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What Makes A True Friend? | What Makes A True Friend?
Where does this need to be needed originate?
I want people to miss me when I’m gone…
I guess I’m pretty selfish for that.
Why don’t I wish that they stayed strong?
Guess my self esteem,
needs a pat on the back…
I want friends to pattern their claps
based on whether I’m the batter
who’s having some hacks.
Taking swings at flattering facts.
You weren’t the same without me.
Basically without me,
your appetite has to be capped.
Then I come,
now its like you’re having a snack.
Doesn’t that mean
my absence keeps you lean?
Your stomach stays attached to your back?
That I wish you would starve
if I’m not where you are?
Scenes written only satisfy
if I’m in on the act?
What kind of friendship is that?
These interests of a brat
got me pensive while I put pen to the pad.
Can’t dismiss this need to feel you’d be mad
if my friendship was a thing of the past.
Why do I find meaning in that?
Leaning toward I’m the worst kind of cat…
A scared one
who needs a helping hand
to stray from the trash.
The heap of hurt
on which I refuse to work.
So I enlist you for the task.
Using friends as a mask
to cover the lack of confidence
that I face with en masse.
I need an audience
to prove I am worthy of that.
That I’m worthy to have.
But I guess a true friend
wouldn’t burden your back… | https://medium.com/illumination/what-makes-a-true-friend-c3e74ac78ab | ['Kensho Keith'] | 2020-12-28 21:25:43.411000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Life', 'Philosophy', 'Poem', 'Writing'] |
Setting ARIMA model parameters in R: Grid search vs. auto.arima() | Setting ARIMA model parameters in R: Grid search vs. auto.arima()
Fit the best model to your time series data.
Overview
One of the most popular ways of representing and forecasting time series data is through Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models. These models are defined by three parameters:
p : the lag order (number of lag observations included)
: the lag order (number of lag observations included) d : the degree of differencing needed for stationarity (number of times the data is differenced)
: the degree of differencing needed for stationarity (number of times the data is differenced) q: the order of the moving average
If you’re new to ARIMA modeling, there are lots of great instructional webpages and step-by-step guides such as this one from otexts.com and this one on oracle.com which give more thorough overviews.
However, the vast majority of these guides suggest setting the p, d, and q parameters by using the auto.arima() function or by hand using ACF and PACF plots. As someone who frequently uses ARIMA models, I felt like I still needed a better option. The models suggested to me by auto.arima() frequently had high AIC values (a measure for comparing models — the best model is typically that with the lowest AIC) and significant lags which indicate poor model fit. While I could achieve lower AIC values and eliminate significant lags by changing parameters by hand, this process felt somewhat arbitrary and I was never confident that I was truly selecting the best possible model for my data.
I eventually began using grid searches to aid my selection of parameters. While it’s always important to conduct exploratory analyses with your data, test assumptions, and think critically about the ACF and PACF plots, I have found it very useful to have a data-driven place to start with my parameter selection. I will walk through example code and output comparing the auto.arima() and grid search approaches below.
Code and output comparison
First, you’ll need to load the tidyverse and tseries packages:
library('tidyverse')
library('tseries')
A moving average object will also need to be created using your training data:
training_data$hits_ma = ma(training_data$seattle_hits, order = 7) hits_ma = ts(na.omit(training_data$hits_ma), frequency = 52)
auto.arima()
Creating and viewing an auto.arima() object is very simple:
auto_1 = auto.arima(hits_ma, seasonal = TRUE)
auto_1
The parameters selected using auto.arima() are (0,1,0) and this model has an associated AIC of 234.99. It’s also important to look for significant lags in the ACF and PACF plots:
tsdisplay(residuals(auto_1), lag.max = 45, main = '(0,1,0) Model Residuals')
Significant lags extend beyond the dashed blue lines and indicate poor model fit. Both plots show significant lags at 7, and the ACF plot has an additional significant lag at 14.
Grid search
First, you have to indicate what parameters you want to test out in your grid search. I decided to consider all parameters between 0 and 7 (for p and d) and 0 and 14 (for q) given the significant lags at these values. The end result is a dataframe called “orderdf” containing all possible parameter combinations:
order_list = list(seq(0, 7),
seq(0, 7),
seq(0, 14)) %>%
cross() %>%
map(lift(c)) orderdf = tibble("order" = order_list)
Next, map over this dataframe to identify the model with the lowest AIC:
models_df = orderdf %>%
mutate(models = map(order, ~possibly(arima, otherwise = NULL)(x = hits_ma, order = .x))) %>%
filter(models != 'NULL') %>%
mutate(aic = map_dbl(models, "aic")) best_model = models_df %>%
filter(aic == min(models_df$aic, na.rm = TRUE))
I have pulled out the model with the lowest AIC as “best_model” so that I can use that object later on, but you can also sort the data by lowest AIC in order to explore the best few options.
Viewing this “best_model” object shows the parameters selected by the grid search method:
The grid search has identified (7,1,0) as the best parameters, and the AIC of 208.89 associated with this model is much lower than that of 234.99 from the auto.arima() approach.
Additionally, there are no longer any significant lags appearing in the ACF or PACF plots and the residuals are smaller. This model appears to fit my data much better than that produced using auto.arima().
I have consistently gotten better results using grid searches than using either the auto.arima() function or manual selection, and I highly recommend implementing this approach when fitting ARIMA models to your data. | https://towardsdatascience.com/setting-arima-model-parameters-in-r-grid-search-vs-auto-arima-19055aacafdf | ['Emily A. Halford'] | 2020-09-08 15:12:44.043000+00:00 | ['Grid Search', 'Time Series Analysis', 'R', 'Data Science', 'Arima'] |
On-chain Privacy through Decentralized Private Computation? | In one of my previous articles, I touched on the transformative benefits Zero-knowledge-proof can offer to online identity solutions while drawing attention to the transparency issues (public) distributed ledgers currently face. Privacy, security and scalability are all factors that currently hinder the integration of decentralized technology into valuable applications. In this article, I aim to shed some light on how private computation can further the development of privacy orientated decentralised applications.
What is Decentralized Private Computation (DPC) and why should I care?
Essentially it’s a process that allows computation of sensitive data to be executed in an encrypted or secure environment across multiple remote servers or nodes. Depending on how we, as individuals, classify sensitive data, private computation offers value to those of us who are concerned with keeping sensitive data secure through transit.
That being said —decentralised private computation solutions have recently begun to provide value to blockchain and DLT, partly because they enable an applications internal state functions to execute privately in a trusted/trustless system as opposed to transactions (payment details and function calls) executing visibly on-chain, as is the case with such applications (Dapps) based on Etherum.
If we intend to use blockchain/DLT as underlying security for a new internet (WEB 3.0) we need to be able to develop Dapps that don’t just cater for financial trading, games and gambling but can securely process users application data in a fast, trusted and secure manner while giving the end-user control and interoperability over their data…. (If only it was so easy!)
Of course, there is always a trade-off between privacy and performance…
So is it possible to execute code privately for Dapps without adding to exhaustive latency times?
Well, let's firstly identify two main proposed solutions that currently attempt to do this. After that, I will attempt to briefly outline the main comparisons between them and the issues they face in terms of scalability and effectiveness.
I would like to draw your attention to two recently published papers — (don't worry I will try and keep it concise)
Zexe: enabling decentralized private computation (DPC). https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/962.pdf, A recently published paper that provides an alternative solution to hiding application functions using homomorphic encryption processes’. Namely, a combination of ZK-STARKS and ZK-SNARKS technology, co-authored by scholars from UC Berkley, Cornell Johns Hopkins University and Z-cash. Blockchain and Trusted Computing: Problems, Pitfalls, and a Solution for Hyperledger Fabric. This paper focusses on TEE’s (trusted execution environments) Namely Software guard extensions (SGX) that enable private computation on hyper-ledger. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.08541.pdf Co-authored by Scholars from TU Braunschweig and experts working at IBM.
Both articles aim to solve the same problem of on-chain DPC in distinct ways and have been published by reputable schools of thought.
Zcash, who initially integrated ZKP protocols for on-chain transactions, is partly to thank for by combining this technology with real-world use cases (in their case currency) and kickstarting a new field of research and development around ZK-SNARkS and ZK-STARKS.
The first paper (and more recent) outlines the components necessary to develop a first use-case that allows rich decentralised applications (Dapps) to process data off-chain privately using homomorphic encryption methods.
This unprecedented proposal argues that private computation can be executed in a decentralized network using zero-knowledge succinct cryptographic proofs (zkSNARKS) to verify private code executions carried out on an external clients CPU. Meaning anyone operating in a decentralized network could securely execute private computation on their personal CPU for the benefit of Dapps.
Usually, the cost to produce cryptographic proofs is high in terms of latency. However, Zexe manages to reduce their transaction verifying times to tens of milliseconds, where a transaction size is typically 968 bytes. Something that ‘Zexe’ argues can be improved over time through “more efficient engineering”.
This is good news compared to other attempts that try to implement similar zk-SNARK systems.
This protocol has apparently been tested and is technically open source to those who are able to understand the papers technicalities. The goals are ambitious, and they stress on their Github page that the protocol is not yet ready for production use.
The comparable solution, examined by the second paper is that of TEE’s (trusted execution environments) such as SGX: Software guard extensions that are essentially a type of TEE relying on the security of the hardware as opposed to cryptographic protocols (although there is cryptography used in both solutions)
As Andreas Slammer summed up in his article on SGX:
“It (SGX) hinges on the hardness of breaking the hardware rather than the hardness of breaking a maths problem.”
SGX is particularly interesting as it is a solution that is currently available and already in use.
So let's quickly look at the two 2 main components of SGX before discussing some of the issues it still faces.
Enclaves and Attestation
If you are unfamiliar with any of the above words I will attempt to clarify them…
The core component of SGX is to understand that computation can be executed in a separate hardware area called an Enclave.
Enclaves: This is the main area of a TEE that can process code securely. An enclave is an isolated section of a CPU that enables certain code to be processed securely before sending it back to the application that has embedded it.
Hardware enclaves can be used in ledger based systems such as Ekiden: to achieve privacy in smart contracts, https://medium.com/zkcapital/ekiden-a-hardware-approach-to-privacy-maintaining-smart-contracts-c75ba67915b2, and can be used to process rich applications in a satisfactory time period.
(A decentralized use case: could be a node executing a contract in an enclave.)
Attestation: (most of you will know) just means that a declaration has been made through a type of verifiable ‘proof’.
In this case, Intel is responsible for verifying that the code had been processed and signed by one of their secure Intel CPU’s through a report that is sent to the user verifying that it has been executed privately by Intel’s root key. (This is a simplified description, so for more on the details regarding this process please see here.)
Sounds pretty robust, however, there are still some issues with SGX… as you might have already noticed.
1. Accessible root keys: The solution has been developed by Intel and essentially they need to sign off the authentication. This raises further questions regarding Intel accessing enclaves if needed. As Victor Costan — PHD at MIT noted:
“It is very unlikely that you will be able to use SGX in your software products. Intel’s documentation has some pretty subtle hints, but if you follow the trail, you’ll realize that SGX enclaves have to either be signed directly by Intel, or be signed by a key that was signed by Intel.”
2. Hardware can still be hacked depending on the development process (see china hacks: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-how-china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies
3. Centralization, It is not really a decentralized solution as the code is still executed at a single centralized point governed by a private entity.
So, if you are happy with Intel providing the security for your ‘private’ then a hardware solution might be the best bet to experiment with.
On this note, it is worth mentioning that some companies are already making noticeable headway in the adoption of private computation for decentralised services such as Enigma. They managed to integrate both SGX and secure multi-party computation into their protocol.
Recently partnering with Intel they stated in a blog post from December:
“ Today we announce that Enigma is partnering with Intel on research and development efforts to advance the development of privacy-preserving computation technologies. As a part of this effort, Enigma will utilize Intel SGX (Software Guard Extensions) in building our groundbreaking privacy technologies. With Enigma’s solutions, data is protected while still allowing for computation over the data as part of a scalable, secure solution.”
So both DPC solutions have pros and cons depending on the individual use cases. But are they an alternative (better) solution to simply having hash pointers on-chain that are used to retrieve encrypted information from centralised databases?
Zeff is a DLT Enthusiast with a focus on network governance and works as a community-driven and content marketing expert. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/on-chain-privacy-with-decentralized-computation-bd3746ab3a12 | ['Zeff Sherriff'] | 2019-05-09 15:38:57.518000+00:00 | ['Encryption', 'Privacy', 'Blockchain', 'Zkp', 'Decentralization'] |
Tips and Tales for Organic Allotmenteers: January — Germinating Lemons | I’ve been loving running two organic allotments in Hainault, Essex, England for five years, and would like to share with you what I’ve learnt. Enjoy!
‘Berries’ by Gemma Boyd
Introduction
Growing plants from seed is an activity that never ceases to thrill me. I treat each seed I successfully manage to germinate like a mini miracle I coddle fiercely until it rewards me in early summer with perfectly formed buds housing imminent explosions of soothing greenery, flowers, vegetables or fruit whose vitality and stunning colours I feel compelled to celebrate daily in my artwork, music and poetry.
For me there’s no greater pleasure than cooking a meal with produce I’ve grown organically from seed on my allotments and to share this abundance with others. Then come autumn, to add the dying but at the same time unfailingly resilient limbs whom had borne such jewels back into the tangy compost of life, has me experiencing a sense of wonderment and connection to this planet that nothing else affords me.
Germinate organic lemon seeds on New Year’s Day
I have three voracious lemon trees which are four years old I germinated from seed, and though yet to bear fruit, they’re my most prized accomplishment. To rub their young oversize, Day-Glo green leaves between my thumb and fingers to release such a powerful lemony aroma, is a sensory indulgence fit for angels.
Why not enjoy watching your lemon trees take shape alongside your hopes and dreams for the coming year by grabbing a couple of organic lemons. Cut the ends off. Slice them in half and then quarters. Fish out as many intact seeds as you can. Tenderly wipe them free of slime with paper towels. Peel the shell off from the top of the seed down. Place the peeled seeds onto a double sheet of paper towels that’s been sprayed generously with rainwater or bottled spring water and cover them up by folding the paper securely around them. Label them with today’s date and seal them into a reusable transparent freezer bag or the like. Finally, store them in a warm, dark place (I put mine in the airing cupboard). Open them up after approximately 10 days to see if they’ve sprouted roots.
Sow the germinated lemon seeds individually (with the root facing downwards) in small pots made from clear water bottles with holes in the bottom. Use worm and insect-free homemade compost mixed with sawdust and make sure the seeds are sitting on the surface. Next, cover them with eco-friendly cling film and place them on a windowsill above a radiator. If you’re very fortunate, you will be bestowed with the gift of seedlings.
Once the seedlings look strongly established, remove the cling film, water with diluted nettle and comfrey fertilizer, and place on a sunny windowsill. Lemon trees thrive best in a hot climate and don’t like to be sat in cold, wet dirt, so water sparingly — especially in the winter: I place the seedling containers on an upturned pot to provide adequate drainage.
I shall never forget the sight of a fragrant lemon tree I was treated to each time I pulled up the blinds in my Benalmádena, Spain studio flat in October 2019. Its fruit would bounce around the courtyard like golf balls I’d collect for a refreshing lemon tea. | https://medium.com/@gemmaboydmusicianandpoet/tips-for-organic-allotmenteers-throughout-the-seasons-january-1-589589c3f79 | ['Gemma Brandy Boyd'] | 2021-01-07 14:32:04.697000+00:00 | ['Lemon', 'Allotment', 'Gardening', 'Seasons', 'Organic'] |
8 Haikus About Haikus | I don’t understand
them Haikus. Why are there no
rhymes? Ruined it, damn
Let’s start it again
Trying not to break a thought
Between these short lines
Got it, ok, breath
Think something clever to say
Oops, ended again
A thought in a pill
For those who enjoy eating
Wisdom in pellets
Minimalistic
Oversimplification
To leave you breathless
A lot like drowning
In a sea of emptiness
Throw me a lifeline
No, a proper line
With more than five syllables
Please, I’m begging you
Sonnets are better
But there’s not enough space here
For this conversation | https://medium.com/no-crime-in-rhymin/8-haikus-about-haikus-992953d1b89f | ['Daniele Ihns'] | 2020-11-04 14:26:04.944000+00:00 | ['Satire', 'Poetry', 'Humor', 'Haiku', 'No Crime In Rhymin'] |
Explain Supervised vs. Unsupervised Learning in Machine Learning to a 5-year-old | Explain Supervised vs. Unsupervised Learning in Machine Learning to a 5-year-old
Machine Learning
With the help of Machine learning, a system can make decision which can be relatable to the decisions that humans make. Machine learning has the ability to learn from the data it inputs. For now, Machine learning is trying to imitate the way humans learn in a computationally efficient manner.
Supervised Learning
Supervised learning contains of a dataset with a set of features and the corresponding target label. These sets of features are also known as predictors because they help in predicting the target label based on each data sample.
For example: Imagine giving a kid an ice-cream whenever he finishes his meal, eats a fruit with his meal, finishes his homework and also helps in cleaning at home. However, whenever the kid watches TV for a long time, only plays with his friends without finishing his homework or already eats a chocolate with his meal, he is definitely not getting an ice-cream. He will get a vegetable for snack instead. Here, ice-creams, carrots and green veggies are the target variables.
supervised learning [last column is the target variable] (image created by author)
There are various kinds of techniques in supervised learning:
Classification Techniques
As the name suggests, whenever we have a category to classify, we use classification techniques. For example: ice-cream, carrots and green-veggies are our classes.
2. Regression Techniques
If the label is anything other than a category, we use regression techniques. For example: If we had to predict how many carrots or how many ice-creams would the kid get every time he follows a certain pattern, we would use a regression technique instead.
Supervised learning techniques are used widely for predicting a future value. They can be used to predict the weather, to predict if someone will pass/fail the class, etc.
Unsupervised Learning
As the name suggests, unsupervised learning is not supervised and we only have a list of input variables and no target label. The main aim of this type of algorithm is to learn the underlying distribution in the data and gather data which might be similar to each other.
example: clustering [unsupervised learning] (image created by author)
For a kid to understand unsupervised learning, we can show the above image to a kid, and ask them to circle an odd member [just like circle the odd man out] from each line. More often than not, they will circle images which are not ice-creams. This is a type of clustering technique. We as humans, are collecting and memorizing objects which seem similar to us. This is what we expect our model to do, too.
Clustering is a type of unsupervised technique where we try to gather information into various groups and each group has data points which are most similar to each other than data point in any other group.
Unsupervised machine learning helps you to finds all kind of unknown patterns in data. Unsupervised learning techniques are used widely in recommendation systems which use clustering techniques to find similar users by the content they see, etc. | https://towardsdatascience.com/explain-supervised-vs-unsupervised-learning-in-machine-learning-to-a-5-year-old-57d3c551b215 | ['Parthvi Shah'] | 2021-05-21 19:42:51.710000+00:00 | ['Basics', 'Data Science', 'Supervised Learning', 'Machine Learning', 'Unsupervised Learning'] |
How to Shoot Fantastic Portraits with a $1 Lighting Setup | Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was one of the original Dutch Masters, and although he painted a wide variety of subjects, he is best known for his iconic portraits. He is also known for lighting his subjects with window light in a particular way, that has come to bear his name.
Harmenszoon Lighting
Actually, it became known as Rembrandt lighting, but Harmenszoon lighting has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
In this article, I will explain to you in tedious detail how to achieve the same effect at home. That is if your home is a 17th-century castle with leaded glass windows.
Okay, you can use your regular windows with one caveat. To work best, it needs to be a north-facing window (or south-facing if you are in the southern hemisphere). This is because a north-facing window will never receive direct sunlight. You are looking for a beautiful, warm, indirect light. If you don’t have a north-facing window, you will need to compensate in one of three ways:
Sell your house and buy one with north-facing windows
Wait for an overcast day
Cover your window with heavy sheers to diffuse the light
From my experience, most people choose one of the latter options, with number three being the easiest to manage.
You will also need a tripod since the amount of light is not going to be sufficient to handhold your camera. It would help if you also had a camera. And someone to photograph.
What about the dollar? That is for a simple piece of white poster board. I know Harmenszoon didn’t have one of those. He probably used candlelight, but we are going to improvise with 21st-century technology.
You don’t even need the poster board. Anything large and white will do, but the poster board is cheap and readily available, so let’s go with that.
Okay, you have everything you need, so let’s get started. Have your subject stand in front of the window facing to the side. In other words, their left or right side is closest to the window. How close? As close as you can get and not have the window in the picture.
Set the tripod up and frame your shot. For this example, we are only going to do a headshot. Meter the scene so that the side of the subject’s face closest to the window is well exposed. You don’t want it too bright; you want to maintain the warm glow from the window light.
Go ahead and take your first picture. Take a look and adjust the exposure until you are happy with the window side of the face. This will be your baseline shot for comparison later. If you have that side of the face correctly exposed, you shouldn’t need to change your exposure again.
Now, ask the subject slowly to turn their face toward the window. Have them maintain eye contact with the camera. You will be watching the shadow side of the face. What you are looking for is an upside-down triangle of light to show up from the window. This will be just under the eye and extend down close to the bottom of the nose. That side of the nose, chin, and ear will still be in shadow.
As soon as that triangle of light appears, take your second shot. This is known as classic Rembrandt lighting. You can, of course, tweak your exposure here, slightly bringing out the shadows and call it a day.
Harmenszoon would be proud.
But we are going to improve on it slightly.
Place the white poster board so that it is reflecting a little light back into the shadow side of the face. This can be held by a third person, propped up in a chair, or for a headshot, the subject can hold it. The closer to the subject, the better, again, without it being in the frame.
Play with the angle a bit, and watch how it just fills in the shadows. You want to throw a little light into the eyes and cheek on the shadow side, so it is not in complete darkness.
Now go back and take your final shots, adjusting the exposure as needed. You want to end up with nice warm light on the window side and in that little triangle, but also be able to see the rest of the shadow side of the face.
Congratulations! You have mastered Rembrandt Light. See what I did there | https://thecreative.cafe/how-to-shoot-fantastic-portraits-with-a-1-lighting-setup-5eed3fcda52c | ['Darryl Brooks'] | 2020-04-17 09:42:22.842000+00:00 | ['Lighting', 'Nonfiction', 'Photography Tips', 'Portraits', 'Photographer'] |
Life Mapping: A Vision of Success | Creating a Vision of Success is the Start
Success is more than economic gains, titles, and degrees. Planning for success is about mapping out all the aspects of your life. Similar to a map, you need to define the following details: origin, destination, vehicle, backpack, landmarks, and route.
Origin: Who you are
A map has a starting point. Your origin is who you are right now. Most people when asked to introduce themselves would say, “Hi, I’m Jean and I am a 17-year old, senior high school student.” It does not tell you about who Jean is; it only tells you her present preoccupation.
To gain insights about yourself, you need to look closely at your beliefs, values, and principles aside from your economic, professional, cultural, and civil status. Moreover, you can also reflect on your experiences to give you insights on your good and not-so-good traits, skills, knowledge, strengths, and weaknesses. Upon introspection, Jean realized that she was highly motivated, generous, service-oriented, but impatient. Her inclination was in the biological-medical field. Furthermore, she believed that life must serve a purpose, and that wars were destructive to human dignity.
Destination: A vision of who you want to be
“Who do want to be?” This is your vision.
Now it is important that you know yourself so that you would have a clearer idea of who you want to be; and the things you want to change whether they are attitudes, habits, or points of view. | https://medium.com/@donnaprice_36392/life-mapping-a-vision-of-success-b1097359cad1 | ['Donna Price'] | 2021-01-21 16:54:20.183000+00:00 | ['Envision', 'Vision', 'Makeithappen'] |
Not Your Entropy, Not Your Keys | Not Your Entropy, Not Your Keys
In a previous post I discussed the advantages of using using ShowMyWork, a process I developed which enables a Bitcoin user with no technical background to fully audit the generation of his own set of seed words. Perhaps the easiest way to use ShowMyWork is by booting up a Raspberry Pi with the latest Rudefox Burrow image. Creating such a device makes a nice complement to any hardware wallet setup. Of course, you will want to make sure that you use the hardware in a way that is secure and consistent with the requirements of your threat model. This may, for example, place requirements around how you source the parts, require you to keep the device air gapped at all times and require you to either destroy the device after use or keep it archived securely with your seed words.
What About Wifi?
Around the requirement of keeping the Burrow air gapped, I would like to address the concern around how to deal with the on-board Wifi on the Raspberry Pi models 3 and 4.
Raspberry Pi Zero
Perhaps the best option would be to use a Raspberry Pi Zero. The less commonly known unit that ships with only 512MB RAM, mini-HDMI port, micro-USB port and NO wireless capabilities is cheaper and smaller than the other models. The fact that it includes a CSI connector for optional QR-code-scanning-camera cements this device’s position as being as a match made in heaven for Burrow.
That being said, I haven’t yet tested Burrow on this device (though I plan to). However, I don’t see any additional risk in trying Burrow on the Zero untested over using a Pi 3 or 4 — the Zero will either boot up with Burrow or it won’t. I happen to have some Pi Zero’s on order so I can add support for the Zero soon. If you use the Zero, note the caveat that you may require mini-HDMI and micro-USB adapters for your peripherals. It is also worth noting that the Raspberry Pi Model 2B is also devoid of wireless hardware, so this is an option which would allow you to use a keyboard and display that use full-size connectors.
UPDATE: The Pi Zero has since been tested and works well! I highly recommend using the Pi Zero for Rudefox Burrow.
Non-Pi Hardware
I created the Burrow Pi Image project to make the experience of creating an air gapped Burrow device seamless. However, you also have the option of installing Burrow on any device capable of running Windows, macOS or Linux. You can download the source, build and install Burrow on a Linux device, such as an old laptop running Tails with Wifi hardware-disabled.
Faraday Bag
As an additional measure, you could purchase a Faraday bag and place just the Pi inside, leaving a small opening for keyboard, display and power cables to exit the bag. This should almost completely block any Wifi or Bluetooth signals from leaving the device. You could even build your own with a box of paper clips.
Wifi Scan
Depending on your threat model, a quick Wifi scan using your phone or laptop could also provide Pretty Good mitigation against the threat of compromised software leaking your seed. An attacker who doesn’t know your location would have to rely on there being an open, publicly visible Wifi hotspot in the area (at the time of seed generation — or anytime thereafter that the device is powered on). So you could greatly mitigate this threat by scanning the area using an app like Wifi Analyser and testing each access point in rage for open access by trying to connect to it.
Burrow Software Protection
It is also worth noting that I have taken some measures in software like removing networking software packages from the standard Raspbian image build. I would love to base the image on a Linux kernel build completely stripped of networking modules, but this is a ‘wish list’ project for When I Have Time. Of course, you should verify software yourself and someone who does not possess the technical skills to verify herself should rely on a consensus of trustworthy auditors. So it would be preferable to implement one or a few of the above recommendations if your threat model dictates.
Try it!
So read more about the Burrow or proceed to the QuickStart to experience the ease and the feeling of security in creating a self-audited seed phrase. | https://medium.com/@bjdweck/burrow-wifi-security-1dbb453eb58d | ['B.J. Dweck'] | 2021-03-14 09:18:29.442000+00:00 | ['Raspberry Pi', 'Bitcoin', 'Bitcoin Wallet'] |
Want to Be a Writing Prodigy? | Maybe you were that kid who was given a writing prompt in grade school and got lost filling a page with words and ideas. When the time was up, you easily had a few complete pages.
Maybe, like me, you were given a blank journal as a birthday gift and you began writing a book all your own. Whatever else happened in life, you knew at a young age that putting words to your intimate reality was something that only you could do. You identified as a writer. In fact, you were a writer. You had a book to prove it.
Perhaps your third-grade teacher allowed you to skip English class and sit out in the hallway so you had quiet time to write your play? You included hand-drawn pictures (because no one told you a play didn’t include pictures) of pirates and candy and pioneers — some mishmash of Little House on the Prairie, a children’s book that belonged to your younger brother, and the game of Candyland. This before fan fiction was even a thing.
Or you were one of the few dorks how actually relished diagramming sentences in the fifth grade. You had a pouch with red and black pens, a ruler, and a special notebook just for this task.
How lucky the child-writers
Do children still get to enjoy this rare pleasure? Do adults notice? I live in a Texas school district where athletics trumps all. You never open the local news to see a picture of a kid hunched over a desk writing by the glow of a task lamp, but they’re here. There are different kinds of Friday Night Lights, baby.
Kids who write do so in private, often filling pages and notebooks in secret. All you need is a quiet room and some time, and a pen and paper, of course... no computer, word processor, or laptop is necessary. And if you grew up in the 70s and 80s, writing was the perfect activity for bookish types of a certain age.
It’s also an amazing activity for unleashing creativity in adults if you can stand the slow, sometimes hypnotic pace of handwriting.
Take it slow and see what happens
An accomplished pianist I know once pointed out that adults who want to learn the piano are never content to start with Row, Row, Row Your Boat. They want to jump right into the Moonlight Sonata. Being able to slow down practice is a gift learned young.
The craft of writing — all art, actually — is hard work. Just like the young volleyball recruit going through her drills and the basketball player’s early morning hoops, creatives must also accept the tedious pace of working through their craft.
When you’re writing with a pen in your hand, moving over a notebook, you are plumbing a deep, ancient, creative source.
Since I could hold a pen, I’ve written nearly every day of my life — at least a few words. I’ve used journals, blank books, and blogs. I’ve used pens and pencils and keyboards on all types of machines. And I can attest to the power of handwriting.
There’s something about paper that helps me solidify thoughts better than a backlit screen. I’ve rarely wanted to exchange that privilege with another. Writing on paper, with a pencil or pen, is a primal, creative act that pays huge creative dividends. Although I can write faster on a keyboard, I could never give up writing by hand. I’d feel like I was missing something deeper and messier.
But the best writers are touch typists, right?
I know what you’re thinking, handwriting is so slow and tedious. You can’t read your own writing after you’re done. Your hand cramps. If you come up with anything good you just have to sit at a keyboard and re-write it anyway. I agree with all of that.
I’ve read many articles about successful writers who started writing as adults because they figured out how to write fast and furious. They naturally developed a voice that vibes great with their internet audience. They easily write/type in several languages and crank out stories like a machine. Maybe you, too, want to be that writer whose Medium earnings blow 98% of the rest of us out of the water. Though I practice daily, I’m not there yet.
Somewhere in every writer, though, there’s a voice that won’t go away. When I hear mine most clearly, I’m usually not typing. I’m holding a pen. Certain glittering, literary treasures only emerge when you write your sentences longhand.
Proficient learners are not necessarily prolific writers
In 2014, a widely circulated study showed that students who took class notes with a pen on paper retained complex concepts better than those who took notes on a laptop.
The research doesn’t say which students got better grades.
The ones who took notes the old-school way acquired knowledge that stuck. Turns out the ones who tapped notes on a keyboard merely regurgitated what the professor said verbatim, resulting in shallower processing. When it came time to reformulate the lessons, they came up short.
When students listen, process, and summarize concepts in longhand, they learn more during the actual lesson. Their brains were engaged in ways the typists were not. Makes sense.
The good and bad news is that the hand writers produce fewer words. They also tend to get, you know… creative. Since it takes longer to handwrite than type, the students actually think about what the instructor is saying and quickly pen it to paper, making sense in whatever way their brain decides is best. Rounding sharp corners, the working brain causes problems. At least I’ve found this to be true.
The research doesn’t say which students got better grades. Sometimes, overthinkers can make a beautiful mess of ideas as they churn them through their gray matter.
Beyond note-taking, you stir the creative process — often more than you bargain for — when you write out your thoughts longhand.
This 30-year journaling trend
Artistic types hoping to stimulate their creative juices widely adopted Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages practice, which she describes in her 1992 book The Artist’s Way. Almost thirty years later, it’s still #1 on Amazon in the popular psychology, creativity, and genius category. [Note: the “Genius” category.]
People swear by this stream-of-consciousness journal-writing practice first thing in the morning — I have occasionally done morning pages throughout my life, although I’m not in a regular habit.
Many writers intuitively know that writing by hand with a good pencil or gel pen brings out their genius. What is going on in the brain that makes handwriting so key to the creative process? Is there any conclusive neuroscience research to back up the claim that handwriting that unlocks creativity?
Some startling handwriting facts
Brain scans show you use more parts of the brain when you write by hand. Think about it: your hand needs to move over the paper and grip the pen (motor skills). You must remember how to form the letters (memory). You fill a page with lines of cursive (spatial reasoning). You construct sentences from thoughts (imagination and creativity). You also smell the ink and feel paper (tactile pleasures). Your entire brain is firing away.
There’s also a link between handwriting and mindfulness. When you write, your brain lights up just as it would if you were meditating. This is great news for those who strive for productive mornings that don’t end up killing half of your workday. Now you can skip the meditation practice and just write. One less thing.
Certain glittering, literary treasures only emerge when you write your sentences longhand.
The handwriting child has an edge
There’s something childlike and exploratory about handwriting — about writers in general, but those who write by hand, especially.
Since you’re activating more parts of the brain at once, you give it a better workout, so to speak. This is a bonus if you’re an actual child. Children who learn to handwrite (and use it regularly) tend to write “more words, faster, and to express more ideas” than those who use a keyboard.
Working brains cause problems. I’ve found this to be true… Sometimes, overthinkers can make a beautiful mess of ideas as they churn them through their gray matter.
As a child who wrote a lot, I can attest to certain benefits. Some of them admittedly of the navel-gazing sort. But also the ability to write a decent college essay; being the go-to pro-bono writer of nonprofit press releases; not embarrassing oneself while composing interoffice emails; and the ability to land an average (but better than minimum wage) writing job in the first place.
Meanwhile, written in the off-hours are there are these therapeutic personal essays…
I told you it gets messy. I suspect sometimes that too much creativity — can you have too much? — makes it difficult to make real money writing. Just a hunch.
Is your creative edge worth it?
I’m reminded of the time I visited my brother in the workshop of the furniture maker who apprenticed him. My brother is a master craftsman of wood. The kind of carpenter who hand planes curving staircases and dovetails the joinery of drawers. He fusses over woodworking details very few people can appreciate or afford.
As we were walking around the shop I spotted a cardboard box from Ikea with the name of some chintzy shelving system — Kallax or Billy. Who knows how it got there, but its existence among the sawdust mocked the shop's efforts. “Doing some resale?” I kidded him.
Why work so hard when others make it look so easy? Recently a Medium writer I follow — someone I’ll bet is all too familiar with the handwriting/creativity link — wrote a post about that insulting, ubiquitous “Hi” story that parked on everyone’s Medium home screen for days.
I see you, Alison Acheson. So much for all that talk about writing great headlines. | https://medium.com/illumination/want-to-be-a-writing-prodigy-48d3ed8e5c9 | ['Jen Mcgahan'] | 2020-11-19 04:14:56.957000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Writing Tips', 'Productivity', 'Life Lessons', 'Writing'] |
We Can Never Elect Another Deeply Damaged Person as President | We Can Never Elect Another Deeply Damaged Person as President
Photo credit: iStock
By Warren Blumenfeld
Born without software responsible for empathy, installed standard in most human operating systems, Donald Trump has made his “Me First” (which he refers to as “America First”) his policy number one.
During his time in office, he showed no perceptible empathy among images of drowned children and babies washing up upon Mediterranean shores after their rickety boats tossed them and their families into the cold sea as they attempted to flee their war-torn countries.
In two consecutive White House Executive Orders, he banned Syrian refugees, in fact, refugees from most Muslim-majority countries, from immigrating to the United States.
Why haven’t the pictures of the thousands of diseased and impoverished faces of people forced to live in refugee camps moved this President to act with empathy rather than with apparent contempt?
Why haven’t the names and images of over one-quarter million deaths and over 13 million others infected with the Corona-19 virus moved him out of his denial and deflective mode to mount a systematic and constructive national mobilization effort?
In his brief time in office, Trump has declared war on the environment and the health of all living things by proposing a substantial budgetary reduction of an estimated 24% and a staff cut of 20% to the Environmental Protection Agency, lower automobile emission and fuel efficiency standards, relaxation of prohibitions against dumping toxins like coal ash into streams and rivers, reinstatement of the potentially environmentally damaging Dakota Access and Keystone oil pipelines, and increased coal mining, natural gas, crude and scale oil drilling.
In his wide-ranging executive order, he further reversed Obama-era environmental protections by reducing governmental regulations on the coal and oil industries that were intended to curb greenhouse gases. Specifically, Trump repealed Obama’s moratorium on coal mining on federal lands and on coal-fueled power plants, and advised federal agencies to “identify all regulations, all rules, all policies…that serve as obstacles and impediments to American energy independence.”
Trump supported the so-called Trump/Ryan (Tryan) “American Health Care Act” proposal that, if passed, would have cut millions of people, including children and little babies, from affordable health care insurance. He has since taken his case to the Supreme Court to effectively terminate the Affordable Care Act amid a deadly pandemic.
How could anyone with the least modicum of empathy forcibly separate young children from the arms of their desperate parents and lock them away in wire cages with some remaining separated?
As we commemorated the 57th anniversary of the tragic assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, our 35th President. During his Inaugural Address on January 20, 1961, he challenged us all to contribute to the good of our nation in his now-famous words:
Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.
On each day of our 45th President’s tenure, Donald John Trump has reversed and distorted Kennedy’s challenge by figuratively demanding:
Ask not what I can do for my country — ask what my country can do for me.
Several times each day, political historians and pundits label Trump’s statements and actions during his run for the U.S. presidency and throughout his residency in the White House in such terms as “unprecedented,” “abnormal,” and “surprising,” and describe him as “breaking norms,” “going against transitions” and “standard practices,” “violating rules,” “being a disrupter” and “a street fighter.”
Though Trump’s conduct is certainly unprecedented and surprising in the annals of presidential history, when examined under the psychological lenses of personality disorders, it comes into clear focus and as just another day at the office.
One does not have to have earned a Ph.D. in psychology to identify Donald Trump as someone suffering from personality disorders because he clearly manifests many if not all its symptoms.
The American Psychiatric Association defines a personality disorder as:
…a way of thinking, feeling and behaving that deviates from the expectations of the culture, causes distress or problems functioning, and lasts over time….Without treatment, the behavior and experience is inflexible and usually long-lasting. The pattern is seen in at least two of these areas:
Way of thinking about oneself and others
Way of responding emotionally
Way of relating to other people
Way of controlling one’s behavior
APA enumerates 10 specific types of personality disorders organized under three categories or “clusters.” Most associated with Donald Trump are two disorders within Cluster B’s “dramatic, emotional, or erratic behavior” summarized as:
Antisocial (a.k.a. Sociopathic) Personality Disorder: repeatedly discounts or infringes on the rights of others, and is unreliable. A person with antisocial personality disorder often violates social norms and rules, constantly and pathologically lies, manipulates, cheats, betrays others, acts rashly or impulsively, lacks remorse, shame, and guilt, needs constant emotional and physical stimulation, is often paranoid, and acts as an authoritarian.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
According to Greek legend, a young man was so fascinated, awestruck, and enraptured by his own image reflected on the surface of a pool that he sat lovingly gazing at water’s edge for so long that he succumbed to his own vanity and eventually transformed into a flower that carries his name, “Narcissus.”
The American Psychiatric Association, in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual II (DSM) lists “Narcissism” as an emotional problem and “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” (NPD) with a number of characteristics. These include
An obvious self-focus in interpersonal exchanges
Problems in sustaining satisfying relationships
A lack of psychological awareness
Difficulty with empathy
Problems distinguishing the self from others (having bad interpersonal boundaries)
Hypersensitivity to any insults or imagined insults
Vulnerability to shame rather than guilt
Haughty body language
Flattery towards people who admire and affirm them
Detesting those who do not admire them
Using other people without considering the costs of doing so
Pretending to be more important than they actually are
Bragging and exaggerating their achievements
Claiming to be an “expert” at many things
Inability to view the world from the perspective of other people
Denial of remorse and gratitude
Empathy Can Win
As former Utah Republican Senator, Bob Bennett, lay dying at George Washington University Hospital in May 2016 in his battle with pancreatic cancer and then partial paralysis from a stroke, he called his wife Joyce and son Jim over to his bed to express his last wish. Quietly and with a slight slur in his voice he said:
Are there any Muslims in the hospital? I’d love to go up to every single one of them to thank them for being in this country, and apologize to them on behalf of the Republican Party for Donald Trump.
Earlier when he was in better health, as he moved through an airport traveling home from Washington, D. C. to Utah for Christmas, Bennett walked up to a woman wearing a hijab telling her he was glad she was in the United States, and apologized on behalf of the Republican Party, especially for Trump’s call to temporarily ban all Muslims from traveling to this country.
Possibly for Bennett, his connection with members of minoritized and often vilified religious groups stemmed from his own Mormon background. For Bennett to slip on the shoes of Muslim Americans may have been a fairly close fit since his faith too has come under constant attack since its founder, Joseph Smith, introduced Mormonism and the Latter-Day Saints Movement in the early 19th century C.E.
During the Republican presidential primaries in 2012, for example, members of his own Party referred to Mitt Romney’s Mormonism as “a cult,” a belief inspired by the Devil, and something un-Christian.
Bob Bennett made visible the noble and all-to-rarely expressed notion of deep and profound empathy. In the truest sense, “empathy” has been defined as the symbolic ability to step into another person’s shoes and stroll down the streets of another’s neighborhood without actually traveling.
Though Bennett walked in comparable shoes down his own neighborhood streets, his courageous actions were no less laudable and certainly no less empathetic. He related to and connected with the feelings and experiences of Muslim Americans across his own parallel feelings and experiences.
But what about for people who claim never to have experienced incidents of marginalization, of feelings of being, looking, or thinking differently from others in certain contexts in their lives? Would they find the empathy hill steeper and more difficult to climb? I believe not!
As we understand in psychology, unless there is some kind of developmental delay, infants demonstrate the rudimentary beginnings of empathy whenever they recognize that another is upset, and they show signs of being upset themselves. Very early in their lives, infants develop the capacity to crawl in the diapers of others even though their own diapers don’t need changing.
Though empathy is a human condition, through the process of socialization, others often teach us to inhibit our empathetic natures with messages like “Don’t cry,” “You’re too sensitive,” “Mind your own business,” “It’s not your concern.” We learn the stereotypes of the individuals and groups our society has “minoritized” and “othered.” We learn who to scapegoat for the problems within our neighborhoods, states, nations, world.
Through it all, that precious life-affirming flame of empathy can wither and flicker. For some, it dies entirely. And as the blaze recedes, the bullies, the demagogues, the tyrants take over filling the void where our humanness once prevailed. And then we have lost something very precious, but something that is not irretrievable in many people, not irrevocable.
Empathy, however, has always been an antidote to the poison of prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, and scapegoating, and to bullies and demagogues who take power and control. Empathy is the life force of our humanness, and Bob Bennett, for one, led his life by example.
While Trump has not transformed into a beautiful fragrant flower as did the character of Narcissus in the Greek legend, we, nonetheless must ask some critical questions.
How did Trump as someone who clearly suffers from serious personality disorders garner so much support from the electorate to have vanquished 16 Republican candidates and his Democratic challenger to win the right to occupy the most important and powerful position in the world?
Does Trump’s meteoric ascendancy reflect collective Sociopathic and Narcissistic Personality Disorders in the larger U.S. body and personality politic?
We can never again elect such a deeply flawed and damaged person to the high office of President, for our very democracy, our very nation is at stake!
May Bob Bennett’s memory be blessed as we resurrect the empathy in us all.
—
The story was previously published on The Good Men Project.
—
About Warren Blumenfeld
Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld is author of The What, the So What, and the Now What of Social Justice Education (Peter Lang Publishers), Warren’s Words: Smart Commentary on Social Justice (Purple Press); editor of Homophobia: How We All Pay the Price (Beacon Press), and co-editor of Readings for Diversity and Social Justice (Routledge) and Investigating Christian Privilege and Religious Oppression in the United States (Sense), and co-author of Looking at Gay and Lesbian Life (Beacon Press). | https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/we-can-never-elect-another-deeply-damaged-person-as-president-9c822366e769 | ['The Good Men Project'] | 2020-12-10 17:27:53.089000+00:00 | ['Elections', 'US Politics', 'Trump', 'Narcissism', 'Social Justice'] |
Display: Flex and the Mathematics Behind It | Part 3. flex-shrink
Let’s do something interesting and make the width value of the parent 100px. That will make the parent’s value 50px less than the total value of its children.
As we can see, all three children shrank in size. They all are now of size 33.33. The default value of flex-shrink is 1. Since there was no space available, they shrank to release 50px in space.
Let’s make the flex-shrink value 1,2, and 3, respectively, for children.
The three shrank, and now are different in size.
As we can see, all three shrank and are of different sizes now. Red has the least value of flex-shrink (shrank the least), and Green has the highest flex-shrink value (shrank the most).
Let’s look at their sizes.
Red: 41.6667 (shrank by 8.3333)
Blue: 33.3333 (shrank by 16.6667)
Green: 25 (shrank by 25)
Parent size: 100px (children have to free up 50px in space)
As we can see, the amount of space that the children freed is in proportion to their flex-shrink value: Red has the least, so it shrank the least, and Green has the highest and shrank the most.
Red : 50 * (1/6) = 8.3333
Blue: 50 * (2/6) = 16.6667
Green: 50 * (3/6) = 25
The formula of size reduction is:
Space to Be Freed * ( flex-shrink value of a child / sum of all the flex-shrink values)
What makes it interesting is if the size of all three children is different. Let’s make them 40, 50, and 60 respectively.
It’s hard to observe in this image, but we can see that the Green child shrank less than 25px, as earlier was the case. Let’s look at their sizes.
Red: 26.6667 (shrank by 13.3333)
Blue: 33.3333 (shrank by 16.6667)
Green: 40 (shrank by 20)
As we can see, all three have the same flex-shrink values, but all shrank by different values. It’s easy to observe that they shrank in proportion to their size. Red shrank the least, as it was the smallest, and Green shrank the most because it was the largest.
Red : 50 * (40/150) = 13.3333
Blue: 50 * (50/150) = 16.6667
Green: 50 * (60/150) = 20
Now let’s change their flex-shrink values to 3,2, and 1, just to make things little more interesting, and converge them to the final formula.
Sizes are 40,50, and 60 and flex-shrink values are 3,2,1 respectively.
Let’s look at their sizes.
Red: 18.5667 (shrank by 21.4333)
Blue: 32.15 (shrank by 17.85)
Green: 49.2833 (shrank by 10.7167)
All three shrank in proportion to their sizes and their flex-shrink values. The formula comes out to be a little different this time. They shrank in proportion to the multiple of the flex-shrink value and its size.
Multiples come out to be 40 * 3 for Red, 50 * 2 for Blue and 60 * 1 for Green.
Red : 50 * (120/280) = 21.43333
Blue: 50 * (100/280) = 17.85
Green: 50 * (60/280) = 10.7167
The formula for flex-shrink is | https://medium.com/better-programming/display-flex-understanding-flex-grow-and-shrink-mathematics-behind-them-ddedf45fb434 | ['Tushar Tuteja'] | 2019-12-07 02:06:23.468000+00:00 | ['Flex', 'CSS', 'Front End Development', 'Flexbox', 'Programming'] |
The Meaning of “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize” | This is the fourth piece in my “freedom as a long distance struggle” series that I wrote for my Patreon supporters. It was originally published on October 18, 2020.
A month after the May 25th murder of George Floyd, Sherrilyn Ifill (of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund) tweeted: “It’s not a win if this time next year we have Juneteenth off; politicians are saying ‘Black Lives Matter;’ Lift Every Voice plays at NFL games, & Mississippi has a new flag, but we have no new tools, laws or investment for ending voter suppression & educational, economic, criminal injustice.” It was around this time that I started feeling that it was important to write something about freedom as a long distance struggle, because by then the high point of momentum and pressure had already passed. I was worried that a cascade of symbolic and aesthetic changes were creating a false sense that the pressure of the moment was leading to more change than was actually happening.
As I felt the pressure peak and then begin to subside, I posed a question to my Patreon supporters: “What does “freedom as a long distance struggle” mean to you in this moment?” In that piece, I reflected on the fact that moments of high-pressure are rare and transitory, and to be effective rely on foundations that have been laid during day-to-day movement work over a long period of time. I followed up with a piece on self-care in movement history, and then another on building intergenerational movement community. All of those pieces were about freedom as a long distance struggle; a marathon, not a sprint.
But what’s it all working towards? When we say “keep your eyes on the prize,” what’s the prize, and how do we stay focused on it and not get distracted?
My mind sweeps back to a not-too-distant point in history, to the abolition of Jim Crow in the mid 1960s… after which Martin Luther King (amongst many others) said that the movement had shifted from a struggle over civil rights to human rights; from a struggle over desegregation and the right to vote to the right to fair and equal housing, health care, schooling, economic opportunity, and a fair and equal justice system. Today we use a different term for what King referred to as human rights: we call the denial of those rights — or the racial inequity reinforced by those systems — systemic racism. Systemic racism was the mountain that the tidal wave of the civil rights movement broke against. During the final years of his life, King emphasized time and again that human rights would be much more difficult to achieve than civil rights.
The prize was never taking down Jim Crow, as revolutionary as that was. The prize was, and remains, taking down systemic racism. Systemic racism had been a primary target of the Black freedom struggle long before the civil rights movement, but the Cold War made that struggle more difficult. Conservatives leveraged tensions with the Soviet Union to whip up domestic fears about Communism, and used those fears to demonize struggles for equal housing, healthcare, and job opportunities as communistic. In the Cold War climate, Black freedom fighters had to back off challenges to systemic racism for a time, and limit themselves to attacks on Jim Crow. Martin Luther King himself avoided pushing for more expansive human rights early in his career in order to avoid being redbaited. His later full-frontal attacks on systemic racism are often represented as King becoming more radical, and although it was true that King had greatly matured, it is also true that he held such “radical” views all along… it had simply become safer to express them by the late 1960s.
In our school systems, the Black freedom struggle is often limited to a sanitized version of the civil rights movement. By focusing only on Jim Crow, our schools fail to examine the larger prize of the Black freedom struggle… the prize we are still striving for today, and will be striving for the rest of our lives.
In keeping our eyes on the prize, we bring ourselves into deep alignment with core traditions of the Black freedom struggle. But how do we keep our eyes on the prize? To circle back to Sherrilyn Ifill’s point with which we began, we need to stay vigilant regarding policies and statements that are merely cosmetic. We need to be aware of the fact that policies passed during high-pressure moments might sound good, but that they often have little funding or few enforcement mechanisms to make them real (Brown v. Board being the most infamous example). We need to be aware that a mayor might say something like, “We have made major strides in shifting resources away from our police department and towards community needs,” and that statement might get a lot of news and therefore might seem to represent reality… but perhaps the police budget has been cut by only two percent. People with political power know how to make empty pledges: we need to call them out. People in power know how to distract the public: we need to know how to keep the public focused on what’s real and meaningful. People in power know that high-pressure moments will pass, and that most people won’t pay close attention after the pressure fades: we need to help people learn to embody freedom as a long distance struggle.
We need to know what the prize looks like, and we need to accept nothing less.
Support racial justice history by becoming a sustaining member at the Patreon, or give a single time through the Go Fund Me.
See my racial justice histories and resource pages at CrossCulturalSolidarity.com | https://medium.com/@burnett-lynn/the-meaning-of-keep-your-eyes-on-the-prize-b372892490dd | ['Lynn Burnett'] | 2020-12-03 22:08:29.834000+00:00 | ['BlackLivesMatter', 'Freedom', 'George Floyd', 'Civil Rights', 'Systemic Racism'] |
Getting started with Robot Framework + Selenium for automation testing (4) — Creating self defined keyword | The test passes with no issue. However, if you want to use the search feature in multiple test cases, then you will need to repeat steps from row 3 to row 7 in all those test cases, which is time consuming and error prone. In this case, we would like to store these steps in a separate function and reuse it whenever need be, just like the way we are coding. This is where self defined keyword comes into picture.
Now, let’s do it. Right click project name GoogleTest -> New User Keyword, and enter “Search for Given Keyword”:
There is a field for arguments as well, but let’s ignore that at the moment. Proceed and copy/paste row 3 to row 7 into the new keyword: | https://medium.com/@inventive-peng-zhang/robot-framework-selenium-for-automation-testing-3-creating-self-defined-keyword-901a62ec8445 | ['Peng Zhang'] | 2021-01-01 05:19:17.174000+00:00 | ['Robot Framework', 'Software Testing', 'Automation Testing', 'Test Automation Framework', 'Test Automation'] |
Focuses to Be Consider While Hiring a Web Development Company | At the point when you need to begin any business, you want a site to address your business on the web. It is the ideal opportunity to choose the digital marketing agency in noida for business portrayal. In reality, web improvement is more than having a location addressing your name and business. It is more than showing the administrations that you deal and passing on contact data for possible clients to reach out. It assembles an interesting interface that connects the customer to your items and welcomes them to work with you. The corporate stage should give a helpful and clear way for the customer to buy your merchandise or request your administrations.
You initially conclude that what you really want and afterward start just by investigating your business strategy and design. You really want to think about the items on offer and your objective customer base. Just by keeping this large number of variables in the brain, you need to arrange a web arrangement organization that simplifies the cooperation with your clients.
READ MORE: How to retain traffic during website migration?
The end-product should make it simpler for yourself as well as your group to get orders, system, send and track the advancement of each solicitation. It implies a customer confronting the stage which is easy to use and a simple arrangement that is useful for your business. There are a couple of significant variables to be thought of while recruiting a fruitful advancement organization.
At What Cost
Different designers will offer a wide scope of value statements for a comparative work. Generally financial specialists commit the error just by choosing the bad quality administrations. In any case, they need to zero in on the top quality administrations, not on the costs. What’s more, they ought to likewise think about all interesting and most recent highlights. Initially, you should make an examination between different designers at costs and elements, then, at that point, you want to go on. You want to see the standing of the designer, accessibility of the client care administrations and best arrangements according to your requirements.
Open Communication is Compulsory
While employing any sort of administrations, it is incredibly essential that open correspondence ought to be between the proprietor and clients. During the conversation, you really want to talk about everything identified with your venture. A ultimate conclusion ought to be taken appropriately to make both concurred. Clear correspondence makes all that unmistakable in regards to costs, administrations, and timetable.
Respect the Procedure of Development
At the point when you employ an seo services, you ought to have realized that the advancement technique requires some investment. You want to pass on everything on the engineer to take as much time as necessary and utilize the mandatory assets. At the point when engineers pose any inquiry, you really want to answer precisely. Designers require an autonomy to concentration and make your item creation, so you really want to leave everything on the engineers.
Ask Interviews from Developers
While picking any expert organization, barely any significant elements ought to be viewed as like capability, finish of tasks and experience. You want to get some information about the reasonable capability to deal with the intricacies of the task. Aside from this, you can anticipate video gathering or direct talk. Clear and direct conversations about the organization might guarantee you with respect to their recognizable limits and offer you brilliant chances to know their capacities.
Request Security and Privacy Policies
Every business industry has not many private data and worries for individual subtleties, information and significant data. A few advancement projects need all necessary private subtleties and begin to chip away at the ventures. A legitimate understanding ought to be endorsed between the client and friends. It assists with ensuring your all information and data.
Request Experience and Expertise
It isn’t required a planner or engineer has skill in all fortes. Architects or designers have the capacities to show their abilities in chose and significant claims to fame. Thus, it is the clear idea that you really want to affirm the abilities of digital marketing company in delhi and coordinate it with your task needs and requests. You likewise get some information about the experience and ability of designers, then, at that point, you need to convey your tasks to them. | https://medium.com/@natashajoshi2460/focuses-to-be-consider-while-hiring-a-web-development-company-3cb7032ef0ec | ['Natasha Joshi'] | 2021-12-27 06:34:36.179000+00:00 | ['Web Development', 'Seo Services', 'Digital Marketing', 'Search Engine'] |
Very nice article on suicide. | Very nice article on suicide. The reason someone takes their life is a complex of many things going on, not on such harsh condemnation: “He chooses to kill himself” | https://medium.com/@victornguyen_22363/very-nice-article-on-suicide-be9b1f393180 | ['Victor Nguyen'] | 2020-12-22 05:47:50.617000+00:00 | ['Suicide', 'Mental Health', 'Psychology'] |
What’s it like to work at an Amazon Prime Warehouse? It’s pretty shocking (but not surprising). | Photo by Werzk Luuu
It was almost 9pm on a Friday night. I was taking off the black, cushioned jumpsuit-like protective gear that was supposed to keep me warm in a -1 to 7 degree freezer, where the last half an hour I was doing “removals.”
Which meant?
I typed in a special code on my scanner that told me what bins I needed to go to, and remove past-due freezer items to put in a big, yellow bin and donate.
I know it was only -1 to 7 degrees because as I was sitting down on the bench, outside of the freezer, I was talking to another coworker that’s probably been there as long as I have, as to how cold my fingers were about 10 minutes in. That I felt like it got colder, and, even though I wore “special” clothing, shoes and stuffed two paper-like heated packs to keep my fingers warm inside of these big, bulky gloves, it still wasn’t enough to really sustain any comfort past 10 minutes inside.
But, I was told, they needed it done.
It’s not like there’s any disagreement to doing it I could make. Or there would be any better options — even thought it was toward the end of my 5-hour shift that often feels like it’s 4 hours too long.
I try to keep positive, though.
I try to tell myself that things will get better and the pain in my knee will subside, from a constant and never-ending bending down and lifting virtually every size and weight object you can think of, because I took tomorrow and the next day off. That, out of the 100 other jobs I’ve applied for since January of 2020, things will eventually get better. And recruiters wont see me as being either under-qualified or overqualified for practically every job I’ve ever applied for since the beginning of this year.
But I’m 46. Divorced. Have no family of my own, dogs or kids to look after me. And to be quite honest…
After I decided I needed to get out of the advertising and marketing world, as a former agency copywriter of 10 years, the future looked bleak.
No, this isn’t a sob story.
No it’s not a “dude are you alright” story.
It’s a story about what was going on, for me, working at the Amazon Prime Warehouse this past year — where I didn’t think I‘d work for as long as I had been, what I’ve been struggling with, and what I’ve been dealing with this past year and feel the need to write about and get off of my chest.
Where I’m at a place in my life that I don’t mind working, but not in a place that doesn’t value you or the things you bring to the table. A place where there’s no growth, you can only work a 5-hour or 10-hour shift. Are being measured and looked at only off of your numbers. Only off of how fast you can do something. Where, even if you do “make your numbers” the only reward for a job well done, is that… congratulations… you get to keep your job, that if it was a hamburger, would feel “well done.”
So, after a 5-hour shift, at Amazon, I unwind.
I lick my 46-year old wounds and vascillate between the pain of what feels like constant and never-ending rejection over applying for new jobs (and careers) that sounds great, but have no control over getting… and between working a warehouse job, at Amazon Prime, for $15/hour that I can’t physically and mentally take anymore than 20–30 hours of each week.
A job that doesn’t pay all of my bare-minimum expenses. Where I have to take anywhere between $1000-$2000 out of my savings to live and pay my rent and put food on the table (that I’m thankful I at least have, but feel the pain of having to use it to live, instead of for one-day buying an actual home of my own).
But don’t get me wrong. There are some positives to working at the Amazon Prime Warehouse.
But it’s not really with the job. Or with the company and lack of any real benefits I get. It’s with the people who actually work there.
Some who travel on the bus, an hour one way, just to do the job. Some, who do it, as a single parent, to support their kid. Some who need the extra money. And some, like me, who you wonder “how the eff did I ever get here?”
But listen, this is just one of many stories that we support (or don’t support) by purchasing something off of Amazon every time we decide we need or want something. Where every time we press the “buy now” button we’re supporting an organization that doesn’t care about the people who work there, only that they do the job they were hired to do. Nothing more, but something less — giving money to a multi-billionaire that isn’t passing the company’s earnings on to his employees, only to line his pockets…
Or at least, that’s what it felt like, looking back, after a grueling year of working there. Without any benefits. Comparing the kind of work (and pay) that I have now, versus what I had there.
A place that won’t further strengthen our neighborhood or community. But instead, is further tearing it (and the people who work there) apart. Physically. Mentally. Spiritually. Just because we all want something cheaper. Faster. But not better… for ANYONE…
Other than Amazon.
—
About
Jared Kessler, is a Portland-based writer and photographer who loves taking pictures and telling stories. | https://medium.com/@jaredkessler/whats-it-like-to-work-at-an-amazon-prime-warehouse-in-2020-9adbc303ac03 | ['Jared Kessler'] | 2020-12-28 04:29:26.288000+00:00 | ['Amazon Prime', 'Amazon Echo', 'Amazon Web Services', 'Amazon', 'Amazon Prime Services'] |
The depth of Islamabad, the death of Lahore | It ebbed and it flowed. It fastened and it slowed. And as the story is mostly told, it was Lahore who could not hold. The audience hung tight. Deep into the dark night. A tantalizingly close fight. The adrenaline in top flight.
The Professor had led the way for his class of 2020 with a magnificent show. And for the most part of that evening in Lahore, it looked like a decisive blow. But what was written in the stars, who of them Qalandars would know.
It looked enough to eye. It appeared tough to try. It seemed rough to fly. Lahore was hoping against hope. Islamabad was walking on a tightrope. The great chase was in the scope. A thrill that you can just about cope.
Islamabad batted deep. Though they did not have enough wickets to keep. Their finishers did only finish themselves. But their tail enders said we back ourselves. The game swung till the very end. No one could guess which way it will bend.
Captain played his cards alright. To set up a nail biting fight. He stretched the game to the max. Giving supporters time to relax. But he was drowned by his crew. With the victory, off the enemy flew. And the home side could only rue. The chances they blew. | https://medium.com/cricket-cover-drives/the-depth-of-islamabad-the-death-of-lahore-31cf63276150 | ['Muhammad Ismail'] | 2020-02-23 19:25:12.084000+00:00 | ['Journalism', 'Storytelling', 'Blog', 'Cricket', 'Pakistan'] |
MongoDB Java Driver for Polymorphism | When using MongoDB with a strong OOP language like Java, it’s a no brainer to want to hack the MongoDB Java Driver to serialize data to different sub-classes of model classes given different shapes of data, because MongoDB doesn’t have a strict schema restriction for a collection, which makes it a perfect match to store data models with polymorphism or inheritance into the same collection. This post will explore into how can we adapt polymorphism to MongoDB Java Driver.
Example
The post will use invoice line items as an example to demonstrate how to achieve polymorphism in MongoDB.
For line item, it always comes with a SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) representing the type of products. When we store line items into a collection, line items with different SKUs might have different shapes. For different SKUs, we might want to store different extra information about the product. For example, if it’s a T-shirt, we’d like to include the size info for the specific item, and we also want to include the expiration date if the item is food. To represent them in Java code, we can either use inheritance or composition. We can achieve both with MongoDB Java Driver, but before we jumping into those 2 directions, I’ll first introduce some common setups for both directions.
Setup
We first need to have a MongoCollection object to access the collection.
Main.java
public class Main {
public static void main() {
MongoCollection<LineItem> collection =
MongoClients.create("mongodb://localhost:27017")
.getDatabase("testdb")
.getCollection("lineItems", LineItem.class)
.withCodecRegistry(getCodecRegistry());
}
}
Note that we need to provide a CodecRegistry object, the getCodecRegistry will look like the following:
Main.java
protected static CodecRegistry getCodecRegistry() {
return fromRegistries(MongoClientSettings.getDefaultCodecRegistry(),
fromProviders(PojoCodecProvider.builder()
.conventions(DEFAULT_CONVENTIONS)
.register(getClassesToRegister())
.automatic(true).build()));
}
The code snippet does the following things:
Set the conventions to use DEFAULT_CONVENTIONS . The DEFAULT_CONVENTIONS has 3 different conventions — we will need 2 of them here: CLASS_AND_PROPERTY_CONVENTION and ANNOTATION_CONVENTION . More documentation for each convention can be found on their respective documentation page: CLASS_AND_PROPERTY_CONVENTION and ANNOTATION_CONVENTION Register other classes that could be used while encoding a LineItem object. It has different implication for inheritance and composition style, so getClassesToRegister will be elaborated for both of them respectively later.
Polymorphism from Inheritance
For inheritance style, the concrete class will contain detailed info for different types respectively. I’ll make the assumption that all different line items will have their special info, thus the following code:
LineItem.java
@BsonDiscriminator(key = "sku")
abstract public class BaseLineItem<T> {
@BsonId
protected ObjectId _id;
@BsonProperty("sku")
protected String sku;
@BsonProperty("quantity")
protected double quantity;
@BsonProperty
protected String unit;
@BsonProperty("info")
protected T info;
public BaseLineItem() {
}
public double getQuantity() {
return quantity;
}
public ObjectId getId() {
return _id;
}
public String getSku() {
return sku;
}
public String getUnit() {
return unit;
}
public T getInfo() {
return info;
}
public void setInfo(T info) {
this.info = info;
}
public void setId(ObjectId _id) {
this._id = _id;
}
public void setQuantity(double quantity) {
this.quantity = quantity;
}
public void setSku(String sku) {
this.sku = sku;
}
public void setUnit(String unit) {
this.unit = unit;
}
}
A few things to note here:
As the base class for line item, @BsonDiscriminator(key = “sku”) needs to be set to let MongoDB Java Driver to know that the sku field will be used to differentiate which sub-class to use. All the fields needs to be saved in the database should be annotated with BsonProperty , and the id field needs to be annotated with BsonId . We also need to define the setters and getters for those fields. An empty constructor needs to be provided; Note that we can’t use BaseLineItem directly for encoding even it’s not abstract . The reason is that the driver can’t use a class with generic for codec. more detail, see the official doc. This actually makes sense, because for a class with generic, it’s easy to insert it into database, but it will have trouble loading the data from the database because the driver doesn’t know which class to use. To address this, we can make sub-class of BaseLineItem without generic, which the driver will happily accept.
MilkLineItem.java
@BsonDiscriminator(key = "sku", value = "MILK")
public class MilkLineItem extends BaseLineItem<MilkInfo> {
public MilkLineItem() {}
public MilkLineItem(ObjectId _id,
String sku,
double quantity,
String unit,
MilkInfo info) {
super(_id, sku, quantity, unit, info);
}
}
Things to note:
@BsonDiscriminator(key = “sku”, value = “MILK”) is provided here, letting the driver know that only when the sku equals MILK this sub-class will be used. An empty constructor is also needed here.
MilkInfo.java
public class MilkInfo {
@BsonProperty
Date expirationDate;
public MilkInfo() {}
public MilkInfo(Date date) {this.expirationDate = date;}
public Date getExpirationDate() {
return expirationDate;
}
public void setExpirationDate(Date expirationDate) {
this.expirationDate = expirationDate;
}
}
We mentioned earlier that we will need to register other classes needs to be used by the driver. Here, we need to register MilkLineItem because the driver needs to know what classes to use when the discriminator key — sku, has its value equals MILK .
we will add the following:
Main.java
protected static Class<?>[] getSubClasses() {
return new Class<?>[]{MilkLineItem.class};
}
We can test the code by adding the following lines to the main method:
Main.java
collection.insertOne(new MilkLineItem(new ObjectId(), "MILK", 11, "HOUR", new MilkInfo(new Date()))); BaseLineItem first = document.find().first();
System.out.println("line item quantity: " + first.getQuantity());
In mongoDB, we will see the following document:
{
"_id" : ObjectId("5fcdc455aef85552c266f37d"),
"sku" : "MILK",
"info" : {
"expirationDate" : ISODate("2020-12-07T05:57:41.610Z")
},
"quantity" : 11,
"unit" : "LITER"
}
Polymorphism from Composition
With composition style, we also assume that all the line items will have their specialized info. And since we use composition, we will use LineItem class directly to represent all the variations.
@BsonDiscriminator
public class LineItem {
@BsonId
protected ObjectId _id;
@BsonProperty("sku")
protected String sku;
@BsonProperty("quantity")
protected double quantity;
@BsonProperty
protected String unit;
@BsonProperty(value = "info", useDiscriminator = true)
protected Info info;
public LineItem() {
}
public LineItem(ObjectId _id, String sku,
double quantity, String unit, Info info) {
this._id = _id;
this.sku = sku;
this.quantity = quantity;
this.unit = unit;
this.info = info;
}
public double getQuantity() {
return quantity;
}
public ObjectId getId() {
return _id;
}
public String getSku() {
return sku;
}
public String getUnit() {
return unit;
}
public Info getInfo() {
return info;
}
public void setInfo(Info info) {
this.info = info;
}
public void setId(ObjectId _id) {
this._id = _id;
}
public void setQuantity(double quantity) {
this.quantity = quantity;
}
public void setSku(String sku) {
this.sku = sku;
}
public void setUnit(String unit) {
this.unit = unit;
}
}
Note:
We still have to note 2 and 3 listed for BaseLineItem in previous section Instead of @BsonDiscriminator(key=”sku”) , we simply put @BsonDiscriminator , which means that we will store a special field _t in the database, and the value will the full class name with it’s package path.
Info.java
@BsonDiscriminator
public interface Info {
}
MilkInfo.java
@BsonDiscriminator
public class MilkInfo implements Info {
@BsonProperty
Date expirationDate;
public MilkInfo() {}
public MilkInfo(Date date) {this.expirationDate = date;}
public Date getExpirationDate() {
return expirationDate;
}
public void setExpirationDate(Date expirationDate) {
this.expirationDate = expirationDate;
}
}
With composition style, as Info sub-classes are the ones holding BsonDiscriminator , the concrete Info classes needs to be registered, so we need to add the following to the main class:
Main.java
protected static Class<?>[] getSubClasses() {
return new Class<?>[]{MilkInfo.class, TShirtInfo.class};
}
Again we can add the following code to the main method to test it works:
Main.java
document.insertOne(new LineItem(new ObjectId(), "MILK", 11, "LITER", new MilkInfo(new Date())));
LineItem first = document.find().first();
System.out.println("line item quantity: " + first.getQuantity());
In the database, the document looks a bit different from that when using inheritance:
> db.lineItems.find().pretty()
{
"_id" : ObjectId("5fcdc76699b6323dcfc1882d"),
"_t" : "src.model.billing.LineItem",
"info" : {
"_t" : "src.model.metrics.MilkInfo",
"expirationDate" : ISODate("2020-12-07T06:10:46.108Z")
},
"quantity" : 11,
"sku" : "MILK",
"unit" : "LITER"
}
Conclusion
That’s all you have to know when using MongoDB with Java to support Polymorphism. I’ll update later with a repo with sample code. | https://zx77.medium.com/mongodb-java-driver-for-polymorphism-8d8a9e28ec24 | [] | 2020-12-07 16:16:50.085000+00:00 | ['Inheritance', 'Java', 'Mongodb Tutorial', 'Mongodb', 'Polymorphism'] |
Why is Ascendant so important in Astrology? | First impressions are the most lasting. ~Proverbs
The first impressions matter a lot. Although, I admit that they do change over time but yes when it comes to little schemes of life, they do matter a lot.
There is a concept in Astrology that strives to determine the first impression that we make on people and it is known as Ascendant.
What is an Ascendant?
An ascendant refers to any zodiac sign that is rising on the Eastern Horizon at the time of the native’s birth. The Lagna or the rising sign reflects the first impression of the individual that he/she leaves on others. Ascendant has a profound effect on the native. The outer persona of the native, the mask that they wear is what the Ascendant or the rising sign strives to define.
How is the Ascendant ascertained in Vedic Astrology?
To ascertain the ascendant, the astrologers refer to the kundali or as it is most commonly called ‘Natal Chart’. There are 12 houses in the kundali or the natal chart of an individual. Out of these 12 houses, the first house is the house of ascendant or Lagna.
This particular zodiac sign which is situated at the eastern point is considered as the ascendant or lagna of an individual. One zodiac sign stays for 2 hours at an eastern point. The house of the ascendant is the first house in the birth chart and is considered important than other houses. The ruling planet of the rising sign is also the ruling planet of the entire kundali birth chart.
The earth takes 24 hrs to complete rotation. During this duration, it passes through all the zodiac signs. It remains in one zodiac sign for 2 hours. The first house of the kundali is called ascendant and if the house of ascendant has number 1 written on it then this determines the ascendant is Aries, if there is number 2 written on it then the ascendant is Taurus and so on and so forth. | https://medium.com/on-i-ching-and-philosophy/why-is-ascendant-so-important-in-astrology-5e8cb07dfdfe | [] | 2019-11-27 01:04:10.039000+00:00 | ['Natal Chart', 'Kundali', 'Vedic Astrologer', 'Ascendant', 'Vedic Astrology'] |
I’m Riding My Bicycle Across America | I’ve noticed a trend that wellness has become a commodity. Something that we purchase. A line of products promising vitality and debt. Rather than access wellness by mobilizing the tools we come equipped with, we’ve looked to a studio class or an $11 green juice as the yellow brick road to our wellness. That’s diet and fitness, not wellness.
You see, wellness stretches beyond the walls of a gym, and doesn’t come with the option of insert chip now. Yes, what I consume and how I move are critical parts of my wellness, but there are several more buckets.
To me, wellness is a state of being. It’s life without disease, physical and mental, spent full of actions in alignment with our purpose. My blueprint for wellness includes caring for my mind and the stress it may create, living in community and nurturing relationships, moving naturally and eating plants, sleeping well, meditating and expressing gratitude, being financially responsible and also compassionate.
And I’ve known life without wellness and through a series of basic, affordable and convenient changes, I’ve healed. This is why I so passionately advocate for wellness and the truth that it is accessible. Accessible meaning it’s affordable, convenient and it looks like you.
My mission is to highlight that we have already have the resources needed to cultivate our own wellness, and bring this into communities across the country in an off-the-screen installation.
Paulo Coehlo wrote that “The world is changed by your example, not your opinion.” Well, it’s my opinion that anyone can post about wellness, show a glimpse into their lifestyle through 15 second installments, but it’s how we educate and impact those outside of our captured digital audiences that we spread our truth and in return receive an accurate education on the diversity of communities we must be considering. So to honor the quote by Coehlo, and my belief that I can change the world, I’m here to be an example.
That’s why this summer, I’ll be riding my bike across America on The Wellness Ride.
The Wellness Ride is an 85 Day Athletic Art Installation designed to educate on the accessibility of wellness and encourage individuals to invest in their own wellness, while also raising meals for the hungry across America. And you can bet I’ll be documenting the intimate moments of this adventure through writing, images and good ole fashion pineapple dances.
You will see me riding a bicycle, meditating in nature, eating plants, spending time in community, maintaining my sobriety and offering plant-based meals to the hungry along the way.
The goal of the wellness ride is to raise 5,000 meals and empower individuals to invest in their own wellness. Each meal is a delicious plant-based creation of Veestro’s that is $5 and will be donated directly to organizations across the country, and each of you deserves to be well.
We’ve created a simple donation page and each week I’ll be sharing the intimate details of this ride if you’d like to hear them. My ask of you beyond donating meals is to speak this ride into your conversations. On a first date, on a facetime, during 2 truths and lie, or when answering How Was Your Day, fill the void of your conversations with tales of The Wellness Ride. Tell the world your friend is biking across America to advocate for wellness and to raise meals.
I planted the idea to bike across America 3 years ago, a sticky note in a leather-bound notebook forgotten until this spring when a timely Charles Bukowski quote came across my eyes.
“If something burns your soul with purpose and desire it’s your duty to be reduced to ashes by it. Any other forms of existence will be yet another dull book in the library of life.” So here I am, ready to ride.
Let’s fucking do this.
Richie. Human. | https://rickieticklez.medium.com/im-riding-my-bicycle-across-america-4de9daf18e83 | ['Richie Crowley'] | 2020-04-19 17:27:51.722000+00:00 | ['Cycling', 'Adventure', 'Wellness', 'Charity', 'Courage'] |
Wrong Solutions to Math Problems Are Not Due to Cognitive Biases | Wrong Solutions to Math Problems Are Not Due to Cognitive Biases Michael Harris Jun 13·7 min read
According to Wikipedia, cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from norm and/or rationality in judgment. They are often studied in psychology and behavioral economics.
The Resolve Asset Management Riffs last Friday, June 11, 2021, had a interesting discussion with Annie Duke on Biases and Optimal Decision Making in Markets and Life.
About 18.56 minutes into the conversation Annie Duke mentions the Bat-and-Ball Problem included in Cognitive Reflection Tests (CRT).
A bat and ball together cost $1.10. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
A frequent wrong answer of $0.10, instead of $0.05, has been argued as evidence of bias towards intuitive answers rather than higher-order rational considerations by committing to attribute substitution, which is a process that substitutes a more complicated problem by a simpler problem[1]. The simpler problem is the following:
A bat and ball together cost $1.10. The bat costs $1.00. How much does the ball cost?
I argue the psychologists are wrong and some of the people with alleged bias are right. In fact I argue that psychologists try to trick people with problems in order to create artificial images to attack.
This is the justification: Have you ever been to a store where there was no value for the ball and the price tag stated that the total price is $1.10 but the bat costs $1.00 more than the ball?
Customer: How much is the ball?
Store sales: You have to figure that out. The bat and ball together cost $1.10. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball.
Customer: OK, I will call the father of a friend of my uncle’s ex wife who is a mathematician.
Store sales: No, answer now, because the Psychology department of the local university is doing a study and I am collecting data for them.
Customer: The results of the study will be biased by the confusion you create to people. Usually there are price tags on everything.
Store sales: They want to prove people are biased in their decision making.
Customer: Their conclusions will be biased by the confusion they cause to people.
It is more complicated than this. Do you expect most people to run y = 2x+a in their heads for this problem? People are not HP calculators. Human brain works with matching patterns, not with solving equations. Of course, some people are trained in math and will come up with the right answer of $0.05 but that does not mean those who said $0.10 are under some fancy attribute substitution bias.
I fact, those who err are considering the situation normal and interpret “The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball” as “The bat costs $1.00.” Because this is normal. This is how things are priced in stores. So people who answer $0.10 may be thinking of natural language “slippage” in stating the price rather than being the victims of cognitive bias(es).
Natural language does not map to mathematics well, not even categorical logic. An example is this proposition (from an elective course I took in analytical philosophy in college instead of taking that tennis course with all the exciting people):
p: The King of America is bald
How does one negate p?
“The King of America is not bald” does not reflect the fact that there is no American king. Neither, “It’s not the case that the King of America is bald” does the negation job.
In fact, philosophers dealing with p have not been able to conclude whether the sentence has any meaning at all despite Russell’s suggestion of using definite descriptions. In a similar way, I argue that the following problem
A bat and ball together cost $1.10. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
makes no sense to ask in a world dominated by well-defined price tags in stores, unless you are looking to intentionally confuse people. It is a meaningless problem unless posed to a math class. In order to uncover true biases, psychologists may have to look for questions, or problems, where there is no prior massive use of an easy alternative.
In essence then, I am claiming some of these behavioral psychologists when they ask questions in the sphere of the ball and bat problem, they are conflating natural language uncertainty and imprecision with math, through a problem that in everyday life has a straight forward expected answer. They are creating an artificial image to attack that is as biased as the bias they think they are discovering.
Let us go to the next problem mentioned in the Resolve Asset Management Riff with Annie Duke. It is as follows:
A woman comes into a jewelry store and buys a necklace. But she doesn't have cash so she gives to store owner a $100 check. Store owner happens not to have any change so she goes to the store next door and she gives the $100 check and that person gives back $100 in change. Store owner comes back and she gives back the woman $22 because the price of the necklace was $78. The cost for the necklace was $39. Later on the store owner finds out the check was counterfeit and she has to give the person $100 back, which she does. The question is how much money did she lose?
Annie Duke claims the answer is $61. This is the correct answer based on cost of the necklace. The $100 transaction is a wash. The store owner took $100 and returned back $100. Furthermore, the store owner paid $39 for the necklace and also gave $22 to the crook. That’s a $61 loss based on cost. But based on value of necklace the correct answer is $100.
This is because if this was a high demand item, probably it would have been sold quickly and the owner lost not just the cost but also the profit.
If fact, in the case of retail stores, there is case law that deals with retail and wholesale value lost because of stole goods [2]
“If the goods were stolen from a retail merchant, the value is its retail value; while if stolen from a wholesale merchant the value is its wholesale value. See United States v. Robinson, 687 F.2d 359 (11th Cir. 1982). “
Therefore the correct answers are $61 or $100, depending on how “loss” is defined. But this is not the main issue either.
Many answer this wrong and there seems to be a problem. According to a poll I ran in Twitter, close to 55% answered it wrong. Some had even wrong answers and were not able to vote because they were not listed. So I estimate about 60% answered this wrong. Is this due to a cognitive bias?
Are you going to ask 100 people to solve an equation even if they don’t know math? If 60% answer wrong, will you conclude this is due to a cognitive bias, or lack of math skills, in the case of the above problem?
Instead of focusing on the inability of people to model simple problems and solve them mathematically, we are trying to discover cognitive biases to justify them. In my opinion, the reason for the wrong answers are not cognitive biases but lack of education in modeling and solving real world problems. There is a significant gap in these two views and significantly different approaches resulting from them.
The solution in my opinion is more practical math education with modeling and solutions. Teach people how to model simple reality and get solutions. The human brain is very powerful pattern matching engine that will probably never be challenged by any artificial machine. But machines are very good in doing calculations people cannot do. As use of mobile devices increases, the capability of people to solve basic problem will decrease since they are constantly relying on these devices for answers.
Is the failure to come up for an answer in a second to how much 766,758 times 907,847 yields, a cognitive bias? But a person with no math education will be able to recognize a fly sitting on the face of a camel while a machine with fancy machine learning algorithm may fail.
The educational establishment, at least part of it, should maybe stop treating people as biased for maybe winning tenure credit. Human beings survived hundreds of thousands of years with all their biases and before even discovering math, computers and establishing universities. Actually they may have survived because of the biases.
Are we treating humans as transhumans actually with all these cognitive tests involving hidden math problems? This can only result in degradation of human quality in favor of machines. Fine, if that is the objective. For me, it’s not fine.
In many problems posed that allegedly prove there are cognitive biases, the biases are frequently with those that pose them against human qualities.
Below is an example from a bet with positive expectation people refuse to take and this is attributed to cognitive bias.
People are skeptical of “too good to be true” bets because they know money is not free, at least for the 99.99% of the population. This is not a bias, it is reality. Below is another example of a bet people won’t take and behavioral economist attribute to bias and my response.
I like to defend common sense and the average person who is under constant attack by part of an academic elite. I argue that problems exist but most are not due to cognitive biases but due to low quality education or complete lack thereof. After four years of undergrad education and six years in grad school, I think a legitimate task of a scientist is to defend common sense above all.
Biases exist; sometimes they are useful and sometimes are harmful. But human history shows over the longer-term the expectation from biases is positive. Is there room for improvement? Yes, there is huge room, but first we have to raise the level of education and teach people how to model simple problems with math. It’s hard but this is the profitable route, not trying to prove people suffer from cognitive biases using questions that actually prove people lack basic math skills.
You can find me in Twitter if you have any questions or suggestions.
[1] The Bat-and-Ball Problem: Stronger evidence in support of a conscious error process
[2] NATIONAL STOLEN PROPERTY ACT — “VALUE” DEFINED | https://medium.com/@mikeharrisny/wrong-solutions-to-math-problems-are-not-due-to-cognitive-biases-f4824d41381a | ['Michael Harris'] | 2021-06-14 09:20:40.937000+00:00 | ['Mathematics', 'Behavioral Economics', 'Bias', 'Cognitive Bias', 'Risk Aversion'] |
This Often Overlooked $200 Full-Frame Canon DSLR is Amazing | This Often Overlooked $200 Full-Frame Canon DSLR is Amazing
Shot On The Canon EOS 5D Classic.
A decent full-frame DSLR body for $200? You probably think I’m crazy by now, and I’ll admit, I thought it was absurd at first, myself.
I found out about this camera while looking for a DSLR body to take with me on a cruise back in early 2020. I mainly shoot and develop 35mm film, but buying film can get expensive, and I needed something to take along with me.
“There’s no way I found a good full-frame camera for $200”
While browsing the internet for a camera that suited my needs, I came across the Canon EOS 5D. The camera seemed like such a great deal that I thought it was too good to be true at first. “There’s no way I found a full-frame camera for $200,” I thought to myself.
The more I read about the camera, the more curious I became. I took the plunge and ordered one, not knowing what to expect of it.
After about a year of shooting with this camera, I really enjoy it and find myself picking it up more than any other camera body I own. | https://medium.com/@dylanrollinss/this-often-overlooked-200-full-frame-canon-dslr-is-amazing-55856ab2e8c9 | ['Dylan Rollins'] | 2021-01-30 21:24:18.321000+00:00 | ['Review', 'Photography', 'Cameras', 'Gear', 'Canon'] |
Using Python Libraries in .NET without a Python Installation | What is the problem?
Everyone has a different Python installation. Some still use Python 2.7, some use Python 3.5 or 3.6, and some are already on 3.7. When you use pythonnet it has to be compiled with different settings for every minor Python version and that version has to be installed for the code to run. So if you are working in a team, everyone is forced to have the same Python setup. With our SciSharp team, for instance, this is already not the case. If you want to deploy your .NET application on a machine you have to deploy Python first. From the perspective of a .NET developer it kind of sucks.
And yet, if you are working on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, despite the efforts of Microsoft and SciSharp, at the moment you simply can not completely avoid Python. If you check out the list of projects using pythonnet it is evident that many companies in the AI field currently interface .NET with Python.
Python.Included to the rescue
But what if you could simply reference a Nuget package and everything is automatically set up correctly without additional manual tinkering? That was the vision that led me to create Python.Included which packages python-3.7.3-embed-amd64.zip in its assembly effectively allowing to reference Python via NuGet.
To prove that it works and to quickly provide all numpy -functionality that is still missing in NumSharp, I created Numpy.NET which is built upon Python.Included.
Proof-of-concept: Numpy.NET
Numpy.NET provides strong-typed wrapper functions for numpy , which means you don’t need to use the dynamic keyword at all, but this is a rabbit hole to delve into in another article. Instead, we focus on how Numpy.NET uses Python.Included to auto-deploy Python on demand and the NumPy package in order to call into it.
This is the setup code that Numpy will execute behind the scenes. You don’t have to do any of this. As soon as you are using one of its functions, i.e.
var a = np.array(new [,] {{1, 2}, {3, 4}}); ,
Numpy.dll sets up the embedded Python distribution which will unpack from the assembly in your local home directory (only if not yet installed):
var installer = new Python.Included.Installer();
installer.SetupPython(force:false).Wait();
Next (if not yet done in a previous run) it unpacks the numpy pip wheel which is packed into Numpy.dll as embedded resource and installs it into the embedded Python installation.
installer.InstallWheel(typeof(NumPy).Assembly, "numpy-1.16.3-cp37-cp37m-win_amd64.whl").Wait();
Finally, the pythonnet runtime is initialized and numpy is imported for subsequent use.
PythonEngine.Initialize();
Py.Import("numpy");
All this is happening behind the scenes and the user of Numpy.dll does not have to worry about a local Python installation at all. In fact, even if you have installed any version of Python it won’t matter.
Performance considerations
Pythonnet is known for being slow, so you might ask yourself if it is really a good idea to interface Python libraries with .NET using pythonnet . As always, it depends.
My measurements show that the overhead of calling into numpy with .NET compared to calling it directly from Python is about a factor 4. To be clear, this does not mean that Numpy.NET is four times slower than numpy in Python, it means that there is an overhead of calling through pythonnet . Of course, since Numpy.NET is calling numpy , the execution-time of a NumPy function itself is exactly the same.
Whether or not that overhead is a problem entirely depends on the use case. If you are going back and forth between CLR and Python from within a nested loop you might have a problem. But mostly Python libraries are designed to be efficient and avoid looping over data. Numpy allows you to run an operation on millions of array elements with only one call. PyTorch and Tensorflow allow you to execute operations entirely on the GPU. So when used correctly, the interop-overhead will be negligible compared to the execution time of the operations when dealing with large amounts of data.
Roadmap
I know that there are a number of numpy ports for .NET, for instance via IronPython. But the IronPython project is still only supporting Python 2.7 and progressing very slowly. Libraries that depend on Python 3 are not available through IronPython and will not be in the near future.
My focus will be to make more Machine Learning and AI libraries available for .NET through pythonnet. The SciSharp team is also discussing ideas to make a faster version of pythonnet which avoids the use of the inherently slow DynamicObject.
Please try out Numpy.NET and let me know how it worked out for you. I’ll be grateful for any comments or suggestions and I hope that my work will help the .NET Machine Learning community to grow and prosper. | https://medium.com/scisharp/using-python-libraries-in-net-without-a-python-installation-11124d6190cf | ['Meinrad Recheis'] | 2019-06-05 13:42:11.695000+00:00 | ['Dotnet', 'Numpy', 'Python', 'AI', 'Machine Learning'] |
Why Star Wars Movies Could Use More Logic and Less Fantasy | I want to like everything Star Wars. I would really, really, really like to love it all. But the facts are, a lot of it is just super dumb. And it doesn’t need to be!
So many of the ridiculous tropes Star Wars movies keep playing into over and over and over and over are totally unnecessary. All it does is take away from the story. If they fixed some of their silly mistakes, we would love the franchise even more.
Maybe you don’t agree with me. Maybe you think everything is fine, and we don’t need logic in space. Well, why don’t we take a look and see how these ideas pan out in the light of day?
Pretend you had to live in a word based on these dumb plot ideas and be dismayed. | https://medium.com/fan-fare/why-star-wars-movies-could-use-a-little-more-logic-and-a-little-less-fantasy-c39cdb9ad068 | ['Tim Ebl'] | 2020-12-28 14:06:56.717000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'SciFi', 'Star Wars', 'Entertainment', 'Writing Tips'] |
Realme 7 5G Global Versuion | Discover the best cellphone ~ News ~ Deals ~ Coupons ~prices Note: Commissions may be earned from the links below. | https://medium.com/@cellphones/realme-7-5g-global-versuion-f18e15c8c36d | [] | 2020-12-19 16:07:16.410000+00:00 | ['Technews', 'Smartphones', 'Shopping', 'Tech', 'Shopping Offers'] |
{GMM25’s Thai Drama} Thonhon Chonlathee Episode 6 「ENGSUB」 | Episode 6 | A university student named Chonlatee secretly has a crush on his childhood friend Tonhon since he was a kid. Sadly, Tonhon is confirmed straight several times and is even homophobic.
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TELEVISION 👾
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Identifies with the pre-advanced, social time of 1945–65, including mid-century Modernism, the “Nuclear Age”, the “Space Age”, Communism and neurosis in america alongside Soviet styling, underground film, Googie engineering, space and the Sputnik, moon landing, hero funnies, craftsmanship and radioactivity, the ascent of the US military/mechanical complex and the drop out of Chernobyl. Socialist simple atompunk can be an extreme lost world. The Fallout arrangement of PC games is a fabulous case of atompunk. | https://medium.com/@d-a-dangkop-r-ol-07/gmm25s-thai-drama-thonhon-chonlathee-episode-6-engsub-4a3fe01f9f57 | ['Lina J. Herron'] | 2020-12-18 12:59:53.623000+00:00 | ['Romance', 'Drama', 'Gay'] |
Get to Know Some Important Facts About GMAT Online Exam | The COVID-19 pandemic impacted worldwide education systems and caused the almost complete closure of schools, universities and colleges. If you are preparing for the GMAT with a dream of a successful MBA personality, then don’t lose your hope. The GMAT online exam is there to fulfil your dream.
This exam is a remote proctored, and online exam pattern developed to provide support to schools and candidates who are facing difficulties due to the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic all over the globe. The exam shows score reports online. The candidates who would like to apply in b-schools can submit their forms through this online platform before deadlines.
What is the basic GMAT online exam structure?
To appear in the GMAT online exam, one needs to pay a certain amount of registration fees that allows you to send unlimited scores. If you want, you can appear for a free GMAT exam as well, but it entirely depends on your preference. Candidates are allowed to reschedule their exams any time before the exam’s commencement or the test day. However, the candidates have to bear a certain amount of cancellation fees within 24 hours of the scheduled exam.
This GMAT online platform offers the most convenient medium to appear for graduate management admission. The basic structure of this exam includes Verbal, quantitative, and integrated reasoning sections. Each section contains the same number of questions as well as time. Let’s have a look at the structure of the GMAT exam for graduate management admission councils.
31 quant/62 minutes
12IR/30 minutes
36 Verbal/65 minutes
The candidates should keep in mind that this exam pattern will remain the same for the GMAT online exam, including verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and integrated reasoning. The time allotment for the online exam is 3 hours. Anyone can use this time into two sections — 2 hours and 30 minutes for the exam, the rest 30 minutes to check the online proctored system. All the candidates appear for management admissions council GMAC will get five minutes of optional break before the starting of the integrated reasoning test.
If you want to know about the GMAT score, then have a look at the GMAT Score Calculator — How Does It Calculate the Score?
Advantage of the GMAT Online Exam
The best part of this online exam is that you can do all these things from the comfort of your home. You don’t need to go outside or to interact with any outsiders to give this exam. All you need is a trusted internet connection, and you can easily appear for the GMAT online exam and make yourself eligible for the graduate management admissions council. The test-takers will get the flexibility or the option to use an online whiteboard for completing any kind of scratch work or take notes while the examination is going on.
What Should Be A Good GMAT Percentile for MBA Or Higher Studies?
Things to know about scoring
This online exam will use a particular scoring algorithm and display the scores in respect of each section. When the candidates receive their official scoring report, they can check out the scores divided into two sections — one if the individual section score, and the other is the exam’s total score. All the candidates, please note that they can view their percentiles on the score report. The scores acquired in GMAT online exam will remain valid for five years.
Facts to know about sending scores
The GMAT online exam has introduced a new kind of flexibility for the candidates that allow them to send their scores to the programs. The candidates will get the flexibility to view their official scores online, including GMAT online fees, and then they can choose to send their scores to the respective programs.
Please take a note that here all scores are complimentary. If anyone wishes to send his/her scores to any program, it is absolutely free of cost. The official scores will be sent to the candidates via their email id within seven days of the exam’s commencement. The official scores will become available to schools within 24 hours a day or 7 days a week based on the candidate’s request.
Know the availability of the GMAT online exam
The GMAT online test dates will be notified to the candidates via their Gmail ids. The GMAT online exam dates are made available for the candidates during the Covid-19 pandemic. In order to increase the appointment times and flexibility available for 24 hours a day or 7 days, candidates get permission to schedule their examination appointment up to 24 hours. The appointment dates are made available from April 20, 2020, to February 2021. The test-takers will continuously monitor the conditions and future appointment dates.
This GMAT online exam has been made available in most locations except Cuba, Iran, and North Korea due to some regulatory and data privacy protocols. The candidates must remember that the GMAT online exam is taken only in English. The exam can be given both from Windows PC and Mac computers. The candidates must know about some system requirements before appearing for the exam.
8 BEST GMAT PREP BOOKS TO FOLLOW FOR GMAT QUESTIONS AND STRATEGIES
How to reschedule or cancel the exam?
Candidates can easily reschedule or cancel their appointment for an exam at any time before the commencement of the exam by logging into the mba.com account.
Frequently asked questions
Who will be eligible for the at-home GMAT online exam?
This GMAT online exam is available in almost all locations except Mainland China, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Slovenia. If a candidate fails to appear for the exam physically due to the COVID-19 pandemic is eligible to give GMAT online exam at home. However, the test takers of Cuba, Mainland China, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Slovenia are working closely with the government protocols to find an alternative solution.
For more, click here 👉👉👉https://bit.ly/3oGtt1R | https://medium.com/dev-genius/get-to-know-some-important-facts-about-gmat-online-exam-c53a190c36ca | ['Online Tutors Helpline'] | 2020-12-09 21:19:51.050000+00:00 | ['Careers', 'Students', 'Education', 'Mba', 'Mba Admissions'] |
Bird Brains | Daily comic by Lisa Burdige and John Hazard about balancing life, love and kids in the gig economy. | https://medium.com/@backgroundnoisecomic/bird-brains-7993729eb7e2 | ['Background Noise Comics'] | 2020-12-03 19:30:49.722000+00:00 | ['Nature', '2021', 'Birds', 'Humor', 'Comics'] |
TypeScript unit tests best practices part 5: how to “unit test” (almost) everything in TypeScript | How to stub an exported function?
This is quite simple. If you followed the tips to setup your tsconfig.json, your module is setted to commonjs, and you’ll not have any problem with this strategy. Let’s take the following code:
To mock otherFunction, just import it with “* as”, like this:
Look that it doesn’t matter the real return type of otherFunction: all that matter is that myFunction returns wathever otherFunction returns. This is guaranteed by this test.
And why this works?
If you transpile your code and take a look in the generated JavaScript, you’ll see that the call to otherFunction will look something like this:
otherFunction_1.otherFunction(123)
So, an object that is the result of a require contains a reference to otherFunction. In the test code, importing it with “* as” you’re simpling having access to another reference to such object and, in result, having access to the same reference the tested code have to otherFunction. That’s it. The secret to stubbing is just to guarantee that the test code and the tested code are pointing to the same memory address.
How to stub a class constructor?
Imagine this code:
Well… what I have to test here, anyway? It’s just the instantiation of a class!
But this function can be called in many places, and in all these places you are confident that the function is making it’s work right:
Instantiating MyClass with the right parameters
Returning an instance of MyClass;
Isn’t it worth it to ensure that this work is made right, given the extensive usage?
The answer is yes, it always is. The goal is 100% coverage, so no code is not worth it of a unit test.
You have two strategies here:
Just check if the returned instance is a MyClass one: not very good. What the MyClass constructor does? Will you mock all the methods this constructor calls? How you’ll ensure that the right parameters are passed? Remember: you must not need to worry about the scope of method X when testing method Y, so, no, we do not recommend this option;
not very good. What the MyClass constructor does? Will you mock all the methods this constructor calls? How you’ll ensure that the right parameters are passed? Remember: so, no, we do not recommend this option; Stub MyClass constructor: Yes. This is the way.
But we know how to stub functions and methods, but how can I stub a constructor?
The answer is quite simple: in JavaScript, a class is nothing more than a function that returns an object based on a prototype. So, you can mock a class like any other function. Let’s see how we can do it here:
When you come from a strongly typed object oriented language, this can be seen like sorcery, but yes, you completely overwrote the class construction and returned a mocked object of your choice. This object, also, could contain many stubbed properties to simulate methods of MyClass, or can be something completely different. All depends on your need. | https://medium.com/@thiagooliveirasantos/typescript-unit-tests-best-practices-part-5-how-to-unit-test-almost-everything-in-typescript-678900248004 | ['Thiago Oliveira Santos'] | 2020-02-29 07:02:20+00:00 | ['Clean Code', 'JavaScript', 'Nodejs', 'Unit Testing', 'Typescript'] |
How to Get Started With Cryptocurrency Trading For Beginners | With many people making large profits on the crypto market, you might be enticed to dip your toes in the cryptocurrency pool full-time or on a side hustle basis. Unfortunately, the crypto market can be a scary place to start investing if you don’t understand what you are doing. Fortunately, there are many opportunities to succeed in this industry if you are equipped with the right skills. Before trading, it is recommended that proper research is done on the market, including some basic terminology that is common in the industry.
Start With Your Own Research
Before trading any cryptocurrency, it is crucial to understand what you are investing in and how the crypto market works. There are many resources available, including whitepapers, YouTube videos and even our blog. It is recommended that you start by researching three key areas.
1. The Cryptocurrency Market
Like the stock market, the price of cryptocurrency fluctuates based on the principles of supply and demand. A successful trader intends to profit by buying low and selling at a higher price. Although nobody can time the market perfectly, looking at historicals from a few months or even a year ago can help you to identify trends and leverage this to your advantage.
Cryptocurrencies typically occur in pairs. One example is BTC/USD, which shows the price of Bitcoin against the US dollar. There are many other commonly traded pairs that, with some knowledge, can help you leverage better deals.
2. Trading Cryptocurrencies
Purchasing cryptocurrencies on an exchange is the actual purchase of a coin. Once you make a purchase, you will need to have a secure wallet to store them until you decide to sell them. Alternatively, some traders explore the concept of futures trading, where you trade coins that don’t technically belong to you. In these scenarios, traders bet on whether the price will go up or down. Although traders can be significantly rewarded, the chance always exists that they will lose the entirety of their investment.
3. Basic Cryptocurrency Terminology
To truly understand the crypto market, you will need to talk like a true trader. That means learning some of the key phrases used in the industry. Here are a few terms to add to your dictionary.
HODL: Slang used within the crypto community that stands for “hold on for dear life” about holding an asset rather than selling it.
SAFU: The acronym “SAFU” originated from a misspelling of the word SAFE and is now used to refer to “Secure Asset Fund for Users.” This is an emergency reserve held to protect any assets that are invested.
Altcoin: Any digital currency that is not Bitcoin (BTC).
Blockchain: A blockchain is the digital ledger system first introduced in the Bitcoin whitepaper back in 2008.
Trading platform: An online location where buyers and sellers of cryptocurrency are matched to conduct transactions.
What To Look For As A Beginner Trader
Now that you’re equipped with some basic terminology surrounding cryptocurrencies, you might be wondering how you get started. Here is a simple four-step process for you to follow.
1. Find A Reputable Exchange
To begin trading, you will require a cryptocurrency wallet and an exchange. It is important to note that a cryptocurrency exchange is not the same as a regular stock exchange, meaning you’ll require a different platform to conduct these transactions. To keep the process simple, many traders have found it helpful to pick a platform that acts as an exchange and wallet in one. A more in-depth explanation of cryptocurrency exchange is to follow.
As a beginner trader, you will be presented with several cryptocurrency exchanges. It is recommended that you choose one with a good reputation. Reputable exchanges will directly impact how you trade, the community you are trading with, and your purchasing habits. The cost might be a little more, but it will pay off when you have the added security knowing that your investments are safe. In Canada, Bitbuy has been the trusted choice since 2016. But don’t just take our word for it. You can do your research about Bitbuy as a reputable exchange by asking these questions:
Are customers happy with the services provided?
Chance are there is something to be said about wisdom of the masses.
Has the platform been hacked recently?
If so, you should also ask if the platform has an insurance policy in place for hacks. Cryptocurrency is not regulated by the government, meaning investments lost through hacking might not ever be recovered.
Are people complaining about this platform?
Although complaints should be taken with a grain of salt, many criticisms or links in bad experiences say a lot about the platform.
Does the platform ask for ID or verification of identity?
While the other questions are pretty straightforward, this one might require a little bit of explaining. A platform asking for ID is usually a strong indicator of security, especially in Canada, since this aligns with the national law.
To find the answers to these questions looking on social media platforms like Twitter, Quora, or Reddit can provide you with some useful insights. Once you have selected a cryptocurrency trading platform, it is time to open your account. The registration process is easy and will usually only ask you to verify your email and phone number. Therefore, beginner investors have no reason you can’t try out a few before finding one that works for you.
2. Selecting Prominent Coins
New altcoins can provide substantial profit opportunities. However, as most traders will tell you, with more reward comes more risk. As a beginner trader, one word of wisdom is to stick to the more prominent coins since the likelihood of them disappearing from the market and the ability to make predictions about pricing are minimal. To get started, Bitcoin and Ethereum are two popular choices.
Bitcoin (BTC): The first cryptocurrency launched by someone (or someones) by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto. To this day, Bitcoin is still known as the king of cryptocurrencies.
Ethereum (ETH): Ethereum was created on a platform designed to create smart contracts and decentralized apps.
Other coins commonly available are Stellar Lumens (XLM), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and EOS. As you learn about the industry and culture surrounding cryptocurrency, you can begin trading altcoins with smaller margins.
3. Ensure You Have Proper Security Measures in Place
Storing cryptocurrency requires a little more than an average wallet. Your wallet includes a private and public key, a string of letters and numbers that allow you to store, send and receive cryptocurrencies. As an overview,
Private key: A key that is kept private to the trader and gives access to individual funds.
Public key: A public key is an address that can be shared with public parties with the intention to receive funds.
You can store these keys in either a hot or cold wallet. A hot wallet will either be a wallet on your desktop, on an app or online (in conjunction with the exchange you are using). An online wallet is necessary to conduct trades; however, like anything on the Internet, the opportunity to be hacked still exists. So, when setting up your account, you should be mindful that you are creating a strong password and using 2 Factor Authorization (2FA) to secure your account against hackers. Setting up 2FA may require the verification of your phone number, where a code will be sent when you log in. The extra step might sound tedious now, but you will be thankful knowing your hard-earned savings are secure.
In addition to your hot wallet, it is recommended that you keep the majority of your funds in what we know as a cold wallet. This is a print out of your keys that have been encrypted and are now stored, not on the Internet.
4. Add Funds To Your Account
After your account has been set up, it will be time to add funds to your account. Methods of doing so may differ; however, most widely known platforms will offer opportunities to use Interac eTransfer or Bank Wire.
Picking Your Cryptocurrency Trading Strategy
Now that you’ve done your research, picked your exchange, set up security features and bought your coins, you are ready for an exciting part! That’s right; it is time to consider strategies for buying and selling cryptocurrencies. Rather than becoming overwhelmed with the information available, it is important to remember that there is no luck in trading. It is all about minimizing your risk and maximizing profit potential.
Hold on For Dear Life
One of the easiest strategies for beginner cryptocurrency traders is long term holding or “hodling” (as it were). To conduct this strategy, traders are encouraged to buy an asset and hold onto it. Yes, it is that simple! Little knowledge is required since this strategy works based on the premise that cryptocurrencies tend to experience significant growth over some time. Many have been successful in purchasing Bitcoin off a popular exchange and watching it grow.
Minimal supervision is required since looking at prices too often can cause you to take action too early or allow your fear to take over, causing you to lose out on added profit potential. At the same time, cryptocurrencies are known to be volatile in the short-term but may be more predictable in the long-term. It is important to note; growth is also not guaranteed, so to reduce your risk further, purchasing coins in smaller amounts (a process known as cost-averaging) can increase the chances of you buying “low.”
Day Trading
On the other end of the spectrum is a strategy known as day trading. As the name suggests, this beginner cryptocurrency trading strategy is the act of buying and selling an asset within the same day. Since cryptocurrency is so volatile, traders have the opportunity to play this to their advantage. To be successful, a proper plan is necessary, including setting appropriate stop losses. A stop-loss order is the request to buy or sell a given asset once it hits a predetermined price.
Day trading can be useful, but it is also riskier than the HODL strategy since traders are more involved with watching the markets and responding accordingly.
Swing Trading
A slightly longer-term beginner cryptocurrency trading strategy is swing trading. Rather than buying and selling a crypto asset within the day, traders will watch volatility waves over a few days or a week before taking action. To take advantage of these swings, traders will use technical and fundamental analysis to look for profit opportunities.
Trend Trading or Position Trading
This trend involves holding onto a cryptocurrency asset for a few months to take advantage of a directional trend. Trend trading is successful based on the premise that the cryptocurrency will continue to move in the movement’s direction. Unfortunately, this is not only the case, and trend reversals need to be accounted for. As one of our cryptocurrency trading tips for beginners, we encourage you to only leverage this strategy if you have the time to do the necessary research for technical indicators and manage your risk level to the best of your abilities.
Index Investing
One of the most common strategies for beginner investors in the stock market is taking advantage of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). A similar approach can be used in cryptocurrency markets since several crypto indexes exist. Purchasing a crypto index allows a beginner trader to buy a basket of assets that will likely offset one another in terms of performance. As a result, there is less risk and activity involved. More recent strategies offer tokenized indexes that focus on a critical industry or operational capacity.
Start Trading Cryptocurrencies Today
Of course, before you start implementing any of the steps or strategies mentioned, you should be ready to conduct your own research. Any opinions and advice in this article should act only as the starting point as to which you start learning about the cryptocurrency market and your role. After doing so, a platform like Bitbuy can be an excellent place for beginner traders to start.
This is where I started my trading journey and have found it easy to use for beginners (like myself). You can start an account in just a couple of minutes using their website. | https://medium.com/@sarahkordyban/how-to-get-started-with-cryptocurrency-trading-for-beginners-5ac86e022d66 | ['Sarah Kordyban'] | 2020-11-27 21:37:50.291000+00:00 | ['Investing Tips', 'Beginners Guide', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Beginner Trading', 'Cryptocurrency Investment'] |
Conspicuous Consumerism to QAnon Conspiracies- the “Spiritual” Community’s Epic Fail | The time to reckon with the failure of the “spiritual” community is long overdue. To clarify, I am not anti-spirituality. In fact, spirituality has long been an integral part of my life and even my work. Spiritual belief and ethics, a connection to Divine Source and the tenets of pagan/Wiccan and some aspects of what has come to be (erroneously) considered “New Age” spirituality have been a beacon guiding me through some of the most challenging experiences of my life.
This, I came to believe in childhood, is one of the core functions of spirituality and thus should be a central feature in any spiritual community with integrity. Yet just when it is needed most, this type of community seems to be in short supply.
When I was first drawn to Earth centered spirituality and polytheism, it was nothing like the trendy cash cow it has been in recent years. The internet was not as prevalent then- I hadn’t even heard of it at the time, and books on the subject were highly specialized and only found in massive bookstores or specialty New Age shops. My local library had two books on this subject.
The message behind most of what I read was that spirituality was not an excuse to bury one’s head in the sand, and was not a replacement for mundane responsibilities, but a way to enhance one’s life and find meaning and purpose, to gain perspective and connect with nature and other beings in a way that shows reverence. Yes, the Tarot cards and other tools were cool, but these were ancillary to the core purpose of spiritual connection, which is to say, the process of connection with something beyond the individual ego.
It was the mid 90s and I was exploring the works of early pagan writers, as well as the likes of James Redfield, Robert Moss and Dan Millman. Though there are some problematic aspects of works popular at this time, specifically the proclivity of cultural appropriation, the overall themes dealt with seeing through the illusions of high pressure success culture and returning to a life of ethics, meaning and purpose. Reconnecting with the energy of the Earth and recognizing intuition in practical encounters. These works centered on the practical application of esoteric concepts.
And yes, their distribution relied on the institutions of marketing and capitalism, but the goal was, as I have heard and also said numerous times regarding my own work as a spiritual based entrepreneur many years later, to work within the system to meet people where they are and then bring them deeper into a spiritual perspective.
Which was all fine and good until the early aughts. In one fell swoop, the movement that previously preached social consciousness and concern for the Earth, the value of interconnection and respect for nature, was hijacked by a cult of pleasure and instant gratification.
Yes, I’m referring to The Secret.
I first heard of this book while working at an outpatient substance abuse clinic, a job which allowed me to facilitate a number of groups, some on the role of spirituality in recovery. After one group, a client approached me with a wide grin and asked “Are you turning people on to The Secret?”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but listened as she explained what sounded like a very watered down version of what many people were previously hunted down and killed for simply calling Magick, or Magik, or Majik, or Ceremony, or ritual. Now, suddenly, it appeared that a stripped down, juvenile version of the concept of sympathetic magick was being sold to a target market of open minded people who desperately want to believe they can use the Tinkerbell approach to having whatever they want- that is- by thinking happy thoughts.
My suspicions were confirmed when I read the book. Or at least, a few pages. I couldn’t suffer through it. If there is one thing you can guess about someone who refers to early 19th century capitalists as possessing secret wisdom that allowed them to rise to success, all while ignoring the exploitation and greed that fueled the rise of such figures, it is that they are highly misinformed and misguided and don’t know the first thing about history.
And that they are gambling on the fact that the masses also are ignorant of these important facts. And they gambled right. While this book was incredibly popular and influential in 21st century “spirituality” I consider it a turning point. And not a good one.
Now, instead of concern about the Earth, healing relationships and working through traumas or crises to find meaning, the goal seemed to be manifesting sportscars and obsessing over delusional fantasies, all in the name of “attraction” and “intuition.”
While this trend sold the public on a gutted and hollowed out brand of “spirituality” completely void of anything useful, it was in fact a capitalist’s dream. And fed into the conspicuous consumer lifestyle that earlier works on practical spirituality tried so hard to expose as illusions.
At an earlier point in my career as an Intuitive Reader, I started an Intuitive Relationship Coaching program. The reason was because I never wanted to do another love reading again. The purpose of the program was to help people understand relationships outside of the paradigm of possessiveness and control, trauma bonding and superficial trappings of love. My goal for this service, and for my later book, Queen Up, was for my clients to not need my services.
I am certainly not the only spiritual practitioner who would rather their clients find the intuitive connection and confidence to no longer need their services. Yet such planned obsolescence is not an ideal model in a predatory capitalist system. So as you can imagine, it’s not the typical motivation of most successful “spiritual” entrepreneurs.
In fact, part of the premise of Queen Up was to teach people how to connect with Four basic Tarot/Elemental archetypes intuitively, without relying on cards or other tools. In spite of describing this process in as much detail as possible and providing instructions on how any deck can be adapted to this purpose, or how readers could even make their own cards but ultimately don’t need them, I am still caught off guard by the frequent request for an entire deck to match the book. Proof of how capitalism has created such dependency on other people’s directions and tangible “tools” supplanting our ability to trust our own connection.
Of course, I don’t blame readers or seekers for being entangled in this web of dependency. It was created intentionally to ensnare in such a way. And on the surface, seems harmless. So what if someone feels more confident having 80 Tarot decks rather than just one? Who cares if someone has a preference for owning 50 books on the same subject matter?
And I suppose there is no overt harm in keeping the public dependent on the words of influencers and the products of big name content creators, as long as the information is helpful, meaningful and ethical.
Except….
This is where we again come to a point of conflict. Nothing better illustrates this than a controversy that emerged back in 2016 or so. In a rare show of courage and integrity, two widely known and respected influencers in the New Age community made strong and clear stances against then candidate trump.
I want to be clear and explain I am not referring to courage and integrity being rare for these two women in particular, but among those who had broken through and reached high visibility and success in the New Age world, which by then had become largely narcissistic and self-indulgent. At the time, any focus on social responsibility or issues of oppression was seen as “too negative” or “low vibration.”
The two influential woman I am referring to are Caroline Myss and Marianne Williamson, who would attempt a run for president in 2020. Whatever past problematic assertions they had made prior- and Williamson has had some sketchy assertions in the past that deserve critique- the bottom line was, they were the only two on the level of New Age superstardom to put their ethics and politics into the mix and call out trump and trumpism for what it was.
Many of us on the lower and unknown echelons certainly sounded the alarm as well, but we had nothing to lose compared to these two women. The backlash was astounding and sickening. I read through comments on Caroline Myss’s post, for example, when she warned Americans to “Look alive” because the rhetoric from trump was parallel to that of the nazi uprising in Germany. Many of her followers openly expressed how appalled and disappointed they were.
And so we have the vicious circle of capitalist driven spirituality. In order to distribute your message, you must amass followers and become an “influencer.” Yet to amass such a following you must, to some extent, keep the customer satisfied.
I am not suggesting that either of these two individuals rose to success because of unethical people-pleasing, in fact I don’t believe this was the case. Yet let’s face it, anyone who truly pulls back the curtain on the many abuses and injustices in which we all participate every day in order to maintain our comfortable lifestyle, will quickly find the room has cleared out.
Trust me, I’ve been doing this since grade school. It doesn’t make you any friends.
This is also why, in the fall and winter of 2019, celebrity Astrologers by and large predicted that 2020 would be a great year economically and also postulated all kinds of wonderful things coming to pass. Even though any Astrologer with an ounce of sense would NEVER have made such predictions about a year that was kicked off with a Stellium in Capricorn and featured other heavy aspects such as a conjunction between Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn.
But truth, like ethics, doesn’t sell as easily.
But wait, there’s more…
If the purpose of spirituality is to remind us of our interconnection, our responsibilities and to help us find meaning in our suffering, if the purpose is to help us unite and act in reverence for all life, what happens when the platforms, language and symbols of spirituality become perverted into systems of narcissistic self-indulgence?
What happens when “love and light” becomes a shield behind which we can hide, finding comfort in our privilege and in doing so, willfully ignoring any opportunity to actually demonstrate love by caring about the plight of others who don’t have our privilege?
What happens when our “spiritual communities” gain popularity and followers by gaslighting people with toxic positivity? By convincing others that if they are suffering, it is because they “think too negatively” or that traumas and wounds are the fault of the victim for not being “enlightened” and “forgiving” and “rising above all the negativity”?
2020 is what happens.
And just as the evangelical community has obviously abandoned any semblance of Christ’s teachings in order to pursue wealth and power, so too has the New Age and even aspects of the Pagan and “spiritual” community abandoned any semblance of concern with the welfare of others.
This year started with stirrings of concern over a new form of coronavirus which was declared a pandemic. Before lockdowns were in effect, I was concerned about contagion. But as I cancelled one event after another, the organizers of some of the more prominent annual conferences and events didn’t seem to share my urgency.
Sure, they were understanding, but plans were to go forward, business as usual. To be fair, some of these organizations were facing a difficult decision as insurance would not cover their financial losses for cancellations. But….
As a “spiritual” community, why would that factor as more of a priority than the health and safety of your attendees and speakers?
On a smaller scale, I was shocked by several collaborators who were unfazed by the growing news of outbreaks in NY and abroad. “I’m not going to play into that negativity,” one told me. “My intuition tells me it’s being hyped up, I’m not worried,” came the response of others.
Thus, 2020 became the year that wishful thinking as a more pleasant alternative to intuition and toxic positivity as the answer to deeper introspection, became the official mantras of the “spiritual” community.
Apparently, capitalism loves a good war, but when it comes to the predatory capitalism within the “spiritual” community, conflict doesn’t sell. Even the brief spurt of “woke” spiritual books that emerged in the wake of the trump election appear to be an exception to the rule. Such books generally didn’t sell well and so major publishers are reluctant to approach this topic again. Marketability, not truth, matter in this industry in the same way followers, not integrity, matters more in the world of “spiritual” influencers.
So here we are, experiencing unprecedented losses both in lives and in lifestyle. Significant increases in poverty, hunger, uncertainty, fear, and even violence and extremism. Here we are at a moment when true spirituality could be the compass that guides us back to our values, to our recognition of the humanity of others, to our need for reverence for the Earth and nature, our exploitation of which started this pandemic in the first place.
And is the “spiritual” community stepping up to be of service? Are we coming forward to dedicate our time and talents to healing, guiding and helping others? Are we finding purpose without gaslighting and victim-blaming?
Some, yes.
But by and large, the “spiritual” community has once again been hijacked. This time not by capitalism, nor conspicuous consumerism, but by conspiracies. Rather than dealing with the true pain, fear and horror of such massive losses, the “spiritual” community is opting to not focus on the “negative.” To instead call the pandemic a hoax. To suggest that those who are suffering and dying are guilty of not taking vitamins and having a “good enough” immune system.
Instead of serving those in need at a time of greater need than we have seen in modern history, we, the “spiritual” community remain stuck in our profitable narcissism. We have failed to rouse people to find purpose outside of capitalism and instead have become a tool of this destructive system. | https://medium.com/@trionfi78/conspicuous-consumerism-to-qanon-conspiracies-the-spiritual-communitys-epic-fail-ca938af4b8c0 | ['Angela Kaufman'] | 2020-12-19 23:30:15.724000+00:00 | ['Wiccan', 'Qanon', 'Pagan', 'Capitalism', 'Spirituality'] |
I am Trans Enough | Source: Pixabay
I know I don’t fit perfectly into what people expect from a transgender guy. I’ve never had crippling dysphoria. I do occasionally enjoy painting my fingernails and dying my hair. I have no desire to get bottom surgery. Yet, these are all reasons for others to doubt my transness.
If there’s one thing I think we all should agree on, is that humans are complicated creatures. It’s practically impossible to lump any single person into a neat category or box. We’re all uniquely different in our own way. That’s what makes the world so interesting.
Yet, we’re constantly trying to shove people into boxes and make them conform to some stereotype, even if we don’t consciously mean to do so. Unintentional categorization is something we all do, and most people try to correct themselves when presented with facts. People can learn to expand their thinking, and I believe most are willing to. However, there is a small subset of the population that thinks there’s only one right way and they stubbornly cling to that viewpoint, regardless of any facts they are presented with.
My Dysphoria
I have long contended that I don’t have any dysphoria, although that’s not entirely true. The reason why I have said that in the past was because so many of my transgender brethren have severe, almost crippling dysphoria. It leads them to severe bouts of depression, anxiety, and in some cases suicidal ideation. It’s why for them, transitioning is literally a matter of life or death.
My dysphoria is far milder, which is why it’s taken me a lot longer to even recognize that I have it. Over all the decades that I’ve looked in the mirror at my body, I’ve mostly shrugged and gotten on with my day. I’ve never liked my body, especially after puberty, but it’s never caused me any great upset. I was always frustrated with how curvy and lumpy my body is.
When puberty hit, I could no longer wear clothes from the boy’s department like I had. They just didn’t fit my curvy, feminine shape. I tried dieting myself back to my previous shape, but no matter how much weight I lost, the curves persisted. So, I just accepted that was my new reality and learned how to find unisex styles of clothes in the girl’s department instead.
Although my dysphoria was mild, I still hated things about my body, such as my breasts, hips, thighs, and especially my voice. Not only was it overly feminine, it was high pitched and made me sound very young. Well into my thirties, people on the phone assumed I was a child and would ask to speak with my parents.
Regardless, while I hated a lot of things about my body, I never let them get in the way of living my life. I never thought there was any possibility of being able to become male (at least not without a lot of surgery). The fact my dysphoria is milder than most, and that I probably could have gone the rest of my life without transitioning, doesn’t make me any less trans.
My Feminine Traits
My gender identity and expression may be mostly male, but I know I still have a few tendencies that are considered stereotypically feminine. That’s not to say that men cannot exhibit these tendencies, but it makes some people question my innate transness.
Some of my more feminine traits stem directly from the fact I was never socialized as male. I was never admonished for showing my emotions, nor was I ever told to take it like a man when I had some difficulty in life. Therefore, some of my behavior is viewed as more feminine.
I spent most of my adult life going to nail salons getting my nails done and coloring my hair, and I still do so. I recently spent a year with purple hair before tiring of maintaining the color and dyeing it back to brown. I know among the younger generation this is more acceptable for boys and young men to do, but not as much in my generation. This has also led some people to question my identity as a transgender man.
In addition, there seems to be quite a lot of confusion that, while I’m transitioning to male, I am only attracted to men. I think because of some famous transgender men like Chaz Bono, who first came out as lesbian before coming out as trans, there’s an assumption that all transgender men are only attracted to women. I have always been attracted to men, never to women.
This has led some people to ask why I would bother transitioning, because now most men will not find me attractive. Their thinking seems to be, if I was already born female, why in the world would I want to transition to male, if it wasn’t so I could start dating women? People don’t understand that gender identity and sexuality are not related.
All these stereotypical feminine traits do not make me any less trans.
I Don’t Want That Surgery
It seems a common assumption that because I’m transitioning to male, that I would want all the surgeries that possibly would go with it. While I want top surgery — which includes the removal of my breasts, the construction of a more masculine chest, and nipple grafts — I have no interest in bottom surgery. There are a few bottom surgery options, including metoidioplasty, phalloplasty, scrotoplasty, and possibly also a vaginectomy.
I have never had any dysphoria regarding my genitals, so I have no interest in any of those surgeries. I’ve never had any great desire to have a cisgender-sized penis, which is what a phalloplasty would give me. Testosterone is growing my clitoris into a micro-penis and that’s more than adequate for my personal preferences and desires.
My lack of desire for male genitalia does not make me any less trans.
I am Trans Enough
My point with this article is to say that transgender people all experience being trans in their own way. People love to judge others for not being good enough. Based on their thinking, some women aren’t feminine enough, some men aren’t masculine enough, some non-binary people aren’t androgynous enough, and some transgender people aren’t trans enough. We need to stop forcing people into these artificial boxes. Gender, like sexuality, is much more fluid and complex than we have been taught. It’s time for us to open our minds and let people identify and express how they see themselves.
I am trans enough. You are trans/non-binary/feminine/masculine enough. We are all enough. | https://glbalend.medium.com/i-am-trans-enough-2528197f1064 | ['G. L. Balend'] | 2019-08-09 12:01:01.099000+00:00 | ['Transgender', 'Opinion', 'LGBTQ'] |
Reacting to data changes in D3 using Vue | Follow along and we’ll build something like this:
A chart with three buttons to add, modify, and remove data points. (random data is used here)
To get started, let’s make a tiny page with some bare-bones HTML and an <svg> element. Make sure the <svg> has an id .
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Chart</title>
</head>
<body>
<svg id="chart" viewBox="0 0 500 500"></svg>
</body>
</html>
Since we’ll be using Vue.js and D3.js, let’s make sure to include them. Ideally, you’d be using a build step to pull in these dependencies and bundle them. But for now, simple <script> tags will work.
Below the <svg> tag, add the scripts.
<script src=" https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/vue/2.6.11/vue.min.js</a> "> https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/d3/5.15.0/d3.min.js</a> "> <script>
// Our code can go here
</script>
For this tutorial, we’ll plot some fake data regarding blue whales; starting with a very small sample size.
const whales = [
{ age: 13, weight: 114 },
{ age: 33, weight: 101 },
{ age: 52, weight: 139 }
];
Before we make it reactive, let’s focus on just getting a static chart built. A scatter plot would be a good way to visualize this data.
Start with some dimensions.
const width = 500;
const height = 500;
const margin = {
top: 20,
right: 20,
bottom: 50,
left: 60
};
Use these dimensions to place a <g> element that respects our margins. All other chart elements will be placed inside this <g> , so we’ll call it our chart .
const chart = d3.select("#chart")
.append("g")
.attr("transform", `translate(${margin.left}, ${margin.top})`);
Next, we’ll need some scales. The x axis will plot our whale ages. A linear scale works well for this kind of data.
The range of this scale is the width of our chart (minus the margins we set).
const x = d3.scaleLinear()
.range([0, width - margin.left - margin.right]);
If you know anything about D3.js, you may be expecting the domain to be set at this time, as well. I’m intentionally omitting it for right now because I only want to set chart values that don’t change with the data. Domains react to data changes. Ranges do not.
The y axis will plot our whale weights. A linear scale also works well here.
The range of this scale is the height of our chart.
const y = d3.scaleLinear()
.range([height - margin.top - margin.bottom, 0]);
Notice the first value of the y scale is the height, and the second value is 0. We want heavier weights at the top of the chart, and zero at the bottom.
Now let’s make some elements into which we can place the axes. We wont actually be placing the axes on the chart at this point, just the placeholder <g> s for them. Axes are another element that react to changes in data. If a new data point gets added where the age is older than any existing age in the chart, the x axis will have to adjust. Likewise for the y axis with weights.
const xAxis = chart.append("g")
.attr(
"transform",
`translate(0, ${height - margin.top - margin.bottom})`
); const yAxis = chart.append("g");
Notice the xAxis is shifted down so it’s at the bottom of the chart. The yAxis doesn’t need to be shifted because it starts at the upper left corner of the chart anyway.
With all of the static elements and values taken care of, it’s time to code the parts of the chart that react to data changes.
Place all of this code in a new function we’ll call plot() .
const plot = () => {
// Code to plot data goes here.
};
The first thing to do inside this function is set the domain of our scales.
x.domain([0, d3.max(whales, d => d.age)]);
y.domain([0, d3.max(whales, d => d.weight)]);
Now we can call our axes and finally get some visual result on our page.
xAxis.call(d3.axisBottom(x));
yAxis.call(d3.axisLeft(y));
Let’s see what this looks like on our page. Immediately after defining the plot() function, call it.
Note that this function call goes outside the function definition itself.
plot();
The visual result of the code we’ve written so far.
There’s only one more declaration we have to make in order to place dots on this chart.
Back inside the plot() function, add the code for appending <circle> elements.
chart.selectAll(".point")
.data(whales)
.join("g")
.attr("class", "point")
.attr("transform", d => `translate(${x(d.age)}, ${y(d.weight)})`)
.append("circle")
.attr("r", 5);
If you are not familiar with D3.js and you’re confused by the code above, you may consider reading up on D3 data joins.
Basically, we’re binding all elements with a class of point to our data. The .join() here takes care of adding the appropriate elements if they don’t yet exist, modifying elements if they do, and removing extra elements if there’s more of them than there are data points. Once the elements and data are bound, we add a <circle> with an r (radius) of 5 pixels for each one.
The chart is now mostly usable.
The way we’ve coded this chart makes it easy to update when data changes. Every time plot() is called, the data is re-analyzed and the chart updates.
Adapting the chart for use in Vue
This chart is great and all, but how is it usable in Vue.js?
Just to get started, let’s wrap our <svg> in a new <div> to which we can bind a Vue component.
<div id="app">
<svg id="chart" viewBox="0 0 500 500"></svg>
</div>
Back in the JavaScript, define a new Vue instance.
new Vue({
el: "#app",
data: {},
watch: {},
methods: {},
mounted() {}
});
Now cut all of the other JavaScript we’ve written so far and paste it into the mounted() function.
new Vue({
el: "#app",
data: {},
watch: {},
methods: {},
mounted() {
const whales = [ /* ... snip ... */ ];
const width = 500;
/* ... snip ... */
plot();
}
});
To keep the article concise, I’ve snipped out a lot of the code we’ve already written.
The result in the browser at this point should be the same as before we started writing any Vue code.
Now we’ll move some data and functions into their respective Vue environments. whales is a data variable, so move it into the data property.
data: {
whales: [
{ age: 13, weight: 114 },
{ age: 33, weight: 101 },
{ age: 52, weight: 139 }
]
},
Once you remove const whales = [ ... snip ... ] from the mounted() function, the chart will break. To fix it, find all references to whales and change them to this.whales . This will make each reference look in the view-model’s data attribute.
The plot() function should become a Vue method, so cut and paste it into the methods property.
methods: {
plot() {
x.domain([0, d3.max(this.whales, d => d.age)]);
y.domain([0, d3.max(this.whales, d => d.weight)]);
/* ... snip ... */
}
},
Don’t forget to update the call to plot() to this.plot() .
Even updating the call to this.plot() , the chart is still broken. Looking at the error in the console, I see:
ReferenceError: x is not defined
at wn.plot
at wn.mounted
Aha! The plot() method cannot access our x scale because it’s declared in the mounted() function’s scope. Looking at the rest of the code, I can see we’ll run into the same issue with all of these variables:
x
y
xAxis
yAxis
chart
Update all of those those declarations so they’re data attributes. In practice, this means changing all of these:
const chart = /* .. snip .. */
const x = /* .. snip .. */
const y = /* .. snip .. */
const xAxis = /* .. snip .. */
const yAxis = /* .. snip .. */
To this:
this.chart = /* .. snip .. */
this.x = /* .. snip .. */
this.y = /* .. snip .. */
this.xAxis = /* .. snip .. */
this.yAxis = /* .. snip .. */
With the declarations taken care of, now you must update all references to any of the above variables to this.x and this.y , etc.
For example, in plot() , the first line says:
x.domain([0, d3.max(this.whales, d => d.age)]);
This should be changed to:
this.x.domain([0, d3.max(this.whales, d => d.age)]);
Do this for all references to chart , x , y , xAxis , and yAxis . When you’re finished, you should see the chart on your page once again.
Finally, we just need to write a simple piece of code that will cause the plot() method to be called whenever whales changes. A Vue watcher works well here.
watch: {
whales: {
deep: true,
handler() { this.plot(); }
}
},
This code watches the whales data property and calls the plot() method any time it or any of its values changes.
To test this out, you can add a button that adds a new whale.
@click ="addWhale">Add whale
Make sure the button is a child of <div id="app"> so it’s part of the Vue app.
Now add a method that pushes a new randomly generated whale data point.
methods: {
plot() { /* .. snip .. */ },
addWhale() {
this.whales.push({
age: Math.random() * 80,
weight: Math.random() * 200
});
}
},
If you click the button, you see another data point added to the chart.
The chart now has four data points because I clicked “Add whale”
If you click it enough times, you’ll probably get one that has an age or weight outside the bounds of our original three. In that case, you can see the chart update to accommodate the new maximum values.
The chart now has data points outside the original age and weight boundaries
How about modifying and removing existing data points. You can create two new buttons.
<button @click ="modifyWhale">Modify whale @click ="removeWhale">Remove whale
And two new methods.
modifyWhale() {
if (this.whales.length > 0) {
const i = Math.floor(Math.random() * this.whales.length);
this.whales[i].age = Math.floor(Math.random() * 80);
this.whales[i].weight = Math.floor(Math.random() * 200);
}
},
removeWhale() {
if (this.whales.length > 0) {
const i = Math.floor(Math.random() * this.whales.length);
this.whales.splice(i, 1);
}
}
Clicking “Modify whale” changes a random data point.
Clicking “Remove whale” removes a random one.
That’s it! You can build any form of interactivity into your Vue app. Any time the chart data changes, the chart updates. You could even have your data hooked up to a remote source that gets updated through fetch, websockets, or an EventSource.
Adding some missing details
While not directly in the scope of this article, it’s important that we label our data. I added a title to the HTML.
<h1>Blue Whales</h1>
<svg id="chart" viewBox="0 0 500 500"></svg>
<button
<button
<button
</div> @click ="addWhale">Add whale @click ="modifyWhale">Modify whale @click ="removeWhale">Remove whale
And I added axis labels using D3. This code goes in the mounted() section.
this.chart.append("text")
.attr("font-size", 10)
.attr("text-anchor", "middle")
.attr("x", (width - margin.left - margin.right) / 2)
.attr("y", height - margin.top - margin.bottom + 40)
.text("Age (years)");
this.chart.append("text")
.attr("font-size", 10)
.attr("text-anchor", "middle")
.attr("transform", "rotate(-90)")
.attr("x", 0 - ((height - margin.top - margin.bottom) / 2))
.attr("y", -40)
.text("Weight (tons)");
The finished product (with a small set of CSS styles) can be found in the pen below. | https://medium.com/travis-horn/reacting-to-data-changes-in-d3-using-vue-e8a33294362d | ['Travis Horn'] | 2020-03-09 18:10:18.691000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Vuejs', 'Web Development', 'JavaScript', 'D3js'] |
Moving to Paradise — Getting Married in Barbados | After 6 years we finally took the plunge and got married in paradise, but it wouldn’t be 2021 without a few dramas along the way!
Yesterday marked 8 months that we have been in Barbados and we are certainly starting to feel like ‘locals’. We have friends here, work is going well and the country is mostly back up and running and open for business.
About a month ago we decided to get married out here. I had always fancied a small beach wedding so this seemed like the perfect time to do it. We of course let our families know it was happening, but due to travel restrictions no one was able to travel. In order to still include our loved ones we decided to stream the ceremony on Zoom — how very 2020/21! The internet is so solid here that tethering a device to your mobile works fine, even on a beach (I used my laptop).
I had read that the process was relatively straightforward, even more so if you employ a wedding planner to help you with the details. These companies of course usually work with tourists coming in on a tight time scale but I certainly still found using one helpful. You actually only need to be in Barbados one day before you get married as all the legal stuff can be done in one go, but we spread it out a bit because we had the time. The marriage is legally recognised in the UK and you get a copy of your certificate a few days after the wedding (the original stays in Barbados).
So what do you need to do? First you need to find someone to perform the ceremony. This can either be a magistrate from the local court if you want a non religious ceremony, or a minister from a local church. Weddings can take place anywhere in Barbados so the person does not need to be linked to a particular building or place. You need to get a letter from them stating that they are performing the ceremony, and where it is (they will have a standard template with all the required info). If you are using a wedding planner they will sort this part out for you.
You then need to go to the Ministry of Home Affairs, this needs to be booked in advance. It used to be a walk in situation but due to lack of space/social distancing rules you now need an appointment which is a much better system, hopefully it stays. Keep in mind there is a strict dress code for government buildings here (colonial oppression at it’s best) so no flip flops, shorts, strapy dresses etc. You need to bring with you your letter from the minister, your passports, birth certificates if you have them (we didn’t), flight info and any docs relating to dissolution of previous marriages. The appointment lasts around 30 minutes, you will be asked to swear on a bible and of course there are 3 people involved when it could really just be one, but this is Barbados after all! Pay your money ($225 BBD/£80) and you have your licence.
Then you are good to go! We had our appointment on the Monday and were due to get married on the Sunday (had to pick a day when there was no football on!). We had picked a beach called Paradise, how very appropriate I thought, and everything was ready to go. I had got a dress from a lovely boutique in Limegrove shopping centre in Holetown, hairdresser and various beauty appointments were booked for the later part of the week.
But this is 2021 so nothing is going to go exactly to plan. I knew that doing something like this in the ‘rainy season’ was a risk, but so far it had just been the odd isolated afternoon shower, and the general consensus was that it does not usually kick off until August/September. But by Wednesday we knew there was a tropical storm headed our way — Elsa, and she was due to hit on Friday morning. Barbados is not usually in the direct path of tropical storms/hurricanes but often feels the effects of passing ones, but this one was due to pass right over the top of us. By Thursday afternoon the mood had shifted and businesses started to close early and there was talk about people going to shelters if their houses were not sound. People were panic shopping and the queues at the supermarkets were back to lockdown sizes. Thankfully I had put some dry food away, as well multiple containers of water just in case (much to Carl’s amusement at the time).
8am on Friday morning, Elsa is right on top of us
The wind started to pick up around 2am on Friday and by 8am we were right in the middle of it. Elsa was upgraded to a category 1 hurricane, the first to hit Barbados in 65 years, due to winds of over 70mph. At around 12pm we lost power, although I think this was island wide as they had turned off the supply to make urgent repairs. This lasted for around 5 hours, at which point we lost water (glad of those water containers now eh Carl?) which lasted another 5 hours. All in all, we were extremely lucky in our area, others were without power and water for several days, many roofs were destroyed and a hell of a lot of trees came down on power lines and across main roads. Thankfully no lives were lost.
Damage on the main coast road in Worthing
By Saturday we were back to blue skies. I went out to have a look at Paradise beach to make sure it was not too badly damaged, and it looked horrendous. Sewage was leaking somewhere in the area so the smell was awful, most of the greenery from the trees was on the beach and there was a LOT of seaweed (which also smells) that had been brought in by the hurricane. So now I needed to find a new beach and pronto. The west coast, having previously been seaweed free, was now covered in it, although not as bad as the south. I finally came across a patch of beach on Paynes Bay that had been cleared by the apartment building it was in front of. When I asked the lady at security she said that no one was staying there at the time so we were more than welcome to set up there — it was actually kind of ideal! I just had to hope there were not too many people around on Sunday as it is a busier beach than Paradise.
So finally the day arrives, the main thing I was nervous about was the Zoom working! All goes well, if anything it was too sunny….made it a bit harder to see us on the computer as the sun was directly behind us, and of course there were a few people who I had to ask nicely to move away from our little area so they were not in the background (they literally had the entire beach, why pick right there to play beach tennis or paddle board?!!). We had champagne and nibbles after on the beach and then a lovely dinner at Champers. Thank you so much to Bianca at Elope Barbados who put everything together.
Our four witnesses and another 80+ from 5 countries on Zoom!
A honeymoon seems a bit of an odd concept when we live in a typical honeymoon destination, plus we have travelled to so many amazing places already, but we are heading to Disney World, Florida in September. I used to work there when I was 19 and I was keen to show Carl the sights! We are lucky as there is no issue travelling to the US from here, unlike the UK, plus no jet lag, bonus!
Disclaimer — these are all my own views and opinions and experiences, not those of Red Quokka, others may differ. If you like gratuitous pictures of beaches and sunsets follow me on Instagram Katie_in_Barbados | https://medium.com/@katie-in-barbados/moving-to-paradise-getting-married-in-barbados-9119f4f06616 | ['Katie Holmes'] | 2021-07-06 20:04:51.630000+00:00 | ['Expat', 'Working From Home', 'Barbados', 'Destination Wedding', 'Digital Nomads'] |
Ruby 裡的陣列與範圍 | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/%E5%AE%B8-%E5%AD%B8%E7%BF%92%E7%AD%86%E8%A8%98/ruby-%E8%A3%A1%E7%9A%84%E9%99%A3%E5%88%97%E8%88%87%E7%AF%84%E5%9C%8D-8bd88bbe80e | ['Henry Huang'] | 2020-12-24 16:48:39.765000+00:00 | ['Backend'] |
Roses are Dead, Oops, I Mean Red | 50 Words
Roses are Dead, Oops, I Mean Red
Photo by Biel Morro on Unsplash
When roses die
they first start to rot
along the edges.
Red goes Black
as petals spread open
like my legs,
like my heart
when I’m
hopeful and scared.
Those petals don’t know
how beautiful they are
when they’re breaking
and falling to the ground.
They never know how loved. | https://medium.com/the-bad-influence/roses-are-dead-oops-i-mean-red-4005996f247a | ['Meaghan Ward'] | 2020-12-09 14:50:36.791000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Relationships', '50 Words', 'The Bad Influence', 'Love'] |
AMAL TOTKAY | totkas making way clear
Totka is a word used to manage certain disease, things or situation in a very short duration in simple way.
Its been used mostly in south Asia to come up with ideas or solution for a problem and its sometime well authentic often vague too.
Amal has its own set of totkas that will help an individual thrive and grow. Named as follows
1. Self Talk
2. Get out of comfort zone
3. Create new habits
4. Ask people for help
5. Fake it till you make it
self growth starts with self confidence
Lets start discussing it one by one and see how it will help a person not only combat a situation but allow him to approach it with growth mindset
Self talk
self talk is self time
I have read somewhere
you are what you think of yourself.
It’s something really true because thoughts become actions, action transforms into habits and habits finally make your life, so be careful in everything you think about. Self talk is also know as self love it’s the time where you yourself evaluate all those areas where you are good or bad at, you ponder over mistakes you committed, smile on your achievements and lament on your regrets. In short it is a mirror that tells you what going on in your conscious and subconscious mind that help you to have a trait called self image.
2. Get out of your comfort zone
think outside the comfort zone
From childhood to adult we all have been in our comfort zone because our parents use to pamper us this much that it feels like this is what we are supposed to live with. It is defined as the surroundings where there is nothing challenging for us or we are going with the flow. But wait if there is nothing to challenge you or make that spike of adrenaline how you are going to grow?
To answer this HOW its necessary to think out of the box letting comfort zone take care of itself and venturing for some thrillers to make life a bit exciting.
magic outside it
Create new habits
new habits new you
I have once read
Habits can make you or they can break you.
Yeh its true! What are habits they are the traits we follow on daily basis from hours to years they enable us to either be the one we desire to be or opposite of it. Successful people have one thing in common they have developed extra ordinary habits. What I meant by this? Let me explain we want to be proactive but we don’t want to wake up at 4:30 am to take charge of our life. We want to be healthy but we can’t give up on our favourite MAC DONALDS happy meal or cheese hamburger thrice a week. Getting tasks done or to achieve goals require healthy habits to develop because slackers never succeed.
new one is loading
Ask people for help
seek help to change your lens
Reaching out to others for help is often considered bad but this is one of the great traits of successful leaders. Its means if you got stuck somewhere you can approach others and let them know what it is. It will help you exchange your spectacle with them, allowing you to preview or review the situation from their perspective and coming to the loop hole you were unable to identify. Its necessary to have some people at hand to whom you can reach out when ever needed so that without getting situation worse or waiting for right time you can create your own solution with a single calling for help.
help it make it
Fake it till you make it
fake it to make it
It’s a trait which trainer and coach inculcate into the mind of people to let them feel the energy connected with the person they want to be even if they are not. It’s an important trait to consider when it comes to growth and development. What they asked to do is feel or act the way they want to be or the person whom they admire the most until or unless they have developed that trait in actual and it became the part of their life or routine.
let it grow
Now answering a few questions
have answers
1. How did they find these 5 tips?
Most of the time we consider totkas as antidote for something, so that concepts applies here too. As an antidote for failure and depression they find these common traits in all successful people’s life that helped them become the one they want to be
2. What are the take away?
If a person wants to grow and pursue his purpose in life then these traits are essential to follow.
3. What was favorite tip?
Creating new habits and getting out of comfort zone is my most favorite part to play with
4. What have they started implemented already?
I think all tips have been started implanted because they are like part or parcel and go hand in hand to develop that growth mindset and establish a personality out of ordinary man
5. What they can do to develop growth mindset from today?
Such traits need to be implemented from the day you came to know, because it take months and years to develop such traits as our mind and body is not used to it. | https://medium.com/@ume-farwa181/amal-totkay-49774f575dbc | ['Ume Farwa'] | 2021-04-09 22:17:35.359000+00:00 | ['Help', 'Fake It Till You Make It', 'Growth Mindset', 'Change', 'Comfort Zone'] |
A Note on Upgradable Smart Contracts | A Note on Upgradable Smart Contracts
The importance of proxy contracts
Photo by Reinis Birznieks on Unsplash.
Although Ethereum has done well to bring immutable logic to software development, bugs are constantly found within contracts. Plus, there will be significant costs of migration if there wasn’t an appropriate plan beforehand. Therefore, this value has to be considered at the design of the product and then cautiously implemented. Security and evolutivity are crucial — especially when it involves people’s funds.
The relevance of immutability in any business model is out of this scope. Rather, this article highlights the technical side of it.
Since there are no high-standard development tools to prevent mistakes from being committed or to enable incidents to be identified one step ahead, this issue has restricted smart contract programmers’ ability to iterate on their applications.
There are, however, some heuristic techniques and patterns used for safer development, such as a graceful destruction of the contract or by having a custodian address to pull funds whenever an emergency occurs.
Yet in terms of upgradable immutability, there exists one common paradigm: proxy contracts. | https://medium.com/better-programming/a-note-on-upgreadable-smart-contracts-d8fb6fd515da | ['Arsalen Hagui'] | 2020-11-02 15:29:41.272000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Programming', 'Ethereum', 'Solidity', 'Crypto'] |
Capital Markets Efficiency, Fairness and Distributed Ledger Technology | Among the variety of unique experiences we have had in recent years, the GameStop incident will also go down in history as a key event for financial markets. As we strip down the noise and focus on the core dynamics that are in place, there are a lesson or two to be learned. This post is not to defend or criticize any market participants or view (hedge funds, WallStreetBets, Robinhood, DeFi), but to highlight the limitations of the current financial markets infrastructure and making a case that the need to adopt new technologies are more than ever to manage various market risks.
Financial markets are evolving rapidly with the availability of free money (as a result of lower interest rates) and new technologies that enable new phenomena to emerge in the market. A summary of the GameStop incident is the following. Melvin Capital Management and Citron Research shorted GameStop shares. However, a few individual trades saw potential in the stock and took it to Reddit. The Reddit group WallStreetBets, which has around 6 million members, rallied behind the idea driving the stock price 16 fold in a few weeks. This created a short squeeze and both Melvin Capital Management and Citron Research had to exit their short positions with losses totaling billions. Citadel and Point72 Asset Management infused around $3 billion in Malvin Capital to manage the situation. Robinhood had to halt the trading of GameStop for a day and closed positions for several users without their permission. This created a nationwide backlash from traders, politicians, technologists, etc. Robinhood also had to raise more than $1 billion to manage the margin calls.
As Robinhood restricted retail traders from buying GameStop, the backlash was around the influence of hedge funds on Robinhood, the fairness of the market, and transparency. Several of these issues are human problems that technology alone cannot solve. It requires strict regulations and relentless pursuit to impose them on the market. However, there is a meaningful and fundamental aspect that technology does address to support fair and efficient markets.
The root cause of several of the issues in the GameStop incident is linked to the delayed settlement of cash and securities. In capital markets, cash and securities settle at T+2 or later. Amature traders deposit money at Robinhood that settles in two or more days. However, brokers like Robinhood will let traders use margin accounts to trade immediately. Such activity is generally financed by prime brokers (PB) that work with the broker and lend the money. The retail broker will execute trades on behalf of its users and manage the margin with clearinghouses. All of this in the hope that at T+2, both the securities and cash will exchange hands across the market participants!
Fig. 1: GME stock prices at the end of the day on January 27, 2020. Source: TradingView.
However, this harmony in the market breaks in incidents like GameStop or at higher volatility than we saw in the early months of Covid-19. I don’t know what exactly happened at Robinhood on the evening of Jan. 27, 2020, but one would be worried about scenarios that I am going to describe next. First, Robinhood will likely need to come up with a large margin payment to the clearinghouse to manage the settlement of heavily traded GME stocks. Several prime brokers (PBs) likely support the margin accounts of users at Robinhood and in exchange for lending money, PBs hold the custody of the stocks. However, PBs monitor multiple risk limits for Robinhood and will not breach those limits by lending larger amounts in volatile markets. So liquidity becomes an issue for Robinhood. Second, since GameStop’s stocks are so volatile, a large fluctuation in price can result in significant losses to its users the next day. Those losses may result in margin calls to traders and some of those traders may default. That will further worsen the liquidity issues at Robinhood.
Fig. 2: A risk scenario that market participants faced around the trading of GameStop on Jan. 27, 2020.
One of the factors at the core of the GameStop incident is that trading happens based on market conditions at T+0 but settlement and risk management takes place based on projected circumstances at T+2. At the point of trading, market players do not have an unchangeable view of liquidity and obligations that will last until settlement. This results in an inaccurate perception of risk and can impede the flow of assets and cash in the capital markets network, even for diligent investors. Basically, fair and efficient markets just cannot exist with T+n settlement of cash and securities.
The T+2 settlement is partially a reflection of market evolution and partially a limitation of the current market infrastructure. The incumbent database or cloud-based technology is such that it requires data hopping across organizations and leaves room for errors in the settlement process. There is no immutable, “shared truth” of obligations across capital market participants. The capital markets have reduced the settlement time over the period from several days to two days. However, the journey from T+2 settlement to immediate settlement demands a very high precision in processes. The existing market infrastructure cannot support such precision in the sense that the cost will be much higher compared to developing DLT solutions, which ensures the immutability of the data by definition. More details around this point are in the following blog post.
The efficiency in cash and securities settlement through DLT will get introduced gradually through specific use cases. Generally, the case for transformation through new technology is made based on the cost of specific processes at an individual organization and how much savings will be introduced. Robinhood lost millions of users in just a few days because of the GameStop incident and may have faced existential questions while trying to avert a default on margin calls and manage settlement risk. In our opinion, the value delivered by DLT solutions in risk management, ensuring business continuity, client engagement, and business growth outweigh the operational savings and cost of transformation by many multiples.
Thanks to Jean Desgagne for feedback and comments on the post. | https://medium.com/fairom/capital-markets-efficiency-fairness-and-distributed-ledger-technology-ae2fb6dd4a78 | ['Ajay Singh'] | 2021-02-02 17:31:43.400000+00:00 | ['Capital Markets', 'Digital Transformation', 'Distributed Ledgers', 'Trading', 'Risk Management'] |
How to get an amazing Terminal | Aliases
A core part of making the terminal awesome is making common commands short. To do so, you create an alias for a command — a shorter version of the original command. The most common example is changing a directory to go one level up. For example, if you are in /home/user/foo/bar , you want to get to /home/user/foo . In most shells, you have to enter cd .. . I like to abbreviate that to .. . So I have the alias alias ..='cd ..' . The syntax may vary, depending on your shell. For Bash, ZSH, and fish it is
alias short='long'
For bash, you insert them in ~/.bashrc , for ZSH in ~/.zshrc . In fish, it is different.
Here are some aliases I like: | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-get-an-amazing-terminal-91619a0beeb7 | ['Martin Thoma'] | 2020-11-13 16:18:43.766000+00:00 | ['Terminal', 'Programming', 'Shell', 'Software Development', 'Hacking'] |
Named Entity Recognition — Simple Transformers —Flask REST API | Named Entity Recognition — Simple Transformers —Flask REST API Soumibardhan Follow Jun 26 · 4 min read
Image by author
Named-entity recognition (NER) is a subtask of information extraction that seeks to locate and classify named entities mentioned in unstructured text into pre-defined categories such as person names, organizations, locations, medical codes.
I wanted to start with NER, I looked at SpaCy and nltk. SpaCy already has a pre trained NER model, which can be custom trained. Started with that approach. Then I decided to explore transformers in NLP.
I looked for something which can be implemented fast and found out the amazing Simple Transformers library created by Thilina Rajapakse.
Simple Transformers lets you quickly train and evaluate Transformer models.The Simple Transformers library is built on top of the Transformers library by Hugging Face.
The process of Named Entity Recognition has four steps:
Obtaining training and testing data
Preprocessing the data into dataframes required for the model inputs
Training the model
Testing the model
Tuning the model further for better accuracy
Creating an interface for the model
Obtaining training and testing data
Regarding obtaining the data, the coNLL data set can be used to start with. I was given the data from a company for a project, so the data isn’t publicly available.
So here is the format we need the data in: A list of lists with three columns, sentence number, word and the tag. Same for the test data as well.
Image by author
I tried it in google colab, and connected drive for getting the data. Here is the format my dataset was in, which if a real life dataset is constructed manually will look like.
My raw data was in this format :
Text : sentence
Rest unnamed columns :tags corresponding to each tag in the sentence
Preprocessing the data into dataframes required for the model inputs
To parse the data in the format required by simple transformers, I divided the data in 85:15 ratio and wrote a parser.
df: dataframe loads the data CSV file into a pandas dataframe. Sentences : List to store the Text column of the dataframe df['Labels'] : New column in dataframe to add the strings of all tags in the unnamed columns of the dataframe Labels : List to store the Labels column of the dataframe traindata : List of lists with each list: [sentence number,word,tag]
from 0th sentence to 94th sentence. testdata : List of lists with each list: [sentence number,word,tag]
from 95th sentence to 106th sentence.
Training the model
Training the model is real easy, though it may take some time.
The first trial gave very low f1 score, that was because by default the number of epochs was set to one.
Here I used the bert-base-cased model to train on as my data was cased. Model is saved to MODEL folder so that we do not need to train the model everytime to test it. We can load the trained model directly from the folder.
train_batch_size : Batch size, preferably a power of 2 gives good results
Testing the model
Now check the outputs by passing any arbitary sentence :
In place of ‘tax rate’, any arbitrary sentence can be entered to check output tags.
Tuning the model further for better accuracy
Now lets try tuning the Hyper Parameters (args). These are the args that are available :
Here is the link to all the hyperparameters.
Increasing the number of epochs and max_seq_length helped in getting the accuracy to 86%. By using a large model (roBERTa large), I was able to achieve 92.6% accuracy on the test data.
Outputs:
Image by author
INFO:simpletransformers.ner.ner_model:{'eval_loss': 0.6981344372034073, 'precision': 0.9069767441860465, 'recall': 0.9512195121951219, 'f1_score': 0.9285714285714286}
There are several pretrained models that can be used. You can choose one depending on whether your data is in a specific language, or if your data is cased. My training data was financial and in English. So BERT and roBERTa were my best options. I did try distilBERT as well.
Supported model types for Named Entity Recognition in Simple Transformers:
BERT
CamemBERT
DistilBERT
ELECTRA
RoBERTa
XLM-RoBERTa
Creating an interface for the model
I worked on creating an interface for the model. Using Flask and Rest API, I created a web page with two buttons, one to display the results of the sentence entered (GET NER TAGS).
Here is the Flask app.py code :
Make sure you use the same args to load the model as used to train the model.
When you click on the (GET CSV) button, a csv of the words in the sentence and the respective tags gets downloaded automatically.
Image by author
Structure of tags.csv:
Image by author
Simple transformers is a really awesome tool! | https://medium.com/swlh/named-entity-recognition-simple-transformers-flask-rest-api-ec14a7a444cb | [] | 2020-07-05 22:32:53.423000+00:00 | ['NLP', 'Deep Learning', 'Bert', 'Python', 'Named Entity Recognition'] |
Actress Elisabeth Rohm On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Entertainment Industry | Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series Elisabeth! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
My back story is : Raised by a Memphis Tennessee girl and a German immigrant Father in New York City and eventually moving to Westchester County where I fell in love with nature, horses and dogs. Influenced heavily by all three cultures.- I’d say I’m evenly divided in Thirds; A pleasure seeking and old fashioned southerner who enjoys a good drink, a foreigner who always feels like an outsider looking in and a straightforward New Yorker thriving on cultural stimulation, art, energy commerce and the combustion of people and experiences. Someone once said life is messy and I want to get it all over me! Sent to boarding school at 14 after my parents got divorced which was painful and also necessary because the boarding school I was sent to was for children with disciplinary issues. I was a bit of a mess back then. A Sarah Lawrence girl raised by a mom who was also a Sarah Lawrence girl. A bit of legacy there! I’ve always been encouraged by my Mother to think out-of-the-box, to be progressive and independent, to have a voice and value freedom and to be an original. She always lectured me on fighting against injustice and the false illusions of attachment. Both of my parents were meditators and yogis with transcendental meditation. So, I was heavily influenced in my childhood by Maharishi mahesh yogi and an eastern philosophy on life.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your acting career?
One of the funniest moments in my career sort of pre-dates my breaking into acting. I was working as an assistant to a Film investor who had invested in Natural Born Killers by Oliver Stone. I had been asked to take Oliver Stone from Amagansett to Manhattan to be photographed by Richard Avedon. I already knew at that time I wanted to be an actress so I was sublimely and shall I say someone obsessively interested in everything about Oliver. Mostly I was just so f*ckin nervous. He’s a huge presence! Anyway, as we pulled out of my boss’s house and up to the local gas station in Amagansett I was so distracted by having to drive Oliver in Summer Hamptons traffic that when I was finished pumping the gas I didn’t take the hose out of the car. I pulled away all slick like I had everything handled with the hose still attached to the car and Oliver started yelling to me, ‘Stop, stop, stop you’re attached to the gas tank.’ Needless to say I was humiliated and of course still so young at the time that I couldn’t help but stare at him the entire ride in the rear view mirror. He had to finally ask me if I would stop staring at him so much it was making him uncomfortable. Finally I got him to New York in one piece — thank God! I couldn’t believe I’ve had the privilege of taking such a phenomenal filmmaker to the Richard Avedon studio to take a portrait. What an incredible moment with two iconic and brilliant artists. Needless to say, Oliver is a complete mensch and when I started my acting career in a serious way and came out to Los Angeles he met with me several times and gave me priceless advice on the industry — perspectives I still carry with me.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I’m very excited to be sharing my new series called The Oath, which is dropping on March 8. This first season and 10 episodes will be streamable on Crackle TV. The Oath is a Sony production and also produced by Curtis 50 Cent Jackson. The show is about corrupt gangs within the police department and created by Joe Halpin. It is based on his real life experiences that he endured during his 15 years on the police force. Jeff Thomas and Luis Pietro are our incredible directors- who share with the audience a very gritty, electric and alive style of directing. I think people will really love the shows honesty and emotion! I’m also launching a women’s collection of dresses in the coming holiday season called Lis and Giselle. As far as movies go, I have Will Gardner and Adolescence coming out soon both are independent films.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and the Dalia Lama. I always return back to these three men for inspiration and guidance in my thought and behavior. They encapsulate the peaceful warrior so beautifully.
One of the most meaningful interactions I’ve had with somebody in the entertainment industry that I truly wanted to work with was Robert De Niro. Back in New York during 911 Mayor Bloomberg called together a private dinner at his house in regards to the crisis that New York was in at that time. He invited artists that had contributed to the cities success over the years. Amongst this group were Robert De Niro and the brilliant Jane Rosenthal who I was lucky enough to be seated with (I was invited because of Law and Order). Sam Waterston and Dick Wolf are there too. I remember speaking to Robert and Jane thinking if only I could work with Robert De Niro in a movie. Several years later I was watching the Katie Couric (another New Yorker I admire who I have shared a personal journey with regarding my book Baby Steps and my fight with infertility) interview with Mr. De Niro, David O Russell and Bradley Cooper where they spoke about their experience in making ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ and I thought again, wow now that’s a group I would really be honored to work with. If only I could manifest that! I remember watching Mr De Niro get chocked up in that interview and being so moved by his incredible honesty, heart and soulful vulnerability. I thought the same of David and Bradley. Within a year I had been cast in American Hustle and two years later I made Joy with the same group. Robert De Niro played Jennifer Lawernce and my father — it was a dream come true! Thought I’d creative.
What advice would you give to someone considering a career in Hollywood?
My advice is from Rilke: “Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away… and this shows that the space around you is beginning to grow vast…. be happy about your growth, in which of course you can’t take anyone with you, and be gentle with those who stay behind; be confident and calm in front of them and don’t torment them with your doubts and don’t frighten them with your faith or joy, which they wouldn’t be able to comprehend. Seek out some simple and true feeling of what you have in common with them, which doesn’t necessarily have to alter when you yourself change again and again; when you see them, love life in a form that is not your own and be indulgent toward those who are growing old, who are afraid of the aloneness that you trust…. and don’t expect any understanding; but believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.”
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Thankfully I was raised by hippie mother who always told me to make some noise and take advantage of the opportunity that acting provided me as far as activism and philanthropy. I’ve worked for almost 2 decades with the American Red Cross both nationally and internationally. I’ve been involved with global Green for about a decade as well. St Judes is cause very close to my heart. And since my mother passed away Eight Years ago from heart disease I’ve become very involved with the American Heart Association on behalf of her memory.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
Thankfully I always have had great mentors and gotten the perfect piece of advice at the perfect time!
A. ‘NEXT!’ I remember having done a pilot back in the beginning of my career with Dick Wolf, prior to doing “Law and Order.” The pilot didn’t get picked up and I was very anxious about it and said to Dick Wolf, ‘Nobody cares about me but you, you actually have a reputation! This will hurt your career.’ His sage advice was, ‘NEXT!’ I’ve carried that with me my entire career. For all the failures and the things that haven’t worked out I have never let them stick to me or drag me down for long. My philosophy is always ‘NEXT!’ Always moving forward!
B. There’s no perfect time to have a family so if you want to be a mother the time is now! I remember my acting teacher Ivana Chubbuck saying to me, don’t concern yourself with your fears of a child distracting you from your work and goals. She said once you become a mother your heart will grow 10 sizes larger, and therefore, will only enhance all you do and fell and create- your work will only become better and more brilliant because of all that love you’re feeling. She encouraged me that the time is now! And I would say that that’s true of most things the time is always NOW! There’s no perfect readiness moment for anything.
C. My step mother once told me at the beginning of my career to never stay at party for too long and not worry about going to every door opening. She said my time was much better spent being with my family or my friends. She advised that the people who go to every party and stay too long don’t get anywhere in life! The proverbial dangling carrot doesn’t exist and not to distract myself with illusions of grandeur. The real source is the family unit.
D. My Father always tells me if something bad happens to me that it is my Karma. Not the most sensitive piece of advice I know, but it is something that I have always taken with me. I believe that every action has a consequence and I take that very seriously. I take responsibility for the things that happen to me in my life. I believe in the pay it forward philosophy and I can thank my Father for giving me the awareness that ultimately, the things we do create our Karma.
E. A friend of mine, Eric Hyman, at one point said to me if you want something in life you have to ask for it- Nobody is going to just drop something on your lap. The advice was perfect not only in timing but in essence. You don’t do yourself or anybody else any favors by staying silent and not being clear about what you want, need and deserve. If you want people to surround you and help you in your career and life you have to be clear about what you want. Verbalize it. And put it out into the universe.
F. Two things my Mother always told me that I truly believe have protected and guided me in my daily life. She said to me choose your friends wisely because we become like the people we surround ourselves with. Also, she always said to me SHOW UP! Show up to every day, every moment with all you’ve got — Showing up is half the battle!
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this. :-)
The two people I would really love to meet with and get to know would be Oprah Winfrey and Richard Branson. They both completely blow my mind! I’m inspired by how powerful they are and yet how light, positive and generous- Earth angels! Qualities that don’t seem to go together in others. | https://medium.com/authority-magazine/actress-elisabeth-rohm-on-the-five-things-you-need-to-shine-in-the-entertainment-industry-4063c83f48fa | ['Authority Magazine'] | 2020-12-30 04:25:02.242000+00:00 | ['Pop Culture'] |
CHOICES CHOICES CHOICES | Photo by Oliver Roos Unsplash
Life is a journey in which we make many choices. Which ones will you make?
It is all about Choices.
Choose where you are heading.
Choose what to take.
Choose to open your horizon or not.
Choose tears.
Choose smile.
Choose chat or just choose to think.
Choose path to your personally defined success.
Choose your career. Choose whether it is here or there or both.
Choose your glasses. Choose whether they are half empty or half full.
Choose to make your own path or choose the easy path.
Choose someone to be your world.
Choose someone to bring into the world.
Choose to travel the world.
Choose to change the world.
It is your choice.
We are our choices.
Choices are forks in life. Each one leading to a different outcome. Which path to tread depends completely on the choice you make.
Choosing something is difficult. But choosing to accept what you have chosen, and stand by it, is the most difficult part.
Some situations may not be of your choosing but how you respond to them is your choice.
It is your choice.
Life is full of choices and every choice is an learning opportunity.
Life is a journey in which we make many choices. Which ones will you make? | https://medium.com/@mayaworld/choices-choices-choices-57e2b118b83a | [] | 2021-03-15 11:57:27.272000+00:00 | ['Belgium', 'Choices'] |
Why Frequent Overhauling of Door Locks is Necessary for Milwaukee? | Milwaukee is one of the most important cities in the united states. It is part of Wisconsin state and multiple counties which are Milwaukee, Washington, and Waukesha. The city covers an area of around 96.81 square miles, in which the land area is 96.18 square miles and 0.63 miles is of water. The city holds a population of around 0.5 million, with a rank of third one within the United States and first in Wisconsin state. It is a beautiful city with unique architectural designs. It holds multiple tourist attraction sites and this is the reason people prefer visiting there with their family and friends. Living within Milwaukee city is a dream come true based situation for the majority of people. It is a source-rich city also containing all essential things and services for making human life better or comfortable. You can find almost all kinds of a locksmith there. Generally, in between every short distance, you will be able to find a locksmith for services. Locksmiths are needed for securing your house and business. By analyzing the below-mentioned points you will be able to understand why frequent overhauling of door locks is necessary for the Milwaukee region.
Protection against burglars
Frequent overhauling of door locks helps you to get a stable secure environment for your lifetime. Security check-ups regularly help you to find out the problems within the door locks and also problem fixation at the right time. The smooth functioning of your door locks plays a crucial role in blocking burglars outside of your property, which in return help in obtaining the most peaceful and secure environment around you.
Prevention against emergency
Frequent overhauling of door locks helps a lot in minimizing the emergency specified risk. Some of the most common emergencies associated with problematic door locks are lockout situations, locked-in situations, unable to access the safe or locker, and many others. Regular lock check-up eliminate all issues that might cause life-threatening situations for you.
Modern-day locksmiths are capable of handling projects associated with all kinds of door locks, in which mechanical door locks and the check-up advance electronic property-based smart locks are also included. You can prefer approaching locksmiths nowadays by using multiple communication channels. If you need a locksmith for frequent overhauling of your door locks, just call locksmith milwaukee for help. They are professionals and are known for providing quality services. | https://medium.com/@locksmith-milwaukee/why-frequent-overhauling-of-door-locks-is-necessary-for-milwaukee-8e60f144f2a6 | ['Reliable Auto Locksmith'] | 2021-12-30 12:57:11.969000+00:00 | ['Secure', 'Property', 'Locksmith', 'Milwaukee'] |
Friday the 13th (1980) • 40 Years Later | Friday the 13th (1980) • 40 Years Later
A group of counselors are stalked and murdered while trying to reopen a summer camp where a child drowned years before.
‘The terror before the mask’ promises my Friday the 13th Blu-ray. After 11 sequels, a namesake TV series, and even a video game, it doesn’t even matter if people haven’t seen these movies… they know that hockey mask belongs to Jason Voorhees. Back in 1980, a group of young counsellors arrive at Camp Crystal Lake to prepare for its reopening, only for an unseen killer to pick them off one by one, leading Alice (Adrienne King) to realise one spooky campfire tale is more real than the others. The disconnect with this plot summary and Friday’s impact on popular culture is how this killer isn’t Jason. He became synonymous with the brand and the focus of all the marketing today, but I can’t help feeling his famous hockey mask rudely overshadows the original’s own villain.
The shock ending to Friday the 13this no secret, as anyone who’s seen Scream (1996) will know the abridged version. This film is momma Voorhees’ time in the limelight and her boy Jason doesn’t take over the bloodletting until Steve Miner’s sequel in ’82. In appreciating where things began 40 years ago, I consider how much lasting impact the original had on this long-running franchise and, perhaps more controversially, question if we’d even revere Friday the 13th today without its mixed bag of sequels and the 2009 remake.
Before cementing ‘sex=death’ in horror, Sean S. Cunningham was making sex education films while dreaming of going legitimate. Needing an editor for his adult film Together (1971), he hired an English teacher with similar aspirations called Wes Craven. Cunningham would soon produce Craven’s own debut The Last House on the Left (1972) and, while it was a success, it also labelled them sickos thanks to its intense and graphic scenes.
Cunningham sought to distance himself with several family-friendly comedies until John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) not only became a huge hit with audiences but was well-received by critics. Invigorated, Cunningham placed an ad in Variety promising “the most terrifying film ever made”… a promotional boast so wild that Paramount won a bidding war and sunk $500,000 into a project that was only a title in an advert! Screenwriter Victor Miller was only beginning to draft Friday the 13th when all this was going down!
From sex education and English classes to soap operas, Friday the 13thhas unlikely origins. Miller was known for writing soaps like Guiding Light, One Life to Give, and All My Children, so when it came to inventing a horror story he wrote what he knew: melodrama. A serial killer mother is what initially set Friday the 13th apart from later movie monsters like Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, and even her own son. Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) is a unique antagonist for the slasher genre; a woman caught in a delusion that she’s avenging the drowning of her child by irresponsible teens, so kills because of love. That’s something Jason would continue in his first few entries to greater success.
Academy Award-winner Estelle Parsons declined the part of Mrs Voorhees to begin with, as her agent was trouble over what kind of established actress would ever play such a character. The kind that needs a new car, perhaps! Already a Broadway star of light-hearted fare like The Tin Star (1957) and It Happened to Jane (1959), Betsy Palmer described the film as “a piece of shit” but committed to the part and came to accept the fame it brought her. She even welcomed a return to the role in Freddy vs Jason (2003) but declined after being offered a paltry sum for her participation.
The main cast delivers fun and believable performances with authentic youthful dialogue from Miller, and all credit to Adrienne King who contradicts the virginal ‘Final Girl’ tropes by experiencing drugs, sex, and alcohol and still managed to live. And yes, Kevin Bacon appears before he was famous too. But the villain, Pamela Voorhees, only appears at the end and chews the scenery with a visceral theatricality. Masses of exposition fills one monologue and Betsy Palmer goes from intense to endearing to terrifying with great speed, unloading years of tortured insanity on poor Alice with the same force of her face-slaps (King was not ready for Palmer to physically hit her and was later informed that theatre and film stars do things differently …)
Pamela Voorhees is a tour de force in wickedness but even during her own film she’s overshadowed; Jason was in the movie but writer Victor Miller wasn’t happy about it. His original script ended as Alice overcomes Pamela and simply floats out into the lake, but it was SFX master Tom Savini who thought Friday the 13th needed a final unexpected jump-scare in the style of Carrie (1976), and so the half-rotten ‘zombie/ghost’ of Jason bursts from the water and into the franchise. As memorable as this nightmarish ending is, it did set the standard for the many sequels barely connecting to the original story. People are still confused on whether this was Jason despite him being in his thirties by 1980… and where was Jason this entire time if he somehow survived? Did he never go back to his mother? Perhaps Miller had a point about leaving him out of his story because it complicates things…
As a die-hard Friday fan, it seems almost sacrilege to scold the movie, but it’s difficult to ignore this film is basically inverse Pyscho (1960) meets Halloween with a last-second dash of Carrie. In my mind, Halloween isn’t cleverer than Friday the 13th and thanks to a decent cast and good cinematography, the film achieves a wonderful atmosphere from start to finish.
Paramount Pictures knew they had a hit and ploughed a further million into the film’s production, helping it gross almost $60M worldwide. Following in the footsteps of Halloween, Friday the 13th cemented the boom in low-budget horror that could generate huge profits, helped by how the growing home video market was demanding sequels.
Friday the 13thachieved all this even with less glowing reviews than Halloween, but its detractors ignited a Streisand effect in rallying audiences into passionate fandoms that now defend its stupidest moments. Sneak Previews spent almost an entire episode decrying the emerging state of slashers, while Siskel and Ebert condemned Cunningham as “one of the most despicable creatures ever to infest the movie business”. They even spoiled the ending to deter viewings, and ‘doxxed’ Betsy Palmer to encourage hate mail to her home! (Luckily, Siskel publicised the wrong address and saved her the distress).
Here’s a question: would we have had the same franchise if Pamela’s little girl had drowned in Camp Crystal Lake? Sleepaway Camp (1983) may have involved a female slasher, but the male figure of Jason eclipsed that movie and its three sequels. Miller may have proven that a female role helps the success of a film, especially over similar campfire slashers like Madman (1981) and The Burning (1981), but it’s a shame Friday’ s sequels phased out Pamela’s influence on her deformed boy, thus reducing him to a murder-machine with less motive than a Terminator.
Film scholar Tony Williams views Friday the 13th, along with Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), as “a particular apocalyptic vision moving from disclosing family contradictions to self-indulgent nihilism.” But aside from generational violence and inhumane families, the two are completely different in tone, with Hooper praised for the visceral texture of his craft opposed to the minimalistic direction of Cunningham. It’s the reason critics hated Friday because they noticed the formula before the sequels even began, but this is strangely why fans love them.
Slasher films are basically cinematic escape rooms where you place yourselves in the shoes of archetypes to see if ‘you’ make it out alive. Every Friday the 13this a formula-made Big Mac; they all taste the same but some audiences have that adoration/addiction buried in them from the first magical bite. Sometimes the recipe is changed and people complain the old ways were the best, however, and even if Friday the 13th isn’t an academically praised piece of art it’s still the ‘classic’ original most other summer camp slashers are measured against.
Cast & Crew
director: Sean S. Cunningham.
writer: Victor Miller.
starring: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan & Kevin Bacon.
Originally published at https://www.framerated.co.uk on May 8, 2020. | https://medium.com/framerated/friday-the-13th-1980-40-years-later-de2c42bc24 | ['Devon Elson'] | 2020-05-09 17:31:00.802000+00:00 | ['Film', 'Review', 'Horror', 'Movies', 'Retrospectives'] |
The Scariest Day of my Life | The room was quite small. There was only a single bed in it — where my friend slept — and a “bed-drawer” on the floor, where I slept. We talked there for a while, before going to sleep…
Until we heard a loud noise, a “bang” coming from the room. As if someone was forced to win a door until it opened.
We froze in fear.
After all, the same day, earlier, we had found the door open! It was certainly the thief who tried to steal the apartment earlier… He had come back to finish his job!
I had the urge to check what was going on, but my friend was even more afraid than I was. He told us to be quiet and wait. If we didn’t hear any more noise, we could leave the room. Otherwise… Let the robber steal the house, but not to kill both of us.
We waited a few moments, hoping that no more sound would come from the living room…
But we heard another one, this time, coming from the kitchen!
It was the plastic of the loaf! The thieves were messing with our dinner!
To make matters worse, the maid’s room door had no key. We couldn’t even lock ourselves in there!
I got up from the bed and held the door handle up. It was the only way to keep someone out. My friend, terrified, sat on his bed… And waited.
We were silent, listening to the sound of someone touching the loaf’s plastic.
“I think they are hungry …” — I said.
“Be quiet… If they hear us, they will come here!” — he said.
If anyone came, we would certainly see. As I said, the door was translucent. We could see the shapes of our clothes hanging on the clothesline outside; if someone went to the maid’s room, we would see their shape there too.
And, at that moment …
We started to see the clothesline move!
It was obvious! Someone was there, checking the area!
I waited holding the doorknob, thinking about what I would do when they forced entry…
But the clothes continued to move… And no one came to the door.
Then my brain started to forget a little bit of fear… And I began to understand the situation: we had left the beach because it was too windy, it was going to rain. The window in the area was open for the clothes to dry… What thief would not force the door to a room in an apartment he was robbing?
So obviously, who was making the clothes move…
“It’s the wind!” I told my friend.
“Shut up, they’ll hear us!” he said.
“No, it’s the wind! I’m sure! The window is open; that’s why the clothes are moving!”
“And the bread?”
“We left the package on the table… The wind is making the plastic move! I’m sure… We are not being mugged! It’s the wind!”
Before my friend interrupted me, I got up and carefully opened the door. The clothes were really blowing in the wind. I went to the kitchen and saw that the plastic of the loaf of bread also swayed in the wind. I was already relieved when my friend came up behind me:
“What about the ‘bang’ we heard at the beginning? Like someone had broken the door?”
He was right! I had no explanation for this! But, as I had guessed so far, I decided to take a risk. I grabbed a machete from the kitchen and went into the living room. There was nothing unusual; the front door was closed and locked… What could have made that noise?
I then saw the list of things we should do before I left, which had been fixed on the wall by my friend’s mother. It was on the floor. And it was “bent.” I had already noticed this; with the sun, it had warped…
And then I solved the riddle.
The wind blew the list down and, as the paper was bent, when it fell to the floor “standing,” it made a loud noise.
A “bang.”
Even with the mystery solved, we still searched the entire apartment, both holding machetes…
With brave men like us, who would need help?
Gain Access to Expert View — Subscribe to DDI Intel | https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/the-scariest-day-of-my-life-4d8fa65cd086 | ['Juliano Righetto'] | 2020-12-27 17:01:54.102000+00:00 | ['Fear', 'Real Life Stories', 'Robbery', 'Humor', 'Scary'] |
Talking Dirty. | “I like sincerity. I lack sincerity.” Kurt Cobain
We all remember the saying “Eyes are the window to the soul.” It sounds poetic, but it’s wrong. Forget the eyes. The real “windows to our soul” are words. Nothing defines who — or what we are — like the words we use.
As with sex, if you’re simply going through the motions, of course it’s lousy. You can’t just be there. Even talking dirty requires vulnerability and sincerity. Otherwise you’re just cussing in bed.
Remember the Seinfeld episode when Jerry’s date starts talking dirty, and he tries to get in the act by saying, “You mean the panties your mother laid out for you?” Is he incapable of dirty talk? Or is the judge right when he jails Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer for their complete disregard for people.
Elaine won’t go to bed with one guy until he can prove he’s “sponge worthy.” George gets out of every relationship by saying, “It’s not you, it’s me.”
Whether it’s complete disregard, or they’re just shallow, words — especially when it comes to sex — show how insincere they really are.
Elaine won’t go to bed with one guy until he can prove he’s “sponge worthy.” George gets out of every relationship by saying, “It’s not you, it’s me.” Kramer stops Jerry and Elaine from smacking each other by saying, “Don’t you see you love each other?” — as if they’re even capable of love.
It doesn’t take a comedy series to show what insincere words are doing to our relationships. They trip us up every time. We go for expected words, making us all sound like what George Orwell described as “cuttlefish squirting out ink.”
One woman tweeted the other day: “Talking is like having sex. It’s not that hard to do. It’s just hard to find someone to pay for it.”
Maybe that’s our biggest problem. We think talking and sex are easy. Sincerity isn’t an issue until someone like Kramer says, “You stink.”
I was reading a marketing seminar piece the other day. The writer wanted to draw attention to what he thought was a brilliant line: “Consumers don’t buy products, they buy an extension of themselves.”
Will they overlook the fact that you’re a phony? Nope. Once the novelty wears off, they’ll ditch you like an old Chevy.
Well, a sleek sports car may be an extension of yourself, but it doesn’t make you any less of a phony. Will women stop and stare? Probably. Will they overlook the fact that you’re a phony? Nope. Once the novelty wears off, they’ll ditch you like an old Chevy.
Cars, clothes, technology — none of these things will make us “sponge worthy” if we’re not sponge worthy in the first place. Neither will phony words. Using words we think sound sincere won’t cut it if they aren’t sincere.
Think back to that last episode of Seinfeld. As they’re leaving the courtroom, Elaine says to Puddy, “Don’t wait for me.”
Puddy shrugs and says, “Okay.”
Puddy’s response is caused by two things: One, they’re both phonies; two, losing a phony to the prison system doesn’t take a lot out of you.
When we write or talk insincerely, we’re essentially saying “Don’t wait for me.” Of course the person is going to say “Okay.”
Except for the diapers part, she’s as phony as everyone else. She’s lucky she gets “Hey.”
On dating sites today, they estimate 70 percent of people copy each other’s profiles. The same sentiments appear again and again: “I’m not looking for Prince Charming. I just want someone who understands me and will treat me with respect. I’ll do the same for him.”
That’s fine if the person doesn’t care if you’re a plagiarist, but what about people who do? Why would they respond to the woman who copied the profile above, adding “Please don’t send me: ‘Hey there, good looking,’ or ‘How’s it goin’, babe?’ I’m not here to change your diapers.”
Except for the diapers part, she’s as phony as everyone else. She’s lucky she gets “Hey.”
There’s a wonderful adage about sex: If you want good head, it doesn’t hurt to give good head. We’re a reciprocal society. Demanding what you’re not willing to give makes you either a pure capitalist or a Kardashian.
The same holds true when someone writes “Does it actually matter what I write here?” posting a picture while leaving the profile blank. On one hand, she’s right. Pictures get four times as many responses as how people describe themselves. On the other hand, giving up on words altogether could limit her respondents to the non-verbalists — which could include a few primates (a twenty word vocabulary is all you need on Twitter).
And just as Kramer accuses Jerry of being an “anti-dentite” because Jerry thinks Tim, his dentist, converted to Judaism for the jokes, this woman could be seen as an “anti-wordite,” like Elaine using “yada, yada.”
Nobody tells her she’s terrible — not because she’s their boss — but because she’s shallow.
As one episode of Seinfeld demonstrated, those who “yada yada” skip over things, like how many partners they’ve had or their prison history.
Remember the office party where Elaine decides to start the dancing off? She’s a terrible dancer. Nobody tells her she’s terrible — not because she’s their boss — but because she’s shallow.
We let shallow people keep dancing, just like we let insincere people keep writing insincere words or thinking they’re great in bed. If we’re not telling them about their dancing or their writing, why admit their crazy monkey sex isn’t worth a banana?
Have you ever wondered how two people can tell the same joke and only one is funny? We had a client once who needed a speech. He asked our account director to write it because he was funny. The speech bombed. The client blamed the account director. It never occurred to him that humour requires sincerity. The account guy had it, the client didn’t.
You can’t transfer sincerity, but you can develop your own. All it takes is some introspection and a little honesty. Maybe a lot of honesty. Maybe you have to go back and find out where you went wrong, because something is definitely wrong if you say, “I’m worth a lot more than ‘Hi, there, I think you’re cute.’”
They also think their time is so valuable, they shouldn’t have to read platitudes, which is funny since all they write are platitudes.
Are you cute? Usually the people complaining about short comments aren’t cute at all. They also think their time is so valuable, they shouldn’t have to read platitudes, which is funny since all they write are platitudes.
At some point, you have to ask yourself, “If my messages aren’t genuine, why should I expect more from somebody else?”
If you find that too hard to do, keep dancing, keep buying sports cars and, sure, keep having what you think is crazy monkey sex.
Nobody’s going to tell you you’re lousy, or a phony or not worth a banana.
And I doubt they’ll be waiting for you to get out of prison, either.
Robert Cormack is a satirist, novelist and blogger. His first novel “You Can Lead a Horse to Water (But You Can’t Make It Scuba Dive)” is available online and at most major bookstores. Check out Skyhorse Press or Simon and Schuster for more details. | https://robertcormack.medium.com/talking-dirty-adbc52134b26 | ['Robert Cormack'] | 2020-03-04 12:39:57.300000+00:00 | ['Dating', 'Satire', 'Sex', 'Seinfeld', 'Relationships'] |
It’s Bigger Than Trump | It’s Bigger Than Trump
Why “battle for the soul of America” is not hyperbole.
A piece from the artist Titus Kaphar.
Donald J. Trump is not going to like this.
In a reality that he’s constructed, where everything is about him, his brand, his name (I would imagine the fact that there are other people named Trump bothers him), he is the savior, the story, the judge, and the king. We’ve always revolved around him (in his mind anyway), so being elected President clearly affirms all the things that he’s told himself for decades.
It’s his world.
To exemplify his prowess, he dropped phrases like “China plague,” “the suburbs will be gone,” and “radical left” in the first Presidential debate, as if these things were real, accurate, or helpful. He also — as an impeached President, the day after the New York Times broke his income tax story (which, for the many reasons it is disturbing, I find it fundamentally odd that he could arrive at the same round number, $750, two years in a row) — had the audacity to call someone else “crooked.” He lost the 2016 popular vote to this very same person, which, had the roles been reversed, would be a major point of contention for him that we would still be hearing about today. He also just a couple of weeks after making the news cycle stand still to watch him be helicoptered to Walter Reed Hospital for COVID-19 treatment refuses to tell us when he first tested positive for the virus, or be any more definitive about the need to wear masks. Instead, he’s packing people into non-socially distanced, mask-optional rallies.
This piece is not about him. This election and the future of America is not about him. It’s really about the people who would wait a half day to catch a glimpse of Trump at one of his events, and the many others who have a bit more sense to not attend but are still going to vote for a man who has little interest in being the President of the United States, and even less interest in what everyday Americans believe, experience, or need.
This is about how we once again have arrived at the point of our own undoing.
As noted by Elizabeth Dias in the New York Times this weekend, both the Trump and Biden campaigns are putting the idea of the “soul of America” in key messaging, but it’s not clear as to what each camp means, or what is at the core of America’s soul.
Here’s my take: This is the most divisive election of my lifetime. Perhaps my view is heavy on the Black-hand side — a point I will return to in a sec — and I didn’t see a Barack Obama White House as the downfall of (White) America. But I imagine for some folks, 2008 and 2012 were tough pills to swallow. Still, it doesn’t compare to today’s madness.
Amidst what were previously nonpartisan reminders to register and vote, I’m now hearing people literally pleading for the White House to get a makeover in January for the basic survival of democracy, America, and people. Which again raises the questions — how did we get here? And if this is where we are, how are there still living and breathing humans thinking that four more years of Trump is the way to go?
A recent Comedy Central piece covering a Trump rally in my hometown of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (big shoutout to all of my friends and family who I did NOT see in the rally footage) offers six minutes of insight into how vast the racial and ideological divides are presently in the U.S. Maybe the most important moment comes just a half minute into the clip when, in his intro, Jordan Klepper says that we are “probably about a year away from losing a loved one in the inevitable civil war.”
You know when dark satire hits a little too close, and you don’t know whether to laugh or re-up your passport and write a Medium piece? (This is the Medium piece, btw).
It’s become clear to me over the election cycle sub-plot of America’s Next Great Pandemic that I have taken my Africana Studies and racial inequities training for granted. I’ve moved on to evaluating reparations strategies while other (White) folks haven’t even wrapped their heads around the notion that Black people didn’t actually enjoy slavery.
“Well, why’d they keep doing it?”
Really? That’s the conversation you want to have with me, having read nothing written by a Black person, on any topic, in your entire life?
This is why we must talk about the “soul of America.” Because for too long America has been lying to itself about who it really is and how it came to be. Too many people simply don’t know, and are now choosing to use their MAGA visors to stay blind to the human — and at times deeply tragic — stories that make America what it is. Then, when I enter the conversation with an informed perspective on race and racism, I’m cast aside as leftwing radical, or perhaps even a racist.
So, if I’m an un-American racist because I believe that critical race theory can help us grow, what do we call the woman who felt the need to accost Gisele Barreto Fetterman, wife of Pennsylvania’s Lieutenant Governor, during a recent grocery store run? At the tail end of the lengthy encounter, Mrs. Fetterman captures the woman on video calling her an “n-word,” after being told that she didn’t belong in the U.S. These kinds of attacks, at times with violence or the threat of it, are nothing new to America but made a significant comeback in the Trump era.
This is who we are. This is who we’ve always been. There are more than enough lynchings, false arrests, brutality cases, and hate crimes to paint the picture, clear as day. But the calculus can be puzzling; I mean, if you can’t say Black lives matter then how can all lives matter?
I started thinking about this piece a little over a week ago, on what shows up on my Google calendar now as both “Columbus Day” and “Indigenous People’s Day.” I can hear the Columbus camp now at the next Trump rally — “it’s like they want to erase our history.”
Here’s where we insert the Gene Wilder / Willy Wonka “Please tell me more” meme.
America’s soul is counting on us to learn how to listen to each other in new ways, see through the veil, and fill the gaps of half truths and lies that were easier to tell. We’ve got to figure this thing out, break through the chasms we’ve let widen, undo the long list of damages, and carve out a collective path forward to something better. If we’re not ready for this truth telling, our future is an absolutely horrifying proposition. For all of us. | https://medium.com/digital-justice-collective/its-bigger-than-trump-10ef8efd4800 | ['Brian Peterson'] | 2020-10-21 13:36:45.751000+00:00 | ['America', 'Social Justice', 'Democracy', 'Election 2020', 'Racism'] |
The Challenge of Finding Quality Testers | Quality software testing warrants a proper process, an experienced team of quality testers, and also the right tools and technology. Software testers are extremely crucial because the entire process rests on their shoulders. They need to be flexible, versatile, and transparent at the same time.
However, finding quality software testers who are very experienced in the domain is a massive challenge for almost all software testing companies these days. The reason for this is the drive that most individuals possess to be a developer and the lack of drive to be a tester.
But the role of testers is very important in identifying defects in a software application and making it correct at the time it is delivered. They go through vigorous testing processes in ensuring the same. However, it has been observed that the industry lacks quality software testers.
At Sapizon Technologies, we overcame this challenge pretty well. By actively providing our services in software testing, we have groomed the best software testers you can find. They are experienced and skilled in all facets of software testing by delivering flawless software as their primary objective.
We are one of the top software testing companies you can find. By providing opportunities to budding testers and helping them learn the process correctly, we motivate testers to develop and implement innovative strategies. This helps them become better testers over time.
Challenges in Finding Quality Software Testers:
If you are wondering why finding quality software testers is difficult, here are a few reasons for your enlightenment:
Negligence by Organizations:
To prevent resources, few software development companies make their developers execute the testing process. What happens here is, the testers tend to develop a sense of reluctance to check the codes they have written themselves.
This leads to potential negligence and complexities in other points of development. It is a prime reason for outsourcing the process to companies who have professional testers calling the shots.
Lack of Quality Training Programs:
Due to the lack of an adequate training program, most testers around the world have turned to self-educating themselves about testing. More than 70% of the software testers in the industry may not have received any formal training for their role. They have been thrust into the role and asked to learn with the flow.
When encountered unique situations that have not occurred before, testers could find it hard to resolve those issues without any knowledge.
The Key Traits of Software Testers:
When you are looking for quality software testers, you need to understand there are certain traits that are important. This involves the evaluation of certain factors that are prominent in testing. Some of these factors are:
Expertise in Agile Module:
As software is expected to be delivered at a brisk pace these days, it is crucial that the testers you hire have good knowledge of the agile testing module. Because Agile provides them speed and an extensive teamwork environment, it becomes easier to collaborate.
Knowledge of Mobile Technologies:
Familiarity with web and mobile devices is very important in this generation. This is also one of the qualities you are looking for in your tester. Adapting to the advancements made in an application will be very important for a tester.
This knowledge helps them in understanding the application better and design tests accordingly.
Logic and Rationality:
The testers need to be of logical and rational nature because it helps them identify their errors and perform testing according to the changes required. It helps them assess the strengths and weaknesses of an application. A ration analysis of this allows them to choose the right test-cases.
Proactive Communication Skills:
Possessing good communication skills can be a massive asset for a software tester. He can directly communicate with the development team regarding any dilemmas and resolve them without too many hassles. This also enables them to provide quality feedback as well.
Why Choose Sapizon:
Sapizon Technologies is one of the best software testing company you can find. We have the best software testers who possess great experience in QA and agile methodologies. Having completed more than 100 projects, we have built an element of trust with our clients.
Operating under a result-driven approach, we aim to serve our clients with complete dedication and ensure their businesses receive unparalleled success. We adhere to the best testing practices while offering our services across different business domains. | https://medium.com/@sapnasapusapzion/the-challenge-of-finding-quality-testers-ac8184291de9 | ['Sapna Sapu'] | 2020-12-07 10:29:16.579000+00:00 | ['Mobile App Developers', 'Software Testing', 'Software Testers', 'Testing', 'Software'] |
How to build a network topology where you can ping to google but can’t to Facebook | Hey guys hope you all are doing good in today's article we are going to do and learn some interesting thing based on network.
Gen what we do to test internet is working or not we try to ping google if system pinging google then we say ok our internet is working fine no issues but when you try to ping Facebook or some other sites it shows network unreachable what does that means??? your internet is not working ???
No, your internet is working perfectly the issue is in the route table or in the IP allocation.
Today we are going to build a similar kind of system in which the system can ping google IP 8.8.8.8 but can't ping to any other sites.
Genmask:-used to give network name and help how much IP we can use
route table:-Help to define where to go and where to not
Gateway:- it is a path that changes source IP so that we can go to isp because we can not go to isp using private IP.
I am not going deep in these things as these things are way deeper I am just giving an overview but if you want to know more then let me know.
Pinging google
As you can see in the above image we have added that to go 8.8.8.0 use 192.168.1.1 gateway and genmask 255.255.255.0 means first three octet is network so effectively we can go to anywhere in b/w IP range 8.8.8.[0–255] this is the reason when trying to ping 8.8.8.8 we can ping easily because it is in the desired IP range as we set.
But as you can see below as we try to ping 69.171.250.35 it is showing error because this IP is out of range .
Now below you can we can 69.171.250.35 because it is in the range 69.171.250. (0-255)
Now we can not ping 8.8.8.8 because it out of range.
This is the reason in destination we gen give 0.0.0.0 and in genmask 0.0.0.0 because this cover all IP so that we can ping to anyone as shown below
default=0.0.0.0
Note if you are using the rhel8 cli version then to use the below command you need one software called net-tools you can download that from yum or DNF from the command:-
yum install net-tools
Some useful commands
1. To check route table
route
2. To add a new route in the route table
route add -net (ip[change with yours]) (netmask netmask[change with yours]) gw(gateway[change with yours]) network card name
eg:- route add -net 8.8.8.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.1.8 enp0s3
To check network card use ifocnfig or IP a there you can see network card as you can see in below image my card is enp0s3
3. To delete route from route table
route del -net IP (ip[you want to delte from route table])
Guys, here we come to the end of this blog I hope you all like it and found it informative. If have any query feel free to reach me :) | https://medium.com/@gupta-aditya333/how-to-build-a-network-topology-where-you-can-ping-to-google-but-cant-to-facebook-7e25362a3f5d | ['Gupta Aditya'] | 2020-12-30 05:31:34.161000+00:00 | ['Information Technology', 'Networking', 'Networking Tips', 'Networking Technology', 'Network Topology'] |
A Poem for Oluwatoyin Salau and Black Women Everywhere | A Poem for Oluwatoyin Salau and Black Women Everywhere
In June, we lost 19-year-old activist and community organizer Oluwatoyin Salau. During her brief time with us, she delivered impassioned speeches while working to unite and mobilize the people of Florida against police brutality. Days after Salau was reported missing, she was found murdered in Tallahassee. Her death underscores why we must address gender violence within our community and protect Black girls and Black women as we fight for liberation.
As this year comes to a close, poet and organizer Aja Monet pays homage to Salau with a tender poem named after the translation of Salau’s first name. This piece also honors and holds space for Black women everywhere.
You can listen to Monet read the poem, with piano by Donald Johnson, here. | https://zora.medium.com/a-poem-for-oluwatoyin-salau-and-black-women-everywhere-16da6e071a22 | ['Aja Monet'] | 2020-12-10 17:29:41.785000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Poetry', 'Justice', 'Black Women'] |
Colendi Weekly Update | 17–23 September | After a busy summer, we enjoy even a busier fall with many announcements about the Colendi Products, new additions to the Colendi team, and events in all over the world. In shortly, we will share all the details with you but we want to remind you of our major news that was echoed greatly by the media. The decentralized alpha is imminent and Colendi Card news only paved the way to its more adopted usage.
Colendi Card
This week marks one of the milestones of the Colendi Project, as we are finally announcing the Colendi Card, which will open the doors to the incorporation of most common payment method to the Colendi application. Decades of consumer payment habits is now available in the Colendi platform where the users can acquire their physical Colendi Card and connect it to their Colendi ID and Colendi Score.
Colendi Card is considered to be a crucial element for Colendi adaptation in the communities where the old payment habits are relatively harder to transform. Considering people’s need to microfinancing and a comprehensive ecosystem, Colendi stands out with its abundant sources of finding the financing necessary and bring the platform personas together.
“As an active part of the Colendi ecosystem, we couldn’t be more thrilled about the Colendi Card and the additional opportunities it provides for us,” said Mehmet Ozcelik, co-founder of restaurant point of sale software leader SambaPOS. “This will benefit us as it will offers better reach to our merchants as well as growing our overall merchant base with the easy-to-use Colendi Card and app.”
Financial inclusion of the next billion people is not an easy task, on the contrary it requires substantial work, exquisite analysis and a comprehensive approach that will touch the lives of many people from various cultures and backgrounds. Colendi Card fits perfectly to the business strategy to be one of the strong hands to introduce Colendi globally.
Product development
Colendi released the alpha product to the volunteering members of its community. We had already announced how you can get early access and what features it will include. Last week, we have made the announcement that we selected volunteers among our community who have shown their interest to try the alpha product. Those people already received their mails to access the Colendi Alpha Product and shared their opinions with us. Here is the recap of their sentiments and statistics if you want to find out.
We are still gathering new volunteers to try out the Colendi Alpha Product. If you are interested you may still click the link below to register.
[ut_button color=”turquoise” target=”_blank” link=”https://hi.colendi.com/earlyaccess/" size=”medium” shape=”round” ]Get Access[/ut_button]
Three integral elements of Colendi Product — Colendi ID, Colendi Score and Colendi Wallet — are introduced in the alpha product.
Colendi ID: Colendi ID is the self-sovereign digital identity that Colendi provides its users in order to include their relevant information in a private and protected model.
Colendi Score: Colendi Score is a digital score that is uniquely calculated by our protocol for each user. The protocol is trained to calculate a Colendi Score with social media data, smartphone data, transactional data, phone data and over 1,000 pieces of personal information. The algorithm then stores this score on the smart contracts of the Ethereum blockchain, meaning it becomes a decentralized Colendi Score.
Colendi Wallet: This is where users can manage their Colendi Tokens (CODs). With a Colendi Wallet, users can send and receive COD as well as oversee their transactions. On top of the existing features, users will soon be able to list the integrated merchants within the Colendi network and apply for microcredits.
Interested in learning more about Colendi’s alpha project?
Volunteering for the alpha product and helping us with Q&A testing is still an option. If you are interested, click the link below and leave your contact information. We have already sent more than 10000 members of our volunteers their access. Get in line to be one of the firsts to use the Colendi application and we will reach out and include you in our development process.
[ut_button color=”turquoise” target=”_blank” link=”https://hi.colendi.com/earlyaccess/" size=”medium” shape=”round” ]Get Access[/ut_button]
Media
- Colendi CEO and co-founder Bulent Tekmen was the latest guest of blockchainshow. If you want to know how Colendi works, what use cases we have and how will we disrupt the traditional credit scoring scene globally, check out the show:
http://www.theblockchainshow.com/93-colendi/
- Colendi proudly presented Sinan Koc, as new Colendi Adviser. Sinan has been actively involved with the Colendi project since the early days, and his skills and vision contributed a lot to the many paths taken even before this partnership. He is currently leading multiple tasks in ConsenSys and Token Foundry and viewed as one of the youngest and most talented actors in the blockchain space and Ethereum ecosystem. Please read on if you want to know more about the newest addition to our Advisory Board:
Sinan Koç is a widely respected expert and entrepreneur in the finance and fintech arena. He is currently in a leadership role with ConsenSys and Token Foundry, our two technical partners that are set to enlarge token-powered networks of future. Earlier, he was co-founder of peer-to-peer money transfer company Geld and co-founder at location-based messaging startup Radius. He holds a degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, as well as Turkey’s prestigious Koç School.
- Bulent Tekmen was interviewed by the Hola Cripto team who dropped by our offices to talk about Colendi. Watch now to see what Bulent told them about the Colendi Project and our vision.
Events
- On the 17th of September, Colendi CEO Bulent Tekmen attended “The Future of: Money” event in New York, organized by The Wall Street Journal.
-On the 18th and 19th of September, Colendi team met with Istanbul blockchain community in Kadir Has University campus at “Blockchainfest ’18 Istanbul” CSO Zahid Sagiroglu was also at the event as a speaker and presented Colendi Project to many new enthusiasts. We were quite satisfied with the attention we received and we are looking forward to future events for more engagement with the community.
CSO Zahid Sagiroglu
Colendi booth at blockchainfest ’18 Istanbul
Colendi Team
- Colendi team is continuing to expand to onboard some of the finest engineers in the technology and development sector. For a second consecutive week, some of the newest additions are made to the product team to pace up the R&D processes:
We are getting stronger by day with the newest additions. Contact us if you think you can also join Colendi team!
We will keep on working hard for the Colendi Project and keep you updated. Keep following us! | https://medium.com/colendi/colendi-weekly-update-17-23-september-7af96575b74a | [] | 2018-09-24 20:02:51.498000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'Updates', 'Decentralized', 'Bitcoin'] |
Sense-making in the fire service during COVID-19 | What we know
The Coronavirus is “serve acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2” (SARS-CoV-2) typically shorted to COVID-19. Corona is Latin for “crown.” Corona is the name given to a group of viruses that look like a crown under an electron microscope; they include SARS of 2003 and MERS of 2012. SARS of 2003 had a “case fatality rate” (CFR) of 10%, while MERS had a CFR of 34%. The case fatality rate (CFR) is the number of deaths among the confirmed cases. CFR is not the “crude mortality rate” or the “infection fatality rate.” The media frequently interchange the terms, resulting in wrong conclusions. We will expand on this later.
What we want to know
We would like to know the chance of death from COVID-19 expressed in the metric “infection fatality rate (IFR).” IFR is the number of fatalities among everyone who contracted the virus. But to know IFR, we would have to test everyone. Currently, we only test those with symptoms, missing asymptomatic carriers, false negatives, and fatalities that don’t present with COVID-19. So instead of knowing IFR, which includes everyone who has the virus, we use the number of deaths per the number of confirmed cases to calculate “Case Fatality Rate” (CFR).
There is a big difference between IFR and CFR. IFR tends to be much lower than CFR. Even worse, when making comparisons between COVID-19, the seasonal flu, and the pandemic of 1918 (H1N1), the media frequently confuses the two. Comparing one virus’s CFR to another’s IFR, either downplay or overestimate the severity of COVID-19. As a result, the typical person has a difficult time making sense of the situation. Is COVID-19 just like the flu, as deadly as the Spanish Flu of 1918, or no worse than riding in a car? The reality is somewhere in between.
Although we don’t know the IFR, we estimate the CFR by dividing the number of confirmed cases by the number of fatalities. As of 04/08/2020, the estimates of COVID-19’s CFR are between 12.47% in Italy and 1.8% in Germany. The current CFR in the U.S. is 3.23%.
What CFR means to the fire service
“We are all going to get it” is not a good mindset. If we use CFR’s from counties around the world, the results are scary. If we allowed 500 firefighters to contract COVID-19, the results would be as follows:
CFR of 12.47% (Italy on 4/8/20) = 63 dead firefighters
CFR of 1.8% (Germany on 4/8/20) = 9 dead firefighters
CFR of 3.23% (US on 4/8/20) = 17 dead firefighters
Estimated case fatality rate (CFR) tends to rise overtime due to the increase in data. The CFR estimate of SARS-1 in 2012 started at 2% but concluded at 10%. As a fair comparison, the CFR of the seasonal flu is 0.1%. Now that we are comparing apples to apples, we see why COVID-19 sparked such a response once the estimated CFR of COVID-19 went above 1%, or ten times deadlier than the flu. At 12%, COVID-19 is 120 times deadlier than the flu.
CFR steadily rising from Feb to March on 04/08/20
Age Matters
But the average CFR in each country can misrepresent the number of deaths if you consider age group. For instance, if you are 40 years old in Italy, your CFR is 0.4% opposed to the average 12.47%. This is good news for young firefighters, but not great news for firefighters in their 50's.
Unfortunately, not all countries provide enough demographic data to make estimates base on age. Again, it’s important to stress that the CFR simply represents the number of deaths divided by the number of confirmed cases. It does not give us a true risk of death, which would be IFR. Differences between countries do not reflect real differences in the risk of dying from COVID-19; but rather, they reflect differences in testing, demographics, and the stage of the outbreak.
The Data Sucks
CFR is estimated by data pooled into files shared on GitHub. Unfortunately, the data is always behind real conditions on the ground. First, it takes four to six weeks for a patient to go from symptoms to death. Second, deaths go through a chain of reporting before they get analyzed.
GItHubs Data Source on 4/08/20
The typical steps involve:
Doctor or laboratory diagnosis COVID-19 based on testing or symptoms. The doctor or laboratory submits reports to the local health department. The health department receives and records each case in its reporting system. The ministry or governmental organization brings the data together and publishes its latest figures. International data bodies such as the WHO and ECDC then collate statistics from hundreds of nations.
The reporting chain can take several days and produces errors. Additionally, countries such as China are accused of purposely altering data by the US Intelligence Community. As a result, the data is continuously late, full of errors, and frequently misinterpreted by the media.
To the point of errors. You can’t have -1 dead. Thats a Zombie.
Modeling — “All models are wrong; some are useful.”
“Exponential” is the buzz word for 2020. “Exponential curve” and “exponential growth” are descriptions of why pandemics are different than vehicle deaths or smoking. And although no curves are truly “exponential,” COVID-19 is entirely different than vehicle accidents in the fact that it doubles in short time frames. While annual deaths due to car accidents fit on a bell curve, a pandemic forms an “S” shaped curve that starts slowly, rises rapidly, and finally levels off after it has consumed its network. Over a year, vehicle accidents will march along steadily day-by-day because they are unconnected to one another. They are random events tabulated at the end of the year. They may fall or rise by small amounts each year, but rarely will they double, and they will never grow by tenfold.
Opposed to vehicle accidents, pandemics are a series of connected events that build on each other. Currently COVID-19 is doubling in size every few days. Comparing unconnected events such as vehicle accidents to self-replicating events like COVID-19 creates a false impression. For example, if vehicle accident deaths behaved like COVID-19 and doubled every five days, we would have about 23 million deaths by the end of March each year. Instead, we only have about 1,600 deaths from vehicle accidents by March each year. Pandemics such as COVID-19 have the potential to produce extremely high numbers, even if they start off small. COVID-19 is a self-replicating contagion and should never be compared to vehicle accidents, smoking, cancer, or heart disease deaths.
Modeling self-replicating contagions is a complicated science. Unlike predicting annual car deaths under a bell curve, pandemics like COVID-19 use models that are ultra-sensitive to new data. It is near impossible to draw accurate conclusions when modeling self-replicating contagions. A predicted 100,000 deaths can quickly become 2 million deaths with new data. All we really know is that the curve will climb quickly in the beginning, but will eventually slow down as the network is consumed.
Due to the difficulty of forecasting growth in complex environments, most institutions don’t even try. The brave that do attempt to forecast self-replicating systems swing wildly in their predictions. Consider the “Institute for health and medical evaluation” (IHME) model. The IHME model is currently the leading forecaster on the web, making predictions of what days individual states will peak. Their model is impressive, and their science is reliable, but their predictions have swung wildly from day-to-day. IHME used the curve from China to get its initial forecast. China’s curve may not reflect reality due to deliberate data tampering. As new data comes in from more reliable sources, their curve shifts.
UW forecast for California on 04/08/20
Consider the Bass diffusion model (BDM), which assumes a standard “S” shape to all such curves. The BDM is fantastic at predicting power laws such as COVID-19, but only after a certain time frame. Which means the BDM needs to get more than halfway through the curve before its predictions work.
BDM on 04/08/20
Both of these models are useful at making sense of the pandemic to some extent, but they deliver less certainty than we are accustomed to. We are used to academics telling us that “the evidence suggests” an outcome with a “high level of confidence.” Instead, we currently get models that give predictions ranging from 100,000 to 2 million deaths. And to make it worse, the same sources change their predictions each day, creating either exuberant paranoia or passionate disbelief over COVID-19.
But The Show Must Go On
Regardless of the poor data, misunderstanding of its meaning, and purposely downplaying of cases, we still have to make decisions.
COVID-19 will consume its available network. We may not have control over the data or the modeling, but we can control the size of the network. Decisions and actions must focus on breaking the network at every opportunity.
Future discussions about COVID-19 should revolve around terms such as links, nodes, and density.
Nodes are the items and people COVID-19 jumps to,
Links are the way it travels
Density is the number of additional nodes it has access to.
We break links by wearing PPE, we eliminate nodes by hygiene, and we reduce density by distancing. This is the language of Network science, the foundation of modeling contagion spread. All of the other answers we seek, such as CFR, IFR, and total morbidity, will come later, but we can kill the network now.
Why the new terminology? Old habits have inertia. The habits of shaking hands, eating together, training together, and moving in tight groups are hard to break. Breaking ingrained behavior requires a deliberate shift in thinking. We think with the words we know. New words create novel thoughts. Novel thoughts are the path to overcome old habits. If we aggressively break old habits and create new ones, we can avoid adding new names to the Firefighter memorial. | https://medium.com/0covid19/sense-making-in-the-fire-service-during-covid-19-11207afc2924 | ['Eric Saylors'] | 2020-04-21 15:05:36.740000+00:00 | ['Fire', 'Emergency Response', 'Fire Fighters'] |
Meet Brad Hargreaves, CEO Of Common | Brad Hargreaves is an american serial entrepreneur. He met us between two meetings in a cafe in New York.
Brad built his first company while studying at Yale University. This entrepreneurial experience is his first of many.
At the end of his studies in 2006, Brad joined New York to directly jump into the entrepreneurial adventure. He closed his first business then to launch a second one. This time, he founded a game development studio with four of his friends from college.
Together, they raised money in 2007 and they did a couple of successful games. Unfortunately, they never figured out how to make money from it and they run out of money 3 years later.
I would never launch a business which only depends on raising more and more money. At some point, we realized there was no way to generate revenue. It was a tough lesson. I pushed out for a few months before admitting that it was better to close the business.
At this time, twenty people worked for the company. Five of them were co founders. With hindsight, he realizes that the launch of this business was a really bad timing and that none of them in the team had enough business experience. Shutting down this business was the toughest decision he has never made.
For a year then, Brad worked for a small venture firm. It took him time to overcome the situation, but slowly he started to think creatively again.
In 2010, he came back in the game and he decided to launch his third company with one of his friend. That is when General Assembly started!
Brad and his friend gathered a community of entrepreneurs who are very driven by the needs of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial communities. This community provided education and training on various topics related to entrepreneurship, such as web development, digital marketing, user experience design, data science, etc.
General Assembly’s mission is to close the gap between university skills and the skills needed in the work force.
This company is still incredibly successful. They are currently in 16 cities in the world and they have around 25.000 people following their program this year.
This statement is outstanding knowing that they started as a co working space. They profited of a grant from the NYC Economic Development Corporation and they recruited practitioners instead of teachers.
It seemed to us more relevant to recruit people who were already coding, or doing design at a professional level and to trained them how to teach, than to teach to teachers how to make their courses practical.
This program of tech business and design skills quickly became a success. Today, 88% of their graduate students find a job less than 6 months after finishing the program.
One year ago though, Brad left General Assembly to take on a new challenge.
He launched a co living company named Common.
Indeed, his experience at General Assembly showed him that housing in NYC is a major pain for most people. It’s expensive, plus living with people isn’t an easy thing.
Common is community driven and the service propose accommodation where people can live in community. Common’s building provide cleaning, bathroom supplies and a community of people where everyone in the building know each other.
This time, Brad is the only founder of the startup. He wanted to hit the ground and running. So he decided to take on this project by himself. He raised 7 millions of dollars last summer and he recruited talented people to start the business.
Actually Common has two buildings in New York and a third one is opening in Brooklyn.
When we asked to Brad if he can share with us some tips to launch a successful business, he answered :
When I started General Assembly or Common I asked myself: Why am I the best person to run this business?
It is important to think about your uncompetitive advantage and to develop the story about it. This story will help you to hire the best people then and together, you’ll be able to make it happen.
We also wondered if raising money becomes easier. Brad explained that he get use to it.
With time and experience, you know the process and people treat you better. The only thing that changes is the expectations.
The first round of capital is the hardest: VC are looking at the founder and the team and they want to be sure you’re fighting on the right course. After several rounds, they are looking for financial metrics, sustainability, scalability, etc.
As Brad directly jumped into the entrepreneurial adventure after his studies, he told us that being an entrepreneur is the only thing he knows how to do. But founding a startup implies to face difficulties:
Knowing how to listen advices and how to keep going without paying attention,
Maintaining determination in face of negative feedbacks,
Knowing where and when you’re spending your time,
Managing people and keeping them aligned around a vision.
One essential thing is to forming your company’s culture. It means setting expectations, recruiting the right people, setting the right goals and make sure People are building process and systems that help them do their job better.
As an entrepreneur, you also do the same thing over and over. You talk about your business to people every single day. You repeat your words over and over again.
I don’t believe that entrepreneurship is a native thing you born into. I feel like you have to work on it . Anyone can do it, you just have to experiment!
One thing is clear, Brad seems to born into it. | https://medium.com/chloe-leb/meet-brad-hargreaves-ceo-of-common-235a37af60b9 | ['Chloe Leb'] | 2017-11-09 10:43:14.748000+00:00 | ['English', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Rencontre', 'Daily Post', 'Startup'] |
Chose Not to Trick-or-Treat? Here’s What You Missed. | Halloween 2020 promised to be so miserable that I set low trick-or-treating expectations for my children. “Let’s give it a shot for 20 or 30 minutes,” I told them. “We can always just come home and watch a movie.” I packed a couple of candies in my bag along with their warm coats, and I had small gifts, new graphic novels, tucked away at home in case the night epically disappointed.
During the preceding week, all our friends backed out.
Family number one chose to say home, planning to have the children knock on internal doors to trick-or-treat with their parents somehow hopping from room to room. Family number two invited us to join them for their neighbor’s Door or Horrors backyard scavenger hunt, only to learn that the neighbors preferred no additional guests. Family number three respected their 14-year-old daughter’s wishes to wear make-up and watch a movie in the backyard with other teenagers instead. Family number four — our sure thing — bailed at the last minute because no other family in their children’s entire school was going trick-or-treating. They figured it must be a bad idea.
We were on our own.
After an early dinner, my daughters gamely donned their costumes: an amalgamation of a creepy spidery queen and a glow-in-the-dark stick figure. We drove to the nearest wealthy neighborhood because, in the past, we’ve appreciated the extravagantly decorated homes and the full-sized candy bars. My husband and I hoped that the gentlemen with the hot toddies and 80s music would be celebrating again; we always enjoyed pausing there.
The setting
We live in Portland, Oregon where COVID-19 infections are rising along with rates in much of the country and the world. However, our county residents tend to follow directions. To date, 1.1% of those in the county have tested positive for the virus, and everywhere, people adhere to rules around mask-wearing and distancing. Regularly, I see people walking down the street, alone and far from others, wearing masks.
I had faith in my fellow Portlanders to create a COVID-safe Halloween for the community’s children, and they did not disappoint.
We also took our own precautions. When my children begged for a piece of candy, I pulled out something from my pocket. My daughters knew not to eat or sneak candy from trick-or-treat homes. We wore masks all evening, and we stepped in the street to pass other families. We used gallons of hand sanitizer. When we returned home, we spread out the candy on a table and sprayed disinfectant on both sides of the packaging.
The experience
Early in the evening, when we arrived at our destination neighborhood, we discovered that many of the houses were dark and hot toddies were nowhere to be seen, but those with lights lit were deeply invested in bringing joy to children and families.
And boy, were they creative.
Candy chutes abounded. Our favorite rested on a second-story balcony and reached the sidewalk. At about 20 feet in length, it was wrapped in a spiral of lights and shot out full candy bars. Some people taped candy to large boards along with welcoming signage. Others set up creepy scarecrows or clowns in chairs on lawns with bowls of candy resting in their laps. And others lovingly filled bags and left greetings or riddles on the brown paper packaging.
Every resident gave out much more than the typical single piece of candy.
Better yet, all over the neighborhood we met people on the other end of the candy chutes, on their porches, or gathered around firepits with neighbors. They greeted us, waved at us from their steps, initiated the conversation, and wished us a happy Halloween. They thanked us for venturing out. At one home, my husband enjoyed an IPA, and I had a glass of wine.
How a holiday about nearness to death brought life and light
Everyone wore masks, but with faces half covered, the holiday cheer, the commitment to bringing happiness, and the pleasure in doing so were evident. We lingered together on sidewalks and in driveways, feeling joy over the simple act of meeting strangers after seven months of keeping our distance.
During COVID-19’s rampage, we all choose what’s comfortable. We bubble with friends or family, welcoming a select few into our homes with hugs, or we don’t let anyone inside of our homes. We carpool to work with masks on and windows down, or we don’t drive with anyone. We wear gloves to the grocery store; we don’t go to the store at all.
On Halloween, in pockets across Portland, Oregon, groups of people did their best to make one night feel normal for the community’s children. Some of us ventured out tentatively, knowing we were increasing risks, but hoping, for one time this year, that a beloved, the anticipated annual ritual would feel ordinary. And our neighbors rose up and exceeded our expectations.
And after sorting, counting, and savoring candy, removing glow stick glasses, and wiping spider decals from the skin, my daughters went to sleep feeling, for one night, that all was right in the world. | https://medium.com/be-unique/chose-not-to-trick-or-treat-heres-what-you-missed-2dcc34459e0d | ['Stephanie Tolk'] | 2020-11-13 00:31:49.983000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Culture', 'Holidays', 'Parenting', 'Halloween'] |
Learnings from a decade of company building | MAG celebrates 10 years in 2020. With over 250 million people who’ve played our games, we are now a leader in word and trivia games on mobile.
Every day around two million people in over 180 countries across the globe play one of our games. The road to get where we are now was far from obvious or easy, but it turned out that with great people a promising business can turn into a pretty great one. In this article I am sharing some of my thoughts on our journey through these first ten years of game development and company building. I hope you can find a few things to learn from or be inspired by in our story.
Tiler, Brainy and Kevin — representing some of MAG’s biggest games
How it all started
When starting a company, it is hard to overstate the importance of having the right founding team. You need a team that trusts each other, challenges each other’s ideas, thinks in new directions and takes risks together. That is absolutely essential to make it longer than a year or two into the journey of company building.
Our founding team all knew each other well as we had been working together for several years before the inception of MAG. It has been such a strength for us to be a group with a high level of trust in one another and without any big egos or selfish agendas. We just wanted to build something great together in a way that we could all be proud of. I will always be grateful for having had the opportunity to work with my co-founders Roger, Fredrik, Anders, Johan and Kaj during this first decade of MAG’s history.
Staying alive!
The history of how things got started is often written with the blessing of hindsight, where it is easy to see a clear path from start to finish. In reality that’s rarely how things actually play out. We didn’t start MAG with a vision of enriching people’s lives (our current vision) or to create and promote casual multiplayer games that our players love and that we are proud of (our current mission). Of course we had dreams but from the start it was actually much simpler than that as the company was bootstrapped and needed to be able to feed the six of us based on the short-term financial outcome.
We set out to build a profitable games business leveraging the opportunity that the App Store had provided. When starting a business without external funding, your mission simply needs to be to stay alive to fight another day. Of course, doing it together with good friends while creating games we all loved playing made for a fun challenge.
Finding the first hit game
What can we create that is likely to be profitable and within a time frame we can afford to fully dedicate to this project? This is a key question for any small team with a limited budget. We needed to be super efficient and not waste time on ideas without potential or with a long development scope that would make us run out of money. We looked for holes in the market that we as a team felt both capable of filling and passionate about developing. This ended up being highly polished word games localized to non-English European languages.
Back in 2011, word games were a very underserved market where we felt we could make a difference. In less than three months we, together with our newly hired Art Director Felix, built Ruzzle — a game that ended up being downloaded more than 60 million times whilst reaching the #1 most downloaded game ranking in several of the biggest western markets, including the US. The combination of a great looking product, some clever growth marketing strategies and perfect timing made these months spent developing the game absolutely transformational for us as a company. None of us involved in the creation of Ruzzle will ever forget the thrill of seeing player numbers skyrocketing and the game spreading organically across the globe.
Screenshots from MAG’s first success game, Ruzzle, released in 2012
A fork in the road
If and when success happens, it will put the founding team of a company to the test. Do we play it safe and harvest the fruits of this initial success? Or do we play the long game and try to build something bigger, more valuable, with the risk of losing it all?
This is a far from obvious decision in a hits-driven business like gaming. The odds of striking gold a second time are stacked against you. Are you willing to bet on your future ability to find the right talent, refine the very best ideas and manufacture your own luck in the form of a high enough hit rate?
More often than not it doesn’t work, and you might end up wishing you’d played it safe to begin with. Luckily for us, we all agreed to play the long game and a combination of grit, luck and choosing the path of combining our own development with M&A has led to a great outcome.
Currently running three studios in two countries and having a well balanced portfolio of games makes the next decade much more likely to end well than the first one was — given our odds in 2010 as a small team around a single desk with no prior experience of game making.
The entire MAG crew at the beach in Brighton in 2019 during our yearly kick-off event
How do you keep that original high-performing culture?
The path from the six original founders to today has been filled with ups and downs. Recruitment is hard to get right from the beginning and, as the company evolves, it might not fit everyone who joined during an earlier phase. It can also be challenging to introduce new ways of decision making, planning and knowledge sharing as the group grows to cover multiple ongoing developments, people from different disciplines and backgrounds and external expectations in terms of business performance.
In 2014 we made an important decision as a company to try and create an organization with highly empowered teams. The purpose was to make sure people with the most intimate knowledge of a game were in charge of the day-to-day decisions. In order to enable teams to make their own decisions, we had to focus on making sure knowledge and information was spread effectively across the company even as we grow. This knowledge sharing has manifested itself in different ways during the years. Currently it takes the form of weekly demonstrations, regular AMA sessions, MAG jams, the yearly MAGCon event and Slack groups for public and private sharing. As the company grows, we continue to evolve in terms of both culture and traditions. This is a never ending process that is fueled by our own experiences as well as by new people joining, bringing their perspectives and skills to the table.
We believe that psychological safety is a key success factor for teams and have always emphasized the right to fail and the importance of sharing, questioning and re-evaluating how things are done. If a company becomes too hierarchical or political, things will slow down and you risk working on the wrong things for the wrong reasons. Super talented people from some of the greatest companies in the industry have joined MAG for this reason during the last few years. They know that they will get to do their best work in a free environment that is focused on trust and value creation instead of politics or vanity.
MAG Brighton’s presentation room — full of happy MAGers
Kill your darlings and nourish the Evergreens
With a company full of creative and innovative people, you will never lack ideas to work on. The challenge is always to figure out what ideas not to work on in order to stay focused. We have developed a process for evaluating and refining ideas that results in spending as little time as possible in the early stages of development where you have too many unknowns. We want to quickly find reasons to stop a project so we can start working on something else with bigger potential. There are some clever ways of being efficient at this, as we described in an earlier Medium article from MAG.
Having a company culture where killing projects is considered normal is crucial in mobile games. You also have to consider the fact that a successful mobile game never really dies, but rather that you will keep developing this evergreen game continuously. The question becomes how to balance how many people should service the older, proven games against how many people should spend their time trying to come up with the next big thing.
Something that surprised me and many of my peers who got started in the industry around the same time was how our original hit games way exceeded our expectations in terms of staying power. When we launched Ruzzle in 2012, we could never imagine a future where in 2020 that game would still be a very meaningful and profitable game with hundreds of thousands of daily players.
After having launched games basically every year since 2012, we now have a portfolio of games of different ages and in different stages of their life cycle. This gives MAG a stability that only comes with time. In the early phase when your entire business revolves around the first game, it’s very hard to compensate when that game eventually starts to decline. But as the years go by, every new game adds to a more stable pie and you start to perform more predictively as a business.
Creativity and passion. Core drivers for people at MAG
The Exit — Selling or going public
As the business grows, so does the expectation from external investors to get a return on their initial investment. For a games company the most common outcome is selling the business to another, larger, games company that wants to complement its portfolio or simply grow its overall business. In the Nordics we have the opportunity to take relatively small businesses public on the Nasdaq First North stock exchange, which makes it possible for founders to keep running their companies while letting earlier investors exit if they wish. We decided to take this route after speaking to a few other companies that listed on Nasdaq First North before us. One could argue that gaming companies aren’t suited for being public. Gaming is a hits-driven business, which makes it more unpredictable compared to more classic industries like mining or truck manufacturing, to give two Swedish examples. But the free-to-play business models have turned games into ongoing services with more predictable long-term revenues, instead of solely being an extreme hit-or-miss game launch business. This in turn has made it easier for investors to understand and trust games as an asset class to invest in.
I am happy that we took MAG public instead of selling as we have been able to continue to build on what we have in a way that we are confident is best for players, employees and shareholders.
Ringing the opening bell at Nasdaq on December 8, 2017
The next 10 years
After an eventful first decade as a games company we can now look forward to ten more years of building entertainment for a global audience. The foundation we’ve built is strong in terms of our culture, game portfolio, infrastructure and marketing capabilities. But most importantly we have incredibly talented teams that know what to do and how to do it. Our way of working makes us adaptable to a rapidly changing environment, where decisions are made close to where the action is and with the players’ experience top of mind.
Gaming is the biggest entertainment industry in the world. Bigger than music and movies combined. Everyone on the planet has a gaming ready device in their pocket and we are building highly accessible games with that audience in mind.
I can’t wait to see what MAG can create in the next decade of our history.
Good Times ahead! | https://medium.com/mag-interactive/learnings-from-a-decade-of-company-building-4b69c9ffbeef | ['Daniel Hasselberg'] | 2020-12-02 15:02:30.385000+00:00 | ['Company Culture', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Game Development', 'Teamwork', 'Business Strategy'] |
Poppies -Chapter 31- | Fiction Series
Poppies -Chapter 31-
A Novel
Photo owned by Author
Chapter -31 -
Pauline paced outside of the shed waiting to be invited inside by her sisters.
She twisted her light-brown hair streaked with gold around her finger. She put the ends into her mouth and sucked. She liked to suck on her hair even if mean old Mara-Joy would yell at her and say she was disgusting. That just made Pauline want to suck on her hair more. She would have thought Mara-Joy would be nice to her, considering she couldn’t have any little kids of her own. An account of the “miscarriage” two years ago that wasn’t allowed to be mentioned. But that didn’t matter. Mara-Joy continued to be mean to Pauline. She would always find something to hit her for. Whether it was for slurping her milk or dragging her feet, which Pauline did all the time when Mara-Joy came over to the house. She liked getting Mara-Joy angry. The only problem was that whenever she got Mara-Joy angry, Mama got furious. Would start declaring that Mara-Joy shouldn’t be upset in her own home.
Her own home?
Pauline thought she lived with Chad in their home. Mara-Joy only came over to get Alan-Michael and take him on special trips to the zoo and movies.
She never took Pauline on these special outings. She never even asked if Pauline wanted to go. Maybe it was because Alan-Michael was younger and it made Mara-Joy feel like she had a child to care for. Alan-Michael was only two years younger than her. Not that much younger. Besides ten years old wasn’t all that grown-up.
Pauline sighed. It didn’t really bother her. What bothered her was Mama never told Mara-Joy to include Pauline as well. Mama insisted Joanna and Constance take Alan-Michael with them.
Why didn’t Mama uphold the same rules with Mara-Joy?
It didn’t matter. Joanna and Constance liked taking Pauline places, and not Mikey.
A year ago Joanna and Constance found Pauline hiding in their secret place. They weren’t angry with their little sister. They let the shed be her special place too. They always let her tag along.
Pauline kicked a few stones with the toe of her shoe. The pebbles flew up and made a pinging noise as they hit the side of the shed. Joanna and Constance both turned around from their crouched positions, startled. Relief spread across their faces when they realized it was only Pauline.
“What are you doing lurking over there? Come on, get out of the shadows and sit with us,” Joanna waved Pauline over.
Pauline smiled, releasing the sticky strand of hair from her mouth. She ran over toward her sisters huddled together, and crouched between the two girls. All three looked alike except for a slight difference in hair color. Joanna’s long hair was light brown and poker-straight, very much like their mother’s. Constance’s hair was a wavy blonde that fell below her chin. Pauline’s was kind of a mix between the two. It was brown with lots of gold highlights sprinkled throughout her shoulder-length hair. It was not wavy like Constance’s, but not as straight as Joanna’s either.
All three had their father’s eyes: large, slanting green eyes. All the girls had tan complexions. As did their brother, who, unlike the girls, had inherited their father’s looks. The only one who was fair-skinned was Mara-Joy.
She didn’t resemble any of them, not even Alan-Michael, who looked a little like his other sisters.
Joanna turned to Constance, bent on continuing her conversation where she left off.
“How can I get him to notice me?” Joanna asked, pressing her lips together, strained. At almost sixteen years old, Joanna was no longer a plain, gangly girl. She was long, lean, and graceful with an attractive oval-shaped face and unique shaped eyes.
“I have it all planned,” Constance waved her hands into the air, a habit she did when trying to explain herself. Pauline lifted her hands, mimicking Constance.
Joanna stopped Pauline’s waving hands mid-air, her eyes still focused on Constance.
“Well, don’t keep me in the dark. Tell me. How can I get Chad to notice me?” Her eyes twinkled. The time had finally come. It was the opportunity to get back at Mara-Joy for all her years of torment. To teach her a lesson and give her a dose of her own medicine.
“Mara-Joy comes over every Friday to take Alan-Michael out to God knows where. When she comes back, she always stays and visits with Mama and Pappy. When Mara-Joy leaves with Alan-Michael, tell Ma and Pa you have a date.” She looked at both Pauline and Joanna, making sure she had their full attention.
“Go over to Chad’s. He will be there,” she said before Joanna could interrupt.
“He works over the bills on Friday. You know, trying to figure out some way to pay for the stuff Mara-Joy buys.”
Joanna began to get excited. It did make sense. Mara-Joy and Chad had the same routine every Friday. She couldn’t remember the last time it had not been so.
“But what if she comes home before I have left?” Joanna stuttered, trying to find a hitch in Constance’s plan. The act of proceeding with their plans they made two years ago excited and frightened her.
“I’ll call when she leaves home,” Constance said matter-of-factly.
“You are so smart, Connie,” Joanna squealed, grabbing hold of Pauline and hugging her. Pauline had stopped listening to the two girls lost in a daydream. When Joanna squealed in delight, she squealed back unaware of what she was squealing for.
Constance shrugged but laughed. She loved Joanna dearly and only she had permission to call her Connie. Everyone else, including Pauline, called her Constance. Connie was a term of endearment meant only for Joanna.
Constance was a firm believer that the name Connie did not evoke an image of intelligence. She knew Joanna thought she was smart, but to everyone else, she had to prove her mind worked. With a no-nonsense name like Constance, people had to see that she was more than just a girl, but an astute person.
“Then it is set.” Constance beamed, crossing her arms across her swelling chest. Her plan was foolproof.
“I suppose it is.” Joanna covered her mouth with her hands, not knowing what to do. She didn’t know if she should burst out laughing or throw up.
“You can do it, sis. I have faith in you,” Constance, reaching out and placed a firm hand on Joanna’s knee.
Joanna smiled unsure, placing her hands on top of Constance’s. They felt warm and smooth, familiar and safe, and at that moment she needed to feel safe. What they planned to do was uncharted territory. There would be no turning back after she succeeded in her plan.
“I hope so, Constance, and I hope I know what I am getting myself into.” | https://medium.com/illumination/poppies-chapter-31-8f91512d3de0 | ['Deena Thomson'] | 2020-12-18 14:48:53.053000+00:00 | ['Novel', 'Writing', 'Fiction Series', 'Fiction', 'Fiction Writing'] |
I think I was raped today II | Damn, what a mess.
Why do I do this? How do I constantly manage to get caught up in situations like this?
You’re a cunt, that’s how.
Harsh words, true? Maybe. But what just happened?
Hang on, let’s recap.
It was a rainy night. I love the rain, always have, always will but I hate being alone. Being alone sucks.
Being alone? Fucking liar! you mean being without her, right?
Maybe? I don’t know.
She’s so cute, she’s always so cute, always so irresistible. Damn, I’m getting hard again.
Like I was saying, it’s a rainy night, and I’m lonely. I want to hear her voice, and see her again but how?
What to do? What to do?
Right! I’ve got her glasses. That’s a good enough reason, right? Right!
I put them in a box. That should do. Picking up my phone, I know her number by heart so I just punch the keys in. My heart’s pounding, my dick’s throbbing; I give myself a mental slap.
Get a hold of yourself, you horny bastard.
She picks. Her voice on the other end is so soft, gosh…
I ask if she wants to hang, she’s hesitant,
Fuck! I shouldn’t have called.
Nah don’t give up.
I tell her I’ve got something important for her.
Okay good, she’s interested now. Great.
She says she’s gonna come over.
It’s late, surely she knows what’s up, right? She must feel the same way. Right?
We’re friends… maybe. I think we are, I hope we are. I’ve met her a handful of times and believe me, she’s the sweetest thing. Those lips, damn, I just want to kiss her.
Getting hard again… Fuck!
No I can’t wait, I’mma run to hers. That’s okay right? I’ve been to her place a couple of times, nothing weird in that.
But it’s wet…Fuck it, let’s go.
So like a lost puppy, I’m running in the rain. She lives just a few blocks away so I should get there in no time but this downpour is crazy. I can feel myself catching a chill already.
I’m here. Finally
Clutching the box in my other hand, I walk up to her door and knock. At that moment, I catch a mental image of myself standing at her doorstep, soaking wet and shivering like a leaf and I never felt so stupid.
I shouldn’t have come. What’s taking so long anyways? Open up, I just need…
The door swings open, there she is… wow!
Damn she’s sexy, I love that dress. Fuck, I can feel the blood flowing down there.
She ushers me in,
Nice, I get a towel too?
It’s just a towel dumbass.
She catches me staring and I look away swiftly.
Wow, this girl is driving me nuts, ugh.
I’m looking around trying to focus on anything but her at the moment and she asks, “What was so important that couldn’t wait?”
What can I say? because I want you?
Yeah go ahead. Say that, Dumbledee.
Smapping out of my reverie, I hand her the box. She opens it to find her sunglasses, and that smile has me tripping.
Damn, damn, I’m getting there again.
I try to hide my situation. She’s looking at the glasses, probably wondering where she left them. It was at the picnic, I’d somehow ended up with them in my pocket when I got home, after bumping into her.
What a coincidence huh?
Okay okay I knew she’d be there.
But she doesn’t need to know that now, does she?
She thanks me, oh she’s so cute. Always so nice and polite. Honestly I don’t think she could hurt a fly. Probably give it a tap on the head and let it fly away.
She walks off into the kitchen and is getting busy and now I have a full view of her in her element. There’s just something about a woman in a kitchen.
Damn, I’m hard again. Well she hasn’t sent me out yet so… I think I’ll just…
No! Sit your dumbass down. Don’t do nothing stupid.
But you want this. Ugh!
But does she?
She hasn’t sent you out, right? She probably does. And it’s cold and wet, cuddles maybe?
Okay okay.
I get up and move behind her. She takes note and turns around, looks me straight in the face and my heart stops. I swear it does. I’ve never seen someone so beautiful. Wow.
I can’t help it, I’m leaning in. But she looks confused,
umm… what’s the game plan?
Okay! I decide to go past her lips and whisper in her ears. Yeah, that’s a better start. I let her know what she’s doing to me, how irresistible she is. I can’t fight it, damn!
She pushes me away. Ouch. But was that a smile? A blush? No chance, she’s just fucking with me. Right? She wants this.
Three second rule, don’t think, just kiss her.
So I back her into a corner and I do.
Mama ain’t raise no pussy.
I go past her lips again, why do I keep doing that? Neck it is, that’s a turn on for sure. Just the thought of it alone…
She lets out a low moan,
You like this huh? Don’t you? Don’t you??
“What are you doing? Stop!” Her shrill voice snaps me out of my reverie.
She pulls away. Ah! WTAF!
I pull her in and whisper to her, “Let’s stop pretending. I know you want this”
please, I want this too
My mind’s racing even faster. Don’t know exactly what’s happening, but we’re all over the place, and next thing I’m in her.
Gosh, this is heaven.
I’m slow thrusting, and I can feel her eyes boring into my soul. Yes, yes, this is it, we’re united. Gosh I want this, she’s so wet, so I know she wants it too. | https://medium.com/@amaka.anicho/damn-what-a-mess-121337d76be9 | ['Angel'] | 2021-08-21 22:54:42.152000+00:00 | ['Rape', 'Rape Culture'] |
What Does “Spirituality” Actually Mean? | What Does “Spirituality” Actually Mean?
It’s not what most people think it is
Photo by Anton Darius on Unsplash
In response to a recent article of mine on the shadow in the spiritual world, someone responded with the simple question: “What does spirituality mean? Does it mean you believe in spirits?”
Well, for some that might be true, but somehow that doesn’t seem like a satisfactory answer to this person’s question. More importantly, I’m not sure he was looking for an answer so much as venting some frustration.
There’s something about the word spirituality that causes many people to cringe when they hear it. I have encountered a lot of resistance when I tell people that I write books about spirituality. The word raises people’s hackles right away. I get it. It used to do the same to me. But why so much resistance to a single word?
I can only speculate, but I believe for some people, the word is a euphemism for religion, and when they hear it, they interpret it as a code word for someone wanting to share their beliefs about God or to tell others what they must do to avoid a fall from grace.
For others, I believe, the word is something of a placeholder. People use it to suggest that they are not driven solely by material needs or are not self-centred. When someone says, “I’m spiritual but not religious,” it conveys the sense that they are connected something larger than themselves, but without any penchant from proselytism. How often, though, have you asked someone to explain what spirituality means to them, only to discover that they can’t articulate an answer?
In my opinion, the reason the word invites suspicion is that it lacks a real definition.
To dispel this resistance, I want to suggest a new way to think about spirituality for those who feel they are on a spiritual path but don’t know how to explain it, and for those who find themselves bristling at the first mention of the word.
A New Definition of Spirituality
The simplest definition of spirituality is that it is a view of the world that embraces the infinite possibilities for how life can express itself. Each of us has a place in expressing those infinite possibilities; each of us is a unique facet of the jewel of humanity. Spirituality recognizes this and asks us to see each person as an extension of life’s impulse to express itself in new and unanticipated ways.
Fundamentally, then, spirituality asks us to see each other as the same and as entirely different — to see our differences as emanating from the same, shared impulse of life to flourish in new ways.
To accomplish this vision, we have to embrace contradiction.
This is why spirituality is not a religion, which, in its most rigid form, lays down a series of tenets to establish conformity. Instead, spirituality is about relating to life in a way that embraces the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in the human condition. It asks you to hold competing viewpoints about the nature of reality at the same time, without trying to resolve their inherent contradiction.
The Path Embraces Contradiction, Not Conformity
Take, for example, our relationship to time. To reflect on life from a spiritual perspective means that we have to grapple with death. We have to accept that we all age and that our physical bodies will perish. In short, our time on this planet is limited.
At the same time (no pun intended), spirituality reminds us that the only moment of time that we experience is the present moment. How many of us have heard that nugget of spiritual wisdom that peace and happiness are found when we stay in the present moment? We know that when we are preoccupied with the past, we can feel regret, and when we are fearful of the future, we experience anxiety. But we can never return to the past or jump to the future: Our reflections of the past and fantasies about the future are our mental projections taking place in the present moment.
Spirituality asks us to relate to life as though time were finite and as if time did not exist, to acknowledge that life is one present moment after another.
We cannot escape the passage of time, and yet we are only ever in the present moment.
Another paradox is our relationship with each other. We all conceive of ourselves as if we were entirely separate from each other. We inhabit separate bodies, with separate minds, each of us a discrete, unique human being.
At the same time, none of us could exist separately. We were brought into this world through another human being, our mother, and our lives have depended fundamentally on our connections to each other. We are never really separate at all, just occupying time and space in different ways, each of us living together, sometimes in unison, sometimes in conflict.
Spirituality asks us to hold each of these positions as equally valid and precious: We are each unique beings, with unique lives, desiring to express the truth of who we are, however, we might define that truth for ourselves, and at the same time, we are never separate, never disconnected, even when we appear to be in isolation. We only exist in and through each other — working collectively to feed and nourish our physical bodies and by forming families, friendships, communities, and societies.
Finally, we are all different, with different identities, preferences, languages, histories, hopes, and dreams. Yet we are all the same. We all share the same core issues and desires of wanting to belong and feel loved, to believe that we are worthy, and to feel that we can be our true selves. We occupy different bodies, with unique faces and identities, but we all share the desire to become the fullest expression of who we believe ourselves to be. We all want to know our purpose and feel that we matter.
The fundamental truth of spirituality is that each of us has a gift to express: Our life is meant to express that gift. Our life is that gift. The word spiritual captures that ineffable sense that, at the core, we are each a gift to the rest of humanity, thanks to our many differences in appearance or ways of expressing ourselves.
Spirituality encourages us to embrace our many differences as the expression of our common humanity.
Each of Us Is a Gift to the Other
Spirituality, then, is not a dogmatic set of practices to follow nor an empty placeholder suggesting a vague connection to something outside of oneself. It’s the opposite.
Spirituality is instead the art of examining and letting go of the mental formulations and beliefs we use to try to simplify and organize our human experience. We try to make life less messy by reducing everything to repeatable paradigms and rigid rules, but it becomes less messy the less we try to control it.
For example, human beings are constantly evaluating and judging one another, placing each other on an internalized scale of value. Spirituality asks us to suspend that exercise of judgment and embrace our human diversity, to see each other as equally valuable and worthy of all that life has to offer. You don’t have to like everyone equally; you just have to accept that your evaluation of someone doesn’t actually measure their worthiness as a human being.
If a conventional or religious approach to life is to reduce complexity by moving towards conformity, the spiritual path asks us to embrace a set of paradoxes and to live at their intersection.
In the simplest of terms, spirituality asks us to regard each other with curiosity and wonder for what this person is meant to express in the world and to ask, Am I seeing this person as a gift?
Asking yourself that question means that you too have stepped on the spiritual path. | https://divineppg.medium.com/what-does-spirituality-actually-mean-2a044a4da0e2 | ['Patrick Paul Garlinger'] | 2020-09-18 14:33:23.735000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Equality', 'Personal Development', 'Spirituality', 'Relationships'] |
Everidea Interactive Berhasil Lolos Sebagai Peserta Program Bantuan COVID-19 dari ENPACT | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/everidea/everidea-interactive-peserta-enpact-covid19-relief-programme-545416f24bac | [] | 2020-12-21 10:07:33.636000+00:00 | ['Program Bantuan', 'Enpact', 'Everidea Interactive', 'Relief Programme', 'Covid 19 Crisis'] |
Thank you Cocoa for feeling and doing something about the problem with homelessness. | Thank you Cocoa for feeling and doing something about the problem with homelessness. Great writing as always. | https://medium.com/@wjspirdione/thank-you-cocoa-for-feeling-and-doing-something-about-the-problem-with-homelessness-e12661af38fc | ['William J Spirdione'] | 2020-12-21 17:55:04.237000+00:00 | ['Homeless', 'Poetry'] |
A CEO’s Experience During the nCoV Crisis — Part II : On the Ground | Besides the option of ordering food using online platforms, many restaurants are open in the normal sense of the word, albeit with some rules. For instance, I have had my lunch at an Italian eatery today (picture above) while working on my circuits and running simulations via remote access. I was however, the only person at the restaurant (I sat in the open) for that two hours, except for food delivery guys who dropped by every so often to pick up their orders. I finally left because it was too windy for me to have my WeChat teleconference.
Despite the strict quarantine measures and disruptions, Shanghai city hums along with quiet resolve and expansive tenacity, rapidly adjusting herself to the new circumstances — there have had been no disruption to water, electricity and food, and streets continue to be maintained. Somehow, even the cats in the vicinity of our workplace get fed too.
Our resident black cat
Restoring Functions
Our engineers and partners have made significant progress over the past two days to address our concerns regarding logistics and the supply chain. I was informed today that our manufacturing partners resumed operations yesterday and are producing our Espressif modules. A couple of new module designs were also being sent to our partners.
I don’t remember if I have had ever been so happy about such routine matters—they now rank high on The Checklist.
The Virus
In the cities other than Hubei, new infections are decreasing. In Shanghai, for instance, there were only 7 new cases detected today. In Hubei, there was a sharp rise in the number of infections (increase of more than 15,000) reported, and which was attributed to the change in the diagnostic criteria. The Hubei governor was also replaced by the central government today.
It’s not a perfect day, but things are moving in the correct direction.
Teo Swee Ann, CEO Espressif Systems
13 Feb 2020 | https://blog.espressif.com/a-ceos-experience-during-the-ncov-crisis-part-ii-on-the-ground-63a207292af6 | ['Teo Swee Ann'] | 2020-05-05 15:24:20.648000+00:00 | ['Covid', 'CEO', 'Ceo Blog', 'Coronavirus', 'Espressif'] |
“Vantage Point” (Short Form — MicroBlog) | “A lot of what you see depends on where you’re sitting.” — My Father.
Very few people actively seek out multiple viewpoints and new life paradigms.
If there is “o” or “0” painted on a wall, most would describe it as a circle, a zero, or the letter “O”.
Richard Feynman would see a hole.
But from yet another vantage point, you’ll see a wonderfully powerful spiral.
[image by Author]
Everything important in life should be examined from all angles.
Otherwise, your life will surely be short-changed.
In lak’ech, JaiChai
[image by Author]
This is Your TORUM Invitation.
JaiChai 12–16–2020. All rights reserved. | https://medium.com/@ijch/vantage-point-short-form-microblog-54c17f948647 | [] | 2020-12-16 15:12:51.611000+00:00 | ['Personal Growth', 'Microblog', 'Bloggertips', 'Blog', 'Blogger'] |
Slice of life observed or staying out of the rat race | Slice of life observed or staying out of the rat race Anoop Singh ·Dec 13, 2020
Sometimes the truth feels like lies and all the lies are trying to convince me that they are the truth. The truth about what ? The truth about my happiness, my confidence, my belief, about myself. Sometimes the time it’s hard to believe that you are doing right, because of all the stigma about life, how it should be lived. you are not allowed to change your path of this rat race. It feels like you have to fight with yourself first what do you really want, even you know the reality but to make a belief you need to understand yourself so that some random person did not hurt you about your own beliefs about yourself, what do you really want, even though you already know. | https://medium.com/@anoopsingh-27990/slice-of-life-observed-or-staying-out-of-the-rat-race-403cce4e0 | ['Anoop Singh'] | 2020-12-13 07:04:04.942000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Prompt', 'Hope', 'Storytelling', 'Rat Race'] |
Machine Learning Concept behind Linear Regression | Machine Learning Concept behind Linear Regression
Applying Simple ML model on CO2 Prediction
Photo by Alexander Tsang on Unsplash
Introduction
In the past recent years, there have been a lot of hypes on Artificial Intelligence (AI). You can find it almost anywhere from turning on the light with your voice to a fully autonomous self-driving car.
Most of modern AI requires a lot of data. The more you give, the better it learns. For instance, to train AI to understand an image of a cat, you need to give a lot of images of cats and non-cats so that it can distinguish between the two.
But how exactly does AI learn from the data?
In this post, we will look at a very simple model to get an idea of how AI learns. We will focus on the amount of global CO2 emission for the past 55 years and attempt to predict its amount in 2030.
CO2 Emission Data
The data we will be using is from WorldBank. Unfortunately, the data is not up to the current date of 2019 (at the time of writing this). It’s from 1960 to 2014, but this will do just fine for this experiment.
Fig 1: Amount of CO2 Emission annually from 1960 to 2014. Source: WorldBank Data
On the x-axis corresponds to the year (assuming year 0 is 1960) and on the y-axis corresponds to the amount of CO2 emission. Based on the chart, we might be able to make a rough estimation of what the value of 2030 should be.
Suppose we just draw a straight line that best fits this data, we could predict the future if we extend this line further and further.
Fig 2: Fit a line and use it to make a rough estimation at year 70 (2030)
Keep in mind that we can not accurately predict the future. Things might change for the better, but for simplicity, we just assume that the rate of changing is constant.
Linear Regression
Let’s bring in a little bit of math. The blue line above might be familiar to you. It’s a simple straight line that is represented by the equation below.
Uh huh. Now you remember. Again, x is the year and y is the amount of emission. To get the line shown in Figure 2, m=446,334, and b=9,297,274. Don’t worry about m and b. I will explain them in detail later.
In case we want to know info on the year 2030 (year 70 if we count from 1960), we can now use our equation above.
Now as promised, let’s take a close look at what m and b are.
Fig 3: Behavior of m on the line
In Figure 3, as we change the value of m, the line rotates around. Hence, variable m controls the direction of the line. Whereas in Figure 4, the variable b controls the position of the line by moving it up or down.
Fig 4: Behavior of b on the line
Learning Process
With m and b, we can control the line and adjust it to best fit our data.
The question now is how do we find the value of variables m and b? The idea is the following:
Randomize the value of m and b. Give the variables to a loss function to determine how bad the line is compared to the data, also known as error rate. Adjust the value of m and b based on the error rate. Go back to Step 2. Repeat until the variables stop changing.
Loss Function
If our line is very bad, this loss function will give a very big error. At the same time, if the line fits the data well, the error will be small.
Fig 5: The difference between predicted line and actual data
The line has its predicted value y’ every year. Then, we can compare the predicted value y’ to actual value y to find the difference. We compute this value on every year and take its average. This is also known as Mean Squared Error (MSE).
Fig 6: Closed form of MSE
Now we are almost ready to update our variables. There is one small catch. The error rate we found earlier is always positive. Pretty much we do not know which direction should update our line. Should it rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise? That is when Gradient Descent comes in.
Fig 7: Formula to update each variable (in this case, variable m)
In a nutshell, this tells the direction and how much each variable affects the error. The more effect it has, the more value it should change. Then, we can use this information to update our variables. We won’t dive deep down into the derivative, but if you are interested, you can check out this video on Coursera. I find the explanation there quite clear.
Note the alpha α, also known as, learning rate, is to control how much we should update our variables. Usually, we set it to a small value, like 0.001, so that we can slowly update our variables toward optimal value.
Good news: in practice, we don’t manually do this derivation.
Popular frameworks like Tensorflow or PyTorch will compute this automatically. But I put it here to give a brief idea of how it can know which direction to change the value.
Implementation
So, do you need to code everything as described above to get linear regression working? Fortunately, many existing libraries simplify everything for you. In this example, we will explore scikit-learn, a machine learning library built for Python, to predict CO2 emission.
With just a few lines of codes, scikit-learn makes linear regression very accessible. Line 9 alone does all the necessary steps needed to train the model. Phew, you were worry for nothing, weren’t you? Not only for linear regression, but also this applies to implementing many other ML algorithms with just a few lines of codes.
Conclusion
That’s it. Not so complicated right (except the derivation part)? Linear regression is a simple method yet quite effective even though it is just a straight line. In this post, we only looked at the case where there is only one variable (year). Actually, this can be extended to handle multiple variables, but that is the topic for later post. | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-machine-learns-from-data-a-simple-method-for-co2-pollution-prediction-af18430ce12b | ['Vitou Phy'] | 2019-11-04 12:27:27.745000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Gradient Descent', 'Predictions', 'Linear Regression'] |
Hiring the Right Type for the Task | by Tim Gouw on Unsplash
Imagine you’re a highly-focused software engineer. Detail-oriented, concerned primarily with getting the job done right. At times, others might be a little frustrated with your cautious approach, but the end product is invariably of high quality. You can’t stand interruptions, noise, and useless chatter.
Then somebody from sales comes over and sits down right next to your cubicle. Not only are they loud, but they don’t know- and apparently don’t seem to care- that their stories are disturbing the entire work group. As the noise and the laughter pierce your brain, you hunker down even more, ignoring the sales guy. It’s nearly impossible to concentrate, and as a result you may make mistakes. For you that’s a major problem.
That’s completely unacceptable. The sales guy doesn’t care. He’s still trying to get you to listen to what happened this past weekend. It’s hilarious!!!
No. It isn’t. It’s invasive, annoying, and affecting your work quality. But you continue to do your level best to concentrate over the guy’s noise. If you have to tolerate this too much more, you’re going to contact your recruiter.
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
The sales guy, on the other hand, is going out of his mind. Stuck in a back office with menial, boring, repetitive tasks, he’s dying for interaction. If I have to back there and spend another eight hours on reports, I’m going to quit tomorrow, he thinks. He’s a top performer, but his boss has been handing over maddeningly mindless responsibilities that have nothing to do with sales- at least in his opinion. I’m wasting my time here.
Two offices down along the edge of the building, an employee is having a tiff with one of the senior managers.
“You need to plan the company picnic,” the manager says. “It’s key to morale. I’ll give you last year’s program, and you can use that as a guideline. Make sure you talk to everyone about what kinds of food they want and their favorite activities. We want everyone involved.”
The young man balks. “I have deadlines,” he argues. “I don’t have the time to go around and talk to every single person in the department. I won’t make my goals. That’s going to make me look bad.”
“This is for the entire department,” the manager argues back. “If people aren’t happy, they aren’t going to work hard. You need to think about the larger needs of the company.”
The young man scowls, takes the paperwork and resentfully leaves her office. This ridiculous chore is an incredible waste of time, he thinks. She doesn’t realize how important my work is to the department.
The manager closes the door of her office. I hate this job, she thinks. Two months previously she was promoted out of her job as a team member, which she loved. Surrounded by people she knew well and respected, she now operates solo. She’s four states away from her friends. Isolated in her office all day, she misses the comfort, safety and routine of her team responsibilities. She’s already thinking about putting her resume together.
Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash
Hire Smart and Manage Well=High Productivity
Every day in companies everywhere, people end up angry, or they leave companies because they are placed in the wrong position for their natural gifts. When we hire people, part of our responsibility is to ensure that our employees land where they will bloom. That’s how we get their best work.
The famed psychologist Carl Jung developed what would become the basis for personality archetypes. Those basic archetypes inform the many versions of styles training that we see today: DISC, Social Styles, Myers-Briggs and many others. The London-based training company Speak First (https://www.speak-first.com/)divides those archetypes into animals: Owl, Lion, Monkey and Horse, which makes remembering each style much easier.
Being able to recognize each style, understand their work preferences and place them in conditions that allow them to maximize their best preferences is part of a manager’s job. That begins with hiring appropriately for each position, and understanding the work preferences of each style. A bad fit means poor work, resentment and guaranteed turnover.
Photo by Stefan Steinbauer on Unsplash
For example, in the situations above, our software engineer is an Owl: detail oriented, works best alone where he can concentrate on the minutae, quiet, focused, and superb at ensuring that everything is done right. Loud, talkative people are a bane to his existence.
The salesman, on the other hand, is a Monkey. Energetic, enthusiastic, superb at connecting with people, they are perfect for sales, public relations, marketing. They are the company party, and they have a very high need for applause and recognition. Isolating them in a back room with menial tasks drives them insane.
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
Our manager above, is a Horse, concerned with the welfare and happiness of her entire department. Her desire to have a company picnic is part of how she ensures a welcoming and happy atmosphere for her group. A great listener, she’s primarily interested in whether people are happy at work. When she was promoted to manager and moved away from her beloved team, it wasn’t a gift. If anything, she misses her “herd” more every day. She would like her new job a lot better if it were designed in such a way to allow her far more interaction rather than being stuck in her office most of the time.
Photo by Marius Ciocirlan on Unsplash
The young man our manager has assigned the picnic to is a Lion. With a strong ego and need to achieve, he is impatient about other’s needs, when they don’t coincide with his own. Motivated by getting his goals accomplished, the time-consuming process of engaging everyone else can be a burden. He feels out of control of his own destiny when asked to do tasks that he believes sucks time away from achieving his goals. Focused far more on the task at hand, people’s feelings and emotions sometimes get in the way, as far as he’s concerned. He plans to run the whole department one day.
Each of these people has particular likes, dislikes and strong tendencies. When folks like the Owl and Lion get stuck having to deal too much with people and feelings, their work satisfaction can plummet. Horses and Monkeys feed off other’s energy and happiness, but for different reasons.
Understanding what these style archetypes prefer is a huge part of the hiring process. When we develop a job description, the duties will tell us what kind of person will thrive in that position. When we’re interviewing we’re looking for like tendencies. The same thing happens when we move, promote, and place people in their work stations.
A perfect example of a classic promotion mistake is to put a superb salesperson in charge of a sales team. As someone who has trained sales for decades, I see this mistake all the time. A terrific individual contributor, your salesperson loved her job, her achievements, her perks and all the applause she got for nailing the whale clients. Suddenly now she’s a baby sitter for ten salespeople. This is not her primary skill set. As a born storyteller, she isn’t all that interested in their issues, problems and stories. She wants to tell hers around the donut box just like she used to. Now she’s stuck doing administrative duties which she despises, and she’s no longer in the field selling, which is her greatest gift to the company. She loves the title, hates the job.
by Asa Rodger on Unsplash
Archetypes are guidelines. None of us is locked in stone, and one of the demands of good employees is to learn to stretch and adapt. However, if that employee is simply not in the right position, no amount of coaching is going to help them make fundamental changes to who they are. To wit: as someone who is a combination Monkey/Horse, I thrive on audiences and relationships. The Army, in all its wisdom, assigned me to be an administration office shortly after I graduated from Officer’s Candidate School. I was isolated in a small dusty office, and given reams of paper to review and assess. I went out of my mind in a week and failed horribly at the job. I did my level best, but I was miserably mis-assigned. My commanding officer wasn’t pleased, but I got moved to the television studio, where I flourished and succeeded.
If you’ve got people whose performance has just plummeted, or have noticed that your new hire isn’t adjusting, it may well be that they’re not a fit for the position. Or, by promoting someone into a new role, you might have taken them out of the perfect spot and into a new role for which they are neither suited nor do they enjoy. This is how we lose good people.
The best managers take the time to consider personality archetypes when they hire, and they also ensure that the working environment allows each of those styles to maximize their gifts. This way our people feel valued, are able to put their best skills to work, and everyone wins. | https://jhubbel.medium.com/hiring-the-right-type-for-the-task-679f7192f2ef | ['Julia E Hubbel'] | 2018-07-10 13:56:27.268000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Management', 'Employee Engagement', 'Productivity', 'Hiring'] |
Love Will Be the Death of Us | The dam has broken and the next few months are a blur. I begin using words like polyamorous (meaning ‘many loves’) and non-monogamy in conversation. I learn that you don’t make any important decisions during NRE (new relationship energy) and that compersion (taking joy in your partner’s joy) is the opposite of jealousy, but that both can exist simultaneously.
I explore a variety of connection with multiple women and have the first sexual experience outside of my marriage. After 10 years with the same partner, the scent and curves of a new woman feels at once odd and exhilarating. I keep going. I learn that while possibilities for connection are endless, time and energy are not.
Katherine and I practice regular communication, though mostly I don’t see her. She embraces the openness with a vigour I’d never seen. Suddenly, she is free to entertain the secret desires she’d never confessed, perhaps even to herself. She calls ex-boyfriends to catch up, partly out of curiosity for their lives, and partly to flaunt her newfound sexual prowess.
I grow closer to a particular woman, Mya. We speak in poetry and myth, and she whispers a willingness to explore my untapped sexual nature. She’s also engaged to another, and both of us remain secure in our existing relationships, happy to explore our connection without the pressure of core partnership.
Late spring, Katherine and I stand on a deserted beach, playing fetch with our much-loved dog Tobi. I toss the stick in the water and the conversation turns toward our latest erotic adventures. I ask if she’s ever thought of exploring with her business partner Cameron. For the past 4 years, they had co-operated a successful yoga studio in our suburban city.
“Would that bother you?” she asks hesitantly.
“It makes sense,” I respond, picking up the stick again. “You already work well together. Seems like it would happen eventually.”
“Are you saying I can explore with him?”
A hint of jealousy surfaces. He is an accomplished athlete, fit, and handy with tools. In many ways my complete opposite. I remind myself the purpose of our open relationship is to explore our boundaries.
“Sure,” I say. I throw the stick back into the water, and Tobi rushes after it.
7.2013 — The tower is burning
Early one summer day, without hormone therapy or warning, Katherine’s menstrual cycle returns. She informs me in bed, breathless. We’re awash in the mystery. No guarantee of fertility, but a promising sign nonetheless.
She spends most of her time with Cam. I begin hearing stories of her vibrant nature from mutual friends. “I barely recognize this woman,” says one who has known her for years.
I can’t shake the feeling that Katherine is drifting away from me. We continue with our weekly checkins, but her shares are mostly uneventful. No, our external relationships aren’t competing for our own. Yes, we’re still deeply committed to each other.
I opt to spend a weekend away at a local music festival with Mya. On my way out the door, I choose a Tarot card from the deck, standard practice for ongoing insight into our relationship. The Tower. The image is a large burning Buddha, illuminated by lightning, fires raging across his skin. A man and a woman plunge from the figure.
Unsettled, I depart for the festival.
The next few days are magic. A bevy of playful adventures with friends, sweet connections, and beach bonfires. On the final day, after most of the others have packed up, I look upon the last night fading from the snowcapped mountains overhead.
Mya puts her arms softly around my waist. I’m gripped once again by an unbidden ache of sorrow. “I don’t know why, but I feel like I will say goodbye to Katherine soon.”
A few days later, Cam is at my house for a backyard BBQ for the yoga studio members. He’s awkward in his small talk. I let them host and mostly stay out of the way. The next morning, Katherine is visibly shaken and asks me to accompany her outside on the grass.
We sit in the afternoon sun. I don’t realize I’m holding my breath.
Finally, she says: “I’m pregnant.”
My mind races. She and I hadn’t been intimate in weeks. There was only one other possibility.
“With Cam,” she finishes.
Cue: dagger plunge directly into my heart. Cue: An impossible mixture of utter devastation and shining joy at the possibility of her being a mother. Something she’s wanted for so long.
“FUCK!” I scream, louder than I’ve ever been. I can’t look at her, I stare at the grass, as if I could stare hard enough so she would take back her words. I don’t believe it. It’s not possible. And yet.
The Tower is burning.
San Francisco — self portrait.
8.2013 — Myth of the One
In the days that follow, I’m not ready to collapse into existing expectations about what is to come. I ask her: what do you actually want? Was this an accident? Do you still want to be with me? Do you want the three of us to co-parent?
Amid ongoing tears and the wreckage of our old life, she confesses her terrible dilemma: I don’t think I can love more than one man. Therefore, I choose him.
Soon we are sitting across the table from my parents, married 30+ years, who look to us with cautious optimism. I’d already warned the news wasn’t what they might be expecting. In truth, to them and most of our friends, Katherine and I were the perfect couple. Loving, productive and stable, we never quarreled. Ever.
I break the news. “Katherine and I are separating.” My mother immediately bursts into tears. My father leaps into fix-it mode, suggesting the merits of marriage counselling. “We’re certain,” I confirm. They did not know about our open relationship, and I feel it is too much to reveal the pregnancy now.
Plus, I can’t admit the secret shame that I had screwed things up. I had ruined my marriage.
“I’m sorry,” my mother wept. “I’m sorry your marriage didn’t work.”
I spent the rest of the month on the road, returning only to pack my share of the belongings. No battle. No lawyers. Katherine finds the paperwork online and we fill it out on the kitchen table. We agree to split the mortgage equity. I will take the vehicle, the blender, and the Nintendo Wii. She will retain “the rest of the household contents.”
I spend the afternoon carrying my things out the front door and packing them in the car. It’s both freeing and sorrowful when I realize my life now fits into a 2002 Subaru hatchback. My plan is to catch a ferry to Victoria, where my friend has already set up a desk in her office. I had found a temporary apartment just outside downtown, close to Mya, whose long-term partnership had also ended for reasons that remain their own.
For one last time, I sit alone on the backyard patio of the house that no longer bears my name. I light the cigarette I had taken from Katherine’s secret stash (I rarely smoke) and watch it curl into the amber dusk.
A few hours before, she had revealed how she had begun drifting from our marriage the first time I’d confessed about kissing the other women, almost a year earlier. “You never told me,” I pleaded. “How could I have saved us?”
I believed wholeheartedly the myth of the One. The belief that human happiness means finding your other half, pledging them your heart and soul, and committing until death do you part.
She was my One. Yet I struggled for years to reconcile my desire for others with the inherited story of traditional monogamous marriage. The hidden cost of monogamy, when culturally reinforced as the only acceptable ideal, is the unquestioned coupling of sexual fidelity with “real” partnership. Anything falling outside these norms is, at best, labelled an unwillingness to commit, at worst, condemned for hedonistic promiscuity.
Herein lies the scorpion’s tale of the myth of the One:
You are only the One if you are the ONLY One. If your partner desires others, then you are not worthy of being the One. You are not enough.
Charles Eisenstein, author of The Ascent of Humanity, believes modern culture rests upon a foundational Story of Separation. The product of post-modernity and callous economic theory, the story goes thus: “What you are is an independent being in an indifferent universe, driven to maximize your own self-interest.” From this perspective, it’s get what you can, while you can, baby.
Finding a life partner to navigate these treacherous seas becomes not just a romantic ideal, but a necessity. Without that, a precarious and lonely future awaits. Behind the staggering divorce rates and bitter arguments that often follow suit, a conditioned betrayal lies unspoken: you promised you were my One. You lied.
Make no mistake — one person can never be another’s everything. It’s too much for them to bear. But that doesn’t stop many of us from trying and blaming ourselves for the almost certainty of failure.
For Katherine, I had vowed to keep our course steady. When I had decided to rock the boat, she had wisely fled to the nearest, safest ship.
I stubbed out my cigarette before it burned my fingers and headed toward the car. | https://medium.com/ian-mackenzie/love-will-be-the-death-of-us-7baa690dcd0 | ['Ian Mackenzie'] | 2017-11-02 21:06:51.834000+00:00 | ['Death', 'Polyamory', 'Divorce', 'Love And Sex', 'Marriage'] |
[C++] Multithreading and Concurrency: INTRODUCTION | Today, let’s quickly refresh some basic concepts and then taste a bit of concurrent code.
1. What is a thread?
Upon creation, each process has a unique thread of execution called main thread. It can ask the Operating System to create other threads, that share the same address space of the parent process (code section, data section, other operating-system resources, such as open files and signals). On the other hand, each thread has its own thread ID, stack, register set, and program counter. Basically a thread is a lightweight process, switching between threads is faster and IPC is easier.
2. What is concurrency?
The scheduler allocates, over time, the use of available cores between different threads in a non-deterministic way. This is called hardware concurrency: multiple threads running on different cores in parallel, each of them taking care of a specific task of the program.
→ N.B. The std::thread::hardware_concurrency() function is used to know how many tasks the hardware can truly run concurrently. If the number of threads exceeds this limit, we will possibly incur excessive task switching (switching between tasks many times per second to give an illusion of concurrency).
3. Basic thread operations with std::thread
Header | #include <thread>
| Launching a thread | std::thread t(callable_object, arg1, arg2, ..)
This creates a new thread of execution associated with t, which calls callable_object(arg1, arg2) . The callable object (i.e. a function pointer, a lambda expression, the instance of a class with a function call operator ) is immediately invoked by the new thread, with the (optionally) passed arguments. By default they are copied, if you want to pass by reference you have to warp the argument using std::ref(arg) . Also, remember that if you want to pass a unique_ptr you must move it ( std::move(my_pointer) ), since it cannot be copied.
| This creates a new thread of execution associated with t, which calls . The callable object (i.e. a function pointer, a lambda expression, the instance of a class with a function call ) is immediately invoked by the new thread, with the (optionally) passed arguments. By default they are copied, if you want to pass by reference you have to warp the argument using . Also, remember that if you want to pass a unique_ptr you must move it ( ), since it cannot be copied. Thread life-cycle | t. join () and t. detach ()
If the main thread exits, all the secondary threads still running suddenly terminate, without any possibility of recovery. To prevent this to happen, the parent thread has two options for each child:
→ Blocks and waits for the child termination, by invoking the join method on the child.
→ Explicitly declaring that the child can continue its execution even after the parent’s exit, using the detach method.
| and If the main thread exits, all the secondary threads still running suddenly terminate, without any possibility of recovery. To prevent this to happen, the parent thread has two options for each child: → Blocks and waits for the child termination, by invoking the join method on the child. → Explicitly declaring that the child can continue its execution even after the parent’s exit, using the detach method. To remember: a thread object is just movable, not copyable.
Here you can find a small code example of almost all the above theory.
4. Why is synchronization needed?
With multiple threads sharing the same address space and resources, a lot of operations become critic: multithreading requires synchronization primitives. This is why.
Memory is a haunted house
Memory cannot be considered as a “static warehouse” anymore, unless not haunted. Imagine: a thread is comfortably watching Netflix on a Smart TV, it blinks and the TV is gone. Panicking, it dials 911 on the phone and…“Thank you for calling Pizza Hut”. What is going on? Simply, the house is full ghosts (where ghosts are other threads): they are all in the same room, interacting with the same objects (this is called a data race), but they are ghosts for one another.
In order to act safely, a thread should declare what is using and check if the object is in use prior to touch it. Is thread Green watching TV? Well, then no one can touch the TV in any way (if anything, others can sit and watch it too). This can be done with a mutex. | https://medium.com/swlh/c-multithreading-and-concurrency-introduction-f640ce986fa7 | ['Valentina Di Vincenzo'] | 2020-07-27 08:35:43.325000+00:00 | ['Cpp', 'Programming', 'Multithreading', 'Synchronization', 'Concurrency'] |
Turing Test vs Chinese Room Argument | Albert Einstein once famously remarked that “ The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
Since the past two centuries, there has been a constant effort to define AI both in Medical and AI community. Two of the most famous attempt to tackle this are Turing Test and The Chinese room argument.
Turing test is a method of measuring AI on whether they are capable of thinking like humans.
The Turing Test is a deceptively simple method of determining whether a machine can demonstrate human intelligence: If a machine can engage in a conversation with a human without being detected as a machine, it has demonstrated human intelligence.
In simple words even if you are not a human but act like one you are human.
On the other hand, according to American philosopher John Searle said that the Turing test was inadequate. The argument and thought-experiment are now generally known as the Chinese Room Argument.
Imagine youself in a closed room. Now suppose a girl passed a chinese letter to you. You don’t know anything about chinese but you have chinese to english(and vice-versa) computer program. With the help of that you decode and converse with the girl. The narrow conclusion of the argument is that programming a digital computer may make it appear to understand language but could not produce real understanding.
Searle argues that the thought experiment underscores the fact that computers merely use syntactic rules to manipulate symbol strings, but have no understanding of meaning or semantics. Computers at best can simulate what we can understand.
Which one is more appealing to you? I think most people will go will Searle because that just makes us think that we are much more interesting and complex to decode.😯
Photo by kazuend on Unsplash
Well, both theory might intrigue you on giving you thought on which is better I would also like to put a few cons of each theory.
Turing did not explicitly state that the Turing test could be used as a measure of intelligence or any other human quality. He wanted to provide a clear and understandable alternative to the word “think”, which he could then use to reply to criticisms of the possibility of “thinking machines” and to suggest ways that research might move forward.
One of the most commonly raised objection is that even though the person in the Chinese Room does not understand Chinese, the system as a whole does — the room with all its constituents, including the person.
So here I conclude my thoughts on this. What's your take on both? Do you think anyone can be standalone used as metric of measuring intelligence?
Here are a few of my other blogs. | https://medium.com/ai-in-plain-english/turing-test-vs-chinese-room-argument-4e7592c3277 | ['Parth Chokhra'] | 2020-10-22 16:27:57.540000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Philosophy', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'AI', 'Data Science'] |
Kicked Out of Your Own Company: What To Do | Kicked Out of Your Own Company: What To Do
It happens more than we admit: Entrepreneurs get kicked out of their own companies. Susan Strausberg shares what to do when it happens to you.
As the co-founder and CEO of EDGAR Online, I ran the company for thirteen years. For the vast majority of that time I was fully focused on the development and growth of the company, and firmly committed to remaining the CEO until I felt we’d achieved our vision. But after a very desirable acquirer backed out, my investors grew restless and pushed for a succession plan. Two months later, I was informed by the board that the succession plan had been accelerated and that our President would now be the CEO.
This sort of scenario happens far more often than either entrepreneurs or investors like to admit. Here’s how, when the time comes, you can be prepared:
Write Your Succession Plan
Whether your company is public or private, make sure you have a succession plan and that your interests are protected. Assume that your separation agreement will have a non-compete clause, and make sure you understand the terms of it. The non-compete should related to your company’s business specifically, and should not prohibit you from other types of ventures. Even if you live in California, where most non-competes are unenforceable, you don’t want to be heading to court just as you’re being ousted.
My non-compete restricted me from engaging in ventures in financial information, which I thought was reasonable. Since I had significant stock ownership in my company it would have been bizarre for me to try to complete with a company that I was hoping would help me realize a significant payout. In reality, broad or overly general non-competes rarely hold up in court, so it is in both parties’ interests to be clear and fair.
Keep a Stiff Upper Lip
When the rug gets pulled out from under you, you have to somehow keep it together. You have to immediately come to terms with the decision and behave with extreme dignity that befits the legacy you plan to leave. Above all, as unpleasant as it can be, you need to understand that you had anticipated this and had participated in the succession process.
When it happened to me, I called a trusted advisor for input and sympathy. His first question was, “Did you cry?” I said, “No,” and he congratulated me, saying that is the thing people fear most about woman CEOs. (Great.) His next question was, “Are you going to stay on the board?” That’s an important question, because as long as you remain on the board, you are subject to regulations concerning purchases or sales of stock in the company. You’re also setting yourself up for some pretty uncomfortable meetings. I remained on the board until it became absolutely clear that my input would either be ignored or worse.
Get Out of Dodge — At Least Mentally
You need to get a new perspective immediately. A fresh start will give you a sense of relief, which you will desperately need. I started a new venture, and we decided that New York was not the right place to do that. The conditions of my non-compete, plus my pride in EDGAR Online, made it impossible to engage my original founding team. We moved to Austin, Texas where we felt the environment would be more supportive.
Yes, You Could Do Better. Forget It.
Don’t stress over the problems of your former company. Maybe the stock is tanking and the new management is clearly clueless. You can’t do anything about it. Think about it this way: You want to concentrate on the new company, in which there are a myriad of things you actually can control.
Ask yourself this: Are you as passionate about your next innovation as you were about the previous one(s)? Are you driven to look forward, not back? Can you apply everything you learned at that earlier company to make your next one even more successful? The opportunity to feel the rush of a start-up is not limited to your first company. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Susan Strausberg is the co-founder of 9W Search, a next generation financial search engine aimed primarily at a mobile audience. 9W Search partners with IBM Watson. In 1995 Susan co-founded EDGAR Online, Inc. She served for 13 years as CEO until 2007, and additionally as President from 2003 to 2007. EDGAR Online is the first commercial internet distributor of SEC-based financial information. The company was a pioneer in the information industry revolution using cutting edge technology to bring high value to publicly available data and to democratize access to information that was formerly unavailable to non-professionals. EDGAR Online was acquired by RR Donnelley in 2012. Susan is an active member of the Austin technology community and participates in panels and programs focused on entrepreneurship. | https://medium.com/been-there-run-that/kicked-out-of-your-own-company-what-to-do-b3713a3a8c1a | ['Springboard Enterprises'] | 2018-10-02 15:01:01.117000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Startup', 'Women Entrepreneurs', 'Business Development'] |
SDG Series: Life on Land | Note: This post is by Zahra Biabani.
So far, human activity has resulted in the degradation of two billion hectares of land, meaning that soil quality and land productivity have diminished across much of the world. This loss of land quality directly affects the livelihoods and wellbeing of more than 3.2 billion people, and indirectly us all. It also threatens millions of non-human species.
In order to protect our planet and its many life forms, companies and other organizations have turned to innovative, tech-driven solutions for pressing problems like species endangerment, land degradation, forest clearing, and desertification. SDG 15 outlines numerous threats to terrestrial land and ecosystem — and offers many promising solutions.
Challenges
Challenge: Plant and Species Extinction
The world is so beautiful in part because of the vast diversity of species here on land. Unfortunately, this diversity might not last forever. About 68% of the 12,914 plant species evaluated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature are threatened with extinction. Of the 9,526 invertebrate species evaluated, some 30% were deemed at risk for extinction.
Both plant and animal species extinction is often a direct cause of loss of biodiversity. A domino effect can follow because the extinction of one species in a complex ecosystem inevitably leads to the extinction of other species in that ecosystem. Reduced biodiversity caused by extinction can have far-reaching consequences for even humans, including the spread of disease and interruption to food systems.
Challenge: Deforestation
Trees are the lungs of our earth, making them an incredibly important resource to protect. Yet an estimated 18 million acres (7.3 million hectares) of forest, an area about the size of Panama, are lost each year. This forest loss is harmful to both forest-dwelling species and city-dwellers alike.
Locally, forest loss means habitat loss for many animals. Globally, deforestation results in greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. The World Wildlife Foundation estimates that 15 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation. Trees are also important carbon sinks; they are invaluable for long-term carbon storage in the ground and should be protected as a tool for carbon capture.
Challenge: Desertification
Across the globe, lush green land is turning dry and brown. The persistent degradation of drylands has led to the desertification of 3.6 billion hectares. Desertification is the degradation of drylands in which fertile areas become arid, decreasing soil health and biological productivity. Currently, 2.6 billion people depend directly on agriculture for their main income. Some 52% of land used for agriculture is moderately or severely affected by soil degradation, threatening the livelihoods of these 2.6 billion people.
Emerging Solutions
Solution: Fighting Poaching and Animal Endangerment
Keeping track of endangered and extinct species is challenging. The Newton Project is using NewChain, its proprietary blockchain, to track the location and behaviors of endangered animals through a chip-monitoring system. NewChain’s operators tag the leaders of endangered species groups. These tags relay data back to the blockchain. Additionally, NewChain is using drones to collect data on the location and patterns of poachers. Governments and other organizations can then use this data to better gauge the threat of poaching and illegal trafficking.
Solution: Planting Trees and Paying Wages
Deforestation, the destruction and removal of trees, has long been a pernicious threat. There are two main ways governments and organizations address deforestation: by establishing laws that regulate the practice and by planting trees for reforestation. The latter has been popular among proactive companies with an environmental or social responsibility focus.
One obstacle to reforestation is a general lack of transparency about where trees are being planted and who is planting them. Regen Network and the Rainforest Foundation have joined forces to launch a pilot blockchain project that brings transparency to reforestation and uses smart contracts to provide the Indigenous Ticuna community (of Buen Jardin de Callarú, Peru) financial support for their tree planting. The Ticuna have pledged to conserve 1,000 hectares of Amazon rainforest through the establishment of a deforestation monitoring system, along with their proactive reforestation efforts.
Solution: Drought Management
Drought is a leading cause of desertification. A Spanish research collective called Cetaqua is currently using Microsoft Azure’s Blockchain to monitor critical water-related information like relevant meteorological data, reservoir and groundwater levels, river flows, and agricultural production in southern Spain. Cetaqua uses this information to create predictive modeling for water demand and usage, which can then be used to better inform water management decisions come drought seasons.
Conclusion
Life on land is threatened by current human activity. In order to reverse the damage done and in order to prevent bleak projections from becoming bleak realities, we must empower ourselves with the data to make necessary changes. Blockchain-based projects can help us marshal and put necessary data into positive action. For more on blockchain’s many possibilities, learn how Topl has been changing the world. | https://medium.com/topl-blog/sdg-series-life-on-land-e75ae708a549 | ['Chris Malloy'] | 2021-07-02 18:32:44.608000+00:00 | ['Impact Investing', 'Sustainability', 'Sdgs', 'Impacttech', 'Life On Land'] |
You Can Say No to After School Activities | My husband and I have disagreed about this since before we had kids. He said he wanted his kids to play football in a league. I said if he wanted them to play football he could go in the backyard and play it with them.
We have three girls now so there hasn’t been that much football. But there also haven’t been many afterschool activities.
One reason is that I don’t want to spend all my time driving my kids around. I don’t want to play taxi service like a lot of the moms I know. It will not make me happy. In fact, I think it will make me disgruntled, like the moms I know that do it.
And yes, that’s selfish. But I am a better mom when I pay attention to what makes me happy and don’t live my life by giving everyone else priority over me.
Up until a couple years ago, we were both working full time and the kids were in full time care. We didn’t even have time for more stuff. We wanted to do stuff with them.
Also, when my kids are really interested in an activity, I am open to it. When they wanted to do ninja warrior and they were both in the same class once a week, it wasn’t a problem.
Right now they want to do a dance class and my husband said he would sign them up. I said, “You know if you sign them up for dance class that means you’re in charge of that and you’re the one bringing them, right?”
I don’t think my children are going to be professional athletes, and maybe I’ve already taken that decision away from them, but I don’t think so. My brothers were professional athletes and I have an idea of the commitment that takes. But my oldest child is only 8 years old and I don’t think we’ve taken that decision away yet.
They’re way more interested in dance and singing anyway, and they do that all the time at home. We give them plenty of space and opportunity for that, even if it hasn’t happened at a studio yet.
There are definitely times I think at least one of them might be a professional in the entertainment industry, and if so I can provide the videos of them singing/dancing at age 3.
I have friends that feel guilty about not having their kids in more activities. I can’t relate to that because I don’t feel any guilt about it. Will there be a day where one of my children laments me not introducing some activity to them earlier? Probably, but I think that’s just the way life goes. I want to provide my children with all the opportunities I can, but I also want to live my life. | https://medium.com/@rachel-bowman-jgtd/you-can-say-no-to-after-school-activities-556e3dfef73d | ['Rachel Bowman'] | 2021-09-10 14:12:28.104000+00:00 | ['Kids', 'Mom Guilt', 'Parenting Advice', 'Parenting', 'Moms'] |
How Congress Can Leverage Action on New START | By Daryl G. Kimball,
Executive Director
Every U.S. president since John Kennedy has successfully concluded at least one agreement with Russia or the Soviet Union to reduce nuclear dangers. These agreements have helped to slash nuclear stockpiles, manage nuclear competition, and provide greater stability, thereby reducing the risk of nuclear catastrophe between the world’s two largest nuclear actors.
The sun rises behind the U.S. Capitol on December 17, 2010, when the full U.S. Senate debated its Resolution of Ratification for New START. (Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
In March 2018, President Donald Trump said he wanted to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin “to discuss the arms race, which is getting out of control.”
Since then, however, Trump and Putin have barged ahead with costly plans to replace and upgrade their massive nuclear arsenals. The bilateral nuclear relationship has gone from bad to worse.
The July 2018 Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki yielded nothing, not even an agreement to resume “strategic stability” talks. The simmering dispute over Russia’s violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty reached the boiling point in October 2018 when Trump said he would terminate the pact, which had eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons.
Worse still, the United States and Russia have not begun talks to extend the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which caps each side’s deployed strategic warheads to no more than 1,550 and delivery vehicles to no more than 700.
Without the INF Treaty or New START, there would be no legally binding, verifiable limits on U.S. or Russian nuclear arsenals for the first time since 1972.
Because there is no realistic chance to negotiate a New START replacement by 2021, the logical step for both sides is simply to extend the treaty by five years to 2026, as allowed in Article XIV of the agreement. Putin has indicated he would like to begin talks to extend the treaty, but Trump remains undecided.
The U.S. military continues to see great value in New START. In a December 2018 report to Congress, the Defense Department said that, without the treaty “the United States would lose access to valuable information on Russian strategic forces, as well as access to Russian strategic facilities.”
Unfortunately, National Security Advisor John Bolton, who called for abandoning New START before he joined the Trump administration, is leading the ongoing interagency review on the treaty’s extension. Sources indicate Bolton, true to form, is pushing to nix New START.
With the future of New START in jeopardy, members of Congress from both sides of the aisle need to step in and use the power of the purse to attempt to prevent Trump and Bolton from blowing up the last remaining U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control agreement and to bring nuclear weapons costs under control.
As Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), ranking member on the Foreign Relations Committee, noted last September, “[B]ipartisan support for nuclear modernization is tied to maintaining an arms control process that controls and seeks to reduce Russian nuclear forces…. We’re not interested in writing blank checks for a nuclear arms race with Russia.”
To send a message to the administration, Congress this year should prohibit funding to increase the number of nuclear weapons above the limits set by New START, so long as Russia continues to stay below treaty ceilings. Such an approach would guard against a breakout by either side and help to maintain strategic stability.
As the Defense Department reported to Congress in 2012, Russia “would not be able to achieve a militarily significant advantage by any plausible expansion of its strategic nuclear forces, even in a cheating or breakout scenario under the New START Treaty, primarily because of the inherent survivability of the planned U.S. strategic force structure.”
Congress should also take steps to challenge the Trump administration’s excessive nuclear force plans, especially if the administration is going to default on its obligation to limit and reduce excess Russian and U.S. nuclear forces.
The Trump plans call for spending roughly $500 billion over the next 10 years to maintain and replace U.S. nuclear delivery systems and their associated warheads and supporting infrastructure, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This enormous and growing bill is unsustainable and unnecessary. According to a 2013 Pentagon assessment, U.S. strategic nuclear force levels are at least one-third larger than necessary to deter nuclear attack.
More realistic and affordable options to maintain a credible nuclear arsenal can and should be pursued regardless of whether New START is extended. But Congress must also make clear to the administration that the evisceration of arms control is unacceptable.
One option Congress could pursue is to freeze funding for the major nuclear delivery system and warhead modernization programs at today’s levels, which would force delays in the schedules for these programs. This would get the attention of the White House and Pentagon and put pressure on the administration to make the right decision on New START.
If Trump is not ready or able to take the steps necessary to prevent a dangerous new U.S.-Russian nuclear arms race, Congress should be ready to do so. | https://armscontrolnow.medium.com/how-congress-can-leverage-action-on-new-start-24685ce62ac6 | ['Arms Control Association'] | 2020-10-30 16:47:56.082000+00:00 | ['Democrats', 'New Start', 'Republicans', 'Congress', 'Nuclear Weapons'] |
Tesla’s Elon Musk ditches California for Texas. Here’s what awaits him | Elon Musk, the inventor, investor and capitalist, has called it quits on California, his home for the past 25 years. He’s gone to Texas.
As reported by FOX Business on Tuesday, “For myself, yes, I have moved to Texas,” Musk told Wall Street Journal editor in chief Matt Murray at a CEO Council Summit.“We’ve got the Starship development here in South Texas where I am right now. We’re hopefully going to do a launch later today. And then we’ve got big factory developments just outside of Austin for Giga Texas as well.”
With Tesla’s soaring stock price,Musk has become America’s (and the world’s), second-richest person.
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The move to Texas means that he will increase his chances at avoiding a 13.3% state income tax on the capital gains he takes in the event he sells Tesla stock or receives bonuses — though California’s Franchise Tax Board can be known for their relentless pursuit of income taxes across state lines. Texas has no personal income tax.
He’s not alone. What started as a trickle may become a flood.
TESLA’S ELON MUSK CONFIRMS TEXAS MOVE FROM CALIFORNIA, WARNS STATE ON EXODUS
Musk’s personal change of address follows quickly on the heels of Hewlett Packard Enterprise moving from Silicon Valley to Houston, Joe Lonsdale, like Musk, a Silicon Valley founder (Palantir and Addepar) and venture capitalist moving to Austin, and innovative millionaire podcaster Joe Rogan moving from Los Angeles to Austin.
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And, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, it isn’t just the rich and famous who are leaving California. Every year for the past 15 years, about 100,000 more Californians leave the state than other Americans move in, with the most popular destination consistently Texas, 1,300 miles to the east.
MUSK ADDS NEARLY $10B TO NET WORTH IN ONE DAY, CLOSING IN ON BEZOS, RICHEST PERSON IN THE WORLD
Commenting on California’s business climate, Musk likened the Golden State to a sports team that starts winning for so long that its players take things for granted and get complacent and entitled and “…then they don’t win the championship anymore.”
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The Tesla and SpaceX CEO noted he still has a large corporate presence in California and observed, “Tesla is the last car company still manufacturing cars in California. SpaceX is the last aerospace company still doing significant manufacturing in California.”
He then drove the point home at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council summit on Tuesday saying, “There used to be over a dozen car plants in California. And California used to be the center of aerospace manufacturing. My companies are the last two left.”
MUSK ADDS NEARLY $10B TO NET WORTH IN ONE DAY, CLOSING IN ON BEZOS, RICHEST PERSON IN WORLD
I can personally attest to Musk’s claim. I worked in California’s aerospace industry for 13 years prior to being elected to the State Assembly in 2004. By the time I termed out in 2010, the headquarters at which I consulted had vacated the state. The next year, I moved to Texas.
Tesla looked to Texas to begin building a new Gigafactory this summer, breaking ground outside of Austin in a matter of weeks. A similar effort in California would have consumed five years with millions of dollars tied up in environmental lawsuits likely brought by labor unions — a common practice known in California as “greenmail.”
Musk criticized California’s heavy regulatory climate, employing the analogy, “You have a forest of redwoods and the little trees can’t grow.” He suggested this results in government-enforced monopolies and duopolies because startups get strangled by high regulatory compliance costs.
California should “just get out of the way” of innovators, Musk said.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott frequently tells businesses about the benefits of moving to Texas. Business relocation experts say firms can save about 32% of their operating costs by moving out of California to Texas, largely due to tax and regulatory savings, but also lower energy costs, land costs, and housing costs for employees.
Last May, Musk threatened to move Tesla out of California in a dust-up over conflicting COVID-19 restrictions that shut down Tesla’s factory in Fremont in the San Francisco Bay area. Musk called the health orders “fascist” and said the stay-at-home orders were “forcibly imprisoning people in their homes.”
Soon after, Democrat San Diego California State Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez tweeted “F*ck Elon Musk.”
In Musk’s move to Texas, he appears to not only be getting the last word but also following in the footsteps of one of the most famous early Texans, Davy Crockett, who after losing his reelection campaign for Congress in 1834 said: “…you may all go to hell and I will go to Texas.”
Musk might add today, “And save hundreds of millions on my income taxes.”
Chuck DeVore is Vice President of National Initiatives for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, he served as a California State Assemblyman from 2004 to 2010 and is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Retired Reserve. | https://medium.com/@breaking-surface-movie-20-21/teslas-elon-musk-ditches-california-for-texas-here-s-what-awaits-him-dd0ee61a1fa5 | [] | 2020-12-09 14:38:07.010000+00:00 | ['Elon Musk', 'News', 'California', 'Tesla'] |
Slingbox brilliantly solved a problem that no longer exists | The news that Sling Media will soon shut down the servers that power its Slingbox devices has conjured a complex cocktail of emotions, including a shot of outrage, a dash of resignation, and strong dose of nostalgia.
Of course, those who currently own a Slingbox—a device that captures video from your DVR and “slings” it to another device, such as a phone, a tablet, or a desktop PC—are rightly furious, as they now face the prospect that in two years, their pricey players (the most recent model, the Slingbox M2 from 2015, cost $200 at launch) will soon be little more than snazzy-looking paperweights.
The resignation part follows the steady trickle of bad news coming from Sling Media about the players, first and foremost the announcement in 2017 that the Dish Network subsidiary would stop making the devices. In late 2019, Sling Media axed versions of the Slingplayer app for Android and Roku, another ominous sign. In short, the writing has been on the wall for some time.
[ Further reading: Amazon Prime Video vs Hulu vs Netflix ]The nostalgia comes for those of us who have been following the Slingbox saga since the early days. First released back in 2005—when the Palm Treo 700w was the hottest cell phone around, Netflix was still a DVD-by-mail service, and YouTube didn’t even exist (not quite yet, anyway)—the whimsical, candy bar-shaped Slingbox was nothing short of magical.
All you had to do was hook the Slingbox up to your DVR via an S-Video input (remember those?), connect the player to an ethernet cable, and plug in an IR blaster for DVR control. Then you installed a software client on your PC (Mac support came later, as did apps for the Symbian-powered smartphones of the time), and … presto! Live TV on your computer, streamed from your DVR, and it worked anywhere that you had an internet connection, from across the room to across the country. Oh, and no monthly subscription fees, either.
It’s hard to remember what a revelation the Slingbox was, partly because it’s difficult to imagine a world without Netflix (which didn’t start streaming video until 2007), Hulu, YouTube (which wouldn’t launch until the end of 2005), Amazon Prime Video, and all the other ways we stream video, both live and on demand, to any screen at our disposal. Looking back 15 years later, I have to keep reminding myself that—oh right!—you couldn’t just rent a TV show and watch it on your iPhone (there were no iPhones yet), nor could you stream CNN in a browser, mobile or otherwise.
Later versions of the Slingbox would rectify the original’s (often painful) limitations. The Slingbox Pro-HD from 2010, for example, was the first Slingbox to support HD video streaming, while 2012’s Slingbox 500 finally added Wi-Fi support. In 2014, the Slingbox M1 served up most of the 500’s features in a smaller, cheaper package. (The last Slingbox ever released, the M2 in 2015, was essentially just an M1 retread that met with a chilly reception.) And of course, Slingbox clients for PCs and Symbian smartphones gave way to SlingPlayer apps for iOS and Android.
But even as the Slingbox packed in more features, the streaming video landscape grew exponentially faster, with YouTube becoming a thing shortly after the original Slingbox launch, streaming pioneer Hulu making its debut in 2007, and Netflix jumping on the bandwagon right around the same time. On-demand streaming services were soon followed by over-the-top live TV streaming, and now, the ability to channel surf on our phones is commonplace.
Though it all, Slingbox always had a killer feature: no subscription fees, ever! (Although the boxes themselves weren’t exactly cheap, with the Slingbox 500 going for a stiff $300.) But hooking up a Slingbox to your DVR was always a clunky process, involving a tangle of cables and dependent on the uplink speed of your broadband connection. On the other hand, signing up for a streaming TV service, while pricey, is a cinch.
Dish Network’s parent company, EchoStar, acquired Sling Media in 2007. The final Slingbox—the model M2—landed in stores in 2015, the same year that -. Two years later, Sling Media stopped making Slingboxes for good, and in 2020, well, here we are.
It’s always a shame to hear a pioneer like Slingbox going the way of the dodo, and for those users who will soon be left with useless Slingboxes, I feel your pain. We’ve been writing too many stories lately about gadgets that go dark after their manufacturers lose the will to keep the lights on.
But the Slingbox was made to fill a void that’s now teeming with options, from Netflix and Hulu to Plex and Tablo. Streaming TV took off and moved on, and sadly, Slingbox didn’t move along with it.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@rachel60791797/slingbox-brilliantly-solved-a-problem-that-no-longer-exists-6258ed7383a4 | [] | 2020-12-05 05:53:01.126000+00:00 | ['Chromecast', 'Music', 'Services', 'Streaming'] |
Software Design Patterns | What are Software Design patterns?
Wikipedia says following about the Software Design Patterns -
A Software Design Pattern is a general, reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem within a given context in software design. It is not a finished design that can be transformed directly into source or machine code. Rather, it is a description or template for how to solve a problem that can be used in many different situations. Design patterns are formalized best practices that the programmer can use to solve common problems when designing an application or system.
Design patterns are templates to solve common problems in Software engineering. They provide repeatable solutions, which you can apply to some of the common problems you come across.
Design patterns are not finished solution or a code or a class or a library that you can import in your project. They are a generic solution for solving a problem. Each project will have a slightly different way to solve it.
Why should you learn Design patterns?
Source Google/Giphy
Why would you even consider learning Design patterns? You can write codes even without them. I can give you a few reasons why -
Something you need to know to be a better Software Engineer — Design patterns can help you be a better Software Engineer. In computer programs, very often some of the complex problems can be solved easily and elegantly by the use of Design patterns. Just by knowing about the Design patterns and knowing how to apply one, you can save a lot of time and improve the overall quality of code you deliver. All of this will help us grow and become a better Software engineer.
— Design patterns can help you be a better Software Engineer. In computer programs, very often some of the complex problems can be solved easily and elegantly by the use of Design patterns. Just by knowing about the Design patterns and knowing how to apply one, you can save a lot of time and improve the overall quality of code you deliver. All of this will help us grow and become a better Software engineer. Solutions already exist — Most of the problems you might encounter in your life, writing codes are not new. There has already been a bunch of people who have seen that problem, worked on it for days and came up with a solution and most likely written about it somewhere. You can use their knowledge and experience. You do not need to build the solution from scratch. You only have to learn to identify them.
— Most of the problems you might encounter in your life, writing codes are not new. There has already been a bunch of people who have seen that problem, worked on it for days and came up with a solution and most likely written about it somewhere. You can use their knowledge and experience. You do not need to build the solution from scratch. You only have to learn to identify them. Improve communication of idea using common vocabulary — You can easily convey your idea by just using the Design pattern name instead of describing all the technical details. It helps you in communicating the idea clearly.
— You can easily convey your idea by just using the Design pattern name instead of describing all the technical details. It helps you in communicating the idea clearly. The standard way to solve a problem — Design patterns provide a tried and tested way to solve a problem. Using these tried and tested approach to solve a problem will speed up your overall development process. Using a design pattern in your project will also help you uncover issues which you might not have uncovered until very late had you not used it.
— Design patterns provide a tried and tested way to solve a problem. Using these tried and tested approach to solve a problem will speed up your overall development process. Using a design pattern in your project will also help you uncover issues which you might not have uncovered until very late had you not used it. Code readability — Design patterns also improves code readability amongst the people familiar with the Design patterns.
The Gang of Four
A group of four very smart people wrote a book title — Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software back in 1994. These four people were Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides. They are also referred to as GoF.
Their book has been a cornerstone in the field of Software Engineering. Published over 25 years ago, this book remains very popular and a must-read amongst Software Engineers. It documented 23 design patterns in three categories, namely Creational, Structural & Behavioral.
Types of Design Patterns
The Gang of Four categorized their 23 Design Patterns in three groups, namely -
Creational — They deal with the creation of objects. Singleton & Factory are examples of creational design patterns.
— They deal with the creation of objects. Singleton & Factory are examples of creational design patterns. Structural — They deal with the relationship between the objects. Adapter is an example of structural design patterns.
— They deal with the relationship between the objects. Adapter is an example of structural design patterns. Behavioral — They deal with interaction & communication between the objects. Strategy is an example of behavioral design patterns.
Commonly used Design Patterns
Singleton Pattern — There can only be one instance of a given class. This is one of the most used/common design patterns. Singleton solves the problem of ensuring only one instance of a class. This pattern is generally used with other patterns like Facade, Factory & etc because we want only one instance of those classes. You can find details about this design pattern here.
— There can only be one instance of a given class. This is one of the most used/common design patterns. Singleton solves the problem of ensuring only one instance of a class. This pattern is generally used with other patterns like Facade, Factory & etc because we want only one instance of those classes. You can find details about this design pattern here. Strategy Pattern — This design pattern allows you to select algorithm/logic at runtime. For example, your program needs to pick the kind of Sorting algorithm it needs to use based on some logic.
— This design pattern allows you to select algorithm/logic at runtime. For example, your program needs to pick the kind of Sorting algorithm it needs to use based on some logic. Adapter Pattern — This design pattern works to connect two incompatible interfaces, that cannot be connected. It wraps an existing class in a new interface to make it compatible with client interface.
— This design pattern works to connect two incompatible interfaces, that cannot be connected. It wraps an existing class in a new interface to make it compatible with client interface. Factory Pattern — This pattern allows the creation of objects without having to specify the exact class of the object.
— This pattern allows the creation of objects without having to specify the exact class of the object. Proxy Pattern — In the Proxy pattern, a class functions as an interface to ‘something’. This ‘something’ could be a network request to get JSON response from a REST API or could be getting the JSON response from the locally cached Database.
These are some of the commonly used ones. GoF came up with 23 design patterns in total in their book. Following is the complete list as categorized by them. I plan to write a detailed blog on each one of them.
GoF’s 23 design patterns in 3 categories
Our approach
We are going to cover each of the Design patterns in details with multiple examples. From concept to actual code. I will also make sure I share the link of the git repo which you can refer, re-use & share.
Even though we are going to discuss all the 23 design patterns, you do not need to be an expert in all of them. You need to know a handful of the important ones and have a basic understanding of the rest.
Programming Language
In the more detailed discussion, I will try to use more than one language for the examples. Java will be one of them, the second language can be C++ or Swift or both.
Anti-Patterns
It is prudent for us to cover the Anti-Patterns at this point. We will discuss this in detail in upcoming blogs.
An anti-pattern is a common response to a recurring problem that is usually ineffective and risks being highly counterproductive.
As the name might suggest Anti-Patterns are common solutions to commonly occurring problems which give bad results. These Anti-Pattern solutions may appear effective and appropriate in the beginning but fail to give good results. They have more bad consequences than good ones.
Anti-patterns are some patterns in Software Engineering that are considered as bad programming practices. Contrary to design patterns which are common ways to solve common problems which have been formalized and are generally considered a good development practice, anti-patterns are the opposite and are undesirable.
For every Anti-Patterns there generally is an effective, documented & proven solution. Anti-Patterns are often result of insufficient knowledge. These Anti-Patterns have been used in real-world projects and found to be ineffective.
There must be at least two key elements present to formally distinguish an actual anti-pattern from a simple bad habit, bad practice, or bad idea: A commonly used process, structure, or pattern of action that despite initially appearing to be an appropriate and effective response to a problem, has more bad consequences than good ones. Another solution exists that is documented, repeatable, and proven to be effective.
A common example of Anti-Pattern is God object or Kitchen sink class. Having one class to do a number of things.
Path forward
The book written by The Gang of four titled Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software is the book to read. Additionally, you can also read — Head First Design Patterns by Eric & Elisabeth Freeman. My favorite is the Head First book. Head First have so many books in their collection and I adore their style. You should check it out here.
I plan to write detailed post on each one of the Design patterns. Continue reading them here. | https://medium.com/dev-genius/software-design-patterns-1b41de14ab8b | ['Stellar Software Company'] | 2021-01-29 06:34:21.694000+00:00 | ['Gang Of Four', 'Software Architecture', 'Software Design Patterns', 'Design Patterns', 'Programming'] |
Instead of a Wall, Why Don’t They do this? | Building his fantastical wall has become the single most important task for the president of the United States. As a result, the country has been torn apart. In the end, the only person this will benefit is President Trump. If the wall gets built, his uneducated minions will have a tremendous shrine to lay homage to their messiah. That will be the only benefit a wall would produce. If it does not get built, the wall will always remind his supporters of their struggle to keep minorities out of the country. And how the democrats fought against them. As a result, support for Trump will mature in time. With or without the wall, support for Trump will be intense for a long time.
Trump’s goal all along was to start his own TV channel. Take one look at Trump’s campaign team, stocked with such conservative media icons as Steve Bannon and Roger Ailes, and about a third of the Fox News staff. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Cable news is where the real money is. I guarantee that Trump was the most disappointed person to find out he won. He is hoping to maintain the affection of his minions. That is why he refuses to “denounce white supremacy” or he keeps harping about his stupid wall or his ludicrous attempts to reignite the coal industry. All of these tasks are to appease the same audience he intends to subscribe to Trump TV.
Let’s say that Trump really wanted to fix immigration and that he just wasn’t concerned about his own financial interest. For a fraction of the cost of this wall, why doesn’t he teach these unemployed coal miners a new trade. Instead, Trump convinces them that he will bring coal back. Like he could really restructure the global energy infrastructure, so that companies use coal, which costs more money and is more damaging to the environment.
A shocking news story a while ago was that unemployed coal miners were so convinced that Trump could succeed in bringing back coal, that they actually rejected free career training lessons offered by the state. If that doesn’t disgust you, you are made of stone!
Although the wall is a more barbaric solution, easily digested by the simple minds of his supporters, there are far more inexpensive and effective methods to curb immigration.
I always thought an easy way to stop illegal immigration is to fine the American bosses who hire them. I don’t condone this at all. As a result of our illegal workforce we are able to keep labor costs down, which is seen in the super market. But instead of building an ineffective wall, if you really must curb illegal immigration, maximize the fines for those who hire them.
Oh, wait a minute! Trump won’t do that, because then he’d be fining himself. His resorts are stocked with illegal immigrants. Possibly the greatest hypocrisy of modern day politics. While Trump was elected on promises to stop illegal immigration, he had thousands of illegals working for him.
Can’t be the sharpest knife in the drawer to have believed him and voted for him!
In this short little article, I suggested two methods that would certainly reduce illegal immigration. Trump insists on the wall. Although every expert has come out and said the wall would not help, Trump sticks his fingers in his fat ears and ignores them. Whether the wall is built of not, as long as he keeps riling up his supporters about it, in the end Trump will make a pretty penny off of it! | https://medium.com/politicalhaze/instead-of-a-wall-why-dont-they-do-this-7623df0a276f | ['Jordan Arizmendi'] | 2019-03-20 14:41:44.874000+00:00 | ['The Wall', 'Immigration Reform', 'Donald Trump'] |
Why Taking Time Off Is GOOD For Your Biz | In today’s business world, we’re constantly being told we should be hustling harder, working longer, grinding more.
But I’ve found things to be a bit different.
You don’t need to work the longest hours to make your business a success. In fact, I actively discourage it.
Last week was a school break and I decided to take the week off work so I could spend time with my girls.
We went out for lunch, enjoyed the remarkably great weather the UK is having and created memories that will last a lifetime. And now that I’m back at work? I’m refreshed, there’s a spring in my step and I’m energised to give my all.
Go back even just a few years, and I wouldn’t have been able to say the same. I was drained, working long hours and fast approaching burnout.
And while burnout was one of the best things to happen to my biz… you don’t have to reach that stage before you make changes to your biz and your work schedule.
Even during lockdown, while the temptation has been to work more, it’s important you take time to do non-work things.
But HOW? (I hear you ask!)
One of the side-effects of being a successful entrepreneur is that you’re so busy, right?
Wrong!
If you’re too busy to take the time off you and your biz needs? Something isn’t working ⛔
Here are the three things you need to have in place to be able to take time off from your biz:
🌟 Planning 🌟
Plan scheduled time off into your business calendar. If you know you want to have two launches throughout the year, make sure you also book the time off in advance too.
Not only does this allow you to get the much-needed time off, but it makes great business sense.
You have a solid plan of what’s launching, when it’s happening and you can organise all the moving parts around it. And you have no more scrambling at the last minute!
🌟 Processes 🌟
Everything you do in your biz has a process.
And the slicker these processes are, the better an experience your clients have but also the better things are for you!
Lead-gen
Sales
Onboarding
Customer Management
Retention
Offboarding
These can (and should) all have robust processes that take the guesswork out of your customer journey and mean you can start automating.
🌟 A solid support system 🌟
Whether this is a dedicated team of employees, contractors or virtual assistants, being able to leave your business for a few days/weeks requires a solid team who know exactly what they should be doing, and how they should do it.
Planning and processes play a massive role in this, but getting the right people in place can be the difference between a blissful break or more stress when you take time away.
If you’re ready to start reaping the benefits of your successful business but can’t risk stepping away for a break? Perhaps it’s time to get that solid team on board? 🔥
Hop on a FREE clarity call with me and we can chat about the next best move for you. | https://medium.com/@selina-5266/why-taking-time-off-is-good-for-your-biz-9fd1a9e271aa | ['Selina Johnson'] | 2021-06-08 17:19:48.653000+00:00 | ['Virtual Assistant', 'Planning', 'Process', 'Support', 'Business'] |
Centralized Logging Solution on Elasticsearch | Centralized Logging Solution on Elasticsearch
Logs are the holy grail for a company to react to any technical issue, identify the root cause, and fix the issue for the customer. More and more companies are moving towards predicting the issue and fixing it beforehand so as to improve the customer experience and reduce their costs in reactively fixing it.
I once worked with a company that had to fly a technician to the customer to inspect the product, identify the malfunctioning part, fly back and take the new part again to the customer. The end-to-end process from getting the call from the customer to finally fixing the product took around 5–8 days, 4 flights, and all the associated expenses.
Imagine the frustration of the end-user during this whole time.
At this customer, we implemented a solution to stream the logs from the product in real-time to the cloud. On the cloud, we implemented advanced analytics and ML models to predict the potential issues and also identify anomalies in real-time. The technician could now fix the potential problems during routine maintenance visits. ML models would predict the potential problem, its probability and the part to be replaced. The technician would take the part along and replace it during the visit. By switching to pro-active maintenance and repair, this company saved significant $$, reduced product downtime at the customer, and in turn, improved customer experience and satisfaction.
Since then, I have worked with various customers (IoT and Big Data) across domains and geographies to implement such a solution. Below is a high-level overview of such a solution that you can implement or experiment with.
The solution uses the following key services: | https://aws.plainenglish.io/centralized-logging-solution-on-elasticsearch-with-real-time-anomaly-detection-4b2c479e62ea | ['Akhil Jain'] | 2021-09-05 22:13:23.265000+00:00 | ['Elasticsearch', 'AWS', 'Programming', 'DevOps', 'Anomaly Detection'] |
Gestures | Gestures
by Leio McLaren on Unsplash
The same hand that pulls threads
of pink cirrus clouds
from the sky at dusk
snaps,
and for one second you blink
and miss everything
turning to black
A sprinkle of stars stirred
by the same fingertips that flooded
the day with light
flicker
as a palm,
lined and large as a landscape,
waves back and forth before them
Here below I am touched
by these gestures,
if only from the air whipped around
in their wake,
currents running through the spaces
separating knuckles
and streaming over webs that stretch
between graceful digits
reaching out to hold me | https://medium.com/for-the-sake-of-the-song/gestures-790bceca8340 | ['Sydney J. Shipp'] | 2020-11-26 00:11:59.891000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Spirituality', 'Nature', 'Poetry', 'Free Verse'] |
Do you fear the fin — you shouldn’t | Using cold hard data to challenge your irrational shark fears
You are walking toward the waves, and your mind starts playing iconic music that indicates danger is approaching from the deeper waters — what do you do? Run back to the shore? Hide under your beach blankie? Boldly move forward to catch some waves?
Many people fear that even getting near the ocean will result in a sudden shark attack. Hollywood has traumatized us! We easily believe sharks are lurking near the shore just waiting for a victim to wander into their mouths.
But it is not true.
Let’s Review the Shark Data
Someone is keeping track of global shark-related incidents. That someone is the Shark Research Institute. They collect and publish shark encounters in the Global Shark Attack File. One of the first reports is sourced from an excavated Italian vase that details a sea disaster in 725 BC.
What’s clear about this data is how unlikely a shark incident is and even more unlikely a shark-related incident is fatal. But look at the information if you are doubtful, you don’t have to believe me. On average, there are six reported fatalities a year worldwide with a few years standing out due to sea disasters. | https://medium.com/swlh/do-you-fear-the-fin-you-shouldnt-f93b248e8bb9 | ['Tricia Aanderud'] | 2019-07-22 15:34:03.546000+00:00 | ['Florida', 'Geospatial', 'Sharks', 'Data Visualization'] |
3:45pm | 3:45pm
A message to my lover:
A message to myself:
A message to us:
Today & again tomorrow
I am looking for my proposed purpose.
Before and again,
I continue to have frost bitten beliefs and under ripe dreams. My reaction to this life is to be love and detach from the ego I have built for myself. Let my subconscious arise. I understand words are fire. They will erupt and consume. I will learn. I am learning. When the door opens and our light is stolen by a cold stare, understand we are untempered but armored and we can never allow the weight of nothing to consume our reflection and stop us from becoming infinite. It makes a difference when you know why it matters. In rising, there is admittance, sacrifice, and withstanding that will hold us accountable. A key, unlike any lock. It’s real and quite possible. Days do not see in retrospect. We are here now and I want to laminate this love for when we meet the parts of each other we’ve never known. This is not a burden but the biggest blessing.
-To us | https://medium.com/@paigekeenan5796/3-45pm-3e358b34a33c | ['Paige Keenan'] | 2019-06-10 19:03:47.972000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Love Letters', 'Poetry', 'Love And Sex'] |
The Single Culprit Responsible for “The Fall” of the Black Family | Photo by Benji Aird on Unsplash
In a social media conversation this week, a colleague of mine asked a hot-button question: “Is government assistance responsible for the fall of the Black family?” Though I have heard this question asked before, I assumed its central premise — that the modern government is somehow responsible for family decay in Black communities — had been proven false and set aside. Apparently, this conspiracy theory has not run its course. I find that surprising, especially since we all know, deep down inside, who is really responsible for the the absence of strong, resilient family units in Black neighborhoods.
Before I present you with what I believe is the only true answer, we should have a look at suspects that are often wrongly paraded as the reason for Black family fragmentation.
Suspect 1 and 2: Poverty and Underemployment
It is hard to read a piece of research on Black family without encountering significant portions on poverty and its impact on the family unit. Brianna Lemmons and Waldo Johnson in Game Changers: A Critical Race Theory Analysis… (2019) do an excellent job explaining the tenets of Critical Race Theory: that Black men’s difficulty in adapting to service-oriented work, their subsequent joblessness and their final dependence of the bondage of welfare is what changed their ability to be fathers forever. Many people agree that these factors, which lead to crushing poverty and unemployment, have ruined not only Black family but also Black culture which included the celebration of strong male figures, the capacity for single-worker homes and the time needed for the famed traditional celebrations that embody Blackness.
However, history contends with this argument. After all, Black family did not just begin. It has existed for generations and must be seen through the lens of antiquity, not examined through the skewed or tinted perspective of the contemporary present, the past fifty years. In the old families, economy was not the driving force that made or broke the bond between fathers, mothers and their children; tradition was. What was the tradition? The tradition was that mothers “belonged” to the men with whom they bred children and the children “belonged” to their parents. Even in matriarchies, there was some security in knowing that certain people “belonged” (not necessarily in ownership, but definitely in kinship) to others. This sense of belonging was protected by bloodshed — total war, even if the tribe or clan was nomadic and only had a few possessions to share among its members.
Suspects 3 and 4: Crime (Which Leads to Incarceration) and Escapist Drug Use
In accordance with the argument that poverty is a significant contributing factor to “the fall” of the Black family, critics also suggest that the resulting crimes committed — in desperation, frustration or innovation to survive — are equally responsible for destroying otherwise supportive family structures. Again, history refutes this argument.
If you recall, for a time it was effectively a crime to be Black at all: to walk down certain streets, to use certain fountains, to eat in certain restaurants, to apply for certain trades. The “crime” of choosing to resist unjust economic, political and social structures did not lead to the destruction of Black unity. If anything, the necessity of criminality — in the interest of establishing legitimacy — brought Black families together in almost militant (and sometimes militant) ways. Think about the Black Panther Movement, Malcolm X and the Brotherhood and the various “riots” (some as recent as 2015) in defense of Black causes. Women, men and children worked, lived, marched and resisted together in supportive groups because they believed they needed each other.
With regard to escapist drug use, the 2016-2017 nationwide statistics in illicit drug use (reported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) show that the rate of hardcore drug use depends heavily upon region with significantly higher per-month usage reported in the South. A quick look at state numbers — while intentionally checking for Black population centers — would reveal there is not much difference in the rates of drug abuse among groups. What does this mean? This proves that drugs ruin families, but drugs do not ruin Black families any more than they ruin all families. Hence, drugs cannot be the problem.
Suspect 5 and 6: Decreasing Access to Quality Education and Institutional Racism
Here, again, is an argument that history refutes. Until Brown V. Board of Education in 1954, Black students — and as a result, Black families — were institutionally prevented from obtaining the levels of education provided to their White counterparts. Whether or not that institutionalized racism has continued is irrelevant, since historical documents prove that the Black community persisted and resisted segregation through the development of its own schools and auxiliary resources. See historical records on The Freedmen’s Schools.
The same can be said for institutionalized discrimination in employment. After the Civil War, the working poor encompassed the freed slaves and poor white peers — and work was hard to find if you were a former slave — but the Black family survived that too.
The Actual Guilty Party… And You Won’t Be Surprised: Choice
Kay S. Hymowitz, in her 2005 piece The Black Family: 40 Years of Lies, presented us with the cold, hard truth but we seem to have overlooked it. The Black family cannot thrive, cannot exist because of increasing rates of single parenthood. Well, this is obvious, isn’t it? If family is defined as a unit of people who agree to belong to each other, who agree to serve as a part of a collaborative support system for all persons involved, including children, then that unit must begin with parents who decide (ahead of time) to work together for the benefit of the whole. After all, a child cannot be made without the participation of two individuals. And, if childbirth requires cooperation and participation, that means that single adults are increasingly choosing to have unprotected or irresponsible sex with other single adults, people with whom they do not intend to build a family structure.
There are always exceptions to the rule, of course. There are widows who carry the mantle of mother and father after a spouse dies. There are parents who are forced to flee abusive mates. There are women who artificially inseminate and choose single parenthood because they have the means. There are even foster parents who — though single — decide to take on the responsibility of needy children. However, we have to acknowledge that these are exceptions. Most children who are being raised without one or more parents are suffering those conditions due to a willful lack of commitment from two adults.
The idea that every adult “Has a right to a sex life” is absolute trollop, particularly when that sex life continues without consideration for pregnancy (which can happen at any moment) when unprotected sex ensues. No scapegoat will ever take the place of this choice, this fully conscious decision to engage in a reproductive process with persons who we KNOW do not intend to make homes for us or our progeny. The same is true for those of us who agree to engage sexually with people who we KNOW are unfit to play father or mother roles when the relationship (sexual or other) is begun.
So, it is this choice — the choice to run amok in our sexuality and not belong to each other, the conscious choice to not make families — that has destroyed the Black family.
Fortunately, this phenomenon is quite easily reversed. Single, mature adults can CHOOSE to bridle their passions enough to ensure (at minimum) protected sexual experiences when neither participant has any intention of building more than a temporary relationship. I know that this solution sounds overly simplified, but that might be because the turnaround that we are all looking for is quite simple. We don’t need a change in economy, a change in government, a change in schools or a change in history to be strong together again. We simply need to choose to individually be stronger, and then we need to choose — wisely and deliberately — to be strong together. | https://tdotimothy.medium.com/the-single-culprit-responsible-for-the-fall-of-the-black-family-7e33755747aa | ['Tdo Timothy'] | 2019-05-02 01:41:19.491000+00:00 | ['Equality', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Racism', 'Black Families', 'Family History'] |
How To Get What You Need To Get Done But … With A Baby | How To Get What You Need To Get Done But … With A Baby Gianni Cortes Jun 1·3 min read
My name is Gianni Cortes, I am a 24 year old father, business owner of Cortes Construction, investor in cryptocurrency and stocks, and a health and wellness afficionado. My life changed for the best when I welcomed a baby boy into the world in January 2021 but it also changed in the fact that I had to find new methods to get things done and a huge new responsibility my life now revolved around. Here are a few steps my wife and I should’ve done since the beginning but did not and learned from our mistakes.
1. START TUMMY TIME ASAP
My wife and I bonded so much with our baby and to be frank we didn’t want to put him down. Him sleeping on us melted our hearts. You have to fight these feelings not all the time but, majority of the time is good enough. TRUST ME. We used a round donut shaped pillow called a Boppy (now I’m craving donuts). This pillow was amazing for breastfeeding when he was fun sized and even better when he got a wee bit bigger for tummy time. Ask your pediatrician when they recommend tummy time for your baby and do it! If you don’t get your baby comfortable to being on his tummy and self soothing you will be on your tummy on the ground screaming at the floor.
2. Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
During the first two months it is likely your baby will be your alarm clock every 3-4 hours because he is a milk chugging machine. If one parent takes a sole responsibility of night shift you will personify a good addition to The Walking Dead (this is not an affiliated or endorsed method to be cast by The Walking Dead). You will have one tired grumpy parent. Switching each shift at night or doing half and half has been key to filling refreshed. As a parent the ambition and drive you have is unreal to fill your child’s needs. You operate full capacity and more than you ever did before you had a baby off 4 glorious hours of sleep.
3. Have friends with babies or toddlers
Having friends with children has been crucial to our knowledge at parents. Books are great and all but there is nothing like a friend you trust that has an amazing child vs. someone you don’t know writing a book that can be complete mumbo jumbo with the intent of financial gain. Having friends has helped us save money on clothes, calling our pediatrician, and self diagnosing our baby on WebMd (We all know how that goes, no you do not have a rare disease because you sneezed).
These are my main 3 steps but I have many more! You are welcomed as a new parent or soon to be parent to message me on Instagram or leave comments on this post. It has been a beautiful amazing journey thus far and it gets better and better each day. I hope you enjoyed this read and my dad jokes. | https://medium.com/@giannicortesfl/how-to-get-what-you-need-to-get-done-but-with-a-baby-da8789678d0f | ['Gianni Cortes'] | 2021-06-01 13:15:14.379000+00:00 | ['Infant', 'Parenting', 'Baby Care', 'New Parents', 'Parenting Advice'] |
Remember the good old days, when neighbors helped neighbors? | A young and an old woman are sitting in the church. Says the old woman to the other: “I have always wished that God would touch me, but I suppose that is probably too much to ask.”
The young woman replies: “I think that sounds like a reasonable hope. Have you prayed about it?”
“Well, no. No, of course not.”
“Why not?” she asks. “There’s nothing wrong with such a prayer. You should pray about it!”
“All right. Perhaps I will sometime.”
“Not sometime. Now! What better place to pray than here in the house of the Lord?”
So convinced, the old woman reluctantly folds her hands, lowers her head and closes her eyes in prayer: “Please, dear God, I wish so much that You touch me!” Silently she continues to pray.
About ten seconds later, the young woman gently placed her hand on the folded hands of the older woman. She reacts as most of us would have done. She jumps up and shouts: “He did it! He touched me.” Then, after a moment of reflection: “But it felt terribly similar to your hand.”
“It was my hand,” the young woman answers.
The disappointment on her face was painfully obvious: “And I thought that God had touched me.”
“But He has touched you! How do you think God touches humans? That He comes down like a pillar of fire? Or a hand suddenly appeard out of nowhere? When God touches people, he takes his neighbor’s hand and uses it.”
God touches you through your neighbor’s hand.
Pay attention to this!
Today you will reach people who want to be your neighbor because they walk with Jesus.
And you will find people to whom you can be the neighbor …
… simply because you are there right now …
… when they need touching.
Let God use you!
Nothing makes you happier and more satisfied.
Jörg “who touches you” Peters
P.S.
You already notice that this letter touches you too, don’t you?
Before I send this love letter, I pray for you, my reader, that he does exactly that.
Reference: The Sign in the Subway: Cycle C Sermons for the Sundays after Pentecost | https://medium.com/@loveletterforyou/rememer-the-good-old-days-when-neighbors-helped-neighbors-189759212f2b | ['Jörg Peters'] | 2020-12-09 09:54:15.336000+00:00 | ['Love', 'Love Letters', 'Jesus', 'Jesus Christ', 'Church'] |
URL Shortener — the Ultimate Guide to Earn Money Quickly in 2019 | Many bloggers, website owners, social media players, players on question-answer websites, and even forums usually find that it is so difficult to get paid by sharing affiliate links, posting articles, answering questions, and more engagement online. This article URL Shortener — the Ultimate Guide to Earn Quick Money in 2019 to Monetize Links in 2019 will provide you one more fast way of monetizing the links you share in a comparatively short period.
In Quora, the most renowned Q&A website in the world, there’re many questions and answers related to the URL shortener. Thus, you’re free to go check them out. But here, I’d like to make something kind of collection. So, right now, let’s dive in with the secrecy of utilizing a URL shortener to make money.
Table of Contents
What is a URL shortener?
A URL shortener is a tool, a software or a website that can shrink and trim down the long URLs (the plural form of Uniform Resource Locator), track links you share and provide you detailed data and analysis of these links. The principal aim of a URL shortener is to keep long web page addresses into short ones that people can easily remember.
Meanwhile, URL shortener acts like an intermediary between the original web page links and the link that you’re supposed to paste or compile in targeted posts, social media platforms, blogs or articles. The URL shortener will also keep connections between the raw URL and the new link by the act of redirection. That means that anyone clicks a link that tackled with URL shortener will firstly visit the URL shortener provider, and then the original web page link.
3 uses of URL shorteners
When speaking of the usage of URL shorteners, we usually mention 2 uses.
Shrinking URLs. When you want to share something by texts on social media platforms, you can directly past the URLs of the web pages that you want to share. But, these links are too long, making people think of spam information. Thus, by using URL shorteners, you can make these URLs much more neat and shorter.
When you want to share something by texts on social media platforms, you can directly past the URLs of the web pages that you want to share. But, these links are too long, making people think of spam information. Thus, by using URL shorteners, you can make these URLs much more neat and shorter. Track Links and URLs. There’re many ways of making money online and affiliate marketing is one of them. But it is difficult to track these links and URLs you share on your blog posts, articles, and social media platforms. Yes, of course, you can install some plug-ins or use some software to track these links, but many of them are paid versions. What’s more, you won’t know which affiliate link or referral link your affiliate revenue comes from.
A URL shortener can solve the problems that we just mentioned. URL shorteners can create beautiful links and help you track these links. And you will see the data analysis of your income and traffic on these URL shorteners.
Hiding URL. When you click the disguised URL tacked by the URL shorteners, you will never know where you will be redirected to. Thus, some will take advantage of this feature to hide URLs.
How does a URL shortener make money?
How does a URL shortener make money? This is an internal issue that outsiders often don’t know. But let’s make some speculations here.
Gathering and selling data. The URL shorteners can make money by collecting, analyzing, remaking and reselling industrial data and statistics about those websites that value the results and insights.
The URL shorteners can make money by collecting, analyzing, remaking and reselling industrial data and statistics about those websites that value the results and insights. Those URL shorteners can also get an overview of what kind of URLs are shortened, who made clicks on their platforms when the users clicked their sites, and other demographics saved via cookie tags.
Many businesses will place advertisements on the URL shorteners. Thus, those URL shorteners can charge a monthly membership fee. They can also make money from advertisers because many advertisers will pay them to increase traffic to their websites or apps. Parts of those fees go to the URL shortener, and the rest goes to those who promote cut links to get money.
Will SEO be affected by the URL shortener?
Yes, there’re active and negative effects. Normally, those who want to take advantage of URL shorteners will concern about spamming and malicious redirections. Let me figure it out.
Spamming and redirections of URL shorteners
Because the URL shorteners will hide the original URLs, spammers think that it is open to doing their businesses. Spammers can hide their harmful URLs in URL shorteners, so people will be redirected to unwanted websites. This causes problems because it makes readers lose their trust in your links and URLs, so they will probably never read your posts, blogs or twits. But you can use an online tool to monitor where these shortened URLs go by visiting the website where does this link goes.
If you’re coping with 301 redirections on your websites, which happen so often, you might encounter problems in terms of indexing. Some search engines, like Yahoo and Bing, have already released relevant information about getting confused by bad redirects, including non-existing indexing.
A URL shortener also leads to link juice.
According to several ranking specialists, it seems that URL shorteners don’t lead to any negative impacts on SEO. Trimmed URLs are considered by search engines link-friendly, just as normal 301 redirects. Matt Cutt from Google explains in a video on Youtube that “if we try to crawl a page and we see a 302 or permanent redirect, which pretty much all well-behaved URL shorteners (like Bitly) will do, it will pass Page Rank to the final destination”.
The best way of utilizing URL shorteners is sharing natural content as much as you can by your own hands.
What are the advantages of using a URL shortener?
As we have mentioned above, here I’m making a list of all the advantages of using URL shorteners.
Streamline and making your link neatly. When you sharing something with pasting a long-tail link directly on a social media platform, it looks like spam and deters others to click on it. For example, when you share an affiliate product via the Amazon affiliate program, the URL of the product you want to share in a blog post or a video is too long. It is not user-friendly and it results from a confusion of viewers (refer to №1 section in this screenshot down below ).
The function of URL shorteners is trimming down these long links into shorter links that are user-friendly. That’s why the Amazon affiliate program has its amzn.to program to trim down long affiliate links. (refer to №2 section in the screenshot above).
For some kind of contents or pieces of information you want to share, it’s important to keep links short because you have to leave enough space for the whole text. Let’s say, tweets. As you know, a tweet can only contain 1400 characters.
Data tracking and analysis. When talking about affiliate marketing, I believe that many people get income from affiliate links but never know which link other viewers clicked. URL shorteners can help affiliate marketers with tracking each affiliate link’s performance and analytics, which further provides information about the traffic of contents.
When talking about affiliate marketing, I believe that many people get income from affiliate links but never know which link other viewers clicked. URL shorteners can help affiliate marketers with tracking each affiliate link’s performance and analytics, which further provides information about the traffic of contents. Making money. You can make money each time a single link gets clicked. I’ve explained in previous texts that some companies will advertise on those URL shorteners. While these URL shorteners will split their ads income to those who promote their services, use their tools to shrink links, or spread their services by posting banners on blog posts or social media platforms.
How to use a URL shortener to earn money?
Now you’ve got an overview of how URL shorteners work, let’s get to the key point — how to use a URL shortener to earn money?
Firstly, I have to say not all URL shorteners allow you to earn money. Only paid URL shorteners to pay you.
Read this for unpaid URL Shorteners:
The 8 best alternatives to Google URL Shortener
Right now we only pay attention to those paid URL shorteners that allow you to get paid by sharing shorten URLs, referral programs, and other promotional campaigns.
Let me recap the process of how you get paid with a diagram down here.
Perhaps right now, you’ve completely known how to use a URL shortener to earn money.
The best thing about making money via a URL shortener is that once you create the shortened URL and embed it in any content that you share or write, you’re shaping your passive income gradually. For instance, if you write an article and put in it on a platform where traffic is not a problem, then maybe viewers will see it and click the shortened URLs that included in the contents, then you’ll receive income from those paid URL shorteners consistently. Now, let’s dive into the next part — the best URL shorteners to earn money online. We will make an example by Linkvertise.
How to earn money on a URL shortener(Linkvertise)
In this part, we’re talking about how to earn money on a URL shortener and I’ll take the German website Linkvertise as an example.
Register on Linkvertise and change the language
First, you need to visit the website of the Linkvertise. Please refer to the screenshot down below.
Next step, we need to register our account on this website by clicking the register button, just as the highlighted part in the screenshot above. Then you should fill in your personal information in the pop-up form. Tick both options and click Register Now option.
After registration, you will receive a notice, telling you that you’ve already succeeded in registering on their website. And you will be redirected to down below screenshot.
As you can see the language of this screen is Germany, if you don’t know anything about the language of Germany, you can shift the language by clicking the flag icon.
Then you will be redirected to a new dashboard in English.
Make Settings on Dashboard of Linkvertise
Let’s check options out here.
Click to read notification pushes. Maybe the most important part here is the Linkvertise Guidelines. This is the main zone that you can check out your balances and the links you created and get clicked.
You can also see “your income” just down below part 2, where you can check the income during the past 7 days, 30 days or even 1 year.
Full Script API. If your website contains so many external links and you want to monetize all of them, then you might think about activating this option. Please check the photo down here.
There’re descriptions and you can also watch the explanation videos as well. After clicking the button of “Activate Full Script API”, you will be redirected to the following page.
You can embed the script between the <head> and </head> part on your website, or you can download the corresponding WordPress Plugin if you run a WordPress website (Please refer to the article如何在SiteGround上做WordPress网站 if you want to create a website on the best web hosting SiteGround ).
Payouts. This is the most important part for you if you want to earn money via URL shorteners because the passive income will go into your accounts. So you have to make them right.
As we can see from the screenshot down below, Linkvertise provides 4 ways of receiving money — PayPal, Paysafecard, Payoneer, and Bank Transfer. You should make the settings right.
Please note that unless you’ve already driven clicks, then you can withdraw the money to your account that mentioned above, to your 4 types of account.
But you’re able to make settings on Automatic Monthly Payout. You can only make settings on PayPal and Bank Transfer because only these 2 options are enabled (See photo down below).
Go ahead choose your country and input your PayPal email address, so that you can receive payment via PayPal. From the point you make settings of your accounts to receive automatic income from Linkvertise, you’ve already started your way to passive income.
Affiliate Program. Many online marketers love affiliate marketing, then you can’t miss this affiliate program. So, go ahead to click the affiliate program button here. You will see your affiliate link (please see the circled part in the screenshot down below). And you can start to promote this referral URL to attract more customers.
You will see it says that “refer new customers and receive 5% of their incomes”.
Create a shortened link on Linkvertise
Now let’s create a shortened link on Linkvertise. Find and click the “Create Link” button on the top right of your dashboard. And you will see such a screenshot.
In the “your target URL” part, you have to input or paste the URL you want to trim down. Please pay attention here that URL only forms like https://xxx.com or http://www.xxx.net (.net/.cn/.uk and more) and www.xxx.com (for instance) is not accepted.
For the official website of Linkvertise has already concluded a How to create a Linkvertise link page, I will just make an example here.
I’d like to answer students’ questions about university students’ entrepreneurial projects on Chinese Quora — Zhihu. I’m searching on the internet and found the article — 17 Business Ideas for College Students for 2020.
I’m going to shorten the URL of this article and paste the shortened URL on Zhihu to answer questions. See the steps I did it here.
Input the URL of the URL and click the Continue button.
Configure the Link. I’ll input contents after the word “business ideas students”. Meanwhile, you should pay attention to the underlined part because it has word limits.
Then, we click the Continue button.
Setting the redirect URL. The part marked with number 1 has 3 options, and you can choose either of them. For the part marked with number 2, I choose “student” as a link ending (this part only accepts a single number and a word).
Next, I clicked the Continue button.
Ad-Settings. You don’t have to configure anything in this part. Just directly click the Create link button.
Finally, a shortened link is created. And I will directly use this URL by copying with it (Ctrl+C on the keyboard).
Then I’ll search the keyword student business in Zhihu and answer questions with embedding the shortened link. So when other views see your answer and click the link, you will get paid.
Share the shortened URL on Linkvertise and start to get paid
Now, you’ve already created a shortened link, it’s time to share it on your posts, tweets, and other places so as content viewers can click your shortened link. And meanwhile, you get paid (see how I did on the photo above).
There’re many paid URL shorteners in the world. I’ll list some of them, so you can register on them and start to earn money online via these URL shorteners.
List of high paying URL shorters
In this list, I will only list those URL shorteners that common users can earn money on. Please come check them out.
Linkvertise, a Germany URL shortener, is one of the highest paying URL shorteners because they provide up to €10 for every 1000 views for just trimming down the link and whenever someone clicks on that link, you earn money.
But they also offer you to earn some extra cash up to €70 for every 1000 views but they have some tasks which must be done to earn money. This sometimes gets messed up but if you have a great strategy to work, you can easily earn massive revenue from this network.
If you are targeted to European areas, you should choose Linkvertise as your URL shortener.
Payout Info
You can earn money on every click conducted by visitors.
You earn 8–11 € per 1000 views.
Easy dashboard.
Monthly payments are made via PayPal, Paysafecard or Amazon voucher for a minimum of 10 €
If you want to earn quick money online, the shorte.st is the quickest way of monetizing the links you posted and shared. This website is perhaps the most famous one known in the world.
If you are targeted to developed areas, let’s say Europe and America, and then you can choose Shorte.st as your URL shortener.
Shorte.st is renowned for its little strict in maintaining quality, therefore you need to set up a great strategy to advertise with them.
Meanwhile, it has an affiliate program that allows you to get 20% of your targeted clicker makes 100. That is to say, you can get 20 USD.
Payout info
Payment Method: PayPal, Payoneer, and WebMoney
Minimum Payout: $5 for PayPal, $20 for Payoneer and $5 for WebMoney
The Rate of Referral Earning: 20% Commission on Referrals forever.
Many online users maybe know little about UIZ.io, but it claims that multiple views from the same IP are also counted and considered as effective clicks. And users are required to earn only 5 USD before getting paid.
UIZ has a total of 8,400,000 clicks and 9,000 registered users worldwide. The top regions that got the highest payment from UIZ are Greenland, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Denmark. The second tier countries contain Australia, Sweden, Norway, the United States, and the United Kingdom. For more detailed information and payout rates, please refer to the Payout Rates page of UIZ.
Generally speaking, if you’re from other countries other than European or American, I’d like to recommend this URL shortener to you.
Payout Info
Withdraws generate automatically every Monday if you reach the minimum amount. The minimum withdrawal is $5. We pay within 24–72 hours.
Users can receive payments via PayPal, Bitcoin, Webmoney, and Payeer.
Multiple views from the same IP are also counted. Now it’s 3 paid unique views per IP within 24h (not from one visitor).
The traffic types they shall not pay include Adblock visitors, any bots/botnets activity, proxy/VPN/tor traffic and any attempts to hide a real IP, multiply clicks for increasing revenue, nor unique (within 24h) visits by one visitor.
Shrinkearn.com is a high-rated URL shortener among the online communities, no matter on Quora or single posts. The administration panel of Shrinkearn is neat and user-friendly. The minimum payment amount is only 5 USD, that is to say, as long as your account reaches 5 USD, then you can withdraw it.
Shrinkearn.com claims that it has a total of 211,099 registered users, 9,739,468 total links, and 11,180,410 total clicks on their official website.
The top countries with the highest payment are Greenland, Iceland, San Marino. If viewers from these 3 nations click your shortened URL, then you can get more than 10–20 USD per 1000 views.
Payout Info
Minimum Payout: $5
Payment Frequency: Daily (within 24 hours)
Payment Methods: PayPal, WebMoney, Payeer, Skrill, UPI and Bank Transfer
Share your referral link with your friends and earn 25% of their earnings for life.
Adf.ly is one of the most traditional and renowned URL shorteners since the day they popped up. It is a great link shortener. It offers users to earn up to 14 USD for every 1000 views.
Meanwhile, Adf.ly provides referral programs (affiliate program) as well. If users share their affiliate links to friends, they will receive 20% of their earnings for life.
Earnings can be automatically paid before midnight on the next payment date if your earnings have reached a total of $5.00 or more. Please note, Payoneer currently has a minimum withdrawal of $10.
Pay Info
Payment Mode: Paypal or Payoneer
Minimum Payout: $5
The Rate of Referral Earning: 20% Commission on Referrals for Lifetime
PayPal, Payoneer, Bank Transfer, Prepaid Card are accepted
Shirtfly.com has almost every function another URL shortener has, but the biggest difference is that its referral amount is 30% of each link your viewers promote. This means that if one of your audiences promotes and earn 100 USD per 1000 views, and then you can get 30 USD from it.
What’s more, when your earnings reach 10 USD, then you can withdraw your money to your accounts.
The statistics of shrtfly is 0.4 billion total clicks, 6.4 million total links, and around 0.1 million registered users.
Payout Info
Refer friends and receive 30% of their earnings for life!
PayPal: Minimum $10 (Not For India)
Payza: Minimum $20
Bank Transfer: $20 (India Only)
PayTm: 10$ USD
UPI: 10$ USD
Skrill: 50$ USD
NETELLER: 30$ USD
Payoneer: 100$ USD (Available Only for VIP Users)
Ouo.io is just like the said URL shorteners listed above. But the fantastic thing about Ouo.io is that it supports the Traditional Chinese version. This is so user-friendly for those who speak Chinese.
One more thing about OUO.IO is that the same clickers are counted in the counting of payment.
It is also said that the shortened links per day reach 1.2 million, and the total shortened links reach 0.297 billion. The registered users are 1.1 million users.
The amount of money you earn on OUO depends on your clickers’ countries, while repetitive clicks are also counted in.
You can earn 20% from your affiliate program from every user clicking from your affiliate link. Just like other URL shorteners, the earnings from these URL shorteners vary from country to country. If your audiences click from Australia, then you can get the most amount of 5 dollars per 1000 views.
Payout Info
Payment Mode : PayPal & Payoneer & Payee
Minimum Payout: $5
The Rate of Referral Earning: 20% Commission
Alexa Rank (Global): 408
Support Chinese Traditional
The price offered by Clk.sh is up to $20 per 1000 visits, also the minimum CPM rate is $3. Though earning money just by pasting and sharing short links online seems impossible, Clk.sh makes it feasible. Especially if you have an audience from Greenland, Clk.sh can boost your bank accounts. The minimum payment is 5 dollars daily.
If your website viewers and clickers are from Greenland, Iceland, San Marino, then you can get more than 10 USD per 1000 views.
Clk.sh claims that there’s a total of 7,817,578 total clicks, 12,139,408 total links, and more than 30 thousand registered users.
But meanwhile, it also has some restrictions. Visitors have to unique within 24 hours and they have to view your website or contents for more than 10 seconds. For more detailed info, please visit the payout ratespage on Clk.sh.
Payout Info
Minimum Payout: $5
Payment Frequency: Daily (within 24 hours)
Payment Methods: PayPal, WebMoney, Payeer, Skrill, UPI and Bank Transfer
20% referral income from the promoters from your affiliate link for a lifetime
Za.gl is maybe a new player in the URL shortening industry, and it’s not as famous as the URL shorteners we’ve mentioned above. But this new URL shortener has something very special.
It provides a referral program. Its referral program is a great way to spread the word of its service and to earn even more money with your short links!
Like other URL shorteners, za.gl also has neat administration panel, detailed data and income analysis diagram, and API integration to your website.
The best thing about this platform is that it uses AI for their CPM system to achieve the best payout results for the users.
One best thing about za.gl is that it is totally Captcha free.
If you can refer to your friends and other users online, then you will get 50% of their earnings for life!
If you want to know more about its payout, please visit its publisher rates page.
Payout Info
We combine all advertising types best payout rates up to $160 / 10000
Refer friends and receive 50% of their earnings for life!
of their earnings for life! Supports PayPal, E-Payza, Skrill, Webmoney, bitcoin, and Bank Transfer
The minimum threshold of 2 USD for getting paid
Earn up to $25 per 1000 views — it’s the slogan on the official website earn4fun. From the link ending, you will see it is a website from India.
Earn4fun allows users to earn 1 dollar before getting paid. That is also to say, that the minimum threshold of receiving payment from earn4fun is only 1 USD.
It claims that earn4fun has more than 6 billion total clicks, 0.845 billion total links, and more than 1.5 million registered users. For this, you can check the numbers on its official website.
The great thing about the affiliate program is that you can get 25% of earnings for a lifetime if you refer it to your friends. go
As you can see, compared to other platforms’ offer — 10% or 20%, this referral income is slightly higher.
One more thing that needs to be mentioned here is that you can receive the payment from earn4fun within 24 hours if you’ve already achieved your goal.
Payout Info
Supports PayPal, Paytm, Bank Transfer, and UPI.
Starting amount of 10$ to 40$ based on different nations.
Refer friends and receive 25% of their earnings for life.
The minimum payout for earn4fun is 1$.
Minimum 5$ for PayPal.
The said 10 URL shorteners are commonly used by online marketers. But there’re more URL shorteners in the world. Some are boosting, and some are declining. You should check them out and pay attention to their dynamic status.
I’ve already visited several URL shorteners mentioned by other bloggers, finding that some URL shorteners have already stopped their services and many a URL shortener has the lower speed to operate.
Thus, you’ve to choose the right one. I’ve also found that many online users raise questions about which URL shortener pays the most amount of money. As to this question, I’d like to say that you have to go for it yourself.
Many blog posts about URL shorteners have been invalid, so you don’t have to take that seriously. If you do want to know more URL shorteners with payments, you can refer to the post-High Paying URL Shortener Websites To Earn Money Online In 2019. But I’m sure that many URL shorteners mentioned in said post have been invalid.
Conclusion
Many a URL shortener does allow users to earn quick money. It is also a good way of passive income. I’d also like to advise you to open several online payment accounts on payment providers to facilitate the process of receiving and earning money online.
If you love this money-making model, you can even integrate your website (if you want to create a website from the very beginning, you can also refer to the post of 8步完成WordPress建站) with a URL shortener WordPress plugin.
But we have to know that the traffic, readers, and visitors are the pivotal elements influencing your income. This means that the content is the most essential factor of this money-making business.
So, why don’t you find a website with big names and users, then you don’t have to worry about the audience anymore? You can use some of the social media platforms to launch your money-making side work via URL shorteners right away.
Recommended reading — 10 Basic Things to Know before Doing Business in Timor Leste. | https://medium.com/@williamkuo1988/url-shortener-the-ultimate-guide-to-earn-money-quickly-in-2019-7e3552590b03 | ['William Kuo'] | 2019-11-17 07:42:02.759000+00:00 | ['Earn Money Online', 'Make Money Online', 'Paid Advertising', 'Passive Income', 'Url Shorteners'] |
Baseball — it’s back.. When I covered the Arizona Fall League… | That’s me at a Tigers-Angels game in Anaheim in 2017.
When I covered the Arizona Fall League last year, the regular season finale in mid-November was akin to the last day of school.
I was parting ways and saying my goodbyes to baseball for the winter, just like you’d do with classmates and friends when the school year ended.
“So long baseball,” one stadium employee told me as I departed the Arizona Fall League for the final time, “see you in February.”
And wouldn’t you know it, February is already here, tip-toeing up on us like a third baseman in bunt defense.
In one week, pitchers and catchers will report to their spring homes for informal workouts, the opening acts of the Spring Training season.
February and March in Arizona marks my favorite time of the year for this exact reason. But this year will be a tad different, and I’m especially excited for it.
Because this spring, I’m going to take a new approach to the Cactus League.
Usually, I attend roughly 15 spring games. I’ll often work on my tan, watch a ballgame with some friends and spend an inning or two in line for an ice cream cone. (Mister Softee’s truck at Goodyear Ballpark: It’s down the left field line and it’s seriously the best ice cream I’ve ever had. You’ll thank me later.)
Last spring, I reported for a baseball site I was writing for. I was able to spend a few afternoons in big league clubhouses, where I’d get quotes from players and coaches, churn out a quick story and then make my way home.
I’d like to extend that coverage this season, and this is where I plan on doing so.
I want to be on site at the backfields before the usual 1:05pm first pitch, when players are starting their day with grounds balls, baserunning drills and batting practice.
I’d also love to snag more media credentials, as I did last year, to get inside coverage and quotes.
I remember several years ago, I went to a Cleveland Indians spring practice — the week before games began — and we watched the starters take infield practice and run through drills.
Jason Kipnis spotted my siblings and me in the bleachers and blurted out to his teammates, “Hey, guys, we’ve got an audience.”
These moments I hope to capture — the ones that often don’t get reported in the spring time when players are loosely gearing up for the six-month grind that is soon to ensue — are what make me so excited for the Spring Training season.
I can’t wait to share them with you. | https://medium.com/@gfabits/baseball-its-back-44c2fcd87a3b | ['Griffin Fabits'] | 2019-02-07 03:51:00.797000+00:00 | ['Sports', 'Cactus League', 'Spring Training', 'Baseball'] |
WISE Token To The Moon: You Are Lucky, You Are Already Here! | Each day of launch, about 5 Million WISE are available, which are distributed proportionately according to the amount of total ETH sent for that day.
10% more Wise Token with my special WISE-Link
Stake WISE
Lock up your WISE in order to earn interest over the duration. The longer you stake, the more interest you earn. You may access interest at any time for no fee, but ending a stake early penalizes the principal. All fees and penalties are redistributed to other stakers.
Sell WISE:
Cash out instantly using the Uniswap DEX. While other projects rely on users to slowly build markets for their tokens, the very nature of the WISE contract includes the instant creation of a massive pool of liquidity on Uniswap, featuring no KYC and the ability to swap from your private wallet.
Crypto Trifecta Resolved
Wise Token Security
WISE is made up of immutable smart contracts that are audited for errors and loopholes. Investors may have peace of mind, knowing the contract will do what it says, and cannot be changed. Additionally, all transactions including staking are performed from the safety of your own private wallet.
Wise Decentralization
WISE is a non profit project. It sends 90% or more of the launch money to Uniswap, forming a giant liquidity pool for trading. All this is done by the contract, without ever having middlemen or central controlling parties. Upon launch, even the WISE founders are on a level playing field with all investors.
Wise Scalability
WISE has all the benefits of the ERC20 ecosystem, including massive scalability. Since investors pay their own weight in gas fees every time they interact with the contract, WISE has virtually unlimited growth potential while only costing a few cents every transaction.
WISE Smart Contracts
The WISE project consists of smart contracts capitalizing on token liquidity formation, a referral system, and token staking capabilities which are explained in the documentation section. The overall flow of the WISE project can be described in two main epochs — each developed as a smart contract for specific financial purpose.
Liquidity Transformer Epoch
The launch of the WISE contract will kick off an initial 50 day phase during which users may send ETH to the contract in order to reserve WISE tokens and form main liquidity pool.
Circulation Epoch
At this point, no further token reservations can be made. Reserved WISE and referrer bonus WISE may now be minted by users, at their leisure. Users may begin staking WISE.
Liquidity Transformer
This component of the WISE project trustlessly generates the main liquidity pool for WISE using the Uniswap protocol. WISE tokens are minted to investors who make reservations with ETH, and the ETH is paired with more WISE and sent to Uniswap. This ownerless liquidity pool backs the value of all WISE tokens, and allows anyone to buy or sell large amounts of WISE at their leisure.
Provable Oracle API
The amount of available WISE tokens offered on random supply days is determined shortly after the end of that day. WISE leverages the Provable Oracle API, which generates randomness delivered on-chain in a provably cryptographically secure manner. On random supply days, even the WISE developers won’t know how much supply is offered until that day ends.
50 Days Presale end 31/12/2020
10% more Wise Token if You buy with my special WISE-Link | https://medium.com/@bartamax/wise-token-to-the-moon-you-are-lucky-you-are-already-here-38ef3e9333e | [] | 2020-12-23 21:45:02.689000+00:00 | ['Defi', 'Wise', 'Token', 'Crypto', 'Blockchain'] |
Rover P6 Repair Shop Website Redesign | Rover P6 Repair Shop Website Redesign
Personal Project | 10 hours Sprint | Design Tool: Figma, Artboard Studio
Redesign Project
OVERVIEW:
The challenge included redesigning any website from the global net. After a brief search of the worst websites of 2019 I chose to redesign a website for a small auto repair shop — MGBD Parts. I must admit that I immediately fell in love with this project. Here is a screenshot of home page.
Ugly, right?
But wait a minute and don’t judge the book by the cover…
The product is GREAT! This is a family-owned shop in England, United Kingdom. They sell exclusive auto parts and repair vintage cars. They keeping a history of Rover cars alive.
THE CHALLENGE:
The existing site is difficult for the user to navigate. It is confusing and overloaded. On average, people stay on a website for less than a half a minute. The goal of the project is to make an impression on current and future customers and provide a good User Experience.
The site is multifunctional — it contains a lot of information about specific auto-parts, repairing services and European Events for Rover Owners as well as News. The information on the website needs to be simplified without trimming the content. Everything needs to be organized into logical blocks-pages: Home Page, About and Contact Info, Services Provided, Photo Gallery, News, Events. Busy and overloaded homepage should be transformed into one that is clean, easy to navigate, and functional. The confusing navigation should be simplified. Fonts and colors must be simple, appealing, clean, readable and aligned with the brand guidelines.
3. This is not just a workshop website, it is a kind of fun-club community, that supports Rovers and carefully stores the history and a part of the culture of British automotive industry. Connoisseurs and admirers of the brand will appreciate complimenting the product with information about brand transformation and its history.
THE USERS:
Wealthy people of the middle and elder age, collectors and connoisseurs of British/English automotive history. With income decently above average. Busy lifestyle and high expectations wishing to have a good experience of thoroughly sorted information and simplistic navigation on the webpage.
THE PROCESS:
<Low Fidelity>
<High Fidelity>
THE OUTCOMES:
As a result we received a nice-looking, clean and neat website, which is concise, easy to navigate, functional, and fully aligned with the brand. | https://medium.com/@lanamonson.slc/rover-p6-repair-shop-website-redesign-e59541f90c9 | ['Lana Monson'] | 2020-01-30 04:30:55.572000+00:00 | ['UX Design', 'Ui Ux Design', 'Web Design', 'UI Design'] |
Thank L. A. Yep, it was The Worst. I’m glad you’re out too : D x | Thank L. A. Yep, it was The Worst. I’m glad you’re out too : D x | https://medium.com/@chelseyflood/thank-l-a-yep-it-was-the-worst-im-glad-you-re-out-too-d-x-4040e31abf0f | ['Chelsey Flood'] | 2020-12-10 20:16:53.952000+00:00 | ['Addiction', 'Mindfulness', 'Relationships', 'Narcissism', 'Love'] |
Offset is Right. Snoop is Wrong. And an NSFW Lesson in Censorship and Sexism Ensues. | Offset is Right. Snoop is Wrong. And an NSFW Lesson in Censorship and Sexism Ensues.
Stock Photo: Cardi B, left, and Offset
Please note: This post is NSFW, provocative, and uncensored. If you are easily offended, don’t read further.
I shook my head at the irony when I read this article.
Apparently, Snoop Dogg is of the mindset that Cardi B should not be so … unfiltered when it comes to her lyrics, specifically as it regards her smash, “WAP.”
From the Complex.com article: “Let’s have some, you know, privacy, some intimacy where he wants to find out as opposed to you telling him,” Snoop told Central Ave host Julissa Bermudez during a recent interview. “To me, it’s like, it’s too fashionable when that in secrecy, that should be a woman’s…that’s like your pride and possession. That’s your jewel of the Nile. That’s what you should hold onto. That should be a possession that no one gets to know about until they know about it.”
Sorry Snoop. I agree with Offset, Cardi B’s now ex-husband (italicized as that fabled relationship has been on and off).
You are wrong. | https://medium.com/writing-for-your-life/offset-is-right-snoop-is-wrong-and-an-nsfw-lesson-in-censorship-and-sexism-ensues-a7609acbd0fe | ['Joel Eisenberg'] | 2020-12-14 01:21:10.358000+00:00 | ['Sexism', 'Entertainment', 'Rap', 'Culture', 'Music'] |
Introduction to Bias in AI | To understand AI Bias, we need to understand Dataset Bias. Collecting, labelling, and organizing data is a time consuming and expensive effort. Many popular datasets in the artificial intelligence community can take years to produce and publish. This effort requires a large amount of resources, and does not make dataset creation a small or efficient task. Since it’s impractical to create a dataset with all possible permutations and domains, all datasets have some form of bias in them. This limitation in data causes lower performance and decreased generalization across unrepresented domains.
The simple answer is to create more data, but that’s not easy. A better solution is to improve existing machine learning models with existing solutions (e.g., domain adaptation). But before we dive into solutions, let’s review the problem itself.
What is the necessary vocabulary to understand AI Bias?
I’ll go over a few terms that come up often, but there are many more.
Dataset Bias
Dataset bias corresponds to properties that are seen frequently in a dataset. For instance, in the COCO dataset, “person” is the most frequent object category across images. The bias in the COCO dataset is “person”. Biases can make it easier for a human to distinguish between datasets, but they can also often result in decreased model performance (due to overfitting), which can hinder learning reliable features.
COCO dataset has 66,000 labels for “person”. It only has 2,000 labels for “elephant”. The data bias is “person”.
Domain Shift
Domain shift refers to the situation where training data and test data have different domains. For instance, domain shift happens when daytime images are used for training data and nighttime images are used for test data. The bias in the training data is “daytime”. This domain shift leads to lower performance.
Train the model on daytime data (left). Test the model on nighttime data (right).
What is an example of AI Bias?
Suppose you have a neural network that takes images and predicts object bounding boxes and labels. You could deploy it on a self-driving car to identify pedestrians. Let’s assume that the model was trained on a dataset from sunny California.
The detection system can detect pedestrians from California (left), but not from Boston (right).
Let’s say that you deploy the trained network in Boston during the Winter. Since the network hasn’t seen this type of data during training time, it’s very likely that it’s going to miss quite a few objects and quite a few pedestrians in this example. This is the problem of domain shift which is caused by dataset bias. Where the source data is from the source domain, and the target data from deployment is called the target domain. And it has distribution shift over the input data. The distribution has shifted from training to test time.
What are other examples of AI Bias?
Domain shift happens in applications when the models are deployed in the real world.
Datasets
In general, domain shift can happen when the model is trained on one dataset and the trained model is applied to a different dataset. Specifically, a dataset of objects can come from product images with white backgrounds and canonical poses, and the model can be deployed on a dataset collected from a mobile robot where the backgrounds are cluttered and the viewpoints and lighting conditions are very different.
Product images with white backgrounds (left). Robot images with cluttered backgrounds (right).
Skin Tones
Here is a very important problem where we are training a face detection system on data with a bias for light skinned faces. This results in poor predictive performance on images of darker skinned faces. We’d like to improve the performance for people with darker skin tones.
Face detection works on lighter-skinned people, but less on darker-skinned people. [Credit: Joy Buolamwini]
Modalities
Another example of domain shift is when its training data is biased to a particular modality. For example, the training data is RGB images, and the test data is depth images. Using domain adaptation, we can improve the detection performance on the Depth images.
This uses domain adaptation to improve performance from RGB images (left) to Depth images (right).
Sim2Real
Another very common example is training robots in simulation.
Training an object manipulator in simulation and deploying it in the real setting.
In this example, a robot arm is picking up an object. Ideally, we want to train these policies in simulation, because it’s a cheaper source of data that doesn’t damage the robot. However, at test time, we get real images. Therefore, we’d like to be able to adapt to this bias from simulation to reality. (For more information on Sim2Real, check out my Overview on Sim2Real. Coming Soon.)
Why is AI Bias bad?
Dataset Bias in the training data causes poor performance and poor generalization to future test data. The distinction in the kind of images during train and test can render a model useless during evaluation. It causes a significant drop in performance and makes our models inaccurate.
If you train on MNIST data, but test on a different domain (e.g., USPS, SVHN), then you have a significant drop in performance.
For example, if we train on MNIST and test it on images from MNIST, then it should have 99% accuracy. However, if we train on the MNIST domain and test it on the Street View House Numbers (SVHN). We’ll see that the performance will be around 67.1%. This is much lower than it should be, so this is a serious issue. In fact, even between two similar looking domains of MNIST and USPS, there is still a very significant drop in performance.
Existing Solutions
Solutions for AI Bias exist today. These solutions improve model performance. We get a high level sense of some of them here.
Domain Adaptation
Domain adaptation is one solution for domain shift. It’s a method for adapting a model to a novel dataset with no or few labels from the novel dataset. We assume access to a small set of target domain images during training. During training, you can get a sense of what the target distribution looks like.
Domain Generalization
Domain Generalization is another solution for domain shift. It doesn’t assume that target data exists in the training data. Instead, it assumes no target data at all during training. It’s a strictly zero-shot scenario and relies heavily on model generalization.
Latent Domain Discovery
Latent Domain Discovery helps with Domain Generalization. Some aspects of both dataset bias and domain shift can be easy for humans to infer by observation. But there can be some aspects which are inherently latent and may not be immediately obvious. Latent variables define a dataset but are not strictly observed. These latent domains exist but are not labeled in datasets. For instance, images found on the web can be thought of as a collection of many hidden domains. Discovering latent domains can significantly improve generalization and performance.
Image results for “person” consist of latent domains (e.g., “groups”, “silhouettes”, “line drawings”, “close-ups”).
Other solutions not mentioned here include Transfer Learning and Representation Learning. We will cover more solutions in further depth for future articles. In the meantime, feel free to reach out if you have any specific topics you’d like me to cover. Also, if you’re new to AI, this brief Intro to AI should help. | https://medium.com/machinevision/introduction-to-bias-in-ai-5058429ba0e | ['Luis Bermudez'] | 2021-03-03 04:56:11.468000+00:00 | ['Diversity', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Diversity In Tech', 'Bias'] |
The Beauty in Life is Your Presence | You can’t wait for things to slow down, you need to make time to slow down.
Photo by Masaaki Komori on Unsplash
Every year, I usually travel to Japan with my family during the spring. We end up coming right after the cherry blossoms fall, and their petals streak the sidewalks of the city. Having seen them before, I never minded the fact that I missed seeing them bloom on the trees. I knew they were beautiful. But today my heart yearns to know them again, to see them blossom on the trees, and to smell the aroma in the air. Because now, I don’t know when I’ll see them again.
It’s in these times, I wish I slowed down then, to appreciate where I was, who I was with, what I could feel, what I could see. My mind was always on the thought, Where would I go next? What’s the next stop on our journey? Yet to be in that specific moment, when would I get that chance again?
These days I wonder, when’s the next time I get to see my friends in person, and not worry about going outside? When’s the next time I could watch a live concert? To sing at the top of my lungs, and forget the world like I used to?
The times I was able to travel, to hangout with my friends, to watch a concert, and so many mundane things I’ve experienced are gone. Their time has passed, but I always treasure them. As much as I’d want to go back, I realize it’s not in the past that I could soak in the joy, but it’s in the now that I need to create it. Otherwise, the more my future self would be sad.
If we aren’t present in the moment, how could we expect ourselves to be happy and content in the future?
Here are a few lessons I’ve learned in being present, in being here. I continuously learn that life is not lived in the past or the future, but right here. I’m no guru, nor am I the epitome of being, but I try my best, and I hope I can share what I’ve learned with you.
Mono no aware
Mono no aware, literally translated to “the pathos of things,” or “the ahhness” of things, helps me question the way we see moments in our life. I would describe it as a bittersweet feeling, to know that things don’t last forever, and that is why we need to treasure the good times, and remember the pain and suffering will pass too. Everything changes, everything is transient. When we are open to this, the shifts in our lives are a bit easier to bare.
Winter turns to spring, the wind blows, the wind stops, the weather changes; nature is always changing. Similarly, people develop newfound interests, grow, change their feelings, and can shift their values. People can come into our lives, teach us, help us experience life, and then leave. Concerts aren’t 24/7, parties don’t rage all night, and get-togethers don’t span eternity. Everything changes, everything passes. We see that beautiful and mundane moments in our life don’t last forever. If they did, their value would become less, and we wouldn’t appreciate them as much. We learn to cherish moments because they are fleeting, we can only experience them in that time, in that space. Ahhh, what a time. Alternatively, the times we wish everything would just stop, or the moments we are full of pain and sadness, take their leave as well.
“The sun will rise, and we can try again.”
Allowing Ourselves to Feel
There are days we wish we didn’t have to live through. We wish we could skip this chapter of our lives. They’re painful, they’re frustrating, they’re sad. Yet, though they are uncomfortable, we must not push them away. Like everything, they are also fleeting. They have their time, and they go away. They pass, but only if we allow them to stay for a while, only if we allow ourselves to feel.
Let yourself be sad, let yourself be angry. They are what makes us human, there’s nothing wrong with them. In turn, let yourself be happy too. You deserve it.
Appreciating Moments
Imagine yourself on a train. You’ve been using your phone the whole ride to your destination while the scenery passes by. What if you had looked up? What if you looked out the window? Did you miss the sight of the trees, the mountains, the sea? Did you miss the faces of people whose eyes tell their story? Perhaps you’ve been on the same train ride day in and day out, but who’s to say you’ve seen everything the world has to offer?
The world is as you see it, slow, fast, boring, inspiring. However you want to see it, it’s always changing. Each day ends with a unique story, it’s up to you if you choose to listen.
Being
No matter how similar the days seem, it’s important we are present, that we are here. It’s easy to let our thoughts go astray, to be mindless, to say, “tomorrow.” Even though we wish things would slow down for us to collect ourselves, we cannot wait for things to slow down, we need to make time to slow down. To appreciate, to live, to be.
If you need to rest, rest. There’s no benefit in pushing yourself when you’re not okay. Be, don’t just do. | https://medium.com/on-our-way-ph/the-beauty-in-life-is-your-presence-5e66371edabe | ['Rica Ilagan'] | 2021-06-08 11:03:49.823000+00:00 | ['Personal Development', 'Moments', 'Japan', 'Life', 'Rest'] |
Announcing Friday Fix Fiction | Announcing Friday Fix Fiction
Screenshot by author
The Next Chapter Begins
At long last, I’m excited to announce the launch of Friday Fix Fiction, a standalone, online literary journal devoted to fifty-word microfiction. If you enjoyed reading or writing for The Friday Fix here on Medium, I hope you’ll consider taking a look at the new publication.
The overall concept is the same, but the model is a bit different. Instead of posting weekly prompts, a monthly theme will be shared, and accepted stories will appear on the last Friday of every month. My goal is to publish twelve issues for 2021. Each issue will publish up to twenty stories.
Here are some of my other long and short-term goals for Friday Fix Fiction:
Publish high-quality fiction alongside captivating photography.
Select a “featured” story for each issue.
Accept photography submissions for the cover of each issue, as well as the featured story.
Become a paying market. My first objective will be to pay the featured writer.
Host one or two annual contests with payouts for first, second, and third place. (Guest judges, too.)
Have two annual “mega” issues in June and December that either includes contest submissions or original stories.
Build an inclusive community that is accepting of all members.
Accept and promote the work of both emerging and experienced writers.
Create annual print anthologies, showcasing some of the best submissions from the year.
I won’t ramble on. Head on over to fridayfixfiction.com to get a feel for the new layout, submission process, and to scope out the site. Feel free to leave some feedback or ideas below, if you’d like. And please spread the word!
I hope to see your stories roll in soon. More importantly, I hope you’re excited. I know I am.
Wishing you all the best,
-Justin | https://medium.com/the-friday-fix/announcing-friday-fix-fiction-d09afab15f96 | ['Justin Deming'] | 2020-12-15 01:50:50.191000+00:00 | ['Microfiction', 'Publishing', 'Fiction', 'Writing', 'The Friday Fix'] |
Using PostgreSQL to Offload Real-Time Reporting and Analytics from MongoDB | MongoDB has comprehensive aggregation capabilities. You can run many analytic queries on MongoDB without exporting your data to a third-party tool. However, these aggregation queries are frequently CPU-intensive and can block or delay the execution of other queries. For example, Online Transactional Processing (OLTP) queries are usually short read operations that have direct impacts on the user experience. If an OLTP query is delayed because a read-heavy aggregation query is running on your MongoDB cluster, your users will experience a slow down. This is never a good thing.
These delays can be avoided by offloading heavy read operations, such as aggregations for analytics, to another layer and letting the MongoDB cluster handle only write and OLTP operations. In this situation, the MongoDB cluster doesn’t have to keep up with the read requests. Offloading read operations to another database, such as PostgreSQL, is one option that accomplishes this end. After discussing what PostgreSQL is, this article will look at how to offload read operations to it. We’ll also examine some of the tradeoffs that accompany this choice.
What Is PostgreSQL?
PostgreSQL is an open-source relational database that has been around for almost three decades. PostgreSQL has been gaining a lot of traction recently because of its ability to provide both RDBMS-like and NoSQL-like features which enable data to be stored in traditional rows and columns while also providing the option to store complete JSON objects.
PostgreSQL features unique query operators which can be used to query key and value pairs inside JSON objects. This capability allows PostgreSQL to be used as a document database as well. Like MongoDB, it provides support for JSON documents. But, unlike MongoDB, it uses a SQL-like query language to query even the JSON documents, allowing seasoned data engineers to write ad hoc queries when required.
Unlike MongoDB, PostgreSQL also allows you to store data in a more traditional row and column arrangement. This way, PostgreSQL can act as a traditional RDBMS with powerful features, such as joins.
The unique ability of PostgreSQL to act as both an RDBMS and a JSON document store makes it a very good companion to MongoDB for offloading read operations.
Connecting PostgreSQL to MongoDB
MongoDB’s oplog is used to maintain a log of all operations being performed on data. It can be used to follow all of the changes happening to the data in MongoDB and to replicate or mimic the data in another database, such as PostgreSQL, in order to make the same data available elsewhere for all read operations. Because MongoDB uses its oplog internally to replicate data across all replica sets, it is the easiest and most straightforward way of replicating MongoDB data outside of MongoDB.
If you already have data in MongoDB and want it replicated in PostgreSQL, export the complete database as JSON documents. Then, write a simple service which reads these JSON files and writes their data to PostgreSQL in the required format. If you are starting this replication when MongoDB is still empty, no initial migration is necessary, and you can skip this step.
After you’ve migrated the existing data to PostgreSQL, you’ll have to write a service which creates a data flow pipeline from MongoDB to PostgreSQL. This new service should follow the MongoDB oplog and replicate the same operations in PostgreSQL that were running in MongoDB, similar to the process shown in Figure 1 below. Every change happening to the data stored in MongoDB should eventually be recorded in the oplog. This will be read by the service and applied to the data in PostgreSQL.
Figure 1: A data pipeline which continuously copies data from MongoDB to PostgreSQL
Schema Options in PostgreSQL
You now need to decide how you’ll be storing data in PostgreSQL, since the data from MongoDB will be in the form of JSON documents, as shown in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2: An example of data stored in MongoDB
On the PostgreSQL end, you have two options. You can either store the complete JSON object as a column, or you can transform the data into rows and columns and store it in the traditional way, as shown in Figure 3 below. This decision should be based on the requirements of your application; there is no right or wrong way to do things here. PostgreSQL has query operations for both JSON columns and traditional rows and columns.
Figure 3: An example of data stored in PostgreSQL in tabular format
Once your migration service has the oplog data, it can be transformed according to your business needs. You can split one JSON document from MongoDB into multiple rows and columns or even multiple tables in PostgreSQL. Or, you can just copy the whole JSON document into one column in one table in PostgreSQL, as shown in Figure 4 below. What you do here depends on how you plan to query the data later on.
Figure 4: An example of data stored in PostgreSQL as a JSON column
Getting Data Ready for Querying in PostgreSQL
Now that your data is being replicated and continuously updated in PostgreSQL, you’ll need to make sure that it’s ready to take over read operations. To do so, figure out what indexes you need to create by looking at your queries and making sure that all combinations of fields are included in the indexes. This way, whenever there’s a read query on your PostgreSQL database, these indexes will be used and the queries will be performant. Once all of this is set up, you’re ready to route all of your read queries from MongoDB to PostgreSQL.
The Advantages of Using PostgreSQL for Real-Time Reporting and Analytics
There are many advantages of using PostgreSQL to offload read operations from MongoDB. To begin with, you can leverage the power of the SQL query language. Even though there are some third-party services which provide a MongoDB SQL solution, they often lack features which are essential either for MongoDB users or SQL queries.
Another advantage, if you decide to transform your MongoDB data into rows and columns, is the option of splitting your data into multiple tables in PostgreSQL to store it in a more relational format. Doing so will allow you to use PostgreSQL’s native SQL queries instead of MongoDB’s. Once you split your data into multiple tables, you’ll obviously have the option to join tables in your queries to do more with a single query. And, if you have joins and relational data, you can run complex SQL queries to perform a variety of aggregations. You can also create multiple indexes on your tables in PostgreSQL for better performing read operations. Keep in mind that there is no elegant way to join collections in MongoDB. However, this doesn’t mean that MongoDB aggregations are weak or are missing features.
Once you have a complete pipeline set up in PostgreSQL, you can easily switch the database from MongoDB to PostgreSQL for all of your aggregation operations. At this point, your analytic queries won’t affect the performance of your primary MongoDB database because you’ll have a completely separate set up for analytic and transactional workloads.
The Disadvantages of Using PostgreSQL for Real-Time Reporting and Analytics
While there are many advantages to offloading your read operations to PostgreSQL, a number of tradeoffs come along with the decision to take this step.
To begin with, there’s the obvious new moving part in the architecture you will have to build and maintain-the data pipeline which follows MongoDB’s oplog and recreates it at the PostgreSQL end. If this one pipeline fails, data replication to PostgreSQL stops, creating a situation where the data in MongoDB and the data in PostgreSQL are not the same. Depending on the number of write operations happening in your MongoDB cluster, you might want to think about scaling this pipeline to avoid it becoming a bottleneck. It has the potential to become the single point of failure in your application.
There can also be issues with data consistency, because it takes anywhere from a few milliseconds to several seconds for the data changes in MongoDB to be replicated in PostgreSQL. This lag time could easily go up to minutes if your MongoDB write operations experience a lot of traffic.
Because PostgreSQL, which is mostly an RDBMS, is your read layer, it might not be the best fit for all applications. For example, in applications that process data originating from a variety of sources, you might have to use a tabular data structure in some tables and JSON columns in others. Some of the advantageous features of an RDBMS, such as joins, might not work as expected in these situations. In addition, offloading reads to PostgreSQL might not be the best option when the data you’re dealing with is highly unstructured. In this case, you’ll again end up replicating the absence of structure even in PostgreSQL.
Finally, it’s important to note that PostgreSQL was not designed to be a distributed database. This means there’s no way to natively distribute your data across multiple nodes. If your data is reaching the limits of your node’s storage, you’ll have to scale up vertically by adding more storage to the same node instead of adding more commodity nodes and creating a cluster. This necessity might prevent PostgreSQL from being your best solution.
Before you make the decision to offload your read operations to PostgreSQL-or any other SQL database, for that matter-make sure that SQL and RDBMS are good options for your data.
Considerations for Offloading Read-Intensive Applications from MongoDB
If your application works mostly with relational data and SQL queries, offloading all of your read queries to PostgreSQL allows you to take full advantage of the power of SQL queries, aggregations, joins, and all of the other features described in this article. But, if your application deals with a lot of unstructured data coming from a variety of sources, this option might not be a good fit.
It’s important to decide whether or not you want to add an extra read-optimized layer early on in the development of the project. Otherwise, you’ll likely end up spending a significant amount of time and money creating indexes and migrating data from MongoDB to PostgreSQL at a later stage. The best way to handle the migration to PostgreSQL is by moving small pieces of your data to PostgreSQL and testing the application’s performance. If it works as expected, you can continue the migration in small pieces until, eventually, the complete project has been migrated.
If you’re collecting structured or semi-structured data which works well with PostgreSQL, offloading read operations to PostgreSQL is a great way to avoid impacting the performance of your primary MongoDB database.
If you’ve made the decision to offload reporting and analytics from MongoDB for the reasons discussed above but have more complex scalability requirements or less structured data, you may want to consider other real-time databases, such as Elasticsearch and Rockset. Both Elasticsearch and Rockset are scale-out alternatives that allow schemaless data ingestion and leverage indexing to speed up analytics. Like PostgreSQL, Rockset also supports full-featured SQL, including joins.
Learn more about offloading from MongoDB using Elasticsearch and Rockset options in these related blogs: | https://medium.com/rocksetcloud/using-postgresql-to-offload-real-time-reporting-and-analytics-from-mongodb-2c939d227155 | ['Shawn Adams'] | 2020-11-20 00:29:18.981000+00:00 | ['Mongodb', 'Postgres', 'Sql', 'Real Time Analytics', 'Reporting'] |
Reading Habits Tag | Writer’s Blog
Reading Habits Tag
I like watching tag videos on Youtube and I wanted to participate. Sorry.
I’ve been enjoying watching a lot of tag videos on Youtube recently and as someone that likes to participate but doesn’t really know how to use a camera or video editing software I often feel left out. So I’ve taken to Medium to transfer this Tag into one of my articles.
Reading Habits Tag
Do you have a certain place at home for reading?
At first, my answer was no, but the more I think about it the more complicated this answer gets. I’ll do my best to make sense of my jumbled mess of reading places.
I like to read non-fiction at my desk.
I usually read fiction in my bed or on my couch. I really love to read on aeroplanes or trains. My family lives in a different country so every time I go to visit I get to settle in for the long haul. It’s a great excuse to spend the day reading guilt-free!
Bookmark or random piece of paper?
Both. If I have a bookmark handy I will use that, but I’ll use tissue paper, sticky notes or even dog-ear the pages if I don’t have a bookmark in reach!
Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter/ a certain amount of pages?
I normally finish the paragraph that I’m reading. I prefer to stop at chapters but I can stop wherever I have to or want to. I think that’s probably because of reading while travelling so much.
Do you eat or drink while reading?
I tend to forget about food or drinks when reading, even if I have something handy I just don’t pick it up. I get quite absorbed in stories so to eat or drink would pull me out of the book too much.
Multitasking: Music or TV while reading?
Sometimes lyricless music is fine. Mostly I just like the quiet. I like to focus on whatever I’m reading at any given time and noise can be distracting.
One book at a time or several at once?
I used to be a one book at a time girl, then I started my English Literature course and now I usually have three or four on the go at once. I have different moods, what can I say.
I normally have a non-fiction, a few fictions and maybe a poetry book at any given time.
Reading at home or everywhere?
Everywhere. Opps I kind of answered this one earlier.
Reading out loud or silently in your head?
I read poetry out loud mostly. I feel like that is how poetry is supposed to be read? I will read everything else in my head unless I really like the way that something is written. I will take the time to read it out loud if I think that the writing is gorgeous! That might be in line with the poetry thing.
Do you read ahead or even skip pages?
I don’t. I can’t understand why you would ever want to spoil yourself. The only thing that I sometimes do is check how many pages a book is, I like to know how far through I am in the book. I’m not sure why.
Breaking the spine or keeping it like new?
Both, either. If it happens it happens, I’m not picky. I will try to keep a book looking it’s best but my shelf is filled with new books and second-hand books alike, so it doesn't really make an aesthetic difference. If breaking the spine will make it easier to read, I’ll go ahead and break it!
Do you write in your books?
I don’t write in fiction books. I do write in non-fiction.
I don’t normally write in the margins but I’m very good at colouring in my books with a highlighter. I find that reading non-fiction with a highlighter helps me pick out the important information! | https://medium.com/writers-blog/reading-habits-tag-c7520f24f18d | ['Beth Van Der Pol'] | 2020-03-20 12:45:12.065000+00:00 | ['Novel', 'Habits', 'Reading', 'Books', 'Writing'] |
8 Tips: Effective Technical Writing for a Non-Technical Audience | As a communicator in the “E” and “C” sectors of the AEC industry for nearly twenty years, I have encountered my fair share of excessively written content. By “excessively written,” I simply mean too many words for the intended message and audience. I also found traces of this during my copy editing stint for an academic journal.
My background involves working with purveyors and writers of complex concepts to transform their knowledge and expertise into digestible information for more general consumption. Thanks to wordy engineers, executives and philosophers, this skill of refining content has evolved into one of my specialties.
A few weeks ago, I was editing a document when I was motivated to start compiling some of my observations over the years. The writer in this case is obviously knowledgeable and had good intentions to present the material in a professional manner. However, it almost seemed as if they were trying too hard by injecting unnecessary or extra words and phrases into their writing. Whether this was deliberate, I do not know. But something about this writer’s intent and technique prompted me to pick up the proverbial pen.
Most content creators in the fields I have worked in are not traditionally trained in writing. In addition, the weight and intricacies of their subject matter often make it difficult for them to approach writing from different angles because they are so consumed by their expertise (as they should be!).
Whether up against a proposal deadline in response to an RFP/RFQ or a media deadline for a construction project press release, they are sometimes tasked with writing about a technical subject for a non-technical audience. The final product is typically intended to be concise and direct.
Which leads me to the basis of this listicle. When I started reflecting on what I had learned and what to write about it, I soon realized there is much more to this topic lurking beneath the surface of this article that I could expound upon. I settled on a quick and dirty approach instead and eventually whittled my list down to eight basic items that I try to keep in mind while writing or editing this type of specialized content.
Avoid overusing jargon.
I get it — experts and professionals are eager to share their knowledge and establish credibility. However, take the time to read the intended audience. For example, when proposing solutions for a complex infrastructure project to a small-town city council or rural county commission, consider the representatives’ likely limited exposure to the topic, particularly when there has been recent turnover in the local government.
When using technical terminology be sure to define it as early in the document and in as plain language as possible. This is where relevant or familiar analogies may come in handy. For instance, consider something the audience may be familiar with (e.g., agricultural practices in their rural area or a local industry) and try to make a simple comparison between that and the proposed solution(s). A little audience research can go a long way, especially in business development, marketing and public relations.
Break it down.
People can get lost in run-on sentences and paragraphs when their concentration is challenged or they’re faced with a large volume of documents to review. Long paragraphs and sentences can also be intimidating for a non-expert trying to understand the sophisticated concepts being presented.
One way to avoid long-windedness is to break down your thoughts into digestible chunks. If you can sense a natural pause between two or more complete thoughts in one long sentence, it’s usually a safe bet to break them apart. The same idea can be applied to paragraphs as well.
Vary sentence length.
Mike Markel, notes in his book, Technical Communication,
“Sometimes sentence length affects the quality of the writing. In general, an average of 15 to 20 words is effective for most technical communication. A series of 10-word sentences would be choppy. A series of 35-word sentences would probably be too demanding. And a succession of sentences of approximately the same length would be monotonous.”
It would seem, based on the evolution of technology, short attention spans and increasing demand for immediate consumer gratification, that the shorter the sentence, the better. And as a professional initially trained in the field of journalism, I have always naturally gravitated towards that theory.
However, technical communication allows for some flexibility due to the complex nature of the subject matter. Variable sentence length is one way to help keep a reader’s attention on otherwise pedantic material.
Use a thesaurus.
Another way of keeping the reader’s attention is to vary your word usage. Though we may not necessarily notice it in our own writing or speech, we all probably have words or phrases that we unknowingly use too much. Try to be conscious of that as you write. If you notice a repetitive word or phrase you tend to use, consult a thesaurus or similar online resource to help rephrase the passage.
Full disclosure, I am a true word nerd and a huge proponent of the thesaurus. I love learning new words and appreciate the challenge of finding different ways of expressing my thoughts. Nevertheless, I am also vigilant about retaining the preciseness of technical concepts in this situation.
Keep it clean.
When presented with a wordy phrase, I always try to clean it up. Consider this example:
“All the qualifications that the requester possesses will be reviewed by the project manager” is much easier to read when written as, “The project manager reviews the requester’s qualifications.”
I used three thought processes in making this sentence more direct:
It is obvious and implied that the project manager is going to review “all” of the requester’s qualifications, so we don’t need to note that distinction.
The example refers to an existing procedure so I used present tense active voice (“the project manager reviews”) instead of future tense passive voice (“will be reviewed by the project manager”).
The “qualifications the requester possesses” can be easily simplified by making the word “requester” possessive.
What’s your point?
To further streamline your message, bullets are an efficient tool to make the most important and impactful points stand out. A bulleted list provides a quick and easy summary that can be used either at the beginning or end of a descriptive passage.
For a distracted or busy reader, bullet points can be key to ingesting critical substance quickly. If the reader reads nothing else, make sure the bullets recapitulate the most essential and compelling elements of your argument(s) or solution(s) as succinctly as possible.
Put it away.
If you have time, set the piece aside for a day or two. Because an expert is inherently close to their subject matter, which is often heavy and deep, they may find that physically taking time away from a document allows their brain to recalibrate. (That usually works for me.) If you don’t have the luxury of extra time, I find that even an hour or two can provide a fresh perspective.
Upon returning, grammatical errors and personal writing quirks (e.g., repetitiveness) may become more obvious. This may also be accomplished by reading the final draft out loud. If you trip on your own words, chances are your reader will too.
Ask for assistance.
According to Carol Fisher Saller in The Subversive Copy Editor,
“Writers need another set of eyes on their work because they compose at a high level of abstraction and detail. Few brains can simultaneously monitor conceptual progress and mechanical detail without lapses.”
If you have access to a professional editor, great — use them! But even a second pair of non-professional-editor eyes can be a tremendous help in identifying “lapses” in clarity and issues like missing articles or prepositions, for example. Those can be difficult to spot when you’re so immersed in what you’re writing about.
I like to think of the process as a musical performance: as the performer, you’re playing all the correct notes, it’s just that some of your notes might be a little sharp or flat. An objective vantage point may help you fine tune and make your voice clearer.
Wrapping it up.
Obviously, there are several ways to approach this subject. I can think of ten more items to add to this list off the top of my head and you can probably think of ten more.
My point is that awareness of techniques similar to those described above will only sharpen your own writing. As you experiment with different approaches, you will hopefully develop some methods that work best for you and make this type of writing less daunting and [gasp] maybe even enjoyable! | https://medium.com/@caseydana/8-tips-effective-technical-writing-for-a-non-technical-audience-fdca82019116 | ['Dana Casey'] | 2020-12-22 03:14:30.567000+00:00 | ['Content Writing', 'Technical Writing', 'Technical Editing', 'Construction', 'Engineering'] |
Ring Rolls Out End-to-End Encryption to All Users Globally | However, encryption cannot be turned on automatically. You will need to opt-in for additional security.
The ring has made end-to-end encryption finally available to all users around the world. The feature is disabled on any device that does not have an enrolled mobile phone. Anyone without an enrolled mobile phone can view recorded footage and live streams.
Ring Unveils End-to-End Encryption, But Not Without Limitations
Ring Blog posted that Amazon-owned company has added an extra layer of security to its line of home security products. Ring released a technical preview in January 2021 of end-to-end encryption in the US. Now the feature is available to all.
All recordings in the cloud are encrypted. Ring’s servers also have encryption. So you can make it harder for malicious actors to access your doorbell’s footage by activating end-to-end encryption.
Ring’s end-to-end encryption has its limitations. Battery-powered Ring devices do not support it, and it isn’t clear why. Only a few wired devices can provide end-to-end encryption, such as the Ring Floodlight Cam, Indoor Cam, and Ring Video Doorbell. Ring’s website has a complete list of compatible devices.
End-to-end encryption cannot be enabled by default. The feature must be enabled via the Control Center in Ring. You can only view your videos on enrolled mobile devices.
Ring Strengthens Security in Other Areas, Too
Ring’s latest update will allow you to use third-party authentication apps to access your Ring account. This makes it safer to log in since the one-time code sent to you via SMS is not always secure.
When you log in to Ring or Neighbors, you will also see CAPTCHAs. These will not be annoying, but they’ll help to prevent bad actors from accessing the apps.
Ring also announced that the new system would make it easier to give away or sell your device. Instead of calling customer service, the new owner will scan the device while setting it up and follow the instructions in the app. This will remove the device and all footage from its previous owner.
Making Your Ring Device More Secure
A live stream that is available 24/7 outside your home can be a great way to catch thieves and prevent theft, but it can also present a threat to your privacy. Ring’s end-to-end encryption can disable certain features, such as the ability to view Live View from multiple devices at once and share videos. However, it is worth it. | https://medium.com/@technologybrandnews/ring-rolls-out-end-to-end-encryption-to-all-users-globally-42d12033de1a | ['Raziah Lauretta'] | 2021-07-15 07:32:01.366000+00:00 | ['Ringrolls', 'End To Endencryption', 'Encryption'] |
Medium Terms of Service | Medium Terms of Service
Effective: September 1, 2020
You can see our previous Terms here.
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(b) Arbitration of Disputes. Except for small claims disputes in which you or Medium seeks to bring an individual action in small claims court located in the county where you reside or disputes in which you or Medium seeks injunctive or other equitable relief for the alleged infringement or misappropriation of intellectual property, you and Medium waive your rights to a jury trial and to have any other dispute arising out of or related to these Terms or our Services, including claims related to privacy and data security, (collectively, “Disputes”) resolved in court. All Disputes submitted to JAMS will be resolved through confidential, binding arbitration before one arbitrator. Arbitration proceedings will be held in San Francisco, California unless you’re a consumer, in which case you may elect to hold the arbitration in your county of residence. For purposes of this section a “consumer” means a person using the Services for personal, family or household purposes. You and Medium agree that Disputes will be held in accordance with the JAMS Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures (“JAMS Rules”). The most recent version of the JAMS Rules are available on the JAMS website and are incorporated into these Terms by reference. You either acknowledge and agree that you have read and understand the JAMS Rules or waive your opportunity to read the JAMS Rules and waive any claim that the JAMS Rules are unfair or should not apply for any reason.
(c) You and Medium agree that these Terms affect interstate commerce and that the enforceability of this section will be substantively and procedurally governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 1, et seq. (the “FAA”), to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. As limited by the FAA, these Terms and the JAMS Rules, the arbitrator will have exclusive authority to make all procedural and substantive decisions regarding any Dispute and to grant any remedy that would otherwise be available in court, including the power to determine the question of arbitrability. The arbitrator may conduct only an individual arbitration and may not consolidate more than one individual’s claims, preside over any type of class or representative proceeding or preside over any proceeding involving more than one individual.
(d) The arbitration will allow for the discovery or exchange of non-privileged information relevant to the Dispute. The arbitrator, Medium, and you will maintain the confidentiality of any arbitration proceedings, judgments and awards, including information gathered, prepared and presented for purposes of the arbitration or related to the Dispute(s) therein. The arbitrator will have the authority to make appropriate rulings to safeguard confidentiality, unless the law provides to the contrary. The duty of confidentiality doesn’t apply to the extent that disclosure is necessary to prepare for or conduct the arbitration hearing on the merits, in connection with a court application for a preliminary remedy, or in connection with a judicial challenge to an arbitration award or its enforcement, or to the extent that disclosure is otherwise required by law or judicial decision.
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(f) Any Dispute must be filed within one year after the relevant claim arose; otherwise, the Dispute is permanently barred, which means that you and Medium will not have the right to assert the claim.
(g) You have the right to opt out of binding arbitration within 30 days of the date you first accepted the terms of this section by sending an email of your request to [email protected]. In order to be effective, the opt-out notice must include your full name and address and clearly indicate your intent to opt out of binding arbitration. By opting out of binding arbitration, you are agreeing to resolve Disputes in accordance with the next section regarding “Governing Law and Venue.”
(h) If any portion of this section is found to be unenforceable or unlawful for any reason, (1) the unenforceable or unlawful provision shall be severed from these Terms; (2) severance of the unenforceable or unlawful provision shall have no impact whatsoever on the remainder of this section or the parties’ ability to compel arbitration of any remaining claims on an individual basis pursuant to this section; and (3) to the extent that any claims must therefore proceed on a class, collective, consolidated, or representative basis, such claims must be litigated in a civil court of competent jurisdiction and not in arbitration, and the parties agree that litigation of those claims shall be stayed pending the outcome of any individual claims in arbitration. Further, if any part of this section is found to prohibit an individual claim seeking public injunctive relief, that provision will have no effect to the extent such relief is allowed to be sought out of arbitration, and the remainder of this section will be enforceable.
Governing Law and Venue
These Terms and any dispute that arises between you and Medium will be governed by California law except for its conflict of law principles. Any dispute between the parties that’s not subject to arbitration or can’t be heard in small claims court will be resolved in the state or federal courts of California and the United States, respectively, sitting in San Francisco, California.
Some countries have laws that require agreements to be governed by the local laws of the consumer’s country. This paragraph doesn’t override those laws.
Amendments
We may make changes to these Terms from time to time. If we make changes, we’ll provide you with notice of them by sending an email to the email address associated with your account, offering an in-product notification, or updating the date at the top of these Terms. Unless we say otherwise in our notice, the amended Terms will be effective immediately, and your continued use of our Services after we provide such notice will confirm your acceptance of the changes. If you don’t agree to the amended Terms, you must stop using our Services.
Severability
If any provision or part of a provision of these Terms is unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision or part of the provision is deemed severable from these Terms and does not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
Miscellaneous
Medium’s failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. These Terms, and the terms and policies listed in the Other Terms and Policies that May Apply to You Section, reflect the entire agreement between the parties relating to the subject matter hereof and supersede all prior agreements, statements and understandings of the parties. The section titles in these Terms are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. Use of the word “including” will be interpreted to mean “including without limitation.” Except as otherwise provided herein, these Terms are intended solely for the benefit of the parties and are not intended to confer third-party beneficiary rights upon any other person or entity. You agree that communications and transactions between us may be conducted electronically.
Other Terms and Policies that May Apply to You
- Medium Rules
- Partner Program Terms
- Membership Terms of Service
- Username Policy
- Custom Domains Terms of Service | https://medium.com/policy/medium-terms-of-service-9db0094a1e0f | [] | 2020-09-01 17:50:41.653000+00:00 | ['Terms And Conditions', 'Terms', 'Medium'] |
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