title
stringlengths 1
200
⌀ | text
stringlengths 10
100k
| url
stringlengths 32
885
| authors
stringlengths 2
392
| timestamp
stringlengths 19
32
⌀ | tags
stringlengths 6
263
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dataweave 2.0— Introduction to Transformations | DataWeave is the MuleSoft expression language for accessing and transforming data that travels through a Mule app. DataWeave is tightly integrated with the Mule runtime engine, which runs the scripts and expressions in your Mule app.
First, let us see what is a Mule event: A Mule event contains the core information processed by the runtime. It travels through components inside your Mule app following the configured application logic.
Note that the Mule event is immutable, so every change to an instance of a Mule event results in the creation of a new instance.
A Mule Event is composed of these objects:
A Mule Message contains a message payload and its associated attributes.
Variables are Mule event metadata that you use in your flow.
DataWeave scripts act on data in the Mule event. Most commonly, you use it to access and transform data in the message payload. For example, after a component in your app retrieves data from one system, you can use DataWeave to modify and output selected fields in that data to a new data format, then use another component in your app to pass on that data to another system.
DataWeave supports many formats. Some of the most commonly used formats are Java, JSON, XML, dw(dataweave — for testing a DataWeave expression), CSV & xlsx. The DataWeave expression is a data model for the output. It is not dependent on the types of input and output, just their structure.
Note: The examples in this article are worked on Anypoint Studio 7.7 & runtime used is Mule Server 4.3.0 EE
The most complex transformations are performed in the “Transform Message” processor. It can be drag-and-dropped to the canvas from the Core module as shown in the below exhibit.
In the properties tab of transform message, the output type is set to application/java by default as Mule, the runtime engine of Anypoint Platform is a lightweight Java-based enterprise service bus (ESB).
Until the target is expecting any other format such as JSON or XML, we should leave this to Java only. It ensures no internal marshaling and unmarshalling is done hence giving better performance.
To change the output datatype, we just need to change the application/java to the required data type. Let us see an example where we will change JSON input into different output data formats
Note that before importing any data type, in the Package Explorer, You do not have examples or schema section
It is automatically created and populated once you import an example or schema of data as shown in the below exhibit.
The data model of the produced output can consist of three different types of data.
Objects: A collection of key-value pairs Arrays: A sequence of comma-separated values Simple Literals
The DataWeave transformations can be divided into sections as follows:
Beader: The header contains directives that apply to the body expression
Delimiter: Delimiter to separate header and body
Body: The body contains the actual DataWeave expression that generates the output structure.
The same is shown in the following exhibit:
Basic Data Structures Examples
In JSON, objects are denoted with curly braces, an array with square braces, and properties are written as key-value pairs delimited by colon and separated by a comma.
When writing an expression for XML input, by default, only XML elements and not attributes are created as JSON fields or Java object properties. We need to use the “@” sign to reference the attributes as shown in the exhibit above.
Output in type JAVA
In the input section, we can check out the data type and format, we can check a preview of output by clicking on the preview button in the upper right corner(This will work only if you have imported an example while defining data-type in the input section of Transform Message component)
Output in type JSON
Just changing /java to /json will convert the output in JSON format which can be verified using the preview tab
Output in type XML
XML format has to have a root object. So just by putting /xml instead of now /json, we get the following error as we do not have a root element.
After adding the root object, we get the desired output in the preview section.
If we want to add any attribute to the target output, then we can add it as shown in the following exhibit. here attribute currency = USD is added to the price.
Output in CSV format:
For CSV type output, there should not be a root object nor a nested object (such as ‘plane’ in the above example).
Types of DataWeave Errors
There are two types of DataWeave errors:
Scripting Errors: It is a problem with the syntax of DataWeave Expression. These are comparatively easy to handle. Formatting Errors: It is a problem with how the transformation from one format to another is written. For example, A script to output XML that does not specify a data structure with a single root node.
If you get an error, transform the input to application/dw, if the transformation is successful, then the error is likely a formatting error. | https://sanket-m-kangle.medium.com/dataweave-2-0-introduction-to-transformations-88703a01b1b3 | ['Sanket Kangle'] | 2020-11-23 08:28:48.295000+00:00 | ['Mulesoft', 'API', 'Api Development', 'Dataweave', 'Middleware'] |
Are You Doing Work That Matters? | Is it possible for you to do work that matters? If so, are you doing work that matters?
Before we can look at whether we can do, or are doing work that matters, we need to define it.
Work that matters is work that fits your values.
It’s work that is an extension of you. It’s work done with a purpose from your perspective. It’s work that is natural to your “wiring” and most of the time, fits you well.
What makes this so important to us?
Is it part of who we are that we want to do work that matters, work that contributes beyond ourselves? I believe so.
Seth Godin has said, “If there ever was a moment to follow your passion and do work that matters. This is it.”
I agree, 100%. But this begs the question, how?
To build a business (your business) around your passions, values and wiring takes… well, work! There are two different types of work that need to happen to get to the point of doing work that matters.
Actions Will Get You There
Imagine with me for a moment. You are sitting in a canoe and you are in the middle of a lake. You are screaming and yelling, “I don’t know what to do! What am I supposed to do?” You feel lost, frustrated and confused. But when you look down, there is a paddle. Too many are so focused on trying to figure out what to do, they forget they already have the tools to take action — even if that action is imperfect. You can always adjust and correct, like starting to row in the wrong way or direction.
Others know they have the tools, yet don’t use them — or know how or what direction to travel.
This is why working with a coach is so important.
That’s what Yoda is. That’s what Gandolf is. That’s who the mentors in your life are. They are guides and coaches that help you to row the right way and stay that way.
Your Heart Will Get You There
I take people through a visual exercise when working on defining values. I have them imagine a big velcro heart on the wall. Stuck to the heart are words. Some are great words like smart, funny, dedicated, honest, ambitious. Others are the opposite — negative ones, like stupid, ugly, liar, failure, etc. You can’t get where you want to be if your heart is filled with negative or false beliefs. I challenge my clients to remove these negative ones and replace them with words and values that define them, inspire them, or words which describe who they aspire to be.
When we do this heart work, we can lean into our values when we aren’t sure if we should say “yes” to the contract or the client. If I’m doing work that matters, it will line up with my values and personality. When someone or something is like sandpaper against those values, I know this work doesn’t matter enough to pursue. This is how we can make sure to stay on the right path. We know to row our canoe away from that situation!
Who Can Help You Get There?
An important piece in making sure you do work that matters is to find others doing work that matters to you. In his book, The Proximity Principle, Ken Coleman says, “To do what I want to do I have to be around the people who are doing it and the places it is happening.” The context is surrounding yourself with people that will move you toward your dream job. The dream job can easily be equated to doing work that matters. So here’s your challenge…
List 5 people in your life that are doing work that matters, work that inspires you, and who do it with excellence. Now, how can you get into proximity with them? Who do you know that knows them? Can you reach out to them directly?
Now, let’s fast forward 6–12 months. You’re doing work that matters. You’ve found that passion and joy in your work, either for the first time or again. I believe you now have an obligation and opportunity to be an example to those who are seeking like you were.
Who do you know that you can mentor? Can you employ someone that is passionate about finding purpose but hasn’t landed yet?
In my strength series in my SAGE Mindset Podcast, I talk about the third stage of growing your strengths. The third stage is about “reaching, teaching, and beaching” your strengths. Reaching is about stretching beyond your capabilities and taking risks. This inspires others. Tell people about these challenging steps you are taking. This will speak to their hearts. It will help them to see the value of doing work that matters.
Teach those around you how you got to this place of doing what matters, what you love. Don’t be afraid to share how long it took and the ups and downs along the way. Lastly, beach your strengths. Get out of the way. Sit on the beach and empower those around you to do what they are passionate about and “wired” to do.
If there was ever a stage in my work life that I launched, it was when I had a boss that gave me the keys to manage and got out of my way. He still played the role of Yoda, but when he was out of the way, I saw that the work I was doing mattered. Who can you empower?
To do work that matters do these things: Define your values, pick up the oars and row, find a coach or mentor to help you stay on track, help others find their work and then in whatever way you can then empower them to do it.
For information on Pear’s coaching services, visit www.pearcoaches.com. | https://medium.com/pear-coaches/are-you-doing-work-that-matters-8ba8612b69cb | ['Pear Coaches'] | 2020-07-27 02:28:11.197000+00:00 | ['Business Coaching', 'Business Consulting', 'Professional Development', 'Life Coaching', 'Leadership'] |
“Guide to Policing in San Francisco” | A new reference by and for LWVSF volunteers.
There is now a Guide to Policing in San Francisco for anyone who needs a reference to help them to better understand local policing.
I joined the League of Women Voters of San Francisco (LWVSF) Police Observer Corps because I am interested in police reform. Observing government meetings is an excellent way to learn how to shape our community. The League offers free training to anyone who wants it on how to observe public meetings, publishes educational materials about policing, and now League volunteers have this Guide to Policing in San Francisco.
Policing is a very technical field. There are many different agencies, institutions, and officials connected to the police. They use unique vocabulary and cryptic abbreviations. Knowing about federal, state and local legislation is necessary as well. I have been observing for a few years now, and I still regularly hear unfamiliar references. I couldn’t find a guide anywhere to explain the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) and its policies.
The goal of this guide is to help our volunteers gain a basic understanding of the SFPD and related public safety topics. It is by no means comprehensive. It is intended to be a living document, updated to include information and new developments. Now, especially, policing is constantly evolving.
LWVSF’s goal is for all San Franciscans to understand and help shape policing practices. Please use our volunteer Policing in San Francisco guide. We welcome your feedback at [email protected] because we plan to officially publish the sections you find most useful (like our Police in San Francisco FAQ) in the future.
— Bex H, observer | https://medium.com/lwvsf-observer-corps/guide-to-policing-in-san-francisco-by-lwvsf-49d79c73de3c | ['Bex H'] | 2020-12-16 07:43:13.686000+00:00 | ['Volunteering', 'Police', 'San Francisco', 'Defundthepolice', 'Government'] |
HD ! VER Pelicula [Promising Young Woman] — Completa en Español Latino | VER, HD Promising Young Woman 2020 pelicula completa Pelicula Completa en Latino Castellano pelicula Completa en Latino completa HD Subtitulado Promising Young Woman 2020 pelicula completa
VER DESCARGAR PELICULA » Promising Young Woman 2020 » https://tinyurl.com/yc338kvb
Una joven atormentada por una tragedia en su pasado se venga de los hombres depredadores que tuvieron la mala suerte de cruzar su camino.
Género: Thriller, Crime, Drama
Estrellas: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie
Personal: Emerald Fennell (Writer), Emerald Fennell (Director)
Idioma: English
Tag :
Promising Young Woman pelicula, Promising Young Woman estreno, Promising Young Woman libro, Promising Young Woman trailer, Promising Young Woman reparto, Promising Young Woman estreno españa, Promising Young Woman cartelera, Promising Young Woman cinepolis, Promising Young Woman descargar libro, Promising Young Woman online latino, Promising Young Woman online subtitulado, Promising Young Woman pelicula 2020
● Ver Promising Young Woman pelicula completa en Chille — REPELIS
● Ver Promising Young Woman pelicula completa en español latino en línea
● Ver Promising Young Woman La pelicula completa Sub español
● Ver Promising Young Woman pelicula completa en español latino pelisplus
● Ver Promising Young Woman pelicula online en castellano
● Ver Promising Young Woman película completa en español Dublado
● Ver Promising Young Woman pelicula completa en Chillena
● Ver Promising Young Woman pelicula completa en español latino repelis
Repelis!4k — Promising Young Woman 2020 (2020) pelicula completa ver Online espanol y latino gratis
Promising Young Woman 2020 pelicula mexicana, Promising Young Woman 2020 pelicula metacube, Promising Young Woman 2020 pelicula mexicana trailer, Promising Young Woman 2020 pelicula mega, Promising Young Woman 2020 pelicula mexicana, Promising Young Woman 2020 pelicula mexico, Promising Young Woman 2020 pelicula para ninos, Promising Young Woman 2020 pelicula completa en espanol online, Promising Young Woman 2020 pelicula completa en espanol latino online, Promising Young Woman 2020 pelicula trailer,
THE STORY
After graduating from Harvard, Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) forgoes the standard opportunities of seeking employment from big and lucrative law firms; deciding to head to Alabama to defend those wrongfully commended, with the support of local advocate, Eva Ansley (Brie Larson). One of his first, and most poignant, case is that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx, who, in 62, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 2-year-old girl in the community, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and one singular testimony against him by an individual that doesn’t quite seem to add up. Bryan begins to unravel the tangled threads of McMillian’s case, which becomes embroiled in a relentless labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt unabashed racism of the community as he fights for Walter’s name and others like him.
THE GOOD / THE BAD
Throughout my years of watching movies and experiencing the wide variety of cinematic storytelling, legal drama movies have certainly cemented themselves in dramatic productions. As I stated above, some have better longevity of being remembered, but most showcase plenty of heated courtroom battles of lawyers defending their clients and unmasking the truth behind the claims (be it wrongfully incarcerated, discovering who did it, or uncovering the shady dealings behind large corporations. Perhaps my first one legal drama was 624’s The Client (I was little young to get all the legality in the movie, but was still managed to get the gist of it all). My second one, which I loved, was probably Primal Fear, with Norton delivering my favorite character role. Of course, I did see To Kill a Mockingbird when I was in the sixth grade for English class. Definitely quite a powerful film. And, of course, let’s not forget Philadelphia and want it meant / stand for. Plus, Hanks and Washington were great in the film. All in all, while not the most popular genre out there, legal drama films still provide a plethora of dramatic storytelling to capture the attention of moviegoers of truth and lies within a dubious justice.
Just Mercy is the latest legal crime drama feature and the whole purpose of this movie review. To be honest, I really didn’t much “buzz” about this movie when it was first announced (circa 206) when Broad Green Productions hired the film’s director (Cretton) and actor Michael B. Jordan in the lead role. It was then eventually bought by Warner Bros (the films rights) when Broad Green Productions went Bankrupt. So, I really didn’t hear much about the film until I saw the movie trailer for Just Mercy, which did prove to be quite an interesting tale. Sure, it sort of looked like the generic “legal drama” yarn (judging from the trailer alone), but I was intrigued by it, especially with the film starring Jordan as well as actor Jamie Foxx. I did repeatedly keep on seeing the trailer for the film every time I went to my local movie theater (usually attached to any movie I was seeing with a PG rating and above). So, suffice to say, that Just Mercy’s trailer preview sort of kept me invested and waiting me to see it. Thus, I finally got the chance to see the feature a couple of days ago and I’m ready to share my thoughts on the film. And what are they? Well, good ones….to say the least. While the movie does struggle within the standard framework of similar projects, Just Mercy is a solid legal drama that has plenty of fine cinematic nuances and great performances from its leads. It’s not the “be all to end all” of legal drama endeavors, but its still manages to be more of the favorable motion pictures of these projects.
Just Mercy is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, whose previous directorial works includes such movies like Short Term 6, I Am Not a Hipster, and Glass Castle. Given his past projects (consisting of shorts, documentaries, and a few theatrical motion pictures), Cretton makes Just Mercy is most ambitious endeavor, with the director getting the chance to flex his directorial muscles on a legal drama film, which (like I said above) can manage to evoke plenty of human emotions within its undertaking. Thankfully, Cretton is up to the task and never feels overwhelmed with the movie; approaching (and shaping) the film with respect and a touch of sincerity by speaking to the humanity within its characters, especially within lead characters of Stevenson and McMillian. Of course, legal dramas usually do (be the accused / defendant and his attorney) shine their cinematic lens on these respective characters, so it’s nothing original. However, Cretton does make for a compelling drama within the feature; speaking to some great character drama within its two main lead characters; staging plenty of moments of these twos individuals that ultimately work, including some of the heated courtroom sequences.
Like other recent movies (i.e. Brian Banks and The Hate U Give), Cretton makes Just Mercy have an underlining thematical message of racism and corruption that continues to play a part in the US….to this day (incredibly sad, but true). So, of course, the correlation and overall relatively between the movie’s narrative and today’s world is quite crystal-clear right from the get-go, but Cretton never gets overzealous / preachy within its context; allowing the feature to present the subject matter in a timely manner and doesn’t feel like unnecessary or intentionally a “sign of the times” motif. Additionally, the movie also highlights the frustration (almost harsh) injustice of the underprivileged face on a regular basis (most notable those looking to overturn their cases on death row due to negligence and wrongfully accused). Naturally, as somewhat expected (yet still palpable), Just Mercy is a movie about seeking the truth and uncovering corruption in the face of a broken system and ignorant prejudice, with Cretton never shying away from some of the ugly truths that Stevenson faced during the film’s story.
Plus, as a side-note, it’s quite admirable for what Bryan Stevenson (the real-life individual) did for his career, with him as well as others that have supported him (and the Equal Justice Initiative) over the years and how he fought for and freed many wrongfully incarcerated individuals that our justice system has failed (again, the poignancy behind the film’s themes / message). It’s great to see humanity being shined and showcased to seek the rights of the wronged and to dispel a flawed system. Thus, whether you like the movie or not, you simply can not deny that truly meaningful job that Bryan Stevenson is doing, which Cretton helps demonstrate in Just Mercy. From the bottom of my heart…. thank you, Mr. Stevenson.
In terms of presentation, Just Mercy is a solidly made feature film. Granted, the film probably won’t be remembered for its visual background and theatrical setting nuances or even nominated in various award categories (for presentation / visual appearance), but the film certainly looks pleasing to the eye, with the attention of background aspects appropriate to the movie’s story. Thus, all the usual areas that I mention in this section (i.e. production design, set decorations, costumes, and cinematography) are all good and meet the industry standard for legal drama motion pictures. That being said, the film’s score, which was done by Joel P. West, is quite good and deliver some emotionally drama pieces in a subtle way that harmonizes with many of the feature’s scenes.
There are a few problems that I noticed with Just Mercy that, while not completely derailing, just seem to hold the feature back from reaching its full creative cinematic potential. Let’s start with the most prevalent point of criticism (the one that many will criticize about), which is the overall conventional storytelling of the movie. What do I mean? Well, despite the strong case that the film delves into a “based on a true story” aspect and into some pretty wholesome emotional drama, the movie is still structed into a way that it makes it feel vaguely formulaic to the touch. That’s not to say that Just Mercy is a generic tale to be told as the film’s narrative is still quite engaging (with some great acting), but the story being told follows quite a predictable path from start to finish. Granted, I never really read Stevenson’s memoir nor read anything about McMillian’s case, but then I still could easily figure out how the movie was presumably gonna end…. even if the there were narrative problems / setbacks along the way. Basically, if you’ve seeing any legal drama endeavor out there, you’ll get that same formulaic touch with this movie. I kind of wanted see something a little bit different from the film’s structure, but the movie just ends up following the standard narrative beats (and progressions) of the genre. That being said, I still think that this movie is definitely probably one of the better legal dramas out there.
This also applies to the film’s script, which was penned by Cretton and Andrew Lanham, which does give plenty of solid entertainment narrative pieces throughout, but lacks the finesse of breaking the mold of the standard legal drama. There are also a couple parts of the movie’s script handling where you can tell that what was true and what fictional. Of course, this is somewhat a customary point of criticism with cinematic tales taking a certain “poetic license” when adapting a “based on a true story” narrative, so it’s not super heavily critical point with me as I expect this to happen. However, there were a few times I could certainly tell what actually happen and what was a tad bit fabricated for the movie. Plus, they were certain parts of the narrative that could’ve easily fleshed out, including what Morrison’s parents felt (and actually show them) during this whole process. Again, not a big deal-breaker, but it did take me out of the movie a few times. Lastly, the film’s script also focuses its light on a supporting character in the movie and, while this made with well-intention to flesh out the character, the camera spotlight on this character sort of goes off on a slight tangent during the feature’s second act. Basically, this storyline could’ve been removed from Just Mercy and still achieve the same palpability in the emotional department. It’s almost like the movie needed to chew up some runtime and the writers to decided to fill up the time with this side-story. Again, it’s good, but a bit slightly unnecessary.
What does help overlook (and elevate) some of these criticisms is the film’s cast, which are really good and definitely helps bring these various characters to life in a theatrical /dramatic way. Leading the charge in Just Mercy is actor Michael B. Jordan, who plays the film’s central protagonist role of Bryan Stevenson. Known for his roles in Creed, Fruitvale Station, and Black Panther, Jordan has certain prove himself to be quite a capable actor, with the actor rising to stardom over the past few years. This is most apparent in this movie, with Jordan making a strong characteristically portrayal as Bryan; showcasing plenty of underlining determination and compelling humanity in his character as he (as Bryan Stevenson) fights for the injustice of those who’s voices have been silenced or dismissed because of the circumstances. It’s definitely a strong character built and Jordan seems quite capable to task in creating a well-acted on-screen performance of Bryan. Behind Jordan is actor Jamie Foxx, who plays the other main lead in the role, Walter McMillian. Foxx, known for his roles in Baby Driver, Django Unchained, and Ray, has certainly been recognized as a talented actor, with plenty of credible roles under his belt. His participation in Just Mercy is another well-acted performance that deserve much praise as its getting (even receiving an Oscar nod for it), with Foxx portraying Walter with enough remorseful grit and humility that makes the character quite compelling to watch. Plus, seeing him and Jordan together in a scene is quite palpable and a joy to watch.
The last of the three marquee main leads of the movie is the character of Eva Ansley, the director of operations for EJI (i.e. Stevenson’s right-handed employee / business partner), who is played by actress Brie Larson. Up against the characters of Stevenson and McMillian, Ansley is the weaker of the three main lead; presented as supporting player in the movie, which is perfectly fine as the characters gets the job done (sort of speak) throughout the film’s narrative. However, Larson, known for her roles in Room, 6 Jump Street, and Captain Marvel, makes less of an impact in the role. Her acting is fine and everything works in her portrayal of Eva, but nothing really stands in her performance (again, considering Jordan and Foxx’s performances) and really could’ve been played by another actress and achieved the same goal.
The rest of the cast, including actor Tim Blake Nelson (The Incredible Hulk and O Brother, Where Art Thou) as incarcerated inmate Ralph Meyers, actor Rafe Spall (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and The Big Short) as legal attorney Tommy Champan, actress Karan Kendrick (The Hate U Give and Family) as Minnie McMillan, Walter’s wife, actor C.J. LeBlanc (Arsenal and School Spirts) as Walter’s son, John McMillian, actor Rob Morgan (Stranger Things and Mudbound) as death role inmate Herbert Richardson, actor O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Long Shot and Straight Outta Compton) as death role inmate Anthony “Ray” Hinton, actor Michael Harding (Triple 2 and The Young and the Restless) as Sheriff Tate, and actor Hayes Mercure (The Red Road and Mercy Street) as a prison guard named Jeremy, are in the small supporting cast variety. Of course, some have bigger roles than others, but all of these players, which are all acted well, bolster the film’s story within the performances and involvement in Just Mercy’s narrative.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It’s never too late to fight for justice as Bryan Stevenson fights for the injustice of Walter McMillian’s cast against a legal system that is flawed in the movie Just Mercy. Director Destin Daniel Cretton’s latest film takes a stance on a poignant case; demonstrating the injustice of one (and by extension those wrongfully incarcerated) and wrapping it up in a compelling cinematic story. While the movie does struggle within its standard structure framework (a sort of usual problem with “based on a true story” narrations) as well as some formulaic beats, the movie still manages to rise above those challenges (for the most part), especially thanks to Cretton’s direction (shaping and storytelling) and some great performances all around (most notable in Jordan and Foxx). Personally, I liked this movie. Sure, it definitely had its problem, but those didn’t distract me much from thoroughly enjoying this legal drama feature. Thus, my recommendation for the film is a solid “recommended”, especially those who liked the cast and poignant narratives of legality struggles and the injustice of a failed system / racism. In the end, while the movie isn’t the quintessential legal drama motion picture and doesn’t push the envelope in cinematic innovation, Just Mercy still is able to manage to be a compelling drama that’s powerful in its story, meaningful in its journey, and strong within its statement. Just like Bryan Stevenson says in the movie….” If we could look at ourselves closely…. we can change this world for the better”. Amen to that! | https://medium.com/@samuel-r-k/hd-v-e-r-p-e-l-i-c-u-l-a-promising-young-woman-completa-en-espa%C3%B1ol-latino-741b3d49bffc | ['Samuel R K'] | 2020-12-22 07:37:15.320000+00:00 | ['Drama', 'Crime', 'Movies', 'Comedy', 'Thriller'] |
Michael Jackson, um menino perdido em Israel, 1993 | 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://mjbeats.com.br/michael-jackson-um-menino-perdido-em-israel-1993-ba2592eb5c97 | ['Mj Beats'] | 2020-12-15 20:12:11.177000+00:00 | ['Recordações', 'Mj Beats', 'Israel', 'Noticias', 'Michael Jackson'] |
A Price Worth Paying? | A Price Worth Paying?
Contrasts…. [Photo by Richard G Turcotte]
“Should the interim tally on November 3 be changed by the ongoing tabulation of mail-in ballots in battleground states, is there any doubt that Trump and his party will try to overturn the results by claiming the Democrats stole the election through massive voter fraud?” Richard North Patterson, in his September 15, 2020 essay. *
Needless to say, his was not a lone voice in the political wilderness making that too-accurate prediction.
* Patterson’s piece offered a concise summary of some of the GOP’s more overt efforts in recent years to suppress voting rights, notwithstanding a near-total absence of support for the phony voter fraud allegations now embedded in Republican Party ideology.
Nearly 90 judges at both the state and federal levels are also awaiting proof. When claiming voter fraud, this adage is worth remembering: Sayin’ it don’t make it so. (Just sayin’….)
The lack of evidence is still no barrier for too many on the Right. Pointless attempts to advance the argument are readily available. Use ’em or lose ’em, Right? If the motivation is to engage in legitimate discussions regarding the allegations, the lack of meaningful proof is a bit of a drawback. But if the intent is to instead “energize” followers who aren’t troubled by the scarcity of facts, mission accomplished! If only “energizing” loyalists was the end point of their responses to Trump’s post-election statements and behaviors.
Ben Ginsberg is arguably the best-known and most widely-respected G.O.P. election lawyer in America. Two days before the November election, he published an op-ed in the Washington Post [links in the original] and offered this observation about claims of voter fraud:
“Trump has enlisted a compliant Republican Party in this shameful effort. The Trump campaign and Republican entities engaged in more than 40 voting and ballot court cases around the country this year. In exactly none — zero — are they trying to make it easier for citizens to vote. In many, they are seeking to erect barriers…. “This attempted disenfranchisement of voters cannot be justified by the unproven Republican dogma about widespread fraud. Challenging voters at the polls or disputing the legitimacy of mail-in ballots isn’t about fraud. Rather than producing conservative policies that appeal to suburban women, young voters or racial minorities, Republicans are trying to exclude their votes.”
Our great nation still bends under the weight of increasingly-desperate efforts by Donald Trump to satiate his quench-proof narcissism. An equally strong urge to avoid the consequences he’s likely to face from an ever-growing list of questionable (to be kind) practices undoubtedly drives his frantic, baseless attempts to remain in power by whatever means necessary, and regardless of costs.
That both supporters and detractors are now at risk is entirely irrelevant to Trump. Sadly, too few among his legion of supporters inside and outside government seem to be paying much attention to the end point of his efforts. His history makes it clear that he has always done and/or said anything and everything necessary to protect himself, and with no consideration for others. Accepting responsibility for unfortunate outcomes is a foreign concept to him [see: Coronavirus, for example].
Taking credit for the work of others is the flip side. He’s done a fine job on that score, too. A lot of boasting about “the best … anyone has ever seen/done”; “no one else has ever …”; “I’ve done more than …”; “Many people have said I …”; “I know more about _ than anyone ever” etc., etc. litter the airwaves. It must be exhausting having to one-up others in so many ways!
The consequences to those who outlived their usefulness to him in one way or another and are thus discarded with extra servings of insult and humiliation have likewise been on full display during his occupancy in the White House. (Jeff Sessions, anyone? Michael Cohen? Every person in his administration Trump dismissed for any — or no — reason?) This is more of the same pattern of abusive behavior chronicled over decades.
Those who choose to bind themselves to Trump will inevitably pay a price in one way or another once he has mined whatever usefulness he can from that unflinching devotion. Those of us who have chosen to steer clear of that bandwagon are less than thrilled by the fact we’re paying as well.
Submission apparently requires one to skip over the basis, if any, for all the pseudo-justifications/excuses/finger-pointing Trump deploys to defend himself. In the interests of accuracy, the lack of any basis is the more pressing concern. Worse still, Trump supporters by and large abide by the same rule: Just say it like you mean it. Repeat as necessary. (Facts just gum up the works.)
While the tactic is unquestionably “successful” in keeping his ardent fans ardent, it’s at best annoying for those of us who still insist that disagreements and resolutions are each better served if facts, evidence, truth, rational statements grounded in reality, and honorable consideration of relevant factors play their respective roles.
One recent effort from this overabundant supply of blind support came courtesy of a contribution entitled Apocalypse Now? at the right-wing Power Line blog by retired attorney John Hinderaker, a co-founder of that website. If nothing else, his essay encapsulates the willingness of even intelligent, respected professionals to submit to Trump’s rule with little or no effort to consider either his motivations and methods, or the consequences.
Facts matter, as does our collective future. Truth will prove to be more advantageous to all of us than will baseless and/or inaccurate statements such as those offered by Mr. Hinderaker, et al. The main purpose of so many similar efforts often seems intended more to divide and deepen distrust than anything else. Do they ever consider where such senseless efforts lead? Consequences matter, too.
[My own commentary within/regarding his quotes is in bold-face]
“Did Joe Biden and the Democrats steal this year’s presidential election? Polls suggest that a great many Americans, including many Democrats, believe that they did. (‘Believe’ based on what? ‘Just because’ and variations on the ‘I just do’ theme aren’t nearly as persuasive as enablers imagine.) I don’t know whether the election was stolen or not. I will say this: the Democrats went to great lengths to commit, or enable, voter fraud. To cite just a couple of examples, in a number of states, including my own, they used corrupt, collusive litigation to eliminate the minimal safeguards that prevented fraudulent mail-in votes from being submitted, like the requirement that signatures be witnessed. Why would they do this? Obviously, they didn’t want those safeguards to stand in the way of fraud.”
Citing “a couple of examples” that “the Democrats went to great lengths to commit, or enable, voter fraud” with a nebulous “they used corrupt, collusive litigation to eliminate … minimal safeguards” is a waste of internet print! (How about a meaningful explanation, or a “for instance, the Democrats….”?) Why are readers left to fend for themselves to understand the source of these observations and/or the specifics?
As a retired attorney (as am I), surely this author understands that litigation typically involves disputed facts to be resolved by first introducing facts/evidence/mitigating factors. Why not offer even a single link, source, or a useful detail in support of what’s insinuated?
If he doesn’t “know whether the election was stolen or not”, then why make that accusation? It’s been an empty yet successful claim made by Trump et al — if by “successful” we mean deepening the distrust, hostility, and threats of violence by the more committed Trump-supporting extremists. Statements are rarely stand-alone, self-evident conclusions. What’s the point?
Biden won. Period.
On the heels of two Supreme Court rulings summarily dismissing Trump’s legal efforts to overturn the election, it’s becoming increasingly clear that 50+ failed attempts to get a single court anywhere to buy into the election fraud nonsense is not about any actual voter fraud.
It’s much easier to make that if introducing evidence of fraud is optional. That’s even easier to do given that there is no remotely-meaningful evidence. Trump’s legal team has had fifty-plus opportunities to present some, and they are zero for fifty-plus. (Besides, facts can be so detrimental when making fact-free arguments.) It’s clearly been a successful tactic in convincing those untroubled by the need for verification that Biden’s win is somehow illegitimate. None of these efforts are consequence-free….
That’s the primary Trump objective: stirring the right-wing pot. How and/or why evil Dems pulled this off apparently aren’t essential to the narrative. Having shameless sycophants do the dirty work in courtrooms is so helpful to the cause….
If only that strategy worked as well in real life!
We’re crossing into dangerous waters now. Who among those playing along with Trump wants to assume responsibility for what happens if the political temperature isn’t turned down soon?
The choice of cautionary wording when making broad accusations provides convenient personal absolution and nothing more. Many who accept the observations similar to those Mr. Hinderaker shared aren’t likely to be so conscientious about corroboration, or — of greater concern — accepting responsibility for what ensues.
If they insist on alleging (still unspecified) fraud, let alone offer proven examples, it might help their cause if they could give us at least a clue for courts to ponder as to what might then develop into an election-changing difference. Asserting “voter fraud!” may comfort the masses, but there is not enough “there” there. Fifty-plus courtroom failures are fifty-plus courtroom failures, regardless of the actual underlying reasons for repeating the same charge.
“Voter fraud has been a problem for a long time, and I think it was worse this year than ever. Did fraud swing the election? Key questions remain unanswered, as far as I know. In several pivotal states, ballot counting was shut down (or allegedly shut down, in the case of Georgia) in the middle of the night. Then, when counting resumed, enormous numbers of ballots that were overwhelmingly in favor of Joe Biden–by margins that can’t possibly be right, not 60/40 but, say, 98/2–suddenly turned up and were counted. Have the Democrats offered any explanation for what happened, or any confirmation that these near-unanimous tranches of Biden votes actually existed? Not that I know of.”
More vague, unsubstantiated proclamations, coupled with qualifiers which further diminish the value of his assessments, all serve as depressing reminders that going ever-lower as needed is the primary rule for those intent on keeping the right-wing fires burning hot. A hint or random thought should be enough, Right?
There was of course no reference to the source of Hinderaker’s assertion regarding the substantial vote swing he questions. The inability to thus address that specific comment, and evidence-free variations of that oft-repeated complaint by Trump et al, proved decisive in court.
Thirty seconds of research turned up the explanation for what seemed so puzzling to Mr. Hinderaker — and countless others unwilling to confront the obvious:
“President Trump’s lead in Georgia has narrowed over the past few hours, and that just happened again. That’s due to another batch of votes that just came in from Fulton County — the largest county in the state and home to Atlanta — according to CNN’s Phil Mattingly. “Fulton County reported the results of more than 8,000 additional ballots. Trump’s lead in the state narrowed from more than 30,000 at midnight to just more than 18,500. “Overnight, Fulton had about 20,000 absentee ballots to be counted. The county just reported the results of 8,351 of those, with Biden getting 6,410 of those votes and Trump getting 1,941 of them…. “‘[M]ost of the outstanding ballots are from more populous blue areas around Atlanta, Savannah and Columbus,’ Mattingly explained. “‘If [Biden] continues to win this vote that’s outstanding at a rate of around 60 to 62%, he has a chance to overtake Donald Trump,’ Mattingly said. “‘To give you some context here, the vote that was coming in out of Fulton County over last couple of hours has been coming in at a rate of 80% to 20% Biden. That is above that 60 to 62% range. Will that hold? That will dictate whether or not Joe Biden ends up overtaking Donald Trump in the state of Georgia, but there’s a pathway right now for Joe Biden in Georgia.’”
In an article appropriately titled “Trump’s Wild, Baseless Claims of Illegal Voting,” FactCheck.org reiterated that same point [links are in that original piece]:
“Trump did not ‘win’ the state by a lot (or at all), though he is correct that he was leading in the vote tallies on election night. But as we have written repeatedly, vote counting always goes past Election Day. There’s nothing unusual about that. Like most states, Georgia could not start counting mail-in ballots until the day of the election, and it had roughly 1.3 million mail-in ballots returned and accepted. As has been in the case in other states, most of the mail-in ballots being counted in the days after the election broke in Biden’s favor.”
Worth noting: well-established long before the election was the expectation that the vast majority of mail-in ballots would be from Democrats. This proved to be true, and decisive. As was true for their GOP counterparts, Democrats were expected to vote in record numbers. The pandemic (the non-hoax one that’s now claimed 300,000+ lives and counting), was expected to cause many, many more Democrats than Republicans to take advantage of mail options rather than voting in person.
A Politico article, although focused on voting litigation in Texas, echoed those explanations [link in original article]:
“Texas’ lawsuit makes a statistical argument against Biden’s victory, noting that he trailed in the early count of votes, but omitting the fact that many key states were legally prohibited from beginning to count mail-in ballots — which tilted heavily in favor of Democrats, thanks in part to a months-long effort by Trump to discredit them — until Election Day. It’s a fact that was well known ahead of the election, in which election administrators of both parties pleaded with the public and the media to have patience and not draw conclusions from early returns.”
And, for good measure, this regarding Pennsylvania — another state whose election outcome generated an avalanche of apoplectic right-wing commentary [links in the original article]:
“Joe Biden has won absentee ballots counted in Pennsylvania by an overwhelming margin so far, according to data from the Secretary of State early Wednesday. If he carried the remaining absentee ballots by a similar margin, he would win the state. “President Trump leads by nearly 700,000 votes in Pennsylvania as of 5 a.m. on Wednesday, and Mr. Biden’s chances depend on whether he can win a large percentage of the more than 1.4 million absentee ballots that remain to be counted. “So far, Mr. Biden has won absentee voters in Pennsylvania, 78 percent to 21 percent, according to the Secretary of State’s office. The results comport with the findings of pre-election surveys and an analysis of absentee ballot requests, which all indicated that Mr. Biden held an overwhelming lead among absentee voters. “If Mr. Biden won the more than 1.4 million absentee votes by such a large margin, he would net around 800,000 votes — enough to overcome his deficit statewide. “Of course, there’s no guarantee that Mr. Biden will win the remaining absentee vote by quite so much. But so far, his standing in the tabulated absentee vote has almost exactly matched our pre-election projections for the absentee vote by county, based on New York Times/Siena polling and data from L2, a political data vendor.”
Mr. Hinderaker turned to a back-up approach:
“The bare facts are suspicious, to say the least. More than 74 million Americans voted for President Trump, 12 million more votes than he received in 2016, and more, by far, than any presidential candidate of either party has ever gotten. And we are supposed to believe that Joe Biden, a mentally impaired senior citizen who didn’t campaign, who rarely left his basement, about whose candidacy virtually no one was enthusiastic outside his immediate family, smashed all records by getting 81 million Americans to vote for him, 12 million more than voted for Barack Obama in 2008? Actual live Americans, voting legally, and only once? While millions of those same voters didn’t vote down-ballot, so that, apart from the presidential race, it was a good year for Republicans? I don’t believe it.”
“A mentally impaired senior citizen”? This juvenile insult from a presumably well-respected, well-credentialed Ivy League-educated professional? What a sad commentary on the low-bar criteria now sufficient to prove one’s bona fides as a dedicated Trump loyalist. Apparently, there are no concerns as to the price demanded for such subservience. [Just saying: one should be careful insulting the mental/psychological/intellectual capabilities of others when measuring them against those of Donald Trump….]
Hinderaker may not “believe it.” That’s a choice. That decision, however, does not change the math. Why is it so challenging — given the political climate and the fierce emotions aroused by Trump’s presence — to believe that 12 million more voters cast their ballot for Joe Biden than for Obama? What point does that comparison serve to begin with? Wanting to believe that “the bare facts are suspicious, to say the least” will get heads nodding in agreement. So there’s that. But the lack of evidence-driven counterfactuals isn’t helpful to the Trump cause.
Trump did in fact tally “12 million more votes than he received in 2016.” Many of us in the left struggle to accept that after four years of Donald Trump, there are even a dozen who wanted even four more days of the Trump Administration circus!
Facts — and at times, just everyday common sense — remove a lot of the guesswork from matters which supporters instead chose not to understand. Donald Trump has worked overtime to blame voter fraud as the reason for his loss.
The culprit turned out to be basic arithmetic acting as proxy for the verdict on his four-year term.
Unfortunately, even this simplest of explanations failed to convince many who backed Trump. We’re all paying a price. Let’s hope it’s not too high. | https://medium.com/political-sense/a-price-worth-paying-dee68f1b529e | ['Richard Turcotte'] | 2020-12-16 22:16:02.573000+00:00 | ['Truth', 'Right Wing', 'Misinformation', 'Facts', 'Election 2020'] |
How to Standardize Your Brand Voice When Content Writing | Creating a great customer experience in 2020 depends on companies’ ability to establish a relationship with their customers. One effective way to present a consistent and compelling face to the customer is through the establishment of a voice for your brand. Sticking to a definitive voice, carefully tuned to represent your company in a resonating way, allows the business-to-customer relationship to become more personal and distinct.
Marketing teams, in-house content creators, as well as freelance writers, can further that relationship by creating a brand voice for content writing. Sticking to a definitive voice that speaks to a business audience will foster a trustworthy business-to-customer relationship that drives sales.
Brand voice is the distinct personality an organization takes on in its communications, according to Sprout Social. It’s created and used by marketing teams, internal copywriters, and freelance writers. Implementing a strategy for brand voice will create a consistent company “personality” across print and digital communications. A key consideration for settling on a brand voice should be how it reflects the audience to which the company is speaking too.
Good content writers never lose sight of who they’re writing for; always considering the important questions of: Who am I speaking to, and why are they reading? Examples of businesses’ using a distinct brand voice can be found everywhere in marketing and advertising. Ford Motor Company does this often in television advertisements — this can also be applied in written content. Ford’s advertisement shows a shiny, new pickup blasting through deserted, icy roadways with a rough-n-tumble, man’s man telling the viewer to buy “Ford Tough.” The spokesman’s voice sounds reliable, familiar, and knowledgeable. This brand voice speaks to the company’s alleged core values and mission statement.
Brand voice plays a part in every objective in a company’s marketing plan. Website copy, social media, company blogs, press releases, brochures, and signage are all outlets where a brand’s voice can be employed and reach a reader… Businesses can choose how detailed they’d like to go when developing an implementation plan in each type of application. For example, posts on LinkedIn might call for a more serious brand personality, while a brand’s comments on social media could be a bit more humorous.
When developing a plan for your brand voice, it is often useful to create a persona that reflects the audience to which the brand is speaking. For example, it is often a bad idea to use a lot of industry jargon in content writing. However, if a company is selling new, exclusive software specifically to web developers, the technical language may be the first thing that the audience is looking for. In this instance, the brand voice could come off more serious and technical. A marketing team or content writer should choose adjectives that describe the character when building out a brand voice.
Knowing where to start when creating your brand voice can be overwhelming. Do not let paralysis at the vast possibilities delay defining this core branding component. For decades, companies across the world have invented and reinvented their brands by writing with a specific tone in mind. Writers who don’t know where to start should study businesses that have a specific brand personality. Finding and emulating a company that has this process nailed down is a great place to begin developing a brand voice. In the end, it’s always about the audience. A brand’s voice may change over the years with that audience. However, the question will remain the same: Who is my audience, and why should they care about what I’m writing? | https://medium.com/@definedlogicllc/how-to-standardize-your-brand-voice-when-content-writing-44cf6bcd06e7 | [] | 2020-11-23 21:18:58.060000+00:00 | ['Content Strategy', 'Content Creation', 'Content Writing', 'Brand Strategy', 'Brand Voice'] |
Why Illuminating Yellow is Pantone Color of the Year 2021. | Why Illuminating Yellow is Pantone Color of the Year 2021
The #color #yellow is about happiness, warmth, and positivity.
“Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellow”…
Coldplay.
Photo by NASA on Unsplash
Yellow is the color between orange and green on the spectrum of visible light.
It is a primary color, used in painting or color printing.
I usually go for a walk on sunset time to see the bright yellow sun, and take some pictures.
Bright yellow is an attention getter, and its contrast with black is the most visible color combination.
Drawing on paper. 2011 ©Regia Marinho
Yellow makes you feel happy and spontaneous.
Yellow is perhaps the most energetic of the warm colors.
It is associated with hope and sunshine.
Pop of yellow color help give your design energy and will make people feel optimistic and cheerful.
Yellow is personal power and fulfillment, abundance, courage and self-confidence.
It aids logic, memory, concentration, will power and communication.
It is full of creative and intellectual energy.
Yellow represents happiness, clarity and sunlight.
Yellow is non-emotional, coming from the head rather than the heart.
Yellow Can Be Aggressive
Painting. 2011. ©Regia Marinho.
Also the color yellow shows anxiety
because it is fast moving and can cause us sometimes to feel agitated.
Yellow has a tendency to make you more mentally analytical and critical.
Mix of paintings by RegiaArt.
Is yellow a lucky color? Maybe. I love yellow.
Yellow Is Complex
It can inspire love, but used to show liking and friendship. It also about expressions of happiness. Why not send a gift in yellow like this digital image.
But it can Be Minimalist
Yellow are incorporated in many things… from sports team colors to dresses.
Photo by Yangfan Gan on Unsplash
A yellow dress suggests that you are a creative, an active, and exciting human.
Yellow Is Cheerful
For many people, yellow is seen as a bright and cheerful color.
Advertisers use it to draw attention but also to evoke a sense of happiness.
“The color yellow exudes brightness, light, vitality, energy, optimism, willingness to grow and outshine. Sun stars sunflower are the objects that most are associated with the color yellow.”
YELLOW is the friendly color that can bring luck to you in 2021.
Are you willing to incorporate yellow color in your work?
Thank you for your attention. Stay safe.
December 15, 2020
Want more to read? | https://medium.com/@regia-marinho/why-illuminating-yellow-is-pantone-color-of-the-year-2021-b19eb27c54ec | ['Regia Marinho'] | 2020-12-16 04:10:11.695000+00:00 | ['Art', 'Pantone', 'Creativity', 'Design', 'Colors'] |
E-Commerce Testing丨How to Test an eCommerce Website? | 51Testing | Software Testing Service Provider |Friday, 18th Dec. 2020
Influenced by the pandemic, online businesses get boomed because more people keep a social distance. E-Commerce has become the first option for many start-ups. How to present a user-friendly online shopping website with all necessary functions working normally? Ecommerce testers will tell you the answer.
E-Commerce testing-how to test an e-commerce website?-51testing
Generally, we test an eCommerce website in two different modes:
According to the test types
According to the system architecture of the Ecommerce website
According to the test types, here is the test that we should do for an eCommerce website.
1. Compatibility testing
Generally, we test the browser compatibility to see if our website can display normally in different browsers such as Firebox, Chrome, and Edge, etc. Meanwhile, the operating system compatibility is a key point. We will check if our website can work normally in different operating systems like Windows 10, Windows XP, macOS, etc.
2.UI testing
You should consider the questions below for the user interface of an Ecommerce website.
If the link is correct?
Is there any textual error?
Whether the product price is displayed correctly?
3. User experience(UE) testing
Firstly, check if the classification of the products on the homepage can fit the normal classification rules, and the display of the products is neat and clear enough.
Secondly, check the search result page. If the search result is correct and the display of the information is clear.
Finally, check the products details page. The product detail page will play a key role in the customer’s buying behavior. Product pictures, advertising commentary, product descriptions are all important elements.
4. Shopping process and shopping rules test
The most important process of a B2C website is the shopping process, which includes several important functions: shopping cart, delivery method, payment method, and order submission. The importance of the user experience of this process is to allow customers to easily complete the order process.
5. Shopping cart testing
When a certain product has a shopping limit, can it be placed in the shopping cart if it exceeds this value? Are the shopping limits in the shopping cart correct? Can the points be redeemed for genuine products or restricted products? Whether the points can be redeemed for promotional products?
6. Payment process
Can the selected products in the shopping cart be paid for normally? When the payment is completed, without waiting for the page to jump, whether the data transmission is correct if we close the browser directly? When the payment is completed, wait for the page to jump, whether the page we jump to is correct? Whether the data transmission between a certain module of the website is correct?
7. Order process test
After the order is submitted, verify the processing flow of the order and check whether the corresponding order status is correct.
Performance and response speed test.
Concurrency testing such as the seckill function.
Purchase the same restricted product at the same time.
Concurrent operation of twice points redemption with the same account.
When submitting an order, whether there are multiple orders during concurrent operations.
According to the system architecture of the e-commerce website, we should focus on the testing below.
For a typical system structure, the three-tier C/S architecture is currently adopted, namely 1.Presentation layer, 2. Business layer, and 3. Data layer (the page interacts with the database).
1. Presentation layer
Check if the front end of the application is correct.
content test
Check the correctness, accuracy of the information provided by the web application system.
site structure
Check if there are errors in the site structure and find out the invalid links.
a. Whether there is an empty link
b. Whether link to the specified page
c. Whether there is a connection error.
user environment
Check if the website is compatible with the users’ browsers and operating systems.
2. The business layer
In this layer, the test work is mainly to find out problems in the business logic.
The load test is to measure the performance of the Web system at a certain level to ensure that the Web system can work normally within the required range.
data verification
Collect data of test user in a way of form and submit the data after ensuring the consistency, correctness, and completeness of the data. Then go to the database to verify.
business test
Test the correctness of the business process of the system. Such as adding products to the shopping cart, settlement, order submission, order processing flow, etc.
3. Data layer
The test of the data layer mainly refers to the test of the database management system used to collecting and storing information.
response time,
Quantitative concurrent operations, whether the application system has an impact on the response data, which directly affect user experience.
data integrity
The test work mainly verifies the submission and storage of data. Compare the data to be submitted with the data in the database to confirm whether it is correct.
Ecommerce testing-homepage testing- shopping cart testing- payment gateway testing-51testing
What testing should we focus on the homepage, shopping cart, and payment gateway of an eCommerce website?
Homepage test
The homepage test is divided into two important modules, UI test, and search function test.
The UI test mainly tests items below:
Whether the layout of the page is neat and beautiful?
Whether the information, text, and pictures of each product are displayed correctly?
Whether the pictures are deformed?
Whether it jumps to the correct page by clicking the link?
Whether there are empty links?
Whether the input box, drop-down box, multi-select box, button function, js animation effect are normal?
Whether the carousel diagram is normal when the mouse is hovering？
Whether the page loading speed is normal？
Whether it is compatible with different browsers, and whether it supports mobile terminal？
The search function test is divided into product search and shop search:
Whether the search function has a character type and length limit?
Whether there are prompt messages?
Whether we can match the correct information when entering the complete product information?
Whether there is a search history prompt when clicking the empty search box?
Whether there is any prompt information in the search box, whether the prompt information can be selected, whether the matching information can be displayed when clicking the prompt information?
Whether the required products can be displayed when entering the keyword?
Whether the products can be displayed when the search box is empty?
Whether there is a prompt when can not find the products? Is there a link to return to the homepage?
Shop search is similar to the product search.
Shopping cart testing
Interface test
For the website/APP interface, we need to check whether the layout of the page is reasonable and the display of the page is in full.
Functional test
All page links work normally and can turn into the correct page.
Products added from the product listing page can be displayed in the shopping cart.
When products are added to the shopping cart from other pages while the shopping cart page is opened. The newly added products can be displayed after the shopping cart page is refreshed.
If click on the shopping cart when not logged in, the user will be prompted to enter the user name and password, or another shopping way will be prompted for non-registered users.
When the product is not selected, the settlement button is gray and cannot be clicked.
After selecting the product, the total price of the selected product will be displayed, and the settlement button will be highlighted and can be clicked.
Select the product and click the settlement button, and then the user can enter the order confirmation page.
On the shopping cart page, you can modify the added product information and save it automatically.
Check whether there is a corresponding reminder in the shopping cart if there is a price reduction or an urgent inventory and whether the out-of-stock product can be added to the shopping cart.
Check if there is a limit on the number of goods that can be added to the shopping cart.
Unwanted goods can be deleted.
Performance Testing
How long does it take to open the shopping cart page;
Usability test
Whether the shortcut function is supported
Compatibility test
Whether the functions on different browsers are normal?
Whether the functions are normal on different APPs?
Delivery information
Whether the functions of adding, modifying, deleting, and receiving information functions are normal?
How many receiving information can be added at most?
Whether the input box has restrictions on the character type and length?
Whether the receiving information can be saved when the required field is empty?
Can it be displayed correctly in the list after saving successfully? Whether the saved information can be viewed in the background?
Can an order be submitted without receiving information?
Can the user choose more than one receiving information?
Commodity information
Whether the picture, data, price, and other information about the product are correct?
Invoice Information
Whether the character type and length are restricted when adding invoice information, whether the display is normal, and whether the correct invoice information can be queried in the background?
Coupons and points
Whether the coupons and points are displayed correctly and whether they match the background?
Whether coupons and points can be used normally and can they be used in stacks?
Whether the payment amount of coupons and points is reduced accordingly? Whether the coupons and points in the background are also reduced accordingly?
Order submission
After the order is submitted and the payment is successful, whether the order information can be queried in the background?
Abnormal scenarios
If the payment amount is not enough, can the customer buy it? Is there any hint?
Does the network interruption and power outage during the payment process affect the payment?
Can the payment be made normally in the weak network?
Payment gateway testing
Payment functions are often involved in many software applications. The focus of the payment function test is whether there is a loss of assets and consistency of transactions.
When doing payment gateway testing, we should pay attention to the below situation on the payment amount.
The minimum amount of payment: such as $0.01
Amount without actual payment: such as an order of $0
Wrong payment amount: wrong format, wrong number (the payment amount is negative)
Maximum amount limit: For some payment gateway, there is a payment maximum limit.
The balance is less than the actual amount to be paid.
The payment amount exceeds the daily consumption amount limit or a single consumption amount limit.
There is much third-party payment gateway. For example Alipay, Paypal, online banking, mobile banking, etc. So pay attention to the difference among these payment gateways.
On the operation of payment, these payment methods should attract your attention.
Biometric payment (Fingerprint payment)
Password-free payment
Account + password payment
Get payment verification code dynamically
Bank card number + password binding payment
If there are abnormal scenarios, fault tolerance becomes an important matter to consider.
How to deal with refunds?
What if the network is disconnected during payment?
How to replace the order or refund the order after the payment fails?
If the payment amount is insufficient, can the customer continue to pay after recharging?
Whether there will be multiple deductions if keep clicking?
If multiple deductions occur, how to refund the payment account?
____
You might also be interested in these topics.
IoT Testing | A complete guide | What We Test? | Skills&Tools
How to Become A Game Tester? |Tutorial &Beginner’s Guide of Game Testing
Exp. Share | Performance Testing tutorial, step by step, a complete guide | https://medium.com/@51testing/e-commerce-testing%E4%B8%A8how-to-test-an-ecommerce-website-b181ac9bb0b | [] | 2020-12-18 09:09:26.844000+00:00 | ['Ecommerce Solution', 'Software Testing', 'Software Testing Company', 'Ecommerce Testing', 'Ecommerce'] |
#ElectAAPIs2020: An Interview with Latha Mangipudi | Latha Mangipudi (D-Hillsborough 35) meets with Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ). Credit: Adam Sexton.
Latha Mangipudi serves as Assistant Majority Leader in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. She is the highest ranking Asian American in the New Hampshire General Court (state legislature). We sat down with her to learn more about her experience serving in the New Hampshire House and why Democrats lost their legislative majorities in New Hampshire this year.
JM: What did you do before you ran for office, and what led you to run? Were you recruited to run by any organization?
LM: I ran in a special election for state rep in 2013. Before that I had served on the school board, and before that I was a PTO President. So I knew how important it was to be at the decision making table. And one of the then-sitting [state] senators approached me and said, “We have a special election coming and we would like you to run in 2013 for state rep.” Before that I was chairing the US-India Political Action Committee for New Hampshire. So I was active in the political circles.
JM: Historically, AAPI voters have had little influence in the Democratic Party despite being one of its strongest supporters. How can we change this?
LM: In New Hampshire, I was an independent when I ran for school board. When I ran for state rep, I had to register as a Democrat because my values align more with the Democratic values. But there were times that I could switch from Democratic to Republican if there was a local election. But now as it is getting more and more partisan, I’m finding that there is no more middle ground at all if we are constantly campaigning.
That’s why I have worked really hard to bring the AAPI community into participation. I would tell them to not sit outside and watch and to get engaged in the local political process. It is critical, and that is why they [local party leaders] notice involvement and candidates, whether presidential or gubernatorial, often come asking to work on campaigns based on your local involvement.
JM: How should we bring more awareness to and combat voter suppression efforts targeted at the AAPI community? Have there been any such attempts in New Hampshire?
LM: It [suppression] has gotten way, way worse. We really have to stand up and be heard. The biggest currency in a democracy is the vote, so we need to show that we have influence. Despite [AAPIs] having a small voting bloc of just 6–7%, that can be the winning percentage in any contest, so educating our community that every vote matters and that everyone needs to vote is crucial. Even in the local elections. We also need to demand that we should be able to rightfully vote without suppressive tactics. Despite COVID, all the phone banking and canvassing was what led our community to turn out to vote, so we need to continue that.
JM: Has your AAPI background influenced the legislation you support and the issues you care about?
LM: You know, I did not get involved very much early on in my career with the AAPI community. But because a lot of events would happen down in DC with the US-India Political Action Committee, I would meet with some of the AAPI community. But now I think our voices can be heard if we come together as a bloc. That needs to be capitalized on. I feel very strongly that it’s time we show our muscle: the democratic currency of the voting bloc.
JM: Tell us about your leadership role in the New Hampshire House. How did you get this position?
LM: So, I got re-elected this year for the fifth time, and I was the Assistant Floor Majority Leader, and because I am a first-generation immigrant and I am very comfortable in my skin, figuratively and literally, I have taken extra responsibility. I have brought in a delegation from India to meet lawmakers, passing sister city legislation with Indian cities, and also have been able to articulate what immigrant and AAPI communities face because of our family structure, which can be an advantage at times and a challenge at times because we [AAPIs] are responsible for our aging parents and children. This requires a balancing act.
JM: What is unique about your state legislature and politics in your state compared to other states? Why should people pay attention to New Hampshire’s politics when it’s not presidential primary season?
LM: Because it is a volunteer legislature of 400 members representing just 1.3 million people. It’s the fourth largest legislature. 400 Representatives, 24 Senators. So because of the first in the nation status, every two years the whole nation pays attention. Each legislator represents a very small constituency, which means we are very accessible. I get calls in the middle of the night even though I am one of 400. But, my constituents know if they call me, I can probably solve their issue or direct them to someone who can. Being small and agile in our constituency size allows New Hampshire state legislators to make a difference.
JM: Why did New Hampshire Democrats lose their majorities despite a comfortable win by Joe Biden in the state?
LM: The Governor had the bully pulpit because of COVID. He had two hours of press conferences every single day. He’s young, and he would give handouts and make it [conservatism] seem approachable. It’s not approachable, and we lost because our message didn’t get out. This was my fifth election this year, and my biggest campaign tactic was door-to-door canvassing and going to events in our home. That’s how I would talk to constituents. Because we couldn’t do that, the outside money poured in, and how can you beat millions of dollars in TV ads? It’s a volunteer legislature, and we only get a $100 stipend per year. So we have to make sure that dark money in politics is highlighted.
JM: How have New Hampshire Democrats, who have majorities in both houses, resolved their conflicts with the Governor? Has your party succeeded in getting some of its priorities passed despite opposition from the Governor?
LM: Well, we lost everything this time. I have served in both majority and minority control. I’m concerned about the level of partisanship that we have and the current Governor that we have who just got re-elected for a third term. He is the veto king. You know, we made such good legislation and he vetoed 79 bills. Seventy-nine in one year. Sixty-nine of them had bipartisan support. So, he’s a supporter of Trump, and his style is the same. We do have a challenge, and I’m looking forward to the ship turning direction with the leadership of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and we have a great opportunity with Kamala Harris being the first woman Vice President if we can support and work together.
JM: How do you think AAPIs can take on leadership roles in politics?
LM: The most important thing to take on a leadership role is to attend meetings. Go to be heard and go to be noted. This is what I would tell my community, my constituency, and my friends and family: “There is a public hearing. Show up.” | https://medium.com/the-young-politicasian/electaapis2020-an-interview-with-latha-mangipudi-4e471c0e3e89 | ['James Mannon'] | 2021-01-03 01:02:50.743000+00:00 | ['Democratic Party', 'Democrats', 'State Legislature', 'Aapi', 'New Hampshire'] |
Four Design Thinking principles anyone can learn | Are you interested in having your teams adopt Design Thinking but just don’t know how to start?
Have your teams attended training or workshops but you are still not seeing a change in behaviour?
I am responsible for design transformation within the security business at Cisco and I have focused on Design Thinking as an important tool to develop a strong culture of creativity and innovation.
In rolling out this set of skills to a massive organization I have experienced the above mentioned problems many times and as a result have started to focus on four simple principals that make the framework really easy to understand, which in turn leads to faster change in behaviours.
Empathy
Design Thinking is essentially a human centred design process, and as such empathy is probably the single most important principle to adopt.
To illustrate the importance of empathy, all it takes are a couple great case studies to help people understand why it is so important. The key here is to help them understand what they can do in their current role to develop more empathy as part of the work they are doing. Sometimes this is as simple as helping people realize that no matter what they do at work, chances are they are aiming to deliver value to someone. Figure out who that someone is, and then take some time to understand what their needs and motivations are.
Start with Empathy and you will produce something more desirable – I guarantee!
Going Wide
Another key behaviour we are looking to introduce is the notion of going wide before going narrow. Some people might know this as divergent and convergent thinking and essentially all it means is that regardless whether we are picking a problem to solve… or whether we are picking a solution to a problem… there is a ton of value if only we take time to explore multiple options while also trying to reframe things with different perspectives.
In terms of helping people adopt this principle – letting them experience some structured exercises is usually all it takes to help them see the value quickly. More importantly, I try to help them recognize that this does not need to be a massive undertaking in the form of a full or multi-day workshop. We can infuse this way of working into almost any meeting and can be done in as little as 10 minutes.
Real World Experiments
Now this is a component of Design Thinking that is most often overlooked, and as a result is a reason why teams struggle to sometimes see the impact of their efforts.
Experimentation is the Ying to empathy’s Yang. Experimentation and empathy are meant to work in connection with each other and together they form the iterative dance that Design Thinking is all about:
Understand your user, develop a point of view on how to improve something for them, and create something to test that point of view quickly. The experiment allows you to learn something more about your user, and may change your point of view which leads to another experiment… you get the idea.
I try and simplify this principle by getting people to think about risks, questions and assumptions:
What risks exist – how might the solution fail?
Can we identify key assumptions that are being made?
Do we have big glaring questions that need to be answered?
Now figure out how to create prototypes or experiments that will allow you to address the above items.
Diversity
Diversity is critical, because by bringing together people of various backgrounds, viewpoints, gender, ethnicity, and roles, you have a much better chance of fully adopting all the other principles.
Diversity leads to a broader perspective that:
allows for more empathy
generates more ideas
and identifies more aspects that need to be tested with experiments.
A good way to look at it, is to ask yourself, does the diversity of my team reflect the diversity of my users.
These principles encourage behaviours
Often when people teach Design Thinking they focus on the process which can be vague or abstract to many people who are new to it.
I have found that by focusing more on these four simple principles it allows people to develop a much quicker understanding of why we are doing these things, which leads to the changes in behaviour that we are looking for. We often end our training by letting the students reflect on how they might adopt these principles by changing even very small behaviours and then follow up 30 days later to see how they are doing.
Lets chat! Are you trying to develop these skills on your team or within your organization? Drop me a line and let’s compare notes. | https://medium.com/cisco-design-community/4-design-thinking-principles-anyone-can-learn-9e1f8c9306de | ['Jason Cyr'] | 2019-07-25 19:25:11.854000+00:00 | ['Product Design', 'Design Thinking', 'UX', 'Design'] |
Leading-Trim: The Future of Digital Typesetting | Small change, big implications
Beyond craftsmanship and making handoff more efficient, we hope leading-trim will turn a new page for digital typesetting, eventually motivating improvements to other standards and platforms, starting with OpenType.
Leading-trim works by browsers accessing the font metrics to find, for example, the cap height and baseline. As the standard font format, OpenType specifies what metrics to include in the font file. OpenType has been jointly developed by Microsoft and Adobe as an extension of Apple’s TrueType font format since 1997. While today OpenType has robust support for Latin scripts and CJK languages, it still lacks key metrics for other less commonly used writing systems such as Hebrew or Thai. As people adopt leading-trim, we hope this leads the way for us to add more font metrics of other writing systems to OpenType.
Ultimately, we hope leading-trim helps improve OpenType and its internationalization by ensuring equal typographical capabilities across the world. That’s just the start of the ecosystem. Once leading-trim becomes available in all the modern browsers, desktop applications that are built using web technologies, such as Figma, Teams, and VS Code, will also be able to utilize it.
The impact can also go beyond the web. Sketch has already added snap targets for cap height and baseline. Instead of holding down the Option key to show bounding box to bounding box spacing, you can hold down Control + Option to see baseline to cap height spacing. It makes measuring optical spacing a lot easier. More importantly, this shows the slow shift in the way people approach digital typesetting. We are hoping leading-trim can further encourage this change. And through this mindset change, beyond just snap targets, leading-trim might just become a new text rendering standard in our design tools and extend to our operating systems. | https://medium.com/microsoft-design/leading-trim-the-future-of-digital-typesetting-d082d84b202 | ['Ethan Wang'] | 2020-08-18 15:54:58.051000+00:00 | ['CSS', 'UI Design', 'Typography', 'Design', 'Microsoft'] |
Pain Has A New Definition | Photo: ragsac/Getty Images
The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) has a new definition of pain.
“An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage.”
The IASP also added 6 key Notes and the etymology of the word pain for further valuable context.
For many researchers and clinicians, the new definition is underwhelming, especially considering the previous definition was developed in 1979. But it does add the term “resembling” which is an important reminder that damage does not need to be present for the perception of pain to occur.
*For larger research deep dives, check out zacharywalston.com and the Clinical Gap Podcast. | https://medium.com/beingwell/pain-has-a-new-definition-e6790e194ba3 | ['Zachary Walston'] | 2020-12-16 12:22:06.981000+00:00 | ['Pain', 'Research', 'Health', 'Healthcare', 'Thoughts'] |
Evolution | In this episode, Patchman explores the expansion of human consciousness and the evolution of humanity. Over the course of history, mankind has evolved through many ideologies, religions and belief systems, and have now evolved to a point scientifically and technologically which has allowed us to begin seeing each other in a new way. If that wasn’t enough though, with the shifting of the procession of the equinox, our global awakening and shifting are inevitable, and well underway.
A great event that led to us being here was actually the rediscovery of the works of Thrice Great Hermes in 14th Century Florence, Italy. This literature sparked a tremendous revolution which today we call the Renaissance (which translates to Rebirth, a concept intimately tethered to Hermeticism). After this period, we began to shift from religion to science to seek out answers. However, in the process of shifting to a more practical and physical understanding, we ended up grouping ideas such as consciousness, human connection and paranormal phenomenon into a box of superstition.
Since the time of creating this episode, there have been many studies that have emerged to demonstrate that consciousness is something that exists outside of the brain, and the effects it has on our world is huge. You might consider looking up the “Institute of Noetic Sciences”, who have pioneered many advanced studies which demonstrate this!
In this episode, Patchman also describes a system we call the circle and square of human consciousness, something the Chinese have called “circling the square and squaring the circle”. One easy way to understand this is by viewing the square as the male geometry and the circle is the female, and when they are perfectly in union, you find divine harmony!
All levels of consciousness across all forms of life can be understood through this image of the interlacing circle and square forms. It’s also what Leonardo Di Vinci was showing in his famous image of a man within those two shapes.
When we observe evolution in history, we can see that there are key periods in time when we make tremendous jumps in consciousness, and there always seems to be missing links in the evolutionary chain. This episode explores why this is, and discusses some of the reasons for it. Many religions, especially in the Abrahamic faiths describe this being all from God and apart of the master plan, and science says “We don’t know, and we would like to find out.” These two ways of thinking can be regarded as either side of the same coin, not two separate opposing systems.
When we can combine the understanding from both sides, we can truly begin to understand the nature of consciousness and where humanity is headed collectively.
Sources:
The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life, Vol. 1
http://amzn.to/2g6ycZL
The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life, Vol. 2
http://amzn.to/2xb2sgA | https://medium.com/@spiritscience/evolution-d9ad59302341 | ['Spirit Science'] | 2020-12-22 02:50:11.276000+00:00 | ['Mysteryschool', 'Article', 'Ascension', 'Spirit Science', 'Spirituality'] |
Unearthed Crypto Gem Poised for Resurgence | Top of The Charts
One of RedFOX Labs’ standout attributes is its mission to make real-world products. As a venture builder, it’s in the project’s DNA to replicate revenue-generating businesses.
And the project’s gaming studio, RFOX Games, just recently hit the start button. The studio’s first foray into video games — Keys to Other Games — has become a blockbuster hit in its own right.
The funny thing about that is there’s not even a playable game yet. For now, it’s all about buying, selling, and trading NFTs in anticipation of what’s ahead.
But this month aims to change all that. Per the KOGs Roadmap, December is bringing the game’s beta version, a staking program, plus the dynasty’s 2nd Edition NFTs.
After launching in August, the game’s collectible tokens quickly shot to the #1 position on the WAX Blockchain’s most prolific secondary marketplace, AtomicHub.
AtomicHub sales figures as of November 21, 2020
At the time of writing, KOGs sales are nearly 2x that of its nearest competitor. And it’s easy to see why collectors are going ape over the 1st Edition.
For starters, there’s a game right around the corner — a digital remake of controversial schoolyard classic, POGs. While most other NFTs are only for staring at, KOGs — geographic laws allowing — let players challenge foes in winner-take-all online matches.
There’s gambling. And tournaments. Best of all, as the name screams, KOGs are tokens that unlock in-game items like skins, plus grant access to special levels and competitions.
Not to mention, these NFTs are gorgeous. Feast your eyes on this ultra-rare stunner:
KOGs — Keys to Other Games —NFTs trade on AtomicHub
Once the game launches and a new audience realizes there’s a 1st Edition to collect, we may very well see a serious spike in demand for 1st Ed. KOGs.
NFTs perfectly encapsulate the main benefits of running video games on top of blockchain networks.
Blockchain gaming items are immutable, easily authenticated, and owner-transferrable across supported titles. Coupled with the ability to stonewall cheating fraudsters, blockchain gaming is the future mainstream gaming doesn’t yet know it needs.
No, decentralized gaming isn’t as polished and shiny as centralized gaming on a console or PC. But self-ownersghip of in-game items is, to wear out the pun, a game-changer.
But RedFOX certainly isn’t a one-trick pony. Blockchain gaming is but one piece of an oversized puzzle … | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/unearthed-crypto-gem-poised-for-resurgence-6e27924048b3 | [] | 2020-12-27 04:42:06.807000+00:00 | ['Venture Builder', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Southeast Asia', 'Startup'] |
INFJ/INTJ Relationships | Happy Sunday!
In continuing with the relationship series after a brief hiatus, today I will discuss INFJ’s with INTJ’s. I am intentionally starting with INFJ (as my own type) but will expand out from there. Please let me now if there is a type pairing you are interested in, and I am happy to write a bit about it!
Again, remember to stay tuned for you and your partner’s type! This information also applies to friendships, or familial relationships, but I am going to apply it to romantic relationships for purposes of efficiency.
A common pairing for INFJ is INTJ. The similarities between the two types are all of the letters except the third one, the preference for thinking versus feeling. I will also explain a bit about the similarities and differences in the first two cognitive functions between the two types. Both INFJ’s and INTJ’s use introverted intuition as their first function, and INFJ’s use extroverted feeling, whereas INTJ’s use extroverted thinking as their secondary function.
To start, let’s discuss the type preference that is opposite (thinking versus feeling):
Those that use a feeling preference will consider relationships and the emotions of others when making a decision. Their primary decision-making factor is how that decision will affect other people. Those that use a thinking preference are usually very rational and efficient. They base their decision-making primarily on what makes the most sense based on a variety of factors, for example, timing, resources, or money. People with a thinking preference tend to be very fair in their relationships, however they will not necessarily base decisions on another person’s feelings about the decision.
To dive into the cognitive functions, the INFJ and INTJ have the same dominant cognitive function, which is introverted intuition. This means that they both take in patterns and data and process it internally. Introverted intuition is a perceiving function, meaning it is done subconsciously. Because of this, the INFJ and INTJ may have deep insights that appear to come quite randomly. However, the brain is always processing the information or patterns that it picks up on, and when the patterns come together, it creates a big picture awareness that seems mystical to someone observing the INFJ or INTJ’s insights. When an INTJ and an INFJ come together, they will be fascinated with discussing theoretical topics and asking “what if” questions, for example, about the Universe and our fundamental existence.
The secondary functions for each type: the INFJ’s secondary function is extroverted feeling and the INTJ’s secondary function is extroverted thinking. The secondary functions are really where an INTJ and an INFJ can differ, or feel that they process things quite differently from one another. The INFJ uses their secondary function to create harmony within groups, and to process their feelings externally. An INFJ may want to talk about their feelings, and work through them. An INTJ may indulge this, but not fully understand, as the INTJ is using extroverted thinking as their secondary cognitive function. The INFJ can feel disregarded or hurt by the INTJ’s lack of emotional response to their feelings. An INTJ using extroverted thinking, likes to take in external data and use it to understand the world. They enjoy facts and logic, and may feel that the INFJ is impractical and emotional, and not understand why the INFJ would focus so much of their decision-making process on other people and their emotions.
INTJ’s and INFJ’s are likely to share similar interests, like philosophizing, learning about a variety of new topics, and/or some creative pursuits, like writing. There are likely to be a few hobbies that are different, as with any type pairing, and the INTJ may be more interested in science or technology, etc (more factual based topics) than an INFJ.
The best way for these two types to get along is to really indulge the dominant cognitive function and find new and interesting topics to discuss. A big part of this is also to just ask your partner to respect, if they are unable to understand, your decision-making process, which is either the preference for thinking or feeling.
I hope this helps some of you in an INFJ/INTJ relationship! Feel free to email if you have questions, or if there is a type pairing you’d like me to discuss next, or anything else! [email protected]
My website is: www.infinitetealskies.com
Human Metrics MBTI Free Test: Free Test
Additionally, I have a free gift offering! When you sign up for my newsletter on my website, you will receive a free PDF about MBTI Type Dynamics. Sign up here: Teal’s Newsletter
Love,
Teal | https://medium.com/@infinitetealskies/infj-intj-relationships-616d809a2911 | ['Teal Geiger'] | 2021-04-25 20:09:12.428000+00:00 | ['Infj', 'Intj', 'Relationships', 'Personality', 'Mbti'] |
👏 Stop 👏 Messing 👏 with 👏 TSConfig | After finally figuring out the cause of all the error messages, I thought, “ESLint has eslint:recommended and @typescript-eslint/recommended , there must be a recommended tsconfig out there." Lo and behold such a library exists to save us from the perdition of configuration, and it's called @tsconfig/bases .
Created on 13 May 2020, @tsconfig/bases provides base tsconfig.json files for new and old projects alike. Their purpose is to provide developers with a good base configuration. Most projects don't need the full configurability that TSConfig files offer.
Is this necessary to use one of the @tsconfig/bases ? No. Will it increase consistency across projects? Yes.
Installation
As of writing this post, 8 templates are provided:
deno
docusaurus v2
node10
node12
node14
react-native
recommended
svelte
Each can be installed via npm / yarn , where $TEMPLATE is replaced by one of the names listed above.
For example: npm install --save-dev @tsconfig/recommended
My Most Common TSConfig
…That’s it…
I can set it and forget it. When I revisit a tsconfig.json file in a different project, I can quickly see what's different. Usually, the difference is just a few extra keys in compilerOptions . Quick and painless.
Here’s what @tsconfig/recommended/tsconfig.json looks like:
Any of the config options in your file will be preferred to what’s in @tsconfig/recommended/tsconfig.json . So if any of the recommended options are causing issues (most likely strict ), you can override them in your config.
A " strict" R eminder
strict turns on all of TypeScript's strict settings:
alwaysStrict
noImplicitAny
noImplicitThis
strictBindCallApply
strictFunctionTypes
strictNullChecks
strictPropertyInitialization
TL;DR | https://medium.com/@bayanbennett/stop-messing-with-tsconfig-92718ac36df4 | ['𝐁𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐧 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐭'] | 2020-12-21 20:00:50.277000+00:00 | ['Tsconfig', 'DevOps', 'Typescript', 'Best Practices', 'Clean Code'] |
Sweet Cecilia’s ‘A Tribute to Al Berard’ Is Up for a Grammy Award | Sweet Cecilia
Louisiana-based trio Sweet Cecilia recently received a Grammy nomination for their scrumptious, beautiful album, A Tribute to Al Berard. Produced by Grammy-winner Tony Diagle who has worked with BB King and others, the album is gloriously wrought.
Sisters Laura Huval and Maegan Berard, along with first cousin, Callie Guidry, make up Sweet Cecilia. Playing and singing together from childhood, the threesome follows in the footsteps of their father and uncle, Al “Pyook” Berard, who encouraged them to pursue music.
Their name — Sweet Cecilia — is a nod to their hometown, Cecilia, Louisiana, as well as the patron Saint of Musicians, St. Cecilia. Officially formed in 2011, Sweet Cecilia dropped their debut self-titled album in 2015. In 2017, they released their sophomore album, Sing Me a Story,
Sweet Cecilia’s sound amalgamates aspects of Americana, Louisiana roots music, folk, rock, country aromas, and rock into tantalizing sonic confections chock-full of mesmerizing hues.
The trio has performed at Festival International de Louisiane, Festival Acadiens et Creole, the legendary Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, Festival International, the French Quarter Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, as well as many more.
Sweet Cecilia
Encompassing seven-tracks, the album begins with “Tout Les Cadien Content,” delivering tasty tinctures of Louisiana bog tints merged with relishes of pop dynamics. Laura struts her grand vocal prowess, imbuing the lyrics with exhilarating timbres and alluring flair.
Entry points include “Dans La Louisiane,” rife with opulent harmonies and velvety textures. A personal favorite is “Fais Do Do Waltz,” brimming with Maegan’s luminous guitar and the delectable purr of a fiddle. The undulating rhythm of the tune is topped by flawless vocals.
“Saute La Barriere” (Jump the Fence) travels on indulgent, blues-flavored colors and then transitions into a tune seething with country and alt-rock elements. A down and dirty guitar solo from Meagan gives the tune tasty foggy-bottom brio.
On the final track, “Sing Me A Song,” the threesome parade their stellar chromatic fusion as their voices unite in exquisite a cappella.
On A Tribute to Al Berard, Sweet Cecilia offers music at once elegant, intimate, and mesmerizing — a marvelous showcase of superb talent.
Follow Sweet Cecilia Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | https://medium.com/pop-off/sweet-cecilias-a-tribute-to-al-berard-is-up-for-a-grammy-award-edd4dda5d006 | ['Randall Radic'] | 2020-12-19 21:16:13.074000+00:00 | ['Sweet Cecilia', 'A Tribute To Al Berard', 'Music', 'Grammys', 'Americana Music'] |
Ticket to RIDE: Memorable Moments from Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Music Fest | Year-after-year, the annual batch of festivals starts to look interchangeable. Whether they’re pumping up the usual crop of overpaid, under-performing DJs, or attempting a quick money grab, these things all start to blend together after a while. But perhaps the best cure for festival fatigue is to soak in something completely different.
Case in point is Telluride, Colorado’s The Ride Festival, a two-day camping-based event taking place in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, featuring a blend of well-known favorites and off-the-beaten-path acts of rock, folk, gospel, and country. The Ride Festival celebrates its sixth year this July 8th and 9th, with headliners Beck and Ben Harper, alongside a slew of best kept secrets. The two day event finds attendees pitching tarps on the festival grounds for hiking, rafting, climbing, fishing, mountain biking, hot springs and — of course — watching their favorite bands under the stars. | https://medium.com/cuepoint/ticket-to-ride-memorable-moments-from-colorados-rocky-mountain-music-fest-50c0573841f8 | ['Mike', 'Dj'] | 2017-05-23 19:21:19.348000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Nature', 'Photography', 'Music'] |
The M1 Macbook Pro is Blazing Fast | Photo by Daniel Cañibano on Unsplash
The M1 Macbook Pro is Blazing Fast
On my old 12" Macbook with an m3 core, the slowest part of my workflow was opening Affinity Photo.
Affinity Photo, a faster and more affordable alternative to Photoshop, is my tool of choice for designing book covers, marketing materials, web design assets, and anything else I need for my writing business.
It’s a great piece of software, and I am a raving fan, but opening that thing on an m3 Macbook was slow. I would click to open the program and then pick up my phone to pass the next half a minute. And that’s the blazing fast Affinity Photo. Photoshop, Affinity Photo’s larger (and slower) competitor, would easily take five minutes to load fully on my Macbook.
All in all, the m3 Macbook is not as slow as you would expect an m3 core to be, but it’s still slow. For writing articles or browsing simple websites, it is a fabulous machine, and I still recommend it to writers who are looking for their first writing computer. But for the more complicated parts of my business workflow — designing marketing materials, configuring my website — it showed its limitations.
The M1 MacBook Pro is a world apart.
After fully setting up my M1 MacBook Pro, the first thing I did was open Affinity Photo. It opened in exactly two heartbeats. One heartbeat for the preview screen, one heartbeat for the main photo editor to load. Done.
I gasped so audibly my mother asked me what was wrong.
The initial configuration process for the machine, a process that notoriously takes ten to fifteen minutes, passed in a matter of moments. I barely processed that I was waiting on my new computer to load before it was fully loaded and ready to rock-and-roll. Indexing the entire machine, which normally takes about an hour, took fifteen minutes. | https://medium.com/macoclock/the-m1-macbook-pro-is-blazing-fast-eb259757ca28 | ['Megan Holstein'] | 2020-11-18 05:46:15.236000+00:00 | ['Gadgets', 'Tech', 'Digital Life', 'Apple', 'Technology'] |
27 Must Read Books on Social Emotional Development | Over the past three years, I have written numerous book reviews on social emotional development. This article contains some of books that provide great storylines, engaging illustrations, and practical insights on how to support young dreamers in understanding their feelings and emotions.
So Much by Trish Cooke is a book that reinforces familial love. The book shows how each family member loves a baby boy in their own unique way. The amazing illustrations show familial love at its best. The rhythm of the books words allows young readers to follow along with ease and fun. For parents, this book is a tool to spark conversations with your children about how much you love them.
Talk and Work it Out by Cheri Meiners is a tool for #parents. The book displays #conflicts between children & how they can resolve it.This book provides parents with the opportunity to pose questions to their #children about how to resolve conflicts in the future. #GreatReads
Lena’s Shoes are Nervous by Keith Calabrese is an amazing book about being brave. This book is framed around Lena being too nervous to start her first day of school. The authors do an artful job at using a pretend conversation between her headband and shoes. In the conversation, the headband encourages the shoes to develop the courage to go to school. At the end of the story, the shoes are ready to go to school and so is Lena. For parents, this book serves as a tool to teach children about how to overcome the barrier of nervousness through self-encouragement.
Phoenix First Phoenix’s First: An Introduction to Mindful Breathing by Colin Lieu is an amazing read for both parents and kids. When Phoenix’s excitement about his recital transforms into nervousness, he is forced to make a decision: will he give into his nervousness or create a pathway beyond this internal barrier? Using the tool of mindful breathing, the boy overcomes the feeling and does an amazing job at his recital. This is a great book that offers parents and kids a practical step by step guide to mindful breathing, and how to use it within a real world context. My sons absolutely love this book and have used actually used their method presented by the author. This is a must read book!
The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld is a powerful book about listening to our children. The young boy built a beautiful structure with his blocks, but an accident occurs and destroys the it. Multiple characters try to comfort him, but they all fail to meet his needs. The last character, a rabbit, gently touches the boy and eventually hugs him. After the gentle touch, the boy opens up and begins expressing his feelings about the accident. Eventually, he imagines how a new structure can be built, but only after he was comforted. This book serves as a tool to teach adults to stay in the moment and love children through the difficult times.
The Big Book of Love by Trace Moroney is a great read. This book frames love as a holistic process that combines feelings & actions. This is a great tool to begin the conversation with kids about what love is and how to engage in it. The colorful and pleasant pictures allow children to follow the story with ease.
When I’m Feeling Angry is good read. The book the presents various stages a child goes thru when he/she is angry. The author suggests a method child can use to resolve those feelings. This book serves as tool aid in the development of positive social emotional habits.
When I’m Scared is another social-emotional tool for parents. The book expresses the various feelings of and responses to fear. The author does a good job of communicating fear as a natural feeling and proposes a process to overcome it.
Theo’s Mood walks children the different types of emotions a child could feel. The simple language and storyline teaches children to work and think through their feelings. This is another great tool to aid in positive social-emotional development in children.
My New Friend Is So Much Fun ! by Mo Willems is a great book about friendship. Piggie is playing with a new friend, but her best friend Gerald begins to gets jealous. This jealousy leads him to fear of losing their friendship. This book is a great tool for parents and teachers to teach kids that friendship is not a zero-sum experience. This is a #MustRead
Join in & Play by Cheri Meiners is a great teaching tool! This book provides a methodology of play beginning with an introduction, conversation about what game to play, how to share, and wait for one’s turn in a game. The author also does a great job in communicating the difficulty of waiting to participate in play, while providing real-life scenarios for children imagine how to solve a future problem them might encounter. #GreatRead!
Waiting is Not Easy! by Mo Willems is a great book to teach children about patience. Piggie wants to surprise Elephant, but he will have to wait a long time for it. Elephant grows increasingly frustrated with the wait, but Piggie refuses to give him the surprise. The simple illustrations and humor capture the emotional struggle to wait, while teaching children importance being patient. This is a must Read!
I love My New Toy by Mo Willems is a book about friendship. Willems uses a toy to discuss the important of friendship. When Piggie gets a new toy, she shares it with Gerald and it breaks. The story takes the reader on the emotional ups and downs of a precious toy being broken. The great thing about this book is that the characters have a redemptive moment and learn that their friendship is more important than a toy. This is a great teaching tool!
My Cousin Momo by Zachariah Ohora is a must read a book about social-emotional development! Momo is not a conventional squirrel, he does something different than his cousins. In order for Momo to show his cousins his special gift, he has to feel welcome. This is an amazing book to teach children how to learn to accept, appreciate, and play with children who are different. This book serves as a tool for parents to teach children how to be kind to children who may be different and/or shy. This is a must read!
Homemade Love by bell hooks is a great read. This book focuses on a loving relationship between a girl and her parents. Using words of affirmation, hooks teaches parents that thru the ups and downs of daily life, children need to feel loved. The book has beautiful images that show Black family in a positive light.
Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall is a book about conquering fear and parental encouragement. The book tells a story of a boy using different tactics to avoid jumping off of a diving board. With encouragement from his father, Jabari decides to face and conquer his fear. This book shows how children learn to take risk thru parental encouragement.
My Daddy Loves Me by Babba Sekou, Mamma Sekou, Sekou Afrika is a book that reminds hashtag#fathers to hashtag#love and be loving towards their hashtag#children.The illustrations and storyline illuminates an important message- love should be the foundation of hashtag#Fatherhood . The book seeks to frame the narrative of what fatherhood should look like in contemporary times. This is a great gift for men with sons.
Hewitt Anderson’s Great Big Life by Jerdine Nolen is an amazing book about giving children the space to discover their strengths. Hewitt was a small boy born into a family of giants. His worry filled parents wondered if he can survive in the world as a small person. This book takes the reader on a journey where Hewitt displays the ability to see barriers as opportunities to maximize his human potential. This is a great book that teaches parents that we have to love our children towards their personal greatness. The beautiful illustrations by Kadir Nelson offer a great opportunity for dialogue between parents and children.
Uncle Jed’s Barbershop by Margaree King Mitchell is a book about familial sacrifice and dreams. Uncle Jed was a traveling barber who had a beloved niece. His dream was to one day open up his own barbershop. Through his travels he earns enough money to open his dream barbershop, but his beloved niece falls ill. He decides to pay for his niece’s medical bill and delay his dream. This book shows children that the road toward their dreams will have barriers, but with the powerful tool of resilience dreams can be accomplished.
I Love You Too by Ziggy Marley is a great read. This is a book about random moments in life. It is a reminder that parents tell their children in detail what they love about their children. The book reads like a song because it is one. The beautiful pictures and illustrations what love looks like. The poetic words allow kids to understand what love sounds. This is a great tool for parents when they want to reinforce their love for their children. This is a must-read.
My Daddy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Martin Luther King III is a biography about Dr. King from the perspective of his son. The author provides a holistic perspective of the Dr. King primarily as a loving father who was civil rights leader. The author does an amazing job at showing the emotional impact of his father’s protests, jailing, and victories had on him as a child. This book allows the reader to develop a great appreciation of the sacrifices his family made to ensure justice for oppressed people.
One Love by Cedella Marley is a remix of her father Bob Marley’s classic song. This book has amazing pictures that show the beauty of Black family life. The rhyming words offer families the opportunity to sing together as the read through the book. The author also discusses the importance of loving all human beings and world we share. This book serves as a tool to teach children how to love each other and their world.
Every Child Needs a Champion is an inspirational book. The author writes the book like an anthem that intentionally discusses and defines what it means to be a champion for a child from various vantage points. In addition, the author let’s adults know that being a champion for children requires that we love them and be present in their lives. The intentional inclusive illustrations offer all children regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, or ability with the opportunity to see themselves worthy of having a champion in their lives. This book is a must read book!
I Am a Confident King by Jasmine Furr is a great book to promote positive self-identity in Black boys. The book tells the story of a Black boy whose parents have him say positive words of affirmation every morning. One day, the boy decides to bring those words to life. For parents, this book serves a tool to teach children how to enact values in everyday life. #MustRead!
The Lion Inside by Rachel Bright teaches children the power of self love. The animals in the book admire the lion for his strength, beauty, and ability to lead, but the mouse admires his roar. The mouse believes that acquiring the lion’s roar would change his life. An incident in the story allows the mouse to realize he does not need to be anyone other than himself. This book is a tool for parents and educators to reinforce self-love and appreciation for one’s own talents and gifts.
Tough Guys Having Feeling Too is a great book for boys. The author uses colorful pictures of superheroes and tough guys to express the importance of boys expressing their feelings. This book shows that when boys are able to express their feelings they too are super.
Riley Knows He Can is a must read. The author tells the journey of a young boy who is nervous about acting in a school play. The main character is able to overcome this nervousness through familial encouragement. The powerful words and beautiful illustrations allow children to understand the book’s meaning. Parents will enjoy reading this boy because it offers a nice motto to encourage kids in tough situations. I absolutely love reading it to my sons! | https://medium.com/the-young-dreamers-book-club/27-must-read-books-on-social-emotional-development-e7eecc22b892 | ['Nosakhere Griffin-El'] | 2020-09-10 23:27:07.343000+00:00 | ['Childrens Books', 'Social Emotional Learning'] |
High School Hidden Persuaders | With this type of a campaign how could I lose? The kids would vote for me without even knowing why.
Photo by Krists Luhaers on Unsplash
Allow me to start this story with a spoiler alert: I have never won an election
for anything.
Nothing.
And I’ve only entered one — this one.
The campaign was for high school sophomore class president. Please don’t ask me what madness possessed me at this particular place in time to participate in such an out of character undertaking.
I didn’t involve myself in many extracurricular activities in high school other than sports.
One of my teammates on the football team suggested that I join the film crew.
Now, why would I do that?
Every Friday afternoon Asbury Park High School showed educational films to the whole student body. I should say the 95% of the kids. Everyone who chose not to watch the movie would have to attend a monitored study hall that final period before we were all set free for the weekend.
The films were usually biographies of famous people or National Geographic Travelogues .
Being on the film crew meant you were released from the 5th period class on Friday to enable you to string the film and ready the projector to show the film in the final period.
The high school had a large auditorium that would fill up with students, some of whom looked forward all week to seeing those movies.
It was educational to the kids who were remotely receptive to education; a social kick to most others and a reprieve from supervised study hall or class to all.
There were 4 kids on the film crew in addition to my friend and me. I liked them all but catagorize them as being smart and nerdy. I dismissed them as potential friends.
One kid named Oliver wouldn’t be dismissed. I felt myself being drawn to him in spite of the fact that he didn’t appear to check off any of the blocks on my list for possible buddies.
He was smart and accepted me as being more than just a dumb jock.
Oliver knew that I was running for sophomore class president. He also knew that I was ambivalent about actually winning the position. He realized that I had done nothing to enhance my chances of victory in terms of campaigning.
One Friday a month before the election, Oliver decided to take my quest for the position of sophomore class president into his own hands.
He left a note wedged in my locker asking me to meet him in the projection booth just before 5th period that Friday. He wanted to explain something.
I arrived at the booth at the appointed time. Oliver was already there.
I sat down in front of the gigantic old projector we used for the Friday movies.
Oliver started to describe the concept of subliminal advertising.
It was fascinating. Imagine, messages that the conscience mind can’t perceive inserted into commercials, songs and movies.
MOVIES?
Oliver laid out our (yes, it was now our) campaign plan. Before the election we would insert into the Friday afternoon movie a subliminal message to help me become elected sophomore class president.
After all, most of the kids in school would be in the auditorium. If they could be persuaded subliminally to vote for me, I wouldn’t have to do anything more — would I?
The idea appealed to me.
“But, Oliver, how to we get the message integrated into the movie?” I asked.
He told me he’d work on it and show me the following week.
I must say, I was starting to look forward to Friday afternoons with Oliver. It was 2 weeks before the election and I was feeling pressure but almost paralyzed to do anything about it. The kids who did these political things in school weren’t anywhere near my crowd.
And then there was Oliver.
In the booth that Friday, Oliver explained that we would carve
VOTE FOR BRIAN BARRABEE FOR SOPH0MORE CLASS PRESIDENT
with a pin in the cellulose acetate of the film.
Ideally the film would run uninterrupted and the message would flash accross the screen without anyone even knowing but the subliminal effect would be implanted; below the level awareness.
And I’d be president of the sophomore class! Without anybody even realizing it!
Sitting in the projection booth with the film crew that Friday before the election was a time of anticipation for me; even more so for Oliver.
He told me that he’d alert me when the subliminal message was going to flash accross the screen. Although I won’t see it, I’d at least be aware of it.
The movie was running.
Almost simultaneously, I felt Oliver poke me in the ribs and saw the image of a National Geographic visit to jungle of Uganda on the screen — freeze. Then a brief message jiggling on the screen with the words Vot BRABEE ASS. That was followed by a browning then blacking of the cellulose acetate.
The movie screen turned blank white.
The projection booth was filling with smoke. Because of Oliver’s message the powerful bulb in the projector had burned through the film that was stuck, jamming the motor.
The auditorium fire alarm was loudly ringing . The students filing out the exits forming well rehearsed lines practiced in countless fire drills.
I was not elected sophmore class president; my nomination being withdrawn by the principal.
I was suspended from school for a day and my parents ordered to pay the ruined rented film and the cost of the fire department’s visit.The whole thing was made more of than I’d wished.
The school board got involved.
I was forced to get a paper route to pay my parents back.
One thing though; I got the admiration of the other kids in Asbury Park High School.
How cool that botched attempt at subliminal advertising.
I swear, if I were allowed to run for sophmore class president after that , I’d have won — hands down.
Hey! Maybe subliminal advertising does work. | https://medium.com/illumination/high-school-hidden-persuaders-1a9381d01dde | ['Brian Dickens Barrabee'] | 2020-12-24 14:18:33.603000+00:00 | ['Kids', 'Schools', 'Humor', 'Advertising', 'Politics'] |
LocalBitcoins Review – How To Trade Safely Everywhere You Go. | Trading Security
There are various measures taken to ensure the security of trading on LocalBitcoins, These are;
Reputation System: Past trading activity and rating of each Trader is made public for individual assessment. This is to aid you decide if you want to trade with the trader or not.
Past trading activity and rating of each Trader is made public for individual assessment. This is to aid you decide if you want to trade with the trader or not. Escrow: This has been explained above.
This has been explained above. 2 Factor Authentication (2FA): The 2FA is an optional feature; It simply means that on each log into your account, you will have to enter a pin code that will be sent to your phone.
The 2FA is an optional feature; It simply means that on each log into your account, you will have to enter a pin code that will be sent to your phone. Login Guard: Each time you log in from a different browser or IP, you will be required to verify it’s you by clicking on a link sent to your email address.
Each time you log in from a different browser or IP, you will be required to verify it’s you by clicking on a link sent to your email address. Support and Conflict Resolution: LocalBitcoin has a support team 24/7 ready to answer questions and resolve conflicts if any.
Customer Support and Reviews
A lot has been said about LocalBitcoins and a lot is still being said. You can check out community opinions searching LocalBitcoins on Facebook, Reddit, Trustpilot, Cryptocompare, etc…I found out it needs to work on its customer care system, it takes a lot of time to get a reply from the customer care. Most opinions identify the site as being legit. Some users complained of lost funds from trading with the wrong person. Since you are dealing directly with an individual on the site, you have to take caution because people are not always trustworthy. Although LocalBitcoins have put measures in place to discourage scam, you can never be too careful because people still get scammed. I have taken time to highlight measures you should take so as not to get scammed on LocalBitcoins.
How to Trade Safely On LocalBitcoins
Watch the video below to learn how to trade on local bitcoins.
This Guide ensures you are 99.99% safe when trading on LocalBitcoins
Step 1: Choose the Right Seller
The top listed price is usually the cheapest, it might be tempting but ‘NEVER CHOOSE A SELLER BASED ON PRICE’. Sellers and Buyers are filtered based on their IP. You are only shown Sellers and Buyers from your geo-region. When choosing a seller, follow these rules. They are strict but if you don’t want to lose your money, you should follow them: Make sure that:
The user has traded over 10BTC in total on LocalBitcoins. He has at least 100 confirmed trades He has at least 10trade partners His feedback score is at least 98% His account is being active for at least 6 months He has a verified phone number, email and company account. He is trusted by at least 10 people.
All this information can be found on the seller’s public profile.
Step 2: Communicate With the Seller
If the seller meets the above criteria, send a message to him requesting a trade, do not provide any other information about yourself until you receive a reply.
Step 3: Make Payment
Once you receive a reply and feel comfortable to buy from the seller, make payment using the details provided by the seller on LocalBitcoins. After making the payment, Mark payment as ‘made’. (only do this when you have made the payment or else you might be denied transaction) Wait, your Bitcoin will be released to you by LocalBitcoins’ escrow once the seller confirms. If you have any issue, try to resolve it with the seller first before contacting the LocalBitcoins Customer Support.
Warning!! | https://medium.com/nigeriabitcoincommunity/localbitcoins-review-how-to-trade-safely-everywhere-you-go-ed301e2ac4a8 | ['Nigeria Bitcoin Community'] | 2020-12-10 11:28:38.285000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Localbitcoins', 'Trading', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin'] |
Everyone Has A Right to Grieve | “They’re in a better place now.” “I’m so sorry for your loss.” “Everything will be okay.” “They’ll always be with you.” “They’re not suffering anymore.”
I know you mean well, but just stop…please…
A few of you might be lucky enough to not have suffered the loss of a loved one, but the majority of us have experienced heart-wrenching loss in our lives. When someone passes, we often feel like we want to help alleviate the sorrow, but if you’re in the unfortunate majority, you know that the only thing these well-meaning platitudes serve to do is actually making you feel worse.
I call them platitudes because that’s really all they are. We say these things — offering our condolences and sympathies — because we feel like it’s expected, or because we just don’t know what else to say when someone we know has lost a loved one. Friends, let me tell you that sometimes, it’s just better to say nothing at all.
Although we might feel obliged to send sympathy cards, they’re counterproductive— save your money and their emotional state of mind. Nobody needs a reminder that they lost someone — the card companies have found a way to commercialize and monetize grief.
It’s a hard spot, I know. You feel like you have to say something, offer some kind of condolences. It’s what we’ve been raised to do, what we’ve watched our parents do our entire lives; it’s what everyone does. Think of how it’s received, however. No one wants to listen to clichés when they’ve just suffered a crushing blow.
Put yourself in their shoes — a fate you’ve most likely already experienced before— and remember how it made you feel. Be honest in your assessment. Your automatic response might be I felt grateful for their kindness, but think about how the emotional reaction their guilted-kindness caused you to have. Did it make you feel happy, or did it bring forth a fresh wave of grief?
The grieving process is different for almost everyone, and we all handle loss in our own unique way. Speaking from personal experience, whenever someone offers their sympathies, I automatically feel sadder than I did before. It reminds me of my pain and my loss, instead of serving as the show of support it was intended to be.
Grief is the wound that never truly heals. Years can go by, decades, a lifetime, and still, we grieve. A little less often, perhaps, but the pain of loss is a well that runs deep. It creates a profound void, and no amount of kind words from well-meaning friends or strangers can fill this emptiness.
“They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite”
― Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Prince
It’s Okay to Not Be Okay
It’s important to understand that the cycle of grief needs to run its course. Don’t try to console someone who is grieving the loss of a loved one. Not only are you trying to accomplish the impossible, but you’re probably inadvertently making it worse for them. In the deepest moments of grief, no words are needed — nor wanted.
Quiet support. The gentle touch of a hand. A warm hug (only if one is needed). A shoulder to cry on when solitude isn’t wanted, and a listening ear when they want to talk.
We need to remember that it’s okay to not be okay. It’s necessary — and healthy — to allow ourselves to be sad and take the time we need to come to terms with a new reality without our loved one. It’s just as important for those of us on the outside looking in, to recognize when to take a step back, or to step forward. To understand when words are needed, and when they’re not. When to offer our company, and hold our ‘words of wisdom,’ or to simply leave them in the temporary solitude they require to cry their oceans of tears and heal. | https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/everyone-has-a-right-to-grieve-a3598d8c31f7 | ['Edie Tuck'] | 2020-05-04 22:28:41.397000+00:00 | ['Death', 'Loss', 'Grief And Loss', 'Grief', 'Sadness'] |
Abstract Classes and Metaclasses in Python | Metaclasses
As you have just seen, Python’s implementation of abstract classes differs from what you see in other popular languages. This is because abstraction is not part of the language’s grammar. Instead, it is implemented as a library. The next logical question is “Can you do something similar yourself, purely in Python?” And the answer is yes.
Before moving to metaclasses, there is something you need to understand about classes first. You may think of classes as blueprints for object creation, and you would be right. But in Python, classes themselves are objects. For example, when running this code:
class YouExpectedMeToBeAClass:
pass
Python will instantiate a YouExpectedMeToBeAClass class and store this "object" in memory. Later, when you refer to this class when creating objects, Python will use that "object." But how does Python instantiate a class? By using a metaclass, of course.
Metaclasses are classes for classes. Metaclasses provide blueprints for class creation. Every class has a metaclass by default (it is called type ). To create a custom metaclass, you will have to inherit type :
class CustomMeta(type):
pass class SomeClass(metaclass=CustomMeta):
pass
Note: type 's parent class is type itself. This is a hack in Python internals, and it is impossible to implement an alternative type using pure Python.
By itself, CustomMeta does nothing. Let's add some more features to show you the power of metaclasses. Let's make CustomMeta check if every child class has a render attribute (like with AbstractRenderer ):
If you try to run this code (without even instantiating anything!), it will throw an error. Let me explain what __new__ is first. This is the constructor for classes, like __init__ for objects. It is called at the moment SomeClass is defined, and whatever is returned from this function becomes the class. These are the arguments: the metaclass ( cls ), new class's name ( clsname ), parent classes ( bases ) and attributes ( attrs ). In the function body, we enumerate the attributes and check if render is one of them. If not, raise an exception. To make this code run, add this to SomeClass :
def render(self): pass | https://medium.com/better-programming/abstract-classes-and-metaclasses-in-python-9236ccfbf88b | ['Michael Krasnov'] | 2020-07-29 14:28:05.106000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Algorithms', 'Python3'] |
Baffled Conviction by Eldar Satymov | Vanish with it
Wherever it goes
Sands of sorrow overwhelm my existence
Thrown together in a world of dualities
A vortex of unjustified pain demolishes naïve dreams
Pretending to know where I belong
Huh, imprisoned by howling layers of perception
A piece of damaged information flows back and forth
Stuck within conceptions
Find me in the murmurs of infinity
Conviction inevitable
A nosedive into continuum of accusations
Memory will remain
Evaluation of actions driven to fade of sanity
Pathetic beings all around collecting items of verification
Broken is the promise
What a waste it would be was it not all a vanity
Electrical charge through my veins
In an instant you’re there
Died one thousand times in yesterdays
A beautiful vibration torn apart
Power slips away between impure fingers
Blast of fever gains momentum
Triple dodge of society
I wave hand
I’m seen and it shifts up
Keeping me here
A statue has more freedom
Realm of paradoxes
Starvation for live destroys itself
Guilt sinks
Barriers cannot be removed
Distances immeasurable
Tentacles of paranoia feel usual
Journey of psychodelic calmness triggers an alarm
The amount of visual interaction between the corners of twenty rotating figures
Mind is liquefied flowing into uncertainty
Tragedy merged with comedy infinite number of times
Flashback forward hinders the disturbing trajectory
Hard to get away
Silence | https://medium.com/terrace-vista/baffled-conviction-by-eldar-satymov-c9903cbe455d | ['Terrace Vista'] | 2017-03-02 11:30:39.057000+00:00 | ['Love', 'Featured', 'Poetry'] |
U.S. Kids Struggle to Keep Moving | To protect ourselves and others during the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us have had to shift our everyday lives to our homes. This has led to a steep drop in the amount of physical activity our kids are getting. Prior to the pandemic, few U.S. children were meeting physical activity guidelines, which call for a minimum of 60 minutes a day of movement and exercise. With child education being moved from school grounds to the home, many have raised concerns about physical health declining.
I’m a graduate student in UT’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, and this past June, I worked with Professor Darla Castelli’s Kinetic Kidz Lab to understand how quarantine may affect child behavior. We created a questionnaire to assess parent perceptions of their child’s physical activity and use of devices like cell phones before and after quarantine, as well as what their experience has been with remote physical education. The questionnaire, distributed online to parents in Central Texas, asked about types of physical activity, time spent sitting, and school and non-school device use. Parents were asked to report whether they believed their child’s physical activity, time spent sitting, and device use hads increased, remained the same, or decreased during quarantine.
We looked at school-aged kids specifically, from kindergarten to fourth grade, and the results were astounding but not surprising. More than 70% of kids had reduced their visits to parks, playgrounds, and other outdoor spaces. The number of days kids walked or rode a bike dropped nearly 50%, and the days per week children participated in physical activity at home dropped 36%.
At the same time, nearly 70% of parents reported that their children were sitting more during quarantine than before and that use of devices for both school and non-school purposes increased. No parents reported decreases in non-school device use of devices.
Graph showing how kids’ physical activity is affected during the pandemic. Graph courtesy of Sheri L. Burson.
Despite the value of physical activity, only 44% of parents reported receiving remote physical education instruction from their child’s school, which included video recordings, website links, live streams and mailed worksheets. Parents preferred to receive a variety of types of physical activity instruction, and when asked what they could do to improve the situation, they urged teachers to provide them with “something, anything.”
And although there have been guidelines for distance learning for quite some time, the pandemic provided little time for preparation and professional development so teachers could properly plan remote physical education lessons.
“Prior to the pandemic, few U.S. children were meeting physical activity guidelines, which call for a minimum of 60 minutes a day of movement and exercise. With child education being moved from school grounds to the home, many have raised concerns about physical health declining.”
As children continue to participate in remote learning or phase into in-person instruction, the importance and value of physical activity on child health needs to remain a priority. In addition to improving physical health, physical activity and play can provide necessary breaks for children that may enhance their ability to learn, whereas more time spent sitting may lead to behavioral issues and hinder them from learning effectively.
Parents can do several things to help get their kids moving. Put on some music and have a dance party, go on a scavenger hunt outside and look for different bugs and plants, or do some stretches. To make learning more fun, mimic an animal every time your child reads a certain word. For example, walk on all fours like a bear around the couch whenever you read “that” and hop like a frog five times when you read “what.” If your child appears restless, fidgety, or is struggling with learning the material, take a break to go outside or do something active so he or she can come back more ready to learn.
Family physical activity may be difficult with parents working from home, so if parents choose to give their children a device like a cell phone to occupy them, put on movement-focused videos like GoNoodle. Maintaining physical activity during quarantine can be challenging, but if schools provide a variety of types of remote physical education lessons and encourage movement at home, our children may be more likely to achieve physical activity guidelines and reap the physical and mental health benefits of movement. | https://medium.com/whole-communities-whole-health/u-s-kids-struggle-to-keep-moving-bc1dcaecd973 | ['Whole Communities Whole Health'] | 2020-12-21 19:06:28.968000+00:00 | ['Physical Activity', 'Quarantine', 'Pandemic', 'Covid 19', 'Exercise'] |
Use Docker and Airflow to deploy your Data Science workflow | Contributors: Madana Krishnan V K, Nguyen Cao, Sanjana Chauhan, Sumukha Balasubramanya
This blog is written and maintained by students in the Professional Master’s Program in the School of Computing Science at Simon Fraser University as part of their course credit. To learn more about this unique program, please visit {sfu.ca/computing/pmp}.
Can a UI designer decide which sorting algorithm to use? Well, you can say it’s a mismatch. But can a Data Scientist deploy his machine learning model at scale? Let us try answering this question through this post.
There are different stakeholders in a Big Data project like Data Scientists, Data Engineers, Analysts, etc. A Data Scientist is one who gets insightful meanings from structured or unstructured data by using various techniques and tools, while a Data Engineer is one who develops and maintains architectures such as databases and large scale processing systems.
Being a Data Scientist is not easy as it involves many fields such as Statistics, Computer Science, and Business Analysis. They are dependent on Data Engineers to make their code work the same way in the production environment. This blog aims at helping a Data Scientist to enhance their understanding of how their code would run in a production environment.
Why think about deployment as a Data Scientist?
A Data Scientist mostly thinks about developing Machine Learning models to provide insights into data or to predict valuable results. The commonly used interface/tool for the Data Science workflow is Jupyter Notebook/Google Colab. These interfaces are well designed for writing and executing code snippets, as they provide an interactive shell to play with. But the downside to this is that it runs on a single machine, and usually does not work well with large datasets and has no parallelism. It is not suitable for running on a production environment with a distributed system running on clusters.
The lack of skill to write a production-ready code among Data Scientists requires a Data Engineer to transform the code into scripts running on production systems parallelly, which takes time and resources. This article aims to provide a mapping of the typical Data Science workflow on a local machine to a sequence of tasks running on servers.
How to go about it?
Let us use Docker and Airflow to achieve this.
Why Docker?
Docker is a tool designed to make it easier to create, deploy, and run applications by using containers. Containers allow a developer to package up an application with all of the parts it needs, such as libraries and other dependencies, and ship it all out as one package. By doing so, the developer can be rest assured that the application will run on any other machine regardless of any customized settings that machine might have that could differ from the machine used for writing and testing the code.
The below matrix consists of possible software components as rows and possible places where you must run that software as the column.
Our job is basically to make sure that every intersection of that matrix somehow works right, passes all the tests on your laptop as well as in the production environment. How to be sure about that?
Suppose your laptop has a different version of Python or different a JDK, but the production environment has a different kind of distribution. So, in a nutshell, what we are trying to do with docker is to solve this kind of problem.
Let us take an example of Shipping Coffee Beans.
The above matrix here depicts the possible goods to be shipped, multiplied by every possible way to ship the goods. It had the same problem.
How did they solve it?
In simple words, if you want to ship Coffee Beans, it should not be your concern to decide the shipping, packaging and routing details and to make sure experts for each of these are available. Docker Container is similar to shipping containers with pre-decided infrastructure (size, number of doors, weights it can take, etc.). Just pack your coffee beans and hand it over to any infrastructure provider.
It can be organized in such a way that any new infrastructure providers or new infrastructure tools can be added. There is no need to repackage the Coffee Beans just because you are not going through the same route or using the same transport. Also conversely, if you are the ones who are providing the infrastructure you can decide on cheaper trucks and faster routes.
Voila!!! The solution to the above problem → “Docker”
Data Scientists spend so much time to build the perfect model and it takes a lot of effort to set up the infrastructure, installing the required libraries choosing the fastest tools. They do not want to spend the same amount of time setting up the same in the production environment or design their solutions as per the available production infrastructure.
To make this idea more powerful, using Airflow, let us see how can a Data Scientist automate their workflow.
Why Airflow?
Airflow is a platform created by the community to programmatically author, schedule and monitor workflows. We use Airflow to author workflows as Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) of tasks. The Airflow scheduler executes your tasks on an array of workers while following the specified dependencies. Rich command line utilities make performing complex surgeries on DAGs a snap. The rich user interface makes it easy to visualize pipelines running in production, monitor progress, and troubleshoot issues when needed.
In order to execute your workflow, you can use Airflow to automate and decide the sequence in which these activities should be scheduled. For example, you want to do web scraping to collect data using Java programming, store the data in Cassandra, build a machine learning model using TensorFlow, etc. All tasks require different infrastructure and should be performed in a sequence. Using Airflow you can schedule these tasks by running different Docker Containers.
Data Science workflow
Data Science workflow in action
The dataset considered here is the MNIST data, which is imported from the Scikit-learn datasets. It consists of 70,000 handwritten digits, where each image is fit into a 28x28 grid. Training a classifier model to predict the handwritten digits is a classical example in the world of Data Science and Machine Learning.
To demonstrate the workflow, we perform the task of training classifiers on the MNIST data. The MNIST data from the Scikit-learn library is collected, preprocessed, split and is saved in the file system. These are the data collection and preprocessing steps. The data is read from the file system, and two Machine Learning models (LogisticRegression and SGDClassifier) are trained and saved. This step is the data analysis step. Then the generated model is used and prediction is performed on the test set. The prediction and visualization procedures of the result are the data visualization step.
DAG Workflow
The above graph depicts the workflow we are demonstrating inside Airflow.
It shows the organization of tasks that we want to run in a way that reflects their relationships and dependencies. The above DAG consists of 6 tasks. Using Airflow we are trying to automate and sequence this series of tasks. Let us see in what sequence each of these tasks will be executed.
Each node in this DAG is a task and each edge represents the dependency between the 2 tasks. It says that Task 1 has to run before Task 2, Task 2 has to run before Task 3, and Task 5 can only run after both Task 3 and Task 4 get successfully executed. Lastly Task 6 will get executed after Task 5 completes.
Task Pipeline
Consider the above pipeline which demonstrates the working of airflow using Docker containers. We are considering the following 6 tasks.
Task 1 — Collect the data from the Scikit-learn MNIST datastore and save it into a CSV file.
— Collect the data from the Scikit-learn MNIST datastore and save it into a CSV file. Task 2 — Load the CSV dataset into an Airflow container using a Python code. The data is preprocessed and is stored as a CSV file in the Container File System. The output of this task will be training and test set.
Load the CSV dataset into an Airflow container using a Python code. The data is preprocessed and is stored as a CSV file in the Container File System. The output of this task will be training and test set. Task 3 & Task 4 — Load the training set and train the Model 1 and Model 2 on Airflow Container simultaneously. These models are saved.
Load the training set and train the Model 1 and Model 2 on Airflow Container simultaneously. These models are saved. Task 5 — Load the two saved models and evaluate the models on the test set obtained from Task 2.
Load the two saved models and evaluate the models on the test set obtained from Task 2. Task 6 — Print the results of the evaluation on the console.
Try it for yourself!
The above explanation has been implemented and is available in this Github repository. The execution steps are explained here. Note that this repository assumes that you have Docker installed. If you do not have Docker installed, please check out this official Docker page.
Step 1 — Clone the Github repository to your system.
Step 2 — Navigate to the airflow4bigdata directory and run the start_airflow command. This allows the Docker to start an Airflow Service by spawning an Airflow Container.
cd airflow4bigdata
make start_airflow
Step 3 — Open the Airflow Web Service from your web browser(ex. Chrome) at the port 8080.
Step 4 — Choose the mnist_workflow DAG from the list, switch it ON and click on Trigger DAG.
Step 5 — Wait until the workflow runs to completion. Upon completion, any data or models to be saved will be saved in the corresponding directory as mentioned in the code.
Understanding Airflow UI better
Apache Airflow provides an elegant UI to interact with. The default port of the Airflow UI is available at http://localhost:8080/admin/. | https://medium.com/sfu-cspmp/use-docker-and-airflow-to-deploy-your-data-science-workflow-dc17982d8dd8 | ['Madan Krishnan'] | 2020-02-04 07:46:59.124000+00:00 | ['Blog Post', 'Big Data', 'Data Science', 'Docker', 'Airflow'] |
Building Confidence Through Consistent Action: What Works For Shatterboxx Design Founder Jamie… | The Nitty-Gritty:
How Jamie Varon decided to embrace an “effortful” attitude and put more intention into her work
Why living and working from France reset her satisfaction meter and helped her find a new level of confidence
Her weekly writing practice and how that habit has impacted her ability to show up and do the work
The results she’s experiencing — personal and professional — from embracing a new working style
I used to find confidence in the fact that lots of things come easily to me.
I taught myself how to play the piano as a small child.
I could pitch a softball at 60mph without much practice.
I got excellent grades without studying.
I was given extra responsibilities at my first jobs.
My default mode was to expect to good at whatever I tried. I expected things to be easy and effortless.
Most of the time, this was good. It meant that I had the confidence to try new things or step up to a new level.
But operating like this also had a serious downside.
The downside of finding confidence in things being easy is that, when I tried something that didn’t feel easy, I ran the other way.
Anything that took effort or practice tore down my confidence and left me feeling like a sad sack.
This month, we’re examining confidence. Specifically, we’re looking at how small business owners find the confidence to take a big step forward.
As you might imagine, lacking confidence in anything that required me to actually work at a thing didn’t serve me well as a business owner.
For years and years, I ran my business in a way that allowed me to avoid hard things.
I hired contractors instead of making a home for employees. I relied on more passive marketing instead of picking up the proverbial phone and closing the deal. I avoided examining my own mindset instead of confronting my biggest fears and weaknesses. I set goals that felt safe instead of taking a long hard look at what I really wanted from my business.
A couple of years ago, I started to get real with myself.
I realized I had been coasting. And, while coasting felt good, it wasn’t really what I wanted to be doing.
This was around the same time I started bouldering.
Imagine a 15ft wall — or, quite literally — a 15ft boulder.
Your job is to start at the very bottom and use your hands and feet to work your way to the top.
Unlike big wall climbing, bouldering doesn’t use ropes. You fall on pads. And, you will fall.
I was terrible at bouldering at first. Like, truly terrible.
Looking back, I’m not sure what even possessed me to sign up for the class. And I’m less sure what made me decide it was a good idea to go back for the second class!
Getting on the wall the first 5, 10, or 15 times, I felt weak. I felt inept. I felt truly terrible at the task set before me.
But I kept getting on the wall. I practiced — and I hadn’t truly practiced anything in my previous 35 years of life.
Eventually, I got better.
Now, I teach bouldering at my gym and other climbers come to me for tips on a regular basis.
Bouldering taught me how to work hard at something.
It taught me the value of effort.
It taught me how to feel immense satisfaction at the smallest improvement.
And, I’ve carried all of those lessons into my business.
I put more effort into my business today than I ever have — not because I believe in hustle porn or even associate hard work with bigger results.
I put this effort into my business because creating something great requires me to be great and that requires my effort.
It’s worth it. My business is worth it. I’m worth it.
My conversation today is with someone exudes effortlessness on social media. Her lifestyle, her writing, her way of showing up… it feels so natural to me. So I was surprised when she told me, right out of the gate, that she’s embraced an “effortful” attitude.
Her name is Jamie Varon. Jamie is the founder of Shatterboxx Design, as well as a writer and teacher under her own personal brand.
Jamie made a big lifestyle change over the last few years and I wanted to know where she found the confidence to do life differently as a small business owner.
We talk about the year she spent living and working in France, how she’s redefined satisfaction for herself, and how she balances setting goals with finding peace in what already is. We also talk about the very real implications these changes have had on her business and professional success.
This candid conversation with Jamie is part of a whole series we’re doing here at What Works on confidence. We want to shed light on how small business owners continue to find confidence, long after they’ve taken the leap to get started.
Over the next month, you’ll hear about finding the confidence to raise your prices, come back after a major loss, experiment & iterate, stick with the plan, and land giant clients. When we’re not posting new conversations here on the podcast, we’re sharing personal essays and reflections from What Works Network members on how they find the confidence to take the next step.
To get the full series delivered to your inbox — and check out what we’ve already released — click here.
Now, let’s find out What Works for Jamie Varon! | https://medium.com/help-yourself/building-confidence-through-consistent-action-what-works-for-shatterboxx-design-founder-jamie-a08b7434e03 | ['Tara Mcmullin'] | 2019-08-06 13:27:22.627000+00:00 | ['Small Business', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Confidence', 'Business', 'Podcast'] |
Data Sourcing, Market basket analysis, and SweetViz | Exploratory data analysis
Sometimes noticing things which we think are unnecessary could actually be necessary.
There are two kinds of data, public and private data.
Private data 🔐
This is organizational data, and since such data are associated with security and privacy concerns, company approval is needed to access it. It is useful for internal policy-making and for building business strategies by organizations.
Private data includes telecom data, banking data, Energy sectors, media data, Retail data, etc.
What are those strategies and how is it related to data?
Media Industry 📰
we will start from media data and its data journalism which involves electoral results, i.e. which political party has won by how many seats, checking how many seats did BJP take from congress and other minor parties, its a way of enhancing reporting and news writing finding of what strategies they used.
Digging deep into data by scraping, cleansing and structuring it, filtering by mining for specific, visualizing and making a story
Market basket analysis
Retail Industry 🛍️
With retail data, we can perform market basket analysis, for example, when you buy a TV you need to definitely buy a streaming box (eg: Hathway), if you buy a laptop then you should buy its accessories.
Amazon famously uses an algorithm to suggest items that you might be interested in, based on your browsing history or what other people have purchased. Apple’s major profit comes from market basket analysis because we all know that once you buy an Apple product you need to spend double the amount for the accessories 😢, monthly subscriptions, insurance, etc.
Knowing which products sell together can be very useful to any business. The most obvious effect is the increase in sales that a retail store can achieve by reorganizing its products so that things that sell together are found together.
Association strength of the products being purchased
Telecom Industry 📱
You might have observed that when you buy some plan( especially prepaid) it won't be a round figure, let's say you bought a plan for ₹19 and you are not satisfied with it, then the vendor offers you another plan for ₹99 (which includes Hotstar subs/Amazon voucher/extra data, etc) which would be making an extra figure of ₹80, now as a basic intuition you might take the plan where you get more benefits and pay the amount. Thus, they deliberately made you view both the plans and make you buy the one which they want.
A scenario where we can understand Market basket analysis
You can even go through other operators and check out their offers (obviously apart from the one’s you are using)
Public data 🌏
The data that is made publicly available for the purpose of research and learning, which could be accessed via open websites and web scraping.
You can visit data.gov.In, Kaggle, Git to see how the data is made available over various sectors of industry, explore to find out.
Sweetviz
An open-source library, a powerful package that boosts your exploratory data analysis.
You could even use pandas profiling but I feel sweetviz will give you better insights.
pandas profiling that might not be much insightful
Here I used IMDb data set containing 100 rows and 62 columns.
Instead of using DataFrame.describe() and pandas profiling, we could use sweetviz, for comparing, analyzing, and understanding the whole data set based on a target column.
Sweetviz is made on top of pandas profiling and the best part is we could view its demographics very clearly.
Let us see how our data set looks like.
Visualizing the entire data using sweetviz
Its just two lines of code with which you can visualize the entire data set and it gives a boost to your exploratory data analysis.
HTML view
Large scale association heatmap based on all the columns
Sweetviz just adds an extra edge in helping you identify all the particulars and this is just a primary step in exploratory data analysis.
If you have enjoyed my work do give a clap and share it with your friends too.
Stay safe
Support my work ❤️
Keep coding!
Manish Kumar
Data Science Enthusiast | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/data-sourcing-market-basket-analysis-and-sweetviz-7421a10e97e3 | ['Manish Kumar Thota'] | 2020-06-17 15:25:39.534000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Python Programming', 'Blog', 'Exploratory Data Analysis', 'Data Visualization'] |
Will We Build Back Better? | Will We Build Back Better?
With a vaccine around the corner, light is appearing at the end of the tunnel. No doubt, COVID has fundamentally altered us, and there is no going back to how we used to live before the pandemic. What will change, and do we have the courage to #BuildBackBetter?
COVID, along with unbridled social unrest, historic wildfires, and devastating superstorms, rocked us to our core in 2020. But with the impending promise of widespread vaccine distribution, it looks like the end of the pandemic is near.
While consumers continue to tighten their belts and moderate spending, the upward trajectory of the housing market endures. New home sales have reached record highs, and COGNITION Smart Data, Green Builder Media’s market intelligence and data division shows that remodeling projects are up by 75%, with homeowners spending on average $17,140 (up from and average annual spend of $12,000.)
A recent COGNITION survey indicates that consumers are making different lifestyle choices due to the pandemic, taking better care of themselves by cooking and exercising more, paying more attention to their indoor air quality, and spending more time outdoors.
How has your behavior changed due to the Coronavirus?
COVID may prove to be a turning point for adopting healthier habits, but, simply put, that not enough. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and right now, incremental change isn’t enough. We need a sea change.
The recent election reminded us how deeply divided our nation is, and the unacceptable truth is that we’re not anywhere close to establishing a just, sustainable, or climate-safe system — one that balances economic vibrancy with social equality and environmental stewardship.
And let’s go ahead and call out the elephant in the room: we’re actually taking steps further away from our climate goals rather than towards them.
A recent study by the United Nations (UN) emphasized that, while global fossil fuel production and greenhouse gas emissions have declined sharply this year because of the pandemic, we’re still on a trajectory to increase fossil fuel production on a global scale by 2% — a far cry from the 6% decrease required to meet the Paris Agreement climate goals.
To add insult to injury, John Kerry, Biden’s newly appointed ‘Climate Envoy’ recently admitted that that even if we hit the Paris Agreement objectives, we still won’t be able to reduce the “threat multiplier” of climate change — meaning that our environment will continue to get more unstable, unpredictable, and extreme.
Which begs the question — how can we, realistically, transition to an equitable, climate-safe future?
No doubt, the new administration is putting climate action at the forefront of its agenda, promoting the:
· Transition to a 100% clean energy economy and net-zero emissions by 2050
· Enhancement of resilient buildings and infrastructure
· Implementation of aggressive emission limits for polluting industries
· Engagement with other nations to drive climate action
· Protection of frontline communities
· Reduction of emissions from transportation
· Investment in climate research, innovative technologies, and renewable energy
·Improvement of sustainable agricultural, industrial, and manufacturing practices
But I can’t help but wonder — can we marshal enough human resource, financial capital, and political will to truly #BuildBackBetter, updating our social contracts and transforming our system so that it is economically vibrant, environmentally appropriate, and socially just? Or is it too little, too late?
How are you doing in the time of COVID? We want to know! Click here to take Green Builder Media’s short survey and enter to win a $100 Amazon gift card.
Want to read more? Follow me on Twitter and Facebook. For more information about green building and sustainable living, visit Green Builder Media at www.greenbuildermedia.com, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter for regular updates and breaking news. | https://medium.com/@sara-gutterman/will-we-build-back-better-3ace75bf14ec | ['Sara Gutterman'] | 2020-12-26 17:00:06.242000+00:00 | ['Biden', 'Environment', 'Coronavirus', 'Climate Action'] |
China's Plan for Total World Domination | "Let the Lion Sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world", is a quote famously attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte where he refers to China as a Lion; this article will be an inquiry into how true this statement holds and what Bonaparte's prophecy means for China and The World.
In this article, we will discuss Chinese Ideology, the vision of the CCP for the next century, and how it plans to achieve this using Chinese Foreign Policy (CFP), and other strategies. This article is purely objective and should not be construed as the personal opinions of the author
We study the past to understand the present and we understand the present to guide the future. So to take a look at China's vision for the future and to understand where we are headed from here, we need to take a look at what led us to this point, and how we arrived here. What were the guiding principles of China? What has shaped its present and set it up on the path for the future? China is poised for a meteoric rise in the coming decade, and this is all thanks to the vision of the leaders at the helm of the Chinese Dragon Boat. Visions of world domination have always been a recurring theme in the communist ideology, tracing origins back to Karl Marx. For China, this is blended with its long history. To the outside world, it isn't clear whether this is simply rhetoric to keep the Chinese peasantry in line or if China sees this as their destiny, and Xi Jinping believes he is the leader who will deliver this vision.(Hille, 2020) With thousands of years of continuous history, Ancient China to date is unabated as one of the world's most significant players, in terms of trade, population, and culture. In the book, "The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower", Micheal Pilsbury goes into depth about China's plan for world domination. And how they aim to do this by 2049, the centennial of China's communist revolution. So the theory being discussed in this article is neither a foreign one nor a conspiracy theory as some Chinese mouthpieces may claim it to be. It is rooted in evidence and statistical data. To understand how China arrived at this point, let's dive into the Cold War era, where the generation of Xi Jinping was coming of age. The birth of Xi Jinping was around the same time as the start of the Cold War, and during those years China was a huge, impoverished nation. In the 1970s as China slowly started opening up to the west, it gradually unfolded itself and by the 1990s China wanted to step into the modern world along with the rise of Globalization. In 1980 Chinese GDP was under $90 billion in current dollars, whereas today it is over $12 trillion. This kind of exponential economic growth is unprecedented. Simultaneously In the 1990s the Internet was booming and the Soviet Union seemed to have collapsed, the US, as a sole superpower exploited these opportunities and shifted large parts of its production to lower-cost countries which ushered in the aforementioned era of Globalization. The Western world arrogantly thought that everyone else wanted to be like them, as looking back their ideas seemed to have made sense. They won WW2 and the Cold War with their technology and overzealous ideals of freedom and democracy. To the Americans, their way seemed the best, but apart from the Americans that hadn't seemed so obvious to people elsewhere, especially China.
Beijing may have admired American achievements, but not enough to abandon Communism. China seems to have adapted and rebranded its idea of Freedom. Modern Communism is quite distant from Maoism. The -ism that present-day CCP has gone with is "Xiism" (as I like to call it) or "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" also abbreviated as Xi Jinping Thought; as most people refer to it, is understood to be a dynamic, capitalistic, totalitarian, top-down structure with rigid rules and social restrictions. The Xi Jinping Thought consists of 14 principles, which can be found in this BBC article His own words: The 14 principles of 'Xi Jinping Thought'. This ideology is largely seen to be the guiding principle for the rising Chinese Star. All these seem to be rapidly happening since 2013 when Xi ascended the throne and took office as the President of China. Much of his thought seems to come from his 2013 speech where he discusses Marx and Mao, China's place in history and the competition of the state with other capitalistic nations, and a plea to adhere to Communism.
credits : BRAHMA CHELLANEY
Xi is also seen to be consolidating power and is seen as the most powerful Chinese leader, especially since the ending of the two-term limit for presidents. Pre Xi, leaders mainly focussed on a collective leadership image, Xi seems to have departed from it and moved into a cult of personality. With books, cartoons, mass media, and propaganda honoring his rule. He has also set up many administrative bodies and appointed himself in key positions which help him dish out his agenda more effectively. Most notable he is the leader of the cyber security and internet policy body, and the National Security Commission of the CCP gives him control over the internet and national security affairs. So we can see how internally and externally this affects Chinese foreign policy.
In pure numbers, China is set to overtake the US economy in less than a decade. This is in large part thanks to China's accelerated production and growth, coupled with the USA's plateauing economy, as is the case for developing and developed economies respectively. We will also be taking a look at how China is growing, not just by ramping up production within its borders but by also playing a strategic game of Wei Qi ( or Go in English) on the world stage. To understand Strategic behavior, we must decode strategic thinking. Thinking that originates from a nation's history and culture. It is a uniquely Chinese game that is believed to be the oldest board game in the world, having originated 2500 years ago in China. The goal of the game is to slowly and patiently build up assets and tip the game in one's favor. The strategic end is not full victory, but relative victory and is a long strategy game. In English, it translates to a game of surrounding pieces. This might sound eerily familiar, China is playing this game in real-time, In real life. We just have to take a look at the activity in the South China Sea, surrounding pieces, and usurping assets that they do not own. ("WION — Does This Board Game Explain China's Expansionist Strategy?" |2020) China has had a long history of strategic acumen being used by Leaders, including the immortalization of the book, The Art of War by the Ancient military general and strategist, Sun Tzu. In recent years, the world has seen a rightward pro-aggressive nationalism shift on the political spectrum with China being no exception. You have Modi for India, Trump for the USA, Bolsanaro for Brazil, Boris for the UK, et al. And all of these leaders subscribe to a similar school of thought. Xi has adopted a hard-line on security and foreign affairs, appearing to be a more assertive and nationalistic player. It has even been termed the wolf warrior diplomacy by some academicians, referring to a Rambo-style Chinese movie by the same name. In comparison, the prior Chinese diplomatic practice was to avoid controversy and the use of cooperative rhetoric. The present style seems to be confrontational and combative and given China's size and ability to bully other players, it comes as no surprise that Xi is ramping up this diplomacy style. Ironically Wolf Warrior 2's tagline is "Whoever attacks China will be killed no matter how far the target is." The Chinese Foreign Ministry is one of the organs increasingly employing aggressive diplomacy tactics. This diplomacy has been noticed since 2017 and has increased in the run-up to Covid. European leaders have also been taken by surprise because now China is engaging with them in a tone of opposition rather than collaboration, where previously this style of dialogue would have been reserved for smaller or weaker countries (Hille, 2020). This is characterized by an incident late last year, where the foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian posted a photo of a child having their throat slit by an Australian soldier (Rej, n.d.). This was understood by political analysts as an attempt to escalate the Chinese-Australian dispute. Reuters reported that the Australian PM termed this post repugnant and that the Chinese government should be ashamed of this post. The next day the foreign ministry rejected the demand for an apology. Furthermore, the engagement of Chinese diplomats on Twitter has also grown fourfold from April 2019 to April 2020. A culmination of these foreign policies and ideologies in the past year has seemed to manifest itself very aggressively. It has taken a rather dramatic and sinisterly aggressive turn. It has lashed out at Australia, for questioning its handling of the Covid 19 Pandemic, tightened its hold in the South China Sea, clashed with India in regions like Aksai Chin and the Himalayas, deployed warplanes across the median line in the Taiwan Strait, and even boosted patrol around Japanese controlled Islands. Within Hong Kong, we are no stranger to China increasing its grip over the autonomous region in recent times. We have observed and been witness to the crackdowns on free speech and dissent within the SAR. It has enacted a far-reaching national security law and arrested multiple pro-democracy activists in the process. This is the most striking of all as Hong Kong has for a long time been treated as its special region, but the Pearl of the Orient seems to be rescinding its status as a world city and is slowly falling back into the shadow of the Mainland.
Moving on, we have gathered a brief understanding of What China's guiding principles are, a brief rundown of its ideologies, and what its internal system looks like. To answer the questions of What? Why? And How? We have understood the 'What' and the 'Why', now let's take a look at the 'How'? To recap: ● What? Chinese World Domination ● Why? Chinese ideology and Rejuvenation of the Chinese dream. ● HOW? What strategies and techniques are being used? Strategic Trade routes and economic relations with other players. How does China plan to dominate global trade? A few key concepts we will be exploring are the String of Pearl's theory, the Belt and Road Initiative, Debt Trap diplomacy, and the Salami slicing strategy. The String of Pearl's theory is a geopolitical theory of how China plans to strategically place points of control and the Chinese intentions in the Indian Ocean region. In theory, a pearl refers to a military base, mega infrastructure project, economic corridor, or other such locales where China has a geostrategic advantage.The string of these pearls refers to China's possibility to connect these pearls via a maritime route.Chinese development over the last quarter-century has been heavily dependent on foreign sources of energy, and sustained growth would require a consistent energy source. To meet future demand, China has signed several projects to develop Iranian Oil Fields and to build a pipeline, port, and refinery in Sudan for oil exports. International responses have been varied and accusatory towards China. But China seems to view its actions in an entirely different light, calling it an effort to establish and strengthen the efforts of a Maritime Silk Route. China ramping up its economic investments has raised concerns about the political stability of the countries they are investing in. Secondly, we need to look at the Belt and Road initiative or the BRI which is the second piece to the puzzle of China's trade route, along with the Maritime Silk route. It is considered the centerpiece of the CCP's foreign policy under Xi Jinping. We can term it as Xi's crown jewel, it is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted in early 2013 to invest in nearly 70 countries and international organizations. Some estimates peg the amount to be invested by 2027 to be nearly $1.3 Trillion, which is a mind-boggling amount. The project also has a completion date of 2049, which coincides with the centennial of the PRC. Many observers including the US, interpret it as a plan for a Sinocentric international trade network. Simply put China is trying to buy friendship and political influence by building and investing massive amounts of money in infrastructure projects along with the One Belt One Road initiative. The stated objective is to construct a unified large market whilst making full use of the international and domestic markets, through cultural exchange and to enhance mutual understanding and trust among members resulting in a pattern of capital inflow, talent pools, and technology databases.(The Belt and Road Initiative, n.d.) It has even been incorporated into the constitution of China in 2017, the CCP calls this a bid to enhance regional connectivity and embrace a brighter future. There has been a range of mixed reactions, from many African countries seeing this as their ticket to independence from foreign aid and foreign influence. More than 130 countries have issued endorsements.Many countries support this and see it as a way to boost trade. But some pockets have heavily opposed this and leveled accusations of neocolonialism against the Chinese State. Some western countries have accused the BRI of being predatory and neocolonialistic in nature due to China's debt-trap diplomacy to fund the infrastructure projects of the initiative Next, we will discuss what debt-trap diplomacy is and why China is engaging in it. Simply put, debt-trap diplomacy is a theory to describe a powerful lending institution or country seeking to saddle a borrowing state with enormous debt to increase leverage over it. The term is attributed to an Indian Academic Brahma Chellaney in early 2017 and has widely garnered traction to describe China's lending policies. In simple terms, this Chinese development policy is called the Debt Trap diplomacy, because once indebted economies fail to repay their loans, they are pressured to support China's geostrategic interests (Abi-Habib & Bradsher, 2020). In April 2019 China released a Debt Sustainability Framework which has been described as being virtually identical to that of the World Bank and the IMF(Center For Global Development, n.d.). Oftentimes China has also been accused of imposing unfair trade and financial deals when cash-poor countries are unable to do without Beijing's money. China has also been accused of requiring secret negotiations and non-competitive pricing on projects, in which bidding is often closed and must go to Chinese players. Lastly, we will be taking a look at the Salami slicing strategy being used by China. It refers to a series of many small actions, none of which warrant heavy opposition by itself, but the cumulative result is a large one that would be difficult or unlawful to perform all at once. The String of Pearl's theory is seen to be a manifestation of this strategy. The BRI and its debt-trap diplomacy are said to be the economic slice of the strategy. It has various other dimensions such as culture and demographic slicing ( Sinicization and Re-education of minority groups), and Territory Slicing ( Indian dispute in the Himalayas, etc) among other things. Throughout this article, we have observed many aspects of China's salami-slicing strategy, keeping this in mind If we were to re-read the article: we would look at the bigger picture and be able to connect the dots and see that China is making its moves in a calculated manner. "Today, the lion has woken up. But it is peaceful, pleasant, and civilized," said Chinese President Xi Jinping while addressing a meeting in Paris. Indeed it looks like Napoleon Bonaparte's prophecy has been fulfilled (China, The Sleeping Lion Has Woken Up, Says Xi Jinping, 2014). In Conclusion, China is going to become a force to reckon with in the near future. And if any other nations want to challenge its dominance, they have to act fast and they have to act first. Some might speculate that it is already too little, too late, and to better ally with China rather than oppose. Indeed this may be true and the rejuvenation of the Chinese Dream is en route, and Xi Jinping will deliver China to the Promised Land. In 2049, Xi will be 95 and the PRC would be celebrating its centennial anniversary. 2049 seems to be the grand milestone and culmination date for a lot of Chinese Milestones, it should come as no surprise that this is going to be the greatest year in Modern Chinese history. The realization of many of the dreams of Xi and the Chinese Dream seems to be on schedule. Love him or hate him, there is no denying that this man has left a mark on China's history and has ushered in China's most significant era in modern history. | https://medium.com/@yusufshah/chinas-plan-for-total-world-domination-46ed05d38e3d | ['Yusuf Shah'] | 2022-01-09 21:26:46.599000+00:00 | ['Us China Relations', 'Chinese', 'China', 'Geopolitics', 'Foreign Policy'] |
Six Months With My Electric Scooter: A Review of the Xiaomi M365 | (This article contains affiliate links)
As I took a wobbly ride on a rented electric scooter earlier this year, my first thought was “this is not for me…”
I couldn’t figure out where to comfortably put my feet, and I found myself gripping tightly onto the handlebars as the tiny wheels struggled with the gravelly ground. I generally felt pretty self-conscious trying to weave between pedestrians and cyclists on the mixed-use path.
Fast-forward a few months, and I now use my own electric scooter almost everyday. I can’t remember how I coped without it!
The change occurred because I moved house; previously I could walk to work in around 30 mins, now it would take around an hour, entirely uphill. I wanted a convenient, fast and cheap form of transport for my commute, since I don’t own a car.
I considered a bike, but after a short trial I realized that I am just not cut out for a 3 mile uphill cycle ride first thing in the morning.
I considered an electric bike, but I live in Berkeley where bike theft is rife, and the idea of having to search for secure parking everyday and remember to remove the battery wasn’t appealing.
So I reluctantly revisited the electric scooter idea. After a short learning curve, I now absolutely love it and hope more people will consider getting one!
The basics
My scooter of choice is the Xiaomi M365 Folding Electric Scooter, which at the time seemed like the obvious winner in terms of both quality and price. There may be other good options available now.
Dimensions, upright and folded
It’s available for $499 on Amazon (this is how I got mine). It can reach speeds of up to 15mph and the battery lasts for about 18 miles. You charge it with a convenient charger that plugs into a standard power socket. I charge mine in my apartment overnight; I think it takes roughly 5 hours to get fully charged.
Charging the scooter in my apartment
The good
The scooter reduces my commute from ~1 hour to ~15 mins. And (once you get used to where to put your feet and learn to relax your grip) it is just an incredibly fun way to get to work. I literally look forward to it everyday.
My sister on the scooter. Look how much fun she’s having!
It’s also reduced my Uber and Lyft usage, and made trips to places that previously felt somewhat burdensome into a breeze. I can nip out to the grocery shop, meet for coffee around Berkeley, and even get to medical appointments in Oakland with no problem. I once even went from San Francisco Embarcadero all the way over the Golden Gate Bridge, and almost got to Sausalito before it ran out of charge!
One of my favorite features is being able to fold the scooter in half and put it in the trunk of a car. This means I don’t need to plan out exactly how I will get home, since I can always scoot somewhere and then decide to get an Uber back if it is too dark/cold/far. This is one of the main advantages of a scooter over a bike — I used to cycle everywhere but getting home after an evening event was often a pain.
The folding feature also has the advantage that you can usually take it in with you wherever you’re going. You can pick it up and carry it for short periods, and it can easily fit under a desk or a restaurant table so you don’t need to worry about finding a secure place to store it. Having said that, one of its disadvantages is that there isn’t really a way to lock the scooter up in the same way you can lock up a bike. You can’t scoot somewhere, lock it up, and then go for a hike. You can’t scoot to a mall, lock it up, and then go shopping. You kind of have to take it with you, which isn’t always convenient.
The scooter comes with an app that allows you to configure certain things, including keeping the red rear light on whenever the scooter is on, which I use. I also enabled the setting that rings your phone if someone tries to use your scooter without permission, but I’m not sure if this would do much to deter theft since it’s not exactly hard to pick the scooter up and carry it away without even turning it on.
The built-in lights are really convenient — another thing that I found annoying about cycling was remembering to keep my lights charged. With the scooter, I never have to worry about this, the lights are there when I need them and they do a pretty good job of lighting my way. I do tend to go a bit slower when it’s dark as I can’t look as far ahead as I normally do, but it’s not a big deal.
One final advantage of the scooter is the ease with which I can hop on or hop off. I generally use the road when I’m on my scooter, but I can also walk it across pedestrian crossings, or dismount quickly if there’s a situation that looks unsafe.
The bad
The main problem I’ve encountered on the scooter is dealing with poor-quality roads. Juddering along on an uneven surface is not particularly pleasant, and the small wheels make even minor potholes pretty terrifying. Having said that, I have found that it can tolerate more than I expected. I’ve learned the hard way that unexpected holes in the road are not fun, but they haven’t thrown me off yet. It’s definitely easier going on familiar routes; I tend to go a bit slower when I’m not used to the road surface.
Riding one-handed feels to me much more difficult than it does on a bike, so giving arm signals to indicate a turn can be tricky. It would be great if there were some lights built into the ends of the handlebars to help indicate turns.
Riding on the flat or downhill is a joy, and gentle uphills are fine when you’re on full battery. But anything steeper is difficult, and it’s noticeably worse when the battery is less than half full.
The image below shows the elevation of my 3 mile commute. The scooter handles the majority of it brilliantly, but I do need to give it a bit of a manual kick when I get to that final short uphill stretch. Of course, coming home at night is entirely downhill so that’s no problem at all!
The elevation of my 3 mile commute
Another slight downside with exchanging a bike for a scooter is missing out on the exercise. I miss the smug sense of virtue I got by walking or cycling to work and getting my exercise in before the day had even begun. At least I still get to feel environmentally smug compared to cars…
Speaking of cars, I’ve found that they’ve generally been pretty good around the scooter, although I try to stick to Berkeley’s ‘cycle boulevards’ rather than traffic-heavy roads.
As a not-quite-car and a not-quite-bike and a not-quite-pedestrian, it can be quite difficult to figure out what rules of the road you should follow on a scooter. I tend to behave basically like a bike, but there are occasions where it feels more appropriate to behave like a pedestrian. I’m looking forward to when these conventions are more firmly established, since I currently feel like I’m sometimes judged by other road users for not doing what they think is correct. Or maybe I’m just projecting my own confusion!
Although the folding feature is super convenient, it’s quite heavy so only suitable for carrying short distances. I’m excited about the possibility of future, lighter models.
And although it’s great for popping out to pick up a few groceries, it’s not really suited for a big shop as you can’t carry lots with you. However, one solution is to scoot to the store and then get an Uber home with all your shopping and the scooter in the trunk.
Another consideration worth knowing is that you’ll need to get a backpack if you want to carry anything while on the scooter; unlike a bike there isn’t any storage space via a basket or panniers. I’ve tried using a cross-body bag and it’s ok as long as it’s light, but you’ll be pulled off balance with anything substantial. Backpacks are the best solution, and I’d suggest getting one big enough to fit your helmet.
Finally, while this isn’t a problem where I am, you may want to check the legality of electric scooters where you are. In the UK, they are not legal anywhere except private land which is a huge shame. Given the potential of electric scooters to reduce congestion, get people breathing fresh air, reduce environmental damage, and give people a convenient, quick and cheap form of urban transport, I really hope lawmakers and city planners will start to take the benefits seriously.
Summary
If you often make short trips (< 5 miles) and the roads are of a decent quality, I’d highly recommend considering an electric scooter. It’s super convenient and a lot of fun. | https://medium.com/@RosieCampbell/six-months-with-my-electric-scooter-a-review-of-the-xiaomi-m365-42fbc16c5b73 | ['Rosie Campbell'] | 2019-11-17 16:32:05.265000+00:00 | ['Cycling', 'Review', 'Electric Scooters', 'Transportation'] |
Gemelli | 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/un-punto-di-vista/gemelli-c7853e052a77 | ['Ugo Valentini'] | 2020-12-24 17:58:02.265000+00:00 | ['Photography', 'Fotografia', 'Black And White', 'Bianco E Nero', 'Architecture'] |
Is your startup optimized for capital efficiency? | Is your startup optimized for capital efficiency?
(Continued from a prior post on Why Your Go-To-Market Strategy Matters.)
So how can startup technology companies focus their GTM strategies to reduce both their cash burn rates and their fundraising needs? I’m a big believer in the idea that you can never be too narrow or too focused. This means identifying a specific, painful problem and solving it fully for one carefully defined customer group.
There are three operative words here: painful, fully, and one. Let’s pause on each one, since they’re all essential to developing a well-targeted GTM strategy. A good early-stage GTM approach involves deep consideration of these three things:
1. It addresses real customer pain. When I refer to a “painful problem,” I mean something very specific . I’m thinking of the business challenges with the highest stakes for the decision-maker who buys your product. As a result, budgets, compensation, and even the jobs of senior leaders are on the line. Or corporate reputations risk severe damage if painful problems go unsolved — think of large-scale data breaches at credit reporting agencies or PG&E’s woes with customer communications during the most recent blackouts.
OK, as a startup, you’re probably not going to solve the intergalactic problems of PG&E. But it’s all too easy to get overly focused on your own product and its features, and by doing so lose sight of why your customers should care. You see, the truth is that no one really wants to buy from a startup. It’s risky, it’s scary, and it might even cost buyers their reputations or their jobs if things go wrong. The only way to really get customers’ attention is to solve a problem that is so painful that the risk of buying from a startup pales in comparison to the consequences of leaving the problem unsolved — or trying to solve it with solutions already in the market.
If you’re focused on issues of mere convenience or other “semi-painful” problems, the risks of buying from a startup will outweigh the benefits. Your GTM strategy will therefore be far less effective. You may win a few early evangelists, but the barriers to widespread adoption will be high. Your sales will gain momentum slowly, if at all. And you’re likely to burn copious quantities of cash in the process. Usually founders with a strong background in a specific industry or business area like HR are keenly aware of the biggest unsolved problems in their areas.
2. It fully solves this painful problem for your customers. Your solution can’t require your customers to do a bunch of extra work, abandon key systems, or invest significantly in retraining their staff. Those extra steps are huge barriers to adoption, causing long decision cycles and difficult customer onboarding. And while you wait for your customers to navigate those decision processes — you guessed it — you’re burning cash.
Your GTM strategy also can’t leave important pieces of the problem unsolved for customers. You need to understand how your product will integrate with their systems, industry-standard software, and work processes and meet regulatory requirements for their industry. That does not mean that your small company needs to do everything itself — far from it.
But it does mean you have to consider every step of the process for your product to move from your development team into the hands — and hearts — of happy end users. At every handoff, there is a risk of delay. Who will handle those delays? How? A careful, effective GTM approach will have considered the entire journey and offer repeatable answers that fully address specific points of pain for your customers along the way.
3. It’s focused on just one problem and just one customer group at a time. As I outlined in my last post, focusing on multiple industries or customer groups is costly — both in time and money. For all of the same reasons, it’s costly to focus on more than one problem — even in the same industry.
This idea is challenging for many founders. After all, they ask, aren’t we bringing more value to customers when we solve more problems for them? Yet decades of experience and research in bringing new products to market all say “no.” The clearer your value proposition and the more tightly focused it is on a single customer group, the easier and faster it is to identify potential problems and hone your responses. When there are more variables in the equation, it’s harder to solve.
I often hear entrepreneurs declare with pride that their technologies can be applied to many different markets. And surely in the long run, this *may* benefit their companies. But until you have solid traction with an initial set of customers, pursuing a wider array of customer types in disparate industries will likely burn lots of time in customer discovery. And it won’t bring you any closer to good, repeatable answers about how to find real traction with your customers.
When you look at GTM strategies from the customer’s perspective, a lot of this seems obvious. Yet it’s easy to lose focus on your customers when you get swept up in cycles of new product development or the stories that VC firms often want to hear about rapid growth and addressing multiple customer segments at the same time.
Nevertheless, a focused, intentional GTM strategy is essential for containing your costs and connecting effectively with your customers. There are a lot of misplaced fears about being too narrow or not having a total addressable market measured in the billions. But in my experience, a far bigger danger is not focusing your company’s efforts in a thoughtful way — particularly in its early growth phase.
Startups usually die of drowning, not of starvation. As an early stage company, your life raft is a focused, clear GTM strategy.
This article originally appeared at Jodi Sherman Jahic’s blog Alignment. Check out more of her posts on entrepreneurship, venture capital, and capital efficiency at www.alignment.blog. | https://medium.com/@jodij/is-your-startup-optimized-for-capital-efficiency-8f1c3805e61c | ['Jodi Sherman Jahic'] | 2019-11-21 22:52:51.449000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Capital Efficiency', 'Founders', 'Strategic Planning', 'Venture Capital'] |
How to Get Traffic to Your Blog: The Ultimate Guide | If you’re a blogger, one of your biggest struggles is probably getting traffic.
You’ve probably tried looking for ways to grow your traffic, just to find generic advice like “publish more often” or “share it on social media”.
The thing is when you’re starting out, no one reads what you’re writing and you have no social media following, so how are you supposed to get traffic?
It’s simple: you reverse engineer what successful blogs are doing.
Basically, the most effective way to grow your traffic is to see what’s working for your competitors and then copy what they’re doing.
Here’s how you can do this.
1. Find your top 10 competitors
Go to google and type in “best blogs about [your niche]” and choose the 10 most popular blogs.
If you already know who your top competitors are, you can skip this step.
2. See where their traffic is coming from
As I said earlier, the best way to get traffic is to see where your competitors are getting traffic from and replicate what they’re doing.
To do this, we’ll use a tool called Similar Web. This is an awesome tool that lets you see where other blogs in your niche are getting their traffic from.
All you have to do is type in your competitor’s URL, and Similar Web will give you their traffic stats:
Do this for your top 10 competitors and you’ll start to notice a trend in the results.
3. Go after their biggest traffic source
After analyzing your top 10 competitors, you should have a clear idea of how they’re getting their traffic.
Now your job is to choose just one traffic source and understand how you can use it to get visitors to your blog.
You’ll probably find that their biggest traffic source is search, mainly Google.
You should also know that search traffic is a reliable source, unlike social media or other sources that give you a quick spike in traffic that fades away days later.
Since we’ve established that the most popular blogs get the biggest chunk of their traffic from Google, it’s time to learn how to optimize your blog to do the same thing.
4. Learn SEO
I know what you’re thinking:
“SEO is too hard”
“SEO is too overwhelming”
“I’m not a tech-savvy kind of person, I can’t do SEO”
“SEO takes too long”
If you’re thinking anything along those lines, you should think again. I also thought that SEO was too complicated for a while, but it’s really not.
If you have the willingness to learn and the proper resources to learn from, you’ll be able to pick it up fairly quickly.
Instead of leaving you wondering what to do next, here’s how you can learn SEO:
First, read Brian Dean’s post, How to Learn SEO In 2020 (In Record Time) — By far one of the best guides about SEO on the web. It covers EVERYTHING you need to know about SEO in one place.
After that, I suggest you go and watch How to Do Keyword Research for a NEW Website (Full Tutorial) — An excellent tutorial about keyword research from Ahrefs.
Finally, I highly recommend you go through Ahref’s Blogging For Business free course — It’s an excellent training about SEO and growing your blog.
I also recommend you subscribe to Ahref’s Youtube Channel and Backlinko’s newsletter, they offer really good content on SEO.
5. Practice what you learn
After you spend some time learning the basics of SEO, it’s time to start implementing them on your own blog.
Conclusion
After years of trial and error, and countless hours of research, I came to this conclusion: if you really want to get traffic, optimize your blog for SEO.
Sure, there are other methods that will help you get small wins and traffic boosts from time to time, but if we’re talking long term traffic that grows over time, SEO is the best option. | https://medium.com/@rafikgk/how-to-get-traffic-to-your-blog-the-ultimate-guide-cbf9ee5ee21e | ['Boussalia Rafik'] | 2020-08-12 17:44:08.234000+00:00 | ['Blogging Tips', 'Blogging', 'Traffic Optimization', 'SEO', 'Digital Marketing'] |
Role of coaches in #DigitalPakistan (Pt. 1) | Hosted by Global Pakistan Tech Summit Powered by Ejad Labs.
The insightful session was conducted by Saba Kalsoom, a community manager and partner at Work Nation Space. With Raheel Bodla, a Business Coach based in Silicon Valley as a guest speaker.
Raheel Bodla shared vital knowledge for startups in the hour-long session. He explained the role of a mentor as a person you reach out to ask advice because you want to do something similar to what they are doing. The role of a coach was also explained. Mr. Bodla described coaching as a formal engagement that offers three more befits that mentorship does not.
Coaching provides clarity. Mentors can confuse you as different mentors will tell you different things based on their experiences. Coaching is sustainable. Mentors might not always have time for you because they do not do this full-time. Coaching has the factor of Accountability. You can hold coaches accountable, and they can do that for you as well. Coaches work with a plan and discuss your weekly progress alongside.
Raheel stressed that startups need both coaching and mentorship as it is a collaborative effort. The founder of a start-up already has subject matter expertise, so they need the coaching and business matter. A coach provides a business plan and tells you the market position. They help in marketing, sales, operations, finance, and customer success. These are the 7 dimensions of business. A lot of work is also put into the mindset and strategies.
Q: What are the criteria to choose a coach or mentor in the digital and startup ecosystem?
A: Reach out to a mentor or coach that has already done (successful) what you want to do.
Q: What do Pakistani startups look like compared to startups in the U.S?
A: A lot of people who study in the U.S and go back to Pakistan to start their work are doing an exceptional job because the purpose of universities is to surge the economy.
Q: Where does Pakistan lie on the global scale?
A: There is a lot of talent in Pakistan. Pakistan Tech Summit, Ejad Labs, and Startup Grind Pakistan bring startups to Silicon Valley. Venture Capitalists are considering funding Pakistani startups and consider them an amazing investment.
Q: Should one focus on High Tech, that is, go innovative when it comes to startups, or does it not matter?
A: Go with the one idea that you believe in. The one you would risk your life’s investment on.
Watch the full session here. | https://medium.com/@sumaya-anjum07/role-of-coaches-in-digitalpakistan-170d72f82df6 | ['Sumaya Anjum'] | 2021-07-06 06:00:00.696000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Summit', 'Startups'] |
Among the responses to this text, the one most acclaimed is Bryan’s, who politely suggests to call… | Among the responses to this text, the one most acclaimed is Bryan’s, who politely suggests to call the phenomenon of interrupting each other “interrupting”. This is sort of an old school idea that doesn’t seem to be too far-fetched at first sight. But, no offense Bryan, your point seems naive in that it misses Ross’s point. He can’t make it gender-neutral, I’m afraid, because he wants to show off his critical attitude towards masculinity. The man is reflecting his privileges and his misbehavior, and he understands that traditional manhood is toxic. It’s not about him as an individual. Neither is it about us people working together. Rather, it is about him in possession of a penis. Getting rid of the man-jabbering meant getting rid of the heart and soul of this article. Note that you cannot call his gender-blaming sexism, because the group of men as a whole lacks the gold standard of victimhood, namely the “marginalized group” stamp. This stamp is mandatory for claims of any of these powerful isms of our time, and is obtainable only from authorized activists on the left of the political spectrum. | https://medium.com/@dembo/among-the-responses-to-this-text-the-one-most-acclaimed-is-bryans-who-politely-suggests-to-call-f06212e6e60f | [] | 2020-04-26 07:19:17.093000+00:00 | ['Manterrupting', 'Zoom', 'Mansplaining', 'Sexism', 'Masculinity'] |
WHY YOU SHOULD HIRE A STRETCH TENT FOR YOUR SUFFOLK WEDDING | It’s easier to budget One of the biggest benefits of hiring a stretch tent is that, unlike with hotel venues and country homes, you are not tied to using any particular suppliers, for food or otherwise. This means it’s easier to manage your budget because it gives you the freedom to choose caterers and other services that fit within your budget.
Play with a blank canvas A stretch tent is effectively a blank canvas to be decorated any way you like. Once the outer shell of the stretch tent is erected, you can choose from different linings, different flooring solutions, a range of lighting options and when it comes to furniture and decor, you’re free to decorate how you like to suit your big day.
Flexibility Stretch tents are an incredibly versatile option for your wedding venue. All you need is a bit of space, whether that’s your back garden or a field. Stretch tents are modular to allow you to make truly tailor your stretch tent to your wedding day needs, both in size and interior layout. Would you like a separate reception area? A chill-out room? A separate bar area? No problem!
Suitable for all-weather Whilst we can’t do much about the weather, we can ensure your stretch tent is adaptable for all weathers. Tentickle Stretch Tents tents are waterproof and can easily be heated during the chilly winter months with diesel generators to provide a cosy space for you and your guests to enjoy.
Have as many guests as you like Within reason! Stretch tents can usually hold many more guests than a traditional hotel or country club; stretch tents can be adapted to suit parties from 20 people up to 300 depending on the format of your big day. The modular design of stretch tents allows to easily add extra sections on or remove to cater to your number of guests.
Different designs to suit the style of your wedding Many people don’t realise the choice available when it comes to hiring a stretch tent. We offer a choice of three different styles which suit very different styles of wedding.
© 2020 Cover the World in Tents. | https://medium.com/@EventJunkies/why-you-should-hire-a-stretch-tent-for-your-suffolk-wedding-4303763b48b0 | ['Event Junkies'] | 2020-03-12 12:00:21.298000+00:00 | ['Weddings', 'Event Tents', 'Stretch Tents', 'Stretch Tent Hire', 'Wedding Planning'] |
Is It Really Feasible To Manifest Money With Law of Attraction ? | Have you ever wondered the way a Law of Attraction works? Along with Can you make use of the Law of Attraction to manifest money?
Yes, you can.
You can use the Law of Attraction to Draw anything you want, Including cash. But you may possibly think it is is easier to begin
by attracting the actual item you would like instead of the income. This is normally because most people have a great deal of
mental blocks and limiting beliefs around wealth and money. Therefore, if you may work around the cubes, you are going to find
that you can draw exactly what you need without spending dollars.
Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash
Try to remember, money Is Just a medium of trade — something or some resource we all use to obtain the experiences and things we
need and wish for. Quite frequently , we mistakenly believe that it is money itself we need. Actually what we really want may be
the stuff we may do with cash. As an instance, you can think you wish to attract money to pay off your charge card invoices (I
have been around ! ) ) . Actually, that which you really want would be a experience of abundance, security or freedom. In the
event that you’d the credit score card debt and plenty of income to arrive to cover all those invoices, you would certainly be
happy, right? It is when there wasn’t sufficient money that you believe you want to bring in more dollars. This is because you are
focusing upon the dearth of money opposed to the rich wealth on your life.
The solution is not fundamentally to draw in more or manifest money. Instead, you need to generate the suitable connection with
income. Your own debt is still actually a gift and it may show you the way to make a superior connection with cash. For the time
being, though, let’s focus on how a Law of Attraction actually works and how you can activate it in your own lifespan.
The very first Law of Attraction is that like attracts like. Therefore in case you Want funds to purchase some thing, instead of
thinking about the cash, and proceed right to what you really would like. Let’s imagine you want to get a home. Instead of
emphasizing 50,000 to get a down payment, then start focusing to exactly the house you’ll want. Where’s it? What does it resemble?
Be quite specific about exactly what your perfect home looks like right down to if it’s a fireplace or perhaps maybe not. These
include for the reason that perfect household description the volume that could easily afford to pay for this household too. Of
course for those who are not certain what would be simple, then proceed for an overall whole home cost (like mortgage, insurance,
and real estate taxes) that doesn’t exceed 20 percent of your month-to-month revenue. Like a good rule of thumb, you should have
the ability to pay for your mortgage loan simultaneously save no less than 15 percent — 20 percent of one’s salary prior
retirement.
Write down Precisely What you actually want, together with As much descriptive detail as you are able to. The first step to
bringing what you want would be getting crystal clear what it really is you would like to attract. Our notions illustrate our
reality. You wish to focus about everything you need — that the home! Maybe not to the money to get your house.
A customer of mine in NYC used this Precise approach to attract the Perfect flat. She might afford to pay $600 a month rent,
however wanted a more cool inch — bed room apartment in the West Village, strolling space for your own health as well as family
members. It was a seemingly impossible order given that rents at the area proved readily double . Nonetheless, I asked her to
concentrate on exactly what she needed, perhaps maybe not what she did not desire! If you think you’re never discover such an
apartment, then guess what? You’ll prove your self . She maintained positive and pictured exactly what she required. A few weeks
after a friend of a close friend was leaving town and needed to sublet her flat for $600 a few months. This absolutely was the
perfect apartment, and had a little lawn away from the back and exposed brick walls for extra allure. Everyone believed it had
been impossible, but she proved them wrong.
Certainly one of my clients realized she didn’t Need to Own a home with the associated problems of preserving it, cleansing it,
insuring it, etc..
She Only Wanted to appreciate Residing in a Luxurious, beautiful home in a gorgeous area that has been near for your own work.
When she got quite clear about what it was that she actually wished, she brought a paid occupation for a house-sitter, at an
attractive sizable residence in the very best area in Chicago. Perhaps not only did she catch to dwell in your home, but she has
compensated to live there as well! It did demand mowing plants.
A coaching colleague of mine always Imagined forcing a red Convertible sports car. She had two children and understood this was
not practical. I encouraged her to imagine himself driving and enjoying this car. Within two weeks, a friend claimed he was
leaving town for a few weeks. He inquired if she’d prefer touse his new car inside the meantime. She was delighted — his vehicle
or truck happened to be a red convertible! She experienced wonderful fun together using the auto for a month or two, but finally,
was happy she had a family-friendly car because the sports vehicle really wasn’t really easy. This fulfilled a long-held dream and
price her in the practice. Some times when we believe you want to get something, it isn’t true. Some times we just need the
experience and also once that experience is fulfilled , we are able to tick that box off and the appetite disappears.
Most marketing Was Made to enable us to buy Matters we don’t really want or even need. So I recommend you take to satisfying your
desires in low-cost or free manners by attracting these first.
Ok, Just How does the Law of Attraction manifest money It self?
Imagine should you truly do want cash to pay bills or to pay off debts? This is just a bit more challenging because it isn’t
difficult to end up focusing on the debt and also the deficiency instead of the money that has the unpleasant outcome of raising
your debts instead. Oops! Hence the key here’s a bit counter intuitive. Don’t use all of your cash to cover your debt off.
Alternatively, set aside some for economies. This really isn’t logical or rational however, it will work. If you know that like
attracts like, subsequently debt attracts debt. We have all experienced this. And, income brings more cash. For this reason, you
need to put up a currency magnet to pull money. This is going to be described as considered a checking account.
Weekly deposit some money in to your savings accounts, also should It really is $10 weekly. You have to set a objective to save a
minimum of a month’s living costs as speedily as possible. The trick would be always to get an amount that feels relatively large
for your requirements . Therefore that actual amount will be different from individual to individual. This really is your money
magnet. If you have no any savings and plow towards your debts, financially and technically, this is reasonable, however, it will
not account fully for the bewitching effects of giving birth to a cash magnet on your life. You want to reverse the tendency of
debt by developing savings. Money will draw more money. You will start to realize that money will come from from places that are
unexpected. It’s possible for you to utilize this to cover off your debts even more rapidly, however also take a portion to
maintain upping your personal cost savings. | https://medium.com/@manifestationlawofattraction/is-it-really-feasible-to-manifest-money-with-law-of-attraction-a831478c4ee7 | ['Manifestation', 'Law Of Attraction Hub'] | 2021-02-09 10:34:35.133000+00:00 | ['Manifestation', 'Money', 'Money Management', 'Money Mindset'] |
Midnight Thoughts | My Priceless Need
50-Word Poetry Fiction
Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash
Why do you run away from me
when I need you the most?
Don’t you see
without you
I become weak and weary?
Turn off my crazy brain
and lead me into oblivion.,
Creep into my exhausted body
Oh, my priceless sleep.,
You are the secret
of my well being.,
Chirag @ 2020
Thanks Muhammad Zunair | https://medium.com/midnight-thoughts/poetry-fictionpriceless-need-b1f1bc6b6819 | [] | 2020-07-17 09:59:05.478000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Fiction', 'Sleep', 'Poems On Medium', 'Micropoetry'] |
How to Build Custom Transformers in Scikit-Learn | FunctionTransformer
Let’s start simple with a great tool for on the fly transformations: FunctionTransformer. FunctionTransformer can be used for everything from applying a predefined function to a feature, to selecting specific columns in your feature set. The basic idea is that FunctionTransformer accepts a function (you can also pass an inverse function), and applies the function to the data via a fit_transform method. This makes it a great tool for uncomplicated transformations that can be encapsulated in a simple function; you can almost think of this as the “lambda function” of scikit-learn preprocessing. We demonstrate a few use cases below.
Selecting Features:
Here we use FunctionTransformer to select two of the thirteen features in the full Boston Housing dataset.
Output of the above Code (Image by Author)
Simple Transformations:
We were able to select the features we wanted, but perhaps we’d like to scale the values of the ‘CRIM’ (Crime Rate) feature. We could use StandardScaler, but instead we’ll apply a log scale to demonstrate how to use FunctionTransformer to apply simple functions on the fly. | https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/how-to-build-custom-transformers-in-scikit-learn-edd65951b2e8 | ['Jake Miller Brooks'] | 2020-12-08 15:41:49.334000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Data Science', 'Feature Engineering', 'Machine Learning', 'Scikit Learn'] |
8 Best Selfie Sticks | The selfie rage is in full swing, thanks to popular social media apps like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. With the advent of the smartphone came a race towards creating the best selfie camera. Every year, hundreds of new phone models are released bearing front cameras to allow for the perfect selfie.
However, sometimes, we need a little help in getting the perfect shot. This is where selfie sticks join the world of photography. These handheld devices are a real game-changer. They help us take pictures from further away, allowing for a wider angled selfie. There is nothing an Instagram junkie appreciates more than a tool that can help them get the best selfie possible.
Selfies have gained enough prominence to influence the creation of a line of products curated solely to help people up to their selfie game. They have become a staple in modern times. Anyone with a smartphone is bound to go the extra mile to achieve the “perfect selfie.” We understand the struggle, too!
So, to help you achieve an Instagram worthy selfie, we have compiled a list of the best selfie sticks available on the market today.
(We get commissions through purchases made through links in this post.)
Apltoy’s selfie stick is a 54-inch long device with a Li-Po rechargeable battery. It weighs 1.05 pounds and is not too heavy when held singlehandedly. This is good because heavy selfie sticks make taking pictures harder.
This handy dual device is compatible with both Android and iOS. With a 45–60 minute charge time, this device comes with a remote and converts into a tripod, too. This makes taking selfies easy and fun!
When fully charged, this stick can take up to 3000 photos, making it a wonderful addition to any travel backpack. This selfie stick can fit most phone sizes and comes with an adjustable phone holder mount for phones with a width of 2.16–3.93 inches.
Moreover, it has a 180-degree rotation option so that pictures can be taken from virtually any angle in either direction. It is made from aluminum alloy, making it a durable device.
This second multifunctional selfie stick is by UBeesize, and it can stretch up to 51 inches long and comes with a wireless remote. It can take pictures from up to 30 feet away, a commendable distance. This product weighs 1.38 pounds, which is not too heavy and makes it easily portable. The UBeesize stick is known for its sturdiness.
This device has a rechargeable Lithium Metal battery as well. It is compatible with iOS and Android and works with most smartphones, as it has a universal phone holder.
This device allows the phone to rotate and alternate between landscape and portrait mode, which is another welcome feature that is useful in photography. The remote has two functions. It lets the user either take a picture or record a video. However, there is no zoom option on the remote. This selfie stick is very easy to use and comes with a simple interface.
This device works with both iOS and Android. It comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee and 18 months warranty. The Selfie Stick by Appolab is a great buy, especially at this price! Connect it to your smartphone via Bluetooth and use it freely.
Its extension is a little less at only 27.6 inches, but even this is quite commendable. Appolab’s selfie stick operates in portrait mode, as well as landscape. It is portable and easy to carry around, making it great for taking along on vacations.
The BlitzWolf selfie stick can extend up to 32.5 inches and has a 24-hour working period which makes it great for traveling. The device can take up to 20,000 selfies on a full battery without charging it’s Lithium polymer battery.
Furthermore, the product allows for phone placement vertically or horizontally, enabling you to take pictures in both landscape and portrait mode. This device also comes with a remote that connects to the phone via Bluetooth, but this function does not always work on all phones.
The BlitzWolf stick is compatible with both iOS and Android. It has an exterior composed of Aluminum alloy, making it durable and sturdy. It weighs six ounces, which means it is lightweight and easy to carry. The Bluetooth range on the remote is up to 33 feet, a commendable feature. However, it only comes in black color.
Eocean’s selfie stick exercises a maximum extension is 54 inches and comes in black only. This device has a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery and weighs 1.02 pounds. The device is light and portable, so feel free to travel with it! It has excellent stability which is essential for videos.
The remote allows for wireless communication and connects to the phone via Bluetooth. The Eocean this dual tripod device has a three-month standby time and takes 30 minutes to charge fully.
Its operation is via remote from up to 30 feet away, which is a useful feature. However, this feature is in almost all remote controlled selfie sticks and does not help set this product apart. Regardless, though, it is still a good device that comes at a reasonable price.
This is an upgraded version of the previous Yoozon selfie stick. It performs better than the older version, which is something many people have been looking forward to. It extends to a maximum of 26.6 inches, which is the average for most products in this category.
The Yonzoon selfie stick allows for 360-degree phone rotation, allowing for both portrait and landscape photography. It also comes with a wireless remote with Bluetooth connectivity and a Lithium-Ion battery that is rechargeable.
This device has an 18-month warranty and comes in a sleek, black design. Its compressed size is a mere 7.9 inches, which makes this device easy to carry around. It has good portability and weighs 8.8 ounces.
Yoozon’s price lands slightly above average, yet it is a useful product with impressive durability. It can be trusted to work well as it is the updated version of the previous Yoozon selfie stick.
The Erligpowht selfie stick weighs a mere 4.4 ounces. It is very lightweight and is, therefore, a good travel companion. It extends up to 27 inches. It has a Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery and wireless remote that connects through Bluetooth.
Using the remote, you can capture photos and record videos conveniently. It has a 225-degree rotation knob and works for both landscape and portrait mode thanks to its 360-degree orientation rotation ability. Phones with a width between 1.7 and 3.15 inches can fit into the phone bracket of this device. What’s more, it comes with an 18-month warranty.
Weighing just 3.7 ounces, the VProof device is another affordable selfie stick that is very light in weight and easy to carry around. Also, when compressed, it is only 6.5 inches tall. These features are what make it excellent for travel.
The Vproof’s device can extend to 26 inches and has a 33-foot Bluetooth range via wireless remote that uses a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery. It has a 20–25 hour shooting time capacity and can last up to 30 days on standby mode.
It bears a 12-month warranty, which can be used if a problem arises with the product. All in all, this is a product with excellent quality and is a steal at a low price!
Choosing a Selfie Stick
The world today is all about selfies and photographs, thanks to social media which has helped make selfie sticks extremely popular. The Instagram selfie game has reached a new high in terms of picture quality because of the fad.
A good selfie stick is lightweight, portable, has a good battery life, and does not leave a dent in the pocket. Luckily, all the sticks on our list follow this criteria, making a choice easy for you! | https://medium.com/lumoid/8-best-selfie-sticks-805204f60d64 | ['Lumoid Staff'] | 2019-10-19 14:01:01.455000+00:00 | ['Photography'] |
The Complicated Dynamics Between SaaS, iPaaS, and End Users | The software integration world is weird and interesting. People who aren’t close to it typically don’t even know it exists. Teams that need to buy integration products or services typically don’t really want to do it.
Yet, it’s incredibly important.
The SaaSification of the software industry, emerging frameworks for rapid product development, and lots of capital funneling into the sector have created a huge amount of fragmentation. This makes software integration a non-negotiable capability for any company that uses software (read: any company).
These dynamics have created a complicated set of incentives and market dynamics that are useful to understand.
In this post, I want to break down those complicated dynamics between SaaS companies, iPaaS companies, and the end users they serve.
My goal is to help teams at software companies as well as teams who purchase software for a business to understand what’s happening and how it impacts them as they face critical decisions about how exactly they’ll handle connectivity.
Important Terminology
If terms like “SaaS” and “iPaaS” are new to you. This section will build some context. If you know what all these things are and you want to get to the real point of this article, you can skip to the next section.
This software world we’ve created can get a little confusing, because of the terminology we assign to different types of products and companies.
Tech people like to be cute and create terms that are derivative of other existing terms.It sounds awesome in TechCrunch, but it confuses the crap out of a lot of less technical people.
Therefore, before getting into the meat of this post, I want to set the stage a bit, clarifying the characters in this play:
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is a business model where a user pays for a piece of business software that someone else hosts for them, usually on a subscription basis. (If you want to read more about SaaS, start with Salesforce, the people who made it sexy.)
is a business model where a user pays for a piece of business software that someone else hosts for them, usually on a subscription basis. (If you want to read more about SaaS, start with Salesforce, the people who made it sexy.) SaaS companies are the software companies that build and sell SaaS products. I’m going to specifically use “SaaS company” to refer to the organization and “SaaS product” to refer to the software itself.
are the software companies that build and sell SaaS products. I’m going to specifically use “SaaS company” to refer to the organization and “SaaS product” to refer to the software itself. Integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) is a type of SaaS product. It’s basic function is to connect other software products, usually also SaaS, so they can share data on behalf of their users. Likewise, iPaaS companies build and sell iPaaS products.
is a type of SaaS product. It’s basic function is to connect other software products, usually also SaaS, so they can share data on behalf of their users. Likewise, iPaaS companies build and sell iPaaS products. End users are the line of business or subject matter experts who seek SaaS products and sometimes iPaaS products. They have some other business or some job to do and SaaS products theoretically make them better at it.
are the line of business or subject matter experts who seek SaaS products and sometimes iPaaS products. They have some other business or some job to do and SaaS products theoretically make them better at it. On-premise software or traditionally licensed software describes the pre-SaaS model for the software business. End users buy a version of a product and install it on their own hardware. They either pay the software vendor or a third party to maintain, customize, and upgrade it and/or the end user’s IT department does those things in-house.
or describes the pre-SaaS model for the software business. End users buy a version of a product and install it on their own hardware. They either pay the software vendor or a third party to maintain, customize, and upgrade it and/or the end user’s IT department does those things in-house. Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) is something very different than iPaaS and not really important in this post. See comment above about confusing derivative terms.
I’ll try to be as clear as I can as we go, because talking about how all these things relate to one another can be a little bit tricky. Do not hesitate to leave a comment if somewhere I trip over myself or say something unclear.
Why SaaS?
SaaS can probably be considered the primary business model for software companies in 2021. It’s possible to produce software and not be SaaS, but you’ll probably spend a lot of time explaining to people why you’re the exception.
SaaS emerged as such a popular model for software for many reasons, but these are some of the big ones:
Setting up and using SaaS products is far easier for end users , because there is no installation, no hardware to provision, and much less need for customization or custom software to be developed than with traditionally licensed and installed-on-premise software.
, because there is no installation, no hardware to provision, and much less need for customization or custom software to be developed than with traditionally licensed and installed-on-premise software. Subscription pricing models produce more consistent, predictable revenue and cash flow. Investors like this. Customer subscriptions are effectively an annuity, so investors place significantly higher value on SaaS companies. Software company founders are therefore incentivized to be a SaaS company.
Investors like this. Customer subscriptions are effectively an annuity, so investors place significantly higher value on SaaS companies. Software company founders are therefore incentivized to be a SaaS company. S aaS products tend to be lighter-weight than do-it-all, traditional enterprise software products , but that isn’t a hard rule. This means end users have more choices and smaller decisions to make when evaluating those choices.
, but that isn’t a hard rule. This means end users have more choices and smaller decisions to make when evaluating those choices. SaaS products tend to have a lower cost of ownership for the end user than traditionally licensed software, because end users just sign up and start paying. The SaaS company hosts and maintains the software for many end users, so they get economies of scale. They mark it up and charge the end users for it. Everyone wins.
Back in the day, an IT department would make large software purchase from companies like IBM and Oracle for software products that “do it all” for every line of business or part of the company. Software was very centralized and optimized for breadth of functionality, not depth of functionality.
The emergence of SaaS flipped that on its head, because it means there are many software products that do one thing or a few things really well. These SaaS products are way more budget-friendly and way easier to set up, so line of business users just started using them.
This happened with or without the centralized IT department’s permission. To scare CIOs, IT guys even came up with an ominous term for it: shadow IT.
Today, the marketing team finds, builds, and owns their own marketing-focused software. The HR team does the same. The sales team does the same. The customer success team…you get the idea.
No company is completely decentralized with their enterprise architecture, nor completely centralized, but today, everyone has some amount of piecemealness. SaaS simply means companies are using more individual software products to do the things they do.
Enter the Frankenstack.
Why iPaaS?
“Software stack” is a term to describe the software products a team or company uses. “Frankenstack” is a term describe how all of these different software (and hardware) products that line of business users now use struggle to work together in a meaningful way.
One advantage to large, centralized software is that it harmonizes the business. It allows you to automate process across all of the different domains the software covers. It usually isn’t that great at any one of those domains, but it checks the boxes and it creates homogeneity.
In an “every team for themself” SaaS world, you start to sacrifice the homogeneity that is the foundation for cross-functional process automation.
Integration platform-as-a-service fills that gap. It’s derivative of products like enterprise service bus (ESB) and enterprise application integration (EAI) tools, tools that helped enterprises integrate legacy software, but iPaaS cloud-native and of the spirit of SaaS.
Here’s where it gets really fun: iPaaS is technically a type of SaaS. It’s a SaaS product whose job is to integrate SaaS products so that an end user can make those SaaS products work seamlessly. Yowza.
iPaaS started to gain adoption over traditional, on-premise predecessors for two main reasons: 1) iPaaS tends to work more out of the box with the SaaS products that users are adopting and 2) iPaaS offers cost of ownership benefits relative to ESB/EAI basically like SaaS does, compared to non-SaaS software.
Let’s review… SaaS got hot, because it solves some big problems in software. Lots of people started buying lots of SaaS. That created a Frankenstack problem. iPaaS emerged to solve that problem.
SaaS + iPaaS + End Users
If you’re paying attention, the three main characters in this story are SaaS companies (and their products), iPaaS companies (and their products), and end users.
These three characters have a complex, interdependent relationship. If you are or work for any one of these, it’s important that you understand the nuances of this relationship. It also sets context for future posts where I’ll discuss why any of this is important and where all of this goes. It’s where we’re making bets at Blended Edge.
To understand how everyone relates, start with their motivations.
End users do a job at a company. They want to be as good at that job as possible, so the company can be successful, they get paid well, they get promoted, and everyone is happy. Hooray!
End users sign up to use SaaS products as a way to level themselves up to do their jobs better. (I’m being intentionally uncomplicated. This usually happens at a team or organization level, not the individual level.)
SaaS companies and iPaaS companies are very similar in that their main goal is to build and maintain an annuity of subscription revenue. Therefore their goal is to attract and maintain users who will pay for their products.
The algebra for what that user-sourced revenue looks like varies, but at the fundamental level, that’s the thing. Get users, get revenue, and make sure it’s long-term committed revenue that comes in on an ongoing basis.
However, the SaaS company and the iPaaS company differ in one very significant way. The SaaS company’s total addressable market (TAM) is defined by the number of users who need the thing their product does. The iPaaS company’s TAM is defined by how many users adopt the SaaS products that the iPaaS connects.
The SaaS company can solve a problem, then develop and monetize the market around that problem. The iPaaS company has to ride shotgun. The problem the iPaaS solves doesn’t exist without a market of users solving other problems with SaaS products.
Therefore, the iPaaS company is dependent on the success of multiple other SaaS companies. The iPaaS company can’t win unless they do. It’s a power imbalance that would seem to imply an upper-hand for SaaS.
But, not so fast…
Remember, the SaaS company’s fundamental motivation is attracting users. The end user’s fundamental motivation is doing their job better, which means adopting whatever SaaS tools help them. Also remember that the industry is fragmented and crowded, because of the emergence of SaaS as a business model.
This means that for a SaaS company to most successfully sell their product to an end user, they must be able to play nicely in the sandbox with the other SaaS products that the user chooses to solve adjacent problems. (That’s eight per user, on average.)
Put in different terms, the end user needs the SaaS company’s product to integrate to other SaaS products. Who offers that capability? The iPaaS companies with their iPaaS products.
iPaaS companies need users, but can only get the users that SaaS companies manage to get. SaaS companies also need users. Those users need SaaS products, but they need multiple SaaS products that can talk to one another. Therefore, to get users, SaaS companies need what the iPaaS offers.
If it feels complicated and circular, trust your instincts.
Models for Enabling SaaS Connectivity
End users requiring SaaS connectivity hasn’t waned, despite the motivationally complicated ménage à trois between end users, SaaS companies, and iPaaS companies. Thus, a handful of different models have emerged to address the need.
The rest of this post will break down these models. Each model has significant implications for each of our three main characters (end users, SaaS companies, and iPaas companies).
It’s also important to note that these aren’t entirely mutually exclusive. A given SaaS company may be part of two or more of these. That said, most companies wind up with a heavy focus on one.
My goal is to help you understand these models and what they could mean for your business and your objectives. The last thing you want to do as any of our three characters is incidentally end up in one of these without having given thought to its strategic implications. Unfortunately, that’s often the story that plays out.
Each of these probably justifies its own post, and that may be on the table. For now, let’s break down the important stuff…
SaaS Builds Native Integrations
Commonly, to enable connectivity for their users, SaaS companies will simply start to build their own native integrations into their product.
This is the easiest place to start from an idea perspective, but it’s usually not the easiest to execute. Of all of these models, this is the one that teams end up in most often.
The product manager says, “The sales team wants an integration to x.” The engineering team, often a hammer that sees a nail, says, “Ok, let’s write code to make an integration to x.”
For end users, this may be a non-issue. If the SaaS product has the integration they want, then awesome! And, if that integration feature was built natively into the product like any other, it was probably done so in a way that feels very natural and well embedded.
But, this model tends to stretch the engineering team around a dozen (+/- 50%) integrations. That means two things for the end user: 1) you quickly start to run into a situation where the SaaS product doesn’t have the integration you need — no time to build it and 2) the integrations start to drop in quality, because of the technical debt, maintenance obligation, and competing priorities the engineering team has to contend with.
The SaaS engineering team took an easy way out (or so they thought) and now the implications of that start to bleed out to the end user.
For the SaaS company, you get the “we have that integration” box checked a few times. You also do without really having to rely on any third parties.
This works well early, for the first few integrations — when you’re still getting to product-market fit and you aren’t trying to achieve hyper-growth. It breaks down as soon as your growth curve starts to turn up.
I can’t tell you how many SaaS companies I talk to who get to around a dozen homegrown integrations and they start realizing the weight of what they’ve done — that what got them here won’t get them there. This moment creates stress and friction in the business.
The iPaaS company doesn’t have much role in this story. However, these are exactly the situations that iPaaS companies look for to offer the SaaS company a way out. Sometimes that way out is magical. Sometimes its not really in the SaaS company’s best interest.
iPaaS as Lone Operator
SaaS companies have their own mouths to feed and that effort may or may not involve an iPaaS. However, the same is true of iPaaS companies.
iPaaS companies must find users to pay them subscriptions, so their incentive is to find markets of domain-similar SaaS products where end users’ options for connectivity are limited.
The rest of the models this post will talk through involve some sort of direct relationship with the SaaS company. But, iPaaS companies are also able to go build their own markets. Many do.
To be successful, the iPaaS company must be smart about the competitive landscape. They must evaluate non-binary tradeoffs like:
Relative few integrations with deep functionality or relative many integrations with shallow functionality?
Integrations focused on a certain specialized niche or integrations that service a wider, more generalized market?
Configuration and maintenance functionality that appeals to non-technical business users or to sophisticated engineers?
Priced as a premium offering or priced for aggressive customer acquisition?
To some extent, every SaaS company faces these tradeoffs, but the iPaaS company has a uniquely challenging version of them to contend with.
Remember, the TAM for an iPaaS is only derivative of the TAM of other SaaS companies. The iPaaS is useless without SaaS products who have end users who require integrations.
As the iPaaS narrows in on TAM it has identified, it must get those above tradeoffs correct. If not, you’re trying to sell a premium product to a commodity crowd, a generalized product to a crowd that wants deep domain specialization, or a low-code business tool to engineers.
Again, the iPaaS company doesn’t control any of this. They have to be superb at discovering (not building) a blue ocean and then executing on it with superb customer development and product management — making the right choices about those tradeoffs, relative to the ocean they’ve discovered.
SaaS companies have kind of an awkward spot in this model. Of course, they are part of the equation, but they don’t have any direct relationship with the iPaaS companies to enable connectivity. It also means they have limited answers for end customers who request it.
SaaS builds native integrations and iPaaS as lone operator will typically happen together, and it’s mostly because both parties have failed to develop a common ecosystem. It’s also probably not likely to stay this way for long, because both parties have incentive to get to a more effective model.
End users suffer here too. They already have the difficult task of assembling a stack of SaaS solutions that meet their business needs. Now, they also have to evaluate iPaaS solutions.
End users typically see integration as a necessary evil, no matter how effectively iPaaS vendors market it as a strategic value-add. End users want seamless experiences that move across the SaaS products they’ve adopted. They don’t want integration.
So, asking them to search, evaluate, and pay for something that only provides integration isn’t popular.
SaaS + iPaaS Partnership
While their TAM realities differ some, SaaS and iPaaS companies do have a unified goal to acquire end users and those end users usually need both the SaaS and the iPaaS companys’ solutions.
Recognizing this, SaaS companies often seek partnership with iPaaS companies (or vice versa) to provide a better answer than 🤷♂ when a user asks about integration.
These partnerships usually include some/all of:
Referral agreements for sharing customers with the other party
Certifications or informal credentials to pump the legitimacy of the partnership
Joint marketing efforts online and offline
Overlap in operations — team members getting to know each other, knowing how to work well together, etc.
You know…all the things you hope for with a good tech partner.
iPaaS companies definitely like this. It’s direct access to their TAM. These partnerships are often a significant channel for revenue growth. Ideally, the SaaS company will form a bunch of these, a few of which will by an order of magnitude more lucrative than the others.
SaaS companies also benefit from this arrangement, because they can bring in a trusted partner when the connectivity question comes up in the sales process. This is especially helpful when integrations are higher touch or more bespoke (e.g. you sell into the enterprise). The SaaS vendor is able to build more confidence that they and their friend can deliver the overall needed solution.
The SaaS company also gets to punt on integration to some extent. They’ll still need an API or proper way to get data into/out of their product, but they don’t have to worry about the last mile. However, it’s not all roses and rainbows…
End users don’t always find this to be a wonderful experience. And, a less than excited user is still a negative for the SaaS company.
Remember, users don’t want integrations. They want seamless cross-product experiences that help them do their jobs more effectively.
“Yes, we can connect our product to x, if you pay our friend y to do it,” is a better answer than 🤷♂, but it still asks the end user to form a commercial relationship with and shell out dollars to an iPaaS company that they probably prefer not to deal with.
I’ve sold that iPaaS before. I can tell you first-hand, there are a lot of users who are frustrated about that part of the project. Integration projects already aren’t fun (for most people). Paying for it is even less fun.
This adequate, but unexciting answer to the end user’s connectivity questions paved the way for two other models. In the last two models, the SaaS company takes back ownership of integration use cases, but without the shortcomings of the DIY approach already discussed.
Embedded/OEM iPaaS
iPaaS companies have also recognized this tension. They know that most of the time the end user doesn’t want to pay for their product. They are a necessary evil, no matter how good they are at what they do, how friendly they make the product for the end user, or how great their marketing is.
A new class of iPaaS has emerged, called embedded or OEM iPaaS. Some of these companies are new and dedicated wholly to being embedded. Others are traditional iPaaS companies adding features to enable embedding.
With embedded iPaaS the software in place is the same. The user wants the SaaS product and uses it to address a business need. The user gets the iPaaS product to connect that SaaS product to other systems.
The difference with embedded is the commercial relationships between all of our three characters. The customer for an embedded or OEM iPaaS isn’t the end user. It’s the SaaS company. They license the iPaaS on behalf of their users, so that they can bundle connectivity right into their offering.
This may manifest as simply a bundling/reselling thing, probably with the SaaS vendor taking on the work to use the iPaaS to enable conenctivty.
However, the word “embedded” is used, because the more compelling solution is for the SaaS company to embed or white label the iPaaS into their own product, so it appears as if they built it. This creates the most seamless experience for the end user.
This works great for end users. They get what they want, and they don’t have to pay for it — not directly at least.
This is also great for the iPaaS company for a bunch of reasons:
The unit economics of embedded iPaaS are far better. Your marketing requires that you sign up an order of magnitude or two fewer customers to hit the same revenue number as a traditional iPaaS business. You’re dealing with $2,000 to $50,000/month customers (to generalize), not $100 to $1,500/month ones.
Your customers are more technically sophisticated than typical end users. They are also typically motivated differently. End users see integration as a necessary evil. SaaS companies see it as a necessary growth lever.
While your server and data costs are higher per customer, your overhead should be lower. Again, fewer customers who are more able to help themselves than a typical end user.
You lock in customers that have a very hard time leaving, because you lock up your customers’ customers.
Most of the serious iPaaS contenders on the market are pushing an “embedded” or “OEM” model hard, right now. There is a reason for this.
SaaS vendors, on the other hand, are put into a position to make a very big tradeoff. If you assume that most of your users will require integration, taking an embedded iPaaS approach means that you put most of your users in someone else’s hands, but on your behalf.
If that iPaaS stops performing well or goes out of business, your users are stuck.
If that iPaaS wants to triple the price they charge, the SaaS company is stuck. Would you want to call all of your customers to tell them that their integration is going to turn off at the end of the month?
If the iPaaS wants to sell their embedded offering to a competitive SaaS company, they actually make the switching cost lower. Again, the SaaS company is stuck.
These are significant risks to consider. Those risks may also have impact on the enterprise value of the SaaS company, and important consideration given that many SaaS companies are venture-backed.
Now, these tradeoffs aren’t for naught. There are benefits to this model for the SaaS company too.
The SaaS vendor will be able to provide integration capabilities that they could never build themselves. Not to dig the SaaS vendor, but of course they couldn’t! If they aren’t an integration company, why would they develop a best of breed integration product?
Not only are integration platforms hard to build — and most SaaS companies are unequipped to build them — they are expensive to build. They require a lot of capital, because the difference between “nothing” and a minimally usable product is pretty far.
SaaS companies basically get to rent all of the benefits that an iPaaS brings without having to go through the pain of building an iPaaS.
iPaaS Capability via M&A
There is a way for the SaaS company to have its cake and eat it too — to bring best of breed iPaaS capability in-house, without tradeoff their strategic position in the market to an iPaaS company.
The SaaS company can acquire an iPaaS company.
You’re starting to see this more often, especially as the capital markets get a little frothy and as the iPaaS industry overall gets a little over-built.
Salesforce acquired Mulesoft in 2018.
Hubspot acquired PieSync in 2019.
Qlik acquired Blendr and Celonis acquired Integromat in 2020.
Oracle/Netsuite acquired FarApp in 2021.
This is a topic for a future post, but this M&A blitz is only the beginning. I expect at least a dozen more iPaaS companies to get gobbled up by SaaS vendors or private equity firms over the next few years.
For the SaaS company, this is probably the best way to solve the connectivity problem, assuming the company is mature enough for such an acquisition.
It’s certainly a more capital intensive approach, but you pay more now to pay a lot less over time. The unit economics for many of these iPaaS companies are strained, so the valuations you’ll make acquisitions at may not even be that impressive. There are discounts to be had for SaaS companies with the capital to make an offer.
This can be a big win for the iPaaS company as well. You don’t really see iPaaS companies go public. There’s a reason for that. The unit economics of the business are not sustainable enough to be a public company — or at least no one has really figured out how to make that work.
Talend, arguably an iPaaS, is the only notable exception that comes to mind, but they were just brought back to private equity this year.
As long as the iPaaS company gets a reasonable valuation on the sale, this is a win for them. The company rolls into a bigger solution with a more sustainable future and theoretically the iPaaS’s investors make some bank.
End users might get left with the bag though. Let’s say SaaS company x acquires iPaaS company y. This is great for users who are signed up for x and y. But, it may not be so great for all the iPaaS users who don’t and don’t want to use SaaS x.
With an acquisition like this, there’s a big question about how long the iPaaS business will be allowed to operate as a standalone iPaaS business. When a SaaS company acquires an iPaaS, it may want to transform into the SaaS company’s built-in iPaaS. They won’t be all that concerned about providing integration capabilities for competitors or irrelevant other SaaS providers.
Whether the SaaS company lets go of or sells off any amount of the iPaaS business is a big question. It may never happen. It probably will happen.
This puts at least some of the end users in a precarious position, potentially requiring them to go find a different integration solution.
It takes two to tango, but there are three people in the room.
If it’s not already clear, the dynamics of the SaaS integration industry are fascinating to me. They would create quite the MBA program case study.
When you look at the three models for how the SaaS integration dance plays out among our three main characters, you see that in all cases two of the parties end up in a better place than the third. (Or, they at least have a stronger strategic position.)
Someone always ends up as the wallflower.
Integration is something that nobody wants, but everybody needs. That reality forces SaaS companies, iPaaS companies, end users into a three-way game of hot potato.
While this is certainly an interesting dynamic to dissect, that’s not the point here. Understanding this ecosystem and its dynamics is an important foundation for some future posts I plan to write on topics including:
What happens as the iPaaS industry consolidates?
What does the world look like post-iPaaS?
Why do we care at Blended Edge? Why should you care?
Subscribe to stick around, if you want to go on this very inside-baseball journey with me. | https://medium.com/@ryanlunka/the-complicated-dynamics-between-saas-ipaas-and-end-users-5e940220a486 | ['Ryan Lunka'] | 2021-06-01 13:12:44.880000+00:00 | ['Ipaas', 'SaaS', 'API', 'Integration', 'Product Management'] |
Human perception of risk | Just like a novice pilot flying in cloud, human intuitive perceptions of probability, risk and reward are surprisingly poor, and very hard to overcome, which is why RiskFlag advocates a structured, disciplined approach to assessing and managing risk. There are several main ways in which we can struggle to comprehend risk, and they are worthy of deeper consideration.
A focus on outcomes
It is in our nature to focus on the outcome of a particular event, rather than the factors that determined it. This principle is even a part of our criminal justice system, where the same human failing might attract a very different sentence depending on an outcome which was largely driven by chance. A pub brawl might result in a charge of assault or affray, for example, but the same fight might result in a manslaughter charge if somebody falls the wrong way and is fatally injured.
It is also human nature to attribute success to skill or good judgment, even if the situation was largely one of chance. This is known as self-attribution bias, and has been well-studied in financial trading, where skill and luck can be difficult to separate¹. The effect also occurs in many other aspects of life. Read any account of a contest, be it a famous battle or a sporting event, and it is usually the victor whose tactics and strategy are held up as superior, even if chance events played a big part in the victory. A gambler who risks their life savings on a game of roulette and wins might describe their decisions as correct, or even wise, even though their choice was arguably foolish.
When managing risk, particularly in situations like aviation safety where catastrophic outcomes are normally very unusual, we have to be very careful not to confuse a lack of accidents, for example, for good risk management. We must look at the inputs to the system and to other warning indicators, and not just the outcomes.
The sunk cost fallacy
When confronted with a decision about whether to undertake a course of action or not, our thinking should be solely focussed on the potential future benefits and pitfalls of the activity in question. However, human nature tends to be swayed by what effort, money or time we have expended on that same activity already. This is the ‘good money after bad’ problem², and is related to the behaviour known as ‘loss aversion’, first identified by psychologist Daniel Kahneman in 1979³. It is exacerbated by our societal tendency to praise and reward people who exhibit a dogged determination and a stubborn refusal to quit in the face of adversity. This rightly laudable quality of never giving up can often lead to poor decisions in situations where withdrawing from a poor investment, or ceasing an increasingly dangerous activity would actually be the wiser course of action.
Understanding large odds
Humans struggle to process very large and very small numbers, and this is particularly true of events with very low probabilities. The UK’s National Lottery flagship game, ‘Lotto’, requires the matching of 6 numbers from a set randomly drawn from 59 balls in order to win or share in the jackpot. The chance of achieving this with one £2 ticket is 1 in 45,057,474, roughly the same likelihood as correctly choosing a randomly selected person from the entire population of Spain. It is clear from lottery sales patterns that the size of the jackpot on offer is a key motivator for people purchasing tickets, but yet evidence suggests that most players have very little understanding of how incredibly unlikely it is that they will win⁴.
Finding patterns in randomness
If an event is truly random, then by definition it cannot depend in any way on what has gone before. This means that, for example, a coin toss or dice roll, assuming a ‘fair’ environment, is not in any way influenced by preceding results. This seems obvious, but human nature tends to find patterns and meaning in random sequences, a failing ruthlessly exploited by the gambling industry, and widely known as the gambler’s fallacy. It might feel to an unlucky gambler on a losing streak that the universe owes them a victory, but their chances on any particular game do not depend on prior results. A sequence of five heads in a row on a fair coin toss does not change the 50% chance of another heads on the sixth toss. In the same way, experiencing an unfortunate accident or loss does not in any way reduce the chance of experiencing a similar event shortly afterwards.
Understanding new information
Human inability to understand probability is well-illustrated by the Monty Hall dilemma, which seems wrong and counter-intuitive even after the mathematics behind it are explained. The problem, named after the host of the American game show Let’s Make a Deal, involves the contestant choosing one of three doors to be opened. Behind one of the doors is an attractive prize, such as a car, and behind the other two doors are joke, or ‘zonk’, prizes, typically a goat. After a door is chosen, Monty makes things more interesting by opening one of the other two doors to reveal one of the goats, and then asks the contestant if they wish to stick with their original selection, or swap to open the other closed door instead.
The intuitive answer is that the two closed doors seem to be equal; there should be no advantage of one door over the other. However, the surprising correct answer is that the contestant is better off swapping. There is a 1/3 chance that the car is behind the door the contestant first chose, and a 2/3 chance that the car is behind the other door.
Interestingly, aside from incorrectly assessing the odds between the two remaining closed doors as even, when playing a simulation of the game⁵ players were found to remain with their initial selection 91% of the time, thereby exhibiting another cognitive bias called the endowment effect. This is the tendency to attribute greater value to the status quo than is merited; another important consideration in organisational decision-making.
Lessons for risk management
Knowing these fallibilities can help enormously when assessing risk. Like a well-trained pilot trusting their flight instruments over their own senses, using a structured, evidence-based risk management process will improve the quality of decision-making and the allocation of finite resources. In the next article in the series, we will explore the RiskFlag structured methodology for identifying, assessing and managing risk.
Notes and references | https://medium.com/riskflag/human-perception-of-risk-75db85bea0e5 | ['Ben Mark'] | 2020-11-02 10:47:49.885000+00:00 | ['Risk Taking', 'Safety Management', 'Risk Analysis', 'Risk', 'Risk Management'] |
Don’t Be Fooled. Being Cheap Doesn’t Work Anymore. | Personal Finance
Don’t Be Fooled. Being Cheap Doesn’t Work Anymore.
Photo by Nad Hemnani on Unsplash
Are you sick of the, “stop buying lattes, if you want to be rich” articles?
Yeah, me too.
Tired of, well, tired articles rehashing that same theme over and over?
Same here.
The idea of restraint might’ve been well-intentioned, but it’s morphed into a nonstop scolding. It’s obnoxious.
No one wants to be shamed for their spending. I sure don’t.
Moreover it doesn’t work. Sure, it’s viable at first, but denying yourself something repeatedly just makes you resent having to do it, and leads you to doing the opposite.
If someone told you you couldn’t go out for coffee ever again, you’d go buy a cup just to spite them (maybe that’s just me).
There’s a better way to be intentional with your money, help it grow, and live an enjoyable life.
It’s easy.
Ready?
Spend freely on what matters to you, and ruthlessly cut everywhere else.
That’s the short, tweetable answer.
Here’s how you get there:
Identify what matters to you.
Think of 2–3 areas of your life that give you the most joy. I mean things that really get you excited. Those are good place to start.
After you find your what, know your why.
In my family’s case, our passions are soccer, and travel. We value experiences over things. I don’t need a new car; it’s just not that important to me. But making sure my sons can play and pursue their passions IS a big deal. In my case, I’m only concerned about having a car that’s reliable. I don’t need the newest, flashiest model. Not having more car than I need (mine’s been paid off for years,) means I can invest more in their passions.
My family also lives for traveling, and have been blessed to see parts of the world many others haven’t. That wouldn’t be possible if I had been mindlessly spending on other things that don’t matter as much to us.
For you, that may mean having the newest tech, or trying new restaurants. And that’s the beauty in this; rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, you choose what matters, you choose where to allocate your resources, and you get a result that means more joy in your life.
Track your spending
If you want to direct your money towards what you love, you have to first know where it’s going. In a recent survey, roughly 65% percent of Americans didn’t know where they spent their money last month.
If you want to succeed, don’t be one of those people.
There are a lot of free programs to use. I personally use Personal Capital (NOTE: This is NOT an affiliate link- I’ve just been really impressed with their set up).
I’ve tried a few, and it’s the one I like best.
It’s easy to set up- if I can do it, anyone can!
Integrates all of your accounts into one dashboard
It’s free. (There is a paid version if you want more in-depth financial advice)
Adding in all your accounts is easy, and you can add/remove/customize spending categories as you see fit.
They’ve also recently made it possible to split one receipt multiple ways. For example, if you want to split items from a recent grocery trip, store into “household,” “food,” etc.
Do this for a month-remember it’s doing the work for you automatically-and you will be amazed at what sort of trends emerge. You will be able to quickly identify areas you can cut, optimize your spending and habits, and invest in what truly matters.
Once that’s done, you should have a clear map showing you how to:
Cover expenses
Pay down debt
Focus on living a life you don’t need a vacation from…
…unless going on vacation is your thing. | https://medium.com/illumination/dont-be-fooled-being-cheap-doesn-t-work-anymore-e3637b7f3c1d | ['Kevin Alexander'] | 2020-12-19 02:14:40.484000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Life', 'Budget', 'Money Management', 'Finance'] |
How Do We Design Media That Makes The World Better? | How often do academics, community organizations, media-makers, and government agencies convene to learn from each other? Those who contribute to the Boston Civic Media network believe the answer is “not frequently enough,” and, the feedback from the Design, Technology, and Social Impact event confirms the need for a plurality of voices to shape civic media and technology. Over 200 attendees had over 30 lightning talks to choose from about civic media in Boston, ranging in topic from the user-centered redesign process of Boston.gov to a citizen science art project case study about thermal fishing bobs via Public Lab. The hands-on workshops provided opportunities to play with data analysis tools, practice design-thinking skills, and learn how to adapt programs and tools for accessibility.
All of these conversations converged on a single question:
How do we design media that makes Boston a better place for the most people?
Starting with the Why
Boston City Councillor Ayanna Pressley was our keynote speaker
The keynote speaker, Boston City Councillor Ayanna Pressley, set the tone by emphasizing equity and inclusion in civic projects. She reminded the audience that inclusion is not a buzzword, it is about shared power. If our designed projects and products do not reflect a participatory process, or at least one geared to the best interests of those in the margins, then we are not acting in the service of the public. According to Councilor Pressley :
“(It’s) not just about everyone getting a fair share of the pie, but everyone getting a chance at baking the damn thing.”
When reflecting on integrating media and technology into the public sphere, we should be wary of mistaking the means for the ends. Councilor Pressley reminded us that relying on social media for public input is merely one piece of the puzzle, since it can result in a shallow, polarized perception of constituents. Further, relying primarily on social media for community engagement can give politicians an out by fostering a culture of immediate responses and not necessarily the long-term action in the form of policy change to back it up. Civic media designers and technologists should consider creating products that enable meaningful, reflective, and lasting relationships and dialogues. Policy suffers when there isn’t space for public officials to be thoughtful with their constituents.
Graphic Recording by Tamra Carhart
Design for the Margins: An Imperative not a Suggestion
Designing for existing systems runs the risk of perpetuating existing inequalities within them. Ceasar McDowell (Interaction Institute for Social Change) explained the need to design for the margins to ensure that participants can exercise their agency. When more of us can participate in any given process or product, we are stronger as a society. Ceasar reminded us that this is analogous to staking a net farther at the margins to provide more stability. Beyond the benefits of a healthier society, designing for the margins enables participation. Echoing Councilor Pressley’s words,
“if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu”.
We cannot always rely on groups like designers, technologists, and politicians to speak on our behalf, and approaches of co-design and participatory democracy aid in bringing more voices to the table. Several of the conference workshops focused on designing for the margins, including the Accessibility First! Workshop and the panel on inclusive design. | https://medium.com/engagement-lab-emerson-college/how-do-we-design-media-that-makes-the-world-better-1c19e1c5d260 | ['Rebecca Michelson'] | 2016-07-15 15:52:56.205000+00:00 | ['Civic Engagement', 'Boston', 'Civic Media', 'Human Centered Design', 'Data Visualization'] |
Covid-19 May Have Started Before Dec 2019, Increasing Evidence Shows | Covid-19 May Have Started Before Dec 2019, Increasing Evidence Shows
It may also explain its unusual early adaptation to humans, unlike other coronaviruses.
Home vector created by freepik — www.freepik.com
The first global identified case of Covid-19 was on December 26 in the Wuhan Hospital in China, where a respiratory physician suspected a new infectious disease owing to his previous experiences with the 2003 SARS outbreak. Then on December 31, Chinese authorities informed the WHO of pneumonia with an unknown cause.
But as more data is collected over the year, increasingly more evidence suggests that Covid-19 might have started much earlier than December.
The new CDC study in the U.S.
The U.S. surveillance team detected the first case of Covid-19 on January 19: a 35-year-old man who returned from China. But even this was not the actual first emergence of Covid-19. In the next sample of 12 early cases of Covid-19 in the U.S., two of them had symptoms that started on January 14. Taking into account the incubation period — the time gap between virus infection and symptom appearance — of about 5–6 or 14 days, the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 might have been circulating in the U.S. earlier than January 14.
SARS-CoV-2 antibodies take 1–3 weeks to form following infection encounter…So, the true infection encounter in the CDC study might have even been three weeks before December 13.
Maybe even as early as November, hinted a study from the CDC published a few days ago in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal, titled “Serologic testing of U.S. blood donations to identify SARS-CoV-2-reactive antibodies: December 2019-January 2020.” In this study, researchers collected leftover sera from 7,389 donated blood samples from donors without suspected viral or bacterial respiratory infection.
The CDC then performed antibody testing — with validated sensitivity and specificity — on the blood sera. Results detected antibodies specific for the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 in 1.43% (106 out of 7,389) of samples. Of these 106 cases, 39 belonged to blood samples collected between December 13–16 from California, Oregon, and Washinton. The other 67 cases were sampled from December 30 to January 17.
However, the study cautioned that none of the 106 infections qualifies as true positives or true Covid-19 cases, which can only be confirmed via a positive RT-PCR test on respiratory specimens. Another caveat is that whether these 106 infections were transmitted by traveling or community spread is unknown. Nonetheless, “The findings of this report suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infections may have been present in the U.S. in December 2019, earlier than previously recognized,” the study concluded.
A concern the paper did not address is that SARS-CoV-2 antibodies take 1–3 weeks to form following infection encounter — the window period. This is because antibodies are made by B-cells that belong to the immune system’s adaptive arm, the second line of defense that requires time to activate. So, the true infection encounter in the CDC study might have even been three weeks before December 13. But this may be relatively rare given that the median window period for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies is 10 days.
Looking at other countries
Based on China government data the South China Morning Post examined, the earliest detected Covid-19 case is on November 17 in a 55-year-old person in Hubei. By the end of November, there were nine cases of Covid-19. This data corroborates a study published in The Lancet that describes a Covid-19 patient with symptom onset dated December 1 in China. But even in those nine Covid-19 cases in November, there’s insufficient evidence to pinpoint patient zero — the first carrier of the Covid-19 outbreak. So, it’s still possible that there were undetected cases of Covid-19 before 17 November 2019.
Researchers in Lombardy, Italy also did a similar study as the CDC, which was published in the Tumori Journal with the title, “Unexpected detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the prepandemic period in Italy.” Herein, the study caught antibodies specific for the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) in 11.6% (111 out of 959 persons) of blood samples, of which 14% were sampled during September 2019. This interests the WHO, who has contacted the authors for further investigation.
Thus, “SARS-CoV-2 might have cryptically circulated within humans for years before being discovered,” researchers suspect.
There’re two pre-prints analyzing wastewater samples for traces of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material. One pre-print from Santa Catalina, Brazil, found SARS-CoV-2 RNA in two independent sewage samples collected on 27 November 2019. This data implies that people in Brazil might have been infected and shed the virus before December. The other pre-print is even more outrageous: Researchers from Barcelona, Spain, detected SARS-CoV-2 RNA in a sewage sample gathered on 12 March 2019. But note that preprints are not peer-reviewed, and there’s a critique that contamination may have occurred during sewage sampling and analyses.
Explaining the evolutionary leap
The early SARS-CoV-2 circulation theory also helps explain many odd facets of the pandemic. For one, SARS-CoV-2 binds to the ACE2 receptor with efficiency at least 10-times higher than SARS-1. This is despite that SARS-CoV-2 genomes have been relatively stable in early 2020 with low mutation rates. In contrast, rapid genetic changes happened in the genomes of SARS and MERS when they first spillover into the human population, which stabilize overtime.
Thus, “SARS-CoV-2 might have cryptically circulated within humans for years before being discovered,” researchers suspect. If this suspicion is correct, then SARS-CoV-2 may have completed its host-switching adaption in humans before December. This also explains why SARS-CoV-2 already has a very stable genome in early 2020 and why SARS-CoV-2 has an unusual binding efficiency for the human ACE-2 receptor.
And it may also explain why attempts to pinpoint the intermediate host of SARS-CoV-2 have failed so far, given that the real intermediate host (if it exists) might not be among animals sampled in December or early 2020.
Short abstract
A new study from the U.S. CDC found SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies in donated blood samples between December 13–16. Given that SARS-CoV-2 antibodies take 1–3 weeks to form, the actual infection in this study may be earlier than December 13. Indeed, recent government data detected Covid-19 cases from November 17 onwards in China. Further, a study from Italy has also found SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in blood samples sampled from September. Using wastewater samples, two preprints have also found traces of SARS-CoV-2 genes in samples collected in November in Brazil and March in Spain.
These data suggest that Covid-19 may have jumped to humans before December. In fact, the theory of early SARS-CoV-2 circulation in humans helps explain some oddities of the pandemic. For instance, SARS-CoV-2 genomes were already stable in early 2020, which also enables highly efficient binding to the human ACE2 receptor. In contrast, SARS and MERS genomes underwent drastic genetic changes when they first adapt to humans. In sum, increasing clinical and theoretical evidence indicates that Covid-19 may have emerged earlier than presumed. | https://medium.com/microbial-instincts/covid-19-may-have-started-before-december-increasing-evidence-shows-61e280b0842f | ['Shin Jie Yong'] | 2020-12-17 00:15:14.198000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Coronavirus', 'Ideas', 'Science', 'Technology'] |
Thinking Citizen Blog — Teaching What Matters Most | Thinking Citizen Blog — Friday is Education and Education Policy Day
Today’s Topic — Teaching What Matters Most
What matters most is seeing the big picture. What matters most is thinking long term. What matters most is learning to filter out the noise. What matters most is resolving to be the best person you can be with every breath you take. So, it’s Christmas. Today, a collage of ideas related to how I try day to day, breath to breath, to stay on the right track. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
SLOUCHING, FROWNING, SHALLOW BREATHING
1. I slouch. Standing up. Sitting down. Doesn’t matter. I have been preaching good posture for at least 20 years. But the fact is. Most of the time, I slouch.
2. Fixes: when sitting, think feet flat on the floor, think pressure against the lumbar roll positioned behind my lower back, think chin in. An avatar of the rule of three.
3. Frowning. Fake it to make it. Smile. Show the teeth. Mean it. Feel it.
NB: Shallow breathing: close your mouth, breathe through your nose. Feel your abdomen expand with each breath.
HARNESSING THE SUN, THE SKY, THE CLOUDS, THE TREES, BOTH HANDS
1. Whenever you see the blue sky, think gratitude. Whenever you see the sun, think gratitude. Cicero was right: gratitude is not only the first of the virtues but the parent of all the others. Etch it in your myelin forever.
2. Whenever you see green — trees, grass, bushes — think kindness.
3. Whenever you see white, think truth. Then find a color wheel and assign each color some aspect of the person you most want to become.
NB: And, while you are at it, harness each finger of each hand to represent the values that you most cherish but which inevitably are often in conflict. For my left hand, the macro values: peace, freedom, justice, prosperity, and truth. Right hand, the micro values: gratitude, courage, kindness, prudence, temperance.
THE BRAIN,HEART, AND SOUL NEED DAILY EXERCISE AS MUCH AS THE BODY
1. Writing; reading without writing is like eating without digesting. Writing without a blueprint is like digesting without enzymes. Form liberates.
2. Writing without periodic review and distillation is a recipe for amnesia.
3. Thematic continuity is the key to depth of thought. Keep a thematic journal on any topic that really matters to you.
NB: All blueprints are not created equal. The overwhelming evidence is that the three by three matrix is the best of the lot. Please share your best attempt at constructing a “what matters matrix.” It will be hard, but it will be worth it. Trust me! Merry Christmas!
Click here for the last three years of posts arranged by theme:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
The most relevant pages to today’s topic are pages 84 to 86, 122–129, 132–3 of the “Education Book.”
See also:
The Thinking Citizen
Liberal Arts Academy | Time to Re-Imagine Education
EDUCATION FIRST PARTY — Education is the Civil Rights Issue of Our Time
John Muresianu for Senate
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to education or education policy. Or the coolest thought however half-baked you had. Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to education or education policy that the rest of us may have missed. Or just some random education-related fact that blew you away.
This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something that is dear to your heart. | https://medium.com/@john-muresianu/thinking-citizen-blog-teaching-what-matters-most-1377335936c3 | ['John Muresianu'] | 2020-12-26 21:58:14.759000+00:00 | ['Teaching', 'Thinking Citizen Blog', 'Life Lessons', 'Christmas'] |
Fall.. Fall Asleep | it is when you’re on the cusp of
sinking in, of slipping away
right when you feel safe enough to
close your eyes, and loosen your grip
that all your delicate reasons,
like beads from a broken necklace
come undone.
the truth is a devious, sly bastard..
to the uneasy souls living lies,
it comes knocking at that moment
when you feel like a child again,
only to remind you of the monsters
in your head
when you’re bare to the night.
yet you always seem to forget how useless it is
to keep pleading with the truth —
“my hands were tied”, you said
“my mouth was sewn shut”, you said
yet one step after another, you took.
you might as well have
slowed down a little bit to enjoy the view
of the destruction in your wake..
or you might as well just slip away
and fall… fall asleep. | https://medium.com/pieces-of-yesterday/fall-fall-asleep-c7f0faccd566 | ['Yaman Nimer'] | 2017-09-13 05:24:51.656000+00:00 | ['Love', 'Heartbreak', 'Poetry', 'Life'] |
John’s Village Trip | Sam was a rich guy. He lived a comfortable life and had lots of people who worked for his firm. Once, he planned a trip to a nearby village and took his son, John, along with him.
He wanted to make John realize how lucky he was to be born into a wealthy family. Sam wanted John to be proud of the rich legacy he would inherit.
They stayed for a week in the house of a farmer.
Photo by Sebastian Staines on Unsplash
After returning from the village, Sam asked his son about the trip.
John replied, “It was good.”
“Do you understand how people in the village live?” Sam questioned.
The son, “Yes, I did.”
Sam was happy that John understood the value of all the luxury he enjoys.
Sam had always desired to make John realize how lucky he was to have Sam as his dad.
“So tell me, what did you learn in these seven days. Did you find any difference in the lifestyle?” Sam asked.
John answered, “I saw that we have one pet, but they have many. We have mobiles and followers, and they have family and friends.
While we escape to the theatre room, they enjoy playgrounds and hearing stories from the elders.
Photo by Nabih El Boustani on Unsplash
We have just one garden, whereas they have many farms. We pay thousands for electricity, and they use nature’s light to the best possible extent.
We buy packaged and processed food, and they grow their own food.
We keep helpers and servants, while they help each other without any maids and servants.
While we have enormous walls and CCTV cameras to protect us; they seem to need no protection.”
Sam was dumbstruck.
The boy said, “Thanks, Dad, I realized in those few days that how rich they are and how abundant life in a village is.” | https://medium.com/soultouch/johns-village-trip-f7ec5305af1a | ['Ruchi Thalwal'] | 2020-08-26 06:52:00.097000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Short Story', 'Life', 'Fiction', 'Inspiration'] |
Shipping Line, Port and Route Dynamics of US Shipment Imports | This is the first in an article series in which we attempt to unearth dynamics of the shipping industry, by analyzing publicly available import shipment data in the United States.
In this article, we’ll take a look at market share dynamics for shipping lines — businesses that transport cargo aboard ships — and see how they’ve varied over the last few years. We’ll also look at traffic into ports in the US, origin ports from which the shipments leave, and the route links taken. The goal in exploring these questions is to understand market dynamics around key players, geographical locations and entrenched behaviors in the market, and trace how dynamics have changed through the years as market forces have had their say.
The answers to these questions come from an analysis of publicly available import data from the United States Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Automated Manifest System. This data spans approximately five years, and covers 180 million data points. Here’s what we found.
Shipping Lines
Maersk was the largest player in the market in 2018 with 8.2% of the share of import shipments. This share was not definitive though, since several other players in the market had comparable shares. Despite this seemingly fragmented nature of the market, the top 15 players were noted to be in charge of 80% of all imports.
The share in 2018 is very similar to the market share taken over a five year period between 2014 and 2018.
In fact, none of the major shipping lines saw a change in market share of more than 1.3% for the period examined. This shows that the entrenched leadership is very difficult to displace.
Which shipper lines have seen the largest growth in recent years? Using 2014 numbers as a baseline, we looked at shipper lines with at least 10,000 shipments in the period considered to generate the following graph.
Destination Ports
Next up, we looked at the ports most likely to be listed as the port of unlading in bills of lading. Here are the ports that received the most shipment traffic in 2018.
The top 3 ports service more than 50% of all shipments into the United States, while the top 15 cover more than 95% of all shipments. California’s top two ports alone bear more than a third of all traffic.
This pattern has been consistent over the last 5 years within only minor changes. For example, Charleston South Carolina, Houston Texas and Miami Florida have each seen a growth in 0.5% of the share of shipments.
Origin Ports
A look at origin shows where most import goods emerge from:
When this visual is normalized by country, we see the overwhelming dominance of China emerge, both in 2018 and over the last 5 years.
Here’s how the share of shipments has changed over the years:
Surprisingly, the biggest percentage change was seen in goods originating from China. Note, of course, that this represents change in percentage share relative to the total number of shipments in the time period considered.
This phenomenon can have a variety of explanations including tariffs, trade performance of other countries, shifts towards higher value goods and more. We will explore some of these phenomena in future articles in this series.
Routes
Finally, we look at the actual shipment routes listed on bills of lading.
Some interesting changes in shipment routes include more than 30% drops in traffic between Shanghai-Washington and Pusan-Los Angeles. And an approximately 20% rise in traffic between Bremerhaven-Charleston and Ningpo-Long Beach. | https://medium.com/datascience-semantics3/shipping-line-port-and-route-dynamics-of-us-shipment-imports-857206bcc3d | ['Govind Chandrasekhar'] | 2020-01-14 03:34:54.870000+00:00 | ['Logistics', 'Freight', 'Trade', 'Shipping'] |
One Man Has the Power to End the World | We were saved by legitimate doubt and cold reason; by people doing what was right, and not what was ordered of them.
Since Trinity, decades of research have done nothing but increase the destructive power of atomic weapons. While our capacity to inflict damages increased exponentially, our dread of nuclear doom has receded in a similar fashion. We no longer live in constant fear; perhaps we have too much on our plates to think about it; perhaps we’re simply inured to it.
We shouldn’t forget, however, that since the 1950s there have been 14 nuclear close calls. Fourteen times in 70 years we have flirted with the apocalypse, once every five years on average. What prevented it from occurring was the good faith, courage, and cool-headedness of a few people like Stanislas Petrov.
Indeed, in a mutually-assured-destruction standoff, retaliation must be immediate and conducted without doubts or second thoughts. The whole process is designed to exclude human emotions because emotions tend to make one not want to kill billions of people. More importantly, the vacuity of a second strike would compel most people not to order it. All a second strike does is guarantee the end of the world; it doesn’t prevent the damages from the first strike. This is a lose-lose scenario built on the notion that “if I die, everybody should die too.”
The only thing that has saved the world until now is the prevailing of emotions and common sense in situations of emergency. We were saved by legitimate doubt and cold reason; by people doing what was right, and not what was ordered.
A few people have saved us. A few can doom us. One has his finger on the button for 24 more days. And this person is Donald Trump.
The press, the experts, the intellectuals, his political opponents, we, citizens of America and the world, have ve all discussed at great length the changes in US governance that need to happen following Trump’s presidency. A government system based on good faith and “being a gentleman” and founded on the premise that all politicians are honest and well-meaning has proven its limitations. The Founding Fathers never envisioned half of Washington would become what the GOP is today: a personality cult whose only aim is to reduce tax on their wealthy donors’ estates and keep power at all costs. The political system of the US needs a critical update.
The Founding Fathers never considered the nuclear bomb either. That the President would one day possess a power so immense it could be considered divine cannot have possibly touched their minds. That, through firepower, the President would act as an absolute ruler on the lives of all citizens of the world is something they simply couldn’t conceive. Yet, here we are, subjects of a man’s desires, vassals of our nuclear overlords. For Humanity’s sake, the US must also update its nuclear strategy and rethink the powers given to the President.
We all live under the threat of nuclear Armageddon. We all live a few inches away from destruction, a mere step separating us from the precipice.
And, for 24 more days, the man who gets to decide whether we take that step and throw ourselves in the abyss is Donald Trump. | https://medium.com/@ncarteron/one-man-has-the-power-to-end-the-world-48a80fe994b0 | ['Nicolas Carteron'] | 2020-12-27 11:55:55.278000+00:00 | ['Nuclear Weapons', 'USA', 'Society', 'Trump', 'Politics'] |
Creating Your Profitable Life Hack | Posted by Eric Lomax
What is the oddest life hack ever proposed? Most people have heard of drying waterlogged phones in rice. If you grew up near the ocean, you may have heard — and been repulsed by the idea — that urine stops the itch of jellyfish stings. Soldiers who need to clear rooms of booby traps apparently spray silly string near the floor. The fluorescent plastic strands adhere to hidden tripwires without causing the attached bomb to explode. But how did creators discover these and how do you reenact the process to build your business concept?
Each remedy stems from the creator’s sense of urgency and willingness to experiment. When your expensive and all-encompassing phone won’t start, when your skin is burning from jellyfish stings, or when your life is in jeopardy, pragmatism outweighs the fear of looking foolish. For successful creators, no solution is too silly or too stupid. None are rejected because they were ridiculous. Even Thomas Edison was said to have tested 1600 items as lightbulb filaments including coconut fibers and beard hair. The only dumb idea is the one that isn’t considered.
Prime Creativity
Athletes warm-up before entering a competition, treat your creative muscles the same way. Studies have shown that positive affect, mood, improves creative production. This is why people experience more creative thoughts in the shower, while people-watching, or when staring at picturesque landscapes. In one study, participants who viewed pictures of puppies and laughing babies produced a greater quantity and higher quality of creative ideas than those watching explosions and natural disasters. Other studies point to a correlation between dopamine, a hormone associated with the brain’s pleasure center, and creativity. The takeaway is simple: happiness and creativity are linked.
Before attacking a creative problem, find a pleasant setting. Listen to music you like. Play with the dog or watch kids laughing. Whatever improves your mood increases your creative production as well.
Initially Seek Quantity Not Quality
“Creativity is a wild mind with a disciplined eye.” — Dorothy Parker.
A more prescriptive description might argue that creativity is a disciplined eye after a wild mind.
Every effective creative brainstorming session consists of at least two least separate phases: ideation and analysis. Each is performed at different times because creation benefits from momentum and analysis inhibit it. Creation suffers from some sort of cognitive inertia where the first idea is the most difficult to produce but subsequent ones arise with less effort. Analyzing each idea immediately inhibits creators from producing subsequent ones.
Researchers often limit the amount of time or require a minimum number of ideas before moving forward. For instance, find as many new uses for a spoon as possible in 5 minutes or seek 30 new uses as quickly as possible. Both approaches force creators to focus on ideation alone. Create first. Evaluate after.
Open-ended Evaluation
The way creators evaluate business concepts is as important as the manner that they imagine them. Open-ended questions generate solutions while closed-ended ones reduce them. Closed-ended: would you use a spoon to dig a hole? Open-ended: when would you use a spoon to dig? Closed-ended produce binary responses and the goal is to develop lists of requirements. For example, a spoon might be a suitable digging tool when a shovel is unavailable, when the digging area is very small, if the item being excavated is delicate and could be easily damaged, etc. If the question can be answered “yes” or “no,” it’s the wrong question.
Takeaways
Mood, quantity, and evaluation methods affect the creative output. Find your happy place, produce as many ideas as possible, and evaluate them in a way that produces requirements. Creating the next great business isn’t accomplished by producing one great idea. It is accomplished by creating hundreds of ridiculous ones then sifting through the beard hair and coconut fibers to identify the one solution that surpasses all others. | https://medium.com/@entreverted/creating-your-profitable-life-hack-12716b489177 | [] | 2021-02-04 16:35:57.817000+00:00 | ['Life Hacking', 'Profitable Business', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Creativity', 'Side Hustle Tips'] |
Predicting The Protein Structures Using AI | Proteins are found essentially in all organisms, and they are basically a sequence of amino acids that are arranged in a particular structure. For many decades, scientists have been able to accurately compute the sequence of amino acids, but however, accurately predicting the structure of the protein has always been a challenging task. If we are able to decode the sequence of the amino acids in the protein structure and accurately determine the structure of the protein, then it will serve a number of functions.
Accurate prediction of protein structure will be very helpful in understanding the biological evolution of that particular protein and it will also help us understand the kind of diseases it can cause and the kind of defense it can provide against other diseases.
Essentially, accurate prediction of the structure of the protein is the key to understand the function of proteins and cells and as well as to understand how they can malfunction and cause diseases and this understanding could also be very helpful in the development of treatment and vaccines.
Now, if you look at the SARS-CoV-2, it is the spike protein structure of the Virus that latches onto the AS2 receptor in our cells, thereby leading to the occurrence of the infection. We have been able to develop this understanding quite quickly, mainly because of the progress that we have made with regard to our understanding and prediction of protein structures.
First Discovery
See, this field began evolving many decades ago, and back in 1972, a scientist known as Christian B. Anfinsen predicted that by accurately computing the sequence of amino acids, we will be able to deduce the protein structure. So this discovery won him the Nobel Prize for chemistry and it laid the foundation for analysis and prediction of protein structures.
X-ray Crystallography
Then nearly 60 years ago a scientist known as Max Perutz started to predict protein structures by using experiments. He made use of X-ray crystallography to determine the exact structure of myoglobin and hemoglobin and it was this discovery that helped us understand the true function of hemoglobin in the blood, which is to transport oxygen from the lungs to the tissues and cells. This understanding of the structure of myoglobin and hemoglobin also helped us understand how a change in a single amino acid can cause diseases such as sickle cell anemia.
Genome Sequencing
Today, decoding the sequence of amino acids and accurately completing the sequence has become more advanced, thanks to the progress achieved in genome sequencing. Because at the end of the day, the protein structures in the amino acids are essentially a part of the genome itself and the rapid advances we have made in genome sequencing have helped us to easily compute the sequence of amino acids. But however, when it comes to creating a 3D structure of the protein, these experimental techniques such as X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance, etc., can be quite ineffective and they’re also very time consuming and expensive.
India’s Contribution
When it comes to the field of protein structural work. Even India is a leading country because an Indian scientist known as GN Ramachandran developed the Ramachandran plot, which today has become the model for scientists around the world to understand the structure of proteins.
CASP Technique
Then in 1994, a scientist known as John Moult came up with the CASP technique, which stands for Critical Assessment for Protein Structure Prediction, and this is provided for a comparative model through which protein structures can be predicted.
Specialty Of AI
But however, predicting protein structures is a very complex and challenging exercise, especially when you’re relying upon traditional experimental techniques such as X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance. This is where the emergence of artificial intelligence has caused a major disruption in the field of protein structure prediction. In 2018, a company known as Deep Mind made use of artificial intelligence and deep learning to come out with a predictive algorithm, which today has emerged as a breakthrough technology that can accurately predict protein structure.
Conclusion
These advances made in the production of protein structure with the usage of artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms have transformed our understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 and it has definitely enabled the accelerated development of vaccines.
Gain Access to Expert View — Subscribe to DDI Intel | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/predicting-the-protein-structures-using-ai-54618460131b | ['Vishnu Aravindhan'] | 2020-12-26 08:46:36.656000+00:00 | ['AI', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Health', 'Protein', 'Science'] |
Is bigger also smarter? — Open AI releases GPT-3 language model | Is bigger also smarter? — Open AI releases GPT-3 language model
The race for larger language models is entering the next round.
Image: www.pexels.com
Progress in NLP applications is driven by larger language models consisting of neural networks using the Transformer Architecture. On the occasion of the recently published results of the currently largest model — GPT-3 of Open AI, I would like to take a closer look at these advances.
Are the models more than just huge “lookup tables” with intelligent interpolation methods?
On May 28, 2020, a paper (https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.14165) by OpenAI researchers was published on ArXiv about GPT-3, a language model that is capable of achieving good results in a number of benchmark language processing tasks ranging from language translation and news article writing to question answering. The special thing about it is that these results are achieved without fine-tuning for the benchmark under consideration, but are achieved by the language model without any further information (“zero-shot”) or with little additional information (“one-shot” or “few-shot”).
GPT-3 has no less than 175 billion parameters. For comparison, the largest version of GPT-2 had 1.5 billion parameters, and the world’s largest transformer-based language model — introduced by Microsoft earlier this month — has 17 billion parameters.
When Open AI released the previous generation GPT-2 a year ago with great media echo, this was also due to the announcement not to release the largest model, because it could generate harmful things like fake news. Meanwhile, the generation of news from a given context with such models is nothing special anymore. However, the generated articles are not just pieced together from parts of articles from the training data, but are really new, as experiments have shown.
At first glance, the contributions are often indistinguishable from real news. In the current GPT-3 paper, one result is that generated news articles can hardly be distinguished from real news by people. In one experiment only 52% were correctly recognized, which is close to 50% that would be achieved by dicing. This could also be due to the fact that some real news items are so absurd that the dividing line can no longer be drawn sharply.
As my own experiments with stories about Austria have shown,
the articles are largely syntactically correct and read pleasingly, and the facts sound quite logical, but are often recognizable as incorrect when one is familiar with the facts.
It seems as if the model filters matching articles from a kind of “memory” through the given context, and then “interpolates” them into a new story. The memory is formed by the high number of parameters that are optimized when training with text data. GPT-3 was trained on the CommonCrawl dataset of almost one trillion words collected between 2016 and 2019, as well as on datasets related to web texts, books, and Wikipedia.
This reminds me of the saying that DeepLearning is just glorified “curve fitting”, which I discussed in an earlier article:
But it is not really “understanding” texts or even drawing conclusions from texts. As the results in the new paper also show, GPT-3 models have a hard time, especially in tests that require real conclusions.
An interesting experiment in the paper is also the attempt to calculate examples given as text, for example:
“ What is 48 plus 76? ”
to be calculated by the model. It is shown here that the largest model (175 billion parameters) allows simple addition and subtraction of two or three numbers, but not yet longer calculations. And that again without special fine-tuning for this task!
Chart from the paper https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.14165
As if the size of the “lookup table” was large enough for the shorter calculations, but not for the longer ones. Where does the data for these “tables “come from?
In the texts from the internet, which were used for the training of GPT-3, there is enough material for this. An Internet search for the calculations provides tables like the following one:
Screenshot from https://www.dollartimes.com/calculate/percentage/
The question arises for me if further scaling up of models and data will lead to further substantial improvements for NLP applications, or if it is time for new ideas and approaches? | https://towardsdatascience.com/is-bigger-also-smarter-open-ai-releases-gpt-3-language-model-adbb8b3b8126 | ['Andreas Stöckl'] | 2020-06-01 08:00:27.307000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'NLP', 'Language Model'] |
The story of an interesting Pivot… | In 2012, while attending a birthday in Las Vegas, I heard the word Bitcoin for the first time in my life. At first sight I was skeptical, but being exposed to the famously known Patient-0 of Silicon Valley, I felt the contagion and bought my fist bitcoins on Mt-Gox. I felt super smart a few months later when I sold them for $1,000… In hindsight, I should have HODL’d.
Source: Lean Start Up
Fast forward to the summer of 2016, after the sale of my previous company, I decided to join the team at Matrix Partners as their Entrepreneur In Residence. I knew I wanted to work on artificial intelligence applied to personal finance. I had this hunch that people did not want to manage money but they would love to have a service doing it for them, like a private banker in your pocket. I spent a lot of time talking to entrepreneurs, hearing pitches and listening to stories about failures. Everyday I was fine tuning my idea and narrowing down to the essential value proposition of my new venture. As I’m a product person, I started building a prototype. Once the prototype was ready, I spent many afternoons on the Stanford Campus, talking to undergrads and MBA students, listening to their feedback. I found a co-founder, an expert in artificial intelligence and machine learning who had helped to build the artificial intelligence framework at Facebook. We started to pitch VCs, we hired a team. I started to visit multiple campuses like Berkeley, UC Santa Clara, San Jose State University, etc… While the feedback on the project was positive, the attention was more toward cryptocurrencies. I started to identify a pattern where people started to be more and more curious about crypto. I even found myself telling students where to buy their first bitcoins. After 2 months, the chatter about crypto became louder and louder. In the meantime, friends of mine started to ask me about crypto, how to invest, etc… We are in January 2017 and Ethereum started to Rock my World! Suddenly cryptocurrencies were becoming the fabric of a new technological revolution. No more barriers, no more government, no more censorship, freedom! and for the first time an alignment between investors and users as both parties from each other.
Crypto started to grow on me, and soon I started talking to my team about potentially pivoting. Our Facebook ad campaigns were going well but we saw the appearance of a lot of new mobile banks, increasing the competition. Day after day, my focus moved towards crypto. The more I learned about it, the more I saw some parallels between peer-to-peer networks, skype, the TCP protocol, etc… I remember I told myself: “The entire world is being disrupted right in front of us, and we can ALL be part of it!”.
That’s how a day of June 2017, we decided to pivot to building IronChain. | https://medium.com/ironchain-capital/the-story-of-an-interesting-pivot-4e43ca112bba | ['Jonathan Benassaya'] | 2018-05-01 21:19:05.436000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin'] |
Inside the World of Birth Tourism | The maternity hotel’s services begin at the Los Angeles International Airport. Qu picks up his guests and delivers them to their reserved room. Every day, the maternity hotel’s two on-staff chefs provide three meals (four dishes and one soup) as well as seasonal fruit. Qu drives his clients to shop and dine out twice a week. He also helps find obstetricians for them, drives them to prenatal care appointments, and takes to the hospital for delivery.
“Every pregnant woman has her own budget expectation for delivery,” says Qu, who worked as a technician in a pediatric hospital in Shanghai, China. “I give my clients a quotation list of different hospitals. After they choose a hospital, I will contact an obstetrician for them.”
In China, new mothers are told to rest indoors for one month after giving birth. They’re supposed to have traditional soup of chicken and ginseng, pork ribs and corn, or pork liver and sesame oil as well as vegetables with rice. They’re not supposed to do housework or touch cold water. The maternity hotel provides a mainland or Taiwanese matron, who follows through on these principles when taking care of new mothers and babies.
Babies’ diapers
“I chose a Taiwanese matron for my first and second delivery. She cooked five meals with nutritious soup a day,” Qin says, standing up and heading to the refrigerator for a glass of fresh orange juice, “So I recovered very fast.”
Traditional Chinese customs don’t allow women to take a shower for a month after they give birth, but Qin says her matron “didn’t think so.” Ancient people were used to bathing in a tub, which is not clean for a woman who just gave birth, she says. Qin adds that poor bathing conditions made women suffer colds and fevers, both of which were serious illnesses at that time. “Now, things are different. I can take a shower and keep warm in a temperature-set room,” she explains, sitting back on the couch.
But her matron didn’t allow her to go outdoors, believing the wind could adversely affect her health.
“I had to wear a warm hat when I went out,” Qin shrugs. “And wear fluffy socks all the time, even at home. Keeping warm is an important thing for a woman who gave birth.”
Seeing Qin approach the couch from the kitchen, Qu adds that the maternity hotel impressed her because she received gifts for her newborn babies after delivery.
The kitchen
“My first child received powdered milk, baby diapers, and cotton clothes. My second child received an electric cradle as well as baby diapers,” Qin says. “The owner is very kind.”
Hearing Qin’s words, Qu smiles gently and says, “I hope my clients feel at home.” | https://medium.com/s/story/inside-the-world-of-birth-tourism-4d6e382346b0 | ['Yuming Fang'] | 2019-01-07 22:49:13.122000+00:00 | ['Birth Tourism', 'Birth', 'Immigration', 'Health', 'Medical Tourism'] |
The real advantage of audiobooks | The real advantage of audiobooks
Hey friends, hope you’re all doing well and wearing a mask 😷 when you go out.
Generally, I write about very specific topics related to programming which take a couple of days to produce, polish, and publish. But with this blog, I want to start a series of more frequent, short and simple blogs sharing practical tips that have helped boost my productivity and happiness.
This pandemic has been tough for every one of us in different ways, but it has also pushed us to form some good new habits. For me, as I was spending more time at home; I started to read regularly. In the evening after work, I would just lie down on the couch, zone out to Read and Unwind and spend about an hour reading.
Some of the books I read this year
But after a while, I started some new habits like waking up early and working out every day (at home). These habits quickly became a top priority for me and the reading habit fade <awkward silence> and faded <more awkward silence> into darkness.
At this point, I decided to try out audiobooks, I already had an audible subscription but rarely used it. I scheduled it right along with my workout timings so I instead of workout music, I would now be playing an audiobook.
Honestly, the start was meh 😪. It was kinda boring and I noticed that after a while it was really easy for the narrator to just fade into the background while I was focusing on the workout. Then I tried something which changed the game completely, and that was …
Playback speed
Just like in college, when video lectures were boring, we would dial up the playback speed (What, you didn’t? You’re lying 😜). In the app, I changed the playback speed to 1.5x. Now I had to intentionally put more focus into it to keep track of the words and I started to cling to it more and more. After a while, as I got used to it, 1.5x started to sound slow as well, so I moved to 1.8x.
This was a complete game-changer, I was able to tap into the knowledge from different books while doing other tasks which do not require a lot of focus. After about 6 weeks, slowly increasing the speed every few days, I recently reached the milestone of 3x speed and feel comfortable and focused.
This brought out the real benefit of audiobooks, the reason you clicked on this blog, which is the number of books one can finish. While normally it would take me about 2 weeks to finish a book or about 300 pages, with an audiobook at about 2x speed it takes only a week. This allows you to try out newer genres and also re-read your favorites.
You don’t have to take out separate time in the day to read. AND you can read faster as well.
Now, there are a few caveats we need to talk about. This works perfectly well for books which are like a pot full of knowledge and ideas that you can tap into. It does not make a lot of sense for books where you have to go through passages multiple times to understand them and take notes, for example — tech books or books related to any course. I also noticed that some books may require you to slow down for example books where you need enough time to think and connect to old events in the book, so don’t shy dialing it down a bit.
But overall, audiobooks are now something I keep using while I’m on a walk 🚶🏻, working out 💪🏻 and sometimes just before I go to sleep 😴 (In audible, you can set a sleep timer so the audiobook automatically stops playing some time after you doze off).
Some audiobooks from my library
That’s all for this one folks. Do try out this tip if you had difficulty sticking to audiobooks. Share your experiences in the comments and until the next one, Ciao! | https://medium.com/@iabhishek1041/the-real-advantage-of-audiobooks-45ad0b2cf24d | ['Abhishek Jangra'] | 2020-12-09 04:46:43.859000+00:00 | ['Learning', 'Self Development', 'Time Management', 'Audiobooks', 'Reading'] |
Why ‘Christmas With The Kranks’ is the ultimate Christmas horror movie. | Jamie Lee Curtis buckles to the concrete floor, letting out a guttural, animalistic scream. It’s the scream one would associate with someone in deep despair, the acting chops reminiscent of Donald Sutherland cradling his dead daughter at the start of ‘Don’t Look Now’. The grief is potent through the screen. Yet where you may expect to see a mangled body on the road at the receiving end of these shrill shrieks, the audience are instead shown a can of Hickory Honey Ham, crumpled by a lorry.
Needless to say, the stakes in Christmas With The Kranks are low. However, in 2020 where capitalism has been put under the critical eyeglass, it’s clear that these low stakes and trivial situations are mere gift wrap over a truly insidious undercurrent.
When we discuss movies which are transcendent in breaking genre codes and conventions, Christmas With The Kranks (2004) is an overlooked horror masterpiece. Bizarrely but understandably based on a John Grisham novel, the movie sees a family try to escape the traditional trappings of the festive holiday.
We often see a conglomeration of Horror and Christmas genres meld in movies such as ‘Black Christmas’ or ‘Better Watch Out’, where blood spittles over Christmas wreaths, and dead bodies are slumped in the reflection of silver baubles. However what makes Christmas With The Kranks all the more unnerving, is its absolute commitment to the genre of Christmas.
The setting is a snowy suburban landscape. The music is deafeningly festive. The colour scheme is harsh pangs of crimson red and mustard yellow. It wraps a noose of tinsel around your neck and tightens it until you’re gasping for air. There is absolutely no denying that this is a Christmas movie. Horror is never explicitly pursued, aside from shots played for laughs of Jamie Lee Curtis scampering around her house in fear of her satanic neighbours, or slithering down the wall in horror after her husband rejects the policeman’s annual holiday calendar.
Therein lies the genius of Christmas With The Kranks. Some Christmas-Horror amalgamations rely on a bloody axe being dragged across a cream carpet towards a Christmas tree, or the hooves of Krampus imprinted in the snow walking towards your front porch — but not away. The horror is obvious. What makes The Kranks so insidious, is the enemy is entwined with the theme. The movie self-consciously utilises its own theme to put its argument across. It’s a rebellion against genre, more specifically the Hollywood genre film: an industrialised mode of production focused on institutional supply and demand for the sole benefit of audience consumption and profit. It’s a criticism of cookie cutter movies that are made solely for profit. And therein lies its more important criticism: it’s a rebellion against capitalism. The enemy is capitalism. Invisible, but omnipresent.
In conversation with Noam Chomsky about Christmas With the Kranks, he states that the movie seems like ‘the commodification of every aspect of life that is a natural component of capitalism’. Capitalism is merely the backdrop which oozes into themes of traditionalism, consumerism, freedom, and America.
The malevolent and personified force of capitalism is established from the very beginning. Luther and Nora say goodbye to their daughter Blair for the holiday season. Already, the audience can feel the aura of capitalism loom over Nora and Luther like it’s the manifestation of Death in Final Destination. It’s already trembling at this breach of traditionalism, watching the abolition of the nuclear family unfold. To make matters worse, Luther rejects an umbrella from a man on the street whilst it’s raining, a rejection of consumerism. Rubbing salt into this wound, this umbrella is rejected from a man dressed as Father Christmas, mocking consumerist culture straight to its face. And just to twist that knife a little bit more, Luther sees an advertisement for a cruise ship holiday past the frosted window pane of a holiday agent, and thus decides to “skip Christmas”. It’s this trifecta of threat towards capitalism which preludes a truly harrowing festive frolic, that only The Wickerman could aspire to achieve in its penultimate climax.
The Kranks are loud and proud about their plan to go on a cruise ship holiday instead of celebrating Christmas. “I will NOT be celebrating Christmas this year,” Luther boastingly writes in a work email. “One year off, no Christmas whatsoever” Nora irritably tells her friends at a restaurant table. Their mouths hang agape in response to this. Shock washes over their faces and colours them pale. Bystanders from countless neighbouring tables crane their heads to stare at Nora judgmentally. It’s a malevolent detail which creates an oppressive atmosphere, and whilst it’s an innocuous detail, it does make it difficult to disagree that what we’re dealing with from the get-go is a Christmas cult.
This is just scratching the surface. We proceed to bubbling tension in the form of snide comments. The Kranks’ neighbour Walt Scheel calls Luther a ‘jerk’ for not wanting to purchase a Christmas calendar. Duke Scanlon emotionally guilt trips Luther for not purchasing a Christmas tree. Every exchange between the neighbours and the Kranks has an aura of threat to them. There is an overarching pittance to them not conforming to the standards of the traditional Christmas holiday, which the movie itself seems to side with.
We are transformed from snide comments to military action. The neighbours begin campaigning against The Kranks for not putting up their Snowman decoration. Outside their front porch, Vic Frohmeyer bellows “we’re here for Frosty!” He rallys a few kids from the neighbourhood to chant alongside him. It’s intense. Nora tries desperately to make a subtle escape in her car, only to be chased by Vic Frohmeyer, foaming at the mouth. “We just want Frosty!” he barks - with Nora whimpering in the driver’s seat. It’s a disturbing insight into how conformity has indoctrinated this neighbourhood. They have reduced themselves to a being a society characterised by fads and ritualistic behaviour, at the expense of a plastic decoration symbolic of a holiday devoured by capitalism. Their desperation for The Kranks to erect their Frosty decoration is representative of their blind conformity, slaves to the capitalist trappings of the holiday season.
Later on, Vic Frohmeyer sets a crazed group of Christmas Carollers to sing “Jingle Bells” outside their front porch. As they repeat this jingle, their tempo speedens, the intensity of their vocals grow into beastly proportion. The intensity grows and grows until suddenly - silence. Relief is potent through the screen. Nora drops a ball of wool on the floor - you can even hear the mild thud as it hits the cream carpet. Still silent. She grabs the ball of wool, and cranes herself back into her chair. Still silent - when suddenly - she looks up to her window. Carollers are there within an inch of her window screen - singing, close enough to claw at the glass. Nora and Luther scamper to the basement, met by a Frosty decoration, who’s usual happy facial expression has distorted into a maniacal grin. “Free Frosty” is chanted at their window once again by the unhallowed neighbours. It’s hell.
It’s at the midpoint where the horror truly cascades. Their daughter Blair phones them and tells them she is actually coming home for the holidays, with her new fiancé, Enriqué. The Kranks have spent the entire movie trying to escape tradition, yet it is tradition in the form of the nuclear family which claws them back. From here we see the neighbourhood pull together to help The Kranks celebrate Christmas, and what transpires is a unique spin on the ‘good capitalist’ trope that reoccurs in an array of Christmas movies. Where this trope usually follows the guideline that the kindness of the wealthy upper class is demonstrated as an adequate enough solution to appease the damage of class inequality, The Kranks gives a somewhat more realistic spin to the theme. It shows the rich support the rich, and besmirch any evidence of poorness.
Whilst these tropes are purposely turned upside down, the tone of the movie isn’t critical of this. The disdain of poorness is made to seem reasonable through the lighthearted tone of the film. It’s the subtlety of how these genre conventions are flipped which makes for an effective scare. You’re forcibly sided with the culture of capitalism that is dedicated to encouraging the production and sale of commodities. The festive genre conventions and the hellish story itself are diametrically opposed, but it makes the audience side with the cult unknowingly. It’s the closest you could come to being indoctrinated into an actual cult without notice.
cinematic parallels?
The Kranks are merely a comedy punching bag. The movie wants you to laugh at their misfortune, the film actively embracing the fervour of the crowd and actively criticising, even demonising, the choice of the Kranks. I think back to the scene where Luther rejects an umbrella from a man dressed as Father Christmas. His rejection of an umbrella is immediately followed by a throwaway gag of him getting drenched by water bursting through a window awning. It’s subtle, but the umbrella is merely a metaphor for how capitalism takes advantage of people’s misfortune for its own benefit. His immediate punishment for going against consumerist culture makes it difficult to argue against the theory that capitalism truly operates like Death in Final Destination. With the umbrella fulfilling the necessity we have for comfort, shelter, protection and convenience, it makes it seems like a fitting metaphor for how America has monopolised necessity.
We’re at the finale of this horror movie now — a finale which filled me with a greater sense of dread than what I experienced during the final 30 minutes of Hereditary. Like Hereditary, we watch as a family succumb to the cult which they’ve been trying to escape for the entirety of the movie. “Christmas (baby please come home)” echoes in the background hauntingly, as a child rides his bike down a frosted lane. We have the unfounded knowledge that these main characters have met their demise. As the neighbourhood clamber together to help them celebrate their traditional Christmas party, we watch as they partake in the typical Christmas traditions. They laugh amongst friends and strangers. They kiss under mistletoe. There’s an awful scene where they all sing Christmas songs together. Everyone is happy and cheerful. It’s hell.
Marty, a character who has been claus-coded throughout the film (a wink and a nod to the common trope of Santa being a character implied to be Santa rather than explicitly be Santa), arrives at the scene. He brings an item of sinister significance, which I believe offers a summation of this hellish movie.
I reminisce to the Honey Hickory Ham scene, where Nora watches a can smash to smithereens before her very eyes. It’s made abundantly clear in the scene prior (where we watch Nora almost slide tackle another customer to obtain this canned good) that this can of Honey Hickory Ham is the last one in stock. No other can of Hickory Honey Ham is available. When I said that grief was potent through the screen when Nora watched this can get obliterated by a lorry, I was not joking. But what does the Hickory Honey Ham embody, but a branded item used to establish a corporation using iconography to become an institution within itself? And who brings back this Hickory Honey Ham from the dead? Marty. The character who is claus-coded throughout the film. With Santa being somewhat the patron saint of capitalism, it seems befitting. The can is in pristine condition, demonstrating the immortality of corporations in capitalist America. The brand was invincible. It’s a stark reminder that The Kranks were never destined to win this battle. It reminds me of the scene in Hereditary where the class discuss whether Heracles having no choice over his fate makes his narrative more tragic or less tragic. A classmate chimes in, “I think it’s more tragic, because if it’s all just inevitable then that means the characters have no hope. They never had hope”. I believe this to be an excellent summation of Christmas With The Kranks, they truly never had hope to begin with.
It’s the inevitability of The Kranks’ demise which ultimately makes this festive frolic a horror movie. Even before Marty resurrected this brand of Hickory Honey Ham from the dead, we knew The Kranks were never destined to escape this capitalist hell. From the start of the movie, we watched them both yearn for a cruise ship holiday as opposed to the traditional Christmas holiday. It was the crux of the movie, a simple fifty-fifty chance of them making it to the cruise or being trapped in a suburban nightmare. But with the cruise ship being synonymous with freedom, one must ask — if this is their interpretation of freedom, what kind of freedom does America have? I am reminded of the Richard Spencer quote: “A nation based on freedom is just another place to go shopping.”
That is Christmas With The Kranks. It’s a capitalist horror-show in golden wrapping paper with a grotesque red bow tied around it, where consumerism is rife and tradition triumphs. The horror is truly centered around how obsessed this community is with Christmas, and by extension, capitalism and tradition. I asked Gregory Frantz a series of questions regarding Christmas With The Kranks. He recently helped the Campbell Soup company trademark the word “chunky,” so seemed like a suitable candidate for this think-piece. He claims “a life overly focused on economic activity is not likely to be fulfilling,” encapsulating the true horror of The Kranks. The finale is supposed to be happy, yet it’s an illusion. It’s a facade of happiness at the expense of becoming a slave to consumerism. It is sleight of hand as you know beyond the surface of The Kranks singing and cheering in this ghoulish finale, on the undercurrent they are imprisoned, with no means of escape.
We often watch tradition triumph modernity and consumerism peak, especially around the holiday season. This movie is merely a mirror to our own society. True horror is people gunning to shout the f slur in Fairytale Of New York under the guise of “tradition”. True horror is advertising convincing us that consumption is the answer to life’s challenges under the guise of “consumerism”. True horror is people refusing to wear potential life-saving face masks to suppress transmission during the busiest period of the year under the guise of “freedom”. If ever there were to be a horror reboot which actively pursues the horror codes and conventions, Ari Aster would truly do it justice.
We’re at the final shot of the movie. We pan away from Nora and Luther looking through their window at their neighbourhood partaking in their traditional holiday party — Nora’s head resting atop Luther’s shoulder. It’s snowing. It’s cold. The camera pans out to show each house in this suburban neighbourhood, a frosty snowman on top of each one. The screen cuts to black. As expected, a comment from an online forum perfectly summarises this scare-fest, from a user called JayEssArr: It’s a suburban postmodern nightmare psych horror film trapped inside boundless consumer-capitalist apologia that could only have been dreamed up by a haunted person, if not 5 haunted people. | https://medium.com/@harrymichaelphillips1996/why-christmas-with-the-kranks-is-the-ultimate-christmas-horror-movie-ead816a2699c | ['Harry Phillips'] | 2020-12-25 10:24:08.105000+00:00 | ['Horror Movies', 'Christmas', 'Capitalism', 'Christmas With The Kranks', 'Horror'] |
Twitter US Airline Sentiment | Using Sentiment analysis to understand user feedback
Motivation:
The digital connectivity bestows immense power to the customers in terms of vocalizing their thoughts, opinions, and reviews on a brand. The customer views expressed on Twitter, Facebook, and other online forums are forming the base of customer strategy for brands worldwide.
Airlines can use Sentiment analysis or Opinion Mining of the posts shared on various social media platform to gain user insights and strategize their brands.
Problem :
In current data set (which can be found here on Kaggle), we have tweets for 6 US airlines.
We need to analyze how travelers in February 2015 expressed their feelings on Twitter i.e. whether the tweets are positive, negative or neutral.
Data Processing:
Initial Cleaning
After cleaning out non unique columns and columns with more than 90% missing values, we’ll have below columns:
tweet_id
airline_sentiment
airline_sentiment_confidence
negativereason
negativereason_confidence
airline
name
retweet_count
text
tweet_created
tweet_location
user_timezone
Let’s look at how our data set looks like:
dataset
Exploratory Data Analysis
Let’s look at distribution of positive, neutral and negative tweets across our dataset.
pie chart for positive, negative and neutral tweets.
Note, that more than 60% of the tweets are negative.
Below is the distribution of airlines across tweets:
pie chart for airlines in dataset
A trend on positive, neutral and negative tweets across airlines:
bar chart: positive, neutral and negative tweets vs airlines
From above graph we can see that
1. United, US Airways and American have substantially negative tweets, these also have got over all more tweets
2. Virgin America, Delta and Southwest have fairly balanced tweets
Now, let’s see the trend of number of negative tweets vs dates:
bar plot trend of number of negative tweets vs dates grouped by airlines
It should be noted that American started getting tweets from 22-Feb-2015 onwards.
Let’s look into negative reason’s marked by customers in their feedback:
bar plot trend of number of negative tweets vs dates grouped by airlines
As seen majority tweets have said the reason as
Customer service issue Late flight
Let us now, analyze the frequency of words appearing in negative tweets using WordCloud:
wordcloud for frequency of words appearing in negative tweets
Observe that flight, hour, help, time, hold, bag, plane are present more frequently in negative statements.
Similarly, let’s analyze the frequency of words appearing in positive tweets:
wordcloud for frequency of words appearing in positive tweets
Observe, that thank, flight, great, will, awesome and love are present more frequently in positive statements
Let us now start analyzing the tweets
We’ll now clean up the text data, for this we’ll follow the below steps:
Remove all the special characters convert all letters to lower case filter out English stop words stemmer / lemmetization (optional)
Next, we’ll vectorize tweet text using TF-IDF, which is a the measure to evaluate how important a word is to a document in a corpus.
vectorize using TF-IDF
We’ll now apply following models to predict sentiments from tweet text data:
LogisticRegression MultinomialNB DecisionTreeClassifier RandomForestClassifier KNeighborsClassifier
Accuracy score for each model:
LogisticRegression Accuracy Score : with accuar79.1%
precision recall f1-score support negative 0.93 0.81 0.87 3232
neutral 0.48 0.66 0.56 648
positive 0.60 0.81 0.69 512 accuracy 0.79 4392
macro avg 0.67 0.76 0.71 4392
weighted avg 0.83 0.79 0.80 4392MultinomialNB Accuracy Score : 69.69%
precision recall f1-score support negative 0.99 0.69 0.81 4081
neutral 0.15 0.78 0.26 174
positive 0.18 0.93 0.31 137 accuracy 0.70 4392
macro avg 0.44 0.80 0.46 4392
weighted avg 0.94 0.70 0.77 4392DecisionTreeClassifier Accuracy Score : 67.42%
precision recall f1-score support negative 0.79 0.78 0.79 2841
neutral 0.40 0.41 0.40 879
positive 0.55 0.57 0.56 672 accuracy 0.67 4392
macro avg 0.58 0.58 0.58 4392
weighted avg 0.68 0.67 0.67 4392RandomForestClassifier Accuracy Score : 76.78%
precision recall f1-score support negative 0.94 0.79 0.86 3378
neutral 0.38 0.63 0.48 535
positive 0.54 0.79 0.64 479 accuracy 0.77 4392
macro avg 0.62 0.74 0.66 4392
weighted avg 0.83 0.77 0.79 4392KNeighborsClassifier Accuracy Score : 69.83%
precision recall f1-score support negative 0.82 0.80 0.81 2866
neutral 0.46 0.42 0.44 960
positive 0.53 0.65 0.58 566 accuracy 0.70 4392
macro avg 0.60 0.62 0.61 4392weighted avg 0.70 0.70 0.70 4392
Plot for each model vs accuracy score:
comparative plot for model vs accuracy scores
Conclusion
Logistic regression is better model for predicting the results with accuracy of 79.1%
Click here to view my python notebook on Kaggle, and here to view on Linkedin article. | https://medium.com/@codeserra810/twitter-us-airline-sentiment-c331f494f381 | [] | 2020-12-19 13:46:53.601000+00:00 | ['Naturallanguageprocessing', 'Sentiment Analysis', 'Machine Learning', 'NLP', 'Classification Algorithms'] |
Letter five: I sold my happiness for money and learned to trust myself | Letter five: I sold my happiness for money and learned to trust myself
Lessons from a career without a high-school diploma
Dear Past-Micke,
I know that you’re dying to ask me about career. It’s one of the questions that you’re struggling a lot with. Career is so central to who we are. I’m an author, I’m unemployed, I’m a personal trainer, I’m a shoe salesman — how a person answers “so what do you do for work?” changes our perception of them. We identify so much with our job titles that we rarely answer that question with what we actually do, instead we say who we are. We repeat it so much that we forget who we really are.
Career is central to the trajectories of our lives. To you that trajectory is so unclear that it’s hard for you to dream of what you’ll be doing two years from now, let alone five. Most of your peers are attending this university or that, having made that choice that every twenty-year old is expected to have made at that point: what you want to be when you grow up. Nothing seems interesting enough to warrant spending a lifetime on it. That means you don’t have any concrete reason to get that high school diploma you lack, having dropped out of the last year. You don’t like to talk about it, partly because of the stigma and shame of being a high school dropout, partly because it inevitably leads to the question “why?”. Since you don’t know what career you’re aiming for, that question doesn’t have a clear-cut answer, no clear-cut defense, no silver bullet to justify a choice so irrational. And yet, I know it doesn’t seem irrational to you. There’s no clear-cut answer because there are many reasons, each resting on a complex network of decisions and events, each by itself not nearly good enough to justify the sin of dropping out of high school.
There was the struggle of coming to terms with your sexual identity, to come out to yourself and others. The disillusion brought on by the school system failing to to make sense not only of what you’re learning — you were always fine with that, trusted the teachers to teach you the right things— but why you should learn it. You understood the need for basic math, but not for the need to calculate derivatives. Every subject seemed so disconnected from the others as well as from the practical world. Take chemistry and physics for example, you know that both involve atoms but school built few bridges between them for you. The first time you’ll fully realize how it’s all connected is when you watch “Cosmos” with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, but that will be in nineteen years, almost a lifetime in the future from your perspective. If you only learn stuff to get good grades, what’s the point of it?
But high school did point you in the right direction, even if it still is unclear to you. This is where your first became aware of the internet, the first thing that seemed to be interesting from a career perspective. I don’t think many high schools in Sweden had computers connected to the internet in those early days, but your school did. A computer in the library caught your eye. It had a chat page open in a Mosaic browser window. Seeing real time communication in action like that lessened the gap between reality and movies like “Hackers” and “Johnny Mnemonic” (I’m sad to report that neither has aged very well). Shortly thereafter, you went to the newly opened internet cafe in town. Being the gamer you are, you quickly discovered Multi-User Dungeons, or MUDs. They may have been text-based, but it was an immense world where you could interact with both human and computer controlled characters. In 2004, Blizzard will release a graphic version of MUDs called World of Warcraft, but in 1996 you got hooked on a newly started MUD called “The Shadow Realms”. It became the perfect escape from the problems of your own world. It offered a universe where you could be someone else. In the meat-world you were a confused, gay teenager. In the Shadow Realms you were Ethan (what you lacked in imagination, you made up in crush on Ethan Hawke), the mightiest mortal sorcerer in that universe. I remember you checking your stats after a year: you had spent more than 1800 hours in the game. That would have cost a fortune at the internet cafe, but lucky for you, you spent so much time there that they hired you as an internet guide. In those early days, people came in to the internet cafe having heard about the internet, curious to try it, but most had no idea how it worked or what you could do. Your job was to get them started. It doesn’t seem much to you now, but twenty years later, when the internet is as integrated in our lives as electricity, it’s kind of old-school cool to have been an internet guide. The decision to drop out of high school doesn’t seem irrational to you. Even though you had no idea what the next step would be, what a career involving the internet could be, dropping out to work as an internet guide seemed like a reasonable choice.
There, you learned things that built the next step in your career. When you don’t know which direction you’re heading, taking one step at a time is the only way of moving forward. It will make for an interesting path, with fourteen full-time employments and two periods of self-employment in twenty years. From internet guide to support technician to programmer to team leader to project manager to personal trainer, back to project manager, to social media manager to digital strategist to head of innovation … each step will take you in a slightly different direction. Even if most adjoining steps seem related, together they will paint a motley pattern that will confuse both you and potential employers. When you’re navigating chaos, all you can do is navigate the current moment as best you can, and hope that some sort of pattern, something that makes sense of the chaos, eventually emerges.
The pattern I see, twenty years later, is you intuitively applying design thinking on your life. Your peers are busy pursuing specific career paths, you don’t even have a map of possible paths to take. When you don’t have an inkling about what you want to devote your career to, trying things out is a good way forward. With each job, you’ll learn skills and gain experience that will enable you to move to the next as soon as you realize that “no, this is not what I want to spend my life doing”. Luck and timing will be as important as skills, if not more so. But all the skills you’ll learn and all the experience you’ll gain have nothing on what you’ll learn about the value of time.
In 2007, you’ll start a rather well-paying job, and your first day you’ll find out that the other new recruit, who was supposed to be a project manager, quit before he started. They’ll ask you to fill in, as they’ll have more need of project managers until a new one is recruited, and you’ll reluctantly agree — even though you specifically said during the recruitment process that although you come from a position as project manager, you don’t want to be one anymore. One thing leads to another, and you’ll end up spending months in a position that requires you to be in place 40 hours a week, but you’ll only be busy for 15–20 of those hours. Even though the client will be happy with you, you will not be happy there. You won’t be able to shake off the guilt of not working hard enough for your salary. The job is okay, at best, but you’ll feel like you’re living for the weekends. Combined with rather dull offices, it will slowly wear you down. So slowly that you won’t notice the slip into dullness until Christmas break. On the morning of New Year’s Eve, you’ll be helping your friend Wille to prepare a New Year’s Party and you’ll talk about how happy you feel, as if color had returned to your life. That’s when you’ll realize that it’s the time off work, and having spent that time with family and friends, that had revived you from a slow slide into depression.
You’ll realize that the equation is simple: if you spend your work life living for the weekends, spend five days every week longing for the other two, and one of those two dreading the coming five — then you’ll spend 85.7% of your life waiting to live.
After Christmas break, you’ll ask your manager to be moved to your originally agreed-upon role. He’ll be sympathetic, but he will explain that they can’t move you from the client — a couple incidents over the year had made the client nervous, and they couldn’t rock the boat by removing a well-liked project manager. You’ll see it from his perspective, and it will make perfect sense. That’s exactly what you’d have said in his place. If you agreed, the client would get what they want, your employer would get what they want, and you’d get paid. But you’ll realize that you won’t get what you want, and you’ll give your month’s notice right there and then. You’ll give it knowing perfectly well that you have no job lined up, no savings to speak of, and bills to pay. But you’ll think that you will make do, you always had and this wouldn’t be any different. It’ll be like that first skydive — terrifying and liberating at the same time, but you’d rather live now than wait for the weekend, the vacation, the retirement.
That will be an important lesson about the value of time, and the first time you’ll explicitly trust your capability in your professional life. It’ll happen about six months after the Sitges story I wrote about in a previous letter, which is the first time you’ll trust your capability in your romantic life. When you trust your future self, and your future self delivers, self-worth grows. It’s during that period you’ll realize that only you are responsible for your happiness, and when you’ll lose all your superstitions and become a true atheist.
Trusting your future self will pay off. You’ll soon get a job at Hyper Island, where you will learn so much about yourself, like that you’re an introvert, how to lead yourself and others through change, how to give and take feedback, and how to own your mistakes without feeling completely worthless. You’ll learn that being considerate of other people’s feelings and taking responsibility for them are two different things. That job will be such a defining period in your life with so many insights, more than rewarding the risk of quitting without a plan.
You’ll become bold, trusting yourself and your gut feeling. When you do it’ll pay off, when you don’t you’ll curse yourself. It’s a gut feeling that will make you buy a ticket to Cleveland, which till lead to an amazing relationship and a period living in New York. As you prepare the move to New York, you’ll get rid of almost everything you own. You’ll only have the things in the two suitcases you bring over, and a few boxes you’ll save at mom’s house. At about the same time you’ll read an article in New York Times, titled “Living with less”. That article will plant a seed in your mind, a seed that will grow as you realize you could have gotten by perfectly with just one suitcase. Sure, the second has a lot of things that could be good just in case, but it won’t be worth the cost of lugging it around. After reading an article how experiences make you happier than things, you and Mike will make eachother a promise: not to buy gifts for birthdays and Christmas; to spend the money on experiences instead. (I admit that we both have cheated on occasion, but it’s one of the best decisions we’ve made.)
Life in New York will be hectic. Seeing people stuck in the rat race, competing over who’s busiest and therefore most important, measuring the importance in money while losing sight of true wealth, will make you realize it’s a city you love to visit, but hate to live in. Fortunately, Mike will feel the same, and you’ll decide to move back to Scandinavia. As you come back and pick up those three or four boxes where you’ve saved those few items you deemed important enough to store, you’ll realize that there’s only one item in there with any real value: a box of memories and photographs. The rest? Apart from a kitschy lamp depicting a UFO abducting a cow, I can’t remember a single thing of it. You’ll save that lamp a couple years, confusing the fact that you saved it with importance. | https://medium.com/letters-from-the-person-i-needed-when-i-was/letter-five-i-sold-my-happiness-for-money-and-learned-to-trust-myself-ef8f4346c0b0 | ['Michael Kazarnowicz'] | 2018-05-05 15:09:34.919000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Work', 'Career Paths', 'Values', 'Living Well'] |
A Trinidadian Holiday Classic That Will Make Your New Years Soiree Sing | A Trinidadian Holiday Classic That Will Make Your New Years Soiree Sing
Pastelles are a Trinidadian and South American holiday staple that you don’t want to miss out on.
Vegan Pastelles| Photo by Author (Melissa A. Matthews)
“This is the mistletoe jam, I like to party all night…” my daughter has been singing Luther Vandross’ Mistletoe Jam all weekend long. Although it’s not Parang or Soca Parang — my preferred holiday genre, there is something about it that makes you “want to kiss somebody” almost as much as your family and friends will want to kiss the cook when you make any version of the holiday staple recipe, I’m about to share with you.
When prepared properly, the sweet, savory notes of — raisin, olives, and the “meat” of your choice packed into a perfectly portioned cornmeal shell and wrapped in a fig leaf — a Trini pastelle simply cannot be beat. The aroma of pastelles conjures joyous memories of gobbling them up three and four at a time.
First, as a child, I was always one pastelle away from eviscerating the entire batch made and sent by my aunt. As an adult, me and my partner would find ourselves locked into tense standoffs for the last pastelle — made by his mom. He insisted that pastelles were a delicacy to be savored and saved for just the right moment. Often, he’d wake to find that I’d eaten his share as well as mine — stealing the moment. I’m plant-based now, so “his” pastelles are safe and his mom has since started teaching me how to make my own. I can have them all-year round, but nothing — and, I do mean nothing — summons the sweet, sweet sound of Soca parang like the first bite of a pastelle during the holidays. So, this year, I’m excited to share a couple of new vegan filling options with you. I think it’ll take plant-based pastelles to a new level.
Pastelles are a labor of love so make sure you have an hour or three to spare and a little bit of patience.
Put on your Soca parang and let’s get this party started… | https://medium.com/one-table-one-world/a-trinidadian-holiday-classic-that-will-make-your-new-years-soiree-sing-1c2033fd2af3 | ['Melissa A. Matthews'] | 2020-12-29 15:48:01.994000+00:00 | ['Recipe', 'Cooking', 'Vegan', 'Food', 'Holidays'] |
Tracking the spread of the Corona Virus using Geospatial Analysis | Tracking the spread of the Corona Virus using Geospatial Analysis
A look into how geospatial analysis lets us predict how Corona Virus spread
Locale Corona Virus Dashboard
Our Open Source Dashboard to Track Corona Virus
First things first.
This weekend, our team at Locale took up a small project to build a non-apocalyptic, friendlier, minimal and easy-to-use visualization Covid19 dashboard. This dashboard helps you track the outbreak of the coronavirus in real-time as the outbreak unfolds. The dashboard can be accessed here. The data source for this project can be found here and the tech stack we used for this project was Vue.js, MapboxGL, DeckGL, Node.js.
The best part is that we have made the code open-source (so feel free to contribute).
A Brief History of Corona
Coronavirus (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). The WHO recently declared novel coronavirus as a pandemic already spreading to at least 114 countries and killing around 4,600 worldwide.
A brief timeline of the spread of the novel corona-virus is here below
December 2019
China alerted WHO to several cases of unusual pneumonia in Wuhan, in the port city of 11 million people in the central Hubei province. The virus was unknown.
January 2020
Positive cases of coronavirus started arising in China. The first death in China was of an old man who had come in contact with the seafood market in Wuhan. By the end of January, China reported 7711 positive cases and 170 death cases. The novel coronavirus also spread to Thailand, Japan, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
February 2020
The deadly corona-virus (COVID-19) spread to many more countries. The global death toll surpassed 4,600 with the number of positive cases exceeding 126,100 cases. WHO declared the novel coronavirus as a pandemic affecting all continents except the Antarctic. Health experts all around the world are working round the clock to find a cure for this unusual pneumonia-causing coronavirus. | https://medium.com/locale-ai/corona-virus-and-how-location-intelligence-plays-a-role-in-disease-spread-39d2a3b52efe | ['Anubhav Pattnaik'] | 2020-03-14 17:13:20.835000+00:00 | ['Tracker', 'Corona', 'Dashboard', 'Geospatial', 'Disease'] |
F# — From string to byte array and back | There’re a number of built-in literal types in F#, and one of the cool things you can do is to get the byte or byte array representation of a char or string using the ‘B’ suffix, the result is the same as Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes:
Pretty cool, eh? | https://medium.com/theburningmonk-com/f-from-string-to-byte-array-and-back-87bcae8dcb17 | ['Yan Cui'] | 2017-07-03 20:56:11.990000+00:00 | ['Functional Programming', 'Tips', 'Programming'] |
CorelDRAW x7 Crack | CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021 Crack Download For PC is the substance well off climate and master photograph design, photograph upgrading, and vector occurrence programming program. Whatever your plan Arbor, capacities, or interests. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021 Download PC Windows supplies an assortment of seven incredible bundles to meet all types of innovativeness.
CorelDRAW with the key new highlights of this adaptable graphical plan program named CorelDRAW Graphics Suite Crack. this application, you can get to your work any place you are. Make unique representations, signs, and logos for print and the web.
CorelDraw x7 Crack 22.1.1.523 2021 With Key Download {Windows + Mac}
Make your way with an assortment of expert archive styles, formats, and vector devices. Besides, you can likewise exploit new non-dangerous altering highlights when you apply impacts to vector and bitmap objects. Tweak your interface, devices, layouts, and more to make it your own. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021 For Windows 10 This Corel programming gives you the total you need to explicit your style and imagination with boundless chances. You’ll be shocked by what number of stand-out types of extraordinary activities you could plan!
There’s the help; CorelDRAW Keygen is a pushed to moving applications and formats bundle heaped with the most recent picture changing qualities and pictures doing modules. It highlights web making contains and roups of assets expected to manufacture a site.
CorelDRAW Crack with Product Key+Keygen All Graphics Suite 2021!
The boot works quickly and easily. Corel Draw X7 22.1.1.523 has numerous highlights. One of them is the speed at which it starts or starts. New styles are added to this adaptation. You can make a picture temporarily. This variant additionally incorporates new apparatuses. fill models of different styles, cut expressions, and so on These apparatuses make your visual depiction considerably more extraordinary and astonishing.
You need to open each program exclusively to get its apparatuses. All ve programs comprise segments that expand on each other, not. CorelDRAW 22.1.1.523, as the greater part of the absolute best plan programming, accompanies a mind-boggling assortment of qualities, so it requires many pages from the client manual.
What’s New in CorelDRAW Pro?
Altering image and you’re the photos possible.
Create a Glimmer or GIF Movements and a Lot More.
Corel Draw X9 includes numerous capabilities.
One of them’s that the rate where it boots up or begins.
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021 Crack Full Version Features{updeted}
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021 License key supply expert-nice output so one can make an enduring impression across any medium: from one-of-a-kind emblems and signs to striking advertising materials, web, and social media pics, billboards, and greater.
With its industry-leading report format compatibility and advanced shade-control gear, CorelDRAW graphics suite 2021 Free Download Crack offers the flexibility and coloration accuracy you want for all types of tasks.
Find out a colorful and provoking network of CorelDRAW users to undoubtedly impact your innovative adventure.
Live Sketch Tool is available. So, all program notes are enabled on the screen and converted to vector format. With Corel Draw X10, you can draw your drawing on a screen in real-time and instantly see the results every time you wait. Corel Draw Crack also saves lots of precious time.
How To Install Crack & Register CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021 v22.1.1.523 Crack Keys?
the Download Extract the zip file using WinRAR or WinZip
or After the Extract, the zip file Installs the Program As Normal.
Install Don’t Run the Software.
Uninstall the earlier version of this software (if you have any).
Follow the instruction given in the text. file to continue the installation process.
Done. Thank you for visiting our site.
System Requirements for Corel Draw X7 | https://medium.com/@tayyebaziz078/coreldraw-x7-crack-f941de514bd2 | ['Tayyeb Aziz'] | 2020-12-31 17:24:51.403000+00:00 | ['Coreldraw', 'Hollywood', 'Photography', 'Coreldraw Crack', 'Love'] |
Veteran Culture Defines Heirloom | Weber Family Homecoming in 2005
It’s Called Military ‘Service’
Veterans know how to serve. They’re defined by their selfless military duty. Many risk their lives and deploy to hostile areas in defense of their country. Service members leave behind spouses, children, and their favorite possessions. They join forces to serve a cause much greater than their own desires. Some never return, many return with physical and mental wounds, but veterans never regret fighting for the freedoms that define their nation.
Heirloom is a Business Operated by Veterans
The veteran culture defines Heirloom. We embrace the concept of service above self. We’ve been granted a sacred trust and we safeguard valuable assets. We run to the problem instead of pushing it aside. We take calculated risks when they lead to a greater good. We accept responsibility for our actions. We hold team members accountable. We know what it means to lose a friend, and we rejoice when families are reunited.
Veteran Small Business Week, November 2–6, 2020
The United States Small Business Administration understands the powerful effect of veterans on America’s economic engine. Over 2 million small businesses are owned by veterans. Veteran owned businesses produce $1.14 trillion in annual revenues and employ 5.03 million workers. Except for their military service, these veterans are much like you. They’re moms & dads, brothers & sisters, neighbors, and friends. Supporting veteran-run small businesses feels good, but there’s another reason many consumers keep coming back. That’s because veterans know how to serve.
How Heirloom Serves
Heirloom was born out of a problem common to most military families… time to move again. This normally means precious memories sealed in boxes, sometimes in storage for years. Founded by a military family, Heirloom solved this disconnectedness problem. With digitized memories on the cloud, now it’s easy to enjoy your photos and videos from any device. When you call Heirloom, you’re likely speaking with a veteran or the relative of a service member. We understand the apprehension from temporarily parting with your precious possessions, and humbly accept the responsibility to preserve your priceless memories. We also know the joy of reconnecting with family, and consider it our mission to continue serving you with our digitizing service.
Geoff Weber, Heirloom CEO, Iraq
Geoff Weber in Al Fallujah, Iraq
John Rahaghi, Heirloom CTO, The Whitehouse
John Rahaghi with President Obama
Jim Weber, Heirloom Board of Advisors, Vietnam
Jim Weber serving in Vietnam
Nate Weber, Heirloom Digital Marketing, Hargrave Military Academy
Nate Weber as Battalion Commander
D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E
Cadets at boot camp constantly shout: “Discipline is the instant willing obedience to orders, respect for authority, and self-reliance.” Discipline is trained so well, that a service member never forgets. It takes discipline to defuse bombs, jump from planes, guard nuclear assets, or protect classified material. It’s not the same stress, but a similar discipline is required to carefully digitize your precious memories. Further, digitizing millions of media items requires a team with skills much greater than those of one person. Heirloom operates with discipline and the precision teamwork often found in small military units.
John and Geoff training in 2002
We Build Ships… Friendships, Relationships, and Partnerships
Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines are always prepared for war, but ultimately seek peace. This dichotomy is also a part of Heirloom’s culture. Our mission is both defensive and joyful. We’re rather militaristic about the security of your assets. Our Secure Transfer Kit offers the safest way to ship your memories. Our digital policies ensure the highest degree of data security. However, we also like to play a small part in enhancing your relationships. With digitized media, it’s so easy to share memories at the speed of the internet. Your friends and family will cherish your thoughtfulness. Heirloom makes it easy to remember the good times with those you love.
Are Your Memories Digitized?
If you haven’t digitized your memories, consider letting the veterans at Heirloom serve you. Ship your memories to our digitizing facility today. We sort, classify, count, and provide an exact price quotation to digitize your entire shipment. Review digitized samples of your media for quality before paying for our service. If it’s not to your liking, we’re happy to return your shipment, but we’ll always try to make it better. Contact us if you have questions, or simply give us a ring at 800–284–9939. Otherwise, don’t delay and risk losing your precious memories forever. Get started today and experience the finest in service from Heirloom. | https://medium.com/@heirloom-cloud/veteran-culture-defines-heirloom-58cab9034abe | ['Heirloom Cloud'] | 2020-11-06 01:54:03.035000+00:00 | ['Small Business', 'Veterans', 'Decluttering', 'Technology', 'Digitizing Services'] |
Journey to the End: Game of Thrones Sn 1 Ep 01 | As most of you are well aware, the final season of Game of Thrones starts on April 14th. I have long been a fan of the series, though almost all of my fandom is from the TV show not the books. I started to realize lately that I feel like I have forgot more from the 7 seasons of shows we have received than I remember, and had in passing thought about watching the complete series before the finale season begins.
At first the idea would be to binge every episode in 3–4 days leading up to the final episode. A large task that would include over 70 episodes mostly bad things happening to all the actual good people of Westeros. If I were 25, and did not have kids, that would be a realistic plan. As it stands, that is not the case.
So instead, there are exactly 7 weeks until the premiere of season 8 if you start on Sunday February 24th, and watch one season per week. Little more than an episode a day. I probably spend more time dilly-dallying around on Facebook to account for that hour or so everyday, so here we are. I just watched episode 1 again for the first time since, probably near the air date back in 2011. The only season I have for sure watched more than once is season 7, because I watched it in a day and half with my mom last summer. Join me if you wish, and I plan to talk about each episode for now, and if it becomes too much, maybe halfway and end point of each season. No more explanation, here, we, GO!
Winter Is Coming
Thanks Ned, we know, winter is coming. One of the most infamous meme’s out there, maybe only second to Sean Bean’s equally well known, one does not simply walk into Mordor from Lord of the Rings. I only read the first book in the series, and thus only had minor things to gripe about with season one. most of the changes were minor, and either had no impact or allowed for easier storytelling in the TV series as we do not get to spend as much time with each character.
The first episode lays out the groundwork of the Stark story. GoT leans on the story of the Starks pretty heavily from early on, as they are the catalyst to most of the forthcoming conflicts. Seeing characters at the beginning of this story, without the extra scars, still possessing all of their limbs and body parts that later will go missing, is refreshing though they don’t start with as much hope as I remembered.
The first scene is beyond the wall where we see dismembered bodies. Dead children, heads on pikes, naked bodies with entrails strewn about. It is an early warning that this is not Lord of the Rings or some other PG fantasy romp. There is sexual nudity, two beheadings, and a kid being pushed out of a 4th story window all in this first episode. That does not let up through the 7 seasons of Thrones.
We get a long look at the Starks, Lannisters, and King Robert Baratheon as they get together int he North because of the passing of the previous hand to the king. Robert is in Winterfell to ask Ned to become his new hand, and that Roberts son Joffrey and Ned’s daughter Sansa should be married. We get insight to the problems within each family, especially the King and the Lannisters, the Queen is Cersei Lannister, but we also get small peaks at what is happening far to the South East and across the Narrow sea with that last surviving Targaryen children. Long story short, they ruled the 7 kingdoms from the iron throne until Robert Baratheon, with the help of the Starks, the Lannisters and others, defeated them and took back the throne.
I have recently been watching Counterpart on Starz, a must watch in my opinion, and became aware that Harry Lloyd also plays Viserys the brother of Daenerys Targaryen. He is mostly a likable character in Counterpart, Viserys on the other hand is one of the most vile characters that I have encountered in any series, and he is nicer in the TV series than the book, that is saying a lot. His ambition to take back the thrown is overwhelming and he treats Dany as his slave to wed off and treat like a commodity to gain his own power and influence. She gets married to the leader of a tribal people without any say, and now must do as he pleases essentially.
For a series that seems to try and hide who it’s main players are, even in this first episode they do a very bad job at hiding Jon Snow, the bastard son of Eddard(Ned) Stark. Of all the things that happen, this and the treatment of one other character who shows up later on bother me a lot. They try to keep Jon on the sidelines for a while pretending that he is not one of the few linchpins of the series, even when it is plain as day he is absolutely a main character.
A couple other things happen, they find a litter of dire wolves that each of the 5 Stark children and Jon get to keep. Some power struggles between Theon Greyjoy and Jon as second ranked members of the Starks. Clearly disdain from Cersei for anyone not her son or brother. 10 seconds of the Hound, another series favorite for many.
As far as an opening episode goes, Winter Is Coming does everything it needs to in terms of showing us the world of Westeros, dishing on who the main players are for now, and not sugar coating how much of this ride is going to be. It probably is not one of the iconic episodes of the series, but does everything right, and sets a full plate for everything to come.
I counted 3 “winter is coming” lines in the episode, though I am sure someone has an official counter by episode out there somewhere. Onward to episode 2, The Kingsroad tomorrow. | https://medium.com/@polygeekism/journey-to-the-end-game-of-thrones-sn-1-ep-01-d338162e1c90 | ['Kevin Mcmahon'] | 2019-02-24 05:51:44.573000+00:00 | ['Game of Thrones', 'Review', 'TV', 'Binge Watching', 'HBO'] |
Prepare For A Scare: Why Kids’ Horror Is Important | It was Halloween time. The teachers would create a punch with dry ice so that it would smoke, taste ravioli for my vegetarian self to see if it had cheese or chicken, and deck out in costumes. (Spoiler alert: it was chicken.)Ms. R sat us down one time and opened a picture book. It didn’t seem so bad, about a girl with a ribbon around her neck.
Then Mrs. R got to the end, showing us the pictures. We were all gasping and screaming. I haven’t read the rest of the book or the stories, but the images are online. They reflected my horror. Even though it’s been more than two decades, the story still gives me the chills. I felt better when I read the story aloud to an Israeli friend, and he started cursing on realizing that was the ending.
Now it’s a little past Halloween, when I intended to post this. I like writing horror and reading stories, either for my own time or to help out my friends. Even so, as a kid, it took me a while to realize why. I say this as I’m wrapping up Ghostology by Lucinda Curtle and Dugald A. Steer, a children’s book that dives into the world of haunting and spirits. It treats ghosts as real. That’s what adds to the joy, while there are hints that this is all for fun. Yet we know where to draw the line between facts and fiction.
Studying Ghosts To Understand Them
Ghostology is purportedly written by a ghostologist, an expert who studies ghosts and their folklore. The author has ostensibly died but has sent the manuscript over to be published, welcoming the reader to learn more about these strange happenings all over the world. We dive into history and geography, as well as for deciding what to pack when ghost-hunting. I didn’t know that Anne Boleyn sometimes appeared since her stepdaughter Mary Tudor is seen more in ghost stories.
The book is nicely designed, with a yellow tint for the pages to simulate old age, and a few foldouts to educate more thoroughly on the nature of ghosts. There are hints that the author may not be as absent as it first seems, though I haven’t found any solid conclusions yet.
Does learning about ghosts scare me? No. Thanks to the book’s factual tones, I can determine what is normal and what isn’t. If there were tales of terror in the night, like what Mrs. R. told us, that would be a different story. I would be making sure that the lights are on and my incense is ready to do a cleaning.
In this case, however, I like to be reassured. After all, when you are warned to not read something before bed, you wonder about the nightmares that will ensue. There are hints that the ostensible “single” author made the mistake of studying ghosts while alive. Fortunately, they are just little bits and pieces scattered through the book, including an entire page that seems to be missing and neatly sheared. When I feel ready to explore the whole, I will later after opening a secret entry. It seems that the mystery will keep ongoing, and lending to the joy.
Would this book scare a child? It seems possible. After all, the unknown scares us more than a story’s whole. As the whole is possible, it means the fear won’t last forever.
Why Kids Need To Be Scared
Horror and fantasy got me into reading. I was averse to both because I thought stories were scary. To an extent, some are. I remember staying awake at night after reading the Goosebumps novel Ghost Beach, which makes you squint at the water rippling against rocks because of the caves that may be next to them.
A horror story is basically a roller-coaster ride. You get on it, pull down the bar, and brace yourself. That’s what makes it super fun.
Fun fact: I hated roller coasters as a kid. They seemed too scary even when I determined I would go on them and tried to be obnoxious towards my siblings about the fear. My parents would usually let me sit them out if I wished. Sometimes, however, I went. At first, they were too fast for my liking.
It took until I was a teenager to appreciate that rollercoasters are just rides. They’re not actually going to hurt you. Instead, you get a thrill that you are hurling along at massive speeds, and the drops just make your stomach hurt a little. You can relax a little afterward, knowing that you are okay. The trick is to make sure to leave your glasses in a locker, so they don’t fly off.
Why You Need To Identify Fictional Scares
For better or for worse, sometimes people can’t identify what is a monster and what isn’t. Do we know why? Sadly, no. It’s a primal fear that we become terrified of the dark, especially when dealing with horror. We see other things as scary: heights, snakes in my case (in the wild only; I’m fine with tame and pet snakes), and sometimes even raisins. Other people use racism and homophobia as an excuse to get scared and lash out in fear.
We do want to believe there are things in the night we don’t understand. That can make us susceptible to fraud or to committing terrible acts. Adam Ruins Everything covered this in their Halloween episode, how people want to believe that the monsters in the night can scare a person. He said the real terror is that other people will take advantage of your primal fear and watch gleefully while counting the dollars from your purse. That can include newspapers blowing up a hoax on the radio, as a means to discredit the form of communication and sell more papers. In other cases, the fears are people conducting insurance scams and getting caught rather quickly. Realism is more depressing, because we have to confront that everyone is capable of murdering or taking advantage of you, and there are no rules that you can follow.
In short, never pay someone to tell you that a monster is there. They may be fleecing you. Then they get away and count the cash, all quite easily.
The Victorians were guilty of this with the Spiritualist movement. Not every person believed in it or in the ghosts. Still, enough did that spiritualism became lucrative for the mediums who worked with it. There were exceptions, such as those with exploitative managers or who could not put on a convincing show.
Are ghosts monsters? They can be, especially when you think they are a dead father, brother, or family member. Don’t fear the deceased in this case, however; aim a stink-eye at the living.
Spiritualism was a movement where people claimed to see ghosts. They would host seances, demonstrate proof that spirits had visited them, and ask for payment from grieving families. The Victorians had a habit of photographing children after they died, as a means to commemorate them. There was a question of why death had to happen, and why we couldn’t contact our loved ones.
How did mediums do it? There was a simple solution: they bribed servants for personal information on the deceased. Or they did their homework on the subject in question, to provide proof that they came back. Ectoplasm, or the essence of a ghost, was sadly not real. It was often a trick of the light in photographs, which could capture sudden flashes and images. Or the substance bottled in jars was just another trick, with glue or cheesecloth. Mediums would take advantage of the seance requirement for dim lights to perform little parlor tricks.
One man set out to expose all of these people as frauds. For the most part, he succeeded in the long run, shinning a light on the ghosts, sometimes literally. This also made him the most hated man in the Spiritualist community. That was Harry Houdini, famed escape artist and stage magician.
Houdini knew that Spiritualists were frauds. That was because he trained to be one until a crisis of conscience overtook him, in his early days as an entertainer. (You can read this in the Fleischman biography of the magician, aimed at children.) Houdini asked himself if his deceased mother would be happy with him for tricking people in their grief. Afterward, he moved onto do escape tricks and stage magic, because in that case people were paying for a show and picking locks required actual talent. He got annoyed, however, when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, would insist that he actually claim that Houdini was doing real magic. Houdini also tried to no avail to convince Doyle that his mediums were all lying to him and manipulating him, so as to get more money and credibility out of him. At seances, he would have ways of debunking the ghosts talking or the hands clapping. In one case he smeared ink over a megaphone that a ghost would use to communicate. When the lights came on, the medium’s mouth was black. She was very unhappy, as a result.
Ghostology has an entry on Houdini. It illustrates one of his devices: a box that shackled the medium and immobilized them. Houdini said if a Spiritualist could summon a ghost while unable to move, then he would be convinced. No one managed to do it.
Mind that Houdini wanted to believe. Doyle was a good friend of his and considered a genius writer by the standards of the time. He wanted to see that someone could actually talk to the dead. It would potentially ease the grieving process, especially in the time before antibiotics and people washing their hands. Everyone disappointed him, however, and as a trained magician, he knew where to look in the room. All he had to do was attend a seance in disguise with a witness who could prove that Houdini was telling the truth, such as a cop.
The fact is that Houdini tried his best to warn people about the fraud. Even so, he couldn’t stop the tide. Only time did, as more people decided to test mediums and expose their various parlor tricks. His book A Magician Among the Spirits exposed all the tricks that mediums did, to convince their clients. While he did keep Scientific American from legitimizing mediums due to their tricks, Doyle did more than disbelieve him. He also ended their friendship. To the end of his life, Doyle maintained that ghosts were real and two girls really did photograph fairies. (The girls later admitted that they didn’t want to admit they tricked him after it grew so much, since it would mean making him look like a bigger fool.)
In addition, what upset Houdini was the emotional manipulation that Spiritualists involved. Goodness knows that ghost tours in New Orleans are fun, as you walk in a brisk wintry air and hear stories about bodies in the floorboards and ladies hanging off spires while naked. I did that before the pandemic and was shivering not just from the cold. Some of the stories were eerie and I had to remind myself they were just tales.
With a tour or a ghost story, however, you are paying to be entertained. Spiritualists claimed they really could talk with the dead, and provide a measure of comfort to the living who were left behind. Some of them weren’t even good at it; Houdini caught one that lied about seeing his mother with a cross when she was Jewish, something that Drunk History covered. Also, she couldn’t speak any English and would have addressed him by his birth name, Eric Weiss, rather than as “Harry”. He got furious about how they would lie so baldly.
Sadly, our genius magician could also be an idiot where it counted. A college student punched him in the stomach, for reasons, and he refused to see a doctor when the pain got worse; it turned out he had appendicitis and he died on Halloween night. His wife confirmed, after hosting seances for ten years, that he hadn’t become a ghost or returned to her. If Houdini hadn’t been killed, he would have finished a project with H.P. Lovecraft and S.M. Eddy, Jr called The Cancer of Superstition. He commissioned both of them to work on the book. Sadly, his wife didn’t want to continue the project after his death, so it remains unfinished. Lovecraft wrote a few chapters, and that was it. Those are still online if a person wishes to look them up. It’s quite fascinating, actually, that this work-in-progress had potential.
Many of us know that Lovecraft was an unapologetic racist, even for the standards of his time. At the same time, he pretty much turned cosmic horror into a speculative fiction mainstay, for better or for worse. If he had finished the book, he could have the same impact on Spiritualism and saving more people from their wishful thinking. The Spiritualist Church, founded from the remnants of the movie, may have not transpired.
When To Open The Book, And When To Close It
We need to know that monsters aren’t real. That is where fiction comes in; we can close the book or switch to another audio track, knowing that it’s just a story. Otherwise, we can find ourselves deceived and fooled.
There have been real cases of people taking fiction too far when they are scared or want to meet monsters. I don’t need to go further than mention Slenderman, and how some viewers want to summon him. Web series videos that delve into horror can inspire this sensation, with the blurring between reality and fiction. People that play Alternate Reality Games sometimes run the risk of trespassing and breaking the law to find answers. These are meant to be fun. Reading as a bystander can make me worry for those playing. This even happened with Gravity Falls.
I prefer fiction that reminds you that horrors aren’t real. We don’t have to think about what’s crossing the street every day, or what mundane scams can ring up our phone. Instead, we can sit back and enjoy the ride.
Scares Teach You How To Handle Real Dangers
G.K. Chesterton wrote that “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” Neil Gaiman used a paraphrased version of this to preface his novel, Coraline. He wrote it based on a story that his kids told him, about wanting a parent who looked like him and gave them everything they wanted. Neil channeled the fear that would ensue. This novel is a prime example of kids’ horror.
Coraline is about a girl who ends up in another world that reflects her own. Her Other Mother cooks food that she likes and sends her to the neighbors that can entertain her. Coraline accepts it all mildly but refuses to let the lady sew buttons into her eyes. Disaster ensues from there. It takes Coraline directly rejecting the false world and destroying the means to enter the secret door to defeat her Other Mother.
There’s a primal fear about strangers with alluring gifts, who look like people that children know, stealing them away and taking their ability to flee. In fact, more often children are hurt by people they know than by strangers if one believes the statistics. It’s harder to teach a lesson about that.
This world doesn’t have monsters, at least not the ones in our books, and illustrated in fairy tales. Alligators will leave you alone as long as you respect their territory during all times of the year, but especially in the spring. Good cleaning practices can prevent bedbugs, fleas, and mites from infesting your houses. Komodo dragons mind their own business and eat animals that cannot escape their jaws. Robots need maintenance, so they won’t come to swoop at you in the night.
Instead, real monsters wear suits and have pretty faces while destroying your lives. They will lie to you to get your money, and in some cases your livelihood. That’s when you need to stay vigilant, knowing what is real and isn’t. | https://medium.com/permanent-nerd-network/prepare-for-a-scare-why-kids-horror-is-important-bc771ea23040 | ['Priya Sridhar'] | 2020-11-24 03:15:53.695000+00:00 | ['Cats', 'Literature', 'Childrens Books', 'Book Review', 'Zombies'] |
Kami’s new video doorbell boasts on-device person detection and facial recognition | Kami’s new video doorbell boasts on-device person detection and facial recognition Jason Jan 27·3 min read
Plenty of video doorbells offer people detection, but only a few of them can perform that trick on the device itself rather than in the cloud, and the new Kami Doorbell Camera happens to be one of them. Too bad about the lack of local video storage, however.
Available now on AmazonRemove non-product link for $100, the Wi-Fi-enabled smart doorbell from Yi Technology-owned Kami Home serves up the usual 1080p video resolution (expect a 160-degree field of view, oriented horizontally rather than head to toe), along with color night vision up to 17 feet, two-way audio, and mobile alerts whenever a visitor is detected on your doorstep.
The Kami Doorbell Camera also boasts people detection, which helps the doorbell tell humans apart from pets, vehicles, and branches swaying in the wind, while facial recognition lets the camera identify friends and family from a list of recognized faces.
[ Further reading: The best video doorbells ]Of course, it takes a certain amount of analysis for people detection and facial recognition to be performed on your captured video footage and generally speaking, that analysis is handled in the cloud. The beauty of the Kami Doorbell Camera is that it can perform people detection and facial recognition on the device itself, rather than on a third-party server. (The wildly popular Wyze Cam v2 also used to offer on-device person detection, but Wyze has since moved that feature over to the cloud.)
Related product Ring Video Doorbell (2nd Generation) Read TechHive's reviewSee it If edge AI-powered people detection and facial recognition is the good news about the Kami Doorbell Camera, the not-so-good-news is that the doorbell doesn’t support local video storage (on, say, a microSD card). Instead, all video is stored in the cloud, which means you’ll have to deal with Kami’s cloud-based servers one way or another.
Kami offers both free and paid storage plans for the Doorbell Camera. The free option supports a 24-hour history of 6-second video clips, while a paid Kami Shield subscription allows for uncapped video clips plus 7-day, 15-day, or 30-day histories (for $5 a month for one camera, $12/month for five cameras, or $19/month for five cameras, respectively).
Aside from its AI and cloud storage features, the doorbell’s weatherized housing offers IP65-certified protection against dust ingress and low-pressure jets of water sprayed in all directions—meaning, in other words, it should be safe from rain and snow.
The doorbell comes with a detachable battery pack that can power the camera for up to 150 days, or it can be wired to an AC (8V, 10V, 12V, or 24V) or USB power source. You can also connect the doorbell to existing mechanical or digital chimes.
Support for Alexa and Google Assistant should be coming sometime in the first quarter of 2021, a Kami rep said.
We’ll have a full review of the Kami Doorbell Camera once we’ve tested out a sample unit.
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/@jason09285199/kamis-new-video-doorbell-boasts-on-device-person-detection-and-facial-recognition-5b4d2aad7d63 | [] | 2021-01-27 18:34:30.704000+00:00 | ['Mobile', 'Entertainment', 'Security Cameras', 'Headphones'] |
What are Shipping Adjustments and how to avoid them? | So a quick definition to start things off.
A Shipping Adjustment is when an incorrect shipping label is generated due to inaccurately inputted shipment information, causing a courier company to readjust the shipping information to get the package to its final destination and ensure proper shipping costs are paid.
Easy enough, but how do they get spotted?
Most often the case, the courier company you are working with will double-check the shipping label details of your package, with the actual source package being sent over, and apply additional charges, charged back to you, for any inaccuracies found.
By measuring out the dimensions and weight of your package, the courier company is also able to calculate the proper delivery charge, since the pricing structures are all based on weight class or tiers, regardless of the courier you work with. They do this by measuring out, not the weight of the package, but rather how much space it takes up, known as Cubic Pricing or Dimensional Pricing.
The formula for this form of pricing is, (length x width x height) / (courier unique divisor). If you need help in estimating delivery costs or comparing the prices of various couriers, check out eShipper’s courier solution.
These additional chargebacks are becoming more and more common as the technological infrastructure of courier companies expands, enabling them to accurately measure the various properties of packages that they handle on a daily basis.
So to avoid this in the future, first you need to know which shipping adjustments are the most common, and what you can do to prevent them.
The five major reasons for shipping adjustments are:
Package Weight
Nowadays, shipping facilities have state-of-the-art tech, meaning they know every little detail about every package that comes in. So if the shipping label of your box states that the package you’re shipping is X amount, but after being weighed by the courier it shows a difference of .35g, you’ve just triggered a shipping adjustment. To avoid this, follow the old carpenter philosophy, “measure twice, cut once” — being extra careful with the small details will only benefit you, and reduce any additional shipping costs that you might otherwise incur.
Package Dimensions
This ties in with the last point because you cannot get away from inaccurate measurement — the couriers will find out. All couriers have some form of electronic imaging in place that continuously scans each processed package in their facility. So once again, to avoid any unnecessary additional shipping costs, measure twice, and cut once, or partner with a reliable fulfillment company to always have your package dimensions accurate to the millimeter.
Non-matching Post Office Zip Code
Minor discrepancies in the shipping label of your package and its source-destination will also trigger a shipping adjustment. This can be as simple as not including a buzzer code to a building, or inaccurately filling in an address. We recommend always double-checking any shipping information entered, to save you the hassle of dealing with the additional fees incurred after the fact.
Incorrect Package Type
Not much to say here but to just be aware to always double, triple, and quadruple check the shipping information details you input to avoid any future problems with courier discrepancies.
If your package is oddly shaped, is too heavy and bulky, or is coated/wrapped in sticky/slimy/slippery material, this will automatically label your package with “additional handling required”. Essentially, this means that due to the nature of your package being different from the norm, i.e it needs to be taken off the conveyor belt and into the hands of a handler, you will have to incur additional costs for “special handling”. We recommend always keeping your packaging “conveyer-safe” and easily transportable to save on shipping costs. If you’re curious to learn more ways on how to save on shipping, check out our blogs diving deeper on these topics: 6 ways to reduce shipping costs and 5 factors that reduce shipping costs for your business.
Conclusion
Shipping adjustments are annoying, and can become a hassle having to always keep track of the small details to make sure everything is in order — we get it! Remember, the motif of today’s blog is measuring twice, and only cutting once.
Details such as:
Your package size and weight
The shipping address destination
Package type
Indication for any further special handling
are all important to double-check before generating a shipping label.
By ensuring the details are correct, you are preventing any further additional shipping costs that your courier might charge you, saving you the time and money to continue pushing your business for growth and success. | https://medium.com/@eshipper/what-are-shipping-adjustments-and-how-to-avoid-them-88d618c25a01 | [] | 2020-12-21 15:16:51.053000+00:00 | ['Ecommerce', 'Small Business', 'Shipping', 'Logistics', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
My Wife is an Online Stripper | My Wife is an Online Stripper
It all started a couple of years ago when her friend introduced her to a phone app that pays you for live streaming with strangers from around the world. Its like having your own TV channel, with the added feature of the viewers being able to comment to the broadcaster and send money in the form of app gifts. She was all excited with dollar signs in her eyes. Jimmy Salsa Dec 27, 2020·6 min read
“This could be it, baby. I could work during the day when the kids are at school and it could really help with the bills.”, she said. She was acting like a teenager trying to persuade a parent to let them use the family car. I could sense her enthusiasm about the idea and never wanted to get in the way of her doing her own thing.
“Let me have a look at it to make sure its not some kind of scam.”, I said. I like to think I know about everything but the fact is I don’t know shit most of the time. After checking out the app for a few minutes I exclaimed ,“ They don’t pay you in ‘real’ money , they pay you with their own currency that you can only spend on the app! You can’t pay bills with that money!”
“No,”, she explained,” You can trade that money in for ‘real’ money every month. It gets deposited directly into your checking account.”
“Really? I doubt it. It sounds like a scam to me. Those people that are live streaming look like they're on drugs, streaming from the ghetto.”
“I know,” she laughed,” I could do so much better.”
I couldn't really argue with her reasoning. She had an incredible personality, she was funny, energetic and very entertaining. It didn't cost anything to sign up. She had plenty of time while I was at work and the kids were at school. “What the hell,” I conceded,” Give it a try if you want.You have nothing to lose.”
You should know she is an incredibly attractive Philippina, eighteen years younger than me. I was thirty six and she was nineteen when we first met, she was my claim to fame, but that’s a story for another time.
As the days went by she would give me periodic updates. “Baby, I had 300 viewers today and they were sending gifts like crazy! “
“Really?, that’s great”, I encouraged. I didn't want to discourage her at all but I didn't want to build up her delusions of grandeur either. Maybe I was jealous on some level. Technology and culture were changing so fast for me that perhaps I just didn't understand what was going on. These new smart phones were getting more and more functionality. People, teenagers in particular, were adapting to lifestyle changes that were unthinkable just a few years prior. I talked to kids that ONLY dated on apps and ensured me that nobody dated the old fashioned way anymore. Can you imagine? Gone are the days of teenage boys asking teenage girls to go to a movie theater, there are no theaters, they're gone.
About a month later, all excited, she showed me her first bank account deposit from the app, $500 ! “WHAT!!? , are you serious? That's amazing!”
“ I’m gonna make even more,” she promised,” way more! “ | https://medium.com/@jimmysalsa/my-wife-is-an-online-stripper-6eee68369c6d | ['Jimmy Salsa'] | 2020-12-27 00:44:40.501000+00:00 | ['Work From Home Mom', 'Live Streaming', 'Work From Home', 'Pornography'] |
Work Futures Update | On The Edge | Work Futures Update | On The Edge
| Joseph Stiglitz | Working From Home | Small Talk Is Big Again | Big Problems, Small Wins |
Photo by Anthony Intraversato on Unsplash
:::
2020–07–05 Beacon NY — I have been heads down on a few projects, but managed to complete one on Friday. Whew.
:::
Quote of the Moment
A system where 50 percent of the people are on the edge is not a resilient system.
| Joseph Stiglitz
:::
Working From Home
The Long, Unhappy History of Working From Home | David Streitfeld lists the many companies that ruled out working from home in the past — like the world-beating Yahoo during the reign of Marissa Mayer [snark], and the death throes of Ginni Rometty’s IBM — as some sort of proof that WFH just doesn’t work. Somehow, he manages to avoid many companies where it does work.
…
What If Working From Home Could Be Different To How It’s Been Until Now? | Enrique Dans wants companies to wise up:
This is the end of the culture of presenteeism and micromanagement. Some companies may be tempted to use spyware to keep an eye on employees but they will quickly realize that it is deeply retrograde and makes no sense. The only alternative is a change of culture, with an intense focus on trust and empowerment that allows employees to make their own decisions: except for the hours when a meeting is set, the rest of the time must be self-managed. Whether I prefer to work in the morning, afternoon or evening is my business, as long as I meet my goals. If you expect me to answer a message immediately at ten o’clock at night and you get angry if I don’t, you are a fool — although that doesn’t mean I can’t do so sometimes, if I think it’s appropriate. A people-centered culture, with all that that entails.
…
via newsletter from the Ready
Newly-remote companies are largely experiencing what [Github CEO Sid] Sijbrandij identifies as the “first wave” of remote work: an attempt to replicate the office remotely. The second wave involves learning how to optimize digital tools; and in the third wave, teams develop strong enough systems and processes to work asynchronously. One of the joys of the third stage is trading always-on culture for a commitment to deep work.
…
You Are Not Working From Home | Charlie Warzel says some smart things about WFH, but I think his personal experience doesn’t generalize. First of all, he’s not working from a suburban home within an hour’s drive to the office, which is what most pandemic-induced WFHers are doing: he moved pre-pandemic to Montana, and does not come into the NY Times editorial offices every few weeks for a meeting. Secondly, he has no kids, so that changes everything. Third, he is not undergoing social distancing in a dense urban setting: he lives in Missoula, population 74,428. Finally, his company — the NY Times — is doing fine: his job isn’t on the line and he hasn’t been asked to accept a pay cut. Take his observations with a large grain of salt.
Working from home is sustainable only under the right conditions. To truly get it right, working remotely is an adaptation — getting rid of the inefficient and maddening parts of the office — that feels like a little act of protest. Offices are bullies. They force us to orient our days around commutes; commandeer our attention with (sometimes lovely!) unscheduled, drive by meetings; and enforce toxic dynamics like trying to look busy or staying until the boss leaves.
That I agree with, but the next sentence?
All those weird quirks are ported over to the remote work world, but they can be quickly silenced by closing your laptop, even if just for a few moments.
Uh, no.
…
Study: Office chit-chat — ‘uplifting yet distracting’ — is tough to replicate in remote setting | Katie Clarey cites evidence that ‘employees who made more small talk than average felt more positive emotions, resulting in enhanced wellbeing:
Small talk makes workers happier but disrupts their focus, according to the results of a June 2020 study by Rutgers and the University of Exeter Business School. “The polite, ritualistic, and formulaic nature of small talk is often uplifting yet distracting,” researchers concluded. […] Office chatter is “difficult to replicate” in remote work settings, Jessica Methot, study co-author and Rutgers University associate professor, told the University of Exeter, where she also serves as an associate professor. “The idea of small talk is that it’s spontaneous and that there’s a shared interaction where we come into contact with each other and share that interaction face to face,” she said. “It’s really hard to replicate its value when you’re not located in the same setting.”
Small talk is big again.
:::
Big Problems, Small Wins
To Solve Big Problems, Look for Small Wins | Bill Taylor channels Karl Weick to good effect [emphasis mine]:
I’d argue that even if we do face a “next normal,” the best way for leaders to move forward isn’t by making sweeping changes but rather by embracing a gradual, improvisational, quietly persistent approach to change that Karl E. Weick, the organizational theorist and distinguished professor at the University of Michigan, famously called “small wins.” Weick is an intellectual giant; over the past 50 years, his concepts such as loose coupling, mindfulness, and sensemaking have shaped our understanding of organizational life. But perhaps his most powerful insight into to how we can navigate treacherous times is to remind us that when it comes to leading change, less is usually more. In a classic paper published in 1984, Weick bemoaned the failure of social scientists like himself to understand and solve social problems. “The massive scale on which social problems are conceived often precludes innovation action,” he warned. “People often define social problems in ways that overwhelm their ability to do anything about them.” Ironically, he concludes, “people can’t solve problems unless they think they aren’t problems.” […] But it’s when things get really bad that small wins become especially vital. Weick defines a small win as “a concrete, complete, implemented outcome of moderate importance.” On its own, one small win (say, restaurants that sell groceries as well as take-out meals, or town clerks in New York State who marry people over videoconference) “may seem unimportant,” he concedes. But “a series of wins” begins to reveal “a pattern that may attract allies, deter opponents, and lower resistance to subsequent proposals.” Small wins “are compact, tangible, upbeat, [and] noncontroversial.” Moreover, since “small wins are dispersed, they are harder to find and attack than is one big win that is noticed by everyone…who defines the world as a zero-sum game.” Today, Weick’s paper is considered a landmark, not just because of its counter-intuitive strategies on how to improve society and organizations, but because those strategies are built on deep insights into human psychology. (The paper was published in a journal called American Psychologist.) “When the magnitude of problems is scaled upward in the interest of mobilizing action,” he argues, “the quality of thought and action declines, because processes such as frustration, arousal, and helplessness are activated.” The challenge for people and teams, Weick explains, is managing the tension between “stress” and “hardiness.” […] Change initiatives built on small wins have another virtue: When things go bad, as they often do, failure leads to modest disappointments rather than catastrophic setbacks. In a paper published eight years after Weick’s case for the power of small wins, and in an obvious nod to that work, Sim B. Sitkin, a professor at Duke University, made the case for a “strategy of small losses.” The problem for leaders who think too big and aim to move too quickly, Sitkin argued, is that their rank-and-file colleagues also see the possibility of missteps and mistakes, and understand the stakes when things go wrong. So people often fail to act, rather than act and fail, since they are less likely to suffer the consequences of bold moves they did not take. There is “an inherent risk asymmetry” in organizations and societies, Sitkin argues. “Problems that result from taking risks often lead to punishment,” whereas “problems that result from the avoidance of risky action are rarely traced to individuals and less often lead to punishment.” A more sustainable model of change, Sitkin argues, is to embrace opportunities for “intelligent failures” — missteps and mistakes that provide “small doses of experience to discover uncertainties unpredictable in advance.” This is by no means an argument against passion, commitment, or intensity — the emotions that move people and fuel innovation. As John Gardner, the Stanford University scholar of leadership and change, has written, “The renewal of societies and organizations can go forward only if someone cares. Apathetic men and women accomplish nothing. Those who believe in nothing change nothing for the better.”
:::
Subscribe to the Work Futures Update newsletter. | https://medium.com/work-futures/work-futures-update-on-the-edge-cf5c9ade9775 | ['Stowe Boyd'] | 2020-07-05 14:04:32.166000+00:00 | ['Karl Weick', 'The Future of Work', 'Working From Home', 'Update', 'Small Wins'] |
คนจะรวยช่วยไม่ได้ !!! มา Trade หุ้นด้วย Machine Learning กันเถอะ !!! | This publication consists of articles related to Data science and AI written from Botnoi’s data scientists and students.
Follow | https://medium.com/botnoi-classroom/%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%88%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%8A%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%A2%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%A1%E0%B9%88%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%94%E0%B9%89-%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%B2-trade-%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%B8%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%94%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%A2-machine-learning-%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%99%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%96%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%B0-406a8cda2ada | ['Peerat Pookpanich'] | 2020-09-17 00:07:00.875000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Stocks', 'Time Series Forecasting', 'Lstm'] |
Technological Determinism in Superintelligence | Technological Determinism in Superintelligence
Remember, Bostrom has taught us that, in creating SI, we can “fail” [cause irreversible existential catastrophe] in many ways; we face uncertainty at every turn; and we are leaving hugely important decisions about humanity’s future up to a robot, or up to humans who may not share our values. Bostrom asserts that these are inevitable facts; in this piece, I’m going to counter his determinism first with theory and then with real-world examples. Here it goes.
Bostrom argues that it would be impossible to halt SI development because its incredible power will make it irresistible. Bostrom takes a deterministic standpoint in terms of technological development, in a similar way to Jacques Ellul, a French philosopher and sociologist. In The Technological Society, Ellul describes the deterministic adoption of new technologies by saying that individuals and states — in order to avoid being crushed or outcompeted by technological advance — must align themselves with it:
“The individual is in a dilemma; either he decides to safeguard his freedom of choice, chooses to use traditional, personal, moral or empirical means, thereby entering into competition with a power against which there is no efficacious defense and before which he must suffer defeat; or he decides to accept technical necessity, in which case he will himself be the victor, but only by submitting irreparably to technical slavery. In effect he has no freedom of choice.”
This mechanism removes freedom of choice from individuals as well as from politicians and entire states. In this way, all individuals and institutions are roped into furthering technological advance and efficiency. For example, while self-driving cars will put millions out of work, the fact that some country would inevitably develop them (and if another country does it before the US, we will lose even more jobs and market share) propelled President Obama to propose spending $4 billion on research into self-driving cars. On an individual level, I spent years arguing the merits of the flip-phone and railing against the smartphone, and then I (like a classic technical slave) jumped on the smartphone train in order to compete for a promotion at work.
Jacques Ellul, courtesy of Jan Van Boekel
We can see the mechanism Ellul describes all around us. But does that mean that it is inescapable? For Ellul, it is — he is a libertarian purist and believes that any type of collective action is a part of “technical slavery” and is unacceptable because it reduces his “freedom.” But in the face of a technology (SI) that would literally remove all decision-making power from all of humanity (and potentially end in existential catastrophe), we must set purism aside. We must accept the reduction of certain types of freedoms to avoid the ultimate reduction in human freedom! Now that we’ve decided it is okay to use collective organizing to control deployment of dangerous technologies, we can point to a few positive examples of this in human history: biological and nuclear weapons.
The use of biological weapons was first regulated by the Geneva Protocol, which was later supplemented by the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) — to which 178 states have signed on (as of December 2016). The US enacted the Bioweapons Anti-Terrorism Act in 1989, which applies the convention to private citizens and criminalizes violations of the convention. One major flaw with the BWC is that it lacks any formal method for monitoring compliance; it instead asks for voluntary annual reports. Negotiations towards an internationally binding monitoring system took place between 1995 and 2001, ending when the Bush administration decided that the US could not be bothered by such silly things as international agreements to prevent mass human suffering…
Nuclear weapon development, on the other hand, does have a robust monitoring system (put in place under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-ban Treaty). An international organization headquartered in Vienna uses various technologies (forensic seismology, hydroacoustics, infrasound and radionuclide monitoring) to monitor for any sign of a nuclear explosion. They deploy on-site inspection for countries where concerns about compliance arise. This organization has 337 monitoring facilities located all over the globe, and all monitoring data is sent to all states that have signed on to the treaty.
In addition to this monitoring system, Mutually Assured Destruction AKA “Balance of Terror” (both great band names), continue to prevent nuclear attacks because, when country A launches a nuclear attack against country B, country B is able to launch a counterattack against country A before country A’s nuclear bomb launchers are annihilated. Both countries have early warning satellites and radar systems, allowing them to detect an attack within minutes and launch strategically located ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) against the aggressor country. Knowing this, both countries are very unlikely to launch an attack.
So, we were close to having a binding monitoring system for biological weapons, and we have a robust monitoring system for nuclear weapons. Additionally, Mutually Assured Destruction further impedes the deployment of nuclear technologies. While we certainly have not removed all threat of nuclear or biological weapons, we also haven’t blown ourselves up yet. So, using these positive examples, we can theoretically apply similar methods for impeding SI deployment. In part 4, I will discuss two (big) remaining questions: What would be required to impede the deployment of SI? And, How can we make sure that happens? | https://home.ohumanity.org/technological-determinism-in-superintelligence-4b0e1b9cf9dc | ['Leeann Felder-Heim'] | 2019-01-02 04:07:50.671000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Technology', 'Future', 'Robots'] |
滯英港人成立即時通訊群組爭取包機回港 | A columnist in political development in Greater China region, technology and gadgets, media industry, parenting and other interesting topics. | https://medium.com/@frederickyeung-59743/%E6%BB%AF%E8%8B%B1%E6%B8%AF%E4%BA%BA%E6%88%90%E7%AB%8B%E5%8D%B3%E6%99%82%E9%80%9A%E8%A8%8A%E7%BE%A4%E7%B5%84%E7%88%AD%E5%8F%96%E5%8C%85%E6%A9%9F%E5%9B%9E%E6%B8%AF-b3c9d74d9116 | ['C Y S'] | 2020-12-27 23:55:20.142000+00:00 | ['Hong Kong', 'Government', 'UK'] |
Sluggish | Photo by Ksenia Makagonova on Unsplash
Sluggish
I am typing this while I don’t want to do so. I feel sluggish and uninterested.
What is the point of banging the words away? What is the point to write when (almost) no one reads it?
How much tragedy and dark humour I must write until it will bring some satisfaction.
I stop typing, I read other authors hopping find some inspiration.
There are so many like me who can’t stand their day time jobs, dead-end lives and indifference. They write, publish get rejected. Never-ending story.
Some of the authors try to trick their readers by laud and provoking titles. They hope to keep readers on their pages as long as possible.
They write anything, writers in the XXI century are “written word prostitutes”.
We do anything to get noticed and appreciated. Do you want a horror story? No problem, I will write one for you. Do you want sex scenes in there? No problem.
What if writing is overrated? What if people don’t read anymore? Maybe in a near future, there will be public book burnings? No one would care.
There was a song titled “Video killed the radio star”. What if -” Video killed the written word star”?
Kids don’t read, they learn everything from computer screens. If they don’t know something they go on YouTube to watch an endless stream of videos.
Maybe humanity is going back to the time when knowledge was transferred from mouth to ear, maybe we are going back to the spoken word?
Perhaps I am wrong and I can’t see further than my nose? | https://medium.com/the-bad-influence/sluggish-88357488ccc1 | ['Darius Butkevicius'] | 2020-12-15 21:02:52.366000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Written Word', 'Meaninglessness', 'The Bad Influence', 'Meaning Of Life'] |
TOP 20 Tezos Delegates: Analysis and Comparison | Using the Delegated Proof of Stake consensus protocol makes Tezos extremely reliable in terms of speed, capability, and stability of its blockchain. The somewhat complex principle of baking provides a fair mechanism of supporting transactions and smart contracts running on the blockchain. The network users further improve this mechanism by delegating their stakes to bakers, thus, unscrupulous bakers who may harm the network performance can be easily detected and ignored.
In return, this principle puts partial responsibility on the delegators’ shoulders and requires research of the delegates available on the platform before staking with them. This article is a prompt intro into the most vital stats one should consider before start staking. We will be comparing the following bakers: two Polychain Labs pools, Cryptium Labs, Flippin’ Tacos, Tezos Capital Legacy pool, Tezos Istanbul, Everstake, Tezwhale, Airfoil, Happy Tezos, Coinone, Pay Tezos, Tezosteam, Blockpower, TZ Dutch, Ø Crypto Pool, Cryptodelegate, Staked, Tezzigator, and Lucid Mining.
UPTIME
The consistency and stability of the operation is a very vital indicator. Being a baker on the Tezos platform requires up-to-date hardware, well set-up software and a very stable Internet connection. Any fails within these requirements will lead to missed blocks or endorsements, and the delegators will get less yield. Good Internet connection may also lead to steals and baking the blocks which were supposed to be baked by others.
Almost all bakers show a good miss-to-steal ratio, around 60 missed blocks and over 130 stolen ones per year. Several bakers, such as Everstake, Tezos Capital, and Airfoil, show much lower numbers, below 30 for both stats, which indicates either well-maintained hardware and software and a very stable connection, or simply a smaller baker size: the less the number of blocks, the fewer are misses. While this doesn’t necessarily mean higher yields, it definitely offers bakers more consistent and stable baking profits.
AGE
The time, for which a baker is operational, pays a big deal in the selection. Long operation without faults builds up a loyal staking community. The stats collected throughout this period give an insight into the baker’s operational history and makes the choice clearer.
12 bakers started their operation in Summer 2018, immediately after the Tezos mainnet launch event, and almost all seem to continue baking successfully. Tezzigator has moved to new addresses in May 2019, but, in fact, started baking in the very beginning of the network operation. 7 bakers have launched shortly after, in Autumn and Winter 2018/19. The rest started in the beginning of 2019, but are already among legit top 20 bakers by now.
FEES
To support the baking facility, all delegates take a commission from the payouts to delegators. Most bakers keep their fees at 10 to 15 percent, while Tezos Istanbul has 7.5% and Airfoil is damping to 5%. One of the Polychain Labs pools, on the other hand, withholds a 25% commission, in return for solid guarantees of stable work, offered by an institutional baker.
CORRECT REWARDS
All bakers have their own algorithms of breaking up the baking reward they get from the network into personal rewards to each delegator. These algorithms may or may not consider stolen or missed blocks, can be triggered after each block, cycle or another arbitrary period, and the correctness of them can be only checked over large time spans, by watching random addresses that bake with certain delegate.
11 of the top 20 delegates send fully correct rewards. 4 bakers send their rewards with minor misalignments to the calculated numbers. Polychain Labs, and Coinone hide their rewards, and Cryptium Labs have a specific algorithm, the correctness of which can’t be checked by the automated tools at https://baking-bad.org.
STAKE SIZE
The stake size shows the number of funds, delegated to the baker in total. While this parameter doesn’t affect much directly, it shows the loyalty of the baker’s community and overall trust of the general public in their activities.
At the same time, it’s important to bear in mind that an excessive stake size may become a threat to decentralization. Thus, when choosing a baker, make sure to pay attention to its stake size and don’t encourage the network centralization.
WHO RUNS THE STAKING SERVICE
Staking service can be run by anyone. However, it involves work with large transactions, and the delegates who take their risks and responsibilities seriously, keep their business legally transparent. This way, the delegators can be sure, that they know who to contact in case of any serious problems.
Four pools run privately, but they provide extensive information about the teams behind them, their expertise and previous achievements. The majority of pools are run by teams, usually of good specialists working together, or as child projects of other companies. Everstake, Tezos Capital, Airfoil, Happy Tezos, Coinone, Pay Tezos, and Blockpower are registered companies with all legal details available right on their corresponding websites.
Furthermore, only these open and transparent companies provide extensive contact details including several electronic means of communication, phone numbers, and even office addresses, whereas the others provide only email and/or Telegram contacts.
COMMUNITY AND OTHER ACTIVITIES
Surprisingly as for businesses who work openly with lots of people, most bakers lack active community activities over the Internet. While some, such as Everstake, Cryptium Labs, Coinone, Tezos Capital, Tezzigator or Happy Tezos, are proactive in their own media and generally over the Internet, half of the delegates don’t have a basic Telegram chat or Twitter account, where every question can be discussed within the community in a transparent manner.
In majority, the same delegates also publish educational materials on Tezos and other blockchain-related topics in their blogs, on websites, or any other public media.
Almost all delegates specialize in baking in Tezos and some other networks, with the exception of Everstake, Blockpower and Airfoil. The Everstake’s parent company, Attic Lab, provides blockchain software development, offers staking of all major DPoS coins, runs an exchange and provides a variety of tools for blockchain users and developers. Blockpower provides investment management and liquidity services for exchanges and digital asset emitters, while Airfoil specializes in security solutions for digital asset holders. | https://medium.com/everstake/top-20-tezos-delegates-analysis-and-comparison-d9a30f574106 | [] | 2019-07-15 07:20:10.672000+00:00 | ['Dpos', 'Tezos', 'Delegation', 'Staking', 'Blockchain'] |
Goodbye, Britain | Goodbye, Britain
Photo by Liam Truong on Unsplash
Dear Britain/UK,
I’m not sure which name you prefer, but I suppose you don’t really mind.
As you might have already heard of, I’m leaving you tomorrow. We will, therefore, not be celebrating Christmas together this year.
I know it’s such a shame and cruel of me to leave you alone like this, especially at this time of chaos and when your relationships with nearly all your neighbours are officially coming to an end after the New Year’s Eve.
But there’s literally nothing I can do. And since it was your idea in the first place to part ways with them, no one’s to blame. There will always be benefits and drawbacks resulting from the decisions we make, and that’s how we learn, like grown-ups, accepting the consequences they might or might not have thought of.
I think I’m getting too serious and straying from the main subject here. But another topic just occurred to me. And I’d like to ask you now in case I forget after my departure. I wonder what you think, speaking of Christmas, about the advertisement for Sainsbury’s published the other day.
Many people, outraged, said it failed to represent you because you were supposed to be whiter in general while the picture contained too much black. What do you think about it? I was slightly shocked when coming across the news. Does the colour really matter? However pale or dark you look, aren’t you still you?
Anyway, getting to the point, I just want to say thank you before anything else.
I’ve known you since I was so little and you were at the time, simply a household name and distant figure, seemingly unapproachable. And it’s not until my visit in late June 2019 when you allowed me to come and study with you that I finally got to know you.
I could never forget your warm welcome, albeit other people told me that it was not the real you as you’d actually been forced by some heatwaves to act way more passionate than usual.
That made me feel bad for you. I wish in the future you could cool down a little bit and just be yourself.
And here’s a huge thank you for the excellent education you provided me with! Throughout my study in Journalism, I’ve learned way more than I’d ever expected.
Seriously, it’s a life-changing and passion-boosting experience for me, though I do feel that everything would be perfect if the tuition fees I had to pay were not that exorbitant. Apart from that, I have no complaints.
You’ve made every single one of my days an exciting adventure, giving me different daily challenges to keep my minds off homesickness. I was soon accustomed to all the aspects of my new life with you except for the food.
I’m so sorry to be this blunt, but it’s no secret across the world that the taste of your food is not that ideal. And believe me, there’s nothing you need to feel ashamed of. You are good at a lot of things; cooking is just not one of them.
Besides, your mood swings, one of the things you are notorious for, turned out not as terrible as people say. Despite your sudden emotional change that occasionally happened from crying like downpours to smiling like sunshine on the same day, you are in general a bright person, especially during summer.
Oh! And I’ve never told you. Back home in Taiwan, you are highly regarded. The majority are under the impression that you’re gentle, polite, and elegant, which I half agree because it’s only true when you’re sober.
Also, they think you’re good-looking and attractive, obsessed with your posh accent. What they don’t know is, you’re capable of tons of different accents; I can hear so many of them throughout the whole day as if switching between TV channels while some require me to turn on subtitles.
Another attraction is, of course, your western style. Those classic European ornaments and accessories of yours are rare to see in our culture and thereby desirable.
But aside from these outer qualities, there’s something I’d like to spit out. I’ve been biting my tongue for so long not to hurt your feelings. Now, I think it’s time to bring it up.
Would you mind considering making tidiness one of your virtues? Those tips, flying rubbish, and empty cans are literally everywhere, scattered all over the place and moved around by seagulls. I hope you can start cleaning them up and stop throwing litter on the ground but into the bin.
As mentioned, you have great charm on the outside, competent to dress yourself up like an angel. Isn’t that equally important to make your surroundings as gorgeous as how you look? Otherwise, those who admired you at a distance will get disappointed at best; a heart attack at worse, when seeing your place during their visits.
I should probably stop nagging, or you might refuse to read further. I just think we are close enough to be this frank and open after living together for one and a half year. Needless to say, it’s nearly impossible for our relationship to be superficial since it’s built on shared difficulties in the middle of the worst global crisis.
2020 has been, as cliched as it might sound now, a tough year, during which normality was drifted away before everyone’s eyes, yet no one was able to turn the tide and avoid the loss.
It’s also a year full of helplessness and uncertainty while for me, being physically away from my family just made everything even more terrifying, and it’s certainly had a toll on my mental health.
But oddly, I’m glad I chose to stay with you.
Even if doing so didn’t give me any sense of protection, safety and comfort because you’ve seemed to be hit hard by COVID yourself, left bruised and battered, becoming less vigorous as you used to be – still, I have no regret about having travelled all the way here just to see you up close and personal.
Why?
I think it’s because this crazy pandemic year would not be as special as it is without you. Nor would my story be as dramatic. All the things we’ve been through together create a memory in which you are inseparable.
It’s you who’ve given me opportunities to try, space to grow and room to make mistakes. You showed me a whole new world where my eyes were open in a way as though I was once blind. I have become more critical, independent and confident. Or, perhaps, bolder.
Not exaggerating, I’ve become who I am because of you. I will never ever forget this journey and the time we spent together. I believe there’s a strange bond between us. The link is probably too strong to fade away no matter how much time wears on.
Gosh, I didn’t intend to be this sentimental and affectionate. Given all the hardship I’ve had with you, to be honest, I thought all I want really was to turn my back on you and run towards home exuberantly with the least possibility of shedding a single drop of tears.
But I have to admit; when writing this letter, I got quite emotional.
Perhaps saying goodbye to someone important is never easy, even though I felt like I was more than ready this time.
I believe one day at some point not far away from now on, I will see you again. Hopefully, by then, both of us will look a little more different with further improvement and growth.
As for now, I’ve got to move on, turn the page and start the next chapter of my life.
Wish me luck, would you?
Nonetheless, I’ll still be following up what’s new about you. So, keep in touch. There’s gonna be more challenge for the years to come. Please stay safe and take care.
And before I make my final farewell to you lightheartedly but not lightly, could you pretend I’m standing right in front of you saying it in a whisper followed by a contented smile?
(inhaling deeply…Ready?)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Goodbye, Britain.
Best,
Yu-Chen | https://medium.com/@yuchen-sarah/goodbye-britain-488da04b9ba9 | ['Yu-Chen Li', 'Sarah'] | 2020-12-04 19:46:18.756000+00:00 | ['Goodbye', 'Britain', 'Self Improvement', 'Pandemic Diaries', 'Letters'] |
Status Games: Why We Play and How to Stop | People care about status because animals care about status, and we’ve inherited the brain system that create this. My new book explains our strong feelings about status and shows how to manage them. Details + free resources
In the state of nature, a critter gets bitten if it reaches for food or mating opportunity in the presence of a stronger critter. But if it never reached, its genes would not survive. So natural selection built a brain that compares your strength to those around you, and releases a good-feeling chemical when you’re in a position of strength.
Serotonin is that good feeling. Serotonin is not aggression but the nice, relaxed feeling that it’s safe to go ahead and meet your needs.
Any serotonin you manage to stimulate is metabolized quickly, alas, so you have to find another moment of social dominance to get more. That can be risky, of course. When you see that you’re in a position of weakness, cortisol is released and the bad feeling tells you to hold back to avoid harm.
The mammal brain navigates the social world by constantly comparing itself to others and responding with the appropriate chemical. But how does the mammal brain know when you’re stronger or weaker, you may wonder.
Past experience is its guide. No conscious thought is involved because neurons connect when a chemical flows, which wires you to turn on the feeling faster in similar future circumstances.
So the social triumphs of your youth wired you to expect serotonin when you see something similar, and the social disappointments of your youth wired you to expect cortisol in similar settings.
But how does it all start? How does a young mammal know when to feel one-up and when to feel one-down? Watch young monkeys at play. Watch toddlers at play. A toddler wants the toy it sees in another child’s hands. It grabs, and that may have a positive or negative outcome. Experience wires each brain to assert or restrain accordingly. Adults try to shape children’s experiences in order to build healthy serotonin circuits. It’s no easy task because we want the oxytocin of social acceptance as much as we want the serotonin of social power.
Mirror neurons also play a big role in our circuit building. Children mirror the assertions and the self-restraint of the people around them.
So we all face adulthood with a neural network built in youth.
We’re all motivated to repeat behaviors that stimulated serotonin in our unique individual past, and to avoid behaviors that stimulated cortisol. And we all need to update our wiring because youthful experience cannot be a perfect guide to adult social life.
But it’s hard to make updates because we’re not aware of our own operating system. The brain structures that control your chemicals cannot process language, so they cannot tell you in words why they turn on a chemical.
And we’re not consciously aware of our old neural pathways. We rely on them heavily because the electricity in the brain flows like water in a storm, finding the paths of least resistance. Electricity has trouble flowing into an undeveloped pathway, so we fall back on the ones we have without conscious intent.
The problem is compounded by the tabooness of the serotonin urge. You can’t admit that you long for social importance because bad things happened when you did that in the past.
This is why the urge for status is easy to see in others but hard to see in yourself.
When I say “status,” I do not mean a socioeconomic abstraction, because the mammal brain cannot process abstractions. Your inner mammal just wants to feel on top and avoid feeling that others are on top.
You often feel like others are putting you down because you can’t acknowledge your own urge to put yourself up. You feel like the world is judging you because you ignore the judging you do yourself. It’s not easy being a big-brained mammal!
But there’s good news here. You have power over your emotions when you know how you create your own status games. You can change your emotions by changing your social-comparison circuits.
If you don’t, you’ll repeat old status games endlessly, despite your best intentions. You’ll deprive yourself of serotonin and flood yourself with cortisol.
This is why I wrote Status Games: Why We Play and How to Stop. It shows how to rewire yourself to enjoy healthy status and avoid junk status. Junk status is like junk food: it feels good now but hurts you later. Healthy status puts you up without putting others down.
You may think of money and social media when you hear about status games, but there are so many other varieties. If you pride yourself on holding your liquor better than others, it’s junk status. If you exercise to the point of injury to feel one-up, it’s junk status. And if you see everyone else as “unethical” or “a moron,” it’s junk status.
Status Games has fascinating tales of animal and early human status games, to help you accept your inner mammal. It explores global and historical status games, so you know it’s not just “our society.” And it snoops into the private status games of Sigmund Freud, Jane Austen, Charles Darwin, Booker T. Washington, Soon Ching-ling, Alexander Hamilton, and Shakespeare.
Then you’ll learn to find serotonin in the middle lane instead of yielding to the cortisol of the fast lane or the slow lane. You will track the one-up and one-down patterns you built in your past, so it’s clear that your responses are just connections between neurons rather than external facts.
Finally, you will plan healthy ways to give yourself a feeling of strength. It only takes one step that you’re proud of to connect neurons that make the next step easier. The book helps you design a concrete strategy to keep taking steps that you’re proud of. You will blaze a new trail through your jungle of neurons to the “on” switch of your serotonin. You’ll be glad you did!
Free resources and purchase links at: innermammalinstitute.org/statusgames | https://medium.com/@innermammal/status-games-why-we-play-and-how-to-stop-ebc1bd587caf | ['Loretta Graziano Breuning'] | 2021-09-11 02:26:03.218000+00:00 | ['Stress Management', 'Neuroscience', 'Serotonin', 'Stress', 'Competition'] |
Immigrants voting for Trump also… | The Foreigner Blog explores the comedic side of being an immigrant, children of immigrants, and diaspora. Our experiences are often clouded in dark and painful realities, but here we find the light and the levity. Welcome!
Follow | https://medium.com/the-foreigner-blog/immigrants-voting-for-trump-also-aa840db73f67 | ['Arijana Ramic'] | 2020-10-21 15:03:19.001000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Trump', 'One Liners', 'Elections', 'Satire'] |
Finding Myself in ‘Anna Karenina’ | The Personalities
I’m definitely not Anna. Of her many admirable traits, she’s often considerate, tactful and composed — the very incarnation of social graces even as she paradoxically flaunts society’s rules — and I’m just not. She’s also a beautiful woman, and while a beautiful woman would be something to be, in this life I’ve never wanted to be anything other than the man I am. The only time I identify with Anna is toward the end as she grows more misanthropic and nihilistic. So I have some, but not much, of Anna in me.
I wish I were more like Anna’s brother Stepan. As a civil servant, his job isn’t that attractive, but he’s almost always at ease, whereas I’m always out of joint. He’s good-humored and sociable, he enjoys a good drink and a smoke, and he never hesitates to make the most of feminine company. In director Joe Wright’s 2012 film adaptation, he’s affably portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen, who was none other than Mr. Darcy in Wright’s 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (1813) by Jane Austen. Being a rich heartthrob wouldn’t be so bad . . . not so bad at all!
Alas, I’m more like Stepan’s wife Dolly. She has one personality trait I know all too well: She’s a worrier. She worries about her husband, she worries about losing her looks, she worries about the family’s finances, she worries about her children’s well-being. The converse of this, however, is that she’s a responsible member of society — which isn’t to be discounted. It may not be sexy to be Dolly, but Tolstoy suggests that a normal life with all its common travails is on some deeper level the happy life.
More flatteringly, I’m also like Levin, the character through whom Tolstoy most reveals himself. Levin certainly has his mood swings, often to comic effect, but he’s also conscientious, earnest, studious and philosophical. A freethinker, his emotional and intellectual journey is unceasing and continues after the book ends. In Wright’s adaptation, he’s even portrayed by fellow redhead Domhnall Gleeson, who has appeared in film versions of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005) and Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn (2009).
There are, however, many more characters to consider, characters that movie adaptations downplay or omit. Anna’s husband has a bigger presence and a profounder conscience in the book. Countess Ivanovna is a busybody and religious fanatic. Marya is a devoted mate. Other characters include an obsessive painter and a charlatan spiritualist, and even one passage is told from the perspective of a loyal hunting dog! None of these characters, except maybe the dog, are simple, and they’re given to change just like we are. There we are in the pages of Tolstoy’s fiction in all our complexity — a bit of us in this character over here, a bit in that character over there. | https://baos.pub/finding-myself-in-anna-karenina-650520d30c75 | ['J.P. Williams'] | 2021-07-06 12:33:28.357000+00:00 | ['Arts And Culture', 'Books', 'Reading', 'Personality', 'Self Discovery'] |
Machine Learning + Human Intelligence vs COVID-19: Part2 | Introduction:
Globalization has brought countries together in more ways than ever before. Consumers, corporations and governments alike, now have generally unfettered access to innovations, markets, products and services. While the benefits associated with globalization are many, it also brings associated risks, as we have seen with the recent SARS-COV2 virus. Infectious disease specialists have been raising the alarm about the need for an effective and uniform response to these threats, due to the speed at which an infectious disease could spread as a result of our global connectedness.
COVID-19 (the disease caused by the SARS-COV2 virus) has completely taken over our lives, resulting in a material effect in the lives of countless global citizens. The question at the top of everyone’s mind is; “How do we adjust to this new normal?”
Specifically, what can we learn about patterns and prevention as we analyze how an infectious disease like COVID-19 migrates and assess how industries are impacted by its spread? This understanding can help inform public health directives that aim to control the migration of the disease, while at the same time alleviating resulting strains on the economy.
Study Objectives:
To develop a better understanding of these patterns, our Data Science teams at Inspired Intellect and WorldLink initiated an R&D project with the hypothesis that advanced analytics could uncover insights to address the above questions. We were also looking for pragmatic applications for deploying our findings to help our clients understand how their businesses would need to adapt to survive in the rapidly evolving new normal.
We focused our research efforts into 4 distinct tracks:
1. Creating a data lake of information as a foundational pillar for our research
2. Collating and categorizing experimental treatments, therapeutics and vaccine research into a semantic search-driven library of knowledge to support frontline healthcare workers and medical practitioners as they keep up with trending research in these domains (here)
3. Social listening and associated unstructured text analysis to identify and surface trending topics and concerns people were talking about
4. Machine learning and insight generation to identify the factors influencing the spread of virus to predict the waxing and waning of virus epicenters over time.
This article is Part 2 of a 2-part blog series focused on the 4th track above: Machine Learning and Insight Generation. This blog series is focused on answering the following questions:
· Why are certain counties/cities more affected than others?
· Why is there variation in mortality rates among the most infected counties?
· What are the underlying patterns and factors for virus spread and mortality?
In Part 1 here, we provided recommendations on how to mitigate the spread of infectious diseases, based on our work using county-level data and machine learning techniques. In Part 2, we will explore model data, features and insights.
We feel that a data-driven scientific approach can help answer these questions and, more importantly, inform decision making for a range of stakeholders:
· Policy Makers: Have sufficient measures been taken to ensure that the infection spread can be controlled? If not, how do we mitigate the risks?
· Business Owners: Is my business a potential contributing vector to the spread of the virus? What measures should we consider implementing relative to operating the business in a manner that is safe for employees and customers?
· Individuals: What measures can we as individuals take to help stem the spread of the virus?
Editor’s Note: This blog post was authored to highlight a data-driven perspective on how the latest advanced analytics techniques could examine driving factors behind the COVID-19 pandemic and garner recommendations to inform officials in their policy responses. To do this, I co-authored this blog with my colleague, Darrell Silva, who serves as a Data Scientist for our sister organization, Inspired Intellect. There were several others across WorldLink and Inspired Intellect involved in the data sourcing and model development necessary to deliver these insights related to the pandemic and potential actions to mitigate its impact
How We Explored the Data:
We began our research efforts with a data exploration exercise guided by a quantitative risk score, designed at the county-level. Our risk score design included county-level reported statistics such as:
· Rolling 14-day infection rates
· Mortality rates
· Population density (where the population density is defined against the habitable square miles).
Other relevant attributes such as county-specific mobility, adjacent-county mobility and social stringency could also be included in the risk score design. However, we decided to keep our initial design simple with a view to helping us better understand the insights we encountered. The attributes were passed through a clustering algorithm to arrive at a categorization of counties that exhibited a similarity in infection rates, mortality rates and population density.
The Risk Score for the week of May 9th is shown below. Counties exhibiting the highest risk (i.e. high infection rate, high mortality rate and high population density) collected into Cluster 5. In contrast, counties exhibiting the lowest risk were collected into Cluster 1. To keep the design simple and due to a general lack of insight into COVID19’s pathology, we did not weight infection or mortality rate variables differently when clustering. Therefore, we can label a county as risky if either it has high infection rate or high mortality rate.
We examine a few counties within Cluster 5 to understand why they were categorized as highest risk. Data for relevant portions of the prior 14-day period (Apr 25 — May 8) that illustrate our arguments are shown below. We can see that the infections spiked from 2 to 14 cases in Tillman County, Oklahoma between May 2nd and May 3rd, and from 31 to 74 in Jackson county, Florida between May 7th and May 8th.
These counties demonstrated a noticeable and sudden rise in infections, indicating emerging virus hotspots and signaling the need for allocated resources. We use these two counties as prime examples of early signaling for an escalating hotspot, by using variables that are true of all counties, regardless of size. Note that many high-density counties were already subject to a mandatory shelter-in-place order during our 14-day evaluation period and were therefore experiencing decreasing infection rates throughout our study.
Next, we examine the migration of risk scores across counties when compared with the risk scores from the week of April 24th. The week of April 24th was chosen as our baseline based on anecdotal evidence that the virus has an incubation period up to 14 days. As seen from the color-coded map on the left, the areas of primary concern (as of April 24th) were concentrated in the southwest and northeast of the country, along with some pockets of higher risk in the south region around Georgia. Over the next 14-day period from April 25th to May 8th, the virus had traversed across the country. What is also interesting to note, is that the counties that were previously highest risk, appear to have gained some measure of control over the virus spread. Although these were largely reactive measures, there is much that can be learned from the success of measures these high-risk counties put into place in response to their situation.
In summary, we see that the risk score can be a helpful tool to guide public health policy decision-making. The downside is that it reflects what has already happened, and the best public health policy makers can hope to do is intervene to prevent the situation from getting worse. The truest value-add from data analytics lies in surfacing what factors influence the risk score, so that decision makers can be more proactive in their approach to control the spread of the virus (i.e. implementing sweeping safety procedures in and around airports, where people are highly mobile across counties).
Feature Engineering:
We began our predictive modeling exercise by formulating hypotheses to be investigated. Before the first COVID-19 cases were recorded in the US, medical researchers across the globe were already providing valuable anecdotal evidence published through trusted medical channels. In parsing these via text analytics, these were tremendously useful in guiding our hypotheses design.
The following data were of primary interest to our research:
· Age
· Gender
· Health equity
· Travel exposure
· Social mobility
· Healthcare supply/availability
· Adherence to public health policy directives
Of course, some attributes, such as health equity, presented data acquisition challenges that required creative data engineering. We therefore had to scale back our expectations or rephrase the hypotheses in terms of viable data proxies in a few specific areas. As an example of the latter, we re-phrased hypotheses related to health equity through the lens of county-level demographic data attributes. Similarly, due to inconsistent data reporting on adherence to public health policy directives, we eliminated it from our consideration set.
The resultant inventory of hypotheses influenced the data collection and associated data enrichment efforts. These are succinctly illustrated within the accompanying graphic, through a layered feature list.
Feature Importance:
The representation of an analytic challenge as a machine learning algorithm, and the richness of the features feeding the algorithm, have a direct relationship with the insights gleaned from the model. Accordingly, we now examine the machine learning algorithmic construct we selected, and the features that dominated our models:
1. Target Variable: The target variable describes the analytic objective to be pursued. The viable alternatives in this context would be to estimate the infections or mortalities (i.e. a regression) or to predict the increase/decrease outcome in the infection rate or mortality rate (i.e. classification). To keep it simple, we settled on the classification approach, and, predicted if the rates would increase/decrease over the next two weeks. Two separate models were developed, one that predicted the increase/decrease outcome in the infection rate, the other that predicted increase/decrease outcome in the mortality rate.
2. Independent Variables (or Features): The independent variables explain the variance in the target variable and the degree to which they account for the variance. An examination of the independent variables provides the insights derived from the models, which in turn guides decision makers. The table below arranges the independent variables in order of their significance in the models.
Monitoring all these factors can help policy makers formulate and evaluate strategies to contain COVID-19 spread and develop preventative measures for those counties most at risk
Model Validation:
While there are some exceptional factors responsible for the infection spread, the above features collectively provide a holistic explanation for the spread of COVID-19 across the US.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
As an example of an outlying factor that contributes heavily to infection spread and could create inconsistencies in the model if not monitored, , the correctional institutions in two Ohio counties (Marion and Pickaway) led to these two counties becoming hotspots. The visualizations provided by the NY Times (here) from the week of May 11th provides as visual confirmation of several key features in our models (population density, proximity to major airports, prevalence of seniors, regions dominated by a high-degree of mobility or a disposition towards underlying health conditions, due to various socio-economic or demographic factors)
“…while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four
In general, week over week, our predictive models corroborated well with the county-level COVID-19 trends. To demonstrate the relative accuracy of models, validated against emergent data, we now pick two counties from different states to analyze the effect of features that were deemed important by our models. Not all counties of these state have been, or is, an emerging epicenter.
1. Harris County in Texas (Left): Harris County had considerably lower infection and mortality at the start of pandemic. There was limited stay at home order because of which we see the virus spread increasing in the county in following weeks.
2. Suffolk County in New York (Right): Suffolk County was a virus epicenter in March and April. The state had undertaken strict measures requiring face coverings, and we can see the resulting impact through the drastically reduced infection and mortality rate.
We can see for both the counties the increase in mobility is followed by the increase in infection and mortality. In the case of Suffolk, the mobility decrease is followed by a decrease in infection whereas in the case of Harris County, every increase in mobility is followed by the increase in virus spread. The lag between the 2 charts can be explained by the 14-day incubation period for the virus.
Conclusion:
Understanding the driving factors that affect infection and mortality rates are critical insights that can lead to both preventative and prescriptive actions. We note in this article the resulting effects generated by factors such as:
· Age
· Gender
· Health equity
· Travel exposure
· Social mobility
· Healthcare supply/availability
· Adherence to public health policy directives
Using Advanced Analytics techniques, our objective is to equip policy makers, businesses, and individual citizens alike with the insights to minimize the spread of infectious disease and create data-driven, actionable guidelines that will help us emerge on the other side of this pandemic.
Inspired Intellect is an end-to-end service provider of data management, analytics and application development. We engage through a portfolio of offerings ranging from strategic advisory and design, to development and deployment, through to sustained operations and managed services.
Formed in 2020 through the merger of two well-established service companies, Avalon Consulting, LLC and WorldLink Consulting, we accelerate the digital transformation journey of our enterprise customers enabling them to rapidly translate their data assets into monetizable data products and insights.
Inspired Intellect’s unique use of organizational psychology methods differentiates us in accelerating and de-risking our clients’ adoption of technology solutions. We recognize the human aspect of the transformation journey is critical to achieving superior business outcomes.
Over a dozen Fortune 100 companies, across multiple industries, select Inspired Intellect to drive their digital enablement.
Acknowledgements:
This article reflects the work of Prashanth Nayak, Darrell Silva and Felix Simon who collaborated on the sourcing of COVID-19 data, the development of the related machine learning models, and deployment of the models discussed in this article.
The broader team that included Babu Mathew, Kishan Matam, Will Thayer, and Felix Simon led by Brian Monteiro tackled a spectrum of analytic challenges that were introduced at the top of this article.
An article describing Will Thayer’s contributions to the objectives of this R&D study can be found here. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/machine-learning-human-intelligence-vs-covid-19-part2-31cd6df54353 | [] | 2020-09-27 14:23:39.163000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Predictive Analytics', 'Machine Learning', 'Analysis', 'Data Science'] |
Pick The Right Plays — Using the Go-To-Market Framework | Pick The Right Plays — Using the Go-To-Market Framework ZoomInfo Follow Aug 27 · 6 min read
By Scott Wallask
Today, businesses across the country are scrambling to adapt, doing everything they can to rework their operating models in weeks and months, not years.
Even those at the top are always at risk. In 12 years, half the companies on the S&P 500 may fall off that list, according to industry research. Disruption and uncertainty are inevitable in these times, which is why a solid go-to-market plan is critical to address the unique stage and goals of any given company.
So what components make up this effort? ZoomInfo has identified four areas — or quadrants — that together create a framework for a successful go-to-market approach:
Build loyalty.
Offer expansion.
Company transformation.
Market expansion.
In this piece, we’ll briefly give an overview of these areas, with future articles delving deeper into the details.
Build Loyalty
According to HubSpot research, 93% of consumers will be repeat buyers at companies with excellent customer service.
With stakes that high, it is perhaps ironic that the early steps of building customer loyalty start with the figurative eyes and ears of a company.
“It’s imperative to continually listen to what customers are saying, putting yourselves in the customers’ shoes and thinking of ways to better enable them,” Craig Williams, chief information officer at networking software company Ciena, told IDG Connect.
It’s at least five times more expensive to bring in a new customer versus retaining an existing buyer. — Forbes
It’s also important to determine the lifetime value a customer brings and create loyalty efforts based on long-term revenue estimates. These fiscally-minded approaches stem from well-known statistics that say it’s at least five times more expensive to bring in a new customer versus retaining an existing buyer.
In turn, customers who are loyal and dedicated to a brand are more likely to enjoy buying from a company. Notably, the pandemic has shown that companies who’ve managed to grow almost cult-like followings are more adaptable to change and more prepared to tailor offerings when the market shifts around them.
Consider these points:
Key metrics : Customer churn and attrition rate, customer retention rate, lifetime value of a buyer (how much revenue a customer brings in the long term), and Net Promoter Score (a range that measures a customer’s experience with a product).
: Customer churn and attrition rate, customer retention rate, lifetime value of a buyer (how much revenue a customer brings in the long term), and Net Promoter Score (a range that measures a customer’s experience with a product). Job titles involved : Executives, directors, and managers of user experience, customer success, customer enablement, and customer loyalty.
: Executives, directors, and managers of user experience, customer success, customer enablement, and customer loyalty. Technology : Sales and marketing intelligence platforms and customer relationship management systems.
: Sales and marketing intelligence platforms and customer relationship management systems. Go-to-market plays: Upsell campaigns, Net Promoter Score campaigns, customer referral campaigns, loyalty program rollouts, and automated customer service surveys.
Creating a customer loyalty program to motivate repeat business is a solid step to boost up allegiance. Further, encouraging positive user reviews of a product serves up testimonials that often play strongly with other buyers.
Offer Expansion
Broadening what a company offers — whether it’s a new product, additional features, or technology integrations — brings in more buyers. Even during economic uncertainty, opportunities exist with new product development.
“If your competitors suspend product development and you don’t, you have a great chance to either catch up with them or further your lead in the market,” wrote Carl Erickson, founder Atomic Object, a custom software developer.
“If your competitors suspend product development and you don’t, you have a great chance to either catch up with them or further your lead in the market.” — Carl Erickson, founder, Atomic Object
When new products and expanded features sync with market need, they will likely generate additional revenue from customers. Doing so may also offset declines in aging products a company sells.
Note these aspects:
Key metrics: How a product rates against similar competitors, how buyers use a product, and how many integrations a product has.
How a product rates against similar competitors, how buyers use a product, and how many integrations a product has. Job titles involved : Executives, directors, and managers of product development, product marketing, marketing strategy, sales intelligence, marketing intelligence, and competitive analysis.
: Executives, directors, and managers of product development, product marketing, marketing strategy, sales intelligence, marketing intelligence, and competitive analysis. Technology : Market intelligence and sales intelligence platforms, software that analyzes sales calls, and tools that track how customers use a product.
: Market intelligence and sales intelligence platforms, software that analyzes sales calls, and tools that track how customers use a product. Go-to-market plays: Add-on campaigns, cross-sell campaigns, in-app message campaigns, user research, and product launches.
The success of offer expansion can increase if companies conduct a competitive analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of other products in the market. Customer interviews are also beneficial.
Market Expansion
In March 2020, TentCraft — a company that manufactures custom tents for events like festivals and concerts — got hit hard by the spreading pandemic. TentCraft’s core customers stopped buying.
But company president and founder Matt Bulloch saw an opportunity in a new market: outdoor tents for drive-up COVID-19 testing. “I told our employees we are going to completely retool the company to support the healthcare system,” Bulloch said. “There was only one problem: We’ve never actually sold to hospitals.”
“I told our employees we are going to completely retool the company to support the healthcare system.” — Matt Bulloch, president and founder, TentCraft
Using data culled from ZoomInfo’s sales intelligence platform, TentCraft was able to steer into new areas of the company’s total addressable market. This concept represents the full amount of companies or consumers that could become customers or the total revenue possible for a product to generate.
Breaking into a new market can increase revenues while also building a company’s recognition and reputation. Meanwhile, buyers who are not familiar with products or services can benefit from market expansion as a company increases its reach.
Think about these details:
Key metrics: Demographic, firmographic, and technographic attributes from revenue-generating customers; and cost to acquire a new customer.
Demographic, firmographic, and technographic attributes from revenue-generating customers; and cost to acquire a new customer. Job titles involved : Executives, directors, and managers of revenue operations, product marketing, marketing strategy, sales intelligence, and marketing intelligence.
: Executives, directors, and managers of revenue operations, product marketing, marketing strategy, sales intelligence, and marketing intelligence. Technology : Sales intelligence platforms and buyer intent software.
: Sales intelligence platforms and buyer intent software. Go-to-market plays: Cross-sell campaigns, account-based marketing campaigns, and demand generation campaigns.
To expand in new markets, an old strategy is helpful: develop ideal customer profiles based on available data to focus on those most likely to convert. Other key data includes accurate contact information for top prospects and buying signals from potential customers interested in a product.
Company Transformation
Even for top companies, the market can be unpredictable; one day a rock-star firm is riding high, yet by the next decade it could be gone.
“The 33-year average tenure of companies on the S&P 500 in 1964 narrowed to 24 years by 2016 and is forecast to shrink to just 12 years by 2027,” according to research from Innosight, a business strategy consultant.
“The turbulence points to the need for companies to embrace … transformation, to focus on changing customer needs, and other strategic interventions,” Innosight added.
Company transformation is a fundamental change in how a firm conducts business or sells its products. This evolution occurs because of an acquisition, new innovation, a shift in customer demand, or even an unexpected upheaval in the economy or society. An opportunity to outpace competitors often is a prime motivation for business transformation, as is the potential to fill a void in a market.
An opportunity to outpace competitors often is a prime motivation for business transformation, as is the potential to fill a void in a market.
Such transformation benefits buyers, as it can expose existing customers to new products they were not aware of and bring a new audience to a company’s product line.
The following points explain the concept briefly:
Key metrics: Cross-selling revenue, partner reselling rates, and investments in new technology related to product sales.
Cross-selling revenue, partner reselling rates, and investments in new technology related to product sales. Job titles involved : Executives of business strategy, growth, and business transformation.
: Executives of business strategy, growth, and business transformation. Technology : Automation platforms, machine learning, analytics software, and cloud systems.
: Automation platforms, machine learning, analytics software, and cloud systems. Go-to-market plays: Upsell campaigns, cross-sell campaigns, service-level agreements between departments, and rebranded product launches.
Business transformation moves more smoothly if marketing and sales teams can cooperate easily without departmental borders impeding efforts — the 50-cent phrase “breaking down silos” comes to mind. Also, an agile approach to changes allows companies to make adjustments quicker.
Framework Sets Go-to-Market Direction
In this era of economic and social uncertainty, go-to-market plans become even more important given the hurdles are higher — or even changing — for businesses to survive.
A company’s goals in loyalty, product expansion, transformation, or new markets can be mapped out ahead of time within a framework that makes go-to-market motions smoother.
Follow our go-to-market series. In our next article, we talk about moving from a go-to-market framework to strategy.
Scott Wallask is a longtime content writer; seeking stories flowing from data with a dash of skepticism; Northeastern grad | https://medium.com/the-innovation/pick-the-right-plays-using-the-go-to-market-framework-6237c7c163a | [] | 2020-09-02 07:33:57.818000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Covid 19', 'Sales', 'Marketing', 'Business Strategy'] |
6 Things to Remember Before a Media Interview | TransFunnel Consulting
While most people wait for the moment they can stand in front of the media and make their first public address, the actual moment can be quite daunting when it finally arrives. Several spokespeople have often complained about not having the right answers to media queries, being stumped by statements and questions, and oftentimes being deviated from the set track of the interview.
To help you overcome these challenges, we’ve listed a few salient rules that you can follow to ensure that your interview sails through seamlessly and provides the outcome you are looking to achieve.
Jot down the points you want to convey and rehearse your interview
Take time off to craft a story and see how you want it to flow. Make sure you have all the points covered and spend some time practicing how you want to deliver this story to the media person. This often provides clarity in thought and allows you to streamline the conversation.
2. Do your research on the media person
Check their social media profiles, read some of the stories they have written before, and understand the stance they take. This prepares you for unmitigated circumstances where the media person might toss you a curveball and you will be able to hit it out of the park successfully.
3. Run a mock interview with possible negative questions
Get a person to play devil’s advocate and ask you the tougher questions and the ones that might possibly lead to a controversy. Prepare your answers to these and keep them handy. More often than not, when answering the difficult questions, you’re going to be at ease with this practice.
4. Relax before an interview
Grab a cup of coffee and just take a few moments to gather your thoughts. Walking into an interview with confidence often reflects in the outcome. A confident spokesperson bolsters the image of the company on the whole.
5. Stay clear of un-truths
You’d rather say that you are unsure and you will get back to them with the right numbers or facts than concocting information. The media is always well prepared and will catch the falsified facts. The repercussions of this could be grave.
6. Stay in control of the interview
Ensure you are staying on track with the story you decided to go with. The interview may meander around a few additional points, but make sure to find your way back to the story you intended to convey. Never stop the media from asking their questions, but stay on course.
With these tips in mind, you’re geared to take on your next interview. Good luck! | https://medium.com/@transfunnel/6-things-to-remember-before-a-media-interview-df7333fdd0b7 | ['Transfunnel Consulting'] | 2019-02-07 07:23:30.298000+00:00 | ['Interview Questions', 'Media', 'Media Interview Tips', 'Interview', 'Media Interview Training'] |
Will You Ever Feel Normal After an Abusive Relationship? | It’s been a long day. Work was hell, and the day dragged on forever. You cleaned up the disaster in your house, and you finally are getting the opportunity to unwind with your favorite book and a generous glass of wine.
You wait for the calm and relaxation to wash over you, but it never comes. In its place, you’re agitated, unsettled, and anxious. You feel your pulse in your ears, the silence is deafening, and you physically tense up, unconsciously forming a fist.
You’re on the verge of a full-blown panic attack — for no reason what so ever.
Welcome to what life feels like after leaving an abusive relationship.
For weeks, months, or years, you have been walking on eggshells, hoping to not send your abuser off on another rampage. You do all that you can to not provoke them. You do your best to stay even-keeled, not too happy, and not too sad. Because any influx in your mood rouses suspicion in your partner.
Now that you have escaped that volatile relationship, what reason do you have to feel agitated, unsettled, and anxious? Our minds and bodies have a strange way of protecting us from catastrophic events in our lives.
Make no mistake, being in an abusive or toxic relationship counts as catastrophic.
We often talk about how one can safely escape a relationship like this, but today we will explore what the aftermath of surviving this trauma can feel like. | https://medium.com/fearless-she-wrote/will-you-ever-feel-normal-after-an-abusive-relationship-ae6a814cd50 | ['Estrella Ramirez'] | 2020-10-02 17:01:02.286000+00:00 | ['Lifestyle', 'Relationships', 'Self', 'Mental Health', 'Trauma'] |
India a country with no rules | India is the 7th biggest country in the terms of size. India has the longest written constitution in the world but the point is that no one even bothers about the rights which are given by the constitution to us. I know i am writing on a topic which everyone knows. Even if we know each and every wrong aspect of our country then why we don’t take a step against all this. There are many topics on which we can discuss. The biggest topic in today’s world is Relationships. This is the biggest problem in the mind of old age people or people living in backward area. We never punish rapist in our country but we can beat a couple in a train who love each other. Few months ago, in Kolkata Metro, a couple hugged and people around them started beating them. Communities like bajrang dal are not allowing people to have a good perspective. They beat couples just because they are roaming in an open atmosphere. What a perspective! Hats off to the Indian Government! This country people needs to develop their own mind before developing their country. I am going to discuss all the topics in this blog which i think that these topics should be discussed in all the people around. In India, we have bigger problems than all this stuff. People don’t want to change their own perspective but at the same time they also want to change the whole nation. Everyone wants that the country should run according to their mind and thoughts. Indian Government alone cannot do anything. To make a good country, we have to work with the Indian government. If someone feels that something is going wrong in the locality or country, then he/she must raise voice to fight against it. Until Now, we are not able to change anything in this country just because nobody from us wants to raise voice against the government. Some people which raise voice never get support from the locality or the colleagues. To change this nation and to make it a law obeying nation, we all need to raise voice. So its a request, please raise voice against wrong laws and wrong people. I have not written that much in this but i am going to discuss each and everything in my coming blogs. I Hope you liked my perspective. | https://medium.com/@bhallamahulpb74/india-a-country-with-no-rules-7b58e0dbbfd3 | ['Mahul Bhalla'] | 2019-06-06 12:40:16.965000+00:00 | ['First Post', 'Government', 'Lawsuit', 'India', 'Rules'] |
What is product design and what do product designers do? | What is product design and what do product designers do?
A first-hand, updated account of the industry and role in 2020
Illustration by Peter Tarka
In the mentoring calls I conduct with students, the two most frequently brought up questions are — what is product design and what does the role of a product designer entail?
I’m here to debunk the mysterious aura behind the field and shed light on the role. While my day-to-day as a designer shifts based on numerous factors, most of what I do falls under a rhythmic routine that floats between different responsibilities. The information I share below stems from my former design internships and full-time roles.
What is product design?
Product design is the all-encompassing process of creative problem-solving. It’s the thoughtful, intentional application of design knowledge to craft functional, intuitive user experiences.
Illustration by Danny Jose
Using data, product design identifies the right issues to be solved while also highlighting the business value behind the given project. User testing is then conducted to check assumptions and narrow the funnel of ideated solutions brainstormed. Ultimately, product designers determine if a design was successful by analyzing defined metrics to observe whether or not a desired outcome was achieved.
Contrary to popular belief, product design is not the transformation in beautifying a digital product. At its core, the field is a combination of many varying disciplines: graphic design, visual design, interaction design, information architecture, branding, business strategy, prototyping, data analyzation, user research, and sometimes coding.
Great product design balances both aesthetic and utility in order to both captivate its users and fulfill objectives.
Illustration by Peter Tarka
What do product designers do?
Define the problem
To kick-off the design process, product designers work with a multitude of stakeholders to solidify goals of intended projects and its relationship to the needs of the business. This can be represented as cooperation in validation of pain points, collaborative prioritization of various features, and unanimous agreement on a list of requirements. Questions answered in this phase include, but are not limited to:
What do we currently know?
What is the objective and intended outcome?
Who is our target audience?
What does the user journey look like?
What does the timeline look like for this project?
Photo by Dan Nessler
Ideate solutions
Once goals are clearly defined and agreed upon, a product designer can initialize the ideation phase. Typically, these first ideas originate from design sprints, competitive audits, low-fidelity sketches, and/or other ideation methods. This is my favorite part of the design process — the main task here is truly to create a range of explorations among constraints.
Collaborate with other teams
Product designers don’t design in bubbles; they collaborate. By providing background context on a problem and showcasing early-stage designs to other members on the team, one receives valuable feedback to expand on. This is highly beneficial in pinpointing certain design directions over others or proposing suggestions the author might not have considered. It’s also the perfect chance for one to better comprehend what other projects are in flux and offer a lending hand to others.
Additionally, branding, design systems, and marketing teams are great players to incorporate in the feedback channel. With the help of these teams, you can get approval for illustrations you created to supplement your designs, ask questions surrounding suitable components, or request friendlier copy text.
Illustration by Alissa Vu
Validate solutions
How do we know if our designs will be successful?
User research! It’s incredibly paramount to collect, record, and analyze data to either support your designs decisions or point attention to areas that need reconsideration. Thankfully, there are a variety of techniques that can be used to check if your designs are in alignment with your assumptions and hypotheses. This includes open/closed card sorting, unmoderated/moderated interviews, heuristic evaluations, and the RITE user testing method.
Present your work to stakeholders
All of the hard work a product designer puts into the design process is then shown to the leadership team. Once solutions are validated, team design reviews are held to check for any concerns in scope, constraints, or final decisions. Here, discussions are held with stakeholders and leadership to deliberate approvals to all the changes made to the product.
Illustration by Danny Jose
Work with engineers to implement designs
At this point, one’s designs are finalized and it’s now up to the engineer to implement the designs accordingly. Every company takes care of hand-offs differently, but the main gist is that the product designer works with the technical team to make sure that the designs look up-to-par once it’s live.
Record and measure metrics
Congratulations, your designs have shipped!
After launch, metrics are recorded in order to analyze for future months ahead. This is to ensure that the designs are performing well and to revert or make changes in the case they aren’t. With the data collected, you can truly see the impact you’re making as a designer!
Participate in hiring
If there are open positions at your company, you’ll most likely participate in interviews that allow you to assess candidates in consideration. Your feedback is crucial in helping maintain the company’s bar for excellence in the expansion of the team. Every culture has their own checklist for attributes of a great addition and red flags that signal who may not be a great match.
Illustration by Alissa Vu
Build skills
Designers are constantly learning inside and outside of their role.
Tools come and go, projects change, and trends are ever-evolving. This is why it’s incredibly important to continually invest into one’s education through conferences, blogs, and courses. Whether it’s animation, illustration, prototyping, or visual design, there are resources to grow any skill nowadays.
And repeat!
There’s a plethora of design challenges out in today’s world. Once you start to more heavily incorporate design thinking and process into practice, it’s difficult to escape mind-chatter on ways to improve objects, processes, and products around you. One of the great curses of being a designer.
I hope this walkthrough was helpful in your understanding of this industry and informs your decision on whether this role would be a great fit for you. | https://medium.com/swlh/what-is-product-design-and-what-do-product-designers-do-25bf8abf8912 | ['Michelle Chiu'] | 2020-09-11 18:45:52.708000+00:00 | ['Product Design', 'Careers', 'UX', 'Design', 'Technology'] |
Redis Key Dashboard | This tool allows you to do a small analysis of the amount of keys and memory you use in Redis. It allows you to see overlooked keys and notice overuse.
Source Code
How to work ?
Groups all keys with ‘SCAN’ by name. It then lists the dimensions it occupies in memory with the group prefixes that it determines. It does this in batches of 1000. Therefore, it does not create load on the CPU side during the process.
If you just want to get the key list, it can extract 13–14GB of redis data in 50–55 seconds.
Warning : Memory analysis increases the time spent. | https://medium.com/@hto/redis-key-dashboard-d2881e95bb40 | ['Halil Tuğcan Özaktaş'] | 2020-12-13 20:14:14.854000+00:00 | ['Keys', 'Dashboard', 'Memory Management', 'Redis'] |
The Lost Cause Of The North | Michele Bachmann has never been one to have a good understanding of history. When she was in Congress, and especially during her 2012 Presidential Campaign, she became known for her many gaffes regarding her understanding of the past of our nation. From telling New Hampshire “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world at Lexington and Concord,” to talking about President Roosevelt’s “Hoot-Smolly Tariff Act,” to saying John Quincy Adams “would not rest until slavery was extinguished in the country.” Her career, much like the career of all ideologues, is one that views her country in legend as opposed to actual facts.
So why am I talking about another one of her historical gaffes — especially considering she left Congress on 1/3/2015? Because, for once, her gaffe was not her fault, but simply the product of how most Americans view their own history.
Ever since the Civil War ended, the debate on how to teach it in schools has been firmly split into two camps: The side that believes the Union to be unapologetically the good guys and the Confederates to be unapologetically the bad guys and the side that argues that the Confederacy was the “victim” of the “war of Northern Aggression.” The second one is mocked as The “Lost Cause of the South” and was the popular Southern narrative for over a century, with librarians in former Confederate states infamous refusing to put books in their libraries that didn’t conform to this narrative.
Although the “Lost Cause” view was once popular in the South, it has fizzled out in much of the United States in recent years and has relatively few modern advocates. However, the view that the Union never did any wrong — which is based on equally little historical evidence — has only gotten more popular in recent years.
Because of this, it makes sense Bachmann gave the world this gaffe in a recent interview:
“We all know that there was slavery in America’s history, but no other nation did was America did — 600,000 people voluntarily gave their lives to extinguish slavery forever in the United States. No other nation did that. We extinguished it and we went from there to continue to deal with that issue.” ~ Bachmann
I should begin by noting the bizarre idea Bachmann puts forth that it took the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people to abolish slavery is something to be proud of. In most of Europe, slavery was abolished peacefully in the early 19th century. In fact, only two countries — the United States and Haiti — had to go to war in order to abolish slavery.
For that matter, historians estimate between 620,000 and 750,000 Americans died during the Civil War, so Bachmann’s figure is slightly questionable. However, up until 2012, the accepted number of deaths was 618,222 — so we’ll give Bachmann a pass on this piece of small misinformation.
Of that 618,222 figure, it was also believed that 258,000 of them — or roughly 42% of deaths — were Confederate soldiers. Confederate soldiers were specifically fighting to preserve slavery, so Bachmann’s history is now just plain wrong.
However, just because the Confederates were fighting to keep slavery, that does not mean the Union was fighting to end it. In fact, five Union states — Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri — contained a total of 451,021 slaves. These states also had 28,000 total combat deaths — or 11% of total deaths the Union suffered.
The New York Draft Riots of 1863. Photo Credit: Wikicommons
For that matter, Bachmann calling these deaths “voluntary” is also wrong. In 1863, Congress passed the Enrollment Act, which was the first draft in American history. This move was controversial, and led to the infamous New York Draft riots that started on 7/11/1863 and ended on 7/16/1863. These riots also quickly became racial, with reports of white Americans (and even Irish Immigrants) beating up black Americans for no other reason than their race.
Why did these men riot? One major reason was that many of them supported slavery and did not want to fight a war that could lead to abolishing it. | https://medium.com/afrosapiophile/union-soldiers-7862bde504f5 | ['Ephrom Josine'] | 2021-04-29 14:07:57.228000+00:00 | ['White Supremacy', 'Whitewashing', 'Slavery', 'Civil War', 'History'] |
Your Guide to the ThinkPad procut lineup | Photo by Olena Sergienko on Unsplash
Your Guide to ThinkPads
Understanding the vast product lineup and finding what’s best for you
If you’re looking for a new mobile computer, you might have already stumbled over Lenovo’s ThinkPads. You might even have heard about their reputation as “no-nonsense-workhorses”. So maybe, you’re done with the fashionista laptops and you’re ready for something more “down to earth”. A ThinkPad.
But after having a quick look at Lenovo’s website, you’re immediately intimidated with the plethora of ThinkPad models, that don’t differ too much from each other at first gtlance. If you’re so easily swayed to click away and buy just another MacBook instead, this guide is for you!
E, L, T, X, P — what?
The confusing ThinkPad lineup explained. © Scollurio
The naming scheme of Lenovo’s ThinkPad product lineup can truly be confusing. To bring light into the dark, it’s helpful to first differentiate the letters from each other. Each letter corresponds to a series of ThinkPads. Let’s look at it.
E-series
This is your entry level no-nonsense work machine. The E-series are the budget option. You still do get the classic aesthetics, reliable and performant internals and the awesome keyboard. But the E-series come in rather “thick” by today’s standards and the screen options are often underwhelming. Also, in many cases, the keyboard is not backlit and feels a bit “cheaper” with printed-on letters, compared to the higher priced models. Still, if you’re all about value-for-your-buck with a new ThinkPad, this is where to start. Since the chassis is naturally thicker, you get a lot of upgrade options, which usually include RAM, storage and the WWAN module. Also there’s plenty of room for ports on the chassis. Neat.
L-series
The L-series really are a tiny step up above the E-series. Chassis are slightly thinner, keyboards a bit better but you’re still mostly stuck to sub-par screens. On the other hand, you get to upgrade the internals relatively easy and you get the classic, nostalgic aesthetics. Also, thanks to the relatively thick chassis, there’s plenty of room for all the port’s you’d need. If you’re a startup or hard on a budget, the L-series can offer great value and punch way above your expectations performance-wise, especially if you go with the latest AMD processors.
T-series
These are the classic ThinkPads. The T-series has been a staple for business users for decades now. They are the perfect blend between ThinkPad ruggedness, value for your money and features. T-series are very versatile and offer great variety in upgrades, screen options and processors. As of writing, you can either go with an Intel or AMD processor, the later one is what I’d highly recommend, as they are far more efficient and performant. You also get a very decent selection of ports, which should suffice for most of your usecases.
T-series ThinkPads also come in “s” versions. A T14s for example is a slightly slimmer and lighter, more portable version of the T14. It also comes with a slightly bigger battery, as mobility is the name of the game. Some s-models compromise on the port selection in exchange for portability. Still, the situation is much better than with MacBooks or the latest Dell XPS laptops, which need a Dongle for everything except USB-C devices.
X-series
You could view the X-series of ThinkPads as something like the premium branch of the brand. Sleekness, portability and awesome screens are the focus here. The X1 Carbon ThinkPad is the “king of the hill” so to speak, as it’s the most portable and premium ThinkPad available. You have to lay down quite a bit though, to take one home with you. But for that, you get a carbon fibre chassis, that’s incredibly light, stiff and sturdy, a great selection of screens, but you have to let go of some ports.
The X1 Extreme is the performance variation of the X1 Carbon and even sports a dedicated GPU, which theroetically makes full HD gaming possible, but it has such a sleek and thin chassis, you might run into thermal issues, if you keep it under load for too long and it will throttle. That dedicated GPU is more geared towards content creation and video editing.
The latest X13 ThinkPad would make for an extremely portable sub-notebook for coffee-shop-writers and journalists, who might otherwise buy an Apple MacBook Air. It can also be very beneficial for “call-in”-sysadmins and network technicians.
P-series
P stands for power. Actually, I don’t know if that’s correct and just totally made it up, but the P-series are the mobile workstations in the ThinkPad family. These are the most expensive but also most performant and versatile. You trade in some portability for loads of performance. So much performance it even rivals dedicated desktops. But be careful — for 2020 the P-series have not been refreshed with AMD processors, which provide much more power than Intel’s chips at the moment. There’s hoping that next year, we will see AMD powered P-series. The workstations are not meant to be used off-grid for too long, as they are power-hogs. They are supposed to be lugged from your home to your work place for example and then used stationary. Typical professions that would get a ThinkPad workstation would be engineers, CAD-designers, architects, scientists working with huge sets of data, etc.
They are definitely not meant to be gaming machines, but yes of course, they will run games too.
OK, and what about the number behind the series’ letter?
This can be confusing. Prior to their new naming scheme, starting in late 2019, it was a combination of screen size and generation/version indicated in their numbering schemes.
For example:
A T480 is a 14" T-series laptop and one generation behind the T490.
The T490s is the smaller version of the T490.
Since Lenovo ran out of numbers (T450, T460, T470, … T490) last year, the newer models are basically a combination of series-letter, screen-size, processor indicator and the generation of this iteration, spelled out.
Confused yet?
For example:
The T490 became this year’s T14 Gen 1. If it is sporting an Intel processor, it’s also often referred to as T14 i Gen 1. If it’s the slim and light version with AMD processor (which I highly recommend), it is the T14s Gen 1.
I know this can be confusing at first, until you wrap your head around it all. But with some attention and a bit of digging on Lenovo’s website, you’ll figure it out sooner than later! So, as a rule of thumb, the shorter number models, are the newer ones.
What’s that “nub” for?
That “nub”, also lovingly called the “nipple”, actually is the TrackPoint. It harks back to times when Laptops didn’t have a trackpad yet. You can easily (with some practice) control your mouse-cursor without ever using a trackpad, thanks to the TrackPoint. But why would anyone want to do that? Well, it’s still around for purists, really, but there are some applications where it even makes sense today. With enough practice you can use it for masking in Photoshop quite nicely and maybe even more precisely than a trackpad. It also allows you to stay in the home row with your fingers, while quickly moving your cursor or highlighting a word, when writing or programming (yes, this can also be done by using a trackpad with your thumbs).
Photo by cetteup on Unsplash
A thing not many people seem to know is, that you can switch to “scrolling mode” by pressing down the middle (blue dotted one) of the three buttons above the trackpad. You can scroll in all directions using this method, which often comes in handy in huge Excel- or InDesign files.
If you don’t like the “nub”, don’t fret. There are replacement-caps for it available. Some of them are ultra-low-profile and if you’re irritated by the trademark bright red spot in the middle of your keyboard, they’re available in black too. Just look them up, usually you can get them really cheap, if you don’t go for the official ones. You could, theoretically, go completely without that cap too, if you prefer so (but the resulting hole will trap dirt).
So what’s an Ideapad then?
Ideapads are the consumer line of laptops by Lenovo and they also come in a wide range of models. They don’t sport the usual ThinkPad trademark features, but they are a great value. They offer less options when configuring them, but you can also get the latest (at the time of writing), high-performing Ryzen 4000 mobile processors in them, the build-quality is way above average and even though their keyboards are not quite of ThinkPad quality, they do come really close and you don’t have to worry about “the nub”. They have a great layout, great backlight and usually they’re really tactile and crisp, a joy to type on, easily rivaling Dell and Apple.
So, if you don’t need the highest resolution (or brighter than 300 nits) screens and don’t care for the added ruggedness, nostalgia or security features of a ThinkPad, Ideapads are a way cheaper, valuable option for you. Thanks to a better thermal solution the latest AMD chips are even able to run within a higher power envelope, than on the more expensive ThinkPads, thus — numbers for numbers — providing even higher performance than an equivalent ThinkPad. The latest integrated Radeon graphics on AMD-powered Ideapads even make light gaming possible. Games like League of Legends run buttery smooth and if you don’t mind reducing details in your games you can even get away with playing some slightly older triple A titles. They are also fit for moderate content creation.
Really great value here.
And they’re stylish too.
How about going “oldschool”?
Speaking of value, depending on your budget, getting a used ThinkPad, that is a few years old, can be a great option. ThinkPads are very rugged, so even with a few scuff marks, they most likely will still perform very well. Also, older ThinkPads can be easily upgraded, cleaned and repaired. Some models even allow for a relatively easy panel swap, in case you want to get a higher resolution screen.
ThinkPads are well documented and replacement parts can be easy to come by. In most cases, the performance of old ThinkPads can just be enough to serve as a great laptop for Uni or to kickstart your writing career, even though the battery life won’t be as impressive anymore. They’ll run Linux just great, which is a great alternative for programmers and writers alike.
Everyone knows MacBooks hold their value pretty well, ThinkPads just come second. That is the reason why you can mostly find only MacBooks and ThinkPads on official refurb-stores, that offer limited warranty and great value in comparison to buying brand new.
Watch out for special offers
Another way to save quite a bit on new and last year’s models of ThinkPads is keeping an eye on the Lenovo online store itself. Lenovo is well known for putting special offers and deals out there on a regular basis. It’s not unheard of saving as much as 30% on your dream machine, on occassion. Just be patient.
A ThinkPad for gaming?
Well ThinkPads really are meant for work, but yes, you could get away with some light gaming on most modern machines, just don’t expect anything mindblowing and don’t get a ThinkPad for that specific reason only. Even the ThinkPad X1 Extreme, with it’s dedicated graphics chip, is severely hampered by thermal limitations under constant load. If you want to go all-in with gaming, you should check out Lenovos Legion line of gaming laptops and accessoires. They offer astounding value, great cooling capabilities and actually can replace a dedicated gaming desktop easily.
They look great too!
Conclusion
So who are ThinkPads for? Well, ThinkPads span such a wide range of use cases, there really is something for everyone. An aspiring writer or student can do well with a machine that is a few years old, if thin and light is your utmost priority, go with an X-series, if you’re in for a great allrounder, the T-series can be recommended and if you’re a content creator going for the X1 Extreme might be worth a thought. Mobile workstations usually are for engineers, scientists, architects etc. while the E- and L-series provide a great entrypoint for small businesses on a budget while not skimping on raw performance.
Yes, the high end, fully decked out models can become quite costly, but they still are cheaper than an equivalent MacBook by quite a bit. Things may change though, once Apple starts rolling out their own silicone later this year (which I will be keeping a curious eye on). But if you can live with Windows 10 instead of macOS, ThinkPads are just right up there with the very best Apple, Dell and HP have to offer. Perhaps the corporate-workhorse-aesthetic of a ThinkPad is a breath of fresh air too.
Oh, and don’t be afraid of “the nub” — if you really don’t want it, it hardly gets in the way when typing, especially if you use ultra low profile caps for it. If you want to try out the ThinkPad typing experience beforehand, you can do so easily, with this separately available ThinkPad keyboard. The real keyboards on the thinkpads though are “crisper” and more tactile. | https://medium.com/swlh/your-guide-to-thinkpads-6a66ad4c20ab | [] | 2020-07-27 13:43:35.860000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Writing', 'Tech', 'Gadgets', 'Laptops'] |
October, on Dune | Photo by Stephanie Klepacki on Unsplash
We’ve had plenty of treats in the #duniverse this month! Exchange listings, DeFi on Dune, OASIS (Uniswap style DEX platform), stablecoin $DUSDT, Mainnet upgrades, on-chain governance, win loads of $DGG tokens with new games on Playground, a brand-new social site, competitions, and more!
OASIS (Open, Accessible, Secure and Independent Swapper)
In terms of adding value and use cases to the network, it doesn’t get much bigger than this. Uniswap has been a force of nature in 2020. Combine this model with the security and accessibility of Dune, and we feel OASIS can, and will, be a game-changer! Working in conjunction with $DUSDT (a stablecoin protocol backed by $USDT and verifiable upon the Chainlink blockchain) OASIS will enable fast and efficient liquidity to creators, as well as offer DeFi options to the #duniverse!
Read more here.
COINTIGER
With the trading of $DUN now live on Cointiger, there are now more options and accessibility to get involved with Dune Network than ever. Trading volume has seen figures of up to $700,000 per day*, and with this increased volume comes increased visibility. We hope to see other metrics follow a similar fashion!
PROTOCOL 5.5.1
Dune Network is a cutting-edge smart contract platform and, with the release of mainnet protocol upgrade 5.5 and 5.5.1, we take another leap forward. Improvements and fixes include:
Improvements and fixes for Love.
Voting and on-chain governance features.
Improved lazy baking mode.
And more!
Check out the details, and find out how to upgrade, here:
CRYPTOSERVICES
Turning our attention to creators, this month has seen the beta-launch of cryptoservices.xyz by Dune Network community ambassador, @GhislainCannes.
Check out the new social platform, and the massive home-baking photo upload contest, running now!
RAFFLE
Raffle, by Dune Playground, has landed! Win $DGG every hour, day, and week with huge $DGG prizes up for grabs! And, of course, it’s free to play, and you can convert your $DGG winnings into $DUN!
Try it now! (And read more details here!)
Join the #duniverse:
Discord: https://discord.gg/JBUGqFg
Telegram: https://t.me/dune_network
Medium: https://medium.com/dune-network
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dune_network
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/dune_network/
Gitlab: https://gitlab.com/dune-network
Website: https://dune.network
Email: [email protected]
We’ve got a whole host of great stuff coming your way in November, so, for now, #stayduned! | https://medium.com/dune-network/october-on-dune-ceb69adc10a7 | ['Dune Network'] | 2020-11-02 10:20:55.018000+00:00 | ['Smart Contracts', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Dapps', 'Dune Network', 'Updates'] |
Biology Really May Be Our Future | Many of us are fascinated by our various computing devices — our smartphones, our smart watches, and an ever-growing array of smart devices. What we sometimes forget is that we are biological creatures (at least, until The Singularity), and that even though biology as a discipline has been around much longer than computing, biology may yet supersede it.
If the 20th century was the era of computers, the 21st century may be the era of biology. And the two may even merge. Hello, synthetic biology and biological computing!
Last week SynBioBeta hosted The Global Synthetic Biology Summit, “where tech meets bio and bio meets tech.” People were urged to attend “to see how synthetic biology is disrupting consumer products, food, agriculture, medicine, chemicals, materials, and more.”
Chrissy Farr of CNBC reported:
“The conference has an irreverent, counter culture vibe to it,” said Jorge Conde, an investor at Andreessen Horowitz, who spoke at the event. Conde said that the founders are a “new breed” and they reminded him of the first generation of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs in the era of Steve Jobs.
Indeed, the field is attracting tech insiders. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke at the conference, and was practically giddy about the prospects:
I’m always interested in the question: What is changing the fastest right now? Because whatever that is determining the history of next year. There’s lot of evidence that biology is in that golden period right now.”
He also added: “Biology will undoubtedly fuel computing. Taking biology, which I’d always viewed as squishy and analog, and turning it into something that can be digitally manipulated, is an enormous accelerator.”
It’s not just talk. Take a look at this list of synthetic biology companies and their funders:
SynBioBeta boasts: “The industry has raised more than $12.3B in the last 10 years and last year, 98 synthetic biology companies collectively raised $3.8 billion, compared to just under $400 million total invested less than a decade ago.” It counts 628 new synthetic biology companies formed in 2018 alone.
As a sure sign that the field has hit, or expects to soon hit, the mainstream, StatNews reports that synthetic biology now has a new lobbying group (and a new magazine).
I’ve written before about biohackers and gene editing, how we’re using DNA to create “lifelike” mechanisms, how DNA may prove to be the ultimate storage medium, even how DNA may prove to be a computing platform. They, and many other avenues, are all exciting, but I’m probably most interested in the latter two. Can biology power our computing?
In 1995 (!), Bill Gates famously wrote: “DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created.” As Microsoft researcher Karin Strauss put it more recently: “Think of compressing all the information on the accessible Internet into a shoebox. With DNA data storage, that’s possible.”
Jayshree Pandya writes in Forbes:
While silicon microprocessors have so far been at the heart of the computing world, they are reaching their physical limit. With on-going challenges of physical speed, energy efficiency, and miniaturization limitations of silicon microprocessors, there is a need to find alternatives. DNA is emerging as the alternative and has the potential to take computing to new levels. Moreover, with the cheap supply of DNA and the evolving DNA manufacturing processes, the process to develop DNA chip is becoming much cleaner and realistic. DNA-based computers will not only make computers smaller, but they will hold more data as well. The DNA microprocessors are transformative.
We’re trying to learn from our biology. Shelly Fan reported for Singularity Hub on an effort by Penn State researchers to develop a “probabilistic neural network” (PNN) that acts more like neurons and synapses. The team pointed out that the brain deploys “billions of information processing units, neurons, which are connected via trillions of synapses in order to accomplish massively parallel, synchronous, coherent, and concurrent computation.” They sought to replicate that with their PNNs.
They think they succeeded, at least as proof of concept. As a result, they concluded:
Combined, these new developments can facilitate exascale computing and ultimately benefit scientific discovery, national security, energy security, economic security, infrastructure development, and advanced healthcare programs.
Microsoft has a research team focused on biological computation, “developing theory, methods and software for understanding and programming information processing in biological systems.” The head of the group, Dr. Andrew Phillips, explained how biological computing is different:
So, it’s more like a chemical soup where you have thousands of proteins interacting in parallel in a noisy fashion, and many of these interactions can go wrong with some probability. But yet out of all that noise emerges a fairly robust algorithm that is used to compute things like, when should a cell divide?…So, these algorithms are actually very complicated for us to understand because we’re not used to that. We’re still trying to reverse engineer them.
Dr. Phillips believes “that programming biology is going to transform many of the industries that are in existence today. I think it’s a sort of an underpinning technology that will help transform medicine, food, energy, and build the foundations for a future bio economy that’s based on sustainable technology.”
Hold on to your hats.
There has been much speculation about nanobots swimming around in our body correcting problems, implantable computer chips, and brain-computer interfaces, such as Elon Musk is working on at Neuralink. Some of these are already coming to fruition. We’re controlling paralyzed limbs, operating computers, even networking brains.
All that’s very exciting, for sure. Still, I think it’s a very 20th century notion to implant foreign objects into our bodies. We’ve had some good results with doing that, and we’re going to have even more options, but it still seems like only an interim approach.
Reprogramming our cells, storing data in DNA, turning ourselves into even more powerful computers — that’s 21st century technology, and that will be 22nd century health care.
Please follow me on Medium and on Twitter (@kimbbellard), and don’t forget to share if you liked the article! | https://tincture.io/biology-really-may-be-our-future-aba5c11d2bdf | ['Kim Bellard'] | 2019-12-24 15:44:00.903000+00:00 | ['Disruptive Innovation', 'Synthetic Biology', 'Computers', 'Health', 'Innovation'] |
Middle Aged Madness | Photo by Judeus Samson on Unsplash
Consider the current western roadmap for work and family:
Working life: student, apprentice, journeyman, master….freedom (retirement)
Home life: dating, marriage, family, young kids, self reliance…freedom
Along this road, there are three distinct times in one’s life where freedom of choice and freedom of action become readily apparent ie there are three semi-structured pivots that exist.
The pivots are conditional on the existence of sufficient resources including time, finance, and emotional maturity. The pivots are further restricted by societal norms and expectations.
The first pivot occurs typically as a young adult, at that time the individual has garnered sufficient resources and sufficient knowledge of their own likes and dislikes, skills and abilities, to determine what vocation they might be best suited for. They have limited responsibilities and encumbrances.
The second pivot occurs when as a middle adult they are sufficiently knowledgeable in their field to make an informed decision about the next 20 years and are able to look upon the past lessons and skills learned to make a wise choice.
The third pivot occurs as a mature adult or retiree where they have achieved and been able to amass sufficient resources to enable them to continue to exist (financially) without requiring further inputs of direct labour, though they may choose to continue to contribute to the workforce on their own terms. Typically at this age many major expenses have been accounted for and family obligations are decreased as offspring are more or completely self reliant.
The value of the each portion of the journey should not be discounted. In the beginning, a base is formed. Then, context for comparison, skill development, financial aggregation, and emotional knowledge ensue. Each section offers a jumping off point of what can be explored/accomplished and reaches it’s natural conclusion when the option has been fully explored or is no longer relevant.
Risk to reward considerations becomes a more difficult propositions at each step, because the stakes are higher, risk is not limited to individual efforts and repercussions affect larger number of stakeholders. Though the stakes may be higher the potential rewards also eclipse all previous attempts.
Pivot and change requires significant input of energy and commitment. They can be supported and encouraged or hampered and stifled. A pivot can be understood as a process that encompasses evaluation, reorientation, and summation.
The pivot can be conducted unilaterally or collaboratively, and may yield a new direction or may reinforce the status quo. The value of the exercise lies not just in the final choosing outright but also in the realization that the individual is able to make a conscientious choice.
A study by MIT concluded that the average age of successful startup business founder is 42, the average age of founders who started high growth companies is 45.
Study of the Kabbalah (Mysticism) is also typically reserved for people who have already reached middle age, married, and have families.
The intersection of these timelines seems more than mere coincidence. If the first 20 years can be thought of as an effort to build the structure or framework that will sustain you throughout the rest of your life then the middle 20 years should be designed around extending the reach and employing the structures to utmost effect.
As wisdom is the application of knowledge, creativity is the application of imagination. Wisdom and creativity are essential ingredients that in unison facilitate the investigation of the fringe, the shadow, the edge of the the flat Earth. They support venturing out beyond the periphery and exploring the unknown and allow the operator to reach inwards to distill the essences of subjects and to seek out the hidden truths.
If one were to plot a course to a way-point it would be prudent to consult the map from time to time to evaluate whether the goal still remained the same, whether the current course offered the best efficacy, or whether a tweak or large alteration of course was warranted. The middle age pivot allows for this reconciliation.
A crisis may precipitate, however, if the pivot or change is in conflict with preconceived notions of normality. This can occur on multiple levels independently or simultaneously, and can include individual, interpersonal and/or societal parameters.
What is no longer important or relevant falls away. What others hold dear may not mirror the new or newly expressed value system.
Madness is relative.
“There’s method in his madness”, from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, elucidates this point. When someone’s behaviour is inexplicable or beyond the observer’s understanding or frame of reference, it is labelled as madness. Often a rationale and plan exists that is not readily discernible.
If we were to re-frame expectations such that this periodic reassessment did not occur simply by accident but rather was an imperative and critical part of the evolution of the individual then preparations could be made to enable the transition to occur with optimal efficiency and effect. This normalized experience could then be fully supported alleviating much of the ensuing conflict as expectations could be adjusted and resources allocated where necessary.
Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test and don’t ask why. It’s not a question, but a lesson learned in time
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end is right
I hope you had the time of your life
(Green day) | https://medium.com/mid-life-survival-guide/middle-aged-madness-f6f24f0ec8db | ['David Ophek'] | 2019-05-14 00:14:10.949000+00:00 | ['Philosophy', 'Middle Age', 'Leadership'] |
How to stake Harmony ONE | How-to Stake Harmony ONE
Learn how to gain passive income and help decentralise the Harmony network by staking your ONE in this cryptocurrency staking guide.
What is staking?
In a blockchains using a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism such as Harmony, stake is used as security towards confirming transactions. Validator nodes need a certain amount of the native cryptocurrency staked to be elected to join the consensus. A validator must put up at least 10,000 ONE as stake, and can also take stake from delegators. Delegating allows you to stake your ONE coins with a validator in return for a share of the block rewards, without having to run your own validator node.
On Harmony, staking with an elected validator can yield a 9–10% APR which is paid in ONE coins.
As a delegator the minimum stake is 100 ONE, the more you stake the greater the reward.
When staking your ONE with a validator your ONE coins still belong to you and are in your wallet, but they are locked. This means you cannot use your ONE while they are delegated but you can choose to un-delegate at any time to unlock your ONE.
There is a delay of 7 epochs between undelegating and your ONE coins being unlocked for use, but you can delegate to another validator the epoch after undelegating.
One epoch in the Harmony protocol is 32768 blocks which works out around 18 hours with a normal block time of 2 seconds. During times of increased network load this may take longer.
How do I stake ONE?
First you will need a Harmony staking compatible wallet.
How-to Stake Harmony ONE with a Google Chrome based browser
If using your Chrome based web browser to delegate your Harmony ONE coins, you have a choice of wallets:
Once your wallet is setup and loaded with ONE tokens head over to the Staking Dashboard and select a validator to delegate to.
You’ll need to sign in with your wallet before you can delegate:
You can choose more than one validator to stake with, so you can split your stake as much as you like as long as you stake the minimum 100 ONE per validator.
Note: Delegating, Undelegating and claiming rewards are all transactions on the blockchain which must be paid for with ONE coins; the transaction fee. So remember to leave some ONE in your wallet! Transaction fees are very low on Harmony. Leaving 1 ONE in your wallet will allow you to pay for thousands of transactions.
Claiming rewards
You’ll start earning rewards the epoch after you delegate. You might not see these rewards straight away as the dashboard only displays whole ONEs.
You can see a list of the validators you have staked with and your current rewards in the Portfolio section of the dashboard:
Claiming rewards is done all in one go, your rewards from all validators are put in a pot waiting for you to claim.
How often you claim is up to you, but seek tax advice in your location as in many places claiming rewards will be a taxable event.
How-to Stake Harmony ONE with a Smartphone
Currently the easiest way to stake is via the Blits wallet which is available for Android and iOS smart phones. With Blits you can buy and stake ONE directly from the wallet app:
Happy staking!
Dan | https://medium.com/@dkvalidator/how-to-stake-harmony-one-e051c73701b | ['Dk Validator'] | 2021-08-25 14:20:06.972000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Harmony One', 'Staking Guide', 'Staking', 'Passive Income'] |
Time we Pretend | Why is it so hard to break the barriers of suffering and forgive even long after the pain has disappeared ? Is it really something that happens naturally or do we play a major factor in it ? What does it even means “naturally” ? If we interfere in things it is also naturally because it is obvious we are also a part of nature.
Questions. Questions. Questions. There are so many of them. We try to know the answer, but then is knowing really enough? We might know something without understanding which is completely useless. Is it possible to understand everything? Does everything matters ? What does it even means by saying “ things matter” when all of us trying to get out of this materialistic world we live in.
Everything is interconnected. You, me your dog, the sky, music, rocks everything. It feels that way or maybe it was once a thought but it grew rapidly inside me like a cancer and now i feel that. I want to experience that which is not but to get there i need to simply be. I, I ,I who is this I anyways ? We all are I’s its not ego, its not a soul. How do you even know you have a soul ? Because you feel it ? But how is feeling more real? Just because your physiology is that way and gets your heart pumping doesn’t means its real. It might not and It might be.
Everything is so uncertain but we like to take things too seriously. We like to see things as “Forever and ever” and though we all know how vulnerable we are. We enjoy pretending. We are all pretenders. Pretenders pretending without even knowing we are pretending and every time the drama doesn’t goes the way we want.
We suffer and feel pain because we are pretenders without even knowing we are pretending. We basically know nothing compared to the vastness of the universe . Yet we go around life pretending we Know after all we need something to cling onto, to hold onto because no one wants to know there is no meaning but see that’s the tricky part. It doesn’t matters but it does. Its a paradox. Which makes you cry and laugh at the same time once you see the miracles in everyday life. | https://medium.com/100-naked-words/time-we-pretend-85259b3679de | ['Aakash Dahal'] | 2016-10-28 22:25:26.554000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Questions', 'Self Improvement', 'Mystery Of Life', 'Love'] |
The 3 horsemen of learning: Knowledge, Skill, Capability | Skill
In any area, skill is acquired through the constant application. This involves not just knowing how but also doing it. Skills are learned. They mean knowing how to apply knowledge correctly to yield expected results. The more you sustain the stronger it gets.
Once you are at this stage you now would know how to use the framework to solve problems.
How: Skill can be acquired through the application of what has been learnt to small projects or solve a few problems while also working on your expertise in that area. This can be done by taking up courses, reading books, etc in that area.
The final and the hardest to command is the 3rd horseman. But managing to do it means having an unmatched ability in the area.
Capability
Knowledge, skill and experience synergise to transform into capability. Applying knowledge and skill over time repeatedly in numerous different contexts rewards you with capability in that area.
Once matured enough, this capability appears innate to you in nature and now counts as your ability and comes to you as your second nature.
In our context, this would mean being able to use the framework in huge projects having multiple integrations with different systems to be able to solve business problems.
How: Capability can be acquired through constant learning and application of what has been learnt to numerous projects/contexts of any size and making use of it in integrated environments to solve problems. | https://medium.com/@omkarbirade/the-3-horsemen-of-learning-knowledge-skill-capability-73219258ac8c | ['Omkar Birade'] | 2021-03-22 07:39:43.058000+00:00 | ['Skills', 'Growth', 'Improvement', 'Learning', 'Software Development'] |
IOS 14.5 Update: Impact on Ad Tracking | Every time when a major internet player like Google or Apple presents a privacy-related update, search engines are flooded with questions about how the update will affect ad tracking.
To give a short answer to the question posed in today’s article, the iOS 14.5 update will not affect tracking in any way. PeerClick has already foreseen all the risks and found workarounds.
However, the update will affect other aspects of advertising. More about this below.
Where are we now?
During this article writing, the latest iOS version available in the stable release is 14.4.2.
Third-party cookies have been blocked in Safari since version 13, which affected tracking to some extent. Now you have to choose the right domains to work in Safari.
If the tracking domain is a subdomain of the one used for the offer and / or the landing (for example, the tracking domain is “track.xyz.com” and the landing page uses “xyz.com domain”), the cookies left by PeerClick will be processed as first party cookies. Hence, they will not be blocked.
If the domain names are different, then the cookies will be treated as third-party and will be blocked.
Update 13 and beyond also added several mechanisms that limit the lifetime of cookies in certain scenarios, detect third-party cookies more thoroughly, and so on.
14.5 doesn’t differ much from previous versions.
Changes in the iOS 14.5 update
In addition to a long list of new updates, iOS 14.5 requires a specific user agreement (a special pop-up will be displayed) before an app can access the device’s IDFA.
What is IDFA?
It stands for ID For Advertisers and it is a unique identifier for each iPhone that will be used by advertisers.
IDFA is used to track a specific device between mobile apps.
For example, Facebook shows you ads for a mobile game. The Facebook app reads your IDFA and stores it on its servers, with a small note indicating that this ad has been shown to you. When you install this game, Facebook attributes this fact to the advertisements it displayed earlier.
In previous versions of iOS, it was possible to block access to IDFA for all applications, including those from Apple, in the iPhone settings menu. But by default, access was granted.
The iOS 14.5 update changes this by requiring each user to give clear permission (called App Tracking Transparency — ATT) to access their IDFA. Thus, unless the user decides otherwise, the IDFA will not be available to the advertiser.
IOS 14.5 update: problems for advertisers
The update will be a big problem for Facebook, which links sales to ads based on IDFA. Facebook ads will become less relevant to users who choose to abandon tracking (most users are expected to do this). It can reduce ad performance and increase your average campaign spend.
The nice thing is that not having access to IDFA will not affect PeerClick. PeerClick uses cookies, HTTP requests and scripts to collect information about visitor activity between websites. IDFA is only used by mobile apps, not web pages. So, while there will be changes in the overall advertising landscape (prices, ad relevance, etc.), PeerClick tracking will still work smoothly.
Be aware that there are other tracking methods besides IDFA that have already been adopted by other big players. Google has stated that it will not collect IDFAs from its iOS apps and therefore will not display the ATT prompt.
! Facebook Ads will continue to work in a workaround way (Facebook has already published an SDK with support for SKAdNetwork, an alternative attribution tracking solution proposed by Apple).
IOS 14.5 update release date
During this article writing, the planned release date is still unknown. However, the date is expected to be announced on April 20th.
Key outputs
Let’s summarize:
If you don’t track installs or additional in-app sales, then iOS 14.5 won’t affect you. If you use PeerClick to track app installs or add. sales in applications, everything will work correctly. But the work of the third-party elements of the advertising campaign (traffic sources, affiliate networks) can be affected. Even if your traffic source or affiliate network are affected by the update, they have most likely already taken the right steps to keep themselves safe before Apple makes the change. If you are still not sure if the necessary measures have been taken, do not hesitate to ask the support team of your traffic source / affiliate network — they will help to clarify everything.
Don’t be afraid — the internet won’t break :) | https://medium.com/@peerclick/ios-14-5-update-impact-on-ad-tracking-637f15476fb6 | ['Mr. Smith'] | 2021-04-25 12:01:16.408000+00:00 | ['Traffic', 'Apple', 'Affiliate Marketing', 'Tracking', 'iOS'] |
Destructuring Arrays & Objects: JavaScript ES6 Feature Series (Pt 10) | Destructuring sounds so simple at first…
The destructuring assignment, first introduced with ES 2015, is one of my favorite additions to the JavaScript standard syntax. As I said above, destructuring makes it possible to unpack values from arrays, or properties from objects, into distinct variables.
This may sound simple when you first hear it, but actually putting it into effect, especially with deeply nested arrays or objects, is a little trickier to grasp. But before I get into the parts that might trip you up, let’s just talk about what destructuring looks like in both arrays, and more recently, objects.
Array destructuring
Array destructuring was introduced and finalized into the ECMAScript language before object destructuring.
And just as object and array literal expressions provide an easy way to create packages of data, at will, like so:
const a = [ 'alpha', 'beta', 'gamma', 'delta', 'epsilon' ];
The destructuring assignment of those same arrays uses similar syntax, but on the left-hand side of the assignment to define what values to unpack from the sourced variable.
Anatomy of array destructuring syntax
let b, c, more;
const a = [ 'alpha', 'beta', 'gamma', 'delta', 'epsilon' ]; [b, c] = a; console.log(b); // 'alpha'
console.log(c); // 'beta' [b, c, ...more] = ['alpha', 'beta', 'gamma', 'delta', 'epsilon'];
console.log(more); // [ 'gamma', 'delta', 'epsilon' ]
The short example above demonstrates array destructuring and using the rest pattern to assign extra values, which I wrote about here, on the array named a .
Notice that the variables b and c are wrapped in brackets ( [b, c] ), and are assigned to equal the a array. [b, c] = a;
When those values are called they will take the first and second elements in the array. console.log(b); // 'alpha' and console.log(c); // 'beta';
The rest pattern comes in with the variable more . That variable is designed to inherit all the rest of the values in the a array by putting the rest syntax ( ...more ) ahead of the variable name when adding it to the array. Then, when more is called, it prints out the rest of the values in its own array. console.log(more); // ['gamma', 'delta', 'epsilon'] .
Alright, let’s go through some different uses for array destructuring.
Basic variable assignment
The most basic type of array destructuring is taking one array of values and assigning those values to an equal amount of new variables.
Example of basic array variable destructuring assignment
const govtBranches = [ 'executive', 'judicial', 'legislative' ]; const [branch1, branch2, branch3] = govtBranches; console.log(branch1); // 'executive'
console.log(branch2); // 'judicial'
console.log(branch3); // 'legislative'
Each of the three values of govtBranches has a corresponding variable wrapped in the array brackets, branch1 , branch2 , or branch3 that it is assigned to.
Then, if any of those variables are called, they reflect one of the individual values from the govtBranches array.
Assignment separation from declaration
Next up is when a variable can be declared first (either using the keywords let or var , not const ), and then have its value assigned via destructuring.
Example of variable declaration and then value assignment with destructuring
let agency1, agency2; [agency1, agency2] = [ 'FBI', 'CIA' ]; console.log(agency1); // 'FBI'
console.log(agency2); // 'CIA'
As you can see, the variables agency1 and agency2 are declared as undefined variables first. Next, they’re wrapped in array brackets and assigned to the array containing the values 'FBI' and 'CIA' . From there, each variable can be called individually, and it represents one of the values in that array.
Default values
Interestingly, you can assign variables a default value, similar to default function parameter values, in case a value unpacked from an array turns out to be undefined .
This kind of thing may happen when there’s more variables created than values in the array it’s destructuring.
Example of default values in array destructuring
let one, two;
[one='a', two='b'] = ['c']; console.log(one); // 'c'
console.log(two); // 'b'
The two variables one and two are assigned the default values 'a' and 'b' before being assigned to the array containing the single value of 'c' .
And when the variable one is called after the array destructuring takes place, its value is overwritten to be 'c' due to the value in the array. The value of two does not change though because the array doesn’t contain a second value, so that value, if it existed, would be undefined .
Swapping variables
Did you know that two variable values can be swapped in one destructuring assignment? They can, and it’s pretty handy that you don’t need a temporary variable to make this possible anymore.
Example swapping variable values with array destructuring
let boots = 'cat';
let rocky = 'dog'; [boots, rocky] = [rocky, boots]; console.log(boots); // 'dog'
console.log(rocky); // 'cat'
Initially, the variable boots is a 'cat' and the variable rocky is a 'dog' , but simply by switching the order of the values in the array they’re being assigned to, their values can be swapped so boots becomes the 'dog' and rocky becomes the 'cat' .
This is a really useful trick in certain scenarios.
Parsing an array returned from a function
Getting an array returned from a function is nothing new, but now you can destructure the values being returned to make working with them more concise.
Example parsing an array returned from a function
function color() {
return ['red', 'yellow', 'green', 'blue']
} let r, y, g;
[r, y, g] = color(); console.log(r); // 'red'
console.log(g); // 'green'
The color() function returns an array of colors. By destructuring the variables r , y , g against the function, those values in the array are assigned to those variables.
Ignoring some returned values
In the same vein, destructuring lets you ignore certain array values you aren’t interested in.
Example ignoring values from an array with destructuring
function ignoreColor() {
return ['indigo', 'orange', 'lime']
} const [i, ,l] = ignoreColor(); console.log(i); // 'indigo'
console.log(l); // 'lime'
Simply by adding an empty space in the destructured array, you can choose not to return the value 'orange' from the function ignoreColor() .
You can also choose to ignore all the values from a function if you’d like (though I don’t really see much of a use case for that).
[ , , ] = ignoreColor();
Assigning the rest of an array to a variable
And I’m back again to part of what I showed in the very first array destructuring example: using the rest operator ( ... ) to pick up any leftover values from an array.
Example assigning leftover values to a variable via array destructuring
const [commanderInChief, ...staff] = ['President', 'Vice President', 'Chief of Staff', 'Press Secretary']; console.log(commanderInChief); // 'President'
console.log(staff); // [ 'Vice President', 'Chief of Staff', 'Press Secretary' ]
Just as before, commanderInChief takes the first value in the array, and by using the rest syntax, ...staff takes all the remaining values in the array as a new array of its own.
Simple as that. Now let’s take a look at how destructuring works on objects.
Object destructuring
Object destructuring takes a similar tack as array destructuring, except instead of values being pulled out of an array, properties (keys) and their values can be pulled out of an object.
Here’s some examples of how that can look.
Basic object destructuring assignment
Once again, I’ll start with the most basic example of how object destructuring.
Example of basic object destructuring
const pieIngredients = { pumpkin: '1 can', pieCrust: '1 crust', spice: '2 tsp'}; const { pumpkin, pieCrust, spice} = pieIngredients; console.log(pumpkin); // '1 can'
console.log(pieCrust); // '1 crust'
console.log(spice); // '2 tsp'
By wrapping the properties in the object pieIngredients and setting them equal to the object, each property, pumpkin , pieCrust , and spice , becomes its own variable and the value attached to it becomes the value for the new variable.
Assignment without declaration
A variable can also be assigned its value with destructuring separate from its declaration, just like you can do it with array destructuring.
Example of assigning variables after declaring the variables separately
let hobby, sports; ({hobby, sports} = {hobby: 'knitting', sports: 'croquet'}); console.log(hobby); // 'knitting'
console.log(sports); // 'croquet'
Note the parentheses ( ... ) around the assignment statement are required when using object literal destructuring assignment without a declaration.
Otherwise, the syntax is considered invalid because the syntax on the lefthand side, the {hobby, sports} , is considered a block and not an object literal. Putting the parentheses around the whole line though, clarifies the intent and makes it valid.
Assigning to new variable names
One helpful thing is that a property can be unpacked from an object and assigned to a variable with a different name than the object property.
Example reassigning destructured object properties to new variable names
const car = {speed: 110, color: 'red'};
const { speed: fast, color: cherry } = car; console.log(fast); // 110
console.log(cherry); // 'red'
Here, for example, const {speed: fast} = car takes from the object car the property named speed and assigns it to a local variable named fast .
Default values
Just like with array destructuring, variables for destructured objects can be assigned a default, in the case that the value unpacked from the object is undefined .
Example of assigning default values to object destructuring variables
const { redWine = 'cabernet', whiteWine = 'pinot grigio'} = { redWine: 'malbec'}; console.log(redWine); // 'malbec'
console.log(whiteWine); // 'pinot grigio'
In this example, the variables redWine and whiteWine are assigned default values of 'cabernet' and 'pinot grigio' . Then the redWine variable is reassigned the value of 'malbec' , but since whiteWine is not defined in the object being destructured, it retains its original value.
Unpacking fields from objects passed as function parameters
Another feature of object destructuring is that you can actually use destructuring syntax inside of function calls to get just those values back. Take a look at this.
Example of passing destructured object properties as function parameters
const girl = {
name: 'Paige',
age: 30,
eyeColor: 'blue',
hair: {
type: 'curly',
color: 'red',
length: 'shoulder-length'
}
} const getUserName = ({name}) => {
return {name};
} console.log(getUserName(girl)); // { name: 'Paige' } const getUserHair = ({hair: {type, color}}) => {
return `Her hair is ${color} and ${type}`;
} console.log(getUserHair(girl)); // Her hair is red and curly
In the example here, the object girl is a pretty standard one. It’s got two levels of nested properties but other than that, it’s unremarkable.
The thing to notice is the two functions getUserName() and getUserHair() . You’ll see with getUserName() the function parameter being passed to it is actually the destructured version of the property name from the object it receives.
So when the whole girl object is passed to the function, it returns just the property and value of name as the function’s output.
The second function, getUserHair() is even more interesting because the value it’s trying to access is actually located two levels down within the object being passed to the function, so first, the property of hair must be accessed, and then the properties unique to hair , which are type and color can be accessed.
That function will then return a string stating the object’s hair color and hair type as the output when it’s called with the object of girl .
This is also an example of how to access nested objects using destructuring, which I’ll talk about next.
Nested object destructuring
This was a topic that took me some time to wrap my head around (and to be honest, I usually still have to go back and look at the documentation again when I want to destructure multi-level nested objects.
The basic gist though is: if your object is more than one level deep within your object, you must first access its parent property, and its parents’ parent property, and so on, until you reach the outermost object property value.
Example of deeply nested object destructuring
const girl = {
name: 'Paige',
age: 30,
eyeColor: 'blue',
hobbies: {
primaries: [
{
mostFavorite: [
'drawing',
'art'
],
frequentlyDone: 'cooking',
relaxing: {
reading: 'fictionBooks'
}
}
]
}
} const {
hobbies: {
primaries: [
{
mostFavorite
}
]
}
} = girl console.log(mostFavorite[0]); // 'drawing'
console.log(mostFavorite[1]); // 'art' const {
hobbies: {
primaries: [
{
relaxing: {
reading
}
}
]
}
} = girl console.log(reading); // // 'fictionBooks'
I used the same girl object from the previous example but I added the property of hobbies to the object and added some new arrays and objects within them so I could show how you can pull values out of either.
The first new object I create pulls out the nested object property of mostFavorite , which happens to be an array with two values. To reach these values, first, I have to wrap the outermost property of girl , which is hobbies in curly braces. Next, I have to wrap hobbies' property of primaries . Then, I must dive into both the array and the object that primaries contains to reach the mostFavorite property which actually holds the values I seek.
From there, it’s a simple exercise to log out any values that mostFavorite has.
In the same vein, to reach the value of the property reading buried deep within the girl object, I have to again start out by wrapping hobbies in curly braces, then proceed on to primaries , dive into the array and find the object property of relaxing and finally wrap the property of reading , which belongs to the parent object of relaxing .
Then, I can simply call reading as its own variable and get back the value nested deeply in the girl object.
It definitely takes some practice to get the hang of, but look at how much less syntax is needed to get those values than before.
So long const reading = girl.hobbies.primaries[0].relaxing.reading; , I won’t miss that.
If you’d like to read more about nested object destructuring, I wrote another article specifically about it a few months back, as well as ways to avoid undefined errors if values weren’t available. Here’s the link to it. 😄
Rest syntax in object destructuring
Last example, which is still in ECMAScript stage 4 proposal, I might add, at the time of writing this article: rest syntax plus object destructuring.
I showed this in the very first array destructuring demo, but I haven’t shown it with object destructuring yet. Turns out, it works about the same for objects as it does for arrays.
Example of object destructuring with the rest syntax
let myObjectOfNums = {
ex: 'ten',
why: 'twnety',
zed: 'thirty',
dee: 'forty',
ee: 'fifty'
} let {ex, why, zed, ...allOthers} = myObjectOfNums; console.log(ex); // 'ten'
console.log(why); // 'twenty'
console.log(zed); // 'thirty'
console.log(allOthers); // { dee: 'forty', ee: 'fifty' }
See how easy it is to pull out the first three properties and their values from the object myObjectOfNums , as well as using the rest parameter to keep the other properties contained together in a new object called allOthers ?
And the other rules of destructuring still apply just the same here. If you wanted to change the variable names from ex or why to a and b you could do so just the same as before.
Example of object destructuring with the rest syntax AND variable reassignment
let { ex: a, why: b, zed, ...allOthers } = myObjectOfNums; console.log(a); // 'ten'
console.log(b); // 'twenty'
console.log(zed); // 'thirty'
console.log(allOthers); // { dee: 'forty', ee: 'fifty' }
This is also totally valid. Pretty cool, huh? 😃 | https://itnext.io/destructuring-arrays-objects-javascript-es6-feature-series-pt-10-507108471c07 | ['Paige Niedringhaus'] | 2019-11-24 22:14:40.325000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'ES6', 'Programming', 'Web Development', 'Front End Development'] |
Commercial HVAC System Issues Frustrating You in Tampa, FL? | original article published here
Running your business should be your first priority, but experiencing issues with your HVAC system can create a huge distraction. Additionally, a humid environment can harm equipment and impair the health of your employees. What are the common commercial AC repairs needed to restore your HVAC system to working order? Ball Building Services wants to help alleviate and prevent these frustrations. Here are common problems that a professional HVAC technician will resolve.
Common Commercial AC Repairs in Tampa Florida Include:
Irregular Temperatures
It’s a great day in the office when no one complains about being too hot or cold. Have these complaints increased? Check the thermostat to see if the AC is maintaining the set temperature. If not, call an HVAC technician to check the coolant levels and ask for more ways to regulate the temperature.
Leaking Water
Leaking water is never a good sign, especially around your HVAC system. Systems vary, but many are connected to a traditional furnace and leaking water is sometimes a sign of a corrupted heat exchanger. This can become a safety risk if carbon monoxide releases, so contact your commercial AC repair technician immediately if you see water!
High Utility Bills
Have you noticed your utility bills increasing? This could be a sign of a blockage in your HVAC system or a signal you need a new air filter. An increase during peak months of commercial AC use is normal, but keep track of any huge usage spikes and ask your HVAC technician for ways to reduce cooling expenses.
Regular Maintenance
Does your HVAC technician check your HVAC system each year? Scheduling regular maintenance is ideal to help catch any blockages before you need emergency commercial AC repair during a peak month in Tampa, FL. Not maintaining your commercial HVAC system can reduce the lifespan of your system and lead to costly repairs.
If your commercial HVAC system is frustrating you in Central Florida contact Ball Building Services. Our licensed contractors will do a thorough inspection of your system and make sure your AC system is running efficiently. Contact us to learn more about our services today. | https://medium.com/@brevardctybest/commercial-hvac-system-issues-frustrating-you-in-tampa-fl-f1cb33f1c743 | ['Brevard Countyfl'] | 2019-06-17 21:57:24.438000+00:00 | ['Tampa', 'Commercial Hvac', 'Hvac Contractor', 'Hvac', 'Florida'] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.