boulton (Table 2) are business and general issues that are very much in play even in Digital transformations. Though worded differently they are closely related to pitfalls earlier noted by Kotter and Goldstrom. The foremost the inability to articulate a vision that the whole organization can embrace and align with. Another big one is organizational silos.
Table 2
Both Pettey and Boulton highlight the need to focus on customer needs and competition. Pettey makes important points about seizing the opportunity provided by digital transformation to reinvent how an industry operates, rather than being satisfied by incremental changes. Both advise action rather than overplanning or ‘wait-and-see’. Bouldton highlights how disruptors typically move an order of magnitude or two faster and achieve greater scale than incumbents, especially when there are network effects involved.
Adequate talent and a learning mindset are key ingredients especially in the digital aspects of a transformation, both are in short supply. Consequently there is often a high degree of talent churn which then impacts continuity and timely achievement of Digital goals.
Improving the Odds of Success
Kotter has some key recommendations –
Convince at least 75% of managers that the status quo is more dangerous than the unknown
To achieve a coherent effort that is both sufficiently powerful and disruptive, form a cross-functional team under a senior line manager outside the normal hierarchy
Communicate the vision constantly, model desirable behaviors
Encourage risk taking
Define visible performance improvements, and reward the employees that achieve them
Articulate connections between new behaviors and corporate success, develop the next generation of leaders
Goldstrom makes some distinct points-
The change story must be compelling from a hearts-and-minds perspective … not everyone contributing to the transformation will be excited about company financials and stock price in the same way as top management who have incentives linked to them
Goals should be set at the full potential of the organization, rather than at a level that is comfortable (which will ultimately not be transformational)
Have the courage to make personnel changes, and do it early … this will get the whole organization energized and excited
Examine talent-to-value for the top 100 roles in the organization, the mix needed in the future will be different than in the past
Obsess about growth .. sales, pricing and step-out growth
Pettey emphasizes the following points-
Focus on the business model, not the operating model …prioritize the market and how it will be monetized over efficiency and effectiveness
Set goals for structural transformation, supported by adequate investment … digital business works at the level of revenue and business model change and product re-invention
Focus on learning and growth
Plan less, do more … embrace lean startup thinking, release a minimum viable product and then improve it with customer feedback
Focus on the needs of markets and customers first, then deploy technologies to address them … do not select technologies and then look for applications
Understand and then exploit the power of culture to drive change
Boulton highlights some additional steps -
Ensure strong CEO sponsorship
Business leaders should get a strong understanding of what needs doing in a digital transformation as well as how to go about it, before embarking on the transformation … what are the talents and technologies required
Begin early, do not wait …gather velocity and maintain it, digital disruption happens fast so time is of the essence
Work on attracting/accessing capable talent … they are in short supply, so learn how to retain them or continuity will suffer
Conclusion
One needs a sense of urgency, imagination and vision to begin a successful Digital Transformation, grounded in customer needs and an understanding of the competitive environment. There are quite a few pitfalls one is likely to encounter along the way, however strategies and methods exist to address those. A lot depends on getting the right people in place who have both the will as well as the skills, and being able to hold on to them.
Therafter speed, individual and collective motivation, enthusiastic collaboration and focused action is what will make the difference. And persistence will lead to success.
Thank you for reading this article! I welcome your comments below.
— Ashish Deshpande | https://medium.com/@ashish.deshpande/succeeding-at-digital-transformation-3805b0ddc50c | ['Ashish Deshpande'] | 2021-09-11 18:59:57.558000+00:00 | ['Disruption', 'Transformation', 'Enterprise', 'Digital', 'Technology'] |
2,179 | Facebook and Silicon Valley’s Silent Spring: The Question of Technology | Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash
Mark Zuckerberg’s inability to move beyond the scripted apologies during his congressional testimony in Washington about the Cambridge Analytica scandal confirmed what many already sensed: Zuckerberg and Facebook are out of touch with the most basic concerns and feelings of citizens across America and the world — and, as a consequence, Facebook is sinking and on a path to irrelevance. The root cause of that process was sitting right in front of the senators: a founder CEO who is so stuck in his own bubble that he can’t sense how the collective attention around him has changed. To be fair, the bubble surrounds all the Big Tech and Big Data behemoths, not just Facebook. As we have learned recently, these companies navigate and manipulate people’s attention and micro-habits every day. Says Tristan Harris, the former design ethicist for Google:
“[Imagine] walking into a control room with a hundred people hunched over a desk with little dials, and that that control room will shape the thoughts and feelings of a billion people. This might sound like science fiction, but this actually exists right now today. I know because I used to be in one of those control rooms. [This matters] because what we don’t talk about is that a handful of people … through their choices will steer what a billion people are thinking today.”
The problem, explains Harris, is that app designers are trained in exploiting small vulnerabilities of the human mind that then glues them to the screen and reinforces addictive behavioral patterns, particularly among teenage users. But we’ve probably heard that before. What has shifted? What has shifted over the past several months is the perception of the collective. While people in other parts of the world have had mixed feelings about the massive asymmetry of power between the few inside the control room and the billions of us outside of it, for a long time, there have always been two countries where that kind of awareness tended to be least developed: China and the U.S. With the scandalous revelations around Cambridge Analytica, one of them finally seems to have had its wake-up moment too.
An Assault on Attention, Empathy, and Our Humanity
What’s new is that more people are seeing connections that before were visible to only a few. My MIT colleague Sherry Turkle has likened this situation to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, a book that sparked the global environmental movement more than half a century ago. While Silent Spring made people aware of the adverse effects of chemical agricultural technology on nature, the current moment is about becoming aware of the adverse effects of digital social technologies on the human mind.
Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash
And just as Limits to Growth (another book that sparked the global environmental movement when it was published in 1972) pointed us to the contradiction between finite resources and infinite growth, today we learn about another inherent contradiction that will shape the public discourse for the years to come. It’s the contradiction between the finite resource of human attention and the infinite hunger for growth and global dominance that Big Tech companies pursue. Attention, argues Tristan Harris, is the ultimate battleground of all Big Tech companies in order to sell it to the best-paying advertisers. We and our attention are their product, not their customer. That’s the first assault. The second assault, argues Turkle, is on our empathy. Over the past two decades and with the rise of social media, the markers for empathy among U.S. college students have dropped 40%. The third assault is on our humanity. Go to any major city. What do you see? Droves of people moving around and interacting with each other heads down, staring at their devices. The free online documentary “Stare into the Lights My Pretties” does a good job of holding a mirror up to this highly disturbing phenomenon. The problems associated with being glued to our screens are well known. Eighth-graders in the United States that use social media for ten hours a week or more are 56% more likely to show symptoms of depression and anxiety disorder than others. Today in America, one in three teenage girls (and one in four teenage boys) show symptoms of anxiety disorder. What are we doing to ourselves and to our children?
Three collective conditions: Post-truth, post-democratic, post-human
Seeing these adverse effects on the individual is one part of the current awakening. But the other part is no less important. It concerns the effects on collective society. They can be summarized by three patterns and conditions that we see worldwide today: post-truth, post-democratic, post-human.
Post-truth. The number that best summarizes this condition is 3,001: that’s the number of lies and misleading statements by President Trump in his first 446 days in office. In spite of all these lies, his approval rating in the United States remains unchanged. Americans, according to former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, are facing an “epidemic of dishonesty” that is more dangerous than terrorism or communism. The post-truth condition is greatly amplified by social media. According to a recent MIT study, false information is 70% more likely to be shared on Twitter than true information. Social media are intentionally designed to keep us inside our own filter bubbles. Algorithms feed us information that confirms our views and shields us from information that could challenge them — even if what confirms our views or triggers our anger is based on false information or lies. Post-truth also means that how people feel about things (the first-person perspective) matters at least as much as the objective dimension of these facts does (the third-person perspective). Finally, post-truth tends to lead to a state of confusion. For most people this condition boils down to this: You can’t know. Nobody does.
Post-democratic. The number that summarizes this condition is 87. Facebook and Cambridge Analytica exposed private data of 87 million users, which then were used to manipulate the Brexit vote and the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The rise of filter bubbles, micro-targeting, Russian bots, false news, and dark posts to amplify hate and fear, combined with the falling apart of communities and the rise of autocrats, are all symptoms of the same collective condition. It’s a crisis of old democratic institutions that have been eroded by the use of technology and highjacked by special interest groups representing Big Money, Big Tech, Big Pharma, and the fossil fuel industry. For most people the post-democratic condition boils down to this: You can’t really participate (in the decisions that affect you) and connect (to people outside of your bubble).
Post-human. The number that exemplifies this condition is 47: that’s the percentage of all jobs in the United States that, according to a recent study, will be replaced by machines by 2050. If that’s true, what does it mean? How do we distribute work if work is scarce? How do we distribute income if it is no longer tied to work (by providing a universal basic income?)? How do we change the tax system when natural resources are scarce and work is abundant (by imposing a carbon tax?)? What kind of future do we want to create? Are we going to be the housecats of our artificial intelligence (AI) overlords? Or is there a more intentional choice that we can make around technology? Do we choose a path that entails developing more addictive technologies that diminish our creative capacities, or do we choose a path toward developing technologies that enhance our creative capacities? Which path do we choose? For most people the current post-human condition boils down to this: You can’t choose. You can’t transform.
Photo by Owen Beard on Unsplash
These are the three collective conditions of our time. Donald Trump is the face and living embodiment of the first condition. His attention span is minimal, and his connection to reality is fleeting, at best. Mark Zuckerberg is the face and living embodiment of the second condition. His empathy is minimal, and his connection to others is fleeting, at best. Who is the face and living embodiment of the third condition? We all are, all of us who check our phones 150 times or more a day for app updates and messages (current average). The issue here is the Tyranny of Technology (ToT). It’s the most disturbing pattern that is emerging around us, between us, and within us. ToT turns our minds and micro-behaviors into extensions of AI-generated algorithms, which are outside of our awareness and control.
What do these three phenomena — Trump, Zuckerberg, and ToT — share? They share a way of operating that makes us locked inside of our own bubble. You can’t get out. That condition is obvious in the case of Trump and Zuckerberg. And sadly, it’s also increasingly true for the rest of us, to the degree that we’re victims of the Tyranny of Technology. The aforementioned documentary and the Netflix series “Dark Mirror” provide excellent examples of bringing the ToT megatrend to our attention.
Summing up from a first-person view: For most — particularly younger — people these societal conditions look and feel like this: You can’t know. You can’t connect. You can’t transform.
The Question of Technology
The most important thing we can do now is to change the conversation by starting to ask the right questions. Those include: What future do we want to create? Who are we as human beings? What path of technology development should we choose? A path that sets us on a race to the bottom by designing addictive and creativity-diminishing technologies, or one that puts us on a race to higher levels of human and social development by designing creativity-enhancing technologies?
Who needs to be at the table for those conversations? One thing we know for sure is this: conversations that are left to the few people inside corporate control rooms or to the handful people who own those companies will ignore two critical components: diversity and awareness. Facebook’s and Mark Zuckerberg’s poor responses are the evidence. What’s lacking most in all these conversations is an awareness that the path that we are currently on as a global community — a path toward destruction of the planet, society, and self — is not a necessity but a choice.
Moving beyond the current post-truth, post-democratic, and post-human condition will require us to do more than just criticizing it. The anti-Trump media have failed so far. Billions of words against Trump have only made him stronger. The same may be true for Facebook and our various filter bubbles. We need something different. We need to go beyond restoring society’s key institutions; we need to update our institutional infrastructures in at least three key domains.
We need to address the condition of:
post-truth by creating generative learning infrastructures that link first-, second-, and third-person views in ways that blend head, heart, and hand.
that link first-, second-, and third-person views in ways that blend head, heart, and hand. post-democracy by creating new democratic infrastructures that engage citizens in more direct, distributed, and dialogic modes of participation.
that engage citizens in more direct, distributed, and dialogic modes of participation. post-human by creating collaborative economic infrastructures that shifts the mindset from ego-system to eco-system awareness and allows everyone to contribute to co-generating well-being for all.
The good news is that the future is already here. Each of these infrastructure innovations has already been prototyped on a small scale in various places. But what is missing is an amplification mechanism that links these innovative initiatives to each other, so that they can be coordinated and replicated. Without these infrastructure innovations — and without a profound shift of our intention in how we design, develop, and use technology — the current trajectory toward planetary, societal, and human self-destruction will not be changed.
Which leads us to the two root questions of our time: What is technology? And what is the human being? In his writings about technology, the German philosopher Martin Heidegger reminds us that the word technology comes from the Greek word techne, meaning art. For the Greeks, art and technology was one and the same. Today, that connection is less and less felt — particularly on the user-side of apps that are used by billions and controlled by only a handful inside the control room. Which is precisely why post-truth, post-democracy, and post-human are not three problems. They are three different expressions of the same root issue: the quality of intention that underlies the making of technology. Is technology designed with the intention to empower and enhance human creativity, agency, and flourishing — or is it designed with the intention to maximize the wealth of and world domination by a very small group of mostly unaware, white, middle-aged men?
What You Can Do Now
What can you do to regain agency on these topics? Here are eight micro-actions that can help you regain some of the control that has been lost to Big Tech:
Ban your smartphone from the bedroom and buy an alarm clock. Get out of the filter bubble by doing what people inside Google already do: drop the Google search engine and use DuckDuckGo, an engine that protects your privacy and does not sell your data. Minimize your notifications and retake control of your social media feed (check out MIT Media Lab’s Gobo) Start your day with a moment of mindfulness. Take intentional reflection breaks — for example, a short daily walk that exposes you to the amazing beauty of nature that is all around us. Form a small circle of friends for practicing deep listening and generative dialogue conversations. Make a list of places of most potential — places that would help you figure out the next steps on your life’s and work’s journey — and then immerse yourself in at least one of those places every few months. Join the Transforming Capitalism platform to link up with inspiring innovators who share their stories, experiences, methods, and tools on addressing the issues outlined above. Join the conversation.
Otto Scharmer is a Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan, a Thousand Talents Program Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, and cofounder of the Presencing Institute. | https://medium.com/presencing-institute-blog/facebook-and-silicon-valleys-silent-spring-the-question-of-technology-88efc9f4a4a4 | ['Otto Scharmer'] | 2018-11-04 21:53:32.206000+00:00 | ['Silicon Valley', 'Technology', 'Social Media', 'Articles By Otto'] |
2,180 | How to manage Damage screen fixing in Auckland for your gadgets | Indeed, even the individuals who have never displaced a screen can figure out how to do it contingent upon laptop repair. Simply know that on the off chance that you possess a workspace with a touch screen it can make the procedure substantially more testing.
What amount does it cost to fix a PC screen?
If you’re willing to take the jump and do this without anyone else’s help, at that point you can wind up safeguarding your gadgets you may have thought you expected to supplant. Here are 5 stages you can take to effectively supplant or fix your split-screen.
1. Know your model and survey the harm
Before you start the way toward changing your screen, it’s critical to know precisely what’s up and what should be fixed. The sort of gadget you have an impact on the amount you’ll need to pay for another screen, as will its age, which may make finding a substitution rather troublesome. You ought to do some examination online to see whether you even have the alternative to fix the screen yourself.
· Power it up
The initial step is ensuring the gadget controls up effectively and that the screen is the main issue you have to address. As a test, connect your device to a different screen. If your workstation appears to work well, at that point almost certainly, the messed up tablet repair is all you need to stress over. Remember that a few workstations need to have some capacity keys squeezed all together for an outer presentation to work appropriately.
· Investigate the workstation
You will likewise need to do a total investigation of your PC to decide whether your screen is the main issue. A devastated illustrations card or a PC that will not fire up shows that another screen isn’t sufficient to get you fully operational once more.
2. Locate the right screen
One of the fundamental reasons you should know the model of your gadgets is so you’re certain that you’re obtaining the right substitution screen. While various organisations offer workstation screen fix packs that can make the procedure simpler, if you request an inappropriate screen you won’t have the option to make any fixes. In case you’re experiencing issues making sense of your gadget model, you can visit the “Settings” menu and locate the sequential number to help you in your pursuit.
3. Get the correct devices and open the screen
This is certainly not a far-reaching guide for all damage screen fixing in Auckland, however, it should cover the nuts and bolts for most models. You will require a couple of devices to appropriately introduce your new screen. These devices can make the procedure a lot easier and enable you to fix things productively.
· Set yourself up by having the accompanying close by:
Ø A spotless, level surface where you can work
Ø A putty blade or comparable item to evacuate the screen bezel
Ø An attractive screwdriver
Ø A stick or needle for expelling the bezel
Ø A little dish to hold screws
Ø Glue or tape to tie down the new LCD to the PC outline
When you have amassed the apparatuses you have to supplant the screen, you can get the opportunity to work fixing your gadget. Lay the shut PC on the level surface you have picked and keep your devices close by.
· Leave control sources
To start with, turn off your PC and ensure that it is unplugged from a power source to maintain a strategic distance from any danger of electric stun. From that point forward, it additionally evacuates the battery to abstain from bringing on some other issues.
· Cautiously expel stickers and screws
From that point, you should utilise a stick to evacuate the stickers situated on the bezel so you don’t wind up harming them. You should utilise them later once your screen is appropriately introduced, so ensure they aren’t lost and that you store them clingy side up so you can reuse them. Put them in a protected spot so when you go to connect your new screen, they are anything but difficult to discover.
· Expel bezel
It’s currently time to delicately evacuate the bezel. Ensure you are cautious when evacuating your old screen’s bezel since you should reinstall it once the screen is supplanted. By utilising some other things your mobile phone can start working. Also, various places can give you some mobile accessories in Palmerston North.
4. Expel the screen
One of the riskier pieces of supplanting your workstation screen will evacuate the screen. To begin with, ensure that the bezel is off so you can have liberated access to the screen. It will be verified onto the PC’s metal edge, and you should take it off from the left and right sides.
5. Supplement the new screen
As you vacate the screen, you ought to have the option to find where your new one will go. Spot it face down inside the casing so it fits consummately. From that point onward, you can reattach the video connector so it is put precisely where the past screen sat. Ensure that it is as adjusted as imaginable at that point connect it with tape or glue.
Final words
You ought to likewise realise that fixing your gadgets screen isn’t generally the least demanding activity, and there is a probability you can exacerbate the issue while voiding the maker guarantee. It’s critical to feel positive about your abilities before you start the way toward supplanting your screen and to consider on the off chance that you would be increasingly happy with taking it into a certified auto shop. | https://medium.com/@omnitechstorenz/how-to-manage-damage-screen-fixing-in-auckland-for-your-gadgets-343bff104c | ['Omnitech Limited'] | 2019-11-18 04:25:02.320000+00:00 | ['Laptop Repair', 'Mobile Accessories', 'Tablet Repair', 'Technology'] |
2,181 | Bitcoin Based Extortion Escalating According To FBI PSA | Bitcoin Based Extortion Escalating According To FBI PSA
The feds are telling the public not to give in to any extortion attempts and offer some tips on how to avoid scams.
Earlier this month, on August 7, 2018, the FBI issued a public service announcement (PSA) warning of an increase in cases of extortion, plied by scammers through email and postal services, seeking bitcoins from the victims.
According to the FBI the scams seem authentic thanks to “specific user information,” used to lend credibility to the schemes. The feds offered up a laundry list of commonalities between the reported extortion attempts received by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) as follows:
“ The extortion attempt comes as an e-mail or letter from an unknown party. The recipient’s personal information is noted in the e-mail or letter to add a higher degree of intimidation to the scam. For example, a recipient’s user name or password is provided at the beginning of the e-mail or letter. The recipient is accused of visiting adult websites, cheating on a spouse, or being involved in other compromising situations. The e-mail or letter includes a statement like, “I stumbled across your misadventures,” or “I installed malware on the adult video site” as an explanation of how the information was supposedly gathered. The e-mail or letter threatens to send a video or other compromising information to family, friends, coworkers, or social network contacts if the ransom is not paid. The e-mail or letter provides a short window to pay, typically 48 hours. The recipient is instructed to pay the ransom in Bitcoin, a virtual currency that provides a high degree of anonymity to the transactions.”
Have you received any emails or letters matching or similar to the descriptions above? If so, you can file a complaint with IC3. Please remember that the FBI doesn’t condone giving in to the demands of extortionists because the funds turned over may further “facilitate continued criminal activity including potential organized crime activity and associated violent crimes.”
Alongside the warning, the PSA also offers tips to consumers on how they can protect themselves from scams. Some might seem obvious, such as avoiding communication with or opening attachments from unknown senders, and monitoring bank and credit records. And while some might wonder why they even exist in the first place, the FBI’s reminder to avoid storing embarrassing photos on devices connected to the internet is apt, since data breaches to supposedly secure servers,often housing sensitive information, have been on the rise.
The FBI also advises users to ensure their password is complex and to utilize multiple passwords for multiple sites as opposed to having a single master password. Services such as 1Password are ideal for serving this purpose; 1Password not only generates and stores a wide range of passwords, it also helps to seamlessly manage security for every account you use online.
The FBI prescribes users ensure that transmissions are secure by checking the URL prefixes and looking for the status bar to display a green “lock” icon. As it turns out, this isn’t enough. The presence of a lock icon merely means the data being transmitted is encrypted, however it speaks nothing to the validity of the site itself. Modern day phishing sites are indiscernible from sites with the lock icon, because they also have it. MetaCert’s browser add-on Cryptonite will help you avoid phishing sites, because it blocks them outright. Cryptonite is also fine tuned to provide a visual cue for verified resources on the web related to cryptocurrency, be it a URL or a post from a social media account. When Cryptonite’s black shield turns green, you know the resource is verified. Browsing with Cryptonite you can visit sites often targeted by phishers such as cryptocurrency exchanges and wallet services without having to worry about losing your credentials.
Make time to take a look at your social media accounts and regulate who can see what. Publicly available information about you is often repurposed by scammers in the ways the FBI mentioned above in order to add believability to a phishing scam. Maybe it’s time to take a look at your social media following, and examine what personal details can be studied from your posts by people you don’t know. Otherwise, that which can be gleamed from a facebook status, tweet, or instagram post may come back to haunt you.
The MetaCert Protocol is a trust and reputation threat intelligence system for verifying web resources. It addresses a number of attack vectors, encompassing solutions for anti-phishing, child safety, brand protection, crypto-address verification, and news credibility. Find out more about the MetaCert Protocol, ask questions, and leave suggestions on both our White Paper and Technical Paper. You can also join our Telegram community to stay up to date on our blockchain project. Remember to install Cryptonite to protect yourself from phishing scams before it’s too late. | https://medium.com/metacert/bitcoin-based-extortion-escalating-according-to-fbi-psa-5c51a77d30d1 | ['Jeremy Nation'] | 2018-08-21 22:12:13.904000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Security', 'Crime', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin'] |
2,182 | Clojure Bits: Working with JSON | Bit-sized and human friendly bits of Clojure. Today, let’s chat about JSON, the backbone of the internet.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
I’ve written a ton of web applications in Clojure and so far my favourite library for working with JSON is Cheshire. It’s simple to use and fast. Really fast. Here’s how you can get started with it.
Installation
To install cheshire, add it to you list of dependencies in project.clj like so
:dependencies [ ...some dependencies... [cheshire "5.9.0"] ; installed! ...more dependencies...]
It’ll download when you use lein to run your program or start the REPL .
Using it
Start by adding cheshire to the current namespace. You can do this in two ways depending on whether you’re working in the REPL or in a file.
In a file => (:require [cheshire.core :as json])
In the REPL=> (require '[cheshire.core :as json])
The API
Clojure map to JSON
(json/encode {:message "build passing"})
;; "{\"message\":\"build passing\"}"
JSON to clojure map
(json/decode valid-json-object)
;; {message "build passing"}
;; notice the map doesn't have keywords
JSON to clojure map with keywords
(json/decode valid-json-object true)
;; {:message "build passing"}
;; Yay, much nicer!
Cheshire can do a lot more than this. But this is all you need 99% of the time. | https://medium.com/@alekcz/clojure-bits-working-with-json-d93660e7b99f | ['Alexander Oloo'] | 2019-09-04 22:20:24.202000+00:00 | ['Clojure', 'Json', 'Programming', 'Development', 'Technology'] |
2,183 | Silicon Valley’s Brain-Meddling: A New Frontier For Tech Gadgetry | Introducing his students to the study of the human brain Jeff Lichtman, a Harvard Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, once asked: “If understanding everything you need to know about the brain was a mile, how far have we walked?”. He received answers like ‘three-quarters of a mile’, ‘half a mile’, and ‘a quarter of a mile’.
The professor’s response?: “I think about three inches.”
Last month, Lichtman’s quip made it into the pages of a new report by the Royal Society which examines the prospects for neural (or “brain-computer”) interfaces, a hot research area that has seen billions of dollars of funding plunged into it over the last few years, and not without cause. It is projected that the worldwide market for neurotech products — defined as “the application of electronics and engineering to the human nervous system” — will reach as much as $13.3 billion by 2022.
So, despite our admitted lack of understanding, it seems the brain is a new and significant frontier for tech-pioneers looking to reinvent — and perhaps irreversibly influence — the way we interact with the world.
The Royal Society report speculates:
Mental health conditions could be treated by using interfaces to target relevant parts of the brain, bringing relief to the hundreds of millions worldwide who have depression. Even Alzheimer’s disease, which has proved resistant to conventional therapies, might be halted or reversed.
Outside of medical use:
People could undergo ‘whole brain diagnosis’ to identify their unique talents and challenges. Today’s ‘brain training’ computer games, whose impact is debated, might give way to demonstrably effective ‘brain cleaning’ or ‘mind gym’ sessions to keep minds sharp and creative. Neural interfaces offer myriad possibilities to enhance everyday life. We could use our minds to open doors, turn on lights, play games, operate equipment or type on computers. Then there are opportunities to enhance or supercharge the brain itself. Implants, helmets, headbands or other devices could help us remember more, learn faster, make better decisions more quickly and solve problems, free from biases… Mood, knowledge and memory could be securely and confidentially backed up or uploaded to a digital cloud.
I know, it’s a lot. And I’ve omitted the references to telepathy, the potential merging of human with artificial intelligence, and the option to hook your neural interface up to that of another animal, like a bird.
To a sci-fi nut, this must all sound like manna from heaven. To the rest of us it’s likely to be a little bewildering (to say the least). So, is this a real proposition? Or just the (fairly creepy) wishlist of some over-ambitious Silicon Valley nerds?
The truth is that it’s difficult to tell what the long-term trajectory for brain-computer interfaces will be but, to a degree, they are already here. Though still fairly elementary, we currently have drones and artificial limbs that can be controlled using the brain alone, as well as headsets that boost concentration and memory. Some of these technologies are invasive, but many are not. Some record and react to brain activity, some stimulate it, and some do both.
Reassuringly, it’s non-invasive technologies that look to be headed for commercial distribution. Most of these are re-imaginings of the electroencephalogram (EEG), a system that monitors and records electrical impulses in the brain. One of the leaders in the commercial space, CTRL-Labs, specifically focuses on what it calls ‘intention capture’. Their product is a electromyogram (EMG)-based wristband, which can respond to electrical signals as they activate in a user’s arm muscle. At the moment, the company’s demo has a player controlling a simple game using only this impulse detection and no physical movement (take a look).
If you’re cynical about how far this could go, you should know that Facebook acquired CTRL-Labs last month, and just a couple of weeks ago leaked transcripts from Mark Zuckerberg’s internal meetings reinforced the firm’s keen interest in brain-computer interfaces.
Giving his thoughts on Elon Musk’s Neuralink project, Zuck says:
I am very excited about the brain-computer interfaces for non-invasive. What we hope to be able to do is just be able to pick up even a couple of bits. So you could do something like, you’re looking at something in AR, and you can click with your brain. That’s exciting … Or a dialogue comes up, and you don’t have to use your hands, you can just say yes or no. That’s a bit of input. If you get to two bits, you can start controlling a menu, right, where basically you can scroll through a menu and tap. You get to a bunch more bits, you can start typing with your brain without having to use your hands or eyes or anything like that. And I think that’s pretty exciting. So I think as part of AR and VR, we’ll end up having hand interfaces, we’ll end up having voice, and I think we’ll have a little bit of just direct brain.
If a little bit of “direct brain” doesn’t bother you, it’s worth looking ahead to the possibilities that extend beyond basic control of an elementary system.
For example, we already have neural systems that can read moods and emotions. Last year, The South China Morning Post reported that this kind of technology had been deployed by Chinese firms looking to monitor employees for signs of anger, anxiety or depression using devices built into headwear and hats. And perhaps even more impressively (or disturbingly), researchers at Kyoto University in Japan have been able to use a deep neural network to convert brain signals from an fMRI scan (used to map neural activity) into an image that contains many of the shape and color characteristics as one viewed by the subject of the scan.
This is all just to say that these types of systems are unlikely to cease development once they provide the capabilities to click or scroll in Mark Zuckerberg’s AR hellscape.
The Royal Society report makes sure to flag some early concerns. Most rational-thinking people won’t be too far behind them: What would it mean if an external company or government could gain access to our moods, or even our thoughts? How might human privacy — and indeed autonomy — be protected in if these technologies became ubiquitous? How can we ensure that they wouldn’t be weaponized by bad actors or governments to influence and control entire populations? (And is it okay if they only want to subliminally coax us to eat more healthily or respect the rules…?)
It’s not hard to think of governments that will be watching the progression of this technology very keenly.
Though it’s only fair to weigh risks against benefits before eagerly ringing the alarm bell, even here there is ambiguity. The benefits of commercializing this technology seem extremely limited, at least on the face of it. Game play? Fitness? Hands-free navigation of an augmented or virtual reality environments? None of these feel like strong arguments for selling access to our brains.
But what about neural interfaces that could improve memory or concentration, making us super productive in life and work? Presumably, one could make the case that this is a worthwhile trade? Well, incidentally, completely separate research released just after the Royal Society report should urge caution around attempts to enhance such functions.
A new journal in Science published findings that appear to affirm the long held theory that there is an active “forgetting mechanism” which kicks in while we sleep. The study found that when researchers suppressed neurons that produce the naturally occurring hypothalamic melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) in mice, their memory performance actually increased. In other words, without this unnatural suppression these hormones act very deliberately to impair — or “modulate” — our memories.
This is a biological addition, not some kind of “lack” that we must compensate for with technology. We might safely assume that it serves some worthwhile evolutionary purpose.
Indeed, there is good reason to believe that if we didn’t forget we would live in a perpetual state of confusion, our brains awash with confusing superfluous information. One curious story that speaks to the chaos of the ever-remembering mind is that of the man who became known as subject S; a young Moscow-based journalist (later identified as Solomon Shereshevsky) who approached neuropsychologist Dr. Alexander Luria in 1929 with a very peculiar problem: he could not forget.
According to Luria’s reports, subject S. was able to remember foreign poems, scientific formulas, and enormously long strings of words and numbers decades after he had been told them. He recited them to perfection every time Luria tested him.
Great asset, eh? To never forget a name at a cocktail party, miss a birthday, fail a test on a fact or formula you already learned? To remember your own human life with crystal clarity rather than with the foggy haze that tends to wash over even our dearest memories?
Not so. According to the New York Times:
S.’s ability to remember was also a hindrance in everyday life. He had a hard time understanding abstract concepts or figurative language, and he was terrible at recognizing faces because he had memorized them at an exact point in time, with specific facial expressions and features. The ability to forget, scientists eventually came to realize, was just as vital as the ability to remember.
Who knows what psychological or neural confusion could eventually be brought on by using brain-computer interfaces to optimize evolutionary facets…
But we probably shouldn’t run screaming for the hills just yet. These systems are in their infancy, and there have been incredible breakthroughs in the research that should yield great benefits for people with mental and physical impairments. Nevertheless, The Royal Society are right to get ahead of the ethical and moral dilemmas that will accompany the commercialization of this type of technology. It is unfamiliar terrain, and allowing a system to intervene on our physical and mental capacities is an unprecedented encroachment that could easily turn sour. Certainly if we are to judge by the ways technological intelligence and surveillance have been wielded so far.
For now we should keep a close watching brief on how this technology develops, as well as any-and-all proposals for its use. One thing seems to be true, if we thought society had already reached its technological saturation point, we “ain’t seen nothin’ yet”. | https://towardsdatascience.com/silicon-valleys-brain-meddling-a-new-frontier-for-tech-gadgetry-5bcd357c4189 | ['Fiona J Mcevoy'] | 2019-10-18 16:30:36.322000+00:00 | ['Neuroscience', 'Technology', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Brain', 'Ethics'] |
2,184 | How to double spend bitcoin using electrum — No technical sorcery required! | The below post has simple instructions on doing a bitcoin double spend. It doesn’t require you to manually construct transactions or use fancy Linux tools. Here is what you need:
An Electrum Wallet (Version 3.0 +)
A gullible merchant/website who accepts zero confirmation payments
Step 1
Create an electrum wallet and send funds to it. Let us call this as Wallet 1. Make sure Use Replace-By-Free is enabled in Tools > Preferences. Also have Edit fees Manually option enabled
RBF option in electrum (Tools > Preferences)
Step 2
Create a new electrum wallet (let us call this as Wallet 2). Send complete balance of Wallet 1 to Wallet 2 with a very low fee
Sending complete wallet balance with a very low fee
Try the lowest fee possible starting from 0.6 upto 1 sat/byte. In some cases electrum will not allow you to broadcast a very low fee payment. Increase the fee little bit and try again. 1 sat/byte always works. Send the payment - let us call the resulting bitcoin transaction as FundingTx
Step 3
Open Wallet 2 and send the payment to the gullible merchant from this wallet. You can leave the fee to default whatever electrum is suggesting as the fee doesn’t matter in this step. Lets us call this tx as SpendingTx
Receive the goods from the merchant in lieu of this unconfirmed payment
Step 4
Open Wallet 1 and increase the fee of the FundingTx. You can right click on the transaction in History tab to get an option to increase fee. Set the new fee to anything greater than 5 sat/byte that will eventually get confirmed.
Now open Wallet 2 and Volia! SpendingTx has disappeared !
You have now successfully double spend. Enjoy goodies from merchant! Feel free to send all funds from Wallet2 back to Wallet 1 or any other address of yours | https://blog.blockonomics.co/how-to-double-spend-bitcoin-using-electrum-no-technical-sorcery-required-78799b07cad7 | ['Shiva S'] | 2019-12-05 09:35:56.351000+00:00 | ['Blockchain Technology', 'Tutorials', 'Bitcoin', 'Bitcoin Wallet', 'Fintech'] |
2,185 | KIRA Network Rolls Out 100 ETH Allocation Contest Event | KIRA Network is offering everyone a chance to be part of the KIRA Network token generation event! Starting on October 8, 2020, one hundred lucky winners will be eligible to win an allocation spot in the public round, allowing each winner to acquire up to 1 ETH worth of KEX tokens (subject to Terms & Conditions below). Increase your chances of winning by completing ALL actions on Gleam.io. The contest will last only one week!
Dates: October 8, 2020 — October 15, 2020
Checking in daily on Gleam.io would give you an extra entry, while writing content on Publish0x about KIRA Network, submitting memes, gifs, sticker packs, songs, video content and other social media interactions, would give you additional entries. In addition, there will be a daily reward of up to 100 USDT on our Telegram Channel, so make sure to join! Moderators of the channel will be awarding high quality responses, interactions, and memes during that period. There will also be other ways to win extra entries to the contest. All of this means that active participation is critical!
Winners will be announced on October 16th, 2020. Check back for official announcements!
ENTER NOW: https://gleam.io/WCvXG/kira-network-contest
About:
KIRA is the first decentralized network that enables market access to any digital asset in the interchain ecosystem. Maintain 100% liquidity of your capital, trade and use DeFi while simultaneously earning block and fee rewards by staking any digital asset. The Multi-Bonded Proof of Stake (MBPoS) is a first consensus that allows to generate revenues from trustless staking of all digital asset types, such as cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and even NFT’s.
Over the past few weeks, KIRA Network has been working on establishing our community in Asia, particularly in China, Vietnam and Korea. In China, KIRA Network received coverage by major Chinese outlets, such as Chainnews, and Chinese community has expressed significant interest in this project. The Chinese WeChat channel has been very active and articles posted there have been viewed more than 3,000 times. KIRA Network has also been part of several major AMA events with the Vietnamese community, including Blue Sea Community, VIC Group, Vietnam Coin Market, BCT Blockchain Channel, CryptoOlala, GFS Group, and Blockchain Core. The KIRA Network Telegram community has also grown exponentially, with over 5,600 currently active members.
Website: www.interchain.exchange
Telegram group: https://t.me/kirainterex
Announcements channel: https://t.me/KiraAnnouncements
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kira_core
Medium: https://medium.com/kira-core
Github: https://github.com/kiracore
Terms & Conditions: | https://medium.com/kira-core/kira-network-rolls-out-100-eth-allocation-contest-event-ba7ae21eaaeb | ['Yuri Papadin'] | 2020-10-07 14:24:39.673000+00:00 | ['Defi', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Interchain', 'Blockchain Startup', 'Cryptocurrency News'] |
2,186 | The Teen Whizkid Running A Food Company Like a Tech Startup | The Teen Whizkid Running A Food Company Like a Tech Startup
What were you doing when you were fifteen? Playing video games? Maybe working at McDonald's. Or perhaps dreaming of one day becoming an entrepreneur?
Ben Pasternak wasn’t dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur. He was becoming one. One year earlier, aged just fourteen, he created two iOs games that went viral and topped the app store charts. At age fifteen, he dropped out of school in Sydney, Australia, and moved to New York City to pitch VCs.
Since then, he has launched and sold several startups, become the youngest tech entrepreneur in history to receive VC funding in Silicon Valley, been wooed by Facebook, Google, and Apple, and is now running what he describes as the ‘Tesla of Chicken.’
It is an inspiring story and one worth looking at.
The 15-Year-Old impresses Silicon Valley
“Everyone I tell has the attitude that there are a million-plus apps out there, [they say] ‘what are the chances of your app working out? You’re just a 15-year-old kid’.” Ben age 15
Ben was always into technology and innovation. At 14, he was the first customer in the world to buy the iPad Air and spent his time in class developing apps. In late 2014, he launched his first app, “Impossible Rush,” a brain teaser that instantly became a success beating out the Tinder and Twitter apps on the Apple store.
After his app went viral, Ben was invited to visit the US offices of Google and Facebook, who offered him internships. He also received a scholarship to Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
On the trip, he also met filmmaker Chris Smith, who had connections in the tech industry and had followed Ben’s achievements in the press. Despite only being fifteen and living on the other side of the world, Chris convinced Ben to drop out of school and move to the USA permanently. He now needed to convince his parents.
Flogging himself and creating history
Ben’s parents, Anna and Mark, had always supported his extracurricular achievements but wanted him to finish high school — and then, preferably, go to university — before pursuing a risky business idea. Eventually, Ben convinced them to let him drop out on one condition — he needed to raise money for his new app idea independently.
The new idea was to take on eBay with his networking app called Flogg, a social networking app for young people to buy and sell things. The idea arose from seeing his friends buy and sell items on Facebook rather than using eBay. “Facebook wasn’t really doing anything to look after their user experience, which was kinda bad,” he said. This offered a great opportunity to create an app targeting the younger Facebook demographic. Ben took up his parents challenge to raise VC funding.
I guess they said that thinking that investors probably wouldn’t give money to a 15-year-old.” Ben Pasternak
To his parent's surprise, Ben managed to raise significant funds for Flogg from venture capital firms, including Binary Capital, Greylock, John Maloney (the former president of Tumblr, and Paul Bricault (an angel investor). This enabled him to move to New York. His father, Mark, wasn’t overly happy, saying in an interview at the time, “Ben Pasternak is now a high school dropout, which is not what I signed up for.”
It appeared age was no barrier — except Ben had the same challenges that many 15-year-olds did. “I left my debit card in a cab the other day, and Chase won’t give me another one without my parents’ approval,” he said in an interview with Teen Vogue. And yes, I realize Teen Vogue isn’t usually quoted in business articles, but it serves to highlight how young Ben was.
He was standing on his own two feet in attracting capital. Even though he was sixteen, he didn’t receive any financial assistance from his parents. “He did ask us once if he could have $30,000 to promote the app, and I said no. He managed to get it from somebody else, another kid. I was like: ‘Oh my god. Does this kid’s father know he’s given you $30,000?’ said Mark Pasternak.
Flogg was a huge success, and in 2016, as Ben turned 16, he was named in TIME’s 30 most influential teens, alongside others such as Kylie Jenner, Sasha and Malia Obama, and Jaden Smith.
Taking the leap from tech to food
“I was surrounded by VCs who told me the best way to have an impact on the world was to connect people. Nowadays, you can tell that that’s a really toxic thing. It’s like brain hacking.” Ben Pasternak
Ben didn't stop at Flogg; in November 2016, he created another app, Monkey, which raised $US2 million in venture capital. Described as the Chatroulette of video calls, it had 3 million users who made over 1 billion calls before it was purchased by rival app HOLLA.
It was time for a move, from tech and social media to food.
Plant-based substitutes for meat and dairy have shown explosive growth over the past few years. According to Nielsen research, U.S. sales of plant-based meats rose increased by more than 40% between March 2016 and March 2019, and the segment is predicted to become a billion-dollar market.
Recognizing this, Ben wanted to bring his tech nous to this growing industry. He secured $7 million in capital from an impressive range of investors, including MTV founder and iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman, Casper founder and COO Neil Parikh, and former Tumblr president John Maloney. Importantly he also secured investment from McCain foods which brought the food production expertise to the business. And so NUGGS was born.
Unlike other plant-based or vegan brands, NUGGS aimed to make the product ‘cool.’ They wanted to avoid using the words vegan or plant-based, which Ben believed put potential customers off. Instead, he focuses on the terms ‘clean meat.’
The “Tesla of Chicken”
“I think of us as a nutrition company that operates with a software framework. This leads to two outcomes 1) we are always iterating; 2) we optimize for scalability, which is important because we need billions of people to consume our product for it to have a meaningful impact.” Ben Pasternak
Ben is nothing if not innovative, and so he is taking his tech knowledge and applying it to a new industry. He launched NUGGS as if it was a software company. In the same way the apps are updated with bug fixes, NUGGS takes consumer feedback and tweaks product offerings. Similar to software updates, each version of NUGGS comes with release notes. He even calls their customers “NUGGS users.”
“I think when we’re on version 9.6, people will flex that they had, you know, 1.3. Weird flex, but okay.”
They really push the UX and tech synergies at every customer contact point. Even the packaging for the product brings to mind tech. On one side of the packaging, it reads — Welcome to the Simulation. On the reverse, it says Download Complete- To complete your installation, put your NUGGS in the freezer.
In 2020, NUGGS raised an additional $4.1 million from investors such as Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, former Whole Foods chief executive Walter Robb and model Jasmine Tookes. The company rebranded as Simulate to aid expansion as it looked to move beyond chicken nuggets and into other products in the ultra-competitive category. | https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/the-teen-whizkid-running-a-food-company-like-a-tech-startup-21023bd20bed | ['Ash Jurberg'] | 2021-03-19 17:02:52.376000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Technology', 'Food', 'Startup', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
2,187 | Angular Or React ? | Angular Or React ?
Imagine that you have the responsibility to start a front-end project in a new company for your team or your personal project so your first idea is searching in google about what technology you should use for the front end? Probably you get a thousand and hundred results with the top 3 technologies: React, Angular and vue.js for this reason today I will talk about React vs Angular, Vue.js will have a special post on this website later.
React
A JavaScript library for building user interfaces.
Managed by Facebook Launched on May 2013
Used in web and mobile.
Angular
Angular is a platform and framework for building single-page client applications.
Managed by Google
Launched on Sep 2015
Launched on Sep 2015 Used in web and mobile.
binding
Advantages And Disadvantages
React
Easy to learn, thanks to its simple design if you know JS it’s fast and simple to use this library.
Very Fast, because it uses Virtual DOM implementation and rendering optimization
Great support for server-side rendering, making it a powerful framework for content-focused applications.
Functional Programming has easy and reusable code.
Migration is very easy.
Redux is easy to learn and helps to manage the application state in React.
Maybe problems with react are related to having a lot of tools, libraries, and ways to do the same things. I think React leaves developers to make choices about the best way to develop and if you don’t have the experience you can make bad decisions.
The community is divided into using CSS inside components or in separate modules or files. React now uses components but in his beginnings used OOP so you can see a lot of examples in different ways. JSX is confusing sometimes because you mix logic with HTML.
Angular
Typescript helps a lot when you don’t know JS and you need to start to get into the Javascript world.
Angular is based on components and that helps a lot to organize views, modules, and files.
Documentation helps get the all necessary information to start and work on a project.
Scalability and great architecture to create big projects.
Dependency injection helps a lot to separate concerns and create unit tests
You have rules, best practices, and the right way to create angular apps.
Problems in angular are when you start, you need some time to learn some basic concepts and the curve of learning takes more time. Performance, probably the performance is slower than react, but each release tries to improve it.
performance
Which Should I Choose?
The answer is: It depends because sometimes React fit very good in your company but in others just generate a messy code, in my experience to make this decision you need to evaluate some factors like size team, skills team, budget, size of your project, etc, please don’t make decisions just following trends, it’s a big fail, probably you need to have a checklist always with some questions: | https://medium.com/@lsaimohith/angular-or-react-94aee8655eff | ['Sai Mohith'] | 2021-02-23 07:50:45.210000+00:00 | ['React', 'Technology', 'Technology News', 'Angular', 'Development'] |
2,188 | Why I got into Software Engineering | The question: “why do you want to be a software engineer?” The answer? To be honest is still slightly unknown to me. I do know that I’ve always enjoyed the unknown, exploring, and learning. However this all can only happen in my world as long as there is some sort of constant in the background to go along with it. Adventures are only fun for me as long as there’s the solid comfort of a home base.
Growing up, I wasn’t ever a gamer, and my presence online still isn’t great. Technology, however, is now and always has been fascinating to me. It’s uncomfortable to not understand how things work. Until recently though, I fell too complacent in the hospitality industry as that was all I knew, and I was good at it. When COVID-19 happened I, along with many others, was forced to redirect my life. So I kept going back to my curiosity with software and technology. How does a robot vacuum your whole house? How does an app I use everyday to work for Instacart work? How does my GPS work, and how did we ever get around before? These, along with an endless amount of other questions, are why I decided to use this time being forced out of my current comfort zone to find another one. Technology is something that isn’t going away, and not only is it not going away, it’s probably never slowing down it’s growth.
I’ve always been a person of many ideas and dreams, but rarely follow through. So the thought of starting school again and changing my entire career path is something that both terrifies and excites me at the same time. I want to gain the knowledge of the fundamentals of software engineering and skills to forever learn more. I never realized how much I was settling because I was afraid of the unknown until now after the world basically stopped. The technology world never stopped though, and in seeing that, I decided there was nothing I wanted to do more than to understand what it takes to become a Software Engineer.
There are so many different routes a Software Engineer can take in their respective careers. With all those different possibilities, there is also always a home base with Slack and Github, which connect all Software Engineers alike. There’s always more to learn together as this industry is forever changing and evolving. The comfort of a home base at my computer and support system with fellow engineers combined with the large array of different career paths is exactly why I want to be a Software Engineer. | https://medium.com/@colaerin17/why-i-got-into-software-engineering-77270086e572 | ['Erin Cola'] | 2020-11-21 02:15:36.664000+00:00 | ['Covid Diaries', 'Software Engineering', 'Newtothis', 'Flatiron School', 'Future Technology'] |
2,189 | ¿Cuál es la diferencia entre analítica y estadística? | Head of Decision Intelligence, Google. Hello (multilingual) world! This account is for translated versions of my English language articles. twitter.com/quaesita
Follow | https://medium.com/datos-y-ciencia/cu%C3%A1l-es-la-diferencia-entre-anal%C3%ADtica-y-estad%C3%ADstica-7ac1d6df7288 | ['Cassie Kozyrkov'] | 2020-03-31 19:07:05.936000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Ciencia Y Datos', 'Data Science', 'Technology', 'Analytics'] |
2,190 | Economics for Tech People — Supply (Part 2) | The Code
Load Libraries
To work through the project, we will need the readxl and tidyverse packages. If you do not have them installed in your R environment, simply remove the “#” sign before the “install.packages…” lines of code [1]. Once they are installed, you will not need to install them again on your machine.
Here’s the code:
# Load Libraries # If you do not have readxl or tidyverse installed, uncomment the following lines
# install.packages("readxl")
# install.packages("tidyverse")# Load Libraries
require(readxl)
require(tidyverse)
Check Data Import
Sometimes Excel files are temperamental when they interact with R, especially RStudio. Use the code below to import the data and check it looks okay.
Here’s the code:
# Import Data
Supply_Data <- read_excel("Supply_Data.xlsx") # Check data import
head(Supply_Data)
Here’s the output:
Screenshot of the first six rows of our supply data in RStudio on a Mac
If you import the data and the Price and Qs_# are not the column labels and are the first row of data, you will probably see something like X1 X2 X3, etc. as the column headings. If that happens, you can follow the same process that I described in “The Setup” section of the previous article Economics for Tech People — Demand (Part 1). That will show you how to import the data a different way to get caught up to this article.
Quick Test Plot
It is always a good idea to do a quick graph just to make the the data looks good and is cooperating. It does not have to be pretty, but it can help diagnose problems early. Since we are looking at supply curves, we should see a general trend of having higher quantity supplied (Qs_#) values as the price increases because of the Law of Supply [2]. Let’s pick one of our hypothetical firms and take a look.
Here’s the code:
# Test plot
plot(Supply_Data$Qs_2, Supply_Data$Price, type = "l", main = "Test Plot", xlab = "Quantity", ylab = "Price")
Here’s the output:
Quick plot of one of the Quantity columns vs. price to check the data in RStudio on a Mac
For bonus points, go ahead and try changing the firm number and making graphs of different firms on your own. I chose firm 2 here, but any number between 1 and 10 will work and give different looking curves.
Plot All Individual Supply Curves
The wonderful part about good code is that it can be reused and modified quickly and easily. To accomplish the goal of plotting all the individual supply curves, we will use the same stack() function in conjunction with the data frame object class inside of the facet_wrap() function within ggplot2 [1]. Renaming the columns helps with our sanity and readability because R will automatically rename the columns into something we do not want them to be called [1].
We do this because ggplot2 likes data in a certain way, so we can get a better data structure to make use of its functions rather than trying to make the functions do something they were not intended to do directly.
Here’s the code:
# Wrangle the data into a ggplot friendly structure
Wrangled_Supply_Data <- data.frame(Price = Supply_Data$Price, stack(Supply_Data[2:11]))
names(Wrangled_Supply_Data)[2] <- "Quantity"
names(Wrangled_Supply_Data)[3] <- "Qs_num" # Check the data
head(Wrangled_Supply_Data)
Here’s the output:
First six rows of the wrangled and labeled supply data in a ggplot friendly structure in RStudio on a Mac
Now that we have wrangled our data into an appropriate structure, facet_wrap() will cooperate much better with us.
Here’s the code:
# Plot the individual supply curves
ggplot(data = Wrangled_Supply_Data, aes(x = Quantity, y = Price)) +
geom_line(color = "darkred", size = 1) +
geom_point(color = "darkred") +
facet_wrap(. ~ Qs_num)
Here’s the output:
Screenshot of a plot of all the individual supply curves in the data set in RStudio on a Mac
Let’s think about what this means in the context of many firms supplying similar SaaS solutions in this market. Each of the 10 firms has a different combination of quantity supplied at each price [2].
According to the Law of Supply, suppliers want to supply more units as the price increases [2]. Intuitively that makes sense. The whole point of being in business is to earn money, so selling more units at higher prices is going to be the plan for any profit-seeking enterprise [2]. We that reflected for each firm.
We also see that often our firms will only start supplying after a certain price. Profit-seeking businesses are not charities, so they will only start to supply units once it becomes worth it for the firms [2].
Firms, especially those supplying SaaS services in a competitive market, have a certain level of cost to start selling and have increasing costs over time, which is the rationale behind needing higher prices to justify supplying more units [2].
Market Supply
Just like the market demand in the previous article, the market supply is the sum of all the individual firms’ supply curves [2]. For each price, we add the quantities of all 10 firms together to get the final numbers for the market supply curve [2].
Here’s the code:
# Create market supply
Market_Supply <- data.frame(Price = Supply_Data$Price, Market_Supply = rowSums(Supply_Data[2:11])) # Check the data
head(Market_Supply)
Here’s the output:
Screenshot of the market supply in RStudio on a Mac
Plot the Market Supply
We will continue using ggplot and add a few styling components to visualize the market supply.
Here’s the code:
# Plot market supply curve
ggplot(data = Market_Supply, aes(x = Market_Supply, y = Price)) +
geom_line(color = "darkred", size = 1) +
geom_point(color = "darkred") +
geom_vline(xintercept = 0) +
geom_hline(yintercept = 0) +
ggtitle("Market Supply Curve") +
theme(plot.title = element_text(hjust = 0.5))
Here’s the output:
Screenshot of the plot of the market supply in RStudio on a Mac
Just like the market demand curve in the first article, I see three distinct areas in the curve where changing the price changes the quantity supplied in dramatically different ways.
This leads us to the idea of elasticity.
Elasticity
The fundamental idea with elasticity is all about determining how much the quantity supplied changes for each unit of price change [3]. In the first article about demand, the math is explained in much more detail. What we are doing here is taking a look at different regions of the curve.
When the supply curve is relatively inelastic, it means that the quantity supplied changes less per unit than price [3]. When the supply curve is relatively elastic, the quantity supplied changes more per unit than price [3].
This curve has three distinct regions. There is a relatively inelastic region at the beginning, a middle section where the transition happens, and a relatively elastic region at the higher quantities [3].
Again, just like the article on demand, I assigned elasticity zones to illustrate the point concisely.
Here’s the code:
# Add Elasticity zones
# 10-5.5 zone 1
# 5-4 zone 2
# 3.5-0 zone 3 Market_Supply$Elasticity_Zone <- as.character(c(1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,2,2,2,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3))
Market_Supply
Here’s the output:
Screenshot of the market supply with elasticity zones in RStudio on a Mac
One of my favorite little tricks here is to assign the elasticity zones as characters rather than numbers with the as.character() function. This is going to make ggplot cooperate with the zones because it realizes that they are not numbers with which to do math and are categorical in nature [1].
Plot Market Supply with Elasticity Zones
We are going to add on to our previous market supply code by adding color = Elasticity_Zone to the aes() function so that ggplot knows to assign a different color to each zone [1]. We also will add the geom_smooth() function with the method = “lm” parameter to have it make linear models for each elasticity zone [1].
Here’s the code:
# Plot market supply with elasticity
ggplot(data = Market_Supply, aes(x = Market_Supply, y = Price, color = Elasticity_Zone)) +
geom_line(size = 1) +
geom_point() +
geom_smooth(method = "lm") +
geom_vline(xintercept = 0) +
geom_hline(yintercept = 0) +
ggtitle("Market Supply with Elasticity Zones") +
theme(plot.title = element_text(hjust = 0.5))
Here’s the output:
Screenshot of the elasticity zones in the market supply in RStudio on a Mac
Linear Models and Elasticity
Since we took a look at the specifics of linear models with the lm() function in the article about demand, this time we will use generalized linear models using the glm() function to examine qualities about the three elasticity zones.
Let’s take a look at the code and output for the three elasticity zones and a generalized linear model of the entire curve to better understand the concept.
Here’s the code:
### Create Linear Models ### # Filter Data
Zone_1_glm_data <- Market_Supply %>%
filter(Elasticity_Zone == 1) # Create linear model
Zone_1_glm <- glm(Market_Supply ~ Price, data = Zone_1_glm_data) # Create and print summary
summary(Zone_1_glm)
Here’s the output:
Screenshot of summary statistics for the generalized linear model of Elasticity Zone 1 in RStudio on a Mac
Here’s the code:
# Filter Data
Zone_2_glm_data <- Market_Supply %>%
filter(Elasticity_Zone == 2) # Create linear model
Zone_2_glm <- glm(Market_Supply ~ Price, data = Zone_2_glm_data) # Create and print summary
summary(Zone_2_glm)
Here’s the output:
Screenshot of summary statistics for the generalized linear model of Elasticity Zone 2 in RStudio on a Mac
Here’s the code:
# Filter Data
Zone_3_glm_data <- Market_Supply %>%
filter(Elasticity_Zone == 3) # Create linear model
Zone_3_glm <- glm(Market_Supply ~ Price, data = Zone_3_glm_data) # Create and print summary
summary(Zone_3_glm)
Here’s the output:
Screenshot of summary statistics for the generalized linear model of Elasticity Zone 3 in RStudio on a Mac
Here’s the code:
# Compare against a GLM for the entire market supply # Create linear model
All_supply_glm <- glm(Market_Supply ~ Price, data = Market_Supply) # Create and print summary
summary(All_supply_glm)
Here’s the output:
Screenshot of summary statistics for the generalized linear model of all of market supply in RStudio on a Mac
We want to look at two components in all of these outputs.
First, the Estimate column for the Price coefficient tells us the slope of the line. Simply, the higher the number, the more relatively inelastic the curve is [1][3]. The smaller the number, the more relatively elastic the curve is [1][3]. When referencing the first three outputs, we have good predictive power over the quantity supplied at different sections of the curve [1].
Second, we want to look at the AIC (Akaike Information Criterion) value at the bottom. The closer the AIC is to 0, the better fit of a model we have. In the first three elasticity zones, we have extremely small AIC values indicating that the model tracks closely with the line [1]. When trying to get a linear model for all the data, the AIC value is ~10–15x higher. That means that we have a significantly worse fit [1].
We can see how ridiculous it is to assume an entire market’s elasticity when dealing with non-textbook data.
Here’s the code:
# Look at the linear model line on the graph without looking at elasticity of different parts of the curve
# Plot market supply with elasticity
ggplot(data = Market_Supply, aes(x = Market_Supply, y = Price)) +
geom_line(size = 1) +
geom_point() +
geom_smooth(method = "lm", color = "darkred") +
geom_vline(xintercept = 0) +
geom_hline(yintercept = 0) +
ggtitle("Linear Model of Market Supply without Elasticity Zones") +
theme(plot.title = element_text(hjust = 0.5))
Here’s the output:
Poorly fit linear model visualization over the market supply data in RStudio on a Mac
Maximize Total Revenue
Unlike the answer we got in the demand article, maximizing total revenue from a supplier perspective is all about selling more units at higher prices [3]. When we take a look at the total revenue generated at each price level, we can see this idea reflect the Law of Supply and its predictions [3].
Here’s the code:
# Maximize Total Revenue
Market_Supply$Total_Revenue = Market_Supply$Price * Market_Supply$Market_Supply # Check the data
Market_Supply
Here’s the output:
Screenshot of the total revenue for the market supply data in RStudio on a Mac
Plot the Total Revenue Curve
When visualizing this data, it becomes quite apparent that once we hit the relatively elastic portion of the supply curve that as we sell more units at higher prices, total revenue dramatically increases [3].
Here’s the code:
# Plot market supply with elasticity
ggplot(data = Market_Supply, aes(x = Price, y = Total_Revenue, color = Elasticity_Zone)) +
geom_line(size = 1) +
geom_point() +
geom_vline(xintercept = 0) +
geom_hline(yintercept = 0) +
ggtitle("Total Revenue Curve for Market Supply with Elasticity Zones") +
theme(plot.title = element_text(hjust = 0.5))
Here’s the output: | https://towardsdatascience.com/economics-for-tech-people-supply-part-2-600fdce12cf2 | ['Tyler Harris'] | 2020-10-27 03:43:08.197000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Education', 'R', 'Programming', 'Economics'] |
2,191 | The Path to True Full Self Driving Begins With Radars | Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash
Autonomous Vehicles have to continuously perceive its fast changing surroundings in order to act swiftly. Thus, perception is by far the most crucial step in self driving as it sets the course for further actions. So it’s no surprise that the industry spends the bulk of its time improving perception systems.
Sensors —the gateway to perception
The first stage of every perception system begins with a sensor. Typically a single camera or a handful working together to create a surrounding view. We have spent decades, trying to teach computers to perceive like we do. And while we still haven’t solved all the problems, they are certainly receiving attention from some of the best minds in the industry.
Camera is passive
The camera is a passive sensor. Light reflected off the surroundings reaches the camera’s lens, which focuses it on to the camera’s image sensor which interprets the light to form an image. This implies, if there’s no light or not enough reflected light, the camera is blind to the object. And there’s an inherent assumption here (nothing wrong with it) that we will always have an external light source — the sun, headlights, street lights etc.
Active sensors to the rescue
An active sensor has its own illumination source. It transmits pulses or waves of invisible light, that reflect off objects. The strength of the reflected light, time elapsed between transmission and reception, angle of reception etc. help identify the position, speed and other characteristics of the object in the field of view.
There are two types of active sensors used in today’s self driving prototype vehicles — lidars and radars. Lidars have received an enormous amount of media attention, VC funding and the talent pool in recent years. The bar to entry is low, demand is high, there are enough problems to be solved and the race is still on in the lidar market. And in this glamorous rush, what we haven’t talked about enough are radars.
Radars have been in use in the automotive industry for decades. Their typical use case involves various kinds of collision warning and collision avoidance systems. Radars have been shipping in volume for quite some time and are available from all the major automotive suppliers. This literally makes them a commodity.
The untapped promise of radars
The radars of today are not very useful when it comes to solving full self driving. But this is not a fault or a bug, rather it’s by design. We designed radars to accurately detect large metal objects, i.e. other vehicles on the road. Radars are excellent at detecting and warning you about vehicles in your blind spot, the one right in front of you and the ones you are about to hit while backing up. Although this is all very useful, self driving demands a more nuanced picture of the world around the vehicle.
And it is my strong belief, that radars can help build better perception systems — starting right now.
And here’s why.
1. At par with lidars
If not better, radars are mostly at par with lidars, when it comes to utilizing the sensor data to build perception systems. Lidars may provide more accurate range estimates which in turn might improve object classification. But it’s certainly not an order of magnitude difference.
2. Cost Effective
It’s no secret that the automotive industry is cost sensitive. And as it stands today, radars are certainly an order of magnitude cheaper than lidars. This means that you can afford to have more radars per vehicle leading to better sensing and thus better perception.
3. Adverse weather
Radar is the only sensor that continues to work reliably in snow, dust, fog and rain.
4. In production
Radars have been shipping in cars for decades. We can tap their potential today and not have to wait for some arbitrary industry cost and technology curves to cross thresholds.
A new radar for full self driving
Radars clearly have a promising future. But to bring this to reality, they will have to evolve. And evolve significantly. The best step forward is that radars are designed in a very close collaboration between perception developers and radar experts.
So, what does the next generation radar have to satisfy, in order to make a meaningful contribution to solving the full self driving problem?
1. Higher Resolution
In order to detect large metallic objects, the coarse grained resolution of today’s radars are more than sufficient. But to correctly detect and classify a large range of objects — cars, bikes, pedestrians, railings etc. — radars have to amp up their resolution. This can be either achieved by increasing the number of physical antennas and/or by playing around with the phase of the transmitted signal.
2. View in Elevation
Radars today mainly see in the azimuth or horizontal plane. They aren’t configured to view in the vertical plane. This is critical to distinguish between an obstacle on the road and the overhead bridge. This is done by adding new antennas that transmit and receive in the vertical plane.
3. Reduced Radar Noise
Radar data is inherently very noisy. This makes it hard to decide if the vehicle should indeed brake for an obstacle or simply drive by the obstacle. Besides improving existing radar signal processing algorithms, we can add context awareness to improve detections. For instance, if the GPS co-ordinates suggest the presence of a large road sign, you know the vehicle can drive by safely. I have a feeling Tesla is already doing this. Because they said so.
4. Tap into Raw Radar
Traditionally, radars output a list of objects over a CAN bus and/or a list of raw detections or reflections over ethernet. Think of these detections as the output from the (n-1)th stage of the radar processing pipeline, while the object list is the output from the last stage. What can a perception developer do, if provided access to the data at the (n-2)^th stage or any other earlier stage? Opening up the traditional radar signal processing flow for new ideas will no doubt lead to a huge improvement in overall perception.
5. Dynamic Programming
This concept extends to all sensors and not just radars. When we drive, our gaze wanders between the distant horizon to what’s immediately in front/back/left/right as per the driving needs. We squint our eyes, tilt and turn our heads and change our focus to get the best view of the most important things. Then why should radars (and other sensors) always maintain a constant field of view, focus? The ability to program sensors dynamically will be a huge boost to the perception system.
6. ML, DNNs
You guessed it right. Traditional radars were never built to run their outputs into a machine learning algorithm or a DNN. What kind of a radar data stream is best suited to be processed by a DNN? Are there untapped opportunities to improve perception metrics, reduce noise, increase accuracy? The folks at Waymo might know a thing or two for sure.
So far, we have only talked about perception. There are other use cases where radars prove effective as well.
Mapping & Localization
Radars are also being used to create maps and not just for things on the road. For instance, WaveSense is a startup using radars to create a map of the environment below the road surface. Fused with GPS co-ordinates, such a map can be used to accurately predict the vehicle’s position.
Automotive supplier Bosch, is adding a ‘radar’ layer to traditional maps to create distinct road signatures. By comparing current road signature to the one previously captured in a map, vehicles can accurately localize. Such maps will be updated by vehicles in production.
In cabin sensing
Radars can also be used to sense occupants inside the vehicle, opening the flood gates to a number of safety and comfort features.
In Summary
Everyone is certain cameras are a must for self driving vehicles. It’s time to openly say the same about radars, irrespective of your opinion on lidars. | https://medium.com/predict/the-path-to-true-full-self-driving-begins-with-radars-d887bd73932c | ['Venkatesh Rao'] | 2020-08-05 01:37:42.762000+00:00 | ['Transportation', 'Automotive', 'Autonomous Cars', 'Self Driving Cars', 'Technology'] |
2,192 | Can we stop talking about Artificial Intelligence displacing jobs already? | Can we stop talking about Artificial Intelligence displacing jobs already?
AI will not steal our jobs. It will result in more meaningful work.
AI allows us to do more meaningful, creative, and human work. PC: The Verge
Okay, here are the hard facts: AI will bring dramatic changes to our society in the next few decades and take away many, if not the majority, of the jobs that exist today.
Terrifying, right? But wait a minute.
Let’s say AI does displace most of the jobs in the world. Then its impact on the structure of our society will be so fundamental that even the way we define the term “job” will be drastically changed.
In other words, after the “age of AI” dawns, rather than thinking about how we should find new jobs for people who were displaced by AI, we should be thinking in a much broader scope about our role as humans in this new world — a world in which most of us will not need to work as much (or as hard) as we are now working.
Therefore, let’s go beyond talking about AI displacing jobs, and instead have a conversation about how we as a society should define “jobs” in the first place in the age of AI.
Jobs will no longer be necessary for daily bread, but will instead be pursued for their own enjoyment
For most people right now, when we talk about jobs, we are really talking about something that we have to do for 8 hours (or more) a day to put food on the table for ourselves and our families.
In Why We Work, Psychologist Barry Schwartz explains that the source of good work and job satisfaction are not a paycheck. PC: WBUR
For the majority of us, jobs are not something that we do for its own enjoyment, but rather a duty that we must fulfill to justify our existence as a productive member of society. One report, for instance, finds that more than half of Americans are unhappy at work.
In the age of AI, this conception of “joyless jobs” will change dramatically, because most of the them will be replaced by AI in the very near future.
In 2013, a research study by Oxford found that around 47% of percent of existing jobs are at risk of being automated by AI in the 20 years.
While many see this number as a threat to a large segment of society, I see this as a liberation for many to pursue what they really want to do and to unleash their full potential.
One of the biggest industries this point applies to is finance. The aforementioned study projected that over 40% of work in finance will be replaced by AI in the next two decades.
As graduates from a top-ranked business school, many of my peers went into the finance industry after finishing college.
What greets them are grueling 80+ hour work weeks, soul-crushing tasks such as crunching numbers on Excel every day, and the overwhelming pressure to deliver (or risk getting weeded out in the competitive corporate ladder in finance).
While most of them did not really enjoy their job (in fact, one study showed that over 50% of junior analysts quit after the first three years), my finance friends saw these jobs as the necessary evil to get the jobs they really wanted, such as jobs in private equity and startups.
What AI will do to the finance industry is remove the need of these necessary evils to college graduates. By eliminating the option of these passionless but well-regarded finance jobs, AI will open the opportunity for them to pursue the work they are passionate about in the first place, whether that’s work in startups, private equity, or otherwise.
For example, with the onset of the internet age, jobs such as e-commerce owners are created that greatly simplified the selling process for most producers, making them focus on their core enjoy of their job — making products, instead of worrying about convincing distributors to distribute their products.
The interesting thing about these new, creative industries enabled by AI (like startups) is that no matter how many jobs AI can replace, there will always be new ones created to fill in the gap (such as , therefore not displacing anyone in the process. Thus at the end of the day, AI will only make jobs more enjoyable and less demanding.
AI will not only elevate the enjoyment of work, but also the wellbeing of the working class
Many are quick to ask, “What about working class jobs like manufacturing? People there really do not have alternatives like young college graduates, and their jobs are also at risk due to AI.”
Tesla Clean Factories. PC: Wikimedia.
The point I want to make here is that this population we are talking about is a significant portion of our society. Therefore, some kind of mechanism has to be in place in the age of AI to make sure these people are not left behind.
The ultimate solutions we use may vary. It might be a universal base income (UBI). Just this week, Hillary Clinton revealed in her campaign memoir What Happened that she had worked with staffers on a campaign proposal for a universal basic income for Americans, funded by carbon and financial transaction taxes.
Once considered politically improbable, universal basic income is receiving more and more traction on the left and the right as a serious policy solution to large-scale job automation. As Andrew Yang (founder of Venture for America) points out in his upcoming book The War on Normal People, UBI is “rapidly gaining popularity among forward-thinking politicians and economists. It represents a critical step toward a new kind of economy he calls “human capitalism.”
Or it might be European-style education and retraining programs to help those workers adopt AI-based work. European social democracies such as Germany have spearheaded government programs to retrain workers during times of high unemployment.
Or it might simply be (I personally am banking on this) the development of AIs with advanced interaction design that enable workers to take on higher-level jobs even without a high level of education (you don’t really need to know how a car works to drive).
But the bottom line is that these people will not be left behind by the AI revolution. They will only be elevated by AI in this new societal structure shaped by the AI revolution.
In fact, I will go so far as to argue that this group of people will contribute unprecedented levels of productivity to society that they were never able to under the old “job” system.
The tools with the best interaction design don’t require much formal education to use. PC: The Daily Dot
To support this argument, let’s look back at the history of human evolution.
As someone who comes from a psychology background, what amazes me about the human species is that, although our genome has not altered drastically for the past 5000 years, we managed to elevate our well-being to a level that is unimaginable even with millions of years of natural evolution.
What this means is two things.
First of all, the rapid advancement of humans stems not from an increase in our raw brain power, but rather our ability to make sophisticated tools that support our work, enable us to communicate rapidly, and build better tools through innovation.
Secondly, there is not that much variance among humans in terms of intelligence and ability to innovate. After all, the privileged are not privileged because they have better genes than the underprivileged.
This means that if we pair the least intelligent person in our society today with the most intelligent person from 2000 years ago, the less intelligent person is still significantly more productive than the smartest ancient person, despite their differences in intelligence because they have access to resources and tools that makes them so productive.
So if the variance in the ability to innovate is not very large among the general population, AI will free up the minds of working class people to be much more creative and innovative, rather than leaving them with nothing to do.
What this means is that working class people can focus more of their time and energy to education and training (which are made much more affordable by the internet), or simply doing work that they themselves consider worthwhile.
And when they work in projects and fields that are actually enjoyable to them, their level of contribution to society is going to increase, enabling a better society for us all. After all, operating a cash register usually does not inspire much fulfillment or motivation to innovate.
AI enables humans to be more fully human
One of the major concerns you may have at this moment is “What if AI takes all of our jobs away without giving us all the benefits that you have mentioned? Won’t this create a world of oppression by those who own the AIs?”
I strongly believe this will not be the case.
As I wrote quite extensively in the article I published last week (linked below), to make the perfect AI that can replace human jobs, the AI needs to interact with humans and learn from us.
What this means is that AIs will never be able to push us aside and do everything by itself without our input.
Instead, the determinant of a great Artificial Intelligence should (and hopefully will) be its ability to understand and ask questions about human needs, and provide humans with the right information at the right time to make the right decision.
Eventually, a division of labor will occur between humans and AI, in which humans will only be responsible for tasks that are human in nature — making decisions based on our moral standards and free will. AI, as our compliments and co-workers, will be responsible for collecting data and running analytical processes to empower us to make better decisions.
This will eventually make “inhuman” jobs, such as manufacturing and bagging groceries, unnecessary. This will bring out the true advantage of the human being — human creativity and innovation — to its full potential in our new economy. | https://medium.com/analytics-for-humans/can-we-stop-talking-about-artificial-intelligence-displacing-jobs-already-27c569603747 | ['Bill Su'] | 2018-06-08 19:55:16.013000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'AI', 'Critical Thinking', 'Technology'] |
2,193 | Psychology of the Connected World | It’s true that the surrounding technologies are changing not our lives but also our behavior and attitudes. They or, rather, their creators learn not only to help us, but also to manipulate us in new ways. Our over-trust to technologies might be underneath the new notion of “post-truth” where nothing is ever provable.
The recently emerged era of the connected world has produced new concerns about our behavior and psychology in the new settings. The connectivity of the world around us is changing our lives at home and at work. It gives us more opportunities but also shapes our identities.
At Home
Privacy
Does it still exist? We leave hundreds of digital footprints everyday when we visit a webpage or pay with a credit card. In the connected world, where IoT devices will gain the ability to see and record all our moves, all of our notions of privacy will vanish. It is believed, that such constant surveillance violates the social and psychological foundation of humans, destroying our sense of privacy at every dimension.
We are told that this “ubiquitous surveillance” is emerging from our own voluntary choices because it is out choice to buy smart devices and accept cookies and privacy disclosure agreements on websites. Yet, for example, standard smartphone operating systems don’t permit you to choose safeguards to prevent being surveilled, so our choices are prompted by technology, not our free will.
How will this lack of privacy affect us in the long run? The Helsinki Privacy Experiment explored such long-term psychological consequences of surveillance at home when participants had to live with all their activities, both online and offline, tracked. At first, their responded to the constant intrusion of a camera by changing their behavior — sometimes stopping their activities entirely or hiding them. Yet, after several months, 10 out of 12 participants simply got used to it.
Privacy, it turns out, may not be so valuable after all.
Permanent connectivity
From the emergence of laptops, to the newest devices such as smart watches, the market offers a wide range of accessories that cement the idea of “always-on”. Once you had to look at your phone to stay in touch and up to date with everything, now it can be strapped around your wrist. We are so much attached to our “always-on/always-on-us” devices that we now live in two separate worlds: plugged and unplugged.
Availability
We believe that we live in a society where we expect to be able to reach everyone instantly. In this society there is no excuse not to be able to communicate at any time, because you are supposed to be constantly available. With wearable technology, it becomes even easier to do blurring of the lines between “real-life” and “virtual-life”. People stay connected to one another at any time through diverse microdata.
Digital fatigue
Constant connectivity can take a toll on physical and mental health. We can speak of addiction to smart devices, physical problems due to device-prompted positioning of our bodies, and constant stress. As a result of the blurred line between the online and offline life, many users feel the need to declare a “purge”, or a “holiday” from the connected world.
Changing habits
There exists a separate group of smart devices that are aimed at changing our habits and lifestyle, such as fitness bracelets that try to make us eat less and move more. Though giving valuable recommendations, such devices are still notoriously poor in terms of addressing the person’s motivation. When we use a smart device to have a healthier life, we should still enjoy it and not feel oppressed by the machines. Yet, some studies suggest that constant consulting with wearable devices can reduce our content with workouts.
Self-discovery
Smart devices collect all kinds of data about us to provide physical and psychological monitoring. At the same time, not all the information we get can be beneficial for us: with too much knowledge of ourselves and our vices we are forced to self-discovery which may lead to lower self-esteem and even self-rejection.
At Work
Impersonal workplace
With the IoT, teams can collaborate across very long distances saving corporate money and giving more independence and freedom to knowledge employees. Of course, many enterprises choose to reduce their office footprint in favor of “virtual teams.” At the same time, when team collaboration is mediated through software, it can be more difficult to understand the nuance behind communication and identify another’s intentions — potentially leading to disruptive misunderstandings and the sense of alienation
Really incessant work
“Always on” devices have led to an “always on” workplace, where people feel trapped to work on a 24-hour basis through their phones. Many people report discomfort when they do not check their work email at night or over the weekend. This reduces morale and makes off-time less restorative.
Working in a panopticon
The IoT provides immense capacity to track our movements throughout the workday. Potentially, this data can be useful — a good example is tracking trucks to ensure they are on time, but in practice it reduces autonomy and creates a sense of constant observation.
Greater safety and security
Especially in manufacturing and resource extraction, the Internet of Things can mitigate risks that were once believed to be intractable by integrating safety systems into a true network. Whilst the current model relies on the individual vigilance, in future workers will be able to think less actively about their safety and feel more at ease without a constant anticipation of life-threatening events. | https://medium.com/sciforce/psychology-of-the-connected-world-1c2190b0bf29 | [] | 2019-07-25 12:14:01.026000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Technology', 'Internet of Things', 'Psychology', 'Work Life Balance'] |
2,194 | SaTT Smart Advertising Token Delivers On The Features Demanded By Gen Y (And Z) | SaTT Delivers On The Features Demanded By Millenials
Finance and economics have been a difficult subject matter amongst baby boomers and their millennial offspring. After all, the current system inherited by millennials has not been fair to them. The global financial system today consists of a group of all-powerful, highly centralized, politically influenced, and innately corrupt banking cartels that have the ability to influence all aspects of monetary policy across all reaches of society.
In the United States, for instance, the privately-run Federal Reserve has the power to create (and eliminate) an unlimited supply of US dollars on command, use money they create to purchase bonds and other financial instruments of their choosing and modify the federal interest rates that govern bank policies nationally. This results in a highly manipulated financial system filled with market bubbles and crashes, financial panics, inflation, shady loan practices (such as subprime mortgages), massive debt accumulation, bankruptcies, and bad credit, and most importantly results in no trust.
Similar centralized banking practices are followed across the globe today, and millennials are not happy with the way in which this system has been set up unfairly against them. With governments now able to work with their central bank “vendors” to create money on command and manipulate all kinds of banking rules to promote specific large-scale economic results, the future feels less in control by the people and more in control by the elite banking class that are steering the economy in the ways they see fit.
But with the birth and evolution of the internet, the banking cartels were unable to plan for or predict the variables of human intellect now unlocked by networking and sharing ideas and implementing new disruptive financial instruments. Millennials everywhere are now being set free as they are presented with effective new ways of rejecting the shackles of centrally controlled monetary policy, all with the revolution that is decentralized cryptocurrency.
There continues to be exponential network expansion and technical advancement within the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. Millennials continue to invest into it and grasp the power-shifting opportunities it presents. Increasingly innovative and disruptive solutions are coming to market that give these consumers new kinds of financial leverage and incentives that were previously too cost-prohibitive or simply did not exist within the traditional market at all.
Across industries, the utilization of decentralized DLTs (distributed ledger technologies, in particular blockchain technology which has underpinned the Bitcoin revolution) have been on the rise, offering more transparent, accessible and cost-effective solutions. In the advertising industry, one company has mindfully crafted what they feel is the perfect answer to this millennial generation’s need to have more control in an industry where fraud and inaccurate metrics, along with payment delays are widely prevalent.
Smart Advertising Token (SaTT) is an ERC20 (Ethereum-powered) token that aims to solve a major problem in the traditional advertising model. It is governed on a decentralized platform, offers low fees for advertisers, and instant payments to content creators. This is quite a disruptive change to the boomer business model most commonly used by traditional and centralized advertising agencies. These traditional institutions have a cost-prohibitive market entry with required monthly billing for services provided, and their affiliated commission payments can take several months and lead to significant fees. Besides, a hack in a centralized network means that hackers can access all other accounts in the system.
With the power of the SaTT smart contract, advertising transactions function within a framework of immutable rules and regulations. These contracts are governed by modules of autonomous beings secured by the Ethereum blockchain. With this functionality, trust and transparency is a guarantee. In the event of a malfunction of a module or oracle, the integrity of other advertisers’ ads is also preserved. SaTT’s decentralized platform means that there are no disruptions to a customer’s advertisements due to a bad actor targeting another customer.
The SaTT smart contract is decentralized and distributed in its mechanics, whether it is in the creation of an ad builder, the display to make an ad directory, or using third-party oracles to provide accurate statistics.
The decentralized feature of SaTT ensures that costs are cut down as middlemen are no longer necessary and transactions can be performed much faster. The Campaigns feature uses the SaTT smart contract to establish an immutable system of trust between the advertiser and the content creators, streamlining collaboration.
Being able to transact with the SaTT token is of course central to the successful implementation of the SaTT platform. The SaTT token offers various utilities and incentives for both holding and using the SaTT token. To increase the adoption of the SaTT token, the company has installed the “PayBySaTT” function on their 50,000+ Store Facebook application and offers an SDK for third party developers so that many products and exclusive events are payable in SaTT. The SaTT Wallet allows users to store and transfer SaTT to their contacts.
A popular question asked by folks within the crypto community is “When Moon,” or “when will cryptocurrency skyrocket in value?” This popular quote has been gamified by the SaTT team into their “When Moon?” dAPP. The game application aims “to skyrocket your token to the Moon!”
The comprehensive set of services that SaTT has built around the needs of their industry is driving real change. SaTT offers customers transparent and immutable smart contracts, faster payments, and entirely trustless transactions. It is only in recent times that previously disenfranchised millennials are now given a platform and a vote for a better and more inclusive future. Watch out baby boomers, SaTT is giving millennials more options to help build that future! You can find out more about SaTT on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Telegram, BitcoinTalk, Medium, and Github.
Source | https://medium.com/@yourprstrategist/satt-smart-advertising-token-delivers-on-the-features-demanded-by-gen-y-and-z-6f2b7319886c | [] | 2020-12-23 08:39:18.437000+00:00 | ['Smartadvertisingtoken', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Satt', 'Crypto', 'Millennials'] |
2,195 | How to be a Star in the Maritime Connectivity Constellation | Perhaps the biggest driver of maritime informatics and shipping digitalisation has been the changing landscape of satellite communications. Connectivity for ships has made all things possible, but are we any closer to them being probable? Let’s use the medium of astrology to see the future of maritime communications, I have been looking at my tea leaves and bring these pearls of wisdom…
12 SIGNS OF THE CONNECTIVITY ZODIAC
It may seem an odd thing to shoehorn star signs and Starlink, but blame Low Earth Orbit satellites…or LEO as they are known. They got me thinking along tortured metaphors, so let’s get into it.
LEO — “the lion”, is known to be compassionate and big-hearted, driven, and a natural leader…just as LEO satellites have been. Elon Musk’s SpaceX sat comms revolution has seen Starlink LEO change thinking on what is possible when it comes to connectivity. Something which then also ramps up the possibilities for digitalisation and maritime informatics.
LEO satellites circle the earth at lower altitudes than geosynchronous satellites. It is normally at an altitude of less than 1000 km but could be as low as 160 km above Earth. Communications satellites in LEO often work as part of a large combination or constellation, of multiple satellites to give constant coverage, and that is why Musk’s spray painting the sky with LEO satellites is a potential game-changer.
Starlink aims to sell internet connections to almost anyone on the planet by way of a growing network of private satellites orbiting overhead, currently numbering around 2000. Musk says Starlink has shipped more than 100,000 satellite internet terminals to customers in 14 countries. When it comes to maritime connectivity, this lion is roaring, and the rest of the industry is having to take note.
Virgo — “the virginal maiden”…it would perhaps be hard to consider some shipowners in this bracket, but there are many shipping companies who are indeed just dipping their toes into the waters of not just connectivity, but the uses for it.
They are seeing data, digitalisation and maritime informatics as a means of not only doing business better but doing better business. Winning longer-term relationships with charterers, as they are part of the data picture, and embraced not just as a transport tool but as a part of the logistics and supply chain solution.
Libra — “the scales”. When it comes to the digital journey that many shipping companies are on, there is a lot of things to weigh up. So, Libra is perhaps the perfect sign to capture the essence of the decision-making process. According to my Beginners Guide to Astrology, Librans are often concerned with attaining balance, harmony, peace, and justice.
They are known for their vast stores of charm, intelligence, frankness, persuasion, and seamless connectivity, they are well-equipped to do so.
So, the balance is about harnessing what they have, and of making it work — of delivering the benefits that a good business, with proper data flows and means of capturing, analysing and responding to the evidence deserves.
Scorpio — “the scorpion”. Well, just as with any massively important business decision, things such as connectivity and maritime informatics can come with a sting in the tail. The importance of what can be achieved is sometimes overlooked and obscured by a focus on the means of generating, capturing and disseminating information and data.
That is important, obviously, but there needs to be a process and flow. There needs to be a real consideration of the moving parts, the people, the outcomes, hopes, dreams and desires. It is no use just signing up to faster connectivity, to have sensors churning out data, it all needs to come together as a coherent output. The reasons need to be understood and addressed, not just another tick box or bandwagon to be jumped upon.
Digitalisation and the data generated can be hugely significant, but just as the old saying about people knowing the cost of everything, but the value of nothing. The same applies to data. The key to avoiding getting stung is not just seeing numbers, but of seeing reactions to those figures. For every data point action, there needs to be an equal and opposite reaction…which builds to genuine and tangible improvement.
Sagittarius — “the centaur”. A majestic figure, half-man, half-horse. The centaur of mythology is a learned healer whose higher intelligence forms a bridge between Earth and Heaven. These kinds of shipping companies are the purest form of digitalisation devotees. You know the kind, often Scandinavian or German, they have beautiful offices full of smart people doing amazing things.
They invest heavily and can reap the rewards that a data revolution can bring. They understand their seafarers, ships, markets and clients — and dig even deeper through the technological leaps they have been able to take.
The danger for companies looking to ape the Sagittarian approach is that they may indeed create a creature which is half man, half horse — but a horses head on a bloke’s legs isn’t the look we are going for.
Capricorn — “the goat…or “Greatest of All Time”. Perhaps building on the work of the centaur companies, this is the shipping company that has been about digital even before anyone really knew what it meant.
They use data as a lubricant for all parts of the business. It cools down the moving parts, it makes things easier and it allows them the space and time to make good decisions.
You perhaps have a company in mind, but there is jockeying for position as to the GOAT accolade. Similar to Messi and Ronaldo, there are big companies who do data, but do it differently. Some are skilful and low key, they weave data together and take your breath away with the simplistic wonder of what they do with it. Others are showier, and rely on raw power and create their own reality around the depth of data.
Like Highlander though, there can be only one, but it is fun to watch the race to the top for once instead of thinking of shipping as always being about the bottom.
Aquarius –“ the water carrier”. Anyone who has seen Adam Sandler’s artistic tour de force, The Water Boy, will perhaps know the kind of company we are about to touch on. They are around the action, they have the gear, the locker room passes and a notion of what is going on around them.
Alas, they do not have a real sense of what the bigger picture is, or even can be. Some don’t even know there is a picture. They just see the micro view of their business, and they are intensely focused on the minutiae of making money. Which is no bad thing, but does always mean that it can be too easy to be left behind. In constantly sweating the small stuff, the water carrier huffs and puffs, and is there for the immediate reactive things. They tend to be tactical and not strategic. To be a success in the brave new world of the digital transformation companies have to look over the horizon not down at their feet.
Pisces –“ the fish”. All too often one of the major considerations for those entering into their digital journey, or indeed focusing on connectivity and drilling into data, is that of the promises made. Alas, as with so much in life, some things are too good to be true and a little fishy!
Promises of data download speeds, satellite footprints and bandwidth are some of the main connectivity realities which can impact the rest of a ship, fleet or company’s ability to truly revolutionise the way they operate.
Throttled back or sketchy connections are the stuff of nightmares today, and the digital capabilities of companies can be strangled at the dome before they ever reach home. So be careful of connectivity promises, because fall at this first hurdle and the race could be done.
Aries — “the ram”. It would be impossible to characterise a ram without thinking about charging. This is a very sticky area when it comes to maritime connectivity. Get your bandwidth and rates sums wrong, and you will be constantly playing catch-up. This is about the balance between costs and vision, about price and value.
There is seldom a Financial Director that doesn’t wish that fleets would use less data, and ne’er an Operations team that doesn’t wish they could use more. So there is a constant push and pull, and sadly even in the digital age of 1’s and 0’s, it is about the noughts on the end of the invoice that matters most.
Taurus — “the bull”. Ah, you can almost smell the bull when it comes to the promises which some companies make regarding connectivity, or indeed the usefulness of the data that will be generated. Like any new age, some have a worrying habit of over-promising and under-delivering. Often based on something I call, under-understanding.
As a former ship’s Master, it has always been so important to me to be able to really and truly understand not just the solutions which can be provided, but more than that, to dig into the actual problems that clients want solving, or indeed the constraints they may be faced by.
Very quickly it has become apparent that the mission-critical nature of data is rarely if ever, one size fits all. This is great if companies are open-minded, and if providers really want to offer the best solution for the client, not the provider. It can mean real problems if the shipowner doesn’t fully understand what they want and need and if someone comes along talking bull and just lands them with the solution they want to provide. Seeing past the bull and finding the real answers matters, a lot.
Gemini — “the twins”. One of the areas of work that is really gathering pace and importance in shipping is that of digital twins. These are exact replicas of vessels, down to every nut and bolt, but in digital form.
So, we create a highly complex virtual model that is the exact counterpart (or twin) of a physical thing. Connected sensors on the physical asset collect data that can be mapped onto the virtual model. The digital twin then uses the real data through simulation, machine learning and reasoning to help show what the impacts will be on the real vessel.
They help designers, engineers, operators and seafarers understand not only how vessels are performing, but how they will perform in the future. This allows shipping companies to learn more, and faster. They can also break down old boundaries surrounding innovation, complex lifecycles, compliance and the ways that vessels will make them money.
Cancer — “the crab”. Ah, look at those snappy claws, grabbing at all they can get. It may look cute, even funny — but if they latch onto you, then it’ll be screaming not laughing.
There are corporate crabs out there (keep your mind out of the gutter), they move sideways and never really seem to embrace the need to move forward and fast, but they always grab, grab and want more — even though they aren’t fully committing to the digital transformation.
They don’t have a plan as such, they just hear the buzzwords and think by throwing some data around they will make a positive impression. So, they snap their claws at everything, they try and just snatch at anything and everything. No rhyme or reason, no plan, no grand strategy, just stuff. Which is no way to transform a business, and certainly not in a digital sense.
So when you next look to the stars, you may see the decaying black holes of companies who did not get their digitalisation strategies right, and the flashes of light as the shooting stars of those who did, streak across the sky. | https://medium.com/@captainstu/how-to-be-a-star-in-the-maritime-connectivity-constellation-16bdee38eafe | ['Captain Stu'] | 2021-09-07 06:35:37.363000+00:00 | ['Shipping', 'Future', 'Maritime Informatics', 'Technology', 'Management'] |
2,196 | Understanding Short-circuit Evaluation in Javascript | Explore about Short-circuiting in Javascript to make your code clean and beautiful.
In short-circuit evaluation, an expression with logical operators ( || and && ) is evaluated from left to right. So, if the condition is met and the rest of the conditions won’t affect the already evaluated result, the expression will short-circuit and return that result.
Logical OR(||) Operator
This operator will return the first true value. So, it won’t even reach the rest of the conditions and return true as the condition is satisfied.
true || false
// true
So how can we use this?
Let’s take an example
var x;
var y = 'Gurseerat';
var z = 'This will not evaluate'; var name = x || y || z;
console.log(name);
// Gurseerat | https://medium.com/khojchakra/understanding-short-circuit-evaluation-in-javascript-31b5770a41f7 | ['Gurseerat Kaur'] | 2020-10-27 16:52:44.201000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Programming', 'Technology', 'Coding', 'ES6'] |
2,197 | Fixated on Taking Selfies? You Might Have these Psychological Issues | Fixated on Taking Selfies? You Might Have these Psychological Issues
#2 needs to be fixed right now
Photo by Cristina Zaragoza on Unsplash
Is that the picture of a glass of milk? No, that’s a glass of black tea taken in my uber-cool new selfie camera!Apparently, the camera doesn’t like the ‘dark’ tone.
I know that joke is a bit of a stretch, but selfie cameras and the Artificial Intelligence powering them, have come close to creating a near-perfect version of anything it captures. They remove the spots, patch the scars, pull the beauty filters, and do a million things you can’t imagine.
Take a stroll down the mobile shop, see how the industry has raced to near saturation in selfie technology. The punch hole camera, the twin optics, the lens that magically appears from nowhere, all sorts of innovation within a tiny space at the top of your 6-inch device. We happily pay a premium for them. And we revel in posting selfies.
But does taking selfies mean you have some psychological condition?
After all, it’s a harmless means of fun that doesn’t poke into someone’s territory. Your face. Your camera. Your rules.
But let me tell you that taking excessive selfies can be an indication of an underlying psychological problem. But here is the million-dollar question: What’s ‘excessive’? What is the limit one has to cross to be bothered about it?
How much is too much?
The American Psychiatric Association (APA), in a study, confirms three levels of disorders linked to an excessive affinity for selfies.
The Borderline: Taking (atleast) three selfies a day, but not posting them on social media. The Acute: Taking (atleast) three selfies a day and posting them all on social media. Chronic: An uncontrollable urge to take selfies all day and post them (atleast) six times a day.
The author calls such people with an excessive affinity for selfies as SELFITIS.
So based on the above measure, are you a selfitis? Even if you are not one, I will encourage you to read further. I will tell you four reasons why people show a craving for taking selfies. No offence.
#1 You Could be a narcissist!
“The narcissist enjoys being looked at and not looking back.” — Mason Cooley
A narcissist is a person who pursues gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one’s perfect self-image.
From blowing his own trumpet to an outright exhibition of arrogance, a narcissist would seek to build his image, and no wonder selfies occur to him as a convenient tool.
To maintain his own meticulous and perfect image, a narcissist has to post his flawless pictures. While letting someone handle the camera can go, either way, the ability to control his picture, with the perfect angle and the right looks, gives him the necessary control that allows him to have the image exactly as he wanted it.
Besides, narcissists are also people who want them to be considered special. A selfie lets him be the lone subject of a photograph and feeds his craving to be the star. It allows them to set the exact public image they yearn for.
A study published in The Open Psychology Journal, done by researchers from Swansea University and Milan University, confirms the link between selfie craving and narcissism. Out of the 74 test subjects in the study, those who used social media through excessive visual posting showed a 25% increase in narcissistic traits.
#2 Do You have problems presenting your body?
Low self esteem involves imagining the worst that other people can think about you. — Roger Ebert
Many people are not impressed by the way they look, and much like a narcissist, they want to be in control of their images, albeit for a different reason.
From being fat to having a slightly long nose, there is a myriad of details about themselves they would like to either hide or project. In my part of the world, fair skin is another illusion that’s coveted. And hence the cams that turn black coffee to milk!
Selfie looms in the air as a rescue for all such people nursing a low self-image, for you can have the ‘perfect’ shot to your design.
They adjust the angle, tweak the settings, put the filters, and use every big and small feature to ensure that what they don’t want is not captured and what they want is standing out and staring at the beholder.
In a study published on Sciencedirect.com, done with a participation of 259 young women, it was found that social networking sites’ selfie activities are linked with body-related and eating concerns.
However, such negative impressions of oneself can work the other way round too.
For instance, if you have abysmal self-esteem, so much that you think your ‘poor looks’ cannot be fixed with any advanced effect of your smartphone, you might entirely withdraw from the act of taking selfies.
#3 How is your social life going?
A healthy social life is found only, when in the mirror of each soul the whole community finds its reflection, and when in the whole community the virtue of each one is living. — Rudolf Steiner
If you take a lot of selfies and are alone in most of them, you better ask this question yourself.
Ideally, a picture should be taken to cherish a special moment. But if most of your selfies are not encompassing such moments and instead show you in different backgrounds, it could be a strong indication that you are not entirely content with your social life. Perhaps you yearn to mix more but just cannot.
Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol, who researched the connection between personal characteristics and selfie addiction, says that selfies are meant to improve self-disclosure and social communication on social media sites, and therefore, essential for those who experience loneliness.
Posting pictures and getting feedback from social media websites can enhance their social communication. However, the approach can backfire as relationships erected through social media communications can often be shallow. This could further worsen your loneliness.
Your loneliness can have several reasons behind it. It is possible that you recently broke up with your partner or that you have social anxiety issues. It makes sense for you to build a healthy social life or address the core issue, rather than seeking temporary relief in selfies.
#4 Look at me!
Seek respect, not attention. It lasts longer.
Some people can’t get enough attention and approval. Taking your pictures and engaging them on social media is one of the easiest methods to draw eyeballs towards you. Besides, with all those filters and smiley faces, you can build a ‘my-life-is-cooler-than-yours’ aura around you.
For such people, their mind perceives the ‘likes’ and ‘reactions’ they receive as a token of acceptance. Needless to say, if your self worth is invested in someone else’s opinion about you, you will end up living a life to impress. You will seldom listen to your inner calls.
Besides, such attention-seeking behavior, in the long run, may adversely affect your self-confidence.
For instance, if one of your pictures fails to draw the same successful results as your previous one did, suddenly, you may start doubting yourself. “Have people stopped loving me” “Don’t I look good in that photo” a million questions erupt.
In an article published in psychologytoday.com, the author, Martin Graff Ph.D., says that attention-seeking may be one of the main reasons people take selfies and use social media. He adds that people would do so to feel more popular.
Letting others’ opinion dictate your life is not the way to live. If you are posting more selfies to gain attention, you need to rethink your priorities.
Final thoughts
If you go through the image gallery of your smartphone, rest assured, you are going to find quite a few selfies. But that wouldn’t make you a sefitist or an addict. You have already read the parameters of becoming an addict. If you don’t fit that profile, you have nothing to worry about.
However, if you are overly drawn to your front camera, with an irresistible temptation to post them on social media, there are things to ponder. You have to start introspecting now! | https://medium.com/indian-thoughts/fixated-on-taking-selfies-you-might-have-psychological-issues-a751927b4ed3 | ['Aravind Balakrishnan'] | 2020-12-11 14:59:27.530000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Mental Health', 'Psychology', 'Culture', 'Social Media'] |
2,198 | Technological Transformation of Transportation | Exponential advancements of technology have altered nearly every aspect of our society. One, in particular, is regarding transportation. New technological advancements are transforming the way automakers are designing and building automobiles hence this has resulted in more car options, increased gas mileage, and an expansion of sophisticated technology. With such advancements in transportation, yourself and others, may have thought of questions such as, where is the future of automobiles headed? Will electric vehicles (EV) become more ubiquitous in society going forward? How long until electric vehicles outpace gasoline vehicles? Are self-driving cars safe and ethical to drive? How do self-driving cars get programmed to operate safely? As part of Dr. Brandon Boesch’s course, Special Topics: Technological Transformations of Society, at Morningside College, this group that includes Hudson Hall, Isaiah Hinners, Jack Sievert, Jemar Lee, and Mason Welker explored the concept of technological transformation of transportation. This post in conjunction with a podcast recorded by this group investigates many of the questions depicted above. As you continue to read, you will explore the substantial advancements of technology occurring in transportation going forward, how electric vehicles will only become more common on our roads, how the advancement of self-driving cars is causing a rise in ethical dilemmas, and what that could mean for our society.
An important aspect of technology that is evolving is the topic of transportation. Auto companies have been working on solutions to the fast-approaching gas crisis as well as the problem with emissions hurting the environment. A popular solution to these problems has been around since 1832. This solution is the advancement of electric cars as well as the increased production that would need to happen. Electric cars are simply cars that run on a rechargeable battery rather than gasoline. The benefits of electric cars include zero emissions which would greatly help the atmosphere and environment if everyone drove them. The cars are also much quieter than gas-powered vehicles. The leading car company in regard to electric vehicles is Tesla which accounts for 18 % of all-electric vehicles on the market. The world of transportation is evolving for every car company as they set goals for themselves to produce electric cars to compete in the market in the future. Some of the obstacles to the mass use of electric cars are that there is a shortage of available charging stations in small cities and towns. Big cities can afford to place many of these stations because there are many people on the road driving electric cars there, but smaller towns are lucky to just have one, but many have none. To increase the popularity of electric cars there would need to be an increase in the availability of electric charging stations. Another obstacle is the fact that most car shops cannot help you if you have car problems with an electric vehicle. If you have trouble with your car you are going to have to go to very specific shops or maybe all the way back to the producer. Colleges do not teach mechanics to fix electric cars. The engine and functioning of an electric car are just so completely different than that of a gas-powered car.
Moreover, self-driving cars are a technological advancement that humans would have thought to be far-fetched just a few decades ago but now you can buy very basic versions of them and in the future they will be fully autonomous and the need for driving yourself may no longer exist. Tesla for example has cars that are not fully autonomous but partially. The cars can park for you, set their speed to the same as the other cars around it, and assist in steering. The company does require you to be attentive and have a hand on the steering wheel at all times because there are certain limitations to self-driving cars nowadays. Self-driving cars can only drive on well-marked roads and perform simple driving tasks. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done for self-driving cars before they can be relied on more so than the average driver. Car companies still struggle with automatic braking software. There are videos on YouTube where they test the automatic braking features of different cars and a lot of them were not good at stopping whatsoever. Once these challenges are overcome by the self-driving car company’s safety on the road is going to increase exponentially. This is also going to depend on how many people use self-driving cars. Because self-driving cars are controlled by an AI, they can communicate with other cars, so they know where everyone else is. So, in the future, if everyone used self-driving cars there may be no use for driving laws other than the ones that involve pedestrians, and speed limits would also greatly increase because it would take out the possibility of human error.
When taking into consideration the efficiency, practicality, and future of both electric vehicles and self-driving cars, one must also consider the ethical dilemmas facing these two technologies as well. Firstly, in regard to electric vehicles, there are certainly a lot of pros that people tend to think of. People think that electric cars are safer for the environment as they don’t produce as many CO2 emissions as gas-powered cars and they don’t directly burn fossil fuels. Therefore, this means that overall electric vehicles should be better for the environment. However, there are other deeper levels of thinking that need to go into thinking of electric vehicles and the impacts they may have on our world. One such issue is that the energy that is used to power these cars, while electrical, has to come from somewhere. Unfortunately, in most cases, this electricity still comes from the burning of coal and fossil fuels. Another dilemma is that when an electric car’s battery becomes ruined beyond repair and use, then what is to be done with the old battery? The battery is most often just thrown away, at least in our present times, and there is no current, efficient way to recycle and reuse old batteries. This means that there is a lot of waste that would be added to our landfills and environmental footprint as a result of the use of electric cars. As there are many topics of discussion such as this one, there are both pros and cons about what kind of effects this technology could have on our world.
As we’ve seen, there are a lot of things to consider regarding EV’s and ethics, but there are also ethical dilemmas facing the world of self-driving cars as well. The people that are creating these self-driving cars, or autonomous vehicles, are claiming that these new vehicles would benefit everyone as they would allow for a way to reduce accidents and vehicle-related fatalities oftentimes due to human error while driving. They say that by letting the vehicle take full control of itself, it could safely drive from Point A to Point B without any issues. This is a really optimistic perspective and, hopefully someday, the true reality of the future and potential of autonomous vehicles. However, as with everything, there are both pros and cons that must be acknowledged. First, it is safe to assume that self-driving cars won’t become universally used by everyone all at once. This means that not everyone will have this new technology all at the same time, meaning there will still be people driving themselves in their “older” cars. Therefore, while a driver may not have to worry about hitting anyone while relaxing in their autonomous vehicle, there are still other drivers out on the road that could just as easily hit fellow commuters as they could before the invention of these cars. Another common topic of controversy regarding self-driving cars is how cars should be programmed to react in certain scenarios. For example, if a pet runs out onto the road that an autonomous car is driving down, how should the car react? Should it keep driving and hit the pet, potentially killing it? Or should it try to slow down quickly to the detriment of the passengers? Or even go as far as to swerve off the road or into the other lane and risk hitting someone or something else? These are all situations that need to be recognized as possibilities and there is really no simple answer to this issue. There is universal agreement on some such scenarios, but the majority of situations have received a variety of viewpoints and there appears to be no single solution to these problems. This is just one of the many ethical issues that are being faced even now as self-driving cars continue to be developed and become more common in our world.
Lastly, in a world that is ever-increasing when it comes to technology, there is a lot to consider. Even in one specific topic, such as transportation. Above there were many issues discussed, these issues include, will electric vehicles be the predominant vehicle? How ethical are self-driving and electric cars? How are self-driving cars supposed to be programmed safely? These questions were discussed in length, however; these questions are too complex to answer at the current moment. There are too many factors that influence these changes to discuss all of the possibilities and implications they may have in order to come up with a final answer. This is weird to think about, because in the end someone will have to make those decisions, and from the brief look into the issues, it seems like it will be a daunting task. Society as a whole is going to have a lot of obstacles to overcome if it would like EV and self-driving technologies to become mainstream. These problems once overcome will most likely lead to more problems, and so on. The future for these advancements could be very bright, but on the other hand, the world has a very long way to go, and a lot of tough decisions to make before it gets there.
References:
https://www.tesla.com/support/autopilot#:~:text=How%20does%20Autopilot%20work%3F,alone%20would%20not%20otherwise%20have.
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/self-driving-cars-101 | https://medium.com/@jwl005/technological-transformation-of-transportation-377154b7feba | ['Jemar L.'] | 2020-12-02 18:04:07.744000+00:00 | ['Self Driving Cars', 'Electric Car', 'Transportation', 'Technology'] |
2,199 | Rise of the Retail Robots | The robots are coming! On our sidewalks, in our skies, in our every store… Over the next decade, robots will enter the mainstream of retail.
And the numbers back it up: in a mere 8 years, the global retail robotics market is projected to grow by an order of magnitude, from US$4.78 billion in 2018 to US$41.67 billion in 2026.
As countless robots work behind the scenes to stock shelves, serve customers, and deliver products to our doorstep, the speed of retail will continue to increase.
These changes were already underway, and the pandemic has accelerated them.
Robotics will be a key area of focus during my upcoming Abundance 360 Mastermind in January. In this blog, we’ll explore how robots are entering the retail ecosystem.
Let’s dive in…
Robot Delivery
On August 3rd, 2016, Domino’s Pizza introduced the Domino’s Robotic Unit, or “DRU” for short. The first home delivery pizza robot, the DRU looks like a cross between R2-D2 and an oversized microwave.
LIDAR and GPS sensors help it navigate, while temperature sensors keep hot food hot and cold food cold. Now called “DOM” (which is also the name of Domino’s chatbot for placing orders), the robot has been undergoing trial runs in ten countries, including New Zealand, France, and Germany, but its August 2016 debut was critical, as it was the first time we’d seen robotic home delivery.
And it won’t be the last. A dozen or so different delivery bots are fast entering the market.
Starship Technologies, for instance, a startup created by Skype founders Janus Friis and Ahti Heinla, has a general-purpose home delivery robot. Right now, the system is an array of cameras and GPS sensors, but upcoming models will include microphones, speakers, and even the ability-via AI-driven natural language processing-to communicate with customers. Since 2016, Starship has already carried out 500,000 deliveries across more than 20 countries.
Along similar lines, Nuro-co-founded by Jiajun Zhu, one of the engineers who helped develop Google’s self-driving car-has a miniature self-driving car of its own. Half the size of a sedan, the Nuro looks like a toaster on wheels, except with a mission. This toaster was designed to carry cargo-originally about 12 bags of groceries — which it has been doing for select Kroger stores since 2018. Two years later, the company has a new second-generation vehicle with a range of new features, including improved capacity, battery life, and safety measures. Concurrently, Nuro has partnered with large chains such as CVS Pharmacy and Walmart.
As these delivery bots take to our streets, others are streaking across the sky.
Back in 2016, Amazon came first, announcing Prime Air-the e-commerce giant’s promise of drone delivery in 30 minutes or less. Almost immediately, companies ranging from 7-Eleven and Walmart to Google and Alibaba jumped on the bandwagon.
Fast forward to today, and the FAA has granted approvals for drone delivery to Amazon, Alphabet-owned Wing, and UPS. Prime Air Vice President David Carbon has emphasized that “this certification is an important step forward for Prime Air and indicates the FAA’s confidence… for an autonomous drone delivery service.”
In-Store Robots
While delivery bots start to spare us trips to the store, those who prefer shopping the old-fashioned way (i.e., in person) also have plenty of human-robot interaction in-store. In fact, these robotics solutions have been around for a while.
In 2010, SoftBank introduced Pepper, a humanoid robot capable of understanding human emotion. Pepper’s cute: 4 feet tall, with a white plastic body, two black eyes, a dark slash of a mouth, and a base shaped like a mermaid’s tail. Across her chest is a touch screen to aid in communication. And there’s been a lot of communication. Pepper’s cuteness is intentional, as it matches its mission: help humans enjoy life as much as possible.
Over 12,000 Peppers have been sold and over 2,000 companies globally have adopted Pepper as an assistant. She serves ice cream in Japan, greets eaters at a Pizza Hut in Singapore, and interacts with customers at a Palo Alto electronics store. And with the COVID-19 pandemic, Pepper has been used to prepare food, greet customers, and ease loneliness caused by social distancing. More importantly, Pepper’s got company.
Walmart uses shelf-stocking robots for inventory control. Best Buy uses a robo-cashier, allowing select locations to operate 24–7. And Lowe’s Home Improvement employs the LoweBot-a giant iPad on wheels-to help customers find the items they need while tracking inventory along the way.
Warehouse Bots
Yet the biggest benefit robots provide might be in warehouse logistics.
In 2012, when Amazon dished out $775 million for Kiva Systems, few could predict that just eight years later, over 200,000 Kiva robots would be deployed at the company’s fulfillment centers, helping to process hundreds of items per second.
And many other retailers are following suit.
Order jeans from the Gap, and soon they’ll be sorted, packed, and shipped with the help of a Kindred robot. Remember the old arcade game where you picked up teddy bears with a giant claw? That’s Kindred, only her claw picks up T-shirts, pants, and the like, placing them in designated drop-off zones that resemble tiny mailboxes (for further sorting or shipping).
The big deal here is democratization. Kindred’s robot is cheap and easy to deploy, allowing smaller companies to compete with giants like Amazon.
Final Thoughts
For retailers interested in staying in business, there doesn’t appear to be much choice in the way of robotics.
It’s going to become increasingly difficult for store owners to justify human workers who call in sick, show up late, and can easily get injured.
Robots work 24–7. They never take a day off, never need a bathroom break, health insurance, or parental leave.
Going forward, this spells a growing challenge of technological unemployment (a blog topic I will cover in the coming month). But in retail, robotics usher in tremendous benefits for companies and customers alike.
And while professional re-tooling initiatives and the transition of human capital from retail logistics to a booming experience economy take hold, robotic retail interaction and last-mile delivery will fundamentally transform our relationship with commerce.
Join Me at Abundance 360 in January!
If understanding how to use robotics and other exponential technologies to transform your business is something you desire, then consider joining my Abundance 360 Mastermind .
Every year, my team and I select a group of 360 entrepreneurs and CEOs to coach over the course of a year-long program. A360 starts each January with a live event and continues every two months with Implementation Workshops, in which I personally coach members in small groups over Zoom. (In 2021, you have a choice of live “In-Person” or “Virtual” participation. See the A360 website for more info.)
My mission is to help A360 members identify their massively transformative purpose, select their moonshot, and hone an Abundance, Exponential, and Longevity Mindset. Together we will actively select and reinforce your preferred mindsets. | https://medium.com/@peterhdiamandis/rise-of-the-retail-robots-cad4cade569 | ['Peter Diamandis'] | 2020-12-10 19:50:04.962000+00:00 | ['Robotics', 'Robots', 'Future Of Work', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Technology'] |
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