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Why are Women told to Cover Up? | An Essay By Caitlin Kelly, 2020
INTRODUCTION: From a Young Woman’s Perspective
Why are women told to cover up from men’s glares? As a woman, all my life from the age of eleven, I was told: “maybe put on a jacket over that,” “you can’t wear that, it’ll distract the boys,” “your dress can’t be that short.” I’ve always thought it was unnatural when my public middle school put in place a dress code. As if sexualizing underage girls wasn’t weird enough, they would never put restrictions on the boys. This system is sexist. Girls couldn’t show their shoulders, they couldn’t wear shorts that were under a certain length, and so on. I was told what to wear and what to not wear at the age of ten and I always questioned it. I remember girls would be pulled out of class to change into old uniforms as punishment for what they were wearing. This resulted in a lot of missed class time for many girls. Along with embarrassment from the class for the victim of the dress code.
When you look up “woman told to cover-up” in the google search bar over one billion results come up. Articles and articles about different scenarios when someone told a woman to cover up. These are only the ones documented. It seems as if it’s straight forward in one’s free will to wear and do whatever they want, but there seem to be angry perspectives on both sides of the debate. Why?
From middle school, the sexualization of my womanly body only got worse. There were no restrictions on what to wear in high school. However, I overheard that there was one teacher at my school that made girls stand up and told them whether they would get raped in what they were wearing that day. Hearing this from a peer infuriated me. I have never thought of a man telling a woman what to or what to not wear could make sense to me. It’s a man’s action of if they rape a woman or not, not what the woman wears. As I was told what to and what to not wear all it brought was anger at the institution’s misogyny against the underage women. Given, I was starting to get sexualized from the age of eleven, before I knew anything about my body. But why are women told what to wear but men aren’t taught how to control their sexual desires?
As I grew up, I quickly learned that men’s desires aren’t based on what a woman wears. A woman shouldn’t get blamed for her own sexual assault because of the fabric covering her skin. Along with catcalls on the streets when I would walk past a man in a t-shirt and pants. When I was around eighteen, I worked at a small film studio in Los Angeles. I was already aware of the misogyny in the film industry but I tend to hold my own ground. I worked mainly around men, which was okay except for the CEO. One day the CEO was talking about a girl he fired the previous day. “She got arrested at the BLM protests, I’m not surprised she didn’t get raped in what she was wearing.” She was wearing a tank top and jeans. As he said this out loud, I looked at everyone’s reactions. Blank faces, like he said nothing wrong. I was just an intern, so I was scared of losing my job if I spoke up, especially against the CEO. It brought so much anger out of me that this was acceptable to say, especially freely in a workplace environment.
Why does what a woman wears matter when it’s the men that take action?
DISCRIMINATION: “Ladylike” versus “Boys will be Boys”
The main topic of my discussion is the constant discrimination of women against men. Women are held responsible for objectification from men’s behavior, but how? And why? “Do School Dress Codes Discriminate Against Girls?” written by Sasha Jones, Education Week, (August 31, 2018), explores the dress code of Marcus High School’s sexist dress code discriminating against girls. The resource lightly explores the “me too movement” and the 400 petitions to fight school dress codes. Within this article, Jones explores the negative effect that dress codes have on young girl’s self-esteem and grades. “The concern is that students who may already be struggling academically fall farther behind in class when they miss too much time serving suspensions, changing clothes, or waiting while administrators measure their skirt lengths.” Additionally, Jones also dives into the racism behind these dress codes in regard to traditional African American hairstyles. “Nationwide, African-American girls are 5.5 times more likely than their white counterparts to be suspended from school, but it’s not clear what proportion of those punishments stem from dress-code issues.”
To add to this, Jones ventures out into opposing points of views. “According to the American Civil Liberties Union, dress codes are legal as long as they do not “treat boys and girls differently, force students to conform to sex stereotypes, or censor particular viewpoints.” (This includes protection for transgender, non-binary gender, or any other students who may choose to dress in nontraditional ways.)” The main dress codes in place that target girls at the schools rather than boys. Most dress codes are targeted at the length of a girl’s shorts, the amount of skin a girl shows in comparison to the lenient dress code of the boys. The article then goes on to explain how to petition signings helped impact a more lenient dress code to be enforced.
“The Sexualized Messages Dress Codes are Sending to Students” written by Amber Thomas explores student’s high school dress codes and hidden messages that institutions are sending to male and female students. Thomas explores different high school dress codes and what or what not to wear. Thomas states that “policies like these have recently come under scrutiny due to the sexual tone they communicate.” Additionally, there is also a chart that shows the most common dress codes want to cover up. Midsection falls at the top at 71%. Cleavage then falls in second place at 22%. The rest are smaller percentages underneath. This seems to be a very interesting point, given midriffs are the only “non-sexual” body part on this chart. Thomas states that “somewhat ironically, hiding these body parts away gives them an air of mystery, ultimately increasing the sexual tension surrounding them.” This shows that, once again, women being told what to wear comes from the man’s desire rather than the woman’s body.
Hopefully, further into a woman’s life, dress codes will become more lenient as they grow into an adult in charge of their own body. No, in fact, discrimination does not stop against women after they leave school, it gets worse as they enter professionally dressed jobs. “Not what to wear? Employers’ liability for dress codes?” Written By Sam Middlemiss, 2018 talks about different dress codes that apply to different groups in a workspace. Middlemiss discusses women, men, transgender, black, and controversies that have led to the current day’s dress codes. “What this research has shown is that the current legal system favors employers’ right to restrict how their employees’ dress and female and transgender employees are often disadvantaged because of it.” This explores the professional workplace environment’s restrictions on every group except for cisgender males. How was the work dress code created and how come it has barely changed? This article goes into explaining the Schmidt v. Austicks Bookshops (1978). “Ms. Schmidt was an employee who challenged her employer’s insistence that women should not wear trousers. The employment tribunal found in favor of the employer, holding that different dress codes for men and women is acceptable as the burden of restrictions on men’s dress was equal to that placed on women.”
Within the discrimination created in schools and workplaces, there is also an undertone of what is being worn contributed to rape culture. Women get blamed for their own sexual assaults because of the fabric covering their skin rather than the man committing the crime. “Is Clothing Probative of Attitude or Intent — Implications for Rape and Sexual Harassment Cases” Written by Theresa L. Lennon, Sharron J. Lennon, and Kim K.P. Johnson, Libraries Publishing, 1993 talks about the correlation of clothing in sexual harassment cases. “The belief that clothing can indicate consent to sexual assault or can invite sexual harassment stems from the empirically proven fact that people infer the intent and attitude of others based on their clothes. Because those inferences are often inaccurate, clothing is not probative or relevant evidence of the intent or attitude of the wearer.” This quotation proves the main point of this argument from the feminist point of view. When looking at the data, we’re able to see how there is no purpose of showing consent through clothing. Although in the misogynistic environment of the present day there are many examples of professionals still blaming the victim for the clothes she wears. “In a 1977 Wisconsin rape case, the judge considered the sixteen-year-old complainant’s clothing and sentenced the convicted fifteen-year-old defendant to only probation. The judge called for women to “stop teasing” and for a “restoration of modesty in dress.” Additionally, the judge stated that “whether women like it or not, they are sex objects.” Although this case, was in 1977 there is still a misogynistic undertone within all sexual violence cases in 2020. A museum in Brussels holds rape victim’s clothing they were assaulted in. “The persistent myth that revealing clothing leads to rape” Written By Lindsey Bever, Washington Post, 2018 talks about the exhibition in Brussels that is used to dispel the stubborn myth that clothing is a justification for sexual violence. “‘When you walk around here, you immediately notice they are very normal-looking pieces of clothes that everybody would wear,’ says Liesbeth Kennes. The exhibition, titled “Is it my fault?” addresses the question that some victims of sexual assault — and sometimes society — ask about violent sex crimes.” This exhibit and article went viral on social media which has put a foot down for the new progressive ideas to end victim-blaming. This can be an extremity looking into women’s clothing, however, when you ask enforcers of dress codes, one common answer is about protection. Protection as in, from sexual violence, rape, and protection from the men. However, when you look into statistics of assaults acting on clothing, you quickly learn that it has nothing to do with what a woman wears.
MEDIA: Objectification of Women in Media and conflicts in present-day media.
The main concept discussed in this section is the media’s portrayal of women from an objectified perspective and how the current media tries to conflict with these ideas. Throughout time, women have constantly been objectified in the media. Within cinema, magazines, social media, and daily life. How are women objectified in the media? This can be explained in the “male gaze” concept created by film critic, Laura Mulvey.
“Visual and Other Pleasures” Written By Laura Mulvey, 1973 goes into explaining the concept of the male gaze and female form seen in early cinematic pieces. Mulvey’s ideas of “woman as image and man as the bearer of the look,” can be applied to early Alfred Hitchcock films. In The Birds (1963), Daniels is presented as the center of attention and the object of the man’s desire. “Hitchcock’s skillful use of identification processes and liberal use of a subjective camera from the point of view of the male protagonist draw the spectators deeply into his position, making them share his uneasy gaze. The spectator is absorbed into a voyeuristic situation within the screen scene and diegesis, which parodies his own in the cinema. (Mulvey, 23)” The Birds (1963) and other Hitchcock films display the women characters as the objects of the male’s desire, in respect to the male gaze.
In today’s media, many storytellers have tried to fight the idea of women being objects of male desire. In “Girls are Angry too” Big Mouth. Season 3 Episode 2. Netflix. 4 Oct. 2019., they in-depth explore toxic masculinity within the misogynistic dress codes. The episode makes a parody about putting into place a strict dress code that specifically targets the girls. The episode then goes into the girls getting angry about this sexist dress code and it ends in a girl’s protest against the school. This episode makes fun of the dress codes along with also bringing awareness to society. Given this was in the character’s middle school years while they were still developing through puberty. This also makes fun of the institutions teaching kids to cover up right when they start developing their womanly bodies.
“In a single, often tense episode, Big Mouth shows how profoundly teen boys are influenced by adult institutions that subtly teach, justify, and offer outlets for sexist behavior.” This quote from The Atlantic displays the often overlooked issue of teaching boys that their desires are justified by the institutions. Big Mouth’s episode tackled this issue by making a parody out of it. “Why don’t we just teach the boys to control themselves instead of making the girls hide?” A question asked by Jessie, a character in Big Mouth. The dean of students then replies “that sounds too complicated,” and proceeds to implement a dress code. This makes fun of the way that schools actually handle this problem however, it can be true in a lot of cases.
CULTURE: The Bible and Western Culture, Control versus Hiding
Culturally, women have always been the targets of sexual violence and objectification. Historically, women were seen as the side pieces to their man, whether a mother, wife, or woman to pursue. One of the main targets of sexism in long term culture is the Bible. For the Bible Tells me so: Justifying Gender Discrimination Based on Biblical Text by Courtney McCluney, 2018 says “the following verse is often used to deny women’s ordination in some denominations today: “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet” (1 Timothy 2:11–12, New International Version). Regarding gender representation, an inerrant, literal view of the Bible should reveal contradictions.” This is one of the many verses in the Bible that disregards a woman’s worth that is based on the man she submits to.
Earlier in this paper, we discussed the fact that dress codes target girl’s midriffs. But why? If a midriff is not directly correlated to a sexual function why does it have to be the woman’s place to cover them? Within Western culture, the midriff has been a main point of attraction to the media. “The Sexualized Messages Dress Codes are Sending to Students” written by Amber Thomas states that ”in Western culture, the midriff and navel (particularly those on female-presenting bodies), have a long history of being seen as taboo or indecent.” This can be attributed to the media within the 1970s and previous. “Women couldn’t show their belly buttons on television until the 1970s or the streets of New York City until 1985.” This article then goes into the debate of whether or not midriff can be inherently sexual. “Arguments go on about whether a woman baring her midriff is fashionable, erotic, or attractive to those looking at her. But each of these arguments comes from the observer rather than the observed.” This quotation can give the same point we are questioning which is: why is the observer deciding this restriction rather than the observed? Women have been told what to do with their bodies by everyone that isn’t in their body. Whether this has to do with what to wear, body weight, sexual desire, etc.
To add to this question, I took my own path of research to see what people around me think about this issue. I formatted a survey and finished it with twenty-two responses. Eighty-one percent of participants were heterosexual, thirteen percent bisexual and four percent pansexual. Around forty percent of answers say school dress codes are unfair to both women and men although these mainly target women. Thirty-one percent say the dress codes are unfair to women. Twenty-six percent think they are unfair but necessary. I think this is interesting because the main answer to this is that school dress codes are unfair. In the additional answer portion of my study, someone wrote: “I feel like it’s unfair since most women in school are often told what to wear. Either too short or showing too much. Since women often don’t get to choose what they wear and it seems like we are forcing them to do the same. I think it’s happened at school because many teachers don’t want women to be raped just because they are showing too much skin. But much more needed as professionals when they are at work since it’s sort of a respect thing and if they tend to wear out somewhere it often might violate their health of being kidnapped or raped or being pregnant if they show too much skin when boys are around.” I thought this answer was very interesting because it still plays into the idea of boys being the problem, not the woman. In my next question of who should decide what a woman wears, 95% of answers say the woman, with one vote saying the institution in which she is dressing for.
The next questions of my research involved asking questions of if they are distracted when a woman wears a tank top and when a woman wears a low-cut top. The majority of the answers on both of these were no, 58% for the low-cut top and 72% for the tank top. The rest of the answers say they are distracted, even if they are not specifically attracted to women. This also had some fill-in answers of “yes, I am distracted but you should be allowed to wear a tank top after class;” and “you should not wear a low cut short at work. You should dress professionally for the job you have.” I think the answers of both of these studies vary by person but the majority of voters do not get distracted by tank tops. Additional fill-in answers also say: “It perpetuates the idea that women have to cater to the men around her, and that if she is told to change she has to forfeit valued time of her education to do so or that if her clothes are too distracting that she deserves something bad to happen to her.” I think this statement also enforces a point for women catering to the men around them. “The whole dress code/telling women to cover up just reinforces and fuels the already existing rape culture prevalent in today’s patriarchal society,” another quote states.
CONCLUSION: A lot to work towards
To conclude this paper, I have realized that many people will carry their own opinions on what a woman should be allowed to wear. However, we have discussed the many developments currently to combat this and the culture that has contributed to this idea. Mainly, we have learned that clothing is not probative or relevant evidence of the intent or attitude of the wearer. In fact, clothing may be constantly criticized by the person not wearing it. After exploring the Bible, early cinema, Western culture, dress codes and victim-blaming we have seen society’s development although there is still a lot more to work towards.
Works Cited
1.) Middlemiss, Sam. “Not What to Wear? Employers’ Liability for Dress Codes?” International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, vol. 18, no. 1, 2018, pp. 40–51. Crossref, doi:10.1177/1358229118757867.
2.) Jones, Sasha. “Do School Dress Codes Discriminate Against Girls?” Education Week, 15 Apr. 2020, www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/09/05/do-school-dress-codes-discrimate-against-girls.html.
3.) “Girls are angry too” Big Mouth. Season 3 Episode 2. Netflix. 4 Oct. 2019.
4.) “The Sexualized Messages Dress Codes Are Sending to Students.” The Pudding, Feb. 2019, pudding.cool/2019/02/dress-code-sexualization.
5.) Giorgis, H. (2019, October 07). ‘Big Mouth’ and the Poisoning of Teenage Boys’ Minds. Retrieved November 10, 2020, from https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/10/big-mouth-season-3/599113/
6.) National Center for Institutional Diversity. “For the Bible Tells Me So: Justifying Gender Discrimination Based on Biblical Text.” Medium, 24 Sept. 2018, medium.com/national-center-for-institutional-diversity/for-the-bible-tells-me-so-justifying-gender-discrimination-based-on-biblical-text-83c61dd4e639.
7.) Rosenblatt, Nina. : “: Visual and Other Pleasures . Laura Mulvey.” Film Quarterly, vol. 43, no. 4, 1990, pp. 59–60. Crossref, doi:10.1525/fq.1990.43.4.04a00370. https://ilearn.sfsu.edu/ay2021/pluginfile.php/137155/course/section/27467/Mulvey-Visual%20Pleasure.pdf
8.) Bever, Lindsey. “The Persistent Myth That Revealing Clothing Leads to Rape.” Washington Post, 10 Jan. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/01/10/the-persistent-myth-that-revealing-clothing-leads-to-rape.
9.) Lennon, Sharron J., et al. “Forging Linkages between Dress and Law in the U.S., Part I: Rape and Sexual Harassment.” Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, vol. 17, no. 3, 1999, pp. 144–56. Crossref, doi:10.1177/0887302x9901700305. | https://medium.com/@ckelly5/why-are-women-told-to-cover-up-c5c935106cbe | ['Caitlin Kelly'] | 2020-12-15 02:54:06.939000+00:00 | ['Womens Rights', 'Feminism', 'Dress Code'] |
Are We Doing Enough to Avert A Possible Mental Crisis Disaster ? | As countries continue to have a rise in the number of people infected with the novel coronavirus, other ugly experiences are equally trending alongside. Economies around the globe have been crippled, and health situations don’t seem to be getting any better, as well as some other occurrences that may very well be leading us to a possible humanitarian crisis.
But even as we watch the current events as they unfold and hope that we don’t end up in the ditch of a humanitarian crisis, something is happening now that we have to pay serious attention to. We have got a mental crisis unfolding before our very eyes, and the majority of governments are yet to take any measures to stem the tide.
Even as we pray and hope we never arrive at that dead zone of mental crisis, here are some scenarios that are, unfortunately, aiding the process:
People without access to usual support systems
It is not everybody that had the privilege of fending for themselves before the pandemic struck. The less privileged comprised the aged, physically challenged, people with life-threatening sicknesses, the unemployed, and many others. The state of the world’s economy has not helped issues either. That is why the majority of governments, especially in places with a stable economy, were using support systems to cater to the needs of those who find it difficult to fend for themselves. With such support systems in place, the less privileged were able to provide for their basic needs.
However, the spate of events triggered by the current pandemic is doing well enough to cripple the hopes of the less privileged. Furthermore, is the fact that more people are losing their jobs, which will make it more difficult for the government to continue with their support systems.
The inability of people to get the support they need is very likely to lead to more frustrations and depressions, which means we could have a mental crisis in the making.
Stress/Anxiety over Future
There is one thing that has been quite common with this pandemic, and that is the fact that people are overwhelmed with uncertainties. The uncertainty of what life would become after the virus saga; the possibility of where their next meal will come from; the uncertainty of what governments intend to do next, and, more importantly, the uncertainty of what the future holds for everybody.
Stress and anxiety are beginning to eat people up all over the place. What used to be the problem of the poor and the sick has now become the problem of everybody. The influential and unrecognized, the strong and weak, the blacks and whites, everyone is beginning to have a considerable dose of anxiety and stress. That can undoubtedly trigger a mental crisis if people are not informed on how they can reduce their fears and anxieties.
Those isolated with abusers
Abuse has been an inevitable part of human existence. Some persons cannot help but think irrationally and act irresponsibly. Coincidentally, various polls have indicated that abuse cases have risen by a sharp number within this period. That is because the lockdowns have mandated people to stay indoors, leading them to spend more time with their partners or spouses.
As such, you would expect the slightest provocations to give rise to abuses. Sadly, that has been the trend as we go through these trying times. Hence, as some persons do what they can to put up with their abusers, you would expect them to break down psychologically at some point. And when that occurs, we may be in for a disaster of mental crisis.
Frontline workers
Frontline workers have been described as heroes everywhere they turn to, particularly those who are functioning as health workers. In a sincere bid to contain the spread of the virus, quite a few them have contracted the virus in the course of their discharging their duties. Some have even lost their lives, while others have deliberately stayed away from their families or loved ones, so they don’t end up infecting them with the virus.
These frontline workers have demonstrated what it means to render selfless service as a sign of patriotism. But even as these selfless heroes sacrifice their time to combat this novel virus, their psychological abilities are being stretched to the limit. People have locked themselves in labs to ensure they find a vaccine or come up with a cure. The situation requires that they flex their mental capabilities and do whatever brainwork that is required to bring this to an end. However, the thing is, they might be doing way more than their bodies can allow. That could amount to a mental crisis.
People who have lost someone and don’t have access to a support system/can’t funeral rituals
Death has always been part of life. People die daily, and loved ones are left behind to grieve their passing away. That said, the passing on of people is being handled differently, especially when it is coronavirus related. Governments have passed regulations around the world that forbids people from conducting funeral service for their loved ones or even attending any social gathering in general. This was deemed necessary as one of the measures of stopping the virus from spreading beyond control.
While everyone understands that such a measure was meant for their good, it is a decision that seems to be causing survivors to grieve more than they should. Some cannot imagine that the long-standing culture of burying their loved ones have suddenly become an act that is berated by the government.
As approximately 260,000 people have lost their lives to this unseen enemy, families have been thrown into longer grieving acts as they have no access to give the deceased the burial rites they deserve. This is something that would undoubtedly result in a mental crisis should we continue in this trajectory.
Conclusion
The novel coronavirus has changed lives as we knew it, and we are beginning to adjust to some of those changes. Although we are still transitioning regarding our new lifestyle, it is expedient the authorities pay special attention to the rise in mental health cases that have rocked various places at the moment. So, we don’t end up having a mental crisis disaster on our hands. | https://medium.com/@mohamud/are-we-doing-enough-to-avert-a-possible-mental-crisis-disaster-2e84ac0a3121 | ['Mohamud Al-Jabarti M.D'] | 2021-01-07 22:41:05.253000+00:00 | ['Anxiety', 'Quarantine', 'Covid 19', 'Mental Health', 'Stress'] |
Continuous Blue-Green Deployment to Highly Automated AWS ECS Fargate Cluster via AWS CodeDeploy, Gitlab CI/CD and Terraform | Continuous Blue-Green Deployment to Highly Automated AWS ECS Fargate Cluster via AWS CodeDeploy, Gitlab CI/CD and Terraform Ahmet Atalay Mar 26, 2019·6 min read
CI/CD pipeline to AWS ECS Fargate via Codedeploy
After a long time, I got a chance to write a post about some nice things which I worked on for a while. Devops is come into prominence day by day and many development teams want to adapt it in their daily work. With the adapt of devops culture, new automation tools are taking over old legacy structures. By the way, teams who want to adapt devops and deploy applications frequently to their production systems are looking for new ways to make it easy, portable, avoiding waste of time, and with more structural way(infrastructure as code, IaC).
In this post, I will show how to create a pipeline which builds source code, packages into docker image, and deploy to AWS ECS Fargate via terraform in a blue-green strategy. If you need this kind of continuous deployment in your team, and if your environment is in Amazon web services, you can easily implement this kind of pipeline which automates your deployment in every commit.
Before starting to implement a pipeline, I will briefly explain some frequently used terms which consist of this post.
IAC(Infrastructure as code):
Infrastructure as code, also referred to as IaC, is a type of IT setup wherein developers or operations teams automatically manage and provision the technology stack for an application through software, rather than using a manual process to configure discrete hardware devices and operating systems. Infrastructure as code is sometimes referred to as programmable or software-defined infrastructure. I personally use “Terraform” to create infrastructure of environments in cloud providers.
Ok, but why Terraform? Terraform provides adapters which integrates with cloud provider’s(aws,azure,google cloud) api for you. So, with little code block, you can launch an aws ec2 instance, or create azure kubernetes cluster. Meanwhile, in addition to this kind of adapters, terraform can provide different adapters for different tools as well, like creating automated dashboard in grafana, or create alert in pagerduty etc. Other advantage of Terraform, you can execute “plan” command to show changes to be made to infrastructure even before making the actual changes.
Sample Terraform IAC:
provider "aws" {
region = "us-west-2"
} # Gets the most current Instance AMI from AWS
data "aws_ami" "ubuntu" {
most_recent = true
filter {
name = "name"
values = ["ubuntu/images/hvm-ssd/ubuntu-trusty-14.04-amd64-server-*"]
}
filter {
name = "virtualization-type"
values = ["hvm"]
}
owners = ["099720109477"] # Canonical
} # Creates AWS EC2 instance in a "t2.micro" type with ubuntu AMI
resource "aws_instance" "web" {
ami = "${data.aws_ami.ubuntu.id}"
instance_type = "t2.micro"
tags = {
Name = "HelloWorld"
}
}
Gitlab CI/CD
Gitlab was providing you code repository at the past. But, then, they started to invest in devops processes by implementing ci-cd pipelines, operating kubernetes clusters, managing environments, creating issues and tracking them etc.
By the way, Gitlab CI/CD saves your time by avoiding creation of ci server. It automatically launches docker containers in its runner to execute your tasks(i.e building code, executing terraform command).So, it saves your money, because you don’t need to create any AWS EC2 instances to host ci server. Gitlab CI/CD is much more appropriate to devops process.
Here is the sample CI/CD pipeline:
Blue/Green Deployment
Blue-green deployments are a pattern whereby we reduce downtime during production deployments by having two production environments (“blue” and “green”). In our blue-green deployment scenario, we will have identical task group for new version of the applications(green) in addition to current version of the apps(blue). With the help of AWS Codedeploy, we will manage traffic switching to green or rollback to blue ones.
AWS Architecture
Let’s come into setup of AWS architecture for our deployment scenario. We will have 1 Application load load balancer, 1 green target group(for green fargate tasks), 1 blue target group(for blue fargate tasks), dns record in Route53, 2 target groups which are blue/green, 1 ecs fargate cluster. You can see high level topology as below:
Now, lets deep dive into implementation of continuous b/g deployment to fargate cluster.
Prerequisites:
You have to create highly available VPC, with private & public subnets in different azs. You can check and create vpc topology according to my previous post: creation of vpc Put the following tag into your VPC:
Key = BlueGreenDemo
3. Put the following tag into private subnets:
Type = Private
4. Put the following tag into public subnets:
Type = Public
5. Buy domain from AWS Route53 and create Route 53 hosted zone with domain name(i.e. mycompany.com) or just only add nameservers of created hosted zone into your different hosting company
6. Create IAM User with access key & secret keys. These will be used in Gitlab CI env vars as described below.
Preparation
Before preparing ci-cd pipeline which deploys continuously to AWS ECS, you have to do following steps:
Clone sample project from my github repo and push into your Gitlab account. Set aws iam user keys & domain_name into the environment variables under project settings
Playing with pipeline
After completing prerequisites & preparation steps, you are now ready to use gitlab ci-cd pipeline. Whenever you commit to your project, you will see that pipeline will automatically start, build your code, package into docker image and will push to aws ecr/ecs fargate.
Here is the gitlab-ci.yml file which provides a pipeline in Gitlab. It calls “execute.sh” script with different parameters in each stage:
image: onedaywillcome/roro:v1.0
variables:
DOCKER_DRIVER: overlay
DOCKER_HOST: tcp://docker:2375
stages:
- build
- push-ecr
- deploy
- destroy
build-code:
stage: build
script: ./gradlew clean build
artifacts:
paths:
- build
push-ecr:
stage: push-ecr
script: chmod 775 ./deploy/execute.sh && ./deploy/execute.sh dockerize
services:
- docker:dind
deploy:
stage: deploy
script: chmod 775 ./deploy/execute.sh && ./deploy/execute.sh deploy
services:
- docker:dind
destroy:
stage: destroy
when: manual
script: chmod 775 ./deploy/execute.sh && ./deploy/execute.sh destroy
Here is the pipeline which happens to deploy “hello world” spring microservice into fargate.
After “deploy” stage in a pipeline, let’s switch to Codedeploy cockpit area. We will manage blue-green deployment stages from here.
You can do following things in codedeploy:
1. Reroute traffic(switch traffic to green tasks in ECS fargate)
2. Terminate original task set(kills the blue tasks)
3. Rollback stages( before switch or after switch traffic, you can do rollback)
You can check deploy/terraform folder in a sample project and you will see some terraform codes. These codes do the following things:
1. Create alb in a public subnet
2. Create ECS Cluster
3. Create Fargate task definition, fargate service
4. Create codedeploy app, deployment group
5. Invoke codedeploy pipeline
6.Create task scaling( according to sample cpu thresholds, it will scale in or out in a specific boundaries)
I will end up here. After you did steps explained above, you can play with your ci-cd pipeline. If you have any questions, you can ask me at below. If you like this post, you can clap:) | https://medium.com/@ahmetatalay/continuous-blue-green-deployment-to-highly-automated-aws-ecs-fargate-cluster-via-aws-codedeploy-f4d44fc28231 | ['Ahmet Atalay'] | 2019-03-26 14:38:39.229000+00:00 | ['AWS', 'Docker', 'Continuous Delivery', 'Continuous Integration', 'DevOps'] |
Criteria Queries and JPA Metamodel with Spring Boot and Kotlin | Canonical Metamodel
The metamodel is a set of objects that describe your domain model.
[…]
This metamodel is important in 2 ways. First, it allows providers and frameworks a generic way to deal with an application’s domain model. […]
Second, from an application writer’s perspective, it allows very fluent expression of completely type-safe criteria queries. — Hibernate Community Documentation
The structure of the metamodel classes is described in the JPA 2 (JSR 317) specification. If you are interested in understanding in detail how metamodel classes are defined, I recommend reading this documentation page first. Otherwise, feel free to skip to the next chapter.
Configuring a Metamodel Generation Tool
To generate the metamodel classes, we will use hibernate-jpamodelgen , the metamodel generator tool provided by JBoss.
First of all, we need to add the hibernate-jpamodelgen dependency to our build.gradle.kts file, as well the kapt plugin.
plugins {
kotlin("kapt") version "1.3.72"
} dependencies {
implementation ("org.hibernate:hibernate-jpamodelgen:5.4.12.Final")
kapt("org.hibernate:hibernate-jpamodelgen:5.4.12.Final")
}
kapt is the Kotlin Annotation Processing Tool and it is required by hibernate-jpamodelgen to automatically generate the metamodel classes during build-time.
JPA Metamodel Classes
To show what a metamodel class looks like, we need an entity class. Since defining JPA entities in Koltin can be tricky, I recommend reading this article first.
Let’s assume we have already defined the Author entity class as follows:
By default, the corresponding metamodel class will be placed by kapt in build/generated/source/kapt/ followed by the same package as the corresponding entity class.
The metamodel class will be automatically generated during build-time and will have the same name as the entity with an added “_” at the end. So, the metamodel class generated for the Author class will be Author_ and look like this:
As you can tell, the generate metamodel class is a Java class. This is not a problem since Kotlin is fully interoperable with Java.
JPA Metamodel In Action
Since the Criteria API provides overloaded methods that accept String references as well as Attribute interface implementations, we can use the generated metamodel classes in the same way we would use the String references to attributes. Let’s write the criteria query that will fetch all Authors named “John”.
This is what the criteria query using Author_ looks like:
And this is what it looks like without using the metamodel class: | https://codeburst.io/criteria-queries-and-jpa-metamodel-with-spring-boot-and-kotlin-9c82be54d626 | ['Antonello Zanini'] | 2020-12-07 15:53:11.013000+00:00 | ['Hibernate', 'Spring Boot', 'Kotlin', 'Software Engineering', 'Software Development'] |
Open Relationship | An open relationship is a tricky term and open for interpretation. In theory, I love the idea. You get to experience different people and you don’t have to let go of something special. In theory. I wasn’t raised this way. I was raised to get married and kids and live happily ever after. I managed marriage twice, and I have one kid. The happily ever after has eluded me thus far.
Open relationships and Polyamorous relationships were introduced to me much later in life. When I was coming up as a young woman this was cheating, affairs, and anything else awful and morally wrong. It never would have dawned on me. The weird part is that I had a really hard time being in one relationship. I didn’t want to cheat but there was always someone who come into my life that caught my interest in a way that I new was going to lead to problems.
To be fair, I fought it hard. In both of my long term marriages I struggled constantly to keep my focus on my monogamous relationships. It wasn’t all the time, and it wasn’t always the same person. I would meet people at work, through friends, there was always this “thing” nagging at me.
My second marriage was to a woman. I thought maybe my wondering was because I was actually looking for something different. That did not turn out to be the case. I was usually good for the first 5–7 years but then something would snap. All jokes and comments about the 7-year itch could be entered here. It wasn’t that though. I wasn’t educated enough to explore what the real reason was. I am more educated now about relationships, but I am not sure I am any more clear on the kind of relationship I want to be in. I know that looking back my ex-wife would never have been in the agreement of an open relationship or a threesome. Neither would my ex-husband. So maybe it’s a good thing that open relationships were unknown to me back then.
The person I am seeing now is a great guy. We met on line and in the beginning he stated he was in an open relationship. Turns out his live in girlfriend changed her mind and decided she wasn’t happy about it. Much discussion and about three years later we are still seeing each other. There was time period that it was undercover from his girlfriend. He was hiding it but he wasn’t advertising it. But it felt like cheating to me.
We took breaks, didn’t see each other for a while, but we still ended up back together in some way. He had canceled on me a few times because of fighting with her. She called him once while he was on his way over to help me with something and turned around and went back home. Yeah, it felt like cheating. I had been there before and swore I would never put myself back in that situation again. So I told him I was done.
Relationships are just complicated. No matter what kind they are. The first time I tried to be part of another couple went horrible. I was in love, they had been together forever and had their own grove going. We all worked together and knew each other. He and I were in a relationship long before she knew about it. I know, I’m awful. I loved him. He said this would be away for us to spend more time together. We tried. I think all three of us tried for awhile, and then she got cold feet and stopped it. Neither of them decided it would be a good idea to tell me, they just stopped inviting over, responding to me in our group text, and I believe the word is ghosted. Which is weird because we all worked together.
The next time I tried to join an open relationship, they swore to me that they were both cool with it. I stressed my concerns and explained my past experience and they completely understood. Two weeks in and I get a text from her. Very friendly, general conversation and then slips in that she doesn’t understand why he felt he needed another woman, wasn’t she enough? Ugh! While I totally get where she was coming from, it was the same story. So I broke it off. He was confused, she was denying her concerns, I looked like the crazy bitch. But I walked away feeling strong about my decision.
When my current situation started heading the same way, I decided the friend zone was the best option. Relationships shouldn’t have to be over if there is a friendship there. That is what I told him. He understood. His relationship with his live in was difficult. They fought about everything and fought hard. During one of those argument, she asked what it would take to make it work with them. His response was, “I want an open relationship and want to spend more time with someone else.” Interesting. While I have never been “fought for” or “fought over” I appreciated him stating what he wanted.
He is in an open relationship now. A real one or their version of what that is. She started feeling insecure. Anyone else see a pattern here? I told him I’d talk to her. One night while we were hanging out, he joking suggested we all have a threesome. Another pattern. I want to be frustrated and angry but there is a small part of me that was intrigued. Yea, that lasted about a minute. It was already like the other two times and this wasn’t going to be any different. After hearing how she is and how he hates her, I don’t see myself falling into bed with them. I like to fuck but I have to like who I’m fucking.
So, while I am spending more time with him and he stays over night and I’ve been to his house, there is this looming feeling that there is an unknown condition put on this situation and relationship. We have talked about it and he knows how I feel. I guess now the only thing I can do is trust, and hope that the third time is the charm. | https://medium.com/@chrisykay/open-relationship-a14e4bfe9a2a | [] | 2020-12-18 16:07:14.658000+00:00 | ['Open Relationship', 'Poloyamous', 'Trust', 'Past Experiences'] |
CSS -> How to Make your own input checkbox button | The Backstory
I was working on a project where the last developer made a custom input radio button by using a png as the background and shifting the positions when clicked. Unfortunately, I never got to meet the developer IRL because if I did I would have said 2009 called and it wants its code back. Good ridden! It’s a total kick in the face to HTML5 and CSS3 and all the progress they have made, so we don’t have to do such ridiculous hacks any longer.
The How-To
First thing you are going to want to do is make an <input> tag along with a <label> tag, Inside your <input> tag make sure to include a unique id for that element. Then, create a <label> tag with an attribute “for”. The for attribute is used in HTML 5 to allow the browser to use the <label> tag to control whatever id the tag is set to. So in this example, the <label> tag would be connected to our <input> tag. Example:
<div class="input-container">
<div>
<input type="checkbox" id="checkbox_id_goes_here">
<label for="checkbox_id_goes_here"></label>
</div>
</div>
I wrapped the two HTML elements in a container (a parent element that in this case is a div). After building your HTML code, move on over to your CSS you are going to want to hide the <input> element because you are going to use the <label> instead. In your CSS, simply add a class with the following properties
.input-container > div > input[type=checkbox] {
position : absolute;
visibility : hidden;
}
After you have hidden you checkbox, you will want to configure the look of the label to display as a checkbox. In order to do that you will want to use this code:
.input-container > div > input[type=checkbox] {
position : absolute;
visibility : hidden;
}
.input-container > div > label {
width : 24px;
height : 24px;
background : #ffffff;
}
.input-container > div > input[type=checkbox]:checked ~ label:after {
content : "\2713";
color : #0094fe;
font-size : 22px;
}
So essentially what this code is saying is:
hide the input box ( .input-container > div > input[type=checkbox]) make the label with a background of white and a 24px square (.input-container > div > label ) If the label is clicked, it will set the attribute for the input to “checked”, if that input has a checked attribute returning true when the browser checks, look for its siblings ( that what the ~ does ) inside the container and insert some additional code into the HTML view that everyone can see. (.input-container > div > input[type=checkbox]:checked ~ label:after)
The Result
I’ve tried this on CodePen and JSFiddle and it doesn’t work. I have no idea why, but it works when you use it in Google Chrome, so I will update this post with more info on why it doesn’t work in CodePen or JSFiddle.
For now, Happy Coding. | https://medium.com/code-kings/css-how-to-make-your-own-input-radio-button-c428668bc846 | ['Tony Mucci'] | 2017-12-15 20:16:11.403000+00:00 | ['Tutorial', 'Front End Development', 'HTML', 'Web Development', 'CSS'] |
The Roller Coaster of Democracy. | Politics
The Roller Coaster of Democracy.
Except That the Sense of Danger You Experience Here Is Not Just a Perception; It Is Very Real.
Political insanity and health hysteria are running through most parts of the world right now. It has become ever more common to hear about declining democracies. There’s fear that they might slowly turn into autocracies or plutocracies. Hints of fascism under false colors of overwrought nationalism exist together with democracy. The reasons behind this chaos are not difficult to guess. And the irony is, it is not the lack of something but the abundance. Behind the political insanity, it is the abundance of demagogues and populist leaders along with powerful corporations emerging worldwide. The paradox of healthcare in developed countries is that there is a lack of it despite all abundance. It is true for most developed countries — incredibly accurate for the United States. It spends twice as much on healthcare than other OECD countries in terms of the total percentage of its economy; still, it faces the lowest life expectancy rate. The ongoing pandemic and its handling have only reiterated the same.
Democracies have a flavor of their own according to where they lie on the spectrum, from budding and flawed to the best in the business of politics and everything that lies at different levels in the middle. All of them are pretty chaotic and disordered, and their beauty or repulsiveness lies precisely in how they are placed. Democracy is difficult because it demands a certain level of morality from all of us. Especially from those in positions of power since power tends not just to corrupt but also exploit.
Morality and corporations (in this write-up, power is synonymous with corporations) don’t go hand in hand; saying that would be an understatement. Corporations are rather unapologetically exploitative and very majestic about the conquest of their own countries. And the result is prosperity for a few and chaos for the rest. What’s needed for democracy and free enterprise to survive together peacefully is an impartial system where small businesses, too, get a reasonable chance to compete. Plutocracy makes the system as dangerously unbalanced and fickle as too much centralization on government.
In April 1938, Roosevelt mentioned two truths about the liberty of democratic people. He said, “the first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.”, [1] as explained by Matt Stoller in Goliath.
It is a moral right of people to be treated equally, participate in the political process with an equal opportunity to be heard, choose who governs them, and oust them when necessary. Theodore Roosevelt argued that “of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of the mere wealth, the tyranny of plutocracy.”
When we talk about populism in the 21st century, we mostly consider the bad populism — the toxic one against minorities and other small groups. However, the crisis we are currently facing necessitates the old version of populism. In it, the government believes in the power of its people, and people reciprocate back by expressing their trust in the machinery of government. The law of the land takes care of how they together work towards common goals. It involves rising above the radical ideologies of both the right and the left or, at the very least, not follow them blindly without putting your brains into it. We need collective wisdom, courage, and unity to rise above the monstrosities of both corporations and governments.
Humans have a sordid history with democracy. We have been in a similar or worse situation before and have done more than what we are currently doing to overcome it. We were more racists back in the day, have seen more fascists, witnessed more sexists, and experienced so much more inequality than today. We have been through both, more and less of democracy than what we, at the moment, are undergoing. It tells us we can and we will surmount this crisis too.
[1] Stoller, M. (2020). Goliath: The 100-year war between monopoly power and democracy. | https://medium.com/swlh/the-rollercoaster-of-democracy-4d23e9083a4e | ['Sakshi Kharbanda'] | 2020-12-05 00:17:10.036000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Society', 'Power', 'Government', 'Democracy'] |
A Mouthful of Cigarettes | A Mouthful of Cigarettes
Where is the miracle from quitting smoking?
The sun went down on my second full day as a non smoker. I crawled into bed, shivering, at 2 a.m. and lay my hands over my chest and crossed my feet. Tonal chants wove into my brain, and I settled under the covers for guided meditation.
I am supposed to ‘notice’ my breathing, so I drew in a long breath through the bottoms of my feet. The air was supposed to exit out of the top of my head. My bronchi spasmed midway, and I begin to cough. At this point, I realized I was boiling hot and threw off the blankets. I stared at the mean ceiling with tears globbed in the corners of my eyes.
“You are loved,” said the voice through my ear buds.
I drew my knees up and covered my face.
The Fagerstrom test is only a number
According to the Fagerstrom test, I am a number 4 - moderately addicted to nicotine. On a scale from 0 to 10, Fagerstrom gauges the intensity of nicotine addiction using a short series of questions. Some of them are simple to answer:
☝ Do you smoke within six to thirty minutes of waking? Yes (2 points)
☝ How many cigarettes a day do you smoke? 11–20 (1 point)
☝ Do you smoke even if you are sick in bed? No (0 points)
Other questions; however, forced me to consider the calibration of the measuring tool.
≇ Is it difficult for you not to smoke when it is forbidden? (Church, Library, etc.)
Etc? I don’t need to smoke on airplanes, nor do I mind going outside the pub to smoke. Should I be labeled as moderately addicted just because I don’t need to smoke during the Eucharist at midnight mass on Christmas Eve?
≇ Which cigarette would you hate to give up?
First in the morning ⚪
Any other ⚪
According to the scale, if I can’t fathom giving up the morning cigarette, then I am slapped with a score of two (2 points), but if I am fine giving up the morning cigarette so I can have the nineteen others, this affords me a score of zero (0 points).
The Fagerstrom test is lacking in many of the finer points of addiction. I am now in the middle of my third day smoke free, and I am consumed by thoughts of smoking. Further, I cannot reconcile my difficulty breathing with a scale that says a pack-a-day habit isn’t considered ‘heavy’.
It’s heavy enough to have made even my somnambulent sense of self-preservation sound several loud alarms over the last year: wheezing, heart palpitations, breathlessness, choking on my own mucus in the middle of the night, chronic cough. As an attestment to severe addiction, I chose smoking for months over the notion of confronting these symptoms.
Nicotine leaves the body in four days — piece of cake
I am a newly minted non-smoker, which means I clamor for logic which can explain why I want to ride a unicycle into a brick wall.
“After the nicotine is gone, it’s all in your head,” touts my husband, who quit in 2017 after days of chest pain revealed he needed four stents.
I have revealed the neurosis behind the curtain, a hapless octo-sapien frantically pulling levers against fear, depression, cynicism, anger and impatience.
I brushed my teeth and washed my hands to the elbow during post-op so that he wouldn’t be disturbed by the smell of smoke, but I didn’t quit. I never considered it. I held a heart-attack patient in my arms and took breaks to go outside and light up.
After some reading, I’ve learned there are two types of smokers. Since this narrowing is of my own doing, I have named the categories myself. The first type is the recreational addict — a person of positive affectations with no outstanding trauma who likely picked up smoking as rebellious teenager. Smoking cessation for this type may require nicotine support through lozenges or gum and a group hug.
The second type is the neurotic addict — a person of negative affectations with a history of trauma, anxiety and/or depression who picked up smoking as a rebellious teenager. Smoking cessation in this type may never be permanent, as nicotine has filled a deep void where serotonin, dopamine and other hormones have never been present at normal levels.
For the neurotic addict, it wouldn’t matter if nicotine left the system in ten minutes because the drug’s interaction with the brain’s (already malfunctioning) neurotransmitters is so intertwined that the physical reaction to the absence of the drug will be protracted and, as far as I can tell, indefinite.
This isn’t about nicotine so much as it is about overhauling coping mechanisms. For thirty-eight years, my brain has associated nicotine with calm, rationale, relaxation, freedom and courage. In pulling the plug, I have revealed the neurosis behind the curtain, a hapless octo-sapien frantically pulling levers against fear, depression, cynicism, anger and impatience. Everything is misfiring. I am cast into outer space and cannot land anywhere.
I always thought I enjoyed smoking with drinking
I am not pining for alcohol to calm my nerves, but I have lost my composure of late from wanting to smoke.
Pour a drink. Light a cigarette. This is the natural order of things. I craft a martini; I go to the porch to have a smoke. If I pour a glass of wine, I cannot imagine having it without a cigarette.
But I can smoke without alcohol.
In an unprecedented upheaval of logic, I have come to realize that drinking is not my vehicle of smoking. It’s the other way around.
For years, I have been willing to ignore my body’s messages in order to keep the status quo. It’s the ultimate hijacking.
In three days of not smoking, I have not craved alcohol at all. No, really, smoking me would never have left a fresh beer in the fridge for three days. I just don’t want to drink it, nor do I want the scotch on the counter. Of the thousands of times I have cracked open a beer to unwind, I was really doing it, at least partially, to facilitate step two — lighting a cigarette.
Where is the miracle?
This morning, I dreamt I had piles of cigarettes in front of me. With both hands, I was shoving them between my lips in stacks three and four deep. With a lighter I was lighting them all up. I couldn’t control my hands. They operated like imposters, like muppet hands. My mouth was jacked open, and I couldn’t stop the smoke from going into my lungs. I was filled with shame and despondence.
I woke as I do everyday. The first thought to cross my mind is that I can’t have my coffee with a cigarette. I feel imprisoned by such pathetic notions throughout the day. I am coughing all the time, I am mad all the time, I am snippy and teary-eyed and annoyed.
All the time.
I am taken aback by my own proclivity to choose chronic illness over confronting an addiction to cigarettes. For years, I have been willing to ignore my body’s messages in order to keep the status quo. It’s the ultimate hijacking.
The science tells me my body’s healing powers are miraculous, that blackened tissue will turn pink and vibrant, that my brain will find homeostasis without nicotine, that I’ll be a happy non-smoker in ten years when I approach sixty.
I don’t feel I have that long to wait. I still want to smoke while I have time. My whole family is tip-toeing around me, watching me suffer, and I am still willing to drive this car back to the lot and go back to my normal life.
I am still willing to return their investment. I am oh-so willing to reneg. | https://josieelbiry.medium.com/a-mouthful-of-cigarettes-4f23969cbdf1 | ['Josie Elbiry'] | 2019-11-02 13:59:36.234000+00:00 | ['Anger', 'Addiction', 'Smoking', 'Quit Smoking', 'Health'] |
Ontology & Muzika Joins hands in a Strategic Partnership on DApp Development | Muzika, a decentralized blockchain music ecosystem and Ontology, a new high-performance public multi-chain project, have announced our partnership on the blockchain-based development in Muzika ecosystem, using Ontology technical infrastructure.
Ontology, based in Shanghai of China, regarded as Asia’s Ethereum (ETH), is a $700 million blockchain platform who aims at taking over the place of third parties and intermediaries in Internet transactions.
The strategic partnership reaches beyond technological cooperation where Muzika ecosystem is structured and built on Ontology Blockchain. Both parties agreed to closely partner together in many aspects including, but not limited to, technology, marketing, community operation and product development, etc.
Inseo Chung, CEO of Muzika, spoke highly of this partnership:
“Muzika is creating a truly decentralized digital music ecosystem for all the parties within the digital music space, pushing the distance between the parties closer and in more structurally innovative way than ever. In the quest for the successful implementation of our blockchain-based platform and incentivized structure, our strategic alliance with Ontology will be a tremendous step forward. With Ontology as our strategic partner and powerful ally, we will together envision and enable a meaningful transition of the digital music world.”
Speaking on Ontology’s partnership with Muzika, Founder of Ontology LI Jun said: | https://medium.com/muzika-official/ontology-muzika-joined-hands-in-a-strategic-partnership-on-a-new-music-ecosystem-b9b708d6ebf6 | [] | 2019-07-05 01:45:31.644000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Music Business', 'Ontology', 'Blockchain Technology', 'News'] |
Forcing an employee down the “Management Path” rarely ends well. | Forcing an employee down the “Management Path” rarely ends well.
Yet, that’s what many companies do with their most talented individual contributors (IC).
Now, you end up with a manager who doesn’t really want the job and you’ve “lost” your best IC.
Some people love the craft of their profession. They don’t want to be responsible for the work of others. Leadership has never been their “thing.”
However, they can guide and mentor others without a formal reporting structure. They can elevate everyone through the excellence of their work.
There’s no need to force them into management. It’s a different skill set. It requires a different personality.
Choose someone else who is great at building teams, nurturing the talent of others, and navigating organizational issues.
You need career ladders for both paths. | https://medium.com/invinciblecareer/forcing-an-employee-down-the-management-path-rarely-ends-well-8f40d45e5bd7 | ['Larry Cornett'] | 2020-12-05 20:08:24.805000+00:00 | ['Career Path', 'Coaching', 'Careers', 'Management', 'Leadership'] |
Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month | REGINA SHKLOVSKY
Illustrator of Little Loon Finds His Voice
Regina Shklovsky is an illustrator and graphic designer based in Sonoma County, California. She illustrated the 2018 picture book, Fun in the Mud, which was a 2019 Moonbeam award winner and a 2018 Nautilus award winner. She is passionate about bringing stories to life with pictures and thoughtful design. Her work is rooted in traditional drawing and painting, mixed with vector graphics. She collaborates with local entrepreneurs and authors, as well as independent publishers.
What are ways you celebrate your heritage?
At the age of five my father discovered fishing in the freshwater lakes of Massachusetts. He continued this hobby into adulthood, giving our family a tradition of camping in the summer and spending the whole day on the boat fishing for bass and swimming in the cool lake water. Having summers like this in my childhood gave me a strong connection to the outdoors that has carried forward to today. I celebrate this part of my heritage with my own family, spending time exploring nature whenever and wherever possible.
How do you channel your identity into your work?
My mother is Mexican-American with roots in Zacatecas, Mexico. My dad was born to a Japanese mother and his father was half Cherokee Indian, half African-American. I am all of these colors and also none at the same time, often checking the box of “other.” My identity these days is unattached to race. So, as in my youth on the lakes, I return to nature. I channel this part of my identity by using plants, animals and landscapes in my visual storytelling.
MISASHA SUZUKI GRAHAM
Co-author of Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism
A graduate of Harvard College and Columbia Law School, Misasha has been a practicing litigator for over 15 years, and is passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession as well as in her communities. She is a facilitator, writer, and speaker regarding issues of racial justice and children, and co-host of Dear White Women, a social justice podcast. Misasha, who is half-White and half-Japanese, is married to a Black man, and is the proud mom of two very active multiracial young boys. They live in the Bay Area of California with their largely indifferent cat.
What are ways you celebrate your heritage and how do you channel your identity into your work?
Growing up biracial, your identity is a key part of who you are — as others try and define it for you, you are forced to stand strong in who you are. For me, being the daughter of a Japanese immigrant, growing up culturally both Japanese and American, and spending time in both countries is central to who I am. I celebrate who I am in the names I’ve given to my kids, in lifting up voices and stories of people who look like me, and in making sure my family’s story is always part of my decision making process in how I move in this world. It is this deep love of my own identity that makes me so proud to co-author a book about how we see and show up for each other in this world, especially for those who have the privilege of being able to look away from questions of race and identity. I hope that my doing so will continue to encourage other Asian voices, especially Asian female voices, to share their own stories.
SARA BLANCHARD
Co-author of Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism
Sara helps build community and connection through conscious conversations, which she does as a facilitator, TEDx speaker, writer, and consultant. After graduating from Harvard and working at Goldman Sachs, Sara pursued the science and techniques of well-being and is a certified life coach, author of Flex Mom, and co-host of Dear White Women, a social justice podcast. Sara is half-White and half-Japanese, married to a White Canadian man, and is raising their two White-presenting girls to be compassionate, thoughtful advocates. They live in Denver, Colorado, with their incredibly lovable dog.
What are ways you celebrate your heritage?
We celebrate my Japanese heritage in the house in two main ways. One is the Girls Day celebration on March 3, which starts a few weeks earlier when we set up the Hina dolls to wish for the growth, happiness, and prosperity of my two young girls. On the day itself, the girls love the tradition of getting dressed in kimonos and taking photos to commemorate the occasion, and we finish up with a small in-house celebration. Two is the annual deep clean, or “osouji,” right before the new year. The way I grew up, it’s understood that the way you usher in the new year sets the tone for the entire year ahead, so we clean to purify the home (and in tradition, welcome in the Shinto deity of the new year) and set up kagamimochi decorations, and enjoy some traditional Japanese food.
How do you channel your identity into your work?
Reflecting on it, the first half of my life was spent embracing my Japanese identity; the second half of my life was spent really diving into my Whiteness. Now that we’ve been doing social justice work for several years now, I feel comfortable owning that my life and values are a healthy mix of both of these traditions, and that I need both actively in my life to feel at home in my skin. As for work, having grown up in a bicultural home, I’m able to understand from deep in my DNA that there are many stories and perspectives in the world, and I naturally offer a bridge to help share these truths.
CHERYL YAU CHEPUSOVA
Author of Noodles, Please!
Cheryl Yau Chepusova is a designer, writer, and author of the Big Cities Little Foodies travel series. As a Hong Kong native and city dweller, she has traveled around Asia and also lived and worked in Toronto, New York, and most recently San Francisco. Her writing has appeared in Design Observer, Metropolis, Print, and others. She spends her days designing apps and software for companies like Slack, Pinterest, The New York Times, and Squarespace. She enjoys picnics with her two children, teaching them multiple languages, and learning about the world together through picture books.
What are ways you celebrate your heritage?
I try as much as I can to maintain my culture for myself and my two children with frequent visits to my family in Hong Kong (pre-pandemic we would see them every 6 months) and continuing to teach my children my native languages and traditions. We are a mixed race family and both my husband and I speak in languages other than English, so my children regularly speak 4 languages at home. From my side of the family, we speak Cantonese and Shanghainese, and both my children go to a Mandarin immersion preschool as well, where they support our language learning and teach them a lot about overall Chinese culture with nursery rhymes, foods, poetry, and activities. At home I cook a lot of foods I’m familiar with and a lot of family recipes are Shanghainese, so my children are really used to eating various Chinese regional cuisines and using chopsticks from a young age. I didn’t move to the US until I was in my mid-twenties so it feels really natural for me to continue sharing this part of my background with my family. Language and travel experiences especially are a gift I can give them and enable them to stay in touch with my heritage.
How do you channel your identity into your work?
I write about things I am familiar with, things that are special and unique to cultures outside of America, and hope that it will resonate with my young readers who don’t feel represented in mainstream media. I didn’t grow up with a lot of American traditions like the tooth fairy or Thanksgiving, and I generally miss a lot of cultural references simply from not having lived in the US for long enough. It’s easy to feel like an outsider, even around Asian Americans who look and speak like me. I love that we are beginning to see and celebrate more Asian representation in books and movies, and I try to bring a different angle to the dialogue. Having Western storylines with Asian faces in the illustrations is not enough for me. I imagine there are children who currently live in the US like myself, who identify with Asian culture more than American, and still want to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance in this country. My identity as an expat definitely shapes the stories I want to tell and how I tell them. | https://medium.com/@thecollectivebookstudio/celebrating-asian-american-and-pacific-islander-heritage-month-4bd385bc40c | ['The Collective Book Studio'] | 2021-08-17 16:43:51.367000+00:00 | ['Aapi Heritage Month', 'Pacific Islander', 'Writing', 'Asian American', 'Publishing'] |
The Postal Service is Essential — Now is Not the Time to Politicize It | Despite the bipartisanship coronavirus stimulus negotiations, Democrats’ desire to shore up the USPS as a part of the coronavirus relief has hit a partisan roadblock.
by Colin Mortimer | Director of the Neoliberal Project at PPI
The United States Postal Service (USPS), like many other businesses right now, is in dire straits. Solicitation mailer volume, a major revenue source for the USPS, has dried up as businesses remain shut down. On Thursday, the Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan informed Congress that the nation’s mail service would need $89 billion or else it would run out of cash by September.
Despite the bipartisanship coronavirus stimulus negotiations, Democrats’ desire to shore up the USPS as a part of the coronavirus relief has hit a partisan roadblock. This roadblock has been led largely by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who told lawmakers during the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act negotiations that “You can have a loan, or you can have nothing at all” in response to the original provision that would have given the postal service a $13 billion grant to alleviate its financial woes. The USPS eventually received a $10 billion line of credit as part of the bill, which the postal agency has yet to draw on.
Coronavirus is the spark igniting various underlying problems the USPS has had for years. Much of these problems are derived from its most basic mandate: to deliver the mail to every American, regardless of where they may be located. This mandate has become harder to fulfill each year, as internet-driven innovations have made letters a relic of the past, even as the costs of fulfilling this mandate remain the same.
Beyond just its basic mandate, the USPS is hampered by other onerous Congressional regulations that no other federal agency or private company is saddled with. That includes the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA), which required the USPS to prefund the healthcare retirement benefits for its employees 75 years into the future. While the bill might sound innocuous or even prudent on its face, it has been criticized as “the most insane law by Congress, ever.” That is because Congress gave the USPS 10 years to create this $56 billion fund, with the annual contributions equaling 8% of the postal service’s annual revenue. Already in a precarious position of fulfilling its basic mandate in the age of the internet, this bill has wiped out the slim profits the USPS makes most years.
The Postal Service is caught between a rock and a hard place. On one side is Congress, which treats the USPS as it were a federal agency immune from market woes. On the other side is the market, with competitors like the internet, UPS and FedEx slowly chipping away at its bottom line. Congress can’t have it both ways with the USPS; if Congress wants the USPS to be a public good that serves all Americans, then it must financially support the USPS, especially during a time of crisis. If Congress wants the USPS to be a self-sufficient federal agency, then it must cut it loose from burdensome requirements, like PAEA.
There are signs that Congress is beginning to recognize there is a problem with the USPS. Congress agreed to include grant money in the CARES Act before Mnuchin shot down the provision. In early February, a bill to repeal the portion of PAEA that requires the USPS to prepay its retirement health benefits passed the House with 301 cosponsors from both parties. It would enable the USPS to shift to a pay-as-you-go model for its retirement health benefits, how every other federal agency and most other businesses handle these benefits. Crucially, this would provide the USPS with additional wiggle room to fund its retirement healthcare benefits, though these benefits would still remain a significant cost. The repeal’s fortunes in the Senate should be good, considering the bipartisan House effort. Once it’s on President Trump’s desk is another question. The administration has been accused of wanting to privatize the USPS, a move that is easier to accomplish if the postal service is bound to its retirement prepayment requirements during the coronavirus crisis.
Repealing PAEA prepayment provisions alone is not enough. Grants to the USPS should be a Congressional priority as part of the of widely expected fourth coronavirus relief bill, in addition to repeal of the postal service’s retirement prepayment requirements. Funding for universal postal voting would also provide the USPS with much needed cash, while serving a purpose of its own. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are on the line if the USPS collapses, as well as the postal service’s vast network of last-mile delivery that has become essential for Americans who are unable to shop in stores as they normally would. If Congress, or the Trump administration have a desire to reform or privatize the USPS, this crisis would not be the time to do such a measure. | https://progressivepolicyinstitute.medium.com/the-postal-service-is-essential-now-is-not-the-time-to-politicize-it-40c4c73095ed | ['Progressive Policy Institute'] | 2020-04-17 14:29:12.819000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Trump Administration', 'Post Office', 'Democrats', 'Stimulus'] |
ESG business model embed sustainability | I’ve been reading a lot about ESG in the last couple of years, and have been tracking it as a trend for some time now. It has become more mainstream in the business world through different lenses: Sustainability, Sustainable Investing, Triple Bottom Line, Sustainable Development Goals, Impact Investing, Social Entrepreneurship, and many more. These are all convergent, in my view, and in order to clarify these concepts, I’ve developed a point of view on how they map to each other:
Conceptual Framework of Various Thrusts that ESG Supports for SDG Outcomes
A Push From The Top
Larry Fink’s (BlackRock) letter to the CEOs in his portfolio outlined what he’s expecting from them — profits are just the entry ticket, but what really matters is reducing income inequality through better support of the employees, communities, and society at large (not just putting on the occasional show to care); being sustainable (not just complying with regulatory mandates); and having more diligent governance and greater transparency in and about their businesses (again, not just complying with the letter of the law). This letter galvanized CEOs to do something but it seems like a lot of activity done in haste and without much introspection; a sort of modern-day ‘greenwashing’, if you will.
CEOs’ Commitment From the Trenches
The anti-CEO playbook | Hamdi Ulukaya | Copyright — 2019 TED(C)
Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO of Chobani (a leading global yogurt brand), believes in values that espouse ESG principles, in his ‘Anti-CEO Playbook’, a playbook that “sees people again; that sees above and beyond profits”:
Be a Noble Leader: The purpose of a CEO is to be a “noble leader”, by which Ulukaya implicitly invokes an age gone by, but rapidly coming back into the spotlight. Lolly Daskal, an eminent speaker and writer on the topic of leadership expounds on this topic of ‘noble leadership’: “gives us a noble sense of importance, a sense of moral support, a sense of honor, a sense of encouragement, and a sense of visibility.”
The purpose of a CEO is to be a “noble leader”, by which Ulukaya implicitly invokes an age gone by, but rapidly coming back into the spotlight. Lolly Daskal, an eminent speaker and writer on the topic of leadership expounds on this topic of ‘noble leadership’: “gives us a noble sense of importance, a sense of moral support, a sense of honor, a sense of encouragement, and a sense of visibility.” Put Employees First: The company must take care of its employees first and foremost and not profits— if the employees are taken care of, they, in turn, will take care of the enterprise and drive its success. Ownership of the enterprise will further strengthen the bond between employees and the business. Wherever possible, make it such that the employees share in the success and failures of the company. They will rally their support during down-times and share in the abundant success of the good times.
The company must take care of its employees first and foremost and not profits— if the employees are taken care of, they, in turn, will take care of the enterprise and drive its success. Ownership of the enterprise will further strengthen the bond between employees and the business. Wherever possible, make it such that the employees share in the success and failures of the company. They will rally their support during down-times and share in the abundant success of the good times. Integrate Within the Community: Instead of wrangling incentives from already-struggling rural counties or towns, enterprises are in a better position to contribute to and drive community development. Instead of asking for handouts, companies should offer these communities their support through employment, training, education, all of which will also benefit the company itself, through greater profits and a reliable, domestic workforce.
Instead of wrangling incentives from already-struggling rural counties or towns, enterprises are in a better position to contribute to and drive community development. Instead of asking for handouts, companies should offer these communities their support through employment, training, education, all of which will also benefit the company itself, through greater profits and a reliable, domestic workforce. Take a Stand on Responsibility: It has been a traditional stance for business to follow regulation but stay on the sidelines on policy and controversial issues. This can happen no more — companies must pick a side, and risk alienating a certain group of consumers that do not agree with their decision or stance. However, taking a stand endears the company to a whole other set of consumers who have aligned beliefs and values. Governments globally are becoming more gridlocked and unable to impact the population on policy matters. Companies are in a better position to enact and ‘live’ the policies that Governments want to carry out.
It has been a traditional stance for business to follow regulation but stay on the sidelines on policy and controversial issues. This can happen no more — companies must pick a side, and risk alienating a certain group of consumers that do not agree with their decision or stance. However, taking a stand endears the company to a whole other set of consumers who have aligned beliefs and values. Governments globally are becoming more gridlocked and unable to impact the population on policy matters. Companies are in a better position to enact and ‘live’ the policies that Governments want to carry out. Recognize the Consumer: The business reports to its consumer — take care of the consumer’s explicit, implicit and unmet needs and the consumer will be loyal with their daily / weekly spend on the company’s products and services. Consumers are fickle, and can switch brands anytime. Give them a reason to love your product or service. Your product or service must align with the beliefs and expectations of the consumer, and this can yield greater profit and loyalty.
Measuring ESG is a Start But Not Enough to Embed
Implementing projects is easy. Qualitative and quantitative measurement is a must, and already exists in various forms: MSCI, Refinitiv, Sustainalytics, and others; in fact so many different ways to measure exist that there are no standards, but they will likely converge in the near term, as we approach critical mass for the ESG mandate. The measurement question risks the larger imperative of embedding ESG and not just making it ‘yet another sustainability related initiative’ on the corporate agenda. We have witnessed in the past few years many companies simply ‘greenwashing’ their actions with a veneer of supposedly good deeds which have had a limited impact but have lulled both enterprises and consumers into believing that the initiatives have been meaningful.
So How Do You Embed ESG?
Let’s talk first about some of the clear DONT’S:
Don’t make it a project — projects have a beginning and an end, and if ESG is treated like a project, it will logically come to an end at some point. ESG is a way of working that must be embedded into each part of the enterprise such that the principles of ESG form the basis for how each function operates and how a company deals with its partners in its business network ecosystem.
— projects have a beginning and an end, and if ESG is treated like a project, it will logically come to an end at some point. ESG is a that must be embedded into each part of the enterprise such that the principles of ESG form the basis for how each function operates and how a company deals with its partners in its business network ecosystem. Don’t preach, but act — we have all seen enough examples of lofty mission statements and words of intent, but not enough action. Action shows clarity in thought and execution about what levers of ESG the company wants to exercise and what results it will likely achieve.
— we have all seen enough examples of lofty mission statements and words of intent, but not enough action. Action shows clarity in thought and execution about what levers of ESG the company wants to exercise and what results it will likely achieve. Don’t boil the ocean — act in small but meaningful ways. Think of small things that can make a difference and start implementing them. Don’t create a massive movement out of it that requires a lot of resource and effort, since it will likely fail right at the beginning. Build momentum slowly, and function by function.
— act in small but meaningful ways. Think of small things that can make a difference and start implementing them. Don’t create a massive movement out of it that requires a lot of resource and effort, since it will likely fail right at the beginning. Build momentum slowly, and function by function. Make it work IN the company and not just ON the company — this is somewhat subtle, but ESG isn’t some initiative that is ‘above’ the company but make it an integral part of the company, one that works in every nook and cranny ‘within’ the company. In other words, embed it within each action and functional decision and not just something that a select group of people must do to ‘achieve’ ESG.
— this is somewhat subtle, but ESG isn’t some initiative that is ‘above’ the company but make it an integral part of the company, one that works in every nook and cranny ‘within’ the company. In other words, embed it within each action and functional decision and not just something that a select group of people must do to ‘achieve’ ESG. Don’t create a leadership position — we see many new titles like ‘sustainability manager’ or ‘chief sustainability officer’ — so long as these positions are for reporting the outcomes that’s fine, but expecting these roles to actually embed ESG is misguided and will likely fail. ESG is not a ‘role’ within an organization but in fact an entirely different ‘way of working’ of the business.
So, what you need to do is to make ESG an integral element of the fabric of the company. How do you do this? Go ahead and read Part 2. | https://medium.com/esg8/embedding-esg-principles-part-1-d43e3545b145 | ['Deep Parekh'] | 2019-07-10 12:36:30.095000+00:00 | ['Sustainability', 'Triple Bottom Line', 'Esg', 'Green', 'Social'] |
Function over visual aesthetics: It’s for the birds | Five years ago I was sitting in my audiologist’s office with my then-girlfriend/now-wife. I’d made the decision to forgo visual aesthetics for function and accessibility. I was trading my tiny inner-canal hearing aids for a bigger, less concealable behind-the-ear set.
<<Flashback<<
The choice to get inner-canal hearing aids was a vain one. I worried about the visual aesthetics of my disability. Having those big obtuse listening boxes behind my ears wasn’t for me. Oh, the judgments people would cast… Vanity, Al Pacino’s favorite sin, had the opposite impact on my life I’d expected. My quality of life was actually lessened, not improved. People had an even more difficult time deciphering I was deaf. They even challenged the legitimacy of my impairment, accusing me of not paying attention. But, people will be people. What’s even worse is I had no idea what I was missing.
>>Flash Forward>>
My audiologist places the hearing aids on the back of my ear. I fit the earpiece into my canal and flip the on-switch. There were a few little doo-ditty-doo audible tones letting me know it was “go-time” and then something remarkable.
Birds chirping. Birds chirping?
My then-girlfriend/now-wife and audiologist looked at me with big Disney doe eyes waiting for a response.
“I hear birds. Outside.”
Then it hit me: I’d allowed the vanity of visual aesthetics to steal the sounds of the world from me and I didn’t even know it. I had stopped hearing the choir of birds completely. You see, inner-ear canal hearing aids don’t work for my hearing loss. But, they sure did look better…
Moral: Don’t allow vanity aesthetics in your design to overrule functionality & accessibility. Looking pretty is nice, but being able to function is so much nicer. | https://medium.com/@dustin-dooling/function-over-visual-aesthetics-its-for-the-birds-ad529329834a | ['Dustin Dooling'] | 2020-12-09 23:28:36.330000+00:00 | ['UX Design', 'Funtion', 'Visual Design', 'UX', 'Accessibility'] |
Secrets, Scissors, Streets and Saviours | My top five alternative Christmas films
The festive period can seem a little stale and predictable for adults. The consumerist behemoth it has become by this stage means for many of us it lacks the magic we experienced as kids. All too often the seasonal flick is like the customary impulse to overindulge: a bloated confection of predictable schmaltz and cliches. Here then are some alternative movies (in no particular order) that feature Christmas but in some unusual, unsettling and above all unexpected ways.
Tokyo Godfathers (Satoshi Kon, 2003)
It's Christmas Eve and in the dirtier side streets of Tokyo, a band of three homeless misfits stumble upon an abandoned baby whilst rummaging for food amongst the rubbish. After some bickering (setting the tone for the entire film) they realise they must find the rightful parents and return the child. With Trans surrogate mum Hana having dubbed the newborn Kyoko (here meaning ‘pure child’) they venture forth, but the road ahead is not only uncharted, it is beset with perils and dramatic chance encounters that uncover little pieces of the trio’s former lives. The hero’s journey is, as ever, revealing and as we learn more about their pasts, the themes of the film emerge with an elegance not normally associated with caper comedy.
A meticulous balance of slapstick humour and poignancy plays out in what is now a cult classic of the Christmas film oeuvre. Satoshi Kon is known for thought-provoking concepts and refined narratives, so Tokyo Godfathers feels like he is liberated into the mayhem of a caper, a contrast to his previous work.
Whilst the comic elements of the film are evident from the first moment, the depth is revealed through flawed but relatable characters. This is what evokes the subject matter we would ordinarily associate with festive films (kindness to strangers, family, forgiveness, belonging) but in a decidedly offbeat manner. The abiding message of this film is one of togetherness and remembering your loved ones. In the conventional festive flick, this is all too often saccharine and obvious, lacking subtlety or nuance. In Tokyo Godfathers, the brash silliness of its surface belies its complexity and universal appeal.
This is a film for anime buffs certainly, but it will find fans in anyone willing to give it 90 minutes of their time. It expertly weaves together an array of narrative threads and character exposition in a taut run time and with rare ease. Eminently watchable and fast-paced, there is pathos and laughs and even a healthy dose of thrilling drama in its conclusion.
Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
With a film selection from the late cinematic genius that is Kubrick, we are well and truly in the realm of the alternative. Based on a Viennese novella called Traumnovelle (which translates to ‘Dream Story’) the narrative of the film adaptation takes place over the festive period, the setting here moved to New York. The bulk of this eerily toned foray into the yearning emptiness of the Big Apple’s rich elites however is far from festive. Maybe that depends on how you like to spend Christmas but for most, a masked orgy would seem unconventional!
The story centres on Alice (Nicole Kidman) and Bill (Tom Cruise) Harford, two wealthy and successful doctors. An exploration of the fractures that exist between them, the film delves into themes of marital disharmony, jealousy and darker desires that reveal murkier worlds.
Following Alice’s confession of a fantasised adultery, Bill storms off with some sort of vengeance in mind. After bumping into an ex-college pal who tells him of a secret sexy ball for the well-heeled elite Bill ventures, noir like, into a sordid world of the New York night, uncovering clues to infiltrate the exclusive masquerade. Upon finding his way in, Bill discovers much and is himself discovered. Ejected and threatened to secrecy for the macabre ritualistic events he has witnessed, Bill enters a phase of psychological turmoil, forced to question the validity of what he saw, the truth of his own life, the potential threat that now hangs over him and his family.
This film seems a little overlooked in Kubrick’s back catalogue but to some it is his most intriguing, carrying with it all sorts of mystique. From the theme of masquerade and the sleazy encounters in the film to the sudden death of Kubrick before its completion and the rumoured 20 plus minutes that were cut never to be seen again, Eyes Wide Shut is a film imbued with an uncomfortable air of voyeuristic ennui. Laden with symbolism and esoteric curios, the central ideas and implied meanings are Kubrick at his multi-layered best.
Typically, Kubrick illuminated most of the film with natural lighting on set, which for much of the run time is provided by Christmas lights. It lends the film a slightly jarring contrast. Accompanied by a deeply unsettling piano motif, the synthetic light and elliptical motion of the camera combine to impart the dream-like atmosphere that Kubrick sought.
It is exemplary of his style, dense with meanings below its surface for the analytical observer to unravel and interpret, so this summary barely scratches the surface! It is a genre-straddling masterpiece, even if not his absolute best work. There is more here than most filmmakers could achieve across an entire career, a spooky, seedy, erotic thriller that is at times almost horror wrapped in a disturbed fever dream. Perfect for a cosy, December night on the couch!
Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985)
If the macabre and murky is your thing then absurdist satire Brazil ticks the box, albeit with its tongue in cheek by comparison to Eyes Wide Shut. Taking George Orwell’s 1984 as its blueprint we follow the fate and fortune of Sam Lowry, a low-level functionary of the ‘Ministry of Information’. Designated ambiguously as ‘somewhere in the twentieth century’, this is a surreal take on dystopian fiction. Filled with clunky, cartoonish machinery, the world is festooned with air ducts and metallic-looking tubes and recalls the more darkly comic moments of Gilliam’s Monty Python days.
From the smash and grab of the opening scene that breaks the Christmas idyll of the wrongly identified Buttle family to the oversized peak caps of the ‘Central Services’ engineers, the tone is a sort of pantomime barbarism, everything ramped up to 11. Choosing leering and tilted camera angles and an industrial-looking production design, Gilliam’s world evokes that of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.
Lowry himself, painted as something of a misfit from the start, even reflects this idea in his dreams — a recurring scenario in which he saves a damsel in distress. He is pictured flying like a graceful metallic Icarus over fields and hills, one time punctured by brutish skyscrapers that sprout from the earth. The real world by contrast is button-down and shackled in place by paperwork, an integral theme. Indeed, when the Buttle ‘clerical error’ is discovered Sam sets on course to rectify the paperwork — in person. Here, to his amazement, he encounters Jill Layton, literally the woman of his dreams.
This is my favourite Terry Gilliam movie and it is his most celebrated. It surmises his zany absurdism, his grandiose yet strangely visceral production values and his humour, which is skilfully combined into a succinct satire of bureaucracy and consumerism. It is no coincidence that Christmas plays out as a backdrop to all of this. Garish in its depictions of the shallow (Sam’s mother who is obsessed with plastic surgery provides that iconic horrific image of a bulldog-clipped stretched face), this is the one time Python animator at his finest.
Within all of it is a pervading sense of Gilliam’s love for his craft too. The world is fastidiously rendered and, as many have said, Kafka-esque as much as it references Orwell’s dystopia. Having co-written the script with playwright Tom Stoppard and previous collaborator Charles McKeown, Brazil is brought together by Gilliam in fine fashion and no doubt benefited greatly from this particular writing team. This film is a must-see at any time of year but is an even greater gift during the festive season.
Trading Places (John Landis, 1983)
Firmly planting a foot in the comedy camp with this entry. With its status as Christmas movie never disputed, Trading Places stands up as a classic of Landis’ career. It was an aligning of the stars in the case of Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd (originally destined to be another Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder romp) and their performances here are razor sharp. The themes of the story remain as relevant as ever, despite a few moments not ageing well (Jamie Lee Curtis is found gratuitously denuding a number of times and Aykroyd blacking-up and doing a cod-Jamaican accent is wince-worthy). However, the chemistry of the main cast is on point here and the overarching message is one of breaking down harmful stereotypes not reinforcing them.
Tis the season and Louis Winthorpe (Aykroyd) is living his best life as an upper-class commodities broker, running the firm for the brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke in laudable fashion. Mortimer is obsessed with the idea of nature versus nurture and insists that environment maketh the man. His brother disagrees and so after a chance encounter with lowly street hustler Billy Ray Valentine (Murphy), a wager is struck: they will engineer it so that Billy Ray and Louis find their situations reversed and when Louis turns to crime out of desperation, despite his breeding, the point will be proved.
A far-fetched and madcap second act ensues, swapping the two lives. Louis befriends prostitute Ophelia (Lee Curtis) and enlists her help in exchange for a fee once normality is restored. One drunk and desperate framing attempt later however and Louis has proved Mortimer correct. The brothers settle their one-dollar bet but plan to return Billy Ray to the street and freeze out the hapless Louis for good, unbeknownst that Billy Ray is in earshot of the whole scheme. Time for revenge!
The final act of the film ties together a number of plot threads in a fever pitch of comic fortitude and epic shenanigans allowing the ensemble to really shine. The scene in the train is a great synthesis of material and performance showing why Landis had so many hits during this period of his career. He allows the talent to really shine and the film rattles along to its conclusion with abandon, delivering laughs throughout and solid performances from the peripheral cast as much as main trio. As referenced, there are moments of political incorrectness that have not stood the test of time, but it would be remiss to allow a couple of moments to undermine what constitutes a frivolous yet clever classic comedy. Besides, the overall message on stereotypes is one of breaking down long-held harmful assumptions. This is worth the watch to see the core cast do some of the best work of their careers — and of course to have laugh or two over the festive period!
Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990)
Tim Burton is no stranger to the Christmas movie and as you might expect, convention is not something that tends to feature. Batman Returns and A Nightmare Before Christmas are two films that incorporate a festive theme and both show his quirky approach to storytelling. However, it is the hyperreal imagination and bittersweet heart of Edward Scissorhands that stands out. Without doubt the most successful pairing of Depp and Burton, here the director pays homage to the B-Movies he so loves and forefronts his preoccupation with Gothic fairy tale. Edward Scissorhands is part Frankenstein and part Stepford Wives: the pastel colours of the suburbia depicted are a pastiche of 1950’s America, whilst Edward’s home (perched atop a darkly craggy outcrop) is an eerie abode reminiscent of The Addam’s Family residence.
The story follows the eponymous character who lives alone in a dilapidated mansion. Upon an emboldened visit from local Avon lady Peg (Dianne Wiest) he is discovered and taken in. Like a lost orphan, Edward enters a world as alien to him as he is to it. At first, he is an attractively different distraction from their bored lives, a novelty that is fawned over, particularly when his skill with those scissored hands is revealed. Yet, this is a shallow and cruel world and socially maladapted Edward is innocently drawn into traps and situations that spell his downfall. He is once again the threatening monster and is run out of town back to his house on the hill.
While the location evokes a kind of daydream feel of languid California perfection, all picket fences and lawn sprinklers, the exaggerated nature of the place makes it clear from the outset that this is not quite a utopia. Burton uses this to remind us of a central theme: hypocrisy and facade.
There is a quasi comic book tone in the film and Depp as the titular misfit puts in a performance that continually walks the line of comic and sorrowful. It is well worthy of all the praise it receives as he managed to convey humour, innocence, sadness and awkwardness in equal measure with virtually no dialogue throughout. Whilst all of this helps to reinforce the issues that Burton is concerned with (belonging, otherness, falsehood) the true heart of the film is the chemistry between Depp and Winona Ryder (playing Peg’s daughter Kim). From the moment their eyes first meet all of these themes combine.
Love, innocence and purity are the real current running through the movie, and with this the kitsch is transcended and becomes something more substantial and magical. The score of this film demonstrates again the powerful partnership of Tim Burton and Danny Elfman, but the beauty and the emotional impact are elevated with the evocative musical themes in a manner they have rarely captured again. The combination of the main theme and Kim dancing in the ‘snow’ created by Edward’s frenetic ice sculpting embodies everything that is spellbinding about this movie.
It is frequently referred to as Burton’s masterpiece and his most personal film. Edward can easily be seen as a version of himself, from the mad mop of unruly black hair to the eccentric evocation of isolation and otherness, even the casting of Vincent Price as Edward’s creator, the inventor cum father figure. The production design is his most exemplary (also borrowing from German Expressionism), from the gothic imagining of Edwards home, to the colourful fakery of the neighbourhood below and the topiary figures that come to dominate this landscape. This is one of those instances where the disparate elements combine into an idiosyncratic fairy tale aimed right at the heart — a target it doesn’t miss!
This list is certainly five of my very favourite alternative Christmas movies but as is the nature of such lists, it constantly morphs and evolves. This years The Green Knight might well make it onto a top ten now. Other honourable mentions might include but not be limited to The Long Kiss Goodnight, Gremlins, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Die Hard or Scrooged. Some of these may cross over into a more family-friendly list.
What are your favourite alternative festive flicks? What did I miss? Join the debate in the comments. Oh and Merry Christmas ya filthy animals! | https://cinapse.co/secrets-scissors-streets-and-saviours-7e744d0592dd | ['Rafiq Hilton'] | 2021-12-17 17:29:00.679000+00:00 | ['Christmas Movies', 'Trading Places', 'Tokyo Godfathers', 'Brazil', 'Eyes Wide Shut'] |
The most popular types of outsourcing contracts — How to choose the right one? | You may find a lot of obstacles when you will try to outsource the work to the different company. It could be tough to deal with the competence shortage. Shortlisting the best outsourcing suppliers is really challenging. Once you headed throughout the process of seeking for the right ones you can feel relieved. But this feeling will not last forever. Companies representatives will urge you to sign the contract which is the best for them. But which one is the best for you?
Feeling uneasy in that sort of situation is normal. Unsurprisingly, depends on what you choose, your project could be a success or a real disaster. It is all about your project requirements. About what you have and what outcome you want to achieve. Eventually, everything is about how you set up the contract with the new contractor.
There are two the most common types of contracts between you and your new deliverer: Fixed Price Basis and the Time and Material Basis.
Fixed Price Basis
The Fixed Price basis is a type of contract when you detailly specify the scope of work, budget and deadlines. This type of contract is the best choice for the project when details of functions are clearly specified. This sort of contract can require exact attachment with a clear description of each module that has to be developed. In most cases, the wireframes will be needed as well. Not every company demands you to deliver it. But it is your business to deliver it because once you do so, you will avoid misunderstandings when wandering throughout the development process. Sometimes a supplier will propose you to order wireframes, and development of the details of functions before you will start develop your project. It will cost you extra money, but if you do not have the wireframes ready and the scope of work is not specified properly it could be a great investment.
Also in that type of a contract you may ask a software development company to provide you a free guarantee or a few months of free corrections period.
The best advantage and a disadvantage in the same time of that form of contract is that the project has to be specified in the details. It can be an advantage because you know what outcome you receive, how much you pay and when the project is finished — if everything goes right. But also it may be a disadvantage because once you want to change something in the project you have to pay more and change the attachment to the contract at first. Sometimes changing a scope could be impossible because it could collide with the application structure. This is why the wireframes are so important to develop before you begin with the development.
Time and material basis
This type of the contract can be used in the two types of situations. First, if you want to develop a software but the scope is not clearly specified. Second, if you already have a project development ongoing and you want to extend your team. This agreement requires you to pay hourly to each of your employees from your team . Mostly you pay for each “Man-Day(MD)” — business day of work to every team member. This is a solution when your company deals with the competence shortage. When you have a work ongoing, you cannot specify the scope because you do not know what is going to happen. Time and material is for you.
Also when you have an idea of the software that will change a life of each individual but is not specified in the details. First you have to develop an MVP and then the right application. But you cannot predict in which direction the development will go. You are still researching market for the answers which may change the scope. Time and material is for you.
The biggest disadvantage of this type of contract is that in the end of the day you cannot predict how much your software development will costs. On the other hand, you are the one in charge. You control the process of the development. You manage the people. You are the one responsible for the outcome. You decide when the work is finished. This freedom could be really important when it comes to the development of your new software that will bring a great value for your future clients.
Conclusion
These two types of contracts which are mentioned above are the most common on todays market. Fixed prices basis are mostly for the smaller projects when the scope of work is clearly specified. Time and Material basis are rather for the bigger projects when you cannot specify the details of function and the outcome is still unknown. | https://medium.com/@waskosoftware/the-most-popular-types-of-outsourcing-contracts-how-to-choose-the-right-one-be106ec88718 | [] | 2020-03-19 10:00:31.707000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Software Development', 'Legal', 'Programming'] |
Introducing Exipure | The next generation in health offers.
While many supplements claim to aid in weight loss, only a few deliver on their promises without side effects. One of such few promising weight loss formulas is Exipure.
It is a natural weight loss supplement that is exclusively available only on their official website at Exipure.com and not in retail stores. It was launched to the public on Thursday, October 21, 2021, and contains a blend of eight tropical plants and exotic nutrients. These eight plant-based nutrients are backed by clinical research to aid in weight loss due to their ability to boost brown fat levels, which newfound science is now saying that low brown adipose tissue levels is the root cause of unexplained weight gain.
But can Exipure help you lose weight? Keep reading to learn what this supplement is and how it works.
Let us not skip some crucial details about the Exipure weight loss supplement mentioned below in the table:
Product Rating - 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot https://www.trustpilot.com/review/exipure.com
Agenda -Exipure supplement is a blend of eight nutrients and plants that effectively increase the brown adipose tissue levels to support weight loss
Behind The Formula-Exipure formula is created by Dr. Wilkins and promoted online by Jack Barrett
Manufacturing Standards
Made in FDA registered and GMP certified facility
Exipure is made in easy-to-swallow capsules
Plant-based and GMO-free ingredients
Uses non-habit-forming contents
Unit count- One bottle includes 30 easy to take capsules
Serving size- Recommended taking one capsule daily morning with a glass full of water
Key Ingredients -Oleuropein, Berberine, Holy Basil, Perilla leaves, White Korean Ginseng, Amur cork Bark, Quercetin, and Propolis
Initial price -Single bottle of Exipure supplement cost $59
Click here for order
What is Exipure?
Exipure is a tropical weight loss formula that works differently from other weight loss supplements on the market today because of its nutritional composition and ability to boost brown fat levels. This supplement uses these exotic ingredients to target the root cause of belly fat and start shrinking the fat cells. According to the makers of Exipure, the primary reason for weight gain and belly fat is low levels of Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT).
So far, what the new science says is that you’re more likely to be obese if you have low BAT ratios. However, if your BAT is high, you have a higher chance of being leaner. This is because BAT burns calories at least three hundred times faster than normal white fat, according to the research referenced by product formulators Jack Barrett, Dr. James Wilkins, and Dr. Lam.
The difference between thin people is that they burn more fat effectively due to higher regular body fat levels, while obese people burn less fat over the same amount of time due to low brown fat levels.
The brown adipose tissue burns calories more efficiently than regular fat cells, in a non-stop manner to reduce the number of calories that stick around and convert into white fat, making it easier to either lose weight or keep your ideal body weight. This is the backbone of the Exipure weight loss formula.
The makers of the Exipure diet pill claim that it is the only diet supplement in the world to contain eight exotic plants and nutrients that target the BAT levels in the body, thereby solving the problem of uncontrollable weight gain. But is that really all it is? Is it really as simple as Exipure is made in easy-to-swallow capsules for oral administration and can be taken daily to boost BAT levels naturally and accelerate the activity of brown fat levels for optimal fat shrinking weight loss results?
Brown Adipose Tissue: What is it, and why is it important?
The primary idea behind Exipure is that by combining certain unique nutrients, the Brown Adipose Tissue levels in the body can be increased or raised.
Simply put, brown adipose tissue is a type of fat in the human body that is activated when cold. BAT releases heat to optimize the body temperature in cold environments. Brown adipose tissue is also known as brown fat. It is different from regular fat in that it contains more mitochondria.
These brown fat are responsible for burning calories by increasing body temperature and are popularly known as the engines within the fat cells.
Also, researchers have said that brown fat burns more calories than regular fat, which is why the increased funding and research on the effects of brown fat on dieting and weight loss. That means that it could be easier to lose weight by raising brown fat in the body.
Ingredients Contained in Exipure
Exipure increases the level of your Brown Adipose tissue in the body by combining eight natural plants and nutrients. These ingredients are clinically proven to raise calorie-burning BAT. Aside from boosting the level of BAT in the body, some of these ingredients also improve brain health and restore aging cells, while others reduce stress.
This effective weight loss pill does not only contain ingredients that are well known for their aid of weight loss (for example, quercetin and ginseng); it also has less common ones like perilla and amur cork bark. These ingredients work together to raise BAT levels in the body, and here’s how they individually work;
Perilla
This is a genus that contains one major Asiatic crop species called perilla frutescens. It is used in Exipure to boost BAT levels. Other uses for perilla are to support brain health and healthy cholesterol. It can be used to treat nausea and muscle spasms.
Holy Basil
Although holy basil belongs to the genus as regular basil, this belongs to the species Ocimum sanctum and is used in Exipure to improve body mass, BAT levels, reduce stress, and support brainpower. Holy basil also helps protect against infection, ease joint pain, lower blood sugar and cholesterol, and protect your stomach.
Propolis
Like holy basil, Propolis also boosts the BAT levels as well as supports healthy blood sugar and blood pressure. This ingredient helps your body explicitly with its extracts and numerous health benefits for treating disease with its antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, antiulcer, anticancer, and immunomodulatory properties. Propolis contains 300+ antioxidants that can be very beneficial to scavenge free radicals from body cells, reduce oxidative stress, and support healthy aging.
White Korean Ginseng
Also called Panax ginseng, White Korean Ginseng boosts BAT levels in the body and supports healthy immunity. It also reduces oxidative stress and has anti-inflammatory benefits. Lastly, white Korean ginseng is known to improve the symptoms of erectile dysfunction, stress, anxiety, and diabetes.
Oleuropein
This is a polyphenolic compound rich in olive oil and used to boost BAT in the body. Oleuropein has been known to be one of the best, natural heart-friendly compounds with benefits like improving anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antioxidant, and neuroprotective functions. Also, it supports healthy cholesterol levels and artery health.
Amur Cork Bark
While this ingredient isn’t as popular as the others, the Amur cork bark derives from the Amur cork tree, also known as Phellodendron amurense. Like holy basil, it also improves BAT levels in the body.
Additionally, it supports a healthy liver and heart, aids in digestion, treats osteoarthritis, stress, obesity, acne, and reduces bloating. It also acts as a chemopreventive agent for lung cancer patients, protects the cartilage against arthritis, and prevents the growth of prostate tumors.
Berberine
An effective anti-inflammatory ingredient that also doubles as an antioxidant. This ingredient contains active compounds that support digestion and accelerate metabolism. This nutrient enhances the body’s ability to detoxify itself. When combined with quercetin, the effects are improved, and it becomes much easier to burn fats.
Quercetin
Quercetin is a common antioxidant that is used in many nutritional supplements. In Exipure, it boosts levels of brown adipose tissue, rejuvenates aging cells, and supports healthy blood pressure. Known especially for its anti-aging effects, some proven weight loss studies have also linked to quercetin for faster weight reduction.
Click here for order
Benefits of Exipure
The first benefit of Exipure is that it contains eight science-backed ingredients that aid weight loss. Unlike other weight loss supplements, which include cheap quality contents and synthetic ingredients, Exipure ingredients are all-natural to provide a user with the following mentioned benefits:
Exipure makers understand the brown adipose tissue (bat) is the root cause of weight gain. Thus their formula boosts the BAT to burn calories and body fat faster. Additionally, it fuels up the metabolism and accelerates the digestive system for healthy weight loss support.
Many natural ingredients in Exipure are rich in antioxidants to help cleanse the body, remove the free radicals, and avoid oxidative stress.
Exipure has long-term health benefits, unlike other weight loss programs, and supplements give temporary relief in weight gain. It offers you permanent weight loss results and keeps your overall health on the go.
Increased levels of brown adipose tissue burn fat into energy to make your body feel more energetic all day while performing your regular tasks. You can start working out and excursively enhance weight loss effects without getting tired or feeling a lack of energy.
Exipure ingredients support healthy blood pressure, healthy cholesterol levels, improve oxygen levels, and boost immunity.
It puts a bar on your appetite and food cravings, so you take a controlled caloric intake to control excess weight and burn existing body fat.
Exipure weight loss pills ensure smooth functioning of your heart and liver, so if you stay on low calories, you feel all charged without any critical issues.
The formula offers healthy brain functioning and keeps you relaxed, stress-free.
Exipure benefits are vital. We noticed how customers explained the availed benefits in their Exipure reviews and what properties actually contained ingredients have to offer the user. However, there is no mention about how the complete proprietary blend works to boost low brown adipose tissue levels, but the Exipure reviews and eight exotic nutrients have a clue of featuring the above-mentioned benefits.
How Exipure Works
The primary way Exipure works is by increasing the BAT levels in the human body, which increases the body’s ability to burn calories and fat. Aside from helping burn more fat, BAT can improve the body’s general energy levels.
According to the official website, “Exipure is unlike anything you’ve ever tried or experienced in your life before. It is the only product in the world with a proprietary blend of eight exotic nutrients and plants designed to target low brown adipose tissue (BAT) levels, the newfound root cause of your unexplained weight gain.”
Scientific Research
Usually, dietary nutritional formulas have to conduct peer-reviewed research or clinical trials as it is the standard to ascertain the effectiveness of every supplement. However, Exipure weight loss supplement joined the market recently and has not yet completed its clinical trials or peer-reviewed research.
The formula manufacturers say proven studies on weight loss back their supplement, and several studies that support its ingredients and function are cited.
For example, researchers discovered in a study conducted in 2004 that brown adipose tissue can lead to the combustion of lipids and sugar within the mitochondria. This was found after the researchers analyzed BAT and its ability to generate energy by burning fats into heat. This means that BAT aids the burning of fat and calories eaten and also helps in weight loss.
Science holds that the only way to maintain or lose weight is by losing more calories than you gain. People can only lose weight by burning more calories than they consume, known as a caloric deficit. Generally, the most popular and effective way to maintain a caloric deficit is by dieting and exercising.
However, BAT has been considered a “shortcut” to a caloric deficit since it can burn more calories than regular fat.
Overall, the manufacturers of Exipure pills are firmly convinced that combining Korean Ginseng and holy basil is found to have power over obesity and weight loss; you can boost brown adipose tissue in the body and lose weight much faster. However, the supplement manufacturers also recommend dieting and exercising as the best way to boost BAT.
Customer Testimonials and Exipure Reviews?
According to the official website, users of the weight loss formula can lose a tremendous amount of weight, and to corroborate the effectiveness of the supplement, various previous users have this to say about Exipure;
A customer who used the product wrote an Exipure review while claiming that she lost at least 35 pounds and felt like she was in the best shape of her life after taking the supplement. She feels less stressed or anxious, and her energy levels are through the roof.
Zach, who also used the supplement, claims he feels fitter now in his 40’s compared to when he was in his 30’s. He continues to shed unnecessary fat, losing up to 26 pounds.
Again, Cassie says from her experience of using Exipure, she lost 40 pounds “in no time” and continues to lose weight.
All these Exipure reviews are convincing, and on the sales page, Exipure is described as a “5-second exotic hack that melts 59 pounds of fat.” With these compelling reviews, one can understand the growing popularity of the supplement since its launch.
How is Exipure Sold?
Currently, Exipure can only be bought from its official website at Exipure.com. As stated on the website, a bottle of Exipure is retailed at $59. However, the price will come down to $49 or $39 per bottle for multiple orders. Outlined below is the pricing breakdown according to the website.
Buy One bottle of Exipure at $59 + $9.95 shipping.
Buy Three bottles of Exipure at $147 + $9.95 shipping + 2 bonuses
Buy Six bottles of Exipure at $234 + Free shipping + 2 bonuses
Contained in each bottle are 30 digestive capsules, just enough for 30 servings. For best results, according to the manufacturers, users of the supplement should take one capsule daily.
What Bonuses come with Exipure?
According to the official website where the supplement is exclusively sold, customers can get the following bonuses when they buy three or six bottles of the Exipure supplement today;
1-Day Kickstart Detox:
1-Day Kickstart Detox is an eBook that will guide you about how to cleanse, detox, and flush the unhealthy elements from your body, the elements causing you health problems. It will help you improve your overall health and wellness. The 20 individuals, easy to make tea recipes mentioned, allow you to kick start losing weight and give an extra boost to your weight loss journey while taking the Exipure pills. In a nutshell, it is an eBook that explains how to start and achieve your next detox effectively.
Renew You:
Another eBook that teaches you how to not be stressed out. The time-tested self-renewal techniques make the readers vigilant about how they calm their minds and restore the lost confidence due to being overweight. Tricks and tips are very helpful at reducing stress, anxiety and putting you back in self-confidence.
Also, when consumers buy Exipure, they have access to other products like discounted bottles of Exipure and a special ‘Wellness Box’ with other supplements. The following products are recommended after ordering Exipure:
Nine bottles of Exipure at discounted prices with free shipping
Exipure Wellness Box valued at $620
Exipure Wellness Box: What Is It?
The Exipure wellness box is a great resource that contains five supplements that can help boost your immunity, get better sleep, and lose more weight. If you had a great experience with Exipure weight loss pills, then there is a chance that you would like to try other health supplements in Exipure Wellness Box. Here are the supplements included in the Exipure Wellness Box:
MCT Oil Pure
MCT Oil Pure consists of 2,000mg of MCT (medium-chain triglycerides) per serving which is made to boost your energy and endurance. Exipure makers claim that this strong blend of oil can support healthy weight loss. Many scientific studies and researches have found that MCT oil can significantly enhance energy levels, manage blood sugar levels, lower cholesterol levels, and aid memory function. Also, it has the capabilities of promoting food cravings by releasing leptin, a hunger hormone that causes appetite, which makes losing weight a tough task.
Biobalance Probiotics
It is a probiotic supplement that works in your body to improve gut health, immunity, and overall well-being. Biobalance Probiotics contain 20 billion colony-forming units (CFUs) that restore healthy gut flora. According to scientific studies, healthy gut flora can be helpful in improving your overall health. BioBalance prevents harmful bacteria from entering our digestive tract and flushes it out to ensure the smooth functioning of the digestive system. You can experience the maximum benefits of all other Exipure products if taking the Biobalance Probiotics along.
Immune Boost
A strong immune system can lead to healthy and stress-free living. Exipure makers designed the Immune Boost supplement to make your entire immune system robust and healthy. Each serving of Immune Boost consists of 1,200mg herbal extracts that work to boost your immune system. One of the prime natural ingredients out of nine others is echinacea, which is completely natural and has powerful antioxidant properties.
Deep Sleep 20
If your sleep cycle is unstable, you may stay behind in your weight loss journey. Also, incomplete sleep may trigger a list of negative health issues. With this perspective, Exipure produced Deep Sleep 20, a potent sleep supplement that makes sure you take complete sleep and stay relaxed while you wake up. The main ingredients it contains are ashwagandha, chamomile, passionflower, melatonin, goji berry, and others. Experts recommend using Deep Sleep 20 before 30 minutes of getting to the bed.
Ultra Collagen Complex
Exipure Ultra Collagen Complex includes hydrolyzed collagen peptides in a pure, powdered form. This formula rebuilds and replaces the lost collagen of your skin. Furthermore, it mends the damaged connective skin tissues causing aging signs. Ultra Collagen Complex has the capability of rejuvenating and improving the health of your teeth, nails, hair, joints, and skin.
As stated by the manufacturers of Exipure, the supplements in the Wellness Box can help users lose at least three more pounds of fat every week, in addition to the weight they’re losing already with Exipure.
Does Exipure have a Refund Policy?
Like more credible and effective supplement companies, the manufacturers of Exipure have attached a 180-day money back guarantee. This means the consumers that are dissatisfied with the results of the supplement or anyone who did not lose a significant amount of weight within a brief period of using the formula is permitted to apply for a full refund.
Click here for order
Frequently Asked Questions About Exipure
Is Exipure safe for me?
The makers claim that Exipure supplement is a natural formula that burns belly fat and stubborn body fat layers with the help of brown adipose tissue (BAT) levels. To ensure the safety standards, they made it in an FDA registered facility with good manufacturing practices. All the ingredients are side effects free.
Do I need a precaution to use the Exipure supplement?
No, there is no requirement to take precautions to use Exipure. Anyone above 18 years tired of extra weight and slow metabolism can start taking Exipure diet pills. However, people who are under other medications or pregnant ladies are recommended to consider the advice of their doctor before starting using Exipure.
How much weight will I lose with Exipure?
Exipure makers claim that anyone can lose a sufficient amount of weight while taking Exipure capsules on a daily basis. You might have noticed in the above Exipure reviews that results are slightly different for every individual. The same can vary for you. The lowest weight reduction a customer achieved was 26 lbs which is remarkable.
How many bottles of Exipure should I order?
Experts suggest using Exipure for 3 to 6 months in order to notice desirable results. We will recommend you to buy 3 to 6 bottles packs as they are well discounted and come with bonus eBooks to support weight loss more rapidly.
Exipure Review- Final Words
A healthy diet and heavy workouts sometimes don’t last too long, and neither show desired results. Exipure is a nutritional supplement that aids in weight loss by improving brown adipose tissue (BAT) in the human body. The nourishing weight loss formula is slated as dairy and soy-free and is non-GMO; Exipure is sold only on Exipure.com, where consumers can place their orders at discounted rates.
As you visit the official Exipure official website and watch the special tropical loophole discovery of this exotic hack unfold, consumers looking to become one of the many successful customer stories shared will be showered in real results from actual users. As a closing statement, the real Exipure results from actual Exipure customers is the reason why anyone lucky enough to find this product while it’s still available should act now.
Between the 1,800 initial volunteers in the Exipure research study, in which 96% enjoyed lasting benefits and the over 230,000 people who already are trying out the Exipure weight loss formula, now is the time to cash in on the 180-day money-back guarantee where you have from until now when you purchase and up to six months after today to request a no questions asked refund. Do not miss out on this exotic hack about a tropical loophole that dissolves fat fast using this one-of-a-kind formula in Exipure.
Affiliate Disclosure:
The links contained in this product review may result in a small commission if you opt to purchase the product recommended at no additional cost to you. This goes towards supporting our research and editorial team and please know we only recommend high quality products.
Disclaimer:
Please understand that any advice or guidelines revealed here are not even remotely a substitute for sound medical advice from a licensed healthcare provider. Make sure to consult with a professional physician before making any purchasing decision if you use medications or have concerns following the review details shared above. Individual results may vary as the statements made regarding these products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The efficacy of these products has not been confirmed by FDA-approved research. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. | https://medium.com/@Shiraza7/introducing-exipure-826aaa922a68 | [] | 2021-12-14 08:52:45.632000+00:00 | ['Weight Loss', 'Beauty', 'Fitness', 'Fat Burning Foods', 'Supplements'] |
Fluff Lichtenfurr — How to Create Modern Art in Python | Even though both of them are incredibly photogenic, I suggested to make this project more interesting and to apply the images with different filters. Also, the photos we picked were taken by an older phone camera, and enlarging the photos too much would make them look pixelated.
At first, I thought which tools would be best suited for this task. I decided I want this task to be simple and that, at the moment, I did not need to use the robust image processing APIs OpenCV and Pillow in this project. For this project, I used scikit-images (skymage) with different Matplotlib colormaps.
If you include the reverse colormaps, Matplotlib has over 130 colormaps to choose from. I limited my options by only testing the Perceptually Uniform Sequential and Sequential colormaps. I created a function that accepts the images I want to hang on the wall, the figure size, and a colormap to test.
I ran this function with my dogs' photos and tested every one of the 32 different colormaps. Do note; I chose to display the images as they get created. To reduce runtime, or if you lack internal memory to hold many figures at once, there are workarounds. Out of those 32, I managed to narrow the options to 3 colormaps that my wife and I agreed looked best. | https://medium.com/@gal-gilor/fluff-lichtenfurr-how-to-create-modern-art-in-python-d801e7d1897b | ['Gal Gilor'] | 2020-11-13 16:41:13.737000+00:00 | ['Image Processing', 'Python', 'Scikit Image'] |
“I’ve Gotten Where I Have By Being Curious, Instead Of Asking People To Do Things For Me, Learned How Those Things Work” | I had the pleasure of interviewing Amy Vernon, who is vice president of community for Rivetz Corp., a Massachusetts-based company that combines the blockchain and trusted computing to provide everyone with a simpler and safer way of interacting with our devices and online services. Amy started her career in journalism at The Miami Herald, where she was a member of the staff who won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of Hurricane Andrew and its aftermath. She was an inaugural inductee of the New Jersey Social Media Hall of Fame, named the 15th most influential woman in tech on Twitter by Business Insider, and the top female submitter of all time on the old Digg.com. She also co-founded a predictive analytics platform for news publishers and has consulted with a variety of organizations, including the American Museum of Natural History in New York City (yes, the one from “Night at the Museum”).
Thank you so much for doing this with us! What is your “backstory”?
I had planned on being a journalist since the sixth grade. It’s all I really wanted to do. I spent 20 years in newspapers and watched my beloved industry destroy itself (the internet helped, but a lot of the damage was self-inflicted). Anyway, over the past decade, I’ve been immersed in the New York City startup scene, both in and outside of media. During that time, I was one of the top power users on Digg.com, and I read some posts about something called “Bitcoin”, which seemed to be pretend money of some sort. Then I read about “Dogecoin” and was sure it was all pretend.
I’m only half-kidding. I freely admit that at the start, it sounded … strange. I kept my eye on news about it, though, and through Mt. Gox and Silk Road and other crazy news, it kept my attention. Eventually, of course, it morphed into hearing more and more about “blockchain” and then Litecoin and Ethereum and other chains and coins. It wasn’t until last year, however, that I really dived in, and I joined a company with its own token (it had recently completed a token offering) and had to really ramp up my knowledge. It’s been an education.
Can you tell me about the most interesting projects you are working on now?
Well, the company where I work, of course, is quite interesting. We’re using blockchain as a recording/auditing mechanism, providing proof that a known device in a known condition with a known user conducted a specific transaction.
I also am a member of the board of the inaugural Decentralized chapter in New York City — the University of Nicosia, the first accredited university in the world to accept Bitcoin payments and launch an MSc degree in Digital Currency, hosts a conference called Decentralized and is beginning to launch networking chapters around the world, starting with Cyprus and New York. Our goal is to help educate people on the value of the blockchain and to provide support to the burgeoning blockchain and crypto community in the city.
Finally, I also am a founding member of the Crypto Working Group. The group is an community organization made up of those who work in and around the industry, as well as investors. Our goal is to create standards for ICOs, exchanges and custody — focusing on disclosure standards and best practices, education for governments and corporations, and community development.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
The best advice I ever got was from my boss of nearly 8 years, at the last newspaper I worked at. He encouraged me to find the way of working that worked for me and not to try to emulate how anyone else got things done. It helped me really focus and figure out the style of leadership that was right for me. It sounds obvious, but it’s easy to lose sight of that in the everyday.
More recently, a woman I work with, Michelle Petigny, was in the crypto/blockchain world for several years before I joined. Her guidance in finding the right educational resources was invaluable.
What are the 5 things that most excite you about blockchain and crypto? Why?
5 things that excite me most about blockchain and crypto:
1) The potential for bringing new economic models to help lift the disenfranchised out of poverty
2) New models for identity and privacy
3) It’s a new industry, so no one’s an expert — and anyone can become one, if you do the work to learn it
4) The technology itself. A new form of money is just, well, money. The new technologies and ideas coming out of it surpass the “Uber for Banking” model we’ve seen out of the tech industry the past several years.
5) The welcoming nature of most I’ve met in the industry so far. People want the industry to succeed, and work to help others.
What are the 5 things worry you about blockchain and crypto? Why?
5 things that worry me most about blockchain and crypto:
1) That like other areas of tech, it will become the playground of the rich and richer
2) That even though it has world-changing potential, it won’t actually reflect the world
3) That too much is expected too quickly
4) That its promise of decentralization won’t last, with too many having a vested interest in centralizing operations (such as Bitcoin mining operations)
5) That people whose voices are needed in the industry are turned off by what they assume to be difficult technology to understand | https://medium.com/authority-magazine/ive-gotten-where-i-have-by-being-curious-7b8e6d3454eb | ['Authority Magazine'] | 2018-07-08 04:02:03.845000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Founders', 'Bitcoin'] |
success | thread the black laces close up holes
stop the top to double the bow
like it’s always been done
straighten the limb
one by one a foot goes up
rubber and leather latching on to a metal weld
shoved down hard under the weight of our sins
we sit high and proud
word by word
commands urge the tired shoes
nailed to a metal U
firmed hands to idle around the neck
hold up weight from impulses ignored
make believe the being remains pure
behind the back of the horse with a rider on shore
up in the air the metal box flys in with a cure
contact violently making the end
of what grips were bound to tight
for if you sit high enough
you can’t see when you’re fucked | https://medium.com/@wordofniks/success-6a88e7cf3139 | ['Nik Levi'] | 2020-12-18 01:13:44.006000+00:00 | ['Creative Writing', 'Daily Blog', 'Mess', 'Poet', 'Poetry On Medium'] |
Good News — God Is Who You Expect! | by Mike Edwards
It is said the good news about God is that Jesus came to earth to save us from going to hell. Without the Bible I doubt few would think a loving God would create such a place as hell. It is claimed all you have to do is confess certain beliefs to get a pass to heaven. Jesus’ agenda in the Bible actually appears not to push certain beliefs but convey that God loves you and seeks to help you be a more loving person. What is God saving us from? See here.
The bad news about God may not be true.
God is claimed to be a hellish sadist, but the traditional understanding of Hell doesn’t exist in the Bible. God is claimed to be a homophobe, but a loving God couldn’t possibly condemn gays when they can no more choose who they are attracted to than straights can? God is claimed to be a sexist, but God wouldn’t put men in leadership position over women which has encouraged dominance on the man’s part leading to atrocities women face at the hands of men. For additional possible lies about God see here.
But don’t you believe the Bible?
Biblical scholars who respect the authority of the Bible actually don’t agree on their interpretations. Some defend the above positions; others defend to the contrary. For example see here. We are forced to choose between plausible interpretations. Which interpretation is best to choose? Choose understandings of God with the fewest negative human consequences. Err on the side that doesn’t contradict your intuitive sense of a loving God. You are free to choose the most loving way.
The good news is God surely loves in ways God’s creations sense they ought to love others.
Only a perfectly good or loving God is worth believing in. Such a statement is nonsensical if we are clueless about perfect love. The Bible implies we can understand God’s love because perfect human love and God’s love are the same: “Be perfect, therefore as your heavenly Parent is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). Do you wish to be shown mercy, be given second chances, to be forgiven for your regrets no matter how many times you fail, to be encouraged to be the person you deep down desire to be? Do you think you should show the same behaviors to others? Good news — God is a better lover than we are! | https://medium.com/@donewthreligion/good-news-god-is-who-you-expect-c265aefe44b3 | ['Done With Religion'] | 2020-12-24 16:38:21.453000+00:00 | ['Christian Living', 'Christianity', 'Bible', 'Acceptance'] |
The Synonym of Love | Therefore, I did what every 15-year-old boy in my position would do, I put my number in her phone and told her to call me. She did, eventually, and when that happened, I was convinced, nay, ready to bet my life on it, that this was the girl for me. I spent the rest of my high school life telling everyone who cared to listen that I met a girl. We were in love. And she was my girlfriend. It is prudent to mention that only one thing is true in that whole statement and her being my girlfriend was not it. At least, not for her. But ignorance is bliss and so continued a blissful high school experience.
Then came to university. By this time, she had caught up and the girl I had spent years raving about was mine. Until she wasn’t. She used words like growth and change and different. I didn’t understand what all those words meant. Or why she said these things to me. I did not want change or to grow or to be different. I wanted her and I wanted her to want me. But she didn’t and if I had learned anything in the last 4 years is that once she made up her mind, there was no going back.
I grieved, well as much as you can grieve as a 19 y/o man. I played FIFA, hangout cool kids and met my teacher. Not my actual teacher, but the woman who taught me about life and how to work a woman’s body. She was 26 and I was eager to learn and please. Our entanglement continued until she wanted more. But I did not have more to give. I was 19 and still waiting for people to grow and change and be different.
Then her birthday came along and I called her because I never forgot a birthday. She was in Eldoret and I was in Nairobi but that distance felt like nothing. Over the phone she was mine and I was hers. At the same time, I met another girl. The love of my life this one. She made things better that I didn’t know could be better. She organized my vision and goals. She made me whole. But she still wasn’t her. She wasn’t the girl who knew me more than I knew myself. We didn’t have the same history I did with her.
She looked so scared thatI wanted to wrap her up in all the love that I have held for her.
That’s why when she called me because her life was falling apart, I showed up. I don’t remember where I was or who I was with but I remember thinking she needs me and I needed to be there. I later found out that her dad had cancer. That he was in chemo. That she was watching him die. She looked so scared and I wanted to wrap her in all the love that I have held for her. I wanted to take her pain away and make it better. But life does not work like that so I did the only thing I could, I showed up. Every time she called, I dropped whatever I was doing and showed up. It was all I could do and I did everything I could.
As I shared in the burden of her pain and subsequent loss, I suffered a personal loss. The love of my life was leaving me to focus on herself. To grow and to change and be different. It gutted me. I didn’t understand it. I wanted her to love me the way I loved her. But she left anyway and so I loved the future mother of my children because where else could I take this love.
I loved her even though grief had changed her. I loved her even as I watched her drink herself open. I loved her as she bled her heart dry for the world to see how much pain she was in. I willed her in my mind to keep some of it inside, some of herself inside. But she said to me that it is not my job to tell her how to grieve. I did what I could. I felt sorry for her. I wished I could do more but we have to learn how to grow and change and be different people.
She changed and grew and became such a different person. I barely recognized her. When we spoke, she wasn’t the woman who would become the mother of my children. But she still needed me to be there with her so I stayed. I brought her out of herself and closer to me as often as I could. Until I could not.
In the year of our Lord 2018, she asked me if we could be official. I said no. She all but deleted me from her life. But she didn’t get it. She was not herself; she had not been for a long time. I knew she wasn’t asking me to see where this goes. She was asking me for forever. Forever was too much for me then. I hadn’t healed from the love of my life leaving. I couldn’t risk losing the future mother of my kids as well. I panicked, choosing us over her. Because that was the bigger picture, we mattered a lot more than what she wanted at that time.
We don’t talk anymore. Not really. Not like we used to. She isn’t mine to have or to own anymore. I have learned that the hard way. It drives me mad with jealousy to imagine sometimes that she could be with another. But it hasn’t made me stop loving her. How could I? She is not the kind of person you stop loving because you don’t know how to stop.
11years after we met, I know I will love her forever. Whether it will be loudly, in front of the gathering of those around us. Or quietly, like a secret that you keep in the pocket close to your heart. Still, I will love her.
As narrated to me by Daniel | https://medium.com/@MissTuitho/the-synonym-of-love-f2028d5e4182 | ['Miss Tuitho'] | 2020-08-23 06:55:37.016000+00:00 | ['Lovestory', 'Love', 'Relationships Love Dating'] |
Medium writers are leaving Twitter. | Medium writers are leaving Twitter. If having a following on Twitter is useful to get more views for our Medium stories, why would any Medium writers want to delete their Twitter accounts?
I’m seeing more articles by Medium writers who are leaving Twitter because of its toxic character. I recently returned to Twitter after many years away from it. I had a goal of posting three tweets a day and didn’t even write three tweets this past week!
I’ve heard of Minds but haven’t checked it out yet. I’m not interested in Facebook or Instagram. Since I’m not a professional, LinkedIn makes no sense for me either.
Is there another social platform I need to look into? | https://medium.com/@kit-carmelite-2008/medium-writers-are-leaving-twitter-ba055293e621 | [] | 2020-12-27 02:44:20.511000+00:00 | ['Twitter', 'Social Media'] |
Why Depression Is Becoming an Issue for Software Engineers — And How to Deal With It | Practical Steps
1. Ask for help
Software developers are often too proud to admit they need help. My first and most important advice is: Ask for help. There's a ton of ways to do that, like online or in-person physiological sessions (highly recommended) or speaking with a close friend/husband/spouse/mate/preacher. This will produce two important fruits. a) You will acknowledge to yourself that you need help, but more importantly, you're progressing in healing and that's releases dopamine. It will also b) bring outside wisdom and accountability to the table.
2. Set small fitness goals
Yes, you heard that. F-I-T-N-E-S-S. A person who lives a life based in healthy habits is someone with far fewer chances to face depression. Additionally, habits are built upon goals, and goals, once achieved, produce happiness and fulfillment, and then dopamine. Remember, developer, we are logical people. We are breaking a bad cycle and in order to succeed, we need to fill this place with something else. Walking, running, some sit-ups, etc. Start slow, but start.
3. Stop eating garbage
Your body needs some fuel to help you get out of this cycle, so make a deal with yourself. Set a goal of small changes, i.e., Tuesdays without eating/drinking sugar, or drink three liters of water three days a week. Again, the main objective is to define small yet achievable goals that will produce direct and indirect benefits for you.
4. Join a community and socialise
In times like we're living in, it's really hard to be physically connected to a community, but if possible, I'd highly recommend that. Churches, small interest groups, meetups, mentorship meetings, etc. We are social animals and we need to interact with others, for real.
5. Help others
Yes, help others, even if you’re not ready with your own healing. There’s tremendous power in helping others. As a side effect of this, a different perspective based on somebody else’s problems can shift your mind and change your inside almost instantly. Teach a course for free, mentor junior developers, or do a Q&A session with people trying to get into our profession.
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” — Mahatma Gandhi
6. Find an accountability partner
This is a golden rule. There's no need for it to be a close friend if you don't want to. Find someone who you can drop a daily message sharing your progress. This person will be like your personal trainer. You will be amazed at how many people are willing to play this role and help others. | https://medium.com/better-programming/why-depression-is-becoming-an-issue-for-software-engineers-and-how-to-deal-with-it-8478f361033d | ['Jonathan Ferreira'] | 2020-09-02 04:37:13.491000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'Mental Health', 'Self-awareness', 'Self Improvement', 'Programming'] |
Contracting COVID-19 whilst working as a Doctor | Hello everyone.
I am a junior doctor working in the North West of England. This blog post is about me contracting COVID-19 and how I am dealing with it as a doctor.
On Saturday, I started feeling extremely exhausted, accompanied with muscle and joint pains. I had never felt fatigue like this in my entire life, like I hadn’t slept for weeks. Later that evening, I felt really hot and sweaty, and was found to have a high temperature. The next morning, I went and got tested. For the entirety of Sunday I felt terrible. I had a fever then entire day and was feeling nauseous. My test result came back today as positive and I can’t say it wasn’t what I expected. All the symptoms were pointing towards a COVID-19 infection.
Today I feel a little bit better physically. But mentally, it is a struggle. I have been inside, self-isolating since Saturday. It feels like there is absolutely nothing to do in the house, even though there is so much I could do. I guess the confinement of the 4 walls of your house makes the world seems a lot smaller than it actually is. I have got 8 more days of quarantine left. Let’s see how this will pan out. | https://medium.com/@mubashir.s/contracting-covid-19-whilst-working-as-a-doctor-4c71e95b8e4 | ['Mubashir Siddiqui'] | 2020-10-19 21:45:20.284000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Healthcare', 'Nhs', 'Mental Health', 'Doctors'] |
Audience and Wealth | Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle was a man of unusual talents, of contradictions.
Known to the world as “Fatty” because of his prodigious size, Arbuckle was remarkably light on his feet. One director described him “skipp[ing] up the stairs as lightly as Fred Astaire” before breaking into an impromptu tumbling routine.
Despite winning fame as a star of silent cinema, beloved for his comedic timing, he reportedly had a lustrous singing voice. When operatic sensation Enrico Caruso heard him one night, he urged him to “give up this nonsense you do for a living.” He continued to say that with training “[Arbuckle] could become the second greatest singer in the world.”
Fatty Arbuckle, ThoughtCo
Perhaps it was this unlikely blend of skill that convinced Hollywood publicist Maynard Nottage to make Arbuckle (arguably) the first recorded celebrity spokesman. In 1905, Fatty Arbuckle became the face of Murad Cigarettes, “the natural preference for cultivated men.”
In the process, Nottage and Arbuckle started a trend of attaching personality to product that carried through the rise of Hollywood and is visible in today’s creator economy.
Of course, much has changed in the intervening 115 years. Rather than buying from idols, consumers are increasingly buying from “friends,” creators with whom close relationships are formed and maintained. As the creator has become the locus of influence, new infrastructure has been built to support them, allowing for new business models that capture upside unavailable to stars in Arbuckle’s era.
Abundance and commoditization
Why do consumers buy from creators?
What can a single business analyst provide that the Wall Street Journal can’t?
There is no single answer, and if we wanted, we could alight on a range of topics: the manipulation of social media platforms, our declining trust in institutions, or the human urge for mimesis. But today, I would like to focus on two possible explanations: abundance and commoditization.
It is well understood that the internet has created extraordinary abundance in information and products. Whereas once, consumers might have been restricted to their town paper for information and local mall for apparel, they can now find functionally unlimited amounts of both online.
If abundance is the cause, commoditization is the effect.
Whether you want to learn about SaaS businesses, photosynthesis, or The Plantagenets, a wealth of options are available — Wikipedia, The Encyclopedia Britannica, any number of blogs and news sites. There are differences in tone, style, and presentation depending on which site you visit, but, by and large, the information itself is commoditized, available for free in multiple locations. Some outlets — those that reaffirm our identity and beliefs — may still hold sway for us, but for much of the information, providence is irrelevant.
The same can be said of many products. Sites like Amazon expose a vast range of similar items, many of which are not discernibly different. Whereas once a home-maker might have reaffirmed identity with a choice of detergent, today, a flood of new options complicates the matter.
Abundance solves problems for humans, but via commoditization, it creates others. In a state of abundance, ownership conveys no status. In a world of commoditized products, little personality is expressed through purchasing.
The rise of the creator is, in some respects, a response to commoditization. Celebrity endorsements like that of Fatty Arbuckle succeeded in casting a famous glow over the product, but for the consumer, they were passive experiences. The internet has altered that dynamic — rather than passively watching a commercial on TV, we actively follow the lives of different creators, ask questions of them, and peek behind the curtain. The result is greater intimacy, greater connection, and greater trust. Idols became friends.
It means nothing to buy face cream. But to buy face cream from Gwyneth Paltrow?
When these individuals try to sell us something, our perception of the object changes. It is no longer a faceless commodity, but a reliable recommendation. In the act of purchasing through this channel, we restore the status and sense of identity that has been lost elsewhere.
This view of the world brings to mind a piece of sales advice posted on Hacker News that became canon. Among other advice, the poster notes:
“All things being equal, people buy from their friends. So make everything else equal, then go make a lot of friends.”
Abundance has made all things equal. Creators are simply aggregating friends to sell products.
Models of Wealth Building
More than ever, we buy the person, then the product. But what products do we buy?
That depends on the focus of the creator, of course, but also the model leveraged. As the creator economy has developed, new approaches to monetization have emerged. The framework below outlines the three primary ways creators leverage audience to build wealth: promoting other people’s products, selling their own products, and investing in their audience or alongside them.
Promote
Like traditional media businesses, creators have profited from ad dollars. Platforms that solve distribution like Instagram and YouTube have made this particularly viable, as creators are able to capture attention and monetize it in the same place.
The straightforwardness of this model allows it to succeed across mediums. Newsletters like Morning Brew, The Hustle, and Not Boring ensure no cost is directly borne by consumers by making space for sponsors. Podcasts like Revisionist History and My Favorite Murder earn their millions plugging Casper mattresses, without requiring customer payment.
Because of how little they’ve been leveraged, and the differentiated format they take, affiliate advertisements are worth separating from more traditional forms. The success of Wirecutter and The Strategist demonstrate the revenue potential of a model that more easily allows for continuous monetization (write a single piece, monetize it many times over, passively). Few tools help creators take this type of revenue to the next level. Kit, which allows creators to profit from the products they recommend, raised just $2.5 million before being acquired. At present, most affiliate ads appear as a solitary link at the bottom of a profile.
👉 Share
Sell
Better infrastructure has enabled creators to sell their own products, both digital and physical. This changes how creators interact with the first wave platforms described above, using them as lead-generation to monetize elsewhere. It also allows for greater imagination — instead of spending time courting advertisers and pondering how to best sell a pair of jeans, creators can devote time to improving or expanding upon the content fans enjoy. Platforms like Patreon, Gumroad, Substack, OnlyFans, Shopify, Teachable, and others facilitate this new behavior.
Digitally, creators might monetize through a paid newsletter on Substack, a course on Teachable, an ebook on Gumroad, or any number of other experiences or tools. Though less common, creators may also choose to sell a software product. In his post, “The Billion Dollar Blog,” Nathan Barry shares a few examples of creators that have jumped into software, including passive-income evangelist Pat Flynn. Based on his experience, Flynn created Fusebox, a conversion tool for podcast creators. Going forward, we may see more making such a move, particularly as creators achieve a level of wealth that allows for larger outlays.
Physically, creators have found success selling consumer packaged goods, including supplements, beauty products, and apparel. Emily Weiss transformed her blog, “Into the Gloss,” into a billion-dollar cosmetics empire. Along with Fleshlight salesman Aubrey Marcus, Joe Rogan has taken nutritional business Onnit to $28 million in sales.
Physical “products” can take forms, beyond CPG. Twitter personalities like satirist Titania McGrath monetize through books, while Girlboss founder Sophia Amoruso hosts in-person “rallies.”
As infrastructure has caught up, creators can directly sell their own products to their audience, removing the need for advertisers.
Invest
At first glance, it’s hard to conjure a creator that monetizes by investing — building ownership in businesses aided by their audience. But squint and hundreds appear.
To win deals, venture capital firms must first win attention. Much like creators, they need an audience to thrive — in their case, entrepreneurs. Partners and other in-firm personalities take on the role of the “creator,” building strong social media followings and extensive readerships for a blog or newsletter. (Hence the importance of “referent power.”) Rather than advertise or sell products via these channels, VCs hope to build deal flow. Monetization is achieved through ownership — stakes in a company that hopefully appreciate.
In their bundled state as an organization, firms more closely resemble traditional media organizations right now. But as excellently chronicled by Nikhil Basu-Trivedi, “solocapitalist” — essentially, investors as creators — are on the rise. Harry Stebbings leveraged the listenership of his Twenty Minute VC podcast to create an eponymous investment vehicle, Sahil Lavingia drew on his Twitter following to raise a rolling fund, as did Anthony Pompliano. Li Jin, previously an investor at Andreessen Horowitz, writes about the creator economy and invests in it via a new fund.
Jason Calacanis is perhaps the clearest exponent of this strategy. More than an angel investor, Calacanis is a media empire, wrapped around a personhood, monetizing through ownership. A blog, book, podcast, YouTube, and newsletter all serve the same purpose: win deals and allocation. (Even more cleverly, Calacanis taps his audience to invest alongside him in a syndicate, increasing intimacy, growing his allocation, and unlocking deal-by-deal carry).
To date, this trend is isolated to tech and venture capital. There are established communication channels between entrepreneurs and investors and norms around valuation and terms, making investment a less fraught proposal for both sides.
👉 Share
We should expect this model to appear in other sections of the creator economy. In the short term, creators outside of tech may dabble in startup investing. Could TikTok star Charli D’Amelio raise a $10 million early-stage fund to invest in consumer apps? Probably. Could streamer Tfue regularly fill a gaming syndicate? Ditto. Even though their audiences are young, both scale and devotion compensate. New models could emerge here, too. We’ve seen Defector Media take a decentralized approach to building a media company — could newsletter writers take a similar approach to a fund?
In the long run, we may see creators invest in their own space, too. At the moment, investing in podcasters or OnlyFans’ celebrities is tricky — what outcomes can an investor expect? But as winners emerge, creator businesses will formalize into an asset class that can be rationalized. When that happens, ownership as a monetization strategy may flourish. | https://medium.com/swlh/audience-and-wealth-57642a198fd5 | ['Mario Gabriele'] | 2020-10-06 22:26:17.635000+00:00 | ['Creators', 'Passion', 'Technology', 'Startup', 'Influencer Marketing'] |
26 Guru Mantra to understand Men | #kalrasays It may be impossible to understand women here are some tips to understand men ..lets solve this issue and move forward.
These are all numbered “1” ON PURPOSE!
1.1 Men ARE not mind readers.
1.2 Learn to work the toilet seat. You’re a big girl. If it’s up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don’t hear us complaining about you leaving it down.
1.3 Sunday sports It’s like the full moon ritual or the changing of the tides. Let it be.
1.4 Shopping is NOT a sport. And no, we are never going to think of it that way.
1.5 Crying is blackmail.
1.6 Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!
1.7 Yes and No are perfectly Acceptable answers to almost every question.
1.8 Come to us with a problem only If you want help solving it. That’s what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.
1.9 A headache that lasts for 15 days is a problem. See a doctor.
1. 10 Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 Days.
1.11 If you won’t dress like the Victoria’s Secret girls, don’t Expect us to act like soap opera guys.
1.12 If you think you’re fat, you probably are. Don’t ask us.
1.13 If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one .
1.14 You can either ask us to do something Or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.
1.15 Whenever possible , Please say whatever you have to say during commercials.
1.16 Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we we also have GPS.
1.17 ALL men can see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what Mauve is.
1.18 If it itches, it will Be scratched. We do that all the time.
1.19 If we ask what is wrong and you say “nothing,” We will act like nothing’s wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.
1.20 If you ask a question you don’t want an answer to, Expect an answer you don’t want to hear.
1. 21 When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear Is fine…Really.
1.22 Don’t ask us what we’re thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball, the shotgun formation or boardroom politics
1. 23 You have enough clothes.
1. 24 You have too many shoes.
1. 25 I am in shape. Round IS a shape!
1.26 Thank you for reading this. Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight; But did you know men really don’t mind that? It’s like camping can i call some friends over. | https://medium.com/@rajeshkalra-91936/26-guru-mantra-to-understand-men-6be14b7e1d07 | ['Rajesh Kalra'] | 2020-12-27 14:19:02.224000+00:00 | ['Women', 'Relationships', 'Solutions', 'Marriage', 'Men'] |
5 Reasons That Will Make You Fall in Love With Jumping Rope | I remember when I was a kid I used to have a jumping rope competition with my mom on our terrace. My mom always beat me at it. Her speed and agility made the little old me wonder if I would ever be that good at jumping rope.
She used to jump rope so fast that I couldn’t even see the rope, seeing my mom jump rope so well made me fall in love with this simple exercise.
My mom used to encourage me to jump rope by telling me that it will increase my height. I was the second shortest girl in my class, so that was enough motivation for me to continue with this wonderful workout.
A decade later I am still 5 feet tall there is just so much jumping can do when you have the classic Asian genes. But I still jump rope regularly. It is my favorite workout when I don’t feel like exercising.
Here are 5 reasons that will make you fall in love with this wonderful exercise.
Fast track Weight Loss
Jumping rope is the most efficient calorie burner workout. 10 minutes of jumping routine can help you burn 200 calories. Half an hour of jogging can easily be replaced by 10 minutes of jump rope.
According to science daily,
This aerobic exercise can achieve a “burn rate” of up to 1300 calories per hour of vigorous activity, with about 0.1 calories consumed per jump. Ten minutes of jumping rope can roughly be considered the equivalent of running an eight-minute mile.
Jumping rope is a fun workout to lose weight and keep it off for good. You can start by jumping 10 minutes a day, five times a week to instill a habit of jumping regularly.
Cheapest Workout
What gym equipment can you buy for under $20 that can keep your entire family healthy and happy. It’s a jump rope. It is a fun activity that can be enjoyed by both children and adults.
Jumping rope is easily accessible fitness equipment that can keep your heart and mind healthy. You can whip out your rope to jump anywhere and anytime.
This is a list of the affordable jumping rope that you can buy, to begin your jumping rope training.
Unbeatable cardio
Jumping rope is the best cardio exercise that can give you major results in less time as compared to any other aerobic exercise. Jumping rope helps you build endurance. It will improve your speed and make you more agile.
According to the Compendium of Physical Activities,
Moderate-intensity rope jumping — about 100 to 120 skips per minute — burns about 13 calories a minute
Jumping rope is not a game for small kids, you need to learn to jump rope like my mama to make the most of this amazing cardio workout.
Full Body Workout
Jumping rope is an explosive workout that will work your whole body. This workout engages your core, bicep, and tricep unlike running. It challenges your balance and coordination.
Jeremiah Maestre, boxer and trainer at Rumble Boxing in New York City told men’s health
“There are so many health benefits from jumping rope”. “You get increased cardiovascular levels, flexibility, rhythm, muscle tone, shoulders, arms, and legs.”
Jumping rope is a boxer’s best friend, as it is a whole-body workout. It is an excellent warm-up that will hype you for your run or jog.
Most Fun Workout
As a runner, yogi, and cyclist I can assure you that, jump rope is the coolest workout that you will ever do. There are 100' s of variations that you can learn to do on the rope.
Jumping rope is not just about the double under, you can learn so many more complicated and awesome tricks from the jump rope dudes on youtube.
Vivien Vajda is a 14-time world champion and is considered the best jump roper. She can do backflips and splits while jumping rope(no kidding).
I love to flaunt all the cool amazing tricks that I can do(nowhere as good as Vivien though) but I can do the criss-cross pretty fastly. | https://medium.com/in-fitness-and-in-health/5-reasons-that-will-make-you-fall-in-love-with-jumping-rope-43a0e7e6a235 | ['Khyati Jain'] | 2020-12-21 00:42:20.225000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Lifestyle', 'Exercise', 'Fitness', 'Workout'] |
My journey through JVM languages | Java is not just a language. The real reason why it’s still so popular today is the mature and performant platform. And because the programs are compiled to the bytecode, the language’s deficiencies could be made up for by … creating other JVM languages.
To be honest, throughout my career, I’ve used more Groovy, Scala, or Kotlin than pure Java itself!
So how do those languages look like and how do they compare with each other?
Groovy — powerful language and modern syntax
Groovy was the first JVM language I’ve learned. I was using it mostly when I was using the Grails framework at my first job.
Syntax
What made Groovy stand out was its syntax. On the one side, it eased some of Java language pains via optional semicolons, allowing more than one class per file or type inference with the def keyword.
On the other hand, it featured modern language features, such as traits, closures, string interpolation, optional chaining ( ?. operator) and many other features long before even Java 8 came out.
// Optional chaining:
def gear = car?.getGearBox()?.getGear()
// Instead of
Gear gear = null;
if (car != null) {
if (car.getGearBox() != null) {
gear = car.getGearBox().getGear();
}
}
Moreover, Groovy is a superset of Java. It means, that a Java class is a perfectly valid Groovy class too! This makes its adoption way easier because you can just change the file extension to .groovy and transfer it to a more idiomatic code step by step as you need.
DSLs
Closures, maps and optional dots and parentheses allows us to create Domain Specific Languages, which can look like almost like written in plain English.
The excerpt below is from the official Groovy documentation and in my opinion it explains it quite well.
show = { println it }
square_root = { Math.sqrt(it) }
def please(action) {
[the: { what ->
[of: { n -> action(what(n)) }]
}]
}
// equivalent to: please(show).the(square_root).of(100)
please show the square_root of 100
// ==> 10.0
Those DSLs are used for example in Gradle, Jenkins Pipelines, or Spock, so there is a chance, that you’ve been using Groovy without even realizing it.
Summary
Groovy is a dynamic language, which means, that objects can be modified at runtime via appending methods or intercepting the calls. This is also the reason, why Groovy isn’t my g0-to language anymore. It kind of suffers from the disadvantages of both approaches it tries to merge.
On one side, it still has to be compiled, because it is run on the JVM platform. Because of that, it can’t benefit from fast feedback loops like in other dynamic languages such as Ruby, which are interpreted.
On the other one, because it’s a dynamic language, the compilation step won’t give us that much guarantees about program correctness. Even though we can specify types of our variables and method arguments, we still can run into a runtime error at some point.
Scala — FP and static typing combo
Scala also features some syntax improvements, but way more important is its support for the functional programming paradigm. Immutable objects and lack of side-effects not only make refactoring and testing easier, but it makes Scala well suited for asynchronous programming. Therefore the ecosystem is rich in libraries for that purpose, such as Akka, Monix, Cats, or ZIO.
Types
Scala is statically typed, but it is a way more advanced mechanism than in Java. Types are not just classes. The hierarchy is larger, including types such as Any , AnyVal or Nothing . We can also construct types as functions, with defined arguments and returned values. It's possible to define type aliases to make our definitions shorter and clearer.
Case Class is another help in using types in Scala. It’s basically a class with immutable fields and all batteries included. Because the fields are immutable, we don’t have to define getters and methods such as equals or hashCode are already there for us. Usually, those classes have just one line of code and they are very convenient to define simple structure types.
case class Circle(x: Double, y: Double, radius: Double)
In Scala, we also make use of monad types. What monads are is a topic for a completely separate blog post, but what’s important is that they help to make our code more meaningful. We can use Option if we want to represent a value that may or may not be defined or we can use Try or Either if we want to represent a successful result of some operation or an error if it failed.
val studentOpt: Option[Student] = students.findById(123)
studentOpt.foreach(student => println(student.name))
The gamechanger here is the fact, that the Scala Standard Library uses those types throughout the library, so we don’t have to worry about null checks or runtime exceptions within the Scala code unless we use them explicitly or integrate with Java libraries using them.
Pattern matching and for comprehension
Scala has two particular features, that help to work with monad types and case classes — pattern matching and for comprehension.
Pattern matching seems like a simple switch statement, but it is much more than that. We can define more advanced conditions, especially check types, and use the filtered values without unsafe casting.
val result: Either[ErrorCode, SuccessValue] = ???
result match {
case Right(successValue) =>
handleSuccess(successValue) // no cast needed, successValue is already of SuccessValue type
case Left(errorCode) if errorCode.value > 300 => // additional conditions are possible too
handleLowPriorityError(errorCode)
case Left(errorCode) =>
handleHighPriortyCode(errorCode)
}
For comprehension is the syntactic sugar, which helps us to avoid nested chains of .flatMap or .foreach calls when we work with monad types. It's the easiest to explain it with an example:
val employeeNames = for {
company <- companies
employee <- company.employees
if employee.currentlyEmployed
} yield {
employee.name
}
// is an equivalent of this:
val employeeNames = companies
.flatMap(company =>
company.employees
.withFilter(employee => employee.currentlyEmployed)
.map(employee => employee.name)
)
Downsides
The obvious Scala’s downside is a steep learning curve. Due to its complexity, it takes some time to be productive in it and write a proper idiomatic code. In my case, I’ve made the biggest progress during my first code review in a team, which was already using Scala and I think it’s the best way to learn it — from other teammates already proficient in it 🙂
Another issue is that it is similar to C in one specific manner — both of those languages are powerful tools, but because of that, it’s very easy to get carried away and write complicated, unreadable code. It’s part of the reason why Scala’s learning curve is so steep.
The last one is harder integration with Java libraries. Not being a Java superset could be annoying, but in fact, IDE support makes it negligible. A more serious problem is that Java libraries do not use Scala monad types and they may use mutable objects. Therefore we can receive a null object when we do not expect it, running into a NullPointerException. This is probably one of the reasons why Scala collections were written from scratch and they even don’t implement the java.util. interfaces.
Kotlin — a “better Java”
Kotlin is the newest of the described languages. Because of that, it had the opportunity to take what’s best from other languages and fix those aspects which were less ok.
Nullable types and Java integration
Kotlin’s approach to tackle the NullPointerException problem is to introduce nullable types. When a type is declared with a ? sign at the end (e.g. String?), it means that it can be null. The best part is that it’s the compiler that checks if we try to use such an object without checking if it wasn’t null and returns the error if we did.
val nullableString: String? = null // OK
val notNullableString: String = null // compilation error!
All values coming from Java code are nullable by default, which makes this mechanism work even when we integrate our Kotlin code with some Java library.
Just like in Scala, we can work with immutable values and collections, but without committing that much to the functional programming paradigm:
Data classes can have mutable fields, where Scala’s case classes can not.
can have mutable fields, where Scala’s can not. There are no monad types in the standard library. We can use libraries, like arrow-kt, but we have to wrap the values ourselves.
No pattern matching, no for comprehension, less complicated (but thus — less expressive) type system.
Those functionalities make Kotlin a perfect candidate for being a “better Java”. We can see results today, where Android and Spring already have Kotlin integration.
Domain Specific Languages
Similarly to Groovy, Kotlin has closures, which lets us build DSL in Kotlin too. The advantage is that in Kotlin such DSLs are typed. Gradle has Kotlin DSL and my IDE can finally check my code for errors and give me some hints about available properties.
Coroutines
Closures are also used in another distinct Kotlin feature — Coroutines. In essence, they are simply lightweight threads, which can handle asynchronous operations while preserving the readability.
The below example comes from Kotlin documentation. If we tried to run 100k of thread at once, we would cause an OutOfMemoryException .
import kotlinx.coroutines.*
fun main() = runBlocking {
repeat(100_000) { // launch a lot of coroutines
launch {
delay(5000L)
print(".")
}
}
}
Within the coroutine context, the code can be organized with suspend functions, which are functions that are run within the coroutine and its execution can be paused and resumed later, e.g. when the data from the HTTP request arrives.
import kotlinx.coroutines.delay
import kotlinx.coroutines.runBlocking
fun doSomeWork() = runBlocking {
val result = makeHttpCall()
println(result)
}
// Simulate making the call and return the result
suspend fun makeHttpCall(): String {
// The delay here is also a suspend function, which does block the thread.
// The execution of the makeHttpCall function is paused until
// the time of delay passes and then it's resumed
delay(1000)
return "Some result"
}
Coroutines are pretty heavily used in the web framework called Ktor.
Downsides
Regarding downsides, I think that the biggest one is Kotlin’s young age. I could especially experience it with Kotlin Gradle DSL, where on one hand it’s great that finally the DSL is typed, but on the other hand, it was still easier to copy and paste some Groovy code from the internet than to figure out how to translate it. However, I’m sure, that this situation will be better and better over time.
Other languages
There are of course other JVM languages, but I won’t describe them in such detail, because I haven’t really used them that much.
The most popular language of this group is Clojure. Just like Scala, it’s a functional language with a steep learning curve. Unlike it, however, it’s a dynamic language and it’s a Lisp implementation. This makes it a very powerful language because the code is also the program’s data and it can be modified. However, in my subjective opinion, this also makes Clojure programs very unreadable. However, a lot of people that influenced me in some way are Clojure users, so maybe I am wrong, therefore I’m not ruling out using it in the future 😉
There are JRuby and Jython, which are basically Ruby and Python implementations on JVM. While using Java libraries in those languages is still possible, they are usually used just as a more performant Ruby or Python interpreter.
Finally, there is … Java 😀 I can’t neglect the progress, that Java has made throughout versions 9 to 15 and onwards. New features like type inference with var, pattern matching, or records definitely sound like a breath of fresh air and a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, I don’t have much experience with that either.
Summary
Currently, I’m using Scala at work and Kotlin for my hobby projects.
Which language would I recommend using?
I’d choose Scala for data-oriented, asynchronous-heavy applications. That part is pretty well worked out in Scala. There are many libraries for that and functional programming paradigm makes writing such code easier.
I’d choose Kotlin, for simple applications or the ones which have to be heavily integrated with Java libraries. This is becoming more and more convenient because many Java libraries already started to integrate with Kotlin too.
Groovy handed to Apache is in my opinion a sign of declining popularity and purpose of this language. However, if you use Java for your production code, I think that Spock alone is a good enough reason to check Groovy out. | https://medium.com/@konkit/my-journey-through-jvm-languages-konkits-tech-blog-a5deb09dadbe | ['Łukasz Tenerowicz'] | 2020-10-25 19:46:11.250000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Java', 'Scala', 'Kotlin', 'Groovy'] |
How to expand a marketplace? | To answer this question we need to understand the dynamics of a marketplace. Basically, there are 3 types of elements in a marketplace:
Supply: goods or services available for consumption
goods or services available for consumption Demand: people or businesses that may need goods or services offered by the supply
people or businesses that may need goods or services offered by the supply Marketplace: where demand finds supply and a transaction happens
These 3 elements relate to each other in the following manner:
Value delivery: marketplace delivers value to both demand and supply. The value delivered to supply is people or businesses interested in its goods or services. The value delivered to demand is a varied number of goods and services suppliers.
marketplace delivers value to both demand and supply. The value delivered to supply is people or businesses interested in its goods or services. The value delivered to demand is a varied number of goods and services suppliers. Payment: in order to have access to the goods and services offered by the suppliers, the demand pays the marketplace and marketplace pays the supply. Normally the marketplace retains a fee per transaction. This fee can be fixed or a percentage of the payment.
Let’s analyze Uber as an example. Supply is the drivers. Demand is the riders. The marketplace is Uber. Uber delivers new riders to drivers and delivers transportation services to riders through its supply of drivers. Riders pay Uber who then pay drivers and retain a fee.
Another example is Uber Eats, a 3-sided marketplace where supply is both the restaurants and the drivers who deliver the food to the user. Demand is the users who order food through Uber Eats, which is the marketplace. Uber Eats delivers demand to both restaurants and drivers and delivers a food ordering service to its users. Uber Eats charges the user and pays both restaurants and drivers, retaining a fee. In this case, Uber Eats connects 2 types of supply (restaurants and drivers) to one type of demand (users).
A 3rd example is Gympass, a 3-sided marketplace where supply is gyms and studios and demand are companies and their employees. Gympass delivers new users to its supply while delivering a network of gyms and studios that are offered by the companies as a corporate benefit to their employees. Companies and employees pay a fee to Gympass, which pays gyms and studios. In this case, Gympass connects one supply (gyms and studios) to two interconnected types of demands (companies and their employees).
Expanding the marketplace
So you run a marketplace and want to expand it. There are some different paths you can take to expand your marketplace:
Demand diversification: you can offer the goods and services of your marketplace to new segments and geographies. Uber did that in its international expansion. Uber also offered its transportation services to companies, besides its regular offer to end-users.
you can offer the goods and services of your marketplace to new segments and geographies. Uber did that in its international expansion. Uber also offered its transportation services to companies, besides its regular offer to end-users. Supply diversification: you can offer new goods and services to your demand. Uber did this with Uber Eats. Amazon started out offering only books. Now it offers almost anything.
you can offer new goods and services to your demand. Uber did this with Uber Eats. Amazon started out offering only books. Now it offers almost anything. New value delivery: you can offer new value to both your supply and your demand. Uber offers many services to its drivers like car rental, car maintenance, phone plans, and health insurance. iFood, a Brazilian company similar to Uber Eats, offers a PoS system to its affiliated restaurants. MercadoLibre, an Argentinean marketplace similar to eBay, offers to its sellers MercadoShops, an eCommerce site builder and becommerce, a back-office management solution.
you can offer new value to both your supply and your demand. Uber offers many services to its drivers like car rental, car maintenance, phone plans, and health insurance. iFood, a Brazilian company similar to Uber Eats, offers a PoS system to its affiliated restaurants. MercadoLibre, an Argentinean marketplace similar to eBay, offers to its sellers MercadoShops, an eCommerce site builder and becommerce, a back-office management solution. Payment financial management: since the payment from demand to supply goes through the marketplace, you can offer financial services to both your demand and your supply like advance payment and credit, and you can manage the spread. iFood is offering through its app the ability for its users to pay the bill when they are in the restaurant. Uber partnered with Intuit to offer financial management services to its drivers. Both MercadoLibre and eBay offer a payment solution for its sellers and buyers. MercadoLibre offers MercadoPago and eBay acquired Paypal. Most recently MercadoLibre decided to offer loans to its sellers in Brazil and Mexico.
The image below shows the 4 types of marketplace expansion.
So there you have it, 4 types of marketplace expansion. These 4 types are not excluding. You can explore all 4 options simultaneously, but remember that each can be a new business on its own, so be careful not to distract too many resources from your existing marketplace business.
Digital Product Management Book
Do you work with digital products? Do you want to know more about how to manage a digital product to increase its chances of success? Check out my book Product Management: How to increase the chances of success of your digital product, based on my almost 30 years of experience in creating and managing digital products. | https://medium.com/@jocatorres/how-to-expand-a-marketplace-f4f6b7b19a01 | ['Joca Torres'] | 2019-09-09 17:43:19.353000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Marketplaces', 'Product Development', 'Product Management'] |
ICOVO’s Airdrop, when can you receive “OVO” tokens? | Hello everyone.
Among many questions asked in Telegram, let us answer to your question regarding ICOVO’s Airdrop ‘’When can we receive “OVO” tokens?’’
OVO distributed at ICOVO’s Airdrop will be distributed to registrants as soon as ICOVO ‘s token sale is over.
Check our latest notification of the start and end of the token sale in real time via ICOVO’s Facebook · Twitter · Telegram, please follow / join us by all means!
You may also find great exclusive campaign information in our Facebook · Twitter · Telegram.
Please hurry and follow / join us. | https://medium.com/icovo/icovos-airdrop-when-can-you-receive-ovo-tokens-ab7eace0e6c6 | ['Icovo Ag'] | 2018-08-16 06:49:50.465000+00:00 | ['Bounty Program', 'Telegram', 'Airdrop', 'English'] |
Write And Earn: How To Make Money With Writing | Lots of people really have great writing ability, and it seems like they were born to write. But, since this method is still considered an art, some say that they do not live from writing because they really do not know how to make money from writing!
Of course, putting ideas on paper clearly and coherently is not something everyone can do well. But did you know that this skill can be developed and made money from it?
If you find yourself a great writer or want to start in this career, and do not yet know where to start, this article has been prepared exclusively for you.
Today we will show you how to make money with writing, and in the end, we will give you tips so that you can work in this field and cam make big money writing from home
1. Freelancer
Even if you are not yet working on the Internet, you have definitely heard of freelancers; They are people who work independently and provide their services to other people or other companies independently.
But how do you make money by writing (as a freelance agent)?
You can write themes for entrepreneurs who have a blog but don’t have time to write on this channel.
Another option is to write sales texts to anyone selling a product online. Or, you can help a professional write a digital book on the topic they are mastering.
There is always someone or a company, sooner or later, that needs a very well written text. And if you do not know where to start, I can tell you that many online platforms connect people who produce content with those who need this type of content, and such platforms: fiverr and Upwork.
2. Blog writer
Content marketing has become an area of investment increasingly by entrepreneurs in various fields, whether online or offline — without an Internet connection.
This method of marketing and promotion makes customers arrive at the products naturally. That is, the company does not need, in this way, to bombard people with many advertisements, which are often considered intrusive and annoying.
There are several ways to prepare a good content marketing strategy. Setting up a blog that contains featured texts for clients is one of the most popular ways to start implementing this type of marketing for any business. It is for this reason that the demand for writers is increasing even more.
Whether independently as we talked about in the previous paragraph, or even contractually by a company, you can make money writing in a blog belonging to other people.
Additionally, if you have specific knowledge, and want to share it with other people and teach it to them, you can do that as well by writing on your own blog. Now the question comes to how you can make money writing in a blog that is yours alone?
You can, for example, allow ads to appear on your blog or even market products related to the topic you cover and thus get a commission from sales resulting from the content you write.
(To get a better understanding of this idea, you can read an article that exclusively explains the possibility of making money from blogging).
3. Author of eBooks
By thinking about a writer’s career as well, one can make money writing digital books — ebooks.
The big problem facing most people who think of writing digital books online is that they don’t always have an idea for the content and material they will write.
If you find yourself suffering from the same problem, you can turn to people who are specialized in certain areas of life but do not have the skill of writing and offer them a field drafting service that they are good at in the form of an eBook. You can use freelance platforms to find this kind of work.
Now if you want to be the author of your own book, you can prepare an eBook that teaches writing techniques better, for example. This is how you can display the e-book on a digital product platform, and make money writing and talking about your own knowledge.
4. Copywriter
The profession of a copywriter is one of the future professions that catch the interest of those who have the skill of writing and want to make money from it.
A copywriter is basically someone who writes lines that can generate sales, such as in ads, landing pages, product marketing videos, and more.
But in addition to writing, this person also needs to know how to persuade customers using these texts. After all, a copy is the type of text that aims to convince someone to buy.
5. Social Media Manager
Many people believe that to be a network manager, a person only needs to be aware of the existing communication channels. Of course, this is fundamental. But, How do you run a social network that you don’t know?
So, besides networking, a good manager must also be good at writing and creating! This is because, in addition to posting content on these networks, the manager is someone who needs to use words that capture the attention of the people who interact through those channels.
The goal of having a manager is to keep the means of communication-related to a business in a state of constant updating, and as I have noticed, most social networks use words and pictures to communicate with their audience.
So if you are good at using your words to persuade and surprise people, take advantage of this ability and offer this type of services to companies and entrepreneurs who have multiple social networks, and you know that they need this kind of help.
6. Author of books
All the professions that we talked about for those who want to know the secrets of making money from writing are related to the Internet, but we are talking in this post about books that do not necessarily contain technical contents, for example, novels, adventures, poems and so on.
Preparing a book is based on many stages that start with planning and end with publishing and selling!
That may sound like a distant dream to most people, but if you are a good writer, why not take advantage of this opportunity?
If you don’t yet know how to get started, don’t worry! We have a post here that teaches you how to write and publish a book, we think it is useful to read this post to see all the important details on this topic.
7. Screenwriter
YouTube is a widely-used communication channel not only by entrepreneurs but also by producers of multiple contents. Its popularity has increased a lot due to the ease of communicating with the public through it and publishing topics through videos!
As a result, here’s an opportunity to help you make money writing: a screenwriter job.
Usually, when we talk about a screenplay, we only think of movies, like those films that are shot in Hollywood. But you should know that even just a short video if you want to prepare it well, you need a script.
Sure, you can become a screenwriter for your own blockbuster or indie movies. Even if you don’t do it and want to start now, there is a great chance for you to start writing a script for videos on YouTube for example.
Offer this kind of service to people you know, who have ideas about certain topics but don’t record the videos because they don’t know how to talk about that particular topic in front of the cameras.
This is how you can earn money by developing these people’s ideas in the form of a scenario. Who knows, you could be a partner or a co-producer on a YouTube channel belonging to these people.
A lot of companies that have a YouTube channel need screenwriters. That is why we find that a way to help you get money, and it is not considered a free job to earn money, as you can nominate yourself for job opportunities designated for this purpose in companies.
Tips to Make Money Writing From Home
Now that you know the ways to make money from writing, we will provide you with quick tips to help you win job opportunities in one of these seven areas that we mentioned.
You may be thinking now that to be able to work in writing texts, it is necessary to be a specialist in one of the areas of the human sciences, such as a specialist in the fields of literature or advertising. But know that everyone who can read and write can write very good texts!
Of course, if you have a specialization in a specific field that includes language study, writing may be easier. But if you are not, know that you can develop your writing skill!
1. Choose a field to work in
Regardless of the type of topic that is being talked about, at a given moment, we find all the different fields need to write a specific text, even if it is a scientific text. That’s why choose an area to work in.
Example: If you are a civil engineer, you can prepare science articles on engineering and share your knowledge about it. Your articles may turn into an eBook later, and you can sell them online to anyone who has questions or is interested in learning more about this specific field!
2. Study always
After choosing the field you want to work in, it is time to specialize. Always study, in the end, every topic is up to date, as there are slight daily changes to everything we do.
Follow courses, search everywhere, and don’t let your expertise limit your creativity. Even if you have been working in your market for several years, there is always something new that you can learn or improve in your approach.
3. Read a lot
This tip may sound similar to the previous advice, but it actually complements it!
Of course, you should read a lot about the field in which you work, but don’t think that your reading process ends here!
To become a good writer you need to know many topics. This is because the more we read, the more knowledge we gain about the areas in which others have written, and this can help us a lot while writing our own texts.
So if you want to make money writing, don’t limit your knowledge. But always try to expand it as possible by reading the various topics.
4. Exercise
You may have heard that writing is a matter of practice! And believe that this idea is not a myth!
The more you write, the more accustomed you will be to preparing and writing texts. So even if it seems difficult to you at first, do not neglect the writing and do not stop!
You can start by writing small texts, and little by little you will be able to develop large topics. The important thing here is to start and not hold back from your first difficulty.
Gradually you will notice that the writing process becomes easier and faster. Besides, you can always rely on techniques and methods that can help you write better texts.
What do you think of these tips? Do you think it can help you reach your dream of making money from writing?
Share your thoughts with us in the comment space, or tell us about your experiences if you have previous writing experience!
Good luck and goodbye to another post and another post! | https://medium.com/@writeupsguide/write-and-earn-how-to-make-money-with-writing-7ce12e7f7704 | ['Hashem Hash'] | 2020-12-26 07:51:26.946000+00:00 | ['Best Writing Jobd', 'Get Paid To Write', 'Make Money Online', 'How To Make Money Writing', 'Write And Earn'] |
Sending Email with Java Mail. Email stands for Electronic Mail that… | Email stands for Electronic Mail that makes our life easier and reliable we are sending our text in a minute to anyone in the world in just a minute. Email providers like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo providing email services free for personal users that a really great thing for us because we are using email for making our daily life work easier, example universities using email to send information to their students like class scheduling, Job offers info, sending data from one department to another, Students are using email, Companies are using email for sending their data and etc we are using the email in our daily life but what about if we need a robot that sends an email at a specific time when we are not available, let take an example why we need Email bot, Supposes you made a scraping bot and you want the feature that when the scraping is done, it should email you the output data, in that case, we need the Email Bot.
In this article we will walk through how we develop an Email bot with Java language using the Java Mail module, Well without wasting any time let straight jump into it.
Installation Java:
We need Java JDK which stands for a java development kit and will be needed for writing the java programs. You can download the latest version of JDK from the Oracle website here Site_URL . Follow the following steps to install them Java JDK properly in your operating system.
Step 1: Download JDK from the site
Step 2: Install the JDK
Step 3: Install the Java JDK bin the Environmental Variables
Step 4: Verify the JDK by typing Java in the Command prompt
Step 5: Write your first Hello world test program
Step 6: Compile and Run your java program
For Mac os and other Operating system Guide please visit that Site
JDK or JRE?
Many new java programmers also confused about what to choose between for the java compiler JDK or JRE. Well JRE Stands for Java Runtime and needed for running the Java program while JDK is a development Kit and includes the JRE in it such as compiler and debugger so you don't need to download the JRE. With JDK you will get a JRE install of the same version.
Download Module:
We need the Java Mail module for coding our Java Email bot, download the java mail latest version from the following site.
URL: https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javamail-releases.html
Coding Part:
First thing first we will load the modules of java mail and java built-in modules. From line 1 to 2 we loaded the built-in modules of java and from line 3 to 5 we loaded the Activision packages and at last, we loaded the Java mail modules. We will work through each functionality of function that we loaded from the Java modules in the next code part.
We create a public class with a name the same as the name of the java file in which we are currently working. Well in the first part of the code we loaded the required modules and in the next part we created a class naming EmailUtill this will be our main class and within the class, I made another static class name Email in which I pass the 4 parameters one session type and other 3 was String type that was a body, subject and Reciever Email. From line 21 to 25 we set up the new session using MimeMessage msg = new MimeMessage(session); and then using msg. headers function we are populating the headers with the information of what type of email we are sending I set it to test/html format and encoding will be utf-8 that including almost languages charset.
In line 27 I had used the msg. setFrom() function in which we create a new InternetAddress which holding our login details Email and password and on the next line msg.setReplyTo() function holding the email of the receiver. From line 31 to 35 we are setting up the email body, subject, and date. In the next line, I use the msg.setRecipients() function in which add the information we store on the internetAddress, and at last, on next Transport.send(msg) we delivered our email to the receiver email. if you had noticed we used the try and except method that was useful if we got any bug in the time execution we will get a msg of error occurred using the printStackTrace() function.
Send Email in Java with Attachment:
We had seen how we can send a simple email with java, now we will learn how we can send an email with an attachment it can be a file or an image.
If you saw the Code We are setting up the body, subject and login details, etc like we one in the previous code and from line 14 to 17 new message body part using the mimeBodyPart() function and passing the body part as a parameter and next step we MimeMultipart() in which we are passing the mimeBodyPart() as a parameter this process is done so we send our message body part with attachment, from line 20 to 27 we are setting up the filename that we need to send, storing the filename in string datatype variable, I store a text file but you can attach any file format you want to send to receiver emails.
The next step is passing the filename in the function setFileName() and then the email body that we made with the MimeMultipart() function and pass this to addBodyPart() function and on the next line msg.setContent() function we are passing the multipart datatype variable which includes all the parts of the message including body, subject and content/file and in last we send the email with Transport.send().
Send Email with Image Attachment:
In this part we will walk through that how we can make a java mail program that can send mail with an image attachment, In simple words, you can view the image in the Email body, Take a look at the Code below.
If you saw the Code we already cover half of the code in the previous section, From line 23 to 38 we will set up the image has an attachment in an email, I again created a new MimeBodyPart() function and pass the body in it and next, I declared a string datatype variable and store the name of the image with its extension and on next lines, we set the headers to the image by using setHeader() so that email header when read by backend so they know that the email has an image viewer attachment.
On the next line, I created new MimeBodyPart() and using its method I pass setContent() I pass the name of the image that will be shown as a title if you notice I used <h1></h1> tags that because email always opened has an HTML view so <h1> the tag will make a heading size text, next final lines we again using Transport.send() to deliver our email.
So in the end we learn how we can send Emal using Java mail. I hope you learn something from this article and feel free to share your opinion. | https://medium.com/javarevisited/send-email-with-java-mail-3379285f109 | ['Haider Imtiaz'] | 2020-12-07 07:34:45.423000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'Coding', 'Java', 'Programming', 'Email'] |
Here’s why SpaceX’s SN8 Produced that Green Flame & Crashed | Here’s why SpaceX’s SN8 Produced that Green Flame & Crashed
I was honestly just trying to figure out why SN8 produced that bright green flame.
Turns out it’s the same reason it crashed.
In a tweet, Elon Musk explained:
“…Fuel header tank pressure was low during landing burn, causing touchdown velocity to be high & RUD, but we got all the data we needed!! Congrats SpaceX team hell yeah!!”
“RUD” is an acronym for Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly.
The Raptor engine didn’t exactly fail, but due to insufficient fuel pressure, the engines became fuel starved and consequently produced inadequate thrust to maintain the necessary rate of deceleration for a safe landing.
At first, it appeared that the engine may have shut down and was being restarted with TEA-TEB (Triethylaluminum + Triethylboron), a mixture used to ignite liquid oxygen engines and this might explain the bright green flames.
However, that seems to not be the case since SN8 used spark/torch igniters to ignite it’s fuel.
So, what caused the green flame?
It seems there was “engine-rich combustion” which is my new favorite term if I can remember it when I need it!
Effectively, the low fuel header tank pressure caused the fuel/O2 mixture to become lean, generating much more heat and consequently, certain alloys in the engine internals began to break down and burn. Presumably some exotic, high-temp alloys. Hence: “Engine-rich”.
When this happens, the copper which lines the nozzles and/or “engine bell” begins to burn, as well, producing a green flame! | https://medium.com/@illogical-concept/heres-why-spacex-s-sn8-produced-that-green-flame-crashed-3f7c787f935 | ['Illogical Concept'] | 2020-12-10 05:05:10.130000+00:00 | ['Elon Musk', 'Starship', 'Rockets', 'Spacex'] |
Oh Apple, Oh Apple | Oh Apple, Oh Apple
Everyone in my family searched high and low for that little cap but it didn’t surface. So my mother wanted me to show her reenactment of my Apple pencil shooting off the table while I was in the middle of drawing another illustration on my iPad.
Here’s why.
We have ducted heating throughout our rental property. But the ducted vent was nowhere near where I was sitting.
After the cap failed to resurface from the depths of below, I got in touch with Apple Inc. and explained my dilemma.
Nonetheless, a lovely Apple Inc. representative said to me,”A lot of people phone us at Apple to order a replacement cap.”
And this Apple representative said you won’t find those caps sold on their website because it’s a “replacement” service. What the?
Anyhow, while I was waiting for the Apple representative to process my order, I wondered: | https://medium.com/illumination/oh-apple-oh-apple-59b6c1f10b54 | ['Erin Singh'] | 2020-12-17 22:30:03.836000+00:00 | ['This Happened To Me', 'Humor', 'Digital Life', 'Apple', 'Technology'] |
Repeated String — HackerRank C++ Implementation | Problem:
Lilah has a string, s , of lowercase English letters that she repeated infinitely many times.
Given an integer, n , find and print the number of letter a's in the first n letters of Lilah's infinite string.
For example, if the string s = 'abcac' and n = 10 , the substring we consider is , abcacabcac the first 10 characters of her infinite string. There are 4 occurrences of a in the substring.
Read the full problem here: Repeated String
Solution:
Let us consider that sub_str is the input string and str_len is the length of the infinite string we are considering.
When the str_len is less than the length of sub_str , we can easily calculate the number of a 's by iterating over the string.
Now, when the str_len is greater than the length of the sub_str length.
First, we will find the number of sub strings ( sub_str ) in the string we are considering.
In many cases, the size of combined sub strings is not the multiple of str_len , so few characters are left out and these characters may contain ' a '. We have to count these characters.
Now, we need to find the number of a’s in the sub_str . Let count will store number of a's in the sub_str .
Multiplying count with the num_sub_str will give us number of a's in the combined sub strings whose size is less than or equal to str_len and multiple of the size of sub_str . But there are few remaining characters whose count is stored in remaining_str_len . We have to find the occurrence of '*a8' in these characters and increment the count if it is found.
C++ Implementation on Programmercave
Other Competitive Programming Problems and Solutions
Picking Numbers
Library Fine | https://medium.com/programmercave/repeated-string-hackerrank-c-implementation-9091dd2d5965 | ['Abhishek Singh Thakur'] | 2020-04-25 15:37:18.146000+00:00 | ['Cpp', 'Hackerrank', 'Programming', 'Data Structures', 'Algorithms'] |
Why Erotica Will Free Your Mind | Why Erotica Will Free Your Mind
The truth behind the fantasies
Photo by David Lezcano on Unsplash
A month or so ago, I noticed my sex blog posts were getting more and more explicit. So, as an outlet for my obviously horny mind, I decided to make a clear distinction between the two and start writing erotica. This would allow my sex posts to stay more explorative and educational, while leaving room for the truly explicit content.
It’s been an interesting decision. I’ve discovered I love writing erotica. How did I not realise this before? It seems obvious to me now, as I have always read a lot of dirty stories.
The thing is, it’s the hardcore stories, which are my favourite
I like non-consent stories about control, humiliation and domination. These are the stories which turn me on the most. So, these are the stories I write. Now, not everyone likes stories like this, especially if people forget I have made them up. Some people feel offended by hardcore erotica stories.
But, by honestly exploring what turns you on, you can understand your reality better. While you might not like the same thing as someone else, or want your favourite erotic stories to come true, you can still learn a lot about yourself from your choice of erotica.
As Linda Garnets, PhD, a researcher at the University of California at Los Angeles, explains, “our erotic personalities are as unique as our fingerprints, and our sexual identities, sexual attractions, and sexual fantasies don’t all have to fit together seamlessly (and they also likely change over time).”
So, although you may not want your fantasies to come true, the written word can help you to understand exactly what turns you on. From there, you can explore in more detail exactly what it is about a story which turns you on and pick and choose what you want to re-create in real life.
Erotica also teaches you to embrace your desires and not feel ashamed
For example, even, if your sexual turn ons are illegal, the first step to dealing with this is to talk openly to a therapist. You have to freely explore your mind and work out why you feel this way, in order to heal and move on.
The large majority of us share the most common fantasies, but can feel too shy to talk about them. But, by reading or even writing erotica, you inject fun and entertainment into your desires. You give yourself an increased confidence and awareness of your own pleasure.
You take the initiative and figure out what you really like. And this is the only way you will be able to open up freely during sex, in order to receive the pleasure you deserve. Having the confidence to explore and express your desires will open you up more than you could ever expect.
“A recent study has shown that consuming sexy literature can help everything from your libido to the strength of your orgasm. A 2016 study, which was published in the journal Sexual and Relationship Therapy, recorded the sexual functioning of 27 women over six weeks. Half read self-help books, and the other half read erotic fiction. The result? Both groups made equal, statistically significant gains when it came to:
sexual desire
sexual arousal
lubrication
satisfaction
orgasms
pain reduction
overall sexual functioning”
So, who knew erotica could be such a rewarding and beneficial part of life?
Not only could it increase your confidence but it could give you a boost of sexual desire, and help reach the all important orgasm.
Try adding a daily dose of naughty literature to your diet and see how free, confident and open it makes you feel. It’s time to explore your desires and find your true pleasure. | https://medium.com/real-talk-about-sex/why-erotica-will-free-your-mind-1ee3ce972d41 | ['Matilda Swinney'] | 2020-08-22 11:56:05.406000+00:00 | ['This Happened To Me', 'Writing', 'Sex', 'Reading', 'Sexuality'] |
Deploying Dash to Google Cloud Run in 5 minutes | Setting up a simple Dash app
This instructions and the example are taken from Dash’s documentation, but are slightly modified in order to run the app on Cloud Run.
Setup and install Python
For this step, you will need Python3 and pip installed. Installation will depend on your OS and settings. On Mac OSX, we recommend install Python using Brew. For installing Python on other OS, you can refer to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python.
After installing Python , we recommend running every project on it’s own virtual environment. To enable a virtual environment (or virtualenv or venv for short), run on the directory you are creating the project:
python -m venv .venv
This will creat a virtualenv on folder .venv . To start using this environment, we need to activate it:
. ./.venv/bin/activate
Set up and install Dash
First, install dash and pandas using pip :
pip install dash pandas
And then, freeze these requirements into requirements.txt file:
pip freeze > requirements.txt
This will generate file requirements.txt file, with all libraries and dependencies of the project.
Then, create a simple layout on file app.py . This example is almost the same as the Dash docs, but notice the server variable on line 14. This variable is the Flask instance of our Dash app that need to be used when run on a container.
app.py — Dash example app
Running Dash locally
To run this app locally, on the console run:
python app.py
This will run our app, which will be available on http://0.0.0.0:8080/ and it should look like this:
Dash app running
Setting up a Dockerfile for the app
To run our app in Cloud Run, we will need to define a Dockerfile. Add this to Dockerfile file:
Dockerfile — Dash example app
The main features of this file are:
Use Python slim buster image: Debian-based, lightweigth image of Python. Install requirements from requirements.txt file, and Gunicorn , a Python Http server. Create user app and use this user, so the app doesn’t run on sudo user. Execute app with Gunicorn. Notice the binding on app:server , where app is our app.py file and server is our Flask instance we exposed before.
Compiling the image and running in Cloud Run
Now that we have our Dockerfile ready, we can compile the image, push it to a registry and make the deployment in Cloud Run.
For the image registry, we will use Google Container Registry (gcr.io), but moving to the new Artifact Registry should be straightforward.
For this step, you’ll need GCP SDK set up, and Docker installed (Docker docs).
First, compile the app’s Docker image:
docker build -f Dockerfile -t gcr.io/{PROJECT_ID}/{IMAGE}:{TAG} .
Where PROJECT_ID is your GCP project id, IMAGE is the name the image will have, and TAG is the tag (or version) of the image being built (optional, more info in Docker reference).
When the image is built, push it to the registry (more info on push command in Docker reference):
docker push gcr.io/{PROJECT_ID}/{IMAGE}:{TAG}
And finally, deploy it to Cloud Run using gcloud (gcloud docs):
gcloud run deploy dash_demo \
--image=gcr.io/{PROJECT_ID}/{IMAGE}:{TAG} \
--platform=managed \
--region=us-central1 \ # GCP region
--timeout=60 \ # Request timeout (max 900 secs)
--concurrency=80 \ # Max request concurrency (default 80)
--cpu=1 \ # Instance number of CPU's (default 1)
--memory=256Mi \ # Instance memory (default 256Mi)
--max-instances=10 \ # Max instances
--allow-unauthenticated # Make service publicly available
We have now deployed our dash app, and it should be publicly available on the URL provided by Cloud Run.
Next steps
We have a working Dash app, with hardcoded data to produce the graph shown before (lines 22 to 26 on app.py file of this example).
Try this out! This app can easily be connected to your favorite database: SQL, Google BigQuery or any other data source. We will be posting more on this topic later. | https://medium.com/kunder/deploying-dash-to-cloud-run-5-minutes-c026eeea46d4 | ['Arturo Tagle Correa'] | 2021-07-02 23:04:36.983000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Docker', 'Dash', 'Data Science', 'Plotly'] |
David and the Lion’s Den, XVI | “About time!” Richard growled after he ripped his Carla persona away with his wig.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me!?” I gasped.
“Why? How didn’t you ever notice?”
Richard’s question shocked me. I think he meant for it to. Of course I should have known who Carla was all along. With my painter’s eye — my sense of shape and perspective — I should have seen through the makeup and wig immediately.
Jill and Hilda were obviously not surprised. So, why was I? I thought about that as I collapsed into my chair and picked up my coffee.
“So, what else haven’t you noticed?” Richard prodded.
“Huh?”
“Look, if you were so wrapped in yourse… in your work, that you couldn’t see who I was, then what else have you missed?”
“Missed?”
“Come on, kid. Think! Whoever killed those people had to be close to you, right?”
I nodded, warily.
Jill looked me in the eyes. “Didn’t they all die of like severe food poisoning?”
Richard agreed. “That’s what the papers are saying.”
“And that doesn’t even begin to make sense,” I complained. “I don’t get it at all.”
“Whether it makes sense or not,” Richard continued as he picked up his whip and turned it over carefully, “everyone who died had to eat something toxic. And since nobody but your models got sick …”
“Something in the lunches we delivered,” I shrugged. “It had to be, but it can’t be.”
“We know all this already,” Jill pointed out.
“What we don’t know are the details,” Richard frowned. “How did it work, David? Where did you pick the meals up, and who had access to them — other than you and Howie?”
“Hell, I don’t know. I’ve been over this a million times. Howie always had them in the van already when he picked me up. I just helped deliver. Hilda? You’d know better than me.”
She looked up from her coffee, wrinkles contorted in puzzlement. “Ja, but what I know is not helping. Is no sense.”
“Just go over it with us anyway,” Richard instructed. “And, David, listen carefully. There has to be something we’re all missing.”
So, she laid out the details — A kitchen rented from the Westbeth Community Center. Food donated from restaurants, supermarkets, and government surplus agencies. Volunteer cooks and packagers showing up every morning just after dawn. Howie and plenty of other drivers backing into loading docks under a rusted rail line near the Hudson. Boxes slung in hand over hand.
Richard asked her the key question. “But how do you know which box goes to which apartment? What’s the paperwork like for that?”
Hilda shrugged. “Maybe one day we can be so careful. But now there is no giving exact food to exact patient. No, is too difficult for us. Each box is like every other.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Howie always had a crumpled up carbon copy he got at the docks. It had the number of meals on it and a list of names and addresses. That’s all! I think he had to turn it in the next morning.”
Hilda agreed. “Exact. I am receiving all forms for bookkeeping. Ja.”
Richard summed it up. “So, nobody in the kitchen could know which delivery guy was getting which box, let alone who would ultimately eat it.”
I sighed. No wonder the papers thought we were guilty. “So now what?” I asked the table at large. “This isn’t helping unless you guys want to testify for the prosecution.”
“We’re missing something, obviously,” Richard mused. “Don’t get discouraged.”
We sat in silence for a while, nobody having any idea what to say. I was about to give in to despair again.
It was Jill who got the idea.
“Write it all down!” she suggested.
“Huh?”
“Pick a handful of days you remember really well, and write the stories. Put down every little detail, like it was a book.”
“OK,” I started, doubt weighing down my words. “But what’s the point? We already know nobody could have …”
“No, she’s right,” Richard broke in excitedly. “Listen — obviously something happened that we’re all missing. It’s probably right under our noses.”
“I guess,” I hesitated.
“Look, just start getting it written down, then as you do, we’ll get back together and go over it with you. Find the missing link. Something!”
I had strong doubts, but Jill and Hilda were so enthused that I went along.
“And don’t forget you’re a painter!” Jill added. “Write it like you’re filling in a canvas. Paint it. Make it real.” | https://medium.com/th-ink/david-and-the-lions-den-xvi-891896786c52 | ['James Finn'] | 2018-06-18 01:07:31.380000+00:00 | ['LGBTQ', 'Gay', 'Fiction', 'Friendship', 'Art'] |
Marinero | Love to write about everything and also reading about anything. If I can think about it, I will write about it. Athletic Trainer from Puerto Rico with love. | https://medium.com/@victor-sola2013/marinero-2a302c1d7db4 | ['Victor Sola'] | 2020-08-18 12:16:34.738000+00:00 | ['Amor', 'Escritura', 'Español', 'Sueños', 'Poesia'] |
The Complete Reference for JavaScript Arrays | Different ways of creating an array
var array = []; var array = Array(); var array = Array(3); // array of length 3 var array = new Array() var array = new Array(3) // array of length 3
1. Array.from()
The Array.from method creates a new shallow copy from an array-like or iterable object.
Shallow copy is a bit-wise copy of an object. A new object is created that has an exact copy of the values in the original object. If any of the fields of the object are references to other objects, just the reference addresses are copied i.e., only the memory address is copied.
Syntax : Array.from(sourceArray [, mapFn [, thisArg] ])
Example 1: Array from a string
var str = "123"; //String is iterable Array.from(str); //['1','2','3']
Example 2: Duplicating an array
var array = [1,2,3,4,5]; var newArray = Array.from(array); //[1,2,3,4,5]
Example 3: Copying array with reference.
var array = [{name : 'john'}]; var newArray = Array.from(array); newArray[0].name; //john array[0].name = "Sam"; newArray[0].name ; //Sam The value is change to Sam in the copied array because it is shallow copied.
This also behave the same for, array inside an array:
var array = [[1,2]] var newArray = Array.from(array); array[0][0] = 5; newArray ; [[5,2]]
Example 4: Creating a new array of unique values from the array with duplicate values.
var array = [1,2,3,4,5,5,4,3,2,1]; var set = new Set(array); // removes duplicate elements var uniqueArray = Array.from(set) // [1,2,3,4,5]
Example 5: Using the map function.
var array = [1,2,3,4,5] var doubledArray = Array.from(array, (value, index) => value+value); doubledArray; [2,4,6,8,10];
In example 5, we can also create an Array from the object if the object has the property of length . If an object has a property of length Array.from methods thinks it is an iterable object and creates an array of that length and sets the value as undefined.
var obj = {length : 3} var array = Array.from(obj); console.log(array); // [undefined, undefined, undefined]
We can use the map function with the above code to create a function that will generate an array with numbers.
function fillArray(length) {
var obj = {length}; return Array.from(obj, (val, index) => index); } fillArray(10); [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
You can pass the this argument as the third parameter and use it inside the map function.
If we pass undefined or null then it throws a cannot convert undefined or null to object error.
If a non-iterable object is passed, then it returns an empty-array .
2. Array.isArray()
This method checks whether the passed argument is an array.
Syntax: Array.isArray(value)
Returns true if it is an array, otherwise returns false .
Example value which returns true :
Array.isArray([]); //true Array.isArray([1]); //true Array.isArray(new Array());//true // Array.prototype is an array of functions Array.isArray(Array.prototype);
Values which return false :
// the result of all statement below evaluates to false Array.isArray(); Array.isArray({}); Array.isArray(null); Array.isArray(undefined); Array.isArray(100); Array.isArray('Array'); Array.isArray(true); Array.isArray(false); Array.isArray(new Uint8Array(32)); Array.isArray({ __proto__: Array.prototype });
3.Array.of()
The Array.of method creates a new array from the arguments passed.
Array.of(1) . // [1] Array.of(1,"str",[1,2],{n:10}) // [1, "string", Array(3), {…}]
4.Array.concat
This method merges the array or value passed and creates a new array. The array returned is the shallow copy of the arguments passed.
array1.concat[array2, arr3, arr4, .... arrN]
Example 1: Concat two arrays
var array = [1,2,3] var newArr = array.concat([7,8,9],[4,5,6]); //[1,2,3,7,8,9,4,5,6]
Example 2: We can also pass the primitive values or object as arguments
var array = [1] var newArr = array.concat("str",100,{obj:100})//[1,"str", {...}].
Example 3: Concatenation of array of arrays
var arr = [1,2]; var arr2 = [[1,2], [3,4]] var newArr = arr.concat(arr2) // [1,2,[1,2],[3,4]] The new Array is the shallow copy of the arguments so if we change the source it affects the copied object. arr2[0][1] = 9; //[1,2,[1,9],[3,4]]
5. Array.keys
The keys() method returns a new Array Iterator object that contains the indexes of the array.
var arr= [1,2,3]; var keys= arr.keys(); // it returns an Array iterator
console.log(...keys)
The difference between Object.keys() and Array.keys() is that Array.keys() also take holes as an index;
var arr = [1,,3]; Object.keys(arr); // [0,2] console.log(...arr.keys()) // 0,1,2
// undefined is not a hole var arr = [1, undefined, 2] Object.keys(arr); // [0,1,2] console.log(...arr.keys()) // 0,1,2
6. Array.values()
Array.values() method returns an Array iterator object that contains the values of the array. By using the iterator we can iterate through all the values of the array.
var array = ['🚒', '🚐', '🚚', '🚲']; var arrayIterator = array.values(); // Array iterator console.log(...arrayIterator) // 🚒,🚐,🚚,🚲 // or we can iterate through iterator using for ... of for (let vehicle of arrayIterator) { console.log(vehicle); } output : 🚒,🚐,🚚,🚲
7. Array.entries()
The entries method returns return an Array Iterator which contains the index-value pair of the array.
The key is the index of the array and the value is the value at that index.
var array = ['a', 'b', 'c']; var iterator = array.entries(); console.log(...iterator) // [0, "a"] [1, "b"] [2, "c"] or we can use for..of for (let entry of iterator) {
console.log(entry);
} // output
[0, "a"]
[1, "b"]
[2, "c"] or We can use destructing for (const [index, element] of iterator )
console.log(index, element); // output 0 "a"
1 "b"
2 "c"
8. Array.push()
The push method adds elements to the end of the array. It mutates the original array.
The push method returns the new length of the array after the item is pushed.
Syntax: array.push(n1, n2,...n)
var array = ['😀', '😃', '😎', '🤪', '🤩'] var newLen = array.push('😳'); //6 // [😀,😃,😎,🤪,🤩, 😳] newLen = array.push("hi","javascript jeep 🚙", 100); //9 // [😀, 😃, 😎, 🤪, 🤩, 😳,"hi", "javascript jeep 🚙", 100].
9. Array.unshift()
The unshift() method is the same as the push method, but the only difference is that it adds elements to the beginning of the array. It mutates the original array.
The unshift method returns the new length of the array after the item is added.
var array = ['😀', '😃', '😎', '🤪', '🤩'] var newLen = array.unshift('😳'); //6 // [😳, 😀,😃,😎,🤪,🤩] newLen = array.unshift("hi","javascript jeep 🚙", 100); //9 // ["hi", "javascript jeep 🚙", 😳, 😀,😃,😎,🤪,🤩]
10. Array.pop()
The pop() method removes the last element from the array. It mutates the original array.
The pop method returns the removed/popped element.
var array = ['🚒', '🚐', '🚚', '🚲']; array.pop(); // 🚲
11. Array.shift()
The unshift() method removes the first element from an array. It mutates the original array.
unshift returns the removed element.
var array = ['🚒', '🚐', '🚚', '🚲']; array.shift(); // 🚒
12. Array.toString()
The toString() methods convert the array to string and returns the string.
var array = [1, 2, '3', 'hi']; array.toString(); //1,2,3,hi"
If there is any object in it then it is converted as [object Object]
var array = [1, "string", {}, {name: "Javascript Jeep🚙"}] array.toString() // "1,string,[object Object],[object Object]"
If there is an array inside array then the array is flattened.
var array = [1, "string", [1,2,3]] array.toString(); // 1,string,1,2,3 var array = [1, "string", [1,2,3,[1,2]]] array.toString() // 1,string,1,2,3,1,2
13. Array.join()
This method creates a string by concatenating all the elements of the array.
Syntax: join(separator) here the separator is an optional string argument.
The strings are joined and each element is separated by the separator provided. If the separator is not passed then by default it is joined with , .
This method returns the joined string.
var array = ["Javascript", " Jeep", " 🚙"]; array.join(); // "Javascript, Jeep, 🚙" array.join("***"); // "Javascript*** Jeep*** 🚙"
If an array has one element, then the element is returned as a string without the separator.
var array = [" 🚙"]; array.join("-"); // "🚙"
If the array length is empty then it returns an empty string.
[].join(); //""
14 . Array.indexOf()
This method takes an input value and returns the first index of the value in the array.
If the element is not found then it returns -1 .
We can also specify the index from which we need to start searching.
This method search the element by using strict equality (===) checking.
Syntax : indexOf(elementToSearch, fromIndex)
fromIndex specifies from which index to start search.
var array = ['🚒', '🚐', '🚚', '🚲'];
The index can be denoted as
The array index is 🚒 → 0 , 🚐 → 1, 🚚 → 2, 🚲 → 3
We can also give fromIndex elements based on negative values
The array negative index is 🚒 → -4, 🚐 → -3, 🚚 → -2, 🚲 → -1
If the fromIndex is positive and greater than the array length then it returns -1 without searching.
If the fromIndex is negative and we need to calculate the computed index that can be calculated by (arrayLength + negativeIndex)
If the computed index is less or equal than -1 * array.length , the entire array will be searched.
Consider an array with length 4
Case 1: If the user provides fromIndex as -2, then the search starts from 4-2=2.
Case 2: If the user provides fromIndex as -10, then the search starts 4–10=-6 . In this case the entire array is searched.
Example:
var array = ['🚒', '🚐', '🚚', '🚲']; array.indexOf('🚲'); // 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------- // search an element from index 3 array.indexOf('🚲', 3); //3; because the 🚲 present in index 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------- //search an element from negative index -1 towards right. array.indexOf('🚲', -1);//3 because -1 th index is where 🚲present ------------------------------------------------------------------- array.indexOf('🚲', -2); // 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------- array.indexOf('🚒', -1) ; // this method search for 🚒 form index -1(1 in positive index) towards right , but the 🚒 present in 0 index so it returns -1 ------------------------------------------------------------------ array.indexOf('🚒', 10) ; fromIndex is positive and greater than the array length then it returns -1 without searching. ------------------------------------------------------------------
The indexOf method tests only for values and it doesn’t work for reference.
var a = [[1,2,3],3,4,5]; a.indexOf([1,2,3]); // -1 var a= [{},1,2,3]; a.indexOf({}); // -1
15. Array.lastIndexOf()
This method is similar to the indexOf method, but instead of returning the first index of the element passed, this method returns last index of the element in the array.
This method takes an input value and returns the last index of the passed value in the array.
If the element is not found then it returns -1 .
We can also specify the index from which we need to start searching.
This method search the element by using strict equality (===) checking.
Syntax: lastIndexOf(elementToSearch, fromIndex) .
Here the fromIndex specifies the index from which the search takes place in backward. When the index is negative, the array is still searched from back to front.
If we pass -1 then it starts the search from the last element of the array towards the first element.
var array= [1, 2, 3, 4]; array.lastIndexOf(2); // 1 array.lastIndexOf(7); // -1 array.lastIndexOf(4, 3); // 3 array.lastIndexOf(2, 2); // 1 array.lastIndexOf(2, -2); // 1 array.lastIndexOf(2, -1); // 1 array.lastIndexOf(2,-5); //-1
16. Array.findIndex()
This method returns the first element that satisfies the passed testing function.
If no element satisfies the condition then it returns -1 .
Syntax :
array.findIndex(
testingfunction,
thisArg(optional)
); // syntax of texting function testingfunc(
value,
index(optional),
array(optional)
)
Example: Find if an array contains even an number.
var array = [1,3,5,7,10]; function containsEven(value) { return value % 2 === 0; } array.findIndex(containsEven); // 4 // we can simplify the above function as array.findIndex(val => val%2===0 )
17. Array.includes()
This method test whether an element is present in the array. If it is in the array then it returns true else returns false .
This method follows same concept of Array.indexOf method.
Syntax: includes(elementToSearch, fromIndex)
[1, 2, 3].includes(2); // true [1, 2, 3].includes(4); // false [1, 2, 3].includes(3, 2); // true [1, 2, 3].includes(3, -1); // true [1, 2, 3].includes(3, 3); // false [1, 2, undefined].includes(undefined); // true [1, 2, NaN].includes(NaN); // true
18. Array.reverse()
This method reverse the array. This function mutates/reverses the original array.
This method returns the reversed array.
const array = [1, 2, 3];
console.log(array); // [1, 2, 3]
array.reverse();
console.log(array); // [3, 2, 1]
19. Array.flat()
This method flattens a multidimensional array and returns the flattened array.
We can specify the depth value which denotes how deep the flatten should happen. The default depth value is one. ☝
This method returns a new array with the sub-array elements concatenated into it.
Example 1:
var array = [1,2,3,4,[1,2]] var newArray = array.flat(); //[1,2,3,4,1,2]
Example 2 :
var array = [1, 2, 3, 4, [1, 2, [5, 6]] ]
// here the depth is 1 , so the [5,6] is not flattened var newArray = array.flat(); //[1,2,3,4,1,2, [5,6] ] // when we set depth to 2 , it also flatten the [5,6] element newArray = array.flat(2); // [1,2,3,4,1,2,5,6]
Example 3:
When we flat an array with holes, the holes are removed.
var arr = [1,,2,3] var newArray = arr.flat(); //[1,2,3]
20.Array.flatMap()
This method is similar to flat() , but the difference is that before flattening the array, each element of the array is mapped with the mapping function then it is flattened.
Another difference is that flatMap compared to flat only flattens to a depth of 1. We can’t specify how deep the flatten should happen.
Syntax:
var new_array = arr.flatMap(
mapFunc,
this(optional)
); // Syntax for the map function
mapFunction(
val,
index (optional),
array (optional)
)
Example: Convert all the numbers on the array into even then flatten the array
var array = [1,2,3,4,5,10]; function mapFunc(val) { // logic: if val = 3 => 3%2=1 then 3+1-> returns 4 return (val % 2) ? val +1 : val; } var newArray = array.flatMap(mapFunc);
In flatMap only the first level is flattened.
21. Array.some()
The array.some method checks whether any one of the elements in an array return true for the test function provided.
some returns true if any element passes the test, otherwise it returns false .
array.some(testFunction , thisArg(optional));
Example :
function isOdd(value, index, array) {
return value %2;
}
[2, 6, 8, 0, 4].some(isOdd); // false [12, 5, 8, 1, 4].some(isOdd); // true
If the array.some method is executed against an empty array, it returns false .
[].some(isOdd); //false
If we didn’t pass the testingFunction , then it will throw an error.
22. Array.every()
The array.every method checks whether all elements of the array returns true for the test function provided.
It returns true if all elements pass the test, otherwise it returns false if any one of the elements fails.
array.every(testFunction , thisArg(optional));
Example :
function isOdd(value, index, array) { return value %2; } [1, 7, 8, 1, 5].every(isOdd); // false [11, 5, 9, 1, 7].every(isOdd); // true
If the array.every method is executed against empty array , it returns false
[].every(isOdd); //true
If we didn’t pass the testingFunction, then it will throws an error.
23. Array.sort()
The sort method sorts the elements of the array and returns the sorted array.
We can pass compareFunction to implement custom sorting of the array.
Syntax : sort(compareFunction)
Here the compareFunction passed as an argument is optional.
Example: Without passing a compareFunction . The default sorting of the array is based on the string representation. Read the description in the example if this doesn’t make sense.
Example of default sorting. var arr = [1, 2, 3, 200, 100]; arr.sort() arr ; // [1, 100, 2, 200, 3] The reason for the above result is, by default, sorting is based on strings. It first it converts the value to the string, then values are compared by their sequences of UTF-16 code units values.
Example: Passing a compareFunction
The compare function should return (0, >0, <0).
If the compare function returns:
0 or less than 0 → leave a and b unchanged
and unchanged greater than 0 → swap position
function ascendingOrder(num1, num2) {
if(num1 === num2) return 0;
if(num1 < num2) return -1;
if(num1 > num2) return 1;
} var arr = [1, 2, 3, 200, 100]; arr.sort(ascendingOrder)
// the above function can be simplified by /* logic :
if a > b → (a-b) returns >0, then there is a swap if a === b → (a-b) returns 0 , so no swap if a < b; (a- b) returns <0 , no swap */ arr.sort((a, b) => a-b ); To sort an array in descending order do it in reverse arr.sort( (b, a) => a - b )
24. Array.fill()
This method replaces (mutates) the values of the array with the given value for the given range.
Syntax : array.fill(value, startIndex(optional), endIndex(optional))
It returns the modified array and also changes the source array.
If the startIndex (default value: 0 ) and endIndex (default value: array.length ) is not passed, the entire array is replaced.
var array = [1,2,3,4,5] array.fill(3, 2, 4) // [1, 2, 3, 3, 5] array.fill(8,1,2) // [1, 8, 3, 3, 5] if the start and end index is same then there is no fill takes place array.fill(9,1,1) // [1, 8, 3, 3, 5] we can also pass negative index for start and end index argument array.fill(9,-3,-2) // [1, 8, 9, 3, 5]
if we pass start index < end index then no fill array.fill(19,4,3) // [1, 8, 9, 3, 5]
Creating an Array of elements with default values:
var array = new Array(5).fill(0); // [0,0,0,0,0]
If we try to fill the element with objects object, then the references are copied.
var array = [1,2,3]; var obj = {name : "Javascript heap"}; array.fill(obj); obj.name = "Javascript Jeep 🥶"; array //
[ {name: “Javascript Jeep 🥶”}
{name: “Javascript Jeep 🥶”}
{name: “Javascript Jeep 🥶”} ] array[0].name = "JAVASCRIPT JEEP 🥶"; array //
[ {name: “JAVASCRIPT JEEP 🥶”}
{name: “JAVASCRIPT JEEP 🥶”}
{name: “JAVASCRIPT JEEP 🥶”} ];
25. Array.reduce()
The reduce function executes a reducer function on each element of the array, resulting in a single value output.
This method returns the value that is returned from the reducer function (accumulator value).
syntax: Array.reduce(reducerFunction, initialAccumulatorValue(opt)); reducerFunction syntax: reducerFunction(accumulator, value, index(opt), srcArray(opt)) ;
The accumulator is the final output returned by the reducer function.
Example sum of array elements:
var array = [1,2,3,4,5] function reducerFunction(accumulator, value) { return accumulator + value; } var sum = array.reduce(reducerFunction) ; //15 // the above function can be simplified as array.reduce( (acc, val) => acc+val )
If the initialAccumulatorValue is not provided, the reducer function execution starts from first index .
In the above example, every element of the array is passed to the reducer function. In that function, each value is added to the accumulator (final result).
Example with initialAccumulatorValue :
var array = [1,2,3,4,5] function reducerFunction(accumulator, value) { return accumulator + value; } var sum = array.reduce(reducerFunction, 100) sum ;// 115 // the above function can be simplified as array.reduce( (acc, val) => acc+val ), 100)
If the initial value is provided then the reducer function execution starts from the 0th index.
26. Array.reduceRight()
This method is same as the reduce method, except the reducer function is executed against the element of array from right to left.
Example:
var array = [ " hi ", " from", " Javascript Jeep 🚙 "] array.reduce( (acc, val) => acc + val );
output : hi from Javascript Jeep 🚙 array.reduceRight( (acc, val) => acc * val );
output : Javascript Jeep 🚙 from hi.
27 . Array.filter()
This method filter the array elements based on the function provided.
The filter method executes the testingFunction against all elements of the array and returns a new array with elements which return true on the testing function. If the testing function returns false for an element, it does not appear in the new array. This method doesn’t alter/mutate the source array.
Syntax:
syntax : filter
---------------- Array.filter(testingFunction, thisArg(optional)) syntax :testingFunction
---------------------- testingFunction(value, index(optional), array(optional))
Example:
function filterEvenNumbers(value) { return value % 2 === 0; } var array = [2, 15, 8, 10, 44]; var evenNumbers = array.filter(filterEvenNumbers); evenNumbers // [2,8,10,44]
// it can be simplified as even = array.filter( (val) => val %2 ===0 )
28. Array.map()
The map function executes a function provided against all the elements of the array and produce a new array and returns that array.
Syntax:
syntax : map
-------------- var new_array = array.map(mappingFunction ,thisArg(optional))
// syntax : mappingFunction
---------------------------- mappingFunction(val, index(optional), srcArray(optional)) ;
Example:
function square(val) {
return val * val; } var array = [1,2,3,4,5]; var squaredNumbers = array.map(square); //1,4,9,16,25 //using arrow function array.map(v => v * v);
Example 2: Mapping an array of objects and getting the value of the object as an array.
var array = [{name : "brandi love"}, {name : "julia ann"} ]; var upperCaseNames = array.map( (obj) => obj.name.toUpperCase() ); //["BRANDI LOVE", "JULIA ANN"]
29. Array.forEach()
The forEach method executes a method that is provided as an argument against every element of the array once.
Syntax: forEach(callback, thisArg(optional))
It is a replacement for the traditional for loop.
const numbers = [1,2,3,4,5]; const copy = [];
// old way
---------- for (let i=0; i<numbers.length; i++) { copy.push(items[i]); }
// cool way
------------ items.forEach(function(item){ copy.push(item); });
Example 2:
var names = ["ironman", "superman", "batman"] names.forEach( (ele) => { console.log( ele.toUpperCase() ) }); // IRONMAN
//SUPERMAN
//BATMAN
30. Array.slice()
The slice method returns a new array with a portion of the source array — it returns sub-arrays.
Syntax : arr.slice(beginIndex(optional), endIndex(optional))
The default value of beginIndex is 0 .
If the beginIndex is greater than array length, then an empty array [] is returned.
We can also use a negative index for beginIndex and endIndex .
If the endIndex is not passed or endIndex is greater than array length, then slice all elements from the beginIndex to the end of the array.
It returns a shallow copy of the array, the original array is not modified.
var numbers = [1,2,3,4,5,6]; var greaterThan3= numbers.slice(3); [4,5,6] greaterThan3= numbers.slice(3,5); [4,5] greaterThan3= numbers.slice(3,6); [4, 5, 6]
If the endIndex is smaller than startIndex then an empty array is returned.
If the source array contains an object, then the reference is copied.
var array = [ {name: "john"}, {name : "stephen"} ]; var newArray = array.slice();
//if we don't provide start&end index then whole array is copied array[0].name = "JOHN"; // newArray has an reference of array[0] so the value at newArray is also changed newArray[0].name ; //JOHN
31 . Array.splice()
The splice() method alters or removes or replaces or add elements to the source array. It is a mutating action on the original array.
Syntax:
var DeletedItemsArray = array.splice(start, deleteCount, item1, item2,...itemN); startIndex index from which the delete or add should take place. deleteCount number of elements to be deleted If deleteCount is omitted, or if its value is equal-to or larger than array.length - start, then all the elements from start to the end of the array will be deleted.
item1,...--> . elements to be added from the startIndex provided
here deleteCount, items value are optional.
This method returns the array containing deleted items.
Example:
var array = [1,2,3,4,5] var deletedItems = array.splice(0,0) //doesn't delete any element because delCount-->0 ------------------------------------------------------------------- var array = [1,2,3,4,5] var deletedItems = array.splice(0,1); //[1] deletes 1 element from 0th index ------------------------------------------------------------------- var array = [1,2,3,4,5] var deletedItems = array.splice(0, 1, 2, 4); //[1] deletes 1 element from 0th index and insert 2, 4 array; //[2, 4, 2, 3, 4, 5] -------------------------------------------------------------------
var array = [1,2,3,4,5] var deletedItems = array.splice(2); //[3,4,5] deletes from index:3 to last element
because default delCount : arrayLength array; //[1,2] -------------------------------------------------------------------
var array = [1,2,3,4,5] var deletedItems = array.splice(-3, 1, 2, 4); //[3] deletes 1 element from -3rd index and insert 2, 4 array; // [1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 5]
------------------------------------------------------------------- var deletedItemsArray = array.splice(); //[] deletedItemsArray = array.splice(undefined); // [1,2,3,4,5]
Follow Javascript Jeep🚙 🥶. | https://levelup.gitconnected.com/the-complete-reference-of-array-in-javascript-90b7e479989e | ['Javascript Jeep'] | 2019-10-30 14:03:39.757000+00:00 | ['Arrays In Javascript', 'Web Development', 'JavaScript', 'Arrays', 'Javascript Tips'] |
An Excellent Approach On How, When And Where You Should Invest | Todd Tressider is no stranger to The Art of Passive Income. On this week’s episode, Mark and Scott welcome him for the third time to the show.
Todd Tressider is an investment and entrepreneurial expert who has founded Financial Mentor, a platform that is used to educate business owners and investors about the wealth-building principles he learned from years as an entrepreneur in the investment management industry. He is recognized as a serial entrepreneur, building many businesses and retiring at the age of thirty-five from his position as a Hedge Fund Investment Manager who is responsible for a twenty-plus million dollar portfolio.
Todd holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Davis where he was apart of the Economics Honors Society and Dean’s List. He has raised a net worth from less than zero at the age of twenty-three to a self-made millionaire twelve years later, using the same personal finance and investment strategies that he taught on his website. He is still an active investor who earns consistent investment returns in both up and down markets.
Listen in as they discuss:
How to, when to, and where to invest
How to develop a passive income
The conventional financial planning model
The lifestyle model
The cash flow based model
Conventional annuity and assets
Differentiating between effective and ineffective advice
And, more!
Todd also speaks of his book that outlines his three simple models one of which approaches the idea of how much money do you need to retire.
TIP OF THE WEEK
Mark: My tip of the week is become more and more educated, go to FinancialMentor.com. There is so much wisdom on that site.
Scott: Check out this link lingvanex.com, it’s a phone call translator basically, you can download this app, dial in, and literally have a phone conversation and they will convert your language to their language like you’re having a translator on the line.
Todd: Check out my website FinancialMentor.com, and in terms of the tip of the week: be weary; this is a bubble we are in right now with all these assets rising do not get caught up and just be prudent, do not be standing naked when the tight floats out.
Isn’t it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want and with whomever you want? | https://medium.com/@thelandgeek/an-excellent-approach-on-how-when-and-where-you-should-invest-7b6de899873 | ['Mark Podolsky'] | 2020-12-26 15:02:36.874000+00:00 | ['Passive Income', 'The Land Geek', 'Real Estate Investments', 'Financial Investments', 'Real Estate'] |
Hierarchical JSON and SQLite/RediSQL using JSON1 | RediSQL is compiled including the JSON1 SQLite extensions. Hence, all the functions documented in JSON1 are available out of the box.
JSON1 is extremely flexible and powerful, as an example consider a report table that track sales in a company by year, quarter and week.
> REDISQL.CREATE_DB DB
> REDISQL.EXEC DB "CREATE TABLE sales(year STRING, quarter STRING, week STRING, total INT);"
> REDISQL.EXEC DB "INSERT INTO sales VALUES('2019', 'q1', '1', 100);"
> REDISQL.EXEC DB "INSERT INTO sales VALUES('2019', 'q1', '2', 125);"
> REDISQL.EXEC DB "INSERT INTO sales VALUES('2019', 'q2', '1', 200);"
> REDISQL.EXEC DB "INSERT INTO sales VALUES('2019', 'q2', '2', 300);"
> REDISQL.EXEC DB "INSERT INTO sales VALUES('2020', 'q1', '1', 400);"
> REDISQL.EXEC DB "INSERT INTO sales VALUES('2020', 'q1', '2', 450);"
> REDISQL.EXEC DB "INSERT INTO sales VALUES('2020', 'q2', '1', 500);"
From this table we would like to generate a JSON report in the form:
{'2019':
{'q1': {'1': 100, '2': 125},
'q2': {'1': 200, '2': 300}},
'2020':
{'q1': {'1': 400, '2': 450},
'q2': {'1': 500}}}
This is not a trivial problem, because SQL generally does not like to return data in this format, just a string. However the JSON1 module is flexible enough and CTE provide us with enough expressing power.
Let’s see the final query first and then we will try to understand it piece by piece.
WITH quarters AS (
WITH weeks AS (
SELECT year, quarter, json_group_object(week, total) AS week_json
FROM sales
GROUP BY year, quarter
)
SELECT year, json_group_object(quarter, json(week_json)) AS quarters_json
FROM weeks
GROUP BY year
)
SELECT json_group_object(year, json(quarters_json))
FROM quarters;"
This returns exactly the single line we are looking for.
It seems a difficult query, but working on it piece by piece we can understand it quickly.
The WITH constructor simply create a "virtual table" valid for the execution of the query.
The simplest way to understand this query is going inside-out.
SELECT year, quarter, json_group_object(week, total) AS week_json
FROM sales
GROUP BY year, quarter
json_group_object is an aggreate query and it returns a JSON string with the week s as key and the total s as values.
> REDISQL.EXEC DB "SELECT year, quarter, json_group_object(week, total) AS week_json FROM sales GROUP BY year, quarter"
1) 1) (integer) 2019
2) "q1"
3) "{\"1\":100,\"2\":125}"
2) 1) (integer) 2019
2) "q2"
3) "{\"1\":200,\"2\":300}"
3) 1) (integer) 2020
2) "q1"
3) "{\"1\":400,\"2\":450}"
4) 1) (integer) 2020
2) "q2"
3) "{\"1\":500}"
In this way we are able to create a JSON document that express the total of sales for each week. We compres the week columns in a flat JSON document.
The next step is similar, for the year, we compress each quarter in a JSON document, the difficulties lays in maintaining the total of the weeks.
WITH weeks AS (
--- same query as above
SELECT year, quarter, json_group_object(week, total) AS week_json
FROM sales
GROUP BY year, quarter
)
SELECT year, json_group_object(quarter, json(week_json)) AS quarters_json
FROM weeks
GROUP BY year
We introduce the WITH statement. Using the WITH statement we treat the result of the query above as a new table that we can use in the later statement, the new table is called week . Note how we conveniently associate a name ( week_json ) to the result of the json_group_object aggregation. This is useful to manipulate that JSON object.
The rest of the query is very similar, we are compressing all the quarters into a flat JSON object.
> REDISQL.EXEC DB "WITH weeks AS ( SELECT year, quarter, json_group_object(week, total) AS week_json FROM sales GROUP BY year, quarter) SELECT year, json_group_object(quarter, json(week_json)) AS quarters_json FROM weeks GROUP BY year"
1) 1) (integer) 2019
2) "{\"q1\":{\"1\":100,\"2\":125},\"q2\":{\"1\":200,\"2\":300}}"
2) 1) (integer) 2020
2) "{\"q1\":{\"1\":400,\"2\":450},\"q2\":{\"1\":500}}"
This query provided us, for each year, a JSON hierarchical structure that map quarters and weeks tp total sales.
Now, we can guess the last step, compress the years into another hierarchical JSON structure.
This yield to the original query:
WITH quarters AS (
--- same query as above
WITH weeks AS (
SELECT year, quarter, json_group_object(week, total) AS week_json
FROM sales
GROUP BY year, quarter
)
SELECT year, json_group_object(quarter, json(week_json)) AS quarters_json
FROM weeks
GROUP BY year
)
SELECT json_group_object(year, json(quarters_json))
FROM quarters;"
And let’s see the result:
> REDISQL.EXEC DB "WITH quarters AS ( WITH weeks AS ( SELECT year, quarter, json_group_object(week, total) AS week_json FROM sales GROUP BY year, quarter ) SELECT year, json_group_object(quarter, json(week_json)) AS quarters_json FROM weeks GROUP BY year) SELECT json_group_object(year, json(quarters_json)) FROM quarters;" 1) 1) "{\"2019\":{\"q1\":{\"1\":100,\"2\":125},\"q2\":{\"1\":200,\"2\":300}},\"2020\":{\"q1\":{\"1\":400,\"2\":450},\"q2\":{\"1\":500}}}"
The last result is a hierarchical JSON structure where the years map to the quartes, the quarters map to the weeks and the weeks map to the sales. | https://medium.com/@simone_89362/hierarchical-json-and-sqlite-redisql-using-json1-9c9f49268d16 | ['Simone Mosciatti'] | 2020-01-14 20:41:26.518000+00:00 | ['Sqlite', 'Json', 'Database', 'Sql'] |
WAX Essentials: Technical Article Round-Up | Over the last few months, WAX has released updates on a variety of projects and accomplishments, such as the WAX Bounty Program, the 17th announcement of a new crypto-collectible that will be available on OPSkins.com and tradeable with WAX Tokens, and updates related to events and partnerships.
While we also continue to put out development updates related to the WAX Blockchain and the overall progress of our project, we wanted to take this opportunity to roundup some of the technical posts that we’ve published in the past. So whether you’ve been with us since the beginning and are looking to reacquaint yourself with the design aspects of WAX, or you’re brand new to the community and don’t know where to begin, we’ve got you covered.
We’ve rounded up five articles below that review some of our most meaningful technical topics: | https://medium.com/wax-io/wax-essentials-technical-article-round-up-bd396b9ca5f3 | ['Wax Io'] | 2018-06-12 17:13:56.402000+00:00 | ['Videogames', 'Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Technical Analysis', 'Blockchain'] |
Are All White People White Supremacists? | For many years, I was fine with my white friends, colleagues, and acquaintances simply inferring or even telling me they were non-racist.
That was enough proof for me, I didn’t need anything else, I believed them. But today, that is no longer enough.
I am increasingly taken aback by the number of people who endorse racist and even white supremacist views and ideology.
I realize that some people are in fact closet racist and white supremacists, hiding their real views on racism from the world. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing. | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/are-all-white-people-white-supremacists-5afe053b8f60 | ['Rebecca Stevens A.'] | 2020-10-21 02:34:17.004000+00:00 | ['White Supremacy', 'Racism', 'George Floyd', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Anti Racism'] |
Begin Again | I tell stories entangled in the ridges of my mind. My words will nourish your soul. Passionate about women, children, tea and a little “too” many other things.
Follow | https://medium.com/scribe/begin-again-78a3c2f7b4df | ['Uchechi Obasi'] | 2020-06-09 12:54:50.418000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Haiku', 'Scribe', 'Dating', 'Love'] |
Battling Cliché Overuse | Cliché overuse has me all bent out of shape. I’ve been complaining about it ‘till I’m blue in the face. No more. Been there, done that. I’m taking the gloves off.
Actions speak louder than words, so I plan to think outside the box and work my fingers to the bone to raise awareness of cliché overuse.
You may think I’m not playing with a full deck, or have a chip on my shoulder, but it’s better than a sharp stick in the eye.
And you might say I’m beating a dead horse, but if I can get even one person to stop overusing clichés, it will be worth it all.
Some people may call me a dreamer, or tell me to stop rocking the boat, but when the going gets tough, the tough get going.
And I plan to keep on keeping on, and go the extra mile, cause it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.
I won’t rest until I’ve taken the bull by the horns and shown him the door. All’s well that ends well. You can bank on it.
No need to thank me. It’s all in a day’s work. | https://medium.com/mark-starlin-writes/battling-clich%C3%A9-overuse-728821b75adb | ['Mark Starlin'] | 2019-01-13 20:27:12.407000+00:00 | ['Anger', 'Words', 'Life', 'Humor', 'Cliches'] |
The Coffee Shop | Amy and Jonathan grew up together in a suburb of Atlanta where they were teammates on the high school debate team. Without coordinating their decisions in any way — they both attended Emory University and graduated the same year — Amy with a degree in political science, and Jonathan in mechanical engineering. Jon entered the workforce, and Amy spent a few years in graduate school before doing the same.
After completing her studies, Amy moved to Nashville, and Jonathan — after stops on the East and West coasts, settled in a rural community outside of Phoenix in Arizona. They both have young families, with kids of similar ages.
While they had not seen one another for many years, they have “kept up” with each other’s family and other activities on Facebook, and are “linked” on LinkedIn as well. They both noticed over the last few years they didn’t necessarily agree on all political topics discussed in those forums, but weren’t willing to “unfriend” or “unfollow” one another as they were childhood friends who knew they in fact they shared a lot of common values.
Amy noted Jonathan, who has been very successful as an entrepreneur, mentioned he was presenting at a national engineering meeting in Nashville on one of his posts, and DM’d him to ask if he wanted to grab a coffee while he was in town.
He enthusiastically agreed.
A couple of days later Jonathan walked into the coffee shop where Amy suggested they meet and maneuvered between the other tightly packed small round tables filled with people to where she was standing. About half of the people in the coffee shop were wearing masks, including Amy as he approached.
She removed her mask, and gave him a hug. She then stepped back while holding his shoulders and exclaimed,“it’s SO good to see you Jon… and you somehow still look the same! What’s the damn secret?”
Jonathan laughed, “yeah, right…. I may look the same way I looked yesterday, but not like when we were in college, that’s for sure,” He pointed at his temple, “and I’ve got a few grays… and a more than a few extra pounds to prove it!”
They sat down, and a waitress who had been patiently standing by gently placed two cups of coffee, and napkins printed with the coffee shop’s colorful logo on the table in front of each of them.
“Anything else?”, she asked, smiling.
“I think this is great for now,” Amy replied.
“I assumed you still drink coffee…. I went ahead and ordered a cup for you.” Amy said, turning back to Jonathan.
“Absolutely.., totally addicted to caffeine, maybe my most exciting vice at this stage of life, unfortunately”, Jon sighed, smiling. They both picked up their cups and sipped.
“Crazy times,” Amy murmured as she nervously moved the paper napkin back and forth in front of her, and set her cup back down on the table. She then looked up and asked, “have you and your family been able to mostly avoid the ‘scourge’?”
Jonathan set his cup back down as well, the smile leaving his face. “If you mean have we avoided getting COVID… no, not entirely. My father got sick with it last June. He spent about six weeks in the hospital and eventually died in the ICU. It was terrible. He was only 66… a little overweight with some diabetes… and he probably didn’t have his high blood pressure under control. My mother was crushed, they were really just starting to enjoy retirement. She said goodbye to him on a freaking Ipad.”
“I’m so sorry, Jon”.
“Yeah, it sucks, but we obviously aren’t alone”.
“Thank God for the vaccine, huh?” Amy said, shaking her head.
“I guess,” Jonathan replied, “but I certainly haven’t agreed to take that crap. No freaking way.”
Surprised by his response, and not thinking about where the question might lead, Amy leaned forward and exclaimed, “you’re kidding… why not!?”
They both sat motionless for long moment, staring tentatively at one another. The sound of muted conversation, silverware clinking on ceramic plates and cups and the “whoosh” of the espresso machine manned by the barista across the room filing the silence.
“It’s complicated”, he replied, “but at its most basic — I prefer to make up my own mind.”
“Is there a medical reason?”, Amy asked, “or something else?”
Jonathan’s face darkened. He pushed his coffee cup forward on the table abruptly — hard enough to slosh some of the hot fluid onto the table. He slumped back in his chair and shoved his hands into the pockets of the worn tweed jacket he was wearing. “No”, he replied sharply, “and like I said, I prefer to make up my own mind. As far as I know, I have the freedom to think whatever I want, and decide whatever I want, about whatever I want.” He went on, “I just think it’s a bad idea. I’ve done my research. A lot of it. In my opinion, it’s not safe — lots of people have been killed by this damn thing. And who knows what Fauci and his cronies are doing here, really? Do you? I am about half-convinced this is some ‘big reset’ effort or something. I’m just not buying it.”
Amy listened intently, without changing her expression, still leaning forward. She sat back, picked up her coffee cup and took another sip. She looked away for a moment, her lips pulled tense and flat. She then looked back and replied, “You know I teach. So, I obviously believe the ability to think on your own and make up your own mind is important. Really important.”
His face still dark and his hands still shoved into his jacket pockets, Jonathan replied, “that’s right.”
Amy went on, completing her thought, “but I also believe what informs the way you think is important. Opinions are great, but facts and training are different.” She hesitated, “I have a question for you. If you were really sick, would you go to a hospital where the people caring for you weren’t doctors armed with facts — as they are admittedly best understood at that moment in time by virtue of the work of scientists and other doctors — and training, or would you go to one where there were people like you and me — using opinions and things they had researched online to treat you?”
Jonathan laughed, “of course I would go to a hospital with doctors… that’s ridiculous.” He went on — no longer laughing, “okay, I sort of get your point, but that doesn’t change the fact this damn thing is dangerous. Its killing people. Lots of them. Why would someone take that risk? The risk of dying from this goddamn Fauci vaccine is higher than if you get infected!”
Amy pursed her lips, and took a deep breath. “I don’t believe that’s true, Jon. My aunt called me a month ago and asked me whether or not she should take the vaccine, and said something similar. I looked up the statistics on the CDC website so I could give her some advice, and as it turns out, your risk of dying from COVID-19 vaccination is really, really low. About 7000 people have died following vaccination out of hundreds of millions vaccinated, and a lot of those deaths were likely not related to the vaccine, as doctors have to report deaths after vaccination even if they don’t know the vaccine caused it. Based on the number of vaccines delivered, that works out to something like 0.0020 percent chance even if you don’t adjust the number at all for coincidental causes. The average risk of dying of COVID-19 at our age — in our thirties — if we get infected, while low, is at least 100 times higher than from vaccination. This doesn’t even consider what they are now calling that “Long COVID” thing, which evidently can effect about one fourth of everyone who gets infected if they aren’t vaccinated as well. I have a friend who has this — she is incapacitated by headaches and she can’t think straight enough to do her job any more. My guess is you know someone who has this as well.”
He replied quietly, “yeah. I do — two of my employees…”. But what about this ‘messenger RNA’ thing, though… what the hell is that?”, Jonathan implored, “you put that stuff into your body without knowing that it’s doing to you? Some say that it can change your DNA. I mean c’mon, really!?”
Amy quickly responded, “the vast majority of scientists around the world and doctors say that it’s safe, and it doesn’t do anything to your body other than allow it to create an immune response. They say it basically dissolves after it does that work. The WHO, the CDC, all the recognized experts say this. When I asked my own doctor some of these things, he actually laughed.”
Jonathan stared at her, brooding. “First of all, it’s not a laughing matter, and furthermore I don’t believe most of those guys, and certainly don’t believe everything the WHO or CDC says — they’re all more or less run by liberals, or people who have other agendas.”
“That’s obviously your prerogative, but I don’t believe the science they quote is affected by politics, or anyting else for that matter. There are just as many conservative scientists and doctors saying this as those you would call liberal” Amy replied, fighting back her desire to utter a number of other, more divisive responses, “there are admittedly some doctors that disagree, but it seems a lot of those are either not really doctors, aren’t trained in the area of infectious disease or epidemiology, or at times… just may be a little crazy.”
“Maybe, but I’ll tell you what I think is crazy… As it turns out, none of this really matters, because even if I did believe you — the shots don’t work anyway,” Jonathan mumbled looking down at his lap, purposefully loud enough for Amy to hear. He then looked up, shaking his head, “vaccinated people are getting infected, so what’s the point? Since that’s true, there’s no point for any of this nonsense.”
Amy took in another deep breath, and replied, “you remember my brother Paul went to medical school, right? He’s a pediatrician in Omaha.”
“Yeah”, Jonathan replied, “but that doesn’t make you a doctor, or him an expert on anything.”
“Right,” she said, “but pediatricians give a lot of vaccines. When the first breakthrough infections were reported, I was panicked. Our mom got chemotherapy two years ago for her breast cancer, and I was super worried about her even though she got in line early to be vaccinated. I called him and he told me she could still get infected, because vaccines are actually not designed to eliminate that risk. They are designed to lower that risk, and lower even more your risk of dying if you do end up being infected. He said we have known this for almost 200 years, and pointed me at some more information from the CDC and other well-known scientific organizations. It looks as if the vaccine lowers your risk of infection alone by something like ten times, and your risk of dying even more than that if you are infected. If you add those two numbers up, then your risk of dying from COVID if you are vaccinated are remote. Haven’t you seen the reports of about 90 percent of patients hospitalized and dying now of the Delta variant are unvaccinated? Do you think all those hospitals are lying?”
Jonathan first glowered, and then surprisingly, chuckled, “whatever… let’s assume ALL of those things are true, even though I certainly don’t believe them. What this all boils down to, actually — and you know it — is freedom. Freedom to do what I and people like me want, freedom to make our own decisions, freedom to decide if our kids have a wear a mask at school, and to decide then whether or not we want to put something into my own bodies. Freedom is what made this country great in the past, and is what underpins not only American democracy — but democracy everywhere. It’s what people yearn for, and it is what a lot of Americans braver than you have died for. You can put up all sorts of questionable scientific information, but this particular point is simply not debatable.” He hesitated for effect, shrugged his shoulders, pointed his finger at Amy’s face and said, “you know it, and you know even if you can argue with the scientific and medical stuff, you just can’t get around this point.”
Amy sat back, seemingly deflated by Jonathan’s comments.
“It’s interesting,” she replied as she looked down at the table, “I am indeed not a doctor, or a scientist, but you know I did get a graduate degree in political science, and my thesis, as it turns out, was based on the concepts of freedom and liberty in early American thought. I actually still teach a course at the local community college on this topic on the weekends — in part to be honest to avoid having go to all of my son’s soccer games,” she laughed. “And for a number of perhaps obvious reasons related to your comments — I’ve been thinking about these things a lot lately.”
Jonathan sat, still leaning back with his arms now crossed, listening — with a slight smirk on his face. “I can’t wait for you to enlighten me then.”
Amy began, now looking up at Jonathan again, “As it turns out, most of us are confused about the concepts of freedom vs. liberty. The founding fathers actually talked a lot about liberty, and how freedom related to it. They are in fact, not the same thing. You can’t actually even have freedom without liberty.”
“Seems to me as if they are the same — they both basically mean freedom to what you believe is right in a free state,” Jonathan said, a twinge of sarcasm in his voice, his arms still crossed.
“Yeah.., I understand,” said Amy, “and a lot of my students say that as well at the beginning of my course, but it is actually a little more nuanced.” She went on, “while the term freedom means ‘the right to act, speak, or think as one wants without restraint’, the term liberty, which the founding fathers talked a lot about, means ‘freedom from arbitrary authority’. They’re not the same, and as it turns out, freedom is obviously then dependent on liberty. There are always restraints on what we can do, but the restraints should make sense.”
“What do you mean?” Jonathan asked.
“It’s actually simple, what we want as Americans, and what the founding fathers really wanted for us was unfettered liberty, not unfettered freedom. They wanted to ensure the ‘authority’ of the government was never arbitrary — meaning the mandates and dictums — those that unavoidably come from governments — needed to be based on reason, and not on personal or political whim. We acquiesce to government authority all the time, especially if we feel it isn’t arbitrary.”
She stopped for a minute and took another sip of coffee, scrunching up her nose at the fact it had now grown cold, “if you drive your car the speed limit, and if you agree to vaccinate your kids for childhood diseases as a condition to enter school each year, or if you agree not to kill your neighbor for no good reason, you are bowing to authority. The thing is, we have agreed the laws and mandates related to these things are reasonable. Absolute freedom? In that situation, you could drive your car any speed you want, refuse to vaccinate your kids and shoot your neighbor in the head if his sprinkler got your grass wet. You can’t avoid mandates and laws — creating them and enforcing them is a part of what governments are supposed to do. What you can and should work very hard to avoid is arbitrary authority, and what we really want rather than absolute freedom — is absolute liberty.”
She hesitated, waiting for Jonathan to respond. When he continued to appear to be listening, she went on, “when Benjamin Franklin said, ‘they who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security”, he used the word liberty on purpose — not freedom. He knew some essential freedoms would always be given up in the name of security. We do it all the time. Society doesn’t work otherwise. Thomas Jefferson said, ‘rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will, within the limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others’. If you drive two hundred miles an hour, send your kids to school with the measles or start shooting up your neighborhood, you are not only blowing past the equal rights of others, you are threatening their lives. And if you are able to walk around infected with a virus because you are exercising your freedom to choose not to try to prevent that with a vaccination or other means — things I have suggested tactfully over the past half hour are actually not arbitrary — that violates my rights and those of my family, and threatens our lives. It also threatens our way of life… the economy.., and if scientists of both parties are right about the fact this virus could mutate into a form that avoids vaccines and also possibly one more deadly and therefore capable of killing off a large percentage of the people in the world — that’s something that threatens our entire civilization.
“Unfettered freedoms always impinge on the freedoms of others, Jon.”
She put the coffee cup back down on the table she had been holding in both of her hands in front of her face, and put her hands palm down on the table, “ I desperately want you and I to live in a country that views liberty as its most cherished ideal, but I do not want to live here with you if you feel you have the right to any freedom you want. It just doesn’t work.”
Jonathan sat silent for several seconds with the sound of utensils banging on ceramic, others conversing in low tones around them in the coffee shop and the sounds of the espresso machine again filling the silence between he and Amy. He then replied, earnestly, “do kids in Arizona actually have to be vaccinated to start school each year? My wife keeps up… with that stuff… not me.”
“Feel free to take the liberty to look it up, Jon” Amy replied. | https://medium.com/@drroysmythe/the-coffee-shop-8420b4627c1a | ['Roy Smythe'] | 2021-09-13 18:47:24.058000+00:00 | ['Friendship', 'Misinformation', 'Covid 19', 'Freedom', 'Liberty'] |
YEARNSTACK a platform where anyone can join and earn by there their own choice and experience a… | YEARNSTACK a platform where anyone can join and earn by there their own choice and experience a single platform with multiple usages. YSFI is based on an old ERC20 smart contract with improved technology which is truly a cutting edge technology.
What is YSFI?
A platform with “Stacking”, “Landing”, “Farming”, “Swapping”, and “Trading” facilities with utilities like “Gaming” and “Reward System”. A chance of earning for everyone in their favourite domain.
Not only based on product by YFSI also interested in Developer and Marketing area, High rewards for all freelancers who help us to grow our family. A simple but straight reward system.
Why we need DeFi?
It is a Decentralized Finance and new for common people but old for businessmen, A simple process where borrower and lander are doing their business but they are not working like the conventional methods. A smart contract is working as a mediator and as we know every smart contract builds on ERC20 is the most secured compare to our traditional money management system.
Tell us more about YFSI.
The way things are, the DeFi environment is incredibly divided. Despite clients needing to locate the best rates among all conventions, they have to get to each convention independently. This prompts helpless client usefulness and botched chances.
Notwithstanding, an incredibly divided EcoSystem is not out of the ordinary given that DeFi is at present in a beginning phase of advancement. Nonetheless, as ventures develop, super applications rise that combine the main administrations and give another degree of client usefulness.
For example, today, Telegram is an application that has submerged itself in each layer of society. It is utilized by world residents to cause installments, to send messages, flag down taxis, use applications, and to get to web-based media. Super applications in the account business, for example, Revolut have been quickly expanding in utilization and prominence. On the head of a magnificent plan, Revolut permits clients to cause stores, to put resources into stocks, and even increase crypto presentation.
YearnStack will be the primary super application for the DeFi space. It will join admittance to loaning, exchanging, and marking into one application. The UI will be intended to boost navigational effectiveness promoting consistent client experience. Whatever a client needs to execute in the DeFi space will be a couple of clicks away.
YearnStack will likewise give novel highlights to clients which will incorporate a P2P credit commercial center, the capacity to make loaning pools, and yield cultivating openings. Clients will have the option to effortlessly move their benefit introduction starting with one position then onto the next.
The accompanying areas detail the YearnStack modules and pinpoint the current issues which the super application is tending to.
Incorporate a synopsis of the rest of the areas which are tended to in list items
Stacking life-cycle
To get a better understanding of protocol workflow, let us consider a life-cycle of contract from beginning to execution.
1. Alice wants to stack 1 ETH. To do that, she needs to deposit 1 ETH into the smart contract (ESC), as YearnStack requires a YSFI to stack on the platform
2. Once deposited, her funds are locked. She can withdraw them after 48hrs to her normal wallet only after the system confirms that.
3. Alice can start earning once she stacked YSFI and the daily interest rate is 0.75%.
4. Alice might see complete details on the dashboard in CTD.
5. Every record is recorded in CTD and for the ledger, you can check “etehrscan.io”.
6. CTD is a complete application with “Stack” “Unstack” and “Claim” option.
7. By clicking on “Claim” or “Unstack” YSFI will be moved to Alice’s wallet directly from the smart contract.
8. Now Alice has her fund and she is the only owner of the fund which is in CTD.
Tokenomics
Total Supply:- 50,000 YSFI
Circulating Supply:- 9,000 YSFI
Fixed Stacking:- 20,000 YSFI
Reserved Supply:- 4,800 YSFI
Locked Supply:- 4,000 YSFI (9 months)
Marketing Supply:- 5,200 YSFI (12 months)
Developer Supply:- 2,000 YSFI (12 months)
AirDrop:- 5,000 YSFI
What is the future plan?
“Gamming”, “Insurance”, “Landing” are some features that we will launch in the future but our main interest is “BlockChain” where anyone starts their work as a developer or use blockchain for service.
Blockchain as a Service is our main goal and we are working for it but we need more people to join us and with the help of them we can make this world a better place for everyone.
Thank You. | https://medium.com/@tradingsexpert/yearnstack-a-platform-where-anyone-can-join-and-earn-by-there-their-own-choice-and-experience-a-87989181b039 | ['Tradings Expert'] | 2020-10-25 09:58:54.617000+00:00 | ['Defi', 'Blockchain Startup', 'Yfdai', 'Blockchain Development', 'Erc20'] |
The Struggle to be Supportive of a Culture | The Struggle to be Supportive of a Culture
Photo by Arie Wubben on Unsplash
This past week, the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in the state of Idaho was vandalized. The symbol used by the Nazis — known to many as the “swastika” — was printed on stickers along with the phrase, “We Are Everywhere.”
The incident was reported by the Idaho Press, the Jewish Herald-Voice, NBC, NPR, Brazil 247, among others. Whether the term “Nazi propaganda” or “swastika” was used, the messaging was clear to the so-called “Western World.”
But is it a swastika?
Yes and no.
The symbol has been around for thousands of years and used by different cultures. The symbol therefore means something different to different people. This idea can be understood in the lecture scene from the popular movie “The Da Vinci Code.”
Following the vandalism incident, social media influencer and Jewish woman Roxy Striar used the word “swastika” during her condemnation of the act. And then two missteps happened due to cultural differences and a lack of combining empathy with a teachable moment.
First, instead of showing empathy, some on social media preferred to point out that “swastika” is the wrong term. This is technically accurate from historical and certain cultural perspectives. However, it doesn’t change the fact that the use of the symbol was targeted at a specific culture — Jewish people.
Secondly, in reaction to the seemingly outright dismissal of this targeted vandalism, Striar made a statement that everyone should just stop using this symbol. This obviously is an overreach, and it inflamed the situation. However, it would be a legitimate request for Striar to say, “This symbol offends me and I don’t want to see it anywhere.”
Social media can be a wonderful place to learn about other cultures, but it can also give power to racism, bigotry, classism, xenophobia and other forms of hatred. It can be difficult to say, “I’m sorry this happened. I’m sorry you are hurt. When you have a moment to breathe, I’d like to talk to you some more about the context of the situation.”
It is wonderful to see Kamala Harris become representative of so many underrepresented cultures in the United States. At the same time, there has been a resurgence of Nazis and antisemitism.
We can celebrate the good while condemning evil. We can “code switch” when communicating with different groups to send the same message. We can enjoy something seemingly wonderful in our own lives while understanding that it may hurt others in theirs.
Technology is wonderful, but it doesn’t always allow us to sit with another human being, break bread, and have a deep, civil conversation about culture. | https://medium.com/not-all-there-publication/the-struggle-to-be-supportive-of-a-culture-d1857d327db4 | ['Jeff Ehren'] | 2020-12-13 16:32:16.886000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Empathy', 'Social Media', 'Swastika', 'Perspective'] |
Ottimmo Bao Bao Cafe Review | Check out These Buns! | Ottimmo Bao Bao is a Japanese influenced cafe located in Uxbridge, London. I am an absolute sucker for Japanese food. I view Japanese food as a carefully crafted art as there is often a lot of care and love that is put into Japanese food. But it is always extremely pricey — especially in London! So when I discovered this cutesy, adorable and decently priced cafe I was over the moon.
With most Japanese restaurants, they generally specialise in food such as; bento boxes, donburi, sashimi and sushi. However, strangely there is none of that here! This cafe specialises in light, fluffy and glorious buns with the occasional noodle and soup dishes. Therefore it has more of a Japanese fusion type of theme as opposed to serving authentic Japanese food. But even finding somewhere with a Japanese twist was enlightening for me!
This place also serve buns in such a versatile way, there are even dessert bao buns on the menu! Curiosity sure did kill the cat as I initially thought, “How can the same type of buns be used for desert?!”. So, it is time to check out these buns and see how they match up (pun intended).
Ottimmo Bao Bao Cafe Environment & Atmosphere
A cute hand-crafted menu with Christmas decorations and a cosy ambience.
This cafe is generally very small yet spacious. It is located in a very warm, cosy and small village located in Uxbridge. The building shares the same visual characteristics as the village such as the low beamed ceilings and the rustic bare-bricked interior. Also, this place never has crowds or gets extremely busy. So this is the perfect place to enjoy a peaceful spot of lunch and a nice coffee.
Duck & Plum Bun with Edamame Salad: 6/10
The salads are extremely fresh here and the dressing is out of this world. The buns are also very light fluffy and airy. The plum sauce is perfectly balanced in terms of flavour . The salad has a very nice crunch and sharp flavour (like a sweet, oriental vinaigrette). But there is one very huge downside — the buns go soggy from the sauce from the filling! This ruins the overall quality of the buns. Although the duck has a nice flavour, it is quite dry this time around.
They serve a range of fillings such as salt and pepper squid, chicken katsu and crispy oyster mushroom. The portions are a little small, but this is a one off and order error. The buns usually come with salad and a portion of sweet potato fries as a meal. To place an order you need to tick on the menu, we accidentally ordered the food separately. So make sure that you get the full package!
Miso Soup with Udon Noodles & Duck: 7/10
I love the soups from Ottimmo. The miso soup was mild yet well balanced in terms of flavour. But this time the duck in the soup also seemed overcooked and dry. However, what gives the soup most of its points is the fresh udon noodles. Believe me, you can tell when noodles are fresh. Because once you do, you’ll never return to packet ones again!
Deep Fried Bun with Matcha Ice Cream & Red Bean Paste: 10/10
At first I thought it was a little strange having buns on the menu for dessert. But it does work well! The deep fried buns worked so perfectly as they resemble the taste of hot, fresh doughnuts. You know, the nostalgic fun fair type! The red bean paste is extremely sweet, yet the matcha ice cream is very cooling which both work perfectly together.
Final Verdict
For the price, the food at Ottimmo is generally good despite the buns occasionally going soggy. This is the perfect place for a small snack or a relaxing lunch. I would highly recommend as it is great value for money, especially for Japanese food in London. I hope that you have enjoyed my review, I’d love to hear your opinions and other hidden foodie gems that you all have discovered. Feel free to drop a comment below!
View the original article at: https://www.amyjanetravels.co.uk/2019/01/07/ottimmo-bao-bao-cafe-review/ | https://medium.com/@amyjanecheong/ottimmo-bao-bao-cafe-review-check-out-these-buns-fcd617ed9d1f | ['Amy Jane Cheong', 'Writer', 'Social Media Manager'] | 2020-02-25 16:27:35.486000+00:00 | ['Foodies', 'Food', 'Japanese Food', 'Food And Drink', 'Japanese'] |
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 can now access the latest One UI 4.0 beta | Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 can now access the latest One UI 4.0 beta Bianca Patrick Nov 23, 2021·2 min read
Samsung has been testing the One UI 4.0 beta for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 in select areas for a few weeks now. As a result, owners of Samsung’s latest foldables can now enjoy Android 12 One UI 4.0.
For the devices, the beta program is going well. The latest One UI 4.0 beta for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 has been released by Samsung. This indicates that the final version of the update may be available soon for these devices.
One UI 4.0 Beta
The ZUKG build is the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3’s third One UI 4.0 beta upgrade. It is currently being rolled out to users in South Korea. This release provides several enhancements, according to the changelog. A few bugs have also been addressed. Users will be able to easily carry out tasks such as remove contacts with this new update.
It’s worth mentioning that South Korea isn’t the only nation where Samsung’s new foldable phones can participate in the beta. It was recently made available to users in the United States by the corporation. However, the procedure for joining the beta remains the same.
Samsung has already issued the One UI 4.0 Android 12 upgrade for the Galaxy S21 series to the general public. The first lineup to receive the upgrade is this one. Other high-end Samsung handsets should receive the final One UI 4.0 update before the year’s conclusion. | https://medium.com/@zainabasad/samsung-galaxy-z-fold-3-and-z-flip-3-can-now-access-the-latest-one-ui-4-0-beta-eeac46dabf0e | ['Bianca Patrick'] | 2021-11-23 11:44:42.842000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Technews', 'Samsung', 'One Ui', 'Foldable Phone'] |
Debugging Psychology, Strategy & Techniques— Lessons From “The Pragmatic Programmer” Part 2 | Photo by Zura Narimanishvili on Unsplash
This is the second part of our series: Lessons From The Pragmatic Programmer which we started by discussing disorder in software development and how to manage it. If you haven’t already, please consider reading the article here.
Introduction
We put a great deal of attention into implementing features correctly from the start, but writing flawless software is pretty much impossible. Many issues of all kinds will appear unexpectedly during the development lifecycle, sometimes requiring considerable time and effort to fix. Learning how to deal with these problems efficiently is a big part of our growth as software developers. But before getting into that, let’s run it back …
In 1947, a moth flew into a Mark II computer at Harvard University, causing a hardware failure. After a failed hardware test, it was caught and taped onto a paper report, labeled the “first actual case of bug being found”¹.
Snippet from “Log Book With Computer Bug” (National Museum of American History)
Since then, unexpected issues in computer systems are referred to as bugs.
What is Debugging?
Debugging refers to the practice of finding and understanding bugs with the intent of fixing them.
Everyone struggles with the debugging process to some capacity. This is because the mental approach and techniques it requires are difficult to master, and are often not properly taught (if at all) as part of software development training programs.
I hope that the ideas and tips shared in this article, make our debugging approach more pragmatic and, in consequence, more efficient.
Debugging Psychology
Bugs in our systems mean that we’ve committed mistakes during the development or integration of some features. Being faced with this reality through an ugly crash log, a tester’s report or a client’s negative feedback all invoke negative feelings.
To develop a stronger and healthier mindset towards debugging, let’s go over a couple of points.
1) Dealing with Feelings of Shame and Blame:
A filthy bug has revealed itself. One of these two thoughts may pop into our heads: “Who’s the nasty fellow behind this crime?” or “If this my doing, I’m toast!”.
Having these feelings of disappointment or denial is not the end of the world, but it sure won’t get us any close to solving the issue.
TIP: Fix the Problem, Not the Blame.
Debugging is not a criminal investigation, it’s problem-solving. Whether or not the bug is our fault, it becomes everybody’s problem as soon as it’s discovered, and fixing it requires our full concentration and collaboration. It’s also important to remember that finding an issue in our code does not diminish its quality or discredit the effort put into writing it.
2) Controlling the Panic:
When it’s debugging time, it’s easy to get into a panic, especially while under pressure. Needless to say, this can stand in the way of finding a solution. The tip, here, is really simple.
TIP: Don’t Panic.
Well, “Easier said than done”, right? But, just remembering this can help us take a step back, slow down our thoughts, then calmly and methodically search for the error. Controlling the panic could be the key to resolving the situation in the shortest time. As they say: “Go slow to go fast”.
Debugging Strategy
In addition to steering our thoughts and focus towards objective and productive directions, it helps to follow certain strategies while tackling the debugging task.
1) The Elimination Process:
Oftentimes, our systems are composed not only of code written by our team but third-party libraries and products. All these different components are, naturally, debugging targets.
Unfortunately, the search may not get us anywhere after a while, or we may be extremely confident in our code and can’t bring ourselves to doubt it. The book’s authors share a story that’s very relevant for such situations.
A senior engineer was dealing with a bug in one of his projects, so he claimed that the select system call was broken on the Unix system they were using. His peers tried their hardest to convince him that the system call can’t be the root of the issue, but he firmly stood his ground.
After weeks of failed attempts at implementing workarounds (that are based on this claim), the engineer was forced to take a step back and just review the documentation of select . It was, then, only a matter of minutes before he understood and corrected the problem.
TIP: ‘select’ Isn’t Broken.
Our code or process being broken is significantly more likely than the language being flawed, the library being broken, or the hardware being defective.
Before doubting external dependencies, it’s much more profitable to intensely debug our own code before anything else. Debugging can, thus, be approached as a process of elimination. Once we’re very sure that our code isn’t faulty, we can start looking at the library and beyond.
2) Using The Time Machine:
While searching for a bug, we tend to just move around the codebase in space, looking at different modules, functions, that is.
But when inspecting the solution at its current state doesn’t reveal the root of the problem, it’s a good strategy to move around the codebase in time, checking earlier versions to see if the issue can be reproduced there. This can be thought of as an extension of the process by elimination (described in the previous sub-section) to the time dimension.
In a lot of cases, checking a couple of the most recent previous versions can be enough, but in other cases, the issue could be caused by changes in much older versions. And so to avoid searching for the issue linearly, source code control systems support dichotomic search across the tracked versions. Git, for instance, provides the command git bisect for this purpose.
TIP: Always Use Source Code Control.
It’s never a bad time to share that tip …
3) Software Bugs and The Pareto Distribution:
The Pareto Principle², also known as the 80/20 rule is an aphorism stating that, for most events, roughly 80% of the consequences come from roughly 20% of the causes.
This principle is very prevalent in the software world, and understanding it can help us optimize our debugging process. Here are a few relevant 80/20 observations³:
80% of the complexity comes from 20% of the codebase (or features).
80% of the bugs come from 20% of the codebase.
80% of the development time is spent on 20% of the codebase (this can be thought of as a consequence of the first two).
The key takeaways from these observations are:
We can limit both the number and the severity of bugs by focusing on the most complex 20% of the codebase in terms of rigorous review and testing.
in terms of rigorous review and testing. When issues inevitably manifest in our systems, it pays off to focus on that 20% of the codebase while searching for the root of the problem.
Debugging Techniques
Now for the nitty-gritty of debugging, it comes down to using any type of method to validate our assumptions about the bug. These include:
Printf Debugging:
Also called “tracing”, it’s the technique of logging messages or expressions to an output. It’s simple to implement but it’s slow as it requires many iterations.
IDE Debugging:
It’s the use of debugging features provided by modern IDEs (e.g. Visual Studio, Eclipse, PyCharm). IDE debugging is centered around the use of breakpoints which are marked lines of code that, once reached, interrupt the program execution, and we can examine it at that state using different features such as:
Variable Inspection : by hovering over the identifier of any variable (including nested objects) in the editor, its value is revealed. Depending on the debugger and the programming language, extra information is often displayed as well (e.g. registers, call stack, i/o).
: by hovering over the identifier of any variable (including nested objects) in the editor, its value is revealed. Depending on the debugger and the programming language, extra information is often displayed as well (e.g. registers, call stack, i/o). Expression Evaluation: to check the value of something that’s not directly identifiable in the code (as a variable), it’s possible to evaluate expressions and run statements at the current state of the program using a debug console.
IDE Debugging with Visual Studio Code Example
Both methods (which can be seen in the example screenshot above) provide significant flexibility and time gains compared to printf debugging, but they‘re difficult to carry out in all environments (e.g. production).
Rubber Duck Debugging:
The story behind this, now very popular, technique is that David Thomas (one of the writers of “The Pragmatic Programmer”) noticed Greg Pugh, one of his very skilled coworkers, carrying around a rubber duck that would sit near his keyboard as he worked. After a few months, Dave had enough courage to ask.
Photo by S. Tsuchiya on Unsplash
The rubber duck was a substitute for another person to whom he would explain the code line by line while debugging. From experience, we all know that explaining something to someone else step by step not only helps us understand it better, but also helps us catch mistakes that we hadn’t noticed before. Because it’s hard to have another person accompany us during every debugging session, a cute little rubber duck can do.
Asking for Help
When we fail to find and solve a problem on our own, it’s time to ask for help. But, just like debugging, asking for help efficiently requires some strategy and technique.
When to Ask:
First and foremost, we should avoid requesting assistance hastily or tardily. On one hand, not spending enough time exploring the issue on our own means we can’t provide a lot of useful information when we ask people to assist us. On the other hand, waiting too long (without getting close to resolving the issue) before asking for help means the development process will be held up, or even worse, a live system will remain down for an extended period of time.
Whom to Ask:
Second, it’s important to develop a relatively wide support network that we can turn to for help. This network should include:
Members of our team: Naturally, they are the first target for our requests. Over time, interacting with our peers and learning about their skills can help us know who to ask in certain situations (especially in large teams). Tech Support: If our peers are unable to resolve the issue, we can look to submit a ticket to a support desk in case we’re using a supported product or a service. Online Communities: As a last option, it’s always possible to ask in online communities (e.g. Slack servers, Forum sites, IRC rooms), both general-purpose communities (e.g. StackExchange sites, Quora) and are specialized ones (which exist for virtually any technology).
How to ask:
Finally, knowing how to write the request and what information to provide is critical to getting help quickly and without troubling others too much.
The question should be framed politely and carefully, and should contain the following items if applicable:
Descriptive Title: The title of the post or email provides a very short description of the problem. It should be enough for someone to know whether or not they can help us. Problem Summary: Placed at the start of the message body, the problem summary develops what we mentioned in the title. It should highlight the expected behavior versus the actual (undesired) behavior of the system. Error Logs: Well-formatted text and not screenshots (which force people to type the potentially long messages in their search bar). Environment Details: Operating system, language, framework, and library versions. Reproduction Steps and a Minimal, Reproducible Example: A list of actions (usually command-line instructions) that can reproduce the issue as well as some code that other people can use to easily reproduce the issue, if possible. Creating a minimal, reproducible example⁴ may require a lot of time and effort, but it makes it easier for other people to understand the problem and provide a solution much faster than they would have otherwise (if at all). Attempts to Diagnose or Fix: The actions that we already tried to solve the problem.
Summary
Debugging is a big part of our line of work as software developers. Cultivating a positive mindset towards it as well as utilizing pragmatic strategies and proven techniques to approach it are key.
The ability to find and resolve bugs efficiently relies not only on our mental and technical abilities but also on the quality of our communication with our teammates, partners, and fellow software community members.
Links
[1] National Museum of American History — Log Book With Computer Bug
https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_334663
[2] Investopedia — The 80–20 Rule
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/1/80-20-rule.asp
[3] Project Ricochet — The Pareto Principle, and the 80% solution
https://projectricochet.com/blog/software-development-pareto-principle-and-80-solution
[4] StackOverflow — How to create a Minimal, Reproducible Example
https://stackoverflow.com/help/minimal-reproducible-example | https://medium.com/codex/debugging-psychology-strategy-techniques-lessons-from-the-pragmatic-programmer-part-2-e818aed0f589 | ['Ashraf Guitouni'] | 2021-09-13 00:54:18.355000+00:00 | ['Pareto Principle', 'Software Development', 'Software Engineering', 'Strategy', 'Debugging'] |
Passive Income and Cryptocurrency: 3 Easy Ways to Make Money. LATOKEN Review | Passive Income and Cryptocurrency: 3 Easy Ways to Make Money. LATOKEN Review LATOKEN Aug 25·4 min read
Here’s our new LATOKEN review where we want to talk about something that really matters — passive income.
Buying and selling digital assets is far from the only way to make money when dealing with crypto. LATOKEN cares about its users, traders, and crypto enthusiasts. Therefore, it is essential to stay up to date and do your research. Read our LATOKEN review — let’s try to find out how to diversify your portfolio and get more profit.
Over the past month, Bitcoin has finally risen in price by 1.5 times. The Bitcoin price on August 23 for the first time exceeded $50 thousand since mid-May. Traders and investors who bought Bitcoin at $30 thousand per coin in May, June, and July have already gotten almost 67% of the profit. But buying cryptocurrency isn’t the only way to make money with digital assets.
About crypto lending. What is it?
Cryptos have long been heralded as the future of finance, but it wasn’t until 2020 and 2021 that it caught on to a fantastic idea: making money with money.
The emergence of cryptocurrencies has significantly expanded earning opportunities and provided many new ways to increase capital. One of the most significant is crypto lending. With a thoughtful approach, lending might bring more than 350% per annum, which is a relatively high earning yield.
Crypto lending is a form of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) where traders lend cryptocurrencies to borrowers in exchange for interest payments. Crypto lending platforms usually accept cryptos, coins, and stablecoins.
It should be noted that making money with crypto lending is considered high-risk. Still, a promising high income in a positive scenario can fully offset the risk. At the same time, do not forget about cold math. If you chase easy profits without thinking about everything thoroughly, you can be left without income and lose your invested capital.
LATOKEN cares about its users and more than once touched upon the topic of safety when dealing with crypto. You should be especially careful about crypto scams and avoid becoming a victim of such fraud.
LATOKEN review on crypto staking
Staking is a way of passive earnings in which users store coins on the Proof of Stake (PoS) algorithm, ensuring blockchain performance. It gives the holders the right to profit. This option is only available to cryptocurrencies that run on PoS, such as EOS, Tezos, TRON, Cosmos, etc.
The point of staking is to ensure all operations on the blockchain and support the network. For this, holders of digital coins are rewarded. The more tokens a holder has, the more likely he will become the creator of a new block.
By the way, do you know that the LATOKEN platform has this feature? It allows traders to get interest on selected cryptos like bank deposits but with a much higher annual percentage yield. So what are you waiting for? Start earning rewards from your assets right now!
START STAKING TOKENS
It is believed that the use of staking also depends on the trader’s strategy. For example, if the holder of an asset is willing to accept the inability to sell it for a long time, then staking will become an additional source of income.
Staking may bring from 3% to 15% per annum. The most promising tokens are those that have a medium-term trend towards an increase in the rate. Therefore, it’s better to pay attention not to the percentage of staking but to the stability of the trend of growth in the token’s value.
Staking can be called a full-fledged alternative to bank deposits or bonds. This is a conservative tool that might even reduce risks in some strategies.
What is a crypto fund? LATOKEN review — 3 Possible Ways to Make Money
If a trader does not have experience working with crypto assets but wants to start making money this way, one of the best solutions is to use cryptocurrency funds. When working with a fund, key risks are negotiated in advance, and traders can be more confident about their funds than if they buy crypto on their own.
The most promising cryptocurrency funds are considered Pantera Capital, Bitcoin Investments Trust, and Blockchain Capital, but they are more focused on large investors. There are also reputable funds for retail investors.
When choosing a crypto fund, many experts also recommend examining its market reputation and work history to protect yourself from crypto scams. Once again, LATOKEN wants to remind you that to avoid becoming a victim of a cryptocurrency scam, you should always do your own research and play it safe.
If you want to learn more about tokens listed on LATOKEN, crypto projects through LATOKEN Review, and tips on avoiding becoming a victim of a crypto scam, follow us on Medium, LATOKEN Blog, or LATOKEN VCTV channels.
About LATOKEN
LATOKEN is a fast-paced international crypto exchange and IEO platform with 1.3+ million users throughout the world.
LATOKEN brings commerce and banking to blockchain technology to automate transaction processing and save billions of working hours per year. Only one year after its launch, LATOKEN got 850,000+ downloads on Google Play and 1,200,000+ subscribers on social networks. Entrepreneurs and business owners who look for funding can also consider the LATOKEN IEO Launchpad. More than 300 digital assets and 500 crypto pairs are available for traders with the ability to connect using RESTful APIs or WebSocket.
What is more, LATOKEN has recently launched a P2P service for its users to improve the trader experience further. And the cherry on top, LATOKEN hosted the Blockchain Economic Forum last year. BEF Roadshows connect crypto investors with business people to build the next big things.
LATOKEN does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. This article is written for informational purposes only. Like many other assets, cryptocurrencies are subject to high market risk. Please trade with caution. | https://medium.com/@latoken/passive-income-and-cryptocurrency-3-easy-ways-to-make-money-latoken-review-3c0a275d5128 | [] | 2021-08-25 11:24:04.523000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Latoken', 'Passive Income', 'Money', 'Crypto'] |
From a marketing perspective, this may part of the problem in getting views and distribution. | From a marketing perspective, this may part of the problem in getting views and distribution. Of course, everything you write is timeless and relevant to all of humanity for all time! But it’s a good idea to think creatively about specifc markets that will find your specific piece especially relevant at a specific time. | https://medium.com/@aprilhamm/from-a-marketing-perspective-this-may-part-of-the-problem-in-getting-views-and-distribution-a14fab7a7d4 | ['April M. Hamm', 'She They'] | 2020-12-09 18:18:31.895000+00:00 | ['Publishing', 'Journalism', 'Writers On Medium', 'Marketing', 'Content Strategy'] |
Kyvol Cybovac S31 review: This self-emptying robot vacuum can mop, too | The Kyvol Cybovac S31 is the latest in a growing line of self-emptying robot vacuums. These completely autonomous vacuums are a wonderful luxury for most of us. But if you have allergies, asthma, or another health issue that can be triggered by the plume of dust released when you empty a dustbin, they can be a lifesaver.
The S31 has a 4.3L self-emptying dustbin that can hold up to about 60 days’ worth of dust before you need to replace the disposable dustbag inside it. The dustbin doubles as the robot’s charging dock, providing about four hours of runtime per full charge.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best robot vacuums, where you’ll find reviews of competing products, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product.The robot itself navigates using Laser Distance Sensors housed in a turret on its top. During its first run through the room it, it creates a map of the floorplan that allows you to create virtual walls, cleaning areas, and no-go zones. The dirty business is handled by a rolling brush and two spinning side brushes on the bottom.
Kyvol The Cybovac S31 can vacuum and mop at the same time. Mapping navigation lets you control where it cleans.
Setting up the vacuum is easy, but I initially had problems with its companion app. With its dustbin-dock plugged in and the robot on its charging pins, I added the S31 and successfully connected it to my Wi-Fi. After that, I was prompted to download a firmware update; but each time I tried, I got a message saying the firmware couldn’t be upgraded until the battery was charged to more than 20 percent. I left the vacuum to charge for a couple more hours, but still got the same message when I tried to upgrade.
Mentioned in this article iRobot Roomba i3+ Read TechHive's reviewSee it I found another reviewer had encountered the same problem and solved it by running the vacuum with its physical remote and then successfully upgrading. I did the same and was finally able to update the app. I had no further issues with it after that.
[ Further reading: The best indoor air-quality monitors ]I chose my downstairs level for testing the Cybovac S31, as it includes carpet, hardwood, and vinyl tile and is the highest-trafficked area of my home. The vacuum’s powerful 3000Pa of suction enabled it to get lot of pet hair off the carpet, along with dust and various other debris.
Michael Ansaldo/IDG You can set no-go zones to keep the vacumm from mopping your carpet, for example
The Cybovac S31 can vacuum and mop at the same time, so I attached the mopping module to the bottom of the robot for the entryway, kitchen, and bathroom. It holds 110ml of water and distributes it to the attached microfiber cloth as it drags along the floor. It doesn’t make enough contact with the floor—and provides no back-and-forth agitation—to remove anything more than surface grime. It’s adequate for semi-regular maintenance cleaning, but it won’t eliminate the need for your stick mop.
Once a map has been created, the vacuum cleans in a much more predictable and efficient pattern. Setting cleaning areas is as simple as tapping a button in the app and dragging a resizable box to a spot on the map. There’s a similar process for adding virtual walls and no-vacuum and no-cleaning zones. The last was particularly helpful as my hardwood entryway abuts my carpeted living room; making the living room a no-mop zone ensured I didn’t end up with a soggy rug.
Kyvol’s app isn’t particularly sophisticated, but it’s intuitive enough to get around. The main screen displays the current map, cleaning area, and duration of the current job as well as the battery level. You can start full-room or spot cleaning from here or send the vacuum back to its dock to charge. From the Settings menu, you can schedule cleanings, set the frequency of dustbin emptying, view cleaning records, monitor the usage of the brushes and HEPA filter, and more.
Selling for about $500 at the time of this review, the Cybovac S31 was priced about the same as iRobot’s Roomba i3+ (iRobot pioneered the self-emptying concept with the Roomba i7+ and the Roomba S9+). The Cybovac S31 isn’t quite as polished as that product, but it can hold its own as a cleaner against that bot, and it can mop, too. You can confidently put it on your last-minute holiday wish list.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@melissa60644507/kyvol-cybovac-s31-review-this-self-emptying-robot-vacuum-can-mop-too-7d65926c23aa | [] | 2020-12-25 03:06:50.666000+00:00 | ['Home Tech', 'Cutting', 'Mobile Accessories', 'Chromecast'] |
Education Token Promo Video | We finally have our new Education token (LEDU) promo video. The team at HoneyToad from Seattle have produced an excellent video which explains the key role which Education tokens (LEDU) will play in the Education Ecosystem. Check it out below:
About Education Token (LEDU)
Education Token (LEDU) is an ERC20 token that lives on the Ethereum blockchain. It is used to power the Education Ecosystem and is a key component of their plan to disrupt the $306 billion professional development industry using the blockchain. Education tokens are used as payment for all financial transactions in the internal ecosystem, as well as rewards for project creators, learners, site moderators, and API ecosystem developers. Education tokens are also used for governance, giving users the power to vote on the future of the platform — not just what projects are being created, but the features that the development team implements and what new project topics to support. Education tokens will also be used in the external ecosystem to drive transactions with businesses, schools, libraries, colleges and online education companies.
Buy education tokens (LEDU) now on Gate.io and Bibox! | https://medium.com/ledu-tokens/education-token-promo-video-5aee1c35b49b | ['Dr. Michael J. Garbade'] | 2018-03-08 21:10:09.252000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Exchange', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain'] |
Mangrove Is the Best Courtroom Drama of 2020 | Mangrove Is the Best Courtroom Drama of 2020
Image: Amazon Prime Video
Regardless of who’s making it, a courtroom drama is always a fascinating and often fun time at the movies. These films usually feature big emotional monologues on the injustices being inflicted on the downtrodden, back and forth arguments between a bigot and a morally correct lawyer or defendant, and a big lesson at the end about how we as humans are terrible and our systems are flawed and biased. This years The Trial of the Chicago 7 (written and directed by Aaron Sorkin) is compelling and an important story to tell, but certainly leans into that more traditional style of courtroom drama filmmaking. Whereas the other far superior courtroom drama to come out this year, Steve McQueen’s Mangrove, is a story told with nuance and an acute visual language.
Mangrove centers on the very real restaurant (of which the movie is named after) that was located in West London and the 1971 trial of the Mangrove Nine. The restaurant is targeted by a group of white police who seek to harass and discriminate against the owners and friends/family who gather in and around the eating place. After repeated brutality from the police, the owners of the restaurant in combination with activists stage protests in order to make their voices heard about the ongoing threat of the local police. This of course leads to further police initiated violence that leaves a particular 9 people on trial for their lawful and just protesting. These 9 people are now faced with the task of winning a trial against a biased and corrupt justice system.
Director/co-writer Steve McQueen has a real talent for empathetic storytelling. Before we are thrown into the main story of the trial, we are first introduced to a few of our key characters and the ways in which they interact in the community. We see a community that is constantly being marginalized by those around them, finding solidarity and love in a select few places in which they can gather, be who they are, and express themselves. The Mangrove isn’t just a place where you can get a meal that reminds you of your culture and your home, but a place in which you can safely articulate yourself in your truest form. McQueen knows that if he shows you the importance and warmth this place gives a community, it will be that much more painful when he shows the police attemptting to take it away.
Image: Amazon Prime Video
Not only is the writing of the story superb, but McQueen’s style of visual storytelling is unparalleled in the film industry. Something that McQueen is exceedingly good at is forcing his audience to view things that might be unpleasant to watch but are nonetheless necessary to see. There is one scene in particular where 2 of the Mangrove Nine are for no justifiable reason physically detained and thrown into a jail cell during court recess. The camera focuses on one of our protagonist, Frank Crichlow, as he slams his hands against the jail cell door calling the morally repugnant men who threw him in there “wicked” and asking them repeatedly “What is wrong with you?”. The scene goes on for well over a minute and is in a single shot from below as we see Frank lunge over the camera to bang on the cell doors. It’s a tragic and deeply uncomfortable moment that helps underscore the reason they are standing up against injustice and just a small example of how these humans are treated differently than their white counterparts.
Another consistent reminder that you are watching a McQueen film is in the performances. In every movie he has ever made, each and every performance being given onscreen is nothing short of remarkable. Mangrove is no exception, boasting a stupendous cast lead by Letitia Wright, Shaun Parkes, Rochenda Sandall, Malachi Kirby, and more. The cast is often tasked with giving long dramatically compelling monologues that go on for very long takes without letting the scene cut. It takes a very special and talented type of actor to work properly in a McQueen film as he often relies on the nonverbal skills of an actor to tell a story and when there is dialogue, often opts for very long takes. Through this subtle genius, Mangrove’s most dramatic moments come off as anything but melodramatic (something The Trial of the Chicago 7 definitely does not achieve). This results in an ultimately more rewarding and cathartic conclusion that feels more honest and earned then just watching someone yell “racism is bad” and then the movie ends.
While there is nothing wrong with flashy filmmaking, (it’s often very fun and effective filmmaking in the right hands) telling a story with more patience and subtlety is an approach that often yields a more truthful conclusion. If this year has reminded us of anything, it’s that as much as we would like it, not enough has changed from how things were in the past. Mangrove is chillingly relevant today, and even though McQueen couldn’t have predicted the current state of the Black Lives Matter movement, he gave us something we needed now more than ever. Anyone who doubts if we still live in a racist world, Steve McQueen is holding up a big mirror to show us we absolutely do. | https://medium.com/@Murkius/mangrove-is-the-best-courtroom-drama-of-2020-d00d3c31db2c | ['Marcus Rone'] | 2020-12-20 06:47:22.187000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Filmmaking', 'Film', 'Movie Review', 'Cinema'] |
The power of visual content or why live scribing is the future of events | The power of visual content or why live scribing is the future of events TapFuse Follow Jan 4, 2017 · 4 min read
Visual content is everywhere. We often do not pay attention to the amount of information we process visually. However, according to the data published by the Visual Teaching Alliance over 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Furthermore, visual learning is the dominant style and 65% of people are visual learners, which means they are much more likely to remember what they see than what they hear.
The studies conducted by the educational psychologist Jerome Bruner of New York University revealed that people tend to remember only 10% of what they hear and 30% of what they read. However, when it comes to visual content, data shows that the retention of information is much greater since people can recall up to 80% of what they see and do. Similarly, the picture superiority effect described by Allan Paivio in 1971 supports the fact that pictures have advantages over words as they are more likely to be remembered.
Studies revealed that people tend to remember only 10% of what they hear and 30% of what they read
We live in an information age where communication technologies are constantly changing and evolving. The digital revolution is gradually transforming the oral and written tradition into a visual one. The rising popularity of digital visual content has completely transformed the way we produce and consume information. Nowadays it is hard to find engaging plain-text content. On the other hand, visual storytelling has become an integral part of any promising communication strategy.
According to the data provided by HubSpot, visual content is forty times more likely to get shared on social media and content with relevant images gets 94% more views. Social media channels which rely predominantly on visual content such as YouTube or Instagram are among the most visited sites on the web.
However, an important question arises. How can all this be applied to the professional events industry? For example, everyone knows that at conferences information is predominantly delivered to the audience via speeches, presentations and written content in brochures or booklets. If this is not supported by visual content (e.g. images or videos), the audience will initially remember only 20–25% of the presentation, which after a couple of days will go down to 10% or less. Even if a speech is accompanied by a visual presentation it is not always possible for the speaker to engage the listeners at an emotional level. Unengaging content tends to be forgotten quickly and after the presentation is finished the attendees have no summary of facts and ideas which would help them to recall the important points made by the speaker. The organiser unfortunately has no visual content based on the information shared during the event and therefore cannot keep attendees engaged after the event is over.
Images are able to evoke emotions and if verbal language is accompanied by powerful real-time visuals the effect is magnified. Live scribing is the future of the event industry as it can help organizers create unforgettable experiences and maintain attendee engagement after the event is over through visually rich content. The fact that the visuals are created in real-time allows the audience to feel engaged with the process and guarantees strong emotional connection between the speaker and the visitors which makes the experience even more memorable.
“The ‘WOW’ element — visuals created in front of the audience while a speaker is giving a talk evokes an emotional connection.” Smartup Visuals “It is a fun and entertaining process that will help your audience feel more engaged with the spoken material and help you create a lasting impression.” Smartup Visuals
So what makes live scribing such a powerful tool in the hands of an event manager?
The information presented is accompanied by visuals, which makes it more memorable. Information-based content is created live, which helps increase audience engagement during an event and adds a FOMO (fear of missing out) component. An event can be captured from any part of the world as long as the venue has a stable internet connection. The audience is able to watch scribing happening live via the event app or the Social Wall. Visuals created during an event can be used for visual content marketing after the event is over. Sharing visually rich summaries helps to maintain attendee engagement and increases interaction between speakers and visitors. The images can be instantly shared via social networks which significantly increases event exposure. Images can also be taken away by the visitors to remind them of the event and help recall the main points made.
Visual content can have a great impact on the audience on it’s own. However, an oral presentation accompanied by powerful visual images based on the content created live during an event is able to create a strong emotional connection between speakers and attendees. This makes the presentation more memorable and engaging as well as increases attendee interaction after the event. That’s why TapFuse has partnered with Smartup Visuals in order to provide organisers with a digital scribing app, transform events by engaging the audience in real-time and turn a lot of content into a visually appealing summary ready to be shared and enjoyed. | https://medium.com/talking-event-tech/the-power-of-visual-content-or-why-live-scribing-is-the-future-of-events-54a835f84548 | [] | 2017-01-04 12:37:22.558000+00:00 | ['Eventprofs', 'Events', 'Content Marketing', 'Event Planning', 'Visual Storytelling'] |
Learning mindset in action: my 3D printing adventure | I’m working on being more intentional about learning, by seeking out opportunities big and small to learn, and noticing things about the experience. I wrote this post for my team at Zymergen.
ZEAL is “Zymergen Exploration And Learning,” a program to support career development through stretch assignments, elective side projects, and bungee assignments into different roles. We’re piloting the program in People Operations in 2022.
Recently, in the spirit of ZEAL, I decided to learn a new thing, and that thing is how to use the 3D printer that my family acquired a few years ago.
I did a little Googling and determined that Tinkercad would be an appropriate entry point, so I signed up for an account and did the tutorial.
I decided to make a ZEAL trinket for each person on the team. So using the “word” functionality I made a design, added a loop for hanging, and tried to print.
The printer sat there and did nothing. I attempted to enlist the expert assistance of my 14-year-old, the original owner of the printer. He advised me on an additional piece of software, Cura, that was necessary. I turned to the internet for more detailed advice and downloads.
I took a quick detour to learn how to run Linux on my Chromebook, and then downloaded and installed Cura to translate my design into a printable file.
This all worked pretty well and I sent the design — this time in the correct format — to the printer.
But no! It quickly became apparent that the Z and E were insufficiently close together.
Fig. 1. Time to reassess kerning.
This sent me back to Tinkercad for revisions, and I shipped V2 to the printer.
Perhaps I should have checked my work more closely. An hour later, I checked the printer and found the finished product:
Fig. 2. Always proofread.
I briefly considered changing the name of the program to “ZELAL,” but decided to go back to the tools to find and remove the extra “L.” (Reminder to proofread, check for the correct version of the file, and make sure no formatting gremlins have crept in.)
As I was editing, my 10-year-old noticed what I was doing and gave me some helpful advice on navigating Tinkercad. I had forgotten that she had also learned to use this software; it’s a good reminder to cast a net broadly when looking for help.
I sent the latest version to the printer, checking periodically to make sure that the correct letters were being formed. And then, the final version:
Fig. 3. Ta da!
I did a final quality control review and started printing the second copy.
Here’s the finished set. These trinkets are a limited edition. Not exactly handmade, but each one comes with a hand-tied ribbon and a letter of the alphabet between A and W, because there are 23 of them and I happened to have some alphabet beads around (reminder to use available resources).
Fig. 4. The complete set (including the beta at upper left).
Here’s a video of printing in action: ZEAL printing.
(Because my learning mindset also demands that I figure out how to set up the Wyze camera to do a time lapse, and remember how to post to YouTube.)
I had fun with this project, and writing about it was a good way to consolidate and reinforce what I learned, to make sure it sticks! | https://medium.com/@judy.gilbert/learning-mindset-in-action-my-3d-printing-adventure-371d3db9340d | ['Judy Hoff Gilbert'] | 2021-12-22 22:36:35.097000+00:00 | ['Growth Mindset', '3D Printing', 'Learning'] |
The best smart lock for a keyless home | While traditional lock-and-key systems have improved over time, the basic mechanism hasn’t really changed since the first lock was invented more than a thousand years ago: A piece of metal that is just the right shape pushes pins inside a lock into the proper position, allowing the lock mechanism to turn. As a society, it’s been tough to replace a system that has worked reasonably reliably for literally a millennium.
Are smart locks really better?You can thank the hospitality industry for finally pushing locks into the digital age. Hotels learned long ago that keys are easily lost, expensive to replace, and simple to bypass, as thieves can pick locks or simply make copies of a key to allow for unfettered future access. On the flipside, hotel guests have readily accepted key cards (and in some cases, smartphone-based solutions) as the primary means of getting into their room. The electronic solution is just so much simpler. Lost hotel key card? Replacing it is no big deal.
Updated November 20, 2020 to add our Kwikset Halo Touch review. We dig the minimal size Kwikset expects to put on the outside of your door, but we’re disappointed the company didn’t train its shrink ray on the interior hardware. Apart from that complaint, this is a great biometric deadbolt. It’s not as sophisticated as the Level Touch, but it costs a lot less and Kwikset treats Android users just as well as iOS fans.
But the biggest benefit of electronic entry systems is that they are highly configurable. Digital locks can be changed at a moment’s notice (which is why that old hotel key card in your wallet isn’t good for anything), and the property owner can generate a record of when each door was opened. In a more advanced setting, different keys can be generated for the same lock, so a homeowner can tell when each member of the family came in, or when the housekeeper arrived.
Whether you have a teenager who tends to break curfew or merely want to give temporary access to houseguests, service providers, or Airbnbers, smart locks are an incredible upgrade over the old way of doing things. Ready to make the jump to smart lock technology? Here are our top picks of the market at the moment.
[ Further reading: A smart home guide for beginners ]Best smart lock overall Schlage Sense Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $229.00See itThis capable smart lock offers commercial-grade construction and impressive reliability.
The Schlage Sense smart lock may not win any awards for attractiveness—or ease of installation, given the two dense instruction manuals that must be followed—but if you really want to secure your home with a smart lock, and have faith that it’s actually working, this is the product to get.
What if you’ve lost your phone? You can open the lock via an illuminated, smudgeproof numeric keypad or with a physical key. A recent update added the ability to unlock the door with a voice command (you’ll need to speak a PIN code you set up to complete the action). Schlage added the same feature to the similar Schlage Connect.
Runner-up Level Touch Read TechHive's review$329.00MSRP $329.00See iton Level HomeLevel gets external hardware, touch-sensitive opening, and more features in a compelling—but expensive—smart lock system.
The minimalist Level Touch looks as good as it operates and is our highest-rated smart lock. The reason we’ve named it runner-up, versus best-of-the-best in this category, is that it can be remotely controlled only with an iOS device. The Android version of the Level app includes every feature the iOS app does, with that one important exception.
Best retrofit smart lock Level Bolt Read TechHive's review$229.00MSRP $229.00See iton Level HomeLevel’s “invisible” lock lives up to its promise, giving any deadbolt smart features with no change to your exterior hardware.
The August Smart Lock Pro has been deposed. Level Home’s Level Bolt is our new favorite retrofit smart lock, thanks in large measure to its ability to disappear. The smart components of the Bolt hide inside your door, where they replace the interior mechanical elements of your existing deadbolt. You re-attach your existing interior and exterior components, so that your door’s overall aesthetic doesn’t change in the least.
Runner-up August Wi-Fi Smart Lock Read TechHive's reviewSee itAugust adds Wi-Fi while shrinking the overall size of its hardware considerably, making this a better retrofit option than ever.
Weighing the convenience of Wi-Fi versus the visual appeal of the zero footprint that the Bluetooth-only Level Lock offers was tough, but Level Lock won out in the end. Hey, achieving runner-up status in TechHive’s coverage is no easy accomplishment, and if the convenience of Wi-Fi outweighs aesthetics in your mind, then this is the retrofit smart lock to buy.
Best budget smart lock Wyze Lock Read TechHive's review$99.99MSRP $99.99See iton Wyze LabsWyze continues to rule the budget smart home world with this good-enough lock that’s half the price of some competitors.
Wyze Labs has a well-earned reputation for produce bang-for-the-buck smart home products, and its new Wyze Lock deadbolt converter is certainly no exception. Fit this device to your existing deadbolt, plug in the included Wi-Fi bridge, and you’ll convert your dumb deadbolt into a modern smart home device that can be opened with your existing key, and you can’t argue with its less-than-$100 asking price.
Most innovative smart lock Lockly Vision Read TechHive's review$399.99MSRP $399.99See iton Home DepotLockly Vision successfully integrates two complex smart home devices—a deadbolt lock and a video doorbell—into a single, compelling security device.
The Lockly Vision reduces the number of security devices you’ll need to deploy on your porch by combining a powerful smart lock with a great video doorbell. It’s not perfect—its big, bulky, and not very very attractive—but there’s nothing else like it on the market.
What to consider when shoppingHow do you pick a smart lock? (No pun intended.) This is a young and wildly immature space, and many products on the market are still extremely rough around the edges. Even top products can balk when dealing with old or stiff deadbolts, doors that don’t shut well, or environments where non-standard fixtures are in use. The bottom line is that it’s tough to declare that any product is universally perfect for every home. That said, here are some key considerations to take into account to help you narrow down your shopping list.
Bluetooth Special Interest GroupHow smart is it? An important caveat to consider first: Some “smart locks” don’t work with a smartphone app or any smart home networking hubs at all; they’re really just electronic locks that use a code instead of a key to open up. One step up from that, you’ll find Bluetooth-only locks. These work with a smartphone app, but can’t be monitored remotely or via a smart home system. That’s fine if you’re looking to get rid of the keys in your pocket, but less impressive if you want to make your entrance portals a true part of your home network.
Replace or retrofit? You’re forgiven if you don’t want to replace your antique doorknob on your vintage Victorian with a metallic device that looks like it would be more at home keeping people out of a strip mall bank branch. A sizeable number of smart lock products don’t require you to replace all your existing hardware. Instead, they are installed on the inside of the door only, replacing only the interior part of the deadbolt. You can continue to use a standard key from the outside or open the lock via a smartphone app.
SamsungSmart home hub integration If you have an existing hub like the Wink Hub 2, Samsung SmartThings, or an Apple TV, you’ll want to ensure your chosen smart lock is compatible from the start. Many smart locks support Bluetooth, so they work with your phone, but lack the technology needed to connect with your home network. Some Bluetooth locks, like the Yale Assure system and the August Smart Lock, offer a radio module as an add-on to connect to your home network. If you’re using a smart home hub like the Samsung SmartThings or Wink Hub, look for a lock that supports Z-Wave or ZigBee, instead.
Alternate entry means Forgot your phone at the office? How will you get in the house? Physical key? Numeric keypad? Wait for your spouse to arrive? Myriad different approaches are available.
Power backup What do you do if the batteries inside the lock die—and you’re stuck outside? Some locks allow for emergency power to be applied should this happen. Yale’s Real Living locks feature external posts to which you can connect a 9-volt battery, giving you enough juice to get the door open. Other models retain the traditional key cylinder for backup.
Geofencing Bad about manually locking the door when you leave? A geofencing system automatically locks the door when it detects your phone has left the vicinity, and can be set to automatically open up when it finds you’ve come home.
Guest access features Most smart locks let you set up temporary keys for houseguests, which you can delete when they’ve returned home. Smarter systems even let you set time restrictions around when each access code can be used.
Our smart lock reviews Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@ryan26993483/the-best-smart-lock-for-a-keyless-home-50a7cb2a8345 | [] | 2020-12-17 00:32:40.777000+00:00 | ['Home Theater', 'Lighting', 'Home Tech', 'Gear'] |
What I Learned After Two Births in American Hospitals, Plus 9 Tips | What I Learned After Two Births in American Hospitals, Plus 9 Tips
In the birth world, I feel there’s a big divide between two sides: all technology/medicine/science, and what’s seen as natural/unmedicated/intuitive. It’s easy if you can put yourself into only one camp, and either have a home birth or just go to the hospital and do everything they say. But, like most binaries, a lot of people actually fall somewhere in between.
What I learned after two births in American hospitals: In any of your choices, you need to prepare for how to best help yourself. Sounds simple, right? Below are tips that might you help you.
1. EXPECTATIONS: I entered the hospital for my first birth fully trusting in the healthcare system to do everything to help me. This is an over-reliance on the system. The U.S. healthcare system is in place to provide physical medical assistance. They did do everything to help me — everything they could, which is to say, everything in their medical arsenal. Some of you may already know this (I didn’t, and I feel a lot of women especially don’t know this), but the medical assistance provided to you can vary a lot depending on the knowledge and preparation you bring in. Especially for something like birth, where you can, to some extent, prepare for the upcoming event.
So the first time around we attended all the childbirth classes provided by the hospital, and I read the books that gave information about what happened during pregnancy and various medical considerations around birth. You can see which camp I was headed toward. It seemed like the right path for me. Even if I had no other medical issues, I probably would not have chosen a home birth. Part of that is who I am, and part of that is the lack of information and ability to have home births. Which is a much bigger topic for another day.
But I had other medical issues, so I would give birth in a hospital. I would go on to have a traumatic first birth. There are many reasons for this, but for me, the core is this: I had expected the hospital to support me in every way needed for the birth. They didn’t. But they don’t have the ability or the capacity to do that. They are there for medical assistance.
2. PREPARATIONS: I had not known I needed to prepare my body, my spirit, and my mind for the birth. And arm myself with the right kind of knowledge — not only medical information about everything that can possibly go wrong with pregnancy and births. I was fully stocked with one kind of information, but I still did not have the right preparation to meet the experience fully. I was aware of some medical issues that could come up during the pushing stage (I knew what meconium was), which did help me feel more calm when they did arise. But I didn’t know the body mechanics of pushing. (Which sounds kind of basic, doesn’t it?)
Because to give birth, you need to know yourself and your body, and have confidence in your body. Don’t worry — if you don’t know those and don’t care to, then you can go to a hospital, get an epidural, and still give birth to a healthy baby. That is a choice some women make that is absolutely the best for them. For me to give birth, it turns out I needed those things. It may sound silly that I didn’t know myself and my body, and have confidence in it. It may be even sillier that I didn’t even know I needed those for the birth, or that I inadvertently looked to find those things in the hospital. I looked for compassion and support for my efforts during contractions. I got it from two out of the five nurses I encountered. The other three were damaging in unexpected ways. I thought the nurses would listen to me and respect me, not actively undermine me, outright ignore me, or push their agenda on me. (This was my first major encounter with the medical system, if you can’t tell.)
But this is not about my complaints about a particular hospital or specific nurses, because while I wish that could be fixed, ultimately, the problem lay with me. Because of my medical issues, I was going into a hospital just hoping for an unmedicated “natural” birth — because women have been doing this forever, and because it was a risk to me to get an epidural due to my medical issues. But it was just a hope, because I had not prepared myself to know what I really wanted and needed, and I hadn’t prepared my body and mind in a way where I would have the confidence I needed.
Knowing yourself and your body can be a tough ask, due to the changes in pregnancy upsetting both of those. And due to the historical treatment of the female body…again, a bigger issue for another day. And having confidence in your body going into a life-changing event that you don’t know whether it can handle it? Also tough. I’m hoping some of my lessons learned can help you.
For me, labor and delivery is the most vulnerable I had ever been up to that point. Think about it — you’re in pain, you don’t know what will happen next or how you’ll make it through it, and you have to completely rely on the people around you. But, I implore you to think about your own agency and preparation before, so that you can also rely on yourself.
I went on to have the most amazing experience at the second birth, compared to the worst experience at the first. I’m sure it was due to many factors, not least of it being a second birth where you know more of what to expect and your body has already been through it once. But I also knew what I wanted and needed, and worked to get that support for myself (including a different hospital with better care for mom and baby, having a doula, etc.). I was prepared in the sense that I knew I didn’t want to do it all alone.
3. WHAT FEELS RIGHT TO YOU? Because of my risk factor with the epidural and other medical issues, getting an epidural was not going to be a comforting, relaxing experience for me. Even with a release of some pain, my mind was freaking out, worried about my risks. I had gone into the birth thinking I was either going to be: randomly “good” at tolerating pain — in other words, lucky — or randomly “bad” at tolerating pain, therefore needing the epidural to get through the birth. I didn’t know there are more choices than that. And here is the main point that I didn’t know before my first birth and that I wish I’d known: You can move your body in ways that work to both mitigate the pain, but also give more information to your body and baby to speed up labor.
If I had known this was a third choice, then I would have been motivated to learn and practice these movements, because I am an active person who has a high body awareness. I was really dumb about this, but I was not aware that with an epidural, you become incapacitated. An epidural confines you to a bed, and turns an active process of you giving birth into nurses shoving their fingers in you, telling you when to push. I felt like an object, not a person. Mentally, I hated this experience and feeling. And I had already known this isn’t what I would have wanted to, but I felt I didn’t have another choice.
For my second birth, I found a hospital that offered nitrous instead of only epidurals. I didn’t end up using it, but I was so happy that I had a different option to fall back on that matched more of who I am. For some women, an epidural is the good match. It does not feel passive, and instead is a way they can relax through the experience (I hear). You decide whether you prefer active or passive, and then you can be okay with your decision.
After my first birth, I thought I just needed a better nurse who is actually good at coaching people when to push. What I needed, instead, was more accurate information about using the right muscles for pushing. Neri Choma, a fabulous doula, has a video for expectant couples, in which the last section details the position and how the pushing stage actually works in the body, so you can work with it instead of against the body: https://birthcoachmethod.com/products/practicing-active-birth-visual-guide/
A bonus of the rest of the video is that you can use the movements taught for labor in your last few months to help with pregnancy discomforts. Yes, the video has got some male partners who look really bored. Don’t let their boredom deter you from doing what you need to do. Practicing those movements gets you used to moving in your pregnant body, which helps in pregnancy and birth.
It matters most to do and be what feels right to you. So really get to know yourself when thinking about some common birth scenarios. If it feels right to get pain intervention, do. If it doesn’t in the slightest, then figure out why.
4. MOVEMENT. It’s not only important for an active birth instead of an epidural one, it’s important for being aware of how your pregnant body moves in space. Movement provides information to your body and to your baby. And whatever that looks like for you depends on you. If you like to walk, great. Brisk walking for 25 minutes a few days a week is good for pregnancy. Movement is also important in terms of discomforts in pregnancy. The pregnant body does not like to be in one position for a long time. Try new movements. Get up often, try new chairs, don’t be afraid to shift position while sleeping.
When we’re told medically why something is happening, sometimes we can feel that means there’s nothing we can do about it. But it’s actually just telling us why something is happening — it’s up to us to meet what is happening. If all you know is why it’s happening, instead of possible ways to meet it, then you are in a passive, victim-type state, and you’ll feel upset about it or trapped by it. For example, you might get leg cramps in the night during pregnancy. You can either wait to feel lucky or unlucky, and curse them when you get them. Or you can try relaxing your leg (the cramp goes away faster) if they do happen. If you tense up, the cramp lasts longer. Or you can try eating some calcium before bed (almonds or milk). You can change position. Try something new. Try a gentle stretch, or sitting in a different chair. It can be simple, but moving very often can help with several pregnancy ailments.
Although I know that moving in labor and birth helped me, I don’t think that’s the best route for everyone. I do believe, however, that even if you move during pregnancy and not during birth, it will help you.
5. PAIN. You can’t change whether you’ll have pain or how much — you can only change your response to it. Your relationship to pain. What experiences in your life before have been painful to your body? What do you remember of those pain experiences and how you met them? We think of pain in the Western world as a problem. Something to avoid, erase, solve. We sometimes forget that pain can be information. I know other cultures understand this better than Americans, but it’s something we can learn. Because labor is different pain — it is transformational pain. It is pain that indicates — the worse it gets — the closer you are to the transformation. So that means it’s a good sign when the pain gets worse. And a big difference: I said “mitigate pain.” Expect the movements to take the edge off the pain, not get rid of all pain. If you go into labor wishing to get rid of all pain, then by all means, try the medical pain interventions. (Though I had fentanyl and then an epidural in my first birth, and neither gets rid of all the pain.) Just know that they might come at costs to you that you didn’t think about and may not be okay with. Or, you might be just fine with some side effects. I want you to be in a situation where you feel supported to make the choice that’s right for you — not cornered to take the pain medication only because you feel alone and unsupported and feel it’s your only choice.
What would you do to cope with pain if you had no medicine? That’s what my amazing doula asked me, and it is really good to think about for birth especially.
6. MENTAL WORK OF LABOR. I also did not know that the three main stages of labor ask for different things from us as birthing women. I talked about the physical actions necessary for an effective pushing stage already from Neri Choma’s video, but she also talks about the differences in the stages of labor and how we can meet each of those. I cannot recommend her video enough. It’ll be the best money you’ve spent if you watch it and practice on your own.
The other work of birth, outside of the physical, is surrender. I would say this is probably the main work of labor. It’s most important to accept and relax into your body. Let it happen. This is where knowing yourself and doing what feels right to you is important. If an epidural would help you relax and surrender, then do it. You know yourself. For some women, they are more afraid of the pain than anything else in birth. For others, putting themselves in a passive position confined to a bed will not help you relax. So then don’t get an epidural. If massage and a doula helps you relax and surrender and accept the process and your changing body, then do that.
As a friend of mine said, what she learned after her first birth was: “Take care of yourself, because no one else will.” It sounds harsh, but it’s true because no one else will be giving birth for you. No one else will save you from pregnancy. Decide what support helps you best and seek it out. And I would add that this isn’t some great life changing mystery — it’s usually an extension of who and what you already are, and paying attention to that. If you usually like to read or watch certain shows, just be mindful of sticking to reading and watching shows that you find comforting, funny, or supportive in some way. I learned I was more sensitive during pregnancy to watching violence, so then I didn’t. Trust yourself and your instincts.
Most births sound dramatic without context. So it’s easy to read or hear about a dramatic birth story and just feel like, “Gee, I wish that doesn’t happen to me.” And I can’t tell you what will happen to you. But I can tell you it might help to go into it thinking, instead, “How will I meet this birth, no matter what happens to me? What can I bring from my strengths, and what weaknesses do I know I have, so that I can navigate whatever comes up?”
Women often live without much context of other women all the time in this society. We are isolated from each other, and there are outside pressures on us from the male-dominated cultures and the expansion of technology. So when women talk about their birth stories, honestly, there are a whole host of other factors that can go into what happened.
My weaknesses turned out to be that I don’t like to be passive, I don’t like people invading my body without even asking or telling me (and it was not an emergency situation), and I don’t like people assuming I won’t be good at something before I’ve even started the work. That erodes confidence. And I knew all this about myself before my first birth — I had just not realized those things would be part of the birth, and that at birth, I would be the most vulnerable I’d yet been, so those things could be more damaging.
When I think about the work of birth as surrendering to the process of the body, then I think very differently about how to support and “measure” that. During my first labor, I lay in bed, trying to cope with the pain of contractions with music and heat pads. And that did help, but I also thought I was doing well, and then they’d check my cervix and tell me the number had changed only a little. Then, immediately, hearing a number that I thought had been higher, I judged myself. I must not be doing well. Maybe I couldn’t handle the pain. And I was all alone.
So, for me, having actions to do in labor helped me concentrate more on doing the actions, instead of on whether or not I could handle or conquer the pain. Each contraction is not a test of your limitations (but I had been judging it as that) — they are your body accepting labor and getting closer to ending labor. The contractions can get you to where you are going.
For someone else, pain medication can help with relaxation and surrender.
7. BEING VS. DOING MINDSET. Also when I think about the work of birth as surrendering to the process of the body, I think of the being vs. doing mindset. This was clarified for me by the book “Mindful Birthing,” by Nancy Bardacke (https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/mindful-birthing-training-the-mind-body-and-heart-for-childbirth-and-beyond_nancy-bardacke/431843/item/6814819/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0_L554nI8gIVE1VgCh3NgQEIEAQYASABEgJ_qvD_BwE#idiq=6814819&edition=6918712). I had felt it before during my monthly periods, but hadn’t heard anyone articulate it. In the doing mindset, there’s a desire to measure and judge, which can feel counterproductive during labor and delivery, because it can make you feel certain progress and efforts are not enough. The being mindset lets acceptance in. Acceptance, surrendering — those sound similar, eh? And the doing mindset, in our current day and age, feels like our state of being. Always productive. So it can be something you have to cultivate, but I know I feel it about once a month, a desire to go away from the world and all the counting and watching and doing. It’s much more discussed in the book, so I highly recommend that too.
In the hospital, the nurses and doctors are in a doing mindset. They measure your cervix mostly to see how far along you are, although that can actually change drastically even in half an hour. So it’s not an accurate assessment in terms of telling you how long your labor will be. However, when you are exhausted and in pain, emotionally, that number can feel like a barrier or a savior. Something to think about before going into the hospital — it doesn’t necessarily yield important info, unless there’s a medical concern instead of just tracking your “progress,” and it can work against your confidence.
8. PERCEPTIONS. Your perception of the pain and flow of the contractions matters. So it’s good to think about that before birth, too. I can tell you that my first birth felt like the pain never stopped. So when people talk about how the contraction comes, and then it lasts for a certain time, and then it recedes — I was like, what the hell? But I know now that it had to to do with my lack of mental preparation. I had been expecting the pain to be gone completely, with no reverberations. Just completely nothing. So I was, again, disappointed and judging myself for not having that experience. But remember, I was also in a doing mindset. I was waiting for each contraction to come so I could conquer it, and then this whole thing could be over. And this whole conquering thing — isn’t that the opposite of surrendering?
In Nancy’s book and in Neri’s video, they both talk of the need to let go in between contractions. Neri says to fully relax physically, and she coaches you into how to do that. Nancy writes about the kind of mental rest. And Neri says it best: “Don’t wait for the next contraction. Don’t worry, it’ll come to you.” So let it come, but let it go in the meantime. And when she said that, it really clicked for me that I had experienced far more pain in my first labor because I did not take this important rest between the work of the contractions. I had been anticipating the next one, dreading it, and therefore, feeling like I was in pain all of the time. The mental pain compounds the physical.
Which is a good lesson for more than birth, of course. Exercising, dealing with your children — these all have moments of exertion and moments of rest. And you’ve got to learn to breathe and rest, or it will compound the hard work. What it means to me outside of birth is that whatever pain/problem you are having, don’t only keep thinking about that in the inbetween times when you aren’t experiencing the full capacity of the problem (pain, children’s tantrums). If you do, then you will have this perception that the problem is bigger and more long-lasting than it is.
9. SUPPORT. In my second birth, I had an amazing doula and I could not recommend her more highly. There are so many options in terms of doulas for different ranges of pay, and student doulas who sometimes attend births for free to gain experience. Even a woman in your life whom you know respects your agency can do wonders for not feeling alone with your contractions. I believe a doula is indispensable to supporting you when you are so vulnerable. The other people in the room are supporting you in other ways (partner — emotional, etc., medical team — medically). But the doula is supporting your physical and mental efforts during the birth. Then you are not alone in dealing with your contractions. I believe a doula helps, no matter how the labor goes.
Do I wish nurses and medical teams would better understand women’s agency and have respect for women? Yes. But we do live in the patriarchal society we live in, and these ideas carry into all aspects of life. And I know the nurse who was negative about my ability to cope with labor without pain medication is just numb and overworked. I do wish she wouldn’t do the work of undercutting women that some men do, but I also know I should’ve been prepared to find that anywhere — even in the most vulnerable state of labor in the hospital where I thought I’d be supported.
TO SUM UP
— Get to know yourself again, even in the tumultuous process of pregnancy. Then you will be able to prepare the way YOU need to.
— No matter what kind of birth you desire or ultimately receive, learning proper body mechanics for pushing can help.
— Seek out the small but important things that matter, and people who know these things. For example, some doctors don’t know that lying on your side during the pushing stage can prevent the baby’s head from getting stuck. They are mainly trained in medicated childbirth, and don’t use some of those “natural” tactics that can prevent medical interventions.
— Think about how you might learn to relax, surrender, and accept the process of birth, including pain and discomforts. How will you meet whatever happens, and perhaps change your relationship to it?
— Take care of yourself, because no one else will. You are the one who carries the pregnancy and gives birth. Take your first step into the role of mama, and protect your boundaries, whatever they may be.
I hope we can all learn how to better support women’s agency. And, oddly enough, that starts with you getting to know yourself, especially when thinking about the birth process. | https://medium.com/@heid.ks/what-i-learned-after-two-births-in-american-hospitals-plus-9-tips-cfccf389ee4 | ['Heidi Kasa'] | 2021-08-25 21:56:34.576000+00:00 | ['Birth', 'Pain', 'Agency', 'Movement', 'Pain Management'] |
An After School Delight | My dog is crazy. Although she is commonly known around our house under countless nicknames, at four years old, Remi is still a puppy at heart. Whenever I walk through the door, whether I’ve been gone twenty minutes or the whole day, she acts as if it has been years since we last met.
Every day after school, I am greeted by her uncontainable joy. Ear to ear she smiles, conveying her excitement through a series of jumps, wiggles, and barks as I set down my backpack. We always have the same after-school greeting routine. I walk through the door, and happily great her: “ello, love” I say to her in a broken Australian accent.
And then, it starts.
She leaps toward me, often grabbing one of her cherished stuffed toys. Shaking with excitement, she continuously looks at me directly in the eyes; not breaking eye contact throughout her dance as she jumps, twists, and trots about around me. Toy in mouth, she prances in circles around me, weaving through the space between my legs; brushing up against them as if saying “HELLO!” over and over again. I run away just so she can chase me, she loves to chase. I retreat to the couch, open my arms and yell, “REMIII!” and watch as she leaps further than I previously knew possible for dogs, and lands in my arms. She nuzzles her head next to mine, still shaking with excitement, smiling, and presenting her toy to me as a token of her love for me while continually trying to embed herself further in my arms.
With Remi, each day is the same; the expression of our mutual love and joy in the presence of each other is unwavering. I know dogs can’t speak, but with Remi, it doesn’t even matter. Her expression of love and the happiness that she brings to me every day has taught me that love can be demonstrated in ways that surpass words. See, to me, it doesn’t really matter if Remi can talk or not, although that would be very cool if she could because every day she reminds me of how much she cares for me via her jumps, twists, and other spontaneous spastic movements.
Even on days when I have had a difficult day and am feeling down, without being able to tell Remi, somehow, she knows. She reads my body language and curls into my lap, always with a toy to bring to me to offer her condolences. With another human, perhaps we would talk about what was difficult about my day or what had me in a mood, but with Remi, she just sits with me. She offers her support simply by showing up for me and physically being there when my days go astray.
Although Remi and I communicate solely through physical encounters, we often have the same level of connection as I do with my human friends. Through this, I’ve learned that there is more than one way to interact with someone and have a relationship; it doesn’t always need to be spoken. Sometimes, a snuggle or extreme puppy excitement is enough to build a connection that can last for a lifetime. | https://medium.com/the-ma-voice/an-after-school-delight-90b63e97efe8 | ['Brandt Maxwell'] | 2019-09-10 16:40:23.984000+00:00 | ['Dogs', 'Personal Essay'] |
Open Banking — A foundation for better customer engagement | Open Banking adoption has been steadily growing in Europe and the UK, where it was first introduced. In addition, a growing list of other countries have either adopted or are in the process of adopting the Open Banking standards.
The Open Banking standards are now giving rise to a range of new business models and use cases. In Part #1 of this article, we will share a few simple facts that we believe are fuelling Open Banking adoption and why Open Banking will become a strong influence in the market.
Banking is not in Vogue
Let’s face it, your Banking app is not the first app you click on every morning, is it? An average user has 25 or so regularly used apps on their device. The following chart shows the most used apps in a month. A notable absentee is the Mobile Banking app. The reason is simple. The typical Mobile Banking app lacks the features that make it ‘sticky’ and useful for the consumers on an everyday basis.
My Banking App is not helping me
This is another important factor. Where the Internet Banking or Mobile Banking app has the features, those features are Bank centric and not Human Centric. Let’s consider a simple case of a Loan Application. The Banking apps, more often than not, mimic what the Banks have been doing for a long time — a boring loan application form. Even though the person may already be a customer of the Bank, the Bank is unable to ‘help’ the consumer to fill up the application. Not very useful, is it?
On the other hand, consider going through a home buying experience. Whilst the Bank Loan and the Loan Application is important, there are so many other factors to consider. Where should I buy the property? Is the location convenient for my / my family’s lifestyle? Can I afford the property? Is the property close to good schools? Will the property value appreciate? Who can help me find the right property etc.
As depicted in the below illustration, there is a vast difference between the Loan Application App (left) from the Bank and a Home Buying App. The Banking App has evolved from the so called omni channel experiences that Banks have been investing in, whilst the Home Buying App (right) is a result of an ecosystem of service providers coming together to create a unique and a very meaningful & human centric experience.
The rise of the Marketplace Platform
People’s lifestyle needs do not revolve around Banks. Whilst Banks in the past expected consumers to use their Channels and Apps to access Banking services, the evolution of the digital ecosystems have changed the consumer behaviours so much that the consumers expect Banking services (like everything else) to be available where the consumers are.
Open Banking standards and the associated APIs are making it possible for Banks to make their services available to the digital ecosystems frequented by consumers. This in turn is popularising the concept of the Marketplace Platforms or Aggregation platforms that bring together the Banking service and Lifestyle services that delight the consumers.
Thus, to provide a complete home buying experience, a platform that facilitates the aggregation of Banking and Lifestyle services is required. Whilst a Bank may not be the primary operator of such a platform, Open Banking is enabling the Banks to participate in such ecosystems in a safe and secure manner.
In subsequent articles, we will look at some interesting business models that are evolving around Open Banking & Marketplace Platforms. | https://medium.com/@ranaperies/open-banking-a-foundation-for-better-customer-engagement-83e32185490e | ['Rana Peries'] | 2021-03-19 00:13:04.959000+00:00 | ['Openbanking', 'Digital Banking', 'Ecosystem', 'API', 'Marketplaces'] |
MongoDB Lookups and Populates: An Unexpected Journey | By Kunal Bhatt
Overview
I wanted to share a little journey I went down not too long ago. Recently there has been some talk about how we can be more responsible with our schema design, queries, and overall code architecture at Cameo. So I hope to share some short posts on how we can be more informed about our current architecture. My journey into learning more about populate first began when I saw it being used heavily within many of our API endpoints. Once I figured out that it was essentially a join, my learning stopped. But a few weeks ago a message came across our channel and it spoke to me:
This then propelled me even further down the journey to learn what populate does and how its different than $lookup. Before we dive in I want to set a baseline here first:
The above message is more or less true. Using a populate in MongoDB is essentially the same as using a SQL JOIN in theory but not in practice. MongoDB is most performant when all information needed is on the document at query time. No one is going to argue this here. This same argument applies to $lookup as well.
We are using MongoDB 4.2 — this is important as I’ll explain later.
We are inserting 60000 User Documents and 60000 Order Documents with the user id attached to them. Here is the schema:
const UserSchema = new Schema();
const OrderSchema = new Schema({
user: {
type: Schema.Types.ObjectId,
ref: 'User'
},
completed: Boolean
});
How does populate work?
For a short while I just assumed populate was an api method that just wraps the aggregate method for $lookup. Seems obvious, no? Well I was wrong. Had to own up to my mistake as well (double 🔥).
Turns out every time you run populate you are performing two queries. So let’s take the above schema and we want all Orders with their user hydrated on them. When you do Order.find().populate(‘users’) here is what happens:
NoSql Queries
Mongoose: orders.find({}, { projection: {} })
Mongoose: users.find({ _id: { '$in': [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, ... 60000 more items ] }}, { projection: {} })
Javascript
const orders = await Order.find();
const users = await User.find({ _id: { $in: orders.map(f => f.user) } }) const userMap = users.reduce((map, b) => map.set(b._id.toString(), b), new Map()) for (const order of orders) {
order.user = userMap.get(order.user.toString())
}
$lookup vs populate
Setup
mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost:27017/benchmark_test', {
useNewUrlParser: true,
useUnifiedTopology: true,
poolSize: 1
});
db = mongoose.connection; await db.dropDatabase(); const UserSchema = new Schema();
const OrderSchema = new Schema({
user: {
type: Schema.Types.ObjectId,
ref: 'User'
},
{
completed: Boolean
}
}); Order = db.model('Order', OrderSchema); for (let i = 0; i < 60000; ++i) {
await db.collection('Users').insertOne({ _id: i })
}
console.log('Inserted Users docs') for (let i = 0; i < 60000; ++i) {
await db.collection('Orders').insertOne({ _id: i, user: i })
} await db.collection('orders').createIndex({user: 1});
await db.collection('orders').createIndex({completed: 1});
Just like many DB’s Mongo adds a unique index on the primary key to prevent duplicates (Link).
Many documents > 10000
$lookup query
async function lookup() {
const times = [];
for (let i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
let startTime = Date.now();
const orders = await Order.aggregate([
{$match: {completed: true}},
{ $lookup: { from: 'users', localField: 'user', foreignField: '_id', as: 'user' } }
])
times.push(Date.now() - startTime);
} return times;
}
populate query
async function populate() {
const times = [];
for (let i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
let startTime = Date.now();
const orders = await Order.find({completed: true}).populate('user');
times.push(Date.now() - startTime);
} return times;
}
Less documents ≤ 1000
$lookup query
async function lookup() {
const times = [];
for (let i = 1; i < 1000; ++i) {
let startTime = Date.now();
const orders = await Order.aggregate([
{$match: {completed: true}},
{$limit: i},
{ $lookup: { from: 'users', localField: 'user', foreignField: '_id', as: 'user' } }
])
times.push(Date.now() - startTime);
} return times;
}
populate query
async function populate() {
const times = [];
for (let i = 1; i < 1000; ++i) {
let startTime = Date.now();
const orders = await Order.find({completed: true}).limit(i).populate('user');
times.push(Date.now() - startTime);
} return times;
}
Conclusion
The only times $lookup is more performant than populate is when dealing with a document join count < 20. So if you’re using a findOne or limit(<20) it would be more “performant” to use $lookup. Now while lookup is twice as fast with findOne than populate is the difference in the grand scheme of things is marginal (0.5ms vs 1.5ms). The chart above demonstrates that as the number of documents being joined/hydrated increases as does the query time. For reference querying Order.find({completed:true}takes an average of 24ms.
So when can you use populate or $lookup?
If the situation warrants it.
Basically if you’re dealing with a subdocument that may need to be updated heavily but the find/join will only be across a finite amount of documents <= 100, you may want to just use one of these methods. Your CRUD endpoints become quite complicated when dealing with subdocuments that have a lot properties. So pick your battles, if speed is not necessary and/or the endpoint can be cached then it might be worth to use populate. When you have no other choice
Sometimes you inherit a schema that has already chosen this path. For the time being it may not be worth it to refactor but it will be pertinent that we note these things that could cause issues during high traffic times.
A few things to keep in mind when using populate or $lookup also:
Always make sure your foreignField has an index. (“Changed in version 3.2: Starting in MongoDB 3.2, indexes can cover an aggregation pipeline. In MongoDB 2.6 and 3.0, indexes could not cover an aggregation pipeline since even when the pipeline uses an index, aggregation still requires access to the actual documents.”) Avoid running a populate/$lookup on a large number of documents. Sometimes populate/$lookup isn’t horrible in the correct situations.
Helpful Links
Come Work With Us!
We are tackling a lot of interesting problems at Cameo and are seeking for highly talented individuals. We’re a fully distributed team — and offer high amounts of ownership on whatever project you’re working on. If you have access to stable WiFi and interested in our product, let’s chat. View open positions here! | https://medium.com/cameoeng/mongodb-lookups-and-populates-an-unexpected-journey-940e08e36a94 | ['Cameo Engineering'] | 2020-10-09 15:01:34.266000+00:00 | ['Database', 'Software Development', 'Software Engineering', 'Mongodb', 'NoSQL'] |
Product management frameworks | There are many product management frameworks that product manager follows. I have listed out some of the frameworks that I follow at my work. Before we jump into frameworks, I wanted you to know framework does not fix all your problems. The framework will help you with these aspects.
Better understand your context Create a structure for problems Communicate ideas & solutions
I often use these frameworks in my product work, sometimes without realizing it.
3X framework by Kent Beck
A product can be in one of 3 stages. For product leaders, this is the most vital framework to understand because almost every important decision should account for the stage your product is in.
Explore — to overcome disinterest, try many small experiments.
Expand — to overcome bottlenecks to scaling, ease the limitations of the next rate-limiting resource.
Extract — to sustain growth, continually increase profitability while you finish growing.
The examples of decisions you can make more rigorously with the 3X framework:
— Optimize for inputs, outputs, or outcomes?
— Set more qualitative or quantitative goals?
— How to measure progress?
— What skills to look for?
— How to evaluate PMs’ impact?
5Qs for product rigour
This framework provides a useful structure for product proposals, reviews, etc.
1) Who is the customer?
2) What is the problem/opportunity?
3) What is the main customer benefit?
4) How do you know customers want this?
5) What is the customer experience?
Amazon uses this 5Qs framework for their product development.
ICE prioritization by Sean Ellis
The ICE framework may be the most popular useful framework when scaling and optimizing shipping time, developer ROI, user retention and funnel maximization.
What is ICE?
ICE is a combined evaluation of features based on three levers: Impact, Confidence and Ease. The impact is an estimation of the optimization of the effort, confidence is an estimation of the thoroughness of your hypothesis and ease is an estimation of the amount of effort by the time that will be required to ship the feature/ product. Each lever is graded on a scale of 1–10 and the feature worthiness is evaluated by multiplying each lever’s score.
ICE Score = (Impact +Confidence +Ease) / 3
Impact
The best way to measure impact is to understand how does it move a user/ customer across the funnel AARRR. AARRR (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue) describes the five stages of converting a customer and maximizing ROI. Each stage has a series of drivers and metrics that allow product managers to quantitatively define and measure the impact of their efforts.
Confidence
Confidence also measured on a scale from 1–10, is a measure of the conviction required that warrants the feature build-out. Heavily weighted and biased towards experiments and customer evidence, confidence eliminates the anecdotal and subjective biases in feature priorities.
Ease
Ease is usually measured in time to determine how much work will be required for the feature to be shipped. Different companies have different methodologies to measure the ROI of their DevOps. For example, Manoj Chaudhary, CTO and VP of engineering at Loggly, uses the following ROI to measure the success of his DevOps’ team.
Release frequency: How fast code releases to production. Infrastructure recovery: How fast production recovers from “fires” Infrastructure resiliency: Reduction in downtime/problems with infrastructure. Infrastructure efficiency: How well resources are shielded from production deployment problems. Automation: Reduction in human intervention to fix problems.
Conclusion
I still experimenting with some of the frameworks in my product development. The most important goal is Better to understand, Create a structure for problems and Communicate ideas & solutions.
Thank you! | https://medium.com/@imvarathan/product-management-frameworks-fa52a82f1545 | ['Varatharaj Rajagopal'] | 2021-07-23 07:57:49.536000+00:00 | ['Product Life Cycle', 'Productivity', 'Framework', 'Product Management', 'Product Development'] |
How to use Selenium to automate browser interactions | Note: I recently wrote this piece for Clubhouse here and have got permission to publish it on Medium.
Selenium is an incredibly powerful open source tool that was created to automate web browser interactions, which allows teams to focus on automation testing rather than manual testing. Although it can be time consuming to set up in the short term, the long term benefits will be worth it if done right. This blog post is aimed at developers who have never done any web browser automation before. This is useful to know whether you want to be able to run automation tests as part of your software development life cycle (SDLC) at the company you’re working for or you just want to automate something that you usually do manually.
I’m going to teach you how to log in to a Slack workspace, click on a channel that’s within that workspace and then send a message to the channel — all fully automated. Once you understand how this works, you can then use this as a template for the next flow that you want to automate!
Prerequisites
You have got a basic understanding of Java
You have maven installed on your machine
You have the latest version of Chrome downloaded (I will be running this through Chrome)
You’ll also need the latest version of Chrome Driver which can be found here — download this on to your machine. Chrome Driver is essentially an executable that is used to control Chrome
To see the flow working, you’ll need to be a member of a Slack workspace — you’ll see where you need to enter your email address and password in the code later on
I’d recommend that you look at the code that I have on this Github repository which has everything that you need including every file mentioned below and the structure of the project itself. There’s only six classes in total, which I’ll walk you through by showing you the code and then explaining what it does (note that I’ve removed import statements and so on from the code snippets to make it more readable). So, let’s get started!
This is one of the most self-explanatory classes out of the six classes. In this class you’ll just need to change the URL depending on URL you want to open up (in this case it’ll be a Slack workspace) along with changing the path to where your Chrome Driver has been downloaded. When you download Chrome Driver you’ll get a zip file, so make sure that you’ve extracted this so that you can update this class with the full path to the executable file.
The Page Object Pattern
We’re going to follow a pattern which is called the Page Object Pattern. This is an easy pattern to follow since it doesn’t have too many rules. It essentially states that you should create objects which represent the UI that you want to automate/test. For example, if you’re dealing with two pages on a website (a login page and a Slack channel page in our case), you should then have two page objects corresponding to these pages such as LoginPage.java and ChannelPage.java . By following this approach, if there are any changes made to the web page you know exactly where you need to go to update your code.
This PageObject will be the superclass of our main page objects. This is boilerplate code which sets up the driver and tells it to wait for a maximum of 10 seconds for an element. If it can’t find an element within 10 seconds, you’ll get an error so you know something has gone wrong. Note that this is an exception to the Page Object Pattern that I mentioned above - this class doesn’t map on to a web page but all of our other page objects will extend this class so it’s important to have.
LoginPage is where it starts to get interesting. If you open up the login page for any Slack workspace and log in manually you’ll notice that there’s three steps to it:
Enter email address Enter password Click on the login button
Since there’s a total of three elements that we need to interact with, we’ll create three variables in the LoginPage : emailInput , passwordInput and loginButton . All of these elements have been found by their ID, which is great because sometimes websites don’t make it this easy for you which then means you have to use CSS selectors which aren’t as straightforward and are more prone to change.
Did you notice how the constructor contains a couple of lines that waits for elements? Why do you think this is needed?
The reason why these waits are needed is because we need to be 100% sure that the elements that we’re interacting with are fully loaded before we do anything with them. In this case, we’re calling the elementToBeClickable() method since we want to click on all three of the elements, but there are plenty of other useful methods that can be used for other scenarios such as visibilityOf() , textToBe() and invisibilityOfElementLocated() .
Now let’s take a quick look at the clickLoginButton() method. See how it returns back a ChannelPage ? This is how we tell Selenium that when the login button is clicked, we should be redirected to an entirely new page which has a new set of elements (if this doesn’t happen we’ll get an error in the console, for example: if the password you entered is incorrect then you’ll remain on the login page).
So now that we’ve logged in successfully, we’re now going to end up on another page. When you log in to Slack you land on the first channel that’s in the workspace, which may not be the channel that you want to send the message in. Because of this, I’ve created an element which is called channelLink which is the channel that we want to click on to open. The other element that I’ve created on this page is messageInput which is where we want to type the message in.
Unfortunately at the time of writing this, there were no IDs that could be used for these two elements so I had to use CSS selectors which aren’t as pretty — but it still does the job just as well.
At the stage, all of the hard work is done. Now it’s time to actually run the code. You have two options here:
Run the code from a main method Run the code from a test
I’m going to focus on running it from a test since most people that use Selenium use it as a way to write automation tests to test a feature that they have developed.
We’ll use BaseTest as a superclass that our tests will extend. This class handles how we initialise and terminate the Chrome Driver. Before a test is run, it’ll set up the driver while when the test is finished it’ll also take care of deleting all cookies and then closing all the windows that are open.
Last but not least, we have our SlackTest class which extends from the BaseTest that we just went through above. The sendMessage() test opens up the Slack login page, logs in to the Slack workspace, clicks on a channel and then finally sends the message to the channel.
Your challenge
That’s it! Now that you understand a bit more about Selenium and automation testing, I have a challenge for you. How would you finish off the TODO that is in this test to make sure that the message has successfully been sent? | https://medium.com/@Jamie_Farrelly/how-to-use-selenium-to-automate-browser-interactions-6bfaa448deb5 | ['Jamie Farrelly'] | 2019-06-06 07:33:05.799000+00:00 | ['Selenium', 'Testing', 'Bots', 'Java', 'Software Development'] |
A Must Watch Life-Changing Movies | Movies are equally treated as a literary medium through a visual format. It has all the potential to deliver its substance authentically equally to a book. Nowadays movies are considered to be a part and parcel of our life. It has become one of the inevitable entertainments. Some movies will make us feel delighted, some will make us feel refreshed, some will make us laugh, some will make us think, some will make us realize, etc. are some emotions that we will feel after watching movies.
Amidst all the mass masala movies from all the woods, there are some of the best movies that will bring a new perspective on what life is. Movies play a hugely influential part in changing one’s perception. Likewise, here we are going to see the list of movies that will change the perception of your life. So here are the five life-changing movies that will make you perceive life in different aspects.
take..rolling
Here you go…
Life is Beautiful (1997)
Life is Beautiful is an Italian comedy-drama directed and starred by Roberto Benigni. This movie has its setting in World War II under the Nazi concentration camp.
There is a popular saying: “Every father is a real hero to his children” this movie will be a good example. The joyous pretension of the father to his son even under the hard times in camp will make us feel hard-hitting and smile with tears. I’m sure after watching this movie, your relationship with your father will strengthen more.
Life is Beautiful (1997)
Aruvi (2016)
Aruvi is a Tamil socio-political drama directed by Arun Prabu Purushothaman. The movie revolves around the character Aruvi, the protagonist. “We have no time to stand and stare” is a quote by W.H.Davies. This quote does not fit completely into this film, but it has some similar interpretations of the film.
We are running a very busy life and always looking for momentary pleasures. In this fast-growing world, the status of living determines who you are. End of the day we are on the battlefield of accumulating the earnings to spend on luxuries to show off our standard of living. But that does not mean you are living a peaceful life.
Aruvi questions these and the film says: wealthy people are not healthy; diseased are not untouchables. The film will make you think deeply and that will not be a momentary pleasure.
Aruvi (2016)
Children of Heaven (1997)
Children of Heaven is an Iranian family drama directed by Majid Majidi. The film beautifully showcases the relationship between a brother and a sister. The care, dedication, harmony, and love are shared by both even though during their hard times.
This film is outstanding for portraying the realistic nature of a typical Islamic landscape which makes us feel the heat of the weather while we are watching. After watching, this will surely make you a kind person for your siblings if you were not in early.
Children of Heaven (1997)
Taare Zameen Par (2007)
Taare Zameen Par is a Hindi drama written by Amole Gupte and directed by Aamir Khan and Amole Gupte. This film revolves around the character Ishaan Awasthi, the protagonist. This is a very light-hearted film that says about the parenting of a mentally retarded child.
Don’t underestimate the child for their inability. Every child has their talent which is hidden within them. As the tagline of the film “Every child is special,” is beautifully justified in the film.
Taare Zameen Par (2007)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption is an American drama directed by Frank Darabont. Andy Dufresne a banker, is convicted of murdering his wife. He is sentenced to a lifetime prison for the murder. He befriended Red during his prison life. He had an unquenched desire to get out of the cell. His constant thoughts on getting out of the cell with strong hope made him achieve that. | https://medium.com/@iampraveenhere/life-changing-movies-of-all-time-79df96361cbd | [] | 2020-12-17 04:31:05.671000+00:00 | ['Hollywood', 'Must Watch Movies', 'Film Reviews', 'Movies', 'Cinema'] |
Austin Film Festival 2016: Are You a PROGAMER? | by Rod Machen
It’s one thing to become obsessed with some aspect of nerd culture; it’s another to make a living from it. Such is the world of professional video game players as captured in ProGamer, a new film by Justin Agnew that explores this growing phenomenon.
Like all good documentaries, ProGamer goes beyond its subject matter and finds subjects. In this case, two European gamers become the vehicle through which the story unfolds.
NaNiwa (Johan Lucchesi–all of these players have professional nicknames) is a young player from Sweden, as off-putting as he is talented. His mannerisms are pure geek, born from a lifetime of sitting in front of a computer instead of talking to other humans. But he’s also the asshole jock, competitive in a way that makes him put down his opponents and refuse to find happiness in anything short of first place.
On the other end of the spectrum is White-Ra (Alexey Krupnyk), a veteran of eSports from the Ukraine. He’s old. Really old. Like 30. And yes, in this world (as in much of professional sports) he might as well be a senior citizen. What sets him apart is his enthusiasm, grace, and genuine kindness. As he loses his quick reflexes and deals with eSports-related injuries (leg blood clots!) we see one of the most-respected players in the game move into the next phase of his life.
There’s a broader cultural dimension here as well, and it involves international relations. By leaps and bounds, the world of eSports is dominated by Koreans, so much so that non-Koreans are referred to as foreigners. Seoul is the center of this particular universe. In the tournaments depicted in the film, NaNiwa is the only foreigner that even makes the cut. Still, ultimately, he falls at the hands of these superior players.
eSports is a heavily male-dominated culture; one look at the players and crowds make that evident. The events depicted in ProGamer came before the Gamergate controversy, but it would have been interesting to see how players and participants reacted to that particular blowup.
For something that most people would not be able to imagine as a multi-million dollar industry, the world of eSports is not only huge but continues to grow. ProGamer does a great job of revealing the humanity behind the games and might even convert a few new fans.
To find out more, visit progamerthemovie.com | https://cinapse.co/austin-film-festival-2016-are-you-a-progamer-2dea1140bf05 | ['Rod Machen'] | 2017-01-10 07:10:23.440000+00:00 | ['Esports', 'Gaming', 'In Theaters'] |
Three Different Things: February 25, 2020 | Three Different Things: February 25, 2020
Ajit Pai, Key Business Questions, and a16z AI
DUBNER: So you have personally pinballed between government service and private practice for many years, including a stint at Verizon. Where should we expect to see Ajit Pai 10 years from now? Are you running a telecom? Are you running for president of the United States? What are you doing? PAI: Well, so just between us, since you promised me that no one else was listening — so about a year, two years ago, maybe, when I was in Los Angeles for some meetings, I had a chance to visit Judge Judy. And I told her, as I will tell you, that I think she presides over the highest court in the land, and should she ever choose to hang up her spurs, it would be an honor of a lifetime for me to don the robe. She humored me with a pleasant response. We’ll see if that pans out over the next decade. But other than that, and the Kansas City Chiefs losing their minds and signing a slow 47-year-old to be a wide receiver, I don’t really have any particular aspirations that I can share at this time.
In which public service and reality shows are indistinguishable.
2. Use Data to Answer Your Key Business Questions
This shortage of translators is already stark, but its severity increases exponentially when considered against the backdrop of the kinds of cross-functional teams described above. If activation-ready analytics is the goal, organizations need translators who are multilingual, not just bilingual.
This is one of the hardest aspects of achieving a truly data driven business transformation — the requirement of individuals with cross-domain knowledge. Identifying these individuals and empowering them should be one of your first steps.
3. Andreessen-Horowitz craps on “AI” startups from a great height
This is something which is true of pretty much all machine learning with heavy compute and data problems. The pricing structure of “cloud” bullshit is designed to extract maximum blood from people with heavy data or compute requirements. Cloud companies would prefer to sell the time on a piece of hardware to 5 or 10 customers. If you’re lucky enough to have a startup that runs on a few million rows worth of data and a GBM or Random Forest, it’s probably not true at all, but precious few startups are so lucky. Those who use the latest DL woo on the huge data sets they require will have huge compute bills unless they buy their own hardware. For reasons that make no sense to me, most of them don’t buy hardware.
Some much needed perspective. Here’s his TLDR summary from the article: | https://medium.com/early-hours/three-different-things-february-25-2020-18facbb4bcf5 | ["Sean O'Brien"] | 2020-02-25 12:36:30.802000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'FCC', 'Cloud Computing', 'Data Science', 'AI'] |
How To Design a Creative “About Page” That Stands Out. | Because normal is boring.
When we started Visme, it was all about building a product that people would love using. A product with a personality and a clear mission to help foster creativity. Our team was small at the beginning, so we concentrated on creating the best product possible.
Adding an about page to our site wasn’t at the front of our minds. In the years that followed, our team grew to fill roles that we didn’t need before. Designers, developers, writers, marketers, and more.
One day, I realized that our team had grown to over 30 people from around the world. And we didn’t have a team page or even a company page to present everyone to our user base.
In 2019, we renewed our website and decided to add a company page for the first time.
But we didn’t want just a standard setup with a bunch of photos. It had to be different, it had to be interactive and it had to tell a story.
Our story.
So we got to work.
And this year we launched the Visme company page for everyone to enjoy.
Check it out here.
Navigating and Exploring the Visme Company Page
When you first arrive at the page, you are greeted by a cloud with an illustration of a Visme user in the midst of creation. Visme is in the cloud, so the adventure starts there.
As you scroll down the page, you notice that underneath the cloud is a beanstalk with an animated red ball going through a Rube Goldberg machine.
At different stages of the beanstalk, you find information about Visme the tool, Visme the company and a little about our history among other interactive elements.
Behind a cloud, you’ll see our brand mascot floating and waiting for your attention. There’s a button to watch the brand mascot video in a popup window.
Below that, you’ll find our team’s favorite section.
The Illustrated Team Members
In order to give our company page that extra touch, our designers illustrated all our team members.
You could say that we created Vismemojis for everyone!
The team section is accessible through a little button below the section heading. This helps reduce the overall loading time for the page.
Many of our team members are now using their little illustration as their Slack avatar.
Visme the Engine
Below the team section, you reach the bottom of the beanstalk where the Visme team is hard at work. This is the Visme engine, where our team of developers and designers works behind the scenes to help everyone creating up in the cloud.
Our team is 80% percent remote with people all around the world. This visualization brings us all together in one place.
The Story Behind The Design
Did something about our company page look familiar to you? Maybe the beanstalk?
We feel that a great place to find your creative spark is through stories, legends, and myths. The concept of Visme the engine powering a creative powerhouse in the cloud reminded us of the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.
There are no magic beans or giants that eat children in our version, thankfully! What we tapped into is the positive visual quality of the story. A connection between the ground and the clouds. A link between a strong foundation and unbridled creativity.
The Design Process
At inception, the company page was sketched by hand and then traced to Adobe Illustrator. Some of the elements were rendered in 3D, like the clouds and all the floating objects.
We used Photoshop to do a little tweaking and tied in the 2D and 3D elements together. The SVG animated red ball and Rube Goldberg machines on the stalk were animated with After Effects.
To layout the page in full, we used Sketch. Then we built it all with custom HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. The SVG animations were tied in through the code on the front end to trigger micro-interactions at different points based on the viewer’s position on the page.
Our team consisted of:
1 UX Person
1 illustrator
1 Front-end engineer
1 3D animator
Some people have asked why the page isn’t responsive. The concept of the design really wasn’t meant to be viewed on mobile. With true responsive design, we’d have to break pieces of the content on left/right and this would break the flow of the idea.
As a result, we turned off responsive media queries and the user can zoom in to the area desired and still interact with it. With that said, we may explore a more responsive version in the future.
What We Learned From Waiting to Create Our Company Page
I think it was a good thing that we waited. Back when we started bootstrapping Visme, the culture of the company was not as cemented as it is today. The Visme engine wasn’t as powerful and our cloud of creativity wasn’t as populated.
This was the perfect time to bring this page to life!
We learned that teams take time to become consolidated. You have to hire the right people at the right time, and you make mistakes along the way. Only once we knew we had the team that could skyrocket Visme’s growth, did we feel good about telling the world more about who we are through our company page.
This process has also reminded us how much we believe in fostering creativity in people that don’t feel creative. We enjoy inspiring and empowering that spark in everyone that joins our creativity cloud. We couldn’t have done it without them. | https://medium.com/spread-your-content/how-to-design-a-creative-about-page-that-stands-out-6ff316019240 | ['Payman Taei'] | 2020-08-25 18:43:10.795000+00:00 | ['Teamwork', 'Web Design', 'UI Design', 'UX Design', 'Web Development'] |
@@#Student housing cooperative | A student housing cooperative, also known as co-operative housing, is a housing cooperative for student members. Members live in alternative cooperative housing that they personally own and maintain. These houses are designed to lower housing costs while providing an educational and community environment for students to live and grow in. They are, in general, nonprofit, communal, and self-governing,[1] with students pooling their monetary and personal resources to create a community style home. Many student housing cooperatives share operation and governing of the house. As with most cooperatives, student housing coops follow the Rochdale Principles and promote collaboration and community work done by the members for mutual benefit.
Most student housing coops in Canada and the United States are members of North American Students of Cooperation.[citation needed]
Contents
Several of the earliest US student cooperatives (e.g. at Northwestern University and Wellesley College) had begun by at least 1915, for the purpose of housing female students.[2] Most student housing cooperatives are formed to provide an alternative dorm for students who are unable to afford college due to housing costs. For example, the Harriet E. Richards House [3] at Boston University (1928) was established to provide a cheap alternative to dorm life for women scholars.[4] The Berkeley Student Cooperative, amongst others, started during the Great Depression to help provide affordable food and housing for Berkeley students. Other early examples that started in the Depression years: the Cooperative Living Organization at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida founded in 1931 and the Michigan Socialist House at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan founded in 1932.
Others were formed to provide a more inclusive and supportive environment for students. Many student housing cooperatives are focused around socialist principles or political activism (Michigan Socialist House), veganism or vegetarianism, racial or ethnic identity (Biko), or environmental concerns.
Throughout the twentieth century, student housing cooperatives expanded, but some floundered. Many formed coalitions in the face of rising debt or bankruptcy.[5] The North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO) was formed in 1968 as a way to link existing cooperatives together while educating and improving cooperatives across North America.[6] Today, NASCO primarily serves as an association that promotes development and communication amongst coops and promotes communal living.
Management of Student Housing Cooperatives[edit]
There is not a standard way of running a housing cooperative. Most student housing cooperative members have full voting privileges on issues such as rent, future members, and community activity and then maintain an elected board of committee members who oversee the running of the cooperative.[7] Many student housing cooperatives require work shifts that help lower the overall cost of living. These may include chores or cooking. Some coops award points to the type of chore and members are required to complete a certain number of points a week.[8] All cooperatives expect members to contribute assistance throughout the year to keep the cooperative running smoothly and efficiently. It is up to the individual coops as to whether the members elect a board or committee to oversee the entire cooperative.
Partial List of Student Housing Cooperatives[edit]
Student co-operatives are situated in close proximity to colleges and universities. The second biggest student co-operative is Waterloo Co‑operative Residence Inc. in Waterloo, Ontario with 800 resident members.
The East Coast is represented by:
Central Canada is represented by:
Educational Community Living Environment (ECOLE) [9] in Montreal, Quebec
Coopérative d’habitation étudiant Triangle Rose in Montreal, Quebec
Campus Co‑operative Residence Inc [10] in Toronto, Ontario
Guelph Campus Co‑operative [11] in Guelph, Ontario
Waterloo Co‑operative Residence Inc. in Waterloo, Ontario
Science ’44 [12] in Kingston, Ontario
The West Coast is represented by:
Many of the co-ops are members of The Cooperative Housing Federation of Canada and NASCO.
United Kingdom[edit]
Edinburgh Student Housing Co-operative provides affordable, democratically run housing for its 106 members.
The Student Co-operative Dwellings was set up to stimulate greater opportunities for students to live in co-operatives.
There are three operational student housing co-operatives in the UK:
There are also initiatives at various stages of development to establish Housing Co-operatives in: Brighton,[15] Exeter,[16] Glasgow,[17] Leeds,[18] Newcastle[citation needed], Norwich [19] and Nottingham.[20]
All operating coops and initiatives are members of Students for Cooperation, a UK wide federation of student co-operatives which includes a number of other groups across the UK working to establish student housing co-operatives.[21] Students for Cooperation have conducted a primary report and are seeking to establish a National Body of Student Housing Cooperatives (NBSHC) to help support and grow the UK student housing cooperative movement.[22][23]
An unsuccessful plan to launch a student housing co-operative took place in 2004, when MMUnion partnered with the National Union of Students and Confederation of Co-operative Housing [24] to offer cheaper cooperatively owned alternatives to city housing for Manchester Metropolitan University students. The NUS plan unfortunately fell through as NUS management changed.[25]
United States[edit]
Artist, student and community co-operatives are common in the San Francisco Bay Area. Many of these housing co-operatives are members of organizations such as NASCO.
Currently, the biggest student co-op is the Berkeley Student Cooperative, formerly known as the University Students Cooperative Association, in Berkeley, CA with 1300 students living in 17 houses and 3 apartment complexes. Other large-scale co-op systems include MSU Student Housing Cooperative of Michigan State University, the Inter-Cooperative Council at the University of Michigan, and UCLA University Cooperative Housing Association with 400+ students.
Other examples of such cooperatives include:
Three student housing cooperatives are presently operating in Australia. | https://medium.com/@hihokiy635/student-housing-cooperative-6cf8765b0584 | [] | 2020-12-25 15:17:40.977000+00:00 | ['Students', '“Housing Co-op List”', 'Student Loans', 'Student Voice', 'Student Life'] |
Fairness and Bias in Artificial Intelligence | Biases in AI
Reporting Bias
Reporting bias occurs when the frequency of events, properties, and/or outcomes captured in a data set does not accurately reflect their real-world frequency. This bias can arise because people tend to focus on documenting circumstances that are unusual or especially memorable, assuming that the ordinary can “go without saying.” @Google
Explaining Reporting Bias by Statistical Entropy
Case Study 1
A mobile camera or digital camera is used as a speed gun detector to detect changes in speed of vehicles. In order to detect speed, the vehicle is detected first and then the amplitude of the image is calculated.
Reference Articles
[Optical Flow Estimation] http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~fleet/research/Papers/flowChapter05.pdf
Case Study 2
A dashcam is fitted to vehicle inside and is used to detect mistakes in lane changing. In order to detect the motion, the vehicle is detected first and then the graph of the images in the video are evaluated.
Reference Articles
[A paper on Perceived Stress Questionnaire referring to the Driver with the Dashcam] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5981243/
1. Problem Explanation: Capture of Frequency of Events
Case Study 1: (Capture of Frequency of Events using threshold of Pixel values)
Vehicle Detection using OpenVINO
Vehicle Detection using Optical Flow Estimation and Bounding Boxes
In the above two example videos, the number of points inside each bounding box is evaluated over a set of frames. The same graph is used to show the Frame 1633 under a chosen frequency.
The challenge lies in converting this graph of information of particle count into usable statistics such as Distance and Speed or even parameters that show direct influence of statistical entropy.
— How to extract Parameters from the Exponential Graph
The example code below extracts positive values from the points inside bounding box rectangle.
def get_lookback_frame(points, lookback_frames):
# shift points by 1 frame
return points.shift(1).rolling(window=lookback_frames).min() def get_long_signal(points, lookback_frame):
# calculate the steadily increasing part of the evaluating graph
long = (points > lookback_frame).astype(np.int64)
return long def filter_signal(points, lookback_signal):
return points * lookback_signal
The example code below finds outliers in Parameters such as Speed:
# Outlier Detection
def get_return_lookback(points, lookback_frame):
# evaluate log returns of lookback and current ones
return np.log(points) - np.log(lookback_frame) def get_signal_returns(signal, lookback_returns):
# multiply the signal to lookback_returns
return signal * lookback_returns
Log Returns of Each Threshold of Points Found from Tracker
The log returns matches with the statistical entropy taken in this problem.
Calculating residual errors from a linear regression fit will provide us with outliers in speed.
To estimate the distance, the log returns is a good enough metric as it steadily decreases.
Case Study 2: (Capture of Frequency of Events using PSQs)
In evaluation of PSQs, same technique is applied. In this case the count is more or less the same across the interval which implies the table must be converted to a PCA like transformation.
Automation Bias
Automation bias is a tendency to favor results generated by automated systems over those generated by non-automated systems, irrespective of the error rates of each. @Google
2. Problem Explanation: Video Inference
Case Study 1 (Speed gun detector)
Vehicle Detection using OpenVINO
Vehicle Detection using Optical Flow Estimation and Bounding Boxes
The above video is demonstrating optical flow detection within the bounding box images as you can see. The detected points are filtered over a threshold which emits data to be sent through an analysis pipeline. The Analyzed data is used to determine the statistical parameters of the video.
So why does Automation Bias exist? Automation Bias exists when a piece of software with single original model can be used to determine the statistical properties which helps in optimization of the video characteristics.
Selection Bias
Selection Bias occurs if a data set’s examples are chosen in a way that is not reflective of their real-world distribution. Selection Bias can take many different forms: @Google
3. Problem Explanation: Evaluating a Graph
Coverage bias: Data is not selected in a representative fashion. @Google
Case Study 1: (Speed Gun Detector)
[Correct]: Collect Order of Appearance of Nodes inside Speed Gun Detector by Confidence Intervals
Collect Order of Appearance of Nodes inside Speed Gun Detector by Confidence Intervals [Wrong]: Do Particle Count from detected boxes over n frames without forming order of appearance of bounding boxes
Do Particle Count from detected boxes over n frames without forming order of appearance of bounding boxes [Correct]: Connect two adjacent frames using Order of Appearance Collected with correct threshold
Connect two adjacent frames using Order of Appearance Collected with correct threshold [Wrong]: Do Particle Count over frames by choosing the wrong threshold of pixels
The particle count inside those bounding boxes are measured from Optical Flow Phase Based Methods.
The data collected does not form a representative fashion but they are transformed into usable statistics.
viz = pd.DataFrame(columns=['vehicle', 'count', 'frame', 'nodes']) frame = 0
for n, t in zip(nodes, threshold):
frame += 1
map_n = list(map(lambda k: str(k), n))
for i, j in zip(n, t):
viz = viz.append({'vehicle': i, 'count': j, 'frame': frame, 'nodes': "-".join(map_n)}, ignore_index=True)
Non-response Bias: (or participation bias): Data ends up being unrepresentative due to participation gaps in the data-collection process. @Google
Case Study 1: (Speed Gun Detector)
Participation Gaps can occur in vehicle detection because some bounding boxes may get undetected either due to Deep Learning error which is very unlikely to happen. The other reason is when the vehicles are moving sequentially, the bounding boxes switch the Confidence Intervals or Confidence Threshold implying they change their order of appearance in the detection. This introduces participation bias in detection of a particular vehicle from a set of vehicles.
Code to Explain the Bounding Box Detection:
def draw_boxes(out_write_npy, zone, frame, result, args, width, height):
for box in result[0][0]:
# Output shape is 1x1x100x7
conf = box[2] # comparison of confidence threshold
if conf >= args.pt:
xmin = int(box[3] * width)
ymin = int(box[4] * height)
xmax = int(box[5] * width)
ymax = int(box[6] * height)
# draw bounding box rectangles
cv2.rectangle(frame, (xmin, ymin), (xmax, ymax), args.c, args.th)
return frame
Code to show participation bias of bounding boxes: | https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/fairness-and-bias-in-artificial-intelligence-c7fbfe880df | ['Aswin Vijayakumar'] | 2021-03-09 07:49:40.222000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Fairness', 'Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Bias'] |
VR storytelling blog #1 — The horseless carriage syndrome | When we first started to make fiction films we had no clue what we were doing. What happened was that we’d set up a camera and shoot everything in one shot, from a wide angle. The result looked something like a theater play.
The first websites we made were just pieces of text with a couple of hyperlinks and buttons. We started to add pictures, very cool gifs and awesome flash animations, but we had no clue what the possibilities of interactivity realy were.
This awesome gif was originally a flash animation that I made when I was 15 (2001).
Throughout time, every new medium was first looked at with eyes that were used to media we already knew. This phenomenon is called ‘the horseless carriage syndrome’. It stems from when the first cars were introduced, which looked like carriages without horses. The syndrome was introduced by media philosopher Marshall McLuhan. Right now we stand at the beginning of virtual reality; the precursor of total immersion (because that would obviously be the Star Trek holodeck). As history tends to repeat itself, I thought we might fall into this same horseless carriage syndrome with VR. So I went looking for it to see if we do.
The ‘horseless carriage syndrome’.
One thing I found is the way Eugene Chung from Penrose Studios thinks about VR. The way I see it is that one of the biggest aspects that makes VR the medium that it is, is the fact that the viewer itself can be in the film. Yes, there are some movies that break the fourth wall; where actors talk directly into the camera. In modern theater or stand up this even happens quite often. But when it does, there always remains that distance between the audience and the stage or screen. In VR a character can look you straight in the eye and walk around you. That makes you present in that space, at that moment, together with the characters of the story. There was never a wall to begin with.
Eugene seems to be very successful in bringing this wall back into VR, where he feels it belongs. In that way it looks like he’s trying to master using VR the way he would use film. He does this by shrinking the whole setting the viewer is placed in, including its characters. This way the viewer doesn’t feel like a ghost when his presence is not confirmed.
My guess is that you might feel more like a God, looking down on the world. After all, between a God and his world there is always a fourth wall. I don’t think anybody ever looked their God straight in the eyes while praying. What Eugene does is smart. He makes it possible to continue using other aspects of VR while keeping the fourth wall of film. Still, I wonder… if I were to tell a certain story that included a fourth wall, why would I choose to tell it in VR?
I do think there is still place for VR stories with a fourth wall. For instance Terres de Hommes’ VR experience ‘Amani’, in which you witness the life of a childslave. Here the fact that you’re there without actually ‘being there’ is part of the way they want to tell the story to you. It makes you feel helpless in the situation. It’s exactly how you’d want to make someone feel right before you’d tell them they’re able to help these kind of girls, with some money.
These are two examples where VR makers made it work to not acknowledge the presence of the viewer, but I could tell you far more examples where it doesn’t. I think the important question to ask is: does it serve a purpose to put the fourth wall back in VR? Also, does the use of the medium still serve a purpose if you do? I’ll write about this in my next blog.
Liked it? Please share. Or subscribe to our newsletter for more blogposts about innovation in media and interactive storytelling. | https://medium.com/hackastory-playgrounds/vr-storytelling-blog-1-the-horseless-carriage-syndrome-f6f57e87b4c6 | ['Nikki Van Sprundel'] | 2016-04-09 22:35:27.452000+00:00 | ['VR', 'Storytelling', 'Virtual Reality'] |
Your Project Outsourced #1: The Different Types Of Outsourcing & Benefits For Your Business | Your Project Outsourced #1: The Different Types Of Outsourcing & Benefits For Your Business Przemysław Markowski Follow Jun 8 · 7 min read
In the Your Project Outsourced series, I’m going to cover all the essential information about outsourcing your project to an external partner (like INVO), and key things you need to be aware of when you scale up your team this way. If you’re a founder, a technical lead, or a product manager who wants to create or scale up your digital product, this series is for you! In the first article, we’re going to discuss what outsourcing is, what makes it different from regular hiring, and what are the key benefits of using outsourcing in your business.
All Articles In This Series:
What Is Outsourcing?
So what is outsourcing anyway? To put it simply, outsourcing is essentially moving work from inside your company to the outside. However, there are many different types of outsourcing out there that you can use, depending on your specific needs. The three main types of outsourcing are onshore, nearshore, and offshore. As you may already know, these terms are related to where the outsourced work is done.
Onshore VS. Nearshore VS. Offshore
Onshore outsourcing means you hire a team that’s very close to you, likely in the same city. Nearshore outsourcing means the team you hired is rather close, within the same time zone for flexibility. And offshore means that there may be several time zones and locations involved with the team you hired.
Different Outsourcing Models
Within those types of IT outsourcing, you can also find different outsourcing models. Some companies simply outsource employees with specific knowledge and expertise for the duration of a project and manage them themselves. Other businesses want to outsource the entire project from start to finish (this is where most software houses and agencies come in). There’s also the option to outsource the development of a specific feature or a few functions only. The last model is especially popular among companies who have specific experts on board but are working on other projects and simply don’t have the capacity to develop a certain feature.
Outsourcing VS. Hiring
To outsource or to hire? That is the question! But what is the difference between the two? Technically, it is a matter of who is actually paying the employees. But when we go a bit deeper, there’s a lot more differences. I will give you an example to explain this better.
Hiring An In-House Team
Imagine you’re an entrepreneur who is about to start the development of their product, let’s say a mobile app. So if you go for building your in-house team, you need to assess the scope of the project, choose the best tech stack and decide how many developers, designers, testers etc. you have to involve in the project. Then you need to plan and execute a recruitment process (or hire someone to do it for you), hire the selected candidates and onboard them. All this will already take at least 6 months and the costs are not small. And this is not the end of your expenses, because most of the time you will need to provide your new employees with equipment, software licenses, and some extra perks if you want to make your job offer extra enticing. Considering how many companies are looking to hire IT experts, the competition is really tough and some businesses can really outshine others when it comes to perks and benefits. So generally speaking, the process is pretty complex, and the costs don’t consist of the salaries only, but also include all the side costs as well as your time, which should be your most valuable asset when it comes to building your business from scratch.
Outsourcing
Now, outsourcing is simply hiring some company that has already done this process for you, possibly with much greater experience. So if you see an hourly rate on an outsourcing offer and go: “that’s too much, I could hire some experts on my own and pay them less”. Well, I bet you could. But don’t forget about all the additional costs you have to take into consideration. Also, time is of great significance, because finding experts is not an easy task and requires a lot of effort, while an outsourcing agency might already have the skilled people you’re looking for on stand-by.
Key Benefits Of Outsourcing
I know this all probably sounds like an ad for outsourcing. But from my personal experience I really believe it’s a better choice, especially for new CEOs and startups at an early stage. There are many benefits to working with an outsourcing agency to support software development for your company. For each business the key benefits will be different, depending on what your specific needs are. But some things are true for all types and models of outsourcing. Let’s break them down:
1. Flexibility
Outsourcing provides a great deal of flexibility. It allows you to implement many competencies and include expert employees in your projects without the need to commit to hiring them full-time. This means that your resources are more agile and you can change your team members based on your project’s specific needs at the moment. This is especially great for companies whose main focus is not software development or for startups in the early stage of their development with limited resources.
2. Cost Savings
Outsourcing is a great cost-saving solution. Mostly because you will avoid the costs of having staff in-house. Depending on the model of IT outsourcing you go for, you can also save a lot of money on infrastructure, employment costs as well as software and tools. Outsourcing companies also offer a level of expertise and experienced technical staff on-demand, which means you can reduce recruitment and onboarding costs. Often those two processes can be the biggest expenses, take the most time and can also slow down your development.
3. Access To Skills And Knowledge Outside Of Your Location
Staying on the topic of finding employees, it can sometimes prove to be very hard to find specific experts within your local area. Especially when it comes to the software development industry, the market is very competitive, and in some cases finding the person with the right expertise and experience can take several months. I can tell you from our experience at INVO that especially when it comes to experts in new, emerging technologies like Flutter, the recruitment process is very long. With outsourcing you gain access to specific experts who fulfill your requirements while it’s the agency’s job to find them. You also will be able to access people from different locations, meaning if there are no competencies in your specific region, you can find them elsewhere.
4. Better Manage In-House Resources
Another great benefit of IT outsourcing is that when you outsource some of the work to outside service providers, you leave more room for your in-house team to focus on their tasks. It’s especially important when it comes to your operations and management staff whose tasks are crucial to reaching the company’s goals. In this case, outsourcing some of the functions will be a great strategic move for your business. For example, most companies actually outsource accounting tasks to free up the C-level management.
5. Accelerate Business Processes
Most of the outsourced work is related to information technology and software development, however, the next top outsourced functions are business processes. Those operations can slow down your business and leaving them to external providers can be a big relief. Outsourcing companies have more expertise in-house, they have a bullet-proof infrastructure and tested management processes. This means that they can come in and change the way your business operates, reduce costs and relieve your internal staff from some of the functions.
6. Share The Risks
Most of the time, especially when it comes to IT outsourcing, your partner will share the risks and responsibilities associated with the project. It will be just as important to your external provider as it will be to your internal team to deliver a product that users and clients appreciate. This will take some of the burden off of you and your in-house team, leaving you to be more focused on delivering an excellent product for the users.
7. Fast Scaling
The last key benefit of teaming up with an external IT outsourcing company is how fast you can scale your business using those services. Without outsourcing, scaling this fast is almost impossible. Especially when it comes to software products and projects. Outsourcing gives you the ability to control your infrastructure and make changes quickly to adjust to the market and industry trends. It is something that will make managing your business and staying competitive on the market much easier. Having this kind of control over your infrastructure enables you to be more free and work quicker.
Making the decision whether to use outsourcing is a big one and you shouldn’t rush it. However, I hope this series provides you with some insight on how outsourcing works and what are the two sides of this coin.
If you’d like to talk to me about building your digital product — write me an email at [email protected]. Or you can contact us via our website to get your project started. | https://medium.com/invo-stories/your-project-outsourced-1-the-different-types-of-outsourcing-benefits-for-your-business-6cdeb14fe865 | ['Przemysław Markowski'] | 2021-06-29 10:22:59.272000+00:00 | ['Development', 'Business Strategy', 'Outsourcing', 'Software Development', 'Technology'] |
Lacking Services from Insurance, County, Unhoused Berkeley Writer Seeks Chemo Recovery Shelter | Timothy Busby on Gilman Street in Berkeley in early 2020. Photo courtesy of Timothy Busby.
Timothy Busby, a 56 year old writer who lives in a van in Berkeley, just started chemotherapy for cancer in his neck. He has tried to plan ahead by arranging indoor shelter for his recovery through his healthcare, non-profit, state and county programs but has been unable to secure it. A friend of his, Alastair Boone, is putting together a fundraiser to secure him a hotel room to recover in, and Busby is accepting the help.
“There are so many different systems that are failing in this case,” said Boone, who criticized Busby’s healthcare provider for not taking into account his shelter needs. Busby pays $507 a month to Blue Cross Blue Shield Mississippi, the vast majority of his $733 disability income. They have not agreed to provide him a private space for his recovery once he exists the hospital.
Robbi Montoya, the program director for Dorothy Day House, describes Busby as “a personal friend” who she is very close with. She has offered him shelter space for his recovery, which was difficult to arrange. In order to reduce the risk of COVID for those that use their shower, laundry and shelter services, Dorothy Day House has reduced their services by about 2/3rds.
Busby is worried about the risk of infection if he is sharing space, particularly showering space, with other people who live on the street during his recovery. He is hoping to secure a hotel room instead for a two to three weeks after he exists the hospital, which Montoya also thinks would be his best practical option.
“A shelter environment would be a last resort,” she said. “If he can’t continue to be in a medical facility throughout his full recovery, the next best thing would be a hotel room where he can be safe and clean.”
“My immune system will be really low as it is with anybody who receives chemo and radiation,” said Busby. “So I’ll be more susceptible to COVID. Given the circumstances of being on the street, that could very easily be a death sentence.”
Although the County of Alameda and the State of California launched programs to protect people experiencing homelessness from COVID, these programs are failing to meet Busby’s needs. At the time of writing, data shows that Operation Comfort, a state and county program, has secured 873 hotel rooms and that 129 of them are currently empty. But Busby doesn’t qualify for this program as it is currently limited to people who are COVID positive, symptomatic, or have had contact with those who have tested positive for COVID.
Temporary COVID response state and county funded shelter programs Project Roomkey and Operation Safer Ground could possibly have been options for Busby a little over a month ago, but he has not been able to access them now. The County of Alameda’s website states that as of November 1, “no additional guests will be placed in safer ground sites.” Of Project Roomkey, the site says, “the program will soon be winding down.” In an email, Alameda County Communications Director Jeri Randrup claimed that “stimulus funds are no longer available” for Project Roomkey hotels.
When I interviewed Busby over the phone a few days before his chemo started he was becoming accustomed to using a feeding tube at The Acute Care Tower in Highland Hospital. He said breathing too deeply felt like someone was hitting him in the ribs. His tone sounded subdued and rugged, but I also read an optimistic calm. Perhaps that calm was there for several reasons: he saw his cancer and chemo as small bumps in the road compared to more traumatic past events in his life, he anticipated receiving help, and he also had fond memories in his past that he felt were “just part of the balance.”
“Ying yang, tit for tat, whatever you want to call it” he said. “You can’t have extreme happiness without extreme unhappiness.”
Busby grew up in Mississippi, then moved in California at age 19 and learned about asbestos abatement. He moved back to Jackson, Mississippi at age 24, starting his own successful and lucrative asbestos abatement business. He described the times when his business was booming as “unbelievably good,” and that he “got to see and experience a lot of things that most people don’t.”
But Busby said he “experienced some unbelievably horrific times as well” in Mississippi. He moved from Jackson to Ocean Springs where, during a two year period, he lost six close family members and friends as Hurricane Katrina destroyed his house and everything he owned. He tried to start his business back up, but continued to face setbacks and never came close to succeeding at the level he previously had. Worse times were soon to come.
In 2011, he was shot at point blank range on the left side of his face. His doctors told him he had a 5% chance of survival. It took him two years to have a minimal understanding of what even happened. The injury required 14 different surgeries. Eventually his wife left and he started living under a bridge in New Orleans.
“It was very dangerous,” Busby said of being homeless in New Orleans. “People got killed there all the time and it was never shocking.”
He moved back to California in his mid 40s, eventually settling in Berkeley, where he has published articles primarily about life from the viewpoint of being homeless. Although he currently lives in a van, much of his writing is informed from five years he spent sleeping on cardboard, under a bridge, or in front of stores and dumpsters. Recently he published an article in Street Spirit which serves as a grave warning to those at risk of eviction related to COVID where he described five stages of becoming homeless. It was through his work with Street Spirit, where he has written about a dozen and a half articles, that he met Alastair Boone, who edits the publication.
“We were just talking and he mentioned that he was worried that he wouldn’t be housed through his recovery,” Boone said. “It’s not like he asked [for help]. I think the assumption with most people in Tim’s situation is that you just have to make it work, do your best to find a safe place.”
Boone is happy to help Busby with her fundraiser but laments that so many others are likely in a similar position and cannot get the help they need through healthcare, state, or county programs.
“It’s heartbreaking knowing that he wouldn’t have had anything come through for him if we didn’t happen to be connected,” she said.
Last summer, Busby published an article in Berkeleyside that served as a tribute to a close friend, Michelle Marie Larson, and described how her lack of shelter contributed to her death. The tribute also spoke of her generosity and how she would always share the little she had, including her food stamps, feeding Busby and others who were hungry. When he is able, Busby also helps to feed people, and volunteers regularly with Food Not Bombs.
“I really like Berkeley and I really enjoy life,” said Busby. Berkeley is where he claims he has found the best people he has ever met.
Shortly after moving to Berkeley he witnessed his “first experience of agape love.” He saw a woman, who was also experiencing homelessness, give a homeless man who appeared to have even less than her, both materially and in terms of cognitive capability, her only coat on a cold night.
“That guy doesn’t have the ability to get a coat,” he recalls her saying in reaction to his baffled response to her choice, “I do.”
People like her, Boone, Montoya, and Larson have all impressed Busby who said lately he has “met more and more people that do things because they’re the right things to do, and not because of what they’ll gain.”
Boone finds that relying on individuals to do the right thing is not a sustainable model and said that what “should fall on a welfare program, falls on the people.” She wishes government programs met people’s needs more often.
“One of the reasons we see such a high mortality rate amongst people that live on the street is that when you are unsheltered and you fall upon bad heath you usually don’t have resources” she said. “You just have to make use of what’s available to you outside and in most cases that makes your chances of survival very low. That’s unacceptable.”
Readers who wish to donate to help shelter Busby during his recovery can do so through this link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/house-tim-busby-during-his-chemo-treatment
Notes: A shorter version of this story will appear next week in print in The Berkeley Post. A similar version will appear soon on The Post News Group’s website. | https://medium.com/@zackhaber/lacking-services-from-insurance-county-unhoused-berkeley-writer-seeks-chemo-recovery-shelter-91cfb21b4205 | ['Zack Haber'] | 2020-12-03 17:25:24.923000+00:00 | ['Bay Area', 'Government', 'Homeless', 'Disability', 'Healthcare'] |
Free Data Science Courses | If you people have any interest about Data Science or you have heard about Data Science and you want to know from where you can get the knowledge or can do the course of Data Science for free then read this carefully.
In this article we will tell you that from where you can get the free course of Data Science but first let me tell you little about Data Science.
What is Data Science
I think you all people ever studied about the statistics in your mathematics classes in your Schools. yes, I am talking about those tables and the results that you got form that and then you predict various aspects on the basis of those results.
In those tables you people read the Data and then compute the results. If I talk about the small businesses there you have small amount of Data that you write on the Excel and then you will compute the results. By those results you can calculate the growth of that business or what the things are required to improve the business. But if I talk about the big businesses or the big firms Like Google , Apple or many others they have large amount of Data . They can not compute that Data on Excel or can not gather information just by those traditional methods . So , here Data Science comes in the pictures .
Data Science is used to do the same task but in the modern way and for the businesses that have the large amount of Data. By that Data, Company can do a lot of things but the one major thing is to improve their businesses statistics and the creativity they can generate for the growth . So, that’s why there is a big need of Data Science .
Work of a Data Scientist
There are various tasks that can be done in the Data Science :-
1. Data cleaning:- Data cleaning is performed after we get the Data from a particular task . In Data cleaning we have a large amount of Data , So there will be inconsistency in the Data and other difficulties that a Data scientist has to solve and extract the right information to use.
After this many other processes happen like Data loading where Data is loaded after the cleaning of Data then there Data processing happens to gather some useful information and visualize that .
If you want to learn how to get started this Data Science journey you can check this out click here .
Free Data Science Courses
On the web you will find various Data Science courses most of them are paid . There are some highly authorized platform like Coursera , Udemy , EDX etc.
But if you want to learn it for free then you can check these that are mentioned below . The first platform is
1. Cognitiveclass.ai:-
Here in this image you can see the interface of Cognitive class the URL of website is same as mentioned in the above name . Here you can learn various technical stuff like Python, AI, Cloud, Blockchain etc. So this is the first web platform where you can learn Data Science for free.
Here you will get the complete course of Data Science. On this platform you will see the Course name Python for Data Science. There you will get textual stuff for reading and there you will get videos to learn .
There you can download the stuff to read and enhance the knowledge. There is also a plus point of the Course that you can check your knowledge about what you read in this Course because there is a option of practice lab where you can implement your knowledge and improve skills.
There you can download both text files and videos files. you will also get Quiz questions there and you have to solve those which are quite simple to solve. This course consists various modules so overall it is a good course to learn Data Science for free and you have interest in other Technical components then you can learn others course also which related to emerging Technologies these days .
2. Kaggle:-
Kaggle is also a good platform to learn Data Science for free in the image you can see the interface of website . Here you will get the various courses like Deep learning , Machine learning , Artificial intelligence etc. You can learn Data Science here for free , you can find various concepts to learn . There you will find some practical exercises to improve skill on the scale of practical implementation of Data Science.
On this platform you will find some communities so you can use those communities to answers your questions and to get answers of your questions. So, this is a good platform to learn Data Science .
There is another platform like Google Machine learning course which you can learn for Data Science. Dats Science is a very wide concept or you can say it is a very big field to create you career in this.
And here I want to say you people after learning this course you people can do your own projects and you should do that otherwise there is no benefit to do this course .
Best of luck… | https://medium.com/@shubjai006/free-data-science-courses-c6d5c6646981 | [] | 2021-01-18 14:37:05.753000+00:00 | ['Free', 'Data Science', 'Data Scientist', 'Course'] |
5 Things to Remember if You Love Someone with Dementia | People with dementia are frightened. They feel increasingly isolated and alone. None of us can fully comprehend what they go through at a mental level.
As family members, we too feel frightened — frightened at the thought of losing a much-loved family member or a lifelong soul-mate. There are also the conflicted emotions of guilt and anxiety as we struggle to adapt to this new situation.
At first, a diagnosis of dementia into the family brings a whole load of uncertainty and fear. Caring for my mother with Alzheimer’s disease at home taught me this and, to a high degree, justified it.
More than a decade of home care later, I have, however, also learned that, with a shift in mindset, there is still a life to be led. Even after a dementia diagnosis, there are still connections to be made and relationships (albeit changed) to be enjoyed.
Understanding what life is like for a person with a diagnosis of dementia helps you become more tolerant, loving, and understanding — something that benefits everyone in the family.
To this end, I have put together a list of the 5 considerations that will help you, when you love someone with dementia. These are some of the most important lessons I have learned over the past decade as a family caregiver, and as a MSc graduate in Dementia Studies.
Keeping these 5 things in mind will help you if your partner, parent, or other family member has dementia.
1. People with dementia can retain ability — but they need our help.
People living at home with dementia often suffer from “excess disabilities” — a term that refers to the loss of ability caused by something other than the disease itself. What does this mean? That we can do too much for them.
On receiving a new diagnosis of dementia into the family, often, as family members, we immediately start to do everything on the person’s behalf. This comes from a desire to eliminate the risk of failure on their part. Although well-meaning, when done early in the disease trajectory this often leads to increased levels of learned helplessness, loss of sense of self and reduced quality of life.
However, if the person is encouraged to stay active and involved as part of the family for as long as possible, this will help them to retain skills and stay connected. The more they are allowed to do for themselves, the better chance they will have of keeping and building on remaining abilities.
This will help them to maintain feelings of self-esteem, belonging and worthiness while also helping to preserve some form of family “continuity” at home. In the face of the biographical disruption that comes with any progressive disease, holding on to the small things can help keep life as normal as possible.
2. They still feel emotions such as joy and happiness.
Everyone’s experience with dementia is unique.
However, in terms of disease pathology, research shows that in people with dementia, the frontal lobes responsible for personality and emotions are often still relatively intact until the advanced stage of the condition. Aesthetic preferences have also been shown to remain constant; as does musical likes and dislikes, abilities and memories as seen here.
So, when you feel like giving up, find a way to tap into what is still there. The things your loved one has always enjoyed are hidden — but still in there somewhere.
3. They don’t like change.
People with dementia don’t like change. Unfamiliar environments and too many alterations in their surroundings severely challenge someone who is already having problems with recall. Working things out and trying to remember things are both more difficult when the environment shifts often.
Any change carried out at home should primarily be for ensuring safety and security. Creating a living environment that is stress and clutter-free, as well as helping to build on remaining ability, will also be of use.
4. They are highly sensitive to their physical and social environments.
Many of the symptoms of dementia are subjective. One common recurring theme is this fear response to an overly stimulating environment. In general, people with dementia can’t cope with loud noises, bright lights, or excessive external stimuli.
A bright light or a cold breeze from an open window may cause discomfort. The person with dementia may not necessarily be able to tell you what the problem is — the only indication to you that something is wrong is their agitation. But by simply fixing the problem, the issue can be resolved.
If you care for someone with dementia and they start to become agitated, look around the room for things that might be overstimulating to them. It is one problem, at least, that has an easy fix.
5. They benefit from the familiarity of situation, place or action.
Anything that is a reminder of the past is of value, whether the home or a previous role, occupation, or hobby.
Ordinary, taken-for-granted tasks can become extraordinary as they help the person continue to attach to their sense of identity, as well as to nurture a shared life as a family. Remembering past hobbies with your loved one is a great way to positively reinforce their sense of self.
In the mild stage of dementia, I began acting as a family carer for my mother, a retired nurse. Carrying out nursing tasks together (such as bed-making) worked two-fold. Firstly, it helped her to resurrect happy memories of working in the hospital while acting as a reminder of past professional status. Secondly, it offered the opportunity to enjoy “us” moments, providing a welcome refuge from the uncertainty of the disease.
Picking Up Where your Loved One Left Off
People talk of the burden of dementia caregiving, and yes, it is not without hardship. It can present challenges, but it can also provide moments of hope and contentment.
When you really take the time to look at life through their eyes, you have to conclude that there is only one burden in dementia — theirs.
And, if, you can look beyond the dementia label, applying the love and compassion you have always felt for your loved one, hopefully, you can find and connect at a halfway meeting ground. | https://medium.com/in-fitness-and-in-health/5-things-to-remember-if-you-love-someone-with-dementia-a9c6befff7ff | ['Catherine Verner Msc'] | 2020-09-22 19:36:36.079000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Mental Health', 'Dementia', 'Alzheimers', 'Aging'] |
Layered security in AWS — Introduction | Photo by Deleece Cook on Unsplash
Success to a good cloud platform is based on solid security foundation that it is built upon. Securing a cloud environment is a vast domain. Broadly we can break the AWS security posture in four areas.
Account Level Security — SCP, whitelist whether an AWS Service can be consumed in a account(s).
Service Level Security — Whitelisted Service APIs that can be consumed by a BAU principal. How service can interact with each other i.e. Service linked role.
Resource Level Security — What resource of whitelisted services can be used. resource/bucket/queue policy etc.
Application Level Security — Privilege given to application that is inside the resource can be some code running inside EC2 or a container or a application inside Beanstalk or EMR.
Let us walk through a simple example to demonstrate how we can build a layered security architecture. In our example we have an EC2 that will be reading and writing to an S3 bucket.
At the outset it looks very simple and straightforward. Lest look the same from an AWS security constructs point of view.
In the above image I have added labels to security related objects. We will discuss it one by one.
Instance Role (IAM)— This role is is assigned to the EC2 instance. This role contains all the access that the instance needs. Here it has access to S3 and KMS. Now the important thing that need to be highlighted that since this role is for EC2 we should restrict its use to within VPC or via endpoints. This ensures that if some how anyone gets hold of the EC2 credentials from lets say instance metadata and try to use it outside of VPC then that will be denied. To do so we add following policy to the role.
Note: I have added viaService condition in KMS policy statement, this is to make sure s3 is able to call KMS. If KMS is being called by S3 service itself at that time the request won’t go through endpoint (its a S3 service calling KMS both are not bounded in VPC).
2. KMS Policy (resource policy)— Its a good practice to separate responsibility by moving KMS key creation to a separate account and then delegate access to the target account for consumption. KMS key policy delegates key usage to the account and in turn to the IAM role that the instance is using. This way the key has a different lifecycle control(creation and deletion access is in KMS key account ) and can be taken care by separately. Usage is delegated and on on need basis.
3. S3 VPC endpoint & Endpoint Policy— This is being used by EC2 instance in private subnet. This ensures traffic never leave AWS network. Policy on the endpoint ensures that EC2 can only read and write from S3 bucket using the same accounts access point.
4. VPC Access points — This ensures that buckets are only accessed if the request is coming from VPC as we have created the access point with Network Access Type set to VPC. One thing interesting in this is, access point contains region and account id. This is useful as in S3 bucket ARN we don’t get Account Id so it becomes a slight challenging in restricting access from buckets in specific account.
5. Bucket Policy — This policy locks down the bucket access to a specific VPC. This ensures that no resource outside of VPC can access contents of the bucket.
0. SCP — Yes you read it correct I mentioned it as zero. This is coz the SCP allows us to control the boundary or context under which the resources like Access points, S3 bucket and other resources are created.
This was a very basic example where we put in place security mechanism at resource, service and account level. Also we only discussed Policy level controls network level security will be discussed in another post.
Happy Security!! | https://medium.com/the-innovation/layered-security-in-aws-introduction-a27641af198d | ['Amit Singh Rathore'] | 2020-11-13 19:04:43.643000+00:00 | ['AWS', 'Security', 'S3', 'Cloud'] |
GitHub Actions — How To Share Data Between Jobs | There are 2 main ways to share data between jobs in GitHub Actions:
Cache Artifacts
Cache
GitHub provides you an Action called: actions/cache (GitHub Repo), We can use it to upload cache and then download it in different jobs(Docs).
Let’s see a live example and then go over it:
As you can see it is really simple to use, The actions themselves have 3 parameters:
path (required): The file path on the runner to cache or restore. The path can be an absolute path or relative to the working directory.
(required): The file path on the runner to cache or restore. The path can be an absolute path or relative to the working directory. key (required): The key created when saving a cache and the key used to search for a cache. It can be any combination.
(required): The key created when saving a cache and the key used to search for a cache. It can be any combination. restore-keys(optional): An ordered list of alternative keys to use for finding the cache if no cache hit occurred for key .
This action outputs a cache-hit and we can also use it to run actions like this:
As you can see it really simple and straight out of the box, let’s move on to the second one.
Artifacts Upload/Download
Artifacts is a way GitHub Actions provides you to persist files and use them after a run is finished or share it between jobs(Docs).
To create an artifact and use it you will need different actions: Upload And Download.
To upload a file or a directory you just use it like this:
Here you only need to provide 2 parameters:
name : The name you want to give to identify the artifact.
: The name you want to give to identify the artifact. path: The path to the file or to the directory.
Then to download the artifact to use it: | https://levelup.gitconnected.com/github-actions-how-to-share-data-between-jobs-fc1547defc3e | ['Georgy Glezer'] | 2021-01-26 16:09:17.465000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Programming', 'Github', 'DevOps', 'Github Actions'] |
Learn to Make a Web App With ASP NET Core & Vue | In this article, I will teach you the basics of making your own web app, by creating a checklist app. ASP NET Core will be used to create a CRUD API and Vue will be used to create the frontend UI. Using the knowledge gained here, you should be able to apply it to start making your own web apps. You can find the complete solution in the GitHub repository.
We will first start with building the API and then move on to the Vue client.
Creating a checklist API
Start by creating a new ASP NET Core Web API project in Visual Studio.
Let’s start by creating the checklist item model. Create a folder called Models and inside create a file called ChecklistItem.cs
public class ChecklistItem
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Text { get; set; }
}
We have given it an Id, which will uniquely identify this item when we save it to a database, and a Text property which will contain the text that we enter for the checklist item.
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Next, we will configure the database. To help simplify this tutorial I am using an in-memory database. This is fine for testing and demonstration purposes, but for a real life app you will need to configure your own database (in terms of code, this is as simple as changing the data provider in the EF Core options).
First install the following NuGet packages:
Microsoft .EntityFrameworkCore
Microsoft .EntityFrameworkCore.InMemory
Then create a new file at the root folder of the project called AppDbContext.cs:
using ASPNETCoreVueChecklist.Models;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;namespace ASPNETCoreVueChecklist
{
public class AppDbContext : DbContext
{
public AppDbContext(DbContextOptions options) : base(options)
{
} public DbSet<ChecklistItem> ChecklistItems { get; set; }
}
}
EF Core is a object-relational mapper (ORM), which simplifies the process of interacting between C# code and the database. The AppDbContext class provides a way to access the records within the database. By providing it with a property called ChecklistItems, with a type of DbSet, this configures EF Core to look for a table in the database called ChecklistItems, with columns defined by our model.
Then to configure our app to use this AppDbContext class and to use an in-memory database, go to the ConfigureServices method of Startup.cs and add the following lines of code:
services.AddDbContext<AppDbContext>(options =>
{
options.UseInMemoryDatabase(nameof(AppDbContext));
});
Finally, we need to create the controller, which in ASP NET Core defines the endpoints for our API. Start by creating a ChecklistController.cs file within the Controllers folder:
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;namespace ASPNETCoreVueChecklist.Controllers
{
[ApiController]
[Route("[controller]")]
public class ChecklistController : ControllerBase
{
private readonly AppDbContext _dbContext; public ChecklistController(AppDbContext dbContext)
{
_dbContext = dbContext;
}
}
}
As it stands, the controller has an ApiController attribute, which configures the controller to be used for an API (instead of a standard ASP NET MVC controller), the Route attribute states that all endpoints will be prefixed by the name of the controller (checklist), and we are injecting an instance of our AppDbContext class into the controller so that we can use it to access our checklist items.
I will now walk you through adding each of the CRUD methods to the controller, starting with Create:
[HttpPost]
public async Task<int> Create(ChecklistItem item)
{
_dbContext.ChecklistItems.Add(item);
await _dbContext.SaveChangesAsync(); return item.Id;
}
The above method has the HttpPost attribute, which means it can only be accessed by sending the Http request using the POST method. This is standard for creating records in APIs. We create a new instance of ChecklistItem using the text parameter that is passed to the method. We don’t need to worry about setting the Id ourselves as a unique Id will automatically be set when we save the item to the database. The following lines add the item to the database and then save it. We finally return the new item Id back to the client.
Next we will move on to Read. Typically with such an API, there are two read methods: one to list all items, and one to return one item that matches the supplied Id.
[HttpGet]
public async Task<IEnumerable<ChecklistItem>> Get()
{
var items = await _dbContext.ChecklistItems.ToListAsync(); return items;
}[HttpGet("{id}")]
public async Task<ChecklistItem> Get(int id)
{
var item = await _dbContext.ChecklistItems.FirstOrDefaultAsync(item => item.Id == id); return item;
}
The first method is set to return a list of all checklist items when the HTTP GET method is used on the controller (/checklist). The second is similar apart from we set it to require the Id of the checklist item in the URL (/checklist/1). This will take the Id as a parameter and search the database for an item with that Id. It will then return that single Id back to the client.
The next method is Update:
[HttpPut("{id}")]
public async Task<bool> Update(int id, ChecklistItem item)
{
var existingItem = await _dbContext.ChecklistItems.FirstOrDefaultAsync(i => i.Id == id);
existingItem.Text = item.Text;
var result = await _dbContext.SaveChangesAsync(); return result > 0;
}
Typically updating is done with the HTTP PUT method and we are setting the route to require the Id of the item we wish to update (checklist/1). First we retrieve the item that we wish to update, modify the text, then save it back to the database. The return value of SaveChangeAsync is an integer representing the number of items that got updated. Therefore by checking if the number of updated items is greater than 0, we know that the update was successful.
Finally we have the Delete method:
[HttpDelete("{id}")]
public async Task<bool> Delete(int id)
{
var item = await _dbContext.ChecklistItems.FirstOrDefaultAsync(item => item.Id == id);
_dbContext.ChecklistItems.Remove(item);
var result = await _dbContext.SaveChangesAsync(); return result > 0;
}
Similar to the previous methods, the Id of the item the is to be deleted is included in the URL, but this time we use the HTTP DELETE method. It might seem a bit peculiar, but in EF Core the way to delete items involves: first retrieving the item from the database, setting it to be removed, the saving the database (which deletes the record).
The final thing that we need to do is to go to the Startup.cs file and add a CORS policy to the Configure method. This should appear between the app.UseHttpsRedirection() and app.UseRouting() lines. This allows the web API to accept requests from our client (NOTE: the default port for new Vue apps is 8080, but if yours is different update the code to use the port of your client).
That is now our API completed. We have implemented all the CRUD operations, which can be accessed via various HTTP methods. We will now move on to creating a Vue frontend, which will be able to access these API methods.
Creating a checklist client
First make sure that you have the Vue CLI installed. If not, please visit this page. Then navigate to the root folder of your project and run the following command to create a Vue project:
vue create checklist-client
Start by creating an empty Checklist.vue file in the components folder. Then go to App.vue and update it to simply display the Checklist component.
<template>
<div id="app">
<Checklist/>
</div>
</template><script>
import Checklist from './components/Checklist.vue'export default {
name: 'App',
components: {
Checklist,
}
}
</script>
Next open up the Checklist.vue file. We’ll start by creating an input to create checklist items:
<div>
<input type="text" v-model="newItemText" />
<button
</div>
</template><script>
export default {
data() {
return {
newItemText: ''
}
},
methods: {
async onClickSave() {
await fetch('
method: 'POST',
data: this.newItemText
})this.newItemText = ''
}
}
}
</script> @click ="onClickSave"> Save export default {data() {return {newItemText: ''},methods: {async onClickSave() {await fetch(' <a href="https://localhost:5001/checklist'" class="dl ib" rel="noopener nofollow">https://localhost:5001/checklist'</a> , {method: 'POST',data: this.newItemText})this.newItemText = ''
Here we bind our input to the newItemText data property, meaning that any changes to the value will be reflected in the input and the property. We also create a save button, which calls the onClickSave method when it is clicked. Within the onClickSave method, we send a POST request to our API at the /checklist endpoint. The data is simply the text that was contained within the input field. If the request is successful, then the input text will be cleared.
Please note that the port I have used may not be the same as yours. Please check your own API project to see which port your API is running on.
At this stage, we can create new checklist items, but we can’t see them. Lets create a list of items pulled from the database. Start by creating a data property called items:
data() {
return {
newItemText: '',
items: []
}
},
And then create a loadItems method within the methods object:
This will make a HTTP GET (this is the default for fetch so we don’t need to explicitly define it) call to /checklist. We then process the response as JSON and set the resulting list of items to the items property that we just created.
We want to load this data when we first visit the page. To do this, we make use of the mounted method (this sits at the root of the Vue object. Please see the GitHub repo for more clarity), which gets called when the page first loads:
async mounted() {
await this.loadItems()
},
In addition, we should add this line (await this.loadItems()) to the end of the onClickSave method so that the list updates when we create a new item.
We will then create the list items in the markup up to display the items that we have just fetched:
<ul>
<li v-for="item in items" :key="item.id">
{{ item.text }}
</li>
</ul>
The final thing we need to do is to allow the user to delete existing items. Let’s create a method to allow us to do that:
await fetch(`
method: 'DELETE'
}) await this.loadItems()
} async onClickDelete(id) {await fetch(` https://localhost:5001/checklist/${id}` , {method: 'DELETE'}) await this.loadItems()
And then create a button on each list item that deletes that list item. The item Id is passed to the onClickDelete method, which in turn is passed as a URL parameter to the /checklist/:id endpoint.
{{ item.text }}
<button
</li> {{ item.text }} @click ="onClickDelete(item.id)"> Delete
And that’s it. Make sure both projects are running and open the Vue project in the browser. You should now be able to create new items, see a list of existing items, and delete existing items.
Conclusion
In this article I have showed you how to create a basic CRUD API using ASP NET Core, and hook it up to a Vue frontend to create a checklist web app. The GitHub repo can be found here.
I post mostly about full stack .NET and Vue web development. To make sure that you don’t miss out on any posts, please follow this blog and subscribe to my newsletter. If you found this post helpful, please like it and share it. You can also find me on Twitter. | https://medium.com/@emma-95833/learn-to-make-a-web-app-with-asp-net-core-vue-118987ec15ab | [] | 2020-12-19 22:30:39.049000+00:00 | ['Dotnet', 'Vuejs', 'Aspnetcore', 'Vue', 'API'] |
The simpler alternative to GCC-RS | The GCC-RS project, which can be summed up as “Rewrite the Rust compiler in C++”, got a bit of media attention lately. In this post I’ll try to convince you that all the stated benefits of it can be achieved without necessitating a rewrite by leveraging rustc_codegen_gcc instead.
All of the opinions expressed in this article are my own. They do not represent the opinions of any organizations I may be part of.
I am not directly affiliated with any of the projects discussed here.
Background: LLVM vs GCC
The official Rust compiler currently uses LLVM for code generation. LLVM is an open-source compiler and code generation library competing with GCC, the other major open-source compiler stack.
As a code generator, GCC has several advantages over LLVM:
GCC can produce code that runs 10% or so faster on some x86 hardware (but not all x86 hardware), at least when compiling C and C++ GCC supports more CPU architectures. LLVM already supports all desktop or server-grade CPUs manufactured in the last 15 years, but GCC also supports some hobbyist retrocomputing architectures, such as HP PA.
So it would make sense to allow using GCC as the code generator when compiling Rust programs.
Why GCC-RS?
GCC-RS intends not only to use GCC for code generation, but also reimplement the entire rest of the Rust compiler from scratch, in C++.
For reference, the official Rust compiler is written in Rust. Rewriting Rust code in C++ seems a bit backwards. So why are they doing this?
The FAQ for the project lists the following benefits of GCC-RS:
Support for more CPU architectures
That’s true! But the official Rust compiler is not nailed down to LLVM. In fact, it supports pluggable code generation backends. (If you’re not sure what code generation is or what other parts are there in the Rust compiler, read this).
And rustc_codegen_gcc, you guessed it, simply plugs GCC into the existing Rust compiler as a code generation backend. This allows compiling code for all the architectures supported by GCC, without rewriting the entire rest of the compiler from scratch.
Cross-language LTO
In order to use link-time optimization (LTO) across C and Rust, you need to use the same code generation stack in both C and Rust. Aside of producing smaller binaries and slightly faster code, LTO is also a prerequisite for CFI, a new exploit mitigation technique.
However, this also would work perfectly fine with rustc_codegen_gcc.
And besides, cross-language LTO is already possible with the LLVM backend, provided you’re using the LLVM-based Clang compiler for C code. Firefox now uses it in production on all platforms.
The GCC-RS FAQ lists Linux as the motivating example. Ironically, Linux supports LTO with LLVM but not GCC!
GCC Plugins
Existing GCC plugins such as those in the Linux Kernel project should be reusable since they target GIMPLE in the middle-end.
Even ignoring how weird and niche this use case is, rustc_codegen_gcc also emits GIMPLE and would work just as well.
Bootstrapping
The Rust compiler is written in Rust. That presents a problem for CPU architectures that don’t have a Rust compiler built for them yet. It’s a chicken-and-egg problem, and resolving it is called “bootstrapping”.
To bootstrap a C compiler, typically you’d write a super simple C compiler in assembly, which you use to compile a bit more advanced C compiler written in C, which you then use to compile an early version of GCC, use that to compile a slightly newer GCC, and so on until you catch up to the latest version.
If you need C++ (and latest GCC is written in C++, so you do need it), you do the same trick and use a simple C++ compiler written in C to get the chain going. Same for any other language, really.
The Rust bootstrap chain is quite long because you need to get from C to OCaml and then compile pre-release Rust to compile Rust 1.0 to compile Rust 1.1 to compile Rust 1.2 and so on until you catch up to 1.53 (or whatever the latest version is when you’re reading this). So if you can have a Rust compiler written in C++ that compiles 1.53 directly, you can save yourself some time.
So GCC-RS could help with this, right?
Not really. In reality you only need to walk the entire chain on one architecture. Then you can use your fully-functional Rust compiler on e.g. x86 to build a compiler for ARM, HP PA or whatever else you might need. This is called cross-compilation, and is fully supported by Rust.
And shortening the chain on one architecture is a solved problem.
You see, you don’t need the full-blown compiler with all the validation and error messages and whatnot, you just need it to compile things correctly. That’s what mrustc is: a minimal Rust compiler written in C++ designed for bootstrapping and nothing else. It lets you bootstrap from C++ on x86 and cross-compile to any architecture from there.
Other considerations
As you can see, every single benefit that GCC-RS lists can be provided by rustc_codegen_gcc and mrustc, without rewriting the compiler from scratch and at dramatically lower development and maintenance costs.
But what if they forgot to include some crucial benefit in the FAQ? Here are some other points people bring up in relation to GCC-RS:
Isn’t having multiple implementations a good thing?
Well, maybe? It didn’t work out for C/C++, but perhaps we can learn from that and do better. Still, the benefits of this are rather nebulous and I’m not convinced that they justify the costs.
Wouldn’t having an alternative implementation help specify the language?
Yes, that’s what miri is for. You feed it some Rust code and it tells you if it’s valid and whether your unsafe code triggers any undefined behavior or not.
Isn’t Rust vulnerable to the Ken Thompson hack?
No, it is not. The “trusting trust” problem is already solved by mrustc.
libgccjit.so is annoying to package for Linux!
Speaking as a former Debian maintainer — yes, it is mildly annoying, but it has to be done anyway, so GCC-RS doesn’t help here.
rustc_codegen_gcc relies on MIR which is unstable!
Keeping up with the changes to MIR is much easier than keeping up with the changes to the entire language. And that’s ignoring the enormous up-front investment that a full compiler rewrite would entail.
Supporting multiple GCC versions in rustc_codegen_gcc will be difficult!
Yeah, so just don’t do it! Every release of GCC-RS targets a single specific GCC version to avoid this issue. rustc_codegen_gcc could trivially do the same.
Doesn’t GCC-RS reuse the borrow checker written in Rust?
Not the production-ready borrow checker, but the experimental one.
But yes, it does! They’ve reused 5,000 lines of Rust. Only 465,000 lines to go!
I hear GCC-RS has funding!
Yes, one full-time developer and a part-time project manager for one year. For rewriting the entire Rust compiler from scratch, that’s underwhelming.
The company providing the funding mentioned that they’ve failed to get anyone else interested in funding GCC-RS. Coincidence? I think not!
Conclusion
I believe the rewrite of Rust compiler in C++ that the GCC-RS project is attempting is completely unjustified. The gargantuan effort required to make it a reality would be better spent elsewhere.
These projects will provide all the listed benefits at a dramatically lower cost:
rustc_codegen_gcc for portability to obscure platforms
miri and ferrocene for specifying behavior
mrustc for cutting down on bootstrapping time
Ultimately, GCC-RS might provide some value that I’m not seeing. But if you care about portability to obscure platforms, language specification or bootstrapping time, I encourage you to support one of these projects rather than GCC-RS. They should provide a far greater return on investment.
I’m putting my money where my mouth is and will be supporting rustc_codegen_gcc on Github Sponsors starting in June. | https://medium.com/@shnatsel/the-simpler-alternative-to-gcc-rs-90da2b3685d3 | ['Sergey', 'Shnatsel'] | 2021-05-30 17:07:33.326000+00:00 | ['Gcc', 'Programming', 'Rust', 'Rustlang', 'Compilers'] |
Triple Eyelid — a glimpse of woodcraft in Singapore | To many of us, being environmentally conscious is the frequent (sometimes, occasion) use of metal straws instead of plastic ones, purchasing from “sustainable” retailers, or choosing to consume organic foods. The talk of the town recently is all about being environmentally conscious. It is a notion that gave rise to a multitude of “green” trends and movements we see permeating social media sites. These trends come in waves and subside as soon as they lose their freshness and novelty, and we move on, awaiting to target the next fad.
Closer to home, Jackie, a passionate local crafter, view eco-consciousness as a way of life. With over 10 years of experience in woodcraft, Jackie established his very own brand — Triple Eyelid, where he aims to promote eco-consciousness through his crafts. As the founder of Triple Eyelid, Jackie explores sustainable concepts such as upcycling and minimalism and integrates these concepts into his everyday life as well as the products he creates. Upcycling gives “old” products a new lease of life, by transforming them into better and more valuable products. For instance, jam jars can be transformed into plant pots, and wooden pallets can be converted to benches. Minimalism reduces wastage of materials yet maintains the functionality of a product, which is evident in all of Jackie’s works. At Triple Eyelid, Jackie skillfully incorporates the idea of sustainability into his wood crafts, creating unique pieces with simple, yet functional designs. Every piece of his work represents his commitment to a more eco-conscious lifestyle, and he hopes that through his work, he can prompt people to make sustainable lifestyle choices and promote the idea of eco-consciousness to the masses.
Besides encouraging a sustainable lifestyle, Jackie also aims to promote the local crafting scene and bring awareness to local crafters and brands like him. Having multiple experiences working as a crafter locally, Jackie empathises with the struggles of his fellow crafters trying to find their footing in the local craft scene. Thus, through Triple Eyelid, Jackie frequently holds workshops for the public. These workshops not only allow people to have a fun and engaging experience doing wood crafts but also develop an understanding of the intricate work done by crafters. Jackie hopes that by building his brand, it will also help to provide recognition to local crafters’ hard work and efforts.
Triple Eyelid emphasises on minimalistic and functional products. | https://medium.com/@yonglinkhoo501/triple-eyelid-a-glimpse-of-woodcraft-in-singapore-a19cfd71e627 | ['Khoo Yong Lin'] | 2020-12-18 11:26:50.980000+00:00 | ['Minimalism', 'Woodworking', 'Sustainability', 'Upcycling', 'Local Crafts'] |
Made in India. One Country, Many Issues. | In his book India 2020, Kalam strongly advocates an action plan to develop India into a strong nation by the year 2020. He regards his nation as a knowledge superpower and developed nation. However, they also point out that this vision should be original, rather than imitating other nations. (India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium, 1998: A P J Abdul Kalam; Y S Rajan)
Book by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and Yagnaswami Sundara Rajan
India is still a relatively young country, gaining independence only 73 years ago. It would be unfair to compare her with other nations in terms of continuous development and growth. Maybe we cut her some slack and take into account the different people and their cultures and their ideologies into account before jumping the gun. Will that answer why India is where it is today?
The issues we see on the map can easily interchange across the country, and still be red flag issues independent of where they happen. Where do you focus first? What do you clean next? How do you tackle hunger? How do you stop religious violence?
India is the fastest-growing trillion-dollar economy in the world and the fifth-largest economy in 2019, overtaking the United Kingdom and France.
IMF sees India GDP growth at 7.4% in 2018, China’s at 6.8%, 2018
Mumbai, India, with its financial district in the background, 2019. Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters
There are 119 billionaires in India, increased from only 9 in 2000. The top 10% of the Indian population holds 77% of the total national wealth. 73% of the wealth generated in 2017 went to the richest 1%, while 67 million Indians who comprise the poorest half of the population saw only a 1% increase in their wealth. ( Sources: Investopedia, Oxfam)
Unfortunately, we the people are united by our problems but divided by messy political warfare.
Is this how nations are to develop? Where we cut down our forests, milk them for money, sit in a fancy twenty-seven-storeyed home and drink amidst large slum settlements. Of course, I am not equipped to make sense of the larger picture from an economic standpoint, but as a human being, I understand the importance of food and a roof over my head. A country cannot develop, no matter who is at the helm if more than half of its population succumbs to poor sanitation, bad weather and an empty stomach.
Like Dr Kalam suggests, India needs a plan, made for her, with care and consideration for all her people. We are not heathens to judge, kill and conquer — we are people of the same soil who are in need of good leadership, good governance. Unfortunately, we the people are united by our problems but divided by messy political warfare. | https://medium.com/@smrithiamarendran/made-in-india-one-country-many-issues-731545f07ff4 | ['Smrithi Amarendran'] | 2020-12-13 01:42:51.727000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Governance', 'India', 'Made In India'] |
Demystifying AI/ML Microservice With TensorFlow | This tutorial will walk you through how to build and deploy a sample microservice application using the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. The scope of this service is to perform prediction of handwritten digit from 0 to 9 by accepting an image pixel array as a parameter. This sample application also provides an HTML file that offers you a canvas to draw your number and convert it into an image pixel array. The intention of this article is to give you a high-level idea, the same concept can be taken to the next level for addressing many other complex use cases.
Image recognition is one of the major capabilities of deep learning. In this article, we will be identifying our own handwritten digit. However, in order to accurately predict what digit is it, learning has to be performed, so that it understands the different characteristics of each digit as well as the subtle variations in writing the same digit. Thus, we need to train the model with a dataset of labelled handwritten digit. This is where MNIST dataset comes handy.
Sample dataset
MNIST dataset is comprised of 60,000 small 28x28 square pixel gray scale images and 10,000 test images. These are handwritten single digit images from 0 to 9. Instead of downloading it manually, we can download it using Tensorflow Keras API
We will be performing following steps in this exercise
Build and train the model using MNIST dataset Saving the learned model in persistent storage Build and launch microservice for prediction using the provided dockerfile Generate image pixel array of your handwritten digit using the provided HTML file Perform prediction using microservice by providing image pixel array as a parameter to this service.
You can find the dockerfile and python code by clicking the following git repository.
https://github.com/mafzal786/tensorflow-microservice.git
Model Training
Below is the python code that performs building, compiling, training, and saving the model based on MNIST dataset. This code can also be executed in Jupyter Notebook. It is important to save this model in a persistent storage once the model training is successsfully completed so that it can be used by the microservice application for prediction. Also make sure that saved model file should be accessible by the container running the microservice.
Prediction microservice with Flask
Following instructions will help you building the microservice using Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. For the sake of simplicity, it’s a single source file and written in python. This source file is copied inside the container image via Dockerfile during the container image build process, which will be discussed later in this article. The sole purposes of this microservice to is to predict the handwritten digit using the already learned model. It simply takes the image pixel array as a parameter and predict it.
Dockerfile
Below is the dockerfile that will be used to initiate the image build and launch the container in OpenShift platform. requirements.txt file contains the pre-requisite packages for this microservice to work. requirements.txt file contains the following.
Flask==0.12.1 tensorflow==2.3.0 scikit-learn==0.22.1
Launch the microservice
Now login to your Red Hat OpenShift cluster. Click Developer and then click Add to create an application. Click “From Dockerfile”. This will import your dockerfile from your git repo and initiate the image build and deploy the container.
Supply the Git Repo URL. The dockerfile for this project is located at https://github.com/mafzal786/tensorflow-microservice.git. Also give name to your application. Click create.
This will create the build config and build will start. To view the logs for your build, click “Builds” under Administrator tab and click the build as shown below. Once the build is completed, container image is pushed to your configured image registry.
After the build is completed and image is pushed to the registry, OpenShift will launch the container.
OpenShift will create a route for this service to be exposed by giving an externally reachable hostname. Service end point will be available in Networking →Routes tab. Clicking on the Location as shown below will launch the microservice in the browser.
Below figure shows when microservice is launched in the browser.
Or run the following CLI as below
# oc get routes/ms-handwritten-digit-prediction-git
Canvas for writing digit
Below html file offers you a canvas to draw digit. Copy below code and save it as html on your computer and then launch it in the browser. Click “Convert” button to convert the image into image pixel array. Then click “Copy Image Pixel Array in Clipboard” button to copy the pixel array in your clipboard for providing it to the microservice as a parameter for prediction.
Draw Your Number
Perform prediction using the microservice
Now pass this image pixel array to the microservice as a parameter as show below.
<h1>Your handwritten digit is: 3</h1> # curl http://`oc get routes/ms-handwritten-digit-prediction-git — template=’{{.spec.host}}’`/predict?pixelarray=0,0,0,0,0,0,0.03137254901960784,0.5764705882352941,1,1,1,1,1,1,0.17254901960784313,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.011764705882352941,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0.984313725490196,0.07450980392156863,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,0.6196078431372549,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.8980392156862745,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.48627450980392156,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0.8470588235294118,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.0784313725490196,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.07058823529411765,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.7098039215686275,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.7568627450980392,1,0.7843137254901961,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0.3176470588235294,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.4470588235294118,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.8980392156862745,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0.03137254901960784,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.06274509803921569,0.07058823529411765,0.07058823529411765,0.803921568627451,1,1,0.8941176470588236,0.07058823529411765,0.06666666666666667,0,0,0,0.0392156862745098,1,1,1,0.5098039215686274,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.9254901960784314,1,0.6901960784313725,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.5254901960784314,1,0.07450980392156863,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0.9254901960784314,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.3803921568627451,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0.24705882352941178,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.34509803921568627,1,0,0,0,0,0,0.9803921568627451,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0.3686274509803922,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.9882352941176471,1,1,1,1,0.6784313725490196,0.08235294117647059,0,0,0,0,0,0.4235294117647059,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0.3333333333333333,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.10588235294117647,0.8117647058823529,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0.21568627450980393,0.12941176470588237,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 Your handwritten digit is: 3
You can run the same in the browser as follows. | https://medium.com/swlh/demystifying-ai-ml-microservice-with-tensorflow-cb640c829385 | ['Afzal Muhammad'] | 2020-12-03 16:59:22.808000+00:00 | ['Microservices', 'Kubernetes', 'Openshift', 'TensorFlow', 'Machine Learning'] |
The Biggest Release since Mainnet Launch | The Biggest Release since Mainnet Launch
Team Nimiq is thrilled to release a major update to our apps that will significantly improve how users can use their NIM as well as how developers can integrate Nimiq.
The update comes packed with new features, improved and hardened security concepts, and an open API that allows third-party apps to integrate Nimiq features and handle NIM directly in the browser. And it’s all wrapped in a brand new user interface making it easier than ever to use your NIM.
This post will focus on the top features from a technical perspective. Stay tuned for an in-depth article about the UX/UI/product progress and an article about features and releases in the next weeks.
So, what’s new?
Accounts with multiple addresses
New architecture and Ledger integration
Nimiq Login Files
Changeable passwords
Logout interface
QR-Code generator and scanner
Open API for 3rd-party integration
Nimiq Checkout
Message signing support
One Account, many Addresses
With standards-compliant BIP44 private-key derivation, one seed now supports an infinite number of addresses. That means, with all new accounts you can manage more than one address under one account. For a more in-depth introduction into Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets, please refer to this article.
With this update, it’s now easy to get your funds, payments, and transactions organized without the need to backup and store a key for each of those addresses. Instead, it’s only one account and one backup. While enjoying this convenience, you still have the freedom to create several multi-address accounts and, for example, separate your savings from your daily allowance and your business expenses. This way, you can store the backups of each of these accounts accordingly.
Multiple addresses are now also supported for Ledger hardware wallets!
Old Accounts, New Accounts
With the introduction of multi-address accounts, conventional single-address accounts turn into legacy accounts. They are still supported but will not inherit new features such as the Login File and will not be developed further in the future. Team Nimiq recommends all users to upgrade by creating a new multi-address account and transfer their funds.
Keyguard and Ledger
The overall architecture of the Keyguard has been reworked leading to a new structure: | https://medium.com/nimiq-network/the-biggest-release-since-mainnet-launch-f8096e33dab9 | ['Team Nimiq'] | 2019-08-14 02:43:05.281000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Nimiq', 'Payments', 'UX', 'Bitcoin'] |
What is Yield Farming in DeFi? | A relatively new use case in crypto is Decentralized Finance, or DeFi for short. In its most basic form, DeFi allows for lending and borrowing loans, much like traditional finance. Unlike a traditional finance loan, there is no middleman. This means less operating costs which means better borrow/lending rates. Furthermore, the interest you earn is in form of some cryptocurrency (may or may not be the same as what you’re lending).
The flexibility and composability of crypto, however, enables for much more esoteric financial structures. One such example is Automated Market Makers (AMM). In traditional finance, a market maker is
“a company or an individual that quotes both a buy and a sell price in a financial instrument or commodity held in inventory, hoping to make a profit on the bid–ask spread, or turn” Wikipedia
Exchanges, such as NYSE or NASDAQ, use these quotes in order books to fulfill a transaction.
In DeFi, there may be no order book. A popular AMM is Uniswap. Instead of using order books, they hold a reserve of 2 asset pairs (i.e. the asset you’re selling in exchange for the asset you’re buying). An interested buyer simply makes a trade against the reserve. So how is the price determined? According to Uniswap Documentation, “Pricing is automatic, based on the x∗y=k market making formula which automatically adjusts prices based off the relative sizes of the two reserves and the size of the incoming trade.”. To create asset reserves, Uniswap depends on Liquidity Providers (LP). These are companies or individuals that supply their own crypto. The process of supplying is also known as staking.
Why would people stake their own crypto? AMMs provide financial incentives in form of interest (or yield). Yield farming has become the defacto (comical) phrase to represent this. | https://medium.com/@degenomics/what-is-yield-farming-in-defi-5838e8d5a767 | [] | 2020-12-27 23:04:25.435000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Defi', 'Amm', 'Yield Farming'] |
5 Things To Know About The Future Of Jobs | Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash
The COVID-19 global economic recession is deepening existing inequalities across global labour markets and reversing the gains in employment made since the Global Financial Crisis of a decade ago. Emerging technologies continue to reshape labour markets, and those trends have only accelerated with the onset of a new recession.
Millions of workers worldwide are facing significant job uncertainty. Data from the International Labour Organization (ILO) has shown that during the first half of 2020, real unemployment figures jumped to an average of 6.6%, with an estimated loss of working hours equivalent to 495 million jobs in Q2 2020. The OECD predicts that unemployment rates could double by the end of the year.
Now in its third edition, the Future of Jobs Report 2020 maps the jobs and skills of the future, tracking the pace of change and direction of travel. Here are some of the key findings:
1. COVID-19 has had a lasting effect
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the arrival of the future of work. The Future of Jobs Survey finds that 50% of employers will accelerate the automation of their work, while over 80% are set to expand the digitization of their work processes. That means that some jobs that have been lost will never come back, and those that do will require new ways of working and new skills
2. Automation continues to increase
The Future of Jobs Report projects that by 2025, the hours of work performed by machines and people will be equal. Around 85 million roles are set to be displaced by automation — primarily across manual or repetitive roles spanning both blue-collar and white-collar jobs — from assembly factory workers and accountants.
3. New jobs will emerge
Despite the accelerated disruption to jobs, the report also predicts that 97 million new jobs of tomorrow will emerge by 2025. The most in-demand roles in future job markets include Data Analysts and Scientists, AI and Machine Learning Specialists, Robotics Engineers, Software and Application developers as well as Digital Transformation Specialists, Information Security Analysts and Internet of Things Specialists which can be broadly clustered in 10 emerging jobs clusters explored in the report.
4. The most in-demand skills are a mix of hard and soft skills
The most in-demand skills of the future will include working with people, problem-solving and self-management skills such as resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility. This increase in required self-management skills is clear as workers face a range of pressures to adapt to new, more digital ways of working. Product Management, Digital Marketing and Software Development Lifecycle are among the core set of specialized skills required for emerging professions. Reskilling for the roles of the future will require a time investment ranging from three weeks to five months.
5. Human capital is increasingly important
Employers are convinced in the value of building human capital — with 66% believing they will get a return on investment from training employees within a year. Data from the past five years shows that workers often actually don’t need the perfect skill set to transition into new roles. The scale of the challenge is significant, with employers looking to internally redeploy half of their workers. Meanwhile, some 40% of the average worker’s skills will need to be updated to meet the demands of future labour markets. Employers are facing this challenge broadly on their own — only 21% can tap into government funding to deliver training programmes.
The Future of Jobs Report 2020 is a call to action to accelerate a Reskilling Revolution across economies. It highlights the increasing urgency of supporting displaced and at-risk workers as they navigate paths towards the “jobs of tomorrow.” The current moment provides an opportunity for leaders in business, government, and public policy to focus common efforts on allowing workers to thrive in the new economy. | https://iamibrahim.medium.com/5-things-to-know-about-the-future-of-jobs-20430ea4c2d4 | [] | 2020-12-28 15:21:53.126000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Covid 19', 'Future', 'Startups', 'Jobs'] |
How to Use Investment Property Calculator For Analyzing Real Estate Investments | How to Use Investment Property Calculator For Analyzing Real Estate Investments
Spreadsheets? Outdated! Gone are the days when investors research average costs and income, and enter their figures into tiny little cells. This tedious process becomes even more agonizing when a spreadsheet has to be created for every property looked at. With today’s technology and resources, investment property calculators are taking over and helping investors quickly analyze multiple properties at a time.
What is an investment property calculator?
An investment property calculator is a tool in which investment cost assumptions are entered to generate automatic calculations and predictive outcomes, to indicate if a property is a good investment opportunity.
Related: The Use of Predictive Analytics in Real Estate Investing
What does it calculate?
There are so many calculations or values that help an investor infer if they should invest in a specific property or not. Let’s quickly go over what Mashvisor calculates:
Cash Flow
This is probably the most important value investors inquire about because cash flow is an investor’s monthly profit. Think about it as an investor’s salary. Cash flow is equal to the monthly expenses deducted from monthly income.
Mashvisor’s interactive investment property calculator takes into account the following Recurring Monthly Costs: mortgage payment (principal and interest), property tax, HOA insurance, property management, maintenance, and utilities.
The calculator has a cell for “Other” Recurring Monthly Costs. Vacancy provision is a good “other” to consider. Enter between 4–8% of income. Cash flow should be positive.
Cash-on-Cash Return
This number gives the investor the returns on a property based on the amount of cash put in the investment. It is calculated by dividing cash flow by investment costs.
The investment property calculator takes into account the following investment or Startup Costs: down payment, furniture, appliances, and closing costs.
The calculator also has a cell for “Other” Startup Costs. Inspection and renovation (if applicable) are costs that should also be taken into account.
While cash-on-cash return can be calculated for a specific property by entering these values, it is also automatically presented when clicking any property or neighborhood on Mashvisor’s dashboard.
There are two average cash on cash return values given for a neighborhood — traditional and Airbnb. Depending on the location, some investment properties perform better with a traditional lease or by being listed on Airbnb.
Cap Rate
This calculation is also very important to investors because it is the purest form of understanding a property’s returns. Cap rate tells the returns of a property independent of its financing or the way it was paid for. Therefore, this number indicates the returns as if the property was already paid for.
Cap rate is calculated by dividing the net operating income by property price.
Cap rate is not on the investment property calculator but is automatically presented by clicking a property. When users are looking at several investment properties simultaneously on Mashvisor, they want to quickly know the cap rate without having to factor in the down payment or loan type that will be used.
Related: How To Do Investment Property Analysis
Filter calculations
When looking for properties on Mashvisor, these calculations can be filtered so that properties which meet the investor’s criteria appear. Cash on cash return, cap rate, budget, and rental income can all filtered to quickly find the investment properties that meet the set requirements.
What else does it calculate?
The interactive investment property calculator does not only give the returns based on what is entered but also provides insights by using predictive and comparative data and algorithms.
When the user is entering values in the investment property calculator, the income may be unknown. Mashvisor data is able to project a property’s expected income, both traditional and Airbnb. Therefore, a user can click a property and get a breakdown of rental income, expenses, cash flow, and cash on cash return for both traditional and Airbnb strategies without even having to enter any numbers. This can then be altered by using the mortgage calculator.
But what if an investor wants to have an understanding of an overall neighborhood? The data is able to give a neighborhood’s average median home price, traditional rental income, Airbnb rental income, Airbnb occupancy rate, and the optimal strategy (traditional or Airbnb). This means investors can search any city and quickly analyze a neighborhood, helping them to narrow down potentials areas, and bringing them closer to finding a property.
Why is it better than spreadsheets?
Investment property calculators have a couple of advantages over spreadsheets. Clearly, they save time and brainpower. Investors can spend months just analyzing different areas in order to find the best real estate markets and investment properties. Unfortunately, their research doesn’t stop there. They then have to look at comps in order to estimate costs and income to start making those spreadsheets to calculate returns. Investment property calculators do all of this work for the investor. The average values are already entered into the formulas, which means investor do not need to look at comps.
Secondly, these calculators and analyses are based on comparative and historical data, which means the assumptions are more likely to be accurate than a real estate investor’s estimates.
Finally, although this is all about numbers, there is somewhat of a human aspect to this tool. The Mashmeter gives an overall neighborhood score, grading how well the neighborhood is for real estate investing.
Investment property calculators are becoming the new go-to tool in real estate investing. They are expediting the research process and making real estate analytics easier to understand. Searching for the best investment properties can take a lot more time than one might think, start using investment property calculators to save time and motivation!
Use Mashvisor’s investment property calculator to find and analyze real estate investment properties. | https://medium.com/mashvisor/how-to-use-investment-property-calculator-for-analyzing-real-estate-investments-ee10a32771d0 | ['Peter Abualzolof'] | 2016-08-22 12:08:14.870000+00:00 | ['Analytics', 'Property', 'Cash Flow', 'Investing', 'Real Estate'] |
My COVID-19 Vaccine Experience | My COVID-19 Vaccine Experience
The persistent questions I face from others will outlast my sore arm
Photo by Daniel Schludi on Unsplash
I received my first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine one week ago. As of right now, I haven’t experienced x-ray vision, and there’s no evidence of a third arm sprouting. A sore arm for 24 hours and a card stamped with the vaccine lot number are my only mementos.
Unless you count the many remarks and comments I’ve been collecting: everything from rumors of it altering human DNA to tweets that the vaccine will kill more people than the virus.
As a healthcare provider, I expect questions, concerns, and confusion to circulate this vaccination for some time. What I wasn’t expecting was the high level of resistance to continue after explaining the science. Even after talking with people, many remained buoyed to their fears and illogical thought processes.
It seems the hardest part of getting the vaccine for me has been dealing with those who don’t understand the science and facts.
What Are Your Concerns About Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine?
I’ve been asking people this question for many months, hoping that the spread of knowledge would result in rolled-up shirt sleeves.
I am in a unique position as a nurse practitioner and front-line healthcare worker to provide education about this unique vaccine, and I haven’t wasted a moment promoting it. That being said, although I see it as part of my job to calm fears and address misunderstandings, I refuse to argue conspiracy theories. But I won’t stop collecting concerns.
Here are the most common apprehensions I’ve collected so far.
1. This Vaccine Was Rushed, How Can It Be Safe?
The safety concern card is legitimate. And it’s at the top of everyone’s mind.
According to Dr. Paul Offit, the fact that a Phase 3 trial has been completed, holds this vaccine to the same accountability as any other vaccine. The COVID-19 vaccine was trialed in the Pfizer study with over 43,000 individuals; the Moderna study with about 30,000; and in the Johnson & Johnson study with close to 45,000 people. That is comparable to the size of any vaccine trial.
The question then morphs to “Why are researchers not testing this vaccine for a longer period of time, say over two to twenty years instead of just a few months?”
The purpose of the Phase 3 trial for the COVID-19 vaccine was different from the purpose of a typical Phase 3 trial. The COVID-19 vaccine was not seeking FDA licensing (and it could not anyway with such a short testing period). Instead, the purpose was to collect data on safety and efficacy in a significant number of people, with a true placebo control.
Although the steps to authorize the use of the vaccine have been accelerated, none of the scientific steps have been compromised. Additionally, scientists continue to collect ongoing data from these trials.
Additional comfort was found when the FDA proved that they cared about the safety of the American people by requesting at least two months of safety data after dose two. This meant the FDA was not bowing to the whims of the current administration by forcing completion before the November election. The intention was to gather enough safety and efficacy information to determine if the benefits outweigh the risks. And that’s what happened.
2. The mRNA Technology is Too New, It’s Too Risky
This is the most amazing part of the vaccine — the mRNA technology. Messenger RNA (mRNA) technology has been in the works for almost two decades.
mRNA is a piece of genetic material that is already in our bodies. Our cells are making mRNA all the time, which then make proteins that are excreted from the cells and used by the body. It’s a common molecule that’s in our body already, and it stimulates the innate immune system.
The mRNA within the COVID-19 vaccine codes specifically for the COVID-19 spike protein and nothing else. The COVID-19 spike protein is on the cell’s surface and is the protein that’s responsible for binding the virus to the cell. So, if our bodies can make antibodies to fight that specific protein, then it will keep the virus from binding to the cells. This is how scientists make Hepatitis B and HPV vaccines — by creating antibody responses to the surface proteins.
The challenging part of getting the mRNA into the cells was solved by creating a synthetic mRNA that includes a lipid nano-particle for transportation and stabilized nucleosides (these trigger the immune system).
This synthetic mRNA is made in laboratories and able to sneak by the immune system without triggering a massive immune response (thanks to the stabilized nucleosides) and into the cells (thanks to the lipid nano-particle) where it can do its magic of replicating only the COVID-19 spike protein.
Once made, the COVID-19 spike protein is released from the cell and presented to the immune system. A healthy immune system then responds by taking a selfie with the COVID-19 spike protein, so that it can remember it. The next time the immune system sees that COVID-19 spike protein, it’ll be ready to fight.
It is worth noting once again that the synthetic mRNA cannot get into the nucleus — where the DNA lives — of any cell. Therefore, it is impossible for these modifications to alter our cells’ DNA makeup once the vaccine is in the body.
The mRNA never gets into the nucleus of the cells where DNA is located.
I should also mention that there is no live or attenuated (weakened) COVID-19 virus used to make any of these vaccines.
3. There are Too Many Side Effects
Vaccines can have serious side effects, it’s true. But severe allergic reactions are rare and serious side effects surface within the first six weeks of any vaccine dose. Although there were some harsh reactions, no severe or uncommon side effects that amounted to safety issues were observed during the COVID-19 Phase 3 trials.
Therefore, by observing these groups for two months, what researchers were able to determine is that this vaccine is safe for two months. That’s not very long, but because 1.72 million people have died from COVID-19, researchers didn’t have the luxury of testing it for two years before releasing it. It’s a risk, yes, but one worth taking.
4. Scientists Don’t Know How Long The Vaccine Will Provide Protection, So Why Bother?
Experts have shown that the COVID-19 vaccine has long-lasting protection, but the actual length of time is still unknown. However, research has shown that at 120 days, humans have lasting immunity, and, since the start of the Phase 3 trials, protection continues.
Researchers anticipate answers to concerns about long-term protection to come soon. The great news is that Pfizer will continue collecting safety and long-term outcome results from COVID-19 vaccine participants for up to two full years.
The Phase 3 trials have shown us that the Pfizer vaccine is 95 percent effective, and the Moderna vaccine is about 94 percent effective — against symptomatic disease. The trials were not designed to look at those people without symptoms of infection. Unfortunately, we know that those without symptoms can still spread this disease.
We also know that it may take several weeks for the body to mount a sufficient immune response, which means anyone could get sick with the virus just before or after receiving the vaccine.
Researchers anticipate that when 70 to 80 percent of the population is vaccinated — including those who have already been infected with the virus — we can finally rely less on masking and social distancing. But we have a ways to go.
5. I Don’t Want the Adverse Reactions of Fever and Fatigue
When the immune system is stimulated due to a vaccine or natural infection, our bodies release a series of proteins — cytokines — that are associated with these symptoms: low-grade fever, muscle aches, headaches, chills, or joint pain.
This is not an adverse reaction to the vaccine. Instead, it means your immune system is working!
I’m hoping for fever and fatigue with my second dose. Why? Because I know it means my immune system is revving up and getting ready to fight. I’ve been asked, “Are you sure fever and fatigue are normal immune responses?”
The febrile response to infection or vaccine is a good thing. Studies have shown that the immune system works better at higher temperatures: white cells kill bacteria more sufficiently, B cells make antibodies more efficiently, and T helper cells help B cells more effectively. Fever is our friend. And if you can tolerate it, experts recommend not treating a low-grade fever following vaccination. | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/my-covid-19-vaccine-experience-8ef6c0560f8 | ['Julie Nyhus Msn'] | 2020-12-23 21:41:46.002000+00:00 | ['Covid 19 Vaccine', 'Illumination Curated', 'Vaccine Safety', 'Covid 19', 'Vaccines'] |
The Traditional Lawn needs to go! Here’s what to try instead. | With the global movement towards Environmental Sustainability, homeowners are looking to do their part for a greener, less harmful, and less costly lawn. Native grasses are naturally growing grasses that have existed in the environment before settlement, and offer a unique solution to this problem. They are different from the traditional turf grasses that have been imported into the country, require constant irrigation, chemical fertilizers, and herbicide treatment to thrive in our climate here in British Columbia. Our native grasses, having survived naturally for thousands of years, can grow quite happily on their own, without the high maintenance costs of a traditional lawn. Though at first appearance they may seem boring, the landscaping world has recently come to embrace these underrated plants.
Graminoids include true grasses, sedges and rushes. For the most part, these are all grass-like in appearance, but there are several differences. True grasses have ‘knees’ that are joint like nodes around a hollow stem. Sedges are triangular and solid in cross section. Rushes have a rounded cross section and a solid stem. All three of these can be useful plants to solve problems that landscapers have been having in their green spaces.
California oatgrass is a drought tolerant native bunchgrass with deep roots that can penetrate up to 4 feet into soil.
The key to these plants is their ability to flourish in traditionally difficult garden settings where other plants struggle. Leading landscape designers and landscape architects are using these plants in formerly infertile spots such as the spaces between tree roots, or inhospitable spots such as wet, shady areas where lawns have traditionally done poorly. Forested gardens can be planted with sedges that work in dry shade. Wet, soggy conditions that most garden perennials would sulk in are well suited for rushes or other water loving native grasses. Furthermore, many are deer resistant, and don’t need spraying with chemicals. These are all great assets to the Environmental Sustainability movement.
Restoration meadow at Haliburton Farm, BC 2014.
Even modern ideas such as mulching are being challenged by our native grasses. Say goodbye to yards of mulch required for garden beds every year. Green mulches have become practices pioneered by landscape architects such as Thomas Rainer and John Greenlee, who replace mulch with grasses for a meadow garden effect. Brown mulch, often bark chips or partially composted bark material, needs to be reapplied every year as erosion and runoff deplete it seasonally. With living mulch, sedges or bunchgrasses are planted around the landscape plants once, and that is it. The increased number of plants helps provide habitat for critters, songbirds consume seed heads from bunchgrasses, and the deep roots prevent erosion. As an added bonus, many grasses are host plants for butterfly species and their young.
On top of costly lawn inputs such as chemical sprays, mowing and watering, homeowners now have to deal with Chafer beetle damage to lawns when birds and raccoons dig them up looking for larvae. One way to avoid these pitfalls is to try native lawn alternatives. The roots of traditional turf grasses are very shallow, making these spaces very attractive for overwintering European Chafer beetles. Deep rooting native grasses naturally control erosion better, and are unattractive for Chafer beetles.
“The beauty of sedges is that they work so well with almost any type of planting.”
Red Fescue ‘Molate’ can be grown as a native lawn.
Commercially available native grasses can now be purchased in the Lower Mainland. Our native Festuca rubra var. rubra Red fescue is similar to the Eurasian Chewing Fescue Festuca rubra var. commutata. It is more adapted for this climate, and can be mowed short for a traditional lawn look, or kept longer for an ‘unmowed’ bunchgrass appearance. It can be kept lush and green with regular watering, or left to brown out in summer, from whence will come back in spring.
Native grass Meadow at Haliburton Farm, BC 2014.
Shady sites have always been problem areas for lawns, as most turf grasses require well-drained, moist soil and full sun. When a lawn area with shady conditions is forced, homeowners end up with moss. There are native grasses that thrive such as perennial rush Luzula multiflora, Common Woodrush, that will thrive in dry shade of woodlands and Carex deweyana, Dewey’s sedge, that excels in moist shady forests.
Native grass wetland Restoration at Haliburton Farm, BC 2014.
Sedges have come into the spotlight as a natural look to the traditional lawn. There are low growing sedges such as Carex pansa (up to 12 inches) that only needs mowing once a season. These and other natives are water-wise, as they survive only on natural rainfall in our climate. As a lawn alternative, sedge plantings have several benefits over turf: They require little in the sense of irrigation, chemical fertilizers or herbicides, and are chafer beetle resistant.
The beauty of sedges is that they work so well with almost any type of planting. As a filler plant, they create the fabric that highlights the showier focal plants in the landscape. However, their solid edges also offer them a bolder texture than most turf grasses. The dull appearance of sedges works because they don’t distract the eye when mixed with other species. Rather, they complement and enhance the showier species when grown together. Sedges and bulbs can work as a grassland meadow. Sedges planted with native ferns create a woodland feel. Native succulent plantings with sedges can also work as a dry rock garden, and sedges with roses maintain a cottage garden feel.
Sun sedge and Common Woodrush fill in spaces around native perennial and annual flowering plants.
Sedges truly are a fresh take on traditional gardens. There are enough monocultures of English Ivy and other overused ground cover plantings covering our outdoor spaces. Instead, take the time to grow and nurture native sedges. You will be rewarded with increased biodiversity, easy care landscapes and a natural beauty that will stand out amongst your neighbours.
Native grasses can stitch together a tapestry of plants to create a beautiful picture in the natural landscape. They can also support small ecologies and provide real habitat for wildlife. Whether homeowners will accept the naturalistic look of our native grasses and give up their lawn fixation is uncertain, but there is great upside to a native sedge meadow alternative.
Ground covers and living mulches should be planted in numbers. The initial investment should have enough sedge plugs or containers to fill the area, but also give enough space for the plants to spread out as they mature. Think about mature sizes of all the plants 2 or 3 years later when planning. This green mulching can effectively replace traditional brown mulch as a much more economical and environmentally friendly alternative.
Native Grasses for Shady Gardens
Carex deweyana — Dewey’s Sedge
Carex obnupta (wetter) — Slough Sedge
Luzula multiflora (dry) — Common Woodrush
Melica subulata — Alaska Oniongrass
Festuca occidentalis — Western Fescue
Elymus glaucus — Blue Wildrye
Native Grasses for Sunny Places
Festuca roemeri (dry) — Roemer’s Fescue
Danthonia californica (dry) — California Oatgrass
Koeleria macrantha (dry) — Junegrass
Carex inops ssp. inops (dry) — Sun Sedge
Juncus ensifolius (moist/wet) — Dagger-leaf Rush
Deschampsia cespitosa (moist) — Tufted Hairgrass
Carex kelloggii (moist/wet) — Kellog’s Sedge
Carex lyngbyei (moist/wet) — Lyngbye’s Sedge
Eriophorum angustifolium (wet) — Cottongrass
Scirpus microcarpus (wet) — Smallfruit Bulrush
Achnatherum lemmonii — Lemmon’s Needlegrass
Bromus vulgaris — Columbia Brome
Bromus carinatus — California Brome
Lawn Grasses
Festuca rubra var. rubra — Red Fescue
Festuca occidentalis — Western Fescue
Festuca roemeri — Roemer’s Fescue
Carex pansa — Sand Dune Sedge
Bromus carinatus — California Brome
Seed heads of Deschampsia cespitosa, Tufted Hairgrass
Nurseries in British Columbia that sell native grasses for the Lower Mainland Gardener:
Saanich Native Plants. Saanich, BC (Retail)
Fraser’s Thimble Farms. Salt Spring Island, BC (Retail)
BC Wild Heritage. Sardis, BC (Wholesale and Retail)
Nat’s Nursery. Langley, BC (Wholesale Only) | https://medium.com/@beefriendlyplants/the-traditional-lawn-needs-to-go-heres-what-to-try-instead-8bc115433540 | ['Kevin Jinn'] | 2019-04-04 08:42:39.698000+00:00 | ['Environment', 'Ecology', 'Horticulture', 'Gardening', 'Landscaping'] |
7 Things To Do To Keep Your Child Safe During COVID19 | 7 Things To Do To Keep Your Child Safe During COVID19
Photo by Eric Froehling on Unsplash
As new parents, the biggest nightmare for me and Mr. Husband has been the times when our little baby went ill. Yes, even after taking all the precautions I’ve seen my child getting high fever sometimes. These little fellows are generally very vulnerable to the changing climatic conditions and in India, the temperature varies a lot. The summers are way too hot and air conditioning is badly needed in that season, followed by the monsoon that lasts for months making everything damp. Monsoons are the time when, in India, you not only need to take care of the cleanliness in the house but also all the food, baby stuff everything. It’s the flu season and vaccinations are the most important and first prevention that as parents we must take care of.
Even after that sometimes you’ll find babies getting high temperatures. For instance, I woke up one night to check on my little one, and at 1 am, I found him all flushed. He was cranky since the evening that day and wasn’t able to eat much. Generally when a 10-month-old toddler gets a temperature, we all think maybe the fever would be due to the teething that had started. Babies definitely are in pain with teething, and because of this they can get a temperature to say 99–100, but when the temperature is on the higher side of the scale and is repeating as a parent you must report it to the baby’s pediatrician.
My baby boy had a fever of 101.6 deg F the first night. As the first-timers, Mr. Husband and I panicked and at 1 am, it was a frightening moment for us. Because of the lockdowns due to COVID in the city, we were advised by the grandparents to keep some medicines in hand ready for the baby but we just missed. Why is it that we tend to ignore the advice that our elders give?
Anyways, what happened in those 3–4 days and what we learned from that experience might help new parents like us:
1. Thermal IR temperature reader
Always keep a thermal infrared temperature reader ready. It measures the temperature from the forehead. Though the rectal temps are the most accurate ones at times it is very tough with little toddlers to get the correct reading using the rectal thermometer. For accuracy, first, try it on yourself. My baby used to get irritated because of the rectal thermometer so the IR one was a lifesaver for us.
2. Wet cloth sponging
With high temperatures, along with the medicine start the wet cloth sponging. Do not just put a wet cloth on the baby’s forehead, but also put it on their palms and feet. It’s better to use lukewarm water instead of the ice-cold option. Sponge for 20–30 minutes and stop if you see your baby shivering.
3. Too much of layers
A general tendency is seen that we parents keep the babies wrapped with too many clothes. The climate in India is generally hot and with spikes of temperature the baby will start feeling uneasy in some time. Better is to put them in loose clothing and cover with a clean muslin cloth.
4. Proper hydration
A common mistake we all commit is that we just forget to give babies proper hydration. My little one is 10 months old and has no teeth yet. I changed his regular meal plans and loaded it up with a lot of liquids so that whatever the infection be it could pass away through urine. His diet mainly included
Freshly squeezed juices of sweet lime and oranges for natural vitamin C
Lentils soup for the proteins.
Vegetable soup for much-needed fibers
Give sips of boiled water brought down to room temperature.
5. Breastfeed
It’s best to give mothers milk to the child in case the baby is too fussy to have anything all through the day. Breastmilk has some amazing properties to fight the infection. Also if the baby’s temperature is not going down, you may even wish to apply some expressed milk on your child’s forehead and armpits. I have tried it and this method works well.
6. Emergency medicines
Always keep the baby’s meds handy. Keep a stock of the medicines that your Pediatrician has recommended. Because of the lockdown, there were so many problems that I had to face while going out to the medical shops at odd hours. I have now separately prepared a medical box for my little one. It includes the following medicines:
Paracetamol drops for a fever — to be given once the fever is more than 100deg F
A combination of Ibuprofen and Paracetamol syrup in case the paracetamol drops don’t work.
Colicaid drops for colic
Teething biochemical formula tablets
Vitamin D drops
Baby cough syrup for wet and dry cough
Lacto calamine lotion for any insect bite
Nasoclear spray
Lactobacillus probiotic sachet for loose motions
An anti-emetic is used to relieve nausea and vomiting.
Well, this may sound too much but it’s always good to be ready for the unprepared times.
7. Consult your doctor
If the fever is persistent as parents we must always remember to visit the Pediatrician without any delay. A physical examination of the baby because of the fever that keeps coming again and again and does not subside on its own must be shown to the doctor. Anyways, these days most doctors do not give any medications unnecessarily and they believe in letting the baby’s immune system grow. So be patient and have faith in your doctor. Some pointers to help you during the appointment:
The doctor will check on the vaccination chart so carry it during your visit.
The doctor will ask about all the symptoms so be prepared. If you notice any change in babies’ health during this time do not forget to mention that.
Write down all your queries to avoid any last-minute confusion.
Understand all the medications and precautions to be taken.
Last but not the least, do take your doctor’s phone number; in case you may need it for any unsaid emergency.
I have also documented the precautions to be taken during a doctor’s visit if you are taking the baby out at this time of quarantine. Remember to complete the dose of medications and keep the baby hydrated. I think with all the above-mentioned pointers things would ease out a bit but still watching your child sick is the most painful thing. Wishing for a healthy and quick recovery to the baby and family! | https://medium.com/a-parent-is-born/how-to-take-care-of-babys-health-during-the-pandemic-34f32b0b3015 | ['Aditi K'] | 2020-10-21 18:46:40.467000+00:00 | ['Newborn', 'Health Tips', 'Covid Diaries', 'Parenting Tips', 'New Parents'] |
Meetings Are “Actual Work” | Meetings Are “Actual Work”
I don’t know about you but there seems to be a tendency in my circles for people to write off meetings as “non-work”, taking up precious time that could be used for “actual work”.
As somebody who runs a web development business with a number of clients, many of whom I speak with regularly, I’ve been guilty of complaining about this myself.
If only I didn’t have meetings today: I could get on with some coding and do some actual work…
Talking to people *is* work
In this brave new world of endless Zoom calls, it can feel like we’re always having to show up, to perform. And certainly, in many cases a meeting could be substituted for an email, that has always been the case.
But every project needs good communication. And now, more than ever, face to face meetings have value. We don’t complain so much about being available 24 hours a day on IM or email, so why do we file meetings under “unproductive time”?
Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash
Do meetings waste your time?
If you said “yes” it might be that your meetings could run more effectively. I used to consider meetings to be a real time-sap with little return until I realised it was the way I conducted myself in meetings that were the problem.
Here are some tips to make meetings, in-person or over the video, work better for you:
Have an agenda
First of all you should have an agenda. I’m not talking about some formal document that gets circulated with all attendees before you meet. I simply mean a brief idea of what you want to talk about. What do you want to get out of the meeting? This helps prevent “quick calls” from spiraling into 40 minute conversations that take more tangents than a soap opera.
Allocate time for it
It’s easy to feel you’re wasting time if a meeting has been imposed on you unexpectedly. To get around this, plan for it. I’m a fan of time-blocking and for each meeting I have planned, I allocate a block of time that day for it. It’s largely psychological because the only thing that’s changed is my perception of how I spend my time, but the material benefit is you can actually track how long you spend in meetings as well.
Keep notes and actions
A good meeting will always produce some actions, either for yourself or others. For me, the sign of a productive meeting is not how much gets discussed but what decisions get made. If you find that you spend a large amount of time in meetings with little outcomes to show for it, it could mean that your time is being spent inefficiently.
Take charge of yourself
I’m not suggesting that you try to control the meeting, rather I’m saying that if you need to leave early or only have a short amount of time, say so. If you let yourself be led by others, you’ll be forced to stick around indefinitely. That’s very anxiety-provoking, so learn to assert yourself when needed and only join meetings that you know you can get value from. Then leave (nicely).
Re-inventing the meeting
Now more than ever it’s worth thinking deeply about how we spend our time. Video calls can require a lot of energy and if you do too many of them you’ll burn out. When done well, intermittent comms with team members and clients can deliver huge value to your life, making work more pleasurable and productive. But if you let these “quick calls” run away with you, it can leave you lethargic and too tired to focus on other areas of business.
When this happens, it’s no wonder we often don’t think of meetings as actual work. | https://medium.com/an-idea/meetings-are-actual-work-c38b9f294ec2 | ['Matt Saunders'] | 2021-01-06 16:19:23.108000+00:00 | ['Personal Development', 'Time Blocking', 'Productivity Hacks', 'Meetings', 'Productivity'] |
Two Feet | Two Feet
My love and I
stretch out on the couch together,
toe to toe,
our legs covered by a cozy blanket
this cold winter morning.
Light streams in the window at our side.
Leaves flutter by from oak branch to ground
as I read aloud to her
a tense chapter from The Hobbit.
My left hand grows chill;
I slide it under the blanket
to find and hold her warm foot at my side.
To my surprise,
I find two feet
side by side:
my sweetie’s 5-toed foot wearing a fuzzy sock
and
a slender 4-toed foot with built-in furry sock.
Our cat GG is hiding under the blanket.
Stretched out the length of Kathy’s leg,
her soft paw helps warm my chill hand. | https://psiloveyou.xyz/two-feet-2cd1f2aa260b | ['Peter Finkle'] | 2020-12-27 13:02:41.032000+00:00 | ['Reading', 'Cats', 'Winter', 'Poetry Sunday', 'Marriage'] |
The Terrifying World of Benadryl Addiction | The Terrifying World of Benadryl Addiction
Photo by Pavel Krugley on Unsplash
“First thing I want to say, I hate DPH. I think DPH is horrible. I took DPH because I wanted to mentally hurt myself. I will never take DPH again,” a user posted to the r/DPH subreddit as a preface to his experience taking 1200 milligrams of DPH — shortened form of diphenhydramine, or more commonly, Benadryl — during a suicide attempt. He took two entire boxes of Benadryl, which is around 50 to 100 times the therapeutic dose. By the time I spoke to him a month after his post, he had gone back on this reassurance and said he now found himself “hooked” on Benadryl.
“It has this unsettling and inherent darkness that I’ve never experienced with any other drug,” mentioned one user with years of heavy Benadryl dependence. With trip reports detailing walls covered in spiders, shadowy ghost figures skulking around their bedrooms, and pets melting in their owner’s arms, DPH possesses a unique ability to cause almost wholly nightmarish trips, transporting the user to a world reminiscent of the Silent Hill franchise. While in this delirium, the user often can’t tell where reality ends and the drug begins. It’s not uncommon to completely lose touch with reality, forgetting they swallowed the pills, forgetting where they are, and even forgetting who they are. Seizures. Lifelike hallucinations. Psychosis. Coma. Death. Doctors have noted the often inconsistent but often deadly serious symptoms of antihistamine overdose.
Photo via Reddit screenshot
DPH, once an obscure high, has risen in popularity due to social media personalities and its spread on social media. For instance, the “Benadryl challenge” on TikTok sees users down massive amounts of Benadryl and record the experience for their followers. Often the drug’s most common users are teenagers and other young adults without access to traditional recreational drugs, and Benadryl’s over-the-counter availability placates any of their health concerns. After all, if it comes from a Walgreens shelf, how bad can it be?
The DPH community on Reddit is a popular forum for recreational Benadryl users. While some brag with photos of hundreds of pills laid out, similar to how traditional drug dealers might post their hauls, most adamantly tell new users to stay far away from this drug. DPH addicts are a dime a dozen here, often lamenting the drug and how it has ruined their life, relationships, and brain health, whilst remaining in the throes of their addiction.
Is the brain damage permanent? Did the drugs break my brain? Questions plaguing the subreddit in between posts about trip reports, dosage questions, and memes. Others make posts warning about their use exacerbating their mental health problems, from depression to borderline personality disorder, to one user waking up in a mental hospital after a DPH binge. The teenager constantly felt intense paranoia and was unable to stop experiencing tactile and visual hallucinations. Others report brain fog, suicidal ideation, heart issues, memory problems, and vision and hearing loss. The lives of these users — many of them teenagers in already vulnerable situations — make Requiem for a Dream look like Sesame Street.
“I’m honestly quite sad how many people, especially teens, are taking this drug recreationally. I don’t want anyone else to have to experience the pure agony, terror, and confusion DPH has caused me,” infamously wrote one user of the Reddit forum. The user is believed to have fatally overdosed, after publicly and bluntly speaking about their addiction on the board for months. According to their comments, they started taking DPH in 2019 as a legal and cheap alternative to LSD and quickly became addicted as their physical and mental health deteriorated. On several experiences, medics rushed them to the hospital after seizures while shopping; they drove to work while on 2000 mg and described swerving to avoid hitting hallucinations; and had several stays in the cardiac intensive care unit. Their last post was a photo of 276 pink Benadryl pills — 6900 milligrams or 172 to 276 times the recommended dose. Responding to concerned users on the board, this person replied “6.9g may be the dose that finally frees me.”
Many users on Reddit discuss the adverse neurological effects they’ve suffered from DPH abuse, yet there have been nearly no studies on the effects of heavy Benadryl addiction on a young person’s brain. However, overdosing on Benadryl isn’t a new phenomenon in medical journals.
In another case reported by researchers, a distraught 14-year-old girl swallowed 150 capsules, each containing 50 mg of diphenhydramine. She quickly fell unconscious and experienced seizures. Despite aggressive and speedy treatment, doctors declared her brain dead the following day after detecting no cerebral blood flow. Fatal doses for children can be as low as 500 mg, while the fatal dose for adults is generally considered to be between 20 to 40 mg/kg.
Addiction, regardless of the drug, regularly ravages the user’s life in catastrophic ways but few substances are as wholly negative and all-consuming as recreational Benadryl. While substances like mushrooms, LSD, and even cannabis in some areas remain illegal, some young and vulnerable users resort to over-the-counter drugs that prove ruinous for their physical and mental health.
Those pushed to obscure highs like DPH might get some relief next year, at least for those in Oregon. Starting February 1, 2021, Oregon’s drug decriminalization law takes effect and drug users will no longer be arrested for possessing small amounts of illegal substances. Instead of a prison sentence, small possession charges will be punished with only a small fee similar to a traffic ticket. Under this new law, Oregon drug users won’t be pushed into the prison system and instead can get the help they need. Hopefully, this will allow local drug users to make safer choices. If you’d like to help the drug decriminalization effort nationwide, research drug decriminalization and its intersections with prison reform. By starting the conversation in your friend circle, these issues will become less stigmatized. | https://aninjusticemag.com/the-terrifying-world-of-benadryl-addiction-7595d2b6501b | ['Raisa Nastukova'] | 2020-12-16 21:57:34.693000+00:00 | ['Addiction', 'Trends', 'Mental Health', 'Reddit', 'Drugs'] |
Let’s Learn About Graph Databases | From Punchcards to Relational Databases
In preliminary days, data was stored on punchcards and was really hard to read or interpret. It was impossible to index data to cross-reference and eliminate inconsistencies.
Punched card from Fortran program — Wikipedia
But soon, the industry evolved and RDBMS came into picture where data was stored in relational databases.
This format is somewhat human-readable but to store a considerable amount of data, relational databases require normalization to remove duplications and inconsistencies.
It also requires foreign key relationships to related data which makes it hard to understand and maintain without complicated JOIN queries.
ER diagram of a Car Rental System
ACID: atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability
Relational databases support ACID out of the box and that is a big advantage.
It means that if the data is committed once, it will be available for subsequent queries to use but it is expensive to find data and the cost keeps creeping up as the size of data keeps growing.
To fix this issue, we add indexes to data which make lookup faster.
Adding indexes solves the issue to a certain extent but if we have to do a number of JOINs then we have to perform query time index lookups for each and every JOIN — this approach starts falling apart and starts becoming expensive as the number of tables grows. | https://medium.com/better-programming/graph-databases-ad2cbe1570df | ['Navdeep Singh'] | 2019-11-27 23:58:53.672000+00:00 | ['Development', 'Technology', 'GraphQL', 'Database', 'Programming'] |
Is It Weird to Regift Toys My Kids Don’t Want to My Ex’s Girlfriend’s Children? | Is It Weird to Regift Toys My Kids Don’t Want to My Ex’s Girlfriend’s Children?
Although it’s December, I’ve been doing some spring cleaning. In cleaning out my bedroom and my kids’ room, I’ve found a lot of toys that my boys don’t want. These toys are still in their packaging. Mostly these are gifts that my sons received for their birthdays from their friends. They opened the gift wrapping, took one look at the toys, and said nah.
Legos, Legos, and more Legos. That’s what the majority of these toys are. My sons’ friends’ moms probably stopped by Target on the way to the parties — just like I do — snagging a box of “Legos for boys” as a gift, not realizing that my sons have never been into Legos.
I’m not putting down the plastic bricks. They’re great for children’s imaginations. Legos are also quite expensive. However, my sons just don’t like them. Because of their low opinions of Legos, these unopened boxes have been sitting around my house for years, moldering in my closet and under my sons’ beds.
So in discovering all these Legos still in their original packaging during my recent cleaning spree, I got an idea: I could regift them to my ex-husband’s girlfriend’s children.
Her kids are younger than our kids, and I already regifted them toys my sons didn’t want a few months back. I had my ex-husband give his girlfriend’s children some Roblox-themed toys that he bought for our sons, which they didn’t like.
Again, my kids didn’t even open the boxes. Please don’t think my kids are so spoiled. They like videogames, but Roblox has also fallen into bad favor.
My ex regifted the toys to his girlfriend’s children — and guess what? They loved them!
So why not do it again? But then I started wondering: is this weird?
Is regifting tacky — especially when you do it to your ex-husband’s girlfriend’s kids?
Let’s face it — regifting is a little gauche. However, I also think about how much stuff we waste. Should I throw out the Legos and add more plastic to the landfill? Or should I just see if some other kids want my children’s unopened “throwaways”?
The kids I’ve chosen to enjoy these gifts just happen to be my ex’s girlfriend’s children. Is there anything wrong with regifting them toys my sons don’t want?
No.
And if I can show I’m past my divorce and able to maintain not only good relations with my sons’ father but with his new girlfriend too — then why not do everything in my power to do that? Not only has she had a good effect on my ex, making him happier — which is better for our children — but I feel like because he’s happier, I get along with him better as well.
I want to stay in good relations with his girlfriend. I want my ex and his lady to stay together! And her kids are just kids, like my own children, also growing up in a home where their parents don’t live together and now have new partners. At the very least, I can make life a little better for her kids, too.
I often belabor the point of just how important it is to continue to get along with your ex-spouse if you have children together. You can’t not maintain good relations with the other parent of your children. One way I’m trying to do this is by giving toys to my ex’s girlfriend’s kids.
These toys just happen to be regifted. There’s nothing wrong with that. | https://medium.com/eros-is-everywhere/is-it-weird-to-regift-toys-my-kids-dont-want-to-my-ex-s-girlfriend-s-children-12174da1a1bb | ['Elle Silver'] | 2020-12-15 02:04:00.214000+00:00 | ['Parenting', 'Recycling', 'Relationships', 'Divorce', 'Family'] |
*Not* Building: The Role of Simplicity in Product Management | Part 1: How Product Managers Can Avoid Becoming Feature Factory Managers
Penny Marshall, left, and Cindy Williams in “Laverne & Shirley.” (ABC Photo Archives/ABC Photo Archives/Getty Images)
Traditional approaches to product management are built around features and timelines. These are important, but when you start there, you end up managing a feature factory rather than shipping products that captivate customers and achieve business objectives. In order to build more successful products and features, we need to make sure we’re building the best possible solution for the right problem.
It’s been nearly three years since John Cutler wrote his now famous post “12 Signs You’re Working in a Feature Factory,” which concisely outlines some of the most common symptoms of feature factories. They include not measuring the right things, rapid shuffling of teams, and infrequent acknowledgment of failures, among others.
In a talk at a Mind the Product conference a year after that post was published, he traced most of these to a root cause of lack of trust. He also ended up writing a valuable trove of 15 follow-up posts to address some of his proposed solutions.
Yes, part of the ultimate solution is to improve trust within product teams and between those teams and the adjacent teams. But how? Improving trust sounds mushy. The good news is that there are tactics we can employ to help improve trust and will have a variety of other side benefits as well.
The tried and true advice here is: prior to building and shipping, start with the problem rather than the solution and you will ship fewer flops and more successes.
Focusing on problems first will allow you to define the right success metrics and enable you to focus on customer outcomes over product team outputs.
In turn, a focus on customer outcomes makes you more likely to achieve desired business outcomes.
(We should clarify the important difference between company outcomes and customer outcomes. The product management world often talks about focusing on outcomes over outputs, but let’s be clear that customer outcomes is the real focus. Company outcomes are a lagging indicator of delivering customer outcomes.)
After a product or feature has been shipped, if it’s underperforming, we have four options for action:
If low awareness and user comprehension are the problem, we can increase our product marketing efforts. If discoverability and usability are the problem, we can improve the onboarding and user interface. If the feature is suboptimally built and/or lacks key functionality, we can improve it. If these efforts still fail, we should consider killing the feature.
We’ll dive deeper into how to effectively prune your product in the next post in this series.
We can avoid the feature factory fate by implementing the following basket of tactics that ladder up to the strategy of focusing on outcomes over outputs:
How-To:
Make sure you have a clear answer to why you are building a particular product or feature. Is it a real solution to a real customer problem? More importantly, how do you know? Do you have market evidence? Have you organized and analyzed that evidence?
Stop evaluating product teams based on how many features were shipped (output)! Instead, evaluate product teams based on customer outcome metrics and company outcome metrics.
Create a culture of genuine institutional learning. Honestly evaluate what’s already been shipped in order to learn from past successes and failures.
Connect the evidence from all of your sources of product knowledge to your roadmap decisions. That includes qualitative user feedback, market research, and quantitative product analytics. That means that your customer success, marketing, product and business intelligence/data science teams need to work together and share data.
Conduct continuous discovery 🔎 and involve the engineering team in your discovery activities so that they fully understand (and have input into) the strategic rationale and customer context for anything they are asked to build.
Make sure that your roadmap goes beyond the simple Gantt chart function of timelines and projects. A roadmap shouldn’t only be a forward-looking tool. It should be used as a historical database and include the WHY, not just the HOW and the WHEN. The hypothesis and supporting evidence for any given roadmap item should be one or two clicks away. When applicable, link items on your roadmap back to evidence from past launches, both successful and failed.
Ask yourself before building: is this product or feature simple in terms of both purpose (it’s clear to our customer what value it delivers) and use (it’s easy to use)?
These tactics will take your team much closer to genuinely focusing on customer outcomes.
This strategy can be grouped into two buckets: 1) improve your company’s ability to answer for WHY before the HOW and WHEN, 2) improve your company’s ability to learn from past launches and measure more important things than number of features shipped.
If you put this into action, your team will avoid the feature factory fate by only building and shipping those products and features that will provide real value to your customers. You’ll ship fewer flops. Speaking of which, our next post in this series will dive into how to prune underperforming products and features.
Read part 2 of this series: “Subtracting: The Role of Simplicity in Product Management”.
We also produced an entertaining little video about feature factories: | https://medium.com/glidr/not-building-the-role-of-simplicity-in-product-management-68e1bf688475 | ['Jonathan Falker'] | 2019-06-26 15:29:45.342000+00:00 | ['Product Management', 'Product Development', 'UX', 'Customer Success', 'User Research'] |
Running With the Wools | Blog
Running With the Wools
The Wools: Photo by Author
Back in 2013, I quit smoking. A year later I began running. Or shuffle hopping, as I like to call it.
I loved running. I wasn’t fast and would not place well in any race. I tried a 1/2 marathon in Chicago in 2015 with the goal of finishing. I was so overwhelmed by the crowds of people (something like 20k people were in the park that day) that I panicked and dissolved into a puddle of fear and tears. That was a DNF. The one other “races” I ran were a 5k color fun run in support of breast cancer in Amarillo (again, too many people-but I powered through) and a 5k in my teeny tiny town of pop 2000.
After the local 5k: photo by Author’s husband, used with permission
Instead of racing, I usually ran a circle out past the livestock barn the high school uses for 4H, down some dirt and gravel roads, over caliche, up past the house locals call “The Castle,” down toward Highway 70, and back through town, then to home. My route was between seven and ten miles.
I ran almost daily for nearly two years before work and life (and in the summer of 2016 cigarettes) got in the way.
In 2018, after being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, I started lifting free weights. I really liked it, but somehow turned into a 12-year-old boy wanting to go heavier faster. I injured my rotator cuff.
Then, in 2019, I started having health issues. First skin cancer (surgically removed — I’m fine) and then weird and unexplained stomach issues and full-body aches. I could barely eat a quarter of a serving. What I did eat came back up. The chronic pain made getting up and fixing something to eat near impossible. I had zero appetite.
I lost 25 pounds in just a few months. Everybody kept telling me how great I looked. I hated hearing that. I know it was a compliment but it didn’t feel like one. All the pain and misery every single day. I just felt horrible.
Finally, after over a year and endless testing and probing, those issues were resolved. It was a simple fix: stop taking medication that was prescribed prophylactically as part of the medical standard of care for women with T2D.
I stopped puking every day. I stopped hurting all over. My appetite finally made an appearance. And then, I put the weight back on. I’ve gained ten pounds since August.
Yikes!
So, once again I’m embarking upon a journey of fitness. I’ve been counting my steps and logging my food. Logging my water intake and monitoring my sleep. All thanks to my shiny new FitBit Inspire 2 (no affiliate links- just an early Christmas gift). I’m prompted to get up and move, take a walk, or drink some water. I’m prompted to meditate which, as it turns out, is not at all relaxing. I mean, the meditating is fine. The prompting is a bit annoying. I’ve been getting in some steps and some cardio. I haven’t actually exercised. Not like aerobics or sit ups or whatever. Instead, I’ve been digging holes in the dried-up-home-made-pond in the orchard. Not real exercise.
Until today.
Today I ran (or shuffle hopped).
I was planning on walking through the sheep pasture up to the gate at the back of our property. We have a long, narrow 30 acres, so this is actually a good distance for being in the back yard. It is uphill, too, which makes it even better for fitness training.
Something came over me and I ran (shuffle hopped) instead.
The sheep and llama decided to investigate. I think they thought I was crazy. Marilyn, the llama, is the guardian of the flock. She couldn’t figure out what I was doing. I wasn’t feeding them. I wasn’t petting them. I wasn’t threatening them. I was running away from them.
Pretty soon I heard thundering hoofbeats behind me. Marilyn, followed by the entire flock of sheep, was chasing me and only veered off when she got an arm’s length away. She’d wait until I got a bit ahead of her and chased after me again, with all the food little sheep following where they were led.
Llamas can actually run. not just shuffle hop. They move in a loping gallop. Fast!. A couple of times I worried she would crash into me. She never did, of course.
We ran in this manner up to the gate at the back and down to the stock tank where the sheep pasture ends. I continued running up to the front of the house while Marilyn watched me with a glint in her eye.
Some people spend a bunch of money to fly to Spain and go running with the bulls.
Me? I stay home and go running with the wools. | https://medium.com/the-bad-influence/running-with-the-wools-6f243af5dd48 | ['Jonica Bradley'] | 2020-12-23 13:02:20.750000+00:00 | ['Running', 'The Bad Influence', 'Humor', 'Self', 'This Happened To Me'] |
Ireland’s Contact Lens Exports Slump Due to Lower Demand in Japan, the U.S. and China | Ireland’s Contact Lens Exports Slump Due to Lower Demand in Japan, the U.S. and China IndexBox Oct 18, 2021·2 min read
Ireland’s Contact Lens Exports Slump Due to Lower Demand in Japan, the U.S. and China — IndexBox
IndexBox has just published a new report: ‘Ireland — Contact Lenses — Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights’. Here is a summary of the report’s key findings.
Ireland recorded an intense drop in contact lense exports owing to reduced demand from its major trade partners, Japan, the U.S and China. In value terms, exports fell from $1.4B in 2019 to $1.2B in 2020. The supplies to Japan, the U.S and China shrank by -3.2%, -15.8% and -4.1% y-o-y, respectively. The average export price for contact lenses from Ireland increased +5.9% y-o-y to $0.4 per unit last year.
Ireland’s Contact Lense Exports
Contact lense exports from Ireland fell to 3.2B units in 2020, with a decrease of -15% compared with 2019 figures. In value terms, contact lense exports dropped from $1.4B in 2019 to $1.2B ( IndexBox estimates) in 2020.
Japan (1.3B units), the U.S. (839M units) and the Netherlands (267M units) were the main destinations of contact lense exports from Ireland, with a combined 75% share of total exports. These countries were followed by China, Russia, South Korea and Taiwan (Chinese), which together accounted for a further 17%.
In value terms, Japan ($560M) remains the key foreign market for contact lense exports from Ireland, comprising 46% of total exports. The second position in the ranking was occupied by the U.S. ($134M), with a 11% share of total exports. It was followed by China, with a 5.3% share.
In 2020, the supplies (in value terms) to Japan, the U.S and China dropped by -3.2% y-o-y, -15.8% y-o-y and -4.1% y-o-y respectively.
The average contact lense export price stood at $0.4 per unit in 2020, growing by +5.9% against the previous year. Prices varied noticeably by the country of destination; the country with the highest price was Russia ($0.5 per unit), while the average price for exports to the Netherlands ($0.1 per unit) was amongst the lowest. In 2020, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was recorded for supplies to Japan, while the prices for the other major destinations experienced more modest paces of growth.
Source: IndexBox Platform | https://medium.com/@indexbox/irelands-contact-lens-exports-slump-due-to-lower-demand-in-japan-the-u-s-and-china-b74006a09f1f | [] | 2021-10-18 09:23:09.373000+00:00 | ['Indexbox', 'Ireland', 'Export', 'Contact Lens', 'Japan'] |
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