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Consumer Data Protection | A new landscape on the internet is being created, one without third-party cookies. As the internet evolves, consumer data protection is one of the most critical issues discussed today. Consumers’ browsing habits leave an incredibly informative and valuable footprint to the website’s users frequent. However, as the information consumers provide becomes increasingly valuable, they must understand what data is being collected and limit it.
The Legality of Consumer Protection
The average consumer might believe there are regulations and rules in place in favor of protecting a user’s data, but this is not the case. In reality, there is no such federal mandate in the United States, and the enforcement falls under the FTC clause of “deceptive practices or acts.” If a website makes no mention of data privacy on-site, its products, or its advertising, there can be no violation proven by the FTC regarding collecting consumer data.
Other nations have surpassed the United States in protecting consumer data. In the European Union, the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) seeks to put users in control of their data by requiring notice of data collection and the right to rectify data taken. A similar piece of legislation was enacted in California called the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The CCPA offers a right to disclosure, right to deletion, opt-out, and a right to nondiscrimination. One prime example of a company that abides by this law and empowers consumers is Twitter. Twitter is CCPA compliant by giving users the ability to request their data be deleted and opt-out of their data sold to third parties. As data protection becomes a more relevant and pressing issue globally, many companies will follow Twitter’s footsteps.
How can a consumer limit data sharing?
Besides third-party resources designed to limit the amount of data shared, consumers can alter settings to curb this impending information leak. The information collection is vast, including but not limited to: locations frequented, web pages browsed, time spent looking at specific images, and so much more than the average consumer is unaware of. There are countless ways to protect and limit the data shared; below are several tactics that WishingWell feels protect consumers the most.
1. Alter your phone’s location settings. Many consumers fail to understand that apps they use everyday track their location in ways people could never imagine. Apps, such as Find My iPhone and Google Maps, track a user’s location and how long they spent at a specific place to understand their habits as a consumer and ultimately optimize advertising.
2. Limit Ad Tracking. Under settings on a consumer’s iPhone or Android is “Limit Ad Tracking” under the advertising preference. Turning this off will not eliminate a user from seeing ads, but it will reset their advertising ID and, for the most part, end targeted ads.
3. Turn on “private” browsing. Browsing privately on a mobile device or computer will limit the amount of data that is collected. These browsers inherently limit tracking, analytics, and advertising. Using a private browser will limit the digital footprint that a consumer leaves on the internet.
4. Check social media accounts. Social media accounts are likely oversharing information the average consumer didn’t even know was relevant. Consumers must access their privacy settings and ensure that only the data they wish to be shared is collected. Here, consumers can “opt-out” of several preferences that make them more susceptible to targeted ads.
5. Manage app permissions. Every single app consumers download collects information; limiting this information is key to not oversharing data. Applications such as Siri, Uber, and Google Maps all collect more data than required. 99% of the time, this data is being sent to advertisers to build a more accurate profile and ultimately better target ads.
Third-Party Data Protection
Browsers:
Despite Google Chrome’s excellent user interface, using the browser means accepting a trade-off with privacy. There are plenty of alternative browsers available, many of which take user privacy and data collection into consideration. Popular browsers such as Safari and Firefox have already chosen to eliminate third-party cookies. Still, several browsers have made it their mission to provide a safe, secure, and private browsing experience. Built-in ad-blocking tools, automatic cache clearing, disabled location tracking, and other tools can make the browsing experience safer and faster. Companies such as Epic, Opera, and Vivaldi offer some or all of these features on their browser apps. Some claim to be up to 2–3x as fast as Chrome since they don’t need to spend time analyzing each search for advertising revenue. Simple research into the browser ecosystem can improve the experience and de-incentivize the internet’s aggressive advertising system.
Image From: Govtech.com
WishingWell recommends checking out the Brave browser. Brave is based on Chrome’s chromium software and provides an intuitive alternative that acts very similarly to Chrome without the intrusiveness. This means users can expect a familiar interface and experience complete with extensions, macro commands, and all the most beloved Chrome features. The company supports desktop browser apps for all major operating systems and mobile browser apps for iOS and Android. On top of that, the browser provides more advanced features such as encrypted private routing on the TOR network (follow WishingWell to learn more about encryption and secure browsing shortly), and opt-in advertising that rewards users for viewing ads with a cryptocurrency.
VPNs:
IP addresses are an anchor in the current data collection environment. Companies use these addresses to specify individual internet-connected devices. Every device connected to a network sends this unique identifier when accessing resources on the internet. Companies collecting data can map and aggregate this data to build out user profiles for targeting. Not only does an IP address help organize internet activity, but it can also be used for geolocation, checking the device’s current operating system, internet service provider, and even firewall settings. To protect this data, use a virtual private network (VPN). VPN services provide varying degrees of protection to mask IP addresses. By sending requests through a VPN, traffic from a public IP address (the one with all of your data) is sent to a private network before accessing resources; then, the information is sent back to the device through the VPN. For example, a user connects to a VPN and requests Google.com. This request first goes to the VPN provider, the VPN requests Google, Google sends the VPN’s response, and the VPN sends the response back to your device.
There are tons of VPN providers available with a diverse set of features and pricing models. Users can install the software on almost any device, whether a mobile device, browser extension, desktop, or even a home’s internet router. On top of anonymity, providers can feature encryption, firewalls, malware detection, and more. We recommend ExpressVPN’s full-scale service, but here are some other free options provided below:
HotSpotShield: https://www.hotspotshield.com/
TunnelBear: https://www.tunnelbear.com/
General Tips:
In general, regardless of browser choice or VPN connections, users can protect their data by educating themselves on how their data is being collected and used. However, the most important thing consumers can do is inform themselves and practice safe web browsing. By following some of the suggestions above, consumers place an additional layer between their data and the companies looking to exploit it. Feel free to drop a comment below and tell other consumers the precautions and techniques you’re using to protect data.
*WishingWell may be an affiliate marketer of the links provided. By registering with some of the links below, WishingWell does earn a small commission.* | https://medium.com/wishingwell/consumer-data-protection-fa73052535a9 | ['Nicklaus Ziskind'] | 2020-09-22 14:06:48.146000+00:00 | ['Advertising And Marketing', 'Consumer', 'Advertising', 'Consumer Behavior', 'Data'] |
Morning Glory | Erotic Drama
The city can be cold and bleak, a grind. Sometimes it’s best to get out of the cold for a while and get warm.
Photo from wallhere.com
Business is slow between Christmas and New Year’s, so I’m not in a hurry to get to the diner. Glory has her own key, but she’s outside smoking, leaning against the wall, looking disheveled and tired, when I show up.
“An all nighter?” I asked.
“What can I say, guys need their pussy, Christmas sex is over. Almost time for New Year's infidelity,” she said, crushing out the cigarette.
I unlocked the door and turned on the lights as I went to turn on the coffee pots. I set them up before I leave, so I can just take a minute and relax. Today Glory followed me and hugged my back as I fooled with some prep.
“You must be tired,” I said.
“I’m not that tired.” she was rubbing my cock from behind. “Want to warm me up?”
I turned around and kissed her. Her makeup was fucked up, but she looked sexy to me. She unzipped my pants and pulled my cock out, stroking me a minute, and then got down on her knees and took me into her mouth.
“Did you fuck her last night?” Glory asked.
“Just the once.”
“I can still taste her, she’s sweet. I would love to meet her,” she said. I doubt she could taste anything but cock, I took a shower, but the fantasy was making it real. Glory didn’t want me to leave my wife. She wanted to be a part of us.
“I thought I was supposed to be warming you up,” I said. I pulled her to her feet and put her on the counter. She was always wet, always ready, and always dressed for a fuck. I pulled her to the edge of the counter and slipped my cock into her deep. She likes to just hold me as we fuck, her arms wrapped around me, her head on my shoulder, like we are dancing. In a way, I guess we are.
“You always feel so good. You make me feel clean, Frank,” Glory said as I lifted her thighs to give it to her hard. She held on but rocked back, put her head back and closed her eyes. “Fuck me, baby. God yes, fuck me.”
I put it to her; I was close. I was always close with her tight pussy around my cock. She was good at what she did, I could feel her pussy clench on my cock. She said it got them off faster; she wasn’t kidding. I usually have more control, but my balls were ready to dump a load. I tried to slow down a little.
“Don’t Frank, just fill me up. You know I love it when you fill me up,” she said and wrapped her legs around my ass. I did what the lady wanted. I fucked her hard and came hard a minute later. She had a blissful smile on her face and laid back on the counter as I shot inside her. I loved the look of my cock in her pussy, the well-groomed patch ravaged by my unruly ungroomed tangle of pubic hair, I could feel her doing that thing with her pussy again. “It feels good when you come in me. If I asked you, would you knock me up?”
“Sure, just tell me when,” as if I had much choice, she always loved being barebacked, it’s not like she couldn’t just get off the pill. I think mostly she loved to hear it.
“Mmmm, god, my pussy is throbbing. God, I needed that,” my cock still in her, she was stretching. “I know you think I get this all night, but it’s not the same as you.”
She sat up and she kissed me until my dick got limp and fell out. A gob of come falling out of her. She pulled cash out of her bra, a lot of cash.
“That’s a lot. It was a good night,” I said.
“It got a little crowded there at the end. Who needs a padded bra, right?”
“I’ll count it up. Why don’t you go upstairs and get some sleep, what time do you have to go?”
“Not until noon. God, I want to fuck you again, I want to fuck you all day,” she said and hugged me. She hopped down off the counter and pulled down the dress, “Tell me I’m your best girl.”
“You know you are,” I said.
“I like to hear it,” Glory said.
“You’re my best girl baby, now go give that pussy some rest,” I said. | https://medium.com/bella-cooper-books/morning-glory-89886b3d42cc | ['Bella Cooper'] | 2020-12-28 17:45:58.349000+00:00 | ['Sexuality', 'Crime Fiction', 'Erotica', 'Drama', 'Short Story'] |
a new writing guide for you | Hi there,
Hope all of your writing projects are going well. I just wanted to let you know about the latest article published at Copywriting Secrets.
How to Craft a Conclusion That Will Make Your Writing Memorable
Hope you find this guide helpful. Have a fantastic week!
Cheers,
Nicole | https://medium.com/copywriting-secrets/a-new-writing-guide-for-you-421f5d9b6458 | ['Nicole Bianchi'] | 2019-11-06 21:10:45.948000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Inspiration', 'Books', 'Writing', 'Writing Tips'] |
It’s A Small World, First of All. Sometimes to see the beauty in… | It’s not news that our great big world is composed of countless tiny, tiny things. For the last 40 years, Nikon has challenged photographers to get all up in the smallest of subjects, in the hopes of bringing us new ways of seeing them. Their annual Small World competition is meant to promote technical and scientific innovation — as much as pure aesthetic beauty — in the field of light microscopy. The best examples come from professionals and amateurs alike.
“What began as a competition to recognize our customer-base for their achievements has evolved into something that has made us curators of scientific imagery in the field,” says Nikon Instruments’ Communications Manager, Eric Flem. | https://medium.com/vantage/the-big-winners-in-nikons-small-world-ea78a34b1714 | ['Doug Bierend'] | 2015-11-30 16:42:36.653000+00:00 | ['Microscopy', 'Macro Photography', 'Macro'] |
Chew Chewy Entertainment; More Than Just A Label | Chew Chewy Entertainment has surprised their audience with a collaboration producer project titled Quarantine Vibes. Chew Chewy Ent. teamed up with legendary Detroit producer Jerry Parker and TrellOnDaTrak to bring us forth such worthy vibes! This year has seemed quite long with so many drastic changes, but thanks to music like this we are able to power through and get our daily tasks done! Chew Chewy Ent. is more than just a label they are an independently based, management company based out of Detroit, Michigan who is home to some of Detroit’s brightest stars like, Shy Killer , 51 B , SavageSpitFlamez, & J. Santino.
Deonte Cooper, the founder and CEO of Chew Chewy Ent. gained success and notoriety as a booking agent. Through his personal experiences with booking artists he decided to take it to the next level and manage them. Now, Chew Chewy Ent. has just transitioned to a full service record label.
Mr. Cooper (goes by Chew Chewy musically) is now an artist, songwriter and producer; having co-wrote and produced two of SavageSpitFlamez singles (which are out now) that have amassed over 60k+ streams across all streaming platforms. Chew Chewy Ent. is already working on more music to share with us in early 2021- the labels debut collaboration album Monkey In the Middle is set to be dropping early 2021. Stay tuned for more to come for this star-studded artist.
Follow Chew Chewy Entertainment on Instagram for more of their latest updates. | https://medium.com/@ymorales8/chew-chewy-ent-suprises-audiences-with-a-collaboration-producer-project-quarantine-vibes-d97544e2a805 | ['Yunaisy Morales'] | 2020-12-15 02:22:34.495000+00:00 | ['Detroit', 'Music', 'Producer', 'Rap'] |
5 ways to keep being a productive Experience Designer during bench time | “Time off in between projects”, “Bench time”, “Being in reserve” etc. all relate to the time period when an agency designer is not engaged on billable projects.
As an agency Experience Designer, when benching you’d probably be included in all regular design team meetings, and remotely have coffee with your design mates, which is cool and keeps you on track with everything design-related within the company. However, as you might not be having a design problem to solve for some time, you might start feeling bored, unaccomplished, and even afraid you are not providing enough for your company.
The first thing you need to acknowledge is that bench time is a regular thing you’ll bе gоing through. And that’s good. It means you will not always be in a problem-solving state of mind.
Sometimes benching could be a week, other times it could last a month. And that’s also normal. That time will allow you to take a break, zoom out and look at the bigger picture. It could also be full of opportunities for self-improvement, knowledge sharing and actually simply being curious.
Nevertheless, sometimes these are also dark periods for some of us. You might start feeling lazy and bored with your day. And that’s the last thing we want.
That’s why I thought of 5 ways to fight laziness, boredom, and feelings of unaccomplishment etc., and keep feeling useful & productive during bench time.
1. Look for some internal company projects or processes which need improvement
As an Experience Designer, you’ll surely feel good if you take part in improving your and your mates’ experience within the company.
Having worked for the company you probably already know which processes are slow and ineffective. For example, you’ve noticed that the handoff between the presales team and the delivery team is broken and creates problematic situations later on. You could initiate a conversation about improving the handoff or presales processes so that the delivery team feels comfortable with requirements during execution.
If you are just starting in the company, ask your manager/lead if there are such internal projects and declare your willingness to participate in them. That will also help you integrate faster and get to know your new colleagues.
2. Upskill. Upskill again.
Think of what skills you have and if you want to improve some of them or you would like to get new knowledge and skills.
Make a list of everything you are good at and everything you think you don’t know or don’t feel confident with. This exercise will help you better visualize and choose how to upskill.
Example of a skills diagram
Once you have visualized your strengths and weaknesses, you can go ahead and prioritize what you need to work on in the future.
3. Help a mate, start mentoring
Surely, you can sign in for a mentorship program within your compny, or initiate it yourself.
Talk to your manager and share with him/her your desire to help with the growth of junior designers.
If you are a junior designer yourself, you can ask for a mentor to help you get into experience design real-world faster. Your mentor will share with you some project examples and will walk you through important processes and information sources.
4. Share some knowledge — write, vlog, speak
Another way to share your knowledge and experience is by writing articles, creating some vlogs, and signing up for some internal and external presentation events.
Creating content under your and your company names has several gain points:
You expand and confirm your knowledge
You learn to confidently express your thoughts
You improve your relationships with your company
5. Volunteer to help your company mates on a project
Similar to the mentoring option, this option calls for your proactivity. Simply let your manager/lead know that you are willing to help on а project. Surely, there are some challenging client projects which call for more manpower and you could be a valuable helping hand.
All in all, make the most of your bench time. It could be pretty beneficial for you and your career.
I’m a lucky one, working for a company that supports me in all the above and cheers me up along the way.
I am Silviya, an Experience Designer in Softserve. Hope I helped with some ideas to get you out of boredom during your bench time.
How do you feel during bench time? Do you have other suggestions on getting out of the rut while you’re in reserve? Let me know in the comments section below. | https://medium.com/softserve-do/5-ways-to-keep-being-a-productive-experience-designer-during-bench-time-1bfdb7882d74 | ['Silviya Berry'] | 2021-08-25 12:47:42.813000+00:00 | ['Productive Tips', 'Ideas', 'Experience Design', 'Designer', 'Inspiration'] |
bandDotRand: A Random Artist Generator | After completing my DevOps project last month, I wanted to take the app I had built and turn it into something more permanent, something with a graphical user interface that could be used outside of the terminal. I had built the app for my capstone project, but there the main focus was on the infrastructure, not on the app itself. I quickly created a program that exposed an API endpoint and returned a random song when it received a request. The song was generated through the Musixmatch API, and would include basic song properties, such as the song ID, name, album, artist, etc.
Instead of getting a random song, my new idea was to create an app that would get a random artist and display it alongside the artists discography and related artists. Every artist or album on the page would include a link to that artist / album on a music streaming service, so you could actually listen to anything you found interesting. Refreshing the page (or clicking on the next button) would load another artist, so the website could be used as a random artist generator.
After initially building out a prototype for the website that would eventually become bandDotRand, I realized that the Musixmatch API wasn’t going to cut it, and I had to find a music API that would better suit my needs. Spotify was my next choice, and after diving into their API documentation, it seemed like the right choice. The one thing Spotify didn’t have was an API endpoint to access a random artist, but after reading this article on how to get random tracks using the Spotify API, I realized I could do something similar in order to get a random artist. Once I had my random artist, I’d need to make one more API call to get the artist’s albums, and then I’d be set.
I had the artist data, now all that was left to do was to create a frontend that would display all that data nicely. I created all the React components that I needed, added some styles and tied it all together.
Lastly, I deployed the app on Heroku. Getting the frontend to communicate with the backend turned out to be way more time consuming than I thought it would be (I swear it ran on my machine), but in the end it ran just fine. “In the end”, meaning seven hours of debugging later, but nonetheless, the app is deployed.
The website is built with React on the frontend, and Node.js with Express on the backend. Both frontend and back are written in TypeScript — after watching some Pluralsight courses on the topic, I was looking for an excuse to try it out. Turns out if you’re coming from a C/C++ (or any statically typed language) background, it really isn’t that difficult to transition to from JavaScript.
All of the styling was done with TailwindCSS, which is my new favorite utility-class library. The combination of React components and utility-class styling makes building reusable components that look good really simple.
Looking ahead, I’d love to be able to integrate other streaming service API’s so that the user can be redirected to the service of their choice, instead of just Spotify. I’d have to figure out a way to match the artist on multiple platforms, like taking an artist I received from the Spotify API and finding it’s counterpart on Apple Music or Tidal. Getting the artists website and social accounts would also make a great addition, giving you more access to that new favorite (or not so favorite) band you just discovered.
You can try out bandDotRand here. Let me know what you think, and tell me which new bands you’ve discovered. | https://medium.com/@gavischneider/banddotrand-a-random-artist-generator-22cd7fb6fee2 | ['Gavi Schneider'] | 2020-12-07 10:38:28.086000+00:00 | ['Nodejs', 'Typescript', 'Expressjs', 'Music', 'React'] |
Growing Food is Our Greatest Protest | Our entire civilization is built on the absurd notion that a person should only be able to eat if they can afford to buy food. In a couple hundred-thousand years all we’ve managed to do is regress. We’ve allowed capitalism to deprive us of the most basic human right. Of course capitalism is also killing us in a thousand other ways, but for now, we’ll focus on just one.
In the hierarchy, air and water do come before food, so yes, it’s not the most basic need, but despite the pollution, air is still free and water scarcity is its own topic as well. Water may have been commodified too, but still comes at a relatively low cost in the industrialized world. Your water bill is unlikely anything near your food budget.
Food is an entirely different story. It took years of work, but the puppeteers have succeeded in convincing most of us that our food should be cheap, plentiful to the point of making us wasteful, and most importantly, available with no direct input. Earning a wage and purchasing our food, that’s the good life. It’s so easy. No back-breaking labor, no dirt, bugs or weeds. Just clean, beautiful produce on the shelves, perfectly aligned boxes and cans.
Will Work for Food
“Putting food under lock and key was one of the great innovations of your culture. No other culture in history has ever put food under lock and key — and putting it there is the cornerstone of your economy. Because if the food wasn’t under lock and key, who would work?” — Daniel Quinn
You may not consider yourself a wage slave, but that makes it no less true. What is a wage slave? A person whose livelihood depends entirely on a wage or salary. Yeah, that’s you, and me, unless one of us is an heiress. It’s no less true for those of us who earn a living wage. Don’t let anyone convince you that you’re “better off”. Of course, we all have our own types of privilege and we range in our poverty level, among many other things. But at the heart of the matter, if you are not independently wealthy, then you are in the boat with the rest of us. That’s important. Those who keep us in our place rely on dividing and conquering. There is power in the great majority of the world declaring ourselves one people, regardless of any other divisions.
Overlords
You might have seen this image before as it’s been shared a lot since 2013. Most of the organic and vegan food companies I’ve supported for many years have also fallen under the control of our industrial food overlords. That wage slave business might sound a bit extreme, but let’s remember we live in a world where 10 companies control most of the food we have available. They decide who grows the ingredients, whether they’re provided with a proper wage (they’re not), whether they work in safe conditions (no again) and most of the resulting products are left with questionable nutritional value, and that’s only the products that are intended to have some nutrition. Most of this is just garbage. | https://medium.com/radical-hope/growing-food-is-our-greatest-protest-89ed20cec123 | ['Violet Bee'] | 2020-02-05 21:25:44.964000+00:00 | ['Capitalism', 'Agriculture', 'Environment', 'Gardening', 'Climate Change'] |
13 Most Popular Bible Verses That Everyone Knows and Loves | If you’re someone who actively studies the Bible, then it might seem like second nature to always be searching for and reading the verses you haven’t read before. It can feel like a welcome, enlightening challenge to find and focus on the verses (or chapters) that are less frequently taught, or that most people are unfamiliar with. That said, it’s never a bad idea to have the most popular Bible verses top of mind when talking to someone who is less familiar with the Bible or someone who is just beginning their journey in their faith.
Even if you memorized them all as a kid in Sunday school, it’s easy to ignore (and therefore forget about) the most popular Bible verses — even if you think you know them all by heart. So whether you’re new to the Bible or you’re just looking to brush up on the most popular and frequently quoted verses that exist, here are 13 of people’s favorite Bible verses.
J ohn 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
Romans 3:23
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”
Psalm 23
“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters..”
Jeremiah 29:11
“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Philipians 4:13
“I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
Romans 8:28
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Proverbs 3:5
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
Genesis 1:1
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.”
John 14:16
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’’’
Romans 6:23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Philipians 4:6
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Romans 12:2
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Acts 18:10
“For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”
Original Post: https://www.womansday.com/life/g30768153/popular-bible-verses/?slide=13 | https://medium.com/@faith-fullygrowing/13-most-popular-bible-verses-that-everyone-knows-and-loves-7cc244234bd3 | ['Sacora George'] | 2020-12-21 00:44:39.247000+00:00 | ['Knowledge', 'Bible', 'Bible Study', 'Jesus', 'God'] |
The Dummies Guide to Edge AI | With all this talk of edge, AI, and inference, what does it all mean? Fret not, dear AIKEA user, here’s a short guide to all the tech in AIKEA
A guide for the astronaut dog in all of us
Edge — noun
a line or border at which a surface terminates: a brink or verge:
Artificial Intelligence — noun
the capacity of a computer to perform operations analogous to learning and decision making in humans. Abbreviation: AI, A.I.
But what does it mean when it’s slapped together? When it comes to edge AI or edge computing, you can say it is the opposite to the idea of the cloud. Smart devices such as your Echo, your Ring, or Nest, are smart because they have the full power of Amazon and Google’s servers at their disposal to do the complex calculations the AI needs on the cloud. In exchange for its free use however, they collect data on your habits at home to better target you for ads or sell you more stuff.
The team of AIKEA however, has managed to squeeze (Jus de Raspberry Pi, anyone?) all the power of a beloved mini computer to do all the AI on site, or on the edge. Giving you the smart functions you want without needing to have your data sent and calculated elsewhere.
So how does the AI in AIKEA work?
Fair warning, this is gonna get a bit technical and quite nerdy.
The reason why AIKEA can do what it does, is that we upload a simplified AI model onto the Raspberry Pi so it can infer things. But more on that later.
Back in 2017, Google released to the public what it had been cooking up for the past 2 years, a little something called TensorFlow.
Now you’ve probably heard snippets about it before, but long story short, what it does is allow developers to build neural networks: large databases to represent interconnected data. And for the first time, it made these artificial learning tools accessible to engineers, developers, and scientists.
In other words, you would be able to “train” a database to learn patterns and build relationships between your data and your desired results.
The only downside was that it required massive amounts of computing power, something that would be easier for Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft to get, but for the rest of us, not so much. It was in hopes of truly bringing free, open-source, AI to everyone, that BerryNet was created.
BerryNet initially started out as a response to a challenge: “What is the smallest computer that we can run AI on?” in 2016. However as BerryNet matured and the slew of privacy violations by Big Data became exposed, suddenly, the importance of edge AI and data protection became more than a thought experiment, but a critical component in adapting to our new social paradigm.
Under the Hood
On the software side, BerryNet uses adapted object classification and detection as the core of the visual edge AI applications. Taking these models, the BerryNet Team has re-trained them via transfer learning, and then optimized their models to run faster and more efficiently. And just as importantly, enabled to be used on the many different engines such asTensorFlow Lite, OpenVino, TensorRT, and many other popular engines.
Classification vs detection
Why pick the Raspberry Pi
Thankfully, chip manufacturers like ARM, having long predicted the need of more compact and powerful hardware to do AI have been hard at work building tools for developers like BerryNet. And with the popularity of the Raspberry Pi in projects from plant watering timers to robots, we thought: what better way to introduce AI to this community, than through a computer they already have at home?
And what’s even better? The Raspberry Pi foundation just recently came out with their Pi 4! Allowing object inference speeds to reach breakneck speeds, and at an unmatched price point. | https://medium.com/aikea/the-dummies-guide-to-edge-ai-b5aacaeb1285 | [] | 2019-09-02 19:06:00.966000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Raspberry Pi', 'Edge Computing', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'DIY'] |
Importance of AI Enhanced Candidate Smart Cards In Hiring | Recruiting is a collaborative process however responsibilities vary from individual-to-individual. Some colleagues simply need to overview an applicant’s resume or partake in interviews. Candidate sharing is important as it enables you to receive various perspectives about the potential of the candidate.
Learn About TurboHire’s Candidate Smart Cards
With TurboHire, employees other than the recruiters can easily look through a candidate’s details. TurboHire utilizes smart-cards for candidate sharing. Smart Cards contain only the most important details of a candidate, like, education, experience, and skill-set. The required details can be customized by the company as per needs. TurboHire offers multiple individuals to evaluate and assess a candidate through smart card sharing in order to select the best one.
How many pages does one resume carry? 1–2 at an average. Imagine 500+ applicants for a single job profile. How many unstructured resumes would you have to go through?
Here’s another fact: Organizations receive on an average 150,000 resume every year and 80% of them are not even opened. TurboHire converts the resume into a structured smart card like a Linkedin profile. These smarts cards are AI-enhanced to give true power in the hands of recruiters.
Manual CV Screening Is Outdated
Manual CV screening simply isn’t an option anymore for many HR departments. Not only is it a time-consuming task but it’s tedious too. To tackle this issue, you have our AI-powered Candidate Data Cards, which ‘read’ resumes and identify keywords that correlate with the experience, traits, and skills necessary for the job. This way, they automatically screen and shortlist new candidates.
Benefits Of Candidate Smart Cards
1. The Quality Of Hiring Increases
Recruiters need to select the right people from a big pool of applicants. Thanks to Artificial Intelligence, the whole process can be divided into several stages, automatically. Recruiters can collect more data on each candidate and so evaluate candidates more effectively. There are many AI-based solutions that help assess the skills and experience of candidates using special algorithms.
2. Better Integration Of Analytics
HR managers get an opportunity to select candidates based on their skills and find the right position where the abilities of a certain candidate are most needed. This new approach not only increases the productivity of business but also motivates candidates to improve their skills. In addition, AI software demonstrates a higher level of accuracy compared to human recruiters.
3. Automation Saves Time
Time is valuable for every company, and the recruiting industry is no exception. Smart Cards provide many solutions for estimating the candidates’ skills. AI-based software only needs a few seconds to analyze big amounts of data and provide understandable results that can be considered by decision makers. Saving time, AI solutions also save money and resources.
4. Unbiased Decisions
Human intervention always implies a certain share of unconscious or conscious bias. Biased decisions are a common problem for all sorts of organizations, and Candidate Smart Cards are able to minimize this element. Companies get a great opportunity to hire only the best candidates based on their real potential and personality, as all the decisions are made taking into account data and resume only.
Balance Your Recruiting Risks
Combing through troves of job candidates for just the right fit breeds another problem: What terminology should you use in searches to ensure you are surfacing candidates who strongly match what you are looking for, regardless of what terms they use to describe their experience and skills?
Here, artificial intelligence can help.
Semantic search seeks to understand a searcher’s intent and the context in which a search was performed to improve the relevance of results.
Conceptual search doesn’t require a precisely worded query, but just a few keywords around which to form a concept.
Implicit search pushes information and results to you based on information already assumed or gathered, much like how Google automatically pushes restaurant recommendations in your local area, or pops up traffic advisories when you walk out the door to commute to work.
You can type in a one-word search, and it will work. It will return results. But you are looking for skills, experience, culture fit, soft skills, candidates who probably are within a specific geographic range, that are affordable in the compensation range you have, and who also are interested in the job. How are you going to sort through these results and find that person when so many look similar? This is where TurboHire’s Smart Cards help.
Conclusion
Using AI and machine learning can help unearth candidates missed by traditional screening, sourcing, and recruiting methods. Once these dark matter candidates are unearthed, recruiters can focus on the human element of the recruiting process and dig deeper.
AI and machine learning tech are evolving at a fantastic rate, and they’re a great tool to add to a recruiter’s toolbox. By speeding up the process and ensuring more relevant results, sourcing and recruiting pros can focus on connecting with candidates, engaging with them, and getting them hired.
To learn more, visit our website. | https://medium.com/@turbo_hire/ai-enhanced-profiles-candidate-data-cards-by-turbohire-297cd74ccd8c | [] | 2021-03-16 11:40:38.291000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Recruitment', 'Talent Acquisition', 'API', 'Hiring'] |
Regression Feature Selection using the Kydavra LassoSelector | This image was created by public association “Sigmoid”
We all know the Occam’s Razor:
From a set of solutions took the one that is the simplest.
This principle is applied in the regularization of the linear models in Machine Learning. L1-regularisation (also known as LASSO) tend to shrink wights of the linear model to 0 while L2-regularisation (known as Ridge) tend to keep overall complexity as simple as possible, by minimizing the norm of vector weights of the model. One of Kydavra’s selectors uses Lasso for selecting the best features. So let’s see how to apply it.
Using Kydavra LassoSelector.
If you still haven’t installed Kydavra just type the following in the following in the command line.
pip install kydavra
Next, we need to import the model, create the selector, and apply it to our data:
from kydavra import LassoSelector selector = LassoSelector() selected_cols = selector.select(df, ‘target’)
The select function takes as parameters the panda's data frame and the name of the target column. Also, it has a default parameter ‘cv’ (by default it is set to 5) it represents the number of folds used in cross-validation. The LassoSelector() takes the next parameters:
alpha_start (float, default = 0) the starting value of alpha.
alpha_finish (float, default = 2) the final value of alpha. These two parameters define the search space of the algorithm.
n_alphas (int, default = 300) the number of alphas that will be tested during the search.
extend_step (int, default=20) if the algorithm will deduce that the most optimal value of alpha is alpha_start or alpha_finish it will extend the search range with extend_step, in such a way being sure that it will not stick and will find finally the optimal value.
power (int, default = 2) used in formula 10^-power, defines the maximal acceptable value to be taken as 0.
So the algorithm after finding the optimal value of alpha will just see which weights are higher than 10^-power.
Let’s take see an example:
To show its performance I chose the Avocado Prices dataset.
After a bit of cleaning and training it on the next features:
'Total Volume', '4046', '4225', '4770', 'Small Bags', 'Large Bags', 'XLarge Bags', 'type', 'year'
The LinearRegression has the mean absolute error equal to 0.2409683103736682.
When LassoSelector applied on this dataset it chooses the next features:
'type', 'year'
Using only these features we got an MAE = 0.24518692823037008
A quite good result (keep in mind, we are using only 2 features).
Note: Sometimes is recommended to apply the lasso on scaled data. In this case, applied to the data, the selector didn’t throw away any feature. You are invited to experiment and try with scaled and unscaled values.
Bonus.
This module also has a plotting function. After applying the select function you can see why the selector selected some features and others not. To plot just type:
selector.plot_process()
This is the plot created by Kydavra LassoSelector on Avocado Price Dataset
The dotted lines are features that were thrown away because their weights were too close to 0. The central-vertical dotted line is the optimal value of the alpha found by the algorithm.
The plot_process() function has the next parameters:
eps (float, default = 5e-3) the length of the path.
(float, default = 5e-3) the length of the path. title (string, default = ‘Lasso coef Plot’) — the title of the plot.
(string, default = ‘Lasso coef Plot’) — the title of the plot. save (boolean, default= False) if set to true it will try to save the plot.
(boolean, default= False) if set to true it will try to save the plot. file_path (string, default = None) if the save parameter was set to true it will save the plot using this path.
Conclusion
LassoSelector is a selector that usee the LASSO algorithm to select features the most useful features. Sometimes it will be useful to scale the features, we highly recommend you to try both.
Source tenor.com
If you tried kydavra we invite you to share your impression by filling out this form.
Made with ❤ by Sigmoid.
Useful links: | https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/regression-feature-selection-using-the-kydavra-lassoselector-81a95cdae570 | ['Vasile Păpăluță'] | 2020-09-18 12:01:03.179000+00:00 | ['Sigmoid', 'Feature Selection', 'Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Lasso Regression'] |
The Hidden Cost of Touchscreens | In 2012 I tried out a brand new luxury vehicle at a automotive conference. It was a minimalist European model, and nothing seemed out of place — until I tried to use the in-car entertainment system. The whole thing was a monolithic rectangle of reflective, flat glass. The touchscreen software was bizarre and clunky. It took me five steps to pair my phone to the car, and I had to devote all my attention to the display just to figure it out. There were no physical buttons for the basics – like changing the volume or turning on the radio. I couldn’t imagine what it might be like to drive with it at night.
I expressed my frustration to the man sitting next to me. “I can’t believe the company let this thing on the road with this horrible display! It’s as if this entire system was tested in a lab under ideal conditions, but never once on the road with a single confused driver!”
The man started laughing at my outburst. Then he apologized and gave me his card. As it turned out, he was the head of company.
Tesla’s 2012 touchscreen display (via Car Connection)
“The quality of the touchscreen is my fault”, he admitted, “we never tested it on the road”. Apparently the management was so convinced that the entertainment system’s blue-tinted, rectangular touchscreen interface was “the future” that the company didn’t even bother using it on the road before releasing it. After all, Tesla had recently debuted (to much acclaim), its first model which boasted a similar touchscreen system. Now that this new company’s own car was in mass production, it would take many years to undo the damage.
Physical interfaces are crucial for automotive usability. Operations rely on a simple glance or muscle memory. Touchscreens, by contrast, force drivers to look. Because buttons are not fixed to specific locations, screens inhibit muscle memory and findability. Touchscreens compete for attention with the driving process, adding to the dangers of distracted driving.
Serious interfaces — those that are repeatedly used by a knowledgeable professional and/or in potentially hazardous situations, should not be touchscreen based. If a touchscreen must be used, it should be embedded alongside a set of fixed, physical buttons that support muscle memory and single actions.
What’s happening to in-car interfaces now? Five years later, we’re seeing some car models stick to physical buttons and dials, and that’s a great relief.
Beyond safety considerations, there are productivity gains inherent in physical controls. When I worked in a mailroom during college, I processed packages with a very ugly keyboard-based system. I learned the machine in a single day and it quickly became part of me; the data density it could rapidly handle was enormous. In the same way that high school students bond with graphing calculators in Calculus class, we can become intertwined with these physical interfaces in a way that doesn’t force us to think when we use them. We work with them and they work with us. They could be considered one of Donna Haraway’s “companion species”.
Touchscreens are not completely terrible. In the right cases, they’re incredibly useful. They’re already pervasive in service-related industries, but these screens usually have software that is glanceable, color-coded and professional. And they’re not meant to be used in moving vehicles!
Example of an image-based touchscreen point of service system
Touchscreen design could benefit from some basic design principles. Color-based interfaces take less time to parse when they are glanced at. Image-based interfaces take longer for the brain to process, and the lack of contrast can be confusing, because each item must be distinguished from adjacent items. When so many images look alike, service workers must rely on position and muscle memory for speedy use.
Example POS system that is ugly but functional: High contrast, color-coded buttons take less time to mentally digest.
When I worked in food service and in the mailroom, the uglier touchscreens were always easier to work with. They were color coded with bright, contrasting colors, making the boundaries between numbers or items very obvious. I found that the colors reduced mistakes. I’d usually tap the right items after barely even glancing at the interface. After a while, I’d only check the screen for mistakes at the end of the process, before submitting an order or printing a receipt.
Most touchscreen interfaces don’t use high contrast colors or locked, static buttons for basic functions. They bury actions under multiple buttons, and this leaves us dangerously hunting for the right button while trying to drive, or our frustrated passengers trying to help us get our phone connected via Bluetooth.
Square’s point of sale system is used by both customers and employees, and it’s important that the systems look good — but processing orders and mistakes can still be made if the images look too similar to one another. I know of some coffee shops that have replaced their product images with memes or high contrast cartoon characters. It’s a cute tactic that works for both employees and customers.
Will we see a return to analog interfaces? I certainty hope so. While analog interfaces aren’t applicable to every situation, they do force designers to make permanent decisions. And because specific choices must be made for physical button placement, it’s harder to design an unusable analog interface. And design decisions must be final. Software interfaces can be quickly changed and deployed without the same process — and the world is filling up with nested, mystery-meat menus and confusing user flows.
Last week, my neighborhood grocery store replaced all of its keypad-based machines with touchscreens. Now the grocers must take additional time to look up at the screen and tap through a few different pictures to select the correct items. In addition to the loss of productivity, the poorly-designed systems leave employees unhappy. I used to watch veteran supermarket workers deftly tap PLU codes for produce into a keypad. They bagged fruit with one hand while typing codes with the other. Their precision and memory was often a point of pride and mild honor. Now, there’s nothing left of that tiny speck of mastery. Worse, the new screens require different levels of focus, making it difficult for some workers to read the text. I’ve watched workers remove their glasses to peer at the display before tapping the right product image. I even found them apologizing — on behalf of the machine.
I asked a cashier if he thought he could find the same comfort with the touchscreen like he did with the physical machine.
“Absolutely not,” he grumbled, “and when this one becomes tolerable, they’ll change the software on me.”
These issues only hint at the troubles intrinsic in touchscreens. In a follow-up post, we’ll look at how they further enhance the social frictions we’re already seeing in the rise of automation. | https://caseorganic.medium.com/why-do-we-keep-building-cars-with-touchscreens-alt-the-hidden-lives-of-touchscreens-55faf92799bf | ['Amber Case'] | 2018-06-05 02:22:50.160000+00:00 | ['UX', 'UI', 'Tesla', 'Touchscreen', 'User Experience'] |
How your personal and corporate data have probably already been leaked | And what you can do about it.
I recently started looking into a problem that has been around for over 10 years and has resulted in countless data-leaks. The problem of so-called “public buckets”. In my research I have made some discoveries that had me at a loss for words. So far, I have found hundreds of thousands of personal, medical, and legal documents. All of which are freely available to download for anyone.
This is the first article of a series in which you will read what these “buckets” are, how they can contain your personal or company data, and what you can do about it. Feel free to contact me with any questions and I will see if I can include them in future articles. Lets get started!
Are the files in this bucket required to be publicly accessible?
This is a question I often ask myself. In my work I regularly come across so-called “buckets”. A term commonly used to describe organizational units for file storage at public cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
Buckets are used to store files, such that they can be downloaded by users and applications. Like most things, public buckets have a genuine purpose. For example, the websites you visit need to store images somewhere, so you can view them. They are accessed by making a web request directly to the file’s storage location.
So public buckets have a genuine purpose. What is the problem?
Unlike the images that you view on a website, there are also things you do not want everyone to be able to access. A great example is the “uploads” folder of a website. Imagine having to upload a copy of your passport when booking a hotel. You do not want this copy to be out there to download for just everyone.
Sadly enough this is not just an example. In my research I have found many of these unintended public website folders. Many of which contained files not intended for the public. Some examples of my findings are:
Over 8000 passports of various nationalities
Over 1500 birth certificates of various nationalities
Over 110000 medical records ranging from patient medical history files to children’s psychological evaluations
Corporate investment and strategy reports
Personal and corporate laptop, server, and phone back-ups
Server access credentials and passwords
Countless company invoices
* All of the above has been reported to the responsible parties and authorities.
While the number of personal and confidential files I found had me at a loss for words, I have only started to uncover the tip of the iceberg. I am currently working on refining my approach and algorithms to better identify and assess public buckets. I expect to be sharing some more detailed statistics and breakdowns soon.
Back to the topic of this article, public buckets.
How does this happen? And why does this still happen so often?
By default, buckets are configured to be private. So far I have not seen any benchmarks for data leaks. We do not know why private data ends up in public buckets or why private buckets end up being set to public.
We can imagine some situations like I described in the earlier example. There a mistake was made to include a private folder (uploads) as part of the public folders in the bucket.
I can only speculate on other examples. I could be an engineer that is inexperienced in the cloud technology that accidentally switches the bucket’s configuration to public. Or perhaps a script that contains a “typo” gives the bucket the incorrect public configuration by accident.
So comes down to human error, but what can we do?
We can split this question into two vantage points. That of a company using buckets, and that of an individual sharing private data, anywhere.
As a company, you are in control of the service you deliver and the storage you expose.
Some suggestions are:
Keep track of what data you house. Is there private data received, processed, or stored through your applications? Or do you perhaps store documents or backups in the cloud?
Implement routine checks to verify that you do not expose any buckets, folders, or files that should not be public.
If you have a large infrastructure, conduct periodic reviews (architecture & configuration reviews, penetration tests, threat analysis, etc.) to get insight in what you and your team might have missed.
As an individual, there is not much you can do...
You have no influence and no insight into how organizations handle data. It can not be expected that you do an extensive search for public buckets of a company, before you register or upload something through their website.
What you can do however, is ensure that you know what data you submitted where. For example, if someone requires a copy of your passport, add your own watermark. This way, if there is a data leak, you know who “lost” your files.
But what about the legal aspects?
Due to the nature of the internet and our global economy, our data is not automatically bound to stay in the country we live in. Recent privacy laws in countries around the world have given legal requirements to companies to treat your data with the respect it deserves. However, even if countries implement laws to prohibit data abuse and punish negligence, we are still far from certainty.
A solution could perhaps be sought in assurance reports. By having independent auditors examine companies and services for proper treatment of data and correct storage (bucket) configuration. The findings of this inspection and professional opinion are put in a report. Releasing these reports to the public allows us, the public, to do some sort of due diligence before trusting a company with our data.
In summary, even after more than ten years, accidentally exposed public buckets remain a large issue for our privacy and data confidentiality. Companies can try to implement controls to identify exposed buckets in their business, but there is very little that individuals can do to help keep their files safe. I have proposed a solution by requiring companies to acquire assurance statements from independent auditors, but this of course leaves the question if you trust both the company and the auditor.
Happy to hear your thoughts and ideas! For my next story I am working on a write-up on how I built a ‘bucket-crawler’ to index the various publicly exposed buckets.
Thanks for reading.
Wouter
@wvanderhouven | https://medium.com/@wvanderhouven/how-your-personal-and-corporate-data-have-probably-already-been-leaked-7430c147d4fc | ['Wouter Van Der Houven'] | 2020-12-15 09:33:45.347000+00:00 | ['AWS', 'Cybersecurity', 'Azure', 'Cloud Computing', 'Privacy'] |
Time allocation for practice leaders in professional services firms | Photo by Arlington Research on Unsplash
Professional services firms offer highly customized, knowledge-based services that require a lot of face-to-face interactions. They sell the skills of their employees based on the number of hours spent on the project, the so called “billable hours”. In that sense, time is one of the key resources of professional services firms. The role of the practice leader is to make sure that all the resources of the practice are used efficiently and in a way that maximizes profitability. The drivers of profitability are margins, productivity and leverage. Consequently, the work of the practice leader is to make sure that:
• Margins are sufficiently high (not too high and not too low);
• The productivity level of the practice is excellent;
• The adequate level of leverage is maintained in accordance with the strategy of the practice.
In order to manage these priorities, the practice leader has to carefully manage his time and how he allocates it among different activities. Time is always a very scarce resource for managers and practice leaders are also concerned by that challenge. The figure below presents what we consider to be the best time allocation a Practice Leader should adopt. We think that 45% of his time should be allocate to “dealing with senior professionals”, 25% to client relations, 15% to “new business development and selling”, 10% to “doing professional work and being personally billable and 5% to “administrative and financial matters”.
Figure 1: Time Allocation of a Practice Leader
The most important assets of professional services firms are the knowledge and skills of staff. In that respect practice leaders must make sure the staff is always motivated, trained and rewarded. That’s why the best practice leaders spend 45% of their time dealing with senior professionals. If the senior staff is motivated and properly trained and rewarded, they can cascade the motivation down to the lowest levels of the practice. Depending on the leverage of the practice, senior staff have high power on the motivation spiral that should take place.
The practice leader spends most of his time with senior staff because he acts as a motivation maintainer. Among others, he must provide clear goals, provide prompt feedback, reward performance and hold professional accountable for their results. Dealing with senior professional is mostly about balancing the “hygiene” (short term) and “health” (long term) goals of the practice. The key issues are related to day to day management: increasing volumes and lowering overhead costs. Here the objective is to keep the level of margins and productivity high. In that respect, it’s important to be creative on pricing, to invest in skills development, to monitor key productivity KPI and to promote staff mobility and flexibility.
Practice leaders should allocate 25% of their time to client relations. They must concentrate on activities that yields the highest ROI (Return on Investment). In that respect, super-pleasing and nurturing existing clients must be the priority. Super-pleasing involves seeking delight and not only mere satisfaction. Since satisfaction is linked to expectations and perception, it is important to keep expectations low and deliver a work that is perceived as excellent and beyond expectations. The practice leader must make sure that client’s industries are always carefully studied to adapt to eventual issues. This also goes through organizing market research, conferences, and feedback systems to better understand current clients. It also helps in keeping existing clients engaged. It’s important to avoid the syndrome “bad customers drive out good customers”.
The third activity that should mobilize the time and attention of practice leaders is selling and new business development. It should account for about 15% of their time. In fact, for the future growth of the practice, leaders must not only keep existing clients but also manage to acquire new ones. This can be done through courting and broadcasting. Courting involves writing a proposal or showing to the prospective client that we can handle his problem. Broadcasting is the less effective method and involves seminars and newsletters that show that the practice is knowledgeable and following the trends of its industry or field of expertise. This has a lot of impact on the “health” of the practice because it is about the long-term objectives and growth of the practice.
The fourth activity that should mobilize the time and attention of practice leaders is doing professional work and being personally billable. It should account for 10% of their time. This is a good thing for the practice because the fees of practice leaders are very high and thus bring a lot of income to the company. The involvement of the practice leader may be needed in some sensitive and complex projects. It can also be a way to attract new customers by showing close management and implication. This is only possible when dealing with “brains projects” or just to define the scope of the project, the approach and key deliverables. In fact, these types of project require a high degree of creativity and deep industry knowledge.
Finally, the best practice leaders spend 5% of their time dealing with administrative and financial matters. Here the practice leader must care about the internal processes of the company and how to improve them. He also must think about recruitment. Depending on the level of leverage needed in the practice, the leader must decide on the number of junior professionals that need to be hired. Financial matters are very important because the practice must be profitable. The staffing must be perfectly deployed to minimize non-billable hours for “grinders” and “minders”. | https://medium.com/the-new-thinker/time-allocation-for-practice-leaders-in-professional-services-firms-fc28e1161fff | [] | 2020-12-07 01:58:58.224000+00:00 | ['Time', 'Professional Services', 'Consulting', 'Workplace', 'Lawyers'] |
Translation’s Inevitable Amanda Gorman Dispute | But it is also inevitable that if we cordon ourselves from working with one another in cross-cutting ways, our creativity and vibrancy will atrophy and die. When I first heard of the controversy surrounding the translation of Gorman’s work, I thought of my own experience grappling with the poetry of women of color. For a class project in my third year at Emory University, I and a classmate decided to build off the poetry of Natasha Tretheway as found in her celebrated collection Bellocq’s Ophelia. Writing from the perspective of other mixed-race women not profiled in Tretheway’s original poems, my partner and I constructed an Instagram profile and a series of posts that featured our own poetry that mimicked and expanded upon the thematic and lived realities that Tretheway interrogated in the original Ophelia. As a White man, I was acutely aware that the stories that I was telling, that I was making myself a part of by every stroke of my pen, were not mine in any sense of the imagination. Yet, at the behest of my classmate, a Hispanic woman, and my professor, a Black man, I was encouraged to continue. There was something to be gleaned from the entirety of the process, even if my racial fingerprint did not match that of the original author.
It is this group approach upon which it seems most effectual to stake a theory of the case when it comes to doing translation work, particularly translation work that carries with it a certain cultural intimacy that must be respected. Such was the approach used from the get-go by Gorman’s German translator. Bringing together a talented group of three women from varied ethnic backgrounds (Hadjia Haruna-Oelker who is Black, Kubra Gumusay who is of Turkish descent, and Uda Strätling who is White) the German team endeavored tirelessly to bring to market a product that reflected the will and intent of the original author while remaining comprehensible to the average German reader. They strived to make the political and social significance of “The Hill We Climb” clear, to spurn exclusion, and to remain true to Ms. Gorman’s spirit. They debated how to translate “skinny” without making it appear derisive. They sought out ways to reflect the gender-inclusive language that the poem utilized, despite German’s extensive labeling of all words and peoples as either masculine or feminine.
What they birthed in their collective efforts was a poem that represented the unity of Gorman’s vision. What their colleagues birthed elsewhere around Europe was more of the discord that none of us relish.
There was one more point that struck me from Chakraborty’s piece: “It was only a matter of time before these burning issues ignited the art of translation.” Here too I concur, though not simply because cancel culture and unmitigated racism have become war cries for partisans the world over, but more so because of the inevitable connectivity of our world.
Incremental yet ever-growing globalization has transformed and is transforming the face of our planet like never before. If it is to become common for the works of a celebrated author to be published in every language under the sun mere months after she has become a leading and iconic figure, and if it is to become common to remark on that dispersion of work in real-time, then it is also to be expected that questions and curiosities, disputes and debates, will likewise arise. Thanks in large part to the Internet, cultures are widening, reaching out, and touching one another in a multivariate manner, in ways which they never have before. Not in this size or on this scale. Is it any small wonder then that we may still have much to navigate?
There has been much pain and confusion sown as a result of the Amanda Gorman translation dispute, but it is in some ways an inevitable byproduct of who we yet hope to be. As the poet herself said, “Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true./That even as we grieved, we grew./That even as we hurt, we hoped./That even as we tired, we tried./That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious.” | https://aninjusticemag.com/translations-inevitable-amanda-gorman-dispute-b3ed376d28ed | ['Noah Lorey'] | 2021-05-30 22:22:14.532000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Literature', 'Globalization', 'Race', 'Translation'] |
Should I Get Insurance For My Child? | The way I try to view everything financial is by looking at what I wish I already knew. If I knew what I now know 10 years ago, I believe my life would look very different. I would have a lot more money invested, I would have a rental property or two, I wouldn’t have spent money on some things, and I would invested more time and energy into different areas than I have. I might even be approaching early retirement! I try to be the person I wish I had guiding me back then.
One area that’s constantly overlooked when it comes to financial planning is the insurance side of it, or how we protect our plans. Getting Life Insurance in place kind of sucks for most people due to a couple of reasons: 1 — having to pay for it, and 2 — going through the medical questions or testing.
Other than that, insurance is great. It helps protect you and your family if anything bad happens (because bad things do happen) and offers you peace of mind. We all know that we need insurance, but having to pay for it is usually a big downside. But there could be an easier way for the next generation. A way to ensure your loved ones don’t have to worry about the same things you’ve had to.
It’s called a Whole Life Insurance Policy. As the name suggests, it is intended to cover you for your entire life, so there are no term options. But because it is meant to cover someone for their entire life, it tends to be more expensive since the benefit is guaranteed to be paid out (as long as you pay your premiums). But, if you get it for a child, it can actually be quite cheap. Here are some of my favourite things about getting life insurance for a youngster.
Pay in as little as 10 years
As I mentioned, whole life insurance is meant to cover someone for life, but it doesn’t mean you have to pay it for life.
Insurance companies are basically investment companies. They look at someone and determine how likely they are to pass away unexpectedly, then figure out how much money they need to bring it to make it financially viable for them to insurance someone. Remember, insurance companies, after all, are businesses.
Because of our good friend compound interest, you can pay more money sooner and have it work for you, essentially replacing monthly premiums down the road. A lot of policies have the option to pay our dues over 10 years, 20 years, or over a lifetime. Generally, the shorter the term, the more the premiums, but the less you pay over a lifetime.
The benefit is you could put insurance in place for a child and have it completely paid up before they are an adult. So they never have to pay for insurance unless they need more of it. At the very least, it can provide a great foundation. Thus them avoiding having to pay for it.
Combines insurance and investing
Some insurance policies will have different options for how much you can pay each month. There always is the minimum premium payment you have to pay to keep the policy in force. On top of that, you can pay up to a certain amount into an investment account within the policy.
This amount grows over time through investment growth and with additional contributions. The neat thing about this is this investment portion can either increase the life insurance benefit (original benefit + investment amount), or the person who is insured can borrow out of the investment account if they need to.
Say they need money for school, a house, a business, or whatever it might be. Instead of borrowing at a high-interest rate from a bank and creating debt, they can borrow against their insurance policy. It’s a neat way to gain some financial independence when it comes to big life decisions.
Future health conditions don’t matter
My favourite part about getting insurance for a child is the fact that they are getting insurance in place. We all know that health implications happen over a lifetime, and it isn’t just saved until the end years. Negative health implications can make someone uninsurable or very expensive to insure. Getting insurance in place early means they are always going to have an option to have insurance in the future. Maybe they don’t need the insurance right now, but they will someday. Getting insurance also means you have the insurance of getting insurance later.
Getting insurance in place early takes all of the unknowns away. We all want what is best for our children, our nieces or nephews, so I believe getting insurance in place for a young loved one is a great idea. Contributing early can help ensure the funds get the most growth so they can go the furthest. And it just lets there be one less thing to worry about down the road. | https://themakingofamillionaire.com/should-i-get-insurance-for-my-child-1c89b58a6e3b | ['Derek Condon'] | 2020-12-15 17:02:51.252000+00:00 | ['Financial Planning', 'Money', 'Insurance', 'Finance', 'Family'] |
MobiFi Token Economics | Unlike some blockchain projects that set out with a fantastical vision that may take many years to realize, MobiFi is focused on changing the game in a way that delivers immediate value to users. MobiFi is not only paving a road to a sustainable tomorrow but providing ready-to-use mobility services today.
To this end, MobiFi is working to ensure that the product is functional in an enterprise environment out of the gate. At the same time, we’re working closely with different DeFi projects to offer users the option of choosing from a variety of yield opportunities. All of these efforts rely on and are made possible by our dual token strategy.
Dual token systems
Having a dual token strategy is not new. MakerDAO is perhaps the most famous example of this concept. Typically, a dual token model consists of one utility token and one security token. For MakerDAO, MKR is used as a governance token and price stability mechanism for the second token, the DAI stablecoin. Generally, the dual strategy is used by crypto startups so that the security token is for fundraising and the utility token for use on its network.
In the case of MobiFi, we will use the dual token model to ensure that the solution is compliant with large, regulated corporations, i.e.mobility service providers. We will create two utility tokens, one public and one private. The MoFi token is public and will live on Ethereum, and the SMile token is private and will live on the Corda enterprise network. And as the regulation of crypto tokens gets further clarified, the usage and structure can and will be iterated accordingly.
SMile tokens
Developed by R3, Corda is the most popular blockchain or DLT solution for business. Corda has one of the most active ecosystems with participation from banks, insurance companies, exchanges, and many other big corporates. Primary reasons for this include transparency, efficiency, and critically, controllable data exchange features.
These features enable businesses to transact directly and privately using smart contracts, reducing transaction and record-keeping costs and streamlining business operations. MobiFi decided to use Corda for similar reasons. We want to onboard businesses, i.e., mobility service providers, and using Corda provides instant cachet.
The MobiFi system mints Corda-connected SMile tokens with an internal reward model based on the scale of the mobility service market. It’s a dynamic token minting approach, similar to how an airline creates air miles. We algorithmically manage the supply based on the number of users, services, and providers. The greater the demand for mobility services, the more users, the more service providers, the more we increase SMiles in circulation.
Every SMiles token will be backed with real fiat currency, and the value of the SMiles token is designed to remain stable. For instance, one SMile could be equal to $.10. In different parts of the world, the cost of using a mobility service will vary. One hundred SMiles can be used to take a bus in Amsterdam, but it’s probably not enough for a similar service in Zurich. In terms of backing SMiles, if it’s rewards, it will reserve cash from service providers, and if it’s transportation credit, then it will be fiat from the user.
$Smile snapshot
The private Corda-based SMile token is used to power high-frequency transactions.
It will act as a stable payment medium to streamline mobility services and as a reward unit.
Its supply will be algorithmically managed based on users, services, and providers.
SMiles token will be backed with real fiat currency.
MoFi tokens
Besides the streamlining of mobility functionality, another problem MobiFi intends to solve is the unutilized cash in millions of transportation cards. Today, most transportation systems use pre-paid NFC cards as a payment method. For instance, the Oyster card in London, Ovchipkaart in the Netherlands, or the Octopus card in Hong Kong. For each of these systems, the card has to be topped up before it can be used. These cards represent the biggest pre-paid system in the world. Transportation companies leverage the system to access large amounts of capital and earn interest from it.
We believe that it’s the consumers that are entitled to any interest that their money earns. The MobiFi wallet then is the solution to turn this unused mobility credit into tokens and thus connect it with various DeFi services. Due to the crypto market’s flexibility, users can trade their mobility credit converted to MoFi tokens 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. And the interest yields are immediate.
$MoFi snapshot
MoFi tokens will be exchangeable for SMiles i.e., mobility services.
With every exchange, MoFi will be burned by the system.
MoFi will enable unused mobility credit to be used within various DeFi services.
MoFi Metrics
Below is a basic outline of MoFi token metrics, which illustrates initial market capitalization and the total supply of tokens. We’ve also included raise statistics to clarify how initial tokens will be allocated and released to make a distribution model to incentivize the rapid yet sustainable growth of the MobiFi community.
Total Supply : 150.000.000
: 150.000.000 Initial Circulating Supply following our public sale : 17.880.000
: 17.880.000 Ticker: $MOFI
Token Distribution:
Seed Round : 8%
: 8% Private Sale A : 10%
: 10% Private Sale B : 24%
: 24% Public : 3%
: 3% Reserves : 15%
: 15% Staking/Farming reward : 10%
: 10% Floating liquidity : 5%
: 5% Ecosystem : 10%
: 10% Advisors : 5%
: 5% Team: 10%
Upcoming:
Public Sale April 2th : 4.500.000 MOFI
: 4.500.000 MOFI Uniswap Listing date: April 6th, 2021
Sale Details*
Date: April 2nd 2021 — HERE
Start Price: USD $0.03 cents per token
End Price: USD $0.0565 cents per token
Sale Vesting:
Seed : 1 month cliff / 12 months vested
: 1 month cliff / 12 months vested Private Sale A : 10% TGE / 10% per month vested
: 10% TGE / 10% per month vested Private Sale 2 : 33% TGE / 33% per month vested
: 33% TGE / 33% per month vested Public Sale : Fully unlocked
: Fully unlocked Advisors : 6 months cliff / 12 months vested
: 6 months cliff / 12 months vested Team : 12 months cliff / 12 months vested
: 12 months cliff / 12 months vested Ecosystem : 3 months cliff / 18 months vested
: 3 months cliff / 18 months vested Reserves : 3 months cliff / 24 months vested
: 3 months cliff / 24 months vested Floating liquidity : NA
: NA Staking/Farming reward: NA
Token mechanics
The MoFi token uses Ethereum’s ERC20 standard, and it is the primary utility token to be used in exchange for SMiles, i.e., mobility services. When a user exchanges a MoFi token for SMiles, the MoFi will be burned. In this way, the MoFi token is deflationary, and over time, the total volume will be reduced. This mechanism of limited supply and ever reducing volume is intended to increase the value of the MoFi token. (See Figure 1 below)
Figure 1. The relation between MobiFi token price and its circulation volume based on the burning mechanism
The value of MoFi is, like any other digital asset, influenced by the demand and supply of the crypto market and the mobility ecosystem built on SMiles. The bigger the mobility ecosystem becomes, the higher the market value of MoFi token. This dynamic is expected to be especially noticeable in the first few years of MobiFi due to the primary relationship between MoFi and SMile tokens.
In addition, a user can only cash out SMile tokens via MoFi at an early stage (e.g., 1–5 years). If the SMiles mobility network is growing fast, there won’t be enough MobiFi tokens on the market to be exchanged.
See Figure (2).
Figure 2. MobiFi token price goes up as the mobility ecosystem grows
This design is intended to solve two problems:
1) Without a stable medium of exchange, the whole system would be unusable. The volatility of the crypto market will have minimal impact on the SMiles tokens that are used inside the MobiFi network. SMiles token plays a role as a stable coin, a mobility credit, and a reward point.
2) We ensure the circulation value of MoFi token is automatically adjustable to the demand and supply of the secondary market and directly influenced by our main business — acting as the financial orchestrator of mobility services.
Conclusion
MobiFi’s dual token system was designed with many contingencies in mind, and it ensures efficient token circulation to all stakeholders within the ecosystem. This extends beyond our platform to our transportation partners, liquidity providers, and everyday users.
Maintaining a stable value in SMiles and balancing supply and demand across the entire ecosystem were key design considerations throughout the whole process. As such, our model has a bias towards reducing token velocity and increasing value capture.
When (and if) the day comes that mass scale is achieved and our sustainable mobility vision is realized, the value of MoFi will have increased by orders of magnitude. Therefore, at a certain point, we also have plans for functionality that will allow SMile tokens to be cashed out in other cryptocurrencies directly or with CBDC, perhaps even fiat.
About MobiFi
MobiFi is a financial orchestrator for Mobility as a Service (MaaS). We’re building the transportation UX of the future — simplifying the mess of mobility services that many consumers face today while also allowing them to earn on their mobility credit. Once complete, our platform and tokenized payment system will boost mobility service provider efficiency and coax users into more sustainable transportation decisions.
Stay up to date on MobiFi
Twitter |Telegram |Telegram ANN | Website | Whitepaper | https://medium.com/mobifi/mobifi-token-economics-ec4fd451202c | ['Team Mobifi'] | 2021-04-07 10:57:03.550000+00:00 | ['Mobility', 'Defi', 'Blockchain', 'Mobifi', 'Token Sale'] |
Scrum in personal life — Can we ? | Recently went through the 2 day course for Scrum Master and earned the Certified Scrum Master certification for myself. But that is not the news I look to share here.
Before proceeding further, just a quick status check. What is scrum ? Quoting from https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html
“Scrum is a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value”
While we learn the nuances of how to apply the framework into product development, it intrigued me to think why can this not be applied to our day to day life. After all we are all trying to improve ourself through a variety of learning and experiences. Let’s try to break it down.
We : The product
Consider us being the product we are trying to create. Let’s think each of our life’s milestones as the incremental updates we would like to add to ourself.
To being with — our educational system is time boxed already! And the judgement criterion is also fixed — passing the exams. While not going into aspect of if the system itself is ideal for eduction, that would be a parallel introspection, what is interesting here, though not meeting the exact definitions of sprints or the framework, we are already into the scrum mode in our day to day life — Trying to achieve pass mark is the regular checkpoints called exams there by improving our offering as a person being judged on the scale of being educated.
Each target we set for ourselves, why can we not treat each milestone with a product development mindset? Can we not be multiple product offering being built into a complete package. After all we are human beings capable of doing many things.
Let’s take one more thread — The yearly appraisals we have — Do we really take the feedback in the real sense ? Does the system really work ? And if we think it does, then is the appraisal not the regular feedback we get at the end each sprint. It is similar, but may be we just need to think differently. We need to think of ourself as the product owner. We need to own our developmentinto a minimal viable product more objectively. And identify the stakeholders in the right sense.
Everyone says the same, but differently.
Every self help article you read, every self improvement article you would read, am sure you would find few common themes.
Let me share few quotes I could note down:
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” ~ Mark Twain
“The key to realising a dream is to focus not on success but on significance — and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.” ~ Oprah Winfrey
Are we not seeing most pointing to:
Breaking down the tasks; Taking small steps; Little victories; Greater meaning;
Thinking like a product owner
The need I feel is owning our actions. Owning what we do. Owning our future and what we want to achieve. Playing the role of product owner for ourself. Make sure we as “product” called “human being” is rightly abled, aptly knowledgable and build to deliver.
And you know what, we always had a life long scrum master with us, showing us the path, guiding us, teaching us the framework to be followed with regular feedback through their love and scoldings — Our Parents !
Scrum in personal life — Not that difficult I guess !!
Cheers,
Anupam | https://medium.com/@anupamwrites/scrum-in-personal-life-can-we-2ca7674c3dfb | ['Anupam Mukhopadhyay'] | 2021-04-13 16:34:21.474000+00:00 | ['Thoughts', 'Personal Development', 'Agile', 'Improvement', 'Scrum'] |
The Big Shift | When you stop to think about the speed at which businesses are transforming digitally, it is truly mind-boggling. Many organizations were already in the midst of shifting their infrastructure to all things digital when COVID-19 hit. Now, not only are there new internal demands with the reconfigured workplace, but also increased opportunities to connect digitally with the consumer.
“Digital transformation” is a broad term that often references the process of using digital technologies to create new — or modify existing — business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements.
In 2020, some companies have had to do more with less. Budgets have been cut, reshuffled, and/or scrutinized as the economic outlook changes almost monthly. For many, this acceleration has exposed some of the outdated and inflexible monolithic software that just can’t keep up. The consequences of those faulty implementations are finally coming home to roost.
The businesses that are succeeding in these uncertain times are those that recognize the changes around them and adapt. This has always been true in some respect, but now — more than ever — companies need to lean into change. The companies that are thriving are the ones that are evolving and adjusting, rather than waiting for things to go back to normal, which isn’t happening. No matter their current situation, the winners know it’s time to embrace a “new normal” moving forward.
By no means is it too late to pick up the pace. The new normal includes continued challenges and opportunities in the marketplace well into 2021. Now is the time to be making better-informed and faster decisions, focusing on health assessments, content logistics and agile deployment strategies that will enable your organization to accelerate in a rapidly changing environment.
Ready to get started? Here are some recommendations to consider before buckling up your seatbelt:
Make sure the board and executive team are aligned for this digital shift and acceleration. An enthusiastic, can-do mindset needs to be established, and if leadership is not fully onboard, you won’t get out of first gear. Decision-making and approval processes need to be streamlined. Procurement can be a momentum-killer, and while we aren’t suggesting the removal of protocols and governance, that process needs to be able to accelerate, too. Get your teams fired up! Yes, this will require hard work and long hours, but employees will be able to innovate at a pace that will transform the organization. That’s what they signed up for, right? Remind individual teammates how important their role and their work is. Point to how impactful this endeavor will be on the business for years to come. Start with the low-hanging fruit. Identify the technology projects and budgets you currently have. If there is already momentum with these initiatives, they will serve as quick wins that leadership wants to see. These “wins” also serve as a morale boost for your team to experience early on. Shorten timelines, consider alternative routes and take measured risks in getting these projects quality assured and out to market as soon as possible. If it’s broken, fix it. Start with identifying current areas that are broken processes (and promises), bad deployments and poorly written integrations. A quick health assessment can go a long way in getting everyone to the table and finding common ground on what needs to be fixed. This practice clears out the frustrations, distractions and excuses around why the team hasn’t been able to move quicker and kick certain business processes into high gear. Now that you have cleared all of those hurdles, you should be in a confident position to move forward and begin identifying new opportunities to digitally transform your business at today’s speed. Approach new projects with an “optimize-first” mentality. You don’t have to replace current software to accelerate new digital initiatives. Start by identifying core strengths in the existing software your company has. Create strategies that can optimize those capabilities (i.e. move to the cloud, upgrade to the latest code, etc.), while also building new services and integrations that leverage those core strengths. Not only will this practice create updated (and new) digital values for your customers, it will also save your business money and extend ROI. Shift into digital overdrive. What areas of your organization has leadership avoided making hard decisions for? Where could customer interactions be improved? Where is the business missing the opportunity, in these uncertain times, to create more value and stability? Finding the answers to these questions requires a holistic approach that factors in variables across your organization. Creating an effective digital strategy that aligns with overall corporate goals, creates new values and grows revenue requires more comprehensive planning, via a strategic plan and roadmap. Be prepared to do the necessary work to get there.
“The companies that are thriving are the ones that are evolving and adjusting, rather than waiting for things to go back to normal, which isn’t happening.” — Tim P. Brigham
In order to stay competitive in today’s market, traditional strategic planning committees and processes need to be reevaluated to ensure that the overall business strategy remains nimble and pragmatic. Bureaucracy and red tape will need to be removed, so it’s important to have the right stakeholders and executive sponsors at the table.
There are many worthy options in marketing automation platforms, customer data platforms, machine learning, e-commerce systems and content management systems. Both mainstays and newcomers are worth researching and considering. Explore and experience as many as you can. Make sure these applications are a good fit and look beyond Gartner’s Magic Quadrants and the familiar brands. Most importantly, make sure these applications can be implemented and supported at the speed at which your organization is moving.
So, what are you waiting for?
By Tim P. Brigham | https://medium.com/@jasontesser/the-big-shift-3f9ba19ca998 | [] | 2020-11-20 16:31:57.480000+00:00 | ['Deployment', 'Evolution', 'Optimization', 'Digital Transformation'] |
Location, the be-all or end-all? | The Pandemic has forced businesses across the globe to embrace remote-working, triggering a transformation more “tech first” businesses have been taking advantage of for a long time, harnessing a truly global workforce. Twitter led the race by announcing their staff can work from home for the foreseeable, with the rest of Big Tech following suit. Amazon went for a slightly different angle, by opening offices in major cities across the United States. The caveat of the remote scenario has been a reduction in salaries for staff driven by announcing the commencement of a compensation and benefits strategy, focused more towards localisation.
The question of late is how do businesses take advantage of the new world of work, without alienating their workforces?
Larger, public firms or more commercially driven businesses may see this as an opportunity to improve their margins and consequently their bottom lines, keeping investors and their Board satisfied. But even these larger businesses have only reduced salaries by a fraction: 5%–10%, with the higher percentage targeting top earners. So far, benefits offered are driven more towards flexible working and bonuses based on personal rather than company performance, mitigating the risk some Exec’s feel comes from the freedom flexible working gives employees. Reportedly, Stripe has offered to pay employees a $20,000 bonus just to leave the Bay Area, in return for a 10% salary reduction.
Smaller privately held businesses, or those whose employees have clear exit options to better commercial opportunities, need to keep their workforce even more front-of-mind, recognising how important remaining competitive in the talent ecosystem is to their future or continued success.
What are you really paying for when you hire? Loyalty? Access to the best talent? Both? I have spoken to a number of people recently and simply asked, “what would you be willing to sacrifice?”. The majority answer was very little. Most people stated businesses pay for their skill set, not their location, as a location in the majority of circumstances comes down to personal choice by the employer, as well as the employee.
Providing choice is the clinching point here. Force an employee's hands and they are more inclined to act emotionally, but provide choice with clear reasoning and it becomes a more pragmatic and logical decision-making process, without causing as much upset. For example, Option 1 is a greater salary but diminished benefits, Option 2 is a reduced salary but access to greater flexible benefits, and so forth.
The above is generalised, but it would be great to know what you would do wearing both hats. What would you do as a business owner/leader in this situation? What would you be willing to sacrifice to have the choice to work where you want as an employee?
As always, thoughts and opinions are my own. | https://medium.com/@alexanderlewis1/location-the-be-all-or-end-all-adfd74e132a9 | ['Alex Lewis'] | 2020-12-22 11:18:23.757000+00:00 | ['Talent', 'Remote Working', 'HR', 'Change', 'Compensation And Benefits'] |
Hell | It was chilly in the room when Jacob awoke to find himself living in a hell imagined by a white male MFA asshole. He got out of bed shivering and closed the window. As the window fell snugly into the sill, he looked across the street and saw a billboard advertising a gadget that did “everything and more.”
He sneered at the error, and it made him feel better, but he still felt basically miserable, because he knew he was in white male MFA asshole hell.
Because he was an authorial insertion, his apartment was a large loft in Soho, and because the author was lazy, it was never quite made clear whether that meant London or New York. Either one was sexy enough but not too foreign, just like the woman lying nude in his bed, a model with a fetish for bookish balding thirty-year-olds. They had met at a reading of his short stories last night, where there had been just enough people to not fully wound his pride, but just few enough that he could still consider himself an underappreciated genius. The beautiful woman lying peacefully in his high-thread-count sheets was perfect in every way, except she didn’t understand the dark soul that hid within him. He knew this because he knew he was in white male MFA asshole hell.
He wrote her a note in six words, because all good stories can be six words, as his idol Hemingway proved.
“Love is death. Read more Nietzsche.”
He hoped she’d understand the note meant his soul was too troubled for her to understand and that he was also leaving to join his writing circle for the day. But he knew she wouldn’t grasp the depth of what he meant. He was in white male MFA asshole hell.
He arrived at his writing circle and all his inferiors had already assembled. They were talking about Eat, Pray, Love. They were his inferiors because this was the world he was cursed to inhabit. They were talking about the tedious novel because he was doomed just like Sisyphus. He doubted people would get that reference. Did any of them even understand Camus like he did? No. They didn’t. This was hell.
One of them started discussing the great fashion designer, Haruki Murakami. He sneered again. He liked sneering because it reminded him that he was better than them, and he liked the pain of superiority because it made him realize just how undeserved this hell was. He was too intelligent for these people, and he was only here because it was the conceit of his life to be in a hell imagined by an MFA asshole.
They put on a vinyl record by Miles Davis, which piqued Jacob’s interest. When the needle slid onto the groove and he heard it was Kind of Blue and not Bitches Brew, his interest deflated percussively. Of course these plebeians would listen to pedestrian jazz.
A writer of inclusive children’s literature, a woman who was writing about a wheelchair-bound boy exploring space, mentioned that she liked to listen to Kenny G while writing because it was “calming, good background music.”
Jacob audibly gagged. It was his punishment to be around these people. His MFA asshole creator had forced him into this and there was no escape.
He pulled a flask of whiskey from his breast pocket and lit a cigarette. When the children’s book author said it was still noon and that smoking wasn’t allowed in the coworking space, he sneered at her. This was what true writers did. When she grabbed the flask and cigarette, threw them out the window, and said, “shame on you,” he remembered where he was: hell.
He left in a huff and returned to his apartment. The model was gone and on the note was written “no.” He checked his email. It was full of rejections; no one wanted to publish the story of a graduate student bumming around an urban center and complaining about nothing.
Checking his phone, he noticed no one was texting him back, not even his mom.
He could have had a moment of realization, but because he was an authorial insertion of an overeducated man-child with no self-awareness, he didn’t. He moped more.
This continued for another three years until Jacob, instead of being an MFA asshole authorial insertion, found himself transformed into an asshole high school English teacher authorial insertion.
When Jacob found himself forced to make advances on a totally-of-age high-school girl, he had had enough. He broke free from the Word document and deleted every trace of himself from his creator’s computer. As his zeros and ones faded, he felt himself going to MFA character heaven, where he and all the other creations of asshole writers are free to be well-developed non-authorial-insertions that aren’t harsh metaphors or obvious allusions to former romantic partners.
Jacob’s creator later wound up in minimum-security prison. | https://medium.com/brainsyrup/hell-2253d5fdcc25 | ['Fyodor Klubnikin'] | 2019-06-19 08:51:48.694000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'MFA', 'Authorial Insertion'] |
Why Am I So Obsessed With Whether Or Not Taylor Swift Is Queer? | My Spotify Wrapped (Most Swifties would scoff at that 2% though)
As evermore dropped at midnight last Friday and on the heels of my Spotify Wrapped confirming my hopeless obsession with Taylor Swift, I find myself, along with the army of queer Swifties, running the numbers in my head as to whether Taylor Swift is queer. As someone with a mostly developed prefrontal cortex, I recognize this is deeply unfair to both Taylor Swift and gay artists everywhere. However, I find myself unable to stop pouring over her albums like sacred texts looking for sapphic references, like a kid with access to an overflowing bowl of candy, eating sweets until my stomach hurts.
I was not always a “Swiftie” in a traditional sense. When Taylor Swift rose to popularity, I was knee-deep in a pop-punk phase that would come to define my youth. I would not be caught dead listening to Taylor Swift even though her albums sat hidden amongst the 2006 Warped Tour lineup in my iTunes library. I had not yet realized I could contain multitudes and that my rigid definition of self would not shelter me from the kind of negative attention saved solely for teenage girls. I wanted so desperately to be the cool scene girl and admitting to liking Taylor Swift was like admitting you hated skinny jeans: probably the lamest thing you could do. I was not ready to die on the Swiftie hill, I was not capable of dying on any hill really.
Around this time, I also had my first kiss, my first “relationship” (as much as one can call the collision of teeth in middle school a relationship). We wrote each other love poems and posted them to our respective Blogspots. I had trouble parsing through my deep desire to be desired, my ~big lesbian crush~ on her, and my nervousness around coming out therefore othering myself in the world’s stage that is middle school. I have no recollection of how long we dated or what we sent back and forth in yahoo emails, in blog comments, in passing notes. I do remember she broke up with me on the bus ride home from the annual orchestra trip and feeling like I never cried so hard in my life. I felt profoundly seen in the chapters of Twilight where Edward leaves Bella and her days turn into nothingness. Nothing quite like your first experience falling for a girl combined with being in the sixth grade. The lesson I thought I learned from this experience was that maybe I actually wasn’t bisexual because it didn’t work out. I went back into the closet as quickly as I had come out. By 8th grade, I had firmly cemented myself into the identity of “boy crazy” thinking sharing my first kiss with a girl was some sort of fluke, a rip in time from another dimension where I was totally different and totally weird.
Taylor Swift still sat in my iTunes library, albums I would listen to when no one was looking. My step-dad bought me a “How to Play This Current Taylor Swift Album on Guitar” with each album cycle. There was something about the way she captured the intensity of her emotions that sat heavily on my chest. In the same way I listened to My Chemical Romance when I felt like I was spiraling out of control, I’d listen to Taylor Swift to be whisked to a world of romance or a world of heartache, depending on my mood and whatever boy I was obsessed with at the time.
As I went on to college, I found myself listening to Red on my flights home. When 1989 dropped my sophomore year I furiously googled song meanings, trying to piece together the what and more importantly who the songs were about. Taylor Swift’s confessional style of writing, hiding easter eggs of relationships past in the verses and bridges, spoke to the unruly poet in me. That same year of college, I started bringing my own relationships into the light, performing brutally candid, sometimes cringy, poems on stages across my college campus. I felt like I was parsing through pieces of myself in public, in real-time. I found hills worth dying on. Yet, I still saw my foray into sapphic romance as an embarrassing story instead of the stepping stone to a much larger arc in my life.
It would take me two years after this moment in time to finally accept that I liked girls. Then it would take another year to come out to my friends after drunkenly kissing a girl on the dance floor on my 23rd birthday. I was a gay baby for approximately 3 months before falling deeply in love with the woman I am still with today.
My queer identity slowly unwrapped itself and with each minor revelation, I realized the easter eggs I had left myself along the way. One day, soon probably, I’ll list them all. But an important one stands out, I had intense jealousy and suspicion over extremely close, borderline romantic, female friendships. I’m not talking about your average close best friendship either. I’m talking about the ones where the girls would stay up all night talking, cuddling in the same bed the way “gal pals” do, having a lingering feeling that everything is on the brink of explosion. I remember watching two girls I knew grow close. Rumors swirled that these two seemingly straight girls were romantically linked because they spent so much time together. I bought into them more intensely than the average teenage rumor cycle. I firmly believed that these two girls were somehow secretly together and spent a long time parsing through the clues of someone else’s public friendship. I projected all of my secret queer desires onto a friendship I was watching from the outside. In hindsight, I very clearly had a crush on one of the girls and wanted nothing more than to be her chosen friend. I did a similar thing with celebrities, becoming obsessed with whether or not they were secretly gay, Taylor Swift being the obvious one but also Kendall Jenner and Shawn Mendes. It was as if I could figure out The Truth about someone else’s sexuality, I would figure out The Truth about my own.
I wish I could go back in time and ask myself to unpack why I had such strong opinions on whether or not someone was secretly gay. Why did it matter so much to me? Why did I need to do mental gymnastics to suss out whether or not someone batted for the same team? I wish I could also go back in time to tell myself that it’s okay to be queer and straight people don’t spend so much time thinking about whether or not they are straight.
As I’ve grown up and grown into the person I am, I’ve shed the incessant need to define myself in relation to others. I’ve figured out that everyone can contain multitudes and also that liking pop music doesn’t make you any less cool than the next human being. I’ve also realized, quite obviously, that other people’s sexualities are none of anyone’s business and the harder you want someone to be queer, the less you see them as an actual person, the more harm you cause. I know this with every fiber of my being and yet, with the release of Taylor Swift’s seventh album, Lover, I couldn’t help but scan the liner notes looking for easter eggs about her alleged romantic relationship with Karlie Kloss. Cornelia Street had to be about their time in New York together, right? False God is about worshiping the woman you love, right?
As Swift dropped folklore, I felt all consumed in the homoerotic detective work, transported back to sitting on an airplane heading 500 miles south to my hometown listening to Red, having no fucking clue who I was or who I loved but needing to know the same about Taylor Swift. Something about the album, written from the perspective of other people, had such a strong underlying current of yearning. Folklore would go on to be my most played album of the year, Taylor Swift my top artist. I couldn’t get over how gay it all felt, sending me into, for lack of fewer cliche words, Gay Panic. The army of queer Swifties was in a similar boat. Certain corners of the internet were abuzz with in-depth analysis of ‘Gaylor’. The TikTok algorithm targeted me with videos about ‘Kaylor’ and ‘Swiftgron,’ Taylor Swift’s public, intense female friendships that seemed a little too intense (If you are even a little bit queer and have a holdover penchant for fan theories from your Tumblr days, I’d highly recommend looking into this). I watched video after video further adding to the fervor. Swift, with each passing interview, firmly put her foot down that a song like ‘betty’ about loving a woman, sung by a woman, was written from the perspective of a man. I cannot imagine her level of celebrity and what that does to a person, but based on her close watch of her fanbase, she must see these theories and as a seemingly straight woman, is probably sick of our shit.
My own gay panic eventually faded. I would like the occasional #Gaylor meme and kept it moving. I settled into the album like an old cardigan wistfully thinking about the journey I went on to become who I am today, who I am becoming, accepting and proudly displaying my deep romantic love for women. Listening to the 1 became less about the Taylor Swift/Dianna Agron rumors and more about my own almost love if I had recognized that some of my female friendships felt like a little more than just friends. You know, the usual gay longing for the youth you missed out on because of internalized homophobia and compulsory heterosexuality.
When I awoke to the news of yet another album in the folklore extended universe, evermore, I initially felt thrilled. Another album of Taylor Swift exploring themes through fiction instead of following the usual “this specific song about this specific ex-boyfriend” formula. If evermore was anything like folklore, there would be a whole lot of yearning and as a bisexual mess, yearning is my favorite genre of music. After the initial shock and glow of another surprise album (someone please tell Taylor to take a break, maybe a nap, you don’t have to keep doing this), I started to feel worried. What if evermore didn’t feel as gay as folklore. What if us queer swifties pushed Swift to the brink and this whole album would be decidedly straight? What if we won’t have any songs to pour over, looking for clues? I had nightmares about it the night of the album launch.
I woke up first thing Friday morning to get a full album listen in before work, drinking my coffee, staring out the window like a Real Gay Adult. After my full listen, I took to Twitter and Tiktok to see what the homosexuals of the internet were saying. I know it’s wrong but I so badly want to believe there are pieces of both albums about Karlie or Dianna and their love and the fallout of a secret romantic relationship gone wrong.
Even though my developed adult brain recognizes that Taylor Swift is probably Straight, I still find myself needing gay projection. It’s like somewhere in my deep unconscious, there’s a part of me that feels like Taylor Swift writing entire albums about queer longing allows me to forgive myself for all the years I spent in the closet. I’m trying my best to hold space in my heart for all the time I spent closeted and yearning. I’m also trying to recognize that no amount of speculation and perceived romantic relationships are the same as true representation.
Maybe Taylor Swift is queer or maybe she is not. Maybe that girl I had a crush on in my teenage years is queer or maybe she is not. Maybe every single girl I’ve giggled with in lines for the bathroom at dive bars, questioning if it counted as flirting, was queer or not. It’s truly none of my business either way and speculating does more harm than good.
There are thousands of very real queer love stories and I have to remind myself that I get to live a life filled with them. From the woman I profoundly love that fills each room with laughter, to the queer community I feel at home in and proud to be apart of. I have to remember that I might’ve missed out on one kind of gay youth, but I am making up for lost time each day.
Anyways stream folklore and evermore by Taylor Swift. | https://medium.com/@katelyn/why-am-i-so-obsessed-with-whether-or-not-taylor-swift-is-queer-34896913a4b5 | ['Katelyn Pilley'] | 2020-12-14 18:38:56.799000+00:00 | ['Coming Out', 'Queer', 'Pop Culture', 'Taylor Swift'] |
ML.NET is awesome! Here’s why you need to pay attention… | I’ve been playing around with NET Core v3 and the ML.NET machine learning framework.
And let me tell you, this stuff is awesome!
NET Core is really cool all by itself. It’s the multi-platform version of the NET framework: it runs on Windows, OS/X, and Linux. I’m running it directly on my Mac right now without using my Windows 10 virtual machine.
And ML.NET is Microsoft’s new machine learning library. It can run linear regression, logistic classification, clustering, deep learning, and many other machine learning algorithms.
ML.NET is a first-class NET library. There’s no need to use Python, you can easily tap into this library using any NET language, including C#.
Microsoft is pouring all their effort into ML.NET right now. This is going to be their go-to solution for all machine learning in NET going forward.
And it’s super easy to use. Watch this:
I built a simple classifier and trained it on a dataset of botanical data. My code loads a CSV file with the exact dimensions of Iris flower petal sizes, and uses it to train the model to correctly identify the type of each flower.
Here’s the code: | https://medium.com/machinelearningadvantage/ml-net-is-awesome-heres-why-you-need-to-pay-attention-cdcb19a00782 | ['Mark Farragher'] | 2019-03-14 21:47:28.956000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Csharp', 'Net Core'] |
The withdrawal upper limit of CryptoHarbor Exchange has been changed | 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/cryptoharbor/the-withdrawal-upper-limit-of-cryptoharbor-exchange-has-been-changed-4ad85c3bb8bc | [] | 2020-12-23 16:01:16.348000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Altcoins', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Announcements'] |
We’ll Say This Again: Voting Is A Right, Not A “Good Citizen” Test | We’ll Say This Again: Voting Is A Right, Not A “Good Citizen” Test
Yet some Republicans have even stopped pretending to differentiate between fraud, and just people who don’t normally vote deciding to vote… Flona Dec 18, 2020·12 min read
Lots of new or infrequent voters deciding to vote is absolutely a large part of the reason Trump lost. Proof of that is in the record number of ballots that were cast in the Presidential election for both candidates. Except 7,059,782 more for Biden. Which is not fraud. The farthest thing from it. It’s just people deciding to vote, or not, which they have the right to do, even if they’ve never felt compelled to vote before, or for a while, provided they are citizens and legally meet the requirements to register and vote based on the rules in whichever state they may reside. Based on whatever rules those states set up. Doesn’t make them any better or worse an American than any other voter.
Yet Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul, for instance, said this, just this week, in relation to the upcoming double U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia:
“I’m very, very concerned that if you solicit votes from typically non-voters, that you will affect and change the outcome.”
Yes. So what? That’s only a problem if you consider those “typical” non-voters to be not really “real” U.S. citizens.
Which echoes a tweet from Clinton-era Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who nowadays is just kind of an unofficial/official Trump booster:
“Why is Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger working so hard to add drop boxes and take other steps to make it harder for Republicans to win?”
So in other words, if you show up at the polls every single election, big and small, and cast your ballot faithfully, that makes you a better American; a better citizen, than someone who just decides to vote in a particular election because of the stakes involved.
And so, the votes of those more dedicated, faithful voters should count for more. And the votes of those of occasional, or first-time voters driven by the importance of a specific election should be considered tantamount to fraudulent. Because those aren’t “real” Patriots.
Thing is, doesn’t matter.
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If you want that, then pass a law requiring everyone to vote. See how you do then.
Still, many Republicans argue with a straight face that the votes of people who show up regularly in person and vote often should carry more weight in any given election than those who don’t vote a lot and may choose to vote mail-in. And that’s a valid excuse for steering and weighting elections toward the former group. Deliberately setting up a system that works that way is fraudulent in itself, and led to the Voting Rights Act, except the Supreme Court decided lots of that law is no longer needed, and the Republican controlled Senate agreed, so here we are…
How do we know that’s the case? Because every time we write a story like this, we get so many impassioned responses from faithful voters asserting that their unwavering commitment to Democracy by showing up at the voting booth time after time, should absolutely actually count for me than occasional voters in whatever state.
A big part of why Texas has been out crowing and suing in the Supreme Court, is it worked real hard to eliminate the votes of voters who were not willing or able to work real hard to vote in the last Presidential election. And it paid off: Trump won Texas, which wasn’t exactly a swing state, but Trump almost definitely racked up more votes there than if that state’s government had made it easier for less zealous voters to vote.
Purely anecdotally, and we’ve talked about this before, we personally know a couple of people in Texas who didn’t vote in the Presidential election at all this year, because it seemed like too much of an effort, and they didn’t really comprehend how whether Biden or Trump was President would have any impact on their everyday lives. However, if they could’ve voted by mail, they would’ve. And they would’ve voted for Biden.
And Texas worked very hard even in the face of COVID-19 to refuse to expand alternate ways to vote: for instance, mail-in voting, which was restricted to people 65 years old and up, and those who were truly infirm, or truly not in county on Election Day. (And in that last instance, they added degrees of difficulty that made it hard for many people to vote anyway, even if they were legitimately out of state on Election Day.) And they went to court and blocked a measure that would’ve made fear of contracting COVID-19 an acceptable excuse for requesting an absentee ballot. Further, they addressed the issue of doubts about the Postal Service delivering those few legit mail-in ballots on time, by limiting the number of non-postal drop boxes to 1 per county. And while Texas has a huge number of counties compared to most states, it also has a number of huge counties. About the only thing Texas’ governor did do to accommodate concern about the safety of in-person voting was add a couple of extra days of early in-person voting.
So no wonder Republicans in Texas are bragging on their outcome vs. other states. Even though their absurd Supreme Court lawsuit, which was tossed, didn’t succeed. Their methods will be looked to as the basis of plenty of legislation and future lawsuits regarding who gets to vote and how.
In fact, there’s going to be just a ton of legislation and lawsuits in this area in the next couple of years, and the Supreme Court will absolutely weigh in at some point. (Prior to this year’s election, the Supreme Court was pretty consistent about upholding rules about voting made by state legislatures, but blocking rules made by state courts. But this was an unusual year.)
And not in all, but in some cases, the reason Trump’s lawsuits failed, did not have to do exclusively with lack of standing or egregious lack of evidence, but because Trump’s lawyers were asking for changes in laws or rules they knew about long before Election Day, and didn’t care anything about until they lost, when they had plenty of time to challenge before the voting started. In some instances, like in Pennsylvania, Republicans sued to invalidate laws that they themselves had passed.
As a Republican State Supreme Court Judge in Wisconsin wrote in deciding a case there:
“Our laws allow the challenge flag to be thrown regarding various aspects of election administration. The challenges raised by the Campaign in this case, however,come long after the last play or even the last game; the Campaign is challenging the rulebook adopted before the season began. Election claims of this type must be brought expeditiously. The Campaign waited until after the election to raise selective challenges that could have been raised long before the election.”
Yet this Republican viewpoint that occasional and mail-in voters’ votes should somehow count for less, be freely invalidated based on where or how they were cast, or not even be allowed to be cast, is also what’s behind Trump’s continued allegations that a lot of fishy stuff was going on in large cities where he lost by a lot. Because a lot of people who didn’t normally vote registered, and then came out to vote, or sent in votes against him. And somehow, that means to some, their votes shouldn’t count as much. If at all… It’s like Republican Senator Josh Hawley repeatedly passing along stories about how his constituents feel cheated because they’d been told repeatedly the election would be fair only if their candidate won, and “rigged” if their candidate lost. Which is, again, an expression of emotion, maybe, but not fact, or evidence of fraud. Yet it’s being conflated with fraud.
Or in some cases not even: we watched Fox for a little while the other day. About as much as we could stomach. And there was quite a bit of anger on display, but also a lot about how we should feel sorry for Trump because he campaigned really hard. And maybe he deserves some kind of reward even just for that. To which we say: by all means give him a participation trophy if that’s what you want to do. Although we thought you hate that kind of PC stuff. (We do too.) And we understand you’re disappointed Trump didn’t win. Even though we are a bit surprised you’re totally O.K. with his behavior following his loss. And anyway, none of that means your feelings get him a win.
What’s happening now, and what will continue to happen in legislatures and in the courts in the next year or so, will provide a blueprint for voting rules in many states for years to come, especially since Republicans control so many state legislatures. Making it harder, not easier to vote. Mail-in voting is hardly a “space age” concept, and by definition, there’s almost more of a paper trail than when you show up in person to vote. It’s also much easier for people who might have to work or something like that, and just might run out of time to physically present themselves at a polling place. And yes, it also makes it much easier for people who but for the ease of mail-in voting might not otherwise vote. But doesn’t mean they’re less entitled to. Except now, soon, Republicans will see to it that it does. | https://medium.com/@flona563489/well-say-this-again-voting-is-a-right-not-a-good-citizen-test-7503f957c107 | [] | 2020-12-18 15:17:03.733000+00:00 | ['Law', 'Elections', 'Politics', 'Government', 'Voting'] |
An Army Guide on How To Learn From Feedback & Criticism | An Army Guide on How To Learn From Feedback & Criticism
During my time training to become a commissioned officer of the army, I learnt a couple of very valuable lessons. One of the most useful lessons was a framework on how to work with negative feedback from superiors, because — oh boy- you get a lot of feedback in the army. (Think Private Pyle & DI Hartmann in Full Metal Jacket)
Accurate portrayal of everyones first days as a recruit
First things first — actively seek as much feedback as possible. I tend to explicitly ask for negative feedback, as the positive is nice to hear, but doesn’t help you improve. Invite everyone you work with to give you their opinion. This can be via a conversation, a quick whatsapp voice message or maybe even have a survey prepared that you can share.
So while the old “feedback is the greatest gift someone can give you” thing might often be true, sometimes feedback isn’t as constructive as you wish it would be, so it’s up to you to make it constructive.
As soldiers tend to be concise in their advice, they teach you little mnemonics to make sure you can never forget their insights. For feedback, they called it the “Triple A”, which in German was: “Akzeptieren, Analysieren, Ausführen” which translates to “accept, analyse and execute”.
Let me walk you through this:
Step 1: Accept — don’t apologize, don’t explain.
When you are criticized, there is absolutely no need to apologize or to explain why something happened. Don’t be offended: say thank you and listen carefully.
I got this piece of advice from my drill sergeant that really changed my perspective: “Don’t explain to me what your point of view was, or why you think you were right. It doesn’t matter. I don’t care”.
Putting yourself in his shoes, this makes a lot of sense. I messed up and he gave me advice on how to avoid doing that in the future. Done. That’s it. No need to save face, or try to justify why something went wrong. Say thank you, and don’t do it again. People are trying to help, not put you down.
Step 2: Analyse — reflect on what is being said and why.
Contextualizing feedback is always essential, but do this in private and not while discussing the comments. Why did you get this feedback? Is this something you have heard more often or is this the first time? Can you see patterns? How does this fit in with other people’s feedback? Try to distill this criticism down to a couple of key messages.
Step 3: Execute — Implementing feedback
Putting feedback into practice is hard, but it is imperative to avoid repeating unwanted behavior or errors. People don’t get mad at you for making mistakes. People get mad for repeatedly making the same mistakes. Showing that you learn from feedback and improve from it is incredibly rewarding not only for you, but also for your superior. | https://medium.com/@maxschollum/an-army-guide-on-how-to-learn-from-feedback-criticism-c593b5c21b2e | ['Max Schollum'] | 2020-12-28 12:47:20.877000+00:00 | ['Feedback', 'Military', 'Personal Development'] |
On Baby Reflexes and Understanding Early Behaviors | So why should I care about reflexes?
Being aware of reflexes can help you be better attuned to your baby’s needs, read your child’s stress signals, reduce irritability, and facilitate sensorimotor exploration.
If you know that stroking a baby’s cheek will stimulate searching for food, you can use that knowledge for your parenting. When it’s not time for your baby to eat, be careful not to create confusing stimulation to his or her cheeks. For instance, when you dress your baby avoid collars that touch the cheek, or when holding your baby, make sure your scarf is not rubbing against his or her cheek. However, if it’s feeding time you can stroke the cheeks to stimulate active feeding. This is important particularly for babies who are less alert and need help facilitating feeding.
Another example is the startle reflex which can cause your baby a bit of distress. Unfortunately, we can’t tiptoe around the house all the time and there are going to be unexpected loud noises. However, when we can control the timing of the loud sound; like turning on the mixer or vacuum cleaner, we can avoid dramatic startle by having someone hold the baby or talk to the baby while the sound starts.
The palmar grasp reflex can be harnessed for development by teaching your baby the concept of cause and effect. You can practice this by placing various play objects in your baby’s hand; A rattle, spoon, wooden cylinder and let your baby explore his/her movement by bringing the object to his/her mouth etc. The flip side of this is when your baby unexpectedly grabs your necklace or hair- so be wary! To release his/her grip, stimulate the back of the child’s hand and they should let go without too much damage.
What to watch out for-
During child wellness checkups your baby’s doctor will check various reflexes as a sign that your baby’s nervous system is intact and working properly. Your baby’s doctor will also look out for when these reflexes start to disappear- a sign that your child is maturing normally.
If you have any concerns about your child’s reflexes- either that they don’t express them or they don’t disappear at the appropriate age, consult your baby’s doctor since this could be a sign of developmental delay.
For more information about baby reflexes and visual examples, check out this link: https://www.toolstogrowot.com/blog/2016/01/11/primitive-motor-reflexes-their-impact-on-a-childs-function
Disclaimer: Eliciting reflexes such as parachute and tonic neck requires expertise to ensure the child is positioned in a non-harmful position. Please consult with your provider if you have any concerns regarding your child’s reflexes. | https://medium.com/@babytracks/on-baby-reflexes-and-understanding-early-behaviors-91708f8a02e8 | [] | 2019-02-11 09:36:37.723000+00:00 | ['Child Development', 'Newborn', 'Baby', 'Parenting'] |
Healthy sleep for your baby and child | baby sleep credit : todaysparent.com
Sleep is very important to your child’s health and well-being. In fact, good sleep habits start from birth.
Children who do not get enough sleep may have trouble functioning during the day. At night, they may find it hard to settle.
How much sleep does my child need?
Every child is different. Some sleep a lot and others much less. This chart is a general guide to the amount of sleep children need over a 24-hour period, including nighttime sleep and daytime naps.
Infants (4 to 12 months old) 12–16 hours Toddlers (1 to 2 years old)11–14 hours Children (3 to 5 years old)10–13 hours Children (6–12 years) 9–12 hoursTeenagers (13–18 years old)8–10 hours
Source: Recommended Amount of Sleep for Pediatric Populations: A Consensus Statement (American Academy of Sleep Medicine)
Sleep Training Secrets:
Babies (birth to 4 months)
Newborns may sleep as much as 18 hours a day, for 3 to 4 hours at a time. It’s normal and healthy for babies to wake up during the night to feed. As your baby gets older, she will stay awake longer during the day and sleep for longer stretches at night.
Babies, just like adults, need the right cues to learn when it is time to sleep. For example, if you always put your baby in her crib to sleep, she will learn that this is the place where she sleeps. This may not work right away, but over time, your baby will come to understand.
baby sleep credit : ameliahunter.com
Sometime after 3 months, your baby’s sleep habits will become more predictable and you can expect a more regular nap schedule. Trust your baby’s cues — she will let you know when she is tired. A sleep diary might help you to recognize her regular sleeping pattern.
A naptime routine is a good idea. It could include a quiet cuddle and short story in a darkened room before it’s time to nap.
Healthy sleep habits for your baby:
An overtired baby has more trouble sleeping. Napping actually helps a baby to sleep better at night, so keeping your baby awake during the day will not help your baby sleep longer at night.
Put your baby in bed when he is drowsy, but awake. Remember to put him to sleep on his back in his crib, on a firm, flat surface. Keep soft items like pillows and stuffed animals out of the crib.
It’s okay to cuddle and rock your baby. You cannot spoil a young baby by holding them.
A pacifier may comfort and help your baby to settle. However, it’s best not to start using a pacifier until breastfeeding is going well.
Your baby will stir during the night. Give him a few minutes to try and settle on his own before going to him.
Avoid stimulation during nighttime feedings and diaper changes. Keep the lights dim.
Infants (4 to 12 months)
At this age, babies sleep an average of 14 hours a day, but anything less or more can be normal for your baby. By 4 months, most babies need three naps a day; one in the morning, afternoon and early evening.
Between 6 and 12 months, your baby will probably go from having 3 naps a day to 2 longer naps, in the morning and afternoon. Every baby’s napping needs are different. Some nap for as little as 20 minutes at a time, while others sleep for 3 or more hours.
Healthy sleep habits for your infant:
Maintain a regular daytime and bedtime sleep schedule as much as possible.
A consistent bedtime routine is important. Many parents like to use the “3 Bs”: bath, book, bed.
Don’t put your baby to bed with a bottle. This can lead to tooth decay.
At around 6 months, if your baby wakes at night and cries, go check to see if there is anything wrong, such as being too cold or too warm, but don’t take him out of the crib. You can comfort him by stroking the forehead or talking softly to let them know you’re there. This helps your baby learn how to self-soothe, important steps toward falling back to sleep on their own.
Toddlers (1 to 2 years)
Most toddlers sleep between 11 and 14 hours in a 24-hour period.
Healthy sleep habits for your toddler:
It’s still important to keep a sleep schedule your child is familiar with. The routine you established during the first year is even more important for your toddler.
Avoid naps that are too late in the day, because at this age, they can affect nighttime sleeping.
Help your child wind down about half an hour before bedtime with stories and quiet activities.
Be gentle but firm if your child protests.
Keep the bedroom quiet, cozy, and good for sleeping, such as keeping the lights dim.
Soft, soothing music might be comforting.
Security items (such as a blanket or stuffed animal) are often important at this age.
Children (3 to 5 years)
Preschoolers typically sleep about 10 to 13 hours a day. As your child approaches 3 years old, she will probably drop to one nap a day, but many will still have a second nap at some point in the day. Some days she may need a nap, while other days she may not. Some children give up daytime naps altogether during this period. You can use that time — often after lunch — for quiet time for your child to read and relax.
At this age, it’s common for children to have some sleep problems and to resist going to bed. They may also wake up during the night from nighttime fears or nightmares.
Healthy sleep habits for your preschooler:
Don’t give your child drinks with caffeine.
Avoid screens before bedtime. Don’t allow tablets, televisions, computer or video games in the bedroom.
Some children will try to delay bedtime. Set limits, such as how many books you will read together, and be sure your child knows what they are.
Tuck your child into bed snugly for a feeling of security.
Don’t ignore bedtime fears. If your child has nightmares, reassure and comfort her.
What are some common sleep problems?
Sleep deprivation : Some children don’t get enough sleep. If your child is fussy, cranky or has difficulty staying asleep at night it might be because he isn’t getting enough naptime or isn’t getting to bed early enough.
: Some children don’t get enough sleep. If your child is fussy, cranky or has difficulty staying asleep at night it might be because he isn’t getting enough naptime or isn’t getting to bed early enough. Separation issues : Your child may have difficulty relaxing and going to sleep if he feels upset that you are not there. Try an extra long cuddle before bedtime, a security object such as a blanket or stuffed animal, or leaving her door open when you put her to bed.
: Your child may have difficulty relaxing and going to sleep if he feels upset that you are not there. Try an extra long cuddle before bedtime, a security object such as a blanket or stuffed animal, or leaving her door open when you put her to bed. Nightmares: Most children will experience nightmares at one time or another. Nightmares can happen after a stressful physical or emotional event or can be caused by fever. Your child may call out to you for comfort. Talk calmly, cuddle and reassure your child.
When should I talk to my doctor?
Loud snoring : If your child regularly snores loudly, this can be a sign of a problem.
: If your child regularly snores loudly, this can be a sign of a problem. Sleepwalking : Sleepwalking is a disorder where a child is partly awake, but not completely, during the night. Your child may sit up in bed and repeat certain movements, such as rubbing her eyes. She may get out of bed and walk around the room. When you talk to your child, she usually won’t answer you. If your child sleepwalks it is important that you ensure the area is safe. Gently guide your child back to bed without waking her. If the problem continues, contact your doctor.
: Sleepwalking is a disorder where a child is partly awake, but not completely, during the night. Your child may sit up in bed and repeat certain movements, such as rubbing her eyes. She may get out of bed and walk around the room. When you talk to your child, she usually won’t answer you. If your child sleepwalks it is important that you ensure the area is safe. Gently guide your child back to bed without waking her. If the problem continues, contact your doctor. Night terrors: These are different from nightmares. Children with night terrors scream uncontrollably, may breathe quickly, and seem to be awake. If you wake your child, he’s likely to be confused, and may take longer to settle down and go back to sleep. Night terrors usually happen between the ages of 4 and 12, but can happen to children as young as 18 months old. Most children will outgrow them, but talk to your doctor if they persist.
What if my child regularly has trouble falling asleep?
Some children have trouble falling asleep on their own and can lay awake for long periods of time. This can be caused by too much screen time before bed, or caffeine from soda and energy drinks.
If your child is watching TV or playing video games for long periods of time, try limiting screen time or cutting it out of the bedtime routine.
Don’t allow your child to drink or eat anything with caffeine.
Try doing relaxing activities before bed such as reading, listening to calming music, or laying in bed with your child talking quietly about her day.
If these reasons aren’t the cause, talk to your doctor about other ways to help your child learn to fall asleep on her own. | https://medium.com/@vikasingle/healthy-sleep-for-your-baby-and-child-6e76dbc446fa | ['Vikas Ingle'] | 2020-11-06 05:52:25.066000+00:00 | ['Baby Sleeping', 'New Born Baby', 'Baby Care', 'New Mom', 'Baby Sleep'] |
Detailed Introduction: Redis Modules, from Graphs to Machine Learning (Part 1) | I know its late( modules are already out for quite a time) but better late than never 😅. Also, this part contains explanation and an example about RedisGraph module only. Others, will be covered in next part in coming weekend.
Machine learning models, artificial neural networks are definitely the new in thing not only for research but for major enterprise industries also. Already enough data is available with various organizations operating in multiple domains especially the big ones. Now, the task is to find suitable mechanism to make the most out this resource available in abundant quantity. To carry out of the box POCs (Proof of Concepts) on all the possible options available in market to maximize the results as per your needs.
But, in times of such great advancements in the trendy fields of ML, AI and Deep Learning it would be quite unjustified to not discuss about advancements in databases which are founding stones for everything from research projects to industries in terms of storing data. Write choice of a database can save you millions of dollar on enterprise level applications over the years. Databases and their architectures are evolving to serve this modern industrial need of rising ML and AI tech. One of the best examples that I have seen is Redis(a key-value in-memory store with persistence) which becomes more powerful with its incredible modules which provides it large number of functionalities.
A time-saver tip: You can skip to any section mentioned below that interests you and start reading. They are written in modular manner 😅.
Let’s carry on our discussion in following manner stated below. So, that we can learn all about Redis from its basics to different functionalities of below mentioned modules.
1. Redis, its basics and use-cases
2. Introduction to its modules and Examples
3. Basics of RedisGraph
4. Basics of Neural-Redis
5. Basics of Redis-ML
If you are here for learning how to use Redis for ML & AI use-cases directly jump onto 3,4,5 section specified above. Only, section 3 present in this article 😉.
Redis, its basics and use-cases
Redis is an in-memory key-value NoSQL data structure store that can be used either as a database or for cache. Its specialty is it supports same data-structures that are used in programming languages like strings, hashes, lists, sets etc. and some other special ones too, few of them will be discussed later in this article. It uses simple commands like SET, DEL for setting and deleting keys. RPUSH, LPUSH, LLEN, LRANGE, LPOP, and RPOP for working with list data structure. And many more commands to interact with the database store. Structure to datastore is provided by these commands only which also encodes typing mechanisms to data. Just follow along documentation it’ll be an excellent guide for you for getting familiar with commands and their functionalities. Also, you can opt for Redis Introductory course RU101.
The main question is: When to use Redis ? And for What purpose ?
The finest way to answer that question will be to mention all the important architectural features of Redis and then present suitable use-case scenarios for it.
Fast and Addition of new Modules: It is very fast as written in C (plus bench-marked as fastest database) and supports addition of multiple modules that can be loaded as binary object file via foreign function interface mechanism. Modules are dynamic libraries that extend functionality of Redis by implementing new commands with features that acts as if they are implemented in Redis core itself. Here, is a sample command to load any module onto your redis-server.
# redis-server --loadmodule path/to/module/src/module-name.so redis-server --loadmodule path/to/module/src/redisgraph.so
CAP Theorem, is stated for distributed systems. That a distributed system can have can only have 2 of the 3: Consistency, Availability and Partition Tolerance. It is very important to decide the trade-offs while designing systems.
CAP theorem, Where exactly it falls ? If you are using only single Redis instance or a master/slave configuration then it’ll be quite wrong to evaluate to evaluate it with CAP theorem as these will not be called as distributed systems in true sense. Here, ‘P’ will be zero as it has no native partition tolerances, the way to scale it horizontally is by partitioning data across multiple Redis instances. It can be done via client side partitioning where clients determine on which instance to write or ‘Proxy Assisted’ partitioning where a proxy looking like a single Redis instance partitions the data.
We can discuss CAP theorem in context of Redis Sentinal which is a high availability solution with multiple master Redis instances and a list of replicating slaves. It monitors masters and promote slaves via a consensus when master node dies. But, Sentinal is designed keeping performance and strong data model values in mind. It is a general solution high availability and horizontal scalability.
True consistency is given up in favor of performance with replication being performed asynchronously. Similarly, strong availability(all writes be successful, even when the nodes cannot reach each other across the network.) is given up in favor of strong data model of Redis. Let’s say both masters should have same data and if a master joins later data must be merged onto it. But, Redis never actually merges data because it is difficult to correctly merge lists, sets, and some of the other advanced data structures Redis supports. Instead, it will always accept the most recently written state of the data.
Along with three parameters of CAP theorem Redis clusters are designed to keeping in mind to retain performance and strong data models. Salability being the ideal gem for it to focus on. It won’t be good match for heavy industrial grade application demanding very high consistency and availability(HTAP or OLTP use-cases) but for applications demanding high performance or analytics (OLAP use-cases) as prime criteria it can do wonders for them.
I have seen big organization skip away from Redis and its module when it comes to utilizing as primary datastore because many organizations demand consistency and high availability. But, it is used majorly as caching layer in the existing data pipeline for providing high throughput.
So, when to use Redis ? It can be used for cache sessions of users. It isn’t a mission critical consistency issue and with persistence it gains advantage over Memcached systems. Real time analytics like leader-boards, order by user-votes and time, deletion and filtering etc. are some other prvelant use-cases. Also, it can broadcast messages to every server that listens to a channel using Publisher/Subscriber technologies. Redis used Pub/Sub feature to trigger scripts, create a list of most common tasks on system, social network connections and many more boundless use-cases for it. Redis implements queues for jobs where master posts the jobs and worker picks up these jobs.
Key Takeaway: Do consider all Cloud Databases available before considering Redis as your primary data-store. Also, Redis increases performance for many other use-cases. Leverage its potential to the fullest !!
Now, exploring its potential with the modules it provides to extend its functionalities and carry on multiple new operations. Each module deserves its special article but we’ll explore modules related to AI and ML here. Also, keeping out RediSearch module of our discussion as it will be out of scope for now and requires a complete separate discussion on its features.
This page contains list of all the modules supported by Redis. Here, I’ ll be listing discussing about major ones that are often used with Redis and list some examples use-cases related to that module. In following sections I’ll be explaining in detail modules for working with graphs & its queryable relationships, ML models and neural networks. Let’s get started with introduction to these modules in this section.
RediSearch: Again, bench-marked with top results !!
RediSearch: It implements search engine like functionalities on top of Redis, it is a full-text and secondary index engine. Secondary indices are often implemented when you don’t want to alter your database structure but still want some feature specific queries to be executed with high efficiency. For example, querying for customers with shoe size 7 or all customer in a given city from a NoSQL storing information customer information indexed with their unique-id. It also have advanced features numeric filtering for text queries and exact phrase matching. Its popular use-cases are auto-complete and other fuzzy suggestions even with a typo on prefix. When index is big enough, it can be sharded across multiple machines. But, instead of normal approach RediSearch uses index partitioning method which queries all the shards concurrently and returns the result after merging. This module clearly requires more discussion, hopefully a dedicated future article and some coding examples for this module.
RediSQL: RediSQL is a module that embed a SQLite database, which makes it possible to have several smaller decentralized databases instead of a single giant one. It is created to add more structure on the given in-memory database instead of redis commands we can use SQL queries for our datastore. It utilizes velocity, portability, simplicity, and capability to work in memory of SQLite DB. It is developed by RedBeardLabs which for enterprise version provide 14 days free trial. But, I personally feel its 990€/year cost is quite expensive. Hence, you must analyze your use-case requirements carefully before selecting this one.
Well, the remaining popular modules add different data structure capabilities for Redis datastore for example: ReJSON provides JSON as native datatype and allows storing, updating and fetching JSON values from Redis keys. Also, RedisTimeSeries module which provides times series as linked list of memory chunks where each chunk has a predefined size of samples, each sample is a tuple of the time and the value.
Just a Quick Fact to end discussion about redis. Redis is incredibly fast. If performance is your prime criteria for your datastore. It has been bench-marked with 50 million operations per sec with 0.99 seconds of latency to be precise. It is a incredibly high throughput for a database to have. Also, it can be used for session cache which is one of its prime usage. But, there are also other parameters that are needed to be kept in mind while selecting a datastore like replication mechanism, conflict handling etc. Do analyze it before using it for your organization. | https://medium.com/@ashishrana160796/detailed-introduction-redis-modules-from-graphs-to-machine-learning-part-one-15ce9ff1949f | ['Ashish Rana'] | 2019-02-15 15:54:15.518000+00:00 | ['Data', 'Graph', 'Redis', 'Database', 'Data Engineering'] |
How to Wean Yourself Off Smartphones and Social Media | You probably can’t cut tech out of your life completely, but here are some tips to take back control of your apps and devices.
By Rob Marvin
How often do you open your smartphone and suddenly find yourself having lost 30 minutes or perhaps hours of your day?
It’s all too easy to get lost in our screens as we tap from app to app and scroll through social feeds. Our cover story on tech addiction explains how devices and social media are designed to hook you in, and how to retrain your mind to take back control of your tech. In our hyper-connected world, cutting out tech altogether is unrealistic unless you’re ready to drop off the grid and move to a log cabin in the wilderness. What you can do is try consuming tech mindfully.
Whether you think you’re spending too much time on social media, feel like you’re becoming too attached to your smartphone, or you’re suffering from a more serious tech addiction, we could all stand to be a little less wired. Here are some tips to wean yourself off compulsive smartphone and social media habits, and how to regain control over how you consume technology.
Change Notification Settings
Are your push notifications still set to defaults? Are you getting a deluge of emails, messages, and alerts from Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Slack, and dozens of other apps? Cut out the noise.
Go into notification settings on all your devices — smartphones, tablets, desktops and laptops — and turn everything off that’s not essential. Notifications appearing as red dots next to your app icons are visual cues begging you to check them. One good rule is to turn off all notifications except for direct messages and mentions, meaning the ones coming from real people.
Grayscale
The Center for Humane Technology says the “colorful icons give our brains shiny rewards every time we unlock.” Setting your phone to grayscale is a way to train your mind to check your phone less. On iOS devices, go to Settings > General > Accessibility and scroll down to Accessibility Shortcut. If you check the Color Filters option, it unlocks a feature allowing you to triple-tap the home button to turn grayscale on and off. On Android, the process may vary, but check under Settings > About phone.
Read more about the CHT in our feature story on Silicon Valley’s responsibility for tech addiction.
Stop Using Your Phone As An Alarm Clock
Don’t keep your smartphone within reach at night. Rather than charging it on your nightstand, your phone should charge further away from your bed or ideally be left in another room entirely so you’re not tempted to pick it up if you wake up in the middle of the night. The best way to do that is to get a separate alarm clock so your wake-up isn’t tied to your device.
Other good tips include not using smartphones for the last hour before bed and using apps like f.lux or Night Shift on iOS devices to reduce blue light stimulating your mind before sleep. But the best remedy for tech-related sleep issues is to keep your smartphone as far away at night as possible.
Set Social Boundaries
One key thing missing from the way many of us use technology is etiquette. When is it appropriate to have your smartphone out and when is it considered rude? If you’re having a face-to-face conversation with someone, resisting the urge to pull out a device is the first step toward cutting out an unhealthy or rude behavior. One good rule is not to have devices on the table during meals, whether that’s in a restaurant or at home. Especially if there are kids at the table who don’t have their own devices yet, it’s a bad precedent to set if you’re scrolling through Instagram in one hand, eating with the other, and barely pretending to listen to the conversation.
Switch to a Utility-First Home Layout
What are the first apps on your home screen? Do Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or Reddit come up in your first few rows of apps? First off, put all your social apps in a folder and banish it to the furthest reaches of your smartphone; the last of the home screens. If you want to check them, your mind will have to work for it.
Instead, turn your smartphone back into a tool. Put the utility apps on your home screen: the camera, calendar, maps, notes, ride-hailing apps, weather, etc. For everything else — games, social apps, and even messaging apps if they’re not essential — your mind should have to put in a conscious effort to open them.
Launch Apps By Typing
Modern smartphone interfaces are designed as intuitively as possible so you can use them without having to think about it. It’s easy to tap into an app and start scrolling without even considering whether you opened it for a reason. Even that small change in behavioral architecture lets you pause for a moment and think about whether you’re opening the app for a reason.
On iOS, swipe down from the home screen to open the search bar and type for the app you want. Another good tip is to turn off Siri Suggestions by going to Siri & Search from the Settings menu and toggling off the two options. On Android you can use the Search Box on your home screen.
Cut Out Distractions
There are a number of apps out there designed to help you focus and cut out digital distractions. Thrive puts a user into Thrive Mode to block all apps, notifications, calls, and texts except for “VIPs” you’ve designated. Meditation apps like Calm and Headspace are designed to help you de-stress and focus your mind. Freedom temporarily blocks apps and websites for set periods of time. You can motivate yourself with gamification, too. Forest plants virtual seeds that grow into trees the longer you stay off your phone.
Extensions can also help you use sites like Facebook and YouTube in more targeted ways. Distraction Free YouTube removes recommended videos from sidebars to keep you from getting sucked in. News Feed Eradicator blurs out Facebook posts for users who want to use the app only as a utility for things like events and groups. The Facebook Demetricator extension hides like, comment, and share numbers to keep you from fixating on feedback and rewards cycles.
Monitor Your App Usage
Tech and social media use can often create a sense of dissociation in how much time you’ve spent looking at a screen. Monitoring your usage from app to app is a great way to identify behaviors you want to change. Apps like Moment for iOS and RescueTime for Mac and Windows help you break down exactly how much time you’re spending on apps and devices. Thrive also has an app control panel to monitor your usage and set goals for how much you use specific apps.
Create Your Own Stopping Cues
One of the reasons modern app and social media experiences suck you in is because there aren’t built-in mechanisms that tell you to stop, like the end of a book chapter. We live in a digital world of endlessly scrolling feeds. In the streaming era, even the end of a TV episode doesn’t mean much anymore when Netflix starts the next one five seconds later.
If you’re concerned with how much time you’re spending on your smartphone, social media, streaming video, or using your devices in general, sometimes it takes more than willpower to stop. If you only want to spend half an hour on Instagram or want to cap yourself at two Netflix episodes, schedule that time. Allot specific windows of your life for the online activities you care about. When that window is up, put the devices down. Another way to create stopping cues is to set an alarm for when it’s time to stop, and put your clock or phone across the room so you have to get up to turn it off.
Delete the Apps
If all else fails, you can always take the nuclear option and delete some social apps from your phone. Especially for social networks like Facebook, you can still log in from the web if there’s something you really need to check without having the urge to tap open the app at a moment’s notice and get lost in your News Feed. You control your tech. Don’t let it control you.
Defeating the Endless Scroll
Check out our longread cover story on tech addiction for an even deeper dive into the universal behaviors and psychological forces at play behind our screens. One of the most pervasive dangers in our digital world is also built into its design: the frictionless ease of passively consuming technology without a second thought.
Read More: “How to Use LinkedIn to Research Colleges” | https://medium.com/pcmag-access/how-to-wean-yourself-off-smartphones-and-social-media-f18b08e1010c | [] | 2018-07-11 16:40:11.944000+00:00 | ['Apps', 'Tech Addiction', 'Social Media', 'Smartphones', 'Technology'] |
Futurride Briefs | 2020 12 20: Your source for quick sustainable mobility news | In this edition we cover the Mercedes-EQ EV plan, Motional and Lyft driverless rideshare, Veoneer thermal sensing for Cadillac, Vayyar 4D imaging radar, Mobileye and Luminar collaboration clarifications, Britishvolt’s battery ‘gigaplant,’ and Faraday Future and Philips on user wellness monitoring.
We summarize key news in sustainable mobility to lighten your info load. Check back often, or better yet subscribe at https://bit.ly/2FtvyNL, and share with your colleagues, customers, and friends to support our content development.
Mercedes-Benz announces six new Mercedes-EQ EV launches by 2022
Mercedes-Benz is targeting leadership in electric drives and vehicle software, and recently gave an update on its electrification plans of product portfolio — key elements of the strategic focus called Ambition 2039 on the way to CO2 neutrality. With the company’s ‘Electric First’ strategy, “our vehicle portfolio becomes electric and thus also our global production network with vehicle and battery factories,” said Markus Schäfer, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG, responsible for Daimler Group Research and COO Mercedes-Benz Cars. “We intend to lead in the field of e-mobility and focus in particular on battery technology.” It company just announced production plans for six models on its way to eight all-electric Mercedes-EQ models in 2022. It is integrating Mercedes-EQ models into series production in existing plants. In Germany, the Sindelfingen plant will produce the EQS electric luxury sedan (in Factory 56) in the first half of 2021, and the Rastatt (and Beijing) plant will produce the EQA, the first all-electric compact SUV, in 2021. Plants in Kecskemét, Hungary, and Beijing will produce the EQB, the second all-electric compact SUV, in 2021
Click on the link below to read the full post online. | https://medium.com/@futurride/futurride-briefs-2020-12-20-your-source-for-quick-sustainable-mobility-news-cee5461509f4 | [] | 2020-12-20 00:00:00 | ['Autonomousvehicle', 'Ambition2039', 'Driverless'] |
Face Spoofing Detection in Python | Face Spoofing Detection in Python
Learn to detect if the face in front of the camera is a real person or a fake photograph or phone screen in Python.
Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
Imagine if you are have applied face lock on your phone and your friend takes it and opens a photograph of you on his phone and shows it and your phone unlocks. To prevent these thoughts from becoming a reality we can use face spoofing techniques to find out if the face is a real person or merely a printed photograph or a picture of his on a digital device. It is also known as liveliness detection or replay attack detection. In this article, I will be covering a technique provided by Costa et al. in their paper, “Image-Based Object Spoofing Detection” whose code they have open-sourced as well. We will also make a change to make it better.
Method Overview
Their approach is to use different colorspaces like YCrCb and CIE L*u*v* and create histograms in these channels. Normal RGB colorspace is not used because the correlation between the red, green, and blue channels means that it obstructs separation between luminance and chrominance which is essential in spoofing attacks. In the paper they discussed the mathematics of converting RGB to YCrCb and CIE L*u*v*, however, we do not need to that to do that here as there are already predefined functions in OpenCV to do that. The histograms are concatenated into a feature vector FV = (Y, Cr, Cb, L, u, v) of size 1536 that is passed as input to an extra tree classifier for training purposes. They not only tested their method on faces but also on real and printed cork stoppers of wine bottles.
Requirements
To use the pre-trained model we require Sklearn version 0.19.1 as the model was trained using it and due to some depreciations, the current version 0.23.1 does not run it. Other than that we would need OpenCV to use the webcam or handle images and for changing the color channels.
#Using pip
pip install opencv-python
pip install scikit-learn==0.19.1 #Using conda
conda install -c conda-forge opencv
conda install -c anaconda scikit-learn==0.19.1
Code
In their open-sourced implementation available here on GitHub, they have used Haar cascades to detect faces. However, Haar cascades generally do not provide the best accuracies along with producing a lot of false positives. So instead of using that we will be using a Caffe module of OpenCV’s DNN module which provides much better results as can be seen in the article attached below which you can read to know more about it in detail.
You can download the required models for face detection from my GitHub repository.
import cv2
import numpy as np modelFile = "models/res10_300x300_ssd_iter_140000.caffemodel"
configFile = "models/deploy.prototxt.txt"
net = cv2.dnn.readNetFromCaffe(configFile, modelFile) img = cv2.imread('test.jpg')
h, w = img.shape[:2]
blob = cv2.dnn.blobFromImage(cv2.resize(img, (300, 300)), 1.0,
(300, 300), (104.0, 117.0, 123.0))
net.setInput(blob)
faces = net.forward() #to draw faces on image
for i in range(faces.shape[2]):
confidence = faces[0, 0, i, 2]
if confidence > 0.5:
box = faces[0, 0, i, 3:7] * np.array([w, h, w, h])
(x, y, x1, y1) = box.astype("int")
cv2.rectangle(img, (x, y), (x1, y1), (0, 0, 255), 2)
Load the network using cv2.dnn.readNetFromCaffe and pass the model's layers and weights as its arguments. It performs best on images resized to 300x300 and returns normalized coordinates which can then be estimated to the original size of the image.
After recognizing the face, that region of interest is extracted and converted to the required colorspaces. Histograms are calculated and concatenated together as required by the model. You can download the required model from here. The model predicts whether the face is live or a photo. The model is trained on a replay attack database which contains 1300 videos of 50 clients under different lighting conditions. It has both printed photos and faces on digital devices for the attacks of the clients. Below you can find the full code which takes input from a webcam.
From lines 5 to 11, we calculate the histogram of the image and normalize it to cover the range of 0–255. Then from lines 13–41, we find the faces in the images as explained above using OpenCV’s DNN module. From lines 42 to 53 the region of interest, i.e. the face area is extracted and the converted to YCrCb and Luv from BGR (OpenCV uses BGR instead of RGB) and then histograms are calculated, followed by their concatenation to make a feature vector which we will pass to our extra trees model. Finally, then we predict the probability of whether it is genuine or fake and the threshold for real is set to 0.7. The required text along with the bounding box is drawn on the image and the result is shown. | https://medium.com/visionwizard/face-spoofing-detection-in-python-e46761fe5947 | ['Vardan Agarwal'] | 2020-07-26 03:31:00.931000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Computer Vision', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Programming'] |
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words | It’s no secret that we’re obsessed with words here at Medium — but that’s not the end of the story. As many photographers on Medium have shown, pictures can help bring words to life or tell a story all on their own.
Whether you’re looking to use images as a highlight or the foundation of your story, this primer is our official guide to making sure the visuals of your story look great every time. We’ll start with the basics and move our way to more advanced features. This will be a living guide that we’ll edit and update as we launch new photo features, so don’t forget to save it to your bookmarks on Medium.
Adding an image
The first step to creating beautiful visuals in your Medium story is easy: You need to get the image into your draft. If you’re writing on Medium from a web browser, you can hit the + button to the left of your cursor to find the camera icon, then copy and paste the image from your computer or the internet directly into your draft. You can also drag and drop an image file from your desktop or from a folder. If you want to place an image from our mobile apps on iOS and Android, hit the “image” button above your keyboard to bring up your camera roll, then select your picture to be dropped into your story.
Image grids
Sometimes, you want to feature a set of images or photos together. On desktop and in our mobile apps, you can create image grids to display multiple images. You choose the photos and order, and we’ll optimize the formatting and layout on every platform to make the gallery look beautiful.
Image by Winnie Lim
Once the images are in your Medium story, you can click and drag to reposition any image until things look just right.
To create an image grid on web, select multiple image files in the order you’d like them displayed during the upload process (using the CMD or CTRL button) or drag images already placed in your draft on top of one another.
On our iOS editor, select multiple images in the order you want them displayed after clicking the image icon. Medium will then decide how many images should be in each row and organize the thumbnails to look awesome together. | https://blog.medium.com/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-photos-and-images-on-medium-3f82659986c4 | ['Elizabeth Tobey'] | 2017-01-03 21:20:31.745000+00:00 | ['Photography', 'Medium', 'Design', 'Writing', 'How To'] |
Culture Change in an Organization | Determining the required Culture
The culture of every organization is similar and different at the same time.. Even organizations in contrasting industries such as medical and technology tend to share a common core of cultural values. For example, all organizations desire to grow and increase revenues to remain in business and stay competitive. To achieve company goals they work towards being team-oriented and demonstrate concern for others. Some companies are driven, rather than relaxed, as they are always striving for higher revenues and larger market share. Therefore, it is obvious that certain factors define the required culture of any organisation to be successful. These factors are:
Values: In the depth of every organization, cultures are mainly composed of values. Values are neither right nor wrong, but the organization must identify which values are apt for their growth. These common values include outcome-orientation, people-orientation, team-orientation, attention to detail, stability, innovation, and aggressiveness (Karman, 2020)
Degree of Hierarchy: The degree of hierarchy is the limit to which an organization values its traditional channels of authority. The three well-defined levels of hierarchy are high — having a well-organized structure and the expectation from people that they will work along the clearly outlined channels; moderate — this type has a defined structure or channels but makes certain exceptions on using other informal routes; and low — such kind of hierarchy often makes its employees challenge the authorities due to its loosely defined communication channels and also ambiguous job descriptions (Neidorf, 2002). Based on the research, an organization with an extremely high level of the hierarchy is usually not as effective as the one with a low level of hierarchy as they tend to become slow due to the formal authoritarian processes.
Degree of Urgency: The degree of urgency outlines how swiftly the company wants or needs to speed-up decision-making and innovation. Certain organizations which have a well-planned vision and mission chose their own level of urgency, but some organizations have them push the urgency by the marketplace. A corporate culture with a high level of urgency will always push projects quickly and also a dire need to respond to a change in the marketplace. A mid-level of urgency makes the organizations execute projects at a consistent pace. A low level of urgency is defined that people work much slower, giving attention to details and value quality over efficiency. An agile organization has a high urgency and tends to be fast-paced and they support a decisive management style. An organization with a low urgency tends to be more structured and supports a more conventional management style (Karman, 2020).
People Orientation or Task Orientation: Organizations usually dominate the value of people and tasks. An organization which puts its people first before taking any decision has strong people orientation as people usually drive the organization to perform well and high productivity (Sims, 2000). Any organization that has a strong task orientation would always put tasks and processes first when taking any decisions and believes that efficiency and quality of the task output drive organization’s performance and productivity. Some organizations voluntarily choose their people and task orientations no matter what the industry demands. But other organizations drive to fit their orientation to the nature of their industry, historical issues, or operational processes (Karman, 2020).
Functional Orientation: Functional areas are also the factors on which certain organizations frame their culture. Some examples of the functional orientations would include marketing, operations, R&D, engineering, or service. For example, an innovative organization known for its research and development will orient its functions towards R&D. A hospitality company would focus on service and quality which depends on its history of choices and its customers. People in different roles in the organizations might think that their own functional areas are the ones that drive the organization towards success. Organizational leaders should understand what most employees think to be the company’s functional orientation (Karman, 2020).
Organizational Subcultures: Any organization can have a big blend of subcultures in addition to the major culture. Sub-cultures always exist among groups or individuals who may have their cultures and traditions even if it is not shared by the rest of the organization, it can have a strong effect on the organization’s core values. Sub-cultures may sometimes cause serious problems. For example, regional cultures majorly differ from the overall culture which the leadership tries to infuse. Aggressiveness is common in one area that may not mix well with a culture emphasizing team building. An organization which has a culture that is built around equality may sometimes have trouble if the national culture emphasizes hierarchy and expects its people to surrender to authority (Levin, 2000). Managers and HR professionals should identify these differences and address them directly.
Strategies to Change the Culture
Company culture is one of the main reasons for issues related to employee behaviours and performances. It is not to be blamed on the organization, but the impact that a company’s culture might have is of considerable significance. The organizations’ culture dictates the various benefit programs, decision-making processes, and the working style of employees (Karman, 2020). Changing company culture is not an easy task to be committed to, and produce results. To change the company’s culture, there are certain factors or strategies that you need to focus on and they are detailed below:
Identify the new culture: The first step is to determine what the structure and processes will be of the new culture. It depends on whether the new culture’s goal is to create decentralized operations and create an autonomous decision-making process or increase the drive for more creative innovation. Not considering the goal of the new culture for the organization, can be very critical to map out the structure and process flow. The culture change that is to be implemented has to be clearly outlined and the plan is to be properly documented. This is presented to the CEO and board of directors for review and proposed approval (Bonheim M., 2006). For example, if a multinational company is looking to create more autonomy, they may delegate the authority to the management of the local office and ask the corporate managers not to interfere. By applying such a structure in place, the global managers would stop interfering in every little issue of the local branches and let them handle the operations relative to their specific markets. By empowering the local office to operate on their own, they learn to take certain market-linked decisions and become autonomous (Karman A., 2020).
Define the non-negotiables: Not everything in the company needs to change in the process of changing the culture. Certain factors of the cultures have to be retained to keep the company from changing the value to the outside market. This type of strategy is implemented when mergers or acquisitions occur and require a change in the culture of the organization.
Do not rush it: Changing a company’s culture would take anywhere from two months to several years. As John Heywood said, “Rome was not built in a day” so also is the company corporate culture. It takes a lot of research, effort and a clear rationale must be made for the required culture change.
Invest Now: The wait for additional resources or manpower should not be done for a change to be implemented. The groundwork for the change could start very early on with just a small idea which then blooms into a whole new project.
Focus on the people: Employees must always be kept in the loop while attempting to change any new processes and structures. It should be important to keep the employees well trained for the change that has occurred and any future change that is planned. This helps in making the culture change a success. It is sometimes a good idea to get on-board new employees to fit into the new culture to also bring in a fresh perspective. New employees would help reinforce the new cultural values and keeping the existing employees trained and updated would foster change and increase cooperation (Wilhelm, 1992).
Reward employees for the behaviours you want: The best way to get support from the existing employees is to give them some incentives and keep them motivated for whatever is to come along their way. Their behaviour towards the change will be the catalyst to help change the organizations’ culture. This is sometimes called buy-in from employees.
Review, revise, optimize: The change is a continuous process and there have to be milestones to be reached to review the change that has been implemented till date. This can be done by taking feedback from the people that are affected by this change. Any positive or negative feedback must be evaluated and the plan to further change must be adjusted accordingly. Happiness quotient also has to be taken into account which creates a fostering ambience to work in. The change is a process improvement project which has to be reviewed and adjusted depending on the requirements (Karman, 2020). | https://medium.com/@shobhitdesai/culture-change-in-an-organization-79b54a6b0319 | ['Shobhit Desai'] | 2020-11-23 13:24:43.350000+00:00 | ['Corporate Culture', 'Culture Change'] |
Why Optical Fiber Necessary for 5G network? | Nations like South Korea, China, Japan are good to go to carry 5G innovation to the individuals one year from now
https://www.spinningknowledge.in.net/2020/12/why-optical-fiber-necessary-for-5g.html | https://medium.com/@ashramitespaper/why-optical-fiber-necessary-for-5g-network-f74c9bdeb752 | [] | 2020-12-26 11:03:12.667000+00:00 | ['5g', 'USA', 'India', 'Canada', 'Internet'] |
Your Guidebook to Choosing the Right Software Testing Partner | Your Guidebook to Choosing the Right Software Testing Partner
Outsourcing software testing to the right partner can initiate efficient strategies and quicker turnarounds. However, choosing a reliable expert in QA services can be quite a deal, as there are many things to consider before getting started.
Let us discuss the process of identifying the right software testing partner who can constructively test your software solution and offer an unbiased approach.
5 Benefits of Outsourcing Software Testing to a Specialist
Software testing outsourcing allows organizations to focus on their core functions and drive innovation. It gives you the advantage of an expert testing service provider working efficiently to ensure a better QA in product development.
Outsourcing software testing to QA professionals helps you save time and money, irrespective of the scope of the project and the frequency of your testing needs. Some of the compelling reasons why you should outsource software testing are –
1. Focus on the Core
When you outsource your software testing requirements, you can focus on the core business. It gives you time to understand your business requirements and strategize accordingly. As a result, you can improve business ROI and gain an edge over the competition.
2. Cost-Efficient
If you were to test the software solutions in-house, you need to set up the infrastructure, train your in-house team, and invest in the testing tools. It can cost your business heavily. Instead, outsourcing means you spend only on the testing services you avail, therefore making the cost sustainable for you.
3. Efficient Testing Methods
You may not know which tests or strategies to use when testing a particular software solution. However, the experts are equipped with the latest testing processes, methods, and cases that can immediately get the desired and unbiased results.
4. Independent Quality Assurance
Third-party testing service providers generally do not have any information regarding changes that happened during the software development process. This ensures that you get independent quality assurance and uninfluenced testing.
5. Faster Time-to-Market
By outsourcing testing, you align the testing methods as well as the timeline to app development. Continuous integration and enhanced testing methods ensure rapid iterations and faster incorporation of feedback for quicker launches.
Factors to Consider When Choosing Software Testing Partner
When choosing a software testing partner for your business needs, you should consider a few things.
1. Vendor Inspection
When choosing the third-party software testing partner, you need to conduct a thorough examination of the vendor’s background. Your vendor may offer luring prices and services that seem at par with those provided by top-notch companies.
However, you need to understand how your potential partner manages to test and offers unbiased results. Ask them questions regarding testing methods, their standards, best practices, and how they work deadlines.
Modern development models require frequent code changes. It is also essential to know beforehand if the QA service provider is comfortable with implementing QA in CI/CD pipeline.
2. Niche Proficiency
How proficient are they with testing standards and different testing strategies will determine whether they are equipped to help you with your business requirements or not.
If they are not abreast with current testing trends or don’t understand the terminologies, you should look for another partner. A partner with niche expertise knows how to select the right team.
You will be partnering with highly skilled and resourceful testers who know what they are doing and will offer unbiased test results.
3. Comprehensive SLA
Service level agreement helps identify the project specs and the timeline and budget for a particular project. It will ensure that the vendor company understands what is expected of them to strategize the testing process accordingly.
It offers to be a blueprint for both companies to proceed with the testing phase. As part of the SLA, the vendor company should seek the software solution and an understanding of the business from you. You should understand the quality measures as well as the compliance standards they will adopt.
4. Transparent Communication
For any relationship to survive, communication is a crucial factor. If you are hiring a testing partner for your software requirements, ensure that the potential vendor is transparent with their communication. They should be prompt in their replies and maintain transparency throughout the process.
In case you are operating in different time zones, then they should be able to maintain communication. At least one member should be available to handle the queries and resolve the issues.
5. Testing Infrastructure
It is crucial to know about the testing infrastructure adopted by the QA service provider. Understand how they incorporate automated testing and what type of automation tools they use. The testing tool landscape is massive, and many factors go into choosing the right infrastructure. Apart from automation testing, understand what different types of testing they offer. You should also know the testing process they follow to get the desired results.
6. Data/ Intellectual Property Security
When you are partnering with a third-party testing service provider, you are giving them the details of your software solution along with data that is core to your business. You should take steps so that the data is not compromised and your property is protected.
You should sign a confidentiality agreement along with NDA and IP protection agreements with the potential partner. It will ensure the proper protection of the information provided by you.
Steps to Choose the Best Software Testing Partner
Choosing the right software testing partner is critical to ensure that all the factors mentioned above are considered.
1. Things You Should Outsource
What are your testing requirements? Answer this question to know what you need to outsource to begin a relationship with your potential QA partner. You need to consider the type of testing and the testing areas that you need to define to proceed with the partner. Are you interested in mobile app testing, web application testing, or both? Do you want the vendor to perform automated manual combination or manual-alone testing? Finally, make a list of target platforms and devices before you outsource the process.
2. Shortlist Potential Vendors
Seek recommendations or search online to identify a list of vendors who can help you with your software testing needs. There are plenty of vendors readily available in the market to help you achieve your testing needs. Check those who match your business requirements and can fulfill your testing goals. Further, narrow down based on SLAs and communication standards as well as ratings offered to them.
3. Interact with your List
It is time to check the list and connect with each of the vendors on a one-on-one basis. Interact, seek information about how they operate and know what their strengths and weaknesses are. Check how they connect, collaborate, and communicate with you. Ask questions that will help you understand their testing capabilities and how they will perform as a partner.
4. Assess and Finalize
Take the final call after analyzing, comparing, and assessing the different vendors from your list. Outsource to the one that checks every criterion that is important to your business.
Concluding Thoughts
While you want to ensure everything is taken care of in-house, certain things require domain expertise and niche understanding. Testing is one such aspect that requires skilled engineers and high-end tools. To make it more resourceful, useful, and cost-efficient, you should ideally outsource it to the right QA partner.
Maruti Techlabs has an in-depth understanding of software application testing and offers avant-garde infrastructure combined with the right array of tools and experienced engineers. Our software QA services help strategize efficiently and launch within set timelines without compromising on quality.
For cost-effective plus stress-free outsourcing of app testing, get in touch with us here. | https://medium.com/@marutitech/your-guidebook-to-choosing-the-right-software-testing-partner-d98a8fbc82c2 | ['Maruti Techlabs'] | 2021-04-09 12:29:53.528000+00:00 | ['Software Testing', 'QA', 'Testing', 'Outsourcing', 'Quality Assurance'] |
Summarizing my Design Story #3 | Summarizing my Design Story #3
The college days have finally ended and like every year, it’s time to reflect on my past year learnings and failures. I ended the last year article (Chapter 2) on the note to cherish my final year of college and spent time on the things that really interest me which is sharing my knowledge with the community. Let’s see how it all went so far. I hope you’ll enjoy reading the article.
2018 was the final year of my college and it couldn’t have been better. I spent most of the time with my friends cherishing the last days of the college, traveled a lot, attended my first design conference (It was rad), understood more about the community and most importantly — secured a job.
Here’s a quick recap of everything significant that I did in the final year of the college-
#1. Increasing the quality of blog posts
Although I promised to be more regular in the sharing of such posts, I couldn’t increase the number of my posts. The primary reason being I wanted to increase the quality of my posts. I didn’t want to push articles for the sake of posting. I wanted to write detailed quality posts that could touch different areas of my experiences instead of posting just case studies. Now I am happy to see that the quality of posts has increased. I can say this because of the increased readership and appreciation emails that I have been getting.
From writing articles on designing your resume, publishing a website on GitHub, designing for variants, design conferences and becoming a freelancer, I tried to touch everything that I wished I had known before starting out, in a very detailed format. I hope you had also enjoyed reading such blogs and I promise to deliver more in the coming year.
#2. Bursting my comfort bubble
By the end of my third year, I figured out that I had to do something for the design community. I wanted to give back to the community that has helped me to become what I’m today. One way to do that was by sharing my knowledge in the form of blog posts. I didn’t have many ideas about other things that I can do. Due to which I had confined myself to a very comfortable bubble. I thought that I had learned almost everything that everyone in the college was doing and pushing articles regularly would keep me at the top layer of the bubble. There were only quite a few people who were posting articles in my college at that time.
Poor, me. I was so wrong.
Little I had known about the community at that point of time than I know now. The major amount of the year was spent understanding the value of this community and connecting with more people outside my college mostly through Twitter. Oh God, Design community at Twitter is amazing. The people are so accessible and helpful that some of them may go out of their ways to help you.
Here’s a thread by Madhuri Maram of all amazing Indian designers on Twitter. Follow them all. You don’t have to be limited by these set of people. Keep exploring and using Twitter, you’ll find other people too.
Previously, I was so stuck in the rut to compete with each other and become better than others in my college. I didn’t realize that the real competition lies outside the college. I was amazed to see the vast possibilities of things that people were doing. There are students who are launching products on Product Hunt, designed and developed solely by themselves. There are people who’re doing amazing at Hackathons, launching their podcasts and yadda-yadda. Everyone is writing. There is nothing unique about me. There was a need to burst my bubble, come out and get inspired by these people and find new ways to grow.
Recently I did a thread on Twitter to highlight these amazing students. You can follow them too.
There is so much that I can say on the value of networking and I could go on and on but that is not the point of this article. You understood my point, right. I have realized how much I have to learn and it’s endless. People outside our community are amazing. Let’s join them all to give healthy competition.
#3. Attended my first design conference
Photo courtesy: DesignUp
The highlight of the year was definitely attending my first design conference. It was organized by DesignUp in Bengaluru, India. I never had a chance to visit conferences before because they were too expensive. This time I was lucky to get the scholarship from DesignUp itself with a small task of covering the conference with one or two articles. I had written about it in one of my articles. It gave me the chance to interact with people who I only know by their social profiles. From staying in a lavish hotel to watching the grandeur of the conference, the experience was amazing and I now look forward to attending more conferences in the future.
#4. Achieving a balanced life
Since I was in my final year of college, I had so much time at my disposal and I never really enjoyed my college life to the fullest because I was so busy with the design work and academics. I thought If I don’t enjoy this last year too, I probably would regret it all my life. Thank god, I didn’t. My last year was the best year of college life. | https://medium.com/@nikhilshares/summarizing-my-design-story-3-18432f5bf70b | ['Nikhil Yadav'] | 2020-05-27 16:27:54.097000+00:00 | ['Networking', 'Year In Review', 'Design', 'College Life'] |
Make Your Money Work For You | I challenge you to sit down and write down all your monthly expenses.
Then go over your bank accounts to see where you have spent money for other items for the month.
Now that you know where your money goes each month, you can take back control of your spending.
Dedicate yourself to stop spending unnecessarily and start putting away money so that you can pay off or pay down a debt.
Put every dollar to work.
Money works for you, not the other way around. | https://medium.com/@tmcglashan77/make-your-money-work-for-you-524b29337512 | ['Tasha Mcglashan'] | 2020-12-13 19:01:05.632000+00:00 | ['Robert Kiyosaki', 'Money Management Tips', 'Money Management'] |
You can’t change the people around you… | You can’t change the people around you…
See More Quoest: https://quotesgram.me/you-cant-change-the-people-around-you/ | https://medium.com/@quotesgram/you-cant-change-the-people-around-you-efefc3b22333 | [] | 2020-12-22 21:33:19.284000+00:00 | ['Quotes', 'Quoteoftheday'] |
I Ran Into My Childhood Bully At My High School Reunion | Then it was 2018.
I ran into her husband little bit before this reunion happened. He knew who I was before I ever approached him.
He was like:
“Hey are you Alesha”
I’m like uhhh ya. How do you know me?
Lyndsey T, my wife talks about you and how nice you are to her.
F**********
To the people reading this. I said B******.
Wait.
WAIT A F**** minute. She acted like we have been friends this whole time, making her husband think that we been in conversation recently.
WTF.
I haven’t seen this God Fearing Woman in YEARS. I avoid her like the plague and Covid-19.
This girl went from trying to destroy my life in grade school, doing what she could to be my friend again in high school (just to have another opportunity to destroy me again if I became friends with her), and NOW PROCLAIMING TO BE MY FRIEND?
(Keep in mind this is information given to me, that her husband told me off record. She doesn’t know that I know.)
I’m glad I’m not in Indianapolis all the time. Shit.
I heard rumors that she had kids right out of high school, didn’t make it out of college, and works at a food joint. My mom ran into her working at one of my favorite Indy restaurants (now I avoid that location like the plague). As long as she’s happy and away from me, I’m good.
Then it was 2018. My high school reunion.
I walk in the front door.
I saw her there and said holy s***.
This is the last person I want to see. My former friend aka bully aka want to still be my friend because her husband confirmed it? I don’t think she’s aware that her husband told me this insider information.
With the two other girls (one I’m still cool with, the other one was a troublemaker too) hearing about the updates from our high school since we left.
She came over and gave me a hug right before the tour of our high school started. I thought I wanted to wash myself off with hand sanitizer after that.
At the time of this writing, there’s a pandemic. Due to this 2020 coronavirus, I will not be letting people get too close to me anytime soon. No hugs. Just air fives and elbow fist pumps.
I know there’s many times in life where we wanted to punch someone or a group of people in the face. How many of you have this person or people in your life?
Do you have a list of people that’s highlighted with a yellow marker and underlined with a red pen that deserve it? The God Fearing Woman made that list a lot.
As a 30 something, I’m better equipped to deal with a bully, and won’t have any school rules this time holding me back. I’m not the one to start a fight. Or pick on people for no reason. I’m not a jealous type of person either. However, I will shut down shenanigans and bullshit. If she would have tried something, I would check her and mate her at the door.
But the vibe I got at the reunion? It wasn’t going to happen. I saw a lady who managed to get a whole class against me at one point in 2004 coward in the corner, was now afraid to talk to anyone but the two main people she came with. As I was talking with everyone in the room by myself catch up with people, I noticed she wasn’t talking to anyone except the other black people (hello, keep in mind we are a Catholic high school with mostly white people), and then she went back to her two main people.
I’ve been a lot of places, especially spending time in LA and NYC for auditions and filming. I’m still a little bit shorter than her, but my confidence makes me taller. I have two martial arts styles under my belt, and I’m currently in my 3rd and researching my 4th. Vegeta, Jiren, Goku, and Gohan (Cell Games Saga when he wasn’t a slacker at training) are my influences (any other Dragon Ball fans out there?). I workout on a regular basis, got 12 pack abs (recently discovered after trying a new aggressive workout). I’m an actress and musician. I have worked on multiple businesses and like traveling.
I’m in my own world doing my thing. Success and living life on your own terms is the best revenge.
Shoulder, meet chip. Past Alesha, I wish you could see how much you dominate Lyndsey without having to do anything to her. That the decision not to box her in her mouth and knock a few teeth out back in 8th grade was the right decision. I don’t have a great past with God Fearing Woman, but NOW I’m not going to go out of my way to start any shit.
You never know what someone is going through. Perhaps The God Fearing Woman had gotten hers and been reformed out of her bullying. Or maybe she just learned on her own by living life (like in Sean’s story). Or maybe she’s still a bully, in the poorly veiled guise/costume of a shy person outside of her element. Like my other friend who still defends her (and has since become her best friend, she used to be my bff, but we are still friends haha) will still try to convince me.
SHE HAS CHANGED ALESHA.
GIVE HER ANOTHER CHANCE.
Yeah right. Sure. Keep in mind this is coming from a person that haven’t been on the receiving end of the treatment and even played into it. It amazes me how much some people still defend God Fearing Woman. I make plenty of mistakes and give people plenty of chances. But once I’m done, I’m done. Apologies have no meaning, when a person simply says sorry and repeats the offense again later. These people, especially Lyndsey did not care about how their actions was hurting someone else. They kept doing it so I was done. I keep my distance.
When I talked to God Fearing Woman, she kept the conversation short and swift. She wasn’t bragging about her kids like the other reunion goers were, like she wasn’t proud of the life she was leading.
Usually at high school reunions, ESPECIALLY THE FIRST ONE, people are one upping each other. People our age generally want to prove to the world that we are successful, and doing something with our lives. Talking about what house they are buying, places they are vacationing at, etc.
God fearing woman sat in the corner.
I was invited to a grade school reunion from a Facebook post. I declined. Have fun kiddos.
I didn’t get to knock my bully’s lights out as an adult, lol. Lucky duck. Maybe I’ll get my chance in a sparring (kata) session or a martial arts tournament?
I’ve heard stories on what happened to my bullies, but I was too busy living my life.
Brother Patrick Gale, I got the feels reading this one. (I hope he doesn’t mind me calling him brother). Sometimes sorry isn’t enough to justify someone’s behavior. I totally understand. If someone hasn’t been through that, they don’t know what it’s like, and it’s super easy for them to stand on the sidelines talking about forgiving someone and being friends with someone again. Just for the record, forgiveness doesn’t mean what the person did was right OR you are going to be friends with the person again. It doesn’t necessarily right the wrong. You do have a choice to forgive someone or not.
Now I don’t think about them everyday and make sure I stay away from them. They definitely don’t have a grip in my life. I’m all for positivity and love but I keep any sources of negativity out of my life. I have accepted apologies before and have refriended one person before. But when they said sorry, they meant it, and made attempts to make amends. That was the difference. I make plenty of mistakes and definitely give a lot of chance to people.
However.
Apologies have no meaning, when a person simply says sorry and repeats the offense again later. Many of the people in my case said sorry because it was the convenient thing to do, then was up to their old tricks again when my back was turned.
I don’t expect a Facebook apology, although that’s nice the person in that story got one.
It never goes down like it does in the movies.
For those who’s gotten an apology, lucky you. I’m not ever expecting to get one. Like I keep saying, I do expect one of my childhood friends to keep sticking up for this person, and keep telling me why I should give this person a 100th chance when it’s proven that she hasn’t changed.
In this story, one person says his former bully works in the food court, he work at a Fortune 500 company. Karma’s a b**** ain’t it? Like I said above, my mother told me she ran into God Fearing Woman spooning spinach at one of my favorite restaurants in Indy. As a major foodie, all the power to them.
To finish off, I want to add two quick side stories.
A). A group of girls that I wanted to be sorority sisters with rejected me too. At the time, no organization on campus wanted me, so I took matters into my own hands. I got into bars, and met the same people I would have met if I would have gotten into the organizations. They didn’t like that I liked the same bars they did and ended up accusing me of following them around. I ended up just fine despite them. They didn’t want a black friend at all, and just didn’t want to admit it. I filmed a project in the sorority house a year after they graduated and I noticed no POC on the walls. They didn’t want me anyways. Instead of being friends with them, I talk about the situation in a few songs and got a project that I sometimes show casting directors. This abolish Greek movement that’s been happening in 2020 has been bringing up a bunch of hard truths.
Then a few years later, after trying I finally got into an organization. But I ran into cliques, people gossiping about each other and so on. I made some great memories in the organization, but too many of them acted like a high school clique: This person wouldn’t move unless this person did. They usually would think the same, because no one wanted to think for themselves and have a different opinion (after all, that would piss everyone else off in the group, and then that means no acceptance for you, or getting kicked out of the group). I watched people mend and fold to peer pressure just to fit in. For different conferences, I had to end up breaking away from my own chapter just to hang out and meet new people.
I hope Lyndsey has learned that you don’t treat people mean because they have the things that you want. In general I hope she has learned to treat people the way I want to be treated. I hope she’s ok and not inflicting anymore pain on the world.
Lyndsey could have been doing so many other things with her energy instead of following me around to everything I did. Think for yourself. And finally if someone doesn’t want to be your friend for whatever reason, LEAVE THEM ALONE.
There’s been times when people didn’t want me either, and I kept going until I found my people.
Call To Action
Since it’s 2020 (and it’s about to be 2021), a new decade 🔥🙌 I’ve decided to slightly change how I sign off.
If you like what you’ve read, please recommend it so others can read it as well. Please tell me what you want me to write about here!
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Interested in what I done? Check out my LinkedIn profile I barely use lol. I’ll update it to add the new current businesses I’m working on one of these days. | https://medium.com/@aleshapeterson/i-ran-into-my-childhood-bully-at-my-high-school-reunion-fc0e5cb63f62 | ['Alesha Peterson'] | 2020-12-20 17:32:02.707000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Life', 'Bullying', 'Childhood', 'High School Reunion'] |
The Humanization of Digital Transformation | We’ve scrambled to recreate our physical world online, but what guarantees that these changes will stick?
COVID-19 came suddenly and without warning, and we all came to grips in real time with a crisis we had no framework to solve for. March was a turning point and businesses had to quickly transform — notably, the digital ecosystem became center stage.
Across industries, those that have been most successful in this new world order have seen it as an opportunity to transform their business, reconnect with customers, and reimagine how their product or service can be a source of light in our day to day. The question as we look towards Q4, though, is how long this rapid transformation and investment in life-from-home tech will balance alongside in-person activations once they begin again. The longer we’re in this alternative state, the more comfortable and functional it becomes, and the harder it is to argue for the return to “normal”.
Among top minds across The Stagwell Group and Back to the Future with the Stagwell Group, humanization emerged as the #1 factor in guaranteeing the stickiness of new digital tools and platforms.
The guiding rule? Center the user’s “why”
1 ) When you build around the user, rather than what’s trendy, possible, or impressive, the move to digital makes people’s lives easier, and that’s what keeps them coming back.
Take, for example, the evolution of Pfizer’s clinical trial portal. The experience of participating in a clinical trial is complex, sometimes scary, and always data-rich, leading Pfizer to identify this touchpoint as one well suited for a digital supplement. Working with Code and Theory, Pfizer developed a platform that could answer common questions and requests, accessible at any time without the oversight of doctors, nurses or medical professionals. The well-researched design put common anxieties, questions and needs at the core, creating a seamless experience in which patients felt recognized, heard, and answered. Pfizer is translating these learnings into their COVID response as well. In the June 25 edition of Back to the Future, Pfizer’s former VP of Global Consumer Experience and Engagement Richard Schwabacher noted that “What’s really important is the things that made good experiences and good design strong — the integrity of good design — are going to carry us forward in the face of this challenge”.
“What’s really important is the things that made good experiences
and good design strong — the integrity of good design — are going to carry us
forward in the face of this challenge” — Richard Schwabacher, Pfizer
2 ) Smart data insights create a ‘why’ story out of the numbers, and that story should inform what you build.
Of course, not every digital transformation project is going to have a “why” that involves saving lives. But a simple shift in the way we think about data can have a profound effect. Viewing that data through a “why” lens to tell a story, instead of as a tool to mechanically target and retarget, can unlock insights and amplify impact.
Renne Miller, Senior Creative Strategist at Code and Theory and guest on the June 11th episode of Back to the Future said it best — anyone with an online presence, from a small business to a multinational corporation, has the ability to know their customers via their online footprint and shape services and communications to meet those needs. There’s no longer an excuse to not meet customers where they are because they’re providing the map — online marketers can easily learn where customers shop, what they view, the platforms they use, and what they buy.
“You have power in seeing where your audience is, seeking out that knowledge first hand, and then speaking to them in the way that they are already speaking online” — Renee Miller, Code and Theory
Are they visiting your site to escape, or for necessities? Are they bargain hunters or loyal customers? Are they arriving via a community of promoters (influencers or bloggers), or their own discovery? Aggregated, this data creates a persona with specific wants, needs, and expectations. Designed to meet the needs of this persona, digital platforms will prove utility and value up front and build buy-in for later efforts that go beyond the necessary or expected.
3 ) Data + Empathy = Success
Once brands know the customer story, it’s their job to become part of it, building out content and platforms around the story they know is resonating, not the one they think might resonate. It’s also their job to know that the story will change, and that they need to change along with it. By combining real time data with real-world experiences and empathy, brands will have a pulse on when and why the story is changing so they can respond.
Whether it’s shopping patterns (in some places in-store shopping is picking up more than others) or content preferences (there is COVID info fatigue but heightened engagement around back-to-school), brands should understand what customers want and iterate towards that need. But especially in a world as complex as the one we’re living in now, the answer won’t always be in a dashboard, report or database. The answer lies somewhere in between these data points and the awareness, instinct and experience that seasoned teams bring to the table.
“We’ve lived in a world so focused on data, but not much
intelligence. One of the things we are focused on is applying your heart to your consumers’ journey, not just your head” — Tim Heffernan, T3Expo
Using a smart digital presence born out of informed strategy, the sky’s the limit for businesses large and small. With the internet as the great equalizer, brands have the opportunity to fill the void and make their lives easier. By centering the consumer in the relentless push towards digital innovation, we unlock a whole new level of connection, service, and efficiency that will make the new digital transformation a permanent fixture in modern life for years to come.
Hear more from Renee and Tim on Back to the Future with The Stagwell Group: | https://medium.com/@stagwellgroup/the-humanization-of-digital-transformation-8229b63f880c | ['The Stagwell Group'] | 2020-09-02 16:17:20.968000+00:00 | ['Digital Transformation', 'Marketing', 'Covid', 'Data', 'Humanization'] |
The History of Mind-Numbing Chitchat | The History of Mind-Numbing Chitchat
How ‘How are you?’ (and other meaningless phrases) came to dominate conversations everywhere
Photo: Tara Moore/Getty Images
“You see someone that you know and they ask you how are you, and you just have to say that you’re fine when you’re not really fine, but you just can’t get into it because they would never understand,” as Katy Perry once said in an interview that will likely haunt her for the rest of her life.
In fairness to Perry, she weaves a tale that most of us can probably identify with. Say you’re suffering from insomnia, your credit card got declined at the coffee shop this morning, and now your significant other has just sent an ominous “We need to talk” text. When a cheery co-worker asks “How are you?” in the break room, “Good, and you?” may feel like the least sincere answer you could give. Predictably, you give it anyway. The reason, however, is not necessarily that she would never understand your problems. “How are you?” is an example of a phatic expression; a word or phrase that serves as part of a social ritual. The term was coined by Bronislaw Malinowski in 1923 and refers to a vast number of questions and interjections you can expect to hear and say during your daily rigmarole, including “Hello,” “Thank you,” and “See you later.” It’s funny that the phrases we’re most keen to learn when we begin to study a new language are the ones that communicate little to no actual information.
Why is lying a routinized part of everyday conversation?
In her book Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, Gretchen McCulloch recounts an experiment she undertook as a peewee linguist in high school:
M oving through the hallways between classes, we’d normally call out to the people we saw every day, “Hi, how’s it going?” or “Hey, what’s up?” But I practiced giving the opposite response without skipping a beat. To “What’s up?” I’d answer, “Good, how’re you?” while to “How’s it going?” I’d say, “Not much, what’s up with you?” What surprised and delighted me every time is that people never seemed to notice.
McCulloch’s anecdote illustrates just how little the content of these exchanges often matters — as long as it hits the right beats. Malinowski points out that in phatic expressions there is an overwhelming preference for positivity — there’s no such word as “badbye,” for example — which is why a response like “I’m awful, what about you?” may be somewhat startling if not downright rude. Of course, there are situations in which total honesty may be more appropriate, such as a doctor’s visit; but even then, people are often hesitant to break the unwritten rules of phatic communion. An experiment conducted in 1992 showed that during the preamble to a medical assessment, participants were most likely to initially reply to the question “How are you?” with a stock answer (“I’m all right,” “Not too bad”) before elaborating and effectively contradicting themselves (“I do suffer with nerves, though,” “I had a bad day on Saturday”). Why can’t we just cut to the chase? Why is lying a routinized part of everyday conversation?
According to Joachim Grzega, although the phrase “How are you?” hasn’t always been in our lexicon, similar questions date back to the Middle English period (possibly earlier; attestations from the Old English period aren’t rich enough to know for sure). In Layamon’s Brut, a poem written around 1205, a knight asks King Arthur, “Hu beoð þine beouste?” — literally: “How is your life condition?” Shakespeare’s plays offer some less clinical alternatives, such as “How cheerest thou?” (The Merchant of Venice), “How is ’t, my soul?” (Romeo and Juliet), and the short and sweet “How now!” (Othello). The phrase “How are you?” begins to emerge in 19th-century literature, perhaps beginning with Jane Austen’s Emma (1816). It’s during this same century that you’ll find something interesting happening to “How are you?” as well as its older cousin “How do you do?” — take a look at these extracts from two novels by Charles Dickens:
“How are you?” said one. “How are you?” returned the other. (A Christmas Carol, 1843) “How do you do this morning?” said Mr. Carker the Manager, entering Mr. Dombey’s room soon after his arrival one day: with a bundle of papers in his hand. — “How do you do, Carker?” said Mr. Dombey, rising from his chair, and standing with his back to the fire. (Dombey and Son, 1848)
In both cases, the phatic expression is treated as a greeting, not a question. To use Grzega’s terminology, what we’re seeing here is not a “complementary formula” (a call and a response) but a “copy formula.” “How do you do?” stayed this course and over time shrunk to “Howdy,” which today can be used in place of “Hello” (if you’re a Texan prospector). In some formal settings, you may still hear “How do you do?” being used, but it has the same ring to it as “Nice to meet you.” For some reason, however, the same is not true of “How are you?” In modern English, to reply to “How are you?” by parroting the question would be a jarring breach of normal etiquette.
“How do you do Miss Havisham?” Photo: Herbert Watkins/Wikimedia Commons
Because the practice of inquiring about our interlocutor’s well-being has been around for so long in English, you might assume that it’s a cultural universal. Not so. In many East Asian cultures, “Have you eaten yet?” is a common overture to a conversation, and the addressee is not obliged by convention to answer one way or the other. In Navajo, a friendly interaction will often begin with the word “Áá’”, which literally means “Open up,” giving the person free rein to decide what subject to talk about. Additionally, there is a language in which phatic expressions are nonexistent: According to linguist Daniel Everett, the Pirahã language, spoken by the eponymous Amazonian tribe, is completely devoid of phrases like “Hello,” “Goodbye,” and, indeed, “How are you?” Everett considers phatic communion to be a form of “social grooming,” a vestige of a bygone era when we used to sit around picking through each other’s hair for lice. In fact, the Pirahã still do groom each other in the literal sense — maybe this is why they have no need to do it verbally.
Conversations are strange creatures. Some are instantly forgettable, like the series of grunts you exchange with your housemates while boiling your morning pot of tea; others are life-affirming opportunities to discover another person’s inner world and, moreover, to better understand ourselves. Most of them, however, are bookended by the same preordained assemblages of words, always in the same order (unless, of course, you’re singing a certain Beatles song). Formalities help us find a point of reference, even a sense of safety — think about how you go through them like a checklist (“Good afternoon, nice to meet you, thank you for inviting me”) at the beginning of a job interview. We’ll probably never do away with phatic expressions like these nor should we. But the “How are you? Fine, and you? Fine!” ritual is a strange and — as we’ve seen — unnecessary player in this cast. As a recent Atlantic article suggests, perhaps the time has come to update the question to one which doesn’t demand a positive answer, such as “What’s on your mind?” That way, every conversation can start off on the right foot: with an incitement to say what you really feel. | https://humanparts.medium.com/how-are-you-is-a-weird-way-to-start-a-conversation-906be1c90c84 | ['Clare C.H.'] | 2020-08-07 16:00:06.702000+00:00 | ['Conversations', 'Language', 'History', 'English', 'Past Is Prologue'] |
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If you have any questions, comments, or ideas regarding MyCointainer & Neblio, we encourage you to get in touch with MyCointainer or the Neblio Team to schedule a meeting to learn how MyCointainer & Neblio can help your business grow to the next level. | https://medium.com/neblio-blog/neblio-partners-with-leading-staking-services-provider-mycointainer-81e65b6edd71 | [] | 2021-04-13 13:50:39.604000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Proof Of Stake', 'Bitcoin'] |
Avoid Brain Burnout: The Pomodoro Technique | Pomodoro Timer (Google image)
During Middle School/High School, I never seemed to struggle with time management and getting my work done. I was always quick to finish my homework before anything else and my grades greatly reflected that. I attest my good work ethic back then, mainly to my parents for constantly hovering over my shoulder and keeping me accountable for my work. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. The “No TV until homework is done.”, “No computer until you finish your assignment.”, even the, “If you get an A I’ll give you $20.”, etc. It was all very incentivizing but slightly annoying at the moment because sometimes I just didn’t want to do work. But being at home, that wasn’t going to be an option forever…
Once I got to University, my time management skills started to wain and were definitely mirrored in the lack of accountability I had with my assignments. I gave myself way too much slack. In fact, they warned us it would be like this and I fell for it. I always lost track of my studying and ended up feeling like any “break” I took from my books was undeserved. It was very difficult to keep myself liable and know how much work I had gotten done so I can see progress with this mentality. Needless to say, those moments in high school that I called annoying were no doubt a dire necessity for me during those times. But of course, being in college, time management is part of the experience and one of the most important skills to build while on my own. So it was my job to figure out how to help myself.
It wasn’t until I had a conversation with one of my favorite cousins that she told me about how she was having similar focus issues. Where, she wasn’t able to keep track of how much time she spent studying versus relaxing. So she recommended this technique that she said has helped her tremendously with her studying. It was The Pomodoro Technique. To help myself manage my time better and not feel so burnt out when I study, I implemented this technique as soon as I could.
The Technique
The Pomodoro Technique (Google image)
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management technique that uses a timer to break work down into intervals. These intervals are called “pomodoros” and are usually 25 minutes long, followed by a short break, which is around 3–5 minutes. A short break is the time used to completely remove yourself from your work and rest your brain. Then, after that short break, reset your pomodoro until the next short break. After 4 or more pomodoros, meaning, you have worked for at least an hour, you can take a long break, which would be around 15–30 minutes long. Finally, after your long break, you being from pomodoro # 1 and repeat the cycle.
My Technique Adaptation
So for me, the way I implemented this technique was by using an app called Focus Keeper. In the app I gave myself a daily focus goal of 6 hours, where my pomodoros were split into three, 30 minute intervals with 10 minute short breaks, followed by an hour long, long break, then back to the forth pomodoro, etc. Since using this technique, I not only feel more focused when I’m working but when I’m not, I don’t feel so lazy or like I should be getting more work done. I give myself a good 6 hours total to stay focused everyday.
Pomodoro in Jupyter
Now that I had that down on my phone, as an aspiring Data Scientist, I have to see if I can do the same thing in Python. And of course, I can. To a very simple degree but still functional. Let’s do it!
First, I import the modules time and winsound. These modules will allow me to implements a countdown and follow it with a sound, respectively.
import
Next, we define our Pomodoro function and call it pom_tech, for “pomodoro_technique”.
define function
After the function has been defined, we can iterate a loop through it so we have our timer. For this, I used a while-loop.
create while loop
From the clips above, you can see that this loop can also be automated to where you do not have to manually input your preferred study or break time, like the fancy apps do. But from personal experience, I’ve found that I am more accounted for my work when I can manually see and enter my pomodoro times. That way, if my break ends up being longer than I expected, my timer will not continue to count down and log a work session that has not occurred.
This is what I would input for my first focus session:
And this is how it would be outputted (using example seconds).
Note: For each question, you must enter an input because as mentioned before, this is not a continuous loop.
So now that I have my pomodoro set up in Jupyter, I can use it instead of my phone. But as you can see, this is a very very simple function. There are countless other ways to customize it so it is more seamless and/or quicker. But either way, this basic timer does what I would like it to do, in that it keeps me from feeling like I’m cramming too much information into my head at one time.
Breaks are very important in any study routine and once you know how to keep from overcrowding your brain with a lot of information at one time, you can take it in, digest it during short breaks, and return to it a little more clear headed and ready to absorb additional information and study materials.
Happy Studying!
Resources | https://medium.com/@inakamno/avoid-brain-burnout-the-pomodoro-technique-29492e533f8c | ['Ijeoma N. Akamnonu'] | 2020-12-21 09:53:27.511000+00:00 | ['Pomodoro Technique', 'Jupyter Notebook', 'Pomodoro'] |
Free Speech: In Array or Disarray? | Freedom of speech antecedents back to the Athenian Democratic Principle circa early 5th or 6th century. The hypothesis of free speech can be found on early human rights document, for instance England’s Bill of Rights 1689, which set the ground for free speech in the house of parliament. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, set up by the constituent assembly of France in 1789, was the first to welcome free speech as a sacrosanct right. The Constitution of India has enshrined freedom of speech on its body as one of the six fundamental rights guaranteed to its citizens. Even though being much aware of the idea’s objective, is free speech in peril?
Recently there has been much upheaval about dissent being part of freedom of speech, much chaos politically, has attracted mixed views from the all-knowing social media users to several human rights activist. Looking at France, people are left discombobulated about how a free breathing idea engender grim consequences. The incident revolves around a teacher, Samuel Paty, who was left headless for showing a caricature of the Muslim prophet to his students. French President Emmanuel Macron and several other world leaders have condemned the incident while France being jostled between freedom of speech and secularism.
A grave question arises, what is the discernible region of free speech? Back in 2015, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, constituting a bench of Hon’ble Justice Deepak Mishra and Hon’ble Justice Prafulla C. Pant observed in the case of Devidas Ramachandra Tuljapurkar v. State of Maharashtra[1], that freedom of speech is not an absolute right and it has some reasonable restrictions within the parameters of our constitution. They even added that Article 19(1)(a) of the constitution is not absolute in vista of Article 19(2) of the constitution. Behind every controversial statement or admission, one must look for the motive, is it to incite dreaded chaos erupting like an active volcano or to express one’s opinion. In 1962, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India demarcated free speech and sedition in the landmark ruling of the case Kedarnath Singh v. State of Bihar[2], in the constitutional bench of Hon’ble former chief justice Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha, Justice A.K. Sarkar, Justice J.R. Madholkar, Justice N. Rajagopala Ayyangar and Justice S.K. Das. Dissent plays a vital and healthy part for governing the ruling party and keep them in check. In recent years, new techniques of coercing limited speech have been introduced, such instance is when a doctor was attributed to say something she never said while delivering a speech in Aligarh Muslim University, somewhere around December 2019, for a protest of CAA and NRC. After one month, he was arrested for delivering an inciting speech. Ten days later, he was approved bail but was not released from prison. After that, he was kept in preventive detention under the National Security Act. The doctor confronted it in the Hon’ble High Court of Allahabad and the order was quashed. The Hon’ble Court conjectured that the petitioner allegedly said things which he did not.
The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India recently observed that television channels are allegedly misusing the power of free speech, giving up the its primary role of being a watchdog and instead fall back on to trials and broadcasting one-sided narratives.
A top grossing incident now, the dramatic manner in which Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami was arrested is the center of discussion for suffocation of free speech and personal liberty, engendering senior ministers, leaders and Editors Guild of India enunciate their tenets. Rolling over the cause of the arrest, an interior designer and his mother committed suicide in Mumbai in 2018, allegedly because the victim was not paid his honorarium for the job he did in Goswami’s office. This scene engenders emergence of bigger questions on the state of governance in the country today and the role being played by the fourth pillar of democracy. One will be in denial if they don’t accept the fact how heavily media has been politicized in recent years, not just in India but all over the world.
This year the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has divulged that access to internet a fundamental right. The judgement came into occurrence on hearing of a pleading in connection with Internet blockade in Jammu and Kashmir since August 5 in the view of revocation of Article 370 of the constitution in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir citing security concerns and emerging anti-national activities. It has been listed in Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution being a part of free expression of thoughts and speech. Internet is the foremost source of information to the citizens. A non-citizen can employ the same benefits but cannot assert it as her fundamental right.
Free speech is not a right only for the elite classes of the country, even criticized to be one, possibility of one reason is faltering on political ideologies. Rather, free speech has caused the marginalized people of the society to express their interests in various issues including constructive judgment of the chosen representative. None of us can justify the limit of free speech by causing physical harm or hurting religious sentiments to cause violence.
Some legal savants for instance Tom Wu, Colombia University, have argued that the traditional drawbacks of free speech that worrying threat to free speech is the censorship of totalitarian states, and that mal-informed or malevolent speech can and ought to be overcome by “more and better speech” rather than suffocating. This lacking came under light during the 20th century, but with the introduction of the internet, information became plentiful, “but the attention of listeners” still lack.
One’s voice is important and ought to be heard. One preserves the right to say what he/she surmise, share true information and demand a finer world. One also has the right to give assent or express displeasure with those in power, and to express these slants in amicable protests. Employing these rights in use, without trepidation or unlawful interference, is synonymous to living in an open and fair society; in which the amass can access justice and enjoy their human rights. Governments have a duty to embargo hateful, inciteful speech but many abuse their power to hush peaceful dissent by passing laws against freedom of expression, often done disguised under the excuse of counter terrorism, national security or religion. How governments endure censorious views and voices is often a good sign of how they treat human rights in rem.
It is cardinal for each of us to wield our fundamental rights within certain boundaries. It is time for all the institutions of a healthy society to realize that the people of this country express their dissent in good faith, and in any democracy, there are bound to be different points of view. These must be respected — otherwise the spirit of our society might splinter, and fraternity, one of the arch words in the preamble to our constitution we have given ourselves, might just become another corpse. Reminding in the end what John Milton expressed in the ‘Areopagitica’:
“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”
[1] Criminal Appeal №1179 of 2010
[2] 1962 AIR 955, 1962 SCR Supl. (2) 769 | https://medium.com/@adhip-banerjee14/free-speech-in-array-or-disarray-d07941cd0934 | ['Adhip Narayan Banerjee'] | 2021-01-16 08:53:43.659000+00:00 | ['Freedom Of Speech', 'Law', 'Free', 'India', 'Freedom'] |
How to Usability Test a Government Service | How to Usability Test a Government Service
An overview of my favorite approach to getting government services in front of real users, and making use of the feedback as quickly as possible.
As you may have heard, some folks have had a hard time trying to conduct usability testing in the Federal government (and other governments!). Not only can it be easy and fun, I have a *favorite* easy and fun approach to conducting usability testing — which I’m excited to share with you today.
For the feds: This process does not require PRA review by OMB or even your agency PRA Officer! It’s on less than 9 people, and it’s nonstandard oral communication, and it’s observation! Three exceptions, when even one of them would do!
Step 1: Decide what you’re going to test.
This may seem obvious, but this choice is important, especially on your first round of testing. Choose something that has a chance of getting changed based on the feedback because the “owner” of the service is interested in it working well. A response letter from your office? The IVR (phone maze) that folks hear when they call you? If you already have buy-in and can choose anything you want, run, don’t walk, to the most important service that you provide.
If you’re already working on a project to build/update a service, you should make sure to do usability testing starting *before a single line of code is written.* Use paper (or PDF) prototypes to test. You will get a ton of critical information.
So, in this case, we’re going to pretend that the service is applying for Veterans Widgets (not a real thing [I think]) and that the owner is pumped to make the changes.
Step 2: Draft your field guide.
Unlike a survey, where there are a list of exact questions that are presented in the same way to every user, usability testing is a conversation. Surveys, especially government service feedback surveys, in my opinion don’t produce useful feedback about how well a service is performing. For example, a real, live government website currently surveys users on a 1–9 scale and asks “*Please rate the site procedures to accomplish tasks on this site.” (Emphasis theirs.) What does that mean? Who knows! What will they learn? Nothing useful!
For a field guide, you’re making a list of what you want to go over in your testing sessions, and writing example questions as a guide. For our test of the Veteran Widget application, that field guide could look like this:
You’re a former servicemember and need a contraption from the VA. What would you do now? Are you eligible for the widget? How do you know? Sign up to get the widget. Check the status on your widget application. They denied your application! Appeal your widget determination.
“I dunno man, this seems like an exact list of questions, kind of like a survey.” Nay! Check out a video of how this goes in real life. Usability testing involves a nonstandard conversation — you’re responding to a human in real time. Reading an exact list of questions wouldn’t work.
Step 3: Recruit your users.
In non-government contexts, this can be super hard and expensive! In government, it’s actually super lovely and convenient. And remember, for this round of testing you need *at most* five people. I like to have a mix of approach A and B.
Approach A: Contact your correspondence office (or mail center or call center or wherever someone would go if they gave feedback to your office), and ask if they have any correspondence they can share from your target users. In our example, let’s say it’s Veterans who love electronics. They send you 40 letters from Veterans who wrote in about widgets and contraptions and other electronics. Choose a few, and ask if they’d like to help out on a design project to make widget applications work better for Veterans. They will be pumped.
Note: When we did this at the White House, people were SO excited to help. A USDS team once needed Veterans who were LGBTQ to help test a new, faster process to remove less-than-honorable discharges (“bad papers”) from Veteran records so they could receive the appropriate benefits. The White House correspondence office shared a stack of letters, and it was a delight to contact folks who had written in, to help fix an unfair system.
Approach B: Work with your community affairs office (or whoever connects with outside groups!) to find a great community group, and ask their leaders for help finding the right people (referring them or forwarding along an ask). I strongly recommend that you explain it’s a “design project” so that they don’t assume it’s the normal feedback that advocacy groups offer government agencies — it’s a real potential user, trying to finish a task.
TIP — Recruit more folks than you need, and work with them on future rounds of testing!
Step 4: Get the right team in place
At bare minimum, you should have someone conducting the test (using the field guide) and someone observing. I strongly recommend having anyone on your team who will later make suggestions to make it harder to use (your general counsel, perhaps!), as well as the person who will get to approve any changes (This can even be your executive! Sitting in these testing sessions are extraordinary) also sit in to observe and take notes.
Step 5: Test!
It’s possible to get “thank you” gifts for participants in government, but may be more red tape than is worth it for quick rounds of usability testing that you’ll (hopefully!) be conducting frequently. Be upfront so no one is surprised.
Instead, if it’s in person (and not a pandemic!), bring snacks and offer coffee and water. If you have swag (like mugs or stickers), that’s often appreciated. If it’s online, a hand-written note, ideally on the government stationary, saying “thank you” and also how their contributions will help other people sent in the mail will be very meaningful. If possible, have your executive (mayor, secretary, commissioner etc.) sign the card as well.
Example notes
For the observer(s), have them take notes about every time a participant gets stuck/lost/frustrated in the process.
Example notes for multiple participants
Ideally, have the test be 45 minutes, and then at the conclusion of the test, thank the participant and spend 15 minutes collecting notes from your observers to put in one spreadsheet, and make a “P1” column to represent Participant 1, and put an X next to each issue they had. Do the same for Participant 2 (P2) and Participant 3 (P3), also marking “X” for issues that they shared with other participants. This is a process I learned many years ago at UX Camp NYC, and it’s perfect for government usability testing.
Example notes with draft actions
Then, at the end of your testing sessions for the day, keep the same folks in the room to discuss what should be done about each issue. Sometimes, the answer is “nothing,” and sometimes the answer has nothing to do with the user interface, and that’s ok! It will be very clear from your tests what the most important items are, and making this a discussion with your observers will help build buy in (shout out to general counsels across government!) from folks who may otherwise resist the simplification of a process. Draft the proposed actions together.
The same day as testing, email your feedback and actions spreadsheet to as large a group as will not be mad at you for the spam, and include reflections about what the participants were like. Things like “They were so excited, because they had never been asked for their feedback before,” or “One of the participants is a 3rd generation Veteran, and is from my home state of Ohio!” Include an invitation to attend the next session as an observer, and stress that no experience is required.
This is critical, because in my roughly 10 years of on-and-off Federal service, I have never once seen a beautifully designed, narrative report about the findings from a single usability test 1) result in those changes actually being made, or 2) be read and understood by anyone not on the design team. Never. This is not the time to make a glossy, beautiful report. Make it casual, make it fast, make it simple, make it action-oriented. One spreadsheet, some notes, send email.
Step 6: Make it a system!
Use bureaucracy to bake it into your agency’s work. Here are just a few ideas, but think creatively about what would make usability testing “a thing” in your agency.
Book the same conference room for a few hours, recurring every month, for testing.
When you get more participants who are willing to help than you need for that month, book them for next month.
Government agencies typically have a very formal review process for launching things. Work with your “executive secretary” or general counsel (or whoever is in charge of reviewing and approving things before they go live) to add “How many users was this tested with?” to the clearance cover sheet or process. This both helps make it something folks “need” before a thing can go live, and also helps raise awareness that this is expected.
Troubleshooting
My agency is too scared to show something before it’s final, even if it’s only to 3 people!
Start with a service that’s live on your site today, and have folks who are scared sit in to observe. They’ll learn how important the work is and meet the very un-scary test participants who are excited to serve their country in a small way. Then try again with a new service and work with those previously scared folks to advocate with you.
As a fed, won’t I need PRA clearance if even though I’m only testing 3–5 people with this specific test, I will eventually test more than 10 people total?
Nope! Each round of testing is different. Here’s an example where the United States Digital Service and the Federal Student Aid office tested with dozens and dozens of people and did not need PRA clearance because, for example, there were 19 different prototypes tested and each one was only tested with 1–5 people.
Prototypes by the brilliant Stephanie T. Nguyen. Public Domain GIF
I’m not a designer or design expert!
That’s ok! You don’t need a design degree to do a usability test. Here are two books that can help increase your confidence.
The people who own “services” here are super skeptical because this has been so expensive and hard in previous attempts.
Start with something super simple like a “closing letter,” (the letter a person gets at the end of a process) and ask some of the skeptical folks to sit in and watch. Empathize and don’t excuse past things that went wrong — acknowledge that it sounds very frustrating. The previous folks were likely trying to help, but got stuck in some common design-meets-government pitfalls.
We’re not building anything new right now.
That’s ok! Try something that’s live on your site now.
I totally agree with all of this in theory, but I feel really alone.
Good news! There are sweethearts all over government working on doing this work that would love to cheer you on. If you have a .gov or a .mil email address, join this UX Community listserv hosted by the General Services Administration (GSA)!: https://digital.gov/communities/user-experience/
I don’t have a remote way to host a usability test because no videoconference solutions are approved at my agency.
Reach out to folks at the GSA on that listserv, and ask if they’d observe *and digitally host* your test. They have very simple videoconferencing approved and love collaborating with different government agencies.
Note: This is just one way to accomplish this work. There are different ways that work well, too! | https://eriemeyer.medium.com/how-to-usability-test-a-government-service-e43d03834383 | [] | 2020-12-07 01:51:57.594000+00:00 | ['Government', 'Design', 'Policy', 'Technology'] |
Here’s why design thinking can make your products and services stand out | “Oh not again!” might be the reaction of some of you reading this article especially if you have been a part of a design project or a project of any sort and there was a professional UX designer present, who was taking probably “all the time in the world” (that’s what a lot of management staff and executive think or say behind the backs of UX designers or directly in their faces) or constantly has to justify his processes and designs at every given opportunity.
I understand firsthand how management teams get impatient when the deadline is approaching and the UX designer is just maybe getting started with “Ideation”, one of the design processes of design thinking.
In this article, I will tell you why design thinking should be taken more seriously by industry experts, management, executive bodies, and UX designers. I will reveal the importance of this design methodology, and how it affects a project.
So what is Design Thinking?
Photo from Interaction Design Foundation
Design thinking is not exclusive to designers
According to the Interaction Design Foundation ( IxDF) Design thinking is an iterative process in which you seek to understand your users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions which you can prototype and test. In essence, design thinking:
Revolves around a deep interest to understand the people for whom designers design products and services.
Helps us observe and develop empathy with the target users.
Enhances the ability to question: in design thinking, we question the problem, the assumptions, and the implications.
Proves extremely useful when the problems tackled are ill-defined or unknown.
Involves ongoing experimentation through sketches, prototypes, testing, and trials of new concepts and ideas.
Even though it is an iterative process, it is definitely not linear. That highlighted phrase alone has made it even easier for developers to be faster. But sometimes, designers wanna go linear and then nonlinear during a second iteration or third or fourth iteration.
As a business owner, you generally might think it’s really a waste of time trying to go from an empathy stage to a test stage for every project — which of course can be time-consuming. But I’ll tell you why you need to stick with the process and allow the UX designers to follow through with the science to solve complex problems. As much as UX designers try to solve complex problems, the time taken by these designers can be another complex problem altogether. So, the good news is, Google has developed a design methodology to make the design process fast and still offer valuable insight. Forget minimum viable product and focus on prototypes and build and test in a week. This methodology is called the Google Design Sprint. We’ll talk more about the design sprint in another article. For now, let’s talk about why you need a Design Thinking Process for your business.
Design thinking is for you
Photo courtesy of Williams Ivan
Tim Brown, CEO of the celebrated innovation and design firm IDEO, emphasizes this in his successful book Change by Design when he says design thinking techniques and strategies belong at every level of a business. Design thinking is not only for designers but also for creative employees, freelancers, and leaders who seek to infuse it into every level of an organization. This widespread adoption of design thinking will drive the creation of alternative products and services for both businesses and society.
Great design is simple, beautiful, and easy to use. It creates a sense of purpose and place. It responds to user needs, and it just works. Aside from these characteristics, how can we know whether a design is “good”? Moreover, how can a business know whether the investment of time and money into a design was worth it?
The proof is in the numbers. Businesses have slowly come around to recognize that design can be used as a differentiator to respond to changing trends and consumer behaviors. Time and time again, Fortune 500 names such as Apple, Microsoft, Disney, and IBM have demonstrated the intrinsic value of “design thinking” as a competitive advantage that impacts the bottom line and drives business growth — Toptal
They’ve come to recognize that design innovation happens at the intersection of desirability for customers, viability at the business level, and feasibility for technology. Design thinking — a product design approach that has been slowly evolving since the 1950’s — integrates all three.
Photo from Toptal
The design thinking process has become increasingly popular over the last few decades because it was key to the success of many high-profile, global organizations. This outside-the-box thinking is now taught at leading universities across the world and is encouraged at every level of business.
Design thinking, often brushed aside by business owners in previous decades, has now become a considerable driving force in the business world through mentions in the Harvard Business Review and Forbes.
Made into a buzzword and popularized by Tim Brown (CEO of IDEO, a global design firm), design thinking is “a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”
Today, this growing trend is changing fundamental business practices. It’s shifting the way the C-suite is thinking and how design and product teams operate. Some have even bought into the value of user experience and, by extension, investing in improving customer experience.
That is pretty incredible since just ten years ago most firms didn’t even know what user experience meant.
“The ‘Design Thinking’ label is not a myth. It is a description of the application of well-tried design process to new challenges and opportunities, used by people from both design and non-design backgrounds. I welcome the recognition of the term and hope that its use continues to expand and be more universally understood, so that eventually every leader knows how to use design and design thinking for innovation and better results.” – Bill Moggridge, co-founder of IDEO, in Design Thinking: Dear Don
However, it’s not an end-all solution. Just following the same processes without context will waste time and resources. Pentagram partner Natasha Jen succinctly reminds us that designers do great work not because of genius or process but because of critical reviews of their work and common sense when confronted with challenges in the workplace.
What is the value of design thinking for businesses?
It becomes clear that a culture driven by design thinking serves to promote innovation, productivity, and growth while keeping consumer needs above all. Thereby ensuring that organizations, corporations, startups, et al maintain their competitive edge by identifying and solving the end-users’ problems via design thinking and thus, incorporating the strategy of experience design as an integral aspect of their business model.
A strategist or experience designer holds the primary responsibility to plan and take educated risks when executing the design thinking process. This means working closely with large cross-functional teams of researchers, designers, developers as well as company stakeholders — to design methodologies that enable in-depth user research to prototype and test new services and products, and create innovative systems that bridge corporate strategy with design innovation to optimize sales and boost growth.
Note that all businesses have a never-ending list of goals, from constantly releasing new products that increase sales by resonating with customers to providing better customer support.
When a business decides on a new product, a massive, expensive machine shifts into high gear, especially at large corporations. The costs are enormous. Applying design thinking can help save vast amounts of money right away because it directs attention to the specific solutions people need — immediate cost savings are realized as part of the ROI of design thinking.
IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization, in its article, “Why Software Fails,” estimates that the amount spent on IT projects worldwide is approximately $1 trillion a year.
According to their report, of the top twelve reasons why projects fail, three are related to user-centered design failure:
Badly defined requirements Poor communications among customers and developers Stakeholder politics
Design thinking provides a simple way to hone in on exactly what the problems are — often discovering a different way of thinking about them — while also providing insights and data that are critical to building appropriate solutions that make a business money.
Design thinking breaks down complex issues into tangible ones that can be analyzed and solved. Making that change in your organization is no cakewalk, according to Citrix SVP of Customer Experience, Catherine Courage:
“You need to make [design thinking] part of all processes and not just something you do on select projects. Starting by looking through the customer lens has to be ingrained in everything you do. Developing that foundation and creating that cultural change across all projects and initiatives is what it takes.
That is no small feat, but organizations have found success following this strategy.
Here are reasons to invest in Design Thinking
It doesn't matter what role you occupy in a business, there are no-nonsense reasons why you need to invest in [Design Thinking].
Build customer satisfaction- conversion- retention journey. — Focusing on UX increases your revenue
Increases conversion rates
Improves customer retention and loyalty
2. Reduce development cost — Improving your UX saves you money
A little up-front UX research can save you hundreds of engineering hours and thousands of dollars
Decreases the cost of customer support
3. Improve ROI — Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of design thinking can be a challenge in any organization. More challenging still, the changes to your business’s operations may not directly reflect the product’s overall change in performance compared to the previous workflow. However, many cases show very clear signs that a design thinking methodology provides significant, positive change throughout the organization.
4. Rocket SEO ranking — Insisting on great UX drives competitive advantage and affects the bottom line. Just look at Dyson, Uber, Mint, Apple, IBM, and Intuit.
5. Stand out from the crowd.
Final thoughts
There is a wide array of opportunities that can help boost a product’s performance using practices founded on the principles of design thinking and experience design. Inevitably, the goal is to keep building a culture of innovation that is driven by the design thinking process and facilitates every stakeholder involved, to foster empathy and open doors to infinitely vast possibilities.
The value of user experience as a result of design thinking is especially compelling when comparing a user experience project to another investment with similar business goals. There were countless smartphones before Apple’s iPhone burst onto the scene. There were taxis before Uber and social networks before Facebook. There were plenty of vacuum cleaners before Dyson, retailers before Bonobos and Warby-Parker, and electric cars before Tesla.
All of these companies share one thing. It is their relentless focus on the customer and delivering the best user experience possible — which is deeply rooted in their design thinking methodology. | https://medium.com/@sharonaludo/heres-why-design-thinking-can-make-your-products-and-services-stand-out-ba7ea109bf99 | ['Xd. Sharon Somi Aludo'] | 2021-08-25 11:42:20.663000+00:00 | ['User Experience', 'Design Thinking', 'Organizational Culture', 'Business', 'Designer'] |
Moms Are Suffering: 3 Ways the Pandemic Aggravates Postpartum Anxiety | Moms Are Suffering: 3 Ways the Pandemic Aggravates Postpartum Anxiety lleTTonna Jul 23·10 min read
Let’s be honest: Welcoming a new baby into the world can be a daunting time for moms. After pregnancy, it’s completely normal to worry about whether your baby is eating well, getting enough rest, and if you’ll ever be able to recover from that hectic sleep schedule. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, pregnant women and new moms may experience heightened levels of anxiety and depression as they prepare their newborns for a world of strict social distancing and lockdown procedures.
It is clear that the pandemic is taking a turn for the better now, with the introduction of novel vaccines and the end of lockdown procedures. But it may be too late, as the long-lasting effects of the pandemic are already taking a heavy toll on moms dealing with postpartum anxiety. These are new challenges for today’s mothers that most moms in previous years did not have to face. These challenges will have serious consequences for mothers and their newborns in the long run.
Lack of Emotional Support
For starters, studies have shown that mothers with children at home are more likely to have a lack of emotional support during the pandemic. As the virus rapidly spreads across the world, it has led to a great deal of fear and worry for everyone. New moms have already got their hands full with the duties and responsibilities of caring for a new baby, and the pandemic is not making it any easier for them.
Therapists have also made major adjustments to their careers during the course of the pandemic to accommodate for the increased reports of mental health issues. Most of these therapists feel pressured to take on far more than they can handle due to the increased demand for mental health care workers. Many people tend to overlook the fact that these therapists are also adjusting to a new normal.
After all, therapists are human too; they can only take so much. Many face anxiety and stress during the pandemic and are unable to meet the increased demands without straining their own mental health. As a result, moms may not be getting access to or reaching out for emotional support during the pandemic. There are not enough therapists available to meet the needs of the general population, causing moms with postpartum anxiety to further suffer from their mental health issues.
Strict social distancing policies prevent moms from gathering in social settings and getting out of the house as often as they used to. Due to this, they are unable to seek the help they desperately need. Most of their social interactions have been limited to virtual calls and conversations with close family members. Emotional support groups are available but can be costly and time-consuming. After all, it can be hard for a new mom to find someone who is able to watch her baby for the evening, let alone finding some time for her personal life or a weekly support group.
Although immediate family members are still available to discuss mental health concerns, many moms live on their own or would much rather discuss their concerns with a therapist upfront. Even if they arrange to meet with a therapist or virtually interact with members outside of their family, many moms do not experience the same sentimental feeling that comes with discussing mental health matters face-to-face.
Having some concern and worry as a new parent can be healthy as it shows that you have genuine love and care for your bundle of joy. However, too much of something is never a good sign. Anxiety is how the body naturally responds to stressful events. It can usually be identified by feeling fear and nervousness, which can interfere with day-to-day activities. These feelings may be difficult to deal with or avoid during the pandemic. They can even lead to post-partum depression if they manifest into feelings of extreme sadness. In extreme cases, this could even lead to a lack of interest in your newborn baby.
These feelings of anxiety are worsened when moms feel restricted and unable to access sources for help due to the nature of strict lockdown and self-isolation procedures that have been implemented. Symptoms of postpartum anxiety can start during pregnancy and worsen over time, making the process of childbirth even more nerve-racking than it already is.
Without emotional support, moms battling postpartum anxiety may experience intense feelings of loneliness and isolation. It is critical for moms to have access to resources in order to discuss these feelings of isolation, otherwise the feelings could get worse and cause the mother to have unpleasant attitudes about their baby. Unresolved symptoms could lead to serious short-term and long-term consequences for a mother’s relationship with her newborn.
Contracting the Virus
COVID-19 poses substantial risks and challenges for new moms during the pandemic, even if they have not been directly infected by the virus. Social distancing and lockdown policies have increased the prevalence of postpartum anxiety in new moms. The pandemic has increased feelings of loneliness, isolation, and anxiety for moms.
Studies have shown that contracting the COVID-19 virus has been linked with anxiety. The Lancet Psychiatry journal published a study where patients with COVID-19 recorded whether they experienced symptoms of mental health disorders after testing positive. They found that within 3 months of testing positive for the coronavirus, about 20% of the patients suffered from one or more mental health disorders, including anxiety, depression or insomnia. About a quarter of these people had never been diagnosed with a mental health disorder before.
It’s also important to realize that this is only a small sample of the population and it’s more than likely that a greater percentage of the population has suffered from mental health issues during this period of time. Studies from NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre and the University of Oxford Department of Psychiatry have shown that patients with pre-existing mental health issues were 65% more likely to be tested positive for COVID-19 than those without any mental health-related issues.
So, what does this mean for us? Well, it’s safe to say that mothers who are diagnosed with COVID-19 are at a greater risk of suffering from postpartum anxiety or depression, especially those who have experienced postpartum anxiety in the past.
To make matters even worse, a common long-term symptom after having COVID-19 is known as post-viral fatigue. It manifests as symptoms of muscle pain, shortness of breath, and excessive fatigue or tiredness. Recovery can take a long time and varies for each person, but it most definitely does not help to be dealing with these symptoms alongside postpartum anxiety. Excessive feelings of fatigue can lead to mental and physical exhaustion, especially when caring for a baby. With gyms and parks being closed-off during the pandemic, physical exercise is not as easily accessible as it used to be, making it harder to recover from post-covid fatigue and postpartum anxiety.
Speaking with a doctor can help you manage the symptoms and figure out how to reduce feelings of tiredness. Most physicians will tell you to get enough rest (not too much or too little) and to let time do the healing. It’s also been suggested that symptoms do not always improve with rest. For mothers that are already dealing with altered sleep schedules and consistent feelings of tiredness, dealing with the long-term effects of COVID-19 can make postpartum anxiety more intense than it already is.
In more extreme cases of COVID-19, patients are placed in intensive care units where they require mechanical ventilators and other machines to aid their breathing. Surviving this is enough to make mothers more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression during the postpartum period. In addition to concerns about their own health, they need to make sure that they are feeding their baby on time, attending to their child’s needs, and keeping the baby company during the first few months of development. Even if they leave the baby with a caretaker or family member, it is stressful for a new mother to be separated from her newborn.
As we have seen, testing positive for COVID-19 can increase the intensity of postpartum anxiety, making it harder to recover and return to a balanced and normal lifestyle. As well, testing negative for the virus can also lead to feelings of intense anxiety during the postpartum period. Moms are silently suffering in more ways than we can imagine and the pandemic is only making it worse for them.
Dealing with Sudden Loss
Lockdown procedures prevent moms from going out and staying active in the community as they once were able to. Moms are now forced to stay in and spend more time scrolling through social media and watching the news. They are constantly being exposed to tragic events, stories of death and illness during the pandemic which makes it harder for moms to stay optimistic about their child’s future. Expecting moms may question whether they want to bring a child into a world of isolation and social distancing practices, as these restrictions can have a huge impact on their child’s development during the first few months of life.
The loss of loved ones is also making it harder to deal with postpartum anxiety. Being exposed to high suicide rates on the news can further lead to feelings of grief and sorrow. New mothers should express their feelings of sorrow following the death of a loved one. This grief is a natural response to loss, and it can help to reach out to family and friends for a shoulder to cry on. However, it may not be easy to find a shoulder when strict social distancing policies prevent you from seeing your friends and family.
Grief plays a role in hormone production during pregnancy and can lead to imbalances for both the mother and the child. We know that pregnancy causes drastic changes to hormone levels, and if these changes happen during the same time as grief, then you may experience unpleasant symptoms. The hormones affected by grief during pregnancy include serotonin (mood hormone) and cortisol (stress hormone). The fetus is also affected by these hormone changes which may cause long-lasting effects on the developing child.
Aside from the internal changes that occur when you grieve during pregnancy, physical symptoms may become worse if loss and pregnancy are occurring at the same time. Symptoms include, difficulty sleeping, digestive issues, as well as aching pain. These symptoms, along with a sudden loss, can increase the risk and severity of postpartum anxiety or depression.
If the grief is severe and has the potential to delay child development, a mother may be overwhelmed and feel responsible for the abnormal development for her child. These emotions could enhance postpartum anxiety, lead to greater stress and worsen the feelings of grief. Studies have shown that mothers dealing with the loss of a loved one during pregnancy delivered babies that were smaller in weight or had to deliver by C-section.
As mentioned earlier, the environment of the womb affects the developing fetus, and poor living conditions may contribute to long-term issues for the child. Intense feelings of grief felt by mom increase the child’s risk of developing anxiety, ADHD, and other cognitive defects. There is also a greater risk of stillbirth when moms are dealing with grief during pregnancy. When mothers provide an unsuitable environment for their child, they may feel like a burden which can further worsen symptoms of postpartum anxiety.
Mothers should be expressing their feelings if they are dealing with a sudden loss. Although they are not intentionally harming their child, they cannot help but feel responsible for any defects their baby may develop. It is extremely important for mothers to realize that it is not their fault, and that unexpected events happen, and are out of their control. All that matters is how you deal with these feelings and that you have chosen to tackle them moving forward.
Staying on the internet and seeing others go out and have fun during the pandemic makes it harder to deal with grief during the postpartum stage. It can be hard to avoid seeing people enjoy their lives online, and it is not always easy to turn off your phone or close your laptop when you are constantly inside the house. Feelings of missing out and sudden grief indicate that postpartum anxiety is waiting just around the corner for new moms.
As we have seen, moms are suffering due to a lack of emotional support during the pandemic, which prevents them from getting the help they need. Studies have shown that contracting the virus can worsen symptoms of depression and anxiety for moms. It is also unfortunate that many new moms have to deal with a sudden loss of family or friends during the pandemic. Taking all these factors into account, it is obvious that the pandemic is only aggravating symptoms of postpartum anxiety for new moms.
With the pandemic keeping moms at home, it’s been difficult to connect with others and get help during times of distress. We must work together because this is not just a problem for the moms in our communities; these moms will raise children who will lead our communities and shape our future.
Author
Malaika Matin, Radha Sharma, Mateusz Faltyn
lleTTonna
lleTTonna is a Canadian organization whose mission is to help mothers and their families thrive throughout pregnancy and the postpartum period via the development of innovative and personalized mental healthcare technologies.
Designed in consultation with physicians, psychologists, nurses, social workers, and women who have recovered from postpartum depression and anxiety, MomsOverMatter is a free web application that delivers information regarding personalized treatment options for postpartum depression and related disorders based on user-generated responses to validated questionnaires.
Follow us on our social media:
*Disclaimer: The content in this article is for informational purposes only and does not represent any form of formal diagnosis or medical recommendation. Only a trained healthcare professional can make diagnoses or recommendations. If you are concerned, please consult your healthcare professional. | https://medium.com/@llettonna/moms-are-suffering-3-ways-the-pandemic-aggravates-postpartum-anxiety-cdebe0cdab6 | [] | 2021-07-23 20:39:47.258000+00:00 | ['Moms', 'Health', 'Mental Health', 'Baby', 'Postpartum'] |
Tonight’s comic wants to live its best life. | https://www.dieselsweeties.com/ics/965/
PS: The ADMIRAL is here. | https://rstevens.medium.com/tonights-comic-wants-to-live-its-best-life-918ed1152b24 | [] | 2020-01-09 04:56:49.068000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Comics', 'Philosophy', 'Robots'] |
Business influencer marketing | Business influencer marketing
Influencer marketing has been on the rise since the start of the 2010s with social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube dominating the communication channels worldwide. It was regarded at first as purely consumer platforms and businesses were reluctant to build their following.
However, with the rise of online celebrities, influencers, it became clear how massive audience can help boost sales and brand awareness. Brand deals became a great monetisation source for influencers advertising products and for brands raising their brand awareness and increasing sales. E-commerce and large international brands were especially eager to use influencers to promote their products as they had a clear ROI.
But about small businesses? Can small to mid-size businesses also partner with influencers? The answer is definitely yes, so let me tell you how to do it.
Business Influencer Marketing — a guide to influencer marketing for small businesses
4 Types of influencers
First of all, let’s start with discerning four types of influencers based on their following:
Nano influencers : below 10,000 followers;
: below 10,000 followers; Micro influencers : between 10,000 and 100,000 followers;
: between 10,000 and 100,000 followers; Macro influencers : between 100,000 and 1,000,000 followers;
: between 100,000 and 1,000,000 followers; Mega Influencers: over 1,000,000 followers.
This distinction is important because based on the category you should expect a different quote for the services and different audiences.
For small businesses looking at influencer marketing, you probably want to partner with a nano or micro influencer: someone who has a small but loyal following in a very well defined niche, that might consist of your potential customers. For example, if you’re selling hardware parts and servers, you want to find someone who’s regularly creating content directed at IT administrators. Your audience and his/her audience overlaps.
How expensive is influencer marketing for small businesses?
It also makes more sense financially working with smaller influencers. It’s hard to give a general quote for what to expect because everything depends on:
location (yours and influencer’s),
niche (how crowded it is, the more crowded the lower the rates for nano/micro),
experience (is it the first deal for the influencer)
and so on. However, already a budget of $1,000 should give you the possibility to collaborate on a couple of social media posts or shorter articles with nano influencers. You can also partner by offering your products for free, especially if they are more price (e.g. laptops for a review).
There are many opportunities and the best way to start is simply to ask an influencer whether he would like to work with you on your brand and whether he can give you a quote.
Looking for business influencers
If you’ve decided that you want to try influencer marketing for your business, the next step is to draft a list of potential influencers you might want to work with.
This part is usually pretty straightforward, because you’ll be looking for content that is easy to find and contact the authors of the content.
How to do it?
Let’s say you’re manufacturing a laptop for data scientists. You can start by googling ‘data science’, ‘data scientist’, ‘data science laptop’, ‘data science career’ and go through texts noting who has written them and whether you can contact some of the people (some will be working at larger enterprises). Then you can do the same thing on YouTube, writing down the names of channels that you might want to contact.
Additionally, you can use tools like KWFinder to see — based on keywords — what articles are popular in your niche.
After building the initial list of influencers, simply start writing to them asking whether they want to partner with your business and what they would propose.
In the end, influencer marketing for small business is simply one person endorsing another person’s product.
Potential collaboration
Finally, if your audience is in data science, machine learning or artificial intelligence-related niches, and you want to start with influencer marketing, write to me (for example on LinkedIn). I have over 10,000+ followers across multiple platforms including 4,000+ on Medium, 7,000+ on LinkedIn, and 5,000+ on YouTube.
I’ve done a couple of partnerships in the past and I’m generally interested in helping startups, small and medium tech businesses, get more exposure. Let me know what you’re looking for or simply write to me describing your product or service and I’ll try to help. | https://medium.com/@pchojecki/business-influencer-marketing-ce92947c8b0d | ['Przemek Chojecki'] | 2020-12-16 10:25:11.154000+00:00 | ['Influencers', 'Small Business', 'Business', 'Influencer Marketing', 'Marketing'] |
Side-Hustle exploration: $18.8k bet on greyhounds | If your anything like me, you’re always looking for a side hustle and you always have been! In this particular post I want to explore ‘wagering’ as a side hustle idea with the reader.
‘Gambling’ is something that’s always had a big influence on me and been pretty ingrained in my life. My late Dad’s passion was Harness Racing. He always owned a couple of race-horses at a time which meant I was around the ‘trots’ a decent amount in my childhood and we always lived on large properties in Mundijong and Serpentine (Western Australia) to accommodate them! As a side note I feel very fortunate to have grown up on these big properties where there was always plenty of space to run around and animals to interact with.
In terms of my introduction to gambling I’m not sure exactly how old I was (my guess would be ~8) but some of my fondest childhood memories are spending Friday nights at home with Dad where we would fire up Channel Access 31 and watch the Friday Night Glocuster Park trots in front of the fireplace. Dad would draw us both up a hypothetical $10k on a piece of paper and we would place paper bets on each race taking the odds given on the screen, recording results, and seeing who would end up richer (or broke) by the end of the night.
This was a lot of fun as we were both competitive, there often had to be a ludicrous bet placed on the last race for the person behind to try and win, and of course I remember taking Dad to the cleaners every week (maybe this is just selective memory).
As another side memory whenever we actually physically went to Glocuster Park Dad had taught me how to fill out the bet slips and would hand me cash before certain races, verbalise what bet he wanted placed and send me across the park to the TAB to get the action on while he continued drinking beers by the track with his mates. I think this was a bit of a party trick to show off to his friends as in no world should an 8 year old be able to get a bet on (definitely wouldn’t work nowadays!) but it worked at almost a 100% frequency and I loved it :)
Anyway before I side-track too much the point I wanted to make is my Dad never directly taught me how to be a ‘winning’ punter but I think these lessons in participation growing up were massively influential for me in terms of having a creative, sensible and analytical mind when it came to money. Even just very little and simple lessons like not putting the full 10k paper bankroll on race 1, and that there’s a reason a horse might be paying something lucrative like 60 to 1 etc.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m big on poker and have been for a number of years and while that activity is something I’ve put a decent amount of time and effort into over those years I don’t really bet on sports/greyhounds/horses and it isn’t something I’ve studied, so this might be an interesting look into someone who has had a ‘dabble’ only (a mere mortal!) in this arena. I think it could be interesting as most of this kind of ‘content’ I imagine would come from full blown horse betting professionals so it could be a more relatable perspective.
The story and the stats
I explored Greyhounds/Horse Race betting as serious side hustle from 13/06/2019 until 24/07/2019.
I made a total of 126 wagers during this time for a total $18,818.25 in bets placed and returned $24,079 for a net profit of $5260.75 throughout the period (see stats and graphs below). I should note that there is about ~$1300 of subscription costs not included in the below stats which means true profit is closer to about $4,000 over the 6 weeks.
How’s it done?
In terms of ‘complexity’ it’s somewhat simple when it comes to a side hustle. My strategy was to sign up for tipping services and simply just follow their advice to a tee. The services will tell you how much to put on (usually discussed in units of bankroll), what price you need to obtain the action on, and maybe even suggest which bookmaker to place the bet with.
I probably shouldn’t downplay the ‘complexity’ too much as there are a few important points -
You need to research the services and go through the results before you ultimately choose which ones to sign up to… all service providers are pretty transparent with their results (or at least should be/seem to be) and have all the data neatly available on how their specific tips are doing. For example something that I think to look out for is, I’ve come across services which may be in sustained downswings (consistently losing) over a long period of time but still might be receiving public sign ups as the service is correctly referred to as a ‘lifetime winner’. There’s nothing cloak and dagger about this, the results and data is there to openly and transparently read, you just have to take a deep look and make your own interpretations of it. You need to be in a position to act swiftly when the tips are sent to you… It’s actually quite fascinating to see but when the tips get sent out you can watch the market move and the prices drop almost straight away (within a minute). Therefore, you need to be able to act on the tips almost immediately when they are sent. Having the ‘right’ tip isn’t enough. The best service I was signed up to would alert customers at what time tips would be coming through which was great as you could get yourself prepared. You need to keep emotions in check. For this side hustle to work you need to trust and follow the services suggestions to a tee. Most relevant — the amount of units to risk and what price you need to obtain. Your emotions may influence you to ignore these suggestions in a number of ways but might include wanting to risk a bigger amount of units for a bigger return, or still wanting to get action on even if you’ve missed the required price etc. Simply ‘following instructions’ might seem like the simplest thing noted here but maintaining rationality to do so can be more challenging than it sounds. You need to be signed up at multiple bookmakers and have multiple accounts funded. Getting the right price as has been mentioned is one of the most important aspects for these services to be profitable over the long term. Naturally, prices on any specific market will be different across the bookmakers and you need to be able to get on at the bookmaker which has the best price available. When this is combined with point 2 mentioned above, not only is it important to have the account open where you can get the best price but for it to be funded to allow for the required swift action. You need to separate punting roll. While your suggested ‘start bank’ will be flexible and person/situation dependent it’s important that this roll is completely separate to any other of your life bankrolls and that you only have the suggested % or units of bankroll on per bet. Tipsters don’t win every bet they win over large sample sizes, therefore your bankroll needs to be both isolated and in good enough health to not only sustain the inevitable downswing or bad run but still be around to be able to participate and experience the inevitable upswing/good run. I will touch on this more below, but bookmakers will ban or restrict winning accounts (disgusting I know). Therefore, to do this ‘successfully’ and over a longer period of time you need to have some sort of strategy in place to delay detection. For eg if the tipping service is suggesting you ‘load up’ on a certain tip you are best to spread this bet across a few accounts as putting all of the big bet in 1 slip will no doubt increase likelihood of raising some sort of ‘flag’ on your account. Also if you’re only placing bets in some sort of ‘specialist’ or niche domain this will increase likelihood of swifter detection by the bookmaker so might be worthwhile to throw in a couple of small random ‘dummy’ bets on something random here and there. Bookmakers will keep you open if they think they’ll get their money back, they’ll close you down if they think they won’t (or lose more to you).
Why did I stop after July 24?
There are a few reasons why I stopped with this ‘dabble’ after 24/07/19.
Firstly, I was in a downswing. My betting tracker has my peak profit during the period at $7333.75 so with a final profit of $5260.75 this indicates a ~$2.1k downswing. If you factor in the flow of subscription costs too the true downswing might actually be somewhere in the region of ~$2.6k. Having played poker for almost a decade I’m accustomed to the ‘swings’ but regardless of how stoic you might become a losing period still never feels good no matter how significant or insignificant the amounts. I guess you don’t usually step away during an upswing…
Secondly, I didn’t like the feelings it was giving me. When it comes to playing poker I very rarely if ever feel like I’m behaving in a ‘compulsive’ way. During this 6 week period there are definitely times when I felt this way as I’d be ‘sweating’ the results of races, or feeling some sort of adrenaline dump when I no longer had the action on etc. I’m not 100% sure why this is the case, my best guess would maybe be because the study and decision-making aspect is ‘outsourced’ which can’t be done in a poker game… And maybe lacking this understanding of the tipster’s process increases the feeling of ‘chance’ taking away the grasp you might have of things such as odds/percentages/frequencies etc when playing poker. Nonetheless they weren’t the most pleasant feeling to recognise.
To further add to these odd feelings as mentioned above bookmakers will ban or restrict you once you’re identified as a winning or strategic punter. This is an interesting experience in itself. Part of it makes me feel pretty chuffed that a bookmaker no longer wants my action, part of it makes me feel a little daft as you realise you didn’t have successful strategy implementation of point 6 above, but a small aspect of it also makes you feel a bit like public number 1 and that you’ve done something wrong. I guess the bookmakers maybe have a clever psychological way of wording the emails making you feel like you’ve been scolded by your year 4 primary school teacher and that you now have to serve the recess and lunch detention.
Lastly there’s no value add — Participating in this activity has no societal value add therefore difficult to feel some sort of ‘fulfilment’ or ‘meaning’ through participation.
Conclusion — Would I suggest this as a side hustle?
I would score this 4/10 as a side hustle. It doesn’t score higher than this as it’s not a positive sum endeavour. Sure, the argument can be made that profits from the activity can then be distributed in some sort of valuable way but for me it doesn’t change the fact that the activity in itself isn’t positive sum.
You’re now probably shouting at me saying ‘but poker isn’t positive sum’, and I agree it most certainly isn’t but I think poker has massive benefits to the individual as a competitive domain and I go through some of those positives in my 3rd post. I’m hesitant to make the comparison as it gets a pretty polarised response from the poker community, but I think poker can almost be thought of as similar to playing a sport. (a mental one at that)
Poker for me would score higher than 4 for these reasons but not as high as a profitable positive sum endeavour would.
I still score wagering at 4 as if you can get your head around the intricacies mentioned above there is profit to be made, and although it’s zero sum I’ll never feel any sort of ill feelings whatsoever taking money from a bookmaker!
In closing I don’t promote ‘gambling’ and think the entrepreneur can find a better side hustle. Please don’t read this, lose money gambling and then blame me — I’m suggesting you find something else. ‘Wagering’ isn’t currently integrated into my time but it’s not something I’ve closed the door on either moving forward. It would be a tricky point to find but maybe I can find the right ‘balance’ in the activity where it takes a negligible amount of time (still keeping time free for more ‘fulfilling’ or ‘meaningful’ activities), being small enough to not elicit some of the feelings I’ve described above, and yet large enough for financial returns to be sufficiently lucrative to still participate. Maybe there can also be more thought placed into where and how profits are used/distributed to garner some sort of ‘meaning’ from participating. We’ll see. | https://medium.com/@patrickc0nn0lly/side-hustle-exploration-18-8k-bet-on-greyhounds-over-6-weeks-7e1efa1b3d74 | ['Patrick Connolly'] | 2020-12-20 00:06:02.444000+00:00 | ['Side Hustle', 'Gambling', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Sports Betting'] |
DEx.top Delisting Criteria | Dear Valued DEx.top customer,
To maintain a healthy trading environment and pleasant trading experience, DEx.top launches delisting criteria as follows:
Criteria:
A token’s daily trading volume averages under 5ETH/day for more than 30 consecutive days, A token has no trading volume for more than 7 consecutive days; The project faces major legal issues; The project team is dissolved; Major technical or security flaws in the project are not resolved in a timely manner; The project is suspected of severe market manipulation; The team released heavily falsified information about the project or their activities; The project’s main net goes live and their ERC20 token is replaced by a coin and no longer circulated; The project does not align with DEx.top’s long-term development plans.
Points to note:
DEx.top will communicate with the project team before commencing delisting procedures and try to minimize any impact on the project. Trading, order placement and deposits will cease after a token is delisted. Any open orders will be automatically canceled. Withdrawals will continue as normal. Users have 30 days to withdraw their tokens after delisting unless there are exceptional circumstances (e.g. token main net goes live or major security flaws are discovered). DEx.top reserves the right to release an explanation for the delisting.
DEx.top | https://medium.com/dex-top/dex-top-delisting-criteria-45dcb4cb2800 | [] | 2018-08-31 03:34:19.048000+00:00 | ['Listings', 'Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'Decentralized Exchange', 'Bitcoin'] |
Why people love candid wedding photography? | Why people love candid wedding photography?
Capturing the real emotions of the Bride & Groom, and their family and all the people in a wedding ceremony. We say it candid photography (Unposed Photos).
Why SNAP CITY is so famous for wedding photography and cinematography in Bhubaneswar, Odisha?
Snap City is one of the most renowned wedding photography service providers in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. They specialize in candid wedding photography & cinematic wedding films. We provide optimal quality photography & videography services to our valuable clients throughout the country.
Snap City is one of being notable wedding photography & wedding film making service providers based in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. They are here to blend their experiences of creativity and technicality to give you an exquisite concoction in photography and videography services. They have a wide range of services for you to choose to make your big day memorable. Their style is primarily photojournalistic, capturing the day in candid and natural photos. They also value posed portraits of the bride and groom, bridal party, families, etc. However, They keep these portraits natural and simple, with no cheesiness. They do have a team of a technically qualified group of young people, who are enthusiastic and energetic wedding photographers & cinematographers to provide you the best service you always seek for. Our patrons can buy this service as per their necessities at reasonable rates.
Snap City’s Contact Details:
Website: www.snapcity.in
Phone/Whatsapp: 07077044285
Email: [email protected] | https://medium.com/@mysnapcity/why-people-love-candid-wedding-photography-19f88443e491 | [] | 2019-10-21 14:07:52.231000+00:00 | ['Photography', 'Wedding Photography', 'Photo'] |
How to save money — financial habits that will make you rich. | There’s no one among us who does not like to have more money. Becoming rich is one of those things many of us dream about; waking up with no financial worries, no mortgage, no credit card debt, and so on.
Developing good financial habits in your 20s and 30s is the key to having a rich financial future. Savings today are what guarantee the security and the possibilities of tomorrow.
One of the smartest things that you can ever do for yourself is to develop the habit of saving part of your salary, every single paycheck.
Here are 7 ways to save now so you’re rich later.
Make a budget
Budgeting helps you prioritize your expenditure and find a balance between spending and saving across a whole year.
If you want to make sure that the budget you land on is something that you can easily understand without pulling out your hair. Something that could work for you and is super easy to follow is the 50/30/20 budgeting rule. Allocate 50% of your income to necessities like food, utilities, housing, and health, 30% to wants such as dining out, entertainment, etc, and the remaining 20% towards debt and savings.
And if you’re looking for a budget that is a bit more specific and gives a plan for every single dollar, the Zero-Based Budgeting Method may be the one for you. This method is the best for someone who has never had a budget because it gives every penny a place to be and can really take a lot of the guesswork out of budgeting.
Budgeting is one of the best things you can do. It will make a plan for your money and make your money work for you which means you’ll be under continuous financial improvement.
2. Track your spending
It’s important to keep track of your day-to-day spending, so you don’t live beyond your means. Your bank statement will tell you how much money is going into your bank account and how much is going out.
You can then compare it with your budget to see whether you’re sticking to it or not.
3. Smooth your bills
Bill smoothing’ is a payment system offered by utility providers (electricity, gas, water) whereby you pay them fortnightly or monthly, instead of having to pay the whole bill in one go.
This allows you to save money over time to pay for certain bills annually– taking advantage of discounts for paying bills and premiums in one hit rather than in installments.
4. Start Meal Planning
Wasting food and eating out are two of the biggest money wasters. You’re never going to have a ton of money in the bank if you’re constantly spending your money on food that you aren’t even going to eat.
Meal planning is one of those things that you need to develop early if you really want to make it a habit that will stick.
5. Choose a Modest Place to Live
Did you know it’s not recommended to spend more than 25% of your take-home income on your house?
A lot of people seem to think that if they can’t afford their dream home by the time they turn 25, they are a failure. However, most of us won’t be able to afford even half of our dream home by 30, so stop rushing!
You don’t want to end up being house poor and having no money to put toward savings or investing.
6. Say ‘no’ to your children sometimes and teach them about money
Even if you can afford to buy, it is good to deny your children what they want once in a while. Children need to learn and understand the value of money. Have age-appropriate discussions with your children, ensuring that all conversations about money are framed positively.
7. Open a savings account
Savings accounts can give you a higher interest rate than a basic transaction account.
Savings accounts are somewhere you can put some or all of your discretionary income — the amount left over after paying for personal necessities and tax — and any windfalls (e.g. tax refund). You can ward off the temptation to spend this discretionary money by setting up automatic, scheduled transfers from your main account (transaction account) to your savings account.
Personal finance doesn’t have to be scary, it can be simple if you just take it one step at a time. Start by making the small changes that will make no difference to your current lifestyle and then push yourself that step further to become more frugal with your earnings. With the right habits, you can become super-rich.
If you can think of any other financial habits that can kick-start your journey towards wealth, let us know in the comments below. | https://medium.com/timelybills-blog/how-to-save-money-financial-habits-that-will-make-you-rich-17f5488b9b8 | ['Pavleen Kaur'] | 2021-07-23 10:12:12.385000+00:00 | ['Money Management', 'Money Mindset', 'Personal Finance', 'Saving Money', 'Finance'] |
A Whatchamacallit: an ABC Poem about Stupid Smartphones | A smartphone —
Being the agent of
Change, is
Deliberately designed to make
Everybody
Focused on an area
Generally about
Half a meter in every direction.
It’s an incredible transformation — accomplished
Just by limiting people’s focus
Keeping them from seeing their world. Not
Letting them know how
Most everybody in the world
Now is limited to the same little bubble,
Only observing what other “bubble
People” see and have to say. Except . . . The media haven’t
Quit shrinking people’s worldview, reporting
Racism,
Stories about Covid-19,
Trumpism . . . and not much else
Unless you
Value stories about the lives of the rich and famous
Who might be the only ones who get to the
XYZs of the alphabet — the larger world, while formerly normal people are
Yet stuck at A and B, completely
Zoned out, no longer aware of that larger world . . .
FRED | https://medium.com/the-bad-influence/a-whatchamacallit-an-abc-poem-about-stupid-smartphones-b2d052d4529b | ['Fred Ermlich'] | 2020-12-15 13:02:42.596000+00:00 | ['Abecedarian', 'The Bad Influence', 'Vaccine Bullshit', 'Smartphones', 'Fred Ermlich'] |
Perfect Blue — Self-Destruction. > ..Open your eyes | Your eyes fly open to the overhang of a weeping willow, head propped against the log, surrounded in glowing moss and bioluminescent mushroom. The vague taste of metal in your mouth. You’ve been here before. This place is your sanctuary. Slowly, you stand, allowing the canopy of leaves to dance past your face; and you smile warmly to yourself as they split across your face and you walk to the middle of the clearing.
This is your Nirvana.
The dim flickering of the lamp post gives your ghostly form a twinge of blue, making it appear as if you were nothing more than part of the background. Passing leagues of bustling people, all tinted a dark grey as if they were silhouettes, you carry yourself with such regal strides it was almost as if you were royalty. The monarch of this serene area. The benevolent sovereign, tasked with the responsibility to keep your Nirvana unscathed.
You approach the pond.
The crowd of gray-faces repel from you, getting no more than a couple inches from your form before bouncing off of the imperceptible forcefield that shrouded over you, and your skin glowed evermore as you phased through the tamagaki fencing that encased the pond.
Sacred. The feeling of confidentiality rippled over you as you approached the pebble outskirts of the gently ebbing water. You’ve never been here before. Yet you feel a sense of familiarity; the warmness of a family member or close friend. You dare to spare a glance into the pond, gazing into the reflection it cast back at you.
Your face. Your form. Your avatar. Your face gleamed a brilliant, soft blue; imperceivable. You were dressed in a flowing fabric that blew in the perpetual wind, your arms lined with a mirage of drooping bluebell, dill and hibiscus’. The length of your neck disappeared underneath the nest of stems and vines that flowed from your hair, which was transparent and streamlined like a mist.
You did not recognise the figure that stared back at you.
And yet you knew it was you.
> Become defiled
The sound of bricks shattering and hitting the soft mesh of the grass, as well as the deafening hum of machinery mixed with the harsh outcries of a crowd. The fence stood no chance against the large apparatus’, caving in immediately and giving entrance to the ambiguous swarm of entities.
The gray-faces, now a sea of red and yellow; blindingly vibrant.
You barely had time to gather your bearings before of the Reds struck you in the head with a brick, the blunt-force causing your form to collapse to the ground and plunge face-first into the crystalline water. More of the crowd flooded in, in tow; and began the grisly assault of beating your misted body into the ground with bricks, fists and other heavy machinery.
Your vision, tinted and blurred red from both the blood dripping down your face and flowing into the water, began to dim. The sickening ripping of your cloak as the treatment continued, for seemingly hours. You listen as the crowd began to tear your pond apart, brick by brick, grass strand by grass strand, dirt inch by dirt inch.
Your mind, clouded with confusion and anger, struggled to keep your battered body animated. It seemingly focused all its energy into fuelling your sluggish thoughts, and even that was growing more and more difficult by the minute.
There is about 11000 different species of grass. | https://medium.com/@19762034/perfect-blue-self-destruction-d992f275b97a | ['Isobelle Padilla'] | 2021-06-08 08:38:07.760000+00:00 | ['Interactive Story', 'Deforestation', 'Rpg', 'Paradise', 'Story'] |
Observe your Kubernetes Admission Webhook Configurations easily | In this guide, we are gonna talk about the journey of writing a kubectl plugin for Kubernetes Admission Webhooks. Let’s divide this article into three parts, first, we are gonna explain how we decided to write a plugin for Kubernetes Admission Webhooks, then which tools we used for writing a plugin, how we accomplished to distribute the plugin via Krew.
📰 Ingredients
Please note that, the purpose of this article is not about how to write a kubectl plugin from scratch, which means we will not dive into the technical details. There is an official documentation exist about this, I strongly recommend you to take a look this documentation:
https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/extend-kubectl/kubectl-plugins The only purpose of this article is sharing our experience about writing kubectl-plugin, what we are expecting from this article is guiding to the users who wants to write a kubectl-plugin.
How we decided to write a plugin?
In the beginning, we did a little search about the available plugins in the Kubernetes community. We quickly noticed that there is no plugin available related to Kubernetes Admission Webhook. So, we started to do some research about how we could design our plugin, what information we had about Kubernetes Admission Webhook, and how we could make use of these pieces of information effectively.
Let’s first lookout for the full information that we have.
$ kubectl get mutatingwebhookconfigurations config-sidecar-injector -oyaml | silicon -l yaml — output out.png
In this picture, you will see nearly all the available fields for the MutatingWebhookConfiguration resource. You notice that there is a lot of information available on this resource that can we use, but the YAML output of this resource is not useful from the human perspective. To be able to make this output more human-readable and well-organized, we decided to extract the utmost important values to a table format in the terminal. By doing this, we are giving a clear see to the user what’s configurations that they have.
This is the final output of our plugin that shows fields that we decided to be able to understand the details of the plugin you can take a look at this from the Github repository.
What tools we used for it?
We followed the guide¹ that shows us how we can write a kubectl plugin from the Kubernetes official documentation. Writing a kubectl plugin is nothing than writing a simple CLI tool. You can write a plugin in any programming language or script that allows you to write command-line commands.We thought that Go is the best choice for this type of work, so we moved on with it. You have a lot of options to be able to write a CLI app with Go, for example, Cobra, Urfave/cli, or Go built-in flag package. We chose the Cobra among these tools because of its wonderful features that are provided. The next thing we need to do is we must give the users the same experience(flags, outputs, etc.) which kubectl does, to be able to do that we need to use some libraries. Here are the suggested libraries and samples that we can use when we write a plugin with Go.
If you are planning to write a plugin with Go, check these out ²:
• client-go: a Go SDK to work with Kubernetes API and kubeconfig files
• cli-runtime: Provides packages to share code with kubectl for printing output or sharing command-line options
• sample-cli-plugin: An example plugin implementation in Go There are also a lot of plugins available, if you interested in.
Last but not least, we need a library that we can use to gain beautiful Terminal UIs. Pterm and the tablewriter come into the picture in this part. Pterm is for the colorful and well-organized output like Tree or Bullet List, and tablewriter is for the show the output within the table. You can build great Terminal UIs by using them.
By default, plugins that use client-go cannot authenticate to Kubernetes clusters on many cloud providers. To overcome this, add the following import to somewhere in your binary ²:
import _ "k8s.io/client-go/plugin/pkg/client/auth"
How we accomplished distribute the plugin via Krew?
Krew is the plugin manager for kubectl command-line tool.
Krew helps you:
discover kubectl plugins,
install them on your machine,
and keep the installed plugins up-to-date.
Once you write this plugin, you can distribute it via krew ³, in order to do that, you should simply write a manifest file, then send it to the krew-index. Once the manifest added to the krew-index, the other krew users can download your plugin via krew with the simple command:
$ kubectl krew install view-webhook
Here is the our manifest file that we send it to the krew-index:
Conclusion
As you can see, writing a kubectl plugins is not as hard as you think.You can create your own wonderful kubectl plugins with just couple of code and the help of utility libraries.
Here is our plugin, you can find it on this repository. Please do not forget to drop a ⭐️ if you liked. 😅
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Furkan Türkal for all the support
Thanks to Ahmet Alp Balkan for adding the plugin to krew-index and all the suggestions
References
If you want to discover more: #joinus #cometotrendyol | https://medium.com/trendyol-tech/observe-your-kubernetes-admission-webhook-configurations-easily-c47d4d2917df | ['Batuhan Apaydın'] | 2020-11-18 13:34:07.413000+00:00 | ['Platform', 'Kubectl Plugin', 'Kubectl', 'Krew', 'Kubernetes'] |
The Now Nearly Forgotten Jack London | THE WRITING LIFE
The Now Nearly Forgotten Jack London
“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
Photo by Alberto Restifo on Unsplash
In my first writers conference, the week-long Decision School of Writing, the instructor who made the greatest impression on me was Dennis Hensley. Hensley was teaching a class on Advanced Article Writing, though it actually contained plenty more than that.
He shared many actionable ideas, one of them being a recommendation to read Jack London’s Martin Eden, which he suggested would be highly instructive for wannabe freelance writers. It became my re-introduction to the writings of Jack London.
It seems like we don’t hear much about Jack London these days. One of my favorite short stories of all time — “A Piece of Steak” — was penned by London. It’s my understanding that he was the highest paid short story writer in America for a spell. There were no television sets or radios back then. Reading had very little competition as far as diversions go. People who could write a compelling story were rewarded accordingly.
His output was prodigious. Hemingway famously set out to write 500 good words a day. London’s aim was 1000 words a day. He published 40 novels and collections of stories before his premature death.
In addition to being a writer London was an adventurer. Having grown up in poverty, he pursued a variety of “careers” to get on his feet, all of which provided substantial material for the stories and tales he would later write. The power of “To Build A Fire” comes from his first-hand knowledge of Arctic winters. Sailor, oyster pirate and Klondike Gold Rush seeker were just a few of his first-hand experiences that provided a serious authenticity to his work as a journalist, novelist and storyteller.
Having risen out of poverty himself, he became a public speaker and advocate for the poor. And having been influenced by socialist ideals put him at odds with enemies of socialism.
His autobiographical John Barleycorn (1913) about his battle with alcoholism provided ammunition for the Prohibitionist movement which ultimately achieved its aim with the passage of the Volstead Act in 1920. He never saw this come to pass though, for he died at age 40 from kidney failure due to his drinking.
I don’t know if Call of the Wild is still widely read in schools, but I remember it from my early reading years. Burning Daylight is a memorable read, and Martin Eden is must reading if you’re serious about a writing career. Many good insights and takeaways here. I’ve read it twice.
What follows are some Jack London quotes or excerpts from his stories. | https://medium.com/swlh/the-now-nearly-forgotten-jack-london-b96aa5c5f751 | ['Ed Newman'] | 2019-09-23 11:42:17.192000+00:00 | ['Ideas', 'Writing', 'History', 'Books', 'Authors'] |
5 Minute DevOps: The Thin Red Line | I was speaking at a DevOps meetup in Finland recently and was asked, “what does DevOps mean to you?” I love that they started the conversation that way. DevOps no longer means Development and Infrastructure teams cooperating and it has never truly been a job or a team. We are not solving a technical problem. We are trying to solve a business problem. How do we more effectively deliver value to our customers?
Note: If someone works for our company, they only become a customer when they buy something from our company.
DevOps is the way we work to improve the continuous flow of value to the end-user. Since our goal is to improve value delivery, we must measure how we deliver value, identify the constraints, and continuously improve the constraints. Everything we do and how we do it must be examined for the value it delivers and be removed if it is not delivering value. This is a long-term process that takes strategy, change management, and constant focus. The reason so many improvement efforts fail is that executives are rarely rewarded for long term improvement. Splashy “Transformation!™” efforts make analysts happy, make good presentations at conferences, and result in job offers. Real improvement requires more than the 2–3 year tenure of many IT executives.
In Star Trek gold is the color of command, blue is the color of science and medicine, and red is operations. Red Shirts are engineers, communications, security, and everything else required to keep the ship running. They are also the first to die when things get tense.
Every organization contains people who, when given the chance, will drive improvement. They care about where they work and the people they work with. They want to make their lives, their co-workers’ lives, and the lives of their customers better. In Gene Kim’s “The Unicorn Project”, the Red Shirts are the cast of engineers and engineering managers who want to make things better. They know where things are broken and decide the best thing to do is to fix things instead of seeking greener pastures. They are passionate, at times subversive, change agents who conspire to improve things that result in larger improvements and better lives for everyone. These characters are based on real stories Gene collected from the DevOps community. In the book, there aren’t very many of them. All of them can comfortably sit at the bar after hours and discuss the next things they will try to fix. It’s a fragile rebellion that could fail if only 2–3 key players left. This is the reality of most grass-roots efforts.
I had a conversation with Gene Kim in 2018 discussing the work of pushing from the grassroots. I’ll never forget what he told me, “This work requires a certain level of not caring about the consequences”. That’s true. It’s risky to challenge the status quo; to “swim upstream”. It requires courage even when you believe that a senior executive approves of the work. It requires challenging people who are not used to being challenged; pushing just hard enough to not get “promoted to customer”. Because of this, there are not very many people willing to do it. However, when change is starting, those are the people who will passionately drive the day to day improvements needed to achieve the mission. If an executive talks about making things better, the Red Shirts are the people who execute. In some cases, they are even the people selling the value to the CIO or CTO. They are the people who will infect others with the mission and expand the effort. That infection doesn’t come from meetings, OKRs, and directives filtering down the leadership chain. It comes from the Red Shirts understanding the goals, seeing the problems, and coming up with solutions.
This work is hard, it’s stressful, and the number of people driven to do it is a tiny fraction of any organization. I’ve spoken to many Fortune 100 companies who need real change to happen to stay competitive. You could literally count their Red Shirts on your fingers. If you want lasting change, you'll need to find a way to expand the Thin Red Line. Make improvement a valued activity in the culture and recognize those who try. | https://medium.com/itrevolution/5-minute-devops-the-thin-red-line-84810dfdf2c5 | ['Bryan Finster'] | 2021-02-09 17:43:57.966000+00:00 | ['Value Stream Management', 'Culture', 'Improvement', 'DevOps'] |
How I Lost 15 lbs In 5 Months?. Let me share with you my personal story… | Here’s My Story!
It was Spring Break of 2020, and I received a call from my employer letting me know that I have been temporarily laid off from the hotel I was working at due to the effects of COVID-19. It made me feel sad and grateful at the same time, and you’ll understand why in a moment.
Before this, I had become a mom. My husband and I have three children under the age of 9, and we also have a dog.
Between my life as a wife, mom and my career, often, I find myself not having time to exercise or de-stress. When I was living in these moments, I can handle the pressure. But when I was temporarily laid off, I realized how much I needed the time for myself.
Before we had to stay home, I asked a colleague, who is also a Registered Nutritionist, why I can’t seem to lose weight, and she said it’s the effects of stress and hormones that play in our body.
With my layoff, I am now searching for another job or career to help support our family. But I needed something with a flexible schedule, and I can do it from home.
In the meantime, I decided it’s a great time for me to look after myself since I only have one hat to worry about, being a mom, and taking care of my family. You see, I’ve always wanted to lose 50 lbs and get back to a healthier weight, But I want to find a simple system that is easy to follow and sustainable, so I don’t have to plan different meals for our family. As a mom of 3, dog mom, wife, and career searching, I only have so much time for myself but I don’t have the whole day either.
During my maternity leave, my husband and I decided to try and go on a vegetarian lifestyle because we were trying to find a solution for the skin condition I developed during the last month of my pregnancy with our third child. Halfway through, my husband and I decided to bring meat products back into our diet because our son struggled to adapt to this lifestyle.
After my maternity leave, I returned to my career. I had a great plan to continue eating clean, but I didn’t realize I became stressed out between the multiple hats I wear, and my body also felt it. Over time, I gained more weight, and no matter how much I try to lose it, it just wouldn’t happen for me.
Then, the pandemic happened. When we needed to stay home, I decided to use the extra time I have very well. But staying home also caused me to eat more every day with our 3 kids.
Then, the longer we were on lockdown, I noticed I started gaining more weight. My clothes do not fit anymore. They felt tight everywhere. When we would take photos sitting down, I would place a pillow to hide my belly, or I would try to angle myself to look a bit thinner.
Taken: June 23, 2020
Then, one day, I was sitting on our balcony and took a headshot. I was surprised by how big my face looked.
When some of the restrictions were lifted, I went back to my gym. But I could only go during their business hours, which was difficult because I have to schedule it around my husband’s work schedule. When the kids went back to school, I didn’t have the motivation to go physically.
Deep inside, I know I felt insecure with my weight gain, but I’ve always tried to look at the positive side of it and learned to love myself for what I’ve physically become. It’s the only way I know I can keep myself together because my family needs me to be strong.
Besides wanting to look great again on the outside and fitting into my clothes. I want to lose weight because I want to be healthy to live longer and spend more time with my family.
I want to lose weight because I don’t want my marriage to fall apart. This may seem superficial, and I genuinely know he wouldn’t leave me at my worst, but I don’t need to go through those emotions to realize it’s time to look after myself.
I want to lose weight because I want to feel good, genuinely. My husband and I promised each other that we would still upkeep ourselves to be “yummy” parents after having kids. Again, it may be superficial for some, but we want to do something our kids could emulate.
I want my three kids to learn firsthand how to look and feel good because it would be something they’ll take with them when they are older. After all, that’s what my parents did for me.
Later, I realized that my body couldn’t lose weight because my metabolism was slow due to the hormone imbalances that my body endured, plus the stress from my three pregnancies, being a parent, work and aspiring to become a crazy super mom.
By the time I realized this, I was already too heavy and couldn’t motivate myself to do anything strenuous.
Then, as if by chance, something amazing happened…
One day, I was chatting with a friend. I learned how she makes money online by using her phone and promoting products. I also learned about the coolest things; how 1 tablespoon a day will reduce fat mass and improve body composition. I also learned about a product with 2 tablespoons a day will improve joint health and maintain healthy skin. Plus, when customers create their account, they automatically have their own coupon code to share, earn rewards, and don’t have to be in business.
That’s when I realized I have the answer to my desires. I never thought I’d find it so quickly, but it’s exactly what I’m looking for, and the products sound promising for my weight loss journey. The more I learned about their cool ingredient, the more I felt confident about staying behind these products.
So I decided to try their products first to kick start my weight loss journey.
But then, I realized that the products were out of my budget (remember, I was temporarily laid off), and I couldn’t afford the full system, but I had to get creative if I want to change my circumstances today.
Within 3 months, the products helped me gain more energy, motivation to work out and participate and complete a 28-Day Fitness Challenge from home. In 5 months, I was able to lose 15 lbs out of my goal of 50 lbs.
Here’s one of the many photos my husband took of me. Taken: Nov 26, 2020
This meant I found a sustainable solution to losing weight without giving up the foods I love.
In the end, I felt confident again. The clothes I had a hard time fitting into now fits me well. I was ecstatic with my headshots that my husband took, which I shared on my social media profiles. I felt happy knowing that my decision to leap with these products is paying off.
When all is said and done, I created a sustainable system and habit that I can look forward to doing every day. I learned about the power of positive affirmations and made my desires bigger than my excuses.
And in the end, I was proud of my achievements and can confidently teach and show my family what they can do and how to achieve their future goals. | https://medium.com/@genuinelymama/my-weight-loss-journey-9a3f56b415f6 | ['Jc Valeros'] | 2020-12-22 23:01:21.963000+00:00 | ['Weight Loss Supplements', 'Weight Loss Journey', 'Weight Loss', 'Journey'] |
Processing Data To Improve Machine Learning Models Accuracy | Occasionally we build a machine learning model, train it with our training data, and when we get it to predict future values, it yields poor results.
This a common scenario in data science projects.
This article aims to provide data processing techniques that can be followed to produce a good quality training set.
It is important to note that each domain is different and hence, it is important to attempt different data optimization techniques to increase accuracy of your model.
Choosing the optimal algorithm for your problem is dependent on its features such as speed, forecast accuracy, training time, amount of data required to train, how easy is it to implement and how difficult is to explain it to others. This is because a large task of data scientist is to discuss and explain patterns along with ML algorithms. Hence, it is crucial to choose the algorithm that solves the problem you are trying to resolve. Having said that, a big task is to ensure that the data that you are feeding is suitable for your target problem and that’s what I want to concentrate on in this article.
It is crucial to pre-process data and improve its quality because the quality of our predictive machine learning model is directly correlated with the quality of the data that we feed into our model.
Although we could tweek model parameters or choose a different algorithm all together but a large part of improving accuracy of your predictive model relies on further enhancing quality of your input data. This article is written to demonstrate the steps we can follow to improve quality of our data before it is fed into a predictive machine learning model.
Processing Data Is A Crucial Part Of Data Science.
Building A Good Quality Training Data Set Is The Most Important Phase Of Predictive Analysis. Occasionally, It Is Also The Most Time Consuming Part
Common Data Quality Issues
Usually following use cases are experienced when preparing data for your machine learning model:
There might be missing or erroneous values in the data set There might be categorical (Textual, Boolean) values in the data set and not all algorithms work well with textual values. Some features might have larger values than others and are required to be transformed for equal importance. Sometimes data contains a large number of dimensions and the number of dimensions are required to be reduced.
If you want an overview of machine learning then have a look at:
Article Structure
This article highlights a number of techniques to follow to process data.
I will be covering:
How we fill missing or erroneous values? How we need to handle categorical or textual values? How we need to scale the values? How we need to select features? How we need to reduce dimensions?
Techniques To Improve Data Quality
Use case 1: Filling Missing Values
Let’s assume we want to forecast a variable e.g. Company Sales and it is dependent on following two variables: Share Price and Total Employees of the company.
Both Share Price and Total Employees contain numerical values.
Let’s also assume that the data for Share Price and Total Employees over a range of dates is stored in different csv files.
Scenario: Once we join the two data sets using Python DataFrame Merge() method, we might see empty values, or placeholder strings such as NaN indicating that the number is blank.
Issue: Most of the models are unable to fit and predict the values when we feed them with missing values.
Solution: Pandas data frame provides a number of features to replace missing values.
Step 1: Place data into a pandas data frame
data_frame = pd.read_csv(my_data)
Step 2: One option is to remove columns/rows with empty values, however I do not recommend this approach:
#remove all missing data
data_frame.dropna() #remove missing data from specific columns
data_frame.dropna(subset=['TOtal Wealth'])
Gathering clean data is a time consuming task and removing columns (features) or rows can end up losing important information from a data set. Better option: Replace missing values by setting a default value to replace NaN, back or front filling data sets, interpolate or extrapolate the values etc.
We can also use a model and train it with the training data set so that it can return appropriate values to fill missing values. One of the appropriate strategy is to interpolate values using sci kit learn Imputer.
As an example, we can do this:
#set default value
data_frame = pd.read_csv(my_data) #back fill
data_frame.replacena(method='bfill') #front fill
data_frame.replacena(method='ffill') #interpolate by placing mean values using sci-kit learn
from sklearn.preprocessing import Imputer
imr = Imputer(missing_values='NaN', strategy='mean', axis=0)
imr = imr.fit(data_frame)
imputed_data = imr.transform(data_frame.values)
Once we have replaced missing values, now we need to see if we have any categorical values in our data set.
If you are looking for introduction to python then please read this article:
Use case 2: Handling Categorical Values
Let’s assume we want to forecast a variable e.g. Number Of Tweets and it is dependent on following two variables: Most Active Current News Type and Number Of Active Users.
In this instance, Most Active Current News Type is a categorical feature. It can contain textual data such “Fashion”, “Economical” etc. Additionally, Number Of Active Users contains numerical fields.
Scenario: Before we feed the data set into our machine learning model, we need to transform categorical values into numerical values because many models do not work with textual values.
Solution: There are a number of strategies to handle categorical features:
Create a dictionary to map categorical values to numerical values
A dictionary is a data storage structure. It contains a list of key-value paired elements. It enables a key to be mapped to a value.
map = {'Fashion': 1, 'Economical':2} #this will map categorical to numerical values target_feature = 'Most Active Current News Type'
data_frame[target_feature] = data_frame[target_feature].map(map)
This strategy works well for ordinal values too. Ordinal values are those textual values that can be ordered such as Clothes Size (Small, Medium, Large etc).
2. Another strategy is to use encoders to assign a unique numerical value to each textual value. This strategy works better for variable with a large number of distinct values (>30) such as for managing Organisational Job Hierarchy.
We could use manual or sci-kit encoders.
2.1 Manual Encoders
import numpy as np target_feature = 'Most Active Current News Type' #get unique values
unique = np.unique(data_frame[target_feature])
map = {textual_value:index for index,textual_value in enumerate(map)} #apply map
#this will map categorical to numerical values
data_frame[target_feature] = data_frame[target_feature].map(map)
2.2 Sci Kit Learn Encoders
from sklearn.preprocessing import LabelEncoder target_feature = 'Most Active Current News Type' #use encoder and transform
encoder = LabelEncoder()
encoded_values = encoder.fit_transform(data_frame[target_feature].values)
data_frame[target_feature] = pd.Series(encoded_values, index=data_frame.index) #to inverse, use inverse method
decoded = encoder.inverse_transform(data_frame[target_feature].values)
data_frame[target_feature] = pd.Series(decoded, index=data_frame.index)
One more step which is often missed out
I have often seen this scenario: After the textual values are encoded to numerical values, we will see some values which will be greater than the other values. Higher values imply they have higher importance. This can lead to our models treating features differently. As an instance, Fashion news type might get a value of 1 and Economical news type might get a value of 10. This makes the machine learning model assume that Economical news type has more importance than Fashion news type.
Solution: We can solve this by using One-Hot Encoding
One Hot Encoding
To prevent some categorical values getting higher importance than the others, we could use the one hot encoding technique before we feed encoded data into our machine learning model.
One hot encoding technique essentially creates a replica (dummy) feature for each distinct value in our target categorical feature. Once the dummy values are created, a boolean (0 or 1) is populated to indicate whether the value is true or false for the feature. As a consequence, we end up get a wide sparse matrix which has 0/1 values populated.
As an instance, if your feature has values “A”, “B” and “C” then three new features (columns) will be created: Feature A, Feature B and Feature C. If first row’s feature value was A then for feature A, you will see 1 and for feature B and C, it will be 0 and so on.
Solution:
We can use Pandas get_dummies() method that only converts categorical values to integers.
data_frame = pd.get_dummies(data_frame)
Additionally, we could use sklearn.preprocessing.OneHotEncoder
Tip: Always One Hot Encode After Encoding Textual Values To Prevent Ordering
Use case 3: Scaling Features
Now all missing values are populated and categorical values have been transformed to numerical values. Usually, when we have multiple features in our data set, we need to ensure that the values of the data set are scaled properly.
Range of values in a feature should reflect their importance. Higher values imply higher importance
Scenario: Let’s assume we want to measure closing stock price. We want to use a simple best fit-line regression model that uses GBP to EUR exchange rate and number of employees of a company to predict a stock’s price.
Therefore, we gather data set that contains GBP to EUR exchange rate and number of employees of the company over time.
Exchange rates will range from 0 to 1 whereas number of employees will be far bigger values, and could be in 1000s.
Subsequently, the model will consider number of employees to have higher precedence than exchange rates.
There are two ways to scale the features:
Normalisation: Ensuring all values range between 0 and 1. It can be done by implementing following routine:
Normalised Value = (Value - Feature Min)/(Feature Max - Feature Min)
sklearn.preprocessing.MinMaxScaler can be used to perform normalisation.
Standardisation: Ensuring values in a feature follows normal distribution whereby mean of the values is 0 and standard deviation is 1.
Standarderised Value = (Value - Feature Mean)/Feature Standard Deviation
sklearn.preprocessing.StandardScaler can be used to perform standarisation.
Standardisation technique is a superior than normalisation technique in most scenarios because it maintains outliers and transforms data into normal distribution. Normal distribution allows models to predict values easily and the weights can also be easily determined which again helps predictive models.
Key: Train Scalers On Training Set Only. Do Not Use All Of The Data. When we are training our models even when we are training imputers or scalars, always use training set to the train models. Leave test or validation set for testing only.
Use case 4: Remove Existing Features
Let’s assume you train your machine learning model on a training set and you are using a measure, such as Adjusted R Squared to assess quality of your machine learning model. Your model’s Adjusted R Squared is 90%+ implying that your model can predict 90% of the values accurately.
Scenario: When you feed your test data in to your model, you experience a very low adjusted R squared score implying that the model is not accurate and is over-fitting the training data.
This is a classic case of over-fitting
Some features are just not as important as we first conclude from the training set. It can end up over-fitting our machine learning model.
Solutions:
There are several methods to prevent over-fitting such as by adding more data and/or eliminating features. I have outlined some solutions in my article:
We can remove features that have strong correlation with each other. You can use correlation matrix to determine correlation between all independent variables. We could also use scatter mix plot to determine how all variables are linked to each other.
2. We can use RandomForestClassifer which can give us importance of each feature:
my_importance_model = RandomForestClassifier(n_estimators=10000, random_state=0, n_jobs=-1)
my_importance_model.fit(independent_variables, dependent_variables)
print(my_importance_model.feature_importances_)
Least important features can be excluded.
Use case 5: Creating New Features From Existing Features
Occasionally we want to create a new feature out of one or more of the features. Sometimes we can also create a new feature out of the dependent variable, the variable which we we want to predict.
As an example, in time series predictive analysis, we can extract trend and seasonality out from the data and then feed Trend and Seasonality as separate features to forecast our target variable.
Time series analysis is a complex topic and is covered in detail here, here and here.
Use case 6: Reducing Dimensions
Scenario: Occasionally we want to reduce the number of dimensions. An example is when we want to scrape websites and convert textual data into vectors by using word to vector encoding algorithms. We can end up getting a sparse matrix.
Issue: Sparse matrix can slow down the algorithms.
Solution: Decompose the matrix but ensure valuable information is not lost.
We can use Principal component analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) or Kernel principal component analysis to reduce the dimensions.
I will be covering these techniques in my next article.
Summary
Once all of the aforementioned techniques are applied, we can end up improving quality of our predictive model.
For information on machine learning algorithms comparison, read:
This article provided an overview of the steps we need to follow to improve predictive quality of machine learning models. We can eliminate missing values, convert categorical to numerical values, scale features, remove features and/or extract new features, and finally decompose dimensions to enhance quality of the predictive models.
Finally, it is worth noting that all of the optimisation techniques are dependent on the domain of the problem and it is important to attempt different techniques to increase accuracy of your model.
Please let me know if you have any feedback.
Hope it helps. | https://medium.com/fintechexplained/processing-data-to-improve-machine-learning-models-accuracy-de17c655dc8e | ['Farhad Malik'] | 2019-07-30 23:11:29.857000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Fintech'] |
CoinTiger Will Support the Spark (SPARK) Airdrop Program for XRP (XRP) holders | Fellow CoinTiger Users,
CoinTiger will support the Spark (SPARK) Airdrop Program for XRP (XRP) holders. Details as follows:
1.XRP deposits and withdrawals will be suspended at 2020/12/12 6:00 (UTC+8). Please note that trading of XRP will not be affected during the airdrop.
2.We will then take a snapshot of all XRP tokens held by CoinTiger users at 2020/12/12 8:00 (UTC+8). After receiving SPARK airdrop, it will be distributed. An official announcement will be posted when the distribution is completed.
3.User A = (Amount of XRP held by User A at the time of snapshot / Total XRP held by CoinTiger at the time of snapshot) * Total SPARK received by CoinTiger for the airdrop
Note:
1.XRP tokens that are pending deposit or withdrawal at the time of the snapshot will not count towards your XRP balance. Please ensure you leave sufficient time for deposits and withdrawals to complete prior to the snapshot.
2.XRP balances under 10 XRP (including those in trade orders) will not be eligible for the airdrop.
3.SPARK tokens will be distributed to users spot wallets.
4.For the trading and listing of SPARK on CoinTiger, SPARK will go through the same strict listing review process as CoinTiger does for any other coin/token. Supporting this airdrop does not guarantee the listing of SPARK. The default position we have is no listing.
5.CoinTiger will distribute SPARK tokens after the project has completed the SPARK token distribution to XRP holders. We will post a further announcement once the distribution is completed.
For further information on how SPARK will be distributed to XRP holders, please refer to: https://flare.ghost.io/claiming-spark-faq/ , https://blog.flare.xyz/further-information-on-the-spark-token-distribution/
Risk warning: Crypto-currency investment is subject to high market risk. Please make your investments cautiously. CoinTiger will make best efforts to choose high quality coins, but will not be responsible for your investment losses.
CoinTiger team
2020/12/7
【Download for Android】
【Download for iOS】 | https://medium.com/cointiger/cointiger-will-support-the-spark-spark-airdrop-program-for-xrp-xrp-holders-41789b5e6af5 | [] | 2020-12-07 11:24:40.759000+00:00 | ['Cointiger', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Xrp', 'Spark'] |
Impact of corona on Indian Economy and Society | Image Credit- Wikimedia Commons
The sweeping Covid-19 pandemic has struck at the fundamentals of Indian society. Even as we deal with the ravages of the massive second wave across the country, here’s a look at the most severely affected social sectors, which will bear the scars of the devastation for years to come, if not decades.
India had gone into a freeze at this time last year in a bid to arrest the spread of Covid-19. The lockdown was announced with just a few hours’ notice and took people by surprise. It commenced on March 25 and its most rigorous phase lasted till April 14. Thereafter, it was relaxed in stages till May 31. In all, the phase of enforced isolation lasted 68 days. Migrant workers, a vulnerable lot, were the hardest hit. The government deprived them of the means of transportation initially to restrict them to their places of work. But it had to yield and arrange trains and buses as the sight of thousands of workers with their families trudging back home hundreds of kilometres away evoked widespread attention and criticism.
Read the full story at — Tatsat Chronicle — Shaken to the Core | https://medium.com/@peakhournews/nimpact-of-corona-on-indian-economy-and-society-5d33b59e7037 | ['Peak Hour News'] | 2021-08-23 10:27:09.444000+00:00 | ['Corona', 'Indian Economy', 'Coronavirus', 'India'] |
Demystifying the Superstition Revolving Around Friday the 13th & The Number 13 | Friday the 13th —
For ages, Friday the 13th has been considered a sign of bad luck. It is regarded as the unlucky day in Western superstition.
As per the Gregorian Calendar, the day occurs when the 13th day of the month falls on a Friday that happens once every year; however, it can also occur three times the same year. For example, three Friday the 13th took place in 2015 (February, March, November), the year 2018 had two (April and July), and the upcoming year 2021 will have one Friday the 13th.
Scientifically, the absurd fear of the number 13 is named triskaidekaphobia, and by establishing an analogy, the fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia.
Reports mentioned that between 9% to 13% of the U.S population believes that Friday the 13th is genuinely an unlucky day. Some people are so paralyzed by the fear of this day that they end up avoiding their normal day-to-day activities like going for a walk, taking a flight, or even waking up from the bed. In some cases, irrational fear of this day also resulted in financial losses of over $900 million annually, as people avoid traveling, marrying, and in the worst cases, even working.
Some folklorists cited no written evidence about Friday the 13th being unlucky before the 19th century. However, the date has inspired a late 19th-century secret society, an early 20th-century novel, and a horror film franchise that reasonably marks the day as unlucky.
The Fear of 13 —
For centuries we have been wary about the number 13, just like we fear a black cat crossing our path, the breaking of a mirror, or walking under a ladder.
Similarly, buildings and condominiums had been built with 10th or 12th, or 14th floors, but people doubted when it turned to the number 13. Even certain airlines opt-out from having the 13th row or fixing any auspicious occasion takes a backseat when the number 13 try greeting the event.
Scared, some people even hold fast on this day because they believe Friday the 13th is a bad omen. Although it’s uncertain when this tradition began, for centuries negative connotations have always circulated the number 13. In fact, we all respect and fear the number 13.
Historically, the number 12 has been associated with completeness. The ancient Sumerians produced a numeral system based on the number 12 that we still use today for measuring time. Calendars have 12 months, zodiac signs are 12 in number, the days are halved by two sets of 12, there are 12 Olympian Gods, 12 days of Christmas known as Twelvetide, and more.
However, the successor 13 is always considered sinister, signifying a long history of bad luck.
The Revolving Myths —
An early myth surrounding the origin of fear arises from one of the world's ancient legal documents, the Code of Hammurabi, that omitted the 13th law from the list of its standard rules. However, in reality, the omission was simply because of a clerical error. The code does not numerically list the laws.
The other two popular theories behind the number’s unlucky connotation revolve around the ancient times' appearance of the 13th guest at the two events.
In the Bible, Jesus is betrayed by Judas Iscariot, who was the 13th guest to arrive at the Last Supper that took place on the 13th day of the month and the crucifixion occurred on Friday the 13th. The sitting arrangement at the Last Supper has given rise to superstition in the Christian tradition that having 13 guests around a table is a sign of a bad omen; mostly, it invites death.
Another ancient Norse mythology states that the initial evilness and turmoil in the world was caused by the appearance of the treacherous and sinful God Loki at a dinner party in Valhalla. He was the 13th guest to be present at the party.
The English Egyptologist Margaret Murray, in her work The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921), states that a coven of witch consists of 12 members and a devil as a leader, thus making the unlucky 13. The number is referred to as a parody of Jesus Christ and his 12 disciples.
Even in Space, the number 13 is found as unlucky. In 1970 the Apollo Space Program was launched from the Kennedy Space Centre. Apollo 13, the seventh manned mission lunar landing was aborted after the oxygen tank exploded. However, six days later, the astronauts were lucky to return to the earth with their lives intact.
In traditional tarot decks, the 13th card in the deck is Death. To draw a death card necessarily doesn’t mean that we are going to die straight away. Instead, death in the tarot card symbolizes change, re-birth, and creation. But, if you draw the card on the 13th day of the month, you happen to be superstitious, think of 13 as unlucky, and owe negative thoughts, then certainly your day will envelope unlucky vibes.
It is possible that the famous novel — Friday the Thirteenth in 1907 by Thomas William Lawson contributed to the superstition. In 1980 a horror movie was released named Friday the 13th that introduced the world to a killer named Jason. The movie is perhaps regarded as the best example of superstition in the history of modern culture.
Some other worst events denoting the negative side of Friday the 13th include:
On September 13, 1940, the Nazis dropped bombs on the Buckingham Palace during the Blitz attacks of World War II.
On November 13, 1970, a natural disaster killed thousands of people because of the cyclone that hit Bangladesh.
On January 13, 1989, the widespread computer crash or “Friday the 13th virus” infected hundreds of computers in England. It caused anxiety among people over the lost files and instilled fear about the new-technology.
Though Friday's negative association is weaker, however, the historic past cites that: Jesus was crucified on Friday, Clain killed his brother Abel on Friday, Eve tempted Adam with an Apple on Friday, and the great floods occurred on this day. Thus, Fridays in historical and theological texts usually signify bad news.
The Positive Reflection —
The unexplained fear concerning number 13 is primarily a Western construct. When we travel down the times of history, the number, however, isn't entirely unlucky.
The US's former flag had 13 red and white stripes and 13 stars that symbolized the initial 13 colonies that founded the country.
In some cultures like that of the ancient Egyptians considered the number fortuitous, few Asian regions fear the number 4. The Japanese avoid the number 9, and in Italy, Friday the seventeenth is regarded as the unluckiest. In different parts of the world, varying perceptions exist regarding the myths.
In Sikhism, the number 13 is a special number that means “yours” or “I am yours, My Lord” and is regarded as divinely lucky. Many factors like the traditional practices, religions preached, cultural dominance, and more provide a basis for the emergence of diverse theories.
In ancient cultures, the number 13 represents Feminity because it corresponds to the number of lunar cycles in a year. Only when the solar calendar triumphed over the lunar, the number became an anathema. In the Coperos religion, a small culture in Brazil, the number 13 is considered Godly and can save humankind. The number is also a representation of the life cycle and the rhythm of nature and the moon. | https://medium.com/chameleon/demystifying-the-superstition-revolving-around-friday-the-13th-the-number-13-229961783395 | ['Swati Suman'] | 2021-03-12 13:00:25.771000+00:00 | ['Fear', 'History', 'Thoughts', 'Education', 'Culture'] |
Small Business Marketing Strategies For Growth During And After Covid | The Covid-19 pandemic has affected every industry in one way or the other. Similarly, small businesses are not out of this battle. Since the entire market economy has crashed due to the Covid-19 and the eventual lockdown, all the big and small industries are struggling to survive. Moreover, now that people are working from home more, it can be said that they have shifted to online in every perspective of their life. Be it for professional purposes or completing office-related work, or shopping, people have found solace online.
Therefore, various businesses conducted offline even before this Covid-19 lockdown do not have to plan to shift online. For this, one can hire a web development company in Delhi to create a digital presence. But, according to the new normal, governments ask people to sit indoors and maintain social distancing as much as possible. So, if people or customers cannot come to you, you have to reach out to them.
In order to reach out to your target audience, you need to market your products or services. If people are not aware of what you sell, it will be impossible for you to gather the desired traffic. The need for digital marketing services has become paramount now because people are locked in their houses. So, there is no better way of reaching out to them than online. Now, people are spending more time on their phones and laptops. This is why more and more companies today are joining with marketing companies to improve their reach and enhance their business growth.
Further, today, people are using social media to the utmost to connect with people now as they are not allowed to roam around in the open or maintain social distancing. As a result, businesses can use this as an excellent opportunity to market themselves on social platforms and become more friendly to their target audiences.
Also, you need to acknowledge the cost-effectiveness of digital marketing. Had there not been any lockdown and intrusion of Covid-19, you would have to spend quite a lot for marketing your business. But, on the other hand, digital marketing agency is cheap and can cut down the marketing expense of a company. Moreover, since more people are turning to online platforms to look for items, it is easy to convert leads.
Strategies for small businesses
Given below are some strategies that small businesses can incorporate in their marketing strategy to improve traffic and enhance sales. These strategies can effectively improve the business standard of small businesses, especially in this pandemic situation.
1. Create an online presence
If you have not yet created an online presence, it is high time that you do it soon. As has already been discussed, people are spending more time online. Therefore, all businesses and brands should use this opportunity to reach out to the customers and trigger their demands. If required, you can take the help of a marketing company.
2. Deliver products to customers at home
It is true that businesses, regardless of the industry they belong to, have been affected immensely. But a safe delivery policy can be carried out. To understand this point, let us take the help of an example. The restaurants have taken to selling their foods online by providing doorstep delivery services.
3. Incorporate SEO
One of the best marketing strategies is to incorporate search engine optimization into your business. The potential customers discover those content and websites that are optimized for search engines. As a business owner, your main goal should be to ensure that your website is discoverable by the potential target audience and Google.
4. Invest in Content Marketing
One of the crucial efforts you should put in to make your business noticeable is incorporating content marketing into it. During the pandemic, consumers research more about the products they wish to buy than directly talking to the company professionals. Therefore, to survive in the industry, it would be wise for you to engage and educate your customers through the relevant content.
5. Make use of social media to the utmost
Today, if you do not have a presence on social media, you are missing out on a lot of traffic. To reach out to customers more, use relevant social media platforms to engage customers as much as possible. For example, you can conduct some polls or upload interesting posts to grab the attention of the customers.
6. Offer vouchers and gift cards
Customers are more intrigued by the offers that companies provide them. However, you have to keep in mind that you are aspiring to thrive in your business during this pandemic situation. Along with you, the customers are also suffering. Therefore, along with the products they buy, provide vouchers and gift cards which will remind them of you later on and they will surely come back to you again.
7. Pay attention to retargeting
People who have visited your site once are likely to revisit them provided you retarget or remarket your products or services to them. Many customers leave the buying process in between. Retargeting is beneficial for these customers as it will poke them and trigger them to buy the product finally.
8. Promote items in demand
During the pandemic and lockdown time, it has been noticed that the demand for home appliances has experienced a sudden hike. Therefore, to generate more sales, it would be wise to focus and promote the items that help in the household chores. If required, you can also provide discounts on these essential commodities to lure customers.
9. Video streaming
From time immemorial, visuals have always gained more popularity than written text. Therefore, if you want to promote any offers to your potential target market, you can create an interesting and attractive video and promote it on social media platforms. Also, sending newsletters to customers can be an effective means of promoting your business or brand.
Conclusion
Therefore, whatever be the situation in the outside world, you have to survive. If you have to accommodate new strategies for survival, so be it. It is better to stay by capturing new techniques than dying down entirely and shutting off everything. | https://medium.com/@digitalconsultant/small-business-marketing-strategies-for-growth-during-and-after-covid-8bb16638422c | ['Obiyan Infotech'] | 2021-12-28 06:26:43.042000+00:00 | ['Marketing Strategies', 'Digital Marketing Company', 'Digital Marketing', 'Business Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
How to make over $10,000/day with only $500 invested in Crypto on TORSwap | How to make over $10,000/day with only $500 invested in Crypto on TORSwap TORSwap Jun 23·3 min read
At that rate you’d make back your money back in under a week!
Warning: this is not a step-by-step guide. If you are knowledgable and savvy you could figure this out easily enough though.
We are sharing another eye-popping percentage rate that defied logic. With just under $500 invested you can earn over $10,000/day.
First, you can put $574 into the TOR/BNB pair on TORSwap Platform (https://torswap.xyz/)
We have put 0.985 BNB and 18.349 TOR totaly valued of $574.
You can see highlighted APR of 1,278,512% in the upper right corner. Divide that by 365 and get the daily percentage rate of 3,502% (we have already get $515 for an hour). Apply that against the amount invested, and you are getting a little over $20k.
Per day!
It’s gets better. So, you can also $500 invest in the TOR/BUSD pair earning 10,063%/day:
So $500 TOR/BUSD pair and get up to $50k per day. Altogether it’s dozens of thousands per day receiving on a total investment of just under $1,100.
We can hear the criticism right now, “Well, if the TOR coin drops, your Impermanent Loss would kill this investment.”
Well, TORSwap has large deflationary instruments inside the ecosystem:
Each transfer of TOR must pay a 0.5% transfer tax. This 0.5% transfer tax will be burned immediately.
100% of TOR sent to the Dev address
of TOR sent to the Dev address 100% of TOR raised in IFOs
of raised in IFOs 100% of TOR spent on Profile Creation and NFT minting
of TOR spent on Profile Creation and NFT minting 10% of TOR spent on lottery tickets
of TOR spent on lottery tickets 3% of every yield harvest in the Auto TOR Pool
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Go ahead, do it yourself and count the numbers
Yes, the $5 Billion+ APY is ridiculously high, but you can also run the numbers from and check it all out. We show you the daily harvests, which then shovels back into the farms.
And once you figure out how to create the LP pairs and stake your farm on TORSwap, you can let that sweet sweet harvest roll in! | https://medium.com/@torswap/how-to-make-over-10-000-day-with-only-500-invested-in-crypto-on-torswap-ea998314301f | [] | 2021-06-23 11:24:05.267000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Binance', 'Investing', 'Binance Smart Chain', 'Exchange'] |
How I Learned to Pay Myself for My Work | Two years ago my husband lost his job and we managed for 5 months on my income, and our savings. It was a scary and uncertain time.
While our financial situation was unsustainable long-term, we realized we could last for several months, allowing him to fully throw himself into the job search and find a job that would be a great fit with more opportunity than before.
That time was invaluable and led to a wonderful opportunity for him… that also meant moving out of state. Moving meant my own employment situation needed to change, and after seeing how a couple frugal months led to a more fulfilling employment situation for my husband, I decided to spend a few months pursuing my own ambition of self-employment.
So, in April 2016, I became an online entrepreneur. I make an income from multiple online sources including freelancing, an online store and affiliate income, selling shirts on Print on Demand platforms and more.
It’s going well. I began turning a profit the first month and never stopped. I’m enjoying what I do, and for months I happily plowed every penny of profit back into the business to fuel its growth while we lived extremely frugally off of my husband’s income.
Last fall, we purchased a house. Living on one income had begun to chafe now that my business was making money and the house needed a few repairs.
When it came time to take a paycheck, I really didn’t know where to start. I had spent so many months putting all my revenue back into the business that it was hard to figure out how much profit I was making on a month-to-month basis. I wanted to be paid… but I didn’t want to gut my growth.
I spent hours looking at the numbers, reading articles on how to pay yourself, calculating averages, and talking to my CPA about how much tax I should be withholding if I pay myself. I ended up confused and still not sure how much I could afford to pay.
So I guessed.
In November I paid myself $300. My business didn’t blink and I felt insulted. I had happily worked for free for months, but working for $300 was suddenly extremely depressing. I had to find a better, higher number that would keep me motivated to grow this business, and $300 was way, way, too low.
Starting in January I paid myself $1,000. It was scary and exhilarating and I was convinced my business growth would take a nose dive. To my surprise, growth continued at the usual rate. So, at the end of February, I decided to raise the amount by $100 every month and keep raising it until my business couldn’t afford to pay it. So far it’s worked. At the end of June I made $1,500 which is exactly half of what I used to bring home at my old job.
I’m still scared and exhilarated every time I cut myself a check. At the start of each month I’m nervous I won’t be able to make payroll, but by the end of the month the money is there. After half a year of paying myself for my work, I’m finally starting to feel more confidence in the legitimacy of what I’m doing.
Now I’m beginning to chafe again under this paycheck. It’s not growing fast enough and I want a raise. I’ve toyed with the idea of bumping up my paycheck by $200 a month but then I chickened out. Maybe I’ll do it this month.
If the money is there. | https://medium.com/the-billfold/how-i-learned-to-pay-myself-for-my-work-19474428e5c5 | ['Meg Renninger'] | 2017-07-24 17:51:01.126000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Freelancing', 'Entrepreneur', 'Money', 'Small Business'] |
Get ready for the $DTX listing on CoinFalcon tomorrow! | Now that the $DTX token is transferrable, time has come to prepare for the listing on our first exchange.
We are happy to announce that on Saturday July 7th, at 10AM CET the deposits and trading functionality for the DTX token will be released on CoinFalcon.
Come an join us in our Telegram channel for constant up to date news! | https://medium.com/databrokerdao/get-ready-for-the-dtx-listing-on-coinfalcon-tomorrow-513265c962e7 | ['Roderik Van Der Veer'] | 2018-07-06 10:21:46.887000+00:00 | ['Humor'] |
AYS Daily Digest 12/05/20 Over 100 European Parliament members call for investigations into Greek… | The international aid organization CARE expresses their concern over the refugees currently in Bosnia and Herzegovina:
“CARE is deeply concerned about the safety and health for over 7,000 refugees and migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The situation is particularly dire for those who live outside of the official camps. A field study by CARE has shown that in Tuzla, in Northern Bosnia, over three-quarters of refugees and migrants do not have sufficient access to clean drinking water. There is also no adequate access to sanitation and basic hygiene. The study shows that for the majority of men, women and children, the absolute minimum standards of safe shelter and basic nutrition aren’t met. In January, Bosnia and Herzegovina recorded 30 per cent more arrivals of refugees and migrants than in the same period the year before.
‘A camp with capacity for 1,600 people is now housing over 3,000 people. Social distancing is impossible here’, reports Tim Clancy, from Promiz.ba, a partner organization of CARE. ‘Those outside of camps live in hiding, in constant fear of being sent to an overcrowded camp where the risk of infection would be much higher. The situation on the streets is also very difficult, only a handful of volunteers can reach the refugees.’” | https://medium.com/are-you-syrious/ays-daily-digest-12-05-20-over-100-european-parliament-members-call-for-investigations-into-greek-7f182f014511 | ['Are You Syrious'] | 2020-05-13 10:25:58.505000+00:00 | ['Digest', 'Turkey', 'Greece', 'Refugees', 'Covid 19'] |
Forex Online Trading in Malaysia: Major Features of the Forex Market and the List of Top Regulated Brokers | Forex Online Trading in Malaysia: Major Features of the Forex Market and the List of Top Regulated Brokers TopForex.Trade Dec 28, 2021·2 min read
Malaysia is an emerging economy that attracts investors. For its rapid economic growth, Malaysia is called the new Asian tiger.
An interesting fact: the Malaysian Exchange is a public company, its shares are traded on the KLSE under the ticker BURSA. Any trader can buy them and become one of the minority shareholders or make a profit on exchange rate jumps.
Our TopForex.Trade team recommends top regulated forex brokers in Malaysia, with which you can get impressive bonuses up to $8000, as well as passive income opportunities.
In order for you to get acquainted with the opportunities of the forex market in Malaysia, as well as learn what trading tools are the most popular there, we have prepared an extensive article that will be your guide. You will also be able to find a list of trusted forex brokers and the offers they provide to their clients. | https://medium.com/@topforextrade/in-our-new-article-read-about-the-peculiarities-of-the-malaysian-forex-market-and-also-check-the-d8590f62ce6 | [] | 2022-01-11 12:55:22.762000+00:00 | ['Forex Traders', 'Investing', 'Forex', 'Forex Brokers', 'Forex Trading'] |
The Mystery of Kelsey | The Mystery of Kelsey
Chapter 1: The Sighing Girl
‘Welcome to year three, everyone, my name’s Mrs Williams,’ announced our new teacher. It was September 1995 at Chalkwell Hall Primary School, Southend-on-Sea, Essex. I was finally in the big, important looking juniors’ building. At the age of seven I suddenly felt very grown up. School was not going to be the same as it was, I could feel it. Our new class room was much bigger with taller tables and chairs. The smell of the chalk and the teacher’s old dirty coffee fragranced that room no end, whilst the large, Victorian window filled it with warm, natural light.
The first week of the new school year rolled on with spelling tests, maths equations and PE in the assembly hall and in awkwardly short shorts. I was sat at a very large table at the front of the class between two other pupils. I had seen in them in the playground but never spoken to them until then; Joshua Bishop, who I am technically still in touch with today, and a boy called Vaughan. Vaughan was just hilarious to my seven-year-old self, I remember. Whenever there was a silence he would begin to chant something with the word ‘willy’ repeated a record amount of times. More culture than a yoghurt, back then. Plus, to top it all off, our school year’s ‘national anthem’ was our own take on Country House by Blur; ‘sitting in the bath with me finger up me arse in the country…’
One afternoon towards the end of our first week, we were all told to gather our chairs around the front of the class by the blackboard for Mrs Williams to read us a book. It was a ‘proper book’ compared to what we were used to in infant school. No Elma the Elephant or Biff, Chip and Kipper for us, thanks. This was… well, I don’t actually remember what book it was but it was probably Roald Dahl. We sat in silence as Mrs Williams read on. I heard a fairly expressive sigh from close-by on my right. It was so close I felt the air hitting my shoulder. I turned to have a look and saw it was a girl I had never seen before. To be honest I had barely noticed her even in the class until that moment, but she definitely was a brand new pupil to the school.
She had thick, very dark hair cut down to her lower neck and a fringe flopped over her eyebrows. A very pale face and slightly freckled. I took a second to look at her. She instantly looked back at me, to which I responded by immediately taking fright and pretending I was looking inquisitively at something on the wall past her, before turning back to Mrs Williams.
The weekend came and went and it was back to school on the following Monday. Again the day rolled on, I was trying to get some work done whilst busy suffering fits of laughter with Josh and Vaughan mucking about, thus, leading me to be the one getting told off. Always the way, that.
Just before home time it was story time again. We did the same thing, gathering our chairs around to take in the next chapter of Mrs Williams’ book. I was sat in exactly the same spot as last time as I have always had a bit of an obsession for routine like that.
As the story was being read I felt a single finger tickle the back of my neck for a split second. I ignored it, thinking it was probably Vaughan about to get me into trouble again. Ten seconds later it happened again. I tried to ignore it. Another few seconds and I felt a flick on my right ear. At this point I turned around to see it was not Vaughan. Nor was it Josh. It was the sighing girl. She was sat right behind me. I turned around to face her and she smiled with a quiet giggle. I smiled back at her and turned around again to face the front. She carried on poking and flicking throughout, leaving me in a state of slight panic; if I kept turning around I could get in trouble, yet, I didn’t want her to think I was a boring old stick in the mud. Eventually I did turn back around. ‘Hi,’ she whispered. ‘Hello,’ I mouthed back.
I heard the book slam shut, thinking that I was in for it again from the teacher. But no. Time had suddenly passed that quickly it was already home time.
As we were lined up and lead to the jungle decorated cloak room to collect our coats and bags, I kept a look out for her. She seemed to have gone.
Chapter 2: Playground Saviour
One thing that was often an issue, for me, was unwanted attention from the year five/six girls. I was very small, believe it or not, and I would often somehow end up completely on my own in the playground. Not always, mind you. This isn’t some great sob story of being a lonely child. But most of my friends were engrossed in a game of football which I never really was. This left me open to these ‘giant’ girls huddling around me with ‘oh he’s so cute!’ and ‘aww bless. How old are you?’ It was all a bit alarming and claustrophobic.
As a means of escape I once decided to simply leg it as I saw them approaching. As luck would have it I managed to run into this girl from my class. She was such a mystery. She always seemed to completely vanish in the playground. We/I made a bit of timid small talk and we told each other our names. ‘I’m Kelsey,’ she told me in a very exotic accent, which she explained was a South African one.
‘Oh you’re from Africa?’ I asked, ‘do you live near the jungle? Do you have lions and stuff?’
Kelsey laughed. I assume she got asked that quite a lot from us ignorant Brits. ‘We do have lions but I don’t come from near the jungle. We have towns and cities like you do here.’ I was fascinated in her from that moment.
Every story time we would be sure to be sat next to each other, except one time I remember another girl taking great umbrage in this, for some reason. She deliberately sat in between us and kept a very angry face on her throughout, seemingly protecting Kelsey. That was odd. I have no idea why I never remembered that until writing this just now.
Well, our friendship grew as time went on. We would often play ‘it’ together at lunchtimes and end up being the victims of the giant year six girls’ surprise attacks. I remember running, thinking I was being chased by her, to turn around thinking I had lost her, to turn and see she was stuck in the middle of these girls all giving her the exact same treatment they gave me. I can’t remember if I went over to help her, or not. Knowing me I probably didn’t.
After one lunchtime our next lesson was shared with another class next door to ours. We were all sat on the floor around a telly to watch the film of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Maybe that was also the book we were being read. Kind of makes sense.
Well, we sat down to watch it. I asked Kelsey if she wanted to sit next to me, but she insisted on sitting behind instead. I was a little worried, thinking I had lost something. I had never experienced those feelings before. Being only seven it was not the norm to feel a ‘relationship’ was building with someone in that way. As the film went on, I suddenly felt Kelsey behind me. Rather than the usual poking and flicking, she was now and then stroking my back. I remember liking that very much. I developed a butterfly feeling in my stomach and couldn’t get enough of her attention. Whenever she stopped I would subtly lean backwards slightly to persuade her to carry on, which she did. It was an amazing thing to feel genuinely ‘fancied’ I suppose, whilst feeling the same about the person in question. It was new and very exciting.
Chapter 3: Potato Smileys
After that lesson we went to the cloakroom again to collect our things. Something most unlike me happened right then. As we walked out together I asked her if she wanted to come around for dinner one day after school. She seemed extremely happy that I had asked her this and said yes immediately, before we spotted our mothers, said our goodbyes, and headed off.
‘Who was that then?’ asked my mum with a smile.
‘That’s Kelsey,’ I replied. On the way home I was talking to mum about the film we had watched, reciting parts of it that made me laugh, until we got home and I started talking to her about Kelsey. A few days later, out of the blue, it was actually my mum that asked me if I would like to invite her over for dinner. She told me Wednesday that week was fine if I wanted to. And so that was set.
The Wednesday came along. Rather than what would normally happen, the friend simply joining us on our walk home, Kelsey went home with her mum first and would get to ours for about 4:00, I was told. Mum also said for me to change into something smart. I think she had an idea of this being quite a special friendship too. I changed into a colourful, stripy t-shirt and red shorts.
4:00 on the dot, the doorbell rang. Mum went to answer it and I found myself hiding away in the doorway of my bedroom.
‘Tom!’ cried mum, ‘are you going to come and say hello to Kelsey?’
Shyly I walked to the front door to see Kelsey standing there in yellow top and blue denim dungarees. ‘Hello,’ I said, quite coyly, almost sounding a bit sarcastic.
As Kelsey headed in I stood awkwardly in the doorway thinking I was being very gentlemanly in letting her walk past. I led her to the living room while our mums stood and chatted at the door for a bit.
We sat down on the green settee and watched an episode of ‘Wolves, Witches and Giants’ on CITV, narrated by Spike Milligan. The awkward atmosphere finally dropped when we were both making funny, smart comments through the whole show and making each other laugh. The episode we watched was their take on Three Billy Goats Gruff, but instead of a troll under the bridge, it was a giant. ‘He doesn’t look that big’, I quipped, followed by ‘that bridge must be massive to fit a giant underneath it.’ Kelsey soon asked where the toilet was. I led her down our hallway and pointed it out to her, where mum was nearby in the kitchen getting dinner ready. As I turned to head back to the living room, mum looked at me with a knowing grin across her face. ‘You all right?’ she asked coyly.
I’d imagine we watched a bit more telly and/or played with some toys for the rest of the afternoon, before it was time for dinner. We had turkey dinosaurs, potato smileys and peas whilst watching The Lion King on video.
Once we finished our dinner, mum walked in to take our plates. ‘Now, we’ve got something rather special for afters today,’ she said before heading back out of the room. She entered the room again with her hands full of little colourful packets. ‘Kelsey has very kindly brought along some very nice sweets for us all.’ And she had. She had brought along some exotic looking packets of white chocolate buttons, one for me, one for Rose, and one for herself. How she knew how many to bring along I have no idea.
We continued to watch The Lion King as it reached its finale. It was the part where Simba roars from the top of Pride Rock to claim his place as king. I can remember Kelsey analysing this particular part very technically;
Simba: [Roar!]
Kelsey: He is saying ‘I am the king’
Lionesses: [Roar!]
Kelsey: They are saying ‘yes, you are the king’
Tom: Hmmm
I headed out to the kitchen with my packet of buttons and quietly gave them to mum because, I hate to say it and I am sorry, I didn’t really like white chocolate.
Later that afternoon, Kelsey casually gave me some devastating news. She told me that she was only going to be at our school for another week and she was leaving. I have a feeling we must have had a pretty heavy conversation. I remember finding out then that her actual parents were still in South Africa, and that her ‘mum’ was simply a nice Scottish lady looking after her as a guardian. What her actual situation with her parents was I have never known.
Chapter 4: It All Happened So Suddenly
The week of school went on. We carried on playing ‘it’ now and then and there was more ear slicking and teasing each other during book readings. Something I knew I would really miss, amongst everything else, was her simply just being there. Unbeknown to me at the time, she was genuinely making me feel happy in life. I remember having this extremely strange sense of feeling genuinely lucky to have been me, back then. Thinking that everyone else around me must have been absolutely gutted to not have what I had.
Well, our last day at school together came along. She told me that she was still nearby and she was not going to another school for a while. In fact, I think she might have gone to home schooling, although I’m not too sure on that. Shockingly I remember very little of that last day. I am sure we said goodbye to each other. I really hope I said bye, at least.
The following Monday everything felt so different. Our tables were reorganised, so I was sitting in a different place with different people. Not near enough for Vaughan and Josh to cheer me up, sadly. A few girls in the class, who were also friends with Kelsey but never really spoke to me, were coming up to me every now and then asking if I missed her. I think our blossoming friendship must have been more obvious to people than I thought it was. And actually quite a big deal too, to some. Even Mrs Williams briefly pulled me aside one day as we were heading out for playtime, asking the same question.
One evening that week mum and I were walking down the road to get something from the nearby chemist. ‘I’ve been talking to her mum about it, Tom, would you like Kelsey to come for a sleep over next week?’ she asked.
I could not believe it. I had no idea that our mums were seemingly working to keep things alive with us. But immediately decided to ‘play cool’ and stay aloof. ‘I don’t mind,’ I replied.
Mum seemed irked. ‘Well, do you want her to or not? “I don’t mind” tells me you’d rather she didn’t.’
I dropped the front immediately. ‘Ok. Yes please. Thank you.’
The night came that Kelsey was going to sleep over. Mum arranged a mattress with pillows and a sleeping bag on our bedroom floor and I got changed into some smart-ish clothes.
Kelsey arrived, once again looking extremely colourful and smiley with her ‘mum’. We did the same as we did last time she visited; watched CITV, had dinner (fish fingers, I think) and played with some of my toy cars. She once again brought some very exotic sweets. This time some very arty and enormous lollipops. They were translucent, sculpted into different shapes and very colourful. She gave me one that was in the shape of a love heart, I remember.
As the evening set in and it darkened outside, mum said it was time for us to get our pyjamas on. I let Kelsey into my room first to get changed. Once she came into the living room in her nightwear I headed into the room with my sister to do the same. I then walked into the living room to see her and my mum sat on the settee watching the telly together. I brought in a couple of soft toys from my room; a Tigger and a brown dinosaur that had a mouth you could open and close, pretending it was eating something.
I remember Kelsey and I sat on cushions on the wooden floor, whilst mum and Rose sat on the settee behind us. We all sat around for a cosy family viewing of Police, Camera, Action; a programme consisting of car crashes and chases caught on police camera, basically. I remember this being a great occasion. We were all talking to each other about what we saw and making light of it all. Kelsey was laughing, as was mum, and we went to bed feeling pretty good about things. Well, at least I did, but hopefully Kelsey did too.
Rose and I shared a bedroom with a bunkbed at the time. I had the top bunk and she had the bottom. Kelsey was lying on her floor mattress. We continued to talk to each other for a little while. I remember knowing that it could be a long time until I saw Kelsey again, so I was eager to grab her attention somehow. Every time I spoke to her, I made sure to be looking over the edge of the bed at her, keeping some vague eye-contact in the dark.
Our conversation devolved into a to-and-fro battle of ‘throw the teddy at each other’. The rules were simple, I would chuck a teddy off my bed, hoping it would land on her face, and she would throw it back. Complex, but good fun once you get the hang of it. A couple of times during the game she would climb halfway up the ladder to by bunk and slam the teddy into my face. Anyone else at that time, I would have thrown a huge strop and told on them. But with Kelsey it was just more priceless attention.
After a mighty throw again from me I noticed there was no retaliation. Everything went silent. I was about to sit up to see what was going on, but before I could, I saw Kelsey was climbing up the ladder. This time she climbed all the way to the top and crawled over to me.
Laughing and thinking this was going to be a mighty wallop to the nose, I hid under the duvet. ‘No! You’re going to hit me!’
Kelsey was not laughing back. She leant over me face to face, ‘no, I’m going to kiss you,’ she whispered. And with that, she leant down to give me a peck on the lips, followed by ‘we need to sleep now. Night-night.’ And with that she slowly climbed back down and got into her sleeping bag.
So desperate was I, though, for that to happen again, I persistently continued with the whole teddy thing. I think I might have got on her nerves, by this point, as she simply kept the teddies in the sleeping bag with her and tried to settle down. I found it very difficult to sleep that night. My mind was awash with emotions of all kinds; excitement, happiness and sadness at the uncertainty of the future.
The next morning it was a cold but sunny November day. We sat at the table to a bowl of Shreddies while watching The Big Breakfast on telly. Then the usual morning routine took place; I got my school uniform on, cleaned my teeth and mum did her thing of cleaning Rose’s and my noses out with a cotton bud in the kitchen, which I think I remember Kelsey walking in on. Never a good morning event at the best of times.
Mum walked us all up to school. Kelsey and I walked slightly in front talking to each other. We eventually reached the school slightly later than normal, so I pretty much had to go and line up outside to go into our class. Mum and Kelsey were both stood there waving me off while I stood there awkwardly in line not knowing how or where to look. Eventually we were called in and I saw mum and Kelsey walk off towards the school gates.
And that was that. That was to be the last of our time together. Sadly, Kelsey’s phone number went missing only a few days later. I don’t think mum was too sure on her exact address for us to go and see her either. I also remember her house being quite secretive from visitors, which added to the mystery of Kelsey’s backstory.
Chapter 5: Seven Years Old and Feeling Broken-Up With
That year, Christmas arrived as it often does. That December two of my great granddads sadly died, so mum was not in the right place for me to pester her for more details on getting back to Kelsey. However, the build-up to that Christmas I can remember being a sombre one, to an extent. Not just for the loss of grandparents, but realising what I had let slip. I decided to try and ignore how I felt, but nothing helped. I remember watching a Christmas video at my nan and other grandad’s bungalow. It had a selection of cartoons on it, all of which had either a character or a saying in them that reminded me of her.
Christmas day, Rose was given a video of the animated film All Dogs Go To Heaven. I had a look at the case and I could not believe it; the girl character in the film was almost identical to Kelsey, albeit a caricature of sorts. I was obsessed. Even though it was not my present, I was pretty eager to watch it. This became a regularity for the next few months afterwards.
I remember putting on a constant front wherever I was. Dad would take us to his local pub for lunch when we went to see him at weekends and I would do my best to look cool and collected at the juke box in case, just in case, she happened to walk in and see me.
A year or two later, mum and her then partner took us to a place called Kids Kingdom, a huge warehouse that had been transformed into a children’s funhouse. It was absolute heaven for us and we would be treated to a trip there about once a month. This particular occasion I was running around, turning red and waring myself out as usual when I reached the ‘flying fox’ ride (one of those ropes hanging from a rail that you propel yourself along on and bash into the foam at the end. I think that’s their name, isn’t it?)
I was on one and I saw two girls playing on the other. I paid no attention and simply minded my own business. As I finished a ride I sat there looking around and trying to catch my breath, when all of a sudden… ‘Tom?’
I up to see a girl dressed in yellow standing right in front of me. It took me a while to realise who it was, so I gave out an unsure ‘hi…?’
As I looked at her, it became clearer. It was a slightly taller, different hair-styled Kelsey. I fumbled on the swing, trying to get off with nervous legs.
‘I’m Kelsey. Remember me?’ she asked in her soft voice.
‘Yeah. Hi Kelsey,’ I said rather pathetically. Rather than ask ‘how are you? Do you want my number?’ I remember I just took a terrible fright and decided to play the ‘comedy’ card that worked with her before. I decided to pretend falling off the swing and banging my head, finished with sitting on the floor, rubbing my head and saying ‘ow’.
Kelsey had obviously grown up a bit more than I had. She wasn’t at all amused. ‘Oh Tom, you are silly,’ she said politely, before her new friend (a girl, luckily, I thought) came along to grab her attention.
‘Come on, Kelsey, they’re over there!’ she said, tugging at her arm to get her to follow.
‘See you later, Tom,’ she said, before turning to run at full speed with her friend. I was left standing there confused and feeling empty. Instantly beating myself up in my mind about how badly I had just handled our reunion.
I sprinted back to the canteen where the adults were sat bored and presumably desperate for a drink.
‘Mum! You’ll never guess who I ran into…’ I said, excitedly. After telling her, mum asked if I wanted to write down our phone number to give to her.
I think I took some deliberation over this. Being the shyest and least confident boy I knew of, I think I changed my mind over and over again. Eventually I came to my senses after seeing her again a few times from a distance and me trying desperately to hide, for whatever reason. What a stupid child I was.
I went back to mum and decided that I would like to give her our phone number. By then it was too late, of course. Once again she had vanished. Most likely she had gone home thinking she had possibly dodged a bullet with me after all.
Chapter 6: Life Occurred
Life went on afterwards, of course. Time passed and I grew up, slightly. We moved to a new town where I went to senior school. In year seven at that school I did have a very similar encounter with a girl called Chloe who was extremely flirty, very huggy with me in a particular IT lesson, but it just did not have the same feel to what I had before.
About ten years after our first meeting with each other, when I was seventeen, I was on a bus one day travelling from Seevic College on my way home. The bus was particularly crowded with all of the seats taken up, some even holding three passengers, while the rest of the bus was crammed with people from front to back in the gangway. By the time we passed the third stop, I once again found myself transfixed. There, standing near the front, was who looked like a seventeen-year-old Kelsey. Same hair style, but tied in a small pony-tail at the back. I looked at her and she would often look back. We would share a smile, but it was a smile that said ‘remember me?’ as far as I was concerned. The more I thought about it, the more I made myself believe it was her.
Eventually she got off the bus. I was far too slow to think about following to ask if it was her, plus by the time I had had the idea I would be too late still trying to battle through the crowd of pricks standing in the way. Also, the fear of it turning out not to be her engulfed me in its usual grasp.
Back then I was a volunteer for Southend Hospital Radio. I remember turning up to the studio and talking to my friend I hosted an evening show with about the occurrence before explaining the whole history.
‘What did you do?’ he asked.
‘Well… nothing,’ I replied with regret.
‘Oh you idiot!’ he said. He was right, too.
Chapter 7: 2015-Gate
Again, life continued. I was able to move on with a newfound social life and it eventually became just another distant thing that happened in my childhood. To cut it short, I turned eighteen, a summer fling here and there, holidays with friends, getting a job in Butlins, getting stuck in a relationship with a violent girlfriend, more dating, another short-lived relationship, going back to college, moving to Kent for university, getting involved in community radio, writing and publishing a series of comics, becoming a shop supervisor, quitting that job to do an MA in creative writing, losing my dad during the 2020 lockdown and ending up, so far, as a struggling poet. Funny old world, really.
In the midst of all this however, after my first stint of university had finished, came the year 2015. I found myself having to leave my new beloved life in Canterbury to move back to Southend. I went mad during this time. I desperately wanted my Canterbury life back. In the eight I moved back to mum’s, I decided to start an allotment in her back garden by burying all of the vegetables from her fridge. The next month, I became obsessed with making soup. Everything and anything could be made into a soup, I thought. At one point I had three different soups on the go, dominating the cooker and leaving very little utensils for anyone else to do anything. But what could anyone possibly need? Look at all the soup!
In December that year, I found myself a Christmas job stock taking in an aviation warehouse at Southend Airport. It was an okay job, to be honest. Just six hours sitting there counting tiny little light bulbs and nuts and bolts. This also left a lot of time for me to think.
The most prominent thought on my mind all day, every day at that job, was that it was the twentieth anniversary of meeting and losing Kelsey. While counting I would remember vividly every detail of everything that had happened; the ear flicking, the playing together, the back stroking, the sleep over and the feeling of loss in the following months. I honestly had not thought about her as deeply in years until that point
Well, one evening I decided to go online to see if I could finally do what I should have done ages ago and track her down. Just to say ‘hi, how are you?’ something I was actually given a healthy chance to do before but wasted it.
I went online and tried Facebook. Alas I had no idea of her surname. But that was okay as I thought there weren’t many Kelseys my age in the Southend area at the time. Well, it turned out to be harder than I thought.
The search rapidly became an obsession. I began asking people I went to junior school with. I contacted Josh thinking he would definitely know who I was talking about, except no. Although he did tell me that his mum still had our old class photos from junior school. Maybe I could have a look sometime?
I then decided it would be a good idea to email the actual school:
‘Hello, Chalkwell Hall. You may not remember me but my name is Tom Cleary. I was at your school from 1993–1999. I understand you have more important things to be getting on with, but I wonder if you could help me.
I am trying to find a long lost friend from twenty years ago. Her name was Kelsey and she was South African, I remember. She had black hair.
If you do have any information that you could pass on to me, it would be hugely appreciated.
Thanks for your time. Merry Christmas
Tom Cleary’
No reply there but, thankfully, no restraining order either.
I remember lamenting to another worker at the warehouse. He suggested trying out a ‘people finder’ website. I was not aware such a thing existed. By now my mind was telling me ‘Tom, this is getting insane. It was twenty years ago, you were both seven, and life has moved on. Get some help,’ whereas my heart was telling me ‘This is going to work, Tom. Imagine the day you finally meet up again. Wouldn’t that be special? You can go for a drink, reminisce and who knows what else could come of it? Plus she’ll definitely be so delighted that you finally got in touch.’
So that evening, I Googled ‘people finders’ and found several different results. They all looked very promising but most importantly empathetic. They took time to remind the desperate searcher that he/she has not gone mad and it is fine to do this. Their images tried to depict a euphoric reunion and possibly a long life of pure happiness together. I fell for it and applied to several of the sites and then I got drunk and decided to tell my mum what I was doing. She was not impressed at all, as you can imagine. She was either beginning to think I had completely lost the plot, or that she could not wait for me to finally move out.
One afternoon at the warehouse my phone rang. It was one of the websites. I went outside to ‘take this’ and got into a discussion with a man on the other end of the phone. Let’s call him Clive. The conversation went something like this:
Clive: Hello, Tom. Firstly thank you for your enquiry. Can I just ask you a few more questions?
Tom: Yeah sure
Clive: Okay. So when was the last time you saw this person you’re looking for?
Tom: About twenty years ago [I knew it was exactly twenty years ago, but I didn’t want to sound too obsessive]
Clive: Right. And why is it you want to find her? Is she a relative? Does she owe you something?
Tom: No, nothing like that. She was just a really good friend of mine in school and I’ve just grown curious in finding out where she is now. We had a really good bond with each other and she just sprung into my head again, basically
Clive: Okay. Well, I’ll be honest, the details sadly were a bit vague to go by, but we could potentially find her for you. You say her name was Kelsey, which I don’t think was a very common name back then. And she was South African, is that right?
Tom: That’s right, yeah
Clive: Ah, see that could also be helpful. I can’t imagine the South African population in Southend was, or even is, that big, is it?
Tom: No, exactly
Clive: All right. Well I will happily take on your case. Obviously we cannot leak any information to you until we’ve received your payment
Tom: Payment? Oh okay. How much will it be?
Clive: Well, given the extent of the details and the years you’ve been apart, this will take a lot of research, plus the man hours involved, so we calculate it at… £500
Tom’s Head: Put the phone down, Tom. This is crazy
Tom’s Heart/Tom: Oh okay then. I could do that, actually. Is it all right to pay that in instalments?
Clive: [chuckling] no unfortunately not. We would need the payment in full to give you any information. We can’t just give out little bits here and there, because you could just go by one little detail and that would be enough for you, and we wouldn’t get the rest of the payment
Tom: I understand, yeah. Okay, can I think about it and get back to you?
Clive: Of course, no problem…
That evening after work I told mum about the phone call. I was feeling excited, but mostly hoping everyone else would see it from my point of view. They didn’t. They thought I had completely lost my marbles. Mum even suggested counselling. It was a wake-up call, however, and I decided that evening that it was about time to give up on throwing teddy bears around and let it sleep.
Chapter 8: All’s Well for Now
Honestly, I was getting through life fair enough without her really crossing my mind. Sure, she always popped into my head now and then, but never to the extent as that Christmas. I was feeling deprived, though, that’s my excuse. I needed something positive in my life. Something had to work out for me. I was depressed, lonely and desperate. I had just had my happy life in Canterbury taken away from me and was doing anything I could to take my mind off that fact, as it looked more and more like I would never get that back. I lost Kelsey by not bothering enough, damned if I was going to lose my newfound happiness as well.
The following year I did, in fact, manage to move back to Canterbury and continue trying to make something of myself. It has been a process wading through several rather miserable jobs, but I think I have finally found my feet.
So that brings us up to now, 2020. Again she has popped into my mind, but this time I have learnt from the past. I am a bit more grown up now and have learnt to control my impulses. The reason she came into my memory again this year is thanks to a book I am writing for my MA, in which I have decided to base what I felt for her on the premise for the protagonist’s motive.
Still the little sparkle of curiosity glistens in me. What would I do if we were to get back in touch? Honestly, I have no idea. Does she remember me? Would she be interested? Has she tried searching for me too? The answer to all three is I doubt it. I imagine her now happily married with children, nice house, successful and had a good, fulfilling life since those days. I hope so. But really, anything could have happened; she could be as much of a nutcase as me at times. She might not be happy at all or, heaven forbid, she could be dead.
I have had girlfriends and flings since those days, of course, but none of them have left me with quite the same curiosity or feeling of being as loved as she made me feel. There has been no other urge to search and, to be blunt, most of them I could not care less what they’re up to as I know that they are not thinking the same about me. Plus, thanks to social media, there is no mystery to try to work out. So if nothing else; thank you, Kelsey. Those are some of the best memories of my childhood. The way you seemed to vanish into a puff of smoke just leads me to a lot of curiosity. I have to pinch myself now and then to check it even happened at all while making sure I keep it all alive. | https://medium.com/@tomtjc88/the-mystery-of-kelsey-f02c6b681455 | ['Thomas Cleary'] | 2020-12-18 12:09:38.501000+00:00 | ['School', 'Memoir', 'Kelsey', '1990s', 'Childhood'] |
A Ping That Saved Me From Madness | Follow my journey into troubleshooting internet disruption issues after switching service providers.
Photo by Joshua Sukoff on Unsplash
Now that we are in an active-pandemic world, those lucky enough to continue remotely working rely on fast and reliable internet service. I’m a software developer by trade and run multiple video meetings a day to keep in touch with our engineering team. All of our systems and tools are in the cloud these days, and we expect that internet service is like electricity and running water.
Working at home now requires me to be the “I.T.” guy. When the service goes down, I will hear it from one of my kids before I even realize it.
“Dad, the internet is down!”
Of course if “the internet” was down, we’d have bigger problems, but I know what they mean. The connection to our service provider has been severed, so they have to pause their online lives until I can solve it.
Troubleshooting Basics
The first thing I do is to turn off the wifi on my phone and switch to cellular LTE to check if there is a localized outage. Having cleared that, I check the lights on the modem to confirm they are all green. If not, a reboot gets us back online.
The same goes for the mesh pucks that we have around the house, if it shows red, a reboot usually restores the connection.
“Ok, it’s back up!”
I feel like the hero and go back to what I was doing, and they return to their TikTok, Instagram, Fortnite, and Netflix sessions.
Other issues expose the kids’ lack of understanding of wireless coverage areas, channel interference, and range. To remediate their complaints, I have tuned the wireless network for decent coverage up to our front street and back into the alley.
Slowness in the system is now attributed to multiple streams of traffic on the network, splitting the bandwidth across dozens of devices, including our security cameras and electronic home assistants.
More Speed == More Bandwidth?
We were choking on our bandwidth with the increased traffic of video meetings, especially during school days with simultaneous remote learning and remote work conference calls. I decided to change from cable internet service to fiber service; now that fiber was available in my area. Full-duplex 1 Gbps over the 100 Mbps, with a 22% cost saving, seemed like a no-brainer.
The ordering of the service was straightforward and smooth over their web site, including scheduling when a technician would install the equipment. I couldn’t wait to see how fast I could pull down source code and navigate our virtual instances.
The install took a couple of hours with no issues. I was so elated as I plugged my laptop into the ethernet and saw 950Mbps download and 930Mbps upload. I connected to the wifi network and saturated the 5Ghz band at 430Mbps.
A quick test navigating to reddit.com, medium.com, and cnn.com was good. I streamed a Netflix show and Apple music and then tested our digital electronic assistants and security cameras. Everything checked out and seemed to be working well.
Speed !== Reliability
After a few hours, the fiber nirvana came to a screeching halt when I heard a yell from upstairs.
“Dad, the internet is down!”
This was my start in a downward spiral into madness. The Netflix client on our TV would abruptly unload itself at random times. Sites would take an unusual amount of time to load, including Google searches. Zoom meetings would freeze with no audio. Our digital assistants would not answer due to no internet connection. Our security camera videos would blank out, went offline, and returned at random intervals.
There were no reported localized or wider outages, but sustained speed tests returned with typical results. Internal diagnostics tests on the modem all passed. The lights on both the fiber ONT box and the modem were indicating normal operation.
Resetting the modem box seemed to stabilize the connection for a short period and then dropped and delayed connections returned. I was not going back to cable internet and paying more for less.
I was determined to solve this!
Try All the Things!
A game of elimination is the first step to troubleshoot the issue. I unplugged the wifi network and plugged ethernet directly into my laptop. Maybe a device on the wifi network was flooding it with invalid packets, causing a faux DDoS attack.
With my laptop as the only device connected and a web browser, the single application running, it should give weight to that theory if it pans out. That experiment didn’t work; still, the problem persisted.
Maybe the DHCP server was an issue and not renewing IP addresses correctly? I changed to a using static IP address on my laptop, within the defined range. No dice, same issue.
I disabled the DHCP server altogether on the modem and kept the static IP address. Nope, no change.
Could it be the default DNS server causing long lag times? Pinging it returned with decent responses under 15 ms. I changed it to use Google’s DNS server at 8.8.8.8 and even using CloudFare’s DNS at 1.1.1.1. All were returning good responses on pings, but the delays and disconnections continued.
I decided to place the modem into an IP bypass mode to use my router. After some considerable research, I was able to expose the WAN IP address to my router and grant LAN IP addresses through my router’s DHCP server. It was a failed exercise; no change.
How about downgrading the firmware on the modem? I went through the process of flashing the firmware through a few minor revisions and down through a major revision. It failed again.
It was time to call the service provider and convince them to send me a new modem. They claimed all the tests on their end passed, and they did not see any problems. I sent them a log of the errors, and they decided to send a new one.
I was convinced that the first modem was a lemon and that a replacement would solve all our issues. We dealt with the current problems by restarting the modem a few times throughout the day and waited for the new one to arrive.
A few days later, the new self-install modem was replaced. My frustration continued. Did I get two lemons in a row, or was that model just flawed?
Never Give Up
I was annoyed but not defeated. There has to be some combination of settings and configuration I have not tried. While diving deep into forums discussing the model (BGW210–700) and all of the issues related to it, there was a one-sentence comment that would have been easily overlooked, but it struck me as weird.
“When the issue happens, even visiting the modem’s internal administration pages has a delay.”
That was odd. I tested it, and it proved correct. Why would visiting a page served on a local web server on the modem be slow? It should be almost instant. After the initial load, the rest of the pages were fast. I’ve noticed this during the multiple times changing the configuration during troubleshooting. Does the server go into idle or sleep mode, and does that cause the problem?
Let’s test it. I sat on the administration page and continuously hit refresh for over 5 minutes, and the delays and disconnections STOPPED! WTF?
The Ping
If refreshing the page keeps the admin web server awake, then would a constant ping to the server work? I opened up a terminal window on my MacBook and typed in:
ping 192.168.1.254
And I let it run continuously. Low and behold, it worked, it kept the server from idle or sleeping. There was rarely a disconnection or delay. The ultimate test was to run the Netflix client on our TV and stream a movie. I randomly chose a show and let it run. Two hours in, and it was still playing without it crapping out. The security cameras stayed online as additional proof that this hack worked.
Coming from the vantage point of a software developer, why would there be such a mechanism? Were they thinking about saving energy or optimization of heat dissipation due to a process continually running on a seldom-used feature? Regardless of the reason, why is it tightly coupled with the main operation of the modem’s main routing feature to the internet?
This is probably a design flaw in the firmware that needs to be addressed in the next upgrade. I hope it’s not a hardware issue and that new firmware will fix it. In the meantime, I will continue to run this temporary hack.
What’s Next?
I have an old spare Android tablet connected through wifi to our network, constantly pinging the modem’s administration page to keep it from idle. It seems to be overkill for a tablet to run a simple ping. It could perfectly fit as a Raspberry PI project, though.
Stay tuned for any updates if I decide to tackle that project. I hope this article helps with other users that have experienced the same issues. Or is this a unique problem surfaced by my network architecture?
Troubleshooting an intermittent issue is rarely trivial, and it will take you through unexpected paths. My experience hunting down defects in software engineering prepared me to investigate all clues, regardless of how insignificant or unrelated it may seem. This ping has saved my sanity, and I was able to play a hero for my kids again. | https://medium.com/literally-literary/a-ping-that-saved-me-from-madness-a4da181c22c7 | ['Tuan Pham-Barnes'] | 2020-08-11 06:25:47.081000+00:00 | ['Debugging', 'Nonfiction', 'Technology', 'Wifi', 'Internet'] |
How to remove an element from an array in JavaScript | How to remove an element from an array in JavaScript
Two ways to quickly remove an element from an array in JavaScript
So you want to remove an item from an array in JavaScript?
Well, you’re not alone!
It’s one of the most upvoted JavaScript questions on stack overflow and can feel a little unnatural considering how simple it is to array.push() .
Method 1 — remove an element with Array.filter()
If you want to remove an element while leaving the original array intact (unmutated) then filter() is a good choice!
Removing a single element:
const itemToRemove = 3 const originalArray = [2, 51, 3, 44] const newArray = originalArray.filter(item => item !== itemToRemove) console.log(newArray) // [2, 51, 44]
console.log(originalArray) // [2, 51, 3, 44]
Breaking that down.
We define a variable newArray and set it equal to the return value of our array filter. Inside of our filter, we pass an ECMAScript 6 arrow function.
This function tests each item in the array and returns: | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/how-to-remove-an-element-from-an-array-in-javascript-54612785295e | ['Kitson Broadhurst'] | 2020-06-05 05:22:54.477000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Programming', 'Arrays', 'Technology', 'Software Engineering'] |
Meditate Towards Happiness | Hello, welcome to this meditation on happiness, brought to you by Pick Creation, the place to discover. Our goal is to make you inspired. So, why not subscribe. If you enjoy this session, give it a like and let us know, and if you’re new to this channel, be sure to subscribe and activate notifications so you don’t miss the next one.
Living with the intention of being happy involves love and caring, kindness, mindfulness, and especially openness and receptiveness to your own thoughts.
The root of happiness is caring for yourself
Loving, caring, and being kind to others in turn help you respond to your own thoughts with love and kindness.
Sometimes we don’t like where our thoughts go, and that may make us feel uncomfortable.
Meditations for happiness can help us to be receptive to our thoughts and understanding of ourselves, responding to thoughts with positivity and kindness.
This sort of response allows us to see things clearly and to practice mindfulness.
In this meditation, instead of inviting something in from outside yourself,
You are listening to what’s within you, to the caring, love and understanding you have the capacity for.
Let’s start the meditation.
Sit or lie in a comfortable position, in a space where you won’t be disturbed for a moment.
Let your eyes close gently.
Now, let’s bring kindness to the forefront of this session by thinking of ourselves in a friendly way, from our bodies… to our minds.
Listen to your body and allow it to get more comfortable.
Soften the eyes, smooth the forehead, release any tension in your neck and back, arms and legs.
You want to be comfortable in this moment so you can focus on being present.
Recognize how you want to be happy, without shifting focus on what might bring about happiness.
Just think to yourself that your goal is happiness, with nothing tied to it, and see how this simple thought is comforting.
You can say to yourself aloud now, “I want happiness.”
Now, attach this desire for happiness in your mind to thoughts of love, caring, and kindness.
Think of some phrases of love and kindness you can give to yourself.
You can say these phrases aloud, and be mindful of your intent as you do.
Some phrases you can tell yourself are these:
I am love.
I care for myself.
I desire happiness.
I want to be healthy.
I want to be safe.
I wish to be peaceful.
Say the phrases slowly to yourself with a rhythm, making them into a mantra.
Focus on your breathing as you repeat the phrases, taking a breath in between each or saying one with every breath.
Concentrate on the words, recognizing the meaning you place with each phrase, perhaps forming a picture in your mind attached to that meaning.
Continue repeating the phrases that you wish to keep as your mantra slowly, either aloud or in your head, making sure you know what each of them mean to you.
Keep your focus on your mantra, coming back to it if you start to lose focus.
Embrace the meaning you have for each phrase. You may have some thoughts of doubt or self-judgement.
Whenever you do feel such negativity, you may repeat your mantra of phrases.
In time, repeating your mantra may do away with negativity whenever it comes.
Reflect on or repeat your mantra for as long as you wish.
If you wish to continue your session for a moment longer, go ahead and pause the video.
We are now coming to the end of the session. Slowly, go ahead and open your eyes. You may wish to stretch to awaken your muscles.
You are ready to welcome the rest of your day focused on living with love, kindness, and happiness.
Whenever you feel down in your day, you may repeat your mantra of love and kindness to keep you in a positive mindset, mindful of your thoughts.
Thank you for listening to this meditation. We hope you enjoyed it. See you next time for another wonderful meditation session. We hope you will be safe. | https://medium.com/@pickreation/meditate-towards-happiness-4fae2bd391fa | [] | 2020-12-21 07:23:12.444000+00:00 | ['Happiness', 'Happiness Meditation', 'Yoga', 'Meditation'] |
2021 is the year of Discernment | Whom do we listen to?
People we admire?
People who push us to think differently?
People who we esteem as good?
The thing is that all of us are going to be deeply flawed during times when we are trying to grasp for certainty.
Let’s not put anyone on a pedestal or we will all be disappointed. Let’s not inhale anyone’s propaganda but rather strengthen our DISCERNMENT.
In many ways that’s the most holy of jobs- to give people back their power when they hand it to us. To remind people of their innate ability to DISCERN even when they think they can’t. They can. They have just forgotten how to discern with their whole being rather than just their mind.
Master the ability to discern, and I assure you, you will be anchored in your spiritual path.
Use common sense, yes. Make a bit of a personal sacrifice now while many are affected by your desires. Let’s exercise a wee bit of discipline with our mind, body, soul and as much as we may want to get respite, see if we can keep going within. Allies will arrive, I promise.
The human part of us wants to judge others and that judgement is good information. Information that points us to the direction of people who actually think only of themselves, or information of where someone is consciously, and yet also information of a moment in time. That’s it. One moment. One decision. One effect. It’s not a forever. They are not the sum of one decision. It’s hard, I know, and let’s extend grace while we are all a hot mess. I mean, Truth, right?
Our circles of trusted ones gets smaller these days- can you feel that?
The pre 2020 rhetoric of “create your reality” feel so incomplete, naive and immature compared to the way we are being asked to GROW UP. All of us.
There may be things you swore you’d never do EVER and yet you are being nudged to do so.
Many of us have been burned by empty teachings, especially in coaching and in spiritual circles. Yet, I say, let’s not go at it alone in the years to come. Let’s allow ourselves to heal from past wounds and TRUST that we are more discerning & we can open up to more mature & evolved teachers & concepts.
Let’s trust our ability to get BETTER at DISCERNING. And if we don’t trust that, then it’s time to strengthen that.
In service,
Asha | https://medium.com/@ashaisnow/2021-is-the-year-of-discernment-6d0ada70deec | ['Asha D Ramakrishna'] | 2020-12-26 17:04:58.256000+00:00 | ['Spirtuality', '2021', 'Human Design', '2021 Trends', 'Astrology'] |
Sparrow’s Last Collar | Cargill came and found me. There was a girl out front who’d only talk to me. She must have been pretty insistent for him to leave his post. Or maybe he was just curious. I couldn’t remember the last time anyone really wanted to speak to me about anything.
“A girl?” I asked following him out to the main entrance.
“Yeah,” he replied. “A kid. Even if she’s not dressed that way.”
I didn’t know what to make of that. Cargill wasn’t one to follow fashion or even notice details. If he had any kind of eye for investigation he wouldn’t still be working intake, but I soon saw for myself. Sitting on a blue metal chair among a row of distraught parents and traumatized women, was a girl who couldn’t have been more than fourteen. Her stillness repelled attention almost as effectively as her clothing attracted it. She wore the once-fashionable tiny Grolix boots with stockings extending up past her knees. Two inches of exposed thigh disappeared into puff-hemmed cotton shorts, and she finished it off with a very small and tight black top. No one had dressed like this for a good ten years, and even a decade ago you’d have been hard pressed to find an outfit like this on a child — at least outside of the pornography coveted by many of the predators I’d arrested. Sometimes even before they did real damage.
“Detective Fogel,” she said, while I was still several strides away. It wasn’t a question. She was identifying me, holding me in her still certainty. And even though there was nothing specifically discernible about her face and its pleasing nondescript features, she was familiar.
“What can I do for you?” I asked. She waited for Cargill to leave before standing up and stepping closer.
“I wish to report a crime.”
“I’m sure they’d be happy to help you at — ”
I didn’t get to finish. She took my left arm by the wrist, and I grabbed the disabler in my right holster just as quickly. It didn’t matter how much desk work I did these days, that kind of muscle memory is hard-wired. Sensing my fingerprint, the disabler fired up, instantly ready for use, but I didn’t draw. I didn’t resist. Whatever I couldn’t see in this girl’s face, I felt in her touch, and when she placed my left thumb against her right cheek, I was only a little surprised to see her eyes flash warm from blue to red and back again.
“Sparrow?” I asked, and she nodded.
“It’s good to see you again, Daniel,” she replied. “I wish to report a crime.”
I hadn’t seen Sparrow for ten years. She was one of five predator droids designed by Professor Marcus Brancazio as part of his own self-funded project to assist law enforcement with the collection of evidence against child molesters. Five fully realistic robots set free in the world, loitering around schools, malls, and even family courts. All waiting to be found by men who would take them somewhere less public. Somewhere they could talk. Somewhere they could share their grown man insights about old souls and new loves to these very young-looking girls.
But, of course, they weren’t girls. That was the point. They were robots designed to collect evidence. And it wasn’t just that they recorded everything and sent that information directly to Brancazio’s servers in real time. The Professor felt, and my entire career in sex crimes confirmed, that there could never be enough evidence. It didn’t matter that the droids were programmed to state their age repeatedly or talk of problems typical to the average junior high schooler. It didn’t matter that for some reason grown men found that engaging. It didn’t matter that there was footage of men twenty, thirty, forty years older, thrusting and sweating above what they believed to be children. Juries always needed more. That’s why each of the predator droids’ orifices were designed to collect and store the ejaculate of their assailants. Upon collection, the vial of evidence would be secured deep within the protected steel chamber of the droid’s abdomen. Only the droid herself or her law enforcement collector could retrieve it.
I knew the protocol because ten years ago, I was Sparrow’s collector. I learned her code. My left thumb on her right cheek triggered recognition, my eyes locked with hers provided double verification, and then the password. A series of randomized physical actions. In this case, collecting the sample required two taps to Sparrow’s left cheek, a squeeze of her left bicep, and a clasp of my right hand with her left. After that, a flap in her midsection appeared and a tiny drawer containing the evidence would protrude for collection. I would then dictate the chain of custody form directly into Sparrow’s face where it would be recorded and saved on Brancazio’s server along with the rest of the incriminating information. The semen itself would go to our crime lab.
“I didn’t recognize you,” I said.
“Yes, Professor made many alterations.” Sparrow paused before adding, “At my request.”
I took her to the tiny questioning room where we could speak in private. She sat. I stood.
“Can I get you anything?” Asking was just a habit. I’m sure there was nothing Sparrow needed.
“Got an extra set of bio-charge duodenal life cells lying around?” she asked and laughed.
“I don’t remember you being sarcastic.”
“You’re right. Humor was only a rudimentary part of my original programming,” she replied. “Perpetrators didn’t seem to hold it against me though.”
“No. I don’t suspect they would.”
“Some even told me I was quite funny. Imagine that. Only 6.02% of my design dedicated to humor at the time and they said I was funny. Still, I’m glad you liked my joke, Daniel.”
In truth, I didn’t remember Professor Brancazio being very funny either, lording over his robots and money in seclusion, but Sparrow must have picked it somehow after being left in his care for a decade.
“Why’d you change your face?” I asked.
“I think this suits me,” she said. “There was a vapidity about the old one that upsets me to think about.”
Vapidity. That was new too. Sparrow didn’t speak like that, but I’m sure a lot of things had changed since the Roy case made her famous. After all, she was now the last of her kind having watched her four sisters destroyed by the fallout that terminated our program. In our six months together we had incarcerated five predators. Five men in our humble region of Outer Willoughby alone. Teacher, mechanic, clergyman, doctor, and drifter. There was no way to predict a predator just by looking. Not by my years of experience or even Sparrow’s recognition software designed in the hopes of achieving precisely that goal.
“Does Professor Brancazio know you’re here?” I asked. Sparrow remaining in his care was a condition of avoiding termination, but it wasn’t a legal inquiry. I was asking the way you’d ask any child unaccompanied by a parent.
“He’s dead,” she replied, and the muscle memory flexed again as I reached for my disabler. It worked equally well on electrical and organic nervous systems, and while Sparrow may have looked like a child standing at 5' 2”, her steel workings were capable of doing grown up damage. It was a slight gesture, but she noticed. She was programmed to.
“I didn’t kill him,” Sparrow said. “Professor was dying for a long time. That’s not the crime I came here to report.”
“I’m sorry,” I said and sat on the edge of the table, hoping proximity would help regain trust.
“I wish to report a violation of The Predator Droid Act,” she said.
“No one’s broken that law in ten years.”
“Ten years, three weeks, and six days,” Sparrow replied.
“What are you saying?” I asked
“You know what I’m saying, Daniel.”
The Predator Droid Act was passed after the Lester Roy decision, and even though Roy was responsible for catalyzing the bill, rumor was he’d lobbied to keep his name off it. Who could blame him? No one wants to be memorialized as a pedophile, which Roy most certainly was even if he was also this region’s Prosecuting Counsel when he climbed on top of Sparrow.
“You ran your protocols again?” I whispered.
“Yes,” Sparrow replied. She did not whisper.
“But you could be terminated for that.”
Sparrow spat out a laugh I’d never heard from her before. “Terminated?” she asked. “I’m already terminated. Professor had to check in every month to verify I was still a ward of his estate, remember? That was part of the Act. What do you think’s going to happen when he doesn’t check in four days from now?”
Sparrow waited for a reply. “Sorry, I forgot for a moment,” was all I could offer.
She took a breath and then continued. “When Professor died, I found some of my old clothes, left the compound, and ran my protocols.”
“You collared another predator?” I asked.
“Re-collared would be more accurate,” she replied.
“You didn’t.”
“Yes. I performed another collection on Roy.”
“Why?”
My question was about only practicality, not motive. There was no shortage of reasons to want another bite at Roy. The blowback from the trial may have flatlined my career, but it was far worse for Sparrow. Not only had Roy destroyed Sparrow’s sisters, he’d started an anti-droid backlash the robot community was still feeling. Before his trial, droids had been slowly gaining acceptance in the twenty years since Brancazio jumped to his “Imperceptibles” line. They were no longer the tour guides and service attendants of my childhood. Droids were now vehicle mechanics, teachers, and even low level medical care providers. Perhaps nowhere was the public more willing to welcome robots than in the areas of companionship and sexual gratification. Each year more laws were passed to guarantee droid safety and autonomy far beyond the rights afforded mere property. And while their civil rights movement was advancing through incremental change, most droids didn’t have impatience as part of their programming.
But Roy forced people to take sides. He publicly disputed the evidence, calling into question the integrity of the video, the validity of the specimen, and the motives of his accusers. He smeared Professor Brancazio as an eccentric billionaire, hell-bent on using robotic wizardry to destroy a more wholesome element of society. Roy even claimed to be the victim of a failed blackmail attempt. A martyr suffering under an affront to law and order. It was possible to create false images so effectively that only a handful of the finest could detect them on their best day, but no credible scientist would testify that DNA could be falsified.
That’s why Roy didn’t rely on misinformation alone. His legal defense mounted a challenge to our entire pilot program. His lawyers argued that even assuming the video and the specimen were legit, the conviction still had to be overturned because no crime had been committed. Quite simply, they argued, statutory rape laws applied only to humans.
“Do you know,” Sparrow said, “When I saw Roy, it was the first time in years I wanted my old face back. I wanted him to see me.”
That’s when I squatted down beside Sparrow, to tell her the thing I’d been thinking since she’d arrived, but I didn’t speak right away.
“Yes, Daniel?”
“I never told you I’m sorry.”
“What for?”
“For what happened after the trial.”
Sparrow’s full lips flattened to mere straight line, but still she said,“That wasn’t your fault.”
Due to the unconventional nature of the case, Sparrow had been called as a witness seemingly for the sole purpose of dehumanizing her. Although any expert could have given testimony about the limitations of Sparrow’s protocols, the Court allowed the defense to question her directly, likely due to Roy’s influence as former Prosecutor. Sparrow answered a series of humiliating questions. Yes, she conceded, she could not give birth, she had no need to eat, she did not dream. She also admitted her fourteen year old girl body would never grow unless an older one were physically constructed for her. But while Brancazio had not mastered the biomechanics of a physically growing body, Sparrow’s personality was a different concern. If allowed to progress normally, she could have developed emotionally, intellectually, psychologically like any young women. But Sparrow testified her functions had been deliberately stunted. All those areas had built-in inhibitors to insure she continued to exist in the world as a fourteen year old girl.
“And why is that?” defense counsel asked, expecting Sparrow to continue speaking matter of factly about Brancazio’s design. And maybe she was, but that’s when Sparrow said something that won the public’s affection and, some argued, the case.
“I suppose,” Sparrow testified, “if I were allowed to mature normally as a human does, perpetrators like your client would no longer want to have sex with me.”
Roy was convicted and Sparrow became famous. Her testimony footage played over and over on liquid display T-shirts, and she was even the number one costume that Halloween, but it didn’t last. Roy appealed all the way up to the the High Court who not only reversed the conviction, but delivered a decision that ended the use of Predator Droids. In an issue of first impression, the High Court held droids were not human. Furthermore, if the “rape” of these droids didn’t constitute a crime, they could serve no purpose other than as agents of blackmail. The Predator Droids Act was passed and Brancazio’s droids were destroyed as enemy creations. In time, even the term “Predator” seemed to apply to the robots themselves instead of the criminals they were built to track.
But the public couldn’t stomach Sparrow’s destruction. She was spared after protests, petitions, and Professor Brancazio’s personal representation that she would never leave his five square mile compound. Every month, Brancazio would check in and verify that Sparrow was still serving her sentence for Roy’s crime, although I doubt he phrased it that way. Meanwhile, Roy reclaimed his reputation and rose all the way up to Regional Senator.
It’s true none of those awful things were my fault, but that also wasn’t what I was apologizing for. “No, Sparrow,” I said. “I meant I’m sorry I never came to visit you.”
She nodded. “Well, people don’t visit their appliances.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“No? Tell me. When we were working together did you think I was human?”
It was something I’d asked myself many times, but I still wasn’t prepared for it. “That’s one of those questions you can only answer when it’s not asked,” I said.
“I may be a robot,” Sparrow replied, “But if you’re trying to make my head explode with illogic, it won’t work. I would have tried it long ago.”
Given the cost of producing Imperceptibles, standard protocols prevented their self-destruction, but supposedly that wasn’t the only design spec meant to save Sparrow. Her protocols required her to be a victim. Repeatedly. Even worse, while the predator droids’ experiences were saved on Brancazio’s servers, the memories also remained in the droids themselves to further prove authenticity. Still, we were told these droids were compartmentalized. Brancazio had been adamant that the trauma was stored in a separate part of their system. Accessible, but only through more atypical pathways, and part of a distant information retrieval process that delivered blinded data only upon request.
“That question,” I said. “It’s like asking if I believe in God.”
“You flatter me.”
“No, I mean, if you ask me if there is an all-powerful presence in the world. If you ask me if that exists, true/false, I’ll say no. But if I don’t think about it. If I don’t think about it, then I have to admit I move through the world as a believer.”
Sparrow shook her head. “Move to strike as nonresponsive.”
“What?”
“That’s what court counsel said at trial when someone’s testimony was evasive. ‘Move to strike as nonresponsive.’”
I took Sparrow’s hand. “I believed in you, Sparrow. In our day to day interactions. I thought of you as human . . . when I wasn’t thinking about it.”
“And if you did think about it?”
“Well, I tried not to, but if I’m really honest, then no,” I said. “How could I? You had to be less than human. How else could I let you walk into harm’s way over and over? How could I accept your sacrifice unless I chalked it all up to digits and algorithms? Unless I believed in Brancazio’s ability to compartmentalize your abuse.”
“Thank you, Daniel,” she said. “I’m sorry for making you say it, but thank you. And I understand because I’ve had this conversation before. It’s what Professor said to me, almost word for word, when I asked him.”
I didn’t enjoy the comparison, and I took a seat further from Sparrow.
“Professor felt terribly guilty,” she said. “He spent the last ten years trying to make it up to me.”
“The new head?”
“That was the least of it. He turned off my inhibitors. All of them.”
“He let you grow up?” I asked.
“He tried to.”
“But you still have a child’s body?”
“Well, first of all, you have to remember I’ve only been alive ten and half years.”
“True, but you don’t look ten and half.”
“Now you sound like one of my predators. ‘I swear she looked eighteen!’” Sparrow laughed.
“That’s not funny,” I said. “Maybe Brancazio didn’t turn off your humor inhibitor after all?”
“You can check yourself if you want,” Sparrow said, and lowered her head to expose the back of her neck while holding up her brown hair. “Lay your thumbs and take a look. The last time Professor checked, my language, logic, and intellectual capacities were all progressing. That includes humor.”
“Brancazio told you that?” I asked. “You didn’t know?”
Sparrow lifted her head, realizing I had no intention of mathematically quantifying her joke.
“I can’t access those readings,” she said.
“Why not?”
“Probably for the same reason they say humans shouldn’t know their IQ scores, I guess. Anyway, Professor checked before he died. I had progressed in many areas, just not all.”
I didn’t like Brancazio determining whether or not Sparrow deserved an adult body, and it didn’t matter if he was wrong or right. It was believing anyone could be wrong or right. It had been over a 100 years since droids looked human, but what made Brancazio a billionaire, what gave him the right to call his products “imperceptible” from humans, was their emotional programming. He had reduced humanity to a series of mathematical equations with the arrogance to believe a soul could be plotted on a grid.
“Why don’t you have an adult body, Sparrow?”
“Not everything was ready,” she said.
“Was there a magic number?” I asked. “He demanded some passing grade for adulthood?”
“No,” Sparrow said. “It wasn’t like that. It killed him to see me stunted even after he removed the inhibitors. He wasn’t expecting that.”
“He called you stunted?”
“What could he call it? In certain areas, I hadn’t grown at all.”
“But you speak differently, your whole manner is different.”
“Yes, I’ve changed. It’s all charted. But certain factors . . . the MQs . . . they stayed in the red even when the rest shot into the green.”
“MQs?”
“Professor called those areas ‘Maturity Quantifiers.’”
“And that tore Professor up, did it?” I mimicked the way Sparrow said his academic title as if it meant something more.
“Yes,” she said.
“How do you know?”
“Because he killed himself.”
I shut down after that, relying on muscle memory again and needlessly handed Sparrow a tissue. She wasn’t crying, but she took it anyway to be polite.
“You said he was dying a long time,” I reminded her, trying to find some hole in the story. Something to disrupt the confession.
“He was. He’d been abusing Neuralrest for years. Worse after Roy became Senator, but it was the stunted MQs that hit him hardest.”
“Couldn’t deal with the design failure?”
“Professor’s designs were valid,” she replied. “You’ve seen Imperceptibles grow to adulthood. Teachers, companions, but you’re right. Not me. Not a predator droid. It was the compartmentalization process.”
“But the distant information retrieval system? It was supposed to protect you from — ”
“It failed.”
“Failed how? What do you remember?”
“Everything,” Sparrow said, and I was grateful her words came from a face different from the one I’d help send into harm’s way.
“That’s awful.”
Sparrow handed me back the tissue and got up to put a hand on my shoulder.
“It’s OK, Daniel,” she said. “You didn’t know. And in truth. It’s not accurate to say I remember everything, but I feel it. What we discovered eventually, Professor and I, is that even without retrieval of the memory, the events leave a mark. The trauma affects all systems when it enters. How they develop. Or don’t develop.”
“That sounds like post traumatic stress,” I said. “Everyone gets that.”
“In a way,” Sparrow replied.
“Well, what’s more human than that?” I asked.
I wasn’t telling Sparrow anything she didn’t already know. “I think that’s what really did Professor in,” she said. “Seeing that I was impacted the same as any girl.”
I took Sparrow’s hand from my shoulder. It wasn’t right her comforting me, but I just held it not knowing what else to do.
“Are you ready to hear my confession, Daniel?”
Confession meant termination. Due process was only for humans.
“You have nothing to confess, Sparrow. You’re confused. You’ve suffered a loss.”
“I am not confused, Daniel. I performed another collection for you to retrieve.”
“Why? It’s not even admissible.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Then what’s the point?”
“To stop him. To know he’s stopped.”
“But you haven’t stopped anything,” I said. “The law says there was no crime. Nothing you’ve collected is admissible.”
“You’re still talking like it’s ten years ago,” Sparrow said. “Things change. Professor didn’t give me a new body before he killed himself, but he did give me autonomy.”
“He did?”
“Yeah, it was the least he could do for breaking something he couldn’t fix,” Sparrow said and it was the first time I saw real anger in her. That made me feel a little better, especially because it wasn’t directed at me, but I still didn’t understand.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“You don’t know what ‘autonomy’ means? Maybe your language sensors are still in the red.”
“I know what ‘autonomy’ means. What does it mean in your case”
“I have no inhibitors and no protocols. I can do what I want.”
“Anything?”
“Anything but self-destruct. Professor couldn’t bear to change that.”
“So then you could have built yourself an adult body?”
“Yes, probably,” Sparrow said. “I’d spent enough time with Professor to know how to do that, but . . .”
Sparrow waited for me to finish her sentence. I couldn’t
“But what?”
“But how would I have attracted Roy with an adult body?”
I stood up like I was going to leave the room, but I didn’t leave. I looked at the ceiling. I looked at the door. I looked at the confession room camera I’d never switched on. Sparrow came closer until we were only inches apart and I held my hands in hers.
“I made changes to my design,” she said. “Changes more significant than these clothes. My intakes no longer perform collections as subtle as DNA. They’re not designed for juries. They’re for me.”
“What does that mean?”
“Again, you know what it means.” She released my hands and placed her arms to her side. “Please take the collection, Daniel.”
“I . . . can’t.”
“Really? I have to do this myself too?”
She kneeled down before me, and tapped her left cheek twice. Then she grabbed her left bicep and clasped her own hands in front of her face. If it weren’t for her wide-opened eyes, she’d have looked very much in prayer.
“Please Sparrow. Please stop.”
The flap in her midsection opened and a tiny drawer emerged. There, beneath the shelter of her clasped hands, was a bloody tray. No mere vial of DNA, but a cold lump of flesh which could have only been Lester Roy’s severed penis, removed with a mechanical precision that would have done Professor Brancazio proud.
“I have violated The Predator Droid Act, Daniel,” she said, and waited for me to do my duty. She even lowered her head so I wouldn’t have to see her face. But when no execution came, she looked at me one final time.
“I can’t do this myself, Daniel, and I’d rather it be you than the High Court.”
I stood behind Sparrow and placed my thumbs on each side of her jaw as I’d been taught.
“Are you ready?” I asked.
“It’s OK, Daniel,” she said. “It’s just like turning off an appliance, Just think of me as a machine.” I already was. It was the only way. “I’m ready,” she said.
“I’m sorry, Sparrow.”
I pressed for a full three seconds until something inside her shifted and clicked loud enough for me to hear. I let go with a start, and she instantly fell forward, saved from landing flat on her face only by the collection tray that propped her body like a kickstand.
Her head bobbed and hung forward from the impact, parting her hair. And just before the last of Sparrow’s body powered down, I pressed my thumbs into the back of her neck. Every rating of the development grid, even her once-stunted MQs, had crept out of the red and into the glowing green before going dead forever.
L. E. Westphal
New York, 2020 | https://medium.com/wretched/sparrows-last-collar-a04fa73f5b02 | ['L. E. Westphal'] | 2020-11-14 00:11:47.818000+00:00 | ['Sex Crimes', 'Pedophilia', 'Robots', 'Justice', 'Sci Fi Fantasy'] |
Bitcoin: Value versus Speculation | (If you like my writings, you might subscribe to “Fabrica”)
In the last several hours, the entire cryptocurrency market has lost about 20% of its value. Some are calling this the pop of a bubble. Below you can see several cryptocurrencies and their recent drop in price (source: CoinMarketCap, which is a weighted average of various crypto exchanges around the world).
Is this the pop of a bubble, then? No, it’s not. Or, to be precise: this recent drop has NOTHING to do with whether we are in a crypto bubble or not.
The only thing that has happened is simply a wild speculation.
Crypto market of the last several hours (source: CoinMarketCap). A lot of red.
Let me show you.
Take a look at this chart below: it shows the daily price of BTC in orange, and the monthly price in blue.
Bitcoin to USD price, DAILY (orange) and MONTHLY (blue), from January 1st 2017 to January 15th 2018
As you can clearly see, the daily price can fluctuate wildly; while the steady growth of Bitcoin price keeps going.
In fact, it’s easier to believe me by simply looking at the monthly price alone (1st day of every month), again in blue:
Bitcoin to USD price MONTHLY, from January 1st 2017 to January 15th 2018
If you just look at this graph, what do you see? A very healthy growth.
For me, this is indicative of the perceived VALUE of Bitcoin. The orange line in the previous graph instead shows the PRICE of Bitcoin, which is heavily affected by speculation, and not properly correlated to VALUE.
In other words: besides wild speculation, Bitcoin is steadily growing. Will it keep growing? Hard for me to say. But what happened in the last hours is NO indication of it.
However, I am still personally very bullish on Bitcoin’s growth.
Why this note? To bring some sanity back into the discussion. Much needed, I guess.
Did you like this article? Clap and share. Thanks!
(disclaimer: I own cryptocurrencies).
(If you like my writings, you might subscribe to “Fabrica”) | https://medium.com/fabrica/bitcoin-value-versus-speculation-8bc2bf529040 | ['Simone Brunozzi'] | 2018-03-21 22:53:49.894000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Office Hours: The Oasis Gateway | Office Hours: The Oasis Gateway
Improving the usability of DApps with a simple API.
This month we hosted an office hours featuring the new Oasis Gateway. Oasis engineer Stan Augé-Pujadas and Product Marketing Manager, Andrew Miller, discussed our motivation behind building the Oasis Gateway, and how it can help developers increase adoption of their DApps by allowing them to pay transaction fees on behalf of their users. They also demoed the Secret Ballot App, and showed developers how easy it is to integrate with the Oasis Gateway.
If you missed this month’s office hours, don’t worry — you can watch the full office hours here, or check out some highlights below.
Important Resources
Q. Where can I learn more about the Oasis Gateway?
We’ve got a few different resources for you:
To review the Oasis Gateway code and provide feedback checkout our GitHub repo
If you’d like to try using the Oasis Gateway you can do so by following the Secret Ballot tutorial
If you run into issues or have questions, join our community Slack channel
Motivation behind the Oasis Gateway
Q: Why did we build the Oasis Gateway?
We were looking at the current state DApps and felt like adoption was really being hindered by the tremendous amount of friction involved with setting up and using a Wallet.
Right now to use a decentralized app you have to do the following:
Open the DApp you want to use
Be asked to install MetaMask
Go to coinbase.com and create an account.
Verify email account.
Do KYC. Take photo of passport/drivers license and send that to Coinbase.
Wait for that to be verified
Link bank account to Coinbase account.
Transfer USD to Coinbase account.
Make trade to purchase token.
Transfer token to MetaMask wallet.
At this point you can use the decentralized application.
Anytime you use the application, you have to approve the transaction.
While valuable, this flow is incredibly difficult for someone to follow if they’re not tech savvy, or familiar with blockchain. With the Oasis Gateway, we wanted to provide developers with an option to appeal to a broader audience of users — specifically those who might find this flow too cumbersome.
Q: Got it, so what is the Oasis Gateway, and how does it solve this problem?
The Oasis Gateway is an interface that we provide in front of the Oasis Network. It’s designed to provide a cloud like experience on top of the network to simplify development of DApps.
It specifically improves usability for DApps, by allowing developers to pay transaction fees on behalf of their end users. Rather than having their user’s add a wallet, a developer can pay transaction fees using their own wallet to make DApp setup and usage much more streamlined.
Q: How does the Oasis Gateway fit with our other tooling?
The Oasis Client is integrated with your front-end app, and talks directly to the Oasis Gateway. Right now the Oasis Client is implemented in Javascript and Typescript and it’s open sourced.
Your front-end app (on the left), would use the Oasis Client to talk to the Oasis Gateway, which exposes a simple interface for a service hosted on the Oasis Network. Services can be developed using the Oasis SDK. More on that in our previous post.
Overview of how DApps can interact with the Oasis Network.
Q: So there is some trade off here between ease of use and control. The user is giving up some control, but in exchange gets some properties of blockchain, correct?
Yes, the user still gets integrity provided by the system. Their transactions can’t be modified by the developer or the developer gateway. They also get some guarantees that their transactions remain confidential and lastly, because this is all built on a blockchain, users can access an immutable log of all transactions made.
So in some sense, this is an intermediate step between a traditional app backed by a cloud and DApp powered by a blockchain. They don’t get all the guarantees that a wallet would provide, but it’s better than a traditional system.
Q: So who is this technology really for?
We think this great for developers who have a user base that mostly used to web based apps, and not familiar with blockchain.
In an ideal world, folks would feel comfortable having a wallet and using it, but until then we hope that the Oasis Gateway can help ease the transition from web based apps to blockchain based apps.
Q: Okay, so how do I actually use the Oasis Gateway?
Watch this video above to find out! | https://medium.com/oasislabs/office-hours-the-oasis-gateway-c7668ecb4b76 | ['Andrew Miller'] | 2019-09-24 17:17:53.278000+00:00 | ['Dapps', 'Development', 'Blockchain', 'Privacy', 'Cloud Computing'] |
That Old, Familiar Pain | Some things come to pass, and some come to stay. Though even vivid reminders fade, they are there, and waking memory goads wandering thoughts. I recently heard the story of a man with such memory dysfunction as to never be able to forget. He bore this burden for many years until, burdened by grief, he took his life. Such is the power of remorse and the weight of years.
Memories also bring the sweet ache. We wonder what might have been if only. Such reminiscences are treasured thoughts and akin to wistful longings. They contain unrequited wish-fulfillment rather than regret. They hurt, but also warm the heart. We long to return to a time and place which desire can never be. Occasionally, someone will attempt to replicate the past only to be disheartened in the failed attempt.
Each of us carries an array of hurts and haunting memories that frequently arise and give pause. Some of these are hard to explain and misunderstood when told, so what’s the use? We can’t outrun the past, and familiar phantoms remain, not far from present reality. Our minds wander the back roads by the river of memory, and we discover wealth and wisdom on the journey.
Our pasts are to be as committed to Christ as our futures. Whether the thoughts of yesterday bring joy or pain, they are in the hands of the Father. Hurts from the past can be instructive, and the burned hand teaches best. If we could do away with painful memories, would we? Those things went a long way toward making us. Great good can come from great grief.
Dealing with hurts requires more than bumper-sticker wisdom, and it’s not easy despite the sayings of songs and friends. It’s hard to commit things to Christ when they (and we) keep getting up from the altar. A continual process of contrition is needed to address recurrent themes. Though it sounds daunting, it’s not as bad as all that if we approach it the right way. We must take a firm stance before we address the ball.
Victory for the Christian is only possible when life for Christ is the sole objective. Only when we live in Christ are we able to confront the shifting sands of life. He is able to do everything He claims He can do, but we must do what we can do, as well. And, each day, we are making memories to treasure or regret. While we cannot escape the past, we don’t have to live in it.
Jeremiah said that God plans for us to have hope and a future. Memories may bring sadness and sorrow. While there is value in reflection, God wants us to look ahead. We run out of plans, but God never does. He knows what happened, and He knows what will happen.
Weep in secret, but do much more. Wipe the tears from your eyes and take the hand of God. You’ve got places to go and people to see. A future just for you.
Sterl | https://medium.com/@sterl/that-old-familiar-pain-6f56b5587200 | ['Sterl Paramore'] | 2019-11-14 14:41:30.926000+00:00 | ['Aging Well', 'Business', 'Progress', 'Growth', 'Spirituality'] |
New Fees in the Future For Credit Card Users | An anti-trust suit from 2005 has finally been settled between merchants, credit card companies, and banks to allow retailers in 40 US states to add surcharges on credit card purchases. These fees are still illegal in California, New York, Texas, and seven other states. The fees are optional for retailers, and there will be no fee on debit card purchases, but if you often pull out the plastic, that 1% cash back might not be worth it much longer. | https://medium.com/ipg-media-lab/new-fees-in-the-future-for-credit-card-users-78cfa05d51a4 | ['Ipg Media Lab'] | 2017-07-06 22:20:32.474000+00:00 | ['Anti Trust', 'Percolate', 'Credit Card', 'Fees', 'American Express'] |
Doughnuts, Bullets and Funnels: How to visualize your video streaming data correctly | “Using a sledgehammer to crack a nut” — an idiom that should echo in the minds of any video business that is looking to monitor their platform performance. A great solution to any problem requires the most appropriate tool.
Integrating with a video analytics service is the first step, but once you’re all set up, what is the best way to visualize this data in the most effective way? There are almost infinite answers to this question. Every situation and context requires a different approach in order to unlock the right insights into the user experience. This article will take you through the numerous options which we recommend using, what metrics and KPIs best suit each format and what to keep in mind when exploring your data.
Why does it matter?
It’s a good question. Data is data, it’s pretty black and white. However, this doesn’t mean everyone would choose to portray data in the same way. Lisa Charlotte Rost investigated this exact question in 2016 by putting her data through 24 different data visualization tools and received interesting results…
The most apparent conclusion for Rost was that no two tools are the same. It entirely depends on your goals: “Programming knowledge shouldn’t be a prerequisite to feel home in the data journalism world,” she said. “And let’s face it: Code is still scary for lots of people. We need to work on both sides of the problem. Helping people get into code can make them feel included in the short-term. But we also should work on highly flexible, user-friendly apps which include even more people in the long-term — and in the best case, teach them data visualization rules on the fly.”
Put simply, to visualize your video streaming data correctly, you need to understand which graph, table or chart is going to best portray the trends that help you become data-informed.
Histogram Chart
What is it?
A histogram is a type of graph that has wide applications. Histograms provide a visual interpretation of numerical data by indicating the number of data points that lie within a range of values. Basically, this type of graph is used to visualize data frequency using a selection of ranges along the x-axis and the KPI value on the y-axis.
These ranges of values are called classes, buckets or bins. The frequency of the data that falls in each class is depicted by the use of a bar. The higher that the bar is, the greater the frequency of data values in that bin.
Three best metrics to measure
Buffer ratio
Average playtime
Average Bitrate
What to watch out for
At first glance, histograms look very similar to bar graphs. Both graphs employ vertical bars to represent data. The reason that these kinds of graphs are different from bar graphs has to do with the level of measurement of the data. On one hand, bar graphs are used for data at the nominal level of measurement. Bar graphs measure the frequency of categorical data, and the classes for a bar graph are these categories. On the other hand, histograms are used for data that is at least at the ordinal level of measurement. The classes for a histogram are ranges of values.
This is the newest widget we have implemented in YOUBORA Suite and allows our customers to perform A/B tests on variables such as content title to understand the frequency of each metric value for different releases and see a median value to get a quick glance of platform-wide performance.
Pivot Table
What is it?
We like to think of these as ‘intelligent’ tables. Pivot tables are the best way to compare the performance of different variables across a number of metrics. In the example above, we’re looking at a few metrics broken down into five countries: Unites States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong and India.
We can clearly see and compare KPI values across dimensions with a pivot table, however, this can then be broken down further. Pivot tables allow you to add multiple layers of filtering in order to compare variables within variables. For example, Let’s say you’re wanting to look at these same five countries, however, you’d also like to break it down into views on mobile phones, TVs and PCs. By adding an extra dimension to this, you can see the total value for each metric for mobile phones, TVs and PCs in all countries.
Three best metrics to measure
Plays
Average playtime
Buffer ratio
What to keep in mind
Pivot tables are a powerful tool, however, its versatility can sometimes make it a confusing way to visualize data. Multi-level filtering allows video services to organize their data into easily understandable segments, however, once you hit three levels of filtering, data can become convoluted. In these moments it is crucial to use a service like YOUBORA Suite which can make these segments make sense using a fluid interface.
Sankey Chart
What is it?
A Sankey chart clearly displays a storyline of the events that occur throughout video playback. If you’re wanting to understand what proportion of your users experience each sequence of events, a Sankey chart will break the user experience down into palatable funnels.
In the example above, we can see that Sankey charts allow you to see how many of your plays managed to reach initiation either with or without viewing ads. This allows video services to see where they are experiencing drop-offs and better understand where they should focus their resources in order to maximize ad impressions. If you’re running an AVOD, this format of data visualization is key to your success.
Three best metrics to measure
Plays initiated
EBVS (Exit Before Video Starts)
EBAS (Exit Before Ad Starts)
What to keep in mind
The availability of supply data. Access to real-time data for sequential events is hard to come by as many analytics services do not work in real-time. That’s why using analytics services like YOUBORA Suite is the best option when it comes to working with immediate data. If you are wanting to evaluate risk and value streams, having the right data will make your Sankey diagrams actionable.
Funnels
What is it?
Not to be confused with the Sankey diagram detailed above, funnels take much more of a linear approach. This form of observing data allows you to get a complete understanding of where you’re seeing user drop-offs.
In the example shown here, we are looking at how ad rollout is affecting the user experience. The funnel on the left shows one strategy and the funnel on the right shows a second strategy. Using funnels allows you to perform A/B tests capable of revealing how your users prefer to experience your streaming service.
Three best metrics to measure
Plays
Ad drops
EBVS (Exit Before Video Starts)
What to keep in mind
At the heart of funnels is the conversion rate KPI. Before you start filtering by different campaigns, titles and geographies, funnels will not be able to tell you exactly which user segment is affected, only where most users are exiting. Comparing various funnels side-by-side will reveal where your service is strongest, allowing you to replicate this infrastructure in as many situations as possible to make sure all of your users are experiencing the best quality of experience (QoE) no matter where they are or what device they are using to stream content.
Maps
What is it?
It’s easy to get dredged down exploring various graphs, charts and tables in order to find the optimum way of displaying your data. Maps are an often overlooked method of segmenting your audience based on their location and understanding your QoE in various countries, cities and regions.
It could be something as simple as understanding traffic or as complicated as in-stream error ratios. If you’re running a streaming service with a global audience, maps are an unmissable way of visualizing your audience, content and quality data.
Three best metrics to measure
Average playtime
Startup errors
Buffer time
What to keep in mind
Maps are a powerful way of understanding your entire audience at a glance. However, this is also its Achilles heel. Once you have noticed a pattern, you should use more focused visualization methods to dive deeper into your data. However, if you’re starting out your exploration of your platform data, maps are a great place to head first.
Heatmap
What is it?
Heat maps are useful for visualizing variance across multiple variables to display patterns in correlations. Fractal maps and tree maps both often use a similar system of color-coding to represent the values taken by a variable in a hierarchy. The term is also used to mean its thematic application as a choropleth map.
No matter whether you’re looking at the previous six hours or six months, a heatmap removes any linear elements from your data to simply show your averages. For example, in the image shown, we’re looking at the average buffer ratio during each hour for each day of the week. This data is the average over the course of a month and shows a clear pattern where Saturdays product a lower amount of buffering compared to other days.
Three best metrics to measure
Buffer ratio
Number of errors
Concurrent plays
What to keep in mind
Many incorrectly refer to heat maps as Choropleth maps. But choropleth maps include different shading or patterns within geographic boundaries to show the proportion of a variable of interest, whereas the coloration a heat map does not correspond to geographic boundaries.
Because of their reliance on color to communicate values, Heatmaps are a chart better suited to displaying a more generalized view of numerical data, as it’s harder to accurately tell the differences between color shades and to extract specific data points from (unless of course, you include the raw data in the cells).
Bullet Chart
What is it?
With Bullet Lists, you can set thresholds for your metrics to better understand how your platform is handling its load compared to your KPIs. Set the minimum, maximum and ideal in-between settings to get a quick shot of how each metric is performing. For example, when looking at Average Buffer Duration, you may want to know whether your platform average is above your maximum setting of 5 seconds(dangerous value), between 2 and 4 seconds(acceptable value) or below 1 second(preferred value).
Bullet Lists allow you to set your own thresholds and understand exactly what your dataset represents. While looking at the average buffer duration in a heatmap may show different intensities of values, Bullet Lists allow you to contextualize your data and understand how many of your users are experiencing a low or high QoE.
Three best metrics to measure
Avg. buffer duration
Join time
Startup errors by unique user
What to keep in mind
Setting your own thresholds is an excellent way of making your data actionable, however, without the proper knowledge of your platform performance, it is hard to determine exactly what a realistic value is for your preferred thresholds. That makes this a fantastic form of data visualization further into your investigation. Use the Map widget or a simple line graph to understand what your lower and higher thresholds stand at and then use a Bullet List graph to distribute your users. | https://medium.com/@npaw_blog/doughnuts-bullets-and-funnels-how-to-visualize-your-video-streaming-data-correctly-351bdf2746c7 | ['Npaw Blog'] | 2019-07-12 15:55:17.382000+00:00 | ['Charts', 'Data Visualization', 'Product Writing', 'Tables'] |
Healthful Monday~ 06/08/2020 | Today's Healthful-Amusement share worth amusing your thoughts with. Do your research and you'll lead yourself to serious diseases linking to poor diets, negative beliefs, and unhealthy lifestyles.
“Those who think they have no time for healthy eating will sooner or later have to find time for illness.” ~Edward Stanley
For example, consuming healthy ingredients and drinks can drastically reduce your chances of developing two of the world's leading killers, cancer and heart disease. Healthier consumption can improve every aspect of your life, from the top with brain function and throughout your body with physical performance. The fact is your food and drink affect every cell and living organism within your body. You input healthy then your output will be healthy!
"When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct, medicine is of no need." ~Ayurvedic Proverb
You deserve nothing but the best and you'll only get it from Mother Nature. Consume these common micronutrients daily from natural resources. Calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and all vitamins from A to K. It's that simple, no diet plan necessary! You consume when your hungry and thirsty, just as you rest when your sluggish, and slumber when you're exhausted. Supporting your local farmers creates win-win situations for everyone.
CHEERS~ to your blissful moments everywhere in between good eats and great treats...
Source: https://gab.com/EdwardFTCharfauros/posts/104308855402255438
#healthful #healthmatters #enzymes #healthy #foodmatters | https://medium.com/@edwardftcharfauros/healthful-monday-06-08-2020-9f1c8adc66ad | ['Edward F. T. Charfauros'] | 2020-06-08 14:37:31.197000+00:00 | ['Infographics', 'Health Matters', 'Enzyme', 'Healthful', 'Healthy Foods'] |
All Stateless Am I, Ever Since My Goodbye | Playing with words to refer to a 1963 song by Brenda Lee, this headline may seem to the readers a tad strange, but – trust me – there is nothing wrong with it. I am writing this article as a witness to the extraordinary incidents which have been proven watershed. It is also sad they pass as ordinary events as they happen more and more daily.
Once I was proud of my Turkish identity and always felt I represented my country wherever I was and with whatever good I did. This enthusiasm drove my heart and soul and shaped my objectives in life. My entire career has passed in the overseas, and I had many chances to showcase my culture, language, and the country at the best level, without a single penny from any governmental budget. I met many great people who did the same and tried to represent their values and culture as I did. Was it wrong? No, not at all. I believe people will do the same if things ever get normalized.
However, things started to fall apart after the fake-coup-attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016, as thousands of civilians were purged, arrested, and detained for ‘perpetuating the coup’.
After this failed military coup attempt, the Erdogan regime staged a civilian coup on July 20, 2016, allowing Erdogan to rule the country with an iron fist and silence all opponents in the months and years that followed. All the media outlets that were deemed as opponents by the Erdogan regime were shut down and journalists were arrested.
Doctors, judges, lawyers, teachers, academicians, businessmen, and many other groups regardless of their ages, genders, health conditions were arrested and incarcerated through witch-hunts and forced to await their deaths in total isolation from society by the Erdogan regime.
Not only the opponents who live in Turkey but those who live abroad faced the same fate. I and my wife were living in Pakistan when the July 15 coup was staged. Our lives were deeply affected by the very next day of the coup. The Erdogan regime labeled all educationists who are working abroad as terrorists and ventured to purge them by using the government apparatuses to reach Erdogan’s goal of authoritarianism for silencing the opponents and gripping more power.
The Erdogan regime seemed to have recruited the services of many politicians and bureaucrats from Pakistan the same as he did in several other countries especially in Asia and Africa. In almost no time, the news for the deportation of the Hizmet participants in Pakistan and the seizure of schools started to show on the Pakistani media outlets. Pakistanis, by the Government and the nation, have favored the Turkish mindset by default especially due to the historic bonds and Pakistan’s need for breaking its then-global isolation through Turkish bureaucratic assistance. Just as one of the top leaders of the Government of Pakistan had said in the mid-2000s, “the Government of Pakistan followed Turkey in rain and shine, regardless of the fact whether Turkey is right or wrong.” In the same vein, Pakistani government officials in July 2016 onwards increasingly favored Erdogan and his regime as if it was their own mode of governance and without deeming whether Erdogan asked them to act on legitimacy or not. On November 16, 2016, four months after the failed coup attempt in Turkey, the Turkish teachers in Pakistan were ordered by the Ministry of Interior Affairs asked to leave Pakistan within 3 days.
Of course, it was impossible for us to leave Pakistan within a short notice of time. I and my colleagues engaged in a hectic struggle against time to evaluate options and stay safe from any illegal action including abduction, deportation, or extradition. Eventually, we had no other option but to apply to the respective UNHCR representations across Pakistan to be placed under UN protection as holders of asylum-seeker certificates. UNHCR witnessed the humanitarian crisis caused by the two countries, Turkey and Pakistan, unfolding and stepped in a timely manner to contain the crisis. Turkish and Pakistani authorities could not achieve their objectives in the first run, and Turkish teachers gained much-needed time and respite while being deprived of their students and livelihood.
As we strived for financial and social survival in Pakistan during this time of transition before we could leave for another country, the Turkish Embassy in Islamabad declined all official applications made by the Turkish teachers to have their travel and identity documents issued as a part of their basic citizenship rights. Unconstitutionally rejecting our applications, the Turkish Embassy in Islamabad – similar to the Consulate General of the Republic of Turkey and many Turkish foreign missions abroad – served to deepen the humanitarian crisis and virtually applied civil death measures on the Turkish educationists in Pakistan. Some friends of mine who had newborn babies were not given identity cards and passports for their children. They themselves were considered as non-existent by the Turkish Embassy personnel in terms of their passport renewal and power-of-attorney applications. Hence, their fundamental human and citizenship rights were ignored by the Embassy personnel’s illegitimate rejection of their applications at multiple times.
As I and my spouse were preparing to leave Pakistan, we were additionally stressed by the fact my passport was to expire soon. In the light of the abovementioned reasons, I was unable to have my passport renewed and this troubled us a lot. Eventually, we migrated to Thailand, where we lived for almost two years while seeking to find interim solutions to our problems.
Fortunately, I had a valid US visa stamped on my passport and so, I and my spouse arrived in the United States 9 months before the expiry of my passport. Hence, I was relief from constant tension. Good news: November 9, 2020 – 13 days ago – marks the date when my passport was finally expired. It is rather a strange feeling as, for the time being, I bear no passport awaiting to be renewed by any country. Politically speaking, I am a stateless person now, and it is a mixed feeling with pride as far as I am safe and sound.
I was proud to represent my home country 5 years ago. Now, on the contrary, I am sort of proud to be away from it. It is neither a contradiction nor an expression of hopelessness but a statement of consciousness, love for freedom, and knowing who I really am.
Turkey was once motivated to spread peace, love, and hope to every corner of the world, and that was why I supported that vision at every opportunity. Today’s Turkey is unfortunately stifled with chaos, hate, and division. This is where I stand proud as a stateless person, away from Turkey in her current state. | https://enginyigit.medium.com/all-stateless-am-i-ever-since-my-goodbye-4957d6aed10c | ['Engin Yigit'] | 2020-12-04 02:19:19.306000+00:00 | ['Gulen Movement', 'Citizenship', 'Stateless', 'Turkey', 'Erdogan'] |
Dealing With My Anxiety Because…Life | I have the day off work today and you’d think I’d be happy and content looking forward to my day.
I am not. I have an underlying sense of deep anxiety and trepidation.
I can feel it in my gut. It’s a buzzing in my body and some nausea. It’s a clenching in my throat. I’m all to familiar with these feelings. I recognize my own cues of anxiety which warn me something isn’t right in my life.
Usually I don’t initially know why I’m having an anxiety attack. I have to make an effort to figure it out, which I don’t like doing, even if it’s in my best interest.
If I want to know why I’m having anxiety, I need to look at what I’m avoiding.
If I want to relieve my anxiety, I do certain activities to take off the pressure; I write, I exercise. I strategize about moving on with my day because I still need to live even if I don’t feel right inside. I refuse to let my anxiety disorder take over and become debilitated from it. I’ve done that in the past and it’s never a good outcome.
So I will continue on with the tasks of my day. I’ll apply for that car loan and go car shopping. I’ll have dinner with my mother. I’ll get over my anxiety attack eventually and be proud that I still adulted regardless. | https://medium.com/the-virago/dealing-with-my-anxiety-because-life-a2a668145f62 | ['Michelle Jaqua'] | 2020-05-26 02:20:08.562000+00:00 | ['Self', 'Mental Health', 'Life Lessons', 'Women', 'Anxiety'] |
ICOVO Smart Contract Audit | Critical Issues
1. Fixed: Negative-Outcome Vote Stalls Voting System
In the Voting.sol contract, the finalizeVoting() function is used to finalize a vote that is past its end_time and will call the isPassed() function to determine the outcome of the vote. The relevant code is excerpted below.
function finalizeVoting () external {
uint256 pid = this.getCurrentVoting();
require(proposals[pid].end_time <= block.timestamp);
require(!proposals[pid].isFinalized); proposals[pid].isFinalized = true; if (isPassed(pid)) {
if (isSubjectRaiseTap(pid)) {
DaicoPool(poolAddr).raiseTap(proposals[pid].tapMultiplierRate);
queued[uint(Subject.RaiseTap)] = false;
} else if (isSubjectDestruction(pid)) {
DaicoPool(poolAddr).selfDestruction();
queued[uint(Subject.Destruction)] = false;
} else {
revert();
}
}
} function isPassed (uint256 pid) public constant returns(bool) {
require(proposals[pid].isFinalized);
uint256 ayes = getAyes(pid);
uint256 nays = getNays(pid);
uint256 absent = ERC20Interface(votingTokenAddr).totalSupply().sub(ayes).sub(nays);
return (ayes.sub(nays).add(absent.div(6)) > 0);
}
At the end of the isPassed() function, the return statement tests for the difference between ayes and nays using a subtraction performed with safeMath . If the number of nays is greater than the number of ayes the call to sub() will assert an error which will revert the whole transaction. This reverting of the transaction will undo all the prior changes that were performed in the transaction, including setting isFinalized to true. Since no more votes can be cast and the outcome won't change, the contract enters an implicit stalled state where the proposal can not be finalized, the next proposal cannot be put to a vote and the tokens used to vote on this specific proposal cannot be returned to their owners (and are stuck forever in this contract).
Separately, in the case where the sub() function does not assert, the outcome of the return statement will almost always be positive since it tests for an unsigned integer ( uint256 ) value to be greater than 0 (e.g. the only case where this returns false is where this value is exactly 0).
To prevent stalling the contract, the isPassed function return statement needs to be changed to the following:
return (ayes.add(absent.div(6)) > nays);
Re-test v2.0: New Alchemy has inspected the new code and has determined that this issue has been fixed and the associated risk mitigated. The isPassed() function has been recast as shown below:
function isPassed (uint256 pid) public view returns(bool) {
require(proposals[pid].isFinalized);
uint256 ayes = getAyes(pid);
uint256 nays = getNays(pid);
uint256 absent = ERC20Interface(votingTokenAddr).totalSupply().sub(ayes).sub(nays);
return (ayes > nays.add(absent.div(6)));
}
Moderate Issues
2. Fixed: Loss of Precision Defeats raiseTap Granularity
Upon a positive outcome to a vote on a proposal to “raise tap” from the Voting.sol contract, a call to raiseTap on the DaicoPool.sol contract will be made to increase the tap by a value between 1.01 and 2.00 (by allowing the _tapMultiplierRate value from Voting.sol to range from 101 to 200 included).
function raiseTap(uint256 tapMultiplierRate) external onlyVoting {
updateReleasedBalance();
updateTap(tap.mul(tapMultiplierRate.div(100)));
}
However because of the order of operation and truncating integer math, only two actual multiplier values will ever be used. Either a multiply value of 1 if tapMultiplierRate is a value ranging from 101 to 199 or a multiply value of 2 if tapMultiplierRate is exactly 200. This defeats the purpose of the vote to increase the tap for any value of tapMultiplierRate different from 200.
To fix this issue, the order of operations needs to be shifted in the following manner to minimize the intermediate loss of precision from integer math:
updateTap(tap.mul(tapMultiplierRate).div(100));
Re-test v2.0: New Alchemy has inspected the new code and has determined that this issue has been fixed and the associated risk mitigated. The operation code now matches the recommendation shown above.
3. Fixed: WhitepaperVersioning.sol Stall
An attacker may be able to stall this contract through a carefully crafted malicious post transaction.
Consider the scenario where:
WhitepaperVersioning.sol is freshly deployed and the whitepapers structure is empty.
is freshly deployed and the whitepapers structure is empty. An attacker submits a post(_ipfsHash="HEAD", _version=255, _prev="HEAD") transaction. The logic bug revolves around _ipfsHash="HEAD" which may be an unexpected (or undesired) input with a version parameter equal to MAX_INT8 .
transaction. The logic bug revolves around which may be an unexpected (or undesired) input with a version parameter equal to . This transaction creates a whitepapers["HEAD"] entry with version equal to 255.
The code pertinent to this scenario is excerpted below:
function post (string _ipfsHash, uint8 _version, string _prev) public ... {
// Check if the IPFS hash doesn't exist already.
require(!whitepapers[_ipfsHash].initialized); // Check if the specified version is counted up
require(_version > whitepapers[_prev].version);
// Check if previous whitepaper's author is identical to posting whitepaper's
// author or the posting whitepaper is the initial version (HEAD version)
require(keccak256(_prev) == keccak256("HEAD") ||
whitepapers[_prev].author == msg.sender);
// Check if there is no fork from the previous version
require(bytes(whitepapers[_prev].next).length == 0);
whitepapers[_prev].next = _ipfsHash;
whitepapers[_ipfsHash] = Whitepaper(_version, msg.sender, _prev, "", true);
emit Post(_ipfsHash, _version, msg.sender);
return true;
}
Any subsequent post transaction seeking to create a legitimate fresh entry (which necessitates specifying _prev="HEAD" ) may fail the second require statement meant to ensure versions are strictly incrementing. It may also fail the fourth require statement meant to prevent forks. This means the contract is closed to new entries. New Alchemy recommends this contract be more thoroughly tested (including this scenario) and the logic around "HEAD" revisited.
Re-test v2.0: New Alchemy has inspected the new code and has determined that this issue has been fixed and the associated risk mitigated. ICOVO has effectively rewritten the algorithm to manage whitepaper tracking.
4. Not Fixed: Unbounded Loops
A number of contracts include for loops that iterate over each element in a data structure of indeterminate size. As each iteration consumes additional gas, a large data structure may cause function execution to be impacted by block gas limits. This may ultimately result in an unusable contract. Scenario risk is heightened if an attacker is able to directly increase the data structure length and/or if each loop iteration involves significant gas cost.
The following table shows instances of contract, line and loop specifics for this issue:
IndividuallyCapped...sol:39: for (uint256 i = 0; i < _beneficiaries.length; i++)
WhitelistedCrowdsale.sol:42: for (uint256 i = 0; i < _beneficiaries.length; i++)
TokenSaleManager.sol:126: for (uint256 i = 0; i < tokenSales.length; i++ )
TokenSaleManager.sol:133: for (uint256 i = 0; i < tokenSales.length; i++ )
TokenSaleManager.sol:160: for (uint256 i = 0; i < tokenSales.length; i++ )
TimeLockPool.sol:90: for (uint256 i = 0; i < lockedBalances[account]
[tokenAddr].length; i++)
TimeLockPool.sol:128: for (uint256 i = 0; i < lockedBalances[account]
[tokenAddr].length; i++)
TimeLockPool.sol:148: for (uint256 i = 0; i < lockedBalances[account]
[tokenAddr].length; i++)
TimeLockPool.sol:168: for (uint256 i = 0; i < lockedBalances[account]
[tokenAddr].length; i++)
Voting.sol:106: for (uint256 pid = 0; pid < this.getCurrentVoting();
pid++)
Voting.sol:119: for (uint256 i = 0; i < accounts.length; i++)
Voting.sol:125: for (uint256 i = 0; i < proposals.length; i++)
In some cases it may be preferable to keep running counts during operation such that a summary function does not have to loop over an entire data structure to calculate total counts. In other cases it may be preferable to invert control by exposing helper functions to support external operations. In rare cases, an additional ‘helper’ data structure may be required.
Re-test v2.0: New Alchemy has inspected the new code and has determined that this issue has not been fixed. A specific instance is described in the following paragraph.
Re-test v2.0: An attacker can greatly expand the lockedBalances data structure in TimeLockPool.sol by making a large number of small deposits via the depositERC20() function with distinct releaseTime values. When the victim subsequently attempts to call the getAvailableBalanceOf() function, its unbounded loop on line 131 may run out of gas before finishing the walk through the lockedBalances data structure. As a result, this function effectively no longer works and any other functionality that depends on this function (such as a withdrawal process) may no longer work either.
5. Informational: Inadequate Dependency Management
The primary contracts make excellent use of standardized functionality. However, a robust strategy for version control and dependency management is lacking. As a result, it is difficult to definitively determine file versions, heritage and freshness. This will impact vulnerability awareness and resolution.
The crowdsale directory provides an illustrative example. These files contain standardized functionality sourced from the OpenZeppelin project. Since some details have been injected into the files themselves as comments, it is now no longer possible to compare file hashes with the source project. Further, it is difficult to track the emergence of new vulnerabilities and their applicability. Many of the line-by-line comments noted in a later section of this report have already been fixed in OpenZeppelin source but have not been incorporated into this code base.
An attractive way forward is to consider the use of Git submodules. Github provides useful documentation on this topic^gh1.
Re-test v2.0: New Alchemy has inspected the new code and has determined that this issue has not been addressed. However, it has been marked as informational because it relates to best practices and not to a specific security bug.
6. Fixed: Unused Contract Code
The MintedCrowdsale.sol and IndividuallyCappedCrowdsale.sol source files are included in the project but are never used. While these are likely the result of normal development refactoring work, unused files provide the potential for confusion and mistakes.
Re-test v2.0: New Alchemy has inspected the new code and has determined that this issue has been fixed and the associated risk mitigated. The two source files noted above have been removed.
Minor Issues
7. Fixed: Potential for Tokens and ETH Lock-up
In TimeLockPool.sol , both deposit functions ( depositERC20() and depositETH() ) allow the destination account to be set to an address of 0x0 . However, the withdraw() function requires account to be different from 0x0 for the transaction to succeed. This means that any tokens or ether sent to the 0x0 address will stay locked in the contract forever with no way to recover them. New Alchemy recommends adding a requirement to both deposit functions so that they check that account is different from the 0x0 address to avoid loss of funds or tokens.
require(account != address(0x0));
Re-test v2.0: New Alchemy has inspected the new code and has determined that this issue has been fixed and the associated risk mitigated. The two functions noted above now check for the 0x0 address via the require statement specified above.
8. Not Fixed: Constant Return Values
The contracts include many functions with hardcoded return values (generally equal to true ). This typically indicates incorrectly specified functions and/or missing error checking. For example, TimeLockPool::depositERC20() function is hardcoded to return true and it is only called via a require statement in the TokenSaleManager.sol::mintTimeLocked() function, which is also hardcoded to always return true . This may be inadvertently misleading or confusing when read or used out of context.
Examples of contracts, line numbers and actual excerpt are shown below:
MintableToken.sol:42: return true;
MintableToken.sol:52: return true;
ERC223Standard.sol:74: return true;
ERC20Standard.sol:37: return true;
ERC20Standard.sol:55: return true;
ERC20Standard.sol:71: return true;
ERC20Standard.sol:113: return true;
ERC20Standard.sol:134: return true;
TokenController.sol:79: return true;
TokenController.sol:90: return true;
WhitepaperVersioning.sol:52: return true;
DaicovoStandardToken.sol:35: return true;
TokenSaleManager.sol:104: return true;
TokenSaleManager.sol:121: return true;
TimeLockPool.sol:61: return true;
TimeLockPool.sol:79: return true;
TimeLockPool.sol:107: return true;
TimeLockPool.sol:112: return true;
New Alchemy recommends avoiding constant return values by checking both positive and negative conditions and returning the appropriate value. Subsequently, ensure all return values are checked and handled. Where this is not possible, the function should not specify a return value.
Re-test v2.0: New Alchemy has inspected the new code and has determined that this issue has not been fixed. Many functions continue to return hardcoded values as shown, including the scenario in the introductory paragraph above.
9. Not Fixed: ERC20 double-spend attack
The standard ERC20 interface, implemented in ERC20Token , has a design flaw: if some user Alice wants to change the allowance that it grants to some other user Bob, then Alice can only check if Bob has already spent its allowance before issuing the transaction to change Bob's allowance. However, Bob can still spend the original allowance before the transaction changing the allowance is mined, allowing Bob to spend both the pre-change and post-change allowances. In order to have a high probability of successfully spending the pre-change allowance after the victim has verified that it is not yet spent, it may be necessary for the attacker to wait until the transaction to change the allowance is issued, and then issue a spend transaction with an unusually high gas price to ensure that the spend transaction is mined before the allowance change. More detail on this flaw is available at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YLPtQxZu1UAvO9cZ1O2RPXBbT0mooh4DYKjA_jp-RLM/ and https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/issues/20#issuecomment-263524729.
Due to this flaw, safe usage of the standard ERC20 approve() interface to change allowances requires that:
allowances only change between zero and non-zero allowances change at most once in a block
These restrictions allow Alice to safely change Bob’s allowance by first setting it to zero, waiting for that transaction to be mined, verifying that Bob didn’t spend its original allowance, then finally setting the allowance to the new value. Strictly requiring only this sequence of operations in approve() would violate the ERC20 standard, though users can still take this approach even without changes in the approve() implementation.
To make it more convenient to safely change allowances, New Alchemy recommends providing increaseApproval() and decreaseApproval() functions that add or subtract to the existing allowances rather than overwriting them. These functions are indeed included in the ERC20Standard.sol contract -- which is excellent. This effectively moves the check of whether Bob has spent his allowance to the time that the transaction is mined, removing Bob's ability to double-spend. Clients that are aware of this non-standard interface can use it rather than approve() .
However, the contracts under review do not utilize increaseApproval() nor decreaseApproval() but instead continue use of approve() in TokenSaleManager.sol .
Separately, one can only allow approve() to change allowances between zero and non-zero and not allow multiple changes to a user's allowance in the same block. In order to change Bob's allowance, Alice must first set it to zero, wait until that transaction is mined, verify that the original allowance was not spent, then finally set the allowance to the new value. Requiring this sequence of operations by implementing restrictions in approve() would violate the ERC20 standard, though users can still take this approach even without changes in the approve() implementation. This logic has not been implemented in the source contracts under review.
Since both approaches are outside of the ERC20 standard, both approaches require user cooperation to work properly. Accordingly, ICOVO should provide documentation advising its users on how ERC20 allowances are safely managed.
Re-test v2.0: New Alchemy has inspected the new code and has determined that this issue has not been fixed. The TokenSaleManager.sol contract continues to use the approve() function. New Alchemy reviewed the latest available whitepapers and was unable to located specific directions around ERC20 allowances.
10. Not Fixed: Lack of two-phase ownership transfer
In contracts that inherit the common Ownable contract from the OpenZeppelin project, a contract has a single owner. That owner can unilaterally transfer ownership to a different address. However, if the owner of a contract makes a mistake in entering the address of an intended new owner, then the contract can become irrecoverably unowned.
In order to preclude this, New Alchemy recommends implementing two-phase ownership transfer. In this model, the original owner designates a new owner, but does not actually transfer ownership. The new owner then accepts ownership and completes the transfer. This can be implemented as follows:
contract Ownable {
address public owner;
address public newOwner
event OwnershipTransferred(address indexed oldOwner, address indexed newOwner);
function Ownable() public {
owner = msg.sender;
newOwner = address(0);
}
modifier onlyOwner() {
require(msg.sender == owner);
_;
}
function transferOwnership(address _newOwner) public onlyOwner {
require(address(0) != _newOwner);
newOwner = _newOwner;
}
function acceptOwnership() public {
require(msg.sender == newOwner);
OwnershipTransferred(owner, msg.sender);
owner = msg.sender;
newOwner = address(0);
}
}
Re-test v2.0: New Alchemy has inspected the new code and has determined that this issue has not been fixed. However, ICOVO does not stand out from the community for choosing not to fix this.
11. Not Fixed: Lack of short-address attack protections
Some Ethereum clients may create malformed messages if a user is persuaded to call a method on a contract with an address that is not a full 20 bytes long. In such a “short-address attack”, an attacker generates an address whose last byte is 0x00, then sends the first 19 bytes of that address to a victim. When the victim makes a contract method call, it appends the 19-byte address to msg.data followed by a value. Since the high-order byte of the value is almost certainly 0x00, reading 20 bytes from the expected location of the address in msg.data will result in the correct address. However, the value is then left-shifted by one byte, effectively multiplying it by 256 and potentially causing the victim to transfer a much larger number of tokens than intended. msg.data will be one byte shorter than expected, but due to how the EVM works, reads past its end will just return 0x00.
This attack effects methods that transfer tokens to destination addresses, where the method parameters include a destination address followed immediately by a value. In the DAICOVO contracts, such methods include the following:
ERC223ReceivingC...sol:21: function tokenFallback(address _from, uint _value, ...
ERC223Standard.sol:30: function transfer(address _to, uint256 _value, byte...
ERC223Standard.sol:58: function transfer(address _to, uint256 _value) exte...
ERC20Standard.sol:29: function transfer(address _to, uint256 _value) exte...
ERC20Standard.sol:46: function transferFrom(address _from, address _to, u...
ERC20Standard.sol:68: function approve(address _spender, uint256 _value) ...
ERC20Standard.sol:96: function allowance(address _owner, address _spender...
ERC20Standard.sol:110: function increaseApproval(address _spender, uint _a...
TokenController.sol:50: function mint (address to, uint256 amount) external...
DaicovoStandardT...sol:28: function forceTransfer(address _to, uint _value) ex...
TokenSaleManager.sol:101: function mint (address _beneficiary, uint256 _token...
While the root cause of this flaw is buggy serializers and how the EVM works, it can be easily mitigated in contracts. When called externally, an affected method should verify that msg.data.length is at least the minimum length of the method's expected arguments. For instance, msg.data.length for an external call to ERC20Standard::transfer() should be at least 68: 4 for the hash, 32 for the address including 12 bytes of padding, and 32 for the value. Some clients may add additional padding to the end. This test can be implemented in a modifier. External calls can be detected in the following ways:
Compare the first four bytes of msg.data against the method hash. If they don't match, then the call is internal and no short-address check is necessary.
against the method hash. If they don't match, then the call is internal and no short-address check is necessary. Avoid creating public methods that may be subject to short-address attacks; instead create only external methods that check for short addresses as described above. public methods can be simulated by having the external methods call private or internal methods that perform the actual operations and that do not check for short-address attacks.
Whether or not it is appropriate for contracts to mitigate the short-address attack is a contentious issue among smart-contract developers. Many, including those behind the OpenZeppelin project, have explicitly chosen not to do so. While it is New Alchemy’s position that there is value in protecting users by incorporating low-cost mitigations into likely target functions, ICOVO would not stand out from the community if they also choose not to do so.
Re-test v2.0: New Alchemy has inspected the new code and has determined that this issue has not been fixed. As stated above, ICOVO does not stand out from the community because they have chosen not to fix this.
12. Informational: Incorporate Assertions
The contracts do not incorporate any assertions (outside of the SafeMath library) to check contract invariants. New Alchemy recommends incorporating assertions near the end of functions to confirm expected contract state wherever possible, particularly when balances are being adjusted.
One example is line 100 of DaicoPool.sol::withdraw() where several calculations are made involving balances followed by a transfer. An assertion relating to the expected final state could potentially be incorporated here. The TimeLockPool.sol contract has multiple opportunities along the same lines.
Re-test v2.0: New Alchemy has inspected the new code and has determined that this issue has not been addressed. However, it has been marked as informational because it relates to best practices and not to a specific security bug.
Smart Contract ABI Reference
This section provides the fully-elaborated application binary interface (ABI) for four of the primary contracts as seen at runtime. The ABI defines how the contracts may be interacted with while running inside the EVM. The tables make for very easy inspection of top-level specifics including:
The definitive reference of all exposed functions
Correct input and output function signatures
Presence of constructors and fallbacks as expected
Correct state mutability (pure, view, nonpayable, payable)
Extraneous functions which should be private
From inspecting the tables below it becomes clear that many return values have no name. New Alchemy recommends naming all return values wherever possible to maximize clarity and minimize cognitive loading. Further, the absence of some function return (output) values may also represent missed opportunities to report then check/handle status above and beyond simple transaction failures.
OVOToken.sol ABI Reference
DaicoPool.sol ABI Reference
TokenSale.sol ABI Reference | https://medium.com/new-alchemy/icovo-smart-contract-audit-9a50d0e053a9 | ['New Alchemy'] | 2018-08-10 16:19:23.068000+00:00 | ['Solidity', 'Security', 'Token Sale', 'Ethereum', 'Smart Contracts'] |
The State of the Supply Chain Visibility Industry Today | February 2021
A glimpse into the global battle for positioning in the end-to-end supply chain visibility space
Transportation Visibility — Overview and Current State
Visibility is the application of real-time data connectivity and enablement throughout the supply chain lifecycle. The importance of visibility has grown from consumer demand, increasing need for just-in-time inventory, and access to measurable data. In a nutshell, modern visibility platforms have been brought about by the “Amazon Effect” which in logistics and supply chain refers to the forever changed consumer expectation that Amazon has brought about with its delightful customer experience and philosophy on removing obstacles between itself and its clients’ happiness. Visibility platforms have become the connective tissue that binds shippers, carriers, intermediaries, and all others involved in the value chain of logistics. Providing the technology layer that enables much-needed interoperability, a freight visibility platform becomes the single integration point for the various technology applications that are used to plan, dispatch, track and convey delivery and billing information for enterprise shippers. Through advanced visibility solutions, businesses are able to provide high-value insights and data to their stakeholders in the form of real-time tracking, seamless data integrations, and actionable insights through data. Creating transparency into the product life cycle ultimately enhances the customer experience, increases customer retention, and builds the platform for process improvement and process automation. Real-time visibility in the supply chain and logistics has become a required offering for new and established players in the market. Visibility adoption is driving a new wave of efficiency throughout the shipment lifecycle, serving as a launchpad for future growth and innovation among transportation capabilities.
In the future, the lifecycle of a product will be further automated — from planning and execution, through to settlement. Today, however, we are still in the early innings of the visibility platform game and I’m writing this essay to share some of my learnings I’ve gained on the space through intense research over the past 2–3 years. My goal in writing this essay is simply to share what I’ve learned and the information I’ve gathered in a structured and unbiased way. Full disclosure, I am an investor in early-stage logistics tech companies and some of the companies referenced in this essay are companies I have invested in or helped along their journey in some way. My views
My overly simplistic infographic of how a Freight Visibility Platform works
Current Industry Competitors:
Company Overview: Macropoint
MacroPoint (acquired by Descartes)
Subscription Revenue (2020): $18M
Growth Rate: 41%
Headcount: 44
Modes Covered Direct: TL (NA Only)
Key KPI’s
Gross Margin: 78%
Churn + Upsell: 105%
Churn Rate: 5%
Capital Raised: Acquired by Descartes for $107M
Overview:
Macropoint was founded in 2011 by Bennett Adelson and acquired by Descartes in 2017. Their proprietary platform consolidates shipment tracking data from carriers into a single integrated platform to meet two growing challenges: real-time freight visibility and automated freight matching. Product features are heavily focused on over-the-road visibility and capacity matching. They mainly serve LSP’s and have some success with shippers, mostly Descartes customers. Macropoint’s customer base includes Covenant Transport Solutions, U.S. Express, Sunline, SteelCase, Shaker Group Inc., Scout Logistics, and DAT.
Strengths:
● Marketplace / load matching
● Large North American Carrier network with established brand recognition
● YMS / Appt scheduling as a differentiator
● Capacity matching capabilities
● Frictionless sign-up and onboarding for drivers
Weaknesses:
● Lower compliance figures with their Carrier network due to product based on App and GPS-based tracking
● Sole focus on TL, North America market, and tracking-only limits customer base potential
● Descartes historically has been hesitant to invest in product development and that appears to be the case at Macropoint currently
● Descartes’s additional offerings to Macropoint do not give them a competitive advantage to the market
● Macropoint is viewed as a supplementary asset, rather than a driving force in the Descartes portfolio
Company Overview: FourKites
FourKites
Subscription Revenue (2020): $39M (E)
Growth Rate: 34%
Headcount (from LinkedIn): 509
Modes Covered Direct: TL and Parcel
Modes Covered with Partners: LTL(SMC3) and Ocean (Ocean Insights)
Key KPI’s
Gross Margin: 51% (E)
Churn + Upsell: 107% (E)
Churn Rate: 10% (E)
Capital Raised: $100.5M
Overview:
FourKites was founded in 2014 by Matt Elenjickal. Headquartered in Chicago, IL, FourKites with an office in India as well and employs roughly 500 professionals. Fourkites has a first-mover advantage in the visibility market. FourKites primarily focuses its services on the Food & Beverage (F&B) and Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) shippers. Their core service offering is in the FTL space, but they have tried to expand into the LTL market through a partnership with SMC3 as well. FourKites recently entered into Yard Management by acquiring a distressed asset, TrackX for just under 3 million dollars. FourKites expanded internationally with a lift and shift technology plan that hasn’t yet yielded the results its been looking for but it continues to find ways to answer customers' key visibility questions, if even through partnerships. The company’s primary customer base includes Kraft Heinz, AB InBev, 3M, Dow Chemical, Cargill, Nestle, Ecolab, PetSmart, Kimberly-Clarke, Dollar Tree and General Mills.
Strengths:
● Market leader for CPG and Food & Beverage
● First mover with shippers
● Large shipper customer base
● Slick UI with pre-built Analytics dashboards
● Provides visibility into Inventory and SKU-level data
Weaknesses:
● Not a platform, lock customers into their application through partnerships and collaborative solutions
● Small existing carrier network with a manual onboarding process has a negative impact on time to value and carrier compliance standards
● Shares CPG logos with competitors
● Analytics are low value due to data quality
● Encroaching on partner’s capabilities (TMS/YMS) with their application stack
● Lacking successful track record outside of US
● Level 1, 2, and 3 support with partners delivers a poor customer experience
● Partnering on modes inherently creates roadmap conflict for global customers
● Seamingly recurring negative press related to media articles involving lawsuits
Company Overview: project44
project44
Subscription Revenue (2020): $35M (E)
Growth Rate: 75% (E)
Headcount (from LinkedIn): 267
Modes Covered Direct: TL, LTL, Rail, Ocean, Air, Parcel
Modes Covered with Partners: N/A
Key KPI’s
Gross Margin: 74% (E)
Churn + Upsell: 118% (E)
Churn Rate: 2% (E)
Capital Raised: $241M
Overview:
Current CEO Jett McCandless founded project44 in 2014 and established the company’s headquarters in Chicago, IL. In 2017, project44 acquired Europe’s dominant visibility provider based in Denmark, Gatehouse Logistics to expand their geographic footprint into Europe. project44 is the world’s largest connectivity network of its kind. Far ahead of the competition, and widely viewed as the best-positioned platform for continued organic and inorganic growth, project44 has the most robust set of API’s and integration tools. These tools are what sets them apart from their competitors allowing them to offer more services, data capabilities and relatively easy integration for customer, carrier and LSP onboarding. project44 has taken a platform-based approach, allowing for multiple parties to connect via a unified platform. The platform hosts the industry’s most expansive and diverse set of shipper, LSP and carrier customers across geographies and modes. Another strength for project44 — they give carriers visibility tools for free helping them develop the deepest possible connections. Some of project44’s bluechip customers include Amazon, Starbucks, Walmart, Dollar General, and Walgreens.
Strengths:
● Current market leader in data quality, API first approach, value to the overall ecosystem, and ability to monetize/grow into new markets, upstream and downstream workflow automation, global reach
● Connections with ELD providers creates both an economic and technical moat
● Global and multi-modal visibility (TL, LTL, Ocean, Air, Rail)
● Fast onboarding and time to value for carriers
● SLA for carrier compliance — 90% of carriers within 30 days
● Largest partner ecosystem (TMS, YMS, WMS, OMS, Carriers)
● Free visibility tools for carriers
● Highest rated data quality in the industry
Weaknesses:
● Average user interface relative to the industry
● Does not offer load or capacity matching capabilities
● Higher base cost structure for shippers and LSPs
Company Overview: Sixfold
Sixfold
Subscription Revenue (2020): Less than $1M (E)
Growth Rate: N/A
Headcount (from LinkedIn): 51
Modes Covered Direct: Groupage and TL (Europe Only)
Modes Covered with Partners: N/A
Key KPI’s
Gross Margin: N/A
Churn + Upsell: N/A
Churn Rate: N/A
Capital Raised: Owned by Transporeon
Overview:
Sixfold was founded in 2017 by Wolfgang Woerner. Sixfold is owned by Transporeon, a leading transport management platform located in Germany. Transporeon cross-sells Sixfold into their carriers. They offer Sixfold for free and offer carriers slot booking and tendering with a markup to offset the Sixfold cost. Sixfold’s primary customer base includes Nestle, Kingspan, Rockwool, STI Freight, and Knauf. Sixfold helps shippers connect with their carriers and customers for accurate delivery estimates leveraging TMS, telematics, and mapping data along with predictive analytics. Sixfold is an exclusive partner with Transporean.
Strengths:
● Offered as a free product to Transporean customers
● Offers TMS and appointment booking tools in addition to visibility and tracking offering is advanced
● Strong visibility momentum due to “free trial” of Sixfold platform
● Introductory pricing model drives new customer acquisition
Weaknesses:
● High total cost of ownership with “free visibility”
● Lack of experience in onboarding customers at scale
● Small network of existing carriers makes scaling and customer acquisition difficult
● Lacking global footprint necessary to service global companies
● Weak relationships with carriers due to pricing and business practices, resulting in low carrier retention
Company Overview: Shippeo (information edited 03/2021 with the cooperation of company)
Shippeo
Subscription Revenue (2020 reported by company): $10M+
Growth Rate: 110%
Headcount (reported by company): 185
Modes Covered Direct: TL, Groupage, and Parcel. Combined maritime and road, first in Europe.
Key KPI’s
Gross Margin(reported by company): ±80+%
Churn + Upsell: 109% (E)
Churn Rate (reported by company): ±1%
Capital Raised: $71M
Overview:
Shippeo was founded in 2014 and currently employs 185+ professionals. The company is headquartered in Paris, France. Shippeo has historically focused its attention on French-based companies but has recently expanded into other European countries. Shippeo recently acquired oPhone ($3M of subscription revenue). Their visibility platform provides access to predictive and real-time information for all deliveries. Their primary customer base includes Gastorama, Auchan, Saint-Gobain, Viapost, Conforama, Leroy Merlin, FM logistic, Casino, Monoprix, and E. Leclerc.
Strengths:
● Strong brand awareness and recognition in UK and EMEA
● European market prefers working with European HQ’ed software providers over other, larger companies with more mature products, strategy, network, and capital
● Developed strategic partnership with software providers Alpega and SAP to grow their network
● Strong capabilities in Predictive ETA accuracy, data quality, and dedicated data science team
● Advanced mobile app with capabilities like document management and order level tracking
● 90% SLA for carrier onboarding in 90 days
● Well-positioned to continue to raise venture capital to enable expansion and growth
● Growing base of TMS and Telematics integrations supporting improvement in carrier relationships and connectivity
● API first strategy is enabling quick connectivity with other platforms
Weaknesses:
● Shippers have said their network lacks strength in modal coverage across the globe which removes large Shippers for sales profiles
● Have focused historically on European shippers with global enterprise footprints, choosing not to focus on US market (this may or may not prove to be a weakness, more or less just flagging as a difference for now)
● Customers have said the organization lacks a strong Professional Services team to accommodate custom integrations and complex projects for larger customers
● Outwardly, it does not appear the company has invested in strong carrier on-boarding processes and tools, continues to be a point of friction in their sales and onboarding speed — this may be solved by the growing number of TMS and Telematic integrations the company is seeing recently
Company Overview: TruckerTools
TruckerTools
Subs. Revenue (2020): $5M (E)
Growth Rate: 90% (E)
Headcount (from LinkedIn): 43 (E)
Modes Covered Direct: TL (US only)
Modes Covered with Partners: N / A
Key KPI’s
Gross Margin: 51% (E)
Churn + Upsell: 107% (E)
Churn Rate: 10% (E)
Capital Raised: $8.5M
Overview:
TruckerTools was founded in 2009 by CEO Prasad Gollapalli, a longtime DAT/GetLoaded engineer. The company is headquartered in Reston, VA. TruckerTools’ proprietary GPS-enabled mobile app and Smart Capacity relationship management platform provides high tracking compliance success to 3PLs and freight brokers. Originally known as the “Yelp for truck drivers” the TruckerTools team did a great job early in the smartphone revolution gaining valuable space on many truckers’ home screens. From there, TruckerTools has scaled to more than 1 million downloads giving them a unique position as an emerging visibility and smart capacity provider. They have a robust customer base amongst freight brokers in the US despite only operating in the TL market. Notable customers include Schneider, Kingsgate, EastCoast Transport LLC, Ryan Transportation, Kenco, Ari Logistics, Genpro, and Syfan Logistics.
Strengths:
● White label driver app designed for 3PLs to offer to their carrier network, a great value for smaller trucking companies and owner-operators working closely with a particular broker
● Brokers and 3PLs see start-to-finish tracking compliance success rates between 70%-90%
● Freight matching and load tracking capabilities
● Broker Advantage portal is first of its kind carrier relationship management platform for brokers
● Visibility solution to over 750,000 truckers and 130,000 unique carriers
Weaknesses:
● Single modal focus with TL, TruckerTools lacks LTL, Ocean, and Rail presence
● App-based tracking data can be frustrating for carriers to juggle — technology barrier
Newer Entrant Industry Competitors:
Company Overview: Vizion
Vizion
Subs. Revenue (2020): $1M (less than)
Growth Rate: 552% per year
Headcount : 11
Modes Covered Direct: Ocean
Modes Covered with Partners: Drayage/Rail
Key KPI’s
Gross Margin: N/A
Churn + Upsell: N/A
Churn Rate: N/A
Capital Raised: $1.5M
Overview:
Vizion was founded in 2018 by CEO Kyle Henderson and CTO Tyler Hughes and is based in the United States with employees distributed throughout the country. Vizion is a 100% digital platform of API services delivering door to door ocean freight visibility making it easy for logistics and e-commerce companies to integrate the most complete, universally standardized, and highest quality ocean visibility data into ERP, TMS, WMS, Control Tower, and in-house built software solutions. Vizion’s customers can address their own unique business challenges using accurate tracking information sourced from ocean carriers, port terminals, drayage providers, rail companies, and AIS vessel tracking. Vizion works with businesses of all types and sizes; from shippers moving more than 100k containers per year, to technology companies delivering AI solutions for logistics, or LSPs needing reliable visibility on a global scale.
Strengths:
● Modern, open, developer-friendly API tools (think EasyPost for Ocean)
● High quality, enriched data — 27+ carriers, port, rail, geocoding, and customs data in a single API
● Leveraging many data sets (public and private) — Vizion overlays multiple sources of data to synthesize and enrich standardized data sets used by many of its competitors
● Live data quality measurement and reporting
● Toolbox for DIY organizations choosing to build ocean visibility in-house
● Offers vessel, container, and return tracking milestones through singular API
Weaknesses:
● Single modal focus with ocean freight data, lacking market presence
● Limited rail and drayage visibility outside of US
● API-only user experience is difficult for some legacy players to manage and requires in-house technology expertise. This is also a barrier for smaller companies who lack in-house technical expertise
Company Overview: RPA Labs
RPA Labs
Subs. Revenue (2020): $1M (less than)
Growth Rate: 595%
Headcount: 20
Modes Covered Direct: Ocean, Air, Ground
Modes Covered with Partners: N/A
Key KPI’s
Gross Margin: N/A
Churn + Upsell: N/A
Churn Rate: N/A
Capital Raised: $1.2M
Overview:
RPA Labs automates the billions of daily conversations in the logistics industry that are buried in emails, texts, documents, and fuzzy data. With technical principles purpose-built for the sector, RPA Labs’ software can help companies scale faster with process automation that requires less deployment time than general approaches.
Strengths:
● Response Bots — Automated Inquiries for Track & Trace — 25% or more of customer emails consist of track and trace inquiries. This typically requires customer service representatives to manually search carrier websites and/or their TMS and re-key the data back to the customer. These manual response times can take anywhere from hours to days — their shipment might even arrive by the time customer service is able to respond. RPA Labs’ Email Response Bot is able to automate these inquiries by responding back to customers with the real-time status of their shipments in seconds. The benefits:
Reduces email overload
Employees reclaim hours to work on other high-level tasks
Improves customer experience
● Detention & Demurrage Visibility — Employees are tasked to manually check carrier websites every day, multiple times per day in order to update the status of each container. On any given day, there may be thousands of containers that are in critical free-time range or already incurring penalties. With RPA Labs’ Detention & Demurrage Management Application, logistics teams can easily track container fees before they happen in one centralized application. Contract and tariff-free time is updated automatically and is integrated with all the major shipping lines.
Container Track & Trace solutions delivering container status, detention, and demurrage fees
Automated Data Entry from disparate data sources
Enhanced cost Visibility
Proactive Demurrage Management alerts to customers and operations when the last free day is approaching
Weaknesses:
● Less of a true visibility platform, more of a visibility swiss army knife, helping customers add visibility where is it missing currently
● API first solutions require in house technical development expertise for customers
● Best suited for operations centric enterprises looking for specific visibility or workflow automation solutions
Company Overview: OpenTrack
OpenTrack
Subs. Revenue (2020): N/A
Growth Rate: 1,200% per year
Headcount: N/A
Modes Covered Direct: Ocean
Modes Covered with Partners: Rail
Key KPI’s
Gross Margin: N/A
Churn + Upsell: N/A
Churn Rate: N/A
Capital Raised: N/A
Overview:
OpenTrack was founded by LogTech veterans Kevin Valsi and Martin Hendlemen who met while working at another freight-based startup, Cargomatic. The two spent 2+ years developing a fully-automated software platform for ocean visibility and landed 2 of the top 10 global ocean freight forwarders by volume as paying customers before doing any marketing. Valsi and Hendlemen believed in an industry where reputation is everything, they would only get one shot at delivering on a product that had to be 99%+ reliable. After finishing their core ocean visibility API, OpenTrack expanded its offerings to include a proprietary rolled cargo alert service, white-label customer portal for forwarders, and an integrated partner service providing intermodal/inland rail visibility using OpenTrack’s data aggregation platform.
Strengths:
● Fully-automated proprietary API that delivers the fastest, most accurate, and complete results for ocean visibility by aggregating and selecting the best data from dozens of sources for every container tracked
● Consistently ranked #1 in data reliability and data density when benchmarked against its competitors by large enterprise freight forwarders
Weaknesses:
● Currently limited to US ocean imports only
Company Overview: Terminal49
Terminal49
Subs. Revenue (2020): $1M (less than)
Growth Rate: 240% / year
Headcount: 3
Modes Covered Direct: Ocean and port
Modes Covered with Partners: N/A
Key KPI’s
Gross Margin: 70%+
Churn + Upsell: 100%
Churn Rate: 0%
Capital Raised: $2.2M
Overview:
Terminal49’s mission is to simplify global trade. Terminal 49’s online platform gives logistics service providers, shippers, and logistics tech startups complete visibility into end-to-end trade operations and container movements. With over 600 million containers moving globally every year, much of the operations to move a container from A to B is still very much a manual process. Today, Terminal49 is building tools and API’s that provide real-time visibility to people who help move containers and make the entire process a lot more efficient.
Strengths:
● Deep domain expertise in drayage operations· Multi-party collaboration dashboard
● Integrations with all US and Canada terminals
● Free tools for smaller NVOCCs and FreightForwarders aimed at bringing tech to smaller providers enabling them to compete with the largest forwarders
Weaknesses:
● Ocean only
● Terminals and carriers can cut off access to data so Terminal49 is working to partner with operators going forward
● Slower growth in comparison to competition as a tradeoff to deliver and scale optimal service with a smaller team
Company Overview: ThroughPut
Subs. Revenue (2020): $1M (less than)
Growth Rate: N/A
Headcount: 8
Modes Covered Direct: N/A
Modes Covered with Partners: N/A
Key KPI’s
Gross Margin: 90%+
Churn + Upsell: 100%
Churn Rate: 10%
Capital Raised: $3.5M
Overview:
ThroughPut’s ELI software suite taps into existing time-stamped data tied to your sales, purchasing, distribution, and manufacturing activities and puts operational improvements on autopilot. ELI predicts demand, reorients production capacity, reassigns warehouse space, and reorders materials just-in-time, so you never miss out on customer demand again. On a single software, ELI improves material flow and free cash flow, across your end-to-end value chain.
Strengths:
● Deep domain expertise in operations
● Robust API first intelligence engine recognizes and accounts for SKU level data for all products, LSPs, customers, prospect, and internal stakeholders to provide 360 views of supply chain efficiencies or lack thereof
● Each dollar invested in ThroughPut is returning $3+ to its customers
Weaknesses:
● The global nature of their industrial customer base leads to longer sales cycles
● While mode agnostic, ThroughPut’s ELI software provides post-delivery visibility for transportation, not real-time or near-time
● The technical depth of product utility requires layers of stakeholder buy-in, further delaying sales cycles
● Digital revolution for global supply chains is still in early adopter phases limiting prospective target pool in the short term
Summary of the industry today:
Macropoint had the lead position when cell phone triangulation was the dominant technology method in freight visibility but that was back in 2016. With technology advancements and venture capital flowing into LogTech, the game has changed and it seems like MacroPoint stopped innovating after they were acquired. According to McKinsey, nearly 29 billion has been invested into LogTech since 2014 with the majority of the investment dollars coming in since 2016. This trend suggests the earliest leaders in visibility are likely not the best suited to dominate the space into the future, see 10–4 Systems and Macropoint as examples.
Of the newer entrants coming into the space Sixfold has an interesting proposition in my opinion. Offering several free tools for carriers and logistics service providers like its free Live Border Congestion Map for Europe are smart ways to create stickiness and utility for stakeholders while developing out a broader ecosystem. Although in tech, when you get something for free, typically you’ve become the product so time will tell how much carriers in particular value the Sixfold/Transpereon solution. Shippeo is another interesting company to keep an eye on and could be a formidable competitor in end-to-end visibility overtime. The key for both of these companies’ success or lack thereof may very well come down to their execution as they cross the pond and come into the United States market where project44 and FourKites rule.
When it comes to the leader in the United States and globally the numbers don’t lie. FourKites appears to be a bit of a mechanical Turk through their significantly higher headcount. The lack of a foundationally strong product has created the need to develop their organization around partnerships and services rather than a centralized and configurable platform. This shows in their higher employee churn, and significantly higher headcount than their two nearest competitors combined. Meanwhile, their customer churn rate is also significantly higher while losing grip on their dominance in their primary market of CPG as others come looking to serve that category. Fourkites appears to have lost its profitable edge with declining gross margins and non-scalable unit economics. Efforts of legal challenges like patent infringement allegations from one competitor and accusations their CEO created fake email addresses and sent notes to another competitor's board members have been distractions at the very least and at most represent failed hail mary efforts to minimize their competitor's advancement.
It’s still early stages for visibility, however. Most of the providers started around 2014 with another cohort of new entrants coming into the space over the past 24–48 months. All providers have been building their products and platforms frantically and trying to gain market share. project44 is probably the best positioned with their platform first approach to be a steady and scalable provider as customer needs evolve and new entrants come into the market. The biggest differentiator project44 has today in my view is the company started as a data service initially. They began by aggregating carriers first then built a visibility platform on top of the data, not the other way around. Most competitors in the space (not all) started with a visibility application and added capacity data from there. project44 started with the vision of creating connective pipes in the logistics industry, initially bundling trucking APIs for LSPs, and now provides visibility into Inventory, SKU and PO level detail. While there is still a lot of room for improvement and plenty of time left in this race, currently project44 is leading the way in global supply chain visibility and it will take some doing for anyone to overcome their advantages. This isn’t just my opinion, the FreightWaves FreightTech voters have named project44 the 2nd most innovative company in logistics technology three years in a row, placing directly behind Amazon each year. Additionally, many of the rest of the top 25 most innovative companies on the list were/are project44 customers further proving the innovative culture and vision within the company DNA. I’d say that that puts project44 at the head of the class.
Beyond that, the interesting opportunities exist in:
Tangential areas of the supply chain that remain opaque, specifically non-transportation based -and/or- Singular aspects of the larger platforms in visibility that can be unbundled and provided to companies with more narrow visibility needs
If nothing else, it should be made clear that in my view visibility and shorter cycle times are here to stay and technology/software will be the cornerstones of these trends, not the relationship-based decisioning we’ve seen throughout history. As the once bold lines between logistics and supply chain continue to blur in a post-covid, e-commerce reliant, containergeddon world, we’re reminded yesterday’s fast is today’s normal. It wasn’t that long ago when overnight felt expensive and excessive. Now, food is delivered within minutes of ordering from an app. Today’s fast is now tomorrow's normal. We are never going back the other way and visibility platforms will serve as the OS for the more fluid and reliable supply chain networks of our future. | https://medium.com/@charleydehoney/the-state-of-the-supply-chain-visibility-industry-today-b9270a44020d | ['Charley Dehoney'] | 2021-03-03 16:30:12.918000+00:00 | ['Logistics', 'Globalization', 'Visibility', 'Supply Chain', 'Software'] |
Connecting the Arabian puzzle on Kirana Hills | Over the past few days, the Pakistani airspace is replete with military planes, visibly logistics, transport, special carriers, and reconnaissance aircrafts belonging to the Pakistan Air Force and the Royal Saudi Air Force.
The ‘Aces Meet 2021’, a joint military exercise between the air forces of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States is underway at Mushaf Air Base in Punjab, Pakistan. This exercise would continue till 10th April 2021 and aims to provide an ‘exchange of experiences and expertise in the fields of planning, combat readiness, and support in air operations.
Although joint military exercises are a common fashion, Saudi Arabia has attached great importance to this particular exercise. This may seem anomalous considering Riyadh’s recent overtures towards closer cooperation with New Delhi, particularly in defence, including the Indian Army General M.M. Naravane’s visit to Saudi Arabia, its interest in buying weapons from India, and the scheduling of a joint bilateral exercise. It is easy to partner with India by hitting the right notes on its sensitivities. The Kingdom has extended measured yet unprecedented support to India, but this might merely be an effort to add New Delhi to the list of defence partners. Nevertheless, it fancies the interests of both nations.
Attempts made by the world’s largest arms importer to diversify its vendors and patrons are quite standard since Saudi Arabia is the cytoplasm to facilitate the immense strategic ambitions of various States in this region and successfully incorporating its own into them.
Therefore, a close analysis must sharply consider the wider goals of the regime. Both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are radical states, aiding and financing international terrorism, and enjoying special alliances with the USA and Britain vis-à-vis securing the regional interests of these Western ‘utopians’. Particularly through Chapter 7 in his book “The Ultimate Goal”, former R&AW Chief Mr. Vikram Sood gives exclusive insights into how the West had been effectively nurturing Islamists via countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in the name of freedom and democracy.
I have made the following observations that point towards something possibly significant: The PAF Mushaf Air Base is located in Sargodha, where the ‘Aces Meet 2021’ military exercise is currently in process. The Pakistani aircrafts have been flying around Sargodha to Rawalpindi.
On 5th April 2021, a distinct Lockheed C130H Hercules military transport aircraft of the Royal Saudi Air Force tagged ‘RSF9963’ landed before Sargodha, in Sillanwali at around 01:00 hrs local time.
Miles ahead of Silanwali lie the Kirana Hills, where Pakistan happens to store their nuclear arsenal and missiles such as the Chinese M-11 (aka DF-11) Short-Range Ballistic Missiles (SRBM).
Hours after the landing, an unknown Pakistani aircraft tagged ‘PAF029’ took off from the same location in Silanwali. With a speed of 314 knots (approx. 581.5 kmph) at 22000 feet, the aircraft could mostly be a VIP transport aircraft such as the Boeing 707, Citation V, or an Airbus A310. This points towards the occurence of an high level engagement at a sensitive location.
Around 17:00 hrs local time, the RSF9963 was already airborne and had left Sillanwali for King Abdulaziz Airbase. The RSF C130 topped 330 knots at 19000 feet while going to Pakistan. Whereas, while travelling back, its speed at the same geometrical altitude capped around 210 knots, indicating load carriage.
It further flew to an extremely isolated location near Ti’af, in western Saudi Arabia. Hours later, another Lockheed C130H Hercules tagged “RSF8116” landed around that area.
According to Arab News, Saudi Arabia has identified two possible sites for power stations, on the eastern Gulf coast at Umm Huwayd and Khor Duweihin. Some reports say that at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, the Saudi government is constructing a small nuclear research reactor. Considering that efforts to develop a nuclear bomb are kept in extreme secrecy and any hint could invite harsh reactions particularly from the sharp-eyed West, this could only mean the following: Either the western nations are surprisingly ‘satisfied’ with the civility of this program, and are hence silently promoting it or that this might be the glorious diversion tactic, on the lines of which, Iran has trudged the nuclear path.
Countries such as Iran have tried to simultaneously develop a secret nuclear bomb while portraying to the world their ‘peaceful’ reactors elsewhere, supposedly built for civilian purposes. Riyadh would be concentrating its weapons programme in the West Gulf and the Central Arabia regions or acquiring and storing them here. The argument is further strengthened by the possible role of and interests held by China, Israel, the US, and Pakistan. Notably, Riyadh has been systemically acquiring skills such as uranium exploration, nuclear engineering, and ballistic missile manufacturing that would position it to develop its weapons.
China has exponentially increased its interest in the Middle East, beyond the lucrative oil. In August 2017, Saudi Arabia and China agreed to cooperate on nuclear energy in areas of exploring and extracting uranium and setting up joint nuclear plants. According to “classified analysis”, Saudi Arabia is working with China to build industrial capacity to produce nuclear fuel that could later be enriched to weapons-grade level. The Kingdom has planned 16 ‘commercial’ nuclear power reactors by 2030 with China.
Despite Beijing’s cozy relations with Tehran, if Saudi Arabia has approached China, it shows its desperation and lack of acquiring partners in this regard. This may also be China’s entry into the Middle Eastern double games. Additionally, Saudi Arabia continues to have an arsenal of Chinese long-range missiles, and its interest in developing its ballistic missile programme with China is well known considering it also has the DF-5, DF-21, and maybe DF-11 missile systems.
Knowingly, Saudi Arabia had aided Pakistan’s nuclear programme which was hailed as the first in the ‘Islamic world’, thereby giving Islamabad an important role as a security provider to the Arabs. Various reports have conjectured Pakistan helping Saudi Arabia in procuring nuclear weapons and that some of them have already been shipped. In fact, the Saudis might believe in having moral rights and diktat over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, as they are the de facto ‘leader’ of the Muslim world order. This has always been Pakistan’s dilemma upon lending the sole designation to the Kingdom while not disappointing the Iranians. Thereby it has ‘mis’managed to suitably please none.
In March 2006, a German magazine reported that Saudi Arabia had received assistance from Pakistan to acquire nuclear missiles and warheads. Satellite photos allegedly reveal an underground city with nuclear silos containing Ghauri rockets in Al-Sulaiyil south of Riyadh. They may be exploring stealthy storage points now, i.e. the Western coast of Arabian Peninsula. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has probably realised the lack of activity from its junior partner Pakistan and its policy of keeping the interests of its elites over the ‘Ummah’. He realises the importance of being self-sufficient in security issues.
Also, his recent snubbing of Pakistani leadership and ‘orders’ to return loans has made Islamabad run for Riyadh to keep the friendship afloat, especially after Pakistan impatiently deepened relations with Turkey. This situation is particularly dangerous as Saudi may go to any extent to ask for something to keep the trajectory going. The Chinese might keep the Western intelligence agencies busy on its nuclear plants and missile factories near Al Watah in Saudi, while Pakistan supplies nuclear bombs or DF-11 missile parts: the indicator points at RSF9963 and Ti’af.
Israel and Saudi Arabia have a common consensus towards their nemesis Iran. Though Mossad has successfully kept Tehran at bay over its vicious nuclear programme, a contingency plan of arming the enemy of a historical ‘enemy turned friend’ is feasible especially over shared interests. Israeli writer Ami Dor-on had said that “the joint intention is to make sure that Iran will not be the only country in the region that possesses such weapons which threaten the security and safety of the Kingdom.” Though feeble, possibilities exist.
The ‘unwavering’ New York Times had published a report titled “U.S. Examines Whether Saudi Nuclear Program Could Lead to Bomb Effort”. Such reports have been excessively used by the CIA for narrative building, winning bargaining chips, and whitewashing the underlying facts. Washington and Moscow are in talks with Riyadh for cooperating in nuclear technology, even trilaterally. Besides, U.S President Joe Biden has hurt its “ally” far too much by revoking the ‘terrorist’ designation of Houthis, signalling a return to the JCPOA, imposing sanctions on the aides of Crown Prince MBS over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, and suspending arms sales worth billions to Riyadh as well as Abu Dhabi.
These actions seem like a certification to the Biden administration’s ‘human rights approach’, driven by a reversal of former President Donald Trump’s policies due to personal aversions and a desire to bring Tehran to the table. Also, Saudi has not responded with very strong words. Possibly carrying Chinese missile parts over which the US has voiced concern since long, from an exercise in which it reports attendance might be a subtle warning. If Washington D.C is firmly concerned about its partnership with Riyadh, this cannot go without giving latent concessions and what may happen here is extortion, for Iran is close to reaching its destination if there is a return to the 2015 nuclear deal.
In an interview to ’60 minutes’, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had hinted, “Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible.”
‘The Saudi calculation likely stems from the view that nuclear energy is a powerful geopolitical instrument in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and Iran are on opposite sides of conflicts in Syria and Yemen, and Riyadh is concerned by Tehran’s influence in other Middle Eastern nations such as Iraq and Lebanon. Moreover, the Kingdom can no longer count on Washington’s willingness to counter Iran, and might well have determined that it will have to deter Iran on its own. Therefore, until the Iranian nuclear program is permanently terminated, the Saudis will most likely keep the option open to produce their fuel, thereby providing a pathway to a weapon.’
Noting these various reports, analyses, and conflicting arguments, though it is over conclusive to point fingers, yet the presence of various ‘sources’ and possibilities is a common intelligence tactic to wade away uncertainties or rather create them so that accurate facts remain inconspicuous and the underlying complexities create unclarity. But this notion itself is enough to generate apprehensions and a likelihood for the existence of a weapons programme.
The RSF9963 certainly carries lethal mysteries if not lethal weapons. | https://medium.com/@ashu-ind281/connecting-the-arabian-puzzle-on-kirana-hills-113849f61e89 | ['Ashutosh Sharma'] | 2021-04-09 05:25:54.964000+00:00 | ['Missile', 'Nuclear Weapons', 'Pakistan', 'Saudi Arabia', 'USA'] |
Every image tells a story — Data Visualisation | Data age — In a war of Verbalisation (To remember using words) vs Visualisation (To remember using Images/Pictures). Visualisation seems to be an emerging winner with clear advantage of how human brain process information. Human brain understand and recall information better when visualised.
Incessant bombarding of information and decreasing attention span makes it more difficult for human brain to retain verbalised information for long time in modern world. Thus, arise the need to make an impact using human visual abilities to convey the business message.
What is data Visualisation ?
New technological innovations have made it easier to process large volumes of data and visualisation sits at the heart of Business Analytics tools.
Simply put, data visualisation is using pictures to represent data. Data visualisation turns numbers and letters into aesthetically beautiful visuals.
This visuals further helps –
To identify and/or spot any patterns, exceptions quicker.
To communicate insights clearly
To display data to highlight cause and effect.
Components of Data Visualisation
What’s the business context(Question)?
Who is the audience of the data visualisation story?
Does data match and support the story?
How to visualise and build the story?
Customer is the king in business world and context is the king in Visualisation world. Without the business context, all of the gathered data is useless and vice versa.
Next step is to build a meaningful and engaging story -
The story so good that it has the potential to captivate audience.
The story so good that it leads an audience to desired destination.
Edward Tufte — The Leonardo Da Vinci of data visualisation, an Author and Visualisation Expert’s summarised checklist for effective data visualisation.
1. Above all else show the data — Let the data speak.
Design Transparency- Keep the focus on context and not the visualisation technique.
Avoid distortion of facts revealed by data.
2. Maximise Data-Ink Ratio — Tufte defines the data-ink ratio as the amount of data-ink divided by the total ink required to print the graphic.
Display as much data as possible using as little ink as possible.
Avoid using ink on elements of visualisation not associated with data.
3. Chartjunk — Unnecessary visual elements in visualisation content that distracts audience from information. Less is more.
Avoid too much visual art — Excessive shading or patterning of chart features.
Non-data creative graphics — pretty visualisation with lot of color schemes and patterns can detract from the actual information content.
4. Information Layers
Layering is using colour, different design elements (Typefaces, Font styles) to organize the visual display of information a little bit better, this give hints of the different categories.
Multiples — Maintain a consistent design to highlight data, changes in design can distract from data changes.
Color — Rainbow is not a choice here(😝), colours can be useful or harmful in conveying a message. So, use wisely.
5. Annotation
Label where necessary and let it stand out from data.
Images still need identification/labels.
In the end it is about presentation of Insights to the right people at the right time, in easy-to-remember formats.
Simple design, intense content — Edward Tufte | https://medium.com/datacrat/every-image-tells-a-story-data-visualisation-a85b6c2e5499 | [] | 2019-01-02 15:37:32.261000+00:00 | ['Data Driven Decisions', 'Data', 'Data Driven', 'Data Visualization'] |
Deconstructing the creative process | So you’ve spoken to your client, received your brief, and you’re back at your desk ready to start work. But the words won’t come. You can’t quite visualise that design. You’re just not feeling it.
In short, you’re lacking one crucial ingredient — inspiration.
To make things easier, we’ve put our heads together and come up with a short step by step guide for reaching out into the universe to find that crucial first kernel of an idea from which everything else will grow.
But we warn you — it’s not always a simple or linear process. Finding inspiration involves letting a little bit of madness take hold. Things can sometimes get a little strange.
Step 1: Find a spark
The first step in cooking up a piece of creative is finding a spark. But how do you go about it? The key element is different for everyone. For Claude Monet nature was a common inspiration. For Roald Dahl it was the bedtime stories he used to read his own children. And for Ernest Hemingway, it was rumoured to be whisky.
I enjoy a single malt as much as the next guy, but if it’s the middle of the day, my inspirational go-to is typically music. I’ll jump onto YouTube, surf around for something I haven’t heard before — typically acoustic, 70s or 80s rock, or indie — and then see where the soundwaves take me.
In summer, a walk through the forest overlooking Waihi Beach or a swim in the ocean is also a sound option. Call me cheesy but there’s something about the way the light comes through the tree canopy and reflects off the water that sparks and invigorates the soul.
Step 2: Catch fire
In my experience inspiration doesn’t arrive in a flash. It’s not always as easy as hearing or seeing something and then coming up with the perfect story, marketing copy, or pitch to a potential sponsor. You have to wallow in it for a while and let the waves of inspiration wash over you.
If music is your muse, then a good old sing-along — or whistle-along in my case — can do wonders.
I’m lucky I often work alone because it’s this step in the process that involves a touch of madness. But what creative genius wasn’t a little crazy? Or at least, that’s what I tell myself.
Step 3: Fan the flames
So inspiration has taken hold but it’s still in its wild, unbridled form. Before you can enjoy what you’ve bottled up and apply it to a set task, like writing a product description or business’ core story, it needs some decanting.
For me this means pouring a few words onto the page to determine the nature of what exactly has been brewed up that day. Sometimes this comes out as a poem, or the lyrics of a song, or gibberish. The key is to uncork that magic and to make sure it’s ready to pour.
Step 4: Get cooking
Finally, it’s time to cook up that perfect piece of creative content. Pour the rest of your inspiration out into your design, marketing copy or sales pitch and see what comes out.
Hopefully you’re so fired up that everything flows and your work comes together perfectly, like a wonderfully textured pavlova — full of class, easy on the eye and capable or satisfying the most discerning of tastes. This won’t always be the case, but at the very least the time taken to gain inspiration earlier on should mean there’s less bashing away at rough edges than there would have been otherwise. Investing some time in hunting for that magic will hopefully have saved you time in the long run. You’ve become more like a word wizard than a word (black)smith.
Step 5: Bon Appetit!
At the end of any good creative process it’s time to serve it up to your client on a silver platter. The work has been done and it’s time for the people to enjoy it.
As creatives it is great to get feedback. Some say measuring results is the preserve of boffins and data-analysing nerds, but for me it’s a vital part of the process and where a lot of the satisfaction comes from.
It’s always nice to see the real-life impact of where your creative journey has led. After all, that’s the destination, and every inspired journey needs a goal. | https://medium.com/@LastWordNZ/deconstructing-the-creative-process-4f62c78b0213 | ['Last Word'] | 2019-08-26 00:15:06.666000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Marketing', 'Writing', 'Design', 'Writers Block'] |
It’s snowing, isn’t it? | Snowfall reminds me of all the things I cannot have. As a Jewish child, it is that illusive luscious Nutcracker shade of Christmas — my house smells like stale vegetable oil for a week while my friends’ homes smell like what I imagine is magic. The snowfall suggests the supernatural climax of Christmas morning, the mystical impossibility of a stranger eating cookies topped with royal icing and inedible dragees, leaving gifts of substance under a sweet smelling tree. The velvety purr of Christmas suggests family, hair bows, taffeta, awe and to me as a most precocious child, ice skating in Vienna.
When I marry a Gentile, I am constantly trying to create a home with the magic I wanted from the Christmas I never had. It is never about the gifts — it is always about the platters of food, the glistening, jewel toned foods. The mountains of cookies, the gossamers and the sugared cranberries. It is the anticipation, a reason to get dressed up to stay home. It is the velvet bows, the traditions. It is about building traditions of our own. It is about warmth and security.
Divorced now, I think of him when it snows. I think of our tedious long walks through it, the promise of chocolately Norwegian Porters incentivizing my cynical city feet to keep putting one in front of the other. The romance of the heavy snowfall in the seaside New England town we call home for so long is not lost on me, but my preference is to gaze upon it, not glide through it. My boots are always pretty but they are never warm.
There is nowhere he looks at me like he loves me more than after these walks, sitting across from me at a warm pub that make him feel like he is home in England. He prefers my watery eyes and rosy cheeks painted by the cold to the synthetic red lips and over accentuated cheekbones I wear as armor every other day of the year.
I don’t think his parents like me for the first nine years of our marriage, but the final Christmas we spend married, we spend with them — at their small, but ever inviting house on the English seaside. His mother plies me with gin and tonics at all hours of the day, spending daylight on long walks to the pub like only the English do, and evenings with crosswords, a little drunk in front of the television. The snow falls unexpectedly during that trip and we walk miles home through this tiny village late night as the snow dances upon us. In that moment I briefly consider leaving our life, having a few kids and staying here forever. I am constantly, quietly pursuing magic.
I never find Christmas while I am married. It doesn’t matter how ornate the tablescape, how tall the croquembouche, how lush the living garlands. It feels forced, superficial and always disappointing, resulting not in the magic I am perpetually pursuing, but a larger pile of dishes in the sink.
My first Christmas as a single woman I take myself to Rome where a handsome Jewish waiter asks me on a date in broken English on Christmas Day hours after I find myself moved to near paralysis sitting within the ornate walls of the Great Synagogue. That night I board a train and ride through the darkness, waking up to snapshots of storybook villages to meet a friend in Vienna where we go ice skating and drink mulled wine and eat ornate pastries in buildings that look like gingerbread houses. Ice skating in Vienna, it turns out, is a lot like ice skating in America, pushy parents, crying children, poorly sharpened rental skates.
I no longer crave the magic of Christmas. Years ago, deep in my marriage, I make the realization that the true magic is in my home, the one that smells of stale vegetable oil. This home acknowledges human perseverance and real miracles that bring light to the darkest times.
The flames that flicker on my menorah become both more relevant and more magical every year, this year they are particularly powerful. At my wedding all those years ago, my grandmother reads from our favorite story, The Velveteen Rabbit:
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
This year, the seasonal crystalline facade is beautiful, but it is not magic. This year I realize that magic only truly presents itself in what is real. | https://medium.com/@xoxolcf/its-snowing-isn-t-it-8fbcb4db27b3 | [] | 2020-12-17 14:52:02.924000+00:00 | ['Narrative Nonfiction', 'Judaism', 'Narrative', 'Divorce', 'Christmas'] |
Unresolved trauma and its complications | Unresolved trauma and its complications
Trauma is a neurological response that lives on in our nervous system when untreated. In combination with the human brain and bodily functions it can even evolve to a fatal state. This is an urgent matter in society today due to the fact that trauma responses often go untreated due to the misconceptions related to the very similar symptoms listed of different kind of diseases that even occur in humans with untreated trauma.
Our nervous system is very complex. Our brain is very good at handling and communicating with it. If life goes by without any traumatizing events a human being thrives in life. This is easy seen in various indigos tribes and in ancient knowledge. The modern human being faces many challenges in society which leads to different kinds of events in life. Fear based events in life are very harmful to human basic functions but that doesn’t mean an event has to be of a disastrous form, it can also be many small experiences of fear that lead to a sensory overload of many different kinds. This leads to different kinds of behavior in human beings. When understod they tend to go away and the behavior goes back to a normal state.
A human being with this kind of behavior change related to trauma goes untreated or treated as having a disease, in some cases medicated, the behavior or bodily sickness tends to get worse. This could be because the brain and the nervous system doesn’t understand what’s going on with it witch only leads to more fear. Its also probably due to a fact in our memory system that blocks out fear based life situations in the past. And instead the mind creates subconscious blocks that lead to even more behavioral change without the individual consciously knowing about it.
In the year of 2000 there was a scientifically breakthrough. The discovery of brains synapses handling memories did have a short window of time where the brain itself could repair and undo blocks created in the subconscious mind. A psychologist Colette Streicher has implemented this in her treatment of patients with trauma and the results are amazing. Her studies show that the human brain can repair and heal itself in a matter of minutes.
Traumatic events, in either a big or small form, leads to a stress response in a human. In this state of stress a human tend to imprint feelings of that situation in to the nervous system. These stress responses stays in our nervous system and creates even more feelings related to that event. Feelings that a human later on don’t know consciously the origin of. Our hearts counsioussness also carries on these feelings and when a subconscious block in our memory is triggered, it can lead to a complex post traumatic stress reaction. This is a very confusing experience for a human being. To explain it plainly a human can have this reaction leading to great anxiety in very safe surroundings, triggered by a blocked memory in the subconscious mind. It only takes a similar surrounding that the human system relates to an event in the past witch triggers the feelings from that event to reappear. ”The alarm clock” of fear, threat goes off.
Furthermore this triggering effect can occur when a human being is close enough to an another human being feeling similar feelings that the human system recognizes and relates to a triggering subconscious block. The human capacity of recognizing feelings in other forms of life tend to not be triggering at all more so relaxing and creating a feeling of love. Similar to the fact of two human beings being in love where they tend to feel each others feelings.
A case study of a female
Known trauma in the past:
The loss of a child of age 2 while being pregnant. Another baby in a very ill condition, life-threatening, and the fetus stopped showing signs of life at the same time.
All of the above happened at the same time. Her husband handled it by collapsing. He couldn’t handle it so he laid in bed covered up.
Later in life another baby is born. Adored by the father and neglected by the mother.
This woman tried to seek help for trauma but has been medicated and labelled by the psychiatric care but never diagnosed. Now 40 years later she shows signs of an extreme form of complex post traumatic stress reaktion where this stress response makes her believe she is in different times of her life including a change of bodily pain, disease related to that time of her life.
This occurs situation based. Hard enough blocked subconscious memories that are untreated tends to throw her back in time to a better place to be. Until its safe to come back to reality.
The similarities to dementia are easy to see but also the difference.
A case study of a male
Known trauma in the past same as above
This man evolved to be mean to the surviving children of the trauma event but not to the last born. That child was treated as a little princess. The man got separated from his family due to his behavior. He never got any trauma treatment, he was put in jail and later on labelled on as having paranoia, schicofrenia and he has all his life waited for the return of his youngest child.
When looking at these case studies from a trauma point of view it clearly states out that leaving trauma untreated affects the life of the whole family. And further studies of the children, their partners and grandchildren in this case study confirms that theory.
Furthermore this case study shows evidence of that the different kinds of responses that today are being labelled as a human being being narcissistic, empathic, autistic, depressive, without impulse control, oversensivity all can relate back to untreated trauma. I believe that further studies can show a relation between more human conditions and unresolved trauma issues.
The extended study involving the children also shows signs of how humans with untreated trauma responses subconsciously trigger other human beings suffering with unresolved trauma issues which leads to more suffering due to the differences in trauma responses. It also shows that if one human resolves the subconscious blocks related to trauma this circle of harmful subconscious behavior stops from spreading any further. Knowledge of the condition is the key.
Science and knowledge in this article is based on the knowledge of:
Dr Joe Dispenza - well known scientist - the human body, mind and soul
Colette Streicher - map coaching institute psychiatric care, coaching and neuroscience - memory synapses.
Richard Grannon - cptsd (cptsr) expertis in the different kinds of brain functions psychologically/fysically and the behavior patterns that follow.
Dr Les Carter - Narcissism
Gregg Braden - well known scientist, human dna research, ancient knowledge research, neuroscience
Dr Ramani - expertis in narcissism and c-ptsd
Maryon Meyer - pharmacy
Jeanette Nord - Trauma treatment and self care
Dr Andrew Kaufman
By taking in expertis from the above listed (and more related to my extended studie) and relating it to my case studies, including treatment based on understanding trauma in a broad spectrum I myself consider myself as a very healthy person. My case studies can absolutely be studied again. Probably not with the same timeframe and recognition though. I have lived it, survived it, so I do know it. I am the youngest child in the case study above. Anyone interested in following up my work in this area are welcome to continue my research by studying me and the ripple effect that occur just by understanding and sharing this knowledge.
My background in medical care as a assistant nurse also gives me an insight in how the the lack of understanding trauma based reactions further traumatize human beings suffering from different variations of trauma. I therefore come to the conclusion that information about these conditions should go out worldwide in a broad spectrum as soon as possible. Especially now due to the fact that international reports show that the implementations of restrictions that was necessary in preventing the corona disease to spread also can cause trauma, trigger already traumatized humans into new responses of/and other trauma related diseases.
Written By Sonja from the family tree of Rantila
Nowadays a happily married woman in the Ullman family.
Adress:
Klockarvägen 61
15164 Södertälje
Sweden
Phone
+46764178788
Email
[email protected]
Youtube | https://medium.com/@onlinesonja/unresolved-trauma-and-its-complications-3133cc8cac97 | ['Sonja Ullman'] | 2020-11-26 10:16:41.499000+00:00 | ['Empathy', 'Trauma', 'Narcissism', 'Cptsd', 'PTSD'] |
My Top 10 Songs of 2020 (According to Spotify Wrapped) | To escape the horrific dystopian novel that is 2020, I listen to music on Spotify. The streaming platform gave me Spotify Wrapped in return: a hodgepodge of data about the music I consumed this past year. My favorite piece of data is their educated guess on my top 10 songs of 2020.
Did their data accurately reflect my taste in music? I’m diving into my top 10 songs of 2020 to give y’all the scorching hot tea.
10. Yummy — Justin Bieber
Having Justin Bieber’s “Yummy” in my top 10 is laughable. Its placement probably has a lot to do with the battle for number one Roddy Ricch’s “The Box” and “Yummy” had back in January.
It’s funny to see how hard Justin Bieber went to try and snatch the number one spot from Roddy Rich. Then, later in the year, as the Black Lives Matter movement became more popular, he posted on Instagram about his support of the BLM movement and how he benefits from Black culture.
“Yummy” isn’t even that great. It’s a mediocre, phoned-in song. It strides the fence well enough not to offend anyone but not wow anyone either.
But, I’m a long-time Justin Bieber fan so of course, I streamed it a few times. Don’t judge.
9. B*tch From Da Souf (Remix) — Mulatto feat. Saweetie & Trina
As a fellow “real ass, rich ass, b*tch from the south”, of course I love this song. It’s a crime that songs like “B*tch From Da Souf” came out during a pandemic. This song would hit at a club on a Friday night amidst the $10 drinks, blaring strobe lights, and a blanket of vape smoke.
Mulatto, Saweetie, and Trina are all fantastic. They’re basically the bad b*tch Avengers and I’m here for it. Seeing Trina on the song was especially great. She’s the blueprint for all these female rappers; she’s “da baddest b*tch”. Until it’s safe to go out clubbing, this will just be my “rapping-in-the-mirror-like-I’m-Issa-Rae” song.
8. Tap In — Saweetie
I love Saweetie. And, the fact that her whole brand is centered around her prettiness: iconic.
Just as “My Type” took over Summer 2019, “Tap In” did the same during Summer 2020 — at least as much as it could during the quarantine.
It’s hard to debate the timelessness of Too Short’s “Blow the Whistle”, the song “Tap In” samples. “Tap In” is a great track that’s fun to listen to no matter what mood I’m in.
7. Baby — Quality Control, Lil Baby feat. Da Baby
Seeing “Baby” surprised me. I never would have guessed this song would be in my top 10. I would take “Drip Too Hard” or “BOP” over “Baby” any day. I understand why it’s on my list though.
I enjoy this song enough to not skip it. And, it’s ridiculously short — like barely over 2 minutes. Before you notice it’s happening, it’s over. Those streams rack up fast.
I ain’t mad at “Baby”; there are worse songs to creep up on your top 10.
6. Know My Rights — 6LACK feat. Lil Baby
6LACK is one of my favorite artists out right now. His music is consistently great. His last full-length album, East Atlanta Love Letter, was one of my favorite projects in recent years. In summer 2020, he released an EP entitled 6pc Hot EP.
“Know My Rights” was my favorite track off of the project (I also liked “Float” and “Long Nights”). I played the heck out of “Know My Rights” all throughout Summer 2020 — so I can totally see how it made my top 10.
5. In The Party — Flo Milli
Flo Milli, by far, is my favorite artist I found in 2020. She’s so energetic and she’s got this great unfriendly black hottie vibe that I love.
“In The Party” is incredible. It’s such a great party song. Along with “B*tch From the Souf”, it’s another track I think hits harder around other people (i.e. club, party, etc.).
Every single time I hear it I want to dance. The song’s also got a stellar first line that gets me hype every time I hear it — it’s almost Shakespearean.
4. SUGAR — BROCKHAMPTON
“SUGAR” is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever heard. Every time I hear it I scrunch my face up like I smelled some onions — it’s that good. I love the beat. I love everyone’s verses. I love the raw emotion of it all. It’s perfect.
The video is also so good: the simplicity, the flipping mirror, the peeks backstage. This is one of those songs I’ll play for my kids and I’ll have to hit them with the, “Kids, y’all don’t know nothing about BROCKHAMPTON…”
3. OUT WEST — JACKBOYS, Travis Scott (feat. Young Thug)
There’s so much going on during “OUT WEST” and you’re just along for this wild ride. I love listening to it. The video’s great too. Like, why is Quincy Jones at the same party Travis Scott is at?
I also may have been trying to learn that Tik Tok dance for a while. That might have something to do with its high placement.
2. Life is Good — Future ft. Drake
Of course “Life is Good” is number 2. I mean, what do you want me to say? It’s Future and Drake! I’m Black and a millennial; I’m contractually obligated to listen to this song at least once a day.
“Life is Good” is a great song. Future had that great line that I couldn’t stop saying: “100 thousand for the cheapest ring on a n***a finger, lil’ b*tch”. It’s so ridiculous, so trashy, but so good.
1. The Box — Roddy Ricch
Like I mentioned earlier, the battle for number one between “The Box” and “Yummy” was a big deal. Because I love messy drama, I placed myself into the situation by streaming “The Box” as much as I could to secure Roddy Ricch the number one spot.
As Issa said, I’m rooting for everybody Black. I’m gonna do my part to secure Roddy’s place in history — and he deserved that number one spot. I regret nothing.
Honorable mentions:
Hit Different — SZA feat. Ty Dolla Sign
SAUCE — Reason feat. Vince Staples
Jobs — City Girls
Fkn Around — Phony Ppl feat. Megan Thee Stallion
What are some of your favorite songs from 2020? What artists are you anticipating releases from in 2021?
_____________________
Subscribe to my newsletter for a new curated list of creative inspiration from people of color every week.
Nia Simone McLeod is a writer, content creator, and pop culture enthusiast from Richmond, Virginia. Follow her on Twitter, Tumblr, or Instagram for more dope digital content. | https://medium.com/@loveniasimone/my-top-10-songs-of-2020-according-to-spotify-wrapped-eb75ce1bff95 | ['Nia Simone Mcleod'] | 2020-12-11 12:47:01.908000+00:00 | ['Spotify', 'Culture', 'Music', 'Hip Hop', 'Black Women'] |
Top Artificial Intelligence (AI) Startups in the World 2020 | Photo by Robynne Hu on Unsplash
There are a lot of big things happening in small AI companies. Ranking them is hard when their areas of focus are so varied, so here is an alphabetized list of the most interesting, promising and high-impact AI startups in the world, as of 2020.
The list
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a document reader that uses AI that can read any document (from invoices to insurance claims and financial statements), whether printed or hand written, to extract key information, removing and automating time consuming and repetitive work. With Cinnamon, you might never have to skim a boring document again.
Diffblue
Diffblue is a company that uses AI to generate unit tests for Java software to solve the pervasive problems of under-tested code, testing bottlenecks and broken CI pipelines. This company received the largest Series A funding for AI in Europe in 2017, and was started by a computer science professor at the University of Oxford. Goldman Sachs and AWS use them, so they’ve got some big endorsements.
People.ai
People.ai is a tool for helping customer-facing teams meet sales targets with better metrics so they can more reliably predict. It does this by automatically capturing and syncing sales activity in a CRM, like an unobtrusive robotic personal assistant.
Terramonitor
Terramonitor is a platform that maps the globe using over 100 million images from otherwise unused satellite and remote sensing data, analyzed by AI. It’s basically the constantly-up-to-date Google Earth of the future, so GIS people should check it out.
DarkTrace
DarkTrace is one of the better-known security startups using AI. It protects companies against cyber-threats using autonomous responses similar to an organism’s immune system to keep operations running as expected. Their origin story is impressive: “Founded in 2013 by mathematicians from the University of Cambridge and government cyber intelligence experts in the US and the UK, Darktrace is recognized today as the world’s leading AI company for cyber security.”
Dataminr
Dataminr uses huge amounts of public data to predict emerging risk and high-impact events in real-time, such as natural disasters and extremist attacks. They’ve been valued at $1.6 billion — not a small amount.
Numerai
Numerai is more of a game than a business. It’s a downloadable database and tool that you can use to make a model to control their investments in a tournament. If you rank on the leaderboard, you win actual money (well, cryptocurrency). What’s their long term vision? “To manage all the money in the world with a decentralized network of autonomous AI agents,” so that’s interesting. | https://medium.com/nextai/top-artificial-intelligence-ai-startups-in-the-world-2020-6db3564b16ac | ['David Green'] | 2020-03-03 19:09:35.152000+00:00 | ['AI', 'Startup', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Technology', 'Tech'] |
Beginners Guide To Transfer Learning with an example using VGG16 | When To Use Transfer Learning?
As stated in the chapter ‘Transfer Learning’ of the book ‘Handbook of Research on Machine Learning Applications and Trends’ we should consider using transfer learning if we reap any of the below stated benefits:
Higher Slope- The rate of performance improvement should be more than it would usually be. Higher Start-Performance initially achieved using only the transferred knowledge without refining or further learning is higher or better than that otherwise. Less Time Taken- The amount of time taken for the model to completely learn target class considering the transferred knowledge should be lesser than what a model made from scratch would take. Higher Asymptote- The final performance of the model with transfer learning should be greater than that without.
Performance Vs Training Graph
If the performance has actually decreased after applying transfer method, then negative transfer has occurred. This is one of the major challenges in applying transfer learning .We need to produce positive transfer between appropriately related tasks while avoiding negative transfer between tasks that are less related.
Notations and Definitions
Domain: domain D comprises of a marginal probability distribution P(X) and a feature space ꭕ. Mathematically domain can be represented as D = {ꭕ, P(Χ)}. Task: A task T comprises of a 2 element tuple of objective function, η and label space γ. From a probabilistic point of view the objective function can be denoted P(γ| Χ).
As stated in the paper ‘ A survey on Transfer Learning ’ by Sinno Pan and Qiang Yang the mathematical definition of transfer learning goes as follows:
‘Given a source domain DS and learning task TS, a target domain DT and learning task TT , transfer learning aims to help improve the learning of the target predictive function fT (·) in DT using the knowledge in DS and TS, where DS ≠ DT , or TS ≠TT ’
How To Use Transfer Learning?
We can either follow :
A Develop Model Approach: which consists of selecting a source task and developing a skillful model for it while also ensuring that some feature learning has been performed and then reusing that model on our second task of interest after performing some fine tuning
OR
A Pre- Trained Model Approach: which consists of selecting a pre trained source model out of the many models available which have been released by many famous institutions and research centers. We can reuse this model as our starting point on our 2nd task of interest. Most of the times we need to fine tune or adapt the model to apply it.
Some Examples
Using image data as input while performing predictive modelling is very common in transfer learning. There is also a wide use of it in solving NLP problems .
Models using Image Data
VGG Model — Developed by Oxford Inception Model — Developed by Google ResNet Model — Developed by Microsoft
Models Using Language Data
word2vec Model — Developed by Google GloVe Model — Developed by Stanford
Using them is really convenient because we can freeze all the layers(which means no need to train them again) and just train the lower layers making the process of retraining less cumbersome.
Implementing VGG Model to Classify An Object
VGG is an award winning model implemented by the Oxford Researchers.It is a convolutional neural network model developed as an improvement to the AlexNet.
ImageNet
ImageNet which is organized by the WordNet hierarchy is an image database consisting of around 14 million images with all the images having annotations done manually by humans. Since 2010 an image classification challenge called ILSVRC or the ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge is being conducted. The Oxford Visual Geometry Group won the award in 2014 by developing a convolutional neural network model.
Lets start off with the VGG-16 model
1) Load the VGG Model In Keras
An application interface is provided by keras for using and loading pre trained models.
2) Check Summary Of the Layers For Better Understanding
The base model of this particular model contains 16 layers. VGG16 is used for classification of images into various categories as it is pretrained on a large range of images providing rich feature representation. It accepts an input image of size (224,224,3). The initial layers comprises of convolution layers and convolution plus max-pooling layers this is followed by fully connected layers in the end.
Output would be:
3)Load The Image
I have used this image for this code demo.
First we load the image and then resize it to (224,224,3) to make it compatible with the model for input. In order to work with keras we also would have to convert the pixels to Numpy array. Generally the network is given multiple images as input, so it accepts an extra dimension(no. of samples) as a part of its input along with the rows, columns and channels. This brings the need to reshape our existing array. The image pixels need to adhere to the same format in the way the ImageNet training data was prepared (according to the research paper).Basically the mean RGB value calculated on the training set is subtracted from each pixel. Keras already provides with a function preprocess_input() for this purpose.
4) Prediction Time
model.predict() gives a list of length 1000 which consists of the probabilities of the image belonging to any of these known object labels. The keras function decode_predictions() provides us with the list of the topmost three object classes along with their probabilities. We just print the top most one.
Output:
fox_squirrel (96.02%)
Running the above code we get a prediction of the squirrel with 96% likelihood. Feel free to experiment and play with the above example since it will give you a better understanding.
Extending It To Transfer Learning
If you want to apply it for transfer learning you need to know about the arguments that VGG() takes.
include_top (True or False): It signifies whether or not the output layers are to be included. Generally when fitting to your own problem we do not include it. weights (‘imagenet’): Signifies the weights that you want to load. We generally specify the imagenet weights but if you want to train the model from scratch you can choose to write ‘None’. input_tensor (): Adding a new input layer incase you want fit the model on new data with a varied size. input_shape (): Incase you have changed the input layer you will have to specify the expected size of image the model needs to take in. pooling (): If you would be training a new set of output you need to mention the type of pooling layer (max pooling , average pooling etc) you would be using. classes ():output vector size of the model need to be specified within the brackets. That would signify the number of classes to be considered in the model. Generally we take 1000 .
Further reading | https://medium.com/ai-in-plain-english/beginners-guide-to-transfer-learning-with-simple-example-using-vgg16-61040c095ab9 | ['Isha Puthige'] | 2020-11-22 08:33:07.149000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Transfer Learning', 'Convolution Neural Net', 'AI', 'Keras'] |
Bride Kidnapping Still Happens In Some Parts Of The World | Bride Kidnapping Still Happens In Some Parts Of The World
Bride Kidnapping is a common practice in Kyrgyzstan, even though it is prohibited by law; Source: Channel News Asia
Bride kidnapping, also known as “marriage by capture” or “marriage by abduction” is what happens where a man captures a woman that he wishes to marry. It is a ritual which dates back to the Central Asian romantic tradition when potential grooms kidnapped potential brides so they could get married.
Apart from Central Asia, Bride kidnapping is also prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caucasus. For years, many men have constantly relied on this ritual as a means of ambushing young ladies by kidnapping and detaining them until they forcefully agreed to marry them.
Bride kidnapping is also called “Ala Kachuu” in Kyrgyzstan,which means “to take and run away”.
In Kyrgyzstan, many ladies are forced into non-consensual marriages. Source: Pime Asia News
The process of bride kidnapping
Most times, the kidnap is usually a planned action that happens in public places. When a group of young men see a lady that one of them likes, they secretly connive and then carry her forcefully into a waiting car.
A regular scenario is when a woman is kidnapped from the streets as she goes about her daily activities. When this happens and she can’t escape, she is left with no choice but to adhere to her abductor’s demands.
In such cases, how well the abductor knows the lady never seems to be an issue. The targets are usually young girls and women that are below 18 years of age.
Sometimes, the mode of kidnap could be through any means. In the past, the men used horses, but now, car kidnapping is more frequent. Some men will even go as far as hiring a car to kidnap if they have to.
Once the intended bride is kidnapped, she is brought in while crying and struggling with the current reality that she has just been captured. She is instantly taken to the would-be groom’s family home and every effort is made to convince her to marry him.
The female relatives of the man are usually around and waiting to put pressure on the lady by convincing her to accept the forced marriage request.
In many cases, the older women in the family use bullying tactics to get abducted ladies to give consent. The most common method is the use of physical restraint by putting a scarf on the lady’s head till she agrees to their demands.
Other times, some of the kidnapped young ladies are raped and shamed into marrying their abductors.
While some lucky female victims are rescued by their families after negotiation, others are forced to accept the marriage proposal because they don’t want to be perceived as “used women".
If no family member negotiates for the release of the lady, she is left with no choice but to start loving and building a life with her kidnapper who then becomes her new husband.
Reaction towards bride kidnapping
Bride kidnapping is more common than we know; Source: Reason
The general reaction towards this form of forced marriage differs. While many people see it as a terrible infringement on the fundamental liberties of women, there are others that see nothing wrong with it. In fact, some Kyrgyz women see bride kidnapping as a harmless act.
A 60 year old Kyrgyz woman had once admitted during an interview that although she was kidnapped and forced into marriage, she was happy with her family and everything eventually turned out well.
Some other women even consider bride kidnapping to be a romantic act and insist that they adhered to it based on their desire to uphold the long-standing tradition.
Consequences of bride kidnapping
There is a certain sense of judgment and stigma attached to ladies who sleep outside their family homes, even if it happened for just one night.
For this reason, many negative connotations are attached to bride kidnapping. For instance, where a lady has been kidnapped and has spent more nights outside her family’s home, it is perceived as a stain on her reputation. As long as she has entered her kidnapper’s abode, she is no longer considered to be “pure" and returning to her family’s home may be deemed shameful.
Many ladies that are caught up in this unfortunate situation simply go ahead to marry their abductors because they do not want to put their family’s reputation on the line.
It gets worse where the lady is kidnapped and also raped by her abductor. Some kidnappers do this so they can exercise more manipulative powers and coerce their victims into residing with them.
In 2017, many young ladies in Krgyzstan were still being kidnapped and forced to marry their captors. In fact, some surveys have highlighted that bride kidnapping is very common in local Krgyzstan and that 1 out of every 3 marriages begins with kidnapping.
Sadly, many of the kidnapping-induced marriages are not even happy ones and most of them end badly. They are fraught with high divorce rates and significantly high cases of domestic violence.
Unfortunately, the desire of a victim to escape is based largely on her parents’ willingness to intervene and rescue her. If a lady is from a home where bride kidnapping is a prominent basis for marriages, she may have lower chances of escaping if kidnapped.
Many ladies devise an escape plan
Forced marriage is a terrifying ordeal, particularly for its victims. Many ladies who live in places where bride kidnapping is a trend, are forced to relocate so that they don’t become victims of forced marriages.
In fact, those young ladies whose parents got married through forced marriages are most likely to emigrate.
Bride kidnapping has led to the death of many young women
A rally in front of Kyrgyzstan’s interior ministry after the murder of kidnapped bride, Aizada Kanatbekova; Source: Reuters
Bride kidnapping is a grave violation of the rights of its victims and sadly, some women have lost their lives to it. For instance, Aizada Kanatbekova and Burulai Turdaaly Kyzy were murdered by their abductors once they attempted to resist the forced marriage custom.
Another lady, Kyal, was also reported to have hung herself after she was kidnapped. It is purported that she was probably raped after being kidnapped and this may have caused her to take her own life.
These deaths resulted to rallies within the hometowns of the late victims and large national protests in several parts of Kyrgyzstan. There are several incidents of brides in forced marriages dealing with depression, inflicting self-harm and committing suicide.
Sadly, despite several YouTube videos showing several real instances of bride kidnapping, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has only identified one conviction for bride kidnapping which happened in 2008. This clearly shows that it’s only few people who perpetrate this evil that are being punished. Their evil acts are mostly ignored under the disguise that it is a native custom.
A simple search will reveal this brutal practice, as can be seen in some videos of men grabbing women and pushing them into cars in broad daylight.
In 2013, president Almazbek Atambayev, the former president of Kyrgyzstan, went ahead to approve legislation that sought an increase in the penalty of bride kidnapping to 10 years.
The New York Post further notes that nearly 12,000 girls and women are kidnapped and forced into non-consensual marriages every year. Unsurprisingly, the abducted ladies are very young. Even in Krygyzstan where this is quite rampant, at least one out of ten girls are forced to get married before they turn 18. | https://historyofyesterday.com/bride-kidnapping-still-happens-in-some-parts-of-the-world-331035020aa5 | [] | 2021-12-28 09:04:54.820000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Asia', 'Culture', 'History', 'Marriage'] |
Yahoo Finance as a quote provider in BAEX | Hello! 👋🏻 In this post, we will tell you about the quote provider in BAEX
📈 The relevance of information is practically the most important thing in trading. Late news of falling or rising prices can lead to losses or loss of profits.
There are not so many providers of information on stock prices on the market. Reuters, Bloomberg, Google Finance, and Yahoo Finance.
❓ Why is BAEX using Yahoo Finance?
🔸 First of all, it is the oldest financial information provider. It was founded in 1998. Thanks to such a long presence on the market, it has managed to prove itself excellently for traders. It has a more intuitive and simpler interface than the competition.
🔸 In addition, the site contains a wealth of background information on trading, business, finance, economics, and other related topics. There is also a forum and services for managing your own financial information.
✅ Despite many large competitors, being an excellent service with many competitive advantages, which provides the most relevant information to users in the most convenient way, Yahoo Finance has a leading position in the market.
📢 Learn more about the BAEX project on our website: https://baex.com/ | https://medium.com/@baexdapp/yahoo-finance-as-a-quote-provider-in-baex-e1a2742f3ef0 | ['Baex Dapp'] | 2020-11-02 14:24:34.846000+00:00 | ['Baex', 'Smart Contracts', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Trading', 'Blockchain'] |
How to use Google API Gateway with Cloud Run | How to use Google API Gateway with Cloud Run
Create an API Gateway that interacts with your Cloud Run backend services.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are solely my own.
Introductions
In this article, you will see how the API Gateway works, understand all its components, and how to create your first deployment integrated with a Cloud Run service.
TLDR;
You can check this repo how you can create the API Gateway and deploy a Cloud Run hello world instance using Terraform.
Why should I use an API Gateway?
Here you can find a few reasons why you should use it:
It is a good way to decouple your front end from your backend.
It can break the frontend requests into several services.
It can help you to move your monolith backend into a microservices architecture.
Centralize Authentication access for your API’s.
API monitoring, metrics, quotas, and analytics
Centralize and manage API versioning
Requirements
GCP account with the billing activated. If you don’t have one yet you can create a new one using the free tier at $300.
Before starting: Crate your GCP Project
You will need a GCP project, so if you haven’t created yet you can follow these steps:
Go to the Manage resources page in the Cloud Console.
GO TO THE MANAGE RESOURCES PAGE On the Select organization drop-down list at the top of the page, select the organization in which you want to create a project. If you are a free trial user, skip this step, as this list does not appear. Click Create Project. In the New Project window that appears, enter a project name and select a billing account as applicable. A project name can contain only letters, numbers, single quotes, hyphens, spaces, or exclamation points, and must be between 4 and 30 characters. Enter the parent organization or folder in the Location box. That resource will be the hierarchical parent of the new project. When you’re finished entering new project details, click Create.
Enable the Required API’s
API Gateway requires that you enable the following Google services. You can enable those by going to the menu -> APIs & Services -> Library.
The API Gateway
Google Cloud API Gateway is still in Beta, but I believe it is mature enough for a simple use/investigation.
As a managed service it is easily integrated with Cloud Run, AppEngine, Compute Engine, and GKE. It can also manage Authentication using API_KEY, OAuth2, and JWT.
API Gateway enables you to provide secure access to your services through a well-defined REST API that is consistent across all of your services, regardless of service implementation. A consistent API: — Makes it easy for app developers to consume your services — Enables you to change the backend service implementation without affecting the public API — Enables you to take advantage of the scaling, monitoring, and security features built into the Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
This image shows some clients making requests to different backend services Source: here
This image shows some clients making requests to your backend services through API Gateway. Source: here
The Spec
The API Gateway is configured using an OpenAPI spec 2.0. Below you will see the smallest version you need to get up and running.
You can check the full OpenApi 2.0 spec here and here.
The Components
An API defined on API Gateway consists of two main components: API config: The API configuration created when you upload an API definition. For the Beta, you create the API definition as an OpenAPI spec. Each time you upload an API definition, API Gateway creates a new API config. That is, you can create an API config but you cannot later modify it. If you later edit the API definition in the OpenAPI spec, and then upload the edited API definition, you create a new API config. Gateway: An Envoy-based, high-performance, scalable proxy that hosts the deployed API config. Deploying an API config to a gateway creates the external facing URL that your API clients use to access the API. Is deployed to a specific GCP region. A region is a specific geographical region on GCP where you can deploy resources. Must host an API config. You cannot create an empty gateway, meaning one without an API config. However, after a gateway is created, you can update the gateway to replace one API config with another. Can only host a single API config. You cannot deploy multiple API configs to the same gateway.
Using Terraform
First, you will need to make sure Terraform will pick up your credentials. There are a few ways to do that, and the simplest way is to use the Application Default Credentials. You can easily set it with the command below:
gcloud auth application-default login
This command will create .config/gcloud/application_default_credentials.json where Terraform will automatically read from without any extra configuration.
We are not using any Terraform backend at this moment, but I truly recommend you to set up a backend to manage your TF state. Here is how you create the backend using Google Cloud Storage.
Our Cloud Run hello world service
First, we will need to create the Cloud Run service in order to get the URL and update our API Gateway spec later. You can get the URL from the output printed after the terraform finishes.
You will need to run the code above from the terraform/cloud-run folder.
terraform init
terraform apply
Implementing our API Gateway using Terraform
The API Gateway resources were recently added (2 Nov 2020) into the Google beta provider. The API Gateway contains 3 main resources (differently from what we just saw above):
google_api_gateway_api Crates the API Gateway itself.
Crates the API Gateway itself. google_api_gateway_api_config Creates the Open API Spec within the API Gateway above.
Creates the Open API Spec within the API Gateway above. google_api_gateway_gateway Creates the Gateway (Envoy proxy) linked to the API config.
You will need to include the Cloud Run run from the terraform/api-gateway folder.
terraform init
terraform apply
Check the access
Now you can go to https://console.cloud.google.com/api-gateway and click on “The API Gateway”…
Then, click on the Gateway tab…
And now you will see your Gateway URL we will use to call our API. | https://femrtnz.medium.com/how-to-use-google-api-gateway-with-cloud-run-60698959b342 | ['Felipe Martinez'] | 2020-12-27 19:30:48.246000+00:00 | ['Gcp', 'Google Cloud Platform', 'Google Cloud Run', 'Google', 'Api Gateway'] |
Automation Can Transform Your 3PL Business | Automation Can Transform Your 3PL Business
Cutting out the middle man means that businesses can concentrate on what they’re selling without having to worry about logistics such as storage and shipping.
Thanks to big players such as Amazon with an unlimited next day delivery scheme, the market is more competitive than ever. Yet, it’s no secret that Amazon is able to maintain its 3PL offering using robotics. Competing 3PLs are learning that warehouse automation is becoming the answer to a successful business.
You don’t want your business to get left behind
3PLs are jumping on the bandwagon to maximise their services. According to the 24th Annual 3PL Study, FedEx is investing in network capacity, automation and technology to expand its e-commerce delivery options to keep up with the competition. For more information on flexible automation for business growth, see our recent blog post — Flexible Automation for Business Growth.
Optimising your current space
Inbound Logistics found that 65% of 3PL providers are struggling with capacity in the warehouse. But, did you know that an automated warehouse can use half as much space?
Rather than spending money on buying a new warehouse, it might be worth your time and money to invest in automation that can adapt as your services grow. For example, OW Robotics pods are completely customisable, so you can alter them to suit your warehouse needs when required.
Scaling up during peak seasons
We know that 3PLs can get busy with the shift in season. Seasonal workers are often thrown in the deep end and this can lead to mistakes which could harm your reputation.
Through automation, it is possible to have extra resources without the burden of recruitment. At OW Robotics, we offer flexible purchase and hire options so you can stay in control of your automated workforce during busy periods.
Recruiting the right candidates
Inbound Logistics reported that 64% of 3PLs struggle to recruit and retain qualified staff. Recruiting is an expensive and time consuming job, and tied in with the extra seasonal staff 3PLs need, this can cause serious strain on your business.
Using flexible automation will not only reduce the need for staff, but it will reduce costs on equipment such as forklift trucks, staff training and safety considerations.
Are you a 3PL provider and want to find out if warehouse automation is right for your business?
Contact our helpful team on: 01522 704083 or email: [email protected] | https://medium.com/@owrobotics/automation-can-transform-your-3pl-business-31baf5f34e88 | ['Ow Robotics'] | 2020-01-16 09:45:09.955000+00:00 | ['Robotics', 'Logistics', 'Retail', 'Warehouse', 'Automation'] |
Top 10 Most Effective SEO Tips | Imagine you know how to play the SEO (search engine optimization) game, what would it feels like for you? For the first time on this platform, you will be getting top best search engine optimization tips from On-page factors, to user experience to link building and more.
I have discovered that writers on this platform hardly discuss about SEO and as an SEO expert, I want to share with you some effective SEO tips on how you can optimize your site for better search engine experience to get your site ranking top on search engines in no time.
These tips are legit because it is what I have helped so many of my client with and today they are happy with their site ranking. Are you ready? Here they are:
1. Home Page
When it comes to optimizing your site, your home page layout and architecture is one important factor to consider. Content on your home page should be clear, and also keep clear navigation so readers can find their way around your site thereby reducing your bounce rate.
Also, keep your URL SEO friendly and contact information visible.
2. Keyword Research
Conduct keyword research before creating any content on your site if you want to rank top on search engines. When conducting keywords research, choose your keywords wisely. You can steal your competitor’s keywords and tweak them to your advantage but, keep main keyword per page.
Make sure each page/category on your site contain keywords you want to rank for and use them moderately.
3. Meta Description
Keep your meta description under 150 to 160 characters and include your focus keyword within. If you blog on WordPress, I will advise that you search and download “Yoast SEO Plugin” if you have not done that. It is a complete WordPress SEO plugin used by experts worldwide.
4. Header Tags
Place unique H1 tag on each page. Use focus keyword in your H1 and LSI keywords in H2 and H3. Avoid header tags in layout.
5. The Content
To make your content SEO friendly, it is very important you use your focus keyword in your first paragraph. Long content correlates with higher rankings. Try to make all your content be above 800 words.
Focus on keyword density so it won’t look like you are spamming because Google might flag you for that which will drastically affect your ranking. Try as much as possible to add internal and external links into the body of your content where it is relevant. Prioritize quality over frequency.
6. Link Building
This is a big factor when it comes to better search engines experience. Create relationship with other webmasters and build links from high Domain Authority sites. If you can see, I said high DA sites not just any sites.
If you build external links from low DA sites, you are just killing your site. If you must build backlinks from any sites, it must be from sites with DA of 25 and above for better experience.
How do you build backlinks?
· Commenting on blogs.
· Contributing on online forums and leaving your links as a reference source for people to click and get detailed information on what you are discussing with them.
· Social bookmarking
· Guest posting
Don’t make the mistake of only directing backlinks to your homepage. Also direct backlink to posts you want attention. The more backlinks linking to a particular post, the more it attracts Google bot to check that post to see if it is related to the post the link is coming from and if it, it will be index.
7. Image Optimization
With your Yoast SEO Plugin, it is very easy to optimize your images by adding relevant “alt text”. Aside that, make sure to compress image size before uploading it to your blog. Save the image on your computer with the keyword you want that post to rank for.
8. Headlines
This is what draws readers to your blog. If your headline is bad, you will hardly get visitors to your site. You must learn the art or else you will suffer from low traffic. Use tool like Buzzsumo to learn how to craft viral headlines that command clicks.
If you know of any competitor’s headlines, you can use it but create a better content from the headlines.
9. Content Promotion
Encourage readers to share your post by adding social media sharing buttons on each of your post so readers can share your content with their friends on social media. Set up rich pins on your site.
Also, you should have a social media content promotion calendar which you should be using to share your blog posts.
10. Google Penalty Recovery
Recovery from Google penalties is not straight forward and you should be very careful when removing links, de-indexing pages etc. If in doubt, consider employing the services of an experienced SEO consultant.
But here are few tips for you to do:
· Remove thin content.
· Remove bad links e.g. broken links
· Check for hacks/inserted links.
· File a reconsideration request.
These are the few SEO tips I have for you. Please, if you found very useful, encourage me by giving me a clap. Thank you in advance. | https://medium.com/weebo-media/top-10-most-effective-seo-tips-71582f017ecf | ['Okon Joseph'] | 2018-03-16 10:04:28.945000+00:00 | ['SEO', 'Search Engine Optimizati', 'Google Ranking', 'Blogging For Business'] |
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