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How 2020 went summarily…. In Tolulope Dada’s words, I may stumble… | The beginning
2020 started quite on a good note cos I was talking to a guy I vibed with a lot in Nov 2019. Gosh, we just clicked, our communication and friendship were on a high (it was literally that effect of cold refreshing wine on a hot day). We shared beautiful memories together and decided to plan our 2020 together — that was the Vision board date in my room with our laptops, internet, wine of cos, music and that is all I remember. This brings me to one of the gifts of that friendship — Goal setting.
I have been setting goals for the longest of time, but this was different (haha, not because a man was involved) and summarily this was what we did;
Simplify our goals in different categories (Spiritual, Career, Finance, Relationship, etc). An example, I had a goal to write the PMP exam (career), He had a goal to move to a bigger apartment (Living & Finance, cos what is a bigger apartment without money)
We sourced pictures online, mostly Pinterest to find pictures that depict each goal, and saved them on a board
Used Canva to arrange the pictures, created a PDF book I called dream board 2020
Mostly I think the visualization of the goals made this different from what I have done in the past.
Some inspire to aspire quote, but you get what I mean yh?
Literally saw that thing about the law of attraction come to play cos I visualized my goals.
Still, about counting the wins, January 2020, I started the job opportunity I was looking forward to in 2019 — A project management role even before I got my certification.
Jan 16 — I started preparing for my exams, cos Korede had picked a date for his own exam (Talk about friends that inspire you!). Tbh, I don’t have such a large circle but I realize, that friends with genuinely shared aspirations/goals make the achievement of your goals almost a smooth ride.
Heartbreaks and Low tides
1. February came, in fact, I can source the date from my calendar. Had a date with my guy from December vibes and we did a SWOT analysis of our budding relationship (trust me, I can be too serious for my liking). The outcome was that we realized there was a threat to our individual values. So we had to “break up”. mehn, it hit me o. (let’s leave it like that, cos hard girl I suppose)
2. I decided in January, to support my friends and network more. So I paid to attend Amaka’s one-man acting performance. OMG, that babe is a force! A bundle of talent! and I am sure one day, a hall full of people would actually pay to watch her perform by God’s grace. One my way out of that beautiful show, I got a call from my brother that he had just survived a terrible car accident. I almost shrunk, I am sure I sped 140km/h to get to the hospital that day.
You see why I said by God’s grace earlier now— I say it very consciously these days cos guy, there are too many life uncertainties and my only constant is God, not because He would make me live free of these uncertainties but because he would walk me through them (John 16:33).
3. Wilson died. This hit harder, but we are #neverdiegang.
4. Oby died — July 2. This hit was much harder. Oby was such a sweet and beautiful soul. I feel like almost everyone on earth had a blow of loss in 2020. That day, I was on a trip when I heard the news, I was scared, I was sandwiched between a trailer and a parked car and I thought if Oby could die, who really I am or anyone else in the car. Life is so fleeting and this fear shadows me often. I wonder, who is next and all that stuff. But as Tosin Abejide said, the way this death and life thing works is that we have to move on. Sadly true.
We probably forget a lot that death is part of life, we get used to all life and living offers that we lose sight of this reality until it hits us again. This brings me to another confidence in God, cos as believers, we truly never die. Yes, we leave the earth but our core and spirit are with God. I mean, isn’t this why Jesus died. He even proved it, he died and came back to life.
I cor 5:14 — “ And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” (read the whole chapter if you care for context)
5. 2020 really made me realize the many things wrong in the society we live in. Tbh, it is as though I have lived in a bubble all my life, or maybe I have honestly been quite privileged, or perhaps, I am just blinded or I choose to mind my business. Either way, 2020 showed me so much — that you cannot have a road trip without a pothole, there is so much injustice ingrained in our government and social constructs, religious biases, and to cap it, 2020 news of pastors and respected leaders involved in sexual allegations hit closer home for me.
About the pastor gist ehn, I am not too surprised cos they are firstly men before becoming “Men of God” but my own pain is the fact they get away with it without addressing the issues or submitting to justice. It irks me. What about the other women on the other side of the rope? They deserve justice, closure, and healthy emotional lives too!!!! We need a structure to address issues like this in the church.
6. Imposter Syndrome
Whatever this syndrome is, I battled with it almost every other week. From my faith to my job and even lifestyle. My mind tells me how I am imperfect but still wanna share my faith, do good work, chop life, and literally have a great life.
However, this one ehn, I have left at Jesus’ feet. I constantly try to remind myself daily that God is my source, my strength and hope and that it will never be about my abilities cos I am so imperfect on my own. So we move, while looking to God, as he directs my path.
7. On relationships again, I think I tried, or maybe I did not. After December guy, I got entangled with a lovely soul I had known before, we vibed a lot! we shared beautiful moments but it had to end, not in tears! Truth is, he is a great person but definitely not available for me. So I had to walk away …
Tbh, I have been blessed to have met very amazing guys in this life and it gets me bothered that I am probably aiming for perfection or that I am not sure enough about what I want or I am not stable enough to be in a relationship. (these are just mostly thoughts atimes)
After this, I considered again with my best friend for years but after SWOT and some difficult conversations, lmao I am still happily single and everyone is saying yes to their LOML. Las las ehn, I would probably see a therapist, commit myself to growth and keep being and doing the best I could ever be/do.
8. Health — My mental health was quite stable but I beat myself a lot. For many hours, I would not eat even when I am hungry. I just did not know what to do or what to eat. Somedays, I knew what I wanted but did not have the mental fortitude to do it.
This affected my productivity ultimately. My emotional and mental health dwindled a lot and lockdown period made me realize how broke I was financially at a time, and the fear of losing my job made me shrink. But hey, a conversation with my brother, Adetunji made things better. I love you so much Teejay!
I also battled acne! It was really bad but I sure am in a better place today. I researched and learned a lot about skincare.
9. #ENDSARS — it would be unfair to me if I did not mention this. The Nigerian youth fought for police reformation and the best the government could do was to kill people at the Lekki toll gate. #lekkimassacre happened. It was a very unfortunate and sad event. This happened in October.
Despite all the low tides, I am constantly trying to face my fears and getting things done irrespective of how I feel.
High Tides
Setting Goals like I mentioned earlier set the year in motion. What I plan to do differently this year is to set subgoals and work towards them quarterly. I had to review last year through H2 though cos 2020 took a different toll on its own. Got “Ifunanya” ( if you know, you know. If you want to know, send me a dm). Imposter syndrome will not let me shine or tell the world about it, but I am grateful for it. Paid my house rent in 2020 without getting into debt! Guy, if you have ever paid a bank loan, then you will understand how this was a big win for me! Earned my PMP certification. Yes, your girl is a project manager with HSE and Engineering expertise in the downstream oil & gas industry. I am currently aspiring to work with a forward-thinking organization with a focus on tech-driven objective cos that is where the future of work is. As a global citizen that I aspire to be, I want to earn in dollars ejor! Friends and Network — Mehn, this was probably the hugest part of 2020 for me. I could lean on people within my network at different times. Even to the point of doing my laundry! You may want to give me a washing machine, but until then, Bisola and my brother have been the MVP.
From Helen & Korede, who constantly gave me “urgent 2k” when needed to Orhoghene who was my team buddy at work, to my flatmates (Bimbo & Ife) who made living together very bearable or to my unpaid emotions therapist — Kemi, hahaha. This paragraph would honestly not end If I had to mention the names of all my friends but I learned to receive love and help from friends. I also gave a lot and invested so much into different levels of my friendships.
2021, I intend to keep it up and also be more consistent with the gift giveaways, esp for birthdays and celebratory milestones.
6. Finance — I bounced back from being in debt. The piggyvest app and the “label” feature was the best thing that happened to my finance this year. That label feature was my big break, it helped me to categorize/budget every money in my account. The dollar feature was the next best thing! whoooosh.
Piggyvest said over 2 million Naira entered my flex account. I am in hot tears, cos I do not know where all that money is right now. I however love the piggy vest app and would recommend it to anyone, click here to start your journey with my referral code and earn yourself 1k.
I am also using this opportunity to shoot my shot at PIggyvest to get featured one day as the saver of the month. I hear they pick that person randomly. I can also do a video testimonial of my piggy vest journey. Call me now before I blow. lol. Also, I look forward to the feature where I can extend savings time/duration in my target savings
Another best thing that happened to me was the daily tracking excel sheet Orifunke Lawal shared on WhatsApp. I discovered this in December but my finance is definitely grateful for it.
7. Investment club- After the Ajo group I belonged to fell apart during covid, a team of friends called me up to know if I would be interested in joining an investment club in June. I can confidently say that was indeed one step in the right direction for me (and us). The community has helped me to cultivate the habit of saving to build. The story about this club will be told in years to come, actually, you will see our picture in the Forbes Africa Magazine. Soon come, by God’s grace.
8. I started two businesses. Teesandfits started post lockdown. My salary did not seem enough, Lagos living was making me live like a money conduit. I hated it. I had to find other means, of cos legit. And then came an opportunity to provide the value of comfort to people — Plain tee shirts and Polos you could wear while working from home.
Anietie, God bless you forever for introducing me to my loyal supplier. In short, I am your plug for plain tees and polos. I have a target to pay my house rent from this business, come and buy Tee shirt ejor.
I also started Etsebox.co — This one was in a bit to express the thoughtful and romantic side of me. I love gifts a lot. Here, I curate and package gift items in a box for occasions and to share love and light.
9. Tried new things I found myself loving- I started running, yoga, trying new food recipes, remodeling my room, and prioritizing self-care.
Last but definitely not least, the Faith community!. I am grateful for a family-like CCI. Tbh, that community of faith has spurred me in much good work. My church, Celebration Church, is so keen and deliberate about my spiritual growth through initiatives like Triumph30 devotionals, prayer times and, MAP groups. I have also made a few friends there who have been really inspiring towards my spiritual growth and commitment.
I am more conscious of who and whose I am. For this alone, I am very grateful and willing to align with God’s purpose and plan.
Regrets?
Err, none particularly. I am in a good state and I think I am not doing badly.
I am aware I have my strength and weaknesses. I am learning every day about them. Learning to leverage my strength and spread as much love and impact into the world around me.
Things I look forward to in 2021
This may be another post so this would not be too long. However, I am mostly committed to learning, growing, becoming better, giving, and living in the light of the one who’s given me life.
PS — I started writing this on January 6, finally pushed myself to publish before January ends because if I don’t, I probably never would.
If you enjoyed reading this and would love more posts like this, pls let me know in the comments section.
2. Just before publishing, I remembered other highlights such as spending the lockdown with my flatmates, my birthday celebration at The House, my first road trip to Ibadan where I drove, Dara and Daranla’s visitation to Lagos (two times) — these were really beautiful and memorable days.
I hope to document more this year.
Cheers | https://medium.com/@adeniranadeolamary/how-my-2020-went-summarily-6c1d92e0e2fb | [] | 2021-01-24 15:53:32.553000+00:00 | ['Top Of Mind', '2020 Reflection', 'Personal Blog', 'Memories', 'Year In Review'] |
How to participate in the $BOSON token distribution | SECURITY NOTICE:
The $BOSON token contract address is: 0xC477D038d5420C6A9e0b031712f61c5120090de9
The official auction, on the Gnosis Auction platform is the only place you can acquire $BOSON tokens — all other offers will be fraudulent! —
Here is the direct link to the auction:
https://gnosis-auction.eth.link/#/auction?auctionId=13&chainId=1#topAnchor
No $BOSON will be available to purchase from any exchange (CEX or DEX) before Friday 9th April
No admin will ever contact you on Telegram or any other platform to request information or funds from you
Please, stay alert.
Summary
6 million $BOSON tokens are being made available to purchase on Wednesday 7th April 2021.
The starting price for the sale is 0.75 USD per token
The only valid currency for the sale is USDT
Our token sale is planned to start at 8am UTC on Wednesday 7th April, and will run for 48 hours until 8am UTC on Friday 9th April
Bidders can offer to buy $BOSON tokens at any time in the 48 hour period
The Token unlock will happen before 5pm UTC, Fri 9th April
Only whitelisted participants will be able to bid. The whitelisting process is now closed with over 30,000 bidders cleared to participate in the sale
How to participate in the auction
Security considerations
Bear in mind that Gnosis Auction is a decentralized platform and you must be careful to participate in the correct auction.
There are ALWAYS scammers surrounding token sales, and you may be being targeted.
Always ensure you are interacting with the correct $BOSON token at: 0xC477D038d5420C6A9e0b031712f61c5120090de9
If in doubt check the pinned message in the Telegram chat, or the banner across the Boson Protocol website.
Why an auction, and rational bidding strategies
The $BOSON token distribution is enabling fair price discovery for the $BOSON token. The aim is to make it easy to discover a fair price for their token through the format of a batch auction, where everyone can determine what they believe the appropriate price to be, and either receive their tokens at or below that price, or their original funds back.
In this form of token offering, we are asking the community to set the price of the $BOSON token, based on the collected desire to own the asset, and be part of the ecosystem as it grows.
Our aim is to avoid an exclusionary process, where only a limited number of people can participate, either by a lottery, or by first-come-first-served mechanics.
Instead, we are creating a set time period, where anyone can bid to acquire $BOSON tokens, at a price that is acceptable to them.
Our recommendation is to choose a price you believe to be acceptable, make a bid at that level, and wait until the end of the auction to receive your tokens.
Please note bids can be cancelled for the first 24 hours, but during the final 24 hours, all bids are final
Step by step guide:
Connect Wallet
First, you need to connect your wallet to the platform. On the top right corner, you can find the button that will allow you to connect your wallet to the Gnosis Auction dapp.
2. A popup will appear where you will be prompted a list of available wallets that you can connect to the dapp. Select the wallet type you would like to connect to the Gnosis Auction dapp.
3. After selecting the wallet, in this case Metamask, a Connect Request will appear. In the case of Metamask, you would need to pick what account (Address) you would like to connect with, and click “Next”.
4. Once you have selected the account you want to use, click “Connect”.
Selecting Auctions
5. After all these steps, you have now successfully connected to the Gnosis Auction dapp. From the UI you will be able to differentiate between two sections. The top section of the UI shows the highlighted Auctions that are taking place, while the bottom section of the UI will show us the full list of Auctions that are taking place or have taken place in the platform.
If you want to participate in one auction that is in the highlighted section, you just have to click anywhere in the box and you will be redirected to the auction.
If you want to participate in one auction, that is the all auction section, you have to click in the “view” button and you will be redirected to the auction.
6. If you want to participate in an auction, either select one auction from the highlighted auctions section or select one auction from the dropdown list. In this case, you have selected an auction from the highlighted auction section.
Bidding in an Auction
7. After you have decided the auction you want to participate in, and click on it, you are redirected to the screen below (Keep in mind that the data shown in the below picture will vary for each auction, as all the auctions taking place are independent of each other). The UI can be dissected in two parts, the left side and the right side:
On the left side you have data about the ongoing auction, as well as the price graph.
On the right hand side you can see the parameters you need to fill in to place an order in the auction.
8. In the amount section you would need to input the amount of bidding tokens you are willing to bid in the auction. You can either select the amount you want to bid or directly use the max button to bid all the tokens you have.
9. In the price per bid-token/auction token, the dapp sets by default the price that the auctioneers have set to be the minimum price. From that starting price, you can decide what is the price per bid-token/auction token you are willing to offer.
10. If it is the first time that you have used that token to bid, you will have to approve the contract to spend that token. First click on the “Approve” button, and then confirm the transaction on Metamask, as shown below.
11. After you have set both the amount of tokens to bid, and the price per bid-token/auction token, you no longer see the enter amount section, instead you see a colored bar with the words “Place Order”. Once you are sure about the parameters you have inputted you have to click on “place order” to include your bid in the auction.
12. Once you have clicked on “Place Order”, a confirmation popup will appear that will ask you to confirm the order. As you can see in the image below, the dapp confirmation shows the relevant information of your bid order.
13. After you have clicked on “Confirm Order”, your wallet will trigger a popup for confirming the transaction. In this case, the Metamask popup will appear asking you to confirm the execution of the transaction from your wallet interface.
14. Once the Metamask order has been confirmed, and the transaction has been mined into a block, on the right hand side of the dapp you will see a banner with the price details of your bidding order, and a link to Etherscan so that you can check your transaction details.
Congratulations, you have now learned how to successfully participate as a bidder in a Gnosis Auction.
Frequently Asked Questions
I have not submitted KYC, can I get on the whitelist?
Unfortunately, pre-registering with KYC is required for the $BOSON token distribution. Whitelisting closed on Thursday 1st April. It is not possible to submit KYC any more. It is anticipated that tokens will be available to purchase after the token distribution.
What is the anticipated ETH gas fees to make a bid?
Assuming gas price of around 150 gwei, we anticipate the full process, or bidding, and then withdrawing your tokens at the end of the auction will cost around $50–60 in ETH.
Is mobile supported?
The Gnosis Auction platform requires a screen resolution of at least 1024x768 pixels to render correctly. If your screen is lower resolution than that you will not be able to access the auction pages. Please use a desktop browser for best experience.
There is no time requirement to bid first or fast, so please find a time that works for you over the 48 hour auction period to make a bid.
Can I edit or cancel bids?
The auction lasts for 48 hours. In the first 24 hours bids can be cancelled, however, in the last 24 hours all bids become final, and any new bid can also not be cancelled. This is to reduce the likelihood of malicious bidders removing their bids at the last minute.
How long is the auction open for?
The auction will run for 48 hours from Wednesday 7th to Friday 9th April.
You can make a bid at any time during the auction period, there is no need to rush to bid early, or wait until the last moments of the auction.
Can I place multiple bids?
Yes you can place as many bids as you wish, though please bear in mind that transaction fees can be high, and it makes sense to make the fewest number of bids that works for your strategy
When is the token distribution?
Tokens purchased during the public auction will be unlocked on Friday 9th April, after the auction closes. There will be a slight delay while the auction is finalised, but we anticipate tokens to be able to be withdrawn within a few hours of the auction finishing.
How can I confirm if my address is whitelisted?
You will have received confirmation email from either Blockpass or Fractal. Unfortunately if you have not received confirmation by end of day Tuesday 6th April, you will not be able to participate in the public sale.
What currencies can I participate with?
We are selling $BOSON tokens in exchange for USDT in this public sale.
What are the min/max bids?
There are no minimum or maximum bids in the sale. Instead you commit a certain amount of USDT and state a maximum price you are prepared to pay for the $BOSON tokens. You will not pay more, and may pay less per token, depending on the final auction clearing price.
Please also note the transaction costs for making a bid will be in the $50–60 range, so it is not advisable to make bids that are too small, as the relative cost of the gas on Ethereum will not make the bid economical.
When will $BOSON be available on secondary markets / exchanges?
We cannot provide any information about secondary trading at this time.
Is there a Uniswap pool?
We cannot provide any information about secondary markets at this time.
Will you be providing any initial liquidity to Decentralized exchanges?
We cannot provide any information about secondary trading at this time.
What is the vesting unlock schedule? Dates/times?
We have previously published information about the unlock schedule in our One Pager
Boson Protocol Vesting Schedule
The first tranche of private sale and pre-sale tokens will be unlocked after the public sale tokens are released.
Token Release Schedule
What are the various vesting wallet addresses?
The $BOSON token is on Etherscan here:
https://etherscan.io/token/0xC477D038d5420C6A9e0b031712f61c5120090de9
Over the coming days we will be finalising the setup process, and all wallets will be visible there.
When will BOSON be on Delta, Blockfolio, Coingecko, CoinMarketCap?
We expect the crypto tracking sites and services to register and provide information about the $BOSON token.
Is there a staking program or yield farming program?
Please stay tuned for more information.
Will $BOSON always be ERC20 or will there be a mainnet?
We are launching Boson Protocol on the Ethereum network. Over time there will be bridges and interoperability to other networks, but the Protocol will be fully functional on Ethereum first.
How will I know if I was successful in the auction?
Please visit the auction site after the end of the auction and connect your wallet to the smart contract to either withdraw your $BOSON or reclaim your bidding tokens.
How do I claim my unspent funds and or tokens from the auction?
After the auction concludes all bidders will be able to either reclaim their bidding tokens, in the event of an unsuccessful bid, or to withdraw their $BOSON tokens in the event of a successful bid. We expect this will be possible on Friday
Wouldn’t there be gas wars near the end of the auction? Why wouldn’t you wait until the very end to bid?
The final clearing price will be clearer towards the end of the auction, and it may seem better to wait to see. However, the risk is that the network becomes congested near the end of auction and your bid may not be recognised.
Our suggestion is that all bidders make a personal evaluation of the $BOSON token and make their bid at the price they believe is fair, whenever is convenient to them.
Is there a trading group?
There may be community trading groups set up, but we are not recommending any speculative activity on the $BOSON token.
My number of tokens is less than it should be?
When you receive tokens after the sale, assuming you have made a bid higher than the auction clearing price, the correct calculation for the number of tokens you receive is
Amount of capital committed / auction clearing price = your tokens
Example:
100 USDT committed / 0.75 clearing price = 133.33… $BOSON tokens
I can’t see my tokens in my wallet?
You may need to register a ‘custom token’ with your wallet provider using the $BOSON token address, and the number of decimals
Token address: 0xC477D038d5420C6A9e0b031712f61c5120090de9
Decimals: 18
About Boson Protocol
Boson Protocol’s vision is to enable a decentralized commerce ecosystem by funding and enabling the development of a stack of specialist applications to disrupt, demonopolize and democratize commerce.
Keen to learn more?
Enjoy our Lightpaper.
In a hurry?
Check out our One Pager.
Want to dive deeper?
Read our whitepaper.
Builders, we have news for you:
Our Core Repo is open on GitHub and here’s the Documentation website.
Lastly, if you’re a decentralization enthusiast, please follow us here, on Medium. We will post frequently about our dCommerce journey and would love to hear your comments!
Stay close: Telegram | Twitter | LinkedIn | Website | YouTube | Medium | https://medium.com/bosonprotocol/how-to-participate-in-the-boson-token-distribution-b10b877faf62 | ['Boson Protocol'] | 2021-04-07 07:59:28.663000+00:00 | ['Ido', 'Web3', 'Blockchain', 'Crypto', 'Dcommerce'] |
Regtech in the EU — the path forward to better compliance | Regtech in the EU — the path forward to better compliance Trulioo Follow Sep 10 · 4 min read
Regulatory technology (regtech) seeks to provide “nimble, configurable, easy to integrate, reliable, secure and cost-effective” regulatory solutions. In the EU, the European Banking Authority (EBA) has the authority to help drive innovative regtech services and regulatory alignment. They have created a report, EBA Analysis of Regtech in the EU Financial Sector, to provide insight into the current regtech landscape and its benefits and challenges.
Regtech is now mainstream
While use varies by jurisdiction and by use case, many financial institutions (FIs) have adopted at least some regtech solutions. Anti-Money Laundering (AML) has been the most popular use case, with 75% of FIs reporting experience of using the technology. Other significant use cases include ICT security‐related, adopted by 50% of the FIs, and fraud prevention, used by 40% of the respondents.
It’s no surprise that most regtech providers are new, as the term itself was coined in 2015. The results are that 39% of regtech providers are smaller companies and have less than six FI clients. Establishing credibility with FIs is a significant hurdle. Larger regtech companies from outside the EU seem to have more traction; the survey found that non‐EEA‐based have 2.3 times more customers than the average EEA‐based provider. These non-European companies also seem to be farther along in their corporate development, with 40% already in advanced rounds of venture financing.
When it comes to actual implementation, 60% of AML, fraud prevention and ICT projects are already in production. While some regtech technologies might still be speculative, their use is well developed in many jurisdictions across the EU. Most FIs will continue to spend the same amount or slightly increase budgets for regtech.
The reason for regtech
Interestingly, the benefits the FIs see and what the industry believes don’t sync up. The most significant use, from the FI side, is the ability to improve risk management. But from the provider side, they see improvements in efficiency as the main advantage.
It seems both regtech providers and FIs need to understand better how regtech can best fit into the FIs compliance stack to improve results. Solutions that help compliance professionals better use their time provide a sweet spot that might satisfy all parties.
Both sides agree that greater accuracy, speed and data optimization is a decisive advantage.
Barriers to regtech success
The most significant barriers to ongoing regtech success with FIs are around the use of data, which makes sense, considering all the news around data hacks and ever-tightening privacy requirements. There are cybersecurity factors, as well as how best to handle data across legacy systems.
Other regulatory requirements need consideration as the legal landscape continues to change. It’s difficult to determine a future-proof technology when future requirements are still to be determined. The ongoing shift in the specifications raises the cost, increases the need for education and training and adds to an environment where the FIs often consider regtech solutions immature.
From the regtech point of view, the FIs tech stacks can lack standardization and integration abilities. Trying to implement their modern API solutions on legacy platforms can lead to slow roll-outs and performance hits. Without a holistic view of regtech, a point solution doesn’t enable all the technology’s opportunities.
Many regtech companies are disadvantaged due to their smaller size. They can’t offer a breadth of solutions. They are more susceptible to changes in regulations or the marketplace. They don’t have bargaining power when it comes to dealing with large FIs. And they have competitive pressures from numerous other regtechs, all fighting to establish themselves.
Path to regtech success
It’s important to note that the biggest barriers to success are internal factors of the organization. As the EBA analysis states,
“As the majority of identified challenges that hold back the regtech market development are linked to internal factors of FIs and regtech providers, it would be primarily for these companies to take further actions to address the challenges.”
There are concrete steps that can assist regtech in the eyes of regulators:
Improve awareness and education of regulators and supervisors to understand the capabilities and opportunities of regtech better
Look for ways to harmonize laws and regulations across the EU to simplify and speed adoption
Foster collaboration with industry and regulators by using regulatory sandboxes and other forums to demonstrate usefulness and compliance
The analysis also points to having a central database of providers or having a certification program to help build trust in regtech solutions.
Many technologies hold great promise to reduce risk and fraud and provide better compliance. Ensuring these technologies can succeed will offer robust benefits to the industry, FIs and regulators alike. Working together, understanding and overcoming the potential problems is an initiative that can appeal to all EU compliance professionals.
Learn about the EU’s biggest AML risks. This white paper explores best practices for enhancing Customer Due Diligence, Know Your Customer and Know Your Business processes. | https://medium.com/the-regtech-hub/regtech-in-the-eu-the-path-forward-to-better-compliance-486ee0452594 | [] | 2021-09-10 18:05:37.333000+00:00 | ['Regtech', 'European Union', 'Compliance', '6amld'] |
Rights Advocates Rejoice as the New Biden Team Is Assembled | Rights Advocates Rejoice as the New Biden Team Is Assembled
Hopes for a new leadership & a better image of the US will rest on Biden’s campaign promises & the qualifications of his appointees PassBlue Nov 23, 2020·8 min read
by Barbara Crossette. Read more on PassBlue
Advice is pouring into President-elect Joe Biden from around the United States and across the world on how to turn around the damage the Trump administration has inflicted in key policy areas. Advocates for public health, women’s rights and a semblance of restored American leadership are among those hoping for quick action starting the day Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20.
Hopes for a new style of leadership and a better image of the US in the world will rest on Biden’s campaign promises and the qualifications of the appointees he is placing in government posts. His White House staff is falling into place, and Cabinet members are being announced.
Antony Blinken, deputy secretary of state from 2015–2017 in the Obama administration, will be Biden’s secretary of state. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, will become the US ambassador to the United Nations. Michèle Flournoy will be secretary of defense. John Kerry, a former US secretary of state, will be a National Security Council official focusing on climate change. Alejandro Mayorkas has been nominated as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the first Latino to head the agency. Avril Haines, a former top CIA official and deputy national security adviser, has been nominated for director of national intelligence. And Jake Sullivan will be the national security adviser.
Cabinet-level appointments require confirmation by the US Senate, but the posts held by Haines, Kerry and Sullivan will not need such approval.
For the UN ambassadorship, Thomas-Greenfield will arrive with a long resume in prestigious public-service posts. That includes not only as an assistant secretary of state but also as US ambassador to Liberia and director of the Foreign Service, which she retired from in 2017 when Rex Tillerson was US secretary of state.
She then worked for her mentor, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, at the Albright-Stonebridge consulting firm, and she now leads Biden’s agency review team for the State Department. One person familiar with Thomas-Greenfield’s work told PassBlue that “she’s very respected” and that she has an incredible personal story as well, having grown up in the segregated South — near Baton Rouge, La. As the oldest of eight children, she said in an interview with a Louisiana news site, “I always had a strong sense of responsibility and curiosity.”
Molly McKew, the lead writer at GreatPower, an independent news-analysis website, tweeted on Nov. 22 that Thomas-Greenfield “became Ambassador in Liberia when I was working there. Pretty much the 1st thing she did was walk outside the gates of the (spectacular) embassy compound — startling the Marine guards to no end — and start picking up the trash that lined the road. She viewed it as her job.”
In these crucial days for the Biden team in assembling a credible administration, Donald Trump is still seeking revenge for his loss in the Nov. 3 election. The defeated president has filed dozens of lawsuits — virtually all thrown out or withdrawn from the courts. He is focused solely on trying to overturn a near-flawless election, according to the judgment of his own cybercrime experts, who were later purged.
Amid the worst national health crisis the US has ever faced, with more than a quarter of a million people dead from the coronavirus, the lame-duck president, who is widely seen as responsible for failing to stem the pandemic, refused for weeks to let his health officials brief the incoming administration. He asked them to report to authorities any colleague who may have talked with the Biden team. [On Nov. 23, a report in The Hill said Trump was ready to end the prohibition on briefings.]
In early November, Bonnie Glick, the deputy administrator of Usaid, was fired for no stated reason. It was assumed that she had been judged disloyal to the president. But some history suggests it was an act of delayed revenge by the archconservative, anti-abortion Republican right predating Trump. This was a chance to put their grievance on his agenda as he sought to hold on to the loyalty of conservative voters.
In 2002, Glick was part of a fact-finding group organized by President George W. Bush to travel to China to inspect the UN Population Fund’s possible involvement in national forced-abortion campaigns, the basis for defunding the agency. The team reported that it did not see any proof of such coercion. By then, Bush had ended contributions to the fund.
Legal experts say that Trump cannot win this private war against Biden with his unconstitutional behavior, department purges and intimidation of politicians, including Republicans who refuse to follow his illegal demands. But he can achieve what is apparently his second-best goal: to severely complicate the ascent to office of Biden and his running mate, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
At a news conference on Nov. 20, the president-elect called Trump the “most outrageous . . . irresponsible president in American history.” Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican critical of Trump in the past, said in a statement, “It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American president.”
Trump’s history of illegal or at least very questionable behavior led to his impeachment in December 2019 for abuse of power. His offenses included blocking aid for Ukraine to force its newly elected government to provide political “dirt” on Hunter Biden, the president-elect’s son, who was employed by a Ukrainian company. Trump was spared removal from office by the Republican-controlled Senate and is still being protected by many Republican senators as he tries to undo the 2020 election.
Attention is turning to what authority Biden could use in his first days in office to create momentum despite Trump’s undermining efforts.
With no bipartisan discussion permitted for two weeks after the election on not only the health disaster but also the crippled economy at “main street,” not Wall Street, level, a normal presidential transition could not begin. Apart from no access to valuable background government documents, the new Democratic team could not tap into funds set aside by law for that purpose.
Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a Democratic politician personally close to Biden, who had been considered a possible secretary of state, said in a virtual town hall speech on Nov.16 to the United States Global Leadership Coalition, a group of more than 500 business and former government leaders, that he is raising his concerns privately with Republican colleagues.
Coons also said that advocates for quick adoption of new social policies need to better convince the American public that more investment is needed in public health on a global scale.
“Donald Trump was not an aberration in the extent to which his America first ideology of isolationism and nativism and protectionism has had a willing audience nationwide for some time,” he said. “We need to engage in that conversation domestically, urgently, in this year ahead.”
Before the November election, a coalition of more than 90 diverse nongovernmental organizations released a five-page list of recommendations for an incoming administration, titled “First Priorities: Executive and Agency Actions,” based on their “Blueprint for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice,” adopted in July.
The list calls for quick exercising of executive power to rescind all previous measures, based on anti-abortion demands that now restrict US support for global health programs. It advises working with partners in Congress to revoke all amendments to legislation that hobble the use of American funding nationally and globally.
It also advocates reinstating and increasing US contributions to the UN Population Fund — which Biden has repeatedly said he would do at the earliest opportunity — and abolishing programs advocating abstinence-only birth control in preference to modern contraceptive methods.
Biden has pledged not to enforce the “global gag rule” (also known as the Mexico City policy), which bans American funds to foreign NGOs engaged in any activity even remotely connected to abortion, including counseling. Trump tightened the restrictions substantially in recent years.
“Biden has a long history on issues like domestic violence and violence against women,” Sarah Craven, director of the Washington office of the UN Population Fund, said in an interview with PassBlue. “He introduced the [1994] Violence Against Women Act, and that has been one of his signature issues.” The law lapsed earlier this year.
As vice president under Barack Obama for eight years, Biden kept an interest in gender concerns.
“In the White House, he worked with Cathy Russell, ambassador for global women’s issues in the last four years of the Obama administration,” Craven said. “Russell’s prior role was chief of staff to Jill Biden,” the president-elect’s wife. “I’ve seen her name multiple places as part of the transition as an advisor. She would be someone who would be very well versed in global women’s issues.”
In fact, on Nov. 20, Russell was appointed director of the White House office of presidential personnel by Biden, responsible for evaluating applicants for administration roles.
The prospect of an American administration that feels at home in the world was greeted with not only formal congratulations but also suggestions on where US relations with battered allies and institutions could be restored and grow productively in the future.
Secretary-General António Guterres indirectly congratulated the Biden-Harris team after its election victory was confirmed on Nov 7. In a statement on Nov. 9, he congratulated the “President-elect and Vice President elect” and the American people for a “vibrant exercise of democracy” and described the US-UN partnership an “essential pillar of the international cooperation needed to address the dramatic challenges facing the world today.”
European allies, some of whom Trump has personally insulted, seemed relieved. Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of NATO, which Trump accused of taking Americans for “suckers,” said: “I know Joe Biden as a strong supporter of our Alliance & look forward to working closely with him. A strong NATO is good for both North America & Europe.”
Messages also arrived from Africa, where Muhammadu Buhari, the president of Nigeria, said he hoped for greater cooperation with the US in economic, diplomatic and antiterrorism work and urged “greater US engagement with Africa as a whole.”
From Fiji, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama asked for more US leadership in a “climate emergency . . . ASAP,” noting that Biden had vowed to bring the US back to the 2015 Paris agreement. “Together, we have a planet to save,” he said.
Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka, the executive director of UN Women, put a human face on the results of the US election. She described the prospect of the first-ever woman as vice president as “a hugely uplifting moment” for women and girls worldwide, “especially for women of color.” Harris is of Jamaican and Indian descent.
PASSBLUE IS AN INDEPENDENT NONPROFIT MEDIA SITE THAT RELIES ON GRANTS AND OTHER DONATIONS TO THRIVE. PLEASE GIVE TODAY AND DOUBLE YOUR MONEY. | https://medium.com/@passblue-un/rights-advocates-rejoice-as-the-new-biden-team-is-assembled-a551bf11077e | [] | 2020-11-24 23:29:32.680000+00:00 | ['Diplomacy', 'Biden', 'United Nations', 'Multilateralism', 'Foreign Policy'] |
AddSkill Hackathon Experiences | This hackathon was organised by AddSkill team it was on web development using javascript, HTML, CSS.
Task 1 :- Design a front-end page where we can upload a text file and when we clicked on upload button it show all content in a given text area.
Approach :- Think when you never worked on a tech and suddenly you have to. Then always be think positive and open your ide and start doing what ever is coming on your mind this way automatically you will get the idea and your mind also think about the approach at end of you will be able to solve that problem. Hackathon is the best way to learn more because you don’t know the what’s going to happen it’s unpredictable. You will learn a lot and that will make you exciting.
Task 2 :- This was the very exciting where we have mark all wrong word with a highlighter and when you right click on that word that will show you drop-down that give you all correct suggestions for the wrong word when you click on suggested word that will replace the wrong word with the same.
“Now days every one have the theoretical knowledge of the all domain but when you face a real life issue and you are able to solve that problem that mean’s you are on the right track.”
Task 3 :- Deploy it on heroku.
Approach :- I was so excited for this challenge when you are a new learner and you worked on real-life issues .
(a) :- I learned async-await from (moodle) to fetch data and i did practical use of the concept how fetch is working and the role of async-await using these concept i get the data from textgears (API).
(b) :- After that second issue was how to process data when you are able to fetch your all data from (API). I take lot of help from the moodle for this it was so help full for me.
(c) :- This is the last step where i was stuck how to make drop-down when user will right click on words and how i will replace the word with the selected suggestion but from slack the by the help of mentor i was able to crack that it was very interesting to update innerHtml according to new suggestions.
(d) :- Finally task was completed and i deploy the code on heroku i was deploying first time it is friendly.
I learn a lot from this hackathon the experience was so exciting me it was excellent learning “Thank you team AddSkill”.
https://github.com/ravi3011/addskils
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravi-kushwaha-07584a144/ | https://medium.com/@lavik915/addskill-hackathon-experiences-fda9c588e755 | ['Lavi Kushwaha'] | 2020-12-12 13:55:50.038000+00:00 | ['Hackathon', 'HTML', 'Practice', 'JavaScript'] |
Blacksmith Patch Knife | A work in progress
Courtesy of Larry Nowicki
One of the daily knives used during the frontier days was the patch knife. It was a small knife that was used for many things but mostly cutting patches when seating the roundball in a black powder gun. These days we use them for many small jobs. Cutting string. Opening boxes anything you would use a small knife for. I have even dressed, skinned, and butchered deer along with other small game. I take one fishing with me.
Courtesy of Larry Nowicki
The blacksmiths back in the day would have used what steels they had available. I like to make them from 5160.
Spring steel is good to forge.
I get most from coil springs on cars and trucks.
Courtesy of Larry Nowicki
I’ll start with a spring.
Courtesy of Larry Nowicki
Cut 1 coil from it.
Courtesy of Larry Nowicki
I then straighten the spring.
The spring is then tapered to a point.
Courtesy of Larry Nowicki
The blade is formed by drawing the length.
The width is then drawn. This one will not be too wide.
Courtesy of Larry Nowicki
I cut enough steel off of the end to leave enough to forge the handle.
Courtesy of Larry Nowicki
The back of the blade is then drawn out and tapered to a point. It gets a natural taper from the tip of the blade to bolster. I heated it again and twisted it to give a bit of grippiness to the handle.
Courtesy of Larry Nowicki
A flattened or turned tip form the finger guard to the handle. When bent back upon itself and shaped the handle is formed. When spiraled it is sometimes called a rat tail.
Courtesy of Larry Nowicki
After a rough grind if needed the blade is then normalized 3 times. This relieves the stresses caused by forging. This blade is on its third normalizing cycle.
Courtesy of Larry Nowicki
The next step in the process is the heat-treat. This step is not emphasized but is critical to the finished blade. A great steel, not heat-treated right will not make a great knife. A good steel treated right will make a great knife.
Courtesy of Larry Nowicki
We know our steels and how to treat them. The steel is brought to a critical temperature and quenched in water or oil to harden it. The type of steel determines which. Some are even air-cooled.
Another step in the process is also critical. After hardening the steel must be drawn back to the desired hardness. It is easy to make it hard but it must be drawn to get it right. Too hard and it can break. Too soft and it will not keep an edge. These chef knives have been edge quenched. You can see the temper lines. They are going into the oven to cook for an hour at the right temperature. Twice.
Courtesy of Larry Nowicki
The blacksmith knife has the handle forged at the same time as the blade so it can be finished quickly. They make for a handy knife.
Courtesy of Larry Nowicki
You can get one for yourself forged by me, Larry Nowicki. Also known as The Gypsy Bladesmith. Find me on hiddenforge.net. | https://medium.com/illumination/blacksmith-patch-knife-6e4c369db6e0 | ['Larry Nowicki'] | 2020-12-17 15:16:13.898000+00:00 | ['Blacksmithing', 'Work', 'Steel', 'Awareness', 'Simple'] |
Gaussian Mixture Models for Clustering | Gaussian Mixture Models for Clustering
Photo by Nareeta Martin on Unsplash
Introduction
Recently I was using K-Means in a project and decided to see what other options were out there for clustering algorithms. I always find it enjoyable to sink my teeth into expanding my data science skillset. I decided to write this article to share the experience of what I discovered on my quest to broaden my clustering knowledge to include using Gaussian Mixture Models.
An Overview of Gaussian Mixture Models
When hearing of this technique you may have thought about the Gaussian distribution (also called normal distribution). That’s exactly what this clustering technique is based on. It assumes that the data points come from multi-dimensional Gaussian distributions that could have varying parameters of covariance, mean, and density.
Gaussian Mixture models work based on an algorithm called Expectation-Maximization, or EM. When given the number of clusters for a Gaussian Mixture model, the EM algorithm tries to figure out the parameters of these Gaussian distributions in two basic steps.
The E-step makes a guess of the parameters based on available data. Data points are assigned to a Gaussian cluster and probabilities are calculated that they belong to that cluster.
Data points are assigned to a Gaussian cluster and probabilities are calculated that they belong to that cluster. The M-step updates the cluster parameters based on the calculations from the E-step. The mean, covariance, and density are calculated for clusters based on the data points in the E step.
The mean, covariance, and density are calculated for clusters based on the data points in the E step. The process is repeated with the calculated values continuing to be updated until convergence is reached.
If you are familiar with K-Means, this process at a high level is really the same. The similar flow being to make a guess, calculate values, and readjust until convergence.
Fitting a Gaussian Mixture Clustering Model
With a basic understanding of how Gaussian Mixture works, the fun part is to start coding and experimenting. You can implement a clustering model in just a few lines of code using Python and Scikit-Learn. I encourage you to look at the Scikit-Learn documentation page for the Gaussian Mixture class.
from sklearn.mixture import GaussianMixture gm = GaussianMixture(n_components=n, random_state=123, n_init=10)
preds = gm.fit_predict(X)
The n_components parameter is where you specify the number of clusters. The n_init parameter allows you to control how many times the algorithm is initialized. The initial placement of where clusters are located at the start can set the algorithm up for picking bad cluster parameters. By initializing multiple times, you decrease the chance of converging on bad clusters simply because of bad luck on initial placement. Finally, the fitting and predicting can be done in one step from calling the fit_predict() method on your data represented as X in the example.
How Many Clusters?
But how many clusters are in my data? You may have noticed that in order to apply the model to your data, you have to have a value chosen for the number of clusters. How do you know what cluster number best represents your data? You have a couple of options that I will go over.
Trial and Error
Often, the best way to find an appropriate cluster number is to try different cluster numbers and see which fits your data appropriately. The two most popular evaluation metrics for picking cluster numbers for fitting Gaussian Mixture models are BIC and AIC. BIC stands for Bayesian information criterion and AIC stands for Akaike information criterion. The intuition in the calculation of both of these metrics is that they favor the simplest model that maximize the likelihood function of the model.
Calculating the AIC and BIC is easy because they are built in as a method on the Scikit-Learn Gaussian Mixture class. By setting up a loop to try different cluster numbers and calculate the AIC and BIC, you can then plot the metrics together to pick your cluster number.
BIC and AIC plot (Image by the author)
You can see that the AIC and BIC mirror each other pretty closely. BIC and AIC are meant to be minimized so pick the low spot in the chart. The two measures will usually pick the same number for clusters, but if they differ then know that BIC more heavily favors simple models than AIC, but AIC models tend the fit the data a little better. In this example, I would pick 5 as the most appropriate cluster number for the data as the chart really levels off after that.
Bayesian Gaussian Mixture Models
Another method for picking the cluster number that I came across is by using the Bayesian Gaussian Mixture Models class in Scikit-Learn. When you fit this model it has an attribute to return the weights of clusters with erroneous clusters being weighted at or near zero and basically removing those clusters automatically. Once again you can fit this model in only a couple lines of code.
from sklearn.mixture import BayesianGaussianMixture
import numpy as np bgm = BayesianGaussianMixture(n_components=10, n_init=10)
bgm.fit(X)
np.round(bgm.weights_, 2)
The model is created and fit the same as before but now we can return an array of cluster weights. My own experiment returned this array:
array([0.09, 0.25, 0.16, 0.07, 0.06, 0.24, 0.13, 0., 0., 0. ])
This allows me to see that the model has basically picked the appropriate number of clusters automatically, as the ones that are not needed are weighted as 0.
Pros and Cons
One positive about these models is that they can handle a greater variety of shapes, primarily clusters that form ellipsis shapes. Something like K-Means is really only good at clusters that are roughly spherical. There is a covariance_type parameter that allows for adjusting for different shapes of the clusters. However, something like crescent shaped clusters will still be difficult for a Gaussian Mixture model to accurately identify.
Another positive is that these models allow for soft classification. K-Means is a hard classification model where each data point is assigned to a single cluster. The Gaussian Mixture method, however, calculates probabilities of data points belonging to clusters. These probabilities can be obtained using the predict_proba() method after fitting the model.
A caveat I found when playing with Gaussian Mixture models is that they take a lot longer to run than a K-Means model because they take a lot longer to converge. Be mindful of the amount of data you are using and how many features are involved. When experimenting with the Bayesian Gaussian Mixture class specifically, it often gave errors about how convergence couldn’t be reached. When this happens you can increase the max_iter parameter, but that also means it will take longer to run. Keep in mind that it also may mean that your data is not well suited to a Gaussian Mixture clustering style.
Conclusion
There is so much more to explore with this style of clustering. I tried to have this be a guide that explained concepts in plain English to get you started, but I encourage you to look up formulas and dig into the math behind what is happening. The Scikit-Learn clustering user guide is a great place to start. | https://towardsdatascience.com/gaussian-mixture-models-for-clustering-3f62d0da675 | ['Vivienne Difrancesco'] | 2021-03-01 22:22:27.274000+00:00 | ['Gaussian Mixture Model', 'Data Science', 'Clustering'] |
How to Render a List with React, GraphQL, and Apollo | In this article, we are going to take a look at how to retrieve and display a list of objects using React Hooks, GraphQL, and Apollo client.
List Function Component
Let’s start by displaying a list of objects using a React function component.
import React from 'react'; function List({posts}) {
return (
<div>
{posts.map(post =>
<div key={post.id}>
{post.title}
</div>
)}
</div>
);
} export default List;
The List function component takes a list of post objects and displays the title of each post in a div element.
In the App parent component, a hardcoded list is created and sent to the List function component.
import React from 'react';
import List from './List'; const posts = [
{ id: 1, title: "Lorem Ipsum" },
{ id: 2, title: "Sic Dolor amet" }
]; function App() {
return (
<div>
<List posts = {posts} />
</div>
);
} export default App;
That’s all we needed. We managed to define a hardcoded list of objects and then render that list using React.
GraphQL
Now let’s move further and take this list from a backend API. As discussed we will use a GraphQL API instead of a REST API.
Create Fake API
We are going to use json-graphql-server to create a fake GraphQL API on the fly.
Create a db.js file with the following GraphQL scheme definition.
module.exports = {
posts: [
{ id: 1, title: "Lorem Ipsum", views: 254, user_id: 123 },
{ id: 2, title: "Sic Dolor amet", views: 65, user_id: 456 }
],
users: [
{ id: 123, name: "John Doe" },
{ id: 456, name: "Jane Doe" }
],
comments: [
{ id: 987,
post_id: 1,
body: "Consectetur adipiscing elit",
date: new Date('2017-07-03')
},
{ id: 995,
post_id: 1,
body: "Nam molestie pellentesque dui",
date: new Date('2017-08-17') }
]
}
Then start the API using the json-graphql-server db.js — p 3001 command. At this point, the API is available at http://localhost:3001/ .
Access Fake API
Next, we will create an API utility function getAllPosts() that retrieves all the posts from the API.
We call the backend API using the axios library.
import axios from 'axios'; const axiosGQL = axios.create({
baseURL: 'http://localhost:3001/'
});
const Get_All_Posts_Query = `
{
allPosts {
id
title
views
}
}
`; function getAllPosts() {
return axiosGQL
.post('', { query: Get_All_Posts_Query })
.then(getData)
.then(data => data.allPosts);
}; function getData(response){
return response.data.data;
} export default { getAllPosts };
The Get_All_Posts_Query constant defines the GraphQL query to retrieve all the posts. It specifies that we want to retrieve all posts and that for each post we need the id , title , and the number of views .
Render the list
We can make the API call inside the App parent component using the useEffect React hook.
The useEffect hook allows us to execute a side-effect operation like retrieving data from and API after the component was rendered. Once the list is retrieved from the server it is saved as a local state.
The local state is defined using the useState hook. Initially, the state is just an empty list. When the list is retrieved from the backend API, the state is updated using setPosts function.
Once we have the list we sent it to the List component.
import React,{useState, useEffect} from 'react';
import List from './List';
import api from './api'; function App() {
const [posts, setPosts] = useState([]); useEffect(()=> {
api.getAllPosts()
.then(setPosts);
},[]) return (
<div>
<List posts = {posts} />
</div>
);
} export default App;
Apollo
Next, let’s make the API using the Apollo Client which provides a better integration to the GraphQL API.
Start by installing it.
npm install @apollo/client --save
Then we create the Apollo Client and use it to make the API call.
import { ApolloClient, InMemoryCache, gql } from '@apollo/client'; const client = new ApolloClient({
uri: 'http://localhost:3001/',
cache: new InMemoryCache()
});
const Get_All_Posts_Query = `
{
allPosts {
id
title
views
}
}
`; function getAllPosts() {
return client
.query({
query: gql`${Get_All_Posts_Query}`
})
.then(getData)
.then(data => data.allPosts);
}; function getData(response){
return response.data;
} export default { getAllPosts };
As we can see, there is not much difference from Axios API call.
useQuery Hook
Next, we are going to simplify the API integration by using the useQuery hook provided by the Apollo library.
This time we just keep the definition of the GraphQL query in the API file.
import { gql } from '@apollo/client';
const Get_All_Posts_Query = gql`
{
allPosts {
id
title
views
}
}
`; export { Get_All_Posts_Query };
In the App parent component we execute the API query using the useQuery hook.
As you can see, we make the API call by passing a GraphQL query string to the useQuery hook. The hook returns an object containing the loading , error , and data properties.
The loading property is used to display a loading message when necessary.
The error property is used to display an error message when needed.
The data retrieved from the server stays in the data property.
import React from 'react';
import { useQuery } from '@apollo/client';
import { Get_All_Posts_Query} from './api';
import List from './List'; function App() {
const { loading, error, data } = useQuery(Get_All_Posts_Query); if (loading) return (<p>Loading...</p>);
if (error) return (<p>Error : {error.message}</p>); return (
<div>
<List posts = {data.allPosts} />
</div>
);
} export default App;
Material UI
Next, we will improve the layout using the Material UI components.
npm install @material-ui/core
We can modify the select query to retrieve some more information like the user name.
import { gql } from '@apollo/client';
const Get_All_Posts_Query = gql`
{
allPosts {
id
title
views,
User {
name
}
}
}
`; export { Get_All_Posts_Query };
Then we can use the Material UI List components to display our data.
import React from 'react';
import List from '@material-ui/core/List';
import ListItem from '@material-ui/core/ListItem';
import ListItemText from '@material-ui/core/ListItemText';
import Divider from '@material-ui/core/Divider'; function PostList({posts}) {
return (
<div>
<List component="nav">
{posts.map(post =>
<React.Fragment>
<ListItem button>
<ListItemText secondary={post.User.name} />
<ListItemText primary={post.title} />
<ListItemText primary={post.views} />
</ListItem>
<Divider />
</React.Fragment>
)}
</List>
</div>
);
} export default PostList;
Recap
List components can be defined in React as functions returning an HTML representation of it.
GraphQL provides an alternative way of building APIs. The result is retrieved from the API by sending GraphQL queries. The API calls can be done by making POST calls to the API and sending the GraphQL queries.
The useQuery hook from the Apollo library provides a nicer way of executing GraphQL queries.
The source code is available on github. | https://medium.com/programming-essentials/how-to-render-a-list-with-react-graphql-and-apollo-8f4c1e5e39a0 | ['Cristian Salcescu'] | 2020-10-30 14:26:59.312000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'React', 'Programming', 'Front End Development', 'GraphQL'] |
Not having sufficient degree but still possess various skills?? Is it the case with you too | Not having sufficient degree but still possess various skills?? Is it the case with you too
Hi Friends ever find yourself stuck wondering what to do Next? I have the ability to communicate effectively, or I could have done this course I would have been just an extraordinary individual.. These questions might haunt you at times sometimes too often when you think you are surrounded by insignificant indisciplined class of people . ..
I guess many of us go through a waves of fluctuating educational degree related concerns which droop our self esteem and make us doubt our worth.
We start wishing our over educated n great friends not show sympathy towards us or because of us the highly qualified people do not start regretting our company…Let me tell you guys I still feel the same.. But at the same I say No to these negative self doubting statements. Degrees or people don’t define us our nature our intentions and our will define us they tell who we are our education our choice of content the videos that we watch to improve ourselves they define us… .
Say No to your negative thoughts.. Keep learning keep practicing engage yourself in hard work outs look for certifications which matches your abilities and interests.. Nothing and Nobody can ever define you.. You maybe a fresher with least organizational abilities but never lose hope.. Right things will come to you just at the right time.. Keep moving ahead.. You are born for a purpose there is definitely something much more meant for each one of us… but learn well each day… one day you will smile looking back at all the difficulties you faced and how many negative abusive toxic people you have gained victory over… the society the bad people the indisciplined lot can never motivate you… they will make you realize how unworthy you are… don’t give in to these negative people…
They stop you from mastering the skills.. They are purely bad… so you do what’s best for your health and mind…
This is my first blog I wish each one of you who are going through the same waves all the very best… stay strong keep motivating yourself.. And break the walls of negativity… never give up!!!! | https://medium.com/@kajalchaturvedi42/not-having-sufficient-degree-but-still-possess-various-skills-is-it-the-case-with-you-too-d7146afe28e | [] | 2020-12-20 16:23:29.017000+00:00 | ['Positive Thinking', 'Motivate Yourself', 'Happiness In Life', 'Keep Going', 'Selfishness'] |
Designing Anticipated User Experiences | Anticipatory Design is possibly the next big leap within the field of Experience Design. “Design that is one step ahead” as Shapiro refers to it. This sounds amazing, but where does it lead us? And how will it affect our relationship with technology?
I’ve dedicated my Master thesis to this topic to identify both ethical as design challenges that come with the development of predictive UX and application of Anticipatory Design as design pattern. With as overarching question “How Anticipatory Design might challenge our relationship with technology”.
A Future Without Choice
Anticipatory Design is an upcoming design pattern within the field of predictive user experiences (UX). The premise behind this pattern is to reduce cognitive load of users by making decisions on behalf of them.
Despite its promise, little research has been done towards possible implications that may come with Anticipatory Design and predictive user experiences. Ethical challenges like data, privacy and experience bubbles could inhibit the development of predictive UX.
We’re moving towards a future with ambient technology, smart operating systems and anticipated experiences. Google Home, Alexa, Siri and Cortana are all intelligent personal assistants that learn from your behavior, patterns and data and will likely anticipate your needs in the near future pro-actively.
Anticipated user experiences are a promising development that releases us from our decision fatigue. With the approximately 20.000 decisions we make on daily average, most of us are suffering from it.
Less Choice, More Automation
Anticipatory Design is a design pattern that moves around learning (Internet of Things), predicting (Machine Learning) and anticipation (UX Design).
Anticipatory Design Mix
Smart technology within the Internet of Things learns by observing, while our data is interpreted by machine learning algorithms. UX design is crucial for delivering a seamless anticipated experience that take users away from technology. Anticipatory Design only works when all three actors are well aligned and effectively used.
Anticipatory Design as design principle is already used in quite a few products without us being actively aware of it. Products like Nest, Netflix and Amazon’s Echo are good examples of how products learn, adjust and anticipates on given data of the user.
5 Design Considerations
Over the past few months I’ve interviewed several experts in the field of UX and A.I. to investigate what challenges lie ahead and what considerations are there to make. The following 5 design considerations were distilled:
1. Design Against the Experience Bubble
We saw what happened with Trump, the filter bubble is real and most of us circle around in our own ‘reality’. Eli Pariser described with ‘the filter bubble’ in 2011 how the new personalized web is changing what people read and how people think. The same risk applies when devices around us anticipate our needs and act on them. An Experience Bubble at which you get stuck in a loop of returning events, actions and activities. Algorithms are causing these returning events. Algorithms are binary and unable to understand meaning behind actions. It is worrisome that algorithms are not conversational. There should be a way to teach algorithms on what is right, wrong and accidental behavior.
2. Focus on Extended Intelligence Instead of Artificial Intelligence
The head of MIT Media Lab, Joi Ito, gave a very interesting perspective that colored my beliefs regarding design principles to follow. Mr. Ito said that humanity should not pursue robotics and Generalized AI but rather focus on Extended Intelligence. This, because it is in humans nature to use technology as an extension of itself. It would feel inhuman to replace our daily activities by machines.
3. Responsive Algorithms Make Data Understandable
Current used algorithms are binary and limited to the actions and input of users. Conceptually they pretend to be ‘personal’ and ‘understandable’ about our actions but in real-life it is a matter of ones and zero’s. Algorithms are not ready for predictive systems and need to be more responsive in order to adapt to people’s motives and needs. Revisiting the feedback loop is a way to implement responsiveness. In this way, people can teach algorithms what- but foremost why they like or dislike things.
4. Personality Make Interactions More Human-Like
The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing as a market and there’s a shift from mobile first to A.I. first, meaning that users will get a more personal and unique relation and experience with their device.
When I interviewed respondents and asked them about their view on smart operating systems and Artificial Intelligence, most people referred to the movie Her as a future perspective. This perspective is intriguing. However, looking at recent developments for smart assistants like Siri, Cortana and Google Home an essential feature is missing: personality.
Personality adds huge value to our interactions with devices, because it gives a human touch. We can relate more to devices if it has a personality. Looking at services like Siri, I believe that the personality will be more relevant in the future than the amount of Gigabytes.
5. Build Trust by Giving Control and Transparency
Today, people need to hack their own online behavior to receive the right content. It is so frustrating when you buy a gift for someone else, and get bombarded after purchase with adverts of the same product (THE SAME PRODUCT, that you just bought…).
Algorithms often misinterpret my actions. There’s room for improvement. Data interaction has become a crucial element in developing experiences for the future. Respondents that I’ve interviewed voiced their concerns about the lack of transparency and control that comes with the internet. Much personal data ends up in a ‘black box’. No one knows how our data is used and processed by big tech firms. Providing options for automation should build trust and enable growth.
UX Design is Evolving
The craft of UX Designers is changing. Increasing responsibilities, interactions and forms influence the design approach.
User Interfaces for example increasingly take different forms (e.g. voice-driven interfaces) that require a different way of design thinking. UX designers are getting more exposed to ethical design since a lot of confidentiality is involved by creating predictive user experiences.
With the dawn of fully automated consumer-facing systems, a clear view on design mitigations and guiding principles are desired since future designers will face much more responsibility concerning topics like privacy and data.
Current sets of design principles from Rams, Nielsen (1998), Norman (2013) and Schneiderman (2009) are insufficient for automation because principles regarding transparency, control, loops and privacy are missing.
The evolvement of Experience Design within a context of automation requires discussions and design practices to mitigate forecasted design challenges.
Let’s Continue This Conversation
Predictive UX is an increasingly growing field of expertise. The craft of UX design is changing with it. As we are at the shift of a new AI- driven era, it is important to share design stories, insights and practices to continue the development of Anticipatory Design as pattern, and predictive UX as a service.
Please join the movement and share your thoughts on Predictive UX & Anticipatory Design
www.anticipatorydesign.com | https://uxdesign.cc/designing-anticipated-user-experiences-c419b574a417 | ['Joël Van Bodegraven'] | 2017-02-04 08:34:13.364000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Anticipatory Design', 'Design', 'UX', 'Predictive Ux'] |
Composing Software: The Book | Note: This is part of the “Composing Software” book that started life right here as a blog post series. It covers functional programming and compositional software techniques in JavaScript (ES6+) from the ground up. “Composing Software” is also available in Print.
"Composing Software”, the hit blog post series on functional programming and software composition in JavaScript is now a best selling book on Leanpub. Also available in print.
On February 18th, 2017, I started writing a blog post on functional programming. “The Rise and Fall and Rise of Functional Programming” was to serve as an introductory article for a series of articles on software composition. I had no idea when I started writing that it would attract more than 100,000 readers, or that the articles that followed would attract over a million aggregate reads, or that it would become a book and jump up the Leanpub best sellers list the week it was announced.
My sincere thanks go out to JS Cheerleader, who made the book better in too many ways to list. If you find the text readable, it is because she carefully pored over every page and offered insightful feedback and encouragement every step of the way. Without her help, you would not be reading this right now.
Thanks to the blog readers, who’s support and enthusaism helped us turn a little blog post series into a phenomenon that attracted millions of reads and provided the momentum we needed to turn it into a book.
Thanks to the legends of computer science who paved the way.
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” ~ Sir Isaac Newton
All software development is composition: The act of breaking a complex problem down to smaller parts, and then composing those smaller solutions together to form your application.
But I noticed while interviewing candidates for software development jobs, almost none of them could describe what composition is in the context of software. When I asked “what is function composition?” or “what is object composition?” in interviews, I got… stammers. Crickets. Nothing.
How could this be? How could 99% of professional developers — some with 10+ years’ of software development experience not know definitions or examples of the two most basic forms of composition in software engineering? Everybody composes functions and objects in the process of building software on a daily basis, so how could so many people not understand the basic foundations of those techniques?
The fact is that composition simply isn’t a subject that people pay attention to, or teach well, or learn. It occurred to me that maybe this is why overcomplicating things is the single biggest mistake software developers make every day. When you don’t know how to fit lego blocks together, you might break out the duct-tape and crazy glue and go nuts… to the detriment of the software, your teammates, and your users.
You can’t get away from composing software — that’s how software comes together. But if you don’t do it conscientiously, you’ll do it badly, which leads to a lot of wasted time, wasted money, bugs, and even critical human safety issues. I wrote this series — and book — to change that.
The trouble with the blog posts is that they never had an official index. Welcome to the official blog post index for “Composing Software: The Blog Posts”. | https://medium.com/javascript-scene/composing-software-the-book-f31c77fc3ddc | ['Eric Elliott'] | 2020-05-06 01:18:32.844000+00:00 | ['Functional Programming', 'Object Oriented', 'Technology', 'Software Development', 'JavaScript'] |
The Time I Called My Black Boss a Honky | The Time I Called My Black Boss a Honky
And the power of words
Colonel Sanders via Wikimedia Commons
When I was in high school I waitressed at an old folks’ home. It was an after-school and weekend gig with an unsurprisingly high turnover. We had to wear Colonel Sanders bowties and dip our hands in bleach. I didn’t smell any better than I looked after a shift.
The kitchen staff was 100% high school kids as wait staff/dishwashers and 100% adults as cooks/shift managers. I believe both were minimum wage positions so employees changed far more frequently than the residents did.
For a time I had a boss who claimed to be a modeling scout. He would tell us stories about all the famous people he knew and parties he’d been to in LA. He told us he was just working this job to “keep himself grounded.” He didn’t want to lose himself in “the lifestyle” because he’d apparently seen too many people go down the celebrity party rabbit hole. He drove a classic Mercedes and had long hair.
He was probably younger than I am now but when you’re a teenager every adult seems old. He bantered with us like equals though, he knew all about our dating lives and we all talked to him like a friend. He was the best of both worlds in that way — a confidant we could trust as much as we trusted each other but also a grownup who could give us grownup advice without parental lecturing. We told him everything.
One night he was teasing me about something or other and we started our normal back-and-forth. I don’t even remember what it was about that time but I decided to up the ante and call him something super goofy, something dorkier than dorky.
“You’re just saying that because you’re a honky,” I retorted to whatever he had said. I was feeling pretty smug.
“I’m, I’m a … what?”
“Honky. You’re a fucking honky.” I doubled down and gave my Black boss my most triumphant look.
What happened next I remember in slow motion. He put his hands on the counter and his body seemed to double over on its own volition. I couldn’t see his face. But then I heard the howl, a booming laugh that came from deep within his doubled-over body.
“Is that why the brothers don’t like me?!” his eyes were watering and he still had a hand on the counter like he needed it for balance.
He called my other boss over, a white woman from Lake Tahoe and told her what I had said. They instantly became a coven of two cackling over their cauldron of laughter. I had no idea what was so uproariously funny but I could at least deduce that I had used the word wrong.
It turns out it’s a racial slur for white people. Who knew! Judging by their riotous laughter — everyone but me. Proverbial hilarity ensued but no one was harmed in the making of my education on that term and its context. That time my learning curve didn’t hurt anyone.
But what if I had accidentally used a term that would have offended him? Like the time I learned that “porch monkey” is absolutely not just a harmless way to call someone lazy. I thought it was a cuddly way to call someone unmotivated — along the lines of couch potato. I had no idea it was a racial slur until I used it, thinking it was no different than when my Nana called me and my sister turkeys.
My Mexican friend and his biracial roommate asked me if I knew what the term meant. And then let me know just how incorrect I was — giving me the relevant context. I apologized and never used it again. No need for white tears or self-flagellation, just incorporate your new knowledge into your behavior and recognize that it’s not anyone’s responsibility, especially POC, to give you a positive learning experience.
I only recently learned that ‘globalist’ apparently is an anti-Semitic dog whistle. I had no idea. But I don’t use it now that I know.
The point is it’s ok to make mistakes — as long as you admit to them and commit to improvement. It’s natural to be embarrassed but don’t nurture your pride in these moments. You can lick your wounds later. If you use a word whose connotations are greater than your understanding, (or you’re completely racistly wrong), and someone calls you out on it, just say thank you.
Saying something you didn’t know was offensive or racist doesn’t make you a racist. It makes you ignorant. And before you implode with defensiveness remember that ignorant can just mean “doesn’t know yet”. Ignorant doesn’t have to mean stupid unless you refuse to change based on learned information.
And for the love of all that’s holy just be grateful that striking a few words from your vocabulary is the most “discrimination” you’ve ever had to “overcome”. Please don’t waste anyone’s time complaining that it’s racist or discriminatory that some people can use some words and that only white people are forbidden from using certain words. Just be kind.
I don’t know about you but I’ve got five seconds’ worth of energy to flip the tiniest of switches in my brain and not use a word or a term that can hurt people.
Remember when people used to buy entire books about random acts of kindness? Because they were actively looking for small ways to brighten the world around them? Instead of buying bumper stickers that say Practice Random Acts of Kindness or defensively obsessing about microagressions being “exaggerated” or “too PC” think of adapting your vocabulary as the opposite of a micro-aggression. Think of these minute vocabulary switches as micro-kindnesses — not random kindness but informed-choice kindness.
Merriam-Webster consistently adds new words to the dictionary. Don’t cling to crusty old epithets to assert yourself or defend yourself against “discrimination”. Grow your vernacular because humility is beautiful. Kindness costs you nothing and it is an easy way to tell your fellow travelers, Hey, I heard this part of the journey is hard. I’m not going to make it harder. | https://medium.com/with-liberty/the-time-i-called-my-black-boss-a-honky-1dc6999e5d71 | ['Heather M. Edwards'] | 2020-06-08 05:35:06.818000+00:00 | ['Equality', 'Politics', 'Racism', 'Communicaton', 'Culture'] |
3 Ways I Overcome Social Anxiety | Anyone that knows me personally will be shocked to hear this: I used to have a lot of social anxiety. Although I have managed to overcome most of my anxiety around social situations, it has been a long journey filled with self-reflection, rejection from others, and numerous highs and lows.
To provide you with a bit of an insight, I moved about 3 times in primary and secondary school. I moved cities, states, and even countries a couple of times. An individual with affinity towards belongingness, overcoming social anxiety was almost a survival mechanism. I need to feel supported socially to thrive in all other areas of life.
So, I had no choice but to choose to overcome the fear of meeting new people and approaching strangers.
Here are some of the things I learned along the way that made me the “social butterfly” that I am labeled as today:
We are all just skeletons
Literally, underneath everyone’s beautiful and intimidating faces are just blood, flesh and skeletons. Fundamentally, we all come from similar places and to some extent share similar life experiences of going through happiness, despair, envy, pride, ego, etc. We are all human beings with likes, dislikes, struggles, pain, and a sense of humor (hopefully).
Understanding this truth helped put a lot of things in perspective for me and eased my anxiety around approaching strangers — to a certain extent. It was a bit easier for me to approach the popular girl or the hot guy because instead of idolizing them, like many teenagers do, I realized that they were also imperfect beings — just with different set of struggles than my own. This realization also enhanced my ability to form stronger bonds with people that are usually labeled as “hard to crack.”
Fear of Rejection
Rejection hurts, no matter the type. Whether it is being rejected from our dream job and college, or from a certain social group. Our feelings are hurt, our self-esteem takes a hit, and it unsettles our feeling of belonging. Researcher at Duke University, Mark R. Leary states that “being excessively worried about [rejection] — to the point that we do not do things that might benefit us — can compromise the quality of our life.”
So yes, I was afraid of being rejected by certain people, but my desire to form a relationship was of higher value to me, which meant I had to suck up the fear of rejection and be vulnerable at times.
The more I threw myself towards being rejected, the better I was at handling the pain that came from it.
Instead of taking others’ behaviors personally, I accepted that it was a reflection of their own understanding of the world. Truth is that most of the rejection didn’t doom me to oblivion, so as hard as it was, instead of naturally withdrawing from putting myself out there again, I continuously focused on building up my self-esteem and my positive qualities.
Identify the root cause of discomfort
Sometimes before others can reject us, we reject ourselves. Social anxiety, to some extent, is a construct, that our mind repeatedly manifests and forces us to believe.
“If I go to the party, no one will talk to me.”
“Everyone will stare at me walking in late and think that I am a loser”
Above described example of negative self-talks are all creations of your mind — -and completely false creations too! Going back to the skeleton analogy, people are too caught up in their own worries to give a sh*t about yours. Pardon my language, but I cannot emphasize this enough!
I used to be afraid to talk to guys, even if they confessed their fondness towards me because I did not consider myself pretty enough. I wanted to apply to work as a fashion advisor but was not confident enough to showcase my skills. I continued to reject myself before others due to my own insecurities.
What is stopping you in social situations? Is it your exaggerated flaws? Do you think that you are not worthy of belonging to a certain social group because of that flaw?
Self-reflecting on your deeper woundings and traumas to identify this discomfort, and then consciously making an effort to not feel that way is key for overcoming social anxiety. | https://medium.com/modernmeraki/3-ways-i-overcome-social-anxiety-a502b8a44d1a | [] | 2020-07-08 23:57:29.547000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Wellness', 'Self', 'Relationships', 'Social Anxiety'] |
December Motivation #10 | So you have a dream, and it became a plan and a goal. Why do you have this goal? What is the reason behind it? We talked about the importance of your why in December Motivation #8.
Understanding your why is crucial. The stronger your why, the bigger your passion. You need to have great passion to continue taking steps and that fire needs to be your fuel so that you don’t give up when things get tough.
If you’re doing things for the wrong reason, change your why. Are you doing a task just to get it done or to learn something new and do it right? Sometimes just changing your why can create a shift in your perspective and the right why can motivate you to become unstoppable. | https://medium.com/@authornikaparadis/december-motivation-10-6bc281fcf4e4 | ['Nika Paradis'] | 2020-12-10 20:55:23.590000+00:00 | ['Dreams', 'Passion', 'Goals', 'Self', 'Motivation'] |
Be the Person You Wish You Had in Your Life | Be the Person You Wish You Had in Your Life
This is my epiphany; perhaps it could be yours, too? A letter to yourself.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Dear Self,
Sleeplessness is never good. It gives your brain time to think about all the things you refuse to think about during the day. It has become your bête noire since the ending of your twenty-year marriage.
Your mind goes to the past. To all your mistakes and foolishness and short-sightedness. You berate yourself for not joining the dots sooner, for the sacrifice of your children’s happy childhoods — that’s the most unforgivable of all. Being honest, you didn’t fully comprehend the unhappiness or the damage. But that is no defense. You should have comprehended. You are their mother; it was your job to understand.
And yet. You gather yourself up and thank your lucky stars that they still love you and have forgiven you. Or seem to have.
And not being able to alter the past, you try to move on. Perhaps you’ve shed enough tears. Leave it behind in the shadows.
But leaving the past is difficult. It has made you what you are and brought you to where you are today. Sitting here at 4 am, tired, not rested, coffee by your side and hunched in your dressing gown. Alone.
Alone again.
There’s an inevitability about that. When you look back, you realise you’ve always spent too much time alone in your own head — right from childhood, through the teenage years, and adulthood. Not fitting in, not finding your niche. Casting around for something and believing — or hoping — you’d found it.
Some people do — find it, that is. That real and lifelong love and affinity with one person.
Not you. And you won’t try again. Can’t afford, can’t survive, can’t face another failed relationship.
The third phase is here. You have washed up on the shores of middle age. This is the beginning of the last phase, probably.
And really it’s up to you now. What happens for the final third is up to you. You can live mired in the past. Regrets. Reproaches. Sadness. Or you can choose — yes, choose — to go into it with a lighter heart. The major work of life is done, in a way. You’ve made the cake and only the icing remains to be added. It’s all about your choices now.
You can sink slowly into old age. How sad.
Or you can embrace something new. And love the people you have to your utmost while being true to what’s inside you.
And part of that is realizing — really realizing — that you can’t take responsibility for, or control, what other people feel.
They have also made their choices, taken their own actions, written their own narrative, shaped themselves. And they hold equal responsibility for where they are now.
Their unhappiness is awful. You feel you’ve caused it.
Yet your actions were a reaction to their repeated actions. Of many years.
So this, in a way, is your time. The upheaval was sudden and brutal when it came.
2020 has been a sudden and brutal kind of year. You hate it. We all hate it. It will pass into the history books as tragic and surreal. You are not suffering alone. It’s not precisely the same for anyone; your story is not her story. But many millions of us are feeling it.
So take stock of where you are. You’re comparatively fortunate. And now it comes down to choice.
You can choose how it unfolds. There are big changes ahead. Bigger even than the ones you’ve just lived through. Your heart is wrapped up in and vulnerable to the unpredictability of life. For your parents. For your children.
You know you’re going to spend many, many hours on your own. But will they be happy or sad? Filled or wasted? Choose. You get to decide. It’s in your hands. Even if it should all stop next week or next month.
The mistakes you’ve made are history now. But they’re acknowledged and faced up to. Four children, loved and still loving. Hold onto that. That’s a lot.
The big unfulfilled would be writing. Your clock is ticking down. Life is short and fragile — 2020 has reminded you of that in so many ways. When you’re 19, life seems long and full of promise. When you’re 53, you’ve made a lot of mistakes, but learned a lot. A lot.
Project your mind forward to 85. It’s a long way off and it’s the blink of an eye. But more than ever, being alone, you have time. You have knowledge. You have perspective. And you have longing.
Increase your ability, your industry, your productiveness.
Make it matter. Make it worth it. And enjoy it as much as you can.
You have acknowledged your mistakes, accepted your responsibility. Now abandon your guilt and look forward. Open your heart. Be honest. Love. Help. Accept.
Be the person you wish you had in your life.
That is the epiphany.
Be the person you wish you had in your life.
For yourself. For others.
You can be strong. Loving. Warm. Listening. Supportive. Happy. Creative. Inspiring. Calm. Fun. Forgiving. Vibrant.
You don’t have that person. So become that person.
And then you won’t be lonely or searching. You’ll have those things you want within you every day.
You make your own reality every day.
You make your own reality every day.
Take some deep breaths.
Step into it. Step in.
This is my insight and I gift it to you. Be the person you wish you had in your life.
Start now.
With love -x- | https://medium.com/blueinsight/be-the-person-you-wish-you-had-in-your-life-beb582ff2f33 | ['Tess Wheeler'] | 2020-10-31 22:21:41.461000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Insights', 'Blue Insights', 'Family', 'Psychology'] |
Creating a RESTfull API with Node.js | Through this post I am going to implement a simple REST API with Node.js.
So, at the very first begining, we’ll see what is meant by REST API.
A REST API (also known as RESTful API) is an application programming interface that conforms to the constraints of REST architecture. REST is an acronym for Representational State Transfer. A REST API is a way for two computer systems to communicate over HTTP in a similar way to web browsers and servers.
When a request is made via a RESTful API, it transfers a representation of the state of the resource to the requester. This information, or representation, is delivered in one of several formats via HTTP: JSON, HTML, XLT, or plain text. JSON is the most generally popular because, despite its name, it’s language agnostic, as well as readable by both humans and machines.
In order for an API to be considered RESTful, it has to conform to these criteria:
Client-Server: made up of clients, servers, and resources, with requests managed through HTTP. Stateless: no client information is stored between requests and each request is separate and unconnected. Cacheable: streamlines client-server interactions. Layered system: client need not know whether it’s communicating with the actual server, a proxy, or any other intermediary. Uniform interface: information is transferred in a standard form. Code on demand (optional constraint): permits a clients code or applets to be downloaded and to be used within the application.
In REST API there are 4 main methods (CRUD operations). They are:
POST (Create) - creates a new record GET (Read) - returns requested data PUT/PATCH (Update) - updates an existing record DELETE (Delete) - deletes an existing record
With having an idea of REST API, we’ll move to implement a simple CRUD REST application.
First we’ll look at how our API look likes:
So, in our API there going to be two resources: products and orders. Through our API, we can,
create product or order. (POST) read details of products or orders. (GET) read an individual product or order details using order id or product id. (GET) update product detalis. (PATCH) delete a product or order. (DELETE)
Pre-requisities Node.js: To install Node.js, you can use here. Postman: Install Postman as a Chrome extension. To install Postman you can visit here and click on ‘Add to Chrome’.
Here, I am using Visual Studio Code to write and execute codes. You can use any IDE or code editor according to your choice.
So, let’s get started.
Step 01
Create a directory and navigate to that director using following commands in command prompt.
mkdir Node-Rest-Shop
cd Node-Rest-Shop
To initialize the project use npm init command as follows:
Once you run through the npm init steps above, a package.json file will be generated and placed in the current directory. Open your project folder through IDE. Then you can see the generated package.json file.
Step 02
Then we are going to install certain dependancies needed for the implementation.
Express is a web framework which can be used along with Node.js. This web framework will allow you to create Restful APIs, with the help of helper methods, middle layers to configure your application.
npm install --save express
Step 03
Create below JavaScript files calling server.js, app.js, order.js and products.js.
My folder structure is as follows:
sever.js
const http = require('http');
const app = require('./app');
const port = process.env.port || 3000;
const server = http.createServer(app);
server.listen(port);
app.js
const express = require('express');
const app = express(); const productRoutes = require('path to products folder'); // in my ./api/routes/products const orderRoutes = require('path to products folder'); //in my ./api/routes/order app.use('/products', productRoutes);
app.use('/order', orderRoutes); module.exports = app;
order.js
// To setup order related routes. const express = require('express');
const router = express.Router(); router.get('/', (req, res, next) => {
res.status(200).json({
message: 'Orders were fetched'
});
}); router.post('/', (req, res, next) => {
res.status(201).json({
message: 'Order was created'
});
}); router.get('/:orderId', (req, res, next) => {
res.status(200).json({
message: 'Order details',
id: req.params.orderId
});
}); router.delete('/:orderId', (req, res, next) => {
res.status(200).json({
message: 'Order deleted',
id: req.params.orderId
});
}); module.exports = router;
products.js
// To setup product related routes. const express = require('express');
const router = express.Router(); router.get('/', (req, res, next) => {
res.status(200).json({
message: 'Handling GET requests to /products'
});
}); router.post('/', (req, res, next) => {
res.status(201).json({
message: 'Handling POST requests to /products'
});
}); //Get details of a single product using product id router.get('/:productId', (req, res, next) => {
const id = req.params.productId;
if(id === 'special'){
res.status(200).json({
message: 'You discovered the special ID',
id: id
});
} else {
res.status(200).json({
message: 'You passed an ID'
});
}
}); router.patch('/:productId', (req, res, next) => {
res.status(200).json({
message: 'Updated produt!!'
});
}); router.delete('/:productId', (req, res, next) => {
res.status(200).json({
message: 'Deleted produt!!'
});
});
Step 06
After adding code, now you should run the server by typing the command,
node server.js
This will start the server and keep running. Since we are running on our local machine, this will run on port 3000.
Now, the next step is to check whether the handlers are working properly or not.
For that, we will use the Postman. You can test whether the CRUD operations are working properly by using localhost:3000/products
POST & GET requests of products
For an individual detail pass the url as localhost:3000/products/{id}
GET, PATCH & DELETE requests for an individual product
The requests for orders can also see as above.
With this, we come to an end of this article on “Creating a RESTfull API with Node.js”.
Thank You….. | https://medium.com/@isharas/creating-a-restfull-api-with-node-js-e76267b51056 | ['Ishara Sandeepanie'] | 2021-01-09 02:06:51.793000+00:00 | ['Rest Api', 'Nodejs', 'Expressjs', 'Postman'] |
Outsourcing, outstaffing and product development: differences, pros, and cons | Outsourcing, outstaffing is no longer a novelty, but reality, thanks to the pandemic. Product development is also a kind of distributed development team.
They all overlap and intersect in one way or another. And sometimes it’s hard to decide which work format is optimal when you need it.
What are their differences, what are the pros and cons of each approach to collaboration with a distributed team? Let’s straighten it out.
There are several parameters to compare:
the task to be solved
successful results
project management
areas of responsibility
payment format
1. Task to be solved
Outsource — fulfillment of ToR and assigned tasks.
Outstaff — access to rare competencies. Strengthens the internal team — both quantitatively, when you are short-handed , and qualitatively, when there is a shortage of expertise.
For product development — processes changes.
2. Result to ensure success
Outsource — release of working features
Outstaff — meeting deadlines, customer’s comfort
Product development — performs all work specific to hypothesis testing.
3. Project management
Outsource — you hand over the project/task to the contractor, it’s a turnkey approach
Outstaff — project management is the customer’s responsibility. Outstaff-employees are your inhouse-employees, except for the paperwork.
Product development — the remote team includes a project manager. Or a more risky approach — project management is completely absent.
Why? Product development is aimed primarily at hypothesis testing. This approach does not imply project management; different methodology and metrics. There is an opinion that a product is NOT a project, the conditions of project development do not apply directly to a product, i.e.rigid timings, fixed budget, and so on.
4. Areas of responsibility
Outsource — successful release of new features, meeting deadlines. Responsibility for the product itself is on the customer.
Outstaff — providing the necessary resources, its timely replacement if necessary. Responsibility for the product itself is the customer’s responsibility.
Product development — to do all the necessary work to prepare the hypotheses for testing. Who formulates the hypotheses? Either the product manager on the client side or he/she is included in the product development team on the contractor side.
5. Payment format
Outsource — fixed Time & Materials
Outstaff — Time & Materials On Retainer
Product development — On retainer.
What are the contractors themselves looking for?
Knowing your contractor’s goals will help you understand how keen the contractor is in collaborating with you.
Outsourced teams will fight for big contracts. They are ready to take big risks and maximum responsibility, taking into account possible force majeure. But one should understand that the cost of these possible risks will be built into the contract price.
Outstaffing companies want to sell their resources for as much time as possible. Even if the rate is not too high, the payback depends on the duration.
Product development puts their main value on CRR — Customer Retention Rate). It is in their best interest to get the job done as quickly and cheaply as possible so that the customer returns .
If you have a large amount of work — then an outsourcing company is your choice. Long-term collaboration is right for outstaffing. And if you need a quick release, check-up, or bug-fixing — product development is for you.
What are the benefits to the customer?
Outsourcing wins by the total cost of the contract. The more work on the project you want to outsource, the more loyal the contractor will be. The same amount of work but outstaffing would be more expensive.
Outstaffing benefits by the availability of human resources and profitable cost of a specialist per hour — you will pay directly for the time spent on the work, without paying for downtime and absence of work.
Product development provides you with the speed of hypothesis testing. By hiring a team for the development of your product, you significantly reduce the time-to-market rate — thereby increasing your market share quickly.
Which to choose?
Each work format can solve different “pains”
Outsourcing — when you have a non-core, but profitable project. When you want the project to be done “turnkey”, not being involved personally. Most of the responsibility and risks are on the contractor.
But the key to outsourcing is a Statement of Work, typically used when the work can be described according to specific directions or instructions, and when the requirements, tasks, and conditions are easily understood by both parties, and that the contractor can properly estimate the amount of work. Otherwise, you may fail to meet the deadline. This is common when you outsource the project in the middle , to finalize an already working solution. There may be a problem lurking in the depths that will bring the process to a complete standstill.
Outstaffing — when the team is short-handed. When competence is needed temporarily, or one more person is needed to help you meet the deadline. An outstaffing specialist becomes a full-fledged part of your team, you work with him as with your employees, but with some advantages: no expenses on salaries, no need to provide him with a working place. His area of responsibility will not be idle — in case of illness or vacation, and the contracting company will find a replacement if needed. If you are not satisfied with his work, he will be replaced.
Product development — when you are just entering the market, you don’t have a finished product, and you don’t have the internal competence to research the product/market. Unlike classic outsourcing, you can come to the product team without a SOW, but with a basic idea.
In our experience, these three formats work quite successfully in synergy with each other.
The sphere of development is becoming more and more flexible. Rigid rules have been replaced by common sense and shared benefit.
For example, if we talk about product development and put a value on quick hypothesis testing — then we come to the development of features that may already require additional resources, hands, and expertise, and most likely, you will need to implement them within a limited timeframe. That’s when you might need an outsourcing or outstaffing team.
The main factor to consider when choosing a working format with a distributed team is: what results do you want to achieve? When you answer this question, it will be easier to decide. | https://medium.com/@Foxtail_cc/outsourcing-outstaffing-and-product-development-differences-pros-and-cons-a7fee231c3b8 | [] | 2021-12-23 12:29:59.299000+00:00 | ['Product Development', 'Remote Team', 'Outstaffing', 'Outsourcing', 'Distributed Teams'] |
The best books for web development beginners [2021] — Coder Coder | Online courses are great and all, but sometimes you just want to be able to flip through a book.
I prefer physical books over digital ones, especially if I know I’ll need to go back to and reference it frequently. In addition, trying to read code snippets in an eBook on your phone or Kindle simply won’t do the job.
With that said, here are my top picks for the best books when you’re learning web development!
A note on affiliate linking- some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that if you purchase through them, I’ll get a commission from the company. It’s a great way that you can support Coder Coder at no extra cost to yourself! You can read more on my disclaimer page.
Web Dev and Programming
HTML & CSS, and JavaScript & JQuery (2 book set) by Jon Duckett
Jon Duckett’s books are incredibly popular, and for good reason- they explain the topics at hand well and are designed tremendously well. They’re definitely not your usual stuffy programming textbooks! Both these books use graphics to illustrate concepts, and let’s be honest- they’ll look really cool on your bookshelf 🙂
One note: I’d go for the hardback versions even though they’re more expensive- the paperbacks are reported to have bindings that don’t hold up over time.
Check out Jon Duckett’s books on Amazon.
Eloquent JavaScript, 3rd Edition by Marijn Haverbeke
Eloquent JavaScript is one of the most well-loved JavaScript books currently, with good reason. Marijn Haverbeke will take you through learning JS from the very beginning up through more complex concepts. The book includes a ton of code examples and even mini projects like a simple game.
Happily, Marijn just released the third edition in December of 2018, so it is up to date with ES6, and he also has one brief chapter that goes through Node.js.
You can read Eloquent JavaScript online for free, or you can buy the paper or Kindle version online (I have the paperback version, and I love it).
Read Eloquent JavaScript online. Or buy the paper or Kindle version on Amazon.
You Don’t Know JS by Kyle Simpson
There are a lot of JavaScript books out there, and a lot of them are really big. You Don’t Know JS isn’t a huge textbook- it’s a series of six small books, all dedicated to a specific topic in JavaScript. There’s no fluff, just the essential core information.
These are perfect if you’re a beginner, because Kyle Simpson does a great job of explaining concepts in a way that’s easy to understand. And the best part is, you can read them all online for free on GitHub! Of course, if you like physical books (which I find handy to have next to the computer) you can order them online.
Check out You Don’t Know JS on GitHub. Or get the paper books on Amazon.
Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
Heard of terms like UX (user experience) or user design, but have no clue what they mean? This book is a great introduction into the world of making websites that people love using. It explains the basics of how visitors to your website behave and what about websites can frustrate them.
Bottom line: don’t design websites that your visitors will hate.
Check out Don’t Make Me Think on Amazon.
Career and Soft Skills
These books are not about programming languages per se, but around soft skills, mental focus and productivity. These skills are essential in order to succeed in your career, and unfortunately they’re not always discussed as part of your career development.
Want to stand out not just as a great programmer, but a great employee and an efficient worker? If so, I highly recommend picking up one or more of these books.
Deep Work by Cal Newport
This book has truly changed the way that I approach work. While most people lead extremely busy lives and constantly try to do and achieve more, Newport has taken the complete opposite approach of “less is more.”
As the topic of the book implies, he talks a lot about how he personally has developed a practice of ultra-focused deep work over the years (and his accomplishments are quite impressive). Newport also advocates for cutting out elements from your life that don’t lead you toward your most important goals.
This book is applicable to web developers and anyone whose work would benefit from long stretches of complete mental focus. I highly, highly recommend it to anyone to read, in any field.
Check out Deep Work on Amazon.
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
The Power of Habit is another book that can be applied to working more efficiently and honestly improving your life habits. Duhigg writes eloquently about how habits (both good and bad) are formed and broken, often without our realization.
He uses real world, scientific examples to illustrate these concepts in a very persuasive approach. If you’re interested in stopping bad habits, picking up good ones, and increasing your willpower (which he argues can be developed like any other skill!) then you’ll likely benefit from this book.
Check out The Power of Habit on Amazon.
Like learning through courses?
Check out my article on The Best Courses to Learn Web Development. | https://medium.com/@thecodercoder/the-best-books-for-web-development-beginners-2021-coder-coder-5725606eb981 | ['Jessica Chan'] | 2020-12-25 21:10:34.067000+00:00 | ['Web Development', 'Books', 'Learning To Code', 'Coding'] |
My Hilarious Stories Flop and I Hate You For It | My Hilarious Stories Flop and I Hate You For It
Or I’m not funny. You be the judge
Photo by Dmitry Vechorko on Unsplash
It’s pathetic to tell people you’re funny. More often than not, the people who say they’re funny are, but in a creepy sort of way, or like milk that’s been left on the counter too long.
But am I that bad? I don’t think so, so my only conclusion is — it’s you, not me.
As your benevolent mistress, I have decided to give you a chance to redeem yourselves. Clap, highlight, and comment to let me know I’m funny, or I will block you.
And by block you, I mean think poorly of you as I cry myself to sleep, and if that happens, you’ll only have yourselves to blame. | https://medium.com/the-scarlett-letter/my-hilarious-stories-flop-and-i-hate-you-for-it-ec1482349d25 | ['Teresa J Conway'] | 2020-12-12 03:44:47.467000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Satire', 'Sex', 'Adultery', 'Relationships'] |
New Era Pinstripe Bowl Prediction: Iowa Hawkeyes vs Boston College Eagles, 12–27–2017 | New Era Pinstripe Bowl Prediction: Iowa Hawkeyes vs Boston College Eagles, 12–27–2017
Iowa Hawkeyes (7–5) vs Boston College Eagles (7–5)
Time: December, 27th 5:15 PM EST
Current Odds: Boston College +2.5, 45.5
The New Era Pinstripe Bowl features two physical football teams as the Iowa Hawkeyes take on the Boston College Eagles. While you may see spread offenses permeate the rest of the country, these two don’t have any problems lining up with multiple tight ends or a fullback and grinding down opponents.
Iowa has had its ups and downs out of the Big Ten this season. The Hawkeyes lost three close games to Penn State, Michigan State andNorthwestern. Iowa did pull off a signature win over Ohio State, 55–24 in November. QB Nate Stanley is not asked to be a playmaker in a run-first offense, but the sophomore has thrown for 24 touchdowns to just five interceptions on the season. Stanley will keep the Eagles defense honest as they can’t just focus on the run, if they do, Stanley could make them pay with play action.
Iowa features some stand out defensive players including LB Josey Jewel, one of the top linebackers in the nation who averages 11.4 tackles per game. Another impact player is CB Josh Jackson who is projected to go in the 1st round of the NFL Draft if he foregoes his senior season.
Boston College plays a similar run-first style offense as they usher out ACC Rookie of the Year, running back AJ Dillon. Dillon rushed for over 1,400 and 13 touchdowns as a freshman this season and you can expect him to receive some Heisman hype in 2018. The Eagles found themselves in a difficult spot when starting quarterback Anthony Brown suffered a knee injury that kept him out of the last three games of the season. Darius Wade has been solid in Brown’s absence, as he has completed 46-of-75 passes for 528 yards, two touchdowns and an interception this season.
Boston College played a tough schedule this season and managed to go 8–3 ATS on the year and 5–1 SU on the road. Iowa also played a tough Big 10 schedule but they went just 5–6–1 ATS on the season and 2–3 SU on the road.
This should be a hard-hitting game that is won in the trenches. Both offenses will be chewing up the clock running the football which is a reason why this game should play to Under the total. This game could come down to a FG but expect this game to go Under 45.5.
Iowa vs Boston College FREE Pick: Under 45.5 | https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/new-era-pinstripe-bowl-prediction-iowa-hawkeyes-vs-boston-college-eagles-12-27-2017-3b0e29edbfc | ['Sports Investor Central'] | 2017-12-27 12:41:02.040000+00:00 | ['Sports', 'College Football', 'NCAAF', 'Sports Betting', 'Gambling'] |
Cinéma Touristique | I’ve long admired the films of David Robert Mitchell. He’s not especially prolific, taking nearly four years out between projects, but the few he’d done between 2010 and 2015 — two to be exact — are remarkable cinematic works, if not certain masterpieces. Sure, The Myth of the American Sleepover and It Follows are similar movies. They are centered on the Detroit exurbs and the young people who dwell there, adults being few and far between. The cinematography is crisp but muted, favoring dusky or nocturnal scenes. The spare and elegant (or elegantly awkward) dialogue resembles a sort of young adult Pinteresque. Bodies of water somehow narratively factor in. And there is the temporally ambiguous set design that sticks its characters in a time warp where no one has cell phones or laptops but there are plenty of porn mags and old movies on antenna TVs. The films are like siblings: containing the same DNA but distinct parental characteristics. Sleepover is Mitchell’s debut but much the younger sibling: lyrical, wistful, and consciously free. It Follows is colder and rife with dread and insecurity; it’s been tested by life. The films are the same, they are different, and they are deserving of their audiences and enduring acclaim.
I knew after seeing It Follows for the first time that what Mitchell would make next was something to anticipate. I knew, moreover, that it would be forever until that happened. When I’d heard just the title of Under the Silver Lake a little over a year before its June 22, 2018 release date, that was all I needed. How foolish it all seems now.
Under the Silver Lake, starring Andrew Garfield and Riley Keough, was bought by current indie powerhouse A24, but debuted at Cannes to lackluster acclaim. The film was delayed to December 2018, evidently to be recut. Fine. Mixed but not excoriating reviews trickled in. Then it was delayed to April 2019, still I waited. And when it was released it went right to streaming services and very few theaters.
Waiting was never my strong suit. I am, indeed, a remarkably impatient person. On the fleeting times I’ll go to confession, I have had to pencil in that very impatience while getting stuck behind a much more thoroughly repentant parishioner. But I didn’t mind after all that. If anything I was more curious. What was it about this film that required so long an incubation, even a suppression? There were no consistent hints of disaster or overshooting. Southland Tales, Richard Kelly’s infamously bloated follow-up to Donnie Darko, was mentioned at least once giving cause for some uneasiness, but not total despair. Maybe it just didn’t meet expectations, which is almost a worse fate than faceplanting. I had to see for myself as a matter of course. Mitchell is someone I take seriously just as I take Lynne Ramsay seriously. I will see everything they make. So I watched it on Prime as soon as it came out — all two hours and 19 minutes of it.
Under the Silver Lake is visually unmistakable from its predecessors. All of Mitchell’s preferred décor is present: porn magazines, classic films, thrift store couture, bodies of water, the permanent dusk photography. But it departs markedly from them in narrative, character, and setting. It is more a cousin than a sibling: older but not mature, cultured but not worldly, roguish but not charming; a bit creepy, in fact. These departures are not to be abjured for their own sake. They are admirable though still hazardous.
Depending on whom you ask, the plots of Mitchell’s first two films are either cohesive or simplistic, if plots are there at all. Sleepover was about kids hanging out in the suburbs; It Follows was about kids trying to escape a supernatural venereal disease in those same suburbs. A little atmosphere went a long way in both instances to great effect. By contrast, Silver Lake’s plot is, again depending on whom you ask, intricate or rather involved. Boy meets girl, of course. But then girl disappears suddenly, and boy, rather than let things go after online searching turns up zilch, sets on a citywide hunt for her whereabouts guided largely by subliminal codes, hobo symbols, urban legends, and wild coincidences he, in his heightened capacity to detect them, happens to come across. It is a “puzzle movie” that doesn’t quite know how it feels about puzzle movies. This ambivalence carries over into its characters.
Character was not really a strength in either of Mitchell’s early films, preferring instead something more akin to single personified emotions. As with those films, most of the characters in Under the Silver Lake lack surnames — or just names, period. Topher Grace plays “Bar Buddy,” Riki Lindhome plays “Actress,” Patrick Fischer plays “Comic Fan,” and Grace Van Patten plays “Balloon Girl.” Andrew Garfield’s protagonist Sam, however, is Mitchell’s most substantial character yet. He’s in his 30s, has no job, is on the verge of homelessness, infatuated by alternative rock and Vanna White, perpetually horny, and fraught by his own insignificance. He is, overall, a rather contemptible person who carries a handicap parking permit despite being fully capacitated, whose answer to dealing with the petty vandalism of a group of boys is to violently assault them, who spends his depleting funds on anything but his much overdue rent, and whose indeterminate obsession with one woman does not prevent him from casually fucking more available ones. In his travels from It Follows, Mitchell has encountered a most curious cultural phenomenon: the Xennial, that overgrown airstrip of a generation between the more livable metropolises of Mitchell’s generation X and the millennials who populate his earlier films. Again the film does not know whether to pander to or send up these young-ish people who use the internet, have heard of REM but prefer their later, less majestic work, and who are anxiously clinging to their pre-adult Epicureanism. Indeed, few of the characters seem to do anything besides pass time. Riki Lindhome has slightly more screen time than Topher Grace, but her character serves no higher purpose than to amuse Garfield and to validate his world-historic FOMO. Garfield is paranoid not so much because someone is after him, but because he has nothing else going on.
The film’s position is appreciably clearer, I think, on its location. Under the Silver Lake is identified as a “Los Angeles movie.” It bares easy resemblance to the slacker noir of The Big Lebowski, its postmodern descendant Inherent Vice, their shared ancestor The Long Goodbye, their missing link Repo Man, and it even has traces of the urban gothic of Sunset Boulevard and the surrealism of Mulholland Drive. It does the city’s look some justice, filming at iconic locations like The Last Bookstore, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, and the Griffith Observatory. But there’s something diminished in its presentation; that is, there is a look of being more in it than of it.
Great LA films have never flinched from depictions of the city’s singular decrepitude; the best tend to veer from gritty to bizarre but are seldom over-earnest or romanticized, not, anyway, without immediate subversion. As with New York City, feelings of love and hate are so often indistinguishably intense and hopelessly codependent. But there are attitudes toward both that come less from hate than they do from contempt, a lesser form of derision born out of frivolity and phoniness. That contempt is threaded all through Under the Silver Lake as Sam drifts from party to vapid party held in places like Hollywood Forever, where 12-year-old auteurs who “really capture the zeitgeist” are flanked by suited bodyguards, and where invitations come in the form of cookies laced with hallucinogens.
Los Angeles is the ultimate transplant city. Some of the best works about Los Angeles were by those from without who came up on the wrong end of success from within: Nathanael West (The Day of the Locust), Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep, among others), Horace McCoy (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?), to name a few. These works set the template for the exceptional Angeleno madness that comes seeking utopia and which will endure as much Hell as required to attain it, even at the price of forgetting it completely. Mitchell did not see much madness in Los Angeles, evidently. He saw plenty of eccentricity, and more than a little pathos. These, too, exist in competing depictions, but never in such abundance and with such scorn. Only in Los Angeles, the film concludes, would its richest and most powerful men concoct a convoluted, expensive scheme to build and live in subterranean “tombs” with hot young women for the rest of their lives simply because they could.
There is no doubt that Mitchell thinks Los Angeles a beautiful city, his cinematic style indicates as much, but it could be improved by a better class of citizen, say, from a more upright, more hardworking, and somewhat more landlocked part of the country. In this, Under the Silver Lake echoes the simultaneous enchantment and disillusionment of every tourist. The film concludes with Sam staring with indifference from the balcony of a neighbor he has just slept with as he is finally evicted from his own apartment. I do not know what to make of this scene, but I get the sense that after this long journey, Mitchell just wants to go home.
It’d be wrong to say that this was a terrible film; I was able to rewatch it, which is more than I can say for Southland Tales. Even error can have its poetry, albeit a very morose and incidental poetry. Credit should go to A24 for knowing exactly what they had: a very accidental Hal Hartley film, and treated it more or less as such. It’s too bad. Hartley would have done wonders with the off-kilter material; but Hartley always knew just where he needed to be, and so he can be forgiven, mostly, that that place is Long Island. | https://cr-morgan.medium.com/cin%C3%A9ma-touristique-5ca1b6b686c7 | ['Chris', 'R'] | 2019-07-05 03:51:45.242000+00:00 | ['Criticism', 'Movies', 'Film', 'Culture', 'Essay'] |
A Survey Of Fraud In Nigeria Banking Industry | A Survey Of Fraud In Nigeria Banking Industry
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
1.5 LIMITATION OF STUDY
1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 VARIOUS DEFINITION OF FRAUD
2.2 FORMS OF FRAUD IN NIGERIA BANKING INDUSTRY
2.3 CAUSES OF FRAUD IN NIGERIA BANKING INDUSTRY
2.4 EFFECTS OF FRAUD IN NIGERIA BANKING INDUSTRY
2.5 THE LAW RELATING TO THE LEGAL PROCESS OF PROSECUTING FRAUD IN BANKS
CHAPTER THREE
3.1 FINDINGS
3.2 RECOMMENDATION
3.3 CONCLUSION
REFERENCE
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
It will not be easy to say the exact date fraud began in the Nigerian Banking Industry.
However, we are going to have a look at dates of the establishment of the first two indigenous banks in Nigeria as this will help us to trace the origin of some loopholes which bring about fraudulent practices in Nigerian banking system.
The National Bank of Nigeria was establishment in 1933, the Agbomgba bank (now Wema Bank) was established in 1945 and the African Continental Bank was established in the year 1947.
Prior to 1952, there was no banking regulation to monitor the activities/operations of the Commercial Banks in the country as a result of this there was lapses in the banking system. For instance, some banks got license for operation but did not open one day for business.
DOWNLOAD COMPLETE PROJECT MATERIAL | https://medium.com/@modishproject/a-survey-of-fraud-in-nigeria-banking-industry-1ee5d3982ab7 | ['Modish Project'] | 2021-07-06 16:15:19.132000+00:00 | ['Banking', 'Fraud', 'Survey', 'Industry'] |
Fall 2020 at NASA: Experiences of a High School Intern | Hari Parthasarathy
Introduction
Biotechnology is a topic of great interest for me. A blend of engineering and computer science, with the study of complex living organisms, biotechnology captures the essence of both biology and technology. But business in biology? At first glance, introducing this concept seems incongruous or unlikely. But recently, the emerging discipline of systems biology — operating at the confluence of these two fields — does just that! Interning at NASA this past fall, I was able to analyze the unique perspective that systems thinking brings to biosciences and the numerous benefits of such an approach to other disciplines (like astrobiology or planetary protection). This post summarizes what I did this summer — my technical learnings and my research insights — as well as some pointers for other high-schoolers looking to intern at NASA.
Technical Learning: The Ins and Outs of Systems Biology
In order to understand the applications of systems biology to assist research at NASA, the first step is to get a solid understanding of systems thinking, and more specifically, systems biology. Over the course of the first few weeks of my internship, I spent time understanding and interpreting the basics of systems thinking.
A Crash Course in Systems Thinking: The Beginning of my Exploration in Systems Biology
Systems thinking can be defined as a philosophy that tries to identify interactions between specific parts of systems and use these interactions to identify how the system works. This philosophy can be compared to building a jigsaw puzzle; you first try to make small sections of pieces that you are confident fit together in the puzzle, then use these sections to identify the bigger picture. This type of thinking is common in many different fields. Business management uses systems thinking to help build out strategic plans that target shared resources and dependencies between different company workgroups. Manufacturing uses this type of thinking to assemble large-scale machines by modeling the entire machine and identifying the interactions between different parts to create a high-quality and effective machine.
Systems thinking is a very valuable approach due to five unique advantages it has over the standard philosophy (the reductionist philosophy) associated with biology: First, it is a very holistic approach and the primary focus is not to zoom down and look at things at a minute scale, but rather look at the bigger picture to identify a network of interactions. Second, this holistic style, coupled with the bottoms-up strategy mentioned in the previous paragraph makes it easier to trace important pathways in organizations, and, in my case, biological models. Third, systems thinking also allows the formation of a larger network of networks (a large collection of systems placed together, an example of which is the Human Body and its organ systems). This type of network array makes it easier to make inferences about the way one system may influence a behavioral change in another system and vice versa. For example, it may help neuroscientists to see how the muscular system, skeletal system, and nervous system all work in synchrony to cause the movement of body parts.
Fourth, mathematical and computerized models are often used to help produce these models and provide added insights to key datasets. For example, a research group in the Weizmann Institute in Israel created a computational tool that helps recognize short loops (common recurring patterns) in large and complex gene regulation and expression networks. Similarly, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other computational models can help enable biologists to go deeper in their quest to identify the functions of specific biological molecules and processes. Finally, other mathematical models have helped in generalizing behaviors of specific actions in organisms: one of the starting points for systems biology came from a mathematical model that illustrated how action potentials passed through an axon of a neuron in the nervous system. Such models can be beneficial in the many other subsets of biology as well.
These five characteristics help bring a new perspective to viewing biology and provide a framework from which discoveries and insights can be made.
Systems Archetypes: Applying Systems Thinking to Real-World Situations
After getting a basic understanding of systems thinking, the next step was to learn more about the common systems archetypes that I was likely to encounter. Systems archetypes are a generalized set of loops that can be applied to any system to identify interactions in the system.
In order to fully understand systems archetypes, there are a few important terms to know. All of these systems’ archetypes contain multiple loops which come in two different classes. The result that is expected to occur is known as the intended consequence (IC) feedback loop, while the unexpected loop is (very appropriately) dubbed the unintended consequence (UC) feedback loop. These two loops also come in two flavors: a balancing loop that attempts to reduce the impact of the system, and a reinforcing loop, that attempts to increase the impact of the system.
There are four major systems archetypes: (1) underachievement, (2) out-of-control, (3) relative achievement, and (4) relative control. These are summarized in the table below. For each of the problem archetypes mentioned below, a solution archetype helps fix the problem. Problem archetypes are archetypes whose intended consequence feedback loop causes negative unintended consequence feedback loops that create problems for organizations and systems. Solution archetypes help to create a connection between the input of the intended consequence feedback loop and an input of the unintended consequence feedback loop that helps to solve the problem.
Figure 1: The Four Systems Archetypes and Real-World Examples
Figure 2a: The Problem and Solution Archetypes for the Underachievement and Out-of-Control System Archetypes (Image Key: Image Key: Dotted lines are opposing actions. R stands for reinforcing feedback loops, and B stands for balancing feedback loops.)
Figure 2B: The Problem and Solution Archetypes for the Relative Achievement and Relative Control System Archetypes (Image Key: Dotted lines are opposing actions. R stands for reinforcing feedback loops, and B stands for balancing feedback loops.)
Systems Archetypes: Applying Systems Thinking to High School Life
All of these archetypes have numerous applications in the real world. For example, as a high schooler, I find myself susceptible to distractions. One of the major video game fads right now is “Among Us”: a space-themed game of deduction, strategy, and a hint of chaos. If I were to put a break in my schedule to play Among Us, I am hoping to relax and feel less stressed (which in this case, is the balancing loop). However, these breaks actually work against me: not only have I depleted my time resources, but I am also now more stressed having to play catchup and have to later pull a potential all-nighter to finish my homework (an example of a reinforcing loop that has amplified the problem rather than address it). A solution archetype to this problem may be to take shorter stretch breaks when I have homework or to mitigate my distractions. Another alternative may be to take my break after I finish my homework. This brief example is a perfect case study of an out-of-control loop system in the real world.
Another example is an underachievement loop that I noticed occurring in my high school robotics team. As a junior, I take interest in a lot of school clubs. One of these is the school robotics team (which is sponsored by NASA!), where I am an officer. During our design process, we often go through a conceptual visualization using 2D sketches, refine these ideas, solid-model them, then make machinist drawings that could be used for manufacturing these parts. Often, we decide to speed up this design process iteratively, which creates the need for a lot of parts that have to be made. However, the balancing loop is that we may not have enough machinists skilled in a specific machine, and this creates a bottleneck in the system. Once we understood this, to better counter this, we designed specific fall workshops to help train new members on our team to be able to use the machines to mitigate a resource issue. Now we have more machinists than parts to make!
With these examples, we found out that systems archetypes work even with an average teenager’s lifestyle, but how might it be applied to more complex fields of study, like astrobiology or synthetic biosciences? In order to answer this question, I spent the next two weeks looking into the applications of these systems archetypes to the general field of biology, and the specific field of astrobiology.
Multidisciplinary Applications: Systems Thinking meets Astrobiology
You may be wondering: what is astrobiology? According to Wikipedia, astrobiology is defined as “an interdisciplinary scientific field concerned with the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe.” Astrobiology considers the question of whether extraterrestrial life exists, and if it does, how humans can detect it.” Fascinating, isn’t it? So how can we apply systems thinking to astrobiology?
As systems archetypes are frameworks that are generalized to work for any type of system, they can be used in any type of field to analyze common recurring patterns in datasets and networks. The characteristics of systems biology mentioned earlier also can be applied to any field. In my internship, I first chose to analyze microsystems in protein pathways before moving on to apply the systems thinking approach to the larger field of Astrobiology.
With my research with proteins, I focused primarily on the enzyme kinase, which is known to act as a signal enzyme in signal transduction pathways, amplifying initial receptor signals through a complex method of phosphorylating kinase molecules exponentially. I observed that this system follows an out-of-control archetype, as the system continues to amplify the signal without a stopping mechanism. The body’s in-built solution mechanism is to add transcription factors and other cytosolic targets in close proximity to the phosphorylated protein kinases so that the phosphates from the kinase molecules can be transferred to these molecules, instigating a cellular response. While not as complex as other systems, the microsystem in the cellular pathway provides a good starting point to analyze the application of systems thinking in a biological setting.
When looking at Systems Thinking models in Astrobiology, a paper by researchers in Poland, titled “Synthetic connectivity, emergence, and self-regeneration in the network of prebiotic chemistry,” was highly useful. The paper illustrated the use of computer networks and holistic paradigms to find the chemical pathways taken by prebiotic molecules to create biotic molecules (such as amino acids, mRNA, etc.). This paper created their own network tool called Allchemy, which provided the researchers with insights into the emergence of such biological molecules given the initial conditions of six naturally occurring molecules (Water, Ammonia, Nitrogen Gas, Methane, Hydrogen Cyanide, and Hydrogen Sulfide). Although this paper was targeted towards researching prebiotic conditions on Earth, I was able to identify the potential use of Allchemy to discern prebiotic pathways given changes in temperature, pressure, and gravity. For example, the high temperature often denatures specific proteins made from some of these initial condition pathways, and as such may cause different chemical pathways to occur due to changes in the state of matter, shape, or function. Microgravity, perhaps the most important factor in astrobiology, may cause different intermolecular/intramolecular forces to occur, again causing potential changes to the shape and function of molecules crucial to the formation of life (at least on Earth). Through Allchemy, the bioscience research community may be able to uncover more about how prebiotic chemical pathways can be altered or modified, a major leap towards identifying potential life on other planets.
Final Remarks
Although this article highlights the use cases of systems thinking at NASA’s bioscience departments, these processes can also be applied to other biotech areas. Bioengineering companies everywhere can benefit from using systems thinking to analyze sterilization techniques, management processes, production methods, temporal delays in organism’s chemical pathways, etc. The possibilities of using systems thinking in biosciences are only beginning to be uncovered, and with more researchers adopting such an approach, I think we are in for an exciting future.
Interested in applying to internships, but don’t know where to start? Attached below is my paired article on tips and tricks while applying to such programs | https://medium.com/@hari-parthasarathy/fall-2020-at-nasa-experiences-of-a-high-school-intern-410914a3055d | ['Hari A Parthasarathy'] | 2021-06-05 19:02:20.166000+00:00 | ['Systems Thinking', 'High School', 'NASA', 'Internships', 'Nasa Intern'] |
Climbing the Mountain — Learning Japanese | A samurai slicing through the Japanese word “kanji”. Probably because he’s fed up with studying them.
When it comes to learning Japanese, or any language for that matter, what should one focus on? In other words, how do we ensure that when we study, we are learning as efficiently as we can? Let’s say you set a goal to become conversational in Japanese in one year. That’s a pretty steep mountain to climb, but not it’s not necessarily impossible. Just as in hiking though, where it’s best to take the safest and surest path to the top, trying to take shortcuts in language learning can be risky.
For example, many students of Japanese complain about kanji. “There are simply too many kanji,” they say. “I can’t be expected to memorize all these godforsaken things!” Still, they want to learn Japanese, so instead of trying to learn kanji meanings and readings, they focus on their listening and speaking skills. I do think that’s a very organic way to learn a language. After all, it’s how everyone learns to speak their native tongue when they’re growing up.
On the other hand, there are some students who believe that reading comprehension is key. “What happens if I move to Japan and I get all these important letters and stuff in the mail and I can’t read any of it? What about when I’m out to eat and I can’t read the menu and there’s no pictures I can point to and say ‘that please’ to the waiter? What if I have to go to the hospital but I can’t read any of the forms, let alone fill them out on my own?” These students may spend all their studying time focusing on improving their reading skills. Literacy is definitely a crucial skill if one wants to be a truly independent member of society, i.e. one who doesn’t have to beg their friends who are capable of reading and writing to take them to the doctor every time they get sick. It’s kind of an extreme example but, in my opinion, what happens between you and your doctor, should stay between you and your doctor and ideally, there should be no third party involved.
Oh, no.
So, we have Student 1 who devoted all of their time to listening and speaking and completely neglected improving their reading skills in hopes that by ignoring the kanji, they would simply go away. Then we have Student 2 who wants nothing more than to be a self-sufficient adult living in Japan and to that end learned how to read and write in Japanese, though they never really practiced listening or speaking. They both made amazing progress, but at the end of one year, which student is fluent in Japanese?
The answer is both and neither. Fluency is a very fluid term as it tends to vary from student to student and situation to situation. You could be completely conversational in Japanese but still get lost when watching a courtroom drama or listening to a conversation between your science obsessed friends. It isn’t that you don’t know Japanese, it’s that you haven’t learned those situation/topic specific words. And all those cool-looking manga and novels your Japanese friends have given you over the years sit on the shelf collecting dust because there’s no way you could ever make sense of them.
Or, maybe you know every single word in the Japanese language, but you’ve only ever seen them in writing. You can read everything from a newspaper to a dissertation on Buddhism and your writing skills are top notch. Even though you technically know Japanese, you find it difficult or even impossible to engage in even the most basic conversations because you can’t understand what anyone’s saying and every time you try to speak, you sound like an idiot.
Now consider Student 3. Student 3 is no genius when it comes to learning kanji and they don’t really have any sort of an ear for spoken Japanese. Still, they want to improve in all areas of the language, no matter how long it takes. Sadly, at the end of one year, they are nowhere near Student 1’s level of listening comprehension and speaking ability. And Student 2 would scoff at Student 3’s reading skills as they’ve only just begun to make sense of short stories for children without relying on a dictionary. Still, I would argue that Student 3 is in a much better place at the end of one year than either Student 1 or 2. In my book, gradual improvement in all areas of a language trumps rapid improvement in a single area of a language every time.
This is just my opinion however. I’m not a linguist or anything, just an avid student of the Japanese language. Oh, and by the way, I have been every single one of the example students during the course of my studies. I once believed that kanji were impossible to learn, so I just didn’t even try. I focused on trying to understand what people were saying and on my own pronunciation and clarity when speaking. Then I discovered a systematic method of learning the kanji meanings, and my reading ability improved drastically. I then focused all my energy into learning how to read and write in Japanese. When I finally returned to listening and speaking, I was dismayed to discover how much my abilities had decreased.
Revising the way I studied, I decided that even though it might take more time to achieve my goals, gradual, steady progress in all areas of Japanese is preferable to a tunnel-vision approach. I still catch myself dreaming of the day when I will be ‘done’ studying Japanese. The truth though is that even if I pass the JLPT N1 (the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test) and got a job teaching Japanese to others at some university, I still wouldn’t be ‘done’ learning the language.
When climbing a mountain, people often make the mistake of thinking that it’s all about reaching the summit. They go so far as to entertain the notion that they can ‘conquer the mountain’. But climbing a mountain is not about reaching the summit, and there is no way a human being could ever conquer something as massive and ancient as a mountain. However, it is possible for a human being to conquer themselves. Part of that process includes realizing that reaching the summit of a mountain is inconsequential. What is there at the summit of a mountain but the view of other summits of other mountains and vast distances to travel? Whether hiking, learning a language, or just generally trying to improve oneself, we are never done climbing. All we can really do is try to stay on the safest, surest path. That’s what I have to say. | https://medium.com/@gtgarcia-mtbc/when-it-comes-to-learning-japanese-or-any-language-for-that-matter-what-should-one-focus-on-24228085e484 | ['Greg Garcia'] | 2021-04-06 23:13:48.441000+00:00 | ['Japanese Language', 'Study', 'Language Acquisition', 'Language Learning', 'Japanese'] |
Should I Deploy Pre-Trained Models? | Should I Deploy Pre-Trained Models?
By Emilie Morvant — Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58812416
Whenever you embark on a new adventure to the land of ML, a piece of common equipment is a pre-trained model. For every task, there is a ready-made dataset that spawned a model so sweet you can use it for everything.
It’s pretty common to base proofs of concept (or entire business models) from the foundation of pre-trained models. While it is a perfect way to start an exploratory dive into an unknown field, it is also a pretty huge risk going forward with it all the way to Production.
Why?
A pre-trained model is a collection of weights obtained from training a model to execute a task using a specific dataset. Word2Vec embeddings trained on Wikipedia, image embeddings trained on ImageNet, sentiment analysis models trained on Twitter data… Almost every ML task has something that is ready to download and deploy in a flash. Libraries such as spaCy, Tensorflow, Keras and Transformers are all filled with great pre-trained models, easily reusable.
Most of those models go hand in hand with their metrics, more often than not showing that they are state-of-the-art. But those metrics are only applicable to that specific domain and task, and while they may be good for your task they aren’t automatically great. The following article goes in-depth on these technical issues.
You need to understand that deploying pre-trained models to execute a slightly different task may incur classification errors that may not be apparent on your first proof-of-concept tests, and may spill over the final product. So, the game is identifying how much those errors will affect you and how important is that task to you.
In other words: how much time you wanna spend on this task?
What’s the Impact of your PoC?
To accurately measure if you should deploy pre-trained models straight to production, you need to know exactly how important is the function it’s going to serve (impact), and what is your resistance to errors in that specific task (error resilience).
Impact
There are tons of articles that address what is “impact” in Data Science projects, and most of those definitions are pretty extensive and thorough. In this text, we assume a shorter, simpler definition: the impact of a project/model is measured by how much it shapes the product and how quickly it changes its face.
A task has a high impact if it is immediately noticeable in the final product, or if it is integral to create an internal process. For instance, a recommendation model for e-commerces, or a named entity recognizer for newspapers.
If the results of your task aren’t aggregating immediate value to your customers, it has low impact. Tools such as summarization models to help textual annotators and internal data validation models may help in the efficiency of the overall process of product development but are not seen by the public eye.
Error Resilience
You could compare error resilience and risk, seeing as the latter is much more prominent in project management lingo. We’re using only perceived risk as our main metric: how noticeable is a classification error in the final product. A task is resilient to errors if it has a high tolerance to classification errors, be they false positives or false negatives.
A facial recognition model has low resilience to errors because you can’t misclassify a person in a security program, just like a stock brokering software cannot predict a wrong series of stocks going up when in reality they are tanking.
Ancillary models such as annotation helper modules or feedback training (low impact tasks) usually have high error resilience. Products that dilute the perception of errors also have high resilience: when you show a graph that aggregates thousands of data instance classifications, errors won’t be noticed unless the model is really bad at its job.
What Should I Do?
So, let’s break down the circumstances of your project and how should you lead them: | https://medium.com/birdie-ai/should-i-deploy-pre-trained-models-cbe5e884dadc | ['Fernando Tadao Ito'] | 2020-12-08 13:06:02.254000+00:00 | ['Naturallanguageprocessing', 'Data Science', 'Data Science Projects', 'Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
BNT: Το πρώτο Έξυπνο Token γεννιέται | in Both Sides of the Table | https://medium.com/%CF%84%CE%BF-%CF%80%CF%81%CF%89%CF%84%CF%8C%CE%BA%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%BB%CE%BF-bancor/bnt-%CF%84%CE%BF-%CF%80%CF%81%CF%8E%CF%84%CE%BF-%CE%AD%CE%BE%CF%85%CF%80%CE%BD%CE%BF-token-%CE%B3%CE%B5%CE%BD%CE%BD%CE%B9%CE%AD%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%B9-3df85d2b1e6c | [] | 2018-04-26 07:56:03.134000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum', 'Bancor', 'Bitcoin'] |
The concept and intuition behind Gradient Descent Algorithm. | Note: This is the second part of the linear regression tutorial and is followed by Introduction to linear regression and cost function. Check out the contents given below to follow along with the tutorial.
Contents: Introduction to linear regression and cost function, How the Gradient Descent Algorithm works, Mathematics of Gradient Descent.
Part 2: Gradient Descent
Why do we need a Gradient Descent?
In short to minimize the cost function, But How? Let’s see
The cost function only works when it knows the parameters’ values, previously in part one we manually choose the parameters’ value each time but during the algorithmic calculation, once the parameters’ values are randomly initialized it’s the gradient descent who have to decide what params value to choose in the next iteration in order to minimize the error, it’s the gradient descent who decide by how much to increase or decrease the params values.
Analogy: How Gradient Descent works?
Gradient Descent
Gradient Descent
Gradient Descent
What did you learn from the game? In the beginning, you try with learning rate (alpha)=1 but you fail to reach the minimum, because of the larger steps it overshoots the minimum. In the next game, you try with alpha=0.1, and this time you managed to reach the bottom very safely. what if you had tried with alpha=0.01, well, in that case, you will be gradually coming down but won’t make it to the bottom, 20 jumps are not enough to reach the bottom with alpha=0.01, 100 jumps might be sufficient. while solving a real-world problem, normally alpha between 0.01–0.1 should work fine but it varies with the number of iterations that the algorithm takes, some problems might take 100 or some might even take 1000 iterations. Based on these factors you can try with different values of alpha. Although tuning alpha value is one of the important tasks in understanding the algorithm I would suggest you look at other parts of the algorithm also like derivative parts, minus sign, update parameters and understand what their individual roles are.
learning rate
Gradient Descent in python
Gradient descent python code
Until now we are just using a single parameter to calculate cost function and algorithms. What the cost function looks like and how does the algorithm works when we have two or more parameters? See the figure below for intuitive understanding. Imagine yourself somewhere at the top of the mountain and struggling to get down the bottom of the mountain blindfolded.
Source: Coursera
The algorithm working principle is the same for any number of parameters, it’s just that the more the parameters more the direction of the slope. In the previous example of the bowl-shaped curve, we just need to look at the slope of theta1, But now the algorithm needs to look for both directions in order to minimize the cost function. Do you remember our predicted housing price problem? Now it’s time to solve the problem and predict housing prices for an area of 3000ft square or for any size(area). To solve this problem we are going to use two parameter values i.e bias term(theta0) and weight(theta1) and we are going to code gradient descent again for two params values. let’s do it. | https://ravindrasah235.medium.com/how-do-the-gradient-descent-algorithm-works-cd39df6683d6 | ['Ravindra Sah'] | 2020-12-07 05:41:50.380000+00:00 | ['Ml Gradient Descent', 'Gradient Descent', 'Gradient Descent Python'] |
Planning isn’t predicting | I came across this post by prominent Agile expert Mike Cohn. Mike is an extremely knowledgable practitioner and consultant with a massive wealth of experience, and as such he is someone we should most certainly listen to, and from whom we can learn a great deal.
However, I would like to address something in this particular post; a mistruth which I think perpetuates a fundamental misunderstanding in our industry of what “planning” is and should be, particularly in the arena of agile software and product development.
This mistruth is that planning equates to “looking forward a handful (or more) Sprints and making a prediction of what would be delivered by then”.
This is not what planning is about — or at least it is certainly not the primary purpose of planning.
Let’s start with a Wikipedia definition of “planning”:
“Planning is the process of thinking about the activities required to achieve a desired goal. It is the first and foremost activity to achieve desired results. It involves the creation and maintenance of a plan, such as psychological aspects that require conceptual skills.”
As this definition correctly describes, planning is the act of figuring out what we need to DO to meet an objective, not “how much we can get done”. Any “prediction” we want to take from planning activity is a by-product, not the reason we do it or the primary artefact.
If we reduce planning to, e.g. figuring out how many story points we can accomplish by a deadline, this line of reasoning is like saying “it will be a 5 hour drive” equates to planning a road trip. But this is absolutely not the case. Which car should we use? What do we need to take with us? Which roads will we drive on? Where do we need to turn off? What is the best time to leave? Where should we stop? Answering the questions about our options, and which ones to choose to determine our best way forward, is what planning is really about.
Proper planning, done frequently (as it is in Scrum and other agile methods and frameworks), is so critical, especially when employing an incremental and iterative way of working. But it seems folks are still being told to predict things as the focus of their planning activity rather than to actually plan how to do the work to meet the objective.
The whole point of having short planning and delivery cycles in e.g. Scrum is precisely because we don’t want to be making predictions beyond a couple of weeks at most.
Empiricism, upon which Scrum theory is founded, is the opposite of being predictive. Once we have created our plan (Sprint Backlog), we are now implicitly saying “this is what we as a team plan to do within the Sprint (time constraint) to achieve the objective (Sprint Goal)”. Sure, one could say that the output we are planning to produce is our “Sprint forecast”, but that forecast is very much a by-product, and is by far the least important aspect of the planning activity and the plan created. Creating the ability to tune and adjust how we accomplish the Sprint Goal is far more useful (via outcome based goals and a culture which supports and encourages this), and showing people outside of the team at the end of the Sprint (in the Sprint Review) what we’ve done, and accomplished.
This approach is vastly different from putting an emphasis on “how much” we will get done. Planning is “what we will do” and “what we will achieve”, not “how much we will do”. This distinction might seem subtle or unimportant to some, but I would stress that it is of critical importance in our field.
In Scrum we Plan-Do-Check-Act in each and every Sprint. We create a plan at the start of the Sprint, and then we create a new plan in the next Sprint, and the next, etc. etc. We monitor progress toward our broader objectives primarily using empirical measures such as working product (software), customer usage, pirate metrics and so on, not on output delivered (it doesn’t make sense to use output as our primary measure because Scrum is about optimising the value we are creating, and “highest priority” output as defined by us internally rarely equates to maximum value).
As such, “release planning” is not deciding how many cards or stories or points we can deliver by an arbitrary deadline. It’s deciding what the focus of the release will be. What is the simplest useful slice of our product/service/offering we can build and release to a subset of (potential) customers. “When” is important of course, but in empirical process we fix the when to be a date/time in the near future (e.g. 2-weekly Sprint cycles, daily/weekly/monthly release cycles, etc.), then focus on delivering something useful within that constraint, within our control, before the uncertainty of our complex environment can kick our ass too much.
Prediction is entirely the wrong focus. | https://medium.com/swlh/planning-isnt-predicting-150cb46f1bc5 | ['Neil Killick'] | 2020-08-26 05:49:04.712000+00:00 | ['Product Management', 'Scrum', 'Software Development', 'Agile'] |
We Should Re-think the Term “Best Friends” | We Should Re-think the Term “Best Friends”
It’s not a title I enjoy using — “best friends”. It denotes that one or two of my friends is the be all end all, cut above the rest of the other beautiful people I have in my life. Friendships are a fluid beast — sometimes people are closer and sometimes they orbit farther away. Life and circumstances will often dictate both.
This is something I wish we were taught as children, or maybe as teenagers. People will come and go and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean someone necessarily did anything wrong, but we go about it as if we have. I don’t know about you, but I used to beat myself up over “lost” friendships as if pieces of me were no longer wanted so I must learn how to fix those pieces of Self to become a better, less “throwaway” kind of friend.
In reality, that’s just not true. We see friendships as these black and white entities, all or nothing. How does that help anyone in the long run? How does that aid in creating stable relationships down the line or even a stable relationship with who you are and what you have to offer?
I’m not talking about throwing people away all willy nilly, or even that a person doesn’t have things to work on within themselves to be better, but more the organic ebb and flow of how life operates. It’s inevitable that we will lose some of our best friends. We all operate in different stages of life and sometimes those stages just don’t line up. How many times have you had a friend where they, or you, experienced a huge life event like having a child, entering into a new relationship, or even experiencing the death of a loved one, and one or the other party felt “disconnected” from the other? It wasn’t anything you did, or they did, or didn’t do, but life has a way of… happening.
I have friends that use the term “best friend” for just about every friend they have. Doesn’t that devalue it? I have nothing against it, really, and you do you if that’s your jam, but I think instead of leaving people out we can reframe the way we think about friendships entirely.
That’s why I now use “nearest and dearest” to describe someone who may be the closest to me at any given point and time.
A hierarchy of friendships doesn’t help anyone feel good. It often leaves people out, especially people who may have looked to a person as their best friend and if they aren’t referred to that back, it could be very hurtful.
There was a time when I took those types of things personally. How dare someone not hold me as close as how I feel about them!
But it has nothing to do with me, or them. We weave in and out of people’s lives. Sometimes it’s personal, oftentimes it’s not. Sometimes, that person has hurt us and we don’t know how to properly state that to them. Maybe we don’t want to hurt them by expressing how they hurt us. Sometimes we need boundaries and we don’t have the language skills to convey them, or we don’t feel that what we have to say in regards to that will be well received, so we back off. We disengage from someone’s orbit or they disengage from ours. | https://medium.com/@bethnintzel/we-should-re-think-the-term-best-friends-9cb044226c85 | ['Beth Nintzel'] | 2020-12-14 20:10:57.128000+00:00 | ['Friends', 'Lifehacks', 'Life Lessons', 'Best Friend', 'Friendship'] |
Creating Custom JavaScript Visualizations in Data Studio | For more details and information, you can watch the YouTube video on Google Data Studio.
Video URL : https://youtu.be/U2CIh1SfkXI Overview
In this tutorial, you will learn on How a Google Data Studio community visualization works, How to build a community visualization using the ds-component helper library and How to integrate your community visualization into a Data Studio dashboard.
Introduction
Google Data Studio allows users to build live, interactive dashboards with beautiful data visualizations, and can fetch the data from a variety of sources, create reports in Data Studio and also allows to build and use our own custom JavaScript visualizations in Data Studio.
Data Studio community visualizations allows us to create and use custom JavaScript visualizations that integrate into your dashboards. The below given image is an example of Data Studio Dashboard.
Community Visualization Development Work Flow
To create a community visualization, we need the following files in a Google Cloud Platform storage bucket.
Note that: The manifest is the only file that has a required name. The other files can be named differently, as long as their name/location is specified in your manifest file.
Now, we will learn to handle data, style changes, and visualization rendering into your JavaScript file.
Step 1: Download the dscc.min.js file from the Data Studio Community Component Library and copy it to your working directory.
Step 2: Copy the following code into a text editor and save it as myVizSource.js in your local working directory.
function drawViz(data) {
// set margins + canvas size
const margin = { top: 10, bottom: 50, right: 10, left: 10 };
const height = dscc.getHeight() - margin.top - margin.bottom;
const width = dscc.getWidth() - margin.left - margin.right;
// remove the svg if it already exists
if (document.querySelector("svg")) {
let oldSvg = document.querySelector("svg");
oldSvg.parentNode.removeChild(oldSvg);
}
const svg = document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/2000/svg", "svg");
svg.setAttribute("height", `${height}px`);
svg.setAttribute("width", `${width}px`);
const rect = document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/2000/svg", "rect");
rect.setAttribute('width', `${width/2}px`);
rect.setAttribute('height', `${height/2}px`);
rect.style.fill = 'blue';
svg.append(rect);
document.body.appendChild(svg);
}
// subscribe to data and style changes
dscc.subscribeToData(drawViz, { transform: dscc.objectTransform });
Step 3: Combine all JavaScript required into a single file by copying the contents of the visualization helper library ( dscc.min.js ) and your myVizSource.js file into a new file named myViz.js .
Or else Run the following codes:
//For Windows del myViz.js
type nul > myViz.js
type dscc.min.js >> myViz.js
echo.>> myViz.js
type myVizSource.js >> myViz.js //Linux/Mac cat dscc.min.js > myViz.js
echo >> myViz.js
cat myVizSource.js >> myViz.js
Next defining the CSS file for styling for your visualization.
Copy the following code and save it as myViz.css.
#myVizTitle {
color: black;
font-size: 24px;
text-align: center;
margin: 0 auto;
}
The visualization config json file defines the data and style attributes supported and required by your visualization.
Copy the following code and save it as myViz.json.
{
"data": [
{
"id": "concepts",
"label": "Concepts",
"elements": [
{
"id": "barDimension",
"label": "Dimension",
"type": "DIMENSION",
"options": {
"min": 1,
"max": 1
}
},
{
"id": "barMetric",
"label": "Metric",
"type": "METRIC",
"options": {
"min": 1,
"max": 1
}
}
]
}
],
"style": [
{
"id": "color",
"label": "Colors",
"elements": [
{
"type": "FONT_COLOR",
"id": "barColor",
"label": "Bar Color",
"defaultValue": "#222222"
}
]
}
]
}
Create a cloud storage project and bucket
Step 1: Create a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Project
Step 2: Create a GCP bucket.
Step 3: Take note of your bucket name/path, beginning with the section after Buckets/…. Data Studio calls this the “component ID”, and it will be used to identify and deploy.
The manifest file provides information about your visualization location and resources. It must be named “ manifest.json ", and it must be located in the bucket created in the previous step.
Copy the following code into a text editor and save it as manifest.json.
{
"name": "Community Visualization",
"logoUrl": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googledatastudio/community-visualizations/master/docs/codelab/img/bar_chart.png",
"organization": "Data Studio Codelab",
"organizationUrl": "https://url",
"termsOfServiceUrl": "https://url",
"supportUrl": "https://url",
"packageUrl": "https://url",
"privacyPolicyUrl": "https://url",
"description": "Community Visualization Codelab",
"devMode": true,
"components": [{
"id": "barChart",
"name": "Bar Chart",
"iconUrl": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googledatastudio/community-visualizations/master/docs/codelab/img/bar_chart.png",
"description": "Bar chart written in d3.js",
"resource": {
"js": "gs://MY_GOOGLE_CLOUD_STORAGE_BUCKET/myViz.js",
"config": "gs://MY_GOOGLE_CLOUD_STORAGE_BUCKET/myViz.json",
"css": "gs://MY_GOOGLE_CLOUD_STORAGE_BUCKET/myViz.css"
}
}]
}
Upload your visualization files to Google Cloud Storage
Upload the manifest.json , myViz.js , myViz.json, and myViz.css files to the Google Cloud Storage bucket.
Test your Community Visualization in Data Studio
Step 1: Copy the URL or download the data set file in your google drive for the Community Visualization sample data set.
Step 2: Visit Data Studio and click Blank under Start a new report.
Step 3: Select the Google Sheets connector.
Step 4: Then Click on Open From Google Drive and select the Data set File.
Step 5: In the drop-down, click + Explore more to open the Community Gallery shade.
Step 6: Click Build your own visualization.
Step 7: Paste your bucket name prefixed by gs:// ( for example: gs://community-viz-docs/myViz) into the text input for "Manifest Path" and click Submit. This should render one visualization card.
Step 8: Click the visualization icon to add it to your report.
Use the color selector style element, Render the data as a bar chart and Dynamically add a title and apply a CSS style
Step 1: Replace the code in your myVizSource.js file with the code below.
// create a title element
var titleElement = document.createElement('div');
titleElement.id = 'myVizTitle';
document.body.appendChild(titleElement);
function drawViz(data) {
let rowData = data.tables.DEFAULT;
// set margins + canvas size
const margin = { top: 10, bottom: 50, right: 10, left: 10 };
const padding = { top: 15, bottom: 15 };
const height = dscc.getHeight() - margin.top - margin.bottom;
const width = dscc.getWidth() - margin.left - margin.right;
const fillColor = data.style.barColor.value
? data.style.barColor.value.color
: data.style.barColor.defaultValue;
// remove the svg if it already exists
if (document.querySelector("svg")) {
let oldSvg = document.querySelector("svg");
oldSvg.parentNode.removeChild(oldSvg);
}
const svg = document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/2000/svg", "svg");
svg.setAttribute("height", `${height}px`);
svg.setAttribute("width", `${width}px`);
const maxBarHeight = height - padding.top - padding.bottom;
const barWidth = width / (rowData.length * 2);
// obtain the maximum bar metric value for scaling purposes
let largestMetric = 0;
rowData.forEach(function (row) {
largestMetric = Math.max(largestMetric, row["barMetric"][0]);
});
rowData.forEach(function (row, i) {
// 'barDimension' and 'barMetric' come from the id defined in myViz.json
// 'dimId' is Data Studio's unique field ID, used for the filter interaction
const barData = {
dim: row["barDimension"][0],
met: row["barMetric"][0],
dimId: data.fields["barDimension"][0].id
};
// calculates the height of the bar using the row value, maximum bar
// height, and the maximum metric value calculated earlier
let barHeight = Math.round((barData["met"] * maxBarHeight) / largestMetric);
// normalizes the x coordinate of the bar based on the width of the convas
// and the width of the bar
let barX = (width / rowData.length) * i + barWidth / 2;
// create the "bar"
let rect = document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/2000/svg", "rect");
rect.setAttribute("x", barX);
rect.setAttribute("y", maxBarHeight - barHeight);
rect.setAttribute("width", barWidth);
rect.setAttribute("height", barHeight);
rect.setAttribute("data", JSON.stringify(barData));
// use style selector from Data Studio
rect.style.fill = fillColor;
svg.appendChild(rect);
// add text labels
let text = document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/2000/svg", "text");
let textX = barX + barWidth / 2;
text.setAttribute("x", textX);
text.setAttribute("text-anchor", "middle");
let textY = maxBarHeight + padding.top;
text.setAttribute("y", textY);
text.setAttribute("fill", fillColor)
text.innerHTML = barData["dim"];
svg.appendChild(text);
});
document.body.appendChild(svg);
// Get the human-readable name of the metric and dimension
var metricName = data.fields['barMetric'][0].name;
var dimensionName = data.fields['barDimension'][0].name;
titleElement.innerText = metricName + ' by ' + dimensionName;
}
dscc.subscribeToData(drawViz, { transform: dscc.objectTransform });
Step 2: Create the combined JavaScript file, then re-upload your visualization files to Google Cloud Storage.
Step 3: Refresh the Data Studio report where you tested your community visualization. You should have a bar chart with a title generated from the data and styled using your myViz.css file.
Congratulations! You have created a community visualization in Data Studio. | https://medium.com/@karmatnspyphuntsho-tijtech/creating-custom-javascript-visualizations-in-data-studio-35932ab4a53b | ['Tij Tech Private Limited'] | 2020-12-24 10:24:02.488000+00:00 | ['Google Data Studio', 'Visualization', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'AI'] |
Byzantine Failure — 블록체인 개발이 어려운 이유 | in In Fitness And In Health | https://medium.com/codechain-kr/byzantine-failure-%EB%B8%94%EB%A1%9D%EC%B2%B4%EC%9D%B8-%EA%B0%9C%EB%B0%9C%EC%9D%B4-%EC%96%B4%EB%A0%A4%EC%9A%B4-%EC%9D%B4%EC%9C%A0-16f3936092dd | ['Seulgi Kim'] | 2018-05-29 04:25:58.946000+00:00 | ['Failure Model', 'Blockchain', 'Planet', 'Byzantine'] |
Lesson 5: Be the Elephant in the Room | In order to stay current and relevant, you must adopt the blueprint of adapting, evolving and reinventing. I’ve touched upon the first two in prior articles so it’s time to address the last one, and the most difficult: Reinventing.
As my career at the Tribune began to take shape, the circumstances within the company and my ability to agitate change provided many opportunities from a career standpoint. To capitalize on those opportunities, I needed to make meaningful changes to my leadership abilities.
Each step of my career gave me expanded knowledge and experience…but without acknowledging the need for reinvention, I realized the upside of my career would be limited. Adapting (incremental improvements) and evolving (stacking new capabilities over time) wasn’t enough.
That meant I needed to reinvent myself. It meant making more dramatic and meaningful changes to my leadership style, and addressing the gaps in my knowledge and expertise.
Through reinvention, I acknowledged, accepted and embraced the need to be better — a better person and a better leader.
The greatest breakthrough in my reinvention occurred during my run as CEO. I had become CEO with no practical experience in advertising or editorial, the two largest, and most impactful areas of the company. Not to mention zero PR experience. And importantly, my tenure began at the beginning of the great recession, social media explosion, and the corporate entity declaring bankruptcy.
That’s why I began to use the “Big Ears, Thick Skin” principle. I realized to be a GREAT leader, you must become a GREAT listener. So I got to work, listening and learning.
I don’t mean the fake listening we are all occasionally guilty of… I mean REALLY listening. And when I did, the ideas and solutions were right in front of me. All I had to do was state the goal, ask the right questions and remove the barriers; then my team was able to:
Make meaningful changes to the content in the paper (my editor’s idea and plan) Become a much better negotiator, saving millions of dollars (and resolve many internal company issues too) Drive culture change by getting off of the platitudes and into specific behaviors (based on feedback from my team)
The thick skin part of my reinvention was necessary because of my inherent behaviors and attributes; pride, fear of failing, not good enough, and negative reaction to criticism. Let’s be honest — no one enjoys hearing criticism, or about the issues and problems within the company. From time to time, we’re in conversations where we stop listening because we don’t like the message. And in other cases, due to the method of communication, or the delivery of the message, we ignore everything else. So how do you make it constructive? Through active listening, you identify nuggets of truth in the criticism you receive.
Now that I was open to hearing criticism, I had to toughen up from a mental standpoint.
To be successful in life and business, you need to be able to hear things you don’t like or don’t agree with. And thankfully, I improved in this area because there were some very challenging issues I would face as CEO including:
Presenting to employees at town halls after my compensation was printed in “my” newspaper Taking heat from the positions we took on our editorial pages Rebounding from deafening criticism of a redesign of the newspaper
If you’re in tune with the circumstances and dynamics in your life and career, you’ll know when a reinvention is necessary.
If you need some help identifying when a reinvention is necessary, here are a few strong hints: your ideas aren’t getting the desired response; your results and/or team performance flattens or begins to decrease; your passion and motivation begin to wane; your overall effectiveness is not keeping pace with the rate of change and/or the expectations of your position.
In the hints above, without reinvention, your career and advancement opportunities will begin to level off. If that’s ok with you, then make sure you continue to grow your skills and leadership capabilities through adapting and evolving. Otherwise, you’ll fall behind and become irrelevant and less valuable to your company.
So open your mind…and ears to get real-time feedback. The ability to really listen is only obtained through practice and replication. Thick skin is a mindset, and an ability to “compartmentalize” your feelings in order to effectively lead under duress. So put your ego aside, and thicken up your skin.
And once you get into the swing of adapting, evolving and reinventing, you’ll fully understand lesson 6, my last lesson (or is it?): you are never really finished. | https://medium.com/the-ascent/lesson-5-be-the-elephant-in-the-room-9036699f1a22 | ['Tony Hunter'] | 2019-07-02 15:37:44.319000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Business', 'Innovation', 'Leadership', 'Transformation'] |
How Easy Is It to Change Someone’s Mind? | Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash
Have you watched the Social Dilemma on Netflix yet?
If so, what was your reaction? A mere shrug, and yeah we all know or did you throw your devices out of the house?
I was one of those that threw the phone to the other end of the room. Watching the show I had light bulb moments as to why you see the small dots wiggle when someone is replying to you.
Obvious when pointed out, but. I. had. no. idea.
And now I’m pissed off because all they want is my attention and my being — not much, but time is one thing you can never get back.
Yet what chilled me to the bone more than anything during that documentary was when one of the developers mentioned his fear for the future: a civil war.
Far fetched? maybe, but maybe not.
Take the UK. The UK has a long history of civil wars, the earliest recorded was in 1088, the most recent 1649–51.
Now fast forward to 2020 and we are living the polarity that 24/7 algorithms programmed to drain your attention have produced. They are designed to re-enforce your opinions, keep you in your echo chamber of beliefs and generally keep you feeling you’re in the right.
Perfect for dividing friends, families and nation-states.
Yet I’m old enough to remember when you could be best friends with someone you disagreed with. Now you simply get cancelled and struck from Facebook friendship.
It’s all so clever, and yet so stupid!
An example used in the Social Dilemma to highlight the ways the algorithm pushes you down a rabbit hole was by using the idea that the world is flat. If you believe this and are looking into it, you will get more information to re-enforce that idea. It doesn’t matter if what you are searching for is true or false, you will get more information/fake news to confirm your bias.
Which is crazy, right?
And which leads me to the question, can you change someone's mind in such a divisive world?
I believe we can if we can bring back the art of conversation. Not only can we bring back empathy and understanding this way, but also an agreement to disagree without cancelling out another person; we can bring back the art of a right proper chin wag.
Which is actually enjoyable.
Entered into with the spirit of learning and understanding, exploring others opinions can be an interesting experience.
When was the last time you felt your brain changing gears as it took in new information that challenged you?
When did you last feel it digest, rub up against existing thoughts, beliefs and opinions, and then the breakthrough as you learn something new, becoming humble for a minute, maybe even uncomfortable, growing as a person and see ing the world in slightly different colours?
Harvard University has published an article about changing minds in a business setting, but I believe we can use the ideas expressed for the personal too.
They give a couple of suggestions, it’s a basic 2 ways to do x article, but they start with the suggestion of first finding the root of the disagreement.
The ‘why’ the other person disagrees. And you do this without judgement.
Find out where that other person is coming from, why do they hold that opinion? What is it about the life that has led them to X?
Then they suggest you note the inclusion or absence of emotion.
This to me is the crux of the matter.
We are emotional beings and despite what anyone tells you, they rule the roost. If there are emotional factors driving opinions, then they need to be treated differently to unemotional ones.
If someone is emotional, you can lay all the facts out in front of them and they will very often refuse to see them.
E.g. showing someone they will save money by buying X over Y is a logical, unemotional (most of the time) situation.
Showing someone that doing something in a different way may be better than the way they have been doing it, is not so easy, because there will be emotions invested.
So how do you do it? How do you change minds?
Harvard gives two examples, the cognitive conversation and the champion conversion.
The cognitive conversation is as it sounds, it’s less emotional and is about presenting a strong argument. Using a strong presentation, minimal emotion and relying upon the other person being unemotional and logical. Think back to the idea of X being cheaper than Y.
The champion conversion is more about building relationships. It’s about getting to know the other person, maybe bringing in someone they admire and like to the conversation.
I would add here finding common ground is always a good move, and generally, this is a more long term strategy.
Once you know them well enough, you can have slightly more controversial conversations with them, areas where you may disagree. When you know someone on more than a superficial level, you can communicate with them on a deeper level, and they will hopefully be more open to listening to you too.
Then the real conversations can take place, and perhaps minds are changed.
It is this art that we are losing; the art of the conversation. Included in that art is the art of relationship building, the art of listening, and the art of willing to disagree without hatred because sometimes we can’t change another’s mind, no matter how hard we try.
And sometimes, that’s OK. | https://medium.com/swlh/how-easy-is-it-to-change-someones-mind-2e1a60e5f73c | ['Katie Knight'] | 2020-10-24 15:32:48.613000+00:00 | ['Netflix', 'Psychology', 'Humanity', 'Social Media'] |
Download 2021 Oscar Nominated Screenplays | All 10 nominated scripts are available as PDFs — for free!
On Monday, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Science announced the nominations for this year’s 93rd Oscars ceremony. Here are the nominees with links to download each script.
Writing (Original Screenplay)
Nominees
Judas and the Black Messiah
Screenplay by Will Berson & Shaka King; Story by Will Berson & Shaka King and Kenny Lucas & Keith Lucas
Minari
Written by Lee Isaac Chung
Promising Young Woman
Written by Emerald Fennell
Sound of Metal
Screenplay by Darius Marder & Abraham Marder; Story by Darius Marder & Derek Cianfrance
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Written by Aaron Sorkin
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Nominees
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Peter Baynham & Erica Rivinoja & Dan Mazer & Jena Friedman & Lee Kern; Story by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Nina Pedrad
The Father
Screenplay by Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller
Nomadland
Written for the screen by Chloé Zhao
One Night in Miami…
Screenplay by Kemp Powers
The White Tiger
Written for the screen by Ramin Bahrani
Congratulations, writers, on your nominations!
This is a great opportunity to read some quality scripts, so hit those links before they disappear!
To download 47 movie scripts from 2020, go here. | https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/download-2021-oscar-nominated-screenplays-92c1c60db99 | ['Scott Myers'] | 2021-03-16 12:02:40.406000+00:00 | ['Hollywood', 'Screenwriting', 'Filmmaking', 'Screenplay', 'Movies'] |
100+ letest Christmas wishes, quotes, whatsapp status.... | #HappyChristmas
The gift of love. The gift of peace. The gift of happiness. May all these be yours at Christmas.
Merry Christmas!🌲 | https://medium.com/@solankiniki/100-letest-christmas-wishes-quotes-whatsapp-status-ce60997443f2 | [] | 2020-12-25 12:28:06.973000+00:00 | ['Happychristmascake', 'Christian', 'Christmas', 'Happy New Year'] |
7 Ways My Father Greg Inspires Me | 7 Ways My Father Greg Inspires Me
He sacrificed, he supported, and he always maintained a great sense of Huber
Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash
My father is my hero. He’s someone I admire for his positive qualities and achievements — and for making my life possible.
His long career in real estate law included co-developing the city’s 18-hole golf course and surrounding neighborhoods. After raising us in a big beautiful house among pine trees, he retired back here at the golf course, overlooking the sprawling sun-bathed fairways, sand traps, and miniature lakes.
Together with his business partners, friends, and kin, my dad made so much happen — from large swaths of land traded and built, to the precious tapestry of our Huber family memories.
I step outside; I see the endless green, and I breathe in potential.
My dad was diagnosed several years ago with Alzheimer’s. It runs in our family and afflicts some 50 million worldwide. He and my mama have been fighting the disease to keep his brain healthy and body strong.
Meanwhile, they coordinate the battle with what they’ve always loved to do — travel, collect memories, and be there for their loved ones. They went from the United States to Israel to pursue a cutting-edge treatment, and they brought back a double photo album of their adventure.
I couldn’t wait any longer to write about my dad — because I wanted to thank him, and because I want to make sure I’m fully utilizing the lessons and blessings that have been his gift to those who’s known him. Here are 7 ways my dad inspires me.
1. My dad sacrificed to be a good parent.
Henry Ward Beecher said, “We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves.” I can’t appreciate my dad’s sacrifices on the same level as a fellow parent would, but I can try.
In parenthood, my dad has donated vast amounts of time, energy, and money to his kids. Parenthood also involves sacrifices of ego — having your kids for whom you work so hard see you at your best and at your worst, tell you they hate you when they’re two, and want nothing to do with you when they become teenagers.
There were times I overlooked the infinity my dad did for me and felt entitled. He and my mom must have known the storms of child rearing and adolescent wrangling would pass, but it doesn’t take away from what I imagine are the joyful ups and painful downs of being a loyal parent.
My dad sacrificed especially when he became a single parent. After a long ovarian cancer battle, our mom Amy passed away. This was a sad and lonely time in his life. It only makes me all the happier that within a few years, he met the woman who became his wife and my fairy stepmama, Julia.
My dad is a smart man. He knew what he was signing up for as a dad. I hope he has heartily enjoyed the magic show of watching kids grow. I hope he has felt proud to lift us up into happy adults who pursue what we love and who try to do the right thing, just like him. Although there has been sacrifice, much of it has been a pure gift, given with joy.
Sensing — but not truly tasting — the sacrifices my dad has made to help his kids grow, I am willing to sacrifice a little for my dad — and for the good of others in our world.
2. My dad supported my writing. Now, I want to write words that make him proud and that help others.
I said I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. At 27, I’m finally earning my first income from writing. As often as I can, I try to send encouraging words to my endlessly growing list of favorite authors.
My dad and mom taught me that — both the reading and writing part, and to be encouraging of others’ creativity.
I wrote some of my first storybooks at my dad’s law office after school. He gave me a legal pad and some highlighter markers, and I got right to work!
Soon, I had stapled together my first mini graphic novels. First, there was “Dino in Space,” a comic inspired by Bulbasaur from Pokémon. And I’ll never forget my dinosaur series about “Four Feet the Brachiosaurus,” a flagrant remix of The Land Before Time.
In high school, I printed my school essays for Dad to proofread. I eagerly awaited his blue-ink feedback in neat, slanted handwriting. Writing being my language, seeing my dad’s encouraging comments and helpful corrections on paper was just as comforting and memorable as seeing his face or hearing his voice.
My dad was a writer too. I fondly remember him talking “legal-ese” into a dictation machine, piecing together real estate contracts for his clients. He also recorded our family history and was working on a book. Meanwhile, my mom loved to doodle and made a colorfully illustrated story for our family bookshelf called “Count the Grumps Away.”
My parents modeled creativity in the house, and my dad financed my college education when I left. My dad is also a big believer in the Golden Rule. This all motivates me to tackle important issues in my writing. Above all, I want my writing to encourage kindness and to ultimately make a difference.
3. My dad taught me the importance of being understood.
Everyone has a need to be embraced and accepted. Family members struggle to understand one another at times. I learned the best way I could respond to feeling misunderstood was not to retreat within myself, but to put myself in other people’s shoes.
Growing up, I sometimes felt judged for being solitary. I liked writing in my diary more than socializing. When my anxiety got worse in middle school, this turned into endless hours of web browsing, journaling, and online gaming.
Being alone and always immersed in fantasy were tendencies that concerned my parents. Despite this, they supported my interests as much as they could. They gave me reasons to venture out of my shell.
My dad accepted when my mom let me go vegetarian and I started having different dinners.
He tried new things and went unknown places for me. When I was in high school, he signed us up for a yoga class at a college that I desperately wanted to take. Yoga was my thing, but it was a way we could work out together.
He took me for a road trip to Las Vegas to attend a weekend workshop by one of my favorite writers.
Not to mention the countless baseball games, swim meets, tennis tournaments, and other childhood pursuits that my parents backed.
Instead of lamenting the ways I thought my parents didn’t understand me, what if I had counted all the ways my parents did understand me?
Furthermore, what if I had sought harder to understand them? Just like me, my other family members surely felt misunderstood and underappreciated at times. I could have paid closer attention to the things they were trying to communicate. I could have journaled about what it must be like to be a parent, made lists of everything I appreciated about my dad, mom, and sisters. I could have put more conscious thought into reciprocating the myriad gestures of care I’d received since infancy — and found more positivity even when our family relationships felt strained.
What I realize now is that parent-child relationships are almost always complicated. When we struggle to comprehend each other, it doesn’t mean there is something wrong with our bond. It means we are different, unique individuals who have a ton to learn together.
I’m glad that my complicated relationship could be with someone as intelligent, open-minded and dedicated as my father.
Nowadays, I regularly take moments to project myself into my father’s shoes. Trying to imagine what another person’s experience may be like isn’t the same as actually being them. However, it still brings me closer to him, and increases the intensity of my caring. This motivates me to keep deepening my connections with my dad, and with other Huber and human family members.
4. My dad is an LGBTQ ally. I want to be his ally too.
My dad delivered to me the news about the recent Supreme Court ruling: the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ employees from discrimination based on sex.
Dad was excited to tell me because he knows I suffered growing up because of queer and transgender people not being accepted.
He and my mom supported marriage equality, back when it was still a minority opinion. Our family‘s gay members were always completely accepted.
For years now, my family has been on board with transgender inclusion too. As a kid, I loved being the person my dad could share baseball with. Now, my dad counts me as one of his daughters. I even had the joy of being a bridesmaid at his wedding to my mama.
Because of how content and happy I feel about my gender now, this has been great for our relationship and helped me open up and participate more in the family.
I thought about my dad’s life, and the important aspects of his own identity. How can I be a better ally to him?
He is a Huber. My dad maintained great family relationships, taking us to see our relatives at jovial reunions every year! As family members age, it takes effort to keep ties strong. I want to keep reaching out and help our family tree stay green and thriving.
My dad maintained great family relationships, taking us to see our relatives at jovial reunions every year! As family members age, it takes effort to keep ties strong. I want to keep reaching out and help our family tree stay green and thriving. He values education and history. My dad collected books, photo albums, and family history that enriched my cultural appreciation. Now, I take better notes on the facts and tales told to me by family and by each new friend I encounter. I hope to share stories that honor those around me and respect human experiences across the globe and across history.
My dad collected books, photo albums, and family history that enriched my cultural appreciation. Now, I take better notes on the facts and tales told to me by family and by each new friend I encounter. I hope to share stories that honor those around me and respect human experiences across the globe and across history. He is an Alzheimer’s patient. I want to support my dad during his battle with Alzheimer’s. I want to learn more about how we can help future generations be free from this disease.
I want to support my dad during his battle with Alzheimer’s. I want to learn more about how we can help future generations be free from this disease. He is a Democrat and a proud voter. My dad values social progress and engagement with current events. We’ve started watching politics together. Despite my previous political avoidance, he’ll be proud to see me finally vote in November 2020.
I’m excited to keep knowing my dad. To help his values and ideals live on. I want him to know that his struggle is my struggle, and that his wins are my wins.
5. My dad has always been responsible, hardworking, and financially abundant.
My dad planned his career well. He graduated with an accounting degree which followed in his father’s footsteps. Realizing he wanted to do something else with his life, he then attended law school. His high-earning career as a real estate attorney meant we all lived with ease and opportunities.
I have started my adult life the opposite of my dad. I only wanted to express myself and help animals; I didn’t think enough about money. Having completed a theatre degree and worked for several animal causes in San Francisco, I’m currently awaiting unemployment while making peanuts as a writer.
While I could never regret putting passion first, my dad’s legacy reminds me the balance between money and meaning. Being a starving artist loses its appeal after a while.
When I consider my dad’s decades of hard work feeding up to 7 mouths at a time (for anyone counting, I’m including the dogs here), and even funding our college educations for us, I know I can stabilize my own financial future. Like my dad, I want to become someone whose well-earned abundance means I have more to give to others.
6. My dad went on real adventures, and he immortalized the memories.
After my dad finished law school, he went against the advice of some of his peers. He took a year off to travel the world.
To this day, memories from traveling abroad are some of his favorite stories to tell. Reading about a place or seeing it online isn’t the same as experiencing it firsthand, he reminds me. Hearing my dad’s stories have cemented my desire to someday live abroad and expand myself through travel.
Because of my dad, I have already seen many beautiful places in the United States. We used to frequent South Carolina to see my grandparents, and the family reunions have spanned Ohio, DC, Hawaii, Connecticut, California, and various other Huber-inhabited or Huber-adored states.
My dad and mom immortalized both faroff treks, and family mischief at home, with their photography, keepsakes, and written records. Grateful for the memories they’ve preserved, I’m beginning to curate my own collections. I hope to live each day as a shared adventure and make it memorable.
7. My dad always had a great sense of Huber.
My dad’s provision of laughter in my life makes me want to spread the good laughs. Our household never went long without jokes about bears whenever someone passed gas. On road trips, Dad used to contribute to my nerdy lists of pun names — like Joe Kerr and Greg Arius!
I have changed because when I was younger, I actually wanted to be serious. Now, I am fully embracing my sense of Huber and turning into a clown with some of my articles. I like transforming my fumbles into humorous stories that can make other people feel comfortable with their flaws.
When my sisters came home and regaled my dad with humorous stories from college, it reminded me to be more like that. I try to cultivate my funny side and let my relationship with my dad be surrounded by lightheartedness.
Plus, it’s not like I can take myself too seriously when my dad reminds me I was born butt-first. As a toddler, I famously pointed at a reflection in a fountain and cried, “Daddy, I can see that man’s erection!” Pronunciation of words beyond two syllables has never been a talent of mine.
Father Greg, for all the ways you have nourished, taught, and inspired, I thank you. | https://medium.com/a-parent-is-born/7-ways-my-father-greg-inspires-me-d5df71f973f6 | ['Phoenix Huber'] | 2020-08-27 23:06:01.062000+00:00 | ['Inspiration', 'Family', 'Parenting', 'Life Lessons', 'Love'] |
Before You Can Make Money from Writing the Writing Part Has to Happen | There are plenty of ways to make money online from writing, but you have to put in consistent effort first. When you’ve put in the work, the money will follow.
There is no one size fits all process when it comes to monetizing your writing.
My journey may look different from yours because everyone comes with varying degrees of skill, knowledge, and ideas. No one person can tell you exactly what to do to make money from your writing.
I can tell you about my process.
I can share with you how I went from 0 to $1,000 a month on Medium and climbing, in five months, but the journey won’t look identical for everyone, you may make more than me. But there will be one similarity — you need to show up.
So, until you start earning an income from your writing, shift your focus from “when will I make money” to working on the process of writing because that is the part you have control over. | https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/before-you-can-make-money-from-writing-the-writing-part-has-to-happen-45b4fc29824 | ['Jessica Lynn'] | 2020-01-15 15:46:02.360000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Creativity', 'Life', 'Márketing', 'Money'] |
What Card Corresponds to Your Sign? | What Card Corresponds to Your Sign?
Find the relationship between your sign and the Major Arcana. Sanctuary Follow Apr 6 · 5 min read
Astrology has been around since ancient times, so it’s not a surprise it’s intertwined with all sorts of mystical systems and tools. One of the most important relationships it has is with tarot — astrology helps share the meaning and the imagery of the cards, and specific signs have associations with particular cards in the major and minor arcana both. If you’re already in deep with your tarot journey, astrology’s associations with specific cards can help deepen your understanding of those cards when they appear. On the other hand, if astrology is already your comfort zone, learning the tarot cards associated with the signs you are familiar with can be a great gateway into a new way of understanding this tool. Let’s start with the basics, and look at what cards of the symbolism-heavy Major Arcana line up with your sign. (If you’re not sure what signs are in your birth chart, head to the Sanctuary app, where you can get your whole chart for free!)
Aries — The Emperor
The Emperor is associated with passionate Aries. This may seem like a surprising connection between the old Emperor and youthful Aries, but they are both governed by the element of fire. Being still, present, and ready at a moment’s notice to go to war links this fiery pair.
Taurus — The Hierophant
Who would have thought that sensual Taurus would be associated with a holy archetype like The Hierophant? Both ruled by Venus and the element of Earth, they are governed by values and traditions, making them the perfect pair to help you navigate this reality.
Gemini — The Lovers
Easygoing and child-like Gemini corresponds to The Lovers. Morality, curiosity, and choices are major themes for these two, who love intellectualizing the world around them to make decisions.
Cancer — The Chariot
The Chariot, a card of action and willpower, finds its pair in Cancer, a sign of action and emotions. This committed duo highlights the emotional determination of conquering goals. A lot of work has to happen inside to find outer success.
Leo — Strength
Fire and passion rules the brave Leo, while Strength in tarot governs over compassion and force. Strength reminds us to refocus and direct Leo’s force in a way that’s less passion and more intent.
Virgo — The Hermit
Finding a moment of solace and introspection can be just what you need when the world feels chaotic. This is why The Hermit, the card of inner wisdom and mentorship, matches so well with knowledgeable Virgo. These two remind us that powerful healing often comes from within.
Libra — Justice
Libra, a sign of partnership and value, is associated with the card of Justice. These two archetypes help us to understand and define our meaning of fairness and equilibrium.
Scorpio — Death
Mysterious Scorpio makes a great pair with the card of Death. A transformative card of the Major Arcana, Death teaches us about loss, rebirth, and letting go.
Sagittarius — Temperance
Healing is an important part of any long journey, providing you with life lessons and moments of introspection. This makes Sagittarius a great match with the Temperance card, which are both centered on wisdom, healing, and experience.
Capricorn — The Devil
Karma, time, and responsibility plague trustworthy Capricorn. The Devil in tarot is a card centered on hard work, a theme Capricorn knows all too well. This relationship highlights how temptation, sin, and distraction that may steer you away from your desires, while hard work and dedication makes those goals achievable.
Aquarius — The Star
Both Aquarius and The Star have themes of hope, inspiration, and improvement. These spontaneous energies like to embrace the chaotic, reminding you to find joy in life’s surprises since you never know what’s in store in the unexpected.
Pisces — The Moon
Pisces, the last of the zodiacal cycle, represents the spirit, making it no surprise that it’s associated with a card that represents the psychic world, The Moon. They both ask you to not shy away from darkness and instead, trust your instincts, and let your emotions guide you. | https://medium.com/sanctuarywrld/what-card-corresponds-to-your-sign-cf36f8141642 | [] | 2021-04-06 19:20:24.870000+00:00 | ['Tarot', 'Major Arcana', 'Zodiac', 'Magic', 'Signs'] |
How An Experience Can Enhance Your Brand | Experiential marketing are what consumers want and your business needs.
They say experience is the best teacher.
And, when it comes to experiential marketing, we can all certainly learn a thing or two.
Experiential marketing is when a brand takes things offline (usually) and invites consumers or users to interact with them in real-time. It’s not simply asking them to sample or try your product — your product might not even feature or be there to purchase — it’s asking them to get stuck in and do something that engages hearts, minds and body.
Google’s 2018 Curiosity Rooms were a perfect example of a great consumer experience. For five weeks, they created a pop-up at 55 Regent Street and put on workshops, talks, podcasts, whilst also laying on food and music. On top of all that, there were two floors of rooms to explore — all of which demonstrated the photos and film capabilities of the Google Pixel 3.
You could dress up and take a picture in the pitch dark in a Christmas family home; whizz down a slide on a hessian sack; vogue it with bold geometric walls; or actually go to the Vogue-partnered room and take a romantic video in a cherry blossom setting. It was fun, convenient, free, and with zero pressure to sign-up or buy anything, it demonstrated the amazing capabilities of the brand in a natural way.
Of course not everyone has the budget of a big brand. But experiential marketing can work, no matter the size of your business.
Recently, we’ve ran two amazing experiences with two iconic London brands. The first, a photographic-focussed workshop with @Skyeoneill at the Artist Residence in Pimlico. And the second, a completely unique Rosé & Oysters + Food Styling Photography masterclass with Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels (CVS) and @MillyKR.
CVS wanted to increase social media check-in, reaching Londoners with a high disposable income, and a keen interest in French food and wine. We targeted this audience by using London food & drink influencer @MillyKR to co-host and promote the event.
Before the experience, Milly ran a competition on her Instagram profile inviting ten guests to join her workshop. In order to win a pair of tickets, participants had to follow the wine bar on Instagram, and tag a friend with whom they’d like to share the experience with. Altogether, there were 12 people in attendance, and the instant documentation from the attendees reached 61k unique users and a total of 83.2k impressions from the use of @CVSLondon within 24hrs. That’s 9x more than the brand’s following on IG.
The Artist Residence (AR) is an extremely photogenic boutique hotel and was one of the first hotels to harness the full power of influencer marketing via Instagram, to promote its beautiful interiors and art. So when we offered to run an interior design photography workshop with the extremely reputable @Skyeoneill, they instantly saw the benefit in greater exposure, and total allegiance with their own social media strategy. They specifically wanted to promote their iconic Grand Suite, plus emphasise the amazing food the hotel offers. This experience with AR allowed the brand to interact and host visitors who had never visited, offering them a 3 course lunch to experience the food and a guided tour around the building to learn more about the brand and the art it has. This was all reinforced by Skye’s photographic guidance, to make sure the visitors captured the experience in the best way possible.
But it’s not just our work with CVS & AR that speaks for itself, when you know that 72% of consumers view brands positively that provide great experiences, and 65% of brands saying that experiential marketing positively correlates to sales, it really is a no-brainer.
And with the younger, activist-focused, less-materialistic generation growing up — 78% of millennials would rather spend money on a memorable experience or event than buy ‘things’ — now is the perfect time to embrace experiential like your life depends on it.
OK, your life might not depend on it, but your business’ does. Just make sure it’s relevant, fun, memorable and convenient, and you’ll be wise in no time.
#DiscoveryIsBeautiful. | https://medium.com/dotspot/how-an-experience-can-enhance-your-brand-9724aebc0b03 | ['Koral Ibrahim'] | 2019-06-25 14:22:36.627000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'London', 'Consumer', 'Experience', 'Brands'] |
Demon’s Souls Remake is a Reminder of How Far FromSoftware Has Come | While the Flamelurker remains as a fan-favorite boss, others suffer from technological issues that surface even in the remake. The Maneaters, flying gargoyles that infuriatingly knock the player off a narrow arena platform, still contain buggy A.I. I was more frustrated watching the Maneaters fly back and forth away from me in a bugged loop than I was actually fighting them. Instead of changing this particularly weird and perplexing A.I., Bluepoint left it alone to keep the remake “true,” which ultimately resulted in me waiting for the Maneaters to awkwardly land so I could get a few hits in. It’s not even as if the Maneaters were particularly difficult for me either; fighting them only cost me two lives. It was more so vexatious because of how the bosses functioned.
Other systems, such as world tendency, found their way back into the remake of Demon’s Souls. Your world tendency is on a spectrum of light to dark and changes depending on a few factors. The main variable that goes into the world tendency system is death, or rather, death in human form. Demon’s Souls rewards the player for beating a boss with their humanity, granting bonuses to stats such as vitality. Veteran Demon’s Souls players are hardly fooled though, as they know this boon is actually a burden because dying in human form makes the world tendency go down. When your world tendency is down, the enemies of the world are much tougher, and specific areas of the world are locked off. Thus, the most logical thing to do once you’re in human form is to commit suicide in the Nexus by falling, giving up the form immediately.
Bloodborne deals with a similar system that isn’t nearly as counter-intuitive. Insight, a currency that affects the world depending on how much the player has, is granted for discovering and slaying bosses. While there are cons to having more insight, such as enemies performing more “inhumane” attacks (which can be dangerous), there are pros as well, such as seeing things and areas that the player can’t normally see with less. This evolution of the world tendency system is welcome, but also makes the Demon’s Souls remake seem inferior. | https://medium.com/super-jump/demons-souls-remake-is-a-reminder-of-how-far-fromsoftware-has-come-69b972031611 | ['Paul Lombardo'] | 2020-12-10 09:01:21.884000+00:00 | ['Gaming', 'UX', 'Features', 'Nostalgia', 'Videogames'] |
MY FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN | The Borgen Project is a non-profit organization which works to achieve a part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Sustainable Development Goals are designed to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all of us. There are 17 SDGs which include ZERO POVERTY, ZERO HUNGER, GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING, QUALITY EDUCATION, CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION, CLIMATE ACTION, REDUCED INEQUALITIES, and PARTNERSHIP FOR THE GOALS. The Borgen Project works effectively to achieve Goal 1,2,6 and 17 for sustainable development. Unlike many other NGOs around the world, The Borgen Project does not work on the ground because it aims more sustainable aids. It collaborates and lobbies with USAID and the US leaders.
Even though helps on the ground seem like a more tangible and credible way to help, they are mostly less sustainable. I am not all against those aids either but all I am saying is that we should be aware of the fact that those aids only save the day and we should acquire awareness on how to improve sustainability so that people who do not have access to clean water, shelter or food can survive. For example, opening health facilities or teaching farmers sustainable agriculture both provides job openings and fulfillment of fundamental needs of human survival, contributing to both self-improvement and sustainable development. Unfortunately, especially if on ground aids are multilateral aids, they are challenged with corruption and lack of transparency.
The Borgen Project makes an incredible effort on preventing those issues as well through advocacy, lobbying Congressmen, Senate, political leaders, etc. There are many bills that the Borgen Project has made outstanding efforts to have them passed in the Congress including The International Affairs Budget, Digital GAP Act, Global Food Security Act, Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act, Read Act, Build Act and many others.
Long story short, The Borgen Project really works on the efficiency and sustainability of foreign aids very seriously and effectively.
As a part of this world, we must act as one because one’s fragility effects the other. It comes across as unemployment, health, overpopulation and terror all around the world. We all need each other to survive because we do not know what tomorrow brings.
If you also want to be a part of this global partnership , you can donate on behalf of my name (CEREN ÇOLAK) from the DONATION LINK supporting my fundraising campaign on behalf of the world’s poor. | https://medium.com/@ccolak15/my-fundraising-campaign-46d4bddff04d | ['Ceren Colak'] | 2019-04-05 10:07:00.490000+00:00 | ['Support', 'Poverty', 'Fundraising', 'Poverty Alleviation', 'Sustainable Development'] |
This Week in Nightingale: Some Sensible Advice, Wrestling, and Board Games | It’s almost the holidays so we’re bringing some practical insight and fun applications of data viz your way.
Earlier this year Jane Zhang took a leap of faith and began working for herself. In her article “How I Quit My Full-Time Job to Pursue a Freelance Career As a Data Visualization Designer” she reveals the highs and lows of leaving secure employment behind.
Duncan Geere talks us through the endless possibilities for creating data viz in “Choosing the Right Tools for Data Visualization.” The article provides an up-to-date reflection of what members of the Data Visualization Society use in their day-to day work and — perhaps surprisingly — encourages us all to step away from the tech sometimes!
As though to prove that design really is everywhere, Johannes Wirges went to The Internationale Spieltage to find out “What Board Games Teach Us About Data Visualization.” You will never look at a board in the same way again.
Jorge Masvidal and Israel Adesanya are two of the best fighters in the UFC, but who deserves to be the Fighter of the Year? Check out what the data tells us in “UFC Fighter of the Year: A Data Viz Story.”
Jason Forrest wrote about “The Gilded Age Map That Shines a Light on America’s Past and Present.” Created in 1888 by John F. Smith, Historical Geography reflects the politics of that historical moment, and offers some context for our own. | https://medium.com/nightingale/this-week-in-nightingale-some-sensible-advice-wrestling-and-board-games-6768fcb22d59 | ['Clare Harvey'] | 2019-12-13 22:35:13.573000+00:00 | ['Sports', 'Board Games', 'History', 'Career Paths', 'Data Visualization'] |
Keeping Your Health Up When A Global Pandemic Has Got You Down | Keeping Your Health Up When A Global Pandemic Has Got You Down
Let’s face it, 2020 was the year from hell. The whole world has been turned upside down. As a Pandemic swept across the globe, people lost their jobs, their homes and their lives.
Many of us tried to keep busy with new hobbies. We became inventive in our isolation. Sadly, some of us lost our minds. Being isolated is torture for many. Being constantly gripped with fear over the uncertainties of this illness is exhausting. The news for the last year has talked of little else other than the disease. The virus has overstayed it’s welcome to say the least.
There is plenty of talk about the numbers, social distancing, mask wearing, and now, even a vaccine. I find it rather curious that in all our talk about this illness, the one thing we don’t hear about is how the best preventative may very well be a healthy body. Why are we not talking about this? Why are we not discussing nutrition, exercise, sleep and vitamin supplementation as a real preventative measure?
We already know that these factors can boost the immune system. There is plenty of discussion[1] on how vitamin D can help against the infection. We know that exercise contributes to a healthy immune system, as does proper nutrition, sleep, and a reduction in stress.
Nutrition & Health
I recently read The Carnivore Code and Dr. Paul Saladino makes a very good case. There is growing support for the carnivore movement and I can attest that I feel so much better since changing to this way of eating. But is it enough to keep us from getting sick?
You truly are what you eat. If we eat sugar-rich, processed, foods then we can expect to not be all that healthy. So, what do you eat? Are you strong like a carnivore? Are you lean like a plant? Or are you garbage like the Standard American Diet?
What about supplements? Should you be taking one? The simple answer is YES! I personally, take one 4,000 UI of Vitamin D daily (which I’ve been taking for years, completely pre-covid) and I randomly take a multivitamin every now and then. Supplements are just that, they fill the gaps in your nutritional intake. It’s important to understand the intake of vitamins[2] before you begin any supplementation.
Think: Food
If you eat a Standard American Diet, first — I would consider switching that first. Now, I am no doctor so don’t take any of this as medical advice. However, I can say you’ll likely want to take a Vitamin D supplement. Depending on where you live, there is a very good chance you may suffer from a vitamin D deficiency[3]. If you eat a vegan / vegetarian diet, you’ll want a Vitamin D supplement and a B12 supplement at the very least.
Ultimately, the best way to supplement is to have your blood tested so you know where you are lacking and then work toward repairing that. It’s smarter and healthier to target supplement than it is to take a multivitamin.
Exercise
We all hear that exercise is necessary. We did not evolve to sit on our rear-ends all day long, yet, a lot of us do! It is very important for our longevity to be active. This doesn’t mean you have to hit the gym hardcore for 6 hours a day. However, 30 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of calisthenics a day will greatly increase your longevity.
Here’s the thing, not many people actually LIKE to work out. It’s hard. It’s exhausting, and when pushed hard enough, it hurts. But if it can mean the difference between dying at 65 or dying at 85 — it’s worth the 50 minutes a day. And let’s be honest, once you’ve completed those 50 minutes, you feel great!
It takes will, grit, and determination to begin a workout routine but it’s worth it in the end when it means a better quality of life overall. The more fit you are, the better your body can respond to illnesses such as covid-19.
Sleep State
How much sleep are you getting? It is good sleep? We underestimate how important good sleep is. As adults, it is suggested that we get between 7–8 hours of good quality sleep a night[4]. But many of us don’t, and that does have negative affects on your immune system.
Do you shut off the electronics an hour before bed? Maybe meditate, read or complete some other “down-time” type of activity? There is strong evidence that suggests[5] we should turn off the electronics at least an hour before bed as it affects the quality of sleep you get.
All in all, our health is extremely important regardless of covid-19 or any other illness. The best way to stay safe, is to stay healthy! So really consider your personal habits — where can you improve? Do you need better nutrition? More exercise? Or better sleep? A health you is a happy you!
References
↑1 Hernández, J. L., Nan, D., Fernandez-Ayala, M., García-Unzueta, M., Hernández-Hernández, M. A., López-Hoyos, M., Muñoz-Cacho, P., Olmos, J. M., Gutiérrez-Cuadra, M., Ruiz-Cubillán, J. J., Crespo, J., & Martínez-Taboada, V. M. (2020). Vitamin D Status in Hospitalized Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infection. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgaa733
↑2 Office of Dietary Supplements — Multivitamin/mineral Supplements. (2017). Nih.Gov. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/MVMS-HealthProfessional/
↑3 Amrein, K., Scherkl, M., Hoffmann, M., Neuwersch-Sommeregger, S., Köstenberger, M., Tmava Berisha, A., Martucci, G., Pilz, S., & Malle, O. (2020). Vitamin D deficiency 2.0: an update on the current status worldwide. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 74(11), 1498–1513. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-020-0558-y
↑4 Worley, S. L. (2018). The Extraordinary Importance of Sleep: The Detrimental Effects of Inadequate Sleep on Health and Public Safety Drive an Explosion of Sleep Research. P & T : A Peer-Reviewed Journal for Formulary Management, 43(12), 758–763. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6281147/
↑5 Can Electronics Affect Quality Sleep? | Sleep Foundation. (2020, December 8). Sleep Foundation. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/how-electronics-affect-sleep#:~:text=Tempting%20as%20it%20might%20be,tired%20and%20ready%20for%20sleep. | https://medium.com/@thecuriouscanuck/keeping-your-health-up-when-a-global-pandemic-has-got-you-down-653870a086c2 | ['The Curious Canuck'] | 2020-12-20 05:20:51.408000+00:00 | ['Preventing Covid', 'Sleep', 'Covid 19', 'Health', 'Nutrition'] |
The designer’s brain. Nowadays, there are numerous working… | Nowadays, there are numerous working methods that a designer develops and, as time goes by, and with the experience earned, this method is constantly changing.
In this blog post, we will talk about my experience as a junior designer (and my brain).
As time goes by, I have discovered that it is easy to fall into anxiety, nervousness, stress that a job, at first sight, can give because it’s something new. But I also found the answer to “run away from that” or better deal with it.
I can be a multifaceted designer, which means I have more than 8 hours (full-time work) of creativity. That also means I go through a lot of dilemmas and difficulties until I reach the final result.
Where to work as a designer?
As soon as I receive a work proposal, my first task is to do detailed research on the subject in question. Then I spend a few brave hours doing a visual collection, and I only stop when I have other thoughts in my head — otherwise known as distraction.
I’ve always found it inspiring to work on design outside the home, like in a coffee shop where there are lots of people, and I can be at a table eating whatever I want. This was one of the first methods I tried, but unfortunately, the conclusion I drew was the following: clustering of people and noise are two things that hold my creativity back and make me restless.
Thus, I chose to always work at home, a quiet place where I can also listen to the music I want.
Speaking of which, here comes another auxiliary that stimulates my creativity and concentration: music! Depending on the music’s spirit, I can work at a much higher pace than I usually do without it.
And to complement these inspirations, street walks are the best source of help for “hunting” a “good” design. It can be in a poster or a store window.
Just walking outside helps me analyze several essential components in this area, such as the image, the text, and the message I want to convey. It also helps the urbanistic and minimalist design, which I really appreciate. The simpler the result, the more you can think about it (it stimulates the public).
I become inspired by either these walks on the street and or by surfing on the Internet.
The darkness appears on a poor designer’s brain
It’s all flowers and sunshine until the time comes to do the job. Whenever that happens, and my mental idea of the job isn’t corresponding to what I initially wanted, I suffer a total mental-breakdown, and a thousand and one questions come rolling into my subconscious as I look for the answer to the error.
To help this mental-breakdown, I keep working on the idea that a step back on the project is not a fail. With several adjustments, I can handle the “lost” hours and continue “surfing” on creativity.
However, the demons of stress and mental calculation of the hours it might take me to finish the project and its delivery time are always here. Sometimes, when I notice it, the measuring has already exceeded the delivery deadline. When that moment arrives, the best thing to do is stop working and take a good break. My pause boils down to a method that always works, and I recently discovered: drawing.
Coping mechanisms
Drawing for 10 minutes is enough for me to get back to work with other eyes, with another kind of approach, and start from scratch every so often.
To start from scratch is to try new techniques, do something out of the ordinary, and discover new techniques. What comes out of this? New mental ideas of the project that often correspond to reality and its main goals.
As soon as it’s in the final phase of the project, where only one feedback and one approval by the client is left, I like to visualize the progress that had all the design; to visualize it in a big way. I also like to do a presentation to show the work’s whole evolution, the project, and my reasoning.
After finishing these presentations, I find myself considering a useful method that makes me evaluate and be self-critical in my work.
Final note about this particular designer’s brain
I share this process and method of my work with you, not knowing if it is the most correct or not, but what is certain is that each job I do is always approached differently.
Obviously, this is a learning process, and I still have a long way to go in this area. I’m exposing this method of working to help recent designers who feel anxious and a little lost in their new work routine.
Needless to say, the methods may not work for everyone. As I mentioned before about working in a coffee shop, there are countless people like me who identify with this, while others prefer and feel inspired by the coffee shops in the crowd and by the noises.
To conclude, in design or any other area, the key to succeeding in a good work development is to be organized and distribute well the tasks you have to do in a short period. Once we master this objective, the pros and cons listed in our head in order to stabilize our reasoning and work should be controlled by actions without overthinking about them. A simple break or rest is not such a difficult act to take. | https://medium.com/angry-channel/https-angry-ventures-blog-the-designers-brain-the-designers-brain-1f3997c72a8d | ['Angry Ventures'] | 2021-07-30 13:03:30.361000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Work', 'Design', 'Designer', 'Projects'] |
Give Back Through Edge. In an effort to unite the crypto… | In an effort to unite the crypto community in giving back to fight the COVID19 outbreak, Edge, in partnership with The Giving Block and many of our exchange partners, is doing our small part to contribute.
Starting today, May 5th and running through Monday, May 25th, we’ll be donating commissions for trading operations that take place inside of Edge. These donations are being matched to varying degrees by our participating exchange partners: Moonpay, Bits of Gold, Bity, ChangeNow, Changelly, and Godex.
Edge users can participate in this effort to fight the outbreak by using our participating exchanges in the Edge wallet. All Edge users can give back by using our partner Moonpay for their fiat to crypto swaps and ChangeNow, Changelly, and Godex for their crypto to crypto swaps.
Moonpay allows users all over the globe to buy crypto via a credit card and Apple Pay. Moonpay will donate 45% of their trading commissions to the COVID19 relief efforts. ChangeNow, Changelly, and Godex, our crypto to crypto partners, will donate 100% of their commissions to the COVID19 relief efforts.
In addition to the above partners, our European users can give back by using our fiat exchange partners, Bity and Bits of Gold. Bity will donate 100% of their commissions, allowing users to exchange up to $5000 a day with no KYC via a SEPA bank transfer. Bits of Gold will donate 40% of their commissions, allowing users to exchange up to $10000 a day via a SEPA bank transfer. Bits of Gold also offers Israeli users the same opportunity via an Israeli Bank Transfer.
How To Participate
In order to take advantage of this promotion, new users haveto download Edge via this link: https://dl.edge.app/covid. Existing Edge users can activate the promotion by tapping on the same link from their mobile device.
After you download or activate Edge using the above link you’ll see a promo card inside of Edge indicating the promotion is active. You can then use our participating exchanges and have your fees donated COVID-19 relief efforts. Tap on the promo card to see a list of the participating exchanges.
If you have any questions about the promotion or how to participate do not hesitate to reach out to our support team at [email protected].
For more information on participating organizations in the crypto ecosystem, organizations that will be receiving these donations, and how you can get involved Click Here.
Download Edge | https://medium.com/edgewallet/give-back-through-edge-edge-e23b9220dd38 | [] | 2020-05-06 15:59:54.958000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Charitable Giving', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Covid 19'] |
How To Make The Perfect Anime Protagonist | How To Make The Perfect Anime Protagonist
Make the protagonist an orphan.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
1. Give The Protagonist A Rival
Make sure the rival treats the protagonist like absolute shit, yet the protagonist still wants to win his love and affection, despite his repeated attempts to murder the protagonist by stabbing him through his chest. Preferably you’ll want the rival, who should vacillate between a close ally and a villain, to be emo, brooding, prideful, and looking for some kind of revenge.
2. Give The Protagonist A Shallow Female Love Interest
Make sure the protagonist fits the trope of the domineering, physically, and verbally abusive lover with a soft side. Have all the female characters in the protagonist’s life fit this trope, making them essentially useless damsels-in-distress for the protagonist to save. Also, they must have huge breasts.
3. Give The Hero Endless Power-Ups
Make sure the protagonist is an underdog with an annoying and unrealistically positive disposition. He must start out weak but become inexplicably stronger every time he faces a new villain. Ensure there is no limit to the number of power-ups the hero has, and make sure to always write another level of the power-up. Your protagonist might have two legs and an arm torn off, but even with one hand, he can awaken some supernatural ability, like changing the color of his hair or surrounding himself with lightning, by sheer willpower.
4. Make The Ending All About The Protagonist
Towards the end of the anime, make sure all the focus is on the protagonist and one or two of his close friends and/or rivals. All of the side characters you’ve spent time developing must now become mere members of the audience that watch in awe of the protagonist’s God-like power, like his ability to destroy entire cities with a single punch. The final 30 episodes must focus only on the protagonist and his new-found powers equivalent of a nuclear warhead that he, for some reason, never had before.
5. Make Your Protagonist An Orphan
Your protagonist must be an orphan abandoned by his birth parents so they could stop a nuclear power plant from melting down and killing a bunch of sea otters. But keep it ambiguous as to whether the parents are actually dead so you can bring them back at a random point.
6. Make The Hero A Christ Figure
The protagonist needs to be some sort of Christ figure who reaches out to become friends with other people. Write your character’s stubborn determination as annoying, but have other, less important characters see his determination as charismatic. By the end of the anime, your protagonist must have won over the entire world because of his Christ-like disposition, transforming even evil and depraved perpetrators of genocide into redeemed heroes.
7. Give The Protagonist Foolish And Gullible Villains
You need to have the villain initially overwhelm the protagonist, but then get too arrogant too quickly so some sort of unexpected intervention saves the day. No matter what terrible and awful thing the villain has done, how many people he’s killed, or how many children he’s left orphaned, the villain must be turned into a last-minute, valuable ally to fight the next, even more evil and powerful villain.
8. Make The Protagonist Preach Friendship
The protagonist must convey the message that friendship is the answer to all the world’s problems. Having close and loyal friends must be the reason why the protagonist didn’t give up, even when he was on his deathbed. If a friend dies, manipulate the intense emotional grief to give the protagonist another power-up, and include a scene with a villain crushing a friend with his bare hands as a plot device to reveal the protagonist’s Earth-shaking punches.
9. Make The Protagonist Annoyingly Scream His Attacks
In fights, the protagonist must scream his attack before attacking the villain, usually the name of some exotic bird like “flamingo!” Despite the fact that the protagonist’s attack moves are well-known to any villains that have done a shred of research, the latter must be intellectually incapable of knowing what’s to come.
10. Make The Protagonist Gullible To Love Interests
Once the protagonist acquires some sort of success, be sure to introduce more girls, who must all start vying for his attention. Make these girls shy, and also make sure the protagonist is oblivious to their interest. And make sure that these women, too, are helpless damsels-in-distress with huge breasts.
11. Make The Protagonist A Teenager
Above all, make sure the protagonist is a coming-of-age teenager, who, with the rest of his teenage friends, saves the entire world from the evil radioactive alien-looking reptile from an unknown planet. Your protagonist might only be 15 years old, but he needs to put to shame the accomplishments of smarter and more competent people, and defy logic by saving the world from destruction. | https://medium.com/slackjaw/how-to-make-the-perfect-anime-protagonist-af7eb7dd4027 | ['Ryan Fan'] | 2020-05-23 12:51:00.930000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Television', 'Satire', 'Culture', 'Anime'] |
How do I Renew my SAM Registration 2020? | If you need to work with the central government (and many state governments), you need a functioning posting in the System for Award Management (SAM) information base. On the off chance that you’ve just finished this cycle, it is critical to realize when and how to restore SAM Registration and we can help.
When Should You Renew SAM Registration?
Your SAM Registration is dynamic for one year from the day the public authority favors your underlying SAM enlistment. So you may think you should simply restore a couple of days or seven days before the lapse date. In any case, you should begin contemplating how to reestablish SAM Registration a while ahead of time.
Government organizations can just work with substances that have a functioning SAM enrollment. In the event that an acquirement specialist (the best possible term for an administration representative entrusted with choosing contractual workers) sees that your SAM enlistment is inside two or less months of the lapse date, they may be watchful about working with you.
This is since, supposing that you are in an agreement and your enrollment terminates, the public authority is not, at this point approved to lead business with you or your organization. This implies they won’t have the option to get the merchandise or administrations they need and you won’t get paid all things considered.
We energetically suggest that you restore SAM Registration in any event two months early to guarantee that your reestablishment is affirmed with a lot of extra time before that termination date. This is particularly significant during the current pandemic, as this has constrained the Federal Service Desk to adjust its activities. If you head to the Federal Service Desk site (FSD.gov), they additionally express that the enlistment and recharging endorsement measure as eased back down because of a flood of new SAM Registration.
The Federal Service Desk is the public authority organization responsible for dealing with the SAM information base just as a few other government frameworks, including beta.SAM.gov. This site is a useful asset for all administration temporary workers as it is essentially an internet searcher permitting contract based workers to look for accessible positions by office, by date, by NAICS codes and that’s just the beginning.
The most effective method to Renew SAM Registration
There are two different ways to re-establish your SAM Registration. You can go into your present posting and update it yourself or you can recruit an outsider enrollment administration to finish the recharging cycle for you. Reestablishment is free on the off chance that you do it without anyone else’s help, however it very well may be convoluted and tedious, countless individuals simply employ an organization, for example, Federal Contractor Registry to deal with this errand. | https://medium.com/@fedvital2019/how-do-i-renew-my-sam-registration-2020-44e9cba6130b | [] | 2020-12-18 07:10:24.606000+00:00 | ['Sam Registration', 'Consulting', 'Small Business', 'Federal Government', 'Federal Contracts'] |
Open Sourcing Subzero | Open Sourcing Subzero
Square’s Bitcoin Cold Storage Solution
Heads up, we’ve moved! If you’d like to continue keeping up with the latest technical content from Square please visit us at our new home https://developer.squareup.com/blog
Late last year, Square began offering the ability to buy and sell Bitcoin with Cash App. As part of that launch we invested heavily in building out our cryptocurrency infrastructure to help protect our customers’ funds, and Square itself, from both internal and external threats.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin require private keys to access and move funds. Securing these private keys is important because transfers are irrevocable. An unauthorized person who gains access to the private keys can move funds and due to the nature of cryptocurrencies, it would be practically impossible to identify the person or recover the funds.
Since launching Bitcoin support, Square developed a robust approach to Bitcoin cold storage, and we recognize the importance of sharing our work with the community. As a result, today we’re open-sourcing the documentation, code, and tools for “Subzero” our HSM-backed solution for protecting Square’s Bitcoin holdings.
Background
Cash App customers have the ability to buy, sell and withdraw Bitcoins. They can view the balance for their account, but the actual Bitcoins are held by Square in a combination of hot and cold wallets. Cold storage is a term used to refer to a Bitcoin wallet that is offline, meaning that the private keys for the wallet are stored in such a way that they are inaccessible from any network. Storing Bitcoin in a cold wallet reduces the risk of remote attack. Without remote access, it is more difficult for an attacker to obtain the private keys that give access to the Bitcoin stored in the cold storage wallet. Transferring funds out of cold storage requires physical access to the private keys or the device on which they are stored. On the other hand, an online or hot wallet is able to send funds at any time. Keeping a small amount of funds in online wallets and the majority of funds in cold wallets is a good way to get the best of both worlds.
There are many ways to implement cold storage. You can print the key material on a piece of paper (a so-called “paper wallet”), carve it into stone, save it on a computer that is kept disconnected from networks, or use a specialized hardware wallet device, such as Trezor or Ledger.
Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) are specialized hardware devices that are commonly used in the payments industry to store sensitive cryptographic key material and perform operations with those keys. HSMs provide guarantees around the security of sensitive key material, such as strong access control, and active protection against physical tamper. HSMs also typically allow replicating keys (for backup or disaster recovery purpose) without exposing the plaintext key material. These features make HSMs a natural fit for a cold storage solution, as our primary concern is securely storing the wallet’s private keys, while still being able to use them to transfer Bitcoin when needed.
What is Subzero?
Subzero is an enterprise offline Bitcoin wallet. It is useful for those who don’t want to use an off-the-shelf hardware wallet because they need to create unique customizations or implement business-related rules. We decided to use the same HSM vendor that we use for all our other payments-related needs, as we are already familiar with the hardware and software. The HSM is programmable, allowing us to support Bitcoin wallets today while giving us the flexibility to implement other protocols in the future.
One specific customization we implemented is the ability to enforce that cold wallets can only send funds to a Square-owned hot wallet. Such layering provides defense in depth; forcing an attacker to compromise multiple systems in order to extract funds. It is also possible to build additional layers, where each layer can tradeoff convenience with the amount of funds being stored (onion model).
Our multi-party signing ceremony leverages the multi-signature feature available in Bitcoin. Moving funds out of cold storage requires m out of n people to participate in a signing ceremony. The participants use a combination of smart cards and passwords to authenticate to the cold storage system. QR codes are used to exchange the minimal amount of data needed between the offline and online world. The cold wallet, which is physically secured, remains offline throughout its lifetime. This provides assurance about its integrity; while the supply chain needs to be secured, unauthorized modification of the active system is unlikely.
A geographically distributed setup makes it both harder to compromise (m different sites need to be compromised) and provides redundancy (we can lose any n-m-1 sites). A nice property of our signing ceremony is that we mitigate the risk of handling an incorrect transaction due to corrupted data (either in transit or in memory). The exact same bits would need to get corrupted in an unnoticeable way on each of m different servers.
Subzero Details
A signing ceremony starts by having an online server generate a QR code. The QR code contains the minimal amount of information necessary to sign a transaction. QR codes are efficiently encoded using Protobufs. These QR codes can be printed and archived, which is useful for forensics purpose. QR codes also constrain the amount of data that can possibly be exchanged.
The people performing the signing ceremony interact with servers. The servers are located in undisclosed secure locations. The servers boot from a Linux Live DVD. DVDs provide two desirable properties:
Unless an attacker is able to modify the drive’s firmware, the media is immutable. Immutable discs make it harder for potential malware to exfiltrate information or for malware to erase itself. When a software upgrade is required, DVDs can be swapped without having to bring the servers online.
Our long term goal is to have a reproducible build process, similar to Tails.
The server runs a custom application (Subzero UI) written in Java. The application prompts for a QR code to be scanned. The participants are able to review the transaction being signed before they unlock the private keys.
The application communicates with the HSM. The HSM runs Subzero Core, a custom Bitcoin wallet implementation. The code is written in C and implements Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets as well as Segwit. We leveraged Trezor’s open source projects (such as trezor-crypto) as much as possible.
The business logic rules are enforced inside Subzero Core and the private keys are never exposed outside the HSM + Subzero Core boundary.
Beancounter
Finally, we wrote a tool, Beancounter, to audit our wallet balances. The tool is written in Go and addresses needs that aren’t fulfilled by existing wallet software, such as the ability to compute the balance at any given date in the past, and the ability to handle wallets with very large number of transactions. Beancounter also has some other useful features, such as mapping dates to block numbers. | https://medium.com/square-corner-blog/open-sourcing-subzero-ee9e3e071827 | ['Alok Menghrajani'] | 2019-04-18 20:57:18.803000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Cold Storage', 'Btc'] |
The First Ever Community Driven NFT Casino Project — Ether Demons | Don’t let their wicked faces fool you — these artworks can unleash your inner demon.
Ether Demons is a handmade NFT collection of 6,666 unique demons created from numerous traits. The traits vary in rarity, resulting in some demons being ultra-rare and others being more common. The most notable characteristics are the background, clothing, and headwear.
The demons are created on the Ethereum blockchain and will be minted on December 28, 2021, for 0.1 ETH each, followed by a public mint where the remaining will be put up for auction. This article outlines the benefits and advantages the community gets after the launch and a sneak peek at some of the most critical plans from our 2022 roadmap.
The NFT world is evolving at lightning speed, and this is another NFT project that has come up with some innovative utilities, benefits and incredible community-driven art. Ether Demons, an online casino platform specializing in cryptocurrencies, will launch its 6,666 unique NFTs collection on 28th December 2021.
EtherDemon
Each Demon is a Demonic-style piece of digital art on Ethereum blockchain that doubles up as a VIP membership card as you'd get at a regular casino. The benefits of that membership are tremendous and thoroughly explained in our Roadmap onsite.
The platform hosts various online games, including slots, table games, game shows and exclusive in-house games. Based on the uniqueness of our project and the community's support, we will make it a multi-bagger from an undervalued project.
Unique artwork – Unleash Your Inner Demon
As described earlier in the article, the artwork plays a significant role whenever one is about to buy a collectable or digital piece of art, no matter if it’s a short- or long-term investment. It needs to be exciting and unique enough to stand out and attract a large audience.
The Ether Demons artwork is of high quality. The demons are handmade by a well-reputed digital artist, and some of the background illustrations reflect more details than a simple background.
And while they're by no means the only demons in the NFT world, they do stand out in the crowd of avatars and are easily recognizable because of their style and facial characteristics. Their attitude and demonic details aren't for everyone, but this only strengthens the dedication and engagement of those who love such artwork.
A large community of gamblers
The Ether Demons community is large and continuously growing, with thousands of Discord members and Twitter followers. Many people were attracted to the artwork, the gambling theme, and the ambitious plans for the metaverse, even before the public sale.
Closing thoughts
The Ether Demons project offers you an investment in online gambling, the proliferation of the metaverse, and the combination of the two. Furthermore, you get a cool-looking avatar and become part of a community of like-minded people with a shared interest in betting and gambling.
And precisely because ED is both about robust utility, legit business and great art and community, we're personally very enthusiastic about the project and excitingly waiting for the public sale.
Public Sale Information
There will be a follow up message for the public sale, which will be hosted a few days after December 28th. The expected price for the public sale is 0.15 ETH per demon. We will be hosting giveaways and focus on getting further exposure from various social media channels to get as much exposure and eyes on our project as possible. | https://medium.com/@etherdemons/the-first-ever-community-driven-nft-casino-project-ether-demons-218dcb59c48e | ['Ether Demons'] | 2021-12-28 10:00:14.117000+00:00 | ['Metaverse', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Gambling', 'Presales', 'Nft'] |
Integration of Huawei Location Kit in Unity | Integration of Huawei Location Kit in Unity
Location Kit allows user enabling their game to get quick and accurate user locations and expand global positioning capabilities by using GPS, Wi-Fi, and base station locations. Manoj Kumar Dec 23, 2020·4 min read
Overview
In this article, I will create a demo game and integrate Huawei Location Kit. I will display the user’s current location in coordinates and also user can share his location to other users in-game. I will cover every aspect of Location kit in unity so that user can easily integrate Location Kit in his Game.
Service Introduction
Location Kit allows user enabling their game to get quick and accurate user ocations and expand global positioning capabilities by using GPS, Wi-Fi, and base station locations.
Location Kit combines the GNSS, Wi-Fi, and base station location functionalities into your game to build up global positioning capabilities, allowing you to provide flexible location-based services for global users. Currently, it provides three main capabilities: fused location, activity identification, and geofence. You can call one or more of these capabilities as needed.
1. Fused location: Provides a set of easy-to-use APIs for your app to quickly obtain the device location based on the GNSS, Wi-Fi, and base station location data.
2. Activity identification: Identifies user motion status through the acceleration sensor, cellular network information, and magnetometer, helping you adapt your app to user behaviour.
3. Geofence: Allows you to set an interesting area through an API so that your app can receive a notification when a specified action (such as leaving, entering, or staying in the area) occurs.
Prerequisite
1. Unity Engine (Installed in the system)
2. Huawei phone
3. Visual Studio 2019
4. Android SDK & NDK (Build and Run)
Integration process
1. Sign In and Create or Choose a project on AppGallery Connect portal.
2. Navigate to Project settings and download the configuration file.
Game Development
1. Create a new game in Unity.
2. Now add game components and let us start game development.
3. Download HMS Unity Plugin from below site.
https://github.com/EvilMindDevs/hms-unity-plugin/releases
4. Open Unity Engine and import the downloaded HMS Plugin.
Choose Assets > Import Package> Custom Package
5. Choose Huawei > App Gallery.
6. Provide the AppId and other details from agconnect-service.json file and click configure Manifest.
7. Create Huawei Location Kit based scripts.
I have created LocationManager.cs file in which integrated Huawei location which gets the user’s current location and shares their location to other users.
Click on LocationManager.cs and open in Visual Studio 2019
Result
Let us build the apk and install in android device.
Tips and Tricks
1. HMS plugin v1.2.0 supports 7 kits.
2. Ensure that you have installed HMS Core (APK) 3.0.0.300 or later.
3. It is recommended that the geofence radius should be minimum of 200 meters. Precision cannot be assured if the geofence radius is less than 200 meters.
4. User can share their location with other game’s user.
Conclusion
In this article, we have learned how to integrate Huawei Location Kit in Unity-based Game.
User can get their location in coordinates and share his/her location to other users in the game.
Thanks for reading this article. Be sure to like and comments to this article if you found it helpful. It means a lot to me.
References
https://developer.huawei.com/consumer/en/doc/development/HMSCore-Guides/introduction-0000001050706106 | https://medium.com/@manoj-kumar/integration-of-huawei-location-kit-in-unity-72bf67743e37 | ['Manoj Kumar'] | 2020-12-23 08:40:12+00:00 | ['Huawei', 'Unity', 'Hms', 'Location', 'Game Development'] |
Ethereum Zero to Hero: Setting a Development Environment | This is the second part of our Ethereum Zero to Hero guide. If you have not read part, I highly recommend it before jumping ahead.
In this post, we are going to set up a basic private test-net environment for ethereum development and experimentation.
Step 0: Requirements
You are using MacOS
You have a basic understanding of software development
You know what Ethereum is and understand it is basic usage.
You have a basic understanding of MacOS Terminal usage .
. You have homebrew installed
Step 1: Setting Test-Net
While we are learning the in’s and out’s of Ethereum development, we probably don’t want to test against the real production network with real ether.
There are several Ethereum tests-nets out in the wild for this purpose Rinkeby and Morden for example; however interacting with this networks still requires for us to acquire ethereum either by mining, or getting ether from other users.
While we will eventually work with the public test networks, for beginners like us that are just starting out, that is far from ideal, and it can be difficult to get significant amounts of ether.
A better option is setting up our private testnet, that we can bend and twist; as well it will allow us to gain a deeper understanding of the inner workings of the Ethereum network.
Let’s GETH Going
We will need to install the geth, a go CLI client that will allow us to run a full ethereum node locally.
brew tap ethereum/ethereum brew install ethereum
We can verify that everything installed correctly by typing:
geth version
Which should give you an output similar to the following:
Step 2: Genesis Block
To get our on private testnet started, we are going to need a Genesis Block. Every Blockchain requires a genesis block, which is essentially the configuration file for our blockchain.
The genesis block is the start of the blockchain — the first block, block 0, and the only block that does not point to a predecessor block. The protocol ensures that no other node will agree with your version of the blockchain unless they have the same genesis block, so you can make as many private testnet blockchains as you would like!
Create a project directory, for example ethereum_0hero Open your preferred editor and create a file named HeroGenesis.json Copy the following contents and save the file:
As you can see the file contents are in json and for the most part self-explanatory, but let’s go over the each one of the parameters quickly to clarify their purpose.
coinbase : The 160-bit address to which all rewards (in Ether) collected from the successful mining of this block has been transferred. This can be anything in the Genesis Block since the value is set by the setting of the miner when a new block is created.
: The 160-bit address to which all rewards (in Ether) collected from the successful mining of this block has been transferred. This can be anything in the Genesis Block since the value is set by the setting of the miner when a new block is created. timestamp : A scalar value equal to the reasonable output of Unix time() function at this block inception. A smaller period between the last two blocks results in an increase in the difficulty level and thus additional computation required to find the next valid block.
: A scalar value equal to the reasonable output of Unix time() function at this block inception. A smaller period between the last two blocks results in an increase in the difficulty level and thus additional computation required to find the next valid block. difficulty : It defines the mining Target, which can be calculated from the previous block’s difficulty level and the timestamp. The higher the difficulty, the statistically more calculations a Miner must perform to discover a valid block. This value is used to control the Block generation time of a Blockchain, keeping the Block generation frequency within a target range. On the test network, we keep this value low to avoid waiting during tests, since the discovery of a valid Block is required to execute a transaction on the Blockchain.
: It defines the mining Target, which can be calculated from the previous block’s difficulty level and the timestamp. The higher the difficulty, the statistically more calculations a Miner must perform to discover a valid block. This value is used to control the Block generation time of a Blockchain, keeping the Block generation frequency within a target range. On the test network, we keep this value low to avoid waiting during tests, since the discovery of a valid Block is required to execute a transaction on the Blockchain. gasLimit: A scalar value equal to the current chain-wide limit of Gas expenditure per block. High in our case to avoid being limited by this threshold during tests.
Finally, the config parameters are there to ensure that certain protocol upgrades are available from the get go.
For a full explanation check this answer in stackexchange
Next, we will need to initialize our chain by running the following command:
geth --datadir ./TestNetData init HeroGenesis.json
Setting the data directory is important since otherwise we will override the default data directory for the real Ethereum network.
The output should return something similar to the following:
Step 3: Running a Local Node
Now that we create our initial chain we can run it by executing the following command:
geth --datadir ./TestNetData --identity "HeroNode1" --rpc --rpcport "8080" --rpccorsdomain "*" --port "30303" --nodiscover --rpcapi "db,eth,net,web3" --maxpeers 0 --networkid 24 console
This command does a few things:
Utilizes the Genesis block we previously created It uses a custom data directory instead of the default Sets the network id to 24 to prevent us from talking from noes from the main network Disables peer discovery Disables the network by setting up the maxpeers to 0 Launches the geth console so we can interact with the blockchain/node
The output should be something similar to the following:
At this point, you should be up and running, and in the geth console ready to do something, but what?
Well let’s switch attention to the following Warning:
WARN No etherbase set and no accounts found as default
We have node up and running, but it will not be much use without any accounts.
Step 4: Creating an account
Since we are already in the Geth console is easier to ahead and create an account directly from there, in the terminal type the following:
personal.newAccount()
The console will ask for a passphrase DO NOT LOSE THIS!, and return a has like the following:
0xe857331e4e3354bb72b3751cce419c8444e89e17
And let’s validate that the account exist by running:
> eth.getBalance("0xe857331e4e3354bb72b3751cce419c8444e89e17") 0
Now, let’s put some ether into that account.
Step 5: Let’s Geth Mining
Quick recap:
We have a working private network with a single node running locally
We create a test account that on said private network
We do not have any ether in that account, and we need to fix that
Now, while we could easily issue ether to our account using the Genesis block, let’s have some fun and mine Ether on our private network.
Open a new terminal tab and running the following command:
get attach ./<DirectoryName>/geth.ipc
This will connect our second terminal to the existing geth instance and open the Javascript console. Inside the console run the following:
miner.setEtherbase("0xe857331e4e3354bb72b3751cce419c8444e89e17") miner.start()
If we go back to our first terminal we should see the following happening:
Let’s go back to the second terminal and stop the miner and check our balance:
miner.stop() eth.getBalance('0xe857331e4e3354bb72b3751cce419c8444e89e17') 75000000000000000000
Congratulations! We have now created our private network and mined our few amount of ether, and we have a valid network that we can use to developer our Smart Contracts and DApps.
In the next post of the series, we will start developing with Solidity and Smart Contracts.
This article was originally posted on my own site. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/ethereum-zero-to-hero-setting-a-development-environment-d45e11532105 | ['Allan Macgregor'] | 2017-12-25 14:29:23.268000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'Programming', 'Ethereum Zero To Hero', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Review — Jump Force. Beloved characters from the world’s… | When Jump Force was announced at last year’s E3, it generated a lot of excitement, as people would get to play as their favorite manga characters from the Shonen Jump brand (hence the name Jump Force). While we already had a crossover game with J-Stars Victory VS, the improved graphics, the story mode and the fact that Jump Force would also be available on Xbox One and PC warranted the excitement for the game. But as with all hypes, the question whether the game will live up to it imposes itself.
Heroes to the Rescue
As you start up the game, you’ll be asked to create an avatar. While the options are somewhat limited, they feel sufficient and are pretty much in line with what you’d expect from a manga inspired videogame. This avatar will be your main character in the story mode where you’ll follow the adventures of the many iconic characters from Shonen Jump’s mangas as they battle against an invasion of so-called Venoms, an army of mind-controlled people wrecking havoc on our world and the worlds of the different heroes. After an attack on Earth, where you get injured, you get revived thanks to a cybernetic device called an Umbras cube, which also awakens the hero powers within you. You soon join the Jump Force, an interdimensional force created to fight of the army of Venoms and the evil culprit leading them.
Soon after you’ll be transported to the Jump Force’s HQ, which is a central area similar to The Tower in Destiny. I was very surprised by this area, as it opened up potential possibilities of what the game could be. Seeing other players running around, would Jump Force also have social features compared to live service games such as Destiny or The Division? Would I be able to undertake missions together with other players? What about events with social activities? Well, in the end, the HQ is just a gathering place where people show off their own creations and can also challenge each other, something that rarely happens.
There are some shops in the HQ, one general and three related to the three factions in the game, a reward counter, a counter where you can select online or offline battles and a mission counter. The key missions at the counter advance the story, but there’s a whole range of free missions that are more like challenges where you can try to go for the best score. So the HQ is basically an overly complex menu, one where you can also run around freely and interact with other people, both NPC’s and online players if you’re playing online.
A Legendary Gathering
While the story is serviceable, you shouldn’t expect anything groundbreaking. It’s a classic hero getting recruited into a fight of evil vs good, with a twist near the end. Many of the missions also consist of liberating characters from the corrupted Umbras cubes’ influence and recruiting them into the Jump Force. These heroes you’ll be recruiting are of course the main attraction of the game. Among them, you’ll find iconic characters from franchises like Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Rurouni Kenshin etc. In total, 40 playable are included from 16 series, with Light Yagami from Death Note also present as a non-playable character.
Each of these characters are drawn in a style that is inspired by their comic book style. So they pretty much look like their manga counterpart, but only digital. There are some noticeable absentees though, like Assassination Classroom’s Koro-sensei, Tokyo Ghoul’s Kaneki, Claymore’s Clare and Priscilla, Gintama’s Gintoki and My Hero Academia’s All Might, although that last one’s been reportedly leaked as one of the 9 DLC characters. But the current roster is still pretty impressive and for those who’ve always wanted to see a battle between Naruto and Goku or Kenshiro and Jotaru Kujo will feel right at home here. Add the fact that the outfits and moves you can equip on your avatar, makes this game the ultimate fan service for fans of Shonen Jump.
While you’ll be playing the story mode with your avatar and some of these characters as support, the game truly shines when you go head to head with other opponents, either offline or online. In these versus modes, each player picks 3 fighters for his team from the whole playable roster and the custom characters. The fighting mechanics themselves are closer to games like My Hero One’s Justice, J-Stars Victory VS or even Dissidia Final Fantasy NT than say Dragon Ball FighterZ or Street Fighter. Meaning you can run freely on the 3D map and each character has a basic attack and some special attacks. The combat isn’t particularly difficult, but there is a nice mechanic that features ‘High Speed Counters’ and ‘High Speed Dodges’ to break your opponent’s combos. Considering you’ll be launching insanely powerful and over the top attacks at each other, the combat at least looks pretty impressive and it is actually fun to play.
The game does have some downsides though. The biggest of these, is the fact that the game is bloated with loading screens. When undertaking a mission, between the 2–3 cutscenes and the actual fight, you’ll be treated to no less than 5 loading screens. Even something as simple as changing an outfit piece for your character will trigger several loading screens. At times, I had the impression I was looking more at loading screens than actually playing the game! Secondly, something feels off with the graphics. While the textures look decent, the game doesn’t seem as sharp as it should be and when turning the camera you’re also treated to an ugly motion blur. There’s also some weird design choices in regard to the user interface, like having to engage with counter clerks with the same button you use to exit menus while navigating through the menus is done with another button.
So all in all, Jump Force clearly has some issues, some more frustrating than others, but the gameplay is fun and enjoyable. Especially if you’re a manga fan, you will certainly find some amusement in this game. It is best enjoyed with some friends on a lousy Sunday though, as the game is too casual for competitive minds and the story mode is somewhat disappointing in its writing and presentation.
3/5
Reviewed for Xbox One | https://tasta.me/review-jump-force-e75c5f61c185 | ['Jeroen Van Rossem'] | 2019-03-14 18:01:52.158000+00:00 | ['Reviews', 'Gaming', 'Games', 'Videogames', 'Japanese'] |
Multivariate Multi-Step Short-term load forecasting using Deep Neural Networks (DNN) — feature engineering | Photo credit: stockup
Forecasting signifies predicting future values (energy consumption) using historical data and other factors/features/regressors (like temperature, dew point, day of the week) affecting the output. Short-term implies the time between each prediction is short, hourly, or half-hourly. Medium-term can imply daily or weekly forecasts, and long-term can mean monthly or yearly predictions. Multi-step suggests predicting multiple future values in one go whereas one-step is predicting only one future value at a time. For instance, considering a short-term problem, it requires 24 hourly load forecasting from 11:00 of the 1st day (13) to 11:00 the next day (11). Multivariate tells us that multiple variables (or features) are being used as inputs to model a prediction problem.
Note: For architectures and models: you can directly go to the second article.
Data preparation
You need to at least have one-year data for training to incorporate seasonality trends. The average of past hourly data can extrapolate all the missing data (or use exponential smoothening). The dataset should be divided into two parts:
Training (at least one year)
Testing or Validation
Either ignore the data recorded during a lockdown, believing it would have erratic and deviating consumption patterns or add another feature, ‘lockdown flag’ for training the model appropriately.
Feature design and feature selection
It is advisable to visualize your data before choosing features for the training phase. You can visualize your data using a Dashboard (can be made using Dash & Plotly libraries) or using basic Python libraries for data processing — Pandas, Numpy.
The regressors/features/factors affecting the consumption value can be chosen from the following:
Lag features: Historical load sequence — 168 (7 days 24 hours each) or 24 (the previous 24 hours)
Suppose Sundays or weekends come out to be different in terms of consumption level (less) (check it via visualization). In that case, it’s advisable to use the past seven days’ consumption as lag features. However, it is computationally expensive; the execution time per epoch gets 7–8 times. So instead, we can use 48 lag features (only one previous day).
2. Time features — Day Of the Week (DOW), Hour Of the Day (HOD), and Season. These can be represented in the following ways:
a. One-hot encoded features (1D): HOD (24), DOW(7), Months(12)
Mapping the integer values to categorical variables that are illustrated in binary forms. The disadvantage is that feature space can blow up (high dimensionality), increasing the modeling process’s complexity. These shortcomings can be overcome by grouping some months, some days of the week using clustering or observing the trend. For example, seasons can be used instead of months, weekends, and weekdays (2 features) can be used instead of seven days of the week. (Only if the consumption pattern trend matches!)
b. Cyclic features (2D): hour_x, hour_y, day_x, day_y, month_x, month_y (Total 6 features)
hourmin = hour + minute/60
hour_x = sin((2*pi/24)*hourmin)
hour_y = cos((2*pi/24)*hourmin)
EoM — number of days in a month
day_x = sin((2*pi/EoM)*day)
day_y = cos((2*pi/EoM)*day)
month_x = sin((2*pi/12)*month)
month_y = cos((2*pi/12)*month)
Using this, we transform the time data in 2D form using sine and cosine transformations. This aids the model in realizing that these features are occurring in cycles (recurring time intervals). The disadvantage is that the 1st hour will be 0, and the last hour will be 1; it seems we render weight to the ‘hour’ feature, which should not be the case unless we find that the consumption value monotonously increases or decreases with the hour of the day.
c. 1D time — MinMax Scaled to [0, 1]
One column for each feature — DOW (1 to 7), HOD (1 to 24), Seasons/Months (1 to 4 or 1 to 12) and each column minmax scaled to [0, 1]. This kind has the drawback (same as of cyclic features) of unintendedly giving weightage to these three features.
3. Temperature features
This regressor can also be exploited in several ways:
a. Temperature and Temperature_square
By seeing the consumption pattern trend, one can notice if consumption seems to be a little higher when the weather is hot or when the temperature is high. In that case, more energy would be consumed in the summer season than in any other season.
Since we know squaring a higher temperature is significantly greater than squaring a lower temperature, this feature pushes the model to learn that a higher value of temperature_square would lead to higher consumption.
b. Temperature_weekend & Temperature_weekday
Temperature_weekend = Temperature (if it is a weekend)
= 0 (if it is a weekday)
Temperature _weekday = Temperature (if it is a weekday)
= 0 (if it is a weekend)
This feature will ensure consumption difference between weekends and weekdays. After feature engineering, if you find that the consumption patterns are different for weekends and weekdays, then only, you should try this feature.
c. HDD (Heating Degree Days) & CDD (Cooling Degree Days)
This feature gives us value for the whole day. It quantifies the demand for energy needed in the entire day. For instance, the average temperature can be the same for so many days, but HDD varies according to how many times we would require to consume the energy in turning on the A.C (HDD) or the heater (CDD).
In the hourly forecasting (short-term), we must not use HDD or CDD as the temperature itself gives us the notion about energy consumption for each hour.
4. Dew point and Relative Humidity
The relative humidity is the ratio of the amount of water vapor present in the air to the maximum it can withhold at a particular temperature. The more the temperature, the more the atmosphere can withhold. So, we cannot compare two relative humidities at two different temperatures. Thus, we can choose ‘dew point’ instead as a feature in the forecasting model.
5. Wind & Rainfall
If you can get scraped features such as wind and rainfall, it is prudent to use them for better results.
6. Dummy variables: Data Analysis should assuredly inspire other features.
For examples: is_public_holiday, is_working_hour, is_there_power_cut, is_lockdown, is_school_holiday
Go to the second article which consists of the architectures and models that can be used for your forecasting problem.
I hope you enjoyed this article. Happy Learning!! | https://medium.com/@shreyapamecha/multivariate-multi-step-short-term-load-forecasting-using-deep-neural-networks-dnn-feature-df79a7b9d874 | ['Shreya Pamecha'] | 2021-04-26 06:07:19.296000+00:00 | ['Deep Neural Networks', 'Feature Engineering', 'Multivariate', 'Load Forecasting', 'Forecasting'] |
Who are the House Democrats who lost? | So far in the 2020 House elections, 13 seats in the House of Representatives have been flipped by Republican challengers. As I write this on December 5, 2 House races have still not been called. Of the 13 seats the GOP has flipped, however, not all of them are races in which the incumbent Democrat ran for reelection and lost. I describe each of these 13 races below:
These are the incumbent Democrats in the House who ran for reelection and lost in 2020, at least based on the races that have been called so far. Notably, while 12 Democrats in the House lost their reelection bids this year, the Republican Party has flipped a total of 13 seats. This is because the 13th one is currently held by Justin Amash, a Libertarian who could have chosen to run for reelection this year but decided not to. Thus, both the Democratic and Republican parties nominated their own candidates, and the Republican one, Peter Meijer, ultimately won. So this district was flipped from Libertarian to Republican, not from Democratic to Republican. In addition, this is the only district to flip Republican (at least so far) in which the incumbent non-Republican candidate did not lose to a Republican challenger.
If you look at the above 12 defeated House Democrats, do you notice a pattern? You should, because for the most part, these Democrats can be described as moderate freshman Democrats who were first elected in 2018 in generally Republican-leaning districts and/or states, generally by narrow margins. Harley Rouda, Abby Finkenauer, Ben McAdams, Joe Cunningham, Kendra Horn, Collin Peterson, Xochitl Torres Small— all of them explicitly describe themselves as moderates committed to bipartisanship, and make clear they do not support “far-left” ideas they know that some voters are scared of. With two of the other three candidates on this list — Gil Cisneros and Donna Shalala — there is also evidence of them portraying themselves as moderates/centrists: Cisneros was called out by his opponent for allegedly not being a moderate like he claimed to be, while Shalala described herself as a centrist, at least in relative terms. The only real exception appears to be Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, for whom little to no evidence seems to exist that she claimed to be a moderate or centrist when running for reelection this year. | https://medium.com/@jpsmith-31800/who-are-the-house-democrats-who-lost-f5d870a9976f | ['J.P. Smith'] | 2020-12-06 00:20:50.892000+00:00 | ['House Of Representatives', 'Democratic Party'] |
The Cost of Living in Mexico: A Christmas Story | The Cost of Living in Mexico: A Christmas Story
Early retirement? Let’s see if you can…
Shutterstock
Travel blogs proclaim the cost of living in Mexico is “shockingly” lower than in the US or Canada. But is it really? And exactly how shocking? Enough for me to move there and retire early?
Last winter, I decided to find out for myself. It was a Christmas present of sorts, from me to me. (I do that a lot; it’s a great way to get the best gifts.)
If you follow my blog, it’s no secret that I love Mexico and plan to spend a lot of time there in retirement. I’ve wondered if by living part-time in inexpensive Mexico; I could retire earlier than living full time in the US. Lots of people split their time between the two — they call them snowbirds — but does that lifestyle save any money?
Like all my visits there, the plan was simple: to enjoy the people, food, and culture. This trip was special, though, with one extra goal: To calculate the cost of living — and see if I can retire early.
Christmas in Puerto Vallarta
My wife and I arrived at noon, grabbed a tasty burrito outside the airport, and caught a shuttle to our hotel. The town was buzzing with people scurrying about the streets, restaurants, and boardwalk. Christmas was alive in the air, with lights in the shops, decorated trees in the squares, and even a few Santa-themed bathing suits.
Winter is “high season” in Mexico resort towns. While the addictive scent of saltwater and the rhythmic sounds of waves are free, everything else gets marked up. I briefly second-guessed my selection of this locale for benchmarking the cost of living, but it was too late, and the anticipation of discovery was calling my name.
Puerto Vallarta is a popular tourist destination on the central Pacific coast of the mainland. Sandwiched between mountain jungles and Banderas Bay, it stands proud with shimmering hotels and colorful squares. The Romantic Zone is the heart of the city and attracts expatriates and snowbirds like flies on honey.
Through our extended week, we met dozens of characters and learned about their lives, retirement plans, and expenditures. The most valuable Christmas gift I could ever imagine is a collection of heartfelt stories of the people we encountered. Here are a few that will live with me forever:
People first
We met Bob in an Italian restaurant. He was a stage designer and a snowbird from Boston who was here on his annual winter migration. He had a friendly, unhurried manner and casually invited us to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, playing in a theater up the street. He shared his story with us while we shared beers and danced the Time Warp.
Playa Los Muertos is the most popular beach in Puerto Vallarta. I noticed Jerry and Sandi leaning back in their plastic chairs, showing off their golden tans, smiling with Cheshire grins at all who walked by. I introduced myself and coaxed some retirement secrets from them with a bribe of $2 beers, although they would have gladly given it up for free. They live a self-described life of perpetual bliss on $3,000 dollars a month — a king’s ransom compared to many others in this country. They eat out for lunch and dinner every day, frequent the beaches, theaters and clubs, and sip on beers and margaritas whenever the urge strikes them.
For 21 years, Patty has owned a surfing shack and restaurant in Sayulita, a kitschy town just an hour north of Puerto Vallarta. We met her at the beach, sitting behind a folding table under a colorful sunscreen held aloft by aluminum poles. She showed a sincere interest in us as people, not just as fleeting tourists. Patty arranged a surfing lesson for my daughter and me with a local expert named Arturo, and I learned, to their everlasting amusement, that surfing is a sport for the young.
We encountered dozens of snowbirds and expats, each with a fascinating backstory of their own. They came from all over the world, from radically different cultures, classes, ideologies, and religions, and yet they all had one thing in common: Serenity.
Through the entire visit, I heard not a single word of anger or frustration uttered by an expatriate.
Yes, Virginia, there is a savings
Moving to Mexico full time will lower your cost of living — that’s indisputable. But I want to lower my costs enough to retire early, and like the snowbirds, I want to split my time between countries.
Most snowbirds I’ve met own a home in the US year-round and visit Mexico for 4–6 months in the wintertime. With a permanent home base, they can’t turn off all the costs when they travel, so the savings must be greater than their residual costs for it to be a net financial gain. Many of them don’t seem to care about money, but I do.
The estimates below are based on the equivalent of a middle-class US lifestyle, but locations and options are so diverse that you can easily dial down the cost — or turn it all the way up to eleven.
Monthly living expenses for two people (in US dollars):
Rent & Utilities: $1,000 to $1,500
These prices can get you a fully furnished 1-bedroom apartment just a short walk or taxi ride to the Downtown or Romantic zones and beaches. Renting smack dab in the heart of those zones could double that amount, and moving just a bit further out will soften the blow. Often, rent includes cleaning and laundry service.
Food & Dining: $400 to $700
I’m not going to eat out every day like Jerry and Sandi, but once a day seems enticing. There are plenty of restaurants and street vendors, and even at Christmas, the prices were fine. We had delicious and filling meals for as little as $5 to $10 per person. Cooking for yourself with fresh food from the local markets saves more and adds to the fun.
Entertainment: $200 — $500
This is a widely variable expense, of course, but personally, I like to kick up my heels at least once or twice a week. There are plenty of bands, shows, and culture in Puerto Vallarta, and one benefit of living in a resort town is that there are fun activities every night of the week. Of course, one can always snuggle on the beach, listen to the waves, and gaze at the stars — that’s free. And highly recommended.
Local Travel, Miscellaneous: $250
Taxis cost less than $5 to go anywhere in town and buses are only a few pesos. We paid $1.25 to ride a bus for an hour to Sayulita. Some expatriates drive their cars here, which is a great idea if you’ll be bringing a lot of personal gear or you plan to travel to multiple cities. Don’t bring nice cars though the roads are terrible.
You’ll need to account for a few odds and ends, too, such as phone service, clothing, gifts, tequila, new sunglasses for when they’ve swept away in the surf (yep, that happened to me — twice).
Expat Insurance & Medical: $200
The price of medications and doctor visits is astonishingly cheap and can be paid out of pocket. We bought some behind-the-counter (prescription) medication for Moctezuma’s Revenge for only $8. Long-term residents say that emergency insurance is a good idea in case of a catastrophe and is very reasonable. General medical insurance, Medicare, and Seguro Popular (Mexican universal care) are too complicated for this blog post — I’ll share more detail on those in the future.
Within reach?
Would you live in a tropical paradise for two thousand dollars a month? Throw in another thousand, and you’re living like royalty. Well, according to my calculations, you would pay between $2,000 and $3,200 a month to live comfortably in Puerto Vallarta. Much less in other areas.
I could afford to retire today if I moved to Mexico full time. Many people do, like Patty in the Sayulita surf shop. I would gladly pick the sand out of my shorts every day rather than slog to work for another few years. But I have a strong attachment to my hometown, family, and friends, so I can’t make a permanent move.
It’s so close I can taste it, though! When I’m away, my cost of food, entertainment, and travel would drop significantly, but I still have a mortgage to pay, and the savings won’t quite cover that.
Without a mortgage, I could probably pull it off.
Or I could rent out my house when we’re away.
Maybe I could work remotely — everyone’s doing it these days.
I’ll find a way soon. The dream is alive and just inches from my fingertips. Soon I’ll be plopping my butt in the warm sand, the surf lapping at my toes, and a cool can of Tecate keeping me company.
I hope you’ll keep me company too. | https://medium.com/makingofamillionaire/the-cost-of-living-in-mexico-a-christmas-story-20a1fc97ccca | ['Brian Feutz'] | 2020-12-26 17:02:55.303000+00:00 | ['Mexico', 'Retirement', 'Finance', 'Life', 'Work'] |
Practical Machine Learning Basics | Practical Machine Learning Basics
Louis & Lola, survivors of the Titanic disaster (Photo from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs, No known restrictions on publication)
This article describes my attempt at the Titanic Machine Learning competition on Kaggle. I have been trying to study Machine Learning but never got as far as being able to solve real-world problems. But after I read two newly released books about practical AI, I was confident enough to enter the Titanic competition.
The first part of the article describes preparing the data. The second part shows how I used a Support Vector Machine (SVM). I used the SVM to create a model that predicts the survival of the passengers of the Titanic.
The model resulted in a score of 0.779907, which got me in the top 28% of the competition. I am very happy with the result. You can find a Jupiter notebook with the solution and documentation in Github.
Introduction
Previously, I have tried to learn AI by reading books and, entering online courses. I never got very far. Most of these books and online courses were too theoretical.
In the last couple of months, I again tried wrapping my head around Machine Learning and AI. The reason was that I ordered two new books about Machine and Deep learning. These books included much practical knowledge and examples.
I saw a tweet that mentioned the book “Deep Learning for Coders with fastai and PyTorch: AI Applications Without a PhD”. The title got my attention as it targets programmers explicitly. Another book recommended to me was “Hands-on Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow.”
Deep Learning for Coders with fastai & PyTorch
This book is different from the past Machine Learning books I read. Directly from the start, it shows real practical code examples of deep learning. As I am a programmer, source code helps me to grasp the concepts.
The two authors also offer video lectures with the same content as the book. These video lectures are free. Besides this, there’s a forum for asking questions and discussions.
Hands-on Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow
This is also a practical book. It shows many practical examples. The book uses machine learning strategies such as Scikit-Learn, Keras, and Tensorflow. Many people use this book to prepare for the TensorFlow Developer Certification.
I walked through various examples in both books. This was fun and informative. But for me, the real challenge was to see if I could solve a real problem on my own from start to finish.
Both books mention Kaggle as a source for interesting data sets and machine learning problems.
Kaggle
Kaggle is an online community of data scientists and machine learning practitioners. Kaggle is a subsidiary of Google.
Kaggle allows you to search and publish data sets, explore, and build models. You can do this in a web-based environment. Kaggle also offers machine learning competitions with real problems and provides prizes to the winners of the game.
Now, how cool would it be if I could join a competition and be able to create a submission using my current Machine Learning knowledge?
There is a competition on Kaggle called “Titanic: Machine Learning from Disaster.” This is a competition that helps users familiarize themselves with how the Kaggle platform works.
This sounded to me as the perfect competition for me to start and experiment with Machine Learning.
Titanic: Machine Learning from Disaster
The Titanic pictured in Cobh Harbour, 11 April 1912 (Photo from Wikimedia Commons, Copyright has expired)
The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, during her first voyage after hitting an iceberg. More than 1500 passengers of the 2224 passengers on board died as a result. While there was some element of luck involved in surviving, it seems some groups of people were more likely to survive than others.
The goal of the Titanic competition is to create a module that can predict which passengers survived the disaster.
The competition provides two data sets. A training set with passenger data such as name, age, gender, status, and if the passenger survived or not.
The second set contains the same data but without the survival sign. You have to return this second test set to Kaggle, with your prediction if the passenger survived or not.
One of the first questions we have to answer before building a Machine Learning model is what type of Machine Learning we are going to use?
What type of Machine Learning to use?
I don’t know yet how to answer this question. Even so, I know that we first need to determine if it is a regression or classification problem. This helps us to select an appropriate Machine Learning method.
A classification model attempts to predict from a set of discrete possibilities. A regression model attempts to state one or more numeric quantities.
We need to predict if a passenger survived or not. This sounds to me as a classification problem. So we need a Machine Learning type that can create such a classification model.
Now, I don’t know enough to choose the best machine learning strategy for this problem. But I do know how to build a classification model — for example, using Logistic Regression or Support Vector Machines.
I decided to use a Support Vector Machine (SVM).
Preparing the training data for Machine Learning
When reading both books and the Kaggle forums, I learned that before you can create a Machine Learning model, you have to prepare the data set. To prepare the data, I followed the following five steps.
Load the data Convert text values to numbers Select relevant parameters using the correlation Remove or fill missing values Remove outliers
1. Loading the Titanic passenger data
To load and manipulate the data, I use the pandas library. Pandas offer data structures and operations for controlling numerical tables and time series.
I downloaded train.csv and test.csv from Kaggle and stored them in a folder datasets. Pandas offer convenient methods to read CSV files.
Loading the data using pandas
When you execute this Python script, it loads the data and shows the first five lines of the training data set.
The first five lines of data from the training data set
Below the description of each field is given as given by Kaggle.
Description of the data in the training set
2. Convert text to numbers
To be able to use the fields in a Machine Learning strategy, we must convert them to a number. Also to be able to calculate the correlation between the fields, the fields must be numeric.
The values in the columns should be numerical to be able to calculate the correlation. Besides this, most Machine Learning algorithms prefer to work with numbers. So, we need to convert the Sex and Embarked column to a number.
The library Scikit-Learn contains a class called OrdinalEncoder which can be used for this purpose. The code below shows how to convert the Sex column to a number.
Converting the Sex column to a number using OrdinalEncoder
In the same way, I also converted the Embarked column to a number.
3. Select relevant parameters via the correlation
Before I start removing records or adding missing values, I want to know which values are most likely to influence passengers’ survival. Some fields may be obvious such as the Sex column. Because of the “Women and children first” code of conduct, the Sex column is a good indicator of the survival chances of a passenger.
But I wanted to have a more strategic way to determine this. You can calculate the correlation between the Survived column and the other columns using the data frame’s corr() method.
Calculate a correlation matrix
This results in the following correlation matrix.
Correlation between the different columns and Survived
We see that the Sexenc column, as expected, has the strongest correlation with Survived. The columns Pclass , Fare , Embarkedenc also have a decent correlation. The correlation between the rest of the columns is minimal. So, I removed these columns from the training set as they have no or minimal impact on the Machine Learning model.
Columns can be removed easily with the drop method on the data frame.
4. Remove or add missing values
With the data loaded we can investigate if there is data missing in the training set. With the method read_csv we created a data frame called titanic.
This data frame has a method called isna() that creates a two-dimensional array of the same size as the data frame. The array is filled with boolean values that indicate if the value from the original data frame is not available (an). By combining the isna with sum , titanic.isna().sum() we get a nice overview that indicates how many missing values there are in the data frame.
We see that 177 records are missing from the Age column, 687 records are missing from the Cabin column, and two from Embarked . There are several possibilities to add missing values. You can remove the records that have the missing values. You can also add the missing values. For example, with Age , you could calculate the mean or median and add it to the missing values.
You can evaluate what performs best when you look at the results of the Machine Learning prediction.
I decided to start by filling the missing Age values with the mean.
I decided to fill the two missing values from Embarked with the most common value. With the line titanic[‘Embarked’].value_counts() , you get an overview of the values inside the column. This command resulted in the following output.
S 644
C 168
Q 77
We see that S (Southhampton) is the most common value. So we can fill the missing two values using the fillna method.
titanic[“Embarked”] = titanic[“Embarked”].fillna(‘S’)
Cabin column
Although many values are missing in the Cabin column, you can still extract relevant information from it. The first letter of the Cabin numbers such as B96, G6, C23, E101 indicates the Cabin’s deck.
The deck seems to me as important information as passengers on lower decks may have a lower chance of survival.
Cutaway diagram of RMS Titanic, midships (1917), (Photo from Wikimedia Commons, Copyright has expired)
We can create a new column named Deck using the following statement titanic[‘Deck’] = titanic[‘Cabin’].str[:1] . Note that we also have to convert this column to a number as we saw before.
The introduction of a new feature in the data by using domain knowledge is called Feature engineering.
5. Remove outliers
The last step in our data preparation is identifying and removing outliers. Outliers are extreme values that are outside what is expected and unlike the rest of the data. Often machine learning models can be improved by removing these outlier values.
There are multiple ways to detect and remove outliers. I use the quantile method to detect and remove the values that are higher than 99% or lower than 1% of the data.
Using quantile() to detect and remove outliers
You have to be careful with removing the outliers as you don’t know for sure that these values are indeed wrong. I try to build the machine learning model with and without the outliers and see if the model’s performance improves or deteriorates.
With the data cleaned, outliers removed, and filling the missing values we can finally start with training the Machine Learning model.
Creating and training the Support Vector Machine (SVM)
As stated before I choose an SVM for the Machine Learning strategy. The Scikit-Learn library contains an implementation of an SVM.
We need to do one more thing before feeding the data to the SVM, feature scaling. Most Machine Learning algorithms don’t perform well when the numerical input features have different scales. This is the case with the Titanic data.
We scale the data using the scale() function of Scikit-Learn. Scale is a quick and easy way to scale the values in such a way that all features are centered around zero and have variance in the same order.
Another thing I did is to split the training set into a training set and test set on row three. This allows us to validate the performance of the trained model using the test set.
In row seven, we create the SVM called SVC in Scikit-Learn. The actual training of the model is performed using the fit method in row eight.
To evaluate the model’s performance, we create a confusion matrix using the plot_confusion_matrix function from Scikit-Learn. The confusion matrix function uses the test set to visualize the performance.
Confusion matrix for the SVM, Image by the author
This matrix indicates that the model predicted the survival of 123 passengers correctly (yellow). Also, the model predicted correctly for 62 passengers that they did not survive (teal). On the other hand, the model incorrectly predicted that 27 passengers Survived while they did not (blue). Also, it incorrectly predicted that 11 passengers did not survive while they actually did survive (purple).
So our model works but is not perfect.
Predicting the survival of the test set and submitting it to Kaggle
The last part of the competition is to use the trained model to predict the survival of the passengers using the test set from Kaggle. As with the training set, the test set also needs to be cleaned.
Because I created functions for loading and cleaning the data, this is as easy as calling the functions with the test set.
In row seven, the previously trained SVM is used to predict the survival of the passengers in the test set. The rest of the code is to transform the result into a format that can be used to submit to Kaggle.
Screenshot of the Titanic Leaderboard, image by the author
The full Jupiter notebook can be found here in Github.
Conclusion
The Deep Learning for Coders and the Hands-on Machine Learning book practically explains Machine Learning. They contain many examples that show how to solve real-world Machine Learning problems.
The most significant part of solving a problem using Machine Learning is preparing the data so that a Machine Learning Algorithm can use it. I looked at the correlation between the fields in the data set to see which fields to keep. The median of the values replaced the missing values. We translated the none numerical fields to numbers to be able to use them in Machine Learning.
With both books’ help, I entered the Kaggle Titanic competition and got a score of 0.779907. I will continue studying both books and try to improve my score.
The next Kaggle competition I will be joining is the Digit Recognizer. This uses the MNIST (“Modified National Institute of Standards and Technology”) data set. This is the de facto “hello world” dataset of computer vision.
Thank you for reading. | https://towardsdatascience.com/practical-machine-learning-basics-5d81a22f188 | ['Patrick Kalkman'] | 2020-09-27 21:55:12.286000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Kaggle', 'Machine Learning', 'Pandas', 'Deep Learning'] |
Dependency Injection — What is It, and How to Use It. | What is a Dependency?
In software engineering, there is a complex-sounding technique called dependency injection that aims to help organize code modularly by creating objects that depend on other objects. The objects that other objects depend on are called dependencies.
The use of dependency injection helps solve the problem known as ‘spaghetti code.’ If you haven’t heard of this term, it refers to software that is ‘held’ together by bad design and architectural planning, in which each object is connected to one another. This makes codebases hard to maintain. To build software that lasts — thoughtful planning and execution are crucial, and dependency injection can help with the process of producing modular code.
Using Dependencies in Code
Before we dive into injecting dependencies, I will show you a basic example of how to use one. To reiterate, a dependency is an object that other objects depend on in order to operate.
In the following code, you will see a Colony class with a queen property, an initializer, and a formColony method. There is also the QueenBee class and the Bee protocol.
class Colony {
var queen: Bee init() {
queen = QueenBee()
} func formColony() {
queen.startMating()
}
} class QueenBee: Bee {
func startMating() {
print("Begin mating flight.")
}
} protocol Bee {
func startMating()
}
When an instance of Colony is initialized, the queen property is assigned to an instance of the QueenBee class. Note that this queen property can be anything that is of the Bee type.
The formColony method calls the queen object's startMating method. As you can see, the QueenBee class conforms to the Bee protocol and will print "Begin mating flight." when the startMating method is called.
The dependency in this setup is the QueenBee object inside the Colony initializer. Since Colony directly references QueenBee in the initializer, it is considered tightly coupled with the QueenBee object. This is not good, because now Colony depends on QueenBee to function correctly.
The use of dependency injection will help avoid using dependencies as you have seen here.
Dependency Injection Using Swift
Within the Swift programming language, there are a few different ways to go about dependency injection — initializer injection, property injection, and the lesser-used method injection.
Initializer Injection
When using initializer injection, you pass the dependency object through to another object via its initializer. The usage of the dependency object (sometimes called a service) is defined within the object it’s being passed to (sometimes called a client) — but the actual creation doesn’t happen until it’s passed through the client’s initializer.
To modify the previous code to adapt dependency injection using the initializer injection method:
class Colony {
var queen: Bee init(queen: Bee) {
self.queen = queen
} func formColony() {
queen.startMating()
}
} let firstQueen = QueenBee() let firstColony = Colony(queen: firstQueen)
firstColony.formColony()
Now, Colony doesn't directly reference the QueenBee object in its initializer. Which means the tight coupling problem has been solved, and any object of the Bee type can be used with Colony . The above code will print "Begin mating flight."
Note that I mentioned any object that is of the Bee type can be passed into the initializer. This is great because you can exchange the type of bee used as the colony's queen. Of course, this wouldn't happen in the real world because bee colonies must have a queen bee - but a good example is changing the type of hive the colony lives in. I've made slight modifications to the code to show this:
class Colony {
var queen: Bee init(queen: Bee, hiveType: Hive) {
self.queen = queen
} func formColony() {
queen.startMating()
}
} let firstQueen = QueenBee()
let topBar = TopBarHive() let firstColony = Colony(queen: firstQueen, hiveType: topBar)
You can now change the type of bee as well as the type of hive used to form this colony. Another way to integrate dependency injection is through the property injection method.
Property Injection
Property injection is pretty much exactly what it sounds like — you pass the dependency directly through to an object’s property. Here is a modified version of the Colony class:
class Colony {
var queen: Bee!
func formColony() {
queen.startMating()
}
} let firstQueen = QueenBee() let firstColony = Colony()
firstColony.queen = firstQueen
firstColony.queen.startMating()
The queen is being assigned via a property, and all methods of the queen will operate as expected when called as seen. In other words, this will again print “Begin mating flight.”
Method Injection
A lesser-used way to integrate dependency injection is by using a setter method. Setter methods are custom methods of an object that use a parameter to set a certain property’s value based on what was passed through the parameter. It works somewhat like initializer injection (in that it uses a parameter to give value a property), but you have to call it yourself after the object has been created.
class Colony {
var queen: Bee!
func formColony() {
queen.startMating()
}
func setQueenBee(_ queen: Bee) {
self.queen = queen
}
} let firstQueen = QueenBee() let firstColony = Colony()
firstColony.setQueenBee(firstQueen)
Here, the setter method is the setQueenBee method within Colony. When an object that conforms to the bee protocol is passed through to that method's parameter, it will set the bee property to the value of the parameter. This is another way of integrating dependency injection, but it's not the most convenient.
Conclusion
That’s it for dependency injection!
It really isn’t as scary as it sounds, and after you try it out for yourself, it will become much more instinctive. It’s a simple technique that helps developers build better software by making it modular, maintainable, and scalable.
Thanks for reading! If you’d like more programming content, be sure to check out the rest of the Rusty Nail Software Blog. You can read the original posting here. | https://andrewlundydev.medium.com/dependency-injection-what-is-it-and-how-to-use-it-61ea7b33411 | ['Andrew Lundy'] | 2020-12-28 06:09:10.388000+00:00 | ['Software Engineering', 'Swift Programming', 'App Development', 'Programming'] |
Superb benefits of jumping ropes and exercise balls | Are you conscious of your health? Well, do not become overly conscious but consciousness is important to remain mentally and physically fit. And regular workouts or practicing several exercises help you to remain physically fit and mentally fresh. Do you prefer using workout machines found in several gym centers? Well, those fitness equipment like weight lifting bars, cable attachments, etc. is essential to better and quick improvements in health. You may even know that workout and its related exercises is a wide concept. Because there is a wide variety of different equipment to serve different purposes. For example, different types of bars are there that lift weights like barbells, etc. Even the use of exercising equipment differs according to your experience level i.e. beginners and advanced exercise trainees.
Here are some benefits of jumping ropes.
Yes, jumping ropes are not only limited for playing purposes but it has several health benefits too. But make sure to buy the best jump ropes for enjoying the exact results.
1. Useful for burning calories
Jumping ropes provide more benefits than jogging in terms of burning calories. This is an aerobic exercise that can burn 1300 calories per hour with these jumping ropes. 10 minutes of exercising with jumping ropes can be roughly considered to offer results equivalent to running an eight-minute mile.
2. Helpful for improved coordination
When you are exercising with your jumping ropes, your focus on your feet is getting increased. Your brain has a constant watch on your feet as long as you continue using jumping ropes. If you want to become lighter on your feet, regular practice of exercising with jumping ropes is essential. Boxers prefer exercising with jumping ropes to enhance consciousness and coordination power.
3. Portable and fun to use
This exercising equipment is highly portable and you can take it to your school, college, anywhere you want. Try this for boosting you up before the basketball tournament or likewise. You can try several tricks with this too. You can compete with your friends regarding how high or low you can jump. Also, try the spinning trick with jumping ropes.
4. Helpful in increasing breathing efficiency
If you practice exercising with jumping ropes, you can improve your breathing capability. Yes, jumping ropes are very beneficial if you are a professional runner or swimmer. Because these are the activities where you need to hold your breathing for long.
5. Great for cardiovascular health
To improve heart and lung functioning, a workout with jumping ropes is recommended. You need to practice this for 3 to 4 per week. And you must devote 12 to 20 minutes to exercising with jumping ropes.
Other than these, jumping ropes are very useful for increasing the strength of muscles around the ankle joint and your foot. So there remains minimal to nil chances of ankle or foot injuries in the case of playing tennis or other foot-oriented sports. Proper coordination between your mind and body is possible with jumping ropes, and so helps to keep you calm as well. Regular jumping up and down with these ropes results in improving the bone density too.
Do you want to improve your back and spine health or increase core stability? Do you face difficulty in holding the right posture while exercising or want muscle balance improvement? Then the perfect solution is the use of the best exercise balls. Well, you can trust a Fitness wholesaler company for buying the best quality fitness equipment.
Here is the description of one exercise with these Swiss balls for improving your back and spine issues:
The continuous back pain is very irritating Right? So take an exercise ball and let your whole body lay over the ball. Be in this position for some minutes and you will notice your lower back muscles getting stretched. This is a recommended exercise for instant back pain relief.
If you have reached the advanced levels with the stability balls, you can practice exercises like push-ups, abdominal crunches, planking, squats, and so on.
So you must have understood the importance of some of the fitness equipment. But if you are searching for a safe and secured place of weight bars, bumper plate racks are ideal for you. | https://medium.com/@fitnesswholesaler438/superb-benefits-of-jumping-ropes-and-exercise-balls-df360250eaac | ['Fitness Wholesaler'] | 2021-06-08 05:00:53.201000+00:00 | ['Fitness Tips', 'Gym Equipment For Sale', 'Fitness', 'Fitnessmotivation', 'Gym'] |
Intro : The Attenborough Effect. I am your average 20 something from… | I am your average 20 something from Liverpool. I'm living in a house share in London. I have a normal job and consider myself just another person who has very little influence over anyone else outside my friends and family. Even then this was limited due to the stubborn and strong willed tendencies of Scousers.
In 2018 I (like many of us) tuned in to Blue Planet II hosted by, the man, the legend and the person we all not so secretly wish was our grandad: Sir David Attenborough. He highlighted an issue that most of us (myself included) hadn't really ever put much thought into. What happens to all those single use items we use daily? Well…I guess now we know.
After this episode I did what many of us did — I went about my normal life: got up, went to work and used countless single use plastics. I had always been rather happy in my own little bubble, only thinking about what mattered to me in the moment. But, on this particular day I couldn’t stop thinking about all those plastics floating around in the ocean. It wasn't even that I couldn’t stop thinking about it, I couldn’t stop talking about it. Telling anyone who would listen about how awful it was. It went on and on like this for weeks until my boyfriend couldn’t take it much longer and asked me what I was going to do about it? My answer to this question was that I didn’t know.
It started small in the form of some research. My initial thought was if everyone could make some small lifestyle changes we as a world would be better off. Isn’t that the start of all things? You start small like a tiny seed and let it grow into a tall, beautiful tree. But then I had to take a good hard look at myself and realise that if this “epiphany” was so easy and great then why hadn’t I ever bothered to do it before?
A book called Sapiens, gave me some interesting concepts about the development of humankind. Before I jump into this I would just like to point out that I listened to this book during my commute to work over an 8 week period and that I am not some great scholar who can devour the content of a book in days — I like my napping and the pub too much so self discipline isn’t my strong suit. Anyway back to my point. I had learnt in this book that mankind is partially driven by the desire for ease and convenience. We don’t really want to sacrifice our creature comforts and make things harder when it doesn’t need to be. Thus came my second “epiphany”. What if I could make small environmentally sound changes to my life without feeling like I was missing out on the good stuff. This is where the term The Lazy Environmentalist came in.
It seems the problem is our societies acceptance of single use items. Our world war predecessors with the mentality of “make do and mend” would be completely shocked by the sheer amount of single use items which for the most part are completely unnecessary. There are many small and easy lifestyle changes that can be made that can really make a difference.
My plan is to make small changes wherever possible. I will try and test out products that are not only sustainable for the environment but also easy to use, and sustainable for the average person. Then hopefully a small handful of people will read my journey and see that change can be easy. Greta Thunberg has my favourite quote so far: no one is too small to make a difference. Hopefully that what I can do too. | https://medium.com/@thelazyenvironmentalist/intro-the-attenborough-effect-4e7fd1e72e49 | ['The Lazy Enviromentalist'] | 2020-01-14 21:32:09.759000+00:00 | ['Environment', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Single Use Plastic', 'Plastic Pollution', 'Environmental Issues'] |
Three main categories of machine learning with examples of usage. | Machine Learning is a subset of artificial intelligence that primarily focused on their experience and making predictions based on it. The main concept behind this is the study of how to build applications that exhibit this iterative improvement.
There are many ways to frame this idea, but mainly there are three major recognized categories.
1. Supervised Learning
Supervised learning is one of the most basic types of machine learning and it is trained on labeled data. At the end of the training, the algorithm then finds relationships between the parameters given. supervised learning is extremely powerful when used in the right circumstances.
It’s a learning mechanism that the model is trained with an already available correct data set. We start with a training data set that is already labeled inputs and outputs. The model is specifically knowing what to identify. And the model is training until it can identify similar data that we feed. Use to detect patterns and similarities in the input data set. Human interference is at a considerable level in this pattern.
There are mainly two types of supervised learning problems namely classification and regression. In classification, data get classified into different labels. In regression, it represents the prediction of continuous quantity. An example of classification is the labeling of emails as spam or non-spam. A regression example is the prediction of humidity with the change of temperature. Linear regression, Logistic regression, K Nearest Neighbour, Random Forest are examples of algorithms used in supervised learning. Supervised learning is widely used for risk evaluation and forecasting sales.
Face Recognition: Facebook uses a supervised learning algorithm to recognize faces and delete fabricated accounts. Having a system that takes a photo, searches face, and imagines who is in the photo (tagging) is a supervised process
Spam Classification: Modern email systems encountered a spam filter. That spam filter is a supervised learning system. These systems are used to filter out malicious emails because that the user is not harassed by them and provide and labels (spam/non-spam) from the email system.
2. Unsupervised Learning
Unsupervised learning is very much the opposite of supervised learning. It infers patterns from a dataset without reference to known or labeled, outcomes and fed a lot of data, and given the tools to understand the properties of the data
We feed unlabeled or untagged row data as input and getting meaningful output data. This technique is similar to how the human mind works to categorize things thus it’s called artificial general intelligence. Human interference is minimal. the model must learn to map the data set before the observations.
There are mainly two types of unsupervised learning problems namely clustering and association. In clustering data get grouped by the usage patterns of the user for targeted marketing. In association, it identifies hidden patterns among data and uses them for generating predictions. An example of clustering is identifying the internet and cellular usage of the people by a certain telecommunication provider and grouping them into different priority types and providing each of them with the best promotions.
An example of association is the customer product buying patterns recognition in supermarkets where frequently both together items are identified and kept closed in the shelves so customers can easily put them in the cart without going through different shelves. K-Means, C-Means are examples of algorithms used in unsupervised learning. Unsupervised learning is widely used for recommendation systems and detecting anomalies.
Grouping User Logs: Unsupervised learning holds the advantage of being able to group user logs and issues. This can help businesses to identify key issues to customers and correct them by improving a product or developing a FAQ to deal with common issues.
Recommender Systems: A video recommendation system has been met by YouTube or Netflix. These systems are often placed in the unattended field. Perhaps we only know its duration, its genre, etc. The recommendation system can see the relationship in the data that we previously watched and promptly suggested.
3. Reinforcement learning
Reinforcement learning is inspired directly by how people learn in their lives from data. It features an algorithm that improves upon itself and learns from new situations using a trial-and-error method.
“ Without using a predefined dataset a model that learns from mistakes”
is the simplest term that can be given. This means we expose the model to an unknown environment and let it do things. for the positive things it does we give positive points and mistakes it does we add negative points. This model has been much more useful in many physical activities.
There are mainly three types of reinforcement problems classification namely policy-based, value-based, and model-based. A policy-based approach, observes the behaviors of the agent in a certain environment. In value-based approach models, it observes different actions taken by an agent in a certain environment and whether they are good or bad. In a model-based approach, it observes how an agent learns from in a certain environment. Q-Learning, Deep Q-learning, Policy gradient are examples of algorithms used in reinforcement learning. Reinforcement learning is widely used in training agents for playing games.
Video Games: One of the most common places to look at reinforcement learning is in learning to play games. Look at Google’s reinforcement learning applications, Alpha Zero, and AlphaGo which learned to play the game Go. And Mario is a common example.
Resource Management: Reinforcement learning is a good way to navigate complex environments It can deal with the necessity to balance certain demands. Google’s data centers, used reinforcement learning to balance the need to satisfy power requirements.
See you soon….👏 | https://medium.com/geekculture/three-main-categories-of-machine-learning-with-examples-of-usage-41e2d136c66f | ['Kavini Thisara'] | 2021-08-27 08:21:02.470000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Supervised Learning', 'Category', 'Reinforcement Learning', 'Unsupervised Learning'] |
How to set up hypotheses | Some readers asked for an easy fact-based (no uncertainty or probability) example to accompany my article “Never start with a hypothesis” to show you how setting up the decision context works. Your wish is my command!
Let’s play through two scenarios with two different default actions to see how it works. Imagine I’ve just gotten a call from my friend: “Shall we go out tonight?”
Step 0: Get in touch with your feelings
Scenario 1 - I live in a state of permanent FOMO. The streets are full of adventure!
Scenario 2 - It has been a long week. How comfy is this couch? Soooooo comfy.
The scenarios in this example have nothing to do with one another. They represent two parallel universes. I’m only showing you both for pedagogical purposes; in practice you only live in one world and so you only see one scenario.
Step 1: Write down the default action
Scenario 1 — By default, let’s go out! Convince me not to.
Scenario 2 — By default, I’m staying in. Convince me not to.
It’s up to the decision-maker to pick their default action however they like. This action is simply whatever you commit to doing if you get no more information. These default actions are plausible for different versions of parallel-universe-me. Neither one is “correct” in any way except insofar as I’m honest about doing it.
Step 2: Write down the alternative action
Scenario 1 — The alternative action is staying in.
Scenario 2 — The alternative action is going out.
This is simply the opposite of the default action.
Step 3: Describe the null hypotheses (H0)
Scenario 1 — I’m happy to do my default (go out) if the weather’s good. The null hypothesis is that there’s no rain.
Scenario 2 — I’m happy to do my default (not go out) if there’s no fun live music. The null hypothesis is that my music options are certifiably lame tonight.
Step 4: Describe the alternative hypotheses (H1)
Scenario 1 — What’s the opposite of my null? Rain. Ugh. Worse than missing out. That would convince me to change my mind.
Scenario 2 — What’s the opposite of my null? A band I like has a live show near me. That would convince me to change my mind.
Now let’s look at three different ways some data might arrive…
Analyze the evidence and decide! (Boring data)
Scenario 1 — You show me data: “Scientists just discovered a new kind of sea slug.” What should I do? I learned nothing that changes my mind, let’s go out!
Scenario 2 — You show me data: “Scientists just discovered a new kind of sea slug.” What should I do? I learned nothing that changes my mind, I’m staying in.
Notice that the sea slug factoid leads to a failure to reject the null, not an acceptance of the null. It might still be raining, I just don’t know that from the data, so I keep doing what I was going to do anyway.
Analyze the evidence and decide! (Surprising data)
Scenario 1 — You show me data: “It’s raining.” What should I do? Not my default action. I’ll stay in.
Scenario 2 — You show me data: “Spencer Krug is on stage in an hour.” What should I do? Not my default action. I’ll get off the couch for Spencer any day.
These are easy facts to interpret — they make my null hypothesis look ridiculous (in fact, the p-value is 0) so they force me to take the alternative action in each case. What if we’d gotten the same data but we flipped which scenario (world) it shows up in?
Analyze the evidence and decide! (Boring data)
Scenario 1 — You show me data: “Spencer Krug is on stage in an hour.” What should I do? I learned nothing that changes my mind, let’s go out!
Scenario 2 —You show me data: “It’s raining.” What should I do? I learned nothing that changes my mind, I’m staying in.
If you’re not careful, you might make the mistake of thinking that the evidence has anything to do with the decision. Actually, this evidence doesn’t change my mind any more than the sea slug factoid would… even though I’d rather go to a good show. I would have made the same decision in Scenario 1, regardless of the music. Sure, seeing an awesome show makes me feel better about going out, but I would have done that anyway.
If you’ve absorbed this, you’re ready to add some nuance — dive into “Statistical inference in one sentence” for a deeper example. | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-set-up-hypotheses-c59d8f2d6b81 | ['Cassie Kozyrkov'] | 2019-06-24 12:17:24.414000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Statistics', 'Data', 'Analytics', 'Technology'] |
Memoji — Welcome to Android | Memoji is the name of Apple’s iPhone functionality that lets users create an emoji that looks like them. You can build your likeness from different categories like hairstyle, eyes, head shape, and so on. This becomes your Memoji. Now memoji is based on the iphone’s Animoji , that uses apple’s face id camera system to track your facial movements and translate those movements into the emoji that has your facial features (looks like you).
The customization level that memojis offer has taken the internet by storm. Tom Boellstorff said in his article that “memojis are the greatest invention of apple since iphone”.
Iphone 📱 has Memojis , Android has ?
Now for the user like me who want memojis but have never used iphone ,there was a lot of frustration invloved, but the great news is “where there is a will there is a way”. The creativity and freedom that android offers to its Genius Devs is unmatchable. Although Competing with memojis for iphone, google in introduced the mini emoji in their google keyboard app “G board”. but that lies far from class and quality the memojis have specially in the chat.
Now since memojis and emojis are mostly used in chats, and knowing the fact that whatsapp was the second most downloaded non-game app on the Google Play Store (again, after TikTok), but seventh on the Apple App Store, with More than 65 billion messages are sent via WhatsApp every day shows that how non trivial the role of memojis can be in our chats on android.
Memojis for Android
Being a fan of Memojis and Android developer, I have found a pretty decent way of getting genuine memoji from iphone and re use it as a sticker in whatsapp chat. Though the process takes quite an effort and time but i have now managed to make ,collect and catagorize this great memoji iphone collection into an android app with weekly updates.
Memoji Apple Stickers for Android — Sortscript (Playstore)
PROS : The App has high quality memojis of iphone with the first app in the play store to have proper categorization of memoji based on the hair color and face colors. The app started with 5 categories and has now grown to more than 15 categories with more than 300 stickers in a little time.
Cons : Although the app comes with great memoji collection however users usually look for creating their own memojis which unfortunately this memoji app doesn't offer for the time being.
Public Opinion :
Most Recent Reviews of Memoji Stickers App by Sort Script — Goolge Play Review Section
Although google has not come up with a feature that can beat memojis by apple but thanks to the individual efforts by android Developers , Android Users still can make their whatsapp chat more expressive and funny by using such cool memoji for android apps . | https://medium.com/@mabrar92/memoji-welcome-to-android-4aebdff7fefa | ['Muhammad Abrar'] | 2020-11-25 16:37:45.586000+00:00 | ['WhatsApp', 'Android Apps', 'AndroidDev', 'Emoji', 'Apps'] |
Under Lock Down: Life in Barcelona During a Global Pandemic | Typically, I’m greeted by tourism and life the moment I step out of my door, but for the past week it’s been quite the opposite. I walk out of my door to take out the recycling and I pass one person tightly wearing a mask and walking with his head down.
On the other hand, I take the long route to the grocery store to catch a glimpse of an unfamiliar empty plaza and the Barcelona Cathedral behind it, where there’s typically a long line of tourists waiting to go inside. A couple of locals are crossing the plaza but only one person is seated on the benches where life usually flocks.
A homeless man sits with pigeons in front of an empty plaza at the Barcelona Cathedral.
That person happens to be a homeless man. He’s sitting down among pigeons with a cart of his belongings. I can’t help but wonder what considerations have been taken in for the homeless during this pandemic. Has the man even a clue to what degree with virus is affecting the rest of the world?
While heading back home, I see a group of police officers. Instantly, I’m filled with fear — what a complicated thought to be filled with fear at the sight of those who are here to keep us safe. During the lock down, police officers have been given permission to fine or arrest anyone who is out without ‘a good reason’. Instead of passing the officers, I decide to take a different route to avoid them all together out of fear that having my camera and taking the long way home was going against ‘good reason’. For a split second the moment felt like a scene from The Handmaid’s Tale.
What’s worse is the effect this pandemic is having on small businesses in Barcelona and around the world. Some have closed their doors entirely as they can’t financially afford to stay in business any longer while others have been improvising by offering online alternatives.
For example, local art studio Arte Bar may have had to close its doors, but the studio is now offering online art classes for the foreseeable future. Some yoga studios and other similar businesses are now doing the same.
There’s hope for these businesses, but it’s the small bars and cafes that I’m most worried about. Many already struggle to make decent profits, meaning this lock down might result in several permanent closures throughout Barcelona.
Usually bustling with shoppers and tourists, The El Born neighborhood has quieted down drastically since the lock down.
Though our world has been turned upside down, many of us are still living life in high spirits.
People are spending more time on their balconies playing guitar and singing or inside working on projects they’ve been too busy to finish. Others have taken to the internet to spread positive messages, make uplifting videos, and purchase gift certificates to support struggling businesses. These human actions indicate that though many of our countries may not have been prepared for this kind of pandemic, we as people will get through it — together.
And here in Spain we haven’t forgotten about those fighting against this virus on the front line. Every night at 8 p.m., we all step out onto our balconies or open our windows to cheer and clap for the healthcare employees who are working hard 24 hours a day to beat this pandemic.
With every action, we are saying “we are all in this together.” | https://medium.com/the-expat-chronicles/lock-down-barcelona-during-coronavirus-pandemic-6c5a73b83ce5 | ['Christa Adams'] | 2020-03-21 17:19:15.009000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Culture', 'Barcelona', 'Spain', 'Life'] |
A Recipe for Success | Things you wish you knew before entering the Dev Workforce. As told by Up and Coming Software Engineers.
When you’re working towards a goal, you get tunnel vision for the finish line. You have your eyes set on the prize. You may be mastering a language, learning a new framework, finishing a project. The work can be engulfing and you may not come up for air until the task is done. Understandable. However, on occasion the journey becomes so great in the moment we forget to think about what comes next. And if you’re about to finish your education, start a new job or both, the “after” may catch you off guard if you forget to look ahead.
I always like to be clear about what you can expect from my articles, in case you’d like to turn back now!! This article is meant to save you a little panic, and a little grief. And with the help of several kind, brilliant developers, prepare you for day 1 in the real world of coding.
Expectations v. Reality
Summer Expectations vs Reality
You’ve finished your education, you’re out the gate! “Now what?” For many people entering a new field or even “week 1” of moving to a new company, even though you are qualified, you must familiarize yourself with the new landscape. One quickly finds which skills will really be honed in on and possibly which skills will be needed to supplement their tool belt.
So I asked recent grads and young professionals who still remember what it felt like on day zero… “What do you wish you knew before getting out into the workforce?”
_________________________________________________________________
I think something important that many bootcamp students do not tackle early on is data structures and algorithms for technical interviews. Another thing is refining your code skills in the domain you learn, so its clean.
Garrett Halstein, YouTuber & Software Engineer @ IBM
_________________________________________________________________
I wish I knew just how important that first job is. It defines a ton of how you grow and develop as an engineer.
Shirley Lin, Full Stack Engineer at DataCamp
_________________________________________________________________
You’re never going to feel at the top of your game and ready to go out into the workforce. There is always more to learn — be it new technologies or just diving deeper into previous material to get a more solid grasp. JUST GO FOR IT. You’re more than capable and the sheer fact that you’ve made it this far proves that. You’re never going to feel 100% ready, and if you keep waiting until you feel 100% ready, you’ll miss out on some great opportunities. Don’t sell yourself short…you’re allowed to recognize how amazing you are!
Cindy Kei, Software Engineer
_________________________________________________________________
I wish I knew more about data structures, algorithms, and system designs before getting out into the workforce. Because that’s what most company hiring processes are all about, even when you are trying to switch jobs, you still get tested again with the same process.
Osgood, Software Engineer
_________________________________________________________________
My Bootcamp didn’t have a module or part of a module where they specifically cover CSS. It’s more of a learn on your own, as you go process regarding CSS. It is quite straight forward but you can clearly see the difference between people that are amazing at CSS and us plebs who are just okay at it. CSS gives your projects so much more presentation value. Another thing would have been Databases, Big O notation and Algorithms. Although we have been studying on our own outside of the program amongst ourselves, it would definitely have been nice to have a small section or even a module to go over these topics as these are very important areas that we MUST know and feel comfortable with as developers.
Joseph Cha, Software Engineer
_________________________________________________________________
I wish I was more familiar with hosting my own projects. I also wish we’d woven algos into more of our mod learning.
Andrew Casarsa, Software Engineer
_________________________________________________________________
What Worked?
We’ve all heard the expression hindsight 20/20. After completing a long process, often times we can look back and better isolate what happened and what were some of the keys to our success. That’s exactly what I’ve asked the following Software Engineers to specifically reflect on.
“What resources helped you most along your journey to SE?” Once again here are their invaluable responses.
_________________________________________________________________
(as mentioned above) You can refine your code skills in the domain you learn so it’s clean, by checking out Colt Steele’s or Stephen Grider’s courses on the specific domain of interest. For example, they teach react extremely well, clean and industry grade. Something you can’t pick up in the short time of a bootcamp.
Garrett Halstein, YouTuber & Software Engineer @ IBM
**Garrett also has a great Youtube channel link here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxFU0nGRBUEkidfiDGL4yWg
_________________________________________________________________
Definitely the thing that aided me the most was being able to blend my interests with development. It allowed me to build a really unique project that stood out and helped me land my first job.
Shirley Lin, Full Stack Engineer at DataCamp
_________________________________________________________________
Error messages are your friend, it’s way better to have an error message and something be wrong than not have one at all.
Facebook Developer (preferred to remain anonymous)
_________________________________________________________________
Collaboration with my peers and wider network was the tool that helped me most in my engineering journey. Collaborating with my peers provided me with fresh perspectives, advice, moral support, and an opportunity to bounce ideas off each other. I would not have made it through my engineering journey or have learned as much as I was able to without all of the people who went through this experience with me. You have to know when to put your pride aside and ask for help, but be sure to pay the favor back when someone else is struggling!
Cindy Kei, Software Engineer
_________________________________________________________________
I would say Google, Youtube, friends, and my brother were the most help toward my journey to engineering. I am lucky enough to have a brother who happens to be a software engineer.
Osgood, Software Engineer
_________________________________________________________________
I’d say one of the most helpful things was having the support of friends… As for things that the school provided, the practice challenges were always very helpful. One of the most helpful things were the rare occasions you got one on one time with a lead…Having one on one time with someone as advanced as a lead who can look over the code that you wrote yourself was such a big help. It was a lot different than reviewing code that was written by someone else. Learning something seemed easier when the example was specific to your own experience…Also, it was always helpful to have some sort of debugger especially before react, like byebug or pry, rails console, to just test things out. It’s a simple thing but I think it was very useful.
Andrew Casarsa, Software Engineer
_________________________________________________________________
In Short…
There’s no way to sum up absolutely all the invaluable wisdom that has been bestowed above. However, I know some folks are very busy and looking for the abridged version! Some key takeaways became apparent very quickly. You have probably already become aware of them. Algorithms and data structures were almost unanimously highlighted as necessary, depending on the job and field you are looking to work in. Teamwork and peers, an obvious tool, but somehow still constantly underrated. Finally, self-appreciation and utilizing personal assets.
I’d like to give another special thanks to everyone who so graciously gave me their time and answered my questions. I’m sure their responses will resonate with a few of you out there.
As always I would love to hear from you the reader, if you have any feedback or questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. | https://medium.com/dev-genius/a-recipe-for-success-b30448a2178a | ['Coral Fussman'] | 2020-07-01 07:40:10.508000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'Coding', 'Codingbootcamp', 'Software Engineering', 'Algorithms'] |
How to avoid being intimidated by quantitative UX metrics | How to avoid being intimidated by quantitative UX metrics
Image by Yvette W from Pixabay
I’ve been intimidated by data several times in my UX career, but I never ran into analysis paralysis until I started looking at Google Analytics data.
The sheer amount of information, combined with unfamiliarity with making sense of the data, frustrated me with where to start.
And I’m not alone in this. According to John Ciancutti, Chief Product Officer at Coursera,
The tension [between design and data] is natural because it’s like “I don’t understand, it’s foreign, I’m not good at it”…As a designer, you are probably more capable than you recognize to raise great points around data, but you don’t know how to think about it yet because it’s not familiar.”
But there’s one thing that can help you immensely as long as you keep it in mind:
The goal of quantitative data is to answer specific questions about what’s happening in the User Experience.
If you know what you’re looking for, you can probably filter out most of the data that presents itself.
To understand these specific questions, let’s talk about a framework that uses both quantitative and qualitative data: UX Optimization.
Understanding UX Optimization
UX Optimization, by Craig Tomlin, is a process that combines the power of behavioral quantitative data with qualitative data coming from user testing to improve websites.
This process consists of 4 steps:
Build appropriate user personas
Check UX Behavioral metrics (from places like Google Analytics)
Do User testing
Compile Analysis/ Design Recommendations
To understand why we need to consult Behavioral metrics, let’s consider a scenario.
Imagine you’re choosing between two design alternatives, one catering to newer users and the other towards experienced users. Which one do you choose?
In most cases, you choose the one that’s going to serve our primary users. But to figure that out, you need to know how many users fall into each category. So that’s why you would look at UX Behavioral metrics.
Behavioral UX Data is a signpost for WHAT is happening on a website, from types of interactions to the number of users. But when we establish a user persona and a research question, we also establish the specific type of quantitative data we want to look at.
That lets us do something essential: pick the 4 types of behavioral metrics we’re looking for.
The 4 types of UX Behavioral data
When it comes to UX behavioral data, most of the data can be grouped into 4 different categories.
Acquisition (PPC Keyword Data)
(PPC Keyword Data) Conversion (Clicks, sign-ups, downloads)
(Clicks, sign-ups, downloads) Engagement (Bounce Rate, Time on Page)
(Bounce Rate, Time on Page) Technical (Visits by browser, screen resolution, etc.)
UX will likely only focus on one category based on your research question, but let’s go through a quick overview of each.
Acquisition:
Google Analytics does an organic Keyword search
Acquisition-based data is used to understand where your users are coming from and how they decided to visit your website or download your app.
For example, if certain keywords or ads are leading to your site or what they searched for to find your website.
This tends to be the realm of marketing and SEO types. Still, there might be some niche uses if there are certain problems in navigation, like if keywords highlight a specific page (i.e., “yoursitename login help”), which might suggest that users can’t find things.
Conversion
Conversion is a popular metric that your business cares about because these metrics can deal with making a profit.
Converting readers to users or users to customers is one way that businesses can track performance and evaluate how they’re doing.
In addition, if you’ve ever had to re-design a website, there’s a chance that at its core has been a bad conversion metric.
While we may hear from users that they find things confusing, outdated, or frustrated, a business is more likely to invest time, money, and effort when a specific conversion metric is failing.
However, this tends to be less useful for user research because these metrics are usually known (and a driving force).
Instead, this tends to be supplemental evidence: if a user mentioned something in a user interview or survey, we could examine the metric as supporting evidence.
Engagement
UX probably pays the most attention to engagement because these are metrics that are based around user/customer engagement.
These are task completion rate (based on behavioral flow), how much time is spent on a page, page views, and bounce rate.
Most UX KPIs that you’ve read about around going to be based on engagement metrics, which is why this can be incredibly useful to look at.
User research questions can range from understanding how many users follow a specific navigation pattern (behavioral flow maps), what the typical user does to find something, which pages or navigation are misleading (high bounce rate), or how the information design is being affected by the fold (or in terms of heatmaps).
You have to remember, though, that we should not use this information by itself to conclude.
Seeing that users spent 8 minutes on a page isn’t that revealing: there’s a lot of decisions to make on that page, or it could be because of UX issues.
But you can’t say for sure until you user test.
Technical
Lastly, there are technical metrics. This is mainly useful for research questions in a couple of different areas:
Screen resolution
Mobile vs. Desktop
Average page loading time
Site speed overview
These are often not the focus of a research question but rather a way of clarifying issues or other focuses that you should be paying attention to. For example, you may want to think about the resolution of your design or whether or not we should focus on the mobile version first.
But these things are often metrics that you should bring up with your team.
That means out of the 4 types of Behavioral UX metrics. But, unfortunately, you’re probably only paying attention to one, which can be instrumental in getting you to manage your expectations.
Managing your expectations
Large amounts of data can be intimidating, especially when you have almost no indicators on where to start.
But you should keep in mind that unless you’re doing something like an A/B test (a highly controlled quantitative experiment), you’re not trying to gather all your relevant data at this stage: you will still need user testing and conduct interviews.
The reason is that even though quantitative data can tell you What is happening, it can’t tell you Why.
To do that, you need to do user testing, and interviews like you’ve always had. But this quantitative data can help inform the latter: you might ask users if there are problems in the workflow, ask for a think-aloud test while completing problematic tasks, or design tasks involved with problematic navigation.
So before you balk at the thought of digging around with analytics data, take a moment and think about what you’re trying to accomplish with your user research. This will help you filter what data you’re searching for and help guide what you should ask during your user interviews.
And having that additional dimension of data can improve both your user research and designs.
Kai Wong is a UX Designer, Author, and Data Visualization advocate. His latest book, Data Persuasion, talks about learning Data Visualization from a Designer’s perspective and how UX can benefit Data Visualization. | https://uxdesign.cc/how-to-avoid-being-intimidated-by-quantitative-ux-metrics-4327fd3827d8 | ['Kai Wong'] | 2021-08-06 19:18:31.950000+00:00 | ['Metrics', 'User Research', 'UX', 'UX Research', 'Product Design'] |
JavaScript Object Features in TypeScript — Modules | Photo by Gavin Allanwood on Unsplash
TypeScript is a natural extension of JavaScript that’s used in many projects in place of JavaScript.
However, not everyone knows how it actually works.
In this article, we’ll look at how to define and use modules.
Using Modules
Almost all apps can’t be contained in a single file.
Therefore, we need to put our code in modules so that we can organize the code.
This way, we can break our code into manageable chunks.
JavaScript modules can be used with TypeScript projects.
And they should be used since they’re now standard in JavaScript.
Node.js also has support for JavaScript modules since version 12, so we can use them without adding any transpilation in Node projects as well.
Creating a JavaScript Module
To create a module, we just have to create a JavaScript file.
Then if we want to make a member be importable, then we put the member at the top level and use the export keyword to expose it to the outside.
For instance, we can write:
export const name = "joe";
This will make our name variable be importable from another module.
This kind of export is called a named export since we’ve to specify the name of the member explicitly when we import it.
We can also do a default export.
To do that, we can use the default keyword:
export default {
name: "james"
};
We can only have default export in any module.
We can name it anything when we import this in another module.
Using a JavaScript Module
To use an export member of a module, we’ve to import it.
For instance, if we want to use the following exported member:
export const name = "joe";
We can write:
import { name } from "./module"; console.log(name);
We used the import keyword with the member of the module in curly braces to import it.
Then we can reference it anywhere inside the module.
To import a default export, we skip the curly braces.
For instance, if we have:
export default {
name: "james"
};
Then we can import the object by writing:
import obj from "./module"; console.log(obj.name);
We skipped the curly braces in the import statement and log the value after the import.
The ./ tells us that we’re searching for a path relative to the current module.
So we should include it for relative imports.
If we skip the ./ , then we indicate that we’re importing from a dependency rather than a module in the local project.
The most common location for module dependencies would be in the node_modules folder.
Photo by Aswathy N on Unsplash
Defining Multiple Named Members in a Module
We can define multiple named members in a module.
For instance, we can write:
export const name = "joe";
export const age = 20;
We exported the members name and age from the module.
Then we import then by writing:
import { name, age } from "./module";
console.log(name, age);
We then import them by separating them with a comma.
With named members, we can selectively import the members that we want.
This way, we don’t have to import things that we don’t use.
Conclusion
In a TypeScript project, we’ve to use modules to make them organized into small, manageable chunks.
We can just import and export members as we wish.
And we don’t have to expose everything to the outside or import everything.
In Plain English
Enjoyed this article? If so, get more similar content by subscribing to our YouTube channel! | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/javascript-object-features-in-typescript-modules-f08b2888cfbf | ['John Au-Yeung'] | 2020-06-12 16:31:20.185000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Technology', 'JavaScript', 'Software Development', 'Web Development'] |
Restaurant Industry In Economic Free Fall — Here Are Brutal The Numbers | Photo by Siyuan on Unsplash
The restaurant industry is in an economic free fall due to months of closings and dining limitations. For those who don’t know, restaurants are the nation’s second-largest private sector employer — with employees at independent eateries, regional and national chains, and franchisees.
The National Restaurant Association (NRA) has now published the results of a new survey that shows how big the problems are, „and the results should galvanize Republicans and Democrats alike to finally reach agreement on a compromise coronavirus relief package for our industry and employees, our suppliers, and the communities that rely on the strength of the industry ”, as they write here.
These are the brutal findings of the survey:
– 87% of fullservice restaurants (independent, chain, and franchise) report an average 36% drop in sales revenue. For an industry with an average profit margin of 5%-6%, this is simply unsustainable. – 83% of fullservice operators expect sales to be even worse over the next three months. – Although sales are significantly lower for most independent and franchise owners, their costs have not fallen by a proportional level. 59% of operators say their total labor costs (as a percentage of sales) are higher than they were pre-pandemic. – The future remains bleak. 58% of chain and independent fullservice operators expect continued furloughs and layoffs for at least the next three months.
In the letter the NRA also notes that the tide of restaurant closures and bankruptcies continues to rise — „sweeping away jobs in some of the most venerated independent and chain restaurants.“
– We predict that as of today, 17% of restaurants — more than 110,000 establishments — are completely closed. – The vast majority of permanently closed restaurants were well-established businesses, and fixtures in their communities. On average these restaurants had been in business for 16 years, and 16% had been open for at least 30 years. – Only 48% of these former restaurant owners say it is likely they will remain in the industry in any form in the months or years ahead. Our nation is losing a generation of of industry talent, knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit.
It goes on: „What these findings make clear is that more than 500,000 restaurants of every business type — franchise, chain, and independent — are in an unprecedented economic decline. And for every month that passes without a solution from Congress, thousands more restaurants across the country will close their doors for good.“
The Association hopes that the Congress will act fast: „In short, the restaurant industry simply cannot wait for relief any longer. Efforts in Washington to find the “perfect” solution are laudable, but the lack of progress in the meantime has led too many operators to give up on the government and close down for good. Since our last update to you, less than three months ago, an additional 10,000 restaurants have closed nationwide.“
Want to receive a daily newsletter about topics like this? Subscribe here. | https://medium.com/@jonahw/restaurant-industry-in-economic-free-fall-here-are-brutal-the-numbers-ac0ef1d9214 | ['Jonah Williams'] | 2020-12-09 09:39:17.462000+00:00 | ['Industry', 'Restaurant', 'Work', 'Economics', 'Coronavirus'] |
Running Ubuntu on Windows 10 with WSL2 — Part 3: Visual Studio Code and go | Note: This is the third of a series of articles about running Ubuntu on Windows 10, check out the first two chapters: Running Ubuntu on Windows 10 with WSL2 and Running Ubuntu on Windows 10 with WSL2 — Part 2: Windows Terminal
For the third episode of our saga about running Ubuntu on Windows 10 with WSL2, after installing and configuring Windows Terminal, we are going to focus on Visual Studio Code, how to connect it with WSL2 / Ubuntu and work directly on the Linux file system from Windows. We will also install and configure golang (including debugging) and show our favorite VS Code extensions.
Install Visual Studio Code
The first step is to install VS Code on Windows 10; go to https://code.visualstudio.com/download and download the latest installer for Windows:
Then run the VSCodeUserSetup-x64-<version number>.exe downloaded file (version was 1.48.2 at the time of writing):
Follow the installation wizard to set up VS Code.
Connect VS Code to WSL
The magic trick to connect to the Ubuntu file system is to install the Remote: WSL extension.
When you launch VS Code, it will detect that you are running WSL on your PC and recommend to install the Remote: WSL extension.
If it does not show up or you dismiss the popup, you can find it in the VS Code Extensions window (it will also be one of the recommended ones)
Once you install it, a small double-arrow icon in the bottom left corner will allow you to open a remote folder:
Click on the remote >< icon and then select Remote-WSL: New Window
You will be now connected to the Ubuntu file system, with no open folders:
Open a folder and you will be good to go:
Make VS Code look good!
I don’t know you but I need my IDE to look good, I use the Cobalt 2 Theme Official that is a dark theme with good contrast and great code readability (after installed, remember to set the color theme):
I also use the vscode-icons extension for noice icons:
Now, if you open the shell inside VS Code, something looks weird:
The command prompt is not using the Powerline fonts, to change this, open File -> Preferences -> Setting and type fontFamily in the Search settings box, then select Features/Terminal in the tree view and type Source Code Pro for Powerline and save, the command prompt will automatically update:
Other VS Code Settings
I use other VS Code settings that I want to share with you, to make things faster, I will edit them in VSCode settings.json file.
To edit your VS Code configuration in JSON, open the command palette (View -> Command Palette, or Ctrl+Shift+P), type Open Settings JSON and select Preferences: Open Settings (JSON):
The settings.json file with all the non-default VS Code settings will open:
I use these additional settings:
"editor.wordSeparators": "`~!@#$%^&*()=+[{]}\\|;:'\",.<>/?",
"editor.renderWhitespace": "all",
"diffEditor.ignoreTrimWhitespace": false,
"update.mode": "none",
"extensions.autoUpdate": false,
"window.title": "[${folderName}]${separator}${dirty}${activeEditorShort}${separator}${appName}",
"files.trimTrailingWhitespace": true,
"editor.tabSize": 2
editor.wordSeparators : I removed the — from the word separators so I can select identifiers with a — in it via double-click on a word (sometimes these can be used in bash scripts)
: I removed the from the word separators so I can select identifiers with a in it via double-click on a word (sometimes these can be used in bash scripts) editor.renderWhitespace : I always want to see all the spaces in my source files
: I always want to see all the spaces in my source files diffEditor.ignoreTrimWhitespace : when I do a git merge, I want to see the differences due to space changes
: when I do a git merge, I want to see the differences due to space changes update.mode and extensions.autoUpdate : I don’t want the extensions to autoupdate, I need to control when they are updated as sometimes with WSL they break
and : I don’t want the extensions to autoupdate, I need to control when they are updated as sometimes with WSL they break window.title : I added the [foldername] to the beginning of the window title, so I can recognize different go projects instances by their folder names (I can have 5 or 6 open at the same time, this is a saviour!)
: I added the [foldername] to the beginning of the window title, so I can recognize different go projects instances by their folder names (I can have 5 or 6 open at the same time, this is a saviour!) files.trimTrailingWhitespace : when a file is saved, all the extra spaces at the end of a line are trimmed out
: when a file is saved, all the extra spaces at the end of a line are trimmed out editor.tabSize : I like to use 2 spaces for tabs
Add the ones you want to use to your settings.json file and save it:
Install golang and gvm (go version manager)
During the lifetime of our project, we changed the version of go a few times. To make it easy to change it, I use gvm (go version manager), let’s use it to install go 1.14.
First, install the Ubuntu gvm prerequisites:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install curl git mercurial make binutils bison gcc build-essential
Then install gvm:
$ bash < https://raw.githubusercontent.com/moovweb/gvm/master/binscripts/gvm-installer)
Source the gvm file on the current shell so we can to install the first version of go:
$ source $HOME/.gvm/scripts/gvm
Install a version of go (1.14 here), note that we are using binary for the first installation, and set it as default:
$ gvm install 1.14 -B
$ gvm use go1.14 --default
Now, add this to your ~/.zshrc :
[[ -s "${HOME}/.gvm/scripts/gvm" ]] && source "${HOME}/.gvm/scripts/gvm"
Note that when running gvm use, your $GOPATH environment variable is changed to what gvm wants, this is not cool with me, I want it to point to $HOME/go , so I also added the following lines to my ~/.zshrc :
gvm use go1.14
export GOPATH="${HOME}/go"
export GOROOT="${GOROOT:-$(go env GOROOT)}"
export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH/bin
Open a new shell in VS Code to validate that your settings are correct:
And now you can build the golang hello world example:
Debugging golang with VS Code
If you want to debug golang in VS Code, install the Go for VS Code extension, then enable Go: Use Language Server Setting in Remote WSL:
After you restart VS Code, you will be prompted with the suggested gopls extensions, go ahead and install them.
Then add a breakpoint to your go code and press F5. You will be asked to create a default Run and Debug VS Code profile:
You will be prompted with the dlv command — go ahead and install it, now you can step-by-step debug golang code — sweet!
Best VS Code Plugins
To finish up our VS Code configuration, we will install our favorite extensions.
Project Manager by Alessandro Fragnani allows me to quickly switch between different projects in separate folders — it installs locally and manages the folders on Ubuntu:
I use three git extensions (I try to use git from the command line but I understand pictures better, what can I do :D).
Git Graph helps me visualize those complicated git branches and merges graphically :
Git Tree Compare by Maik Riechert shows me the differences between my working branch and master for easier merges
GitLens — Git Supercharged by Eric Amodio for those amazing inline git blame and git code lens
So far so good
That brings us to the end of this long third chapter. Now you should have a powerful configuration of Ubuntu, VS Code and Windows Terminal on your Windows 10 machine that will allow you to do coding directly on the Linux file system while having a PC available for gaming (err….. :D).
In a follow up chapter, we will install and configure Docker, Kubernetes and the Azure cli, to complete our work setup.
Until then,
Ciao. | https://medium.com/@maurogiusti/running-ubuntu-on-windows-10-with-wsl2-part-3-visual-studio-code-and-go-e2c04ae1abd5 | ['Mauro Giusti'] | 2021-04-01 16:28:23.042000+00:00 | ['Vscode', 'Wsl', 'Windows 10', 'Ubuntu'] |
That Which is Lost: The Joy of Watching Anime in Theaters | It certainly has been a rough year for just about everyone, huh? So much so, in fact, that the holidays did not even really feel like the holidays. Yeah, I exchanged presents, watched Christmas movies, and had a nice dinner, but it still did not feel like a normal Christmas, because it was not.
As I was reading Yumdeku’s thankful tag post the other day, I was reminded that I never really thought about what I was thankful for this year. I thought about it for a while, and came up with some pretty common answers: friends, family, the stuff I have. However, something that hit me like a brick was: Theaters. Specifically, I am thankful for the ability to watch anime in a movie theater, even though that’s not really possible right now.
I am not sure how it is for other countries right now, but at least in America, all of the major theaters, and even the smaller ones, are closed down right now. You know, for good reason. I honestly cannot imagine how much worse things would be if people were allowed to congregate in theaters…yikes.
Movie theaters are gross. Like, gross as hell. Still, the one good thing about them was the fact that at least pre-COVID, I could go pretty much every week and expect to find some sort of anime being shown. Whether that be the newest Shinkai or Hosoda work, a re-run of old Ghibli movies, or something completely new, it would be there.
This is pretty much solely due to the increase in popularity of anime in the west. Because companies like GKIDS and others have now found it profitable to air certain movies and shows in theaters, they did, and since then a whole new market has been opened, despite the fact that many see traditional theaters as dying. For me, going to watch an anime on the big screen instead of just on my laptop or tv at home is one of the things I have missed a lot in the last few months.
Part of it is just due to the viewing experience itself. The surround sound audio combined with the comically large screen makes for a much more enjoyable watch. This goes doubly true for shows and movies with particularly good animation and/or sound design, as these extra features make big moments, like the end of “Your Name” hit that much harder.
A lot of it though is also to do with getting to go with other people. At least from my experience, the majority of the people in the anime community prefer watching shows alone. However, having someone there with you in a theater, for the occasional glance over to say “this is amazing” or even “this is awful” is a really nice feeling and one that I would like to have back.
I know this post was a bit more rambley, and that’s mainly because I wrote the majority of it on the spot. Still, it is my honest feelings.
Thanks for reading! | https://medium.com/@jackscheibelein/that-which-is-lost-the-joy-of-watching-anime-in-theaters-d3760e76453a | ['Jack Scheibelein'] | 2020-12-28 00:25:08.768000+00:00 | ['Movie Theaters', 'Animated Observations', 'Blog', 'Writing', 'Anime'] |
Be Wary the Revolution | In 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was the president of a nation with no formal alliances, a domestic market protected by some of the highest tariffs in the world and a deep suspicion of international institutions. He’d been elected promising to keep American out of the war, and yet there he was, sitting at the victor’s table being asked what he thought about the shape of post-war Europe. Winston Churchill, then Great Britain’s Secretary of State for War, argued for putting Kaiser Wilhelm’s nephew on the German throne in a clipped constitutional monarchy modeled on the UK’s. His reasoning was that shifting instantly from an overbearing king to a democratic republic might invite a citizenry unfamiliar with popular politics to do something rash.
Wanting to make a bold impression, Wilson would hear none of it. He’d made a 14-point list for how he’d decided the world should work and was married to the wonderfully worded slogan “make the world safe for democracy.” Wilson was convinced, and most Americans still are, that the shift from monarchy to free republic is a smooth one so long as you’re properly philosophical about it.
It’s not that Wilson was an idiot. He was tedious to be sure, and being president of Princeton is also pretty damning, but he wasn’t some slobbering mouth-breather either. It’s just that Americans have a pleasantly warped impression of revolutionary upheaval based on our own survivor’s bias. True the American Revolution was revolutionary politically in the broad sense. On a more practical level, however, our break with the British Empire had about the same impact on daily life as a corporate spin-off does for the branch office: You change the logo on the stationary and quit filing paperwork with HQ, but that’s about it. Because the colonies had long been effectively self-running as long as the taxes were paid, the same well-connected, wig-wearing fancy boys in the local assemblies all got themselves elected to congress after the war. George Washington was a revolutionary in that he led an army in a successful colonial revolt, but he was no radical. The man was about as establishment as you could get.
Even in this best-case anomaly, we did have a civil war. Our revolution had been so establishment that we managed to avoid the issue of economic infrastructure and basic human rights for a generation.
The French Revolution was more typical of the breed: They went full student radical and reimagined a government that would transgress the customs of the ancestors left and right. First, they guillotined everyone with an education or spare investment capital, then re-wrote property rights, government bodies, harassed the peasants for not being woke, deep-sixed the church (admittedly, it was literally corrupt as hell at the time), did not free the colonial slaves for five years (and re-enslaved them eight years later), declared a sassy prostitute “the Goddess of Reason”, adopted different weights and measures (this was the metric system and it really does make more sense that measurements based on a dead king’s feet), and a new calendar entirely divorced from nature.
The people, however, didn’t want their existence reimagined by Parisian intellectuals, they just wanted the price of bread to stay level. So, the new government of the people had to kill a lot of said people to make these new radical ideas stick. By the end of the decade, the entire country was hankering for the mellowing effects of a guy like Napoleon.
For about 150 years things were pretty lively for French society until the Germans took over the place. France has had to reestablish its Republic five times since its revolution. In contrast, the American revolution in many ways operated more akin to the coup d’état in that it struck the state at the top and left the people who actually worked for a living to get on with it. By any objective measure the United States, flaws not with-standing, has created the richest, most open, mobile and equal society in modern history — even in 2020.
Which brings us back to the discussion of that sudden shift from autocracy to democratic republic that Woodrow Wilson and Winston Churchill had about Germany in 1918. Wilson won the debate. Germany’s Weimar republic was established and set it about winning votes with a fiscal policy that would have made Bernie Sanders proud. It also created so much chaos that a decade later, the idealistic young were welcoming the Nazis who provided, as one young man put it, “Freedom from freedom.”
We can never know what a post-World War I constitutional German monarchy would have done with itself. To be clear, counter-factuals are always the rubber-chickens of the historian’s gumbo. The fact remains that in a restored and clipped German monarchy, the path to power for house-painting, pseudo-intellectual Austrian psychopaths narrows considerably.
Adapted from Pothole of the Gods, by Richard Murff. Available 2021
Image: Eugène Delacroix — La liberté guidant le people (1830) │ WikiCommons | https://medium.com/@rjmurff/be-wary-the-revolution-2c2122d950d | ['Richard Murff'] | 2020-12-09 15:34:38.142000+00:00 | ['Radicalisation', 'American History', 'French Revolution', 'Protest', 'Revolution'] |
Detecting COVID-19 using Deep Learning | Detecting COVID-19 using Deep Learning
A practical approach to help medical practitioners helping us in the battle against COVID-19
“Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2".
“The disease first originated in December 2019 from Wuhan, China and since then it has spread globally across the world affecting more than 200 countries. The impact is such that the World Health Organization(WHO) has declared the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.”
As of 29th April, there is a total of 31,30,191 cases with 2,17,674 deaths in more than 200 countries across the world. (Source: Bing COVID-19 tracker).
So, in this particular scenario, one primary thing that needs to be done and has already started in the majority of the countries is Manual testing, so that the true situation can be understood and appropriate decisions can be taken.
But the drawbacks of manual testing includes sparse availability of testing kits, costly and inefficient blood tests; a blood test takes around 5–6 hours to generate the result.
So, the idea is to overcome these circumstances using the Deep Learning technique for better and efficient treatment. Since the disease is highly contagious therefore as early as we generate the results the fewer cases in the city that’s why we can use Convolution Neural Network to get our job done.
Can you distinguish between both X-rays if they haven’t been labeled? I bet you can’t, but a CNN can.
The problem is a binary classification problem where we classify Normal vs COVID-19 cases.
There are several pros and cons of using Deep Learning to tackle such kinds of situations:
Pros: More time saving; less expensive; easy to operate Cons: Practically we need ~100% accuracy as we can’t wrongly identify the patients as it might lead to further spread of disease which is highly discouraged.
But still, this model can return good accuracies and can further can be enhanced.
Data Preparation
Machine Learning needs a lot of data to train; the data we need for this type of problem is chest X-Ray for both COVID affected and fit patients.
Dr.Joseph Paul Cohen recently open-sourced a database containing chest X-ray images of patients suffering from the COVID-19 disease. The dataset used is an open-source dataset which consists of COVID-19 images from publicly available research, as well as lung images with different pneumonia-causing diseases such as SARS, Streptococcus, and Pneumocystis. I have also used the Kaggle’s Chest X-ray competitions dataset to extract X-rays of healthy patients and have sampled 100 images to have a balance with the COVID-19 available images.
So, the dataset consists of COVID-19 X-ray scan images. It turns out that the most frequently used view is the Posteroanterior view and I have considered the COVID-19 PA view X-ray scans for my analysis.
To stratify our data we will take an equal number of images and will blend them and later will divide into test and train data.
Model Deployment
Since we have already prepared the data which is the most tedious part of this project, let’s move to the next step here we will create a deep learning model that is going to learn the difference between normal X-Ray and COVID-19 affected X-Ray.
I assume you all know the basics of CNN architecture if not I highly recommend you follow:- Basics of CNN
Model Architecture
I tend to have 3 hidden layers, you can experiment with more or fewer layers that is up to you. I am going to mimic the traditional route of increasing the neurons, as the more we go deep inside the layer, the more features are learnt.
I’m going to have (224,224,3) input neurons that are we are resizing our data to 224*224 with 3 channels as it is considered to be the ideal size.
At last, I am going to flatten our features and will use sigmoid as activation function as we are having binary classification problem, and thus our output will only contain one cell, adam as optimizer works pretty well with sigmoid hence compiling the model with them in addition to cross binary entropy.
Parameters
You might be wondering why I didn’t directly deploy VGG16 or any predefined model but for that, you must know the architecture of VGG16, it contains roughly around 140million parameters, on the other hand, our model includes around 5.7million parameters, so it is better and more optimal to use customized model rather than training for hours on transfer learning especially for small datasets like this.
Training Data
Since we’ve already defined our model the next task we are left with is training our data on the defined model.
I tried training the data without performing shearing, zooming and horizontal shifts so the accuracy I got was around 50% which is pretty low for real-time projects like this. | https://towardsdatascience.com/detecting-covid-19-using-deep-learning-262956b6f981 | ['Daksh Trehan'] | 2020-07-27 15:47:54.858000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Covid 19', 'Data Science'] |
Looking After Your Feet When Working Remotely | The feet tend to be the most neglected part of the body. We spend most of our time caring for the body parts that need to be aesthetically pleasing, like teeth and skin, or the ones which we think do the most important jobs, like the heart. And whilst the pandemic has influenced a lot of us to become more health-conscious, we’re still neglecting our feet. However taking care of our feet is crucial now more than ever, as lockdown has had a serious impact on foot health.
Working from home has been great for many of us. We’ve had more time to relax, achieve a better work-life balance, and we’ve saved money on the daily commute too. But most of us have done a lot more sitting and a lot less moving. This means that our feet have been lying dormant for most of the day, which really isn’t good for them. Fortunately, we can still look after our feet when WFH in a number of simple ways.
Prioritise Nail Care
Toenails are actually one of the most important parts of the foot, and we could all do with spending more time looking after them. If we don’t, we could end up with some nasty infections, or even a dreaded ingrown toenail. Not only are these incredibly painful, but they can be a great expense too. My partner found this out when he had a partial nail avulsion, in which the podiatrist removed a segment of his ingrown nail to stop it from cutting into his skin. And he had to pay almost £300 for the pleasure! So it really does pay to look after your nails.
Make sure to keep your toenails trimmed, since long nails are more likely to attract bacteria and infection. And make sure to use nail clippers rather than nail scissors. Most nail scissors are designed for finger nails rather than toe nails, so you may not achieve the right cut when using them. If you struggle with trimming them, try doing it after a bath or foot soak. This is when they will be at their most soft and therefore easier to cut.
If you do think you have a problem with your toenails, make sure to go to a podiatrist straight away. It won’t go away by itself, and the earlier you get it seen to, the easier it will be to treat it.
Size Matters
Did you know that 3 out of 4 people wear the wrong size shoe? This may sound surprising, but since most adults don’t get their feet measured, it can be difficult for them to guess the right size. As well as being uncomfortable, wearing the wrong size shoe can cause some serious harm to your feet. You may just experience mild foot pain, like blisters. But wearing the wrong size for a long time can lead to more serious damage, such as stress fractures, knee pain and even foot deformities.
So whether you’re working at home wearing your best office wear or just your fluffy slippers, it’s important to make sure the size is right. When measuring your feet, make sure to do it in the afternoon after a bit of walking. This is when the foot expands to its true size. Also, make sure to measure both feet, since no two are exactly the same. If you find one to be significantly bigger than the other, make sure to buy the size that suits the biggest foot. And most importantly, make sure it feels comfortable.
Even if the size is right on the label, it might not feel perfect on your feet. Only you know what feels the best, so make sure to follow your gut. If you’re struggling to measure your feet, this simple step-by-step guide will help you produce the most accurate measurement.
Keep Them Moisturised
As our feet have very few oil glands and they have to carry our entire weight, it’s no surprise that they have the driest skin on our body. Whilst your cracked heels are probably not something that you’d show off, you’ve probably not been losing sleep over them. After all, a bit of dry skin is pretty harmless, right?
Well, you may be surprised to hear that dry foot skin can cause a lot of damage. You may find that it causes you a mild level of discomfort, such as itchiness or tightness. But dry and cracked skin can also lead to infections, so it’s important to get it under control. Make sure to buy the right kind of moisturiser for your feet. It has the toughest skin on your body, so you can’t use just any.
If you don’t know which cream to buy, Good Housekeeping has compiled a great list of the best value foot creams available. Once you’ve found your ideal moisturiser, remember to not use it in between your toes, as this may lead to an infection.
If you’ve been moisturising your feet but you’re still struggling with keeping on top of dry skin, you should make a visit to your GP. Dry and flaking skin can be a symptom of thyroid conditions, so it’s important to rule this out before seeking out any further treatment.
Don’t Stop Moving
This is one of the most effective ways to look after our feet, as well as our general health. It can be hard to get the motivation to get up and move when we don’t have to. Working from home has made it far easier to go an entire day without moving our feet or our bodies. But by sitting down all day, we are more likely to suffer from poor circulation.
Symptoms of poor circulation include cold and numb feet, as well as brittle nails and slow healing wounds. Poor circulation can be extremely dangerous, as it can lead to swelling, blood clots and even immobility.
So to increase circulation, make sure that you move every day. Whether you choose running, cycling or walking, any exercise is beneficial when it comes to improving circulation. To protect your feet even further, take a bit of time to do these simple stretches for strength and flexibility. What’s more, you don’t even need to leave your desk to exercise your feet. Use a tennis ball to roll your feet when working from your desk, or buy a pedal exerciser to make the most of your time sat down.
But make sure you don’t overdo it. As much as your feet need movement, they also need rest. Make sure to give yourself a day off once in a while to relax, pamper yourself, and put your feet up. If you think you need professional foot care, use the College of Podiatry’s website to find your local podiatrist. Alternatively, visit your GP to find out what treatment is right for you.
Written by Siobhan Kelly
WellBe is spearheading the way to a brighter future for corporate wellness. Our innovative portal is scientifically designed and tailored to each individual employee to improve their wellbeing. We specialise in a range of services from coaching and therapists, to meditation and reading materials. Our aim is to reduce workplace stress that costs UK businesses £42 billion per year. Get in touch with us by visiting our site wellbe.global for more information. | https://medium.com/@wellbe-global/looking-after-your-feet-when-working-remotely-f7312db263d2 | [] | 2020-12-23 08:02:14.874000+00:00 | ['Self Care', 'Feet'] |
The Great Library | A flash fiction fantasy story
The Great Library
“Paradise will be a kind of library.” — Jorge Luis Borges
Photo by Giammarco Boscaro on Unsplash
Paula stared in shock and delight at the room the angel escorted her into. No, it wasn’t a room; it was a warehouse. A warehouse big enough to hold a planet.
And it was filled with books. Shelves upon rows upon stacks, stretching before her, farther than her eyes could see and above her, disappearing into darkness. Hardback, paperbacks, all shapes, sizes and colors. She stretched out a hand to a shelf and her fingers caressed the leather binding of one, moving on to the paper cover of another.
“How many are there?” She whispered her question, unwilling to disturb the awesome silence that so many printed words seemed to demand.
“I’m afraid that is impossible to say — the exact number changes constantly.” The angel gestured at a nearby shelf and Paula saw a new book appear in between two others. The other books on the shelf slid aside to accommodate it as it gently wedged its way in. “Every book that was ever printed is here. As new books are published, they are added to the collection.”
The new book was titled The Cheetah in the Grass by Lindsey Spade. It had shelved itself between a dictionary of Latin words and an engine repair manual. It seemed like an odd place to locate it. She wondered what organizational system they used. It didn’t matter, she decided. All the books in the world from all the centuries of literature? She could spend forever happily browsing through the volumes.
She stared down the seemingly infinite row of books and her stomach held a flutter of heady anticipation. This room, this library was a reader’s dream.
“I have always dreamed that Heaven would be a library.”
“Oh, I’m afraid you’re mistaken. This isn’t Heaven.”
“What?”
He consulted a clipboard, one she hadn’t noticed him carrying before. “You are Paula Inspiro, death by car accident? It says here that you checked out a book from the Danforth Public Library on May 7, 1988, entitled To Love a Pirate.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “The book was never returned.”
Paula searched her memory. “I lost that book. Couldn’t ever find it. But that was years ago. I was just a kid.”
“Books get misplaced all the time. Did you report the loss and make restitution to the library?”
Her face bloomed with color. “No. I didn’t want to admit to anyone that I was reading it. It was hard enough just checking it out.”
“Then that is why you are here. Your job is to find that book and bring it to this door for verification that your sentence has been served.”
“Find it? Among all of these? That’s impossible!” As she watched, three new books appeared on shelves nearby and randomly inserted themselves between the existing books. If she looked closely down the rows, she could see constant movement along the shelves and dread filled her stomach.
He smiled, but no kindness reached his eyes. Instead she saw a sinister glee in the depths.
“As I said, this isn’t Heaven.” | https://medium.com/fiction-foundry/the-great-library-b3e37df0ad5a | ['Cheryl Corbin'] | 2019-12-17 02:45:59.217000+00:00 | ['Flash Fiction', 'Short Fiction', 'Fantasy', 'Fiction', 'Short Story'] |
Testing AWS Lambdas Locally with a HTTPS Proxy | AWS Lambda is generally one of the easiest ways to deploy and execute code in the cloud, especially when deploying code with the sam CLI. The simplicity of serverless resource definitions coupled with the ability to package resources locally and ensure they run on AWS provides a beautiful development experience.
Except sometimes this beautiful process can turn into a beast of a deployment when the build and package steps grow to ten, fifteen or (gasp) more minutes. There are a few places where the sam build / sam deploy paradigm breaks down and starts to cause runaway deployment times:
The number of Lambdas in a deployment becomes large (e.g. to more than half a dozen)
Some or all of your Lambdas have a large number of resources to install and / or a large Lambda package size (increasing time to build and for sam to put the code on S3)
You are making coordinated changes to two Lambdas at once (multiple stacks need to be updated in AWS before you can test)
Multiple people are developing on the same Lambda stack at the same time
Your internet is slow (again, extending the time to place Lambda packages in S3)
Since sam deploys all resources in a CFT, you cannot selectively choose which ones to incrementally update. The impact is that you need to build and upload all of your code to AWS for each deployment that you want to test in the cloud. This becomes particularly annoying when you push code to AWS only to realize that you misspelled a string and you need to redeploy the entire stack.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels
Yes, sam does provide a way to invoke lambdas locally, but this does not help when you want to test coordinated changes between Lambdas. With sam You cannot deploy two lambdas locally and route traffic between them (as far as I know). Sure, there may be better ways to structure and deploy your code to prevent the monolithic deployment issues but there will always be tradeoffs. How much functional code should go into a single Lambda? How to choose when to separate functions into different stacks? How to organize repositories around stacks?
What can be done if you have long package and deployment steps but you want to speed up the time it takes to build and test your Lambdas? Or if you have lambdas from different stacks that invoke each other and you’d like test them locally at the same time?
Reroute Traffic with a Proxy
The basic principle behind rerouting traffic with a proxy is that we want to capture the in-flight request that is going to AWS and then send it back to our local machine instead of allowing it to go to the cloud. This process is generally called Man in the Middle (MITM). The name gets a bad rep for being widely used for hacking but it has practical use in helping to reduce the time it takes to test Lambdas.
Basic Man in the Middle Process (Image by Author)
The key here is that we will only want to reroute pre-configured endpoints back to our local machine. If, for example, we are deploying a stack that has five Lambdas and we’re only making changes to one of those Lambdas then the traffic for the other four should continue to go to AWS.
Capture Traffic Going to AWS
When you invoke an AWS Lambda, with boto3 or another AWS package, you are just calling an API via HTTPS; the AWS package handles the authentication, endpoint creation, and serialization for you. Because all of this traffic is sent via HTTPS you can view all your machine’s HTTPS outgoing traffic through a proxy!
If you’re on a Mac you can update your HTTPS proxy settings under system preferences and then network > advanced > proxies . Here I have turned the local proxy on for port 9090.
(Image by Author)
You can see the traffic flowing through the traffic yourself if you download a tool such as Proxyman and then invoke lambdas from your local machine.
Screenshot of HTTPS request to AWS as seen in Proxyman (Image by Author)
Match Traffic From Endpoints to Reroute Them Locally
Now that the HTTPS traffic is flowing through our proxy we have the ability to manipulate it. This is done with the man-in-the-middle program. This MITM will read all events that come through the proxy and optionally apply some action to them. This is the key to testing our Lambdas locally.
I am using mitmproxy, a super powerful tool that allows scripting logic to be applied to any any records — aka flows — that come through the proxy. The mitmproxy cli accepts a python file as an argument where it will feed HTTPS events to the python script to take action. Here is an example of a script that routes all traffic from google to bing and from reddit to medium.
This code can be run with the command (note — 9090 is the port that my HTTPS proxy is running on):
mitmdump -p 9090 reroute_traffic.py
Rerouting Lambda Traffic
You may have noticed in the screenshot above that all of the requests being made to AWS follow the same naming convention; the region, lambda version date, and lambda function name are concatenated to build the endpoint. When you run sam local start-lambda … a similar process occurs locally! AWS creates a local endpoint on your machine that maps to a specific port. You can even specify that port like this:
sam local start-lambda -p 54321 --template /path/to/template.yaml
Your Lambda will be running locally and you can see the local endpoint:
Thus far we have learned how to capture and reroute traffic with a man in the middle as well as how to start a lambda locally and select the port it runs on. The only thing left to do is to build a map that points from the endpoint in AWS back to our local port where this Lambda is running. This is where things may get tricky for you. When sam starts a lambda locally you can only invoke the lambda with the resource name but as we saw above the Lambda URL contains the function name.
CFT Lambda Definition (Image by Author)
I always use a standardized naming conventions for my Lambdas and my team is very strict about following it, as you can see above that naming convention is “{StackName}-{ResourceName}-{Env}”. This allows me to simply strip the stack name and environment from the function name when routing traffic to the locally running Lambda. This allows the man-in-the-middle script to replace flows using this basic logic!
reroute_flow = {
'from_route':'my-stack-MyLambda1-dev',
'to_route': 'MyLambda1'
}
mf = MatchedFlow(**reroute_flow)
FM = FlowMatcher([mf])
And voila! Once plugged into the man-in-the-middle script, we are now routing traffic to our local Lambdas. We can even have multiple reroutes defined in order to route traffic between local versions of our Lambdas!
reroute_flow1 = {
'from_route':'my-stack-MyLambda1-dev',
'to_route': 'MyLambda1'
}
reroute_flow2 = {
'from_route':'my-stack-MySecondLambda-dev',
'to_route': 'MySecondLambda'
}
mf1 = MatchedFlow(**reroute_flow1)
mf2 = MatchedFlow(**reroute_flow2)
FM = FlowMatcher([mf1, mf2])
LocaLambda — A CLI to Simplify Things
There is a lot to do in order to test Lambdas locally: setting up the HTTPS proxy, defining matching rules, serving Lambdas locally, etc. LocaLambda, or lola for short, is a lightweight CLI that is here to simplify the process. Lola provides three functions:
Setup : set up the required resource and configuration files in order to get lola to run, this is a one-time activity after installing lola
: set up the required resource and configuration files in order to get lola to run, this is a one-time activity after installing lola Build : lola will build the specific resources defined in your lola.yaml file. It does this by replicating the actual template.yaml file with a slimmed down version that only contains the specified resources
: lola will build the specific resources defined in your lola.yaml file. It does this by replicating the actual template.yaml file with a slimmed down version that only contains the specified resources Serve: lola runs the sam local start-lambda... for each Lambda defined in your configuration file, keeping track of the specific port used. It then will automatically start your local HTTPS proxy server and execute the man in the middle script. It should be noted that the man in the middle runs in a different executable than lola. In order to tell the man in the middle what matching logic to apply it serializes the mappings for the locally deployed resources and places them on Redis (which you must have running locally as well).
LocaLambda Setup
LocaLambda is available on pypi and can be installed with:
pip install localambda
When first installed, LocaLambda needs to setup a few resource and config files that will be specific to your machine. You can have LocaLambda guide you through the one-time setup with:
lola --setup
The output of this is a .lolarc resource file located in your home directory and a new lola directory located in the location of your choice. You will need to create a lola.yaml file, such as the one below, in the lola directory that will tell LocaLambda which resources to build and serve. This file can also be found in the GitHub repo under the examples section.
A lot of these configurations are based off of what we use and it is likely that you’ll have slightly different needs. Because of the standardized naming convention I use for Lambdas, I only need to tell lola about three things:
The location of the template.yaml file: this is a concatenation of repo_home and location, or a fully qualified location can be provided. This should be the directory where the code and template are located. The stack name: lola needs to strip the stack name and environment name that are in the HTTPS request going to AWS in order to find the specific resource name. The environment is going to be static (dev), so that is hard coded for now. Resources: a list of resource names in the CFT template.yaml file that should be deployed or served. If you have ten lambdas in your CFT this is where you can select one, two or however many to build and test instead of having to build and deploy all ten.
Running lola
LocaLambda does two main things: it builds resources and serves them locally. You can build and serve lambdas with lola independently or you can do both at the same time. Building simply requires the -b flag where serving requires -s . To build and serve you can run:
lola -bs
When running this command using the sample configuration file, you will get the following output:
LocaLambda build and serve output (Image by Author)
LocaLambda is going to run through a handful of steps in sequential order, some of which may be skipped if you are only building or deploying:
(build) Create a slimmed down version of your deployment template for each stack in your lola.yaml config, only the resources selected are included in the build — not the entire stack (build) Run sam build ... for each of your slimmed down templates (serve) For each stack defined in lola.yaml, run sam local start-lambda .. (serve) For each stack defined in lola.yaml, serialize the matching logic for the man in the middle and place them on Redis (serve) Launch the man in the middle which reads the configs from Redis and begins matching the HTTPS events
Turn Off SSL Verification
Because we are capturing HTTPS traffic in-flight and rerouting it to a different host, we will inevitably run into SSL Certificate issues since there is no way for your local machine to have certs that cover the AWS domain. To get around this, the devs behind AWS Lambda have provided a nifty way to turn off SSL verification. When setting up your Lambda client simply set the verify flag to False , as seen here with boto3:
import boto3
lambda_client = boto3.client('lambda', verify=False)
Realistically, you do not want to hard-code this value because in all other environments you will want to have the lambda client verify the certificate. One suggestion here is to just use an environment variable for the environment (e.g. local, dev, staging, prod, etc.), and to only set this to verify when deployed locally.
Test to Ensure Events Are Intercepted & Rerouted
Now that everything is set up and running, we can test that traffic is properly being routed to the local Lambda. The following script can be run in a shell while lola is serving your local resources.
Behind the scenes I have set it up so that this Lambda is deployed locally and it is invoking another lambda that is deployed in AWS. You can see here that traffic is being routed to the first Lambda served locally instead of to AWS!
LocaLambda Rerouting Events Output (Image by Author)
Closing Thoughts
LocaLambda can be an amazingly string tool in your toolbox to expedite your development process, but it’s by no means a silver bullet. It is more lightweight than localstack but it’s probably still a bit too heavy if it only takes a moment or two to build and push code to AWS. There are a few places where it has room for improvement and (and feedback / PRs are always welcome):
Allow custom matching logic for function name to resource mapping
Handle layers integration, both local layers and imported layers from AWS
Manage ssh tunnels; many lambdas that need to access databases in private networks are also deployed in private networks or at least in security groups that have access to the databases. Having the ability to quickly test lambdas that need DB access without the headache of manually configuring the tunnel would be a big improvement.
Be able to deploy with different structures for templates in a repo (e.g. template.yaml is not at the repo root, multiple templates, embedded template, etc.)
Allow dynamic linking and unlinking for different lola.yaml config files to prevent needing to update a single config
All in all, it’s a nifty and fun little tool that meets the need for the niche use-cases that our teams run into from time to time. I hope you can get some value out of this project as well! | https://towardsdatascience.com/testing-aws-lambdas-locally-with-a-https-proxy-f7888ffd2d53 | ['Grant Seward'] | 2020-11-30 15:23:10.276000+00:00 | ['AWS', 'Development', 'AWS Lambda', 'Programming', 'Developer'] |
Hackers stole 14% of the total volume of Bitcoins and “Ethereum” | Hackers stole 14% of the total volume of Bitcoins and “Ethereum”
For all history of cryptocurrencies hackers could steal bitcoins and tokens of Ethereum for the sum of $1,2 billion, or about 14% of all stocks existing today. Autonomous Research reported about it.
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Director for financial strategy, Lex Sokolin Autonomous Research noted that cryptocurrencies theft “turned into an industry with a profit of about $ 200 million per year.”
According to WinterGreen Research, hacker attacks on cryptocurrencies caused losses to companies and governments in the amount of $ 11.3 billion in the form of lost taxes and commissions from legal transactions.
Meanwhile, against the background of new attempts by hackers, the market for software, services and hardware solutions to protect Blockchains could grow from $ 259 million in 2017 to $ 355 billion in the future. | https://medium.com/ico-crypto-news/hackers-stole-14-of-the-total-volume-of-bitcoins-and-ethereum-45b357c33bcf | ['Ico', 'Crypto News'] | 2018-01-22 23:31:08.747000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Token', 'Technology', 'Hacker', 'Bitcoin'] |
Kudachozhi | In the cultural sphere of the Indian state Kerala, Valluvanadu is a region that’s home to the most number of folk art forms. A key specialty of Valluvanadu is that agricultural symbols and festivities are celebrated with the most vigorous.
As part of the yearly festival in Sree Veerasyanam Bhagavati Temple, famous for its festival that is celebrated across the ten traditionally significant locales, is located in central Valluvanad, the people of ‘Pulaya’ community perform many art forms. ‘Kudachozhi’ is a prominent one of these art forms.
An artist’s transformation from being a human to a Chozhi (Spiritual Protector) begins with bathing in the Nila river and worshipping in the Thattakam Devi temple. Then the face painting starts. Adorned with face painting, carrying a symbolic traditional ‘Umbrella’ in the left hand, and a ‘Vishari’ (traditional palm leaf hand fan) in the right hand, the artist ceases to be a human being and transforms himself into a Chozhi (Spiritual Protector).
Rice flour made from the previous year’s harvest and homegrown turmeric is the ingredients used for face painting. Only these two ingredients are used for face painting, which reveals how intimately the art form is linked with agriculture.
The ‘Vishari’ in the right hand of an artist is believed to fan away all the hardships and negativity waiting to happen in the following year. These fans are also believed to repel insects and birds harmful to agriculture.
The ‘Umbrella’ in the left hand of an artist is believed to bring plentiful rain, and alleviate the heat of the sun god. | https://medium.com/@sreepuliyath/kudachozhi-73974cfe4a10 | [] | 2020-12-12 15:57:07.117000+00:00 | ['Documentary', 'Culture', 'Film', 'Folklore', 'Songs'] |
How To Earn Money While Playing Games — Tap N Go Rewards App | “Earn rewards for playing your favorite mobile games. Earn additional rewards for completing daily in-game challenges!
Redeem your points for prizes! Never has earning been this easy! Get Paid to play!” — Tap N Go Rewards
Tap N Go Rewards was developed in response to the gaming industry’s huge market growth, developers’ needs and gamers’ desire to play favorite games and transfer their rewards.
Developers take advantage of not only having their games accessible on the Tap No Go app, but also can take advantage of advertising campaigns from Tap N Go’s Engagement campaign system. Think of it like the, Google Adsense of gaming!
Gamers appreciate Tap N Go by having access to games, being rewarded for playing, and completing daily challenges. Gamers receive bonuses that are transferable to tapcoin’s (Tap Coins are transferable to different games). It’s the best way to get paid to play mobile games and earn rewards doing so!
To support developers in marketing their games and earning revenue, Tap Project has developed an easy Unity and Unreal plugin to integrate into their games — allowing a full universality, if they so choose. This win-win situation occurs as developers realize the increase in discoverability, high retention rates, cross-platform engagement and an increase in revenue.
Tap N Go app provides not only access to games but daily challenges, bonuses and awards for players. It provides incentivized rewards for playing games. Gamers earn tokens to purchase rewards for use in all integrated multi-platform games.
How does it work?
To earn rewards playing games on the Tap N Go Rewards app is easy!
Install a game listed in your Challenges
2) Complete the gaming task required
3) Return to the Tap N Go Rewards app to collect your points!
4) Redeem your points for rewards and giftcards!
The Tap N Go rewards app is connected to the Tap Platform and allows you the ability to transfer your points to tap coins that can be used in other games to buy in-game upgrades!
All games on the Tap N Go Rewards App are free and are the hottest mobile games! Play games like Call of Duty Mobile, Fortnite Mobile, Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Pokemon Go and more!
Tap N Go Rewards releases for Andriod in March 2020!
Visit https://tapngo.tapplatform.io/ for more information
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TapRewards | https://medium.com/@tap-coin/how-to-earn-money-while-playing-games-tap-n-go-rewards-app-eca8715c73b | ['Tap Project', 'Ttt'] | 2020-03-07 16:01:01.099000+00:00 | ['Earn Money Online', 'Rewards', 'Gaming', 'Gamer', 'Blockchain'] |
If You’re Not Angry, Then What Are You? | I took a creative writing class this summer and everything I wrote about was pretty light-hearted. The in-class prompts were questions like: Describe the image in front of you or what kind of fruit would you like to be? Etc…nothing that required me to dive deep into my soul.
Until the last prompt which was: Why are you writing?
Obviously, the question means a lot to me, so I put some heart and funk into the answer; I finally showed up to class with my emotions. I was nervous.
In brief, I wrote about how I had to leave a “dangerous” situation, a “bad” marriage; that I had “no support” doing it either. Which brought me to, I write to inspire other women in similar situations. I even managed to make it humorous despite the sensitive topic.
The six women in the class loved it. They clapped and whistled at the end, I even heard the professor wept!
However, the two men in class thought I sounded angry. Just straight-up angry
“WOW, why so angry?”
I almost spat my coffee out on the screen. It was such a drastic difference in opinions.
I had spared them from the painful bits and splashed some humor all over it too; I even fucking giggled in the end. But I was labeled angry anyway.
It was very dehumanizing.
They did not pick up on “ danger”, “bad”, “no support”, they did not pick up on how I turned a miserable story funny. They only picked up on their sensitive egos.
“You seem to hate men,”
“Not all men!!”
They were shocked I used their own bullshit as a comeback. Not all, just you!
Disclaimer: I don't hate men. I hate men AND women who lack emotional intelligence; the ones who sympathize with the violator and justify their behavior.
The ones who dismiss your pain and label you angry instead.
The ones who ask why are you angry instead of how the fuck are you smiling most of the time? | https://medium.com/the-pink/if-youre-not-angry-then-what-are-you-ca6c366699ac | ['Nada Chehade'] | 2020-12-08 06:13:56.699000+00:00 | ['Gender Equality', 'Rape Culture', 'Editors Pick', 'Sexual Violence', 'Feminism'] |
Benefits of mastering SEO services | You might have been living in a frozen world or beneath the rock if you have not heard of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It is a hard pill to swallow that people running a business do not know about SEO and the benefits of SEO services. The benefits provided by SEO are endless. One can take advantage and can practice SEO to improve their traffic and rankings.
What is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a method of increasing a website’s search engine rankings. A technique of driving traffic via the organic and unpaid method in SERP (Search Engine Result Page) is known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
The process is documented and works in a manner like whenever a user searches for anything, the search query is matched with the data and is provided with the most resonating results.
Post-reading about SEO and its practice often people have this dilemma and are in question whether they should invest in SEO? Does it offer real value? Is SEO really important in business etc? The answer is simple, YES SEO services help a lot in business growth.
Below mentioned are 5 Benefits of mastering your SEO services and giving your business a gift of growth.
1. Provide better User Experience
The ease of getting an answer in a single click and better user experience is now the topmost priority of website users and owners. By providing relevant information, easy-to-navigate web pages, and others you can provide a better user experience. Better the user experience, better is the click rate, more leads, etc. Quality SEO helps build a positive user experience.
2. Improves quality traffic
As organic visibility and quality traffic are the monumental benefits of Search Engine Optimization with the help of keyword research and using long-tail keywords SEO can assist you in driving quality traffic to your website.
3. Credibility and trust
By using the monumental benefit of keywords you can be on the first page of the keyword search. Ranking in one of the top results of search suggests to your customers the idea that you are good at the game. A high ranking for your webpage helps in building credibility and trust.
4. Higher internet presence
Search Engine Optimization helps to build a great internet presence which is a vital part of the success of the business. The higher the internet presence, the more profit you can derive.
5. Better cost management
Search Engine Optimization is regarded as the most cost-effective marketing strategy which has a lot of benefits to avail. It includes low-cost lead generation, cheaper advertising, and cost-effective pertaining activities. No doubt that SEO services are good in cost management but are lengthy in the process which takes time to get better results.
A high-quality SEO strategy is now doing the rounds in the market. There are a lot of perks provided by Search Engine Optimization which you can add to your digital marketing strategy but these five are the best and widely considered.
How do you like the benefits? To avail of SEO services, you can contact the best SEO Services Company in Delhi | https://medium.com/@mrmmbsvision09/benefits-of-mastering-seo-services-d65825d7bee3 | [] | 2021-12-27 11:31:03.941000+00:00 | ['Seo Agency', 'SEO', 'Benefits Of Seo', 'Seo Services', 'Seo Tips'] |
Analytics in a Nutshell: An Introductory Look at Setting Up Google Analytics for CRO | Image created by Objeqt.com
How do you improve something? Anything. Any process, any action.
You start by understanding your baseline. You can do 10 pushups today, but after a month of daily pushups, you’ll be able to do more. Setting up Google Analytics for CRO for e-commerce stores is a way to measure/track by setting a baseline and tracking indicators in order to improve.
“You can’t improve what you can’t measure” is how some people put it.
“What gets measured gets managed” is equally true.
Analytics is just a way to measure by setting a baseline and tracking indicators of improvement (or lack of improvement). But when you look at the Google Analytics dashboard, all of a sudden this simple concept becomes incredibly complicated.
And what you need to track for conversion optimization for your e-commerce website only complicates it further. You need accurate and timely data — and lots of it.
What sort of data do you need? ResearchXL (used by ConversionXL) divides their areas of research into four main categories:
Technical
Heuristics
Quantitative
Qualitative
Web analytics is the main tool used to measure quantitative data, like the number of visits to your website, number of conversions, and numbers of new or returning visitors.Quantitative data is all about the hard numbers, which is why you need to supplement that information with qualitative or heuristic research, which are more descriptive (they rely on customer surveys and feedback) but are also more open to bias and misinterpretation.
Since quantitative data is collected by a computer program in real time, you can be relatively sure you’re not missing anything — provided the analytics tool is configured properly.
That’s the kicker. You have to configure your analytics program, including Google analytics, to make sure collecting all of the information you need.
Configuration is a large part of the CRO’s job. We call it an “analytics health check,” typically offering it as a service to determine if a client’s analytics tool is working properly and tracking everything accurately.
At this point, we’re not focusing on one set of data over another, though we’ll be doing that later. Right now, we’re trying to collect as much data as possible from which to extract insights, and you can only do that when you customize the out-of-the-box settings on your analytics program.
How Web Analytics Works
Web analytics records every action of every visitor to your website in real-time, as each person interacts with the content.
There are many analytics tools that do this, all with similar features, but Google Analytics is the one most-often used — by more than 70% of the market.
Every analytics tool works by leaving a short piece of JavaScript code on every page of the site. This piece of code is called the “tracking code” or “snippet” which collects and sends user-action data back to the analytics program which presents the data to you in readable form.
One of the overview screens in Google Analytics
Google Analytics isn’t only popular because it’s free (at least in basic form), but also because it is continuously updated, entirely customizable and has a large community creating customizations that are also available for free. Since Google Analytics is sufficient for almost all uses, it became not just the tool of choice, but the industrial standard for analytics tools. It’s one of those things that’s easy to learn but difficult to master. The non-custom version is usable by everyone and pretty self-explanatory, but the real depth of data only becomes available once you customize it. You’re basically transforming the tool from ordinary kitchen knife to a Swiss-army knife.
In the simplest terms, before you can rely on Google Analytics to give you the information you need to understand how your website is doing now, and how to improve it, you have to teach GA a few tricks:
What you want it to track
How to track it
How to report it
What to Track: Basic Metrics
Metrics are the bread and butter of digital analytics. Common metrics in Google Analytics are:
Sessions
Unique visitors
Time on site
Number of pages viewed…
And many more.
There are also what we call “dimensions,” like location, page, language, gender, product category etc. Some metrics are really a combination of two metrics, like “sessions per page” or “visitors per page.” You can also create custom metrics.
Once the actions are reported in metrics, we can draw some conclusions from them.
A good place to start is simply counting the number of visitors who actually interacted with any given content. That’s a good indication of the popularity of the content.
However, opening a page means nothing if the user clicks in and clicks out after a few seconds. That is called a bounce. You want your bounce rate low. If it’s high, it means visitors aren’t finding what they hoped to find.
We can also compare certain types of actions or content for more insights, like finding out which types of content attracts visitors more than others, or which parts of the website may be experiencing usability issues. We can also compare the actions of different segments of visitors; for example, how visitors from different countries interact with the site.
The third way to draw conclusions is to look for correlations. You’re looking for things like how one segment of visitors interacts with the site, or what sequence of interactions typically lead to conversion. You might select one category of visitors based on their largest average order value, then observe what interactions they had with the site to convert so well. Then you can use that information to optimize your site — essentially finding ways to tweak the user’s experience so they follow the same path as your successful customers.
Gathering this data is how CROs begin creating hypotheses to test, which leads to optimizing for conversion.
How to Track it: Segmentation & Events
One of the best features of any web analytics tool, including Google Analytics, is the ability to segment. Segmentation allows you to select different categories of visitors based on any number of characteristics — where they came from, what they were looking for, how much they bought, etc.
Sample of a segmented report in Google Analytics
Event tracking
With some customization, any analytics tool can track individual events on your website. This will unlock further wealth of data and allow you to exploit it to gain more insights in the way your visitors interact with the site. By using event tracking, any activity on the website, from clicking individual links to playing videos and downloading files can be tracked.
An example of event goal in Google Analytics
Analytics categories like Goals and Conversions function on a ‘page view’ mindset. Event tracking is different — it’s more focused on user-experience. In Google Analytics, events are basically interactions, like downloading a PDF or e-book, playing embedded videos, clicking external links or call-to-action (CTA) buttons.
While event tracking requires customization and additional JavaScript code, it is relatively easy to implement and maintain using tag managers.
Goals
Your analytics tool can track your on-site goals too — if you configure it to do so. Goals are specific actions you want your users to do, such as viewing certain web pages, or watching a video, or spending a given amount of time on a page. Some of the most frequently used goals are “destination goals” that let you check whether the visitor actually got to a web page you define as a goal. An example would be a ‘thank you page’ signifying that the user completed a purchase on your website.
How to Report it: E-Commerce in Google Analytics
Google Analytics has a fully customizable e-commerce tracking feature that integrates with your e-commerce platform and allows you to view the performance of your website in Google Analytics, shown in terms of revenue. You can see the number of products being sold, average revenue per customer, the shopping behavior of your customers and other data that is highly relevant and actionable. This is also a customizable feature.
Yes, this was just a quick overview of setting up Google Analytics for CRO!
As you can see the digital analytics is the virtually indispensable tool for any eCommerce store. While it is theoretically possible to operate a web store without web analytics, it is not a recipe for long term success or growth.
Regardless of what web analytics tool you choose, it will open a new world of opportunities and provide insights not only into the performance of your web store, but also into the minds of your visitors. Learn to master Google Analytics and you’ll improve your website and compel more of your existing visitors to become customers.
Analytics is the key to increasing the revenue of your web store, and is possibly the most cost-effective way to do so. | https://towardsdatascience.com/analytics-in-a-nutshell-an-introductory-look-at-setting-up-google-analytics-for-cro-43858f83e0e7 | ['Edin Sabanovic'] | 2017-03-14 23:31:47.905000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Analytics', 'Conversion Optimization', 'Digital Marketing', 'Ecommerce'] |
Ponder Featured by Hackernoon | Ponder Featured by Hackernoon
The Blockchain Combination: Love, Money and Tech.
From Hackernoon “Since October last year Ponder has had a product in the dating marketplace that has brought high-impact matchmaking into the internet age by homing in on the talents of mutual friends and others.
With 70,000 registered users and rising, the Ponder app is already off to a good start, but it’s much more than just another formulaic dating app. Ponder will leverage the unique decentralising properties of blockchain technology to quantify the value of trust and relationships.”
Read the full article here! | https://medium.com/theponderapp/ponder-featured-by-hackernoon-5c4d2661c89e | [] | 2018-02-04 18:45:52.581000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Dating', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Token Sale'] |
As ‘Crypto Winter’ Persists, Can Blockchain Startups Still Become Unicorns? | By Tanzeel Akhtar
Over the past two years, and especially during the cryptocurrency bubble that peaked at the end of 2017, there was a mad dash by venture capital firms to acquire a stake in new crypto-focused ventures. Just about any seemingly reasonable blockchain-based idea or initial coin offering could gain some traction and, in many cases, very rich funding.
But once the bubble burst and the cryptocurrency winter set in as the ongoing bear market for digital assets persisted, only five token or blockchain start-ups have flourished enough to attain unicorn status — a designation indicating their valuations are $1 billion or higher.
A mix of digital currency and blockchain technology businesses, these five crypto unicorns are:
1. Bitmain: A privately owned company headquartered in Beijing. Bitmain designs application-specific, integrated circuit chips and integrated circuits (ASICs) for Bitcoin mining.
2. Cardano: Home to the cryptocurrency ADA which can be used to send and receive digital funds. This digital currency launched in 2015 and is able to make direct transfers via cryptography that are guaranteed to be secure.
3. Dfinit: A blockchain-based cloud computing project whose aim is to develop a decentralized “internet computer that will become the cloud 3.0.” It’s registered as a non-profit foundation in Zug, and operates research centers in Palo Alto, California and in Germany.
4. Ethereum: The open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system that features smart contract functionality. Ethereum supports a modified version of Nakamoto consensus via transaction based state transition.
5. Xapo: A Hong Kong-based company that provides a Bitcoin wallet combined with a cold storage vault and a Bitcoin-based debit card.
Interestingly, all of these blockchain unicorns originated in what’s been dubbed the Crypto Valley by aficionados, the region in Europe that encompasses Switzerland’s Zug canton and parts of Liechtenstein. According to a recently released report by Switzerland-based CV Venture Capital in collaboration with professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and tech firm inacta, as of the end of September 2018 there were over 600 blockchain-related companies registered in the area with a total market capitalization estimated to be around $44 billion.
That’s twice as many firms as were registered in the region during the spring of 2017. However, the severe correction in digital currencies has weighed on that market cap, bringing the total valuation down to $20 billion in Q4 2018, a decrease of 55 percent.
How difficult has it become for new start-ups to grow to unicorn status? During the cryptocurrency go-go days of 2017, when Bitcoin was skyrocketing, the crypto exchange Coinbase became the first startup in the cryptosphere to reach unicorn status. Its valuation was buoyed by the huge surge of interest at that time in Bitcoin, ether and new tokens.
Now of course, the landscape is very different. The road to unicorn status is much harder to achieve, and it’s likely fewer start-ups will be able to scale up to those heights, though it’s not impossible. Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have fizzled as a fundraising vehicle, but some promising tech start-ups are attaining unicorn status by having a company valued at more than $1 billion acquire them.
Such was the case recently when Philippine-based cryptocurrency platform Coins.ph was bought by Indonesian unicorn Go-Jek, in a deal described as “north of $70 million.” Go-Jek is a multi-platform business that operates in a variety of segments including ride-sharing, logistics and digital payments.
Nonetheless, most start-ups will likely not be fortunate enough to gain unicorn status so quickly. VC funding will probably be the vehicle for financing most entrepreneurial blockchain startups.
What are VCs looking for now when considering investment in a crypto start-up? Olaf Hannemann, co-founder of CVCV said his group invests in early-stage startups and provides growth capital to promising blockchain companies.
“Through our incubator we aim to build successful companies. At an early stage we believe equity is priced via other incubator offers rather than valued. At a later stage, valuation kicks in and token pricing can be a part of it. These days we see a more traditional approach to equity funding, as well as tokenized equity. Security token offerings (STOs) and digital security offerings (DSOs) could become the predominant funding vehicles in the future. But for now they are just that, different and in some part new, vehicles. Ultimately, we invest in founders and their start-ups.”
Although CVCV focuses on blockchain startups only, Hannemann says they still operate like a traditional VC company. “We are in it for the long-term, helping founders build successful start-ups. We look at the fundamentals and invest accordingly. We look at the team, product/market fit, timing and a startups´ potential to hit 10x plus. Once everything aligns, then we invest,” he adds.
Kavita Gupta founding managing partner at ConsenSys Ventures recently said in an interview that there has been a shift in how VCs invest in the crypto space. Venture capitalists are getting comfortable with this new paradigm:
“Crypto investing is distinctive: liquidity, duration, risk profile, volatility etc. are very different than the long-term traditional investment fund. The landscape is also changing for blockchain investors and the profile of entrepreneurs is changing. We see a shift from a majority of young technologists serving as CEOs to a lot of seasoned engineers and serial entrepreneurs entering the space. A product’s vision, roadmap and especially the thought of adoption and user friendly interface have become a big part of the conversation. Some of the big VC’s are setting up crypto dedicated funds bringing Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 worlds closer and validating lots of early tech in the space, which just a year ago would have looked fake.”
Many also believe there’s additional potential in the five unicorn crypto firms, as well as other, similar ventures, to build out new business that could boost or help retain their valuations. Indeed, just this week, London-based, Bitcoin mining infrastructure provider Bitfury Group announced it had “launched an entertainment division that will oversee the development of an open-source blockchain-based music platform.” Bitfury was recently given a $1 billion valuation.
Andre Bruckmann the CEO and founder of Mycro.Jobs is optimistic about this development, but stresses that good ideas won’t be enough to raise funding anymore. An actual path to revenue will be a requirement: | https://medium.com/investing-com/as-crypto-winter-persists-can-blockchain-startups-still-become-unicorns-f05f97978bf6 | [] | 2019-01-27 13:01:01.411000+00:00 | ['Unicorns', 'Startup', 'Ethereum', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain'] |
Who Should Clean Her Up After Sex? | Group sex can be a lot of fun, but it’s the awkward moments I remember the most.
There was the guy who asked a few too many times if I wanted to be double penetrated.
There was the foursome that ended when the other couple got into a bit of a fight.
And then there’s the time where one guy came all over my tits and just leaned back and chilled while I laid there, covered in his jizz.
And I mean covered — a good amount on each tit.
There was an awkward silence between all three of us, like we were in some kind of spunk standoff. I was starting to worry some of it would drip off my chest and onto the sheet, and he seemed to think that since he had finished, he was finished.
My boyfriend was the first to make a move. He handed our guy a box of tissues.
He looked down at the box in his hands and asked, “Oh. I’m supposed to do this?”
Then, he wiped me clean with an embarrassed smile on his face.
He’s the only person who has come on me besides Mr. Austin. I had always assumed that after a fella blasts all over a lady, he should take the initiative to clean her off. But that night, I discovered that there is more than one school of thought on ejaculatory etiquette.
Dealing with the Post-Sex Mess
I hate to sound boring, but I have a general zone I prefer when it comes to ejaculation.
I’ve had come on my tits (see above) and my stomach, but I generally prefer getting it on my ass and sometimes my thighs.
I tend to finish on my stomach because I’m a toy humper who’s into prone boning, so it makes sense for Mr. Austin to finish on my ass.
Plus, it’s just plain hot.
But what’s not so hot is having to hang out splattered in semen after both of our orgasms are taken care of.
Until it’s cleaned off, I have to just lie there, immobile, trying not to shift too much so I don’t ruin the sheets right before we go to bed.
So, we’ve got a routine. After we catch our breaths, tell each other how much fun we had and that we appreciate the effort we each put in, Mr. Austin will get up and clean me off.
It’s quite nice, actually. I won’t say it beats having him come on me, but him cleaning the mess off makes me feel nicely pampered.
I don’t think we’ve ever had a discussion about who should clean me off after we’re done. He’s just always taken care of it.
That makes sense to me. As far as I see it, it’s the gentlemanly thing to do.
It’s his come, for one thing. And also, he had the pleasure of coming on me. As much as I appreciate acting as his dick’s personal canvas, there’s no denying that he gets a little more fun out of it than I do.
Plus, he’s not a toddler. If he makes a mess, he cleans it. That’s just basic adult behavior.
But after that threesome, I can’t help but wonder how many guys blast and then chill instead of lending a hand.
It’s Porn, Isn’t It?
When I think of guys who come on their lady and then leave her to deal with the mess, I can’t help but think it’s probably got something to do with porn.
I don’t like to blame porn for everything. I’m sure a lot of this can be chalked up to plain old laziness and maybe a dash of entitlement. Maybe the guys who never cleaned their rooms grow up to be fuckboys who never clean you up after coming on you.
But porn can’t be helping.
Almost every single scene you’ll watch ends with a money shot with none of the aftermath.
Your typical straight porn scene ends with our hero climaxing all over a maiden’s stomach, chest, or face. Then she makes a few sexy “Oh my god, I can’t believe how much you got on me” faces before it fades to black.
All come, no clean-up.
The reality is a lot less sexy.
I know because I’ve seen some behind the scenes porn footage. And let me tell you, the guys spewing their semen all over a starlet’s chest are not helping her mop it up afterwards. Instead, she has to carefully walk herself to the bathroom, trying not to drip jizz anywhere (and trying not to trip on anything if some of it got in her eye).
After a one-night stand, there’s a walk of shame. After a porn shoot, there’s a walk of gross.
I’m all for imitating some of the stuff you see in porn. Hell, before turning down double penetration guy’s offer, I gave it some serious consideration (it’s still on my bucket list).
But I’ll pass on awkwardly shuffling to the bathroom without having Mr. Austin wipe me down first.
The only exception I can see making is for facials (haven’t done it — not on my bucket list — this is purely theoretical). I’d rather do that myself. I think it’s because you’re in proximity of the eyes, the nostrils, and the mouth.
Still, though, the least a guy could do after you take it to the face is get the towel for you.
Moving Past the Tissues
Once you’ve settled who’s job it is to clean up the come after sex, there’s still the matter of how you’ll clean it.
We used to have tissue boxes on hand to take care of the mess. That worked okay — a bit wasteful but it did the job.
But cleaning come with tissues is like using spit for lube. It’s fine when you’re young, but once you’re in a committed relationship you’re due for an upgrade.
We started using towels. That was a step up, but I still felt we could do better. When they’re dry, they clean you up about as well as tissues. But wetting them is inconvenient. Either I wait forever for the tap water to warm up, or I have to deal with a cold-ass towel (or a cold ass-towel?)
For a while, we’ve been talking about getting a towel warmer — the kind barbers and massage therapists use — but they’re kind of bulky and we already have so little space in our room as it is (I like a king-sized bed, even if I don’t have a king-sized room).
I recently hit on the perfect solution: loading a baby wipe warmer with cloth wipes.
We didn’t invest in one for our kids’ butts, but we’ll finally take the plunge for mine. We figured they didn’t need warm wipes and it might just make them bougie anyway. But I’m too far gone. I can be a bit of a princess and I don’t foresee that changing, so I’m not messing with anything cold against my skin.
And that’s really what it comes down to. If she’s allowing you to come on her, the least you can do is treat her like a queen.
So, get the towel (the warmer the better) and gratefully, graciously clean up after yourself. | https://medium.com/love-emma/who-should-clean-her-up-after-sex-222d002b9b46 | ['Emma Austin'] | 2020-04-07 23:48:04.231000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Sex', 'Advice', 'Pornography', 'Relationships'] |
The rise and rise of Charles Leclerc | Image: cristiano barni/shutterstock.com
Cast your mind back to 2017. Rosberg has retired. Until Singapore in September, Ferrari looked like they could actually challenge Mercedes for the championship. And now and again, you would hear about the phenomenal performance of a Ferrari junior driver, named Charles Leclerc, in the Formula Two feeder series.
A year later, this Monegasque driver was sitting in the seat of an Alfa Romeo in Formula One. By only the fourth race in his rookie season, Leclerc had finished in sixth position; two places higher than his teammate, Ericsson, had ever achieved in eighty Grand Prix. This youngster was living up to every plaudit attributed to him.
We were gifted more screen time of Charles following his promotion to Ferrari in 2019. The Scuderia doesn’t ordinarily opt for youth. Historically, they relied on experienced hands to drive them forward. Ferrari, being Ferrari, will always have the spotlight on them. As such, we were able to view a dynamic change in the 21-year old almost every race weekend.
Ferrari could be forgiven for believing they would have the clear driver structure as they are used to. A four-time world champion and a young protege should, on paper, result in a distinct team lead and number two driver, especially when the latter looks to be as polite and timid as Leclerc.
Vettel has been chasing his dream to emulate Michael Schumacher and become a German title winner in Ferrari-red. He had been supported by Raikkonen, who’d returned to Ferrari in 2014, but never showed the pace of his first tenure wearing the prancing horse.
Thus Vettel was the favored one. When news broke of a young driver climbing the ranks year-by-year, Vettel no doubt thought he’d continue to rule the roost. But it was evident in the first race that this was not to be.
Image: Mikhail Kolesnikov/shutterstock.com
Vettel was the victor of the two at the opening bout, by virtue of Melbourne being particularly challenging to overtake at. His new teammate finished just one second behind him. Two weeks later, at Bahrain, Charles Leclerc showed a clear sign of intent by ignoring team orders and overtaking Vettel.
Leclerc had qualified on pole position in only his second race at a top team but lost the lead after a poor start. He quickly made amends by overtaking Bottas for second place after a single lap. Great news for the Tifosi, a Ferrari one-two on track. But he rapidly gained ground on Vettel, who was now leading.
For a team, it doesn’t matter which order their two cars finish in if the haul of points doesn’t change. The engineers passed the message down to Leclerc to hold his position for two laps. Half a lap later, he took the lead. Here was an early warning sign Ferrari didn’t have a Barichello, Massa, or Raikkonen-type number two driver supporting their teammate.
Meanwhile, an antagonist for Leclerc emerged in the form of the Dutch lion, Max Verstappen. At first glance, it would be simple to label Max the demon to Leclerc’s angel. The Red Bull driver was also young but had established a “bad boy” image in the paddock in his four seasons racing.
Consider Max’s backstory. His dad with assault charges, playing politics to get a seat at Red Bull, demotions from the podium, and physically pushing another driver after a race.
Image: SpazGenev/shutterstock.com
Compare this to Leclerc. The tragedy of his father and godfather’s deaths, rising through the junior categories like drivers are ‘supposed’ to, a polite and well-mannered persona, and getting to the top through merit and no political ultimatums. The Hollywood script practically writes itself.
Cue Austria 2019. Leclerc secured his second ever pole position. The race was under his control. The only change in the lead came through the usual pit stop window, where other teams tried to go longer on their tires. After commanding the race for 69 of 71 laps, Verstappen closed up and characteristically overtook Leclerc in an ambitious, and not particularly clean move.
When no penalty was issued, the man from Monaco changed. Rather than play the victim, Leclerc instead learned to play by this new rulebook. At the next race in Silverstone, an epic battle played out between the two with no quarter given by either. The clean and fair racing from Charles didn’t end per se, but it evolved to be unforgiving and without compromise.
The change was perhaps best exemplified at Monza. In the shambolic qualifying where nearly every driver ‘timed out’, Vettel gave Leclerc a vital slipstream that elevated his younger teammate to the fastest time. Leclerc didn’t drive fast enough to return the favor to Seb.
In the race, he was the sole Ferrari at the front due to Vettel’s early spin. Mercedes threw everything at him for nearly the entire race. Like a toddler pushing limits to see what they can get away with, Leclerc received a rare black and white flag for dangerous driving when defending from Hamilton. Yet, he won the race penalty-free. A Ferrari driver winning at Monza; a feat Vettel has yet to achieve.
Image: Marco Canoniero/shutterstock.com
Leclerc was galvanized. Five pole positions in six races, thanks to the mysterious newfound pace in the Ferrari cars. He showed he was no flash in the pan. His attitude was changing too. The 2018 Leclerc apologized for swearing on the radio in a midfield team. In 2019 he publically told the most prestigious name in the sport that he didn’t understand their decision making, finding it unfair; that he would be talking to them after the race. What a difference a year makes.
Disappointed as fans are to have no racing in the immediate future, I’m craving the absence of off-track drama too. How will Ferrari control two top drivers in their ranks? Part of me hopes to see them put all their chips in the future. Leclerc has five more years there, due to his contract extension. I imagine family-man Vettel will retire during that time.
Favoring Leclerc could allow them a real shot at the World Drivers Championship next season, whenever it might be. And if they don’t, the more ruthless Leclerc we watched grow over 2019, might force the issue by continuing to show his teammate and other drivers that he’s no pushover.
With the youth of Verstappen and Leclerc on entering F1 and the long shelf-life drivers now have, this could be a rivalry that dwarfs all others. Is Charles still the lovable young rookie deep inside that we saw in 2018, or is his late 2019 primadonna attitude the real him? Forthcoming years of entertainment will give us the answer.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter for Formula One how Leclerc is perceived. The sport relies on personalities to be the global show that it is. Rivalries are what people remember: Hunt and Lauda, Prost and Senna, Hakkinen and Schumacher, and to a lesser extent, Hamilton and Vettel. | https://jimonf1.medium.com/the-rise-and-rise-of-charles-leclerc-8324dcb6309b | ['Jim Kimberley'] | 2020-04-30 14:58:27.564000+00:00 | ['Sports', 'F1', 'Ferrari', 'Motorsport', 'Formula 1'] |
Unleash Your Full Potential With The Power of Mindfulness | Unleash Your Full Potential With The Power of Mindfulness
10 wise quotes to inspire success in your life by Eckhart Tolle.
Photo by Lukas Rodriguez from Pexels
You feel stuck in your life? Do you wonder when the magical moment will come when you have the energy to do what is necessary to fulfill your wildest dreams?
Why are we not fulfilled? Why is a success not coming for us? Eckhart Tolle is one of the most inspiring spiritual teachers of our time. His simple teachings have helped millions to live happier lives, but for advice on becoming successful we look up to entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk.
Mindfulness is for private stuff, so we think. But everything is connected. Being aligned with the present moment is the start of every success story.
Here are 10 powerful quotes to help you escape mediocrity and fulfill your wildest dreams. Get inspired to unleash your full potential with the power of mindfulness. | https://medium.com/change-your-mind/unleash-your-full-potential-with-the-power-of-mindfulness-cdedaf243548 | ['Karolin Wanner'] | 2020-12-23 11:03:09.372000+00:00 | ['Success', 'Mindfulness', 'Mental Health', 'Self', 'Psychology'] |
Albert Boufarah Explains How Recycling Has Evolved to Adapt to Modern Technology | TechBullion | Albert Boufarah Explains How Recycling Has Evolved to Adapt to Modern Technology | TechBullion
Recycling methods have come a long way in the past 25 years. E-waste recycling firms are now able to recover materials that would have gone to waste in the past. With the increased efficiency in recycling methods comes a lower carbon footprint for the electronics industry and for the consumer. The CEO of SAMR Inc., Albert Boufarah , explains how new methods in the recycling industry have caused an increase in the number of reusable materials.
The Plastics CrisisA study published in the journal Royal Society Philosophical Transactions Biological Sciences found that 4 percent of the world’s oil and gas production was used in the manufacturing of plastic products. Another 3 to 4 percent of this non-renewable resource was used to transport these products. Plastics are polluting our environment, especially our oceans, and piling up in landfills. Since there are so many wasteful cases of single-use or limited-use plastic products that will be discarded within a year, it quickly becomes clear that this system of production cannot last for many more years. Advanced recycling of plastics means that more materials can be reused, cutting down on the carbon footprint from the production and shipment of these products.
New Methods of Recycling PlasticsAdvanced techniques in recycling plastics include the use of robots to separate and identify materials and sort them for the recycling process. These AI-enabled robots are able to make fine distinctions between materials that the human eye cannot match. This means that more materials will be recycled in appropriate ways. Infrared (IR) systems are also being used to separate the waste stream. IR can pick out different types of plastics and determine their composition, sorting them properly. Plastics are being developed which are easier to recycle. Much of the waste stream results from polyethylene and polypropylene materials. A new hybrid form of these plastics makes a copolymer that lasts longer, is appropriate for more applications, and is easier to recycle than polyethylene and polypropylene on their own. Another advanced technique for recycling plastic involves a reduction in the amount of water needed for the process. Some recycling companies have pioneered the use of systems that can clean, cool, and recycle plastics without the use of water. Reduced energy and water use are another important way that recycling reduces the environmental impact of plastics.
Innovations in Metal RecyclingOne of the key byproducts of recycling electronics is metal. Gold, copper, tin, and aluminum are only a few examples of the metals used to manufacture high-tech devices. In the past, metals were not often removed from high-tech products when they were recycled. The special characteristic of metals is that they do not lose their properties when they are recycled. They can continue to exist in a useful form well beyond the lifespan of the product that contains them. This means that recycling metals from high-tech products is a winning proposition. New methods, like the use of robotics, can detect the presence of recyclable metals and appropriately divert the materials in the recycling line. Apple has introduced a recycling robot called Daisy that properly separates materials for reuse and recycling. This machine is responsible for recycling 200 iPhone units per hour. Glass Recycling Glass as a material has made incredible strides over the past 25 years. New touchscreens made of Gorilla Glass and other highly advanced materials have made computer products more durable and safer to operate. The glass recycling system has not changed as much as the plastic and metal recycling systems, but there are some notable changes to mention. Unfortunately, not all glass products used in electronics products are recyclable. One of the most notorious offenders is CRT glass used in old tube computer monitors and televisions. This is because the glass contains a high volume of lead. There are a great number of these products in the recycling waste stream, and much of that material is lost.
Advances in Recycling Benefit Our Carbon Footprint Electronics users should be aware of the ways in which their products can be recycled. Albert Boufarah encourages all owners of electronic devices to look into the benefits of recycling their machines rather than releasing them into the waste stream. When more materials are recycled, the global carbon footprint is improved. Fewer resources are needed for producing or transporting electronics. The most exciting advances in recycling have come in the area of plastics, with glass and metals also experiencing significant changes in their recycling processes. Taking care to separate these products from the general waste stream can have a positive impact on the Earth’s environment and offset some of the costs of our technological advancements. | https://medium.com/@albert.boufarah/albert-boufarah-explains-how-recycling-has-evolved-to-adapt-to-modern-technology-techbullion-ad843da91894 | ['Albert Boufarah'] | 2020-08-05 13:41:46.291000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'New Jersey', 'Ewaste Recycling', 'Recycling'] |
How to Buy Bitcoin, Ethereum | 16/01/2019 by Morne Olivier
Like I have mentioned before in my article My Cryptocurrency, this space can be risky. This article will take you through the cautious and secure way of buying your own Crypto from anywhere in the world and South Africa. I include a small list of what to have close by and a breakdown of the procedure at the bottom.
Where do we start? Time & place:
If this is going to be your first or 2nd or even 3d time, try to have at least an hour or two to yourself. This will give you the opportunity to take everything in properly.
Have paper and pen handy. Excel sheet open which you can save to USB when done. You will need to record your passwords and passphrases or seeds and this is best done on both paper and USB in case your Tech crashes. You should also print out your information and file it.
Matters to consider when you are more advanced and your Crypto becomes valuable:
No one wants to think about the day we pass away but it is still a reality. Explain to a next of kin what all your paperwork means so it can be accessed by them. From a safety perspective on larger portfolios, saving your Crypto to a Ledger NANO wallet, which is like a digital USB wallet is a must.
Yes, this is serious, it’s your money! This might all sound over the top but is completely necessary because if you lose your #Crypto Address and or Passphrase you won’t be able to access your funds again; EVER!. Take Responsibility for your money you are going to invest in and get rid of the idea that this is a get rich quick gamble!
#Disclaimer:
This article contains Referral Links to the Trusted Sites and is not financial advice. Full Disclaimer here.
Let’s Go!
Start by installing Google authenticator and Authy for your 2-way verification. You can get them on Google Play store. This will form part of your security when you are signing into your account.
I start by going to Coinmarketcap our trusted resource and overview on what our Cryptocurrencies are doing. From here I join the company’s websites and social media platforms until I have them Bookmarked for secured future use. Remember to check the URL https:/, the locked sign, and spelling.
From South Africa, Luno has always worked best for me. It’s like a Crypto / Fiat Bank Account.
Follow the Link above to Register your Account. Remember to keep all your passwords different and try to take words out of a book and spell it backward adding numbers and symbols.
On Luno you will be doing a:
KYC,
SET UP 2WAY VERIFICATION TO YOUR ACCOUNT,
BACK UP YOUR WALLET & GET A SEED PRASE OR KEY
This might take up to two days depending on KYC.
You need two things to get into your crypto wallet or account if you lose or get a new phone or computer: Account address, and passphrase or seed (12–24) words.
From a South African perspective, you first set up and Account on the Luno platform which entails your banking details. You then send your Rands to Luno. Link your bank account to Luno. It becomes an internal account within the platform. You then transfer funds which are immediate these days to Bitcoin or Ethereum. Each country is different and you will have to source your go-between or try direct as there are exchanges that allow for Credit Card transactions, but I’ve never liked that option.
Once you are in, You are in and Crypto is your oyster. Follow these simple steps and don’t rush. Luno is not an Exchange where you can trade, it’s a safe gateway for South Africans amongst others.
Let's go find an exchange! Close Luno down, for now, Log Out.
Binance Exchange is the biggest in volume trade and everyone goes to it 1st. For this example, however, I am going to go to a smaller exchange called Kucoin.
Three reasons:
I want to buy some Crypto that is not listed on Binance, I have seen Kucoin announce some special offers & Kucoin also pays out a dividend when holding its native token KCS, #PassiveCryptoIncome
(KCS holders with at least 6 KCSs will obtain this trading fee bonus. We will use 50% of all trading fees earned by KuCoin to buy KCS from the market and then redistribute the KCS back to users as the new KuCoin Bonus Program, replacing the old one), so it will always be beneficial to have some Crypto on there.
Sometimes the risks are less on smaller markets because they are not as volatile as the bigger volume markets, Yes you can make more on those but be well prepared for what you are doing as you can lose it all too. At this stage the market is looking like it wants to come out of a year-long Bear Market, I am still very cautious and am happy to enter an easy market without any Twitter sideline commentary and FOMO stress.
Search for Kucoin on Coinmarketcap or follow the link and go register on the exchange. Follow the Procedure below.
Once you have your account up and running you would be able to get your Ethereum or Bitcoin address. You will need this to transfer your funds too when signing back into Luno. I will be transferring ETH to Kucoin, so I open up my Ethereum Address on Kucoin and press on “Deposit” to get my ETH address, Copy & Paste it into my Sending Ethereum address space on Luno and confirm. (Remember it must always be the same token to the same token, ETH to ETH or BTC to BTC). At the time of this Transaction on 15/01/2019 ETH cost $118. The transfer took 2 minutes. Emails from both verified that the transaction was taking place.
My thoughts on the screenshot below:
I think ETH is making a Higher Low in relation to December same date, which means in the bigger picture, it’s going up. It is still risky because of those two big falling red wicks you see at the end and some bad news of a Hard Fork being postponed because of a security risk on the Ether Network.
Exit Plan: Buy into my Alt Coins at a good price and Lease, Stake or Hodle. Either way, the market is offering amazing bargains at LOW, LOW Prices, I am using the Opportunity and even if it falls more, I still feel overall I have gotten a bargain.
You could also later confirm and or search any information on Blockchain Transactions on EnjinX or EtherScan. On these two platforms, we delve into the business of the Crypto’s.
List of what to have close by
Time, Cell, Book, Pen, USB, (Ledger NANO)
List of procedure to follow:
2 Way Verification App, Exchange, Register (Email, Password, KYC), Backup Wallet (Seed), Receiving Address & Print everything.
KYC will take up to 2 Days, just so you are not disappointed when you want to get onto the exchange for that chance in a lifetime trade.
#Tip: There will be many opportunities to enter the market or a trade, the market by law has to retrace and settle before adhering to price and demand. So wait for good entries rather than FOMO the Bottoms or Tops!
My go-to for learning how to trade has always been BabyPips. Start from the beginning and work your way through many courses within a great community.
Thank you for being part of my Blog, I hope you are learning and please contact me on any of my platforms for help.
I use Referral Links for Cost Saving & Safety purposes to you. Any Passive Income earned from Links has 0% effect on your earnings thereafter.
Important Links to know about me:
About Morne Olivier
#Disclaimer
#PassiveCryptoIncome
Medium
Twitter
Telegram for Passive Income
LinkedIn
Telegram
ONO
MurMur
STEEMit
#decentralized #blockchain #blockchaintechnology #technology #cryptocurrency #crypto #digitalassets #takechargeofyourfuture #tcoyf #morneolivier #content #contentstrategy #marketing #digitalmarketing #advertisingandmarketing #contentmarketing #startup #passivecryptoincome #pci #blockchainpci #personalfinance #stockmarket #retail #supplychain #business #businessintelligence #businessmodels #privacy #future #immutable #ledger #dapp #ethereum #eth #bitcoin #btc #mobilepayment #bigdata #bankingindustry #ai #creativity #investing #webdevelopment #finance #creativewriting #money #sustainability #innovation #commerce #ecommerce #onlineshopping #economy #markets #economics #management #entrepreneurship #branding #westerncape #southafrica | https://medium.com/@morneolivierblog/how-to-buy-bitcoin-ethereum-and-cryptocurrencies-in-2019-20e4397eca43 | ['Morne Olivier'] | 2019-04-15 19:44:37.844000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Passive Income', 'Blockchain', 'Ethereum'] |
New Economic Model & Subscription Updates | With the CHART BSC Liquidity Mining event kicking off on 0.Exchange in 3 short days we felt it a perfect time to announce our new CHART economic model.
As we prepare to be the first full candlestick charting service to offer support for Ethereum, Avalanche, and Binance Smart Chain we are getting close to exiting beta and beginning our subscription service. Our subscription service has always been a top priority to bring value back to CHART holders, but gas fees on Ethereum have always made it a very difficult value proposition. The Avalanche and Binance Smart Chain blockchains have changed that equation dramatically.
The CHART subscription service will start later this month — the focus of which is intended to drive maximum value to the CHART token and the ChartEx platform.
Tier 1: Holding 2000 CHART or 500 ZERO
secures your ability to save and load charts and indicator layouts
Live candles from Binance Smart Chain and Avalanche blockchains
Trade on-the-page for supported DEX platforms
Tier 2: Holding 3000 CHART or 750 ZERO
Everything from Tier 1 plus:
create up to 3 watchlists
Price Alerts via Telegram*
Tier 3: Holding 4000 CHART or 1000 ZERO + $10 Subscription paid in CHART
Everything from Tiers 1 & 2 plus:
create up to 10 watchlists
Whale trades sidebar
Whale tracking telegram bot*
Whale alert telegram bot*
Tier 4: Holding 5000 CHART or 1250 ZERO + $20 Subscription paid in CHART
Everything from Tiers 1 & 2 & 3 plus:
create up to 20 watchlists
Highlight recent trades by the same address
Overview of buy/sell volume by wallets
Trade analytics sidebar
Technical Analysis screening Telegram bot
This new subscription model becomes the new economic model for CHART. 70% of all subscription fees collected will be burnt making the CHART token deflationary. The more partnerships and subscribers we are able to accrue, the faster the burn will occur. The entire subscription model becomes self sustaining in terms of returning value to CHART holders.
Better yet, since subscriptions are rolling in 30 day windows, and the burn occurs at the end of the users’ 30 day window, the burn is both unpredictable and constant — thus making it unable to be gamed.
We at ChartEx have always felt we had superior charts, and now we think we have an economic model to reflect our charting product.
About ChartEx
ChartEx is a leading provider of full Candlestick charting for markets on AMM platforms on both Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain. It was the first platform to offer mainstream charting for Uniswap, PancakeSwap, Sushiswap and many other AMMs not covered by typical charting providers. It continues to pioneer in development of tools to benefit Defi trades with it’s user-centric ethos to product development.
Website | Telegram | Medium | Twitter | https://medium.com/@chartexpro/new-economic-model-subscription-updates-1a9c34b731be | [] | 2021-05-03 21:03:27.290000+00:00 | ['Technical Analysis', 'Charts', 'Defi'] |
Artificial object balancing | Object detection has an intrinsic problem of class imbalance. It is very unlikely that a real-world dataset containing an unlimited number of objects per image will have a similar total number of objects per class. This results in a learning bias towards the more frequent classes, which in many cases is undesirable. In order to mitigate the imbalance, a traditional approach involves feeding images to the network in a specific order, such that we hold back on feeding objects of a too frequent class. Such an approach fails to properly balance the dataset as only a few images may contain a specific combination of class instances. Another approach involves modifying the network’s loss function by applying class weights corresponding to the class frequencies. This approach work in some cases, but might create instabilities in the training and does not guarantee better overall precision and recall.
At this point, we notice it’s very hard to tame the dataset’s imbalanced nature without actually modifying the images. One way to do so would be by adding artificial objects to the images. This allows to effectively balance the dataset and obtain the exact same total number of instances per class. In this topic, we discuss how to balance the dataset if artificial objects are available. However, how to obtain artificial objects or where to place them in the images I’ll leave it to another post.
Problem statement
So here is the problem statement: Given a dataset with N classes and an array of class frequency distribution, how many objects from each class needs to be added so that the new frequency distribution is uniform? For example, we might have a dataset with N=4, with classes “CAR”, “DOG”, “CAT”, “PERSON”, with 10 images and the following frequency distribution:
CAR: 5
DOG : 10
CAT: 2
PERSON : 3
What is the solution?
Simple Solution
There is a very intuitive solution to this problem, we just need to add objects until all the classes have the same number as the most frequent class. In this case, we need to add 5 objects to CAR, 0 to DOG, 8 to CAT, and 7 to PERSON and all classes will have 10 objects.
OK, now we know how many objects we need to add. But if we take not the entire dataset, but only a part of the dataset or more specifically, given one image in the dataset: 1) how many objects per image do we need to add? 2) which objects should we add?
Number of objects per image
This one is very simple. We simply divide the total number of additions by the number of images in the dataset. In our example : 5 + 0 + 8 + 7 = 20, since we have 10 images, 20/10 = 2 objects per image. So we know that on average 2 objects are needed to balance the dataset. If for every image, we add the average number of additions, on average we will balance the dataset. Some images might contain more or less objects, but after the additions, on average they will all contain the same number of objects.
But which objects are we adding?
PS: If the number of objects per image is not an integer, we can round it to the nearest integer. This rounding error should not affect the solution significantly.
Determining the added objects
The best way to do this is to think probabilistically. What’s the probability of adding an object of class i? Given the additions array we calculated earlier [5,0,8,7], the probability of addition for each element will be the element divided by the array sum (the total number of additions). In this case, it would be [1/4,0, 2/5, 7/20]. Cool, so now that we have this probabilities array, all we need to do is add 2 objects per image, which are selected by drawing from this probability distribution. How do we do that? This is a problem mathematically formulated by a random variable transformation from uniform to an arbitrary pdf. The answer lies in the cumulative distribution function. This is also a famous leetcode question (#528 — Random Pick with Weight). To make a long story short, here is the algorithm:
1) Compute the cumulative sum of the probability array into an array cum_prob = [1/4,1/4, 13/20,1].
2) Draw a random number between 0 and 1.
3) Find the interval in cum_prob where that number lies. The index of this interval will be the chosen class. This can be efficiently performed with a binary search.
Finally here is the code for balancing:
for _ in range(number_additions_per_img):
rand = random.random()
ind = bisect.bisect_left(probs_cum, rand)
new_freq[ind] += 1
Large number of additions per image
The simple solution works when the number of additions per image is small, compared to the image size. When it is not, the image starts running out of space to put the artificial objects. What should we do in this case? The problem is so far we only considered ADDING artificial objects but in fact, we could also think of SUBTRACTING objects from the most frequent classes. Now the solution becomes a little more tricky. How do we determine how many objects to add or subtract for each class in order to balance the dataset?
Linear system of equations
We can formulate the problem as following: Given classes 1,2,…,N with original frequencies f1,f2,…,fN, we need to add a1 objects to class 1, a2 objects to class 2, …, aN objects to class N and balance the frequencies. We can put this in the form of equations:
(f1 + a1) / (F + a1 + a2 + … + aN) = 1 / N
(f2 + a2) / (F+ a1 + a2 + … + aN) = 1 / N
…
(fN + aN) / (F+ a1 + a2 + … + aN) = 1 / N
F = f1 + f2 + … + fN
In matrix form:
Nice, this a linear system Ax = b, which we can solve by inverting A, right? Wrong! The matrix A is singular, which means it’s non-invertible and there is not a unique solution.
So what else can we do? Well, there’s a standard optimization solution — Least Squares — which minimizes ||Ax -b || = 0. However, this is still not what we are looking for as it does not guarantee to find the solution with minimal changes to the number of objects. The solution we are looking for is an x which minimizes:
||Ax — b||, subject to ||x|| = 0
Done, all we need to do is solve this convex optimization problem. Luckily there are libraries written to solve such kind of problems. Matlab has the inbuilt function lsqlin which people have already ported to python and other languages. You can find such a solution here :
An interesting fact is that if we solve for ||Ax — b||, subject to x > 0, we end up with something close to the simple solution discussed previously.
After we find x, we can proceed as before and calculate the probabilities, however, we need to be mindful and account for negative signs.
A complete example code is found here. | https://medium.com/@rafael-iriya/artificial-object-balancing-1687949bb81b | ['Rafael Iriya'] | 2020-12-11 16:34:54.726000+00:00 | ['Class Balancing', 'Convex Optimization', 'Linear Algebra', 'Object Detection', 'Deep Learning'] |
Splitting Every NBA Team Into Tiers Based on Their 2020–21 NBA Championship Chances | Tier 8 — A few years away from being a few years away
Cleveland Cavaliers
New York Knicks
Detroit Pistons
CLEVELAND and New York fans understand why their franchises are sitting 29th and 30th in most NBA power rankings with a lot of work to do before either club sees the playoffs again. Young Cavs guards Darius Garland and Collin Sexton instil some confidence, with the Knicks’ promise lying in their frontcourt with R.J. Barrett and recent draftee Obi Toppin. However, both ball clubs are weighed down by players either past their prime, attached to a bloated contract or not skilled enough to make a difference.
DETROIT are no strangers to big deals associated with underperformers having dealt Andre Drummond to Cleveland at the deadline last year to shed one such deal. Drummond wasn’t the only issue with Detroit’s roster and the questionable deals handed to Jerami Grant (3yrs/$60M) and Mason Plumlee (3yrs/$25M) this offseason has most Pistons fans looking to jump ship and sell what little stock they may still own. Until they, the Knicks and the Cavaliers start to shed these type of deals and replace them with more exciting youngsters, all three are destined to stay near the bottom.
Tier 7 — Eyes On The Future
Golden State Warriors
Charlotte Hornets
Oklahoma City Thunder
RIGHT up until the eve of the NBA Draft, we expected Golden State to be in the championship conversation. Once we learned that Klay Thompson had a torn Achilles that would rule him out for the entire season NBA fans let out a collective sigh of disappointment, leaving Dub Nation to turn their attention towards a title push in 2021–22. They still have some talent on their roster with Steph Curry healthy and Kelly Oubre Jr, James Wiseman and Kent Bazemore arriving with a purpose, but it would be unfair to expect a serious push for the Larry O.
THE other two teams in this category have their eyes on a pair of very different blueprints with Charlotte’s destiny looking very different to that of the OKC Thunder. Signing Gordon Hayward to a 4yr/$120M contract raised a lot of eyebrows, however, if he ages well and can stay on the floor (no certainty by any means) there are reasons to like what the Hornets are doing. LaMelo Ball and PJ Washington appear to be solid building blocks for their future playoff push and Oklahoma City will be hoping they can find similar pieces thanks to their 17 future first-rounders.
MAKING not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but ELEVEN trades this past offseason has the Thunder better positioned than any other franchise to build a future winner. Some current Oklahoma players will help aid the task of constructing a contender in years to come, but there isn’t enough firepower on the roster for that push to come in this season or the next. Until those 1st round picks are conveyed, 25–30 wins is their likely ceiling.
Tier 6 — No Man’s Land
Orlando Magic
San Antonio Spurs
Sacramento Kings
Minnesota Timberwolves
FINISHING a season with a .500 record is arguably the worst spot a franchise can find themselves — not crap enough to bottom out and seek a valuable draft pick and not successful enough to make a playoff stay that matters. For various reasons, the Magic, Spurs, Kings and T-Wolves all find themselves in this category, with uncertainty the only guarantee for the upcoming season. Top-8 finishes in back-to-back seasons could have some Orlando fans taking a glass-half-full approach, but those playoffs trips have only translated to consecutive 4–1 series losses at the hands of the Raptors and Bucks respectively.
Image from chatsports.com
STEVE Clifford should once again get this Magic squad playing hard enough to post around 35 wins, a similar mark I expect the Spurs to achieve with Gregg Popovich. A picture of postseason consistency for the last three decades, San Antonio is poised for a stay in the lottery over the coming seasons. Pop likely doesn’t have a lot left in the tank and you could group aging vets in DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge in the same boat. As the rest of the West strengthens around them, I can’t see them fighting for their 30th playoff berth in the last 32 years.
SPEAKING of playoff berths, the Minnesota Timberwolves have their sights set on capturing one of the valuable eight seeds out West for themselves. Buoyed by young talent, the Wolves’ fan base won’t be happy with another season on the outside looking in and dynamic duo Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell could provide enough of an offensive spark to pull off such a feat. However, defensively there are still a lot of red flags for Minnesota and not even top overall pick Anthony Edwards can vault them into a higher tier. There is a similar cautious optimism around Sacramento with young stars of their own hoping to help the Kings take the leap in 2021. While I’m buying all the De’Aaron Fox stock that’s for sale, I’m not hitching my wagon to this middling Sacto outfit.
Tier 5 — Can they make the leap?
Phoenix Suns
Atlanta Hawks
Chicago Bulls
New Orleans Pelicans
Washington Wizards
Memphis Grizzlies
NOW things are getting interesting. The lower seeds in both conferences are going to be met with fierce competition in the upcoming season, as the NBA continues to experiment with the play-in tournament for the final two spots on both sides of the bracket. The idea was introduced to give teams like the Pelicans a chance to claim the №8 seed last year after their tumultuous first half of the season in 2019–20. There wouldn’t be many fans complaining about more chances to watch Zion Williamson work, especially as NOLA continues to push their case as a legitimate threat in the West.
TRADING for Steven Adams certainly helps move the needle in their favour, but there are still a lot of question marks surrounding the Pels entering their first year with new head coach Stan Van Gundy. Another relatively new coach in Monty Williams is hoping his own offseason acquisitions will help his team break an 11-year absence from postseason action. Most notably Phoenix went out and added Chris Paul to help them take the leap, with the Suns looking the part of a playoff team. Seven teams from their conference can be found higher than them in the tier rankings and I’d be betting my hard-earned cash that this Phoenix squad can take up residence in the 8th spot.
MEMPHIS might have something to say about that after their recent encouraging campaign. The arrival of rookie revelation Ja Morant saw the Grizz catch a lot of people and unsuspecting teams by surprise, eventually falling to Portland in the first instalment of the postseason play-in game in August. With another healthy influx of young talent, Memphis will believe they can go one step further especially if Morant makes another jump towards superstardom in year two.
OUT East the Atlanta Hawks are hoping their own gifted guard can drive their playoff push and forking out over $150 million in contracts this past offseason, the time to climb is now. Trae Young won’t likely increase his scoring by another 10 points, but his diverse offensive skillset will help ignite Atlanta’s new-look offense, making them a force to be reckoned with on that side of the ball. The question is, can they get enough stops to string some wins together? Only two teams owned a worse defensive rating than ATL last year and one of them just traded for a former MVP with their intention similar to that of the Hawks this season. Washington leaned on Brad Beal to mount their case for a playoff spot a year ago and now that he has Russell Westbrook as a sidekick, the Wizards would like their chances of revisiting the postseason.
THE growth from their young pieces around Beal and Westbrook will probably determine just how far the Wash Wiz can go in 2021, with a lot of curious eyes following Troy Brown Jr, Rui Hachimura, Deni Avdija and Jerome Robinson. There is similar promise around the Chicago franchise right now, however, they don’t have the benefit of relying on All-NBA calibre guards to aid their playoff quest. Given how much the teams around them have improved it’s tough to see the Bulls leapfrogging their rivals and climbing into the top-8, but they do boast a deep rotation of quality NBA players. For Chicago’s postseason dreams to be realised though, someone in their litter of B+ talent needs to emerge as a true A-grader.
Tier 4 — Postseason Staples
Houston Rockets*
Toronto Raptors
Indiana Pacers
*Harden hasn’t been traded (yet) so I’m treating the Rockets as a postseason squad
LET’S address the offensively-blessed elephant in the room. Houston’s fortunes are the hardest to peg at present, as James Harden continues to voice his displeasure at the idea of wearing a Rockets jersey for 2020–21. His trade request has been well documented, but there are 14 other Houston players that will determine how far their ball club can go this season. With lottery teams from a season ago snapping at their heels, I can see them falling out of the conversation if Harden departs and Houston receives a motherload of picks instead of capable players. John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins are already well acquainted and Stephen Silas will be hoping his two healthy stars can refind their powers and steer the first-year coach to success the same way they once helped boost the Calipari led Kentucky Wildcats.
Image from bleacherreport.com
ANOTHER first-year coach in Nate Bjorkgen will be hoping he can drive his new squad to greatness as well, with the Indiana Pacers opting for a change of voice. There are a lot of teams that strive for the same level of consistency Indiana has shown in the last decade, reaching the playoffs in nine of the past 10 seasons — although they haven’t made it out of the first round since 2014. A promising group of players headlined by Victor Oladipo, Domontas Sabonis and Malcolm Brogdon should see Indiana achieve another postseason trip, but once again they’re destined to merely make up the numbers.
MAKING the jump from playoff staple to champion outfit is arguably the toughest leap to make and a Toronto team that struck gold two seasons ago has certainly fallen a few rungs since. The Raptors have won 72% of their games over the three regular seasons — a better winning clip than any other organisation in the NBA, but recreating their now memorable run to a title in a post-Kawhi world is a task too tall. Nick Nurse continues to mount his case as the best coach in the league, Fred VanVleet keeps reminding us all why we have to “bet on ourselves” and of the three squads in this bracket I have the most faith in Toronto proving me wrong. It’s still not enough to move them into the championship conversation.
Tier 3 — The Pseudo Contenders
Utah Jazz
Boston Celtics
Miami Heat
Portland Trailblazers
NOW we’re getting serious. While it wouldn’t be unfathomable to see Utah, Boston, Miami or Portland rise above the trials and tribulations of a COVID affected season and win it all, I just can’t get behind any of these four squads. Starting with Utah, they received a MASSIVE boost on the eve of the season with Rudy Gobert re-committing to the franchise for five years and becoming the richest center in league history in the process. While Gobert is a crucial piece to success, it may take another historic Donovan Mitchell scoring spree for the Jazz to prove their legitimacy to the rest of the basketball world. Twice in a seven-game battle with Denver, Mitchell scored 50+ points, but even that couldn’t get Utah over the line.
Image from nba.com
ASIDE from bringing Derrick Favors back to Salt Lake City, the Jazz hardly tweaked their roster over the offseason which gives me scepticism around their ability to make a worthwhile playoff stay. That’s not to say continuity can’t lead to success with Portland managing to advance all the way to the West Finals in 2019 thanks to their two-headed backcourt stars in Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. Throwing a fully fit Jusuf Nurkic into the mix with the Blazers’ offseason additions, Robert Covington and Derick Jones Jr, has a lot of pundits predicting big things out of Oregon over the next 7–8 months.
I can understand the growing support for Portland to break through to the top-4 out West, with the Blazers surviving the first-ever play-in game to keep their postseason streak alive. However, the growing challengers who finished in the lottery and the improvements from teams in a similar category as Portland has me anticipating another fight for one of the final seeds all the way until the end of the season. Last year’s Eastern Conference finalists probably won’t have to worry about sliding that far, but at the same time, neither Boston nor Miami improved their chances of taking out the Larry O’Brien trophy.
KEMBA Walker’s knee issues worry me from a Boston perspective and falling one series W short of a Finals berth three times in the last four years makes me think they’ve missed their window. That may be a tad harsh following Jayson Tatum’s leap into superstardom and another impressive campaign from Jaylen Brown, but again, I think the Celts may have missed their opportunity to break through to the big dance. The Heat were the team that halted them in the most recent East Finals, storming to a surprise matchup against the powerhouse Los Angeles Lakers only to succumb in six games. If history is anything to go by, Miami should be absent from playoff action again this year after seven straight seasons alternating between missing and making the postseason. I’d love to see Jimmy and Bam prove me wrong and steer the Heat to another unlikely Finals run, but after capturing lightning in a bottle once, I can’t see it striking twice.
Tier 2 — Capable Challengers
Brooklyn Nets
Philadelphia 76ers
Denver Nuggets
Dallas Mavericks
Milwaukee Bucks
L.A. Clippers
IF any of these six teams were hoisting a championship trophy in July I would not be shocked. Seeing Brooklyn achieving instant success shouldn’t surprise anyone with Kyrie Irving and a hopefully fresh Kevin Durant leading the charge and a dual MVP winner in Steve Nash stepping in to manage the locker room. There may be growing pains between the two opinionated All-NBA staples, but the rest of the roster makes me believe they can make some noise this year. Contrary to what some believe, the Nets’ core is full of players equipped to support their two stars, similar to what the Philadelphia 76ers are building under Doc Rivers.
A change at the top of the helm could be just what the doctor ordered for the Sixers, with the franchise keen to see how their new pieces fit together. Oddsmakers still have Philly as James Harden’s most likely destination and it’s tough to gauge what a Harden for Ben Simmons swap would do for the city’s title chances. Either way, they don’t have a lot to show for three straight playoffs visits and another slow/sluggish start could force Daryl Morey to pull his itchy trigger finger on a blockbuster deal.
ONE team linked to a lot of big names in the trade rumour mill is the Denver Nuggets, however, their budding nucleus of talent has patiently grown into a team worth watching. The franchise seems ready to reap the rewards of their investment in recent drafts, led by tenured Nuggets Jamal Murray and the passing maestro known as Nikola Jokic. The dynamic one-two punch could be something opponents fear for years to come and regardless of if they take out the ultimate prize Josh Kroenke deserves a cap tip for building a bonafide contender in a short amount of time. Their conference rivals in Dallas are also quickly establishing another threat to the Lakers’ crown, with Luka Doncic poised to take the competition by storm. Voter fatigue could see Giannis fail in his quest to take out three straight MVP trophies, with Doncic best positioned to claim the league’s highest individual honour.
BOTH of them would happily trade that accolade in for a championship ring, but the Mavericks may have to follow in Denver’s footsteps and deploy more patience before the rest of their roster is ready to launch a title assault. Milwaukee, on the other hand, has dominated two straight regular seasons only to see their playoff stay amount to nothing. Now that Antetokounmpo has sworn his allegiance to the Bucks, the time is now for Giannis to lead them to the promised land. The inferior East is there’s for the taking after making some tweaks to an already impressive unit with the large majority of people in Wisconsin praying Jrue Holiday is the missing piece in a championship puzzle.
WHILE they’ve fallen short of their goals in recent times, they can take some solace in knowing they haven’t yet self-combusted in the playoffs the same way the L.A. Clippers did in their most recent crusade. Los Angeles ‘little brother’ team has been trying to emerge from the shadows for decades now and Kawhi Leonard + Paul George gives them their best chance yet of proving they belong. Anything short of a West Finals appearance would be deemed as a failure in the eyes of many, and should they make their way that far, there’s every chance their ‘big brother’ will be the opponent.
Image from twitter.com
Tier 1 — The Creme of the Crop
Los Angeles Lakers
THERE can only be one team at the top of the food chain. After a strong free agency period, most hoop heads have the reigning champs in the box seat to repeat, with the NBA Championship tracker at Sports Betting Dime confirming the Lakers’ label as title favourites. When you dissect their moves since late November you can understand why. Since moratorium lifted Los Angeles has: added Dennis Schroder, Wes Matthews, Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell; re-signed Anthony Davis and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, extended LeBron James and Kyle Kuzma and of course, watched Talen Horton–Tucker break out during the preseason. The Lakers have all the ingredients to construct a dynasty in the coming seasons and it all starts with defending their title in 2020–21. | https://medium.com/top-level-sports/splitting-every-nba-team-into-tiers-based-on-their-2020-21-nba-championship-chances-5c28c18d873 | ['Alex Fry'] | 2020-12-24 22:05:43.175000+00:00 | ['Nba Championship', 'Sport', 'NBA', 'Basketball'] |
Improving Pull Request Confidence for the Netflix TV App | Developers are able to see the new and improved confidence “report” alongside their test results in CI. The screenshots below is what a developer would see when trying to analyze functional test failures on their pull request. The confidence indicator (the exclamation mark icon) is directly on the banner for failed tests. If the user hovers over the confidence indicator, they are shown details as to which of the three scenarios occurred for that particular test.
Scenario 1: The test attempt on the destination branch failed with the same error as the pull request.
Scenario 2: The test attempt on the destination branch failed, but with a different error than the pull request.
Scenario 3: The test attempt on the destination branch passed, while the test failed on the pull request.
Note that in the first scenario we mark the test a shade of orange instead of red. This provides users a visual cue that this test failure is unlikely due to their change.
Another cool feature with this version is that users are able to see the full details of the test run on the destination branch, just as they would for the pull request runs (see screenshot below). Having the test results for the destination branch run side-by-side with the test results for the pull request runs is especially useful for developers and test engineers.
Finally, to ensure we always provide users with some information as opposed to none, in cases where we are unable to run the test on the main branch for any reason, we fall back to the initial version of confidence scores.
Benefits of the Improved Version
With the release of the new version, we saw marked improvement in the availability of confidence data. Let’s look at a quick example that illustrates how the updated version provides value where the previous version did not.
For each functional test run, we store the associated metadata in MongoDB. As part of this metadata, we capture what the initial version of the confidence score would return, so that it can be used as a fallback. The screenshot below shows the subset of the captured metadata for an example test run. The blue box specifically highlights the JSON object storing the initial confidence score data. We can see that the initial version would not have provided the user with any useful data. Then, if we look at the JSON object corresponding to the updated version (the red box), we can see that it found that the status and the error message was the same for both the pull request run and the destination branch run.
Therefore, the test failure is very unlikely to be due to the user’s change. This information would not be available to the user with the initial version.
Let’s take this a step further, and look at how much more useful data was provided to developers since the “new” confidence data was fully rolled out. We looked at some 130K relevant failed tests over the last 3 months and found that significantly more failed tests had the new confidence data attached compared to the old confidence score. The chart below displays that data in percentage form.
74% of the relevant failed tests have at least some version of confidence data compared to only 35% if we had stayed with the original confidence score. Additionally, we observe a significant 21% increase in the number of tests that now have confidence data but didn’t before. Of course the new confidence data is also more relevant and more precise than the previous version.
What’s Next?
Here are a couple of ways we are thinking about improving confidence in test results for the future:
We can match the number of test runs on the main branch with the number of test runs on the pull request. Currently, we generally end up having 3 test runs for the pull request, while only having a single attempt on the main branch. We can increase the number of attempts on the main branch to ensure the error output is consistent across multiple retries. Obviously, there is a trade-off here as this will require additional device resources.
We can use additional historical test run data along with test run data from concurrent pull requests, to provide users even more information to ascertain whether a test failure is due to their change or not.
We can leverage the vast amount of new confidence data that we are gathering as a result of this project to readily identify particularly unstable tests and closely analyze the root cause of their instability. This will allow us to tackle the problem of test flakiness head-on and address the larger issue of test stability directly.
Overall, our goal is of course to deliver clear signals and pertinent information to developers so that they can make well informed decisions, and we are only just getting started. | https://medium.com/@netflixtechblog/improving-pull-request-confidence-for-the-netflix-tv-app-b85edb05eb65 | ['Netflix Technology Blog'] | 2021-09-02 20:59:49.936000+00:00 | ['Developer Productivity', 'Continuous Integration', 'TV', 'Testing'] |
We didn’t choose this, plus four other things I wish the world understood about being a transgender person | Image courtesy — https://goo.gl/zQz8j1
I have been transitioning for two years, and it still amazes me that more than eight out of ten times, I am the first transgender person people I meet have talked to. A lot of the times they have questions, and I am happy to answer them. I am probably not going to see a lot of these people again but there is a good chance they will see another transgender person sometime, and I hope that my answers will help them have a more productive and kind conversation with the next one. Here are five things I wish more people knew about the trans existence
We didn’t choose this
We didn’t one day decide to become the other gender. It wasn’t a choice in the same way you pick out the grad school you want to go to, or you pick a profession. We are born this way, and we all realize at different points in our lives that we are transgender. The only thing we choose is to transition. We choose to transition because we are tired of being suffering in our birth gender. And, because we don’t want to reach a point where we throw in the towel and take our lives. Suicide rates in transgender population can be as high as 40%. It is only fair that we are given a real chance to transition and re-integrate in this world as our preferred gender. We are not doing it for the thrill of it.
It isn’t about our genitals
Unfortunately, most people are obsessed with our genitals. It’s often the second or third question I get asked. About the surgery. It’s incredible how little the world knows about transgender people, but they all know about the surgery. And, somehow it’s ok to ask people you have just met about their genitals or about how they fuck. It isn’t. It’s not ok to ask us how who fucks who in our relationships. Much like it’s not ok if I ask you, a stranger who fucks who in your relationship. We didn’t choose to be transgender, and we didn’t decide to give up our right to privacy when we decided to come out.
Countries like India need to stop forcing people to have surgery to change their legal identities. It encourages everyone to focus on our genitals and gives them a license to ask us these questions and mistreat us. Not everyone wants or can afford to have surgery.
We are not half man/half woman
Some transgender people are gender queer, but most of us identify as one gender or the other. We are not a mix of two genders. You may not see us like that, but we are just like you — some of us are men, and some of us are women. We are not mythical gods from the Hindu mythology that are half man and half woman. All of us have masculine and feminine traits, but that’s not what we are talking about here. I am merely requesting you to get to know a person before you tell them who you think they are. Misgendering hurts.
I understand that many minorities have to go through this and if there is a silver lining to this experience, it’s this understanding and empathy. Please don’t call us he/she or worse, it. If you are unsure, please use the gender-neutral pronoun them or even better, ask us. I use she/her by the way.
Trans women were always women, and trans men were always men
Sometimes people will tell me they knew another trans woman and he got surgery back in the day. He didn’t. She did. The reason she is transitioning is that she was always a woman. She didn’t one day choose to be a woman. Please refer to people as the gender they identify with. Not as their sex at birth.
I sometimes walk and will ask people walking their pet what he is called. I am immediately corrected that her name is Poo. If you find it strange to have your pet misgendered, please imagine what it must feel like for us to be misgendered. We are here to stay, and you will see more and more of us around. It would benefit everyone if you spent some time learning the basics of interacting with transgender people.
Transitioning is a luxury most people cannot afford
A lot of transgender people don’t transition. Some don’t want to, some cannot afford to and some cannot transition for medical reasons. Not everyone can or would want to get surgery. None of this has any bearing on how we want to be gendered or treated. Some fundamental rights don’t depend on our access to expensive procedures or lawyers. The right to legal documentation that matches our gender identity, the right to safe and non-discriminatory workspaces and the right to a peaceful and nonviolent existence. Let us not create a world that is only kind to trans people that pass, that is blend in with the rest of the world and disappear.
I often have friends talk about other transgender women and tell me I look so much better than them. How they look like a man. Please don’t do this. It is not a contest. If anything, it’s more like a lottery. You could be born privileged enough to transition early, privileged enough to afford transition, privileged enough to live in a country where you can transition. No woman wants to hear that she looks like a man. We are no different. When you ridicule one of us, you are ridiculing all of us.
These biases and misunderstandings need to go away. They lead to discrimination and mistreatment of transgender people. If we have to educate one person at a time, it is still worth it. Please take the time to learn a little more and correct others you know when they act from a place of misinformation or prejudice. I am happy to answer any questions that you may have. | https://medium.com/transyent-thoughts/we-didnt-choose-this-plus-four-other-things-i-wish-the-world-understood-about-being-a-transgender-9c5de9a895cb | ['Hana Mohan'] | 2018-06-25 06:10:00.470000+00:00 | ['Transgender', 'Gender Equality', 'Feminism'] |
Mr. Biden, These Women and Their Accusations Are No Laughing Matter | Mr. Biden, These Women and Their Accusations Are No Laughing Matter
He Could Have Learned From This, But Chose Not To.
I’ve been watching the controversy surrounding former Vice President Joe Biden and inappropriate touching from a distance, listening to the fascinating differences of opinion between the young and old that highlighted a clear, deep cultural divide. Mr. Biden is somewhat notorious for pushing the boundaries of personal space with both men and women alike, but with a looming presidential bid women are coming forward to tell their own unique and uncomfortable interactions with Mr. Biden.
After Lucy Flores bravely came out with her story of the Vice President smelling her hair and kissing the back of her head, her most ardent defenders were younger women who vehemently agreed that the actions were inappropriate. Yet, there was not a shortage of women within the democratic party that came to Mr. Biden’s defense, even after more women were coming forward with their own uncomfortable personal experiences with the former Vice President.
Among the most notable of his defenders was Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who urged Joe Biden to “join the straight arm club” but insisted that none of this disqualified him. An even more passionate defense came from the actress and activist Alyssa Milano, who said “I believe Joe Biden’s intent has never been to make anyone uncomfortable, and that his kind, empathetic leadership is what our country needs…”
While I am willing to acknowledge that I don’t think Joe Biden had any intention of making anyone feel uncomfortable, that absolutely should not mean he is free and clear of any responsibility for what he’s done. It is the responsibility of someone like him in a position of power and leadership to adapt to the changing times, listen to and validate the voices of those who expressed how he made them feel, learn from it, and make sure the behavior is not repeated again.
For a brief period of time, it looked like that was the approach that Mr. Biden would take. He released a video expressing his intention to be “more mindful and respectful of people’s personal space”. He acknowledged the changing social norms, and insisted that he understood his responsibility to learn from what the women were saying.
That attitude did not seem to last long.
Just two days later, during a speech for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union, Joe Biden embraced the union president and made a point of turning to the audience and saying “I want you to know, I had permission to hug Lonnie.” He didn’t leave it there. “By the way, he gave me permission to hug him,” Biden said after putting his arm around a child on the stage.
Mr. Biden’s attitude is not only blatantly disrespectful, but serves as a clear display of privilege coming from someone in a position of power who has never been made to feel the way he made these women feel. Instead of using this situation to engage with people, and amplify the voices of women who he could learn from, Biden has been emboldened by his defenders and has decided to make light of what he’s done and how these women feel. But should any of us really be surprised, considering the toxic culture of the good old boys that Biden and other men are so deeply entrenched in? He has proven himself to be yet another man pretending to be evolved and willing to listen, who doesn’t hesitate to drop the facade as soon as he gets some support.
Personally, I have had enough and I’m sure I’m not alone. Had he followed through with his promise to learn from the circumstances he found himself in, I’m sure many of us would have gotten past this. He chose not to do that. In the days leading up to his almost inevitable announcement of a presidential campaign, Biden is doing himself no favors and I welcome that. Please Mr. Biden, continue to show us your true colors. Let us see the kind of person you really are. It will make our 2020 decision that much easier.
There is nothing funny about women in a professional environment, or any environment for that matter, being put in the circumstances that they’ve had to deal with. Women should never be subjected to actions that demeaning and have the courage to come forward, only to be mocked by the person responsible who swore he’d understood how his actions were problematic. I stand by all women who have the courage to come forward. | https://xlauren-mx.medium.com/mr-biden-these-women-and-their-accusations-are-no-laughing-matter-18f508626366 | ['Lauren Elizabeth'] | 2019-04-07 20:58:36.435000+00:00 | ['2016 Election', 'Government', 'Feminism', 'Women', 'Politics'] |
The Beautiful Consistency of Mathematics — Alexander Yessenin-Volpin | Mathematics is often believed to bring people to madness. We hear many stories like those about Gödel, Cantor, Nash, and Grothendieck, describing geniuses haunted by insanity that is developing along with their mathematics. And there is something to it. A certain psychologist said that
A paranoid person is irrationally rational. . . . Paranoid thinking is characterized not by illogic, but by a misguided logic, by logic run wild
Mathematics is the paradigm of rationality and maybe if the rationality takes over all of the aspects of life, we can talk of a mental issue. But this time I want to bring to light an opposite example. This time I want to share a story about a mathematician who was the voice of reason and sanity in the world that has run wild. And one whose mathematics was the model of his approach in social life. Meet Alexander Yessenin-Volpin (1924–2016).
Alexander Sergeyevich with his mother in 1928
The Son of a Poet
Born in the era of power struggle in the USSR and raised under Stalin’s rule, young Alexander experienced the birth of one of the most oppressive political systems on earth. But this was not obvious from the beginning: many Russian intellectuals strongly supported Bolshevik ideas of overthrowing the rotten tsarism and bringing the power to people. Volpin’s father, Sergei Yesenin (1895–1925), was surely one of them. As one of the most influential Russian poets of the 20th century, he stood up for the revolutionists. Although he never met his son, the atmosphere of alliance of Russian intelligentsia with the communist government must have been accompanying the growing Alexander. It must have contributed to the shock of discovering how the idyllic idea met the real life in the soviet Russia. Volpin recounts in Free Philosophical Tractate, which he wrote when two decades old, his “adolescent crisis” in April 1939 when he pledged himself to reason over the mundanely-understood “emotion”. The latter was propagated by the Russian communist ideologues of the era as the antidote to the bourgeois abstract non-materialistic attitude of the anti-Marxist philosophies. Volpin however felt the need to free oneself form the ties of the down-to-earth pragmatism. In his early writings he repeated again and again that
Life is an old prostitute whom I refused to take as my governess.
He believed that the liberation should emerge through authenticity and precision of language, understood ideally as mathamatically-inspired formalisation of the language of areas closest to the practical and social life: ethics and jurisprudence. Without a language that is transparent and unambiguous we will not be able, he believed, to trust our thoughts.
He sought for a tool for making the legal languege more exact in applying modal calculi to the juristic dictionary. Today we know that various deontic logics turned out to be quite handy instruments in legal theory (but not practice). Indeed, they allow to make legal inferences more transparent, but only on a rather superficial level: problems arise always when it comes to specification of good and life-fitting definitions of “permitted” and “obligatory”, two basic operators in deontic logics, along with formalisation of other legal terms.
His Law
Volpin did not give up. He was one of the first initiators of the civil rights movement in USSR. And his approach was quite exceptional given the system he lived in.
He would explain to anyone who cared to listen a simple but unfamiliar idea [...]: all laws ought to be understood in exactly the way they are written and not as they are interpreted by the government, and the government ought to fulfill those laws to the letter.
Yessenin-Volpin in fact praised the 1936 “Stalinist” constitution for various civic rights it granted. Vladimir Bukovskii, a friend of Volpin and later dissident criticizing Soviet abuse of psychiatry for political purposes, recounted that Volpin was
the first person in our life who spoke seriously about Soviet laws. [ . . . ] We laughed at him: ‘what kind of laws can there be in this country? Who cares?’ ‘That’s the problem,’ replied Alik, ‘Nobody cares. We ourselves are to blame for not demanding fulfillment of the laws.’
He rebuked Russians for acting as if they had no rights. Surreal as it might sound, it was this “literal” approach of Volpin’s that forced Soviet authorities to let the political opposition meet at Maiakovsky Square in Moscow to publicly read (it’s obvious which kind of) poetry. And it was Volpin who convinced the court guards to let him in the courtroom during the trial of writers Bakshtein, Osipov and Kuznetsov by pointing to applicable paragraphs in his copy of the Soviet Criminal Code he always carried with him.
This “concrete” approach to law was a surprisingly effective method of opposition as it openly demanded that the authorities observe their own laws. But Volpin took consistency and transparency to the next level. He applied the same hard-core concretist reasoning in the most exact of sciences.
His Mathematics
Yessenin-Volpin believed that the traditional style of making mathematics is similarly hypocritical to the style of handling legal issues in the Soviet Union. He claimed that the unreasonable and careless inclusion of the concept of infinity into mathematical discourse is the culprit of depriving it of exactness it was actually to grant.
Therefore he urged for a radical revision of foundations of mathematics, based on the claim that the concept of infinity, both potential and actual, is utterly nonsensical. He repudiated the existence of the infinite and so confined the domain of mathematical objects only to the finite ones. Such approach might ring a bell when we think of the finitists or finitistically-inspired mathematicians like Hilbert or Skolem. But Volpin went much further: recall that Hilbert’s Program did not reject the existence of the “infinitary” part of mathematics, but only strived to found it on the more concrete “finitary” part. Apart from that, Hilbert allowed for what we now call recursive algorithms ranging over infinite domains whilst for Volpin operations involving them were meaningless.
The expression f(n) (for any n) was completely senseless for Volpin, since it involved an unspecified number n, when one cannot be sure whether f is applicable to all numbers or whether what mathematicians call “all numbers” even exists for that matter. Note that it is not even real numbers and continuum that we talk about. Volpin rejected even the idea of the set of natural numbers, hence he called his stance “ultrafinitism”, where he assumed that one can only operate on specific numeric symbols expressing finite numbers and those only. And so the conventional (especially real) analysis, irrational numbers, calculus, traditional number theory along with other fields get annihilated. Not even mentioning topology or set theory. Such approach is possibly even more heretical to a mathematician than the idea of allowing assemblies and free press was to Soviet authorities. But Volpin did not create it out of mere whim.
Like in ethics, he struggled for conceptual precission. If he was shown a symbol, he wanted to be given its exact meaning — and not the metaphorical or unspecified “any” or “some”. For, and I believe that we have to grant him at least that, when we talk about transfinite numbers, beginning with ω, we do take their meanings as metaphors of some sort and we do make a leap of faith that one can operate on infinity as if it was a number. Volpin wanted to achieve his required level of exactness by founding the mathematical endeavor on the more concrete and down-to-earth, physical world. Hence he even contested the existence of numbers too big to occur in the sensible physical description of the universe. Harvey Friedman in his lectures related that
I have seen some ultrafinitists go so far as to challenge the existence of 2¹⁰⁰ as a natural number, in the sense of there being a series of “points” of that length. There is the obvious “draw the line” objection, asking where in 2¹, 2², 2³, … , 2¹⁰⁰ do we stop having “Platonistic reality”? Here this is totally innocent, in that it can be easily be replaced by 100 items (names) separated by commas. I raised just this objection with the (extreme) ultrafinitist Yessenin-Volpin during a lecture of his. He asked me to be more specific. I then proceeded to start with 2¹ and asked him whether this is “real” or something to that effect. He virtually immediately said yes. Then I asked about 2², and he again said yes, but with a perceptible delay. Then 2³, and yes, but with more delay. This continued for a couple of more times, till it was obvious how he was handling this objection. Sure, he was prepared to always answer yes, but he was going to take 2¹⁰⁰ times as long to answer yes to 2¹⁰⁰ then he would to answering 2¹. There is no way that I could get very far with this.
This anecdote perfectly captures Volpin’s consistent approach: if 4 is twice as much as 2, we should need twice as much time to realize the “shape” or the four-ness of this number. The tacit idea here is that numbers are not all cognized in the same kind of mental act, but are composed of other numbers, so in order to come to grips with the idea of a bigger number, one firstly has to grasp the idea of a smaller one. The procedure of answering “yes” to each of Friedman’s question with respective delays aptly pictures the ultrafinitistic stance on the mathematical reality. The latter is understood as a structure build up the most concrete “atoms” of mathematics — units. And this is the concretist, anti-metaphorical approach that made Volpin interpret mathematics in this manner. We can imagine him saying ‘Look, here are the “bricks” of mathematics — the starting point of mathematical reflection. One can operate on them in various ways: add and multiply them and do all sorts of operations on them, but without external presumptions about their nature or other metaphysics.’
As in ethics, Volpin wanted to free mathematics from what he believed to be unjustified dogmatism, from which originated all murky considerations about the infinite. He wrote in 1959 that the fallacy lies in the deceptive dogma that what is useful is also true:
We desire some kind of practical result, and we divide the sphere of all possible assumptions into two parts. One corresponds to “yes”; the other to “no”. We explore reality and also divide the sphere of possible assumptions into two parts corresponding to “yes” and “no”. … We very often forget that these two divisions differ from one another, and as a result we adopt as reality that which is favorable.
We can note that such link is repeatedly occurrent in statements of various Platonists, regardless of it being G.H. Hardy connecting the beauty of mathematics with its truthfulness, or W.V.O. Quine stating that the usefulness of mathematics in explaining the nature necessitates its truthfulness. Yessenin-Volpin dubbed this fallacy ignoratio elenchi (ignoration of refutation) and believed that it was “the intellectual basis for every kind of demagogy.”
Yessenin-Volpin’s most renowned work in mathematics may be found in the following proceedings:
His Fight
Thus we see Alexander Yessenin-Volpin struggling against demagogy in two most fundamental realms of human’s intellectual activity, the pure and practical reason. His efforts for civic rights in USSR earned him a number of periods in psychiatric asylums and even a 5-year exile in Syberia. Most interestingly, the official “diagnosis” that put him into asylum in 1968 was, as Vladimir Bukovskii reported, pathological honesty. Whether being honest with others and oneself could cause a mental issue is a topic for psychiatrists, but it is sure that Volpin, with his independence and simple sincerity, did not fit into the oppressive society he lived in. And he inspired others with his inner freedom: he stood behind the famous Glasnost (transparency) demonstration in 1965, was called the intellectual godfather of the civil rights movement in Russia, and contributed to awakening of the generation of political dissidents a decade before Solzhenitsyn. When he was incarcerated in the asylum in 1968, 99 Soviet mathematicians sent an open letter to the authorities requesting his release. After the case became international, Volpin was set free. He emigrated to USA in 1972.
Ironically, he was similarly alienated for his mathematical ideas in the free world as he was in the Soviet Union for political reasons. I believe this says something about traditional mathematics. The upshot is that either Volpin mistakenly interpreted the philosophical and foundational assumptions at the underpinning of mathematical practice, or his thought aptly pictures the intellectual inconsistencies in the so-called free society. It is certainly valuable to study his ultrafinitism in search for misconceptions, whether it be for recovering the philosophical justification for mathematics, or for sole development in scholarship.
But regardless of the question whether there is some point to Yessenin-Volpin’s heresies, what is exceptional in this figure is the intention of overarching struggle for independence and unity of thought. To me, the story of his life and fight is the realization of a deep message about the abstract and the practical being not so distant from each other. I interpret it as the manifestation of Weininger’s words that
Logic and ethics are fundamentally the same, they are no more than duty to oneself.
Reading List
For more about Yessenin-Volpin’s life see:
For a critique of Volpin’s ultrafinitism see:
For a discussion of more contemporary account of ultrafinitism see: http://users.uoa.gr/~apgiannop/zeilberger.pdf | https://medium.com/cantors-paradise/the-beautiful-consistency-of-mathematics-alexander-yessenin-volpin-b3c672f8ce96 | ['Jan Gronwald'] | 2020-12-16 10:35:36.846000+00:00 | ['Math', 'Philosophy', 'Ethics', 'Philosophy Of Mathematics', 'Science'] |
OTD in History… June 9, 1973, Secretariat wins the Belmont and the Triple Crown | By Bonnie K. Goodman, BA, MLIS
On this day in history June 9, 1973, Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths running away with the race but also the first Triple Crown in 25 years since Citation in 1948 and the 10th overall. With his performance in the Belmont, Secretariat was immortalized in horse-racing and is considered the best horse in the latter half of the 20th century, if not all horse racing history. He won 16 of his 21 starts with earnings of $1,316,808 and was Horse of the Year twice. Secretariat made records as the fastest horse in all of his Triple Crown races and winning the Belmont by such a distance. His legendary performance is the standard all trainers strive for with their horses. This June 9, another horse nicknamed Big Red; the undefeated Justify is racing for immortality at the Belmont and to become only the 13th horse to belong to the Triple Crown club.
Secretariat was foaled on March 30, 1970, at Meadow Stables in Doswell, Virginia, out of sire 1957 Preakness winner and horse of the year, Bold Ruler, and Somethingroyal. Even his birth and ownership was the stuff of legends, his sire Bold Ruler was retired at Claiborne Farm and owned by the Phippses. Owner Penny Chenery running the stable for her ill father Christopher Chenery entered into a foal sharing agreement with the Phippses in 1967, a coin toss would determine who would get the first foal. Losing was winning as the loser would get the foals from 1969 and 1970, Chenery loss, but won with the colt that would become Secretariat named after the Secretariat of the United Nations.
Secretariat was a massive horse, 16.2 hands, 66 inches high, and as a two-year-old was already the “size of a three-year-old;” his size earned him the name “Big Red” for his chestnut coloring, with three white stockings and a star and narrow blaze on his forehead and muzzle. As a foal he was perfect, and even more so as he grew, he had a “near perfect” conformation and stride. When training for the Preakness his stride was measured as 24 feet, 11 inches. He had a ferocious appetite and weighed 1,155 pounds before the Triple Crown and after he lost just 31 pounds. It would take him a while, however, to learn harness his strength into speed.
Secretariat commenced his two-year-old season, with Chenery sending him to be trained by Lucien Laurin at Hialeah. There the team included assistant trainer Henny Hoeffner, exercise riders, Jim Gaffney and Charlie Davis and groom Eddie Sweat. Secretariat first start was on July 4, 1972, at Aqueduct Racetrack with jockey Paul Feliciano, he placed fourth after being bumped early in the race, it was the only time he would finish outside the money. By his third race, his regular jockey Ron Turcotte took over to ride into infamy, with the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga where he showed he could win by three lengths over his competition.
Secretariat only raced a short time, only 16 months, starting 21 times, winning 16, with the rest finishing in the top 3. He was the odds-on favorite 17 times going into the races, winning 13 of those times. He won the Eclipse Award for Horse-of-the-Year, twice for his two and three-year-old campaigns. Secretariat’s first year running he won seven races out the nine he started, and he became the first two-year-old to capture the Horse of the Year honors along with Champion Two-Year-Old Male Horse. His trainer commented on his style, “In all his races, he has taken the worst of it by coming from behind, usually circling his field. A colt has to be a real runner to do this consistently and get away with it.” If his two-year-old season proved to be magical, his three-year-old would have a rough patch before the glory.
With Meadow Stud in trouble, after Chenery’s father died in January 1973, she sold Secretariat’s breeding rights to a breeding syndicate for a record $6.08 million; he would have to retire at the end of the season. Secretariat easily won his first two races in his three-year-old season, the Bay Shore Stakes at the Aqueduct on March 17 and then the Gotham Stakes at the Aqueduct on April 7. His final race before the Kentucky Derby would be the Wood Memorial, where he came in third after winner Sham, and Angle Light because of an abscess under his lip. Sham would be his rival throughout the Triple Crown, with their trainers Laurin and Pancho Martin equally sharing a rivalry.
Secretariat’s chances at winning the Kentucky Derby seemed up in the air, but luck would be Secretariat. He entered the 3–2 favorite along with angle Light, with Sham 5–2. As the Derby on May 5, was about to start one horse reared in his stall hitting another and bouncing Sham who hit his head loosening two teeth and bleeding. Secretariat lucked out with post 10 away from the mess. First Shecky Greene led then the next turn Sham, Secretariat broke last, but took the lead in the stretch, with Sham close.
Secretariat pulled away to win by 2 1⁄2 lengths with a track record 1:592⁄5. He gained speech each quarter mile, 251⁄5, :24, :234⁄5, :232⁄5, and :23. Sham finished second and Our Native third. Sportswriter Mike Sullivan commented on Secretariat’s speed, “And all of a sudden there was this, like, just a disruption in the corner of your eye, in your peripheral vision. And then before you could make out what it was, here Secretariat came. And then Secretariat had passed him. No one had ever seen anything run like that — a lot of the old guys said the same thing. It was like he was some other animal out there.” With his win, Secretariat became the hottest commodity and biggest athlete of the moment; he appeared that week on the covers of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated.
Two weeks later at the Preakness Stakes on May 19, Secretariat would do it again, come from behind then win by 2 ½ lengths. After breaking from behind Secretariat the led by the first turn, leaping in the air as he did. Turcotte later explained his decision, “I let my horse drop back, when I went to drop in, they started backing up into me. I said, ‘I don’t want to get trapped here.’ So I just breezed by them.” The second quarter only took Secretariat 22 seconds.
In a Derby repeat, Sham finished second and Our Native in third. Secretariat won in record time, but it has been disputed. The infield teletimer malfunctioned the official time was 1:542⁄5, but Daily Racing Form said it was 1:532⁄5 beating Cañonero II’s 1971 record. Maryland Jockey Club, however, declared the 1:542/5 time the official one. Only in 2012, after Chenery had a forensic company review the tapes of the two horses did the club vote to make the official time 1:53, a track record.
With Secretariat the runaway favorite going into the Belmont Stakes on June 9, with 1–10 odds, only four competitors dared to run against him, including Triple Crown races’ rival Sham. At Belmont, 69,138 attended for a chance to see if there would a Triple Crown winner, with another 15 million watching at home. After he broke, Sham ran beside him pushing to the rail, the two set the quick pace of the race, 23 3⁄5 the first quarter, and 22 3⁄5 the seconds, the fastest in the track’s history and 10 lengths ahead of the rest. After six-furlongs, Sham fell behind, while Secretariat sped ahead, at 1:34 1⁄5 for the first mile beating his sire’s record.
Secretariat’s time in the Belmont was 2:24 for 1 1/2 miles, which will never be beaten as the Belmont, is the most difficult of the Triple Crown races known as the test of champions and the fastest for a dirt track ever. Winning by 31 lengths, Secretariat beat the previous record 1943 Triple Crown winner Count Fleet, who won by 25 lengths. Track announcer Chick Anderson screeched in jubilation, “Secretariat is alone. He is moving like a tremendous machine! He’s going to be the Triple Crown winner. Unbelievable! An amazing performance. He’s 25 lengths in front!” Turcotte was not aware they were so far ahead, commented after, “I kept hearing Chick Anderson. I finally had to turn to see where the other horses were. I know this sounds crazy, but the horse did it by himself. I was along for the ride.”
With all his energy, Chenery could not give Secretariat a rest, and he had six more starts after winning the Triple Crown, winning four and coming in second twice. Only a week and a half after the Belmont he raced at the Arlington Invitational, where he won by nine lengths in 1:47. On July 27, in an upset at the Whitney Stakes in Saratoga against older horses Secretariat lost to Onion by a length because he was suffering an infection. On September 15, he returned for the inaugural Marlboro Cup at Belmont winning against top horses completing the 1 1⁄8 miles in 1:45 2⁄5. With the race, he became only the 13th horse to earn over a million dollars.
Two weeks later he ran the 1 1⁄2 mile Woodward Stakes on a sloppy track losing to Prove Out, who won by 4 1/2 lengths. It would be Secretariat’s last loss of his career. On October 8, he ran on turf with Man o’ War Stakes, winning the 1 1⁄2mile in a record 2:24 4⁄5. Secretariat’s last race was the turf Canadian International Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on October 28, 1973. It was to honor his Canadian connections with trainer Laurin and jockey Turcotte, although Turcotte could not ride him because of a suspension. Secretariat won by 6 1⁄2 lengths ending his career.
He had a parade at the Aqueduct Racetrack to honor his retirement. His trainer lamented, “It’s a sad day, and yet it’s a great day. I certainly wish he could run as a 4-year-old. He’s a great horse and he loves to run.” In 1973, he won three Eclipse awards; the American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse and the American Champion Male Turf Horse, and Horse of the Year. He retired to Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky as a stallion, until he died unexpectedly from laminitis on October 4, 1989. Claiborne president Seth Hancock reflected, “It was a terrible day for all of us. We just couldn’t stand to see him suffer.”
Even after his death, Secretariat remained a horse-racing hero, with honors continuing to be bestowed, receiving fan mail and visitors at his farm. Secretariat was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1974, the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007 and Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2013. A statue of him leaping in the air at the Preakness resides at Belmont. In 1999, ESPN named him 35th on their greatest list of athletes for the century. Blood-Horse Magazine named him the second-best racehorse of the century after Man o’ War. He was the subject of a documentary and a Hollywood movie.
Penny Chenery worked to keep his legacy alive until she died at 95 in 2017. She eulogized her beloved horse in 1989, saying, “Horse racing was in a down period. The country was in a blue mood. It was the time of Watergate and the Nixon scandals, and people wanted something to make them feel good. This red horse with the blue-and-white blinkers and silks seemed to epitomize an American hero.’’
Bonnie K. Goodman BA, MLIS (McGill University), is a journalist, librarian, historian & editor. She is a former Features Editor at the History News Network & reporter at Examiner.com where she covered politics, universities, religion, and news. She has a over dozen years experience in education & political journalism. | https://bonniekgoodman.medium.com/otd-in-history-june-9-1973-secretariat-wins-the-belmont-and-the-triple-crown-af569e2a3fb | ['Bonnie K. Goodman'] | 2018-06-09 01:29:12.431000+00:00 | ['Secretariat', 'Justify', 'Horse Racing', 'Belmont Stakes', 'Triple Crown'] |
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Livestreaming, what’s in it for us?
Technology has advanced significantly since the first internet livestream but we still turn to video for almost everything. Let’s take a brief look at why livestreaming has been held back so far, and what tech innovations will propel livestreaming to the forefront of internet culture. Right now livestreaming is limited to just a few applications for mass public use and the rest are targeted towards businesses. Livestreaming is to today what home computers were in the early 1980s. The world of livestreaming is waiting for a metaphorical VIC-20, a very popular product that will make live streaming as popular as video through iterations and competition.
Shared Video
Do you remember when YouTube wasn’t the YouTube you know today? In 2005, when Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim activated the domain “www.youtube.com" they had a vision. Inspired by the lack of easily accessible video clips online, the creators of YouTube saw a world where people could instantly access videos on the internet without having to download files or search for hours for the right clip. Allegedly inspired by the site “Hot or Not”, YouTube originally began as a dating site (think 80s video dating), but without a large ingress of dating videos, they opted to accept any video submission. And as we all know, that fateful decision changed all of our lives forever. Because of YouTube, the world that YouTube was born in no longer exists. The ability to share videos on the scale permitted by YouTube has brought us closer to the “global village” than I’d wager anyone thought realistically possible. And now with technologies like Starlink, we are moving closer and closer to that eventuality. Although the shared video will never become a legacy technology, before long it will truly have to share the stage with its sibling, livestreaming. Although livestreaming is over 20 years old, it hasn’t gained the incredible worldwide adoption YouTube has. This is largely due to infrastructure issues such as latency, quality, and cost.
Latency is a priority when it comes to livestreams.
Latency is the time it takes for a video to be captured and point a, and viewed at point b. In livestreaming this is done through an encoder-decoder function. Video and audio are captured and turned into code, the code specifies which colours display, when, for how long, and how bright. The code is then sent to the destination, such as a streaming site, where it is decoded into colours and audio again and then displayed on a device like a cell phone. The delay between the image being captured, the code being generated, transmitted, decoded, and played is consistently decreasing. It is now possible to stream content reliably with less than 3 seconds of latency. Sub-second latency is also common and within the next 20 or so years we may witness the last cable broadcast (or perhaps cable will be relegated to the niche market of CB radios, landlines, and AM transmissions).
On average, the latency associated with a cable broadcast is about 6 seconds. This is mainly due to limitations on broadcasts coming from the FCC or another similar organization in the interests of censorship. In terms of real-life, however, a 6 second delay on a broadcast is not that big of a deal. In all honesty a few hours’ delay wouldn’t spell the doom of mankind. But for certain types of broadcasts such as election results or sporting events, latency must be kept at a minimum to maximize the viability of the broadcast.
Sensitive Content is Hard to Monitor
Advances in AI technologies like computer vision have changed the landscape of internet broadcasting. Before too long, algorithms will be better able to prevent sensitive and inappropriate content from being broadcast across the internet on livestreaming platforms. Due to the sheer volume of streams it is much harder to monitor and contain internet broadcasts than it is cable, but we are very near a point where the ability to reliably detect and interrupt inappropriate broadcasts instantaneously. Currently, the majority of content is monitored by humans. And as we’ve learned over the last 50 or so years, computers and machines are much more reliable and consistent than humans could ever be. Everything is moving to an automated space and content moderation is not far behind. We simply don’t have the human resources to monitor every livestream, but with AI we won’t need it.
Video Quality
In the last decade we have seen video quality move from 720p to 1080p to 4K and beyond. I can personally remember a time when 480p was standard and 720p was considered a luxury reserved for only the most well funded YouTube videos. But times have changed and people expect video quality of at least 720p. Live streaming has always had issues meeting the demands of video quality. When watching streams on platforms like Twitch, the video can cut out, lag, drop in quality, and stutter all within about 45 seconds. Of course this isn’t as rampant now as it once was, however, sudden drops in quality will likely be a thorn in the side of live streams for years to come.
Internet Speeds
Perhaps the most common issue one needs to tackle when watching a live stream is their internet speed. Drops in video quality and connection are often due to the quality of the internet connection between the streamer and the viewer. Depending on the location of the parties involved, their distance from the server, and allocated connection speed the stream may experience some errors. And that’s just annoying. Here is a list of the recommended connection speeds for 3 of the most popular streaming applications:
Facebook Live recommends a max bit rate of 4,000 kbps, plus a max audio bit rate of 128 kbps.
YouTube Live recommends a range between 1,500 and 4,000 kbps for video, plus 128 kbps for audio.
Twitch recommends a range between 2,500 and 4,000 kbps for video, plus up to 160 kbps for audio.
Live streams are typically available for those of us with good internet. Every day more people are enjoying high quality speeds provided by fibre optic lines, but it will be a while until these lines can truly penetrate rural and less populated areas. Perhaps when that day comes we will see an upsurge of streaming coming from these areas.
Language Barrier
You can pause and rewind a video if you didn’t understand or hear something, and many video sharing platforms provide the option for subtitles. But you don’t really get that with a live stream. Pausing and rewinding an ongoing stream defeats the purpose of watching a stream. However, the day is soon approaching where we will be able to watch streams, in our own native language with subtitles, even if the streamer speaks something else. Microsoft Azure’s Cognitive Speech Services can give livestreaming platforms an edge in the future as it allows for speech to be automatically translated from language to language. The ability to watch a livestream in real time, with the added benefit of accurate subtitles in one’s own language, will also assist language learners in deciphering spontaneous speech.
Monetization
One of the most damning features of a live stream is the inherent difficulty in monetizing it. As mentioned before, videos can be paused and ads inserted. In videos, sponsored segments can be bought where the creators of the video read lines provided to them. Ads can run before videos etc. But in the case of a spontaneous live stream sponsored content will stick out. In the case of platforms like YouTube there are ways around ads. Ad blockers, the skip ad button, the deplorable premium account, and fast forwarding through sponsored segments all work together to limit the insane amount of ads we see every day. But in the case of a live stream, ads are a bit more difficult.
Live streaming platforms could implement sponsored overlays and borders or a similar graphical method of advertising, but the inclusion of screen shrinking add-ons like that may cause issues on smaller devices where screen size is already limited.
Monthly subscriptions are already the norm, but in the case of a live streaming platform (Twitch Prime not withstanding), it may be difficult for consumers to see the benefit in paying for a service that is by nature unscheduled and unpredictable. Live streams are great for quick entertainment, but as they can go on for hours at a time, re-watching streamed content is inherently time consuming. For this reason, many streamers cut their recorded streams down and upload them to platforms like YouTube where they are monetized through a partnership program. It is likely that for other streaming platforms to really take off, they would need to partner with a larger company and offer services similar to Amazon and Twitch.
What Might the Future of Livestreaming Look Like?
It is difficult to say, as it is with any speculation about the future. Technologies change and advance beyond the scope of our imaginations virtually every decade. But one thing that is almost a certainty is the continued advancement in our communications infrastructure. Fibre optic lines are being run to smaller towns and cities. Services like Google Fiber, which is now only available at 1 gigabit per second, have shown the current capabilities of our internet infrastructure. As services like this expand we can expect to see a large increase in the number of users seeking streams as the service they expect to interact with will be more stable than it currently is now. Livestreaming, at the moment, is used frequently by gamers and Esports and hasn’t yet seen the mass commercial expansion that is coming.
The future of live streaming is on its way. For clues for how it may be in North America we can look to Asia (taobao). Currently, livestreaming is quite popular in the East in terms of a phenomenon that hasn’t quite taken hold on us Westerners, Live Commerce. With retail stores closing left and right, we can’t expect Amazon to pick up all of the slack (as much as I’m sure they would like to). Live streaming affords entrepreneurs and retailers a new opportunity for sales and growth.
Live streaming isn’t the way of the future, video will never die, but the two will co-exist and be used for different purposes, as they are now. Live streaming can bring serious benefits to education as well by offering classrooms guest lessons and tutorials by leading professionals. Live streaming is more beneficial for education than video as it allows students to interact with guest teachers in real-time.
The live streaming market is waiting to be tapped. Right now there are some prospectors, but in North America, no one has really found the vein leading to the mine. So maybe it’s time to get prospecting. | https://medium.com/720p-the-masked-dancer-s01/d-o-wnl-o-a-d-the-masked-dancer-series-1-episode-1-online-fox-5e4d861c5f2c | [] | 2020-12-27 10:45:00.641000+00:00 | ['Covid 19'] |
Spotify launches Greenroom, a Clubhouse Competitor | This app is totally based on Locker Room’s existing code. According to Spotify, existing Locker room users will get an update to gain the redesigned Greenroom. While Locker Room used a white-and-reddish orange colour scheme, this app looks very much like an offspring from Spotify, adopting the same UI. To join the new app, Spotify users can sign in through their existing account. As of now the process of finding audios to listen to relies on users joining groups inside the app. You can browse for groups on any topic, interests and can join the desired rooms.
Joining a Group
Search for upcoming Rooms
The app includes all the features from Clubhouse, Twitter (Spaces) and Facebook (Live Audio Rooms). Speakers appear at the top of the screen in round icons and listeners appear below as smaller icons. It has mute options, moderation controls, optional live text chat feature. Rooms can host up to 1,000 people, and this value may increase later on. You can also applaud speakers of the room by double-tapping on their profile icon and giving them “Gems”. For now, no monetary value is incorporated with the gems, but that appears to be an evident next step as Greenroom offers no form of monetization. Along with that, Hosts can request the audio file of their live audio session after completion, which they can then turn into a podcast episode.
Joining a Room
Creating a Room
One of the most important features is that the audio sessions are being recorded by the company itself because of moderation goals. Like if a certain user reports something wrong in the audio room, Spotify now has the ability to check into the matter and decide what next steps can be taken to avoid the issue. This was one of the biggest flaws in Clubhouse as many users struggled with abuse in the app that included sensitive issues like racism and sexism. Some months ago Clubhouse had to shut down a number of rooms due to antisemitism and hate speech. Moreover, the moderation of Greenroom will be supervised by Spotify’s existing content moderation team.
The company says it will be marketing the app to artists through their Spotify for Artists channels and hoping to get more people from music-focused content. Monetization is confirmed by the company which is still impending. They declined to share light on details about the Creator Fund that intends to help creators generate revenue for their work such as the amount of fund, how creators will receive them, whether through gems or some other manner, eligibility criteria and other factors. Rather, It is only offering a sign-up form for those who might be interested in this feature in the future.
Spotify Greenroom is live today on both iOS and Android in 135 countries around the world which is not quite the global operative area of Spotify itself, as it is available in 178 countries. It’s also only available in the English language now but has plans on expanding with time. | https://medium.com/@architchoudhury10/spotify-launches-greenroom-829f5acfff9b | ['Archit Choudhury'] | 2021-06-17 17:41:12.260000+00:00 | ['Clubhouse', 'Apps', 'Spotify', 'Creators'] |
A New Perspective on Propaganda | Prior to COM 416, I never truly analyzed propaganda. I was always under the assumption it was there, but I did not understand how much of an impact it actually has on my day to day life. Learning about the history of propaganda really opened up my eyes to how much of an asset this truly is for governments and major media corporations. Seeing how people like Hitler used propaganda as a main tool in propelling his political party made it clear how all politics is actually just propaganda. We saw a lot of it in this past year between the coronavirus pandemic as well as the presidential election. This class has been critical in my newfound understanding of the means by which we are subliminally attacked on a daily basis. The fact of the matter is, we cannot stop propaganda. Although, what we can stop, is contributing to it. Something seemingly benign is actually far more evil that I would’ve imagined. As an American and as a student, I find it a grave matter to be aware of how much misinformation we consume in our day to day lives. As a person who uses the internet and social media, I find it morally critical to not spread false news and to try my absolute best to recognize when I’m absorbing media that is framed in a certain light.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LffOVaxrwGtbQ3RZ7AE5gQtI2Cofu2GUU2n630fxuto/edit?usp=sharing | https://medium.com/mindovermedia/a-new-perspective-on-propaganda-284b6d6075c3 | [] | 2020-12-14 14:12:52.996000+00:00 | ['Propagand', 'Communication', 'Leap 3', 'Media Criticism'] |
We Broke Up | We Broke Up
Only this dog understands my real feelings, Picture by Author
I was being his favorite chocolate cake
Baked for hours in the microwave
But I was startled when I saw
He was hogging on like a pig
On someone else’s plate
She had the red velvet cake
He was roaming around astray
Hence we broke up… | https://medium.com/theequest/we-broke-up-410c6b2be41f | ['Gurpreet Dhariwal'] | 2020-12-21 15:26:08.834000+00:00 | ['Theequest', 'Heartbreak', 'Musings', 'Heartbroken Girlfriend', 'Broken Heart'] |
Learning TypeScript — Installation & Basic Types | TypeScript as a Compiler
TypeScript is a source-to-source compiler which compiles to JavaScript in the end. Note that it will be JavaScript that will run in the backend and frontend of your applications and not TypeScript which aids in static type checking only.
TypeScript compiles to JavaScript, more specifically ES3 according to the docs.
Installation
Assuming that you use npm, you can download TypeScript as a dev dependency using the following command:
npm install typescript --save-dev
After, you can run the compiler with the following:
npx tsc
To customize how you can compile process of TypeScript, you might want to add a tsconfig.json file in your root directory. Here is an example of what it would have to get started. You may refer to the TsConfig Reference for more details.
{
"compilerOptions": {
"module": "CommonJS", // Default is CommonJS for ES3 or ES5, and ES6 for ES6 or higher
"target": "ES2017",
"outDir": "lib", // output directory }, "include": ["src"] // inputs: specify list of files or folders }
Basic Types
For TypeScript, the language supports the same basic types as JavaScript and a few more which we will get to later.
TypeScript being a superset for JavaScript would have more types supported.
Boolean
Types that hold true or false values.
let isTrue: boolean = true;
Number
Represents all numbers which are either type number or bigint . Supports other numeral systems such as hex and binary.
let decimal: number = 10;
let binary = 0b101; // 5
let hex: number = 0x9D2; // 2514
let big: bigint = 100n;
String
For textual data with single or double quotes surrounding the data. Also supports template literals.
let name: string = 'Bryan';
let language: string = "JavaScript";
let sentence: string = `Hi, my name is ${name} and I think ${language} is great!`
Array
Arrays are list-like objects which are ordered. They can be expressed with the types within the array followed by [] or via generic array type.
let list1: number[] = [1, 2, 3];
let list2: Array<number> = [1, 2, 3]; // Generic array type
Tuple
Arrays with fixed number of elements. The types within the tuple are known and do not have to be the same.
let tuple: [string, number] = ['hi', 123];
tuple = [123, 'hi'] // Error
From above, the initialization of tuple as [123, 'hi'] will throw an error at compile time because the types did not correspond to a string then number.
Another note about tuples, they are not actually immutable like the tuple type from python. You can change it’s value, and perform push() and pop() operations to it. See example from TS playground.
Enum
This data type gives names to numeric values. It is essentially creating an object and assigning the numeric value to a value and vice versa for two-way mapping.
enum Languages = {
javascript, // default value assigned is 0
typescript, // 1
coffeescript, // 2
} let favLanguage: Languages = Languages.typescript; // 1
We see that the mapping of members within the enum type starts from 0. You can also change its starting point or assign all of them a number.
enum Languages = {
javascript = 10,
typescript = 15,
coffeescript,
} let notFavLanguage: Languages = Languages.coffescript; // 16 without any value assignment
Unknown
A type that is used for when we are unsure of the value and do not want to intentionally accept any value (see any below for a type that does).
let notSure: unknown;
notSure = 123; // Could be a number
notSure = true; // Could be a boolean even
We can narrow the unknown type by using typeof . See below.
let notSure: unknown;
notSure = 2; if(typeof notSure === 'string') {
const isString: string = notSure; // After checking if it is a string, we know for sure it is of type "string". Same for below.
}
if(typeof notSure === 'number') {
const isNumber: number= notSure; // Value is 2
}
Any
A type that accepts all values. Useful for when not all type information is available or type declaration is impractical as it will take too long. TypeScript will not type check variables with the any types.
let anything: any = 4;
anything.pop() // Ok
anything.toFixed() // Ok. Works but TS does not check if it does
anything.a.b.c.d.whatever // Ok. Works too as TS does not check.
Void
Opposite of any and the absence of any types. You can only assign undefined or null (only if --strictNullChecks is not specified).
let itIsVoid: void = undefined; //Ok
itIsVoid = null; // Ok. only in non-strict null check mode
Nulls and Undefined
These types refer to themselves respectively. Not that much useful.
let a: null = null; // Ok
a = 123; //Error let b: undefined = undefined //Ok
b = 123; // Error
Never
Represents values that never occur at all and does not have a reachable endpoint.
function error(message: string): never {
throw new Error(message);
} function error2(message: string): never { // inferred type is never
throw new Error(message);
} function infiniteLoop(): never { // does not reach completion
while(true) { }
}
Object
Refers to any non-primitive types which are number , string , boolean , bigint , symbol , null , or undefined . You will not need this in most cases.
let a: object = {}; // Ok a = []; // Ok
a = null; // Error
a = '123'; // Error
a = 123; // Error
Type Assertions
Type assertions can also be made with the as syntax which allows you to arbitrary assert a type and take responsibility for it. | https://bryanwzc.medium.com/learning-typescript-installation-basic-types-afc8fd6f00d5 | ['Bryan W.'] | 2020-12-08 19:50:43.210000+00:00 | ['Introduction', 'JavaScript', 'Typescript', 'Installation'] |
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