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Thank you mom | I never got the chance to thank you while you were with us so as we approach the anniversary of your loss to cancer I think it’s time to finally thank you for all you have done for us and for making me the man I am today.
Thank you for always being there when we needed you even though you worked two jobs most of my childhood you were never to tired or busy for us when we needed you. Working 3rd shift in a factory than coming home and getting ready to work 1st shift at the dry cleaners no one would have held it against you if you were to tired when we needed you.
Thank you for letting me choose my own path, not forcing religion on me but letting me make up my own mind on the subject.
A huge thank you for always holding me accountable and never blaming others if I did something wrong or failed at something. Thank you for not blaming the teachers if I did bad in school or blaming my friends if I did something wrong at home. Holding me accountable for my own actions helped make me who I am today and able to accept responsibility for my actions good or bad.
Thank you (and my father) for showing me what true love is, for 50 years you were still best friends and it showed. You never fought (at least not in front of us) and even when you did disagree you showed compassion for the other side of the argument. Showing your children that there are some things more important than money and I hope someday I’m lucky enough to find 10% of what you guys had.
Finally thank you for never letting us know how bad things were when they were bad, you took on all the stress yourself and I’m just now realizing how hard that was. Not once growing up did I ever think we were poor and in danger of losing our home or having utilities shut off even though now I know we were. You took that all on yourself along with my father and never let it show to us kids, you let us be kids.
While I was mad that you hid your illness from us for so long (until it was to late) I now realize why you did it. You’re whole life you put others ahead of yourself and you feared that not working and losing health insurance would mean your husband (our father) wouldn’t be able to get the care he needed. Right until the end you put everyone else ahead of yourself, I only wish I had noticed you were sick sooner.
Finally thank you for being a fighter, when given a 5% chance of surviving the infections and health issues after your cancer surgery you not only came home but fought to be with use for 3 more years even though you were in obvious discomfort and going through chemo and radiation.
You made me the person I am today, I hope I have and will continue to live up to your expectations. Thank you so much for being you and we miss you every day. | https://medium.com/@RealStreicher/thank-you-mom-53ff5942fc0e | ['Jimmy Streich'] | 2019-07-15 13:27:38.522000+00:00 | ['Medical', 'Family', 'Love', 'Cancer'] |
Building A Smart City Platform | Live Outside Urban Data (LOUD) Smart City Platform by productOps with VANTIQ
Urban centers across the globe are undergoing rapid change and growth. Cities are becoming smarter, not just in the technology used, but how city planners design the spaces where we live, work, and play. In order to properly plan a city, the rules that govern it, and the ability to enforce the laws, city managers need the right tools and data.
Not Just Smart But Healthy
Noise pollution is pollution like any other and affects the health of citizens. Noise over 60 dB can cause stress and elevated heart rates. Lower-income zones have historically higher levels of industrial noise, disproportionately affecting community health. With the increasing mixed uses in our cities, city planners and managers struggle to create laws and ordinances that are fair and enforceable. The idea was to prototype and test an urban noise monitoring system that allows city officials and citizens to respond to noise issues in real-time.
What We Did
We built the LOUD (Live Outside Urban Data) platform that empowers citizens and officials to act on noise in real-time and create a better city. Key elements of LOUD include:
Edge devices to perform noise analysis
VANTIQ platform processes sounds and manages workflows
Machine learning using AWS SageMaker
A mobile app to allow public to report noise violations
How We Did It
Measure — Collection of real-time data from devices and third parties and historic data from APIs assess the facts. We created audio sensors that collect data in real-time and send it to the LOUD platform for storage and machine learning classification.
Decide — Workflow applications and collaborations process data and make decisions. We used an intelligence platform, VANTIQ, to analyze the data and make decisions on it.
Act — Client applications, notifications, and collaborations allow systems and users to take action. The LOUD platform sends notifications to users that allows them to collaborate and take action using a mobile app.
Plan — Managers and third party users can plan to improve real world systems. With LOUD, reports are created based on the gathered data to allow users to plan and improve operations.
Benefits of the LOUD solution
Simply, the LOUD solution improves the quality of life of its citizens. It helps local companies reduce the number of noise violations, city management the ability to make data driven plans for the future, and consumers the power to make more informed choices based on a city’s noise profile. By bringing together the right mix of applications and partners, LOUD was created in quick time to provide the solutions city managers need to address noise pollution challenges. | https://medium.com/@productops/building-a-smart-city-platform-96a863e1fbfb | [] | 2020-04-23 22:04:10.317000+00:00 | ['Noise Pollution', 'AWS', 'Smart Cities', 'Urban Planning', 'Technology'] |
5 rules to create an empowering kid experience without gender-bias | Pip’s Island is a new interactive theatrical adventure in Times Square, geared toward kids ages 4–10 and their caregivers.
The magical doors officially opened this week, and I got a chance to experience it with my kid (4) during a preview.
Here are 5 reasons it was such a meaningful journey:
1. Gender neutral terms, content, and accessories
From the moment we were welcomed, my heart felt full and safe. They never used the words “girls” or “boys.” Here, we are all “Explorers” and “Explorer Assistants.”
I was amazed by the website itself, which conveys that idea of children being children, and how, as adults, we can be the best advocates for them by giving them power and tools to solve problems.
Pip’s Island, the Map room: Explorers jackets
The decor in the Map Room, where the kids dressed up in their Explorers jacket and a connected watch was a very magical space with adventurers’ items made out of wood- my all-time favorite. I was already dreaming of journeys and discoveries.
The staff was very attentive and caring toward the kids: they asked Jo to spell her name so they could write it down on her Explorer’s jacket. | https://medium.com/gender-inclusivit/5-rules-to-create-an-empowering-kid-experience-without-gender-bias-34c976290437 | ['Max Masure'] | 2019-03-12 21:09:11.840000+00:00 | ['Inclusion', 'Nyc Events', 'Gender Bias', 'Gender Equality', 'Kids Activities'] |
Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s Saintliness (Part 4) | Inspiring Faith and Providing Solutions Through Letters
Through the last four decades countless letters from devotees to Swamishri have comprised of enquiries, personal conflicts, business problems and prayers. In his replies, Swamishri has provided solace and guidance. He has always spared time to answer letters from children and seniors, scholars and the semi-lettered, and devotees and others. He has also patiently attended to letters, whether they were succinct or long-winded, legible or illegible.
Swamishri has read and replied to letters in a variety of situations: during satsang sabhas, while travelling by car or train, on a railway platform, prior to his afternoon sleep, in an elevator, during a procession, and while talking on the phone. He attends to them whenever and wherever he is.
Once, the council members of Limbdi town had arranged a public function to honor Swamishri. The state finance minister and other dignitaries came on stage to present the citation. Swamishri remained absorbed in reading a letter till the point they came near to him.
Once, Swamishri had gone to Dr. Dikshit’s dental clinic to get an X-ray of his painful gums. While the dentist was making the preliminary arrangements Swamishri started reading letters. When everything was ready Swamishri was asked to sit on the dental chair. He got up without raising his head, still engrossed in the letter. He continued reading it while he walked to the X-ray machine and till the moment of taking the X-ray. In all, five X-rays were taken. He resumed reading the letters during each interval.
Once, Prof. Raymond Williams asked Swamishri, “How do you decide what to write to the questions posed to you?” Swamishri replied, “I reply with the inspiration of God. I tell all to repose faith in God. Without faith and trust in God nothing is possible.” | https://medium.com/bapssatsang/pramukh-swami-maharajs-saintliness-part-4-561019b95f1b | ['Param Shanti'] | 2020-12-14 14:32:46.665000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Compassion', 'Unity', 'Pramukh Swami Maharaj', 'Love'] |
Do We Really Have Time to Take Photos? | Do We Really Have Time to Take Photos?
Years ago, when my daughters were children, I loved to watch them as they’d go through their days. I’d often see opportunities to take pictures, but many of those moments were lost because I didn’t have the aforethought to bring a camera along with us. Instead, I would wait until the end of the day when we were home, where I would try to re-create that spontaneous moment even though the spark was long gone.
Looking back, I would love to have those lost photos now — from dance class, the baby gym, the park, the beach, mommy and me class, and yes, even at the doctor’s office and most of the day. The pictures would be a joy, but taking the pictures, not so much.
Here’s what I remember thinking when I did pull the camera out at home or after asking their father to take a video: Standing behind the camera or standing behind my husband making faces at the girls and hoping they’d look more animated and fully engaged, I’d be wishing I was the one who was more engaged, more present. The camera was an intruder, an uninvited guest who made us all self conscious, and the simple act of looking through a lens cheapened the moment for me and perhaps even robbed them of their innocent spontaneity.
Thankfully, in the 80s and 90s smart phones weren’t available or I might have missed even more precious moments in real time, and life would have passed me by more than it had already. Like most mothers these days, I have hundreds and hundreds of photos of my children, but I also have many sweet memories that I cherish, and the satisfaction of knowing that while my daughters were splashing in the water or dancing on the stage, I was completely present with them, not focusing a camera. | https://medium.com/the-coffeelicious/do-we-really-have-time-to-take-photos-24b0ecc5ee63 | ['Danna Reich Colman'] | 2017-10-06 11:46:58.039000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Nonfiction', 'Present Moment', 'Parenting', 'Lost Moments'] |
SwiftUI 教程 1.3 按钮等控件 | Eul
本文为 Eul 样章，如果您喜欢，请移步 AppStore/Eul 查看更多内容。 Eul 是一款 SwiftUI 教程类 App（iOS、macOS），以文章（文字、图片、代码）配合真机示例（Xcode 12+、iOS 14+，macOS 11+）的形式呈现给读者。笔者意在尽可能使用简洁明了的语言阐述 SwiftUI 相关的知识，使读者能快速掌握并在 iOS 开发中实践。
Button
构建方法
Button 的构建主要有以下两种方法：
// 1、字符串构建，支持本地化字符串
Button("Hello World") {
// action
} // 2、自定义样式
Button {
// action
} label: {
VStack(spacing: 8) {
Image(systemName: "square.and.arrow.up")
Text("Share")
}
.padding()
.foregroundColor(.white)
.background(Color.blue)
.cornerRadius(10)
.shadow(color: Color.black.opacity(0.35), radius: 5, x: 0, y: 5)
}
自定义 ButtonStyle
系统提供了六种 ButtonStyle，其中只有 DefaultButtonStyle 、 PlainButtonStyle 和 BorderlessButtonStyle 是用于 iOS 系统的。但是我们可以通过以下两个协议自定义样式：
ButtonStyle ：支持自定义样式
：支持自定义样式 PrimitiveButtonStyle ：支持自定义样式和交互
这两个协议的定义几乎一样，唯一的区别是 ButtonStyle 内部有一个 Bool 类型的属性 isPressed ，而 PrimitiveButtonStyle 内部有一个 trigger() 方法供我们自己手动调用。
下面我们通过实例来加深了解，我们先定义一个遵循 ButtonStyle 协议的 ShadowButtonStyle，它可以给按钮添加带圆角的阴影，使按钮在按下时改变字体和背景。
如果一个视图内部有多个 Button，我们只需要在调用一次 .buttonStyle(ShadowButtonStyle())，系统会通过环境变量将该样式注入各个子视图。
struct ShadowButtonStyle: ButtonStyle {
func makeBody(configuration: Configuration) -> some View {
configuration.label
.foregroundColor(configuration.isPressed ? .gray : .white)
.padding()
.background(configuration.isPressed ? Color.purple : Color.blue)
.cornerRadius(10)
.shadow(color: Color.black.opacity(0.35), radius: 5, x: 0, y: 5)
}
} HStack {
Button("Hello") {}
Button("World") {}
}
.buttonStyle(ShadowButtonStyle())
然后我们定义一个遵循 PrimitiveButtonStyle 的 DoubleTapButtonStyle，它表示按钮受到双击时，才会触发点击事件。代码如下：
struct DoubleTapButtonStyle: PrimitiveButtonStyle {
func makeBody(configuration: Configuration) -> some View {
configuration.label
.gesture(TapGesture(count: 2).onEnded { configuration.trigger() })
}
} Button("Double Tap") { print("Tapped ") }
.foregroundColor(.white)
.padding()
.background(Color.blue)
.cornerRadius(10)
.buttonStyle(DoubleTapButtonStyle())
EditButton
系统提供了一个快速构建编辑功能的按钮：EditButton ，它的功能和使用场景比较单一，按下的时候会进入编辑状态，按钮文字变成 “Done” ，再次按下变回 “Edit”，主要和 List 配合使用，通常这样调用： .navigationBarItems(trailing: EditButton()) 。
Menu
构建方法
Menu 用于快速构建菜单视图，有如下两种构建方法：
// 1、字符串构建
Menu("More") {
Button("Add") {}
Button("Edit") {}
Button("Delete") {}
} // 2、自定义构建
Menu {
Button {} label: {
Label("Add", systemImage: "plus")
}
Button {} label: {
Label("Edit", systemImage: "pencil")
}
Button {} label: {
Label("Delete", systemImage: "minus.circle")
}
// 只要是 View 类型皆可，这里使用了 Picker
Picker("Picker", selection: $selection) {
Text("Item1").tag(0)
Text("Item1").tag(1)
Text("Item1").tag(2)
}
} label: {
Text("More")
Image(systemName: "ellipsis")
}
自定义 MenuStyle
遵循 MenuStyle 协议并实现相应的方法，样例代码如下： | https://medium.com/@bruce2077/swiftui-%E6%95%99%E7%A8%8B-1-3-%E6%8C%89%E9%92%AE%E7%AD%89%E6%8E%A7%E4%BB%B6-12a29cdd02d3 | [] | 2020-12-22 06:23:16.864000+00:00 | ['Swift', 'Tutorial', 'Swiftui', 'Apps', 'iOS'] |
*Feelings (unfinished)* | *Feelings (unfinished)*
<For when anxiety wants to get the better of you>
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash
Heart thumping heavily
Clarity making its way slowly
Paranoia getting scared
Voices nonexistent
Heart thumping mildly
Mind racing swiftly
Concentration coming and going
Euphoria peeking through gingerly
Doubt resurfacing and fading just as fast
Obstinacy defiant and determined
Mind moving calmly | https://medium.com/an-idea/feelings-unfinished-678c1b88089 | [] | 2020-10-18 09:07:43.260000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Anxiety'] |
Bed Shopping Online: Buying a Mattress in a Box | We buy everything online these days, from books to groceries to lingerie to, yes, mattresses. And though buying something so large and so tactile online can seem strange — is it really wise to buy a mattress without testing it first? — there are a ton of benefits to going the mattress-in-a-box route over the traditional innerspring mattress showroom experience.
.
Boxed mattresses vary from traditional innerspring spring mattresses in a number of ways. The best is probably that you don’t have to go to a mattress showroom to deal with pushy salespeople and confusing seasonal pricing in order to get your hands on one. Companies like Bed King sell beds online.
.
If you’re considering buying a boxed mattress, we talked to Tim Masters, the founder of My Green Mattress, to get the low-down on this hot new trend.
.
How supportive are boxed mattresses?
.
“Technically, you do lose four percent of firmness,” Masters says. “No matter what the bed is, you lose kind of four percent right off the top. Is it noticeable? No. Durability testing hasn’t proven it to be a hindrance to the performance of the mattresses. So the bed in the box for a brand actually works very well.”
.
How long do boxed mattresses last?
.
“It depends on the brand, but quality mattresses will last a minimum of 10 years,” Masters says.
.
Will a boxed mattress make me hot at night?
.
“The natural and organic materials used in our mattresses sleep much cooler than traditional mattresses,” Masters explains.
.
Here are a few more things to consider when picking out your mattress when shopping at a bed shop online:
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Delivery: Traditional mattresses are hugely bulky, and getting them inside your home can require an extra set of hands and pricey shipping and delivery. Mattresses in a box are compressed and stuffed into a large box you can easily fit through your door, and most online bed shops offer free or cheaper-than-average delivery.
.
Material: Boxed mattresses can be made of a variety of materials. Most of them do not have inner springs and are instead made up of layers of memory foam, latex and other proprietary materials. It depends on which company you go with, so make sure to do your research if you have a preference.
.
Cost: In general, mattresses that come in a box are less expensive than their showroom counterparts. These companies don’t have to worry about footing the cost of rent for all their showrooms, nor do they have to worry about paying salespeople to staff them, so the cost is lower. You can get a mattress in a box starting at about R5000 depending on the brand you choose.
.
Setup: Most mattress-in-a-box companies ship their products straight to your door. And unlike traditional mattresses that are super-bulky, that’s not quite the case with a boxed mattress. All you need to do is remove the plastic, unroll your mattress and let it inflate fully.
.
.
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Article from: https://bedscapetown.wordpress.com/2020/12/07/bed-shopping-online-buying-a-mattress-in-a-box/ | https://medium.com/@bedisking/bed-shopping-online-buying-a-mattress-in-a-box-904096491290 | ['Bed Is King'] | 2020-12-14 10:05:34.444000+00:00 | ['Bed Shop', 'Bed Shop Online', 'Online Shopping'] |
The easiest solution to website inaccessibility | Written by Dafydd Henke Reed, Principle Accessibility & Usability Consultant for AbilityNet
We audit a lot of inaccessible websites. Many are created by FTSE 100 companies. They are often asset-rich and committed to accessibility. This begs the question: why are the websites inaccessible?
The web standards provide the tools for creating high-functioning, accessible websites. It is true that not everything can be made accessible from standard-conformant HTML. Multimedia can be particularly challenging. For example, videos can benefit from audio descriptions and these require more than code. However, well-structured, semantic HTML provides considerable out-of-the-box accessibility.
For example, the best way to ensure that a link is accessible is to use an anchor tag. Consider the work required for an accessible native and custom link. This is a native link:
Wrap the element in an anchor tag Give it a valid href attribute Ensure that it has a textual content
Native link example:
<a href=”http://www.acme.com”>Acme Home</a>
The alternative is much more complex. This is a custom link:
Wrap the element within a container Add the element to the focus order Define the element as a link Use device-independent event handlers Create a JavaScript function that loads a URL on request Create a CSS class that styles the element as a link Create a CSS class that provides focus indication Ensure that it has a textual content
Custom link example:
<span class=”link” tabindex="0" role="link" onclick="goToLink(event, ‘http://www.acme.com')" onkeydown="goToLink(event, 'http://www.acme.com’)">Acme Home</span>
The work required to get similar results is widely different, however. The custom solution is also more dependencies. It is significantly reliant on custom-made CSS and JavaScript. It requires more development time, degrades less gracefully, and is more likely to break.
Why make development harder? It is the result of feature creep. Organisations want far too much on their websites. Succinct websites are gone. It is common to have accordions, tab panels, and modal dialogs. But all these do is side-load content.
An accordion, for example, toggles the visibility of content. It is not available in the HTML specification. Ultimately all it does is hide content that, if displayed by default, would clutter the page. At the same time, it can drastically hamper accessibility.
Ample effort is dedicated to fixing inaccessibility. However, it is slow-going to fix problems created websites being bloated. It is considerably more effective to champion accessible practices throughout development. The result is slimline, well-curated and performant websites.
The alternative is embedding complexity that creates inaccessibility and won’t be used. User testing at AbilityNet indicates that users avoid anything complicated when simpler options are available.
This includes features like date pickers. It’s easier for users to enter this sort of information manually. Give them a standard input field with an input mask (e.g. dd/mm/yy) and they can complete the task in milliseconds. That will never be true of a date picker.
Users must often mouse-click through years, months, and scan through days on a calendar to find a specific date. The design pattern looks more visually fit-for-purpose. But it is functionally much more complex.
The same is true with content in general. The more content on a website, the more difficult it is to use. Consider screen magnification users. Zooming into a page that is bloated with content can be extremely disorientating. A client might ask: “How can we make blocks of text easier to perceive for screen magnification users?”. The answer is: “Have less of it.”
What makes matters worse is that complexity can require breaking the rules of accessibility. A cornerstone of keyboard accessibility is to never trap focus. Allow users to keyboard tab through everything. However, modal dialogs necessitate trapping focus whilst they are on screen. It would be confusing to tab behind one of them. Best practice for a complex pattern is to ignore best practice.
We often see developers attempting to remedy this with ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Application). This is code that can be added to boost the accessibility of patterns that cannot be made with semantic HTML. However, as WebAIM states: Almost every report we write includes a section cautioning against ARIA abuse and outlining ARIA uses that need to be corrected or, most often, removed. Ironically, this is often followed by a list of issues that can only be addressed with ARIA. — John Whitling, WebAIM — To ARIA!
The more we allow feature creep, bloat, and retrofitted ARIA, the harder it becomes to create robust and sustainable websites. A hack used to visually declutter a page can be broken by a single browser update. Of course, small updates will always be required. No solution works forever. However, the issues that we identify at AbilityNet are symptomatic of fragile websites. They are committee-designed websites.
Inaccessibility is caused by a desire to add more content. The easiest way to create accessible websites is to say no. Create lean designs and stick to them. Cut your copy in half. Then, cut it in half again. Be elegant. Your accessibility will skyrocket.
Originally posted here
More thought leadership | https://medium.com/digital-leaders-uk/the-easiest-solution-to-website-inaccessibility-ec2dd34c692d | ['Digital Leaders'] | 2019-01-02 16:14:11.162000+00:00 | ['Accessibility', 'Digital Transformation', 'Website', 'Tech'] |
We need to have a difficult conversation about Google. | It’s been an busy week for tech journalists covering Google, considering the anti-trust investigation of Google’s monopoly and a maelstrom around how Google handles hate speech. Both of these stories are important and worth following, but they’re not the biggest Google story of the week. Not by a long shot. Because here’s what we learned this week:
Google profits from pedophiles.
I’m not hyperbolizing, not speaking metaphorically, certainly not making a joke. I’m just stating a fact, reported in the New York Times and responded to by Google itself; a fact that you can decide to respond to or not, but one that you must at least be aware of. Once again, it’s:
Google profits from pedophiles.
The New York Times article, from June 3, describes a horrifying way in which Google is profiting from home movies that feature small children. After the videos are innocently uploaded to YouTube by families, the YouTube algorithm shows the videos to the users who will show the highest level of “engagement” by watching the videos, one after another, as served up by Google’s algorithm.
These users are pedophiles. Google’s YouTube algorithm, when combined with the autoplay of the next recommended video, optimizes the YouTube experience for pedophiles.
Max Fisher, co-author of the Times story, explained in a Twitter thread:
Each video might appear innocent on its own, a home movie of a kid in a two-piece swimsuit or a nightie. But each has three common traits: the girl is mostly unclothed or briefly nude; she is no older than age 8; [and] her video is being heavily promoted by YouTube’s algorithm. We talked to one mother, in Brazil, whose daughter had posted a video of her and a friend playing in swimsuits. YouTube’s algorithm found the video and promoted it to users who watched other partly-clothed prepubescent children. Within a few days of posting, it had 400,000 views.
Those 400,000 views represent profit for Google, and that’s just from a single video over a few days. Consider the profit potential of monetizing thousands, even millions, of these home videos, for months, or years, for untold numbers of pedophiles watching on YouTube.
Anyone with even a nominal moral sense can see there’s a problem: Google is profiting, even optimizing its profits, from the sexual exploitation of children. Or, stated another way:
Google profits from pedophiles.
You might find these revelations sickening and shocking, but to Google this isn’t anything new. That video in the quote above, from Brazil? According to the Times story, the video was still being “promoted by YouTube’s systems months after the company was alerted that it had a pedophile problem, [back] in February, [by] Wired and other news outlets.” (Emphasis mine.) In other words, Google knew months ago that its YouTube profits were tainted, and it didn’t fix the problem.
Why wouldn’t Google immediately fix this problem? Because Google’s YouTube profits are based on “engagement” at any cost, and that means that:
Google profits from pedophiles.
Now, I’ll grant that I’m repeating the same phrase over and over, and one objection might be, “Hey, it’s not just pedophiles Google profits from.” That’s true and totally fair to bring up. Because Google also profits from terrorist propaganda, conspiracy videos, antivaxxers, political radicalization, “nightmare videos” specifically made for child viewers, and don’t forget the hate speech that I mentioned above.
So I’ll grant it’s not just pedophiles.
But here I’m focusing on Google’s profiting from pedophilia because I can’t imagine anything less acceptable, less honorable, less human for a company to do. Making money from the sexual exploitation of children is well below “troubling,” further down below “disgusting,” down past your everyday “evil,” right smack at the absolute bottom of the abyss. After all, you might meet someone who is willing to talk about their belief in a flat earth(thanks to YouTube’s recommended videos, as described here) — or perhaps someone would loudly voice their radical political beliefs — but no one is going to stand up publicly and claim an interest in sexually exploiting children. Google, in contrast, actively enables this behavior, as it has figured out how to profit from it. Once again:
Google profits from pedophiles.
After the New York Times described this profit stream, Google posted a public response on its corporate blog for YouTube. This response is a crucial document for understanding Google’s commitment to the profit engine that enables pedophiles (as well as terrorists, anti-vaxxers, conspiracists, and so on). Keep in mind that this response appeared months after Google was initially alerted to the pedophilia issue.
Here is Google’s response to the New York Times story. Read it for yourself. As you do so, see if you can find (a) any acknowledgement of YouTube’s sexual exploitation of children, or the complicity of Google’s business model in bringing this about, or (b) any pledge to fix the problem. I couldn’t find either. And this is because:
Google profits from pedophiles.
Notice how Google’s response…
starts with this claim: “Responsibility is our number one priority.” This from the company that profits from pedophiles, the company that was alerted to the issue months earlier and only responded after pressure from a leading news source. Does this shout “responsibility”? Would you agree that it’s the “number one priority” at YouTube?
doesn’t directly acknowledge the New York Times story, and doesn’t acknowledge the problem of sexually exploiting children for profit. Instead, Google’s response makes a vague reference to “videos featuring minors” in “recent news reports.” That’s not a good sign, if Google can’t bring itself to explicitly name and acknowledge the problem.
doesn’t pledge to fix the problem, instead listing superficial actions that don’t address the key issue of profiting from pedophiles. Google claims it has (a) disabled comments on some videos — but the comments are not the key problem here! — and (b) it’s “reducing recommendations” on unspecified videos — a statement which, though maddeningly vague, might mean, at most, that Google is pledging to send fewer pedophiles to kid-videos than they did before.
This isn’t good. Google claims the moral high ground, doesn’t acknowledge the problem, and doesn’t fix the problem. And let’s not forget what the problem is:
Google profits from pedophiles.
Finally, in an amazing feat either of arrogance or cluelessness, or both, the Google blog post actually defends the YouTube team, saying that “YouTube is a company made up of parents and families” … wow. It’s as though an oil company spills oil all over a fragile ecosystem and then says, “Our company is made of humans who also live on this earth, so we’re absolved.” To call this tone-deaf would be far too generous. Google’s response shows no indication that they are willing to address the key problem, which is:
Google profits from pedophiles.
There’s a simple fix to the problem. And Google knows what it is. I know this because the New York Times article stated it very clearly (emphasis mine):
YouTube has not put in place the one change that researchers say would prevent this from happening again: turning off its recommendation system on videos of children, though the platform can identify such videos automatically. The company said that because recommendations are the biggest traffic driver, removing them would hurt “creators” who rely on those clicks.
As I stated at the beginning of this column, the profit engine at YouTube is built from an algorithm that automatically serves up videos to optimize “engagement,” whether that means serving up flat-earth videos to conspiracy fans, or curating kid-videos for pedophiles. The obvious fix, as the Times story mentions, is to turn off the recommendation system. Unless and until that happens, Google’s business model remains as such:
Google profits from pedophiles.
Far from implementing the obvious fix, Google has to-date only shown passing interest in the occasional issue that blows up in the press or social media. Viral story on monetizing pedophilia? Social media outrage on monetizing hate speech? Google will make some superficial move and claim to be working on the issue of the day, whether by hiring more moderators or taking down some of the offending videos. And that’s just for whatever specificissue got the press attention. What Google never, ever, addresses is the key problem of profiting from serving up “engagement” at all costs. If you’re being treated unjustly by Google in some other way, and you don’t have a New York Times journalist writing about it, you’re out of luck.
The problem isn’t one type of video. Each is just a symptom of the root disease at the heart of the YouTube business model: the algorithm that recommends videos — even harmful, exploitative videos — for profit. Even profit from pedophiles.
My own suggested solution, as I detailed back in April, is as follows: The only way for users to get to a video should be if they specifically request it, search for it, or subscribe to it. This means killing Recommended Videos entirely, and disabling autoplay. Totally, system-wide, no exceptions. Kill the YouTube algorithm. Until Google is forced to do this (as it shows no signs of taking this step on its own), we can continue to state this fact:
Google profits from pedophiles.
I want you to keep this mind as you use Google products (if you still use them; I avoid them wherever I can).
• When you make a Google search, think to yourself: “My search activity feeds an algorithm so that Google can profit from pedophiles.”
• When you open your Gmail, think to yourself: “The surveillance Gmail conducts on my emails are not the only profit stream for Google. Google also profits from pedophiles.”
• When you use Google Maps, think to yourself: “This mapping was built by a company that profits from pedophiles.”
• When you open up Chrome, just remember that you’re accessing the Web through a browser built and maintained by a company that profits from pedophiles.
• And certainly whenever you watch a YouTube video, remind yourself that at that very moment, YouTube is serving up videos to pedophiles — and profiting from it.
If you feel some revulsion from these thoughts — and you should — don’t ignore it. Any usage we give Google products is an implicit vote that we accept what this company does, that we are willing to offer up our behavioral data to Google’s surveillance-capitalist profit model. We’re willing, in other words, to support the company that profits from pedophiles.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I can’t, in good conscience, use Google products — unless it’s unavoidable. It feels wrong, in principle, to give my time, attention, and data to a company suffering from a shocking lack of moral leadership. And others feel as I do, at least in part: the aptly-named NoMoreGoogle.com lists dozens of alternatives to Google products. (I use DuckDuckGo for search and FastMail for email, for starters.)
As a closing thought I want to acknowledge that today is the 75th anniversary of D-Day, a single day when over 150,000 people risked, or gave, their young lives for a higher purpose. Call it democracy, call it liberation; whichever, it was something higher, much higher, than a grasping for profit at any cost. 75 years ago, thousands of young men plunged into the surf, just a stone’s throw from the machine guns, so that future generations might live in a better world. But today our economy celebrates, rewards, and bows to a company that profits from pedophiles. What a shame.
- Mark Hurst
- — -
More resources:
• YouTube’s algorithm makes it easy for pedophiles to find more videos of children — Technology Review, June 4, 2019 — a good accompaniment to the New York Times story covered above.
• Techtonic from June 3, 2019 (my WFMU radio show a few days ago, including my comments on the New York Times story that broke that day)
• Past Techtonic episodes, also available as a podcast.
• To share this column, retweet this, or copy and paste this text: | https://medium.com/@markhurst/we-need-to-have-a-difficult-conversation-about-google-90713c584b29 | ['Mark Hurst'] | 2019-06-06 19:12:20.681000+00:00 | ['Ethics', 'Morality', 'Business', 'Google', 'YouTube'] |
Project Update 1: 13.03.2018 | The FuzeX project is on course. Our Road Map targets are scheduled to be met, and some have also been brought forward to Q1. As you’d imagine we’ve been incredibly busy developing the FuzeX Ecosystem and filling out our teams with the necessary skilled individuals to achieve our goals.
As well as product development, a large part of February was taken up with developing relations with exchanges and forging strategic partnerships with other companies in the cryptocurrency/fintech “space”. Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ve been up to so far:
Exchange & FXT Unlock Update:
We’ll be listing on Cobinhood. Some of you following Cobinhood might have seen our entry in their diary for a fleeting moment, before it was deleted. This was due to a mix-up on dates, nothing more.
Cobinhood is the first of three exchanges we will be listed on this month. We aim to have listings on three exchanges simultaneously soon, but Cobinhood is the first we’ve confirmed, the second will be LiveCoin. For the other one we are still waiting for the required legal opinions and documentation relating to our FXT Token model. As soon as we have it, we will update our community accordingly with when and where we will list. After that, we will aim to list on two more exchanges in April. We will provide updates accordingly on this, too.
The FXT Tokens will also remain locked. FXT Token unlocking will coincide with exchange listing, the date of which we will announce soon. Please read this.
Edit: Section edited 22.03.2018 with updated exchange information and FXT Token unlocking details.
Event Update Money 20/20 Asia:
Our Business Development team will be in Singapore this week visiting the Money 20/20 Asia event from 13th to 15th March 2018. At the event there will be more than 15,000 people working in fintech and finance. 1 in 3 of which are C-Level and 2,700 are CEOs and/or Founding members of their respective companies. So there will be plenty of opportunities to network and strengthen existing business relationships.
Our team will mostly be on the look out for partnerships and regional issuers, but we also have a lot of meetings lined up with experts and companies working in the fields of compliance, fraud prevention, and identity validation. Both in the conventional finance industry and the blockchain side of things as well.
Understanding the complexities of these challenges and providing a rigorous and viable system to combat these issue will be the key to the longevity of the FuzeX project. For us and many of our competitors in this space, technology is not the bottleneck. Compliance issues are.
If you’re at the event and interested in meeting the team, drop one of our Telegram admins a message and they’ll arrange a meeting.
Partnership Updates:
We were busy meeting and greeting at the D10e event in Seoul this month. As a result of all the handshaking, we’ll be announcing two new strategic partnerships this month. We’ll send out separate updates and write-ups on both when we’ve wrapped up negotiations.
Both partnerships provide practical use cases for the FuzeX Card and overall FuzeX Ecosystem. Although the two pending partners are working in completely different industries, both companies are developing blockchain technology that will help to disrupt their respective areas of business. More to come next week.
FuzeW Update: New Product Development
As some of you may have heard; we’re developing a cold storage wallet too. We recently unveiled it at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Spain last month. The project is titled FuzeW and is slated for release towards the end of 2018. FXT Token holders will be able to buy the FuzeW with their FXT at a discount when it is commercially available.
Like the FuzeX Card, the FuzeW will have three-buttons and a card-like design. But unlike the FuzeX Card, the FuzeW will be a cold storage device with no payment functionality. It’ll be a straight up cryptocurrency storage device, with a heavy emphasis on security. The FuzeW will also have a larger (3.1 inches) screen. Additionally, it will have a built-in fingerprint recognition module for added security, and it will also be built from either stainless-steel or titanium for added durability.
The FuzeW product will help with the development of our FuzeX Biometric Card which is scheduled for release in early 2019. The products, although very different in their use cases, share common areas of development, and R&D in one will benefit the other.
Korean Community Update:
We’ve decided to create a Korean language group on Telegram. If you’re interested in the FuzeX project, speak Korean and feel that Kakaotalk’s lack of GIFs is a bad thing, then join us here.
안녕하십니까, FuzeX 커뮤니티 여러분. 얼마전, 다수 한국 유저여러분께서 요청하신 텔레그램 채널 추가 생성에 관하여 공지드립니다. 충분한 검토 후, 저희 FuzeX Team에서는 한국어 채널 생성을하게 되었습니다. 아쉽게도 텔레그램에서는 카카오톡만큼 이모티콘이 다양하지 않지만 FuzeX 프로젝트 진행에 있어서 관심이 있으시다면 자유롭게 한국어로 물어보십시오! 감사합니다. Click Here. | https://medium.com/fuzex/project-update-1-13-03-2018-a3a99bf16255 | ['Fuzex Team'] | 2018-03-22 10:40:25.857000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Fintech'] |
Exposure to the Blockchain? Yes, but HOW MUCH? | We get this question a lot from our clients. Like most things in life it depends on the individual. However, here we provide some guidelines.
Whether governments or institutions like it or not, the Blockchain technology revolution is here to stay. That much we are certain of and we love disruption (here is a great read: Anti-fragile). Smart contracts and the applications using this technology will shape a new future in how we interact with one another and the physical reality around us. Smart contracts coupled with smart hardware will enable the “Internet of Things” to really integrate into improving lives on the planet.
Back to the point — How much?
To me it really depends on how much longer you think you have left on the planet and what level of certainty you need in your life. These two aspects are the barometer one should use on the age group scale we provide below.
The more time you think you have left on the planet, the greater the benefit and value one will be able to derive from using the Blockchain, over and above the financial returns (side note: Remember value will be generated out of interacting with the system not necessarily out of ownership as it has been in the past).
Secondly, the more certainty you as an individual needs in your life will determine what level of exposure you can palate. Trust me, things are going to be volatile!
Individual Blockchain Portfolio Exposure:
Under 30 years: 10–25%
30–40 years: 5–20%
40+ years: 2–5%
No matter what age you are — look for all the many ways to start generating side income streams from the Blockchain ecosystem. It is designed to reward those who interact with it! Use it or lose it. But, watch out for the scammers, they are out there guys — a simple Google search should do the trick. More on this to come!
Pura Vida!
If you would like to get in contact:
Chat with us on our Telegram group: https://t.me/asymmetryam_AAAX
Email us at: [email protected]
Visit us on Facebook and Twitter
Disclaimer: Any content published by Asymmetry Asset Management or its affiliates is not intended to constitute individual investment advice and is not designed to meet your personal financial situation. The opinions expressed in such publications are those of the publisher and are subject to change without notice. The information in such publications may become outdated and there is no obligation to update any such information. | https://medium.com/aaax-asymmetry-asset-array-index/exposure-to-the-blockchain-yes-but-how-much-3ddc4565107c | ['Kenny Hearn'] | 2018-01-25 13:20:46.299000+00:00 | ['Iconomi', 'Ethereum', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Investing'] |
Dressing Up Baby | Right! Before the fun police start sucking in their cheeks, let’s just say that the absolute baseline for dressing up of any kind is that you only go for flame retardant options. That’s babies, children and whopping great hunks of adults too.
Also, think very carefully about the ‘bits’ that are part and parcel of many dressing up outfits. Watch out for choking hazards — that’s things they could choke on and things that could choke them.
Sermon over, let’s get on with the show.
NOT NEWBORNS THOUGH
Ahhh — that’s where you’re wrong. You can totally dress up newborns but, let’s be practical about this, it is probably going to be a case of finding a very small, seasonally appropriate Babygro. Think red and white stripy legs with a printed-on elf outfit for Christmas or an orange pumpkin style affair for Halloween (there are white mummy options for Halloween too, but they look very, very odd).
One piece of advice would be to dress with comfort in mind. You’ve still got a baby, a very new human being, so the key to successful dressing up is that they don’t scream the house down for the duration because they’re not comfy.
SITTING DUCKS
Is the sitting stage the best time for dressing up? For me, it’s a huge yes. Your baby is still so new to the world and they are so imbued with a sense of wonder at everything. Team that with a fluffy lamb costume and you are on to a winner.
What’s more is that they are still so very much under your control. Sounds mercenary but just wait until they have an opinion on what you dress them in and you’ll swoon at the thought of these easy days.
Whether you create a little ghost or a spider, a bunny with dingly dangly ears or a Christmas fairy, this is your chance to capture it forever and pop it in the family album. What seems like a cute photo opportunity can turn into the ultimate in leverage during the teenage years (they come round quicker than you think) and the perfect addition to the photo wall at a wedding in 25 years’ time. You will stand and marvel at how your baby is not only walking and talking but head over heels in love with someone else (that isn’t you). These are the opportunities to make moments to cherish.
LITTLE WALKERS
It depends how long they’ve been walking for. You don’t want to make it hard for someone taking their first steps by hanging all sorts of décor on them but, if your little one has got the hang of it, it can raise a laugh.
Imagine a first Halloween party with 10 little pumpkins charging at you!
CAN YOU GO TOO FAR?
Hell yeah. You’ve got to draw the line at fake blood or guts spilling out of bandages. This is family fun, so don’t go too heavy handed on the horror side of things.
And, one final thing, on behalf of babies everywhere who cannot yet speak for themselves…
Do not ever, ever, ever, ever carve out a pumpkin and set your baby inside. Cold, squishy with that weird pumpkin smell. Will traumatise them for life.
read more articles on the first time mama blog | https://medium.com/first-time-mama/dressing-up-baby-3731c0ba87ce | ['First Time Mama'] | 2019-12-03 07:41:01.374000+00:00 | ['Newborn', 'Baby'] |
Soya Chunks Nutrition | Its 5 Mind-Blowing Health Benefits | Soya chunks contain a decent amount of Omega -3 fatty acids, polyunsaturated fats, and proteins. Moreover, they are very rich in calcium and iron while providing no extra sodium, cholesterol, and sugar to your body.
They boost the process of muscle building and metabolism in your body.
Like chicken breast, soya chunks are a full-fledged source of protein.
Soya chunks are made from defatted soy floor by the process of extrusion cooking. Besides this, the protein content present in soya chunks is comparable to that of eggs, milk, and meat.
Furthermore, a study published in the journal Molecules in 2015 found that soya chunks can effectively decrease the fat build up around the stomach and protect the heart from ailments.
Due to the protein content found in soya chunks, weight lifters and bodybuilders can include soya chunks in their diet to promote muscle growth.
To know more, visit : https://fitnesshups.com/soya-chunks-nutrition/ | https://medium.com/@prativasinha124/soya-chunks-nutrition-its-5-mind-blowing-health-benefits-2d832d68004 | ['Prativa Sinha'] | 2020-12-26 16:47:33.194000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Diet', 'Nutrition', 'Fitness', 'Health Foods'] |
What is cybersecurity? Everything you need to know | What is cybersecurity? Everything you need to know
Cybersecurity
What is CyberSecurity?
Cybersecurity is the protection against cyberattacks from devices linked to the Internet, such as hardware, computer software and data. Individuals and businesses use the practice to protect themselves from unauthorized access to data centres and other computerized networks.
Cybersecurity implementation aims to provide an upright safety position for computers, servers, networks, mobile devices, and data held by attackers. Cyber attacks can be conceived to access, remove or erase confidential information from an entity or user; cybersecurity is critical. Medical, political, corporate and financial institutions, for instance, may all hold crucial personal data about an individual.
The advancement of technology that opens up new avenues for cyber attacks is a continually evolving cybersecurity area. Furthermore, while there are significant safety violations, small companies also need to be aware of safety violations preventing them, as they can still be victims of viruses and phishing.
Cybersecurity software, training and risk management techniques and upgrades always as technology develops and advances to safeguard themselves, workers and people, organizations and services.
Types of cybersecurity threats
A challenge is a process of updating emerging technology, security trends and threats. But to protect information and other properties, which take many forms, against cyber threats. It is important. Cyber threats can contain:
Malware is a type of malware that can damage a computer user through any file or program such as worms, computer viruses, checkered cheetahs and spyware.
Ransomware attacks include a form of ransomware that locks the victim’s computer machine files — usually by encrypting — and demands a payment to decrypt and unlock them.
Social engineering is a human-based attack that tricks users into breaching security protocols to access sensitive, usually protected information.
Phishing is a kind of fraud where fake emails like reputable emails are sent, but the purpose of such emails is to steal sensitive data, such as credit card or login details.
Cybersecurity elements
To ensure cybersecurity, security efforts across the information system must be coordinated, including:
It can be a challenge to maintain changing security threats in cybersecurity. The conventional solution was to concentrate resources on critical components of the system and protect against the most significant potential threats, which meant that details were not guarded. Systems were not protected against less risky.
Advantages
Business malware security, ransomware, phishing and social technology.
Data and network security.
Unlicensed users prevention.
Improves recovery time after a violation.
End-user security.
Enhanced product trust for developers and consumers alike.
Challenges
Management and changing cybersecurity techniques continue to challenge cybersecurity. There is no evidence for decreasing cyber attacks. Besides, increased attack entrances increase the need for networks and devices to be guarded.
The emerging existence of security threats is one of the most complicated aspects of cyber safety. As new technologies arise, new approaches to attack are being developed, and technology is being used in new or different ways. Continued improvements and improvement in attacks will pressure organizations to update their procedures to defend them against. This also ensures that all cybersecurity components are regularly updated to protect against future vulnerabilities. For smaller entities, this can be extremely difficult.
Furthermore, a vast number of possible data a business might obtain on people involved in one of its services today. The possibility of a cyber attacker who wants to steal personal information is another problem with more data collected. For example, a company that stores personal data in the cloud may be vulnerable to a ransomware attack and should do everything possible to avoid a cloud breakdown.
Cybersecurity should also cover end-user training because an employee may inadvertently carry a virus into the workplace on their laptop, smartphone or device.
A job shortage also entails a big problem for cybersecurity. As data growth for organizations expands, more cyber-security staff must analyze, manage and respond to incidents. Two million unfulfilled cybersecurity jobs are projected worldwide. Cybersecurity companies also predict that it will generate up to 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity by 2021.
However, new advances are being made in machine learning and artificial intelligence to help organize and process data — but not to the effect necessary.
Automation
AI and computer education in areas with high-volume data streams and fields like:
Data correlation — concentrating on data organization, detecting potential threats within data and predicting next phase attacks.
Infection detection — which focuses on data analysis through a protection framework, menaces and safety safeguards.
Defence generation — without stressing capital.
Protections are introduced.
Cybersecurity vendors
Cybersecurity services typically use endpoint, network and automated security for threats and prevention of data loss. Cisco, McAfee and Trend Micro are three widely recognized cybersecurity vendors.
Cisco uses networks to allow customers to use firewalls, VPNs and advanced malware defence with email and endpoint security support. Cisco supports malware blocking in real-time as well.
For customers and business users, McAfee makes Cybersecurity goods. McAfee supports security on phones, business clouds, the network, web and server systems. It also offers data security and encryption.
Trend Micro is a malware supplier that defends web, hybrid, SAAS and IoT against threats. Trend Micro offers endpoint, email and network security for consumers.
Cybersecurity jobs
As cyber threats persist, individuals need cyber-security knowledge, hardware and software expertise, and emerging threats, including IoT threats.
computer specialists and IT professionals are needed in security jobs, such as:
Chief Security Information Officer (CISO): This person implements the organization’s security program and manages operations in the IT security department.
Safety engineer: This individual protects the business assets against threats, focusing on IT infrastructure quality control.
Security Architect: The individual is responsible for the planning, research, design, testing, maintenance and support of critical infrastructure of an organization.
Security Analyst: This person has many responsibilities, including the preparation and monitoring of security measures, the protection of digital files and internal and external security audits.
Advisory organizations advocate a more constructive and adaptive approach to deal with the current climate. For example, in its Risk Assessment Process, the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) has developed updated guides proposing a move towards ongoing tracking and real-time assessments.
In April 2018, version 1.1 of the Critical Infrastructure Enhancement System was released. Each industry, including federal and state governments, can follow a voluntary cybersecurity framework developed for banks, communications, the defence and energy industries. President Donald Trump gave an executive order to enact the NIST Cyber Security System (NIST CSF) by federal agencies in May 2017.
Investments in cybersecurity technology and services continue to grow as a result of security threats. Gartner had previously estimated that global spending on goods and services for information security would rise to $114 billion in 2018 and increase by 8.7 per cent to $124 billion in 2019. In 2019 Gartner also anticipated growth of 11% for the Middle East and North Africa in company safety and risk management spending by 2020. | https://medium.com/technomafia/what-is-cybersecurity-everything-you-need-to-know-e30192be7270 | ['Abdul Majid Qureshi'] | 2021-01-16 15:20:18.290000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Operational Security', 'Information Security', 'Cybersecurity', 'Network Security'] |
Wordless | Wordless
Micropoetry about staying quiet
Photo by Javardh on Unsplash
the sun looks dark today, the sky is gray
my thoughts I let them be shapeless.
I don’t chisel them in the shape of moon and stars,
today when the noise is different I prefer to be wordless. | https://medium.com/scribe/wordless-87b596a58e1e | ['Priyanka Srivastava'] | 2020-11-22 20:47:26.157000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Peace', 'Solitude', 'Writing', 'Sadness'] |
Iranian killer slapped and saved by victim’s momma | Seven years ago a 20 year old named Balal stabbed Abdollah Hosseinzadeh, 18, in a street brawl. To apply the idea of retribution in Sharia law, or qisas, the victim’s family was supposed to participate in Balal’s punishment by pushing the chair on which he stood, consequently hanging him. What actually happened brought tears to my damn eyes. In a country where more people are put to death than any other, including China, the victim’s mom, Mrs. Hosseinzadeh, slapped Balal in the face for killing her son all those years ago. Then she freed him from his almost certain death. Read more at The Guardian. | https://medium.com/ramel-media/iranian-killer-slapped-and-saved-by-victims-momma-bfa8c6adf0e9 | ['Afeef Nessouli'] | 2016-08-26 20:47:02.041000+00:00 | ['Hanging', 'Iran', 'Law', 'Hassan Rouhani'] |
Build a Checkbox Component With Vue 3, Font Awesome, & Tailwind CSS | Takeaway:
Get your feet wet with some of the new Vue 3 features while building a fully functional checkbox component. We’ll be using Font Awesome to replace the default html checkbox and Tailwind CSS to handle styling.
Code Sandbox:
To make it easy to code-along, I’ve put together a couple code sandboxes.
Starting Point 👈 Fork this one to code along
👈 Fork this one to code along Final State 👈 tl;dr
Lets get started
In the Starting Point sandbox we’ve got a basic checkbox input set up in ./components/checkbox.vue
<template>
<input type="checkbox" :id="fieldId" class="mr-2" /> <label
:for="fieldId"
class="flex flex-row items-center font-bold cursor-pointer"
>
{{ label }}
</label>
</template> <script>
export default {
props: {
label: String,
fieldId: {
type: String,
required: true,
},
},
};
</script>
We’re importing the checkbox.vue component into App.vue like so:
<check-box fieldId=”volume” label=”Volume On” />
It seems to be working great. Only thing is, this checkbox is not tied to any data 😱
We’ll take the following steps to get this checkbox working:
Add data to App.vue and use v-model to tie the data to <check-box> In checkbox.vue sync the <input> checked prop to the value passed in by v-model Replace the default checkbox with Font Awesome icons
Step 1
To add the data to App.vue we could use the Options API, which would be what you’re used to if you’ve been using Vue for a while now.
But for the sake of learning something new, let’s use Vue3’s Composition API.
Everything bold in the code snippet below is what we’ll add to App.vue
<script>
import Checkbox from "./components/checkbox.vue";
import { ref } from "vue";export default {
name: "App",
setup() {
const volumeOn = ref(true);
return {
volumeOn,
};
},
components: {
"check-box": Checkbox,
},
};
</script>
setup() is the entry point for the composition API.
We declare our variable volumeOn and make it reactive by using ref() Notice that we need to import ref in order to use it. More on refs and reactivity here, it is vital read up on this aspect of Vue3.
We return volumeOn in order for the template to access the variable.
Let’s use v-model to bind the variable to the checkbox component.
<check-box
fieldId="volume"
v-model:checked="volumeOn"
label="Volume On"
/>
With Vue3 we can now pass arguments to v-model ! We are passing checked as an argument. If we omitted this argument, volumeOn ’s value would be passed to the child component as value — but in our case checked will be passed. Its worth noting that v-model arguments allow for multiple v-models to be used on a component. More on that here.
Step 2
We need to update our checkbox.vue component to utilize the data we are passing in. First we’ll add a prop called checked with the expected value type to be a Boolean This will catch the value passed by v-model:checked
<script>
export default {
props: {
label: String,
fieldId: {
type: String,
required: true,
},
checked: {
type: Boolean,
},
},
};
</script>
Now let’s tie the input’s checked property to our checked prop.
fyi 👉 :checked is shorthand for v-bind:checked
<template>
<input
type="checkbox"
:checked="checked"
:id="fieldId"
class="mr-2"
/>
<label
:for="fieldId"
class="flex flex-row items-center font-bold cursor-pointer"
>
{{ label }}
</label>
</template>
Test it out by changing const volumeOn = ref(true); to false and reloading. The checkbox should now be unchecked by default.
It looks like everything might be working alright, but let’s see if the value of volumenOn is changing at all when we click the box.
The quickest way in codesandbox would be by adding {{ volumeOn }} to the template somewhere.
Spoiler alert, the value does not change 😥 We need to emit the checked value from the checkbox component to sync the value
update:checked is a custom event synced to v-model:checked event.target.checked is the value we’re passing.
Now everything should be working with our checkbox.
If {{ volumeOn }} is not showing the proper value at this point, reload CodeSandbox, it should work fine.
Step 3
Finally, let’s get rid of those default checkbox styles, and replace them with Font Awesome icons.
We’ll add an icon in the label tag in checkbox.vue and hide the input with a Tailwind CSS class.
type="checkbox"
:checked="checked"
:id="fieldId"
class="mr-2 hidden"
/>
<label
:for="fieldId"
class="flex flex-row items-center font-bold text-gray-800 cursor-pointer select-none"
>
<i class="fa fa-check-square text-blue-600 mr-2"></i>
{{ label }}
</label> @input ="(event) => $emit('update:checked',event.target.checked)"type="checkbox":checked="checked":id="fieldId"class="mr-2/>
Here’s how the icon break down:
fa provides all the default font awesome styles fa-check-square will give us a nice little check in a square, there are thousands of icons to pick from, check them out here text-blue-600 is a Tailwind CSS class, see all the options they have here mr-2 will give us a little right margin
But wait; we don’t want a blue checkbox when the checkbox is unchecked. Let’s add some logic to this class list for an unchecked box using Vue.
<i
class="fa mr-2"
:class="{
'fa-check-square text-blue-600': checked,
'fa-square text-gray-500': !checked,
}"
></i> | https://medium.com/swlh/build-a-checkbox-component-with-vue3-font-awesome-tailwind-css-99d176094b3d | ['Kevin Bigelow'] | 2020-12-18 17:25:07.758000+00:00 | ['Tailwind Css', 'Vuejs', 'Vue 3', 'Font Awesome'] |
Planning and Implementing a Government Focused Market Development Fund (MDF) | The Insider Perspective:
[Credit: This program is based on the ScaleUP USA’s Successful Corporate and Government Sales Acceleration Program]
In my 25+ years of technology career, I have worked in leadership positions in Federal, State, and local governments. During this time I have been “bombarded” with thousands of pieces of (useless) marketing material and sales calls. The offices I led have bought billions of dollars worth of technology products and services. Unfortunately, I have observed that 9 out of 10 sales calls lead to no follow-up wins, frustrating both the seller and the buyer. More importantly, the marketing campaigns and promotions that companies do towards their federal and government clients and prospects are many times outdated in their approach and meaningless. The question is why is this happening and can it be corrected?
This situation has arisen, because of several reasons. First, currently government marketing and sales campaigns are run based on sellers perspective of the buyer and not on buyers insight or needs and this needs to change. Second, the government marketing and advertising budgets are utilizing older methodology and tactics which do not work in the hyper-intensive, heavily multi-tasked government world. When you have a hundred unread emails, the possibility you will open, read a white paper attached to an email blast and then call up the seller is unrealistic at best! Essentially, plain old government advertising and marketing is dead! Relationship and trust building focused edusales is very much in vogue! Change your government campaigns or be left behind. This is especially true if you are targeting large federal, state or local government accounts for sales.
Best Practice #1: Build government marketing and sales campaigns based on government buyers needs and not sellers perspective of the government buyer!
What has this got to do with the deployment of business to business (B2B) or business to government (B2G) Market Development Funds? Everything. Each year tens of billions of dollars worth of these funds are utilized to run ineffective government advertising and marketing campaigns and wasted. What if we could use some of the best practices to improve their impact so all OEMs, channel partners, and buyers get the results they seek?
Traditional Advertising and Marketing (Old) vs. Relationship Building Advertising and Marketing (New)
Market Development Funds Vs. Co-Op Funds:
Before we get into details of best practices in implementing government Market Development Funds (MDF), I want to address the difference between MDF’s and Cooperative Advertising Funds (Co-Op Funds).
Market Development Funds are incentives made available by Manufacturers and Brands (OEM’s) for channel partners like distributors, value-added resellers, affiliates, and others to create targeted local market awareness and to generate sales leads. MDF’s are typically provided before the actual marketing program is implemented by the channel partner. If you are an OEM and don’t have a MDF program, set one up. You could get something going for as low as $25K per year, though larger amounts are much preferred.
Cooperative advertising funds are typically promotional reimbursements made to channel partners like distributors, value-added resellers, affiliates, and others after implementation of the actual marketing program based on some pre-agreed sales performance criteria and implementation guidelines.
BEST PRACTICE #2: We suggest that government MDF’s generally work better than government Co-Op funds as they are forward-looking and the OEM has a better opportunity to strategize execution with the channel partner before implementation versus Co-Op programs which are historical in nature, where the money is already spent, and there is not much the OEM can do to improve performance while reimbursing the amount to the channel partner.
Don't Get Left Behind. The Digitization of Biz Dev is Here!
Government Market Development Funds, Funding Mechanisms
Government MDF’s can be distributed by various different mechanisms. There can be flexible funding (channel partner controls fund utilization) to focused funding (manufacturer controls fund utilization). Funding can also be based on the channel partner’s past success (peak performer, average performer, and low-performer).
BEST PRACTICE #3: Typically the government MDF’s are distributed either as a standard or fixed allowance or a full stipend that the channel partner can spend on OEM’s pre-approved programs. This is the ideal option and a best practice, especially when the stipend covers all the cost associated with the channel partner’s specific marketing program. What is critically important here is to make sure the channel partners not only have the necessary funds but also have the necessary expertise to build and conduct a modern, relevant, and impactful government marketing campaign or else a half-baked government marketing program will emerge which will benefit no one. The latter happens all the time.
Typically, the OEM or channel partner may work with a third party like ScaleUP USA to ensure that a proper campaign is developed and implemented. Typical impactful campaigns can cost upwards of $25K per channel partner per year and the developed program can have a shelf life of about a year — about the same cost of participating in a trade show but with year-round publicity and results! We at ScaleUP don’t like the “quick spend” techniques like a significant expenditure at a trade show. Such activity, unfortunately, does not build the relationship with the buyer (prospect) upfront, very critical for large B2B or B2G selling.
Alternatively, the OEM may distribute the Market Development Funds as a subsidy or a discount for the channel partner’s marketing and promotions expenditure. This is not recommended as the balance amount needs to come from the channel partner and that can constrain the proposed campaign unless the OEM needs to stretch their MDF and are willing to risk their share of the funding.
Finally, The other option is that the OEM enables a rebate or a payback after the channel partner has spent the money. We at ScaleUP USA are not fond of the rebate or a payback option at all — as you now have a problem motivating the channel partner to pay upfront first and then fill in the paperwork for reimbursement. This one is a loser!
Government Market Development Funds, Focus, and Clarity are Important.
While developing the MDF strategy, clarity of objective is critical for the MDF program designer. As a best practice you should ask the following questions while defining this program:
Why: Why are we deploying these MDF funds?
Who: Who will these MDF funded promotions target?
When: What should be the timing for this targeting?
Where: What is the geographic location or category of prospect targeting?
How: How can the MDF funds be used for maximum impact?
What: What will you exactly do with the funds?
Result: What specific result are you expecting from the program?
BEST PRACTICE #4: Based on ScaleUP USA’s assessment it is critical is these government Market Development Funds MUST deliver value to the OEM, the channel partner and the client or the government prospect. If the value equation for any of the three is not delivered, the marketing promotion will not succeed. It is, therefore, critical that the OEM ask and the channel partner submit a government MDF utilization plan. We typically can work with either the OEM or the channel partner or both to develop and implement this MDF program.
Single Company Road Shows Often Result in Poor Returns Due to the “Selling” Focus!
Traditional Government Market Development Funds Usage Models:
Traditional government marketing campaigns include email blasts, newsletters, social media, white papers, face to face events, webinars/webcasts, online presentations, research reports, blogs, articles, micro-sites, videos, advertising, and infographics.
BEST PRACTICES #5–11: Whatever you do use as your medium, here are some of best practices relating to the options: #5: MUST DELIVER VALUE to the OEM, the channel partner and the client or the government prospect. #6: STOP SELLING your company, product or services. Start educating and influencing the government prospect or client and build a relationship. #7: INDEPENDENCE of the message and messenger matters to the government prospect. Use neutral brand to promote the story. #8: TRUST BUILDING should be the major aim of the government MDF campaign. Trust building in your company, products, services, and the channel partners. #9: LONGER SHELF LIFE is better. Quick start-stop activities like hosting events, and attending trade shows are costly and less impactful over a long run for government marketing campaigns. #10: CONTINUITY IS CRITICAL. Build a government MDF campaign that will continue steadily, and grow over time by building on past success. #11: MEASURES OF SUCCESS for government MDF program should be defined, measured, and reported on regularly.
Challenges in Government Market Development Funds Deployment:
As I mentioned earlier, During my long technology career, I had oversight of buying billions of dollars’ worth of technology products and services and therefore attended a large number of sales calls and promotional events. I recognized then that the large government organizations do not buy because of sales calls a seller makes, but because the large organization has an emergency, need, challenge or an opportunity and they are convinced the seller can address the problem successfully (think trust). Unfortunately, making the precise match between the exact buyer problem and the needed seller solution is very difficult so market development is key too.
BEST PRACTICE #12: We suggest you focus on how “organic problem solving” happens in large organizations and then focus on educating the problem solvers, influencers, and decision-makers early and often how your company can best solve their problem using digital “edusales” means. The digitization of business development is happening. Don't get left behind.
Start by digitally building internal champions, create communities of interest and connect with them to your company, products, and services. You must become your government buyers trusted advisor even before you ever speak to them!
In the process, you will get the much-needed government exposure, brand awareness, and timely business leads for your company. This is the core focus of “buyer-driven sales methodology” discussed in the ScaleUP USA’s Corporate and Government Sales Acceleration program.
About the Author:
Nitin Pradhan is an educator, technologist, and social entrepreneur based in the Washington DC metro region. He is the former award-winning CIO of the US Department of Transportation and an Obama Appointee. He leads the ScaleUP USA’s Digital Business and Career Growth Accelerator including the Federal Business Accelerator, the Federal Career Accelerator, and the Career Trajectory programs. Business and government leaders can connect with him on LinkedIn. | https://medium.com/launchdream/12-best-practices-for-oems-and-channel-partners-in-implementing-a-market-development-fund-mdf-ae2b6702b2f9 | ['Nitin Pradhan'] | 2019-12-02 18:09:01.308000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Digital Marketing', 'Advertising', 'Government', 'Sales'] |
Which is the best smart home system? | Smart home systems are big news right now for all technology enthusiasts, and that is a situation which is set to continue as technology advances. They provide many important advantages for home owners across the globe, from saving on energy bills to better home security or improve our experiences in home entertainment and fruition of movies and videogames.
The question is: which is the best smart home system to invest in?
A question that every technology lover who wants to buy a state-of-the-art home automation system for his home should ask himself. A question to which only a careful analysis on factors such as technological innovation, safety, ease of installation and use and costs can respond.
The point is: you need a system which is easy to use and give you a high level of functionality. Let’s take a look at two of the best systems on the market, Control4 and Savant, and discuss which is the best investment.
This will be our first analysis, in future articles we will make some new comparisons between the most famous systems to understand which is the best.
Our experience about Control 4 system
Control4 does a great job of providing education to its customers. You can find all the resources you need on the website, including a gallery of instructional images and a selection of helpful videos. There is also a cool project planner where you can link your smart goals with local suppliers.
Control4 does not offer security monitoring directly, but you can easily use one its many partners to provide this service.
You can also sign up to use 4Sight which means you can watch security camera feeds once you have a system fitted. There is also a feature called Mockupancy which means that the system can act randomly when you are out, making it look as though you are home.
The ability to easily integrate third-party services gives the system the ability to increase its functions exponentially and modularly.
Control of the Control4 smart home system is easy. Developers offer, even the inexperienced user, a complete and effective documentation for its usage, as well as guides and tips to best adapt Control4 to their needs.
Whether you are using the app, or a touchscreen controller, the experience is identical. A decisive feature that offers an important point to this system.
The analysis of Savant system
Looking on the Savant website, we felt that it’s aim is to attract the luxury market.
While there is nothing wrong with that, it can be a little off putting to the average smart home system user. That being said, the images and videos on the website are useful, although not as comprehensive as those provided by Control4.
Our impression is that this system is aimed more at users who want a product that is easier to use but that, at the end, does not allow further development of its functionality.
For security, Savant does not provide a system itself. However, you can ask the dealer about having a system installed. Once this is done, you can view the cameras using the Savant system. A more contained measure compared to Control4 that allows greater integration by external developers.
Savant provides an identical control experience across all devices. It does not provide its own touchscreen controllers but you have the facility to use a conventional tablet instead. A good feaure that allows the user to choose the device more familiar to him.
Our verdict about this comparison
We are giving this one to Control4 which we think is the best overall. It provides great educational support for users so the home control system is easy to use for all kind of people.
It’s also easier to integrate the system for security monitoring due to the high number of hardware partners and third part developer that Control4 has.
An effective home control system for all those who want a controls for their house that is of a high standard and ensures technological innovation and luxury, from home cinema to home automation management of all aspects of daily life.
A “must have” for all the enthusiasts of technology who wish to have an interconnected and technological home, safe and efficient. | https://medium.com/@ictadmin_48911/which-is-the-best-smart-home-system-920d2862b753 | ['Massimo Prando'] | 2019-02-25 12:23:27.743000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Home Automation', 'Home Automation System', 'Smart Home'] |
Touch | I feel the sensation
When you roll your fingers over me
Heart starts beating fast,
Breath, deep and vast
You go beneath and touch my soul
I get crazy and can’t control
You grab me, squeeze me
mixed feelings are there,
Sweet pain with immense pleasure
We wrap each other
Like body under cover
We go ever deeper
Excitement lit the fire and we burn making love desire… | https://medium.com/poetry-under-cover/touch-e029f3c6ca0b | ['Shipra Gupta'] | 2020-10-01 15:26:58.158000+00:00 | ['Touch Prompt', 'Poetry', 'Poetry Under Cover'] |
F-A-N-T-İ-K-O | 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/mertnews/f-a-n-t-i%CC%87-k-o-73db512f1dcb | [] | 2020-12-12 09:45:55.895000+00:00 | ['Fethullah Gülen', '15 Temmuz', 'Türkiye', 'Aziz Nesin', 'Turkey'] |
Let’s Talk About Love | Let’s Talk About Love
In the last article I wrote a bit about God being love.
When I was younger, I thought they were different types of Love. Romantic Love, family Love, Godly Love, not knowing Love is love, you just have different levels of it according to how much you know of it.
I have heard people say Love is blind, I have to say I believe this because when you see someone through Love (God), you only see the good.
Love has no fear, no limitations. It is the only real thing that exists, however, speaking on behalf of my generation, it is something that is scarce and unreal.
When we are born, we are born with love, it gets suppressed as we grow older gathering all types of information. I don’t know about you but I am from a broken home and Love wasn’t our strongest suit. To make things worse, I have grown up in an African home where the man of the house isn’t close to his female children because they are female and he is male. Let’s say the beliefs and culture think of love as a weakness.
Understanding that Love as a weapon and not weakness is the point where you have a shift in perception. Love endures all things, it is the solution to all situations/problems. Now you are wondering how this is true lol.
When you are afraid, ask for love, when you are in pain ask for love, when your friends/family pick up fights with you, show them love. When you are broke, manifest from love because it’s the highest frequency.
Love is the opposite of fear, meaning where Love is, there’s no fear. When someone acts out in anger, they are afraid. When someone hurts you, they fearing something. When someone’s ego acts out, they are afraid.
I Once dated a Taurus, I know, Leo and Taurus? Lol. He fell in love with me and because I thought I wasn’t worthy of his love, I didn’t accept it and played around with his emotions. To me, he was just another guy I would waste time with.
Firstly, I didn’t recognize it as love because it felt alienated. He didn’t want anything from me and to me that wasn’t love. He was complete without me (I wanted him to want me, no, to need me) and because I didn’t recognize it was love, it didn’t feel good.
Secondly, I was afraid to show him who I was really because I was so sure he was going to leave me. A girl who is so broken, scared to trust, scared to love, who doesn’t know what love is.
It’s after I dated an Aries who had the characteristics that drove me crazy lol. Narcissistic as I was, closed like I was and this time I around I am the one who fell in love.
I quantify soulmate as “a person with whom one has a feeling of deep love such that they wake your soul up for you to be a better person, live better, love better”. I believe the Aries was my soulmate but I wasn’t his.
Only after this did I have a craving, a hunger for love. I wanted to know and experience love. I researched, I read the Bible, asked people about their experiences with Love and then finally The Four Lettered word gave me meaning.
I chose to love myself, I chose to be a definition of love. Love saved me. It healed me. It gave me purpose. Love is the energy that flows through me everyday and I am able to live a fulfilled life because of this simple choice I made.
I manifest my dreams through Love and they come to life. Love goes before me and calms down the water at war so that I am at peace all the time.
Jesus died so that we can enjoy the gift of life, this love is so amazing you need to taste it. And once tasted, you can never go back. I love everything and everyone around me, I love my family, I love my life’s story because the art of me going back to Love is spectacularly beautiful.
A broken girl who found Love and became whole. Love has made the pattern for me to be mentally, emotionally, physically, financially wealthy and the first in my family to step on such grounds.
Love has brought me to a place of gratitude s wisdom. I am forever grateful for this Love. I pray you can give Love a chance.
I am finally home… | https://medium.com/@lunarndinawe/lets-talk-about-love-bb8562323eb3 | ['Lunar Ndinawe'] | 2021-04-11 11:22:05.529000+00:00 | ['Love', 'Purpose', 'Meaning', 'God'] |
The Six Times I Did Not Tell My Mom I’m Transgender | The Six Times I Did Not Tell My Mom I’m Transgender
I only wish I’d found a way to talk to her about the daughter she never knew she had
Photo by Andrei Lasc on Unsplash
Many trans people can identify times in their lives when they wished they could have come out to a parent, sibling, friend, or significant other. Recently, I reflected on times I wished I could’ve been more assertive sharing my true gender with my mom. It is my hope that reading these stories will prompt a mom out there to look a little deeper, ask another question, or start another conversation that will allow their child to express themselves.
Some of these events happened later in life. In those cases, I hope other trans people realize it is really up to us to take the lead living an authentic life. It is up to us to decide the pace and path of our journeys. Please understand that I am not suggesting how or when anyone else should come out. I just wish I had found a way to talk to my mom about the daughter she never knew she had.
1.) 5, on the bed
One of the first questions we get asked when we come out is “When did you first know you were transgender?” It can be difficult to definitively answer. But I can confidently say it was when I was 5 years old in 1966.
In 1966, they had never played a Superbowl. There were no digital calculators. There was no digital anything. And the only person who had been in the news as a “transsexual” was Christine Jorgensen in 1952. Otherwise, if a man were to suggest they felt like or aligned as a woman, they would’ve likely found themselves in intensive therapy, hospitalized for observation, or shock therapy.
My first moment of trans-sanity occurred one afternoon as a 5-year old when I woke up from a nap on my parents bed. I was alone in the house with my mother. My father was at work and my siblings were all in school. And I recall wondering “Why was I not born a girl on the outside?”
At age 5, I was not aware of the term “transgender.” It would not even be introduced into the social lexicon for another 30 years. What I was aware of was that I was seen and treated as a boy, and I wished and prayed that I would wake up and be seen and treated as the girl I knew myself to be.
This was the first time I did not tell my mom I was transgender. It may sound crazy, but the thought did cross my mind to ask my mom “why?” But even then, the knowledge of being different, of being other, created a deep level of shame within.
There is a sense within a 5 year old of what is ‘acceptable’ to ‘normal’ people. This was not ‘normal.’ This was not ‘acceptable.’ It crossed over from what was ‘possible’ to what was ‘fanciful.’ A 5 year old boy convinced that he is a she is beyond what most people consider ‘normal.’ And it was enough to keep me from telling my mom she had a third daughter, not a son.
2.) I don’t feel right down there…
When you suppress a part of yourself, it will come out in other ways. It has to. When you suppress something as basic as your gender — perhaps the largest defining aspect of who you are as a human being — it will start to mess with your sense of self. Even if you have the best support system and family. Even if you don’t tell anyone about your struggle.
I had a friend who, at a young age, suffered with a hernia. We were 12. At the time, I was entering puberty. Changes were happening to my body, changes that I never wanted to happen. Changes that were starting to transform my immature body into one with more masculine features. Whether it was a physical change or my emotional reaction to it, I was convinced something was definitely going wrong in my groin.
In retrospect, I still held out hope that one morning I would wake up and the changes would be reversed. I held out hope that I would experience the puberty that must have been on my original medical chart. The internal medical chart identifying me as a woman. Instead, the transformation into a more mature male was tearing me apart. With each passing day, the thought that my unrevealed vagina was not going to appear or make itself known was causing a physical discomfort between my legs.
I thought it was time. If I could get to a doctor and have him check me out for a hernia, surely he would discover the as-yet undiscovered vagina obscured within me. Once and for all they would finally discover and realize that I was a girl and not a guy. This was my way to have the discussion with my mom based on an exam our doctor performed and his discovery of my true gender. I would simply tell my mom I did not feel right down there, and let medical science do the rest.
Unfortunately it was still 1973 and it was highly doubtful our family doctor had even heard of Dr. Renee Richards (or Richard Raskind). Even if he had, that was a one-off, an exception. It had nothing to do with the kid in the exam room going through puberty. Instead of being discovered as the girl I knew I was, my dream of the discovery of a hidden female reproductive system within me was crushed. “Everything looks and feels normal. No need to worry!”
Medical science — vs — a 12 year old kid. Who you gonna believe?
My mom still didn’t know.
3.) Do you want to grow out your hair?
After we slowly recovered from the doctor incident, a few years later I had my next and maybe best chance to come out to my mom. It was still two years before Renee Richards would become a household name.
We were still a long way away from the explosion of information available on the internet. At least 25 years away from being able to investigate anything resembling being transgender. Even widespread use of the term transgender would not begin to happen in my world for at least another 10 to 15 years.
And yet, here was my mom asking me, “Do you want to grow your hair out like B. down the street?” And here was me caught completely off guard. Shocked. And as much as I wanted to grow out my hair and say “yes!” I subconsciously felt my lips, tongue, and mouth saying “No!”
There were three major factors that manifested in that quick and resilient No! I was in Junior High — the most difficult time in a kid’s life. Anything that would make me more different would increase the level of difficulty in my life. This was not the floor exercises or high bar or diving where the level of difficulty would increase your score. It would only increase the chances of social failure.
“Between the repressed shame, being caught off guard, and a natural aversion to mullets, I was not able to tell my mom I was transgender.”
I was also involved in sports, with an athletic code “for boys” that did not allow long hair. Above the collar. We had longer hair back then, but still not long hair in sports.
Finally, the guy down the street had a mullet cut. So when she added “like B. down the street” my first reaction, which I was able to stifle, was to edit out the outing response of: “No woman would be caught dead in a mullet haircut!”
Between the repressed shame, being caught off guard, and a natural aversion to mullets, I was not able to tell my mom I was transgender. It was a difficult time. Life is really hard in middle school. Confusing. Exploring your identity at any time is difficult. Doing it during Middle School or Junior High is like crossing a high wire between two buildings blindfolded.
4.) Out on my own
Other than recently, this was the time I really thought I would explore my gender identity and discover a new world within me. I did, to an extent. It just turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would be.
I was just out of college and got a job in sales in a large midwestern city. I thought I would be comfortable in the anonymity of a larger city to try exploring the new world around me, presenting as a woman.
As many of us discover, there are no geographical solutions to the problem — or opportunity — of being transgender. Just different surroundings. And the surroundings I found myself in were really not any more welcoming than those I grew up in, or those I experienced in college, or the vast darkness between my ears. I was just the same person on a different block. Still just Joanna from the small town.
I tried scouting out some areas I thought might be accepting of me. I went to a bar that had a drag show. But I was like a fish out of water. I went disguised as my male self and it was not a comfortable feeling. I left before the first performer was on stage and only wound up more confused, instead of being able to go out with any confidence. It’s a hard-knock life for us.
Photo by Cortney White on Unsplash
It was during this time that I’d hoped to establish whether or not I would be comfortable presenting myself outside of work. In that dream, I would eventually see myself telling my mom that inside I knew I was a girl from a young age, and that the young girl that was with me then had blossomed into a beautiful young woman.
It was also around this time that I asked my mom if she had picked out a girl’s name for me when she was pregnant. She said she could not really recall what name they had picked out. She asked why I brought it up and I stammered something about just being curious. Another missed opportunity.
I started to build a feminine wardrobe and go to several wig shops around town. But the progress I envisioned was still a long ways down the road.
Which leads me to the next event…
5.) Do you want to be a Showgirl?
Even if I was not fully progressing into the woman I’d dreamed of being, there was time on my own to practice make up techniques, develop a sense of fashion, and correspond with other gender non-conforming women.
Donohue, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Oprah were featuring many people who took shelter under the transgender umbrella in those days. Every week I would search the television listings, desperate to see if any of the talk shows were featuring stories on crossdressing or transgender guests. I was thirsting to find others who shared a common experience, to see how they survived and what I might learn from them.
Gender identity issues were beginning to become more mainstream in the late 80s and early 90s. It was a little before Jerry Springer, thank God, so even though many of the shows had a voyeuristic feel to them, most guests were treated seriously and with respect.
Where I lived at the time — a flat without a washer or dryer — doing my laundry was not convenient. So trips back home meant bringing my laundry and borrowing Mom’s washer and dryer. Many of those early Saturday mornings were spent in a fog recovering from the night before. Often, before I could do my laundry, my mom would already have it in the dryer.
On one of those weekends, I came as close as I ever had to outing myself. I came down from my slumber, and if I remember correctly, my mom asked me to go into the basement with her to look at something. I thought she had some gossip or needed to tell me of something to avoid around my dad.
I was half right. She had some juicy gossip. But it wasn’t about someone else. It was about me! It seems a tag from a recent wig purchase had fallen into my laundry bag and when my mom emptied it out, and voilà! I was quasi-outed.
“Do you want to be a Showgirl?” The name of the wig was ‘Showgirl,’ and it was gorgeous. Long, flowing, and wavy! She did not ask in a nasty or accusatory tone, but rather, a tone of surprise… yet not necessarily concerned surprise.
“Of course I do!” is what I wanted to scream. Alas. I don’t even really recall how I responded. Incredulous? It must have gotten mixed in by accident at another trip to the laundromat? I somehow slinked off with a likely “No!” and another blown opportunity to come out as myself.
It is hard to go back all those years and experience those same emotions, and only wonder what may have been.
I recall my mom being somewhat amused by the thought of me as a showgirl. And maybe that is what was most painful. But she wouldn’t, she really couldn’t know how I was feeling without me telling her.
None of us are mind readers. But maybe if you find yourself one day holding a tag from a wig, in a bag of your son’s laundry, be gentle, be kind, and don’t accept a weak, nonsensical answer when your intuition tells you there is someone else standing in front of you.
6.) Divorce and a new identity
Going through my divorce was the most difficult time in my life. Nobody gets married to get divorced. And there are as many expectations for marriage as there are people who get married. Mine were extremely high, with a commitment to making it strong and “until death us do part.” So when the parting came with the premature death of our marriage, I was devastated.
My siblings knew of problems in my marriage, but my mom did not. I was hopeful that the marriage could be restored, and did not want to burden my mom unnecessarily if it could be avoided. She was in a nursing home at the time and her memory was failing. Telling her once would be hard. Having to tell her repeatedly why my wife was not with me was too much to bear.
Eventually, it became too difficult to keep from my mom the fact that my marriage was dying. We lived out of state, so I needed to plan a weekend to go back and tell her. It was as difficult as I imagined, but at the same time, her love and support was incredibly healing and affirming. Nobody loves you like your mom, or knows you as well. My fear that it would be too much for her evaporated as her words and kindness soothed my heart and began to help heal my wounds.
At the time I was in no place to reveal my being transgender to my mom. In fact, at the time, I was at a point where I had tried to suppress and “pray away” the reality of who I was (and am).
In large part, I felt who I was had been a major cause of the divorce. It wasn’t. If anything, the denial of who I was may have been the bigger factor, leading to resentment on my part and withdrawal and dis-connectedness from my wife. So, revealing my female essence was the last thing on my mind. But I list this as a time I did not tell my mom because it was one of the last times I could have told her in person. The divorce was final in the spring of 2007. My mom passed away in the summer of 2008.
Today
I wish my mom were here now. I am finally ready to tell her.
Mom, you have another daughter. I wish you could have curled my hair as a girl. I wish you could have taken me shopping for my first communion dress instead of to the doctor when I didn’t feel right. I wish I had been honest about wanting to let my hair grow out, past my shoulders and onto my breasts.
I wish you would have remembered what girl’s name you had picked out for me. I wish I had been honest about wanting to be a Las Vegas showgirl. Or even just to go to Las Vegas as a woman. I wish I could experience the same love and affirmation you gave me during the divorce as I will need if and when I finally transition into the woman I have always been.
I wish I knew if you knew or suspected, that when you were carrying me, or when I was a little girl, or was going through puberty, or struggling finding myself, or going through my divorce… if at any point you knew I was your transgender daughter.
It would have made all the difference. Even now. | https://medium.com/gender-from-the-trenches/the-six-times-i-did-not-tell-my-mom-im-transgender-82c803c978cd | ['Joanna Miles'] | 2020-10-14 17:53:36.804000+00:00 | ['Coming Out', 'Parents', 'Family', 'Mothers And Daughters', 'Transgender'] |
AMAL TOTKAY | A challenge only becomes an obstacle when you bow to it. — Ray Davis
Amal Totkay are basically the key points for developing a growth mindset. These are the principles that essentially guide you to be a better person and professional. Following are the five postulates of Amal Totkay.
Self Talk Get out of your comfort zone Create new habit Ask people help Fake it till you make it
1. Self Talk
The first tip is “SELF-TALK”. I think self-talk is a form of motivation that you give yourself to adapt to things that you want to do in life. It is very important for a growth mindset as it helps in the nourishment of different ideas. It removes negativity from your life and gives you a clear perspective. It’s my personal favorite as it allows me to look into things differently from a normal perspective. It allows not only growth at a personal level but also at the professional level. In my personal life sometimes I get biased towards certain things, when I do so, I try to look up ways that how will I do it differently, It takes time to analyze but it is worth trying as it allows me to be an open-minded person in terms of accepting situations that I normally don’t feel doing. The result is always better trust me. However, on a professional level, I think it helps in growing your community and your ideology. So I think it’s a fair deal to try to self-talk and get better results.
2. Get out of your comfort zone
The Comfort zone is basically a space that we feel comfortable in. In life, there come situations when you have to do certain things that you feel, are so out of your comfort zone so what to do then? The answer is to practice getting out of your comfortable space and try new and different things in order to deal with situations. Many times we don’t reach our goal because we are so afraid to take that first step and somehow the urge to get to that point diminishes over time if we don’t try continuously. So it is important that you must challenge yourself every day to try new things. It definitely pays off in the end and makes you adaptable to the environment.
3. “CREATE NEW HABITS”
In my opinion, Habits are of two types, one that you are born with and second that you adapt growing up in your life. While one is instilled the latter can be changed and renewed. Adapting powerful habits into your day that help you grow, change and reinforce your thinking with action. If you are upgrading from a “fixed” to a “growth” mindset, schedule time for learning and start noting down your learnings and achievements every day. The best way to implement it is that you build a schedule that at the end of the day fulfills your first step towards your goal.
4. “ASK PEOPLE HELP”
I have this habit of doing everything by myself but sometimes there comes a situation where I need a new opinion/ perspective. So in this aspect, I tried to communicate more in terms of my professional life, and it really shows the difference in my day-to-day life. A simple and obvious benefit of asking for help is that other people can help you move forward. If you think about what area you could use some help and ask someone who has the right knowledge, skills, resources, or connections, you increase your chances of learning and of making progress.
5. “FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT”
It is an old saying that whatever you wish to happen, start thinking and living in it. Afraid of the results we didn’t even try but that’s not right. The first step is to identify the goal that you want to achieve, the next step is to train your brain that you can do it and practice again and again. Finally, apply it in daily life, work towards it and in the end, you definitely achieve your goal. | https://medium.com/@hafiz.mmuneeb199/amal-totkay-2d08552763cf | ['Dr. Muneeb'] | 2021-08-24 10:05:05.498000+00:00 | ['Amal Fellowship', 'Amal Totkay', 'Amal Academy'] |
Top 10 tips for your first year teaching computer science | So you’re about to enter the magical world of teaching computer science, combining the creativity of lesson planning with the satisfying problem-solving of coding. From curriculum to classroom culture, there’s a lot to think about as you dive into teaching a subject for the first time.
1. Don’t start from scratch.
There are many pre-made curricula available for computer science classes, and a number of them are free! You can use the curriculum outline of a pre-made course to help design the scope and sequence of your own class and cherry-pick the provided activities that you like.
If you have more than two new preps, activities in the pre-made classes can also be a fallback when life gets crazy (as it inevitably will for first-year teachers).
Some great free resources to start looking at include the Scratch Curriculum Guide (K-8), Code.org (K–12), and CodeHS (6–12).
For AP classes, using a standard curriculum can also help ensure that you cover all the material at the appropriate speed. Although options for AP Computer Science A are more limited and expensive, there are many free options for AP Computer Science Principles, such as the Beauty & Joy of Computing and Mobile CSP for less experienced students and Harvard’s CS50 for more experienced students.
Over time, you might design entire classes from scratch. But when you’re just starting out, it’s more efficient to stand on the shoulders of giants and build on what’s been done before. And you can still personalize the curriculum and make it your own!
2. Stay at least a step ahead of your students.
Regardless of the curriculum you use, make sure you do it yourself to understand what your students will experience! Completing the exercises and labs will help you better assist students and anticipate mistakes.
You may also have to learn new languages or computer programs. Even if you have a degree in Computer Science, it may not have covered Scratch, App Inventor, or p5.js! It’s best to familiarize yourself with new technology as much as possible so that you are better able to answer student questions.
3. Create a classroom culture of inquiry and mistake-making.
It’s great if you can answer student questions, but you’re not always going to have the answer. From the first day of school, share with students the reality that computer science is a vast field where no one knows everything. Developing software is not about having the answers, but about cultivating the ability to figure things out using your resources: your classmates, the internet, and your teacher.
Encourage students to follow a personal empowerment protocol to figure things out when they have a question. Similar to “ask three, then me,” this protocol encourages students to…
Ask a peer
Google it
Ask the teacher
This protocol both helps students become independent problem-solvers, and also helps ensure the teacher isn’t bombarded with questions.
Finally, normalize errors and mistake-making. Assure students that errors are part of a programmer’s daily life, and model dealing with errors yourself during code-alongs. Consider starting an “Error Tally” in your classroom where you tally all the errors that occur and celebrate them as a representation of all the things the class has learned today.
4. Establish clear expectations for computer use.
You don’t want students playing Fortnite when they’re supposed to be working through programming exercises. In your classroom management plan, include clear expectations for computer use, including the fact that computers should only be used for class activities.
Depending on the age group of the students, consider establishing routines for computer use as well. Will students be allowed to open their computers before class students, or will they need to wait for permission from you?
Students also generally will have difficulty listening to you if their computers are open, absorbing their attention. Have them put their computers at 45 degrees (halfway closed) or even fully closed whenever you need their attention. Model what this behavior looks like: should they be slouched in their chair to still see their tilted screen, fingers still moving on the keyboard? (No.) Tell them they can close their computers fully if they anticipate that the computer will still be a distraction at 45 degrees.
These are all expectations and routines that you can establish and practice in the first week of school!
5. Establish clear expectations for academic honesty.
So much code is available on the internet, from Scratch programs to AP Java solutions. Level with your students: although professional programmers use the internet as a resource, your students are in an academic setting where they are expected to write their own code and do their own work in order to learn.
Harvard’s CS50 course has a great set of academic honesty guidelines that can be adapted to a high school setting. Consider putting some version of these guidelines in your syllabus:
Academic Honesty Guidelines
Be reasonable: do not copy solutions off the internet.
You may discuss the problems with peers.
When asking for help, you may show a peer your code, use and cite online resources, and ask the teacher for help.
for help, you may show a peer your code, use and cite online resources, and ask the teacher for help. When giving help, you may not show a peer your code. You may critique a peer’s code and ask guiding questions to help a peer see the solution.
Discuss the guidelines on day one, and even give the students a few hypothetical situations that they can judge as violations of academic honesty or not!
6. Use pair programming.
Which is more desirable: an uncomfortably silent classroom, except for the sound of typing, as students silently struggle to solve complex problems? Or a classroom humming with on-topic conversation and debate between pairs of students?
Computers can isolate students, but they don’t have to if you use pair programming and have students complete certain labs and problems in pairs!
By working together, students help solidify each other’s programming knowledge and keep each other on task. They enjoy the class more and become less intimidated by computer science.
Pair programming is a great intermediate step between learning a new concept and solving a problem individually. Make it a routine in your class, and then give students a chance to demonstrate mastery on their own.
If you’re interested in some pair programming techniques, check out our last blog post on promoting collaboration in a computer science classroom.
7. Have a lot of back-up activities.
It’s hard to entirely blame students for playing Fortnite if they’ve done all the assignments and you have nothing else for them to do. So make sure you’ve got lots of back-up activities for the early finishers!
Extra challenges in the daily assignments can help differentiate your class and give students an opportunity to build their coding skills. Resources for extra practice, like CodingBat for Java and Python, are another great option for early finishers.
It also helps to have ongoing projects or problem sets that students can work on whenever they finish their daily assignments.
Beyond the curriculum, you can invite students to pursue any track on Codecademy or SoloLearn that interests them, and even reward them with a prize (e.g. programming-related stickers or keychains) if they finish a whole track.
You can also allow them to free create in whatever programming language you are currently using. While some students thrive on this option, others need more structure, so an array of options is helpful.
8. Connect with other computer science teachers.
Chances are you’re the only computer science teacher in your school, making it essential for you to connect with other teachers. You will glean the most wisdom from other, more experienced computer science teachers. So how do you connect with these people?
It’s great to meet people in person, so attend professional development events in your local area. Make a Twitter account if you don’t have one, and stay in touch with educators you meet on there (Twitter is pretty popular among teachers).
Once you’re on Twitter, search out other K-12 CS teachers. Participate in Twitter chats like #ethicalCS and #csk8 to meet other teachers and share knowledge.
If you’re on Facebook, join the Computer Science Educators group and, if you teach APs, the AP Computer Science A Teachers and AP Computer Science Principles Teachers groups.
Here’s the crucial part: ask for advice! Research shows that asking for advice makes you look more competent, so there’s nothing to be afraid of. The computer science teacher community is generous, and you will likely receive an outpouring of responses.
9. Have a growth mindset.
You get better at teaching through experience, which means that when you first start teaching a subject, you’re probably not amazing at it… yet. But will grow and become a fabulous computer science teacher through experience and professional development!
Sometimes your intricately-planned lessons will flop. Whenever this happens, note it and write down the changes you’ll make next time you teach it. If you have time, you can even revamp your lesson plan and materials right then and there! See, already you’re becoming a better teacher.
10. Have a non-computing hobby.
Teaching is pretty all-consuming, and there’s always more to learn about computer science. But don’t let teaching computer science take over your life, or you’ll burn out.
Establish some ground rules to maintain some kind of work/life balance. A few good starter ones are not working after 8pm on school nights and picking one weekend day when you won’t do any school work (or when you’ll just work in the morning).
To help yourself stay away from work, have activities and people in your life totally unrelated to teaching or computers. Sign up for a workout class, learn Spanish, get really into cooking, go to a beach volleyball meetup… anything you enjoy that will help you recharge after teaching!
Conclusion
The first year teaching any subject is the hardest. But once you get to your second year, you’ll have so much more knowledge about how to teach computer science, and so many more lessons prepared that you’ll be able to reuse and build on! | https://medium.com/upperlinecode/top-10-tips-for-your-first-year-teaching-computer-science-7225d57c65e5 | ['Kelly Lougheed'] | 2019-02-04 22:26:11.402000+00:00 | ['Computer Science', 'Education', 'Debugging', 'Teaching'] |
‘In the Heights’ might be the next ‘Hamilton’ | It’s no secret that 2020 has not been kind to the film industry. Feature film production has halted, social distancing measures have been implemented, and movie theaters have closed down — virtually recorded content and at-home streaming has become the new norm.
In response to these changes, release of the major motion picture In the Heights, directed by Crazy Rich Asians mastermind Jon M. Chu, has been pushed back an entire year, from June 2020 to June 2021. With a production budget of $15 million USD, the financial hit of an at home release would be disastrous. The musical, based on the book by Quiara Alegría Hudes with music by Hamilton’s own Lin-Manuel Miranda, was first performed live in 2005. Set in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, this musical new rendition is sure to be worth the wait.
Get ready to see familiar faces.
In the lead role of Usnavi, you’ll recognize actor Anthony Ramos from his parts as John Laurens and Philip Hamilton in Hamilton. In addition to his role as producer, you’ll also recognize Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton himself, as Mr. Piragüero. The star-studded cast also includes Stephanie Beatriz from Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Dasha Polancho from Orange is the New Black. If their past work is any indication of their upcoming release, then In the Heights is sure to impress.
Get ready to face social justice issues.
In the Heights explores challenges specific to residents of the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, Washington Heights, on the most Northern end of Manhattan. According to Data USA, 64.4% of residents are native Spanish speakers, and 47.4% of residents were born outside of the United States.
Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City
Issues such as gentrification and systemic poverty are main plot points, and the movie will surely bring awareness to plights that are specific to marginalized minority communities. Audiences will hopefully walk away from the film with a better understanding of how privilege works in the United States.
Get ready to experience a musical like no other.
The success of Hamilton creates high hopes for In the Heights. While this might add to the pressures the production team is under, Lin-Manuel Miranda has proved his professionalism and talent, and his new passion project is sure to impress. In charge of the music and lyrics, he is likely to provide another fantastic experience that pulls viewers away from their reality and into his world for a 2 full hours.
One thing is for sure, In the Heights will provide a warm welcome back into theaters next summer, and certainly has the potential to pass Hamilton up. | https://medium.com/robin-reviews/in-the-heights-might-be-the-next-hamilton-a8737f1d9874 | ['Robin Dakota'] | 2020-07-16 23:47:56.260000+00:00 | ['Musicals', 'Film', 'Film Reviews', 'Movie Review', 'Movies'] |
CBD — A MIRACLE CURE FOR MULTIPLE AILMENT? | CBD, the non-psychoactive compound naturally occurring in the cannabis plant, is being touted as one of the most important discoveries in the mental health domain. This is because it does not have the mind-altering influence of the THC and yet retails all its benefits. No wonder CBD is becoming the most explored type of treatment for many mental issues, like depression, anxiety, and panic disorder.
Depression is one of the most common mental health conditions that can have adverse effects on one’s life. In more severe cases, it can incapacitate daily functioning of the one who is suffering from it. The disability-which is mental in nature-may be so intense that one is unable to get out of bed even, while a psychiatrist prescribes pharma drugs in such situations, these have serious side effects like sleeplessness, mood swings, and sexual dysfunction. CBD has no such side effects and thus scores over these drugs. Research suggests that CBD helps in production of serotonin, called the happy chemical, which contributes to wellness and feelings of being happy. This emotional state is the tipping point in starting the battle against depression sans any side effects.
The similar benefits are extended in conditions like panic disorders and anxiety. It is estimated that, worldwide, 5% of population experiences unexpected and recurring panic attacks. And a higher percentage suffers from anxiety on almost daily basis. These debilitating conditions can have crippling effects on a patient’s life. On the other hand, the treatment itself- in the form of available pharmaceutical drugs-is financially crippling due to their high price. Besides, the side effect may overshadow the treatment that they promise. As against this, a single dose of CBD can almost instantly mitigate the anxiety levels and help reduce the number and strength of panic attacks.
Psychologists, psychotherapists, and psychiatrists in increasing number around the world are including CBD in their therapy sessions, with very encouraging customers. Yet there is no gainsaying the fact that full potential of CBD is yet to be unearthed; further research is needed.
For more info @ https://reportoceanblog.com/cbd-a-miracle-cure-for-multiple-ailment/ | https://medium.com/@annahudson170887/cbd-a-miracle-cure-for-multiple-ailment-3e27dc630dee | ['Anna Hudson'] | 2019-11-27 08:41:58.782000+00:00 | ['Cannabis', 'Cbd'] |
ViteX Mining Guide | Background
ViteX, developed by Vite Labs, is the world’s first DAG-based decentralized exchange. ViteX Coin, VX, is the coin native to the ViteX platform. It is mined exclusively by the ViteX community and is used to allocate rewards back to the community.
VX holders can receive daily dividends from a shared dividend pool which aggregates all trading & listing fees accumulated by ViteX and redistributes back to VX holders.
Overview: 5 Mining Methods
I. Trading as Mining
Trade in BTC, ETH, VITE and USDT markets and receive VX rewards.
II. Market-Making as Mining
Help improve order book depth by placing buy and sell orders and receive VX rewards.
III. Staking as Mining
Stake VITE to help ViteX obtain higher level operational quota and receive VX rewards.
IV. Referring as Mining
Generate a referral code to invite friends to join the ViteX platform and receive VX rewards.
Inviter will be rewarded with 5% of all invitees’ trading as mining proceeds and 2.5% of their market making as mining proceeds.
Invitees will enjoy 10% off platform trading fees, and receive an extra 2.5% of trading rewards and extra 1.25% of market-making rewards.
V. Listing as Mining (Operators Only)
Become a ViteX operator and list trading pairs to collect user transactions fees and receive VX rewards.
Mining Details
I. Trading as Mining
Mines approximately 60% of daily released VX. Currently, users are able to trade in four markets: BTC, ETH, VITE and USDT and receive VX rewards accordingly.
Allocation: As mentioned above, ViteX is currently divided into four different markets: BTC, ETH, VITE and USDT. By trading in these markets, users are able to receive VX mining rewards. Each market will receive 15% of daily distributed VX.
How to participate: By executing trades on eligible trading pairs and paying the corresponding trading fees, users mine VX (Trading as Mining).
Mining reward calculation: VX rewards are calculated based on the proportion of a user’s daily accumulated trading fee to the total accumulated fees in each market. For example, for a given day, if a trader accumulates 5% of the total BTC market trading fees, then that trader will receive 5% of the 15% of VX rewards allocated to the BTC market.
II. Market-Making as Mining
Mines 10% of daily released VX; BTC market at 5%, ETH and VITE market equally at 1.5%, USDT market at 2%.
Placing orders on ViteX will also earn users VX rewards. The amount of VX earned depends on three factors: 1) the amount of order, 2) the amount of time your order remains on the order book, and 3) the amount of deviation from the best bid and best offer in the order book spread.
Allocation: 10% of daily released VX; BTC market at 5%, ETH and VITE market equally at 1.5%, USDT market at 2%.
How to participate:
Only eligible trading pairs will be considered for market-making as mining rewards
Both buy and sell orders are considered for market-making as mining rewards
Orders must not deviate from the designated mining range in the order book
Mining reward calculation:
The VX mining reward for market-making has a linear relationship with the order amount and order duration (i.e. amount of time the pending order stays on the order book). However, the mining reward has an exponential relationship with the order distance (i.e. the deviation from the best bid offer).
For example, if Alice and Bob both place two separate orders for the same amount of token X. Both orders remain on the order book for the same amount of time. However, Alice prices her order on level 1 (i.e., extremely close to the best bid offer) and Bob prices his order on level 10 (i.e. further away from the best bid offer), the mining reward for Alice will be 100 times that of Bob’s. This system is designed to incentive users to place orders as close to the best bid offer as possible.
III. Staking as Mining
By staking VITE to help ViteX obtain operational quota, users receive VX rewards.
Allocation: 20% of daily released VX
How to participate: stake VITE with the beneficiary set to the ViteX smart contract
Staking amount: the minimum amount of VITE that users can stake is 134 VITE. There is no maximum cap.
Staking duration: Stakes can be retrieved after 3 days. There is no maximum number of days for staking VITE. There will be a retrieving period of 7 days, and stakes will not be counted towards staking as mining rewards during this period.
Mining reward calculation : the amount of VX rewards will be calculated based on the proportion of VITE staked by a user’s account to the total amount of VITE staked that day.
IV. Referring as Mining
User can request invitation codes to invite friends to join the ViteX platform.
Inviter will be rewarded with 5% of all invitees’ trading as mining proceeds and 2.5% of their market making as mining proceeds.
Invitees will enjoy 10% off platform trading fees, and receive an extra 2.5% of trading rewards and extra 1.25% of market-making rewards.
How to participate: Spend 1,000 VITE to generate a referral code, of which 100% will be burned
Note: If you are a ViteX VIP (users who have staked 10,000 VITE to obtain a 50% reduction in trading fees) AND joined ViteX via a referral code, your 10% discount will be applied after the reduction.
V. Listing as Mining (Operators Only)
For each trading pair listed, the issuer’s VX reward is then calculated as if he/she executed a trade involving a transaction fee of 1,000 VITE.
Operators can list trading pairs, customize transaction fees, and generate profits from users that choose to trade on their Zone.
VX Distribution Schedule
The total supply of VX will be 29,328,807.8 with no inflation. The total supply of VX will be fully distributed in two phases.
Phase 1 : Buffer phase that has ended on December 6, 2019. A fixed amount of 10,000 VX was released daily.
: Buffer phase that has ended on December 6, 2019. A fixed amount of 10,000 VX was released daily. Phase 2 : Standard Phase. In this phase, all un-mined VX will be released according to below schedule:
: Standard Phase. In this phase, all un-mined VX will be released according to below schedule: Sub-phase 1: Starting at 10,000 from December 7, 2019, daily release will increase for 90 days at a fixed rate until reaching 50,000 on March 6, 2020
Sub-phase 2: Starting from March 7, 2020, annual release will decrease by half each year until fully distributed after 8 years.
VX Mining Allocation
Allocation of VX daily release by proportion:
Trading, Referring and Listing: 60%
BTC market: 15%
ETH market: 15%
VITE market: 15%
USDT market: 15%
Staking: 20%
Market-making: 10%
Vite team: 10%
VX Holder Dividends
All fees collected by the ViteX platform will be collected into a shared dividend pool and distributed at a rate of 1% daily. For any given day, the total fees collected during that day will be fully distributed by the 100th day.
To receive your dividends:
• A minimum of 10 VX must be staked in the exchange account. Please note that VX held in a wallet or exchange account will not make you eligible for dividends;
• Participant is entitled to receive dividends starting with the next distribution immediately after submission of staking request;
• Staked VX will be released after the 7-day waiting period once retrieved. No dividend will be received during this waiting period.
Users can enable automatic staking. Mined VX will be automatically staked once enabled, purchased VX is not subject to this function.
Transaction Fees
Transaction Fee Formula
For all transactions on ViteX, incomplete orders do not incur any fees.
Total Transaction Fee = Base Trading Fee + Operator Zone Fee
Unlike other DEXes, ViteX does not charge fees for pending orders and withdrawals provided that users have the requisite amount of quota. Related documentation: What is quota.
Base Trading Fee: 0.2%
This trading fee will be applied to all trading pairs in the ViteX ecosystem. All the fees collected from this will be put into the shared dividend pool to be redistributed back to VX holders.
Operator Zone Fee: 0–0.2%
This is the fee that will be set by ViteX Operators for their respective Zones. Operators may set fees ranging from 0% to 0.2%. Proceeds from this fee belong to the Operators.
Reducing Trading Fees
Stake 10,000 VITE to become a VIP and receive 50% off basic trading fees
(Minimum Staking Duration: 30 days )
(Minimum Staking Duration: ) Use a Referral Code and receive 10% off trading fees
(Refer to Referring as Mining section for details)
Note: For any VIP user using a referral code, another 10% will be taken off incurred trading fees after the 50% reduction. | https://medium.com/vitelabs/vitex-mining-guide-1d73052e61ff | ['Khun Sir'] | 2020-05-25 03:35:46.995000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Exchange', 'Vitex', 'Resources', 'Mining'] |
Javascript Data Structure | Part 1. Built-in Data Structures
What is Data Structure?
The way you organize data.
What is an Algorithm?
The way you solve the problem.
Built-in Data Structures
Array
Set
Map
Object
Array
Arrays are list-like objects whose prototype has methods to perform traversal and mutation operations. Neither the length of a JavaScript array nor the types of its elements are fixed. Since an array’s length can change at any time, and data can be stored at non-contiguous locations in the array, JavaScript arrays are not guaranteed to be dense; this depends on how the programmer chooses to use them. In general, these are convenient characteristics; but if these features are not desirable for your particular use, you might consider using typed arrays.
Array: non-contiguous, elements can be different types Typed Array: contiguous, element should be the same type (mainly for binary data)
An element inside an array can be of any type, and different elements of the same array can be of different types
let arr = [1, "two", [3, "four"], {"hello":"world"}]
console.log(arr)
// [ 1, 'two', [ 3, 'four' ], { hello: 'world' } ]
Methods and property you must remember
[]
construct a new array
construct a new array length
length of the array
length of the array push()
add to an end
add to an end pop()
pop from an end
pop from an end shift()
pop from the start
pop from the start unshift()
add to the start
add to the start splice(…)
Adds and/or removes elements from an array.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/splice
Adds and/or removes elements from an array. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/splice slice(…)
Extracts a section of the calling array and returns a new array.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/slice
Extracts a section of the calling array and returns a new array. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/slice map(…)
Returns a new array containing the results of calling a function on every element in this array.
Returns a new array containing the results of calling a function on every element in this array. reduce(…)
forEach(…)
adding or removing at the start and end of an array
changes the contents of an array by removing or replacing existing elements and/or adding new elements in place.
returns a shallow copy of a portion of an array into a new array object selected from start to end ( end not included) where start and end represent the index of items in that array. The original array will not be modified.
Sets
Set objects are collections of values. You can iterate through the elements of a set in insertion order. A value in the Set may only occur once; it is unique in the Set’s collection.
let mySet = new Set() mySet.add(1) // Set [ 1 ]
mySet.add('some text') // Set [ 1, 5, 'some text' ]
let o = {a: 1, b: 2}
mySet.add(o)
mySet.add({a: 1, b: 2}) // o is referencing a different object, so this is okay console.log(mySet)
// Set { 1, 'some text', { a: 1, b: 2 }, { a: 1, b: 2 } }
constructor
size
add
delete(value)
has(value)
clear()
Map
The Map object holds key-value pairs and remembers the original insertion order of the keys. Any value (both objects and primitive values) may be used as either a key or a value.
The wrong way of creating a map
// don't do below to create a map. Below is just adding a property to an opbject!!!! let wrongMap = new Map()
wrongMap['bla'] = 'blaa'
wrongMap['bla2'] = 'blaaa2' console.log(wrongMap)
// Map { bla: 'blaa', bla2: 'blaaa2' }
The proper way of creating a map
the map needs to be added using the “set” method.
let contacts = new Map()
contacts.set('Jessie', {phone: "213-555-1234", address: "123 N 1st Ave"})
contacts.has('Jessie') // true
contacts.get('Hilary') // undefined
contacts.set('Hilary', {phone: "617-555-4321", address: "321 S 2nd St"})
contacts.get('Jessie') // {phone: "213-555-1234", address: "123 N 1st Ave"}
contacts.delete('Raymond') // false
contacts.delete('Jessie') // true
console.log(contacts.size) // 1
Property
size
Method
clear()
delete(key)
get(key)
has(key)
set(key, value)
Iteration method
keys()
values()
entries()
let myMap = new Map()
myMap.set(0, 'zero')
myMap.set(1, 'one')
for (let [key, value] of myMap) {
console.log(key + ' = ' + value)
}
// 0 = zero
// 1 = one
for (let key of myMap.keys()) {
console.log(key)
}
// 0
// 1
for (let value of myMap.values()) {
console.log(value)
}
// zero
// one
for (let [key, value] of myMap.entries()) {
console.log(key + ' = ' + value)
}
// 0 = zero
// 1 = one
forEach(callbackFn,[, thisArg])
myMap.forEach(function(value, key) {
console.log(key + ' = ' + value)
})
// 0 = zero
// 1 = one
Object
It is used to store various keyed collections and more complex entities. Objects can be created using the Object() constructor or the {}
Static methods
Object.
assign()
create()
defineProperty()
defineProperties()
getOwnPropertyDescriptor()
getOwnPropertyDescriptors()
getOwnPropertyNames()
getOwnPropertySymbols()
getPrototypeOf()
setPrototypeOf()
is()
preventExtensions()
freeze()
seal()
isExtensible()
isFrozen()
isSealed()
entries()
keys()
values()
Instance properties
Object.prototype.
constructor
__proto__
__noSuchMethod__
Instance methods
Object.prototype. | https://medium.com/@poby/javascript-data-structure-17c4714e8ba3 | ['Poby S Home'] | 2021-01-25 19:58:27.809000+00:00 | ['Set', 'Arrays', 'JavaScript', 'Map', 'Data Structure'] |
Applying Anthropology: Understanding Cities Qualitatively | My radical urban heroes, Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte, were journalists enthralled by people’s relationships with their cities — how people navigated their concrete jungles. Using systematic observations, these New Yorkers figured out what made people want to use and share public space, what built community, and which planning mistakes could drive life from an area. Through careful observation, good urbanists figure out how to make a city work for its inhabitants.
The greatest American Urbanists of all time were essentially great people-watchers.
Source: Kevin Curtis, Unsplash
The private-sector is already on board. As the Atlantic reported, ethnographic work — studying a society from the viewpoint of the subject — is becoming a marketing standard. Anthropologists attend birthday parties to see how people consume alcohol in groups and visit foreign countries to shift the message of unsuccessful marketing campaigns. Microsoft is the world’s second largest employer of anthropologists. Today’s marketers are moving past knowing which demographics buy their products to exactly why people buy and how they consume.
Anthropology 101:
When I took a cultural anthropology class, the clearest takeaway was this: every behavior and practice is rational in its cultural context — for cities, many behaviors can be explained by someone’s environmental context.
An NYC Case-Study
In the 1980s William H. Whyte published The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces and a film of his work with the StreetLife project, both of which are major influencers for architects and planners today.
Shot from StreetLife Project footage
New York City had been using tax incentives to encourage developers to include public plazas in their plans for skyscrapers . The problem was that these plazas were often empty — contributing nothing to the city. Whyte set out to study these more in depth. He by set up cameras, recorded the weather and time of day, and looked for patterns.
The design of plazas almost never provided places for people to sit and Whyte remarked that “the human backside is a dimension architects seem to have forgotten.” Parks and plazas are often remarkably inhospitable in order to discourage ‘undesirables’ and in turn, they discourage all foot traffic.
Ultimately, the most effective way to attract people, is with people. Dense areas get denser (and that is a great thing).
Three Tips for Your Own Research:
One. Forget What You Think You Know
Source: Gabriel Santiago, Unsplash
We all carry biases and assumptions in everything that we do. This can impact the way you study a city —for example, your volunteer work in a neighborhood may dictate what you think about its character based on a one time interaction. Even your politics can shape how you interact with the world around you.
Professional anthropologists struggle with this constantly. Walking into a situation assuming that the way you operate is more rational than what you see is called ethnocentrism (and we are all guilty of it from time to time).
At mySidewalk, we like the Nick Bowden Challenge: Before starting a project, make a list answering the following questions:
What are the things you assume and what are the things you are interested in finding out?
As you conduct your project, reference the list from time to time. Ask again and again if your biases are clouding your view of your city.
Two. Be Systematic
Source: Jay Wennington, Unsplash
Paying close attention to one neighborhood will help you understand how people interact in that neighborhood. However, those observations cannot be generalized for the whole city.
You might find that public spaces are packed during the business lunch hours, but that tells you very little about the neighborhood’s vitality at night.
Only systematic and well-sampled observations will help you understand your city. Think back to designing a science experiment in 3rd grade and you’ve pretty much got it. Make sure you are covering multiple areas that vary in socio-economic status and that you record your observations, along with any additional variables, with careful consistency.
Three. People are Experts of Their Own Experience (Just Ask)
Source: Mladen Milinovic, Unsplash
When anthropologists examine a new culture, they spend lots of time upfront working to gain people’s trust and establish credibility. Once they have built solid relationships, they begin to shadow and interview people central to that culture in order to understand it.
If you are working within your own culture, it will be much easier to establish credibility. Of course people will be willing to talk to leaders, activists, and journalists trying to make their cities a better place.
There is also a strong disadvantage to working within your own culture — you will take important details for granted. That goes back to recognizing your biases. If you have the luxury of working with someone with a different (non-American or rural) background, include them in your research to gain a fresh perspective.
Enter: The Data-Piece
Source: Gabriel Garcia Marengo, Unsplash
The only guarantee in social science is that no one can ever be 100% sure that their findings are correct. Qualitative work (also known as descriptive work) is very important to get an in-depth understanding of how a neighborhood functions. Quantitative work (think data) can help with understanding the bigger picture about what kind of people make up a city’s demographics.
Crunching the numbers will help you determine if you actually looked at a representative sample of your population. For example, if you know that 30% of your city is living in poverty, but 80% of the neighborhoods that you studied were affluent — it is time to create a more representative sample.
Your Turn
Source: Matthew Brodeur, Unsplash
Whether you are adding more crosswalks, designing a park, or adding new housing, a brief study of how people really behave will help you plan more effectively. For example, if you notice that people are more likely to use parks with sidewalks crossing diagonally through or that people avoid fenced-in areas (people do) then you can create a more popular and usable space.
Knowing who you are serving and how they interact with their environment will empower you to design places that remain relevant to your city for decades. We can’t wait to hear about how a little people watching transforms your next project!
Like this article? Subscribe to our newsletter to read more like it here. | https://medium.com/community-pulse/applying-anthropology-understanding-cities-qualitatively-b7386ef43674 | [] | 2016-12-28 22:34:00.789000+00:00 | ['City Planning', 'Urban Planning', 'Anthropology'] |
We studied the top 10 SAAS startups and found these amazing growth hacking strategies | This Growth hacking story is sponsored by Hupport.com. Best Appointment scheduling software with Voice reminders.
Growth hacking strategies imply a method or technique used by the SaaS based setups to get more and more users for their businesses with very less investment.
These strategies should be the one which not only provides the instant results but also helps these businesses to grow continuously in the long run. If we have to phrase the thing in simple words, it means as “sow less and harvest more that too for a long time.” T
These growth hacks have replaced the traditional modes of advertising with its more inventive or innovative as well as low budget ‘hacks.’
Today we are going to discuss the list of growth hacks used by various SaaS business and has attained a high level of success in their growth.
Dropbox
Dropbox is also one of the most recent growing SaaS Setups which has now having a worth of over 10 billion dollars. And they did a very little marketing for their brand.
Growth hack strategy used: an incentive for referring a friend hack
Dropbox takes up the most classic marketing growth hack which is to get more customers through the existing ones. They have started a referral program.
Dropbox offers the gobs of extra storage space for its existing customer if they refer it to their friends and on every friend they bring on board, they receive an incentive of extra storage.
The hack worked for the business as they also increase the rewards as the customer will refer more people. They also upped the market by putting a message of “Refer a Friend” everywhere.
The hacked worked so well for the company and now the Dropbox is used as a synonym for the cloud-based storage.
Intercom
Intercom is also one of the SaaS business of providing the customer messaging app, who speeds up its growth by implementing the growth hack strategies. Now the company has 17,000+ paying customers and an ARR of more than 50 million and also the investors like Mark Zuckerberg in their list.
Growth hack strategy used: The SEO, Referral sites hack or “powered by” hack
Intercom has achieved such accelerated growth rate through SEO and, in particular, examining its referrals. Intercom has used a “powered by” statement on all its referral sites. They also power the chat service of the referral sites. After the chat popups, and when the user will click on the link that will take them to the landing page of the Intercom. AS they have combined the keyword on the headline on their personalized homepage for those referral sites they use.
Though this way, they make use of their top referral sites for attracting more traffic to themselves, and once the user clicks up the same, then it ends up on the company’s landing page. At last, all those visitors are greeted with dynamic keywords, and engaging headlines hacks so to develop the chances of converting the site visitors into the active leads.
Device Magic
Device Magic is the business that allows creating data collection forms for various phones and tablets.
Growth hack strategy used: Adding the explainer video and sliding images hack
As the company wants to boost their traffic rate from their homepage, so they have tested two hacks for the same:
1. By testing displaying an explainer video above the page fold along with some key bullet points that summaries the video features.
2. By testing the series of sliding images which will able to convey their company’s message to identify that which will work better than the others.
But whereas the explainer videos work for most of the SaaS businesses, but it also doesn’t assure that it will work for every company, in the same manner, it doesn’t work for the device magic also. And the other test of sliding the images results worked for the company and help in providing the significant signups for them as it increased by around 30%.
Slack
Slack is the business app based on providing the workplace messaging services; the business has also earned a title of fastest SaaS business ever. The company almost double its growth rate from the launch in 2012 and now is having a value of over 3 billion.
Growth hack strategy used: The Freemium model, twitter marketing and word of mouth hack.
The business has to find the ways to start implementing their idea of selling office messaging app. Slack has to compete with the already established brand in the same industry as Skype, which is most trusted by all. But the slack also finds ways to give the race to its growth.
Slack has created a need among its users for the app as by providing the quality products or services. As for marketing growth, Slack has used Twitter and word-of-mouth to hack its growth. And also offers freemium model hack where it allows users to sign up for their service for free and if they like the service and even if they want to get access the more features or more storage, they have to pay. So all these growth hacks have resulted in accelerated growth for Slack.
Walmart Canada
It is online shopping site of the Canadian division of Walmart having headquarter in Mississauga, Ontario.
Growth hack strategy used: Implementing the responsive web design hack
The company boosts its traffic rate by almost 20% after implementing the responsive web design.
Walmart starts by investing more time to research and have found that they were getting more traffic from the mobile users as knowing the fact that their site is not so mobile friendly.
So they have tracked the data of their users as:
- Which browsers have been used by most of the users?
- The screen size mostly used
And on the basis of the above data details, they have decided to use a scaling grid in its new design so to ensures that it should better and right on all the platforms. Hence, there growth suddenly boosts up to 20% after the conversion of their design and help in getting more traffic to the business.
Gmail
Gmail is a name which we all know is one of the most used email services. It began with a search feature which was far way better than any other primary email services providers. At first when Google has launched Gmail in the year 2004, then everyone was using other email services like Yahoo, etc. And for increasing the traffic to Gmail, they have used the following hack.
Growth hack strategy used: Scarcity growth hack.
Google has turned their major problem of limited server space ability into an advantage. Google has created a benefit out of scarcity. As when the same was launched, it was only be registered with an invitation only, and in the same manner, it was started with around 1,000 influencers who all were able to refer it to their friends. And this scarcity created an impression on the user’s mind that Gmail is one the most exclusive mail service provider and when the one will become its part. They will also be able to join the premium club of Gmail membership.
This hack worked so well for the Gmail that there is no doubt if we say that now Gmail is one of the widely used email services which is used by the most of the people around the globe.
Uber
Uber, started in year 2009 as a small local service and has now become the part of the billion dollar valuation brand club. It continues to amaze the industry and also double its growth rate every year by using some of the growth hacks.
Growth hack strategy used: Content repost hack, referral program and word of mouth or Testimonials hacks
Uber fixes the problem of cab renting at one click and makes it so easy and accessible for all. They have invented a new form of transportation method. They have used the hacks like word of mouth or testimonials which helps every new user to get the uber service. Word of mouth is still one of the old marketing hacks in the world, as Uber offers free rides to the people who will share their experience on their site which helps in attracting more users for them.
Uber has also used the content repost hack on which they started marketing their services by sending emails campaigns to the list of all subscribers with the new offers and exciting deals article. They also start sharing their article on the social media platforms after the emails are sent to their subscribers. As all such hacks helped uber to raise their standard of growth continuously, as they have also become the no. One cab servicer provider in the world.
Evernote
Evernote is the site which is a note-taker, organizer and is the “second brain,” for its users. The company was about of close when all its investor backed out. But this is one the business which inspires all the businesses through its revival from the scratch as now the business has a valuation of more than 1 billion dollars. The story of Evernote success is based on their growth hacks which they have used.
Growth hack strategy used: The Freemium model hack
Evernote has hacked its growth by implementing the most trusted and classical growth hack which is free trails. As whenever the business offers a product for free, it helps in engaging more users to the site. And on the basis of the product and its usage and benefits to the users, the free trails will be converted into the paid ones. And that where the business started gaining the presence in the user’s mind and becomes an essential part of their lives. The hack of the freemium model with word of mouth still works for the Evernote today also.
Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg is a SaaS company that promotes marketers to analyze the user behavior on its sites. The software used by them provides heat maps that show about where the users are clicking on a web page so that they can improve the UX and boost its conversion rates. They also continually runs CRO tests, and also adds an explainer video to its homepage which engages more users.
Growth hack strategy used: video content hack
Videos help to communicate the brand message and value propositions in an engaging, visual way which is not possible with simple texts. Adding the simple video help boosting the value of the company by 64% with around a 21000 dollar addition in their monthly revenues.
PayPal
PayPal is a financial SaaS business which has emerged as one of the trusted and useful app wallet by utilizing the growth hacking technique.
Growth hack strategy used: Refer a friend hack
When PayPal started, they offer the $10 to every existing user for referring it to their friend. And this is one of the most lucrative offers as who don’t want to earn money that too without doing much or putting any hard efforts. As this growth hack is one of the most successful hacks for the PayPal as they have now create their market and becomes one of the continuously growing business.
So therefore, all above are few of the SaaS business examples, which have been growing gradually through the use of the growth hacking strategies. Growth hacking isn’t all about following the set rules or replicating different organizations. The process of growth hacking includes experimentation over the various advertising channels and item advancement so that to locate the most proficient and practical strategies for business improvement. It is also a technique which is usually related to the term of smart marketing and forward-thinking business. SaaS growth hacking allows to provides scope to the creative minds, developers and marketers so to achieve the incredible heights of growth through the experimentation strategies. Hence, develop the best growth hack according to your set up and attain continues growth for yourself. | https://medium.com/@danielmadhan/we-studied-the-top-10-saas-startups-and-found-these-amazing-growth-hacking-strategies-76f39a653b49 | ['Madhan Raj'] | 2020-12-13 07:34:31.305000+00:00 | ['Dropbox', 'Growth Marketing', 'Growth Strategy', 'Growth Hacking'] |
Best Smartphones under 20000 | Best Smartphones 2020 | If you are looking for the Best Smartphones under 20000. You are at the right place. Today we will review the Top 3 Smartphones under 20000. These phones are also consider the Best Smartphones 2020.
1. ViVo V17
Vivo V17 is a smartphone that looks good and has an exquisite work in paint, it feels modern at the front. On its sides there is a 6.44-inch screen with thin bezels. It’s also packed in a battery of 4,500mAh but not very voluminous on 176g. It sports a 48-megapixel main shooter quad camera system at the back.
Powering the Vivo V17 is the relatively dated Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 SoC. It is combined with 8GB of RAM, making it simple to multitask. 128 GB of storage is available, which is enough for an average user. The Vivo V17 runs on top of Android 9 with Funtouch OS 9.2. There is a decent amount of bloatware on the system and we noticed that spammy alerts were pushed by a few preinstalled apps.
The battery life is strong and the smartphone will easily last more than a day. The Vivo V17’s camera output was very good during daytime, but there was some noise in low-light images. The night mode helps to have a better shot. Video recording in low light is below average and could do with a few tweaks.
Details Review of ViVo V17
Price = ( 17990 Indian Currency)
2. Realme X2
A Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G SoC drives the Realme X2, making it the first Rs. 20,000 smartphone to get it. It is built around the Realme XT, with almost identical ports and positioning of keys. A dewdrop notch with a large Super AMOLED panel and an in-display fingerprint sensor is also included. Two Nano-SIM card slots and a dedicated slot for a microSD card are available on the handset.
In three versions, it is open, with the first starting at Rs. 16,999. We tested the top-end varaint that at Rs. 20,000 had 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. ColorOS provides a lot of customization and works smoothly. Playing quality is particularly good and we also did not find any problems with overheating. Thanks to Dolby Atmos upgrades, the bottom speaker gets loud.
The front camera is a 32-megapixel sensor and in good light, takes good quality selfies. The rear quad cameras are exactly the same as the Realme XT. In daytime, the main 64-megapixel sensor shoots sharp images, and for low-light shots, Nightscape works well. Provided enough light, the wide-angle camera is competent, too. Two 2-megapixel cameras are also available for depth and macro images.
As the 4,000mAh battery easily lasts more than a day, the battery life is good. However, thanks to the VOOC Flash Charge 4.0 standard, it does have very fast charging, which can charge the battery completely in a little over an hour.
Details of Realme x2
( Price = 17999 Indian Currency)
3. Samsung Galaxy M31
Details Review of Samsung Galaxy M31
Price = (15999 Indian Currency)
Originally published at https://neverendingfoot-steps.blogspot.com. | https://medium.com/@paudelganesh800/best-smartphones-under-20000-best-smartphones-2020-66fd408cc45d | [] | 2020-12-20 15:57:50.546000+00:00 | ['Blogging', 'Mobile', 'Smartphones', 'Technology', 'Blogger'] |
Recap: Existential Threats | This event featured four talks with entrepreneurs tackling climate change.
Speaker 1: Tom Szaky, Founder & CEO, Terracycle & Loop
Prompt: Why did you focus on this issue? How did you start Terracycle?
I was always interested in being an entrepreneur. I wanted to start a business that was focused on helping society and the planet first, on profit second. A business interacts with so many stakeholders — consumers, vendors, the environment, employees, and more — it’s not all about profit to shareholders.
I think garbage is an interesting area. Everything around us is disposable. Waste is also the least innovative industry in the world. It is blue ocean territory that’s kept me busy for two decades and will continue to do so.
We have a waste problem. 99% of what we buy has an end of life within a year of when we bought it. We are putting too much strain on the environment. We currently operate on a linear system: take, make, waste. I believe it is important to move toward a circular economy.
Virtually everything can be recycled. The reason we choose to recycle what we do is because we can profit off that kind of recycling. A dirty diaper is recyclable, but it is expensive to recycle. If we show recycling diapers drives some benefit, we can start having conversations and start to really challenge single use systems.
What can we recycle that may surprise people?
Diapers can be collected, sterilized, shredded, and separated. Almost everything can be reconstituted.
Plastic gloves can be collected, frozen, and transformed into a powder that can be integrated into new plastic gloves.
Cigarette butts (which are mostly littered) can be collected, shredded, and separated. The filter is actually made from plastic.
I can rattle off 100 more waste streams, but it simply costs more to collect or recycle than these materials are worth. It does not make economic sense to recycle these at the moment.
What are examples of closed-loop recycling?
In recycling, it’s rare to find examples of a complete closed loop. Usually, when we recycle something, it downgrades to some degree. For example, when you recycle fresh white printer paper, it will likely become newspaper. After that, it may become toilet paper. Then that’s the end point. At some point it can no longer create high quality paper. It is a down cycle. It always downgrades one step. So far, the only product that doesn’t downgrade is a municipally sourced soda bottle. The reason is systemic. We design our products with a ‘virgin’ mentality. For example, our shampoo bottles are designed based on the idea that they’ll be created with brand new plastic material. The dynamics of the bottle are different if we use recycled material. We need a systemic shift as product designers, to design products that embrace all sorts of waste. Better yet, we need product designers who embrace reusable packaging.
At Loop, we challenge single use packaging. We believe we dishonor material by using it for such a short time. The solution to that is reuse. There are some examples of reuse today (ie: a propane tank and a beer keg).
What do consumers want?
Consumers want 1) features and benefits 2) right value and price 3) convenience. Value comes from scale. Our approach has been to work with the biggest companies to get scale. Convenience is our biggest issue. How do we make reuse feel like disposable? How do we create the disposable experience with reusable?
What does Loop do?
Loop is a platform for reuse. We work with consumer product companies and have commercialized 500+ products — from ice cream to laundry detergent — in reusable package forms. We are in 6 countries, at 15 leading retailers, and incorporate our offerings into physical and digital stores. Here’s how it works: in the UK at a leading supermarket, Tesco, there is a Loop section. In this section, you can find your products (ie: Heinz ketchup) in reusable containers. You pay a small fee for the container. Once you are finished, you drop the container back at the Tesco, or at any other place that partners with Loop (ie: a coffeeshop).
We are professional reuse. Are you ever concerned about the tools your dentist uses? You are fully trusting that those tools were professionally cleaned by the dentist’s office … that is the benefit of professional reuse. That’s where we are trying to get. Our standards are high. We partner with EcoLab. Our cleaning facility is a proper environment, like a pharmaceutical facility.
How has COVID impacted you?
We actually were able to launch in the UK during COVID-19. But during this time, there’s been an increase in disposable goods, deliveries, and packages. We need to fundamentally think about how to make the system more circular and how organizations can be more responsible for deliveries/packages. There is no single answer to the environmental crisis. It’s complicated and not linear. In fact, the best product to buy is no product. No matter what you buy, there’s an impact on the planet. We have to reflect about the volume that we buy. Yes, we need better and more conscious products, but thats not the entire solution. Our most important role as consumers is buying less stuff.
Speaker 2: Dr. Pasi Vainikka, Co-Founder & Ceo, Solar Foods
Prompt: Why is agriculture no longer sustainable?
Some examples: 70% of fresh water on the planet is used for irrigation and agriculture, pesticides and fertilizer cause harm to diversity of life, forests are cut down for agricultural land, and the production of beef consumes a lot of environmental resources (and is inefficient). We need to change something fundamental in our food system.
Prompt: Why is solar foods different than plant-based competitors?
In 2030, all these technologies will build on and complement each other. The consumer can still have meat, but how it is created may completely change.
At Solar Foods, we are creating a whole new category of food. We produced a new primary ingredient that has the nutritional value of plant based material (65% protein). The ingredient actually vanishes within the product. Technology allows us to grow and harvest it. We are growing single cells through fermentation. It is very natural, but not traditional. You may compare it to wine-making. It’s a proprietary organism — a naturally occurring microbe created with hydrogen and CO2. It was built out of early space research in the 1960s.
Prompt: Whats next? How does it get to market and scale?
Once our demo is complete, we will setup a factory/micro-brewery and begin scaling production. We’ll focus on this for the next 2–3 years. We see ourselves not as optimists or pessimists, but possibilists.
This new technology opens a new door of opportunities, that may lead to more doors. It was a different world in this industry five years ago. Technology develops so fast and a lot can happen by 2030.
Speaker 3: Carla Niederhofer, Program Manager, Malta Inc.
Globally, electricity counts for 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions. In some parts of the world, it’s as high as 40%.
Also, the vast majority of electricity in the past 50 years has come from fossil fuels (75% in 1970). It’s improved in 2019, but it is still around 65%.
Renewable energy is the least expensive and least harmful form of generation right now. Renewable sources include hydropower, solar, and wind. But there are challenges and gaps with renewables. Solar can be intermittent and the wind is not always blowing the way we want it to, especially when a blizzard hits. As more industrial sectors are starting to electrify (ie: transportation), the electrical grid is getting pushed into territory it is not equipped for.
Long range gridscale affordable energy storage is the solution. Energy storage is not new, but additional technologies are needed for scale. This is where Malta comes in. We have a system for storing excess energy and using it to fill the gaps on the grid when needed.
We take excess energy from the grid, convert it into thermal energy, store it in large tanks of molten salt until it is needed, then convert the heat energy back to electrical energy and put it back into the grid.
Google incubated Malta for 2 years, then it was spun out as an independent company in 2018. Since then, we’ve been working to commercialize this technology, which is essential for the proliferation of renewables.
Speaker 4: Tom Schuler, President & CEO, Solidia Technologies
Concrete is the second most used material on the planet, after water. Cement (which holds concrete together) emits about a ton of CO2 for every ton of concrete. That makes cement responsible for 8% of all CO2 emissions and makes it the second largest emitter of CO2. The industry knows it is a problem and has been working to solve it, but they need help from startups like us. My company created a new form of cement (the main component of concrete) that captures CO2 instead of emitting it.
Cement is one of the most ubiquitous raw materials around the world. It’s not going anywhere. Most cement is made from limestone and silica, then is heated in a kiln. At Solidia, we use the same ingredients, but we change the recipe and the process. We use less limestone and 30% less energy, and we are able to produce more cement and emit less CO2.
With our cement, we are able to speed up the process of producing concrete as well. We can create more durable concrete in 24 hours, compared to the usual 28 days. We use the same mixer and same ingredients, but since our cement reacts to CO2 instead of water, we are able to drastically decrease the production time.
We are a few years away from being carbon negative in the production process, but this market can make a huge impact. | https://medium.com/@streetbeat/takeaways-from-existential-threats-hosted-by-company-d0412f5d7a70 | ['Street Beat'] | 2021-03-10 14:23:24.513000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Sustainability', 'Urban Planning'] |
Syria’s Kurds abandoned to a perfect storm of Turkish aggression and US isolationism | Syria’s Kurds abandoned to a perfect storm of Turkish aggression and US isolationism
“Comment: The US was all that stood between the Kurds and Turkish aggression, now that buffer has gone, writes Sam Hamad.”
It’s with some sense of irony but no sense of schadenfreude that the Syrian Democratic Forces find themselves alone as Turkey prepares to attack their positions in North Syria.
To be clear: the SDF is a front group dreamt up by Obama’s state department to rather absurdly sidestep the fact that they were funding and militarily supporting the PYD and its armed wing the YPG, both of which are designated as “terrorist organisations” by the US’ NATO ally, Turkey.
But now all that stands between the PYD and destruction at the hands of Turkey is Donald Trump. Even under the tenuous presumption that it was his desire to do so, it’s difficult to know what Trump could do to stop Turkey from undertaking this military operation. But with the withdrawal of US forces from the Turkish border, it seems like the US won’t even attempt to deter Turkey.
Trump has characteristically articulated his ‘policy’ on this question through a series of unlettered and contradictory tweets. The most telling of these came on Monday following a phone call with Turkish president Erdogan, with Trump tweeting that he had been elected on “getting out of these ridiculous endless wars”, adding that “Turkey, Europe, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Russia and the Kurds will now have to figure the situation out”.
Earlier, the White House had released a statement confirming the withdrawal of US troops from the area and announcing that Turkey would be going ahead with the military operation.
The only surprising thing here, is the naivety of the PYD and their supporters in believing the US would remain its ally in the face of Turkish aggression. If the Syrian war has proved anything, it’s that the interests of different states will always trump the interests of people, regardless of ideology or ethnicity.
Russia’s well publicised courtship of Erdogan, which forced the US to tread even more carefully on all matters relating to Turkey, combined with the isolationist and authoritarian agenda of Trump, means the outlook for the PYD’s rule over North Syria is not looking good.
“If the Syrian war has proved anything, it’s that the interests of different states will always trump the interests of people”
The incentives for Turkey to act are compounded by the racist intransigence of the EU to share the load when it comes to refugees. If not for Fortress Europe, radicalised even further by the rise of anti-immigrant, Islamophobic far-right governments and electoral forces across the continent, refugees could leave Turkey legally and safely. The hasty incentive for resettlement and the necessary Turkish war against the PYD in Northern Syria would be depleted.
But, as with most other elements of Syria, Europe isn’t interested. And nor is xenophobic sentiment against refugees exclusive to the EU.
Though Turkey’s acceptance of Syrian refugees has mostly been a shining light in the long dark genocidal war, there are signs that the welcome is wearing thin.
As a result, the popular incentive for Turkey to invade PYD-held areas of northern Syria and create what it calls a ‘safe zone’, which it claims will be capable of repatriating up to 3 million refugees, is huge.
Not that this is Turkey’s only motivation. It is of course, ideologically speaking, diametrically opposed to the Syrian wing of the separatist PKK. The Turkish obsession with stamping out Kurdish autonomy has led to decades of war with the PKK and is a major factor in its long-held will to cross the border and ‘deal’ with Rojava once and for all.
Many PYD supporters would claim that the refugee situation is simply a Turkish pretext for its general chauvinistic will to destroy Rojava as a Kurdish ‘separatist’ statelet on its border.
But this brings me back to schadenfreude or, as someone who has criticised the conduct of the PYD regarding the Syrian rebellion, lack of it. It’s perfectly true that the PYD formed an unlikely pragmatic alliance with Assad early on in the Syrian war.
And it’s perfectly true that this alliance created an ethnic rift where before there had been organic unity among Kurd and Arab in the north against the Assad dynasty — a dynasty that had long oppressed and ruthlessly repressed Kurds with a combination of racist policies and ruthless violence when Kurds rebelled.
However, the alliance was one of mutual pragmatism more than ideological harmony.
Assad withdrew his forces from Kurdish areas, freeing them to fight the rebellion, while the PYD could concentrate on building its statelet. As noted by the International Crisis Group at the time, the PYD denied access to Syrian rebel groups. This is why during the eight years of war in Syria, not one regime barrel bomb was ever dropped on Rojava.
From this point onwards, the relationship between the PYD and Syrian rebels unravelled drastically, and for the Syrian rebels, destructively so.
Playing on the pre-existing Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism in the West, the PYD successfully sold itself as a ‘civilised’ and ‘westernised’ alternative to the overtly Islamic and ‘foreign’ Syrian rebels.
Too often in western narratives, ‘the Kurds’ were fetishised as sufficiently ‘western’ enough to care about, while Syrians facing genuine annihilation were contrasted as backward Arabo-Islamic savages, prone to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS).
“The Turkish obsession with stamping out Kurdish autonomy has led to decades of war”
Perhaps ominously for the PYD, the US was initially reluctant to lend them support during IS’ siege of Kobani, though they eventually became the US’ ground force in the fight against the ‘caliphate’. The US had watched with disinterest as the Syrian rebels tried to fight both Assad and IS, but it wasn’t until they began to threaten US regional allies and interests, as well as perpetrate attacks in the West, that they intervened.
But the casualties of this intervention were the Syrian rebels and millions of Syrians, who were either killed, maimed or cleansed. The rebels, like the PYD presently, were completely abandoned by the US. The Syrian revolution was left to be devoured by Assad, Iran and Russia.
It should come as no surprise that the US is willing to abandon its ally when it faces destruction at the hands of Turkey. Though it might be dismissed as utopian in light of the distance between rebels and Kurdish forces, there were flashes of unity during the war.
“As with most other elements of Syria, Europe isn’t interested”
When IS attacked Kobani, the first non-Kurdish force to respond was the FSA. In the early days of defending Raqqa, when it looked like a rebel victory was possible, Kurdish forces formed Jabhat al-Akrad as a brigade of the FSA to fight Assad and IS.
It’s these moments of unity between the oppressed that should have been the rule as opposed to the exception.
Instead, as with those suffering from Assad and Russia’s genocidal reconquista in Idlib, the people in north Syria now find themselves alone and dependent on self-interested state forces.
Just as the presence of jihadist forces in Idlib doesn’t justify the genocidal war being waged there, it doesn’t matter what the PYD previously did and who they allied with. The ultimate reality is that any Turkish attack on PYD-held areas will be one more horror in the totality of tragedy that has engulfed Syria.
The last thing Syria needs is more war.
It will be real people, not factions, groups or fetishes, who suffer.
Sam Hamad is an independent Scottish-Egyptian activist and writer.
Join the conversation @The_NewArab
Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.
Sam Hamad
To read the article on the original site Click here | https://medium.com/thenewarab/syrias-kurds-abandoned-to-a-perfect-storm-of-turkish-aggression-and-us-isolationism-ed6896afef8a | ['Newarab Comment'] | 2019-10-08 17:55:00.155000+00:00 | ['Syria', 'Comment', 'Sam Hamad'] |
Proposing a Solution to Affordable Housing in New York City | The first step is to discuss the housing problem in New York and describe the peculiar situation we’re in…
As the nation is combating a global pandemic and fighting for social justice and freedom to Black people after 400 years of racial and financial inequality, there is a greater urgency to develop more suitable affordable housing solutions to marginalised members of society.
According to The Coalition For The Homeless, over 61,000 New Yorkers sleep in shelters every night but only 6,000 apartments are being planned to be built every year through 2026.
Part of the reason for this low amount is attributed to the popular belief that affordable housing is not profitable. With New York City being the epicentre of the corona virus pandemic, homeless and displaced residents are bearing the brunt of it.
In 2017, there were 560,000 more households that required low-rent apartments than apartments available due to rising rents and stagnant incomes over the last twenty years
Share of housing units created or preserved by income band
Looking into the numbers, 20% of housing in New York is reserved for individuals with extremely low income and very low income households.
The overwhelming majority, 58% is catered to low income households.
The gap in the supply of housing for residents with higher levels of homelessness and poverty is what needs to be addressed.
Statistics show that during an economic downturn, the use of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits(LIHTC) to build and maintain housing falls. In the Great Recession, it decreased by almost 50% from more than 116,000 units in 2004 to 61,000 units in 2010.
Under the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, there was a reduction of corporate taxes which led to reduced incentives and the value of the LIHTC tax credits, leading to a decrease in the number of houses built.
As the world deals with the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, developers might have less incentives to develop affordable housing for residents.
Trends in Affordable Housing Market
The biggest and most relevant trend we are seeing in the affordable housing industry is shrinking supply and high demand. With the COVID-19 crisis, we believe we are right to assume these issues will continue and create a greater demand for affordable housing solutions. This has been an issue since affordable housing first began to be addressed and only continues to grow as the gap between a liveable wage and the median wages earned by low income housing candidates continues to rise.
The share of low-income renters experiencing housing hardships in 2019
People who qualify for affordable housing are generally having a difficult time making ends meet, with 30% of low-income renters falling behind on rent, 20% having their utilities turned off, and 15% being threatened with eviction.
As of March 2019, 181,090 families are on the waitlist for public housing and 138,705 families are on the waitlist for Section 8 housing.
Homelessness has been steadily increasing in New York City. As of January 2020, there were 62,679 homeless people in the city (14,682 families and 22,013 homeless children). This number will continue to increase — likely leading to more than 100,000 people in New York City being homeless by 2021. There is an immediate need for a solution to assist the homeless communities in addition to the low-income affordable housing candidates.
The next step is to propose a solution to the housing problem…
This form of construction creates affordable and adequate housing for low to middle-income earners, public workers, and SMBs.
At scale, modular housing construction reduces building costs and construction time by 20% and 50% respectively compared to traditional methods.
Modular construction homes significantly reduce the cost and time of building a home
Time and Cost Advantages of Modular Construction
Traditional methods of construction are unable to meet the growing requirements. My proposed solution involves converting shipping containers to affordable housing and strategically placing them on vacant plots of land scattered across the city.
Structural Advantages of Modular Construction
Incorporating modular housing into the way homes are built will give developers an advantage as a “green solution” over their competition.
A 1 bedroom layout is shown here. There will be a few modifications to the final design
From a building programming standpoint, there’s an average loss factor of 30%, and a minimum buildable area of 20,751 sq ft. An average building using this form of construction can hold up to 90 units.
Proposed room specifications for a one bedroom unit. For a two bedroom, the size would be 320 sq. ft
I identified this as a way to save design costs, labour costs and reduce time spent building a home. Conservative estimates show that this form of construction reduces building costs by up to 15%. At full efficiency, that number rises to 25%. By adopting this approach, construction work would be carried out at the same time that excavation takes place.
The modular construction building process takes between 37 and 46 weeks
It has been proven that traditional construction methods are unable to meet the growing requirements of housing in New York City. Alternative construction methods allows homes to be built faster and easier.
A three-step solution is required to fix the issues surrounding affordable housing
Achieving a project solution of this magnitude requires a significant amount of investments funded by the public and private sector.
Partnerships with Non-Profit Organizations:
Joint ventures between affordable housing developers and non-profit organisations are helpful to create an organic community of tenants. An ideal environment for low-income and extremely low-income households is an urban village filled with supermarkets, open spaces, workshops, and parks.
Partnering with non-profit organisations like Camba Inc, New Story Charity, and ACE will allow us to work with cultural institutions that are mission-aligned and looking to provide shelter for their community members. This would allow us to cut costs & engage with other communities.
Partnerships with the Public Sector:
There are a number of grant and loan opportunities available to developers by the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund:
Loan Opportunities under the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund
Partnerships with Individuals:
An effective affordable housing solution involves engaging with community members to make regular tax-deductible donations towards housing people who have fallen into homelessness. These regular contributions, in the form of $1 - $50 monthly contributions will equip tenants with the social services they need to thrive.
Partnerships with Banks:
In a bid to raise more capital, developers can sell their tax credits to banks for cash that can be used to building homes for the less privileged.
As developers work to provide shelter for the homeless, they should continually look for ways to develop a program that assists distressed individuals and families to get back on their feet. Affordable housing solutions should allow tenants who sign multi-year lease agreements to defer rent payments for the first twelve months, after which they’ll pay between 1.5% and 3% interest in subsequent years.
The bulk of people become homeless due to loss of jobs or extenuating circumstances like unplanned health issues. By providing rent relief, tenants would be able to stay afloat while living in their units. Individual mentorship programs in partnership with local non-profit organizations will work towards providing individual financial assistance and job search opportunities for tenants. Solutions include:
Setting up workshops for applicable tenants to get immersed back into society
Provide employment to underprivileged members of society
Partnering with the government to provide housing to recently released convicts and military members to reduce the number of displaced members on the street.
There are financial risks from investing in the affordable housing market.
Under the affordable housing solution, there are three major risks that have the potential to endanger financial sustainability:
Tenant Default — Tenants are inherently “risky” being that they are lower than 60% AMI. Affordable rents and the deferred rent can relieve their financial strain throughout the life of their lease. Additionally, developers should look to invest in tenants’ financial education by connecting them with other non-profit organizations that focus on financial education (e.g. DREAM Organisation) and partner with organisations to provide employment referrals for underrepresented low-income urban citizens. These efforts will prevent them from defaulting on the balloon payment at the end of their lease. Construction Issues — The business of real estate development inherently has great risk during the construction process. This is a risk that is unavoidable. A way to assuage difficulty during construction is to sign recurring contracts with the same general contractors to eliminate any variability in quality and price. Decrease in donations and grants — Grants and donations make up the majority of funds and is expected to fuel development projects. To prevent a decrease in donations and grants, developers should closely manage relationships with donors and lobby for policies that favour donations in the form of tax credits.
I hope this article serves as a starting point for individuals to start thinking about how lack of affordable housing affects their community. My hope is that developers are encouraged to think outside the box and develop ways to solve the affordable housing crisis affecting underserved members of society.
I am grateful to John Mooney, Alex Suh, and Professor Josh Panknin for their contributions to this research and proposing solutions to the housing problem affecting thousands of residents in New York City. | https://medium.com/@mikeoviosu/proposing-a-solution-to-affordable-housing-in-new-york-city-eeed49d8560 | ['Michael Oviosu'] | 2020-06-16 16:03:00.200000+00:00 | ['Affordable Housing', 'Community', 'New York', 'Homelessness', 'Modular Homes'] |
Summer’s End | The cicadas sing at the end of the day.
On a delicate breeze, the tall grasses sway.
A slight hint of autumn is in the wind.
This strange COVID summer draws to an end.
Evening falls as I contemplate.
Bad feelings begin to evaporate.
Sweet smells of garden herbs waft my way.
Parsley, thyme, and rosemary’s pungent bouquet.
My dog sits companionably at my feet.
She barks once. Some small animal makes a quick retreat.
I’ll linger here breathing in summer’s last breath as long as I can delay.
It won’t be long before Chicago’s winter blows in cold and gray.
But now, while the sun is low in the sky
And the cicadas sing, and the breezes fly.
I won’t let worries betray this end of a summer night.
I can trick my mind. Let my thoughts take flight. | https://medium.com/the-bad-influence/summers-end-7934a16a67cb | ['Jennifer Geer'] | 2020-09-07 16:57:01.331000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Idea Stream', 'Writing Prompts', 'Creativity', 'Poem'] |
15 More Answers to 15 Quora Adultery Questions | DEAR TERESA
Photo by Simone Secci on Unsplash
This week has been a little more asshole oriented. Men can be shit sometimes. Don’t be like some of these men.
DEAR TERESA: Can you really save a marriage if only one wants to?
DEAR TALKING TO THE WALL: Is it really worth saving if only one person wants it? That’s the question you need to ask, because I’m sure you could try really hard to save it on your own and still get nowhere. I don’t envy you.
DEAR TERESA: Has your spouse ever gave you a “hall pass”? If they did, would you take advantage? Would you give your spouse a hall pass?
DEAR HALL MONITOR: No, I haven’t and yes, I would take one. Would I give him one? I would prefer not to know if he had a friend.
DEAR TERESA: Were you surprised on the first night of your wedding?
DEAR VIRGIN MARY’S BROTHER: No. I’d been with about ten or so men by then.
DEAR TERESA: What does it feel like to be in a consensual, incestuous relationship?
DEAR PERV: Eh? How the fuck would I know that? One interesting thing is people who are reunited in adulthood with an opposite sex parent after an adoption situation usually end up having sex. It’s more common than people realize. But yuck!
DEAR TERESA: Do girls on dating apps actually want to chat and meet you?
DEAR CHATTY CATHY: Yes, but they don’t want to see your cock. Try to remember that.
DEAR TERESA: Is it possible for one partner living with HIV and one is not having it, but they sleep together without using protection?
DEAR GUY LIVING IN THE THIRD WORLD: Of course it’s possible. In fact it’s the best way for both people to get HIV.
DEAR TERESA: What constitutes infidelity in a marriage?
DEAR WHERE’S THE LINE: To me, any sexual touching.
DEAR TERESA: Have you ever been bedridden and had a significant other argue with you accusing you of cheating when you’re innocent? You’re already sick but they make it worse with their pointless arguing?
DEAR LIVING WITH AN ASSHOLE: That’s a horrible situation. I’m sorry.
DEAR TERESA: If you could get away with cheating on your partner and they would never find out, would you do it? Why or why not?
DEAR LIVING IN A DREAM WORLD: I am doing it, so yes, but there’s no guarantee I’ll get away with it. Why do I do it? We stopped having sex eleven years ago, and I waited for nine before deciding to take control of my sex life back. I might be more of a slut if he’d never find out, but it is hard to conceal an affair.
DEAR TERESA: How can I make my husband understand that I am not ignoring him because of baby? It’s just that I don’t get enough time for him while handling baby all alone without family or friends.
DEAR YOUR HUSBAND IS A LAZY FUCK: I’m not sure where you’re from, but in Canada I would tell him to help or fuck off. Assuming you can’t do that, why don’t you start teaching him how to take care of the baby. Tell him, if he wants to spend time with you, he should learn about the baby so you can take care of it together. If he goes for that, then say, if you could get a little more rest you would be able to spend more time with him, and get him to look after the baby on his own sometimes. And if that works, then maybe you can spend some time with him.
DEAR TERESA: What made you realise you should not record private moments with your partner?
DEAR PORN STAR: You mean making private porn? I don’t mind that. It turns me on.
DEAR TERESA: Would you be okay with your partner sleeping with someone else if you knew that at the end of the day they only loved you?
DEAR THEY REALLY LOVE ME: I wouldn’t like it at all. I like group situations and am confident in them with my lover, but solo would bother me. Of course I don’t mind doing solo myself, so am a bit of a hypocrite on that one.
DEAR TERESA: How do I get my husband to stop distracting me while I’m driving?
DEAR DISTRACTED DRIVER: Make him drive.
DEAR TERESA: Why do so many couples like to fake that their relationships are good and healthy when they are, in fact, unhappy?
DEAR GRASS ISN’T GREENER: Because they see all their friends doing it on social media and like everyone else, they don’t want to let the world know they made a terrible mistake. So, when you see the perfect social media couple, it’s more likely they have the most dissatisfying marriage.
DEAR TERESA: How do you deal with a husband who demeans you all the time and wouldn’t even care less of how you feel?
DEAR TRAPPED WOMAN: I would find someone who appreciates me, whether I stayed married or not, but I live in North America, where it’s a little easier to have an affair. Elsewhere in the world, it’s harder and more dangerous for a woman to have an affair, so I wouldn’t recommend it. If it is that unbearable, I would return to your family for a visit with your children if you have them, and not return to him. You deserve a better life than that. I’m sorry if this is your situation. | https://medium.com/sex-and-satire/15-more-answers-to-15-quora-adultery-questions-c03562597933 | ['Teresa J Conway'] | 2020-10-18 06:30:47.836000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Advice', 'Sexuality', 'Relationships Love Dating', 'Cheating'] |
How can Blockchain help fulfil the UN SDG’s | When you look at the title of the article, you notice that it has three important variables. One being the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The second one being Blockchain. The final one being how the technology can help fulfil the goals which is the main focus of the discussion. There have been many ideas thrown around ever since their conception in 2015. Some of them have aided the cause while others have not. The main issues that need to be taken care of still remain. Nowadays, another question is being thrown around in the mix. How can Blockchain help fulfil the UN SDG’s? The biggest road block however is accurate information.
The Issue:
You might be wondering why I mentioned the word “accurate” with information when there was no need for it. The reason is going to fit in very nicely with the theme of this topic. There has been a lot of data and statistics thrown around over the progress of the UN SDG’s but has it actually been done? With the number of companies and different organizations doing their part with multiple campaigns, it should have, but how much of their statements are true and how much of it is just false marketing in attempts to get a positive brand image? The information might be up on the internet but can it be verified? Unless you are part of the brand or part of the action, you won’t know for sure. The stakeholders will be in the same boat and some will question the approach.
The UN SDG’s:
Recently in a study by DSC, it was reported that 111 million British Pounds of charitable donations went missing. If the intended target of a donor was to give some money to a charity and they find out that their contribution went missing, what kind of impression would that give to the rest of the people? Mentioning the other problems that revolve around accountability, data, fraud and trust, backers doing their best to complete the SDG’s have found it difficult to sidestep these hindrances. There are 10 years left until the final verdict on the UN SDG’s and it is the responsibility of all of us to ensure the success of our efforts in the grand scheme of things. There is one thing we can say for certain right now. Blockchain can definitely realize these goals and here is how.
#1 No Poverty:
With Blockchain providing Decentralized identities and cheap banking facilities for all without any bias, it is safe to assume that everyone will be able to benefit from this added feature. Facilitating Small enterprises and enhancing economic inclusion for all will surely aid in bringing down the number of people facing poverty. The UN however did make large gains towards this goal in their MDG’s that started in 2005 but there is still quite a lot to do.
#2 Zero Hunger:
People not having anything to eat for days is heartbreaking. There are so many organizations working towards providing meals and donations so that no one goes hungry. Unfortunately, not all receive this kind of treatment due to improper setups and corruption. Through Blockchain, we can secure the food supply chain, track production of food and delivery to those needing it, ensure that all donations towards free meals meet their intended targets and reduce transaction costs so that even most people can take advantage of the low fee.
#3 Good Health & Well-being:
We already know that medicinal drugs are one of the most falsified products on the planet when it comes to counterfeit. The only way this is possible is because there is little to no check on them. Health hazards and deaths have been common due to this practice and Blockchain can help counter the counterfeit. By redesigning the healthcare ecosystem and tracking pharmaceuticals throughout the supply chain, these issues can be easily resolved.
#4 Quality Education:
There is a saying that “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”. Imagine if everyone in the world received quality education. There would be less problems and more solutions. Digital learning has already caught quite the attention with the urban society and can-do wonders with the rural society as well. Blockchain will provide smart contracts for this practice, verify all educational records, offer learning with equitable and inclusive standards as well as removing E-learning constraints.
#5 Gender Equality:
Blockchain can bridge the gap between formal and informal financial systems. Since rural women in developing countries in Asia and Africa do not have that much ease of access to traditional banking, they depend on their husbands/male members to support them financially. This can cause cases of victim abuse as females are 30% less likely to have a bank account than males. Blockchain while providing secure transactions and smart contracts can promote gender equality massively. by establishing digital identities for every unique individual without any discrimination. The concept of digital identities revolves around dedicating a unique hash for every person and all their data will be secured with that hash. Therefore, through decentralized digital identities, every individual will appear as a number without the biases of a gender preference.
#6 Clean Water and Sanitation:
We all know the importance of clean drinking water. Millions of innocent people fall victim to unclean water especially in the lesser developed areas around the world and the UN are correct to identify this as a major threat to sustainability. Not only can implementing blockchain bring about the digitization of water supply with full transparency but it can also utilize IOT devices to improve usage and water quality reporting for better standards. The areas where water starts getting contaminated can be controlled this way.
#7 Affordable and Clean Energy:
Blockchain can be a major game changer for the whole world if it gets adopted into the energy sector. Not only will it be used to allow P2P exchange of energy between entities but it will also power up technologies to produce clean energy benefitting all. With a higher emphasis on using renewable energy such as solar and wind, it will also reduce the impact we have on natural resources as a means to power up our lives. Read more about how Blockchain is impacting the energy sector.
#8 Decent Work and Economic Growth:
Many say that the biggest contribution that Blockchain has made is the idea behind Cryptocurrency. Seeing that the industry has boomed quite massively in the last decade, this statement might stand true. By implementing an optimized financial structure on Blockchain, people can speed up their transactions. Tamper proofing records and digitizing payments will definitely be beneficial in the hopes of reaching sustainability.
#9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure:
We know technology will always be at the forefront of almost all innovation and we as humans have been relying on such developments for a long time now. Blockchain can successfully impact all industries. Smart Contracts and IOT based management systems are a thing of the present now with many organizations benefiting heavily from it. With blockchain coming into data management and supply chain, it won’t be long before the technology starts impacting other major industries as well.
#10 Reduced Inequalities:
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges that is tainting the world at the moment is the power gap between the wealthy and the poor. According to official sources, the poverty rate was 43.6% of the total global population back in 2017. Extreme poverty was at a 9.2% during the same time. Keeping in mind this was before Covid-19 times so we cannot be sure if this data has changed or not. However, blockchain based information accessibility and decentralized digital identities can go a long way into bringing about global equality. In terms of donations for better living conditions, there will be no room for corruption if Blockchain is introduced.
#11 Sustainable Cities and Communities:
As mentioned before, trust is key in everyday operations. Whether it is trusting the government to treat the people right or trusting the companies that they will be fair with their customers. Imagine all operations verified and validated. If everyone got down to confirm a transaction, there will be stronger trust created between the community and everything will be out in the open and most important of all, it will be fair. Blockchain can create peer to peer markets, paperless trade systems as well as using citizen data to create value. The possibilities of this impact are seriously unlimited.
#12 Responsible Consumption and Production:
Blockchain can do leaps and bounds for the supply chain industry such as creating fair trade conditions and tracking food production and supply chain in real time. This will be a huge asset when it comes to safe food consumption and food logistics. Not only will the industry flourish, production and consumption related services will be something that can only grow and with the incorporation of blockchain is definitely bound to help with delivering other SDG’s as well.
#13 Climate Action:
The 13th point on the SDG list is something that affects all of us one way or the other and has been the main focus of environmentalists across the world. We already know the causes that lead to decreasing environmental hazards leading towards Global Warming and Blockchain can offer a perfect solution to combat them. Blockchain can create mechanisms that encourage climate action and provide accountability for rapid decarbonization. Researchers have claimed that the Ozone will recover in the next few years. This will only happen if we continue to do our bit for proper climate action. Blockchain might just be the way!
#14 Life below Water:
Another one that links heavily with the environment is life below water. We know water pollution has damaged our oceans to such an extent as to threaten the lives of aquatic species and the UN have stepped in to change that. Pollution is mostly linked with improper disposal of waste. Blockchain has the ability to track said waste. With fully traceable supply chains, companies will become more responsible. The campaigns by Pepsi and Nestle are prime examples of such actions.
#15 Life on Land:
The ecosystems below water are not the only ones that the UN are working on saving. With the grand aim to promote Terrestrial ecosystems, it also looks at managing forests and reversing land degradation. Through proper data accessibility on blockchain, these goals can be reached. Blockchain will also create accountability and traceability for the terrestrial ecosystem. and provide transparency for wildlife trafficking.
#16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions:
As quoted by the United Nations themselves, the main objective of this goal is to “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels”. With the addition of blockchain to run their systems, people can manage information globally, transparently and confidently. Institutions built on blockchain can thrive and bring about peace and justice.
#17 Partnership for the Goals:
The last point on the goals is perhaps the most important one in the overall context of the whole mission. The UN recognizes that the SDG’s are not something they can deal with alone. It has to be done through proper cooperation and a global effort. through investments and funding multiple projects around the world that are working on these goals. For that very reason, Blockchain can support different entities focusing on the same goal. With enhanced supply chain traceability and access to information, the goals can be met easily. Here is what is currently happening for Goal no 17.
Wrap Up!
With all this said and done, we can conclude that blockchain can be hugely beneficial. Not only for the UN SDG’s but also for a global outlook for every industry. Bringing about trust between stakeholders and a transparent outlook in all campaigns, it has the potential to eliminate all the issues challenging the SDG’s. Most people would state that these goals are interlinked and we can confirm that it is true. Just as these goals have a connection between them, the solutions to successfully completing these goals have a major connection too. Start with one and start with blockchain. A domino effect will take place and things will start falling into place.
The point we want to promote is that even though we cannot do anything to change the past, we can strive to make sure that the same mistakes do not happen in the future. Let us bring about this change and help the United Nations reach these goals before 2030. Want to know more about Blockchain or how you can aid with the UN SDG’s? Click right here! | https://medium.com/@reactivespace/how-can-blockchain-help-fulfil-the-un-sdgs-cbbe1354a54 | ['Reactive Space'] | 2020-12-10 06:05:25.016000+00:00 | ['Climate Action', 'No Poverty', 'United Nations', 'Blockchain Development', 'Un Global Goals'] |
How to Expose Your Services With Kubernetes Ingress | How to Expose Your Services With Kubernetes Ingress
Allow your applications to talk to outsiders
Photo by Dima Pechurin on Unsplash
In my previous posts about Kubernetes, in order to expose my services to my home network, I used a load balancer service called MetalLB to expose the service to the VM bridge and an instance of Nginx on the main host as a reverse proxy to my home network. But there are some limitations to that. Kubernetes is not aware of Nginx, and can’t control its configuration, so you have to manually configure it. Also, MetalLB steals away some IP addresses from the VM bridge, and the number of IPs you configure it with, you have to guess at. If you need more than allocated, you’d have to go back in and configure MetalLB again.
It would be nice to have services that are defined as ingress routes directly exposed to your home network. In order to do that, you need an ingress controller and a route from the main network to the Kubernetes bridge network. We’ll start with the ingress controller.
To follow along with this article, you’ll need a setup similar to the one I created with my article Kubernetes from Scratch. In it, I created a bare-bones Kubernetes system on VMs running on bare-metal. My intention for this article is to help understand what’s going on behind the scenes by not using a pre-packaged system or one offered by a cloud provider. I’m also trying to be cloud provider agnostic, so knowledge gleaned from this article will help you better understand Kubernetes no matter what cloud providers you are using. You will also need an understanding of Linux systems, especially networking.
First, we need something to ingress to. I happen to have a simple service that listens for HTTP get requests and responds with “hello world”. Create a file called simple-service.yaml and add the following:
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: hellok8s-deployment
labels:
app: hellok8s
spec:
selector:
matchLabels:
app: hellok8s
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: hellok8s
spec:
containers:
- name: hellok8s
image: docker.io/rlkamradt/hellok8s:latest
ports:
- containerPort: 8080
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: hellok8s-service
spec:
type: ClusterIP
selector:
app: hellok8s
ports:
- port: 8080
targetPort: 8080
That’s about as simple as you get in Kubernetes. Now, run kubectl apply -f simple-service.yaml That will start up the service, and expose port 8080. But expose where? If you run curl http://localhost:8080/ on the main host, you’ll get nothing. You can look at the service:
rkamradt@beast:~/scratch$ kubectl get service hellok8s-service
NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE
hellok8s-service ClusterIP 10.111.98.155 <none> 8080/TCP 80s
Notice that it has a cluster IP but not an external IP. You can try curling with the cluster IP, but you won’t get anything.
Let’s try one other option. If you have access to your nodes (my nodes are called kube1–4) you can ssh to them. Now run the curl with your cluster IP:
Hello World rkamradt@kube1:~$ curl http://10.111.98.155:8080/ Hello World
You can try that on each node, and you’ll get the same answer. So one of the functions of the ingress controller is to expose the service back out to the main host.
Now we must pick an ingress controller, of which there are several. If you are running with a cloud provider, they will normally have a preferred one (or only one). But since I’m my own cloud provider, I have to pick one. I’m picking the semi-official Nginx ingress controller. You can install it straight from the Kubernetes GitHub page:
This creates a namespace called ingress-nginx . You can see all the objects it creates with kubectl get all -n ingress-nginx .
rkamradt@beast:~/scratch$ kubectl get all -n ingress-nginx
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
pod/ingress-nginx-admission-create-lfc2b 0/1 Completed 0 89s
pod/ingress-nginx-admission-patch-rmcvq 0/1 Completed 0 89s
pod/ingress-nginx-controller-5f98fb55b8-7pnjt 1/1 Running 0 99s NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE
service/ingress-nginx-controller NodePort 10.96.223.195 <none> 80:32688/TCP,443:32569/TCP 99s
service/ingress-nginx-controller-admission ClusterIP 10.100.112.59 <none> 443/TCP 99s NAME READY UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE
deployment.apps/ingress-nginx-controller 1/1 1 1 99s NAME DESIRED CURRENT READY AGE
replicaset.apps/ingress-nginx-controller-5f98fb55b8 1 1 1 99s NAME COMPLETIONS DURATION AGE
job.batch/ingress-nginx-admission-create 1/1 8s 99s
job.batch/ingress-nginx-admission-patch 1/1 8s 99s
A couple of things to note: first, it has two jobs that run once and then leave their pods around, perhaps for diagnostic purposes. They may have a TTL, or we may just need to get rid of them after a while. I’ll have to look into that when I get sufficiently annoyed seeing them hanging around.
The other thing to note is that it created a NodePort service, which would require you to forward with kubectl port-forward . I suppose it does this because it can’t expect that a load balancer would be configured, but in our case, we have MetalLB. We need to rectify that by editing the service/ingress-nginx-controller service. Run kubectl edit service ingress-nginx-controller -n ingress-nginx . Find the spec.type field and change it from NodePort to LoadBalancer . Now when we run kubectl get all -n ingress-nginx we can see the type has changed to LoadBalancer and that it has an external IP address.
service/ingress-nginx-controller LoadBalancer 10.96.223.195 192.168.122.240 80:32688/TCP,443:32569/TCP 4m36s
The IP address was allocated from MetalLB, yours will probably be different. If we curl that address, we’ll get:
<html>
<head><title>404 Not Found</title></head>
<body>
<center><h1>404 Not Found</h1></center>
<hr><center>nginx/1.17.8</center>
</body>
</html> rkamradt@beast:~/scratch$ curl http://192.168.122.240 404 Not Found 404 Not Found nginx/1.17.8
Now we can configure our ingress point. There are a lot of different options including virtual hosts, path redirect, and https termination. But we’ll start very simple indeed. Create a file called simple-ingress.yaml and add the following to it:
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
name: test-ingress
annotations:
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rewrite-target: /
spec:
rules:
- http:
paths:
- path: /testpath
pathType: Prefix
backend:
serviceName: hellok8s-service
servicePort: 8080
Start it up with kubectl apply -f simple-ingress.yaml . This will configure the ingestion service to forward all requests that have /testpath as the path to the hellok8s-service . Try it out:
Hello World rkamradt@beast:~/scratch$ curl http://192.168.122.240/testpath Hello World
But curling again without the path /testpath it’s still the 404 page:
<html>
<head><title>404 Not Found</title></head>
<body>
<center><h1>404 Not Found</h1></center>
<hr><center>nginx/1.17.8</center>
</body>
</html> rkamradt@beast:~/scratch$ curl http://192.168.122.240 404 Not Found 404 Not Found nginx/1.17.8
We could change the ingress rules and have different paths go to different services, or use virtual hosts that go to different services based on the Host header. You can also define a default ingress in case you don’t like the standard Nginx 404 page.
But there’s still a problem: if I use the browser on my laptop to go to http://192.168.122.240/testpath , I’ll get an error. We need to somehow route to the 192.168.122.0/24 network from our home network. That’s going to require a bit of skill in Linux networking.
Where does the 192.168.122.0/24 network come from? That’s KVM’s default bridge network. All the VMs we create get IP addresses assigned to that range. MetalLB also uses that network to assign addresses within a certain pool (my configuration is 192.168.122.240-192.168.122.250 ) You can find the addresses that KVM assigns from by running sudo virsh net-edit default . You can see the output and ensure that it doesn’t interfere with the range used by MetalLB:
<network>
<name>default</name>
<uuid>dc658641-aded-465d-b472-1cc427c76626</uuid>
<forward mode='nat'/>
<bridge name='virbr0' stp='on' delay='0'/>
<mac address='52:54:00:1d:5b:25'/>
<ip address='192.168.122.1' netmask='255.255.255.0'>
<dhcp>
<range start='192.168.122.2' end='192.168.122.232'/>
</dhcp>
</ip>
</network>
I set my dhcp range to end at 192.168.122.232 so it wouldn’t interfere with the range from MetalLB. You’ll also see that the forward mode is nat so it acts similar to your home router, traffic can go out, but the outside world can’t initiate a connection.
But the main host has an ‘in’ to this network, it can access the bridge without going through NAT. If the main host can see it, I should be able to play around with iptables and port forward. Be sure to shut off any service on your main host that might be listening on port 80 or 443. Here are the commands that I use to accomplish that:
You’ll have to use sudo /bin/bash to run all these commands as root (or prefix each with sudo ). Test it out by opening http://<mainhost>/testpath in your browser. It worked the first time for me! Then you can make your changes permanent. I was able to use apt-get install iptables-persistent which saved the rules to /etc/iptables/rules.v4 which are automatically loaded on reboot. Your particular distribution of Linux may require different ways to save.
You might be tempted to open up additional ports as well, but by opening up just the two, you can keep your ingress security simple. I might even remove the ingress to port 80 and force people to use 443. That is, as soon as I get HTTPS set up.
Which brings me to my next section: setting up HTTPS. Now, HTTPS, SSL, and TLS have given great security to the internet. But they have also caused many programmers to pull out their hair. Even if the applications you write don’t terminate HTTPS, eventually you’ll be called upon to make calls to an HTTPS service with a funky certificate. Why are certificates so hard to deal with? First, they need to come from official certificate authorities (CA). Second, the common name (CN) value in the certificate must match the hostname to ensure that the hostname you typed in your browser matches the certificate offered by the server. This is true not just for browser access, but for application access.
One way to alleviate this situation is to have one server provide all ingress and terminate HTTPS. When I say “terminate HTTPS”, that means that the ingress server provides the certificate and then forwards requests to the application in plain HTTP. This is what I like to call “exoskeleton security,” because your security is provided by the fact that you have only one ingress point, and it can be locked down pretty tightly.
The fact that we can’t route to the KVM bridge network — except by making specific rules in the IP tables of the main host — gives us that security. It’s a little harder when you have multiple hosts or cloud hosts where you don’t know exactly where they are, but the subnet isolation is still there and should provide the exoskeleton you need. It also alleviates the need to have HTTPS handling in your application, and that’s a security risk in and of itself.
If we browse to our new service using HTTPS on Chrome, we get this screen:
Other browsers may present different screens. It’s meant to look scary; if this was a real website on the internet, I would definitely be hitting the “back to safety” button. When Nginx is installed, it will create a self-signed certificate. Clicking the “Advanced” button gives us more information:
Now you can set up Chrome to trust your certificate, but because there’s no standard place for trusted certificates to be stored, each browser you might use (and each programming language that might read from this URL) needs to be configured to trust this certificate.
By clicking on the “Proceed to beast (unsafe)” link, you’ll get your “Hello World”. If you click on the “Not Secure” next to the URL, it will show you why it thinks it’s not secure.
Click on the “Certificate (Invalid)” link and you’ll see the certificate Nginx created for you.
So, not only is this certificate not verified by a third party (a CA), the Common Name, which should be the hostname, is “Kubernetes Ingress Controller Fake Certificate.”
As stated above, this isn’t a tutorial for creating a production system. It’s for learning the nuts-and-bolts of Kubernetes, so you’ll be better prepared to create a production system. We could just leave it as is and make you click through the warnings on every access. (I’ve been in many workplaces that made you do that). But let’s go one step further and install a certificate manager into Kubernetes that will allow us to create certificates from a CA for each ingress.
We’re going to use the originally named cert-manager for our certificate manager. To install all the artifacts needed for the basic manager system, use the following:
That will create the namespace call cert-manager . You can see all the artifacts with kubectl get all -n cert-manager .
rkamradt@beast:~/scratch$ kubectl get all -n cert-manager
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
pod/cert-manager-74d6c4d49b-md4lf 1/1 Running 1 22h
pod/cert-manager-cainjector-77bc84779-7vhgj 1/1 Running 1 22h
pod/cert-manager-webhook-5b5485577f-6csgf 1/1 Running 1 22h NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE
service/cert-manager ClusterIP 10.100.138.27 <none> 9402/TCP 22h
service/cert-manager-webhook ClusterIP 10.97.218.179 <none> 443/TCP 22h NAME READY UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE
deployment.apps/cert-manager 1/1 1 1 22h
deployment.apps/cert-manager-cainjector 1/1 1 1 22h
deployment.apps/cert-manager-webhook 1/1 1 1 22h NAME DESIRED CURRENT READY AGE
replicaset.apps/cert-manager-74d6c4d49b 1 1 1 22h
replicaset.apps/cert-manager-cainjector-77bc84779 1 1 1 22h
replicaset.apps/cert-manager-webhook-5b5485577f 1 1 1 22h
Now we should have a certificate from a CA. We’re going to create our own CA and produce a root certificate that the certificate manager can use to sign individual certificates. They still won’t be trusted by your browser, but you only have to install the one root certificate on the browser to get any certificate created from it trusted and it’s only one step away from using a real CA.
This will create two files, ca.key and ca.crt. The key file is your private key which will need to be secret. The crt file is your public root certificate, which you can install in your browser. The key file is needed to create certificates on behalf of your new CA, hence the need to keep it absolutely secret. You have to let anyone that you want to trust you have the crt file. The crt file is base-64 encoded, so it’s just text, you can print it out if you want.
The last two lines of the above snippet will allow it to be used as a secret. The third line removes the passphrase, and the fourth line creates the secrets in Kubernetes. This secret will be used by cert-manager to create an Issuer . Create a file called issuer.yaml and insert the following:
apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1alpha2
kind: Issuer
metadata:
name: ca-issuer
spec:
ca:
secretName: ca-key-pair
This creates an Issuer named ca-issuer and associates the CA certificate secret we just created. Now the Issuer can be called upon to issue certificates as needed. Let’s create an ingress that will use a virtual hostname and issue a certificate for it. Create a file called vhost-ingress.yaml and add the following:
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
name: test-ingress
annotations:
cert-manager.io/issuer: ca-issuer
spec:
rules:
- host: helloworld.local
http:
paths:
- backend:
serviceName: hellok8s-service
servicePort: 8080
path: /
tls:
- hosts:
- helloworld.local
secretName: myingress-cert
In this file, the cert-manager.io/issuer annotation tells it which issuer to use to issue certificates, in this case, the one we just created. Under spec.rules we set the host to helloworld.local . Finally, we add the tls section that says to create a certificate for helloworld.local and store it in the secret myingress-cert for Nginx ingress to use.
Now we can add them to the system in the normal fashion:
kubectl apply -f issuer.yaml
kubectl apply -f vhost-ingress.yaml
Run kubectl get secrets myingress-cert to see the generated certificate.
Back on your development machine, you can add helloworld.local as an alias for the main host in the /etc/hosts file. Then browse to https://helloworld.local. You should get the same warning because our system doesn’t trust the new root certificate yet. But click through the warning, and have another look at the certificate. It should be a new certificate, not the dummy Nginx certificate.
If you’re running Chrome on macOS, it turns out you can add it to the trusted certificates on the Mac Keychain. Open up the Keychain tool and select the system tab. Then, under the File menu, choose Import Item. Select the certificate (ca.crt) you copied over from your main host. Once imported, it should appear in your list of certificates, but it should have a red X indicating it’s not yet trusted. Double click on it, and set trusted to all. Now if you refresh https://helloworld.local, it should come up as trusted. If you click the lock icon next to the URL, you’ll see the details of the certificate and it’s trusted root.
It’s set to expire in three months, but if I understand cert-manager, it will create a new one as needed. Pretty nifty! If you’re running another browser or another OS, I’m sure you’ll be able to find instructions on installing root certificates.
It’s probably overkill to create a CA and install a certificate manager just for one virtual host. But now I can add services to my system with virtual hosting and https just by adding another ingress and updating my /etc/hosts file. While we’re still very far from a production system, we’ve come a long way towards it and solved a lot of problems along the way. If you had a domain name, you could easily use a service like LetsEncrypt. The cert-manager component has a configuration for LetsEncrypt built-in.
This has been a long and complicated article, and I hope you stuck with it to the end. We solved a lot of problems and I know I’ve learned a lot. I hope you have too and thank you for sharing this journey with me. All of the scripts used can be found on my GitHub page. | https://medium.com/better-programming/how-to-expose-your-services-with-kubernetes-ingress-7f34eb6c9b5a | ['Randal Kamradt Sr'] | 2020-10-25 13:28:34.591000+00:00 | ['Kubernetes', 'Cert Manager', 'DevOps', 'Programming', 'Nginx'] |
Cyclone response takes shape in Mozambique | Across the three nations, tens of thousands are known to have have lost their homes. Roads, bridges and crops have been washed away. Assessments continue, but early indications are that WFP may need to provide 500,000 people with food assistance — out of a total of 600,000 believed to be in need of help in Mozambique alone.
WFP’s warehouse in Beira was badly damaged by the cyclone, but some food remained intact. From that stock, WFP is providing fortified cereal for porridge to displaced people sheltering at 18 schools and churches — each of which can accommodate up to 1,000 people — in the city. The organization is also planning to assist displaced people sheltering in Dondo, north of Beira.
Twenty tons of high-energy biscuits have been airlifted in, to be distributed by helicopter in cut-off regions. WFP is also funding drones to support Mozambique’s disaster management agency, the INGC, with emergency mapping. To enable the humanitarian teams to operate, the WFP-led Emergency Telecommunications Cluster has set up a wi-fi connection in Beira.
Anastasia is still too upset to think of a suitable name for her baby. Photo: WFP/Deborah Nguyen
Anastasia, 29, is an early recipient of WFP food aid. The howling of the cyclone woke her up at night. She grabbed her newborn son and ran into a nearby church for refuge. WFP caught up with her at a school turned makeshift shelter. She’s yet too shaken to think of a name for her baby boy.
Cyclone Idai feeds into a harrowing cycle of flooding and drought in southern Africa: seemingly contradictory calamities may alternate or strike jointly. Aside from its emergency response, WFP and its partners continue to promote longer-term climate adaptation measures in the region, from more resilient crops to climate insurance to early warning systems.
Please help WFP save lives in Mozambique. Donate now. | https://medium.com/world-food-programme-insight/cyclone-response-takes-shape-in-mozambique-f3ab4463f5cb | ['Andre Vornic'] | 2019-03-21 07:54:44.166000+00:00 | ['Africa', 'Mozambique', 'Emergency', 'Disaster Response', 'Humanitarian'] |
Seven Executive Actions Biden-Harris Can Take on Day One to Move Beyond the Trump Era | President-Elect Biden has made clear that he will reverse the harmful executive actions taken by President Trump over the last four years. Among other actions, he will rejoin the Paris climate accords, reverse President Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization, repeal the Muslim travel ban, and reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Those early actions are crucial to stemming the harm and cruelty of the prior administration. But there is more that the Biden-Harris administration can and should do on day one to move our country in a new, inclusive direction. Whatever the outcome of the fight for Senate control, the Executive Branch has significant power to act, particularly regarding civil and human rights. Here are seven ideas to get them started.
1. An Opportunity Action Plan.
Biden-Harris made a renewed commitment to equal opportunity and justice a cornerstone of their campaign. On Inauguration Day, they will have the power to implement that vision through the administration of hundreds of billions of dollars in federally-funded programs around the country. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its federal regulations prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, and ethnicity in federally-funded programs, whether that discrimination is intentional or in practice. Other rules prohibit federally-underwritten discrimination based on gender and disability. Yet, as the COVID-19 pandemic and our national reckoning on race make clear, federal funds continue to subsidize public health, transportation, educational, justice, and other systems that significantly exclude or harm people of color. On day one, the Biden-Harris administration should issue an executive order requiring public and private recipients of federal funds to affirmatively demonstrate, based on real data, how they will prevent discrimination and guarantee equal access as a condition on future funding. The Opportunity Agenda has proposed an Opportunity Impact Statement process as one way of implementing this crucial goal.
2. Reinventing Safety and Justice.
This year, the largest social justice movement in history took to the streets to demand a re-envisioning of public safety and a new commitment to equal justice. On day one, the Biden-Harris administration should re-direct existing justice funding toward state, tribal, and local governments that emphasize prevention, equity, human services, and restorative justice. Jurisdictions should be incentivized to reduce reliance on policing and mass incarceration while advancing community-led approaches that deliver true safety. Innovative localities are deploying community mediation, de-escalation teams, mental health services, and other strategies to keep communities safe, prevent harm, and uphold the values of fairness and accountability. The new administration should support, assess, and learn from these efforts. And Biden-Harris should immediately halt the transfer of military-grade weaponry to police departments.
3. Repurposing Prisons and Jails for Jobs and Education.
As they move away from harmful mass incarceration, states, localities, and nonprofits have been finding innovative ways to repurpose prisons and jails to advance community health, educational opportunity, and regional economies. Ideas range from a small farm incubator in Illinois, to a distillery and tourist attraction in Tennessee, to a youth and community resource center in South Central LA. Biden-Harris should direct federal agencies that already fund local initiatives to invest in best practices for reinvestment of this kind.
4. Protecting Human Rights at Home and Abroad.
President-Elect Biden has indicated a welcome intention to return the US to the community of nations, including the system of international human rights that America helped to craft after WWII and the horrors of the Holocaust. An immediate step, recommended in an influential Human Rights Blueprint, should be a revitalized Interagency Working Group on Human Rights to coordinate federal agencies’ promotion and implementation of human rights obligations in U.S. domestic policy. In addition, the new president should sign the international human rights treaties from which the United States has been noticeably absent, including protections for migrant workers and their families.
5. Tackling Climate Change and Environmental Justice.
President-Elect Biden has correctly described human-driven climate change as an “existential threat to humanity,” noting that “we don’t have much time” to address it. Biden and Harris have also noted the discriminatory impact of climate change on communities of color, as with a wide range of environmental hazards. On day one, the Biden-Harris administration should make good on its commitment to establish an Environmental and Climate Justice Division within the U.S. Department of Justice, charged with enforcing environmental laws and addressing the inequitable impact of emissions and other hazards on communities.
6. Respecting Tribal Sovereignty.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling, McGirt v. Oklahoma, holding that 19th century treaties that the United States signed with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation remain binding, and that the lands that Congress “solemnly guarantied” to the Creek Nation in exchange for leaving their eastern homelands remain theirs today. In addition to ensuring that this ruling is faithfully implicated, Biden-Harris should order a thorough inventory of all treaty obligations, with an eye toward ensuring that they are implemented and respected. Tribal leaders and governments must have a central role, and indigenous sources of history and knowledge must be considered in this process.
7. Moving Toward Full Equality.
In another landmark decision earlier this year, Bostock v. Clayton County, the Supreme Court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. The Court’s reasoning applies not only to Title VII, but also to other gender-based civil rights protections. The Biden-Harris administration should immediately issue an order prohibiting discrimination on these bases by the executive branch and military, as well as a review of all laws that prohibit gender discrimination, clarifying that each prohibits discrimination based on LGBTQ status.
These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to a Biden-Harris opportunity agenda. And they must complement, not replace, the President-Elect’s plans to reverse the many harmful Trump executive actions. But taking these concrete steps on Inauguration Day would begin the process of moving beyond the Trump era toward one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Have additional ideas for the first 100 days? Post them in the comments! | https://medium.com/@Opportunity1/seven-executive-actions-biden-harris-can-take-on-day-one-to-move-beyond-the-trump-era-f700b258521 | ['Alan Jenkins'] | 2020-11-16 14:18:01.800000+00:00 | ['Human Rights', 'Diversity And Inclusion', 'Public Policy', 'White House', 'Civil Rights'] |
Building a Deployable Jira Bug Classification Engine using Google AutoML | Building a Deployable Jira Bug Classification Engine using Google AutoML
A step-by-step approach
The pyramids as seen from Giza (credit: author’s own collection)
Author’s note: I chose this picture as one of the takeaways from this exercise was how complex AutoML is under the hood but Google has done such a great job of making things simple. The various AutoML tools reside together with other GCP tools like Cloud Storage, App Engine etc much like how the pyramids reside together with the rest of the city of Giza.
Introduction
In the first article in this series, I detailed how I built a Jira bug classification engine using Tensorflow. In the follow-up article, I described a step-by-step approach to using Amazon’s BlazingText to build and deploy a similar engine. In this article, I detail the steps to do the same using Google’s AutoML.
As in the previous article, I will be using the data-set found in [1].
My personal objectives for doing this were the following:
Get a feel of using Google’s AutoML engine in particular the “Natural Language” toolset Perform a comparison of the classification results between AutoML and BlazingText Perform a comparison of the steps to deploy the classification engine
As in the previous article, you can find the notebooks and data files in Gitlab:
I’ve created a folder AutoML/textClassification to store the files in this project.
As most of the steps to build this classification engine is via the UI, I’ve put all the steps in the Google Colab notebook GCPAutoMLDataPrepTrainEval.ipynb found in the Gitlab repo.
What is AutoML?
I would probably not do a whole lot of justice in explaining what AutoML in any depth here so I’ll refer you to a video for that (see [2]).
In a nutshell: remember when you did Machine Learning using Scikit-learn or Tensorflow? What you would do would be to try several different models and sets of hyper-parameters. This whole process could be automated and that is essentially what AutoML does.
So in this case, what you need to do is (and similar to BlazingText), you’ll need to format the training dataset into a format that the particular algorithm class (in this case text classification) will accept and then let AutoML do the rest.
Google Cloud and Cloud Natural Language
There are several GCP (Google Cloud Platform) tools used for this project:
Google Cloud Storage Cloud Natural Language Google App Engine
Author’s note: if you have an interest to pick up Machine Learning on GCP, I highly recommend Coursera’s Data Engineering, Big Data, and Machine Learning on GCP Specialization online course. It is self-paced and there are lots of labs that come free. There is also a YouTube series on basics of GCP that you can find here [3].
One thing great about GCP is that they actually give you $300 of service free when you start out. So if you just want to dip your toes into it, this is a big incentive. To find out more see https://cloud.google.com/free.
Getting to Cloud Natural Language
For those familiar with GCP this is a no-brainer: just navigate to the the GCP console and look for “Natural Language” under “Artificial Intelligence” on the side menu.
For those new to GCP, you will need to:
Go to “http://console.cloud.google.com” on your browser. Create a new Project with a service account (you need the service account to make predictions later) see instructions here. If you click on the side menu, you will be able to navigate to “Natural Language” under the “Artificial Intelligence” section.
When you reach “Natural Language” you will see:
Click on the “Get Started” link on “AutoML text and document classification” section. The page you will see is the “Data Set” page.
Data Preparation
It took me a while to figure out what was the way to format the training data after I clicked on the “New Data Set” link, selected “Multi-label classification”. and tried to import the CSV file. Turns out the system needs the data in another format.
This I found out by clicking on a tooltip (ie. the “?”) after selecting “Upload zip file from your computer”. This is what is says:
I decided to use the first approach. Here is the code I used to convert my CSV to this format (you can find it in the notebook as well):
Importing the Data
The next part was downloading the documents.zip and uploading to AutoML for processing. This can take some time but the nice thing is that they will send you an email once completed.
Once processed, you will see something like this when you click on the “Items” tab:
What’s great is that you can click on “View Label Stats” to see the distribution of the labels etc and you can review the data as well. I personally really liked this about the tool.
Training
To kick off training, just click on the “Train” tab and click “Start Training”. This will take a few hours to run as it is searching for the best algorithm and hyper-parameters. You will get a email when the task is completed.
Evaluate Model Training
Once the training is done you’ll see something like this:
Click on “See full evaluation” and you’ll see something like this:
You can select each label on the left to see the precision and recall metrics. One thing I really like about this is they actually list out the true positives, false negatives and false positives for you to do some kind of analysis.
Deploy the Model
This couldn’t be more straight-forward. Click on the “Test and Use” tab and click “Deploy model”.
Author’s note: make sure to delete the model when you’re done as you will get charged if you keep it running.
Testing the Model
Once the model is deployed you can take your model for a spin (pun intended). There are a number of ways to do this and Cloud Natural Language provides a few ways of doing that.
The first is just to type in some text and let the model predict:
Next boiler plate code is provided below (sh and python). You can do it on your own machine or open a Google Cloud Shell for that.
Exposing the Model as an API
For this I used Google App Engine. This is fairly straight-forward.
Create the AppEngine App
First navigate to App Engine on the Google console. Then look for the Quickstart guide. Select Python on the “Standard environment walkthrough” and follow the steps to clone the boilerplate sample code in Cloud Shell.
Under the “appengine” folder you will see the following 4 files:
app.yaml main.py requirements.txt test.sh
Next, what I did was to use the test Python code to merge it with the sample AppEngine code:
A few things to note:
model_name will be different for you
the service account creds will be different as well
You can test this locally (or on google cloud shell) by running:
python3 main.py
sh test.sh
you should get something like:
{
"prediction": "Major",
"score": 0.7177224159240723,
"statusCode": 200
}
Deploy the App
First you need to create the app (I did this on google cloud shell):
gcloud app create
Next deploy the app:
gcloud app deploy app.yaml \
--project <project id>
Test the deploy
Once the app is deployed, you will see the App Engine app URL on the screen. You can then use curl to test it out:
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json"
-d '{"title": "TestSizeBasedThrottler fails occasionally",
"description": "Every now and then TestSizeBasedThrottler fails reaching the test internal timeouts.I think the timeouts (200ms) are too short for the Jenkins machines.On my (reasonably fast) machine I get timeout reliably when I set the timeout to 50ms, and occasionally at 100ms."}'
"https://octopus-282815.uc.r.appspot.com/predict"
Evaluating the Model
One of the objectives of this exercise was to evaluate to see how the model generated by AutoML compares with BlazingText in the previous article. As I already had the test data set created for BlazingText, I just needed to use it again.
Using the Test data-set
Here is the code I used
The output:
This is close to the BlazingText result.
Using another data-set
As in the BlazingText article, I also used the Zookeeper data set to evaluate the model.
This is what I got:
(the NaNs are due to division by zero as some of the labels do not exist in this data-set)
This is also similar with what was obtained using BlazingText.
Conclusion
Overall this was my impression after using GCP’s AutoML Natural Language Classifier.
The performance of the algorithm was similar to that of BlazingText. The documentation on how to format the training data was a little hard to find at first. I really liked the way the data was presented after ingestion as it gave me some means of analyzing it without having to write any code. I really liked the tools to evaluate the model after training especially the tables showing which were true positive, false positive etc It was fairly easy to build a server-less API interface using App Engine. For BlazingText I was using a basic template that was provided by the AICamp course to work with. I really liked the fact that there was the Cloud Shell to do CLI stuff. For BlazingText I had to use a shell in Sagemaker’s Jupyter notebook to do some of that.
References
[1] Jira Social Repository, Marco Ortu et al https://github.com/marcoortu/jira-social-repository
[2] Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) for Keras and TensorFlow (14.1), Jeff Heaton, https://youtu.be/TFUysIR5AB0
[3] Welcome to Google Cloud Platform: the essentials of GCP, Google Cloud Platform, https://youtu.be/4D3X6Xl5c_Y | https://towardsdatascience.com/building-a-deployable-jira-bug-classification-engine-using-google-automl-a0497ad8c475 | ['Heemeng Foo'] | 2020-07-28 15:52:14.695000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Jira', 'AI', 'Classification', 'Automl'] |
Is it OK to use a Water flosser everyday | Studies have confirmed that Water flosser is good for oral health. A 2013 study by the National Institutes of Health concluded that compared with flossing, best water flosser and brushing remove more plaque from the surface of teeth. The American Association of Dental Hygienists recommends the use of water flosser teeth cleaning.
How often should I use water floss?
Flossing is usually a forgotten task, even if you remember to brush your teeth twice a day. Although surprisingly, more than half of American men brush their teeth twice a day, while women do not lead too much. Only 56.8% of American women brush their teeth twice a day.
So we now know that whether you choose to use dental floss or rechargeable water flosser, experts recommend using dental floss every day, but since everyone’s mouth is different, you may need to adjust it slightly. The benefits of using dental floss multiple times a day to remove stubborn food residues will outweigh the risk of overusing dental floss once. Or, if one day you have to floss harder to remove food, you may want to relax a bit, or wait a day or two before flossing the next time to prevent injury or damage to your gums.
How many times a day should you use a water flosser?
So, let’s get back to the question at hand, how many times a day should you use a electric oral irrigator?
Well, this is a slightly difficult question to answer because it’s really hard to fix a specific number.
Honestly, you could be using it a hundred times if you wanted to, but that wouldn’t exactly be the brightest idea of them all.
However, it is generally accepted that you should use water flosser at least once every single day.
What is really recommended is that you use it twice a day, ideally after brushing. | https://medium.com/@theunifeel/is-it-ok-to-use-a-water-flosser-everyday-3993b6df56fa | ['Yang Chun'] | 2021-12-30 10:32:02.997000+00:00 | ['Dentistry', 'Water', 'Esmile', 'Badbreath', 'Electric Oral Irrigator'] |
Staff Picks: Here Are the Top Videos From 2021 We Don’t Want You To Miss | We rounded up our favorite videos made through Storyhunter in 2021.
Stanley (Commercial Spot)
Stanley, a Seattle-based company selling quality food and beverage gear, wanted to create a commercial targeting Millennials and Gen Z. The brand turned to Storyhunter to discover and hire indie filmmaker Ricardo Betancourt to lead the production in New Orleans. The result was a one-minute humanistic commercial spot featuring hip-hop artist Pell that pays homage to the Big Easy (Both Ricardo and Pell are from New Orleans). In this interview, Ricardo tells us Stanley was “blown away” by the final result: “I believe it’s one of the first videos that they posted that broke the 10,000 views on YouTube,” he said.
Underknown (Explainer Video)
Underknown is a Canadian social video company that produces data-driven web series around science, history, geography, and culture. One of those is “What If,” which “takes you on an epic journey through hypothetical worlds and possibilities.” They hired Amanda Zola, a storyteller-editor with motion graphics experience, to illustrate this highly-engaging explainer on what would happen to Earth if it froze overnight. Amanda now regularly edits for the Webby Award-winning series.
Red Bull Media House (Animated Video)
In “For Real,” Red Bull athletes “share their craziest stories with us” from world champion Orlando Duque’s cliff diving into crocodile-infested waters to Zion Wright’s unexpected LA skate life. Red Bull hired France-based Storyhunter freelancer and 2D animator Hugo Louiset to help bring the athletes’ stories to life. Each episode, managed by Storyhunter freelancer Jason Beauregard, creatively and cleverly weaves in the featured athlete interview with bright animated illustrations that lean into the light-hearted humor of the series. And it seems like Red Bull viewers, much like us, can’t get enough of the animations. They commented on YouTube: “Huge props to the animators,” and “Really nice work! The artist for the animations has the best style!”
Vin Social (Pitch Video)
Vin Social, a virtual events production company and e-commerce platform, is one of the dozens of startups tapping into the power of pitch videos to raise money on crowdfunding platforms such as WeFunder and Kickstarter. Storyhunter and executive producer of ARORA media agency Adrian Baschuk created this video for Vin Social’s WeFunder page, which helped the startup raise over a quarter of a million dollars. So, why are pitch videos so effective? They allow for a founder’s personality to shine and serve as a powerful way to connect with potential investors through storytelling, and this is what Vin Social’s video does so well.
Read our full blog post on how Storyhunter freelancers are helping startups find success with pitch videos.
Meta x Paralympics (360 Virtual Reality Video)
Meta teamed up with the International Paralympics Committee to tell five uplifting stories from Paralympians. “RAW” is a sound-first, virtual reality experience that invites users to stand beside the athletes and “witness the emotions that define their most challenging, and rewarding moments.” Meta hired Storyhunter DPs, producers, and sound mixers from the Gold Coast, Hong Kong, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to help tell the athletes’ stories of courage, love, trust, power, and loneliness. Through this VR and immersive web experience, Meta and the Paralympics strive to change perceptions of disability. | https://blog.storyhunter.com/staff-picks-here-are-the-top-videos-from-2021-we-dont-want-you-to-miss-7987526bf790 | [] | 2021-12-15 14:17:03.166000+00:00 | ['Video Strategist', 'Brands', 'Video Production', 'Video Marketing', 'Freelancing'] |
How to create YOUR own Cryptocurrency!!! | Now, what's special in this blog🤔🤔? We are gonna witness how secure the blockchain is when a hacker tries to change a data in a block😯!! in addition to that, we are gonna simplify our previous code... Let’s simplify our previous code first which means we are gonna do some couple of changes😨 where the functionality remains the same. trust me they are really small changes😜
Replacing dictionary with blocks while adding blocks to the blockchain :
I have changed add() method in a blockchain class as below since chaining
add() method in BlockChain class
up of blocks (class) is a good method of coding rather than by dictionary due to this change we have to change the mine() method as below
mine() method in blockchain
here I have changed self.chain[-1].hash() because self.chain[-1] is a block itself(since we are adding a block) so I called hash() of class Block to get hash of that block
I have changed the main method as below to get better visual on output
main() method
Now you can see the output by just navigating to that directory in your command prompt and entering python <filename>.py as below
output
okay… that's all our code changes😊… hence on seeing the output we can witness that the functionality remains the same. | https://medium.com/coinmonks/part-3-how-to-create-your-own-cryptocurrency-bb6c75353218 | ['Anantha Perumal'] | 2020-12-28 15:28:11.949000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain Technology'] |
Erik Frankel, ecommerce entrepreneur from Brooklyn, who lives 15 years in Vietnam | Erik Frankel is a maker and mogul of online sales. He established a kind of Fab Lab space in Saigon — VietsWay, where employs local crafters, who sew bags, knit toys, melt jewelry and hand craft all sorts of trinkets. And he sells this stuff online over numerous accounts on Amazon, eBay, Etsy and own Vietsway.com. His listings include 100 000 goods, and most of them are produced only after customer places an order. Erik ships several thousand packages per month to the warehouse in New York, from where the goods are delivered to the customers in the US and all over the world.
Erik discovered the power of online trade in the late 90-s, when he put up for sale vintage clothes from the warehouse of his father, who owned a shop in New York and couldn’t get rid of old stuff in retail. But everything was sold online. When Erik have been to South-Eastern Asia he visited Chatuchak Weekend Market in Bangkok and was astonished by diversity of goods and opportunities for online sales. He still has suppliers in Thailand.
Erik lived in Thai and Myanmar, and moved to Vietnam almost 15 years ago. Sometimes he sends his employees to Thailand to hunt for new designs, because Thai masters always try to innovate, unlike Vietnamese crafters, who are used to make the same things over and over again for many years. He organized knitting courses for disabled people and at some point fired teacher, who tried to headhunt the same employees, whom she taught for Erik’s money. Now several people with disabilities work at workshop and from home.
Erik dreams to shift his business toward a platform where any crafter from Vietnam can sell her goods. He also invites others to come to his place and use equipment for tinkering and crafting. He is eager to sell goods from other makers through his channel without a fee — he claims that increase of shipment volumes can lead to discount form UPS and payments will buff up his cashflow until he makes payout. | https://medium.com/@maxon/erik-frankel-ecommerce-entrepreneur-from-brooklyn-who-lives-15-years-in-vietnam-99bae8fc82c1 | ['Maxon Pugovsky'] | 2018-01-07 05:30:42.583000+00:00 | ['Ecommerce', 'Vietnam', 'Makers', 'Craftsmanship', 'Ho Chi Minh City'] |
One project at a time, we Build to Learn | Working with people from different countries, the challenge of working together and practicing coding. For all of us we either used code in new ways,
learnt more and built more and did this together!
Using SCRUM for the first time to keep organized, and also pushing ourselves to learn basic Koa and Postgres
Worked with others in a remote setting and reached MVP goal.
All three of our team members were involved the entire project! Weekly meetings allowed us to learn and build skills together in a positive environment. This was the first attempt using the MERN stack for all of us.
Everyone contributed and helped each other
Getting to know new people
Working in team helped me to be better with my communication skills and my code to be better and more creative.
When we got to the point where we could deploy something that we created as a team.
The whole experience of working with other people — talking through our ideas, debating and negotiating features and implementation, learning new things from other team members, trying and failing to use Git/Github properly, laughing at our mistakes and celebrating our wins.
Getting to know new people
International teamwork!
The best aspects of our project’s experience were collaborating with interesting people from all over the world, discussing code and life-related things, and seeing our ideas come to reality in the form of the final app.
Interaction! I always coded alone, to have a team to discuss with has been a huge step forward for me and was such a great experience to share with you guys! | https://medium.com/chingu/one-project-at-a-time-we-build-to-learn-c43c0218ee27 | ['Chance Mcallister'] | 2019-02-28 16:27:15.347000+00:00 | ['Web Development', 'Codingbootcamp', 'Chingu', 'Showcase', 'Freecodecamp'] |
Using Sauna to Beat the Summer Heat | Is the sauna a good idea in the Summer?
The semiotics of a sauna seem to lend themselves to the winter hygge for many people. However in most sauna-loving countries the sauna is a year round place and is as popular in the summer as in the winter. This might seem counter-intuitive for many people wondering why you would want to go into a sauna and sweat when it is already really hot outside.
People with ailments such as aches and pains as well as Lyme disease will still find relief from a sauna visit year round. The health conscious who are using the sauna for reasons such as heat shock proteins and workout recovery will likely also not want to take the summer off. But will the sauna compound the heat that we feel outside?
Saunas help our bodies acclimate to the heat.
Saunas make our bodies respond better to overheating
As the weather heats up saunas help our bodies learn to regulate our internal heat better. Studies on athletes have proven that sauna sessions cause our bodies to become more efficient at regulating our internal temperature. This means your body will strain less when it comes to cooling you off. According to researcher Rhonda Patrick regular sauna use makes our body stain less to cool down. When you think about it this makes sense considering people adapt to hotter climates. If you visit your Australian cousin in their summer from your winter you might find the heat almost unbearable while they have been acclimated to find it comfortable.
There are several changes that your body makes as it get acclimated to higher temperatures. The first is an increase in perspiration. No this does not mean sweaty armpits, actually this is our body’s primary way to cool us down and the vast majority of our sweat simple evaporates. By allowing more efficient sweating earlier we can avoid our bodies compensating and causing the more embarrassing sweating we do when we are not heat acclimated. Sports teams in cool locations use saunas to get their players used to working hard in hotter locations. Research has shown that sauna use also lowered the bodily temperature of runners during races.
My Personal Experience
My first experience with summer sauna relief happened when I was living abroad in South Korea working as an English teacher. I was living in what is considered the hottest city in the country, Daegu (aka. D’Africa due to the high temperatures). This is a city surrounded like a bowl with mountains, leaving the heat to get trapped and build up. Therefore when some friends suggested we visit a local sauna house we were passing I thought they were crazy. One hour later I was a full convert of the summer sauna. Before the summer heat felt sweltering, after repeated sauna sessions separated by dips in the cold pool the weather outside suddenly seemed much more pleasant.
How to Sauna in the Summer
1. Start with a cold shower
When the outside temperature is higher your body’s core temperature will also be higher
2. Shorter Sauna Sessions
Since your body will likely need less time to warm up limit your sauna time to maybe around 15 minutes.
3. Take a plunge!
Saunas are normally built near water in Scandinavia, and Jimjilbangs in Korea almost always have cold water baths next to their extra-hot saunas.
4. Hydrate
This is importnat any time of the year, but extra important in the hotter months. | https://medium.com/@mailmikeelgar/using-sauna-to-beat-the-summer-heat-bb765ed81941 | ['Michael Elgar'] | 2019-08-02 19:05:40.392000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Summer', 'Sauna'] |
Terminal Illness in Someone You Love, and Writing. | Life has its unexpected, painful, and unfair ways. But it’s those certain things we have absolutely no control over, that are the hardest to accept. I still remember when I was a kid, and learned about the concept and the inescapability of death. It was impossible to imagine that this was the ultimate fate of every being; this was the one outright certainty we could be offered. Since then, I still sometimes wonder how we go on after someone we love dies. Somehow the sun sinks and the stars shine in the same way they did the day before.
Recently, my uncle was diagnosed with a very rare terminal illness. One thing that has always bonded us is our love of writing. When the diagnosis first came, I found myself helplessly cursing anything I could. But then: he started sending weekly writings, in emails, detailing whatever it is he wanted to: short stories, snippets, poems. Some detailing what he’s going through, and some totally fictional stories. And just when I was feeling so unbelievably lost and angry at the world, his writing made something very clear to me. At the crux of it: life is beautiful.
No, no, sorry, that’s cliche and not what I mean. What I mean is that his words, and the act of writing alone, is a beautiful, unadulterated form. It’s beautiful because it is fixed, despite all else. It can’t be touched by death. And it isn’t beautiful because of anything flowery — not even because of the language itself, necessarily. But his stories, his poetry, his words, at their very simplest, just as he put them down, as he pieced them together, whether carefully or not… There is nothing in this world as long lasting, nothing as plainly and completely made up of him.
So it’s not really life itself that is beautiful, though of course it can be. It’s the human being himself. It’s the human condition itself. Writing is one of the most human things we can do, and reading someone else’s writing lets us right into the core of that being. Not the entirety of course, maybe a minuscule part. But nonetheless it’s a closeness that is unlike anything else. It’s saying, I’ve poured a bit of my heart out, or a bit of my brain out, and I would like you to see, I would like to invite you in.
What I’m trying to say is, his writing brings me peace. I know it brings him some peace as well. This feels like the epitome of uncertainty. If his writings were fictional, I’d be fed up with the ever-changing plot by now; “definitive” news changes constantly — what are we really to believe? Can we trust good news? We ultimately want to know: what is the answer? How does this play out? The problem is, it’s not fictional. We don’t know.
So, yes. His life has changed dramatically, and in turn mine. And though there is more to life than writing, sure, it is maybe the most sincere act we as human beings can do. I think of him every day with hopefulness that he will get the most and the best out of the rest of his life. Even on the days with bad news, even on days with the worst news, his writing gives me hope. Because the protagonist does, in the end, always triumph.
The best we can do is try to live our lives like a naive kid, who believes we’ll never die. To experience life in the fullest way we can, while we can.
And hopefully, write some of it down. | https://medium.com/@alexandrarappaport/terminal-illness-in-someone-you-love-and-writing-bb83a74ff0c7 | ['Alexandra Rappaport'] | 2020-12-20 03:32:06.177000+00:00 | ['Cancer', 'Death And Dying', 'Writing', 'Terminal Illness', 'Coping With Loss'] |
Reconciling forest and tree conservation with food security | Forests and trees are a critical resource for human communities. However, conservation efforts to prevent biodiversity loss increasingly conflict with the rights and access of communities using forests for their livelihoods and crucially to meet their nutritional needs. Prof Terry Sunderland of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, has long pointed to the importance of forests in contributing to food security and dietary diversity. Ongoing work to bring stakeholders together is promoting a sustainable landscape approach to management which allows forests and trees to be productive and meet dietary and livelihood needs while also contributing to biodiversity and climate change goals.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals include ‘zero hunger’ by 2030 and states the need for profound change in the global food and agriculture system to both end current levels of hunger and accommodate predicted global population growth. Current estimates suggest sufficient food is produced globally; however, inequalities in markets, income and distribution lead to high levels of malnourishment around the world.
Food security and nutrition
Forest and tree ecosystems provide a wealth of resources and services vital for human survival and well-being. Until recently, an often-overlooked role of forests was their contribution to nutrition, which is particularly important for rural communities who are among the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. The most obvious aspect of nutrition provided by forests is the direct harvesting of edible plants, fungi, insects, and wild meat for consumption.
Photo Credit: Sunderland Lab
In addition, there are a number of indirect ways forests contribute to food security and nutrition. Agroforestry is the deliberate integration of trees into the agricultural system either to provide a crop for both human or livestock consumption, or to support ecosystem services which improve agricultural productivity. Ecosystem services include using trees to create a beneficial microclimate, nutrient cycling, providing a habitat for pollinators, and regulating water provisioning. Forests also provide fuel for cooking, as well as generating income to enable purchases from markets.
Dietary diversity and health
In addition to quantity, both quality and diversity contribute to the overall nutritional value of a diet. Modern humans evolved as hunter-gatherers. Foraging plants and hunting animals across a variety of habitats provided a varied and nutritious diet. While the development of agriculture increased the volume of available food, it also reduced dietary diversity as communities focused on producing a small variety of crops and livestock. Contemporary agriculture has likewise focused on producing large quantities of a relatively limited number of species. One result of this emphasis on quantity over diversity is that vast numbers of the global population are malnourished due to undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, as well as overweight and/or obese.
Agriculture is the largest employment sector globally, particularly in poor and rural communities.
Photo Credit: flickr.com
Communities which still depend on or make use of forest and tree ecosystems have been shown to have a greater dietary diversity. Where indigenous communities have moved away from traditional diets towards a narrower range of foods, and often higher levels of fat, sugar, salt and refined carbohydrates, research has shown associated increases of non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Over two billion people are estimated to suffer from deficiencies in essential vitamins and minerals, known as ‘hidden hunger’, which also leaves them more susceptible to disease. These trends are thought to be further compounded by reduced access to traditional medicinal plants.
While the development of agriculture increased the volume of available food, it also reduced dietary diversity as communities focused on producing a small variety of crops and livestock.
Agriculture and the environment
Not only is the global food system regularly failing to provide good nutrition, modern agriculture has had a significant negative impact on biodiversity and the environment. The most visible negative impact is deforestation, with clear knock-on effects for both climate change and biodiversity loss. Agriculture also accounts for one-third of greenhouse gas emissions with factors including reliance on fossil fuels and methane emissions from ruminants contributing to this value. Soil erosion and degradation are the most recent area for concern, as fertile land is lost and desertification increases.
Contemporary agriculture is producing large quantities of a limited number of crops, thereby reducing dietary diversity. Fotokostic/Shutterstock.com
The focus of modern agriculture on a few key crop and livestock species has led to a loss of genetic diversity both across and within species. Many wild relatives of crop and livestock species have been lost and today just 12 plant crops and 14 animal species provide 98% of global food needs. Loss of genetic diversity within a population leaves it vulnerable to inbreeding and less able to adapt particularly under current rapidly changing environmental conditions. Commercial monocultures support significantly less biodiversity, and reliance on chemical control of pests also reduces the presence of beneficial pollinators and insect predators.
Conservation vs. rights and access
Growing recognition of the impact of climate change and loss of biodiversity have led to increasing levels of protection for areas of land and key habitats. Protected areas are often seen as needing to be pristine and untouched and can fail to recognise that humans have been altering landscapes and habitats for centuries. This form of biodiversity conservation has often reduced the access and rights of local communities who depend on forests and their resources for food security and nutrition. Exclusion from protected areas not only prevents access to wild foods but can also compound the reduction in food security through loss of access to water bodies for crop irrigation, increase problems of livestock predation by wildlife, and loss of fuel for cooking. Agriculture is also the largest employment sector globally, particularly in poor and rural communities; therefore, reconciling rights and access with conservation is increasingly vital.
Forests contribute to food security in a number of indirect ways, such as regulating water provisioning.
Photo Credit: Sunderland Lab
Landscape approaches
Prof Sunderland is among scientists and stakeholders advocating sustainable landscape approaches to land management which integrates ecologically friendly agriculture and conservation, while improving food security and reducing malnutrition. In a recent overview (Gergel et al. 2020), Prof Sunderland and his co-authors discussed evidence-based and theoretical links between landscape diversity, the number and types of different land cover and their spatial distribution, and dietary diversity.
This form of biodiversity conservation has often reduced the access and rights of local communities who depend on forests and their resources for food security and nutrition.
They proposed a framework of four direct and indirect (and sometimes interacting) pathways. The first, coined ‘direct pathway’, describes the direct contributions from forests to diets in the form of wild foods such as vegetables and fish. The second, ‘agroecological pathway’ comprises ecosystem services that foster agricultural production. Pathway number three, the ‘energy pathway’, describes how fuelwood from forests can facilitate the preparation of foods and thus ameliorate energy poverty of households. Finally, the ‘income pathway’ states that increased income from selling forest products can provide rural households with a safety net and may lead to an improved, more diverse diet. Altogether, these pathways emphasise that the aims of food security and biodiversity conservation need not be mutually exclusive. This integrated approach will be vital in tackling the current conflict between food security and conservation.
A commissioned report into ‘Sustainable Forestry for Food Security and Nutrition’ (HPLE 2017) by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition, chaired by Prof Sunderland, also made a series of global policy recommendations (http://www.fao.org/3/a-i7395e.pdf) to promote the inclusion of forests within food security discussion and policy. These recommendations have since been endorsed by governments and represent an important step towards the integration of forest conservation and food security.
The COLANDS project is working to bring communities and officials together to resolve landscape management. Photo Credit: Sunderland Lab
Putting theory into action
Working with The Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Prof Sunderland is part of an ongoing project aiming to put the landscape approach into action. The Collaboration to Operationalise Landscape Approaches for Nature, Development and Sustainability (COLANDS) is carrying out research and engaging with stakeholders with particular projects in Zambia, Ghana and Indonesia. In the Kalomo District of Zambia, maize and cattle production are vital for livelihoods. However, locals were facing eviction from forestry reserves by Zambia’s Forestry Department. It is early days, but the COLANDS project is working to bring communities and officials together to resolve landscape management. As well as putting a landscape approach into action, the COLANDS projects gather evidence of both positive and negative outcomes to inform future policy and practice agendas.
Future global food systems
Forests and trees must continue to be integrated into global policy for future food security and nutrition as well as to protect the rights and access of local communities. The work by Prof Sunderland also highlights the potential of forest and tree-based system to contribute to dietary diversity and quality, with potential benefits for micronutrient deficiency and diet related health. The global food system of the future must move away from increasing production to increasing quality and diversity, using sustainable forestry and agricultural practices, which benefit both biodiversity and human well-being.
Photo Credit: Sunderland Lab
Personal Response
Can landscape approaches be applied to other habitats as well as forests and trees?
Landscape approaches can be applied in any context where multiple land uses are in concert, or conflict. These can include non-forested areas such as grasslands and savannahs, but can also be applied in an urban context. This conceptual framework can help understand the process: https://www.pnas.org/content/110/21/8349
Article References
Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) (2020). Collaboration to Operationalise Landscape Approaches for Nature, Development and Sustainability (COLANDS). Available at: https://www2.cifor.org/colands/ [Accessed 22/07/20]. | https://medium.com/@researchoutreach/reconciling-forest-and-tree-conservation-with-food-security-6bec02ee61bc | ['Research Outreach'] | 2020-11-20 13:01:56.967000+00:00 | ['Biodiversity', 'Canada', 'Agroforestry', 'Conservation', 'Climate Change'] |
In due time. | Photo by S N Pattenden on Unsplash
In due time, I tell myself.
To the agile girl, lost in the woods
My fingers, fragile and soft
Seemingly fray, evoked by passion
The array of light, depriving perception
The sheer force of will, encouraging but taunting
Gullible yet determined
And so, in due time
I tell myself.
A little more perseverance
A child-like wonder
Or maybe a miracle?
Seemingly dismayed
Worn out patches, highlighted
The circles that darken my vision
Carry forth
For
I seek and
I humbly abide.
In due time,
I tell myself. | https://medium.com/@oshin-hephz789/in-due-time-4710c2af38c | ['Oshin Hephzibah'] | 2021-02-12 10:14:59.620000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Metamorphosis', 'Poems On Medium', 'Faith', 'Letters'] |
No Bad Dreams? | The road that bisected the valley
ran at the base of our hill
Up the other side lay Wintermere
named for cold abuse in hidden places
Only seen upon Serena’s face
She lies dead and ruined by that force
casualty of alcoholic times
Rancid laughter echoes from the porch
Shakespeare could have drawn witches from there
Letting this out at this time’s indulgence
Luther never knew
We steel ourselves and pray for heaven
to fix it all
Nothing ever happens as it seems
And in the end
no bad dreams? | https://medium.com/everything-comes/no-bad-dreams-6f7dfd35d067 | ['Stephen C. Rose'] | 2018-11-16 18:14:13.332000+00:00 | ['Channeling', 'Philosophy', 'Death', 'Abuse', 'Poetry'] |
POMprompt # 19 | POMprompt
POMprompt # 19
Things that go ‘bump’ in the night
Y’all knew this one was coming. It’s Fall, October, the owls calling out in the night. That freaky Netflix show, The Haunting of Bly manor. Halloween on the horizon of a hilltop moonlit night. It’s all eerie. Eerie, indeed.
It’s time to embrace the creepy, the freaky, the weird things that go bump in the night…this one’s about fear.
When I was a child, lots of things frightened me. Being an anxious child who couldn’t sleep — even worse. I was wracked with nightmares, sleepwalking and sleep staring (whatever that is) and all of the nervous energy between. There were creepy things beneath my bed. Behind the closet door. Tapping on the window. I was afraid of a lot as a child, even going to school. The grocery store, parking lots, white vans, men with red hair — yeah, the list was long and I had a wild imagination.
There. That place beneath the bed in the dead of night — that’s where I want you to go. Feel that fear a bit. Whatever frightened you terribly as a child, or even now, is great material for poetic expression.
USE IT.
And write your poem. Use language that sets the mood. Let us feel the fear and mystery with you. Scare us too.
This time you won’t be alone.
Your poetry prompt for POMprompt #19 is Things that go ‘bump’ in the night Now, let’s see those super-creepy, scary, and mysterious poems!
Happy Halloween, Y’all!
Poetically yours,
Christina M. Ward, EIC of The POM | https://medium.com/the-pom/pomprompt-19-78709b95129 | ['Christina M. Ward'] | 2020-10-20 00:05:35.120000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Creativity', 'Pomprompt', 'This Happened To Me', 'Prompt'] |
101 content ideas for your next newsletter email | If you are an Author, Blogger, Freelance Writer, or Solopreneur, these ideas are for you
I get it — you have some subscribers in your list, and now you are fighting with the predicament of what you should send them next.
And you are worried because you have seen that when you consistently engage with their readers you get better results. By the way, stats also show this.
But coming up with fresh newsletter content ideas every week and that too without fail is tough. I have been in this situation a lot of time and trust me, it’s hard. I’ve been doing this for some time now and it’s always been a challenge for me to come up with new and fresh content ideas and concepts.
And since you are dear to me, I decided to painstakingly create a long long list of all the good ideas I’ve seen over the years — some are used by me and some are used by the solopreneurs, bloggers, and authors in their newsletters.
So, here are 101 ideas for your newsletters that you can use instantly or maybe build something on these lines.
P.S.: Do NOT miss the end of this article where I will tell you the 3 questions that will help you get the most out of your newsletter content and these ideas!
Continue Reading Here… | https://medium.com/@foolish-author/101-content-ideas-for-your-next-newsletter-email-a141581263b3 | ['Chase Austin'] | 2021-03-31 05:43:37.437000+00:00 | ['Newsletter Marketing', 'Content Marketing', 'Content Ideas', 'Newsletter', 'Email Marketing Tips'] |
An Eye For Infinity | And behind the unknown
A point of view — so vast
Seeing everything it needs
Gracing us
— with Time —
A funny lie
— and freedom —
That we might discover
— the beauty that we are… | https://medium.com/@DrRPalmquist/an-eye-for-infinity-d12f2ee62553 | ['Richard Palmquist', 'Dvm Gdvchm Cchvm'] | 2020-12-19 18:29:35.069000+00:00 | ['Effect', 'Causes', 'Awareness', 'Poetry', 'Spirituality'] |
The words of 2020 | The words of 2020
2020 was not a vintage year. You were more likely to finish Netflix than see your grandparents. However, it did inspire a few new additions to the English language. Michael Davies Dec 24, 2020·3 min read
Pixabay
A note on these words: they are either portmanteaus (a mixture of two words), words that have been around for a while and have found new meaning or words with added prefixes to change their meaning somewhat.
Covidiot
We can thank portmanteaus for providing the English language with many annoying words such as brunch, chillax and Brexit. It’s latest gift was a mixture of covid-19 and idiot that perfectly sums up those peculiar people who feel that the virus is some made-up idea by the mainstream media in collaboration with Bill Gates and George Soros to keep us all in our homes while mutant lizards take over the world. Or something.
Karen
Having known several Karens who do not fit the definition, I was loath to include this but it has featured far too heavily in the media to be left out. A karen is someone who behaves obnoxiously and acts as if the world owes her a favour. The word became popular when Amy Cooper threatened to call the police to attend to a black man who had told her that her dog had to be on a lead in Central Park. He filmed the entire incident and she lost her well-paid job as a result.
Zoom
I’m still to be converted to the merits of Zoom as I am unsure of the difference between it and Skype; the name of an American company that few people had heard of last year now appears to be the definitive word for video conferencing. It has yet to reach verb-like status in the same way as to google but I am sure it’s only a matter of time.
Malarkey
A word inspired not by covid-19 but by Joe Biden, malarkey is an old-fashioned word meaning nonsense. Whether the 46th President of the United States manages to popularise it in 2021 is one for the futurists. It’s a fun word and I hope he succeeds.
Defund
In the US, there was frequent talk of defunding the police while in the UK people on the extreme right and extreme left would occasionally call for the BBC to be defunded if a reporter said something that they didn’t agree with. While the word is more nuanced than simply suggesting that funding should be taken away from a public body, few people recognise that.
Lockdown
The only time we had ever heard of a lockdown pre-2020 was when it featured in a prison movie. By the end of 2020, we were all Sylvester Stallone trying to break out of jail for a quick trip to the shop.
Doomscrolling
As most of the world seemed to be confined to their houses for large parts of 2020, there was very little one could do except reach for your mobile and see how bad things were outside. Doomscrolling is the act of looking through endless news stories on your phone about the number of people in hospital, the various mutations of the virus, the number of businesses that were closing and the number of deaths. It is not recommended.
For more words of 2020, watch this video. If there are any you think that have been forgotten, let us know in the comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKAVNhKtFJE&t | https://medium.com/@michaeldavies-67736/the-words-of-2020-6263c7b65982 | ['Michael Davies'] | 2020-12-24 13:51:46.621000+00:00 | ['Language', '2020', 'Pandemic', 'Covid 19', 'English'] |
Printing to brick and concrete | Have you ever wanted to apply graphics to brick and other unusual surfaces? Well here’s a short posting about just that. Read on…
Bored of the bare brick look? Want to cover those rough surfaces with a graphic of your choice? It’s always fun to turn a wall into something else, such as the countryside scenes we produced for snack provider Bear Nibbles’ offices.
The graphics are produced using a highly conformable PVC vinyl. The conformable nature of the material means it’s perfect to apply to rough walls and surfaces.
The PVC is heated to make it stretchable and pliable to the surface of the bricks, grouting and all. The vinyl moulds to the texture and surface, bonding to the brickwork. It can be a time-consuming process but our installers are experienced, and patient. There’s no point rushing when you want a job done well. Especially as the material has a very good opacity as a result of its grey-backed adhesive, meaning the prints always have a strong visual impact.
It doesn’t just have to be the inside walls you cover either. If you would like to change the appearance of your shopfront for a promotion or event, as we did for the Puma store in London’s Carnaby Street, or the stone seats at the Saatchi Gallery we covered for The Rolling Stones Exhibitionism show, we can apply the vinyl in the great outdoors too. The expected outdoor durability of the product is up to 3 years.
And of course, in theory it doesn’t have to just be brick or stone, how about breeze block, concrete or even the side of a cliff? We do like to play with possibility after all.
/
The Graphical Tree are a specialist large format print and display production company and can be found in London, UK.
www.thegraphicaltree.com | https://medium.com/@thegraphicaltree/printing-to-brick-and-concrete-77d1e6ff6f22 | ['The Graphical Tree'] | 2020-10-13 12:50:12.885000+00:00 | ['Graphics', 'Wallpaper', 'Interior Design', 'Large Format Printing', 'Wall Graphics'] |
Facebook is no longer ‘social’ anything — it’s an algorithmic / AI media platform that needs to be regulated | Reposted from my blog at FuturistGerd.com from 2018.
Last year’s reports that some apparently well-funded Russian entities used Facebook to systemically disseminate fake news and seed widespread dissent during the 2016 U.S. elections is not only worrisome because of the damage that is being done to the democratic process, the impact on the credibility of social media and the overall trust in the Internet as a medium. It also shows how Facebook has — intentionally or inadvertently but lucratively, either way — built a gigantic manipulation machine that is run by algorithms (or dare we say ‘artificial intelligence‘), not by people, and, crucially, not for people.
Facebook — a company now valued more than half a Trillion USD (before Zuck announced his new plans:) — has now emerged as the world’s first AI-run media platform; as ‘asocial media’. Its purpose is no longer its users i.e. to help us flourish, rather, FB’s purpose is itself. The tool has truly become the purpose (read Marshall McLuhan!), and we, the users, just exist to feed it — convenient fodder for the deep-learning algorithms whose only ‘mission’ is to have us stay on the site or use the app as long as possible, or otherwise become addicted to the pleasure-trap that Facebook has so cleverly perfected. Watch this video for some pretty mind-boggling quotes from the people that have actually been involved in building it.
Facebook is masterfully tempting us to build ‘mediated relationships’ with screens, devices, the cloud and soon, via augmented and virtual reality, rather than with real people that are right in front of our noses. Facebook has ingeniously replaced real human friendship with an almost black-mirror type simulation (a kind of ‘demented reality’, imho) that feeds off the human need for positive affirmation (and a steady supply of dopamine).
And now (fanfares sounding!!) Facebook wants to ‘fix this issue’ by overhauling how its newsfeed works! Thanks, Mark, but almost certainly this is too-little-too-late; and in addition to the media publishers that are seriously upset about this, the stock-market will question FB’s future, as well. And no, it won’t solve social media addiction, either. See more commentary via the links below.
I argue that Facebook has become exactly the opposite of social since there is absolutely nothing social about an algorithmic meta-intelligence whose only concern is how to get inside our heads and manipulate our thinking so that it and its advertisers can sell more stuff to us. Imho, it is quite clear that Grandmaster Zuck has a similar hunch — one only has to read his latest manifestos to understand his thinly veiled confession: “I have created a monster (a kind of socio-cultural time-bomb, see my gif below) and I wish I knew how to fix it without cutting our valuation in half”
The utter paradox (or shall I say perversion) that Facebook has become is already driving peak-loneliness among its power-users, it’s causing widespread disinformation by its machine-driven distortion of news, it’s the #1 creator of filter-bubbles, it has eaten the lunch of many news organisations, publishers, and media companies without giving much back — and its revenue-growth is staggering. The stock markets (at least on the U.S.) seem to love a clear emphasis of making money at any and all cost.
I’ve said this for almost a decade, now: ‘data is the new oil’ — and maybe now is a good time to add Andrew Ng’s prescient meme that ‘AI is the new electricity’. We must realize that Facebook is essentially a data-oil company, with increasingly excessive power and devoid of any considerations of the externalities it creates — and therefore it should be regulated just like we regulated big oil (and yes, this goes beyond Facebook, of course).
No matter what Zuck’s good intentions (which I think are mostly credible, btw) will actually amount to, I don’t think Facebook will significantly divert from its current path of ruthlessly monetizing human relationships and fundamentally changing our societies without regulation and supervision. After all, this is how they make (or shall we say, made) Billions!
“Ethics is the difference between doing what you have the right (or the power) to do, and what is the right thing to do” (riffing of Potter Steward)
Zuck may indeed have solid ethics (or he might just be trying to rediscover them) but the monster he has created is now a MACHINE in the true sense of the word. A machine that inhales us and our data, digests trillions of stream per day, makes digital copies of ourselves and sells us on to those that want to manipulate our thinking (I guess that just might be the most honest definition of ‘digital advertising’?).
Facebook is extremely unlikely to voluntarily ‘do the right thing’: being responsible for what it is, what it does, and what it makes possible, as the world’s biggest platform for what we used to call ‘news’, and for social connections. It will not voluntarily put the ‘human inside’, and deeply care about or contribute to the flourishing of our collective humanity, simply because doing so what put sand in the gearbox of their giant money-making machinery. It has, sadly, been perverted to exploit friendship not to protect it.
For me, personally, it is even more disconcerting and somewhat embarrassing to notice that despite this realization (which I already wrote about in 2016, here) it is quite literally impossible for me and for many users and small businesses like me to drop Facebook completely — in my case, approx. 70% of my various sites’ traffic comes from Facebook. Having said that I am getting ready to cut all FB ties, anyway — I have been wondering if advertising on Facebook is actually morally indefensible, and have thus discontinued the practice. Next steps to follow — stay tuned!
The only possible conclusion is this one: we must ‘encourage’ and then require Facebook to become responsible for what it is and for what it enables. We must require them to live up to being a media company, with at least the same requirement that other media companies are subject to. Maybe this means we must urge Facebook to become HUMAN again, to care about construction, not just about disruption (read more about this meme in my new book Technology vs Humanity)
If we don’t start with those global platforms like Facebook, it is not just our democracies that are in danger, it is also our humanity. Put the human back inside, Mark!
Check out my new book Technology vs Humanity — it addresses many issues related to this post.
Related (updated Jan 17 2018):
Roger McNamee ‘I mentored Zuckerberg’
TheVerge: Facebook’s starting new ambition is to shrink
Motherboard: Facebook is deprioritizing our news feed — good!
Mark Zuckerberg loses $3.3 Billion from his personal fortune after changes to Facebook Newsfeed Change
Media is collateral damage — publishers respond
Facebook Can’t Be Fixed — by John Batelle “Facebook’s fundamental problem is not foreign interference, spam bots, trolls, or fame mongers. It’s the company’s core business model, and abandoning it is not an option”
The Great Awakening: How our thinking about technology fundamentally changed in 2017 and where we go from here.
by Arianna Huffington MUST-READ
Originally published at https://www.futuristgerd.com. | https://medium.com/futurist-gerd-technology-business-and-digital/facebook-is-no-longer-social-anything-it-s-an-algorithmic-ai-media-platform-that-needs-to-be-372ad12896b | ['Futurist Gerd Leonhard'] | 2020-12-12 13:02:37.499000+00:00 | ['Facebook', 'Regulation', 'Social Media', 'AI', 'Social'] |
5 Easy Ways To Make Your Food More Sustainable | In the past few decades, the topic of climate change became “popular”. There are protests around the world, powerful activists such as Greta Thunberg, international agreements and efforts in order to make the world more sustainable. A quick Google search for veganism shows an increase of 580 percent over the last five years in the vegan population. As much as we like to blame the rich and the big corporations, each person can make small changes that will contribute to our end goal, helping the earth.
QUIT PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES
A million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute and the number will jump another 20% by 2021, creating an environmental crisis some campaigners predict will be as serious as climate change.
WHY?- Most plastic bottles produced end up in landfills or in the ocean. Between 5 million and 13 million tonnes of plastic leaks into the world’s oceans each year to be ingested by sea birds, fish and other organisms, and by 2050 the ocean will contain more plastic by weight than fish.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD?- Use reusable water bottles.
2. BRING REUSABLE BAGS TO THE GROCERY STORE
Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year, which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture.
WHY?- Plastic bags start out as fossil fuels and end up as deadly waste in landfills and the ocean. Up to 80 percent of ocean plastic pollution enters the ocean from land. 100,000 marine animals are killed by plastic bags annually.
WHAT TO DO?- Either save or buy a few reusable bags and bring them with you when you go shopping.
The average American family takes home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year.
3. DON’T USE TO-GO CUPS
WHY?- Half a million disposable coffee cups are littered every day. This is creating an unsightly and damaging impact on our environment and also encourages more littering.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD?- Buy reusable coffee cups and bring them to the store! Preferably light and durable ones, and wash them by hand.
You would have to bring your own cup for your daily coffee somewhere between 20 and 100 times for it to have the same environmental impact as a paper one.
“Most single-use items get used for a few minutes and then get discarded. I think it’s possibly the most ridiculous misuse of resources that humans have ever come up with, defying economic logic on so many levels.” —David McLagan
4. EAT SEASONAL FOODS
WHY?- One of the most salient benefits to eating seasonally is that you are effectively reducing your carbon footprint. It reduces the number of miles your food has to travel before it reaches your plate. In addition, it is more cost-efficient because you are paying for those added miles.
WHAT TO DO?- Buy seasonal fruits and vegetables and buy from local farmers.
5. CELEBRATE “MEATLESS MONDAY”
Meatless Monday is an international movement to help reduce meat consumption to improve personal health and the health of the planet.
WHY?- Some of the environmental effects that have been associated with meat production are pollution through fossil fuel usage, animal methane, effluent waste, and water and land consumption. Meat is considered one of the prime factors contributing to the current sixth mass extinction.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD?- Here are some meatless recipes you can try! | https://medium.com/climate-conscious/5-easy-ways-to-make-your-food-more-sustainable-e27e2bd2ecb9 | ['Julie Penn'] | 2020-05-18 06:13:01.111000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Climate Action', 'Vegan', 'Sustainability', 'Food'] |
Lighting up the post-COVID-19 era with human-centric design | Photo by kimi lee on Unsplash
Combating the pandemic in a million ways, and yet progressing. That’s how resilient the human race is. It is already thinking of the post COVID-19 era. And why not? We are hopeful beings who have strong survival instincts. The strength of our species is reflected in our actions. While one half of the world is busy in saving ‘us’, the other half is redirecting its energy and resources towards building a -new –tomorrow-.
Lighting is an essential element of this future living; it is deeply experiential and influences how one functions and feels. Lighting design in post coronavirus times will undergo a revolutionary change to complement spatial design. Every aspect of living will encounter a lifestyle transformation, from eating habits, to education, travel, communication, fashion, to most essentially working scenarios. This mammoth task at hand is the only ray of hope that unites us today in resurrecting our planet. Utopia is now!
There is a surge in researches on the psychological impact of this dreadful pandemic. After a century, the human race is being attacked by the unknown. While we are giving it a tough fight, we are also undergoing a humongous change in our perception. We are witnessing a paradigm shift in our perception of our very existence. This is leading to the emergence of the ‘happiness quotient’. The thought of running on the green grass, hugging your loved ones, walking the corridors of our workplace, are more precious than the materialistic notions of driving that posh car, or sitting on that business class seat.
The pandemic’s economic fallout will redirect all the construction funds to other avenues, but only momentarily. The design of cities, buildings, and spaces will now be guided by the principles of ‘smart working’. Hence, the design fraternity must brace itself for the next level of innovation for achieving smart spaces.
This unprecedented pandemic is an eye opener in many ways. It questions our years of medical research and scientific knowledge. Evidently, a healthy body and a sound mind is on a winning streak. Let’s not forget that no matter how dreadful it may sound, we are hopeful beings. It’s time to boost our health and emotional well-being and reconstruct the idea of living. Calibrating the response to our physical and psychological needs, we stumble upon an ideology of ‘comfort’. Design as a mantra for elevated experiences can transform our dwelling units into comfort zones. Be it the co-working spaces, or the dinner table of your favorite eatery, a meeting room, or even the most private space like your bathroom — the need of the hour is to rebuild these spaces with a high level of safety and comfort to allow the body and mind to recuperate.
Building upon this hypothesis that these identified features will be the mandatory criteria of lighting design starting today, we can move forward in ideating their application in the main spatial zones.
High happiness quotient
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) enabled smart spaces
Visual comfort for both physiological + emotional well being
Work Spaces: In the past few years, the lighting industry has done plenty of R&D to deliver AI-enabled lighting. It uses advanced sensors to reduce human intervention and more advanced controls. Post-Coronavirus era is a perfect launch pad for implementing this technology. We need to design safer work spaces with almost no human interaction with the switches. We are even using mobile devices, tablets and AI assistants like Alexa to operate the luminaire and other services. Lighting design must support individual needs for maximum visual comfort. To achieve this, lighting companies have already rolled out wireless control gears and Bluetooth-enabled luminaires. Predictive lighting by learning and replicating human cognitive behavior can be effective in building sustainable systems and personalization. IoT enabled AI will create intelligent buildings, which will soon get connected to the cloud. Fever detecting systems are being extensively installed at airports, work spaces, supermarkets during these COVID-19 times. The urgency is to combine all this intelligence into one robust system for a safer, healthier and happier work place.
Living: Homes are not just homes anymore, the abode is transformed into mini offices with Audio Visual tools, a playground for kids to release their pent up energy, a gym for exercise and meditation, a relaxed haven for cooking and dining, a home theater and much more. Each space demanding a specific functional requirement and visual comfort for an invigorating experience. Lighting manufacturers are introducing flexible lighting systems in homes that include track lighting, channels which can house different modules, and modular lighting structures that can extended across the span of the room. Innovation in achieving an ultimate level of miniaturization of fixtures is valuable in accomplishing personalization. The challenge for lighting designers is to create a conducive environment for us to love, learn, perceive and emote. Finally home will be home.
Museum, Art Galleries, Exhibitions: Reminiscing a narrative from the past or appreciating the artistry of today; these experiences stimulate our imagination at different levels. Advanced lighting can play the most significant role in this scenario. It provides orientation, thus managing the movement of the visitors, guiding and leading them while controlling the gathering. AI and IoT enabled lighting systems can revolutionize the experience, while also taking care of conservation, security and communication. The museums and galleries are increasingly adding a virtual viewing platform, which requires capturing the content realistically in a glare- free environment, thus increasing the demand for luminaires with advanced optics. Be ready to witness the visual metamorphosis in the representation of art and history hereon. Storytelling will surpass the usual.
Hospitality and Public Spaces: These industries will initially require hand holding after the pandemic is over. After the distressing lockdown is lifted, the need for revitalizing will drive travel. These industries will add a new value proposition of ‘safety from germs’. Here, AI will again play a crucial role in reducing human interaction and increasing personalization. They will try to increase the ‘happiness quotient’ by creating exhilarating moments, visual delights, and soulful imagery. Augmented reality and projection (through mapping, lighting, and drones) hold limitless possibilities. We can harness these technologies to create immersive experiences by using illumination as a compelling narrative tool.
While all this sounds good, yet I am compelled to ask this question.
Will the world restart from where it left off?
Initially yes, but will eventually have to implement a disruptive design thinking process in re-framing the problems in human-centric ways. It will empower us to solve future global crisis.
The learnings from this biological invasion compels us to shift our attention to our healthcare systems. They need to be reimagined in the post-COVID-19 era. We, the designers, architects and stakeholders must collectively work towards building the new Guggenheims and Burj Khalifas, except that they will be hospitals. Imagine being admitted to the ICU in the building that feels like the World Trade Centre, or maybe to the general ward of an architectural landmark like the Milwaukee Art Museum. The experience will definitely help alleviate some of the physical pain. The lighting industry will have to step up to offer advanced solutions for creating a comforting experience in the hospitals, which will increase the efficiency of the medical staff and reduces their strain.
The vision for post quarantine is daring us, pushing us to revamp our rusted thought process. It is time to wake up to the new possibilities. Future demands re-thinking.
While this is a global apocalypse, this too shall pass. The harrowing darkness will be repossessed with brightness. Yet, this time we will illuminate the post-Covid-19 world in a human-centric way. | https://medium.com/@vinishree/lighting-up-the-post-covid-19-era-with-human-centric-design-4022efc1c75f | [] | 2020-05-03 13:38:49.462000+00:00 | ['Lighting', 'Lighting Design', 'Covid 19', 'Interior Design', 'Architecture'] |
Tintoretto to Tintoretta — Where are the Renaissance Women? | If I say the phrase Renaissance art what does that connote for you? Perhaps you think of the great masters: Raphael, Michelangelo, or Leonardo Da Vinci. Maybe you even think of artists such as Titian or Durer; of god-like male statues or heroic kings immortalized in paint. But what do each one of these examples have in common? They are all men. Our understanding of the Renaissance has been shaped by the work of a male-dominated area overlooking the role of women. Is it just that women were incapable of doing art? Or is that the social structures implemented both during the Renaissance and in contemporary history fail to acknowledge the impact of female artists? In this article, I would like to explore one of the clearest examples of a dominant male rhetoric, that being the art of Marietta Robusti — more commonly known as Tintoretta.
Little is known about the life of Robusti, apart from being the daughter of renowned painter, Tintoretto. The lack of her biographical narrative is not rare for pre-Industrial women, as many male historians deemed their presence unworthy of an historical recount. The predominance of art historians, such as Vasari, reinforced the presence of men within art. Women were considered below the realms of ‘pure art’, therefore their histories were irrelevant in the construction of Renaissance ‘perfection’. Following conventions, Robusti painted for a domestic sphere — isolating her work to a feminine realm with very little status within the art market. This restricted transposition of artwork formed the hierarchy between male and female artists, meaning so many women are lost to the test of time. This is impounded through only one art piece attributed to Robusti, her Self-Portrait. The portrait has removed her identity and placed it under the male gaze. The inclusion of Verdelot’s madrigal text values the role of her husband rather than her role as both sitter and artist. Quoting from the text, it reads ‘My lady I burn with love for you’, promoting Robusti’s purpose as a loving wife over any other representational aspects. At the same time, this presupposition ignores the artistic skill of Robusti, with her incredible attention to detail in the accuracy of the music sheet and the delicate brushstrokes of her hair. Robusti is displaying her intellectual identity against female oppression, and yet history has remembered her work in line with the prominence of her husband.
Robusti. Self Portrait. c. 1550–1590. La Gallerie Degli Uffizi.
As I mentioned above, Robusti is referred to as Tintoretta — a play on her father’s name. Tintoretto is arguably one of the most established painters of the 16th Century, influencing artists with his bold, enigmatic brushstrokes. However, Robusti’s role in his workshop was far more than familial connection — it is likely she contributed to many of his pieces. One of Tintoretto’s most acclaimed works, Old Man and a Boy can be attributed to her. It shares similar motifs to Self Portrait with the dark tonality and vacant background. The brushstrokes on the old man’s chair are much more controlled than Tintoretto tended to be, closer in style to that of Robusti’s clothing details. Even the posture and face shape of the boy match directly to Robusti’s self-representation, through the sorrowful, oval eyes. Undeniably Robusti played a demonstrative role in the creation of this portrait, and yet the credit was reserved solely for her father. Of course, we can argue that had it not been for her father, the name Marietta Robusti would be empty from the history books — but it does not take away from the reality that she lived under his shadow. Not only was she synonymous with his character [being labelled Tintoretta], but her work was not deemed worthy of accreditation because of her gender.
Tintoretto and Robusti. Old Man and a Boy. c. 1565. Kunsthistorisches Museum.
But it is not all doom and gloom. Robusti acted as a signpost for other female artists, with Gentileschi and Leyster appearing in the Baroque period. She became symbolic as the catalyst for women breaking out of their family’s workshops and forging their path within the art world — even if she was unable to do so. The example of Robusti is emblematic of all the women who strived to see their artwork appreciated beyond the domestic realm. She identifies how history is created in this patriarchal system in which women are given note only in conjunction with their male relations. I know that there are thousands of female painters from the Renaissance that are overlooked, and it is our role in the 21st Century to re-write history to be inclusive. Of course, I would be remiss to ignore the reality that female artists of the Renaissance still held a privileged position to even attempt art, and that too is a systematic constriction we need to overcome, to form a diverse understanding of the past. | https://medium.com/@grace345p/tintoretto-to-tintoretta-where-are-the-renaissance-women-d7271125052e | ['Grace Palmer'] | 2021-04-25 11:17:35.675000+00:00 | ['Women', 'Art History', 'Tintoretto', 'Art', 'Renaissance'] |
The very first solution of iPhone 7 repair NZ | The world with cell phones seems to isolate. The category of the mobile phone depended on two sides. The iPhones on one side and rest of the cell phones on the other. Among its preeminent rivals which have thought of completely shocking models to give iPhone 7 repair in NZ a run for its cash. From the perspective of fix and support, there are sure parameters and issues to be considered to frame a to some degree clear thought of what may suit the client best. iPhone supporters may decide to misjudge android phone however they have the opportunity and again arrive up with truly extraordinary models to give Apple a run for their cash.
What if your iPhone gets water damage?
If your iPhone dropped in water and thinking about what to do, these are the means you have to pursue to recoup from potential harm.
Turn the iPhone off right away. This expels the opportunity that the telephone will short out, and should be fixed.
Expel your case on the off chance that you have one on, or anything that may be catching water in the telephone.
Expel your iPhone sim card plate, this could likewise be catching water.
Wipe your iPhone down with a permeable fabric. Fold a little bit of spongy material over a toothpick or pin, go through this to drench any water from the charging port, earphone jack, and sim card plate.
Leave your telephone in a dry spot, and let it air for whatever length of time that conceivable without turning it on. Sit tight for whatever length of time that conceivable. This is the most significant advance.
If nothing from what was just mentioned arrangements work, you have an alternative — leave it to dry its insides (this voids your guarantee). Leave it to dry for at any rate of 48 hours. Or then again adopt a more secure strategy by visiting an approved expert to recuperate your iPhone from water harm.
How companies are working on phone maintaining quality?
As the years pass by absolutely, there are more and littler organisations that are seeing the requirement for Phone cables & chargers that figure out how precisely to concentrate on Apple changes and they are fit for helping you with the arrangements that you may require. As opposed to battling with a greater value fix just as adapting to managing an obvious issue like a harmed screen, you could discover help on iPhone fixes if you need them not hanging tight for the weeks during a period that Apple lets you to. Better truth be told, another motivation to choose a nearby fix supplier might be the truth that at whatever point you do with the goal that you can believe you recover your Apple thing again in a very much planned way while not purchasing another telephone until further notice. Every so often Apple can make you make an enormous store to get a substitution unit like a transitory versatile to use once you dispatch your very own back again to them. This implies you are without the telephone and an immense measure of cash as you stick around their long fix time.
How the iPhone has changed the business model?
To most people this comes up as an extraordinary out of line condition, however as Apple Mobile Accessories in Palmerston North has held the imposing business model on iPhone upkeep for a significant stretch most of the individuals dealt with this issue beyond a shadow of a doubt. Presently there will, in general, be possibilities for iPhone screen substitution and, you can get the administrations close to you and appreciate getting the gear fixed in the opportune way that you merit without spending considerably more on the fixes than you accomplish for different models.
Just by heading on the web, it is easy to search for a decent rundown of organizations that offer you master iPhone fix and some that give different fixes. Essentially by perusing through the web gives you the best decision that can fit what you are searching for and where you’ll appreciate the least expensive rates in the fixes that you may need such as iPhone broke the screen to fix. | https://medium.com/@omnitechstorenz/the-very-first-solution-of-iphone-7-repair-nz-88caad725088 | ['Omnitech Limited'] | 2019-12-24 06:38:56.243000+00:00 | ['Phone Cables Chargers', 'Mobile Accessories', 'Iphone 7 Repair'] |
[Leet Code] Contains Duplicates II | Problem:
Given an array of integers and an integer k, find out whether there are two distinct indices i and j in the array such that nums[i] = nums[j] and the absolute difference between i and j is at most k.
Example 1:
Input: nums = [1,2,3,1], k = 3
Output: true
Example 2:
Input: nums = [1,0,1,1], k = 1
Output: true
Example 3:
Input: nums = [1,2,3,1,2,3], k = 2
Output: false
Solution: | https://medium.com/@matthewboyd123/leet-code-contains-duplicates-ii-3d98f6187c2c | ['Matthew Boyd'] | 2020-12-10 18:02:44.062000+00:00 | ['Leetcode', 'Leetcode Easy', 'Data Structures', 'Algorithms', 'Leetcode Solution'] |
5 Common UX Mistakes In Web Design | We experience it every day — the awkward street sign, packaging lid that just won’t open, the door you don’t know whether to pull or push, etc. On the web, it’s the page with no scroll buttons, social media icons that cover content, illegible fonts, or buttons that are alien to users. If you’re a regular internet user, you’ve probably encountered a bad user experience — maybe even flagged some websites. In this article, we’ll explore the top 5 common UX mistakes in web design and recommendations to avoid it.
A great website should provide an engaging user experience and help site visitors accomplish tasks fast. Unfortunately, web designers often focus on aesthetics, and in most cases, end up relying on trends at the expense of user experience. The result?
Serious UX mistakes are made that make it hard for users to understand the UI and navigate the website — which often leads to high bounce rates. Reduce your bounce rates and increase your site’s conversions by avoiding these common UX mistakes.
Common UX Mistakes in Web Design
1. Prioritizing Aesthetics Over Functionality
A user-friendly website should strike a perfect balance between creativity and functionality. On the aesthetics front, it’s important to personalize your website with creative graphics, aesthetic photos, and interactive design elements. However, this should not be done at the expense of the user experience. Sure, users want creativity. But they also want to navigate your site with ease. And to many people, the latter is the better option.
In terms of functionality, your website’s navigation should be crystal clear and should meet your visitors’ expectations. Likewise, make sure not to overdo functionality to the point of compromising on creativity. As a result, it can be a big UX mistake.
To optimize your site’s functionality while keeping aesthetics in check, it’s best to hire a design professional or work with a user experience design agency. The folks at UX Planet have put up a list of reputable experience design agencies that offer impeccable UI/UX design services that you can check out.
2. Forgetting Mobile Visitors
For the first time in 2016, Google announced that more people were accessing the internet from mobile devices than from desktop. So even if you typically access the internet via laptop, chances are a good number of your customers are accessing your site via mobile.
To that end, it’s good to have a responsive website. Responsive web design is one that automatically adjusts and adapts to any device screen size, be it a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. If your site is not responsive, you’re losing a ton of traffic that comes from mobile due to poor user experience.
3. Common UX Mistake: Hard to Read Fonts
These days thin, light fonts are pervasive on numerous websites and mobile apps. Many users are using them because they’re clean, elegant, and trendy. However, thin typefaces are hard to read and cause usability problems, thereby hampering UX.
If users are having a hard time reading content on your website, they will switch to a more legible competitor. Always make sure your fonts are legible. Also, check online for other rules regarding line spacing, font size, and sentence length. Here are some golden rules for line spacing:
Firstly, optimal font size should be minimum 16pt
Secondly, small fonts need more spacing
Limit line length to 70 to 80 characters
Finally, aim for about 140% to 180% for optimal readability
Text readability should always take precedence to avoid UX mistakes. If users can read texts in your app or website, it doesn’t matter how beautiful the typography is.
4. Not Using Universal Icons
At times, designers want to get creative and use a new icon because it looks fancy. The new icon may be clear to the designer but it’s completely alien to the users. Over time, our eyes have been trained to look for certain cues when navigating online — a magnifying glass for the search tool, a phone icon for the contact number, etc.
Throw an ambiguous icon or button into the mix, like a butterfly icon, and users will get confused. That being said, an ugly icon that everyone knows is better than a beautifully designed icon that no one knows.
5. Common UX Mistake: Designing for you and not for your audience
“One must identify and be aware of what their audience will like to deliver a winning design that will fit the bill. Often, web designers or clients will push for a design direction strictly based on their own preferences and that often results in a design that the actual users will not find usable/attractive.” — Smack Happy Design.
Was this article helpful? Feel free to comment and share. | https://medium.com/visualmodo/5-common-ux-mistakes-in-web-design-91cdf3e4978e | [] | 2020-04-23 02:21:01.498000+00:00 | ['Design', 'UX', 'Web Design', 'Mistakes', 'User Experience'] |
Unit Testing ComponentStore with Spectator | This is the final part of this series on the @ngrx/ComponentStore. Part 1 and Part 2 were an introduction to using the ComponentStore. Part 3 was a quick introduction to Spectator. The code for this part can be found in this repository from GitHub.
When unit testing our ComponentStore applications, an important consideration is what tests provide the most value. Remember that every test you write is code that has to be maintained and has a cost for your company or project. We want our tests to be useful and not test the ComponentStore itself. It is well tested and we don’t need to make sure it works as advertised. We don’t want our tests to be brittle and break on simple changes. We also don’t want our unit tests to fall into the grey area between integration tests and unit tests. All of these considerations require a bit of thought.
Let’s start with the PersonStore . This is our store that provides state for our application. It inherits from ComponentStore<T> . A good starting point to decide what to test might be to test anything that has logic in it. For selectors, we might want to test anything that has a .pipe() associated with it. This is a good idea, but let’s consider something like the editedPerson$ selector. For reference, here is the code:
This selector definitely has a pipe attached to it, but all it does is log to the console. I have unit tested selectors that only log to the console in the past. We need to consider how important is this console.log() really? I would contend that unit testing this selector is fine and I would not reject a pull request that did so, but you might be forgiven for looking for a test that will provide more value for your time.
So what do we test in our selectors? I submit that testing any selectors with logic is worth your time. I would hope that you don’t have too many selectors with logic in them. I find that too many selectors with logic often point to flaws in my state object. There are cases where we do need logic in our selectors. In those cases, we should definitely write tests for that logic.
Testing Updaters
A very valuable target for testing store objects are updaters. Updaters take some data and update the state of the ComponentStore based on that data. A broken updater will break the entire application. This means that time verifying updaters is time well spent. One example is the loadPeople() updater.
This updater takes an array of Person objects or null . If an array of Person objects is passed in, then the state is updated to put that array in the people property. If null is passed in then an empty array should be in the state for the people property. As a bonus, to verify that the loadPeople() updater is working, we need to check the people$ selector and see what it emits. Let’s look at some tests for this updater.
This is a pretty standard Spectator service test. On line 10, we use the createServiceFactory() method. However, notice line 12. This is one of my favorite things about Spectator. The built in mocking allows us to skip over a lot of the boilerplate involved in creating and injecting mock services into our tests. By adding a type to the mocks array in the object passed to createServiceFactory() , Spectator will create a Jasmine mock (or a Jest mock if you use the Jest imports) and inject that into the providers array for you. This is incredibly powerful and lets you focus on the tests. One thing to remember is that the mocks array will only automatically create mocks for methods on the type you pass in. For a lot of services this is enough. As a spoiler, this distinction will become important in the future when we need to mock properties for our tests.
The first test for the loadPeople() updater is on line 24. It checks that when loadPeople() is called with an array of Person objects, that it properly puts them into the state. We do this by using the RxJS scan() operator. This operator is similar to the reduce() method for arrays. It allows you to have an accumulator that you can add to. In our tests, we simply add to an array (of type Person[][] ). The reason for using the scan() operator instead of the RxJS reduce() operator is because the reduce() operator waits until an observable completes before emitting. The scan() operator emits the accumulator after every emit of the source observable. In our case, we do not want the people$ selector to complete. This would break our ComponentStore .
In these examples, we use the same scan() code over and over again in our tests. Usually, it is a good idea to create your own RxJS operator if you are going to be using the same code over and over in your pipe() methods. It is really simple. Netanel Basal has a really great article on it here. We won’t be doing that in this article because I want the tests to be obvious. In my day to day coding, I have created a collectEmits() operator based on this code and is something I highly recommend.
Notice that we set up our subscription before our call to loadPeople() on line 34. This order is important. We want to make sure that we are ready to handle the emits from the ComponentStore before we start interacting with it. This will allow us to catch everything that is emitted by the people$ selector.
Line 36 is where we check that the emitted values are what we expect. We check against [[], people] because our scan() code is adding everything emitted to the emits variable and our subscribe() is placing that in the allEmits variable. Our selector is going to emit [] initially because it is empty and then it will emit people from the loadPeople() call on line 34. By capturing everything, we can build a timeline from our selector and test complex interactions if needed.
The next test is on line 39. This test makes sure that if null is passed to loadPeople() that an empty array is placed in the people property of the state. This is to prevent null from potentially breaking component templates that rely on this array. This test is almost an exact copy of the previous test except for two changes.
The first change is on line 50. We added loadPeople(null) to the updater calls. You don’t have to leave the original call of loadPeople(people) . I left it to better demonstrate how the scan() operator was working in our tests.
The second change is on line 52. We change the check to [[], people, []] . This is because of the initial empty array, the change to people after the first updater call and then the change to an empty array from being passed null in the updater. If you did not leave in the initial loadPeople(people) , then we would expect the emits to be [[], []] .
Updater tests are pretty easy to write. As an added bonus updater tests often require us to verify selectors at the same time.
Testing Effects
Effects are valuable to test because effects are how your store responds to something happening in your application. Effects almost always have valuable business logic to test. Effects can be a source of difficult to reproduce bugs if they don’t behave as expected.
We will create a simple test for the editPerson() effect. This effect expects the ID of the person to edit and then sets the editorId and the editedPerson properties in the state. In our example, we will only test the happy path where the ID passed in matches a person in our people array of the state. As an exercise, you can add tests for when the ID is undefined or doesn’t match an ID from the people array on the state. Think about what should happen and write tests for those cases. Don’t write tests for what the code says.
Here is the code for the happy path test:
These tests are very similar to the updater tests. The way we verify that our code is correct is to interact with the selectors that we created for our store. In this case, it is the editorId$ selector and the editedPerson$ selector. To make things easier, I added a beforeEach() for these tests that loads the people array into the store before each test. This allows us to focus on what needs to be tested in the current test.
This test has a familiar strategy. First we set up a scan() to collect what is emitted from our selectors on line 13 and line 19. Next, we call our effect. In this test it is a call to editPerson(1) on line 24. After we act on our service, we verify our expectations on lines 26 and 27. Again, we capture all of the emits from our selectors. This allows us to verify the timeline of the state of the PersonStore . In complex situations, this is very valuable information to have.
Testing effects on a ComponentStore is often very easy. Testing effects is valuable because we are testing our effect logic to prevent future bugs. We also get the added benefit of verifying the output of the related selectors.
Testing Additional Methods on the ComponentStore
The final area of our PersonStore that will be valuable to test are any methods that we added that aren’t selectors, updaters or effects. In our case, they are the clearEditedPerson() and saveEditPerson() methods.
We are going to examine the happy code path for the saveEditPerson() method. Testing this method will require us to use the mock added to the mocks array. As an exercise, I encourage you to think of what other tests should be written for both methods and then write them yourself. Remember, think of what the tests should do, not what the code says.
To test the saveEditPerson() method, we need to know the expected behavior for the happy path. When saveEditPerson() is called, the editorId and the editedPerson from the state object are sent to StarWarsApiService.savePerson() . If the service returns successfully, we then call the updatePerson() effect with the value returned from the API call. After that, we clear the editedPerson and editorId properties on the state. Let’s see what these tests could look like:
There is a bit of code here, but it is pretty simple. We created three tests for a very good reason. We want to isolate and test specific behaviors. For this reason, we have a test to make sure that StarWarsApiService.savePerson() is called with the proper values. We have a test that makes sure that the value returned from the API is properly added to the store. Finally, we have a test to make sure that editorId and editedPerson are properly cleared out. We could have combined all of this into one mega test, but if there is a failure, we have more work to determine what failed. Let’s look at some of the key lines of code.
In the test to make sure StarWarsApiService.savePerson() is called with the proper values, we need to get a reference to the mock of the StarWarsApiService . In Spectator, we can simply call spectator.inject(StarWarsApiService) . Spectator.inject() gives us access to the inject() function from the TestBed . We do this on line 14.
After we have the reference, we need to make sure the mock returns a value so we don’t break the rest of the code in our test. For our first test, we merely return the special EMPTY observable. This observable emits nothing and completes immediately. This way our code that expects an observable doesn’t break in our PersonStore . We do this on line 16.
The last thing we do in our first test is use the toHaveBeenCalledWith() matcher to make sure that our mock method was called with the proper values. We have now verified that our PersonStore properly interacts with our API.
Now let’s examine the two tests for when the API returns successfully. In these tests, we need to simulate the API returning a good response. To do this, we get a reference to the mock in the beforeEach() on line 33. This time on line 35, we return an observable of(apiResponse) . apiResponse is a copy of the Person object that we are “editing” in our tests but with a small change. By making this change, we can make sure that the data in the store changes to what is returned by the mocked service.
When we test that the store updates the people property properly, we only subscribe to the people$ selector instead of using a scan() operator like the other tests. The reason for this is that we really only care about the last value emitted by this selector after a successful API response. The intermediate values are not as interesting in this test. You can see this on line 41 of the example code.
Finally, in our test to make sure the editorId and editedPerson are properly reset, we capture all of the values for the two selectors. This was a conscious decision. If those selectors never change, then we may have an issue in our code. We can look at the values between the start of our test and when those values are set to undefined to make sure our code behaves as expected.
Notice that we only have two elements in our expected values on lines 71 and 72. The reason for this is that by the time our scan() and subscribe() are added, we have already set the editorId and editedPerson in the beforeEach() using the editPerson() effect on line 10. This means we won’t capture the inital undefined . That initial value isn’t really important to our test, so we don’t worry about it. The real test is to make sure we change from the values being edited to undefined again.
Spectator is a powerful tool that makes testing our ComponentStore classes really easy. These same principles could be applied to TestBed tests, but by using Spectator, we can cut down on our boilerplate and focus on the important aspects of our tests.
Testing Components That Rely on a ComponentStore
How do we test classes that rely on our PersonStore ? We could just inject the PersonStore into our components and our tests would work. If we inject the PersonStore , we begin to straddle that grey space between unit testing and integration testing. By isolating our tests using a mock of the PersonStore , we can take better control over our tests. It is important to do integration testing, so it is up to you and your team to decide what is the best course of action to achieve your goals.
Assuming that mocking the PersonStore is the course of action to take, we need to decide how to test our components. The simplest tests are to verify that updaters or effects are called with the appropriate parameters at the right times.
To consumers of PersonStore , our updaters and effects look like simple method calls. Unfortunately, the way our updaters and effects are defined they are properties on PersonStore . This means we cannot simply put PersonStore in the mocks array. The documentation for Spectator says that it will not automatically mock properties on an object in the mocks array. Don’t worry! We can simply use the mockProvider() helper ourselves. This is the same helper that the mocks array uses to provide automatic mocks for us.
Here is how is an example from tests for the EditPersonComponent :
By using the second parameter of mockProvider() , we can provide an object that has the properties we want to add to our mocked service. We do this on line 31. personStoreStub is an object that has the properties we want for our mock. Using a stub object allows us to use the Partial<T> utility type from TypeScript to get type-safety for the object we pass to mockProvider .
We use the jasmine.createSpy() helper to create a spy for the setEditedPerson property on line 26. We can then use the toHaveBeenCalledWith() matcher on line 48 of this example to make sure that the effect is called with the proper data. Testing a ComponentStore with this strategy allows us to verify that our components interact with the PersonStore in the manner we expect. We can easily write tests for effects and updaters using this strategy.
Another potential problem to overcome is testing components that rely on selectors. How do we mock observable properties on our ComponentStore objects when testing a component in a manner that we can easily control? I have a strategy that I use. An example of this strategy can be used for the PersonListComponent . Here is an example:
This time we are going to focus on just the key pieces of code and not the entire test file. We first create a Subject<T> for the selector we want to mock. It is important that we use Subject<T> here because we do not want values emitted from one test to pollute tests that come afterwards. This can lead to test runs that seem to randomly fail or worse cover bugs because of the way we created our mocks. The rest of creating the mock is exactly like the previous example. We use the mockProvder() helper and pass our stub object as the second parameter.
Next we have the tests that use this set-up.
This test is really contrived, but demonstrates how a test could work. By using the Subject<T> that we created earlier, we can emit values from our service in a controlled manner. This also demonstrates why the Subject<T> is important. The only time the values emitted matter is if there is a subscriber at the time editorId$ emits. This is why we set up our subscription on line 4 before we emit on lines 8 through 10.
Using this strategy, we can set up mocks of our PersonStore that have strongly-typed mocks that match the interface of PersonStore . If anything changes, then our tests will break. We also have a very fine-grained control over when an observable emits that will not pollute tests that run after the current test. | https://medium.com/ngconf/unit-testing-componentstore-with-spectator-2aa9c98013c7 | ['Jason Warner'] | 2021-09-10 16:34:37.884000+00:00 | ['Unit Testing', 'Spectator', 'Component Store', 'Angular'] |
Create an Ansible playbook that will retrieve container IP and update the inventory. So that further Configuration of the Webserver could be done inside that Container. | Create an Ansible playbook that will retrieve container IP and update the inventory. So that further Configuration of the Webserver could be done inside that Container. Ritesh Singh Dec 14, 2020·3 min read
Prerequisite :
✅ Docker Installed.
Solution:
First, we need to make one playbook for updating inventory, for this, I have jinja 😅 in Playbook, After that use hosts name for configuring the web server in the docker container.
Step-1)Make one Docker image, add user, configure the password, and enable ssh
To make it simple I am using Dockerfile.
FROM ubuntu:latest
RUN apt update && apt install openssh-server sudo -y
RUN useradd -rm -d /home/ubuntu -s /bin/bash -g root -G sudo -u 1000 test
RUN echo "test:test"| chpasswd
RUN service ssh start
RUN echo "test ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" >> /etc/sudoers
EXPOSE 22
CMD ["/usr/sbin/sshd","-D"]
Here I am using ubuntu:latest
For changing the pass of the user use chpasswd command.
After that also need to give power to this user, we need to add, USER_NAME ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL in the /etc/sudoers.
in the Build the Dockerfile.
docker build -t NAME_OF_IMAGE .
After this launch one container 😉.
docker run -dit --name NAME_OF_CONTAINER -p 21:22 4444:80 NAME_OF_CONTAINER
Step-2)Retrieve the name and Ip of the container.
tasks:
- name: Retrive Name of Docker Container
shell: "docker ps --format '{% raw %}{{ .Names }}{% endraw %}'"
register: Name - name: Retreive Ip of Docker Container
shell: "docker inspect --format '{%raw %}{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}{% endraw %}' $(docker ps --format '{% raw %}{{ .Names }}{% endraw %}')"
register: IP
Here I have used jinja because we need to retrieve the name and IP.
We need to register also because by using these vars we can update the inventory.
Step-3)Updating inventory
blockinfile:
path: /mydb/inventory.txt
block: |
{% raw %}[{% endraw %}{{ Name.stdout }}{%raw %}]{% endraw %}
{{ IP.stdout }} ansible_ssh_user=test ansible_ssh_pass=test
Here I have used the blackinfile module for configuring inventory.
I have also used jinja here because we need to write group name with [] brackets, for passing [] brackets as string in inventory, and {{ Name. stdout}}, {{ IP.stdout }} as variable 🤯.
Step-4)Configuring Webserver in the Docker container.
- hosts: NAME_OF_Container
become: yes
become_user: root
become_method: sudo tasks:
- name: Installing webserver(apache2)
apt:
name: apache2
state: present - name: Starting service
service:
name: apache2
state: started
I have used ubuntu:latest , so for ubuntu, I have installed apache2
Use privilege escalation for sudo.
Output 👊
Inventory updated
Use IP:4444(port)
Github Link | https://medium.com/@rootritesh/create-an-ansible-playbook-that-will-retrieve-container-ip-and-update-the-inventory-ac586f0e612 | ['Ritesh Singh'] | 2021-01-06 05:17:14.381000+00:00 | ['Apache2', 'Ansible', 'Docker'] |
Cypress — January 22, 2020. Mental Health Boost Needed!! | Dr. Jen uses her own experiences, skiing, books, movies, and real people to help curb the pains of life
Follow | https://medium.com/mind-your-madness/cypress-january-22-2020-7dcaf7143d79 | ['Jennifer Hammersmark'] | 2020-01-28 06:10:07.551000+00:00 | ['Outdoors', 'Skiing', 'Vitamin D', 'Mental Health'] |
U.S. v. E-6, JAX Naval Station — Negligent Homicide and Manslaughter | September 2020. In 2018, we were retained to represent an E-6 in the United States Navy. Our client was accused of negligent homicide, manslaughter, obstruction of justice, damage to government property, conspiracy, DUI with bodily harm, and an array of Article 92 violations. The Government alleged that our client was accused of killing a Djiboutian National while operating a government vehicle at Camp Lemmonier.
According to the charges, our client had lost control of his vehicle while intoxicated, and this negligent action led to the death of the Djiboutian National who was on his way to work. The NCIS investigation was over 4,000 pages long, and our defense investigator interviewed dozens and dozens of witnesses. Over 30 motions were filed in this case and it was covered by the Navy Times and Military Times.
Our argument was that there was no evidence to suggest that our client caused the accident. In fact, the one reliable eyewitness was going to testify that the deceased was driving his scouter in my client’s lane and struck my client. This would mean that my client was not guilty of negligent homicide or manslaughter. We requested an accident reconstruction expert to help us further understand what happened in the case. Our expert reviewed hundreds of photographs, FARO scans, and the entire investigation file. Our expert also concluded that there was no evidence to suggest that our client caused the accident.
To make matters worse, NCIS did not properly secure the vehicle that my client was driving or the deceased’s motor scooter. The vehicle my client was driving was destroyed and the scooter was left outside and was damaged from exposure. Our accident investigator was denied the opportunity to inspect the two most important pieces of evidence. We filed a motion to dismiss charges based on this egregious error committed by NCIS, but ultimately the military judge ruled that the FARO scans served as an adequate substitute for the actual vehicles. A decision that we disagreed with but understood.
Finally, after three years of litigation, dozens of motions, witness interviews, and hard fights with government counsel, the homicide, manslaughter, and obstruction of justice charges were dropped. This was a tremendous team effort and is the result of a lot of grit, hard work, and determination. This is one I will remember for the remainder of my career.
____________________________________
RESULT: Negligent Homicide DROPPED. Manslaughter DROPPED. DUI with Bodily Harm DROPPED. Obstruction of Justice DROPPED. | https://medium.com/@robcapovilla03/u-s-v-e-6-jax-naval-station-negligent-homicide-and-manslaughter-fca529dd67dd | ['Robert Capovilla', 'Military Defense Attorney'] | 2020-11-16 17:59:28.371000+00:00 | ['Military', 'Law', 'Lawyers', 'Attorney', 'Navy'] |
80 Days since February 3 by Mehak Aggarwal - Book Review | This book is the author’s selection of 80 beautiful pieces she wrote after a horrific event that happened to her on February 3. At the beginning of the book, she mentioned that these writings were the only thing that helped to fight the trauma of the horrible mishap.
It’s a combination of feelings.. of desperation, of hope, of rage, of passion for life. It is a collection of poetry and expression that is exquisite and heartfelt. The expressions were penned down after the author had a very unpleasant experience in her own home, which she never anticipated.
She’s been sexually assaulted. It’s not like other traditional poetry books, it’s really interesting and fascinating. Though the poem doesn’t send you an image of the incident, nor does it mention it, but the way it’s written really grips your heart.
The expression touches a number of subjects from terror, anxiety, uncertainty, self-love, healing, regeneration. I loved how the author portrayed her mother as a permanent hero in our lives.
Every term is a feeling and a journey closer to healing the pain so that we can live life with a smile again.
My favourite lines from the Book : | https://medium.com/@haarsh01/80-days-since-february-3-by-mehak-aggarwal-book-review-41804ac635aa | ['Harsh Kaushik'] | 2020-12-22 08:31:40.228000+00:00 | ['Books', 'Books And Authors', 'Poetry', 'Book Review', 'Books Recommendation'] |
Pathways to Sustainable Land-Use and Food Systems | Pathways to Sustainable Land-Use and Food Systems
Ahead of the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use, and Energy (FABLE) Consortium, a global network of country research teams operating as part of the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU), has published Pathways to Sustainable Land-Use and Food Systems. This second global report of the FABLE Consortium presents pathways towards sustainable land-use and food systems for 20 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, the Russian Federation, Rwanda, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States). Its findings suggest that integrated strategies across food production, biodiversity, climate, and diets can meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Meeting these objectives will require profound and rapid changes to each country’s food and land-use system.
2020 Report of the FABLE Consortium
The national pathways presented in the report were developed by each FABLE country team in four steps. First, country teams adopted global targets covering the entire land-use system that are consistent with the SDGs and the Paris Agreement. Second, the teams developed national pathways using locally appropriate modeling tools. To this end, the FABLE Consortium has developed a simplified, open-access FABLE Calculator to complement more complex models. Third, in an iterative process country teams adjusted their assumptions and pathways to ensure balanced trade flows and to aim towards achieving the global FABLE targets. Throughout the process, the country teams engaged stakeholders to review assumptions, seek technical advice, and build a shared vision of how to transform land-use and food systems.
This approach is a method for problem solving to tackle the complex issues involved in making land-use and food systems sustainable and in sharing lessons across countries. By working backwards from mid-century targets, pathways can shed light on the major transformations that are needed to achieve shared goals. Crucially, they provide a framework for engaging stakeholders, can help identify mid-term technology benchmarks, and provide a long-term perspective to help countries avoid locking themselves into unsustainable food and land-use systems. They also provide a tool for countries to integrate biodiversity conservation and restoration as well as food systems into their climate strategies, particularly in the run-up to the climate and biodiversity COPs in 2021.
The report’s findings point to the importance of country-driven analysis to address the specific challenges each country faces. However, despite each country’s unique circumstances, the findings suggest that countries have at least four critical levers for making land-use and food systems sustainable:
(1) Dietary shifts — often towards less meat consumption and less overconsumption of food;
(2) sustainable and productive agriculture;
(3) improved land-use design, particularly for protecting and restoring nature;
(4) rapid reductions in food loss and waste.
These levers point to some of the options countries have for making their food and land-use systems more sustainable. | https://medium.com/@un-food-systems/pathways-to-sustainable-land-use-and-food-systems-a06fa6e79391 | ['Un Food Systems Summit'] | 2021-01-19 20:23:05.884000+00:00 | ['Food Systems', 'Land', 'Sdgs', 'United Nations', 'Sustainable Development'] |
Enter, Exit | Enter, Exit
At the Paddington pub, there existed only one cue for the pool table. The other three had gone missing in a variety of devilishly creative ways: one had been cracked over the head of an unruly patron by his on-and-off girlfriend (off that particular night), another had been broken into even pieces and attempted to be flushed down a toilet, and the other had disappeared up the dress of a tall, pregnant, backpacking Swede.
So, the obstetrician and the funeral director had to share.
They both had a tinge of inner-city elitism about them. Their clothes were tasteful, exuding expense. Both wore tan chinos and a button-up shirt, sleeves rolled up to their elbows. They drank craft beer intermixed with the odd Old Fashioned. Well-groomed facial hair adorned their cheeks and jawlines, though both would have shaved it off at the first hint of complaint from their wives. Or mothers.
In fact, they reeked of the affluent East.
Abandoned by work colleagues, the two had headed for the empty pool table at the same time.
“Up for a game?” the funeral director proposed rhetorically.
“Pub rules?” asked the obstetrician.
“Suits the setting,” said the funeral director, who knew all about the importance of a good setting.
“Gaz,” said the obstetrician, offering his hand.
“Murray,” said the funeral director, taking it.
“Winner buys?” suggested Gaz.
“You’re on,” said Murray, already nursing a pint of pale ale from some backwash local brewery.
Gaz spilled the coins and Murray grabbed the rack to set up the balls. Gaz slid the white ball smoothly across the red baize and offered the cue to Murray.
“All yours, mate,” said Murray. He knew his history with first breaks.
Gaz shrugged and moved to the end of the table. At the bar — a behemoth of stone and mosaic tiles — a group of women groaned unanimously after a round of tequila shots. The Polynesian bouncer barely glanced at them, resuming his thousand-yard stare at a group of Indian punters waiting for a horse to jump on the television.
The break was crisp and clean. The balls whizzed off around the table, well and truly in disarray. No balls were potted in the end, and Gaz passed the cue over.
Conversation sparked.
“So whaddaya do when you’re not playing pool, Murray?” said Gaz.
“I own and operate a funeral home,” said Murray, breathing down the glossy wooden neck of the cue. Murray had always played like that; the cue directly under his chin, a habit picked up from watching his father. He took a punt on an easy small into the right pocket, top cushion. He potted it easily. “Yourself?” he asked.
“I’m an obstetrician,” said Gaz.
Murray, who was into irony as well as being vaguely superstitious, even after years at the home, began to chuckle. His second shot went wind, and the cue back to Gaz.
“So is this some divine, contrived meeting is it?” said Murray. “People start with you and end with me?”
“Something like that,” said Gaz, whose shot went wide.
They fell into a rhythm; both were average pool players, and pissed, so potted balls were rare. On the occasion one did get one in, the other would quickly catch up, their concentration suddenly honed by the concern of losing. They went round for round at the bar, too. The group of girls left soon after the Polynesian bouncer had kicked out a few twenty-one-year-olds hunched over some lines on a phone in a bathroom stall. The Indians won, lost, won twice, and then put it all on a horse running out of France, and tossed away a week’s pay. The pub, though not empty, was slowly becoming a shell of its earlier hours. It was losing its charm just as the floor was getting more sticky.
“Let me ask you this,” said Gaz, who’d returned with a round of scotches, with two balls each left before the black. Although the play hadn’t improved, the game was now tinged with a seriousness it was bereft of before. “We come into this world covered in blood and vernix. That’s how we enter. But you and your crew do the opposite upon exit. You clean the body, dress it up well, let people stare at it one last time, and then place it in a pit or incinerate it for display on a mantelpiece somewhere. Don’t you think it’s unnatural?”
“Think about that a lot, do you Gaz?” asked Murray.
“Well, hasn’t it ever occurred to you?”
Murray shrugged, and potted a ball. “Occasionally I’ve questioned it, yes,” he said. His next shot went off the table. The bouncer glared at the ball as it rolled past him on the ground, as if personally affronted.
Gaz retrieved the white for his shot. “And?” he pressed.
“It’s all for everyone else. Families, friends — they’d prefer to see their dearly departed leave cleanly,” said Murray. “You don’t think people would prefer a cleaner birth too? If they had the choice, you don’t think people would choose their children to be born already swaddled in clothes and fast asleep?”
“Agreed,” said Gaz. He potted the two he’d been slowly chipping toward the centre holes for the last five rounds.
“Alright, so we make it unnatural because that’s the preference. To be removed from that natural part of life that is death, because in grief, death is unnatural,” said Murray. He thought that made sense, even through his drunken haze.
Gaz held off his reply he finished his scotch and the game.
When he did so, Murray shook his hand and they both grabbed their jackets. Though he’d lost, Murray didn’t offer to buy the round. He could sense the mood; he knew all about sensing moods.
“Well, whatever the case, I reckon all that we are are highly-paid facilitators,” said Gaz.
Murray nodded knowingly. “First and last,” he said.
“Nice to meet you, Murray,” said Gaz.
“You too, Gaz,” said Murray.
The bouncer nodded at the pair of them as they exited the pub and entered the night. | https://medium.com/the-junction/enter-exit-3f7e99188c5d | ['Matthew Querzoli'] | 2020-02-22 20:41:03.382000+00:00 | ['Short Story', 'Birth', 'Pool', 'Death', 'Fiction'] |
The Sandbox is available in Messari Registry | We are excited to announce that The Sandbox has joined the prestigious Blockchain and data analytics platform registry firm Messari Registry, in order to provide more transparency to the enthusiastic community of the decentralized gaming ecosystem.
With this new alliance, the team behind The Sandbox is committed to delivering relevant project information and updating it periodically so that all Messari investors and users obtain reliable information about the virtual world based on Blockchain.
To access this information, The Sandbox will have its own profile in Messari, which can be accessed by all interested parties through the following link Messari asset profile.
The Sandbox platform profile includes everything about the history, roadmap, team, token, launch, technology, security, and governance of the decentralized virtual world.
In addition, users will be able to consult the exchanges available to acquire their native token, as well as to obtain real-time metrics of the price of $ SAND, last trade, the real volume in 24H, supply, all-time high, and cycle low, among others.
About Messari
Messari is a highly prestigious cryptocurrency analysis firm and Blockchain platform within the industry, which brings transparency to the crypto economy.
With an exceptional team of industry experts and creative problem solvers, the firm helps investors, regulators and the general public better understand the ecosystem by providing real-time data tools that help drive smarter decision-making.
They provide a common standard for crypto investors and other professionals to communicate their ideas, as well as help users, make more informed decisions by being aware of exactly how a derived metric is calculated and avoiding potential data errors.
The methodology used by the crypto asset analysis firm is made up of two main sections, a list of more than 100 quantitative metrics and a list of more than 15 qualitative rankings.
We are sure that with this new alliance, investors, enthusiasts, and lovers of games with Blockchain technology, as well as crypto assets in general, will be able to find in Messari the most complete and updated information about The Sandbox, which will generate peace of mind and confidence when making decisions about the native asset of the platform.
More Information
The Sandbox is a Blockchain-based virtual world that allows players to build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences using non-fungible (NFT) tokens and the platform’s utility token, $SAND.
You can get more information about the game on its website: https://www.sandbox.game/en/. | https://medium.com/sandbox-game/the-sandbox-is-available-in-messari-registry-16c30a6d8616 | ['The Sandbox'] | 2020-12-29 20:33:46.178000+00:00 | ['Data Analytics', 'Messari Registry', 'The Sandbox', 'Blockchain Analytics', 'Blockchain Gaming'] |
The Bumpy Start of the EOS Mainnet | One year is over and the longest ICO of history so far comes to an end. Now EOS is supposed to go live. But the launch of the EOS Mainnet is not quite as smooth as many imagine. What is happening with EOS?
The EOS ecosystem is currently undergoing the phase after the start of the Mainnet. After serious security issues, the EOS Mainnet Launch Group (EMLG) unanimously voted in favor of the launch of EOS Mainnet. In other words, the EOS Blockchain is running!
Difficulty in voting the block producer
EOS works with the so-called delegated proof-of-stake algorithm. The holders of the cryptocurrency can vote for block producers. The more tokens an address holds, the more valuable is their voice. The same mechanism is also used by BitShares and Steemit, both of which are concepts by Dan Larimer, the inventor of EOS.
After the ICO phase of EOS, the choice of Block Producer (BPs for short) is now on. But here are now complications: It is not trivial to make a vote for a BP with his tokens purchased from the ICO. The official tool for this is based on a Command Line Interface (short: CLI). Many computer users are not used to using such a representation programs.
At noon on Tuesday (around 1pm), less than 2 percent of all EOS tokens have voted for a block of producers. The EOS Blockchain offers so far only limited functions — above all the choice of the BPs. Only when 15 percent of all EOS tokens have cast their vote for a BP, the blockchain gets its other functions. At the moment the system is in a kind of limbo.
How can I choose for an EOS Block Producer?
Anyone who has acquired EOS in the ICO phase and now wants to participate in the choice of block producers, has some options. Generally there are two alternatives.
The first is the “official” and therefore safest option, namely the use of the so-called “cleos”. This is an open source application that works as a CLI. So, a program that is controlled by the terminal and has no graphical interface. As already mentioned, this service is not trivial and requires basic technical knowledge, half a day’s time and some courage (after all, this is about cash!). Detailed instructions can be found in this media article. A word of warning: This is not for the faint of heart, it takes time, patience and some technical knowledge.
The other alternative is to use a program that a potential block producer has written himself. Again, a warning must be given first — as is generally true in crypto-space: If it is a third party program is extreme caution, because the private keys could be eavesdropped. So the tokens can be gone quickly.
A graphical program (GUI) is GrayMass. In Steemit Post, GrayMass describes how to use the software and how to get from zero to one. The article also describes that the Private Keys never leave the local machine and therefore there is no danger of losing your money.
For this user the voting seems to have worked.
Another block producer’s tool is called “ eosc “, written by EOSCanada. Eosc is also a CLI program, but EOSCanada enjoys a good reputation in the EOS community and ranks among the leading BPs. Alohaeos has written a guide on Steemit explaining the commissioning of eosc. It is important to check the version of the chain before choosing. According to EOSCanada, the correct Chain_id is: aca376f206b8fc25a6ed44dbdc66547c36c6c33e3a119ffbeaef943642f0e906
It is important to be careful with his private keys. Who controls the Private Keys, has full access to the stocks on the Blockchain. A Reddit user noticed:
A dilemma: either trust a third party or know the technology well. For many there is no good option.
What happens to EOS now?
Block.one, the company that was previously responsible for EOS, has largely kept out of the start of Mainnet. After all, EOS should be a decentralized project. Even if one or the other may be disappointed by the slow start of the EOS Blockchain, it is time to keep calm and patience.
As already known, few addresses hold just under 50 percent of all tokens. Once these instances have settled down for the ballot box, starting the blockchain should not be a problem anymore. So it still means “wait and see”. Especially for smaller EOS token holders it is recommended to keep your feet still. If you’re not in the mood for a technical adventure in the terminal, you probably will not bother with the choice.
Criticism of the EOS Mainnet Launch
The criticism against EOS and Block.one is mainly due to Reddit . “ 4 billion taken at the ICO and no GUI for choosing the BPs. “Due to the technical hurdle,” normalos “are practically excluded from the election, which does not exactly strengthen the idea of decentralization. On the other hand, the lack of coordination is a side effect of this decentralization.
A disappointed redditor and a clever counter-argument. Most crypto fans are not here because of the technology, but because the big money beckons.
Decentralization is also supported by the one-sided distribution of EOS tokens. Should a single major investor have fought his way to the ballot box, the minimum of 15 percent could be met immediately and the EOS blockchain would start with this one-sided vote.
Also a critique Vitalik Buterins was taken up on the / r / eos Subreddit and seems to be true. The effort and risk involved in the elections is too high. Therefore, a lot of investors do not choose, certainly not “the average Joe”.
Did Vitalik Buterin anticipate this situation?
Some important links for checking the progress | https://vidrihmarko.medium.com/the-bumpy-start-of-the-eos-mainnet-6097603babc0 | ['Marko Vidrih'] | 2018-07-06 13:05:06.606000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Eos', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Bitcoin'] |
Here’s What Happened the Week of July 31, 2017 | BIG things are happening at MILLIE in August! We’ve launched our PCS Lost + Found Giveaway which is putting over $2,000 worth of gifts into the hands of deserving military spouses!
We’ve included links (for easy sharing), the copy for the posts (in case you’ve already used up all your creative juices today), the hashtags (for optimal millennial reach) and the MILLIE logos and branding information (in case you want to feature us on your front page or something).
If you’re one of our partners, please send us what’s been happening in your world lately by emailing me at [email protected].
Jul. 31, Monday — PCS Lost + Found Giveaway — Giveaway Annoucement
Post Copy: *GIVEAWAY ALERT!* This week our PCS Lost + Found Giveaway theme is kitchen/pantry! We want YOU to tell us in the comments below about the craziest PCS story you have related to kitchen/pantry. Know a friend who has a killer story? Tag them in the comments and give them a chance to win, too! All entries are due Friday August 4th by 8 p.m. EST. A winner will be selected at random and announced on Monday August 7th at 9 a.m. EST. Good luck!
HUGE thank you to this week’s sponsors who very generously donated to this amazing prize package: Southern Pines Brewing Company Southern Elegance Candle Company Stacey’s Cooking Corner Leclair’s General Store Tattered Flag Designs Stella Valle The Household 6 Catering DasiumJudy Davis — The Direction Diva KaiserKreations and Hatchet Coffee!
Jul. 31, Monday — PCS Lost + Found Giveaway — Prize Package
https://www.facebook.com/gomillie/posts/703800419809000:0
Post Copy: Want to win this SWEET prize during our PCS Lost + Found Giveaway? Visit our Facebook page and share your story in the comments of the pinned video at the top of the page for your chance! All entries due by August 4th at 8 p.m. EST! .
Losing something has never been so rewarding!! #gomillie
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Thanks to this week’s sponsors: Southern Pines Brewing CompanySouthern Elegance Candle Company Stacey’s Cooking Corner Leclair’s General Store Tattered Flag Designs KaiserKreations The Household 6 Catering Stella Valle Dasium Judy Davis — The Direction Diva and Hatchet Coffee!
Jul. 31, Monday — PCS Lost + Found Giveaway — Sponsor Spotlight
https://www.facebook.com/gomillie/posts/703818306473878:0
Post Copy: Did you hear about our prizes for the week’s PCS Lost + Found Giveaway? This week, Southern Pines Brewing Company provided a growler and two pint glasses! They’re a great replacement for any of your glassware that might’ve gone missing during the PCS. And they’re perfect for enjoying an adult beverage after a long day of unpacking!
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Don’t miss your chance to win it! It’s just one part of the amazing prize package this week! Visit our Facebook page and comment on the pinned video with the craziest kitchen/pantry item you’ve lost during a PCS for a chance to win! All entries due by Friday August 4th at 8 p.m. EST!
Aug. 1, Tuesday — PCS Lost + Found Giveaway — Sponsor Spotlight
https://www.facebook.com/gomillie/posts/704146913107684:0
Post Copy: Looky what we’ve got for one of our prizes for the week’s PCS Lost + Found Giveaway! This week, Southern Elegance Candle Company provided one of their Honeysuckle Jasmine candles! Nothing makes a “new” kitchen smell better than one of these candles! Don’t miss your chance to win it!
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Visit our Facebook page and comment on the pinned video at the top with your craziest kitchen/pantry story for a chance to win! All entries due by Friday August 4 at 8 p.m. EST! #pcslostandfound
Aug. 1, Tuesday — AgentHero Promo
Post Copy: Worried about buying a home long-distance? Our AgentHeroes can help ease a worried mind! Connect with an agent at gomillie.com/find-an-agent/
Aug. 1, Tuesday — PCS Lost + Found Giveaway — Sponsor Spotlight
https://www.facebook.com/gomillie/posts/704180756437633:0
Post Copy: What kitchen/pantry item went missing during your last PCS? Lucky for you, one our prizes for the week’s PCS Lost + Found Giveaway is a Pampered Chef gift card courtesy of Stacey’s Cooking Corner! We can’t think of a better way to replace your favorite (and now long lost) storage container than with some free Pampered Chef cash!
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Don’t miss your chance to win it! Visit our Facebook page and comment on the pinned video at the top with your craziest PCS kitchen/pantry story for a chance to win! All entries due by Friday August 4th at 8 p.m. EST! #pcslostandfound
Aug. 2, Wednesday —PCS Lost + Found Giveaway — Sponsor Spotlight
https://www.facebook.com/gomillie/posts/704524846403224:0
Post Copy: Want to win this pretty stained glass framed art from Tattered Flag Designs? For our PCS Lost + Found Giveaway this week, the winner will receive this beautiful prize (perfect for a sunny kitchen window!) as part of our incredible prize package!
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Visit our Facebook page and comment on the pinned video at the top with your craziest PCS kitchen/pantry story for a chance to win! All entries due by Friday August 4th at 8 p.m. EST! #pcslostandfound
Aug. 2, Wednesday — MILLIE Journal Article — Dear Alexis: A Letter to My New Military Spouse-Self
https://www.facebook.com/gomillie/posts/704525576403151
Post Copy: We all remember being a new military spouse, right? And you probably have some wisdom (that comes with years of experience) to share with your past self, if you could. Today on the MILLIE Journal, Alexis shares a letter she’d send to her past self — if that were possible! — filled with advice for the new military spouse version of herself.
Aug. 2, Wednesday — PCS Lost + Found Giveaway — Sponsor Spotlight
https://www.facebook.com/gomillie/posts/704562886399420:0
Post Copy: Check it out! For our PCS Lost + Found Giveaway this week, the winner will also receive a smorgasbord of tasty homemade granola from The Household 6 Catering! Get back into the swing of eating healthy by snacking on some of this tasty granola! (And you can pour the milk right in the bag, just in case your bowls have gone missing!)
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Visit our Facebook page and comment on the pinned video at the top with your craziest PCS kitchen/pantry story for a chance to win! All entries due by Friday August 4th at 8 p.m. EST! #pcslostandfound
Aug. 2, Wednesday — PCS Lost + Found Giveaway — Sponsor Spotlight
https://www.facebook.com/gomillie/posts/704629889726053:0
Post Copy: SURPRISE! For our PCS Lost + Found Giveaway this week, the winner will also receive a $20 gift card from KaiserKreations! Replace your broken glasses or portable coffee mug with a personalized one! Kaiser Kreations can make or personalize many different items, so the choice is up to you. Don’t miss your chance to win it!
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Visit our Facebook page and comment on the pinned video at the top with your craziest PCS kitchen/pantry story for a chance to win! All entries due by Friday August 4th at 8 p.m. EST! #pcslostandfound
Aug. 3, Thursday —PCS Lost + Found Giveaway — Sponsor Spotlight
https://www.facebook.com/gomillie/posts/704957349693307:0
Post Copy: Did your favorite coffee mug go missing? Has it been a while since you last cup of really, really good coffee? Our friends at Leclair’s General Store have got your back! For our PCS Lost + Found Giveaway this week, they’re providing the lucky winner with a sweet shirt, and a cool new mug and tasty coffee from Hatchet Coffee! It’s the perfect way to make that kitchen of yours feel like home.
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Don’t miss your chance to win it! Visit our Facebook page and comment on the pinned video at the top with your craziest PCS kitchen/pantry story for a chance to win! All entries due by Friday August 4th at 8 p.m. EST! #pcslostandfound
Aug. 3, Thursday — PCS Lost + Found Giveaway — Sponsor Spotlight
https://www.facebook.com/gomillie/posts/704991593023216:0
Post Copy: Check it out! For our PCS Lost + Found Giveaway this week, the winner will also receive a copy of Stories Around the Table from Judy Davis — The Direction Diva and Dasium! Settle in around your kitchen table with a cup of coffee, a tasty snack and this book on a Sunday morning for some military life inspiration!Don’t miss the chance to win it!
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Visit our Facebook page and comment on the pinned video at the top with your craziest PCS kitchen/pantry story for a chance to win! All entries due tomorrow at 8 p.m. EST. #pcslostandfound
Aug. 3, Thursday —PCS Lost + Found Giveaway — Sponsor Spotlight
https://www.facebook.com/gomillie/posts/705023253020050:0
Post Copy: SURPRISE! One of this week’s mystery gifts is from StellaValle! It’s just one of the great prizes for the week’s PCS Lost + Found Giveaway! Stella Valle jewelry is fabulous and you know you’ve been pining after a piece from them! Don’t miss your chance to win it!
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Visit our Facebook page and comment on the pinned video with your craziest PCS kitchen/pantry story for a chance to win! All entries due by Friday August 4th at 8 p.m. EST! #pcslostandfound
Have a great week everyone!
___________________________________________________
Bringing Military Families Home
gomillie.com
You can download our press kit here and contact me at [email protected]. | https://medium.com/millie-press-publication/heres-what-happened-the-week-of-july-31-2017-3da263443d12 | ['Alexis Miller'] | 2017-08-08 11:30:36.211000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Travel', 'Military', 'Photography', 'Moving'] |
Install MongoDb on Mac (Catalina) | Hi, in this article I will show you all the steps to install MongoDb on your mac i.e Catalina
Install Homebew
# Installs Homebrew
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
Find the MongoDb Tap
brew tap mongodb/brew
Install MongoDB
brew install mongodb-community
Apple created new volume in Catalina due to security purposes
Create ‘/data/db’ folder
sudo mkdir -p /System/Volumes/Data/data/db
For Permissions
sudo chown -R `id -un` /System/Volumes/Data/data/db
Start MongoDb
brew services run mongodb-community
brew services run mongodb-community
Check if MongoDb Is Running
brew services list
It’s Running :)
Access MongoDb Shell
mongo
Stop! MongoDb
brew services stop mongodb-community
Stop!
I hope that you liked this article and if you do , don’t forget about commenting!!! See ya! : 😊 | https://medium.com/@naxir-sheikh/install-mongodb-on-mac-catalina-373b4ef8ce02 | ['Naxir Sheikh'] | 2020-12-10 17:07:16.844000+00:00 | ['React', 'JavaScript', 'Nodejs', 'React Native', 'Mongodb'] |
Meet the Entrepreneur Who’s Making Clean Water Accessible Across Haiti | Using a decentralized water treatment and distribution system, Jim Chu, the founder and CEO of dloHaiti, is bringing safe, affordable water to thousands on the island. Chu recently participated in diaspora engagement roadshows hosted by USAID INVEST, which encouraged members of the Haitian diaspora to invest in the country’s private sector.
A customer purchases Ovive from a dloHaiti kiosk. (Photo: dloHaiti)
By Emily Langhorne, INVEST Communications Specialist
“Private sector engagement is crucial to lifting people out of poverty. I can’t stress that enough. It’s mostly about scale: I don’t believe charity or aid ever truly scales to the amount needed. That really requires private sector capital. Unless we bring that capital to Haiti, we won’t see change that serves everyone in need.” ~ Jim Chu, CEO, dloHaiti
Jim Chu loves flying. The Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor began paragliding in 1993. Over the last two decades, he’s participated in the sport all around the world.
“My favorite place [to fly] would have to be the Indian Himalayas,” Chu says. “You’re right up against the mountains, so on good days you can see some well-known trekking trails. You can see corn drying on people’s roofs. The landscape is this intensely lush green. People live all over in that area, and they tend to be very welcoming, so you can land anywhere and usually get a ride.”
Chu flies planes, too. He recently became interested in Alaska bush flying, where short takeoffs and landings are common because the rough terrain often lacks prepared takeoff and landing strips.
These days, however, Chu’s hobbies are the less adventurous part of his life. As the CEO of dloHaiti, a water treatment and production company, he has spent the last seven years working daily to expand the accessibility of clean water throughout Haiti.
Haiti’s Water Crisis
Nearly 70 percent of Haitians do not have access to clean water. Waterborne illnesses cause more than half of the country’s deaths each year, and one in five children die from diarrhea — a preventable disease.
The Haitian government provides only undrinkable water through its infrastructure, so private companies dominate the water market. These companies locate their water treatment facilities near the cities and use large trucks to deliver water to other areas. As a result, the water provided to customers outside of the cities is often limited in quantity and variable in quality.
“If you happen to live close to the city, you at least have water, even if it isn’t that clean or reliable,” says Chu. “But if you live somewhere farther out, you get served by dirty and unreliable trucks, so those folks end up going without clean water; moving toward the city, which means the country experiences mass urbanization simply because people need water; or paying a lot more for unreliable water of questionable quality.”
In a country where 60 percent of people live on less than US $2.00 a day, most water companies charge US $1.25 for a five-gallon jug.
“It’s mind-boggling how lack of clean water hinders a country,” says Chu. “The typical Haitian will pay 50 times more for a liter of water than an American does, so most people either go without or spend a lot of time trying to find affordable water. That burden usually falls on women and children, so children miss school and women miss out on opportunities for earning an income. But more often than not, people just go without clean water and suffer through the waterborne diseases that result.”
Haiti’s government provides only undrinkable water through its infrastructure, and only one third of the population has access to it. (Photo: dloHaiti)
The Journey to a Private Sector Solution
Chu has no background in water treatment. From 1996 to 2003, he ran marketing and business development departments for Cisco Systems. Since 2005, he has been investing in and operating numerous start-ups in Silicon Valley. For 20 years, he had a typical Silicon Valley tech career. Then, by chance, he stumbled into his work in Haiti.
After the country’s 2010 earthquake, Chu traveled to Haiti as a volunteer with a non-governmental organization (NGO) distributing clean water to those in need. He later became the CEO of Life Giving Force, a nonprofit providing clean water throughout Haiti.
Chu ran the nonprofit for nearly two years, but he became disheartened with its lack of lasting impact. “The NGO model wasn’t working, and neither was aid,” says Chu. “Their best outcomes were only band-aids.”
Many NGOs must attempt to serve both the people writing their checks and their beneficiaries, according to Chu. Unfortunately, serving the demands of the former doesn’t always align well with the needs of the latter. For instance, a donor might want to build a water facility in a location that doesn’t provide access to the greatest number of people. Chu discovered that NGOs and development agencies weren’t always business-friendly, and in worse case scenarios, they crowded out business solutions and prolonged problems.
“I was trying to make a change within the development world, and I wasn’t getting anywhere. I was frustrated by the bureaucracy of it all — the long timelines and red tape,” he says. “I wanted to do something meaningful, to have an impact, but mostly I was in Haiti, thinking, ‘I’m pushing paper. I’m just a bureaucrat. I’m not solving the problem.’”
In 2012, Chu decided to partner with the IFC, the private investment arm of the World Bank, to launch dloHaiti, an investor-driven social business designed to make clean water accessible in underserved Haitian communities via a market-driven model.
“I decided to apply a business lens to this development product, to create products and services that are valuable to the customers who need and want them,” Chu explains. “I call them customers, not beneficiaries, because we need to create value to keep them as customers. When I was volunteering, I saw that most people could pay — and wanted to pay — for water. The problem was that they couldn’t get it: it was too far away to be convenient or too expensive. That’s the problem we needed to solve, and we knew many Haitians valued the solution enough to pay for it.”
dloHaiti: A Decentralized, Market-Driven Model
dloHaiti is a decentralized water kiosk venture. The company manufactures its own water brand, Ovive, which it produces at accessible water facilities — called kiosks — using a reliable treatment process.
dloHaiti doesn’t operate in well-served urban areas or remote, rural areas. It builds kiosks in underserved towns and peri-urban areas, which have growing populations and a high demand for water. In these regions, the market conditions are ideal for a commercially viable water business serving a significant number of people.
Each kiosk uses energy-efficient water treatment technology, operating on 70 percent clean energy. The kiosks have a three-kilowatt solar power system that powers everything on site, including the pump, filtration units, lamps, and more. Because it doesn’t depend on costly grid or generator power, dloHaiti can reduce the cost of its products and operate in areas without grid connections. Every site is economically self-sufficient: they no longer require a subsidy to operate.
dloHaiti’s kiosks rely heavily on solar power, operating on 70 percent clean energy. (Photo: dloHaiti)
Purifying water locally is more cost-effective than using water trucks. A five-gallon jug of Ovive costs 40 cents, 85 cents less than the country’s other water brands. By relying on a local distribution network, in which residents of the local community work as delivery agents and distributors, dloHaiti can expand the customer base for each kiosk and reach areas that large water trucks fail to serve because of economic or logistical reasons.
Customers who live within 500 meters of the kiosk can collect water directly from the source. For those customers and vendors located within five kilometers of the kiosk, dloHaiti offers delivery and distribution. The company focuses on improving the supply chain for vendors so that they can make Ovive available to more people. It offers distribution services for those vendors located between five and 25 kilometers away. It also provides “just-in-time” inventory so that vendors don’t have keep their liquidity tied up in inventory, which makes merchants more likely to sell water. As a result, water is available locally when people need it.
A delivery agent brings water to a local distributor. (Photo: dloHaiti)
The Challenges of Running a Business in a Fragile Country
While Chu is passionate about his company, he’s also upfront about the challenges of running a business in Haiti. For starters, the infrastructure needed to run a successful operation is often lacking. Finding reliable, affordable electric and water providers can be difficult or prohibitively expensive.
“It’s a massive amount of money for a generator, which makes it nearly impossible to become an entrepreneur unless you already have money or a wealthy family member willing to contribute,” says Chu.
Financing, likewise, can be a problem. Unlike in the U.S., most Haitian banks won’t allow an individual to act as the personal guarantor for a small business loan, which makes finding start-up capital challenging.
“There are obstacles at every step,” Chu explains. “Intuitively, I knew that it wouldn’t be as easy to start and run a business in Haiti as it is in the U.S., but I underestimated the enormity of it. You’ll encounter days where your office space goes for 24 hours without power.”
Internet access is also an issue. Usually, businesses must pay one internet service provider an exorbitant amount of money for reliable service. However, because Chu worked for Cisco Systems, he knew how to install a multi-WAN router at his office so that he can use the service of multiple internet providers. That way, if one goes down — “and they always go down,” says Chu — he won’t lose internet access. Many people starting a business would not have the experience or know-how to navigate that hurdle.
Regardless of these challenges, Chu believes, and has shown, that it’s possible to run a profitable business in Haiti. Moreover, by starting a business in Haiti, he has positively impacted the life course of thousands of individuals.
Beyond Profits: What It Means to Be a Social Business
dloHaiti is a social business, which Chu defines as a company that ensures that positive social impact results from the activities it undertakes.
Arden’s Cherelus, an operations and facilities manager at the company, explains that unlike the country’s other water producers, dloHaiti is embedded in communities they serve, and transparency with them is important. Because many people don’t understand how water is treated, dloHaiti’s kiosks have glass windows through which people can watch the process.
A dloHaiti staff member monitors quality control during the treatment process. (Photo: dloHaiti)
The company also hires local staff. It employs more than 100 people in permanent jobs, mostly in non-urban areas where an 80 percent unemployment rate is the norm. It creates jobs directly through the treatment facilities and indirectly through the network of distribution and delivery agents.
A delivery agent picks up water from a kiosk. (Photo: dloHaiti)
dloHaiti has created a series of programs that provide micro-credit for in-kind loans, such as financing inventory for re-sellers and vehicles for distributors. It’s even launched the Haiti Opportunity and Prosperity through Entrepreneurship (HOPE) Micro-Credit Note, a social impact bond issued by the U.S. Delaware legal entity, to support more micro-credit programs.
Chu talking with a vendor and customer. (Photo: dloHaiti).
dloHaiti now operates 10 kiosks and serves 150,000 people. Chu plans for dloHaiti to serve more than a million people in Haiti by 2030. He’s also founded a sister company, Untapped, to spread the decentralized water treatment model to other developing countries. Combined, he hopes the two companies will serve more than 100 million people by the end of the next decade.
Private Sector Engagement: The Future of Development?
“Private sector engagement is crucial to lifting people out of poverty. I can’t stress that enough,” says Chu.
Ironically, Chu is the co-founder of the global nonprofit, Watering Minds, which works with local partners and donors provide clean water to schools in Haiti, Cambodia, India, and Ghana. Nonetheless, he believes that the private sector is needed to solve the world’s toughest development challenges.
“It’s mostly about scale,” Chu explains. “I don’t believe charity or aid ever truly scales to the amount needed. That really requires private sector capital. Unless we bring that capital to Haiti, we won’t see change that serves everyone in need.”
Students drinking Ovive during school. (Photo: dloHaiti)
Chu believes the development sector is becoming increasingly willing to work with the private sector to find sustainable ways of solving social and environmental problems. Likewise, he thinks that there’s a growing interest within the business world to work in emerging markets, where development agencies can provide valuable local knowledge and expertise.
He recently participated in a roadshow hosted by USAID INVEST, an initiative that mobilizes private capital for development. The Haitian diaspora contributes roughly one-third of Haiti’s GDP in remittances, so Haiti INVEST organized five diaspora-engagement sessions throughout the U.S. and Canada to encourage the Haitian diaspora to invest in Haiti’s private sector. The sessions showcased entrepreneurs, like Chu, who run businesses in Haiti.
“The model of Haiti INVEST is a great idea,” says Chu. “It’s helping to ‘grease the wheels’ on the transaction costs of investing in Haiti. It gives entrepreneurs a platform to talk about their businesses and connect with intermediaries. Among the diaspora, there are almost certainly people who will be interested in investing if they are made aware of the opportunities.”
In founding dloHaiti, Chu intended to create positive development outcomes for the people of Haiti, but “it needed to be done in an economically sustainable and market-friendly way,” he says. “We couldn’t rely on subsidies and be sustainable. It’s important to create something that does return some value to investors; otherwise, you’ll never scale. If you don’t attract commercial investment, well, then, you’re just another NGO.”
To learn more about INVEST’s work in Haiti and elsewhere, check out our website. | https://medium.com/usaid-invest/meet-the-entrepreneur-whos-making-clean-water-accessible-across-haiti-694ccbd0ed5b | [] | 2020-08-12 16:51:17.469000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Impact Investing', 'Sustainability', 'Humanitarian', 'Water'] |
Yoga for Designers | Last week UXPA Magazine published my article on “Mindful Design: What the UX World Can Learn from Yoga” (also reprinted in a previous post on Medium). The article describes how mindfulness practices like meditation and yoga can benefit designers throughout the lifecycle of design activities, from seeking inspiration to ideation and execution. I wrote about a few ways in which designers can put mindfulness principles into practice. Here are a few simple poses to start a basic yoga practice that benefits the creative process.
Open the heart and the mind prior to user interviews: Chest and shoulder openers
Chest and shoulder openers counteract the effects of being hunched over a computer or steering wheel. The opening of the chest also symbolizes the opening of the heart, enabling compassion and connection to others. Before engaging in user research, open the chest and shoulders and prime the body to be more receptive to others.
Modified Standing Backbend (Anyvittasana)
Interlace your hands behind your back, and pull the heels of your hands together as you roll the heads of your shoulders up, back, and down. Start to lift the gaze and the chest up as you pull the hands down behind your back. As you draw the tips of the shoulder blades together, squeeze the upper arms towards each other and press the heels of the hands into each other. Tuck the pelvis in slightly to protect the lower back; you can help your body do this by lengthening the tailbone towards and heels and/or lifting the pubic bone up towards the chest.
Supported Fish Pose (Matsyasana)
At home, a restorative chest opener can be simple and relaxing. Roll up a blanket into a long, narrow log, and place it on the floor underneath your back, behind the heart. A yoga block or stack of books works well in place of the blanket too. Drape yourself over the prop and allow the shoulders to roll back. Let the palms face up to maintain an external rotation in the shoulders. Legs can be extended straight and relaxed, or you can passively open the hips by bringing the heels together and let the knees fall open to the sides. This is one of the most therapeutic things you can do for your chest and shoulders, and is especially restorative for people with respiratory problems such as asthma or getting over a cold.
Boost your creative mind and playful energy: Hip openers
The psoas is the only muscle to connect the spine to the legs. It is also connected to the diaphragm through connective tissue (fascia) which affects our breath and fear reflex. For many of us, our fast paced modern lifestyle causes the psoas to be chronically triggered; this tightness can be a source of low back pain. Conversely, a relaxed psoas is the mark of play and creative expression. The relaxed and released psoas is ready to lengthen and open, to dance. Do these stretches before ideation and hackathons to boost your creative mind and playful energy.
Low crescent lunge (Anjaneyasana)
Kneel on one knee and put the opposite foot in front (for the front foot, try to get the ankle directly under the knee on the same side leg to give the most structural support). Transfer your weight onto the front foot and push your hips forward and down until you feel a stretch along the front of your hip on the leg extended behind you.
You can take this stretch further by employing a variety of options. Raise the arm that is on the same side as the back leg, and lean diagonally towards the side of the front knee. Another option is to stretch the quadriceps by grabbing the ankle on the extended leg with the opposite hand and drawing the foot towards your sit bone.
In addition to opening the hip flexors, a wider range of poses help open the hips along different axes of rotation and create spaciousness within different muscle groups (outer hips, adductors, IT bands).
Detox from the stress of negotiations and design reviews: Spinal twists
Seated twist poses can help relieve tension from deep within the body, which often shows itself as emotional stress. They also help mobilize the joints of your spine and squeeze internal organs, bringing oxygenated blood to your internal organs while eliminating toxins and metabolic waste products. Perform a twisting pose whenever you feel stress.
Gentle spine twist, based on Qigong
One spinal twist that is playful and fun to do before design brainstorms is a qigong spinal twist. Stand with your feet hip width distance apart, and make fists with your hands. Begin by moving the right arm in front and the left arm behind you as you twist from your standing body to the right. Switch directions and twist to the left, allowing the arms to switch sides. Gradually increase your speed, maybe gently massaging the acupressure point at the top of the chest under the shoulder with your opposite fist as you twist around.
Half Lord of the Fishes (Ardha Matsyeandrasana)
Practice a more intense twist with a seated spinal twist. Sit with the legs extended from the hips. Cross the right foot over the left thigh and press it into the floor, to the left of the left thigh or knee. Place the right hand on the floor behind the right hip. As you inhale, reach the left arm towards the sky to lengthen the torso; as you exhale, twist to your right. Hook the left elbow outside the right knee to give more leverage in the twist. Alternatively, grab the outside of the right knee with your left hand if hooking the elbow outside the knee is too intense. With every inhale, lengthen the spine and grow taller; with every exhale, continue to twist to the right. Hold for 30–60 seconds and then switch sides.
Calm the mind for quiet design time: Forward folds
Forward folds have a detoxifying effect that can improve and stimulate digestion and help calm the mind and body. When you fold forward, you are turning inward physically, mentally, and emotionally, resulting in greater introspection and a sense of peace. Do forward folds at the end of the day and before quiet design time.
Standing forward fold (Uttanasana)
Stand with your feet hip width apart, with the outside edges of the feet parallel to each other. Fold forward at the hip crease, bringing the top of the pelvis forward. Lengthen the front of the body as you fold, keeping the neck and jaw relaxed. Engage the quadriceps to allow the hamstrings to lengthen. Let the weight be more on the balls of the feet, as opposed to the heels, to help align the hips over the ankles. As an option, you can choose to grab onto opposite elbows or forearms and just hang, noticing what you experience when you don’t have the goal of having to “get somewhere”. Remember that forward folds are not about how deep you can go but rather how deeply you can release.
Have Fun
Laughter (Laughasana)
Yoga is serious work, but don’t take the practice too seriously. Adopt a playful attitude, know that “failures” are part of learning and growing, and have fun. It’s during moments of joy and flow that we get the best, most creative work out of ourselves. Namaste!
Photos courtesy of the creative, multi-talented (and fellow yogi) James Witt. | https://medium.com/design-your-life/yoga-for-designers-162d86ad4ddc | ['Irene Au'] | 2016-08-17 16:51:49.819000+00:00 | ['Yoga', 'Design', 'Mindfulness', 'Creativity', 'UX'] |
Github Actions: Automize Your Android Build & Release Workflow | Start Workflow With Android
Let’s begin with creating a YAML file for setup workflow. First, go to Android Studio and under the project section create a new directory .github. Now create a new directory called workflows under the .github directory. Then create a new file with the name of build_release_workflow.yml
It looks like this,
Core Concepts of the YAML file:
Here are some core concepts you need to understand before writing a YAML file: Actions
Actions are the smallest portable building block of a workflow. You can find an action available in the GitHub Actions marketplace. It is a repository published by the community and accepted by GitHub if it meets their standards. What’s more, you can also create your actions. Event
Events are specific activities that trigger a workflow. For example, commit/PR made to a repo, creating a new release, forking a repo, etc.. Runner
Runner is a machine which has the GitHub Actions runner application installed which looks for jobs, runs actions, reports the progress, and generates the results. Job
Job is made up with multiple steps that run and executes on the runner which defined into the workflow file. You can see a sequence of every single job when thDonee workflow run. Step
A step is a list of tasks that can be executed by a job. Steps can run commands or actions. Workflow
It is a YAML file. It's a set of jobs that trigger and runs each and every event. The YAML file is defined in the .github/workflows directory.
Let’s take a look at our full .yml file step-by-step:
name: Android Build Release Workflow
on:
push:
branches: [ master ]
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: set up JDK 1.8
uses: actions/setup-java@v1
with:
java-version: 1.8
- name: Unit tests
run: bash ./gradlew test --stacktrace
- name: Run Tests
run: ./gradlew test
- name: Build Project
run: ./gradlew assemble
- name: Build Debug APK
run: bash ./gradlew :app:assembleDebug
- name: build release
run: ./gradlew assembleRelease
- name: Upload APK
uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
with:
name: App
path: ${{ github.workspace}} /app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk - name: upload artefact to App Center
uses: wzieba/AppCenter-Github-Action@v1
with:
appName: ronakukani/Github-Actions-Demo
token: ${{secrets.APP_CENTER_TOKEN}}
group: Testers
file: app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk
notifyTesters: true
debug: false
releaseNotes: "here is your release note"
- name: Send message to ms teams
uses: dhollerbach/[email protected]
with:
webhook: 'Here is your Microsoft Teams Webhook URL'
message: 'Here is your message'
First, we add the name of workflow like this,
name: Android Build Release Workflow
Here, we define the triggers like when the workflow runs. Here when you push your code to the develop branch then it will trigger your action.
on:
push:
branches: [ master ]
You can also add different triggers like when you do pull request and merge the specific brach etc.
Now, you can define a single job inside our workflow that will run a command or invoke another action. Here the job is run on Linux Machine. You also can run on windows or mac. Click to know more about runs-on.
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
Inside steps, you can define the list of steps that our job will execute, Here we invoke, an external action and set java version 8 to run some tests by actions/setup-java@v1
actions/checkout and actions/setup-java@v1 are predefined actions with the Github server.
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: set up JDK 1.8
uses: actions/setup-java@v1
with:
java-version: 1.8
Now let’s perform and run some unit tests.
First, create debug and release build and upload them on GitHub’s server from there you can download the build. To get your build goto the Github repository -> Actions tab -> Workflow.
- name: Unit tests
run: bash ./gradlew test --stacktrace - name: Run Tests
run: ./gradlew test - name: Build Project
run: ./gradlew assemble - name: Build Debug APK
run: bash ./gradlew :app:assembleDebug - name: build release
run: ./gradlew assembleRelease - name: Upload APK
uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
with:
name: App
path: ${{ github.workspace}} /app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk
Upload the build over Appcenter:
Now we can upload the app to the App Center for internal sharing purposes. We can use wzieba/AppCenter-Github-Action@v1 action to upload the build over Appcenter. By using this action we can upload .apk & .ipa file to the appcenter. You can also find similar actions from Github Marketplace. Furthermore, you’ll need a token to upload your application. We can define it by going to repository -> Settings -> secrets. Click on New Secret and add a secret name that’s same as .yml and value.
- name: upload artefact to App Center
uses: wzieba/AppCenter-Github-Action@v1
with:
appName: ronakukani/Github-Actions-Demo
token: ${{secrets.APP_CENTER_TOKEN}}
group: Testers
file: app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk
notifyTesters: true
debug: false
releaseNotes: "here is your release note"
You can upload the app to the play store with this action r0adkll/upload-google-play@v1
After Releasing the build, you can notify your testers, team members, clients, etc.. via Microsoft Teams Channel. We have used dhollerbach/[email protected] action to send a message to the Teams channel. We need to create a webhook to send a message. To know more about sending messages to connectors and webhooks click here.
- name: Send message to ms teams
uses: dhollerbach/[email protected]
with:
webhook: 'Here is your Microsoft Teams Webhook URL'
message: 'Here is your message'
After complete all the steps, when you push your code to the master branch then workflow start running under the action tab. If the workflow fails due to any reason, you can see the log there. You will also receive a notification via mail after successfully completing the workflow.
Here’s what you’ll see on your screen: | https://medium.com/simform-engineering/github-actions-automize-your-android-build-release-workflow-1252b6f1461a | ['Ronak Ukani'] | 2021-04-05 15:34:26.383000+00:00 | ['Github Actions', 'Android', 'Continuous Delivery', 'Ci Cd Pipeline', 'Continuous Integration'] |
US Marketplace Facilitator Sales Tax Laws: everything you need to know | This article was originally published on the Quaderno blog. Click here to see the original one and access bonus content with it.
Sales tax laws for marketplace facilitators are quickly covering the United States, holding online marketplaces responsible for calculating, collecting, and remitting sales tax for transactions made on their site.
These new laws affect all the major players in e-Commerce: Amazon, eBay, Etsy, WalMart, and more. In fact, the laws potentially affect other third party services you use to sell your digital products or physical goods in the US. And ultimately, they affect your business, too.
This article is here to explain everything you need to know, including answers to following questions:
What exactly is a “marketplace facilitator?”
How do marketplace tax laws work?
How do those laws affect you as a seller?
Which US states have enacted such laws?
Let’s get down to business!
General function of marketplace facilitator tax laws
Marketplace facilitator laws require businesses like Amazon and Etsy to collect and remit sales tax on behalf of their vendors, if one of the following is true:
The marketplace facilitator has a physical presence in the state,
Their marketplace sellers (vendors) have physical presence in the state, or
Their collective, annual sales in the state surpass the sales tax registration threshold and they quality for economic nexus
If none of the above are true, marketplace facilitators do not have to bother with sales tax, but they may have to abide by use tax and the “Notice & Report” rules. This means they must notify buyers of their tax obligation and report the data to each state’s department of revenue.
All in all, it’s a whole lot more work for the big companies that are helping you sell your products. But which ones? What exactly is considered a marketplace facilitator?!
What is the sales tax definition of a marketplace facilitator?
As with anything in the US sales tax system, there’s no single or simple answer.
Definitions of a “marketplace” or “marketplace facilitator” vary among the states’ tax policies. There are elaborate definitions designed to cast a wide net and catch as many forms of the “online sales platform” as possible. A good example is Washington’s, who enforced this law early on and whose language many other states are copying.
“A marketplace facilitator is a business that does the following three activities:
1. Contracts with sellers to facilitate the sale of a marketplace seller’s product through a marketplace for consideration.
2. Engages, directly or indirectly, in transmitting or otherwise communicating the offer or acceptance between the buyer and seller. (This does not include merely advertising.)
3. Does any of the following activities, directly or indirectly, with respect to the seller’s products:
payment processing services
fulfillment or storage services
listing products for sale
setting prices
branding sales as those of the marketplace facilitator
taking orders
providing customer service
accepting or assisting with returns or exchanges”
There are more simple definitions, designed only to catch household names (Amazon, etc.) who bring in the big bucks. Here’s the language from the other Washington… DC:
“Marketplace facilitator’ means a person [or company] that provides a marketplace that lists, advertises, stores, or processes orders for retail sales subject to tax […] for sale by such marketplace sellers, and directly or indirectly collects payment from a purchaser and remits payment to a marketplace seller.”
And there are also special provisions, tacked onto some states’ policies, which hook online platforms for specific ways of selling or accepting payments. The main one so far is the special provision for virtual currencies. If a business allows customers to pay with virtual currency, that business is considered a marketplace. This includes obvious sites like Overstock.com, which lets buyers use BitCoin. But it also ensnares video games systems like PlayStation or Xbox, whose users purchase upgrades and other products through “credits.”
According to Bloomberg, at least 16 states have this virtual currency provision in place: Alabama, California, Idaho, Iowa, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.
The benefit for state governments
Ever since the Supreme Court’s Wayfair decision, state governments have been passing new sales tax legislation that applies to remote sales and online marketplaces. Why? The digital economy is booming; there’s a lot of potential tax revenue to bring in. Of course, it’s all about the Benjamins.
According to old definitions of US sales tax nexus, out-of-state sellers couldn’t be held accountable for local sales taxes. The states were missing out on that revenue. Then, with the post-Wayfair introduction of economic nexus, small online businesses still wouldn’t sell enough to hit nexus. The collective sales of these small businesses represented a big chunk of potential revenue. The states were still missing out.
So, the states turned their attention to the online marketplaces where all of the individual retailers actually sell their products to in-state customers. A marketplace would surely have physical nexus from a warehouse or fulfillment center. Or, when measured in total, it’s sales would surely hit the economic threshold.
And now the state governments can recoup tax revenue that was never available before.
Complications of the laws
As smooth as that little narrative sounded, the reality of these laws is a much rockier road. Here are just a couple of the complications that make it difficult for you (and me, and the marketplace facilitators, and probably even the Departments of Revenue) to understand exactly how the laws work.
Marketplaces operate differently from each other. Amazon FBA is different from Etsy. Each marketplace has its own adaptations and processes to comply with the law, and each will have its own specific requirements of you, a seller.
Amazon FBA is different from Etsy. Each marketplace has its own adaptations and processes to comply with the law, and each will have its own specific requirements of you, a seller. A single marketplace will operate differently across states, according to state laws. So once you know how Amazon FBA handles Idaho, it might be altered for Iowa. And then again for Texas. Here’s a telling excerpt from Etsy’s statement: “These laws continue to be introduced in various states, creating a patchwork of requirements for us and our buyers and sellers. Because each state has their own set of rules and requirements, Etsy must make a determination about how to proceed on a case-by-case basis.”
Which states have a marketplace facilitator tax law?
Finally, where in the US do these laws actually apply? Not everywhere, but new legislation is coming out nearly every month. We’ll keep this list updated so you always have a current report.
For now, states that have enacted marketplace facilitator tax laws include:
Alabama — effective January 1, 2019
Arizona — effective October 1, 2019 (amendment pending)
Arkansas, effective July 1, 2019 (amendment pending)
California — effective October 1, 2019
Colorado — effective October 1, 2109
Connecticut — effective December 1, 2018
District of Columbia — effective April 1, 2019
Hawaii — effective January 1, 2020 (amendments pending)
Idaho — effective June 1, 2019
Indiana — effective July 1, 2019
Iowa — effective January 1, 2019
Kentucky — effective July 1, 2019
Minnesota — effective October 1, 2018
Nebraska — effective April 1, 2019
New Jersey — effective November 1, 2018
New Mexico — effective July 1, 2019
New York — effective June 1, 2019
North Dakota — effective July 1, 2019
Oklahoma — effective April 10, 2018 (amendments pending)
Pennsylvania — July 1, 2019
Rhode Island — effective July 1, 2019
South Carolina — effective April 26, 2019
South Dakota — effective March 1, 2019
Texas — effective October 1, 2019
Utah — effective October 1, 2019
Vermont — effective June 7, 2019
Virginia — effective July 1, 2019
Washington — effective January 1, 2018 (amendments effective March 15, 2019)
West Virginia — effective July 1, 2019
Wyoming — effective July 1, 2019
How marketplace tax laws might affect online sellers
It’s still very hard to tell how these new laws might affect you. From our research, we’ve put together a list of important points and practices, FYIs and suggestions, which will help your business through the confusion.
You might have the option to collect sales tax yourself.
This is on a state-by-state basis. If a state provides this option, you’ll likely hear about it from the marketplace facilitator, who would offer you a chance to opt out and to manage taxes on the marketplace sales yourself. Whether you actually do want to opt out depends on whether you’re already registered for taxes in that state, the size and resources of your business to handle tax compliance, etc. Maintain records of your sales in the state, no matter what.
These transactions are still your business, and you should keep records of the tax information just in case. In fact, some states require facilitators to send you monthly reports, “access to information regarding gross sales made [in the state] on their behalf during the previous month.” Facilitators must send this report to you by the 15th of each month. Make sure you have exemption certificates, where needed.
Some states require you to retain an exemption certificate, administered by the state Department of Revenue and filled out by the marketplace. This is basically just an official document that confirms the marketplace facilitator is managing sales tax for you on their platform. As an example, here’s Arizona’s marketplace facilitator exemption certificate. You may have to pay a fee to the marketplace for their tax management. Stay aware of changes to service cost. Stay alert for news and instructions from the marketplaces where you sell. They might instate new rules or settings for tax compliance, and you don’t want to be left out of the loop!
Resources
* At Quaderno we love providing helpful information and best practices about taxes, but we are not certified tax advisors. For further help, or if you are ever in doubt, please consult a professional tax advisor or accountant. | https://medium.com/@quaderno/us-marketplace-facilitator-sales-tax-laws-everything-you-need-to-know-dc50e0101dab | [] | 2019-09-09 08:01:03.001000+00:00 | ['Sales Tax', 'Ecommerce', 'Marketplaces', 'Remote Sellers', 'Marketplace Facilitator'] |
How Long Have You Been a Poet? | I’ve been a poet since twenty-six.
I won a big prize and everyone agreed
my voice and subject matter, use of form,
transcended the personal to the universal.
I’ve been a poet since I was ten.
I wrote fifty books of haiku that year
on my father’s Royal typewriter.
The ribbon wrote in red and black.
I wrote a famous poem about pollution.
It hung on the classroom bulletin board.
My poem about litter was not as strong.
Less emotionally honest and trite.
I’ve been a poet since I was two.
My first poem went like this:
Ball
Moon
I recited it every chance I got.
I was a poet in my mother’s womb,
tumbling around, eyes wide open,
everything red, then black, then red.
I was intricate. I was luminous.
I was a much better poet all those years
before my incarnation. Out there
spinning with the spheres,
singing our songs, shining our light.
Our light took centuries to reach earth.
By then, no one could translate.
Scientists had decided on binary code
instead of a more complex language.
Spaceships to Saturn, made possible
by the speed of their calculations.
God was impressed with our systems:
time, space, architecture, the silicon chip.
But our poetry, God thought, suffered. | https://medium.com/the-story-hall/how-long-have-you-been-a-poet-bebe99f93f52 | ['Susan Sink'] | 2017-09-16 21:12:24.535000+00:00 | ['Poetry'] |
Priceline spends $4.3 billion on digital ads each year. It’s shifting to TV for the future. | Priceline is the travel industry’s largest digital advertiser. It’s built its company using TV and digital advertising, but the majority has been on digital. In 2017, it’s expected to spend $4.3 billion dollars on digital, according to Skift, an industry website that tracks spending within the travel category. The vast majority of digital spend (estimated at 70%) is going to Google.
But that’s about to change. Booking.com, owned by Priceline, is reducing its digital spend and moving to TV. The company says it is re-thinking PPC and moving to TV to attract more direct bookings. The company is planning a 55% increase in TV spending.
Priceline Group CEO Glenn Fogel says the investments in television advertising would build a foundation for the future. | https://medium.com/digital-vault/priceline-spends-4-3-billion-on-digital-ads-each-year-its-shifting-to-tv-for-the-future-e1dbaed943ae | ['Paul Dughi'] | 2017-11-12 18:38:46.662000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Advertising', 'Television', 'Travel'] |
Excel Dashboard-Marketing | This dashboard was created from marketing data in Maven data playground. I cleaned the data in power query and used pivot tables to analyze the data. The company objective is to increase campaign response. My thought was to focus on data from customers who had purchased products in the last 30 days. Since these customers are already actively buying, they would be “easy” targets to gain initial momentum. Also, if campaigns are successful with this group, they can evangelize and assist in bringing new customers.
The customers are segmented into active loyal (dark blue) and active opportunity (lighter blue). The dark blue customers stand out largely. Knowing the demographic information and sales percentages these customers bring in can assist the company in creating a loyalty program for this group. The goal should be to maintain loyalty and show customer appreciation. Something along rewards points that build up to receive free gifts or money off.
The active opportunity customers buy but not as much as the loyal group. The company should encourage to buy more with special promotion on favored products like Wine and Meats. Think “Buy 3 bottles of wine get 10% of total purchase”.
This isn’t perfect and will be edited so that the dashboard can be seen better. Or a link offered for a better experience. The main point of this post was for me to practice analytical thinking, creating a dashboard, and presenting my thinking. I welcome constructive criticism. | https://medium.com/@andrea-allen/excel-dashboard-marketing-f4f6f1782bd | ['Andrea Allen'] | 2021-05-19 19:34:58.217000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Excel', 'Data Analysis'] |
Now You Know | Flags and representations: Pride. Blue Lives Matter. White. Black Lives Matter. Black.
If you are reading this in 2020, and you’re older than 15 years of age, you were born before 2005. If you’re between the ages of 15 and 30, you’re either a Millennial or a Gen-Z. It might be fun to watch all the comics and memes mocking these two generations; but the truth is that just like any normal, sane, human being: you have your thoughts, feelings, emotions, ideas, and maybe a religion that you believe in.
You grew up in a world that saw a major transformation in technology and social construct. You may not be fully aware of the magnitude of the latter — but make no mistake, they are very strongly correlated. You grew up in a world where the underdog must be supported, where minorities must be heard, where injustice is a given by virtue of the information available to you. But we must stop for a minute and ask ourselves, do we understand the world better just because we have “more information”? More information is just that, it’s more. It doesn’t mean the quality of information has increased, and it doesn’t mean that the value of it has increased either. Let that sink in for a minute. Think about it, digest it, and try to understand what it means.
Since data is widely available, it is your responsibility, if not to fact check, but to at least make sure you’re learning from sources other than Instagram and Facebook. If you’ve made the mildly better choice to seek news from media outlets, be vigilant of the political agendas and biases which almost always exist; you are aware of their existence, but might not fully take them into account when consuming their narratives. The term “fake news” is thrown around, but if a piece of news or an ideology appeals to the masses, no one in their right mind takes a moment to analyze its validity.
If an underdog or a seemingly oppressed person is involved, fact-checking might be a click away, but we would rather learn facts through raw footage. Raw footage is just that; it’s a moment in time that was recorded, it almost always tells part of the story. You can see racism being committed in a video, but you can’t uncover the racism in someone’s head through it. You can’t see the history of a racist cop in a video, you need to see their records. You can see a man commit a crime such as looting in a video, but you can’t conclude how large/small of a fraction he represents.
The “we know” rhetoric is even more dangerous. “We know XYZ person was this and that”…. gives your argument no validity whatsoever. When you give in to what “we know”, it can be manipulated, toyed with, and never questioned because “we know, we just know”.
You grew up in a society where “slut-shaming” is an unforgivable sin, staying true to your religion is made to look like hypocrisy, and having a point of view that is non-PC and doesn’t conform with the majority puts you on the opposite side of an argument. You’re marked as a racist, misogynist, condescending, judgmental, conservative, close-minded, and a bigot for not taking the “right” side even if you’re not taking the “wrong” side. “Everyone is entitled to have an opinion” but if yours differs, you shouldn’t be given a platform and you’re probably not worth conversing with. Left or right, liberal or conservative, you’ll always run into this wall; you’re being robbed of the right to create your image of the world given facts, numbers, and data that is abundantly available. You’re being pressured to consume ideologues backed by either something like MAGA posts or BLM protest footage. A clip of either a bearded Arab threatening the safety of a country or a video of Chick-fil-A being nasty to a member of the LGBTQ community.
Knowing all of this, shouldn’t we be more critical of data? Should we not be more critical of ideologies? Should we not search for the truth in data rather than in commentary and social media posts? Just a thought worth entertaining. It’s your life, you can make the choice for yourself. But now that you’ve read this — and probably agree with at least some of it — you can’t claim that you don’t. This is my version of “if you’re silent, you’re part of the problem.” You are either with critical thinking or you’ve joined that status quo against critical thinking. Now you know. Be a critical thinker.
-A.B. El-Ghorab | https://medium.com/@ab.ghorab/now-you-know-aa24f821a840 | ['A.B. El-Ghorab'] | 2020-06-30 16:43:58.702000+00:00 | ['Democrats', 'Freedom Of Speech', 'Alllivesmatter', 'Blm', 'Republicans'] |
Gone Kesh! — A comic tragedy of hair during lockdown. | During lockdown, I didn’t comb my hair for months literally. They were tangled from root to tip. Odomos , all-out se yada machchhar to mere ballon me fans ke mar rahe the hamare ghar me. Poora nation jab dengue ki chapet me tha, my family was safe, due to my hair.
kabhi koi mehmaan aa jae ghar pe achanak to me mask ke pehle hairnet dhundti thi.Abhi sirf hairnet me jana to achha ni lagta to mask bhi lagana padta tha. To ghar me Bahar se aane wale without mask, mere senior citizen, unvaccinated, co-morbidity wale parents without mask and me fully vaccinated and in-20s used to be in mask as well as hair net. aadhe log to guilt me aa jate mujhe dekh ke, like they are underdressed for the party.
‘Anyways, so I realised ki ab to kuch Karna padega . Bahot din koshish ki, serum lagaya, pani lagaya, ungliyon se, mote dant wale comb se , ni suljhe,samajh age ab to professional ki help lagegi. Gae parlour, bola aunty, is kesh ke case pe discussion ke Alawa aapko jo Karna hai kar do balo ka,
steam, spa, shampooing, special treatment. Aunty ne dekha Baal thodi der, koshish ki. Fir andar gai.. thodi der baad Bahar aai, boli beta next weekend kya kar rahe ho aap, mujhe laga shayad kuchh ache mehnge products aane wale honge aunty ke, mene bola kuch ni aunty aa jaungi Aunty mere hath me ticket dete hue bolti hai beta aapko jana nahi jana padega. Ticket the Tirupati Balaji ki.
Kehti hai hamari ek khandani zameed ka case uljha hai court me saalon se, use suljhane ki mannat mangne jane wale the, but aapko yada zarurat hai, aap hi jao. Mene kaha aunty aapko to nuksaan ho jaega ese , boli ni beta baal aap chadhaoge punya to me hi rakhungi uska, jese hum relatives kahi ja rahe ho to ni bol dete hai na ..are hamari taraf se bhi 51 rupay ka prasad chadhha dena, ese aunty mujhe baal chadhake aane bol rahi thi,… mere,… unki taraf se. Ni iska ek aur fayda hone wala tha unko, wo apne baal chadhati to wo pehli hi baar me wig comapnies le jati , par mere baal to koi na le jaata, unko sabse zyada der bhagwan ke pass samarpit rehne ka saubhagya prapt hone wala tha.
{Feedback appreciated in comments} | https://medium.com/@gunjan.vg/gone-kesh-3467eb075b6e | ['Gunjan Shrivastava'] | 2022-01-22 09:08:08.142000+00:00 | ['Hair', 'Lockdown Diary', 'Funny', 'Lockdown', 'Comedy'] |
Tips for Writing Medium Posts that Other Developers will Actually Read | This weekend we launched our open source community’s Medium publication. More than 200 developers immediately signed up as writers. With a bit of elbow grease, they’ll be sharing their coding insights with thousands of their peers, and you can too.
We’ll publish as many of your high quality articles as we can.
Here are some tips for writing content that will resonate with other developers:
Read through articles that we’ve already published. Try to write about things that no one has covered yet.
Seven minutes seems to be the optimal Medium post length. But don’t water-down your post to get there.
Good writing takes time. Keep rereading and reworking your post until you think it’s perfect. Always read it one last time before you publish.
Autobiographical posts are only interesting to other people if they offer useful, non-obvious takeaways. Try to teach your readers something.
When you write a technical article, your goal shouldn’t just be to look smart — it should be to inform and to be understood.
Avoid intimidating readers with a “wall of text”. Keep your paragraphs between 1–4 sentences, and break them up with headings and images.
Imagine that Lisa — the progressive, humanist, forever adolescent Simpsons character — will read everything you publish. Don’t publish anything that would make Lisa disappointed in you.
Share your Coding Insights
You most definitely should contribute to Free Code Camp’s Medium publication. Here’s how to do so, in 3 easy steps (and one harder one):
Create a Medium account. Add a headshot and bio. Send an email to [email protected] with your username, requesting to become a writer for our publication. Write awesome posts. Submit them to us. We’ll review them and potentially publish them.
We get a lot of submissions. If we don’t publish yours immediately, message me in Gitter. I’ll give you the status of your submission and quick feedback.
Happy writing about coding!
If you liked this, click the💚 below. Follow me and Free Code Camp for more articles on technology. | https://medium.com/free-code-camp/this-weekend-we-launched-our-open-source-community-s-medium-publication-52954c08adea | ['Quincy Larson'] | 2016-06-29 02:23:40.765000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Social Media', 'Marketing', 'Writing', 'Design'] |
Latest picks: In case you missed them: | Sign up for The Variable
By Towards Data Science
Every Thursday, the Variable delivers the very best of Towards Data Science: from hands-on tutorials and cutting-edge research to original features you don't want to miss. Take a look. | https://towardsdatascience.com/latest-picks-an-intuitive-look-at-the-basics-of-information-theory-2aa21286e846 | ['Tds Editors'] | 2021-01-19 14:28:22.204000+00:00 | ['Editors Pick', 'Towards Data Science', 'The Daily Pick', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning'] |
VIC Marketplace is for Merchants, Partners, Consumers and Investors of Vitality Products and Services | For a short period, we are giving you all a sneak preview of the VIC Marketplace.
VIC Rewards is absolutely delighted to announce the launch of our VIC Marketplace that is the culmination of many months of design, build, commissioning, promotion and engagement by our amazing community, merchants and VIC Rewards Team. VIC Rewards Marketplace is the first Healthcare Blockchain Marketplace which focuses on wellness, wellbeing, antiaging and healthcare products and services that utilize Public and Private Healthcare Blockchain technologies in one ecosystem. VIC Rewards already has a global community of more than 220k members and large potential market in Indonesia, Singapore, greater ASEAN, and India, which covers ¼ of world population.
VIC Marketplace offers substantial benefits for Consumers, Healthcare Providers, Merchants and Investors including:
§ An innovative and unique healthcare reward system that motivates individuals to take better care of their health and earn from it.
§ An overall vision to reduce medical costs and improve health awareness and population health outcomes globally.
§ Creates a global healthcare marketplace where members can utilize their rewards to get premium products and services from our selected merchants with attractive discounts and promotions.
§ Offers massive global exposure through our VIC Marketplace and several other partner platforms as well as numerous benefits such as annual dividends, referral system and joint promotions.
VIC Marketplace has achieved outstanding success in already engaging 25 initial premium merchants covering Accommodation and Travel, Anti-Aging, Beauty, Dining, Health Education, Fun Activities, Healthcare, Shopping, Wellbeing and Wellness. And there are many more amazing merchants in the pipeline. So, please visit our promotional VIC Marketplace website http://vicrewards.store to see for yourself our first premium merchants within this exciting innovative marketplace.
We have had an outstanding response from Vitality-focused Merchants including Tolga, the owner of Leather Asia in Bali, who says, “This is a very smart project and highly innovative marketplace which has a very good purpose and vision and we are delighted to join this amazing program”.
And VIC Rewards is doing this with amazing partners. In fact, VIC Rewards and XcelTrip are set to redefine the Global Wellness and Vitality e-Commerce Marketspace.
“CEO of XcelTrip, Mr. Gyanendra Khadka, and Dr. Richard Satur, CEO of VIC Rewards, are joining hands and e-Commerce platforms in partnership to dominate the worldwide Medical Tourism Marketspace. Together, the business-duo plan to create synergy to take on the ASEAN, Indian and Korean wellness and vitality digital marketspace. Currently, the two companies are working in tandem to raise the stakes and bring consumer wellness value to the aforementioned markets.”, said Bloomberg – https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2020-11-20/vic-rewards-xceltrip-bring-blockchain-enabled-vitality-package?sref=9sotkcuD
XcelTrip already has an impressive e-Commerce offering with over 2.4 million hotels and 450+ flights worldwide. VIC Rewards is also building a huge presence in the ASEAN region through their VIC Marketplace with a predicted 500+ Merchants in 2021 specifically in the Wellness, Well-being, Antiaging and Vitality products and services. To address the Wellness and Medical Tourism opportunity in the ASEAN, Korean and Indian regions, XcelTrip and VIC Marketplace will be integrated allowing consumers to not only book flights and accommodation, but also enhance their Vitality package with additional tailored wellness products and services.
Welcome to the World’s First Healthcare, Wellness, Wellbeing and Antiaging (Vitality) Marketplace driving better health and therefore, VITALITY. I WANT…I OWN…I USE MY VIC!! | https://medium.com/@vicrewards/vic-marketplace-is-for-merchants-partners-consumers-and-investors-of-vitality-products-and-32b155e1bfcc | ['Vic Rewards Social'] | 2020-12-23 04:37:54.248000+00:00 | ['Healthcare', 'Partnerships', 'Defi', 'Investors', 'Marketplaces'] |
5 Signs That You Might Be a Programmer | 1. Your brain keeps trying to debug that code from earlier, even while you’re asleep.
You’ve spent two unproductive days trying to work out this bug. You’re fed up and at your wits end.
Running through scenarios in your head, you think you might have the solution.
No wait, that can’t be it.
You’re laying in bed at night — tossing and turning — mind racing — annoying your spouse. Then, you finally fall asleep.
But your brain doesn’t stop there. While dreaming, you’re analyzing code, running through loops, and testing different functions.
Then it happens… You’ve finally solved it!💡
You wake up in the middle of the night with the solution and think, “I better remember this in the morning.”
The next day you rush to the computer and login.
You review your code, ready to resolve the issue.
That’s when you realize…
That the entire time, you just forgot a semicolon. | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/5-signs-that-you-might-be-a-programmer-331b0d256ea8 | ['Justin Cordero'] | 2020-12-30 06:42:07.050000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Software Engineering', 'Programming', 'Technology', 'Coding'] |
What is a compassionate design practice? | Designers spend a lot of time being ‘not sure yet’ about things they consider to be very important. A group of us have arrived together at an important hunch, which we are now chasing. Here is our current thinking. See if some of these speculations resonate, and let us know what you think too.
> An endeavor to move designers from systems thinking to systems sensing, and to cultivate compassion: a capacity to hold human paradoxes with care and without judgement.
This definition is derived from the work of the Society for Organizational Learning, the Centre for Systems Awareness at MIT, and the work of Peter Senge. And here we apply that definition of compassion to design.
> An embrace of the reflexivity inherent in contemporary design practice, and the development of a corresponding designerly skill.
Compassion is a necessary component of design. It extends further than traditional design skills and is a way by which to embrace and engage in the subjectivity intrinsic to a design process.
> An embodied aesthetic anchoring designers in reflection and awareness as they confront complex, contradictory, interconnected and interdependent systems. (climate change, human migration, substance abuse…)
We believe that a practice of compassion helps better equip designers to approach and engage with problems that are classically defined as “wicked” and involve an evolving diversity of stakeholders, needs and challenges.
> An attitude cultivating vulnerability, sensitivity and interconnectivity when we engage in collaborative design processes.
Compassionate design brings with it an acknowledgement of the power and privilege inherent within the field and its application.
Our current design problematic:
How might we as designers cultivate a practice of compassion to improve the caliber and quality of our work? What are the ways by which we can integrate a compassionate design practice into our endeavors and build futures as collectively resonant as they are socially resilient?
We believe that a compassionate design practice is a necessary component of contemporary design action. We’d love to hear your thoughts: [email protected] | https://medium.com/thecdp/what-is-a-compassionate-design-practice-8483879d9482 | ['Vinay Kumar Mysore'] | 2019-05-14 19:21:05.433000+00:00 | ['Systems Thinking', 'Design', 'Social Innovation', 'Mindfulness'] |
Sending Offline Donations to NGOs — What to Donate and What not to? | We, at Donatekart, have at least ten kind souls writing to us every day who want to donate clothes. A lot of requests are popping up in our inboxes, asking if one can donate things offline? We really appreciate your kindness however Donatekart isn’t the place for offline donations.
What does Donatekart do?
On Donatekart, NGOs create campaigns displaying the products that they are in need of. Once the order is placed, and the payment is processed, Donatekart fulfills the delivery from our end.
How to send offline donations to NGOs?
If you’re still looking to send offline donations to NGOs, there are few steps for you to follow before proceeding with it. Before you go ahead and donate the things that are lying in your home, you need to understand that the main purpose of your donation is to make someone’s life better. Each item that you donate is going to be a new thing for them to use.
What to donate and what not to Donate?
The aim is to make a meaningful donation, not just to dispose of the unwanted items through offline donations. This is why one should categorize the items that can be donated and that can’t be donated.
If your unwanted garments aren’t in good enough condition to be worn again, you can still keep them out of the landfill by recycling them. Many organizations that accept clothing for resale will also recycle clothes that are torn, stained or worn.
There are three important things that you need to know before you donate your old clothes/items:
Make sure they are dry and damp-free: Would you like to wear musty and damp clothes? No. Keep the clothes that you want to donate dry and free from all kinds of dampness. Do not donate broken items that leak or can’t be of proper use.
Would you like to wear musty and damp clothes? No. Keep the clothes that you want to donate dry and free from all kinds of dampness. Do not donate broken items that leak or can’t be of proper use. Separate and Wash : Even when recycling is encouraged, a three-step procedure of sorting, washing, and cutting is recommended. Even though segregating takes time, segregate, and wash the clothes or items before donating.
: Even when recycling is encouraged, a three-step procedure of sorting, washing, and cutting is recommended. Even though segregating takes time, segregate, and wash the clothes or items before donating. Fix them if you can use them or not: Not all items can be recycled. Some materials are difficult to recycle, which is why you can use them if they take a weekend to fix them. If not, you can get them to the nearest repair store and then donate. Donating these items in the damaged condition is not recommended if you can’t fix them.
In case if your unwanted garments are not in good condition to be worn and they can’t be recycled, you can still use them for the landfill. Many organizations accept clothes for recycling, even when they are torn, worn are stained. However, if you still wish to donate them, here are few NGOs that can help you:
Organizations that accept offline donations:
Goonj — Goonj, an NGO headquartered in Delhi, undertakes humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and community development in 23 states across India. SADS — Share at Door Step — Share At Door Step, is the easiest way to donate the items that are taking up space in your house — toys, books, and clothes. Clothes Box Foundation — Operating from Haryana, Clothes Box Foundation also bridges the gap between the donor and receiver when they donate clothes. Clothes for help — Clothes For Help program is only available in Kolkata & Pune where the old clothes are collected and distributed.
You can choose any of these organizations, read their terms and conditions, know what they take and approach them to make significant offline donations. | https://medium.com/@donatekart/sending-offline-donations-to-ngos-what-to-donate-and-what-not-to-ee042cf8750f | [] | 2020-02-14 13:06:14.213000+00:00 | ['Donate', 'India', 'Nonprofit', 'Offline', 'Donations'] |
The Part-Time Writer’s Guide to 25,000 Words per Week | The Part-Time Writer’s Guide to 25,000 Words per Week
Photo by Jonathan Chng on Unsplash
A few years back, I picked up a ghostwriting gig as a side hustle.
The ask was for two to three fiction pieces per week, at around 10,000 words per piece. In order to get the work done, I had to write at a rate of up to 2,000 words per hour, for two to three hours every single day.
In retrospect, I should have found a way to claim my energy drink budget as a business expense during this time. The pace was grueling, and I leaned heavily on those over-caffeinated sugar bombs to keep me working well into the dead of night to complete my assignments.
But although the excessive caffeine helped — as did the pressure from the upcoming expenses of a second child on the way — there were also a handful of mindset shifts and tactical habits I employed to keep myself writing at such a furious pace.
1. Writing comes first
My daily writing time began around ten or eleven each night, right after my wife went to bed. However, as an avid gamer and a well-practiced procrastinator, my natural instincts were to distract myself instead of tackling the task at hand.
But as completed assignments failed to materialize night after night, I realized that I had to make a change in how I operated. I had to stop tricking myself into thinking that I could “destress with a snack and Netflix before starting” or that I would “work through writer’s block by playing a game for thirty minutes before ‘getting back to it’.”
So I made a new rule for myself. Every night, after my wife went to sleep, I had to immediately go to my computer, sit down, open up Word, and put both hands on the keyboard.
No late night snacks. No Netflix. And no gaming.
There was writing to be done.
It was both the hardest and the easiest change to make. Having a full-time job, a pregnant wife, and a firstborn child to help take care of left very little “me” time in the day. So to spend it at what amounted to a second job rather than relaxing and gaming…stung a bit.
On the other hand, the act of just sitting at a computer and opening up Word was a pretty low bar as far as difficulty goes.
Clearing that low bar, however, immediately led to success. By prioritizing writing over leisure and comfort, I was able to hit my daily word quotas and meet my assignments with time to spare. And honestly, the satisfaction I got from actually creating something far outweighed the slight wistfulness I felt from seeing digital cobwebs grow on my ever-expanding game library.
Outside of my responsibilities to my family and my workplace, writing came first. It had to. Otherwise, nothing would have gotten done.
2. Know the path
There’s an ongoing discussion in writing communities as to whether one is an architect — someone who fully plans out their stories before they put a single word on the page — or a gardener — someone who writes based on their in-the-moment intuition.
It’s possible to be a high-output writer as either of these archetypes. However, I see the high-output gardener as someone who requires a stroke of inspiration in order to produce a large volume of words — and that sort of inspiration is very difficult to consistently capture.
It’s much easier to be a high-output architect instead.
For instance, for each of my ghostwritten pieces, I had a series of plot, character, and aesthetic beats that I knew I needed to hit. Because of this, I never really dealt with writer’s block. I always knew where my characters were coming from and where they were going — and this worked very well to keep the words flowing.
You don’t need a formalized, written outline to do this. Personally, I would spend the idle moments in my daily commute setting those beats down in my head. But whether you’re working from an elaborate series of nested numbers, letters, and Roman numerals, or if you’re working from a few notes you scrawled down while sipping your morning coffee, it’s a lot easier to write quickly if you already know what path you’re going to take.
3. Leave beauty to the editing
I think of writing and editing as a collaboration between a stonecutter and a sculptor.
The stonecutter’s job is to provide the sculptor with raw material — a huge chunk of marble — and the sculptor’s job is to turn that marble into something beautiful.
You need the writer in you to produce raw material — words — that the editor in you can shape into something worth reading. When you’re in writing-mode, don’t waste your time trying to find the perfect word or phrase. Writing quickly does not require writing perfectly. Put down something that’s close enough to what you mean and move on.
Leave the sculpting to your editing self once your lexical marble has been fully delivered.
4. Use deliberate practice to write faster
I was always the student who wrote his school essays at the last possible minute. Suddenly — and as if by magic — the words that had eluded me for weeks somehow found their way to the page once there were eight or fewer hours remaining before the deadline.
I found myself thinking about this phenomenon often at the start of my ghostwriting period. How could I replicate that sense of urgency I had in high-school and early college in order to pull more words-per-minute out of myself?
Ultimately, I would create a clumsy Word macro to help me with this. But my initial pass at a low-tech solution ended up being pretty instrumental in getting me to where I needed to be:
Get a timer and make it visible. An egg-timer, an alarm clock, a wristwatch, a phone — something that you can quickly look at while writing to see how much time you have left in a session. Learn how to quickly check your wordcount. For reference — in Word, the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl-Shift-G. In Google Docs, it’s Ctrl-Shift-C. Add 250 to your current wordcount and write the new number down in a place where you can see it. Set your timer for fifteen minutes and start writing. Periodically check your current wordcount against your target wordcount to see how close you are to hitting your goal. Use the pressure of time against your goal to push you towards greater output. If you are able to meet your goal three times in a row, increase the difficulty by 25 words. If you fail to meet your goal three times in a row, decrease the difficulty by 25 words.
The goal, over time, is to get to 500 words per 15 minutes, which yields an astounding 2,000 words per hour. Writing two hours a day at 2,000 words per hour will yield 28,000 words a week. At that rate, you could win NaNoWriMo (50,000 words) in two weeks — and write an almost 400 page book in a month.
This might sound impossible. However, this process — which I designed using the principles of deliberate practice — quadrupled my writing speed over a period of several weeks. At some point, you will become so skilled at quickly generating words that your only limit will be how fast you can type — which is something you may then need to practice as well.
5. Be patient
Do not expect to go from 200 words per day to 4,000 just like that. Writing is no different than any other skill, despite our cultural romanticizing of it. It requires sustained daily practice, specific and actionable goals to measure yourself against, patience, and dedication. This path to increased words per day is a marathon, not a sprint — but if you put in the right kind of effort and employ the right strategies, you can take your output to levels you never before thought were possible. | https://writingcooperative.com/the-part-time-writers-guide-to-25-000-words-per-week-ce9ac11ca541 | ['Mortdecai Jones'] | 2021-01-20 00:01:24.599000+00:00 | ['Lifehacks', 'Writing', 'Efficiency', 'Productivity', 'Discipline'] |
Inbound nephews and nieces of Joe Biden: A return to killing fields | (This is a reprint from NewsBred).
It’s as good a moment to laugh at or mourn for the Americans and verify this utterance four years down the line in 2024.
For men like me, it’s a moment of chuckle since the US media is having an orgasm on Good Old Joe and his team even though Georgia, Wisconscin, Arizona and Nevada and 79 critical electoral votes are being challenged.
But then the US media, in the presidential campaign, never raised the little matter of “war and peace” while pitching for Joe Biden and now wouldn’t like the Americans to peek at the dossier of his inbound nieces and nephews.
So, we have Tony Blinken as Secretary of the State who was disappointed that the United States didn’t apply enough force in Syria and advocated that Saudi Arabia be sided with in their bombings in Yemen. He had chortled along with Biden for military action in Libya. Those polite call him Biden’s “alter ego.” Those blunt prefer the phrase of “war-mongering psycho.”
Somehow, this essential on the man misses the US media completely as they harp on his experience, having been a deputy both in the offices of the National Security Advisor (2013–2015) and Secretary of State (2015–2017).
This once aspiring film producer couldn’t have found a better script than his own journey: Jewish parents, father who dominated the world of venture capital, mother a patron of arts, a stepfather who survived the holocaust and became one of the most influential lawyer on the global stage.
Blinken’s access in the ante-chambers of White House was visible as back as on May 1, 2011, peering behind Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton while the Operation Abbottabad against Osama bin Laden was on ( Blinken in red circle in image below).
Then you have Jake Sullivan, the National Security Advisor, who once wrote to her boss Hillary Clinton that “Al Qaeda is on our side” in Syria. He also was a key player in hyping up the fake allegations of Trump-Russia collusion. He too is all for “American exceptionalism” which is America-in-the-palm-of-military-industrial-complex-again in the post-Trump world.
Then there are nieces. Michele Flournoy who is most likely to be the Secretary of Defense. Janet Yellen, treasury secretary, who is an inflation hawk, unlikely to support large spending on social welfare, and generally means that the rigged US financial system, a private monetary system, is ruling the roost again.
If still unconvinced, they say, follow the money and truth would reveal itself to you.
The two most-common link between most of these nephews and nieces is CNAS (Centre for New American Security) and CSIS (Centre for Strategic and International Studies) — the 2nd and 6th highest recipient of US government and defense-contractor funding.
Who are the top donors to CNAS? Northrop, Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and the Department of Defense. Now Michele Flournoy is co-founder of CNAS. One of her well-documented sleight of hand was in getting the UAE to pay CNAS $250,000 to draft just a report that it must buy American drones. These pilotless birds, US-made, have never stopped ending up in Gulf theocracies, never mind their human rights record or brutal bombings in neighbourhood such as Yemen.
Tony Blinken has been with CSIS, Jake Sullivan with Macro Advisory Partners, run by British spy chiefs, not to say with Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, funded by 10 military agencies and defence contractors. Watch out for the names of Avril Haines (top contender for CIA director) and Kathleen Hicks (CSIS) in case their names pop up in your New York Times of Washington Post tomorrow morning.
There is this moral from Aesop’s fable: “A man is known by the company he keeps.” To me, it means the return of GIs boots in the far-flung corners of the world. The US media would never mention that this set cost the United States humiliating defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan, just as in Vietnam. Some three million service members spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan for no gain in the last 19 years. Some $6 trillion dollars of the taxpayers have gone down the drain. Some 515,000 people have been killed, including 260,000 civilians.
So the sacred cow of foreign policy and the golden calves of defence establishment would again be venerated. Those who found Donald Trump an evil incarnate in the last four years, a Hitler reborn, would sing peace hymns in the background to genocides. Meanwhile, you could carry on with your clowns in NYT and Washington Post. | https://medium.com/@ashishshukla-92505/inbound-nephews-and-nieces-of-joe-biden-a-return-to-killing-fields-cbe5d827c02f | ['Ashish Shukla'] | 2020-12-01 07:53:02.260000+00:00 | ['Hillary Clinton', 'Barack Obama', 'Joe Biden', 'Donald Trump', 'Abbottabad'] |
hello! | hello there!
I’m asic, an oddly passionate teenager. I enjoy writing, making music and anything to do with the arts.
i like to blog about all sorts of topics ranging from technology to among us to superheroes to the supernatural to music. i enjoy blogging about anything i find interesting.
writing isnt the only thing im interested in tho. i can song write, produce music and crack average jokes as well. a few of my hobbies include criticizing society, making tiny spelling and grammatical errors, being good at hitting bad high notes as well as ridiculing anything and everything.
more than just writing lengthy paragraphs with hard to comprehend words, i prefer to just use the words that come up in my head so that im able to express myself clearly here.
let me know about the things you like and enjoy, no matter how small or big they may be, give me a gist of how your day went, rant about that annoying classmate who just wont leave you alone or go on and on about that one person who you seem to notice no matter wherever you go.
i hope that people from all walks of life, regardless of their colour/skin/race/ethinicity/gender/sexuality etc, will be able to come together with the little we have in common.
i also have a blog called HAVEN. the purpose of my blog is to help people come together with the little we have in common.
check it out here: https://officiallyhaven.wordpress.com/ | https://medium.com/@heyitsasic/hello-badb3187e3fb | [] | 2020-12-26 07:04:46.694000+00:00 | ['Writing Life', 'Blog', 'Blogging', 'Teens', 'Blogger'] |
To Become Happier, Ask Yourself These Two Questions Every Night | We often think the key to a happier life is to make big, sweeping changes to the one we’re currently living. But focusing only on grand moves — changing our careers or overhauling our personalities, for example — often just leaves us feeling overwhelmed. A better strategy is to make incremental improvements. Over time, small tweaks can lead to a profound difference.
Through solution-based therapy, I learned about a pair of questions that can help you identify exactly what you need to do to move forward each day. I’ve been asking myself these questions every night, right before bed — research shows that our brains can make creative connections while we sleep — and I’ve noticed an incredible difference in my mood and outlook. Try them yourself:
https://www.nytech.org/boxinggame/boxing_free_canelo_alvarez_vs_callum_smith_live_stream
https://www.nytech.org/boxinggame/_free_canelo_alvarez_vs_callum_smith_fight_live_streams
https://www.nytech.org/boxinggame/alvarez_vs_smith_fight_live_streams_free
https://www.nytech.org/boxinggame/canelo_alvarez_vs_callum_smith_live_free
https://www.1stohiobattery.com/forum/blue-jackets/2020/12/5459/canelo-alvarez-vs-callum-smith-full-fight-live-stream-free
https://www.nytech.org/boxinggame/canelo_alvarez_vs_callum_smith_fight_live_streams_boxing_free
https://www.nytech.org/boxinggame/_boxing-free_canelo_alvarez_vs_callum_smith_live_stream_full_fight_online
https://www.1stohiobattery.com/forum/blue-jackets/2020/12/5464/boxing-free-canelo-alvarez-vs-callum-smith-live-stream-full-fight-online
https://www.1stohiobattery.com/forum/blue-jackets/2020/12/5465/callum-smith-vs-canelo-alvarez-live-stream-full-fight-free
https://www.1stohiobattery.com/forum/blue-jackets/2020/12/5466/canelo-alvarez-vs-callum-smith-fight-live-boxing-free
https://www.1stohiobattery.com/forum/blue-jackets/2020/12/5467/callum-smith-vs-canelo-alvarez-fight-live-boxing-free
https://www.mychemicalromance.com/news/rtyryrty-werewrwerwe-3625381
https://discourseanalysis.net/node/8248
https://discourseanalysis.net/en/erterterter-werwerwrwer
https://www.1stohiobattery.com/forum/blue-jackets/2020/12/5468/pioytty-werwerwe-yrtrtyry
https://www.1stohiobattery.com/forum/blue-jackets/2020/12/5469/ljkljkljk-jghjghj-gjghjgjg
https://okwave.jp/qa/q9839015.html
https://note.com/rtertete/n/n73e072aef3cf
https://note.com/rtertete/n/n440a082e7489
https://blog.goo.ne.jp/marcusyeoman2/e/e11ea8308deb3dd3cf00f0924c0c6af4
On a scale of 1–10, how happy are you with your life today?
Don’t dwell on the question too much. You don’t need to provide a list of reasons why — just give a number based on your gut feeling.
If your answer is 10, congratulations. There’s no need for you to be here.
If it’s anything less than 10, here comes the next part: Take whatever number you came up with and add one.
Now ask yourself another question: | https://medium.com/@elmabrennen/to-become-happier-ask-yourself-these-two-questions-every-night-6a5c9cd33ab0 | [] | 2020-12-20 03:53:08.709000+00:00 | ['Become', 'Every', 'Questions', 'Yourself', 'Ask'] |
The state of Java [developers] — reflections on Devoxx 2019 | I attended Devoxx Belgium — November 2019. The yearly gathering of over 3000 Java developers (numbers provided by Devoxx website). Maybe not all of them Java and perhaps some not even developers. But by and large … Java and software development are the core themes.
This conference has taken the place of JavaOne as the premier venue for the Java community — to exchange ideas, make announcements, promote open source projects and win the hearts and minds of the community at large. It is a great place to learn, get comforted by the pains that others go through such as much as you are yourself, get answers to burning questions and most of all: be inspired. I leave Devoxx with a head full of plans, ideas, intentions, question and ambitions. It will sustain me for a long time. And if I need more — I will check the online videos at YouTube where almost all talks are available.
In this article — I have tried to “persist” some of the ideas and findings that are spinning around in my head. I am aware — and so should you be, my dear reader — that there is a bit of bias involved. The conference offered curated content: decisions were made by the organizers about what subjects to include in the agenda — and which ones not. Perhaps topics that are very relevant were excluded in that way. I also did not visit all sessions: I chose sessions that fit in with my highly personal frame of mind (even though I try to attend some sessions way out of my comfort zone).
Some of my conclusions are not well founded on objective fact and measurements; they reflect my sense of the buzz and general sentiment at this conference — highly influenced by my own preferences and the people I talked with (and not those I did not talk to). With all these caveats, I believe I did capture something that is relevant — at least to me going forward. At the same time I would like to invite you to add comments to this article, to give me a piece of your mind. What did you learn and conclude? Do you concur with what I deduced or do you have an alternative opinion to share?
Shakers and Movers, Hot and Lukewarm and Cool (or not so cool)
Some technologies, tools, frameworks, standards, themes are hot, others are distinctly not. Devoxx is a great place to get feel for what is happening and what is running out of steam. There are several ways of classifying. In the end, I give this ‘gut feel’ based classification.
Foundational (everyone is using this, no discussion needed) : Maven, Java (8), REST (& JSON), containerized, Kubernetes, JUnit, IntelliJ IDEA, Jenkins
(everyone is using this, no discussion needed) : Maven, Java (8), REST (& JSON), containerized, Kubernetes, JUnit, IntelliJ IDEA, Jenkins Strong contenders (close to widespread or even general adoption, could be a relatively new very promising kid on the block ): GraalVM, Kotlin, Quarkus, Micronaut, Visual Studio Code, PostgreSQL, Reactive style, Netty, Microprofile, Go, DevOps, production environment testing (canary, A/B), microservices
(close to widespread or even general adoption, could be a relatively new very promising kid on the block ): GraalVM, Kotlin, Quarkus, Micronaut, Visual Studio Code, PostgreSQL, Reactive style, Netty, Microprofile, Go, DevOps, production environment testing (canary, A/B), microservices To watch : RESTEasy, Knative, Apache Pulsar, Rust
: RESTEasy, Knative, Apache Pulsar, Rust Under pressure (apparently losing ground ): Eclipse, Spring, Grails, Scala, Groovy, Reflection & Dynamic Class Loading, Java EE/Jakarta, JBoss/WildFly | WebLogic | WebSphere
(apparently losing ground ): Eclipse, Spring, Grails, Scala, Groovy, Reflection & Dynamic Class Loading, Java EE/Jakarta, JBoss/WildFly | WebLogic | WebSphere Fading into background: Swing
Themes & Messages
Some themes that ran through the entire conference are briefly discussed below.
Java runtime — lean and fast
Prepared for Serverless Functions and Containerized Microservices (dynamic, horizontal scalability on container platforms)
There is a very clear trend of being smarter about building applications to enable being better with running them. By removing stuff at compile time that will not be used at runtime anyways, we can create smaller uberjars and get away with trimmed down Java runtime environments. By inspecting code at pre-compile time — much of the work that is typically done at run time (with reflection and dynamic class loading) can be handled by source code manipulatio. This includes weaving in aspect code, manipulating code based on annotations.
Some concrete aspects to this theme:
Smart container image building for Java applications (Jib — for quick because smart image rebuild)
Smart compile time optimizations (Quarkus, Micronaut — for expanding annotations, chucking out unneeded classes, injecting code)
Native Image (GraalVM, Quarkus, Micronau — create native image/platform specific binary executable with small size, small memory footprint and quick startup)
Do not do expensive runtime stuff such as reflection, dynamic proxies, AOP and dynamic class loading
DevOps — the Developerator
The distinction between development and operations is rapidly becoming meaningless. A separate operations department may be concerned with the platform (Kubernetes and all underlying IaaS). However, application operations are done by the same team that has created and rolled out the software. Testing is increasingly done in Production (with canary workloads), monitoring is being upgraded to provide immediate insight to the Developerators, mean time to repair is reduced through automated build, regression test and (controlled) release. There is no handover to ‘another department’ or even ‘the Ops-people on the team’.
This not a bane for developers. It is actually a boon. To have a rapid feedback cycle from creating code to having that code being used and seeing the metrics of that usage is exhilarating. Being informed of an issue and being able to analyze the issue, develop a fix and release solution all in a matter of hours is equally fulfilling. Okay, having to do that at night is not great. So perhaps do no release major changes just before you go home for the day. Or ever: try to break up changes into smaller changes — perhaps using feature toggles or flags to release code that is not necessarily active.
Clean Code
80–90% of IT budget is spent on maintaining and evolving systems, not on building them from scratch. Code is read 10 times more often than it is written. Even the original author of the code will not have any recollection of the how and why of her own code after a weeks’ spent on other topics. Productivity, quality and joy in the lives of developers is increased with clean code — that is easily read and understood. Code whose meaning is clear. What it does and why it does that.
Naming of variables, methods and classes: clear naming is mandatory.
Methods should be short (one page in the IDE — 20 lines of code or preferably less)
Methods should not have more than three parameters
Parameters should not be of type Boolean — at least not used as flags to request alternative behaviors of the method
Methods that return a result should not have side effects; methods that return null can have a side effect; make clear in the name of the method what that side effect is
Comments in code should rarely be used — the code should speak for itself. However, comments that reveal workaround for non trivial issues and bugs are valuable. Or that explain a special corner case.
(serious) Peer reviews should ensure that code does speak for itself.
You should only commit code that you are prepared to add to your CV.
Watch: this talk by @VictorRentea on Clean Code: http://youtube.com/watch?v=wY_CUkU1zfw...
Developer — know your IDE! For productivity, refactoring, uniform code [quality], instant testing
Get the most out of your IDE. For productivity and fun. For overcoming fears of refactoring — and to apply refactoring. One of the most important refactoring tools: Extract Method.
For a still increasing number of people, that IDE is IntelliJ. At the same time, there is a meteoric rise in the use of Visual Studio Code. Eclipse is losing ground rapidly. Who even remembers NetBeans or Oracle JDeveloper?
Letting go, Learning and Unlearning, Deprecate
The challenge to get rid of stuff — old ways of doing things, old technologies with unnecessary shortcomings, old fears and long held beliefs — is tremendous. On various levels — from psychological to economic. We have to be prepared to unlearn things — even or maybe especially things we have done and known and believed in for many years. At least be prepared to change and embrace new ways of doing things if they are better. With our experience, we should be able to judge whether they are better — if we can be really honest.
Being able to get rid of technologies that are really of yesteryear is a challenge: there are risks involved, there is no immediate business benefit [so how to find budget, time and priority]. However, continuing on with those technologies is risky and in de long run similarly challenging [ unsupported, vulnerable technology for which no developers and admins can be found, that are unproductive and eventually may not run on the platform, the OS or the hardware].
The Java Platform — OpenJDK, distributions, HotSpot and GraalVM
OpenJDK is an open source project — with sources for the open source implementation of the Java Platform Standard Edition. OpenJDK does not ship binaries. Various companies provide builds or binary distributions based on OpenJDK — a bit like various companies provide their own distributions of the Linux (open source) Kernel. Oracle happens to be one of them — but not necessarily still the leading one. Other builds are available from AWS (Corretto), Azul (Zulu), RedHat, SAP and IBM. Rumours are spreading that Microsoft will soon ship its own build as well. Note: as one source told me, up to 75% or more of the commits on the OpenJDK projects are made by Oracle staff. Some of the negative emotions projected at Oracle may be softened a little if people would be aware of that fact. Oracle is still the by far biggest contributor to the evolution of the Java platform.
The HotSpot Virtual Machine is part of OpenJDK. As such, both the C1 and C2 JIT compilers are there. These compilers have been implemented in C/C++. It has become quite hard to further evolve especially the C2 compiler — although that certainly is going on with for example Java language enhancements such as Valhalla, Panama and Loom. All (?) JVM distributions ship the HotSpot compilers.
Oracle Labs produced GraalVM. Under this umbrella project, several components are worked on. One is a new JIT compiler that can replace the current C2 HotSpot compiler. This compiler is created to better optimize modern Java Byte code patterns that are getting more common for example with Java Byte code originating from Scala code or from modern Java features such as Streams. The GraalVM JIT Compiler can be enabled in existing JVM environments to implement the JIT compiler and as such bring modern optimization patterns (this I believe is the approach taken by Twitter to run their Scala applications).
Also read this quite good Baeldung article.
Note: it seemed at Devoxx that 80% of attendees was on Java 8 and 20% was on later versions already.
The Star of the Show: GraalVM
If I would have to decide what the biggest star of this week of Devoxx was, I would say the prize goes to GraalVM. GraalVM started life as a research project in Oracle Labs — to see if a replacement could be created for C2 — the C++ based HotSpot JIT compiler that had gotten very hard to maintain and optimize for modern code paths. In seven years, GraalVM has expanded quite a bit. It has delivered the JIT compiler that we can now all plug into our JDK environments to improve [in certain cases substantially] the performance of our Java applications. Additionally, GraalVM can run applications written in other — non JVM — languages such as JavaScript/Node, R, Ruby, Python and LLVM languages (C/C++, Rust, Swift, ..) and it can run hybrid or polyglot applications that combine multiple languages.
A feature of GraalVM that played an important role during Devoxx this year is its ability to produce a native image (a stand alone binary executable) for a Java application through Ahead of Time compilation. After normal compilation, GraalVM produces a single binary file that contains everything needed to run the Java application. This binary file starts a small as 10 MB — and it does not need anything else to run. No JRE or any form of Java Run Time. It just runs as native applications — because that is what it is. Startup time is every short and memory footprint is very small — ideal characteristics for Serverless Functions and dynamically scalable containerized applications. Because AOT is applied instead of JIT, there will be no run time optimizations to the application — which for serverless use cases is typically not a big loss at all. Quarkus and Micronaut are frameworks that make great use of GraalVM to produce even faster startup and smaller runtime footprint.
Oracle offers GraalVM in two flavors: a community edition which is based on open source and is offered for free and the enterprise edition which is paid for and offers 24/7 support and enhanced optimizations in the native image as well as improved security. For Oracle Cloud users, GraalVM Enterprise Edition is included in their subscription. Here is the global price list for GraalVM Enterprise Edition — a short inspection suggests a price of $12K to $19K per processor.
The big question around GraalVM is: will Oracle make the Community Edition sufficiently more appealing than OpenJDK with HotSpot to build up real traction and will it not bring too many goodies to the Enterprise Edition? To be fair: GraalVM offers many attractive features and it seems quite reasonable that Oracle stands to make some money for that effort and the value it delivers. Another question: will Oracle be able to follow the evolution of the Java language in GraalVM — such as the language enhancements discussed in the next section. It took until 19th November of 2019 before GraalVM provides full Java 11 support.
Note: GraalVM has been promoted from a research project to a ‘real product’ and the team around GraalVM is growing rapidly. This includes product management in addition to probably more developers and support engineers. GraalVM is serious business for Oracle.
Java Evolution
Java execution is still quite special: the runtime optimization performed by the JVM (C2 JIT compiler) provides many times better performance than static compilers.
Compatibility — old code must still run. Still the platform managed to absorb Generics, Lambdas and Streams, a Modular system. What are driving forces? Changing hardware, changing challenges and changing software [ how other languages do things].
Project Amber — productivity oriented language features ( Local Variable Type Inference (JDK 10), Switch Expressions (JDK 12), Text Blocks (JDK 13), Concise class declarations (records), Sealed types, Pattern Matching)
Java Fibers and Continuations — Project Loom — concurrency, light weight focused at scalability: “A light weight or user mode thread, scheduled by the Java virtual machine, not the operating system. Fibers are intended to have very low footprint and have negligible task-switching overhead. You can have millions of them! Fibers allow developers to write simple synchronous/blocking code that is easy read, maintain, debug and profile, yet scales. Project mantra: Make concurrency simple again” Fibers are built on top of continuations — a low level construct in the HotSpot VM.
(it is to be decided whether continuations themselves in their own right are to be exposed to developers). Associated terms: yield, async, (carrier) thread, executor, Promise, await, park and unpark. Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIq-x_iI-kc
Project Valhalla — “reboot the layout of data in memory” — value types and specialized generics — benefitting from modern hardware — not everything needs to be an object — getting more instructions per CPU cycle by removing the memory [pipeline] bottleneck (first release deep into 2020)
Project Panama — allow easy access to Java developers to native libraries — go beyond JNI (improve on the complexity, lack of JIT optimization, exchanging of native structs and off-heap data structures) and make a native library accessible in Java through JDK generated Interface. This hides away most of the native aspects of what is still a native library (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfxBrYud9KM and read Project Panama home page https://openjdk.java.net/projects/panama/) Note: some overlap with GraalVM interoperability. Early access builds are available for Panama.
Books
Three special book tips:
Refactoring — edition 2 Martin Fowler, Kent Beck — december 2018 — https://martinfowler.com/articles/refactoring-2nd-ed.html
Apprenticeship Patterns by Adewale Oshineye, Dave Hoover — https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/apprenticeship-patterns/9780596806842/
Java by Comparison Become a Java Craftsman in 70 Examples by Simon Harrer, Jörg Lenhard, Linus Dietz — https://pragprog.com/book/javacomp/java-by-comparison
And a website:
Tools
Below is a fairly random list of tools, sites, services and technologies that came to my attention during this Devoxx 2019 conference. They seem interesting, I would like to try them out. Most of them are as yet unknown. If you can recommend any — do let me know!
Kubernetes Security:
Kube-bench — Checks whether Kubernetes is deployed according to security best practices as defined in the CIS Kubernetes Benchmark — https://github.com/aquasecurity/kube-bench
Clair — Clair is an open source project for the static analysis of vulnerabilities in appc and docker containers. — https://coreos.com/clair
Falco (CNCF, find rogue workloads, checks all sys calls — including SSH calls and disk writes), Falco is an open source project for intrusion and abnormality detection for Cloud Native platforms such as Kubernetes, Mesosphere, and Cloud Foundry. Detect abnormal application behavior. — https://falco.org/
Sonobuoy a diagnostic tool that makes it easier to understand the state of a Kubernetes cluster by running a set of Kubernetes conformance tests and other plugins in an accessible and non-destructive manner.- https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/sonobuoy
Harbor (is an open source container image registry that secures images with role-based access control, scans images for vulnerabilities, and signs images as trusted.),
kube-hunter an open-source tool that hunts for security issues in your Kubernetes clusters. It’s designed to increase awareness and visibility of the security controls in Kubernetes environments.- https://kube-hunter.aquasec.com/
open policy agent — www.openpolicyagent.org
These come on top of the more usual suspects such as Helm, Prometheus, Jaeger, Grafana, Maven, JUnit. Java Lambdas and Streams should be every day tools for Java Developers by now. | https://medium.com/oracledevs/the-state-of-java-developers-reflections-on-devoxx-2019-d82b17488301 | ['Lucas Jellema'] | 2020-04-02 09:43:50.872000+00:00 | ['DevOps', 'Programming', 'Devoxx', 'Java', 'Graalvm'] |
Farming Smarter with AI in Africa | Can Artificial Intelligence be used for successful drought prediction in Sub-Saharan Africa?
Droughts — what we describe as regional periods of water deficits in some stage of the water cycle — are natural disasters that have become increasingly common over the last 30 years as a direct result of anthropogenic climate change [1]. Yet, the impacts of droughts are not evenly spread across the globe. With over 50% percent of world-wide drought occurrences between 2001 and 2011 taking place in Africa [2], and droughts leading to more deaths worldwide than any other physical hazard [3], mounting evidence suggests that they will likely have disproportionate impacts on the African population and economies.
For the estimated 33 million smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa[4], this is a prime example of how many of the most vulnerable people worldwide are experiencing the heaviest effects of climate change — right now. Advances in applying artificial intelligence (AI) to help improve the accuracy and accessibility of drought predictions may be able to change the depth of these impacts, as ongoing innovations are suggesting in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Far-Reaching Impacts: The Western Cape of South Africa
Take a recent case: Between 2017 and 2019, the Western Cape of South Africa experienced a period of drought leading to dam levels dropping to below 20% of their full capacity. Subsequent significant regional water restrictions decreased food production and led to the economic loss of billions of Rands in the Western Cape [5].
This, in turn, had a massive effect on the overall economy, given nearly a quarter of the total agricultural GDP of South Africa comes from the Western Cape. Food pricing, too, was impacted by the drought: The cost of staple crops such as maize rose, leading low-income households to spend up to 34% of their total income on food [6]. In addition to these direct economic costs, 25,000 jobs also disappeared from the national agriculture sector [7], leading to widespread, acute food insecurity across the country. The impacts, however, do not stop there.
Instances of drought like this also force increased spending on imports and disaster relief at a government level. Such spending results in depleted public funds for tackling other critical issues including inequality, poverty and unemployment, all of which are further exacerbated by drought. For example: Smallholder farmers in rural communities are heavily reliant on subsistence economies. Instances of drought and erratic weather conditions cause catastrophic effects on their livelihoods and food security as described in the recent case of the Western Cape and wider South Africa. These people are disproportionately affected as their livelihoods are particularly vulnerable to changes in climate and any existing food insecurity is made worse by inadequate infrastructure in rural areas [8].
Predicting Droughts: From Dynamical Models to AI
In searching for innovative, integrated solutions, Artificial intelligence (AI) presents one possible pathway forward. AI shows promise as a particularly useful tool in helping to combat the effects of drought as it can be used in the development of Drought Early Warning Systems (DEWS).
DEWS take in data that AI uses to predict future instances of drought, enabling farmers to make more informed cropping decisions. Before the implementation of these AI solutions, dynamical and statistical models were used that output seasonal predictions of either above-, below- or close to normal rainfall, but with no indication as to the details of the event (such as how long it will last or how severe it is predicted to be) [9].
On top of the forecasts from the dynamical models, the Effective Drought Index (EDI) would be used as a classifier to quantify instances of drought by indicating the extremity of a drought or a flood. While the EDI gives accurate details for past and current instances of drought, including their severity, duration and the available soil moisture in a given location, they are not useful on their own for drought prediction and thus provide little benefit to farmers.
Here is where AI enters the equation. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are algorithms that mimic the working of human neurons in the brain. ANNs operate by taking in training data at the input, classifying it and learning trends within hidden layers of neurons which are then passed to an output. Once they have been trained, they can then be used to make predictions by inputting unseen data. As such, they are extremely effective in taking in large amounts of data to solve complex physical systems.
For the purpose of drought prediction, the EDI can be used as the training data. The EDI is calculated using historic precipitation data and fed into an ANN in order to predict future EDI values and thus future instances of drought. This method was implemented in Kenya using 30 years’ worth of daily precipitation data from four weather stations, amounting to a total of 45260 records, to calculate the EDI input data. Obtained results from this study had accuracies ranging from 75%-98% [10]— an impressive improvement over previous prediction models.
Although the results obtained in the Kenya study were accurate — and this method for drought prediction is much more reliable and informative than previous dynamical models — there are still potential challenges. Most significantly, the data used for training the Kenyan model were only collected from four weather stations in Kenya. Such selective data inputs could result in the model predicting accurately for these specific areas but performing poorly when applied elsewhere. This is similar to only deciding whether to bring your umbrella on a walk by looking outside through one window: It may be sunny where you are, but you don’t know if it is raining in other areas.
A potential solution to this issue would be to input data into the model from a larger range of areas or ensure that data from the area where the prediction is being made is included in the training data for the model. However, due to a lack of data availability in many places across Sub-Saharan Africa, this is often not possible. This lack of data is a systemic problem for drought prediction in Africa given the ongoing sparse availability of climate data [11].
Prediction Roadblocks: Weather Data Availability and Accessibility
The precipitation data required for use in DEWS are sourced from classical weather stations, located across Africa. However, the coverage from these stations across the continent is sparse, creating an incomplete picture of Africa’s overall climate at a local level. These weather stations are also largely located in cities or along large roads. This results in what available coverage does exist being uneven and with nearly none available in rural areas where the largest number of smallholder farmers are located. To apply AI drought prediction with a higher degree of accuracy in these rural areas where it is most needed, this lack of data must first be addressed.
Image: Distribution of weather stations across Africa compared to Western Europe. The colour bar indicates the number of stations per 0.5° grid square (via Dinku 2019, GPCC Visualizer)
In addition to the availability of climate data disproportionately impacting those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, problems also exist around weather data accessibility, resulting in even less data being available for use in DEWS.
Many weather data sets, especially in Africa, are hard to access due to legal restrictions, high access costs, and, in some cases, the historical data remaining in non-digital forms [12]. Currently farmers across Africa rely on indigenous knowledge of weather indicators and mitigation strategies, which have been used successfully and passed down generations for centuries, to predict weather and inform farming decisions. While these are considered a valuable source of data that could be used more widely in drought prediction — especially when coupled with AI-based drought predictions — they presently remain an under-researched area [13].
These indigenous indicators alone, however, are insufficient to cope with the increasingly variable climate and instances of drought witnessed in recent years. Between questions of availability and accessibility, more local-level climate data across Africa is urgently needed especially given the continent’s susceptibility to extreme variability in climate conditions and subsequent negative effects.
Promise for the Future: Community-Driven AI Solutions?
The ITIKI Drought Prediction tool, founded by Muthoni Masinde based on her PhD research from 2012 and officially launched in 2019 [14], is one recent innovation seeking to combine indigenous knowledge and computer science methods to provide an effective and affordable drought prediction tool to smallholder farmers.
Photo: South African rural farmer working with ITIKI (via ITIKI Implementation Sites)
As a community driven solution, the project is designed to enable farmers in rural areas to get reliable drought forecasts with the goal of better informing their cropping decisions. Masinde’s ITIKI Drought Prediction tool uses the same method of calculating EDI to train ANNs in order to forecast drought, but also augments data from weather stations with localised weather sensors located in rural areas and additional indigenous knowledge. Examples of indigenous indicators include the sighting of migratory birds or the blooming of certain flowers may inform a prediction of weather events such as precipitation.
Unlike using AI or dynamical models alone, making the ITIKI Drought Prediction tool work requires the connection and participation of whole communities to provide the essential indigenous knowledge as well as set up and maintain remote weather sensors. A core premise of ITIKI is this focus on community relevance and involvement — something that too often goes missing when the technology itself is prioritised over its environment.
Photo: An example of a traditional weather indicator. The sprouting of Muthinuriu indicates that rain is two weeks away (via ITIKI)
The results from the ITIKI prediction tool are sent out via SMS and updated on a web portal, addressing previous access issues for farmers in remote locations. Results so far suggest that the accuracy of ITIKI’s forecasts is 70–98% [15], giving farmers additional, highly accurate information they can use to make their cropping decisions. This not only leads to increases in agricultural productivity and incomes, but also allows communities to develop better resistance to climate change and aids in other important tasks like improving school attendance, nutrition, and access to clean water. The ITIKI drought prediction tool is currently being used by thousands of farmers in Kenya, Mozambique, and South Africa — 70% of whom are women, who comprise a large number of resident smallholder farmers [16].
While a newer innovation, ITIKI serves as an example of how AI can assist community driven drought prediction solutions that prioritize the needs of local communities, valuing their indigenous knowledge as a solution and strengthening it through the tools of AI. The success of ITIKI indicates that AI tools have the potential to greatly aid drought prediction in Sub-Saharan Africa and warrant further interest from researchers and governments. However, it is important to keep the needs of those on the front-line at the forefront of any advances, ensuring they have a stake in and are benefitting from the new technology whilst still enabled to retain their traditional knowledge and autonomy. | https://medium.com/good-data-initiative/farming-smarter-with-ai-in-africa-73b5fa553fc | ['Good Data Initiative'] | 2020-11-12 09:06:14.307000+00:00 | ['Africa', 'Technology', 'Tech', 'AI', 'Science'] |
Will He Stay Or Will He Go | This question has been on our minds for over five weeks, and although we know that Trump is going to leave, we’re all so traumatized we still worry. The real question isn’t whether or not he will leave, but how long will he control what was once the Republican Party?
There is a very plausible argument to be made that Trump and Trumpism will continue to dominate their Party. Who knows? Maybe he’ll actually run again in four years. There are also those who predict he will form some sort of cable network to out-Fox Fox to maintain his profile. It certainly is true, as former chief policy director for the House Republican Conference, Evan McMullin, has written, that rather than protect democracy, much of the Party “[i]nstead clung to his mad king strategy, like sailors lashed to the mast of a sinking ship.”
While those outcomes are certainly possible, history argues against it. There have been many Trumpian figures who played off of the fears of Americans and grabbed their attention for a while. Think about Sarah Palin, Ross Perot, George Wallace, and Trump’s closet comparison, Wisconsin Senator (no, not Ron Johnson although he sure tries) Joseph McCarthy. In the end, they all assuredly lost their audience.
Senator Joseph McCarthy (Credit: AP)
John Harris writes in Politico that there are three reasons folks like this always fade away. First, he says, “Cults of personality in American politics are quite common. But they never live long, and Trump has offered no reason to suppose he will be an exception.” Second, if you watch Trump’s statements and Twitter feed, it’s clear that he is only interested in his own personal resentments and has no big ideas to improve the lives of citizens. And third, “[P]olitics never stands still, but Trump largely does.”
In his “obituary” for Trump, George Packer writes in The Atlantic that two events broke the Trump fever: the coronavirus pandemic that Trump largely ignored as massive numbers of Americans died, and an election that saw record voter turnout and a decisive win for Joe Biden.
Remember, too, that Trump has hundreds of millions of dollars in loans coming due. He’s also got some ‘splainin’ to do for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. and New York State Attorney General Letitia James. He’s going to be awfully busy.
There’s also the fact that although Trump loved seeing himself as president, he was never very interested in governing. He had a lot more fun galivanting around New York and Palm Beach than he had locked up in the White House.
The very smart Thomas Edsall cited Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker who said, “[T]here undoubtedly will be Lost Cause warriors and post-1945-Japan-style cave fighters, and it would be nice to think they will eventually be marginalized by their own preposterousness.” Let that be our wish as we close out 2020 and look forward to 2021 at long last. | https://medium.com/@art-friedson/will-he-stay-or-will-he-go-75126aea6d1d | ['Arthur Friedson'] | 2020-12-22 03:37:15.739000+00:00 | ['Biden Vs Trump', 'Biden', 'Democrats', 'Democratic Party'] |
How George Lucas Taught Me to Find a Good Story | At the risk of sounding insanely pretentious, I’d just like to say great art is mysterious. It burns through us and leaves us awestruck.
And it’s tempting to think of artists and creators as some sort of preternatural magicians or witches, wielding unknowable magic.
But the truth is, art takes effort. Creative work doesn’t just spring out fully formed. It takes time. It demands mistakes. It needs to be discovered.
George Lucas wrote multiple screenplays for Star Wars before he felt he had the story nailed down. He had to figure out how exactly how to execute his idea, saying his space opera epic had “always been what you might call a good idea searching for the right story.”
I think about this whenever I’m stuck developing a new TV pilot or movie idea. I try to pick a “good idea” but get frustrated when it doesn’t work right away. “This is A GOOD IDEA! WHY ISN’T IT WORKING!”
This is a trap. The job of a storyteller is not to tell an audiece a Good Idea. It’s to tell them a Good Story.
Good Idea vs. Good Story
What’s the difference? For me, a good idea is about inspiration whereas a good story is about execution.
For Star Wars, A Good Idea is/was an updated take on the space opera serials of George Lucas’ youth. Flash Gordon but now. A good idea has worlds, themes, characters. The possibilities are almost endless. Too endless.
A Good Story is the journey and exploration of character through said world. A restless farm boy embarks on a mission to rescue a princess and save the galaxy from the evil Empire .There are stakes, personal, external, and philosophical if the character does not achieve what they set out to pursue.
Finding Your Story
I struggled to find the story for my most recent TV pilot. My Good Idea was to write a relationship comedy inspired by Edward Snowden and his girlfriend. But after breaking several drafts, I realized that I didn’t really have a story. What exactly was trying to tell? It took me multiple drafts and multiple ways of execution before I found a story worth telling.
Here are three ways to explore your Good Idea and discover the Good Story within.
Who Lives In Your World
For George Lucas, “world” meant literal worlds. Galaxies. But in a general sense, think of “world” as what the show should be about or the area/topic/location that you want to focus on.
Now break down your world in terms of statuses. Who are the high-status players in this world? Who runs it? What’s the tippy top look like?
Go down the pecking world. Who’s in the middle’? The outsiders? Who’s at the bottom? Is there a way to tell a story with multiple statuses? Or is it better to focus on just one?
Spoiler alert: most TV shows end up being about the top class or the outsiders. Why? Because the stakes are the highest at these extremes.
Succession is a show about an incredibly powerful family. Same with Empire. We relate to the characters because they mine into universal truths but we care about their problems and motivations because they are so outsized and outrageous.
There’s more leeway with comedy. The Office works because the stakes are so middling yet Michael Scott’s reaction and drive are outrageously disproportionate.
Outsiders give audiences a solid rooting interest. Everybody can relate to feeling like they don’t quite fit in. Plus, we tend to love underdogs. We want to root for David, not that stinky Goliath.
Try to approach your world from a few different story angles this way. Once you have one that feels right, with good conflict and interesting characters, you’re on the right track toward a Good Story.
Central Relationship
A central relationship is great engine for a story. It is often described as the heart of show. We want to see how these characters get through something together (or get past the other).
Who is your show about? What is the central conflict between them?
Michael Scott vs the Office. Sharon and Rob having a baby. Gretchen and Jimmy definitely/probably not falling in love.
These relationships are all grounded and relatable. We understand the inherent stakes behind them and our characters’ motivations. We know what they want and how they will go about it and thus we have a story.
Think about your world and the types of relationships that exist within it. Better yet, think about a relationship in your life that you want to explore then transpose into your world.
Central Emotion
Starting your story in terms of emotion may feel a bit esoteric but provides a very relatable way into a Good Story.
The brilliant scripted comedy podcast Wooden Overcoats does this perfectly by exploring the central emotion of envy. It’s as old as the Bible and always ripe for comedy.
Rudyard Funn, Overcoats misanthropic protagonist, pines for the affection that his rival Eric Chapman receivess effortlessly from the community. Even though he’s an extremely unlikable dude, we relate to him because we’ve all felt that twinge in our gut when someone gets something that we want.
Think about emotions and patterns of emotion in your own life. How are you feeling right now? Ten years ago? Is there an emotional time in your life that you can write about? Instead of directly transcribing the incident or period, transcribe the emotion into your Good Idea.
My latest pilot is a scripted podcast about the world’s first smart town. I’ve been feeling very chaotic this year and I wanted to write about the theme of control. The comedy comes out of my characters trying to assert control over their respective worlds always to their own detriment. It’s a tricky thing to tackle and make funny but it’s been interesting and it feels real.
The journey from Good Idea to Good Story is never simple. It’s not direct. By design, you are going to go down paths that end in a dead end.That’s okay. It’s all part of the process. So try different ways into your story.
But don’t stop until you have a Good one to tell. | https://medium.com/@andrewbarbot/how-george-lucas-taught-me-to-find-a-good-story-b5aa31b3317c | ['Andrew Barbot'] | 2020-12-22 05:02:16.671000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Screenwriting', 'Writing Tips', 'Creativity'] |
Lyons House, Robin Boyd, Sydney | The way Dr Lyons talked about the brief was fascinating. While he may have had a concern for aesthetics — he would hardly have been talking to Boyd if he hadn’t — he essentially left all that to Boyd, offering no preference at all. What he was more interested in, he said, was the way the building would perform. The functional element to the architecture. “As a machine”, he said.
It’s slightly ironic to hear the “machine” quote, given how associated that is with Le Corbusier and its typical interpretation in a certain kind of modernism. Ironic given how intimate, warm and organic this house feels, at least from within. Interesting too, in terms of our contemporary focus on behaviour and performance in design.
Backtracking slightly, it’s worth pausing to tell the story of how he ended up with Boyd. Dr Lyons recalls advice he was given at the time: ‘In Sydney it’s Harry Seidler. In Melbourne you talk to Robin Boyd.’ Being in Sydney, and of a clearly pragmatic nature, he decided to speak to the former first, and regales us with a great tale revealing Seidler’s character. Invited to the great architect’s office in downtown Sydney, Dr Lyons enters the vast office that Seidler had to himself, a giant space, largely empty save for a desk at the far end, with Seidler sitting behind it. Lyons pads towards the architect, which seems to take an eternity, and settles down to listen. Seidler quickly lays things on the line, stating that he doesn’t want to see or hear from the client at all, after the initial commission — the architecture itself would be entirely up to him. (Oh Harry.) Those who have seen Mad Men recently may be able to visualise the office and the attitude all too well. | https://medium.com/iamacamera/lyons-house-robin-boyd-sydney-5a194c6ac9cb | ['Dan Hill'] | 2016-09-11 00:14:03.379000+00:00 | ['Sydney', 'Australia', 'Architecture', 'Modernism', 'Housing'] |
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