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Creating 3D animations with a python graphics engine. | In our last article, we created a program in python to render a wireframe model of a 3D object. (if you have not already read it, I recommend having a look here https://medium.com/@henrynhaefliger/3d-graphics-with-the-python-standard-library-af3794d0cba). In this post we will take a look at improving that model and applying it to animations. As per the usual, you can also find the complete code for this project on my Github repository https://github.com/hnhaefliger/PyEngine3D.
To begin, we will be giving our models a more solid look, this means correctly rendering solid faces. To do this, we will calculate a new value for each triangle which will be called avgZ — the average Z coordinate of the points in each triangle. This will allow us to generate the triangles closer to the camera, last, meaning they will cover those behind. The code for the math is simple:
We then need to sort this new list by its 4th value, we can do this with a lambda function and the sorted() builtin:
We can now insert this into the render function of our Engine3D
We also need to update our createTriangle function so that the triangles are not transparent:
This will allow us to render an image like this:
As you can see, the model is no longer transparent. All that is missing now is an animation.
To do this, we will create a function called rotateY, with the parameter angle. This function will apply a formula to every point to rotate it around the Y axis by the given angle:
This function can be modified for any axis but will suit our purposes for now. For example if we run this code:
We will get an output like this:
Now that we can rotate the object, it is a matter of applying the tkinter.Tk.after() method:
This function tells the engine to clear the screen, rotate the model by 0.1 degrees, render the image and then repeat again after 1ms. When running this code, we will get a smooth animation of the shark rotating around the axis. | https://medium.com/quick-code/creating-3d-animations-with-a-python-graphics-engine-35ede0c01e3d | ['Henry Haefliger'] | 2019-10-15 21:32:55.867000+00:00 | ['Python', '3d', 'Coding', 'Tkinter', 'Graphics'] |
10 Things I Am Grateful For This Year | Book Cover Designed by Retna Media
Let’s all do a global exhalation.
We can all agree, I think, that 2020 was the year for all of us to walk through the fire. Many did not make it to the other side due to COVID, job loss, mental health, suicide, and so much more. For those of us who are still standing, lean purposely into gratitude.
Now, is the time to re-event ourselves, upgrade our skills, work on our relationships, reassess our careers, and overall make better life choices.
As many of us have observed or experienced, there are lots to rebuild from the ground up.
First, start with gratitude:
I am grateful to have been able to connect deeply with family, friends, and colleagues. I am grateful for the essential workers, may their sacrifices and hard work never be forgotten. I am grateful for acts of kindness. I am grateful to be able to create and learn. I am grateful to know my strengths and weaknesses. I am grateful for all the truth(s) revealed. I am grateful for all blessings seen and unseen. I am grateful for my health. I am grateful to live in this present time. I am grateful for how love shows up in my life.
**BONUS- I am grateful for national and global reckoning around inequality and racism. ** | https://medium.com/@hmudangelo/10-things-i-am-grateful-for-this-year-388ba954efb8 | ["D'Angelo Thompson"] | 2020-12-23 15:52:49.783000+00:00 | ['Gratitude', 'Yoga Breathing', '2020', 'Covid 19', 'Authors'] |
Five tips to reduce stress during Work from home | From yearning to be at home to being at home all day, 2020 has brought numerous twists. One such thing is all of us had to work from home . Initially things were so relaxing working from the comfort of the home but stress levels shot up after sometime . Everything seems overwhelming as days progress . Some miss face to face connection with their colleagues , some felt the need of separate work space and personal’ space and so much hurdles .
But chill, there are ways to cope up in this new ambience .
These 5 things might make your work-from-home comfortable ! (Not the usual stop using gadgets and eating stuffs. You can trust .)
Tell us if this helped ! We’d be more happy to hear .
Don’t work constantly in one place .
Yes . Change of place is important . Sitting constantly in a place for hours can make you feel boring . Try working in different spaces at your home . You can even plan a work-from-peaceful resort kinda sorts ,or to put this in a word work-ation! This can help you feel better and may reduce your stress level to an extent.
2. Involve yourself in a side hustle of your wish !
Whether you monetize it or not , passionately involve in any other hobbies . The greatest benefit is it can maintain your sanity . Also it can be a healthy coping mechanism for the mental issues you face . Find your solace, make it your passion.
3. Set clear boundaries between work and personal stuff.
Work and life are two hings . Don’t mix it up ,don’t think about the counterpart when youre doing one . Like don’t think of work when you watch a movie , and don’t distract yourself while working ! This can make your mind clear and can avoid unnecessary stress. Have an allocated time and space for both .
4. Relax yourself in between work .
While people think work from home is relaxing, but it actually makes you feel relaxed . But , if you try to take breaks in between , you’d love to work from home.
Listen to beautiful songs , have a good drink and forget everything else during the break !
5. Get into some form of fitness.
Fitness is one thing that’s most stressed in all of our articles. It hold such importance in everything . Apart from fat burning , it helps you to focus, it makes you vent out everything and can make your day ! It can be dancing , walking , boxing , playing anything ! Try giving some time for this and feel the change for yourself .Balanced and fit life will always give you a healthy mind.
Getting into new normal is a bit challenging . But once you figure out a good routine , then this normal wouldn’t be new anymore . Lets live alongside nature , lets prioritise our mind over anything !
Watch out our space for such exciting articles .
Cheers! | https://medium.com/@chanakyamentalhealthservices/five-tips-to-reduce-stress-during-work-from-home-e6e7d7196a70 | ['Chanakya Mental Health Services'] | 2020-12-23 09:55:25.385000+00:00 | ['Work From Home', 'Stress Management', 'Life Hacking', 'Stress Relief', 'Work From Anywhere'] |
Is Your Inclusion Inclusive? | Inclusivity Isn’t “Tolerance”
If we truly acknowledge that inclusion isn’t just about skin colour and surface-level statistics, then we can recognize that it is about being inclusive of other individuals. You see, this is the problem with “inclusion.” While most people consider inclusion to be the act of including someone, we rarely consider what people experience after we create these “inclusive” spaces. Once we invite someone to the table, do they really feel like they belong there? This is why you see so many organizations starting to include the word belonging in their diversity and inclusion titles and communications.
The two are not synonymous, and we must recognize that tolerance does not equal inclusivity. It can actually have the opposite effect. The act of including someone does not innately imply that you are also involving them. Therefore, when you make the conscious decision to include someone, you need to dig a little deeper to embrace their perspectives, regardless of whether or not they align with your own.
If we want to pursue real inclusivity, we can check our biases: Are you referencing (whether actively or passively) norms of acceptance for different groups of people? Because this requires intentional inner reflection, these biases can be the hardest thing to admit and simultaneously the easiest to act upon. It’s inevitable that you are going to make mistakes, and it can be hard to swallow when you realize that you’ve unintentionally been using these norms — which are really microaggressions — at work.
And when you do reach this point, it is your responsibility to equip others with the same knowledge. Recognize that though you have this responsibility, that does not necessarily imply that it is your fault. What is your fault, though, is if you disregard the exclusive nature of your inclusion, especially if you are a people manager or the leader of a team. This knowledge is our tool for improving the world, transforming surface-level “inclusion” into real inclusivity. Take what you’ve learned and make it a goal to share it with anyone that you can, especially those who value your thoughts and opinions. Everyone has a platform to use for good.
Once you’ve shared the knowledge with those around you, continue your journey by modeling the behavior yourself. To truly empower others, you’ve got to actively foster an environment that is conducive to this type of learning. Once we are all equipped and empowered, we can and must hold each other accountable. These sound like big tasks, but if everyone works on small changes, together those can create large social change. You are part of that social change. Below we offer a few small changes you can make to pursue real inclusivity.
Personally, do you find yourself ignoring your own privilege because you know a diverse person or have a diverse friend? Can you acknowledge that if you are reading this, we have some sort of privilege? Can you move past feeling guilt and shame, focusing instead on responsibility? | https://medium.com/better-programming/is-your-inclusion-inclusive-9d065f544e66 | ['Deneisha Franklin'] | 2020-08-20 22:08:09.788000+00:00 | ['Diversity In Tech', 'Diversity And Inclusion', 'Diversity', 'Inclusion'] |
MyEarlyLearner — Connecting the dots for new parents | Expecting a child triggers many thoughts and feelings. Using the interviews, I was able to map out the parents journey and their feelings (see image above). By plotting the findings from the interviews, I was able to categorize the journey and use this mapping to identify opportunities that MyEarlyLearner might be able to fulfill. Going forward in the design process, I needed to focus on:
Being able to search and have a list of different media results related to that topic Building community for new parents to share experiences and understand they are not alone in their journey.
Trust the process! Putting ideas into a design.
Now that opportunities have been identified and we understand more about the user, our next step was to understand the competition. Examining what already exists in the early learning and parent support landscape will help us understand how to design a new app and build on what has worked and redesign what hasn’t. I brokedown 4 competitors and the features of their app and website to see how MyEarlyLearner might be able to incorporate and meet the needs of our users.
Vroom and GlowBaby were the two related to the topic of early learning and parent support. I wanted to incorporate activities and having a catered feed for users to find the information they need. Pinterest and WebMD were the non-related apps I reviewed and wanted to incorporate the self-selecting interests of the users to personalize their feed and the ability to save content so they can go back to it later or share with others
Glow Baby inspiration
Vroom Inspiration
Sketching out your ideas and vision really help imagine what the app will start to look like. This process allows you to mock up many different options of what each page will look like and imagine the user’s task flow. That is, determining the steps the user will take to complete a task within the app. Is it efficient? Are there any barriers? What is being left out?
Drawing out your user task flow and layering it with your sketches will help you make improvements before going further in the process. Staying true to your user journey and pulling out any information from your user research will serve you well here.
User Task Flow
Wireframing & Prototyping
Understanding the types of tasks users will be performing in the app and deciding on a design that will allow the appropriate features to be included, wireframes were created to turn the sketches into a real design.
Wireframe mock-up
Using the wireframes, we used a prototyping platform, Invision, to build in simple links of our app. We were able to incorporate all of the research and design we’ve done through this step.
Click here to try MyEarlyLearner
Usability Tests
Once I finalized the links and connected each wireframe to each other, it was time to let a potential user test whether app enables them to perform the tasks it was designed for. I tested with 3 potential users and 1 of them was also a participant in my user research. I developed a research plan with a script for the tests and had 2 tasks for them to complete.
The tasks were based on the user research and tested whether each page guided them to make the right decisions without instructors from me.
Research Plan
My main findings for the usability tests were:
Consistency is key. Limit the amount of times a user has to think by keeping consistency with button type and location. Use more text to briefly explain a task so there is no assumptions are made and to limit mistakes.
Next Steps
This process has really helped me understand the design process and I think new parents and caregivers will be able to find the information they need to help their children become successful. There are a few things I would like to do moving forward:
More usability testing — this will flush out additional features needed and also anticipate any needs that may not have come up in my initial research. More Competitive teardowns — Understanding the landscape of apps in early learning and parent support will lead to longer sustainability of MyEarlyLearner.
Parents and caregivers can never have enough support for themselves and their early learner. I hope this app helps to fill the information gap for new parents and results in more students becoming successful in the long term! | https://medium.com/@rnq/myearlylearner-connecting-the-dots-for-new-parents-8a66299d5cd1 | ['Ryan Quigtar'] | 2019-12-10 01:47:29.299000+00:00 | ['Early Childhood Education', 'Parenting Toddlers', 'Parenting Advice', 'UX', 'Parenting'] |
The Ugly Americans | My family and I visited Vieques for vacation last month. Vieques is a small island off the east coast of Puerto Rico. For many years it was essentially invisible to the world, as the island was a U.S. military base, and therefore not on most maps. Protests against the United States using the island as a bombing range and testing ground led the military to leave about 20 years ago. To this day, the scars of occupation remain, with rusted military vehicles still dotting the island, and whole sections still quarantined, waiting to be restored after ordinance and worse is removed. Estimates are that it will be decades before we return the island to its people.
But the island is stunning, with wild horses roaming everywhere, and beautiful beaches with vibrant reefs all but abandoned. The people — about 10,000 — are friendly and welcoming, as tourism has only slowly developed across the island, especially in the south.
And the people are striking as well in their vigilance against COVID. That makes sense: There is no real hospital on the island, and the disease would therefore be devastating to anyone who contracted it. Family members would have to move to the main island to support any sick family member. Most obviously could not afford that.
So everywhere, there are proud announcements about how effective the people have been in protecting the island against the virus. Reports are that there have been no cases so far. Every store has disinfectant available as you enter; most have an automatic thermometer measuring your temperature. And everyone wears masks everywhere — including outside, walking along the streets.
Except the American tourists. And ever wanting to believe in US, this just astonished me.
There is no ambiguity about the local rule. It is advertised everywhere, with a punch line at the bottom of every sign, “our house, our rules.” But many many tourists, presumptively American, refused to follow Vieques’ own rules. In one restaurant, my family had reluctantly decided to eat inside, as the space was not occupied and it was early. Everyone on the staff was wearing masks. For about 45 minutes, it felt very safe. But then about 10 Americans came inside, all standing around a bar, either trying to order food or find a place to sit. Only 2 wore masks. The rest, mainly men, but not exclusively, were almost proud in their defiance. “Screw you, Vieques. We own you. This is an American territory. We get to set the rules.”
When I was growing up, the “ugly American” meme felt like a fashion statement. We were loud, differently dressed; we stood out from the Italians or Parisians, because we looked and sounded so different. Now it feels like a moral statement. We act as if to declare, “We’re better than all of you, more powerful, more entitled.”
Such a declaration would be ugly enough even were it true. Are we really the last to recognize how obviously false it has become? | https://medium.com/@lessig/the-ugly-americans-6c62bc600dbc | [] | 2021-09-02 14:04:05.096000+00:00 | ['Vieques', 'Covid'] |
Sony Electric Car Concept | This Electric Car is named the Vision-S, Sony’s vision for the longer term. I think subsequent megatrends are going to be mobility. Mobility is defined as fundamentally changing the way we travel.
Sony claims its car can accelerate in 4.8 seconds. the highest speed of the Tesla ranges from 140 to 162 mph compared to Sony’s 149 mph. The Model 3 features a golf range of 267 to 360 miles. we do not yet skill far Sony’s Electric Car can go nor can we know what price it might be if it does continue sale at some point. If it’s costlier than the Model 3 and a comparison with the Model S is more appropriate, it does lag behind in acceleration and speed.
Sony took almost everyone all of sudden by unveiling an electrical car at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. This wasn’t just an idea, this was a prototype. The car is drivable. The team that built Aibo, Sony’s cute robotic dog, built the car with the assistance of the renowned Magna stayers which manufactures vehicles just like the Mercedes-Benz G-Class.
A car won’t just be how to urge from point a to point b. it is a piece of technology, an iPhone on wheels. The vehicle will be connected to the web or server. It knows the situation of the person it’s learning while the passenger also can follow the Electric Car along its route. The Sony Electric Car is full of Sony stuff.
Touch screen panoramic movies and music. Each seat has its speakers so you would not get to fight over what music to concentrate on. And if you’re listening through your earbuds before stepping into the Sony displays crammed with Sony-owned Electric Car, Sony envisions the music automatically transferring to the vehicle’s speakers.
Why Sony Built an Electric Car?
The idea is to form the ride as comfortable as time spent in your front room with the understanding that at some point, there won’t even be a driver. Electric Car are going to be autonomous. Sony’s isn’t yet fully autonomous but it’s an occupation that direction because of a whopping 33 sensors located both inside and out of doors.
According to the corporate, the autonomy level of Vision-S Electric Car is 2 or greater. the driving force remains on top of things but the vehicle is conscious of its surroundings. It can recognize when other obstacles are in its way before parking and know when to vary lanes while keeping a secure distance from other vehicles.
Electric Car Sensors can even read the driver’s facial expressions to measure levels of concentration and fatigue and send alerts if necessary. and therefore the temperature is going to be automatically adjusted to match the comfort level of individuals inside.
It does already dabble within the auto industry by supplying image sensors to companies like Toyota to assist with automatic emergency braking. Electric Car Sony hopes software updates will move its car up to a minimum of level four which suggests the vehicle does all the driving but only during a limited area.
The very best level is full self-driving Electric Car . The car performs all tasks under all circumstances. it is the same level Tesla aims to realize. | https://medium.com/@dheerajweb100/sony-electric-car-concept-db62904286b1 | ['Super Tech Universe'] | 2020-12-23 09:20:05.426000+00:00 | ['Elon Musk', 'News', 'Sony', 'Tesla', 'Cars'] |
The Police Called Breonna Taylor a ‘Soft Target.’ She Wasn’t the First. | The Police Called Breonna Taylor a ‘Soft Target.’ She Wasn’t the First.
Since before this country’s founding, Black women have been treated as vulnerable—and disposable
Protest signs in Brooklyn, New York on July 25, 2020. Photo: Ira L. Black — Corbis/Getty Images
12:38 a.m. was the last peaceful minute of Breonna Taylor’s life.
On March 13, 2020, at 12:38 a.m., Breonna Taylor and her partner, Kenneth Walker, were asleep in bed. At 12:39 a.m., officers beat on her door for approximately one minute. During that 59 seconds of banging, Taylor shouted at the top of her lungs: “Who is it?” But no one said a word. “No answer,” Walker said later in a police interrogation. “No response. No anything.” The boogeymen kept beating. At 12:40 a.m., Louisville Metro Police Department Officers Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison as well as Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly — all in plain clothes — shattered the forest green front door of Breonna Taylor’s apartment with a battering ram.
The police blindly shot over 20 rounds of bullets into Breonna’s home. Eight of those bullets found their way into Breonna’s Black body, killing her.
Roughly two weeks later, Mattingly spoke with Louisville Police internal investigators. During that conversation, he said that officers had been told that Taylor’s ground floor apartment was a “soft target” — and that Taylor too was a soft target because she “should be there alone.”
Soft target.
A soft target is a person, location, or thing that is deemed to be unprotected. Vulnerable. Powerless against military or terrorist attacks. Attacking soft targets is meant to “disrupt daily life, spread fear.” To destroy dignity. To ambush and bring unexpected carnage. In 1845, attacking soft targets is how J. Marion Sims, considered the father of modern gynecological studies, was permitted to experiment on enslaved Black women — without consent, without anesthesia, and without consideration of their humanity.
In 2015, attacking soft targets is what led to 13 Black women testifying against Daniel Holtzclaw, at the time a police officer in Oklahoma City. They spoke of how Holtzclaw targeted them during traffic stops and interrogations, forced them into sexual acts in his police car or in their homes. Holtzclaw “deliberately preyed on vulnerable Black women from low-income neighborhoods,” prosecutors said, while committing his acts of sexual terrorism. While 170 years separate the hellish acts of Sims and Holtzclaw, what bridges the gap in time — between those two men serially targeting Black women’s identities, dignities, and humanhood — is an unbroken history of war being waged on Black women’s entire selves.
Black women have always been exploited in America. Violated in America. Terrorized in America. Killed in America. The relationship between Black women and America was birthed in targeting and torture.
I cast my mind back to Malcolm X’s rebuking of this nation in 1962, when he said, “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.” It’s as if Brother Malcolm was talking about Breonna’s death before she was even born into this world. Before she was awakened by police pounding on her front door. Before she had a name that needed to be said. While Malcolm’s words may feel prophetic in their precision, they are not. They were painfully predictable. Malcolm lived, and died, in anti-Black America. He was a scholar of America’s history of anti-Blackness.
There has never been a period in the history of America where Black women’s bodies, hearts, minds, and beings have not been reduced to being treated as soft targets. Black women have always been exploited in America. Violated in America. Terrorized in America. Killed in America. The relationship between Black women and America was birthed in targeting and torture.
In antebellum America, White owners of enslaved African women raped them, freely and with legal impunity, often in front of their own families and fictive kin. In Jim Crow America, close to 200 Black women were murdered by lynch mobs in the American South, many having been raped before having their necks bound and burned by knotted nooses before being hanged to death.
Black women, too, were strange fruit.
Black women like Eliza Woods. Woods was a cook. A cook who, in 1866, was accused of poisoning a White woman to death by the woman’s husband. She was arrested and taken from the county jail by a lynch mob. She was stripped naked. She was hung from an elm tree in the courthouse yard. Her lifeless body was then riddled with bullets as over a thousand spectators watched.
In 1899, the husband admitted that he had poisoned his wife — not Woods.
Black women like Laura Nelson. Nelson allegedly shot a sheriff in 1911 to protect her 14-year-old son. A mob of White people seized Nelson and her son and lynched them both, hanging them from a bridge — but not before raping Laura Nelson first.
Elderly Black women like 93-year-old Pearlie Golden (2014), 92-year-old Kathryn Johnson (2006), 66-year-old Eleanor Bumpurs (1984), and 66-year-old Deborah Danner (2016) — all were in their homes and shot to death by the police. Michelle Cusseaux (2014) was 50. Kayla Moore (2013) was 41. Aura Rosser (2014) was 40. Tanisha Anderson (2014) and Natasha McKenna (2015) were 37. Alesia Thomas (2012) was 35. Miriam Carey (2013) was 34. Charleen Lyles (2017) was 30. India Kager (2015), Sandra Bland (2015), and Atatiana Jefferson (2019) were 28. Mya Hall (2015) was 27. Meagan Hockaday (2015) was 26. Shantel Davis (2012) and Korryn Gains (2016) were 23. Rakia Boyd (2012) and Gabriella Nevarez (2014) were 22. Janisha Fonville (2015) was 20.
The police did not give a damn about these women’s ages. They did not care if they had nearly lived for a century on this earth or if they were just a few years removed from their high school graduation. They killed them just the same. The police have shown that anybody, at any age, can be on the fatal end of their force, if you were born with Black skin.
Aiyana Mo’nay Stanley-Jones was only seven years old. On May 16, 2010, at 12:40 am, a Detroit Police Department special response team officer ended her life. Her last peaceful minutes in this world were spent sleeping on the couch near her grandmother. That’s before a no-knock warrant (at the wrong apartment) was executed. That’s before law enforcement threw a flash-bang grenade through her family’s front window. That’s before the grenade burned the blanket covering Aiyana’s body. That’s before the wooden front door exploded under the force of police boots. That’s before Officer Joseph Weekley fired a single shot that entered Aiyana’s head and exited through her neck — all while an A&E crew were filming an episode of the copaganda program The First 48.
There is no softer target in this world than a sleeping child.
Aiyana never had the chance to reach womanhood, but had she, her “soft target” status, both in perceived personhood and lived location, would have left her vulnerable to domestic anti-Black police terrorism attacks. The disturbing truth is that, as Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw notes, “about a third of women who are killed by police in the United States are Black, but Black women [in the UA] are less than ten percent of all women.” This speaks directly to the anti-Black police terrorism faced by Black women of all ages in America.
The devil is in the details. Look directly into the data, and see how many of the law enforcers who have killed Black women have been convicted of committing a crime. The American judicial system does not protect Black women. It too treats them as soft targets. The lack of Black women’s names being said in conversations surrounding anti-Black police terror speaks directly to their deaths and narratives as being deemed as unworthy of outrage. Of newsworthiness. Of action.
Breonna Taylor’s killers are free. Brett Hankison, Jonathan Mattingly, and Myles Cosgrove are walking the streets, free. Breonna was shot dead in her home in March, and now, in August, 143 days later, her killers are free. There is no justice to be had for Black women when the intersections of their Blackness, their class, and their gender mark their bodies, their homes, and their narratives as soft targets to be attacked with little to no consequences.
The politics of Black women being vulnerable to targeting predates America being a sovereign nation. It goes as far back as Virginia’s December 1662 decree stating that the children of enslaved Africans and Englishmen would be “held bond or free according to the condition of the mother.” That notion effectively incentivized sexual terror against Black women, Kali Nicole Gross writes, “as their offspring would swell planters’ coffers — a prospect boon to countless rapes and instances of forced breeding.” One must understand, when you witness Black women passionately protesting on behalf of Breonna Taylor, yes, it is a fight for Black women today, but it is also a part of the uninterrupted fight Black women have always faced in America — the fight against being casualties of “soft target” terrorist attacks. | https://level.medium.com/breonna-taylor-black-women-soft-targets-51285c8080c3 | ['Ameer Hasan Loggins'] | 2020-08-06 14:43:28.039000+00:00 | ['History', 'Breonna Taylor', 'Women', 'Police', 'Racism'] |
The Truth | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/catharsis-pub/the-truth-35917088377d | ['Priyanka Srivastava'] | 2020-12-17 08:11:47.710000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Truth', 'This Happened To Me', 'Poetry', 'Writing'] |
Hello World | Future Capital was launched with a core belief: the lack of diversity in business is not inevitable.
Earlier this year — fresh on the heels of a new, more virtual, way of working — we launched our first livestream, establishing our commitment to showcasing and promoting a new side of the decision making table. What followed was a series of discussions, events and learning experiences that validated that core belief on a consistent loop.
Since that first livestream, we’ve interviewed a dozen experts in startup investing, run 10 crash courses on venture funding, and closed multiple private investments; all of this has been done alongside leaders from a broad spectrum of diverse backgrounds.
A new look for the future | https://medium.com/@myfuturecapital/hello-world-d624163874e0 | ['Future Capital'] | 2020-12-03 21:38:29.449000+00:00 | ['Diversity In Leadership', 'Angel Investing', 'Diversity In Tech', 'Venture Capital'] |
A Debt Due to the Dead | These are just a few examples of modern cultures that take seriously the postmortem wishes of their loved ones (see additional articles below for more examples). For millennia humans have known and honored the fact that we would not be here at all if it was not for the people that came before us. Our families sacrificed and fought to make our existence not only possible, but had the hope it would be better than theirs.
Ever since I saw the movie I mentioned above, I have wondered, how much of a responsibility do we have to those that went before us? How many of our choices and our free will do we need to give up to show our appreciation to previous generations?
There are many areas of modern life that previous generations fought and sacrificed for their dependents to be able to fully live life as they imagined it. But what if we don’t want to live the life they saw for us? How much do we owe our families, our predecessors, the ones who went before us, for the freedoms we now have at their expense?
I am not sure of the answer to that question, though I do know that it should be decided on an individual basis. In my own life I try to honor the sacrifices of my ancestors, but not all of them. Some of them even contradict each other. Converting to Islam I am positive would not make my Christian ancestors happy.
Remaining true to the core of whom we are is important, even if it goes against our deceased family member’s wishes (or the living ones). But there are many small ways to honor those who went before. Finding a place for little traditions to achieve this helps keeps us connected to our foundation and reminds us how much we have been loved. | https://aninjusticemag.com/a-debt-due-to-the-dead-472f53e79cef | ['H F Sylaj'] | 2019-12-17 01:59:50.034000+00:00 | ['Death', 'Life Lessons', 'Self', 'Choices', 'Religion'] |
How to tweak your ad spend for better ROI | Is your ad strategy spend more to make more 💸? What you need to do is create super-relevant campaigns to target and convert more traffic.That’s where Unbounce comes in. Try it today and get 20% off your first 3 paid months.
As a marketer in ecommerce, you want to increase sales and average order value. You need to bring your products to market fast, showcase them in the best light, run effective promotions for sales and seasonal campaigns, and create multiple pages at any given time for different products and audiences. You also need the freedom to optimize pages on the go and gauge shopper interest before investing in new products.
Why Ecommerce Marketers Should Send Traffic to Landing Pages(Instead of Your Online Store)
Storefront Product Pages
Lack focus:
Distracting navigation, one-size-fits-all messaging, and competing calls to action can derail a shopper’s purchase momentum.
Can take too much time to update
Technical bottlenecks limit the ability to run store promotions especially quickly.
Make testing risky
Live store changes can be tricky and labor-intensive, increasing the time and effort needed to run experimental campaigns. Ecomm brands need a way to execute marketing campaigns faster.
Dedicated Landing Pages
Can convert up to 2X more visitors than online stores
Cut out distractions with focused messaging and a single call to action.
Are quick to create and customize
Landing pages can be launched fast for new products, sales, seasonal promotions, and experimentation.
Create a more targeted shopper experience
A landing page’s copy, design, and CTA can be easily customized to exactly match the ad or email a shopper arrived from.
Storefront Product Pages
Dedicated Landing Pages
Why Unbounce is the Most Powerful Choice for Ecommerce Brands
Drag-and-drop design Anyone can create beautiful, on-brand landing pages that showcase your product with high-resolution images, video backgrounds, and parallax scrolling.
Dynamic Text Replacement
Landing page copy can automatically match a shopper’s search terms to deliver the most relevant messaging.
100+ designer templates
High-converting templates can be easily customized to match your brand and publish pages even faster.
Ecommerce customization
Just a few lines of code can further customize pages with “Buy Now” buttons, review widgets, and more.
Promotional Sticky Bars Upsell, cross-sell, and put limited-time deals, discount codes, or new product promotions front and center.
Risk-free testing
Experimenting with new product ideas, messaging, and design is simple with built-in A/B Testing and AI-powered Unbounce Smart Traffic.
Granular targeting Popups can be added to any landing — or web — page to highlight specific promotions and build email lists for lookalike audiences.
Lightning-fast page load times Unbounce Speed Boost, Auto Image Optimizer, and AMP load product landing pages load before shoppers can even think to bounce.
Grab your free 14 day Trial | https://medium.com/@dreamstatedigital/how-to-tweak-your-ad-spend-for-better-roi-de54a167a650 | [] | 2020-11-18 21:57:56.004000+00:00 | ['Landing Pages', 'Small Business Marketing', 'Digital Marketing', 'PPC Marketing'] |
What Are the Benefits of Accessible Website Design? | It goes without saying that there are certain musts for any website that need to be followed: all the elements should be positioned nicely and logically, and the colour palette must be chosen carefully. Surely, content plays a significant role, too. But is that all? Surely not. There is one more significant aspect to take into account that you may not be even aware of. And this is web accessibility.
Web accessibility ensures that your website can be easily accessed by everyone regardless of any physical barriers. Furthermore, it allows for better and accurate navigation to people with temporary, situational, or conditional disabilities.
The Americans with Disabilities Act, also known as the ADA, was introduced in 1990. According to it, businesses have to provide accommodations for people with disabilities, which allows them to be treated equally. The ADA regulation extends to the online world as well, with the company website being no exception.
It’s important to correspond to web accessibility standards because it prevents you from costly lawsuits, raises awareness of your brand, and surely contributes to your passing the ADA compliance audit. And not only that: your accessible-to-everyone website demonstrates that your business is inclusive and attentive to your clients’ needs.
Now let’s dive into details and find out what particular benefits an ADA compliant website has to offer.
It improves your Search Engine Optimization
If your website complies with all the standards, be sure that search engines will definitely like it. An ADA compliant website is regarded as more competitive in the search engine results pages (SERPs). When you include some accessibility features in your website (like image alt texts, explanatory link text, captions and transcripts for videos), your Search Engine Optimization tends to improve. This often leads to a better user experience, which is also a crucial aspect to SEO.
It contributes to better market reach
Have you ever heard that inaccessible websites lose around 20% of potential clients? This gives some food for thought, really. Once you tick all the boxes in the ADA website compliance checklist and correspond to all the requirements, you can significantly increase your market penetration. What is more, it will also grant your website users an opportunity to explore your website content and make purchases. This, consequently, can boost your sales and increase your brand’s visibility.
It allows to avoid discrimination lawsuits
What can actually happen if you don’t make your website ADA compliant? You may believe it or not but you run all the chances of being involved in a lawsuit. There were more than 2,000 lawsuits in 2018 related to web accessibility, with the Domino’s case being the most publicized.
However, once your website is ADA compliant, there is nothing to be afraid of. That’s why it’s advisable to implement and follow the accessibility checklist right now.
Designing accessible websites is a bit lengthy process and requires relevant skills. But it’s essential to comply with the ADA requirements to protect yourself from costly litigation and attract a wider audience to your business. That’s why you can always turn to a company that provides web accessibility services to take care of your website. It will undoubtedly bring you a number of benefits including positive public perception. | https://medium.com/@elena_alehno/what-are-the-benefits-of-accessible-website-design-8ea61cf97017 | ['Elena Alehno'] | 2020-12-08 12:12:28.284000+00:00 | ['Web Design', 'Ada', 'Accessibility'] |
The Curé of Ars: His Early Life | The French word curé means a priest who is responsible for a parish, and it comes from the Latin root cura meaning “care, medical attendance, cure.”
St. Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney took his responsibility as a medical worker of the souls of Ars (a 200–300 person village) seriously, as is apparent by his many good works, constant prayer, and penance for any perceived mistakes he made when helping the people of Ars.
The Curé of Ars, as he was known in the 19th century, cured over 80,000 souls in his humble and simple way. And, in spite of all this, he lamented over the miracles that were showered upon him from God, because he saw them as a rebuke of his lack of faith in God.
In this article we will take a look at this humble saint’s life with the aim of giving us an example on which to model our own life. There will be source information later on in this article.
From Humble Beginnings
Jean-Baptiste-Marie-Vianney was born in 1786, and his younger years were filled with uncertainty, and revolution. Until 1799, when Napoleon Bonaparte assumed power, faithful Catholic churches were closed. Before that, beginning in 1790, the only ‘Catholic’ parishes which were allowed to publicly operate were ones who had sworn a civic oath which bound them to the newly established National French Church. Most truly Catholic clergy went into hiding, praying underground masses in private estates and homes. The Vianney family’s house was home for multiple undercover priests. In fact, Jean received the sacrament of penance for the first time in his house, at the age of eleven!
“I still remember it! It was at home, right beneath our clock!” — said by Catherine Lassagne; on the subject of Jean’s first confession; taken from The Remarkable Curé of Ars written by Michel De Saint Pierre (© 1963).
One of the few compromised priests who took the civic oath from Jean’s (or John, as he is known in America) parish: Father James Rey. The simple peasants of Dardilly, where Jean attended mass, attended Father James Rey’s masses without knowledge of the gravity of the terrible event that had happened until the Vianneys were warned against attending by some relatives. Soon after, the church was shunned, and, eventually, the church closed down.
Jean was raised on a small farm, and when he was seven he was given the traditional task of shepherding his father’s small assortment of cows and sheep in their pasture.
Jean also received the Eucharist for the first time at the age of 13, and it was also done in secret. This event was one of the happiest moments of his life. Jean had great faith in the Lord even from a young age, which was evident to others by his humility and fervent prayer.
School and Vocation
“If I were a priest,” he said, “I would want to win many souls!” — spoken by St. Jean-Baptiste-Marie-Vianney at the age of 17 to his mother. Taken from The Remarkable Curé of Ars written by Michel De Saint Pierre (© 1963).
Jean wished with all his heart to be a priest. He didn’t wish to be a famous priest, or even an exceptionally high-ranking priest but a simple parish priest.
Still, many things got in the way of this dream: Napoleon Bonaparte’s thirst for power, (which hasn’t become an obstacle yet, but will soon be) Jean’s great struggle with learning to read, let alone reading and speaking Latin, and his great fear of performing the office of a priest with insufficient vigour or giving a bad example. Another issue was that Jean didn’t know what his father, Matthew Vianney, would think of it. Jean was a valuable addition to his father’s farm, and it would be a sore loss indeed to lose him.
Jean’s fears about his father were realized when the idea of his priesthood was suggested. But eventually, after much pleading by his mother, and when he learned that Jean could be taught by Father Balley, a priest of great faith, Matthew Vianney, if reluctantly, allowed it. At first, Father Balley resisted the idea of teaching Jean because of his business, but, after questioning Jean Vianney, he could see that Jean was very holy, and readily agreed to take him in as a student.
Thus began Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney’s life as student.
A Deserter
When Father Balley interviewed Jean, he had found him to be extremely talented, thoughtful, and smart. But, there was one major trouble: Jean’s memory, or lack thereof. Jean struggled to memorize even the simplest things, which led him to struggle in multiple school subjects, but especially Latin!
Another discouraging factor to Jean about his schooling was that he was older than the other pupils, which, combined with his struggle memorizing Latin, led to insults made by the other students. This greatly discouraged Jean, so he exclaimed his desire to go home to his parents and farm. Father Balley saw Vianney’s potential, even if Jean couldn’t see it, so Father Balley did his best to convince Jean to stay.
“Let me go home to my parents!” — spoken by St. Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney to Father Balley. Taken from The Remarkable Curé of Ars written by Michel De Saint Pierre (© 1963).
The good Father convinced Jean to stay, by using terms which appealed to him.
Father Balley was very penitential and would do his best to mortify himself in every way possible. Vianney followed his mentor’s example as best he could, and was overjoyed at the thought of pleasing God through penance, fasting, and prayer.
Jean settled into a routine of school, doing his best to learn but kept experiencing “little progress” (25, The Remarkable Curé of Ars by Michel De Saint Pierre) and many setbacks.
Jean Marie Vianney became Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney when he was confirmed in 1807, because his confirmation saint was St John the Baptist. Earlier that year Napoleon had issued an order that able-bodied men of the correct age were to be conscripted into the military, but, luckily, Jean avoided the draft by virtue of his studying to become a priest.
Two years passed. And then, a gendarme showed up at the Vianney family’s house, and explained to them that Jean had to be conscripted, regardless of his studies. It truly was horrifying news for the Vianney’s, and especially for Jean-Baptiste-Marie himself!
Jean had weakened himself greatly because his frequent fasting and lack of sleep, so, soon after he joined the army, he ended up in bed, extremely sick.
Jean was ordered to regroup with the army in Spain, but he couldn’t because of his illness. But, after he recovered, he began the long, lonely journey to join his comrades in war.
On his way, a peasant man joined his side while walking, and said
“Come with me!” — quote from a stranger speaking to St. Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney Taken from The Remarkable Curé of Ars written by Michel De Saint Pierre (© 1963).
Our good and humble saint followed this stranger. This stranger finally asked him if he would like to desert from the army. Jean, taken by surprise, was at first hesitant because he knew of the punishments that could be inflicted upon a deserter’s family, but was reassured by the stranger, and eventually acquiesced.
Let us not see this action as sinful, or un-patriotic, for multiple reasons one of which being that it was an error on the part of the government to even send him, a man studying to be a priest, to the army anyway! Another reason was that after arriving in the village of Les Noës he went to the mayor, who reassured him that deserting was just fine, as far as he was concerned. In fact, the mayor was already housing deserters in his own house!
Jean Vianney found a home in Les Robins, a small area which couldn’t really be called a village, which was a short walk away from Les Noës. He was welcomed Claudine Fayot, a relative of the same mayor we met last paragraph.
The Vianney family was having a bad time back in Dardilly, and they were being threatened by the officers who searched for deserters.
But, finally, Jean’s long period in hiding ended when Napoleon issued a general amnesty to those who had deserted. Unfortunately, there was a caveat: Jean needed to find a replacement or he would still be seen as a deserter! Francis the Younger, a younger brother of Jean’s, volunteered to take his place and Jean returned to his home.
A Devastating Loss
Marie Vianney died on February 8th, 1811, a short time after Jean’s return. Jean loved his mother deeply, and felt the loss acutely. After this, he became more grave and serious, and more attached to God, having lost one of his greatest ties to earth.
Jean was welcomed back by Father Balley, and began his studies again. Thus began a long, arduous, and in some cases embarrassing process in which Jean studied for the priesthood.
But, it wasn’t all bad, and he spent this time growing, and growing, in the faith. Using his time for fasting and penance along with Father Balley.
Unfortunately, despite Father Balley’s great faith in Jean, Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney’s studies barely progressed.
One of Jean’s greatest struggles in life was dealing with despair, which he was tempted with at every turn. From his mother’s death, to his lack of progress in school, he began to despair that he would ever become a priest.
But Providence was indeed smiling upon Jean in the form of Father Courbon, who had the job of making the final decision on whether Jean should be ordained a priest. Knowing of Jean’s lack of knowledge in Latin, all Father Courbon asked about was his piety and virtue. Having learned that he was very pious, he readily sent him off to become a priest.
“Come now, don’t worry. You will be a priest some day.” — A voice Jean-Baptiste-Marie recounted having heard whispered in his ear. Taken from The Remarkable Curé of Ars written by Michel De Saint Pierre (© 1963).
Finally, at the age of 29 years, St. Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney was ordained a priest in 1815! He prepared to live a life of extreme piety, in which he would do his very best to become a saint.
Conclusion
This is the ending of part one of a two part series. The next section will detail his life as a priest, including his saintly later life. We shall conclude with a prayer Jean was used to praying:
I love You, O my God, and my only desire is to love You until the last breath of my life. I love You, O my infinitely lovable God, and I would rather die loving You, than live without loving You. I love You, Lord, and the only grace I ask is to love You eternally. My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love You, I want my heart to repeat it to You as often as I draw breath. — St John Vianney
Source Information
I used The Remarkable Curé of Ars by Michel De Saint Pierre as my primary source for this article. I highly recommend reading his researched biography of St. Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney. Any historical mistakes made are my own, and please make a comment if you notice any so they can be fixed. | https://medium.com/catholicism-coffee/the-cur-c3-a9-of-ars-his-early-life-catholicismcoffee-19a56211be45 | ['Xavier Rodriguez-Gould'] | 2021-01-20 14:57:31.820000+00:00 | ['Christianity', 'Jesus', 'Saint', 'Holiness', 'Catholic'] |
Structural Scaffolds for Citation Intent Classification in Scientific Publications | Source: Cohan et al. (2019)
Structural Scaffolds for Citation Intent Classification in Scientific Publications
This post is a paper summary highlighting the main ideas of the paper “Structural Scaffolds for Citation Intent Classification in Scientific Publications” by Cohan et al. (2019) arXiv Github
Introduction
Machine reading and automated analysis of scientific literature have increasingly become important due to information overload. Citations are typically used to measure the impact of scientific publications (Li and Ho, 2008)[1]. Citation Intent Classification is the task of identifying why an author cited another paper. The automatic identification of citation intent could also help users in doing research. FIGURE 1 shows an example of two citation intents. Some citations indicate direct use of a method, while others may acknowledge prior work or compare methods or results. Existing models are based on hand-engineered features, which may not sufficiently model signals in the text (e.g. linguistic patterns or cue phrases). Recent advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP) have introduced large, contextual representations that are obtained from textual data without the need for manual feature engineering. Cohan et al. (2019)[2] introduce a novel framework to include structural knowledge into citations as well as a new dataset of citation intents: SciCite.
Figure 1: Citation intent example. Source: Cohan et al. (2019)
Dataset
SciCite is five times larger, contains fewer but more general categories, and covers scientific literature from more general domains than existing datasets such as ACL-ARC (Jurgens et al., 2018)[3]. FIGURE 1 compares the datasets. The papers for SciCite were sampled from the Semantic Scholar corpus. The authors chose more general categories as some are very rare and would not have been enough for training. Citations were extracted using science-parse. The ACL-ARC dataset, which consists of Computational Linguistics papers, was annotated by domain experts in NLP. The training set for SciCite was crowdsourced using the Figure Eight platform, while the test set was annotated by an expert annotator.
Table 1: SciCite vs ACL-ARC. Source: Cohan et al. (2019)
Model
The proposed neural multitask framework consists of a main task (Citation intent) and two structural scaffolds, or auxiliary tasks: section title and citation worthiness. The input x is the set of tokens in the citation context, which are encoded by concatenating non-contextual word representations GloVe (Pennington et al., 2014)[4] with contextualized embeddings ELMo (Peters et al., 2018)[5] (Eq. 1).
Eq. 1
The encoded tokens then get fed into a bidirectional long short-term memory (Hochreiter and Schmidhuber, 1997)[6] network with hidden size d₂, which results in the contextual representation of each token w.r.t. the entire sequence (Eq. 2).
Eq. 2
Finally, an attention mechanism is added, which produces a vector representation of the input sequence (Eq. 3). w is a parameter served as the query vector for dot-product attention.
Eq. 3
The citation worthiness task is to predict whether a sentence needs a citation. The hypothesis is that language in sentences with citations is different from regular sentences in scientific work. Sentences with citations are positive samples and sentences without citation markers are negative samples. This task could also be used in a different setting (e.g. paper draft aid).
The section title task is to predict the title of the section in which the citation appears. The hypothesis here is that citation intent is relevant to its section. Contrary to the other tasks, the authors use a large number of scientific papers to generate the training data for this task.
In the multitask framework, a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) followed by a softmax layer is used for each task (Eq. 4). The class with the highest probability is then chosen.
Eq. 4
Figure 2 shows an overview of the proposed model.
Figure 2: Model overview. Source: Cohan et al. (2019)
Preprocessing
For the citation worthiness task, citation markers were removed in order for the model to not “cheat” by simply recognizing citations in sentences. For sentence title, citations and their contexts were sampled from the corpus. Section titles were normalized with regular expressions to the following general categories: introduction, related work, method, and experiments. Titles that did not map to these were removed. The table below shows the total number of instances for each of the datasets and tasks.
Experiments
The proposed model, trained with standard hyperparameters, is compared to a strong baseline and a state-of-the-art model. The first baseline is a BiLSTM with an attention mechanism (with and without using ELMo embeddings) that only optimizes for the citation intent classification task. This is meant to show if the structural scaffolds and contextual embeddings, in fact, improve performance. The second baseline is the model used by Jurgens et al. (2018)[3], which had the best-reported results on ACL-ARC. The authors incorporate a diverse set of features (e.g. pattern-based, topic-based, prototypical argument) and train a Random Forest classifier.
Results
The results on both the ACL-ARC (FIGURE 2) and SciCite (FIGURE 3) datasets indicate that the inclusion of structural scaffolds improves performance on all of the baselines. The performance differences for the respective datasets is partly due to the different dataset sizes. Each auxiliary task contributes slightly over the baseline, while the combination of both tasks shows a large improvement on ACL-ARC and a marginal improvement on SciCite. The addition of contextual embeddings further increases performance by about 5% macro F1 on both datasets (including on the baselines).
Table 2: Results on ACL-ARC. Source: Cohan et al. (2019)
Table 3: Results on ACL-ARC. Source: Cohan et al. (2019)
Figure 3 shows an example sentence from ACL-ARC for which the correct label is Future Work. The best-proposed model predicts this correctly, attending over more of the context, while the baseline predicts Compare. The attention is stronger on “compare” for the baseline, ignoring the context of its use.
Figure 3: Example from ACL-ARC. Source: Cohan et al. (2019)
When looking at each of the categories independently, categories with more instances show higher F1 scores on both datasets (FIGURES 4 and 5). Recall seems to suffer from a limited number of training instances.
Table 4: Per category classification results on ACL-ARC. Source: Cohan et al. (2019)
Because the categories in SciCite are more general, there are more training instances for each. The recall on this dataset is accordingly higher.
Table 5: Per category classification results on SciCite. Source: Cohan et al. (2019)
Conclusion
Cohan et al. (2019)[2] show that structural properties of scientific literature can be useful for citation intent classification. The authors argue that relevant auxiliary tasks can help improve performance in multitask learning. The main contributions of this work are the following:
(i) A new scaffold framework for citation intent classification.
(ii) A new state-of-the-art of 67.9% F1 on ACL-ARC (an increase of 13.3%).
(iii) A new dataset of citation intents: SciCite.
Future Work
While the current work uses ELMo, Beltagy et al. (2019)[7] show that incorporating BERT, a large pre-trained language model, which they fine-tuned on scientific data, increases performance further. A possible extension could be to adapt the model to other domains (e.g. Wikipedia).
Further reading
SciBERT: A Pretrained Language Model for Scientific Text — Beltagy et al., 2019
ScispaCy: Fast and Robust Models for Biomedical Natural Language Processing — Neumann et al., 2019
Original post here.
References
[1]: Zhi Li and Yuh-Shan Ho. 2008. Use of citation per publication as an indicator to evaluate contingent valuation research. Scientometrics.
[2]: Arman Cohan, Waleed Ammar, Madeleine van Zuylen, and Field Cady. 2019. Structural scaffolds for citation intent classification in scientific publications. In NAACL-HLT, pages 3586–3596, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Association for Computational Linguistics.
[3]: David Jurgens, Srijan Kumar, Raine Hoover, Dan McFarland, and Dan Jurafsky. 2018. Measuring the evolution of a scientific field through citation frames. TACL, 6:391–406.
[4]: Jeffrey Pennington, Richard Socher, and Christopher Manning. 2014. Glove: Global vectors for word representation. In EMNLP, pages 1532–1543.
[5]: Matthew E. Peters, Mark Neumann, Mohit Iyyer, Matt Gardner, Christopher Clark, Kenton Lee, and Luke S. Zettlemoyer. 2018. Deep contextualized word representations. In NAACL-HLT.
[6]: Sepp Hochreiter and Jurgen Schmidhuber. 1997. Long short-term memory. Neural Computation.
[7]: Iz Beltagy, Arman Cohan, and Kyle Lo. 2019. SciBERT: A Pretrained Language Model for Scientific Text. CoRR, abs/1903.10676. | https://medium.com/dair-ai/structural-scaffolds-for-citation-intent-classification-in-scientific-publications-e5acd2f0ebf9 | ['Tornike Tsereteli'] | 2020-11-11 08:56:55.535000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Technology', 'Machine Learning', 'Deep Learning', 'NLP'] |
10 Best leading Universities for Quantum Computing Research | Learn more about the top universities that specialize in Quantum Computing Research
Quantum Computing has the potential to transform computation by solving certain types of obstinate issues. Only a few companies and start-ups have access to quantum computers that are composed of many tens of thousands of qubits. Some of these computers can be accessed through the cloud.
Quantum computers use quantum to process information in a completely different way from traditional computers. Quantum computers transmute information using qubits (quantum bits), which can be either one or zero, unlike traditional computers that work on binary bits.
In just a few short years, quantum information theory was combined with quantum computing they have evolved from a partial subject into a full class with well-funded programs, which takes place at quantum centers and institutes at top universities.
Google, Microsoft, and IBM continue to invest heavily in quantum computing because they believe it will transform our world by solving problems that traditional computers cannot.
10 Best leading Universities for Quantum Computing Research
1. The Institute for Quantum Computing- University of Waterloo-
Canadian University, University of Waterloo started offering quantum computing classes such as cat adoption agencies and adoption applications. Mike Lazaridis (creator of BlackBerry), funded the institute.
The quantum computing powerhouse employed 296 researchers. It has published over 1500 research papers since its inception. This institute’s strength is its ability to combine academic excellence with entrepreneurial innovation to bring about technology.
2. The University of Oxford-
This university says they are focusing their research on quantum computing because of its huge potential. It has the potential for transforming different areas such as finance, security, and healthcare.
David Deutsch, the university’s founder, first described universal quantum back in 1985. Oxford and the University of York were the first to demonstrate NMR quantum computers. The university remains one of the most prestigious universities in quantum computing.
Also read: Top 10 Best Artificial Intelligence Software
3. Harvard University — Harvard Quantum Initiative-
The mission of Harvard University is to help architects and researchers to investigate and recognize better approaches to change quantum hypothesis into a valuable framework and gadget.
The people group of analysts in the university has a distinct fascination for propelling designing and study of quantum frameworks and applications.
4. MIT — Centre for Theoretical Physics-
MIT is an exploration leviathan establishment. It has a high expanded arrive at that centers profoundly around quantum computing and quantum data. The strength of the university’s hypothetical material science is presently applied to quantum data and quantum computing.
MIT specialists additionally investigate regions like quantum calculations, Quantum data hypothesis, estimation and control, applications, and associations.
Also read: The Top 10 Digital Process Automation (DPA) Tools
5. The National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University — Centre for Quantum Technologies-
The university community was established to connect together physicists, specialists, and PC researchers to explore on fundamentals of quantum physical science and to develop gadgets dependent on quantum marvels.
The scientists and specialists of quantum innovation are inferring their revelations in detecting, correspondences, and computing.
6. The University of California Berkeley-
The Berkeley Center for Quantum Computation and Information includes analysts from the schools of Engineering, Chemistry, and Physical Sciences.
These analysts work on head and central issues in quantum gadgets, quantum cryptography, quantum data hypothesis, quantum calculations, quantum control, and the trial acknowledgment of quantum PCs.
7. University of Maryland — Joint Quantum Institute-
The Joint Quantum Institute includes quantum researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Department of Physics of the University of Maryland (UMD), and the Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS). Every one of these organizations brings major hypothetical and exploratory examination programs with a devotion to control and send the quantum framework.
Also read: Top 6 Tips to Stay Focused on Your Financial Goals
8. University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) — Division of Quantum Physics and Quantum Information-
The Division of Quantum Physics and Quantum Information centers around the field of quantum data and quantum optics. The division for the most part coordinates towards fiber-based quantum correspondence, quantum memory, and quantum repeater, free-space quantum correspondence, quantum establishment, superconducting quantum computing, optical quantum computing, quantum reenactment with ultracold molecules, quantum metrology, and related hypotheses. Progressed test stages are worked by analysts to lead state-of-the-art research.
9. The University of Chicago — Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE)-
The Chicago Quantum Exchange is a focal point of analysts showing distinct fascination for modern endeavors and propelling scholastics in the designing and study of quantum data and computing. The goal of the middle is to advance the ID and investigation of quantum data and computing advances and furthermore the improvement of new applications.
The prevalent objective is to apply research advancements to foster drastically new sorts of gadgets, materials, and computing strategies.
Also read: How to Calculate Your Body Temperature with an iPhone Using Smart Thermometer
10. University of Sydney — Australia-
The University of Sydney quantum science bunch accentuates coordinating to the most difficult issues of quantum computing and applying these bits of knowledge to develop new advancements. The scientific searches of the university are locked in with profound modern and enterprising exercises.
The exercises associated with the university range from quantum data and quantum computing, major physical science to innovation advancement.
Originally published at https://www.the-next-tech.com on July 7, 2021. | https://medium.com/@thenexttech/10-best-leading-universities-for-quantum-computing-research-f9a7a1139d5b | ['The Next Tech'] | 2021-07-08 04:20:19.757000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'Quantum Computing', 'Research', 'Technology News', 'Universities'] |
Deflect/SuperFly Partnership | Deflect/SuperFly Partnership
SuperFly is now around 7 days old. And what a 7days it has been. We have grown further, faster and better than we could ever imagined and it is all down to our incredible community! You make us want to work hard
As if our amazing partnership with FirestarterNFT was not awesome enough news this past week we have also partnered with Deflect Protocol to bring even more value to our incredible community!
This will bring more cross platform staking opportunities that will reward liquidity providers and help solve one of the biggest hurdles that we face as a project which is our low liquidity. We will be releasing more detailed information on this in the coming days. But in the meantime check them out!
Thank you for an incredible first week!
Lets make the next few weeks just as incredible! | https://medium.com/@superflyteam/deflect-superfly-partnership-634adf62bad1 | [] | 2020-12-23 23:55:02.568000+00:00 | ['Superfly', 'Ethereum', 'Defi', 'Eth', 'Crypto'] |
Pond Stewardship for Catching Fish | Here at the Shepherd Research Center, we have a lake with very high fish productivity. It’s called Fish Fry Lake, and it lives up to its name. Amazingly, when we moved here, this water was so nutrient-saturated that its dissolved oxygen levels were only about one third of what Cutthroat require to survive. Today Cutthroat are doing well, despite our being located thirty miles east of Billings, out on the plains, where water can get very warm in the summer.
Our friends come help us harvest the phosphorus out of Fish Fry Lake.
Two Minutes per Fish
On our small research lake, Fish Fry Lake, which is 54 acre-feet of water, we harvest at least 6,000 fish annually, a mix of panfish and larger fish. We do this to cycle inflow phosphorus out of the water, to prevent HABs (harmful algae blooms). The fish are accumulators of phosphorus so we take them out of the system. It’s much more pleasant to catch panfish fish than it is to harvest aquatic vegetation, by the way!
We trade nutrients for fish, feeding the fish instead of algae.
We target one- and two-year old bluegill, sunfish, and largemouth bass. These guys readily hit flies, and flies dressed up with a bit of GULP too. Again, goal is to harvest and remove phosphorus.
Success looks like fifteen kids catching 879 fish in four hours, or ten kids catching 634 fish in the same time, on different days, but similar settings. We catch all of these fish from shore or from walkable BioHaven floating islands, so we don’t need boats. In other words, the logistics are relatively simple.
We take the “keepers”, the one- and two-year old fish, and run the entire fish — including scales and guts — through a Kitchen-Aid grinder, turning it into fish hamburger. Yes, we have to cut the fish into grinder-size pieces, so there is an “operation” involved. Then we blend the fish burger with our wild game…which includes venison and elk trim, goose, duck, pheasant, and any other freezer burned game meat.
I tell you what, the result is a paleo food for our three canines that is “off the chart” from their perspective! They love it! This includes a seven-week-old yellow lab! Which makes me think, what the hell do they add to the kibble that currently functions as mainstay food for our beloved pets? I don’t care if it’s “made in China” or what, regular kibbles are a mystery. Anymore, it’s hard to convince our canines that kibbles are “food”!
Swapping Computer Screens for Fishing Poles
Another thing that’s amazing to me is that so many young people are no longer in touch with fishing. So many kids have never been fishing, and even fewer have caught fish. Still fewer know how to clean fish. Still fewer know how to fillet fish. But rest assured, lots of kids have experienced “all of the above” here at Fish Fry Lake. Maybe a little fish slime on their computer keyboards isn’t a bad thing!
One of our young friends trying figuring out a rod and reel.
What about you? Do you take your kids fishing? Have you tried living on a paleo diet? | https://medium.com/@brucekania/pond-stewardship-for-catching-fish-7f2445d6c0a7 | ['Bruce Kania'] | 2020-12-18 22:58:19.992000+00:00 | ['Water', 'Lake', 'Paleo', 'Fishing', 'Climate Change'] |
This Past Decade in Education Reform | This article serves as a reflection on the education reform journey AoA has taken over the years. I believe I started writing on Medium in 2014 or 2015 and started this publication around 2015. So it has been a while of managing, editing, and curating these amazing articles that get sent to me. I am so grateful for all of the awesome people I have met along the way. It wasn’t a full decade to reflect on but we are excited to start this new decade with an open-mind.
This is a collection of some of the most popular articles featured in AoA over the past 5+ years. These articles show how we struggle with school and its systems but also want to so badly change these systems for the better. These stories help highlight how we want to push for positive change with social justice, environmentalism, and STEM education as our base.
These stories help show how we are striving for ways to improve the way we learn, improve the systems in which we learn in, and how we take a hard look at the faults in our systems. These past 5+ years have shown us that there are so many different ways to learn, that learning never does stop, and that learning how to learn is often overlooked.
This past year especially has highlighted many faults in our systems. The pandemic really put schools and education under the microscope. It has exposed the racist roots and aspects of our systems. It has highlighted the opportunity inequality between many school districts and states. It has highlighted the grievances of parents that have been ignored for too long. And now it is helping lead us to solutions for all, not just for some.
This next decade, AoA wants to keep in mind these grievances and issues and push for solutions in education reform. We want to help unite the ideas and movements that are shaping the world of learning for the better. The following are some of the articles from the past 5 years that help highlight education and its reform, as seen through the eyes of AoA:
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
We hope you enjoyed reading (or rereading) some of the articles listed above. We invite you to check out some of the other works and authors on Age of Awareness and to keep up with our efforts in 2021 (and beyond). | https://s-muskett.medium.com/this-past-decade-in-education-reform-f5037465b507 | ['Stephen Muskett'] | 2020-12-18 17:36:32.390000+00:00 | ['Teaching', 'Learning', 'Education Reform', 'Education', 'Schools'] |
President-elect Joe Biden and his better half, Jill Biden, will get their first portion of Covid immunization on Monday, a progress official said. | VP choose Kamala Harris and her significant other, Doug Emhoff, will get their first shots the next week.
Biden has said he would accept the immunization when was suitable and that he would do as such out in the open to raise trust and mindfulness.
VP Mike Pence and his better half, Karen, were inoculated prior Friday, as was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Government authorities are among the first to get the shots as a component of longstanding designs to ensure congruity of government.
Late surveys have indicated that trust in the antibody is expanding yet that numerous Americans actually harbor questions.
President Donald Trump has said he will take the antibody, however hasn't said when. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Tuesday declined to set a course of events, or to focus on him getting it while still in office.
On Thursday, the change reported that Representative Cedric Richmond, who has been named one of Biden's White House helpers, has tried positive for Covid, turning into the primary known contamination among the duly elected president's senior counsels.
Biden was tried after Richmond’s contamination was known, and the president-electetried negative for Covid-19 on Thursday. The progress group said Biden didn’t have "close contact" as characterized by the U.S. Places for Disease Control when they showed up together at a mission occasion Tuesday in Georgia, Biden representative Kate Bedingfield said in an articulation. | https://medium.com/@pinkiinki97/president-elect-joe-biden-and-his-better-half-jill-biden-will-get-their-first-portion-of-covid-41d627c27c2a | ['Inki Pinki'] | 2020-12-21 14:32:13.573000+00:00 | ['Trump', 'Covid 19', 'America', 'Joe', 'President'] |
Should High School Students Get Jobs? | Many children cannot wait to grow up, and they often dream of the adult-like things that they will do. They dream of becoming someone important, having a cool job, or even raising kids of their own. When they become teenagers, they soon forget those dreams of becoming an adult and often put off the responsibilities they need to take in order to become an adult. Becoming an adult is a very important time in a teenager’s life, and getting a job while in high school will be one of the best ways to prepare them for their soon-to-be adult life. High school students should get a job because it will teach them the value of money, will give them a genuine work ethic, and will teach them money-management skills.
Having a job will teach teens the value of a dollar
First, high school students should get a job because it will teach them the value of a dollar. To start, having a job will allow students to comprehend and experience the value of money. Teenagers need to know the significance of money because they need to know how to spend it, how to save it, and how to properly use the money they’ve earned, like spending their money on school supplies instead of video games or food they don’t need. Furthermore, without knowing the value of a dollar, high school students will become careless with their money, which will become a terrible habit in their later adult years. Carelessly spending money will become an immense problem in their adult and teen life, and a teenager who spends money irresponsibly can look to a life of overdue bills, poverty, and even starvation because they don’t have enough money for food. Therefore, not having a job will have high school students rely upon other’s money. Having to rely on someone else’s money will never allow them to rely on what comes out of their own pocket. In doing so, they will also be placing a burden on all who have to help pay for the things in their life because they might feel obligated to due to the fact that they can’t pay for anything themselves. High school students ought to find a job because it will show them the worth of cash.
Having a job will teach teens to have a genuine work-ethic
Next, high school students should get a job because it will give them a genuine work ethic. Namely, having a genuine work ethic will teach high school students responsibility. According to Verywell, “[responsibility] will help [a teen] become a proactive adult who is invested in solving problems and supporting others” (https://www.verywellfamily.com/raising-a-teen-to-become-a-responsible-adult-4092353). Having responsibility will play a very important role in a teen becoming an adult because it will teach them dependability, will earn them trust, have them learn to be accountable for their actions, and will teach them to do right when others aren’t there. Along with that, having a genuine work ethic will give them the integrity to do what is needed when it needs to be done. Integrity — having enough character and responsibility to do right, even when no one is there — will have teenagers being trusted in their workplace, which will have them being trusted in their adult life because they will not steal, they will work with others, they will put others before themselves, and they will get things done on time. Also, having a genuine work ethic will have them get what they need to do done punctually. Being able to get tasks done in a timely manner will have them be able to manage their time, which will come with being an employee. Without having any sense of time, no one will want to hire them; and learning time-managing skills, while at a young age, will be very important in their adult years. High school students ought to find a job because it will give them a reliable hard-working attitude.
Having a job will teach teens how to manage their money
Finally, high school students should get a job because it will teach them money-management skills. For instance, when they have a job, they will need to be able to handle that money correctly by creating a budget. Being able to budget their money at a young age will significantly help them in their adult life because they will know how to save and spend their money on and for the right things. Even more, having money-managing skills will have them carefully choose where their money goes; they will save some money for spending while also saving some for college, insurance, and gas money. This is also a result of budgeting because they will separate their money into groups of spending and saving as well as saving extra for anything unexpected that might come along in their life. Therefore, having money-managing skills will help them to avoid financial trouble; if any trouble comes, they will be prepared because they have saved money for it. This includes car wrecks, unexpected travel, or anything else that will come along their path in adulthood. High school students should find a job since it will have them learn good skills with money.
Ultimately, learning the estimation of cash, acquiring a hard-working attitude, and understanding good skills with money is why a high school student should get a job. First, high school students ought to get a job because it will teach them the value of money which will have them experience the value of money, will have them avoid carelessly using their money, and will have them learn to rely on their own money. Next, high school students ought to get a job because it will give them a hard-working attitude which will teach them liability, will teach them to do what is right, no matter the circumstance, and will teach them to get their jobs done in a timely manner. Lastly, high school students ought to get a job because it will teach them how to manage their money which will teach them to budget their money, will teach them to make the right decisions with their money, and will teach them to be prepared for anything unexpected. Becoming an adult is a learning experience, and being prepared in their teen years by learning many great skills by having a job will make it all the easier. | https://medium.com/@themarianconnolly/should-high-school-students-get-jobs-be0434e22c4b | ['Marian Connolly'] | 2020-12-02 00:26:35.300000+00:00 | ['High School', 'Teen Job', 'Work Life Balance', 'Responsibility', 'High School Life'] |
Python Algorithms: Balanced Logic Brackets | Python Algorithms: Balanced Logic Brackets
At Least One in Many
An OR logic gate. Arturo Urquizo assumed (based on copyright claims). / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
Python with its highly readable syntax is perfect for solving analytical problems, especially if they are unlikely to become more complicated with scale.
One of the recent problems that I completed recently was a coding challenge that required me to write a short program to evaluate if a mathematical formula or has valid brackets. So, if we strip out all the variables and operator to leave just the brackets, they should balance properly without any unclosed bracket encased in another bracket. For instance, {[()]} and [(){}<>] would be considered valid but [(]) would not.
The Edabit challenge that inspired this post is here, so if you want to attempt to solve the problem on your own, do not read any further.
The function accepts a mathematical formula in the form of a string as input. We call it s. In the example below, there are four possible types of brackets — (), [], {}, and <>.
First, we filter out the rest of the characters since we are solely interested in the brackets. More accurately, we are interested in the individual characters that make up the brackets, which fit into the string ‘()[]{}<>’.
A key observation for any valid permutation of brackets is that we would always be able to remove a complete set of brackets in each iteration. These would be the same as removing substrings representing the individual pairs of brackets within the formula. For example, we could remove the substring representing () followed by [] in [()], ()[], and []().
Since we are unsure what brackets are in the example and in what order they should be removed, we write a general boolean while test that cycles through all four possibilities. As long as at least one of the bracket types appear as a substring within the formula, we would keep searching through the possibilities and remove valid brackets. As we continue looping, the formula string would progressively collapse and shorten, exposing yet more valid pairs.
A formula with valid brackets would eventually be completely collapsed into an empty string.
To illustrate, imagine we wanted to figure out if the formula below is valid?
‘[(x + y * ( <a> — <b>))]’
We feed it through the function, and this is what happens to the formula:
[(x + y * ( <a> - <b>))]
[((<><>))]
[(())]
[()]
[]
# empty!
The last row in the example above is empty — which is done on purpose as this would mean that the formula has a valid arrangement of brackets. In fact, we could set the boolean statement — of the length of the remaining formula is 0 — as the return value.
What if we meddled with the formula and introduced inconsistencies into it?
‘[(x + y * {( <a}> — <b>))]’
We feed the altered formula above into the function and we get:
[(x + y * {( <a}> - <b>))]
[({(<}><>))]
[({(<}>))] # while loop terminates here
The while test fails to detect a proper pair of brackets in the remaining formula and promptly terminates. Since the length of the remaining formula is more than 0, we determine that the formula does not contain valid brackets by returning False.
I found this challenge inspiring as I was agonising over how to keep the program looping as long as there is one valid pair of brackets. There were four possibilities, but only one is needed.
After some thought, I found the solution in embedding a list or generator using comprehension — with the for loop to cycle through each bracket type, checking if the bracket pair is in the formula — into the any function, which only requires one true case to return true overall. Grasping this mechanism was key to solving the problem. | https://medium.com/python-in-plain-english/at-least-one-in-many-fa220ce55082 | ['Kelvin Tan'] | 2020-09-29 07:18:04.079000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Python3', 'Logic', 'Python', 'Algorithms'] |
Rockset’s RocksDB-Cloud Library — Enabling the Next Generation of Cloud Native Databases | Authored by David Cohen
Rockset and I began collaborating in 2016 due to my interest in their RocksDB-Cloud open-source key-value store. This post is primarily about the RocksDB-Cloud software, which Rockset open-sourced in 2016, rather than Rockset’s newly launched cloud service. In it, I will explore how RocksDB-Cloud can be used to build an open-source cloud-friendly storage system.
Rockset’s emergence from stealth mode deserves some reflection on a key observation underlying their platform: there are a core set of services common to offerings across the largest public Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). Two in particular, REST-based Object Storage (e.g. Amazon S3) and Event Streams (e.g. Amazon Kinesis), are used to compose other services, serving as a shared storage service for these caching systems. Rockset’s open-source RocksDB-Cloud library provides an interesting illustration on how existing caching systems can be adapted for the cloud.
What is meant by a “caching system?” This is a system that manages its state across main memory and primary storage. RocksDB employs an implementation of the Log Structured Merge Tree (LSM-Tree) to achieve this goal. Underlying the LSM-Tree is a rule of thumb that has held for over 30 years. The “Five-Minute Rule” captures succinctly the inherent economic trade-off between memory and storage in data store design (Appuswamy/ADMS@VLDB 2017). What’s unique about RocksDB-Cloud’s vision is how this trade-off is adapted to the cloud.
A Cloud Native Database (CNDB) is a local database system built specifically for the cloud era. Such a database is designed to take full advantage of the abundance of networking, processing, and storage resources available in the cloud. To this end, a CNDB maintains a consistent image of the database — data, indexes, and transaction log — across cloud storage volumes to meet user objectives, and harnesses remote CPU workers to perform critical background work such as compaction and migration.
How does a database system designed to operate on a local host get refactored so that a consistent image of its state resides on Cloud Storage? The answer is twofold. First, the database must be a caching system as opposed to a memory system. Caching systems maintain the full image of the database on local persistent storage while only the active state is in memory. Once identified, the transformation of such a caching system to a CNDB requires that this persistent state be mapped on to Cloud Storage constructs so that it can be accessed by remote workers.
The persistent state of a caching system consists of point-in-time snapshots, metadata/primarily DDL, and the transaction log. One stipulation, however, is that the caching system must do “blind updates.” That is to say all mutations applied to the database must be appended to the log. Indexing schemes are then employed to manifest the current image of the database from within the local host’s memory.
The RocksDB library provides the means of building such caching systems (Lomet/DaMoN18). For example, Facebook deploys MySQL configured to use the MyRocks storage engine, which internally uses the RocksDB library. RocksDB implements the Log Structured Merge Tree (LSM-Tree). This means all mutations are appended to the Write-Ahead Log (WAL) and then applied to in-memory mem-tables. Over time these mem-tables become immutable, are flushed to sstable files, and subsequently, the associated resources freed. Transforming MySQL w/MyRocks into a CNDB is therefore a function of mapping the WAL and sstable files on to the appropriate Cloud Storage constructs.
Enter Rockset’s RocksDB-Cloud library, an extension of RocksDB that maps local sstable files on to an S3-style bucket and WAL entries on to a Cloud Native Log such as a Kafka or Kinesis Partition. Intel has been collaborating with several end-customers and the Rockset team to enable this deployment scenario. Thus far we’ve successfully enabled the database to operate with MariaDB configured to maintain its sstable files locally and in a Minio-based S3 bucket. The WAL is configured to be local. We rely on the MariaDB instances binlog for maintaining the current a database’s change-state.
Rockset also uses RocksDB-Cloud as the foundation for its own cloud service. The Rockset service is a serverless search and analytics CNDB that indexes semi-structured documents using RocksDB-Cloud. RocksDB-Cloud is a great addition to the arsenal of data tools that the open-source community can leverage to build other CNDBs as well.
What is Intel’s interest in enabling Next-Gen CNDBs? Intel’s anticipated introduction of Optane DC Persistent Memory will afford the database ecosystem the opportunity to revisit trade-off orthodoxy that has held for generations. One trade-off that will remain, however, is the Five-Minute Rule (Appuswamy/ADMS@VLDB 2017). The cache system model of CNDBs is the embodiment of this trade-off. We therefore believe CNDBs provide the foundation for wide-spread adoption of Intel’s Persistent Memory over time. Storage engines that use the RocksDB-Cloud library to incorporate Intel’s Optane DC Persistent Memory into RocksDB’s cache substrate is a big step in this direction.
References
(1) Barr, “New — Parallel Query for Amazon Aurora,” 2018 https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-parallel-query-for-amazon-aurora/
(2) Lomet, “Cost Performance in Modern Data Stores: How Data Caching Systems Succeed,” 2018 https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3211927
(3) Wu et al, “Eliminating Boundaries in Cloud Storage with Anna,” 2018 https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.00089
(4) Arpaci-Dusseau, “Cloud-Native File Systems,” 2018 https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/hotcloud18/hotcloud18-paper-arpaci-dusseau.pdf
(5) Borthakur, “The birth of RocksDB-Cloud,” 2017 http://rocksdb.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-birth-of-rocksdb-cloud.html
(6) Appuswamy et al, “The five-minute rule thirty years later,” 2017 http://www.adms-conf.org/2017/camera-ready/5minute-rule.pdf | https://medium.com/rocksetcloud/rocksets-rocksdb-cloud-library-enabling-the-next-generation-of-cloud-native-databases-fb6a5aef9659 | ['Shawn Adams'] | 2019-07-30 20:12:46.310000+00:00 | ['Database', 'Rocksdb', 'Cloud Storage', 'Data', 'Cloud Computing'] |
Spin me a story | Today is the Full Moon. Naturally, this means I am going to spin you a story, Dear Reader:
He awakens to the sounds of the vacuum. The humming and whirring that he hears in his memories. The day feels off to him. This day feels different. The day starts different, even though it all looks the same. There is a certain abruptness to it. It is as if the night ended with the snap of fingers attached to the hands of mythical things. He wasn’t a big believer in things that weren’t solid. He didn’t waste his time or his mind on things that he couldn’t touch. He lived in the present. He believed in what he could see and what he could prove, but today starts different. Today, he woke up and he thought about her.
She awakens to the sounds of motorcycles. The humming and whirring that she hears in her memories. The day feels bright to her. This day feels different. The day starts different, even though it looks the same. There is a certain certainty to it. It is as if the night ended with the snap of fingers attached to the hands of mythical things. She believed in the magic the universe may hold. She spent time exploring her mind and feeling what this energy might be telling her. She lived in her dreams. She manifests a day filled with possibilities, but today starts different. Today, she woke up and she thought about him.
He rolls out of bed and he looks at the time. It is 8:34am. He wonders if he even wants to bother going in to work today. It is Friday and today he just doesn’t feel like going through the motions. The days have been long and there are other things on his mind lately. He wants something different, and today looks a lot like all of the others. He decides he might as well get it over with. After all, it is just one more day until he can be free of this place until Monday. One more little box to check off on his calendar until something will change. The monotony of the work week bores him now, and he feels like he has more important work to do. Sometimes, this worries him. He was sure this was what he wanted, but lately, he isn’t as sure of it as he use to be. He sighs and he stands up and begins to go through the motions. He gets ready nonchalantly and without much effort. There is no one to impress. No one is going to notice if he doesn’t comb his hair today. It is Friday, and no one ever notices him on a Friday.
She hops out of her bed and looks at her candle. It is 8:34am. She wonders if she should skip work today. It is Friday and today she doesn’t feel like being there. The days have been long and there are other things on her mind lately. She wants something different, and today will most likely be like the others. She decides she might as well get it over with. After all, it is just one more day until she can be free of this place until Monday. One more little box to check off of her calendar until something different will happen. The second half of the week bores her now, and she feels like she has more important work to do. Sometimes, this bothers her. She was sure this was what she wanted, but lately, she isn’t as sure that it is what is best. She smiles and she glances at the candle wax that leaked through her candle’s glass in the night. She remembers the loud crack as it shattered right before she fell asleep. She decides she isn’t going to do her makeup today. No one is going to notice if she doesn’t. It is Friday, and no one ever notices her on a Friday.
He gets into his car and he drives in silence. He doesn’t want to hear the sounds of strumming guitar strings. He wants the day to continue with that same abruptness that it started with. Today, he doesn’t feel like being anyone’s light. He doesn’t want to be appreciative. He doesn’t want to be the kind of guy that makes people smile. Today, he just wants to be invisible. It is a different kind of feeling for him. He is usually a smooth talker that radiates the kind of energy that people take for granted. Yesterday, no one told him he did a good job. No one even noticed any of his effort. So, today, he isn’t putting in any effort at all. Today feels more empty than her candle was when she looked into it this morning. He wonders what candle he is even thinking about. He decides today is just an off kind of day, and he walks across the crosswalk and into the building.
She gets into her car and she turns on her music. She doesn’t want to hear the humming of car engines. She wants the day to continue with that same feeling of optimism that it started with. Today, she is going to be everyone’s light. She doesn’t want to be distant. She doesn’t want to be the kind of girl that scares people away. Today, she just wants to be happy. It is a different kind of feeling for her. She is usually very serious, yet radiates the kind of energy that people gravitate towards. Yesterday, no one noticed anything good she did. No one noticed that she felt kind of lost. So, today, she isn’t going to sit alone in her office. Today feels more powerful than her candle when she heard it shatter in the night. She wonders why it shattered or why that mattered. She decides today is just an off kind of day, and she walks across the crosswalk and into the building.
He is overloaded with work. Mostly, it is work he doesn’t even care about. He feels like he isn’t as great at this as he thought he would be. He feels isolated. He feels alone. He wonders why there is so much “I” in team. I have to make… I have to do… I need to build… There is a lot of solitude that he didn’t anticipate. He isn’t the kind of guy who thrives on being alone. He is a people person. He feeds off of the positive energy of human interaction. He needs this just as much as other people need him. He feels like other people need him. He feels like, if given the opportunity, he could change things for the better. He could change things for others, but he doesn’t know if he can change them for himself. He wonders if he has made a mistake. He knows he is sometimes rash in his decision making, and he doesn’t like to upset anyone. He also doesn’t care what anyone thinks. He thinks long and hard before making a change or making a choice, and he feels like he thought this one through. He pushes the thought to the side and decides today is just a weird day.
She finishes her work within an hour. Mostly, it is work she doesn’t even care about. She feels like she might be too good at this. She feels isolated. She feels alone. She wonders why she isn’t a part of the team. She has to make… She has to do… She needs to create… There is a lot of solitude that she didn’t anticipate. She isn’t the kind of girl who thrives on being alone. She is a people person. She feeds off of the positive energy of human interaction. She needs this just as much as other people need her. She feels like other people need her. She feels like, if given the opportunity, she could change things for the better. She could change things for others, but she doesn’t know if she can change things for herself. She wonders if all of this was a mistake. She knows she is sometimes rash in her decision making, and she doesn’t like to upset anyone. She also doesn’t care what anyone thinks. She thinks long and hard before making a change or making a choice, and she feels like she really thought this one through. She thinks about this for the entire day.
…they sigh.
He has eyes like the sunrise, and skin like the sunset. He is a man that matches her mind. A man that wants a lot for himself, but also likes to give a lot to someone else. He has a cool and calm exterior, but inside, his mind is whirring thoughts around faster than the cosmos. What a beautiful constellation those thoughts would make, she thinks to herself. His words feel like they were written in stone. Written somewhere in stone at the dawn of time for her to find. She finds them and she reads them out loud because she thinks they are her own. His words are careful. His words are cautious. He thinks about them for a second before he says them. He doesn’t want to get this wrong. He gets this wrong a lot. He is a spectacular bubble of warmth. His skin glows like stardust in the night sky. He taps his foot when he gets frustrated and she watches him tuck that frustration right behind a sideways glance of the eye. He is perfectly intriguing.
He moves closer to her and she doesn’t know whether to move away or to stand her ground. She wants him to be closer, but she isn’t sure if that was his intention. She catches herself looking at his face, his eyes, his hands, his hair… She catches herself and she holds her breath. He leans back and he looks her over with a quizzical look on his face. He looks at her as if he were trying to decipher glyphs on an ancient scroll he just discovered. He looks at her as if she is perfectly intriguing.
Something happens and he looks over at her again. She decides she will meet his glance. He smiles his lazy smile and she feels every neuron in her body firing off. She is in high alert. His eyes give her that same quizzical look and she wonders why the shade of them looks so much like the lights in her bedroom. She wonders why they twinkle like the stars on her bedroom ceiling. She wants, in that moment, to stand up and walk over to him and sit right on his lap. She thinks that sounds crazy, but she accidentally says it out loud. His eyes widen and his lips part just enough for her to see his surprise at her words. He adjusts himself in his chair just enough for her to see he wouldn’t exactly mind if she did. She smiles because she decided he is the most adorable thing she has ever seen. She had never seen him surprised before, and his reaction was extremely satisfying.
She wonders what it would be like to touch him. She wonders if his skin feels as warm against hers as it appears it would. She wonders what it would feel like to push her fingers into his hair; wild and unruly. She closes her eyes and she takes a deep breath. She wonders what it would feel like for his lips to touch hers for the first time, and the second, and the third. She wonders why she is even thinking about any of this, and she realizes that he is staring at nothing. He is staring blankly straight ahead. She asks him if he is okay and he he says he is.
She thinks: he is more than okay. | https://medium.com/@thegirlwiththenerdgasms/spin-me-a-story-e08e90b23f7a | ['Celise Hartgrove'] | 2021-07-25 01:58:04.528000+00:00 | ['Romantic Fiction', 'Intimacy', 'Lovestory', 'Romance', 'Love Letters'] |
Authenticity is Garbage | It’s 2021now, and the word authentic is trendy. Just be authentic is the advice today
It’s like if you are authentic everything else will fall back to its place.
And because of that false expectation, people find themselves struggling a lot. They seem to misunderstand the concept of it. They think being authentic is to be who they really are 24/7.
What does it even mean to be authentic?
It might mean to be genuine and to be real. But here’s the thing literally no person is genuine and real 100% of the time, but kids under 2. Everyone else, at least people after the age of 3, wear some type of mask. As William Shakespeare said All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts.
Every word that comes from our mouth has an intention, conscious or unconscious. We want to achieve, get, or create something by sharing certain things and by showing certain masks of ourselves.
Most human beings are going through something daily, and many of them struggle with one thing or another. It’s just human nature. Even though we all cheer for authenticity neither of us wants our dentist to be authentic and tell us before our wisdom tooth how stressed he/she is and how she slept just 2 hours and doesn’t feel confident at all. We want them to show us the best self and show up as the best version of themselves. We don’t want their “authenticity”, we want them to pretend that they are the best surgeons in the world.
Even though we say we want someone to be authentic in reality we all want them to be their best selves. what people say they want and what they actually want are two different things.
For me to be authentic is to represent the core of who you are in the best way you possibly can. It’s having the courage to be your best self. To enter every room as your best self. Meaning not acting or talking differently just to fit into some sort of box(es). Being authentic is when you are being intentional with your words, thoughts, and actions. When you examine every word that lives in your mouth and every thought that comes to your head.
The intention of authenticity should be to bring value. To create the positive impact.
I often see how people are whining and complaining about their life or being very negative and covering all that with an authenticity mask.
I think sharing our struggles and challenges is very important. But there is a huge difference between whining and sharing. When you share you also have to add a solution. When someone shares not only the struggles but also how they overcame those struggles they are being authentic. When someone is only sharing the struggles, they are using you as a negativity damping station. They will empty out themselves and will feel better afterward. Or they have a victim mentality and want people to know how much they suffer so they can feel sorry for them.
Unless you are certain that sharing your ongoing struggle itself is going to bring value to someone don’t share it. Sometimes if we realize that we aren’t alone and somebody else is going through a similar thing we might feel better.
And there is nothing wrong with emptying out ourselves as well. But there is a time and a place for it. You can’t do it with everyone. You have to be sure that the person you are going to share your struggles with is ready to listen to and has the capacity to be present with you at that very moment. And you have to be honest about your own intention.
Something only becomes a problem when we make it whatever it isn’t. It’s all about intention in life and authenticity isn’t different. When you wake up in the morning make sure you are being the best human being you can possibly be. Moment by moment, choose to be the best version of yourself. Stop complaining about your struggles. Spend that time on finding solutions to your struggles, so you can not only grow through your own pain but help others do the same with your solutions.
And if you need to share, share with a person that deserves to hear it. Let them know that you need “active listening”, that you need advice or their presence and accept it if they are available to give it to you.
You can be foolishly authentic and talk, think, act unintentionally or you can be wisely authentic and talk, think, act intentionally. The choice is yours to make!
Being your worst self is easy because it doesn’t take much to do so. You can be the worst human being so easily. Being the best or at least very good is much harder because it takes consistent effort and hard work, mental clarity, willpower, being aware, and to be conscious.
Real authenticity lays in having the courage to be the best version of yourself possible.
So tell me, are you the courageous one? | https://medium.com/@anirich/authenticity-is-garbage-329d40a850ba | ['Ani Kapanadze'] | 2020-12-25 21:36:12.349000+00:00 | ['Authentic', 'Real', 'Authenticity', 'Truth', 'Truth And Life'] |
280 Free Icons For Casino And Gambling Websites | All websites strive to be unique, but what makes them unique is the design. Yet, design is a complicated thing, because so many small details matter, and one single little detail can spoil all the rest of the beauty around it. Moreover, design is not only about beauty; today, design is usability in the first place. If the website is not user-friendly, no beautiful design will fix this pain.
This is why websites struggle to make the user experience positive, and all the details have the task to do that, including such small things as icons marking sections, buttons, blocks, calls to action, etc. However, just any icon type won’t work; one has to test out several styles of icons, in many colors and perhaps in more than one format, to understand which one works the best. But developing all these dozens (if not hundreds!) of icons takes lots of time, and eventually lots of money, too. This is the reason why free icon packs are so popular.
CasinosHunter decided to make life easier for the casino and gambling websites, and released a pack of gambling-related icons ready and free for download and use. If you would like to enhance your website’s readability, make the content more scannable, and improve navigation, take advantage of the free icons offered by CasinosHunter!
Download Icons For Free https://casinoshunter.com/gambling-website-icons/
There are 280 gambling-related icons in three styles — Liner, Fitted, Multicolored. You can try them out in three formats — SVG and EPS. The icons are open for downloading and immediate use; the license allowance and prohibitions go as follows:
Allowed
downloading
using for websites
using for apps
Prohibited | https://medium.com/@casinoshunter/280-free-icons-for-casino-and-gambling-websites-4b401c46c0d2 | ['Mike Hunter'] | 2021-04-07 10:20:01.768000+00:00 | ['Website', 'Vector Art', 'Free', 'Design', 'Icons'] |
How to make a budget as a student | A lot of people making their student budget hasn’t made a proper one before. That shouldn’t scare you away though. It’s a super important skill to learn and mastering it before you even graduate is huge. I’d highly recommend making budgets and experiencing with them in order to get a feel of how, when, and why.
Here are a couple of things to remember as a (typical) student
Your income is irregular because it can often show up in chunks — a scholarship here, a student loan there, a part-time paycheck that depends on the hours you get assigned. Freelancers and entrepreneurs also deal with irregular income in their careers, and there are entire books and blogs dedicated to how to handle it! Your income isn’t that high. Let’s face it, no one gets rich studying, so you’re dealing with a limited income, and you need to make it cover everything from textbooks to groceries to a coffee now or then.
You should take a lot of pride in how you’ve been able to manage those two things so far, but there’s no shame in seeking out articles like this and advice from places like the Awards Office when you need it.
And speaking of advice, there are four steps you can take to make managing your student budget a lot easier. Master them now, and budgeting, once you graduate, is going to seem like a cakewalk.
1. Count Your Per-Semester Income
When you’re budgeting as a student, trying to come up with an annual income number isn’t necessarily useful, because things can change from one semester to the next. Maybe you’re on co-op this semester and studying for sans part-time job the next. So, your first step is to look at your upcoming semester and add up all the money you’ll have available for those four months.
It might look something like this:
Student Loan: $5000
Scholarship #1: $500
Scholarship #2: $750
Grants: $200
Part-Time Job: $2240 (10 hours a week at $14 an hour)
That leaves you with a total of $8690, and if most of it hits your account at the same time, you’ll probably be feeling great about your finances — but it must last for four months, so it’s important to not go nuts spending it all in month one.
This brings us to step two.
2. Figure Out a Monthly Salary
It’s easy (well, easier) to budget when you get the same amount every month like clockwork, but because you’ll sometimes get big chunks of money all at once when a student loan or scholarship shows up, it can feel harder to plan. Not to mention, you might feel rich when it does happen.
But once you have your total income for the semester tallied up, it’s time to plan out how you’re going to make it cover everything from textbooks to groceries for the semester. First up, make sure to map out any big expenses, like tuition, and put aside money to handle those when they’ll be due. Then, take the leftover amount after handling your big expenses and divide it by four to get a monthly “salary” for yourself.
In the example above, let’s say $3000 of your total income for the semester went towards tuition and books. You’d end up with $5690 to last the rest of the semester, or $1422.50 per month.
That’s the number you should use when you’re trying to figure out what you can afford to buy, or how much you can afford to spend on stuff like rent or your cell phone bill. Breaking it up by month to mimic a salary can help make sure you don’t end up relying on just your part-time job's paycheck by the time exams come around.
3. Set a Realistic Budget
When you’re planning how to spend your $1422.50 each month, it’s important to be realistic — and that means accepting that you’re probably still going to buy the occasional coffee at Roosters or burger at Ollie's. That’s where the 50/30/20 budget comes in.
The 50/30/20 budget is an approach where you budget based on a percentage of your income.
50% of your monthly income goes to necessities. That’s rent, groceries, cell phone and internet, that kind of thing. The basics that you need, no matter what else is going on.
30% of your income goes to spending. This is everything from new clothes, to coffee on campus, to ordering a pizza with friends (because no, takeout pizza isn’t a grocery). This is the “realistic” part of the budget because you need to allocate some money to this stuff for when you inevitably spend on it.
20% of your income then goes to savings — and because you’re a student, let’s call this “just not spending” instead. Especially since you’re planning for getting through the semester, use this 20% as a buffer in your budget instead of thinking of it as untouchable savings. Don’t plan to spend it, so that you know it’s there if something comes up later in the semester.
So, for your $1422.50 monthly income, you’d budget:
$711.25 for all your basics, like rent, bills, and groceries.
$426.75 for spending on everything from clothes to coffees.
$284.50 that you’d try not to touch and leave in your account just in case.
4. Track Your Spending
Finally, the key to making all this work is that you pay attention to where your money is going. That’s what will stop you from thinking “Well, I have the money, might as well go for it” when you buy something, which I say from deeply personal experience because I’ve done exactly that.
Luckily, there are some ways you can automate the process to make it a bit easier on yourself. You can hook up your accounts to free software like Mint, which tracks your spending and helps you set up a budget. It’ll email you alerts when you go over one of your budget categories, but it won’t stop you from making purchases after that email alert goes out.
You could also look at apps like KOHO, which is a free prepaid Visa card that gives you the convenience of a credit card with the budgeting powers of cash. You load money — like say, your spending budget for the month — onto the card by email money transfer, and then you can spend it as usual anywhere you’d use a credit card. Since it’s a prepaid card when the money’s gone, it’s gone, so you can’t overspend. KOHO’s app will keep track of how much left you must spend, not to mention where you spent your money.
Budgeting as a student is hard, but not impossible
Planning for an irregular income and making sure it can cover you for months at a time, isn’t easy no matter who you are, but it is a fact of life for most of us during our studies. With a bit of addition, and mapping out a high-level budget, you can set yourself up for less money stress during the semester and give yourself the power to make money decisions that fit your life. | https://medium.com/@madsnchris/how-to-make-a-budget-as-a-student-37ff02c53387 | ['Mads Chris'] | 2020-12-18 20:14:35.952000+00:00 | ['Students', 'Money', 'Budget', 'College', 'Finance'] |
The mystery of a man who came from time travel | Tokyo International Airport in Japan resumes operations as usual. A bearded man of Caucasian descent landed at the airport. He spoke French but knew many other languages. Government officials were confused while checking his passport. His passport belonged to the country of Toured, and surprisingly, the country with that name never existed then or before.
While being held for questioning, the man fled without leaving any evidence. Who exactly was a time traveler or a notorious criminal?
The Man’s Arrival
It’s July 1954; a hot day. A man arrives at Tokyo airport in Japan. He’s of Caucasian appearance and conventional-looking. But the officials are suspicious. Whilst his primary language is said to have been French, it has been purported that he spoke Japanese and many other languages as well. So far, there is nothing extraordinary to note…
Whilst the passport looked authentic, the country where it was issued, ‘Taured’, was recognized as non-existent, either by the officer or one of his / her colleagues, indicating that the man should be taken away for interrogation. In another version, the man mentioned that he was from Taured, and when the immigration officer did not believe him, he showed him/her his passport.
Tokyo Airport
His passport had been stamped by many airports around the globe, including previous visits to Tokyo.
Location of Taured
The next part of the story details the man trying to convince the immigration officers that Taured does indeed exist. According to the traveler, Taured was located between France and Spain and had by then been in existence for 1000 years.
When shown a map, the man pointed to the area occupied by the Principality of Andorra and was puzzled as to why his country was called Andorra on the map. Both sides refused to give in — the Japanese officers insisted that Taured did not exist, and the traveler argued otherwise.
Location of Andorra (center of a green circle) in Europe (dark grey).
Vanished!
Eventually, the man was held by the officers, as they were suspicious that he might be some kind of criminal. They brought him to a nearby hotel for the night, whilst they conducted their investigation. To ensure that the man did not escape during the night, two guards were placed outside his room.
The next morning, when the officers went to the man’s room, they realized that he had simply vanished, as there were no signs of his escape. Additionally, all of his personal documents, which may serve as evidence for the story’s validity, had apparently disappeared as well.
The company he claimed to work for had no knowledge of him, although he had copious amounts of documentation to prove his point.
The hotel he claimed to have a reservation for had never heard of him either.
The company officials in Tokyo he was there to do business with? Yup, you’ve guessed it — they just shook their heads too.
Later, when the hotel room he was held in was opened, the man had disappeared.
The police established that he could not have escaped out of the window — the room was several floors up, and there was no balcony. ?
He was never seen again, and the mystery was never solved.
Similar happenings to the Taured mystery have occurred before. In 1851, a man wandering Frankfurt an der Oder in Germany claimed he was from a country called “Laxaria”, a state found on the continent of “Sakria”.
Another man, who spoke a completely unrecognizable language, was caught stealing bread in Paris in 1905. He said he was from “Lizbia”, and although the man did not speak Portuguese nor recognize Portugal as his homeland on a map, the authorities assumed he meant Lisbon, the capital of Portugal.
References
1] https://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/mysterious-tale-man-taured-evidence-parallel-universes-or-embellishment-005788
2] https://coolinterestingstuff.com/the-strange-mystery-of-the-man-from-taured
3] https://english.newsnationtv.com/offbeat/news/taured-mystery-the-man-who-vanished-253965.html | https://medium.com/@rutujadhere111/the-mystery-of-a-man-who-came-from-time-travel-8e92d1eea391 | ['Rutuja Dhere'] | 2020-12-26 13:08:32.341000+00:00 | ['Time Travel', 'Suspension', 'Mystery', 'Suspense', 'Unbelievable'] |
This Backpack-Mounted Robotic Arm Gives You a Third Hand | Robots, like virtually every other machine, are designed to make our lives easier or more productive. You car is just a complex machine that makes travel faster and less difficult. A 3D printer is just a robot that makes fabrication faster and less difficult. Just about every task you perform on a day to day basis can potentially be made easier with the right machine or robot, and this backpack-mounted robotic arm gives you that third hand that would be useful in so many situations.
This robotic arm was developed by doctoral student Julian Whitman in Carnegie Mellon’s Biorobotics Lab. It uses a modular actuator system that was originally developed for a snake robot. Because the actuators are modular, the snake robot could be expanded as needed and individual modules could be replaced if they ever failed. But those modules have also found a home in other robots, because they’re so versatile. Whitman’s backpack-mounted robotic arm is one of the newest.
The backpack houses the robotic arm’s control electronics, as well as sturdy frame to support the weight of the arm. The arm extends from that over the wearer’s shoulder, and can be used as a third hand. The robotic arm is controlled by either a joystick or voice commands, but Whitman hopes to give it its own sense of perception in the future so it can help out more autonomously. He envisions a design like this being used in the automotive or aerospace industries, where a technician needs to hold a part up while they work on it with their hands. The robotic arm could be commanded to hold the part in place, freeing the technician’s hands to do the dexterous work. | https://medium.com/@cameroncoward/this-backpack-mounted-robotic-arm-gives-you-a-third-hand-b212f3646935 | ['Cameron Coward'] | 2019-04-12 17:21:41.105000+00:00 | ['Research', 'Makers', 'Robotics', 'Engineering', 'Technology'] |
Cats With Different Eye Color: Photo And Scientific Explanation Of A Beautiful Phenomenon | A cat with eyes of different colors looks mesmerizing. Who would refuse such a pet, which arouses persistent interest and admiration among guests and friends! People even start looking for a breed of cats with different eyes, not understanding the reason for this unusual phenomenon.
I am in a hurry to disappoint — such a breed does not exist. The good news is that kittens with different eyes are found in any cat breed, for which we assume a solid white or turtle color.
Table Of Contents
· How it turns out that cats with different eyes color
· Does it affect the health of the kitten?
· Breeds of cats with different eyes
· Interesting observation
· From what age you can determine the different eye color of a kitten
· Conclusion
How it turns out that cats with different eyes color
Different eye color has a scientific name — heterochromia. Heterochromia is found in cats and dogs, horses, and even humans (although sporadic).
Complete heterochromia — when each eye is colored in its own color, and partial heterochromia — when two colors are combined in the eye’s iris. Partial heterochromia is really rare, but you will not surprise anyone with entirely different eyes in a cat.
At full heterochromia, one eye will always be blue, and the other will still be any color: yellow, green, orange. The secret is that cats’ blue eyes are not the color at all, but its absence. In other words, the color is genetic, but something has prevented the pigment from migrating to the iris.
The pigment is distributed at the moment when the kitten is still in the mother’s womb. It is impossible to influence this process, and so is the prediction. Therefore, breeding a “breed of cats with different eyes” is simply impossible.
Why does disagreement occur regularly in specific breeds or breeding lines? The white color is to blame for everything! The white color gene (W — white) doesn’t carry information about the color, but simply suppresses all other colors. A snowy white cat may well give birth to colored kittens if it is secretly not white, but red or black. This white gene also violates the pigment in one eye — or both, as it turns out. In other words, some kittens will have green or yellow eyes, some will have blue eyes, and some will have different eyes.
Does it affect the health of the kitten?
Eye color has no effect on the cat’s vision. But if different eyes appeared under the dominant white gene’s influence, the cat may have hearing problems. The fact is that W-gene inhibits the migration of melanoblasts cells to the iris and the inner ear, disrupting this organ’s development.
That is why white cats sometimes suffer from congenital deafness. The problem often concerns blue-eyed animals (the gene’s action is manifested as much as possible).
Still, contrary to the general misconception, a white cat with colored eyes can also be deaf. If one eye is colored and the second one is blue, the cat may be deaf from the blue eye, and it is customary to hear with the second ear. In this case, the owner will hardly notice any problem. It will be possible to check the cat’s hearing only with special tests under anesthesia in the veterinary clinic.
Deaf cats should be strictly rejected. They are not allowed to breed — this applies to any breed. In addition, two white blue-eyed individuals should not be crossed with each other, even if both cat and cat hear perfectly.
Breeds of cats with different eyes
So, there is no blue-eyed gene, no deafness gene, and no discord gene. Why does the Internet persist in offering some breeds of cats as “discord”? These are the breeds where the snow and white color:
is the only acceptable color: Kao mani;
is very common: Turkish Angora;
is combined with colored spots: Turkish Van.
Different eyes are often found in breeds of cats. White color is the only tolerable variety, not the main feature of the breed. Breeders have a theory that to get kittens with heterochromia, white animals must be crossed with two-colors.
Such animals are also called pegs: white spots alternate with painted areas. If the white spots are very, the cat may look completely white (a spot of color may be on the tail, on the head). This white color is not caused by the gene W, but the spot is S (spot) by the white peg leg gene. Gene S also disrupts the migration of melanocytes to the wool and sometimes to the eyes, but does not cause deafness. Since the spots are asymmetrical, it is not surprising if one eye is dyed and the other is not.
There is another pattern: if a kitten (or several) with different eyes was born in the litter, these parents would likely get stable kittens with heterochromia in the next litters.
Thus, eyes of different colors can be found in cats of any breed. The standards we assume white or spotted color — Cornish Rex, Sphynx, Maine Coon, Persian cats and exotics, British cats and many others.
Do not discount the usual pedigree cats — mestizos, who also often have heterochromia. It should be said that a discordant kitten has a dramatically increased chance of finding a home — many are willing to take such an unusual pet, even if it is “noble” blood. Such cats will never bite you 😜
It is believed that cats with different eyes bring good luck to the owner and have strong magical powers. And even if you are far from esoteric, it is impossible to deny that cats with heterochromia look very impressive and mysterious.
One of my acquaintances even found his mongrel cat a “bride” in the hope of getting a discordant kitten. Unfortunately, white Dobby (one eye yellow, the other blue) and white blue-eyed cat had kittens with the same yellow or blue eyes. Two of them were cream color, two were white and both white kittens were deaf.
Interesting observation
There is another reason why a cat may have extravagant color (like a two-faced Venus cat, for example) or eyes of different colors.
Cats are multi-berry animals. Occasionally, two fertilized eggs, instead of quietly attaching to the uterus wall and develop further, merge into one. It turns out one healthy, viable kitten, but with a double set of chromosomes. This phenomenon is called chimerism.
Embryo fusion — it sounds pretty creepy, but in fact, such animals live quietly, bring offspring, and no one even knows what an unusual creature is sheltered at home. You can’t consider a cat a chimera just based on a strange color, to confirm it you need genetic tests (which no one is in a hurry to perform).
Also, cats may have mosaicism — areas of cells with DNA differences resulting from the mutation. Mosaicism is often “blamed” for the appearance of hair areas of “impossible color”, partial eye heterochromia, complete heterochromia in turtle, colored cats. The difference between a mosaic and a chimera is that the mosaic mutations occurred based on its own cells. In contrast, the chimera has two complete and different sets of chromosomes that were not mutable.
It makes sense to suspect such deviations if cats have different eyes, but neither is blue. For example, one is yellow or orange, the other is green. Interestingly, heterochromia variants in completely colored cats — this is much rarer than in white animals, but still happens!
From what age you can determine the different eye color of a kitten
If before heterochromia was considered a genetic anomaly and did not welcome such kittens’ appearance, now it is just the opposite. Breeders fight over the unravelling of genetic algorithms responsible for eye color in cats, and kittens with heterochromia are welcome and in demand.
But when kittens only open their eyes, they all have the same “baby” blue color.
The accumulation of pigment in the iris occurs gradually, and with age, the color of the eyes changes. It is guaranteed to determine heterochromia at 2.5–3 months.
Experienced cat guides, however, know that you can learn eye color before. For this purpose, kittens are examined in a dark room with a weak light source. Blue eyes burn red and the rest green.
Conclusion
Fix the different colors of the eyes and pass it on to the offspring is not yet possible. If someone tells you that there is a breed of cat with different eyes, know it’s a myth.
Do not cross pure white animals with different eye colors in the hope of getting an unusual offspring with heterochromia: remember the negative impact of gene W on your hearing.
If you are the lucky owner of a pet with heterochromia, send us your photos. With your permission, the article will be updated. | https://medium.com/@jennywilsons/cats-with-different-eye-color-photo-and-scientific-explanation-of-a-beautiful-phenomenon-7c78b9bf15d0 | ['Jennifer Wilson'] | 2020-12-24 09:36:38.249000+00:00 | ['Cats', 'Heterochromia', 'Cat Eye'] |
Every Day Gratitude | Photo by K8 on Unsplash
Feed Freckles, make my coffee, write a little bit, jump in the lake, go in the hot tub, make my oatmeal, start the day. My day starts early, somewhere between 530–6 am. I love the early morning when the black sky slowly lightens and the outline of the trees and power lines and houses around me become visible. On lucky days, the sky might eventually brighten to a swirl of orange or pink or purple.
I love tiptoeing across the dining room floor so I don’t wake Lucia below me. I love turning on the coffee pot that I prepared the night before, opening the fridge to get the milk and steam it in the frother as I prepare Freckle’s food. I love the moment when he gets his first mouthful of food and I get my first sip of hot coffee.
I love lighting my candle, sitting down at the dining room table, and writing the thoughts that visited me as I slept. I love the moment when I close my notebook, grab my towel, and robe to meet Genessa for our daily jump in the frigid lake. I love the short conversations we have to and from the lake. I love when we have time to jump in the hot tub for a few minutes to warm our freezing hands and feet. I love the tingling feeling that comes as my body goes from the extreme of cold to warm to hot. I love boiling the water for my oatmeal, greeting my family as they wake up, and talking about what the day ahead will look like. I am filled with a profound sense of gratitude by 8 am every morning.
I am a creature of habit. Regularity is like a big, heavy, warm blanket for me, the feeling I imagine a toddler has when her mother scoops her up and envelopes her after she’s wiped out on the playground. Each morning ritual is like a deep breath, soothing me, and reminding me that I am safe and sound, that I’ll be here again tomorrow, same time, same place.
The pandemic time has given me permission to live this heavily ritualized life in a way that I didn’t before. Pre-pandemic, every day was different, depending on what appointments, plans, or meetings I had going for the day. Now a plan is a big deal. Going hiking with a friend means figuring out how to get there in two cars, where to pee along the way, what sanitizing products to bring. Even going to the grocery store includes thinking about the time and how busy it will be, reviewing my list multiple times to ensure that I get everything we need, and of course wearing a mask. I don’t want to make plans anymore. It’s too complicated. So I keep with the simplicity of the structure I’ve created.
What will happen when we return to how it was before? Will I be able to maintain this heavy, warm blanket feeling? Will I make time for these rituals that bring me so much comfort? Will the feelings I have now live inside of me in a way that I can touch back into when my life looks and feels very different?
I fear the next phase. As much as I want to hug my friends and live without worry and despair, I fear what I will lose when I am not steeped in this feeling of gratitude for the tiny moments of joy for coffee, oatmeal, the lake, the hot tub, my precious full mornings. When I taught yoga I would tell my students to experience the moments when they felt really present and alive, to be still with those feelings so that they could tap into them when they needed them during moments when they craved that peaceful feeling. “Try to embody this moment right now” I would say. Embodying comes from living something, doing it so much that it is in your body, like a new organ or appendage, whatever the thing is, it becomes part of you.
My hope is that when we come out of this pandemic, I will have embodied this sense of gratitude for the small things that I have now. That I will walk around with these tiny memories coursing through my body, reminding me of the possibilities that live inside of me. The future is unknown. I can’t say if this set of beautiful morning rituals will be with me in one month or one year. All I can do right now is stay with them, keep practicing them, and taking time to feel the joy that comes from each and every moment. And then hopefully, in six months or two years from now, I’ll remember this time and it will nourish me as it is now. | https://medium.com/know-thyself-heal-thyself/every-day-gratitude-4b21e8318068 | ['Laura Culberg'] | 2020-12-24 07:06:16.921000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Wellness', 'Self-awareness', 'Gratitude', 'Peace'] |
As consequências do livre mercado | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/segunda-fase/as-consequ%C3%AAncias-do-livre-mercado-2c94afb819a6 | ['Douglas Miguel Da Silva'] | 2020-11-25 13:19:52.440000+00:00 | ['Liberalismo', 'Socialism', 'Economics', 'Capitalismo', 'Capitalism'] |
Three powerful marketing questions | Tony Robbins is fond of saying ““Quality questions create a quality life”.
(He’s also fond of saying “How the hell did you get in here? Get out, Holt!”)
Regardless, asking better questions is often the first step to getting better answers.
With that in mind, the copywriter in me (I call him Francine) wants to give you three questions to help you with your client getting:
1. What does your ideal client/target audience REALLY want?
Go deep on this — keep asking “why do they want this until you get to something meaty
2. How can you help your customers get that?
Brainstorm all the ways. Then think about how you can improve all aspects of your service to help make their life better/easier.
3. What’s the best way to PROVE to your ideal client that you can help them get what they want?
Being helpful and useful is one thing, PROVING it is another. What do they need to see/experience so they believe you can help them? | https://medium.com/@johnholtcopywriter/three-powerful-marketing-questions-127eb1069cb3 | ['John Holt'] | 2020-11-16 07:33:15.022000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Business Strategy', 'Small Business Marketing', 'Marketing Strategies', 'Copywriting Tips'] |
License.Rocks to Tokenise $14.3 Billion Software Licensing Market | License.Rocks to Tokenise $14.3 Billion Software Licensing Market
A case study on OST Partner Company license.rocks
Let’s talk about software licensing. Embedded, Cloud-based, on-premise. Business to business, business to consumer. Billing integration, usage tracking… Not exactly a conversation starter, is it? That is until you realise the sheer size of this under-appreciated market:
The global software licensing market is expected to reach $14.3 Billion by 2023, a compound annual growth rate of 8,5% between 2017 and 2023.
Source: Market Research Future
Looking at regional market shares, the Europeans take the cake: Europe is expected to account for the largest market share of $204M by 2020; with Germany making up the bulk of the market with 25% market share.
Visual courtesy of marketresearch.biz
The North American market is expected to achieve the biggest CAGR of more than 10%, with the Asian-Pacific market likely to follow suit, as major players like China and India are “less mature in enforcing IP rights, and more prone to under-licensing,” according to a report published by MarketResearch in January 2018.
With so many licenses sold, one may wonder what happens to those agreements when a company ceases its operations (M&A, insolvency), or when a project simply gets migrated to cloud-based software. Turns out there’s an entire industry dedicated to giving licensed software a second lease of life, and it may well be the fastest grower in the realm of software licensing. | https://medium.com/ostdotcom/license-rocks-to-tokenise-14-3-billion-software-licensing-market-8d2b15c0a19b | ['Wouter Verhoog'] | 2018-10-15 15:14:09.729000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrenc', 'Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin', 'Tech'] |
BEST PRICE OF ClevaMama Cot Mattress Protector Cotton Sheets White SPECIAL OFFER | Waterproof and breathable mattress protector for cots (60x120 cm)
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A really good sheet, doesn’t wrinkle or feel plasticky. It washes well (on 40) and dries quickly. I was worried that the net sides were too thin and I’d put my finger through it but I haven’t done yet so it probably isn’t s problem. The sides are nice and stretchy too. I’ve been using it for several months now. I was using one that was more of a plastic sheet that tied to the mattress but that one did make my baby sweaty, this one doesn’t seem to.
Works well, fully protects mattress. My baby has reflux so it has really been tested each night- so effective I bought more. Nice, soft top layer. It does take a long time to dry when washed, but I suppose that’s necessary due to the effective waterproof side!
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Works well. It’s been tested repeatedly with a new baby who likes to wiggle out of her nappies. It protects the mattress and isn’t too crinkly or loud when it’s being laid on. Easy to put on the bed, I can’t complain! | https://medium.com/@faizal.idris.7410/best-price-of-clevamama-cot-mattress-protector-cotton-sheets-white-special-offer-257422975d13 | ['Faizal Idris'] | 2019-05-26 09:45:31.919000+00:00 | ['Baby', 'Mattress', 'Sleep', 'Shopping', 'Amazon'] |
Uncrypt Mondays 4.28.18 | Medium.com contributor Kai Stinchcombe goes on a diatribe about Blockchain in this ambitious post about the horrors of a decentralized future. Unfortunately, the self described “whatever the opposite of a futurist is,” hits send on an article without really understanding what a blockchain is and what he’s talking about. In particular, he makes a mistake that many novices accidentally step into about the technology before learning more: Blockchains and cryptocurrencies, while oftentimes tied together, are different things entirely and blockchains more often than not operate without a cryptocurrency attached to it.
Maybe the author isn’t aware of that point, or is but intentionally omits that for some reason is unclear (he claims to have held some crypto in 2017 so you’d think he’d do some research), but the article says what it says so why not go into point by point. After all, the post has been largely circulated so it’s a shame to see poorly researched misinformation spread on the internet (yes, I know how ridiculous that sentence sounds when said aloud). Here is the original article for reference.
#1: “Lets start with this: Venmo is a free service to transfer dollars, and Bitcoin transfers are not free” Yes, let’s start with the fact that this is an empty analogy. Even though both concepts can fall under the same broad scope of “financial services” they are several worlds apart in terms of what they are. Venmo is an application layer built to integrate with traditional checking accounts in order to send cash and handle small scale transactions for convenience. The Bitcoin blockchain replaces the need for a checking account at the foundation level, and provides a 100% secure way to transmit value at any amount over the internet, with each transaction recorded on an immutable ledger. Somehow Stinchcombe has decided this qualifies for a 1:1 comparison. Let’s pretend to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he meant “traditional cash transfer app vs. blockchain solution for money transfers.” Not all blockchains require a proof of work mining algorithm that takes a fee, several blockchains that do use a proof of work system use scaling solutions to make transfers fast and cheap, and there are plenty of reliable crypto alternatives to Bitcoin if fast and free exchange of small-scale transactions is the goal. Or we can not give him the benefit of the doubt, and call this analogy poorly researched. If you want to make a Venmo analogy in the crypto space, at least use a similar product, like Metal. Metal is the cryptocurrency worlds answer to Venmo, and offers the same things Venmo does, only it allows a quick on and off ramp between crypto and fiat, and would allow merchants to accept crypto but get paid out in fiat. It’s too bad for Stinchcombe that actual, existing, crypto competition for Venmo is conspicuously absent from his post.
#2: “In fact, I would assert that there is no single person in existence who had a problem they wanted to solve, discovered that an available blockchain solution was the best way to solve it, and therefore became a blockchain enthusiast.”
I’ll actually speak from personal experience on this one. Here is the first ever real estate transaction that was fully executed using blockchain and cryptocurrency (please note that these are different things and specified as such Kai Stinchcombe). The apartment was paid for in Ether, and a smart contract was executed using the Ethereum blockchain that verified all conditions of the sale were met (funds, identities, and reporting to Ukrainian officials) and title change was logged onto a private blockchain being piloted by the Ukrainian government. So, I just checked in with the seller of the property (let’s just say we have a pretty good rapport), he let me know that in 20 years of being a real estate developer in Ukraine, he has never been paid so quickly, efficiently and without the delays associated with bringing in hard copies proving property title to a notary (this is previously confirmed and verification of such is built into the smart contract), and having to give that notary a little cash on the side to speed up the intentionally long processing times to make such “miscellaneous costs” part of the status quo. He also reminded me to call grandma and grandpa once in a while. Will do, dad. Take the family word on this one Kai, we were greatly benefited by an existing blockchain solution, and pops has become quite the blockchain enthusiast.
#3: “…it’s biggest corporate boosters like IBM, NASDAQ, Fidelity, Swift and Walmart have gone long on press but short on actual rollout.” The writer names 5 massive companies, who with any technology will take a long time to test and roll out a product. The IBM mention is confusing, since there’s nothing short about their rollout of permissioned blockchain development for MNC’s. Also, he fails to mention that Deloitte and Ernst & Young are three more corporate boosters who are doing real work on blockchain projects every day, and client lists are rapidly expanding to a point that they are expanding their blockchain focused staff. Goldman Sachs is an investor in a large-scale OTC marketmaker for cryptocurrency. I know that GE has tested the use of permissioned blockchain tech for internal payments, and this blogpost from GE certainly looks like they are going long on adopting private blockchains: “The team has big hopes for blockchain. It believes that the current vagaries of bitcoin are not indicative of blockchain’s future, because cryptocurrency is just the technology’s first application. It will be one of those things where you look back and reflect on the way you used to do it,” Beckmann says. “Everybody used to have a landline telephone, but you probably can’t put a date on when you stopped using it. It just happened. Blockchain is this type of technology that comes in waves. It will happen, absolutely, whether we are there to take advantage of it or not.” Doesn’t seem to me like GE finds blockchain technology “crappy” Kai Stinchcombe.
#4: “Even the most prominent blockchain company, Ripple, doesn’t use blockchain in its product. You read that right: the company Ripple decided the best way to move money across international borders was to not use Ripples.” Gotta love this point. Not only is it the most illustrative example that Kai Stinchcombe doesn’t understand that a blockchain is not necessarily tied to a cryptocurrency, but he asserts that Ripple doesn’t use blockchain in it’s product (because you don’t need to use the Ripple token, XRP, to use Ripple’s blockchain technology) while linking to an article that explains that you can use Ripple’s blockchain without using Ripple’s token. You have to be really lazy to not even read your own source material. My (and everyone else’s) discomfort with Ripple has to do with this fact by the way. If you don’t need to use XRP to use the Ripple protocol, why even have an XRP token to begin with? Again, it seems Kai Stinchcombe has confused questionable cryptocurrency practices as a justification to write about dumping blockchain in general. The point is, not using “Ripples” doesn’t mean you (or in this case, banks and financial institutions) aren’t using Ripples permissioned blockchain services. Don’t worry Kai, Michael Arrington founder of startup hedge ArringtonXRP Capital cleared it up for you back in January at WCEF when answering questions about the very same concerns about Ripple’s token and separate blockchain “an investor was able to transfer millions of dollars into the fund in 3 seconds, and it cost 30 cents. Sometimes in the financial world, you need to send large quantities of money that quickly and that cheaply.” Let’s just go ahead and add Michael Arrington to the list of people who found an available blockchain solution was the best way to solve a problem.
#5. The whole discussion on smart contracts: Well the author doesn’t even understand how a smart contract works, or how it would be deployed in a real world situation. He’s making up hypothetical use-cases to argue against. A smart contract functions as an executor of a transaction, provided that certain conditions are met, in real time (I’m sorry, if you don’t understand the power of real time payments, particularly in content licensing, I can’t help you). It’s an automated escrow agent; a transaction is executed once a series of conditions, governed by “if” and “then” scenarios. Kai Stinchcombe makes up a hypothetical use-case of smart contracts in e-commerce to argue against, and then comes up with the worst possible deployment of a smart contract in e-commerce.
Consider the e-book example he gives (it’s rubbish), he misses the point of who the smart contract has the potential to work for, and where blockchain can be truly disruptive: It’s the author. “If” there is a verified transaction of purchase from retailer, “then” the author has earned his royalty for that sale. The terms of the royalties agreement with the publisher can be embedded in the smart contract, so that merchant, publisher and author can be paid in real time from the transaction, with all payments being completely audible to make sure the agreements are being followed. Status quo puts a lot of trust into each party to honestly report to one another after tallying up the sales in intervals. The author in this case gets paid his royalty at predetermined checkpoints throughout the year, and I hope you’re sitting down for this, have been known to get screwed because of their limited auditing options. Gasp! I think every content creator that relies on royalties for their livelihood would prefer to be paid in real time, donchyathink? The implications are huge in e-commerce, but what about music/tv/film streaming services? How many artist/publisher lawsuits would we avoid? Why should publishers be exempt from dealing with potentially disruptive technology?
#6: Writer is evaluating blockchain technology and its use cases as though the product itself is finished and fully deployed. Ridiculous, it’s an emerging technology. This would be like writing about the internet in 1997 and complaining that the dialup method is slow and the internet can never gain mass adoption because it occupies one of your home phone lines — while cable internet is being developed on one end and mass adoption of the cell phone is taking place. The author is either intentionally being obtuse to the multilayer process of technology evolution to make his awful point, or simply treating the technology like its a finished product. But I thought the point of his article is that the blockchain future is a bad thing…? Honestly, I don’t know anymore, his whole post is a mess.
#7: “…it was the reputation scores that allowed people to trust criminals. And the reputation scores weren’t tracked on a tamper-proof blockchain, they were tracked by a trusted middleman!” What? Why are we assuming that reputation scores should be logged on a blockchain? Again, writer is making up a hypothetical use case for blockchain, where there may be none, and then judging blockchain based on his own bad idea.
#8: Writer offers his own suggestion for how to improve the banking system that basically boils down to keep using it..but vote in elections. Writer fails to understand the emergence of this new technology is a direct response to the fact that “keep using it..but vote in elections” isn’t working, hasn’t worked and is an outright joke in many developing nations.
Sorry, but advocating for keeping status quo and hoping it works better doesn’t make you an interesting contrarian, it makes you complicit in the problem. Nobody, not even long standing financial institutions at the state or private level, should be exempt from technologies that can either challenge them or at least raise serious discussions about their flaws.
I guess Kai Stinchcombe’s article could have been an honest discussion on challenges facing blockchain today, and a discussion on existing use cases. But it is flatly incorrect on a lot of basic points, poorly researched in others, and he makes up hypothetical use cases to argue against. Yet somehow it gets 31 thousand claps? Do better Kai. Or I don’t know, read a book on it or something.
In other news:
After months of waiting, it looks like the Proof of Stake update to Ethereum protocol is imminent. Read up, because we’ll be talking to some Ethereum miners on Sunset Crypto this week.
This is really interesting and probably deserves a post of it’s own in the coming days. Amazon files, and is granted, a patent for a data marketplace that would allow them to collect data on Bitcoin transactions and sell it as user data (in this case the BTC address would be the “user”). Given the transparent nature of transactions on the BTC Blockchains (for wallets anyway), a wallet can be tracked for in and outflows of funds, and other wallets it sends/receives money from (for example, if an address is publicly shown as a payment option for a merchant). I’m not necessarily taking a possession of whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. After all, transactions on the Bitcoin ledger are public by design. Could it be that businesses are finally starting to key in on the fact that Bitcoin isn’t a way to stay anonymous on the internet, but actually that transactions are fully transparent (its the owners of the wallet that aren’t always so). But if you have technology that can flag patterns of wallet behavior, a lot of valuable data can be gleaned from publicly distributed ledgers. | https://medium.com/uncrypt/uncrypt-mondays-4-28-18-bc797c7f0cfd | ['Vladislav Ginzburg'] | 2018-04-23 21:15:00.021000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Ripple'] |
IT Services & Software Solutions | codingbrains.com
Coding brains is a company that provides value to clients by combining experience with commitment to deliver quality service to customers. Our strength is directly derived by highly skilled and experienced professionals.
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At Coding Brains, we design and prototype products for inventors, entrepreneurs, and large companies.
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Coding Brains delivers a suite of Enterprise Mobility offerings connecting devices, apps, people and procedures to drive toward mobile-enabled business.
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Digital Transformation
At Coding Brains, we offer Digital Transformation consulting services that help shift towards new digital media and interactive era, as well as cope up with complex business issues.
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Enterprise System Integration
Coding Brains offers Enterprise System Integration services that aim to bring together critical information from several heterogeneous systems into a cohesive dashboard.
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Coding Brains believes in the transformational power of Cloud Computing for enterprises, be it a large or small, we have the capability to roll out cloud leveraged next- gen solutions.
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As a leading Tech Service Provider, Coding Brains delivers Enterprise Content Management services for your content-driven business procedures across the enterprise.
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At Coding Brains, our IT Measurements and Dashboards solutions enable you to analyze performance metrics and key areas like changes, data accuracy, and duplicity.
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Contact Us | https://medium.com/@prasoonpandey/it-services-software-solutions-6b31c3048199 | ['Prasoon Pandey'] | 2020-12-25 04:06:06.222000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Software Development', 'App Development', 'It', 'Web Deve'] |
The single best tip for running Asp.Net Core microservices | Lets make a massive reduction in your Memory Usage
TLDR;
Add this line to your .csproj file
<ServerGarbageCollection>false</ServerGarbageCollection>
as a part of the property group holding your target framework, like so
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.1</TargetFramework>
<ServerGarbageCollection>false</ServerGarbageCollection>
</PropertyGroup>
Can you tell me a bit more?
So, one of the things behind running microservices, or any service at all, is the constant use of memory.
Somewhere out there, you might be running a service or two, and depending on the environment and the programming language behind that service, it might require more or less memory just to stay alive, and running an Asp.Net Core service is no different.
Just spinning up a small service in Asp.Net Core requires up to 150MB of memory, so picture you’re running a microservice setup containing just a couple of services will quickly require atleast 1GB of memory.
As you might already be thinking, this will quickly add up, so how ca we fix this?
Well, Microsoft themselves has a nice post about Garbage Collection in .Net — Here they explain that there are two different types of Garbage Collection in .Net WorkStation GC and Server GC.
To tell it short, WorkStation GC is more aggressive than Server GC and therefore collects more often.
Testing WorkStation GC we took a simple Asp.Net Core Crud Api and moved from Server to Workstation GC. This Api is serving around 500 requests a minute and swallowed around 230MB of memory.
After moving to Workstation GC the api fell to around 85MB of memory, with no noticeable performance degrading or increased CPU usage on the machines.
But
This is not a miracle cure, you might have different needs, throughput and so on, that could mean that moving from Server to WorkStation GC could have a performance impact on your service
Do you already run WorkStation GC? If not, try it out — And please share your results | https://medium.com/@mortenrickirasmussen/the-single-best-tip-for-running-asp-net-core-microservices-af323cfe6f0e | ['Morten Ricki Rasmussen'] | 2020-12-05 18:03:37.635000+00:00 | ['Web Development', 'Programming', 'Csharp'] |
New Directions in Supply Chain Management: Talk Takeaways | Deirdre Mendez, Director, Center for Global Business at McCombs
Our November 18, our Global Shifts Dialogues series featured two distinguished CGB board members. Mark Mirelez, CEO of aerospace and defense system provider BEI Precision, and medical technology consultant Rene van de Zande discussed the impact of the pandemic on multi-tiered supply chains in heavily-regulated industries. Here are some highlights:
Pandemic-Based Changes in Supply Chains:
Big data analysis of cost saving strategies, strategic sourcing, and streamlining was in place before COVID-19. The pandemic has significantly increased its use for supply assurance and reliability.
A discussion of reshoring that existed prior to the pandemic is now heightened, and will continue as companies try to balance assurance and security issues with the cost of manufacturing at home.
Pandemic-based shortages have increased concern about supply assurance and supply chain vulnerability. These will continue to be top priorities moving forward.
Government and industry collaboration has increased to speed approvals and deliver innovations. While this enhanced collaboration will likely continue, a key challenge will be to speed processes while maintaining standards for safety and effectiveness.
What Will Define Success and Failure:
Supply chain stability means steadily assessing and managing risk. Leaders should monitor data continually to understand their exposure and respond accordingly. Risk assessment must translate into actions that support key suppliers, mitigate sole-source exposure, address transportation challenges, etc.
Companies should leverage innovations in digital communication to trim costs and minimize risk. Rethinking the need for brick-and-mortar facilities, in-person work policies, and travel for meetings can enhance competitiveness.
Leadership should be increasingly dispersed throughout supply chains to access knowledge and creative ideas at every level. | https://medium.com/@centerforglobalbusiness/takeaways-from-cgbs-global-shift-dialogues-part-3-7c55975fc48a | ['Cgb Insights'] | 2021-03-10 17:41:18.325000+00:00 | ['Pandemic', 'Supply Chain', 'Strategy', 'Global', 'Supply Chain Management'] |
My Perfect Day | I woke up on my first day of retirement with nothing on my calendar (ahhh.) I thought it would be a good idea to check my financial situation since I wouldn’t be earning an income anymore. To my surprise, one of the funds I had invested in had gone crazy, and my 401k was now worth 20 million dollars, which was 19.95 million higher than yesterday. Not bad, I thought.
I called my wife, Lee, and told her she could quit her job. She said her goodbyes and came home. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the temperature was a perfect 73 degrees with a gentle breeze blowing. So we decided to go for a walk. We walked to the open field by our house. I looked up in the sky and noticed a hot-air balloon descending. It landed, and a man got out and approached us.
To my delight, it was Professor Tinkerhoffer from the Island of Phiddle. He asked us if we would like to join him for lunch and a tour of the island. Naturally, we took him up on his offer and climbed into his balloon. After an exhilarating ride, we arrived on the Island of Phiddle. He must have known a shortcut because we arrived in a surprisingly short amount of time.
We landed at the home of Jimmy and Betsy Toocalm. It was Phiddleberry Friday, and their children were enjoying Phiddleberry jam on toast, and conversation with birds of the air. We joined them for a huge slice of Betsy’s famous Phiddleberry pie. Unexpectedly, Jude The Animal Expert Dude showed up and joined us. He told us he was on Phiddle studying Warbles, the singing animals found only on the top of Mount Phiddle. We spent lunch listening to Jude tell us of his adventures in the field.
After lunch, the professor escorted us to his workshop, where he spent an hour explaining the many gadgets he had invented. I couldn’t help but notice the strange contraption in the middle of the workshop. It had many dials and pipes and gauges and a large padded chair. I asked the professor about it.
“Oh, that is a time machine. Actually, it is the second time machine I have created. The story of the first one is too sad of a tale for a perfect day.”
“Could you take us back in time?” I asked.
“I can, but time travel is a tricky thing. There are as many risks as rewards,” the professor replied.
“What do you think?” I asked Lee.
“I don’t have to work tomorrow,” she said.
So we decided to risk it.
“What time would you like to visit?” the professor asked.
“How about the wild west,” I said.
“Magnificent idea. I have never visited that time period. Shall we?” the professor said motioning to the time machine with his hand.
We all squeezed onto the large chair. Incredible noises and lights surrounded us and then, boom. We found ourselves somewhere in the old west, near a small town in the desert. As we sat there in wonder, a cowboy rode up and introduced himself.
“Howdy folks. Name’s Hollister Bootstone. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a time machine come through these parts. What time you from?”
Lee and I sat there with our mouths open.
Professor Tinkerhoffer said, “The future. It’s better if you don’t know too much.”
“I reckon that’s for the best. You folks hungry?”
We accompanied Hollister to town and stopped at the saloon for some of the best chips and salsa I ever ate. Hollister told us many tales of his adventures as we snacked the afternoon away. The professor thanked Hollister for his hospitality and said we needed to be moving on.
“Ya’ll come back and see us again,” Hollister said.
We climbed onto the time machine, and the professor said, “When to now?”
Lee said, “I’d like to visit 1980?”
“Why then?” the professor asked.”
“That is when Mark and I had our first date,” she replied.
“You want to fix that mistake?” I said, and laughed.
“I’m still deciding,” Lee replied.
“Now, you realize you will not be young again when we go back. And you will not be able to interact with your younger selves. It is far too dangerous, as you could change history. You can only observe from a distance,” the professor said,
“That is fine,” Lee replied.
“Can we make one detour? I would love to stop in Flint, Michigan, and get some Supreme donuts. It was a tragedy when they went out of business,” I asked.
“Absolutely,” the professor replied.
Boom. We landed in Flint, Michigan, in 1980. After ordering two dozen donuts from Supreme donuts to take home with us, we jumped over to Ypsilanti, Michigan to Put-Putt Miniature Golf. There the three of us watch an incredibly shy young man trying to find something to say to a beautiful young woman who was way out of his league and had to do most the work keeping the conversation going.
“We were so young,” Lee said.
“Teenagers. I was so nervous. And clueless. Who asks a girl to go mini-golfing on a first date?”
“You,” Lee said.
“We better be going before I start blubbering,” Professor Tinkerhoffer said.
We climbed aboard the time machine, and the professor said, “One more trip, then we better get back. I promised to take Jude up to the top of Phiddleberry Mountain again. Where to?”
“I’d love to visit Hugsville again. In the present time,” I said.
“Here we go,” the professor said and off we went.
We walked into the Hugsville Diner, and Shelly said, “My stars. Is that you, Mark Starlin?” She walked over and hugged me.
“It is. In the flesh. This is my wife, Lee.”
“Pleased to meet you, Lee,” Shelly said and hugged Lee.
“And this is Professor Tinkerhoffer.”
“Welcome to Huggsville, Professor.” Shelly gave the professor a big hug.
“You folks have a seat. I am going to call Bill. He will want to come see you.”
We sat down and had a delicious dinner. Afterward, we had some of Shelly’s delicious cherry pie. Bill and two children came through the door. Bill grabbed me out of my chair and wrapped me in a big bear hug. After introductions, he hugged Lee and the professor also. We caught up on each other’s lives and had a great time. After more hugs, we were on our way.
We made it back to Phiddle, and after some more sight-seeing the professor flew us home. We walked back to our house and noticed an envelope taped to our front door. Inside were tickets to a Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors concert being held that night at the local amphitheater. As we enjoyed the show, we wondered who had put the tickets on our door. What a nice surprise. After the concert, there were fireworks over the pond by the amphitheater (for my wife, who loves fireworks.)
It was a perfect day. | https://medium.com/mark-starlin-writes/my-perfect-day-844e464ec255 | ['Mark Starlin'] | 2019-05-21 05:06:26.352000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Fantasy', 'Fiction', 'Dreams', 'Other Stories'] |
7 Tips to Launch a Successful Google AdWords campaign in 2018 | Google AdWords is one of the most advanced advertising platforms that allow big and small businesses to have their products and services advertised in front of potential customers, in a matter of hours!
If you’ve been using the platform, you’ll know that there are numerous targeting options and settings that cater to different types of businesses. These countless options and settings can often be overwhelming and difficult to understand when launching a new marketing campaign, which can easily eat into a large chunk of your marketing budget spent without achieving your marketing goals. I’ve seen this translate to thousands of dollars wasted in ad spend.
In this article, I’ll share my top 7 tips to make sure your business is seeing a healthy Return On Investment (ROI) for every dollar you spend on AdWords, in 2018 and beyond.
Tip 1: An excellent account structure
A well-structured AdWords account is a must if you want your ad spend to turn a profit. The foundation of a well-structured account is all about relevancy. We’ve seen Cost-Per-Acquisitions (CPAs) fall by as much as 60% simply by improving the structure of an AdWords account. Keywords, ads and ad groups in each campaign should be tightly related. In turn, Google will reward you by lowering advertising costs.Here is an example of a well-structured AdWords account with two different campaigns that are segmented by niche. Notice how each campaign’s ad group, keywords, and ads have a consistent theme.
Tip 2: Start with Search network campaigns
The Search network is the bullseye when it comes to targeting the hottest potential customers for your products and services. So, without a doubt, Search network campaigns should be your first port of call. Unlike marketing on the Display network, which interrupts your prospects as they browse the web, prospects on the Search network have actually taken an action by searching for a solution to their problem — already qualifying them as a lead. They are closer to the bottom of your marketing funnel, making them the most likely to convert to a lead or customer.Launching on the Search network also gives you a good idea of contextual keywords that can be carried over to the Display network.
Tip 3: Low daily budgets and cost-per-clicks (CPCs)
When launching new AdWords campaigns, it’s hard to determine how much traffic your ads will get and how fast you’ll spend your budget. The last thing you want to do is blow a few thousand dollars in the first few hours or days without many conversions to show for your ad spend. I’ve seen it happen!To avoid this, I recommend setting your daily budget to half or even a quarter of the actual daily budget that you have in mind, especially when you are new to the game. This will allow you to ease into the campaign while monitoring how the traffic performs based on your targeting. For campaigns where you select manual CPC bidding, I would also recommend starting with lower CPCs and increase your bids as needed based on the results the keywords produce.
Tip 4: Ad copy & images matter
Ad copy is arguably the most important part of your AdWords campaign. It’s responsible for attracting the right prospects while repelling those who won’t convert to customers. Here at The Agora, we believe copy is king.I recommend split-testing two very different big ideas in your ad copy. Your target audience will always respond better to one of the two big ideas. I also recommend tracking your results in a way that you can compare sales results from each of ad.You can then use the winning ad copy throughout your marketing funnel and expand on its success. For ads that run on the display network, images are just as important as ad copy. The images you choose for your ads need to grab the attention of prospective customers to make them want to click on your ad. Bottom line: Your ad image must set you aside from the rest of all the millions of campaigns out there.I recommend testing natural looking images against images taken from stock image websites. It’s impossible to know what image will perform better without testing. The screenshot below shows a chalkboard image, tested against natural looking images on the display network campaign.
Tip 5: Accurate testing & tracking
Testing and tracking is not an option if your AdWords campaigns are going to be successful. In most cases when launching a campaign, your initial CPAs are going to be higher than your desired CPAs. Testing different keywords, ads, and bid strategies will help you find the best option to meet your CPA goals.In order for Google to properly track conversions, the AdWords conversion tags must be properly placed on the thank-you pages your prospective customers land on, after taking the desired conversion action on your website. Here’s an example of the AdWords tracking code that is placed the thank-you page.
Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a great way to help manage tracking tags. Its user-friendly interface helps with tracking Google tags as well as third-party tracking and testing. I like to think of GTM as a box where all JavaScript snippets codes are stored, for both Google and third-party tracking applications.
GTM consist of three parts:
1) The main tag that’s added to each page you want to collect information on.
2) Triggers that determine when the tag is executed.
3) Variables used to receive and store information used by tags and triggers.
You can also track conversions for campaigns that are not on the web, these include app, phone, and offline campaigns
Tip 6: Campaign set up by device type
With mobile usage on the rise, there’s a good chance a large percentage of your AdWords traffic is coming from mobile devices. It’s not a good idea to assume desktop and mobile traffic produce the same results. I recommend categorizing campaigns by device type.Structuring your campaigns by device type allows you to handle desktop traffic independent from mobile traffic. This will allow you to set bids separately, create different funnels, and easily track the results by device, ensuring you’re in total control of your ROI regardless of device type.
Tip 7: Set up Negative keyword list on the search network
The less restrictive the keyword match type on the Search network (broad and broad match modifier), the higher the chances are that your ad will be triggered by search phrases that have nothing to do with your products and services. It’s a good idea to make sure you’re not receiving clicks from unrelated searches in your campaigns.The “keyword search terms” tab is a great tool to weed out these unwanted keywords from your campaigns. You can add these phrases as negative keywords which would stop your ad from showing in the future when these phrases are used in searches.In AdWords, you can set up negative keywords at an ad group or campaign level. Setting one main negative keyword list at a campaign level will cover all of your ad groups inside each campaign.To set up your negative keyword list, click on the “keywords” tab inside of a specific campaign, and then click on the “negative keywords” tab. You can add keywords at either an ad group level or campaign level by clicking the corresponding red “keywords” button.Keep in mind, negative keywords can also use broad, broad match modifier, phrase, and exact match types to control the traffic that triggers your ad.
Following these 7 tips above will not only save you a lot of time but will also help avoid wasting your marketing budget in 2018!
Thanks,
Tye Binuyo
Account Manager, Agora Integrated Marketing
P.S. If you’re interested in harnessing the power of decades of knowledge, testing, and expertise, from a team of specialized Direct Response Marketers sign up to our weekly newsletter today. You can sign up here. | https://medium.com/swlh/7-tips-to-launch-a-successful-google-adwords-campaign-in-2018-945ca7ccfdea | ['Agora Integrated Marketing'] | 2018-02-26 11:29:10.739000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'PPC Marketing', 'Adwords', 'Google Adwords Tips'] |
What Ever Happened to The World Record Egg That Cracked Instagram? | The Egg Is Scrambled
The creators knew that the next steps needed to be important. And so they decided to crack the egg — now known as Eugene. Over the next couple of weeks, the account released pictures of the egg with a crack that got progressively bigger. Each post gathered over 5 million likes.
Source: Instagram
As the world (or at least 45 million people) waited to see what the build-up would be, Eugene announced that all would be revealed during a post-Super Bowl video in conjunction with Hulu.
The build-up was great; the publicity building and the big reveal was to come. As speculation continued, one marketing agency claimed that a partnership with the egg would be worth $10 million, making a huge profit for the still anonymous account owner.
On February 3, before the commercial ran, the identity of the creator was unmasked by the New York Times — it was 29-year-old British advertising executive, Chris Godfrey.
Asked why he used a simple picture of an egg to try and go viral, Godfrey said:
“Why an egg? An egg is recognisable to millions of people across the globe, no matter what your age is. It has no race, religion, or political agenda. An egg is… an egg. You can’t hate an egg. And Kylie Jenner being dethroned by an egg? You have to admit it would be funny.”
An hour after the Super Bowl ended, a new show went live on Hulu. With just a single one-minute episode titled “The Reveal”—viewers could watch a simple one-minute message from the egg itself.
Source: Instagram
The message showed that the egg had cracked from all the social media pressure and directed viewers to the website for the nonprofit group Mental Health America, with a reminder to “talk to someone” if ever you find yourself struggling with stress and other mental health issues. The build-up had all been to promote mental health awareness.
They created the #EggGang to be used as a show of support for people with mental health issues, and this quickly became a trending hashtag.
While some people felt a let down as they were expecting a big new TV show or movie to be announced, the overwhelming response was positive. | https://bettermarketing.pub/what-ever-happened-to-the-world-record-egg-that-cracked-instagram-5226cc9359f8 | ['Ash Jurberg'] | 2020-12-21 17:33:13.738000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Mental Health', 'Influencer Marketing', 'Social Media', 'Marketing'] |
Porting Oracle to YugabyteDB | I presented an Introduction to SQL webinar. In preparation for this, I needed a dataset. Because YugabyteDB is compatible with PostgreSQL, it seemed obvious to try out the PostgreSQL Tutorial site. However, I have never liked the “film database” example. I prefer the classic example with customers, orders, and products. So instead I checked out the sister site the Oracle Tutorial. Let us look at what it takes to port this database to YugabyteDB.
The Oracle Tutorial Sample Database
The Oracle Tutorial sample database contains a dozen tables each with a handful to a few hundred records. It maps pretty clearly to the kind of data that a company with some customers and products might manage.
(Credit: The Oracle Tutorial)
The download consists of a few scripts. These create the users, the schema, and load the data. They are not that different off from what you might generate with the Oracle get_ddl PL/SQL tool. The zip file contains:
ot_create_user.sql — creates an initial user called “ot” and grants privileges to the user
— creates an initial user called “ot” and grants privileges to the user ot_schema.sql — creates all of the tables and constraints
— creates all of the tables and constraints ot_drop.sql — drops all of the tables
— drops all of the tables ot_data.sql — disables the constraints, inserts all of the data, enables the constraints
Running SQL in YugabyteDB
If you want to follow along first install YugabyteDB by following the instructions on the download site. Pay extra care to make sure you have enough file handles.
From the home directory of an existing YugabyteDB installation type “./bin/ysqlsh.” If this is a local install you should be immediately taken to a shell. This is basically the same as the postgresql psql command. You can execute SQL statements here. There are also built in commands that are executed with the backslash ‘\’ character.
\? – displays help
– displays help \dt – lists the tables (similar to select table_name from user_tables)
– lists the tables (similar to select table_name from user_tables) \q – exits the shell
Making changes to the Oracle Tutorial Scripts
While both Oracle and YugabyteDB are relational databases and both support SQL, like any other two relational databases there are some minor differences that require consideration. For the purpose of the tutorial here are the main issues:
Users and roles
Schema references
Data Types
YugabyteDB does not support enabling or disabling constraints
YugabyteDB does not support “generated” identity fields
Running all of the scripts through the SQL Lines web tool
Because YugabyteDB supports PostgreSQL’s dialect and datatypes, the Oracle scripts have to be converted. This could be done by hand, but that would be really boring. Instead, there is a free-to-use web tool at http://www.sqlines.com/online. You literally cut and paste each script into it, select “oracle” as the source format, and “postgresql” as the output format and click convert. Copy the output (on the right) into the original file and save over the original. This fixes all of the datatypes.
Changing the ot_create_user.sql script
The original script has comments, the word “privileges” spelled with a “d” multiple times and two lines:
CREATE USER OT IDENTIFIED BY yourpassword;
GRANT CONNECT, RESOURCE, DBA TO OT;
The YugabyteDB version looks like this:
-- create new user
CREATE USER OT WITH PASSWORD 'yugabyte'; -- create database
CREATE DATABASE OT WITH OWNER=OT; -- grant privileges
GRANT ALL ON DATABASE OT TO OT;
However, for convenience sake you may also add to the top of the file:
DROP DATABASE OT;
DROP USER OT;
This is mainly for convenience’s sake while creating/destroying the database during testing.
Changing ot_schema.sql
Most of the work is in this file. It is also useful to divide it into two files: One to create schema and table elements and another to create constraints.
Copy ot_schema.sql to ot_create_constraints.sql
Add:
CREATE SCHEMA OT;
SET search_path TO OT,public;
CREATE SEQUENCE OT.regions_seq;
This creates the “ot” schema and changes the user’s search path to look at the “OT” schema first before the default “public” schema. This has to be done because all of the insert statements in the “ot_data.sql” script directly reference the schema name i.e. “insert into OT.countries” but in other places, the table is referenced without the schema name.
Next, change every create table statement to explicitly reference the schema. For example:
CREATE TABLE regions
becomes
CREATE TABLE OT.regions
Next, remove every “GENERATED BY DEFAULT AS IDENTITY” line. For example:
“GENERATED BY DEFAULT AS IDENTITY START WITH 320” — just delete these lines. I will blog about sequences some other time, but my colleague Bryn has explained in another blog why database sequences are not good in a distributed database and some alternatives. While they are not needed for the example database to work for our purposes, if you were doing something more production-ready you would want to replace sequences with UUIDs, Bryn’s blog explains this in exquisite detail.
Finally, remove all of the lines around foreign key constraints except for the primary keys. While YugabyteDB does support the constraint clause, it does not support “enable” or “disable.” Instead it is better to create them after a data load and delete them before a data load. In order to do that without duplicating the creation, it makes sense to delete them here and create them with “alter table” statements instead. Delete all of the foreign key constraint clauses except for the primary key clauses.
For example, in the OT.orders definition, remove:
CONSTRAINT fk_orders_customers
FOREIGN KEY( customer_id )
REFERENCES customers( customer_id )
ON DELETE CASCADE,
CONSTRAINT fk_orders_employees
FOREIGN KEY( salesman_id )
REFERENCES employees( employee_id )
ON DELETE SET NULL
And the comma in the line above this clause. The orders table definition should be simplified to:
CREATE TABLE OT.orders
(
order_id DOUBLE PRECISION PRIMARY KEY,
customer_id INT NOT NULL, -- fk
status VARCHAR( 20 ) NOT NULL ,
salesman_id INT , -- fk
order_date TIMESTAMP(0) NOT NULL
);
However, leave in all of the primary key constraint clauses. For example, order_items should remain:
CREATE TABLE OT.order_items
(
order_id BIGINT , -- fk
item_id BIGINT ,
product_id BIGINT NOT NULL , -- fk
quantity DECIMAL( 8, 2 ) NOT NULL ,
unit_price DECIMAL( 8, 2 ) NOT NULL ,
CONSTRAINT pk_order_items
PRIMARY KEY( order_id, item_id )
);
And the inventories table should remain:
CREATE TABLE OT.inventories
(
product_id BIGINT , -- fk
warehouse_id BIGINT , -- fk
quantity INT NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_inventories
PRIMARY KEY( product_id, warehouse_id )
);
Those are all the changes required for the schema script.
ot_create_constraints.sql
In the beginning we made a copy of the “ot_schema.sql” script. Leave the “ SET search_path TO OT,public; ” at the top but erase everything except the create table statements. Each create_table statement should be changed to ALTER TABLE … ADD. The field definitions should be deleted and only the constraints should remain. For example the “order_items” constraint definition should be:
ALTER TABLE OT.order_items ADD
CONSTRAINT fk_order_items_products
FOREIGN KEY( product_id )
REFERENCES products( product_id )
ON DELETE CASCADE;
ALTER TABLE OT.order_items ADD
CONSTRAINT fk_order_items_orders
FOREIGN KEY( order_id )
REFERENCES orders( order_id )
ON DELETE CASCADE
;
Copy this to another file called ot_drop_constraints.sql.
ot_drop_constraints.sql
Change all of the “ALTER TABLE ADD” statements to “DROP” and add one per constraint. The entire output should look like this:
ALTER TABLE countries DROP CONSTRAINT fk_countries_regions;
ALTER TABLE locations DROP CONSTRAINT fk_locations_countries;
ALTER TABLE warehouses DROP CONSTRAINT fk_warehouses_locations;
ALTER TABLE employees DROP CONSTRAINT fk_employees_manager;
ALTER TABLE products DROP CONSTRAINT fk_products_categories;
ALTER TABLE contacts DROP CONSTRAINT fk_contacts_customers;
ALTER TABLE orders DROP CONSTRAINT fk_orders_customers;
ALTER TABLE orders DROP CONSTRAINT fk_orders_employees;
ALTER TABLE order_items DROP CONSTRAINT fk_order_items_products;
ALTER TABLE order_items DROP CONSTRAINT fk_order_items_orders;
ALTER TABLE inventories DROP CONSTRAINT fk_inventories_products;
ALTER TABLE inventories DROP CONSTRAINT fk_inventories_warehouses;
ot_data.sql
Remove all of the ALTER TABLE statements from the top and bottom of the file. We have externalized this into the ot_create_constraints.sql and ot_drop_constraints.sql scripts.
Running the Oracle Tutorial Scripts on YugabyteDB
The scripts should now be run in this sequence:
ot_create_user.sql
ot_schema.sql
ot_data.sql
ot_create_constraint.sql
The “drop_constraint.sql” is not technically needed unless running another bulk load, but it is nice to have.
Back to ysqlsh
Run the YugabyteDB shell:
./bin/ysqlsh
Run these steps:
\i ot_create_user.sql \c ot ot
You are now connected to database “ot” as user “ot”.
\i ot_schema.sql
\i data.sql
\i ../ot_create_constraint.sql
Testing it out
That is it. The Oracle Tutorial sample database has been successfully loaded into YugabyteDB.
\dt tells you what tables are here:
ot=> \dt List of relations
Schema | Name | Type | Owner
--------+--------------------+-------+-------
ot | contacts | table | ot
ot | countries | table | ot
ot | customers | table | ot
ot | employees | table | ot
ot | inventories | table | ot
ot | locations | table | ot
ot | order_items | table | ot
ot | orders | table | ot
ot | product_categories | table | ot
ot | products | table | ot
ot | regions | table | ot
ot | warehouses | table | ot
(12 rows)
Describe a table:
\d orders
Table "ot.orders"
Column | Type | Collation | Nullable | Default
-------------+--------------------------------+-----------+----------+---------
order_id | double precision | | not null |
customer_id | integer | | not null |
status | character varying(20) | | not null |
salesman_id | integer | | |
order_date | timestamp(0) without time zone | | not null |
Indexes:
"orders_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, lsm (order_id HASH)
Foreign-key constraints:
"fk_orders_customers" FOREIGN KEY (customer_id) REFERENCES customers(customer_id) ON DELETE CASCADE
"fk_orders_employees" FOREIGN KEY (salesman_id) REFERENCES employees(employee_id) ON DELETE SET NULL
Referenced by:
TABLE "order_items" CONSTRAINT "fk_order_items_orders" FOREIGN KEY (order_id) REFERENCES orders(order_id) ON DELETE CASCADE
You can get row counts to make sure the data got inserted:
select count(*) from customers;
count
-------
319
(1 row)
And even run a more complicated query to get totals per order:
select order_id, sum(total) from (select o.order_id as order_id, o.customer_id, o.order_date, i.item_id as item_id, i.quantity * i.unit_price as total from orders o inner join order_items i on o.order_id=i.order_id) as x group by order_id, item_id;
order_id | sum
----------+-------------
28 | 166798.6100
102 | 75899.3100
94 | 4232.5400
46 | 166074.3500
23 | 54167.2600
72 | 130993.7700
34 | 31638.8700
88 | 213601.6600
24 | 18605.0000
1 | 89609.1300
36 | 30914.5500
95 | 37921.7100
13 | 20253.8000
27 | 25080.0000
83 | 55631.2400
67 | 85186.7600
43 | 240799.1400
27 | 279407.0400
105 | 62369.2300
18 | 78278.9700
22 | 53577.1100
5 | 70846.3600
98 | 41598.9600
What’s next?
If you want to learn more SQL:
If you are new to SQL then I would check out the previously recorded webinar.
Check out the Yugabyte Docs and the Northwind sample database, which is very similar to the Oracle Tutorial sample database
…but if you are not a command-line junkie, consider one of the great graphical tools available for Yugabyte including pgAdmin
If you want to learn more about SQL or porting Oracle or Learning SQL: | https://medium.com/yugabyte/porting-oracle-to-yugabytedb-86475f1a88d | ['Andrew C. Oliver'] | 2020-08-13 12:09:09.037000+00:00 | ['Yugabyte', 'Postgres', 'Sql', 'Database', 'Cloud Computing'] |
Kubernetes CKA hands-on challenge #4 Node Management | Content
Overview and Tips
Rules!
be fast, avoid creating yaml manually from scratch use only kubernetes.io/docs for help. check my solution after you did yours. You probably have a better one!
Notices
This challenge was tested on k8s 1.18. Please let us know should you encounter any issues in the comments
how to be fast with Kubectl ≥ 1.18
Scenario Setup
You will start a two node cluster on your machine, one master and one worker. For this you need to install VirtualBox and vagrant, then:
cd cka-example-environments/cluster1
./up.sh git clone [email protected] :wuestkamp/cka-example-environments.gitcd cka-example-environments/cluster1./up.sh vagrant ssh cluster1-master1
vagrant@cluster1-master1:~$ sudo -i
root@cluster1-master1:~# kubectl get node
You should be connected as root@cluster1-master1 . You can connect to other worker nodes using root, like ssh root@cluster1-worker1
If you want to destroy the environment again run ./down.sh . You should destroy the environment after usage so no more resources are used!
Todays Task: Node Management
Drain the node cluster1-worker1 . Save single pods manually to restore afterwards. Remove the node cluster1-worker1 temporarily from the cluster. Add the worker node back to the cluster and allow scheduling again. Restore the single pods. Create a pod of image httpd:2.4.41-alpine and confirm its scheduled on cluster1-worker1 . Expose the pod via a NodePort service and connect to it using curl. You should be able to connect to the internal IP of cluster1-worker1 from your local machine. Suspend the master node ( vagrant suspend cluster1-master1 ), then check: is the pod still reachable via the NodePort service? Resume the master node ( vagrant resume cluster1-master1 ) and confirm node status normal.
Solution
The following commands will be executed as root@cluster1-master1 :
alias k=kubectl
1.
k get node # one master one worker
k drain cluster1-worker1
An error is displayed. BUT the node is now already marked as SchedulingDisabled so new pods couldn’t get scheduled!
We can use --ignore-daemonsets to kill pods of DaemonSets, but there are two pods not controlled by controller resources:
error: cannot delete Pods not managed by ReplicationController, ReplicaSet, Job, DaemonSet or StatefulSet (use --force to override): management/important-pod, management/web-server
So we export those:
k -n management get pod important-pod -o yaml --export > important-pod.yaml k -n management get pod web-server -o yaml --export > web-server.yaml
I know the --export flag has been marked deprecated, but I don’t see a good alternative as of now. Else we need to clean the yaml configs ourselves.
And run:
k drain cluster1-worker1 --ignore-daemonsets --force k get pod --all-namespaces # various PENDING states
2.
To remove the worker node stop the kubelet :
ssh cluster1-worker1
root@cluster1-worker1:~# service kubelet stop
root@cluster1-worker1:~# exit
Then we check the node status, give it a minute or two:
k get node
We should see cluster1-worker1 marked as NotReady,SchedulingDisabled .
3.
We add the node back to the cluster:
ssh cluster1-worker1
root@cluster1-worker1:~# service kubelet start
root@cluster1-worker1:~# exit
Then we check back:
k get node # should show Ready,SchedulingDisabled k uncordon cluster1-worker1 k get node # back to normal
Restore the single pods:
k -n management -f important-pod.yaml create
k -n management -f web-server.yaml create k get pod --all-namespaces -o wide
This should show all pods are RUNNING again. The pod web-server might still be in an ERROR state, this was handled in part 1.
4.
k run pod --image=httpd:2.4.41-alpine k get pod pod -o wide
Working, scheduled on cluster1-worker1 .
5.
k expose -h
k expose pod pod -h
k expose pod pod --port 80 --type=NodePort k get svc pod # find node port k get node -o wide # find node internal IP
And connect from your main machine:
➜ curl 192.168.101.201:30801 <html><body><h1>It works!</h1></body></html>
Awesome. Check my explanation of NodePort and the other Kubernetes Services if you need a refresh.
6.
Log out and run from your main machine:
➜ vagrant suspend cluster1-master1
vagrant suspend saves the current state of the virtual machine on disk, no more ram used.
Then check the NodePort service again:
➜ curl 192.168.101.201:30801 <html><body><h1>It works!</h1></body></html>
Still working!
That’s one great thing about Kubernetes, the current state is implemented on all worker nodes. Like the services are implemented via the kube-proxy which runs on all workers. If the master (or all masters) are down, like during an upgrade, the cluster still runs normally.
BUT controllers are running on master nodes which means resources like Deployment or HorizontalPodAutoscalers will not work any longer. Also the api-server is not reachable so we couldn’t apply changes.
7.
Let’s boot the master up again:
➜ vagrant resume cluster1-master1
➜ vagrant ssh cluster1-master1 sudo -i k get node
Wonderful.
Clean up
Run: ./down.sh .
All CKA challenges
More challenges on | https://codeburst.io/kubernetes-cka-hands-on-challenge-4-node-management-df7bf48897d3 | ['Kim Wuestkamp'] | 2021-01-02 19:12:19.213000+00:00 | ['Continuous Deployment', 'Continuous Integration', 'Continuous Delivery', 'Cka', 'Kubernetes'] |
Coffee with Our Father in Heaven | Psalm 143:8 Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you. (NLT)
If you wake me each morning with the sound of your loving voice,
I’ll go to sleep each night trusting in you.
Point out the road I must travel;
I’m all ears, all eyes before you.
The Message
Going to Bed On Time Is Hard to Do
Most children
A: Do not want to go to bed.
B: Do not want to get up in the morning.
This is also true of many adults.
This is even true of some Christian leaders.
As a first-time full-time pastor and seminary student, I heard many older leaders wax on about the joys of arising before sunrise to spend time studying the Bible and praying. My active mind was missing an OFF switch. It was tough crawling into bed before midnight. This made getting up before the birds more challenging.
It took years, and a newly-formed coffee habit, to make it possible. The Folgers Coffee jingle is forever embedded in my mind. Sing it with me,
The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup.
What goes in my cup these days is Peet’s House Blend or Peet’s Guatemala San Sebastian. Francisco’s Kona Blend is a nice weekend treat for my bride and me.
The Best Part of Waking Up
For many years now, my days have begun at a predawn hour. This is true even if I decide to sleep late. Our black dog has a stomach clock that is always on time. Two mornings ago, when I had to sleep in the recliner with my head elevated due to some minor surgery, she found it convenient to lick me in the face to alert me to the lateness of the hour.
Arising, not always shining, and ambling toward the Cuisinart is how I start my days. My bride, for some unknown reason, asked me a question en route to coffee this morning. After thirty-five years of marriage, you would think she would have figured out by now that I do not speak before consuming at least one steaming mug. If I do, it tends to come out less pleasantly than otherwise.
Coffee is not the end game. It is the starting point. Peet and I climb the stairs along with the dogs and arrive at the place where my first and focused attention belongs. My iPad alights and the YouVersion Bible app opens to my daily reading plan.
First Things First
First things first, I check in with our Father in heaven.
Another old commercial, this one for American Express, said, “Don’t leave home without it.” If at all possible, I do not go anywhere without starting in God’s presence listening for his voice in the quiet moments of each early morning. You get the idea this was King David’s habit. Look at what he says:
Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you.
His first thought in the morning was of God. He who made it possible for him to lie down and rest, who made it possible for him to awaken to the possibilities and opportunities of a new day, was the first one to whom he spoke. As David wrote in Psalm 4:8, “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O LORD, will keep me safe,” (NLT).
The Message paraphrase of this verse says, “If you wake me each morning with the sound of your loving voice, I’ll go to sleep each night trusting in you.”
Evening and morning and all through the day, our Father is with us to show us the way.
A Prayer Worth Praying
David’s morning prayer was not merely a “Good morning, Lord” moment. It was a check-in for the day’s agenda. Listen to the second half of the verse: “Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you.” The NIV 1984 puts it this way: “Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.”
That’s a prayer worth praying each morning.
Coffee with our Father is the best way I know to begin the day. Listening for his wisdom, applying it to my plans, turning it into a prayer of commitment, and descending the stairs to serve under its direction day by day, week after week, month upon month, year after year is the best part of waking up. I dare not leave home without it.
Let’s enjoy coffee with our Father in heaven day by day.
Pray with me: Our Father, solitude and silence make it possible for these ears and this heart to hear what you are saying. Peaceful rest and strong coffee awaken my mind to discover your daily direction. You faithfully show me the way I should go. Thank you for meeting me here morning by morning. Thank you for guiding me all through the day. Thank you for peaceful rest as I prayerfully lay my head upon the pillow in preparation for our next meeting. Amen. | https://medium.com/@davidgbowman/coffee-with-our-father-in-heaven-6dc622829bc0 | ['David G Bowman'] | 2020-12-14 21:13:49.040000+00:00 | ['Morning Routines', 'Prayer', 'Coffee', 'Devotional', 'Morning Rituals'] |
Extreme E: What It Is and Why You Should Watch It | I have always had a fascination with remote places. They are a great reminder of how big and awe-inspiring our planet is. It’s why my travel bucket list is filled with destinations that aren’t very easy to get to. The Seychelles. The Azores. Patagonia. The Yukon. You get the picture.
So when I heard that there was going to be a new racing series called Extreme E that would hold its events in remote parts of the world, I was sold immediately. We’re pretty used to seeing cars race on asphalt or dirt, but what about on a glacier? Let’s just say Extreme E didn’t hold back when creating the schedule for their inaugural season in 2021.
March: Saudi Arabia (Desert)
May: Senegal (Ocean)
August: Greenland (Arctic)
October: Brazil (Amazon)
December: Argentina (Glacier)
I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see some racing in non-traditional racing environments.
With the series going to some of the most unique and delicate parts of our planet, you may be wondering what kind of effect racing cars will have on these environments. If you are asking those questions, then Extreme E is already succeeding in its goal to raise awareness of climate change. These locations have already been damaged by climate change and each race will serve as an opportunity to educate viewers on the problems and risks that these areas face.
Auto racing, however, isn’t particularly known for being an eco-friendly sport. It typically brings up memories of gas-guzzling, tire-consuming, exhaust-blowing vehicles zooming around speedways. So how will Extreme E minimize its impact on the planet?
Drivers will race fully electric SUVs using hydrogen fuel technology so they can be charged using hydro and solar energy. It comes as no surprise that Extreme E will be using electric vehicles with its ties to Formula E, an all-electric single-seater motorsport series. All equipment will be transported by the RMS St. Helena cargo ship to each race location, which will use significantly less carbon emissions compared to airplanes. The goal is to have a net-zero carbon footprint when the season concludes.
An intriguing schedule of locations, a climate change awareness campaign and eco-friendly initiatives are all reason enough to pay attention to Extreme E. But wait, there’s more…
The series will promote gender equality by requiring each car to be driven by a team of one male and one female. Each teammate must partake in both driving and co-driving responsibilities.
At each race weekend, the qualifying rounds will be held on Saturday with the semi-finals and final races on Sunday. Points will be given based on finishing position. Each race will have 4 cars and consist of 2 laps. Each driver will complete one lap and driver order will be kept secret from other teams until the race for added strategy.
There’s a lot of cool and progressive ideas that Extreme E is bringing to the table in 2021, giving us a look at how motorsports will continue to develop in the future. It has always attracted big names such as Sébastien Loeb, a 9-time champion in the World Rally Championship. Loeb is driving for Team X44, which was formed by none other than the dominant 7-time Formula 1 champion, Lewis Hamilton.
Extreme E has been working on getting TV broadcast deals all over the world. So be sure to tune in on March 20–21 as we head to the deserts of Saudi Arabia for the first race of the next big thing in the world of motorsports.
For more racing updates, follow me on Twitter at @dleeracing.
Information courtesy of Extreme-E.com and Racer.com. | https://medium.com/@dleeracing/extreme-e-what-it-is-and-why-you-should-watch-it-a1b1e1f369fe | ['David Lee'] | 2020-12-17 20:50:26.531000+00:00 | ['Gender Equality', 'Racing', 'Climate Change', 'Motorsport', 'Sports'] |
The President Is A Lunatic | Trump tells tall tales in a 46-minute diatribe on the election. (Which we are not linking to here, as we normally do.)
The President Is A Lunatic
Using words like “baseless” or “unproven” don’t really work as synonyms for his most recent kinds of lies. Because there’s at least a little bit of an implication there that there’s a chance, however small, that they still might be “proven” or have some “base” in reality, when they don’t. Not even close.
Trump’s 46-minute harangue on how the election was stolen from him can be distilled down to one statement from that speech:
“It is statistically impossible that the person — me — that led the charge lost.”
In other words, he just can’t believe he lost. With all those people showing up at his rallies, in the middle of a pandemic no less, and with Republicans doing well in other races, how could he possibly have lost? I don’t know? How did the 49ers not win this year’s Super Bowl?
And I think Trump’s loss in the context he frames it can be explained very easily: people were not necessarily against Trump’s messages. Just the crazy they had to deal with on a day-to-day basis with him as the nation’s Chief Executive. And he’s giving more of an example now why they were right.
So then he pretty much declares war on the United States government, public servants of both parties, and the majority of the American public. Although still, for now, it’s a very personal, intimate war. It may even be notable that while the White House produced and distributed his video, it appears nowhere in the section of the White House website dedicated to the President’s “remarks.”
To believe Trump now is to believe a vast multi-conspiracy involving politicians of all parties and voters — especially in big cities — and vendors acting in precise coordination. And Venezuela too.
Hey, even as manipulative and skilled an underhanded politician as Dick Cheney was, he never did find a way to make “weapons of mass destruction” actually appear in Iraq. And the lies Trump gripes about as fact are a much much heavier lift than that.
And that’s not all. Because Trump then argues it’s the duty of every Republican elected official at the local and national level to line up behind him, swallow his lies as truth, accept his taking a sledgehammer to Democracy as defense of Democracy, and take dirty actions, which in most cases means throwing out all their citizens’ votes and replacing them with a set of votes that make sure he’s victorious.
Because who but a scoundrel and a traitor in Trump’s eyes would dare have the temerity to suggest that the fact Trump lost because he got many many many fewer votes (both popular and electoral) than Joe Biden means in any way shape or form that he’s not entitled to a second term in office anyway?
Lots of people have spent the last few days on Twitter making fun of the President’s lawyers and the wholly ridiculous witnesses they’ve trotted out for “hearings”, many of which have just been for show, but some of which have actually occurred in state legislative committees.
We understand the need to blow off some steam. But there’s nothing to make fun of there. Because it’s people showing us just how willing they are to throw themselves at an electric fence just to please the President. And they kind of “get it” actually: it’s not about establishing facts, it’s about wearing people down and wearing the truth of what happened down. And even if the possibility that anything will come of any of it is very faint, it’d only take one or two points of fatigue or sudden violence to make this potentially a whole lot more difficult. And that’s just the point.
And Trump’s already plainly shown throughout this year he’s willing for people to die purely for the benefit of his pride and vanity.
All Trump’s trying to find is a weak spot where some official out there actually doing their job buckles, giving a green light to others to follow. And then, he hopes, the dominoes will start to fall. This isn’t an easy thing to make happen. But it’s easier so long as Republican leadership by and large is still silent, weeks beyond Trump’s further descent into madness the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Even if it’s all a put-on. Which I don’t think it is. And especially if it is totally real. My best guess: reality fades in and out and he whips back and forth. Like Trump always does on everything. Still, none of it for no reason gives his abetters any excuse nor any cover.
Even after Michael Flynn, who suggests Trump declare martial law and have the military administer a new election. Which would absolutely be a coup. Because that new election couldn’t happen overnight, and of course Trump would set the rules. So it’d mean this country under military control for months, at least if you bother to think about it in practical terms. All to benefit a President who’s saying all he’s doing is protecting the Constitution.
Flynn is a guy who Trump hired as his first National Security Advisor, despite or maybe because President Obama warned he was a nutcase. Trump then fired him, after which Flynn pled guilty to a federal crime, then tried to take back his plea, then last week was pardoned by Trump. All the “best people”…
This was his starting point!
Major news organizations are edging toward calling Trump’s lies “lies” more and more now, but they’re still doing it somewhat gingerly. And in some ways it wouldn’t matter, because the people who believe Trump don’t believe them anyway. So far, the AP has come the closest to telling it like it is:
“Increasingly detached from reality, President Donald Trump stood before a White House lectern and delivered a 46-minute diatribe against the election results that produced a win for Democrat Joe Biden, unspooling one misstatement after another to back his baseless claim that he really won.”
Though is he truly off his rocker? Or is he the inventor and curator of yet another set of particularly malignant “alternate facts” because that stuff has worked for him before so why not? | https://medium.com/@ericjscholl/the-president-is-a-lunatic-2a80da105721 | ['Eric J Scholl'] | 2020-12-07 18:13:50.534000+00:00 | ['Elections', 'Politics', 'Journalism', 'Government', 'Voting'] |
I am | I Am
Photo by Xan Griffin on Unsplash
I am not the things that I have lost
Much more than they can take from me
I have whatever I will need
To become whatever I will be
I plot the course of my own life
And tell myself what I must hear
Save your counsel for yourself
For what you say I will not hear
The dark will not envelop me
Doubt will not my soul entwine
I walk towards my fate alone
And all the days my light will shine
Each night prepares me for the dawn
Each time I fall I shall rejoice
And when I rise I shall be bold
For only I will make my choice | https://medium.com/illumination/i-am-745bf089cadd | ['Nasar Karim'] | 2020-12-28 00:58:18.512000+00:00 | ['Poetry Sunday', 'Inspiration', 'Poetry'] |
SpotCam Eva 2 review: a much-improved security camera | The original SpotCam Eva, which we reviewed in 2016, was a pretty clunky camera, both in terms of its bulky design and its unpolished performance. It was apparent, however, that it contained the seeds of something better, and those have come to fruition in the SpotCam Eva 2.
The rebooted camera has a “snowman” shape that’s neither particularly attractive nor an eyesore, but it’s smaller and easier to hide in plain sight than the original. It also has a wider field of view (130 degrees) and adds a built-in siren and two-way talk capabilities, Amazon Alexa and Google Home integration, and it supports automatic person tracking. Pan-and-tilt is still its core feature, but this feature works much better than it did in the previous iteration.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best home security cameras, where you’ll find reviews of competing products, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product.The first evidence that the Eva 2 had improved on its predecessor surfaced during the setup process. There are no switches to flip or modes to toggle, just a few app-prompted steps to connect the camera to your network. I got the camera up and running in about a minute. I set the camera on a shelf in my living room, but it can also be used outdoors. It has an operating temperature of 14 degrees to 122 degrees Fahrenheit and comes with anchors and screws to mount it to an exterior wall or fence. Keep in mind it uses AC power, so you’ll need proximity to an outdoor outlet or an accessible indoor one if you deploy it outside.
SpotCam SpotCam Eva 2 is leaner and performs better than its predecessor, but it still provides the same 1080p video resolution.
The SpotCam app hasn’t changed much since I used it with the first Eva. Once you select the Eva 2 from the home screen, you’ll see the live feed with camera controls below it, including a speaker mute button, another for taking snapshots of the live feed, and a 30-second rewind. You can scrub through live video on a horizontally scrolling timeline displayed below this toolbar. At the very bottom are buttons for viewing recorded video clips of detected sound and motion events, triggering the microphone, and returning to the live feed. Options for customizing sound- and motion-detection sensitivity, alerts, and other features are accessible through a cog icon at the top right.
[ Further reading: The best video doorbells ]The camera captures a sharp, vibrant image in daytime mode and provides about 32 feet of illumination with strong contrast when night vision is activated. When it detects sound or movement, it pushes a notification to your device with a snapshot of the feed included in the alert. These were accurate in my tests and arrived quickly, suggesting I’d be able to catch an intruder in the act during an actual break-in. Though these generic alerts work well enough, it’s worth enabling human tracking on the Eva 2 for $5.95 per month. It will help you reduce unwanted notifications by only alerting you when a human is identified, and it will lock onto the person and follow their movements so you don’t lose sight of them as they move through or around your home.
That last feature is pan-and-tilt. Even without human tracking, you can can pan the camera 345 degrees and tilt it 90 degrees in small increments by swiping directly on the screen. You can hear the buzz of the motor clearly with each movement, but the camera is very responsive and precise, two things the original Eva’s pan-and-tilt wasn’t.
Michael Ansaldo/IDG The SpotCam app lets you scrub through the Eva 2’s live footage.
The Eva 2 stores all captured video in the cloud. It comes with the tantalizingly-titled Free Forever package, which includes what are actually pretty standard offerings: live streaming video, motion and audio detection, event alerts, and the ability to share live video and snapshots. You do get one-day rolling video history as well, but you must “subscribe” to this free feature in the app for the camera to start recording video clips.
If you want to view more than a single day’s worth of recordings, you can upgrade to a 3-, 7-, or 30-day plan for $3.95, $5.95, or $19.95 a month, respectively.
Though you can view recorded videos with any of these plans, you can’t download them. As with the original Eva, you must create a separate video for exporting from your surveillance clips if you want to have a file you can share via email or flash drive. This requires that you select either a “normal” or time-lapsed video and set parameters such as the video start time and clip length. The final product is saved to a separate tab called My Film, and you can download it to your local drive from there.
This lingering limitation aside, the Spot Cam Eva 2 successfully eliminates the shortcomings of its predecessor and improves upon its strengths. Its easy operation and accurate AI features make it a great security solution for most scenarios. To get the most from it, though, you’ll likely want to upgrade the cloud storage plan and add the human-tracking features, so be sure to factor those costs into your purchase.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@david75976650/spotcam-eva-2-review-a-much-improved-security-camera-cc60b922d38c | [] | 2020-12-24 07:08:16.173000+00:00 | ['Security Cameras', 'Music', 'Services', 'Consumer'] |
IBM Watson SDK for Go | IBM Watson + Go
Have your first go at Go with the IBM Watson Go SDK , a wrapper for the IBM Watson APIs. The SDK includes ready to use data structures and takes care of all the underlying HTTP requests including authentication. Using this SDK, developers can now easily integrate Watson services into their applications.
How to install
Use the Go command on the terminal.
go get -u github.com/watson-developer-cloud/go-sdk/...
This will fetch the packages sub-packages and dependencies.
How to Use
First, provision a Watson service by following the steps here. Once you provision a service, you will get credentials which you would use in the following general steps.
Service Dashboard
Now, follow the below general steps in your code:
Import the service package
2. Instantiate the Watson service using the API key obtained above
3. Invoke the API endpoint using the service instance. For a successful response, it will contain the HTTP status code, response headers and API result
4. Handle responses and errors
Ready, Set, Go
Go ahead and explore the various capabilities of IBM Watson services with Go— from quickly building a simple chatbot to tagging and classifying visual content to unlocking hidden value in data to find answers and surface patterns.
There are also a bunch of examples for various services to help you get started. Play with the Go SDK and let us know what you think. | https://medium.com/ibm-watson/ibm-watson-sdk-for-go-1841d7aa0bcf | ['Erika Dsouza'] | 2019-12-24 09:09:18.901000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Go', 'Announcements', 'IBM', 'Developer Tools'] |
The Unexpected Love of My Life | I have grown closer than ever to him since his procedure. As he’s gotten a bit older, he is showing signs of recognizing his favorite people. His whole face lights up when his oldest brother comes home from school. He tracks his mother across the room, smiling at her when she turns to look at him. When I visit, he always has a smile for me and reaches out to touch my face.
When he’s fussy or overtired and starts screaming, most of the relatives will surrender him back to the care of his parents. If I’m around, though, I always jump in, pick him up, walk him around the room bouncing and patting him.
Everyone jokes that I’m his favorite, that he really doesn’t like anyone outside his immediate family except for Auntie Yael. To be fair, I think he is probably comforted by my likeness to his mother. We have similar body types, hair color, and voices, and I’ve noticed that siblings and even cousins often have similar scents — like some type of genetic pheromone. However, some of my sister’s other children did not develop such a strong bond with me in those early days, so I know Alex and I must have a unique connection.
When I visit, he always has a smile for me and reaches out to touch my face.
One of the most pleasant aspects of our relationship has been the ability to feed him. Because of his condition, my sister was not able to breastfeed him after he was born. Though it was a devastating blow to her to not be able to do that for her most vulnerable child, it has been a gift to the family, allowing us to participate in his care in ways we have never been able to do with the other kids.
And though it might sound selfish, this gift was perhaps the greatest for me. I have always wondered what it would be like to experience pregnancy to full term, to give birth, to breastfeed a child. That has not been part of my journey, except for my one miscarriage, and that has been one of the deepest disappointments of my life.
Bottle feeding Alex, however, has given me a little glimpse into that world. It is one of the best experiences I have ever had. I love watching him eat, listening to the little sounds he makes as he sucks and swallows. Now that he’s a little older, he locks eyes with me, staring at me the entire time, his hand on my face, touching my chin, cheek, or lips. I can literally feel the oxytocin flooding my body in those moments. It’s pure heaven. | https://psiloveyou.xyz/the-unexpected-love-of-my-life-2a8b12e305ea | ['Yael Wolfe'] | 2020-08-20 03:20:47.025000+00:00 | ['Family', 'This Happened To Me', 'Love', 'Relationships', 'Baby'] |
Read “The Latest Thing” now @ Collective Unconscious! | Photo by Rebecca Matthews on Unsplash
Our latest story at Collective Unconscious is titled, appropriately enough, “The Latest Thing.” Written by Max Hardman, this quirky piece explores how important timekeeping can really be!
Also new since last we spoke is “Empty Chair” by Cecil Adkins.
Read these and all our other great speculative fiction at COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS!
Are you a writer with a Sci-Fi or fantasy piece you’d like us to include in Collective Unconscious? Join the fun by taking a look at our Submissions process here.
Until next time, have fun reading!
Cecil Adkins | https://medium.com/collective-unconscious/read-the-latest-thing-now-collective-unconscious-e321961987d8 | ['Cecil Adkins'] | 2019-11-11 01:44:27.611000+00:00 | ['Fantasy', 'Short Story', 'Science Fiction'] |
DA Krasner, Conviction Integrity Unit Release Report on Overturning Era of Wrongful Convictions in Philly | CONTACT:
Jane Roh, 215–686–8711, [email protected]
PHILADELPHIA (June 15, 2021) — The District Attorney’s Office (DAO) Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) released the first of what will be regular reports on the work of the CIU, which in fewer than four years has helped secure the exonerations of 20 people in 21 cases. All but one of the convictions were marred by official misconduct committed by prosecutors and/or police, such as withholding exculpatory evidence, coercing false confessions, or committing perjury.
Of the 20 people exonerated under the CIU, created in 2018 and led by Assistant District Attorney Patricia Cummings and District Attorney Larry Krasner, all but two individuals were Black men. In one of the more extreme examples of official misconduct, Christopher Williams, a Black man, was wrongfully convicted of murder in two separate cases, and cleared of all crimes in both cases.
The CIU’s work also includes sentencing review, maintaining the Police Misconduct Database (to help all DAO prosecuting units meet constitutionally required disclosure requirements), and reviewing commutation petitions for people in prison, many of whom are serving overly punitive or unjust sentences meted out decades ago. No prior DA’s administration in Philadelphia has engaged in intense and careful review of troubled convictions and inequitable sentences.
The report, “Overturning Convictions — and an Era,” is available for download here: tinyurl.com/CIUreport.
“When DA Krasner recruited me to come and lead the CIU in Philly, I had some awareness of the challenges I would face in the city that once boasted the nation’s ‘Deadliest DA,’ Lynne Abraham,” CIU Supervisor Cummings said. “What I learned as we got the CIU up and running was nothing short of astonishing: layers upon layers of misconduct sometimes committed by prosecutors and often committed by police — including some who are still on the city payroll or receiving taxpayer-funded city pensions– and dozens of men, overwhelmingly Black and young at the time, caught up in a vicious system that lacked transparency and accountability. I am incredibly proud of the work this unit has accomplished in such a short amount of time, and I am sobered by our ever-growing caseload.”
“Since I persuaded Patricia Cummings to come to the Philly DAO, she and her Conviction Integrity Unit team have made a reality of the prosecutor’s obligation to do justice moving forward and to do justice by correcting injustice in the past. The CIU’s work to date is historic and its broader significance cannot be overstated where trust between law enforcement and communities is broken. Fostering community trust in law enforcement requires that DA and police administrations hold their own accountable for misconduct and for crimes,” DA Krasner said. “Having met and gotten to know wrongfully convicted men like Chester Hollman, Terrance Lewis, Anthony Wright, and so many others, I know the human potential that was lost. That lost potential was caused by an era of criminal justice culture that was reactionary, racist, and de-humanizing in its politics and in its press; a culture that had little regard for facts, science, or truth. Even an adversarial system cannot be adversarial to the truth. And we cannot forget that victims and survivors were profoundly harmed by these wrongful convictions as well. Every innocent person in jail meant the guilty one went free. We are finding our way out of that murky past and this report lights the way.”
The CIU also conducts trainings and presentations to share research and best practices with prosecutors and law enforcement across the country. Active conviction integrity units in jurisdictions like Wayne County, Michigan, release regular reports in the interests of transparency and accountability, and to inform better policies and procedures by police, prosecutors, defense counsel, and courts to address the root causes of wrongful convictions and unjust sentencing and other practices that continue today.
Criminal justice reform leaders praised the many accomplishments of the CIU in less than four years.
“This report shows that the Philadelphia DA’s Office is now gold standard for what a conviction integrity unit should be. By putting an experienced defense attorney at the helm and giving her the independence to report to him directly, Larry Krasner has created an institutional model that allows his CIU to operate without the conflicts of interest and mission that have plagued other CIUs that have relied on prosecutors to police themselves,” said Professor Rachel Barkow, Director of the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law at NYU School of Law. “The results are powerful. The Philadelphia CIU is not just righting wrongful convictions, but also correcting unjust sentences and doing the kind of systemic reviews of misconduct to prevent these injustices from happening in the future. I hope every DA in the country takes note and learns from this.”
“Larry Krasner and Patricia Cummings have worked hard to make the Philadelphia Conviction Integrity Unit one of the most impactful in the country,” added Professor John Hollway, Executive Director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at Penn Law. “This report outlines 21 exonerations (and counting) of innocent and/or wrongfully convicted men. Each exoneration sends a message that while our criminal justice system is not perfect, our dedication to the truth and to justice must always be the priority, and that we will do what is right over what is easy. In these cynical times, that’s a breath of fresh air for our communities.
###
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is the largest prosecutor’s office in Pennsylvania, and one of the largest in the nation. It serves the more than 1.5 million residents of the City and County of Philadelphia, employing 600 lawyers, detectives, and support staff. The District Attorney’s Office is responsible for prosecution of approximately 40,000 criminal cases annually. | https://medium.com/philadelphia-justice/da-krasner-conviction-integrity-unit-release-report-on-overturning-era-of-wrongful-convictions-in-5270431f8412 | ['Philadelphia Dao'] | 2021-06-15 17:02:45.562000+00:00 | ['Criminal Justice Reform', 'Wrongful Conviction', 'Press Release', 'Philadelphia'] |
G20 to adapt to global virtual currency regulations set by FATF in June. | G20 to adapt to global virtual currency regulations set by FATF in June.
Formed in 1989, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) provides governments with a guideline on how best to monitor and prevent financial aid from getting to terrorists among other financial misconducts. The group is headquartered in Paris. Now, to help streamline cryptocurrency regulations across the globe, the task force has indicated that it will start looking into regulations governing the cryptocurrency industry starting from June the 24th. Earlier on, the G20 had indicated that it will adapt to global virtual currency regulations set by FATF starting from this month.
According to finance magnates, the G20 indicated to the FATF that they will “commit to implement the FATF standards as they apply to crypto-assets, look forward to the FATF review of those standards, and call on the FATF to advance global implementation”.
As part of its duty, the Financial Action Task Force keeps a record of countries that it deems not to contribute to the ‘greater good’. Currently, the list has 12 countries.
Interestingly, Japan was the first country to call for global cryptocurrency regulations during this year’s G20 meeting in Buenos Aires. It was strongly supported by China, France, and Germany. During this year’s G20 meeting, Mark Carney, BOE’s governor, noted that digital currencies need to be strongly regulated.
As it waits to chair the G20 meeting in 2020, the “Japanese government hopes to take a lead on the issue and is pushing for adoption of new binding rules by 2019 at the latest” reported Reuters.
The FATF will start its discussions by first examining the regulations which were proposed three years ago to see if they can be applied across the current cryptocurrency market.
Nations which have banned cryptocurrencies, like China, will also be discussed by the Financial Action Task Force.
Do you think the global virtual currency regulations set by FATF will help countries that have previously banned cryptocurrencies to lift the ban?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Learn more: | https://medium.com/refcrypto/g20-to-adapt-to-global-virtual-currency-regulations-set-by-fatf-in-june-ea3ba5bb0df9 | ['Ref Crypto'] | 2018-08-11 05:39:12.061000+00:00 | ['Coins', 'Blockchain', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Blockchain Startup', 'Bitcoin'] |
Introducing Pinqueue3.0, Pinterest’s next-gen content moderation platform | By James Man | Trust & Safety Engineering
In 2016, we reached a milestone of launching Pinqueue2.0, which has since become the go-to content moderation tool for the engineering, community, and data science teams. One of our top priorities at Pinterest is fostering a safe and trustworthy experience for all Pinners. As Pinterest’s user base and ads business grow, the review volume has been increasing exponentially, and more content types require moderation support. To solve greater engineering and operational challenges at scale, we need a highly-reliable and performant system to detect, report, evaluate, and act on abusive content and users.
Why Pinqueue3.0?
Pinqueue2.0 doesn’t have enough effective features to support daily operations, and it also suffers from subpar performance and usability problems. The design of Pinqueue2.0 makes it too rigid to allow new features like configurable templates or hotkeys. We decide to bring content moderation to the next level with a significant rewrite named Pinqueue3.0. It’s designed and built to achieve the following goals:
More self-serve functionalities : With minimal engineering effort, team leads should be able to manage things like how the review queue is set up, who can access the reviews and setting any arbitrary hotkey preferences.
: With minimal engineering effort, team leads should be able to manage things like how the review queue is set up, who can access the reviews and setting any arbitrary hotkey preferences. Easy to extend to new review formats : Our primary review source used to be objectionable content, but now we need to adapt to emerging trends of various forms of deception and misinformation. At the same time, more content types and media formats other than images are being introduced to Pinterest (e.g., carousel promoted pins and video pins). Greater coverage of moderation support is needed.
: Our primary review source used to be objectionable content, but now we need to adapt to emerging trends of various forms of deception and misinformation. At the same time, more content types and media formats other than images are being introduced to Pinterest (e.g., carousel promoted pins and video pins). Greater coverage of moderation support is needed. Efficient and performant review experience: Review time and overall efficiency are key metrics to measure the success of the app. Any productivity improvement would result in lower operational costs and higher user satisfaction.
Review time and overall efficiency are key metrics to measure the success of the app. Any productivity improvement would result in lower operational costs and higher user satisfaction. Stable and scalable infra with proactive monitoring and alerting: Good infrastructure is the foundation of everything. The platform should stay monitored and available 24/7 to keep all Pinners safe.
Overview
Pinqueue3.0 serves as a generic platform for content moderation and human labeling. Different types of review events are categorized into different groups and queues. Real-time operational metrics are available to help users prioritize and allocate review resources accordingly. The review page is divided into two blocks: the review widgets and the action widget. Though the review UI and action templates vary in different review use cases, they enjoy the same native features like hotkeys and item passing.
Figure 1: Pinqueue3.0 Dashboard
Figure 2: Pinqueue3.0 Review Page
Under the hood, Pinqueue3.0 is a Flask + ReactJS app powered by Pinterest’s very own Gestalt UI framework. On the backend, Pinqueue3.0 heavily relies on PinLater, a Pinterest-built reliable asynchronous job execution system, to handle the requests for enqueueing and action-taking. Using PinLater has significantly strengthened Pinqueue3.0’s overall infra with its capability of processing a massive load of events with configurable retry policies.
Pinqueue’s content moderation review cycle involves four major processes:
Receiving events for review: Pinqueue is agnostic to the source of the reviews. Via Pinqueue’s highly robust enqueue API, any upstream services can send valid review events.
Pinqueue is agnostic to the source of the reviews. Via Pinqueue’s highly robust enqueue API, any upstream services can send valid review events. Fetching and displaying data: Data is fetched from various sources that aren’t necessarily managed by Pinqueue. Online metrics are collected to safeguard and monitor the health of the communications.
Data is fetched from various sources that aren’t necessarily managed by Pinqueue. Online metrics are collected to safeguard and monitor the health of the communications. Acting upon decisions: Pinqueue offloads all the action executions to PinLater. Action-related information such as who makes the decision or when the decision is made will be logged securely and appropriately.
Pinqueue offloads all the action executions to PinLater. Action-related information such as who makes the decision or when the decision is made will be logged securely and appropriately. Preserving the data: Ultimately, we dump all the decisions data to Hive. Human review data are valuable assets for offline operational analysis, review quality auditing and further machine learning efforts.
Figure 3: Pinqueue3.0 core architecture
Object-based architecture
Today, Pinterest supports multiple types of user-generated content entities: Pin, board, user, comment, tried-it, and message. Pinqueue must provide content moderation support for all the primary entities, and it also includes other relevant entities (e.g., the owner of the Pin) to make the review more data-informed. For example, the behavior of the owner can be one of the determining factors to decide whether a Pin is spam. The more suspicious the owner’s behavior is, the more spammy the Pin is likely to be, so it’s great to check both together. In Pinqueue3.0, we refer to all the to-be-reviewed entities as “objects”.
In practice, the Trust & Safety review may consist of the reported Pin, the owner of the Pin, the associated board, and the reporter. The merchant-specific review uses a different set of objects: the merchant, its recent Pins and boards. However, a spam review may share a subset of objects (Pin or board) like the Trust & Safety review and another subset of objects (most recent Pins or recent boards) like the merchant review.
Figure 4: Shared objects across different reviews
As you can see, different review scenarios are essentially reviewing different combinations of “objects”. Each object primarily shares the same aspects throughout the whole review cycle:
Data Fetching: Regardless of the data sources, each object must have a corresponding data fetcher to know where and how to obtain the data.
Regardless of the data sources, each object must have a corresponding data fetcher to know where and how to obtain the data. UI Presentation: Fetched data should be displayed in a user-friendly way, ideally presented by a group of standardized, reusable, and extendable UI components.
Fetched data should be displayed in a user-friendly way, ideally presented by a group of standardized, reusable, and extendable UI components. Decision Making: Once a decision is made against an object, it should talk to the targeted downstream services and make sure the action is executed and logged.
Figure 5: Object-specific modules during the review cycle
Pinqueue3.0 provides a modularized framework of object-specific abstractions. It allows developers to easily extend content moderation support for any review formats or objects. The only requirements are defining the UI template, configuring the actions with the Queue Config tool and building the data fetching logic. We’ve built infrastructure to manage objects’ life cycles and connect each object with its corresponding handlers, hence a review event can accommodate any arbitrary combinations of supported objects. Below is a flowchart of a sample review event. We will discuss the Template Engine and the Queue Config in the next section.
Figure 6: Pinqueue3.0 object-based architecture diagram
Dynamic UI rendering with Template Engine
Building with ReactJS and JSX enables us to pass around the tree structures composed of HTML or React elements as if they were standard JavaScript values. By leveraging JSX, we can transform each review page as individual templates. Pinqueue’s template engine has three components: template Editor, template parser and template renderer. Given the raw template code produced by the editor, the template parser parses the syntax and determines which widgets to display. Ultimately, the renderer pulls up the matching UI widgets from the widgets library and renders them in an organized layout.
Why do we need a template engine? First, it allows us to easily define the layout of the review pages and specify what components to use. Human eyes tend to pay more attention to the center of the page. The positions of the widgets act as a natural guide to pinpoint the most critical information, and we give users the flexibility to manage it. It also makes a per-agent template possible. Secondly, it’s extendable for future improvements. UI widgets can be formed by essential elements like images, video, table or heading. We plan to make components more generalized and abstracted. Users can define their widgets by assembling the basics and configure which fields to display.
Figure 7: Pinqueue3.0 template engine demo
Make full self-service possible with Queue Config
As a generic platform, Pinqueue3.0 is built to support all kinds of use cases. When reviewing the same abusive content, an operations team may expect to take the content down while ML engineers may only want to label it. Without sophisticated self-service capabilities, it’ll be hard to accommodate all needs. While the Template Engine controls the UI, Queue Config covers more review-specific specs like which actions or labels will be available, which hotkey and template to use and other miscellaneous configs. Queue Config is reusable and shareable, and it warrants a unified and manageable review experience across queues.
Figure 8: Pinqueue3.0 main queue config page
Pinqueue3.0 maintains a list of supported actions for each object. Review leads can easily configure what actions may be taken against the objects on the review page. Even when multiple queues are reviewing the same objects, their decision options may be different.
Figure 9: Pinqueue3.0 actions config
Solely relying on human power to solve trust & safety issues is not scalable. Future automation and machine learning efforts can benefit from high-quality human-curated labels. We highly value the importance of labeling, so we make labeling a built-in feature with Queue Config. As of now, the label is a free-form string. In addition to the hotkey support, there are other advanced configs like whether labels should be optional or mandatory as well as whether single or multiple labels are allowed.
Figure 10: Pinqueue3.0 labels config
Behind the scenes, the queue config is saved as a well-structured JSON. Using JSON makes it extendable to add and manage new configs. The review page strictly complies with the queue configuration and renders the actions/labels accordingly on the menu.
Figure 11: Queue Config JSON to action menu items mapping
We believe the combination of the Template Engine plus Queue Config is the key to unlocking more self-service capabilities. We plan to make the template editing more intuitive by introducing drag-and-drop functionality. Queue Config continues to play a critical role in boosting review efficiency and operational productivity.
Other advanced features
Kitty Mode: Sometimes users want to take a screenshot/video to test or reproduce a bug without capturing graphic content. When the kitty mode is on, all images turn to kittens.
Figure 12: Kitty Mode off and on
Review Details: For training purposes or further auditing reviewers’ review quality, the review team needs a way to know who made the decision, when the decision was made and which object the action was taken against. The review details page is a one-stop shop that retrieves and displays the full history of decisions related to certain objects or a particular item.
Figure 13: Review details page
Passing: We often see misrouted items ending up in the wrong queues due to mis-selected report reasons(e.g., a spam review turns out to be a porn review, or users encounter a review in a foreign language). As each queue is managed by a group of well-trained reviewers who know the policy best, users could pass an item to a different queue to ensure proper handling.
Figure 14: item passing feature
What’s next
Hundreds of millions of people around the world use Pinterest to discover and do what they love, and our job is to protect them from abusive and harmful content. We’re committed to providing an inspirational yet safe experience to all Pinners. Solving trust & safety problems is a joint effort requiring expertise across multiple domains. Pinqueue3.0 not only plays a critical role in responsively taking down unsafe content, it also has become an enabler for future ML/automation initiatives by providing high-quality human labels. Going forward, we will continue to improve the review experience, measure review quality and collaborate with our machine learning teams to solve content moderation beyond manual reviews at an even larger scale.
Acknowledgments: Huge thanks to the entire Trust & Safety tooling team who helps in improving Pinqueue and keeping Pinners safe. Special thanks to David Su, Becky Stoneman, Patricia Perozo, Alok Singhal and Dennis Horte for their feedback and editing assistance. | https://medium.com/pinterest-engineering/introducing-pinqueue3-0-pinterests-next-gen-content-moderation-platform-fcfa972bf39c | ['Pinterest Engineering'] | 2019-08-09 18:25:19.046000+00:00 | ['JavaScript'] |
Why you should choose useState instead of useReducer | Since the introduction of the React Hooks API, I’ve seen a lot of discussion about useState , useReducer , and when to use one over the other. From these conversations, one would conclude that useState is best suited for simple state with simple update logic and that useReducer is best for complex state shapes with complex update logic.
I’m here to convince you that when wrapped in a 4 line custom hook, useState can be just as powerful as, if not more powerful than, useReducer when managing complex state.
I don’t like reducers. I’ve tried using them, but I always end up migrating away. Something just feels wrong about dispatching actions to trigger business logic when I could instead do so by invoking a function with arguments.
And then there’s the fact that instead of encapsulating my business logic into functions, I’m supposed to cluster it all into one giant function partitioned by a bunch of switch cases? I’ve tried libraries such as redux-actions to alleviate this concern, but I still couldn’t deal with it. My dislike for reducers motivated me to search for a better solution.
Let’s review a few common reasons why people choose useReducer over useState :
So business logic can be centralized in the reducer as opposed to scattered about the component Reducers are pure functions that are easy to test in isolation of React Reducers allow pieces of state that depend on each other to be updated predictably (whereas multiple useState ’s might not)
If any of these bullets are confusing, I’d recommend having a look at this article. Throughout this guide I will refer back to these items as the three benefits of reducers.
Step One: Constructing an Example
First, I’m going to show you an example that showcases the benefits of reducers I mentioned above, and then I’m going to show you how you can implement the same functionality via useState without sacrificing any of the benefits of a useReducer solution.
A Freezable Counter
To illustrate the pros/cons of useState vs useReducer I’m going to implement a simple counter with a twist. The counter can be incremented, but can also be frozen. If in the frozen state, incrementing the counter will not do anything.
Counter implemented with multiple useState’s
Counter implemented with useReducer
As you can see, I’ve implemented our counter above once with useState and once with useReducer . However, StateCounterV1 has some issues. In fact, it doesn’t even work as expected.
We would expect that StateCounterV1 should render <div>1</div> because we increment the counter once, then we freeze the counter, and then we increment again. But in reality it renders <div>2</div> because the second invocation of increment doesn’t have access to the new value of frozen . This illustrates benefit #3 of useReducer over useState .
It’s also apparent that in StateCounterV1 our logic to increment the counter resides in the component itself, but in ReducerCounter the logic belongs to the countReducer (benefit #1).
And lastly we see that in order to test the count logic in StateCounterV1 we would have to render it, whereas to test the logic in countReducer , we could do so without ever having to render a component. We could test it simply by invoking it with a state and an action and ensuring it outputs the correct next state (benefit #2).
Step Two: Collapsing State
In our example, we have a state transition, increment , that updates count but depends on another piece of state, frozen . In instances like this, I find it best to consolidate state. In theory we could always have a maximum of one useState hook per component and still achieve any functionality we want to. But it’s totally okay to useState multiple times as long as the pieces of state do not depend on each other when updating. With that said, let’s see how consolidating state can give us back benefit #3 of reducers.
Counter implemented with one useState
Now the updater passed to setState in our increment function is self-sufficient. It no longer needs to reach for frozen via closure to determine how to produce the next state. Instead prevState contains all of the state necessary to perform its update logic.
Because it’s self-sufficient, we no longer have a need to declare it at render time, we could instead lift it out of the component.
Counter with lifted state updaters
When we lift state-updater declarations outside of our component, not only do we improve performance, but we prevent ourselves from accidentally depending on variables via closure like we did in StateCounterV1 . This pattern is a bit beside the point of this article, but I thought I’d mention it anyway.
Step Three: Extracting Business Logic
At this point StateCounterV2 is still bloated with counter logic. But no worries, all we need to do is extract all of our counter business-logic into a custom hook. Let’s call it useCounterApi .
Counter implemented with custom hook
Now StateCounterV3 is looking good. I’d argue it looks even better than the ReducerCounter . Not to mention this refactor was straightforward because all it really took was a copy/paste of our counter logic into a custom hook. But here’s where things get tricky.
It can be hard sometimes, as developers, to identify where logic belongs. Our brains are erratic and there are some days where it wouldn’t occur to me to extract this logic out of the component into a custom counter hook. That’s why we developers need opinionated interfaces to guide us in the right direction.
Step Four: Creating Guidance
If we had to describe useCounterApi verbally, we’d probably say,
“It’s a custom hook that creates and returns a counter API.”
Here within lies our first clue. It creates and returns an API. Thus, it is an API Factory. More specifically, it is a Counter API Factory.
But we like to abstract things, so the next question is, how can we make a Generic API Factory? Well, let’s remove the “Counter” part from useCounterApi . Now we’re left with useApi . Awesome, now we have our Generic API Factory. But where does our business logic go?
Let’s think more about how useReducer works.
const [state, dispatch] = useReducer(reducer, initialArg, init);
The first argument of useReducer is a reducer and the second argument is the initial state. Remember that the reducer contains business logic. Let’s try to mimic this interface.
const api = useApi(someApiFactoryFunction, initialArg);
Okay, it feels like we’re getting close to a solution. But now we have to figure out what the heck someApiFactoryFunction is supposed to do.
Well, we know it should contain business logic and we know it should be unaware of React so that we can test it without having to render a component. What we also know is that someApiFactoryFunction cannot contain a useState invocation because then it would be aware of React things. But it surely needs state and setState . So we’ll have to inject state and setState some other way. So how do we inject things into functions again? Oh yeah, parameters. Tying this thought exercise together, we end up with the following.
Counter implemented with useApi
And there it is. useApi is our magical 4 line custom hook that reveals the true power of useState . API Factory functions supply us with the current state and a setState callback and let us expose an API from them. Let’s think about what kind of benefits we just introduced with this simple contract change.
counterApiFactory is unaware of React, which means we can now test it simply by passing a state object and a setState callback (Reducer benefit #2 achieved).
useApi expects an API Factory, which means we’re telling the developer they need to write API Factory functions with the signature ({state, setState}) => api . This means, even on my off days when my brain struggles to recognize that a cluster of logic can be refactored into a stateful API, I have this nice little useApi function prompting me to throw all of my stateful business logic into a centralized location.
Step Five: Optimizing
As it stands, useApi isn’t as efficient as it could be. Any component that consumes useApi will invoke useApi on every render, which means apiFactory will also be invoked on every render. It’s not necessary to invoke apiFactory on each render, but rather only when state has changed. We can optimize useApi by memoizing the execution of apiFactory .
Optimized useApi (View on CodeSandbox)
Testing an API Factory
Now that we’ve implemented our useApi hook, let’s look at how we’d test an API Factory.
Testing counterApiFactory (View on CodeSandbox)
It’s simple enough to create a wrapper around our counterApiFactory that mimics the behavior of state / setState . With this helper function we can test our counterApiFactory in a very natural way.
useApi vs useReducer
Let’s now compare these two solutions.
Counter implemented with useReducer
Counter implemented with useApi
Logic Encapsulation
In both solutions, logic to update state is centralized which allows for easy reasoning, debugging, and testing. However reducers only provide a mechanism to update state, they do not provide a mechanism to retrieve state. Instead it’s common to write selectors and apply them downstream from the reducer. What’s nice about our useApi solution is that it encapsulates not only logic to update state, but also logic to retrieve state 🎉.
Updating State
To update state with useReducer , we need to dispatch actions. To update state with useApi we need to invoke updater methods. A potential advantage of reducers in this scenario is that multiple reducers could listen to the same action. However, this also comes with a downside: execution flow is not intuitive once an action has been dispatched. If I need multiple, disparate pieces of state to be updated at once, I’d rather do it explicitly with multiple back-to-back API method calls, than through a single dispatched action that’s broadcasted to all reducers.
Performance
One nice thing about reducers is that, via reducer composition, multiple reducers can listen to a single dispatched action which means you can have many parts of the state change in just a single render. I have not come up with a solution for API Factory composition (though it’s surely possible). For now my solution is to invoke state updaters back-to-back when necessary which could lead to more renders than a reducer approach.
Boilerplate
Reducer-based solutions are notoriously boilerplate-y (especially when working with redux). Action type declarations take up some extra space and dispatching actions tends to be a bit more verbose than just invoking a function with arguments. For these reasons I’d say useApi has a slight edge on useReducer in terms of boilerplate code.
Testability
Both reducers and API Factories are easy to test.
Further Exploring useApi
Let’s have a look at some other cool things we can do with useApi .
I’ve taken the time to implement the classic Redux Todo List Example via useApi . Here’s how todosApiFactory looks in the useApi implementation.
One gross thing you may have noticed in the code above is the repetition of the following boilerplate.
setState(prevState => ({
...prevState,
/* … */
});
Assuming our state is an object and because setState does not support shallow merging, we need to do this to ensure we preserve any state that we’re not currently working with.
We can reduce some of this boilerplate and get some other cool benefits from a library called immer. immer is an immutability library that lets you write immutable code in a mutable way.
As you can see, immer helps us remove some of that annoying boilerplate code required when writing immutable updates. But beware, the convenience of immer is also its Achilles’ heel. A developer who’s introduced to the concept of immutability through immer might not fully understand the consequences of mutations.
But wait a second, useApi only provides state locally, but the Todo List Example uses redux to provide a global state solution.
Global Stores with API Factories
Let’s see how we can create global stores from API Factories.
Not bad at all, right? Context makes global state super easy in React. So we now have a global state management solution to use with API Factories.
Below is the working API Factory Todo List Example. | https://medium.com/free-code-camp/why-you-should-choose-usestate-instead-of-usereducer-ffc80057f815 | ['Austin Malerba'] | 2019-05-16 21:59:57.466000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'JavaScript', 'React', 'Web Design', 'Web Development'] |
Do You Love Humanity? | Photo Courtesy by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
It’s a simple thing to do, but so many people are not wearing masks.
First, we were told that a mask basically keeps our germs to ourselves. Some masks are better at it than others.
Now, we’ve been told that masks can offer some protection.
Why the conflicting information? Maybe it’s because the medical authorities are learning as they go. Covid 19 appears to be a newer beast than the other viruses. They are only now learning all the cruel ways it hurts its victims.
Are there not enough masks? How do we get everyone masks?
I’m not a doctor or medical professional. But due to recently fighting cancer, I am in the high-risk group. Until there is a vaccine, that might mean I am under quarantine for a very long time. I wear a mask and gloves when I have no choice but to go someplace, and I social distance like crazy.
I know some people either don’t believe in the virus or don’t care to wear a mask. What if you thought of it as helping someone else? It is such a little thing to do.
I’m asking the authorities that be to make more masks available to people. I’m also asking that if you love even one human person that you wear a mask. Consider it a way of saying, “I love you.”
Thank you.
Susan Hanniford Crowley | https://medium.com/@susanhannifordcrowley/do-you-love-humanity-a8ac8b7f2eaf | ['Susan Hanniford Crowley'] | 2020-05-02 23:03:11.247000+00:00 | ['Opinion', 'Love', 'Masks', 'Humanity', 'Coronavirus'] |
TOP 10 BOOKS YOU MUST READ 2021 | Reading has become my life where the words takes me into a place of peace where I learn so much about life. I started reading when I was 12 and I have been reading since then. So i am here to share with you top 10 books I would recommend for all
10. A Promised Land by Barack Obama
A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective — the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of “hope and change,” and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible.
Barack Obama (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
Visit Amazon’s Barack Obama Page
9. Becoming by Michelle Obama
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her — from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it — in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations — and whose story inspires us to do the same
Michelle Obama (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
Visit Amazon’s Michelle Obama Page
8. My Own Words by Ruth Ginsburg
My Own Words “showcases Ruth Ginsburg’s astonishing intellectual range” (The New Republic). In this collection Justice Ginsburg discusses gender equality, the workings of the Supreme Court, being Jewish, law and lawyers in opera, and the value of looking beyond US shores when interpreting the US Constitution. Throughout her life Justice Ginsburg has been (and continues to be) a prolific writer and public speaker. This book’s sampling is selected by Justice Ginsburg and her authorized biographers Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams, who introduce each chapter and provide biographical context and quotes gleaned from hundreds of interviews they have conducted
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7. Eleanor by David Michaelis
Eleanor needed emotional connection. She pursued deeper relationships wherever she could find them. Throughout her life and travels, there was always another person or place she wanted to heal. As FDR struggled to recover from polio, Eleanor became a voice for the voiceless, her husband’s proxy in presidential ambition, and then the people’s proxy in the White House. Later, she would be the architect of international human rights and world citizen of the Atomic Age, urging Americans to cope with the anxiety of global annihilation by cultivating a “world mind.” She insisted that we cannot live for ourselves alone but must learn to live together or we will die together.
David Michaelis (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
Visit Amazon’s David Michaelis Page
6. One Life by Megan Rapinoe
In One Life, Megan Rapinoe invites readers on a remarkable journey, looking back on both her victories and her failures, and pulls back the curtain on events we know only from the headlines. After the 2011 World Cup, discouraged by how few athletes were open about their sexuality, Rapinoe decided to come out publicly as gay and use her platform to advocate for marriage equality. Recognizing the power she had to bring attention to critical issues, in 2016 she took a knee during the national anthem in solidarity with former NFL player Colin Kaepernick to protest racial injustice and police brutality — the first high-profile white athlete to do so. The backlash was immediate, but it couldn’t compare to the overwhelming support. Rapinoe became a force of change.
Megan Rapinoe (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
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5. Rage by Bob Woodward
Woodward, the #1 international bestselling author of Fear: Trump in the White House, has uncovered the precise moment the president was warned that the Covid-19 epidemic would be the biggest national security threat to his presidency. In dramatic detail, Woodward takes readers into the Oval Office as Trump’s head pops up when he is told in January 2020 that the pandemic could reach the scale of the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed 675,000 Americans.
Bob Woodward (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
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4. Diana by Andrew Morton
When Diana: Her True Story was first published in 1992, it forever changed the way the public viewed the British monarchy. Greeted initially with disbelief and ridicule, the #1 New York Times bestselling biography has become a unique literary classic, not just because of its explosive contents but also because of Diana’s intimate involvement in the publication. Never before had a senior royal spoken in such a raw, unfiltered way about her unhappy marriage, her relationship with the Queen, her extraordinary life inside the House of Windsor, her hopes, her fears, and her dreams. Now, twenty-five years on, biographer Andrew Morton has revisited the secret tapes he and the late princess made to reveal startling new insights into her life and mind. In this fully revised edition of his groundbreaking biography, Morton considers Diana’s legacy and her relevance to the modern royal family.
Andrew Morton (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
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3. Joe Biden by Evan Osnos
Blending up-close journalism and broader context, Evan Osnos, who won the National Book Award in 2014, draws on nearly a decade of reporting for The New Yorker to capture the characters and meaning of 2020’s extraordinary presidential election. It is based on lengthy interviews with Biden and on revealing conversations with more than a hundred others, including President Barack Obama, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, and a range of activists, advisers, opponents, and Biden family members.
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2. Rachel Maddow by Lisa Rogak
Growing up in a conservative California town — and viewing herself as a perennial outsider — helped spark an early interest in activism. After attending Stanford and Oxford, she opted for a minimum-wage job as a radio DJ in a tiny Massachusetts market while finishing her Ph.D. She planned to pursue a career as an activist, but 9/11 changed all that, so she returned to local radio where she could help listeners by “explaining stuff.” A stint at Air America raised her national profile, which led to her groundbreaking MSNBC show where she dissects the news of the day with an approach found nowhere else on TV.
Lisa Rogak (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
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1. Love People Use Things by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus
Imagine a life with less: less stuff, less clutter, less stress and debt and discontent―a life with fewer distractions. Now, imagine a life with more: more time, more meaningful relationships, more growth and contribution and contentment―a life of passion, unencumbered by the trappings of the chaotic world around you. What you’re imagining is an intentional life. And to get there, you’ll have to let go of some clutter that’s in the way.
Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
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This page was inspired by ~ VOICEOFSHARK | https://medium.com/@voiceofshark/top-10-books-you-must-read-2021-f04a88460fd6 | [] | 2021-02-16 07:58:24.639000+00:00 | ['Top 10', 'Books And Authors', 'Top 5', 'Inspiration', 'Readinglist'] |
yes, this is an apocalypse — but it’s not what you think. | a few weeks ago, a few friends of mine were sitting in our apartment discussing the news around COVID-19 — at the time, in the American mainstream, the issue was still a mere rumbling, a trickle of ominous but still-remote stories about Italian hospitals and Iranian patients and the occasional reminder to “wash your hands and cover your cough.” back then — in those naïve days of early March — none of us present knew anyone who had been personally affected by the disease (that would change less than a week later). our lives still proceeded with minimal disruption.
yet we had noticed that stores were selling out of hand sanitizer, that some offices were encouraging employees to work from home, that healthcare experts were appearing increasingly on national news to issue warnings that jarred our stubborn sense of immunity. murmurs about travel restrictions and school closings were beginning to rise, a subtle unease leaking into the air.
adding up the signs, one of my friends asked, with a furrowed brow, “so, is this like, an apocalypse?”
i smiled, probably chuckled a little, and asked if, rather than “apocalypse,” he had meant to use the word “epidemic.” he nodded, “yeah i guess so,” he said, although he was perhaps just being polite.
i’ve thought about that exchange many times since. in the moment, i took his remark as a sort of verbal typo — of course he didn’t mean “apocalypse” — that was not a word used in literal, adult discussions. for me, the term is inseparable from the Biblical book of Revelation, the “end times” narrative, an account laden with symbolic images of cosmic upheaval, supernatural destruction, and Final Judgement.
so of course it doesn’t apply here, right? if the heavens aren’t being split open, if “angels of woe” aren’t ravaging the earth, if the moon (or is it the sun?) hasn’t turned blood red — then apocalypse is not what we’re experiencing.
so my thinking went.
until i recalled that the root meaning of the word “apocalypse” (ἀποκάλυψις or apokalypsis) is simply: “to uncover, reveal, expose.”
so, antichrists and demon armies aside, a literal apocalypse is merely an event in which a hidden object, reality, or truth is revealed.
suddenly, my friend’s words feel — dare i say it — prophetic.
because, so far, this has all felt like a vast revelation, a global exposure — of truths we have too long, too often, covered over. | https://sarahaziza1.medium.com/yes-this-is-an-apocalypse-but-its-not-what-you-think-d84185193f08 | ['Sarah Aziza'] | 2020-03-26 14:59:16.831000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Poetry', 'Spirituality', 'Covid 19', 'Mental Health'] |
The One Where I Learn Writing! | They say be a student for life. I completely agree. Learning is such an essential step to master something. And sometimes even the little things we learn always help us.
Everyone is a writer. Some write books, some write blogs and some write in their diaries. I am a diary writer. Penning my thoughts, my favourite memories. Writing after watching a webseries or a movie. My writing was limited to this. It was something personal to me. But sometimes I wondered if this skill could be made wider like go ahead just from the pages of my diary.
As I was processing these thoughts and scrolling on Instagram I came across a content writing workshop. So this piqued my interest and I visited their website and decided to go ahead.
Let me accept something here these 6 days changed me a writer. My thoughts, my process and progress of this art changed. I may have not mastered it but I am on the right track.
Diary writing is as I said very personal and it is you. The format of writing is very different than when you write it as a blog or write about something more formally. This workshop made me transform or moulded me so that I can also write a blog or write for someone else.
My key takeaways from this workshop:
Blog writing
Content writing
Content writing Finding my niche
Plagiarised free content
Plagiarised free content How to research
How to find content
How to make it a profession
All these will always stay with me. They will be treasured and followed. It is an add on to my hobby and now I can write beyond my diary. And this was possible only because of Uma Madhavi. Credit should be given where it is due.
And now you may ask- it must have cost you heavily. I am saying NO but what I learnt is beyond just the money I paid.
And it was so refreshing to see who has built her own brand name from what started as a love for writing. I hope even my love for writing evolves and it will. This year though it was tough to meet new people, but sometimes it just happens. And I am really happy and luck that it happened.
Even now when I am writing this blog, I know there will be mistakes but back of mind I can hear her saying — make use of simple language, use small paragraphs.
I am thankful to her for making this happen. Super proud of her. #girlpower.
I just did not changed I grew.
“ Writing to me is simply thinking through my fingers.” - Issac Asimov. | https://medium.com/@biradarneelu/from-cocoon-to-butterfly-bf05bb980fc | ['Neelam Biradar'] | 2020-12-23 12:42:57.128000+00:00 | ['Contentvidhya', 'Content Writing', 'Writing Tips', 'Uma Madhavi', 'Writing Is Love'] |
About Me — Michael Ranjitsingh. Highlights of the adventure thus far! | About Me — Michael Ranjitsingh
Writing about myself is always a challenge. Where do I start? What would the reader like to know about me? My mind is blank. Nevertheless, I will make an attempt.
My son and I
As a kid, I was quite clingy to my immediate family and hated meeting strangers or new people. Now, I have traversed further down the opposite spectrum and look forward to meeting new faces!
Privileged to have studied in the same school from 2.5 years old till I was 18. Participated in a range of competitions and developed a strong competitive spirit.
I have lived in 2 countries (India and New Zealand) for more than 10 years. Born in a city of 7 million people and currently in one with 1.6 million.
My wife and I decided to get married on the first day of meeting each other. I realized why people say they FALL in love :)
12 of my friends traveled between continents to attend my wedding.
I ran from the stage crying when I forgot my speech as a 13-year-old. 13 years later I competed and won the Toastmasters Contest at my club.
Volunteered as an English teacher in Bali for a few weeks.
Learned to love unconditionally when I laid eyes on my son. I have been a Christian all my life but that moment was when I went all-in for Jesus and started studying the Bible intensely.
Enjoy spending time with grandparents and learning and laughing with them.
Owned the same car for 7 years. A reliable Nissan.
Love learning and competing.
Hobbies
Passionate about portrait, sport, and event photography. Considered a career as a wedding photographer but decided against it due to the high-stress levels associated with it.
Enjoy cooking and eating Indian food especially Chicken Biryani, Tikka Masala, and Egg Gravy.
Want to start a ukelele band at some point in the future. Love playing hymns on the piano and watching my grandfather sing.
Professional
Completed a fascinating research project studying the effect of gunshot wounds to the head.
Currently, working as an engineer designing medical devices in a large healthcare company.
Part-time resume editor and author of a resume guide.
Love writing articles and poems. Hopefully, I can earn enough to quit everything eventually and write full time!
Sport
Played tennis 5 days a week for more than 11 years. Hugely grateful to mum for dropping and picking me up every single time, and to dad for inspiring me to take up the sport.
Huge tennis buff. Served as Vice President of Auckland University Tennis Club. Watched Roger, Rafa, Djokovic, Sharapova, and Ivanovic play live.
Love watching and playing cricket. Have watched all the Full Member teams play live.
Participated in a range of sports tournaments: Ultimate Frisbee, Table Tennis, Swimming, Badminton, Netball, Soccer, and Orienteering.
Owner of a vintage bicycle made with scrap parts and a chromium-steel frame from the 70s.
After listing all these, I realize how blessed I am. Wouldnt have been possible without God and the many people who have helped along the way. Hope to be a blessing to others in the future.
Look forward to reading more about everyone else on Medium! Thanks, Quy Ma for adding me to the About Me page! | https://medium.com/about-me-stories/about-me-michael-ranjitsingh-407a5c21dcf | ['Michael Ranjitsingh'] | 2020-12-12 20:03:18.084000+00:00 | ['Stories', 'Introduction', 'About Me', 'Happiness', 'Personal'] |
Announcing Okio 2: Our fast + simple I/O library, Okio, has a new release that supports Kotlin. | Heads up, we’ve moved! If you’d like to continue keeping up with the latest technical content from Square please visit us at our new home https://developer.squareup.com/blog
At Square, we’re excited about Kotlin. It’s a capable language to build Java libraries and applications with. We love to write code that is both compact and efficient.
We’re also eager to adopt Kotlin’s powerful new features. Kotlin/Native will allow us to share code between iOS and Android. Coroutines make concurrent programs easier to create and maintain.
Today we’re releasing Okio 2.0. In this release we’ve converted the project’s source code from .java to .kt . The conversion lets us use Kotlin in the library and offer APIs that feel right when the calling code is in Kotlin. It also gives us the opportunity to support multiplatform and coroutines in the future.
Compatibility
The new release is binary-compatible with Okio 1.15.0. You can replace the old .jar file with the new one and your applications and libraries should just work.
The update is also Java source-compatible. When you configure your pom.xml or build.gradle to use the new version you won’t have to change any .java code to get a clean build. (Our changelog notes one minor exception to this, unrelated to the Kotlin transition.)
But the update is not Kotlin source-compatible; it adopts Kotlin idioms where they apply. For example, if you’re using ByteString.decodeHex("f00d") you’ll now need "f00d".decodeHex() . We’re using Kotlin’s @Deprecated annotation for a smooth upgrade process.
IntelliJ makes fixing deprecations easy
Dependencies
Okio is core to many of Square’s open source projects. We use it for fast I/O in OkHttp, Retrofit, Moshi, and Wire. When these projects upgrade to Okio 2 they will gain a transitive dependency on Kotlin’s standard library.
Kotlin is the best language for Android application development. We expect many Android teams to already be using Kotlin. For their projects Kotlin is already among the applications’ dependencies. Those that don’t can use R8 or ProGuard to shrink the Kotlin library dependency. When we measured, the net increase was negligible: just 7 KiB.
For server applications we expect the dependency size to be inconsequential. But we worry about potential diamond-dependency versioning problems. To minimize the chance of such problems we will avoid experimental and deprecated APIs.
For libraries and SDKs that use Okio or its sibling libraries we assume the ultimate deployment target will be to Android or a server. In either case we believe the dependency is acceptable.
Good Stuff
Kotlin is a beautiful language with broad applications. We hope Okio 2 helps to further extend Kotlin’s capabilities.
Get the new Okio with Gradle:
compile ‘com.squareup.okio:okio:2.0.0’
Or Maven:
<dependency>
<groupId>com.squareup.okio</groupId>
<artifactId>okio</artifactId>
<version>2.0.0</version>
</dependency>
Full release details are in the changelog. The readme has an API guide. | https://medium.com/square-corner-blog/okio-2-6f6c35149525 | ['Jesse Wilson'] | 2019-04-18 21:36:13.869000+00:00 | ['Android', 'Engineering', 'Open Source', 'Coding', 'Kotlin'] |
Image-laundering, shrinking spaces, and words that escape prison walls | November in Middle East and North Africa: A free expression roundup produced by IFEX’s Regional Editor Naseem Tarawnah, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.
19 November 2020, Paris, France. A projection on the Louvre Museum by Amnesty International depicts jailed Saudi human rights activists including Loujain Al-Athloul © and reads “Mr Macron, demand their release”, ahead of the G20 summit. THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images
A decade has passed since an impoverished street vendor in Tunisia named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in response to constant harassment and humiliation at the hands of authorities. His death ignited a series of widespread popular protests across the Arab region as people sought to carve out a future free from repression, inequality, and lack of accountability.
Ten years later, and the region’s prisons are filled with tortured dissidents, journalists are systematically targeted, citizens are regularly tried for their online free expression, and amongst the governing class, impunity reigns. Even in Tunisia, where significant progress has been made since the Arab Spring, citizens still face severe repercussions for their free expression.
Events over the past few weeks alone have served as a stark reminder of the devastating status quo of human rights and civil society in the region.
Elusive justice in Egypt’s shrinking civic space
In Egypt, the month began with a glimmer of optimism when dissident Mohamed Soltan’s family members were released, after being held for several weeks in an effort to put pressure on the US-based activist. The news came in the wake of the US election result and the perceived threat a Biden presidency poses to countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia whose human rights record has deteriorated rapidly, and with total impunity, during the Trump era.
Just days later, authorities arrested three members of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), after the group hosted a meeting with Western diplomats to discuss the country’s human rights situation
Considered one of the few remaining Egyptian rights organizations left operating in the country’s eroded civic space, rights groups say the arrest of EIPR staff marks an escalation in the regime’s targeting of human rights defenders.
EIPR executive director and veteran human rights defender Gasser Abdel Razek, as well as his colleagues Mohamed Basheer, Karim Ennarah, and Patrick George Zaki — who has been in detention since last February — have seen a predictable array of unfounded charges leveled against them, including “joining a terrorist organization” and “spreading false news”. Facing a degrading situation in detention, Abdel Razek was reportedly placed in solitary confinement and denied access to a mattress and basic necessities. Rights groups, including 33 IFEX members, have called for their immediate release.
Within the walls of Egypt’s overcrowded prisons, thousands of political prisoners face unsanitary and demeaning conditions, which local activists and rights groups have repeatedly called attention to. Many are denied access to warm clothes, beds, and hygiene supplies, creating a health crisis that has already claimed lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Veteran journalist Mohamed Monir and filmmaker Shady Habash died of medical negligence. Others are kept in solitary confinement, where they are denied access to sunlight and communication with their families.
In a region where words struggle to escape prison walls, a recent song by Egyptian artist and activist Ramy Essam called ‘El Amiis El Karoo’ (The Flannel Shirt) shines a spotlight on prison conditions and feelings of isolation. The song’s verses are from a poem written by imprisoned poet Galal El-Behairy, who has been in Tora prison since 2018 for writing a poetry book the army deemed provocative.
Meanwhile, hope that EIPR’s staff and other prisoners of conscience may receive fair trials is undermined by a judiciary system that has increasingly served as a repressive tool of the state. Many of the country’s imprisoned dissidents are in pre-trial detention and have seen court dates regularly postponed, and new charges filed against them in an effort to retain their silence by keeping them indefinitely behind bars.
Last month an Egyptian court placed 28 people on a state terror list, including former presidential candidate Abdelmoneim Aboul Fotouh and human rights activist Alaa Abdel Al-Fattah. The terror list has been another repressive tool under the Sisi government, with the notorious designation used to impose severe restrictions, including travel bans, passport confiscations, and the freezing of financial assets, on mostly peaceful activists.
Justice remains elusive in the case of Giulio Regeni, an Italian student brutally killed in Cairo four years ago, as Egypt’s public prosecutor has temporarily closed the file. However, prosecutors in Rome say they have sufficient evidence to move forward with their case, indicting five members of Egypt’s National Security Agency in the researcher’s murder, in a move likely to impact the relationship between the two countries.
Image-laundering and a tale of two Saudi Arabias
As human rights abuses have proliferated throughout the region over the past decade, countries like Saudi Arabia have spent billions to whitewash their abysmal rights record. From hosting high-profile sporting events like the Dakar Rally, to professional wrestling and concerts featuring international pop stars, Saudi Arabia has sought to present a progressive image of itself to the world that sits in ugly juxtaposition to the glaring reality.
In recent weeks alone, the ‘kingdom of silence’ hosted a series of international events, including the G20 summit and a European women’s golf tournament — whose promotional hashtag #LadiesFirst only served to highlight the tragic irony of a country that continues to jail women’s rights activists like Loujain Al-Hathloul, Samar Badawi, Nassima al-Sada, Nouf Abdulaziz and Maya’a al-Zahrani. Rights organizations, including IFEX members the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) and Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) launched a #FreedomFirst campaign to provide a counter-narrative to Saudi propaganda on women’s rights, and raise awareness about those detained.
Meanwhile, the G20 summit was also met with aggressive campaigning from rights groups. PEN America hosted a live counter-summit highlighting Saudi’s egregious rights record, while Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on the public to hijack the official #G20SaudiArabia hashtag with messages in support of the country’s 34 unjustly jailed journalists.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) also called on G20 leaders to not let their host get away with jailing critics “Instead of signaling its concern for Saudi Arabia’s serious abuses, the G20 is bolstering the Saudi government’s well-funded publicity efforts to portray the country as ‘reforming’ despite a significant increase in repression since 2017,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at HRW.
In perhaps further demonstration of the country’s irreconcilable duality, Saudi’s UK ambassador dangled the possibility of clemency for activists like Al-Hathloul during a Guardian interview ahead of the summit. Three days after the summit ended, Al-Hathloul — whose health has deteriorated after a recent hunger strike protesting her ill-treatment — appeared in court for the first time in months, only to see her case moved to a terrorism court notorious for unfair trials.
Rights groups have also noted Saudi Arabia’s recent appointment of Amal Al-Moallimi as ambassador to Norway — only the second Saudi woman to become ambassador — as further illustration of its duplicitous efforts to portray itself as a state furthering women’s empowerment. Al-Moallimi has been criticized for having visited Al-Hathloul in prison, where she was told by the rights defender of her torture, and having ignored her pleas to intervene.
‘Sportswashing’ and mass trials in Bahrain
Neighbouring Bahrain has also actively engaged in efforts to launder its image, promoting its achievements in women’s rights, while continuing to imprison women human rights defenders for their free expression.
Last month saw the country host the Formula One (F1) race amidst heightened concern over its disastrous human rights record. In a letter sent to the organization, 16 rights groups emphasized the role F1 plays in ‘sportswashing’ human rights abuses, saying that by “increasing F1’s presence in the country at this volatile time” they are “performing invaluable PR for Bahrain’s government and risk further normalizing the violation of human rights in the country”.
Recent weeks have seen 51 people convicted in absentia during a mass trial marred by due process violations, including confessions obtained through torture. The trial came amidst a recent escalation in an ongoing crackdown by authorities that rights groups say has targeted dissidents, activists, as well as religious and cultural figures. Several people, including children, were also arrested for their online expression following last month’s death of the country’s long-serving prime minister, Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa.
Lebanon: Military trials and protecting LGBTQI+ speech
While demands for accountability over the deadly Beirut blast and the shooting of protesters in the days that followed remain unmet, anti-government protesters continue to face arrests and court summons. According to Muhal — an observatory for freedom of expression — political figures and parties have filed dozens of complaints, mostly against journalists and activists, over the past year of anti-government protests. At least 90 civilians have also been referred to military courts where they face secondary charges, primarily for their critical social media posts.
Lebanon’s refusal to sign a recent statement by the Global Media Freedom Coalition was a blow to both freedom of expression and association. The statement from the partnership of countries advocating for media freedom expressed the need for members to defend free expression and protect journalists, especially those from marginalized groups like the LGBTQI+ community who are facing unprecedented risks and threats exacerbated by the global health pandemic.
In a recent Universal Periodic Review submission to the United Nations, rights groups expressed their deep concern over the “legal and extra-legal restrictions on freedom of association and, in particular, the systematic targeting of associations and activities by the LGBTQI+ community.”
In brief
Algeria: The European Parliament issued its second urgent resolution on Algeria in a year, calling attention to the rapid deterioration of civic space and freedoms in the country. This comes amidst an ongoing crackdown on free expression and a growing list of those imprisoned for exercising it, including Hirak activists, and journalists like Khaled Drareni and Anis Rahmani.
Libya: Prominent lawyer and rights activist Hanan Al-Barassi was assassinated in Benghazi last month in a brazen act that sent chills throughout the activist community. According to rights groups, her killing follows “a disturbing pattern in recent years of violent attacks against prominent women activists who are critical of the authorities and affiliated militias.”
Iraq: Bloggers and journalists are facing defamation cases against them for their criticism of the government’s COVID-19 response. As defamation cases rise, HRW says ongoing efforts to introduce a cybercrime law would give authorities yet another tool to suppress dissent in an already shrinking civic space. | https://medium.com/@ifex/image-laundering-shrinking-spaces-and-words-that-escape-prison-walls-d28d08cf48c3 | [] | 2020-12-02 22:53:43.192000+00:00 | ['Censorship', 'Freedom Of Speech', 'Middle East', 'Human Rights', 'Protest'] |
Facing the ARIMA Model against Neural Networks | Regarding this first plot, we can see that at the end and at the beginning of each year the concentration of PM2.5 particles is higher than in other periods of the year, but it is still fuzzy data and we can barely have a better understanding of what is really happening. Because of this, some transformations are needed to be able to get a deeper insight into our data. There are many tools available, and here we are only going to use two, but there are many others that can provide better or different insights.
Grouping by different frames of time
The first method is as simple as to compute the mean of the data measurements by week or month.
Weekly average.
Monthly average,
As we can see from the plots, the information that we get from the data using this method is not very clear.
Moving average
This time we are still going to use the mean but in a different way, by using the Moving Average, that computes the average of N given time steps. It will smooth the data allowing the viewer to infer some visible patterns or trends.
Weekly Moving average
In this last plot, we can clearly spot some regular patterns. However, these methods are very sensitive to outliers and as we can see in the first plot our data has many of them.
Please note the difference between these two transformations because they look similar but they are not the same. In the average, we just compute the average per week and in the Moving Average (MA) we compute the average of N lagged observations. Although, the second one is more useful because it will help us to smooth the data removing the noise.
First Conclusion
There is nothing clear we can get from the data even though it seems to have many outliers. and one can think of these outliers as faulty measures by the devices related to any kind of misfunction. However, doing some research we will find that these levels have been already reached and documented in the capital of China.
Getting closer to the last weeks
The data that we have evaluated so far looks quite messy, and as the objective of this small project is to apply different forecasting techniques, we are going to focus the efforts in the last four weeks of the entire dataset. By doing so the visualizations are going the be easier and we will see clearly how the predictions fit in our data.
The caption of the last four weeks
In the distribution of the data, we can see that most of the data is grouped in the first values, looking like the exponential distribution.
In this data dataset, there are 716 measures of the particle’s concentration, around one month of data. With a mean of 78 particles per hour. This means is considered as unhealthy and people should not be exposed during long periods of time to these levels.
Stationarity
Before applying any statistical model it’s important to check if our data is considered as stationary
Stationarity basically means that the properties such as the mean and variance don’t change over time.
(https://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/pmc/section4/pmc442.htm)
There are various ways to check if data is stationary, and one good way is the Test Dickey-Fuller, which states that if the p-value is lower than a given threshold it won’t be considered as stationary.
Test Dickey-Fuller
As we proved with Dickey-Fuller Test, fortunately, our data is stationary which means that it doesn’t have any kind of trend and therefore it doesn’t need any transformations and we can directly to apply ARIMA.
Sometimes the time series are non-stationary. For these cases, it is possible to apply transformations to the data that will make them stationary. | https://towardsdatascience.com/facing-the-arima-model-against-neural-networks-745ba5a933ca | [] | 2021-08-23 13:57:17.566000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Time Series Forecasting', 'Arima', 'Artificial Neural Network'] |
Guest Speaker Series: Caleb Fenton, SentinelOne | Editor’s Note: When the interns started to reach out to industry professionals to be their project mentors, coincidentally, two of them emailed the same person — Caleb Fenton, asking for help with resources to incorporate Machine Learning into their projects! Caleb not only helped them with their respective questions, but also accepted our request to come in as a guest speaker to talk about how Malware is identified in Android applications using Machine Learning and the behavioral heuristics taken into account to do the same.
Caleb Fenton answering the students’ questions on his experience with the cybersecurity field
He quoted how machine learning research is important for cybersecurity as, “You cannot sit still and have your things still work. It is a back and forth battle of researchers and attackers trying to get the upper hand.”
This blog post content was put together by michael korens
Find the live video of the lecture here:
How is Malware identified?
Originally, there were only byte signature heuristics, so malware was identified by it. This was good in the beginning, but after a while it was not beneficial. Thus, the current process of identification evolved. Firstly, the boolean expression of identifying traits of a malware was compared to normal files. Then, the behavior heuristics of a malware was analyzed and went on to identify, “What does the malware do?”
Caleb summarized the identification process as follows:
1. Collect samples
Need lots of good and bad samples
Diversity of good and bad is important
2. Engineer features
Features are classified as Good and Bad — 0 and 1
Understanding the APK format: Android apps come as APK files — are just ZIP files and are rich with variety
Look for other resources (Icons, maps, sounds, etc)
Some great resources to look at for gaining more information:
Offensive and Defensive Android Reverse Engineering
Github.com/rednaga/training/tree/master/DEFCON23
3. Explore the data
In order to explore the data we have, we need to ask the following questions:
Which features don’t vary? — These are probably useless
Which features correlate to target?
What about linear combinations in the data?
What’s the shape of the data?
He went on to say that exploration is a process that never stops and it is essential to dig in and understand the roles. To visualize the data in this phase, it is necessary to consider:
Each feature is a dimension
>3 features is hard to visualize
Need to reduce dimensions
One of the ways to visualize is using t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE). It gives some pretty cool animation effects. To know more about this, you can look up the page — distill.pub/2016/misread-tsne/
4. Train a model
It is necessary to draw a decision boundary between the classes of data and different algorithms do this differently. Just remember the following:
Try as many algorithms as possible — Grid searching
Try many parameters
Lots of tuning and adjusting will go into it
Stack multiple models
Evaluate the performance
How to test a model?
It is necessary that you don’t test and train with the same data. So, we have train on some data and test on the rest! K-fold cross validation is the process where we generally train on 75% and test on the remaining 25% in different iterations.
He also introduced the concepts of Precision and Recall along with an introduction to the models — Naive Bayes and SVM.
5. Repeat
Finally, we repeat the first four steps until we achieve accurate results for our model and are able to correctly identify malware.
What is the modern approach?
The modern approach to identifying a malware is based on:
Reputation (file hash)
Static heuristics
Static AI Model
Behavioral heuristics
Behavioral AI model
Why use Python?
Highlighting the importance of Python for cybersecurity, Caleb mentioned how simple the language of Python is and how it comes with many libraries that makes processing data easy. Some of the libraries he highlighted were:
Sklearn — widely used in machine learning (has great documentation)
Jupyter notebooks — great for experimentation
Pandas — used for managing data
Xgboost — great Gradient Boost library (GBT)
How did Caleb become a security engineer?
Among other things, Caleb spoke about how he became a security researcher — “the geek route; loving to code, working on a PHP site and not going to my high school graduation”. He explained how important it is to build a feedback mechanism by learning skills and submitting content online for evaluation, which helps you to develop your areas to improve.
How are anti-viruses keeping up?
As a researcher himself, Caleb said that customer care more about malware detection. Vendors don’t even know what they want most of the time. What they mostly care about is having a slick website where they can manage their web-points. He thinks the way for anti-viruses to keep up is to get a dynamic detection, since it is a lot easier now to describe how malware behaves. With these definitions, if there is a sophisticated dynamic engine which is watching every API call, it can easily tell if a PDF downloads an exe file. We can keep track of all these and build this whole story. Once it crosses a threshold, we can track everything it did and flush it out of the system.
Caleb developed Simplify — What is it?
It is a virtual machine (there’s like a 100k lines of code) which takes exe files that runs inside your own VM and keeps track of everything that happens. It will take both decision paths and keeps track of every possible action. There is also pattern based obfuscation and also has the easiest way to de-obfuscate.
Understanding machine learning algorithms — The Caleb way!
Caleb says that in general what he would work on is to serially master things. You pick one or two things and go very deep into something and learn the in and out of it, then go on to do something else. He emphasizes, “Don’t start off with using 20 different things. Start with one simple thing and learn more about it and then get further with other applications”.
Solid piece of advices!
Caleb addressed all the questions that the students had especially related to the field of cybersecurity, how to showcase our skills and accomplishments and also how to keep ourselves in pace with the growing industry. A few of them are highlighted here:
“I definitely recommend writing a blog — you may have only 2 paragraphs worth of material to write, but as you get into it, you might develop more ideas that you haven’t even thought about previously.”
“Building your GitHub profile is very important — I wanna know if you can code. Interview process is also important — Getting to know you and if you’re eager to learn”
The most solid of all and something that everybody needs to work on from day one is:
“Always be engaged to work on something interesting. Don’t ever be discouraged by those around you that you feel know more than you”.
Learning resources
Going on to say how much amount of learning resources are already available in the internet, Caleb gave information about the following few resources that will help us to learn a lot more:
Ember malware code + data — github.com/endgameinc/ember
Malware classification contest — kaggle.com/c/malware-classification
Kaggle blog — blog.kaggle.com/
HackerRank — AI challenges — hackerrank.com
Build an Antivirus in 5 mins — youtube.com/watch?v=iLNHVwSu9EA
Datasets to test and experiment
A few malware datasets that were highlighted to experiment our learning are: | https://medium.com/cyberdefendersprogram/guest-speaker-series-caleb-fenton-sentinelone-f92fef5a6377 | ['Johnsy Vineela'] | 2018-08-14 16:40:02.365000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Cybersecurity', 'Guest Blogging'] |
Surviving A Baby’s First Christmas: 9 Tips | Having a newborn at Christmas is a game-changer, and survival is the name of the game. If you are in a pickle about how to handle the situation, let me lend you some helpful tips.
#1: TALK IT OVER WITH YOUR PARTNER
As parents of a newborn, you will have lots of plans with regards to how you’re to going to spend your child’s first holiday season. It’s a time when you want to spend quality time bonding with this new member of your family. However, the festive season is a busy time for everyone. Things may get out of hand. Both of you should have a talk to discuss your shared goals for the season and to plan activities in detail, so you are both on the same page.
#2: SAVE YOUR MONEY
Don’t break the bank buying lots of gifts for the little one. One or two is fine. Besides, your baby will be getting lots from family and friends. Save your money to buy something your baby may need later in the future.
#3: JUST SAY NO
Chances are family and friends will be dying to see your baby. Be tough to say no to such visits and get-togethers. Remember, this is your baby’s first holiday, and it is supposed to be a time for only you and your nuclear family. Also, there is a pandemic, and so the lesser visits, the better. At best, let them connect by a video call or any of the video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Skype and Webex.
#4: CHANGE YOUR PARTY PLANS
This festive season, trade your tea party for fifty guests for a simple soiree with just the family. Again, social gatherings have to be put on hold because of the pandemic. This is safe for your newborn. Newborns are usually very susceptible to a lot of infection for the first few months of their lives. Moreover, it will be less exhausting for you to plan. You are already stressed out with taking care of a newborn and do not need anymore stress. You can have something as minimalist as a tree decorating party or dinner for the family. Read our post, 12 Great Party Ideas for Christmas , for more ideas.
#5: STAY HEALTHY
Colds and flu are usually rife at Christmas. And now, with the novel Coronavirus, families have to be extra cautious about the spread of infection. Take the necessary precautions to protect your newborn. Bundle your baby up in something warm. Dress him or her up in warm clothing and always have their heads covered. Also, make sure you are on top of your baby’s feeding and sleeping routines. Do have enough rest too. Wash your hands regularly, mask up and sanitize your hands and objects around you like toys as often as possible. Lastly, make sure the house is kept warm at all times, especially the baby nursery.
#6: MAKE MEMORIES
Snap away as often as possible. Newborns don’t stay that little for long, so capture as many memories of your baby’s first holiday as you can.
#7: ASK FOR HELP
It’s the holiday season, and I know you have a tall to-do list with items like cooking, decorating, gift wrapping, shopping, plus taking care of a newborn. Phew! You must be a superhero to be able to pull all that off. But at some point, it will be too exhausting for you no matter how hard you try. Share the load. It’s okay to ask for help every now and then from your partner or even an older child. For instance, let your spouse watch your baby while you make dinner. After all, he also needs to bond with the baby and such moments are just perfect for that.
#8: DON’T OVEREXPOSE YOUR BABY
As I already mentioned, newborns are very vulnerable. So, try not to take yours out into public places too often. At best, keep him or her indoors till they are a little older. You can, however, take him or her out for a walk a few yards from home or out in the garden, if you have a big house. Some fresh air and change in the environment are healthy for newborns. But make sure he or she is in warm clothing.
#9: HAVE SOME ME-TIME
You will need to take good care of yourself, so you can take care of your baby. Having an hour of me-time every week to indulge in some pampering or entertainment can be energizing. So when your baby is napping, you can grab the opportunity to have a mani-pedi, read a book, do some yoga or meditate. Let your partner know when you are having a me-time, so he minds the baby.
Well, that’s it from me. Hope you do survive the holidays with these tips. All in all, keep your expectations low. When there is a baby in the picture, anything out of the ordinary can happen. But make the most of every moment to connect with your newborn and other kids. And always remember that it’s your newborn’s first holiday. Don’t get so caught up with all the hustle and bustle that you don’t get to really enjoy it. | https://medium.com/@grtwonderful/surviving-a-babys-first-christmas-9-tips-ea8b9e96cd73 | [] | 2020-12-20 20:05:49.148000+00:00 | ['First Time Baby', 'Motherhood', 'Baby', 'Christmas', 'Fatherhood'] |
I often spend time perusing Barnes and Noble. | I often spend time perusing Barnes and Noble. Sometimes I find myself in the political section. It seems some of the political books seem to have no bearing on reality. They are designed to sell, who cares if they’re true or not! This is an example! | https://medium.com/@mannyotiko1/i-often-spend-time-perusing-barnes-and-noble-ee86c568eff5 | ['Manny Otiko'] | 2020-12-19 17:35:18.937000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Propaganda', 'Trump', 'Elections', 'Republican Party'] |
Coming Out During the Holidays | Coming Out During the Holidays
Watching Happiest Season brought back many memories of my own coming out story. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, but doing so has made me so much happier in my life. The are often a time for us to get together with our family and loved ones. Which, naturally, is also when many people decide to come out.
is never easy, but in case you’re deciding to come out to your family over the holidays, here are some tips to help you get through it based on my own coming out story and personal experiences.
When I Came Out
I came out to my mom during the holidays (early December). Unsurprisingly, this wasn’t exactly her favorite Christmas present.
I had already known that I was a lesbian for quite some time before I officially came out to my mom and close family members. But I kept this a secret for most of my life — I wanted to wait for the right moment when I was in the right relationship with someone that I loved and respected to reveal this part of myself.
So, ultimately, it took over two decades before I finally met Chia and felt ready to come out.
Why I Came Out
I wanted to bring Chia home to meet my mom during our first holiday together (after we had only been dating for one month 😅). Looking back, this was probably a little premature but, hey, we admit that we’re classic Uhaul lesbians and I knew deep down that she was the one so I wanted my close family and friends to all see how amazing of a person she was (and still is!). I felt that another way I could help my mom cope with the fact that I’m gay is to see how happy I was with my partner in person.
While this might not be the best strategy for everyone (i.e. bringing your partner home immediately after coming out), I don’t regret the decision and, in the end, everything worked out for the better.
How I Came Out
Coming out to my mom in particular was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do because she’s my biggest role model and someone that I look up to. More than anything, I’ve always wanted to make her proud; however, since she’s more traditional, I knew that being gay would mean letting her down. So, for most of my life, I thought that I would just hide this part of me from her and not make her sad.
I remember the day I came out to her over the phone vividly.
Normally, my mom is a very outgoing, extroverted person but when I came out to her, there was just… silence. It was the kind of somber, uncomfortable silence that makes you feel like your heart is sinking to the bottom of your stomach.
After what felt like an eternity, she finally said that she always had a feeling that I might be gay but never wanted to acknowledge it. She then asked if it was something she did or because I never had any good male role models in my life. It hurt to know that she felt “responsible” in any way for me being gay. We ended the call without a clear resolution, but I knew that she would need time to process this and ultimately find her own way of accepting me.
When I went back home with Chia a few weeks later for the holiday, I had an in person conversation with my mom and it was one of the most honest discussions I’ve ever had with her.
With each year that has passed since then, she’s come around more and more and has gotten to a point where she is open to talking about my relationship with Chia. While she’s certainly not shouting that I’m gay and in a relationship with a woman from the rooftops, there is a quiet acknowledgement and acceptance of who I am. Sometimes when you’re from a more conservative, immigrant family, that’s the best you can hope for!
If you want to read my full coming out story, check out our comic series here about coming out.
With that said, if you’re planning on coming out to your parents and loved ones during the holidays, here are 8 tips to keep in mind:
Tips for Coming Out
1. Think about how you best communicate. 🗣
Coming out is a big moment and, for many people, it’ll be life-changing. So, if possible, you should communicate this news in a way that feels authentic to you. We all have different ways of expressing ourselves. I’m typically someone who prefers small group settings and is better at communicating my thoughts through writing while others may be more eloquent when speaking on the fly or to a large group. If you’re the latter, then coming out via phone, in-person, or a video chat/Facetime might be best. If you’re the former, then coming out via a text, email, or letter might be better.
2. Similarly, think about how the person you’re coming out to wants to receive the news. 👂
While coming out is ultimately about you, it’s important to also consider the people you’re coming out to. Think back to all of the different ways you’ve ever received news (both good and bad) before. Was it through a phone call, text, email, letter, in-person, etc.? What were the pros and cons of each method?
For example, having a one-on-one in person conversation might feel like the best way to tell them something really personal and important, but face-to-face conversations also force the other person to react and respond in real-time. On the other hand, you might think that it’s impersonal to come out via a text message or another form of written communication, but depending on that person you’re coming out to, they might actually appreciate the time they get to reflect first and then react to your news. In my case, while I felt the most comfortable writing out my thoughts, I knew my mom would have preferred to receive the news over the phone, so I wrote out what I wanted to say to her and then called her.
3. Be as kind to them as you would want them to be towards you. 🤝
Treating others the way you want to be treated is the golden rule that is incredibly useful when coming out. Just like how you may not have come to the realization that you were gay overnight, it may also take time for the other party to process this information. Be as kind to them as you would want them to be towards you. It’s ok to give the other person space and time to accept and process the news, especially if they don’t have the reaction that you were hoping for. As much as it hurts to not receive a positive response immediately, be patient.
4. Make sure you’re safe and have a plan B in case things don’t go well. 🤔
Perhaps you’re staying with your family during the holidays and there’s a chance that they might ask you to leave the house after hearing this news. Make sure you have a backup plan and a place to stay in case this does happen, whether it’s with a friend, at an Airbnb, etc.
If you’re not financially independent and count on your parents or family to support you, think through what you’ll need to have in place (i.e. a job, several months of savings, etc.) before you come out in case you need alternate sources of income.
Of course, and above all else, make sure that you feel safe before you decide to come out.
5. Be resilient. 💪
If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. Sometimes you might have to come out more than once to make your point. Your family might be in shock and in disbelief that you’re gay so they may refuse to acknowledge it. This doesn’t mean that you should give up on being who you are or on work your way towards mutual understanding.
When Chia first came out , her mom didn’t take it well and simply said that it was impossible for her to be gay because no one in the family was gay. Initially, this made Chia retract her initial statement and only led to more self-doubt and confusion. But she persisted as her feelings and attractions towards women also didn’t subside. Eventually, a few years later, she came out again to her parents and they slowly, but eventually, came to accept her and me!
6. Think through why now is the time you want to come out. Make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons and on your schedule. ⏳
If you have a group of friends who are out and proud, that doesn’t mean that you have to be out at the same time. Simply put, if you don’t feel like it’s the right time, it’s ok to wait.
For instance, before Chia, I was in a long-term relationship where I did consider coming out to my mom a few times. But whenever I thought about doing so, I just didn’t feel like I was ready or that the time was right. I also had some doubts about that previous relationship so I kept pushing back when I would ultimately come out to my mom. Ultimately, it was the right decision for me to postpone and I don’t regret coming out later at all.
On the other hand, if you feel like you just need to rip the bandaid off and you already have a support network around you, then coming out could be a good decision.
7. Rehearse beforehand so you feel more comfortable. 📝
If you’ve ever prepared for a big exam, work presentation, speech, performance, etc. then you know that practice will make you feel more confident. You can take a similar approach to coming out.
While you might not feel 100% ready and, honestly, you may never feel completely ready (coming out is still one of the scariest things I’ve ever done), practicing what you’re going to say, anticipating what questions you might get asked, and preparing responses to them can help you feel less nervous.
8. You don’t need to come out to everyone at the same time. 🙊
If you plan on coming out during the holidays, but (1) don’t want to be the focus during the family dinner and (2), prefer to come out to everyone individually instead of making a big announcement to everyone, then you can certainly plan your conversations accordingly.
I came out to my closest friends first before I came out to anyone in my family. When I did come out to my family, I actually came out to my aunt first and waited another year before coming out to my mom.
Subsequently, over the years, I came out to a few more people in my family (the ones that I’m closest to), but not to everyone. Part of the reason is that a lot of the burden — if I came out to everyone in my family — would fall on my mom who has to interact with most of them daily whereas I can easily remove myself from that and extended family affairs because I don’t live near them.
There’s this great Netflix documentary, “All in my family” , about an Asian man coming out to his family, and at the end of the documentary, he says, “When you are young, you think that the truth is more important than anything else, but as you get older, you realize that, while living your truth is important, there are also other things that are important, like other people’s feelings. As long as you don’t have to live in a lie and you’re not being denied to live the life you want”.
All this is to say that it’s okay if you decide that you only want to come out to one person or a few people this time around or even if you choose ultimately that you don’t ever want to come out to in your family. | https://medium.com/sesame-but-different/coming-out-during-the-holidays-14ceb4044a71 | ['Sesame But Different'] | 2021-01-04 21:53:22.625000+00:00 | ['LGBTQ', 'Coming Out', 'LGBT', 'Lesbian', 'Coming Out Story'] |
The flame | Pale December, I wore the time like a coat that year
You were my match, and I was the flame
But as the embers of the summer lost their breath and disappeared
My heart went cold and only ashes remained from the blame
The flame was gone, but the fire remained
And the hollow echo of his love stayed in me
But if the fire’s out, baby, how are you going to keep me warm?
And my warm is giving way to winter, like a passion fee
Pale December, I wore the time like a coat that year
You were my match, and I was the flame
But as the embers of the summer lost their breath and disappeared
My heart went cold and only ashes remained from the blame
And the hollow echo of his love stayed in me
But if the fire’s out, baby, how are you going to keep me warm?
And my warm is giving way to winter, like a passion fee
And the cold wind was born
And my warm is giving way to winter, like a passion fee
And the cold wind was born
And my warm is giving way to winter, like a passion fee
And the cold wind was born | https://medium.com/@kristannewman/the-flame-81e7853d9baf | [] | 2020-12-22 15:22:35.138000+00:00 | ['Loss', 'Divorce', 'Poetry'] |
Adopting a dog during the coronavirus scare | Adopting a dog during the coronavirus scare
How to socialize your pet during social isolation
One of my top-five favorite dogs to hang out with as a dog walker. Although I’m never thrilled when dogs catch me in a close-to-mouth kiss, I adore this dog so he got a free pass. (Photo credit: Shamontiel L. Vaughn)
Your timing isn’t the best, but you really wanted a dog. And now you’ve found out that you’ve got one, in the middle of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) health scare. The easy choice would be to opt out of pet adoption or turn down your friend’s puppy offer. Dog delivery puts you at risk of going outside around countless passersby and pet adoption employees before signing off on this dog’s veterinary wellness visit and exam, spaying or neutering procedure, heartworm tests, flea/tick treatments and other vaccinations. And if that’s not done, it’s your responsibility. But you’re already at home by your lonesome — or maybe with other family members — and had your heart set on getting a pet.
The truth of the matter is this health crisis shall pass, as did influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), H1N1 swine flu pandemic and ebola. Even the seasonal flu affects more than 1 billion people annually. And opting out now may result in you losing out on a dog you really want. You take all the proper precautions — staying at least six feet away from other two-legged folks — and now that you’ve got this dog at home, you’ve got to deal with one major conundrum. Regardless of what’s going on in the world, your dog doesn’t know it and the first few months of its life — especially as a puppy — socialization is a huge deal. Without it, you may have yourself one mean, antisocial dog.
Photo credit: SanduStefan/Pixabay
But how do you do this when you’re already trying to dodge other people in the first place until the coronavirus numbers start decreasing (3,487 total cases yesterday and 4,226 cases today). Here are a few tips to help you socialize your dog inside your home.
Prioritize time to play with your new dog. In an ideal world, your responsible breeder has already started the dog’s socialization options in the first three months of his or her life. According to the American Kennel Club, puppies may voluntarily start coming up to people who are observing them within the first three weeks. You’re already in your own home, so make sure all of the closest family members who you need your dog to trust try to spend time with this dog. “Behavioral issues, not infectious diseases, are the number one cause of death for dogs under three years of age,” according to the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior.
Introduce this dog to all kinds of sounds, smells and sights in the neighborhood. For homeowners, a trip to the backyard is an easy way to do this. For apartment dwellers, this can become a bit of a problem depending on the neighborhood. If you’re adopting a puppy, hanging out and sniffing carpet and floors (tile, linoleum, hardwood) are good ways to get your puppy moving and curious. For older dogs who aren’t particularly new to this environment, they’ll still want to check their new home out. But eventually, they’ll want to go outside. While your dog can “see” as many people as possible on various television programs, that’s just not the same as touching and/or smelling a diverse group of people.
If you do not already live in a multicultural household, this useful checklist (“Some Thoughts About Dogs” socialization ideas) is going to be tougher to do. However, there are some things that you can indeed do from home — move a wheel suitcase around, open and close an umbrella, vacuum the carpet or a rug, wave a flag, dry your hair with a blow dryer, play an instrument, test out some grooming techniques, etc. These are not only things that will help your dog get used to your touch but also get used to changes. If you get into the habit of just sitting on your couch and watching TV all day, with the occasional trip to clean up after him, your dog will also start thinking that’s a “normal” day.
Consider a drive around the neighborhood. If you live in a community where you can quickly get to your parking spot or garage area, this is yet another way to help your dog get used to traveling. There are plenty of noises outside — ambulances, fire trucks, raindrops, thunder, lawnmowers, motorcycles, buses, trains — that can help your dog become comfortable with hearing them. So by the time you’re able to regularly walk your dog, this won’t be a completely new site to see.
One of my two top favorite dogs (and usually number one) that I have walked, sat and boarded. (Photo credit: Shamontiel L. Vaughn)
Meetups via cars: So maybe you’ve had to distance yourself from some family and friends who you hang with every once in awhile. This is as good of a time as any to decide who else you want your dog to trust. Of course with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encouraging people to isolate themselves, you don’t want to bounce around from home to home. But no one is stopping you from having verbal conversations via speakerphone so your dog can get used to the sound of your social circle’s voices. Stop typing away on social media, texting and email and let your dog know who is on the other side of the computer or smartphone. And if you’re really serious about certain people, maybe meet up in neutral locations. Your dog stays in your car, and your friend stays in her car. But you two can talk via phone — on speaker — while your dog is checking out who your friend is in the next car. And if your friend has a dog, this is as good of a time as any for those two to meet, too, from one car window to another.
Clean your home regularly. The CDC has a checklist of home maintenance during the coronavirus outbreak. Unless you absolutely have to, skip the bleach cleaning altogether and stick to eco-friendly cleaning options. A curious dog — whether a puppy or a new adult dog —is a magnet for strong smells and tastes, and the last thing you want to do is expose this dog to dangerous toxins and poison. Fresh lemons (stockpile a bag), baking soda and vinegar are just fine. They also help control pet smells in your home. If you’re someone who likes candles and incense, make sure to light those as well so your dog is used to seeing the fire (enclosed environment in an inaccessible area only) and smelling those scents, too.
Contact a veterinarian about next steps. If the dog you’ve adopted does not already have all major shots, check with the veterinarian of your choice to find out how to safely get this done. As of now, there have been no cases of dogs (or cats) that have infected humans with COVID-19. For the one dog from Hong Kong who did get weak positive results, there is still no evidence from the World Health Organization (WHO) that dogs can spread the disease or become ill from coronavirus. However, there are plenty of other dog health precautions that should be taken into consideration. You may be asked to come inside on an individual basis — again, waiting in your car until the vet is ready to see your dog — instead of being in a waiting room. Depending on the age of your dog, some shots may be able to wait while others won’t. But you should inquire about what shots are and are not needed. In the meantime, this is a great time to sign up for pet health insurance online. | https://medium.com/doggone-world/adopting-a-dog-during-the-coronavirus-scare-7fc1e4570470 | ['Shamontiel L. Vaughn'] | 2020-05-04 22:15:39.553000+00:00 | ['Dogs', 'Dog Adoption', 'Pet Owners', 'Coronavirus', 'Dog Socialization'] |
Screaming Optimists | Screaming Optimists
Bellowing, full-throated, and aggressively optimistic. Ultra Mono, IDLES’ follow-up to 2018’s Joy As An Act Of Resistance, continues to carry the ethos of mindfully and resolutely rejecting notions of societal norms, while presenting a polished sonic field that consumes and demands the listener’s attention.
The band re-upped with Joy producers Nick Launay and Adam Greenspan, and the result is an organic and natural sounding next step in the band’s evolution. Songs like “Model Village”, “Grounds”, and “Reigns” feature punchy verses with explosive choruses. Songs like “War” come on as full sonic assaults, fueled by the drumming of Jon Beavis, distorted guitars, and wailing gang vocals. “Mr. Motivator”, a song named after Jamaican-born British fitness instructor Derrick Evans, is full of biting, sometimes almost nonsensical pop culture references, and a chorus that literally screams “you can do it, yes you can.”
Though the band decided to release the album during the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, they’ve managed to continue doing shows. Live-streamed performances including live fromAbbey Road Studios, as well as performances for KEXP and the BBC have allowed the band to showcase their new songs with a similar energy to their usual performances. Live shows slated for the middle of next year have already sold out, to the point where 6 new shows had to be added to their UK tour. Ultra Mono peaked at #54 on the US Billboard Top 200, #6 on US Top Rock Albums, and #1 on UK Album charts. This, in comparison to Joy, which did not chart on either the Top 200 or Top Rock Album charts, and charted at #5 on the UK Album charts.
In short, Joy As An Act Of Resistance was the introduction of IDLES to a much broader audience. Ultra Mono is them claiming their place, and confirming themselves as individuals. The band rejects the “punk rock” label, and their output makes a clear distinction between them and most punk bands. IDLES taps into an energy that calls out what they think is evil, but differs by coming from a place of healing, awareness, clarity, and unity, rather than antagonism and nihilism. During a time of isolation, stress, and social and personal reckoning, IDLES is a band that continues to champion true vulnerability, strength, and progress.
To purchase and listen to IDLES’ discography, including Ultra Mono, check out the links below: | https://medium.com/@nantonelli15/screaming-optimists-b5d7f2516617 | ['Nick Antonelli'] | 2020-12-07 20:12:36.002000+00:00 | ['Music', 'Album Review', '2020'] |
How Well Are We Preparing A Path For Others? | “Prepare the way … make straight in the wasteland a way for our God,” the prophet Isaiah writes in a Scripture reading for the Second Week of Advent.
Like perhaps many of you, I remember well the first time I heard “Prepare Ye (The Way of the Lord),” the exuberant opening song of the musical Godspell. I walked around for hours afterward humming the tune. I think of that jubilant scene every year when we again read the Scripture passages during the Second Week of Advent that gave rise to the song. The prophet Isaiah foretells of a voice that will cry in the desert, “Prepare the way … Make straight in the wasteland a way for our God.” In the gospel of Mark, the voice of John the Baptist tells of “one mightier than I who is coming after me.”
Because of the pandemic, I’m not running off these days to holiday parties or shopping in stores for gifts. I have more time to sit with these Advent readings and reflect on them. The words seem even more resonant because we are living through a kind of desert experience. We can only hope to see a straight path ahead out of the wasteland of isolation and fear we are living through.
The pandemic has forced us into a “desert experience” where the path out of the wasteland of isolation remains uncertain.
Isaiah’s words also cause me to remember that we are all called to prepare the path for those who come after us. How well am I preparing a way for others? This week, I participated in a conversation about the future of Benedictine Oblates — people like myself who are lay associates of monasteries. Oblates strive to practice the monastic values of listening, community, simplicity, hospitality, work and prayer within the context of our secular lives. For the first time in history, there are now more lay associates than monks and religious sisters living within monasteries. How ready are we to become among the principal bearers of Benedictine values in a world that desperately needs those values? How willing are today’s monks and sisters to prepare us for that task, which means envisioning their roles in a new way as well as the institutions and traditions to which they are accustomed?
As one Oblate observed, “There is a grieving that has to happen as we move from what we know into new ways to be Benedictine … Many are not ready for that step. The idea that the monastic life may not continue as we know it causes us much pain.”
It is an often arduous journey to both prepare and be prepared.
“Prepare Ye (The Way of the Lord,” a song by Stephen Schwartz from the musical Godspell is based on a passage in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah heard in the Second Week of Advent.
Closer to home, I’ve been thinking about “preparing the way” for children. I rarely had time to speak with the children in my neighborhood before the pandemic started. Now that I’m working from home, I see them more often. I especially enjoy chatting with my neighbor’s daughter who strolls the neighborhood’s sidewalks carrying a wooden walking stick as if she was setting out on a hike in the wilderness. My young friend often comes outside to play after dinner, just as the moon and stars are popping out. I hope she will remember the times we spent trying to spot Jupiter and Saturn and discussing the phases of the moon. Maybe the memory of those moments will “make straight a path” for a lifetime appreciation of our wonder-filled universe.
How are we “preparing a path” for the children we know to gain a lifetime appreciation for wonder? (Photo courtesy of Pinterest).
Reflecting on John the Baptist’s story, my friend Sister Jennifer Halling of Mount St. Scholastica Monastery in Kansas sent out a poem this weekend by Jan Richardson. Titled “Prepare,” it says in part:
Prepare
Strange how one word
will so hollow you out.
But this word
has been in the wilderness
for months.
Years.
This word is what remained
after everything else
was worn away
by sand and stone.
It is what withstood
the glaring of sun by day,
the weeping loneliness of
the moon at night …
Prepare, prepare. | https://medium.com/@judithvalente/how-well-are-we-preparing-a-path-for-others-1d3264088086 | ['Judith Valente'] | 2020-12-06 16:11:24.007000+00:00 | ['Preparation', 'Prayer', 'Spirituality', 'Wonder', 'Contemplation'] |
Samsung’s double-folding phone design finally unveiled after Christmas Eve | Samsung presently has two foldable phone models on the market. The Galaxy Z Flip series is recognized for its vertical, compact fold, and the Galaxy Z Fold series is noted for its book-like mechanism. Samsung, on the other hand, might include a third mechanism in a future foldable phone, according to a recent patent.
Samsung’s Double-Folding Phone
Samsung was recently granted a patent for a double-folding smartphone with three unique portions that fold in a Z form, according to a reliable source. This design also allows a portion of the screen to serve as a primary display with an embedded fingerprint sensor. The phone resembles a little tablet when fully unfurled. A triple rear camera array and a USB charging and data port are located on the phone’s back.
Surprisingly, the patent illustrations also show how Samsung may divide the phone’s internals across the three halves. The phone’s batteries and circuit boards are only housed in the back and front foldable sections. The device’s structural rigidity and strength are provided by the central part, which appears to be devoid of any important internals. We are not sure of the specifics but considering the company’s reputation, the device will be able to easily carry out SMS backup.
Expected Availability Date
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time we’ve heard or seen Samsung’s intentions for a double-folding smartphone. A somewhat different patent design surfaced in April 2021, showing an option for the dual-folding method. Samsung released a working prototype of its “multi-foldable” structure a few months later, offering us a firsthand look at how the gadget would work.
While the recent patent implies Samsung’s concept is well advanced, don’t bet your home on a gadget being released in 2022. Patents aren’t necessarily certainties or direct foreshadowings of consumer electronics. A double-folding technology, on the other hand, appears to be the inevitable progression of the foldable phone, especially if additional screen real estate is desired. | https://medium.com/@zainabasad/samsungs-double-folding-phone-design-finally-unveiled-after-christmas-eve-4fa402f2d4ba | ['Bianca Patrick'] | 2021-12-29 08:49:22.413000+00:00 | ['Technews', 'Samsung', 'Foldable Phone', 'Technology'] |
Creating Charitable Habits | As the holiday season kicks off many people feel an increased desire to give back and become involved in the community. However with the stress of cooking, shopping, and juggling daily tasks many aren’t sure how to manage their time and energy in an effective manner. Fortunately, there are small ways to break down the act of charity and create everyday habits that allow you to expand your philanthropic efforts.
Here are a few ways to create charitable habits.
Everyone shops online, however, many don’t consider the online retailers that they are using. For instance, Amazon has a program called Amazon Smile, which allows for any purchase a consumer makes to go towards a 0.5% donation to charitable organizations. It’s at no extra cost to the consumer, just a simple way to put a little bit of money towards something that helps others. Aside from Amazon, there are a plethora of companies and businesses that have built-in donations during purchasing. By being more mindful of where we shop we can help others without altering our routine in any major way.
Another wonderful way to give back while simultaneously becoming more active in one’s community is to cook. We all have to eat and instead of making too much and throwing away leftovers, consider purposely cooking larger portions to give to those in need. There are tons of places such as shelters, fire stations, and nonprofits that welcome food donations. This is a particularly difficult time of year for vulnerable populations and every little bit makes a difference. Before delivering any food make sure to call ahead as there may be restrictions on what organizations can accept. We all make dinner and this is a great way to tweak your routine and feel that you’re having a positive impact on the lives of others.
Lastly, instead of throwing things away when you no longer need them, donate! Clothes, books, shoes, even electronics can go to someone else who may desperately need it. Everyone goes through their closet once or twice a year to revamp their wardrobe or make space in a storage area, so why not donate as you minimize?
These small changes in one’s routine are simple and effective at helping those that wish to give back an easy way to make participating in charity incredibly easy.
Originally published on Richard Abbe’s website. | https://medium.com/@richardabbe/creating-charitable-habits-5d64e1d2dc3e | ['Richard Abbe'] | 2020-12-21 21:56:09.898000+00:00 | ['Habits', 'New York', 'Charity', 'Richard Abbe', 'Philanthropy'] |
Why Most Software Projects Fail and How to Avoid It | I have been working with different software companies for over six years. From financial software companies, which focus on their own products, to software agencies, which build and maintain different projects for different industries and also worked as a freelance developer and have had my own clients.
Throughout all of those years experience, and in every one of the companies I have worked for, there is a pattern that always repeats itself.
Developers seem unable to properly collaborate with product people or the client directly.
However, whilst I was working as a freelance developer, something changed. Sure, at the beginning it was the same pattern, a list of features/tasks, and a deadline, but the more I met with a client, the more I understood their business and more importantly, the more I understood their brand.
The greater engagement I had with a client, the greater the opportunity to discuss and question certain features, measure the user impact, suggest other ideas, and in general, improve the quality of the overall product and fix the user’s pain points. Soon, we were able to forget about dates and focus on the product itself.
I would work together with the client and we would come up with many great ideas and the project would end up being extended, and yes, that can be chaotic from a corporate standpoint.
We moved dates!!!
We changed requirements, we changed the initial contract and we signed off on a new contract but the product was a success, the client was extremely happy and I believe, in the end, that was the real goal.
Had I done what I was asked for initially, the product would have missed out on a huge amount of value. Our job is not to do what we are told to do, our job is to create something that solves problems.
“Be stubborn about your goals but flexible in your methods” — Unknown
The problem with Software companies
When a developer talks to a client, they tend to be defensive, especially when it comes to receiving feedback. Everything the client says is treated as a threat and disagreements often occur. Developers seem reluctant and/or unable to collaborate…
Why is this?
Many circumstances seem to pit developers and clients against each other, making them enemies rather than allies. I believe the main reason for this behavior is that from the beginning of a project, developers are only given the requirements and the deadline. They then have to complete the tasks in a set amount of time in order to receive their payment.
That’s okay, but it’s not surprising why developers act defensively if the client starts to give feedback in an early review session and then complain that it didn’t reach the goal/revenue the company had expected, which is information that the developers were not made aware of before or during the development stage. If the client then suggests a solution, the developer feels threatened and may also be wary of missing upcoming deadlines.
Software development is rarely a streamlined process, from the initial idea up to the creation of a product there are many iterations, pivots and changes in between that you only get to see when you are in the development/building process
Developers may lie about feasible solutions depending on how much time it takes to build vs the value of the feature. They may say that a certain feature is impossible to create, refraining, and limiting themselves from even thinking of ways to make it possible. They will make excuses and provide the quickest and effortless solution possible.
Client/developer relationships are based on money, fear and necessity. The client provides a contract with the job specifications and developers work to fulfill the contract in order to get paid. When an issue arises (because, let’s be honest, they always do), developers will prioritize the deadline and the money thus creating a barrier between the two parties stagnating collaboration. In this way, the client will be the only one who cares about the product and the only one providing any valuable ideas and insight.
Meanwhile, the developers’ concerns are the missing-of-deadlines, coming under scrutiny from their boss and/or possibly getting fired.
As developers, we are sometimes unable to think outside of our current task in order to see how it connects to the vision of the product, we do only what we’re asked, we follow the specifications but we never think more than that. Even if we identify that the given specification may not be the best solution and could possibly cause other problems in the future, we are afraid to speak out because it will have a detrimental effect on our ticket completion rate. And after all, that’s how our performance is measured right? By how many tasks we complete?
Available options for developers:
1. Complain about the description of the proposed solution and work together to propose a better one.
Output:
Zero tasks got completed
Uncertain results
2. Solve the current task and do not ask questions.
Output:
Receive the boss compliment
The task got completed
Kept the ticket/task completion rate high
If issues come up later, they would be the client’s fault
Let’s consider a different scenario
From the start of the project, developers are included in business discovery. Clients and developers brainstorm ideas that bring value to the product and users. Developers are the tech experts and with no deadline discussed yet, everyone will feel free and dare to talk about crazy ideas, even if they have not done it before or think it would be difficult to build. A true collaboration will happen and everyone will be thinking about features and ways in which they can deliver the user the best possible product and experience.
After the discovery stage, developers will estimate how much time it will take to build each feature and the client will prioritize and choose which features give the most value to the user and/or will bring more revenue to the business. A deadline will be set and agreed upon between all parties, creating a commitment and alignment, everybody is invested.
With the latter approach we achieve:
Everyone is on the same page
Every opinion counts, everyone is part of the team and belongs to something big
The developer’s mindset is no longer to complete the ticket or make the grumpy client happy. Everyone understands the big picture and will collaborate to make a great product
Everyone is committed to the same, pre-agreed goal
Everyone understands the business and what the key metrics are
There’s a clear picture of what project success looks like
When issues come up developers understand the whole picture and can be honest, suggest more creative, innovative ideas, ideas that may or may not fit in with the current deadline
When everyone knows the “why” and understands how the business works, everyone will go the extra mile together and truly collaborate to make the impossible possible.
At the end of the day, the client will fumble and re-prioritize tasks if needed, but the end goal is no longer to complete the task and get the monthly check on the table. The goal is now to make a great product, make the client’s demographic happy and make the business grow.
All of that will reflect in the success or failure of the product when we focus on the right goal, if the product user is happy, the MVP will bring in enough revenue, more features will come up, a new contract will be signed, ideas that were left behind due to time will be relooked at, more brainstorming with developers, final tweaks and amendments will be made. With everyone working together as a team with a clear mission statement, the results will be better, more targeted and refined products.
The bottom line:
Hire people driven by passion
Build awareness and empathy including the team in product discovery
Make everyone feel they belong to something big, keeping the team engaged and excited about the people they impact and help, keep the vision alive in your team
Build team empathy with the clients demographic, foster human connection, if possible meet the prospective users in person
Celebrate small wins
Be open and clear
Prefer over-communication over poor communication
Build trust
Clearly define what success looks like for the developer role, Do not only measure ticket completion rates but how many times this person helped others, raised red flags or unforeseen blockers, etc.
measure ticket completion rates but how many times this person helped others, raised red flags or unforeseen blockers, etc. Make it easy for the team to collaborate/help each other
Build an environment where people see failure as an opportunity to learn, grow and get better, this will promote creativity and fresh ideas
Build different motivators at work other than simply “something I do to get paid”
Invest in the Company Culture, Culture is the key in making employees feel like they are part of a family to create a sense of belonging
When unforeseen blockers occur, outline tradeoffs, be honest with the client about available solutions and together reprioritize the backlog
There’s always an invisible barrier that divides developers from clients, stopping them from truly collaborating as they aim towards different goals, the solution, of course, is to align our visions and merge our goals so that we move forward together as a single unit, with a common purpose. | https://medium.com/swlh/why-most-software-projects-fail-and-how-to-avoid-it-2c56f458bc4c | ['Sergio Arboleda'] | 2020-07-31 11:42:20.495000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Tech Lead', 'Software Development', 'Agile', 'Product Management'] |
Losing your little brother | Losing your little brother
And searching for your gift
Every story you write starts in your head first. This one I am writing now, been in-writing for the last 12 years.
I lost my baby brother 12 years ago, today. November the 14th. We put him down in the loving care of Earth 3 days after, on the 17th of November. That is my birthday. I remember hearing my parents talk from a distance, murmuring between the two whether they should push the funeral to the 18th so I would not live with this memory forever. They were in deep sorrow for the loss of their only son while they also knew the dark cloud this would set on all my birthdays until the day I die. Would it have changed a thing, if we had moved it to a day later? Instead of blowing candles, laughing and joying over my 35th, I cuddled and wept with my parents, husband and two toddlers. In 2008 November the 14th, I forever lost the joy of celebrating my birthday. This is why I do not put my birthday on social media profiles to get celebratory notes from friends and I rarely offer people my birthday unless I am asked.
As my parents were a guest at my house at the time, I had nowhere, no physical place to process my grief; cry as loud as I want, get the sadness out of each and every cell of my physical and spiritual being. Express my anger, disappointment, sadness, and loss of hope for the future and in a visible way that somehow provides some sort of relief. But I had to be strong for them. We all played our roles when we were together. And we were together a lot. We put our strong-masks to remain collected when the person inside each of us is crying mountains but silently. Do you know what that is like? My only escape was my car. There were so many days when I put the music up at a deafening height to let my emotions loose. That was my ritual to process deep grief. It is a miracle I did not have any accidents in one of these many many drives. I do not recommend it. | https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/losing-your-little-brother-d943ebb1f0fe | ['Berna Demiryol'] | 2020-11-17 14:27:56.261000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Wellness', 'Grief', 'Self Care', 'Life'] |
Design systems need experience foundations | Design systems need experience foundations
A lesson that we’ve learned at Shopify from building Polaris is that maintaining a system takes more effort than building it. That’s because design systems inevitably create debt. Components will be used and forked in unpredictable ways. Dependencies can make it difficult to predictably make a change. We ran into these issues while rolling out a new design language for Shopify’s admin in October. The time it took to test the impact of a small visual change across the product slowed down the rollout.
Looking at Sparkbox’s 2020 state of design systems survey, I see these same pains reflected:
“42% of in-house respondents felt that the way their design system was originally built created debt for the organization’s technical or design departments. When we asked how building the design system created debt, the two top responses were both related to a planning failure.”
It reminds me of this story about the cost of maintaining paved roads. Some towns are turning their paved roads back to gravel to save money. The benefit of paved roads is that drivers can get to where they want to go more quickly. But maintaining and repaving roads is expensive. And driving on a well-maintained dirt or gravel road can be better for cars than crashing through potholes.
The moral is: investing in infrastructure is worth it, if the benefit to people is worth the cost of maintaining the infrastructure. Ultimately, like paved roads, we create design systems because we want to help users accomplish tasks more easily. We lose sight of this when we focus too narrowly on design systems as a tool that helps internal teams move faster. A design system that allows you to efficiently ship a confusing user experience has no value.
If we want to enable better user experiences, our current design system foundations aren’t enough. We need an experience foundation.
The value of an experience foundation
When you think of design system foundations, you probably think of design, UI, code, and content elements that teams use to build more efficiently. All of those elements are present and used heavily in Polaris today. The Polaris team had been focusing on making those elements better, and we’d probably still be doing that today. However, 2020 shifted those plans.
In April, the Polaris team paused all of our existing projects. We embedded with product teams for two months to help ship COVID-priority projects. We’d thought of a design system as a tool that scales good UX decisions, but using the system alongside product teams revealed:
Decisions have a shelf-life. A decision may have made sense when it was added to the system, but may no longer be the best solution.
A decision may have made sense when it was added to the system, but may no longer be the best solution. Decisions may not feel clear , especially for people that joined the company after those decisions were made.
, especially for people that joined the company after those decisions were made. Decisions without clear rationale can feel limiting, especially if they’re blocking you from solving a UX problem.
Further, while some product work should feel fast and efficient, at other times people need to reflect. They need to understand if a solution in the system works for them, if they should challenge it, or if they should create something entirely new.
So we asked ourselves:
What if instead of just scaling decisions, we could also scale the rationale that led to those decisions?
What if instead of just enabling fast work, systems could also enable reflection and understanding?
These questions led us to create an experience foundation for Polaris.
The elements of an experience foundation
An experience foundation is a framework that breaks down our understanding of user problems into modular, interconnected elements — the same way we break down our UI into modular elements.
It’s made up of:
A merchant’s job, expressed through a journey ;
; How they do the job, expressed through context ;
; The pressures they face on the job, expressed as factors.
Journeys are the steps users take when they interact with Shopify to do a job. Even if your product team is organized into distinct feature teams, your users shouldn’t be able to see those organizational seams as they’re getting work done. Mapping a user journey has helped Shopify teams, like Billing, spot where siloing was leading to a lack of cohesion.
Context describes the circumstances surrounding a user: the who, what, where, and how. Context provides the rationale behind the decisions in a system, which allows teams to use, modify, or evolve the system with confidence.
Factors are the changing conditions shared across experiences that impact a design. We discovered that teams could be solving for different audiences in different environments, but land at similar solutions. For instance, Retail, Warehousing, and Driving experiences all have scaled up UI elements, larger typography, and less UI on the screen. If teams have similar solutions, it’s likely that they share factors.
We knew we needed the experience foundation documentation to be concise and modular. Concise, because people aren’t going to read pages of long-form text, especially in 2020. Modular, so we could cross-link insights across local system documentation.
We solved for those goals with modular insight cards and factor tags. Each experience has 3-5 insights. The insights are basically summaries of a team’s understanding of their user’s context and how they informed UX decisions. Insights are tagged with factors and each factor has its own landing page which gathers insights and decisions from across local systems.
Factors are the changing conditions shared across experiences that impact a design. This Explore experience helps teams find insights and decisions from across local systems. (Screenshot from internal alpha Polaris site.)
The first version of the factor pages will have insights and decisions, but we see this evolving into an advanced search that helps teams find system assets across local systems. This will also serve as a research tool for the Polaris team. As we collect more information around the most common factors, we can adapt the foundational elements to better serve those factors.
The “task repetition” factor page pulls together insights and decisions from across the Retail and Warehouse local systems. (Screenshot from internal alpha Polaris site.)
These modular elements will change as our understanding of our users evolves. That also means we can replace elements if the conditions change concerning how merchants do work.
This site is currently only for internal users, but we plan to release it externally next year. Eventually, we plan to have one site for Polaris that will have both internal content and external content and resources for our partners and outside audiences.
Evolving the role of the Polaris team
As Shopify has grown, the role of the Polaris team has also changed. The Polaris team used to rely on deep expertise in admin experiences. By broadening our scope, we can no longer rely on our own deep knowledge. We need to think laterally and enable other teams to share their deep thinking so everyone can benefit. Product teams have a deep understanding about what makes their audiences unique and what types of factors they’re designing for. While product teams think deep, we need to think laterally.
A lot of the work we do is guiding teams to identify the user insights that should inform their local systems and spotting interconnections.
This may sound very different from the design systems work you’re accustomed to. And don’t get me wrong, the foundational component work that we do is still important and also needs evolution. We recently built a themeable color system, which was a big step in adapting our visual foundations. But this experience foundation will help us identify how we should invest time into evolving the foundations.
Enabling greater visibility allows us to spot patterns. That allows us to enable networked thinking and reduce duplication, which will empower us to evolve the foundations with confidence.
Repaving roads is expensive. I’m cautious of continuous paving and repaving that could feel like short-term progress (and keep a systems team busy), but actually takes longer to meaningfully improve the user experience. Our greater understanding of user problems will help us pave the right roads.
Thank you to Hayley Hughes for the thoughtful edits on this article. | https://ux.shopify.com/why-design-systems-need-experience-foundations-c5a6967fc4e7 | ['Yesenia Perez-Cruz'] | 2020-11-18 16:09:19.269000+00:00 | ['Design Thinking', 'Design Process', 'Design', 'UX', 'Design Systems'] |
Let’s Address These Factors in Our Mental Health Discourse | Let’s Address These Factors in Our Mental Health Discourse
Using Python to conduct data analysis and investigate adult depression rates in California has led me to find diverse factors that connect back to mental health. Mary Shin Dec 22, 2020·13 min read
Image by Mary Shin
Hip fashion trends, high technology, and innovation. These are some of the distinctive features from the last decade or so that arise when considering Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and the state of CA overall.
However, with continuous modernization and a push for cutting-edge growth, can Californians afford the time to relax? Can we use the state’s mental health statistics to examine health and wellness among the population?
What I learned with Google Trends
I started by looking at the statewide search interest in mental health-related words over time. The easiest way for me to do this was to explore the vast space of Google Trends, where “you can measure interest on a search topic over time or by geography,” as described by Shelby Temple:
“However, there is a key nuance to this data. It is not measuring the overall query volume. It is measuring the normalized, relative share of Google searches on a topic compared to all other searches for that time and place.”
The words I looked up within the state of CA included: anxiety, depression, sad, therapy, wellness. Since I wanted to make connections between the historical search interest for each of these five words, I compared each search term to a baseline term, drought.
I found that the interest over time in these five words all steadily increased from the beginning of 2012 to the end of 2018. That is to say, CA residents are engaging in more web searches for these topics in 2018 as compared to six years earlier. The reason why I chose this time frame was so that I could match it with the “Adult Depression” indicator that I use later in my data analysis.
If we dive into the trends data, it turns out that the search interest for “depression” seems seasonal — there are spikes in the later months of each year, while search interest decreases during the summer months. In addition, the interest in searching for “wellness” heightened towards the end of 2016 and during the first few months of 2017.
This tells us that people in CA have been searching more and more about mental health-related topics. If we’re curious about depression, or if we want to get more information about therapy, we go on Google!
Since people are developing more curiosity about mental health and wellness online, is this because mental health issues have been getting more prevalent in our society over time?
With this in mind, I set out to explore mental health trends in my home state of CA. Using the Let’s Get Healthy California (LGHC) indicator, which contains data from the California Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS), I was able to access information about CA residents regarding their health-related behaviors, chronic conditions, and use of preventive services.
In particular, I was interested in the “Adult Depression” (LGHC Indicator 24) source dataset that includes statistics from 2012 to 2018. This indicator is based on the question: “Has a doctor, nurse or other health professional EVER told you that you have a depressive disorder (including depression, major depression, dysthymia, or minor depression)?” One important thing to note is that this is a specific operationalization of depression, which differs from surveys that might ask for individuals to self-report or self-diagnose their emotions and conditions.
My main motivation was my desire to understand how mental health trends have changed over time for Californians, and gain any interesting insights about health and wellness overall.
With that, let’s turn to the data!
Insights from CA depression rates
The “Adult Depression” indicator was the focal point of my research data. Using Python to analyze adult depression rates, I was able to gather more context and information about mental health in the Golden State. (If you’re interested, you can access my project here)
The data is organized mainly by Year, Category, Category Name, Frequency, and Percent. Each row has:
Year — from 2012 to 2018,
Category — divided into the following: Total, Sex, Race-Ethnicity, Education, Income, and Age.
Category Name — shows specific sub-divisions under each Category (e.g., For Education: ‘No High School Diploma’, ‘High School Graduate or GED Certificate’, ‘Some College or Tech School’, ‘College Graduate or Post Grad’),
Frequency — represents the amount of people in each Category Name that answered “Yes” to having been told they had a depressive disorder,
Percent — takes the ‘Frequency’ of each row and divides it by the total amount of survey respondents in that sub-division, ‘Category Name.’
The first and most obvious question I had was, “How have depression rates changed over the years?”
I coded a filter for overall ‘Total’ adult depression percentages and found that people reported increasing depression rates: the numbers went from 11.74% in 2012 up to 17.78% in 2018.
That is, depression went up from around 3 in 25 adults to slightly less than 1 in 5.
Chart by Mary Shin; Source: California Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS)
So, depression has increased throughout the years. If we look at the chart above, we can notice a big spike in adult depression percentages from 2016 to 2017, going from about 14% to 19%. This upsurge matches the big increase in search interest for “wellness” on Google, which began during the last two months of 2016 and peaked during the first couple months of 2017. Looking through the most noteworthy events during this time period, and considering how the state of CA leans toward voting democratic, we can infer that there may be a connection between the election of President Donald Trump and these rising statistics.
But what about specific ‘Category Names’? I remember learning in previous psychology courses that women are “nearly twice as likely as men” to be diagnosed with depression. I was limited to a binary category for sex here, but nonetheless, I asked: “Are there differences in depression rates among males and females?”
It turns out the answer is: Yes.
Using similar code to filter rows by ‘Sex,’ I found that for every single year from 2012 to 2018, females reported higher depression percentages than males. Both sexes saw an overall increase, but with females reporting 15.25% in 2012 and 21.96% in 2018, whereas males indicated 8.12% and 13.44%, respectively.
Given the criteria in the measure, these results might reflect a greater willingness among females to see health professionals. Dr. Paul J. Rosch, current Chairman of the Board of The American Institute of Stress (AIS), explained:
“Women are more likely than men to consult a physician if they do not feel well or have symptoms of depression, and are therefore more likely to be diagnosed.”
In addition to the ‘Sex’ Category, I was also curious about differences among age groups. The age groups in this data set are divided into: 18–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55–64, and 65+ years. Out of younger, middle-aged, or older populations, which do you think would have higher levels of individuals reporting depression?
Personally, I hypothesized that a higher amount of younger adults than older would report being told they had a depressive disorder.
Once again, I coded a row filter for ‘Age’ and plotted the data. The results really surprised me:
Chart by Mary Shin; Source: California Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS)
Each color above represents a different age group in the data. We can see that regardless of small fluctuations throughout the years, all of the age groups saw an overall increase in depression rates by the end of 2018.
Notice that the red line, which represents adults in the 55–64 age category (approximately 7.7% of the CA population), is above all the other lines across the whole time period. This means that 55–64 year-olds had the highest percentage of individuals who had been told they had a depressive disorder. The group started at a rate of 17.19% and ended up at 21.44% six years later, or approximately 9 in 50 people in 2012 to 11 in 50 people in 2018.
The blue line, which shows the youngest age range of 18–34 year-olds (approximately 22.4% of the CA population), started at the lowest rate of 7.63% — about 4 in 50 people. However, this group ended up in 2018 at a much higher rate of 17.69%, which is again close to 9 in 50 people being told they had a depressive disorder according to the survey.
Also, you can see that the 18–34 and 35–44 age groups experienced a very big increase in depression rates from 2016 to 2017, which is consistent with the previous findings on this particular time window.
It was intriguing to learn that 55–64 year-olds make up a smaller percentage of the total population than I thought. If we look at a state like Florida, this age group constitutes 10% of the population whereas 18–34 year-olds, about 18.8%. From this information, it seems like individuals in the 55–64 age range might feel more like a minority in CA.
So what is it about the 55–64 age range that caused them to report the highest depression rates every year?
This is a really heavy, complicated question. There’s obviously so many factors that can go into depression and mental health overall. However, I still wanted to gain a broad understanding and try to characterize this correlation of 55–64 year-olds reporting the highest rate of depression among different age groups.
Using data from the same large survey (LGHC indicator), we’re able to get a better idea of the people in this age range. Although I didn’t carry out direct correlation, I looked at numerous other data sets to see if I could find any specific factors that we can discuss and connect back to mental health. Some factors that you think might draw light on the high levels of depression among 55–64 year-olds, such as losing a job (unemployment figures), divorce, or onset of ill health from lifestyle factors (e.g. from smoking), did not show marked patterns. However, I did find three factors that are interesting to consider.
Three key factors we can connect to mental health
The LGHC indicator had three specific data sets that I used to understand the age groups:
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
Prevalence of Diabetes
Meeting Physical Activity Guidelines
After loading each data set into a Python notebook, cleaning and organizing the data sets, and analyzing them, I found meaningful insights that helped me characterize the depression trends.
ACEs
This data represents the rate of respondents in each age group that indicated having at least one type of adverse childhood experience. According to the source data set,
“These include verbal/emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and negative household situations including the incarceration of an adult, alcohol or drug abuse by an adult, violence between adults, mental illness of a household member, and parental divorce or separation.”
Similar to what I did with the adult depression rates, I created a row filter by ‘Age.’ I would have liked to see more data on the later years (2016–2018), but this survey only collected data up until 2015. Through my analysis, I found that the reports of ACEs for the 55–64 year age group increased by the largest amount, going from 59.8% of respondents in 2011 to 66.2%, or almost two-thirds of them, in 2015.
These statistics imply that people in this age range are increasingly reflecting on their lives and childhoods, and processing their experiences in light of how they are feeling now. 55–64 year-olds may be feeling a delayed mid-life crisis, especially considering 60 might be “the new 40,” as Meryl Hartstein from HuffPost wrote:
“For many, we become empty nesters, divorced, widowed or we just find ourselves alone without any potential of sharing a life [with] someone. This is when we really start to feel 60.”
Diabetes
The second data set displays the prevalence of diabetes in CA, containing survey statistics on adults with diabetes per 100 people. With an ‘Age’ filter again, it was evident that the amount of people diagnosed with diabetes increases a lot with age.
For 18–34 year-olds, the prevalence of diabetes from 2012 to 2018 (the same time frame as the depression rates) ranged from 1.2% to 4%, whereas for the older age groups, the average prevalence of diabetes across the years were:
10.4% for 45–54 years,
17.51% for 55–64 years,
21.57% for 65+ years
Perhaps the underlying implication here is that 55–64 year-olds might find themselves with more time and can afford to address both their physical and mental health?
Nonetheless, clearly you can see that diabetes particularly affects older populations. Using this data analysis, I was able to conclude that diabetes can be another factor to help us characterize the depression trends. Since it takes a greater toll on older adults, we can address this as a potential stress factor for mental health issues.
Meeting Physical Activity Guidelines
Lastly, from the same survey, I also discovered my third data set, which represents:
“California adults who met the aerobic recommendation for physical activity, as defined by the 2008 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans and Objectives 2.1 and 2.2 of Healthy People 2020.”
What exactly is this recommendation from the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines?
“For substantial health benefits, adults should do at least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) a week of moderate-intensity, or 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity,” which “should be performed in episodes of at least 10 minutes, and preferably, it should be spread throughout the week.”
My third data set has statistics for only three years: 2013, 2015, and 2017. After my analysis, the good news was that across the age groups, the percentage of adults meeting these physical activity guidelines exceeds 60%. However, looking closely at each age group, the data for 55–64 year-olds revealed that the rate of individuals who met physical activity guidelines saw the largest decrease when compared to all the other groups. That is, this 55–64 year age range is experiencing less physical activity.
By the end of 2017, all other age groups reported that at least 70% of individuals met the recommended guidelines. In contrast, for 55–64 year-olds, the results showed that about 70% of them were meeting guidelines for physical activity, but this number decreased to about 67%.
Although these numbers are all at least 2 in 3 people, it’s still concerning that this particular age range is seeing the biggest decrease in the results, especially given that most of the age ranges saw increases in physical activity.
Summary of my findings
The following table shows us a breakdown of the three factors and its trends that I found through my analysis. The rows represent the age groups, and the columns display the three factors I discussed, in addition to the mean depression rates. To characterize the correlation as simply as I can, I assigned each factor and age group one variable out of these: +, o, and -.
The + sign indicates an increasing trend over the years
The o sign indicates no change in the trend over the years
The - sign indicates a decreasing trend over the years
Chart by Mary Shin; Source: California Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS)
As we can see from the table above, the 55–64 year age groups had a +, -, and -, meaning the respondents in these age categories experienced an increasing rate of those with ACEs, overall decreasing prevalence of diabetes (although these percentages are at higher levels than most of the other age groups), and decreased number of people meeting physical activity guidelines.
18–34 year-olds, who started at the lowest depression rate but went through a very large increase from 2012 to 2018, did not see much of a rise in reporting adverse childhood experiences. However, we can see from the table that this group saw a spike in the prevalence of diabetes and was the only other group besides the 55–64 age category that reported a decrease in the percentage of people meeting physical activity guidelines.
These results help us gain a wider perspective on what the older adult populations are going through. Obviously there are many other factors that should be considered, but we get a generally clearer sense of what it means to be an older adult in CA.
My main goal when starting this project was to broaden our understanding of mental health. I hope that through my research and data analysis, I was able to point to additional factors that can help explain what it is about the 55–64 age range that made them report the highest rates of depression in the 2012 to 2018 time period.
Further studies on this subject matter could bring more attention to other diverse determinants of mental health that would qualitatively unpack the existence of 50+ year-olds in CA, including but not limited to: retirement savings, research on pre-existing health conditions, and access to health insurance.
Major Takeaways
Based on the Google Trends data, people are more interested in gaining knowledge about mental and emotional health online. Considering our thoughts and actions are closely linked to how our minds and bodies feel, it’s worthwhile for us to discuss how these topics affect our society.
When addressing data collection on depression or other health and wellness matters, I hope we can recognize that these issues do not exist in a vacuum. There are sociocultural and behavioral influences that are embedded into this whole conversation.
No matter how quant-heavy our data about individuals gets, we should work to establish a people-focused approach to advance our conversation around our mental health. One of the most crucial ways to understand this type of data in an increasingly online, data-driven world is to start by developing a deep awareness for the demographics involved — whether that’s age, sex, race/ethnicity, or gender. | https://medium.com/@shinmary/lets-address-these-factors-in-our-mental-health-discourse-b937290d70a9 | ['Mary Shin'] | 2020-12-22 13:31:05.931000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Depression', 'Mental Health', 'Data Visualization', 'California'] |
THE WORLD IS MY GIRL | THE WORLD IS MY GIRL, and Ima f her everyday until she don’t twirl.
Get up in that sh, make her toes curl.
I got all the other planets cause of her referral.
F debit, Im universally excepted, f credit, save up and then get it.
I won’t bust unless I just fd.
No masturbation call it sexual transmutation.
Stacking 1k a day until one mill, be patient.
A lot supporters waitn for me to bust and become blatant.
Patrick D.J. Williams
11/24/2010 | https://medium.com/@patrickdjwilliams/the-world-is-my-girl-fc1b5f8625bb | ['Patrick D.J. Williams'] | 2020-12-21 22:06:36.845000+00:00 | ['Erotic Poetry', 'Rap', 'Poem', 'Erotic Romance', 'Music'] |
Threads Of Faith | Treading on tranquil threads of faith
Faith deep within my heart and spirit
Guiding me in changing mists of life,
Helping me discern right and wrong
Through incertitude we daily face.
Heart imprinted by compassionate pangs
Seeing needs of others beyond myself,
Feeling empathy for those less fortunate
Trying to get help for them when I can
But having to care for my own needs too.
Having my spirit roaming where it will
Faith it will lead me where I should go
In freedom with confidence, sublime,
Being devoid of most cares or worries
While I venture into new unknowns.
Comforting freedom in ways I live
Embracing faith with heart and spirit
Trying to do what I feel just and right
By treading on tranquil threads of faith. | https://medium.com/flicker-and-flight/threads-of-faith-6b23ecfbbaa1 | ['Randy Shingler'] | 2020-09-10 18:28:40.488000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Nature', 'Self-awareness', 'Heart', 'Spirit'] |
How to use Detox-End-to-End testing in your react native application | In every software development team there is a dedicated QA who is responsible for testing features before releasing it to production.This is easy for QA if the app is less complicated.What will happen if the app scale is increased?You need to find a way to make those tests automated.
For automate react native application you can use Detox End-to-End testing.
What is Detox testing?
Detox is a JavaScript mobile testing framework.
Its test execution start when the app is launched.
This makes application test fast by executing written tests.
So lets have a look how we can use Detox :)
Step by Step Guide to E2E Detox
For the demo purposes I have already created sample react native application.
https://github.com/Dilshanf3/Detox-React-Native-Example.git
Detox is full support for the react native versions <=0.56 and Visibility edge-case for the versions >=0.57 <=0.61
To create a new react native application you can use following command.
react-native init yourProjectName
So lets go with step by steps for installing and setting up detox.
Step 1: Installing detox cli and package
You need to install detox command line tool globally in to your machine.
npm install -g detox-cli
2. As a next step you need to switch to your react-native project and install detox package
npm install detox --save-dev
Step 2: Do following changes to your android/build.gradle file
Add following code lines to your android.defaultConfig .
defaultConfig {
testBuildType System.getProperty('testBuildType', 'debug')
testInstrumentationRunner 'androidx.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner'
}
2. Add following to android.buildTypes.release
// Detox-specific additions to pro-guard
proguardFile "${rootProject.projectDir}/../node_modules/detox/android/detox/proguard-rules-app.pro"
3. Add the following code lines in to your dependencies section.
androidTestImplementation('com.wix:detox:+') { transitive = true }
androidTestImplementation 'junit:junit:4.12'
implementation "androidx.annotation:annotation:1.1.0"
Step 4: Creating DetoxTest.java
You have to create a folder called androidTest.
2. Inside that to have to create a folder called java
3. Inside that you have to create a folder called com
4. Then inside that folder you have to create another folder with your package
5. Then you have to create a file DetoxTest.java.
android/app/src/androidTest/java/com/[yourpackage]/DetoxTest.java
Step 5: detox configuration in package.json
You have to use jest as a test runner for that you have to run following command.
detox init -r jest
Output will look likes this if its runs perfectly.
detox[27185] INFO:[init.js] Created a file at path:e2e/config.json
detox[27185] INFO:[init.js] Created a file at path: e2e/init.js
detox[27185] INFO:[init.js] Created a file at path: e2e/firstTest.spec.js
detox[27185] INFO:[init.js] Patching package.json at path:
detox[27185] INFO:[init.js] json["detox"]["test-runner"] = "jest";
Above command will create init and configuration files in your ./src/e2e folder.
2. Then you have to add following configurations inside your package.json file.
"detox": {
"configurations": { "android.emu.debug": { "binaryPath": "android/app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk", "build": "cd android && ./gradlew assembleDebug assembleAndroidTest -DtestBuildType=debug && cd ..", "type": "android.emulator", "name": "Nexus_4" }, "android.emu.release": { "binaryPath": "android/app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk", "build": "cd android && ./gradlew assembleRelease assembleAndroidTest -DtestBuildType=release && cd ..", "type": "android.emulator", "name": "Nexus_4" }, "android.wallet.device": { "binaryPath": "android/app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk", "build": "cd android && ./gradlew assembleDebug assembleAndroidTest -DtestBuildType=debug && cd ..", "type": "android.attached", "name": "HXT7N189110016862" } }, "test-runner": "jest" }
In here I have added android wallet device so you can use your own mobile devices to test your application .
I have used “name”: “HXT7N189110016862” and this is my example device Id of my mobile device.
Step 6: Update your test spec file
you have to edit your firstTest.spec.js file to follow instructions for testing.
In my Demo application It is like this.
you can use my Detox example application for your testing purposes.
https://github.com/Dilshanf3/Detox-React-Native-Example.git
After everything is perfect you can start your testing for that you have to follow some instructions.
Step 7: Build your debug apk and run it
First change your location to android (cd android) and the run following code.
./gradlew assembleDebug assembleAndroidTest -DtestBuildType=debug
2. Change your location back to your repository by using
cd ..
3.Then you have to run following command and make sure you are running your metro bundle
detox test --configuration=android.wallet.device
or
detox test -c android.emu.debug
Then you you can see your test suite is running and gives you outputs according to your instructions.
example:
Hope this article is helpful for you .And also you can follow my Demo application for you learning purposes.
Thank you for reading .. Happy coding.. :) | https://medium.com/@dinukadilshanfernando/implementing-detox-end-to-end-testing-for-react-native-application-64e3ea648d8a | ['Dinuka Fernando'] | 2020-04-13 08:56:31.858000+00:00 | ['Automation Testing', 'Detox', 'React Native', 'JavaScript'] |
Practical ethics in product development: Mitigating against risk | In previous blogs we have written about how we, at Wellcome Data Labs, are developing and embedding an ethics methodology in our product development. We carried out a workshop where we thought about cases of abuse, misuse, and unintended consequences of what we are building. This creative exercise got us thinking about what we can do to try to mitigate unintended harms that may result from our product.
About our product We are developing an online service to track and analyse the reach of research in policy documents of major global organisations. It allows users to see where the research has been cited in policy documents, and to analyse the contents of policy documents. For more information, check out our open Github repo here.
A severity versus likelihood plot
After identifying how our product could be used in unintended ways we plotted the cases against a likelihood versus severity map. This exercise brought us back to reality and gave us focus. The two questions to answer were:
What is the likelihood of this case happening? How severe would this case be if it did happen?
Template Likelihood versus Severity plot
After plotting our use cases on this graph, we narrowed our focus to what was highest risk. We summarised these risks as follows:
People may perceive the outputs of the product to be more accurate than they actually are;
Our tool serves the purpose of reinforcing biases that already exist in the research citation system, such as citation count unfairness — just because a research paper has been cited a lot doesn’t necessarily indicate its quality.
People may use the tool to hunt for sensational or negative stories on researchers, particularly if the research is on a subject area that is of live political debate (e.g. vaccines, climate change or animal testing).
Taking responsibility where we can
This exercise sparked discussion about our own role in preventing unintended consequences from our product. Are we responsible if someone decides to use our tool to find negative stories on researchers or research areas? How do we prevent reinforcing bias? Are we the right people to take action on this? The exercise left us with some interesting questions to think about.
Adding the sociological lens
Wellcome Data Labs works with a social scientist, who helps the team see things from a different perspective. Our social scientist joins us for around 2 days a month to review our ethics methodology and to share in-depth analysis from a sociological point of view.
For our current product, he helped us re-focus on the wider implications. Do we adequately understand the current problems with the academic citation systems? We are aware that how research gets cited is not exactly a fair system (Balietti, 2016). There are factors other than merit that influence whether a research publication will get cited. For example, this research review (Borsuk, Budden and Leimu-Brown, 2009) found that research with multiple authors was more likely to get cited. They argue this could be because of the connections the authors may have with publishers. Additionally, the way in which citations occur are not always accurate. Another paper (Teixeira et al., 2013) found that “22% of citations were inaccurate, and another 15% unfairly gave credit to the review authors for other scientists’ ideas”. We need to understand this research context better to be able to know how our product will impact it.
Committing to transparency
As a first step to reducing ethical risks, we agreed that ensuring users are empowered with the knowledge to correctly interpret the outputs of the algorithms is paramount. We are currently carrying out the following activities as part of a content design process:
Make sure that users understand how our algorithm works at a high level with the chance to learn the technical details if they want to.
Make sure that the limitations and accuracy levels of the algorithm are explained so that users can accurately interpret the outputs.
Our next priority will be to understand how we can best fit into the research and funding world that we are now providing a service to, so that we do not negatively influence that community. Who are the members of this community? What does fairness currently look like in this area? What precise effect do we expect our product to have? Over the next year we plan to do research and analysis to achieve this and will be regularly reporting on our progress.
Another commitment we are making is for our data scientists to do analysis of bias within the algorithms and report publicly on the findings. We will be checking if our algorithm is better or worse at finding citations of research publications based on a number of factors such as the type of publication and country of publication, etc. Once we have this information we believe we will be in a better position to understand the fairness of the algorithm and to understand the unintended consequences it may have. Keep an eye out for this analysis on our Wellcome Data Labs Medium publication!
References:
Balietti, S. (2016). Here’s how competition makes peer review more unfair. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/heres-how-competition-makes-peer-review-more-unfair-62936 [Accessed 9 May 2019].
Borsuk, R., Budden, A. and Leimu-Brown, R. (2009). The Influence of Author Gender, National Language and Number of Authors on Citation Rate in Ecology. The Open Ecology Journal, [online] 2(1), pp.25–28. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262104578_The_Influence_of_Author_Gender_National_Language_and_Number_of_Authors_on_Citation_Rate_in_Ecology [Accessed 9 May 2019].
Teixeira, M., Thomaz, S., Michelan, T., Mormul, R., Meurer, T., Fasoli, J. and Silveira, M. (2013). Incorrect Citations Give Unfair Credit to Review Authors in Ecology Journals. PLoS One, [online] 8(12). Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3859513/#pone.0081871 [Accessed 9 May 2019]. | https://medium.com/wellcome-data/practical-ethics-in-product-development-mitigating-against-risk-ea4d9a22d4bf | ['Aoife Spengeman'] | 2019-05-10 13:00:42.762000+00:00 | ['Ethics', 'User Experience', 'Product Development', 'Practical Ethics', 'Sociology'] |
How to create a simple ETL Job locally with PySpark, PostgreSQL and Docker | Introduction
In this article, I’m going to demonstrate how Apache Spark can be utilised for writing powerful ETL jobs in Python. If you’re already familiar with Python and working with data from day to day, then PySpark is going to help you to create more scalable processing and analysis of (big) data.
The data that I’ll use is scraped from Ebay-Kleinanzeigen, which is the German branch of Ebay where people can advertise their properties. In our case, we will work with a dataset that contains information from over 370000 used cars; besides, it’s important to note that the content of the data is in German.
What is Apache Spark
Apache Spark is one of the most popular engines for large-scale data processing. It’s an open source system with an API supporting multiple programming languages. Processing of data is done in memory, hence it’s several times faster than for example MapReduce. Spark comes with libraries supporting a wide range of tasks, such as streaming, machine learning and SQL. It’s able to run from your local computer, but also can be scaled up to a cluster of hundreds of servers.
What is ETL?
ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) is the procedure of migrating data from one system to another. Data extraction is the process of retrieving data out of homogeneous or heterogeneous sources for further data processing and data storage. During data processing, the data is being cleaned and incorrect or inaccurate records are being modified or deleted. Finally, the processed data is loaded (e.g. stored) into a target database such as a data warehouse or data lake.
Extract
The starting point of every Spark application is the creation of a SparkSession. This is a driver process that maintains all relevant information about your Spark Application and it is also responsible for distributing and scheduling your application across all executors. We can simply create a SparkSession in the following way:
The getOrCreate method will try to get a SparkSession if one is already created, otherwise it will create a new one. With the master option it is possible to specify the master URL that is being connected. However, because we’re running our job locally, we will specify the local[*] argument. This means that Spark will use as many worker threads as logical cores on your machine. We set the application name with the appName option, this name will appear in the Spark UI and log data.
Our next step is to read the CSV file. Reading in a CSV can be done with a DataFrameReader that is associated with our SparkSession. In doing so, Spark allows us to specify whether schema inference is being used as well as some other options:
Whether to choose for schema inference or manually defining a schema depends heavily on the use case, in case of writing an ETL job for a production environment, it is strongly recommended to define a schema in order to prevent inaccurate data representation. Another constraint of schema inference is that it tends to make your Spark application slower, especially when working with CSV or JSON. Therefore, I’m also showing how to read in data with a prior defined schema:
Transform
We’re now ready to have a closer look at our data and start to do more interesting stuff: | https://itnext.io/how-to-create-a-simple-etl-job-locally-with-pyspark-postgresql-and-docker-ea53cd43311d | ['Anis Boudih'] | 2019-09-06 11:41:10.612000+00:00 | ['Postgresql', 'Big Data', 'Pyspark', 'Docker', 'Python'] |
First Three Steps To Getting Out Of Debt | Being in debt is one of the major causes for most peoples stress today. It is something that almost everyone has experienced at one time or another in their life.
It can feel very overwhelming, and extremely confusing on what to do when we find ourselves in debt.
No matter how much debt you currently have, this three step process will work. Paying off debt takes consistency and discipline. It is not generally a quick process.
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Good things take time, and will require you to make certain sacrifices.
1.) Track Your Purchases
If we want to pay off our debts faster than ever, the first thing we must do is start tracking our purchases.
You need to have a clear understanding of where your money is going each month. The more detail that you can put into this breakdown, the better.
Most people look at their finances at the end of each month and ask themselves the same question over and over again:
“where did all my money go?”
It can feel like we just never have any money. Make sure that you take the time to document where exactly every penny is going.
Yes, every penny.
Track your purchases with great detail for at least one month. It will be a major eye-opener as to where the majority of your money is going.
You will see the areas in your life that are costing you the most money. Once you identify the problem area’s, you can then begin to eliminate or minimize them.
2.) Build A Budget
Now that you have a clear idea of where your money is going each month. You can now start to build yourself a budget.
Most people hear the word budget and think that it means that they only get to eat rice and must live by candlelight. This isn’t the case.
Now, does this mean that you won’t have to make sacrifices? No, there will always be sacrifices that need to be made to pay off debt. But this isn’t the only part to living on a budget.
What living on budget means more than anything is that you have a plan for your money. A budget is like the blueprints to your financial well being. It’s the guideline we must build and follow to reach our goals.
Imagine trying to build a house without blueprints. You would just be cutting random boards and nailing them together aimlessly. Think how long it would take to build a home.
Not to mention what the quality of your home would be. It would be crooked, out of square and well a general mess. The first major storm that rolled through would destroy it.
It’s the exact same thing with having a budget. You need to have a blueprint that you can follow so that it doesn’t take your three times as long to pay off your debts.
Also, having a budget creates stability. You want your finances to be strong so then when a storm rolls through you, nothing is destroyed.
3.) Create a Debt Repayment Plan
Now, circling back to tip #1, this is why it is a must that you track every purchase down to the penny.
You see, an important part of your budget is knowing exactly how much money you can live on until next payday. This is important because you want to maximize the amount of funds that can be put towards your debts and savings every pay check.
The more detailed we were in the beginning, the more exact we can be with our debt repayment plan. You will have a clear idea of the max amount of money you can put towards your debts.
Your debt repayment plan will be custom to your life. And if you want to pay off your debt faster than ever, we must be detailed.
No matter what your debt repayment plan is, the key is to be as consistent as possible. Make a plan and do what ever it takes to stick to that plan with great discipline.
These steps all compliment each other. Just like a tripod, if you take one of these steps away, the system falls.
Discipline and Consistency.
If you can be disciplined and consistent with each of these steps, you too will be on your way to paying off your debts.
Brandon Henderson
lionsdenmastery.com | https://medium.com/@alison213/first-three-steps-to-getting-out-of-debt-62f83a9232c3 | [] | 2020-12-19 12:46:43.247000+00:00 | ['Personal', 'Self Help', 'Debt', 'Money', 'Finance'] |
Laravel + MongoDB | jenssegers/laravel-mongodb
This package adds functionalities to the Eloquent model and Query builder for MongoDB, using the original Laravel API… | https://medium.com/@sarinthon/laravel-mongodb-7ce0587db65d | ['Sarinthon Mangkorn-Ngam'] | 2020-10-06 15:44:44.539000+00:00 | ['Laravel', 'Database', 'Web', 'Mongodb', 'NoSQL'] |
DREP Joins the Decentralized Identity Foundation along with Microsoft and IBM, exploring DID Development | Lately, DREP was invited to the Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF) which was established to promote interoperability and standardization of blockchain-based ID system. So far, Microsoft, IBM, Accenture and many other leading corporations have joined this organization. The premium membership signifies that DREP, along with these well-known companies, is committed to explore the development of a decentralized identity system and facilitate interop amongst fellow members.
DIF strongly believes that an identity is an aggregation of personal data which portrays each individual. Moreover, each identity is unique and self-sovereign. In order to acquire this sovereignty, the basic principles, protocols, and tools of an interoperable ecosystem is a must. That is why DIF is focused on developing the foundational elements necessary to establish an open ecosystem for decentralized identity, such as personal data storage and decentralized identifiers.
Such vision happens to coincide with the fundamental philosophy of DREP. Ever since project inception, DREP has intended to establish a decentralized ID system named DREP ID, and to integrate user profiles of ID holders in various business environments through DREP Client, giving users access to one-stop account management. Furthermore, DREP enables the binding the addresses of different platforms to the DREP ID and allows functions such transfer between different platforms based on the added feature of cross-chain interoperability.
During the technology integration and collaboration with DIF, DREP is highly recognized by the Foundation, especially for its strong ability in innovation and progress of decentralized ID system. The recently published DREP Testnest 3.0 particularly adds address alias feature to improve the user experience in decentralized ID system, greatly reducing the barriers for new users to utilize blockchain.
Xiaolong Xu, DREP Co-Founder and CTO, comments that users, within DREP DID ecosystem, have the optionality to disclose their personal data. In terms of users’ privacy, third parties have to pay to collect such personal information. In the meantime, through DREP reputation system, third parties could obtain more accurate data including metrics such as users’ reputation value and lower acquisition cost of data and users. The whole DREP DID system features decentralization, self-management, privacy protection, security and easy-of-use. Such practice is aligned with the mission of DIF. Therefore, by joining DIF, DREP is more determined to work with other members to push forward the establishment, improvement and application of a decentralized identity system.
In addition, DREP ID, based on HMAC algorithm, forms a dual-layer structure with a master ID and multiple sub-IDs. For traditional and centralized platforms within the DREP network, the cross-platform management is also available through DREP ID to achieve asset and data integration, encryption of information, etc. without interfering with the existing numerical system, points system, economic system or other aspects of the platform, forming an interconnected and decentralized ecosystem.
It is noteworthy that DREP ID is only a part of the DREP technology. Apart from that, DREP also provides a complete blockchain architecture which includes Smart Pipeline and Reputation Protocol. Moreover, DREP is compatible with Smart Contracts in EVM and WASM format with a dual-layer structure constituting of a stable root chain and customized sub-chains. Afore-mentioned technologies, after selection, would be shared with DIF members to help improve the scalability performance and mass adoption of DID systems. | https://medium.com/drep-family/drep-joins-the-decentralized-identity-foundation-along-with-microsoft-and-ibm-exploring-did-1da9806dae46 | ['Drep Foundation'] | 2019-05-18 08:47:25.443000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Announcement', 'Partnership', 'Identity', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
How to Create an Animated Map of Bike Rentals in Chicago | Initial Setup
We will start with this already processed data that combines bike rental data with historic daily average Chicago temperatures and the code below:
Which generates the following static image:
Image by Author
Add Animation
To create an animated graph, we need to add a periodic callback function that updates the data after a specified amount of time has passed. In order to do this, the code needs to refer to the JavaScript document that is automatically created from your Python script. Therefore, instead of using show(p) to display our code, we need to update to curdoc().add_root(column(p)). Note we need to make sure we import curdoc from bokeh.plotting and column from bokeh.layouts. This change requires that the script be ran from the command line, which will be explained further below.
Each row in this dataset represents the number of bikes rented from a given bike station, averaged over days by average temperature (rounded to the nearest 5°F). Each update is to refresh the data to the next 5°F bucket, from 30°F to 80°F. Data for the graph is stored in a dictionary, containing x and y coordinates and circle size. Each callback updates the dictionary for the new circle sizes representing the next temperature bucket. To make the updates, store the Bokeh circle object in a variable, then update variable_name.data_source.data with the updated data dictionary.
Smoothing and Pacing
The data is grouped into 5°F buckets to make sure there is a sufficient number of data points for each temperature and to make the general trend easier to interpret. If we transition directly from one temperature bucket to the next, the animation would be very choppy, making it difficult to gain insight from the graph. To smooth out the animation, each frame interpolates the number of bike rentals as well as the temperature (rounded to nearest degree) between the previous and next bucket.
I found that 20 frames per bucket resulted in smooth animation. This equates to 4 frames per degree (20 frames per 5°F = 4 frames per 1°F). Refreshing the data every 80 milliseconds results in each temperature shown for 0.32 seconds (0.08s * 4 frames), for a total runtime of 16 seconds (0.32 * 50 temperatures).
Additional Code:
The full code can be found here.
Create the GIF
Adding the callback function and calling the graph via the curdoc method is sufficient to create an animated graph that will run on localhost in your browser, but if you want to create a file of your animation (perhaps to include in a PowerPoint presentation), then you will want to create a .gif file.
To create a gif, save each frame of the animation to a .png file via the export_png method from bokeh.io (see code above). Then use the imread function from the imageio library to create a gif from the png files:
Note I recommend finalizing your code for the Bokeh server (including smoothing and pacing) before saving any png files. It takes a lot longer to save all the png files than it does to generate the server, so error checking the server is a much faster process than error checking the resulting gif.
Bokeh Server vs GIF Runtime
Observant readers may have noticed that I calculated the gif to be 16 seconds long, but the animation at the beginning of this article actually runs for 20 seconds. Why the discrepancy? The Bokeh server created from this code does run for 16 seconds, but I did not specify the framerate in the code that creates the gif from the png files. The default is 10 frames per second (fps), compared to 12.5 fps used in the Bokeh server code (1 frame/80 ms callback period), which explains the gif’s 20 second runtime (12.5 fps in gif / 10 fps in Bokeh server * 16 seconds).
Keep this in mind if the Bokeh server has a different pace than the resulting gif. You can specify your desired framerate in the mimsave function via the fps parameter, or alternatively set the periodic callback refresh rate to 100 ms (which is equivalent to the mimsave default of 10 fps).
Run your Code
The static image can be ran directly from your IDE, but as mentioned earlier, the curdoc method needs to be ran from the command line, which enables Bokeh to create a new plot each time your browser connects to the server. To run the code, run the following code from the command prompt:
bokeh serve -- show AnimatedGraph.py
Note I use the Anaconda distribution of Python, so I actually use the Anaconda Prompt to run this command. Some additional configuration may be necessary to execute this command from your computer.
Results
Was the extra effort of animating the graph worth it? I think it was, because it allowed me to find insight from the data I may otherwise not have and illustrate it in a very easily digestible way.
You probably noticed that demand at the labeled lakeshore locations exploded once the temperature reached approximately 55°F. This makes perfect sense as people are much more likely to visit the beach when the weather is warm, but I am not sure if I would have realized this without the animated visualization. I may have thought these destinations were simply more popular overall, like the locations west of the south branch of the river (which Chicago readers will recognize as the commuter train arrivals from the suburbs) that have a linear relationship with temperature.
From this insight, I was able to show that demand at these lakeshore locations increases quadratically with temperature, while the other locations increase linearly: | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-create-an-animated-map-of-bike-rentals-in-chicago-fa2f8e7ce710 | ['Mike Thompson'] | 2020-10-09 19:07:07.671000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Bokeh', 'Data Science', 'Python'] |
How to StackOverflow | This is gonna be a brief one. You all know StackOverflow. (If you do not, check it out on stackoverflow.com. It is THE one site for any question in the world of software development). The common procedure is typing your question in google and then clicking on the StackOverflow link. We could wonder, why we do not go directly to StackOverflow. Well, Google’s search is just better than every search in the world. Usually, we find an answer to our question within a few minutes. Sometimes it takes longer and on very rare occasions, we do not find any solution. We go back to our problem and try to solve it in a different way or ask colleagues, etc.
What is wrong with that behaviour?
StackOverflow can be considered open-source. And like any other open-source, it depends on voluntary contributions. So, the biggest mistake you can make when not finding an answer to your question is to go away. It is selfish. Others might have the same question and benefit from the question or a potential solution. Therefore, when you cannot find a question covering your problem, POST ONE by yourself. It is easier than you think and brings along varies benefits:
Improve your writing: The better your question/heading and the content of your outreach, the easier it will be for others to understand your problem and help you. It may take some time in the beginning but it helps you write more concisely — not only questions on StackOverflow but communication everywhere — with colleagues, friends and even family. You can come back to your problem (and potential solution) anytime. Sometimes you have a problem and you know that you had the same problem before but do not remember the solution anymore. Well, here you go. Just offload your brain’s hard drive and create room for the more important stuff. Having to write your question makes you think more in-depth about the problem. Stating the problem often already solves the problem.
There is one caveat to writing questions on StackOverflow: Put as much detail in the question as possible. Do not shorten things to make it easier for the reader. Why? | https://medium.com/@simon-van-endern/how-to-stackoverflow-ce38deafa4ca | ['Simon Van Endern'] | 2020-12-23 08:24:00.161000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Stackoverflow', 'Mentality Shift', 'Open Source', 'Questions'] |
On Determinism: A Brief Case for Free Will | Benjamin Libet, a psychologist who specialized in consciousness, famously showed that activity in the brain’s motor cortex can be detected at appropriately 300 milliseconds before a person feels, or is consciously aware of having decided to make a move.
What does this say about consciousness? And more specifically, what does this say about free will? Let us explore this a bit.
As a result of these findings, the expected position to take is that of a determinist one — being, whether a philosopher or scientist, that we are all constrained within the material framework of our neurophysiology; thus, making free will a non-entity within the physical laws of nature.
Is this necessarily true?
Well, to some degree, our consciousness is a product of the brain and the many neuronal networks of its structure. For in order to perform a lower-level task, like lift a finger, a distributed population of neurons in the motor cortex, which overlap in its spacial locations, would control for the flexion-extension of a finger. But I don’t believe that this necessarily lies at the root of free will or consciousness, more generally.
What if, say, during the moment in which brain scans detect activity in the motor cortex (e.g., to lift a finger) prior to our being aware of having felt the decision to lift a finger, that we thought of not lifting a finger at that precise moment prior to our being aware of it? Or, what if we coincidentally thought of lifting a finger at the moment brain activity occurs — again, for lifting a finger — prior to our being aware of it? What are the implications of the answers to these questions?
For starters, if we thought of not lifting a finger at the moment our brain made the decision to (excuse the personification of “brain.” It’s not without purpose), then the fact that we eventually felt the decision to lift our finger implies that our brain overrides our conscious impulses.
A paradox presents itself: on one hand, the override works as a “change of decision” from the perspective of the Subject experiencing the feeling of having made a decision to do that which was already decided by the brain prior to them being aware of having made the decision, while consciously thinking of not performing the action at the moment that the brain decided to, which creates the feeling of free will; and, on the other hand, this implies a level of consciousness of the brain independent of the conscious-awareness of the Subject, which, in all honestly, is illogical.
Taking a determinist stance on these findings suggest that the brain stands alone as a consciously autonomous matter, with two functions: (1) to create an illusion of an external, consciously non-autonomous Subject that nevertheless feels as if it were (i.e., the Self), and (2) make decisions for the Self. “(1)” is a bizarre form of dualism; whereby, one is conscious of one’s Self, but this (simulated) “Self” exists only within an illusion created by the super-consciousness of the brain.
What evolutionary purpose would there be for a dual-consciousness, where one is autonomous and the other is not?
Also, since the brain originally evolved to adapt to a considerably different environment, what evolutionary function would provide for the brain to make a decision — independent of our conscious, simulated “Selves” — between using my laptop or browsing on my phone?
The experience of having dealt with technology informs my decision on which two options I should choose from.
The Brain In a Vat thought experiment by Hilary Putnam possibly presents the most interesting insight into the split between the Brain and the Self. If, say, I was to connect a brain to a supercomputer, the computer could function as a somatic substitute to the biological-physical body. The brain can gain experience from the simulated reality created by the computer, and create a simulated Self within the simulation.
Something interesting occurs here — if we go by Libet’s experiment, the brain will make decisions prior to the Self being aware of having felt making those decisions, but this will all happen within a computer simulation responsible for the reality the Brain experiences.
The Self would only exist within the program of the simulation itself; which is to say, the simulation would provide code that would allow for the Brain to create the Self, which, in this case, would be a simulation of a simulation within a simulation.
How can the Brain make a decision prior to the conscious Self being aware of having felt making the decision if the Self can only exist within the constraints of the simulation’s coding that is already pre-determined?
Clearly, the Brain In the Vat thought experiment shows there is no distinction between Brain and Mind, Mind and Self, etc. So there has to be some other explanation for the Libet experiment that doesn’t lean towards determinism or imply a separation between the Mind and Brain.
In a way, what it does show, though, is that free will is compatible with determinism. For example, a pilot is flying a plane through expected clear skies. He nevertheless has to navigate through the external realities of weather conditions. The pilot may be swayed by the wind to and fro, and maybe even encounters a storm; this is out of his control. But he nonetheless reacts to that which is out of his control and decides — out of his own volition — to either stay clear the course (upon further risk-value assessment) or take another course. This is similar to free will. In this example, our “Mind” is the plane and the Brain is the external environment swaying us.
In short, I am my brain, my brain is my “Self,” and the Self makes decisions to act, respond, contemplate, draw from memory and experience, negotiate between options, and choose between them after assessment. The Libet experiment only measured non-deliberative hand-waving tasks, and this, I believe, is not where freedom of the will, or “willing,” lies. A case for compatibilism (the confluence of free will and determinism) can, and should be made in its stead. | https://aphilosophersstone.org/on-determinism-a-brief-case-for-free-will-e80bbe053e27 | ['M. Mollenthiel'] | 2021-01-08 17:54:45.731000+00:00 | ['Science', 'Free Will', 'Psychology', 'Philosophy', 'Mind'] |
The Four Fundamentals of Media Relations | As the “middle man/woman” between clients and the media, the role of a PR team is to launch campaigns that help clients gain exposure and maintain a positive image with the public. But this can’t be done without solid media connections and impactful coverage. Here are the four fundamentals of media relations that help Element launch successful campaigns and elevate our clients.
1 | We Do Our Homework
It’s a well-known fact in the world of PR that proper research must be done before a story can be pitched. But, what exactly should you be looking to uncover?
Start with understanding publish dates. You may have a handful of publications packed with potential, but do you know what type of timeline they operate on? How far in advance are stories getting placed? Before you press “send,” it pays to have the answers to important questions like these. If you’re contacting a publication about a time sensitive event or story, doing so well before the event’s date increases your chances of getting adequate coverage, as the majority of publications work months in advance.
2 | We Develop Genuine Relationships
A key attribute of a PR professional is patience. Relationships take time to develop and must be constantly nurtured in order to produce results. A common misconception is that media relations is all about finding new digital and print publications and “spraying and praying” at every opportunity until someone bites. The reality is quite different. In order to make a splash, you must first dip your toes in. This means taking the time and effort to introduce yourself and your client, and getting to know the editors to learn what their communication style is before requesting placement.
Patience isn’t just important in the initial introduction. Respecting the busy lifestyles of journalists and editors means being patient when corresponding. Due to the flood of emails editors receive daily, missed messages are something to be expected, and you’re bound to experience radio silence from time to time. Building those genuine relationships puts you ahead of the crowd and helps you stand out in the inbox.
3 | We Understand More Isn’t Necessarily Better
A successful media campaign isn’t measured by the quantity of pitches you send out, but rather the value behind what you say and how it fits with the voice of a publication. That means refraining from selecting “all” in your contact list and reaching out to the outlets with the right audience for your client’s campaign. If you want to make an impact, be sure to focus on fortifying relationships that put your brand in the best light.
4 | We Look to the Future
The key to a successful PR campaign isn’t all about pitching. In fact, the follow-up is equally as important. Don’t be afraid to share your thoughts with an editor if you come across a story in a publication that speaks to you. While it may not directly impact you, it can lead to new opportunities for future placement.
Because of the great effort that goes into developing and maintaining relationships with the media, public relations professionals take pride and ownership in their contacts and media lists. Establishing these relationships is what we do, and the key to a successful campaign often lies in how we choose to execute information to our list of media contacts.
Looking to take your public relations strategy to the next level? Check out what Element has to offer. | https://medium.com/goelement/the-four-fundamentals-of-media-relations-b00319d5dca8 | ['Element Creative'] | 2017-08-03 13:21:24.730000+00:00 | ['Earned Media', 'Agency', 'Public Relations', 'Content Marketing', 'Media Relations'] |
Watch — The Outpost series 3 Episode 12 | ∎ STREAMING MEDIA ∎
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. The verb to stream identifies the process of delivering or obtaining media in this manner.[clarification needed] Streaming refers to the delivery method of the medium, instead of the medium itself. Distinguishing delivery method from the media distributed applies particularly to telecommunications networks, as almost all of the delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television, streaming apps) or inherently non-streaming (e.g. books, video cassettes, music CDs). There are challenges with streaming content on the Internet. For instance, users whose Internet connection lacks satisfactory bandwidth may experience stops, lags, or slow buffering of the content. And users lacking compatible hardware or software systems may be unable to stream certain content.
Live streaming is the delivery of Internet content in real-time much as live television broadcasts content over the airwaves with a television signal. Live internet streaming takes a form of source media (e.g. a video camera, an audio tracks interface, screen capture software), an encoder to digitize the content, a media publisher, and a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the origination point, although it frequently is.
Streaming is an option to file downloading, a process where the end-user obtains the entire file for this content before watching or listening to it. Through streaming, an end-user can use their media player to get started on playing digital video or digital sound content before the complete file has been transmitted. The word “streaming media” can connect with media other than video and audio, such as live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are considered “streaming text”.
∎ COPYRIGHT CONTENT ∎
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time.[5][4][5][4][5] The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself.[6][7][8] A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States.
Some jurisdictions require “fixing” copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is often shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights holders.[citation needed][9][50][55][54] These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as attribution.[55]
Copyrights can be granted by public law and are in that case considered “territorial rights”. This means that copyrights granted by the law of a certain state, do not extend beyond the territory of that specific jurisdiction. Copyrights of this type vary by country; many countries, and sometimes a large group of countries, have made agreements with other countries on procedures applicable when works “cross” national borders or national rights are inconsistent.[54]
Typically, the public law duration of a copyright expires 50 to 500 years after the creator dies, depending on the jurisdiction. Some countries require certain copyright formalities[5] to establishing copyright, others recognize copyright in any completed work, without a formal registration.
It is widely believed that copyrights are a must to foster cultural diversity and creativity. However, Parc argues that contrary to prevailing beliefs, imitation and copying do not restrict cultural creativity or diversity but in fact support them further. This argument has been supported by many examples such as Millet and Van Gogh, Picasso, Manet, and Monet, etc.[55]
∎ GOODS OF SERVICES ∎
Credit (from Latin credit, “(he/she/it) believes”) is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), but promises either to repay or return those resources (or other materials of equal value) at a later date.[5] In other words, credit is a method of making reciprocity formal, legally enforceable, and extensible to a large group of unrelated people.
The resources provided may be financial (e.g. granting a loan), or they may consist of goods or services (e.g. consumer credit). Credit encompasses any form of deferred payment.[4] Credit is extended by a creditor, also known as a lender, to a debtor, also known as a borrower.” | https://medium.com/the-outpost-x-where-death-lives/watch-the-outpost-series-3-episode-12-3x12-the-cw-s3e12-full-episodes-fefbdb4b2ef2 | ['Bi Gs H O Ws Tv S'] | 2020-12-26 15:56:37.600000+00:00 | ['Adventure', 'Scifi Fantasy', 'Action'] |
From the VC’s corner (17): It’s all about the risk (when negotiating an early-stage company’s valuation) | When talking about early-stage startup valuation, some journalists characterize them as either cheap or rich; have also noticed some founders putting price tags on their just-born startups. To grow, most need outside capital, and the great ones raise it from VCs in exchange for an equity stake in the business. This process creates post-money and pre-money valuations. On the flip side, many/most bootstrap, and this is great as well as long as they cover their costs and there’s a demand for whatever they do; also gives founders the liberty to do it their own way, with no “pressure” for constant double-digit growing, reporting KPIs, having weekly meetings or so with the investors and potential further disagreements down the line in terms of strategy and rest.
What does the pre-money valuation for a seed-stage business mean? Assuming there is an outstanding team of founders, and they’ve all cooked a nice product/service, assessed the product-market fit and talked to the prospective clients, how can this business be worth a few millions, let’s say, when they don’t have the necessary capital to make their vision real?
Being a private valuation for an early-stage company, it’s not about future cash flows, obviously; neither is about comparables, nor about the assets value. And to be frank, it might be the case that company might not even be worth its venture-backed valuation. It’s all about the investor’s perception of the underlying risk of the investment. The rule is clear, the greater the risk, the lower the VC’s valuation; and the VC thinks at desired rates of return.
”It would then follow that investors seeking greater rates of return would only be willing to invest in businesses at lower valuations that have the same overall risk profile of similar businesses pricing at higher levels,” concludes Todd Breeden of Tuhaye Venture Partners in a post you can here.
Browsing a few regional funds’ performance and portfolios, one would easy note that those targeting high IRRs typically can’t offset the high amount of risk they’ve taken with some investments, and here are the outliers. Hey, but it takes only a few great investments, and even a great one, to return the fund, so, it may be worth the risk in the region, right?
Risk, the independent variable under spot, and the probability of the company reaching an envisioned successful outcome: VCs are pretty good at measuring risk, and, with the valuation on the table, closing the deal means they’ve all reached the equilibrium where the founders’ willingness to take on dilution matches investors’ risk appetite.
Some VCs are simply better at understanding and pricing the risk. Usually, these are the ones investing in specific verticals and having niche expertise, stage-focused, adding value into the startup’s operations, dedicating time to support the founders, making connections and introducing clients, and even incubating businesses through General Partners or Entrepreneurs in Residence.
The pre-money valuation reflects the investors’ calculated perception of risk (and not the founders’ dream value.) One simple measure to evaluate the early-stage risk is to look at a company’s Equity Leverage at the time of financing; it’s “the amount of return a company needs to deliver in order to meet an investor’s return expectations.”
In a Medium post which you can browse here, Todd Breeden gives an example. Considering an investment of $2m in a concept-stage business (valued at $0 non-venture backed) at an $8m pre-money valuation ($10m post-money), if the investor is targeting a 100% IRR (in one year), then the company needs to be worth $20m in 12 months; this means a 10x equity leverage on the business. With the same business valued at $10m pre-money, and an investment of $4m while targeting the same 100% IRR, the company needs to be valued at $28m in 12 months to be considered by the same investor; the equity leverage in this care is 7x.
To deliver a 10x return, the CEO would probably assume more high-risk initiatives (than the one who only needs to return 7%.) Todd’s conclusion is: “A founding team that assumes too much Equity Leverage is more likely to fail through high-risk growth strategies, rather than another business that is spending money more conservatively.”
Assuming you’re good at portfolio management, a reduction in equity leverage (such as 7x vs. 10x in the above ex.), may lead to a higher alpha, blended MOIC and blended IRR. That’s one reason why many VCs prefer to invest more and have higher pre-money valuations (with lower risk.) When you hear/read that valuations are skyrocketing, it’s about perceived risk and return. Beware though of the “Brewster” effect, when there’s a diminishing return to reducing the equity leverage: the founders have more money, but it’s actually hard to spend them quickly and efficiently/wisely if they have no experience doing so. Increasing the burn rate also increases the risk profile of the investment, and the risk is not hitting the equity leverage target.
The pre-money valuation is a function of the risk the VC perceives the business to have, rather than being indicative of its actual value. Being aware of the potential failures and high-risk nature of their investments, VCs will continue to diversity.
My today’s preferred: Colorables — free printable coloring pages for adults, kids and everyone in between. | https://medium.com/@ciprianghetau/from-the-vcs-corner-17-it-s-all-about-the-risk-when-negotiating-an-early-stage-company-s-61153ef7aaaf | ['Ciprian Ghetau'] | 2019-09-10 05:21:19.217000+00:00 | ['Early Stage Startup', 'Risk', 'Startup', 'Leverage', 'Valuation'] |
Please Stop Asking Why Doesn’t She Just Leave | the grey area of abusive relationships
Photo by Alexandru Zdrobău on Unsplash
For the longest time I wondered why my mother couldn’t just leave my abusive father who also sexually abused me.
In fact as a kid I begged her to leave him.
I imagined that when I grew up I’d save her from him. She would live with me and finally leave him. We’d be free together and live a normal life.
I grew up — 33 years later I didn’t save her from him.
The truth is she never left my father.
She still lives with him to this day.
I resented her for years. I felt abandoned by her. I feel sad that she is still there but she has a choice regardless if she realizes it or not.
Despite her neglect as a parent I understand why she “chooses” to stay.
“Why don’t you just leave him?”
It is easy and somewhat careless to ask a victim of abuse why don’t they just leave. However I think for the victim it is much harder to answer.
There is a grey area in abusive relationships.
It is more complicated than a six-word question.
Why do people stay in abusive relationships?
The National Domestic Hotline shares some common reasons why people like my mother stay —
Fear — fear of what will happen if they try to leave the relationship
Normalizing abuse & not realizing it is an unhealthy relationship
Embarrassment or shame
Low self-esteem — When you are constantly belittled and put down you start to believe it.
Kids — A big reason my mother was afraid to leave is she didn’t want to lose us.
Money — a person may be financially dependent on their abuser. My mother is financially dependent on my father and actually gets terrified if he gets sick. In her words, “she needs him to be alive” because she has never been on her own.
These are just a few reasons why a victim may not leave their relationship.
Ultimately it takes resources, advocacy and the victim needing preparation and a team on the outside to support their exit.
It’s not an easy journey for someone to leave an abusive relationship.
There is a lot of mental warfare and possible threat one has to face in order to try to exit a relationship safely.
From my own personal experience I was in a few abusive relationships and it took me years to get the courage to leave and stay disconnected from my abusive ex.
I remember the day my ex (the woman who cheated on me) and I broke up.
We had a horrible fight and she was arrested. She spent the night in a jail cell. And I spent the night crying realizing that I was living my worst fear — a relationship like my parents.
I needed help desperately and luckily I started going to therapy shortly after.
It was a long break-up and if it wasn’t for therapy I’m not sure we would have truly broken up.
Rather than ask the inconsiderate question of “Why don’t you just leave?” — try this instead.
“How can I support you?”
Offer support, to listen, to provide tools or resources. Be a gentle guide.
Be gentle.
It is a delicate and raw process to exit an abusive relationship.
Let’s keep advocating for each other.
We all deserve to find healing, recovery and love again.
There is hope. There is light at the end of the tunnel. | https://emilystroia.medium.com/please-stop-asking-why-doesnt-she-just-leave-c2e104ed5af5 | ['Emily Stroia'] | 2019-07-26 06:38:02.698000+00:00 | ['Abuse', 'Relationships', 'Culture', 'Mental Health', 'Women'] |
Unremembered. | I’ll fall asleep before I fall in love. Why? I can’t remember.
I hold the pieces of a shape I used to hate~but can’t remember.
I remember like it’s fresh; the way she left me out of
breath. But, the way my lover left? I can’t remember.
I still see our lazy silhouettes; on Ocean Beach with weeded
cigarettes. I see her face, but it’s her smile I can’t remember.
Eager lips caressed the flesh I seeked; her neck, her chest, her
freckled cheeks. The way she tastes, today, I can’t remember.
I wrote an Ode to softest lips — to how her kiss had brought me
bliss — inside a book I took to hide someplace I can’t remember.
At dusk, in a musty hostel in Madrid, she said she fell
for me: a speech of sweetest words I can’t remember.
I still hear the beats inside her chest as floorboards creak &
squeak like breath; but anything she said? I can’t remember.
I sat estranged throughout our fights ’cause silence always voiced
her spite. I ripped & split my skin for reasons that I can’t remember.
She told me that she hated us. I said the same (but made it up);
breaking up for things I wish I never said — but can’t remember.
We spent a rainy week in Spain — in pain & weakness, lost at war
— before she said the way she felt was what she can’t remember.
Today, she brings another ecstasy. She lies, but won’t lie next
to me. So, tonight? I’ll swallow wine until I can’t remember.
Last fall, we both fell into spells. The boy she loved was someone
else. The way she loved, the girl she was — why can’t I remember?
My reflection is the enemy… betraying blissful memories.
Dean, it’s not your lover~it’s her love you can’t remember. | https://medium.com/homesickathome/unremembered-96669e4d35ce | ['Dean Duval Dyus'] | 2020-12-22 15:16:18.561000+00:00 | ['Poem', 'Poetry In Form', 'Poetry Writing', 'Poetry', 'Poetry On Medium'] |
A Story Each Day | May 10th, 2014
A Story Each Day
“Fireworks?” My roommate asked, headed for the window that led to the fire escape, and up onto the roof.
“Either that or an alien invasion.” I answered, annoyed to be further distracted from my work, and hoping for the latter. I’d wondered where the loud thundering noise was coming from — I’d never heard fireworks in Brooklyn or New York City, but my curiosity wasn’t strong enough to pull me away from my computer.
“I’ll bite.” My roommate said. His almost naïve enthusiasm was hardly ever diminished, despite the fact that it was growing late and he’d been busy all day. He pushed open the window and leaned out onto the fire escape, and into the drizzling weather.
I sat at my laptop, wondering what the hell to type next. I bounced back to facebook, which only led me to feel more distant, like the sound of those fireworks, or the alien invasion.
It’d been a while since I’d seen fireworks — The fourth of July was the last time I’d seen them, I guessed, since I had a rather reclusive New Year’s Eve. And I’d never seen an alien invasion. So if I did decide to step out onto the fire escape, climb onto the roof, and see whatever was making that booming noise, it’d probably be worth it.
I stepped out of the window and saw my roommate climbing back down the fire escape from the roof.
“Fireworks over the Statue of Liberty.” he announced, with his never-fading enthusiasm. “A great view of them from the roof.”
“You can see them?” I asked, just to make sure my time was going to be well spent, since it wasn’t an alien invasion, after all.
“Yes. It’s a great view.”
“Hm. I’ll take a look.”
“Just be careful. The stairs are quite wet. And technically, we’re not supposed to be up there.”
“Great,” I thought. “I’ll be sure to try to avoid the rooftop patrol.” I would have let my sarcasm bleed out loud, but it was a little too late in the evening for such sour words, and the air was a little too fresh to poison it with such a sardonic response. I took his advice and carefully climbed up the thin metal steps to the roof.
The rainy mist amplified the glow of Manhattan and cast a beautiful tint over the skyline. My eyes warped and tried to adjust from an afternoon of staring at the computer. I waddled across the roof, thinking of all the apartment dwellers below me who were probably wondering what in the world somebody was doing on the roof at this time of night.
I walked to the west side of the building, wondering if the low thundering sounds had drawn anyone else up to the roof. They had. A couple stood at the edge of the roof, arms around each other, hoodies shielding their hair from the light rain, smoking a cigarette.
I wandered past them, to the furthest westward overlook. Behind me I heard them muttering.
“…scared the hell out of me!”
I turned back, a little sheepish for ruining their nice moment in the drizzling rain watching fireworks, but not ashamed in the least.
“Sorry.” I smiled.
“It’s okay.” They said.
I wandered further away, so as not to bother them, but it gave me a little bit of comfort to know that I wasn’t alone in my appreciation of the golden sparks that dotted the sky over Lady Liberty.
“I should contemplate my life up here.” I thought. “This seems like a good place to reflect on what in the world I’m doing with myself.” It did seem like a good place to do that, but instead, I just blinked several times and tried to get my eyes to adjust fully to the glowing skyline. No reflective thoughts visited to my mind. No glowing revelations about purpose or meaning or my direction in life.
Just the drizzle of rain, and fireworks and the Statue of Liberty.
The fireworks stopped, and I started to realize that it was getting cold and I was barefoot. I turned back, glancing over at the couple, still finishing their cigarette. As I walked away, one of those reflective thoughts I’d expected decided to drop by, though I didn’t give it much attention.
“How many people get to do this?” I thought to myself. “You’re on the roof, watching fireworks over the Statue of Liberty. This feels special. It can’t be though, it’s so simple and it’s not even for you. You’re miles from it, and anyone can see this. Anyone can go out onto their roof and watch this and think it’s for them.”
But most people don’t. It’s not special. It wasn’t made for me.
But somehow, it was.
It’s not the kind of thing you can share. You just stand there, in the rain, and watch the fireworks until they’re done. And then you leave.
I stepped back in to the apartment, my wet feet splotching on the kitchen tile.
“How was it?” my roommate asked, cheerily, as if I’d just been to a world premiere Broadway show.
“Mmm” I lied, “Just fireworks.” | https://medium.com/a-story-each-day/fireworks-ecdc714d76d1 | ['A Story Each Day'] | 2015-05-10 15:27:46.964000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'A Story Each Day', 'Short Story'] |
How to Backup Your Masternode Keystore on XinFin Network. | How to Backup Your Masternode Keystore on XinFin Network.
This guide will teach you how to store and backup your keystore.
You can set up Masternode using XinFin one-click installer or can use a docker compose file.
For more details on Masternode set-up, please visit the links below
After running the one-click installer or docker compose file, you will get the Coinbase address.
The Coinbase address is the Masternode address while the ‘owner address’ is the address of the wallet where you have staked 10 million XDC. Your rewards will be sent to you on the owner address.
After running the Masternode, you can easily propose and lock the 10 million XDC and become the Masternode. Following this, you can get rewards to the Masternode owner address with its Coinbase address.
Note: It is recommended that you create a backup of their Coinbase address and owner address.
How to create a backup of the one-click installer?
After installing and running the one-click installer, you will find the XDC chain folder that holds your keystore.
You would be required to create a backup of your keystore and save it on a device that is safe against hacks and malware attacks.
How to create a backup of the XinFin-Node (docker compose file)
After successfully running the node with docker, you will find XDC chain folder inside the XinFin node folder
You will have to create the back up of the keystore and save it on a proper device that won’t be afflicted by malware or hackers.
FAQ
1) What if I lost the keystore of Masternode address?
In case you haven’t backed up your keystore and your machines crash, it will result in the loss of all the data along with the keystore. You would then have to resign your masternode from the masternode app and the 10 million XDC that you stacked will be locked for the next 30 days.
Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you store and create a proper backup of your keystore folder to avoid such a situation.
2) What if I lost the private key or keystore of masternode owner address?
If you lose the private key or keystore of the masternode owner address, you will not be able to login to the wallet, and the 10 million XDC tokens you staked will be lost. This would also prevent you from receiving the rewards from the masternode app.
Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you store and create a proper backup of your private key and keystore folder to avoid such a situation.
Note: XDC wallet is a free, client-side interface helping users interact with the XDPoS blockchain. XinFin is an easy-to-use, open-source platform that allows companies to seamlessly generate/integrate wallets onto its blockchain.
XDC Wallet will never manage accounts with sensitive information such as passwords, private keys, or email addresses. In order to ensure the security and privacy of your information, please ensure that no sensitive information is ever saved, stored, or transmitted while using XDC Wallet. Please note that we only have access to the information that is publicly available on the blockchain and we will never hold your assets.
Only users themselves can access and control their funds — this is the purpose of decentralized networks. Your funds are stored on the XDPoS blockchain itself, and we are simply an interface that allows you to easily interact with them. Passwords and private keys are in the users’ hands and are the users’ sole responsibility.
Online community support is available on below-mentioned Telegram and Slack channels.
Join us at our Telegram Development Community or get in touch with our team at the Slack Public Channel.
We would love to hear from you. So, feel free to drop us a line or share feedback at any of our community channels.
About XinFin:
XinFin is an open source enterprise-ready hybrid blockchain for global trade and finance. It combines the power of public and private blockchains with interoperable smart contracts and is fully EVM compatible. For more information on XinFin, please visit XinFin.org or learn more about XinFin in this video.
Useful link for XinFin Masternode
Steps to Setup Masternode on XinFin MainNet
XinFin Mobile Wallet
XinFin Web Wallet
Steps to resign master node
Step by step guide to issue your own token on XinFin network
Step by step guide to swap token on XinFin network
Guide to setup node with one click installer
Watch the video to Setup XinFin Masternode with One-Click installer
Follow XinFin on:
Twitter: @XinFin_Official
LinkedIn: XinFin Hybrid Blockchain
Telegram: XinFinTalk | https://medium.com/xinfin/how-to-backup-your-masternode-keystore-on-xinfin-network-ae3d8237ad82 | ['Xinfin Xdc Hybrid Blockchain Network'] | 2019-11-15 12:20:03.543000+00:00 | ['Xinfin', 'Keystore', 'Masternodes', 'Blockchain', 'Masternodesonline'] |
Open sourcing Singer, Pinterest’s performant and reliable logging agent | Yu Yang | Software Engineer, Data Engineering
At Pinterest, we use data to guide product decisions and ultimately improve the Pinner experience. In an earlier post, we shared the design of Pinterest’s data ingestion framework. The first step of data ingestion and data-driven decision making is data collection.
At first glance, data collection seems simple: it’s just about uploading data from hosts to a central repository. However, in order to collect data from tens of thousands of hosts in various formats, uploading data reliably and efficiently with low latency at scale becomes a challenging problem. In 2014, we evaluated available open source logging agents and didn’t find any that met our needs. As a solution, we built a logging agent named “Singer”, which has been in production at Pinterest for years. Singer has been a critical component of our data infrastructure and streams over one trillion messages per day now. Today, we’re sharing Singer with the open source community. You can find its source code and design documentation on GitHub.
Singer supports the following features:
Text-log format and thrift log format out of box: Thrift log format provides better throughput and efficiency. We have included thrift log client libraries in Python and Java in Singer repository.
At-least-once message delivery: Singer will retry when it fails to upload a batch of messages. For each log stream, Singer uses a watermark file to track its progress. When Singer restarts, it processes messages from the watermark position.
Support logging in Kubernetes as a side-car service: Logging in Kubernetes as a daemonset, Singer can monitor and upload loads from log directories of multiple Kubernetes pods.
High throughput writes: Singer uses staged event-driven architecture and is capable of streaming thousands of log streams with high throughput (>100MB/s for thrift logs and >40MB/s for text logs)
Low Latency logging: Singer supports configurable processing latency and batch sizes, it can achieve <5ms log uploading latency.
Flexible message partitioning: Singer provides multiple partitioners and supports pluggable partitioner. We also support locality aware partitioners, which can avoid producer traffic across availability zones and reduce data transfer costs.
Monitoring: Singer can send heartbeat messages to a centralized message queue based on configuration. This allows users to set up centralized monitoring of Singer instances at scale.
Extensible design: Singer can be easily extended to support data uploading to custom destinations.
Figure 1. Singer internals
In detail, the services write logs to append-only log streams. Singer listens to the file system events based on configurations. Once log file changes are detected, Singer processes the log streams and sends data to writer threads pool for uploading. It then stores logstream watermark files on disk after successfully uploading a batch of records. It will also process log streams from watermark positions when restarted.
Singer can automatically detect newly added configuration and process related log streams. Running as a daemonset in Kubernetes environment, Singer can query the kubelet API to detect live pods on each node, and process log streams on each pod based on the configuration. Please see the tutorial on how to run Singer.
Open source is important not only for engineers at Pinterest, but also for companies like YouTube, Google, Tinder, Snap and others, who use our open source technologies to power app persistence, image downloading, and more. See opensource.pinterest.com and GitHub for our open source projects. Pinterest engineering has many interesting problems to solve, check out our open engineering roles and join us!
Acknowledgments: Huge thanks to Ambud Sharma, Indy Prentice, Henry Cai, Shawn Nguyen, Mao Ye and Roger Wang for making significant contributions to Singer! | https://medium.com/pinterest-engineering/open-sourcing-singer-pinterests-performant-and-reliable-logging-agent-610fecf35566 | ['Pinterest Engineering'] | 2019-06-20 16:54:02.130000+00:00 | ['Big Data', 'Open Source', 'Data Engineering'] |
P:06 Creative Ideas to Help Plan the Perfect Virtual Baby Shower. | Baby Shower ideas
A whirlwind of panic, alarm and sudden change later, the pandemic crisis has ensured that a great many things are nothing like they were before. As always, we have turned to technology, and innovative solutions have been found to meet the social distancing requirements and still keep the world going.
With the advent of drive-by birthday parties and virtual graduation ceremonies, we’ve managed to come up with creative ways online to celebrate and share in the joy and happiness of one another, something we’d all agree is of utmost importance in these times.
Things are no different when it comes to baby showers. Expectant moms and hosts are doing away with in-person events, choosing instead to safely conduct their joyous occasion online. While you may feel disappointment, relief or a bit of both about having to go virtual, there are more than a few silver linings which might make you feel a lot better about a virtual baby shower during Covid. It’s much less expensive for the host, much more convenient for the guests and you can invite as many people as you want, no matter where they’re residing.
So, though it can’t fully replicate a physical event, it’s a great alternative in the current circumstances, and remember, the intent always remains the same — to celebrate you and your little angel!
How to Plan the Perfect Baby Shower.
Now that you’re excited about your virtual baby shower, let’s check out a few steps to help plan the celebration.
Choosing a Virtual Venue.
You’ll first want to decide on a video conferencing platform, and make sure that all of your guests are familiar with how to use the application. The COVID-19 lockdown has seen the rise of more applications than ever before, and Google Hangouts, Skype and Zoom are all worthy contenders to book your baby shower. You might prefer Zoom, as you can add a custom background to your baby shower. You can also eliminate any privacy concerns by customizing your settings so only those you invite can join in on the fun.
Prepare an Agenda.
While you don’t have to abide by a strict timeline, you would be well served to come up with a general schedule beforehand to avoid any confusion later. Keeping the schedule to an hour or an hour and a half is ideal. Here’s a rough virtual baby shower agenda you can refer to:
Welcome and catching up from the hosts and mom as each guest joins the celebration (5–10 minutes)
Let the fun begin! You can play games and carry out fun group activities — refer below for creative virtual baby shower games. (30–40 minutes)
If mom wants to, opening gifts can be part of the agenda (10–15 minutes)
Sharing some parenting advice (5–10 minutes)
Time to wrap-up and share teary goodbyes! (5–10 minutes)
Shower the parents with gifts!
Once you’re done with the fun and games, you may choose to open the gifts like you usually would during a baby shower. The host can coordinate and make sure that gifts reach you ahead of time, as the guests can consult your online baby registry.
Creative Baby Shower Ideas and games.
With the above helping you set up your virtual baby shower, let’s take a look at a few virtual baby shower ideas and games to make the occasion every bit as enjoyable and memorable as you deserve it to be!
Everyone plays dress up.
Most of us lounge about in our yoga pants these days, as we should! But, if the guest of honour desires so, the shower can be a brilliant opportunity for the mom to dress up and feel their radiant best. All the attendees can dress up similarly to avoid the mom feeling left out, or they might wear neutral colours so that the guest of honour stands out; the host can make that call based on what mom would like best. A theme party with everyone dressing up is a fun idea to consider too!
Plan Games.
Just because the event is online, doesn’t mean you won’t be playing legendary baby shower games. Virtual baby shower games such as ‘How Well Do You Know Mom?’, ‘Price is Right’ with the host holding up baby items, ‘Who’s The Baby?’ with everyone sending their childhood photos in advance and the group guessing who is who and ‘Celebrity Baby Names’ if the majority of the guests are pop culture fans are certain to be hit and gets a few laughs going.
A Signature Menu.
One of the best virtual baby shower ideas is to agree on a dish and drink ahead of time. In this way, the guests can prepare it at home and enjoy it together during the shower. But you must take into account whether certain ingredients may not be available to everyone, so dishes featuring common ingredients such as cheese and veggies would be perfect.
Bring in Entertainment.
There are several ways to include virtual baby shower entertainment. You could invite a performer to join the celebration virtually, such as a musician, Tarot card reader or dance teacher. Similarly, guests that are gifted in the arts can willingly perform and grace the occasion with their talent.
A virtual baby shower is a wonderfully adaptable way of making memories that the parents-to-be will cherish forever. Though missing out on a physical gathering with your loved ones is understandably frustrating, a virtual shower presents its own unique set of advantages, and can be an incredibly beautiful experience. So go ahead and embrace it! | https://medium.com/@berrytreeindia/p-06-creative-ideas-to-help-plan-the-perfect-virtual-baby-shower-1e2f20fb2b2b | ['Berrytree India'] | 2021-03-10 07:17:13.440000+00:00 | ['Baby', 'Baby Shower', 'Baby Products', 'Baby Care', 'Baby Clothes'] |
A Control Tower for eCommerce Companies that use 3PL Services | A Control Tower for eCommerce Companies that use 3PL Services
A guide on how to use location analytics with Locale to evaluate performance
Key Takeaway
If you are an e-commerce company that has outsourced their delivery to third-party logistics companies, then this blog is for you. In this piece, we talk about how you can create a central place for your ops and city teams to monitor and analyze the performance of these 3PL providers.
Introduction
E-commerce has changed the way in which society sells goods and services and become a part of our daily lifestyle. It has experienced rapid growth since its humble beginnings with e-commerce sales projected to grow to 599.2 billion USD by 2024. The COVID-19 outbreak saw e-commerce sales spike 25% in March 2020 alone.
With e-commerce companies rapidly expanding and serving more orders per day, it has become important for them to outsource these orders to specific people who can manage granular city level supply chains on their own. This need has resulted in the global third-party logistics (3PL) market with specialized services such as inventory management, cross-docking, door-to-door delivery, and packaging of products.
In this blog,we will talk about how e-commerce companies that use third party logistics providers can use location analytics to set up what we call a control tower for their ops and city teams.
The Problem(s)
A report from Tomkins Associates shows that E-commerce firms pay their 3PL providers upto 10.8% of their own net revenue. This makes it very important to realize exactly how valuable is your 3PL partner, and how much does the service really cost on-ground.
While e-commerce companies gain a lot in terms of hyper-local supply chain management by partnering with these providers, they also end up taking significant risks in doing so.
There are multiple providers with different pricing and delivery capabilities in different areas, so evaluating their performance & having the visibility is critical to find the right provider for the right area.
These are not limited to a high cost in terms of overheads and base charges per delivery paid to the 3PL Partner but extend to risks in an information gap between the provider and the city level ops team of the e-commerce firm. Some companies do get individual dashboards from each of their providers but the process is currently painful to get answers to their questions.
As a result, the commerce firms don’t have direct visibility on how much the shipments cost to delivery across their customer geography and they end up suffering in cases of delays, damages, returns, cancellations and so on!
The Status Quo: What’s happening in e-commerce companies currently?
E-commerce firms must measure and evaluate the costs that they undergo in outsourcing and weigh it with respect to the performance of their 3PL partners. Doing this currently is a very painful process. They have to compile large amounts of data regarding their delivery trips, their user behaviour,and the performance of their storage units. | https://medium.com/locale-ai/a-control-tower-for-ecommerce-companies-that-use-3pl-services-acf7ead72209 | ['Anubhav Pattnaik'] | 2020-09-29 20:25:53.162000+00:00 | ['SaaS', 'E Commerce Business', 'Analytics', 'Location Intelligence', 'Logistics'] |
Defend the achievements, keep the course. Experts discussed economic, environmental and energy reforms | Economic reforms
Dmytro Lyvch, Expert at EasyBusiness, said that the government has now begun developing a National Economic Strategy 2020–2030, which includes the main stages: restoring confidence, competition for capital, competition for markets and competition for human development.
According to the speaker, now is the time to implement the reforms that have been discussed for a long time. Developing an early plan is a priority. It includes market reforms, improving the investment climate, improving the conditions for international trade, the rule of law and a number of market-based sectoral initiatives. The adoption of a comprehensive plan is expected in the first quarter of 2021 as an important step.
“Ukraine is now in a very interesting situation. Last year, we attracted 5.8 billion in foreign direct investment. Instead, about 15 billion remittances abroad. This situation is completely inadequate for an economy that wants to develop. The fundamental idea for the growth of Ukraine’s economy should be to attract foreign and domestic investment, as well as to stimulate Ukrainian exports. ” The most important issue on the agenda is the renewal of the Association Agreement with the EU.
Hlib Vyshlinsky, Executive Director, Centre for Economic Strategy, noted that the government did not take advantage of the peak of reforms in the fall of 2019, when “a few steps left to the wave of direct investment.” Before the corona crisis, the reforms were over.
The expert said that despite the expected decline in GDP, the future for Ukraine does not look particularly happy.
“This year, instead of the planned three tranches from the IMF, we received one. This limited the government’s ability to both fight the epidemic and stimulate the economy.
The corrupt judiciary has not only topped the list of barriers for foreign investors, but has also been able to undermine macroeconomic stability by a ruling by the Constitutional Court.
Economic reforms also came to a halt. No privatization has taken place, the oligarchs are regaining control of state-owned enterprises, and independent members of supervisory boards have been deliberately pushed back. The unmotivated change in the NBU’s leadership has also created additional problems for the IMF, and this remains a risk to stability. Instead of standing guard over financial stability, the Ministry of Finance has submitted a draft budget for 2021 with unrealistic figures.
The country cannot develop and talk about strategy when we discuss every year whether we will default. To remove this issue, we at least need to implement the signed program with the IMF and address issues that stand in the way. “
The speaker summarized: macrostability, investment attraction, human capital development — guidelines for development.
Hlib Vyshlinsky added that according to the results of the polls, ideas about economic processes and systemic reforms in society are superficial and contradict each other. Ukrainians cannot form a logical and consistent opinion about privatization, the principle of price regulation, etc., because not everyone has a touch in the field, unlike in the fields of education or health care. Civil society can also play an important role in forming sound ideas about the economy, the expert said.
Oleksandr Romanishyn, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine, emphasized that the new economic strategy is becoming measurable and includes KPIs — this has not always been enough.
According to him, now the task is to radically change the emphasis from the benefits of exporting raw materials and industry with high added value to the export of products with high technological components. There are all prerequisites for this.
Another vector is to show foreign companies the advantages of Ukraine for relocation, namely industrial parks, a favorable legal field, talents and the development of the IT industry. The speaker noted that the reforms are being made in small steps, and despite the fact that many resources are allocated for firefighting, certain vectors must remain unchanged.
He added that currently Ukrainian producers need protection in international markets and support in the regions.
Ihor Burakovsky, Head of the Board, The Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting, Co-Chairman of the RPR Coalition Board, emphasized the key points:
Coronavirus and related challenges do not need to be aligned with traditional economic policies. There is a suspension of economic transformation. In this situation, the government’s mission is to protect gains (such as the public procurement system) and prevent reforms from rolling back. “After the coronavirus, we forget about strategic planning of public finances.” Much has been done to move to medium-term planning, but so far it does not exist. Little attention is paid to the interaction of the center with the regions in view of decentralization. Dynamism in cooperation with international partners is being lost.
“Today there is a lack of semi-academic awareness of what is happening to us and how we will move forward,” — summed up Ihor Burakovsky.
The speaker stressed the important elements of the Strategy that is being prepared: the country’s economic audit, visions and vectors of economic development. He noted that the main vectors for the development of the sphere are macroeconomic stabilization, institutional development, and increasing the government’s independence.
Dovydas Vitkauskas, Team Leader of EU-funded Project “Pravo-Justice”, presented key findings on the state of the public and private sectors. He stressed that many factors give a “head start” to state-owned enterprises compared to private ones. He emphasized, among other things, the problems of a number of legislative and judicial moratoriums, transparency, and corporate debt. The speaker noted that the notion of bankruptcy should remove the stigma that is rooted in Ukrainian society and business environment.
“Bankruptcy does not mean that the company is being liquidated. It is an attempt to conduct an audit, diagnose the patient and treat. This treatment is possible. For this, restructuring or reorganization as part of the institution of bankruptcy is very important. Unfortunately, except in rare cases like Ukroboronprom, this institution does not apply to state-owned enterprises and the private sector. Restructuring and reorganization do not currently have the scope they need to be if we want Ukraine to follow European best practices. ”
The speaker also noted that the moratorium should be seen not only as a political problem, but also as a legal one. They can also be illegal in terms of international agreements.
Key messages of Natalia Nemyliwska, Director of the Ukraine World Congress Economic Prosperity and Investment Committee:
The Ukrainian diaspora numbers 20 million; it is a powerful partner and resource for Ukraine. The diaspora is emotionally attached to Ukraine and wants it to develop. The diaspora should be involved more and systematically. The diaspora should not be seen as just investors: it is a very narrow version of the joint potential and cooperation. The diaspora can provide communication; it is a network of people with contacts, opportunities for influence. It can also provide advice and evaluation of external reforms. Most professionals are communication specialists, so they can convey messages to the audience that are beneficial to Ukraine and on its behalf.
Oleksii Dorogan, CEO at Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), noted that the lack of a systemic economic policy that has been implemented for several years is worse than the best economic policy, which changes every six months. The common challenge is the transition from strategy to implementation, which was previously unsuccessful. The speaker also drew attention to the problems of reforms in construction, transport and agriculture.
The moderator of the discussion, Pavlo Kukhta, First Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture (2019–2020) , finally asked Oleksandr Romanishyn to name the top 5 reforms for 2021. The speaker identified areas for reducing the influence and presence of the state in business, the development of deregulation, attention to innovative entrepreneurship, and digitalization.
Energy sector
Moderator Tetyana Boiko, coordinator of housing, communal and energy programs of the Civil Network OPORA, suggested that the speakers identify the leading priorities in the development of the sector for 2021. Including:
Development of competitive markets; Energy efficiency; Green course, decarbonization of Ukrainian energy; Reaction to crisis phenomena; Stabilization of the electricity market; Integration with international markets; Transformation of coal regions; Strengthening the institutional capacity of authorities and their interaction with each other; Digitalization and transparency (data discovery); Improving communication between stakeholders.
Oleksiy Orzhel, Member of the Board at Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection (2019–2020), spoke about the implemented liberalization of the retail gas market. In particular, he stressed the possible abuses, and also called it a shortcoming that citizens do not fully understand the new specifics of market competitiveness. The speaker summed up that Ukraine has formally complied with the requirements of the IMF and it is very correct that “we are converting the consumer market to a competitive basis, but not much homework has been done.”
At the initial stage of market formation, many representatives will overestimate their capabilities and go bankrupt, so the state must carefully monitor the stability of suppliers.
The heat issue is painful, said Oleksiy Orzhel. Central heating systems are in poor condition (40% of losses). In the absence of a discount and a reduction in gas prices, it may be possible to accumulate funds for infrastructure upgrades.
Andrij Herus, Member of Parliament, Head of the Parliament Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities Services, noted that the Ukrainian electricity market has changed very similarly to European ones. However, tariffs were higher in Ukraine. This is due to production capacity and the need to pay debts to producers. The increase in tariffs from December 1 has a similar reason. Discussions are currently underway to change the work of producers at the green tariff to reduce their dependence on the guaranteed buyer and allow them to work independently in the market, receive funds from electricity sales, and the difference would be compensated by the guaranteed buyer.
Olha Buslavets, First Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine, explained that markets are needed to move away from manual process control. That all participants could optimize the expenses, and the consumer was informed, conscious in the actions and received better service in the conditions of competition for it.
The speaker called the unresolved issues before its creation a problematic market issue — accumulated debts and a large amount of subsidies (about UAH 50 billion).
Among the positive changes — the introduction of Energoatom on the market of bilateral agreements, the law on support of green energy was adopted.
Initiatives in development — prepared simplified changes to the tender for new generating capacity, planned discussion of quotas to support green generation to introduce green auctions from the beginning of 2021, as well as the concept of reforming the coal industry.
Viktoriia Hryb, Member of Parliament, Member of the Parliament Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities Services, noted that the main goal of energy reform is to make energy affordable. In order to ensure that prices do not exceed European prices, reforms should be systematically implemented: merge with ENTSO-E (European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity), certify the transmission system operator, and introduce energy distribution auctions. The speaker added that it is important for the central authorities to reach a consensus in the policy of the sphere in order to stop speculation in the markets.
Yuliia Kyrychenko, Co-Chairwoman of the RPR Coalition Board, noted the threat of renewable energy reform — the Constitutional Court’s opening of proceedings on a large number of provisions of the law “On Alternative Energy Sources and Electricity Market”, mostly on the green tariff. According to experts, there are no grounds to declare the provisions of the law unconstitutional.
Olena Pavlenko, President of the DiXi Group, noted that civil society can inform consumers more about the market and its participants only in conditions of access to open data. There is also the problem of the possibility of placing social advertising on rating TV channels, through which you can disseminate information most effectively.
Regarding the proceedings of the Constitutional Court, the speaker noted that investors will not have confidence in Ukraine if it regulates economic and business issues through political instruments.
Speakers also noted that consumers can reduce their bills if they consume less through energy efficiency measures. They focused on the problem of the profile Fund, the need to adopt a law on energy efficiency.
Environmental Protection
Moderator Kostyantyn Krynytsky, Head of the Energy Department, Center for Environmental Initiatives Ecoaction, noted that the issue of environmental protection is not given due attention, and it directly affects the health of the population.
Yuliia Ovchynnykova, Member of Parliament, Member of the Parliament Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management, assessed the work of the committee at 3/5, as the first steps have been taken and the results have yet to be achieved.
Among the achievements — the adopted law on forest inventory, adopted in the first reading bills “On waste management”, “On protection of animals from cruel treatment”, preparation of legislation in the direction of the bill “On the territory of the Emerald Network”, steps to resolve legislation objects of the nature reserve fund.
The speaker stressed that the committee understands the need for horizontal and sectoral reforms. As for horizontal steps, the draft law “On Environmental Control” has been developed, but is being re-discussed in the committee. It is considered one of the priorities: the basis for the next steps. Initiatives within international commitments are also important. In particular, the subcommittee initiated the creation of the Biodiversity Conservation Strategy (approved by the EU) and established a working group. 35% of European biodiversity is in Ukraine (compared to 5.7% of the territory), said Yuliia Ovchynnykova
The draft of the National Forest Protection Strategy has been developed on the platform of the Ministry of Ecology.
For the first time in the history of the parliament, an inter-factional parliamentary association “Humane Country” was established to protect animals. It is important to support initiatives to ban the euthanasia of homeless animals, protection from cruelty, the ban on fur, and the ban on cuttings.
Regarding the resonance around the bill on the registration and identification of animals, the speaker stressed that this is an important reform that European countries have undergone at different times. Communication and public information are currently being carried out.
Roman Shahmatenko,Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, said that the mentioned bill on environmental control is the main priority. This is not the first year of dialogue. Its most anticipated innovation is the renewal of the system of liability for environmental violations.
Other important steps are the registration of the draft law “On Prevention, Reduction and Control of Industrial Pollution”, the adopted law “On Principles of Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions”, and the vectors — irrigation reform, digitalization and open data.
Osnat Lubrani, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, stressed the importance of action on climate change, but should pay attention to environmental recovery and flooding.
The speaker provided important recommendations from a global point of view, including investing more in green jobs, providing incentives for energy efficiency, involving ministries other than the relevant ones, as well as not forgetting about the most vulnerable groups.
According to Hanna Bashnyak, Head of the Supervision and Control Sector at Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), the analytical brief does not sufficiently reflect the positive changes made in the previous year:
the Subsoil User Investment Atlas was created;
created online data-room geological information;
the fight against “dormant” licenses — permits that have not been used for several years — has begun;
work on updating the subsoil code;
electronic accounting of wood by forest users has been introduced;
changing the approach to the sale of wood.
The speaker noted the existence of major problems in the “fishing” industry, including the fact that aquaculture rates are three times lower than those of industrial catches. “The positive thing is that the newly created ministry understands a number of problems and is ready to solve them with the help of the code on responsible fisheries. A working group is currently being set up, and all public organizations, citizens and institutions can join it, ”Hanna Bashnyak summed up.
In terms of digitalization of the sphere, the Ministry supported and expanded the joint development — Ecoplatform. She called this vector the most important, because open and accessible data contribute to the transparency, competitiveness and efficiency of natural resources.
The speakers also discussed the importance of the Green deal and cooperation in this direction with all stakeholders, including in the field of energy. Ukraine’s participation in the green European course is currently being calculated. The results are announced for February-March 2021.
Read the sectoral briefs on reforms prepared for Ukraine Reform Conference 2020/2021
The Forum is organized by the RPR Coalition in partnership with the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania. The Forum is supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, the European Union, the EU Project Pravo-Justice, «Civil Society for Enhanced Democracy and Human Rights in Ukraine» project implemented by UNDP Ukraine under financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, and the Embassy of Canada in Ukraine. The Forum is organized within the framework of the project “Core Support of the Reanimation Package of Reforms Coalition” carried out by the RPR Coalition and is made possible by the generous support of the American people through The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) within the Ukraine Civil Society Sectoral Support Activity, implemented by The Initiative Center to Support Social Action “Ednannia” in partnership with the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research and the Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law. | https://medium.com/coalition-rpr/defend-the-achievements-keep-the-course-1b5c89939687 | ['Reanimation Package Of Reforms Coalition'] | 2020-12-09 11:02:02.999000+00:00 | ['Reform', 'Economic Development', 'Ukraine', 'Energy', 'Environmental Issues'] |
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