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How Bad Is Rikers Island Really? | How Bad Is Rikers Island Really?
Photo by Craig Lloyd from Pexels
Club Fed it ain’t. That’s for sure! But after spending a year at MCC federal prison, I was more or less ready for whatever Rikers had to throw at me.
Maybe I got lucky. Or maybe I’m street smart. But Rikers was not the completely threatening place many people think it is. In fact, there were several facets of Rikers life I found superior to serving time in a federal facility.
Like…I could actually go outside in the sunshine for one. And I could crap for as long as I wanted without my celly copping an attitude. What can I say? Simple pleasures most people take for granted become luxuries when you get locked up.
Following is a chronicle of my stay on Rikers. If you liked watching “Shawshank,” I think you’ll find this story equally compelling. It’s a fun read about a dismal place. I hope you enjoy. | https://medium.com/illumination/how-bad-is-rikers-island-really-82673765bd0a | ['William', 'Dollar Bill'] | 2020-12-24 03:52:00.742000+00:00 | ['Law', 'Rikers', 'Memoir', 'Prison', 'Humor'] |
PHP 7.x — P9: Simple Arrays. What is an array? In layman's terms… | What is an array? In layman's terms, it’s a way to store multiple items together under one variable. You could create different variables for everything, but sometimes that’s just not practical. Imagine that you’re pulling thousands of records from a database. You can’t, or shouldn’t, create thousands of different variables to store each record. You would use an array and store all of the records under one variable. You could then loop through the array (I know we haven’t covered loops yet) and display each array element.
There are different ways to create an array in PHP. The first way is by assigning array() to a variable. Inside the array() declaration, we’ll put a list of numbers.
<?php
$numbers = array(1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 20);
?>
Those numbers could serve a purpose, such as represent employee ID’s.
<?php
$employee_ids = array(1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 20);
?>
Arrays don’t have to store just integer values; they can store any data type including, for example, strings.
<?php
$drivers_i_hate = array(
'Drivers that turn on their signals before checking',
'Drivers that do the speed limit in the left two lanes',
'Drivers that are clearly on their phones'
);
?>
You’ll notice that each array value is on a separate line. PHP doesn’t have a limit on how many spaces or new line characters you can have after each array element. So, for readability, you can make it look however you want.
How do we access elements inside the array? With the index value. What is an index? It’s just an integer value that’s assigned to each element so that it can be called. In PHP, like most programming languages, we start at index 0 and move up in increments of 1. Why is 0 the first array index? So as not to get too deep into it, I’ll briefly state that it’s because of the way that arrays are stored in memory.
In the $drivers_i_hate array, we have 3 elements; the index values are 0, 1, and 2. To access the first array element, you’ll take your variable, $drivers_i_hate, append a couple of brackets to it, [ ], and place the index value in between the brackets.
<?php
echo $drivers_i_hate[0];
// Displays: Drivers that turn on their signals before checking
?>
To display the last element, we could just count the number of elements in there, 3, subtract 1, since our index value starts at zero, and place the integer value inside the square brackets.
<?php
echo $drivers_i_hate[2];
// Displays: Drivers that are clearly on their phones
?>
What if we didn’t know how many elements are in the array? For example, if we were pulling records from a database, and that database table kept getting updated frequently, the number of records would change. Now, what if you wanted to access the last element. You would not be able to hard-code the index value since it changes. We’ll somehow have to count the number of elements in the array and figure out the value that way.
Luckily, PHP has a built-in function called count(). There is another function called sizeof(), which is synonymous to count(). You can choose whichever one you like; I prefer count.
Lets pass the array to the count() function and get the number of elements inside the array. We get 3 since that is the number of elements inside the $drivers_i_hate array.
<?php
echo count( $drivers_i_hate );
// Displays: 3
?>
With the information that we know so far, let’s see if we can access the last array element. All we have to do is get the number of elements inside the array, subtract 1 from it since the index starts at 0, and place the value in between the square brackets of the array.
<?php
// Stores the value 2
$last_index = count($drivers_i_hate) - 1; echo $drivers_i_hate[ $last_index ];
?>
If we wanted to, we could just pass the entire expression in between the square brackets; we don’t have to store the index value inside of a variable.
<?php
echo $drivers_i_hate[ count($drivers_i_hate) - 1 ];
?>
How does PHP evaluate the code above? | https://medium.com/dev-genius/php-7-x-p9-simple-arrays-4ef56bed0d8a | ['Dino Cajic'] | 2020-06-25 15:52:14.174000+00:00 | ['Computer Science', 'Programming', 'PHP', 'Software Development', 'Web Development'] |
Seminar Nasional ASPI 2020 | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/sebuah-perspektif/seminar-nasional-aspi-2020-97295bb040e6 | ['Nabilah Aufaraihan'] | 2020-12-12 15:44:29.776000+00:00 | ['City Planning', 'Seminar', 'Urban Planning', 'Covid 19', 'Kota'] |
Art Forgery: Why Do We Care So Much for Originals? | An art museum in the south of France recently made headlines when an art historian discovered that a whopping 60% of its collection is fake.
A museum dedicated to Étienne Terrus, one of the forerunners of the fauvist movement was established in his hometown Elne, near the French border with Spain. When an independent art historian Eric Forcada was hired to rearrange the collection for the reopening of the museum, he quickly discovered that a large part of the collection couldn’t have been made by the French painter. “On one painting, the ink signature was wiped away when I passed my white glove over it”, Eric Forcada stated for the Guardian. Also, the cotton on the canvas didn’t match the one used by Étienne Terrus and certain buildings depicted on the artworks were built long after his death. Subsequently, a panel of experts was summoned to examine the collection and they quickly determined that 82 works out of 140 were forgeries.
The southern ramparts of the town of Elne (1890) by Étienne Terrus. Source
The fact that many museum visitors were tricked into viewing the artworks later deemed a fake, was described as a “catastrophe” by the town’s mayor Yves Barniol, who apologized to everyone who visited the museum in good fate. The incident might have shocked the mayor of the small town in France, but Switzerland’s Fine Art Expert Institute employees would not be that surprised. According to Yann Walther, a director of the Swiss institute specialized in art authentication, over 50% off art pieces that exist on the market today are fake.
Art Forgery Scandals that Shook the World
Art forgery is as old as art itself. The surge in the price of art made forgery a multimillion dollars enterprise. Some forgeries are so obvious that even a pure amateur could see right through them, but others are so good that it takes decades to unveil the truth.
One of the biggest art forgery scandals occurred in the 1930s and 1940s when a little-known Dutch artist Han van Meegeren created and sold several fake Vermeers earning the equivalent of $60 million. His fraud was only discovered after the World War II when he was accused of treason for selling one of his forged Vermeers to the Nazi leader Göring. In a desperate attempt to prove he hadn’t sold the priceless artwork to the Nazis, but only a mere forgery, van Meegeren agreed to paint a new Vermeer in front of the press and court-appointed witnesses thus effectively revoking the accusations of treason and establishing himself as one of the most ingenious forgers of all times.
Van Meegeren might be the most famous forger of them all, but he certainly isn’t the only one. Hungarian painter Elmyr de Hory sold over 100 of Modigliani, Degas, Picasso and Matisse forgeries before the authorities discovered his fraud in the 1970s. In 2004, gallery owner Ely Sakhaiconfessed to buying genuine works of Paul Gauguin, and other Impressionist and modern artists, and then hiring skilled forgers to produce copies which he later sold on Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions.
The Supper at Emmaus by Han van Meegeren (1936–1937), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Source
Wolfgang Beltracchi: The Forger of the Century
In recent years, Wolfgang Beltracchi pulled off a hoax that got him the title of “the forger of the century.” Much like van Meegeren who painted “brand new Vermeers”, Beltracchi decided to paint brand new pieces inspired by the works of celebrated painters, rather than forging artworks that already existed. He and his wife Helene managed to sell over 50 forgeries by saying that they were “misplaced pieces” of prominent artists like Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso, and Paul Gauguin, hidden from the Nazis in the 1930s, that had only resurfaced recently. Beltracchi’s works were so spot-on, that they managed to fool some of the finest experts of today including Henrik Hanstein, head of Kunsthaus Lempertz and Werner Spies, the former museum director at Centre Pompidou in Paris. Even famous actor Steve Martin, was tricked into purchasing one of Beltracchi’s forged Campendonks. The pair got away with it for decades but in 2010 experts discovered traces of titanium white on Beltracchi’s 1914 Heinrich Campendonk forgery, a paint that didn’t exist at the time the work was supposedly painted.
Just like famous forgery scandals of the past, the incident at the museum in Elne revived a debate that’s been around for centuries. Why do we, as art enthusiasts care so much for the originals?
An art lover or even a notable art expert can admire a forged art piece for decades, but as soon as the truth about its origin is discovered, the artwork that was considered a masterpiece seconds ago, all of the sudden becomes worthless and despised. Han van Meegeren sold his fakes for tens of millions of dollars, but as soon as the fraud was disclosed their value immediately plummeted, even though not a single line was changed. A forgery by Wolfgang Beltracchi was exhibited at the celebrated Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, but now it is nothing but evidence in a criminal case against him and his accomplices.
Red Picture with Horses, supposedly by German Expressionist Heinrich Campendonk, forged by Beltracchi; it sold at auction for $3.6m Source
Why Authenticity Matters?
Undoubtedly, in the art world, originals hold a special significance. But why is that so?
In an attempt to discover why people care so much for the authenticity of an artwork, researches Newman and Bloom conducted an experiment on 180 participants that were asked to evaluate two paintings by Jim Rilko, they have never seen before: Son of a Covered Bridge and A Covered Bridge. The works are very similar as they both portray the same scenery and this similarity of works was crucial for the experiment.
Half of the participants were told that the paintings were created by two different artists and that their similarity is a pure coincidence. The other half was told that one art piece was painted as an original work while the other piece was made as a copy of the first piece, by an artist inspired by the first painting.
When they were asked to estimate the value of the paintings, the first group attributed a similar value to both paintings while the second group valued the piece they considered to be a copy much lower than the one they considered to be an original. In another experiment by the same researchers, 253 participants valued the sculpture hand-made by the artist much more than the sculpture based on the original design but produced with the use of machinery.
The researchers came to the conclusion that our appreciativeness of an artwork doesn’t depend only on the appearance of the final product but also on the originality of the artist’s idea, as well as the level of his personal involvement in the actual creative process. And art forgeries fail on both grounds.
That’s why art forgeries, no matter how close to the original will never be considered anywhere nearly as valuable as the original work of art. It’s almost like we humans believe that artists somehow infuse the essence of themselves into their work simply by touching it. By looking at works by Paul Gauguin or Vermeer we feel connected to them as if somehow we are looking into their minds. And that’s a feeling that forgery, no matter how close to the original, can never evoke. | https://inna-13021.medium.com/art-forgery-why-do-we-care-so-much-for-originals-7ec4d88fd241 | ['Art Acacia'] | 2020-01-20 14:00:51.745000+00:00 | ['Art', 'Law', 'Forgery', 'Psychology', 'Copyright'] |
The Big O End! Part 3 of 3 | The Big O End! Part 3 of 3
Wrapping Up Our Last 3 Growth Notations
3d Wireframing in Adobe Illustrator — With Gradient on Editable Text
Big O Notation is such an immense topic to learn and understand. I read an article that said ‘you don’t have to be a math genius to understand it’. They were lying. Writing these articles, though, has helped me get a better grasp on the subject and just this past week while in an algorithm meetup, I had my first AH-HA moment when someone asked me it was possible to develop the algorithm with an O(1)…before I even knew what was happening…I spouted out “No, because we will always need to iterate over the entirety of the elements, the best we can even hope for is an O(n).” I genuinely looked around to see who had said that!
This article is going to cover the last 3 growth notations I set out to cover. If you’d like to check out the other 2 parts of this set of particles, I’ll link them at the end of this post. Message me if I have missed anything, misspoken, or flat out am wrong about any of my information — love learning and love being right!
O(n²)
This notation is know as Quadratic Time. This time complexity is used to denote squaring, or multiplying a number by itself. We have a quadratic (or polynomial) time complexity every time we nest multiple iterations, or have multiple for loops. I found an easy to understand, great example of this in a link on stack overflow, and changed their Python example to Javascript:
linear example:
for (const x of Array(10).keys()) { console.log(x)} quadratic example:
for (const x of Array(10).keys()) {
for (const y of Array(10).keys()) {
console.log(x, y)
}
}
If you open up your console, command-opt-j on mac, and copy in the linear example and return, you’ll see the log returned is only 10 elements long, printing 0–9. If you then copy in the quadratic example and return, you will receive 100 elements. Because of the 2nd for loop…we end up with a logged set that logs x=0, and then the 10 values of y, and continues on in this pattern x+1 while x < 10. The input to this function is 10 and we end up with 100 iterations, a quadratic growth notation where n(the number of elements) is squared. What if the input was 100? Our iterations would increase to 10,000 because O(100²)=10,000. The effort, or time needed to run the equation directly corresponds to the number of elements as the square of the number of elements.
O(2ⁿ)
A growth notation of O(2ⁿ) is referred to as Exponential Time. In this growth notation, the number of times it takes to complete the algorithm is directly 2 squared to the n’th power, with n, as always, being the number of elements. You could imagine, that this kind of growth is figuratively, out of control. and will quickly become an immense amount of every single element added to our data set.
Exponential growth happens when the algorithm must evaluate every permutation or combination in order to complete its task. A fast example of this: maybe you are hacking a password (don’t do this obviously!), worst case scenario, you have to try every possible combination of letters/numbers in order to get the correct combination. If you started with 10 elements, you’d have 1024 combinations to work through, if I then give ask you to figure out the password, but now it has 11 elements in it, you’d have 2048 combinations to try. This is exponential growth…every element requires the equation to double itself, again. This is the recursive Fibbonnaci algorithmic example with an exponential growth¹ (although it’s space complexity is O(n)):
fib(n){
if (n <= 1) {
return 1
}
return fib(n — 1) + fib(n — 2)
}
O(n!)
Factorial Time complexity. Factorial is if you have a number and you multiply it by all positive numbers less than it. For example²:
5! = 5x4x3x2x1 = 120 20! = 20x19x18x17x16x15x14x13x12x11x10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 = 2,432,902,008,176,640,000
The most common example of an algorithm with a factorial time complexity is permutations of a string. If you have a string of ‘fan’ and you have to find all permutations, you will have an ouput of 6, but if you have the string ‘hello’ there will be an output of 120 possible solutions!
Thank you for reading my Big O Notation series! I can not believe how much I feel like a learned, but it’s such a miniscule amount of info from the Big O picture. Have a great week y’all! | https://medium.com/the-innovation/the-big-o-end-part-3-of-3-c559d109265 | ['Osha Groetz'] | 2020-11-17 15:50:09.509000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'Coding', 'Software Engineering', 'Programming', 'Big O Notation'] |
The ugly face of Feminist Consumerism | Airtel, one of the leading telecom providers from India aired an advertisement that was supposed to break gender barriers at work, but the ad also reinstated another long standing gender stereotype in the Indian society.There were discussions on social media and it became a news hour debate on TV (probably sponsored by Airtel). I questioned but also defended the ad with few people.
Feminist ideas were used in advertising to make a false promise of empowerment and sell products based on that. Craven A was the first brand to use women’s empowerment message as a way to market their brand. Owing to these ads and the socio cultural norms it purported, women smokers in the US increased from 5 percent in 1923 to 18 percent in 1935 (Penny,2014). The most famous campaign was from Virginia Slims in the 1960s. The extremely disturbing aspect of these advertisements was the fact that they were selling a product that will potentially kill women in the name of women empowerment.
In the recent years, we especially see a surge in the ads targeting women in developing countries that show faux feministic ideologies to sell products that indeed reinstate the same stereotypes. A case in point is the Dove’s real beauty ads that camouflage women’s empowerment message to sell their skin care products.
Recently, FCKH8, an online retailer of clothes, made children from 6–13 speak out supporting gender, race and feminism. But, there were two major issues, one they were eschewing many F-words and the brand was trying to sell anti-sexism t-shirts. This was the same company that tried to sell Ferguson t-shirts when the case was widely publicised in the US.
Johnston and Taylor (2008) call this as ‘feminist consumerism’. The problem with campaigns like Dove’s “Real beauty” or Pantene’s “Sorry, but not sorry” or FCKH8’s campaign is that they expect women to buy a product to feel empowered. These products reestablish the same societal constructs that feminism is against. Grassroots feminist activists make more impact in bringing in change to the society, but the problem is they don’t have the same budgets as these multi-billion dollar companies.
When we voice against objectification of women in advertising, don’t you think even faux idealisms that promote consumerism are also equally dangerous?
List of references: | https://medium.com/sylvianism/the-ugly-face-of-feminist-consumerism-307469f09252 | ['Sylvian Patrick'] | 2018-06-23 07:42:01.741000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Feminism', 'Digital Marketing', 'Consumerism', 'Faux Feminism'] |
How nuclear war would affect the world climate and human health | Q&A with Paul N. Edwards, CISAC’s William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Written with Nicole Feldman.
There is no denying that nuclear war would have a huge impact on the environment. Though daily headlines worry about the safety of nations and citizens, little has been said about the impact on climate change. In Part Two of our series on the consequences of nuclear war, science and technology historian Paul N. Edwards tells us about the effects of nuclear war on Earth itself — and how they would affect humans.
In the nuclear conversation, what are we not talking about that we should be?
We are not talking enough about the climatic effects of nuclear war.
The “nuclear winter” theory of the mid-1980s played a significant role in the arms reductions of that period. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reduction of U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, this aspect of nuclear war has faded from view. That’s not good. In the mid-2000s, climate scientists such as Alan Robock (Rutgers) took another look at nuclear winter theory. This time around, they used much-improved and much more detailed climate models than those available 20 years earlier. They also tested the potential effects of smaller nuclear exchanges.
The result: an exchange involving just 50 nuclear weapons — the kind of thing we might see in an India-Pakistan war, for example — could loft 5 billion kilograms of smoke, soot and dust high into the stratosphere. That’s enough to cool the entire planet by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.25 degrees Celsius) — about where we were during the Little Ice Age of the 17th century. Growing seasons could be shortened enough to create really significant food shortages.
So the climatic effects of even a relatively small nuclear war would be planet-wide.
What about a larger-scale conflict?
A U.S.-Russia war currently seems unlikely, but if it were to occur, hundreds or even thousands of nuclear weapons might be launched. The climatic consequences would be catastrophic: global average temperatures would drop as much as 12 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) for up to several years — temperatures last seen during the great ice ages. Meanwhile, smoke and dust circulating in the stratosphere would darken the atmosphere enough to inhibit photosynthesis, causing disastrous crop failures, widespread famine and massive ecological disruption.
The effect would be similar to that of the giant meteor believed to be responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. This time, we would be the dinosaurs.
Many people are concerned about North Korea’s advancing missile capabilities. Is nuclear war likely in your opinion?
At this writing, I think we are closer to a nuclear war than we have been since the early 1960s. In the North Korea case, both Kim Jong-un and President Trump are bullies inclined to escalate confrontations. President Trump lacks impulse control, and there are precious few checks on his ability to initiate a nuclear strike. We have to hope that our generals, both inside and outside the White House, can rein him in.
North Korea would most certainly “lose” a nuclear war with the United States. But many millions would die, including hundreds of thousands of Americans currently living in South Korea and Japan (probable North Korean targets). Such vast damage would be wrought in Korea, Japan and Pacific island territories (such as Guam) that any “victory” wouldn’t deserve the name. Not only would that region be left with horrible suffering amongst the survivors; it would also immediately face famine and rampant disease. Radioactive fallout from such a war would spread around the world, including to the U.S.
It has been more than 70 years since the last time a nuclear bomb was used in warfare. What would be the effects on the environment and on human health today?
To my knowledge, most of the changes in nuclear weapons technology since the 1950s have focused on making them smaller and lighter, and making delivery systems more accurate, rather than on changing their effects on the environment or on human health. So-called “battlefield” weapons with lower explosive yields are part of some arsenals now — but it’s quite unlikely that any exchange between two nuclear powers would stay limited to these smaller, less destructive bombs.
Larger bombs can flatten cities. Many if not most people within the blast radius — which can be up to 10 miles — would die instantly. Those who survived would wish they hadn’t, since most would die later of severe burns or awful cancers. Radioactive fallout from these weapons’ debris clouds would reach the stratosphere, where it would travel worldwide, potentially contaminating crops and livestock as well as causing radiation sickness and cancer directly. Later, this fallout would cause genetic mutations in plants, animals and human beings, as it has in the vicinity of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
Nuclear explosions would also cause immense fires. The smoke from burning buildings, oil and gas fields, refineries, chemical factories, and industrial facilities would be highly toxic. Forest fires would engulf large areas. These effects would destroy more property and kill more people.
You have asked whether it is legal to start a nuclear war, given its environmental effects. Tell us about the impacts of such a war on climate change.
So far, nuclear weapons have been treated as a last resort. If leaders are rational, political scientists have always argued, they will never launch first because they know they’ll be destroyed, or at least badly damaged, by the retaliatory attack.
As I noted, the climatic consequences of nuclear war are potentially catastrophic. This fact, were it widely known and accepted, ought to act as an even further deterrent to nuclear conflict.
The laws of war require belligerent nations to avoid damage and casualties to neutral nations and non-combatants. But medium- and large-scale nuclear conflicts would have severe, and global, climatic effects. Most or all neutral nations and non-combatants would be damaged and would suffer casualties. So a strong argument can be made that any such war would be illegal (a point I owe to discussions with Scott Sagan and Bill Perry).
My hope is that as the much slower catastrophe of global climate change continues to grow, the full scale of the climatic damage that could be done by nuclear war will also become a serious issue for international negotiation. | https://medium.com/freeman-spogli-institute-for-international-studies/how-nuclear-war-would-affect-the-world-climate-and-human-health-8b40b4668074 | ['Fsi Stanford'] | 2019-02-02 01:33:05.428000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Environment', 'Fsi Scholars', 'Nuclear', 'Climate Change'] |
My Top 10 Books of 2020 | Every year when I review my list of completed books there are clear, prominent themes that connect my literary choices. Some are intentional and set by me at the beginning of the year, others are surprises that develop after reading one book on a topic and finding myself yearning for more. Some even span over multiple years, including one of the 2020 themes; I continue to crave the intimate narrative of memoirs, having read eight of them this year and many more in previous years. There’s something about a person willingly baring it all for us to see, that lifts the metaphorical hood in the hope of giving us an unearned look at what makes them tick and why they made their choices that will always attract me. What can I say, I’m a nosier-than-average person.
On the other hand, I found myself reading much less World War II historical fiction with only two on the list this year (and just one that I am recommending), compared to nine in 2019. I think the genre still has much to offer but admittedly felt a little burnt out on the subject after a few years of focus on the same era. There has been a staggering influx of WWII historical fiction novels on the market after All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr was published in 2014 and won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. For what it’s worth, it’s still one of my favorites and if this literary theme is a new interest for you, I would start there.
The final tally landed at 44 books with a roughly 60% fiction/40% nonfiction mix for the year and oddly enough I found myself struggling to stop at five nonfiction recommendations despite having ten fewer books to choose from. Most years the split is much closer, even leaning slightly nonfiction but not commuting for nine months of the year reduced my audiobook consumption, which is always 100% nonfiction for me since the story tends to be more linear and contains fewer characters to remember. Yet another time in which 2020 was different and subtly affected my life in ways I couldn’t have predicted.
Without further ado, let’s get into my recommendations. You’ll find my top five nonfiction and fiction reads of 2020. Not all were published this year (three are from previous years) but all stand the test of time and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did throughout this peculiar year. Want to keep up with what I’m reading throughout the year? Follow me on Goodreads.
Nonfiction
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
I have a confession to make. I still have about 10% of this book left to read so I’m cheating a bit by putting it on here! Seen differently, President Obama’s memoir is so powerful and engaging that the first 90% of it is enough for it to top my 2020 nonfiction list, regardless of what I have left to read. Side note: If I lived in a not-so-hilarious sitcom (think ones that have a laugh track still today) the book would take a wacky turn and I’d somehow end up humiliated for doing this. Luckily, I do not live in a zany sitcom about a wannabe writer who works in tech by day, sends a book newsletter out and gets tripped up by an unforeseeable series of events that will keep you laughing and surprise you (Netflix, if you’re reading this, we have a clear winner on our hands…call me).
In all seriousness, there isn’t much to say about this other than go. buy. it. now. President Obama has a talent for telling stories from an angle you wouldn’t expect and his memoir is rich with behind the scenes details we all crave about his decisions, what it was like to be him, to be the first African American in this position, and the pressure his campaign of hope and change created. In this first of two planned volumes, the reminder of his humanity, kindness and integrity in the times we are living feels like a fireside hug from a beloved friend you’ve missed and have not seen for a long time.
No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram by Sarah Frier
For many of us Instagram is pervasive in our daily activities with any moment of boredom suddenly cured by a quick scroll through the old ‘gram. I chose this because I was curious to learn more about the history of the company, and it has an added bonus of being set in my beloved Bay Area. It must be all of the rags to riches, against the odds tales that birth from the seemingly innocuous, average-looking place that is Silicon Valley but this always seems to add an extra bit of spice for me.
We all know Instagram was acquired by Facebook, but did you know they paid a billion dollars for a company that wasn’t even two years old and had just 13 employees? At the time of acquisition in 2012 that seemed like an outrageous price to pay but it was clearly a wise move by the cunning Zuck. Sarah Frier takes you through it all, from the original idea to the behemoth it became, with some fascinating insight from some members of the founding team. I loved learning more about the story behind the most used app on my phone and the secret negotiations that ultimately led to its huge success.
Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste by Bianca Bosker
Warning: Do not read this if you’re unhappy with your job (aka me in January 2020) and have any interest whatsoever in wine, or else you will come VERY close to quitting and studying for the Introductory Sommelier test. If Seb hadn’t talked me off the edge, you’d be looking at a very different, perma-tipsy wine-stained teeth version of me right now. You have been warned and should proceed with caution if you fit the above description. Journalist Bianca Bosker does an amazing job of unmasking the opaque world of wine evaluation and recommendation as a career (more frequently referred to as sommeliers) by bringing an outsiders’ view to an industry that does not make it easy for the uninitiated to access. I loved this book because it accomplished two goals that are usually at odds: it educated me and made me laugh hysterically. If you’ve ever wondered why people make such a big deal about wine and why it’s so difficult to understand then this book is for you.
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson
Fine, my interest in WWII history is not completely dead. Perhaps 2021 is the year I finally move on to a different decade? Erik Larson is the master of narrative nonfiction, which is to say that he makes nonfiction feel like a page-turning mystery thriller that could not possibly be true, and yet it is. His latest focuses on Winston Churchill’s first year as prime minister which was inextricably tied with the war as Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium on his first day in office. Churchill was such a fiery character and left an indelible mark on 20th century history and I had always wanted to learn more about him. Larson leverages private diaries and documents never before seen by the public to paint an image of what life was like for Churchill, his family, key Downing Street players, and the British people during the Blitz, a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941. An Obama Favorite Books of 2020 pick, this one is a must for history lovers and a great introduction to Erik Larson.
Eat a Peach: A Memoir by David Chang
I admit that I didn’t know much about Chef David Chang before picking up his memoir. I knew he was the creator of Momofuku Noodle Bar, a restaurant I like, and that he was the first legitimate chef to give the Impossible Burger a shot — this last fact alone made him a winner in my book. Little did I know that I was about to discover a deeply personal story of mental health struggles that has rarely been told in such a raw and authentic manner by a public figure. His rise to unprecedented stardom and awards (his restaurant Ko was the first restaurant to receive a Michelin star in its first year, and it got two) was tainted by a desire to commit suicide and his crippling imposter syndrome. A love (and sometimes hate) letter to the restaurant industry and his Korean roots, Chang humbly shares his story, lessons and personal growth in a frequently funny and self-deprecating manner that lovers of sarcasm and irony will appreciate.
Fiction
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Originally published in Swedish, this quirky story found its way to the top of many bestseller lists and finished second in the Best Fiction category of the Goodreads Choice Awards 2020 by only five votes! I found the entire premise so odd and charming and when I was part way through I frequently wondered about the characters during the day and for a few days after finishing it — the ultimate compliment as far as I’m concerned. Most of the story happens in one spot and there is no clear protagonist needing to complete their quest. Like most of my favorite fiction picks, it’s character-driven and tells a poignantly human tale of love, loss and growth. It also has a twinge of mystery for those who enjoy a few surprises along the way. I strongly recommend it to anyone looking to get lost in other peoples’ lives and look forward to reading more from this new-to-me author.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
This popped up on my radar after Hulu announced their series based on the book starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. I love when good stories get interpreted in a new medium, an activity that always moves titles up my list of books to read. I rushed to read this before the Hulu series came out in March and was not disappointed. Celeste Ng has previously mentioned that she enjoys setting her novels in the pre-technology era in order to create interesting plot points that cannot be waved away by a quick text or Instagram post and I have to agree with her. There is a comfortable nostalgia and sense of multiple paths the story could take that kept me on my toes. Even if you have seen the Hulu series already (which I also recommend), the book has a few key differences and is absolutely worth a read on its own.
The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer
The lone World War II historical fiction pick on my list this year, this is a story of wartime of course but of courage and how we sometimes must learn to keep moving forward and make due with the cards life has dealt us. The chapters alternate between Alice (present-day) and Alina (past, during Holocaust), clearly highlighting the weight many carry today still after the events of WWII while also contrasting the challenges women faced then and now. This was one of those stories where I started to predict where it was headed about ¾ of the way through, but the journey was more impactful than the final destination. If you like this genre and have enjoyed other favorites like The Nightingale or The Tattooist of Auschwitz, you should pick this one up.
Beach Read by Emily Henry
Switching gears to happier times, this is a classic romance and has the added fun of featuring a romance writer as one of the two main characters. I read a lot of women’s fiction (derogatorily labeled “chick lit” by many) which makes it hard to pick my favorite but this one was without a doubt my top choice for 2020. It has everything I look for in the genre: a picturesque, escapism-like setting, a relatable protagonist, a likeable love interest, a challenge she/he must overcome, and quirky secondary characters that bring the world to life. It doesn’t have as sappy of a HEA (“happily ever after” for the uninitiated) as the genre usually calls for but it’s definitely a tear jerker so I’d keep tissues nearby as you reach the end. While I do think it makes a wonderful “beach read”, if you choose to give this a try I predict you will read it with more urgency than the beach usually imposes.
The Boys’ Club by Erika Katz
For some reason I am certain there is an alternate universe where I am a high-powered M&A lawyer at a big corporate NYC law firm and this novel was a glimpse into what that life entails. Spoiler (not really since this is to be expected), it’s riddled with shady people, little sleep, questionable morals, and wondering if you can live with the decisions this world pushed you to make. Written under the pseudonym of Erika Katz to maintain anonymity, the author is still practicing law in this cutthroat world and pulls from her real life experience to tell a tale that shocked me at every turn and made me grateful for living in this version of the universe. This one did not pick up as much steam as I thought it would from a bestseller perspective but it has already been optioned by Netflix so if you want to be ahead of the trend (unlike me with Little Fires Everywhere) then give this one a go. | https://medium.com/@emilie-fournier/my-top-10-books-of-2020-420fc2013ce6 | ['Emilie Fournier'] | 2020-12-23 22:48:00.845000+00:00 | ['2020', 'Book Recommendations', 'Books', 'Nonfiction', 'Fiction'] |
RBG — merch machine. These days, I eat a lot of meals where… | These days, I eat a lot of meals where I work. Thus, a daily allotment of silverware, plates, and glasses get used at my desk. Often, a coffee mug will linger on the desk long past its cupboard buddies. I’ll get up from my desk, pick up the used plates and silverware, look at the mug, acknowledge it needs to go to the sink then decline to do so, despite having a free hand. This can go on for days: I look at the task that needs to get done and put it off to chase the sliver of pleasure that comes from not doing a chore. Eventually, my twin desires for tidiness and the ability to go about my day knowing everything’s in order outweigh the fleeting feel-good of chore abstinence.
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What’s Mug Got to do with it? (Tina Turner voice)
A few reports last week revealed that in 2013, fearing the senate would flip Republican in the 2014 election (it did) and block the appointment of a liberal judge, then President Barack Obama had a private lunch with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to gingerly convince her to step down. Ideally, she’d do so in time for the senate to confirm a liberal replacement.
At the point of this conversation, Ginsburg was near 81.1 years of age, the average life expectancy of an American woman. She was also well past 66, the average age Americans expect to retire. When asked about how Obama might regard her potential retirement, she said:
“I think he would agree with me that it’s a question for my own good judgment.”
In a certain way, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat resembles my mug. The issue of her passing away in the midst of a conservative-majority senate was obvious, and her stepping down midway through Obama’s second term was a simple solution to that problem that went ignored for too long. Ignored because it felt good to avoid doing anything about it. It felt good because she was an iconoclast, and the longer she sat in her seat, the more we could congratulate ourselves for having someone like her around in such a powerful position.
Unlike the mug, Ginsburg had agency, and chose to remain in her seat. As her career showed, she refused to be placed anywhere simply because someone wanted it that way.
Put an RBG on it
There’s a ton of merch out there with RBG’s face on it: mugs, coasters, t-shirts, earrings, figurines, Christmas ornaments, and throw pillows, to name a few.
In addition to her face, many of these same items have her wearing a tilted crown, with the slogan ‘Notorious RBG’, an appropriation of the infamous picture of rapper Notorious B.I.G. Given her age, and her love of taking in opera (often with Antonin Scalia, close friend and person responsible for writing that constitutionally granted same-sex marriage was a “threat to American democracy,”) I find it unlikely Ginsburg was familiar with B.I.G.’s music. Moreover, of Colin Kaepernick’s anthem kneeling protest, Ginsburg had to say:
“I think it’s dumb and disrespectful. I would have the same answer if you asked me about flag burning. I think it’s a terrible thing to do, but I wouldn’t lock a person up for doing it. I would point out how ridiculous it seems to me to do such an act.”
With that in mind, it’s hard to imagine her co-signing the appropriation of the image of an artist whose music often referenced actual legal transgressions, not just kneeling or cloth burning.
Our Notorious Stupid.It.Y.
This isn’t to say Ginsburg was bad, she wasn’t. She was just a person: she made mistakes, had rotten friends that were difficult to part with, and occasionally said some stupid stuff.
The brand built around Ginsburg gave us those same slivers of serotonin that caused us to overlook more important issues. If we’d completed a simple task to put things in order, we’d not find ourselves facing down our current predicament: the nomination and likely lifetime confirmation of a 48-year-old judge who is anti-abortion, thinks Obamacare is unconstitutional, and is anti-gay marriage.
Owning merch with Ginsburg on it was a way to momentarily forget the fact that the odds of her drawing breath versus her heart stopping were far worse than they should have been for anyone in her position. Unintentionally, it was also a visual reminder of our outdated Supreme Court system, and gave us unwarranted optimism about that same system of which she was a part.
Whether you bought the items or not, they reinforced a halo around her that discouraged people from asking that during her lifetime of opening doors, she leave us with good odds they would stay that way.
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Song of the Week: If news of Ginsburg’s death and watching the Trump/Biden debate got you down, I don’t blame you. This song will help lift your spirits. “Finally” by CeCe Peniston.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk8mm1Qmt-Y | https://medium.com/brandsmeanalot/rbg-merch-machine-32a208443f0c | ['Jared Holst'] | 2020-10-05 19:26:36.388000+00:00 | ['Supreme Court', 'Law', 'Politics', 'Brands'] |
Amazon Echo, Kindle, and Fire TV: All on Black Friday sale, all Editors’ Choice winners | Beware of monotony; it’s the mother of all the deadly sins (Edith Wharton) | https://medium.com/@benjami43799455/amazon-echo-kindle-and-fire-tv-all-on-black-friday-sale-all-editors-choice-winners-e8a2031e76dd | [] | 2020-12-25 02:50:53.114000+00:00 | ['Headphones', 'Entertainment', 'Audio', 'Consumer'] |
From Buddha to Peter Singer | From Buddha to Peter Singer
Is Karma a form of utilitarianism?
About six years ago, I had a chance encounter with a smart, successful entrepreneur. We met in a co-working space from where she was remotely monitoring her business empire. Within minutes, she poked holes in my own business plans and impressed me with her wit and ambition.
Later in the evening, we joined friends for dinner, and she declined to drink alcohol. Abstinence from alcohol is not something I usually question. But she must have been used to justifying herself, cause she explained: “I am not drinking because I am a Buddhist.”
I was not yet aware that Buddhists couldn’t drink and inquired further. She explained, “drinking intoxicants would be punished in the next cycle of re-birth. If I drink alcohol, I will be re-born with only one arm”.
I looked at her, wondering whether she was joking. She wasn’t.
At the time, I was shocked that such a brilliant mind could subscribe to such a literal interpretation of reincarnation. Reincarnation was for me an allegory, as was the creation myth of Adam and Eve. It took me aback that someone I admired would take it at face value.
Many years later, I came to a more moderate point of view. I now feel the concept of karma fits within my worldview. Karma actually relates to a philosophy I wholeheartedly embrace: utilitarianism.
What is Karma?
Karma is the Sanskrit word for “action”. More accurately, it expresses “wilful action”, an action done with clear intent.
Karma is the accounting system for one of the primary Buddhist laws: actions have consequences.
Or in the words of the Buddha:
“Beings are owners of their actions, heirs of their actions; they originate from their actions, are bound to their actions, have their actions as their refuge. It is action that distinguishes beings as inferior and superior.”
Pali Canon — Sutra on the Law of Karma
If you suffer in the present life, it is the consequence of bad karma accumulated from previous lives (you gathered “karma debt”). But if you act wisely in this life, you may improve your condition in the next life (by earning some “karma credit”).
Karma thus pulls people in either a vicious or a virtuous circle. If you accumulated good karma in the past, it would be easier for you to live a righteous life today and move forward toward enlightenment.
Here, monks, someone generates a non-afflictive volitional formation of body, speech, or mind. Having done so, he is reborn in a non-afflictive world. When he is reborn in a non-afflictive world, non-afflictive contacts touch him. Being touched by non-afflictive contacts, he experiences a non-afflictive feeling, extremely pleasant […]. This is called bright karma with bright results.
Pali Canon — Sutra on the Law of Karma
This is the reason why my new friend was concerned about drinking. Her accumulating bad karma in this life would have negative consequences in her next life and keep her from achieving enlightenment.
At first sight, the law of karma looks like a cosmic talion law. “An eye for an eye”: if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back in a similar fashion.
There is, however, a more subtle reading of the karma law. To understand it, we will dive into a philosophy that appeared more than 2,000 years after the teaching of the Buddha.
Let’s talk about utilitarianism.
What is utilitarianism?
Utilitarianism can sound like a barbarous name (undoubtedly challenging to pronounce for non-native speakers), but it reflects a simple idea. It is a theory that recommends maximizing the well-being of the majority of the population.
The term was coined by Jon Stuart Mill, a 19th-century British philosopher. Mill put his philosophy in simple terms:
[The] standard is not the agent’s own greatest happiness, but the greatest amount of happiness altogether;
Jon Stuart Mill — Utilitarianism
The idea may seem common sense, but it has far-reaching consequences. A modern utilitarian, Peter Singer, illustrates it in a provoking thought experiment in his book “The life you can save”.
You’re on your way to work, wearing brand new clothes. You pass by a pond and see a young child drowning. There is no one else around. You can move on and get to work on time or save the child, ruin your clothes, and get to work late. What do you do?
Most people would answer “I’d save the child, of course”.
But Peter Singer is a tricky philosopher. He then suggests that we are, in fact, always in a position to save a child at a minor expense.
Saving or dramatically improving someone’s life would only cost a few hundred bucks. It might cost less than the clothes you would have ruined in his hypothetical pond. Peter Singer goes on affirming that we have a moral duty to make such donations and to make them in the way which would be the most efficient for society at large. This utilitarian movement is called “effective altruism”.
This is not the only application of utilitarianism to modern-day life. Self-driving cars can also be required to make utilitarian decisions when on the road. If a self-driving car gets caught in an accident, programming the car to hit the least number of people could be considered a utilitarian choice.
It is now time to connect the dots. What does utilitarianism have to do with karma?
Is karma a Buddhist form of utilitarianism?
According to Buddhist law, karma means that negative action has negative consequences. One will be punished in a future life for evil actions in the present life.
There is, however, one flaw in this logic: according to Buddhism, the self is also an illusion. All beings and things are all part of a whole. Our feeling of separation from other people and objects is a trick played by our mind. We are all one.
But if the self is an illusion, how can the self be punished through karma? This question is a contradiction only on the surface. In fact, it is an explanation for karma. Because we are one with the rest of the universe, when we are hurting others, we are always hurting ourselves.
Karma is not a divine retribution law. It is, once again, an accounting tool. Through karma, I can keep track of the damage I am doing to the universe (and therefore to myself) while still under the delusion of a separate self.
Because we are one with the rest of the universe, when we are hurting others, we are always hurting ourselves.
Because we are one with the universe, we should strive for its well-being. Which reminds us of… utilitarianism.
Karma and utilitarianism share the same goal: they encourage us to strive for the happiness of all beings around us. They both help us to consider every living creature as connected. More importantly: both concepts invite us to be more aware of the consequences of our actions.
Jon Stuart Mill already saw this connexion between utilitarianism and spirituality back in the 19th century.
If it be a true belief that God desires, above all things, the happiness of his creatures, and that this was his purpose in their creation, utility is not only not a godless doctrine, but more profoundly religious than any other.
Jon Stuart Mill — Utilitarianism
Mill also connects utilitarianism with Jesus’s words:
In the golden rule of Jesus of Nazareth, we read the complete spirit of the ethics of utility. To do as one would be done by, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality.
Jon Stuart Mill — Utilitarianism
Under this perspective, karma is no longer a “tit for tat”, punitive belief, meant to scare people into acting morally. It becomes a profoundly aware philosophy. Karma makes us mindful of the consequences of our actions on a universe we are deeply intertwined with.
How far does the analogy go?
Karma is, however, not identical to utilitarianism.
One simple reason might be that there are many kinds of interpretations of karma, and many different types of utilitarian theory (some utilitarians will want to maximize the average happiness of society, others will want to maximize the total happiness, etc.)
There are also some more striking differences between karma and utilitarianism. Many utilitarians focus on the consequences of actions, while Buddhism is more focused on intent. For instance, negative thoughts would produce bad karma (while they wouldn’t necessarily be relevant for a utilitarian if they aren’t followed by action)
But beyond these differences, connecting karma with utilitarianism remains deeply satisfying. It enables us to reconcile ancient wisdom about the illusion of the self with a very modern desire for action. And it shows us that, from Buddha to Peter Singer, the thought leaders of old and recent times all shared a deep concern for a more caring world. | https://medium.com/interfaith-now/from-buddha-to-peter-singer-is-karma-a-form-of-utilitarianism-833272a5fe41 | ['Tim Aaron Gashiz'] | 2019-08-24 16:58:34.814000+00:00 | ['Utilitarianism', 'Buddhism', 'Karma', 'Peter Singer', 'Religion'] |
Ego! | In the image, two humanoid figures, both of which are silently empty, are seated in opposing directions. Both individuals are leaning downwards, giving the impression that they are both subdued. We can see arid land and no other humanoid figures in the image, therefore these two are the only ones who exist. Despite the fact that the figures are not facing each other, the small figures within them are looking at each other, desiring to interact but feeling powerless. The fact that the smaller figures are solid while the outer figures are empty sends a message that all humans are empty on the inside; it is only their soul (subconsciousness) that is solid. We humans frequently find themselves in a bind.
We humans frequently find ourselves in situations when we are unable to interact with someone we have known for a long time, despite a strong desire to do so. This might happen for two reasons: our ego or our preference for self-respect over the other person.
When I saw this photo, it reminded me of a situation that is somewhat similar to this.
I found a friend in high school with whom I quickly clicked and began spending the majority of my time with. We were socially awkward at the time because we didn’t have any other buddies. Years passed, and our bond became stronger.
As we grew older, we began to learn more about ourselves, the activities we enjoy doing, the things we are passionate about, the people we admire, the locations we want to visit, and so on. We were broken into groups and our time was shared with other friends. We made it clear that we were each other’s first priority, but fate had other plans for us.
We had the option of studying sciences or other subjects in 9th grade. I was interested in computing and mathematics, so I went with Sciences, whereas he was more interested in designing and sketching, so he went with Arts.
We began to make more friends, participate in other projects, and devote our time to other activities. We grew apart without even realising it. We were ecstatic to have so many new friends, and I was personally taken aback by my sudden celebrity. We lost touch after school and relocated to different cities. After a certain age, everyone begins to experiment with various emotions. The sensations of romance, guilt, thankfulness, envy, and so forth.
Those were the days when the only reason for sadness was a mountain of homework. We begin to meet people who become essential parts of our lives, and we get that feeling of a new beginning, and we waste a lot of energy on the wrong people. There are times when being surrounded by a large crowd does not make us feel less lonely. When we are severely hurt by folks who come into our life to show us the value of our presence and then depart as soon as they find better company, and we sit there thinking about how wonderful those school days were!
Oh, how I wish I had made a more concerted attempt to keep in touch with my high school acquaintance. He was the one who stood by me when I had no one else. Despite the fact that he had done nothing wrong to me, I believe I had lost a true friend. Is it too late to strike up a dialogue? What will he say about me? What right do I have to start communicating to him again? Will he recognise me if I initiate a discussion, and, more importantly, why should I initiate the conversation?
My ego had taken over my head at this point, and I couldn’t stop myself. Maybe he was in a similar situation, maybe he, too, wanted to talk to me, maybe he was missing the good old days, but ohh, we live in a world where being busy in our life is a sign of success. I’m hoping to learn a new lesson and not let people like this leave.
~Harsh Bhandari | https://medium.com/@harshbhandari603/ego-65437d354f3e | ['Harsh Bhandari'] | 2021-09-10 04:54:31.485000+00:00 | ['Picture Composition', 'Ego', 'Relationships', 'Life Lessons', 'Wishful Thinking'] |
Dashboards 101: Rolling Your Days | You need to crawl before you can run when it comes to data. So many leaders want to bite right into trendy Machine Learning & AI techniques before they even have simple aggregations. Fortunately, tracking your company’s progress doesn’t need to be complicated — it’s really about asking the right questions (e.g. Are users doing what I want them to do?) — and looking at the trend over time. Was there a dip in sign-ups? Did more users activate than normal? What was the holiday impact?
I was taught to do this by truncating dates to a day/Monday/first of the month/first of the year, counting the users, and graphing it. Unfortunately, the common methods for doing this don’t tell the whole story.
For the below visualizations, I pulled some TLC Application data (Taxi & Limo Commission) from New York Open Data. Be sure to checkout this website if you haven’t already. It’s amazing what has been open sourced!
Here is a distinct count by day of all TLC applications in NYC:
Just from eyeballing, I might wonder what happened in mid-August, but for all I know that day is an anomaly. I can see there is an overall upward trend once September hits, but that’s about it. If someone can look at this chart and derive value, their insight wouldn’t be worth much.
Here is an aggregation at the week level:
The bars are smoother, but what is happening within the week is lost here. Was September 29th just an off week, or is there always a dip going into the next month? It’s also impossible to know how your current week is going. Looking at Oct 13th, maybe we should shut the business down (or wait until next Monday to check how we’re actually doing).
Neither of these graphs paint an accurate picture of how your business is performing. With Daily Aggregation, the spikes are huge and random. With Weekly Aggregation, you have to wait 7 days to know how you’re doing.
Enter the Rolling Aggregation:
A rolling aggregation means a sum of the last X days of data. Monday to Monday, Tuesday to Tuesday, etc. This graph clearly shows us the ebb and flow of our applications, while also quickly pointing out spikes as they happen — for example the post-Labor Day application jump (Monday, 09/09/2019) which was not as visible on the other charts. By aggregating with this method, we knew on 09/10/2019 that applications had jumped the day before.
Some flavors of SQL have functions to achieve the above, called “window functions”. To achieve a rolling sum, start with data aggregated by day then sum across rows.
Don’t Forget to Fill your Dates!
A word of warning, don’t forget to fill your dates! If you have a day with zero applications, that means your database will have no entries for those values, and your aggregation will be incorrect. Make sure you fill in your dates with zeroes before you tell the wrong story! | https://medium.com/@alexselby/dashboards-101-rolling-your-days-b864c7a8d27a | ['Alex Selby'] | 2019-10-09 15:36:55.443000+00:00 | ['Data', 'Redshift', 'Dataviz', 'Visualization', 'Sql'] |
Building a Universal Framework in iOS | Photo by Kevin Ku on Unsplash
I have created one Framework that actually provides inbuilt methods to detect the liveness of a person. Framework is created successfully but when that framework is integrated with my app and trying to run on device it was running successfully but whenever I am trying to test it simulator I failed to run it which gives me the following error.
your framework path building for iOS-x86_64 but attempting to link with file built for iOS Device-arm64
I tried every solution for that, like adding all architectures in Build architecture only but it failed then I understand that we have to create a Universal framework that actually supports both simulator and device. For creating a Universal framework I have followed some step that I am trying to explain here so that developer who is facing the same issue can solve that in less time.
As we know the problem statement where we are not able to run app for the simulator or for device after integrating a framework. Following is the warning or error you can see while running an application for a simulator/device.
your framework path building for iOS-arm64 but attempting to link with file built for iOS Simulator-x86_64
The above warning indicates that framework integrated is available for simulator and we are trying to run it on a real device.
your framework path building for iOS-x86_64 but attempting to link with file built for iOS Device-arm64
The above warning indicates that framework integrated is available for a real-device and we are trying to run it on the simulator.
So now we have to create a Universal framework which supports both simulator and real-devices.
Before going into actual problem solving I will give you an idea of what is the build architectures and what they do.
arm6: iPhone 1, 2, 3G
arm7: Used in the oldest iOS 7-supporting devices[32 bit]. iPhone 4, 4s
arm7s: As used in iPhone 5 and 5C[32 bit]. iPhone 5, 5c
arm64: For the 64-bit ARM processor in iPhone 5S[64 bit]. iPhone 5s and above.
arm64e: used on the A12 chipset. iPhone XS/XS Max/XR
i386: For the 32-bit simulator
x86_64: Used in 64-bit simulator
Now the actual problem-solving.
Prerequisite: Create a new folder where you are pasting the framework created. Let’s say the name of the folder is Universal which is located in Desktop.
Creating a framework for Simulator
Change scheme to your Yourframework.framework. Select Any iPhone to let’s say iPhone8. Hit the play button(try to run your application). Now go to the product folder in the Xcode folder list. Here you can see Yourframework.framework, right-click on it and click show in finder. You can see your framework. Copy that framework and past it into the Universal folder we created. Rename that framework as yourframeworkSim.framewrok.
Creating a framework for real-device
Change scheme to your Yourframework.framework. Select Generic iOS Device. Hit the play button(try to run your application). Now go to the product folder in the Xcode folder list. Here you can see Yourframework.framework, right-click on it and click show in finder. You can see your framework. Copy that framework and past it into the Universal folder we created. Rename that framework as yourframeworkDevice.framewrok.
Until now we have a Universal folder located in Desktop which holding two frameworks named yourframeworkDevice.framewrok and yourframeworkSim.framewrok.
The following are the two ways to get the universal framework.
1)Use of COMMAND LINE TOOL
Now you have to open the terminal. From command-line tool goto folder, you created on desktop i.e Universal folder
cd path_to_Universal_folder
Now next and final step we have to hit final command on the command-line tool which created the framework supports to Simulator and device.
lipo -create -output yourframework.framework yourframeworkDevice.framework/yourframeworkDevice yourframeworkSim.framework/yourframeworkSim
lipo -create -output — it helps to create universal binary.
yourframework.framework — This is our final framework name which supports both simulator and a real-time device.
yourframeworkDevice.framework/yourframework — This is a framework which only support for a real-device.
yourframeworkSim.framework/yourframework — This is a framework which only support for a Simulator.
2) You can use either command-line tool or you can add this script by following way
Select Project Target → Edit Schema → Archive → Post-actions → Press “+” → New Run Script Action.
UNIVERSAL_OUTPUTFOLDER=${BUILD_DIR}/${CONFIGURATION}-Universal # Make sure the output directory exists
mkdir -p "${UNIVERSAL_OUTPUTFOLDER}" # Next, work out if we're in SIMULATOR or REAL DEVICE
xcodebuild -target "${PROJECT_NAME}" -configuration ${CONFIGURATION} -sdk iphonesimulator ONLY_ACTIVE_ARCH=NO BUILD_DIR="${BUILD_DIR}" BUILD_ROOT="${BUILD_ROOT}" clean buildxcodebuild -target "${PROJECT_NAME}" ONLY_ACTIVE_ARCH=NO -configuration ${CONFIGURATION} -sdk iphoneos BUILD_DIR="${BUILD_DIR}" BUILD_ROOT="${BUILD_ROOT}" clean build # Step 2. Copy the framework structure (from iphoneos build) to the universal foldercp -R "${BUILD_DIR}/${CONFIGURATION}-iphoneos/${PROJECT_NAME}.framework" "${UNIVERSAL_OUTPUTFOLDER}/" # Step 3. Copy Swift modules from iphonesimulator build (if it exists) to the copied framework directory
BUILD_PRODUCTS="${SYMROOT}/../../../../Products"cp -R "${BUILD_PRODUCTS}/Debug-iphonesimulator/${PROJECT_NAME}.framework/Modules/${PROJECT_NAME}.swiftmodule/." "${UNIVERSAL_OUTPUTFOLDER}/${PROJECT_NAME}.framework/Modules/${PROJECT_NAME}.swiftmodule" # Step 4. Create universal binary file using lipo and place the combined executable in the copied framework directorylipo -create -output "${UNIVERSAL_OUTPUTFOLDER}/${PROJECT_NAME}.framework/${PROJECT_NAME}" "${BUILD_PRODUCTS}/Debug-iphonesimulator/${PROJECT_NAME}.framework/${PROJECT_NAME}" "${BUILD_DIR}/${CONFIGURATION}-iphoneos/${PROJECT_NAME}.framework/${PROJECT_NAME}" # Step 5. Convenience step to copy the framework to the project's directorycp -R "${UNIVERSAL_OUTPUTFOLDER}/${PROJECT_NAME}.framework" "${PROJECT_DIR}" # Step 6. Convenience step to open the project's directory in Finder
open "${PROJECT_DIR}"
fi
After adding this script you have to archive your framework. And because of this script, your framework folder will automatically get open and you can found the framework and ready to use.
Conclusion
Now finally we have a Universal framework that runs on a simulator and real-time devices. This is one way to create that there is another way for doing that we will see it later on. | https://medium.com/@yuvrajkale/building-a-universal-framework-in-ios-1fb5e32d77bd | ['Yuvraj Kale'] | 2020-04-26 07:21:19.076000+00:00 | ['Objective C', 'iOS App Development', 'Swift Programming', 'Universal Framework'] |
How to Enjoy the Outdoors the Right Way | From: A Slice of Life in Montana by Calvin Servheen
Nature means nothing unless you can appreciate it, right? Are the natural world, the wilderness, and the climate important because they’re fun to experience? Or is there some other, better reason that you should value the earth? It’s hard to ask yourself this question objectively, so I often refer to this scenario to explain:
Imagine your favorite natural place — Maybe it’s a park like Yellowstone or Acadia, or maybe it’s just a patch of woods behind your apartment — and imagine the protective feelings you have toward it. Think about the anger that you feel when you read that oil or mining interests are threatening your favorite place. It’s pretty special to you, isn’t it? Now imagine that your favorite place was suddenly closed, that the government was banning all access immediately for the health of the ecosystem. You can no longer appreciate the views and sun, no longer take hikes into the shade, or do a number of other, wilder action sports that you might be into. All the wellness benefits that this place holds are now no longer accessible to you. Is this place still your favorite? Is it still worth protecting? Is it still valuable?
A special place can be anything — like this agricultural field nestled behind a sports stadium in Bozeman, Montana. It is strikingly beautiful in its own right.
If you think this scenario is too theoretical, let me hit you with a story. In Montana, mountain biking is a popular activity. Lots of folks like to get out into the woods and pedal their bikes up a ridge, over rocks and roots, and through clear streams and muddy holes until sweat drips down into their eyebrows and they gasp from the thinness of the mountain air. They then proceed to turn around and hurl themselves back downhill to feel the rushing air and thrill others as they tear back into the parking lot in a cloud of dust.
The author riding his bike on a local trail. Photographer: Stephen Crawford.
I love mountain biking. It’s a weird obsession, but the combination of closeness to nature and an athletic challenge appeals to my sense of fun. Nothing compares to the feeling of slashing through a turn, or throwing shapes in the air. Right now, some of you are probably nodding, thinking about how it feels when you get something just right in your own sport. Some of you probably also see some problems. Tearing through the woods has a real environmental impact that can be measured in displaced wildlife and reduced water quality. Also, being in nature is not synonymous with appreciating nature and a number of mountain bikers come away from their time outside without noticing the calming beauty around them and no desire to preserve the earth. In fact, many begin to advocate for more trails, more bike parks, and more access, with some mountain bike groups even launching legal efforts to strip public Wilderness of conservation protections that keep bikes out.
Us mountain bikers, along with our counterparts in outdoor sports like skiing, hunting, and whitewater have an insatiable appetite for fun which in the developed world may represent an even larger threat to the environment than resource extraction. It’s a real example of how people can view the earth transactionally. I think this view is wrong and that while testing ourselves through an athletic challenge is fun, we can’t forget to enjoy the beauty of nature for its own sake. Balancing athleticism with appreciation for nature is so important because it stops us from becoming part of the problem that threatens where we recreate. I hope I’m right in this assessment, but my opinion aside, the question still remains: are recreationalists so wrong to want access? Or are they wrong to think they deserve it?
A mountain biking trail in Southwest Montana cuts across the landscape at a local trail center.
For many of us, the answer seems obvious. The earth is worth caring about simply because it exists; it’s not a commodity that we can convert to dollar signs and utility, but something sacred that has intrinsic value just because it’s there. This isn’t a new idea. It’s a cornerstone of many eastern and Native American beliefs and also a key piece of modern conservation movements. When enough people act with respect for nature we can balance our material needs with the needs of the environment and enjoy our world without compromising it for the next generation. In the same way that a relationship built on respect outlives one where the couple use each other, we can live and die happier by appreciating our surroundings independent of what they can do for us.
I understand that these ‘just do the right thing’ sentiments might betray my privilege, but I’m not trying to take on the issue of how civilization can live more sustainably — not today at least. Instead, I just want to talk about enjoying nature. It’s easy to recreate outside, but it’s hard to feel appreciative, thankful, and humble while doing so. I think that these feelings really make life worth living. They make being outside — whether that’s in a garden or a wilderness area — a religious experience and they put the universe into perspective so that when we step back inside we can be kinder, more productive people.
The turbid Gallatin River carries soil particles from clearcut ski runs and mountain bike trails upstream in Big Sky Montana.
Benefits of Outdoor Recreation
Outdoor recreation fulfills a few major human needs. It’s easy to understand how exercise keeps us healthy both mentally and physically. It’s also clear that lots of outdoor activities are fun diversions that serve as entertainment, but the common understanding stops here. There are a few other, even more impactful reasons I think outdoor recreation is important. Let’s go through each in turn:
Enjoying Natural Beauty is calming and healing — A snowy suburban street at night, a gravel running path through flowers, and a jagged mountain peak all share a certain kind of beauty. This is easiest defined as happy imperfection — things existing in a disorganized state that is somehow harmonious, like the thousands of flawed snowflakes which combine in jagged disarray to form a perfectly uniform drift. This is the kind of beauty that heals us from the perfectionism and confusion of life. It reminds us that a little imperfection is ok because we too can have beauty. There are real physical and mental health benefits to appreciating nature’s disorder including better self esteem and physical wellbeing according to a 2019 study published in Nature. Appreciation for nature keeps life in perspective — The photo Earthrise awakens many people to a grander perspective. It diminishes our achievements and our fears, and reminds us what is really important. Although we can’t see an earthrise every morning, the outdoors can have the same positive effect. This is especially important for people who face mental illnesses including depression and anxiety or otherwise experience dissociation from their surroundings. There is solace in nature. It has reminded me of the grander perspective when I’ve needed it the most.
Earthrise photo taken by Apollo 8’s astronaut, Bill Anders
3. Respect for nature curbs environmental damage — Remembering that we don’t deserve to recreate all the time and that we respect the earth for good reason helps cut down on the negative impacts of our activities. We know that building a new trail is an act that can never be erased from the landscape. Remembering that the landscape is more important than getting in a few sick turns helps us decide whether expanding our footprint is really worth the cost. Thinking and acting with respect for nature can significantly slow the recreation economy’s growing footprint.
6 Tips to Truly Connect with the Outdoors
It’s not always easy to keep these things in mind when you’re outside, but whether you’re out enjoying the slow Seattle rain, having a Nor’Easter snowball fight, or walking a knife edge ridge at twelve thousand feet, this philosophy will make your recreation experience better. As an outdoor guide, I have thought a lot about how to shape people’s recreation experiences to include these benefits. Here are a few tips for making your next outing more introspective and fulfilling.
Get Close to Nature — This means getting out of your car, off your bike, and sometimes off your feet to get as close as possible to your surroundings. It’s hard to let go of certain inhibitions and step off the trail or lay down in a field of grass, but doing this lets you touch and smell the earth. It’s hard to explain how closeness changes your relationship to a place. Few things are more special. Scare Yourself — Get out of your comfort zone. If it’s safe to do so, jump into a river or a snowbank, or maybe just forge your own path away from the trail. Doing this makes your outing seem less like a part of a routine. It also helps you have more special experiences which lead to greater respect for nature. Just remember, stay out of real danger when doing this. Take Time — Give yourself a bit of time to enjoy your surroundings. This might mean taking a few minutes of inaction to sit and watch the sunset or trace insects moving on the ground. It might also take scheduling a longer outing. In any case, it’s important to let your sense of action run out and your observational skills take over. Just listen. Leave Technology Behind — If you can’t leave your phone at home or in the car, then at least silence it. Definitely take off smart watches and other wearables. It’s hard to be in the moment when a notification can buzz and bring back all your responsibilities. Silence and solitude are also somewhat uncomfortable at first, but stick with it. Looking at your phone is an ingrained response that keeps you from connecting to your surroundings. Notice Growth and Death — The Buddhist practice of mindfulness helps people make the most of their time alive by contemplating death. Practice this when outside. Notice the insubstantial way that your clothes block the biting cold in winter. Observe the crushing power of a river or the way new shoots are poking through the dirt after a terrible wildfire. Think about how lucky you are to be alive and how beautiful life is. It’s both terrifying and comforting to realize we’re all just a part of the cycle. Stay Present — This is the hardest and most important part of enjoying nature to its fullest. You must let go of your responsibilities and worries, even that email you’re mentally drafting to Sharon. All your focus has to be in the here and now. Any anxieties will block your enjoyment of the present and your ability to observe the beauty of nature, just like worry spoils other types of quality time. This takes practice and I’ve never met anyone who has the skill truly mastered.
These points are just a few shortcuts for connecting to the earth in a meaningful way, but there isn’t one right path to feel nature. Do what feels right. However, It’s important to remember that recreation leaves scars on the environment just like mining or logging. Each year water is muddied, wildlife is displaced, and carbon is emitted by the growing number of recreationalists. Given this fact, it’s easy to cut off your connection to nature and stay inside or deny these impacts entirely. However, I think that by being mindful of the difference between being in nature and truly appreciating nature we can use recreation to keep our relationship with the planet strong and healthy all while minimizing our impact.
The deforested scars of ski runs at Big Sky Ski Resort in Montana cover nearly seven thousand acres. It is one of the largest facilities dedicated to outdoor recreation in the world.
If any of you have your own strategies for appreciating nature through outdoor recreation, let us know in the comments! Next time, I’ll cover how publicly owned land could be a solution to the climate crisis. I hope to see you all then on A Slice of Life in Montana!
Stay up to date with the Climate Journal Project Blog by signing up for our newsletter and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn! | https://medium.com/@theclimatejournalproject/how-to-enjoy-the-outdoors-the-right-way-e4ffa1f28045 | ['Climate Journal Project'] | 2021-01-18 17:40:51.524000+00:00 | ['Nature', 'Environment', 'Recreation', 'Outdoors', 'Earth'] |
Say bye-bye to blackheads on your face and nose! | Blackheads are formed especially on the nose and around the nose, chin, and forehead, in these sensitive areas of your face.
Persons with oily skin are more susceptible to having problems with blackheads. Excessive sebum accumulates in the pores of your skin and in contact with air; the sebum’s components oxidize, filled them with dust and other air particles, turns into blackheads. You may also like to visit https://danielalarcon.com/
What are the remedies?
Among other natural DIY recipes, I recommend you a delicate abrasion of your skin several times a week. An intense and serious cleaning of your skin, removing make-up every night, washing your face with anti-acne products in the morning, can help to remove blackheads. Sometimes, there are big and difficult to remove and some
blackheads can only be removed by squeezing them. First, spotless your skin, rinse with warm water or even sauna your face (in a bowl add some hot water, bend over so the hot steams moisture your skin) in order to dilate your pores.
In order to achieve the wanted results, I will propose you a natural do-it-yourself recipe, easy to make at home, that will help you to get rid of blackheads and intensively nourish your skin.
All you need is:
2 tablespoons of goat milk
1 tablespoon of nutmeg (powder)
A piece of cloth (gauze)
How it’s made:
Mix in one cup of milk with the nutmeg. Clean your face with warm water, then apply the mixture on the face, using the cloth, massaging gently for about one minute, insisting on the affected areas. Wash off your skin with plenty of water and do not use other cosmetics until the next morning. Apply this treatment twice a week.
Read More- Witchy Names | https://medium.com/@muffleitjuhi30/say-bye-bye-to-blackheads-on-your-face-and-nose-d397bb34f31a | ['Juhi Kanojia'] | 2021-07-15 05:04:10.903000+00:00 | ['Skincare', 'Blackhead', 'Hacks'] |
How to use Google API Gateway with Cloud Run | How to use Google API Gateway with Cloud Run
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are solely my own.
Introductions
In this article, you will see how the API Gateway works, understand all its components, and how to create your first deployment integrated with a Cloud Run service.
TLDR;
You can check this repo how you can create the API Gateway and deploy a Cloud Run hello world instance using Terraform.
Why should I use an API Gateway?
Here you can find a few reasons why you should use it:
It is a good way to decouple your front end from your backend.
It can break the frontend requests into several services.
It can help you to move your monolith backend into a microservices architecture.
Centralize Authentication access for your API’s.
API monitoring, metrics, quotas, and analytics
Centralize and manage API versioning
Requirements
GCP account with the billing activated. If you don’t have one yet you can create a new one using the free tier at $300.
Before starting: Crate your GCP Project
You will need a GCP project, so if you haven’t created yet you can follow these steps:
Go to the Manage resources page in the Cloud Console.
GO TO THE MANAGE RESOURCES PAGE On the Select organization drop-down list at the top of the page, select the organization in which you want to create a project. If you are a free trial user, skip this step, as this list does not appear. Click Create Project. In the New Project window that appears, enter a project name and select a billing account as applicable. A project name can contain only letters, numbers, single quotes, hyphens, spaces, or exclamation points, and must be between 4 and 30 characters. Enter the parent organization or folder in the Location box. That resource will be the hierarchical parent of the new project. When you’re finished entering new project details, click Create.
Enable the Required API’s
API Gateway requires that you enable the following Google services. You can enable those by going to the menu -> APIs & Services -> Library.
The API Gateway
Google Cloud API Gateway is still in Beta, but I believe it is mature enough for a simple use/investigation.
As a managed service it is easily integrated with Cloud Run, AppEngine, Compute Engine, and GKE. It can also manage Authentication using API_KEY, OAuth2, and JWT.
API Gateway enables you to provide secure access to your services through a well-defined REST API that is consistent across all of your services, regardless of service implementation. A consistent API: — Makes it easy for app developers to consume your services — Enables you to change the backend service implementation without affecting the public API — Enables you to take advantage of the scaling, monitoring, and security features built into the Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
This image shows some clients making requests to different backend services Source: here
This image shows some clients making requests to your backend services through API Gateway. Source: here
The Spec
The API Gateway is configured using an OpenAPI spec 2.0. Below you will see the smallest version you need to get up and running.
You can check the full OpenApi 2.0 spec here and here.
The Components
An API defined on API Gateway consists of two main components: API config: The API configuration created when you upload an API definition. For the Beta, you create the API definition as an OpenAPI spec. Each time you upload an API definition, API Gateway creates a new API config. That is, you can create an API config but you cannot later modify it. If you later edit the API definition in the OpenAPI spec, and then upload the edited API definition, you create a new API config. Gateway: An Envoy-based, high-performance, scalable proxy that hosts the deployed API config. Deploying an API config to a gateway creates the external facing URL that your API clients use to access the API. Is deployed to a specific GCP region. A region is a specific geographical region on GCP where you can deploy resources. Must host an API config. You cannot create an empty gateway, meaning one without an API config. However, after a gateway is created, you can update the gateway to replace one API config with another. Can only host a single API config. You cannot deploy multiple API configs to the same gateway.
Using Terraform
First, you will need to make sure Terraform will pick up your credentials. There are a few ways to do that, and the simplest way is to use the Application Default Credentials. You can easily set it with the command below:
gcloud auth application-default login
This command will create .config/gcloud/application_default_credentials.json where Terraform will automatically read from without any extra configuration.
We are not using any Terraform backend at this moment, but I truly recommend you to set up a backend to manage your TF state. Here is how you create the backend using Google Cloud Storage.
Our Cloud Run hello world service
First, we will need to create the Cloud Run service in order to get the URL and update our API Gateway spec later. You can get the URL from the output printed after the terraform finishes.
You will need to run the code above from the terraform/cloud-run folder.
terraform init
terraform apply
Implementing our API Gateway using Terraform
The API Gateway resources were recently added (2 Nov 2020) into the Google beta provider. The API Gateway contains 3 main resources (differently from what we just saw above):
google_api_gateway_api Crates the API Gateway itself.
Crates the API Gateway itself. google_api_gateway_api_config Creates the Open API Spec within the API Gateway above.
Creates the Open API Spec within the API Gateway above. google_api_gateway_gateway Creates the Gateway (Envoy proxy) linked to the API config.
You will need to include the Cloud Run run from the terraform/api-gateway folder.
terraform init
terraform apply
Check the access
Now you can go to https://console.cloud.google.com/api-gateway and click on “The API Gateway”…
Then, click on the Gateway tab…
And now you will see your Gateway URL we will use to call our API. | https://medium.com/google-cloud/how-to-use-google-api-gateway-with-cloud-run-60698959b342 | ['Felipe Martinez'] | 2020-12-31 14:55:51.924000+00:00 | ['Api Gateway', 'Google', 'Google Cloud Run', 'Google Cloud Platform', 'Gcp'] |
Poisoned Her Ex Boyfriend’s Mom As Payback? | After 60 year old Mary Yoder was poisoned to death in July of 2015, the culprit was leaning toward being her own son, Adam Yoder.
An email account with Adam’s name was linked to the very account that ordered the poison which was called colchicine, a drug commonly used to treat gout. If taken and you don’t have gout, it causes all liquids to leave your body, eventually resulting in death. A letter was also sent to police which pointed the finger at Adam Yoder. It said that a bottle of colchicine that poisoned Mary could be found under Adam’s passenger seat in his car. When police searched the vehicle, the letter ended up being completely correct. A bottle of the poison was right where the letter said.
When Adam was confronted with all of the evidence against him, he was genuinely shocked. Police needed to speak to those who knew Adam best and that started with his on again off again girlfriend, Kaitlyn Conley.
She was very close to the Yoder family and worked as an office manager/receptionist for Mary and Bill Yoder’s chiropractic firm. Kaitlyn was identified as a “loved one” in Mary’s obituary, and she even posted a Facebook status mourning the death of Mary.
Adam and Kaitlyn had a rollercoaster relationship with constant breakups. During one incident, Adam was guilted back into dating Kaitlyn after she told him that she miscarried his child. Yet, shortly after, he broke up with her again due to suspicion that she was cheating with his best friend. Kaitlyn could not stand a life with Adam and did everything in her power to talk her way back into his head. However, in July of 2015, Adam put his foot down for good and rejected Kaitlyn twice telling her that they just weren’t meant to be.
In the interrogation room, Kaitlyn told police that Adam admitted to her that he poisoned his mother, but they needed more proof. Authorities looked deeper into the email account that purchased the poison. The password on that Gmail account bought the poison was “adamisgay”, suggesting it was someone that had a vendetta against him. The account was only accessed from two different locations; Kaitlyn Conley’s house and phone. In addition to these twists in the case, police tested the DNA on the letter and it was linked to a female.
Kaitlyn admitted that she was the one who wrote the letter. She got the envelope and stamp from the Yoder’s chiropractic office. Shortly after, she made a tearful admission that she was the one who poisoned her boss/her boyfriend’s mother for revenge.
However some of Mary’s own family wasn’t too sure that Kaitlyn did it. Instead, they pointed the finger at Bill Yoder, Mary’s husband. Right after Mary passed, he began a relationship with his sister in law, Kathy (not Mary’s sister). One of Mary’s sisters insisted that there must have been some type of secret affair happening before Mary’s murder and that motivated Bill to kill her in order to start his new relationship.
Considering all of the physical evidence, a jury found 24 year old Kaitlyn Conley guilty. She was sentenced to 23 years in prison for first degree manslaughter.
Adam addressed the court and blamed himself: “Make no mistake — as much as I hate her, which is more than I ever thought I would be capable of hating anyone, I hate myself infinitely more,” he said. “I introduced her to my family. I got her a job with my parents. And if I hadn’t done those things, my mother would still be alive.” | https://medium.com/@crimesbyholly/poisoned-her-ex-boyfriends-mom-as-payback-b63ac4bfb879 | ['Holly Alexis'] | 2021-07-27 19:57:05.598000+00:00 | ['Crime', 'Violence Against Women', 'True Crime', 'Poisoning', 'Murder'] |
Easy Text Annotation in a Jupyter Notebook | Easy Text Annotation in a Jupyter Notebook
How to use tortus annotation tool
Image by author
At the heart of any sentiment analysis project is a good set of labeled data. Pre-labeled datasets can be found on various sites all over the internet. But…
What if you have come up with a custom dataset that has no labels ?
? What if you have to provide those labels before proceeding with your project?
What if you are not willing to pay to outsource the task of labeling?
I was recently faced with this very issue while retrieving text data from the Twitter Streaming API for a sentiment analysis project. I quickly discovered annotating the data myself would be a painful task without a good tool. This was the inspiration behind building tortus, a tool that makes it easy to label your text data within a Jupyter Notebook! | https://towardsdatascience.com/tortus-e4002d95134b | ['Siphu Langeni'] | 2020-10-10 11:37:56.253000+00:00 | ['Sentiment Analysis', 'Jupyter Notebook', 'Annotation Tools', 'NLP', 'Data Science'] |
THINKPIECE: To Sign With A Record Label or Not? | Art by Andrew Vickery
The major label has taken its fair share of scrutiny from artists and music industry veterans especially in recent years. So much so that artists have begun to champion and prioritize being independent and owning their own masters. In a traditional record deal, a record label owns an artist’s masters and takes an additional percentage of revenue outside of the traditional master recording royalty. This outside revenue could consist of the lucrative touring, brand partnerships and merchandise arenas that encompass most of an artist’s revenue. Because of the advance, marketing and recording budgets that need to be paid back, it is likely an artist will see very few royalties if any in most deals. That’s the situation of most artists signed to a label. However, this does not mean that major labels do not provide any benefits.
While distribution has certainly become accessible and easier for an unsigned artist, the root of distribution in 2019 lies in playlisting. An entry on Spotify’s Rap Caviar automatically changes an artist’s trajectory. While it is not understood completely how or when an artist’s song becomes on the radar of playlists like Rap Caviar and Most Necessary, major labels are thought to have a ton of influence on the selection process. This is unlike distribution in the past where labels were tasked with manufacturing physicals and getting them in stores such as Best Buy and Sam Goody. An artist with an entrepreneurial spirit and business mindset might find himself in a position to leverage their music in the new age distribution channels without a record label. Although distribution is certainly different today, a label can still assist in the new landscape especially if an artist is not prepared to “network”.
In addition, despite the narrative that radio is dead it still plays a major factor in blowing up records nationally. Streaming alone can make you dominant ala Russ. Streaming plus radio makes you a generational artist ala Drake. Radio is still important and once again, major labels are the driving force behind who is getting radio placement. While it is entirely possible to get local radio play without a label, it is nearly impossible to get radio play nationwide without a label.
Furthermore, let’s not forget what most know a major label can offer, the money. People love the idea of being independent but do not understand the concept of putting up your own money. For many artists, the advance can be a lifesaver for a plethora of personal and fiscal reasons at the time of entering a major label deal. In reality, the initial money (advance) is why most sign. It’s also the trap. It’s the paradox that entices a young artist to sign to a label without understanding the consequences of the deal. While an advance can be a short-term solution, it can be a part of a long-term headache.
There are 6 major factors that one should consider before signing a major label record deal.
Understanding Your Artistry
For some artists, the type of music they make will never make them a priority at most major labels. If you are an artist that will not stream well (or simply don’t care to stream well) or sell a ton of records over a long period of time, it doesn’t make sense for a label to put a ton of money or energy into you unless your impact is felt in the culture.
In this sense, an advance can cripple you in leveraging out of your deal. If a label invested a million dollars in recording, marketing, and advanced money to an artist it is unlikely that they will ever let an artist just walk free.
If you care about the art only and appeal to a niche market it is okay to understand this and go your own way. Curren$y has made a killing since leaving Cash Money Records without selling or streaming an absurd amount. Curren$y understood his artistry and chose the best route for him.
Artist Development
There was a time in music where the A&R and Label weren’t simply skimming through Soundcloud looking for streamable records to re-package and resell to the mainstream. They used to develop talent and stick with them even if an album or single flopped. The focus was on signing talent, not gimmicks or streamable acts. Don’t get me wrong some A&Rs are still great at their job and get it.
Even so only a couple labels focus on signing talent and developing them, most notably TDE and Dreamville. Understanding your skill level and buzz is key when signing because if you are not ready you will be judged mostly on your performance and not on your talent. Plenty of talented artists have been shelved because they did not meet unfair expectations and signed bad deals.
If you are going to sign with a label, sign with a team that genuinely believes in your ability and is willing to ride the trials and tribulations. Most importantly, the label must understand and share your vision for your future. Not every artist has a Drake-like trajectory, it takes time and nourishing to become a star, see SZA. Some never become stars but make a lot of money and have long careers like Curren$y. A label must share your trajectory.
An A&R at a major label recently told me this.
“Any artist I work I make sure that they meet multiple people at the label and develop a relationship with the people that will be working directly on the project. The people at the label have to thoroughly get it, if they don’t it’s probably not a good fit.”
Ownership of Music
It is typical in most deals that an artist does not own the master recording to music recorded during there time at a record label. The legendary artist, Prince, was an advocate for artist’s rights in regards to ownership of masters. He generally lacked the support he needed but his message resonates today. The concept of an artist owning their music is an empowering idea for artists to become better business minds.
When you do not own your masters, your music can be controlled in a way that effectively eliminates an artist’s creative freedom. Prince said it best in his 2004 induction speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, “When I first started out in the music industry, I was most concerned with freedom. Freedom to produce, freedom to play all the instruments on my records, freedom to say anything I wanted to.” If someone owns your art, freedom of expression is limited.
If a label is going to own your masters, you need to think long and hard about what ownership and creative freedom mean to you. 21 Savage has his answer. (See Below)
Money
Money is important but there are pros and cons to getting money up front. An advance might save you in your current financial predicament but you lose long term leverage with every dollar advanced to you because it is less likely that you ever recoup. Realistically, understand what you need money for. You need a marketing budget which could consist of billboards, online placements, and other promotion tools. You need a recording budget, but how much depends. A lot of artists record either in-house or on the road thus the costs allocated to them will only need to go toward engineering and paid features. Most features are done for return features these days so it is very likely that you will not be paying any upfront money for a feature on your song if you have developed relationships.
Take what you need and only what you need. This creates long term leverage and allows you to keep your advanced costs down so you can actually recoup on your record deal, leaving an opportunity to negotiate in the future.
Length of Deal
Signing a multiple album deal without outs in the contract is always a risky proposition. Creating flexibility in a deal is key because having the ability to renegotiate is important whether you meet expectations or not. Time is the most valuable asset we all have and in music, you never know when you are going to explode or have to go back to the drawing board. Every artist should ensure that in there deal, if certain revenue is not generated or if certain milestones are not accomplished, both parties can walk away from the deal. The era of the 5 album deal hopefully is done and artists are now protecting themselves in an effort to release music on their own schedule and retain freedom.
Limit the years and scheduled releases on your deal and create outs to make sure you can’t get shelved for years at a time. If you can’t agree to this, one should be reluctant to sign.
Leverage
Leverage is the most important factor. In business even outside of music, if one party has more leverage than the other, they are likely to get the better side of the deal. Artists need to focus on building and creating their own buzz and sources of revenue to ensure that they are coming to the table in a position to negotiate. The ideal negotiation for an artist is coming to the table not having to sign. 21 Savage, Russ, and other newer acts built their following through impeccable work ethics than decided to sign when it was truly advantageous for them. These deals look more like profit sharing situations and partnerships rather than the typical employer/employee relationship that govern most record label deals.
The key to gaining leverage is creating a lifestyle and living situation where you truly do not need an advance from a label. Where you do not need the resources that a label may have. This is entirely possible in today’s landscape where viral records and fan bases are built on social media and through other means. Where recording is as easy as creating a studio in your bedroom. Drake recorded “So Far Gone” in a hotel room. Where there are workshops and online resources for artists to gain a better understanding of the music business so they are not enticed to give in to a treacherous deal.
My answer to the major label conundrum is I would not think about signing to a major label until I hit certain thresholds for myself that included platinum singles, touring and a countable fanbase. Then and only then would it be truly advantageous for an artist to sign. There is always the exception to this rule, as TDE and Dreamville are record labels that do not make initial sales a priority and focus on artist development. H.E.R is also an example of terrific artist development and belief in an artist through good and bad times. RCA invested a ton of money and resources into development and saw the final product through. H.E.R has developed into a Grammy-nominated R&B superstar.
Regardless, only a certain type of an artist has the work ethic or patience to be an independent artist or sign an advantageous major label deal. It takes time, fronting your own money and developing relationship equity. Not every artist is built for that.
We still need and want major labels!
Conclusion
A major record label might invest all the costs below:
Advance: US$50,000–350,000
Recording: US$150,000–500,000
Video production: US$50,000–300,000
Tour Support: US$50,000–150,000
Marketing and Promotion: US$200,000–700,000
Total US: $500,000–2,000,000
This is not free money! Advances and the other investments are recoupable against future royalties from sales and streaming but are not recouped if revenues fail to reach a certain level. Another reminder to only take what you need.
A large advance might look appealing but the bigger the investment, the harder it is to recoup! If you do not recoup, it makes it easier for the major label to shelve you.
Patience. You’d rather take the Nipsey Hussle route, then settle for a quick payday. The artist who looks at themselves as only an artist and not a business is susceptible to fall into the same traps many went for in the past. It’s time to reverse course and control and own your art.
You are not simply an artist, you are a business. | https://medium.com/the-courtroom/thinkpiece-to-sign-with-a-record-label-or-not-2ce7c0156639 | ['Karl Fowlkes'] | 2019-01-23 19:56:08.406000+00:00 | ['Record Labels', 'Spotify', 'Streaming', 'Music', 'Business'] |
Introduction to eCoinomic.net | Introduction to eCoinomic.net
Cryptocurrency and loans.
Cryptocurrencies have been increasing in popularity, however, at the moment the possibilities of using them are very limited.
Currently, digital assets are only considered to be financial assets in particular countries. Even in the regions that are most approving of cryptocurrencies (South Korea, Japan, Germany) only a few goods and services can be purchased with them .
Also, crypto investors face a dilemma; whether to hold their digital assets waiting for them to grow in value, or to invest them into ICOs hoping for much bigger margins in the future.
There’s one more thing that you can do with your digital gold: get an instant loan secured using your crypto funds. There are dozens of pawnshops that offer such services, but it’s still too risky to entrust your coins to them. There are many threats and security issues. These include:
There’s no way to distinguish an honest financial company from a fraudster.
There’s no guarantee that you will get your cryptocurrencies back in time, especially if their prices rise significantly.
Your crypto funds could be hacked or stolen.
Also, there’s one more question that needs to be answered: why choose a pawnshop and not an ordinary bank? There are some reasons for that.
First of all, banks won’t suit everyone as they require proof of income and a good credit history from potential borrowers.
Second, if you need a really big sum, you will have to not only provide a guarantor and get life insurance, but you would also have to provide collateral. At the moment the traditional financial institutions don’t accept cryptocurrency as collateral.
Moreover, not every bank provides the possibility of filing an application for credit online. It usually takes several days from the moment that an application is sent until the client gets his or her money. Also, non-residents can’t get money from the banks in the country where they are currently located.
The problems are aplenty and one of the ways to solve it is by using lending services, for instance, crypto pawnshop where you can get a loan using crypto assets as collateral.
However, lack of confidence hinders crypto-holders and potential investors from using such services. This is understandable since many companies of that kind emerged just a couple of years ago and are not connected with real financial institutions. The crypto-market is very young, and the lack of experience discourages not only potential clients, but also institutional investors that can provide their funds for lending.
Furthermore, even the projects that turned out to be successful face intrinsic problems. For example, a lack of available capital caused by the limitations of P2P approach, as well as the legal and technical difficulties with fiat transactions.
In order to become truly successful in this field, the company must satisfy the following criteria:
Be experienced in the financial sphere — especially with loans and credits. Be experienced working with regulators. The cryptosphere still lies in the grey zone and the problem with regulations is one of the most important for the industry. Have a good reputation for years. Have a solid business model that clearly explains the goals — the achievable goals, not some global ones. The problem with many blockchain projects is that they set goals that are too ambitious. Have an already operational infrastructure and a team that has great experience in risk evaluation and the development of banking products. Crypto assets are very attractive as collateral, however detailed risks analysis is required. Can work with different crypto assets, not just Bitcoin and Ether.
What is the eCoinomic.net?
eCoinomic.net is fintech company founded by a team with more than 10 years of experience in traditional finance. eCoinomic.net aims to provide a scalable solution for fiat lending to cryptocurrency owners.
We create a lending platform that connects individual borrowers with institutional investors’ and family offices’ financial resources. Our goal is to bridge the gap between traditional finance and the cryptosphere.
How it works:
eCoinomic.net serves as an intermediate service between financial institutions that act as lenders and the individuals that act as borrowers. We take the role of a guarantor for financial institutions — all the risks associated with a lending procedure are eliminated by eCoinomic.net who provides full financial coverage of the loan.
This model offers a solution of low-risk profitable investments to financial institutions. By attracting such investments eCoinomic.net brings more liquidity to the cryptosphere.
We offer instant loans in fiat currencies using the collateral of crypto assets. The clients can quickly get a needed amount without selling off their crypto assets, entrusting them instead to a company, managed by professionals from the financial industry — including traditional pawn shops.
We will accept not only BTC as the collateral but also ETH, XRP, LTC, BCH, EOS, NEO, ETC, ADA, TRX, DASH and CNC — our own cryptocurrency.
We will be offering loans in multiple fiat currencies — in EUR and USD to begin with, and GBP, JPY, CHF and CNY at a later stage
The loans are processed by smart contracts that guarantee security and transparency. | https://medium.com/ecoinomic/introduction-to-ecoinomic-net-d56ccc36f1c4 | [] | 2018-04-23 06:57:56.021000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Fintech', 'Finance', 'Foundation'] |
How the Trump Administration Is on a Killing Spree | How the Trump Administration Is on a Killing Spree
The Trump administration carried out its ninth execution of the year and the first during a presidential lame-duck period in 130 years. Megan Benson Follow Dec 20, 2020 · 5 min read
The case of Brandon Bernard was a rare execution of someone who was in his teens when his crime was committed. Bernard, 40, was one of five gang members convicted in Texas of killing Stacie and Todd Bagley — who were youth ministers — in 1999. The gunman, Christopher Vialva, was executed in September, while the other co-defendants were given lesser sentences according to CNN.
“I’m sorry … I wish I could take it all back, but I can’t,” Bernard said to the family of the Bagleys during his three-minute last words. “That’s the only words that I can say that completely capture how I feel now and how I felt that day.”
The Bagley family thanked Trump and the federal government for carrying out the sentence in their statements.
Bernard was executed by the federal government on Thursday at the Federal Correctional Center in Terre Haute, Indiana, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
According to ACLU.org; Nineteen states have laws permitting the execution of persons who committed crimes at sixteen or seventeen. Since 1973, 226 juvenile death sentences have been imposed. Twenty-two juvenile offenders have been executed and 82 remain on death row.
Bernard was the 9th federal inmate executed in the US in 2020, and he won’t be the last.
There are five scheduled executions to take place before Trump leaves the White House in 2021, and one took place on December 10, 2020.
Is Trump trying to go out with a bang? Making history by pushing forward on these 5 executions before he leaves the Oval Office? I find it interesting when experts chime in and are so against this but our broken system pushes forward to take someone's life so easily.
“This is really outside the norm, in a pretty extreme way,” said Ngozi Ndulue, director of research at the non-partisan Death Penalty Information Center.
Death penalty experts say the way the Trump administration is moving ahead with executions during a lame-duck period has no parallel, and that in the past, the outgoing administration would defer such cases to the incoming one. President-elect Joe Biden campaigned in support of a moratorium on the death penalty, favoring instead life sentences without probation or parole. According to CBS News.
Who was Brandon Bernard
Bernard was 18 when he and four other teenagers abducted and robbed Todd and Stacie Bagley on their way from a Sunday service in Killeen, Texas. Although, Bernard was not the trigger man in this case he was given the death penalty based on the face that Staci died from smoke inhalation according to the prosecutors at the time of conviction.
New evidence suggests that Bernard may not have killed Stacie. Prosecutors told the jury that Stacie died from smoke inhalation from the fire that Brandon lit. And for that reason, they asked that Brandon be given the death penalty. But an independent medical examiner hired by the defense team determined after the trial that Stacie was “medically dead” after being shot, before the fire started, according to CBS News.
Campaigners have said that, at the time of his conviction, both prosecutors and jurors had an incomplete picture of Bernard and his background.
Kim Kardashian West got involved in November 2020 advocating for Bernard. She typically uses her power on her multiple social media platforms to advocate for people like Bernard, where this just isn’t enough evidence.
“While Brandon did participate in this crime, his role was minor compared to that of the other teens involved, two of whom are home from prison now.”-Kim Kardashian West
Kardashian West would be one of the last people that Barnard spoke with before being put to death by lethal injection.
“Hardest call I’ve ever had. Brandon, selfless as always, was focused on his family and making sure they are ok. He told me not to cry because our fight isn’t over.” — Kim Kardashian West
Kim requested for Bernard to serve a life sentence rather than be put to death. She took to Twitter to say;
“A terrible case has been brought to my attention and I need your help.
“First, I want to say that a terrible crime was committed and me fighting for a stay of execution does not take away from the sympathy I have for the victim’s Todd and Stacie Bagley, and their families.
“My heart breaks for everyone involved.”
Late Thursday evening Attorneys Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr joined Bernard’s legal team and had filed a petition with the Supreme Court requesting to delay the execution for two weeks, so they could get up to speed on Bernard’s case. The attorneys’ most recent and notable client was President Donald Trump during his impeachment hearings earlier this year.
The Supreme Court denied the petition, with three justices issuing public dissents.
“Brandon’s execution is a stain on America’s criminal justice system. But I pray that even in his death, Brandon will advance his commitment to helping others by moving us closer to a time when this country does not pointlessly and maliciously kill young Black men who pose no threat to anyone,” Bernard’s attorney Robert Owens said in a statement.
The court’s decision left Trump as Bernard’s last hope. The President did not act.
Look, I am all about the death penalty if it is without a doubt a case that justifies it. I can’t help but think in Barnard’s case there was more to it and I would have liked to see him have the time to share that. I don’t believe he was given a fair trial. I think our system is so broken that we push forward and kill people that don’t always deserve it.
I have a hard time imaging someone with Barnard’s childhood and start to adulthood was going to avoid prison. He was set up for failure, and we as American’s failed him on his last day. We let serial killers, child murders get away with more because they take a plea deal, yet we couldn’t give 2 more weeks to potentially look into evidence that would show Barnard didn’t deserve the death penalty.
In my closing though, if we were still in the pre-election phase, Trump would have stepped in and gave two more weeks to this man. | https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/how-the-trump-administration-is-on-a-killing-spree-bf345828c8f9 | ['Megan Benson'] | 2020-12-20 17:03:57.949000+00:00 | ['Trump Administration', 'Trump', 'Murder', 'Death Penalty', 'Politics'] |
How Netflix’s Chaos Monkey Shows Us a Path to Inner Strength and Resiliency | How Netflix’s Chaos Monkey Shows Us a Path to Inner Strength and Resiliency
Photo by Lewis Roberts on Unsplash
This is Chaos Monkey.
He’s a malicious, angry, out-of-control primate devised by Netflix to “rip apart” the very core of its business — the video delivery data center — one server at a time.
“Imagine a monkey entering a ‘data center’, these ‘farms’ of servers that host all the critical functions of our online activities. The monkey randomly rips cables, destroys devices and returns everything that passes by the hand [i.e. flings excrement]. The challenge for IT managers is to design the information system they are responsible for so that it can work despite these monkeys, which no one ever knows when they arrive and what they will destroy.” — Chaos Monkeys by Antonio Garcia Martinez
Of course, Netflix doesn’t release an actual monkey into its data centers to do real physical damage. Rather, it simulates this crazed beast for one purpose: to force its developers to build resiliency into its networks such that, should a real outage occur, its 182 million customers continue to receive the content they pay for without a hiccup.
Netflix knows that failure is inevitable. They understand that of the thousands of machines they have running 24/7, one or more of them could fail at any given time, and all of them will fail eventually.
So they planned for failure. Nay, they built failure right into their systems. They created a simulated creature, the Chaos Monkey, to actively introduce problems into their product, increasing their systems’ quality by stressing the absolute hell out them.
Stress is Not a Bad Word
In 1908, psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dodson set out to test the effects of stress on rats in a maze by, get this, shocking the shit out of them.
When the rats were left to find their way out of the maze on their own, they managed, though it wasn’t an inspired performance. When the rats were given a mild shock, low enough to stimulate and motivate them, they performed better yet. When the shock was too strong, the rats panicked. They dodged around randomly trying anything and everything to escape.
In short, a certain level of stress increased their performance while too much destroyed it and eventually resulted in a panic-induced breakdown (Cherry, 2020).
In short, these two slightly devious researchers showed that stress is not a bad word. Stress, in measured doses, is actually good for you.
We often think of stress in a bad light. And with good reason. Too much stress on a bridge can cause it to collapse. Too much stress on a baseball bat can cause it to shatter. Too much stress on a human can cause them to get really fucking grumpy.
On the flip side, too little stress results in an inactive lifestyle. You might recognize such a person as lacking drive or being too laid back; they just don’t seem to care about getting anything done and are under no pressure to produce results.
In reality, stress sits on a continuum starting with too little (where you are an inactive couch-sloth) and ending with too much (where you burnout). The right balance is managing your stress level to an optimum amount, right up to when you feel fatigue, but before exhaustion sets in. This is best illustrated in the Yerkes-Dodson law chart below:
Photo by Author, Michael J. Mehlberg
Back to the hairy beast at hand, Chaos Monkey is creating just the right amount of stress on Netflix data centers. The simulated monkey isn’t crashing every one of them. It’s not preventing customers from being able to watch the next episode of Kingdom (the best damn show since Breaking Bad). It’s stressing the system just enough to make sure it doesn’t go down. It’s creating strength and resiliency across the board.
Like Netflix, our life is a web of relationships and feelings — a highly-interactive, ridiculously complicated network of interconnected nodes. And, like any complex system, failures will happen whether we want them to or not.
What we don’t want to happen is for a single failure in one aspect of our lives to spill over. We don’t want a failure to destroy our confidence or ruin our motivation for the future.
We need strength. We need resiliency. And one good way to build both is by introducing a Chaos Monkey into our lives.
Adding Chaos Monkey to Our Lives
I started lifting weights six years ago. Motivated by the book Evolution by Joe Manganiello, I set out on a course to transform my body into a hulking beast of a man; tiger skin stretched over steel.
Though I ate crappy foods and generally gave my workouts minimal effort, I saw tremendous growth in my first year. What little work I did was causing big changes. Granted, I was still tall and lanky, but at least I was no longer as skinny as a twig.
Years two through five, though, were far less gratifying. My effort remained the same, but my results were almost exponentially slower. For four whole years, I wasn’t making much progress. In retrospect, I was going through the motions, which led to a severe lack of results. The Chaos Monkey in my exercise routine was taking a nap.
Waking him up meant leaning into the stress. It meant pushing myself to failure. After all, it’s only through stress that we grow. And only by failing do we learn how to (more intelligently) try again and succeed.
The moment I recognized that is the moment I also realized Chaos Monkey’s importance for every other aspect of my life. Yes, my body required stress through exercise to strengthen. But my mind required stress through journaling and meditation to learn. My business required stress through persistent sales to grow. My writing required stress through daily, vigilant practice to expand. My marriage required stress by giving more than I received to deepen.
Not enough stress to fry a rat in a maze. Just enough to build resilience into every major aspect of my life.
“Failure is not the opposite of success; it’s part of success.” — Arianna Huffington
Do you have a Chaos Monkey mindset? Are you introducing the right stressors into your life to fail and learn and grow? Are you actively working to find and replace your weaknesses with strengths?
The answers to these questions indicate just how strong and resilient you will become.
For failure is inevitable, and only by embracing it can we prevent it from destroying us. Strength and resiliency don’t come from failure alone. They come from how we respond to it when it hits us out of nowhere.
Find your inner Chaos Monkey. Embrace controlled stress and failure in all aspects of your life so you can learn, grow, and find that next level of inner strength and resilience. | https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/how-netflixs-chaos-monkey-shows-us-a-path-to-inner-strength-and-resiliency-f42116731a0d | ['Michael J. Mehlberg'] | 2020-10-17 06:29:31.821000+00:00 | ['Strength', 'Failure', 'Self Improvement', 'Resilience', 'Life Lessons'] |
We’re Launching! And this is just the beginning | Letter from Daniel Peled, Orbs President and Co-Founder:
For over a year, we have been working tirelessly to create a blockchain infrastructure that can help the technology live up to its vast promise. Watching a team of exceptionally talented developers commit themselves so strongly to this mission has been incredibly inspiring to watch, and we are very proud of what is being released. Read this post to see the full breakdown of what we’re launching.
Yet, to properly explain why this launch is such a big deal, we need to begin with the initial vision we had. For Orbs, blockchain offered a powerful potential to redefine the way systems work together. By providing a series of guarantees, public blockchains reduce the friction to collaboration and turn open source development into a distinct and powerful competitive advantage. In the coming days, our Co-Founder Tal Kol will be releasing a series of posts that break down these ideas, but suffice it to say it is not a small feat.
For us, this is a game changing concept.
It means that new types of relationships can be developed between people, businesses, economies and more. It means that products that could never have existed in the past can come to fruition. It means that concepts like transparency and openness can come to the center stage.
But, in a sector that has been beset by hype at the expense of delivery, we must go beyond words. And this is why the launch is so important. For the first time there is a product on the market that can leverage the public blockchain to solve some of the core questions the industry has grappled with. From fee structures and interoperability to the blockchain stack and a new approach to the private vs. public divide, Orbs is the first product to address some of the core challenges that have limited public blockchain usage.
And while this has been a massive endeavor, it is only the beginning. Because today our collaboration with you becomes more important than ever.
This platform is now public and in the hands of the entire community. It is now possible to begin the process of building a robust yet open ecosystem around our technology. We encourage you to take a close look at our code. We encourage you to join our ecosystem and take an active role in maintaining the network, securing it and giving it the necessary decentralized nature to make it trustworthy.
Today we are proud to release a massive leap forward for this project, but even more excited to be working together with our community to drive its future.
Daniel Peled
President and Co-Founder, Orbs | https://medium.com/orbs-network/were-launching-and-this-is-just-the-beginning-951131c3878c | ['Nate Simantov'] | 2019-03-28 18:13:09.716000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Updates', 'News'] |
5 BEST INSTAGRAM GAME IDEAS TO INCREASE FOLLOWERS (2021) | INSTAGRAM GAME IDEAS: HOW CAN THEY HELP TO INCREASE FOLLOWERS?
In this article, we will disclose to you the BEST INSTAGRAM GAME IDEAS TO INCREASE FOLLOWERS. An Instagram game can assist with reinforcing your showcasing procedure and is an incredible method to get the brand into the spotlight. Challenges and gifts can build commitment, online media followers, brand proclivity, and get your substance known through the Instagram calculation.
Instagram is essentially a person-to-person communication site and by getting sorted out Instagram games, you are making a run of the mill and significant experience for your clients.
Advancing your items through Instagram challenges assists you with drawing in with your crowd and collaborate with your image. These difficulties and games have end up being a portion of the well known substance on Instagram right now.
You may have happened upon a “GIVEAWAY” post on your feed requesting that you like, offer and label your companions in it’s anything but; a chance to win. This way they’re getting likes and can contact an enormous crowd. Labeling individuals can assist with developing your image acknowledgment and drive more individuals to your substance. Thusly, they will advance you and your items and make them observable to others too.
It is only one of the numerous instances of congenial Instagram game thoughts.
BEST INSTAGRAM GAME IDEAS TO INCREASE FOLLOWERS
You need to have a comprehension of what kind of Instagram game is suitable for your specialty. You need to pick a game or challenge that characterizes your image and its objectives. The following are a portion of the mainstream Instagram game thoughts:
1. Instagram stories challenge
The Instagram Stories challenge can be run utilizing the inquiries highlight. With the assistance of this component, you can pose a bunch of inquiries from your clients, gather information and reach authoritative determinations out of it.
This Instagram game thought was found in the Instagram accounts of the German vehicle producer Opel utilizing merry go round promotions to urge clients to take a test to discover which of Opel’s ADAM vehicle models best suits their character. Inside about fourteen days, in excess of 1800 individuals enlisted themselves for the equivalent.
2. Photograph subtitle challenge
It is another intriguing Instagram challenge thought. All you need is an uncommon or enrapturing picture and request that your followers flaunt their mind and humor in the remark area by giving the picture a reasonable subtitle.
The Sudbury Wolves OHL hockey group moved toward this Instagram game plan to encourage eagerness among their fans about the game, offering a chance to dominate two game passes to the champ.
3. Tag-a-companion
The thought behind this game is basic; tag however many companions as you can, and have an opportunity to win. A tag-a-companion challenge is an extraordinary method to get openness and contact individuals who are ignorant of your image.
The labeled individuals are probably going to navigate and wind up on your page. On the off chance that they are satisfied by what they see, you will have another devotee.
4. Random data or ability based challenge
Challenging a test can be an extraordinary method to create a great deal of adoration for your image as individuals answer questions and show the amount they think about you and your image. These inquiries can be identified with your marking topic. Individuals who don’t think about your item and administrations may wind up searching for it.
5. Client produced content challenge
This Instagram game thought is an awesome method to gather content from your followers to share across various online media channels. Simply ensure that it’s unmistakable in your challenge that you may share their submitted content.
You can request that your clients send a photograph and the item or make a video about how it’s anything but a distinction in their lives. This way the crowd will trust your administrations.
Upwork, the outsourcing stage requested that its followers share their prosperity venture as a consultant; under the hashtag #UpworkSuccess, with a $1,000 visa gift voucher as an award.
Prior to challenging an Instagram game, one should not fail to remember that greater part of individuals are utilizing Instagram on their versatile screens instead of composing on a PC, along these lines, clients will partake in your games and difficulties just on the off chance that they think that its advantageous. Limit the quantity of taps and composing to get greatest passages. You should ensure that individuals discover your Instagram games simple and fun. | https://medium.com/@reginaphalange709/5-best-instagram-game-ideas-to-increase-followers-2021-d4d80b28831f | [] | 2021-07-06 14:28:46.710000+00:00 | ['Instagram Marketing', 'Instagram Followers', 'İnstagram', 'Instagram'] |
Cybersecurity Company Cyberbit Raises $30 Million | Cyberbit, a subsidiary of Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems, raised $30 million from private equity investor Claridge Israel L.P., as reported by Ctech.
Cyberbit develops cyber training and simulation platform. It also markets detection and response platform against cyber threats.
Cyberbit will use the investment to expand in North America and other markets.
Cyberbit was established in 2015 as an Elbit subsidiary. Its original name was Cyberbit Commercial Solutions Ltd. Also in the same year, Elbit launched another company, Cyberbit Ltd. — later renamed Cyberbit Solutions Ltd.
The company decided to change its name in June 2017 to Cyberbit Ltd. | https://medium.com/jewish-economic-forum/cybersecurity-company-cyberbit-raises-30-million-76bd80443d7f | [] | 2018-06-05 12:52:49.199000+00:00 | ['Jef', 'Cybersecurity', 'Cyber', 'Focus', 'Investment'] |
Asthma, Allergies, and Getting Off Prescription Drugs | We all understand how much modern medicine has improves lives and increased longevity. Broken arms and serious diseases require treatment that we trust doctors to deliver. Many of us, though, struggle with nagging, chronic health conditions that vary from hardly noticeable through mildly irritating to almost unbearable, things like chronic allergies, asthma, skin conditions, and digestive issues. Doctors give us prescriptions and we take them, while we worry about side effects and wonder if we will have to be on them for the rest of our lives.
Looking at me, you’d think I’m in good health. I have a pretty healthy lifestyle and I am reasonably fit. But, my health issues began when I was a baby. I had eczema patches on my ankles and legs. Through childhood, being around a dog or a cat would make me sneeze and make my eyes puff up into red itchy circles. Day to day, my nose ran, I sneezed, I was always congested, and I always needed a tissue. I had asthma, and I was sick with bronchitis or tracheitis every winter as a child and young adult. It always ended with a heavy course of antibiotics.
As a child, I took an oral asthma medication that isn’t used much anymore, and I started using a reliever inhaler around age 10. Regular maintenance doses of corticosteroid inhalers were needed daily from age 14. I was also on a daily bronchodilator, as well as a daily corticosteroid nasal spray. Around age 21, the eczema which hadn’t bothered me since I was a toddler came back with a vengeance. It was mainly on my hands, though at times over the years it would creep up my wrists and arms, and then started to appear on my face. I used topical steroid cream to keep it at bay. Also around age 21, I developed what I thought was hemorrhoids. They never seemed to go away no matter what I tried, and almost ten years later, I was finally diagnosed with ulcerative proctitis, a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. I was prescribed a NSAID, or non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug.
It was at that point that, like many people, I began to feel despair about my health. I was almost thirty years old, and dependent on a host of medications just to get through the day. I was starting to realize that my digestion was bad, something I had never paid attention to. I had been to allergists and GI doctors, and all they had to offer me was more prescriptions. I was sick of feeling powerless, so I started reading up on holistic approaches to health. That meant seeing the whole picture of my health as related, rather than separate body parts which were the domain of various specialists. The same links began to creep up regardless of which condition I was reading about- inflammation, food intolerances, constipation, candida albicans, autoimmune reactions, and the necessity of detoxification.
I had tried alternative medicines before- acupuncture, Chinese medicine, homeopathy. They had helped a little. Homeopathy had really turned around one severe episode of eczema in my mid-twenties. But now it was back. I had had psychotherapy and practiced t’ai chi. I had been a vegetarian since the age of 15. I had tried various vitamins and supplements. I had even managed to take myself off my bronchodilator without any ill effects. But I had never seen the whole picture.
I decided something had to change, so I went to see a holistic doctor. I was looking for relief from the eczema, which was at that time really distressing. My hands and face looked terrible, and although I knew that cortisone cream was bad for me, I would use it out of desperation. My skin would get better for a few days, and then it would get worse again. It says right on the drug package not to use for more than seven days. But anyone who has looked to Western medicine for help from eczema knows that you have to keep using it, and that your doctor has little else to offer. I tried every kind of moisturizer, special creams, petroleum jelly- nothing worked. I was hoping the practitioner could offer me something like the homeopathic treatment that had turned around my eczema about five years earlier. I was only there for the eczema, not my other health issues.
But this doctor looked at my whole health picture, and it didn’t look good. He shook his head about all the medications I had been on for years. He wondered at the state of my adrenal glands; they were probably in bad shape because of the steroids. He told me that continuing on this road would only ensure more health problems in the future. He asked me if I was ready to give up dairy, wheat, soy, and sugar. He asked me how often I ate raw nuts, a question which mystified me. He also told me not to even think about having children when my body was in such distress and while I was taking such hazardous drugs.
I had walked into the office feeling hopeful, and I left feeling devastated. I never went back to that doctor. I didn’t want to believe what he had told me. I had always felt that my conditions were nothing serious, just annoying, just bad genes, bad luck. Over the next few days, thrown into worry and despair, I realized that I had been fooling myself. I had always known that suppressing my symptoms was only the illusion of health, and that I would never be truly healthy without addressing the root causes of my diseases. I knew I had to take control of my own health.
That was a year and a half ago. I have now been free of all medications for eight months. I have healed myself mainly through diet. For the past eighteen months, I have been vegan and gluten free. I embarked on an elimination diet, and over months of trial and error, I realized that I am sensitive to dairy and wheat. I stopped eating unfermented soy. Since then, I have been battling with my sweet tooth, experimenting with raw food, juice fasting, detoxifying, and eliminating as many toxins as I can from my life. It has been a long journey, paved with difficulty. There have been moments of doubt and despair, and moments of empowerment and victory. I have made great strides on the road to health, but I still have far to go. I know what I have to do to get well. I have been resisting, foundering, procrastinating; often choosing the suppression of symptoms and the temporary pleasure of food that made me sick, over true lasting wellness. I have discovered that it’s possible to take control of your own health. In fact nothing could be simpler. It just requires the decision to take care of yourself, listen to your body, and allow it to heal.
I won’t say it was easy. It took commitment, and my symptoms actually got worse before they got better. But I don’t feel doomed to live with chronic health issues and be on prescription drugs anymore. I feel empowered and free, because I experienced that I can improve my health through my own lifestyle choices. It is important to say that not all health issues can be managed by lifestyle alone. Making the choice to take medications or other treatment is personal and sometimes necessary and helpful. However, I believe that anyone can increase their wellness and sense of control by seeing how their diet and lifestyle fits into the picture. Every one of us could probably feel better through truly clean eating. The experience of a raw food elimination diet was one of the most empowering and remarkable experiences of my life. The link between gluten and my eczema is clear as day. I did the experiment and got the results myself, and I found a way to control my symptoms which no doctor had ever even mentioned. If you are inspired to give it a try, my advice is to research carefully, go slowly, and be brave. You deserve to feel in control of your own health. | https://medium.com/@nora-wilder/chronic-minor-health-condition-you-dont-have-to-just-live-with-it-923dc70ea17c | ['Nora Wilder'] | 2021-01-06 20:07:34.339000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Medication', 'Diet', 'Healthy Lifestyle', 'Medicine'] |
Large-Scale Simulations of the Brain May Need to Wait for Quantum Computers | Will quantum computer simulations crack open our understanding of the biological brain? Credit: Getty
Looking back at the history of computers, it’s hard to overestimate the rate at which computing power has scaled in the course of just a single human lifetime. But yet, existing classical computers have fundamental limits. If quantum computers are successfully built and eventually fully come online, they will be able to tackle certain classes of problems that elude classical computers. And they may be the computational tool needed to fully understand and simulate the brain.
How fast and powerful are existing computers?
As of this writing, the fastest supercomputer in the world is Japan’s Fugaku supercomputer, developed jointly by Riken and Fujitsu. It can perform 442 peta-floating-point operations per second.
Let’s break that number down in order to arrive at an intuitive (as much as possible) grasp of what it means.
A floating-point number is a way to express, or write down, a real number — ‘real’ in a mathematical sense — with a fixed amount of precision. Real numbers are all the continuous numbers from the number line. 5, -23, 7/8, and numbers like pi (3.1415926 …) that go on forever are all real numbers. The problem is a computer, which is digital, has a hard time internally representing continuous numbers. So one way around this is to specify a limited number of digits, and then specify how big or small the actual number is by some base power. For example, the number 234 can be written as 2.34 x 102, because 2.34 x 100 equals 234. Floating point numbers specify a fixed number of significant digits the computer must store in its memory. It fixes the accuracy of the number. This is important because if you do any mathematical operation (e.g. addition, subtraction, division or multiplication) with the fixed accuracy version of a real number, small errors in your results will be generated that propagate (and can grow) throughout other calculations. But as long as the errors remain small it’s okay.
A floating point operation then, is any arithmetic operation between two floating-point numbers (abbreviated as FLOP). Computer scientists and engineers use the number of FLOP per second — or FLOPS — as a benchmark to compare the speed and computing power of different computers.
One petaFLOP is equivalent to 1,000,000,000,000,000 — or one quadrillion — mathematical operations. A supercomputer with a computing speed of one petaFLOPS is therefore performing one quadrillion operations per second! The Fugaku supercomputer is 442 times faster than that.
Yet, classical computers are fundamentally limited
For many types of important scientific and technological problems however, even the fastest supercomputer isn’t fast enough. In fact, they never will be. This is because for certain classes of problems, the number of possible combinations of solutions that need to be checked grow so fast, compared to the number of things that need to be ordered, that it becomes essentially impossible to compute and check them all.
Here’s a version of a classic example. Say you have a group of people with differing political views, and you want to seat them around a table in order to maximize constructive dialogue while minimizing potential conflict. The ‘rules’ you decide to use don’t matter here, just that some set of rules exist. For example, maybe you always want to seat a moderate between a conservative and a liberal in order to act as a bit of a buffer.
This is what scientists and engineers call an optimization problem. How many possible combinations of seating arrangements are there? Well, if you only have two people, there are only two possible arrangements. One individual on each side of a table, and then the reverse, where the two individuals change seats. But if you have five people, the number of possible combinations jumps to 120. Ten people? Well, now you’re looking at 3,628,800 different combinations. And that’s just for ten people, or more generally, any ten objects. If you had 100 objects, the number of combinations is so huge that it’s a number with 158 digits (roughly, 9 x 10157). By comparison, there are ‘only’ about 1021 stars in the observable universe.
Imagine now if you were trying to do a biophysics simulation of a protein in order to develop a new drug that had millions or billions of individual molecules interacting with each other. The number of possible combinations that would need to be computed and checked far exceed the capability of any computer that exists today. Because of how they’re designed, even the fastest supercomputer is forced to check each combination sequentially — one after another. No matter how fast a classical computer is or can be, given the literally greater than astronomical sizes of the number of combinations, many of these problems would take a practical infinity to solve. It just becomes impossible.
Related, the other problem classical computers face is it’s impossible to build one with sufficient memory to store each of the combinations, even if all the combinations could be computed.
Quantum computers should be able overcome these limitations
The details of how a quantum computer and quantum computing algorithms work is well beyond the scope or intent of this article, but we can briefly introduce one of the key ideas in order to understand how they can overcome the combinatorial limitations of classical computers.
Classical computers represent information — all information — as numbers. And all numbers can be represented as absolute binary combinations of ‘1’s’ and ‘0’s’. The ‘1’ and ‘0’ each represent a bit of information, the fundamental unit of classical information. Or put another way, information is represented by combinations of two possible states. For example, the number ‘24’ in binary notation is ‘11000’. The number ‘13’ is ‘1101’. You can also do all arithmetic in binary as well. This is convenient, because physically, at the very heart of classical computers is the transistor, which is just an on-off electrical switch. When it’s on it encodes a ‘1’, and when it’s off it encodes a ‘0’. Computers do all their math by combining billions of tiny transistors that very quickly switch back and forth as needed. Yet, as fast as this can occur, it still takes finite amounts of time, and all calculations need to be done in an appropriate ordered sequence. If the number of necessary calculations become big enough, as is the case with the combinatorial problems discussed above, you run into an unfeasible computational wall.
Quantum computers are fundamentally different. They overcome the classical limitations by being able to represent information internally not just as a function of two discrete states, but as a continuous probabilistic ‘mixing’ of states. This allows quantum bits, or qubits, to have many more possible states they can represent at once, and so many more possible combinations of arrangements of objects at once. Put another way, the state space and computational space that a quantum computer has access too is much larger than that of a classical computer. And because of the wave nature of quantum mechanics and superposition (concepts we will not explore here), the internal mixing and probabilistic representation of states and information eventually ‘converge’ to one dominant solution that the computer outputs. You can’t actually observe that internal mixing, but you can observe the final computed output. In essence, as the number of qubits in the quantum computer increase, you can exponentially do more calculations in parallel.
The key concept here is not that quantum computers will necessarily be able to solve new and exotic classes of problems that classical computers can’t — although computer scientists have discovered a theoretical class of problem that only quantum computers can solve — but rather that they will be able to solve classes of problems that are — and always will be — beyond the reach of classical computers.
And this isn’t to say that quantum computers will replace classical computers. That is not likely to happen anytime in the foreseeable future. For most classes of computational problems classical computers will still work just fine and probably continue being the tool of choice. But for certain classes of problems, quantum computers will far exceed anything possible today.
So why does this all matter for doing simulations of the brain?
Well, it depends on the scale at which the dynamics of the brain is being simulated. For sure, there has been much work within the field of computational neuroscience over many decades successfully carrying out computer simulations of the brain and brain activity. But it’s important to understand the scale at which any given simulation is done.
The brain is exceedingly structurally and functionally hierarchical — from genes, to molecules, cells, network of cells and networks of brain regions. Any simulation of the brain needs to begin with an appropriate mathematical model, a set of equations that capture the chosen scale being modeled that then specify a set of ‘rules’ to simulate on a computer. It’s like a map of a city. The mapmaker needs to make a decision about the scale of the map — how much detail to include and how much to ignore. Why? Because the structural and computational complexity of the brain is so vast and huge that it’s impossible given existing classical computers to carry out simulations that cut across the many scales with any significant amount of detail.
Even though a wide range of mathematical models about the molecular and cell biology and physiology exist across this huge structural and computational landscape, it is impossible to simulate with any accuracy because of the sheer size of the combinatorial space this landscape presents. It is the same class of problem as that of optimizing people with different political views around a table. But on a much larger scale.
How computationally complex is the human brain, and how large is its combinatorial space?
Once again, it in part depends on how you choose to look at it. There is an exquisite amount of detail and structure to the brain across many scales of organization. Here’s a more in depth article on this topic.
But if you just consider the number of cells that make up the brain and the number of connections between them as a proxy for the computational complexity — the combinatorial space — of the brain, then it is staggeringly large. In fact, it defies any intuitive grasp.
The brain is a massive network of densely interconnected cells consisting of about 171 trillion brain cells — 86 billion neurons, the main class of brain cell involved in information processing, and another 85 billion non-neuronal cells. There are approximately 10 quadrillion connections between neurons — that is a ‘1’ followed by 16 zeros. And of the 85 billion other non-neuronal cells in the brain, one major type of cell called astrocyte glial cells have the ability to both listen in and modulate neuronal signaling and information processing. Astrocytes form a massive network onto themselves, while also cross-talking with the network of neurons. So the brain actually has two distinct networks of cells. Each carrying out different physiological and communication functions, but at the same time overlapping and interacting with each other.
The computational size of the brain in numbers. Credit: Gabriel A. Silva
On top of all that structure, there are billions upon billions upon billions of discrete electrical impulses, called action potentials, that act as messages between connected neurons. Astrocytes, unlike neurons, don’t use electrical signals. They rely on a different form of biochemical signaling to communicate with each other and with neurons. So there is an entire other molecularly-based information signaling mechanism at play in the brain.
Somehow, in ways neuroscientists still do not fully understand, the interactions of all these electrical and chemical signals carry out all the computations that produce everything the brain is capable of.
Now pause for a moment, and think about the uncountable number of dynamic and ever changing combinations that the state of the brain can take on given this incredible complexity. Yet, it is this combinatorial space, the computations produced by trillions of signals and billions of cells in a hierarchy of networks, that result in everything your brain is capable of doing, learning, experiencing, and perceiving.
So any computer simulation of the brain is ultimately going to be very limited. At least on a classical computer.
How big and complete are the biggest simulations of the brain done to date? And how much impact have they had on scientists’ understanding of the brain? The answer critically depends on what’s being simulated. In other words, at what scale — or scales — and with how much detail given the myriad of combinatorial processes. There certainly continue to be impressive attempts from various research groups around the world, but the amount of cells and brain being simulated, the level of detail, and the amount of time being simulated remains rather limited. This is why headlines and claims that tout ground-breaking large scale simulations of the brain can be misleading, sometimes resulting in controversy and backlash.
The challenges of doing large multi-scale simulations of the brain are significant. So in the end, the answer to ‘how big and complete are the biggest simulations of the brain done to date’ and ‘how much impact have they had on scientists’ understanding of the brain’ — is not much.
Why might large-scale simulations of the brain be the right kind of challenge for quantum computers?
First, by their very nature, given a sufficient number of qubits quantum computers will excel at solving and optimizing very large combinatorial problems. It’s an inherent consequence of the physics of quantum mechanics and the design of the computers.
Second, given the sheer size and computational complexity of the human brain, any attempt at a large multi-scale simulation with sufficient detail will have to contend with the combinatorial space of the problem.
Third, how a potential quantum computer neural simulation is set up might be able to take advantage of the physics the brain is subject to. Despite its computational power, the brain is still a physical object, and so physical constraints could be used to design and guide simulation rules (quantum computing algorithms) that are inherently combinatorial and parallelizable, thereby taking advantage of what quantum computers do best.
For example, local rules, such as the computational rules of individual neurons, can be used to calculate aspects of the emergent dynamics of networks of neurons in a decentralized way. Each neuron is doing their own thing and contributing to the larger whole, in this case the functions of the whole brain itself, all acting at the same time, and without realizing what they’re contributing too.
In the end, the goal will be to understand the emergent functions of the brain that give rise to cognitive properties. For example, large scale quantum computer simulations might discover latent (hidden) properties and states that are only observable at the whole brain scale, but not computable without a sufficient level of detail and simulation from the scales below it.
Beyond neural simulations
If these simulations and research are successful, one can only speculate about what as of yet unknown brain algorithms remain to be discovered and understood. It’s possible that such future discoveries will have a significant impact on related topics such as artificial quantum neural networks, or on specially designed hardware that some day may challenge the boundaries of existing computational systems. For example, just published yesterday, an international team of scientists and engineers announced a computational ‘hardware’ device composed of a molecular-chemical network capable of energy-efficient rapid reconfigurable states, somewhat similar to the reconfigurable nature of biological neurons.
One final comment regarding quantum computers and the brain: This discussion has focused on the potential use of future quantum computers to carry out simulations of the brain that are not currently possible. While some authors and researchers have proposed that neurons themselves might be tiny quantum computers, that is completely different and unrelated to the material here.
But for now, back to ground …
It may be that quantum computers will usher in a new era for neuroscience and the understanding of the brain. It may even be the only real way forward. But as of now, actually building workable quantum computers with sufficient stable qubits that outperform classical computers at even modest tasks remains a work in progress. While a handful of commercial efforts exist and have claimed various degrees of success, many difficult hardware and technological challenges remain. Some experts argue that quantum computers may in the end never be built due to technical reasons. But there is much research across the world both in academic labs and in industry attempting to overcome these engineering challenges. Neuroscientists will just have to be patient a bit longer. | https://medium.com/@gabriel-silva/large-scale-simulations-of-the-brain-may-need-to-wait-for-quantum-computers-b4c2eb17df92 | ['Gabriel A. Silva'] | 2021-09-07 16:50:13.505000+00:00 | ['Neuroscience', 'Engineering', 'Simulation', 'Quantum Computing', 'Brain'] |
Changing the Default React Browser Tab Title and Icon | This is a quick post that covers the important but easy-to-miss detail of your React app’s browser tab. By default it will look like the following:
That’s not our app!
Small overlooked details like this can adversely affect the overall impression of a website. Fortunately, this is an easy fix.
First, locate the default document (usually this will be index.html) and find the following code at the bottom of the <head> element:
What we’re looking for is in the default document
Let’s start with the simplest aspect which is the <title> element at the bottom. That text should look pretty familiar —replace this with the name of your app/website and React’s hot reloading should mean you see the updated title almost immediately in the browser tab:
Halfway there!
Nice! Now to change the default React icon. You can see that the first of the two links is pointing to a favicon.ico file within our public folder — this relates to the Apple touch icon, or the app symbol that appears on Apple’s mobile and tablet devices. We’re not going to worry about this.
The second link is pointing to a manifest.json file, also in the public folder, which the included React comments explain help provide metadata when installing our app. Investigating this manifest.json file shows us that our metadata comes in the form of an object, and that the "icons" key in turn points to an array of objects.
Look at that beautiful metadata
The first object in this array has an "src" of "favicon.ico" . Favicon is a shortening of favorite icon, the name for the little icon in Google Chrome’s browser tabs. We can further confirm that this is what we’re looking for because the "sizes" key includes a value of 16x16 — the size in pixels of favorite icons.
So, now that we have our target it’s just a simple matter of deleting the default favicon.ico file found in our public folder and copying over our desired asset to act as our new icon. Be sure to rename your new file favicon.ico . Now, you should be able to fully customize your browser tab to better reflect your site’s theme:
Woohoo! Such power
Good work! | https://medium.com/@noaheakin/changing-the-default-react-browser-tab-title-and-icon-1240239d92d3 | ['Noah Eakin'] | 2021-02-13 22:12:53.586000+00:00 | ['Coding', 'Flatiron School', 'React', 'Google Chrome', 'JavaScript'] |
Brand Asset Management vs. Digital Asset Management | What is the difference between BAM and DAM and how can one strengthen the other?
Digital Asset Management (DAM) and Brand Asset Management (BAM) are very similar, but there are some key differences. Find out more about the distinction and how one can be used to improve the other.
Brand Asset Management (BAM) consists of the organization, storage and retrieval of important branding information in order to communicate according to the brand guidelines and standards, therefore protecting the brand’s identity.
Digital Asset Management (DAM) is the organization, storage and retrieval of corporate digital media and marketing collateral along with their associated usage guidelines.
Sounds quite similar, doesn’t it? Although these management forms are often referred to as the same term, there is a distinction between the two.
A company’s brand is its most valuable asset. Brand value or customer based brand equity is built by continuous and consistent branding.
“Customer-based Brand Equity is defined as the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand” — Keller
What are assets?
Digital or brand assets are valuable property of a company. They consist of, well, what else: digital files, digital media, images, logos, documents, videos, presentations, et cetera. The distinction between an asset and a regular file is — and there is that keyword again — value.
Digital files can be considered digital assets, but not all digital files are necessarily an asset to the company.
The assets of a brand, which are more or less tangible, play an important role for marketers who manage, control and maintain the corporate identity.
Digital Asset Management is a management form that carries the tools marketers need for consistent branding. DAM software contains the brand guidelines, a media library containing all the brand’s assets and a workflow module where all marketing publications can be monitored before they are published.
Digital Asset Management → Brand Asset Management → Brand Equity
In short: Digital Asset Management software contains, amongst others, brand assets. Therefore, Digital Asset Management complements and strengthens the Brand Asset Management. BAM adds value to a brand, which leads to high brand equity.
BAM or DAM software?
Luckily, you don’t have to choose between the two. Brand Asset Management is an integrated part of Digital Asset Management software. The main goal with DAM is the centralization and consistent use of assets, which includes brand assets.
DAM software is the librarian of your marketing department that never sleeps and never gets tired of your requests. Find out how your company can increase brand equity with Digital Asset Management:
Supercharge your marketing performance
Download the white paper and learn the impact of a DAM solution on your business.
DOWNLOAD | https://medium.com/marketing-and-branding/brand-asset-management-vs-digital-asset-management-30d27a860b8e | ['Raul Tiru'] | 2020-12-18 12:05:08.417000+00:00 | ['Brand Management', 'Digital Asset', 'Digital Asset Management', 'Branding', 'Brand Strategy'] |
15 Simple Ways to Make Your Hair Grow Longer, Faster, According to Experts | Here’s a secret…a few years ago, I was under no pretense to listen to my hairstylist after a long day of TV watching or shooting footage. I was a fan of Sally O’Neill’s thoughts on YouTube, and I have all her videos playing on my phone playing that killer soundtrack to my hair splashing everywhere but the right way.
The problem became getting her to watch a video instead of recording it on her phone’s video player. So it gets boring after a while, and now they have everyone hooked to her video and I’m shut out.
If you’re one of those habitual video watchers, I was too.
Right?
Wrong.
Turns out that it’s hard for the old human to switch on their iPhone, and there’s a reason for that. It’s too easy to just leave the videos on the play, listen to them over and over, and it’s tedious to watch them without getting asked to sit down and watch them.
Instead, you should shift your phone to muted sound and your laptop when you don’t want to watch another video or to join the chat conversation in the background.
Keep your headphones and your phone turned to sleep mode, then sit down and watch your videos, either as they’re recorded on your phone, or a real-time video you’re having a good time with, or your favorite collection of videos on YouTube.
Once you start, and once you get used to it, you’ll see results pretty quickly. I record my videos on my iPhone just to talk through them while I’m wearing them and move them in and out of focus without cutting into the stream.
Here’s how you should go about it.
Choose your category
It’s the “silent” option that is instrumental in the magic of hair. In fact, because of the power of technology, new styles are just about to be unlocked now that’s faster than they have ever been before. I used to have an electric razor because I really hated it but now I can just use my phone’s camera and go against my body. | https://medium.com/@lahorepak311/15-simple-ways-to-make-your-hair-grow-longer-faster-according-to-experts-655a6b8971ab | ['Ali Arai'] | 2021-10-11 10:49:39.258000+00:00 | ['Hair', 'Hair Loss', 'Hair Salon'] |
The Day You Flew Away (2020) | Sleep ca. 2020
Mr. Gnome have crafted a behemoth of a double LP. The married duo navigate deeply intimate themes through tie-die tinted glasses, saturating the record with an other-worldly aroma that would even make Sean Lennon stir from his DMT induced slumber.
The thing about The Day You Flew Away that impresses me the most is its spaciousness. Most tracks hover around 4:30 in length separate by much shorter transitions that could have just as easily been tacked on to the feature-length songs — a decision that adds to the spacious feel of the album and allows the more memorable tracks stand on their own. Beautifully layered melodies swirl around distorted bass lines and meticulously intriguing drumming. Repetition is used to comfort the listener, freeing Mr. Gnome to do literally whatever they want throughout the 77 minute romp through grief and rebirth. Space Opera, a heartbreaking tale of a futile revenge, is performed with masterful conviction and precision. The ebb and flow of the vocals, drums, and guitar each having their turn in the spotlight before joining together in an ass-kicking climax.
Songs like How to Talk in Technicolor and The Moon show off how Mr. Gnome seamlessly meld electronic synths and beats into their sound. The psychedelia doesn’t come from towering 15 guitar amps in Stevie Nicks’s bathroom, but from carefully choosing sounds and intelligently assembling them around Mr. Gnome’s greatest strength: the vocals. Everything in the album is baked in a health portion Nicole’s voice. Harmonizing and whispering the listener into a trance, one might compare her to Chino Moreno, but the texture gives more of dreamy, Lana Del Rey vibe. Her voice dominates every track, but the simple lyrics allows room for the other instruments to bubble to the surface.
The simple rhythms and patterns with slight variation throughout the song are beautifully crafted and never overstay their welcome. Each track is presented with the confidence of a lead single, and the result is a double-LP packed with memorable melodies that leaves the album feeling like an intimate fever dream that can’t possibly exist in real life.
The Day You Flew Away is one of my all-time favorite psychedelic records not only because of the substance of the music, but its optimism. Its murky valleys give way to majestic peaks on Gold Edges and Insane Love. Sun Drugged, essentially a power chord ballad paired with a marching drum beat, remind of the grandiose sides of Muse but with restrained, delicate vocals that gives the whole track a whimsical, sun-drenched sound, circumventing the fist-pumping path we’ve heard too many times before and forging their own cosmic destiny. | https://medium.com/@michael-8-greenwald/the-day-you-flew-away-2020-ed5461d1ab07 | [] | 2021-09-05 02:26:29.916000+00:00 | ['Music', 'Review', 'Space', 'Psychedelic Rock', 'Rock'] |
BentoBox News September 2019 | October 3, 2019
Check out the latest news from BentoBox HQ
Welcome back to BentoBox News, a monthly recap of all the happenings here at BentoBox HQ. This series is where we highlight our website and product launches, awards and share press. August was a good month for us. We’re excited to share all the news from September.
In The News
BentoBox was mentioned in Crain’s New York Business article on new restaurant software options for online ordering.
Our design team took a trip out west to Portland, Oregon this past Spring. They recently reviewed everything that they ate. The article was shared by Medium’s daily, “Most insightful stories about Food” list.
Launched Websites
In September we launched 160 new websites. Here are few: Kickstand Brewing Co. (Commerce Township, MI), Wildseed (San Francisco, CA) and Caffe Panna (NYC)
Events
BentoBox sponsored the Welcome Conference in Chicago this month. The Welcome Conference is a place where people passionate about hospitality come together, network and share ideas. Speakers included: Danny Meyer, Andrew Zimmern, Missy Robbins, Sean Feeney, Mindy Segal and many more. BentoBox and the Boka Group served a co-branded snack and five lucky guests found a BentoBox gift card hidden in their snack box.
Awards
Blue Smoke, Union Square Hospitality Group’s BBQ staple, was given a special kudos nod during the CSS Design Awards — a web design & development award platform for digital folk, UI/UX peeps and inspiring leaders of the web.
That’s it for September, check back in October to find out what’s new at BentoBox HQ. | https://medium.com/beyond-the-meal/bentobox-news-september-2019-bddea63cd4d3 | [] | 2019-10-03 20:38:50.568000+00:00 | ['Restaurant', 'Startup', 'Design', 'News'] |
Small Business Accounting | Thanks for joining us for this week’s newsletter! We’ve got a whole new setup and topics to cover for you!
We’ll Cover:
Episode 354 Accounting Tips and Resources
Top 5 Medium Articles To Read
A Business Spotlight: Priority Software
Our Sponsors and Deals This Week
Get In Touch!
Accounting Tips and Resources From Episode 354:
Todd Salkovitz has been representing AccountEdgefor over 26-years. Now part of Priority Software, Todd is here to call me out on my comment, and I’m glad he did. Join us today as we discuss accounting and so much more!
Accounting Software To Use For Your Small Business
Account Edge: https://accountedge.com
AccountEdge offers full-featured accounting software for your small business, on the desktop. Command centers help you run and report on all aspects of your business: sales and invoicing, purchases, payroll, inventory, time billing, and more.
Create Your Own Feedback Form:
Start With Creating A Wufoo Form: https://www.wufoo.com
Cloud-based form builder that makes it easy to create registration forms, application forms, surveys, contact forms, payment forms and more.
Then Use A Zapier Account To Automate Where Your Feedback Goes: https://zapier.com
Easy automation for busy people. Zapier moves info between your web apps automatically, so you can focus on your most important work.
Route The Messages Into A Slack Channel: Slack.com
In your inbox, seeing all the conversations about a single project requires sifting through many different email chains. In Slack, you’ll save time by seeing all the discussions and files about a project in one place: a channel.
The Accounting 101 PDF
Here’s an exclusive guide from our special guest, Todd this week on accounting 101.
Get it Here: http://get.acclivitysoftware.com/accountedge/pdf/us/pro/Acct_101.pdf
Top 5 Medium Articles To Read:
4 Smart Business Strategies For Product Managers: Shailesh Sharma
This article will talk about some of the smart business strategies taken by Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook etc. in the past
What Business People Actually Look for When They Say Segmentation: Wenling Yao
4 TikTok Trends That Will Help Your Brand Get Ready for Small Business Saturday: StoryHunter
Want to keep tabs on your working-from-home staff? Resist the urge: Gene Marks
Roundup of the Best Project Management Software for Small Business [Inexpensive and Free]: GantPRO
Our Business Spotlight: Priority Software
https://www.priority-software.com
We help organizations of all sizes and industries better manage their business today, and well into the future- Priority Software
Their Story:
A refreshing alternative to weighty and complex ERP systems, Priority ERP Software delivers highly flexible and scalable end-to-end ERP solutions to organizations of all sizes and industries. From small and growing businesses and mid-size corporates, to a fully featured ERP platform serving multi-national corporations, Priority believes that ERP should be easy. We are committed to ERP being easy to use, implement, maintain, and enhance. What does this mean for you and your business? Simply put, Priority improves business efficiency and the customer experience. We provide real time access to business data and insights in the cloud, on-premise, and ERP-on-the-go, easy, real time system access from any mobile device or tablet — anywhere, any time.
This Week’s Sponsors and Deals:
Shopify — For anyone to sell anywhere, Shopify is giving you a fourteen-day trial and full access to Shopify’s entre suite of features. Visit Shopify.com/sbs to get yours!
Bambee — Let Bambee help with your dedicated HR Manager! Go to Bambee.com/SMALL right now to schedule your free HR audit.
Get In Touch:
https://www.linkedin.com/businessshow
SHANNON JEAN https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonjjean
DAVE HAMILTON https://www.linkedin.com/in/davehamilton/
SADIE CYR https://www.linkedin.com/in/sadie-cyr-ba607b197
Follow Us On Twitter: https://twitter.com/BusinessShowCo
Watch Our Latest Episode Here: https://www.businessshow.co/podcast-episodes/ | https://medium.com/@businessshowco/small-business-accounting-3c28d8951463 | ['Small Business Show'] | 2021-11-19 17:49:56.416000+00:00 | ['Accounting', 'Small Business', 'Small Business Owner', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Business'] |
A Father’s Lament | A Father’s Lament
He stares in disbelief at the beautiful woman that stands before him, and silently wonders, “Where did the time go?”
It was only moments ago it seems that he saw her in the nursery, bundled up in small blankets, so very tiny among the cloth. Even though she was with all the other newborn babies, she might have well been the only one there because he never heard the others cry or saw another one sucking on a thumb or bottle. Just his own new child, this little wonder of wonders as she slept. She made small sucking motions in her sleep, and he wondered what babies dreamed of in their innocence.
In the blink of an eye, she was three years old and he was fetching her out from the top of the big oak tree out front of the house, only to have her go right back up moments later. Her mother used to worry and fret, “She’s always up in that tree, one day she’s going to fall and break all her bones.”
He taught her to ride her first “big bike”, running behind her and then beside her until she realized he was no longer hanging on and helping her. He held her and kissed her scraped knees better when she fell off and skidded on tender skin.
He remembers a time when they used to play “wedding”. She said she wanted to marry him when she grew up, and he would hum the wedding march and put his gold wedding band on her tiny finger.
But as most girls do, she eventually stopped falling off her bike and started falling for boys. Instead of coming home and climbing the big oak tree with her homework in tow, she stopped coming home until late. A quick supper, a kiss on the cheek and then out the door to be with her friends.
He wonders why he never saw the changes then, but he thinks he knows. Too many hours at work, an unappreciated supper and just wanting to unwind in front of the TV, to forget about the day and the bills and the mortgage.
He realizes now what he did not then, and wishes he could regain the moments when he could read her a story and tuck her into bed at night. To kiss her smooth forehead and say, “Goodnight, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite!” as she giggled that perfect little girl laugh.
She grew up too fast and before he knew it, someone had taken his place. No longer was she daddy’s little girl. Now a grown and graceful woman took her place, and she was here in a white gown with flowers in her hair and a bouquet in her hand, waiting to be changed from a Miss into a Mrs.
“She is a stunning beauty,” he thinks in the present. When she goes to speak, he expects perhaps a child’s voice, but her womanly voice is clear, and adult, and true.
“It’s time daddy.”
With a tear and a sigh from both of them, they walk down a new road to the tune from not so long ago, where another man will place a gold wedding band on her still petite finger. Until that moment though, he will hold her hand and dream of a time when she was still his little girl. | https://medium.com/@eileeneislerwagner/a-fathers-lament-9cb14ceed4b2 | ['Eileen Eisler Wagner'] | 2019-02-07 09:47:36.291000+00:00 | ['Weddings', 'Fathers', 'Father Of The Bride', 'Short Story', 'Regret'] |
Plutus Monthly Report — Last Ever Monthly Report (December 2019) | Welcome back to our last monthly report, over the last few weeks the team has been onboarding numerous users and distributing slick Plutus Cards across the UK and Europe.
Pinned Announcements
Our community has been granted Early-Bird access to our services.
Submit your email address to the ‘waiting list’ section of our website and you’ll receive access within 24–48 hours.
A complete public version of our services will be available to the public once the community is on-boarded. This will be completed in the coming weeks.
General Update
Onboarding Users
Last month, the team released Plutus 2.0 to our cherished community members, and we have received some incredibly supportive and positive feedback. We have been consistently onboarding users every day and proudly acquired hundreds of users. In these early stages, while we fine-tune any potential bugs and streamline all processes, our customer service and community manager, David Morrison, and the team have managed to upkeep 100% customer satisfaction in regards to our lean customer support.
Last Monthly Report
Now that we have a fully operational product, the team will be changing our content strategy and moving away from monthly updates. Instead, we will be releasing official announcements and newsworthy posts as they come. Users can stay up to date on the finer details through our various social media channels, most prominently our Discord channel.
Development Update
Android/iOS App Live
Our Plutus app is now fully live on both Android and iOS. Customers can sign up, manage their current account, order a card, and top it up all on-the-go. Since the mobile release, our app has been gradually climbing up the store rankings and achieved high star ratings across both operating systems.
Improving KYC Flow
The team has implemented procedures that will minimise re-checks of documents so users can enjoy an efficient onboarding process; greatly improving conversions from sign-ups to Plutus Card customers.
Mobile App Improvements
The team has made several improvements to our mobile application on both the aesthetics and operational side. We have ironed out the last of the remaining bugs and animated our opening logo on splash page for a more enjoyable user experience.
Additional Developments
The team has also covered countless smaller tasks such as:
troubleshooting card order flow with our banking provider.
cleaning up the database of our legacy members in order to transition them to 2.0.
improving the efficiency of conversions on our DEX platform.
Marketing Update
Emails Campaign
The marketing team has been progressively delivering thousands of emails to our established contacts list that we have acquired over several years in order to onboard as much of our community as possible. The email campaign has seen well-above standard benchmark results and our customer base is quickly growing.
Video Creation
The team has been continually creating video content that can enhance awareness and understanding of our products. Below is one of the recently released videos that showcases our Plutus dashboard; the team has several more prepared behind the scenes that we can release at the appropriate times.
End-of-Year Report
The team is currently working on our end-of-year report that we will release to the public in the coming weeks. This will highlight our achievements over the last 12 months and showcase our vision for the future of Plutus. Stay tuned! | https://medium.com/plutus/plutus-monthly-report-last-ever-monthly-report-december-2019-38fc2883c281 | [] | 2019-12-06 16:20:55.385000+00:00 | ['Fintech', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Report'] |
The recent threat against churches and the challenge of securing our religious sites | The recent Joint Intelligence Bulletin issued by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security has emphasized the inherent vulnerability of religious sites in America. As supporters of the Islamic State terror group call for attacks on holiday events and churches during the holiday season, once again we are reminded of the unique difficulty in protecting one of our most vulnerable entities. The warning was distributed to law enforcement agencies, security companies and churches across the nation and calls for increased vigilance during the holidays.
To be sure, threats against religious sites has a long history in our country. In more recent times, the attacks of September 11, 2001 have made increased security at our religious sites somewhat of an annual ritual. In the absence of specific threats, an increased security posture at religious sites is usually a standard procedure for most police departments around the holidays. As a law enforcement, security and intelligence professional, I have been involved in responding to the threats facing our religious sites and I have had to overcome the inherent resistance to increased security measures that exists in many of our churches.
Following the horrific shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015, I was tasked with providing security training to the leadership and parishioners of many churches throughout Suffolk County. What, at first, seemed like a straightforward training initiative, became quite a bit more complex as I learned that we needed to convince many religious communities that in the modern world we must strike a balance between security and the desire to maintain an open and inviting environment in our churches. The Charleston shooting clearly demonstrated that churches pride themselves on accepting outsiders without prejudice and maintaining an open-door policy. In my experience, Jewish religious sites have been far more aggressive in obtaining additional security during religious holidays than churches. This is most likely because of a long history of being targeted by anti-Semitic and radical Islamic terror groups.
With the broadening of targets by groups like the Islamic State and the increase of active shooter incidents in the United States, churches need to understand that they too are vulnerable entities and appropriate steps need to be taken. I believe this can be done in a way that preserves the sanctity of churches and continues the culture of kindness and peace. | https://medium.com/@bombacekenneth/the-recent-threat-against-churches-and-the-challenge-of-securing-our-religious-sites-c07cafca577 | ['Kenneth Bombace'] | 2020-12-20 07:32:14.661000+00:00 | ['Threat', 'Kenneth', 'Church', 'Bombace'] |
Meteorological Data Analysis | In this we used a meteorological dataset to analyze the data of 10 years and made a conclusion on it. Dataset which is used in this, obtain from Kaggle (https://www.kaggle.com/muthuj7/weather-dataset). Here we have used the NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib and Seaborn to load the dataset and to plot the graph.
In this we have recorded and plotted the graph between Apparent Temperature and Humidity of different months.
At first we have loaded my python libraries, which will be going to use further.
Importing the libraries of Python
Here, our dataset looks like this after loading with help of Pandas.
First five data from dataset.
Now we will check the shape of the dataset and information’s about the datasets.
It gives the shape structure and basic info about data.
Then we will check the any null value is present or not, if it is present and it is relevant to our analysis then I have to manage and enter some value on it.
Checking presence of null value.
After checking the null value, I will remove the unwanted data to make our analysis more easy. Here ‘axis=1’ means removing of column listed under drop function.
In dataset, a date column was given. So firstly we will make a proper format so that python can treat those date to a proper functional date.
Conversion of date into a proper format.
Now we will plot our first graph.
As we can see there are no such any changes in temperature in 10 years, and this graph tell that in 2012 the minimum temperature was -8 degree Celsius.
Graph between year and temperature
Now we will plot the graph in month of February 2012, we have seen that temperature declined sharply up to -10 degree Celsius.
Graph between temperature and year in month of February.
In below graph, we can see that there is there is not much changes occur in last 10 years in the month of August. Temperature minimum rise and fall can be seen here.
Graph of August
Conclusion: While looking all these data and graph we conclude that there are not major changes has been seen in between 2006 and 2016 due to global warming. Humidity remain constant throughout the years with minute amount of rise and fall. | https://medium.com/@kvaibhav97/meteorological-data-analysis-fe22b311e47e | ['Kumar Vaibhav'] | 2020-10-12 02:16:36.670000+00:00 | ['Kaggle', 'Data Science', 'Meteorology', 'Data Analysis', 'Data Visualization'] |
PUBG Mobile India delays it’s launch in india to February 2021, because MEITY doesn’t giving any response related to the meeting with PUBG Mobile. | PUBG Mobile India delays it’s launch in india to February 2021, because MEITY doesn’t giving any response related to the meeting with PUBG Mobile. The Gaming Engineer ·Dec 4, 2020
On November the game hyped up everyone in India because of PUBG Mobile Indian version of PUBG Mobile and many players confirmed the release date on 20th November 2020 but sadly it didn't launched in the market.
There are certain process should follow by the company to launch the game and also in the country where the game is already band, so Google Play Store allowed the game to get listed there then the news came that the game will be shown to the official Website of PUBG Mobile India for download.
For more information visit here-https://bit.ly/2VK1PEp | https://medium.com/@mithilravariya7/pubg-mobile-india-delays-its-launch-in-india-to-february-2021-because-meity-doesn-t-giving-any-793d6cb7dc48 | ['The Gaming Engineer'] | 2020-12-04 16:56:35.211000+00:00 | ['Blog', 'Infographics', 'Game Development', 'Pubg', 'Mobile'] |
Python HOW: Image processing for OCR using OpenCV | If your image has random noise, uneven illumination, holes in front objects, etc. There are few things that you can do before posting your image to a computer vision API. In this article, we go through few processing techniques to boost OCR results using OpenCV
TL;DR: full code
Install OpenCV
Install OpenCV using your preferred package manager
You might want to create a virtual environment first
Read the image
I will use the cover of the 1st edition of one of my favorite books as an example. Let’s first read the image, specifying the colour type of the image to coloured. This will read the image in the default colour format in OpenCV which is BGR (Blue-Green-Red). We will then convert the colour space to the more common RGB order (and for visualisation), and finally, write a small function to show the image without any interpolation:
Docs for imread , cvtColor, imshow. To convert to gray, use code=cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY in line 14
Original: Image shape: 1360H x 1036W x 3C
Crop image
Mostly, you either have a box coordinates around the text (from a labelling tool), or you are only interested in part of your image. Our image is a 3D numpy array. To crop it, we can simply slice along the height and width:
Cropped: Image shape: 580H x 900W x 3C
Add border (i.e. padding) (doc)
This might be useful for APIs with OCR models trained on documents (documents usually have white border) | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/python-how-image-processing-for-ocr-using-opencv-966acfae07a6 | ['Gabriel Harris Ph.D.'] | 2020-09-17 12:44:42.852000+00:00 | ['Optical Character Recogn', 'Python', 'Opencv', 'Image Processing', 'Programming'] |
Create Barchart in Android Studio | I will keep the code simple and let's jump into the coding part.
Setting up build.gradle(Module: app) file
Add the following code in your file.
repositories {
maven { url "https://jitpack.io" }
} dependencies {
//...
//...
implementation 'com.github.PhilJay:MPAndroidChart:v2.2.4'
}
and click on the Sync option which pops up.
Building activity_main.xml file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:paddingLeft="16dp"
android:paddingTop="16dp"
android:paddingRight="16dp"
android:paddingBottom="16dp"
tools:context="Android.in.barchart.MainActivity">
<com.github.mikephil.charting.charts.BarChart
android:id="@+id/barchart"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" />
</RelativeLayout>
Coding MainActivity.java file
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import com.github.mikephil.charting.charts.BarChart;
import com.github.mikephil.charting.data.BarData;
import com.github.mikephil.charting.data.BarDataSet;
import com.github.mikephil.charting.data.BarEntry;
import com.github.mikephil.charting.utils.ColorTemplate;
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
BarChart barChart = (BarChart) findViewById(R.id.barchart);
ArrayList<BarEntry> entries = new ArrayList<>();
entries.add(new BarEntry(8f, 0));
entries.add(new BarEntry(2f, 1));
entries.add(new BarEntry(5f, 2));
entries.add(new BarEntry(20f, 3));
entries.add(new BarEntry(15f, 4));
entries.add(new BarEntry(19f, 5));
BarDataSet bardataset = new BarDataSet(entries, "Cells");
ArrayList<String> labels = new ArrayList<String>();
labels.add("2016");
labels.add("2015");
labels.add("2014");
labels.add("2013");
labels.add("2012");
labels.add("2011");
BarData data = new BarData(labels, bardataset);
barChart.setData(data); // set the data and list of labels into chart
barChart.setDescription("Set Bar Chart Description Here"); // set the description
bardataset.setColors(ColorTemplate.COLORFUL_COLORS);
barChart.animateY(5000);
}
}
Play with entries.add() and labels.add() functions. You will understand how plotting is done.
Basically,
entries.add(new BarEntry(8f, 0);
Here 8f is the value and 0 is the index value which is mapping to
labels.add("2016");
which is at 0th index.
Source and Credits: https://github.com/PhilJay/MPAndroidChart which is A powerful 🚀 Android chart view/graph view library, supporting line- bar- pie- radar- bubble- and candlestick charts as well as scaling, dragging and animations.
Clone/Download the repository and play with the code. There is so many chart example available.
Thank You. | https://medium.com/@karthikganiga007/create-barchart-in-android-studio-14943339a211 | ['Kartik Ganiga'] | 2019-06-21 08:04:00.165000+00:00 | ['UI', 'Android', 'Charts', 'Development', 'Android App Development'] |
What’s a molar pregnancy? · Dr Dad | Also known as the hydatidiform mole, it is a pregnancy complication that causes abnormal growth of trophoblast cells. These cells normally grow in the placenta during pregnancy. This guide has all the basic information you need to know about molar pregnancy right from its symptoms to cure if any.
Facts about molar pregnancy
Molar pregnancies are of two types, complete molar pregnancy, and partial molar pregnancy.
In the complete molar pregnancy, the tissues in the placenta are swollen and are filled with fluid-filled cysts.
Other than that, the tissues are abnormal and there is no formation of any fetal tissues.
On the other hand, in partial molar pregnancy, the normal placental tissues might have some abnormal placental tissue growth side-by-side.
Even though there might be any fetal tissue growth, the fetal won’t survive and there will be a miscarriage in the earlier stages of the pregnancy.
Molar pregnancy has several complications; a rare cancer is one of the severe complications.
How to recognize molar pregnancy?
Even though it might feel similar to normal pregnancy, several symptoms might help you recognize any abnormality in your pregnancy, in this case, molar pregnancy.
If the color of vaginal bleeding ranges from dark brown to bright red in the first trimester then chances are it might be a molar pregnancy.
Women who experience severe nausea and vomiting might have an abnormal pregnancy such as a molar pregnancy.
Grape Like cysts growth in the vaginal passage, pelvic pain, and even uterine growth could be signs of molar pregnancies.
The presence of Anemia and ovarian cysts could also be due to molar pregnancy.
Conclusion
Molar pregnancy is a severe complication that could prove fatal for pregnant women. It is advised that you visit the doctor if you go through any of the above symptoms. | https://medium.com/@parenthood7/whats-a-molar-pregnancy-dr-dad-565696e5fcab | [] | 2021-07-27 09:14:16.369000+00:00 | ['Moms', 'Baby', 'Kids', 'Children'] |
“Stack Too Deep”- Error in Solidity | When one starts coding smart contracts in Solidity, sooner or later, s/he will hit a very annoying obstacle. The “Stack Too Deep” error. It is easy to fall into this trap, and when that happens, it is often hard to find a way out. To be fair, the underlying reason is not in Solidity itself, but in the Ethereum Virtual Machine (the EVM), and so will likely affect other languages that compile into EVM (ie LLL, Serpent, Viper), but that is a subtle distinction in the day-to-day job of coding smart contracts.
Surprisingly, given the level of annoyance this can cause, it is very hard to find good resources on how to deal with it, so I decided to write this post to try to shine some light on it, for my own benefit and for anyone else who may be despairing with it.
In general terms, this error seems to be generated when the code needs to access a slot in the stack that is deeper than its 16th element (counting from the top downwards). How we get there, though, can be done in more than one way. This post does not aim to offer a full theory of how this error is generated: from my experience, there are too many ways to do it. But it will give a good rationale for a common trigger, and will hopefully make the reader more aware of how the EVM manages its stack. It may even be possible to extend the same logic to other situation where the error occurs, and look for ways to avoid it.
In Solidity, most types (ie elementary types, like numbers, addresses and booleans for example, but not arrays, structs nor mappings) are passed by value to a function: when the function is called, a part of the stack (ie a stack frame) is allocated to hold the return position the program should go to when the function returns (the ‘return address’) and a copy of the function value-type input and output arguments. Each argument will normally hold a slot in the stack, where each slot is 256 bits.
This provides the most basic way of hitting a “Stack Too Deep” error: have a total of more than 16 input and output arguments. But in reality, if we want that function to do something useful, we will have to be very careful and probably have to reduce the number of arguments.
To test this, I created a small contract in Remix like this:
pragma solidity ^0.4.24;
contract TestStackError {
event LogValue(uint);
function logArg(uint a1) public {
emit LogValue(a1);
}
}
Remix is great for an investigation like this because we can quickly write a contract and query it, but fundamentally because Remix gives a powerful debugger with opcode disassembly and a full listing of the stack, memory and storage. It’s also easy to move back and forward through the code, giving one of the best debugging experiences I’ve had in any language.
This contract is very simple: it has no state variables and only one function, which also is extremely uncomplicated. This function takes only one argument and logs it.
I copy this contract to a new file in Remix, compile it and deploy it. There should be no errors and warnings, and so I go to the Run tab, and hit Deploy.
Then, I extend the list for the SimpleFunction contract, and enter a single value in the box in front of logArg. I press the button and check the output in the console:
As you can see, I entered the value 7, and that was returned as the only element in the logs. Although logs are worth another post, there are a few things I should mention here.
This is the JSON-formatted logs object of this call:
logs [
{
"from": "0xef55bfac4228981e850936aaf042951f7b146e41",
"topic": "0xfcf771399d75a67a6d0e730ae98d34c40b6bfe6ebf8053b98ddf4da8c2706250",
"event": "LogValue",
"args": {
"0": "7",
"length": 1
}
}
Logs are created by the emit keyword in solidity, which raise a solidity event and correspond to LOGn opcodes.
keyword in solidity, which raise a solidity and correspond to opcodes. Logs can be filtered by client-side applications running off-chain. A filter is a condition on any of the topics available in the log.
A log always has a topic 0, which is an encoding of the event’s signature.
Further topics can be created by making an argument indexed. There can be up to 3 indexed arguments. The remaining ones are considered event data
In this simple example, we can easily identify that there is only one topic ( "0xfcf771399d75a67a6d0e730ae98d34c40b6bfe6ebf8053b98ddf4da8c2706250" ) and that the data are displayed as part of the args member of the log object. We can also verify the code is working as expected.
Let’s now test the limits of this contract and change the function to accept the maximum number of arguments.
pragma solidity ^0.4.24; contract TestStackError {
event LogValue(uint);
function logArg(uint a1, uint a2, uint a3, uint a4,
uint a5, uint a6, uint a7, uint a8,
uint a9, uint a10, uint a11, uint a12,
uint a13, uint a14, uint a15, uint a16
) public {
emit LogValue(a16);
}
}
I have 16 input variables, no output variables, therefore I only need to use 16 stack slots. I invoke the function passing the values 1 to 16 and emit the last value. I check the logs and see the value 16. Brilliant, this works!
Then, I make a very small change to my contract: I log the first argument instead:
Wait, what?! Simply logging a different argument has turned a perfectly fine contract into a “Stack Too Deep” error. Wow, what’s going on in here?
This is not something Solidity can elucidate. At that level, the change looks perfectly harmless. I need to go down into the EVM bytecode to understand what is going on. But before I do that, I want to make another test, to gather some clues. I create a third version of this contract, but logging a2 instead:
pragma solidity ^0.4.24; contract TestStackError {
event LogValue(uint);
function logArg(uint a1, uint a2, uint a3, uint a4,
uint a5, uint a6, uint a7, uint a8,
uint a9, uint a10, uint a11, uint a12,
uint a13, uint a14, uint a15, uint a16
) public {
emit LogValue(a2);
}
}
This works, and logs the correct value. The same happens when I log a3 . I hypothesise then that all the arguments between a2 and a16 can correctly be logged.
The resulting opcodes are in these three files:
log(a2)
log(a3)
log(a16)
I compared all the 3 logs between themselves, and the very first thing that struck me was that they all differed in size (number of lines). The second thing is that they are remarkably equal until line 237, with only one exception. The code after this line is very different and apparently unpredictable. However, since that seems to come after the function has returned, I will simply ignore it.
Then I focused on the one difference between line 237, occurring at line 198. I was happy to confirm an idea that I had thought could explain the stack too deep error — that in some place of the code we would logically need to call some non-existing DUP or SWAP opcode. That indeed seems to be the case here: all 3 versions are the same until line 237, except for one single difference on line 198:
log(a2): DUP16
log(a3): DUP15
log(a16): DUP2
The opcodes DUPn duplicate the value at the nth level of the stack. There are only 16 such opcodes, from DUP1 to DUP16. DUP1 pushes to the stack a copy of the value currently at the top, and DUP16 copies the 16th highest value in the stack. There is an evident relationship between the place of the variable in the argument list and the value of DUPn in this line, and if I extrapolate it to the case log(a1), this rule implies we will need an opcode DUP17. But such an opcode does not exist, it points to a value lower in the stack than we can reach, which justifies the error message “Stack Too Deep”.
Satisfied with this, my natural curiosity asks the question: what role is this DUP opcode performing here? What is its purpose?
Bytecode is intimidating. The last time I looked at assembly code with some level of intention of understanding it was in my teens, playing with the Spectrum’s Z80 processor. I have not any experience of doing it with the EVM, so I don’t plan to parse 200 lines of an assembly-like listing in my head. But Remix does offer quite good tools in this respect. In the debug tab, we can replay the transaction opcode by opcode, and at a glance see the contents of the stack, the memory and the storage, among others.
Before I proceed, I’d like to point you towards this series of posts in the Zeppelin blog by Alejandro Santander on the structure of assembly EVM code. It is a priceless introduction to EVM assembly, and will save me from having to explain the boilerplate. Another extremely useful link is this list of EVM opcodes, that is my favourite reference to find the functionality of each opcode. I highly recommend it.
There is not much to this function, and most of the bytecode is repetitive. There are 17 occurrences of the opcode CALLDATALOAD. The first one appears in the first block of the code, before the function dispatch. It checks whether the calldata is too short (line 12), in which case the function would revert. After this, it compares the function selector to those of the methods known to the contract (in this case, only one: e898288f ) and if it matches any, directs the flow to the address that implements that function. Otherwise, the call reverts.
In this case, the code has called the only existing function and so the flow jumps to address 70 (line 25) to process it.
The remaining 16 instances of CALLDATALOAD are exactly the number or arguments we have, they appear at exactly 9 lines intervals, and are probably responsible for processing each argument to the function. So, I ran over these lines with the Remix debugger and observed that they do load each successive argument onto the stack (I’m not worried with how exactly those 9 opcodes copy these data). These are followed by 3 POP instructions that clear the part of the stack we no longer need (which was used to calculate the position in the call data of the next argument to be read). At this point, the top of the stack holds the 16th argument, the second element holds the 15th argument and so on. The 16th element of the stack is, at this stage, the first argument. This is followed by the return address of the function ( 0x109 ) and the function selector.
The code then pushes into the stack the 32 byte identifier of topic 0 fcf771399d75a67a6d0e730ae98d34c40b6bfe6ebf8053b98ddf4da8c2706250 , which pushes the first input out of the top 16 elements of the stack, and follows this with the DUP opcode that puts at the top of the stack the argument for the log event (eg a2 or a16 ).
The next 20 lines or so prepare the memory to hold the argument of the log event at memory position 0x80 , and guarantee the stack has in its top two positions this address and the length of the data ( 0x20 ). Then, it calls the opcode LOG1, which emits a log event with one single argument and one topic, using the data at the top 3 positions in the stack:
0: 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000080
1: 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000020
2: 0xfcf771399d75a67a6d0e730ae98d34c40b6bfe6ebf8053b98ddf4da8c2706250
There are in total five LOGn opcodes, LOG0 to LOG4, where n indicates the number of topics in the log. Topic0 is always the identifier of the event type, defined by the hash of its signature, but it can be skipped by using LOG0, which specifies an anonymous event. Each additional topic requires another slot in the stack, pushing that many more arguments out of the reachable list.
This analysis shows that an event with one argument prevents one variable of being used, because topic0 is placed in the stack before the event data. This raises a couple of questions:
What if we have more topics? Are they placed in the stack before the data as well?
And what is the impact of more event arguments, are they PUSHed after or before the topic?
To test that, I’ll change the contract again. Notice that events can have any number of arguments, and up to 3 of them can be indexed. Indexed arguments become topics, while the others are lumped in the data section. My hypothesis, at this stage, is that each topic (indexed argument) will be placed in the stack before the data, and so will prevent the access to more of the early variables.
In my tests, I covered several scenarios, but they all lead to the same conclusion so I will save you the minute details. I will just illustrate with another interesting and counter-intuitive case, and then draw final conclusions.
First, let’s try this version of the contract, where the event has one indexed value and two non-indexed ones.
pragma solidity ^0.4.24; contract TestStackError {
event LogValue(uint indexed a1, uint a2, uint a3);
function logArg(uint a1, uint a2, uint a3, uint a4,
uint a5, uint a6, uint a7, uint a8,
uint a9, uint a10, uint a11, uint a12,
uint a13, uint a14, uint a15, uint a16
) public {
emit LogValue(a2, a3, a4);
}
}
The bytecode for this function (after the function dispatch) until the event is emitted is this:
265 JUMPDEST
266 DUP15
267 PUSH32 a5397a5faa0ec7cfb89428503b91a13bbd737592f7561e6773fa3e1458c8735c
300 DUP16
301 DUP16
302 PUSH1 40
304 MLOAD
305 DUP1
306 DUP4
307 DUP2
308 MSTORE
309 PUSH1 20
311 ADD
312 DUP3
313 DUP2
314 MSTORE
315 PUSH1 20
317 ADD
318 SWAP3
319 POP
320 POP
321 POP
322 PUSH1 40
324 MLOAD
325 DUP1
326 SWAP2
327 SUB
328 SWAP1
329 LOG2
The opcode that emits the event is LOG2 . This means we have two topics, one the default topic0 (ie the event signature) and the other the only indexed argument in the event signature. The remaining two values are grouped in memory.
If we check Ethervm for this opcode, we see that the last value read from stack, and the first to be pushed onto it, is topic1, that is, the indexed argument — a2 . Initially, this is placed at position 15 of the stack. The opcode DUP15 places a copy of the value at the top of the stack, and consequently pushes all the other arguments down. From now on, for example, a2 is in position 16, and a1 is in position 17.
The next instruction pushes a 32-bit value to the stack, that simply corresponds to topic 0. This value is hardcoded. This also has the effect of pushing again the arguments down. Now, a2 is in position 17.
The following instructions are two DUP16 opcodes. The first one copies the value at position 16, which is currently the third argument, a3 . But since this pushes a new element onto the stack, when the next opcode is called DUP16 will copy the fourth argument to the function, a4 . At this stage, at the top of the stack we have the data for the event (two words), the indexed argument and the event unique identifier.
The following lines copy the first two values to memory:
(302–305): places the contents of memory 0x40 at the top of the stack, twice. This is the position in memory where the event data will be located (and is 0x80 in my execution).
at the top of the stack, twice. This is the position in memory where the event data will be located (and is in my execution). (306–308): places the first data word at the first free position in memory (ie places a3 in position 0x80
)
in position ) (309–311):places the next free position in memory at the top of the stack
(312–314): places the second data word at the next free position in memory (ie places a4 in position 0xa0
)
in position ) (315–321): calculates the next free position in memory and leaves it at the top of the stack, after eliminating values that are no longer needed.
(322–327): finds the length of the data submitted to the event, by subtracting the initial address of next free position in memory from the current value of that position (held at the top of the stack).
(328): reorders the first two elements of the stack, making the first element the beginning of the event data, and the second address the length of this data.
(329): finally calls the logging opcode.
I gave this detailed explanation so that you can understand how this process works, if you wish. In that case, perhaps you can now explain the next apparent oddity. Change only the signature of the event to:
event LogValue(uint a1, uint indexed a2, uint a3);
Yep, another Stack Too Deep error. Can you see what is causing it?
…
……
………
The bytecode does not change much. We still have the same number of topics, so the opcode at the end will still be LOG2 . And it still expects to receive its arguments in the same order, that is, the topics first, then the data.
Now, the second topic must be loaded first, so a3 would be the first value to be pushed to the stack with a DUP14 . Then topic0 would be pushed. Now, the EVM would place at the top of the stack the two arguments it needs to store in memory, a2 and a4 . These were originally at positions 15 and 13. However, the EVM has made two pushes already, which makes these positions 17 and 15. It is impossible to place the first value in the stack ( DUP17 does not exist) and so the compilation errors.
So now that we understand this, I try changing just one more thing, the log function to:
emit LogValue(a3, a2, a4);
This code works, since it corresponds very closely to the last block before I changed the order of the indexed arguments. In that code, the indexed value of the event was called with a2 . In this version, it is still a2 that is passed to that position, and the others remain the same. The bytecode explanation is virtually the same.
Conclusion
This has been a long post. If you have arrived this far, it is worth leaving you with an organised view of what is happening, so that you can go back to your programs and think if your “Stack Too Deep” errors could have been caused by a similar behaviour. Although this post covers only the case of emitting events, other functions will use other opcodes, but will still have the same logic, in copying the function arguments (or intermediate values) to the stack when some computation is needed.
So here are some streamlined notes to keep in mind:
When a function is called, a stack frame is created. This includes, from bottom to top:
the function selector
the return address
the leftmost value-type argument of the function
…
the rightmost value-type argument of the function
“Stack Too Deep” errors depend on the central opcode of an action (eg arithmetic, hashing, calling another function, emitting events, etc.)
If these central operations are performed on pure function arguments, the order in which they are passed to the function may decide the occurrence of a “Stack Too Deep” error. (Stack slots can also be used for intermediate calculations and local variables, but I intend to study those in a later post.)
It is crucial to know the number and order of the arguments for the opcode. These arguments are typically read from the stack (the only exception is the PUSH opcode).
opcode). Opcode arguments have to be pushed to the stack before executing the opcode. Each PUSH moves the function arguments down at least one slot. The function arguments deeper in the stack are the ones that were processed first, that is, the leftmost ones in the function signature.
moves the function arguments down at least one slot. The function arguments deeper in the stack are the ones that were processed first, that is, the leftmost ones in the function signature. If some of the function arguments are not used in that opcode operation, then they should come first in the function signature, to reduce the chances that opcode arguments will be off-reach when they need to be stacked.
Opcodes use arguments at different levels in the stack. Deeper levels are pushed first. If an argument is pushed after another, it should appear in the function signature after the former as well, otherwise it would push the other one down the stack before it could be used. Example:
Consider an event with two indexed arguments t1 and t2 in this order, that is called inside a function with several arguments, among which a1 coming before a2 If the event is emitted with t1 = a1 and t2 = a2 , the opcode LOG3 will be called. Before calling this opcode, t2 = a2 will be pushed first into the stack. This will push a1 down and put it at risk of being unreachable when the time comes to push the value of t1 = a1 . This would be avoided if a1 came after a2 in the function signature, since it would be higher in the stack than a2 . Assuming a2 was reachable when it was pushed, so would be a1 afterwards.
The above post concentrated on LOGn opcodes only, in particular on versions requiring 3 or 4 arguments in the stack. A more difficult case will be calling functions in other contracts or libraries, since the opcodes CALL and DELEGATECALL take 7 or 6 input arguments each, with a lot more possibilities of interaction between the opcode and function arguments.
I hope this gives you some clues on how to debug and handle “Stack Too Deep” errors. There is a lot more to say, but that will have to wait for other opportunities.
Until next time. | https://medium.com/coinmonks/stack-too-deep-error-in-solidity-608d1bd6a1ea | ['Aventus Network'] | 2020-08-26 15:46:37.849000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Ethereum', 'Blockchain', 'Stack', 'Solidity'] |
The Sun Isn’t Hot Enough to Shine | The Sun Isn’t Hot Enough to Shine
Nuclear fusion requires 100 million degrees Kelvin, yet the Sun’s core can only reach 15 million. How then does it create light? A quantum phenomena known as quantum tunneling is the answer.
Students are taught that a star has enough gravity from its immense size to create high enough pressure and temperature to overcome the natural repulsion of protons in hydrogen atoms and fuse them into helium. The helium weighs slightly less than the original hydrogen atoms, and the missing mass is released as an enormous amount of energy, as dictated by Einstein’s E=mc^2. According to this equation, even a tiny amount of mass (m) becomes a lot of energy (E) when multiplied by the speed of light squared (c^2), which is roughly 9 x 10 16m^2/s^2.
While this sounds like a solid explanation, there’s a massive problem: the Sun’s core doesn’t get anywhere near hot enough for nuclear fusion to occur. Here on Earth, our fusion reactors, which may actually power the grid soon, need much higher temperatures.
The mind-bending world of quantum mechanics, though, provides a solution.
Quantum Mechanics, a Crash Course
Quantum mechanics is the science of the very small, where the rules of reality are very different from what we expect. The laws that govern our everyday world don’t make sense at this scale, as particles can appear on the other side of insurmountable obstacles, don’t exist in a specific location until observed, can interact instantaneously with other particles over long distances, among many other counter-intuitive principles. Despite being so weird, quantum mechanics has been a gem for modern science, as it provides incredibly precise solutions to many problems in the classical world of physics.
The crux of quantum mechanics is wave-particle duality, as explained by Schrödinger’s equation. This explains that particles exist as a wave of probability until they are detected, at which point they choose a location. Yes, it sounds insane, but it’s been proven again and again.
This was first shown in Young’s famous double slit experiment. In this experiment, photons were fired at a barrier with two slits in it. Behind this barrier was a wall that could detect where the particles hit. If they behaved as solid particles, then they would pass through the two rectangular slits and produce two corresponding rectangles on the back wall. However, if they behaved as a wave, then they would pass through the slits, begin to propagate again on the other side, and interfere with each other, producing an interference pattern of dark and light bands.
When the crests and troughs of each wave meet, they add. When the crests meet the troughs, though, they cancel. (Creative Commons License)
During the experiment, when the only detector was the back wall, the photons produced a wave pattern. But, when the particles were detected as they were going through the slits, they produced a particle pattern. The pattern produced on the back wall depended entirely on the particles being observed as they went through the slits. This forced them to stop existing as a wave of probability and to choose a specific location.
So what does this have to do with solar fusion? Thinking of hydrogen atoms — more specifically the single protons in their nuclei — as a particle means they don’t have enough energy to get close enough to each other for the strong nuclear force to take over. This force only operates within 10 −15meters. Thinking of them as a probability wave, though, means they can tunnel through this energy barrier via a strange phenomenon of wave mechanics known as evanescent waves.
Evanescent Waves
When a wave traveling through one medium hits another medium it will do two things: reflect and refract. Imagine pointing a laser at a pool of water. Some of the light will bounce off and some will go through. How much reflects and how much refracts depends on the angle of the light and the properties of the two mediums. When it comes to air and water, the common explanation is that the angle at which 100% of the light is reflected is 48.5 degrees. This is known as total internal reflection.
However, it’s more complex than that. Looking at Maxwell’s equations, which explain all of classical electromagnetism, at the point where the wave hits the new medium, a tiny, fleeting wave is produced. It usually only lasts a few wavelengths, but this evanescent wave can continue much further under the right conditions.
The infrared beam is displaying total internal reflection, in which the beam is supposed to stay contained with in the crystal, reflecting off of the boundaries between it and surrounding media. Even at the perfect angle for total internal reflection to occur at the intersection of these particular media, the beam emits an evanescent wave. (Creative Commons License)
Quantum Tunneling and Solar Fusion
So far, we have quantum particles existing as a probability wave and the fact that when a wave should be 100% reflected it’s not due to evanescent waves. Based on this, if quantum particles are, for example, contained in a box, they will have certain probabilities of being found in different areas of the box and a non-zero possibility of being found outside the box. They have a small chance of appearing outside of where they are supposed to be, on the other side of barriers that should be insurmountable.
The red line is a probability wave, with quantum particles being more likely to be found at the peaks. Like all waves, this probability wave can extend through a barrier due to evanescent waves. Therefore, there is a small probability of quantum particles being found, quite surprisingly, on the other side of an impenetrable barrier. (Creative Commons License)
Applying this to solar fusion, the quantum particles in question are the protons of hydrogen atoms and the insurmountable barrier is the large energy spike needed to fuse them. Because they behave as a probability wave and have a non-zero chance of getting through it, some will inevitably get to the other side, allowing the strong nuclear force to take over and solar fusion to happen. Think of it a different way: protons have a tiny chance of being places they shouldn’t be, including right next to each other without the necessary energy to do so.
It’s sounds crazy, but the math works. The Sun’s core has about 10^56 hydrogen atoms, and the chances that two of these protons will fuse because of quantum tunneling is about 1 in 10^28. For the Sun to output the energy that it needs, roughly 3.7 x 10^38 fusion reactions per second need to occur. Even though quantum tunneling is exceedingly rare, the Sun has enough protons within such a tightly packed core that the tiny odds of quantum tunneling can easily be overcome. | https://medium.com/discourse/the-sun-isnt-hot-enough-to-shine-3585af6fdddd | ['The Happy Neuron'] | 2020-12-18 05:21:11.617000+00:00 | ['Quantum Mechanics', 'Science', 'Astrophysics', 'Astronomy', 'Quantum Physics'] |
從小米利潤結構，分析還原 AIoT 雙引擎戰略背後的核心目的 | Get this newsletter By signing up, you will create a Medium account if you don’t already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices.
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Medium sent you an email at to complete your subscription. | https://medium.com/y-pointer/aiot-xiaomi-66004dddaddb | ['侯智薰 Raymond Ch Hou'] | 2019-06-08 02:21:50.430000+00:00 | ['Business', '中文', 'Aiot', 'Xiaomi', '小米'] |
Online Master’s in Data Science — Worth taking the plunge? | Regardless, I found the program VERY helpful 👍 and I learned a great deal. It really is what you make of it in terms of how deep you want to go into a topic. The only caveat ️I would mention is that if you want to get into deep learning specifically or you have a very specific technical position in mind then I would suggest going into a more tailored boot camp type of program and not doing a formal master’s degree⚠️. The reason I suggest that is because this degree did not go into great detail on the state of the art of neural networks but just covered the basics, most of which you could find in a good tutorial online. However, if you want to know the foundational stats and algorithms behind these concepts that you will use throughout your whole career then a program like this is what you are looking for.
Data
The data used for this analysis was gathered by my fellow student manually. He carefully documented how long it took him to complete each assignment, lecture, exam, mid term, quiz and project throughout his whole journey. So huge kudos to Paul for collecting all this! 🙌. I have his consent to publish the results.
Results
Overall, the degree took approximately 1,133 hours to complete. Eight courses were required, and I assumed a 12 week term in calculating the hours per week.
Image by Author | List of courses taken with hours
Here is the same data broken down by Task Type. Not all courses had final exams, mid-terms, projects or quizzes. However, all courses had assignments and lectures.
Image by Author | Bar chart of courses
Plotting hours spent doing assignments versus hours spent in lecture with a 30th percentile horizontal line we see that most of courses had over 20 total hours of lectures. Distributed Systems took close to 40 hours of lecture time while Data Cleaning took less than 10 true hours of lecture. This will be discussed later.
Image by Author | Scatter Plot of Assignment v.s. Lecture time /w Lecture percentile
Conversely, with an 80th percentile vertical line we see that the majority of courses had less than 90 total hours of assignments. Applied Machine Learning course is a clear outlier 📊. That specific course had close to 170 hours of assignments. Why Applied Machine Learning had significantly more time spent on assignments will be discussed later.
Image by Author | Scatter Plot of Assignment v.s. Lecture time /w Assignment percentile
For fun, I trained a clustering algorithm where the number of clusters does not need to be specified like OPTICS or DBSCAN and got the chart below. Each colour dot corresponds to a specific cluster. Applied Machine Learning (AML) and Practical Statistical Learning (PSL) seem to be in their own clusters.
Image by Author | Scatter Plot of Assignment v.s. Lecture time /w Cluster Number Legend
Discussion
Firstly, the disparity between time spent completing certain courses, for example Data Cleaning versus Practical Statistical Learning (PSL) is directly related to the complexity of the content. Specifically, Data Cleaning mainly covered theories such as data flows, database design and RegEx which are generally known by folks in the analytics profession already. Therefore, most of the videos can be watched on 2x speed which is why the hours spent in lecture is comparatively low. It does not mean that there are only 10 hours of lecture 😌.
PSL went into the guts of how specific clustering, classification and regression models worked. These more complex concepts called for re-watching of the lectures multiple times to fully understand grasp the topics to be able to earn 100% on the quizzes. Moreover, there were four projects in PSL in addition to all the other assignments and quizzes. 💪
Both courses required skills in either R or Python however they covered totally different areas.
Image by Author | Bar chart of courses with data labels
Secondly, we saw that Applied Machine Learning course required a VERY high time investment on assignments. There was no final, no quizzes and no project just A LOT of assignments. Personally, I LOVED this course because each assignment felt like a mini-Project and you had no idea how you were going to figure it out in time 😅. But in the end you did and it was great!
Thirdly, I consider Data Visualization and Data cleaning the “easy” courses. You could take two or three other courses in the same semester while working full time and not go completely insane 😤. I did not do that but many of my other classmates did.
Conclusion
If you are considering pursuing an online Master of Computer Science / Data Science degree then I would highly recommend it. This degree program was very technical compared to similar programs that include law, privacy and research design courses in their curriculum. I feel that a more technical degree translates better to an online format compared to master’s degrees that focus more on social/qualitative courses for obvious reasons.
The degree was still a lot of work as you can see from the hours spent 😭. The silver lining is that not all courses take up every waking moment of your life to complete. There are “easy” 😺ones and there are killer 💀ones, as long as you know what you are getting yourself into you can come out at the end of it a better person.
Lastly, I want to also mention that you should take into account the opportunity cost of doing other things for those 1,133 hours you will be spending on your master’s degree. The good thing with an online technical masters compared to an MBA style masters is that they are typically significantly cheaper 💰. | https://towardsdatascience.com/online-masters-in-data-science-worth-taking-the-plunge-ec5c2a53048d | ['Matthew Bitter'] | 2021-01-02 17:17:47.325000+00:00 | ['Masters Degree', 'Data Science', 'Online Masters Programs', 'Coursera', 'Course'] |
Boys Can Control Themselves — I’ve Encountered Some that Prove This | My first consensual sexual experience with another person was on a cruise ship when I was 14 years old.
I met him in the “teen room” after singing a truly terrible karaoke version of “Show me the Meaning” from NSYNC. Or the Backstreet Boys? They were the same to me at the time. Still are I suppose. I was currently growing out a pixie cut hairstyle and had just started wearing makeup that year which meant I was wearing far too much. Right when I sat back down to slim applause and was not feeling too great about myself because I knew the song was too low for my range, a tall handsome blonde with braces came over and sat next to me, smiling.
We talked for hours into the night. He was a young 16, had done a little theater, (which I had just started the year before), was on his school’s debate team, and had a clever sense of humor.
The next day when my family went onto the shore where the ship had docked, I stayed behind so I could sleep in and then meet up with the boy. I think he ended up knocking on my room door to find me, and we spent the day together. We played ping pong, went in the hot tub okayed for teens, met up with a couple other gals we met in the teen room, and then when we were alone again he asked me if he could kiss me. He was a perfect gentleman. It was just a little peck. I was elated. We eventually ended up at the top level of the ship, sitting on the lawn chairs and looking out over the bow. We started making out. I may have used a bit too much teeth at first but he was a lovely teacher. Things started to get heavy and we made our way back to his room. We both ended up with our shirts off, my bra still on, and when he went to unclasp it everything I was currently being told about sex and sexuality came to mind.
First I knew I didn’t want to get pregnant. Second, the youth groups and Sunday schools I was involved in drilled the myth of virginity and chastity and although I never fully bought into it, it was still taking up space in my mind. Third, I wasn’t ready. (Funnily enough the thought of STIs never even entered my mind. I wish in all the fear that had been instilled in me I had at least been made aware that STIs were a thing that could happen — and that they were not necessarily a big deal.) I was horny as fuck and we were grinding like crazy, but when the boy reached around to take off my bra, I said no.
He stopped.
He asked me if I was waiting until wedlock and I said I didn’t know — maybe? He asked me if I wasn’t up to any other things. I said no.
He said OK.
We continued to make out. No romantic moment was ruined. We still grinded with our clothes on. We were still horny teenagers. The only reason we stopped was because his brother came by the room some time later.
After the cruise we emailed a couple times a week and talked on the phone every Friday night after 9PM for an hour (when phone calls were free on my parent’s cell phone.) We called each other boyfriend/girlfriend and he told me that he was asked to his junior prom by a girl at his school but he said no because he only wanted to go with me. He lived a couple states away. We planned to meet up that summer when he came to visit his grandparents for a couple weeks somewhere relatively close to where I lived, but it didn’t happen. We never talked again.
I tried to find him on social media a few years ago. I wanted to tell him thank you. Thank you for being a decent human being and for treating me like a human being with bodily autonomy. Thank you for not only stopping when I said no, but for not trying to talk me into something I already said I didn’t want to do. I didn’t give you an exact reason why I didn’t want to go further than we did, but you didn’t lord that over me. You are one of the very few men I have encountered in a sexual manner that did this.
I wasn’t able to find him. Maybe some day he will read this and know how much I appreciate him being my first. | https://medium.com/@autoimmunefeminist/boys-can-control-themselves-ive-encountered-some-that-prove-this-ead88a9f3494 | ['Autoimmune Feminist'] | 2020-12-17 06:31:47.223000+00:00 | ['Teenagers', 'First Love', 'Sex', 'Gentleman', 'Sexuality'] |
Danny DeVito Explains Value Investing in 3 Minutes | Although investors generally built passive positions in companies, some decided that a more assertive approach was necessary to “unlock value.”
During their heyday, corporate raiders (now known as “activist investors”) would gain control of undervalued companies, sell off their assets, and then distribute the proceeds to shareholders (i.e. themselves).
Returning to Other People’s Money, in Garfield’s view, the ‘problem’ with New England Wire and Cable was that the core wire and cable business was losing money with little hope of revival. Logically, the best thing for everyone was to just shut down the company and sell its assets.
At the film’s climax, Garfield and Jorgenson face off at the shareholder meeting, where the kindly Jorgenson makes an impassioned plea to save the company based on its importance to the local community. Garfield argues that the company has no responsibility to anyone but shareholders (I won’t give away the ending and tell you who wins).
Although Warren Buffett has cultivated a reputation as a benevolent and largely passive investor, he somewhat resembled Garfield in his early days. One of his most successful investments was a little-known company called Dempster Mill. The stock was selling for $18 a share, but the actual value was over $72.
The issue was that Dempster was poorly run. The company manufactured windmills and irrigation systems, which was a highly competitive business. At one point Dempster verged on total implosion.
In 1961, Buffett took control of Dempster and fired its management. On Charlie Munger’s recommendation, he installed a new CEO named Harry Bottle who specialized in business turnarounds. Under Bottle’s stewardship, Dempster laid off many of its employees and sold assets. It was a huge blow to the small town of Beatrice, Nebraska, which depended on the company for employment. The local community came to hate Buffett and everything that he stood for.
Eventually the townspeople raised enough money to buy out Buffett’s stake, which he sold to them for several times his initial investment. Although he profited handsomely, the experience soured Buffett on the idea of liquidating companies at the price of his personal reputation. | https://medium.com/money-clip/danny-devito-explains-value-investing-in-3-minutes-fa4a05f4adc9 | ['Mike Berner'] | 2020-11-22 23:01:45.569000+00:00 | ['Finance', 'Wealth', 'Stock Market', 'Warren Buffett', 'Investing'] |
Alliteration Begins with A | Example of alliteration in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven poem.
Hey there! Alexander here. I love using alliteration in my poems, prose & other writings. For those that are unfamiliar with alliteration, it is defined as:
“Alliteration is […] a stylistic literary device which is identified by the repeated sound of the first or second letter in a series of words, or the repetition of the same letter sounds in stressed syllables of a phrase.”
(Source: Wikipedia)
Here is a new epigram I posted to my Instagram grid, which garnered 40 comments & over 1.1k likes in its first 24 hours.
As you can see in the image, the quote reads:
“At the cemetery, amongst the dead, is where I finally feel at peace.”
I intentionally employ alliteration in this short saying, but not in the classical way you would typically see. The conventional approach is to repeat words with the same first letter. For example, “The big brown bear…rolls on the ground.” The three B’s are the alliterated style in action.
What I did with my epigram on Instagram is to spread it out throughout the sentence.
The three alliterated words are:
“At the cemetery…” “…amongst the dead,” “…at peace.”
These three words were intentionally chosen, as I select all of my words with intention, & as every good poet & writer should do.
The reader encounters three words that begin with the letter A. The power of alliteration, especially in poetry & short prose, is that it psychologically draws the reader into the piece & lulls their conscious mind into a brief hypnotic state. Humans, especially our brains, find comfort in the familiar, & what is more familiar than repeating words that start with the same letter throughout our speech?
In the first part of the epigram, I could have written “At the cemetery” as “In the cemetery…” but I frowned on using it. The reason is the word “in” may have implied, subconsciously, that I was buried “in” the ground of the cemetery vs. walking above ground, observing the headstones as I strolled by.
Speaking of observing headstones in a cemetery, that brings us to the second section of the saying. I could have written the phrase “amongst the dead” as “between the dead” but I decided against it. It would have been equally accurate but did not contribute to the alliteration effect I was striving for.
As well, I could have chosen the word “among” vs. “amongst.” The former is the standard American English variation whilst the latter is the British English variant. Heck, it’s fun to play around with language like this, especially when you are not British.
The third section contains the final element of this saying’s alliteration effect. Again, I could have chosen a different word, but I went with “at peace” vs. “in peace.” However, this could unintentionally imply that I was “in the ground” or I was “rest[ing] in peace” rather than in a state of peace I had not experienced before.
Now, you would think my gamut of alliteration was over, but it is not. I add to the overall effect by writing a second alliteration into the third section. If you can remember the quote, you’ll recall I close the epigram with “…I finally feel at peace.”
I carry out the second alliteration sequence with two consecutive words that start with the letter F. These two F words immediately proceed the final round of the first alliteration sequence. Again, I constructed the sentence with these words intentionally, as to psychologically penetrate the reader’s subconscious mind more deeply.
I love to play around with language & alliteration is one reason that I do. Alliteration happens a lot in speeches, poetry & prose. You’ll be surprised, but many people naturally use it in their everyday language too.
What’s your favorite example of alliteration? Leave a comment to let me know! | https://medium.com/the-inkslinger/alliteration-begins-with-a-d7736df6a8b6 | ['Alexander Bentley'] | 2017-11-22 18:00:15.476000+00:00 | ['Cemetery', 'Writing', 'Poetry', 'Creative Writing', 'Quotes'] |
CCTV Installation | CCTV — 4CH NVR ANVR2204
There are a variety of sorts of CCTV gear accessible and in spite of the fact that it tends to be bought and introduced yourself, it tends to be extremely convoluted to do. You may unload it investigate the guidelines and acknowledge you can’t do it. If so there are organizations out there that have some expertise in CCTV Installation, they will go to your premises unload your gear and set it up so it is all working effectively and securely. In this article I will expound on a couple of organizations that offer CCTV Installation Services all through the UK:
CDA Solutions
CDA are experts in the improvement and establishment of CCTV gear, their hardware is computerized PC based. They offer the most recent innovation and can likewise give access to control hardware. Their surveillance gear offers great playback and recording quality in the day time and evening (they join cutting edge infra-red innovation that makes evening time recording clear). Get in touch with them and they can offer you a statement dependent on your prerequisites given.
Data 4 Security
This organization is marginally unique yet at the same time identified with CCTV Installation, they don’t offer CCTV or security hardware… be that as it may, they do offer CCTV Installation Training, on the off chance that you need to end up prepared in the establishment of security hardware information 4 security can enable you to accomplish that objective.
Securicorp Components Ltd
Securicorp has a gathering of expert installers on board that can make any establishment errand look simple, regardless of whether it be a little local establishment or a huge business establishment they have encountered staff who can take care of business. | https://medium.com/@bdetechnology1990/cctv-installation-b67f3cd587d | ['Bde Technology'] | 2019-07-09 20:11:01.512000+00:00 | ['Surveillance Camera', 'Cctv', 'Fingerprint System', 'Biometric System', 'Security Camera'] |
Integration of ML Kit into Ionic Application (Face-Related Service) — Part 4 | In my previous articles, we learn how to integrate Huawei ML Kit Text-related, Language-related and Image-related services. Today we are going to explore Face/Body-related service of Huawei machine learning kit.
Introduction
Huawei ML kit Face/Body-related service is used for detecting the shapes and features of our face, hand and body which includes facial expression, age, gender, hand points and many more. Use this service by creating an application which beautify user face when they are in video call or astrology & horoscope application by predicting future using hand key point detection service.
Face/Body-related services
As of now there is only one Cordova plugin developed for Face/Body- related services and that is Face Detection. Here we will use this service to showcase the power HMS ML Kit in Ionic application.
Demo
Prerequisite
Must have a Huawei Developer Account. Must have a Huawei phone with HMS 4.0.0.300 or later. Must have a laptop or desktop with Android Studio, Jdk 1.8, SDK platform 26 and Gradle 4.6 installed. Must install node in the system Must install Ionic in the system using below command:
npm install -g @ionic/cli
Things need to be done
Generating a Signing Certificate Fingerprint. For generating the SHA key, refer this article. Create an app in the Huawei AppGallery connect and enable ML Kit in Manage API section. Provide the SHA Key in App Information Section. Provide storage location. Download the agconnect-services.json and store it somewhere on our computer. Create a blank Ionic Project using below command:
ionic start Your_Application_Name blank --type=angular
7. Download the Cordova Ml Kit Plugin. Run the following command in the root directory of your Ionic project to install it through npm.
npm install <CORDOVA_MLKIT_PLUGIN_PATH>
8. If you want full Ionic support with code completion etc., install @ionic-native/core in your project.
npm install @ionic-native/core --save-dev
9. Run the following command to copy the “ionic/dist/hms-ml” folder from library to “node_modules/@ionic-native” folder under your Ionic project.
cp node_modules/@hmscore/cordova-plugin-hms-ml/ionic/dist/hms-ml node_modules/@ionic-native/ -r
10. Run the following command to compile the project:
ionic build
npx cap init [appName] [appId]
Where appName is the name of your app, and appId is package_name in your agconnect-services.json file (example: com.example.app).
11. Run the following command to add android platform to your project:
ionic capacitor add android
12. Make sure your project has a build.gradle file with a maven repository address and agconnect service dependencies as shown below:
13. Add the Signing certificate configuration to the build.gradle file in the app directory as show below:
14. Add plugin to the build.gradle file in the app directory as show below:
15. Add ads service implementation into to dependencies section of build.gradle file in the app directory as show below:
16. Add agconnect-services.json and signing certificate jks file to the app directory in your Android project as show below:
17. To update dependencies, and copy any web assets to your project, run the following code:
npx capacitor sync
Let’s Code
Install FileChooser
We need to install FileChooser to select a file or in this case an image, returns a file URI. Run the following command on visual studio terminal:
npm install cordova-plugin-filechooser
npm install @ionic-native/file-chooser
ionic cap sync
Android Permission
We need android permission in order to allow our users to give their permission to the application like camera permission, storage permission etc. Run the following command on visual studio terminal:
npm install cordova-plugin-android-permissions
npm install @ionic-native/android-permissions
ionic cap sync
Avoid No Provider Error
To avoid No Provider Error, we need to add FileChooser, Android Permission and HMS ML kit in app.module.ts providers section and also make sure to import the same as shown below:
Create page in Ionic
Run the following command to create page in Ionic project:
Ionic generate page page-name
Face Detection
Basically it helps us to detect the facial contour, features, and expressions of a person. It can help to detect up to 855 face contour, 7 facial features and 7 facial expression.
This service is very useful for creating beauty related application or a photo editor application.
Run application
Now we can run the application using the following command on visual studio terminal:
ionic capacitor run android
Conclusion
We learn how to integrate HMS ML Kit in Ionic Project along with that how to integrate and use one of the service provided by ML Kit and that is image related service. We got to know that image classification can be used with object detection in order to create an interesting application.
Feel free to comment, share and like the article. Also you can follow me to get awesome article like this every week. Stay tune for next part of HMS ML Kit.
For more reference | https://medium.com/huawei-developers/integration-of-ml-kit-into-ionic-application-face-related-service-part-4-9dcebb8af5b2 | ['Sanghati Mukherjee'] | 2020-10-23 06:21:05.946000+00:00 | ['Angular', 'Cross Platform', 'Ionic Framework', 'Hms', 'Huawei Mobile Service'] |
The University of Nottingham’s Sexual Misconduct Panel is Letting Rape Victims Down | University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham’s Sexual Misconduct Panel is Letting Rape Victims Down
Photo by Joanne Adela Low from Pexels
I never thought I would be writing this story, but here I am. 1 in 3 women. You see that statistic and you think: “That is horrible. I hope I don’t become a number.” You protect yourself as best as you can, walking home in pairs, keys clutched in between your fingers, memories of the music in the bar dancing through your mind. And it is still not enough. And when that moment comes, you are always utterly unprepared. Because it was not the monster in the shadows that was the threat all along. In the weeks that come next, you want to believe in a system that is meant to protect you, but that is not always the case.
I am a student at the University of Nottingham, and for the most part, I love my university to bits. Modern, mental health-focused, prestigious and encouraging with a beautiful campus. I have felt supported and looked after while at Nottingham. And when I joined the 1 in 3 women, I was ready for my university to support me the way they had before. Instead, when the Sexual Misconduct panel gave me 2 sentences. From an investigator. On a Microsoft Teams call.
To start with, I wasn’t aware the call was even going to be about the verdict. I got an email from a Conduct and Investigations Manager that simply said
“Hi Luwa do you have time to meet on teams. Regards”.
No mention that the investigation had closed, or that the meeting was important. That was why I got to hear the verdict alone without any support from my loved ones. I woke up sad, but ready to say my piece, ready to give my evidence to the investigator. Instead of a moment where I could have my voice heard, I was told flatly the investigation was over and it was ‘reasonable’ to assume I consented.
Photo by Lucas Pezeta from Pexels
This is my first complaint. Sexual misconduct is a traumatic event, and it helps to be supported afterwards. If I had known what the meeting was about, I would have then asked my friends to be with me to support me, and booked in a therapy session afterwards. A distinct feeling I got throughout the call was that since the panel had made their decision, everyone felt it was job done, time for tea now. It seemed no regards were taken as to how I would be feeling left in the dust while the system moved on to the next. I have no idea why it wouldn’t be policy to keep parties of sexual misconduct investigations informed and updated the whole way through, or at least offer the option. So, I took the call alone and received some pretty awful news, completely and utterly abandoned by the system meant to protect me.
To make matters worse, I had to chase updates throughout the process, making it confusing and stressful. Rather than simply asking me to provide relevant evidence, I was only informed that I could submit evidence, by what seems like a complete accident. After emailing for an update, the uni investigator sent a simple email:
“Hi Luwa I am currently reviewing the content of the mediation recording and seeking guidance from the sexual misconduct panel. I have also gathered social media content. Once I have an update I will contact you. Regards”.
I had to then email back asking what he meant by evidence. His reply came on the 9th of November:
“Hi Luwa if you forward any social media content that you believe would be relevant that would be helpful. Many thanks. Regards”.
I remember staring at the email in confusion for a minute or two, and thinking I was the one who asked for this investigation, why wasn’t I asked to provide my own evidence? Clearly, the other party had provided theirs and that was enough for the investigation. This was super distressing to hear and I decided to take some time to recover and send evidence later after I had finished the uni work I had to do that week.
I was given no deadline or more information than the two lines I quoted in this article. If I had known that two days later on the 11th, I would get an innocuous email about scheduling a call, I would have prioritized sending evidence over my uni work momentarily. Instead, the investigation ended without me knowing. I expected the video call with the investigator to be about the evidence I was planning to submit, instead, the video call was about a verdict received without my formal statement or extra evidence from me. I was told during the call if I wished to submit evidence, I could do so anyway and if it was relevant the investigator ‘would take another look’. I was left with the option of sending evidence after the investigation was closed, and given a couple of sentences of a verdict.
The sexual misconduct panel felt that it ‘may have been reasonable for the other party to think’ I was consenting and ‘they did not feel like that had enough evidence’ to go any further. That is okay. I am not writing this because I want to overturn that. Hearing this verdict was heartbreaking, but expected. The majority of rape cases don’t even see a day in court, let alone a guilty verdict, and that is in the legal system, let alone university investigations. It is hard for a case where things are clear cut, with a ‘perfect victim’, and I am no perfect victim. However, the way that this information was given to me was, in my opinion, inappropriate. There was no written email, or letter explaining further. In fact, there was no physical evidence of how the investigation ended at all. This allowed the other party in the case to start messaging my friends to inform them that I was ‘falsely accusing them’ and ‘spreading lies’ despite the fact I had not been. The investigation did not find out that I consented, or lied. But something in the way the news was delivered to the other party clearly was incorrect and I didn’t have any letter or proof to clear my name.
Photo by Kat Jayne from Pexels
One of the most horrifying parts of being the victim to sexual conduct is the lack of autonomy throughout it, your choices are taken away and you are made to feel powerless. Therefore, investigations to deal with these issues should go out of their way to empower victims and make sure they are comfortable. I feel that all parties in a sexual misconduct investigation should be told when the investigation starts, when statements are being taken, when evidence is being collected, and when it has finished being collected as well as being made aware of any deadlines before the investigation ends. I believe that regardless of what evidence is given in, all parties should be able to make a personal statement or given the option and given more than two days to submit evidence, especially at university where two days could be filled with lectures and work.
I believe that victims of sexual misconduct deserve better, especially from the institutions we trust. And deserve to be respected as human beings. What happened to me was horrible, and no person should have to go through it. I am so blessed to have an amazing support system I could call on during these weeks. I want to thank my friends and family for looking after me. I also want to thank the university staff who did support and encourage me, such as my sexual assault councillor and my personal tutor, who went above and beyond to help make sure this event didn’t ruin my academic year. Finally, I want to thank you! Thank you for reading this and allowing my voice and story to be finally heard. | https://aninjusticemag.com/the-university-of-nottinghams-sexual-misconduct-panel-is-letting-rape-victims-down-68a5509f78ea | ['Luwa Adebanjo'] | 2020-12-31 04:22:28.096000+00:00 | ['Rape', 'Healing From Trauma', 'Students', 'Change', 'University'] |
The Unsung Heroes of Modern Software Development | Open Source Foundation Leaders
I’ll highlight six open source foundations that are key to many important projects. For each foundation I’ll give a brief bio, provide the number of projects being supported as of early 2019, and highlight some well-known projects. Note that these groups fall under various IRS classifications for charitable and trade organizations — not all are technically foundations.
Apache Software Foundation
The Apache Software Foundation is 20 years old and is one of the largest foundations. As of early 2019 it has over 350 open source initiatives.
The ASF provides an established framework for intellectual property and financial contributions that simultaneously limits potential legal exposure for our project committers. Through the ASF’s meritocratic process known as “The Apache Way,” more than 730 individual Members and 7,000 Committers successfully collaborate to develop freely available enterprise-grade software, benefiting millions of users worldwide: thousands of software solutions are distributed under the Apache License; and the community actively participates in ASF mailing lists, mentoring initiatives, and ApacheCon, the Foundation’s official user conference, trainings, and expo.
www.apache.org
Many Apache projects are Java heavy. Popular projects include: Apache HTTP Server, Hadoop, Tomcat, and Arrow.
Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is the home of the Linux operating system and many related projects. Some of its other 100+ projects include NodeJS and RethinkDB.
The Linux Foundation supports the creation of sustainable open source ecosystems by providing financial and intellectual resources, infrastructure, services, events, and training. Working together, The Linux Foundation and its projects form the most ambitious and successful investment in the creation of shared technology.
www.linuxfoundation.org
The Linux Foundation was founded in 2000 as a merger of two other groups. It currently has over 1,000 members, including all the usual big name technology companies.
All hosted projects get governance structure and back-end resources. Some projects also get funding. The Linux Foundation also provides training and conferences.
Free Software Foundation
Launched in 1983, the Free Software Foundation maintains the projects that make up the GNU Linux ecosystem. Other popular projects include Bash, Emacs, Gawk, Make, and R.
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom. We defend the rights of all software users.
https://www.fsf.org/
The Free Software Foundation has over 5,000 members and about 400 OSS projects.
Software Freedom Conservancy
The Software Freedom Conservancy was founded in 2006. It has over 45 projects including such popular ones such as Busybox, Git, Homebrew, Inkscape, phpMYAdmin, PyPy, and Selenium.
Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit charity that helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to focus on what they do best — writing and improving FLOSS for the general public — while Conservancy takes care of the projects’ needs that do not relate directly to software development and documentation.
https://sfconservancy.org/
The Software Freedom Conservancy has over 500 sponsors, including Google and some other big names.
Software in the Public Interest
Software in the Public Interest was founded 1997. Its 39 projects include haskell, PostgrSQL, Jenkins, Arch Linux, and Debian.
Software in the Public Interest is a non-profit organization which was founded to help organizations develop and distribute open hardware and software. Our mission is to help genuine, substantial, and significant free and open source software projects by handling their non-technical administrative tasks so that they aren’t required to operate their own legal entity.
https://www.spi-inc.org/
Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation is the new kid on the block. Founded in 2015, it supports open source projects around Kubernetes containerized cloud microservices.
CNCF is an open source software foundation dedicated to making cloud native computing universal and sustainable. Cloud native computing uses an open source software stack to deploy applications as microservices, packaging each part into its own container, and dynamically orchestrating those containers to optimize resource utilization. Cloud native technologies enable software developers to build great products faster.
www.cncf.io
CNCF members include a who’s who of tech: AWS, AlibabCloud, Dell, Intel, Oracle, Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, and Google Cloud.
As of early 2019, 4 projects have graduated and 16 are incubating. Popular associated projects include Kubernetes, which has graduated from CNCF.
Interestingly, CNCF is supported by the Linux Foundation.
NumFOCUS
NumFOCUS is the home of many popular data science open source projects. It was founded in 2012 and its 25 popular projects include NumPy, Matplotlib, Pandas, Jupyter, Julia, and Bokeh. NumFOCUS also promote many other open source projects as affiliated projects.
NumFOCUS offers many programs in support of our mission to promote sustainable high-level programming languages, open code development, and reproducible scientific research.
https://numfocus.org/
NumFOCUS holds PyData conferences throughout the world. Disclosure: I’ve volunteered at PyData DC and had great time. I highly recommend volunteering! 😃 | https://towardsdatascience.com/the-unsung-heroes-of-modern-software-development-561fc4cb6850 | ['Jeff Hale'] | 2019-12-13 16:42:53.051000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Software Development', 'Open Source', 'Data Science', 'Programm'] |
CSS Trends: Neumorphism | Examples of neumorphism from JustInMind
2020 was a good year… wait, wait, hear me out. 2020 was a good year for UI design. While the planet was burning, and society was consumed by a pandemic, the internet got sleek. From the deep box-shadow retro look, to scroll-based animations, to gradient text color and the return of glassmorphism, it’s hard to find a 2020 design trend that doesn’t stick the landing.
One of my favorite trends, though, is Neumorphism. It’s subtle. It’s sleek. It’s unfortunately not very accessible, but I digress! While the trend may face a few challenges to widespread adoption, it definitely has its place, and it’s so deceptively easy to achieve, it’s hard for a beginner to pass up.
What It Is
Neumorphism, also called “Soft UI,” is a design technique that involves using CSS box-shadows (plural) to lend buttons, cards, and containers (and everything else) a sense both of depth and of continuity. I have described it to friends as the “ghost-pushing-through-the-wall latex effect.”
Work by Filip Legierski
The concept got its name from a predecessor: Skeuomorphism. Skeuomorphism is a design concept that entails decorating derivative objects with design cues related to their originals. Think light bulbs shaped like candle flames. In UI design, it involved making UI elements look like their physical counterparts. This is still a popular trend in audio plugins for music creation which are designed to look like the physical hardware (e.g., preamps and effect pedals) they emulate, with control knobs and light indicators, etc.
A Skeuomorphic UI for the GEARcompressor Audio Plugin
A more relatable example might be Apple’s old Calendar app — really, anything Apple, pre-2010 — which was designed to look like a paper desk calendar.
Skeumorphism was popular as a way to ease users’ transitions to digital tools by making them as similar as possible to the objects they replace. However, the trend was soon supplanted by the sleek minimalism of flat design. Neumorphism is essentially an amalgamation of these two design concepts, a sort of minimalist emulation. Half physical. Half digital. Only nearly three-dimensional.
How It Works
Neumorphism is, as I mentioned before, deceptively simple. It only takes a line or two of CSS using the box-shadow property, a stable feature long available to every browser (with some inevitable Internet Explorer caveats).
Box-shadow traditionally added some shading around elements that made them appear to hover above their respective backgrounds.
The main feature of neumorphic design is a second, lighter-colored box-shadow to provide the illusion of a highlight. This creates the illusion that element is raised but not separate.
In addition to the second box-shadow, one of the main features, and also one of the main constraints of Neumorphism is a monochromatic color scheme, at least where backgrounds and shadows are concerned. The raised foreground element and the background have to share a background-color property. The only cues to the separation are the box-shadows and possibly a linear gradient for the foreground element.
To achieve a convincing effect, it’s important that our hues blend. Generally, the effect works best with soft and pastel colors for your background. We’ll then need something just a few shades darker for our shadow (box-shadow #1) and something just a few shades lighter for our highlight (box-shadow #2). This is another constraint on neumorphism: black and white won’t work for shadows or backgrounds. For backgrounds, colors near the extreme ends of the shade/tint spectrum don’t give you anywhere to go for your shadow or highlight respectively. For shadows and highlights, black and white provide too much contrast.
Accessibility Issues
This concept of “too much contrast” I mentioned above is a perfect entry point for talking about neumorphism’s downfall: accessibility for people with visual impairments. It is a concept defined by its lack of contrast: blue elements on blue backgrounds with dark blue shadows and light blue highlights.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines released by W3C have clear and specific standards regarding contrast. Unfortunately, a lot of neumorphic designs are likely to fly in the face of WCAG criteria.
Contrast aside, there are other criticisms regarding the lack of textual labels and visual hierarchy. There’s a great article from UX Collective addressing some of the accessibility concerns.
Conclusion
I opened by saying how much I love neumorphism. Neumorphism is visually, aesthetically stunning. Unfortunately, the benefits stop there. Given the accessibility issues and the lack of compensatory benefit, neumorphism will have to undergo some changes if it is to have any staying power. However, accessibility is possible. As the concept matures, neumorphic designers are sure to find ways to meet WCAG criteria, at which point we can all enjoy the view together.
Resources:
MDN Docs for box-shadow
Neumorphism- The hottest design trend in 2020 by yashant gyawali
Neumorphism: why it’s all the hype in UI design | https://medium.com/@devdaveframe/css-trends-neumorphism-6d0ea0bf1abc | ['Dave Frame'] | 2020-12-20 22:24:51.363000+00:00 | ['UI Design', 'Web Development', 'Neumorphism', 'CSS'] |
The Outstanding Music of The Outer Worlds | Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds is one of the best games released in the last year. It pairs peerless role-playing game design with audiovisual excellence. It draws on the studio’s experience as a legendary development team in the genre, and reinvents elements of classic games like Fallout, Mass Effect, and BioShock while also having its own funky tone. It’s a well-written, dense, feature-rich RPG adventure that has the epic feel of a massive open world game paired with a more reasonable, easily-finished size.
In addition to exceptional Unreal Engine-powered visuals, the game features a rousing, brilliant soundtrack composed by Justin E. Bell. It is the final ingredient that takes the game from “great” to “ highest tier.” The music is filled to the brim with thrilling majesty, and right from the title screen, it makes you feel like you’re in for a once-in-a-lifetime space adventure. I’ve been replaying the game for a second time this week, and the music is just as excellent on repeat listen as it is for newcomers.
The title screen music is also the title theme of the game, called “Hope.” It’s nearly eight minutes of gorgeous scene-setting sonic delight. It delves deep into the catalog of live orchestra instruments beyond genre-typical horns and strings all the way to the contra-bass flute, and enchants players with a few different takes on the game’s ear-worm main theme. It’s likable from moment one, and perfectly captures the balance of melancholy, earnestness, and old-school sci-fi action that the game contains.
There’s no other way to describe this piece than special. It accomplishes more thematically with its wide range of instruments, dynamics, and emotional oomph than most games do in their first hour. I’ve been humming this theme to myself off-and-on at random since the game first launched in October.
Fortunately, the rest of the soundtrack delivers on the promise of its opening, carefully weaving between “delightful background accompaniment” and the same rousing thrills as the opening theme, while exploring different genres and instrumentation. The soundtrack gets in your face when it needs to emphasize a cinematic moment, such as in “Phineas Escapes,” and also knows how to build effective environmental flavor during player exploration, like in the opening town theme “Edgewater.”
I love the guitar licks that punch through during this song. They give the opening town a little of that classic “Space Western” vibe, while also evoking the haunting and legendary guitar from Matt Uelmen’s famous Diablo soundtrack. This is a pretty great trick. Bell manages to evoke the father of action RPGs and TV’s Firefly all at once, while also doing his own thing that stays true to the feel of this quirky space opera.
One of the the many smart sonic decisions in The Outer Worlds is to occasionally remind players of the opening “Hope” theme, both by weaving strains of it into other tracks, and by using a small chunk of it as the “level up” sound. Each time your character earns new skill points, you’ll hear a little of that iconic music again, and instantly rush back to the excitement of hearing the title screen for the first time.
The game has enough unique music tracks in it that it’s your constant reassuring companion, gently nudging your imagination into thinking the game is larger than it really is. That illusion is helped by fun micro-scale musical details. For example, the game features several different large corporations, and each one has their own diegetic theme music you might hear in a shop, on an elevator, or from a vending machine. It’s awesome that they went this extra mile to sell the completeness of the audio world. | https://xander51.medium.com/the-outstanding-music-of-the-outer-worlds-ada47c7a2d14 | ['Alex Rowe'] | 2020-03-06 21:49:28.300000+00:00 | ['Gaming', 'Game Design', 'Videogames', 'Audio', 'Music'] |
How to Be More Creative | How to Improve One of the Most Employable Skills
Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash
Creativity Can Be Learned
I used to think creativity was about being good at art, and being able to do a really good job on a project for school. I also thought that some teachers were creative and able to plan the most exciting lessons and decorate the best classrooms while other educators just did not care to be creative.
Playing games, visualizing, brainstorming, developing a mantra, taking risks, observing others, and ultimately celebrating the ways that you are already creative are ways to strengthen this character strength.
Today I am realizing that creativity includes so much more than I originally thought. Creativity incorporates everything from strategies to cook new dinners to teaching kids to stretch their minds about different ways that regular household items can be used.
Play the Creativity Game
One of my favorite games to play with my kids is the creativity game. We take an object nearby and go back and forth thinking of things that the item could be used for. It stretches thinking and makes the time enjoyable. We have an ongoing game during dinner where we keep track of creativity points. It is boys versus girls. We take an object and for two minutes come up with as many creative uses as possible. The other team has to verify that the list is reasonable. Last night the items were a sandwich size plastic bag and a sock.
Creativity includes depth of thinking and risk-taking.
Visualize the Best Case Scenario
Begin with the end in mind. Imagine the best thing that could happen. Now, get excited about that “Best Thing”. Visualize what it feels like, looks like, sounds like and any other of the senses that provide details to the height of possibility.
Visualizing gives us perspective and new ideas of how to be creative.
Everything is Figuroutable
One of my favorite quotes is, “Everything is figuroutable”. Marie Forleo’s book, Everything Is Figuroutable has given me a mantra to change my perspective on what is possible. Yesterday, my daughter wanted to go as a character from the Harry Potter Series, and with an hour before the Halloween activities at her school, I had to figure out how to tie a tie. As I got frustrated and realized that I had no idea what I was doing after watching two different youtube videos, I kept hearing the phrase, “Everything is figuroutable” in my head. I believed that there was a way to figure it out.
Determined, I found new videos, and after what was probably 20 minutes, I figured it out.
Brainstorm Many Possibilities
Even when you know how to tackle a situation or solve a problem, requiring yourself to think of other options will stretch your thinking. Sometimes it is fun to experiment with a less popular option. If the stakes are not that high it is okay to see what happens if you try one of the choices farther down the list.
Do Things You Have Never Done Before
I make it a habit of writing every day. This practice has made me more creative over time, but recently after reading several of the Haikus amazing writers have crafted, I decided to stretch my creativity and try one. Writing poetry is something I have only started doing in the last few weeks.
Writing a Haiku that not only included the correct number of syllables but one that also made sense and even had the element of rhythm and beauty seemed near impossible at one point.
After a little research, I looked up the format to remind myself of the structure as well as found a fantastic syllable counter online. Writing my first Haiku got a lot easier.
The more Haikus I read the more I enjoyed my newfound creativity as a writer. I got encouraging feedback and even learned a lot about writing as I read the author notes that Tapan Avasthi ⛄️ ended his poetry with.
Looking at an established poet’s work gave me great enthusiasm to write more.
Observe Creative People
Find creative people. Notice people who demonstrate the trait that you are looking to improve in yourself. When I put away my phone and pause to observe people around me, I can learn a lot. I am inspired, engaged and am provided with free resources.
I might notice everything from how someone keeps busy waiting in the lobby at the hockey rink, to how a mom manages her four young kids in the grocery store.
The little things that people do, the behaviors and the patterns can be observed provide interesting insight and might even help make life more productive. I also enjoy looking at other people’s resources. Some people have carefully packed bags that organize materials in the most amazingly. Other people are reading or utilizing resources that might be useful in the areas I am looking to learn more about.
Recognize the Ways that You are Creative
Everyone is creative. Creativity does not look the same for everyone, but everyone has a gift and ability to think differently about something. Focusing on strengths leads to confidence.
Every area of life includes creativity.
Kids who play video games are incredibly creative when they are deciding how to master a level. People who volunteer use creative skills as they decide how to best serve large groups of people, and provide resources that matter for a reasonable cost. And looking at a busy holiday schedule, trying to decide where we will go and when is related to our ability to be creative and think differently.
Ultimately we are already creative, but like anything the more we work at it the stronger the trait becomes. Looking at creativity with a growth mindset allows us to see potential. Working on being more creative will help us in all areas of life. | https://medium.com/med-daily/how-to-be-more-creative-9f5d8d82c20f | ['Laura Mcdonell'] | 2019-11-03 11:56:40.702000+00:00 | ['Parenting', 'Self Improvement', 'Haiku', 'Creativity', 'Education'] |
A Letter to Rain | First, I long for you,
And you make me wait.
Slowly, I feel, you’re finally here to quench my thirst.
You drop a hint,
I can smell a whiff of your tantalizing perfume,
the fresh scent of the moist earth.
Then you hover over me,
Showing off your puffy grey and black dress,
the clouds.
Your drizzles embrace me very slowly,
First my hair, my lashes, my nose to my lips,
Then trickling down my neck gently to my bosom, and down my body.
From my shoulders to my arms, to the very tips of my fingers,
Tingling the tiny pores of my skin.
I want more.
Now your raindrops get bigger,
They lightly fall and graze my body
But my happiness gets bigger too.
I’m euphoric, like a child,
Jumping in puddles, so wild, so wild.
I shriek with joy!
You intensify.
Your pebble-like raindrops hurt me.
But I don’t want to go yet.
I stop my shrieking at once,
and look around me.
People are already conscious of you and your outburst,
and trying to hide their dull faces under umbrellas and buildings and things,
frantically prancing around everywhere.
Some are staring into some void,
Some are anxious, cursing your arrival
Only little kids, like me, are enjoying every drop of you, to the fullest.
Drenched completely to the very core of my body,
I think of you.
How you first make me sensual,
Making me wait long,
Then you make me childish,
As I whee and splash,
Then as you fall harder,
You make me realize things about you I never thought I’d think of,
Of how you make me so elated,
And others so anxious and blue.
How you are desperately needed and waited for,
By me, by lovers, by farmers, by rivers,
And how you are such an annoyance
to people who need to get somewhere.
You are like life,
Harsh and annoying,
But when I stand and tell you to drench me, falling harder and harder,
You make me blissful
I stop to dance, sing, feel,
pausing the rest of my life when you’re there.
You’re a lover, a mother, a harbinger,
That this lonely blue planet supporting life in the vast cosmicity
Will be full of love, joy, life, and pain,
Earth will be blue
And everything will be alright
As long as you lash down,
As long as you are loved and you exist.
~Ramona Singh
Here’s the link to my other profiles:
https://poetrybyramona.blogspot.com
https://www.yourquote.in/ramona-singh-bvfs2/quotes | https://medium.com/@poetrybyramona/a-letter-to-rain-2dd98a6710b2 | ['Ramona Singh'] | 2020-12-08 15:56:05.998000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Rain', 'Poem', 'Letters', 'Poetry On Medium'] |
Holiday/Pandemic Fuel | I post a lot (too much 🙄) about my email newsletter, but that’s only because I’m having a great time writing it, and love that people seem to be into it.
If you haven’t already subscribed, and are looking for a steady source of content to fill the void that is December 2020, I invite you to sign up! It’s free to get one issue/week, or (through the end of the year) just $18 for a full year of three issues/week. 🤯
You never shut up about it, but what does the newsletter cover?
I generally share a featured post from this site, along with links, tweets and videos about (for the most part) technology, entertainment, politics, ‘80s/’90s nostalgia and American evangelical heartbreak.
What’s in each of the three weekly issues?
The Sunday and Wednesday issues have different content but follow the same format (usually with a newer featured blog post on Sunday and one from the archives on Wednesday), and the Friday issue (called “Weekend Watches”) provides viewing recommendations. 📺
People are also saying that subscribers are more respected by their friends, more feared by their enemies and last longer in bed. 🤷
Alright, I’m convinced, where do I sign up?
👉 Right here, sweet friend. | https://medium.com/@kyleford/holiday-pandemic-fuel-951121dacbdb | ['Kyle Ford'] | 2020-12-14 16:45:48.572000+00:00 | ['News', 'Technology', 'Politics', 'Recommendations', 'Nostalgia'] |
The Memories | The Memories
Photo by Shiv Prasad on Unsplash
quiet like the Ganges
waiting to be awakened
by the first rays of the sun.
dreamy like those flowers
near the river bank waiting to be stirred
by the chime of temple bells.
that sleepy morning when I took the walk
and stole the colours from the sky.
those memories sometime quietly smile. | https://medium.com/spiritual-secrets/the-memories-70a0293b0d8e | ['Priyanka Srivastava'] | 2020-10-04 06:03:07.349000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Travel', 'Poetry', 'India', 'Spiritual Secrets'] |
Red Flags in Polyamorous Dating | Photo by Mirko Toller
Any one of us could likely sit down and make a long list of red flags we’ve experienced in dating. As a polyamorous woman, there are a whole new set of warning signs to pay attention to when I’m getting to know a new potential partner.
Primary Relationships
You can practice polyamory in a million different ways, so when I’m getting to know a potential new partner, I always talk to them about what their polyamory looks like. An arrangement I come across often is people who have a “primary partner,” usually the person they live with, are married to, or have children with, and then date other people outside of that, sometimes called “secondary partners.”
I can’t even count the number of times someone has told me something along the lines of “Well, we were to the point of getting a divorce or seeing other people, so we are poly now.” Being polyamorous should be an intentional decision, not something that happens because you are lonely and your relationship is failing. I have sympathy for people who reach that point in a marriage or committed relationship- I’ve been there. Things were really bad, but I waited until I was single to do any exploring outside my marriage.
Anyone who asks me if I am able to “be discreet” is immediately suspect. This doesn’t just apply to polyamorous dating, but it seems to come up a lot, probably because of misconceptions about what open relationships mean.
“Discreet” is often code for cheating, and even when it’s not it can signify a “don’t ask, don’t tell” arrangement. I acknowledge that the DADT arrangement works for some folks, but for me it’s too high risk. Even when it’s not an excuse given by someone who is actually cheating, that type of arrangement is often borne out of unhealthy relationship patterns. Maybe their partner is insecure about being open, or maybe they’ve been given an ultimatum that it’s either open up or break up, and they agreed under duress. Whatever the reason, there’s just no way for me to know that I’m not participating in hurting someone very badly.
Any implication that there is no cheating in polyamory or that poly makes it impossible to cheat gives me a bad feeling as well. I won’t help someone cheat on an unknowing partner, and these attitudes seem to lead down that path. I prefer arrangements where even if I don’t spend time with or get to know their partner, I have the ability to check in and confirm the relationship status with that person.
Certain conversational patterns also give me pause. Anyone who comes into the conversation immediately telling me private details about having problems with their partner, especially sexual problems, gets a bit of scrutiny. I’ve found that the meaning behind that is often “We’re doing this to try to stay together without addressing the issues that we have with each other.”
Dating Couples
In some ways, dating couples can be twice the fun! Involving 3 people in a relationship also adds dimensions and considerations that aren’t there when you’re part of a couple. Anyone who’s done any talking or reading about polyamory knows that we all say the same thing- communication is the key to success!
The upside is that I generally communicate pretty heavily with someone to explore needs and desires before I ever enter a physical relationship with them. During that getting-to-know-you period, if I hear anything implying that the person’s other partner must be drunk to engage in a threesome with their partner, I get pretty uncomfortable. Anything that signifies that someone has agreed to an open relationship under duress or ultimatum is a sign to me that I don’t want to get involved.
Polyamorous couples have different ideas about how to manage rules and boundaries within their relationships. Sometimes, these rules can act as a big red flag. Requiring a secondary/new partner to be romantically or sexually involved with both people or break up entirely is a big show-stopper for me. If I hit it off with both people, great. I’m not okay with my relationships being contingent on having attraction to the person’s other partner, though. Rules like this put in place to “protect the couple” serve to make a new partner coming in feel like an unimportant outsider.
Hierarchy Expectations
When I first met my boyfriend, he told me that he didn’t really believe in the concept of hierarchical polyamory. He didn’t like the terms primary and secondary partner, mostly because there is an underlying implication that the primary partner is more important, and he believes that all the participants are important.
I agree in theory, but realistically, when you start to throw cohabitation and shared responsibility and children into the mix, a certain degree of hierarchy is inherent. For example, if my boyfriend, who I live and parent with, were out on a date and one of our sons broke his arm, I would absolutely call him and he would almost certainly end the date early. Our commitment to our kids comes before almost anything else.
Even for people who choose a hierarchical model for their polyamorous relationships, red flags can come up. For example, it doesn’t sit well with me if a couple expects a secondary to adapt to all their rules, preferences, and habits without letting that person have a voice in how the relationship goes. Even if someone agrees to be labeled as a secondary partner, they still deserve consideration, decency, and respect.
Communication
I’ve said it once, and I’ll probably say it 100 more times: good, honest communication is paramount to having a healthy polyamorous relationship. When someone seems unwilling or unable to communicate, when conversations about needs and wants feel like pulling teeth, that’s a huge warning sign for me that they may not be able to have harder conversations later on.
Early conversations where communication stumbles can lead to later ones where someone is angry about rules or boundaries that were never effectively communicated. I can’t try not to cross a line you never showed me, and I’ve found that people who communicate effectively about everyday things seem more able to communicate effectively about the big deal things.
Too much communication can be it’s own kind of red flag. If someone has a rule that everything I say, everything we do, or every conversation we have will be shared with their other partner(s), that makes me uneasy. It’s not about keeping secrets, but intimacy requires trust, and knowing someone is relaying every sentence, email, or text message doesn’t make me feel like I’m trusted.
Sex
Anyone who pushes for sex before I’m comfortable is shooting themselves in the foot. This isn’t just about polyamory, but every potential sexual relationship. Every time it gets brought up after I’ve said I wasn’t ready to talk about it pushes out the potential for it happening even further. People, especially those unfamiliar with polyamory, often make the assumption that being in an open relationship means I’m willing to jump into bed. That’s just not the case.
Potential partners who ascribe to an OPP (one penis policy/one pussy policy) by the other partners demand, or who demand that of their partner, also give me pause. It means they are okay with their partner being polyamorous, but only with members of the same sex, which is questionable at best. By saying “you can have sex with other people, but no other people with penises,” you’re taking away that person’s right to decide who they are with. I don’t think it’s fair to limit a partner’s choices based on other people’s genitals, and I’m not even going to get started on the gender conformity implications this brings up.
In the department of things that won’t halt a conversation, but that get added to a mental checklist labeled ‘questionable’ are repeated comments or jokes about exchanging things for sex/physical affection. If it happens once, sometimes it’s just a failed attempt at being funny. If the tone is wrong or it happens repeatedly, it makes me start to think that the person is “joking not joking” and their words are telling me something about how they think.
Making Comparisons
In the healthy polyamorous relationships I’ve been in, things always go best when we focus on everyone’s needs being met. We grow up with the concept of equality and fairness, and a lot of people have a really hard time getting their mind around the idea that this doesn’t mean an equal percentage split.
My boyfriend dated a woman who was prone to comparing time- she would get unhappy because I spent more hours in a week with him than she did. Hearing something like “Well you had private time with them for 43 minutes, but we only got 39 minutes of private time that night” is a real bummer. I prefer to focus on quality over quantity. In good relationships, everyone should be having their needs met, but that doesn’t mean you need a stopwatch to validate your worth.
Holier than Thou Personality Traits
I don’t ascribe to the idea that polyamorous people are enlightened or more evolved than anyone else. I believe that relationships exist on a spectrum, from not having any romantic relationships, to monogamy, to swinging, to being fully open, to relationship anarchy. When I hear a potential partner insist that all humans are naturally non-monogamous and sexual beings, that puts me on high alert.
When my kids were little, we taught them about “not yucking other people’s yums” and I think it’s wise to carry that concept into adulthood. I don’t ever want to be monogamous again, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for millions of other people. I’m not better than anyone else because I have the emotional capacity to be romantic with more than one person at a time. That’s reductionist and insulting to people who are devoted to one partner and work really hard to make those relationships work.
Anyone who thinks being polyamorous automatically means being more open minded or better at communicating brings up the same kinds of feelings in me. Choosing to be in a specific type of relationship doesn’t automatically make you wise. People can be very open about one thing and very closed about other things. You don’t get good at communicating with people just by declaring that you’re polyamorous, it’s something you have to pay attention to and work at.
If you practice polyamory, what red flags have you come across in your journey?
More about polyamory and dating while polyamorous: | https://medium.com/polyamory-today/red-flags-in-polyamorous-dating-3387ae009fb0 | ['Rachael Hope'] | 2019-04-29 17:43:03.105000+00:00 | ['Relationships Love Dating', 'Relationships', 'Polyamory', 'Culture', 'Dating'] |
Leadership Challenge: Be the Chief Listening Officer | The challenge this week is listening. I think about listening, maybe more than most people. As I’ve mentioned before, it isn’t my best thing. I respect and envy you if it’s your best thing. I’m better, much better, at it than I used to be, but I still have to remind myself to listen sometimes.
I’m one of those people whose brain whirs around all the time. I’m good at brainstorming and generating ideas. I’ll be the first to say my ideas aren’t always good ones, but often they’re pretty decent. I used to be that person who could barely wait for the speaker to stop speaking so I could tell my idea. Problem is, it’s very difficult to listen and speak at the same time. And it’s rude.
I worked on it. I’d love to say I found a magic trick to make me a patient listener. I didn’t. I had to repeatedly tell myself, “don’t inhale and open your mouth like you’re about to speak” or “don’t lean in and get the look on your face that says “hurry up” to the person talking”. I learned to plant an interested look on my face and make eye contact, even if I was thinking about my next comments. Eventually, I realized I was thinking less about what I wanted to say and more about what they were saying. I was listening!
More recently…the past couple of years…I take notes during meetings or when someone is talking about a problem or reviewing their ongoing work. I find it helps me focus and remember. It also demonstrates I’m present in the moment and not daydreaming.
THIS WEEK’S LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE: LISTEN BETTER.
Try any of these:
If you’re meeting with someone to review ongoing work or to help them solve a problem, take notes while they talk. Ask three or more questions to ensure you understand what you’re hearing.
Set up a couple of opportunities to listen. Ask someone to tell you about the project they’re working on. While they talk, make sure you make eye contact and have a patient and open look on your face.
After you’ve been in a conversation with a couple of other people, write down several main points and details you heard. Were you listening?
Sometimes excellent leadership involves giving direction and active decision making. Other times, excellent leadership is quiet and supportive. You are listening. You are present. It may be all someone needs. | https://medium.com/publishous/leadership-challenge-be-the-chief-listening-officer-fead0c4fdeeb | ['Donna Goodaker'] | 2019-04-09 14:16:28.313000+00:00 | ['Leadership Development', 'Productivity', 'Leaders', 'Listening', 'Leadership'] |
Do Not Unite the Nation, Mr. Biden | President-Elect Joe Biden has repeatedly spoken about his desire to unite the nation. What does it even mean? And why would it be a good thing to achieve?
The nation is, admittedly, divided. Urban and rural, pro-mainstream-journalism and anti, rich and poor. The two major political parties identify these rifts and capitalize on them, trying to find wedge issues to pull people into their party. The Republicans have claimed Evangelicals, much of the business establishment, racists, poor and uneducated white people, among others. The Democrats have the atheists, much of tech and Wall Street, anti-racist activists, the highly educated.
The division in the country along political party lines was emphasized in the election — and the weeks since, while one party accepts the results of a free and fair election and the other claims the election was fraudulent, while themselves engaging in fraudulent activity.
So what would it mean to unite the country? Is the idea that there are ideas out there, political ideas, that everyone can agree with? That if we find those ideas and work together on them, we can finally have Better Things? What, exactly, are those ideas?
After eight years serving in the Obama White House, Biden still believes that there could be some agenda that is so clearly good for everyone that Republicans won’t stonewall it. His belief assumes that Republican lawmakers — lawmakers in general, really — give a shit about improving the nation. Despite their lip service, they do not. They care about getting re-elected (as well as getting richer).
For Republican lawmakers, working across the aisle is a losing bet. They must fight against any effort from the left, framing it as communist or socialist or a conspiracy or whatever, even if it is a policy they themselves proposed in the past. How many years of observing this mechanism will it take for Joe Biden to stop trying to compromise?
For multiple reasons, bipartisan collaboration is not possible in the current political situation. Mr. Biden can want it to be, but he can’t change the tide.
Then: is bipartisanship good? Why would we even want to unite the country? If uniting the country means finding things “everyone” can agree on (whatever percentage of people you define as “everyone”), and such naturally bipartisan ideas don’t exist, what then?
Then sides must conform to whichever side is the least flexible, which in this case is Mitch McConnell and the Republicans. Like the ACA, when Democrats tempered the program to appeal, ultimately unsuccessfully, to the right, Democratic proposals will be watered down, neutralized, and made unrecognizable to progressives. All in order to get cooperation from a group who will not cooperate.
We didn’t elect Joe Biden to unite the nation. Our nation has almost never — and if I were a historian, perhaps I could argue never never — been united. Joe Biden should do what his supporters elected him to do: roll back what Trump did, and advance a progressive agenda. Ruthlessly and without compromise. | https://medium.com/@roscoebaker/do-not-unite-the-nation-mr-biden-cacdb0d56806 | ['Roscoe Baker'] | 2020-12-15 15:21:46.200000+00:00 | ['Joe Biden', 'Biden', 'Democrats', 'Trump', 'Politics'] |
Second Acts | Recently I had an outdoor dinner on a chilly night in Manhattan with my nineteen year old daughter and two of my successful female friends. Bundled in winter coats, we warmed our hands by the heaters above us and I sat quietly for a moment observing the conversation across the table. The admiration I have for these women and the appreciation I have for them acting as role models for my daughters, gives me faith that my girls will fulfill the career goals I set out to accomplish but haven’t…. yet.
Having three daughters has fueled my interest in women supporting one another rather than creating competition. What makes me view myself as a feminist is the fact that when I see women achieving great things my chest puffs. To me, feminism is having pride in other women’s achievements and understanding that those accomplishments pave the path for my daughters. My girls don’t make decisions thinking there are limits to what they can achieve, but as I look back on my own life, I can’t say the same. Perhaps this was only my perception, but my inner voice whispered mixed messages. Yes, I had a career, but not too much of a career because somewhere during my only romantic relationship, it was instilled in me that pursuing a career would sacrifice the needs of my family for a “selfish” endeavor. Many women have created a balanced life, but I never found that harmony. I searched for it, yearned for it, dreamed about it, and wondered why I couldn’t figure it out. My role as a parent has always been my priority, but I was alone in that role, which explains the swift bump to my career and passions. I’ve realized that pursuing my purpose is vital to my happiness and while we all need purpose, it’s defined by each of us individually. For some, staying home and raising children completes that purpose, but for me there was always something missing.
As my marriage frayed, I searched for answers about many things in my life, including my inability to manage a career while parenting. After much contemplation,(that’s code for therapy) it became apparent that the dynamics of my marriage made it impossible for me to be a “good” parent and wife while building a career. When working, I was criticized for not being an attentive mother, shirking my responsibilities to the family, yet when home with the kids I was ridiculed for not understanding what it was like to work hard, thus I was labeled spoiled. It messed me up. It did. For many years I’ve struggled with feeling unfulfilled, partly because I could not find a way to find purpose as an individual while raising my three daughters, but I do believe it is never too late to pursue dreams.
Throughout the years I’ve observed families with a beautiful partnership. A true balance. When you fall short I will step in. Where you excel I will step back and let you shine. When you lack the strength I will be your rock. I did what I needed to do to keep my family together but it was at the expense of being the role model I hoped to be for my daughters. Why do we feel that we have to give up so much of ourselves to be seen as a good mother? I know I’m not alone in feeling this. For me it was the lack of a partnership in my marriage. Slowly, I began breaking out of the marital expectations and as my children grew, so did my aspirations. I watched from the sidelines as many of my friends built their careers and family’s simultaneously, but somewhere in my heart I knew my growth would injure my marriage. I eeked my way slowly towards my dreams and while there were many other more serious factors which led to the demise of my marriage, one of the factors was certainly choosing to parent my daughters in a way I never had. I was finally demonstrating that stepping forward for yourself is just as important as giving to others.
Accomplished women can be threatening to some men, and sadly, they feel smaller as their significant other rises to their full potential. But there are also men that relish in the success of the women in their life. Look at RBG. Martin Ginsburg pushed his wife into the arena and championed her career. Educating my daughters to recognize their own needs, wants, dreams and desires has risen to a top priority. I guide them to find passions that make them feel smart, capable and accomplished. I believe that working outside the home provides purpose and meaning as an individual and can come in the form of volunteer work, consulting, or even a small passion project. Yes, having children and raising them is one of the most selfless and meaningful endeavors, and it’s a massive part of my identity, but perhaps to a fault. My stunted personal growth was something that gnawed at me. I now understand that the career I desired was not possible given the dynamics of my marriage. Today,I’m working towards a second act and although my novel has been untouched for the past year, my blog inches me towards my dream of becoming a published author. I finally have the bandwidth and brainpower to apply towards something other than legal meetings and responding to endless motions in a courtroom. The attacks have ceased and things are starting to align. I publish my blog every Tuesday, consult as an interior designer, and feel as though I’m making smart decisions that serve my self growth unlike my past. I will continue on my path to fulfill my own purpose, but if nothing else, I have modeled for my daughters that fulfilling oneself is equally, if not more important than filling others. | https://medium.com/@leslieabner/second-acts-1d8cd8d65195 | ['Leslie Abner'] | 2020-12-22 18:46:09.208000+00:00 | ['Parenting', 'Marriage', 'Women', 'Careers', 'Divorce'] |
Featured Attorney: David Kasell | Intro
David Kasell is a consumer protection and lemon law attorney in Queens, New York and was admitted to the bar in 1996. He went straight away to work at a law firm doing collect work but did not enjoy the work and decided to leave in order to become a stockbroker in the securities industry. After a number of years in the securities industry, Mr. Kasell decided to combine his two talents and went to work for a law firm doing work in securities arbitration. He represented mostly consumers and sprinkled in a few brokers before he left to work for another firm that practiced securities arbitration and Lemon Law. One day, early on in his time at the firm, he was told to write an appeal for a lemon law case and was told, “Don’t worry, you’re going to lose the appeal. We won’t hold it against you, but do what you can.” Mr. Kasell not only won the appeal, but received a sizable recovery for his client and for his firm. Not surprisingly, after a few years David was in charge of the lemon law casework at the firm. After his experience and inclination towards defending consumers, he started his own practice in lemon law, truth in lending, consumer protection, and securities arbitration.
What Sets David Kasell Apart
David Kasell is a rare breed of lawyer, because not a lot of firms do what his firm does. Not only that, but most firms will take on these types of cases on a contingency basis. This can become a problem for the client because the length of these cases can get extremely long, and can end up in a sizable portion of the recovery being lost due to legal fees. Mr. Kasell’s firm takes a fee up front and works on the case regardless of how long it takes to reach the outcome. Mr. Kasell has learned to get his fee from dealerships he helps clients recover from, not from the clients themselves. This means his clients get to keep their money, and the dealer that committed the wrongdoing has to pay up instead! Bravo, Mr. Kasell.
The Hardest Part of Starting a Solo Practice
David says that hardest part of starting your own law practice is the decision to actually do it. It can be daunting to venture out on your own, but David received a lot of encouraging words from friends and family, and has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. He also finds that the most common misconception people have when they are on the poor end of a deal is that they have no recourse. This is far from the truth. There are a multitude of laws which exist to protect consumers, and inherently, a lot of deals do go poorly. Most times, people coming to David don’t even know what sort of problem they are having, they just know they are fed up of having to deal with the dealerships they are fighting with. It is David’s mission to determine which course of action to take and to help his clients level the playing field with dealerships involved in bad deals.
Website Presence
David wrote all of the content for his website himself, and has help managing his web presence via a marketing company. He is involved on a day to day basis with the new content and its production/optimization. His blog is really interesting and has great insights on buying cars from dealerships! Most of David’s new clients come by way of his website, due to the powerful online presence and reputation the firm holds. His interest in his profession is seemingly unparalleled, and he is always interested in finding relevant topics to share with his viewers so that they can be educated on the problems they might face.
Answering Legal
David depends on Answering Legal to answer the calls that he can not, because his level of customer service is so high. Not only that, David spends a lot of time in court, meeting with clients, and delving into the filings he needs to get done. Answering Legal is his 24/7 support staff throughout the day and night! David even had a call while we were on the phone together, and didn’t have to answer, and neither of us acknowledged. (We both know the legal intake receptionists are more than capable of handling it.)
David’s Hobbies
Outside of being an attorney, David is an avid New York Rangers fan, and a loving father to his 8 year old son. Although we are both skeptical about the Rangers’ decision to release Brassard, we are sure the Rangers will have another great year!
David is an excellent attorney, a wise man, a loving father, and a great businessman. That is why David is this week’s Answering Legal Featured Attorney!
Happy Hunting!
P: 631–686–9700
answeringlegal.com
facebook.com/answeringlegalinc
twitter.com/answeringlegal
linkedin: Answering Legal, Inc.
instagram: @answeringlegal
Nick Werker
Nick is the Head Content Strategist, Social Media Manager, PPC Campaign Manager, and the Executive Head Writer at Ring Savvy/Answering Legal, Inc. Nick’s talent for story-telling enables him to write and recognize the type of content users want to read. | https://medium.com/answering-legal-inc/featured-attorney-david-kasell-81eb84d6fe2 | ['Frank Cordeira Jr.'] | 2016-08-22 20:52:37.589000+00:00 | ['Consumer Protection', 'Attorney', 'Lawyers', 'Legal', 'Law'] |
HugMe.fashion Genuine Ladies Leather Jacket LJK29 | checkout on Amazon
100% Genuine Indian Sheep Leather Customizable Jacket Lay your hands on this uber cool leather jacket crafted especially for those guys who love being the front runners on the fashion scene. It is available in basic black and has been made from 100% genuine sheep skin leather. Short in length but long lasting in terms of durability. The stand-up collar is the most distinct feature of this jacket and can be secured using tic tac buttons. Party the night away or ride your bike to your heart’s wish in a stylish way by wearing this amazing jacket. Specifications · Material: 100% Genuine High Quality Indian Sheep Leather, Soft & Long Lasting · Inner Material: Lining Fabric gives elegant look. · For:Women · Size: XS/S/M/L/XL/XXL/3XL/4XL/ | https://medium.com/@anjum-ali16/hugme-fashion-genuine-ladies-leather-jacket-ljk29-a112cd1a89c0 | [] | 2020-12-20 13:54:38.068000+00:00 | ['Womens Health', 'Jacket', 'Womens Clothing', 'Women In Business'] |
“Craft your own wings “ | “Craft your own wings “
2020 has changed the complete business model, need to build a strong relationship with consumer
Develop a true vision
Define your target
Know your customers behavior
Get your business updated with various marketing and technical trends
These are some very essential marketing strategies that every business required to grow
Content marketing is mostly free (unless you outsource it) and it allows you to rank for more keywords, keep your site content fresh, establish expertise and offer valuable information to your target audience — Network
This ties in a lot with the business card strategy, but it works online and in person. Leverage your network for all it’s worth (without being obnoxious) and you’ll see much better results
Email Marketing
Your email marketing can help to nurture relationships with customers and solutions like MailChimp are affordable for small businesses to use.
Offer Giveaways, Discounts, or Trials
If you want to get new clients quickly, offering discounts, giveaways or free trials to leads is a great way to drive some conversions. — Focus on the most powerful marketing channels
Use the best social networking site according to your business type and audience.
#marketing #digitalmarketing #marketingstrategy #socialmedia #seo #business #contentmarketing #socialmediamarketing #strategy #branding #motivation #businessmodels | https://medium.com/@jeetjohal-rk/craft-your-own-wings-ff6c7a10043f | ['Ranjeet Johal'] | 2020-11-20 07:06:03.816000+00:00 | ['Email Marketing', 'Email Marketing Tips', 'Content Marketing', 'Content Strategy'] |
10 mistakes that successful people do not repeat | Mistakes of successful people
“ Never go back. “ What does that mean? From the observations of successful people made by the psychologist and author of “Never Go Back: 10 Things You’ll Never Do Again” Henry Cloud, discovered that there were certain “Discoveries” that these people had — in their lives and in their work — and that once they had discovered it, they no longer returned to their old way of doing things.
They were never the same again. Ultimately, they succeeded.
“Years ago, I made a bad decision in business and that led to an interesting discussion with my mentor,” says Cloud. “I learned a valuable lesson the hard way,” and he assured me: “The good thing is that once you have learned the lesson, you don’t go back. You never do it again. “
“I was wondering what those discoveries that successful people had made and that had completely changed their way of doing things. What had propelled them to succeed in their work, relationships, and life? I started researching those discoveries, researching them for years. “
Although life and business have many lessons to teach us, Cloud observed 10 common mistakes that all successful people never did again.
Successful people will never …
1. Go back to what didn’t work
Whether it’s a job or a relationship that ended for some reason, we shouldn’t go back to the same thing. Expecting different results without anything being different is not a smart way to spend a life.
2. Do anything that forces you to be someone you are not
Before doing anything we should ask ourselves: Why am I doing this? Am I prepared for it? Does it overwhelm me? Is it sustainable? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you should have a very good reason to continue.
3. Try to change a person
When you realize that you cannot force someone to do something, you give them freedom and allow them to experience the consequences. In this way, you find your own freedom too.
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” ― Albert Einstein
4. Believe that they can satisfy everyone again
Once you understand this common mistake that it is really impossible to have everyone satisfied, it is when you start living at ease, trying to satisfy the right people. The first you.
5. Choose short-term comfort for the long-term benefit
When successful people know they want something that requires a painful step, they don’t mind the immediate sacrifice, as they know they will reap the long-term benefit. Living under this type of principle is one of the fundamental differences between successful and unsuccessful people, both personally and professionally.
6. Trust someone or something that seems perfect
It is normal for us to be attracted to people or things that seem “incredible”. We love perfection and we should always be looking to be one.
We must look at people who are great at doing what they do, high-performing employees, exceptional people, friends who have a special character, and successful companies.
Because when someone or something seems too good to be true, it is. But beware, the world is imperfect.
No one and nothing is spared, everything and we all have a defect. And if something or someone seems not to have it, question.
7. Take your eyes off the big target
We function better emotionally and perform better in life when we can see our great purpose. For successful people, no event is the whole story.
So they never lose sight of their great image. His great life goal. It is something that the winners remember every day of their lives.
8. Neglecting your attention
No matter how good something looks from the outside, only by taking a deeper and more attentive look can you find out what you really need to know: the reality you deserve.
I have the habit of attention to such excess, that my senses get no rest — but suffer from a constant strain. — Henry David Thoreau
9. Don’t wonder why they are where they are
One of the biggest differences between successful people and those who are not is that in love and in life, in business and in relationships, successful people always ask themselves: what role am I playing in this situation, how have I got here and what can I do to fix it? In other words, they don’t look like victims, even if they were.
10. Forgetting that your inner life determines your outer success
The good life sometimes has little to do with external circumstances. Most of the time feeling happy and fulfilled has more to do with your inner attitude than with anything else. With how you really look in your life. And it is that our internal lives contribute greatly to produce many of our external circumstances.
The opposite of all this also happens: People who are still making mistakes and trying to find success in various areas of their life may also point to one or more of these patterns as a reason why they are repeating the same mistakes.
Everybody makes mistakes. Even the most successful people out there. But what they have accomplished — unlike unsuccessful people — is to recognize the patterns that are causing them to fail, and not repeat them again. In short, they learn from pain — their own pain and that of others.
I suggest you remember the following: pain is inevitable, but going through it twice, choosing to learn and doing it differently, is so avoidable. I always like to say:
“ We don’t need new ways to fail … old ones already do very well!”
Our task, in business and in life, is to observe what makes us fail, and never repeat our mistakes again. | https://medium.com/@thebrilliance2020/10-mistakes-that-successful-people-do-not-repeat-c9bc5c576d00 | ['The Brilliance'] | 2020-04-26 01:02:27.252000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneur', 'Making Mistakes', 'Successful People', 'Mistakes', 'Entrepreneur Ideas'] |
Caroline | I met a girl at a railway station,
she was sitting there alone.
I was on my way to my Christmas vacation
but god she seemed so lone.
I went to sit next to her and
asked her for her name.
She said her name was Caroline
and I'd never been the same.
Perhaps it’s the way her hair
swayed in the gentle breeze.
Or the way she smiled at me,
it filled me with such ease.
Or maybe it’s the way she talked
and the adventures that she shared.
The rough path she walked
and the pain that she had beared.
Our trains came and we departed,
we never saw each other again.
I boarded the train brokenhearted
and was drowning in the pain.
But I knew that I was happy,
to have met a girl like her.
To listen to her adventures
like a friend I love so dear.
Not all love stories
are about a girl and a guy.
Writers always glory
a story I’ll never buy.
Not all love stories
end in happily ever after.
For an instance, this ends in happy,
but not ever after. | https://medium.com/@heatang/caroline-9b7fa027f323 | [] | 2020-12-21 07:26:34.932000+00:00 | ['Prose', 'Poem', 'Love', 'LGBTQ'] |
DBLog: A Generic Change-Data-Capture Framework | Andreas Andreakis, Ioannis Papapanagiotou
Overview
Change-Data-Capture (CDC) allows capturing committed changes from a database in real-time and propagating those changes to downstream consumers [1][2]. CDC is becoming increasingly popular for use cases that require keeping multiple heterogeneous datastores in sync (like MySQL and ElasticSearch) and addresses challenges that exist with traditional techniques like dual-writes and distributed transactions [3][4].
In databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL, transaction logs are the source of CDC events. As transaction logs typically have limited retention, they aren’t guaranteed to contain the full history of changes. Therefore, dumps are needed to capture the full state of a source. There are several open source CDC projects, often using the same underlying libraries, database APIs, and protocols. Nonetheless, we found a number of limitations that could not satisfy our requirements e.g. stalling the processing of log events until a dump is complete, missing ability to trigger dumps on demand, or implementations that block write traffic by using table locks.
This motivated the development of DBLog, which offers log and dump processing under a generic framework. In order to be supported, a database is required to fulfill a set of features that are commonly available in systems like MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, and others.
Some of DBLog’s features are:
Processes captured log events in-order.
Dumps can be taken any time , across all tables, for a specific table or specific primary keys of a table.
, across all tables, for a specific table or specific primary keys of a table. Interleaves log with dump events, by taking dumps in chunks . This way log processing can progress alongside dump processing. If the process is terminated, it can resume after the last completed chunk without needing to start from scratch. This also allows dumps to be throttled and paused if needed.
. This way log processing can progress alongside dump processing. If the process is terminated, it can resume after the last completed chunk without needing to start from scratch. This also allows dumps to be throttled and paused if needed. No locks on tables are ever acquired, which prevent impacting write traffic on the source database.
which prevent impacting write traffic on the source database. Supports any kind of output , so that the output can be a stream, datastore, or even an API.
, so that the output can be a stream, datastore, or even an API. Designed with High Availability in mind. Hence, downstream consumers have confidence to receive change events as they occur on a source.
Requirements
In a previous blog post, we discussed Delta, a data enrichment and synchronization platform. The goal of Delta is to keep multiple datastores in sync, where one store is the source of truth (like MySQL) and others are derived stores (like ElasticSearch). One of the key requirements is to have low propagation delays from the source of truth to the destinations and that the flow of events is highly available. These conditions apply regardless if multiple datastores are used by the same team, or if one team is owning data which another team is consuming. In our Delta blog post, we also described use cases beyond data synchronization, such as event processing.
For data synchronization and event processing use cases, we need to fulfill the following requirements, beyond the ability to capture changes in real-time:
Capturing the full state. Derived stores (like ElasticSearch) must eventually store the full state of the source. We provide this via dumps from the source database.
Derived stores (like ElasticSearch) must eventually store the full state of the source. We provide this via dumps from the source database. Triggering repairs at any time. Instead of treating dumps as a one-time setup activity, we aim to enable them at any time: across all tables, on a specific table, or for specific primary keys. This is crucial for repairs downstream when data has been lost or corrupted.
Instead of treating dumps as a one-time setup activity, we aim to enable them at any time: across all tables, on a specific table, or for specific primary keys. This is crucial for repairs downstream when data has been lost or corrupted. Providing high availability for real-time events. The propagation of real-time changes has high availability requirements; it is undesired if the flow of events stops for a longer duration of time (such as minutes or longer). This requirement needs to be fulfilled even when repairs are in progress so that they don’t stall real-time events. We want real-time and dump events to be interleaved so that both make progress.
The propagation of real-time changes has high availability requirements; it is undesired if the flow of events stops for a longer duration of time (such as minutes or longer). This requirement needs to be fulfilled even when repairs are in progress so that they don’t stall real-time events. We want real-time and dump events to be interleaved so that both make progress. Minimizing database impact . When connecting to a database, it is important to ensure that it is impacted as little as possible in terms of its bandwidth and ability to serve reads and writes for applications. For this reason, it is preferred to avoid using APIs which can block write traffic such as locks on tables. In addition to that, controls must be put in place which allow throttling of log and dump processing, or to pause the processing if needed.
. When connecting to a database, it is important to ensure that it is impacted as little as possible in terms of its bandwidth and ability to serve reads and writes for applications. For this reason, it is preferred to avoid using APIs which can block write traffic such as locks on tables. In addition to that, controls must be put in place which allow throttling of log and dump processing, or to pause the processing if needed. Writing events to any output. For streaming technology, Netflix utilizes a variety of options such as Kafka, SQS, Kinesis, and even Netflix specific streaming solutions such as Keystone. Even though having a stream as an output can be a good choice (like when having multiple consumers), it is not always an ideal choice (as if there is only one consumer). We want to provide the ability to directly write to a destination without passing through a stream. The destination may be a datastore or an external API.
For streaming technology, Netflix utilizes a variety of options such as Kafka, SQS, Kinesis, and even Netflix specific streaming solutions such as Keystone. Even though having a stream as an output can be a good choice (like when having multiple consumers), it is not always an ideal choice (as if there is only one consumer). We want to provide the ability to directly write to a destination without passing through a stream. The destination may be a datastore or an external API. Supporting Relational Databases. There are services at Netflix that use RDBMS kind of databases such as MySQL or PostgreSQL via AWS RDS. We want to support these systems as a source so that they can provide their data for further consumption.
Existing Solutions
We evaluated a series of existing Open Source offerings, including: Maxwell, SpinalTap, Yelp’s MySQL Streamer, and Debezium. Existing solutions are similar in regard to capturing real-time changes that originate from a transaction log. For example by using MySQL’s binlog replication protocol, or PostgreSQL’s replication slots.
In terms of dump processing, we found that existing solutions have at least one of the following limitations:
Stopping log event processing while processing a dump . This limitation applies if log events are not processed while a dump is in progress. As a consequence, if a dump has a large volume, log event processing stalls for an extended period of time. This is an issue when downstream consumers rely on short propagation delays of real-time changes.
. This limitation applies if log events are not processed while a dump is in progress. As a consequence, if a dump has a large volume, log event processing stalls for an extended period of time. This is an issue when downstream consumers rely on short propagation delays of real-time changes. Missing ability to trigger dumps on demand . Most solutions execute a dump initially during a bootstrap phase or if data loss is detected at the transaction logs. However, the ability to trigger dumps on demand is crucial for bootstrapping new consumers downstream (like a new ElasticSearch index) or for repairs in case of data loss.
. Most solutions execute a dump initially during a bootstrap phase or if data loss is detected at the transaction logs. However, the ability to trigger dumps on demand is crucial for bootstrapping new consumers downstream (like a new ElasticSearch index) or for repairs in case of data loss. Blocking write traffic by locking tables . Some solutions use locks on tables to coordinate the dump processing. Depending on the implementation and database, the duration of locking can either be brief or can last throughout the whole dump process [5]. In the latter case, write traffic is blocked until the dump completes. In some cases, a dedicated read replica can be configured in order to avoid impacting writes on the master. However, this strategy does not work for all databases. For example in PostgreSQL RDS, changes can only be captured from the master.
. Some solutions use locks on tables to coordinate the dump processing. Depending on the implementation and database, the duration of locking can either be brief or can last throughout the whole dump process [5]. In the latter case, write traffic is blocked until the dump completes. In some cases, a dedicated read replica can be configured in order to avoid impacting writes on the master. However, this strategy does not work for all databases. For example in PostgreSQL RDS, changes can only be captured from the master. Using database specific features. We found that some solutions use advanced database features that are typically not available in other systems, such as: using MySQL’s blackhole engine or getting a consistent snapshot for dumps from the creation of a PostgreSQL replication slot. Preventing code reuse across databases.
Ultimately, we decided to implement a different approach to handle dumps. One which:
interleaves log with dump events so that both can make progress
allows to trigger dumps at any time
does not use table locks
uses commonly available database features
DBLog Framework
DBLog is a Java-based framework, able to capture changes in real-time and to take dumps. Dumps are taken in chunks so that they interleave with real-time events and don’t stall real-time event processing for an extended period of time. Dumps can be taken any time, via a provided API. This allows downstream consumers to capture the full database state initially or at a later time for repairs.
We designed the framework to minimize database impact. Dumps can be paused and resumed as needed. This is relevant both for recovery after failure and to stop processing if the database reached a bottleneck. We also don’t take locks on tables in order not to impact the application writes.
DBLog allows writing captured events to any output, even if it is another database or API. We use Zookeeper to store state related to log and dump processing, and for leader election. We have built DBLog with pluggability in mind allowing implementations to be swapped as desired (like replacing Zookeeper with something else).
The following subsections explain log and dump processing in more detail.
Log Processing
The framework requires a database to emit an event for each changed row in real-time and in commit order. A transaction log is assumed to be the origin of those events. The database is sending them to a transport that DBLog can consume. We use the term ‘change log’ for that transport. An event can either be of type: create, update, or delete. For each event, the following needs to be provided: a log sequence number, the column state at the time of the operation, and the schema that applied at the time of the operation.
Each change is serialized into the DBLog event format and is sent to the writer so that it can be delivered to an output. Sending events to the writer is a non-blocking operation, as the writer runs in its own thread and collects events in an internal buffer. Buffered events are written to an output in-order. The framework allows to plugin a custom formatter for serializing events to a custom format. The output is a simple interface, allowing to plugin any desired destination, such as a stream, datastore or even an API.
Dump Processing
Dumps are needed as transaction logs have limited retention, which prevents their use for reconstituting a full source dataset. Dumps are taken in chunks so that they can interleave with log events, allowing both to progress. An event is generated for each selected row of a chunk and is serialized in the same format as log events. This way, a downstream consumer does not need to be concerned if events originate from the log or dumps. Both log and dump events are sent to the output via the same writer.
Dumps can be scheduled any time via an API for all tables, a specific table or for specific primary keys of a table. A dump request per table is executed in chunks of a configured size. Additionally, a delay can be configured to hold back the processing of new chunks, allowing only log event processing during that time. The chunk size and the delay allow to balance between log and dump event processing and both settings can be updated at runtime.
Chunks are selected by sorting a table in ascending primary key order and including rows, where the primary key is greater than the last primary key of the previous chunk. It is required for a database to execute this query efficiently, which typically applies for systems that implement range scans over primary keys.
Figure 1. Chunking a table with 4 columns c1-c4 and c1 as the primary key (pk). Pk column is of type integer and chunk size is 3. Chunk 2 is selected with the condition c1 > 4.
Chunks need to be taken in a way that does not stall log event processing for an extended period of time and which preserves the history of log changes so that a selected row with an older value can not override newer state from log events.
In order to achieve this, we create recognizable watermark events in the change log so that we can sequence the chunk selection. Watermarks are implemented via a table at the source database. The table is stored in a dedicated namespace so that no collisions occur with application tables. Only a single row is contained in the table which stores a UUID field. A watermark is generated by updating this row to a specific UUID. The row update results in a change event which is eventually received through the change log.
By using watermarks, dumps are taken using the following steps:
Briefly pause log event processing. Generate a low watermark by updating the watermark table. Run SELECT statement for the next chunk and store result-set in-memory, indexed by primary key. Generate a high watermark by updating the watermark table. Resume sending received log events to the output. Watch for the low and high watermark events in the log. Once the low watermark event is received, start removing entries from the result-set for all log event primary keys that are received after the low watermark. Once the high watermark event is received, send all remaining result-set entries to the output before processing new log events. Go to step 1 if more chunks present.
A SELECT is assumed to return state which represents committed changes up to a certain point in history. Or equivalently: a SELECT executes on a specific position of the change log, considering changes up to that point. Databases typically don’t expose the SELECT execution position (MariaDB is an exception).
The core idea of our approach is to determine a window on the change log which guarantees to contain the chunk SELECT position. The window is opened by writing the low watermark, the SELECT runs, and the window is closed by writing the high watermark. As the exact SELECT position is unknown, all selected rows are removed which collide with log events within that window. This ensures that the chunk selection can not override the history of log changes.
In order for this to work, the SELECT must read the table state from the time of the low watermark write, or later (it is ok to include changes that committed after the low watermark write and before the read). More generally, it is required that the SELECT sees the changes that committed before its execution. We define this capability as ‘non-stale reads’. Additionally, as the high watermark is written afterwards, it is guaranteed that the SELECT is executed before that.
Figures 2a and 2b are illustrating the chunk selection algorithm. We provide an example with a table that has primary keys k1 to k6. Each change log entry represents a create, update, or delete event for a primary key. In figure 2a, we showcase the watermark generation and chunk selection (steps 1 to 4). Updating the watermark table at step 2 and 4 creates two change events (magenta color) which are eventually received via the log. In figure 2b, we focus on the selected chunk rows that are removed from the result set for primary keys that appear between the watermarks (steps 5 to 7).
Figure 2a — The watermark algorithm for chunk selection (steps 1–4).
Figure 2b — The watermark algorithm for chunk selection (steps 5–7).
Note that a large count of log events may appear between the low and high watermark, if one or more transactions committed a large set of row changes in between. This is why our approach is briefly pausing log processing during steps 2–4 so that the watermarks are not missed. This way, log event processing can resume event-by-event afterwards, eventually discovering the watermarks, without ever needing to cache log event entries. Log processing is paused only briefly as steps 2–4 are expected to be fast: watermark updates are single write operations and the SELECT runs with a limit.
Once the high watermark is received at step 7, the non-conflicting chunk rows are handed over to the written for in-order delivery to the output. This is a non-blocking operation as the writer runs in a separate thread, allowing log processing to quickly resume after step 7. Afterwards, log event processing continues for events that occur post the high watermark.
In Figure 2c we are depicting the order of writes throughout a chunk selection, by using the same example as figures 2a and 2b. Log events that appear up to the high watermark are written first. Then, the remaining rows from the chunk result (magenta color). And finally, log events that occur after the high watermark.
Figure 2c — Order of output writes. Interleaving log with dump events.
Database support
In order to use DBLog a database needs to provide a change log from a linear history of committed changes and non-stale reads. These conditions are fulfilled by systems like MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, etc. so that the framework can be used uniformly across these kind of databases.
So far, we added support for MySQL and PostgreSQL. Integrating log events required using different libraries as each database uses a proprietary protocol. For MySQL, we use shyiko/mysql-binlog-connector which implementing the binlog replication protocol in order to receive events from a MySQL host. For PostgreSQL, we are using replication slots with the wal2json plugin. Changes are received via the streaming replication protocol which is implemented by the PostgreSQL jdbc driver. Determining the schema per captured change varies between MySQL and PostgreSQL. In PostgreSQL, wal2json contains the column names and types alongside with the column values. For MySQL schema changes must be tracked which are received as binlog events.
Dump processing was integrated by using SQL and JDBC, only requiring to implement the chunk selection and watermark update. The same code is used for MySQL and PostgreSQL and can be used for other similar databases as well. The dump processing itself has no dependency on SQL or JDBC and allows to integrate databases which fulfill the DBLog framework requirements even if they use different standards.
Figure 3 — DBLog High Level Architecture.
High Availability
DBLog uses an active-passive architecture. One instance is active and the others are passive standbys. We leverage Zookeeper for leader election to determine the active instance. The leadership is a lease and is lost if it is not refreshed in time, allowing another instance to take over. We currently deploy one instance per AZ (typically we have 3 AZs), so that if one AZ goes down, an instance in another AZ can continue processing with minimal overall downtime. Passive instances across regions are also possible, though it is recommended to operate in the same region as the database host in order to keep the change capture latencies low.
Production usage
DBLog is the foundation of the MySQL and PostgreSQL Connectors at Netflix, which are used in Delta. Delta is used in production since 2018 for datastore synchronization and event processing use cases in Netflix studio applications. On top of DBLog, the Delta Connectors are using a custom event serializer, so that the Delta event format is used when writing events to an output. Netflix specific streams are used as outputs such as Keystone.
Figure 4— Delta Connector.
Beyond Delta, DBLog is also used to build Connectors for other Netflix data movement platforms, which have their own data formats.
Stay Tuned
DBLog has additional capabilities which are not covered by this blog post, such as:
Ability to capture table schemas without using locks.
Schema store integration. Storing the schema of each event that is sent to an output and having a reference in the payload of each event to the schema store.
Monotonic writes mode. Ensuring that once the state has been written for a specific row, a less recent state can not be written afterward. This way downstream consumers experience state transitions only in a forward direction, without going back-and-forth in time.
We are planning to open source DBLog and include additional documentation.
Credits
We would like to thank the following persons for contributing to the development of DBLog: Josh Snyder, Raghuram Onti Srinivasan, Tharanga Gamaethige, and Yun Wang.
References
[1] Das, Shirshanka, et al. “All aboard the Databus!: Linkedin’s scalable consistent change data capture platform.” Proceedings of the Third ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing. ACM, 2012
[2] “About Change Data Capture (SQL Server)”, Microsoft SQL docs, 2019
[3] Kleppmann, Martin, “Using logs to build a solid data infrastructure (or: why dual writes are a bad idea)“, Confluent, 2015
[4] Kleppmann, Martin, Alastair R. Beresford, and Boerge Svingen. “Online event processing.” Communications of the ACM 62.5 (2019): 43–49
[5] https://debezium.io/documentation/reference/0.10/connectors/mysql.html#snapshots | https://netflixtechblog.com/dblog-a-generic-change-data-capture-framework-69351fb9099b | ['Netflix Technology Blog'] | 2021-01-29 22:01:01.765000+00:00 | ['Postgres', 'Data Synchronization', 'Change Data Capture', 'MySQL', 'Database'] |
Possible Hotel Bookings | Problem
A hotel manager has to process N bookings of rooms for the next season. His hotel has K rooms. Bookings contain an arrival date and a departure date. He wants to find out whether there are enough rooms in the hotel to satisfy the demand. Inputs:
- First list for arrival time of booking
- Second list for departure time of booking
- Third is K which denotes the count of rooms Output:
- A boolean which tells whether its possible to make a booking
false means there are not enough rooms for N booking
true means there are enough rooms for N booking Example: Inputs:
- arrivals = [1, 3, 5]
- departures = [2, 6, 10]
- K = 1
Output: false. At day = 5, there are 2 guests in the hotel. But we have only one room.
Solving Process
This problem is interesting in my opinion because there are many different ways to solve it. Let’s see a possible process.
Structure Storing Each Day Count
Our first idea might be to have a structure to store the number of bookings for each day. This structure could be an array with a fixed size (the maximum departure day).
Inputs:
- arrivals = [1, 3, 5]
- departures = [2, 6, 10]
- k = 1
This example would lead to having an array of size 10 (because the last departure is at day 10). To construct this array we iterate over each arrival and departure and we either increment or decrement the corresponding day. In pseudo-code:
int[] counts = new int[maxDepartures(departures)] for each arr in arrivals {
counts[arr]++
} for each dep in departures {
counts[dep]--
}
At the end we have the following array:
value: 1 0 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 0
index: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Once the array is built, we just have to iterate on it and check if all the elements are smaller than k (the number of rooms).
In the previous example, the maximum number of rooms was 1. Because on day 5 we have 2 bookings, we return false.
The solution is O(n) in time with n the number of bookings but O(m) in space with m the maximum departure day. Not bad in theory but we can potentially allocate a very large array even though most of the space is not really useful. For example:
Inputs:
- arrivals = [1, 3, 5]
- departures = [2, 10000, 10]
- k = 1
Would lead to allocating an array of 10k integers.
Let’s see the other options.
Storing a Collection of Events
What are the other options? Let’s check again what we produced with the previous structure:
value: 1 0 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 0
index: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
We can see that some information are kind of duplicated. For instance, between day 6 and day 9, the number of bookings does not change as we know that nothing happened during this time frame.
Would it help to store some sort of events instead? Let’s take again the same example:
Inputs:
- arrivals = [1, 3, 5]
- departures = [2, 6, 10] Day 1: +1 booking
Day 2: -1 booking
Day 3: +1 booking
Day 6: -1 booking
Day 5: +1 booking
Day 10: -1 booking
The solution would be to iterate over those events and to either increment or decrement a counter. If at some point, the counter is greater than k , we return false. Yet, to iterate over this collection of events we need it to be sorted.
What is the best structure here? Let’s summarize our requirements:
Search to check whether a day already exists
Add a new day
Browse the structure to iterate over each sorted day
What about using a Binary Search Tree (BST)?
Each node could be represented this way:
class Node {
int day
int count
Node left
Node right
}
The sorting would be done per day .
Let’s see the impacts in terms of time complexity:
Search to check whether a day already exists: O(log(n)) average case, O(n) worst case
Add a new day: O(log(n)) average case, O(n) worst case
Browse the structure to iterate over each sorted day: O(n) using an in-order strategy (Depth-First Search)
As we have to iterate over each element and insert them in the BST, the algorithm complexity is O(n log(n)) average case, O(n²) worst case.
Another option is to use a hash table and to sort the keys once we have added all the events:
Search to check whether a day already exists: O(1) average case, O(n) worst case (the probability depends on the map capacity)
Add a new day: O(1) average case, O(n) worst case
Browse the structure to iterate over each sorted day: O(n log(n)) to sort the keys and O(n) for the iteration
In the end, the solution is O(n log(n)) average case (due to the sorting operation), O(n²) worst case. This solution appears to have the same complexity than the one using the BST.
Let’s see a possible implementation in Java using a sorted map:
Constant Space Complexity
If we want to optimize our algorithm, we need to think whether it is really mandatory to store those events? Can’t we just simply iterate over the given collections (arrivals and departures) and check the booking constraint on the fly?
A solution would be possible but it would require to simplify the inputs by sorting them up front.
If both collections are sorted, we can simply iterate over each element using two pointers (one on the arrivals, one on the departures) and perform the constraint check on the fly:
As you can see, during each iteration we still have to check what is the minimum between arrivals.get(indexArrival) and departures.get(indexDeparture) to know what pointer to update.
Overall, the algorithm has a constant space complexity and an O(n log(n)) time complexity due to the sorting operations. | https://medium.com/solvingalgo/solving-algorithmic-problems-possible-hotel-bookings-fa3a544c6683 | ['Teiva Harsanyi'] | 2020-12-09 19:29:10.137000+00:00 | ['Arrays', 'Programming', 'Java', 'Coding', 'Algorithms'] |
The early days of encryption using Python — Caesar’s Cipher (Part 1) | Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Encryption is a popular term and used widely in Information Technology. Encryption is a method of protecting data from people you don’t want to access it [1]. The protected data can be chat, e-mail, file and database. In chat, a Chat Messenger have to apply encryption for protecting chat from read by people who don’t have right to read the chat by intercepting chat in the middle of chat tunnel communication system.It also to protect user privacy and security in chatting to make the user comfortable to use the chat messenger. An application which use password and save the password in a table of database is encouraged to encrypt the password before save it in a table, so even an Application Administrator or a Database Administrator who can access the database doesn’t know what the password is although he can change it because he has full access in the database.
If you want to encrypt data or text, you change your text by using a key which is a method or an algorithm, so the text becomes into something can’t be understood. The people you sent the data must have a certain key to decrypt or translate it for understanding the text.
Today encryption algorithm is more complex and difficult to understand than early days encryption. There are some modern algorithms, such as TripleDES, Two fish Encryption and Blowfish encryption which are some of the strongest encryption algorithms [2].
In this serial articles, I would like to explain an encryption algorithms in early days. First is Caesar’s cipher who used by Julius Caesar [2], a Roman general and politician who assassinated by political rivals in 44 BC [3] and the second is Polybius square which is still in draft as the second article. Both of them I implemented with Python.
Caesar’s cipher is an encryption technique by shifting each letter of the alphabet to the right or left by a number of positions . For example by using the cipher below, if you write BLACK, it becomes EOAFN. [2]
Plain : ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Cipher : DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
It is simple to translate from plain to encrypted text by using such Cipher and we can do it manually especially when the text is short but if the text is long it needs a big effort to convert it manually. To make our task easier, I created a Python script so we can encrypt a long words much easier than manually.I also add Python script to decrypt the encryption text.
The algorithm to write Caesar’s Cipher as follows:
1. Create list of plain Alphabet (named plainnya), begin from A until Z.
2. Create list of cipher (named ciphernya) by shifting left for 3 alphabets,
so it begins from D until C.
3. Initiate list variable (named bil_huruf) to store index of input text
4. Input text
5. Convert the input text becomes upper text
6. Find index number of Input text based on plain index.
7. Print out alphabet of ciphernya based on input text index
And the code as follows :
plainnya=["A","B","C","D","E","F","G","H","I","J","K","L","M","N","O","P","Q","R","S","T","U","V","W","X","Y","Z","A","B","C"," "] ciphernya=["D","E","F","G","H","I","J","K","L","M","N","O","P","Q","R","S",
"T","U","V","W","X","Y","Z"," "]
On the code above, we create plainnya list and ciphernya list. Here, we shift 3 alphabets to left and you can modify it how many alphabets you want to shift to right or left.
bil_huruf=[]
sente=input("Sentence :")
sentence_up=sente.upper()
We create list named bil_huruf, creating an input text and convert it Uppercase to every alphabetical we type to make it similar with plainnya list and ciphernya list content
for i in range(len(sentence_up)):
for j in range(len(plainnya)):
if (sentence_up[i]==" "):
bil_huruf.append(26)
break
if plainnya[j]==sentence_up[i]:
bil_huruf.append(j)
Then we compare between every member of plainnya list and sentence_up list. If the alphabet from those list is same, we save the number of index to bil_huruf list by using append.If there is “space” we append it on index 26 which it is space in ciphernya list. For example if we input RED FISH, so the index in bil_huruf contains 17,4,3,26,5,8,18,7.
R=17, E=4,D=3,space=26,F=5,I=8,S=18,H=7.
print("Result :")
for k in range(len(bil_huruf)):
print(ciphernya[bil_huruf[k]],end=" ")
After that, we print every index we already have in bil_huruf list with ciphernya list, so from text : RED FISH will become : UHG ILVK
Image 1 : Result of Encryption
For the decryption code, it reverse, make the encryption result as Input and decrypt with plain. The result for text : UHG ILVK as follows :
Image 2 : Result of Decryption
And the code for decryption as follows :
# Decryption 1 - Caesar's Cipher plainnya=["A","B","C","D","E","F","G","H","I","J","K","L","M","N","O","P","Q",
"R","S","T","U","V","W","X","Y","Z"," "]
ciphernya=["D","E","F","G","H","I","J","K","L","M","N","O","P","Q","R","S",
"T","U","V","W","X","Y","Z","A","B","C"," "] bil_huruf=[]
sente=input("Sentence :")
sentence_up=sente.upper() for i in range(len(sentence_up)):
for j in range(len(ciphernya)):
if (sentence_up[i]==" "):
bil_huruf.append(26)
break
if ciphernya[j]==sentence_up[i]:
bil_huruf.append(j) print("Hasil :")
for k in range(len(bil_huruf)):
print(plainnya[bil_huruf[k]],end=" ")
The code, I also save on my github.
https://github.com/sofwanbl/encrypt-decrypt-1
Conclusion
Caesar’s cipher is an early days of encryption and easy to understand and not implemented on modern encryption because there are any other modern encryptions more secure, but by understanding the early days encryption we understand how encryption works.Caesar’s cipher can be implemented using a programming language and this article implemented it by Python.
Reference
[1] Whitson Gordon, A beginner’s guide to Encryption: What it is and how to set it up, Jan 27 2014. Accessed Apr 17 2021 [Online]. Available : https://lifehacker.com/a-beginners-guide-to-encryption-what-it-is-and-how-to-1508196946.
[2] Rithesh Raghavan, What is data encryption ? which all are the top encryption algorithms ?, Jan 17 2020. Accessed Apr 17 2021 [Online]. Available : https://acodez.in/data-encryption-algorithms/
[3] National Geographic Society, Julius Caesar, July 6 2018. Accessed Apr 17 2021 [Online].
Available : https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/julius-caesar/ | https://medium.com/nerd-for-tech/the-early-days-of-encryption-using-python-caesars-cipher-1-602201f44fda | ['Akhmad Sofwan'] | 2021-05-08 00:45:57.429000+00:00 | ['Caesars Cipher', 'Encryption', 'Decryption'] |
State-Of-The-Art Image Classification Algorithm: FixEfficientNet-L2 | State-Of-The-Art Image Classification Algorithm: FixEfficientNet-L2
FixEfficientNet is a technique combining two existing techniques: The FixRes from the Facebook AI Team[2] and the EfficientNet [3] first presented from the Google AI Research Team. FixRes is the short form for Fix Resolution and tries to keep a fixed size for either the RoC (Region of Classification) used for train time or the crop used for test time. The EfficientNet is a compound scaling of the dimensions of a CNN which improves both accuracy and efficiency. This article is meant to explain both techniques and why they are state-of-the-art.
The FixEfficientNet has been presented first with the corresponding paper on the 20th April 2020 from the Facebook AI Research Team [1]. The technique is used for Image Classification and consecutively a task of the field of Computer Vision. It is currently the state-of-the-art and has the best results on the ImageNet Dataset with 480M params, a top-1 accuracy of 88.5%, and top-5 accuracy of 98,7%.
But let’s dive in a bit deeper to get a better understanding of the combined techniques:
Understanding FixRes
Training Time
Until the Facebook AI Research Team proposed the FixRes technique the state-of-the-art was to extract a random square of pixels out of an image. This was used as RoC for the training time. (Be aware that using this technique the amount of data is artificially increased). The image has then been resized to obtain an image of a fixed size (=crop). This was then fed to the Convolutional Neural Network [2].
RoC = rectangle/square in input image
crop = pixels of RoC rescaled with a biliniear interpolation to a certain resolution
Train-time scale augmentation
TTo get a better understanding of what FixRes exactly does let’s take a look at the math. Changing the size of the RoC in the input image affects the distribution of the size of the object given to CNN. The object has a size of r x r in the input image. If the RoC is now scaled it is changed by s and consecutively the size of the object is now rs x rs.
For the augmentation, the RandomResizedCrop of PyTorch is used. The input image has a size of H x W, from which a RoC is randomly selected. This RoC is then resized to a crop of size
source: image of the author.
The scaling of the input image (H x W) to the crop that is output can be expressed by the following factor:
source: image of the author.
Test time
At test time the RoC is often centered in the image, which results in a so-called center crop. Both crops, the one from train time and test time have the same size, but they origin from a different part of the image. This often leads to a bias in the distribution of CNN [2].
Test-time scale augmentation.
As previously described the test augmentation is not the same as the training time augmentation (keyword center crop). The crop has then the size
Regarding the assumption that the input image is a square (H=W) the scaling factor for the test augmentation can be expressed as
What’s the finding of this?
Until the FixRes was developed, the preprocessing for test and training time was developed separated from each other leading to bias. Consecutively the Facebook AI Team tried to find a solution that executes the preprocessing simultaneously and somehow synchronized and that is FixRes.
source: image of the author.
The Standard Preprocessing as seen above often enlarges the RoC at training and decreases the size at test time.
The FixRes technique takes an either-or approach. It either reduces the train-time resolution and keeps the size of the test crop or increases the test-time resolution and keeps the size of the training crop. The aim is to retrieve the object (here the crow) in the same size to reduce the scale invariance in the CNN [2]. This looks like the following:
source: image of the author.
This results in two effects on how the data is fed to the CNN:
The size of the object (here the crow) in the image is changed by the FixRes Scaling. The use of different crop sizes has an impact on how and when the neurons are activated.
The Problem of Varying Activation Statistics
Touvron et al. found that larger test crops and foremost the adjustment of the object size lead to better accuracy. However, it’s a trade-off between adjusting the size of the object and varying activation statistics.
Tests showed that the activation map changes with the resolution of the image. K_test = 224 leads to a map of 7x7, K_test = 64 leads to a map of 2x2 and K_test = 448 leads to a map of 14x14. This shows that the activation distribution varies at test time and the values are out of the classifier range [1].
To solve the problem of changes in the activation statistics there are two solutions presented:
Parametric Adaptation: A parametric Fréchet distribution is used to fit the average pooling layer. The new distribution is then mapped via scalar transformation to the old distribution and applied as an activation function. Fine-tuning: Another way to apply a correction is the fine-tuning of the model. The Fine-Tuning is only applied to the last layers of the CNN.
During the fine-tuning stage, a label smoothing is used [1].
EfficientNet Architecture [3]
The authors have pre-trained several models from which the EfficientNet-L2 shows the best results. But what is the EfficientNet?
As most algorithms in Image Classification, the Efficient Net is based on CNNs. If you don’t have a clue what a CNN is, click here. CNN has three dimensions: width, depth, and resolution. Depth is the number of layers, width is the number of channels (e.g. conventional RGB would have 3 channels) and the resolution is the pixels of an image.
EfficientNets introduced compound scaling, which makes use of all three dimensions:
Width Scaling — The width can be increased by having images with more channels. The accuracy gain diminishes pretty quickly though.
Depth Scaling — Is the conventional and most typical way of scaling. By increasing depth, you increase the number of layers your neural network has. But adding more layers does not always increase the performance of your network. Most often it needs more time, but due to vanishing gradients, the performance can stagnate or even decrease with a higher number of layers.
Resolution Scaling — This means increasing the resolution and hence, the number of pixels, e.g. from 200x200 to 600x600. The problem with this kind of scaling is that the accuracy gain disappears with a higher resolution. Until a certain point, your accuracy might increase but the accuracy increments decrease.
The upscaling of all three dimensions leads to diminishing accuracy increments and a balanced scaling of all three dimensions is necessary to achieve the best accuracy results. Therefore the compound scaling is proposed:
source: image of the author.
ɸ specifies the available resources, while alpha, beta, and gamma are responsible for the allocation of them.
Touvron et al. [1] “use neural architecture search to develop a new baseline network, and scale it up to obtain a family of models, called EfficientNets.” The Neural Architecture Search (NAS) optimizes FLOPS and accuracy.
Conclusion
The combination of both techniques leads to the currently best algorithm in image classification close ahead of EfficientNet Noisy Student. It is the current leading algorithm in both, efficiency and accuracy. Due to its top-5 accuracy of 98,7% there is still the possibility for improvement, but it’s quite accurate already. So it remains to wait until this is replaced by a new technique.
Since this article does not include any implementation, you can try it by yourself using the official Github of the authors: http://github.com/facebookresearch/FixRes.
The pre-trained networks of the authors [1] can be seen below.
Screenshot of the github repo.
I hope you understood and enjoyed it! | https://towardsdatascience.com/state-of-the-art-image-classification-algorithm-fixefficientnet-l2-98b93deeb04c | ['Hucker Marius'] | 2020-09-10 14:22:07.193000+00:00 | ['Algorithms', 'Efficientnet', 'Computer Vision', 'Image Classification', 'Data Science'] |
2 Movie stories 11/28/20 and finally, one not dealing with Justice League, Snyder Cut | Gutting the Sacred Cow | Movie News
Kevin Israel’s selection:
So it was revealed over the holiday that there is ANOTHER Predator sequel coming. This one is helmed by 10 Cloverfield Lane’s Dan Trachtenberg. The news of the fifth installment in the franchise was “Accidentally” leaked this week and it lit the internet up! Look, the original Predator is one of my favorite movies. It’s perfect. It builds tension throughout the whole movie. The cast brings the perfect amount of grit and levity. There are no slow points. Unfortunately, none of the predecessors have captured the magic of the original. Maybe because the unknown of the predator alien is what made the first movie so exciting. Regardless, I’ll always be rooting for this franchise, but they have yet to impress me. Here’s to hoping.
Kevin Gootee’s selection:
Last year when I went to Disneyworld, I did the lightsaber building workshop. I think I paid $300 to construct it and let me tell you, worth every penny. Now I see this article saying all of this Star Wars memorabilia is on sale? Listen folks, you need to get tickets to our live show, buy our merch, and get us a ton of advertisers so Israel and I can buy all of these goodies and quit our corporate America jobs: | https://medium.com/@guttingthesacredcow/2-movie-stories-11-28-20-and-finally-one-not-dealing-with-justice-league-snyder-cut-gutting-53ad8b14a2be | ['Kevin Gootee'] | 2020-12-14 04:00:18.786000+00:00 | ['Podcast', 'Film Reviews', 'Movies', 'Movie Podcast', 'Movie Review'] |
Redesigning Libraries, Archives & Museums Post- ̶C̶O̶V̶I̶D̶-̶1̶9̶ 2020 | This story was published May 5, 2020, just weeks before protests and uprisings around the world began in response to the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. Since then, it seems as everything has changed. These five recommendations still hold true to me, though I may add a few more, as they are rooted in making change in cultural memory institutions that help move us toward greater equity. The urgent need for these types of changes has never been more clear.
Long before this spring, many people were already facing the fact that a lot of the prevalent ways of working in cultural memory have failed us. Within the arts and culture landscape, vast inequities have been so baked into the design of our institutions that a reboot seemed necessary. That reboot may be here, though it’s come at an unimaginable cost of life and security, laying bare economic and social disparities the world over. There will be no “return to normal.” While there is much to grieve, there is also an opportunity to rebuild and redesign something better.
What does this new world look like for cultural memory organizations, and how can we adapt to this new reality and support each other in creativity and connection? As we’ve seen in disasters of the past, after we’ve met the short term needs of survival, we will have an opportunity, if we act decisively, to put better systems in place. Here are 5 ideas based on our shared work at Shift over the past decade in community memory and cultural heritage.
1. Prioritize investment in small organizations embedded in local communities
Cultural and cultural memory organizations have the opportunity to improve the quality of life for local communities and can be a lifeline in times of crisis or disaster. Those with deep ties to community are often the first to reach people to insure safety or disseminate critical information. This was exemplified in the months and years following the federal levee failures during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. Organizations like Ashé Cultural Arts Center, House of Dance and Feathers, Backstreet Cultural Museum and many other community-based archives and cultural organizations had central leadership roles in getting African American residents back to their homes and neighborhoods, and ensuring that the cultural fabric of these neighborhoods remained intact in the months and years of recovery.
Unfortunately, recent research has shown just how underfunded these types of organizations are. Currently, funding in arts and culture vastly favors wealthy organizations focused primarily on Western European fine arts traditions, a fact that is not improving despite many efforts to change. According to the Helicon Collaborative, just 2% of all cultural institutions receive nearly 60 percent of all contributed revenue, up approximately five percentage points over a decade. Furthermore, only 4% of foundation arts funding goes towards organizations serving communities of color, less than 3% to organizations focused on serving low income populations, and less than 2% to organizations focused on serving rural populations.
We can and must do better and these metrics should be our baseline in what we bring back in the post-COVID-19 economic recovery and our measure of success. Funding and investment priorities must take into account these statistics and be measured not on how much “diversity and inclusion” has been incorporated into a proposal but who gets the money and who has the power. Additionally, these small community-based archives need investment in organizational development (stronger boards, governance, financial systems, etc) and we need to foster peer networks for mutual aid and support and exchange of ideas. Funding can and should be tied to equity audits that produce statistics not only about collections and underrepresented communities, but also staffing and salary data. Until more money is going to smaller, community-based arts and culture organizations than to endowed old-money giants, we are talking about window dressing and not the structural change that we need.
We’re working hard to change this through co-design and research to support community-based archives with Architecting Sustainable Futures, and advocating for increased direct funding to these types of organizations. Already, funders like the Mellon Foundation have pledged $2.2 million in direct support of community-based archives. The Compton Foundation has gone further, spending down their endowment over the next 7 years and encouraging other funders to do the same. They said in December, “we believe that our practices — giving unrestricted multi-year grants, simplifying grant processes, moving to 100% mission-aligned investing, and even spending out our financial assets — should be common practice at foundations dedicated to justice and democracy.”
2. Adapt digital to the needs and culture of specific communities
Digital is not a save-all, one-size-fits-all option you can throw at any problem. Ideally, digital solutions are tailored to the needs of specific communities, with thoughtful co-creation and co-design. At Shift, our cultural memory team uses a methodology of Community-Centered Design that engages a variety of stakeholders to understand the needs of a particular community before formulating any design prototypes together. This is an opportunity to examine how digital fits within the culture and values of any given community. For instance, when we first started collaborating with Native American communities around Historypin, we found it necessary to first step back to better understand what they needed from digital projects in general and how their values might be expressed in our digital offerings. In the days since COVID-19, I’ve personally been involved in helping Zen Buddhist communities migrate their meditation and community gatherings to an online setting–which has been as much about understanding cultural needs as technical in order to come up with creative solutions.
3. Create smaller, more authentic opportunities for connection
Gone are the days of the massive conference, and that model was dying anyway. While opportunities for connection exist, large conferences often serve as junkets for staff at the most resourced organizations, and invest little in local communities or provide economically diverse access. With social distancing as part of our reality for the foreseeable future, even gallery openings and packed museums will be prohibitive.
This gives us the opportunity to be creative and to explore more meaningful and intimate experiences with community and connection at the heart. When large conferences have come to New Orleans in recent years, we’ve been surprised at how little they engage the local community or invite local culture bearers to participate, and instead choose to extract from or exploit the New Orleans community. In an effort to improve this, we’ve helped create collaborative events that benefit all participants and end up providing a much richer experience. The Library Make’n’Shake brought librarians and community initiatives together in a uniquely New Orleans setting in 2018. The 2019 Culture Lab Cooperative explored the future of museums through a 1.5 day design-centered immersive experience with 25 participants. While these were in-person events, they could certainly be creatively adapted to be virtual.
Increasingly we’ll need to come up with virtual experiences to engage colleagues and communities. The central opportunity to create intimate and authentic connections remains, and the barrier to entry for these gatherings through technology is as low as it’s ever been. The key is finding the best examples of innovative and inclusive narrative, and adapting them to smaller audiences in ways that can also scale to reach more people over time. Just one example is the 2018 award-winning, and timely, production, The Stranger Disease, which brought new life into the historic house museum by creating an intimate staged production that took on the often overlooked complexities of class and race which played out in the 1878 yellow fever outbreak in New Orleans.
4. Engage with equity and access in mind
Technological solutions can certainly help us get together in times when physical proximity is not an option, but they also have their limits. As we come back to digital solutions and get creative with how we connect and engage our audiences, now is a perfect time to build for equity and access for as wide of a range of people as possible. We can consider the digital divide and limitations of broadband access to particular communities as we roll out new solutions, and find ways to reach people who may not have easy access to computers. This challenge has been faced in cities across the country that have had to provide not only new methods for distance teaching, but the procurement of computers and WiFi hotspots for large populations of low-income residents. Cultural memory organizations have shown that they can be a gateway for access and a leader in providing content and connection through a variety of methods. We can make equity and accessibility a measure of our impact and success.
5. Leverage assets to combine cultural memory centers with community needs like affordable housing
Now more than ever, we are reconsidering our public and private spaces, and how we can safely live and work together. Along with creating smaller, more authentic engagements, so too can we consider scaled down versions of cultural centers embedded within a variety of community housing solutions. While we’ll be feeling the pain of massive cuts to civic and municipal spending for years to come, we have the opportunity to leverage public and private assets to address multiple community needs. Shift calls it Knowledge-Centered Community Living, and imagines affordable housing built around diverse cultural organizations and community memory institutions. Many examples are starting to emerge, primarily with affordable senior housing, including public libraries in Chicago and Brooklyn, and a civil rights museum in New Orleans, to name a few. We believe there are many opportunities in smaller market cities for this type of development. Furthermore, we know through preliminary research as part of our work focused on community-based archives (see Architecting Sustainable Futures), that one common thread to a cultural organization’s longevity is property ownership. While this still requires seldom-funded capital expenditures for upkeep and maintenance, it keeps long-term funds in local communities rather than locked in the managed endowments of foundations.
These are just five ways that we can be sure that we do not return to normal, and that, if we act quickly, we can rebuild the cultural sector in ways that better reflect the values of an equitable society. Inequity has not happened by accident, it has been designed into our civic structure over a very long history. This will not be changed by cosmetic fixes to long-standing cultural institutions, but instead by a combination of long-term structural change within and a quantifiable shift to support community-based cultural organizations that embody a more just and equitable cultural landscape. This is our opportunity to rebuild with these values at the center. | https://medium.com/community-archives/redesigning-libraries-archives-museums-post-covid-19-b85bcc9eaae1 | ['Jon Voss'] | 2020-06-15 18:23:50.655000+00:00 | ['Cultural Memory', 'Libraries', 'Cultural Heritage', 'Archive', 'Museums'] |
chapter IV, purification into the abyss | There it is, the inevitable black hole of emotions and eternal vortex of suppressed feelings. I have been avoiding you, old foe. You never want to offer me peace. Why are you so stubborn and choose to keep me in this solitary confinement?
I hear the calling of the abyss and I run, again. Each time it is the same. Preparations have been made to meet you, but at the very last moment, it all goes away, like a castle in the sand. I have also tried avoiding you, all my life, but when you find a small window of open-heartedness, you always seize the opportunity and pop by to show your threatening fangs, as an emotional reminder of our inevitable encounter.
The traditional robotic humans have offered me ingestible chemicals nicely wrapped in a package of hope. Lost hope, that is. All you need to do is read between the lines, and there the lie lies. Poison your body and mind, to help big Pharma get bigger, while never addressing the main cause of the issue. Chemical attempts to temporarily numb the emotional hopelessness.
My only motivation is choosing to believe my own lie, the lie of suppressed feelings going away by ignoring them. It is a myth, I know, an urban legend, but the easiest path can be the most seductive. I reject the painful truth and embrace the cheap and elegant lie.
But this lie gets heavier every time, it is becoming ever-increasing in size, and it has morphed into an un-manageable loud guest of my heart.
I immerse myself in meaningless and exhaustive work, aiming to become too tired to know it is still there, waiting. I wake up, work like a mindless drone, embrace soulless routine, then I get back to rest for a few hours. Anything to help me run away, faster, further. A new day, same routine. And it is effective, for a while. My mind is too busy animating this zombie body with an artificial personality. But to fix a wrong with another wrong, isn’t that still wrong?
Tried a therapist, but the ancient humanoid did not seem to understand the answer to my question. How can I revert these heavy feelings of unhappiness? Shouldn’t be so hard, all I have to do is follow my steps backwards, no? So I thought.
I push harder towards exhausting work. But it still does not feel right. A louder noise to cover a stronger earthquake. If it was not a futile idea, I would have appreciated its deceptive attempts to persuade me towards the mighty Sun. But all the time I know, it is but a cheap postcard seducing me with the promise of Rupture.
I feel the veil of heavy darkness covering my brain. It is cold, all-consuming and wants to take over the entire Temple of Thought, this is what it is designed to do once it gathers enough power of avoidance. It feeds with my lack of attention, it grows by absorbing the power of my resistance. The more I push, the stronger it gets, the unbeatable anti-hero.
I see the world in dark and light, more dark, less light. Ingested food tastes like glass powder, and breathing feels like inhaling nails. My body rejects nutrients and I’m constantly loosing weight, strength, vitality.
My skin no longer enjoys any kind of contact, the air does not feel replenishing. Is there really so much sadness in this world, or am I tuning into a heavy realm? Why was I never taught about this in school? All those years, they never told me how to live, how to fight the inner monster of a broken heart and how to dance with an army of heavy emotions. | https://medium.com/@human-terran/chapter-iv-purification-into-the-abyss-d9322a6b23c | ['Human Terran'] | 2021-07-08 08:26:17.670000+00:00 | ['Fear', 'Anxiety', 'Heros Journey', 'Letting Go', 'Courage'] |
My advice on building a team | Finding The Right People
Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash
When I started ForgetMeNot I was going into it a lone wolf. I thought that I was going to code the entire web application myself, and the only outside help I would need is just a UI/UX designer. That isn’t to say that I wasn’t keen on reaching out for help and advice from people who I thought might be able to give it, but when it came to the business, I was alone.
That was, until, I hired my UI/UX designer. I posted a job titled “Graphic Design Work & Web UI/UX design” on UpWork and it shifted my perception on hiring and team building.
I screened 15 UI/UX designers, some of them great in interviews with poor quality work, others didn’t do so well in my interview (There were a lot of language barriers, which I don’t hold against them) but had great work.
The one thing that I cared most about, even more than the quality of work they had on their portfolio, was how motivated and excited they got when they knew what the project was about.
I still remember the look on the designer’s face after I pitched him the idea. He said “Wow this is going to be great”. Now, whether or not that turns out to be true is a different story, but I knew from the moment he said that, that it wasn’t just another project for him to complete. He believed in the idea, he thought it was good, and that little difference will mean the world when it comes to designing the product with the correct audience in mind.
— This idea extended to every additional hire that happened after that. For business development, software development, digital marketing and business administration. Every one of these job titles working on the project had to pass my smell test, and I think it had made a world of a difference for us.
Building Trust and Motivation
Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash
We build trust by working together, it’s that plain and simple. Just like anything else in life that requires trust, it takes time. But I’ve noticed up to this point, that the most trust in my team was gained in situations where we had deadlines to meet. Now certainly deadlines get blown but it’s the action of working together and failing together that makes the team feel closer.
As it pertains to motivation, I don’t necessarily see this as a tremendous problem at this point. I like to think by bringing people on who believe in the project and how our work will be impacting people, that motivation levels tend to run pretty high. That’s not to say we are robots that perform work at 100% enthusiasm all the time, there is a necessary amount of motivation that I bring to the table for everyone.
I see that a well placed praise and acknowledgement can turn something completely around. It’s important that it’s genuine, I don’t think you can make trips around your office 3 times a day praising everyone and their dog for being alive.
When the standard of work is so high for everyone on the team, excellence is mediocre, and just because people make it look easy does not mean that it actually is. Praise the people working with you.
Solving Interpersonal Problems
Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash
Working with a team of highly motivated people, who are great at what they do will likely always lead to disagreements.
We are no different. We frequently have hot topics spur up in our weekly meetings and it’s important that we know when to put the fires out.
Sometimes there needs to be controlled burns, and others we need to put out right away and the difference in that is huge.
I believe it’s important to let people have their disagreements, but try to keep everyone on track. If it seems that it’s going no where then you need to interject and change the topic so that the others can calm down. And the same goes for yourself.
Final Thoughts
Photo by Lucian Alexe on Unsplash
The past 7 months have been incredibly challenging, cost me a ton of money, but I’ve learned more in that time than likely in the cumulative sum of life as an adult.
If you’re a founder, co-founder or early employee at a start up, or aspire to be one of these soon, I hope this information was able to provide some sort of insight into my life right now.
If you guys want to reach out to me directly, feel free to on my social pages or LinkedIn.
Good luck! | https://medium.com/@domgallo/my-advice-on-building-a-team-c096e77c8301 | ['Dominic Gallo'] | 2020-12-13 14:46:43.085000+00:00 | ['Startup Lessons', 'Startup Life', 'Startup', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Team'] |
Importing SQL Server data in BigQuery | Using Sqoop to import data into BigQuery
Scoop with a Q. Hehe. Source
Time to get started! In what follows I will assume that you are familiar with GCP and have set up the GCP SDK ( gcloud ) on your computer. I also assume Unix-style syntax and standard tooling, although it should be trivial to adapt commands to run on a Windows machine.
Sqoop does not come pre-installed on Dataproc, so running Sqoop on GCP requires you to provide the Sqoop JARs and dependencies to a Dataproc environment yourself. I based my approach on Daniel De Leo’s excellent story “Moving Data with Apache Sqoop in Google Cloud Dataproc”. Dataproc now runs on a newer version of Hadoop, comes with different pre-installed libraries and defaults that are incompatible with Sqoop, so I had to change some small parts. Using newer Dataproc environments (>1.3) probably also works, but I didn’t test this and just used the default one.
Dataproc does not come with Sqoop pre-installed
Note that Dataproc’s release notes of August 9 2019 mention that Sqoop 1.4.6 comes pre-installed with Dataproc. However, this does not seem to be the case for currently supported Dataproc releases. In fact, as far as I could see, even the 1.4.12-ubuntu18 -release mentioned in the release notes does not come with Sqoop pre-installed! I spinned up a cluster running this version of Dataproc, but did not find any trace of a Sqoop-library. There’s also no mention of Sqoop being removed in the release notes…
Preparation
Start by downloading and unpacking Sqoop 1.4.7 (made to run on Hadoop 2.6.0) and the required library to connect to SQL server:
tar xvfz sqoop*
wget wget https://apache.belnet.be/sqoop/1.4.7/sqoop-1.4.7.bin__hadoop-2.6.0.tar.gz tar xvfz sqoop*wget https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/microsoft/sqlserver/mssql-jdbc/8.2.1.jre8/mssql-jdbc-8.2.1.jre8.jar
In order to be able to store Sqoop’s output and host its dependencies, you will also need a storage bucket. I created a new one for this purpose:
BUCKET="gs://sqoop-bucket-1337"
gsutil mb gs://sqoop-bucket-1337
Once the bucket is created, copy in all the jars we downloaded (including Sqoop’s dependencies in lib ):
gsutil cp sqoop-1.4.7.bin__hadoop-2.6.0/lib/* $BUCKET/jars
gsutil cp sqoop-1.4.7.bin__hadoop-2.6.0/sqoop-1.4.7.jar $BUCKET/jars
gsutil cp *.jar $BUCKET/jars
You are now ready to start a Dataprep cluster and submit a Sqoop job to it.
Running Sqoop
Sqoop runs on top of Hadoop. Fortunately, Google Cloud Platform makes spinning up a fully-featured Hadoop cluster through Google Dataproc as easy as a single call to gcloud dataproc clusters create . Spin up a “cluster” consisting of a single machine that acts as both the driver and only worker node as follows:
CLUSTERNAME="mycluster"
gcloud dataproc clusters create "$CLUSTERNAME" \
--region europe-west1 \
--zone europe-west1-d \
--subnet default \
--single-node \
--master-machine-type n1-standard-2 \
--master-boot-disk-size 200 \
--image-version 1.3-deb9 \
--project "$PROJECT" \
--properties dataproc:dataproc.conscrypt.provider.enable=false
Wait until the cluster finished spinning up (< 1 minute). Then, submit a Sqoop job to your cluster as follows (instead of providing only the libraries that we need, here we just provide all of the libraries that come packaged as dependencies with the default Sqoop download — some of these could be removed):
libs=`gsutil ls $BUCKET/jars | paste -sd, --`
gcloud dataproc jobs submit hadoop \
--region europe-west1 \
--cluster="$CLUSTERNAME"\
--jars=$libs \
--class=org.apache.sqoop.Sqoop \
-- \
import-all-tables \
-Dmapreduce.job.user.classpath.first=true \
--connect "jdbc:sqlserver://$SQL_HOST;database=$SQL_DB" \
--username "$SQL_USER" \
--password "$SQL_PASS" \
--num-mappers 1 \
--as-avrodatafile \
--warehouse-dir "$BUCKET/output"
Of course, change the parameters to Dataproc specifying the size of nodes, disk image used and so on as you please. Do not forget to define or replace the variables such as $SQL_HOST in this command by suitable values. If your database is not a SQL server database, change the connect string passed to --connect to the appropriate JDBC connect string. If you do not want to copy all tables from your database or want to do an incremental copy, don’t specify the import-all-tables argument and pass in appropriate Sqoop arguments instead.
You can now follow up on the job in the Console and cancel it if something goes wrong. Do not forget to shut down the Dataprep cluster once the job is done.
Note on security. Running the dataproc jobs submit command above will expose the password to your SQL server in plain text. It will be visible to anyone that has access to Dataproc logs. This is not generally recommended, but worked for me as I was copying the entire database to shut it down. If you want to keep your password more secure, you can use Sqoop’s --password-file option and point it to a file that contains your password. You can scp the password file to the VM running the cluster, or host this file in a bucket and set strict IAM policies on it. You can even use CMEK encryption if you feel the need!
Importing data into BigQuery
If all goes well, you will end up with a bunch of files inside of $BUCKET/output named $BUCKET/output/[table-name]/part-m-00000.avro . You can easily import these files into BigQuery using bq load , and this at no cost!
Start by creating a dataset to import your tables into using the Console or bq :
DATASET=ilovesqoop
bq mk $DATASET
You then want to run a bq load command for every table you import. As an example, to import the table exampletable you can execute:
bq --sync=false --project_id=$PROJECT \
load \
--source_format=AVRO \
"${DATASET}.exampletable" \
"gs://${BUCKET}/output/exampletable/part-m-00000.avro"
I created a small Python script import-bq.py that prints out the import commands required to import all the tables. (Did I mention I had to import 420 of them?)
Run the script as ./bq-import.py $PROJECT $BUCKET $DATASET ; you will see a single bq load command for every table to be imported.
You can of course adapt the script to your own needs. If you prefer, you can easily make the script perform the import directly by changing the print command on line 13 into subprocess.run .
Caveats and arcane options
You might also have noticed that there are two somewhat arcane options present in the commands above. For me, these were necessary to make Sqoop run properly on the Hadoop environment provided by Dataproc. Unfortunately, I waited a bit too long to write this story; I was so successful at migrating the data, that I now no longer have access a SQL server to connect to, and can no longer copy in the exact error messages that I got when submitting a job without using these settings. One of the options might not apply to you, for example because you are connecting to your server over an unsecured connection or because they are caused by the SQL server that I was connecting to being old.
--properties dataproc:dataproc.conscrypt.provider.enable=false . This disables the use of Conscrypt as Java’s security provider. Older versions of Dataproc did not use Conscrypt by default (source). With Conscrypt enabled, I believe I got an error similar to com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerException: The driver could not establish a secure connection to SQL Server by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption . You can find a description of this problem and the solution here.
. This disables the use of Conscrypt as Java’s security provider. Older versions of Dataproc did not use Conscrypt by default (source). With Conscrypt enabled, I believe I got an error similar to . You can find a description of this problem and the solution here. -Dmapreduce.job.user.classpath.first=true . I added this option to get rid of an error related to Avro ( org.apache.avro.reflect.ReflectData.addLogicalTypeConversion ) as described here. This option instructs Hadoop to prefer the version of libraries that you added yourself to the classpath over the libraries that it’s pre-packaged with. Note that I have since learned that a better option to use might have been -Dmapreduce.job.classloader=true , which enables classloader isolation and instructs Hadoop to use a different classloader for Sqoop and it’s internal workings. Let me know in the comments if you tried using this instead of the classpath.first option and this works!
I also had to add the option -Djdk.tls.client.protocols=TLSv1 to my job submission command. I think the need for this option was specific to my SQL server, so I did not include it in the command above. If you run into TLS issues, try adding it. The default version of TLS used for HTTPS communciation in Java 8 is version 1.2; this option downgrades it to version 1.
I initially also wanted to export to Parquet instead of Avro. However, Sqoop 1.4.7 uses an old version the Kite library to accomplish this, which did not work properly on the new Hadoop environment provided by Dataproc. I got issues similar to the problem mentioned on Stackoverflow here. Instead of trying to use a newer version of Kite that does work, I opportunistically switched to the Avro format.
Speeding up Sqoop: using bigger clusters
You might have noticed that I used a Dataproc “cluster” consisting of only a single node and wondered why. Does increasing the number of nodes increase the speed of the import job? Of course it can … provided that you set it up correctly! The full answer to this question is related to the --num-mappers argument passed to the Sqoop job.
Running a parallel Sqoop import requires you to tell it how it can split up a table
To get a Sqoop job to run on multiple nodes you need to set --num-mappers to a value greater than one, which requires Sqoop to know how it can “split up” tables, so that it can work with multiple nodes on the same table at the same time. Sqoop can only figure out by itself how to split tables that have a single “primary index” column (no composite indexes), so you will probably not be able to simply run Sqoop using import-all-tables in parallel without a little bit of configuration. I didn’t bother and just used only a single node and a single mapper. A full import of my database (90GB, 600 million rows and 420 tables) took around 5 hours, and I would expect speed to increase a little when using a larger node.
Sqoop running on a single small-ish node imports around 20k records per second
As an alternative solution to increasing --num-mappers , you might look into submitting a separate import job for every table, which would also allow balancing the load over multiple nodes.
Note that if you do use multiple mappers, you will get more than one Avro file per table; this should not be a problem, but it’s something to keep in mind when importing the data in BigQuery (the script generating the import statements above should work fine).
Summary and concluding remarks
When migrating your SQL server data to BigQuery, you have many options. I discussed four of them: to export and import your data as CSV, to copy the data using Pandas, to use a managed service like Stitch, or to use Apache Sqoop. Each of these approaches certainly has its merits, but I found Sqoop to be an excellent option for performing a one-off data dump with minimal effort and explained why.
Despite Sqoop not having received a lot of love over the past years, it worked just fine. Sqoop managed to copy my database in about five hours using a cluster consisting of a single undersized node, where Stitch would have taken over two days. It’s free, cheap to run, and it converted the data types more or less the way I wanted to (datetimes were cast to epoch timestamps), without requiring any intervention on my part. Once you know how, setting up a copy operation using Sqoop requires only two commands, which in a way makes it easier to use than any paid-for solution I’ve come across.
Although Sqoop was specifically designed for the purpose of bridging operational, relational databases and big-data technology, it took a while before I even learned of its existence. Maybe this story can contribute to changing that.
Did this work for you or did you spot any errors? Let me know in the comments! | https://medium.com/datamindedbe/import-sql-server-data-in-bigquery-d640441d5d56 | ['Jonathan Merlevede'] | 2020-06-11 15:49:42.429000+00:00 | ['Database', 'Google Cloud Platform', 'Bigquery', 'Sql Server', 'Data'] |
I Was a Boring Person Before Becoming a Writer on Medium | My secret sauce
I had set out on a journey to be influential with my words in September 2020. Three months later, here I am.
I hate bragging and I hate shouting out my accomplishments, but if someone asked me how I was doing, the data doesn’t lie. Self-reflecting on my progress, I’m up to 2,000 followers on Medium and 1,200 followers on Twitter. I hit 1,000 connections for the first time on LinkedIn a few weeks ago. I own a wonderful publication that is growing faster than I had ever anticipated. And lastly, I’m an active contributor to some of the biggest publications on Medium.
So for all the people (I think) that will ever read my stories, idolize me, and put me on a pedestal, I’m here to tell you the most important thing to help you gain confidence in your writing.
Here it is — Are you ready for it?
I’m human. Yep. I’m still that normal, regular, boring, corporate 9–5, gamer geek from white-as-milk suburbia Utah, just writing away on Medium!
I still consider myself a new writer. Hell, I have a hard time even considering I’m a writer at all. If someone asked me, “What do you do in your spare time?” I can’t even see myself replying, “Oh, I’m a writer.” Cringe!
I’m still riddled with insecurities about my abilities to tell a good story and wondering if people like my writing at all. It still shocks me to this day that I hear positive feedback about my articles. I’ve always been bad at receiving compliments. And here’s the thing — I think I still have a long way to go on Medium.
So guess what? For most people, whether you have 10 followers or 10,000 followers, you’re still the same person as you were when you set out on your journey.
One of the most common things I’ve heard from writers when I approach them about my publication, About Me Stories, is when they express hesitation and say, “Oh, I’m not that interesting to talk about.”
Of course, you are. You’re the only you in the whole wide world, throughout the history of the world. You are unique. You, yourself have experiences in this world that no one else has ever experienced. These unique stories are stories worth telling. | https://medium.com/@quyma/i-was-a-boring-person-before-becoming-a-writer-on-medium-64ad158bf258 | ['Quy Ma'] | 2020-12-20 08:51:01.995000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Self Improvement', 'Inspiration', 'Confidence', 'Self'] |
#086 | Particle Effects And Factory Functions With JavaScript | Yet another article on code! I must be on a roll. This came off a particle effect I was working on for a client. Initially, I was just generating little divs on the stage and moving them around, but as the number of particles grew, it started to get a little sluggish on my client’s tiny laptop. So I decided to convert the whole system into an HTML canvas so that the particles will be just a single drawing on the DOM instead.
I won’t go through the entire chunk of code here, but just some core learnings because as usual, this is meant as a note for myself to refer back to when I forget how these work — which will always happen sooner than later. | https://medium.com/footprints-on-the-sand/086-particle-effects-and-factory-functions-with-javascript-a3214f391b7e | ['Kelvin Zhao'] | 2020-03-26 00:23:57.094000+00:00 | ['Code', 'Javascript Tips', 'JavaScript', 'Coding', 'HTML'] |
Again Someday | In Response to Sherry Kappel’s One Line Poetry Prompt For November 25th
Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash
Deeply grateful for each moment
We had while you were here
Holding on to precious memories
Until we can again be near. | https://medium.com/chalkboard/again-someday-13f63a377ef4 | [] | 2020-11-27 18:19:07.537000+00:00 | ['One Line', 'Memories', 'Loss', 'Gratitude', 'Love'] |
Happy New Year Images 2021 || Happy New Year 2021 Wishes | Happy New Year Images 2021
Hello friends, you are very welcome to my website Mixing Images. I am your dear friend Vikas Yadav. Friends, in today’s post I am going to share with you — Happy New Year Images 2021, Happy New Year 2021 Wishes, happy new year 2021 background, happy new year 2021 quotes, the new year 2021 wishes, happy new year 2021 images HD download, happy new year 2021 png, happy new year 2021 in advance, happy new year 2021 images for Whatsapp, happy new year 2021 images.
Happy New Year Images 2021
The year 2020 is getting separated from us and the new year is about to come before us, understand that it has already come. We are moving towards another great year of our life. We all wish that the year that has departed from us and the good or bad that has happened in it, wish for a good tomorrow.
Facing the difficulties of life, working hard to overcome this, riding on its future. Everyone does this whether Aamir or poor big or small everyone wishes for a happy future. To make this future golden, with the beginning of the new year, we wish people good luck to make the best.
In this new year, we will pray and pray to God that in this new year you spend a every day happy life and be fulfilled. But God will fulfill our blessings only when we are good and pray for people and recover well from them and stay away from evil. In 2021, we will vow to make ourselves a better and better person. In this new year let us show a lot of good moments and give everyone another chance to start life.
Happy New Year Shayari 2021
Some happiness was averted by giving some sorrow, Gone is another stunning year of life. With New Year's Day, May your life even be stuffed with happiness. New year to you and every one of you Congratulations to the family. I love your dreams most, Let's sacrifice me for them. I simply love you most, And build this year your name. Happy yr Thought to speak to somebody special Please keep in mind yourself. Made the choice to want the yr, Dil aforementioned why not begin with you. The joy of happiness is spreading, Are you cheerful society May your whole life be safe, Happy yr Comes each year, Goes each year, This year, you Get all of them, Who desires your life? This is the sensation within the initial meeting, Two words of his love were terribly special. Had to mention one thing throughout my last visit, We were left thinking that the year had passed. New year, new morning let's celebrate along, May this yr pageant continually be with the U.S.A. along.
Happy New Year Shayari 2021
Flowers still bloom within the path of your life, May happiness continue in your shelter, You get happiness in each step, It offers special desires to you for the yr. Goodbyes to the bygone year, Even people who haven't done it undergo Everyone is happy to fulfill the yr, We celebrate the reminiscences of the year passed now. May this year be a town of happiness for you, May each happiness be yours. Every night new songs of leisure area unit recited, Shabnam has a bearing on the words of the moments. O heart, why area unit you happy? These years have modified, not the folks. The year that passed is forgotten. Embrace this yr. We pray to God by praying May you complete this year. Where ever you wish to travel while not job. That is the frame, your mother wherever this son is relaxed. Forget the past, Settle within the day to return tomorrow, Smile and be happy notwithstanding what Your moment can bring happiness each moment.
New Year Shayari 2021
Flowers can bloom in each garden, beauty is seen, Sour sweet reminiscences of the past year can live along, Come together and celebrate the thrill of the approaching year with joy, On the primary morning of the yr, happiness is sung multitudinous times. In this manner, the yr can begin in 2021, Wish are with everybody There will be nothing to be unhappy concerning, Because within the yr there'll be a rain of happiness. Best desires for this yr. Write this on your heart that each day, This area unit the simplest days of the year. This is not poetry however a praised page Wishing you heaps of latest Year saris, this area unit my desires. Happy yr desires There is no tear within the eyes. No concern in the heart. No tear no concern My expensive friend Happy yr to you from my heart What gift ought to I offer my mother on yr today? Should I gift flowers or necklaces of Gulabo? Which is that the sweetest in my entire life. I will offer my whole life to you. Lions ne'er hide and hunt. Bujdil ne'er overtly attack, We area unit those to want the yr, Do not await the yr. Sometimes she laughs and typically makes her cry. Do not acumen several colors this life shows the U.S.A. Even if you laugh, their area unit tears in your eyes. Don't know what quite reminiscences this area unit Which area unit written within the heart, Pray on the auspicious occasion of this yr, Always smile on the lips of my friends. Because each smile of them offers U.S.A. happiness. The whirlpools can swing till each flower is placed on, Will keep providing you with special and blessings each yr. We ourselves elders, And the younger you're referred to as dearly, Happy yr, We say this to everybody.
Read Also - Mehndi Design Images For The New Year || Mehndi Design Images
Wishing that each high of success are in your name, Your success is saluted by the globe, Courageously facing difficulties, We pray that someday time is your slave. A new year has come back, I'll offer some gifts. What flower ought to I offer myself? You live immeasurable years, This want came out of the guts, I keep one's hands off before that point, When the soul came out of the body. This yr brings huge happiness, Happy yr to you a lot of times. No moment of sorrow involves anyone, May God bless this yr. I love your dreams most That I ought to disarm myself for them, I simply love you most, And build your yr in your name. As the year goes on, you're allotted to God, Happy yr to all or any.
New Year Shayari Of 2021
Remembering no unhappy moments, Take care of the kayak even within the storm The happiness of someone's life, you Just suppose that you simply beware of yourself. happy yr. Their area unit some things still left, Their area unit some lights left from the day to the moment. We area unit positive that he can come back searching for one thing, Now that Bulandia and people expectations area unit left. Sometimes she smiles, typically she cries, This life additionally shows several colors, Even once smiling, there's wet within the eyes, Do not recognize what area unit these moments that settle within the heart, Pray on the occasion of this yr, Always smile on the lips of my friends, Because each smile of them makes the U.S.A. happy. Welcome the yr with swag Forgetting the last fall, we have a tendency to went on a brand new path.
Happy New Year Shayari Quotes Messages 2021 | https://medium.com/@imagesking/happy-new-year-images-2021-happy-new-year-2021-wishes-4610d6ecf84d | ['Images King'] | 2020-12-19 09:12:02.185000+00:00 | ['Photos', 'New Year 2021 Images', 'Image', 'New Year', 'Photography'] |
Managing Pandaemonium: Leadership Techniques from Hell | One of the guilty pleasures of Milton’s Paradise Lost is the appeal of his central character; even though you know you should not be rooting for him and his band of fallen angels, Milton sets up the unfallen angels for a greater Fall: they lack the appeal of Satan’s unruly crew, Jesus is a milquetoast, and God himself is at best peripheral. Satan is one of the original anti-heroes: he’s the Tony Soprano of the underworld, and Hell is his New Jersey. To achieve this, Milton does something interesting: he paints a picture of an effective leader with the most unlikely, demonic form.
We need to start with definitions first. Management & leadership are commonly distinguished as iterative improvement and effective running of the status quo vs. the enabling and shaping of transformational change. The reality is any effective leader shuttles between these two modes constantly, but we are going to focus on Satan’s leadership here. But what is leadership?
In Leadership Without Easy Answers, Ron Heifetz’s 1994 classic on leadership studies, he struggles with this question. He points out that our gut feelings about great leadership are often vague (what is charisma anyway?) or tend to confuse effective persuasion with leadership; it’s too easy to end up with a definition that includes both acknowledged great leaders and demagogues. “When influence alone defines leadership, Hitler qualifies as an authentic and successful leader: he mobilized a nation to follow his vision. Indeed, he inspired millions of people to organize their lives by his word.”
So Heifetz sets forth to introduce values into the definition:
First, the definition must sufficiently resemble current cultural assumptions so that, when feasible, one’s normal understanding of what it means to lead will apply. Second, the definition should be practical, so practitioners can make use of it. Third, it should point toward socially useful activities. Finally, the concept should offer a broad definition of social usefulness.
As he states it later: “socially useful goals not only have to meet the needs of followers, they also should elevate followers to a higher moral level.” He introduces the idea of “adaptive work,” the work that must be done for the community to respond to a changing environment.
You might think that Satan’s prior conviction for trying to overthrow Heaven or subsequent plotting to corrupt all of mankind would be disqualifying, and you’d probably be right. Ideally our definition of “socially useful” should be expansive enough to cover the good of colleagues, shareholders, communities, the environment, future generations, and more. But let’s put that aside and limit our definition of the followers and stakeholders just to Satan’s former army, now downcast:
… he with his horrid crew Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe Confounded though immortal: But his doom Reserv’d him to more wrath; for now the thought Both of lost happiness and lasting pain Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes That witness’d huge affliction and dismay Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate: At once as far as Angels kenn he views The dismal Situation waste and wilde, A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round As one great Furnace flam’d, yet from those flames No light, but rather darkness visible Serv’d only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all; but torture without end ….
Something here has to change, and quickly, which means we are in the mode of leadership. Satan pulls together the full toolkit, starting with the simplest resource, himself.
Executive presence
As a life-long introvert, I tend to weight executive presence much less. More often when the subject comes up with a direct report or a mentee, it’s because someone’s previous manager gave them advice to work on his or her executive presence with no explanation of what this means and no concrete advice on what behaviors he or she should change. But while most of success is showing up, how you arrive does matter: the Devil wore Prada for a reason.
Milton’s Devil arrives, finally landing on a firm spot in the middle of the lake where his “horrid crew” have fallen, “all [their] Glory extinct, and happy state / Here swallow’d up in endless misery” — yet he rises up:
Forthwith upright he rears from off the Pool His mighty Stature; on each hand the flames Drivn backward slope their pointing spires, & rowld In billows, leave i’th’ midst a horrid Vale. Then with expanded wings he stears his flight Aloft, incumbent on the dusky Air That felt unusual weight, till on dry Land He lights, if it were Land that ever burn’d With solid, as the Lake with liquid fire.
And what an arrival! Satan is still armed from his battle in heaven, a shield thrown behind his shoulders, his towering spear a support as he makes his painful way across the fire, and you feel his size and presence in the detail as he stands among his fallen angels. He is not just huge and impossible to ignore — he’s gorgeous:
… the superiour Fiend Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield Ethereal temper, massy, large and round, Behind him cast; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the Moon, whose Orb Through Optic Glass the TUSCAN Artist views At Ev’ning from the top of FESOLE, Or in VALDARNO, to descry new Lands, Rivers or Mountains in her spotty Globe. His Spear, to equal which the tallest Pine Hewn on NORWEGIAN hills, to be the Mast Of some great Ammiral, were but a wand, He walkt with to support uneasie steps Over the burning Marle, not like those steps On Heavens Azure, and the torrid Clime Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with Fire; Nathless he so endur’d, till on the Beach Of that inflamed Sea, he stood and call’d His Legions, Angel Forms, who lay intrans’t Thick as Autumnal Leaves that strow the Brooks
Not everyone has great physical presence; entering a conference room with a massive spear perhaps sets the wrong tone nowadays; and none of us gets to speak with Milton’s poetry. But Milton pauses here to really set the stage for Satan’s great speeches with good reason. We are meant to not just absorb Satan’s ideas, but to feel his presence in the midst of the fallen angels he aims to lead.
In my mind, presence is a combination of physical charisma, dress, non-verbal cues and confidence. Like the Supreme Court’s definition of pornography, you know it when you see it, but it can take many forms. The most powerful form of presence comes of light expressions of confidence, which anyone can learn: the joke you will tell at your own expense; the side comment with a touch of edge; the choice to press your point or the confidence to just let a criticism stand and pass it by.
Building software, writing a complex contract or planning a budget is not like making a chair; the people you are working for sometimes do not really understand what you do and cannot tell the difference between a good job and a great job, yet they still need to make a choice to put the responsibility in your hands. And so they make the call based on their past experience with you or what they know of your reputation, if anything, plus non-verbal cues. You need to bring your expertise and deliver, but before you are even allowed to deliver, someone needs to trust you can do it. I work in technology on Wall Street, and I can tell you the right answer when a head of a trading desk asks you “are we going to be all right in these market conditions?” is not “I don’t know” or an incoherent mumble. The right answer is: “absolutely, and here are the five things we did to make sure it all goes smoothly.” And when the shit hits the fan anyway because of the sixth thing you forgot to do, you calmly take responsibility, explain how you will fix it, and list out what you’ll do to make sure it never happens again.
I once heard a particularly harsh executive comparing someone who had been in a meeting to a houseplant. This was not a comment on his choice to wear a tie and “dress like the job you want” or whether or not he made sure to speak up: this was about the real substance of presence, the stuff that makes people remember you were there, which in turn serves to amplify your best ideas. That manager lacked presence, and so he was less able to influence and get his ideas not just heard, but followed.
Don’t be a houseplant. Strap on your titanium Laboutins, swing an asbestos scarf across your shoulders, and walk across a lake of fire to higher ground. The confidence you carry matters more than the cost of your clothes or the expression of your eloquence.
The call to action
Once risen from the lake, Satan surveys the rest of his fallen soldiers and calls them up:
He call’d so loud, that all the hollow Deep Of Hell resounded. Princes, Potentates, Warriers, the Flowr of Heav’n, once yours, now lost, If such astonishment as this can sieze Eternal spirits; or have ye chos’n this place After the toyl of Battel to repose Your wearied vertue, for the ease you find To slumber here, as in the Vales of Heav’n? Or in this abject posture have ye sworn To adore the Conquerour? who now beholds Cherube and Seraph rowling in the Flood With scatter’d Arms and Ensigns, till anon His swift pursuers from Heav’n Gates discern Th’ advantage, and descending tread us down Thus drooping, or with linked Thunderbolts Transfix us to the bottom of this Gulfe. Awake, arise, or be for ever fall’n.
The response is immediate: “They heard, and were abasht, and up they sprung.” What’s notable is how Satan started here. He did not appeal to their anger or greed, and he touches only lightly on their fears, pointing out that if they stay down for too long their pursuers could take them down. He is not scolding them or insulting them; he. In fact he seems at pains to offer up some more innocent explanations: perhaps they are just resting after battle, for instance, or maybe stunned from the fall. He is trying to inspire adaptive behavior while at the same time is very clear about the dire situation they find themselves in. Taking our common understanding of the Prince of Darkness, he could have easily taken his great spear and made a example of a demon or two and hollered at them to get their lazy asses in gear. That he does not shows he understands it’s more important to fix the situation and help his army than to just vent his anger and frustration — and that by so doing, he’s more likely to get them moving.
He spake: and to confirm his words, out-flew Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze Far round illumin’d hell: highly they rag’d Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arm’s Clash’d on their sounding shields the din of war, Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heav’n.
Emotional openness
A damaged Satan stands before his vanquished army, and initially Milton focuses on how even all the scars of war have not entirely dimmed him. Returning to presence, Satan, standing “like a Towr” is the center of the encircled warriors, who “half enclose him round.” But what’s interesting is where Milton goes next, before Satan’s speech starts:
… he above the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent Stood like a Towr; his form had yet not lost All her Original brightness, nor appear’d Less then Arch Angel ruind, and th’ excess Of Glory obscur’d …. Dark’n’d so, yet shon Above them all th’ Arch Angel: but his face Deep scars of Thunder had intrencht, and care Sat on his faded cheek, but under Browes Of dauntless courage, and considerate Pride Waiting revenge: cruel his eye, but cast Signs of remorse and passion to behold The fellows of his crime, the followers rather (Far other once beheld in bliss) condemn’d For ever now to have their lot in pain, Millions of Spirits for his fault amerc’t Of Heav’n, and from Eternal Splendors flung For his revolt, yet faithfull how they stood, Thir Glory witherd. As when Heavens Fire Hath scath’d the Forrest Oaks, or Mountain Pines, With singed top their stately growth though bare Stands on the blasted Heath. He now prepar’d To speak; whereat their doubl’d Ranks they bend From Wing to Wing, and half enclose him round With all his Peers: attention held them mute. Thrice he assayd, and thrice in spite of scorn, Tears such as Angels weep, burst forth: at last Words interwove with sighs found out their way.
Three times Satan tries to speak but cannot because he’s crying. He is so moved by not only the sight of his former army, but by the realization that “[m]illions of Spirits” had been “for his fault amerc’d / Of Heav’n, and from Eternal Spendors flung / For his revolt, yet faithful how they stood.” Satan is guilty and grieving. He does not hide this either: he pulls himself together and then starts to speak.
A former manager once told me that one of the leader’s jobs is to moderate and re-interpret emotion for his or her team. It’s not a stoic role: we must acknowledge sometimes that the situation is not good and even show the effect it has on ourselves. But because that “half-encircled” group around us is taking cues on how to feel about the situation, we need to moderate that emotion: clip the highs and elevate the lows. Here Satan shows that it’s OK to let some emotion out, and he likely gets credit from his assembled ranks for having the courage to show it and then overcome it. Put another way, Satan models how to process the situation effectively, and adapt to “this dire change.”
Consensus-building
After Mammon crafts the great capital of Hell, Pandaemonium, Satan’s crew gathers within, and “After short silence then / And summons read, the great consult began.” That word choice, consult, again reflects what Satan does not do after his call to action: he doesn’t start by telling everyone what to do. “Satan exalted sat, by merit rais’d / To that bad eminence” so he’s clearly in charge here, but his very first act is to listen:
… With this advantage then To union, and firm Faith, and firm accord, More then can be in Heav’n, we now return To claim our just inheritance of old, Surer to prosper then prosperity Could have assur’d us; and by what best way, Whether of open Warr or covert guile, We now debate; who can advise, may speak.
But we already know Satan’s preferred course of action. Even before Mammon built Pandaemonium, Satan showed his preference for guile, and hinted at his later plan to go to Earth (“Space may produce new Worlds”). He speaks at length, and only at the end concedes that “these thoughts / Full Counsel must mature.”
Henceforth his might we know, and know our own So as not either to provoke, or dread New warr, provok’t; our better part remains To work in close design, by fraud or guile What force effected not: that he no less At length from us may find, who overcomes By force, hath overcome but half his foe. Space may produce new Worlds; whereof so rife There went a fame in Heav’n that he ere long Intended to create, and therein plant A generation, whom his choice regard Should favour equal to the Sons of Heaven: Thither, if but to prie, shall be perhaps Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere: For this Infernal Pit shall never hold Caelestial Spirits in Bondage, nor th’ Abysse Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts Full Counsel must mature: Peace is despaird, F or who can think Submission? Warr then, Warr Open or understood must be resolv’d.
Subsequently multiple demons speak: Moloc urges “open Warr” for he is “[o]f Wiles / More unexpert”; Belial slyly “with words cloath’d in reasons garb” says he’d be for war (“[a]s not behind in hate”) but … guys, seriously, it’s probably a really bad idea after the way we all nearly got killed; it could be much worse the second time around. He proposes they stay in Hell instead: he “[c]ounsel’d ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth” as Milton describes, showing what he thinks of the idea. Mammon continues the counsel for peace, pointing out that they could re-make Heaven in Hell if they wanted:
As he our Darkness, cannot we his Light Imitate when we please? This Desart soile Wants not her hidden lustre, Gemms and Gold; Nor want we skill or art, from whence to raise Magnificence; and what can Heav’n shew more? Our torments also may in length of time Become our Elements, these piercing Fires As soft as now severe, our temper chang’d Into their temper; which must needs remove The sensible of pain. All things invite To peaceful Counsels, and the settl’d State Of order, how in safety best we may Compose our present evils, with regard Of what we are and where, dismissing quite All thoughts of Warr: ye have what I advise.
And that seems to get a lot of traction. What Beelzebub calls “the popular vote” to become “Princes of Hell” holds the room for a while, but Beelzebub pulls them back, returning to Satan’s original theme of corrupting Man as the better approach, for “[t]his would surpass / Common revenge, and interrupt [God’s] joy / In our Confusion ….” And finally it’s resolved without Satan ever having argued his point:
Well have ye judg’d, well ended long debate, Synod of Gods, and like to what ye are, Great things resolv’d; which from the lowest deep Will once more lift us up, in spight of Fate, Neerer our ancient Seat ….
In fact, Milton suggests that Beelzebub was a plant, arguing Satan’s point for him: “Thus BEELZEBUB / Pleaded his devilish Counsel, first devis’d / By SATAN, and in part proposed.”
Satan thus demonstrates several effective strategies for driving change: he frames the discussion; he gathers views and listens first, giving even views strongly against his own a chance to be heard; and in pushing his army toward a more adaptive response, and away from the easy but potentially dangerous course, he tilts the table a bit by having a trusted partner argue his case for him. This is not an authoritarian approach, but it’s not a democratic one either: it’s more like a process of going from an idea to a plan, and ensuring everyone comes along with the idea, even those (like Mammon) who might prefer another approach.
In the end the only question that remains is who will go to Earth, and carry out the plan, and this gives us Satan’s final example of effective leadership.
Servant leadership
Robert Greenleaf’s idea of “servant leadership” aligns well with Heifetz’s concept of leadership: He asks: “Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?” The servant leader shares power, and “the leader exists to serve the people.” And sometimes this means getting down in the trenches.
Satan asks for volunteers to go to Earth:
… who shall tempt with wandring feet The dark unbottom’d infinite Abyss And through the palpable obscure find out His uncouth way, or spread his aerie flight Upborn with indefatigable wings Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive The happy Ile; what strength, what art can then Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe Through the strict Senteries and Stations thick Of Angels watching round? Here he had need All circumspection, and we now no less Choice in our suffrage; for on whom we send, The weight of all and our last hope relies.
It’s a dangerous and important mission, and the response is … crickets:
This said, he sat; and expectation held His look suspence, awaiting who appeer’d To second, or oppose, or undertake The perilous attempt: but all sat mute, Pondering the danger with deep thoughts; & each In others count’nance red his own dismay Astonisht: none among the choice and prime Of those Heav’n-warring Champions could be found So hardie as to proffer or accept Alone the dreadful voyage ….
Finally, Satan, knowing that the good of his army depends on this potentially fatal mission, takes the role of the servant leader and volunteers himself:
But I should ill become this Throne, O Peers, And this Imperial Sov’ranty, adorn’d With splendor, arm’d with power, if aught propos’d And judg’d of public moment, in the shape Of difficulty or danger could deterre Me from attempting. Wherefore do I assume These Royalties, and not refuse to Reign, Refusing to accept as great a share Of hazard as of honour, due alike To him who Reigns, and so much to him due Of hazard more, as he above the rest High honourd sits?
Satan doesn’t berate his army for not volunteering, nor does he pick some hapless soldier to go and take the risk. He acknowledges that since he did not “refuse to Reign” then “Refusing to accept as great a share / Of hazard as of honour” ill becomes him. In short, he understands that with great power comes great responsibility, and that even applies to the Prince of Darkness. And so our servant leader turns to go, “with thoughts inflam’d of highest design, / Puts on swift wings, and toward the Gates of Hell / Explores his solitary flight,” on a mission to help his people. In the end, it’s hard to find fault with him, despite the significant downer of the whole forbidden fruit business, because he leads so well. Go forth and help your demonic horde: the greatest pleasure of leadership is not the recognition, the palace or the throne, but the honor to serve. | https://medium.com/swlh/managing-pandaemonium-leadership-techniques-from-hell-ae26f48345fc | ['Gonzo Delancey'] | 2019-06-12 07:16:13.766000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Management', 'Leadership', 'Essay', 'Management And Leadership'] |
Best CRM Lead Management System | Lead Tracking Software Free! | A Lead refers to an individual or a company that expressed interest in products or services your business offering but that individual or a company not yet purchased any product or service from you. Lead Management interest is expressed by providing a phone number, email address, and so on. Leads are considered an essential part of a business that contributes to the growth of a business. Once you set up a new business, lead generation becomes your primary objective and once you start growing the number of leads your sales executives will find it difficult to manage the leads with manual entries in sheets.
Inquiries received by your employees convert into leads that are entered manually. These manual entries can be managed if the flow of lead generation is limited but if the lead generation is massive then these manual entries invite a lot of discrepancies too. Every lead is important to your business and you should not ruin that lead with an incorrect manual entry of the lead’s information.
To overcome such challenges you need to implement a proper CRM Lead management process for your business that helps you convert a lead into a deal. | https://medium.com/@talhacrm190/best-crm-lead-management-system-lead-tracking-software-free-a3000371fc47 | [] | 2021-12-20 08:44:14.813000+00:00 | ['Software', 'Crm Software', 'CRM'] |
Vendors are People Too | “That guy probably lost his job over the deal I made him take to get any of my business.”
“They lost money on me with that one!”
“There are a dozen other people who can get me the same product (or service) so if they don’t like it stop calling me.”
If you’ve been around the IT world for long you know vendors, cold calls, special one-time only!!! deals, etc etc are a common daily part of your job. You ultimately need them for products, you need them for services, you need them to correctly do you job.
The quotes above are all words I’ve heard from people at networking events. Wearing the fact they pushed (bullied?) a salesperson into what was likely a less than good deal for them as a badge of honor. These people openly boasted this as their approach to all vendor interactions.
That is simply a bad approach to vendor management, and often is indicative of that person’s approach to all interpersonal interactions.
Listen, I understand. Your job when you have budgets and projects under your umbrella is to get work done and done in a way that most responsibly utilizes the financial resources allocated to you. Simply put, get stuff done as cheaply as possible.
I ask that for a moment you think about that person on the other side of the table or phone call. They have a job as well. Their job is to earn business with as much margin (profit) as possible for their employers.
On the surface those two objectives would seem at direct odds with one another. They seem mutually exclusive. There is a factor that can, and should prevent this, one than can allow the customer and vendor relationship Venn diagram have an area of overlap. That factor?
Respect. Mutual respect.
The examples above show a keen lack of respect for people.
To be successful you must build business relationships. The department or division in which you reside in your company doesn’t change that, meaning it isn’t limited to just sales, marketing, etc. To be a successful technology leader you must build trusted business relationships with your vendors. Your vendors must also build relationships with you, both to maintain a sales pipeline reducing the need to constantly fill gaps with new business, and to understand your needs to provide ever better service. It is a two-way street that is only open both ways when all parties respect each other, their financial needs, and their jobs.
When you sit across from a vendor to work on purchase of any non-standard, non-commodity product, when scoping out any project requiring professional services, it is your job as the technology leader to know both what your budget is, and an idea of what things should cost. If you do not know those details, you are not ready to speak with vendors. It is the responsibility of your vendor to know the range of their delivery capabilities, product or service, and what margins they need. You then take that knowledge and apply it to what will make the project mutually successful.
Sure, lowballing and beating a vendor down may get you a one-time lower price, but at what long term cost? What will they do for you to help your purchase or project be successful? How much do you lose going over your business, your department, your infrastructure and products, again and again and again to new salespeople due to burned bridges?
I am fortunate enough to have a very good track record with my projects. A significant reason for that is I have taken the time to understand what my vendor needs for the deal to also be a positive for them. I understand they need margin and profit and within the scope of my budget I’m willing to give that to them. If they cannot provide the product or service within my budget, I respect them enough to say so up front and prevent anyone from wasting time.
The results?
I’ve had vendors overnight items to me via private courier, on a weekend, to prevent a project stall. At no extra cost to me. I’ve had a vendor send their company jet to get a part to me on the same day during a critical outage. I’ve had vendors voluntarily, before my asking, cut prices on one-off items when I’ve told them I was in a budget crunch due to an unexpected need. My vendor account reps respond quickly to all requests and are eager to earn the next piece of business from me. That is my badge of honor.
Do you think any of that happens without the time and respect to help them do their job, earn their commissions, keep their management happy? I’d venture no. My projects were successful in part because I gave them room and respect to operate as their business must.
Have I spent a dollar or two more than I could have? I’m sure. Were those extra dollars spent worth it? The results strongly suggest yes.
My challenge to you is remember, your vendors are people too. Give them the same respect you demand from them and watch how projects smooth for you and your trusted partnerships grow. | https://medium.com/@theotherjon/vendors-are-people-too-d83c0f4dc943 | ['Jon Santee'] | 2020-12-10 13:52:40.321000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Project Management', 'Relationship Building', 'Trust', 'Business'] |
Newborn workshop Sydney | I’m so excited to announce my upcoming newborn photography workshops in Australia! With my Sydney workshop just about full for next month, I also will be travelling to Brisbane in December 2018 and then heading down to Melbourne in March 2019.
Using real newborn babies, I will be covering the following topics:
Workflow
Wrapping
Styling
Newborn posing
Parent posing
Camera settings
Angles & composition
Use of natural light
Each newborn photography workshop will be a full day (6 hour) of learning including lunch and snacks. Attendee’s will be required to bring their camera’s along so they can be involved in fun, hands on practical learning. (Although those who don’t yet have a camera are welcome to be involved as you will still learn so much!).
I will also have an open Q&A time at the end so my attendee’s can ask me anything they like! I am so excited to share my knowledge and experience with you all! My attendee’s will leave my newborn photography workshop with the confidence to be the very best newborn photographers they can be!
Next year, I am planning to do a few international newborn photography workshops and I am so excited to spread my knowledge around the world! If you or someone you know would be interested in attending one of my newborn photography workshops and have any questions, head over to (or send them this link) https://bumpstobabies.com.au/newborn-photography-education/ and complete the form and I’ll be in touch with you as soon as possible! | https://medium.com/@bumpsphotography88/newborn-workshop-sydney-d569720cd55b | [] | 2019-08-27 03:48:55.732000+00:00 | ['Newborn', 'Maternity Photographer', 'Newborn Workshop', 'Photographers', 'Photography'] |
Exploring GraphStudio, a UI for TigerGraph | Getting Started with GraphStudio
1. Login Page
When you hit “open solutions” you will see a screen like the one below.
The first step will be to login to your provisioned instance. By default, the username is “tigergraph” and the password is the one you choose when provisioning the instance.
Login Page
Side Note: before we can Explore and Query the data, we need to first do the following (which we will cover in steps 2,3,4)
2. Publish Schema Design
Click on the “Design Schema” tab.
This is your Schema Design Studio. Think of it as your data modeling space.
Design Schema Tab
One thing that is important when designing the database (aka building the schema) is thinking about how you should structure the data, how is it going to be accessed, are there certain types of algorithms that you will need to account for?
For more information on schema modeling checkout this helpful video.
For the purpose of this tutorial, you will just need to hit the “publish” button which will activate your current design.
Or, if you want to get fancy, try adding a few more vertices or edges.
Done? Let’s move on.
3. Data Mapping
Click on the “Map Data to Graph” tab.
Now that we have the data model published, we can create a data mapping of how the data should be inserted into the graph.
For this example, you see that we have two files, a “friendship.csv” file pointing to the edge “friendship” & a “person.csv” file that points to the “person” vertex.
If you want to explore, click around on edges, files, icons, and vertices… Just be careful of the “delete” button.
Data Mapping Tab
Now double click on one of the edges.
Focus your eyes on the right (of the image above), you will notice how the data or the current file is mapped.
The neat part about these starter kits is that all of the data is pre-mapped. All you need to do is “Publish” the data mapping.
If you have chosen a blank demo. No worries. Just add your data file and then “map data” to Vertex or Edge (reference the icon tools above)
This is the most basic way to load static data. There are many other ways including (but not limited to) kafka streaming, S3, spark, & REST endpoints.
4. Data Loading
Click on the “Load Data” tab.
At this stage we have the schema built and data file mapped. Looking on the right you will notice that there is no data in the graph. That is because we will need to choose 1 or all of the files to initiate the data loading procedure.
Simply click the “play” button to load all the files. It’s that simple.
Data Loading Tab
5. Data Exploration
Click on the “Explore Graph” tab.
Finally, we made it to the fun stuff!
What you’re seeing below is one of the most powerful graph exploration tools. It allows you to access your data and crawl your data without writing a single line of code. This is the page where you can have the MOST fun.
My recommendation is to just start clicking around:
Pick Random Vertices.
Try Expanding Vertices.
Try Expanding Only Certain Edges
Data Exploration Tab
6. Query Building
Click on the “Write Queries” tab.
As much fun as you had above.. this is where the MAGIC happens. Yes, MAGIC in all CAPS! Haha.
Why is it MAGIC? Because GSQL is a turning complete language meaning you can do absolutely anything with it.
But wait there is more.. (always wanted to say that after watching all the commercials)
My favorite feature is every query you build… The query gets automagically exposed as a REST service.
How cool!
Ok, maybe I’m the only one that finds this truly marvelous. But never the less it’s super convenient because after you write something it immediately becomes functional.
Query Building
Let’s test this out (reference image above for places you should click):
Click on the “ hello ” query — This query is designed for the user to put a name into the parameter and the logic is to find all the people that that user is friends with.
” query — This query is designed for the user to put a name into the parameter and the logic is to find all the people that that user is friends with. Click the “ Install ” button
” button Click the “Run” button
Now it’s ready for a parameter. You can try “Tom”.
What do you see? Do you see the connections? Awesome Right? You just literally passed a parameter to the REST endpoint to get these results.
Click “View JSON” — Now you will see the JSON that TigerGraph returns. | https://medium.com/@jon.herke/exploring-graphstudio-a-ui-for-tigergraph-ed0751a3ff49 | ['Jon Herke'] | 2020-01-15 19:26:27.858000+00:00 | ['NoSQL', 'Graphdb', 'Gsql', 'Database', 'Analytics'] |
The Moonshot: Hacktoberfest Launches at Intuit | Our amazing hacktoberfest t-shirts being modeled by the engineers at the India office
As Intuit’s Open Source Lead, I work to create tools and processes to motivate Intuit engineers across the globe to take part in open source (OS). OS is an important part of Intuit tech culture. By fostering a culture of contribution and collaboration within our engineering community, which includes technologists from 17 global sites, we help advance Intuit’s mission to power the prosperity of more than 50M consumers, self-employed and small businesses around the world with TurboTax, QuickBooks, Mint and Turbo. I was relatively new to open source when I took this role and, when I started, I never imagined open source’s power of community building.
In my role, I’m always looking for ways to grow our OS involvement and community. Hacktoberfest, a month-long celebration of OS, seemed like a perfect fit for our tech community. During Hacktoberfest, engineers from around the globe focus on solving OS issues labeled with “hacktoberfest”. With the help of Mastermind Aliza Carpio, Intuit Technology Evangelist, and along with my colleagues in Bangalore, Naresh Ramesh, Kriti Agarwal and Anand Sudhanaboina, we set out to bring Hacktoberfest to the Intuit community.
This year, we focused on motivating our engineers to create a groundswell for Intuit OS projects like CardParts, BenTen and Keiko, as a key element of our commitment to Open Source principles and practices. We started out with labeling parties, where we asked open source maintainers to identify issues ready for contribution and tag them with “Hacktoberfest.”
Aliza Carpio’s tweets are always on point ❤
With some special incentives planned, including a popular limited-edition t-shirt, we introduced Hacktoberfest to the broader Intuit community. Word about the event spread like wild! We built on the momentum by celebrating involvement. Our top contributor, Samantha Monteiro, hosted a hacktoberfest meetup with Women of SDJS that generated 16 PRs to Intuit Open Source projects. Our top maintainer, Dave Bergschneider, split up issues into more manageable segments to give more chances to get involved. Dave’s work helped him generate 17 PRs created to the project he maintains: LD React Components. Contributions came from across Intuit sites, and the sense of excitement and community grew as people shared photos with their t-shirts. We even had non-engineers get involved, submitting PRs for text edits and translations.
The hardest part of hacktoberfest was to distribute the t-shirts across all Intuit offices 😅
What started as a small commitment to launch a Hacktoberfest program turned out to have a huge impact. Involvement and energy kept compounding; the more people got involved, the more people wanted to be involved. That’s part of what makes the open source community so amazing. We each play our own small role, but together, we can achieve things much bigger than we ever imagined.
Here’s a snapshot of our awesome results:
164 Pull Requests against Intuit Open Source projects from Intuit Engineers
against Intuit Open Source projects from Intuit Engineers 149 engineers submitted PRs to Intuit OS projects
to Intuit OS projects 23% of contributors are female engineers, higher than the OS average participation, which is 6%
higher than the OS average participation, which is 6% Top Contributed Projects: QuickBooks-V3-Java-SDK — 35 PRs, Replay Web — 22 PRs, LD-React-Components — 17 PRs
— 35 PRs, — 22 PRs, — 17 PRs For the QuickBooks-V3-Java-SDK the code coverage across 3 projects went from 33% to ~70%, especially payments-api rose from 11% to 92%
Increased star count by 1590 (vs 943 increase from last month)
(vs 943 increase from last month) On Twitter, we had 2,152 impressions and over 150 retweets and likes
Our Top Contributor: Samantha Monteiro
Contributed to Intuit OS projects
Hosted a hacktoberfest meetup with Women of SDJS that generated 16 PRs to Intuit Open Source projects
Completed the official hacktoberfest challenge by submitting 4 PRs to different OS projects
Samantha 🇧🇷 is for sure an inspiration!!
Top Maintainer: Dave Bergschneider
17 PRs created to the project he maintains, LD React Components
Most active project maintainer, even though he went on vacations during Hacktoberfest
Dave had issues for everyone!!!
Our engineers were really excited …
Intuit OS project maintainer were happy…
Many of our engineers, including myself, finished the official Hacktoberfest challenge. Kudos to the Hacktoberfest team! what a great way to get engineers involved in Open Source. I would recommend it to everyone!
All I have to say is… | https://medium.com/intuit-engineering/the-moonshot-hacktoberfest-launches-at-intuit-d9805f342d6 | ['Rocio Montes'] | 2019-11-20 13:47:25.897000+00:00 | ['Community Engagement', 'Intuit', 'Open Source', 'Engineering', 'Hacktoberfest'] |
Top Ten Tweets of 2020 | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/40fathoms/top-ten-tweets-of-2020-ef8edd239b8e | ['Dave Fymbo'] | 2020-12-11 03:35:44.134000+00:00 | ['Satire', 'Humor', 'Twitter', 'Funny', 'Lists'] |
Filthy Riches — Lavish Wealth. We consume without end all while… | Proxies
What do you want? What is satisfying to you? Have you ever stopped to think through these two questions?
What did you discover?
If you have not decided for yourself, you are, by default, relying on the world to serve as your proxy for determining what you want.
What is enough for you?
Let the world chase the extended carrot.
Limited Ambition vs Personal Ambition
Deciding what is enough for you is not mutually exclusive to pursuing grand ambitions in life.
Feeling wealthy when able to afford three meals and a good place to sleep does not necessarily preclude the simultaneous pursuit of larger things.
Deciding for yourself what those ambitions are, independent of the world’s dictate, transforms your “ambition” from merely a reflection of whatever the world presses on you into something emanating from within you.
Deciding that three meals and a place to sleep constitute wealth is not about settling. It is about gratitude.
Being grateful for the seemingly paltry things does not preclude grand ambitions. | https://medium.com/live-your-life-on-purpose/filthy-riches-lavish-wealth-e1bf92381baf | ['Jeremiah Luke Barnett'] | 2019-11-23 18:01:01.211000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Humility', 'Satisfaction', 'Wealth', 'Life'] |
How to Turn the Internet Into Your Writing Laboratory | Publish Often
The key to treating the internet like a laboratory is to publish often so that we can experiment with a variety of different styles and techniques in a short period of time.
Every single time that we publish an article, we’re providing ourselves with another chance to gather data about how it’s received.
I love novels and long essays, but short pieces are best when it comes to getting quick feedback. The fast turnaround time of a short article or blog post allows us to rapidly test different writing techniques.
To me, there’s no worse feeling as a writer than to spend months working on a project, and then end up with barely any readers when it finally comes time to publish.
So should long writing be avoided entirely? Of course not. My solution is to work on long and short versions of an idea simultaneously.
As I continue to work on a long article or essay, I publish the shorter versions of the essay so that I can start gathering feedback. Based on that feedback, I know whether to adjust the style of the longer version or to keep it as is.
There’s no way to guarantee the success of any piece of writing, but experimenting with shorter articles is the best way to improve our chances.
Publish on Multiple Platforms
There are a lot of great publishing platforms online. Unfortunately, it’s easy to allow ourselves to find one that we like and forget about all the others.
Just as I experiment with how I write, I also make sure to experiment with how I publish.
If you only publish on a single website, it can be tough to tell why your writing gets the reaction it does. If you’re getting barely any readers, it might be because your writing needs improvement, but it’s just as likely that you simply haven’t found the right audience yet.
Finding the right audience is just as important as writing well. Even the best writing in the world won’t flourish if it’s being put in front of a group of people who just aren’t interested in the topic.
Learn From the Data
If you want to use the internet as a writing lab, the most important step is to actually read and learn from the data.
Checking to see how many readers each story got is not enough. The essential skill is learning to compare data between stories.
There are so many variables that can affect how a story is received, so we need to be systematic about comparing stories. What I like to do is separate my stories into different categories based on variables that I think might be affecting readership.
For example, how do my stories about one topic do when compared with stories of another? How do two stories about the same topic compare when published on different platforms?
Some of the other variables I think about are whether the story is personal or objective, the overall tone of the story, paragraph length, sentence length, and publication time.
Even after comparing stories, it isn’t always clear what exactly makes one story more successful than another.
When I’m not sure what has attributed to a story’s success, I know that I should experiment with similar stories in the future so that I can have more data to look at. By tweaking the style a little with each story, I can get closer to narrowing down what works and what doesn’t. Experimenting with our writing is a never-ending process, but if we do it correctly, we can get a little better with each article we write. | https://benyaclark.medium.com/how-to-turn-the-internet-into-your-writing-laboratory-22763ecf2872 | ['Benya Clark'] | 2018-12-15 22:42:35.912000+00:00 | ['Writing Tips', 'Blogging', 'Internet', 'Learning', 'Writing'] |
Style all of your Sketch file unstyled layers in 5 minutes | It’s been a couple of years since we built the first version of our design system, and it’s working great.
I remember the first thing we added to the design system was our set of text styles. Primary, secondary, accent, H1 to H6, warning and alert styles, and so on. Every dev and designer knows about them, and they’ve been there — almost unmodified - for the last 2 years. Stable. Perfect.
So how can it happen that still today I open most of my own (my own!) design files and I find tons of unstyled text layers? How the hell is that possible? I’m supposed to be the #1 using those styles and evangelizing about their usage!
Creating a text that looks similar to any of the defined styles is just so damn easy and fast that we’re not taking the time to apply the right style to it. Period.
The fastest way I can think of to apply a style is to select a layer, open Runner, go to Apply, type the style name (or first letters), and hit Return. Not that bad. It’s quick, in fact. Native ways are way way slower.
It’s a mindset issue. An habit. We are creating a text layer. And what do you do to create a text layer? You hit [T], click wherever you want to add the text, and type. Looks bad, so you resize it, and you give them manually the font, color, and size that you want. That “SFPro-Display 16pt #949494” you always use for secondary texts because it passes AA contrast guidelines. Done. Next.
And this is the real problem. You have tons of unstyled layers that look exactly like your defined styles, but are not using them.
You know what comes next. “Inconsistency” is a polite way to call it. It’s a style mess. And then, at some point (typically sooner than later), the day comes, and you want to make a change. Go from 14pt to 16pt. Tweak colors a little bit. Maybe moving to Open Sans…
And you’re dead 🙈. | https://medium.com/sketch-app-sources/what-if-styling-all-of-your-sketch-file-unstyled-layers-took-only-5-minutes-f33eb2955d1a | ['Oscar Oto'] | 2019-11-19 10:20:33.905000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Plugins', 'Sketch', 'Clean', 'Consistency'] |
Will The Next Revolution Be Put on a Blockchain? | As a child, few can claim to have escaped essay writing on an all-too-familiar topic: “technology: a bane or a boon?” I always tried to wriggle my way out of this cliché task, my head bubbling with tales of adventure and heroism. To an adolescent glued to his superhero comics, real technology paled beside the fantastical machines and gadgets I wanted to have. But now, as I have grown up, I realize the true implication of my childhood essay assignment much more acutely. Technology is as ever-changing as it is ubiquitous today, and is capable of helping and harming in equal measure. In the real world, tales of adventure and heroism are often underlined by bloodshed and suffering, and undone by governments trying to suppress their own people. Today, powerful oppressors are armed with advanced technology: to spy, to suppress, to kill. The same technology can stand to benefit the oppressed, looking to piece back a life that has fallen into disarray.
Even as we continue to curl up in our comfortable cocoons, wars rage on in various parts of the world. We may be oblivious to the shrieks of lost children in Syria, we may not know how some of their parents are trying to hunt down a semblance of sense in the piles of rubble. Yet, as the revolutionaries and refugees around the world try to piece together their tattered socioeconomic fabric, it is technology that can come to their aid. Considering our privilege in escaping such a tumultuous fate, the responsibility falls on us to debate and devise how technology can enable and advantage these people. Blockchain is one such technology that can have a massive social impact, especially in war-torn areas where revolutionaries attempt to make the best of their lives. Will the next revolution be put on the blockchain? I definitely think so.
Nowadays we are seeing significant applications of blockchain and cryptocurrencies in areas ravaged by dissent and for good reason. Blockchain, with its theoretically immutable record-keeping that can easily outlive centralized entities because it is decentralized. It can help protect the identity, financial data and medical records of the displaced populace. Cryptocurrencies, for their part, can provide these people with a means to be financially independent without having to rely on a government they find hard to trust.
Blockchain is making it easier to conduct crowdfunding campaigns and reach out to more people without depending upon centralized modes of communication. Now, how does that work?
A few instances could easily help us understand the model being adopted across these war-torn areas to implement blockchain technology. A prime example of this is the “Building Blocks” project undertaken by the World Food Programme (WFP). Run across refugee camps in Jordan, this programme makes use of blockchain as the source of basic currency for refugees. Instead of having to use cash and other forms of centralized fiat, these people can now pay in grocery stores and more based on their biometric data (iris scanning) that is linked to WFP accounts and vouchers.
This stellar application of the technology has reportedly helped cut down on third party costs and fees by as much as 98% and represents a greater potential for identification and database linking in the future. In fact Robert Opp, who is the Director of Innovation and Change Management with the WFP, rightly pointed out how this technology can be used and adopted for humanitarian causes. He reportedly said:
“The exciting part is that these innovations, often developed for more commercially attractive markets, have such potential to improve the lives of those who are furthest behind.”
Cryptocurrencies, built on the underlying blockchain technology, are also being used to salvage the economic realities of these ravaged states.
The example that comes to my mind in this regard is that of Rojova, also called the Democratic Federation of Syria. In 2018 it was reported that this region, struggling under the pressure of economic sanctions from Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq, was trying to devise a cryptocurrency to bypass issues of central Syrian control. As per latest coverage, efforts are still underway in that regard and the people of Rojova are depending on who they call “social engineers” (hackers and developers motivated by a specific political ideology) to come up with a suitable cryptocurrency so that local merchants can be encouraged to use that instead of the Syrian Lira.
The proliferation of smartphones have definitely helped give credence to this idea that cryptocurrencies can work well in this region. In addition, these social engineers have also started considering the use of less sophisticated technology like radio for transmitting crypto-like currency forms.
Additionally, they have mulled over the suggestion of using paper currency pegged to some form of cryptocurrency. While the correct implementation of these plans will take some time, as a part of the region’s overall rebuilding process, we can definitely hope for some major benefits coming from the use of crypto.
We have also seen a major use case in terms of using crypto and blockchain for donations, in a different region of conflict. The Israel Palestine issue has spawned a whole different theater of war and suffering in the Middle East, with the Gaza Strip being one of the focal areas of devastation. Hamas, the group that functions as the de-facto political authority of this region, has also resorted to asking for donations over the blockchain via Bitcoins.
After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu froze millions of dollars in Qatari aid to the Hamas, the organization, which is deemed to be a terrorist outfit by many Western powers; decided to solicit funds in the form of Bitcoins. Of the amount to be received in aid, 15 million dollars were due to Hamas’ civil service officials. Facing attacks from Western and Israeli intelligence, Hamas then decided to adopt more discreet methods of raising Bitcoin to cover its tracks. As they say, one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist and the same applies to the case of Hamas. For many revolutionaries in Gaza, this group represents faith in the midst of despair and their decision to fall back on a new technology for accumulating funds seems to bring with it a glimmer of hope.
With such precedents behind us, we can be certain that the next set of revolutionaries, no matter where they arise and awake, will have a robust form of technology to fall back on, in the form of blockchain and crypto.
By blurring boundaries, decentralizing access, and facilitating the creation of immutable, distributed records; blockchain can help displaced people hold on to their identity and sense of worth. In this way, it can have a huge socioeconomic impact that facilitates revolutionary aims without corrupting its original essence.
Similarly, cryptocurrencies can also put them forward on the economic and financial front, bypassing the restrictive curtailing that may come from the side of governments. Therefore, for those who say that modern technology is primarily the tool of the privileged, must note these examples, to know and understand how these technologies can serve to uplift those who have fallen behind.
We have seen time and again how major organizations have used modern technology to empower those who have suffered tremendous setbacks in their lives and have been forced to contend with the shifting reality of violence and destruction around themselves.
Now that blockchain has joined in, we can be sure to see more socioeconomic benefits being delivered to these war-ravaged regions. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/will-the-next-revolution-be-put-on-a-blockchain-8fa4781a7425 | ['Vinay Nair'] | 2019-05-10 12:00:15.655000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Revolution', 'Politics', 'Hackernoon Top Story', 'Bitcoin'] |
a poet’s walk | world from the eyes of a poet
Tree Fire © Manan sheel (author)
It is the beginning of spring. The world is beautiful. After a harsh winter, life breathes again. The warmth is welcome by all and the earth is rejoicing. I have come out for a walk in the park close to my home. As I enter the park, I see purple flowers on the ground. It is lovely to look at the colorful flowers after a long winter when there was nothing but the white of snow spread everywhere.
As I move ahead, I see a cherry tree with light pink cherry blossoms which looks so beautiful that it seems like it is other-worldly, almost heavenly. I sit on a bench for some time. One brown squirrel has climbed up the bench and is looking at me eagerly with its black eyes. A few light brown sparrows are hopping on the grass in front of me. Their chests puff and contract, and their tails move up and down as they breathe. There is a pond in front of me. A gentle warm breeze is flowing which is making the water at the pond’s surface to flow with it. It looks as if someone has put her lips close to the water and is softly whistling on it. As the wind flows on the pond, a million little pieces of water on its surface shiver making it a sight laced with playful peace and subtle love. Just now, the sun has made its way through a bluish-grey cloud and its rays have filled the little pieces of water on the pond’s surface. This jhilmil shimmer of sun on water is to a poet more precious than all the wealth of gold in the world.
Now, I get up from the bench and move nearer to the pond. Two dark green frogs with slimy black eyes are sitting on the pond’s edge. Suddenly, one of them takes a big leap and lands into the pond with a Chapp-Gulup-Ank. I am curious about frogs. Even when they are so slimy and weird, I don’t fear them like I do the lizards. I think that there is an element of cuteness in them that is not present in the reptiles.
I come to the bench again and start reading a book of poetry that I had bought with me. The poet is talking about that nectar which is inside us and that flowers in a million colors all around us. What the poet is saying is true and beautiful. I read the poems and fill myself with honey. And then at one point, the sweetness becomes too much to endure. I close the book and prefer nature to words, for I can see that what words contain is all around me. Maybe this poet did not find such a beautiful park to come to, and thus he could write so much from imagination. If he would have come to nature directly, there would not be any need to write. Or maybe he wrote in a leisurely way after encountering everything, I don’t know. These are playful thoughts that arise in me and with which I maintain my tenderness and melody in this otherwise straightforward world.
Do you know I am a poet? I am saying this because I maintain willingly these playful, tender thoughts of mine. I don’t want them to leave me. I know that they create trouble for me because of this world that wants everyone to just be ambitious and utilitarian. I love to work but also think that a little poetry, a little sweetness never hurt anyone…
© Manan sheel. | https://medium.com/@manansheel/a-poets-walk-b9576502451a | ['Manan Sheel'] | 2020-12-11 04:13:14.536000+00:00 | ['Nature', 'Description', 'Poet', 'Walk', 'Thoughts'] |
Drout Advertising | Study of Advertisements Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes
Comparing the data between figures 2 and 3, we can see some expected trends. Younger respondents tend to have completed less education than older respondents. They also tend to earn less on average than older respondents. This can be due to a combination between less education completed and less time to build a higher-paying career. Figure 4 (below) also shows a correlation between age and amount spent on products annually. Similar to the trends shown in previous figures, younger respondents tend to spend less on products, possibly due to lower income available for beauty and hygiene products.
Table 3: Ad Perceptions by Gender and Age
Table 3 (above) shows the average number of ads for beauty or hygienic products respondents view or hear on a daily basis. It also displays the number of ads respondents feel subscribe to traditional gender-specific stereotypes. The youngest and oldest age groups reported experiencing the highest number of ads daily, around 53 and 59, respectively. Among those ads, respondents in the 19–28 group felt approximately 95% subscribed to traditional gender stereotypes, which was consistent with the average of the overall study as well. Respondents aged 29–48 felt 97–99% of ads they experienced also subscribed to stereotypes. The 49–58 group differed slightly from the other respondents in estimating the ratio was around 87.5%.
Interestingly, the 19–28 age group felt 6–6.5% of ads they viewed also utilized empowerment advertising in their products. The remaining respondents felt this number was only around 2%, suggesting a difference in perspective between generations of consumers. The Millennial base are individuals who were born between 1981 and 1997, making them around 20–30 years old for this study. Millennials are known for activism and promoting equality among groups, especially genders. The data from this study suggests Millennials may be more perceptive of messages of empowerment in advertising than the older groups.
Below, Table 4 shows the results from the question “To what extent do you agree that empowerment advertising, which explicitly communicates the unique differences in each individual, would help transform cultural gender stereotypes?” Overall, responses trended towards Strongly Agree or Somewhat Agree, with some differences between age groups. Younger respondents aged 19–28 felt they more strongly agreed with the idea of empowerment advertising helping to transform cultural stereotypes. Responses continued towards a more neutral response as the age of respondents increased. Of the respondents aged 49–58, 50% responded with Agree. No respondents indicated they Strongly Disagreed with the idea of empowerment advertising, and only one respondent indicated she Somewhat Disagreed.
Table 4: “To what extent do you agree that empowerment advertising, which explicitly communicates the unique differences in each individual, would help transform cultural gender stereotypes?”
The following charts break down the responses to questions regarding how much of a role advertising plays in reinforcing and transforming gender stereotypes. Participants were asked to rank the role advertisements play in reinforcing gender stereotypes; options available were “Drastic; Influential; Limited; Trivial; None”, from more to least intensity. 59% of respondents felt ads have an influential effect on reinforcing stereotypes, while another 33% felt ads have a more drastic influence. The remaining 8% of respondents felt ads have a limited or trivial role.
Participants were also asked how strongly they agree that empowerment advertising will help transform cultural gender stereotypes. Responses ranging from “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree” were collected, resulting in the distribution below. 30% of respondents strongly agree with the message, while 33% felt they agree somewhat. Another 29% felt they agree, although not as strongly as the other 63% of responses in agreement. 2% of responses disagreed with the message, while the remaining 6% felt neutral about empowerment advertising transforming gender stereotypes.
We can separate the qualitative and quantitative data into two groups for further analysis. The quantitative data includes Age, Annual Spending, Ad Frequency, Ads Enforcing Stereotypes, and Ads Encouraging Empowerment. The average reported age was around 29 years old, with a standard deviation of 11.8. Constructing a 95% confidence interval from this data, we can say there’s a 95% chance the average age of the entire population of interest is between 26.98 and 31.55. From 2018 census information, we know the median age in the USA was around 37.9. While this value is far outside even a 90% confidence interval (26.2, 32.3), the population of interest does not include all Americans as not everyone has a relationship with beauty product advertising.
The average amount spent on beauty products by participants to this survey was around $650. Constructing another 95% confidence interval from this sample, we can be reasonably certain the average spent by the population of interest will fall between $493.85 and $806. This is a relatively large range, especially considering the standard deviation of this sample was over $806 alone. We also know outliers exist from previous analysis. Therefore, it’s recommended to increase the sample size to at least 250 respondents before making meaningful claims about the average amount spent on products. This should provide a margin of error no greater than ±$100 from the sample mean.
Moving to ad frequency, we can claim with 95% confidence that the average number of ads seen by the general population is somewhere between 20.4 and 70.6. The average number of those ads which reinforce gender stereotypes should be within the range of 19.2 to 67.5. This is another instance of a large range of potential values, which again suggests an increased sample size should be used. Using a sample size of at least 266 respondents should decrease the margin of error from ±24 to ±15, providing a more accurate estimate. Finally, of the ads respondents reported viewing, an average of 5.4% supported a message of empowerment to break gender roles. Creating a confidence interval from the sample, we’re 95% confident the population average will fall between 4.2% and 6.6%.
Next, we’ll look at the qualitative data, which includes Gender, Level of Education Completed, Role in Reinforcing Stereotypes, and Agreement in how Empowerment Advertising Transforms Stereotypes. We can determine from the data that about 18.1% of respondents reported their gender as male, while the other 81.9% reported female. Building a confidence interval, we can say with 95% confidence that somewhere between 10.7% and 25.5% of the population of interest will identify as male. Conversely, we’re 95% confident women make up 74.5% to 89.3% of the population. While a margin of error of ±9.7% isn’t too drastic, a larger sample size of at least 230 would be preferable to bring it under ±5%.
41.9% of respondents to this survey reported a Bachelor Degree as their highest education completed. Creating a 95% confidence interval results in a margin of error of ±68.4%. This allows us to claim with 95% confidence that between 32.5% and 51.3% of the population has completed a bachelor degree as their highest level of education. Increasing the sample size to at least 375 would reduce the error to less than ±5% at 95% confidence. This should also address accuracy concerns for other data as mentioned above, reducing the error for each item to a reasonable value.
From the collected data, 33.3% of respondents felt advertisements have a drastic effect on reinforcing gender stereotypes. Assuming 95% confidence, we can assume between 24.3% and 42.6% of the population feel the same way. 59% of respondents felt advertising is influential, but not as drastically, in reinforcing these roles. Constructing another 95% confidence interval suggests 49.6% to 68.5% of the population will also fall into this category. 92.4% of respondents to this survey expressed some agreement that empowerment advertising will shape cultural gender stereotypes. At 95% confidence, we can assume between 87% and 97% of the population of interest agree with the idea as well. | https://medium.com/@damon.ray.roberts/drout-advertising-an-analysis-of-perceptions-of-gender-stereotypes-within-health-and-beauty-455676c4451f | ['Damon Roberts'] | 2019-05-30 16:11:28.474000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Excel'] |
10 Subtle Behaviors on Dating Apps That Turn People Off | 10 Subtle Behaviors on Dating Apps That Turn People Off
Photo by diana.grytsku @ Freepik.com
There’s a lot about online dating that turns many of us off, but it’s here to stay. Some happy Tinder-matched couples even assure me it can work! I decided to do some digging and find out for you what good online dating looks like…and what people hate, so you can avoid turning off potential matches.
I asked over 200 singles — men and women — from two Facebook groups, Twitter, and some of my local single friends, what their pet hates are. Obviously all the big hitters turned up: d*c pics, early sexual comments, asking for naked pics, hunting/fishing photos, scammers, and getting aggressive, were among the most hated things on dating apps. We all know these basic “what not to do” behaviors, but what about the more subtle ones? The ones we don’t realize are turning people away?
Here’s what they said:
1. Less than cute
It’s lovely when your partner calls you sweetheart, darling, or pumpkin-pie (whatever does it for you). Research shows baby-talk, couple-speak, and cute names can be good for your relationship. But what about when someone you haven’t even met does it?
Over one hundred women were asked this question in one of my Facebook groups and all unanimously said they hated it. The least favorite? Baby or babe. For some reason there are a number of men on Tinder and similar apps starting their messages this way. They dole out variations of “Good morning, sweetheart” or “Hey sexy” to every woman they message.
To make a good first impression, it’s best to save the endearments for when you’re snuggled up on the couch with her in real life. | https://medium.com/hello-love/10-subtle-behaviors-on-dating-apps-that-turn-people-off-3ba9dec56e39 | ['Kelly Eden'] | 2021-03-29 01:01:40.076000+00:00 | ['Relationships Love Dating', 'Relationships', 'Digital Life', 'Love', 'Dating'] |
The Problem Solvers Caucus Solves Your Problems: An Advice Column for Problem-Solving | Looking for advice? Let us help! We’re the Problem Solvers Caucus, an honest-to-God Congressional group of moderate representatives! We are obviously very good at our jobs, because we’ve solved TONS of problems and you’ve definitely heard of us.
Let’s jump in!
Look, we have a logo!
Dear Bi-Partisan Representatives of the Problem Solvers Caucus:
I’m a single mother in a small town, working the night shift. Lately, finding a babysitter has been a daily, expensive struggle. I’m afraid that soon I’ll have to start choosing between staying home with my son and making sure our bills get paid.
I feel so alone right now. What should I do?
– Adventures in No Babysitter
Dear Adventures in No Babysitter,
Believe us, we know what it’s like to feel alone. We’ve dined solo at many, many fancy restaurants. But being alone doesn’t always have to be scary or isolating. Oftentimes, it can be a very refreshing, empowering experience.
Here’s our advice — embrace being alone! Turn off your phone, throw on some heels, and head to your local dimly-lit Italian joint. Read a book while sipping a glass of Malbec and cultivating an air of mystery. And make sure you order dessert! A Mom’s night out is just the thing you need.
Problem solved!
Dear Specialized Council for Troubleshooting,
I’ve been teaching for three years now, and I’m starting to burn out. Every year, I’m assigned more and more students, and I can’t possibly give all of them the help they need. Many of my kids can’t afford school supplies or even breakfast, and I worry about them all the time. I’m terrified that I’m not a good enough teacher to make sure none of them slip through the cracks.
Should I quit my job?
– Bad Teacher
Dear Bad Teacher,
Oh, Bad Teacher. You are more than good enough. While we hold space for your struggle, we ask that you reconnect with your unique vibrational frequency and trust that the Universe has placed you exactly where you need to be.
Have you ever tried meditating? We just started last week! It has helped so much with releasing ancestral baggage and destressing after lobbyist calls. We recommend that you spend time listening to our favorite YouTube shaman, Hugo, who hums quietly while playing a Tibetan singing bowl shirtless. It’s lifechanging.
(Also, have you considered a GoFundMe for school supplies?)
Problem solved!
Dear Highly-Qualified Issue Analysts,
Last week, I caught the flu. I had chills, a 101º fever, and I coughed so hard, I thought I bruised a rib. I knew I had to go to a hospital, but my vision was so blurred, I couldn’t drive. And since my insurance doesn’t cover ambulances…I called an Uber. I tried to hide it, but the driver knew I was sick, and he looked so defeated. He asked me to try not to cough, so his kids wouldn’t catch it.
I feel like a jerk. Was it unethical for me to take that Uber?
– Lost in Transportation
Dear Lost in Transportation,
Oh no! Figuring out how to navigate a city is never easy. Have you ever been on an Italian cross-country train? There are so many unwritten social codes to decipher! Seats can be totally up for grabs regardless of what your ticket says, the dining car is euro-only, and you only get the complimentary hot towels on the third Tuesday of the month.
Our opinion? Get the business class ticket. Sure, it might seem expensive and unnecessary at the time. But that extra legroom and free pinot grigio is going to keep you comfortable all the way from the Venice canals to the Roman colosseum.
Problem solved!
Dear Elected Officials of the United States Government,
I got laid off nine months ago, and as hard as I try, I can’t find another position. Unemployment didn’t cover my rent, but I couldn’t find a cheaper place with no job. I blew all my savings trying to keep up, even with my roommates helping where they could. And now, my landlord just threatened to kick me out if I don’t start paying him back.
My tenant union says that he technically has to give me five days’ notice before evicting me, but he’s an independent landlord who hasn’t followed city code before, so I’m worried he won’t this time, either.
I think I’m going to be on the street soon. I really need some help.
– Legal Eviction
Dear Legal Eviction,
Ah, the job search! It’s such a pain. If we never had to write another cover letter again, it would be too soon!
Here’s our secret tip — dust off your LinkedIn page. Have you thoroughly detailed your professional experience? Have you asked former employers for skill endorsements? Is your profile picture still your college graduation photo? (Oh boy, we hope not!)
And don’t forget to spice up your LinkedIn with a little personality! Do you run marathons? Speak fluent Portuguese? Take improv classes on the weekends? Throw that in there! Employers want to know who you are as a person, outside of being just another employee who needs a job to stave off hunger and homelessness.
Problem solved!
Dear H. Res Bi-Parts,
My Marble Queen pothos keeps losing leaves — help!
– Little Poth of Horrors
Dear Little Poth of Horrors,
Sounds like it’s root-bound! That means your plant has outgrown the size of its pot. Now the roots system has twisted itself into a tangled, lifeless mass, cutting off air and water supply and slowly killing your plant.
If your sick plant is root-bound, start by immediately removing it from the ill-fitting pot. Then, dismantle the suffocating root system, and give it the clean water, nutrient-rich soil, and warm sun it needs to survive. These are your plant’s basic, bare-minimum needs, and without them, it will die.
But if you can’t manage that right now, just leave it be. It should be fine for a couple more months.
Problem solved! | https://medium.com/@saracosty/the-problem-solvers-caucus-solves-your-problems-an-advice-column-for-problem-solving-7deef911c762 | ['Sara Costello'] | 2020-12-22 17:53:28.948000+00:00 | ['Stimulus', 'Congress', 'Problem Solving', 'House Of Representatives'] |
InterValue Project Weekly: 20180813–20180819 | Part 1. Development Progress of InterValue.
Project progress
(1) We developed Light node cold wallet and multi-wallet function.
(2) We integrate the Join-mechanism of the local full node into the full node.
(3) We completed the formal verification research and program design of smart contracts.
(4) We design solutions for data storage problems faced by high TPS.
2. Whitepaper
(1) Some regular details have been modified.
3. Communities
(1) The member of InterValue English telegram groups reached to 51,395.
(2) The member of InterValue Chinese telegram groups reached to 92,031.
Part 2. Strategic Cooperation.
We signed a strategic cooperation agreement with ICC, BodyOne, HashStor, DGames, 2Fchain, Magcloud Digital Technology, ROOTSCAP, BENRUI CAPITAL, XiDian University, Beijing Institute of Technology, XinQidian, BiYong, BiXiang, BiShijie, Btcdo.
2. Negotiate with several major Exchanges for our cooperation intention.
Part 3. Media Activities.
InterValue, building a new ecology – the world’s first leading million TPS public chain technology summit forum.
Hosted by the InterValue Foundation, “InterValue, Building an Ecology – The World’s first Leading Million TPS Public Chain Technology Summit Forum” was successfully held on August 18, 2018, in Beijing. It provides a high level of communication for the industry. The platform provides a brainstorming gathering for academics, media, institutions, application companies, and technical communities, and brings people together to jointly build a new blockchain 4.0 ecosystem.
2. GLAB Global Blockchain Project Excerpt
InterValue’s Founder and CEO Barton Chao was invited to participate in the “GLAB Global Blockchain Project Excerpt” campaign. The campaign is going on.
3. The Sohu.com wrote the “The World’s first Leading Million TPS Public Chain Technology Summit Forum” was successfully held on August 18” report on the InterValue project, which is reprinted by many medias.
4. We announced that:
① The World’s first Leading Million TPS Public Chain Technology Summit Forum” will be held on August 18, 2018.
② InterValue officially established Blockchain Security Division.
③ ROOTSCAP and InterValue R & D jointly established Xiangjiang Blockchain Research Institute.
Part 4. The Historical Process of InterValue.
(1) In August 2017, Barton Chao envisioned the positioning, vision ,and functionality of InterValue.
(2) From September to October in 2017, InterValue created a team and refined the functions.
(3) In November 2017, InterValue created the R&D team, and began to write a white paper and a development plan.
(4) In January 2018, InterValue completed the first draft of the Chinese and English white papers.
(5) From February to March in 2018, InterValue completed Chinese and English white papers from InterValue 1.0 to 4.0.
(6) In April 2018, the InterValue v1.0 testnet was completed and put into practice.
(7) In May 2018, the development of the InterValue v2.0 test was launched.
(8) In June 2018, the InterValue v1.0 testnet wallet Demo was launched.
(9) In June 2018, the InterValue v2.0 Hashnet consensus mechanism was verified.
(10) In June 2018, the InterValue v2.0 exceeded a million TPS. | https://medium.com/intervalue/intervalue-project-weekly-20180813-20180819-fa5397d4a1 | [] | 2018-08-13 20:00:00 | ['Intervalue', 'Technology', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin'] |
Using the Scientific Method to Debug Containerized Applications | The Scientific Method in Action
Now let’s see that approach in action.
1. Ask “What should be happening?”
First, we need to understand what our application is trying to do. To start investigating, we need to understand the details of the page rendering. Let’s see how the Dockerfile describes our service:
FROM python:3 WORKDIR /usr/src/app COPY requirements.txt ./ RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt RUN echo "healthy" >> /tmp/healthy && \ cat /tmp/healthy ENV FLASK_ENV=development ENV FLASK_APP=myapp.py COPY myapp.py . CMD [ "python3", "myapp.py" ]
Pretty simple. We have a Python3 application, it installs some requirements and then starts myapp.py . Let’s take a quick look at what our Python application is doing and then we can decide how to best proceed.
from flask import Flask, Response import os import psycopg2 app = Flask(__name__) query = ("select * from actor order by random() limit 5;") host = os.getenv("host") password = os.getenv("PSQL_PASSWORD") user = os.getenv("PSQL_USERNAME") dbname = os.getenv("PSQL_DBNAME") print(host) print(user) print(dbname) def callpsql(): conn = psycopg2.connect(dbname=dbname, user=user, password=password, host=host, port="5432") cur = conn.cursor() cur.execute(query) results = cur.fetchall() cur.close() conn.close() return results @app.route('/') def index(): response = callpsql() print("Getting some juicy logs") results = "I've sold to these famous people from server "+os.getenv("DYNO")+": <br>
" for row in response: results = results+"<br>
"+str(row[1])+"\t"+str(row[2]) return results @app.route('/health') def health(): f = open("/tmp/healthy", "r") print(f) health = f.readline().rstrip() resp = Response(health) if health != "healthy": resp.status=500 resp.headers['health-check'] = health return resp if __name__ == "__main__": port = 5000 app.run(debug=True, host='0.0.0.0', port=port)
Another pretty simple application. This takes a few environment variables for authentication and executes a SQL query against a Postgres database when the root page is called.
2. Determine reasons that might explain why it’s not happening
Now that we know what the application is trying to do, we move to the next step, explain why it’s not happening in our new environment.
Here we can look at the Heroku logs --tail command that’s suggested on the error page. This should give us a good idea of what our service is doing at any point in time and also help us form a hypothesis as to what might be the problem.
$ heroku logs --tail -a heroku-troubleshooting ... 2020-08-22T22:45:34.805282+00:00 heroku[router]: at=error code=H14 desc="No web processes running" method=GET path="/" host=heroku-troubleshooting.herokuapp.com request_id=09292b76-b372-49e9-858b-e8611c020fd5 fwd="xx.xx.xx.xx" dyno= connect= service= status=503 bytes= protocol=https …
We see the error “No web processes running” appear every time we load the page. It seems as though Heroku doesn’t know that we’ve started Flask. Great! We have our hypothesis: “Flask probably isn’t running in Heroku’s environment.”
3. Design a test to validate/invalidate those claims by tuning a config or using a tool
Now let’s move to the next steps: create a test to validate what we think is happening, observe the outcome, and draw a conclusion.
So let’s test our hypothesis. We’ll hop onto our dyno and validate that the Flask service is (or is not) actually running. Our Dockerfile specifies python should be a running, listening service.
$ heroku ps:exec -a heroku-troubleshooting Establishing credentials... error ▸ Could not connect to dyno! ▸ Check if the dyno is running with `heroku ps'
4. Observe the outcome
We released our container, so it should be running. However, the logs from our test have shown us that we couldn’t connect to the dyno that should be running the code. Executing the suggested command may give us another clue.
$ heroku ps -a heroku-troubleshooting
No dynos on ⬢ heroku-troubleshooting
5. Draw a conclusion
Well, this is embarrassing. The scientific method conclusion? We were wrong in our initial assertion that our released code left us with a running dyno to serve the code. We definitely pushed and released our image but we didn’t add any dynos to our application. It appears we have validated that the application is not running and that our hypothesis was incorrect.
6. Repeat until the outcome is what should be happening
So we move to the next step, which is to repeat the process, and we’ll continue to repeat this process throughout this article until our problem is solved.
So let’s form a new hypothesis and test it. Our new hypothesis, based on the last test, is that with the dyno running, we should be able to reach our Flask application from the outside world. We’ll scale a dyno up to start the application and check the logs again to test that assertion.
$ heroku dyno:scale -a heroku-troubleshooting worker=1 Scaling dynos... done, now running worker at 1:Standard-1X $ heroku logs --tail -a heroku-troubleshooting 2020-08-22T23:29:05.207217+00:00 app[api]: Scaled to worker@1:Standard-1X by user 2020-08-22T23:29:18.202160+00:00 heroku[worker.1]: Starting process with command `python3 myapp.py` 2020-08-22T23:29:18.760500+00:00 heroku[worker.1]: State changed from starting to up 2020-08-22T23:29:21.559386+00:00 app[worker.1]: None 2020-08-22T23:29:21.559547+00:00 app[worker.1]: None 2020-08-22T23:29:21.559548+00:00 app[worker.1]: None 2020-08-22T23:29:21.559549+00:00 app[worker.1]: * Serving Flask app "myapp" (lazy loading) 2020-08-22T23:29:21.559556+00:00 app[worker.1]: * Environment: development 2020-08-22T23:29:21.559556+00:00 app[worker.1]: * Debug mode: on 2020-08-22T23:29:21.636027+00:00 app[worker.1]: * Running on http://0.0.0.0:5000/ (Press CTRL+C to quit) 2020-08-22T23:29:21.637965+00:00 app[worker.1]: * Restarting with stat 2020-08-22T23:29:21.897821+00:00 app[worker.1]: * Debugger is active! 2020-08-22T23:29:21.929543+00:00 app[worker.1]: * Debugger PIN: 485-744-571
There we go. Now the application has started! It’s time to test the site again to observe if it’s working.
Error message
Our conclusion now, is it’s definitely not. We should go over our commands again and see if the status has changed at all so that we can create a new hypothesis.
$ heroku logs -a heroku-troubleshooting
2020-08-22T23:32:12.098568+00:00 heroku[router]: at=error code=H14 desc="No web processes running" method=GET path="/" host=heroku-troubleshooting.herokuapp.com request_id=4d3cbafa-cb31-4452-bfc6-7ee18ce72eb0 fwd="xx.xx.xx.xx" dyno= connect= service= status=503 bytes= protocol=https
$ heroku ps -a heroku-troubleshooting
=== worker (Standard-1X): python3 myapp.py (1)
worker.1: up 2020/08/22 16:31:59 -0700 (~ 3m ago)
It looks like we’re running a service but we can’t get any more data using only the logs. Hypothetically, we can get into the service and make sure it’s working.
$ heroku ps:exec -d worker.1 -a heroku-troubleshooting Establishing credentials... error ▸ Could not connect to dyno! ▸ Check if the dyno is running with `heroku ps'
Here we can observe that even with the dyno running, we can’t connect to it. Looking back at our Dockerfile and some documentation, we can conclude that there are a few requisites needed for the Heroku environment to support exec into the deployed containers. We should add a few utility commands we might need while we’re in here to test future hypotheses while we test if this new configuration will allow us to connect.
Dockerfile
... RUN apt-get update && \ apt-get install -y \ curl \ openssh-server \ net-tools \ dnsutils \ iproute2 RUN mkdir -p /app/.profile.d && \ touch /app/.profile.d/heroku-exec.sh && \ echo '[ -z "$SSH_CLIENT" ] && source <(curl --fail --retry 3 -sSL "$HEROKU_EXEC_URL")' >> /app/.profile.d/heroku-exec.sh && \ chmod +x /app/.profile.d/heroku-exec.sh ...
One more push and release later and we’ve validated our conclusion was correct and we can finally connect:
$ heroku ps:exec -d worker.1 -a heroku-troubleshooting Establishing credentials... done Connecting to worker.1 on ⬢ heroku-troubleshooting... The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software; the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright. Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law. ~ $
Now that we’re in the application, we can check our hypothesis that the port is listening as it should be and that our application is responsive from within the container itself. We can utilize “net-tools” netstat command as a test to show us a list of ports that are open on our container and listening for calls to open a socket.
~ $ netstat -apn | grep 5000 | grep LIST (Not all processes could be identified, non-owned process info will not be shown, you would have to be root to see it all.) tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:5000 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 3/python3
Our analysis shows that the port is open as expected and our hypothesis is correct.
Because nothing has changed, we must design a new test. “Curl” can act as our command-line internet browser to show us a simplified view into the port we now verified is open and listening properly.
~ $ curl -I localhost:5000 HTTP/1.0 500 INTERNAL SERVER ERROR Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 X-XSS-Protection: 0 Server: Werkzeug/1.0.1 Python/3.8.5 Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2020 00:27:14 GMT ~ $ curl localhost:5000 ... psycopg2.OperationalError: could not connect to server: No such file or directory Is the server running locally and accepting connections on Unix domain socket "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432"? ...
Ah-ha! Our analysis of this error proves that the calls are failing because we’re getting a 500 error in our application. Our new hypothesis is that this is surely at least one reason why Heroku won’t send traffic to our application. If we look back at our Python code, we can see that it requires some environment variables. In our local host, we have them exported as part of a development virtual environment. We can now conclude these need to be added to our application in Heroku as well.
Our new hypothesis becomes: “The service should work as expected in both the local and production environments.” To test this hypothesis and pick up the new change, we’ll need to restart our worker which should let the application pick up the new environment variables.
$ heroku ps:restart worker.1 -a heroku-troubleshooting Restarting worker.1 dyno on ⬢ heroku-troubleshooting... done $ heroku ps:exec -d worker.1 -a heroku-troubleshooting Establishing credentials... done Connecting to worker.1 on ⬢ heroku-troubleshooting... The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software; the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright. Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law. ~ $ curl -I localhost:5000 HTTP/1.0 200 OK Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 148 Server: Werkzeug/1.0.1 Python/3.8.5 Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2020 00:50:35 GMT ~ $ curl localhost:5000 I've sold to these famous people from server worker.1: <br> <br> Julianne Dench<br> Sylvester Dern<br> Greta Keitel<br> Dustin Tautou<br> Penelope Monroe
We’ve now validated that the local container is working as we expect after re-running our previous tests. Still, our logs and browser conclude that the app is still not functioning as expected.
Logs from our internal curls:
2020-08-23T00:50:35.931678+00:00 app[worker.1]: 127.0.0.1 - - [23/Aug/2020 00:50:35] "[37mHEAD / HTTP/1.1[0m" 200 -
2020-08-23T00:50:41.807629+00:00 app[worker.1]: 127.0.0.1 - - [23/Aug/2020 00:50:41] "[37mGET / HTTP/1.1[0m" 200 -
Logs from our external browser:
2020-08-23T00:50:47.151656+00:00 heroku[router]: at=error code=H14 desc="No web processes running" method=GET path="/" host=heroku-troubleshooting.herokuapp.com request_id=a9421f09-94f2-4822-9608-f2f63ffe5123 fwd="68.251.62.251" dyno= connect= service= status=503 bytes= protocol=https
Error message
With the application working in the container, it seems that everything should be working fine, hypothetically. Utilizing our prior re-run of tests and taking a closer analysis of the error “No web processes running” gives us another hint. There are two types of dynos, and we’ve deployed this as a “worker” dyno. Looking at the documentation, we can conclude that perhaps we’ve deployed to the wrong resource type that does not get an ingress. Hypothetically Heroku should provide a dynamic external port if we configure the dyno as “web” instead of “worker.” Time to test redeploying as a “web” dyno.
heroku ps:scale worker=0 -a heroku-troubleshooting heroku container:push web -a heroku-troubleshooting heroku container:release web -a heroku-troubleshooting heroku ps:scale web=1 -a heroku-troubleshooting
Browsing to the site still gives the same conclusion as our initial tests, but now our observed logs are giving us our next thread to investigate.
2020-08-23T01:03:12.890612+00:00 app[web.1]: * Serving Flask app "myapp" (lazy loading) 2020-08-23T01:03:12.890619+00:00 app[web.1]: * Environment: development 2020-08-23T01:03:12.890620+00:00 app[web.1]: * Debug mode: on 2020-08-23T01:03:12.905580+00:00 app[web.1]: * Running on http://0.0.0.0:5000/ (Press CTRL+C to quit) 2020-08-23T01:03:12.906860+00:00 app[web.1]: * Restarting with stat 2020-08-23T01:03:13.661451+00:00 app[web.1]: * Debugger is active! 2020-08-23T01:03:13.662395+00:00 app[web.1]: * Debugger PIN: 196-723-097 2020-08-23T01:04:07.990856+00:00 heroku[web.1]: Error R10 (Boot timeout) -> Web process failed to bind to $PORT within 60 seconds of launch 2020-08-23T01:04:08.016515+00:00 heroku[web.1]: Stopping process with SIGKILL 2020-08-23T01:04:08.224860+00:00 heroku[web.1]: Process exited with status 137 2020-08-23T01:04:08.290383+00:00 heroku[web.1]: State changed from starting to crashed 2020-08-23T01:04:08.293139+00:00 heroku[web.1]: State changed from crashed to starting “Web process failed to bind to $PORT”
We can conclude that we need to bind our process to a variable rather than our default Flask port. This is simple enough to fix in our Python application. If we have the correct variable mapped in our production environment, and our application is utilizing that as its port configuration, then we should have a fully functioning site. To test this we can pass in the environment variable from the host and use it in our app.run argument.
myapp.py if __name__ == "__main__": port = int(os.getenv("PORT", 5000)) app.run(debug=True, host='0.0.0.0', port=port)
Famous People
And there you have it! Our analysis of the test shows that the app works both locally and when deployed. One final validation to ensure that our changes continue to work in our development environment as well. | https://betterprogramming.pub/using-the-scientific-method-to-debug-containerized-applications-96749a4940ae | ['Michael Bogan'] | 2020-11-21 16:54:31.390000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Heroku', 'Containers', 'Debugging', 'Programming'] |
Distributed Databases, Distributed Ledger and Blockchain. Which is Which? | The Holy Grail
Few days ago I witnessed a heated discussion on one of my contacts’ LI page over the differences between distributed databases, distributed ledger and blockchain technology.
The discussion and the differing points of view weren’t, surprisingly, surprising at all! They, merely, reflect the bigger controversy in the field over these technologies, especially DLT and BC.
According to Fotune a Google search for “blockchain” returns 215 million websites, while “distributed ledger technology” returns only 1.3 million.
Some experts and publications tend to use the acronym DLT over blockchain to describe the technology from a wider perspective or to avoid getting into the different classifications of blockchain technology types, which is a thorny issue in its own right.
While businesses tended to use blockchain technology to benefit from the hype surrounding the technology, it seems that this trend is changing with the different levels of maturity attained in the market.
Further, blockchain as a term is more associated with public permissionless blockchains, especially bitcoin, which is not welcome by different governments nor its underlying technology.
Therefore, DLT is emerging as an alternative to be used by high-end firms and mainly financial institutions, which apply the technology in a centralised manner or with a different modus operandi diverging sharply from the main characteristics of a public permissionless blockchain.
Anyway. While I was conducting my habitual and ritual daily research routine on BC technology, I stumbled again upon an old study — though it was conducted in 2017 — which I read many months ago. It discusses BC technology, its emergence and ecosystem. It has many interesting information which may fill the gaps in knowledge for many non-techies like myself.
I have found a small section which addresses the differences between the three technologies, DD, DLT and BC. I, gladly, present what I have read with minimum to no editing.
Below is a framework that can be used to distinguish between traditional distributed databases, distributed ledgers, and blockchains. Distributed ledgers are a subset of distributed databases, and blockchains are a subset of distributed ledgers.
This is not an exhaustive list. It is just and attempt to show the main differences between each type.
What is described below is mainly about public blockchains.
*Image and table reproduced from Global Blockchain Benchmarking Study by Dr Garrick Hileman & Michel Rauchs 2017 | https://medium.com/@rakizaprodev/distributed-databases-distributed-ledger-and-blockchain-which-is-which-64fce505c988 | ['Rakiza', 'Aiman Nazaal'] | 2019-06-17 07:50:30.966000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Blockchain', 'Distributed Ledgers', 'Digital Transformation', 'Database'] |
How I Relearned a Language With Duolingo | How I Relearned a Language With Duolingo
Is a 200-day Duolingo streak worth the time?
Public Domain — Credit: Listen & Learn
I recently reached the 200-day (unbroken streak) milestone with the language-learning app Duolingo. Here are my thoughts on my progress during this time and whether using Duolingo every day has been worthwhile.
But, first, here’s a rough outline of my background in learning Spanish:
I learned Spanish throughout my time at secondary school (between the ages of 11 and 16) and had a decent grasp of conversational Spanish vocabulary and grammar.
I generally understood how and when to use the present, past preterite, past imperfect, future inflection and conditional future tenses and had a basic awareness of the present subjunctive and past subjunctive tenses.
I also had the opportunity to visit Spain several times during these years. I felt confident having basic conversations in Spanish and could comfortably cope with ordering at restaurants, asking for directions, and so on.
But, since then, I have allowed my Spanish to slip. 200 days ago I could still manage some conversational Spanish, but with nowhere near the same degree of fluency or confidence. I’d become out of touch with the grammatical rules of the language and had forgotten much of the vocab I used to know.
In an attempt to claw back my Spanish, and gifted more free time than I knew what to do with (*lockdown*), I decided to give the language learning app Duolingo a go.
Duolingo is a free language-learning platform with millions of users worldwide. The app allows users to learn languages using the traditional theme-based method, dividing vocab into various topics and then subdividing these topics into different levels of difficulty, called ‘lessons’.
These lessons involve translation exercises (from your native language to your target language, and vice versa), listening exercises, matching exercises (to images or words) and speaking exercises.
However, Duolingo’s main attraction is its use of a concept known as spaced repetition. Over time, as you progress through new topics and levels, old lessons will begin to ‘crack’. When this happens, you are encouraged to revisit these lessons to prevent your progress from being lost. This means that you are being constantly reminded of old vocab, making you less likely to forget it.
Duolingo logo — Wikipedia Commons, public domain
My goals for re-learning Spanish could be summarised as follows:
Expand my vocabulary. Revive my lost understanding of Spanish grammar and grammatical exceptions. Become more confident in my ability to speak conversational Spanish and understand spoken Spanish.
Of course, 200 days isn’t really long enough to accurately measure my progress. Nevertheless, my progress over the last four months should act as a fairly reliable indicator of my language learning trajectory. | https://medium.com/digital-diplomacy/how-i-relearned-a-language-with-duolingo-b903db269652 | ['Theo Sheppard'] | 2020-12-08 12:06:26.220000+00:00 | ['Spanish', 'Life', 'Language', 'Education', 'Language Learning'] |
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