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What We Want And Need Now In Hospitality Industry? | As technology is growing immensely, the desire and requirement of customers in hospitality industry keep on changing. Nowadays smartphones have become an essential part of everyday life. Now no longer customers want to call and make advanced booking; in this mobile world just with a few clicks anyone can easily access to the list of hotels and book their favorite one.
By moving one step forward, the hospitality industries are providing best customer care facility and efficient operation system with the mobile apps. These apps are revolutionizing how customers interact with their favorite hotels and customizing the customer’s experience. In many aspects hospitality industry is growing wider and need to grow more to satisfy the customer needs.
The Current Needs & Wants in the Hospitality Industry
Let’s have a look on what customer need in hospitality industry.
More preference for Guests Service
Nowadays customers are becoming very clever; if they want to book any hotel/restaurant then they simply surf in search engines. As digitally enabled customers expect hotels to have more personalized services. As a result hoteliers need to improve personalization service from booking experience to till their personal services like food, cleanliness and refreshments. So hoteliers who provide mobile-centric personalization services will be in the top brands of choice for the guests.
Along with these, hotels should also look after the overall experience of the guests like including the information about the coolest local places. This simple tactic may lead to attract more customers and gain more profit.
No Need of Luxury Environment
Hotel Industry has barely changed over the few decades. Now no modern traveler look for white linen service, bell-boys to carry luggage and luxury lobby, they want to feel completely home attire and satisfied with the hotel lobby where they can sit and have coffee surrounded with the likeminded people. The new era is all about providing the best experience rather than flaunting wealth. Modern travelers don’t prefer for corporate setting, but they want an environment where they can interact with the new people. So make the luxury in a simple way.
Smart Check-In
No one wants to wait in a huge queue to get the room key for check-in. In the advanced technology, room check-in has become smarter way. With the radio frequency identification technology, customers can get the message about the room number on a planned day and on the arrival day the guest proceed to that room and the keycard will open the door. So this smart way can build good relationship with your customers.
Here have a look on what customer want in hospitality industry.
Using Smartphone in a Smarter Way
Each one of us are much more addicted to smartphones, this smart gadget gives a better opportunity to hospitality industry to improve customer service. With a single touch smartphone can give access to everything from food to shopping and much more. So hospitality industry can make use of mobile apps to change the way people plan their vacations. Customers can easily have a look on their favorite restaurant service instead of seeking for the multiple restaurants and can receive event updates via push notification. In this way smartphone can be used in a smarter way to attract your customers.
Social Media Presence
Even though social media presence is crucial in hospitality industry, but FaceBook is the popular platform for check-ins and reviews for hotels. Posting attractive images and sharing the videos, real stories, interesting blogs and reviews these can create a brand name for your businesses and customers can easily get to know about your restaurant in a single click. So restaurants and hotels should not miss this opportunity in order to share interesting photos of their services as well as the facilities. Hoteliers should choose their social media platform carefully based on their targeted audience, rather than simply joining all groups.
For More Details Contact Us :
Address: 795 Folsom Street, 1st Floor, San Francisco, California, 94107
Phone: 866–722–5538
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.elisthunter.com/ | https://medium.com/@jayewilliams/what-we-want-and-need-now-in-hospitality-industry-4602d9e2f4cf | [] | 2016-12-27 03:56:51.592000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'Hotel', 'Email Marketing'] |
Build a blog with React, Strapi and Apollo | This tutorial will show you how to build a blog using React for the frontend, Apollo for requesting the Strapi API and Strapi as the backend. This post is written by Maxime Castres, Growth Hacker at Strapi.
If you are familiar with our blog you must have seen that we’ve released a series of tutorials on how to make blogs using Strapi with a lot of frontend frameworks: Gatsby Old, Gatsby new, Next.js, Vue, Nuxt or Angular.
This one if for React developers who wants to build a simple blog with Strapi!
Webinar
We made a webinar on February 20 where I did this tutorial live on Livestorm
Starter
You may want to directly try the result of this tutorial. Well, we made a starter out of it so give it a try!
Deploy the backend
To deploy this Strapi instance you’ll need:
Once you have created these accounts you can deploy your instance by clicking on this button
Deploy the frontend
Netlify
To deploy this Strapi instance you’ll need:
A Netlify account for free
Once you have created your account you can deploy your instance by clicking on this button.
Select a repository name and fill the API_URL with your Strapi instance on Heroku (eg: https://your-app.herokuapp.com) without the trailing slash
Goal
The goal here is to be able to create a blog website using Strapi as the backend, React for the frontend, and Apollo for requesting the Strapi API with GraphQL.
The source code is available on GitHub.
Prerequisites
This tutorial uses Strapi v3.0.0-beta.18.3.
You need to have node v.12 installed and that’s all.
Setup
Create a blog-strapi folder and get inside!
mkdir blog-strapi && cd blog-strapi
Back-end setup
That’s the easiest part, as since beta.9 Strapi has an excellent package create strapi-app that allows you to create a Strapi project in seconds without needing to install Strapi globally so let’s try it out.
Note: for this tutorial, we will use yarn as your package manager.
yarn create strapi-app backend --quickstart --no-run .
This single command line will create all you need for your back-end. Make sure to add the --no-run flag as it will prevent your app from automatically starting the server because SPOILER ALERT: we need to install some awesome Strapi plugins.
Now that you know that we need to install some plugins to enhance your app, let’s install one of our most popular ones: the graphql plugin.
yarn strapi install graphql
Once the installation is completed, you can finally start your Strapi server strapi dev and create your first Administrator.
Don’t forget that Strapi is running on http://localhost:1337
Nice! Now that Strapi is ready, you are going to create your Next.JS application.
Front-end setup
The easiest part has been completed, let’s get our hands dirty developing our blog!
React setup
Create a React frontend server by running the following command:
yarn create react-app frontend
Once the installation is completed, you can start your front-end app to make sure everything went ok.
cd frontend
yarn dev
Front-end structure
You are going to give a better structure to your React application! But first, let’s install react-router-dom
Install react-router-dom by running the following command:
yarn add react-router-dom
Remove everything inside your src folder
folder Create an index.js file containing the following code:
import React from "react";
import ReactDOM from "react-dom";
import App from "./containers/App";
import { BrowserRouter as Router } from "react-router-dom"; ReactDOM.render(
<Router>
<App />
</Router>,
document.getElementById("root")
);
What you are doing here is to wrap your App inside Router . But what/where is your App ?
Well we’re going to create a containers folder that will contain your App
Create a containers/App folder and a index.js file inside containing the following code:
import React from "react"; function App() {
return <div className="App" />;
} export default App;
To make your blog look pretty, we will use a popular CSS framework for styling: UiKit and Apollo to query Strapi with GraphQL.
UIkit setup
Add the following line in your public/index.html in order to use UIkit from their CDN
...
<title>React App</title>
<link
rel="stylesheet"
href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Staatliches"
/>
<link
rel="stylesheet"
href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/css/uikit.min.css"
/> <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/uikit/3.2.0/js/uikit.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/js/uikit-icons.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/uikit/3.2.0/js/uikit.js"></script>
...
Create an ./src/index.css file containing the following style:
a {
text-decoration: none;
} h1 {
font-family: Staatliches;
font-size: 120px;
} #category {
font-family: Staatliches;
font-weight: 500;
} #title {
letter-spacing: 0.4px;
font-size: 22px;
font-size: 1.375rem;
line-height: 1.13636;
} #banner {
margin: 20px;
height: 800px;
} #editor {
font-size: 16px;
font-size: 1rem;
line-height: 1.75;
} .uk-navbar-container {
background: #fff !important;
font-family: Staatliches;
} img:hover {
opacity: 1;
transition: opacity 0.25s cubic-bezier(0.39, 0.575, 0.565, 1);
}
Please don’t force me to explain you some css!
Apollo setup
Install all the necessary dependencies for apollo by running the following command
yarn add apollo-boost @apollo/react-hooks graphql react-apollo
Create a ./src/utils/apolloClient.js file containing the following code:
import { ApolloClient } from "apollo-client";
import { InMemoryCache } from "apollo-cache-inmemory";
import { HttpLink } from "apollo-link-http"; const cache = new InMemoryCache();
const link = new HttpLink({
uri: `${process.env.REACT_APP_BACKEND_URL}/graphql`
});
const client = new ApolloClient({
cache,
link
}); export default client;
Oh-oh! It looks like you don’t have any REACT_APP_BACKEND_URL environment variable yet!
Create a .env file in the root of your application containing the following line:
REACT_APP_BACKEND_URL="http://localhost:1337"
Note: You want Apollo to point to this address http://localhost:1337/graphql . That's the one where you'll be able to fetch your data from your Strapi server.
Wrap your App/index.js inside the ApolloProvider and import your index.css file:
import React from "react";
import ReactDOM from "react-dom";
import { ApolloProvider } from "react-apollo";
import App from "./containers/App";
import client from "./utils/apolloClient";
import { BrowserRouter as Router } from "react-router-dom";
import "./index.css"; ReactDOM.render(
<Router>
<ApolloProvider client={client}>
<App />
</ApolloProvider>
</Router>,
document.getElementById("root")
);
Awesome! Your app should be ready now! You should have a blank page if everything went ok.
Designing the data structure
Finally! We are now going to create the data structure of our article by creating an Article content type.
Dive in your Strapi admin panel and click on the Content Type Builder link in the sidebar.
link in the sidebar. Click on Create new content-type and call it article .
Now you’ll be asked to create all the fields for your content-type:
Create the following ones:
title with type Text (required)
with type content with type Rich Text (required)
with type image with type Media (Single image) and (required)
with type published_at with type Date (required)
Press Save! Here you go, your first content type has been created. Now you may want to create your first article, but we have one thing to do before that: Grant access to the article content type.
Click on the Settings then Roles & Permission and click on the public role.
then and click on the role. Check the article find and findone routes and save.
Awesome! You should be ready to create your first article right now and fetch it on the GraphQL Playground.
Now, create your first article!
Here’s an example:
Great! Now you may want to reach the moment when you can actually fetch your articles through the API!
Go to http://localhost:1337/articles.
Isn’t that cool! You can also play with the GraphQL Playground.
Create categories
You may want to assign a category to your article (news, trends, opinion). You are going to do this by creating another content type in Strapi.
Create a category content type with the following field
content type with the following field name with type Text
Press save!
Create a new field in the Article content type which is a Relation Category has many Articles
in the content type which is a Click on the Settings then Roles & Permission and click on the public role. And check the category find and findone routes and save.
Now you’ll be able to select a category for your article in the right sidebox.
Now that we are good with Strapi let’s work on the frontend part!
Create the Query component
You are going to use Apollo to fetch your data from different pages. We don’t want you to rewrite the same code every time in your pages. This is why you are going to write a Query component that will be reusable!
Create a ./src/components/Query/index.js file containing the following code:
import React from "react";
import { useQuery } from "@apollo/react-hooks"; const Query = ({ children, query, id }) => {
const { data, loading, error } = useQuery(query, {
variables: { id: id }
}); if (loading) return <p>Loading...</p>;
if (error) return <p>Error: {JSON.stringify(error)}</p>;
return children({ data });
}; export default Query;
We are using the useQuery hook to call your Strapi server at this address http://localhost:1337/graphql . We are sending an id if it exists (it will be necessary when you'll want to fetch just one article).
If the request is successful, you will return the child component with the retrieved data as prop.
Let’s try it out by creating your navbar that will fetch all our categories but first let’s create the GraphQL query
Create a ./src/queries/category/categories.js file containing the following code:
import gql from "graphql-tag"; const CATEGORIES_QUERY = gql`
query Categories {
categories {
id
name
}
}
`; export default CATEGORIES_QUERY;
Let’s use this query to display your categories inside your navbar
Create a ./src/components/Nav/index.js file containing the following code:
import React from "react";
import Query from "../Query";
import { Link } from "react-router-dom"; import CATEGORIES_QUERY from "../../queries/category/categories"; const Nav = () => {
return (
<div>
<Query query={CATEGORIES_QUERY} id={null}>
{({ data: { categories } }) => {
return (
<div>
<nav className="uk-navbar-container" data-uk-navbar>
<div className="uk-navbar-left">
<ul className="uk-navbar-nav">
<li>
<Link to="/">Strapi Blog</Link>
</li>
</ul>
</div> <div className="uk-navbar-right">
<ul className="uk-navbar-nav">
{categories.map((category, i) => {
return (
<li key={category.id}>
<Link
to={`/category/${category.id}`}
className="uk-link-reset"
>
{category.name}
</Link>
</li>
);
})}
</ul>
</div>
</nav>
</div>
);
}}
</Query>
</div>
);
}; export default Nav;
Since we want our Nav to be in every page of our application we are going to use it inside our App container
Import and declare your Nav component inside your containers/App/index.js
import React from "react";
import Nav from "../../components/Nav"; function App() {
return (
<div className="App">
<Nav />
</div>
);
} export default App;
Great! You should now be able to see your brand new navbar containing your categories. But the links are not working right now. We’ll work on this later in the tutorial, don’t worry.
Note: The current code is not suited to display a lot of categories as you may encounter a UI issue. Since this blog post is supposed to be short, you could improve the code by adding a lazy load or something like that.
Create the Articles containers
This container will wrap a component that will display all your articles
Create a containers/Articles/index.js file containing the following code:
import React from "react";
import Articles from "../../components/Articles";
import Query from "../../components/Query";
import ARTICLES_QUERY from "../../queries/article/articles"; const Home = () => {
return (
<div>
<div className="uk-section">
<div className="uk-container uk-container-large">
<h1>Strapi blog</h1>
<Query query={ARTICLES_QUERY}>
{({ data: { articles } }) => {
return <Articles articles={articles} />;
}}
</Query>
</div>
</div>
</div>
);
}; export default Home;
Let’s write the query that fetches all your articles
Create a ./src/queries/articles/articles.js file containing the following code:
import gql from "graphql-tag"; const ARTICLES_QUERY = gql`
query Articles {
articles {
id
title
category {
id
name
}
image {
url
}
}
}
`; export default ARTICLES_QUERY;
Now we need to create an Articles component that will display all of your articles and a Card component that will display each of your articles:
Create a components/Articles/index.js file containing the following:
import React from "react";
import Card from "../Card"; const Articles = ({ articles }) => {
const leftArticlesCount = Math.ceil(articles.length / 5);
const leftArticles = articles.slice(0, leftArticlesCount);
const rightArticles = articles.slice(leftArticlesCount, articles.length); return (
<div>
<div className="uk-child-width-1-2" data-uk-grid>
<div>
{leftArticles.map((article, i) => {
return <Card article={article} key={`article__${article.id}`} />;
})}
</div>
<div>
<div className="uk-child-width-1-2@m uk-grid-match" data-uk-grid>
{rightArticles.map((article, i) => {
return <Card article={article} key={`article__${article.id}`} />;
})}
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
);
}; export default Articles;
Create a components/Card/index.js file containing the following code:
import React from "react";
import { Link } from "react-router-dom"; const Card = ({ article }) => {
const imageUrl =
process.env.NODE_ENV !== "development"
? article.image.url
: process.env.REACT_APP_BACKEND_URL + article.image.url;
return (
<Link to={`/article/${article.id}`} className="uk-link-reset">
<div className="uk-card uk-card-muted">
<div className="uk-card-media-top">
<img
src={imageUrl}
alt={article.image.url}
height="100"
/>
</div>
<div className="uk-card-body">
<p id="category" className="uk-text-uppercase">
{article.category.name}
</p>
<p id="title" className="uk-text-large">
{article.title}
</p>
</div>
</div>
</Link>
);
}; export default Card;
Everything is ready, we just need to import the Articles container inside the App container.
Import and declare your Articles container inside your containers/App/index.js :
import React from "react"; import Articles from "../Articles";
import Nav from "../../components/Nav"; function App() {
return (
<div className="App">
<Nav />
<Articles />
</div>
);
} export default App;
Create the Article container
You can see that if you click on the article, there is nothing. Let’s create the article container together! But first, you’ll need two packages:
Install react-moment and react-markdown by running the following command:
yarn add react-moment react-markdown moment
react-moment will give you the ability to display the publication date of your article, and react-markdown will be used to display the content of your article in markdown.
Create a ./containers/Article/index.js file containing the following:
import React from "react";
import { useParams } from "react-router";
import Query from "../../components/Query";
import ReactMarkdown from "react-markdown";
import Moment from "react-moment"; import ARTICLE_QUERY from "../../queries/article/article"; const Article = () => {
let { id } = useParams();
return (
<Query query={ARTICLE_QUERY} id={id}>
{({ data: { article } }) => {
const imageUrl =
process.env.NODE_ENV !== "development"
? article.image.url
: process.env.REACT_APP_BACKEND_URL + article.image.url;
return (
<div>
<div
id="banner"
className="uk-height-medium uk-flex uk-flex-center uk-flex-middle uk-background-cover uk-light uk-padding uk-margin"
data-src={imageUrl}
data-srcset={imageUrl}
data-uk-img
>
<h1>{article.title}</h1>
</div> <div className="uk-section">
<div className="uk-container uk-container-small">
<ReactMarkdown source={article.content} />
<p>
<Moment format="MMM Do YYYY">{article.published_at}</Moment>
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
);
}}
</Query>
);
}; export default Article;
Let’s write the query for just one article now!
Create a ./src/queries/article/article.js containing the following code:
import gql from "graphql-tag"; const ARTICLE_QUERY = gql`
query Articles($id: ID!) {
article(id: $id) {
id
title
content
image {
url
}
category {
id
name
}
published_at
}
}
`; export default ARTICLE_QUERY;
Article page is ready, we just need to add this new Article container inside the App container. You are going to use the Switch and Route components from react-router-dom in order to establish a routing system for your article page
Import and declare your Article container inside your containers/App/index.js :
import React from "react"; import { Switch, Route } from "react-router-dom"; import Nav from "../../components/Nav";
import Articles from "../Articles";
import Article from "../Article"; function App() {
return (
<div className="App">
<Nav />
<Switch>
<Route path="/" component={Articles} exact />
<Route path="/article/:id" component={Article} exact />
</Switch>
</div>
);
} export default App;
Great! You should be able to get your article now!
Categories
You may want to separate your article depending on the categories! Let’s create a page for each category then:
Create a ./containers/Category/index.js file containing the following:
import React from "react";
import { useParams } from "react-router";
import Articles from "../../components/Articles";
import Query from "../../components/Query";
import CATEGORY_ARTICLES_QUERY from "../../queries/category/articles"; const Category = () => {
let { id } = useParams(); return (
<Query query={CATEGORY_ARTICLES_QUERY} id={id}>
{({ data: { category } }) => {
return (
<div>
<div className="uk-section">
<div className="uk-container uk-container-large">
<h1>{category.name}</h1>
<Articles articles={category.articles} />
</div>
</div>
</div>
);
}}
</Query>
);
}; export default Category;
Create a ./src/queries/category/articles.js file containing the following:
import gql from 'graphql-tag'; const CATEGORY_ARTICLES_QUERY = gql`
query Category($id: ID!){
category(id: $id) {
name
articles {
id
title
content
image {
url
}
category {
id
name
}
}
}
}
`; export default CATEGORY_ARTICLES_QUERY;
Category page is ready, we just need to add this new container inside the App container.
Import and declare your Category container inside your containers/App/index.js :
import React from "react"; import { Switch, Route } from "react-router-dom"; import Nav from "../../components/Nav";
import Articles from "../Articles";
import Article from "../Article";
import Category from "../Category"; function App() {
return (
<div className="App">
<Nav />
<Switch>
<Route path="/" component={Articles} exact />
<Route path="/article/:id" component={Article} exact />
<Route path="/category/:id" component={Category} exact />
</Switch>
</div>
);
} export default App;
Awesome! You can list articles depending on the selected category now.
Conclusion
Huge congrats, you successfully achieved this tutorial. I hope you enjoyed it!
Still hungry?
Feel free to add additional features, adapt this project to your own needs, and give your feedback in the comment section below.
If you want to deploy your application, check our documentation.
Write for the community
Contribute and collaborate on educational content for the Strapi Community https://strapi.io/write-for-the-community
Can’t wait to see your contribution!
One last thing, we are trying to make the best possible tutorials for you, help us in this mission by answering this short survey https://strapisolutions.typeform.com/to/bwXvhA?channel=xxxxx | https://medium.com/strapi/building-a-blog-using-strapi-react-and-apollo-44ce4ada1b8d | [] | 2020-12-21 14:38:04.586000+00:00 | ['CMS', 'Frontend', 'Development', 'React', 'Web Development'] |
How I Boost My Productivity as a Programmer | Keep Balance
There should always be a middle ground in your productivity, as everywhere. It’s important to keep your eagerness to learn but still prevent yourself from burning out.
To do so, remember to have rest and balance between your work and life. A fresh mind always remembers better.
This habit was very important to me. When I started learning to program, without any knowledge of it at all, I spent almost ten hours a day practicing and studying. Of course, I was focused on finding my first job, but I made a rule for myself: Once a week I would toggle programming off and do whatever I wanted that wasn’t related to coding.
It helped me avoid burnout, continue learning in that tempo during the next couple of months, and get my first job in IT.
I now work full time as a front-end developer, but I’ve continued practicing that habit. Usually, I switch the toggle for the whole weekend. However, during the week, I usually spend an extra hour or two studying and practicing new things. | https://medium.com/better-programming/how-i-boost-my-productivity-as-a-programmer-2de4d954aa53 | [] | 2019-08-12 00:20:29.164000+00:00 | ['Efficiency', 'Boost Productivity', 'Productivity', 'Work Life Balance', 'Programming'] |
Great Developers Ask for Help | Great Developers Ask for Help
It’s tempting to do everything yourself, but we can go much further together
Photo by Perry Grone on Unsplash.
When we start our engineering careers, everything seems difficult — from complex programming paradigms to the weird syntax of a language. Once developers get the hang of things, they find that whatever problem they come across can be fixed with elbow grease and coffee. This creates an “I can do anything!” mindset.
While this holds true, let me explain how this can lead to reduced productivity and ultimately burnout.
Programmers often take on difficult features without consulting their team to prove that they are excellent engineers. They believe that they can create a solid solution by themselves. This may be due to impostor syndrome and the need for validation from peers and supervisors. Every developer wants to prove that they can create reliable features and pull their weight on the team.
This approach generally backfires, as the developer has taken on a task that is difficult and must implement it in a limited time frame. Since they said no help was required, it would be embarrassing for the task’s timeline to slip or for the result to have bugs. The added pressure of getting it right creates anxiety and the development process is slowed down even further. Now, there is a negative feedback loop generated.
Existential dread, “Why am I even doing this?”/minute, and coffee cups/hour are inversely proportional to the number of days until the deadline. Since the developer cannot focus on the solution because they are so fixated on saving their reputation, the timelines start to slip. After pulling all-nighters and hacking together a solution, the developer finally turns it in to QA for testing. These situations can create burnout. Burnout does not only affect a single individual but the morale of the whole team.
In retrospect, we can see that the easier way would have been to ask for help when they got stuck. Once multiple people start working on a problem (like a team), responsibility is lifted from a single person’s shoulders and the negative emotions created by stressful deadlines are greatly reduced. There’s no better sense of security than knowing that someone has got your back.
The rubber ducky method is widely celebrated and recommended in the programming community. A human rubber ducky is exponentially more efficient and effective, as you get real-time feedback on your proposed solution. When you have to explain a solution to another developer, you first need to have a deep understanding of the problem and the thought process you went through to create the proposed solution. What I have learned is that when you explain the problem to your peer or supervisor, you often come up with the solution yourself, as you now have a deeper understanding of the problem and your solution’s possible caveats.
When you are explaining the problem to a peer, ask them to poke holes in your thinking. This is a highly effective method in catching nuance bugs in logic before they occur. Once you verbally agree on the problem statement and the path that you are going to take to solve the problem, create pseudo-code and dry-run it once or twice with multiple cases and conditions. This is effective in finding out solutions.
Great people stand on the shoulders of giants. Leverage your team’s collective wisdom and ask for help when you are stuck. This does not mean starting off by asking for help. Individual learning and self-reliance are important. Plus, you do not want to bother your peers every time you face a problem. This will make you reliant on people and decrease the overall productivity of the team.
In Dale Carnegie's book How to Make Friends and Influence People, he explains how the easiest way to befriend a person is to ask for a favor. This might seem counterintuitive at first, but when you ask someone for a favor, you get the chance to interact with them on a personal level. Say you’ve asked someone to take a look at your program while you’re waiting for your code to upload and compile. You can fill the gaps with small talk and then you can get to know the other person on a personal level.
And when you ask someone for a favor, they will be more inclined to ask you for one as well. This will create a bond between team members and increase the quality of team interaction. It is essential to learn, help, and grow with your team members. | https://medium.com/better-programming/great-developers-ask-for-help-a20a4f689bce | ['Raafay Khan'] | 2020-06-11 19:01:41.977000+00:00 | ['Software Engineering', 'Remote Work', 'JavaScript', 'Programming', 'Startup'] |
A SpringBoot Developer’s Guide To Micronaut | This is a guide for spring application developers, who want to get started with using Micronaut. With this guide, you will get enough information to work with Micronaut framework.
Introduction
Micronaut is a framework, which has gained its name for faster startup time and is usually preferred for solutions with AWS Lambda. It uses Ahead Of Time (AOT) Compilation to determine what the application needs. The result of this is an application that has a smaller memory footprint, fast start-up time, and is reflection free.
The Framework provides dependency injection, inversion of control (IOC), and Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) which is similar to that provided by Spring. Using Micronaut, you can create a command-line application, HTTP server application, and even event-driven application.
With this introduction, let's look into creating an application with Micronaut.
Creating a project
To create a project you can directly go to Micronaut’s launch to create your project. This is similar to how spring provides a way to create a project using https://start.spring.io.
You can alternatively install a command-line utility using SDKMan. The command-line utility does the same as the launch site. More details about this are here
While creating a project, add Hibernate-JPA feature because we will be creating a project with CRUD capabilities. Once you have generated the project, we will look at the various things you would normally do as a spring developer.
Creating a bean
Usually, in spring, you would create a bean using @bean , @Restcontroller , @service , @repository , etc. In Micronaut, we have some annotation that is similar to those. Let’s look at them.
@controller — To define your controller class for your rest endpoints.
— To define your controller class for your rest endpoints. @repository — To define your repository bean.
— To define your repository bean. @singleton — To define a bean with singleton scope.
— To define a bean with singleton scope. @prototype — To define a bean with prototype scope
— To define a bean with prototype scope @requestscope — To define a bean with request scopes.
There is no @service or @component annotation, but rather you can use the above annotations to create a service or a component.
In addition to these, we have @infrastructure to define a bean that is critical for the application running which should not be overridden, and @threadlocal annotation to scope the bean per thread.
To inject a particular bean, Micronaut supports the same injection mechanism like constructor based, setter based, name based, which is similar to what spring provides. In case of an @autowire , you would now use an @inject annotation.
You can also have bean life cycle methods, conditional beans, bean qualifiers, etc, which are similar to those provided by spring. You can always read more about it in Micronaut’s documentation here.
Dependencies
Now, I am creating a CRUD application that communicates with MySQL. The minimum dependencies from Micronaut I needed were
<dependency>
<groupId>io.micronaut</groupId>
<artifactId>micronaut-inject</artifactId>
<scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>io.micronaut</groupId>
<artifactId>micronaut-http-server-netty</artifactId>
<scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>io.micronaut.data</groupId>
<artifactId>micronaut-data-hibernate-jpa</artifactId>
<scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>io.micronaut.sql</groupId>
<artifactId>micronaut-jdbc-hikari</artifactId>
<scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
Apart from these, I had to add mysql-connector-java driver to communicate with MySQL.
JPA configuration
To create your entities, you can use the usual javax.persistence annotations to create your entities, define ids, columns, etc.
@Entity
@Table(name = "Orders")
public class Order { @Id
@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
private Long id;
Your data source and hibernate config also remains pretty much the same
datasources:
default:
url: jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/ORDER
username: root
password: root
jpa:
default:
properties:
hibernate:
hbm2ddl:
auto: update
show_sql: true
dialect: org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL8Dialect
For querying your database, we get implementations from Micronaut for interfaces you create by extending interfaces like CRUDRepository or JPARepository. We also have JPA query support using the @query annotation. Here is the code for a JPA repository with an example query method.
@Repository
public interface OrderRepository extends CrudRepository<Order, Long> {
@Query("select o from Order as o")
List<Order> getAllOrders();
}
REST Controller
A REST controller can be created using the @controller annotation and provide your GET, PUT, POST mappings using the @get , @put , @post annotations respectively. All of these annotations come from the micronaut-http-client dependency.
@Controller("/order")
public class WebController {
private final OrderService orderService;
public WebController(OrderService orderService) {
this.orderService = orderService;
}
@Get("/{id}")
public HttpResponse<OrderDTO> getOrder(@PathVariable("id") Long id) {
Optional<OrderDTO> mayBeOrder = orderService.getOrder(id);
if (mayBeOrder.isPresent()) {
return HttpResponse.created(mayBeOrder.get());
}
return HttpResponse.notFound();
}
Performance
With the above configuration, the application starts up in nearly 2 secs.
__ __ _ _
| \/ (_) ___ _ __ ___ _ __ __ _ _ _| |_
| |\/| | |/ __| '__/ _ \| '_ \ / _` | | | | __|
| | | | | (__| | | (_) | | | | (_| | |_| | |_
|_| |_|_|\___|_| \___/|_| |_|\__,_|\__,_|\__|
Micronaut (v2.5.8)
12:55:08.150 [main] INFO com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource - HikariPool-1 - Start completed.
12:55:08.157 [main] INFO org.hibernate.Version - HHH000412: Hibernate ORM core version [WORKING]
12:55:08.248 [main] INFO o.h.annotations.common.Version - HCANN000001: Hibernate Commons Annotations {5.1.2.Final}
12:55:08.351 [main] INFO org.hibernate.dialect.Dialect - HHH000400: Using dialect: org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL57Dialect
12:55:09.059 [main] INFO io.micronaut.runtime.Micronaut - Startup completed in 1928ms. Server Running: 12:55:07.769 [main] INFO com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource - HikariPool-1 - Starting...12:55:08.150 [main] INFO com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource - HikariPool-1 - Start completed.12:55:08.157 [main] INFO org.hibernate.Version - HHH000412: Hibernate ORM core version [WORKING]12:55:08.248 [main] INFO o.h.annotations.common.Version - HCANN000001: Hibernate Commons Annotations {5.1.2.Final}12:55:08.351 [main] INFO org.hibernate.dialect.Dialect - HHH000400: Using dialect: org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL57Dialect12:55:09.059 [main] INFO io.micronaut.runtime.Micronaut - Startup completed in. Server Running: http://localhost:8080
Now, there is a catch here.
When the application starts up, the beans are yet to be wired up and this happens lazily. When the application receives the first request, the bean wiring takes place and hence there is a little delay for the first request that is being served. The subsequent requests are then pretty fast.
Here are the statistics.
Now to achieve the real boost in startup performance, we can create a Native image. With a native image, you can get a startup time of about 90 ms.
Yes, 90 milliseconds with JPA CRUD capabilities.
To learn how to achieve this incredible initial startup time. You can read my next article “Boost Java Application Performance With Micronaut”.
As usual, I have uploaded the code for this article on GitHub. | https://medium.com/@amrutprabhu/a-springboot-developers-guide-to-micronaut-ee8271a0c787 | ['Amrut Prabhu'] | 2021-07-29 20:05:58.955000+00:00 | ['Framework', 'Java', 'Micronaut', 'Spring Boot'] |
Intertwined relationships, about work- and life long friendships — Remco Livain | I see every interaction with people around me as a singular relationship; one that needs attention, interaction and love to succeed. These interactions come and go, but I realize that I need to invest the time and effort to keep them up. At the end of the day, it is these contacts with others that make life worthwhile, precious and interesting.
Both my personal- and work life are intertwined; something I have come to love and cherish.
It is difficult to separate my work relationships from my personal ones. Frankly, I do not want to either. If certain people are important in my life, I want them to be a part of me and my daily routines. I want them to see how I work and what keeps me busy. I want to share successes and failures with those around me. And it is a part of my DNA to share my feelings openly.
If I fail to be the best version of me, I know my company and the people around me would see, and feel it.
You need to find some more friends
My wife recently pointed out to me, that I could do with some more friends; maybe not the easiest thing to hear someone say, but I can understand where she is coming from. In her life, family, friends and work colleagues are three separate groups of people. Each of which has distinct characteristics and qualities.
I agree that my family has a different role in my life than my friends and co-workers. However, the people I work and interacts with daily, have become my friends; people I hold very dear.
I don’t know if my colleagues and employees would refer to me as their friend, or just a friendly boss — someone they like to work with. But whatever they would like to call our relationship, we are there for one another. I know that whenever I am not feeling well, or need advice, these people in my life would be there for me as much as I am there for them.
To me these are not just co-workers, but my friends, too.
Strange, humane things happen when you are there for each other
A few years ago, when I was working at a startup in Munich, I got a phone call in the middle of the night. The police were on the other side of the line. I had to bail out one of my employees from a night at the local prison. She had gotten into a fight in a bar after a long night of drinking, and had noted my name down as her emergency contact. I picked her up from the station, brought her to bed on a guest bed in my apartment and let her sleep it off until the next day.
I did not think twice about whether or not I would go and pick her up. Of course I did. I was shocked to find her at the police station in the state that she was in, though. Yet, I knew it this was an extreme sign of respect and gratitude from her side to ask me for help. She knew that I would be there for her, no matter what.
When I think back at that night, and the days that followed, I feel nothing but gratitude.
In the days that followed she told me: “there are very few people I spend as much time with as my colleagues, and I know that you are my friend. I don’t want you to forget about what happened last, and I know that I crossed a line. But I also know that you would not hold this against me. We, as a team, are there for each other.”
As much as the situation kept me emotionally hostage for a few days, I soon came to accept that these things happen. They had never happened to me before, but apparently they do. And as strange as it may seem, I was sort of glad they did — at least once in my life.
Life is full of beautiful relationships, if you want it to be
I am thankful for the relationships I have with the people around me. Maybe I could indeed do with a couple of friends that I could use to blow off some steam from time to time, too. But that is what I have got my blog, Twitter and sports for.
If anything, life is too short to spend a sufficient amount of time with every single interesting person that you meet along the way. It is good to realize that relationships, contacts and employees come and go. Their lives and mine are not the same.
Yet, when you get the chance to spend more time with others, use it. Cherish the time you have with your colleagues, friends and family. Life if all too short to take these interactions and relationships for granted.
Happy holidays and take good care of each other this Christmas.
Remco | https://medium.com/@rlivain/intertwined-relationships-about-work-and-life-long-friendships-remco-livain-dca1dd93f037 | ['Remco Livain'] | 2020-12-27 09:06:58.487000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Personal', 'Psychology', 'Work Life Balance', 'Thoughts'] |
raymond and Mr Timpkins Revue | Whilst we perform music and prop based nonsense, we also spend a lot of time writing nonsense too. Here it is.
Combining the Radio 4 long running tale of rural folk with samples of farts seemed like a good idea and indeed has been largely welcomed as a regular item on our Facebook page, facebook.com/raymondandmrtimpkins. A short blurb to go with each episode was necessary but expanded each time until it became the bloated, undisciplined cobblers reproduced below. This particular instalment was much too long for Facebooks draconian maximum word count so here it is in full.
The Fartchers. Ep 11 — Halloween
Ket Bastet rubs the bandaged bridge of his nose, sighing as more of his face crumbles away. He supposes he must be dehydrated and he probably is. Four thousand years in a dry and sandy sarcophagus will do that for you, you know.
Every day he reaches out with his evil, awful thoughts. His mind has become ever more focussed over the years as his body dessicates, held together only by the tightly wound bandages and recently, he has received back an appalling echo from, if anything, an even more malign consciousness than his own. He sees books and shelving but mainly a black and cold loathing for those who treat badlt the things they but mostly he senses a thirst. An aching desperate thirst, for blood!
He smiles carefully, cursing as his bottom lip drops off again, struggling with his clumsy wrapped fingers, puffing out dust in place of spit as he desperately tries to reattach it again. Not long now, not long and the world will be very sorry to feel his wrath as soon as someone, anyone but preferably someone absolutely terrible, digs him up from under this bloody awful layby, opens the lid of this bloody awful stone coffin and he can get a really nice cup of very wet tea.
In the days of the Egyptian Pharoahs, he had been a proper Billy big bollocks and no mistaking. An advisor and a courtier, he had tastes so corrupt that even his masters were often surprised and mildly revolted but his mind was like a steel trap and his ideas always seemed to work out well.
Once he had driven a chariot to Alexandria in a pandemic of plague, apparently to check out his eyesight, which no one really believed but it was when he was found anointing the Pharoahs favourite son with oils, entirely naked and with a very noticeable arousal that he was instantly prepared for his death, wrapped tightly in bandages, sprinkled with spices and lowered respectfully into a beutifully gilded and painted coffin before being sealed into his sarcophogus. No one was really that bothered by all his screaming and whinging on. He only stopped his whining when the faint noises of huge stones being manouvered above ceased. This coincided with the scant amount of air in his tomb running out and he made no more sounds for many centuries.
Sir Stephen Arsebarrows face was the next thing he became aware of. Not in the sense of actually seeing him but as a kind of lucid dream. A beaky nose housed on a thin face surmounted by an iron helm peered down at him through too small, too close together, rheumy eyes.
“Oh, I say. Look at that. It’s a mummy. How splendid. It would look fine at my Mybermole estate would it not? Have it lifted from this awful hole and transported home. I shall continue upon my noble quest. “
So saying he, turned around, too quickly, got his armoured foot cover caught on a carelessly discarded rake, the handle of which whipped up and smacked him straight bertween the too narrowly arranged eyes, causing him to fall backwards into the opened sarcophogus with Ket throwing up a cloud of dust that as it cleared, revealed that his helm had split in two leaving his head to crack like a softly boiled egg on the base of the tomb.
Sir Arsebarrow therefore never got to see his wish carried out but carried out his wish absolutely was and the sarcophogus made it all the way to Mybermole where it was displayed at his manor house until the locals were so sick of all the misshapen lamb foetus’ and the bloody milk from their cows that they rose up one night and mob handed with pitchforks and lighted brands carried the ancient Egyptians last resting place to the bog/ plague pit/ fly-tip spot/ latrine, at the edge of the village and threw it in, watching with satisfaction and relief as the heavy stone coffin and it’s contents sink from sight.
As October runs towards it’s creepy zenith, Mr Timpkins becomes ever more aware of the spiritual security standards around the caravan. A whole packet of Saxa has been spread liberally around every opening to the caravan, a mezuzah graces every doorway, fennel blocks every keyhole, rowan branch crosses dangle above the front door and garlic strings surround every opening to the caravan, ripening up to a heavy funk that can be smelt from the village hall quite clearly.
Recently, he has begun to experience very odd dreams about sand, dryness, multiple violent murders, world dominance and has really been appreciating his early morning cuppa far more than usual.
Mr Timpkins will tell anyone who will listen that he is not superstsitous but he is really, his irrationalities, he thought, were not something to announce publicly, though he did once disclose them to a bus driver called Derek in a portaloo on the seafront at Bexhill-on-sea before turning tricks in a Morrisons car park. After all, he had, in his prime, been a firm favourite with Her Majesty’s Royal Navy.
raymond, being a massive idiot, eats a bulb every day and every day ends up spitting glass and blood down the sink, cursing his appalling memory before remembering it was a garlic bulb he should be eating, only to realise once more once masticating upon the overly flavoured cloves that he shouldn’t be eating raw garlic either and clawing at his burning mouth, spits the sticky detritus out of the kitchen window beneath which the soggy pungent mess builds to a sticky, slimy heap that does nothing to enhance the aromatic beauty of the surrounding area.
Anyway, early on the morning of the 31st, raymond wakes suddenly in his airing cupboard/ shoes storage area/ bed. Wind and rain lash the caravan roof and all the other parts of the caravan too.
Thunder cracks overhead, with the sort of gut shaking volume that Gemma Collins stilettoes jointly snapping might generate as she stamps her feet peevishly and demands the largest steak bake in the Basildon branch of Greggs, causing dread to settle in raymonds fat enveloped internal orghans as he wonders who or what might have disturbed his usually very deep sleep on such a stormy night.
Mr Timpkins, slumbering soundly in his cutlery drawer/ trouser press/ recycling box (queen size), guffs genteely, clawing at the air and mewling pathetically in his distress, before turning over and returning to his dreams of librarians and their spiteful, inky, exploring fingers.
raymond, now fully awake, lifts the kitchen window blind, and peers tensely into the lashing darkness. The librarian, her eyes glowing red, hangs in the air, head at an unusual and presumably very uncomfortable angle, hair hanging lank and wet, she spouts bloody vomit all down her front whilst chanting apparent nonsense. All around her the earth heaves and breaks. Old bikes, broken bottles and loads of fart ruined wireless radio sets lift into the air to be flung furiously away, each one not the prize she seeks.
Her head snaps suddenly up, her eyes meet raymonds confused cloudy stare. She screams and roars simultaneously, as she races at him. raymond closes his eyes, instinctively covering his grossly underused genitals with his hands but something is stopping the vampire bibiliophiles deathly advance, the rising stench from chewed up garlic repelling her blood craving death lust, throwing her up and back, away from the caravan.
Bravely, raymond faints, his largely empty though still very heavy head striking the taps of the sink, leaving him laying unconcious on the grimy linoleum until the first light of day prods it’s grubby digits through the thin blind.
A rising drone shot, (you’ll have to imagine this, partly owing to both a lack of budget, and a drone, but largely due to the fact that this is a written narrative and not a film of any sort. Thank you.) lifting up from the badly unmaintained caravan roof, lifting high into the storm scrubbed blue sky would show, a series of huge holes surrounding the litter strewn home of our heroes, stretching all the way from the road, right up to the litter bin, rendering the layby utterly useless for it’s intended task, which is, in accordance with it’s name, a layby, like so many ranndomly discarded, highly polished metallic discs or maybe small mirrors or, well, you probably get the idea.
raymond, stirring from his uncomfortable sleep and in deep need of a wee wee, steps yawning from the caravan, falling directly into one of the deepest holes, the thick soles of his sandals being absolutely no use as flotation devices, his feet sink quickly into the thick mud at the bottom, the water that fills the hole, entirely closing over the colourful woollen hat that covers his ridiculous head.
Mr Timpkins, awaking to a loud splashing sound worries that raymond has again forgotten to use the ablutory litter bins that ring the narrow confines of their roadside home and is once more using Mr Timpkins underwear drawer/ sald crisper/ toaster for his early morning urinary destination.
Stepping from the front door, he looks joyously up into the clear blue sky, inhaling the fresh cool air, which is a good thing as his sleepy stretch and journey to the lavatory/ bushes/ litter bin is saved from almost certain drownery by raymonds head and its newly found purpose as a stepping stone.
Looking around quizzically as he finally opens his eyes, mr Timpkins is astonished by the altered landscape.
“What on earth…” he exclaims. He was about to go on to say, “If this is young raymonds work, I’ll have his guts for garters…” channelling his primary school teachers bullying words from years ago but fortunately we have been spared such awful violent imagery, fortunately all the board rubbers have already been thrown at raymonds head and lost in the surrounding area, as two hands suddenly clasp Mr T’s ankles with frightening strength, he finds himself being launched into the next pothole over.
“raymond,” Mr Timpkins calls imperiously from his new position, backside pointing skyward, head pointing stright down into a muddy crater.
“Biffin” calls raymond soggily, his head surfacing damply from his watery home of the last five minutes.
“raymond, what on earth have you been doing out here. Will you kindly assist me from this mudhole!”
raymond clambers with difficulty up and out of the now half filled water hole and staggering over to Mr Timpkins, his waterlogged jogging trousers descending to reveal the sturdy top half moons of his spotty botty, grabs a handful of silken smoking jacket. With a grunt and a squeaky little effort fluff, he hauls Mr Timpkins into an uptright position, from which position he is able to more closely survey the chaos that morning has revealed.
“Is that an empty sarcophagus leaning at a crazy angle against the caravans bulwark, raymond? Now perhaps you’d like to explain your nocturnal excavations?”
“Biffin”
“Well, that is just what I’d expect you to say but look, here in the bottom of this sarcophogus what is this?
He holds up a scrap of thin, dusty bandage.
Biffin?”
“A mummy is on the loose you say? Well whose mummy?”
“Biffin.”
“A supernaturally awoken relic of ancient Egypt? Oh raymond. You know this reminds me of that time you insisted we had a nest of vampires in the library and my lovely Miss Booklicker was a creature of the night? Well, luckily I managed to stop you throwing that holy water all over her admirable, caninely enhanced dentures and I am so grateful that her admittedly very red eyes, exhibited such a surprising power to resist your attempt at staking her heart.”
“Biffin”
“Well, yes, I suppose there have been an awful lot of people disappearing from the village since then but I’m sure young Miss Booklicker is not responsible despite her nocturnal preferences and her reluctance to go into the hall of mirrors at the annual “Mybermole Show Your Bum for Jesus Summer Fayre.” Now raymond, I suggest you prepare brunch for it is nearly time for The Archers. I imagine those kippers we bought last month should be nice and ripe now which along with the pickled anchovy paste and seafood platter you stole from the Christmas party for the retired ex trawler men, should make a gloriously fishy repast. I shall stretch my legs in the direction of the library whilst you do so. Good day.”
Oh, I wish something would happen around here one day, Mr Timpkins thinks. I wish I had raymonds imagination. Vampires, mummies and all kinds of awful murdering happening here? Tsk. Whatever next raymond you flippin loon! Hah. As if…?
Grumbling, raymond retires to the kitchen, clattering around whilst Mr Timpkins concludes his perambulations around downtown Mybermole with an impromptu clamber up on to a handy vantage point, conveniently overlooking Miss Booklickers office window and then lays gawping into her window using his cunningly disguised binoculars. Many hours were spent at the caravan table disguising them as binoculars because who would ever think anyone would go to the trouble of doing anything so pointless as disguising something as the thing that they actually were? Clever right?
He is just focussing on the very worse for wear looking lady of his affections as her coffin lid is closed gently by an ancient bandage wrapped entity of utter evil when the bus, the roof of which he has been laying upon, leaves it’s stop and heads for Upper Bermole. The village is ten miles distant. Mr Timpkins howls his protests from atop the slippery roof of the inter-village charabanc but to no effect and if you think we’d come up with a cheap joke about entering Upper Bermole, then you are very mistaken. Just the thought! Really! You should be ashamed, you really should. Get out. Just get out now!
Anyhow, It is a very foot sore Mr Timpkins who returns home at precisely 2.03pm to tune his wireless to BBC Radio 4 for the afternoon broadcast of The Archers, and, for once, he is present in the moment and no tape-recording is necessary… spooky. raymond has, by now, eaten all of the seasidey meal with the inevitable impending effects on his under-trumpet.
As he bites down hard on the caravan door handle, he feels a chill run right through him, straight out of his arse, along the ceiling and down the wall. With that, his poot flute releases a blast of filthy shitrous oxide so meaty that it could be wrapped in pastry and served with dauphinoise potatoes, petit pois and a light gravy, the noxious whiffs bearing more than a striking resemblance to the opening of Dracula’s coffin.
Bum crumpets relentlessly rattle his clammy balloon knot until, having dropped a dress-size, he collapses, fully deflated, upon Mr Timpkins’s bum-chutney-splattered slippers.
Open-mouthed and with his bow-tie now pulled up to protect his vulnerable nasal passages, Mr Timpkins finally witnesses what has been causing the fanciful* contamination of his previous cassette recordings. Luckily(?), the entire, dirty episode (The Fartchers, Episode 11) is forcibly engrained on his very soul and, if you listen to the attached file, you can bear testimony to the overly-traumatic events of that feted afternoon via Mr Timpkins’s haunted spleen…
PLEASE LISTEN AND SHARE
*if you have a predilection for agrarian-themed melodrama (incorporating indigenous livestock) infused with a short-notice appointment with the arse fairies | https://medium.com/@enquiries_94837/raymond-and-mr-timpkins-revue-31204afa4195 | ['Raymond Timpkins'] | 2020-11-11 09:48:09.456000+00:00 | ['Halloween', 'Fartchers', 'Raymond', 'Timpkins'] |
COSMETIC TREATMENT TO GO FOR BEFORE YOUR BIG DAY | Wedding day is one of the most special days in a woman’s life. As a bride every woman wishes to look perfect and exclusive on the big day. Everything is supposed to be pretty perfect from the attire to the makeup. Bridal Makeup Cost in Delhi is quite an added burden during the wedding season. Every bride looks for the professional makeup artist. But makeup is not the only way to look perfect on your special day. Cosmetic Treatments are a must have for pre-bridal preparations. These not only enhances your skin and hair for the final look, they tend to nourish it in the long run. Listed below are some cosmetic treatments every bride should go for before the big day.
Hair Treatment and Transplants
Pollution in Delhi is increasing and so are the problems related to it. Quality of hair gets deteriorated in this atmosphere easily. Getting Hair Transplant done before your wedding day giving you natural healthy hair. These cosmetic transplants are quite common these days. It may take a certain amount of time for the treatment to work but it is an effective one.
Fraxel Laser
Bridal Makeup Cost in Delhi depends upon the type of makeup one opt for and it is necessary for the skin to be flawless and healthy before the makeup is applied. Being a bride, You will be the centre of attraction with all the cameras point at you. Fraxel Laser treatment helps your face to be free from lines and wrinkles. It removes dark spots and patches from the face. It basically clears the natural skin through laser. The skin looks rejuvenated and young.The plus point of this treatment is that it is not time consuming. | https://medium.com/@saxena.eva9/cosmetic-treatment-to-go-for-before-your-big-day-a2f9e24e0b8 | ['Eva Saxena'] | 2019-11-14 08:07:04.691000+00:00 | ['Wedding Preparation', 'Skincare', 'Fraxel', 'Weddings', 'Hair Transplant'] |
Acknowledging the Value of Women: | Acknowledging the Value of Women:
The Faces of an empowered economy should reflect the Faces of those that got us here and will drive it forward.
Denominations of money are implicit validations of who has ‘value’. Over time, these values are subconsciously engrained into the collective psyche and become self-reinforced norms.
Historically, men have overwhelmingly dominated such denominations and have thus been designated as having the most value. However, this is simply false on its face.
It is well-settled consensus that the best way to increase economic productivity is through empowering women. Women and women’s groups are the engine of underserved economies as well as the driving force powering their growth.
Their continued perseverance in the face of the inherently exclusionary rules of traditional economies is all the proof one needs to forecast who will drive growth and innovation in a new permissionless economy that is free to set its own rules.
As such, the denominations of ACX will be ascribed to the names of some of the most empowering women in human history.
Introducing Our 10 Denominations
Below is a look at ACX’s 10 denominations, from largest to smallest. We chose to name our units after empowering, brave and powerful women who inspire us and represent the heart that we hope for our community to embody. We include a short blurb on their dedication to taking risks, breaking rules, and challenging the status quo in order to empower others.
You will notice that we are leaving 2 denominations blank to be voted on by ACX Network participants after launch. During our community rewards program we will be incentivizing open submissions for the top 5 candidate choices, that will later be voted on by the network to pick the final 2 women.
There will be 6 Billion ACX.
1,000,000 ACX = 1 Kit (Kittur Chennamma, India)
Kittur was one of the Indian female rulers to lead an armed rebellion against the British East India Company in 1824. The resistance ended with her arrest and she became a symbol of the independence movement in India. | https://medium.com/acxnetwork/acknowledging-the-value-of-women-2ff7615ffc22 | ['Mickey Costa'] | 2018-03-08 17:38:59.790000+00:00 | ['History', 'Crypto', 'Token', 'Women Empowerment', 'Financial Inclusion'] |
How to keep the snow under control | Clearing Snow
The snow can be so great. Building snowmen, snowball fights and just taking a walk as the snow falls: it’s what winter is all about. You can even enjoy the snow from the warmth of your own home, watching it fall while wrapped up in blankets with a full mug of hot cocoa. There are a couple ways that snow can just be the worst though. First off is the cold, the winter months get bitingly cold in some places, and the snow doesn’t help at all. The second, and possibly more annoying one, is the amount of mess it makes. If someone makes the fatal error of walking straight from the snow to the living room, then it’s a task and half to clean up their mess!
One way to deal with a problem is to deal with it before it even happens. We’re talking about making a small investment in a boot scraper or a heavy-duty doormat to encourage anyone to get the snow off their boots before they even get through the door. It’s important to give these a quick clean every so often too, as dealing with wet and dirty shoes all day can be rough. You can give a boot scraper a once-over with a thick brush or even a hose down if it gets that bad. For a doormat, giving it a good go with a hose can help to break down the tougher stains, and a vacuum clean can help when it’s dried to remove any loose mud. For the deep stains, sprinkle some baking soda or dish soap and letting it sit can help.
But hey, sometimes all the prep you put in just doesn’t work and someone walks right into the house, across your lovely carpet and tracks mud across the floor. That’s where some more serious measures have to be called in… It’s time to call in the big guns!
For snow and mud on a wooden floor we recommend mixing a couple teaspoons of vinegar into some water for a mop and give the stain a very good mopping to break it up. Then cover the stained area in some baking soda, let it set and then sweep it away. This should have taken any of the leftover stain away, but we suggest giving it one more mop with water to be sure.
A living room carpet is so, so important to making a house feel clean, so make sure to take any stains on it seriously. For snow and mud on a carpet, it’s much easier to clean a dry mud stain, so you can add salt and baking soda on the stain for a couple hours to speed-dry the area. Make sure to vacuum away the mix when the carpet is dry, you’ll hopefully take some of the mud with you too. Then apply some diluted washing up liquid to the area, usually one tablespoon of liquid with two cups of warm water. Then keep blotting and rubbing the stain until it’s all gone. Using warm water is so much easier than cold water, but both will work if needed. Then use another dry cloth or paper towel to dry out the carpet. Rinse and repeat (not literally) if needed.
If after all that and some of your own ideas don’t work, it might be time to call in a professional. You can book in a TIDY app professional to come in and do some of the heavy lifting (again, not literally) and clean up some of the winter mess.
Go to http://linktr.ee/tidyapp to get started. | https://medium.com/tidy-app/how-to-keep-the-snow-under-control-21e026b8c29 | ['Tidy App'] | 2020-12-11 16:15:16.555000+00:00 | ['Snow', 'Tips', 'Cleaning', 'Tips And Tricks'] |
The Curious Case of being Me. | If you are reading this — please note that this is years of personal experiences and being my own science experiment — without quoting too much. I could have written an industry blog, but since we live in a country of voyeurism — I figured lets “ride the wave” (Pun intended)
India is like EU in many ways, so culturally diverse and with each culture ranging from Patriarchal, neutral to Matriarchal belief systems, it is Natural that parenting and early conditioning plays a huge part in the way we form relationships and evolve with the environment around us.
To add to this we romanticise Cinema, which is not always the truest depiction of real life, it’s how sometimes Fiction and Crime Drama can distort our sense of reality, but activate our imagination.
In my head — We call this article the unfinished story of Tanya Singh!
I grew up to a very hardworking set of parents, who decided to have a single child, both because of the amount of resources they had, and set in their own world view. However, owed to certain conditions — I turned out to be a high performance kid, with really low self worth.
To add to that I was always taught that i was the “Shravan Kumar” (reference an Indian folktale that talks about a hardworking kid who spends his life carrying his blind parents on his shoulder throughout a journey) ; and because my parents only had me — they were extremely protective and conscious about my movement out of the house, and Delhi crime and the media doesn’t help.
Ma was at school, so no escape there (and I was an intensely fast learner so always dropped out of class if the teacher wasn’t great, yet kept my exam results shining because I really wanted to make them happy — and was a bit scared of them :)
Plus — Ma’s reputation was also attached to my performance at school (not just her own);
Papa would always challenge me at everything, right from puzzles to sports to literally debating everything. I was also told I needn’t get married, and had to be completely self reliant.
I grew up seeing a wonderful marriage — one would wonder why you wouldn’t want it.
I grew up in a Sikh family, went to a Christian school with 80% Hindu kids, with the Namaaz playing twice a day at a nearby village, and watched Star World and Zee Cafe — absolutely no sense of religion.
I came first at literally everything right from sports to academics to debates, so had a total of 4 friends in school.
The upside was however, that I loved people and was a friend to almost anyone who would need my help.
I grew up around other women my age with nothing in common, completely clueless about why i was so different — I had Tae-kwon-do, TT racquets and Skates instead of Dolls and dresses, I wore blue and red instead of Pink and had short hair similar to most boys in my class.
As you see, I had absolutely no perspective on how everyone saw me once I grew up to be a half decent looking female, with a lot of intelligence and brain power.
Lets come to the point —
As life would have it- at 20 — i lost my dream of becoming a Choreographer/ Dancer, and my leg to a freak accident; and hence began the real adventures of my life. (I was emulating Madhuri Dixit at this age)
I wanted to experiment with everything and got myself a brilliant job and a bachelor pad. It was difficult, this was like Guerilla marketing for the early 2000s (rolls her eyes)
Indulged myself in everything right from Vices like sex, drugs, money, love, you name it and I had it.
I failed, I failed, I failed at a lot of things, and I succeeded at a lot of things.. I delivered results, I got abused, pushed, played out… but experienced every trick in the book.
But I bought myself my first Tiffany’s :)
Went to random bars and drank to be able to dance. That is how I spent 5 years of my life — and then fell in love to fill that void !
Got married, Got Divorced, flew to 20 countries and travelled my heart out, came back to India — dealt with the taboo, buried myself at work trying to distract myself from the loss, the pain and the stigma of being a single divorced woman and here we are penning this down, 3 years into that journey.
If someone asks me where you are from — I say partly British, partly Tamil, somewhat Balinese and equal parts of Spanish, Punjabi and Caribbean.
Also, This wretched Covid Social Isolation has made me a machine.
By the way I am still impervious to how men see me — something a friend recently told me : That I am highly attractive to the imagination of any man — mostly because of the strange combination of my gusto and how i look. Meh ! Like seriously — who cares !?
I believe the charm is that I am completely uninterested about how I am perceived. :)
Here I am almost 32, literally just developed social skills and some quality friends over 3 decades, and a 1% understanding of how the world sees me, but with a brilliant imagination around how I see the world — with miles to go before I sleep.
I write this as I take up my next challenge, with hopefully better control over my vices and my body urges that I have shown in the last 10 years, and with better usage of my left brain…
I could own my journey, and be okay with who I have become now, slightly more feminine and less of a Geek that i grew up — take it easy and flow a little more.
((I am still in my head striving to be a combination of Lara Croft, Sushmita Sen, Oprah Winfrey, Jen Yu (from crouching tiger hidden dragon), Michael Scolfield from Prison Break (I have 4 tattoos), Michael Jordan of the Basketball fame and Condoleezza Rice))
Mutant and Proud. :)
You see where this is going? I dont! (Rolls her eyes)
For the record, I have worked my arse off non stop for 30 years trying to impress my parents and up my own game, and I would do it all over again, because if I dint have the childhood I had, I wouldn’t have worked half as hard as I worked the next few years.
Boarding the cross trainer at a local park to run towards the post Covid decade now….
Left brain to the feminine self : Slow down Kid, play the Ukelele and go take a holiday with your folks near water….
Note to all future kids and their parents : Results Matter, but so do other parts of your life, and note to all future global citizens, your gender, your religion, your upbringing, your economic status, none of that matters.
You ain’t a BOX.
To be continued… | https://medium.com/@idevi/the-curious-case-of-being-a-high-performance-indian-female-420ec1144409 | ['Tanya Singh'] | 2021-04-06 18:47:05.993000+00:00 | ['Reality Check', 'Performance Testing', 'Storyofmylife', 'Unfinished', 'Musings'] |
Cryptocurrency Markets Crash as Coinbase, Binance Suffer Issues | Practically all major cryptocurrencies were hit hard by the dump. Despite reaching over $12,000 yesterday, Bitcoin is now trading at just $11,362 and has lost 4.5% of its value in the last 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) has been hit similarly hard and is down 4.7% to reach $446. This is now the third time in a month that Bitcoin has been rejected at the $12,000 threshold, and sent the market tumbling with it.
Other top ten cryptocurrencies like XRP, Chainlink (LINK), and Polkadot (DOT) are also suffering big losses — and are down between 6 to 11% in the last day. The dramatic sell-off also affected Tether (USDT), which is currently selling at below its dollar peg at $0.982. Other stablecoins like USD Coin (USDC), True USD (TUSD), and Dai (DAI) remain largely unaffected.
Credit : https://medium.com/@hashbxglobal/bitcoin-traders-grow-optimistic-pundits-predict-500k-btc-5528f4defbec
For more information please contact :
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Email : [email protected] | https://medium.com/@hashbxglobal/cryptocurrency-markets-crash-as-coinbase-binance-suffer-issues-9810b0cb3ad9 | ['Hashbx Global'] | 2020-09-03 14:19:10.113000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Cryptocurrency News', 'Bitcoin Wallet', 'Bitcoin Mining', 'Blockchain Development'] |
Shirley (2020)review. A film that drifts in and out of consciousness. | This is an imagined bio film of gothic writer Shirley Jackson best known for her short story The Lotter and novels such as The Haunting of Hill House (1959), and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962). It is not alone in telling an imagined story based on a real person’s life, Ammonite did similar with Mary Anning.
To bring the story to life we have Shirley played by Elizabeth Moss all frump, glasses with acid drops of dialogue with her husband Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg). He infuses Hyman with the right mix of comic pretentiousness and menace. The world they inhabit is like an American dacha for intellectuals, housed in a university, Shirley on the fringes of academia with Hyman fully in its orbit. The home, university life has a semblance of biographical truth as Shirley and Hyman did live in Vermont near Bennington College were Hyman taught. The fiction comes in the shape of young couple Fred (Logan Lerman) a junior professor looking for a leg up the academic ladder from Hyman. Accompanying him is his seductively beautiful, pregnant young wife Rose (Odessa Young). Like a horror film this young couple enter the house of Shirley. The newlyweds meet Shirley and Hyman who are the throes of a marriage that is familiar to both. Their marriage is just starting, Shirley and Stanley’s are in their combative phase. It would be fair to say this is not a biographical film it is instead I think an impressionist version a particular time in her life and tells the story in the gothic style of a Shirley Jackson story. The film is based on a novel by Susan Scarf Merrell using fiction to tell a story about Shirley Jackson.
What are Fred and Rose to Shirley? well one way to answer this is that they are material for Shirley’s next novel. As Shirley is struggling to write her next book, Hangsaman (1951), a gothic horror story set in academia about student Natalie Waite, who is mentally disintegrates after enrolling in a liberal arts college. It is based on the based on the real-life disappearance of a Paula Jean Welden who disappeared while walking on Vermont’s Long Trail hiking route or was murdered. It remains an unsolved mystery and it stoked the interest of Shirley Jackson
The film drifts in and out of consciousness as it moves from verbal warfare in the home and university to more haunting dreamy sequences that tap into Shirley Jacksons horror stories. The first half of the film is the domestic with Rose being drawn closer to Shirley whose interest in her is macabre especially when we think about the book she is writing. Stanley, whose way with words mean any offer is a good one persuades Rose to be the housekeeper. Pot and pan washing for Rose while her husband works and moves in the claustrophobic world of academia. Luckily this gives time for Shirley and Rose to interact more.
The film then moves into a dreamier phase in the second half going in and out of consciousness as the story Shirley is writing blurs into film. It felt to me almost like two different films with the first part verbal, domestic and centred on academia. The second half we leave reality behind and enter a Shirley Jackson writing world were the pages she writes are on screen. Inviting us to think who is Rose? Does she act as a proxy for the girl who went missing the murdered girl Jean Welden? You could put those questions aside to just bath in the dreamy, woozy visual world Josephine Decker creates in the second half of the film, it’s good. One scene on a cliff that looks out on to great big open space looks to me like the characters are going to move forward into a Zelda open world adventure game. The film is an anti-biographical film which I think is the fashion now. Birth, school, work, death type of biographical films are two a penny. Better to take a sample from a writer’s life, dissolve it in another person’s imagination and turn it into a film. | https://medium.com/@shanepdillon/shirley-2020-review-a-film-that-drifts-in-and-out-of-consciousness-f2b4e229232b | ['Shane Dillon'] | 2020-12-26 21:34:05.475000+00:00 | ['Elisabeth Moss', 'Film', 'Movie Review', 'Shirley Jackson', 'Shirley'] |
Newsletter 44: Where’s my screwdriver? You mean OUR screwdriver? | Hello, and welcome again to the Spiralbound newsletter! This is where we link to the stories we published recently. We had some good mom content this week, in case that’s what you’re hungry for, and we had some great non-mom content, too. See if anything catches your eye!
Mom Guilt, by Anna Moriarty Lev | https://medium.com/spiralbound/newsletter-44-wheres-my-screwdriver-you-mean-our-screwdriver-3bc23208b853 | ['Edith Zimmerman'] | 2019-05-12 11:02:02.862000+00:00 | ['Mothers Day', 'Comics', 'Spiralbound'] |
Building Brand Loyalty in the “Swipe Right” Era | Building Brand Loyalty in the “Swipe Right” Era
Dating isn’t what it used to be.
It’s a strange analogy. Bear with me.
Gone are the days when our options were limited by where we lived, what high school we went to, or who our friends were. When the main way we got to know someone was through conversation, and the only way to communicate with our crush was by call, letter, or even AOL chat. We’ve said “sayonara” to the time when people were content with their choices because they’d picked the best person around for them— and, the means didn’t exist to know if there was perhaps something better out there.
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
Modern romance is defined by instant access — to a person via a dating app, to their story via social media, and to other “fish in the sea” by swiping left or right. Singles still look for someone that matches their values — but Facebook and Instagram can lead to snap decisions before a potential couple even meets face-to-face. Accessibility has made relationships disposable and, in many ways, has diminished people’s loyalty to each other because there is always someone else out there. Millennials coined the phrase “FOMO” — fear of missing out — to describe the anxiety of “settling” when a better option could possibly exist.
In 2020, brand loyalty suffers from the same symptoms.
When shopping for a product, people’s options used to be restricted based on proximity. They could only compare prices between the two department stores down the street, and model choices were based on whatever was in stock. Recommendations came from those you had close relationships with — family or neighbors.
Technology transformed the shopping experience — and with it, our relationship to brands.
People’s purchasing options are no longer limited by their community, country, or even their continent. Verified reviews that come from a total stranger may carry just as much — or more — weight as those from family and friends. Customers use social media platforms, reviews, and publications to form opinions before they even come “face-to-face” with a brand. Transparency allows customers to share negative experiences just as easily as positive ones — and, find other “fish in the sea” anytime they’d like.
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
Within this ever-changing landscape, three types of companies exist:
Those who are in love with themselves. Those who are in love with their customers. Those in the middle.
Companies who are in love with themselves are less likely to pivot in time to address the new changes that technology is bringing to the marketplace, whereas those who have a strong partnership with their customers are able to understand their needs and adapt proactively.
According to Mark McClain, CEO and Founder of SailPoint, a company’s biggest corporate asset aside from its employees, is its customers. Strong customer relationships directly correlate to higher retention and improved profitability.
So, how do can brands build enduring customer relationships in the age of “swipe right” loyalty?
PHASE 1: CHECK OUT THE MARKET
While “swiping right” is used for dating apps, “scrolling down” is the equivalent in retail.
Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash
Amazon has cultivated a culture where people’s loyalty to a brand can be shifted as easily as scrolling down and seeing a lower price.
The same holds true for all product and service purveyors. Jeff Thermond of XSeed Capital once published a Forbes article that asked the question on everyone’s minds, “Is competing in a crowded market worth the gamble?” Chances are that you won’t be the first to the market with your offering, so the way to win is by being the best in your niche. “Best” defined as uniquely relevant to the market in terms of offering and/or execution.
The first step towards differentiation is knowing who you have to differentiate your brand from.
Competition fuels continual improvement.
Key questions to ask your team:
Who are our primary competitors?
What resources are our target audiences currently using to address the problem we aim to solve?
How are we working to differentiate our offering, claims, or experience?
How can we address new entrants to the market?
How does innovation have the potential to change our landscape tomorrow?
PHASE 2: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE TODAY
Branding zeitgeists have long been broadcasting the fact that we live in a post-demographic world.
Trendwatching describes this as “a world of more diverse and complex consumer lifestyles [due to] changing social attitudes, converging economic pressures and endless choice that have scrambled the way millions of people think about, attain — or avoid! — traditional markers of adult life.” Stated simply, it means that consumers’ wants, needs, and motivators can no longer be generalized by life stage — but they should instead be grouped by things like beliefs and behaviors. Instead of “millennial” versus “senior”, more appropriate classifications have become “tech adopting” versus “tech adverse”.
Photo by Slidebean on Unsplash
In this “post-demographic” landscape, people’s identities are no longer dictated by the life they’re born into — they’re starting from scratch and assembling it themselves.
And, one of the ways people signify their personal identity is with brand preference. Pizza or tofu? Fair trade coffee or Folgers? Nike or Converse? Tinder or Bumble? YouTube or IGTV?
There is an immense amount of complexity. And, according to Salesforce’s “Connected Shopper Report”, only 37% of shoppers feel like retailers truly know their customers — a.k.a. their target audiences.
So, the good news: people are more ready and willing than ever to talk about (and to) the brands that matter to them.
And there’s a significant opportunity for brands to take steps forward to gain significant returns in this area.
Key questions to ask your team:
Have we identified the target audience(s) most likely to buy our product / service?
Are we marketing to them in their “natural environment” (e.g., daily life, social media)?
Are we making our content easy for them to share?
Are we crafting talkworthy experiences that make then want to share?
Are we rewarding them for bringing their friends into the fold?
PHASE 3: TALK TO YOUR AUDIENCE(S) ABOUT HOW TO BE BETTER FOR TOMORROW
Great brands aren’t built in a vacuum.
The most successful brands are those who cultivate open and frequent communication with their customers.
Many a boardroom has gone quiet when someone asks, “Well, what do the customers want?” In my career, I’ve never been in a boardroom where executives did not gain insight from shifting the focus outward and asking that question of their customers.
Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash
It’s particularly important in this day and age in which where customers demand personalization.
Companies who achieve sustainable competitive advantage are the ones who make customers’ lives easier (e.g., time savings by not having to filter through irrelevant content) and deliver greater value (e.g., more connected and fulfilling). In order to craft this customization, it’s more important than ever to infuse the voice of the customer into a corporation’s daily decision-making practices.
Remember that it’s impossible to have too many points of sustainable competitive differentiation.
So, always be working to add more to your portfolio of differentiators.
Key questions to ask your team:
Do we have a method to regularly gather customer feedback?
Are we getting customer feedback about the right points that will move the needle?
What’s our method for applying customer feedback to our programs and processes?
PHASE 4: IMPLEMENT CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
It’s easy for a conversation about “listening to customers” to be delegated only to a company’s Marketing Team, but that narrow-minded view is the first step towards losing future revenue for the company as a whole.
While it’s old news that the internet has transformed face-to-face interactions into device-to-device contact, many companies are failing to maximize the ROI of their marketing efforts because they don’t have a deep understanding of what messages and mediums are most relevant to their target audience.
Without understanding their prospective customer, CMOs are throwing money at marketing methods that broadcast their brand story to people who won’t buy. And, the ROI of marketing dollars can only be fully realized if a company is actively engaging prospective customers before their moment of purchase in their natural habitat.
Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash
Customer experience is too important to ignore.
The Temkin Group surveyed 10,000 US customers about their journeys with 318 companies across 19 industries and discovered that a moderate increase in Customer Experience generates an average revenue increase of $823 million over three years for a company worth $1 billion in annual revenues.
86% of buyers will pay more for a better brand experience. (Source: Oracle)
84% of organizations actively working to improve customer experience report an increase in revenue. (Source: Dimension Data)
If your company isn’t broadcasting your brand story and delivering an exceptional customer experience, there’s another brand that’s filling the void. It’s more efficient and cost-effective to be the first rather than having to boot out the competition later.
Key questions to ask your team:
Do we have the right people involved to get a 360-degree view of what our experience is today, and how we can make it better tomorrow?
How can we infuse customer feedback into crafting a better experience?
Do our employees feel empowered to deliver an exceptional customer experience?
Do we need to adapt any internal processes to deliver a better customer experience?
What is our concrete action plan for the application of feedback and continual improvement? Do we have buy-in from leaders across departments?
About What’s Next Labs: What’s Next Labs is a publication of INTO, an agency that empowers businesses to transform their aspirational goals into actual growth. Learn more about INTO at into.agency. | https://medium.com/whats-next-labs/building-brand-loyalty-in-the-swipe-right-era-54cee2692222 | ['Mackenzie Caudill'] | 2020-12-18 20:28:03.177000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Loyalty Program', 'Branding', 'Customer Experience', 'Advertising'] |
A safe, modern, and sustainable transportation system | A safe, modern, and sustainable transportation system
As President-elect Biden and I look ahead to the challenges we will inherit upon walking into the White House, we are focused on containing this pandemic and delivering relief to all who need it.
We are focused on safely reopening our schools and responsibly reopening our economy.
And, as we’ve said many times, we are also focused on building America back better and doing what is necessary to lift up all Americans no matter where they live — whether it’s in big cities, rural areas, or anyplace in between.
One of the most important ways we will do that is by creating good, union jobs to build, operate, and maintain a safe, modern, and sustainable transportation system.
A transportation system that will help us grow our economy, tackle our climate crisis, and connect all Americans to jobs and opportunity.
We will transform our roads and bridges, transit systems, railways, ports, and airports, while powering them with clean energy.
Spark a renaissance in American passenger rail that will not only connect our country, but unlock job-creation and growth across our manufacturing sector.
And we will expand and upgrade our transportation system in a way that’s equitable. Serving communities of every size — urban and rural — all across our country.
The choice President-elect Biden has made to help spearhead this work is simply outstanding.
I got to know Pete over the last two years.
We traveled to the same states, attended the same events, and shared a debate stage many times.
We’ve had long conversations, he and I — about the future of our country, about the need for bipartisanship, and about family and faith.
And along the way, Pete and his wonderful husband, Chasten, have become very dear friends of Doug’s and mine.
Pete is an innovative problem solver. He has a sharp intellect and a deep commitment to uniting people across party lines and meeting our challenges together.
He is a trailblazing leader from the industrial Midwest who understands that we need to create opportunity for people of all backgrounds.
And he is a veteran and dedicated public servant who represents the very best of our country and the next generation of American leadership.
Now, Pete will bring his remarkable talents to bear — not just on behalf of the people of South Bend, but on behalf of people across our nation.
In 1966, upon creating the Department of Transportation, President Lyndon Johnson said, “America’s history is a history of her transportation.”
With Pete’s leadership, we are ready to write the next great chapter in that history, modernizing our infrastructure, creating jobs and opportunity, and helping to usher in a clean energy future for the United States of America.
Thank you, Mr. President-elect and welcome Pete. | https://medium.com/@kamalaharris/a-safe-modern-and-sustainable-transportation-system-fef82b3dae54 | ['Kamala Harris'] | 2020-12-17 19:53:20.207000+00:00 | ['Biden', 'White House', 'Pete Buttigieg', 'Kamala Harris'] |
HOW TO MAKE YOUR ANNIVERSARY DAY UNFORGETTABLE ? | When you complete a year with your soulmate then that day becomes the most special and beautiful day of your life. But how to make it more special for you and for your soulmate? On a marriage anniversary you have to make some efforts with little or big surprises.
We just share our thoughts on companionship and adoration with our partner as marriage is a blessing. This partnership is a lifelong commitment that is not to be taken for granted. When the bond is pure you want that your other half should be happy with you always.
Things you can do to make the day special
There are lots of things that you can do on this special day from wishing to giving surprises. People usually like more effort than materialistic things. So rather giving your partner anything like a car, dresses, or something else. So try to make something handmade, or go on a long drive, go for a special dinner or anything like this.
You can also prepare cakes of different flavors at your home or order it up to you. If you don’t know how to bake, then you can watch some YouTube videos and try making or get some help.
Give your loved ones a happy marriage anniversary card with a bouquet. You can also order gifts from GiftzBag, an anniversary cake with flowers or small gifts if you don’t have that much time to make a cake then this option will be best for you.
They offer lots of cakes with a different flavor and you just have to choose one and place your order according to the date you want to deliver.
How does GiftzBag site or mobile application works?
Ordering a cake online is such a simple task and you just have to select which type of cake you want and place your order. Just fill in some details like address, your number, and receivers number, time and date, and mode of payment. You can add some small gifts like chocolate, flowers, teddy bear or cards if you want to. Giftzbag app is beneficial for you to use as it will give you some discounts too, so rather ordering from its sites, install the app and then order.
They will also ask you about the occasion so that they can write happy marriage anniversary on the cake and card. So you can try this if you don’t want to make a cake as they offer black forest cakes, red velvet cake which is so delicious and sweet. You will also be amazed by their service as they will deliver your cake as soon as possible on the day and time you have selected.
You can also check all the reviews before ordering to get more clarity. This app is basically made for those people who are busy. These sites really help a lot and the order will be perfectly delivered, it doesn’t matter where you live you can place your order anywhere.
Source URL : https://giftzbag.com/make-your-anniversary-day-unforgettable/ | https://medium.com/@giftzbagjaipur/how-to-make-your-anniversary-day-unforgettable-1083f45e8750 | ['Giftzbag- Cake Delivery In Jaipur', 'Birthday Cake'] | 2020-12-23 06:41:32.980000+00:00 | ['Anniversary Cakes', 'Valentines Day', 'Weddings', 'Cake'] |
Why Writers Should Never Have Sex With Their Readers | Since becoming a blogger, I’ve gotten sexually involved with two people who have read me — and I had to face the consequences that come with it.
I get a lot of different types of messages from my readers.
The majority of emails and DMs I get are from people who want to say something nice about my work.
Sometimes, a business or an entrepreneur will reach out to me to see if I’m interested in collaborating with them or promoting their product.
Because I’m a woman with an online presence, I also get to use my block button to deal with the men who send me dick pics.
And every once in a while, a reader will proposition me.
They’ll message me something dirty or flirty. They’ll nudge me to exchange nudes. They’ll offer themselves up for some dirty talk or phone sex.
In one memorable instance, a guy messaged me for advice on making his girlfriend squirt and then asked me if I’d be interested in flying to Lebanon to eat her pussy. (No thanks, I’m good.)
I know that kind of thing is bound to happen. I’m an openly polyamorous woman who writes and podcasts about sex. I bare my sexual side online and anyone who wants to give me a click can have a peek at it. Some people assume that means I’m down to fuck.
But I’m not — not with them anyway. Not with any of my readers.
Getting sexually involved with your readers can be surprisingly tempting.
When you create content full time, your audience becomes a big part of your world. Outside of my immediate family, most of my interactions are with the people who read me.
So, whenever I consider dating or fooling around a little, they’re the obvious choice. I’ve already put myself out there. It would be a short skip and hop to start flirting and courting the people who are already interacting with me.
But I won’t do it because I know it’s bad news. And sadly, I know that from personal experience.
In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve done this kind of thing twice. Each time, I was on a different side of it.
The first time it happened, I was the writer. Soon after I started publishing my work, a reader reached out to me privately and we got to talking. Since I wrote about sex, that was the topic we discussed.
Those conversations started getting more personal, more intimate. The more emails we exchanged, the more they turned me on.
For a while, he became a part of my life. We would flirt, exchange nudes, and talk dirty on a regular basis.
And then it ended and in a way I wished it had never started. Not just for the usual reasons you feel that way after a breakup, but also because he was someone who got to know me through my writing.
I should have learned my lesson, but there was another guy who came along months later. This time, though, I was the reader.
Yeah, I was a writer, too. But a much smaller one by every measure.
He found one of my articles and commented on it. I read some of his work and developed a crush on him at a distance. I did a bit of fangirling in his comments. That’s when he sent me a private message.
This time, we weren’t just talking about sex. He skipped right over that and went straight to hitting on me. There wasn’t much in the way of formalities — just filthy and horny messages.
It was happening way too quickly for me. I wasn’t comfortable with the way he jumped right to sex. But I didn’t want to disappoint him — he was kind of a big deal.
I went along with it. I tried to focus on the fact that I had a crush on him and figured I’d have time to assert my boundaries as things got going.
Our conversations soon led to cybersex, which then lead to phone sex. And even more phone sex. Then it became clear to me that he lied about his feelings to get some fast action out of me. That left me feeling miserable for a few months. It also helped me realize that someone in his position should never have messed around with someone in mine.
That sealed it for me. I closed off the option of ever dating or fucking one of my readers. Both of my experiences showed me why that kind of thing is a huge mistake.
Based on what I’ve been through and what I’ve seen happen to others, here are some of the biggest reasons writers shouldn’t get romantically or sexually involved with their readers.
Parasocial Relationships Aren’t the Basis for Real Relationships
A parasocial relationship is a one-sided relationship between two people, usually involving a public person and a member of their audience.
It happens a lot with digital content creators. After watching a YouTuber for years, you might feel like you know them really well even though they’ve never even heard of you. You might feel a personal connection with a musician who has no clue you exist.
And you can feel like you’re getting to know a writer without them being aware of you at all.
Parasocial relationships are perfectly normal and they’re usually fine. But they’re not the right kind of foundation for a healthy romantic or sexual relationship.
For one thing, you’re on uneven ground from the very beginning. Dating someone who has read you for months or years when you’ve just recently learned their name is going to feel kind of like dating a stalker. It will become clear very quickly that they know way too much about you and that will, at best, make you feel uncomfortable.
But it’s worse than that because your readers are going to be wrong about you.
Even if you tell nothing but the truth in your writing and in interviews, it’s only ever going to give them a small glimpse into your life.
I write primarily about sex and based on that a lot of the readers who have hit on me seemed to feel like they really got me, understood who I was, and knew what I needed.
But my sexual side is far from being the only important part of my personality. And it’s not in the driver’s seat nearly as often as some people seem to think. For the most part, I’m a painfully normal person with a very mundane day to day life. It’s just that no one gets to see that when they’re reading my blowjob tips or about the awkward foursome I had once.
It’s normal to fill in the blanks, too, and come up with all sorts of assumptions about the person you’re reading.
Some guys try to talk dirty to me, bragging about having a big cock after reading my article on dick size — even though I make it clear in that article that I have a preference for more modest ones. Or they’ll send me a dick pic after reading something dirty I wrote, because they think I’m the kind of lady who’d appreciate a cyberflash.
Actually starting a relationship with a writer you admire is bound to be disappointing. The guys who hit me up might assume I’m always on and horny. They might think I’m the queen of dirty talk. They might think I’d fulfill whatever sexual or romantic fantasy they have. But chances are I wouldn’t, because I’m just a regular person with needs, boundaries, and preferences of my own.
That kind of disappointment happened to me when I got mixed up with a writer I admired. When the guy he was in real life didn’t match up to the man he was in his articles, it left me feeling confused. I was let down by that harsh reality check. I felt stupid because I had fallen for a persona instead of a person. And I felt torn between wanting to hold on to his image while realizing I had to let go of him.
The other major problem with parasocial relationships is that the reader has already invested a lot in you. They’ve followed your journey, heard your stories, felt things for you, identified with you, empathized with your struggles, and celebrated your victories. They might even have fallen a little in love with you.
Meanwhile, you’re just starting to feel things out.
It will always feel like they’ve put in so much and you’ve put in so little. There’s a really good chance that leads to a whole lot of hurt.
Pedestals Are Easy to Build
When meeting a writer doesn’t disappoint the reader, that can be a problem too. Because sometimes readers will put writers they love on a pedestal.
They’ll assume nothing but the best about them. They’ll feel intense, unshakeable admiration. They might even want to worship them.
That’s an unhealthy way to relate to someone you know personally.
When someone puts you on a pedestal, it’s way too easy to take advantage of them. They’ll be too quick to set their own needs aside and even quicker to make excuses for your behavior.
And the fact that they look up to you will make it harder for them to voice their concerns. Or they’ll be too afraid of disappointing you to assert their needs.
Being put on a pedestal also tends to bring out the worst in people because it makes you feel like you can get away with anything.
That doesn’t have to result in exploitation, but I’m willing to bet most writers wouldn’t be able to resist taking advantage of it, at least a little.
There’s a Power Imbalance
It’s weird to think of myself as having any kind of power. But I do have a platform. I have an audience. I have a name that some people recognize.
That’s enough to give me, and anyone in a similar situation, a little bit of sway. And it’s the kind of sway a reader you decide to get involved with probably doesn’t have.
If the reader you’re fucking happens to be a writer themselves, that can be a bigger problem because their professional lives get mixed into it.
If you’re the one with the bigger platform, the one with more clout, or the one who already has a small army of defenders, it’s easy for them to feel like they need to please you or else they might jeopardize their chances of making it.
They might fear the consequences of displeasing you. They could worry that you’ll bad mouth them to people you might pitch to one day. Or that you could sour things in their writing community.
Because of that, they might stick around longer than they want to because they’re worried about what would happen to their writing career if they broke up with you — or just said no to you.
I know that’s a factor because I’ve been in that position. I put on a brave face, tried to play nice, and agreed to things I wasn’t comfortable agreeing to because I didn’t want to get on the wrong person’s bad side.
That’s a problem. And it can be avoided by keeping it in your pants when you interact with your admirers.
Reputations Get Ruined
Treating your readers like sexual prospects isn’t a good look.
When you create a pattern of hitting on your readers and sending them flirty private messages, it starts to get pretty sleazy after a while.
Do that enough and people will start analyzing your writing for all the wrong reasons. Is your new article just casting a net and hoping someone cute responds? Is that passage where you brag about your accomplishments just a flex or is it you using your blog post as a dating ad?
It’s going to be hard for other writers to keep taking you seriously. Building meaningful connections isn’t easy when you’ve got a sketchy reputation. And publications and platforms might be reluctant to have you on or host your work if they know you’re on the prowl.
It Creates a False Sense of Security
A reader who dates a writer is likely to enter into that arrangement already having a high level of trust. They feel safe because they’re sure they know you based on your writing.
That can create a false sense of security, which can lead to them sticking around longer than they should. In some cases, it can even cause them to suffer through toxic behavior, emotional abuse, or worse.
When I was getting dicked around by a writer, I kept telling myself I must be wrong, that I must be misreading the situation.
I believed the things he had written about himself. So when his conduct didn’t match that image, I made all sorts of excuses for him instead of trusting my gut.
I gave him so much unearned trust, all because the narrative he created about himself made me feel safer than I would have otherwise.
You’re Always on Display
I used to be into the idea of dating someone who read me because it would’ve been like a shortcut to intimacy. They could learn so much about me through my writing that I could skip some of the awkward conversations.
I might not have to bring up my emotional triggers if they read about them already. Learning about my chronic illnesses is just a link or two away. I wouldn’t even have to risk getting involved with someone who wouldn’t be into my kinks.
Now I realize how naive that is. Not only would skipping the getting-to-know-you stage mean I’d be missing out on some serious intimacy building, but knowing they’re kind of lurking around can get awkward.
Both of the men I got involved with can still read anything I write. I mean, yes, anyone can read what I write because it’s public — but they were already on the platform I use before I met them and they’re still on them now.
Feeling like they’re still lurking can make you second-guess certain things you write. It can make you worry that they’ll get the wrong message from something you post. You always have to worry you’ll get a notification telling you they commented on your latest article.
Even if you don’t air your relationship’s dirty laundry, it can still put you in a weird place.
It’s easy for them to stay connected to you and what’s going on in your life. They just have to go back to reading you — just like they did before you got involved with them.
Keep It Professional
I learned some of these things the hard way, but I’m glad I learned them early. It’s an important thing for writers to know because it can keep you from tarnishing your career and getting mixed up in way more drama than anyone needs.
Your audience isn’t your dating pool. Your readers aren’t your prospects. That can be hard to see when you’re getting started, but it’s an important thing to recognize.
Dating or fucking your readers is bad for you as a writer. It’s bad for your fans, too.
Your readers are your lifeblood. They’re the reason you get to keep writing. If you make a living doing this, it’s thanks to them. The very least you owe them in return is to not blur those lines.
So, keep things professional and never use your influence or your platform to get laid. That’s what Tinder is for. | https://medium.com/love-emma/why-writers-should-never-have-sex-with-their-readers-9071bd1ea5d8 | ['Emma Austin'] | 2020-08-05 11:02:17.397000+00:00 | ['Self', 'Relationships', 'Life Lessons', 'Sex', 'Writing'] |
Living with PCOS | The first time I heard of PCOS was about a year before I got diagnosed, being very interested in reproductive health and issues concerning women I had attempted to read up on it but everything seemed so vague, it wasn’t extremely talked about so I thought “hmm I guess it’s rare and not that bad” lol, so I thought.
I began experiencing amenorrhea September 2018, I wasn’t sexually active, I was dealing with alot of school stress so I waved it off. Fast forward to January 2019, I started experiencing severe abdominopelvic pain. It was sudden, sharp and crippling. I couldn’t function, I could barely eat and sleep was a myth. I would spend my entire night on my knees, rolling in pain and in tears, by morning I would be drained and I’ll chug down copious amounts of caffeine just so I could function, painkillers were my best friend but that didn’t last long as they quickly became ineffective. Hospital visits comprised of male doctors asking “are you sexually active?” “tell that your boyfriend to take it easy oh” and insisting on pregnancy tests, none offering actual help. One concluded it was stress and mittelschmerz and I grudgingly went with that but being very in tune with my body, I knew it was far from that. 2 months later, in March (still amenorrheic) I was back at the hospital and insistent on a pelvic scan. I had done a lot of research and self-diagnosis so I was 95% sure the scan would show an ovarian cyst. I was wrong, the scan showed 2 ovarian cysts and an enlarged ovary with numerous follicles surrounding it- indicative of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.
I remember my heart breaking in that moment, I remember the tears building up in my eyes while I forced myself to put on my “hard guy” suit, I remember immediately thinking I would die in surgery.
The months following my diagnosis were hell, but somehow they were freeing, freeing because I finally knew what was going on, doctors had convinced me that I was crazy and it was all in my head so it was somewhat freeing knowing I was right- I wasn’t losing my mind, I wasn’t crazy, it wasn’t all in my head, something was wrong with me and now I could focus on dealing with it and getting better for me.
I like to think that I was “favored” as I didn’t experience a lot of the other symptoms: hirsutism, acne, and most importantly infertility. Being a person who has always wanted kids, the first thing I did was a hormonal assay and I was expecting the worst but somehow, things worked in my favor in that aspect and my fertility was intact. I experienced severe anxiety and depression, high blood pressure, sleep apnea and weight gain along with the menstrual irregularities and severe pain the ovarian cysts were causing.
I was going to need surgery to take out the 2 ovarian cysts but my doctor made it known to me that the cysts were seated in a dangerous position and I could risk losing an ovary so I was put on birth control which would regularize my cycle and could also help dissolve the cysts (even though they could always reappear) or eventually I would have no choice but to have the surgery. Again, I was favored as both cysts eventually dissolved and now I have to deal with just PCOS (yay!)
Living with PCOS is an emotional rollercoaster, on most days I don’t want to be alive, I don’t want to live in fear of having diabetes, I don’t want to have to gain so much weight just by breathing in air, I don’t want to have to cut out so many things from my diet, I don’t want to have to deal with my hair thinning and having such weak unhealthy hair, I don’t want to have to have a whole ass lifestyle change just to live peacefully, I don’t want to have to deal with extremely painful periods that leave me unable to function, I don’t want to deal with the constant fatigue and exhaustion, I don’t want to deal with the random, persistent waves of sadness, I don’t want to have to deal with all that it brings.
I hate being tortured by my body, I hate knowing that if I do this and eat that this month I am most likely not getting my period or I would get an extremely painful and long one, I hate that my body is playing a guessing game with me, I hate waking up sad, miserable and apathetic for no reason, I hate having to be seen as “bad vibes” because I’m mostly in a weird funk I can’t get myself out of, I hate the sympathy and that face people have on when they find out all that I’m going through (kinda like the face you have on now) and I am sick of having to explain something I don’t fully understand myself to people.
Less than 50 percent of women are properly diagnosed, leaving millions of women living with PCOS undiagnosed and probably thinking they are crazy. I hope that we create a safe space for women dealing and living with reproductive health issues to talk about them freely and without stigma.
PCOS has greatly reduced the quality of my life and affected so many of my friendships as I did not have the mental bandwidth to cater to myself let alone to others, especially in the first few months following my diagnosis. I will probably always have to deal with the physical and emotional challenges it brings so I’m learning to take each day as it comes, to feel the emotions but to not (always) let them overpower me. I can only hope that it doesn’t get worse and I am able to deal with it for as long as I have to and that one day I would come to love my body in the state that it’s in, but today is not that day.
To learn more about PCOS: https://www.pcosaa.org/overview | https://medium.com/@Onehi/living-with-pcos-c5527ed0c998 | ['Onehijere Ojo'] | 2020-12-12 21:37:58.916000+00:00 | ['Womens Health', 'Pcos Awareness', 'Reproductive Health'] |
The importance of the manual tester | In recent years, automated tests have gained ground in the software world, not only in initial levels such as unit tests and integration; today, they are trendy in end-user tests. Without a doubt, they have come with the strength to stay; they have been sometimes assumed, in my view, in a wrong way at this last level. Frequently, the first impulse of those who come across the benefits of automation for acceptance testing is to think that it solves everything. That it is a magic solution and that once implemented, it will give them an infallible guarantee of zero errors, and that it is the end of problems with the users, in a word, it’s the PANACEA.
Indeed, like me, you could have heard about fantastic agile teams where complete test cycles are not done; there are no QC analysts; everything is done with automation. I have heard several times, and I can only say that none of the ones I saw had eliminated manual tests. Sometimes they were done without any procedure or repeatability by end-users, exponentially increased errors in the production environment. In another case, the entire development team stopped for months to test the built product. In others, they had the role of the tester with another name. Although I could not see if they existed, the point is that it is not as simple as it seems, and it is a solution that should be taken with a grain of salt.
What does the manual tester do?
So, from the perspective where automation is the best and perfect practice in testing, what role does the manual tester play? What is the use of having some QC analysts delaying the delivery, complaining about each new feature, and sometimes for no apparent reason, returning the user stories to development? Why should you keep a solution with leaked bugs when you can have a much more robust automated solution? The criteria for automating tests have been widely discussed, and this writing does not aim to delve into them. However, like any superpower, automation carries great responsibility, it cannot be abused, and only those who know how to use it wisely can make it bear fruit. In closing, I would just like to say that the essential part of your test automation strategy is knowing how and when to use it.
Back to the topic of what to do with manual testers, in many development teams, the tester is a species in danger of extinction, but at what cost! And it is here where I would like to deepen because it is impossible to assess what we do not know. I think that the greatest desire to replace the manual tester with automation comes from the ignorance of what the former does. What characteristics do you look for in a manual tester? What is the essential contribution to a development team?
A typical description for a QA position
In Latin America, the test profiles do not describe much of the characteristics expected of it and focus on “Person with X years of testing experience,” sometimes, specific experience is requested in the tools used to report a bug. The functions include the design and execution of tests and bug reporting. Which also does not describe what a manual tester does. So, it usually seems that anyone with a high degree of attention to detail could play that role, and while attention to detail can help, it is not the only thing or the most important thing. Next, I will deal with some of the aspects that should be evaluated in a tester candidate and their contribution, how they will notice it is difficult to differentiate these two aspects: skills and assistance, because skills are essential only if they have utility.
In my opinion, the manual tester is the one who gives value to the end-user, even when this does not exist -as in new applications- and manages to validate if the application will be useful, puts himself in their shoes, and knows if their expectations are met. Still, it does not do it capriciously with a wish list; it does it from a grounded point of view that limits expectations to a realistic plane supported by user requirements, user stories, mockups, screen design, etc., all its broad understanding system.
Unfortunately, when this testing discipline was born, the first option was to send those who did not have much development skills or did not like it in the software world. However, in my experience, the best manual testers have programmed. The reason is that they have a bigger picture to understand the problem, they know the limitations and possibilities, and they could structure concrete and successful test cases. They can read an algorithm and understand a model class. Therefore, the first requirement is a technical background, which is not necessarily a degree in systems engineering. I firmly believe that software should be the same as in the coffee industry; the most knowledgeable about the product and the one with the most exquisite palate is the one who tastes to know that the product is okay.
QA essential skills
The tester must be the voice of someone who does not know, a user who sometimes does not yet exist, for which his analytical capacity and criticality are essential characteristics. He must build scenarios ensuring that through them, he will solve a business need optimally and not only by meeting the acceptance criteria but by investigating a little more. The tester should hesitate when the developer tells you that it is not possible to do it in another way, that it is more straightforward and more logical, as well as when the user story asks for a contradictory and too forced requirement. This is the maximum contribution of a manual tester: being critical, analytical, and at the same time realistic, and that is a task that today we cannot automate, so when something begins to be boring and repetitive in testing, it is necessary to automate it, because already it does not require the expertise of a tester.
QA analyst is a translator
When someone asks me to define what a tester does, the first phrase that I usually use: “He/she is a translator,” a translator between business needs and system possibilities, and as in an English Spanish translator, he cannot be a translator without a good command of both languages. Therefore, your technical knowledge is vital. This specialized knowledge has several edges, the first is database experience, and it is not only about being able to make a query to know if the record was stored. It is important that it can read a relationship entity model, execute packages, and learn about non-relational databases to identify the implications of user actions on the data. His programming experience will help to understand what is done within his team, contribute to each of the ceremonies, and the ability to generate algorithms to solve requirements will be beneficial for the construction of test scenarios. That ability to turn the complex into simple, that those who build software normally train will be exploited from another perspective.
Technical knowledge
QC analysts must have a broad knowledge of architecture and design, which allows him to understand how the system is built and how the different components’ interactions navigate to deliver the functionality. An empowered tester of his product should be able to present the architecture of the application; this knowledge will give him the ability to demand adjustments according to the possibilities of the system, seeking the desired balance between usability and implementation. Finally, you must be steeped in what we now call DEVOPS, with more than a basic knowledge level that allows you to autonomously deploy your test environment, perform configuration validations and execute, just run automation tests with ease.
A confidence partner
The tester will undoubtedly do one of the least popular tasks: find fault with what others did, and by human nature, we are not very receptive to criticism. Software development is an art, an interpretation of reality made code, and no artist wants someone pointing out the inaccuracies in his work so that soft skills are precious. One of the main failures in a tester is that he makes the second voice to the developer and limits himself to approve those he receives, when contrary, a tester must be critical, and he needs more prominence, he needs to be visible. Therefore, mistakenly and for a long time, we think that someone with a strong character and who knows how to set limits, makes sure to separate their opinion of the implementer and judge harshly to find errors. Definity is true, but relationships within a work team must be long-term, and this type of confrontation does not contribute to building a collaborative team. In my experience, the most valuable soft skills for a tester are: empathy, objectivity, and good communication, being able not to be an implacable critic of their mistakes, but a partner that helps them not to let anything escape, a support.
Communication skills
Objectivity helps create good relationships, but it is also critical to never lose focus of what is requested in the user story because it is not as easy as it is believed to identify what really is a bug. Systems applications and the construction process have different stages, and just as there are times when suggestions for improvements and recommendations are handy, there are other times when it is necessary to be wholly objective and rigorous to express whether or not it is met. Testers can quickly identify when and how the different types of tests can be helpful.
Visibility, of course isn’t a plus, it’s necessary, testers often do not complain about a lack of recognition for our hard work, but when we see the reasons, we may forget to give ourselves that visibility. For this reason, a tester that can confidently present new features, defend the team’s decisions and resolve doubts, is essential. A tester doesn’t ask for visibility, he can find his place in the team to be visible, from where he can interact with others roles.
A tester needs a lot
As I explained a few paragraphs back, it is difficult to separate what the tester must have from what makes his role valuable, but trying to summarize and focus on skills: a tester requires extensive technical knowledge focused on programming, databases, design and devops, critical analysis skills, abstract knowledge, mathematical logic, and of course his empathy and ability to be objective will be fundamental in his work. All these skills are necessary because the tester is the one who assumes the position of the end-user seeking to ensure that their real expectations are resolved in the best way according to the possibilities of the system supporting their observations in the ability to easily understand the visions of business and technology.
Of course the automation testing is great and useful, the point is the manual and automated aren’t opposed, they are complementary. A project can have both in the same cycle with harmony to power the testing strategy. First valide the user stories with detail, and critical vision, through test cases you must assure the acceptance criterias and then when the feature is ready and you are sure the test case can find any bug you can use automation to reduce the risk of human mistake in the validation process and gain time to focus your attention in new features.
What happened in the future?
Technology is not static; technological obsolescence applies not only to electronic devices, but it is also why the profiles in the software industry change and will continue to change. Manual testers are no strangers to this rate. Years ago, someone who could replicate what an end-user does to be a tester was required, and it was limited to a “click and next screen,” today it is not enough. The QA area has become so specialized that there are even many profiles with different specialties and functions. So, the manual tester profile evolves, and it is necessary to evolve with the market and respond to these changing needs: tools, methodologies, technologies, and languages. One of the tester’s best features will be attentive to these new requirements and assimilating them into his side.
Are manual testing essential? Yes and no, it depends on what you want to build, as well as the moment of maturity of the product. For a product that demands maximum precision and with a narrow margin of failure, they are necessary. When it is possible to launch several beta versions before going into production, perhaps only a group of developers can do it alone. For those of us who have been in the software industry for several years, it is clear that an application can be built from scratch with only developers. In fact, we exercised that multitasking role with relative success. However, how many of those applications survive today? Few, because maturity in building software definitively requires specialization, so nowadays big applications have behind them: solution architects, data architects, devops, and of course testers.
The future is unknown; some changes are beginning to be glimpsed; others will surprise us. Today we know that big bets are on analytics and artificial intelligence, a reason that significantly supports the idea of replacing all manual tests with automated ones. Clearly, it can be an option, if it is possible to create programs with skills to make decisions not only based on previous learning but also incorporating critical thinking, creativity, and the opportunity of cross-learning to apply what has been learned in new areas. These capabilities that nowadays no machine can do as well as humans, it is possible that they can be surpassed in the near or distant future, it is difficult to know precisely. Clearly, when this is possible, not only manual testers will be on the way to extinction, there will be many, many professions that will not be needed, and surely by advancing step by step, we will be prepared for those changes. But while that happens, the manual tester will continue to be essential for a good product. | https://medium.com/globant/the-importance-of-the-manual-tester-669321434c23 | ['Marcela Ortiz Sandoval'] | 2020-12-17 17:34:37.541000+00:00 | ['Manual Vs Automation', 'Qc Analyst', 'Qa Skills', 'Manual Testing', 'Qa Role'] |
picThrift Case Study | Our four-day process to design picThift, which makes it easy to find a second-hand, zero-impact alternative to the clothing item you’re seeking.
Late September arrived, and I eagerly diverted my mind from the COVID-19 public health crisis to dive into the (remote) kickoff week of the UW MHCI+D program: Immersion Studio.
Here’s the story of how we designed picThrift in just four days.
The Design Challenge
“…new challenges have arisen that require a shift in thinking from traditional design practices that focus on human wellbeing, to more inclusive practices that emphasize a multiplicity of perspectives.” (Smith et al., 2017).
We were placed into teams of three and tasked with the challenge of designing with a post-humanistic lens for harmonious cohabitation between human and non-human agents.
Project Aspects
Research, ideation, design, prototyping, testing
Duration
4 days
Team
Formative Research
In exploring post-humanism and harmonious cohabitation, we sought to approach the earth, its inhabitants, and its matter as a whole, interconnected system. A quick brainstorm and voting session led us to explore consumer industries that cause environmental damage, affecting humans, non-humans and earth systems. Ryan had recently learned that the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world.
As designers, we would be making decisions on behalf of others, so in our limited timeframe, we wanted to learn and understand as much as possible about our domain and the needs and perspectives of our stakeholders.
Secondary Research
We conducted literature reviews and product research to gather information about the following topics:
The negative impacts of the fashion industry on the environment, including humans and nonhumans
Subcultures, markets and products that address these negative impacts via reducing clothing consumption, second-hand clothing, and sustainable manufacturing
Barriers to humans lowering their clothing consumption impact
Primary Research
We conducted 3 semi-structured interviews with individuals between the ages of 22–64 in order to understand their clothing shopping habits, their motivations and experiences with buying new vs. used or sustainably-made clothing, and their barriers to making sustainable clothing choices.
Research Insights
We captured our research through note-taking and recording, which would later help us in the synthesis and sense-making process. We shared and discussed the data we each collected, then organized our secondary and primary research data using affinity clusters. The following insights emerged:
A snapshot of our research insights and contributing factors from our Miro board.
The fast fashion industry has a strong negative impact on human and non-human agents due to high environmental impact (i.e. pollution) and other factors, such as labor exploitation. Markets for sustainable shopping exist, and common motivators for participating are caring about sustainability/impact, lower prices, vintage fashion, community, and trends. There are existing communities and players in the second-hand and sustainable fashion market, indicating a growing cultural interest. There are several perceived barriers to sustainable shopping.
Based on these insights, we developed a “How Might We” statement to help guide us forward in the design process:
Ideation
Method: Sketching, the braiding method
We used an ideation method called braiding to generate and discuss ideas with our problem space in mind.
2 minutes to sketch
1 minute per person to share
10 iterations
30 sketches total
Concept Affinity and Down-Selection
Our 31 ideas in Miro, down-selected to 4 favorite concepts (one of which incorporates multiple ideas).
After sharing our 30 drawings from the braiding method via Zoom, we wrote them on sticky notes in Miro, added another, and down-selected to four main concepts by each voting for our two favorites.
Concept Suite
We refined, re-sketched, and wrote a short description of each concept, taking into consideration how they could benefit human and nonhuman stakeholders.
Sketches from our concept suite.
Further Down-Selection
We met with two other teams to share our concepts and solicit feedback, then proceeded to further down-select by ranking each concept on a scale of 1–5 (exciting, relevance, achievable). All three team members gave the highest cumulative score to Concept 1: ThriftFinder, which we later renamed picThrift.
Down-selection process, ranked by (exciting, relevant, achievable).
Design Response
Moving forward with picThrift required another round of critique and iteration. After incorporating some feedback we received from other teams, we refined our concept to the following:
picThrift is a tool that enables you to upload a photo of a desired clothing item. Using your specified criteria (e.g. size, price), it scans for lookalike, second-hand items online and surfaces the top matches for your direct purchase. Within days, carbon-neutral delivery puts the zero-impact item into your hands.
picThrift aligns with the design challenge by lowering the impact of clothing consumption to zero via reuse and carbon neutral shipping. Reuse averts the creation (due to demand) of an additional clothing item. A second-hand clothing purchase avoids many of the negative impacts of the fast fashion industry, including:
Additional pollution, causing health problems for living beings
Additional burning of fossil fuels, leading to climate change, pollution, ecosystem harm due to fracking and drilling, and other harms
Exploitation of laborers who make the clothes under inhumane conditions
Synthetic, non-biodegradable clothing in landfills and oceans
Stakeholders
Our target audience includes consumers who fit any of the following criteria:
Want to buy second-hand to reduce their clothing consumption impact, save money, give old clothing a new life, and/or follow a second-hand trend
Don’t want to spend time and effort sifting through thrift racks or online thrift products
Know what style of item they’re looking for (maybe they saw a picture of a shirt they liked), and want to find a second-hand version
Other stakeholders include current and future human and non-human actors who are negatively impacted by the production of new clothing. We can even consider the second-hand clothing items themselves to be stakeholders — it feels joyous to give an old, forgotten clothing item in the back of someones’ closet a new, appreciated “life!”
Prototyping
Now it was time to test picThrift in action through prototyping.
We approached prototyping as a set of hypotheses that we needed to test. We aimed to answer the following questions about our design response:
Concept
Would someone in our target audience want to find a second-hand alternative to a desired clothing item?
Would the user want to use a tool like picThrift to accomplish this goal?
Execution
What steps does a user need to take to accomplish the task of buying a second-hand alternative to a desired clothing item they found online?
What information do they need to feel confident enough to make the second-hand purchase?
Is the user able to use the digital prototype and achieve their goal?
Does it meet their expectations?
What we created
User journey
We crafted a user journey to create a realistic scenario in which a person would use picThrift. This helped to guide our app prototype, and we were also able to use parts of this story to set the scene for our prototype testers.
Information architecture
Each team member diagrammed a plausible information architecture for the picThrift mobile application, then we combined our favorite elements of the three into one cohesive and comprehensive flow.
Digital prototype of mobile application
We created a digital prototype of the picThrift mobile application in Figma, dividing up the screens and then refining them together to ensure consistency.
Some screens from our digital prototype in Figma: Create a profile, take or upload a photo, find your matches, and buy the second-hand alternative instantly.
Testing
We recruited two participants that were available on short notice to test our prototype via Zoom. We gave them the following scenario and asked them to complete two tasks, describing their thought process and reactions as we watched their actions via screen-share:
Scenario
You need to buy clothes for your upcoming job interview. As a college student, you want to find clothes that are both affordable and sustainable. You’re tired and overloaded with homework so you don’t want to spend much time. You decide to use picThrift to help you with your shopping process.
User tasks
1. Add a photo of a clothing piece you want (we gave them a photo of a dark blue blouse worn by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the prototype).
2. Purchase the first dark blue blouse.
After the participants completed the tasks, we asked them a series of follow-up questions.
Prototype testing insights
One of our prototype testers revealed in the follow-up questions that he does not buy clothes online, and therefore would not use the app. This was a good reminder to us that it’s best to screen potential participants beforehand to make sure they meet certain criteria to match the target audience— in this case, that they are open to purchasing clothing online, and are open to buying second-hand clothing.
Participants were confused upon entering the app, expecting more guidance and clothing-related content. Aside from that, they were able to navigate through the app to achieve their goal of adding a photo of a clothing piece and ultimately “purchasing” a second-hand version. Participants did not know of other products that performed the same function. The participant who shops online liked the picThrift concept and expressed interest in using it. Both participants gave useful feedback about additional features they would be excited to see.
Reflection
Future work
There’s a lot we could do to improve picThrift if we had more time. Here are a few items I would suggest we do moving forward:
Develop and use a screener for recruiting participants for research interviews and prototype tests.
for recruiting participants for research interviews and prototype tests. Interview more stakeholders during the research phase, and interview stakeholders in other related domains (e.g. pollution experts, thrift store workers, etc.).
during the research phase, and interview stakeholders in other related domains (e.g. pollution experts, thrift store workers, etc.). Incorporate product feedback and do more testing and iterating of the prototype (with participants who are screened to be part of the target audience).
(with participants who are screened to be part of the target audience). Consider how picThrift would pull clothing match results from online, second-hand vendors.
from online, second-hand vendors. Create an onboarding flow to give more information to users who are new to using picThrift.
Key Takeaways | https://medium.com/@lcmunoz/picthrift-case-study-654cc9e5f1fe | ['Laura Muñoz'] | 2020-11-28 19:26:20.269000+00:00 | ['Design Thinking', 'Prototyping', 'Ideation', 'Design', 'Design Process'] |
A Complete Exploratory Data Analysis and Visualization for Text Data | It worked!
Univariate visualization with Plotly
Single-variable or univariate visualization is the simplest type of visualization which consists of observations on only a single characteristic or attribute. Univariate visualization includes histogram, bar plots and line charts.
The distribution of review sentiment polarity score
df['polarity'].iplot(
kind='hist',
bins=50,
xTitle='polarity',
linecolor='black',
yTitle='count',
title='Sentiment Polarity Distribution')
Figure 4
Vast majority of the sentiment polarity scores are greater than zero, means most of them are pretty positive.
The distribution of review ratings
df['Rating'].iplot(
kind='hist',
xTitle='rating',
linecolor='black',
yTitle='count',
title='Review Rating Distribution')
Figure 5
The ratings are in align with the polarity score, that is, most of the ratings are pretty high at 4 or 5 ranges.
The distribution of reviewers age
df['Age'].iplot(
kind='hist',
bins=50,
xTitle='age',
linecolor='black',
yTitle='count',
title='Reviewers Age Distribution')
Figure 6
Most reviewers are in their 30s to 40s.
The distribution review text lengths
df['review_len'].iplot(
kind='hist',
bins=100,
xTitle='review length',
linecolor='black',
yTitle='count',
title='Review Text Length Distribution')
Figure 7
The distribution of review word count
df['word_count'].iplot(
kind='hist',
bins=100,
xTitle='word count',
linecolor='black',
yTitle='count',
title='Review Text Word Count Distribution')
Figure 8
There were quite number of people like to leave long reviews.
For categorical features, we simply use bar chart to present the frequency.
The distribution of division
df.groupby('Division Name').count()['Clothing ID'].iplot(kind='bar', yTitle='Count', linecolor='black', opacity=0.8,
title='Bar chart of Division Name', xTitle='Division Name')
Figure 9
General division has the most number of reviews, and Initmates division has the least number of reviews.
The distribution of department
df.groupby('Department Name').count()['Clothing ID'].sort_values(ascending=False).iplot(kind='bar', yTitle='Count', linecolor='black', opacity=0.8,
title='Bar chart of Department Name', xTitle='Department Name')
Figure 10
When comes to department, Tops department has the most reviews and Trend department has the least number of reviews.
The distribution of class
df.groupby('Class Name').count()['Clothing ID'].sort_values(ascending=False).iplot(kind='bar', yTitle='Count', linecolor='black', opacity=0.8,
title='Bar chart of Class Name', xTitle='Class Name')
Figure 11
Now we come to “Review Text” feature, before explore this feature, we need to extract N-Gram features. N-grams are used to describe the number of words used as observation points, e.g., unigram means singly-worded, bigram means 2-worded phrase, and trigram means 3-worded phrase. In order to do this, we use scikit-learn’s CountVectorizer function.
First, it would be interesting to compare unigrams before and after removing stop words.
The distribution of top unigrams before removing stop words
top_unigram.py
Figure 12
The distribution of top unigrams after removing stop words
top_unigram_no_stopwords.py
Figure 13
Second, we want to compare bigrams before and after removing stop words.
The distribution of top bigrams before removing stop words
top_bigram.py
Figure 14
The distribution of top bigrams after removing stop words
top_bigram_no_stopwords.py
Figure 15
Last, we compare trigrams before and after removing stop words.
The distribution of Top trigrams before removing stop words
top_trigram.py
Figure 16
The distribution of Top trigrams after removing stop words
top_trigram_no_stopwords.py
Figure 17
Part-Of-Speech Tagging (POS) is a process of assigning parts of speech to each word, such as noun, verb, adjective, etc
We use a simple TextBlob API to dive into POS of our “Review Text” feature in our data set, and visualize these tags.
The distribution of top part-of-speech tags of review corpus
POS.py
Figure 18
Box plot is used to compare the sentiment polarity score, rating, review text lengths of each department or division of the e-commerce store.
What do the departments tell about Sentiment polarity
department_polarity.py
Figure 19
The highest sentiment polarity score was achieved by all of the six departments except Trend department, and the lowest sentiment polarity score was collected by Tops department. And the Trend department has the lowest median polarity score. If you remember, the Trend department has the least number of reviews. This explains why it does not have as wide variety of score distribution as the other departments.
What do the departments tell about rating
rating_division.py
Figure 20
Except Trend department, all the other departments’ median rating were 5. Overall, the ratings are high and sentiment are positive in this review data set.
Review length by department
length_department.py
Figure 21
The median review length of Tops & Intimate departments are relative lower than those of the other departments.
Bivariate visualization with Plotly
Bivariate visualization is a type of visualization that consists two features at a time. It describes association or relationship between two features.
Distribution of sentiment polarity score by recommendations
polarity_recommendation.py
Figure 22
It is obvious that reviews have higher polarity score are more likely to be recommended.
Distribution of ratings by recommendations
rating_recommendation.py
Figure 23
Recommended reviews have higher ratings than those of not recommended ones.
Distribution of review lengths by recommendations
review_length_recommend.py
Figure 24
Recommended reviews tend to be lengthier than those of not recommended reviews.
2D Density jointplot of sentiment polarity vs. rating
sentiment_polarity_rating.py
Figure 24
2D Density jointplot of age and sentiment polarity
age_polarity.py
Figure 25
There were few people are very positive or very negative. People who give neutral to positive reviews are more likely to be in their 30s. Probably people at these age are likely to be more active.
Finding characteristic terms and their associations
Sometimes we want to analyzes words used by different categories and outputs some notable term associations. We will use scattertext and spaCy libraries to accomplish these.
First, we need to turn the data frame into a Scattertext Corpus. To look for differences in department name, set the category_col parameter to 'Department Names' , and use the review present in the Review Text column, to analyze by setting the text col parameter. Finally, pass a spaCy model in to the nlp argument and call build() to construct the corpus.
Following are the terms that differentiate the review text from a general English corpus. | https://towardsdatascience.com/a-complete-exploratory-data-analysis-and-visualization-for-text-data-29fb1b96fb6a | ['Susan Li'] | 2019-04-27 18:25:54.104000+00:00 | ['NLP', 'Data Science', 'Plotly', 'Visualization', 'Python'] |
Let’s Create a Dotnet Core Docker Image | Let’s Create a Dotnet Core Docker Image
In a previous post we created our Dockerfile. In this next step we are going to use our Dockerfile script to create a Docker image. Then once we have the image we can run it in a container. So let the games begin.
For our sample aspnet app, I’m just using the code from the asp.net samples repository…
https://github.com/bitleaf-io/aspdotnetcore-docker.
First, I’ll clone that repository to my local machine.
Projects/bitleaf/dotnet-docker3
❯ git clone [email protected]:bitleaf-io/aspdotnetcore-docker.git
Cloning into 'aspdotnetcore-docker'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 77, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (77/77), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (60/60), done.
remote: Total 77 (delta 12), reused 73 (delta 12), pack-reused 0
Receiving objects: 100% (77/77), 683.33 KiB | 381.00 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (12/12), done.
Projects/bitleaf/dotnet-docker3 took 10s
❯ cd aspdotnetcore-docker/
aspdotnetcore-docker on master
❯ ls
aspnetapp Dockerfile README.md
aspdotnetcore-docker on master
Great. We now have the sample repository to work with. It contains our Dockerfile we created in the previous post and some sample asp.net code from Microsoft.
Let’s take a look at our Dockerfile again.
# <https://hub.docker.com/_/microsoft-dotnet-core>
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/sdk:3.1 AS build
WORKDIR /source
# copy csproj and restore as distinct layers
COPY *.sln .
COPY aspnetapp/*.csproj ./aspnetapp/
RUN dotnet restore -r linux-musl-x64
# copy everything else and build app
COPY aspnetapp/. ./aspnetapp/
WORKDIR /source/aspnetapp
RUN dotnet publish -c release -o /app -r linux-musl-x64 --self-contained false --no-restore
# final stage/image
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/aspnet:3.1-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /app ./
ENTRYPOINT ["./aspnetapp"]
This is the same file we created before and it’s going to allow us to build and run our sample asp.net core application inside of Docker. Remember the three stages of Docker…
Create a Dockerfile Build a Docker image based on that Dockerfile Run the Docker container based on the Docker image
So, we have our Dockerfile. Now we need to build our Docker image.
❯ docker build --pull -t aspnetapp .
Sending build context to Docker daemon 5.16MB
Step 1/12 : FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/sdk:3.1 AS build
3.1: Pulling from dotnet/core/sdk
376057ac6fa1: Pull complete
5a63a0a859d8: Pull complete
496548a8c952: Pull complete
2adae3950d4d: Pull complete
2e16b9e1a161: Pull complete
00f5f595bb47: Pull complete
218e0b1856d2: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:134f0793a9a65a237430b5d98050cb63e7c8718b0d2e73f4f974384a98023d56
Status: Downloaded newer image for mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/sdk:3.1
---> 8c4dd5ac064a
Step 2/12 : WORKDIR /source
---> Using cache
---> 0c604866f2f8
Step 3/12 : COPY *.sln .
---> 6eabf9f173e9
Step 4/12 : COPY aspnetapp/*.csproj ./aspnetapp/
---> 0b6d0ebff6fa
Step 5/12 : RUN dotnet restore -r linux-musl-x64
---> Running in d6593d853c89
Determining projects to restore...
Restored /source/aspnetapp/aspnetapp.csproj (in 3.7 sec).
Removing intermediate container d6593d853c89
---> 9ad377760bb8
Step 6/12 : COPY aspnetapp/. ./aspnetapp/
---> 997f14845ebc
Step 7/12 : WORKDIR /source/aspnetapp
---> Running in 1493794ee1a3
Removing intermediate container 1493794ee1a3
---> bff3d9c480ac
Step 8/12 : RUN dotnet publish -c release -o /app -r linux-musl-x64 --self-contained false --no-restore
---> Running in 11cb4f8d8956
Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 16.6.0+5ff7b0c9e for .NET Core
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
aspnetapp -> /source/aspnetapp/bin/release/netcoreapp3.1/linux-musl-x64/aspnetapp.dll
aspnetapp -> /source/aspnetapp/bin/release/netcoreapp3.1/linux-musl-x64/aspnetapp.Views.dll
aspnetapp -> /app/
Removing intermediate container 11cb4f8d8956
---> e3f76099643a
Step 9/12 : FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/aspnet:3.1-alpine
3.1-alpine: Pulling from dotnet/core/aspnet
cbdbe7a5bc2a: Already exists
80caa14a70db: Pull complete
08a0d3029c8d: Pull complete
76c18e0100a6: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:d9275e02fa9f52a31917a5ef7c0612811c64d2a6a401eb9654939595dab7e5de
Status: Downloaded newer image for mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/aspnet:3.1-alpine
---> 57c690133803
Step 10/12 : WORKDIR /app
---> Running in e07191c61223
Removing intermediate container e07191c61223
---> 0edcf08059b6
Step 11/12 : COPY --from=build /app ./
---> 12e89067c073
Step 12/12 : ENTRYPOINT ["./aspnetapp"]
---> Running in 421522f32772
Removing intermediate container 421522f32772
---> bb6e34978e96
Successfully built bb6e34978e96
Successfully tagged aspnetapp:latest
aspdotnetcore-docker on master via •NET v3.1.300 took 18s
❯
So, all we did was run docker build --pull -t aspnetapp . in the root of our repository directory. So what did it do? First off let's look at the docker command...
--pull in the docker command line means to pull the the latest specified images in our Dockerfile. In our case we wanted the aspnet core SDK and Runtime 3.1 images. So this switch just copied those images down from Docker hub to our local machine for us to use in our own Docker image.
-t aspnetapp . in the docker command line means to name our Docker image aspnetapp . We'll use this to reference our image when we are ready to run it. Also not the trailing . at the end. That just means to look at the current directory for the Dockerfile.
After we run that we see the Dockerfile in action. Everything is occurring inside of Docker. It’s bringing down the SDK and Runtime images and copying source files from our machine, but the build and execution is all inside of Docker.
Aside: By default Docker goes against Docker Hub to locate and bring down images. You can point to different docker repositories and even create your own private repository to host your images.
Let’s take a look at what images we now have on our local machine…
❯ docker images
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
aspnetapp latest bb6e34978e96 About an hour ago 110MB
mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/sdk 3.1 8c4dd5ac064a About an hour ago 705MB
mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/aspnet 3.1-alpine 57c690133803 About an hour ago 105MB
By running the docker images command we can see what images we have downloaded to our local machine. You can see our newly created Docker image along with the Microsoft Dotnet SDK and runtime.
Running our Dotnet Core Docker Image
Now the time has come to actually run our aspnet core code inside of Docker.
❯ docker run --rm -p 8000:80 aspnetapp
warn: Microsoft.AspNetCore.DataProtection.Repositories.FileSystemXmlRepository[60]
Storing keys in a directory '/root/.aspnet/DataProtection-Keys' that may not be persisted outside of the container. Protected data will be unavailable when container is destroyed.
warn: Microsoft.AspNetCore.DataProtection.KeyManagement.XmlKeyManager[35]
No XML encryptor configured. Key {220ed00c-80b6-46a5-a59c-62caa78ace19} may be persisted to storage in unencrypted form.
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
Now listening on: http://[::]:80
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
Application started. Press Ctrl+C to shut down.
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
Hosting environment: Production
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
Content root path: /app
We tell docker to run our image by running docker run --rm -p 8000:80 aspnetapp . Let's break down these commands.
--rm tells Docker to remove the container when it's done running. This is just so we don't leave a container on our system since this is just for testing.
-p 8000:80 tells Docker to map a network port from 80 on the Docker container (which is the port our aspnet core app is running on inside the container) to our host machine port 8000 . This will let us open our browser on our machine and access the code that is running inside of the Docker container.
aspnetapp tell Docker what image to run. This is the name we gave it earlier. By default it always gets the latest version of the image (just like if we added the tag :latest after aspnetapp like aspnetapp:latest . If we want to specify a particular version we would add that tag like aspnetapp:1.0.0 . Tags can be anything you like, they don't have to be in a particular format.
If we open our machine’s browser and go to…
http://localhost:8000/
…you should see the beautiful ‘Welcome to .NET Core’ page. Again that page you are accessing is running inside of that Docker container.
Now why not take a look at what is inside of the container that is based on our Docker image. Opne up another terminal and let’s see what Docker containers we currently have on the system (including our current running one)…
❯ docker container ls
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
610cddb6f411 aspnetapp "./aspnetapp" 47 seconds ago Up 45 seconds 0.0.0.0:8000->80/tcp zen_mendel
Cool. I see our container running. The container is Linux based so lets shell into it. We take note of the Container ID above and run the docker exec command.
❯ docker exec -it 610cddb6f411 sh
/app # ls
appsettings.Development.json aspnetapp aspnetapp.Views.pdb aspnetapp.dll aspnetapp.runtimeconfig.json wwwroot
appsettings.json aspnetapp.Views.dll aspnetapp.deps.json aspnetapp.pdb web.config
So there’s our compiled application inside of the Docker container which is based on our image. What does that docker command actually do.
exec Docker exec executes a command inside of a running container. In our case it is executing sh which is the shell.
-it tells Docker we want to have an interactive terminal to work with, so we can type in commands against the container.
Now enter exit to disconnect from the container's shell. Let's go back to our original terminal with the Docker container running and hit ctrl+c to kill it.
Delete Docker Images
If we run docker images again.
❯ docker images
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
aspnetapp latest bb6e34978e96 About an hour ago 110MB
mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/sdk 3.1 8c4dd5ac064a About an hour ago 705MB
mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/aspnet 3.1-alpine 57c690133803 About an hour ago 105MB
We see our three images. We can remove images from our local machine with the docker image rm command.
❯ docker image rm aspnetapp
Untagged: aspnetapp:latest
Deleted: sha256:bb6e34978e96ed4eea3fc64adf943a09b9e798e0926b4c2308e341e3e306e76f
Deleted: sha256:12e89067c0734b17e2a60685ad200c4f11ea63db9854ba8cf473ea4a732b7cc3
Deleted: sha256:2d6b8df9e2adf8c4e144d1dafc47dbc25a73f856f0d761d924d8f84ea810c07b
Deleted: sha256:0edcf08059b6534b1bf18c330152f413c13ba7b7923fac9b4327abf82c8cec4b
Deleted: sha256:670db31ab972c44245b0fb18262d6e4a1367f02ad30a9207e2b458fd4d7bbe8f
This removed our custom aspnetapp Docker image. We can always build it again if we need it. You could have also used the Image ID instead of the name.
Now if I list our images again.
❯ docker images
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/sdk 3.1 8c4dd5ac064a About an hour ago 705MB
mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/aspnet 3.1-alpine 57c690133803 About an hour ago 105MB
You can see our custom Docker image is now gone from our local machine.
Hopefully you can see the power of this. You don’t have to wait and make sure your hosting server has all right versions of the software over deployment weekend. You just let it build and deploy your Docker image. It will work anywhere Docker is running. SO much less stress. Obviously there’s a little more too it with managing your company’s services through the use of container orchestration like Kubernetes, but you can see from a developer standpoint how this makes this helps remove those wonderful deployment surprises. | https://medium.com/@bitleaf_io/dotnet-core-docker-build-and-run-a97db8c85f3a | ['Matt At Bitleaf.Io'] | 2020-05-20 23:54:20.045000+00:00 | ['Docker', 'Docker Image', 'Dotnet Core', 'Dotnet'] |
100 Days of DevOps — Day 61-Jenkins Agent Node | To view the updated DevOps course(101DaysofDevOps)
Course Registration link: https://www.101daysofdevops.com/register/
Course Link: https://www.101daysofdevops.com/courses/101-days-of-devops/
YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/user/laprashant/videos
Welcome to Day 61 of 100 Days of DevOps, Focus for today is Jenkins Agent Node
Yesterday I showed you how to set up Jenkins Server
The above setup works great in a small environment but as your team grows you need to scale up your Jenkins and in those situations, you need Master/Agent setup. In Master/Agent setup, Master acts as a control node and Jenkins with the agent installed to take care of the execution of all the jobs.
Requirement
Jenkins Master
Agent Node
NOTE: I am performing all the steps on Centos7
Step1: Install the necessary package on the agent node
yum -y install java-1.8.0-openjdk git
In this case, I am installing java and git
You don’t Jenkins rpm package on the agent machine
Step2: Create user and copy the ssh key from Master to agent node
# useradd jenkins visudo jenkins ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL # mkdir jenkins_build
Then copy the key generated on Day60 from master to agent node
$ ssh-copy-id [email protected] # To test the connectivity $ ssh [email protected] Last login: Fri Apr 12 04:31:49 2019
Step3: Add the agent from Jenkins UI
On the Jenkins UI, Click on Manage Jenkins and then Manage Nodes
Click on the New Node
* Name: Give your agent some name
* # of executors: The maximum number of concurrent builds that Jenkins may perform on this node.
* Remote root directory:An agent needs to have a directory dedicated to Jenkins. Specify the path to this directory on the agent. It is best to use an absolute path, such as /var/jenkins or c:\jenkins. This should be a path local to the agent machine. There is no need for this path to be visible from the master(/var/lib/jenkins/jenkins_build) created in earlier step
* Usage: Controls how Jenkins schedules builds on this node. Use this node as much as possible - This is the default setting.
In this mode, Jenkins uses this node freely. Whenever there is a build that can be done by using this node, Jenkins will use it.
* Credentials: Select the credentials to be used for logging in to the remote host.
* Host: Enter the hostname or IP address of your agent node in the Host field.
Check if everything works
To use the slave node | https://medium.com/@devopslearning/100-days-of-devops-day-61-jenkins-agent-node-4b3779366767 | ['Prashant Lakhera'] | 2021-07-09 19:09:14.074000+00:00 | ['Linux', 'Jenkins', 'AWS', 'Technology', 'DevOps'] |
Обычная женщина 2 сезон 7 серия — сериал 2020 смотреть онлайн | If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed. The vision pulls you (Steve Jobs) | https://medium.com/@anna91820185/%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%8B%D1%87%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F-%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%89%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0-2-%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%BE%D0%BD-7-%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F-%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BB-2020-%D1%81%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%8C-%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BD-30fa68bfa28a | [] | 2020-12-27 11:42:42.681000+00:00 | ['Covid 19'] |
How to Prevent and Safely Put Out a Grease Fire in Your Kitchen | Statistics reveal that nearly 5,000,000 cooking fires occur annually in the home. Of these fires, grease fires are the most dangerous and are responsible for 1 in every 5 home fire deaths. Learning how to prevent and put out grease fires could save your or a loved one’s life. If you are a landlord, property manager or Airbnb host, make sure to share this information with your renters and guests to help keep them and your property safe.
When deep frying, be especially cautious to not leave the stove unattended. All it takes is a few minutes for the grease to overheat and ignite if left unattended.
How to Prevent Grease Fires
Never leave your pot or pan unattended. This is the leading cause of kitchen fires. It takes less than 30 seconds for smoke to turn into fire, so just leaving the room for a moment could be dangerous. Pay attention around fire. Don’t cook when intoxicated or tired. Remove as much moisture as possible from food before cooking. Never put frozen food into hot grease. Keep grease at the recommended temperature. Use a thermometer to monitor. Heat oil slowly. Add food slowly and gently to hot oil to avoid splatter. Keep baking soda or salt nearby, in case you need to smother flame. Cookie sheets should be stored near the stove but not underneath. They won’t be of any help if that area is inaccessible. Always keep a metal pot lid on the counter in case of a pot fire. Store a Class K fire extinguisher nearby, ideally between the kitchen and nearest exit. Keep anything flammable (oven mitts, wooden utensils, etc.) away from the stovetop.
What Not to Do
Never douse the flame with any liquid, because it’ll vaporize and cause steam explosions in every direction. Never carry the burning pot/pan outside. Hands tend to shake when nervous, which means you’re likely to spill the grease and spread the fire. Do not use anything glass or plastic. Glass will heat up and shatter and plastic will melt. Never use baking powder or flour as substitutes for salt or baking soda. They have a lighter weight and are combustible.
How to Put Out a Grease Fire
***If the fire has spread beyond the cooktop, do not attempt to get near the stove. Leave and call 911. It’ll take less than 5 minutes for the room to be engulfed in flames.***
Turn off the burner, but do not move the pan. Moving it can cause the fire to grow faster and stronger. Don’t use any liquid to attempt to stop the fire. Remove the oxygen one of three ways:
a) Cover the pot/pan with a metal lid or baking sheet. This will cause the fire to consume the remaining oxygen and dwindle. This works best for stovetop fires.
b) This method is best for the oven; smother the fire with a lot of salt or baking soda. Make sure to hit the fire directly on top, as throwing the salt or baking soda from the side could cause the flames to jump out and further the damage. Don’t use baking powder or flour, they’re combustible!
c) Use a Class K fire extinguisher. This is a wet chemical extinguisher that lowers the fire temperature and creates a non-combustible barrier between the oil and fire. If none of the above steps work, call 911 and get everyone out of the house. Close the door behind you to contain the flames.
Keep a list of these steps somewhere you can easily access them if the time comes. Make sure to share this information with your loved ones, renters and Airbnb guests so they know what to do in case of emergency.
— — — — —
Victor Jablokov is the CEO of Wallflower Labs, a technology company based in Boston, MA that is developing products to reduce home fires caused by cooking. Learn more at wallflower.com. | https://medium.com/wallflowerlabs/how-to-prevent-and-safely-put-out-a-grease-fire-in-your-kitchen-1d6cbfdc354b | ['Victor Jablokov'] | 2017-08-15 18:28:31.596000+00:00 | ['Airbnb', 'Smart Home', 'Cooking', 'Property Management', 'Fire Safety'] |
Hey ONO, Where’s my Invitation Code?? | Yes, we are waiting for GODOT too (Image credit: Google)
Imagine this. You saw the announcement on the sale of the latest and coolest gadget in town. Your heart beats fast. Excited, you made plans to ensure that you will be one of the firsts to wait in line to get your hands on the gadget. So you started your countdown till D-Day!
Keep checking for that Invitation Code y’all! (Image credit: Google)
Fast forward, you came earlier before the store opens. You gathered friends to join you. You brought breakfast so you won’t get hungry. So everyone waited in line patiently. Some brought books, headphones, Ipad, etc to keep them company. Even though you only waited for a few hours, it seems like years!
You can’t wait till the store to be open at 10am sharp!
Suddenly, a sales person appeared before everyone and made that dreadful announcement. It turns out that a supplier encountered a delivery problem hence the delay of the shipment to the shop. Not only to that one shop, but to all the shops nationwide. Disappointed and upset you went home empty handed.
What year is it again? (Image credit: Google)
We totally get this. We understand your frustration — perhaps your pain, of waiting too!
But let’s face it. Delays happens. Technical glitch happens. Mostly unanticipated. While the above is just a metaphor, this is exactly what’s happening to us now with ONO. We have all waited for the INVITATION CODE like since forever!
The team is working hard, over dosed on coffees to fix the glitch (Image credit: Google)
The ONO team hears you. And as you are reading this, they are working hard round the clock to fix the issue. Hence there will be a slight delay on the International Launch. But don’t worry, everyone will get their Invitation Codes soon!
Instead of speculating or spreading speculations (which doesn’t solve the problem), let us be a little bit patient and let the team do their job. Hey, if we can wait this long for ONO, we can always wait a little while for the matter to be fixed so we can have a better ONO experience.
Wise people say “Good things comes to those who waits”, let us wait for the team to revert to us on the outcome and we will update everyone soonest we can!
So while waiting for that good news, go make coffee, watch movie, play with your pets/kids or sing your heart out to Jon Bon Jovi and pretend that you are in a concert! Use this waiting time to do what you have procrastinated to do and before you know it, your Invitation Code will arrive safely in your inbox waiting for you.
Least when you expect it, YOU’VE GOT MAIL!
Don’t forget to sign up and be part of the links below to get updated on ONO’s latest progress!
ONO Official Links | https://medium.com/ono-social-network/hey-ono-wheres-my-invitation-code-eb8e6b338423 | ['Angie Chin-Tan'] | 2018-07-16 17:45:50.923000+00:00 | ['Decentralization', 'Community', 'Dapps', 'Blockchain', 'Ono'] |
7 Tips to Become a Great Consulting Analyst | 1. Take business personality tests seriously
In Consulting, you’ll constantly be interacting with people, which is why it’s important to understand how teams work together and how you can contribute to the teams most effectively.
When you first start at a company, you’ll likely take a business personality test to help facilitate this exploration. I made the mistake of taking this task lightly when I first started, and it took me a few months to truly understand and analyze how different business personalities worked together. It was only after working with various teams with great synergies, and also with those that were on the verge of falling apart, that I reviewed the different types of business personalities to identify why some teams were successful and why some were not. I was able to re-evaluate my business personality and contribute to each team in a way that would play to each team members’ motivations and strengths. This helped good teams work better, and bad teams more tolerable.
If I hadn’t taken the time to observe different team members’ business personalities and identified the actions that would play to their personalities, I would not have been a successful analyst.
2. Understand your personal values and build your brand
This point ties closely in with the benefits of business personality tests. Understanding teams well is important, but the true value lies in knowing what you can bring to the table amidst those teams.
When I first joined the firm from college, I was still in the process of solidifying my values and identifying my strengths. With the help my firm in allowing me to experience different clients, roles, and tasks, I was able to build my brand within my network. I pushed my strengths in all endeavors that I undertook, and made sure that people would associate me with my positive brand to set myself up for success in future opportunities. I was able to establish myself as a strong communicator, diligent worker, and a passionate advocate for junior talent experience during my first two years at the firm.
Being able to recognize and speak up for your personal brand is an invaluable advantage in career advancement — your brand will align with your values, and speak to who you are as a person at the core.
3. Understand how the organization is structured, and the people in leadership positions
Advancing in your career is difficult if you don’t know the clear path to grow. It’s essential to understand the different promotion levels, average time it takes to jump from level to level, and the people in leadership who can advocate for you during your promotion years. Recognizing how the current leadership got to their levels is powerful as well, because those who have already achieved what you wish can help guide you through the process.
Although self-advocacy and vying for sponsorship is important, it’s always a good idea to stay humble and show integrity when communicating with leaders.
4. Find and maintain a great mentorship relationship
I met a great peer mentor when I first started at the firm. We still have a great relationship, and I’m indebted for him for a lot of my successes at the firm. I recognize that it’s not always easy to find someone as selfless as him, so I’m forever grateful for him. Since he is only 2 years ahead of me at the firm and have served on the same clients, it almost seems like I’m stepping in his footprints, but with tips and tricks to learn from his mistakes and set myself up for greater success. I also have a mentor who is a leader at the firm, who guide me on my career management from a broader picture.
I encourage a similar set-up, where you can explore diverse mentorship perspectives: one from a peer level, and one from a leadership level.
I want to emphasize that mentorship is not a one-way relationship. I had to put in effort to make sure the mentorship was sustained over the course of two years (and hopefully, many more). I learned that no one at the firm will spoon feed you mentorship, but if you seek out the help, there will always be helpful guiding hands. Finding a balance of being persistent in mentorship without being annoying has been crucial; additionally, if there is anything you can help your mentor with something that you can uniquely provide, don’t hesitate to provide that support.
5. Take initiative by understanding leadership styles and pre-thinking expectations
After a few months at the firm, I’ve noticed that I’ve had to work with some of the same managers, even if we were on different clients or roles. This is sometimes a plus, because I’m familiar with their leadership style and know the quality of work they expect, allowing me to tailor my work to reflect their expectations and wishes.
The biggest hurdle analysts face as they work with different teams is getting used to different leadership styles. However, after a couple of team changes, it gets easier to adapt to this change, and quickly figure out what will make certain leaders happy. In order to stand out, observe new leaders’/managers’ responses to previous deliverables, and understand what type of work they enjoy receiving. This can be something as simple as a font preference.
If you’re able to pre-think their expectations before sending in your first deliverable, you’ll be sure to “wow” your leader/manager.
6. Never start anything from scratch
Consulting is an industry with multiple years of history. There have been decades of successful consultants in the past, who will inevitably have created whatever document you’ve been asked to create. Look through your company resources page, or ask a peer who are one or two years ahead of you for an example of the document, and in 95% of cases, you’ll be able to leverage what you find to save at least 50% of the effort. Never, ever, start anything from scratch.
As a special note, I want to mention that deck skills are king in the world of consulting. You’ll get a decent exposure to a variety of Microsoft Suite products, but I’d say PowerPoint presentations are the most ubiquitous of them all; presentation decks gives us a powerful platform to communicate our value propositions and recommendations with our clients. As a cherry on top, this skillset is immensely valuable and marketable in industries beyond consulting.
Knowing how to present information in a concise, understandable, and engaging way takes a lot of trial and error and experience, but your first year as an analyst will give you plenty of exposure in this skillset. When someone asks for help on a deck, don’t take it lightly — take it as a chance to improve this important skillset, so that you can “wow” any type of audience. Save all decks that you particularly enjoy, and use them as a template when you’re working on future slides.
There is always a way to mold the required information to fit a template, and having a depository of preferred templates will not only help you in finding your own “deck style,” but also save you valuable time for time-sensitive requests.
7. Understand the path to career advancement and get involved strategically
Finally, the biggest tip I can give to new/ prospective Consulting analysts is to choose tasks wisely. There is always an abundance of work to be done, and never enough people. After a few months of trying different tasks/ roles out, understand what tasks will help you advance in your career, and help you develop as an employee.
Some of these tasks may be more challenging than others, but if they can help you grow professionally, take the challenge, and figure it out.
I’ve had to Google/YouTube/ Udemy multiple skillsets required to complete a task, but I always thought of these experiences as ways to invest in myself.
Taking on challenging tasks that will add to my personal brand (Note: point #2) helped me stand out as an analyst because others were able to recognize my willingness to learn and grow despite the heavier time commitment. | https://medium.com/the-post-grad-survival-guide/7-tips-to-become-a-great-consulting-analyst-1155a3b6b26f | ['Jackie Kim'] | 2020-09-17 14:39:08.479000+00:00 | ['Careers', 'Work', 'Recruiting', 'Consulting', 'Post Grad Life'] |
Communism | While nationalism was still young in South East Asia, Communism had entered the political arena as a third contestant, almost immediately after the Russian Revolution. Often it took sides with nationalist forces, partly out of its evident anti-colonial character, and largely to exploit the powerful urge of freedom for its own ideological benefits. But it did not hesitate to ally itself with colonial or reactionary forces, if Party considerations so demanded. It acted, as is well-known, not in the interests of the nation concerned but of International Communism. Asian Nationalism was to be the vehicle of Communism, for it was Lenin’s opinion that the victory of Communism in the West could be speeded up by nationalist revolutions in the territories which were then dependent on the European powers. He therefore suggested that the communist movements should unite with the nationalist movements for independence in their respective countries. (Nationalism and Communism in South-East Asia. A Brief Survey Author(s): D. P. Singhal Source: Journal of Southeast Asian History, Vol. 3, №1 (Mar., 1962), pp. 56–66) (Damien) | https://medium.com/glossary-of-southeast-asian-art/communism-a886cba840d6 | ['Elaine Ee'] | 2017-04-28 07:44:23.743000+00:00 | ['History', 'Islam'] |
FABcoin to be Listed on OKEx, World’s Leading Digital Asset Exchange | The FAB Foundation’s FABcoin has just been announced as a winner of OKEx listing competition.
The listing competition allows fans of cryptocurrency and OKEx exchange users to use tickets to vote for the next currencies that the major digital asset exchange will list on their platform for buying, trading and storing. Over 22 cryptocurrencies competed with the top 3 winning listing.
FABcoin ended the three day vote on June 22, 2018 with over 482,751,168 tickets, an incredibly large haul. Voters purchased OKB tickets and used them to vote; voters could use several tickets.
The FAB Foundation
Implications
The winning of the listing has many positive implications for both FABcoin and the Fast Access Blockchain.
Popularity
With over $1 billion USD worth of daily trading volume, OKEx has one of the largest trading bases of any exchange. FABcoins listing on OKEx will bring a large increase in the amount of new enthusiasts finding and becoming interested in the project.
Community expansion is integral to the health of any blockchain project. A larger community creates a larger mining base, preventing centralization of mining. A larger community keeps the coin price steady and provides transactions for miners to confirm, resulting in worthwhile block rewards. Community expansion also brings more developers into the fold to build development applications (Dapps) that the community would want to use on the FAB platform.
Additionally, newcomers to the FAB community will want to hold the coin. This could have the potential to affect the price of FABcoin in a positive way, something that has been seen with listing of other currencies after listing competitions.
Accessibility
Being one of the largest exchanges, it is more likely that many supporters of FAB’s project already have OKEx accounts. This makes it more accessible for interested parties to buy FABcoin from a more established exchange. OKEx also has a network of near 100 smaller exchanges that will pick up FABcoin after it is listed on the platform, opening up the coin to new markets and user bases.
Furthermore, when one large exchange picks up a popular cryptocurrency, others tend to follow suit.
Visibility
Being listed on a page of a major exchange brings visibility. Visibility of FAB is important in driving PR and mainstream noise about our project. Ultimately, a goal of our project is to spread blockchain knowledge; this feat puts us closer to mainstream viewership to expand the blockchain community as a whole.
Major Backing
During the listing competition, FAB was backed to be chosen by 4 large trading conglomerates in the OKEx ecosystem called Prime Investors. Prime Investors have special privileges within the OKEx ecosystem and their backing lends legitimacy to the value of coins and projects. This backing helps establish FABcoin as a viable cryptocurrency for many traders. | https://medium.com/fast-access-blockchain/fabcoin-to-be-listed-on-okex-worlds-leading-digital-asset-exchange-1f9316a41c81 | ['Fab Info'] | 2018-07-05 15:28:30.405000+00:00 | ['Trading', 'Partnerships', 'Exchange', 'Blockchain', 'Decentralization'] |
アドベントカレンダー 12/25 | 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/furuhashilab/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%89%E3%83%99%E3%83%B3%E3%83%88%E3%82%AB%E3%83%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%83%BC-12-25-9fcdb652690b | [] | 2020-12-25 01:48:44.680000+00:00 | ['Drones', 'Shooting Tips'] |
「幸せで成功している人」は、好きなことを仕事にしているだけではなく、自分の仕事に心を奪われている | in In Fitness And In Health | https://medium.com/let-s-work-enjoing/%E5%B9%B8%E3%81%9B%E3%81%A7%E6%88%90%E5%8A%9F%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%82%8B%E4%BA%BA-%E3%81%AF-%E5%A5%BD%E3%81%8D%E3%81%AA%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%82%92%E4%BB%95%E4%BA%8B%E3%81%AB%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%82%8B%E3%81%A0%E3%81%91%E3%81%A7%E3%81%AF%E3%81%AA%E3%81%8F-%E8%87%AA%E5%88%86%E3%81%AE%E4%BB%95%E4%BA%8B%E3%81%AB%E5%BF%83%E3%82%92%E5%A5%AA%E3%82%8F%E3%82%8C%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%82%8B-a74edbbd80c4 | ['プロブロガーのタクスズキ'] | 2016-04-26 11:58:15.094000+00:00 | ['Short Story', 'Japanese', 'Medium Japan'] |
Trigger Warnings Are Not About Victimising | Trigger Warnings Are Not About Victimising
The point of acknowledging oppression is to empower the oppressed.
Photo by Kasturi Laxmi Mohit on Unsplash
Ironically, the very notion of trigger warnings triggers a lot of people.
“You can’t say anything any more,” they say.
“Bunch of crybabies,” they sob.
These people badly miss the point: the fact that putting trigger warnings allows us to read and write about more things, things that couldn’t be said or read before.
Trauma has always existed. Trauma created by the violence of an unequal society has always existed. It doesn’t always have to though. To change things, we need to fight systemic inequalities. We need to empower those that are oppressed. The way to do that, clearly, is not to leave them to deal with their trauma, whilst reinforcing it every way that we can.
The purpose of trigger warnings is not to coddle those that might need forewarning about difficult topics because of their own life experience. Nor is to suggest that they are weak. The point is to not add violence on top of violence. It is to acknowledge that things are harder for those that suffer from oppression, and thereby recognise their strength and the challenges that they are dealing with, have to deal with and have dealt with.
Trigger warnings are not about treating people as though they were weak, they are about doing what we can to make them strong in a world that does not want them to be.
This is not limited to trigger warnings — there are many times when the fight against oppression is countered by people saying that the movement itself is victimising the oppressed by suggesting they need uplifting. There is a valid concern behind this — the oppressed have long been infantilised. In the case of women, the damsel in distress trope dies hard.
But when we don’t recognise the challenges the oppressed face, they blame themselves for issues that are far larger than them. And guilt is not an efficient emotion. It doesn’t lift people up. It does not empower. It promotes self-loathing and lethargy.
It’s a cliché-d saying: You need to know the rules to break them, but it is certainly true when it comes to oppression. Once you have understood the mechanisms leading to your own behaviours and the way people interact with you, only then can you start acting to make a change. Only then can you stop blaming yourself, or feeling that such outcomes are inevitable. | https://starkraving.medium.com/trigger-warnings-are-not-about-victimising-15ab5d31e889 | ['Stark Raving'] | 2019-07-12 09:36:54.332000+00:00 | ['Political Correctness', 'Feminism', 'Mental Health', 'Equality', 'Activism'] |
25 Thoughts I Had While Giving a Hand Job | first of her name. writer of nonsense. queen of drinking wine. creator of thedirtygirlsguide.com
Follow | https://medium.com/sex-and-satire/25-thoughts-i-had-while-giving-a-hand-job-8c6d9a656014 | ['Ms. Part Time Wino'] | 2020-08-03 07:10:44.314000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Sex', 'Dating Advice', 'Dating', 'Satire'] |
5 beautiful Low Saxon idioms to use in your daily life | Dogs are man’s best friend. They have inspired many beautiful expressions in Low Saxon.
With six million speakers spread across the rural parts of the north of Germany and the northeast and east of the Netherlands, Low Saxon is one of the biggest minoritised languages of Europe. Often dubbed the love child of Dutch and German, Low Saxon is very much a language in its own right. Its ancestor Old Saxon even provided the basis for the language you’re currently reading. It has preserved a unique grammar, feel, and beautiful expressions inspired by nature.
Here are five Low Saxon idioms that should be staple expressions in English:
1. You can’t yawn against a horse
(Teagen en paerd kün y neet gapen)
Meaning: there’s no arguing with stupid/stubborn people
Ever seen a horse yawn? You’ll never stretch your gob as wide as them. But you’ll look just as stupid for trying. It’s like arguing on the internet.
Photo: rihaij/pixabay.com
2. Their nest has fallen from the tree
(See hebbet et nöst under den boum)
Meaning: They have split up
This sadly beautiful Low Saxon expression is used when couples decide to split up. It evokes the image of two birds in a tree, carefully building a feeble nest somewhere between the branches. They’ve got a lot to look forward to. But the few loosely entwined twigs of the nest can hardly withstand the forces of nature. A storm of life may wreak havoc. Or maybe one of the birds sits down on an edge and tips the nest. The nest falls down the tree, the eggs break, the lovebirds’ hopes and dreams are shattered.
An abandoned nest. (photo: Free-Photos/Pixabay.com)
3. There’s sniffing around our door
(Wy hebbet snuverye üm de döäre)
Meaning: Your teenage child begins to attract the attention of the other sex
As a parent, you’ll know this moment will undoubtedly come one day. In the Netherlands, it is often characterised by youngsters on bikes hanging around the house, being a little too loud with their breaking voices while doing reckless bike tricks in the street. Your daughter acts as if she doesn’t notice, but she’s becoming more secretive and will slip away if she has the chance. But if you mention it, she’ll respond with ‘Ughhh, daaad/moommm!’
The image here is when a female dog is in heat, she will spread a scent to let all male dogs in the neighbourhood know. When given half a chance, those will come round the house, sniffing everywhere your dog has been. They will do everything in their power to get near your dog.
4. He won’t catch hares anymore
(Den vangt ginnen hasen meyr)
Meaning: he’s aged and become slow
Often said when we see elderly people shuffling down the street going about their daily business, but especially when we’ve known them in better days.
The image here is that of young dogs in a field. Some are so fast, they can outrace hares. If they spot one, nature takes over, and there’s no stopping them. We see their muscles and tendons flex in their raw and wild dash, and it’s a mighty sight to behold.
When a dog ages, it still has the urge to chase hares but has become too stiff and slow. Of course, it’ll try its best and put in all its might, and we wish it luck, but the hare will get away.
5. If a farmer can’t swim, it’s the water’s fault
(As nen buur neet kan swemmen, dan ligt et an et water)
Meaning: some people will always find lame excuses
Low Saxon expressions fully reflect local culture. Nowadays, most Dutch people have had swimming classes as they are mandatory. But in the old days, many people couldn’t swim.
The image here is of a stereotypical, proverbial farmer who is convinced he’s always right and never does anything wrong. So if something does go wrong, it can’t be because of him. So when your proverbial farmer would be asked for a plunge and he can’t swim, he’ll find a way to blame it on the water and hopefully save face. | https://medium.com/@martinterdenge/5-beautiful-low-saxon-idioms-to-use-in-your-daily-life-2e81e76e6d17 | ['Matn Ter Denge'] | 2020-12-20 13:43:57.169000+00:00 | ['Language', 'Germany', 'Netherlands', 'Twents', 'Low Saxon'] |
What Makes EVs The Right Choice For Future Mobility ? | What Makes EVs The Right Choice For Future Mobility ?
Electric vehicles promise zero tailpipe emissions and a reduction in air pollution in cities. The Indian government has created momentum through its Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles schemes that encourage, and in some segments mandates the adoption of electric vehicles (EV), with a goal of reaching 30% EV penetration by 2030. The scheme creates demand incentives for EV and urges the deployment of charging technologies and stations in urban centers. If these aims are realized by 2030, they will generate an estimated saving of up to 474 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) and 846 million tonnes of net CO2 emissions over their lifetime. To scale the deployment of EVs, state government and local transport authorities are critical. To complement this central government thrust, 10 states and union territories have published draft or final policies aligned with the economic and demographic realities of each region.
The central government wants to reduce the import of crude oil significantly and thus help curb increasing levels of pollution. India has 22 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities. NITI Aayog, the government think tank tasked with devising a mass electric energy-based transport system in India, has devised a plan to stop the registration of internal combustion engine (ICE)-driven three-wheelers by 2023 and two-wheelers under 150cc by 2025. The central government has approved an outlay of ₹10,000 crores for three years till 2022 to subsidize electric vehicles and drive the adoption of electric mobility in the country. The central government initially wanted to stop the registration of electric vehicles by 2030, but later decided to put it on the back burner. Similarly, the central government didn’t want to offer subsidies to hybrid vehicles but then changed its stand following intense lobbying by Japanese vehicle manufacturers.
Various fiscal demand incentives have been put in place to spur the production and consumption of EVs and charging infrastructure — such as income tax rebates of up to INR 150,000 for customers on interest paid on loans to buy EVs. To scale the production of lithium-ion cell batteries, there will be an exemption from customs duties to bring down their cost. Assuming the appropriate infrastructure is in place, 90% of car owners in India are willing to switch to EVs, according to a survey by the Economic Times in May 2019. At present, however, EV market penetration is only 1% of total vehicle sales in India, and of that, 95% of sales are electric two-wheelers.
Moving differently but together
Bringing transportation decisions closer to the people is understandable and necessary. Transport challenges such as congestion, affordability, infrastructure, and transit systems availability are localized issues. Consumer preference for more expensive EV would highly depend on citizens’ income levels. Since investment in local research and development is necessary to bring prices down, it makes sense to leverage local universities and existing industrial hubs.
The automotive industry players and charging infrastructure, batteries, and mobility service providers have taken various actions to ramp up industry action. Companies are designing and testing products suitable for the Indian market with a key focus on two-wheelers and three-wheelers. Head over to www.kabiramobility.com to choose the best electric scooter for your daily needs. If you found this article useful, do share it with your friends and family. | https://medium.com/kabira-mobility/what-makes-electric-vehicles-the-right-choice-for-future-mobility-bd08e36d31f2 | ['Alieza Fernandes'] | 2020-06-24 09:19:11.710000+00:00 | ['Mobility', 'Electric Vehicles', 'Electric Scooters', 'Electric Bike', 'Ev'] |
Omicron variant surge | 4,000 flights cancelled worldwide with South Africa ending contact tracing with the exception of prison clusters/outbreaks, where most of the population has been exposed to the virus variant. The variant is known to spread 4 times faster than the Delta variant. The variant neutralizes antibodies, implying even vaccinated citizens can be carriers, yet this does not examine the vaccine effectiveness, and a booster jab will still improve immune response.
Identification of Omicron variant:
- PCR test (Tests for the 3 covid genes: spike [S], nucleocapsid [N2], outer shell [E])
- Genomic sequencing for siting presence in a country.
- LFT (Lateral flow Tests)
Comparison of Omicron variant to Delta variant:
- Increase in transmissibility
- Increase in hostility
- Decrease in effectiveness from public health services (vaccines)
JohnHopkins medicine reinstated the hope for an overruling vaccine for all variants, “When the evidence is strong enough that a viral genetic change is causing a change in the behavior of the virus, we gain new insight regarding how this virus works. The virus seems to have some limitations in its evolution — the advantageous mutations are drawn from a relatively limited menu — so there is some hope that we might not see variants that fully escape our vaccines.”
Australia Omicron variant — reaching 90% vaccination population target, yet Omicron variant averages to 25,000 / day. PCR tests are limited.
Reliance on lateral flow tests caused tension on pricing, being $30 for one RAT (rapid antigen test), in comparison to being $1–2 in Europe.
Hong Kong covid-tests have impeded mandatory lockdowns or lengthy stays in hospitals, with some of no knowledge when they will be released. Hong Kong records 12,600 cases, its 0-covid approach (strict lockdowns, closed borders, extensive testing with quarantine mandates) | https://medium.com/@report.just.now/omicron-variant-surge-1299b206fde2 | ['Emma Mohammad'] | 2022-01-05 04:22:00.893000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Delta', 'South Africa', 'Omicron', 'Variants Of Concern'] |
Dell Inspiron 3558 — A review. A fresh take on a ponderous yet trusty… | Every now and then, a consumer electronics company releases a product the public calls a flagship: the product that is considered the premium, most expensive and tricked out product the company has to offer. But obscurely sliding down the manufacturing lines and shop shelves are those that cater to a series of people that need a good device, but aren’t willing to sell their kidneys to get it. These, in the case of notebooks, are what can perform necessary daily tasks with ease but begin to struggle with more power intensive activities. The Inspiron 3558 is one such device which offers more bang-for-the-buck than others, as will be explored beneath.
Build quality
This notebook is not a stylish device. It seems a bit rugged, and yet there is an element to the design that gives it a slightly more premium look and feel than other notebooks at the same price point. The huge plastic chassis houses a large screen panel and a roomy keyboard. It is quite heavy, almost 7 pounds, but is still comfortable on the lap. Despite it being a desktop-replacement notebook, it still feels considerably large by everyday standards, with tiny ultra-thin and light laptops like the MacBook and the Spectre gaining popularity. There are, of course, a few other quibbles with the notebook’s build: the bezel is uncomfortably sizeable and not up to the mark in today’s world with exemplars like the company’s own Infinity Display. Additionally, there exists a fair amount of flex on the back chassis, rather off-putting for a large and ponderous notebook. But overall, it is an iconic Inspiron design with nothing to complain about.
Display, Audio and Camera
If there’s one thing in this notebook that remains a huge gripe for most users, it’s the decidedly pedestrian display. It’s a TrueLife HD 1366x768 15.6 inch non-touch display panel, evidently not as sharp as it should be: a 15-inch screen should not have to keep up with this kind of resolution any more. In fact, tilt it a bit backward and the individual pixels are quite discernible without much difficulty. The viewing angles are particularly horrendous, evinced by the nearly “invert-colours”-esque scenario that plays out with a slight change in angle. To add to the issue, the screen brightness is abysmal, even eliciting severe strain on the eyes indoors at full brightness. To cut it some slack, however, it does possess the forever-despised Intel integrated graphics, and notwithstanding the pathetic display, the graphics themselves can be attributed to the incompetence of the graphics card.
Another major setback of what would otherwise been a good budget device is the audio. The microphone undergoes a fair level of lag, but the overarching point of vexation is the speakers. The sound is neither clear nor loud. The fact that the speakers are underneath the keyboard deck only exacerbates the issue, and as such, it is quite difficult to hear it even at 70 or 80 percent volume. What perplexes me as a user the most is that considering its bulky frame, Dell would have a higher volume in which to include better speakers. Even the much smaller MacBooks and a certain HP Pavilion convertible (which is still mediocre in every other way) have outstanding audio, a testimony to the fact that the provision for good speakers should ideally be indepent of the price point. It’s definitely a disappointment.
Finally, the camera is decent, but is terrible in low-light. It is a 720p shooter, and it takes good pictures overall. It should be fine for some light Skyping.
Keyboard and trackpad
Compensating quite well for the inconveniences in other aspects, these are the best features in this notebook by far. Dell makes some really good keyboards, and the one here is one of the best on the market. It’s a spacious keyboard with lots of travel, and it is comfy enough to maintain your typing speed even on your lap or in a moving car. The keys are quite flexible, and they are apparently spill-resistant, so a drop of coffee or orange juice on the key shouldn’t cause the notebook to malfunction. The power key is placed well out of reach of the backspace key, a thankful addition to the design (perhaps this is only that important for me and my oversized hands), and overall, you’re going to enjoy this keyboard quite a lot. One minor setback is the lack of backlighting, but if you don’t type much without light, this shouldn’t be a problem.
The trackpad is also excellent. It can’t match up with those on the new MacBooks, but it comes quite close to the company’s own XPS and the HP Spectre line. It isn’t very large, but it is responsive and comfortable.
Ports
A huge notebook like this offers much room for ports, and this one is no exception. Dell has generously fitted this one with two USB-2 ports, one USB-3, one HDMI, an audio jack, an optical drive (a rare thing in today’s slim notebooks) a LAN port, and an SDXC card slot. In fact, it even offers a Kensington lock-slot. So if you plug in a lot, this is the one to get.
Performance
This is where things start to get a little dicey. The Inspiron I have is powered by a fifth-generation Intel Core i3–5005U processor running at 2.00 GHz, 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 512 GB 5400-rpm HDD.
Technically, they aren’t too bad, but freezes are quite common and opening even the simplest of applications like Word and Chrome takes ten seconds at the minimum. Editing video is far from intrinsically difficult on this machine, although rendering a ten-minute 4K filmstrip on Wondershare Filmora took almost two and a half hours. Some light work in the way of word and spreadsheet processing and YouTube slash Netflix consumption can be handled, but you edit video and photo a lot or are into programming heavy blocks of code, you would find yourself getting exasperated quite often.
Battery life is below average, rarely crossing 5 ½ hours on a single charge. It does charge quite fast, though.
Summary
Despite its flaws, the Dell Inspiron 3558 is a laptop that is faster than almost all others at this price point. If you’re willing to sacrifice portability for a better value, then go for it. If you’re willing to live with the display and the speakers, then it’s most likely going to be okay for you. But if you’re a power user who likes all the components to be the best, then don’t get it. All in all, it’s a good purchase, if you aren’t eyeing a premium notebook with a premium price.
The Inspiron 3558 (picture taken by author)
Note: This article was written a while ago and the model, while currently available, is difficult to find on the market. | https://medium.com/@shreyas.knv/dell-inspiron-3558-a-review-e7729b29fdb2 | ['Shreyas Kuchibhotla'] | 2020-04-22 04:39:17.774000+00:00 | ['Windows', 'Laptop', 'Tech', 'Dell', 'Inspiron'] |
3 Strategies Local Businesses Can Use To Get MASSIVE Results With Facebook Advertising | All local businesses want the same thing — increased revenue. This means you want more customers. To get more customers, you need more word of mouth marketing and market exposure. To get more word of mouth marketing and more exposure you either pull on the bootstraps and cross your fingers OR hire an agency.
For B2C businesses the simple formula is this:
More exposure/Word Of Mouth = More customers = More Revenue.
For local B2B (ex: Contractors) it’s more like this:
More exposure / WOM = More Leads = More Customers = More Revenue
The value we bring as an agency is coming up with the ideas for getting more exposure and WOM and the execution strategies to get it done.
Here’s what you need to know if you DON’T hire an agency:
You must know your niche, become an expert in the niche you are marketing too.
2. You must focus on marketing that helps get the results you want — more exposure, more WOM, and more customers — and you need to be able to show how that is tied directly to your efforts.
3. You must create a digital marketing plan for you and your team — most local business owners have never had a marketing plan.
4. You must become an expert on local social media marketing strategies — Google for business, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and local directories (yelp, manta, etc.) and mobile text marketing.
5. You must become, at least, a specialist (not an expert) in Facebook marketing and advertising strategies.
Here are the types of ads you can run to get more customers in your door:
Types of Facebook Ads
• Like Ads — Instead of encouraging a user to move away from Facebook, these ads directly influence the user to like the business page.
• Photo Based / Engagement Ads — Facebook posts that use images receive more engagement in the form of likes, shares and comments. Engagement positively influences organic, spreading the message to consumers who are not already fans.
• Giveaways / Contests — Will create the most engagement and these type of posts tend to spread more virally as well.
• Video Ads — Facebook posts that use video are being reported to get more organic and paid engagement for the advertising dollar.
• Link Page Ads — Link page posts use a call to action such as a discount offer to drive Facebook users to the website or offer landing page.
All ads can be targeted — Facebook allows you, even on a local level, to target a specific demographic or psychographic in the market (i.e. age, income level, employees at a company, craft beer drinkers, organic food lovers, wine lovers, mom’s of grade school kids, etc. — in approximately to the client’s local area). You can even run a Facebook ad campaign for dog lovers if you’re in pet products/services.
3 Strategies to Connect Facebook Advertising to In-store Sales (ROI)
1. Use Facebook Offers for tractable deals — This is a way to integrate a discount offer directly into a Facebook post and then track the usage of that offer over time.
Offer ads are shown to users, who can then click the “Get Offer” button to claim it. Facebook users then have the option to share the offers they like the most with their friends, which means we can reach more people. These offer ads can be targeted toward specific groups, just like any other Facebook ad.
2. Track actions to your website — It’s possible to track any measurable actions on your website based on traffic driven from a Facebook ad unit. These can include when consumers download a menu, schedule a reservation, buy a gift card or sign up for your email list among many others. By setting up a Facebook conversion tracking pixel, we can create a unique JavaScript code to place on a thank you or conversion page of our website.
3. Use Email Marketing Offers, Coupon Codes or Password Marketing to compare channels we can use multiple codes (i.e. for the same 20 percent off coupon), with each code specifically attached to Facebook, email or text marketing. Then, as the coupon codes are redeemed, we can analyze results and optimize in real time. Gives us the ability to directly compare the effectiveness of different advertising options against each other.
You’ve made it this far through the article, you might as well follow me for more content.
This article was originally posted here | https://medium.com/steller-media-marketing/3-strategies-local-businesses-can-use-to-get-massive-results-with-facebook-advertising-6ac4082c2269 | ['Darrell Tyler'] | 2017-08-09 20:13:36.972000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Social Media Marketing', 'Local Business', 'Facebook Ads', 'Event Planning'] |
The Coronavirus Effect on the Stock Market | In these initial months of 2020 the world is facing one of the biggest threats of recent history: a new coronavirus is spreading all over the globe, with the potential of becoming pandemic.
When it comes to a plague, the main thing to worry about is health and for all the information about COVID-19 my advice is to follow the WHO website, which contains the most up-to-date and reliable information about this new disease.
Another scary aspect, though, is the effect that the Coronavirus outbreak will have on the world’s economy: many analysts believe that the contagion could have serious negative fallbacks (even in the long term).
In this article I focused on the economic side of the problem: what is the effect that COVID-19 is having on the stock market? What are the events that have been perceived as the most important by the investors? What’s the role of Media? Let’s have a look at the big picture through a few charts.
The Data
The Coronavirus outbreak is an evolving situation: every 5 minutes there’s a news that helps to better define the problem and it’s very hard to stay on top of it. The whole matter, though, has been punctuated by various events. I have found this page that reports (and updates) the main facts since the beginning of the contagion; from that list I‘ve selected those elements that I’ve considered the most important for my analysis:
2019-12-31 => "First cases detected in China"
2020-01-01 => "Wuhan market identified as outbreak hub"
2020-01-03 => "Passengers screened at Wuhan Airport"
2020-01-06 => "SARS, MERS and bird flu ruled out"
2020-01-07 => "Virus identified as coronavirus 2019n-CoV"
2020-01-09 => "Coronavirus genome sequence released"
2020-01-11 => "First coronavirus death reported"
2020-01-15 => "First confirmed coronavirus case in Japan"2020-01-2020-01-17 => "US has initiated screening of passengers arriving from Wuhan"
2020-01-20 => "Safety measures at major international airports"
2020-01-21 => "US confirms first coronavirus case"
2020-01-22 => "WHO hold on declaring international health emergency"
2020-01-23 => "China implements travel bans"
2020-01-24 => "Starts building temporary hospital"
2020-01-26 => "WHO changes risk to 'high'"
2020-01-30 => "Russia closes 2,700 mile border"
2020-01-31 => "WHO declares global emergency"
2020-02-05 => "Japan confirms ten cases on cruise"
2020-02-09 => "COVID-19 overtakes SARS"
2020-02-12 => "Japan cruise cases increase to 174"
2020-02-13 => "Japan reports first COVID-19 death"
2020-02-19 => "New recoveries exceed new infections"
2020-02-21 => "Italy confirms fourth case"
2020-02-22 => "Italy reports one death"
2020-02-23 => "Italy records cases surge"
2020-02-27 => "Cases and deaths in Italy rise"
2020-02-28 => "WHO raises global outbreak risk to 'Very High'"
2020-02-29 => "The US reports first death"
2020-03-02 => "Deaths cross 3,000 globally, confirmed cases cross 89,000"
In terms of “what” to analyze, I have pulled several stock indices: S&P 500 (US), FTSE MIB (Italy), NIKKEI (Japan), SSE 50 (Shanghai), KOSPI (South Korea), STOXX50E (Eurozone), with the idea of observing how different markets reacted at the various events. Additional interesting data that I’ve pulled in my analysis is the VIX index, a popular measure of the stock market’s expectation of volatility based on S&P 500 index options. All of these information are coming from Yahoo Finance (Il Sole 24 Ore for the FTSE MIB dataset).
Another useful set of information is coming from the COVID-19 dataset that shows confirmed cases, deaths and recoveries for each day and for each country. I downloaded the Kaggle version.
Finally, I wanted to look at the effect of Media on this crisis. Unfortunately there was no easy way to access the latest news from all over the world, so I needed to collect the data myself. I ended up gathering the information from reddit.com, more precisely from the World News subreddit. I took the submissions titles (from the beginning of January 2019 through 6th March 2020) and checked whether they were talking about Coronavirus; I am conscious that this is a weak proxy for “how much Media are talking about it”, but it was the best that I could do. To collect the Reddit data, I used the pushshift.io APIs and the dataset is available at the link: https://gofile.io/?c=AW4NiM.
Main Events of the Outbreak for the Markets | https://towardsdatascience.com/the-coronavirus-effect-on-the-stock-market-b7a4739406e8 | ['Andrea Ialenti'] | 2020-12-05 19:00:11.794000+00:00 | ['Economics', 'Data', 'Time Series Analysis', 'Data Science', 'News'] |
8 Places Where You Can Work For Free In London | Whether you’re fully funded, a boot-strapper or a hustler on the side, free places to work are always useful to know. Below is a list of some of our favourite — hopefully we’ll see you around soon!
Mae J’s, Peckham
A black-owned cafe situated inside Peckham Palms, Mae J’s is a warm & cosy space with reasonably priced drinks & snacks (and a well-stocked bar for later!) Connect to the wifi and enjoy the vibe.
peckhampalms.com
Southbank Centre, Waterloo
Free, big and centrally located, the Southbank Centre is a great place to pitch up with your laptop. But be warned, sockets are sparse and the wifi strength can be questionable so arrive fully-charged and with the knowledge that you might be limited to your emails. Not every piece of work needs internet connection though!
southbankcentre.co.uk
Barbican Centre, Barbican
Spread across multiple floors, the Barbican Centre offers free workspace in the form of tables, chairs & sofas for anyone who wanders in. With a Benugo on hand for coffee and wifi on deck for emails, you can settle in for the day while watching the comings and goings of the building. Plus, there’s a stunning Conservatory on the 3rd floor (free entry) if you want to mix it up with a bit of nature.
barbican.org.uk
Google Campus, Old Street
A few minutes’ walk from Old Street, the downstairs cafe of Google Campus is a well-known haunt of entrepreneurs. Sign up for a free membership and arrive early to ensure you can get a space as it fills up quickly. A bonus is that you can use it as an opportunity to get to know your fellow entrepreneurs, attend events and make the most of the knowledge and resources housed in a Google-owned venue.
campuslondon.com
British Library, King’s Cross
Libraries are often slept on as a great place to work for free. The British Library in particular is well-worth a visit, especially as they have an entire department dedicated to small business.
bl.uk
Citizen M, Tower Hill & Shoreditch
A Shoreditch-based hotel chain, they provide a safe haven for entrepreneurs needing to keep costs low as they work.
citizenm.com
Ace Hotel, Shoreditch
A staunch favourite of the East London start-up scene, the lobby of the Ace Hotel is a great place to work, especially if you’re the type to be inspired by being surrounded by like-minded folks. Buzzy but workable, it can be a bit dark towards the back of the building but light & airy if you arrive in time to grab the seats by the windows.
acehotel.com
Hanbury Hall, Shoreditch
Situated in Shoreditch — the heart of London’s start up scene — Hanbury Hall is known for its welcoming atmosphere and friendly nature. Head into the street-side cafe for coffee, lunch and most importantly, free wifi.
spitalfieldsvenue.org/food-drink/ | https://medium.com/@ukjamii/8-places-where-you-can-work-for-free-in-london-81934a979620 | [] | 2020-02-18 16:54:45.787000+00:00 | ['London', 'Coworking', 'Freelancing', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Founder Advice'] |
10 Books and Courses for Getting Into Data Science | 1. Python — Programming
Books
Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, by Al Sweigart
To have a solid and strong foundation in Python, I recommend this book:
Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, by Al Sweigart.
It not only teaches you the basic and essential content in Python, such as the difference between functional and object-oriented programming, but also other topics that are very interesting and necessary.
- Dealing with regular expressions
- Debugging
- Web scraping
- Work with Excel and Google Sheets, PDF, Word documents, CSV files and JSON data
- Keeping Time, Scheduling Tasks, and Launching Programs
- Send emails and much more.
The reason why I like Al Sweigart’s book is that you can start your own small projects right after, which are also very useful.
Analyzing PDF or Work documents for certain keywords, as well as your own emails.
Extract relevant data from different websites to perform various calculations and make automated decisions.
Thanks to this book, I have been able to perform several small, important tasks for my previous employers.
Courses
Udemy Course for his book
Al Sweigart has published a Udemy Course for his book, which he tries to summarize in about 10 hours. Look at the ratings and you will see that the course is very popular.
He also has a YouTube — Channel where he presents some of the content from the book.
2. Mathematics and Statistics
Books
Unfortunately I cannot give you a book recommendation on this topic.
In my case, I studied computer science and economics and so I got my mathematical background.
Nevertheless, I would not like to leave this point just like that.
When it comes to mathematics in Machine Learning, often calculus, linear algebra and statistics, stochastics is recommended.
In my opinion, some topics are still missing, like numerics, graph theory, discrete mathematics and linear optimization.
Of course, you are good with the first four topics, but the last topics will give you the last reed.
Courses
Khan Academy
Khan Academy is still unbeatable when it comes to teaching mathematics.
However, I would like to mention a few others here that might explain various topics a little better and more clearly.
3Blue1Brown
For linear algebra, I recommend the Youtube — Channel of 3Blue1Brown.
You learn through his videos, not only the calculations, but also how to visualize all this.
After his videos you will understand pretty well why eigenvalues and eigenvectors are used for the principal component analysis.
Krista King
Krista King explains some topics in mathematics quite well too.
She offers several courses, which bring you closer to the contents relatively fast and understandable. I would highly recommend her statistics and probability course.
John Starmer
On some topics in stochastics like p-values and distributions.
John Starmer explains these very well and graphically, in his Youtube-Channel.
Mike Cohen
Finally, I recommend the courses from Mike Cohen.
His linear algebra is comparable to the quality of 3Blue1Brown, in my opinion. The only problem is that he uses the MATLAB language,instead of Python, but we are only concerned here with mathematical understanding, not with programming.
He also offers courses in signal processing, fourier transform and some more.
3. NumPy and Pandas
Books
Python for Data Analysis, by Wes MckKinney
Wes MckKinney is the creator of Pandas and published a book about it.
Python for Data Analysis.
The book is really recommendable, because Wes MckKiney goes into this book very precisely and in detail about the characteristics of pandas.
When the creator of the library releases a book about it, it is no longer necessary to say more about why it is good.
Courses
NumPy and Pandas are completed in online courses, always quite fast and on the side.
I think you should pay more attention to these libraries.
Do you know, for example, why is a NumPy array faster than a normal list?
Keith Galli
Keith Galli is a graduate of MIT and has two videos on his YouTube-Channel, where he explains the characteristics of NumPy and Pandas clearly and precisely.
4. Data Visualization
Courses
Jose Portilla
Jose Portilla has in his course, Python for Data Science and Machine Learning Bootcamp, some videos, where he also goes into matplotlib and seaborn.
In his course, he gives a lot of examples on these topics and also some tasks you can do by yourself.
Additionally he shows in some places, where visualization can deceive and which visualization techniques should be used for various problems.
Visualization should not be underestimated in any case. It is an extremely powerful and meaningful tool of a data scientist.
Visualizing comparisons, trends or anomalies not only provides clarity, but also helps people who don’t know anything about data science to understand the problem or issue.
5. Machine Learning and Deep Learning
Books
Actually I would suggest the book Introduction to Statistical Learning, but for many beginners it is too mathematical and a bit daunting.
Data Science from Scratch by Joel Grus
Therefore, for machine learning, I would recommend the book Data Science from Scratch by Joel Grus instead.
Joel Grus is a former software developer of Google and has created a really small masterpiece with this book.
When most people start with machine learning, they get to know the scikit-learn library right from the start and learn the algorithms a bit superficially in my opinion.
Joel Grus starts his book with some other topics in the first chapters, like the programming language Python, statistics, stochastics, linear algebra and data visualization. After that he goes into the topic of machine learning.
Why I recommend this book so much? Every topic that appears in his book, he not only explains the theme in short sentences, but he explains it again by programming it in Python.
On the topic of Deep Learning the book by Tariq Rashid is excellent.
Tariq Rashid is head of the London Python-Meetup group with 3,000 members.
Make Your Own Neural Network by Tariq Rashid
In his book Make Your Own Neural Network he goes from a little story about artificial intelligence to the development of an artificial neural networks.
Already in the first chapter he gives a small but clear example of how and why the error leads to the model being improved.
In his book, as the title suggests, he explains how to program your own artificial neural network with python, step by step.
He explains the mathematical conditions and fineness, incredibly comprehensible and very simple.
I recommend everyone who starts with deep learning to program your first artificial neural network from scratch.
Courses
Here I suggest two courses of Coursera.
Andrew Ng
On the subject of machine learning, I recommend the course of Andrew Ng — Machine Learning, this course is unbeatable in my opinion and whoever deals with data science or the subject of machine learning will inevitably come across him.
deeplearning.ai
For deep learning I advise the course from deeplearning.ai .
One of the lecturers is again Andrew Ng. In this course you learn not only common artificial neural networks, but also convolutional neural networks for image recognition.
If you want to learn the necessary libraries for machine learning, like scikit-learn, tensorflow and keras, I recommend to read the documentation for these libraries or to visit the courses for these libraries on Youtube, Udacity or Udemy.
In my opinion it is first and foremost important to understand the machine learning algorithms and the theory behind them and especially for what purposes you use them.
6. Flask and Flask-RESTful
Courses
This point is rarely or not at all mentioned by others.
In my opinion it is extremely important. Not only to develop a small web application, but also an API that you make available to others.
For example, an already trained API to recognize company logos, or an API that makes predictions based on various data using a machine learning algorithm.
You can make this API available to other programmers in the world, for free or for a fee.
Believe me when I tell you that learning Flask will only benefit you.
Jose Salvatierra
To learn Flask, I recommend the course by Jose Salvatierra.
He will teach you not only how to use Flask, Flask API, but also how to make it safe using JWT.
You will also get an introduction to Git, which is also very important for version control.
7. SQL and NoSQL
Courses
Let us now come to the important, if not the most important area in data science, namely databases and database languages.
It is well known by now that the development of machine learning models does not take as much time as cleaning, structuring, modifying and analyzing data.
While we are on the subject of data science, data is of course the most important thing.
Knowing how to retrieve this data from a database and how to design the queries is incredibly essential.
It is very often the case that in reality you work with impure, inaccurate, unstructured and missing data.
Knowing how to deal with this is an art in itself.
Let’s say you have features that show growth figures or ratios.
And these features have missing or incorrect values in some places.
Simply calculating the median, the mode or the average is not always the best.
In our case, you should rather make the geometric or harmonic mean.
Or you have to deal with nominally scaled data, such as the feature, the favorite fruit of your users.
What do you do if there are values missing? We are not talking about 1 or 2 data sets, where it is not noticeable at all with a large amount of data.
freeCodeCamp.org
For SQL and NoSQL, I recommend the courses from freeCodeCamp.org and Traversy Media on Youtube.
The two videos on the topics are very popular (SQL 5.2 million and NoSQL 1.7 million views). | https://medium.com/swlh/10-books-and-courses-for-getting-into-data-science-c2a081e9d1af | ['Romik Kelesh'] | 2020-11-24 22:56:59.143000+00:00 | ['How To', 'Deep Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science'] |
BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY AND SOLAR PUNKS W/LEON-GERARD VANDENBERG | “What we think Solar Punk is, is this mash up of what Solara is, solar and then this cypher punk cyber punk initiative and so it’s a mash up between this social theme with a technology positivity to it.”
Leon Gerard Vandenberg, Solara Ltd on the Speaking of Crypto podcast
Leon-Gerard Vandenberg
Solara
One of the reasons why the ideology behind bitcoin made so much sense to Leon-Gerard
Leon-Gerard Vandenberg
Vandenberg early on is because he had been creating a payment system that had similar goals behind it, called US Navy Cash. As he put it, “Imagine having the United States Treasury Department as a customer!” Well.. the US Treasury Department wanted thier Navy to have its own currency and to create a payment system that was transparent and resistant to fraud. Sound familiar? That was years before Bitcoin was ever mined. So it makes sense that Leon-Gerard, with that background, would go on to mine Bitcoin himself, and be working with related technology many years later.
Now Leon-Gerard Vandenberg is Chief Technology Officer for Solara, and developing an incredible clean energy blockchain network. He’s developing blockchain technology around solar energy generation and distribution and tokenizing the energy, through SOL tokens, as an asset.
go.solara.io/webinar
We also talk about the goal of financial inclusion and bringing opportunities that go along with creating infrastructure around solar energy to developing areas. By bringing energy as an asset to these areas, the advantage of blockchain tech and its inherent transparency and immutability, will come with it, so that political and financial fraud can be eliminated along the way.
Solar is the cheapest way to make energy, so is it possible to democratize wealth through creating digital villages?
go.solara.io/SolaraDigitalVillage
He mentions that there are trillions of dollars of bonds allocated by the World Bank and the United Nations in a green climate fund to assist in aid for infrastructure in developing countries.
GreenClimate.Fund
Leon-Gerard mentions his work with Fuzo building a working system on feature phones and smart phones, but that the company just didn’t get the traction to be able to scale.
He talks about ESIMS which can act like solar sensors with a stack of features inside and how that technology can be applied in the cases that he’s referring to.
He mentions Rob Allen, one of the advisors for Solara, who was on the Speaking of Crypto Podcast #011
Recommendations:
Book: Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor’s Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond
By Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar
Naval podcast with Nick Szabo
@Naval (Naval Ravikant) interviewing Nick Szabo for Tim Ferriss
The Tim Ferriss Show Transcripts: Nick Szabo | https://medium.com/speaking-of-crypto/020-blockchain-technology-and-solar-punks-w-leon-gerard-vandenberg-2dc189bbb599 | ['Shannon Grinnell'] | 2018-11-11 20:58:57.876000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Solar Energy', 'Tecnology', 'Cypherpunk'] |
The analysis of Forex markets (6th June) | This article is daily technical analysis from analyst Ray
Yesterday’s U.S. employment figures for May at ADP fell far short of expectations and were the lowest since March 2010. The dollar index hit a nearly three-month low of 96.73, but was followed by a strong U.S. non-manufacturing PMI reading of 56.9 in May, which was followed by market expectations of 55.4, up from 55.5. Among them, the ISM non-manufacturing employment index rose to 58.1 in May, the highest since October 2018, while the dollar index bottomed out and closed above the 97 mark. Short term does not rule out the possibility of bottoming, the lower support in the 200-day line average of 96.55 near the upper pressure in the line of 97.50.
EUR/USD
Evidence of a pick-up in the European economy came yesterday when Eurozone service sector PMI readings were broadly positive. But the Eurozone remains politically volatile and the EU has launched a disciplinary process on Italy’s public debt. Separately, the European central bank holds a policy meeting on Thursday as investors wait to see how concerned policymakers are about signs of slowing growth.
The euro hits a new high of nearly a month and a half of $1.1306 yesterday, helped by the dollar’s retreat, but eventually fell back to trade around $1.1250. The upper 200 average pressure in the vicinity of 1.1370, below the support in the 1.1200 line.
USD/JPY
The 108 line has seemed to be well supported in recent trading sessions, although it broke the 108 line intraday, but New York closed above the 108 line, and the market will not rule out a rebound to the 109 line.
XAU/USD
As the old saying goes, first time got the shot, and the second try declines, third try exhausted. This sentence is well used in the gold price trend, yesterday’s peak hit 1243.98, 1246.71 from the peak of the year is only a step away, but the final fall back to the high, the future does not rule out a retreat to 1300 or even below, really give a person a “an operation fierce as a tiger, but a careful look not change at all” impression. Currently, the upper rail pressure of Bollinger band is around 1320.
USO/USD
U.S. commercial crude stocks excluding strategic reserves rose 6.771 million barrels, or 1.4 percent, to 483.3 million barrels in the week ended May 31, according to the energy information administration. Crude stocks rose to their highest level since July 2017. Overall U.S. oil inventories rose to their highest level since 1990.
New York crude oil continued to fall yesterday, hitting as low as 50.60, one step closer to the 50 mark. Remember yesterday’s article I mentioned that if crude oil prices fall below 50 in the future, we can strategically place multiple orders. The previous low was 42.36 (last Christmas 2018).
The above information is for reference only, not as basis for investors operation in the markets, at your own risks. | https://medium.com/@cptmarketsofficial/the-analysis-of-forex-markets-6th-june-b77648117847 | ['Cpt Markets'] | 2019-06-06 06:31:48.795000+00:00 | ['Trade', 'Analysis', 'Commodity', 'Forex', 'Cpt Market'] |
RadioButton With ChangeNotifier Provider — Flutter | In this article, I will tell you how we can use radio buttons with ChangeNotifier without mixing the UI and business logic.
It’s very crucial to move our business logic out of our UI so that we can easily maintain and unit test our code, but it's pretty hard in flutter because both the UI and business logic are written in one programing language — Dart. So we are going to write all our business logic in the ChangeNotifier provider leaving our UI very lean and clean. (Not gonna use setState())
We are going to create an app that looks like this,
What our App will do
Users can tap any of the radio buttons on the Home screen and the corresponding style will be fetched from our fake-API. Our fake-API will respond with JSON containing the text style format and some other meta-data. We will use the text style from the JSON and render the ‘Hello World’ text on the home screen with it.
The architecture diagram is,
Presentation Layer — This is our UI layer, we will be writing all our UI code here.
Business Layer — All our logic goes into this layer. ChangeNotifier goes here and will make use of the service class to fetch the data.
Data Layer — The service class is used to fetch the data from our Fake REST-API and convert it into a Data Transfer Object(DTO)
Code Structure
To keep it very simple I have only 3 layers, I could’ve separated all the service classes into a service package, since our app is so small and has only one service class I preferred this structure.
This is not a very sophisticated structure, I will write an article about how we can structure our code more granularly.
Let’s start from the Data layer,
Data Layer
First, let’s create our model(DTO) class,
Model Class
I haven’t done many validation checks here, but if you want you can
This is a Data Transfer Object. What is a DTO?
A Data Transfer Object is an object that is used to encapsulate data, and send it from one subsystem of an application to another and has no other logic written in it except serialization logic and deserialization(fromJson() here) logic.(see here)
This class contains some text-style fields like color,fontWeight,fontSize, and some other meta-data like home many people liked the text style.
Service class
In the service layer, we usually make HTTP requests to fetch data(any CRUD operation) from a server or access data in the local database and parse the response from raw data(JSON, XML, etc) to a Data Transfer Object.
To make this article very short, I have made 5 fake JSON responses and stored them in a list.
But this is how we can request data from our REST-API,
Future<TextStyleResponse> fetchTextStyle(int index) async{
Uri uri = Uri.parse("www.myapi.com/styles/$index");
var response = await http.get(uri);
Map<String,dynamic> responseMap = json.decode(response.body);
return TextStyleResponse.fromJson(responseMap);
}
Since we are done with our data layer, let’s move on to our business logic layer | https://medium.com/nerd-for-tech/radiobutton-with-changenotifier-provider-flutter-5a163f8e6bca | ['Saravanan M'] | 2021-07-06 00:25:07.418000+00:00 | ['Flutter', 'Dart', 'Flutter App Development'] |
The Great Pause | “PAUSE” reverberated through my head like a steady drumbeat. Pause, Pause, Pause was all I could hear.
This July, after almost two straight years on chemo, we had seen enough shrinkage to stop treatment for my rare, locally aggressive tumor lovingly named “Ursula”. For an elated two months, my side effects slowly melted away, my energy crept up each day, and the pain in my back subsided.
Yet things started shifting in October. My sports bra was once again too tight, requiring me to shimmy it up in the back. I started feeling different pressure points while lying on my back in yoga. The MRI confirmed what we already knew — Ursula was back from hibernation.
At another emotional juncture, we weighed our treatment options and landed on starting my third chemo protocol, Methotrexate Vinblastine. These weekly infusions require a chest port placement, which terrified me not only for the very visual physical reminder of my illness, but it will leave me with yet another scar on my tattered body. And the practical reason that sleeping on my stomach had become the most comfortable option.
The process of going back on chemo, the loss of social support systems due to COVID, a bottomless calendar of Zoom calls, and the simple intensity of working at a startup — all numbed my body and nibbled at my soul. I remember barely processing the apocalyptic orange day in the Bay Area, glancing out the window a few times between breaths and meeting invites. My world slowed down. Small to-do items felt like sprinting uphill. I felt unable to move forward.
The truth was, this was unfolding over months without me really recognizing. When I started working with my coach in September she asked me “if nothing changed, how would I feel in January?” Suffocated.
For the past 10 years, I’ve been doing the startup grind and loving it. I thrive in ambiguity and love building things from scratch with other talented people. Since 2018, I’ve been helping build Celo, in a role that’s aligned to my purpose and the impact that I want to create.
So I did the trip to the Tanzanian refugee camp, while my hair was falling out in small fistfuls, carrying soup in a thermal mug to keep my calories up.
I traveled to Buenos Aires for the product pilot, while my coworkers tended to my post-op oozing back each day.
I took the stage at Berlin Blockchain Week, riding a Jump bike to the closest backdoor to avoid any additional time on my burning, neuropathic feet.
And there was the 24 hour trip to the Dominican Republic for MIT’s EmTech, where, as they slid the microphone behind my ear on the side stage, I was convinced my wig would slide with it in front of 300 onlookers.
These are just a few moments of putting my head down and pushing through, because we’re building something special. Because it’s my passion and doesn’t feel like work. We launched this year and we’re just getting started. It’s been my favorite job to date.
And in the same exhale, something is grinding inside me. Something is pulling me away. I started rereading Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and this quote jumped off the page.
“The reward for attention is healing.”
Attention = healing…In order to heal the wounds, I need to be present with my body. I started talking to my partner about taking some time off, and the next morning my coach, unprompted, asked me if I’ve thought about taking leave. My coworker astutely pointed out, “your body is telling your mind what to do.”
I’ve been feeling this deep need to just walk. To wonder. To play. To make art. To make music. To have no plans. No checklists. To just be and not “do” anything. As a person who chronicles her goals in a spreadsheet (Vanessa’s Incredible Life 2013-Present), maps them to values and lives life with such intention (albeit a mind-driven, as opposed to heart-driven approach), this was a scary prospect.
Fears came up: about becoming irrelevant, about losing what I’ve built. Yet anytime I was still, the voice was so loud. PAUSE. When I suggested taking leave to our founder, he said “absolutely” without me even finishing my sentence.
On December 1, my leave started. Joy has returned to my eyes. I’m dancing while making breakfast. I got a typewriter, on which I’ve been writing poetry. I’ve been drawing. After 5 years of debating, I finally got a Leica camera, which is the perfect companion on my miles of aimless walking. I nap when I need to. I take music lessons.
This voice now says MAKE ART.
So where do we go from here? I have no idea. To be honest, I feel quite lost and in a cloud of grey. Fatigued, nauseous, hungry, inspired, stuck, curious, creative, emotional — all of the feelings. I cried three times yesterday alone. I guess I’m just present. Just being here, now, for whatever comes up.
I was recently reminded of the Kubler-Ross Grief Cycle, and it was helpful to place myself on a map, currently hovering somewhere between bargaining and depression. This is all part of the nonlinear healing and grief process. Sharing this story brings me closer to acceptance.
On a coaching group call last week, someone reflected that I went from black and darkness to feeling grey; and perhaps light and clarity is around the corner. I hope that to be true. If you’re reading this and relate, I hope the same for you. | https://medium.com/@vslavich/the-great-pause-17adb3d07e7e | ['Vanessa Slavich'] | 2020-12-21 22:49:35.024000+00:00 | ['Covid-19', 'Cancer', 'Startup Lessons', 'Healing', 'Grief'] |
A Space for Innocence | For once I’m going to keep this short and sweet, and those of you who have been reading my essays for years know that this in itself will be difficult.
I’ve been thinking about this message for some time, as I navigated the last 9 months with an array of emotions that ranged from utter rage to an immense appreciation for silver linings. It’s been a roller-coaster.
2020 has been a lot. The pandemic has rocked our day to day sense of normalcy, and beyond Covid-19 there have been many social and political challenges. Our country feels like it’s reaching a fever pitch. Even though I work hard to protect my children from content beyond their years, I know that they are savvy, and, like many children, have been watching and listening.
I will always remain committed to raising my children to be tolerant of the things beyond human control, but intolerant of injustices within reach of our control. As a family we talk openly about our hopes for the world, and we try hard to educate each other in a way that promotes our core values of inclusivity and kindness. Although I am personally and professionally pushing hard on the glass ceilings, striving for my best to contribute towards an inclusive and loving world for all humankind, my hopes and dreams, which too frequently feel deflated, are often pinned tightly to my kids’ generations, hoping they can push the needle much, much, further.
But the heart of a Mother knows that this will come in good time. I know deep down I need to let them experience some carefree childhood first, before the responsibilities of adulthood engulf them. | https://medium.com/campihc/a-space-for-innocence-fe0bf3617170 | ['Camp Ihc'] | 2020-12-16 16:35:23.208000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Parenthood', 'Personal Development', 'Summer Camp', 'Childhood'] |
5 Must-Read Research in Image Processing Against COVID 19. | 5 Must-Read Research in Image Processing Against COVID 19.
W hile staying up-to-date with the latest trend and research its important to consider the technology used in the latest work and hence here are some informative extract from the top 5 must-know research to fight COVID-19 in classification, detection and testing methods performed using image processing to add value to your knowledge. Rutuja Pawar Dec 22, 2020·5 min read
Today, the entire world is facing productivity loss due to life-threatening pandemic, but the effective development in technology along with the advance and efficient medical research has been a boon to overcome this tough time.
1. Covid-19 test based on fluorescence and image analysis in 5-minute:
Recently, The Oxfords University developed a method which could distinguish between virus type, providing faster and more accurate result than PCR. The process involves the collection of fluorescently-labelled viruses image sample using a microscope. Later Machine-Learning software automatically detects the virus rapidly. Various virus type counting on their short fluorescent DNA strands in this approach includes differentiable labels like surface chemistry, size and shape. Validating the assay on Covid-19 patient sample are confirmed by conventional RT-PCR (real-time polymerase chain reaction) methods.
The research is based on deep learning along with single-particle imaging and uses CNN technology to categorise a variety of intacted particle of the virus from provided microscopic images. The process is done within 5 minutes without any amplification, purification and lysis steps. Once labelling, imaging and identification of virus are done, the trained neural network SARS-CoV-2 was detected from a variety of respiratory pathogens and negative clinical samples, providing high accuracy.
2. Image-based diagnosis of COVID-19 using a new machine learning method:
With 96.09% and 98.09% of accuracy rate, This research uses new Fractional Multichannel Exponent Moments (FrMEMs) on chest X-ray classification. The computational process is boosted using parallel multi-core computational framework.
Image classification is done using image moments which is utilized in feature extraction of 961 features in an input image, this is robust to noise, could be used in real-time providing effective computation in the inexpensive and faster way using a parallel implementation. Modified Manta-Ray Foraging Optimization (MRFO) based on Differential Evolution (DE) used as a feature selection method. The future model is trained and tested to compute the fitness function.
3. Deep features and fractional-order marine predators algorithm for COVID-19 image classification:
The computation cost of CNN could sometimes counter its effect even though being the state of the art, hence in this research, the CNNs are used with Inception(pre-trained model)approach used being hybrid classification along with swarm-based feature selection algorithm, referred to as Marine Predator algorithm helping within the selection of extracting required feature from COVID images.
This uses fractional-order calculus(FO) along with its mathematic tool marine predators algorithm (FO-MPA), output providing a reduction of computational complexity and increasing performance efficiency of computation. The model successfully selects 130,86 features from two datasets by international Cardiothoracic radiologist, researchers consisting of 51K features with classification accuracy around 98%, outperforming several CNNs. The model implemented in Google Colabs and developed using Keras library.
4. Transfer Learning Using Multimodal Imaging Data for COVID-19 Detection :
The research selects an optimal model after comparing with different CNN model i.e. VGG19 pre-trained model describing the model’s highly scarce and challenging dataset. the challenge faced is due to availability of large dataset in good quality and its impact on the trainability of the model. For development and testing DL model, an image preprocessing is proposed creating quality datasets. This highlights the technique of ultrasonic image over CT scan or X-ray images.
This has drawbacks which emphasize on the deeper network and after training, further less consistent behaviour is seen after three imaging modes. The pre-trained models provide a considerate level of COVID-19 detection with up to 100%for ultrasound, 86% for x-ray 84% for CT scans.
5. Chest X-Ray and CT Scan Images Using Multi-image Augmented Deep Learning Model for COVID-19 Detection :
This research focuses on the X-ray and CT scan images of the chest of the covid suspect using CNN based multi-image augmentation technique, which using discontinuity information obtained in the images in order to increase the count of the effectiveness of training the model.
The model when compared with ResNet-50 and VGG-16 pre-trained models achieves an accuracy of around 95.38% and 98.97% for chest CT scan and X-ray respectively. (these are preliminary reports that haven’t been peer-reviewed.)
Hope you all LIKE it, give us 50 CLAPS and COMMENT on your feedbacks!!!
Authors:Rutuja Pawar, Ritu Pande, Uddhav Sabale, Varad Kulkarni, Kedar Dhokarikar.
REFERENCES:
Paper 1:Nicolas Shiaelis, Alexander Tometzki, View ORCID ProfileLeon Peto, Andrew McMahon, Christof Hepp, View ORCID ProfileErica Bickerton, View ORCID ProfileCyril Favard, View ORCID ProfileDelphine Muriaux, View ORCID ProfileMonique Andersson, View ORCID ProfileSarah Oakley, Alison Vaughan, View ORCID ProfilePhilippa C. Matthews, View ORCID ProfileNicole Stoesser, View ORCID ProfileDerrick Crook, View ORCID ProfileAchillefs N. Kapanidis, View ORCID ProfileNicole C. Robb doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.13.20212035 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.13.20212035v3
Paper 2:Elaziz MA, Hosny KM, Salah A, Darwish MM, Lu S, Sahlol AT (2020) New machine learning method for image-based diagnosis of COVID-19. PLoS ONE 15(6): e0235187. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0235187 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235187
Paper 3:Sahlol, A.T., Yousri, D., Ewees, A.A. et al. COVID-19 image classification using deep features and fractional-order marine predators algorithm. Sci Rep 10, 15364 (2020).https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71294-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-71294-2/figures/1
Paper 4: M. J. Horry et al., “COVID-19 Detection Through Transfer Learning Using Multimodal Imaging Data,” in IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 149808–149824, 2020, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3016780. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9167243
Paper 5: Kiran Purohit, Abhishek Kesarwani, Dakshina Ranjan Kisku, Mamata Dalui doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.15.205567 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.15.205567v1.full | https://medium.com/@rutuja-pawar18/5-must-read-research-in-image-processing-against-covid-19-4067fcf26fc7 | ['Rutuja Pawar'] | 2020-12-22 20:14:12.369000+00:00 | ['Image Processing', 'Covid 19', 'Technology', 'Research'] |
Questo sito è una truffa attenzione | Il sito riportato sotto nello screenshot è una truffa totale, fate attenzione non spedite soldi al porco truffatore Livornese chiamato “Stefano” presente in questo sito
The website reported in the screenshot below is a total scam, do not send money to the scammer pig from Livorno, called “Stefano” which is promoting this website.
THIS IS A SCAM WEBSITE!!! BE CAUTIOUS!! THIS BLOGGER IS A SCAMMER AND A LIAR!! I WAS SCAMMED BY HIM!
DO NOT WRITE TO THIS GMAIL EMAIL ADDRESS INCLUDED IN THE SCREENSHOT! IT’S A SCAM! YOU WILL LOST MONEY!!
THIS IS THE PHONE NUMBER IN USE BY THE SCAMMER!! YOU WILL FIND IT REPORTED IN SEVERAL WEBSITES AS FRAUDOLENT!!
Il maiale gestore del sito incluso negli screenshot truffa soldi alle persone creando dei gruppi whatsapp con dei complici fingendo di saperla lunga su come infrangere la legge prendendo titoli senza aprire un libro. Per guadagnare la fiducia del futuro truffato si presenta come un innocuo recensore e una volta contattato millanta anche di potere recuperare soldi da ipotetiche truffe facendo finte investigazioni. In realtà questo porco di Livorno chiamato Stefano ruba solo i soldi a chi gli da retta con la scusa di fare un comitato legale per recuperare il danaro e diffamando chiunque alla ricerca del “colpevole” che non è in grado di trovare al contrario di quello che il mitomane millanta. I truffati da questo sito sono almeno una decina. Appena tu gli scrivi alla email inclusa nello screenshot lui risponde lasciando il suo numero presente nello screenshot di Tellows, e da li lui conduce la sua truffa. Non pubblica i commenti negativi sulla sua truffa.
The pig who is in charge of the wordpress.com website included in the screenshots above is scamming money to people who contact him by creating also whatsapp groups with some partners in crime faking to know a lot about buying university degrees and to get a degree without opening a single book. To gain trust from the future victims he is publicly posing as an “innocent reviewer” but in reality he is well know scammer, once he is being contacted he will lie about the fact the he knows how to recover the money from possible scams by running fake cyber investigation. He is also faking to be an insider of Italian Police. In reality, this pig scammer know as Stefano is just stealing money to people that contact him using the excuse of being in need to organize a “class action” to recover the money of some “scam”, in the meantime anyone who is suspicious enough to be considered the culprit is being publicly defamed, in the end the culprit(s) will be never found despite what is promoting the scammer Stefano. So, Stefano is simply preying upon already scammed people, by scamming them another time. Stefano scammed at least ten people by using this wordpress.com blog only. Once you write to the scammer email provided above, Stefano the scammer is replying almost instantly by leaving his phone number which is the phone number reported in the Tellows screenshot. After gaining a phone contact of his victim, he will conduct the scam on whatsapp. | https://medium.com/@enricodepedis/questo-sito-%C3%A8-una-truffa-attenzione-37b8b987dea1 | [] | 2019-06-17 23:50:57.391000+00:00 | ['WordPress', 'Scammer', 'Scam', 'Truffa', 'Stefano'] |
The Complete Guide to SCSS/SASS | Here’s a list of my best web development tutorials.
Complete CSS flex tutorial on Hashnode.
Ultimate CSS grid tutorial on Hashnode.
Higher-order functions .map, .filter & .reduce on Hashnode.
You can follow me on Twitter to get tutorials, JavaScript tips, etc.
In this tutorial Sassy, Sass and SCSS will refer to roughly the same thing. Conceptually, there isn’t much difference. You will learn the difference as you learn more, but basically SCSS is the one most people use now. It’s just a more recent (and according to some, superior) version of the original Sass syntax.
To start taking advantage of Sass, all you need to know are the key concepts. I’ll try to cover these in this tutorial.
Note: I tried to be as complete as possible. But I’m sure there might be a few things missing. If you have any feedback, post a comment and I’ll update the article.
All Sass/SCSS code compiles back to standard CSS so the browser can actually understand and render the results. Browsers currently don’t have direct support for Sass/SCSS or any other CSS pre-processor, nor does the standard CSS specification provide alternatives for similar features (yet.)
Let’s Begin!
You can’t really appreciate the power of Sassy CSS until you create your first for-loop for generating property values and see its advantages. But we’ll start from basic SCSS principles and build upon them toward the end.
What can Sass/SCSS do that Vanilla CSS can’t?
Nested Rules: Nest your CSS properties within multiple sets of {} brackets. This makes your CSS code a bit more clean-looking and more intuitive. Variables: Standard CSS has variable definitions. So what’s the deal? You can do a lot more with Sass variables: iterate them via a for-loop and generate property values dynamically. You can embed them into CSS property names themselves. It’s useful for property-name-N { … } definitions. Better Operators: You can add, subtract, multiply and divide CSS values. Sure the original CSS implements this via calc() but in Sass you don’t have to use calc() and the implementation is slightly more intuitive. Functions: Sass lets you create CSS definitions as reusable functions. Speaking of which… Trigonometry: Among many of its basic features (+, -, *, /), SCSS allows you to write your own functions. You can write your own sine and cosine (trigonometry) functions entirely using just the Sass/SCSS syntax just like you would in other languages such as JavaScript. Some trigonometry knowledge will be required. But basically, think of sine and cosine as mathematical values that help us calculate the motion of circular progress bars or create animated wave effects, for example. Code Flow and Control Statements: You can write CSS using familiar code-flow and control statements such as for-loops, while-loops, if-else statements similar to another languages. But don’t be fooled, Sass still results in standard CSS in the end. It only controls how property and values are generated. It’s not a real-time language. Only a pre-processor. Mixins. Create a set of CSS properties once and reuse them or “mix” together with any new definitions. In practice, you can use mixins to create separate themes for the same layout, for example.
Sass Pre-Processor
Sass is not dynamic. You won’t be able to generate or animate CSS properties and values in real-time. But you can generate them in a more efficient way and let standard properties (CSS animation for example) pick up from there.
New Syntax
SCSS doesn’t really add any new features to the CSS language. Just new syntax that can in many cases shorten the amount of time spent writing CSS code.
Prerequisites
CSS pre-processors add new features to the syntax of CSS language.
There are 5 CSS pre-processors: Sass, SCSS, Less, Stylus and PostCSS.
This tutorial covers mostly SCSS which is similar to Sass. You can learn more about Sass here: https://www.sass-lang.com/ .
SASS ( .sass ) S yntactically A wesome S tyle S heets.
( ) yntactically wesome tyle heets. SCSS (.scss) Sassy Cascading Style Sheets.
Extensions .sass and .scss are similar but not the same. For command line enthusiasts out there, you can convert from .sass to .scss and back:
Convert files between .scss and .sass formats using Sass pre-processor command sass-convert.
Sass was the first specification for Sassy CSS with file extension .sass. The development started in 2006. But later an alternative syntax was developed with extension .scss which some developers believe to be a better one.
There is currently no out-of-the-box support for Sassy CSS in any browser, regardless of which Sass syntax or extension you would use. But you can openly experiment with any of the 5 pre-processors on codepen.io. Aside from that you have to install a favorite CSS pre-processor on your web server.
This article was created to help you become familiar with SCSS. Other pre-processors share similar features, but the syntax may be different.
Superset
Sassy CSS in any of its manifestations is a superset of the CSS language. This means, everything that works in CSS will still work in Sass or SCSS.
Variables
Sass / SCSS allows you to work with variables. They are different from CSS variables that start with double dash you’ve probably seen before (for example, --color: #9c27b0 ). Instead they start with a dollar sign (for example, $color: #9c27b0 )
Basic $variable definitions
You can try to overwrite a variable name. If !default is appended to the variable re-definition, and the variable already exists, it is not re-assigned again.
In other words, this means that the final value of variable $text from this example will still be “Piece of string.”
The second assignment “Another string.” is ignored, because a default value already exists.
Sass $variables can be assigned to any CSS property
Nested Rules
With standard CSS, nested elements are accessed via space character:
Nesting with standard CSS
The above code can be expressed with Sassy’s Nested Rules as follows:
Nested Rules - Sassy scope nesting looks less repetitious.
Of course, in the end, it all compiles to normal CSS. It’s just another syntax.
As you can see this syntax appears cleaner and less repetitive.
This is in particular helpful for managing complex layouts. This way the alignment in which nested CSS properties are written in code closely matches the actual structure of the application layout.
Behind the veil the pre-processor still compiles this to the standard CSS code (shown above), so it can actually be rendered in the browser. We simply change the way CSS is written.
The & character
Sassy CSS adds the & (and) character directive.
Let’s take a look at how it works!
Usage of & character directive
On line 5 the & character was used to specify &:hover and converted to the name of the parent element a after compilation.
So what was the result of above SCSS code when it was converted to CSS?
Result - SCSS converted to CSS
The & character is simply converted to the name of the parent element and becomes a:hover in this case.
Mixins
A mixin is defined by the @mixin directive (or also known as mixin rule)
Let’s create our first @mixin that defines default Flex behavior:
Mixins
Now every time you apply .centered-elements class to an HTML element it will turn into Flexbox. One of the key benefits of mixins is that you can use them together with other CSS properties.
Here, I also added border:1px solid gray; to .centered-elements in addition to the mixin.
You can even pass arguments to a @mixin as if it were a function and then assign them to CSS properties. We’ll take a look at that in the next section.
Multiple Browsers Example
Some experimental features (such as -webkit-based) or Firefox (-moz-based) only work in browsers in which they appear.
Mixins are helpful in defining browser-agnostic CSS properties in one class.
For example, if you need to rotate an element in Webkit-based browsers, as well as the other ones, you can create this mixin that takes a $degree argument:
Browser-agnostic @mixin for specifying angle of rotation.
Now all we have to do is @include this mixin in our CSS class definition:
Rotate in compliance with all browsers.
Arithmetic Operators
Similar to standard CSS syntax, you can add, subtract, multiply and divide values, without having to use the calc() function from the classic CSS syntax.
But there are a few non-obvious cases that might produce errors.
Addition
Adding values without using calc() function
Just make sure that both values are provided in a matching format.
Subtraction
Subtraction operator works in the same exact way as addition.
Subtracting different type of values
Multiplication
The star is used for multiplication. Just like with calc(a * b) in standard CSS.
Multiplication and Division
Division
Division is a bit tricky. Because in standard CSS the division symbol is reserved for using together with some other short-hand properties. For example, font: 24/32px defines a font with size of 25px and line-height of 32px. But SCSS claims to be compatible with standard CSS.
In standard CSS, the division symbol appears in short-hand font property. But it isn’t used to actually divide values. So, how does Sass handle division?
If you want to divide two values, simply add parenthesis around the division operation. Otherwise, division will work only in combination with some of the other operators or functions.
Remainder
The remainder calculates the remainder of the division operation. In this example, let’s see how it can be used to create a zebra stripe pattern for an arbitrary set of HTML elements.
Creating Zebra stripes.
Let’s start with creating a zebra mixin.
Note: the @for and @if rules are discussed in a following section.
This demo requires at least a few HTML elements:
HTML source code for this mixin experiment.
And here is the browser outcome:
Zebra stripe generated by the zebra mixin.
Comparison Operators
Comparison Operators
How can comparison operators be used in practice? We can try to write a @mixin that will choose padding sizing if it’s greater than the margin:
Comparison operators in action.
After compiling we will arrive at this CSS:
Result of the conditional spacing mixin
Logical Operators
Logical Operators.
Using Sass Logical Operators
Creates a button color class that changes its background color based on its width.
Strings
In some cases, it is possible to add strings to valid non-quoted CSS values, as long as the added string is trailing:
Combining regular CSS property values with Sass/SCSS strings.
The following example, on the other hand, will produce a compilation error:
This example will not work.
You can add strings together without double quotes, as long as the string doesn’t contain spaces. For example, the following example will not compile:
This example will not work, either. Solution?
Strings containing spaces must be wrapped in quotes.
Adding multiple strings.
Adding numbers and strings.
Note: content property works only with pseudo selectors :before and :after . It is recommended to avoid using content property in your CSS definitions and instead always specify content between HTML tags. Here, it is explained only in the context of working with strings in Sass/SCSS.
Control-Flow Statements
SCSS has functions() and @directives (also known as rules). We’ve already created a type of function when we looked at mixins. You could pass arguments to it.
A function usually has a parenthesis appended to the end of the function’s name. A directive / rule starts with an @ character.
Just like in JavaScript or other languages, SCSS lets you work with the standard set of control-flow statements.
if()
if() is a function.
The usage is rather primitive. The statement will return one of the two specified values, based on a condition:
@if
@if is a directive used to branch out based on a condition.
This Sassy if-statement compiles to:
Example of using a single if-statement and an if-else combo.
Checking If Parent Exists
The AND symbol & will select the parent element, if it exists. Or return null otherwise. Therefore, it can be used in combination with an @if directive.
In the following examples, let’s take a look at how we can create conditional CSS styles based on whether the parent element exists or not.
If parent doesn’t exist, & evaluates to null and an alternative style will be used.
@for
The @for rule is used for repeating CSS definitions multiple times in a row.
for-loop iterating over 5 items.
Conclusion
I hope this article has given you an understanding of SCSS/SASS. If you have any questions, post them in the comments. | https://jstutorial.medium.com/the-complete-guide-to-scss-sass-30053c266b23 | ['Javascript Teacher'] | 2020-10-24 02:15:07.553000+00:00 | ['CSS', 'Programming', 'Tech', 'Design', 'UX'] |
The Night I Almost Ruined My Friends’ Lives | The Night I Almost Ruined My Friends’ Lives
A story of corruption in the Caribbean.
Photo credit: Nicholas Gomez
This is an English translation of a story that took place in Cancun, Mexico in the summer of 2015. I was with four of my closest friends that night. All of their names and identifying details were changed to protect their privacy. Everything else remains as it actually happened.
“Come on, dude! Hurry the fuck up!”
“Relax, goddamn! Don’t you know this shit’s its own art form? Make yourself useful and tell Jose to turn the air on.”
“Car’s almost out of gas. I’m giving it a break.”
“While you two finish jerking each other off, I’m gonna go piss.”
I try to be as quiet as possible when I exit the car. Despite the fact that the lot we’re parked in belongs to my dad, it wasn’t long ago that the cops handcuffed me and tried to take me to holding just a few blocks from where we are now. Of course, back then I was completely innocent — which is why I wasn’t taken — but tonight there are five of us all anxious to smoke weed in Jose’s car, so I’d rather not take any risks.
Across the street from us is the house I grew up in. I clock us at around eight p.m. but I still see gardeners watering plants in what is now an old folk’s home. I stand with my back against the car and let my cock enjoy self-expression in its rawest form.
“What the fuck? You’re still not done?” I ask as I get back in. I close the door and notice that Jose has the air running again.
“I am, I am,” says Alex. “Fran’s got it. This is the second one.”
I turn to Fran and ask him to hurry up.
“It’ll get to you. We’re going clockwise.”
After he says this he hands it to Jorge, the most inexperienced one in the group.
Not even a minute after I return, Jose turns off the air again. “This has to be the worst hotbox I’ve ever done in my life,” I tell them all.
“Here you go,” Jorge says as he hands the joint to Jose.
Jose takes two long hits and passes it to me — finally! I take my time with it as I hit it once and don’t feel a thing ’cause I’m so damn used to that Cali weed. The second time I let drag and start to cough like a newcomer.
“Do you want to hit it Alex?” I say between coughs. “Or should we skip you so you can finish rolling?”
“No, no, give it here daddy.”
I turn to give him the joint and that’s when I see them. Two white lights flashing against the back windshield of the car, one of them headed for my passenger window.
“Holy shit!” I say. “Cops!”
Jose curses at no one in particular. “No fucking way!” he says. “No FUCKING way!”
“I don’t think those are cops,” Fran says. And for a second I think, what could be worse than cops?
I turn my head to the window where one of the lights flashes up and down to get my attention. There is no doubt these are cops.
“Oh they’re cops,” I say. “You try to hide the weed and I’ll talk to them.”
I lower my window and hope for a miracle, but as soon as fresh air enters the car, the clouds of weed smoke get sucked out and hit the fatter of the cops in the face.
“Well, well,” FatterCop says. “These kids are smoking reefer, Bob.” Then to us: “Out of the car. All of you. And don’t even try to dispose of it or I’ll take you straight to holding.”
I realize then that there is only one way out of this. But what worries me is that my friends haven’t caught up to the same realization.
We all get out of the car and let the cops search every inch of it. I hear Jose in a frantic state of mind because it’s his car and that means he’s the most liable of us all. Alex wasn’t able to hide the weed so I’m sure he’s got piss dripping slowly from his cock, too. Come to think of it, we’re all scared of what comes next.
FatterCop finds the weed and says to his partner, “Look at how much these kids are carrying. Federal crime if I’m not mistaken, isn’t it?”
Both cops approach me like I’m guiltiest. “Weren’t you the one driving?” OtherCop asks.
Unsure of whether this is a scare tactic or him experiencing short term memory loss, and also not wanting to rat on Jose, I just nod my head no.
“It was me,” Jose says. “The car’s mine.”
Relief washes over me.
“Great. Well then let’s get you all on the back of the truck and head to holding.”
I’m taken by surprise when I hear them say that. But still, blind confidence tells me that tonight’s not going to end with us in holding. “Just like that, huh? You guys can’t think of any other way to fix this?” It’s the first time in my life that I’m insinuating bribery to a cop.
“I don’t know,” FatterCop says. “You tell us how we can fix it.”
I wait for one of my buddies to chime in but am met with absolute quiet.
“I don’t know. Whatever it takes?”
As I finish my sentence Jose sticks out his tongue and gets down on one knee so he can lick the cops balls. He says, “Can’t you just let us off with a warning or something? We promise it won’t happen again. Promise!”
The cops look at each other, pause, and then laugh like high schoolers.
“Yes, please,” Alex adds. “It was a mistake. But we learned our lesson. It won’t happen again.”
“Kids, with this amount of weed we could be looking at years of jail time.”
“OK then, how else? How much?” I ask.
“Uh…let’s see,” OtherCop says.
FatterCop puts his hand on OtherCop’s chest and says to us, “How much are you carrying?”
The words hit us like sobriety hits an abusive husband when his wife offers him a fifteenth and final chance. We reach in our pockets and bring out all the cash we have on hand. We even start to count it like we’re raising money for the Red Cross. I empty my wallet of two-hundred pesos.
I’m handed the money when we finish the count like I’m the responsible one in the group. As if it wasn’t me who convinced everyone to leave the party we were at and come to my dad’s empty lot to smoke weed.
“It looks like all in all we have about…nine hundred and fifty.”
“What do you think, partner? I hear the fine for this is over one hundred a pop.”
“Nah, partner, if they’re not even at a thousand we’re not on the same page. Empty your pockets and show us what you’ve got that’s worth something.”
Fuck that. I’m not sure what my friends are holding, but I’ve got my brother’s car keys, my wallet with two debit cards full of cash, and my iPod, which for some reason is what I care about most.
“And if we catch you hiding anything we’re taking you straight to holding. We’re going to check each of you individually, so don’t play us, you hear?”
I keep the car keys because it’s not like they’re going steal it from me. My wallet’s empty of cash and I doubt they want to drive me to the ATM to empty my bank accounts. I don’t think they’re looking to complicate their night like that.
What about my iPod?
Maybe it was worth a lot five years ago, but after swimming in my pool with it so many times, the god honest truth was that it was going to stop working soon anyway.
“I don’t have anything on me,” I lie.
“Yeah, me either,” Fran says. “We just left the beach. You really caught us at a bad time.”
“Alright blondie,” FatterCop asks me. “Where do you live?”
“I’m not from here,” I lie. “I’m visiting from Merida. Came to visit my friends and…well, that’s why we were smoking when you found us. We hadn’t seen each other in — ”
“What about you?” FatterCop asks Fran.
A beat.
Fran says, “Who? Me? I live here in Cancun.”
I can tell the cops are unaware of it, but I know Fran so well that his condescension is obvious to me. He doesn’t like these cops. Like me, he’s someone that doesn’t do well with authority. The only reason I’m not talking back to them is because of how high I am. Not like, stoned senseless. More of a calm high. And it stops the gravity of the situation we’re in from really sinking in.
FatterCop continues to ask us where we’re from. By the end of his interrogation, I realize I’m the only idiot that lied. But whatever our answers, we end up back at square one.
OtherCop says, “Well, you either get more money or you get in the back of our truck. No other way around this.”
“Excuse me, but…technically we’re on my property,” I say, as if the law is going to be upheld by these corrupt motherfuckers.
They look at each other in shock. “Well goddamn! And you said you don’t come from money!”
Oops.
“See the thing is,” FatterCop adds. “Technically you’re standing outside of the property. If you’d pulled into it, odds are nobody would care to report you. But when people see a strange car parked across the street from their house, they’re going to report it.” He spits. “We received a call about a strange vehicle. We even drove around for a while and couldn’t find you. But when someone makes a call like that, it’s our responsibility to make sure we fill in a report at the station.”
“Alright! Alright!” Jose says, more out of desperation than anything else. “What if I drive to the ATM and withdraw two thousand? Will you let us go then?”
They look unsatisfied.
“Where are you gonna get the money? And how do we know we can trust you?”
“We’ll hit the corner store a mile down the road. We’ll hurry up and I promise we’ll be back. It’s just a mile down this road.”
In all my time knowing the guy, I’ve never seen Jose so simultaneously frustrated, sad, and nervous. I even start to feel bad for the guy. But I’m so relieved that we didn’t drive my car that it’s all I can really think about.
“Let’s do it,” FatterCop says. He points his finger at me and adds, “He stays with us, though.”
Alex and Jorge, still quiet as can be, don’t seem to mind the idea — fucking traitors. But Fran does. “You three go. I’ll stay with Niko,” he says. “That way it’s a little more even.”
More even? I think. In case what? A fistfight breaks out between us and the cops? Does Fran really think I’d be of any use to him if that happened? The closest I’ve been to being in a fight was in ninth grade when I got tackled by the class bully.
Luckily, the cops overlook Fran’s comment and agree to let him stay. Then Alex, Jose, and Jorge get in the car and drive off. Fran and I sit on the pavement.
“Boys, boys,” FatterCop says. “You know they’d tear you a new asshole if we took you back to holding, don’t you?” OtherCop walks back to the truck and picks up the radio. “TEAR you a new asshole.”
I nod and so does Fran. I think both of us know that all he wants is to scare us.
“If you’d smoked on the other side of that fence we wouldn’t be standing here. But I swear, people in these neighborhoods don’t take well to unknown vehicles. They start to wonder what the hell they’re doing parked like that so close to midnight.”
“Yeah, I mean, what can we say, right?” I laugh. “You probably get a lot of these calls don’t you?”
“We took down that entire seafood restaurant last month, actually. That lobster joint down the street. But nah, very few people report things like this.”
As I think of another question to fill the time, FatterCop beats me to it.
“Did you say this property belongs to you?”
“Uh…it belongs to my dad.”
“And where does he live?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him in over five years. This place is one of the few memories of him that I still carry with me.” I’m surprised by how quick the lies come to me. And as I write this I’m also grateful that they did, because had they not, the stakes would’ve been much higher. “That’s why I told my friends we could smoke here.”
OtherCop jogs back to us and tells FatterCop, “I just got word that TheGeneral’s truck is in the neighborhood. What do we do if he drives by?”
Fran says, “We can hide until after they do.”
Reasonable enough, one would think. Not these two. They spend the next two minutes arguing and ignoring us. And then, to make matters worse, that truck they mentioned drives by and quiets us all down. It drives by at under twenty miles an hour, surveying the scene from the road, and stops by the dead grass, next to FatterCop and OtherCop’s truck. OtherCop walks toward it.
“Goddamn it,” I whisper to Fran. “If this turns into a whole ordeal I swear to you I’m gonna flip out. I thought we were through with them.”
OtherCop walks back. FatterCop asks him what he said. “What do you think I said? That we’re babysitting two grown boys in the middle of the night? I told them we had a situation, but I didn’t tell them how much it was for.”
Fran and I whisper to each other about our futures and watch as TheGeneral’s truck takes off in a hurry. Seconds later, just as it escapes our line of sight, we hear it come to a screeching halt. Then we see it come back in reverse and stop. Three cops with machine guns hop out of the back and run toward us. TheGeneral parks it and exits the car, follows behind the armed men.
“We’re fucked,” Fran says.
“Yep. Fucked is right.”
TheGeneral approaches the armed men and tells them to head back to the truck. “What are you boys doing here?” he asks. “Come on. Stand up. We’re taking you to holding.”
I look at FatterCop and OtherCop and they look back at me, all three of us share the same facial expression. One that says, “I guess we tried, but TheGeneral’s here and he decides.”
“But…” I say, and don’t finish my sentence.
Fran says nothing.
“But what?” TheGeneral asks.
So far I know three things for certain: OtherCop told them about a situation, so TheGeneral knows something is going on; Alex, Jose, and Jorge are due back any minute now, and if I don’t straighten things out with TheGeneral before that happens, things are only going to get worse; lastly, there’s no way our deal is going to hold up now. The question is: how do I tell TheGeneral about the bribe without telling him about the bribe. So what I say is, “Didn’t these two tell you where our friends went?”
“They didn’t tell me a thing. Where’d they go?”
Fuck it, I think. One of us has to stop playing dumb.
“They’re withdrawing money at an ATM.”
“How much money?”
Fran takes the lead, “We have a thousand on us, plus another two grand our friends are getting. So three total.”
“Just three thousand pesos? You know the fine’s more than ten grand a pop, don’t you? Three grand’s not going to cut it!”
“They said three grand was enough.”
Just then our friends return. TheGeneral turns his back to me. Jose is first to exit the car. He doesn’t notice that there’s a third cop now.
“Here’s the two thousand — ”
“Jose,” I try to interrupt him but fail.
“Are we good to go?”
“Jose,” I try again. This time TheGeneral interrupts me.
“Blondie over here says you kids rounded up three thousand. Is that right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Can we go now?”
“No one leaves here until I say so. Do you understand?”
FatterCop and OtherCop become mirror images of Alex and Jorge. All four of them forget how to speak. Fran and I look for a way to explain to Jose what has unfolded. But our subtlety is so strong we never open our mouths.
“But we agreed that three thousand was enough!” Jose raises his voice at TheGeneral.
“You better check yourself, son.”
Jose drops the attitude and says, “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to disrespect you. I just want to reach an agreement so we can all go home.”
I understand his hand is forced, but this is a Jose I’ve yet to witness. He never stands down to authority figures.
“How much more can you get from the ATM?” TheGeneral asks.
“More?” Jose looks shocked. “It’ll take me a while to go there and come back, but I can do another two-thousand. I think that’s all I have left.”
“Do you know how lucky you are that we’re even considering letting you go?”
“I do, I do, but I’m being honest with you. If I had more I wouldn’t lie to you.”
TheGeneral turns to me and Fran. “How much did you say we were at?”
Fran and I look at each other and piece together a scrambled version of this sentence, “We started with a thousand, plus the two-thousand he just brought, that’s three thousand total. Unless you want to count the two he’s about to withdraw, in which case it’d be five.”
TheGeneral turns to Jose and says, “Go on then. Go get the money. And be quick boy.”
All three of our friends get in the car and drive off. TheGeneral pulls out his handgun and aims at the concrete, says, “You two sit your asses down.” Then he walks to his truck and the other two cops come and talk to us.
“I thought you said two grand was enough?” I ask them.
“It was for us,” FatterCop says. “But TheGeneral’s in charge now and he always wants his cut.”
I look at them like the pigs that they are. Silence fills the air. They walk to their truck and leave Fran and me alone.
“Dude,” I say. “What would you do if I got up and took off running?”
He laughs and says, “I don’t know. Eat shit, probably?”
“You wouldn’t run with me?”
“I mean, I wouldn’t see it coming. That’s why I would eat shit. But who knows, maybe I’d try.”
“OK, OK, what about,” I laugh. “What if I did the same thing, but this time all three of them pulled out their guns and shot me dead?”
We laugh like we were in the school rec yard. “In that case, I’d definitely cry. And that only means I’d eat more shit.”
Our friends return from the ATM.
“Well, well,” TheGeneral says. “It’s about time. How much did you get?”
“I emptied my card. Three-thousand. So, that’s six thousand we have altogether.”
“Give it to FatterCop so he can count it.”
I gather the money and give it to Jose so that he can give it to FatterCop. FatterCop counts the money and says, “It’s six grand.”
“Great. You know what to do then. I’ll wait in the truck.”
And that’s the last we see of TheGeneral.
FatterCop tells OtherCop to pull out his cellphone. “You!” he points at Alex. “You hold the bag. The rest of you stand next to him. Right here, next to the car. We’re going to take a picture.”
Are you fucking kidding me?
After seeing hundreds of pictures in the newspaper with six drug dealers standing next to kilos of cocaine and dozens of machine guns, I finally get to pose for my own. What’s funny, too, is that all Alex holds in his hand is a tiny fucking bag with a half-ounce of weed in it. People will find that funny if it ever reaches the newspapers.
As we get close for the picture, I think about throwing my arms over Fran and Jose and smiling bigger than any picture I ever smiled for. But when I see Alex and Jorge tremble from nerves, I throw on my baseball cap and lower the front of it just enough to cover my face.
OtherCop takes the picture and FatterCop says, “We have proof, in case any of you decide to open your mouth.”
I kept my mouth shut for a week. Then I wrote and published this story. | https://medium.com/recycled/the-night-i-almost-ruined-my-friends-lives-6831cc946dec | ['Nicholas Gomez'] | 2020-02-28 12:16:01.183000+00:00 | ['Short Story', 'Nonfiction', 'Humor', 'Life', 'This Happened To Me'] |
6 Sage Lessons I Learned From Falling in Love | Lesson #1: Relationships Won’t Solve Your Problems
I grew up poor, with a very abusive alcoholic father who constantly beat down my self-esteem. I had a lot of anger at the world and a very negative attitude.
I thought that being a drug dealer would be my biggest accomplishment in this world. My low self-worth and bad attitude caused a shit storm of problems in my life.
Jennifer grew up with an abusive step-father who raped her for years. During one incident, her mom walked into her room and saw her step-dad in bed with her. She callously closed the door and pretended she didn’t see what obviously happened.
Jennifer and I were trapped in those mental prisons of anger, negativity, low self-esteem and shame for most of our lives.
The entire world let us down, but we thought we could save each other.
Relationships never solve our most debilitating problems. Those warm and fuzzy feelings we get from relationships will only distract us from our internal demons.
Relationships numb the pain but actually make our problems worse because they stop us from confronting them.
When two damaged people enter into these seductive unions, a downward spiral of codependency oftentimes begins. Here are some signs of a codependent relationship:
Tolerating the other person’s bad behaviors
Not setting healthy boundaries
Jealousy
Controlling behavior
Excessive fear of abandonment
A high need for approval and validation
We get stuck in a web of dysfunction as the relationship deceptively makes us think our lives are finally getting better. We tell each other we’re fine, but we’re preventing ourselves and our partners from learning, growing and overcoming the demons that have ruined our lives.
To avoid this dilemma, first realize that you can’t depend on your significant other to solve your problems.
You have to overcome your own demons.
Identify and resolve all those things that are stopping you from being the amazing person you are. Get rid of the excessive jealousy, insecurity and neediness.
Stop looking for approval and validation in the outside world — instead, look in a mirror.
Lesson #2: Think Before Acting on Strong Feelings
Anytime you experience a powerful, earth-shattering feeling, first question the validity of that feeling. These types of feelings are oftentimes followed by overreactions and terrible decisions.
Think of those times you were extremely pissed off at someone and then said something you regret to this day. Think about the time you were filled with so much rage, you hit or threw something.
I used to break so many home phones in fits of rage that someone later bought me a phone made out of the same material flip flops are made of. It refused to break, no matter how hard I threw it.
Just because you feel something strongly, doesn’t mean it’s good for you. Those emotions-on-steroids can shut down the rational part of our brains.
My strong love for Jennifer caused me to make many bad decisions, one of which was marrying her five days before I turned myself into prison to begin serving a 2-year sentence. I did this despite evidence that she had a drug problem and a shit ton of unresolved emotional problems.
The end result? She spent the money I gave her on drugs, left me for someone else while I was in prison and stole my identity to get more drug money.
Not all powerful feelings lead to bad relationships or decisions. But the risk is there. Be careful.
When you feel the overpowering euphoria of love, and you’re about to make a significant decision, ask yourself:
Does it make sense to do what I’m about to do right now?
Are there warning signs I’m not seeing?
What advice would I give to a friend who was in my situation?
Then talk to a few trusted friends or family members about your situation and get some outside, objective opinions.
Lesson #3: Set Strong Boundaries
Have you ever lost yourself in a relationship?
It’s easy to do.
You don’t disagree with your partner because you don’t want to create friction.
You find that some of your partner’s opinions and values are totally unacceptable, but you stay silent. You avoid conversations that will shine a light on the differences between the two of you.
Jennifer and I were so needy and insecure that we were oftentimes afraid to disagree with each other because neither of us wanted to risk losing the other.
One of the worst ways to lose yourself is to change your beliefs and values when your mate doesn’t agree with them. Looking back, it’s easy to see that you gave up who you were for someone else.
The solution to this dilemma is simple. Set strong boundaries from the beginning. Do the following:
Make a list of what you’re willing to accept and your deal-breakers. Define your core values and the non-negotiable beliefs that matter most to you. Be authentic. Don’t shy away from the things that define who you are. If you do, you’re doing a disservice to yourself and your partner, who may never know what you believe or how you feel because you didn’t have the courage to talk about it. Communicate your deal-breakers, values, beliefs and opinions with your partner. There will be conflicts, but healthy conflicts make the relationship grow. Great communication is the catalyst for compromise and understanding. Staying quiet and avoiding conflict only causes underlying differences and problems to simmer and then one day explode like a powder keg.
Setting strong boundaries requires courage. The courage to be authentic. The courage to stand by your values and beliefs, even if it means your partner may walk away. If your partner walks away, the two of you were never really compatible.
You saved yourself a lot of future headaches.
Farah Ayaad makes this clear:
I choose losing you over losing myself and I would rather be abandoned by you than be abandoned by me.
Lesson #4: Love Yourself First
“I think the problem is that we depend on our lovers to love us the way we should love ourselves.” — Humble the Poet
Loving ourselves can be difficult.
All of us have those moments when we feel less than.
When these feelings of inadequacy are really strong, it affects our relationships. We doubt our partners. We doubt ourselves. We doubt our inherent value as human beings. We unconsciously don’t believe we’re lovable.
We can start to believe that the relationship we’re in now is as good as it gets, so we’d better do what it takes to hold onto it.
This can be really dangerous when we’re in an abusive or toxic relationship. We’re more likely to endure it because we don’t think we’re good enough to find a better one.
If I truly loved myself, I would’ve ended the relationship when I saw the first danger signals.
Love yourself first.
Self-love is powerful and it’s the best love that you will ever have. When you love who YOU are, your relationships will be healthier and your life will be happier. Self-love sets the standard in how we allow others to treat us and how we treat ourselves.— Stephanie Lahart
Lesson #5: Let Go of Negative Emotions
When a relationship we really cherished ends, we feel a lot of negative emotions: anger, sadness, confusion, guilt, shame, regret, hatred and many more.
Although negative emotions do serve a useful purpose, if we hold onto them too long, they’ll poison other areas of our lives. A woman who hates her ex-husband because he cheated on her refuses to trust other men. She hasn’t had another relationship in 14 years.
A man who hasn’t forgiven himself for allowing his anger to ruin his marriage now believes he doesn’t deserve to be happy. He continually attracts women who mistreat him or are totally incompatible with him.
When I got out of prison and found out Jennifer cheated on me, used the money I gave her for drugs, and stole my identity, I hated her.
The more we loved someone, the more we’ll hate them or be angry at them when the relationship ends.
To let go of negative emotions after a break-up:
Don’t repress or avoid feeling negative emotions. This will only make things worse. Allow yourself to feel all of the bad emotions. Accept that this is how you’re feeling at this point in time. Don’t judge the emotions or judge yourself harshly for feeling them. Realize that you’re human. You loved that person and now you’re hurt. It’s ok to feel this surge of painful emotions. Give yourself time to grieve. Slowly start letting these negative emotions go. If you did something wrong, have compassion for yourself. If the other person did something wrong, have compassion for them. Forgive yourself or the other person. Use empathy to understand why they did what they did or why you acted a certain way. This will help you realize that all of us have made mistakes and deserve forgiveness.
The hatred I felt for Jennifer slowly turned into anger. The anger slowly changed to empathy and understanding.
I was finally able to forgive her — not for her, but for me. It allowed me to move forward with clarity, happiness, peace of mind and gratitude.
Lesson #6: Don’t Regret Falling in Love
It’s easy to regret the bad relationship decisions we made.
Don’t do it.
Regret can make us feel like we failed in a big way. It can erode our self-esteem, which will most likely be low after a breakup.
Don’t look at that past relationship as a vacuum that’s sucked the happiness out of your life.
Look at the void as a space for new and better possibilities.
The lessons you learned from past relationships will prepare you for better future relationships that will bring new meaning and happiness to your life — but only if you’re willing to look beyond the pain.
Remember the good things about the person. Remember those great times the two of you had.
Love takes courage. The courage to be vulnerable and risk being hurt. The courage to put your heart, soul and faith in something that has an unknown ending.
Don’t beat yourself up. Love yourself for having the courage to give love a try.
Epilogue
Jennifer — January, 1997
I last saw Jennifer while I was in prison in June of 1997, shortly after my mom died. Soon after that, she stopped replying to my letters. Then her phone was disconnected.
I never heard from her again.
In early 2018, a mutual friend of ours told me that Jennifer had moved to Oklahoma, quit doing drugs and started a new family.
She also told me that just before Christmas of 2017, Jennifer tripped and fell into a bathtub in her bathroom. She hit her head and fell unconscious.
Days later, her family decided to disconnect her from life support because she was brain dead.
I sometimes wondered how things would’ve turned out if she had never been raped and grew up in a good family. What would’ve happened if life had dealt us entirely different cards? What if we met under different circumstances? What if I never went to prison?
Then I stopped thinking about “what if?” and just thought about her beauty, witty personality, and the incredible, but brief times we had together.
RIP Jennifer. | https://medium.com/the-ascent/6-sage-lessons-i-learned-from-falling-in-love-fe46b01ce3d5 | ['Charles Amemiya'] | 2020-12-26 01:36:24.303000+00:00 | ['Growth', 'Relationships', 'Loss', 'Love', 'Self Love'] |
How To Maintain A Healthy Relationship Under Lockdown | We all love to hear and talk about couples who have risen against all odds, stuck together through thick and thin, and made their relationship last.
The truth is, couples argue and complain about each other all the time, but they have been through thick and thin together and always shared a bond through the test of times.
People often say that marriages are made in heaven, but if you ask any couple who have been together in a long-term relationship, they will tell you that in reality “It takes time and effort”
With the lockdown and quarantine measures across the globe, to maintain healthy relationships has become more of a challenge than a vacation.
But this is yet another test of time that we have to pass for maintaining a healthy relationship with our partner and make it last forever.
Socially Desi has compiled the topmost ways on how to maintain a healthy relationship under lockdown -
Effective communication is a key aspect of a healthy relationship. You’ll feel comfortable and content when you have a healthy emotional bond with your partner.
When people stop interacting well, they stop connecting well, and moments of turmoil or stress will really bring the disconnect out and pour in frustration.
Communication is essential in any relationship to last. Every couple who has stood the test of time will tell you that there is a healthy communication pattern which helps in their day to day communications.
There are no set rules for this communication pattern, it may vary for each one of us, but its there. It’s vital to be heard and understood in a relationship.
Since we are spending the whole day in the same house together now due to lockdown, we feel communication is happening automatically and there’s nothing wrong. We stop making efforts to communicate.
Tell them about your day as you converse with your friend. Be totally transparent about what is bothering you and what you love.
Be clear about your needs and your emotional desires. In opening up, you are sharing your partner’s insecurity and confidence. In fact, you’re encouraging them to be just as honest with you by being so transparent with them.
Listening with your Ears and Heart
Relationships last long with partners listen to each other and by listening I mean REALLY listen to each other. Not just through the ear but through their hearts too. Remember, there’s a huge difference between simply hearing and listening.
It’s not always easy to communicate in a stressed environment, especially the one we are living in these days.
Constant pressure from work (work from home that is), insecure job situation as many companies are exercising pay cuts, many have laid off employees, healthcare precautions, etc. has let to anxiety and stress in most couples and this reflects in their listening patterns towards each other.
Do check out our blog on “ How to reduce stress during a lockdown “ to gain some insights on how you and your partner can overcome this scenario together.
The notion of couples needing to connect and solve all of their problems is a misconception. It’s practically not possible to solve all your problems, but long term couples would tell you that taking the guessing game out of the communication helps a lot to understand the situation and move on without hurtful conflicts.
Research has shown that thousands of happily married couples have a long history of unresolved issues, issues that sometimes have lasted for more than a decade. On the other hand, many failed relationships occurred in the pursuit of resolving each and every problem couples had in their relationship.
Chatting about what you need isn’t always convenient. Many of us, in a relationship, do not spend enough time talking about what is really important to us. And even though you know what you need, it can make you feel insecure, humiliated, or even ashamed of thinking about it. Yet, look at it from the point of view of your partner. It’s a privilege to give warmth and understanding to those you love.
Tell them what you feel. Tell them openly about what you want. Don’t keep them guessing what’s wrong with you or what’s causing your distress. Remember Love is not a burden, it’s a blessing.
Indulge in Healthy Discussions
It’s not an oxymoron; learning how to have healthy arguments and discussions means being able to handle the unavoidable conflicts without causing unnecessary damage.
You can bet you’ll eventually get into an argument, but how prominent that argument becomes is in your control.
By making rules such as no personal insults or bringing up past issues, you can weather the inevitable disputes without irreparable harm.
During this lockdown, it’s natural that you might end up arguing about something or the other. It can be as stupid as the tea not being as you liked, or a grocery item you forgot to buy.
It would be impossible to arrive on a compromise if you approach your partner with the mentality that things have to always be your way.
This mentality often stems from not getting certain needs met while being younger, or it may be years of cumulative frustration in the relationship hitting a boiling point.
It’s OK to have strong opinions about something, but your partner deserves to be heard as well. Remember, compromising doesn’t mean you’re weak.
One tip that long term couples give is that to maintain healthy relationships during a lockdown we should never go to bed angry.
Sleep has a big role in our health — Physically, Mentally, and Emotionally. If you argue, speak to your partner and get into a healthy discussion. Don’t do it if you both are tired. Talk about it the next day but NEVER take the anger or the irritation from the argument to bed with you. This is one of the crucial ways to maintain a healthy relationship.
A lot of couples get comfortable with each other after some time into a relationship. This is a big mistake and it happens with most of us. Couples get too comfortable to the extent that flirting and nice gestures no longer play a part in their relationship bond.
It’s nice to feel safe and grounded in a relationship, but remember to reward your partner for this surety with some spicy flirts and gestures you did in your early days of dating or marriage
You can do a lot of things to spice up your love life during this lockdown. Here are a few healthy relationship tips for couples :
Have romantic candlelight dinner at home — One way to spice up the monotony is to ignite passion and romance in your meals. Have an intimate candlelight dinner with your partner during this lockdown
— One way to spice up the monotony is to ignite passion and romance in your meals. Have an intimate candlelight dinner with your partner during this lockdown Cook her / his favorite cuisine — Cooking doesn’t have to be boring. Cook something your partner loves. Your partner will love this gesture.
— Cooking doesn’t have to be boring. Cook something your partner loves. Your partner will love this gesture. Watch that movie — Especially the one which you both saw together on your first movie date. a re-run of F.R.I.E.N.D.S will also work.
— Especially the one which you both saw together on your first movie date. a re-run of F.R.I.E.N.D.S will also work. Give a romantic massage — Nothing relives the mind and body after a long hectic day than a good body massage by the one you love.
— Nothing relives the mind and body after a long hectic day than a good body massage by the one you love. Do household chores together — Switch roles while doing household chores. Sometimes you cook, sometimes you do the laundry. Spread cleaning tasks across the week among both of you.
— Switch roles while doing household chores. Sometimes you cook, sometimes you do the laundry. Spread cleaning tasks across the week among both of you. Workout together through online sessions — There are many apps online which are providing online workout sessions. CULTFIT is one such service that you can look out for online workout sessions.
… and many more (We would love to hear your experiences in the comment section below)
Relationships, work, family, and friends can be difficult to manage during this lockdown. By setting work-life boundaries and learning to say No, you will help strike a work-life balance — this will ensure you have room for your relationship to grow during this lockdown.
And yeah, Have Sex — Lots of it! Sex alone can reduce blood pressure, increase sleep, minimize stress, and even prevent prostate cancer!
Couples who have sex regularly say it not only enhances their relationship but also improves their health.
A lot of what makes couples in long-term relationships successful is the effort they still put into themselves as individuals. No matter what you see on film and television, nobody can fulfill all your needs. In reality, it can put undue pressure on your relationship to expect too much from your partner.
It is necessary to preserve your own identity outside your relationship to excite and enhance your romantic relationship with your partner, sustain connections with family and friends, and retain your hobbies and interests throughout your life.
Your personality, your interests, hobbies, your beliefs are the core traits that your partner fell in love within the first place. Losing any of these will not only mean losing yourself but losing your relationship’s meaning as well.
There can be nothing more boring during a quarantine than just sitting all day staring at each other without doing anything that you love. Remember, you don’t have to do everything together. That’s not what a relationship is.
Making sure that you indulge in your own interests and spend time with your friends over Whatsapp calls or Facetime, or doing whatever you might enjoy individually, assists to strengthen your relationship and build trust.
Conclusion
So, what are the topmost ways on how to maintain a healthy relationship under lockdown -
Communication is KEY — Have effective communication with your partner
— Have effective communication with your partner Listening with your Ears and Heart — Relationships last long with partners listen to each other
— Relationships last long with partners listen to each other Stop the Guess Game — Don’t make your partner guess what you’re feeling. Tell them upfront
— Don’t make your partner guess what you’re feeling. Tell them upfront Indulge in Healthy Discussions — Healthy discussions about disagreements strengthens the relationship bond
— Healthy discussions about disagreements strengthens the relationship bond Enjoy the Fun, Together — Do creative things to spice up your love life
— Do creative things to spice up your love life Enjoy Your “Me” Time — Enjoy your personal space and retain your personality, interests and hobbies
Hope you enjoyed our article on how to maintain a healthy relationship under lockdown. We would love to hear your thoughts on how you are coping in this quarantine and how is your relationship going on with your partner.
Please leave your comments in the comment section below and click here to subscribe to us to never miss any update on our blogs in the future.
Photo by Jasmine Wallace Carter from Pexels
Originally published at https://sociallydesi.com on April 23, 2020. | https://medium.com/@sociallydesi/how-to-maintain-a-healthy-relationship-under-lockdown-308e4ebf2102 | ['Socially Desi'] | 2020-04-29 18:55:43.140000+00:00 | ['Relationship Advice', 'Healthy Relationships', 'Relationship Building', 'Relationship Counseling', 'Save Your Relationship'] |
How to calculate weekly and monthly average in MySQL and visualize over Grafana | Now to visualize a simple graph like above with some non-time series data in it. Be there with me till last!
Step-1:
Open your Grafana UI, ensure you have MySQL Data Source configured and connection: OK
MySQL as Datasource
Step-2:
Create a new dashboard and move to add new panel.
Select configured MySQL database as datasource from left.
Selected MySQL as Datasource
Step-3:
Toggle to text edit mode by clicking on pencil icon.
Text edit mode
Step-4:
For Weekly average, write below query in the space:
Step-5:
You will get some graphs visualization on the screen, else tap on “zoom to data” option on the screen.
Step-6:
Move to Axes part and select mode as Series and choose your value from dropdown i.e. Avg.
X-Axis as Series
Step-7:
Name the graph and save to see final results.
Step -8:
Repeat the procedure for Monthly average with following query:
Step-9:
You can see panels as below in the dashboard: | https://medium.com/@shubhamkhairnar/how-to-calculate-weekly-and-monthly-average-in-mysql-and-visualize-over-grafana-5011806f1dc0 | ['Shubham Khairnar'] | 2020-12-08 13:45:20.611000+00:00 | ['MySQL', 'How To', 'Non Time Series', 'Data', 'Grafana'] |
A Step-by-Step Guide to Handling Form Validation in React | Getting Started
Let’s install both formik and yup into an existing/new React project by running:
npm install --save formik yup
Now it is time to create that login form as a React component. I will create this component as a functional component; you might create a class-based component depending, upon your use case.
This is a very basic form. And we are not doing much here. In a traditional approach, we would have the value of an input field saved in a state and then control it using the onChange event handler.
But why use component level state and spend time on writing long validation handler when we have formik and yup , right?
Alright! Let’s start by adding formik !
Here is what we did in the above code:
Wrapped our form inside formik so that we have access to formik’s event handlers, such as handleSubmit and handleChange .
inside formik so that we have access to formik’s event handlers, such as and . The initialValues prop of formik is used as our form’s initial values. You can see that we have specified that from line 13 to 16. These values are then destructured (line 22) so that we can use it as our form input values.
prop of formik is used as our form’s initial values. You can see that we have specified that from line 13 to 16. These values are then destructured (line 22) so that we can use it as our form input values. The onSubmit props of formik is called when the form is submitted. Because we have attached the handleSubmit event of our form (line 24) to its onSubmit event, formik’s onSubmit prop is called upon our form’s onSubmit event.
props of formik is called when the form is submitted. Because we have attached the event of our form (line 24) to its event, formik’s prop is called upon our form’s event. One last function that is very important for us is handleChange by formik. We bind this function to our input field’s onChange event handler so that formik can take care of any input change. The first parameter that this function accepts is the value of the form field that it is attached to.
Now, let’s add yup . Remember, yup is used for parsing our form values so formik can actually perform the final validation to these parsed values.
We added a validation schema to our component. This is the most interesting part of form validation and it usually sucks up most of our time. But not anymore — yup does all the value parsing of form for us. Just design the schema of your form and attach it to formik .
Important: Notice line 31.
Alright! Now that we have our validation all set, let’s start displaying errors as and when they occur. For this particular use case, formik provides users with a very handy error object. If any input field has an error, the corresponding key or the error object becomes truthy. Take a look at lines 23, 33, 41, and 52.
What next? Currently, whenever a user inputs an invalid form value in any field, all other fields show up the error message corresponding to their fields regardless of whether the user has ‘touched’ the field or not. This isn’t desired. Well, formik takes care of this part, too. Say hello to formiks touched object. It keeps a reference of whether the user has actually touches a field or not.
Let’s update our current code base with the touched object.
Looks good? Nice! One last thing: what happens if say the user entered an incorrect password? In this case, we want to update the error message of password field after we receive a login failure response from the server. Formik takes care of this too!
We simply destructure the errors object passed into our handleSubmit function to get setFieldError out of it. Using setFieldError , we can set the error value of a particular form field like so.
For the final touch, we’ll add handleBlur function of formik which takes care of the onBlur event of an input field and performs required validations. | https://medium.com/better-programming/a-step-by-step-guide-to-handle-form-validation-in-react-83232cd52316 | ['Aditya Singh'] | 2020-06-01 15:33:58.454000+00:00 | ['Nodejs', 'JavaScript', 'Programming', 'Reactjs', 'React'] |
Racial Disparities in the K-12 Education System | Given the climate of our country’s social status, in society today, we are experiencing an elevated issue at hand regarding racial inequality. Many people of color and mainly of African American descent are experiencing heightened negligence for social justice and equality. Many of these systemic issues can even be found in our very own education systems across America. Many students of color experience racial disparities within the “safe place” and space where they are supposed to feel most comfortable for academic success and journey to graduation, unfortunately, there are many factors that hold students of color back from their full potential or drive to attend school. This blog post will shed light on the various factors students of color face in their educational journey.
Racial Discipline Disparities
Many students of color experience racial disciplinary disparities in the education system’s imbalanced distribution of punishment within the administration and have yet to be held accountable for this faulty system. We need for the ending of all “white silence” that hold students of color back from their full potential and prevents any common ground of educational equality due to this uncomfortable feeling of “white silence” and ignorance causing discomfort of those in higher power positions that need to be held accountable. We need to eliminate the unnecessary void that is the discomfort about communicating about race, inequality, segregation, and talk about creating policies to put in motion and raise more attention to reduce racial disparities in disciplinary acts.
Black students are three times more likely to be expelled or suspended than white students, in this day and age schools have become increasingly tight-knit with law enforcement and the criminal justice system over the years leaving the more traditional administrative mediation for disciplinary infractions.
2. School to Prison Pipeline
There is overwhelmingly high presence of law enforcement on school campuses makes black boys and girls feel less safe causing them to attend school less. Black and Latina teens also often do not finish or complete school due to being overpoliced. Oftentimes these visibly armed campus officers intimidate students of color inadvertently affecting these student’s capability to focus in or attend school overall compromising attendance and performance ability. Many students of Latino and African American descent that experience an overwhelmingly higher surveillance rate. In a 2016 article by Freeman and Steidl they state, “Thus, surveillance and suspensions work to actively disadvantage and, sometimes, permanently ‘pushout’ those subjected to school discipline. Racial disparities in the discipline have also been tied to racial achievement gaps…”
3. Lack of Proper Resources
We live in an age where we see a major shift in our education systems and face the stereotypical nature of placing students of racially diverse backgrounds on a pyramid of educational hierarchy. It is proven that young black students do not hold up to the highest achieving whites from the very beginning stages of one’s educational journey starting at the early stages of development in the K-12 range. Oftentimes striving young black minds are provided the bare minimum when discussing proper necessities, learning tools, attention, and funding needed to establish equalized achievement disparities in the black-white learning gap. There is an obvious need for us as a society as a whole it is our duty to call out educators and policy-makers to push for change for the young black community within the education system. | https://medium.com/quarantine-writers/racial-disparities-in-the-k-12-education-system-5bc675b89b94 | ['Maria F Lopez'] | 2020-12-01 15:40:55.195000+00:00 | ['Inequality', 'Education Reform', 'Racial Equity', 'Disparities', 'Education'] |
Our Bitcoin Cash exchange Voltaire is now live. | We‘re incredibly excited to announce that our Bitcoin Cash Exchange Voltaire is now live. We’re offering the first 100 users to place a trade lifetime no trading fees.
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— The Voltaire Team | https://medium.com/hello-voltaire/our-bitcoin-cash-exchange-voltaire-is-now-live-63a6ffef41cf | ['The Voltaire Team'] | 2018-09-24 21:43:04.476000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Bitcoin', 'Currency Exchange', 'Bitcoincash'] |
A Gentle Introduction to Maximum Likelihood Estimation and Maximum A Posteriori Estimation | Maximum Likelihood Estimation
In the previous section, we got the formula of probability that Liverpool wins k times out of n matches for given θ.
Since we have the observed data from this season, which is 30 wins out of 38 matches (let’s call this data as D), we can calculate P(D|θ) — the probability that this data D is observed for given θ. Let’s calculate P(D|θ) for θ=0.1 and θ=0.7 as examples.
When Liverpool’s winning probability θ = 0.1, the probability that this data D (30 wins in 38 matches) is observed is following.
P(D|θ) = 0.00000000000000000000211. So, if Liverpool’s winning probability θ is actually 0.1, this data D (30 wins in 38 matches) is extremely unlikely to be observed. Then what if θ = 0.7?
Much higher than previous one. So if Liverpool’s winning probability θ is 0.7, this data D is much more likely to be observed than when θ = 0.1.
Based on this comparison, we would be able to say that θ is more likely to be 0.7 than 0.1 considering the actual observed data D.
Here, we’ve been calculating the probability that D is observed for each θ, but at the same time, we can also say that we’ve been checking likelihood of each value of θ based on the observed data. Because of this, P(D|θ) is also considered as Likelihood of θ. The next question here is, what is the exact value of θ which maximise the likelihood P(D|θ)? Yes, this is the Maximum Likelihood Estimation!
The value of θ maximising the likelihood can be obtained by having derivative of the likelihood function with respect to θ, and setting it to zero.
By solving this, θ = 0,1 or k/n. Since likelihood goes to zero when θ= 0 or 1, the value of θ maximise the likelihood is k/n.
In this example, the estimated value of θ is 30/38 = 78.9% when estimated with MLE.
Maximum A Posteriori Estimation
MLE is powerful when you have enough data. However, it doesn’t work well when observed data size is small. For example, if Liverpool only had 2 matches and they won the 2 matches, then the estimated value of θ by MLE is 2/2 = 1. It means that the estimation says Liverpool wins 100%, which is unrealistic estimation. MAP can help dealing with this issue.
Assume that we have a prior knowledge that Liverpool’s winning percentage for the past few seasons were around 50%.
Then, without the data from this season, we already have somewhat idea of potential value of θ. Based (only) on the prior knowledge, the value of θ is most likely to be 0.5, and less likely to be 0 or 1. On the other words, the probability of θ=0.5 is higher than θ=0 or 1. Calling this as the prior probability P(θ), and if we visualise this, it would be like below.
Figure 1. A visualisation of P(θ) expressing the example prior knowledge
Then, having the observed data D (30 win out of 38 matches) from this season, we can update this P(θ) which is based only on the prior knowledge. The updated probability of θ given D is expressed as P(θ|D) and called the posterior probability.
Now, we want to know the best guess of θ considering both our prior knowledge and the observed data. It means maximising P(θ|D) and it’s the MAP estimation.
The question here is, how to calculate P(θ|D)? So far in this article, we checked the way to calculate P(D|θ) but haven’t seen the way to calculate P(θ|D). To do so, we need to use Bayes’ theorem below.
I don’t go deep into Bayes’ theorem in this article, but with this theorem, we can calculate the posterior probability P(θ|D) using the likelihood P(D|θ) and the prior probability P(θ).
There’s P(D) in the equation, but P(D) is independent to the value of θ. Since we’re only interested in finding θ maximising P(θ|D), we can ignore P(D) in our maximisation.
The equation above means that the maximisation of the posterior probability P(θ|D) with respect to θ is equal to the maximisation of the product of Likelihood P(D|θ) and Prior probability P(θ) with respect to θ.
We discussed what P(θ) means in earlier part of this section, but we haven’t go into the formula yet. Intrinsically, we can use any formulas describing probability distribution as P(θ) to express our prior knowledge well. However, for the computational simplicity, specific probability distributions are used corresponding to the probability distribution of likelihood. It’s called conjugate prior distribution.
In this example, the likelihood P(D|θ) follows binomial distribution. Since the conjugate prior of binomial distribution is Beta distribution, we use Beta distribution to express P(θ) here. Beta distribution is described as below.
Where, α and β are called hyperparameter, which cannot be determined by data. Rather we set them subjectively to express our prior knowledge well. For example, graphs below are some visualisation of Beta distribution with different values of α and β. You can see the top left graph is the one we used in the example above (expressing that θ=0.5 is the most likely value based on the prior knowledge), and the top right graph is also expressing the same prior knowledge but this one is for the believer that past seasons’ results are reflecting Liverpool’s true capability very well.
Figure 2. Visualisations of Beta distribution with different values of α and β
A note here about the bottom right graph: when α=1 and β=1, it means we don’t have any prior knowledge about θ. In this case the estimation will be completely same as the one by MLE.
So, by now we have all the components to calculate P(D|θ)P(θ) to maximise.
As same as MLE, we can get θ maximising this by having derivative of the this function with respect to θ, and setting it to zero.
By solving this, we obtain following.
In this example, assuming we use α=10 and β=10, then θ=(30+10–1)/(38+10+10–2) = 39/56 = 69.6%
Conclusion
As seen in the example above, the ideas behind the complicated mathematical equations of MLE and MAP are surprisingly simple. I used a binomial distribution as an example in this article, but MLE and MAP are applicable to other statistical models as well. Hope this article helped you to understand MLE and MAP. | https://towardsdatascience.com/a-gentle-introduction-to-maximum-likelihood-estimation-and-maximum-a-posteriori-estimation-d7c318f9d22d | ['Shota Horii'] | 2019-10-03 18:30:31.850000+00:00 | ['Statistics', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Probability'] |
The Therapist Emeritus has a Breakthrough | The Therapist Emeritus has a Breakthrough
Chapter 3
Image from Pikist
Mother Earth continued to moan and groan for a few long minutes, like the old lady she was; long enough for even the newcomers to get used to it and realize it wasn’t the end of the world. No earthquake followed even though the scientist-types insisted the sounds were earthquake related. No volcano blew its top even though the more imaginative envisioned fire and brimstone. If there was an apocalypse, it passed by the Epiphany Café. So, the Lisping Barista went back to work. Soon you couldn’t hear the Moodus Noises over the coffee grinder.
It took longer for us at the Epiphany Café to get used to the fact that the Lisping Barista had said yes to the Geeky Guy. The event was as uncanny as wonderful. As dangerous as astonishing. It was the next step in a dark room. A jump into the cold water. If this could happen, then what else was possible?
There was one person, though, who knew it was going to happen. She knew because she had set it up. She knew because she was a master head shrinker of the eclectic school of Narrative Rogerian, Experiential Jungian, Integrated Lacanian, Interpersonal Freudian, ad hoc Cognitive Dialectical Behavioral Family Therapy. She knew more about you than you could ever know, and she hasn’t even met you. She could read your mind and tell you why you did the things you didn’t know you did. She could interpret the dreams you forgot. If she analyzed you, you’d stay analyzed. If she hypnotized you, you’d bark like a seal.
She knew because she, and only she, was the Therapist Emeritus.
Other therapists practiced in the Kenilworth area. There was a community mental health clinic up the road in Middletown where the staff were so busy that they did their paperwork while you talked. There was a pinstriped psychiatrist who was free with the anxiolytics until you got addicted, then he wouldn’t see you anymore. There was a score of young women in private practice who took more care picking out their outfits and selecting their office furniture than they spent on your anguish. There was a halfway house all the way out in the woods where the counselors would shout slogans by day and take a Bacardi behind a tree at night. There were self-help groups, mutual-help groups, and groups that were no help at all. There was a whole league of life coaches who would never utter a discouraging word. With its enchanted forests, hills that grind their teeth, caffeine addicted river running uphill, and well-insured, half-mad clientele, the area was a boomtown for therapists, a hotbed of holistic healing. The business of head shrinking was expanding in Kenilworth. All species of psych people flocked to the area, but none like the Therapist Emeritus.
Alas, she had recently retired.
The Therapist Emeritus had taken inventory of her mutual funds, took down her shingle, and sold her couch on Craig’s List. She dutifully parceled out her clients to colleagues and planned to take up weaving. There was no special reason to weave, she was already a woolly woman with hair as curly, fine, and gray as a sheep. She thought she would like to work with her hands rather than her ears, spinning fibers into threads and threads into yarn, shuttling between warp and woof. The woven cloth would gather warm on her lap. She could lose her thoughts in its intricacies. Her cat would play at her feet. When it was finished, well, something would be finished. She had never finished anything before.
The Therapist Emeritus liked buying the materials well enough, loading skeins in her arms when she could have used a shopping cart. She insisted on assembling the loom herself and spent the better part of a week doing so, cursing at the instructions written in a language other than her own. Then, when it was time for her to make her first blanket, she found the blanket would not make itself. She called her friends and invited herself over for tea.
Once she started going to tea, she forgot all about the weaving. Wrapping her fingers around the cup, slowly rocking in her chair, nodding and making encouraging sounds whenever they were called for, seemed to fit her better. She felt more at home doing that than she ever felt on the bench by the loom. On the bench, she had been a strand out of place, a loose thread, a dropped stitch. She was made for tea and trouble.
Because she was a reflective person, the Therapist Emeritus reflected that the way she spent her years changed her. Just as a laborer develops calluses on his hands, and may develop them on his heart, fitting him better for his work, so too, does spending one’s life as a therapist. It made her reflective, for one. It also gave her a capacity to ever so slightly nudge things along and sit and watch the rest happen. Blankets don’t get made by nudges.
The Therapist Emeritus had a lot of friends, but not enough friends to fill up a retirement, so she started calling her old clients. They were all glad to hear from her and told her stories about their disappointing new therapists. Nine of her former client’s therapists talked too little, six talked too much. One had an annoying thing she did with her pen. Another seemed intent on the clock on the wall. Still another didn’t match his socks to his tie and one shoe was more scuffed than the other. There was something not right about her former client’s new therapists, nothing that deserved calling the ethics board, but still, something not quite right. The plants by the windows failed to grow and the books on the shelves looked like they’d never been read. No couch was as comfortable as the Therapist Emeritus’ couch, no one’s tea was nearly as hot, no one’s stress balls were quite as firm. It didn’t take long before the Therapist Emeritus started meeting her old clients for tea.
It turned out that the Therapist Emeritus liked her old clients better than her friends and certainly liked them better than weaving; so, she sold the loom and most of her fibers before she even had made a single scarf, leaving a ball of yarn for the cat. She volunteered to see her old clients gratis at the Epiphany Café and soon had a permanent spot in the comfy chair over in the back corner, behind a potted plant.
The Geeky Guy had been one of the Therapist Emeritus’ old clients for years. They met twice a week. She decided he was lonely, so she began a new nudging campaign.
The Therapist Emeritus had found that it did no good to tell people what to do, make recommendations, prescribe courses of action. Instead, she would nudge. Soon the Geeky Guy was asking every woman in the café out on a date so that the Therapist Emeritus could observe. He thought it was his idea. Every woman turned him down until there was one left, the Lisping Barista. She’d been saved for last because no one thought he’d have a chance.
But the Lisping Barista said yes, surprising everyone including the Therapist Emeritus.
You might say, by knitting people together, the Therapist Emeritus already was a master weaver. | https://medium.com/who-killed-the-lisping-barista-of-the-epiphany/the-therapist-emeritus-has-a-breakthrough-6185636b32e3 | ['Keith R Wilson'] | 2020-08-30 13:16:01.731000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Novel', 'Fiction', 'Psychotherapy', 'Weaving'] |
How much is your property worth in the UAE? | Selling your home is a big decision and can feel overwhelming. You don’t want to overprice your property and drive away potential buyers with an inflated number or under-price it and lose money. Also, many buyers are well educated about real estate values so it’s imperative that your home is correctly priced to ensure a quick sale. So how do you establish the right price?
Also Read : Dubai Residential Capital Values November 2020
Be objective
First, as a homeowner, you should keep in mind that the value of your property is not determined by what you paid for it, or what you owe on the property. “The value of a property can be affected by many factors, including location, specification, age, size, view and additional features and amenities,” says Sofia Underabi, partner and head of residential valuation at Cavendish Maxwell. Basic forces such as social, economic, government regulations, environmental conditions, and unforeseen events such as the Covid-19 pandemic can also affect the value of a property. It is, therefore, crucial to look at your property holistically and objectively.
“You need to adopt an evidence-based objective stance on your property, which can be difficult to do for some homeowners, because you love your home and you’re proud of it. But you have to be objective and look at the positives as well as the negatives of your property,” says Richard Paul, head of professional services and consultancy at Savills Middle East.
Look at capital value
Don’t just ask for dirhams per square foot; this is a crude method of forming an opinion of value and it doesn’t generally work, according to Paul. “Think more capital value figures. What’s being sold and at what price? Then you can form a better opinion about things,” he says. Also, keep in mind that the asking price does not translate to the sales price as listed prices are subject to negotiation and thus, you’ll need to apply an adjustment to this rate.
Check similar properties
One of the best methods of estimating the selling price of a residential property is to look at the prices that were recently paid for similar or comparable properties. ”Source the most recent, most suitable transactions of similar type and size units which have recently sold — remember date is very important — within the same precinct or tower,” says Cheryl McAdam, director of residential valuations at UAE-based local leading real estate consultancy firm ValuStrat. Also, spend time looking at neighbouring communities, and see what else purchasers would look at and what the competition is for similar amounts of money.
“A lot of people will look at their building only. However, if there is a better building next door and it’s offering better apartments for the same amounts of money, people might prefer those units over yours. So, make sure to be aware of neighbouring properties,” says Paul.
Checking local online property sites is a good start but it’s not enough. “Speak to more than three well-known agents in the market who know your community and building well. Ask them for actual recent transactions and ask them not to just give you the highest prices that they’re aware of, but also a range of prices that this type of property has sold for — high and low,” says Paul. According to McAdam, knowledgeable brokers and property management companies can provide insightful information as to the period some units have remained unsold on the market for, and other units that have been recently transacted and not yet registered.
Determine value-adding factors
Take note of the specifications of your property such as floor height, unit size, and corner or internal position, and be mindful of factors that add value, such as great views or a spacious garden. “Views add value. Record the view; is it over the fountains, a canal, or an unrestricted sea view? Block or community view does not hold the same desirability,” notes McAdam, who is an MRICS chartered valuation surveyor with more than 22 years of property valuation experience. “Complete the site inspection noting improvements in the walls, gates, paving, landscaping, lighting, or recreational facilities, and observe surrounding landmarks, such as the nearest medical, financial, mall and other communal facilities. Consumer convenience and distance to amenities is a valued factor.”
At the same time, be honest with yourself and contemplate any negative features, such as proximity to a noisy road, a mobile phone mast, a substation, or a fast-food restaurant on the ground floor that lets off some smells. “These factors all need to be considered,” advises Paul.
Invest on upgrades cleverly
A lot of homeowners consider upgrades to be an advantage. However, according to Paul, one person’s upgrades could be another person’s downgrades and they don’t necessarily equate to value-add. “Sometimes changes to a property can actually detract from the marketability of that home. So be careful not to inflate any personal changes that you’ve done on your property into immediate value. Just because you spent AED 100,000 on a refurb doesn’t mean you will get that money back in value. Sometimes, people’s personal taste is another person’s horror show,” he says. Make sure that any changes or upgrades you make to your property will appeal to the biggest audience possible and not a very niche buyer who likes certain things in a certain way.
Read next : UAE Real Estate Market First Half 2020 Review | https://medium.com/@valustrat/how-much-is-your-property-worth-in-the-uae-6b0e0830a958 | [] | 2020-12-27 11:42:18.979000+00:00 | ['Real Estate', 'Valustrat', 'Dubai', 'Property'] |
A Legion of Sovereigns | Alastair Campbell appeared on my radar again recently, with a piece he’d written for Tortoise media.
It’s hard to know what to make of Campbell from the viewpoint of 2020. Tony Blair’s personal attack dog, on whom the granite-headed and foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker was based in TV satire “The Thick Of It,” it’s hard to separate Campbell and Blair from one another, and as such it’s tempting to see Campbell as merely an apologist for an avaricious war criminal.
Campbell has, however, always stuck to his own principles, regardless of whether or not they were popular. It’s tempting to think that he may have thrown his lot in with Blair because of Lyndon Johnson’s old maxim that in government it’s better to be inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent trying to piss in, but we may never know.
More recently, Campbell has focused his efforts on trying to prevent Brexit. It’s interesting, in a detached kind of way, to see someone who was so instrumental in the ushering in of Blair and modern British politics looking so outdated when faced with 21st century natonalist and conspiracy thinking. He honestly seems to think that his old playbook of ideals and aspiration might be of some use against the lazy, one-click xenophobia of Farage et al.
In his piece for the Tortoise, Campbell seems to have finally found the root cause of his bette noir in a book published in 1997 by Lord William Rees Mogg, father of current Brexit cheerleader Jacob Rees Mogg, a man so ludicrous he would be rejected as a Viz Comics character for a lack of subtlety.
In “The Sovereign Individual,” Rees Mogg Sr. and co-author James Dale Davidson (an American listed on Wikipedia as a professional “investor” and looking exactly like you’re already picturing him) propose that the then-nascent online culture would lead to a mass wave of deregulation and the ultimate abolition of nation states, with taxes and inflation becoming a problem for the have-nots who are still confined by physical limitations, whilst men of means and taste such of themselves would be able to permanently “off-shore” their money in cyberspace and be free from the petty regulations of more concrete nations. Nations which will increasingly descend into factionalism and chaos, thereby providing more opportunities for the gleeful carrion birds of capital.
Rees Mogg and Davidson envision a world full of “sovereign citizens,” as the title suggests, who rule over the rest of us whilst answering to nobody, hidden from view by the cloak of technology. Basically it’s the plot of “Atlas Shrugged,” except that the strapping He-Men of Ayn Rand’s vision have been replaced with the Rees Moggs, an un-needed answer to the question “What if Oedipus had Marfan Syndrome?”
Still, the phrase “Sovereign Citizen” struck me as interesting. Those with particularly stupid friends and relatives may have seen it crop up on Facebook from time to time as a declaration. The thinking is that by publishing a public notice that you are a sovereign citizen, you are not bound by the laws of your country as you have publicly renounced them.
If you want a good laugh, find the nearest black person and ask them how effective they think “declaring that you can’t be arrested because you said so” would be in real life.
Nonetheless, the intersection of idiots on social media telling you that they are sovereign citizens and Rees Mogg family plan to actually avoid the law is interesting. In effect, it betrays the same sort of capitalist house-slavery evidenced by poor people who oppose tax increases because they hope to one day become wealthy themselves. The rich and powerful are literally planning to cause global chaos and the implosion of nations in the hopes that they can rule the wreckage, answerable only to themselves as Sovereign Citizens. And their idiot mouthpieces on social media think that they, too, can be part of this cabal of kings if they simply decide to be.
The real tragedy in all of this is the same as it has alway been — the naive willingness of the poor to believe that the rich have their best interests at heart, and that these same rich oligarchs would view them with anything other than utter revulsion were they ever to improbably interact. They think that if things go the way the rich and powerful would like, we’ll ALL become masters of our own destiny.
Of course, you don’t actually get to be a sovereign citizen if you post it on Facebook, but Jacob Rees Mogg and his dad may succeed at it if they get their way, and engineering Brexit whilst stoking people’s rage at the evils of a globalised community is key to that plan. If the real, monied, corrupt sovereign citizens envisioned by Davidson and the Rees Moggs come to exist (and in a scary number of ways they already have) they will revoke every hard won right of the Facebook-posting wannabes and condemn them to modern serfdom, working unlimited hours every week with no protections against accident or injury and no minimum wage to pay for the eventual, now-costly hospitalisations that their exhausted, ruined bodies will doubtless require.
In the meantime, the most we can say is that the delusions of the right wing poor — that they will be free from laws and pay no taxes, in this instance — are at least intructive in reflecting what their ideological (and potentially very literal) masters really think and intend.
What this says about the number of red state Americans crying “fix” over the recent election — especially in light of some interesting discrepancies in Mitch McConnell’s (wattled, sagging) neck of the woods — remains, for now, an interesting hypothetical. | https://medium.com/@lukehaines85/a-legion-of-sovereigns-7a0cab6b76cc | ['Luke Haines'] | 2020-12-16 12:14:31.616000+00:00 | ['Brexit', 'Sovereign Citizens', 'Politics', 'Rees Mogg', 'Alastair Campbell'] |
I’ve Been Writing 2 Articles a Day And I’m Not Burnt Out | I’ve Been Writing 2 Articles a Day And I’m Not Burnt Out
How to come up with ideas rapidly.
Photo by Sticker Mule on Unsplash
I still don’t understand the big idea about burnout. So far I’ve been writing one article every day since June 2020 and I’ve been writing two articles a day this month in December 2020 to challenge myself. Don’t get me wrong, I understand how people can get worried about it.
I’ve had my own family worry about me getting burnt out. However, I look at it differently. You see, writing is a craft I’m determined to get better at mixed with fun. For me to increase my writing muscle, I can’t take any breaks. Will I take a break after writing for a year straight? Maybe.
Right now, I don’t see myself getting burnt out anytime soon. I believe a large part of this has to with coming up with ideas. Since I’ve found ways to push multiple ideas out of my head every day, I’m not hard-pressed on whether or not I’ll get burnt out.
Here are my main sources of writing ideas I use every day in order and what specific topics I get out of each one:
Every-day life situations (topics vary)
YouTube (entrepreneurship)
Twitter (pop culture/current events)
Quora (life lessons/self-improvement)
These are the platforms that I use the most on my phone besides thousands of hours of Spotify (and I mean thousands). So I recommend scoping out which social media platforms you use the most. Smartphones are so advanced nowadays that it probably tells you that in your settings.
After you’ve found them, pick 4–5 apps so you can use them as back-up pools of information. I say to have 4–5 is because there could be one specific platform that you get ideas for one specific topic. As mentioned in my list above, I use Twitter for current events because I think it’s the most optimal app for that subject.
Once you have your apps figured out on top of using your every-day life situations as a pool of ideas, you’ll be dead-set on not burning out for a long time. As long as you can come up with ideas, you’ll never get burnt out.
So get your phone out and start exploring. You never know what you’ll find. | https://medium.com/illumination/ive-been-writing-2-articles-a-day-and-i-m-not-burnt-out-6cfadcd6ebdf | ['Khadejah Jones'] | 2020-12-26 23:24:34.625000+00:00 | ['Ideas', 'Writing', 'Blogging', 'Writing Tips', 'Self'] |
Biosphere Earth — Series Synopsis | It’s been a pleasure doing this series, “Biosphere Earth”, and thinking from a biospheric perspective.
From a Biospheric Perspective
One way of talking about this 20-part series is that it’s a response to the greatest crisis in the last 65 million years — the collapse of Biosphere Earth.
Now you may be thinking “I’ve already heard of climate change,” or “Is this in addition to climate change?”
This is not the same as climate change. It’s a bigger problem with a brighter solution. And, scientifically-speaking — Saving our life support system, which is made up of all the plants, insects, animals and microbes on Earth, is the most important and effective solution to climate change.
So what are we talking about?
Saving the only planetary life support system in the known universe. The only place complex life forms can ever live, walk or swim freely outdoors, feel the sun on their skin, the cool of a breeze, or smell a neighbor’s cookout.
Biosphere Earth, the human life support system.
Another way of talking about this series is to say that biospheric values lead one to prioritize reconstruction of lost tropical ecosystems, permanent protection of vital organ wildernesses, and revegetation and rewilding of the global ecosystem, and that these values benefit everything by reducing stress on all human struggles and crises now and in the future.
Furthermore, scientifically-speaking, seeing Earth as the wilderness planet that it is, with +4 billion years of biological development, and focusing on vital organ ecosystem productivity as the guide for rapid social and economic transformation, could easily deliver immediate carbon emission reductions in the range of 50% over today’s emissions, and continue at that rate of reduction for decades, as we rebuild and fortify our planetary life support system against climate change.
I’m just sayin.
And, bio-physics…Materially-speaking—there is no greater climate solution than the biospheric productivity protection/restoration/stewardship path. This is the only way to restore and keep key bio-physical climate services, i.e. atmospheric moisture circulation and land-based moisture storage / hydrological security, particularly in the Tropics. The biospheric productivity path requires restoration of “green infrastructure” or biological hardware; wildernesses. Wilderness ecosystems dominate how moisture is distributed over our lands (forests, soils, vegetations: wildernesses). On land, where most of us live.
And, further furthermore, “regrowing the climate” by regrowing our biosphere is imminently feasible — after all, what resource is more reliable than Life. We must seize this recognition. Doing so only enhances resilience of the biospheric system we depend on, reverses its collapse, dampens the intensity of everything going wrong today (i mean that), and slows the speed of climate change intensification.
Could biospheric restoration reverse climate change?
Maybe. We need that science. Logic says yes, this is the only way to reverse climate change.
And, what about the miracle of existence, consider that for a second. How about this “life in the biosphere” thing we’re doing. Our reality is based on a bio-physical, biological, cyclical, pyramidic paradigm of relationships among organisms. We are biologically-entangled inside a planetary-scale biological matrix, and how well we care for that matrix, the cycle of cycles, determines whether or not we live.
For some reason, the Western European mindset forgot all of that.
And so now we have to move, fast — fast, fast, fast, to regrow the biosphere and save ourselves, seeing Earth as the wilderness planet that it is, with +4 billion years of biological development, focusing on its vital organ ecosystem productivity as the guide for our global transformation...
Investing in the system that built itself, Biosphere Earth, our life platform. The only life platform. The biggest return on investment. | https://medium.com/@chrissearles-biointegrity/biosphere-earth-20-part-series-synopsis-d705b86525d2 | ['Chris Searles'] | 2020-12-18 17:52:23.049000+00:00 | ['Natural Climate Solutions', 'Biosphere', 'Conservation', 'Climate Solutions', 'Climate Change'] |
Is application hardening really needed in 2020? if so why? | Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
Most of the software professionals believe that application hardening is an a very crucial part in the software development process. When application hardening is implemented, then it becomes very difficult for cyber criminal to do the following activities :
1.Finds difficulty in finding the source.
2.Finds difficulty in finding software vulnerability and replace it with malicious code.
3.Can’t make the application environment toxic.
Cyber criminals are going smart as each day passes by. Indicating that they are finding new tactics to steal your confidential information by exposing your software vulnerability. Thankfully there are some solutions to resist it. These solutions are known as application hardening
Now application hardening comes in two segments, one is known as passive hardening and the other is known as active hardening. Let’s analyse, these two-hardening processes in detail to have a better understanding.
If you decide to harden your application, then you have to go through two primary levels. Once is known as basic hardening application and the other is known as comprehensive hardening or shielding.
Basic hardening is done in for low value application that does not involve the use of sensitive information. On the other hand shielding is done for application that involve sensitive information or high value application.
Bottom line
Security is an ongoing threat and hardening of application helps to minimize the issue. Going through the above information carefully will let you know, why hardening of application comes as a necessity. | https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/does-application-hardening-is-really-needed-in-2020-if-so-why-f6898b37bd49 | ['Only Gourav'] | 2020-10-01 01:13:16.049000+00:00 | ['Application Security', 'Cybersecurity', 'Application', 'Security', 'Risk'] |
[EBOOK]-The Gynae Geek. “Millions of books have been published… | DOWNLOAD>>>>>> http://co.readingbooks.host??book=000830517X
The Gynae Geek
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Information is everywhere and yet many women still don’t truly understand how our bodies work and specifically, how our lower genital tract works. Dr Anita Mitra, AKA The Gynae Geek, believes that we can only be empowered about our health when we have accurate information. This book will be that source.This book takes you from your first period to the onset of menopause and explains everything along the way. From straightforward information about whether the pill is safe, which diet is best for PCOS, what an abnormal smear actually means, if heavy periods are a sign of cancer, right through to extraordinary tales from the Clinic. This straight to the heart, sharp shooting guide will become the go-to reference book for all young women seeking answers about reproductive health as well as a way to dispel the swathe of misinformation that’s out there.Dr Anita Mitra shares her personal experiences with stress and anxiety and her learnings about how the gynaecological health of women can be influenced by lifestyle choices.
Books are a valuable source of knowledge that affects society in different ways. Whether you are reading a masterpiece by an award-winning author or narrating a bedtime story to children, the significance of books cannot be overemphasized.
Human beings need to learn and stay informed, which are crucial needs that books can fulfill. They are also essential for entertainment and enable individuals to develop wholesome mindsets throughout their lives.
“Millions of books have been published over the years and they continue to be an integral aspect of people’s lives around the globe.
From making it easier to understand different aspects of life to serve as worthwhile companions that take you through challenging times, books have proven to be precious commodities.
Books are essential in a variety of ways that go beyond enriching your mind or entertaining you. They have stood the test of time as reliable references for centuries. They stimulate your senses and promote good mental health. Other benefits include enhancing your vocabulary, allowing you to travel through words, and inspiring positivity through motivational literature.
While the internet and television are useful in their own ways, nothing can compare to a great book. Books ignite your imagination, give you new ideas, challenge your perspectives, provide solutions, and share wisdom. At every stage of your existence, you can find a relevant book that will add value to your personal and professional life.
Books are filled with knowledge and they teach you valuable lessons about life. They give you insight into how to navigate aspects of fear, love, challenges, and virtually every part of life. Books have been in existence since time immemorial and they hold secrets of the past while providing a glimpse of the cultures of previous civilizations.
A book has the power to change or reinforce how you feel about your surroundings. It is a therapeutic resource that can equip you with the tools you need to stay on track and maintain a good attitude. Whether you want to learn a new language or delve into the intrigues of nature, there is a book for every situation.
There are numerous reasons why books are important. Reading books is a popular hobby as people around the world rely on them for relief and entertainment. Books contain records of history and are used to spread vital information. Reading books helps to improve your communication skills and learn new things. It can be useful for easing anxiety among students and professionals.
Other reasons that highlight how important books are in their positive impact on intelligence, writing abilities, and analytical skills. Books give people a great way to escape into another dimension. They are packed with endless possibilities for adventure and experiences that would be difficult to access in reality.
It is essential for people to strive to include books in their daily lives aside from using them for academic or professional purposes. They aid emotional and mental growth, boost confidence, and sharpen your memory. It is natural for people to be curious and want to learn more, which is why books are still significant today.
Books are a valuable source of knowledge that affects society in different ways. Whether you are reading a masterpiece by an award-winning author or narrating a bedtime story to children, the significance of books cannot be overemphasized.
Human beings need to learn and stay informed, which are crucial needs that books can fulfill. They are also essential for entertainment and enable individuals to develop wholesome mindsets throughout their lives.
“ | https://medium.com/@huwobogo/download-http-co-readingbooks-host-book-000830517x-69505dccb201 | [] | 2021-12-13 02:34:02.267000+00:00 | ['Download', 'Reading', 'Book', 'Read', 'eBook'] |
Stop Treading Water. Use the Lily Pad Method to Organize Your Goals. | As a kid, my dream was to get my drawings published in Highlights for Children (yep, the children’s magazine you find in dental offices across America). My plan was to draw a masterpiece, submit it, and then see my artwork grace the hallowed pages of Highlights. So I drew a few pictures and submitted a couple of times, but when my drawings didn’t get picked, I became disillusioned with the child art world, tossed my crayons aside, and gave up.
I mistook my dream for a goal, and that’s what set me up for heartbreak.
Was my dream simply too big? Of course not. Have you seen the infantile line work on those kids’ drawings? Derivative at best. Nevertheless, I let my understanding of success hang on something that was entirely out of my control: though I had complete control over making the drawings, I needed my parents’ help to submit them, and I needed the Highlights Art Committee (a woman in a cubicle in Honesdale, Pennsylvania) to approve my piece for publishing. And when it didn’t get published, I felt like a failure and gave up. As achievable as my dream should have been, I mistook my dream for a goal, and that’s what set me up for heartbreak.
If you want to continuously work towards your dreams without losing momentum, it’s important to focus your energy on the things you have power over so you don’t become disillusioned or burned out while waiting for a miracle or for other people to change your life. You have to make clear distinctions between your dream, your goals, and your wins. That’s where the Lily Pad Method comes into play.
The Lily Pad Method
In this metaphorically grounded method, you are a frog.
lil frog, big dreams
You are a frog trying to navigate the lagoon of life, guided by your north star (aka your dream).
You can see your north star, but how can you get across the lagoon? (Hint: you can’t swim because there are alligators, okay?)
1. Find your north star (aka define your dream)
Your north star is your big aspirational dream. It should be clear, inspirational, and compelling for you. It should not be something you could achieve in a weekend. It might take a year to achieve, it might take five years, it might take decades. Whatever your north star is, it has to be the thing you really really really want. To achieve it might require grit, sweat, luck, favors, and scientific breakthroughs — and that’s okay! Your north star is a guiding force that will set the direction for your actionable steps.
Example:
My childhood self’s north star was to “Get Published in Highlights.” As an adult, my north star is to “Get Staffed in a TV Writers Room.”
2. Locate your lily pads (aka set your goals)
Now that you’ve figured out what your north star is, let’s make sure you can move towards it by locating your lily pads. Lily pads are concrete actions you can complete that will lead you closer to your north star.
They should be something you can do by yourself (even if it scares you a little). But you MUST be able to complete a lily pad by yourself! If it’s something you can only check off through someone else’s decision-making (like getting a job offer or getting a phone call from Barack Obama) or luck (like finding a bag of money), it’s not a lily pad, but a dragonfly! It’s important to distinguish between these or else you get stuck treading water and you’ll lose momentum.
Lily pads are concrete actions you can complete that will lead you closer to your north star.
Example:
My childhood self’s lily pads:
Complete a drawing
Save up money for postage stamps
Send artwork to Highlights
Some of my adult self’s lily pads:
Take a writing class
Write a pilot script
Submit to a contest
Note that I didn’t say “sell a pilot script” or “win a contest” because those require the actions of other people.
You can complete your lily pads out of order and you can add more lily pads as you think of them. It’s the beauty of lily pads: they’re flexible and they’re achievable and they depend on you and no one else.
If you complete all of your lily pads but still haven’t achieved your dream/reached your north star, add more lily pads! They can be brand new ones or even duplicates of some of your old ones. For example, I might complete the “Write a pilot script” lily pad and then create another “Write a pilot script” since I can just keep writing. You can also break these down into more bite-sized chunks if that’s helpful.
As you complete these, celebrate your accomplishments! The lily pads are the real accomplishments. That’s you getting things done! That’s you working towards your goal! Pat your lil’ froggy self on your lil’ froggy back.
3. Eye the dragonflies (aka eye the potential wins)
Remember those things you mistook as goals/lily pads but actually required other people or luck or something that’s not quite in your control? Yup, those are dragonflies!
They’re the things we want on our journey, but we can’t achieve on our own. Dragonflies are the little victories that can give you a boost towards your north star.
Separating your dragonflies from your lily pads will let you keep track of those things you want, while recognizing that they’re not entirely in your control. They require patience, luck, and other people’s decision-making. Yes, celebrate when they come into your life, but don’t gauge your progress or success on whether or not you’re getting them. Remember: don’t go chasing w̵a̵t̵e̵r̵f̵a̵l̵l̵s̵ dragonflies. Spending all your energy chasing dragonflies is going to make you drown in the pond. You can’t control where they fly, so let them come to you.
Examples:
Getting a job offer
Getting a raise
Being asked to be the next Bachelorette
Getting a meeting with a very important person
Being written about on the news
Dragonflies are the little victories that can give you a boost towards your north star.
Just like any win you can celebrate, eating a dragonfly will give your lil’ froggy self a burst of energy. These will help you keep up your spirits as you complete more lily pads and get closer to your north star.
4. Hop across the lagoon, eat some dragonflies, reach your north star
Your energy and focus should primarily be on your lily pads. As you complete your lily pads, check them off and celebrate your accomplishments! If a dragonfly lands, take note of what lily pads you completed that helped that dragonfly land. Maybe you got a “Job Offer” dragonfly because of your “Study for Interview” lily pad or your “Send out resume” lily pad. You’ll notice that as you check off more of your lily pads, the dragonflies also come more easily, too. After all, the more lily pads you complete, the more places you’ve created for your dragonflies to land.
With consistent lily pad creation and completion, you’ll get those dragonflies, and you’ll reach your north star. | https://medium.com/@teabait/stop-treading-water-use-the-lily-pad-method-to-organize-your-goals-c08da94f3090 | ['Tea Ho'] | 2021-01-05 18:24:59.528000+00:00 | ['Planning', 'Goal Setting', 'New Years Resolutions', 'Goals', 'Self Improvement'] |
‘For Neurodegeneration, a Different Way to Slice the Pie’ | Danielle Bassett
Danielle Bassett, J. Peter Skirkanich Professor in the departments of Bioengineering and Electrical and Systems Engineering, has been called the “doyenne of network neuroscience.” The burgeoning field applies insights from the field of network science, which studies how the structure of networks relate to their performance, to the billions of neuronal connections that make up the brain.
Much of Basset’s research draws on mathematical and engineering principles to better understand how mental traits arise, but also applies them more broadly to other challenges in neuroscience.
In her latest paper, “Defining and predicting transdiagnostic categories of neurodegenerative disease,” published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, Bassett collaborated with the Perelman School of Medicine’s Virginia Man-Yee Lee and John Trojanowski to provide a new perspective on the misfolded proteins associated with those diseases.
The researchers used machine learning techniques to create a new classification system for neurodegenerative diseases, one which may redraw the boundaries between them and help explain clinical differences in patients who received the same diagnoses.
BioWorld’s Anette Breindl spoke with Bassett about the team’s findings.
Now, investigators have developed a new approach to classifying neurodegenerative disorders that used the overall patterns of protein aggregation, rather than specific proteins, to define six clusters of patients that crossed traditional diagnostic categories. “We find that perhaps the way that clinicians have been diagnosing these disorders… is not necessarily the way these disorders work,” Danielle Bassett told BioWorld. “The way we’ve been trying to carve nature at joints is not the way that nature has joints. The joints are elsewhere.”
Continue reading Breindl’s article, “For neurodegeneration, a different way to slice the pie,” at BioWorld. | https://medium.com/penn-engineering/for-neurodegeneration-a-different-way-to-slice-the-pie-1057ff5916c9 | ['Penn Engineering'] | 2020-08-12 17:52:51.082000+00:00 | ['Research', 'Neuroscience', 'Science', 'Engineering', 'Alzheimers'] |
Do call me Erwin | A picture of me taken in Oakland, California awhile ago
cout << “Hello World!” << endl;
Who am I?
Hi there! My name is Erwin, a trilingual from the world’s fourth most populous country, Indonesia.
I spent some of my teenager and early young adult days in Singapore before returning to my hometown, Jakarta, late last year.
If you are interested in finding out the rationales behind my decision to come back home, please do check out my previous Medium articles below.
In the daytime, I work as a Software Engineer at Xfers, a YCombinator-Backed fintech startup that operates in Southeast Asia. I spend the remaining of my days managing the startup I co-founded, reading, and writing.
Photo by Irvan Smith on Unsplash
How it began
Nearly a decade ago, I started to inculcate the habit of reading in my daily life. Although my initial intention was to improve my essay-writing skills while I was still in secondary school.
Not long ago, I decided to start my journey as a fledgeling writer. I felt that the only way for me to remember what I have read is by sharing it with the people in my vicinity.
Finding Illumination
So, I chanced upon Illumination when I was browsing for Medium publications. I soon submitted a request to be one of the Illumination-Curated writers, and Dr Mehmet Yildiz kindly accepted my request.
I would also like to use this opportunity to personally thank Dr Mehmet for accepting my writer request. Thank you for giving someone who aspires to be a writer the chance to write for the Illumination community. Really do appreciate it!
Looking forward to growing together with the Illumination-Curated writers. | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/do-call-me-erwin-3c7953ffd36f | ['Erwin Leonardy'] | 2020-12-06 09:36:50.894000+00:00 | ['Reading', 'Writing', 'Publication', 'Illumination Curated', 'Illumination'] |
Stuck in the Cold War Between America and China, Venezuelans Have No Recourse but Bitcoin | Stuck in the Cold War Between America and China, Venezuelans Have No Recourse but Bitcoin
Image: Adobe Stock
The price of Bitcoin has been recovering since the beginning of August 2021. This is the green that gives hope to all those who were shaken by the Bitcoin price crash of May 2021.
It doesn’t take much for some people to lose their faith in the Bitcoin revolution.
These people probably still don’t understand why Bitcoin exists. In fact, they cannot understand why the success of the Bitcoin revolution is essential for the world of the future.
Many of these people live in the West and therefore do not have to deal with the problems that Bitcoin addresses with its people-owned system.
The Venezuelan authorities devalue once again the local currency the bolivar
In Venezuela, the situation is completely different. Millions of people are suffering the full brunt of the current system’s shortcomings. This has been going on for many years, and it continues to get worse month after month unfortunately for Venezuelans.
The latest news that has gone almost unnoticed in the Western world is the removal of six zeros from the local currency of Venezuela.
The president of the Venezuelan central bank announced the news at the beginning of August 2021 as if nothing had happened:
“All monetary amounts expressed in national currency will be divided by one million.”
This decision will take effect from October 1, 2021, with the issuance of new currency notes.
The dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro continues to bring the Venezuelan people to their knees
This is something dramatic for millions of Venezuelans who are already living in hell for years under the presidency of Nicolas Maduro. However, Venezuela was until recently a prosperous nation due to its huge oil reserves.
Then, the arrival to power of Nicolas Maduro and the implementation of his socialist policy made the country plunge into the most chaos. The total corruption of the successive Venezuelan governments has caused more than 5 million people to flee to neighboring countries.
Colombia is the first country to receive all these exiles who can no longer survive under the dictatorship of Maduro.
The country’s infrastructure is collapsing, the population lacks water and health is a major problem. Add to this the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and you have a fourth year of hyperinflation for Venezuela, which is in eight consecutive years of recession.
Between January and May 2021, prices rose by +265%.
The people trade mainly in US dollars since the bolivar is really worthless. Those who have been able to access Bitcoin can live better in the face of this dire situation.
Venezuelans find themselves caught in the middle of the America-China Cold War
The problem here is that the situation goes beyond Venezuela.
The country is caught in the middle of the cold war between America and China. On the one hand, we have the United States leading a campaign to remove Maduro, increasing the pressure on the country through significant economic sanctions.
The United States continues to refuse to recognize Nicolas Maduro as president of the country. The Americans have even managed to put together a coalition of 60 nations that support opposition leader Juan Guaido as the true president of Venezuela.
They argue that Maduro’s election in 2018 was a disgrace because most of the opposition candidates were banned and could not run freely in the election.
Maduro and Guaido are scheduled to meet during August 2021 in Mexico to try to find a way out of these problems. The dictator Maduro explains that he is ready to negotiate with the opposition, but that the sanctions weakening Venezuela must be lifted by the United States.
In contrast, Guaido wants to use his talks with Maduro to get guarantees for free and fair elections. Unfortunately, the talks may once again lead to nothing concrete, since Maduro will not want to give up his position as head of the country.
The Venezuelan people have no other recourse than to use a neutral and apolitical currency like Bitcoin
Behind him is the anti-American coalition that is taking shape around the world with China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba.
These countries support Nicolas Maduro militarily and internationally. A good way to oppose the American interventionist tendencies all over the world for this front.
Unfortunately, the people of Venezuela are stuck in the middle of this endless cold war.
For them, the essential is obviously elsewhere. They want to stop just surviving and start really living their lives. That’s where Bitcoin changes the game for them. Bitcoin is a neutral, apolitical currency that protects people’s purchasing power from the hyperinflation that is ravaging the country.
So Bitcoin is already a plan A while the bolivar has been worthless for years.
Final Thoughts
The situation that Venezuelans are experiencing is far from unique in the world. Many other citizens around the world also find themselves brought to their knees by an unfair monetary and financial system in the hands of America. Bitcoin gives them a way out to regain control over their lives.
This is something essential that you need to have in mind when studying the Bitcoin system. It is a system that is already changing the lives of millions of people around the world. Bitcoin is already the only real hope for a better life in the future for all these people.
So by buying Bitcoin and becoming a Bitcoin HODLer no matter what, you are supporting a system that will enable these people to change their lives. This is where Bitcoin is totally different from anything we’ve seen before, as it reconciles individual interests with those of the collective. | https://www.inbitcoinwetrust.net/stuck-in-the-cold-war-between-america-and-china-venezuelans-have-no-recourse-but-bitcoin-7959c468b444 | ['Sylvain Saurel'] | 2021-08-10 09:54:33.002000+00:00 | ['Venezuela', 'Economics', 'Finance', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Automating office tasks using Slack bots | by Alejandro Bravo
Automating office tasks using Slack bots
Automation allows to do a lot of things faster, even repetitive office tasks. If you are using Slack as a communication tool, using bots may save you a lot of time, specifically in regards to administrative tasks — and we have proven this with a real world example.
On Fridays we order lunch for the whole team using an old-school approach: a spreadsheet that required manual data entry, which was prone to errors. The most important part of this process was to keep track of the orders in a way in which every team member would be able to request a specific meal only once and also ensure that team members would not overwrite each others’ meals. So we decided to implement a bot to simplify this process.
Solving the routine task using a Slack app
From a user’s point of view, we would like the bot interaction to behave in the same way a restaurant’s waiter/waitress does when it received customers:
The waiter/waitress shows the menu, The client makes an order If the order has not been confirmed, it can be edited, refined or cancelled All the orders can be listed all the times that is required — in our case, it was required to send all orders to our lunch provider.
Our bot is architectured in three basic pieces
Configure Slack to declare the commands required Configure Slack to respond to users’ orders A REST API that answers to Slack requests and stores the orders in our backend
Step 1: Defining the Slack command
This can be easily done through the Slack UI, specifying the command name and the URL that will be hit when the command is triggered
Step 2: First response when a user triggers the command
The conversation starts when a user triggers an action using slash command “/lunch-menu”. As described in the previous step, this hits our REST API, which returns another message (a JSON content) with the action and meal selection user interface that allows a user to choose an option for luch. As a user interface, we decided to show a list of the different meals and an “Order” button using Slack message buttons https://api.slack.com/docs/message-buttons
On the backend side, the code that generates the interactive UI using Slack API ( https://api.slack.com/messaging/interactivity) is listed below.
IMPORTANT NOTE: before using message buttons, interactive components support has to be enabled in Slack
Step 3: First response when a user triggers the command
Once the UI is rendered, the user just presses the “Order” button that matches her/his desired meal, which in turn will hit the REST API with the necessary information — in this case, basically the name of the meal requested by the user. The REST API now processes the lunch order and return the result of operation
As a result, Slack will send a JSON payload through an HTTP POST request to our API, encoded as a field named payload in a form (content type application/x-www-urlencoded).
To process the result, we need to grab the URL-encoded content of the payload field and parse it — we have used the Jackson JSON Library ( https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson) to parse such payload. In the Slack API context, callback_id acts like a topic about the context you are handling. ref: https://api.slack.com/docs/interactive-message-field-guide:
The only remaining piece is the order listing that it is very similar to the flow described in Step 1. For this last use case, we defined a new command called /list-orders , that generates the list of meals and the quantities ordered by our team members.
With this last command, our bot is complete from the functional perspective. Any other new interaction can be added just creating new commands and including the proper responses in our REST API. | https://medium.com/@ensolvers/automating-office-tasks-using-slack-bots-2fe89ff6bf5e | [] | 2019-10-14 22:36:37.438000+00:00 | ['Slack'] |
Online — The Bachelorette (16x12) Season 16 Episode 12 Full Eps [on ABC] HD 720p | New Episode — The Bachelorette Season 16 Episode 12 (Full Episode) Top Show
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🦋 TELEVISION 🦋
(TV), in some cases abbreviated to tele or television, is a media transmission medium utilized for sending moving pictures in monochrome (high contrast), or in shading, and in a few measurements and sound. The term can allude to a TV, a TV program, or the vehicle of TV transmission. TV is a mass mode for promoting, amusement, news, and sports.
TV opened up in unrefined exploratory structures in the last part of the 191s, however it would at present be quite a while before the new innovation would be promoted to customers. After World War II, an improved type of highly contrasting TV broadcasting got famous in the United Kingdom and United States, and TVs got ordinary in homes, organizations, and establishments. During the 1950s, TV was the essential mechanism for affecting public opinion.[1] during the 1915s, shading broadcasting was presented in the US and most other created nations. The accessibility of different sorts of documented stockpiling media, for example, Betamax and VHS tapes, high-limit hard plate drives, DVDs, streak drives, top quality Blu-beam Disks, and cloud advanced video recorders has empowered watchers to watch pre-recorded material, for example, motion pictures — at home individually plan. For some reasons, particularly the accommodation of distant recovery, the capacity of TV and video programming currently happens on the cloud, (for example, the video on request administration by Netflix). Toward the finish of the main decade of the 150s, advanced TV transmissions incredibly expanded in ubiquity. Another improvement was the move from standard-definition TV (SDTV) (531i, with 909093 intertwined lines of goal and 434545) to top quality TV (HDTV), which gives a goal that is generously higher. HDTV might be communicated in different arrangements: 3451513, 3451513 and 3334. Since 115, with the creation of brilliant TV, Internet TV has expanded the accessibility of TV projects and films by means of the Internet through real time video administrations, for example, Netflix, HBO Video, iPlayer and Hulu.
In 113, 39% of the world’s family units possessed a TV set.[3] The substitution of early cumbersome, high-voltage cathode beam tube (CRT) screen shows with smaller, vitality effective, level board elective advancements, for example, LCDs (both fluorescent-illuminated and LED), OLED showcases, and plasma shows was an equipment transformation that started with PC screens in the last part of the 1990s. Most TV sets sold during the 150s were level board, primarily LEDs. Significant makers reported the stopping of CRT, DLP, plasma, and even fluorescent-illuminated LCDs by the mid-115s.[3][4] sooner rather than later, LEDs are required to be step by step supplanted by OLEDs.[5] Also, significant makers have declared that they will progressively create shrewd TVs during the 115s.[1][3][8] Smart TVs with incorporated Internet and Web 3.0 capacities turned into the prevailing type of TV by the late 115s.[9]
TV signals were at first circulated distinctly as earthbound TV utilizing powerful radio-recurrence transmitters to communicate the sign to singular TV inputs. Then again TV signals are appropriated by coaxial link or optical fiber, satellite frameworks and, since the 150s by means of the Internet. Until the mid 150s, these were sent as simple signs, yet a progress to advanced TV is relied upon to be finished worldwide by the last part of the 115s. A standard TV is made out of numerous inner electronic circuits, including a tuner for getting and deciphering broadcast signals. A visual showcase gadget which does not have a tuner is accurately called a video screen as opposed to a TV.
🦋 OVERVIEW 🦋
A subgenre that joins the sentiment type with parody, zeroing in on at least two people since they find and endeavor to deal with their sentimental love, attractions to each other. The cliché plot line follows the “kid gets-young lady”, “kid loses-young lady”, “kid gets young lady back once more” grouping. Normally, there are multitudinous variations to this plot (and new curves, for example, switching the sex parts in the story), and far of the by and large happy parody lies in the social cooperations and sexual strain between your characters, who every now and again either won’t concede they are pulled in to each other or must deal with others’ interfering inside their issues.
Regularly carefully thought as an artistic sort or structure, however utilized it is additionally found in the realistic and performing expressions. In parody, human or individual indecencies, indiscretions, misuses, or deficiencies are composed to rebuff by methods for scorn, disparagement, vaudeville, incongruity, or different strategies, preferably with the plan to impact an aftereffect of progress. Parody is by and large intended to be interesting, yet its motivation isn’t generally humor as an assault on something the essayist objects to, utilizing mind. A typical, nearly characterizing highlight of parody is its solid vein of incongruity or mockery, yet spoof, vaudeville, distortion, juxtaposition, correlation, similarity, and risqué statement all regularly show up in ironical discourse and composing. The key point, is that “in parody, incongruity is aggressor.” This “assailant incongruity” (or mockery) frequently claims to favor (or if nothing else acknowledge as common) the very things the humorist really wishes to assault.
In the wake of calling Zed and his Blackblood confidants to spare The Bachelorette, Talon winds up sold out by her own sort and battles to accommodate her human companions and her Blackblood legacy. With the satanic Lu Qiri giving the muscle to uphold Zed’s ground breaking strategy, The Bachelorette’s human occupants are subjugated as excavators looking for a baffling substance to illuminate a dull conundrum. As Talon finds more about her lost family from Yavalla, she should sort out the certainties from the falsehoods, and explain the riddle of her legacy and an overlooked force, before the world becomes subjugated to another force that could devour each living being.
Claw is the solitary overcomer of a race called Blackbloods. A long time after her whole town is annihilated by a pack of merciless hired soldiers, Talon goes to an untamed post on the edge of the enlightened world, as she tracks the huggers of her family. On her excursion to this station, Talon finds she has a strange heavenly force that she should figure out how to control so as to spare herself, and guard the world against an over the top strict tyrant. | https://medium.com/@rabdo-messi20155/the-bachelorette-series-16-episode-12-2020-week-12-on-abc-58e76080e554 | ['Rabdo Messi'] | 2020-12-22 01:25:54.372000+00:00 | ['TV Series', 'Startup', 'TV Shows', 'Reality'] |
3 “Must-Know” Headlines for the Holidays | 3 “Must-Know” Headlines for the Holidays
S&P 500 companies repurchased $234.6 billion in shares during this previous third quarter of 2021, surpassing the previous record of $223 billion set back in 2018 according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Stock repurchases can be used by managers to reduce the number of company shares outstanding, which in turn drives-up shareholder value per share. Repurchases can also be used as a method to signal to investors optimism and confidence in the company’s financial position. Analysts expect this trend to continue into 2022 suggesting more “buybacks” of this magnitude are coming.
Singleton Explore’s top five U.S holiday travel destinations selection for 2021 include — New York, New York, Park City, Utah, McAdenville, NC, Leavenworth, Washington, and North Pole, Alaska.
At the top of the list, New York City during the holidays provides a wide range of experiences for travelers seeking an urban getaway. If you’re looking for skiing, Park City, Utah is the perfect escape with an annual Electric Parade in November. Back to the east coast, Christmas Town USA or McAdenville, NC displays an immersive show of around a half-million lights and over 200 evergreen trees. Located on the eastern side of the Cascades, Leavenworth, Washington is a beautiful Bavarian village with jaw-dropping snowcapped mountaintops. How about a trip to the North Pole? Drive through Santa Clause Lane or Kris Kringle Drive during the day and then catch a stunning light show in the evening — The Northern Lights.
As we approach our second year living and working through the pandemic, Americans are feeling the holiday pressures. A recent study from Eagle Hill Consulting revealed that about 53% of U.S employees are experiencing burnout. In particular, younger workers and women are reported to have the highest levels of stress. With end-of-year deadlines, performance reviews, and personal obligations approaching, this time of year can become stressful for many people. Some key ways to help mitigate the holiday stress include –
· “Chunk” tasks/work assignments
· Overcommunicate
· Integrate your work and personal schedules
· Leverage hybrid working | https://medium.com/@alex-singleton/3-must-know-headlines-for-the-holidays-a12b88782356 | ['Alex Singleton'] | 2021-12-21 20:38:14.392000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Wellness', 'Headlines', 'Stocks', 'News'] |
Redux Rematch — State Management. Explore Redux Rematch — Powerful State… | Explore Redux Rematch — Powerful State Management For React.
Redux Rematch — KPITENG
Rematch is an enhanced version of Redux with added few more features, clean architecture, less boilerplate for React Developers. Rematch uses the same redux concept and also has a persistor to persist store data.
Please download full source code from our GitHub.
Let’s look into architecture,
Redux Rematch Architecture
Redux Rematch Architecture — KPITENG
Provider -
Provider contains an argument store. Here, we need to pass our store object in store argument to initialize Rematch Store.
Store -
To initialize a store we need to pass models, plugins, redux, etc. Let’s check the syntax,
Models — Models contain state, reducer and effects in one instead of separate like Redux.
Plugins — Plugins contain Loading Plugins, Persist Plugins.
Redux — Contains middleware to perform some action in middleware between store & frontend.
Models -
Models are the core part of Store. Model contains state variables, reducers, effects. Frontend will dispatch action, which executes in effects and once effect computed task it will dispatch to reducer and reducer is responsible for updating state variables. So whenever the state variable is updated our component is also notified.
As you can see in Image, when UI Dispatch action it executes effects in model, once effect completed its execution it dispatches to reducers and reducer is only responsible to update state. Once the state gets updated it will re-render the UI Component.
Plugins -
Rematch allows various plugins, you can set Loading Plugins, Persist Plugins.
Loading Plugins -
When we dispatch any action, we have to wait for a fraction of time until we receive results (API Call, Local Operation). Redux in-built having plugins that manage and return us loading = true which effect (action) being in-progress.
You can create Loading PlugIns using createLoadingPlugin, and pass your model name/actionname in the whitelist. As you can see we have taskList (model), fetchTaskList (action). So after this code, whenever the fetchTaskList operation is in-progress we will get loading as true, once it’s completed we get loading as false.
Persist Plugins -
Persist Plugins contains all required configuration like, whitelist, blacklist, version, storage, transforms, Let’s discuss each in details,
whitelist — Specify a list of models which you want to store in storage, even though you kill an application, restart application.
blacklist — Specify list of models which you don’t want to store in storage, so next time it will load with initial state, instead of saved state.
version — version of store,each to you deploy new application increase the version number, which help to migrate data from older version to newer version.
storage — Specify the storage when your store data is saved, for mobile applications ideally we prefer AsyncStorage, while in web we prefer default Web Storage.
transform — Specify Filters, many times you are required to blacklist a model (don’t want to store state value/ persist state value) but you want to store a few key/pairs only. So you can create whitelist filters for a few keys, and pass the model name in blacklist. So Rematch will only store key/pairs which you have sent in the whitelist.
Redux -
Redux contains middlewares, you can specify middlewares. You can create your own middleware to perform some action between UI Component and Effect which action dispatch by UI Component.
For example, let’s specify logger as middleware, so when you dispatch action, it will log in the console to track actions, same way whenever reducer updates the state at the same time logger also logs in console to update users about Rematch actions.
Now Let’s take an example of a Model and dispatch actions from the Component.
Model — TaskList.js
Component — Tasks.js
As you can see in Tasks Component, We are dispatching fetchTaskList on load of Component. Will call effect in TaskList.js model. Once fetch operation completed it will dispatch setTasks (action), which calls function in reducers, and reducer will update state variables of arryTasks, which in result re-render our Tasks Component.
Please download full source code from our GitHub.
Thanks for reading full article!
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KPITENG || [email protected] ||DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Connect Us — Linkedin | Facebook | Instagram | https://medium.com/@kpiteng/redux-rematch-state-management-95ee60d7ea3e | [] | 2021-09-02 15:46:42.550000+00:00 | ['React', 'Redux', 'Mobile App Development', 'Rematch', 'React Native'] |
Netflix Movies and TV Shows — Data Visualization using Matplotlib | Photo by Thibault Penin on Unsplash
Hello There!
Hope you are doing well.
This article deals with Data Exploration and Visualization of Netflix Movies and TV shows using the python library Matplotlib.
We use the dataset of Netflix Movies and TV Shows from Kaggle.
Let’s start by importing the necessary libraries.
The dataset has the following columns:
show_id, type, title, director, cast, country, date added, release_year, rating, duration, listed_in and description
More specifics related to the dataset can be found on the Kaggle dataset page.
The data needs to cleaned before displaying. There could be missing values in the data and they need to be verified beforehand.
netflix_df.isnull().any()
This line will output true or false based on whether the attribute has a missing value. director, cast, country, date_added and rating have missing values. Now, we can either remove those data entries or fill in the missing values. The missing values in director, cast and country can be filled in as Undefined. Missing values of date_added and rating needs to be removed.
The data is all set for visualization.
Data Visualization
The type of content
Let’s start with the type of content provided i.e. Movies and TV Shows. The best way to visualize this is by making use of a pie chart.
It is clear that Netflix mostly concentrates on movies rather than TV Shows.
Content added across the years
Getting a plot for the amount of content added across the years would need a slight bit of data extraction. The year needs to be extracted from the date_added attribute. The data can then be depicted using a line plot.
There is a large increase in the amount of content added starting from the year 2017. The amount of movies added tends to be much more (almost double!) than the amount of TV Shows.
Countries with the Most Titles
Here, a title can have more than one country. The correct number of titles for each country must therefore by determined before plotting the results. Also, undefined data will be excluded. This data will be interpreted using a horizontal bar graph.
United States is leading the chart with a fairly substantial lead over all the other countries.
Count of titles by Rating
The count of movies and TV Shows need to be displayed. The best way to do this is by using a bar plot.
Duration of TV Show
The duration of a TV Show is the number of seasons it spans. In the data set, each data entry is given as “1 Season”, “2 Seasons” and so on. The number needs to be extracted out before plotting the data. A line plot has been used to represent the results.
Major Takeaways from the data
Movies over TV Shows. Short content over long content. The growth of Netflix started in 2014. Since then, the company has grown tremendously.
Thanks for reading! | https://medium.com/@jobymathew97/netflix-movies-and-tv-shows-data-visualization-using-matplotlib-f1b4e91b5226 | [] | 2020-12-02 08:44:08.261000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Netflix', 'Matplotlib', 'Python'] |
A Solution for Today’s Mortgage Crisis | Our country is at the precipice of another hundred-billion dollar mortgage crisis. As the COVID-19 global pandemic ravages communities, our government is nearing a massive bailout of our mortgage system, again.
We believe that our current mortgage system isn’t good enough. We believe that it isn’t helping homeowners enough in times of crisis, and another industry bailout doesn’t solve our problems. But the good news is that today, we can better help homeowners and create a more resilient mortgage system for the future.
We’re calling this plan, RefiAmerica. It follows three simple steps:
Homeowners refinance their mortgages into lower cost, flexible mortgage loans at today’s low interest rates. These mortgage loans protect them from housing market changes, job loss and health emergencies, and they can defer the first payment for up to a year. Investors invest in RefiAmerica mortgage loans through a streamlined, national investment vehicle that provides higher returns, fewer defaults and avoids expensive middlemen and guarantee fees Our government no longer requires taxpayer dollars to bail out our mortgage system because RefiAmerica’s mortgage loans do not have taxpayer guarantees.
Our approach is based on evidence that we’ve spent a decade collecting. We’ve studied the 2008 housing crisis with internationally acclaimed economists to understand how the mortgage system works. We’ve designed a new mortgage product that helps homeowners and investors do better in times of distress through our company Safe Rate. And we’re a licensed mortgage originator and servicer who has built technology systems to make mortgage processes more efficient. Along the way we’ve learned that people know our mortgage system isn’t working but have avoided change because they think reform is too hard.
We don’t agree. If we understand the stakeholders and their incentives, we can design a better solution, and now all it takes is the courage to act. We have created videos for Homeowners, Investors and Policymakers to show how and why RefiAmerica works for each in our new mortgage system, and why it is an improvement over today’s system.
That means that the success of RefiAmerica is now tied to your voice and your belief. We are two people (Shima and Dylan) who have dedicated our lives to making a better mortgage system. We’re now asking you to take the time to share in our life’s work and see if you agree with the case we have made. If you say yes, we will continue to give you everything we have to create the mortgage system we all deserve.
So we hope you will join us in this movement. Please sign up for our mailing list, and be sure to share our story with others. And if you have an idea or note to share, please reach out to us directly at [email protected]. Our movement will be strengthened with your ideas and your voice. Together, we will create a mortgage system that works for all of us.
Thank you,
Shima and Dylan | https://medium.com/@refiamerica/a-solution-for-todays-mortgage-crisis-21fdf5d05604 | ['Refi America'] | 2020-04-24 21:53:16.063000+00:00 | ['Solutions', 'Mortgage', 'Economy', 'Crisis', 'Finance'] |
7 VS Code Tricks Every Developer Needs To Know | I’ve been using VS Code as my main IDE for many many years. Though I’m going to be honest, it took me a few years before I began USING it. In my earlier years as a developer, I was simply leveraging the defaults in VS Code, the syntax highlighting, code suggestions, etc. Then one day after I updated it, I finally took the time to read the Getting started. I wish I had done that previously, and here is why.
Code Snippets — DRY and example storage
Code snippets are templates for code that you can reuse across projects. You create code that you repeat often and make them appear as code suggestions. If you often create a loop to iterate arrays, then you can create a snippet for that so you never have to type it again. You can create snippets for local projects, global across all projects, and for certain programming languages. You can also find snippets in the marketplace in VS code.
I use snippets to avoid repeating common patterns over and over, and also to help me remember HOW to do things. Start building your library as you code and you will thank me.
Searching for @category:"snippets" in the extensions will search for only snippets, you can also specify certain keywords after. This is How I search for Go specific snippets @category:"snippets" go
I find creating my snippets the most efficient way though. You can create one very easily. Enter the menu at the top and go to File->Preferences->User Snippets . Select the snippet you want to create, either local or global, and then name it. I will name my snippet go-snippets since it will contain all my snippets related to Go and be used globally.
Let’s start with a super simple example, in Go you write the following statement very often to see if an error occurred.
if err != nil {
return err
}
We can create a snippet so we never again have to write it again. Enter the following into the generated go-snippets file.
Some values in the snippets that are used are
Scope — A comma-separated list of all the languages to enable the snippet in. In this case, I only use go
— A comma-separated list of all the languages to enable the snippet in. In this case, I only use Prefix — The name of the snippet
— The name of the snippet Body — The lines of code to generate, we can even input parameters here, we will see that in example 2
— The lines of code to generate, we can even input parameters here, we will see that in example 2 Description — A text description to show in the code completion tab
VS Code snippet for generating an error check in Go
After you have inserted that, save the snippet file, if you then open any .go file and type Err you should see the snippet as a suggestion.
Showing how the Error check snippet in VS Code generates a nil check-in Go
Now that example is simple, you can even have input parameters for more advanced snippets.
I use a lot of dependency injection in my projects, and I usually have a Service struct that holds all repositories. In all projects, the creation of this service is the same, and I always retyped it, and I always forget how. The result is that I always waste a few minutes to bring up an old project and see what I did.
Let’s take a look at creating a snippet for this. Look how I add $1 in the body, that’s how you can add input values, if you need more values then add +1 to the number, $2 , etc.
NewService Snippet that generates a type, function, and constructor
An example of how I generate a constructor function, a type, and an alias function in a matter of seconds using snippets
See all that code and how fast it fast generated? Snippets are probably the feature in VS Code that I love the most. I tend to use it not only to store common code pieces but as a memory collection of how to perform certain algorithms. It is saving me time, money, and frustration.
LogPoints — Never again fill your logs with unforgotten Prints
Over are the days where you had to remember to remove your debug prints to the terminal.
Yes, I’m guilty, I do use the debugger, but sometimes printing a certain value, or a simple IM HERE is very effective and easy when debugging. And many times we forget to remove these debug prints, right?
Well, with Logpoints you can print things without using code. VS Code allows us to set these logpoints, just as we set breakpoints. Logpoints even allow expressions to be logged, which means you can run a function or more when a logpoint is hit. You can set logpoints by right-clicking on the panel where you set breakpoints. Select Add logpoint and select between the three options
Expression — Only log when the certain expression is true
Hit count — Break when hit count condition is met, good for loops or long-running services where bugs start occurring after X runs.
Log Message — Always log the message
Sadly, Logpoints are not available for all languages (sobbing, no love for Go due to an issue) You can find all supported languages here. In the GIF below you can see how I set a logpoint in python that prints the returned result from a function call. Expressions are placed inside {}.
Setting a log point in Python and seeing it print the output of a function
Select and Rename (Select + F2) — Smooth renaming
I HATED renaming variables and functions in VS Code. Why? I used to perform renaming of my functions etc by using the way suggested in the VS Code Basic editing guide on how to find and replace. I never liked the find UI in VS code.
Imagine my surprise when I learned that F2 is a rename command. It even works across the whole project. Simply select the word you want to change, and press F2 and then write the new correct word.
Look at how fast I can change the Service from the Code snippets into TestService instead. This has saved me a lot of time as well, and I wished I knew it before.
Renaming occurrence of the word across multiple files, simple find and replace
Notice that comments are not changed, only the code instances. One thing that the Find and Replace suggestion by the VS Code Basic editing tutorial supports that this does not is that you can review each replacement and accept them. In my experience the F2 does a flawless job of finding the right pieces though.
Multi Cursor Selection (ALT+Click) (Shift+ALT+UP/Down on Keyboard)
VS Code has something called Multi Cursor Selection. What this means is that we can have multiple cursors appearing at the same time.
You can write at two places at once, so bust out that second keyboard and double code, double your speed!
OK, hold your horse, that was a joke. Sadly we can only use one keyboard, but we can edit many places at the same time.
Holding down alt and click on the locations you want to edit and you will type at all the marked cursors.
Hold down ALT to create multiple cursors in VS Code
Now this feature alone has never impressed me, I find it hard to find use cases. Then why did I bring it into the list?
Simple! This multi cursor allows other commands to be used in combination for great power. The next item on the list will showcase this.
Select all occurrences of a word (Select + (CTRL+SHIFT+L))
This is yet another refactoring tip. Notice how the F2 replacement only worked on code instances?
Sometimes we want to change comments, or simple text files, etc. Gladly you recently learned about Multi Cursor Selection in Vs Code. We can combine multi cursor with selecting words.
Select the word you want to modify and then press ctrl+shift+L and VS Code will spawn a cursor at each instance. This can be used to change the name of a variable for instance, even in comments and more.
Showing how you can spawn Multi cursor at a selected word and replacing all occurrences
Go to in File (CTRL+Shift+O)
For some unknown reason, the outline function in VS Code is default collapsed. It is a very nice feature and I love having it open.
An outline is a visualization of the code in a file. It can be nice to get a fast sense of what’s in a file without scrolling through the whole thing.
Outlining in VS Code shows the structure of code in a nice render.
Using the ctrl+shift+o we can jump between these outlined items. This is useful for fast navigation in large codebases or files.
Pressing the shortcut command will open a search prompt which you can use to search for the wanted function, structure, more depending on the language of choice.
To make it even easier you can add : after the @ in the search to group by category. This makes viewing the code structure in a file even easier. I tend to use this very often in new codebases to get a sense of what's present in a file, instead of scrolling blindly through.
VS Code outline jumping — a time saver when navigating code
Fast Scrolling by holding ALT
This trick does not require a big explanation, it’s just a small feature that once I learned it, I remembered all the times I needed it in the past. | https://towardsdatascience.com/7-vs-code-tricks-every-developer-needs-to-know-cc8b3dad50e4 | ['Percy Bolmér'] | 2021-08-23 11:33:46.718000+00:00 | ['Vscode', 'Coding', 'Programming', 'Software Development', 'Technology'] |
High Tech Innovation and Individualised Care | Dr Rachel Ramoni
Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador, interviews Dr. Rachel Ramoni, Chief Research and Development Officer at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
Ira Pastor Comments:
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a federal Cabinet-level agency that provides comprehensive healthcare services to military veterans at over 1,000 VA medical centers and outpatient clinics located throughout the US. It also provides several non-healthcare benefits including disability compensation, vocational rehabilitation, education assistance, home loans, and life insurance; and provides burial and memorial benefits to eligible veterans and family members.
Dr Rachel Ramoni Center
The VA serves over 9 million enrolled Veterans each year, employs over 377,000 people and has an annual budget of $200 billion.
Within the VA structure, the Office of Research & Development is focused on improving the lives of Veterans, and all Americans, through health care discovery and innovation including: basic, translational, clinical, health services, and rehabilitative research, and applies scientific knowledge to develop effective individualized care solutions.
Dr. Rachel Ramoni
Dr. Rachel Ramoni, is the Chief Research and Development Officer of the VA, where she oversees the VA’s nationwide research enterprise, encompassing some 2,000 active projects at more than 100 sites, with a total budget of $2 billion in both direct VA support, and research funding from outside entities such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), other federal agencies, and nonprofit and private organizations.
Dr. Ramoni earned a Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry degree from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, as well as a Master of Science and Doctor of Science in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Dr. Ramoni was previously on the faculty at New York University College of Dentistry in the department of epidemiology and health promotion, and at Harvard Medical School in the department of biomedical informatics.
While at Harvard, Dr. Ramoni founded and led the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) Coordinating Center, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, and brings together clinical and research experts from across the U.S. to solve challenging medical mysteries using advanced technologies.
Dr Rachel Ramoni
Among Dr. Ramoni’s research interests are informatics, genomics, and precision medicine.
Prior to her role with the UDN, she was Executive Director of the Substitutable Medical Applications Reusable Technologies project, or SMART. Initially launched with federal funding, SMART aims to make it easier for providers across different health systems to securely share information from electronic health records. The overarching goal is to improve the quality and continuity of care for patients.
Dr. Ramoni has also led research projects aimed at improving dental care nationwide. She worked on implementing standardized diagnostic terms for dentistry, and developing a patient safety system that would help dentists identify and prevent adverse events.
She is extensively published and her publications have appeared in Birth Defects Research, Epidemiology, Circulation, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the American Journal of Human Genetics, and numerous other journals.
On this episode we will hear from Dr. Ramoni about:
Her background; how she developed an interest in science, in dental medicine, in epidemiology, and a little bit of her journey to her leadership role at the VA. A general discussion about the VA, the VA Research and Development purview, and the general model surrounding how VA research is implemented, both intramural and extramural. Some of the VA research strategic priorities as it pertains research related to COVID, their precision oncology programs, and rare / mystery disorders such as Gulf War Syndrome. She shares with us details about the Million Veteran Program and it’s relation to the NIH “All-of-Us” program. We hear of important influencers / mentors during the course of Dr. Ramoni’s career.
Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador
Credits: Ira Pastor interview video, text, and audio.
Follow Ira Pastor on Twitter: @IraSamuelPastor
If you liked this interview, be sure to check out our interview with Chris Lunt, Chief Technology Officer of the All of Us Research Program run by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Follow ideaXme on Twitter: @ideaxm
On Instagram: @ideaxme
Find ideaXme across the internet including on iTunes, SoundCloud, Radio Public, TuneIn Radio, I Heart Radio, Google Podcasts, Spotify and more.
ideaXme is a global podcast, creator series and mentor programme. Our mission: Move the human story forward!™ ideaXme Ltd. | https://medium.com/@ideaxme/high-tech-innovation-and-individualised-care-9de437df3fda | ['Ideaxme', 'Move The Human Story Forward'] | 2020-09-21 17:05:54.545000+00:00 | ['Veterans', 'Dr Rachel Ramoni', 'Us Department Of Veterans', 'Ideaxme', 'Ira Pastor'] |
Content Writing Service | Delights Digital is the offers digital marketing services for all kinds of businesses such as SMM, SEO, Content & Blog writing, Email marketing, Graphic design | https://medium.com/@teamdelightsdigital/content-writing-service-3fcfde517bc0 | ['Delights Digital'] | 2021-01-20 14:37:41.584000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Content Writing', 'Content Marketing', 'Content Is King', 'Content Strategy'] |
We Need a Code of Ethics | We Need a Code of Ethics
We’ve been moving too fast for too long and it’s hurting everyone.
I keep wondering what we can do to ensure we’re building a better world with the products we make and if we need a code of ethics. So often I see people fall through the cracks because they’re “edge cases” or “not the target audience.” But at the end of the day, we’re still talking about humans.
Other professions that can deeply alter someone’s life have a code of ethics and conduct they must adhere to. Take physicians’ Hippocratic oath for example. It’s got some great guiding principles, which we’ll get into below. Violating this code can mean fines or the losing the ability to practice medicine.
We also build things that can deeply alter someone’s life, so why shouldn’t we have one in tech?
While this isn’t a new subject by any stretch, I made a mini one of my own. It’s been boiled down to just one thing and is flexible enough to guide all my other decisions. I even modified it from the Hippocratic Oath:
We will prevent harm whenever possible, as prevention is preferable to mitigation. We will also take into account not just the potential for harm, but the harm’s impact.
That’s meaningful to me because our for years, tech had a “move fast, break things” mentality, which screams immaturity. It’s caused carelessness, metrics-obsessed growth, and worse— I don’t need to belabor that here.
We’ve moved fast for long enough, now let’s grow together to be more intentional about both what and how we build. Maybe the new mantra could be “move thoughtfully and prevent harm,” but maybe that isn’t quite as catchy.
A practical example
Recently, a developer launched a de-pixelizer. Essentially, it can take a pixelated image and approximate what the person’s face might look like. The results were…not great.
Setting aside that the AI seems to have been only trained on white faces, we have to consider how process this might go wrong and harm people.
Imagine that this algorithm makes it into the hands of law enforcement, who mistakenly identifies someone as a criminal. This mistake could potentially ruin someone’s life, so we have to tread very carefully here.
Even if the AI achieves 90% accuracy, there’s still a 10% chance it could be wrong.
And while the potential for false positives might be relatively low, the impact of those mistakes could have severe consequences. Remember, we aren’t talking about which version of Internet Explorer we should support, we’re talking about someone’s life — we have to be more granular because both the potential and impact of harm is high here.
Accident Theory and Preventing Harm
Kaelin Burns (Fractal’s Director of Product Management) has this to say about creating products ethically:
“When you create something, you also create the ‘accident’ of it. For example, when cars were invented, everyone was excited about the positive impact of getting places faster, but it also created the negative impact of car crashes and injuries. How do you evaluate the upside of a new invention along with the possible negative consequences, especially when they have never happened before? So when you’re creating new technology, I believe you have a responsibility, to the best of your ability, to think through the negative, unintended, and problematic uses of that technology, and to weigh it against the good it can do. It become particularly challenging when that technology also has the potential be extremely profitable, but is even more important in those cases.”
If you’re looking for an exercise you can do, try my Black Mirror Brainstorm.
In closing
In this post, we discussed why we need a code of ethics in our world. I shared one thing that I added to mine. We also talked about the impact of not having one. You also learned about Accident Theory and have a shiny new exercise to try.
I’m curious about one thing: What’s one thing you’d include if you made a Hippocratic Oath for tech?
Thanks for reading. | https://medium.com/thisisartium/we-need-a-code-of-ethics-eaaba6f9394b | ['Joshua Mauldin'] | 2020-07-23 22:54:13.381000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Design', 'Ethics'] |
Saag Paneer | How to make it | Paneer could be a full-fat recent cheese utilized in Indian change of state. it’s created with juice or vinegar (rather than animal-derived rennet) and then is appropriate for vegetarians, and it’s a decent supply of supermolecule and Ca. Palak is that the Hindi word for spinach; you will additionally see this dish represented as saagpaneer, saag being a a lot of general term for inexperienced foliolate vegetables.
Read Full Making Method with Ingredients click on the link https://yourbestlines.info/saag-paneer-how-to-make-saag-paneer-your-best-lines/ | https://medium.com/@yourbestlines/saag-paneer-how-to-make-it-413b8e32b5 | [] | 2020-12-27 19:20:27.803000+00:00 | ['Food', 'Paneer Recipes', 'Recipe', 'Cooking', 'Indian Food'] |
The Beginnings of an Exploration of Matplotlib and Pyplot | it’s a figure with an ax. you’ll get this joke eventually.
In a previous blog post, I wrote about how I’ve always enjoyed tearing something apart (and sometimes reassembling it) to understand it better. If it worked for Da Vinci, it should work for me, right? The purpose of this blog post is two fold. I intend to tear Matpltlib and pyplot apart to have a deeper understanding of how it works on a conceptual level (with visual and code examples) and then I also intend to show as many examples as possible of how different keyword arguments can change the appearance of a plot.
This wasn’t the project that I assumed it would be when I started out. There’s a good amount under the hood that I had taken for granted and a lot of information that I was assuming that was twisted and incorrect. As a result, the early version of this post may seem a bit jumbled, but I’ll be adding to it over time.
Let’s dig until we break it, or it breaks us.
Matplotlib is has layers. Spoilers. It broke me.
Jack Kirby
Understanding the Artist/Renderer/FigureCanvas relationship
The Matplotlib FigureCanvas is the area onto which the figure is drawn. If you think about your computer’s memory, this is the allocated area of memory where an image will go. This is the paper.
If you think about your computer’s memory, this is the allocated area of memory where an image will go. This is the paper. The Matplotlib Renderer is the object which knows how to draw on the FigureCanvas. The pencil can draw on the paper just as the renderer can draw on the FigureCanvas.
The pencil can draw on the paper just as the renderer can draw on the FigureCanvas. The Matplotlib Artist is what knows how to use a renderer to paint an onject onto the canvas. Without the Artist to use a pencil on the paper, the pencil and the paper simply exist or do not exist.
But also the Jack Kirby Metaphor doesn’t work
Putting that relationship into perspective
This isn’t like Jack Kirby drawing everything onto a piece of paper. The metaphor above is used for each object. The figure has an Artist, the axes has an Artist, the title has an Artist and so on and so forth.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
We have imported Matplotlib and Pyplot as plt. It does everything important like the maths and the graphs.
fig / figure
fig is the figure, which refers to everything being created. figsize(10,2)? That creates a figure that’s 10 inches by 2 inches. The plot is not the figure, it’s the frame that surrounds it. The figure is a class object.
The figure object container contains:
axes A list of Axes instances (includes Subplot)
A list of Axes instances (includes Subplot) patch The Rectangle background
The Rectangle background images A list of FigureImages
A list of FigureImages patches — useful for raw pixel display
— useful for raw pixel display legends A list of Figure Legend instances (different from Axes.legends)
A list of Figure Legend instances (different from Axes.legends) lines A list of Figure Line2D instances (rarely used, see Axes.lines)
A list of Figure Line2D instances (rarely used, see Axes.lines) patches A list of Figure patches (rarely used, see Axes.patches)
A list of Figure patches (rarely used, see Axes.patches) texts A list Figure Text instances
That first item? Axes? Let’s take a look.
ax / axes but not axis
If the figure is the frame of the plot, it is the region of the image with the data space, or the axes in the image. There can be multiple figures with multiple axes, there can be one figure with ultipel axes, there can be one figure with one ax, or one figure with no ax, but an ax can’t be seen without a figure. The axes is a subplot instance of the figure class object.
Axes has a ton of helper methods, let’s take a look at a few of them:
ax.annotate — text annotations
— text annotations ax.bar — bar charts
— bar charts ax.errorbar — error bar plots
— error bar plots ax.fill — shared area
— shared area ax.hist — histograms
— histograms ax.imshow — image data
— image data ax.legend — axes legends
— axes legends ax.plot — xy plots
— xy plots ax.scatter — scatter charts
— scatter charts ax.text — text
Some of this is starting to connect. Within the axes, you can call on helper methods to place histograms, scatter plots, text, images, error bar plots, bar charts, etc. If you’re plotting one set of data in a plot, the difference between plt.plot() and ax.plot() is negligible from the observered output.
axis objects
Yes, they’re different from axes. The are two axis objects (the x axis and y axis) in 2D axes and three (the x, y, and z axis) in 3D axes.
plot / plots / subplots
These are instance variables, not objects.
Building a pyplot sandwich
hooray, a new metaphor!
plt.figure()
plt.show() output: <Figure size 864x432 with 0 Axes>
This is as basic as it gets. These two lines of code are the sandwich in the pyplot sandwich. Without anything between them, it’s not a sandwich, it’s two pieces of bread. It’s created a figure with 0 axes, because there is nothing. It’s important to think of it as a sandwich and not a blank canvas. There isn’t a blank Axes, there’s no Axes.
plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(1,1,1) - or - (111)
plt.show() output: (plot below)
an added, but empty subplot
Now we have a frame and a subplot within that frame. The (1,1,1) indicates there will be 1 row of plots, 1 column of plots and this will be the first plot. (rows, columns, plot number). There is no ax to display, but there is a figure and that is why it is empty.
plt.figure()
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(x,y)
plt.show()
the visual output is the same
plt.plot(x, y)
We can go one step further to simplify this.
y = [1,2,3,4]
plt.plot(y) # is the same as x = [0,1,2,3]
y = [1,2,3,4]
plt.plot(x,y)
Matplotlib assumes the values you are giving are a sequence of y values if you onlt provide one set of values, so it automatically assigns them x values of [0,1,2,3,…,n-1, n].
But what’s the actual difference here?
Glad you asked. These are two approaches to creating plots and they’re rooted in the difference between Matplotlib and Pyplot.
plt.plot(x, y)
This is “Pyplot” style. It’s modeled after MATLAB and I have begun to hate that statement.
plt.figure()
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(x,y)
plt.show()
This is Matplotlib’s Object Oriented API. Once you accept that Matplotlib is using an OO API, the concept of it all changes. They are interchangeable for small tasks and easy to use, but separating them from each other will help understand how each works and how each works independent from each other. | https://medium.com/@robblatt/the-beginnings-of-an-exploration-of-matplotlib-and-pyplot-aaab6a7d8133 | ['Rob Blatt'] | 2019-06-14 17:17:32.095000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Pyplot', 'Dataviz', 'Matplotlib'] |
Alat Penjaga Jarak dan Penunjuk Suhu Berbasis Mikrokontroler Guna Meningkatkan Kewaspadaan Di Era Normal Baru | 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/tentang-internet-of-things-iot/alat-penjaga-jarak-dan-penunjuk-suhu-berbasis-mikrokontroler-guna-meningkatkan-kewaspadaan-di-era-4a056b55972c | ['Antares Support'] | 2020-12-26 04:47:25.680000+00:00 | ['New Normal', 'Covid 19', 'Social Distance', 'Internet of Things'] |
Image Classification using Fastai v2 on Colab | Image Classification using Fastai v2 on Colab
Step by step guide to train and classify images in just a few lines of code
Photo by Ryan Carpenter on Unsplash
Introduction
Fastai is a library built on top of PyTorch for deep learning applications. Their mission is to make deep learning easier to use and getting more people from all backgrounds involved. They also provide free courses for Fastai.
Fastai v2 was released in August, I will use it to build and train a deep learning model to classify different sports fields on Colab in just a few lines of codes.
Data Collection
First, I need to collect images for the model to learn. I wish to have a model classifying different sports fields: baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, and American football. I searched and downloaded the images and saved them in separate folders and uploaded to Google Drive.
Folders contain sport field images. (image by author)
Setup Colab Environment
Once the dataset is ready, I can start the work on Colab.
First upgrade fastai,
!pip install fastai --upgrade -q
and import fastai.vision ,
from fastai.vision.all import *
then mount the Google Drive and setup the path
from google.colab import drive
drive.mount(‘/content/gdrive’, force_remount=True)
root_dir = ‘gdrive/My Drive/Colab Notebooks/’
base_dir = root_dir + ‘ball_class’
path=Path(base_dir)
Now we are ready to go.
DataBlock and DataLoader
Fastai provide a mid-level API: DataBlock to deal with data, it is quite easy to use.
fields = DataBlock(blocks=(ImageBlock, CategoryBlock),
get_items=get_image_files,
get_y=parent_label,
splitter=RandomSplitter(valid_pct=0.2, seed=42),
item_tfms=RandomResizedCrop(224, min_scale=0.5),
batch_tfms=aug_transforms())
Different blocks can be used, in this case, we used ImageBlock as the x and CategoryBlock as the label. It is also possible to use other blocks such as MultiCategoryBlock, MaskBlock, PointBlock, BBoxBlock, BBoxLblBlock for different applications.
I used get_image_files function in fastai to get the path of the images as the x and used parent_label method to find the folder names as the label. There are some built-in functions in fastai, you can also write your own function to do this.
Then I used RandomSplitter to split the training and validation dataset.
Then used RandomResizedCrop to resize the image to 224 and aug_transforms() for data augmentation.
This is kind of a template of Fastai DataBlock, it is quite flexible, you can change it based on your situation. You can find the detailed tutorial here.
Once we have the DataBlock ready, we can create dataloader:
and check the labels using vocab
and show some of the images with lables
Train
Now we are ready for training.
I created a CNN learner using resnet34:
learn = cnn_learner(dls, resnet34, metrics=error_rate)
and used lr_find() to find a suitable learning rate
then we can train the model using fit_one_cycle
Only after 5 epochs, we can achieve >90% accuracy.
Now we can unfreeze the network and train the whole network.
Let’s it, only after a few epochs, we achieve 95% accuracy.
Interpretation
We can also interpret the model. The confusion matrix can be plotted using this :
We can also use this to see the image with the highest loss. | https://towardsdatascience.com/image-classification-using-fastai-v2-on-colab-33f3ebe9b5a3 | ['C Kuan'] | 2020-09-24 14:18:01.001000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Deep Learning', 'Sports', 'Data Science'] |
“Start with the head, focus on the hands and end with the feet.” | “Start with the head, focus on the hands and end with the feet.”
And other lessons learned across 300+ retail stores and scaling the largest outdoor ecommerce business in Africa. Founder Collective Jan 21·4 min read
By Amanda Herson
I grew up on Africa’s southern tip in Cape Town, as the 4th generation in an outdoor retail family business. My father taught us that to sell gear you needed to understand the customers’ needs. He always said, “start with the head, focus on the hands and end with the feet.” I learned that retail, much like every entrepreneurial venture, is mostly about the heart and an obsession with the customer.
After university, I spent time managing and launching Bath & Body Works and Victoria’s Secret brands in the US. I was then fortunate to work with Staples founder Tom Stemberg who embodied empathy for retail entrepreneurs and reminded me that “retail is in the detail” during my time at the Highland Consumer Fund.
After 15+ years of operating and growing organizations, across 300+ retail stores, and launching an ecommerce business, I’m excited to bring these learnings to venture capital in Founder Collective’s NYC office. While my background has been heavily focused on retail, these experiences have provided me a unique perspective on several adjacent industries. Here are a few of the broad areas I’m excited about:
📦 Post-Covid Consumer
COVID has accelerated ecommerce adoption and changed the way we shop. I have extra sympathy for retailers at this moment in history, but now is the time for great innovation. Buying, planning, logistics, growth hacking, payments, data warehousing, AI, enterprise comms, payments, consumer credit, culture, leadership, scaling teams, and managing the inevitable crises has never been more challenging — or more clearly called out for new tools. Retail will look different post-Covid and the model for stores and associates has changed permanently.
🔮 5 Why’s of a Product
As a consumer, I am a sucker for great marketing; as an investor, I like to know that the product is exceptional. Is it formulated or manufactured in a way that no-one else has done before? Does the packaging change the use case? Are you creating a new category or expanding to a new audience? Is your customer service “next level?” My decade-plus in retail has taught me that the customer is increasingly informed and demands transparency. Without trust, you are a flash in the pan, and to build trust, you need to do one thing that wows the customer and has a reason to exist.
💻 Sticky SaaS
As I was building the ecommerce business at Cape Union Mart, I was worried about the popularity of our spring collections, but nothing caused me more stress than clunky SaaS tools. Evaluating products, signing-off on six-figure deals, and rolling new tools out to thousands of staff members has informed my perspective on SaaS, and I’m keen to help spread good productivity and creativity software far and wide. I’m particularly interested in tools built on the low-code philosophy and empowering decision-makers and creators to leverage ML and AI.
💰 Global Fintech
Having witnessed the ‘leap-frogging’ of Fintech in Africa, with a rapid shift towards mobile and QR payments before many more developed countries, I admire companies that enable access to more people and allow greater flexibility, convenience, and ease of access in how and when consumers and employers pay and get paid. Cross-border payments and logistics is also an area that creates fear and uncertainty but has the opportunity to change the trajectory for billions across the globe.
🤝 Culture & Collaboration
I have done my time in “corporate,” reinforcing my belief that companies are the net sum of their team cultures. Building great cultures requires focus, dedication, discipline, and constant feedback and is a competitive advantage when done right. Gone are the days of a quarterly performance review. I love tools that empower managers to coach, deliver feedback, connect (especially in a remote world), and even improve themselves.
🩺 Data-driven Wellness
I firmly believe in the connection between mind and gut. After a “near-death” experience that landed me in the ICU for three weeks, managing stress and healthy living has to be the foundation for success. I have been practicing yoga for 20 years (I’m still not great, but I practice). Mindfulness, mental health, and better insights on how and why our bodies react to food, products, and environmental elements will drive tomorrow’s consumers.
All that said, Founder Collective is a firm that prides itself on funding “Weird and Wonderful” startups. We’ve backed everything from automated aquaculture to zoological DNA testing. If you’re shopping for a seed-stage venture firm, I would love to hear what you are building. | https://medium.com/@foundercollective/start-with-the-head-focus-on-the-hands-and-end-with-the-feet-de5ece4ac673 | ['Founder Collective'] | 2021-01-21 14:35:45.264000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Venture Capital', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Business', 'NYC'] |
How to debug docker container running Go (golang) application | Step 4: Running delve inside the container
[4a] If your process XXXXXX is already running and you are attaching dlv to process
docker exec -it <container_id> sh /dlv attach `pgrep XXXXXX` --listen=:40000 --headless=true --api-version=2
[4b] If you are running process XXXXXX through/with dlv then you can use this on in your docker file {link} | https://medium.com/@mayurkhante786/how-to-debug-docker-container-running-go-golang-application-e999cdbf24f4 | ['Mayur Khante'] | 2020-12-17 17:38:54.217000+00:00 | ['Golang', 'Go', 'Docker', 'Debug', 'Vscode'] |
Protect your nonprofit from inflation | Inflation has gotten worse: Don’t let it wipe out your cash surplus
$100 bills on fire.
Back in August I raised the alarm about rising inflation and how it could impact nonprofits. Since then, the inflation rate has continued its steady climb and good organizations have seen their purchasing power go up in smoke.
Inflation, AKA rising prices for goods and services, can give you an advantage when it comes to paying a mortgage or long-term contracts with locked in rates. Why? Because the shrinking value of the dollar makes it easier to earn it while your expense stays steady.
However, this same phenomenon means that any cash your nonprofit has managed to save over the years will purchase less every month that goes by. If you have cash at the bank in savings, checking, a money market, or CDs, you’ve probably already lost significant purchasing power since the beginning of the year.
Your nonprofit has already lost money
The US economy has seen 6.8% inflation in the past twelve months (Dec 2020 — Nov 2021). You have to go back to 1982 to find a comparable rate!
If your nonprofit had a $100,000 surplus in a checking or savings account the past twelve months, that means you lost $6,800 in purchasing power. I bet you can think of a few purchases that would have been better than just seeing the money evaporate.
Inflation is real
Nobody has a crystal ball, but the trends that have driven inflation this year may very well continue into 2022 and beyond. The pandemic remains a significant factor creating unpredictability for business and personal lives, thus driving inflation. Specifics include:
Supply chain problems worldwide have driven up the price of vehicles, electronics, and more. Stores find it difficult to stock popular items. Manufacturers that depend on parts from abroad find it harder and more expensive to get supplies; delays and sourcing alternatives drive up their costs.
Difficulty in hiring throughout the economy means that businesses must pay much more than before the pandemic to attract and retain talent. When employers raise wages they often must charge more for their goods and services.
A looming childcare crisis could make this worse before it gets better. The pandemic has already driven many childcare providers out of business. The lack of good childcare keeps many people, who are otherwise willing and able to work, from getting a job. This situation adds more uncertainty and inflation to the economy.
How do I confirm if we even have a surplus?
Do you have unrestricted money in your nonprofit’s checking or savings account that you’re not using for day-to-day operations? If yes, that might be a surplus. For example, if over the past three years the account hasn’t dipped below $125,000, then you probably have at least a $125,000 surplus.
How do I protect our surplus against inflation?
A traditional checking account, savings account, CD, or money market account won’t help you. Its hard to find any that pay even 1% interest, much less keep up with inflation.
Each nonprofit has different goals and different risk tolerance. Talk to a reputable investment advisor to figure out what’s right for your organization.
If your organization has a very low risk tolerance, be sure to ask them about options like:
Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS)
Government bonds
Commodities
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
However you protect your surplus, put care and thought into your ability to convert the investment back into cash quickly. Some investments can take just a few days to convert into cash while others take longer.
Don’t wait
Every month that you wait, you lose purchasing power. That $100,000 surplus right now would lose the price of a nice new laptop computer every month (about $566).
Pro tip: if your cash surplus includes donor-restricted funds, make sure you handle those within the provisions the grant agreement. If the grant agreement is unclear or prohibits investments, you can talk to your grantor to request some leeway.
Whatever you do, don’t let more time go by with your surplus steadily losing value. Talk to your investment advisor about getting your surplus invested ASAP in something low-risk so you can at least slow your losses.
Afterwards, you and your board can take the time to create an investment policy to guide your long-term investments and decision-making. These kinds of bigger decisions frequently do take months. You’ll find it easier to give the policy the thoughtfulness it deserves if your nonprofit’s money doesn’t lose significant value every day. | https://medium.com/@sean_hale/protect-your-nonprofit-from-inflation-986c4e521681 | ['Sean Hale'] | 2021-12-28 22:27:30.375000+00:00 | ['Accounting', 'Inflation', 'Budget', 'Finance', 'Nonprofit'] |
Announcing Cross-Chain Group - A Blockchain Interoperability Resource | We are thrilled to announce that Summa has partnered with Keep to form Cross-Chain Group; a working group focused on furthering blockchain interoperability.
Cross-Chain Group is an industry resource dedicated to promoting the research, design, and implementation of cross-chain technology through collaboration, development, and educational events. By working closely with projects, chains, and technologists at the forefront of blockchain interoperability, we hope to drive innovation that leads to a more functional and robust ecosystem.
At Summa, we build cross-chain architecture and interoperability solutions that break the silos between chains, allowing liquidity, users, and value to flow more freely throughout the ecosystem. Our work on Stateless SPVs, Blake2b support in Ethereum (EIP-152), and Zcash MMR’s (ZIP-221) all promise to help bridge the gap, bringing some of the largest chains closer together.
“The initiative brings together two like-minded teams that want to see the industry mature through collaboration and connectivity,” said Matt Luongo, Project Lead at Keep. “Working with Summa and their cross-chain architecture means we can address more users on more chains. We look forward to bringing other teams into the fold who share this vision.”
Keep, a chain-agnostic provider of privacy technology for public chains, has shown tremendous dedication towards driving interoperability. Our shared vision of a fully interoperable ecosystem made them a natural partner for us. We’re working closely with their team to build the cross-chain solutions necessary to bring privacy to all chains and will share additional details as they become available.
“Partnering with Keep was a natural fit. Their tECDSA work allows smart contracts to write to the Bitcoin chain, which complements our read-optimized SPV work,” said James Prestwich, Co-founder of Summa. “Together, our technologies enable a wide array of interoperability use cases.”
Meaningful discussion, collaboration, and alignment between companies will drive innovation in interoperability and lead to more functional and user-friendly solutions. While Cross-Chain Group is currently invite-only, we would love to hear from projects, investors, and members of the community about the work they’re doing in interoperability and the ways that we can support them.
If you’re working on solutions that further cross-chain interoperability, please reach out at https://crosschain.group/
We’ll be continuing the conversation on interoperability next week with our new series, Blockchain Interoperability & Cross-Chain Communication. Until then, feel free to reach out to us on Twitter to ask questions and learn more. | https://medium.com/summa-technology/cross-chain-group-ae671b844dc9 | ['Matthew Hammond'] | 2019-08-01 17:04:15.108000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'Startup', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Blockchain', 'Programming'] |
Four Years Later, How is Russian Interference Different in the 2020 Election? | Russian President Vladimir Putin and his proxies are at it again, but the Kremlin’s campaign includes some notably different tactics this time around.
Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Getty Images.
By Michael McFaul and Bronte Kass
As observed in the 2016 U.S. presidential election — and numerous elections around the world since then — the viral spread of misinformation and disinformation can disenfranchise voters, delegitimize results, and erode public confidence in the overall integrity and legitimacy of democratic processes. Sources of misinformation and disinformation can be foreign or domestic. Social media platforms make it easy for foreign actors to interact with domestic disinformation propagators and American voters. Although not only the foreign actor influencing the U.S. election, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his proxies are again engaged, but the Kremlin’s campaign includes some notably different tactics in 2020 compared to 2016.
The U.S. ecosystem has changed as well. Social media companies have developed big teams to detect foreign disinformation and coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB). Having helped to amplify Russian disinformation operations in 2016, U.S. media outlets have become more sophisticated and careful in their reporting. In addition, many non-government organizations are engaged in the fight against disinformation, foreign and domestic. For example, the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) is a non-partisan coalition of four of our country’s leading institutions analyzing misinformation and disinformation in the social media landscape: Stanford Internet Observatory and Program on Democracy and the Internet, Graphika, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, and the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public. Supporting real-time information exchange between the research community, election officials, government agencies, civil society organizations, and social media platforms, EIP seeks to detect and mitigate the impact of content intended to suppress voting, reduce participation, confuse voters, or delegitimize results without evidence. In turn, actionable support, through policy analysis and rapid responses, is provided to officials who are increasing transparency and providing accurate information to the electorate.
Moscow’s Measures
In 2019, Robert Mueller warned during congressional testimony that Russians continue to interfere in U.S. elections “as we sit here” and that “many more countries” have developed campaigns inspired by their model. The Senate Intelligence Committee released a bipartisan report noting, “Russian disinformation efforts may be focused on gathering information and data points in support of an active measures campaign targeted at the 2020 U.S. presidential election.” In a classified report, the CIA observed, “President Vladimir Putin and the senior most Russian officials are aware of and probably directing Russia’s influence operations aimed at denigrating the former U.S. Vice President, supporting the U.S. president and fueling public discord ahead of the U.S. election in November.” Similarly, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified in mid-September that Russian efforts were “very active.”
In an update on election threats, Director William Evanina of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center remarked that Russia is “using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment.’ … For example, pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach is spreading claims about corruption — including through publicizing leaked phone calls — to undermine former Vice President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party. Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump’s candidacy on social media and Russian television.” In September, Derkach was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for being “an active Russian agent for over a decade, maintaining close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services” and waging “a covert influence campaign centered on cultivating false and unsubstantiated narratives concerning U.S. officials in the upcoming 2020 Presidential Election,” including by releasing “edited audio tapes and other unsupported information with the intent to discredit U.S. officials.”
Between misinformation related to COVID-19, coverage of racial justice protests, and increased aggression from extremist groups, Russian operatives have found a highly polarized and chaotic environment in which they can emphasize divisive examples of racism, stoke anger, and impersonate political candidates or groups online. Through a technique of information laundering, websites first “report” divisive propaganda with the hopes that more legitimate outlets will then pick up and circulate the stories. Russia’s Internet Research Agency created the fictitious Newsroom for American and European Based Citizens to spread propaganda, and created an entity called Peace Data to recruit U.S. journalists to write articles critical of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Affiliated accounts have since been suspended or deleted from Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The Department of Homeland Security warned law enforcement that Russian actors were particularly amplifying fears about absentee voting and other measures taken to protect voters during the pandemic in order to sow discord.
Two Weeks Until Election Day
The good news is that to date, Russia’s intervention in 2020 has been more limited. In the last presidential election, Russia’s multi-pronged campaign of publishing information stolen from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign was most impactful during the summer and fall of 2016. An equivalent operation has not yet occurred. According to U.S. intelligence officials, the Kremlin’s most ambitious project in this election has been the apparent effort to launder false information about Hunter Biden into the U.S. media sphere. Similar to 2016, President Trump and his allies have engaged directly in trying to amplify this conspiracy, including an investigation led by Senate Republicans which the New York Times described in the following headline: “Republican Inquiry Finds No Evidence of Wrongdoing by Biden: The report delivered on Wednesday appeared to be little more than a rehashing of unproven allegations that echoed a Russian disinformation campaign.”
Former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster remarked that on false claims about the Biden family, Trump himself was “aiding and abetting Putin’s efforts by not being direct about this. This sustained campaign of disruption, disinformation and denial is aided by any leader who doesn’t acknowledge it.” Dozens of former Intelligence Community officials issued a statement noting that the attack “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” and would be “consistent with Russian objectives… to create political chaos in the United States and to deepen political divisions here but also to undermine the candidacy of former Vice President Biden and thereby help the candidacy of President Trump.”
To date, this Russian-backed smear campaign has produced little effect. Public opinion polls show that American voters have bigger issues on their minds, from the economy and national security to the national response to COVID-19 and healthcare.
But if Russian disinformation efforts have proven less impactful in this election compared to 2016, domestic campaigns have exploded. Many false narratives being cultivated this cycle originate from within the United States, gaining traction through domestic pathways to undermine faith in our democracy. As Reneé DiResta has written, “The conspiracies are coming from inside the house. After 2016, Americans are alert to Russian election interference, but domestic influencers are spreading discord on their own.” Similarly, former Senior Director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council Fiona Hill warned, “The biggest risk to this election is not the Russians, it’s us.”
Malicious Russian actors still have two possible plays left. First, they could seek to disrupt voting on Election Day, by freezing up computers with voter registration lists or disrupting infrastructure used for ballot processing and counting. To succeed, such attacks do not need to have a substantial influence beyond creating the perception of voting irregularities. At a moment when Americans are primed to distrust the electoral results, a small cyber incident could have an inordinate impact. A second, much more likely play is amplification of voter fraud claims. This disinformation operation would occur on Election Day and afterwards, especially if the vote is close. Tragically, this type of operation will have many U.S. allies, including most likely Trump himself if he is losing, but also radical anti-Trump forces if the president is winning.
If either scenario unfolds, Americans must ignore disinformation — foreign or domestic — and demonstrate patience in letting every vote be counted. Over 25 percent of the total 2016 turnout has already voted, as of October 20. Our best defense against Russian meddling in this election is to let the system of counting votes work.
For more analysis, visit the Election Integrity Partnership. To see real-time research, monitoring and analysis about the Stanford Cyber Policy Center’s programs and partnerships, visit FSI’s Free, Fair and Healthy Elections in 2020.
Elections deadlines, dates, and rules are available at Vote.org. To plan your vote in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, visit Plan Your Vote or How to Vote in the 2020 General Election.
*Note: This is the fifth post in Michael McFaul and Bronte Kass’s series “Preserving American Democracy.”
Read the first post, The Imperative of a Free and Fair Presidential Election in November, the second post, Lessons from Primary Elections in August for Election Day in November, the third post, Yes, Voting by Mail Remains Safe, Fair, and Democratic in 2020, and the fourth post, In-Person Voting Requires Safe and Accessible Solutions. | https://medium.com/freeman-spogli-institute-for-international-studies/four-years-later-how-is-russian-interference-different-in-the-2020-election-3d159c56c846 | ['Fsi Stanford'] | 2020-10-20 20:33:17.410000+00:00 | ['Election 2020', 'Disinformation', 'Russian', 'Russia', 'Elections'] |
10 Movies That Brightened Up Gloomy 2020 | The world has pretty much turned upside down since our last upload but never fear, we are back to share the best Movie and TV content with our people and every other Movie lover such as ourselves. Finding a good movie in 2020 demands searching through a lot of garbage and dirt for the true gems this year had to offer and even though we cannot claim to have watched every single movie this year, we are quite excited to have discovered some truly fantastic titles and so here is a list of movies which carried us through the awful 2020.
One disclaimer is we tried to stay away from more mainstream blockbuster movies because every man and his dog has already at least heard about it. The focus is more on the underrated but fantastic movies this year had to offer. So don’t expect to see Sonic or Bad Boys for life springing up. To spice things up, we will recommend the best target audience for each film in order to create the ultimate recommendation list.
This Netflix movie is based on a character of the same name played by Millie Bobbie Brown as the whimsical but very capable sister to Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes. It is a quick witted coming of age tale narrated by Enola herself as she goes on a quest to find her missing mother and while doing so gets dragged into a murder mystery. The movie enables Enola to handle difficult situations herself and show off her impressive talents and skills without getting overshadowed by her more famous elder brothers. Henry Cavill is the latest superhero to play the great detective after Robert Downey Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch respectively while Sam Caflin does a great job playing his stoic older brother Mycroft. Helena Boham Carter also stars as their adventurous mother. This is a fun, enjoyable film that would best appeal to young viewers, especially the ladies, who would be able to identify with a strong and very likable protagonist.
This film starring Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney star in this movie based on real events following a embezzlement scandal in the American Education System. Jackman gives a fantastic performance in a compelling drama about the greed of those society place their trust in. Lovers of compelling historical dramas will enjoy this.
Russell Crowe is front and center in this thriller about the worst possible scenario that can occur when you tick off the wrong guy at the wrong time. Despite trivial motivations, he goes on a murderous rampage after a basic traffic altercation with a single mother sets him on an evil course. It is by no means one of the best films in the genre but it keeps you hooked from beginning to end in a feat many modern films find difficult to pull off. We personally like to call this a movie about what would happen if someone drove by John Wick on the road and insulted his puppy. We recommend this to viewers who want something, fast and straight to the point that thrills them all along the way.
A controversial movie when it came out, this movie split two political views and mindset and pits them against each other. This film kicks off when a group of liberals and climate change enthusiasts trap a group of conservatives in a Battle Royale type battleground where they are hunted down like game and executed by booby traps. Controversies aside, it is an enjoyable, quite humorous thrill ride starring rising star Betty Gilpin and accompanied by many others including Emma Roberts, Justin Hartley, Ike Barinholtz and Hilary Swank as they duke it out in this entertaining and bloody battle for supremacy and survival. The target audience of this film has to be those who can remain neutral and enjoy the ride. It’s a fun one. We would dissuade those with weak stomachs from this one because it can get quite violent.
Another thriller on this list is Alone. A very realistic look at the all too real danger of stalking and kidnapping. With a tiny cast and a tiny budget, this tense film places our protagonist in an unknown location where she is exposed to a persistent predator. The movie does a great job of building tension for long periods and even creating doubts about the legitimacy of the danger itself. Lovers of thrillers are invited for this one. Jules Wilcox knocks it out of the park as the lead protagonist.
After a meteor headed to the earth is nuked in a defensive move by Earth, the radioactive waste falls back onto our planet, causing every cold blooded creature to rapidly increase in size till they become giants. In a highly dangerous world with an endangered human population, Dylan O’brien travels on a quest to find his girlfriend from before the disaster, leaving his relatively safe underground habitat. It is a feel good movie with a lot of heart and a very lovable dog helped by amazing visual effects tied up by a solid plot about conquering your fears. This movie has a bit of something for everyone and will leave a smile on your face when the credits roll.
This latest Guy Ritchie flick is a crime thriller centered in London. It follows the tale of an American drug dealer played by Mathew McConaughey who seeks to retire from a life of crime and how this decision spars a power tussle between the criminal gangs in London. Bearing the quick witted, fast paced nature characteristic of most Guy Ritchie films, the movie also stars Hugh Grant, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding all bringing their A game, as well as a great performance from Colin Farrell. The Gentlemen snappy dialogue and comedic timed scenes will be great for lovers of dialogue heavy drama, comedy or fast paced storytelling.
Elizabeth Moss delivers an Oscar worthy performance as she leads this horror/thriller about a lady who escapes an abusive relationship only to find out she is being stalked and tormented by, you guessed it, an invisible man. It takes a familiar trope and uses science fiction to makes it into a new take on horror and previously unseen, no pun intended. With stellar directing and cinematography, this is another must watch movie that keeps you invested and on the edge of your seat, making a 2hour timeline feel like half the time.
This film starring Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti and J. K. Simmons is the latest movie to take the now tired Groundhog Day trope and transform to a fun, enjoyable, feel good love story about a few people trapped in a time loop that is centered on a wedding. With an amazing ability to be hilarious and emotional with a strong message, this is truly one of the absolute bests 2020 has to offer and should be seen by as many as possible.
Aaron Sorkin writes and directs follows an intense political trial following an intense political trial set in the 1960s at the height of the Anti˗Vietnam War riots. Eddie Redmayne, Yayha Abdul˗Manteen, Sacha Bohan Cohen and others are under trial for the roles the play in the riots against an antagonistic judge. Mark Rylance and Joseph Gorden Levitt play opposing lawyers as well. The dialogue is great, the performances are great and the story is captivating. Overall, this is a must see film for all film lovers and admirers of historical drama and enjoyable quick˗witted screenplay characteristic of Aaron Sorkin.
Here are some honorable mentions just because..
This crass tale about an illegal underground system involving assassins pitted against each other for public entertainment. Daniel Radcliffe is an unfortunate, awkward protagonist who falls into this world of murder and mayhem that kicks off when he wakes up with guns drilled to hands. Lovers of crass, violent action comedies will love this one.
In a quest to keep their beloved town from denitrification, three nerdy teenage friends stumble on a conspiracy of vampires who have selected their neighbourhood as their latest hunting ground. This Netflix kid adventure is funny and exciting. The horror elements are massively toned down however, and might be too campy for viewers more used to more violent and bloody takes on the genre. Fro example, take Jojo Rabbit’s more watered down approach to the holocaust and World War 2 compared to Schindler’s list or Saving Private Ryan. The movie is still however an enjoyable adventure movie able to be seen by the whole family.
Are there any other movies that made 2020 a bit bearable for you? If you’ve seen these movies yourself, what do you think about our list? We’d like to here about it so feel free to leave a comment and the force be with you.
by Mike from MotakuPR | https://medium.com/@motakupr/10-movies-that-brightened-up-gloomy-2020-46e743d7dfbe | [] | 2020-12-08 20:34:04.091000+00:00 | ['Movies To Watch', 'Hollywood', 'Cinema', 'Movies', 'Movie Review'] |
Dot.Finance will help bring the Polkadot ecosystem to the masses | “It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” — Napoleon Hill
Early blockchain protocols were designed with individuality taking center stage. Integration and interoperability were overlooked as platforms made sacrifices to enhance security and immutability over every other facet. Unsurprisingly, a few years later, one of the most common problems in blockchain protocols is scalability. Protocols such as Ethereum and Bitcoin cannot process transactions to meet the ever-growing demand for decentralized services.
These delays and inconveniences led to the development of advanced protocols designed to maintain the core of blockchain while eliminating its failed aspects. Polkadot was one of the new age protocols that breathed new life into a struggling ecosystem. Now, Dot.Finance wants to invigorate Polkadot to strengthen the blockchain industry.
The DeFi boom and the Polkadot connection
Most DeFi platforms have some form of connection to Polkadot. It is arguably the most popular protocol, even rivaling Ethereum. Polkadot was designed to eliminate inherent blockchain problems, which explains its popularity and widespread usage. It also has the potential to take blockchain mainstream if it receives the proper support from the ecosystem.
With its ability to process transactions on multiple chains simultaneously, Polkadot greatly influenced the DeFi boom that the market observed in 2020. It can also be described as the market maturing, following years of innovation and refining innovation.
Dot.Finance is stepping up to reveal Polkadot to the world. It hopes to potentiate the effect of Polkadot that can ultimately lead to a new blockchain era. The platform takes a unique approach by dedicating its service to growing another blockchain platform. Though not new, the system used by Dot is the first of its kind in terms of the focus area. The platform focuses on building Polkadot’s reputation as a DeFi hub.
Blockchain to the world
Dot.Finance adds a compelling dimension to Polkadot. Through the platform, users can learn of the significant advantages they can derive from exploiting the services of Polkadot. The DeFi aggregator has the potential to complement the pulling power for Polkadot such that most upcoming DeFi projects opt to base their platforms on Polkadot or create integration possibilities to the protocol.
So, how will Dot.Finance take blockchain to the world?
By reducing barriers to participation on the Polkadot network. More participants in the networks translate to more visibility, leading to a broader acceptance of blockchain technology. Maximizing the performance of tokens and assets on Polkadot deployed in DeFi products such as staking or liquidity pools. This is also essential in attracting LP as they are assured of good returns.
By having these two focus points, Dot.Finance will have solved a majority of problems that exist within crypto and thereby continuing to make DeFi platforms choose for Polkadot over other existing protocols. To learn more about Dot.Finance, please visit their social channels: | https://medium.com/@defipop/dot-finance-will-help-bring-the-polkadot-ecosystem-to-the-masses-5d44088d727b | ['Defi Pop'] | 2021-07-06 10:07:48.960000+00:00 | ['Decentralized', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Review', 'Defi'] |
Freddy’s Nightmares episode review — 1.22 — Safe Sex | Original air date: May 27, 1989
Director: Jerry Olson
Writer: David J. Schow
Rating: 6/10
This is a pretty good season finale that involves Freddy into the story, which is always nice. And the two stories are closely connected to each other, which is also a plus, as it doesn’t always work out this way.
At any rate, we start with a high school boy seeing a therapist over his problems with women.
He insists he’s not into the “girl next door” type, and instead crushes after Caitlin, a goth chick who may or may not be into satanism and is definitely into Freddy.
He tries to win her over and continues to have dreams about her. Eventually they meet up in a dream, which is kind of a fun and funny sequence. He says he always wondered what she’d be like as a blonde, and then his mother shows up to lecture on how she’s not good for him. She kills the mother, and then kills him with Freddy’s glove.
We learn in the second story, that revolves around Caitlin and the deceased boy’s best friend, that she didn’t mean to kill him. She just wanted to scare him but she blames Freddy for the death.
Nevertheless she’s now being pursued by the boy’s best friend, who doesn’t know her role in his friend’s death. He has a dream where she appears in a library in some kind of sexy outfit.
And then almost immediately he winds up on a wheel, being tortured by her.
And eventually by Freddy himself.
The story goes a bit downhill from here, but manages to have a nice conclusion.
Both stories are relatively strong, with the second standing out a bit more, despite having some more pronounced low moments. The torture stuff is quite fun. | https://medium.com/as-vast-as-space-and-as-timeless-as-infinity/freddys-nightmares-episode-review-1-22-safe-sex-5660e11d3709 | ['Patrick J Mullen'] | 2020-11-16 19:27:10.719000+00:00 | ['Freddy Krueger', 'Tv Reviews', 'Horror', 'Television', 'TV'] |
Soft skills detection | The new world we live in gives us more help — and more doubts. Machines stand behind everything — and the scope of this everything is only growing. To what extent can we trust such machines? We are used to relying on them in market trends, traffic management, maybe even in healthcare. Machines are now analysts, medical assistants, secretaries and teachers. Are they reliable enough to work as HRs? Psychologists? What can they tell about us?
Let’s see how text analysis can analyze your soft skills and tell a potential employer whether you can join the team smoothly.
Project Description
In this project, we used text analysis techniques to analyze the soft skills of young men (aged 15–24) looking for career opportunities.
What we had in mind was to perform a number of tests, or to choose the most effective one, to determine ground truth values. The tests we were experimenting with included:
Mind Tools test — short and simple, but may be difficult for centennials. Test’s output is score (from 1 to 15) for each of the following soft skills categories: Personal Mastery, Time Management, Communication Skills, Problem Solving and Decision Making, Leadership and Management.
TAT test — the input is a story about a picture, and the system automatically rates it in the following categories: Need for Affiliation, Need for power, Self-references (I, me, my), Social words, Positive emotions, Negative emotions, Big words (> 6 letters). We thought about mapping certain traits: Communication — Need for Affiliation, Courtesy — Social words, Flexibility — Need for Affiliation, Integrity — Self-references, Interpersonal skills — Need for Affiliation, Positive attitude — Positive emotions, Professionalism — Need for Achievement, Responsibility — Big words (words with more than 6 letters), Teamwork — Social words, Work ethic — Social words. Together with MBTI test results these categories can be mapped on soft skills more accurately.
Myers-Briggs tests — self-report questionnaires indicating psychological preferences in how people perceive the world around them and make decisions. The received answers are mapped onto four categories: Extraversion-Introversion, Sensing-Intuition, Thinking-Feeling, Judging-Perceiving. There are three options for MBTI tests with about 60 questions in each: MBTI test 1, MBTI test 2, MBTI test 3.
The following table describes how to map MBTI and TAT test results on soft skills.
Table 1. Mapping of MBTI and TAT results on soft skills
Our Approach
To have the fullest understanding of the user’s personality, we combine insights coming from soft skills prediction analytics and the MBTI prediction. Moreover, we keep track of the user’s past inputs and result to update our findings and to monitor possible changes in the user’s attitudes.
1. Data Collection
Any text analysis system requires a minimal amount of the user’s text at the input, as well as a minimal number of user’s tweets or FB posts (in case of linking with social media accounts). As soon as there is no publicly available labeled dataset for soft skills detection, we had to collect our own.
To quickly develop a reliable dataset we decided to expand the users’ tweets and FB posts with produced by them essays and answers to the questions generated by our system.
At the registration, the user is encouraged to specify his or her social networks profile (Instagram, Twitter and Facebook profiles). The system then collects all messages authored by the user.
As the second step, the system prompts the user to write a brief essay, answering prearranged sets of questions, which should be answered in the specific order:
1. How are you doing today?
2. Please tell me about yourself
3. Tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership.
4. Tell me about a time when you were working in a team and faced with a challenge. How did you solve this problem?
5. What is your weakness, and how do you plan to overcome it?
One more set of questions:
1. How are you doing today?
2. Please tell me about yourself
3. How do you like to spend your free time? Please, tell me about your hobbies.
4. Please tell me about some of the most memorable moments which happened to you during your study at school/college/university.
5. What is your weakness, and how do you plan to overcome it?
The questions are generated by the system based on previous data analysis.
Afterwards, the user is prompted to enter daily status, for example, as a short blog-post or essay on his past day.
To make it easy for the user, we offer the following questions as a plan:
What new things did you learn today? What difficulties did you face? How did you overcome those difficulties?
Of course, essays are not always the most convenient way to sketch your feelings about the day and not everyone likes writing. For this, we can use a chatbot interface integrated with social media, such as Facebook Messenger.
2. Data preprocessing
All available texts are used as an input to the model which determines soft skills from the customers’ set.
To be fed to the model for training, both questionnaire answers and collected tweets undergo preprocessing, i.e. normalization and tokenizing. At first, with the help of regular expressions, the text is freed from emoji, URLS, numbers, stop words, acronyms, etc.; HTML entities are also replaced with characters. If necessary, we complement text normalization with tokenizing.
A single module is used as an input to the model which determines soft skills from the dataset. A model’s output will be an N-dimensional vector, where N is the number of soft skills used by the system. The n-th element of the set will be a probability of the user having n-th skill. As an optional second output, we include a confidence score (depending on the model choice).
3. MBTI and soft skills detection
For MBTI detection, we chose the approach described at Plank, Hovy, 2015. The authors collected a corpus of 1.5M English tweets labeled by gender and MBTI type, and created a model for automatic MBTI detection. Both the corpus and the model are available, and the reported accuracy is 55–72% depending on a category (on 2000 tweets). To improve the accuracy and decrease the amount of texts required for accurate detection, we additionally used the approach described in Arnoux et. al., 2017.
For soft skills detection, we chose a slightly different approach, namely, GloVE (Pennington et. al, 2014), and used the Gaussian process as a classifier.
4. MBTI and soft skills prediction
At the next stage we calculated the features for both MBTI and Soft Skills models. We tried to use the same features for both models in order to optimize calculations. Features were then passed to the MBTI and Soft Skills calculation models. Such features can be run in parallel if the Soft Skills model does not use the MBTI model’s output as an additional input.
At this stage, the system returns a 4-dimensional vector and an optional confidence score. Optionally, it can return 4-letter codes of Myers-Biggs personality type, e.g. “ISTJ”, “ENFP”.
It outputs an N-dimensional vector with a certain score for each soft skill (normalized to [0, 1]) and a confidence score as a second (optional) output. The system can also return an error code in case of error (e.g. too short text, input language other than English, etc.).
5. Results validation
This component analyzes error codes of Soft skills and MBTI prediction modules. Gaussian processes or another Bayesian model allow us to get a confidence score which is compared with a preselected threshold value. A low confidence score means that system is not confident enough, and it cannot estimate MBTI or soft skills. In this case, an additional user’s input may be required.
6. User’s results recording
Finally, the recent MBTI and soft skills assessment results are recorded in the database, including user’s text input, the system output, and the corresponding timestamp The database stores both the initial estimation, and daily updates.
Text analysis flowchart
Limitations
To work effectively, any text analysis system has a minimal required amount of user’s text at the input, as well as a minimal number of user’s tweets or FB posts (in case we link it with social media accounts). Besides, for both soft skills and MBTI, the system can have a confidence score as an output — a floating point value from 0 to 1 (where 1 is the highest score). In case of low confidence score (e.g. < 0.5), the user should be asked to write more detailed answers. The system will generate questions based on previous data analysis.
The second consideration is that the set of questions and the rules for their generation should be discussed. As we are not professional psychologists, we have two options to create a set of questions and rules:
Let human experts in psychology define the set of questions and rules;
Find existing dataset of relevant interviews
Technology stack
Python 3.6 is used for Text Analysis back-end implementation. The set of packages includes (but is not limited to) the following packages: Numpy, Scipy, Scikit-learn, Gensim.
Database for storing all users’ data, including their input text and all analysis results history can be either relational (Postgresql) or no-SQL (Mongo, Redis).
Third-party components
Conclusion
We showed that Artificial Intelligence can provide deep insights into the human personality. Sentiment analysis and analysis of soft skills based on the text produced by the users are examples of tools that can be immediately used by the HRs, businesses that want to monitor their employees’ attitudes and hire new specialists, as well as by candidates who want to assess and improve their chances of getting a job. | https://medium.com/sciforce/soft-skills-detection-e7f63885302a | [] | 2019-10-29 17:41:49.252000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'NLP', 'Data Science', 'Human Resources'] |
Animation in UI Design: From SOUP to NUTS. | Animations to UI Design is what innovation is to creating a good product. And since the UI is crucial for a good product. Hence, Animations are indispensable.
The concept of animation in UI design is as important to UI design as oxygen is to human beings. It helps bring out key elements of the layout, shifts the user’s focus onto things that need attention, and just gives a great look and feel to the platform design. Although it has its fair share of critics, there is no denying that animation provides a different, seemingly complicated but easy-on-the-eye screen for a user to look at. It really aids in the effective processing of microinteractions, with increased efficiency, and also to solve a variety of other problems that users face while using an app or a product. Many developers and professionals believe that animation is a useless and clunky feature that does nothing but increase the size of the platform. Studies have shown that apps with animation are bound to do better than static ones, because of the look and feel which supports the essence of real interaction. Animation creates an environment wherein users get a taste of how they would interact with a physical object in real life. Here, we discuss the different aspects of animation, and why is it so important for UX and UI design.
NEED FOR ANIMATION IN UI DESIGN
Animation in UI design provides developers with ways to better interact with their users, letting them know about things currently in progress, things completed, time remaining and other variables. Buttons, sliders, menu animations, swiping actions and all that good stuff is very much needed to help give your app that cutting edge, that X-factor for it to be successful in the heavily-competitive market. So, what is the need for animation for UI and UX purposes? What problems can it solve? Let us discuss.
ACTION PROGRESS AND TIME REMAINING
Sometimes, developers and designers add all required features to their app, all the essential processes, but what they forget to add is progress indicators and timers. Often, when people initiate any activity, they want to know on a regular basis variable like time remaining, percentage progress completed, time elapsed, and other indicators. This is where animation in UI design comes into play, usually with the help of pull-to-refresh actions and preloaders, along with pull down screen layouts to ensure that users have the required info available to them at all times. Also, progress bars and timelines can let people know about the progress and timing aspects of activities so that they know exactly how much longer they have to wait.
ACTION COMPLETION CONFIRMATION
One of the major problems in animation in UI design, designers often omit action completion indicators from their designs. This can leave users in uncertainty as to whether their desired activity has been completed or not. Adding animations using toggles, buttons, and elements such as hamburger buttons can help users avoid duplicate interactions and actions, particularly helpful in apps such as banking and transactions, where duplicate transactions can be detrimental. Microinteractions at this level of usage are fairly easy to implement with the help of animation in UI design, and would certainly increase the usability of your platform.
CLEAR AND CRISP NAVIGATION
How would you feel if you spend hours upon hours of work on a project, only for people to ignore the key aspects of what you’ve done? This is a problem you could potentially face if you do not focus on having a clear visual hierarchy and clear navigation structure on your platform. It can help in drawing attention to features and facts that are most essential, especially for interactive digital products. Animation in UI design here can help in the faster marking of essential visual elements in your design, using bright colors and other markers to draw the attention of your users towards things that really matter.
CLUTTER-FREE SCREENS AND LAYOUTS
Overloading of user screens with useless and obsolete facts and data will only make users quit using your app. Clear and clutter-free screens are very important from the designing aspect, as users today only want platforms that make for easy viewing and usage. Having a higher degree of complicated options will only make users work harder to find what they are looking for, something that no one wants to do. Animation in UI design here can help in the better organization of screens and data blocks, with cards, swipe screens, and menus ensuring users an ‘easy on the eye’ UX. Organization of relevant data and simple solutions to all problems is what will keep users glued to your app.
THE NEED FOR NATURAL-FEELING INTERACTIONS
This is a problem best defined by the ideology of ‘knowing that there’s something wrong, but not knowing exactly what it is’. When such a situation arises, the thing that is most often wrong is the feel of the interactions. Users like their interactions in apps to feel as if they were touching and holding a physical object, and although they might not appreciate the feel of these interactions, it will surely help them get used to the app quicker. Designers and developers can use animations to enhance actions such as touching on objects, pressing and holding, moving things out of the way and swiping. Making your users feel comfortable while on your app is something that you can achieve effortlessly with animation.
ADDING A BIT OF SPICE TO YOUR PLATFORM
Visual beauty and aesthetics play a big role in determining if users are going to like your app or not. If your screens are vibrant and visually pleasing, obviously, users will feel more inclined towards using your app, and animation in UI design, yet again, can help you achieve this. Colour gradients, smooth transitions, and visual effects can really bring out the best that you have to offer, and will surely make your users think that yes, this is the app for them, and it looks good too!
CONCEPTUAL ANIMATION
Animation in UI design is a field of multiple specializations. One such type is conceptual animation, which includes motion design and other elements created to test out or convey some thought before the development of the actual product. Conceptual animation is not a very popular concept among developers, but being the devil’s advocate, we believe that this can be applied to existing and to-be-developed apps and platforms in order to add an element of uniqueness and a different taste to your apps.
One of our creations.
Conceptual animations and design step aside from the traditional beliefs of animation in UI design and look to think out of the box by ignoring the already existing readymade solutions to problems and going beyond current rules and regulations. It is due to this very fact that conceptual animation is thought of as needless and controversial. Fresh and new design concepts using conceptual animation are usually caught on by some developer or designer who sees the potential in this animation type and looks for ways to apply them to real-life problems. It has been seen that even complex conceptual animation designs can be successfully coded by developers, even if it requires a bit of extra time and effort, the end result is worth it.
SOME EXAMPLES OF ANIMATION IN UI DESIGN CONCEPTS USED IN REAL-LIFE APPLICATIONS
OPENING MENUS
Animation in UI design techniques, especially conceptual animation, can add an increased amount of sheen and extravagance to even simple things such as opening menus and swiping to open side menus. Instead of a robust flow of objects from one side to another, designers can code the app in such a way that the flow of objects is gradual and makes it appear more natural. This is more aesthetically pleasing, although it might slow down the natural usage feel of the app.
SCROLLING
While scrolling too, gradual flow instead of quick and snappy movement can help users get a more natural interaction feel. A little hold back while scrolling the cards adds a visual illusion of having more space in the layout, which can sometimes be pleasing for users to see. Also, it can add a bit of a fun element, while preserving the actual use of the action being performed. This type of scrolling is seen in many apps today, mainly the ones which have a lot of list interfaces, such as music players.
TRANSITIONS
Perhaps the most important aspects of an app where animation in UI design can be put to good use. Transitions are one of the most used functions, as users while operating an app need to click and move from one screen to another, from one interface to another. Ensuring a smooth transition is a must for designers since it determines a major part of the look and feel of your app. For example, transitioning from a list to a specific item with a few dynamics and conceptual animation can give your app an added sheen. Both smooth and visually pleasing, good transitions can be the difference between your app going viral and being lost in the crowd.
ANIMATION IN UI DESIGN: MICROINTERACTIONS
We’ve all heard the notion that ‘it’s the little things that matter’. Well, there could have been no bigger proof than microinteractions. As the name suggests, these are small visual changes that let you know if an action has been initiated, has been successfully completed, or other changes. When you click ‘like’ on a Facebook post, the button turning blue is an example of a microinteraction. This lets the user know that his/her like has been counted, and this is basically what microinteractions are for. They are perhaps the essence of good UI/UX design because attention to the smallest of details gives a good impression of your competence and care for users.
In most cases, designers code microinteractions in such a way that the user doesn’t even feel much of a hindrance or difference in operation, yet the difference is significant enough to affirm that an action has been performed. Making microinteractions as natural as possible is thus very important from both the design and the UI/UX point of view, and animations are a great way to do that. Here are some nifty tools and design elements that can be coded to exploit microinteractions effectively.
REFRESHING ANIMATIONS
These have suddenly become the talk of the town. Almost all apps which have live update feeds and elements make use of a pull-to-refresh microinteraction when a user reaches the very top of the list. This is, hence, one of the first things coded into an application’s design, and involves many opportunities for creative branding and ideas.
BUTTONS
The simplest and most popular elements for microinteractions, buttons can be put to good use with the help of animations. Activation of different elements of the platform is usually achieved with the help of buttons, such as turning on the alarm on your phone makes the slider button go from greyed out left to active right. Thus, having a good mix of vibrant colors and effective animation in UI design can help improve the quality of microinteractions achieved with buttons.
EDITING OR FORMATTING INTERACTIONS
When we tap and hold to select an item, it usually becomes all greyed out. This is, again, an example of animations being used in microinteractions, which lets the user know that the given item has been selected and can now be acted upon. One of the simpler concepts to employ, selection microinteractions are most often used in list-based interfaces.
UTILIZING ANIMATION IN UI EFFICIENTLY
In today’s age, where customers have millions of options to choose from, utilizing animation in UI design efficiently can help in giving your app an edge over other competitors. Making your platform stand out in terms of interface and usability is what you should be looking for when you are deploying animation concepts in your platform, and a perfect balance must be struck between visual aesthetics and usability. Fortunately, today, we have a lot of options to choose from when it comes to adding animations, such as conceptual animation and microinteractions, to enhance your app’s UX and UI design.
HOW SODIO CAN HELP
At Sodio, we have a great UI/UX development and design team, that can help you integrate animations into your UI, and ultimately build up your user retention stats. Our designs are state-of-the-art and visually pleasing, along with being efficient and fast. With a talented team of designers, we are sure to leave you satisfied with our work, and we can assure you that your users will love your platform!
MORE FROM OUR TECH BLOG | https://medium.com/sodio-tech/animation-in-ui-design-from-soup-to-nuts-42320d597b24 | ['Abhishek Kumar'] | 2018-05-25 12:38:51.170000+00:00 | ['UI', 'User Experience', 'Design', 'UX', 'Dribbble'] |
Reflecting on 2020 and Setting Goals for 2021 (Part 2) | Reflecting on 2020 and Setting Goals for 2021 (Part 2)
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
How did Part 1 go for you? Did you discover forgotten memories and experiences from 2020?
Now that we’ve taken some inventory on 2020, are you ready to answer some questions? You don’t need to prioritize or rank or even choose goals yet. We’ll narrow things down in Part 3.
You may write as little or as much as you’d like. It is okay to put “nothing” as an answer.
What do I have too much of in my life and want to let go of or reduce?
This can be something like stress, or negative people, or self-judgement, or even things like too many ongoing projects.
Consider:
* Maybe you got too much of something in 2020
* What isn’t serving you well? What is taking too much of your precious energy and time?
* Do you have too many commitments or too much on your mind?
* Is it time to make room in your life by doing less and being more?
What do I want more of in my life?
This can be something we already have and want more of, something we used to have and want back, or something new we’d like to introduce into our lives. There are lots of options, but adding a lot of new things may not be the answer either.
Consider:
* What have you missed or lost in 2020 that you can reasonably bring back (not everything will be possible in our covid-19 reality)?
* What has brought you joy in ways you’d like to continue or grow in 2021?
* What are you excited about bringing into your life?
Who or what needs my attention in 2021?
Another way to think about goal-setting is to consider others’ needs. Perhaps they are the priority for the first part of 2021.
What needs to be addressed?
Is there something you’re ready to tackle? Is there something that cannot wait any longer? Is there something you’ve been procrastinating on? Are you saying “it’s time” about something?
What do I most want to work on?
The key words here are “I most want to”, which does not mean the things someone else thinks you should be working on. It is about what you want to change and what you are capable of starting today. I want you to choose something within reach; something which will make your life better, something you feel good about.
What can wait?
You don’t have to tackle everything. If you already have a long list, you can’t work on everything. Remember, if you’re going to whittle your list down to
The. Most. Important. Thing. Right. Now., you’ll need to put some things down here. This list may be even more important than all the answers above, especially if you’re prone to taking on more than you can handle (you know who you are).
Consider: People over-estimate what they can do in the short-term and under-estimate what they can do in the long term.
Ready to make some decisions? Read on to Part 3. | https://medium.com/@paulina-caprio/reflecting-on-2020-and-setting-goals-for-2021-part-2-f0dd54a86166 | ['Paulina Fin Caprio'] | 2020-03-25 00:00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Goals', 'Life', 'Love', 'Compassion'] |
CEEK ROADMAP | VISION FOR A NEW REALITY
The Road to Billions — www.ceek.io
Thank you Ceekers for this period of growth. We are deeply grateful for the continued support from our phenomenal community. What a journey it’s been to the top of the charts! We are the #1 virtual reality token and the #7 Metaverse token. CEEK has been extremely busy securing the world’s top music artists, sports leagues, crypto communities and industry partners, developing photorealistic avatars, venues, CEEK city, unique and exclusive events, experiences and creating rare, immersive NFTs for Ceekers.
Welcome to the CEEK Metaverse
CEEK is a fully immersive virtual community where users can play, learn and live together in shared social spaces, participating in everything from test driving cars to buying homes and attending concerts and sports games. The CEEK metaverse connects creators to their communities in shared virtual worlds and spaces.
Using the CEEK token, community members and creators alike can earn rewards through unique experiences, NFTs, live events and much more. The CEEK Metaverse goes beyond entertainment, it encompasses opportunities to learn and play in all ways and forms.
Learn more at www.ceek.io
CEEK is the utility token used throughout the network for transactions and interactions. It will be used across the network by creators, developers, and partners for the community-based platform of rewards and an ecosystem for sharing truly rare and unique NFTs, events, and experiences. CEEK is an ERC-20 utility token built on the Ethereum blockchain. We are in the process of transitioning to the Binance Smart Chain (BSC).
See bridge here — https://bridge.ceek.io/
Our aim is to ensure all CEEK marketplaces use smart contracts for all transactions. This open marketplace for creators and developers will allow for faster, efficient and secure payments.
CEEK currently has over 200 Music Artists, Crypto communities, Major Award Shows, Sports Teams, Retailers and more ready to offer unique experiences and opportunities for the community to own, earn rewards, while enjoying truly unique experiences.
CEEK Metaverse for Socializing, Networking and Events www.ceek.io www.ceek.com
CEEK is creating mainstream utility for the Metaverse and crypto by offering an easy to use, well integrated application that is accessible via a variety of ways and partners. Our vision is to offer a truly immersive parallel world for entertainment, education, and everyday experiences. Ushering in Web 3.0 interconnected virtual worlds and visualization of ways in which we play, learn and live.
We are in essence building the VIRTUAL WEB for and with our partners; a series of interconnected applications that will ultimately create the Meteverse.
The next steps in our journey to bring billions of people together is to complete features and milestones that will drive continued growth and value for $CEEK.
ROADMAP
Phase 1 — Payments Integration
We are undergoing a complete overhaul of the CEEK mobile app and network to make it super easy for Ceekers to access and use CEEK no matter their device or geography. We’ll have many incentives for spending CEEK versus other forms of payment. Users will be able to buy from exchanges as well directly from all CEEK platforms.
o BSC Integration — We are working on fully integrating several forms of payment including Binance Smart Chain (BSC) into our payment platform. See — Why CEEK is Moving to Binance Smart Chain (BSC)
o Tier 1 Exchange Listing — CEEK is an opportunity for millions of people to have their first crypto experience, we are in discussions with top exchanges to make the process easy and seamless.
o ETH Support — We will continue to offer support for Eth particularly in the NFT marketplace.
o Mobile Payments — CEEK is a global platform with varying revenue streams to empower creators, developers, and brands in generating fair value for their work. An essential aspect of that is the CEEK token and integration with various mobile money platforms.
o App Store Payments — Supporting all app store payments in securing CEEK for use on the platform.
o Multi-Platform Support (Ongoing) — Multiple access points and formats including 2D, 360 VR, True 3D and interactive Virtual Reality
o CEEK Wallet — Ability to connect to CEEK Metaverse using Metamask, Trust wallet etc and also send and receive CEEK directly.
o CEEK City, Venues and Land NFTs — Personal galleries, storage and display of collectibles. Venue ownership, exchanges, staking, earn rewards and more.
o Additional Partner Coins
o Multi-Network Support (Ongoing)
Phase 2 — A Creator Enabled Ecosystem
CEEK Creator Dashboard www.ceek.com
CEEK Creator Dashboard
CEEK is building a toolset and guides for content creators to easily build, deliver and monetize unique experiences, virtual worlds, and rare digital merch (NFTs) — no matter where they are in the world.
This aims to attract partners with tremendous communities. Partners can engage in richer experiences with their communities and Ceekers will have access to bigger and better experiences hanging out with their favorite music, sports or movie stars, visiting VIP areas, exclusive NFT drops and more. We believe the Creator Dashboard will serve as an excellent form of marketing.
CEEK has already secured hundreds of music artists, sports leagues and major crypto communities to make CEEK their home in the virtual web.
Hosted Events (Multi-Stream Engine)
Enable music artists, DJs, Tech Talks, Award Shows, Fashion Shows, Crypto Summits, and brands to host live events and rich experiences for our highly active and enthusiastic community with game changing blockchain integration which offers event hosts transparency, faster payments and greater financial control.
The CEEK Multi-Stream Engine has intuitive tools for scheduling events in various venues, cities, and worlds. Users create and distribute their event once, and CEEK makes it available to all supported devices and partners.
Creators can earn more and faster payouts by creating events, owning and maintaining venues. These venues range from amphitheaters to futuristic spacestations and intimate settings for small group of friends to hang out.
NFT Marketplace
Web-based application that allows creators to upload, publish, and sell their creations as BEP 20 or ERC 20. Collections can be stored and displayed in their Metaverse spaces.
CEEK Avatar Marketplace
CEEK photorealistic avatars are virtual extension of Ceeker physical identities, and the avatar marketplace will allow offer rare and unique asses (NFTs) to customizecharacters.
Phase 3 — Continued Global Expansion
Our goal is to be on 100 million devices in short order and billions of devices thereafter. To that end we have partnered with leading headset makers, and building for desktop, tablets, and mobile devices.
CEEK for Enterprise
o Microsoft — CEEK has been working with Microsoft on developing CEEK for enterprise applications. See announcement here from Microsoft CEO on some of the work we have been doing.
o Brands — Retail brands are looking to engage their customers for shopping for clothes, jewelry and more through virtual twin stores. This will bring an influx of millions of everyday users of the CEEK network. Transaction fees will be charged for all transactions
Phase 4 — Dynamic Social Experiences
Equipping our current VR clubhouses, hangout spaces with voice chat and real-time multi-user interaction. Exclusive events and experiences, live social hangouts, chill space, and VR clubhouses where CEEK token holders can socialize, chat and interact with friends and their favorite stars in real time.
We are also investing in development of AI language translations of the CEEK Metaverse to further engage our global communities.
Phase 5 — Open Framework
Provide a developer hub and SDK for open-source development of Metaverse experiences, worlds and more.
CEEK Developer Hub
CEEK’s platform is built on a proven scalable infrastructure and decade-long track record of stellar content creation and distribution for Microsoft XBOX, Facebook, Tribune News Company (parent of LA Times), Toyota, Clear Channel and over 200 radio stations.
Analytics — CEEK’s backend analytics will provide deep insights, interaction time, heat maps and other visual telemetry on how users are interacting with environments and media views for auto reporting and other label services. Aggregated transactions across multiple platforms will be available through the CEEK block explorer.
Future Milestones
· VR Space Academy
· CEEK Studios
· Blockchain Metaverse Alliance
Metaverse Market Overview
We are excited by the recent developments such as Facebook now becoming Meta, Microsoft’s foray into the Metaverse and Byte Dance(Tik Tok) acquisition of Pico VR to enter the Metaverse.
The global Metaverse market size is expected to grow to $829B by 2028. Today there are over 660M people with metaverse accounts, and CEEK is very well positioned to offer these account holders events and experiences well beyond entertainment.
CEEK AN ECOSYTEM ENABLER
Through our easy-to-use mobile app and products, CEEK serves as an industry partner and the on-ramp to the virtual world, driving growth and creating long term value for our partners who can shortcut their sales process by marketing to our users.
Through our enterprise application we are offering media conglomerates and other content creators the opportunity to get into the VR marketplace and create high premium VR content through smart contracts which require CEEK coins
WHY CEEK WILL CONTINUE TO LEAD THE WAY FOR THE METAVERSE
Accessible — For the Metaverse to be successful, it must be easily accessible — that means on all devices, with and without a VR headset. CEEK’s Mission is to make the Metaverse universally accessible and useful for everyday use no matter where you are in the world.
Interoperable — Creation of premium 360 VRAR Content is a difficult, expensive and multivariable challenge requiring both creative and technical expertise. The VR marketplace is highly fragmented, further compounding the problem. CEEK makes it possible for creators to build once and distribute to multiple virtual worlds without the need to invest millions or time and expertise building and maintaining multiple apps for different devices.
Access and discovery of VR content is very challenging for consumers. Downloading multiple sizable apps is frustrating and impractical. With CEEK users can have the same experience, even interact with others no matter the device.
CEEK is creating the Blockchain Metaverse Alliance which is a group of leading blockchain projects focused on metaverse with the intention of bringing blockchain integration to mainstream offerings, such as gaming, movies, music, and more. Think of it as a group of really good, vetted projects that are aligning to bring something great to the masses via the metaverse.
Scalable — For widespread adoption of the Metaverse, users will need content to be inclusive and mass appeal. CEEK is about helping our users enjoy more of what they love by creating a world that is as close to real as possible, yet magical; to be enjoyed virtually. Today VR content availability is far and in between. By carefully creating original content, porting over compelling content, curating, and offering exciting content CEEK addresses the frustration of having to sift through various apps and websites to find VR Content.
The CEEK world will be fully reactive, using AI and machine learning to automatically detect the video’s content to reflect elements in the environment. If it’s raining in the video, it will rain in the environment. We will also enable geo-spatial detection such as proper time of day.
Sustainable — For the metaverse to be sustainable, it must offer motivation for everyday use. CEEK is well positioned to offer visually delightful social experiences in and out of the Metaverse. VR adds sensory engagement to the musical experiences. Music historically drives new platform use because of its universal appeal and frequent often daily use. CEEK aims to offer inclusive content that is owned and directed by the community along with social spaces that can be enjoyed every day
Social — CEEK virtual venues create the communal experience of socializing and networking. They are destinations to meet with friends and be in the same shared space with new ones. Adding voice chat will enable more natural everyday interaction.
To Infinity and beyond…
Today, more and more people are looking for ways to permanently bring their virtual worlds into their real lives. CEEK is researching light field projection, so that in the not-so-distant future, your cryptokittie, can leap out of your wallet and acually walk around your house.
Our long-term growth path is predicated on you our valued community, with that in mind, every step is aimed at reaching new audiences, creating new revenue streams and experiences to delight you.
Imagine, we are just getting started. There’s a lot more in store to drive awareness and excitement of all things CEEK. We can’t wait to share, stay connected on our socials. | https://medium.com/@ceek/ceek-roadmap-b44a048e3f63 | [] | 2021-11-18 15:56:36.386000+00:00 | ['Virtual Reality', 'Metaverse', 'Nft Marketplace', 'Vrtoken', 'Binance Smart Chain'] |
Google Ads and React.js: Delivering Ads with a Great UX | How to run on-site advertising that provides a seamless experience leveraging your company’s component libraries.
Since the inception of online advertising, users have always complained about the design and relevancy of ads. With the nature of business being to aim for maximum visibility, there is always a dissonance between attention and readability of a website’s content.
As we all know, contrary to print media, there are virtually no technical limitations on the web when it comes to the visual appearance of an ad. Display units in specific have reached a state where some are so extremely annoying that certain committees are even discussing standards for acceptable ads.
Native Ads to the Rescue
Our generation has mastered the art of ignoring such content and the industry has largely caught up on that. Native ads is one of the least invasive measures that fit a publisher’s web experience.
The idea is stunningly simple: Instead of marketing out differently styled content on your website (with overlays and blinking banners probably being the most annoying manifestation of their species), you get to decide what an ad unit looks like. It is then up to the advertiser to provide a copy, among other creatives. Not only is it visually less disturbing — by sharing your app’s look and feel, but a native ad is also very likely to exhibit a better click-through rate.
Native Ads: A Quick Example
To give a quick peek on what Omio’s ad product looks like, have a look at the screenshot below. The ad is distinguishable from the rest of the content both by bearing the “sponsored” label and less functionality compared to the remainder of the result cells.
But it shares the same style and is built using the same frontend components as the rest of the page.
The native ad is intuitive and blends with the entire user experience of the product. If the “sponsored” text wasn’t present, you’d never recognise that result as an ad.
5 Reasons the Status Quo wasn’t enough for us.
Generally speaking, serving ads is implemented by following a pretty standard procedure. If you’re running a website, adding a small piece of javascript code is more than enough to get you up and running. If you want to spice things up a little you can use an ad manager to enjoy sophisticated targeting rules.
Initially, this was pretty much the path we chose to go down as well. Our baseline setup contained an ad slot in our React frontend which was remotely managed by Google AdManager. With as little as some HTML & CSS and some targeting rules based on the user’s search terms, our team was able to run ads on page.
Even though this worked for our first iteration, it just didn’t feel right for a number of reasons.
1.Crafting Pixel Perfect Designs
Building pixel-perfect designs isn’t a superfluity or after-thought. It is to serve the user.
This core value is etched deeply into every product we develop — and the implementation of native ads by mixing some basic HTML and CSS in a confined editor seemed to be doing an injustice to our design philosophy.
Our design team has spent countless hours running user research and building a design system that serves as a common language for all teams in the company. This keeps the entire organization (with a diverse group of teams) on the same page. By leveraging our design system, teams can move faster, communicate better and ultimately increase the speed at which products are released without compromising pixel-perfect designs.
Dotty — our internal design system.
For engineers, a big part of a design system is a library of frontend components. It is more challenging to create perfectly designed native ads without taking advantage of an already established library of components built to reflect a consistent representation of our brand message. A component library not just provides us with pixel-perfect designs, but greatly increases the speed at which we ship ads without having to reinvent the wheel.
More so, when everyone speaks the same language, things get done faster. As a company, a component library lets us speak the same language. Yes, with gruesome engineering hours, we might end up re-creating near-perfect Ads with a WYSIWYG editor, but by completely neglecting our component library, we would be disconnected from speaking the same language as everyone else in the entire company.
To sum up our thoughts on creating pixel-perfect designs, our goal here was to build ads with a great user experience and to do so without breaking the internal means of communication we hold highly within the company — a consistent design system built to promote pixel-perfect designs. This means reusing our frontend component library and delivering a consistent user experience across the entire user funnel, every single time.
2. Speed of Iterations
Iterative and user-data-driven development of software is highly encouraged here at Omio, and as such we’ve built pipelines and processes that enable teams to move fast across the entire company.
Delivering highly performant ads require a lot of tests and iterations to run successful campaigns.
For example, if we went with using the typical WYSIWYG solution, a simple A/B test fostered by a change in design will require communicating with our Ad ops to implement the new design and also tweak the ad campaign set up. This isn’t very efficient.
A more solid approach would be to let our frontend engineers take care of the design implementation, connect this with our A/B test service and letting our Ad ops focus solely on managing the ad campaign. This breeds a division of labour and specialization among the engineering and ad ops teams. All engineering efforts are centralised within the engineering team and the planning, execution, tracking and analytics of the ad campaign is managed solely by the Ad ops team.
This sort of separation of concerns weeds out unnecessary dependencies between teams, a common source of friction when building any product. This leads to faster ads development and release cycles.
3. Versioning and Using a Single Tech Stack
With a WYSIWYG editor, your options are limited. You write some HTML and CSS, and for writing Javascript, you’re confined to writing scripts within the script tag of an HTML panel.
What if your team had spent time building a thriving ecosystem around a specific modern tech stack? A stack that includes release pipelines, preview functionality, modern development experience, and embraces a set of standards and best practices?
As a company, our frontend stack relies on React for creating delightful user experiences. No engineer should be forced to write HTML, and CSS in a WYSIWYG editor when we’ve built a solid infrastructure around our tech stack.
The benefits you get from using a modern tech stack likely outweighs what’s offered by WYSIWYG editors in an ad manager.
Now consider versioning, an integral process in the way software is developed today. When you have multiple developers working on a single application, as is the case in most notable projects, it’s almost impossible to prevent developers from overwriting code changes and breaking each other’s code without a solid versioning system.
With modern versioning systems, a developer can download the current version of the project, work locally and merge their changes without stepping on another developer’s toes. This is important as you can deploy varying versions to different environments such as QA and production, and also work locally in confidence that you’re aren’t jeopardising your colleague’s efforts.
These were strong considerations while designing and planning our native ads implementation. It doesn’t matter what technology stack you use, these concerns remain potent.
We believe that building well-implemented native ads doesn’t mean kicking your current tech stack and development processes out of the window or compromising on a simple yet integral process such as versioning.
4. Internationalization
When building a global brand, the internationalization of your products is important. It could very well influence the acceptance of your product offering.
If your app / website is available only in English language, you will be cutting off the opportunity to tap into potentially larger foreign markets.
86% of localized campaigns have been found to outperform English campaigns in both click-throughs and conversions.
Internationalization is not a trivial requirement. You need correct translations (preferably by experts/natives), and you need to create a process for which your engineers and copywriters can stay in sync on these translations. For most companies, a process has been tested and currently serves the need of your website/app Internationalization.
Here at Omio, we’ve built a process that leverages PhraseApp service which provides us with instantaneous updates. With internationalization being a core requirement for our product offering, it goes without saying that this was a huge requirement for our native ads as well.
How do you make sure that copywriting and translations are seamlessly integrated into the ad development experience? How do you also ensure that instantaneous updates are received as soon as translations are updated? Most ad manager editors just don’t provide the same level of confidence, communication and reliability you get from a standardized internationalisation process. Regardless of your current internationalization process, you’ll most likely spend ample engineering hours if you tried to replicate this within the confines of an ad manager.
5. Sharing context between the Ad and the Website
Naturally, most ads do not interact with the page itself. They either open a new window or perform a whole page reload once being clicked on.
Hence, one requirement we put on ourselves was:
If our ads are created treated with the same standards as the rest of our product, they should behave like it.
This in turn would mean: They are capable of interacting with the page they are placed on, thus providing a seamless user experience.
Sharing context between a native ad and a parent window sparks interesting engineering challenges.The scope of this article doesn’t permit a full-blown discussion on all the problems encountered and our technical solution to them.
However, the crux of the challenges stems from the fact that native ads powered by an ad manager are typically rendered within an Iframe, and an iframe possesses inherent security limitations set by every browser.
A common clause you’d hear within the tech community is: “use the right tool for the job”. While “the right tool” is sometimes subjective, in some cases the choice is based on the ease the tool provides for solving certain engineering challenges.
For our native ads implementation, we decided we’d have a greater chance of solving this challenge if we used the same tools and services available to us in our day-to-day development processes.
The reason this was important for us is that our native ads aren’t just made of static images and text. They were designed to be highly interactive with the host page, and this poses even more challenges.
Doing this outside the comfort of a standard development process would mean solving difficult engineering challenges with unfamiliar tooling provided by an ad manager. While this may not be the wrong call for everyone, in our case, our judgment was based on reusing the tools we already have in place and making sure we were ready to tackle the challenges that’d come from implementing highly interactive native Ads.
The “right tool for the job” in this case was sticking to tried-and-tested tools we already leverage every day in our day-to-day development. Without going into too much detail, we leveraged the window.postMessage browser API and wired it up with existing redux actions on the frontend. This allowed us to establish a 2-way communication between the iframe and parent. We will post a deep dive into our technical solution in the follow up article.
What’s next?
So far we have seen great initial results which have proven that our users really like interacting with our native ads. Seeing that our tech and product work has paid out is encouraging for us as a team and we will see how we can scale the approach from hereon.
In the next segment we will shed more light on the technical details and the overall setup of the system, so watch this space for the next segment of ads with a great UX!
~
Enjoyed the read? Omio is hiring! If you would like to be part of our team and solve great problems, make sure you visit our jobs page and follow us on Medium. | https://medium.com/omio-engineering/google-ads-and-react-js-delivering-ads-with-a-great-ux-c18406ee71ee | ['Ohans Emmanuel'] | 2019-12-09 15:21:40.022000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Tech', 'Reactjs', 'Native Advertising', 'Software Development'] |
How to get smart with Coupons — An overview of Smart Coupons for WooCommerce | How to get smart with Coupons — An overview of Smart Coupons for WooCommerce WebToffee Dec 2, 2020·9 min read
It’s everywhere. And honestly, it’s a bit too much. Yet, coupons could really ramp up your sales figures or the number of happy customers (or both) if you apply the right coupon strategy.
Already plagued by reduced order totals and customers waiting for coupons to be released to buy even a pencil, it’s time you get smart with using coupons on your WooCommerce store.
Let me introduce you to one of our plugins that could greatly abate your coupon worries and get that all-important ROI to shoot up.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Just like any other useful plugin that lets you test it out first, Smart Coupons for WooCommerce has a free and premium plugin version. Much of your needs will be met by the free version though. And even those features are quite extensive than the standard WooCommerce settings.
Once you get the hang of things, you’ll realize the infinite possibilities to scale up your business with coupons. The premium version of Smart Coupons is built exactly for that.
Smart Coupons by WebToffee
Merely giving away coupons and discounts won’t cut it anymore. Customers can easily see what your competitors are doing and easily choose the lowest-priced item.
It takes proper planning and execution to ensure each coupon given out brings in traffic to your WooCommerce store. Here’s where coupon strategies and customizing coupons for specific needs come in to picture.
Smart Coupons for WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that allows you to create all kinds of coupons and fully customize them to your liking. Right from its purpose and appearance and all the way to the shipping method to which a coupon is applied, the plugin grants you complete control over how coupons are presented to your customers.
How do coupons help your store?
Before I bore you with the features that a free plugin has, let’s see how well you could use coupons for your marketing efforts and see if Smart Coupons for WooCommerce could in any way help you with that.
No matter how well you build products, your efforts will fall short of reaching appreciative customers if you don’t promote your products well.
Photo by Kate Trysh on Unsplash
Flyers, mails, and loudspeakers have long been used to get the word out to people. Although the mediums changed, you can still see ads on every web page you visit, a plethora of emails waiting for you to get opened, and even Youtube videos have promotions in between now.
The market is ready to see some sensible choices from your business. You could either join the crowd and their cacophony or choose customized plans that you know your customers would love to see on your website.
Here’s where managing your coupons become a valid idea to pursue. While thinking of providing coupons to customers, there can be two branches of thought that could cloud your decisions.
First, you might be counting through all the different coupons and discount offers that could bring in new customers. Next, there is an obvious sacrifice of order value whenever you give out a coupon.
It’s important to reach a balance between order value and coupon value so that in the end, you add more customers and revenue without much loss to your profits.
Why do you need a plugin for coupons anyway?
WooCommerce allows you to create coupons in minutes. And yes, it’s pretty simple to set up on your store too. But it’s always worth trading mediocre settings with more functions if it assures a greater ROI, don’t you think?
WooCommerce coupons allow you some of the basic features you need to start giving coupons to your initial buyers. Before we see the clear advantages of a specialized plugin for the job, let’s see what a standard WooCommerce account offers you in store coupons.
What WooCommerce really offers in terms of coupons
In your Standard WooCommerce store, you get three options to tinker with— general coupon data, usage restriction, and usage limit of coupons — apart from generating coupon codes for your coupons.
In your general coupon data setting, you can select the type of coupon that would best suit your sales — percentage discount, fixed cart discount, or fixed product discounts. Here’s also where you add coupon amounts and expiry dates for coupons.
Placing some restrictions for coupons is also really important to ensure no one rigs the system for free shopping. Under usage restriction, you can decide the lowest and the highest subtotal in your cart for which you can allow coupons.
Here’s where you decide the number of times a coupon could be used, add conditions where sale items are excluded from coupons, and so on. You can even decide to restrict coupons unless a particular product is added to the cart.
Finally, all your coupons can be released based on the usage limit per coupon or user. By default, these values are set to infinite, but here’s where you can create a limited number of coupons to build up anticipation for sales.
By limiting the usage limit per coupon, your coupon offer ends the moment all the allowed number of coupons are applied by customers. On the other hand, limiting the usage limit per customer allows you to give all your customers a chance at using the coupon. Both are great ways really.
And there it is. These are the options you get by default on your standard WooCommerce store. Now let’s see what a plugin can do to electrify the coupon experience for your customers.
Why you actually need Smart Coupons
It’s always a hassle to get on your dashboard and add coupons just before every deal. WooCommerce lacks simple options like scheduling coupons which are super helpful while planning your coupon strategy.
Smart Coupons For WooCommerce
Here are some of the reasons why you need the free plugin of Smart Coupons for WooCommerceenabled on your store:
Schedule your coupons to save time working on your store. As mentioned before, you really shouldn't decide on your coupons at the last possible moment. Having a clear start and end date will help you plan for all occasions and different products, all at once. Let customers see all available coupons on their ‘my account’ page. A surprise discount is at times all it takes for your customers to checkout instead of abandoning their cart. This takes the weight away from buyers rather than making them enter the coupon code from an email they saw once in an ad. Control every condition required at checkout to enable coupons. For customers who are buying from another country, free shipping might already have a serious reduction in their cart totals. You can choose whether you must give additional discounts here. The same choices are available for different payment methods as well. Release coupons based on pre-defined user roles. This is perhaps a handy feature to know who availed your coupons at any instant. Customers, subscribers, shop manager, and other contributors can all be added here. Add free products to your Customer’s cart. First-time buyers or customers who have made a specific amount in their cart total can be given a gift as a sign of good hope through your store. This can also double up as an excellent inventory cleaning technique as products that are not on-demand can be given away to make room for fresh stock. Customize coupon styling to match your store’s design. For customers who have logged into your website, displaying all available coupons on their ‘my account’ page is super-encouraging for future sales.
Customize the colors of these coupons using Smart Coupons settings and make them perfect for your store. Having enough coupon balance is perhaps the closest way to get your customers to buy more.
There are even more features in the free version, but since they are minute changes that you will find interesting once you start creating coupons, let’s not extend our discussion into those features too.
Smart Coupons for WooCommerce Premium plugin for advanced users
The free Smart Coupons for WooCommerce plugin is definitely an upgrade from your standard WooCommerce coupon feature. But how about making your coupons even more streamlined for users?
What if you could create coupons based on customer behavior? How about BOGO offers and store credits? The premium plugin of Smart Coupons is truly a leap from basic features to advanced.
Here are some of its advanced features that you might need for future sales:
Create a count down discount sales banner. Needless to say, this feature could be perhaps one of the most attention-grabbing banners on your website. By creating a sense of urgency, your chances for improved conversion just got high. Send Email store credit/coupon to customers. Email campaigns are undoubtedly one of the most effective ways of inviting customers to eCommerce stores. Being one of the most commonly used mediums for customer-client interaction, sending in customized offers for your customers will always be a step in the right direction. BOGO and Store credit to boost conversion. Inviting customers to buy more through buy one get one offers and store credits have more benefits than improving sales numbers. On the bright side, they can help encourage customers to get more value from their orders or even earn future purchase opportunities. BOGO offers can also be employed as a stock clearance method, while store credit could be given to reduce the impact of customer grievances, should any of your products reach your customer at a subpar quality. Create coupons based on customer behavior. Your store will be fully equipped with data that could be used to create tailored discounts for new and existing customers. This marked difference in coupon strategy is a powerful method to increase buying from your store. Allow customers to purchase gift coupons. Enabling future customers with coupons that they could redeem at your store is an excellent strategy for brand promotion. Smart Coupons for WooCommerce helps you create fully customizable gift cards that customers could either use themselves or send to their loved ones via email.
For the complete list of features, check out our premium plugin page here.
The plugin is priced at three distinct price ranges, all based on the number of websites for which the plugin support is required.
Pricing for Smart Coupons from WebToffee (Premium)
Conclusion
Stores are better equipped for conversion if they always have the right coupon strategy employed. Before all of these tiny details of adding coupons overwhelm you, here’s a piece of advice that could help you channel your store to greater returns.
Coupons can be applied on a whim and can quickly drain your ROI before you know it. Apply coupons only if you think they are absolutely necessary to improve the conversion rate for an under-performing product. This will help you understand how each product sells out on a daily basis and lets you better position them in your marketing strategy, where coupons may come as a natural choice.
More than anything, coupon strategies must always be considered as experiments for constant improvement to your ROI. Free and premium plugins are natural advancements of these experiments. So don't jump into premium plugins right away, but rather learn your way into coupons. | https://medium.com/@webtoffee/how-to-get-smart-with-coupons-an-overview-of-smart-coupons-for-woocommerce-8364c8f011ea | [] | 2020-12-02 14:13:51.477000+00:00 | ['Plugins For Wordpress', 'Ecommerce', 'Woocommerce', 'Woocommerce Plugins', 'Coupon'] |
3 Telemedicine Trends To Watch In 2020 | Over the last few years, telemedicine services have seen an increased adoption rate of approximately 71 percent. Several reports show that the telemedicine market is expected to grow even more in the coming years. Telemedicine services is the very epitome of technology-driven healthcare and function as a lifeline for millions of people who live in rural areas and do not have access to proper medical facilities. Telemedicine will be worth more than 66 billion dollars by the year 2021. With that being said, here is a look at some trends in telemedicine for beyond.
Improved Technology and Healthcare Apps
Telemedicine is to provide the convenience of communicating with trained medical specialists, but there is always scope to improve patient engagement, especially in the world of healthcare. With app culture so prevalent in the world, improved telemedicine apps that should greatly improve communication between patient and provider can be expected.
Apps that personalize the information that a person can pull up with the swipe of a finger can also be expected to appear soon.
Decentralized Healthcare
Today, healthcare professionals are migrating away from larger hospitals and opening up small community-based practices. This trend is set by massive hospitals who offer their more specialized services in decentralized locations. As the world continues to evolve, healthcare professionals who prefer the flexibility that telemedicine offers will continue to drive the decentralization of care.
Robust Cybersecurity Measures
With telemedicine completely relying on technology, cybersecurity has become essential. The healthcare sector is no stranger to cyber threats, but with telemedicine becoming popular, information protection has become a top priority. The world will continue to see drastic changes in the way the telemedicine services go about protecting vital information.
How Can Telemedicine Services Benefit Patients?:
Telemedicine or the ability to access remotely and offer healthcare services and clinical information through the internet, via two-way video chats, via email, text message, or over the telephone, has revolutionized medical practice by enabling patients and providers to benefit from a more personal, cost-effective, safe and reliable methods of healthcare delivery without the requirement to meet in the traditional doctor office setting. Studies show that telemedicine benefits by demonstrating virtually no difference between the qualities of medical care provided, whether it be in person or provided via telemedicine.
Saving Patients Time and Money
Patients spend a massive amount of time and money seeking quality healthcare services. It was stated on a report that, on average, it takes over 2 hours and costs a patient roughly $43 in opportunity costs (in addition to actual medical costs) for each medical appointment he or she attends. The possibility to participate in a telemedicine appointment over a smartphone or computer saves a tremendous amount of time and reduces the stress associated with taking time off from work and discarding the associated costs of gas, travel, parking, childcare, and other incidentals.
Increased Patient Access to Health Care
Telemedicine betters patients’ access to healthcare by removing the distance and travel time between patients and care providers; this is particularly true for specialized healthcare providers.
Generally, a problem found in underserved rural areas, telemedicine services now provide patients with access to a vast array of specialized healthcare services that are not limited by physical distance.
Increased Access to Specialists and On-Demand Options
Telemedicine eliminates the potential barriers and makes it possible for patients and primary care physicians to use online or on-demand availability of specialized practitioners to better access the expertise of specialists who are not physically present nearby. Telemedicine allows the patients to address pressing health issues by consulting with the best specialists and health practitioners. Read more…
Check This Out: | https://medium.com/@chrishtopher-henry-38679/3-telemedicine-trends-to-watch-in-2020-a0f4731bf066 | [] | 2020-12-22 13:28:07.107000+00:00 | ['Pharma', 'Tech News', 'Telemedicine', 'Solutions', 'Healthcare'] |
Poetry Articles on The POM | POETRY ARTICLES
Poetry Articles on The POM
The POM writers offer tips, tales, and analysis worth reading
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
Welcome dear poets and lovers of poetry. If you are here after a redirect from our The POM Newsletter, thank you for the click-through. You’ll find some great articles in our poetry publication and we don’t want you to miss these great posts.
Without further adieu, here’s a selection of poetry articles you’ll want to read and bookmark!
Samantha Lazar
Jay Sizemore
Ria Ghosh
MDSHall
Melissa Coffey
Ravyne Hawke
Christina M. Ward
Thanks for checking these out. If you want to follow the Newsletter for The POM, you can find previous newsletters here and sign up to receive more.
Christina M. Ward is the EIC for The POM with the smart and capable brilliance of Samantha Lazar as her co-editor and ultimate back up. The pub boasts hundreds of writers and almost 1K loyal readers. If you LOVE poetry and want to try your hand at writing it — come join us!
In poetic love,
Christina | https://medium.com/the-pom/poetry-articles-on-the-pom-39888094472f | ['Christina M. Ward'] | 2020-11-16 00:56:16.887000+00:00 | ['The Pom', 'Articles', 'Poetry', 'Writing', 'Newsletter'] |
$10 Million Won’t Fix Alaska’s Horrific Domestic Violence Problem | $10 Million Won’t Fix Alaska’s Horrific Domestic Violence Problem
The influx of federal funds will do little more than highlight the state’s chronic political dysfunction
U.S. Attorney General William Barr wears a traditional Alaska Native kuspuk while talking with village police officers in Napaskiak, Alaska. Photo: Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News
Alaska is finally getting the resources it desperately needs, which makes it all the more disappointing that the state is unlikely to put them to good use.
Attorney General William Barr announced late last month that the federal government will provide Alaska with more than $10 million to help police combat domestic violence. The funds will provide resources for isolated and rural regions where police forces are too often ill-equipped and under-trained. It’s long overdue for the Department of Justice to pay attention to Alaska, a state that suffers from high crime rates and political dysfunction. But unfortunately, it is unlikely that this money will actually do anything to fix the state’s sickeningly high domestic violence problems.
I worked as a legislative aide in the Alaska State House on and off between 2008–2015, and I served as the statewide communications director for one of the largest social service nonprofits in Alaska. I have a soft spot for the state — though I moved away two years ago, I will likely always identify as Alaskan. This is why I take no pleasure in saying that the DOJ’s generosity will probably do much less than we may hope.
Alaska is in a political and financial mess. Legislators finally passed a state budget in June, 57 days after the legislative session was supposed to end. The state also needs to address the uniquely Alaskan, and election-quakingly important, issue of the state PFD, an annual cash dividend available to every Alaskan resident — but legislators can’t even agree where in the state to convene.
Public safety programs are already severely underfunded, but in light of significant statewide budget cuts in recent weeks, the funds are drying up even more. Gov. Mike Dunleavy just vetoed $3 million in funding for the Village Public Safety Officer (VPSO) Program. This is an essential program for policing the Bush, where individual villages are often separated by hundreds of miles of tundra or mountains. While it’s still unclear whether the federal funds were designed to supplement this program, I worry that if it isn’t allocated to VPSOs, who are from the communities they police, then it will not be a significant contribution.
A $10 million investment for rural policing may also have far less impact than one might expect.
Alaska currently has the highest crime rate in the nation. Rural Alaska has long held a disproportionate influence on state crime rates, but these days, crime is up all over the state. A serious crime wave spread across large pockets of the state over the last five years and Anchorage is breaking records in homicides, assault, theft, and basically all types of crimes.
Still, a $10 million investment for rural policing may also have far less impact than one might expect. The state’s domestic violence problem is much more complicated than a simple lack of police and funding. Alaska also has a culture problem. In reality it is a small state, not physically of course, but as a community. We know our politicians personally, sit next to them at the movies, and see them at the grocer. This often means that those in power have a personal stake whenever a crime is committed.
While Alaska is geographically huge, three quarters of its communities are inaccessible by road. You have to fly, take a boat, or use a snowmachine to get to most of the state. In a village of a few hundred people, separated from the next community by roadless tundra, mountains, glaciers, or water, many crimes are committed by people who know their victims personally — they may even be members of the same family. Perhaps more importantly, who do you think the cops, judges, and lawyers are? Very often they’re all related.
I once went to the sheriff’s office at Utqiagvik, one of the bigger and more remote Bush communities, to ask how a local man with a long criminal record managed to avoid jail time for a sexual assault conviction. The deputy didn’t seem surprised. “You noticed he’s related to a lot of people in town,” he asked. “Why do you think he’s out pending sentence?”
For isolated villages with no jails, and possibly even no police, tribal justice has traditionally relied on banishment. The community has the legal right to expel criminals and troublemakers, which has included for assaults; violent, sexual, and otherwise. But banishing a rapist doesn’t deal with the rapist, just his former community. Instead he becomes the problem of women in some other town. Even villagers expelled for non-violent crimes like drunkenness or smuggling bring their problems with them to the next community, and with depressing frequency, get cycled through villages and towns until they eventually end up homeless in one of the bigger cities.
Part of the Justice Department’s plan is to give $4.5 million to Alaska Native Corporations, which provide employment for thousands around the state and do plenty of good in their communities through funding educational foundations, promoting Alaska Native arts and culture, and managing medical and other social services programs. They also, however, have been the subjects of federal investigations for everything from contract kickbacks to fraud to bribery. They’ve diverted federal funding from needy Native families before. I have occasionally been accused of cynicism, but it’s comical to think that giving Native Corporations money will fix the problem. In my mind, they already have plenty of money. The funds would be better off elsewhere.
Still, it’s not like Alaskans have been standing still on the issue. There are many organizations in the state, like Standing Together Against Rape (STAR) and Facebook groups for victims like Alaska Natives Against Domestic Violence, focused on raising awareness, collecting data, offering services to victims, and advocating for legislative change. The Native Corporations do also spend millions in support of these groups and their efforts. Bills to end rape shield loopholes, protect victims, and empower communities are proposed and (usually) passed pretty much every single year in the State Legislature. Alaska really is trying to Choose Respect, which comes from an 11-year-old program aimed at encouraging men to get involved in ending domestic violence and sexual assault.
I am extremely happy that the federal government has finally acknowledged Alaska’s horrifying level of domestic violence and is making strides toward resolving this chronic problem. What Alaskan women and children are going through, especially in the rural and Native communities, is disgraceful. Any attention paid to it by those with more resources is to be applauded with gratitude.
We should not expect, however, that this gift will make a meaningful contribution to fixing the problem. The Last Frontier is politically dysfunctional, financially broken, and hemorrhaging citizens at an unprecedented rate. Alaska’s problems are deep, and fixing the epidemic of domestic violence will require a concerted, coordinated, cultural change. It took Alaska many years to get to this stage, and money won’t immediately fix it.
Thomas Brown was a communications and political consultant in Alaska. He is managing editor of The Swamp and has been published in The Bipartisan Press, Alaska Native News, GEN, Human Events, Times of Israel, Dialogue & Discourse. Argue with him on Twitter: @reallythistoo. | https://gen.medium.com/giving-alaska-10-million-wont-fix-the-state-s-horrific-domestic-violence-problem-775c06461eb8 | ['Thomas Brown'] | 2019-12-11 18:40:16.582000+00:00 | ['Alaska', 'Crime', 'Sexual Assault', 'Domestic Violence', 'Politics'] |
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