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Fairer Freelancing. Can Blockchain Stop Payment Problems? | Photo by bruce mars from Pexels
Freelancing may be a growing trend, but it is still like the Wild West when it comes to getting paid for your work. Late payments are a common problem faced by front end developers, writers, UX designers, blockchain developers, and everyone else — as someone who has worked remotely for four years, I know this all too well. But compared to the number of people struggling to get paid at all, late payments are nothing.
Jorge’s Story
My friend Jorge, a freelance graphic designer, is desperately trying to get paid for six weeks of his work. A year ago he was hired by a large reputable company — at first everything worked fine, the company had a lot of design work and was paying regularly, so Jorge gradually dropped his other clients to focus on this one. Several months later, the manager who hired Jorge suddenly stopped replying to his emails. That month no payment arrived for Jorge. Jorge became stressed but continued working on his tasks for another two weeks, as he believed he had a good working relationship with the company. Eventually, Jorge found out that the manager he worked with was fired, the company was going through difficult times and no one seemed to be going to pay him for his work, or even contact him. As soon as the company faced internal problems, they immediately forgot about the freelancers working for them. Unfortunately, this happens a lot in the gig economy as employers don’t seem to take freelance work seriously.
Wait, Don’t they have a Contract?
Now you may be curious as to why Jorge can’t take the company to court in order to receive his payment. But Jorge is from Egypt and the company that hired him is in the EU, which is a typical situation in freelancing. The court trial, in this case, is something not worth the money and time. Realistically, there is not much he can do to protect himself. It is very common for freelancers to have draft contracts that only offer an outline of the terms as it doesn’t make sense to create a thorough contract for each gig. Quite often, all I need is a precise job description to make sure both parties know what to expect. I don’t bother to make a contract at all, as it is clear in advance that should things go wrong, suing the client won’t make sense for me economically.
The real size of the Problem
Things like this also happen to remote workers a lot. A recent PayPal study revealed that 58% of freelancers in Asia have not received monetary compensation for their work on at least one occasion. Another study showed that even in the US, 50% of freelancers have had trouble getting paid for their work.
On the other side, there are freelancers failing their deadlines and delivering low quality work. When it comes to hiring remote workers, there is a lot of fraud and frustration for all parties. So what can you do, other than try to convince your counter-party via email to be diligent?
Are Freelance Marketplaces Effective?
There are traditional freelance platforms, such as Upwork or freelancer.com, that already offer intermediary and settlement services, but with up to 20% commission fees combined with a several weeks holding period until the funds are released to a freelancer, this experience can become expensive and inconvenient. Since I don’t look for clients on Upwork, bringing people to the platform and sharing one-fifth of my income with the platform is not something I am eager to do.
Is Blockchain the Answer?
Blockchain seems to be a perfect technology to solve this problem, with its smart contracts, transparency and fraud protection. Payment can be placed in escrow and released only when certain conditions of the contract are met — all without requiring human participation. Former employment history for a freelancer and hiring history for the client can be immediately visible and verifiable, again through blockchain. Not to mention that crypto payments are instant.
I looked around for blockchain startups that can be a better option, and here is what I found:
ethlance.com — this blockchain-based platform is commission-free and it offers the same services as a traditional freelance marketplace. Freelancers can browse job ads and apply, while employers can browse the database of freelancers. The platform has already been launched and has some freelancers, but very few job offers. Freelancers need to send invoices to clients to get paid for their work (done through the platform) and can send as many as they wish. Ethlance allows feedback to be left for both client and freelancer but holds no responsibility for resolving disputes, plus as an ETH-based platform, it requires a MetaMask browser to be downloaded in order to operate.
nodal.com — a UK-based blockchain startup that attempts to bring order to both freelancers and employers. Nodal charges 8% of a freelancer’s daily rate, but promises to automate the invoicing process and simplify the job application process. For employers, it combines invoices from all freelancers into a single payment and keeps all info about hired freelancers together.
blocklancer.com — seems to be a blockchain-based Fiverr alternative. Blocklancer charges a 3%-commission but allows you to register anonymously without disclosing a real name and work without connecting a bank account. No settlement services are offered, but either of the parties can apply to the public Token Holder Tribunal to review a case. Most gigs on Blocklancer are currently related to blockchain and crypto.
cryptotask.org — this platform has not launched yet but looks very promising. Their unusual dispute resolution mechanism has caught my attention. When there is an issue both a client and a freelancer need to put 10% of the contract value in escrow. The case is then offered for review to other platform users, who can vote for one of the parties. The reviewers can’t see other votes until the claim is settled. In the end, the losing party pays 10% which is used as compensation for the voters, while the winning party gets the 10% held in escrow back. Cryptotask promises to reduce standard freelance marketplace commission by 90%, but I couldn’t find the exact rate they are going to charge anywhere.
Conclusion
I’m not sure if any of these platforms is powerful enough to completely end freelance fraud. It seems that the ultimate solution has not been developed yet, probably because it will take some trial and error. If not blockchain, then we may need some sort of global authority that will stand for freelancers’ rights, although for me it is hard to imagine what that could be. Until this happens, Jorge and many other people like him will have to keep sending emails begging irresponsible employers to pay them, without any guarantees that it will happen.
According to Intuit research, the number of freelancers is growing by almost 20% per year and may reach 7.5 million by 2020 in the US alone, yet a lot of us don’t have the means to protect ourselves. That is why raising awareness about freelance fraud and the available measures against it is so important. By simply spreading the word and bringing this topic to the attention of others, we can speed up the development of blockchain-based platforms or possibly even invent a better solution together.
P.S. If you have ever struggled with getting paid as a freelancer, I encourage you to share this story to help spread the word about the problem. Share your stories in the comments or send me a link — I will also share it with my network. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/fairer-freelancing-can-blockchain-stop-payment-problems-4ddc63042f2e | ['Marina G'] | 2019-05-28 10:34:36.273000+00:00 | ['Front End Development', 'Freelancing', 'Payments', 'Writer', 'Designer'] |
An Unwanted Friend: Story of Depression | Chapter 1: Dark Theater
A very first morning of New Year, she tried to open up her eyes but again that relentless pressure which she carried on her head unwillingly made her curl up and close her eyes again. Due to that unbroken chain of insomniac nights, she was choking, suffocated of herself, tired of being tired; she tossed and turned on her bed.” For how long will she wear this ruinous dress of insecurities making her more miserable and fragile? “She asked herself. In her eyes, she had a lot of dreams; being fainted due to this haze of melancholy. The clock is ticking, her soul is collapsing; her body is crumbling, the whole room is whirling, she felt numb. Unfaltering maze and continual haze, she was facing a weird phase.
3:00 AM in the morning, she could hear the continuous ticking of the clock but in it, breathing of her roommate was assorted. She tried to circumvent this continuous stinky and malodorous exhaling that has made her more nauseous and sick. “When will this unwanted visitor leave her alone? Will she ever be able to feel free? She asked herself again. But before she could answer her thoughts she couldn’t sway nausea and despite all the weight which she carried, she rushed toward the toilet; she threw up. It will be the last vomit she thought and let the water flow. She washed her face and looked into the mirror, “what have I become?” looking at her dark circles and pale skin she asked herself again. A disgusting piece of a randomly assembled molecule! A voice from afar answered. Another river of tears flooded from her eyes. She ignored this devastating splash of teardrops and turned the water shower on. Didn’t bother to undress and sat under this shower, hoping as it will wash away all of her insecurities. She turned the shower off. Lying in water tub she closed her eyes and told herself,” it will be the last day, my miseries will end today and finally, my soul will be free, my whole body will be calmed and my heart finally will attain peace.
Images from past starting revolving around her mind as if she was watching a black and white movie in a dark theater of thoughts. | https://medium.com/@aroojtarshad/an-unwanted-friend-story-of-depression-ad0a1c123ede | [] | 2020-12-24 06:28:29.899000+00:00 | ['Untold Stories', 'Awareness', 'Depression', 'Unheard Voices'] |
How To Become The Best Version Of Yourself | How To Become The Best Version Of Yourself
Pursuing meaning is the true path to success
“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life,” — Viktor Frankl
Viktor Frankl was a prominent Jewish psychiatrist and neurologist who spent three years in a Nazi concentration camp. During his time in the camp, he lost everything he had including his wife and both parents.
But, somehow he survived the worst conditions imaginable and went on to write a bestselling book, Man’s Search for Meaning, which tells his experiences in the camp. In his book, he tells us that the difference between those who died and those who lived came down to having meaning.
“Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.” — Viktor Frankl
Meaning is what kept Viktor Frankl alive, and meaning can also help you become the best version of yourself. | https://medium.com/the-ascent/how-to-become-the-best-version-of-yourself-5dd030292003 | ['Steve Spring'] | 2019-01-28 17:08:00.202000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Inspiration', 'Happiness', 'Life Lessons', 'Health'] |
Why is TikTok is so Addicting? | 1. Anyone Can Become Famous
For starters, it is mostly just videos of everyday people, doing everyday things but with an added dash of humor — And anyone can become famous, with just one video (Cue Ocean Spray’s spokesperson, Nathan Apodaca).
2. It’s Not Flooded With Celebrity Content
While most celebrities were still selling HelloFresh or promoting their makeup lines on Instagram, few celebrities were capitalizing on TikTok’s origin years.
Well, excluding Jason Derulo, whose average TikTok video rivals the budget of Avatar.
And although A-list celebs are starting to join, they are still not the predominant driving content. Meanwhile, Addison Rae and Charli D’Amelio weren’t always selling out Dunkin Donuts coffee but were just normal teenagers posting goofy dance videos.
3. Fewer Advertisements
Facebook and Instagram have literally become just one huge advertisement — Facebook, which also owns Instagram, has become less interpersonal and is more about promoting its advertisers than connecting you with people.
It feels every other post is now an advertisement — Even posts that don’t initially look like an ad, are probably an ad. Facebook advertising policies strictly discourage clickbaity ads and purposely encourage ads to naturally blend into your feed and not look like ads.
And don’t even get me started on all the engagement posts, which just feel like one big advertisement to stock up on wine and buy 100 cats.
4. People are More Relatable
Unlike most social media apps, TikTok is the one app where people are encouraged to put their worst foot forward. No idealized selves. No Photoshopped, perfect lives. In fact, people go out of their way to show just how miserable their lives are.
5. Positive Comments Are the Norm
Although no social media platform is ever free of trolls, most people pass the positive vibe check, and it is almost a competition to see who can post the nicest comments.
With people posting such personal content, it would feel pretty unrewarding to read through a bunch of hateful comments. However, most people make an effort to encourage others. And when a troll does come along, usually someone will post, “the comments really didn’t pass the vibe check.”
6. Get to See How the Other Half Lives
Even before COVID-19, stepping inside someone else’s shoes and taking a new perspective was not always easy. Especially, when you surround yourself with the same types of people each day.
But on TikTik, you meet people you might not otherwise meet. You get to see how rich life is. While also watching people make Michelin star food in the middle of the woods (Does anyone else remember what happened to that poor chicken?).
7. Source of Creativity
Although I probably have seen way more renditions of the WAP dance than I care to admit, you can’t deny the app shines a light on people’s creativity.
There are endless videos of people sharing new dances, makeup tutorials, decorating cakes, etc.
You name it, there’s probably a video.
8. Taught Me More Than School
Okay, slight exaggeration, but honestly I have learned so many random things. For instance, did you know that if you pull a Post-It note from the top, it won’t stick completely flat? However, if you pull the Post-It note from the side, it will lay perfectly flat?
9. Content is Endless
If you have ever used TikTok you know that there is an endless stream of content. One minute you are just innocently watching a few videos and the next thing you know it’s 3 am.
And despite TikTok’s best efforts to make you take a break by telling you have been scrolling too long — You quickly scroll through this vexatious reminder and continue scrolling for another hour.
10. The Algorithm
This is by far one of the main reason’s TikTok is so addictive. Like most apps, TikTok learns what you like and then tailors your feed based on how you like and comment. But what makes TikTok so unique is its ability to make your FYP really feel like it was made just for you. | https://medium.com/illumination/why-is-tiktok-is-so-addicting-75897fab9f9d | ['Kate Cohen'] | 2020-11-28 04:39:13.778000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Tik Tok', 'Social Media', 'Culture', 'Digital Life'] |
Artist Interview: Moss Agate | Tell us about yourself and your music
I began teaching myself guitar and piano at age ten. By 16 I was playing in a band and writing songs. After touring with Kilgore Trout in the 70s warming the stage for Aerosmith and other I bought an old hearse and traveled the country for four years, settling down in Arizona, living in the sticks with no electricity or running water for 18 years..just writing songs and playing acoustic. Then, I came back to Michigan, got the old band back together and started rocking again. Several members and four albums later…here we are!
Talk to us more about your latest release
Our latest release is a classic style rocker. We started out as blues/bluesrock, but each album had it’s own “flavor”, and I felt it was time to rock the house! I had local artist Dennis Preston do the cover art for this album…felt it was time. He’s been doing album covers for many years, is well known, and he wanted to do it….we are very grateful…the cover is awesome, and is what got us noticed for a review in issue 80 of Rocktopia’s Fireworks Magazine! Thanks, Dennis!
What inspired you to write this release?
I’d been writing a lot of classic rock style songs over the years, the band was right, the time was right, time to release one. Each time we’d get new members our sound and style would change slightly, even though we could play the old albums as they were played. This band ROCKS, so I wanted the new album to reflect that…it does!
Any plans to release a video?
We have some live video of us..from a concert we did with Savoy Brown, from a Grandstand show we did, and from some other gigs.
Any plans to hit the road?
not at present…currently back in the studio working on the next album, as well as 2 solo albums. But, who knows…gigs come and we go!!
As an indie artist, how do you brand yourself and your music to stand out from the rest of the artists out there?
Hopefully, sounding more retro than most bands today, we’re turning the heads of classic rock lovers around the world.
Who have you been listening to lately?
I listen to no one…unless by accident, so that I WON’T be influenced by anyone else, probably why my sound is retro. Part of why I hid away for 18 years..just me and a guitar.
Tell us about your passions
Besides music? Historical restoration..I make old casings and trim no longer in production, build fireplace mantles and Victorian style porches, etc. I collect fossils..have all my life, study plants and animals, bird watching, fishing, classic cars, and archeology. (I also collect old amps..but that’s music related)
What else is happening next in your world?
Is there time for anything else?
Thanks for an awesome interview, Robert!
Connect with Moss Agate
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Moss-Agate/8071228834
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MossAgate1
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-44709074
Reverbnation: https://www.reverbnation.com/mossagate
Source: ArtistPR Indie Artist Interviews | https://medium.com/@artistpr/artist-interview-moss-agate-e3c70257a843 | [] | 2019-10-16 14:34:30.799000+00:00 | ['Blues', 'Rock', 'Progressive Rock'] |
24hr Crypto Market Round up | 24hr Crypto Market Round up
No Fibonacci, Elliot Wave or even Nostradamus his good self could predict this stuff!
Sorry for the break posting my round ups, I was busy posting FUD about the stock market to make it slide too!! :-)
All jokes aside, since my last round up some crazy S$%T has been happening in the crypto world!
And looking at any investment market around the globe I’m not sure its over!
For me day’s or even weeks of this yo-yo crypto market it is possible to make a good return, But you scale back and be sensible, not going all in on this that or the other! Just riding the waves of today, money can be made!
If enough interest I can write a little piece in what I do on a day like today.
Remember Follow me via https://medium.com/@john.l.fenton)
Check Out My Crypto wallet https://carbonwallet.com/ Currently supporting #BTC Bitcoin, #BCH Bitcoin cash, #ZEC Zcash, #ZCL Zclassic (ZCL is a entry point into the upcoming fork for bitcoin Private BTCP as is BTC) More coins coming soon
So here we go Crypto Pickers!
Bitcoin (BTC) $7150 up 0.78% in last 24hrs but that is fantastic in my eyes as was traded at some point today @ $5,850.0
Ethereum (ETH) @ $723.79 up 4.88%
Ripple (XRP) up 1.82% @ $0.714644
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) @ $899.77 down 0.80%
Cardano up 1% @ $0.33152
LiteCoin (LTC) @ $130.97 up 4%
Stellar (XLM) @ $0339273 up 2.87% (still one of my top coins)
NEO @ $91.92 up 12.51%
EOS back up 1.67% @ $7.53
NEM rises @ $0.515602 up 12%
Note: These are my opinions and I like to think I am right all the time, but have been known on the ODD occasion to be wrong, so the here is the legal bit
My opinions on the blog do not constitute investment advice.
Please If you like what you read Clap and share I've an ego to keep happy :-) | https://medium.com/carbonwallet/24hr-crypto-market-round-up-a8fab833776d | ['John Fenton'] | 2018-02-07 18:36:32.378000+00:00 | ['Trading', 'Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain'] |
Pakistan Foreign Minister arrives in UAE on two-day visit | Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi arrived in Dubai on a two-day visit to the UAE. During his visit from December 17 to 18, Qureshi is expected to hold meetings with the UAE officials and also have media interaction.
According to Pakistan Foreign Office statement, the Foreign Minister will hold discussions with the UAE leadership on all areas of mutual interest including regional and global issues. “The Foreign Minister will exchange views on bilateral cooperation, in particular trade, investment and the welfare of Pakistani diaspora.” UAE is home to the second largest Pakistani community abroad with more than 1.4 million overseas Pakistanis living here. Qureshi left for Abu Dhabi for meetings after landing in Dubai on Thursday. | https://medium.com/@anniepangilinan8/pakistan-foreign-minister-arrives-in-uae-on-two-day-visit-969470cb597 | ['Annie Pangilinan'] | 2020-12-17 10:29:55.967000+00:00 | ['Middle East', 'Pakistan', 'Arab World', 'Uae'] |
How I Use Grammarly Premium For Less Than $ 3 | Why I started using Grammarly Premium
Two months back, when I started my journey on Medium, I was confident about my writing skills. I was an experienced writer and was drafting emails and articles for my corporate for over 20 years.
But when I started writing on Medium, I suddenly felt like a novice. I was getting rejected by publications, and the difference between views and read time was telling me that there was a problem.
I gradually started to realize that there was a difference between corporate writing and publishing on Medium. You need to attract an audience to your content if you want to succeed, and one of the simplest ways to do that was to get into more prominent publications that enjoy a vast readership and instantly get you the required attention of readers.
But getting into bigger pubs is not easy. Each one has there own guidelines for submissions:
Some pubs insist on accepting articles only from paid members. There are word limits to be followed. Some pubs take stories on specific topics. Almost all pubs reject stories with grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.
The fourth point was my biggest concern. English being my non-native language, I was not a grammar expert. I know how to write but never knew that there was something called a passive voice. I was not aware of the use of unique or repetitive words and how it would impact my writing quality. Fragmenting a sentence to make it user friendly was unknown to me.
All these small but essential aspects of writing were introduced to me when I joined a community of writers on Facebook to improve my writing skills.
I wanted to learn all this but never had the budget to invest hundreds of dollars in writing courses conducted by the top writers. So I was looking for an answer. Then someone suggested Grammarly premium, and it looked great.
I signed up for the free one-month trial offer and got addicted to it. But once the offer expired, I knew I would not afford the price tag of $29 a month and would have to go back to the traditional way of using the free chrome extension, which now felt hopeless after the habit of using the premium version.
I started looking frantically for an alternative to get Grammarly premium for free. The internet is filled with some useless suggestions, which I doubt work. Most of the options suggested are either not sustainable or too complicated without any guaranteed results. I was at a point of disappointment when out of nowhere, I found gold — a Grammarly Premium for an affordable price. | https://medium.com/@kavikamat/how-i-use-grammarly-premium-for-less-than-3-f9b0cf15b3bb | ['Kavish Kamat', 'Kk'] | 2020-12-21 16:04:13.528000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Self Improvement', 'Money Management', 'Software', 'Writing Tips'] |
Intelligent Consolidation Rules All — the Underbelly of Communities | As an analyst you are always subconsciously consolidating information looking for investigation patterns, trends, or even the slightest hint of an attacker bending RFC rules to their advantage. I was recently catching up with a friend and he mentioned the pain points involved in trying to consolidate indicators and contextual data across a competitor’s platform due to their multiple communities. He needed threat intelligence management capabilities that could cater to his highly federated environment because they have to deal with competing sub-organizations, government data with restrictive TLP, and tight-lipped industry data. The considerable time, effort and cost he had to expend consolidating information, highlights the underbelly of non-consolidation in a platform.
ThreatQ’s Threat Library provides threat intelligence management capabilities that consolidate intelligence by object — indicator, event, adversary, etc. The easiest way to demonstrate this is to show you the Indicator Detail page. This initial view provides a quick litmus test including — score, status, watchlist, created date/first seen date/ expiration date, # of attributes, # of sources, # of related files/events/indicators, etc. At the very least, as an analyst this gives me a pretty good sense of how devious this indicator is.
Figure 1 — Indicator Detail page shows how threat intelligence management consolidates the information within the platform
So, what do I mean about “intelligent consolidation”? There are two intelligent consolidations to highlight on this page. The first element to highlight is the collection of Sources. You’ll notice there are six unique Sources and seven entries — CrowdStrike is duplicated because it released the indicator in separate reports roughly two weeks apart. A user can immediately hover over each Source to view the basics — TLP and Date Published.
Figure 2 — Highlights the intelligent consolidation of Sources
The second intelligent consolidation is how the Threat Library matches up identical attributes and groups them together, as shown in Figure 3. In this example you will see that Cofense, CrowdStrike, iSight Partners, and Verisign iDefense have all published this IP address associated with the Malware Family Trickbot. Identical to the Source hover, an analyst can hover over each Source to show the TLP and Date Published date. This consolidation is paramount to expedite an investigation, research effort, or even a hunt because the analyst doesn’t have to scour the 68 other attributes provided by the commercial services and perform the mental acrobatics necessary to tie them together as you do in other platforms that don’t exhibit the same intelligent consolidation.
Figure 3 — Demonstrates the intelligent consolidation of Malware Family across four Sources
What does this look like in systems from other vendors? It is painful to say the least. The single IP address either has an entry per community or, even worse, an entry per source, resulting in seven individual records of the same IP address. The mental acrobatics necessary to subconsciously consolidate the indicator’s data is hard enough but, to make matters worse, the community architecture means you don’t have a central repository to deploy the best dataset of intelligence to your sensor grid. Rather, you must manually consolidate the data from secondary communities into your primary community before deploying OR you can deploy the most malicious intelligence from each community, but as competitors are pay-per-API that gets expensive quickly.
Fortunately, you have an alternative approach with ThreatQ’s threat intelligence management capabilities that do this legwork for you with no add-on fees. | https://medium.com/security-operations/intelligent-consolidation-rules-all-the-underbelly-of-communities-63e419790045 | [] | 2019-01-29 22:36:12.735000+00:00 | ['Cybersecurity', 'Threatintel', 'Threat Intelligence'] |
Leading with Compassion and Empathy | Peoplelogic.ai | When you picture someone who is an outstanding leader, you probably see a few surface-level qualities. They are someone who is always on top of their work and delegates in a way that drives ownership and accountability. They are someone who is curious and consistently proposes new and innovative ideas. They communicate effectively and often.
But what about someone compassionate and empathetic? Daniel Goleman believes “The fundamental task of leaders is to prime good feelings in those they lead. That occurs when a leader creates resonance — a reservoir of positivity that frees the best in people. At its root, then, the primal job of leadership is emotional.”
Leaders often have all of the great qualities above, but they don’t display compassion and empathy. What exactly is empathy? Empathy is defined as the ability to put yourself into the mental shoes of another person to understand his or her emotional feelings. Having (and displaying) empathy is a valuable skill. In a 2016 study by the Center for Creative Leadership, they found that empathy is positively related to job experience. In a Businessolver 2017 study, they found that 77 percent of employees surveyed would be willing to work longer hours for an empathetic employer, and 60 percent would even take a lower salary to work with an empathetic employer. Summed up: More empathy, better performance. You see, humans have been neurobiologically designed to connect with each other through empathy.
Now, more than ever, employees need compassionate, engaged, and empathetic managers. It is not a stretch to say that the pandemic has impacted every single employee. Whether they’ve had to face the challenges of sick family members or sickness themselves, lost their sense of stability, found their mental and physical health in decline, or for parents, found themselves suddenly becoming teachers. For employees to perform their best during these challenges, they need the reassurance of an empathetic and engaged leader.
While empathy and compassion are often thought of as something people are born with, you can learn it. There are a few things that often stop people from being as empathetic as they could be-non active listening, feeling uncomfortable with emotion, or perhaps just being more focused on a business task at hand and less on the people who will actually complete the task. If you wonder how you can become a more empathetic and compassionate leader, check out the tips below.
Listen.
An old swim coach used to ban us from raising our hands until he was done explaining a practice. He always said, “When your hand goes up, your ears turn off.” Obviously, your ears don’t actually turn off, but he had a point. When talking to your employees, make sure that you listen, in full, to what they are saying. Don’t interrupt them and avoid judging them. Deeply listen to them by paying attention, focusing more on the individual then themselves, and not only getting bits and pieces of the conversation but also getting a sense of who the person is and what they are feeling. Additionally, pay attention to body language and facial expressions-if someone is slumping their shoulders and can’t even force a smile, that can be a sign that they are experiencing an unpleasant emotion. To deeply listen, set aside time to be available for face-to-face meetings (this includes virtual meeting platforms) or just waiting to read individual emails from employees until you are in the right headspace to really hear out and think about what they are saying. Remember-there is a difference between hearing and listening. Don’t just hear, listen.
See Everyone as Individuals.
While you may have started your morning off with a run and a coffee, your co-worker’s day may have started with oversleeping and a kid missing the school bus. While you may be someone who makes decisions quickly and without much hesitation, your co-worker may have to sit on a problem for a little longer to come to a decision they feel comfortable with. You may have two sales employees who perform about the same but think entirely differently and respond to constructive criticism and challenges differently. Being empathetic literally means understanding the feelings of someone else, so remember that personal feelings require different responses.
Realize That Not Everyone Thinks and Acts Like You
It’s no secret that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. And being a manager, you are probably someone who is relatively organized and on top of things. However, not all of your team members will be like that, and that’s not a bad thing. For example, take Steven from engineering. As a manager, you may be frustrated with Steven, who is low in agreeableness (part of the Big 5). Still, in reality, Steven wants more time to think through things-and that time he had to think, and allowing him to express his opinion, could cause you to make a different decision than the one you originally intended-for better.
Create An Environment Where People Feel Comfortable
I’m not saying that you need to start hosting therapy in your office (please don’t), but a little bit of compassion goes a long way. Let your employees know, especially during this time, that your door is open for feedback and conversation. This may give an employee, who’s struggling to meet a particular deadline because of XYZ roadblocks, the courage to go to you and say, “Hey, I’m having a tough time, and here’s why.” When responding, avoid phrases like “I would have” and “You should have” or “That’s just the way it is”-none of those would make a person feel seen or heard. Listening and being empathetic towards those employee’s problems can help you solve the issue and help them feel more confident in their work and comfortable in their role.
Be Kind to Yourself.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly-you cannot be an empathetic leader if you don’t practice kindness with yourself. When you make a mistake, recognize it but let it go. Practice self-care and work-life balance. Be selfish to be selfless.
Remember-we are not in the same boat. We are all in the same storm but on different boats. Each one of your employees is facing different challenges, big and small. In a year where basically everything that can go wrong has, a little empathy can go a long way. | https://medium.com/@peoplelogicai/leading-with-compassion-and-empathy-peoplelogic-ai-5e831fb33399 | [] | 2020-12-09 14:06:05.818000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Compassion', 'Management', 'Startup', 'Empathy'] |
About Me — Mindy Morgan Avitia. Imposter Syndrome and all | About Me — Mindy Morgan Avitia
Imposter Syndrome and all
Why is it so damn hard to write about myself?
Probably because I care too much what you think.
I’ve been writing stories since I can remember. In elementary school, my favorite assignment was always the writing prompt. When the teacher would put up the wacky hand-drawn transparency on the projector, my little mind would wander into all the different stories that could come out of one simple drawing.
Stories — and more importantly — storytelling has always interested me. Sometimes to a fault, as a memoirist and essayist, I’m regularly searching for the arc in my life that is interesting for the reader. Sometimes I have to admit to myself there is no arc and I have to pivot to fiction.
That’s the fun about writing though, isn’t it?
I’m a born and raised pizza-and-bagel-loving Jersey Girl with an art school degree who is spending her second-third of life in Austin, Texas with my husband and 3-month-old daughter, Olive. The journey into motherhood has been profound for me, so lately I write a lot about it. Particularly motherhood and the intersection of feminism and activism and race. I find a lot of confidence and agency in mothering that I only wish could transpire into my writing.
I suffer from perpetual imposter syndrome. While I’ve always dreamed of being a writer, and write frequently, I never feel comfortable actually declaring myself a writer. Anyone relate?
But I’m learning that’s all a crock of shit and confidently declaring oneself is more telling of our identities than the amount of income we get.
Income is nice, though.
For actual income, I freelance by offering marketing and communications for small businesses and nonprofit organizations. Though, since the birth of our daughter, I’ve had a real reckoning and existential crisis on my career path. I always pictured myself a working mom in a power-pantsuit and now I feel content and empowered wearing maternity leggings and working on things I’m passionate about and bring me joy.
Taking “time for myself” is challenging but it’s also exciting. When I actually slow down and allow myself to be me I’m learning what I’m truly passionate about vs. what I think I ought to do. I’m privileged that I am able to take this time, especially in such a shit year. But I’m confident it will yield my authentic self to shine.
Follow Along to Read My Stories About:
Provocative motherhood and family life stories
Race and Social Justice
Feminism
Vulnerability
And randomly, sometimes marketing trends
I also am the editor of The Audacity Project, a publication that features bold stories of truth, justice, family, and life as shared by the lived experience and truths of our writers. I’d love for you to become our next writer! | https://medium.com/about-me-stories/about-me-mindy-morgan-avitia-76c5d77976dd | ['Mindy Morgan Avitia'] | 2020-12-18 16:42:53.584000+00:00 | ['Motherhood', 'Feminism', 'Biography', 'Life', 'About Me'] |
Wow, your an amazing Dr. | Wow, your an amazing Dr.
I was 39 when I had a surprise 12 minute seizure.
The brain surgeon is a man I will never forget. His P.A. too. They had Kindness and compassionate.
He came at 3:00 am to ER. in high boots ,he worked with prize steer and cow. His mentor wouldn’t do my surgery I believe “mortality” issues was mentioned. That man was a bit arrogant. I guess with brains like his , the God complex can be expected.
The “farmer” saved my life, I’m forever grateful , he said a 26 year old with a same large tumor died a week prior. This was in 1991.
Your story touched me, I wonder what your calling in life really is, your excellent at both . | https://medium.com/@susanchristiana/wow-your-an-amazing-dr-3b9e70068ade | ['Susan Christiana'] | 2020-12-18 17:17:48.890000+00:00 | ['Emergency Medicine', 'Doctors', 'Compassion'] |
Nancy Pelosi and the Myth of the Democratic Party | The Democratic Party is exceptional and the best party at the moment. It is also still a political party.
Nancy Pelosi amid recent stimulus negotiations. Source: Forbes
Democrats and Republicans agreed to a second stimulus package on Sunday evening, one that will provide nearly a trillion dollars to aid a country beset by the worst pandemic in a century. The compromise was only reached after months of hardball tactics and numerous attempts at poison pills. While the details are still being hammered out as of this writing, the bill’s most salient features are aid to the unemployed, money for businesses in numerous sectors, and $600 checks for both adults and their dependent children.
In some ways, achieving any sort of agreement in today’s rancorous political climate is exceptional. But many commentators focused on the difference between the $1.8 trillion proposal Republicans offered in October and their most recent plan. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader, rejected the October proposal and accepted the most recent one. The most obvious reason for this change is that a massive spending program passed in October might have aided Donald Trump in his reelection bid. Since Trump lost by only 20,000 votes in the tipping point state of Wisconsin, it is clear that a relief bill could have easily led to his victory.
Pelosi’s actions cannot be viewed in a vacuum. Instead, they must be seen as a sign that the recent Democratic approach to politics is on its last legs. In order to succeed, Democrats must have a new view of power and how it is wielded by the politicians in their party.
In the past ten years, as conservatives were mostly purged from its ranks, the myth has emerged that the Democratic Party is not actually a political party. It does not operate by the traditional channels and structures of previous parties, which had to negotiate, hedge, and reflect the will of interest groups in order to survive. Instead, the party is an unalloyed force for good. It is, in fact, objectively good, a party guided by science that is uniquely focused on aiding the less fortunate. As the liberal group Common Dreams argued in favor of Bernie Sanders’ agenda,
[If Sanders wins] we will be able to win elections, enact reforms, and make sweeping innovations in the technology of our democracy so that the algorithm we apply and the data we collect have the most advanced scientific integrity and produce ever higher qualities of government leadership… scientific method, sooner or later, is destined to prevail. This holds true in politics as much as in chemistry or physics.
In this view, Democrats took action because people needed help, not because they had donated money. This new Democratic Party did not need the compromises and horsetrading that characterized its predecessors and its opponent, the sadistic Republican Party. Democrats did not push to bring back earmarks because there was no need. The power of their policies, combined with the unstoppable turnout of the young and idealistic, would guide them to power.
This belief was shaken by the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Trump’s opponents, the members of the so-called resistance, saw him as an existential threat to minorities, democracy, and the rule of law. In many ways, he was. But the Democratic response to Trump did not treat him this way. Instead, Democrats sought to work with Trump and his Republican allies time after time. They sought to pass infrastructure bills. Democrats praised Trump for the smallest accomplishments. They even voted for some of his cabinet secretaries and lobbied for support of their own constituencies. They were not reacting how many liberals thought the opponents of fascism should act.
Nancy Pelosi’s action in October should shatter the Democratic Party myth once and for all. Pelosi is a politician who put the best interests of her party at the forefront. In many ways, she made the best decision. The number of Americans harmed by four more years of Trump’s policies would have vastly outweighed the number of people negatively affected by a stimulus delay. But the move was still made from political interest and was, in many ways, craven and opportunistic. “Science” would have dictated that Pelosi spend the money as much as possible to alleviate immediate suffering, as many liberal pundits advised. This was, of course, not her approach. It was the action not of a benevolent, apolitical being but of a party leader.
Democrats need to bring their idea of politics back down to earth. They need to see the Democratic Party as a political one guided by fallible human beings elected by a majority of voters or party members. Democrats should make the success of their party paramount and make the clear argument that Democratic victories can change the country for the better. They should prioritize passing legislation and making Congress work again over all other concerns. Most importantly, they should stop pretending that their party is based purely on science. They should prioritize kicking their opponents out of office rather than making them the subject of ridicule. For better or worse, the United States is a democracy. Liberals need to start treating it as one. | https://medium.com/@ericmedlin/nancy-pelosi-and-the-myth-of-the-democratic-party-b8dafb52c51f | ['Eric Medlin'] | 2020-12-23 11:43:04.267000+00:00 | ['News', 'Politics', 'Economics', 'History', 'Policy'] |
Half-Light | Equinox is but a pause between shades,
our souls dipped in sun and moon.
I resisted unfolding in half-light,
resisted incompleteness
to feign myself whole,
resisted my burgeoning skin
that blooms the body ceaselessly
with each manifold dawn.
Shaped in light temperatures,
we are conduits of luminary weight
in levity under glowing eyelids
grown heavy in formless shadow.
How good to accept winter sun
beneath the routine cloud;
to undo the skyless room in glare,
erratic brightness regained
shining the ebb of migrating soul.
After daily composure,
how good to receive the moon;
yesterday’s radiance melting
into gleam of tomorrow,
body anchoring beam
of joint times on star-laden skin
in the medium of midnight,
the contours fall away.
When we fall asleep holding hands,
amorphous under fabric,
we are unpaired of give and take,
we are both the wax and the wane,
neither of us holding shape.
The shine on my face and yours
once lived in light-pulsed veins,
a torch for the returning light.
Be it a refraction or illusion,
we are born in bed of lumens,
cast as endless rays remade
in margins of teeming half-light. | https://medium.com/literary-impulse/half-light-9c7f12ba4ab6 | ['Jessica Lee Mcmillan'] | 2020-12-14 06:58:29.006000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Literary Impulse', 'Change', 'Cosmos', 'Li Theme Submissions'] |
The Master is a Must | In a certain town a very beautiful young lady suddenly arrived out of the blue. Nobody knew from where she came; her whereabouts were completely unknown. But she was so beautiful, so enchantingly beautiful, that nobody even thought about where she had come from. People gathered together, the whole town gathered — and all the young men almost three hundred young men, wanted to get married to the woman.
The woman said, “Look, I am one and you are three hundred. I can be married only to one, so you do one thing. I will come again tomorrow; I give you twenty-four hours. If one of you can repeat Buddha’s Lotus Sutra, I will marry him.
All the young men rushed to their homes; they didn’t eat, they didn’t sleep, they recited the sutra the whole night, they tried to cram it in. Ten succeeded. The next morning the woman came and those ten people offered to recite. The woman listened. They had succeeded.
She said, “Right, but I am one. How can I marry ten? I will give you twenty-four hours again. The one who can also explain the meaning of the Lotus Sutra I will marry. So you try to understand — because reciting is a simple thing, you are mechanically repeating something and you don’t understand its meaning.”
There was no time at all — only one night — and the Lotus Sutra is a long sutra. But when you are infatuated you can do anything. They rushed back, they tried hard. The next day three persons appeared. They had understood the meaning.
And the woman said, “Again the trouble remains. The number is reduced, but the trouble remains. From three hundred to three is a great improvement, but again I cannot marry three persons, I can marry only one. So, twenty-four hours more. The one who has not only understood it but tasted it too, that person I will marry. So in twenty-four hours try to taste the meaning of it. You are explaining, but this explanation is intellectual. Good, better than yesterday’s, you have some comprehension, but the comprehension is intellectual. I would like to see some meditative taste, some fragrance. I would like to see that the lotus has entered into your presence, that you have become something of the lotus. I would like to smell the fragrance of it. So tomorrow I come again.”
Only one person came, and certainly he had achieved. The woman took him to her house outside the town. The man had never seen the house; it was very beautiful, almost a dreamland. And the parents of the woman were standing at the gate. They received the young man and said, “We are very happy.”
The woman went in and he chitchatted a little with the parents. Then the parents said, “You go. She must be waiting for you. This is her room.” They showed him. He went, he opened the door, but there was nobody there. It was an empty room. But there was a door entering into the garden. So he looked — maybe she has gone into the garden. Yes, she must have gone because on the path there were footprints. So he followed the footprints. He walked almost a mile. The garden ended and now he was standing on the bank of a beautiful river — but the woman was not there. The footprints also disappeared. There were only two shoes, golden shoes, belonging to the woman.
Now he was puzzled. What has happened? He looked back — there was no garden, no house, no parents, nothing. All had disappeared. He looked again. The shoes were gone, the river was gone. All that there was emptiness — and a great laughter.
And he laughed too. He got married.
This is a beautiful Buddhist story. He got married to emptiness, got married to nothingness. This is the marriage for which all the great saints have been searching. This is the moment when you become a bride of Christ or a gopi of Krishna.
But everything disappears — the path, the garden, the house, the woman, even the footprints. Everything disappears. There is just a laughter, a laughter that arises from the very belly of the universe.
But when it happens for the first time, if you have not been led slowly, slowly, you will go mad.
This Buddhist story says that he was led slowly, slowly. The woman was the master. The woman is symbolic of the master. She led him slowly, slowly. First, recite the sutra; second, understand intellectually; third, give a sign that you have lived it. These are the three stages. Then she led him into nothingness.
The master leads you slowly, slowly; makes you by and by ready.
—
From Osho, Tao: The Pathless Path, Vol. 2, Chapter 9 | https://medium.com/devansh-mittal/the-master-is-a-must-7fcd6a45f525 | ['Devansh Mittal'] | 2019-10-14 14:03:07.533000+00:00 | ['Truth', 'Education', 'Spirituality', 'Fiction', 'Psychology'] |
Personal finance management in New York | Williams Charles & Scott LTD | Personal finance:
Personal finance is a term that includes maintaining your business as well as storing and spending. According to Williams Charles & Scott LTD it includes budgeting, investment, protection, contracts, finances, evacuation plan, and cost and property preparation. The word often leads to the whole business that gives financial assistance to people and families and teaches them about business and financing possibilities.
Handling investments is no simple job, also so when it-s on a particular level. To maintain one’s finances efficiently, one requires to be conscious of all his ventures including common reserves, property, and bonds. They need also be refreshed with their record history over banks, funding produces, loans and responsibilities.
Financial thinking depends on factors like :
Age:
Wants, aspirations, preferences, and pre-eminence all turning over a continuance, and financial interests adjust proportionately. Ideally, private finance is a method of control and plan that blocks or stays up-to-date with advancements. Although everyone is diverse, some financial matters are simple to or representative of the various degrees of grown-up life. Analysis of development platforms is a piece of financial planning.
At the start of your grown-up life, you are extra expected to have no wards, few if any acquired property, and fewer assets. As a growing grown-up, you likewise are expected to have analogously modest revenue requirements, particularly if you are giving only for yourself. Your work income is your main or sole cause of revenue. Having no one and virtually blank to preserve, your readiness to understand uncertainty is normally great. At this period in your biography, you are focused on explaining your profession and expanding your acquired revenue. Any purchases you may have been prepared via extension.
Recognize family:
To preserve the assets in your property and guarantee that your desires are understood when you expire, be positive you obtain a conviction and depending on your wants probably set up one or more major duties. You also demand to see into coverage like vehicle, house, living, weakness, and long-term supervision insurance. And regularly examine your plan to make it positive it satisfies your family’s requirements for life’s important events.
Advantages of personal finance preparation:
Other related documents include a preservation sect and the healthcare power of a prosecutor. While non all these studies quickly resist you, all of them can put you settle of related important terms and purchase when you happen infected or turn except frustrated.
Prepare your investment reasonably to secure your future. A good financial plan will assist you to start a hassle-free life now and stock up some amount for private use tomorrow. Try including your family in private finance preparation at the most unexpected position to get its gains in the large run.
Planning Method:
Set financial goals:
To organize your personal finance properly, it is necessary to build your financial purposes. To accomplish this, you require to produce a sharp image in your brain regarding whatever you require versus something you demand.
Collect information:
Break down your investments into several elements. Ladle out the features of each purchase you have performed, Note them feathers, and analyze data to establish or extemporize on your business aims. An essential factor to take into report would be the dangers linked with your finances.
Examine the Data:
Later collecting all the important knowledge about your finances, it is necessary to investigate your financial data. This review will aid you to know the valid and wrong financial judgments you have performed so far.
Grow your financial policy:
Study your top purpose and design a commercial project to solve it. On the way, meet every little action of the purchase arrangements you have ever done. Take your former financial actions into the record and get a well-read conclusion.
Review your method:
A program is not deemed victorious if it is not observed nearly. Similarly, the method of personal investment preparation is inadequate outwardly a survey and evaluation.
In the end, Williams Charles & Scott LTD always said that if you want to start to finance then begin early then it has a good chance of success and profit. | https://medium.com/@williamscharleandscottltd/personal-finance-management-in-new-york-williams-charles-scott-ltd-9a602a7b825d | ['Williams Charles', 'Scott Ltd'] | 2021-04-09 06:04:21.022000+00:00 | ['Personal Finance', 'Williams Charles Scott', 'Financial Services', 'Finance Management'] |
Understanding our data | Understanding our data
Photo by Max Duzij on Unsplash
We all come across large number of unstructured data in our everyday, like emails, social media posts or product reviews, and these must contain valuable information for us that could be used. These can represent insights into sentiment of people, which can be worthy of analysis to get to know their general perception of our products, services or even us. I have encountered several sentiment analyses prepared by people when researching for this article.
Let me show you what is a sentiment analysis. A good example could be showed through the 2020 US election and the perception of the two candidates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. People analyzed tweets (as it is really popular in the US) in which either Donald Trump or Joe Biden was mentioned, whether these tweets’ sentiment was positive, negative, neutral or mixed. Based on this sentiment analysis and the geographical location of the sent tweets we could see which state preferred which candidate. It is important to note, that its external validity is questionable as we cannot be sure that either side was represented properly.
In order to do such an analysis I would suggest using Amazon Comprehend. Amazon Comprehend is a natural language processing (NLP) service that uses machine learning to find insights and relationships in text, which requires no machine learning experience.
Other than the above-described sentiment analysis, Amazon Comprehend have the following really useful and interesting features:
Entity Detection,
Key Phrases Extraction,
Language Detection,
Topic Modelling on Large Document Collection, etc.
+1 Amazon Comprehend Medical
Amazon Comprehend
Amazon Comprehend can analyze a collection of documents and other text files (such as social media posts) and automatically organize them by relevant terms or topics. These topics are valuable as personalized content is provided to the customers or richer search and navigation could be provided.
Amazon Comprehend Medical identifies medical information, such as health condition or medication, and determines their relationship (i.e., what kind of medicine and the usage frequency). It could provide context to analysts by selecting a disease and , such as whether a patient has tested positive or negative
As it can be seen on the picture, Amazon Comprehend automatically extracts the key phrases, entities, sentiments, etc. which data will be used for the analysis. In the Master’s program I am participating we have been using R for data analysis, therefore, I will show you how to use these features in R.
How Amazon Comprehend works (Source: aws.amazon.com)
Use Cases
First we need to set up the AWS
keyTable <- read.csv("XYaccessKeys.csv", header = T) # XYaccessKeys.csv == the CSV downloaded from AWS containing your Acces & Secret keys
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID <- as.character(keyTable$Access.key.ID)
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY <- as.character(keyTable$Secret.access.key) #activate
Sys.setenv("AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID" = AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID,
"AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY" = AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY,
"AWS_DEFAULT_REGION" = "eu-west-1") #loading in the required package
library("aws.comprehend")
Let’s see some use cases with codes for several features by using R:
Sentiment analysis
“It is not reprehensible for anyone to sneeze anywhere. Peasants sneeze and so do police superintendents, and sometimes even privy councillors. All men sneeze. Tchervyakov was not in the least confused, he wiped his face with his handkerchief, and like a polite man, looked round to see whether he had disturbed any one by his sneezing.”
In order to get to know whether the above text (A snippet from one of Anton Chekhov’s short story) is positive, negative or neutral please see the code in R below.
detect_sentiment("It is not reprehensible for anyone to sneeze anywhere. Peasants sneeze and so do police superintendents, and sometimes even privy councillors. All men sneeze. Tchervyakov was not in the least confused, he wiped his face with his handkerchief, and like a polite man, looked round to see whether he had disturbed any one by his sneezing.")
In this case we will get the following result:
The result is quite straightforward. The sentiment of the text is negative and it states that what percentage is mixed, negative, neutral or positive. In our case more than 58% of the text is deemed negative.
Language detection
We have the following three sentences in Russian, Tamil and Swiss German. Now let’s see whether Amazon Comprehend recognizes the language.
Минэкономразвития предлагает мобилизовать деньги бизнеса, банков, населения и ЦБ
detect_language("Минэкономразвития предлагает мобилизовать деньги бизнеса, банков, населения и ЦБ")
Pretty accurate result for the Russian language test
கொரோனா வைரஸால் பாதிக்கப்படுவோரின் எண்ணிக்கை இந்தியாவில் குறைந்து கொண்டிருக்கிறது.
detect_language("கொரோனா வைரஸால் பாதிக்கப்படுவோரின் எண்ணிக்கை இந்தியாவில் குறைந்து கொண்டிருக்கிறது.")
Amazon Comprehend is 100% sure that the sentence is in Tamil
Schwyzerdütsch isch ä Sommelbezeichnig fyr diejenige alemannische Dialekte, wu in dr Schwyz un in Liechtestai gsproche wärre.
detect_language("Schwyzerdütsch isch ä Sommelbezeichnig fyr diejenige alemannische Dialekte, wu in dr Schwyz un in Liechtestai gsproche wärre.")
For the Swiss German it is still pretty accurate, but maybe due to the dialect it has some error
All in all we could say that Amazon Comprehend successfully recognized all three languages, even the Swiss Deutsch. Good job! Although it had the highest uncertainty in case of the Swiss Deutsch text. Meanwhile it had a 100% perfect match for Tamil.
I hope you liked the brief summary of the features of Amazon Comprehend with some examples at the end.
Thanks for reading! | https://medium.com/@stahl-tamas/understanding-our-data-eec32b4f3250 | ['Stahl Tamas'] | 2020-12-08 23:11:20.707000+00:00 | ['AWS', 'R', 'Amazon Comprehend'] |
Cryptocurrency & Blockchain News|25.12.2020 | Decentralized exchange 1inch.exchange announced its own governance token, $1INCH. To take advantage of the airdrop, you had to use the platform before September 15, or have made a minimum of 4 swaps or a min $ 20 swap transaction. Users who met even 1 of these conditions were given different amounts of airdrop and $ 1INCH tokens. If you have never used it and will use it for the first time now, you cannot benefit from Airdrop. Trading operations have begun on the Binance & FTX stock exchange.
2 million ETH staked for Ethereum 2.0 process.
Bitcoin price hits $24,681, reaching an all-time high.
$USDT staking was introduced on Waves.exchange. You can find the details and current rates here. | https://medium.com/@alpisik/cryptocurrency-blockchain-news-25-12-2020-2d004089cbd1 | ['Alp Işık'] | 2020-12-25 15:29:58.460000+00:00 | ['1inch Token', 'Airdrop', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', '1inchexchange'] |
How to do tech interview | I’m a team leader of small R&D team in a medium size tech company. We build and run services helping people find their new job; job portals, educational sites, tools for online interviews etc. Recently I got an opportunity to get a new developer to my team. This is how I evaluate the candidates.
The nature of our work is very specific. In some companies “research and development” means just “bugfixing and development”. We actually spend lot of time on research. We have go-to technologies like Python, Docker, Mongo etc. but we decide based on the project so there’s no specific stack you have to know. These are just some technologies anyway and they can be thought. We might use something different in our next research project anyway. Therefore I’m looking for someone who:
Has some skills that are missing in my current team Has some programming knowledge base
I don’t do whiteboard programming
I always liked white board programming when I was looking for job. It’s not stressing me whatsoever, probably because as team lead I’m used to present projects in front of audience. But I’m not looking for second me and I realise whiteboard programming can be stressful for lot of people. It’s hard to be creative, when you’re stressed. Some people just need some alone time to think about a problem. Whiteboard programming doesn’t portray the candidate realistically.
Send me your Github
On the other hand, I still need to see some code to understand how transfer your ideas to code. The best option is, if you send me link to your Github before the interview. Then we can discuss your previous projects. Interestingly, not many people do that. And if I ask directly, they feel embarrassed about their code. It’s ok, just show me something. My Github is a mess as well (as some people love to point out). I just need some talking points.
If you still don’t want me to check your Github or you don’t have one, I’ll ask you to write some code for me at home.
I don’t like to do that because it feels like asking for free labor. But I haven’t figure out anything better yet. At least I’m asking for something that obviously isn’t anything we would use as a production code:
Write a rock-paper-scissors game that I can play in the terminal against computer. Can you find out better algorithm for selecting the computers move than pure random selection?
The task is little bit vague
I purposefully don’t give you many details. If you join our team, that’s something you’ll have to deal on almost daily bases. Often times, we have some hypothesis we want to verify or prototype we’re building and we don’t know exactly what we’ll end up with. That’s the nature of research. I wan’t to see, how you will handle the situation. Will you ask for more details? Will you give up? Will go overboard and build a new game engine first?
There’s no single correct approach I’m expecting. I just want to understand what it’s like to work with you.
You might be surprised but some people actually give up because of that. I had a candidate who told me that he didn’t have an idea of how to choose differently than by using random so he gives up.
Pure random selection probably is the best strategy. But search google for 10s and you’ll find that people can’t play randomly and there are algorithms that can exploit that. Would they work? Maybe not. Does it matter? Not in the slightest. I just want to see that you are willing to try.
The task is very easy
Reading terminal input and comparing two values in Python can be done in just few lines of code. Even someone with no coding experience should be able to put something together over the weekend.
I made the task this easy for two reasons:
I don’t know who I’m looking for. Maybe you are amazing system administrator with just little programming experience who want’s to change career. I can teach you to write code and I’ll have a developer who’s also amazing system administrator. This is not just theoretical situation. I actually have a team member who one day decided he doesn’t want to be system administrator anymore and want’s to write code full time. And he’s amazing programmer. I want to see how you’ll use your time. If you finish the task in few minutes, will you spend some extra time on refactoring, documenting the code, packaging or maybe you’ll write unit tests? I give my team lot of freedom. If you are in my team it means I believe you’ll do a good job. That’s why I’m looking for people who will do the extra bits without me having to ask for them. If you don’t at least try to make the code readable for me when asking me for a job, I don’t know what to expect from you when I give you free hand to work on a project.
The exact way in which you code the exercise is not important. Maybe we’ll disagree on your coding standard or the way you write comments. Maybe you use more mocks than we do when writing unit tests. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you think about the people who’ll read the code after you.
I would rather get code that’s easy to read but doesn’t work than unreadable code that works perfectly.
Every piece of code will eventually change. If you produce buggy but well written code, whoever comes after you can fix the bugs and implement new features even after leave.
The task shows your strengths
I’m trying to build a diverse team with wide range of skills and I want to give you chance to showcase what you feel is your biggest asset. We do everything from managing servers to training neural networks. I don’t understand everything we do and neither will you. That’s fine. We’ll find the stuff that you feel you’re strong at and that you like to do. But I have to know what it is.
If you use neural network to choose the computers move, I know that you’ll probably do well at the research stage of new project. If you send me code with 100% code coverage and downloadable from PyPi I know I want your input in the middle of project when quality starts to slip up and and people start compromising. If you build an interactive UI in ncurses, I know that your work will probably be well polished and I’ll ask you to work on projects that we’ll have present to an audience. And even if you just code the thing on 5 lines and don’t do anything extra, I know you’ll able to solve a problem and move on. That’s actually a great skill I don’t have.
Don’t panic
If you are applying for a tech job and you’re stressing about tech interview, don’t worry. I honestly believe that most managers are like me and want you to succeed. They want to give you a chance to show your strengths. I obviously can’t hire everyone and I have to draw the line somewhere. But if I reject you, it’s not because you are not good enough. It’s because I’m looking for someone else.
And here are few last tips:
Ask for feedback. Lot of people don’t ask why they were rejected. Don’t be afraid to ask. Either you’ll learn where are you weaknesses or you’ll find out you dodged a bullet and you wouldn’t like the job anyway. Be nice. People in tech know each other. If someone asks me, I might not remember why I didn’t hire you but if you tell me to go f*ck myself, I’ll definitely remember that. Don’t lie. I once had a candidate who had 3 years of experience with Python in his CV. But when presented with the rock-paper-scissors assignment, he suddenly remembered he doesn’t know Python and wrote it in Java instead. It’s funny because if he actually said that at the beginning, I would seriously think about hiring him. If he learned one language, he can learn another. But I don’t hire liers. Ask for help. Ask someone you trust to roleplay the interview with you. Talk with people who are hiring about the process and where they think you should improve. Don’t believe the BS that tech is a hostile environment. There might be some miserable people like that but that’s a minority. Last month I offered 50 hours of free coaching to someone wanting to change career and become a programmer. I got more replies from other programmers wanting to do the same than from people looking for coaching. People want to share their knowledge, you just have to ask.
Good luck! | https://medium.com/@tesarek/how-do-i-do-tech-interviews-2c1d6c050638 | ['Jakub Tesárek'] | 2020-12-20 00:16:49.707000+00:00 | ['Job Search', 'Interview', 'Management', 'Programming', 'Tech Interview'] |
How To Fill Plots With Patterns In Matplotlib | How To Fill Plots With Patterns In Matplotlib
Image by Author
Using filling patterns when creating plots is a good alternative to using colors. It can be particularly helpful in the following cases:
the plot is going to be included in a black-and-white publication,
if we want to reduce the number of colors used per plot (e.g. for pie plots),
if we want to emphasize some of the elements of a plot (e.g. some bars of a bar plot).
For now, unfortunately, matplotlib has rather limited functionality for this purpose. Moreover, there is no unique approach for different types of plots.
In this article, we’re going to explore how to add patterns to bar plots, histograms, box plots, and pie charts. To maximize the data-ink ratio, we’ll create only black-and-white plots by adding fill=False everywhere.
Bar Plot
To fill a bar plot with a pattern, we just have to assign to the optional parameter hatch one of the following values as a string: / , \\ , | , - , + , x , o , O , . , * :
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
x = range(1,5)
y = range(1,5)
plt.bar(x, y, fill=False, hatch='/')
plt.show()
Output:
Image by Author
To obtain a denser filling, we should add more symbols of the same kind to the string. So, let’s substitute '/' with '///' :
plt.bar(x, y, fill=False, hatch='///')
plt.show()
Output:
Image by Author
Attention: since the backslash ( \ ) is a special character in Python, if we want to fill our bar plot with this pattern, we have to use a double backslash ( '\\' ). In this case, to obtain a denser pattern, it's necessary to assign an even numbers of backslashes to the hatch parameter ( '\\\\' , '\\\\\\' , etc.).
It’s also possible to combine two or more patterns on the same bars, adding the corresponding characters to the string:
plt.bar(x, y, fill=False, hatch='.O')
plt.show()
Output:
Image by Author
The filling becomes even more useful when plotting stacked or grouped bar plots:
y1 = range(1,5)
y2 = range(5,9)
plt.bar(x, y1, fill=False, hatch='xx')
plt.bar(x, y2, fill=False, hatch='..', bottom=y1)
plt.show()
Output:
Image by Author
Furthermore, as with colors, we can use the filling to emphasize only the most important bars. The algorithm here is the following. The plt.bar() method returns a container of n bars that can be assigned to a variable:
bars = plt.bar(x, y)
print(bars) Output:
<BarContainer object of 4 artists>
In our case, there are 4 bars in the container. Let’s set a condition for the bar patterns. For example, we want to emphasize only the bars where 1 < y < 3 . We can iterate through the list of y-values and for those satisfying the condition above, assign the star symbol ( '*' ), otherwise assign nothing (an empty string). As a result, we'll have a list of values of the hatch parameter corresponding to each value of y:
hatches = ['*' if y>1 and y<3 else '' for y in y]
print(hatches) Output:
['', '*', '', '']
Now, we can iterate through the bars of the container and set to each bar the corresponding hatch value:
bars = plt.bar(x, y)
for i in range(len(bars)):
bars[i].set(hatch = hatches[i], fill=False)
plt.show()
Output:
Image by Author
Histogram
To fill a histogram, we have the same optional parameter hatch as for a bar plot, with the same choice of possible values:
data = np.random.normal(loc=10, scale=10, size=500)
plt.hist(data, histtype='step', edgecolor='black', fill=False, hatch='.')
plt.show()
Output:
Image by Author
It becomes even more useful when plotting multiple histograms, either stacked or overlapped:
data1 = np.random.normal(30, 20, 5000)
data2 = np.random.normal(80, 15, 5000)
plt.hist(data1, bins=30, histtype='step', edgecolor='black', fill=False, hatch='.')
plt.hist(data2, bins=30, histtype='step', edgecolor='black', fill=False, hatch='o')
plt.show()
Output:
Image by Author
Box Plot
For a box plot, however, the approach is less straightforward since the plt.boxplot() method doesn't have the hatch parameter. Hence, we have to use a workaround. The algorithm here is the following. The plt.boxplot() method returns a dictionary with different elements of the box plot as its keys: whiskers, boxes, medians, fliers, etc. This dictionary can be assigned to a variable:
data = np.random.rand(100)
boxplots = plt.boxplot(data, patch_artist=True)
boxplots Output:
{'whiskers': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D at 0x195176862e0>,
<matplotlib.lines.Line2D at 0x19517686640>],
'caps': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D at 0x195176869a0>,
<matplotlib.lines.Line2D at 0x19517686d00>],
'boxes': [<matplotlib.patches.PathPatch at 0x19517667f10>],
'medians': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D at 0x195176900a0>],
'fliers': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D at 0x195176903a0>],
'means': []}
Attention: to be able to use the hatch property later, it's necessary to set patch_artist=True when calling plt.boxplot() .
What we need from the dictionary above is the 'boxes' key. We have to iterate through all the boxes (even though, in our case, we have only one box plot and hence only one box) and set to each box the corresponding hatch value, just as we did for emphasizing only one bar in a bar plot:
boxplots = plt.boxplot(data, patch_artist=True)
for box in boxplots['boxes']:
box.set(hatch = 'x', fill=False)
plt.show()
Output:
Image by Author
The technique becomes more useful when creating two or more box plots: for emphasizing only some of them or just for assigning a different pattern to each. In this case, we have to create a list of values of the hatch property (based on a condition, if necessary, or just random) and iterate also through it:
data1 = np.random.rand(10)
data2 = np.random.rand(20)
data3 = np.random.rand(500)
hatches = ['o', '++', 'x']
boxplots = plt.boxplot([data1, data2, data3], patch_artist=True)
for i in range(len(boxplots['boxes'])):
boxplots['boxes'][i].set(hatch = hatches[i], fill=False)
plt.show()
Output:
Image by Author
Pie Chart
As it was for a box plot, the plt.pie() method doesn't have the hatch parameter, so filling a pie chart with patterns isn't straightforward either. This time, the method plt.pie() returns a tuple:
data = np.random.rand(5)
patches = plt.pie(data)
patches Output:
([<matplotlib.patches.Wedge at 0x195177aa4c0>,
<matplotlib.patches.Wedge at 0x195177aa970>,
<matplotlib.patches.Wedge at 0x195177aadf0>,
<matplotlib.patches.Wedge at 0x195177b72b0>,
<matplotlib.patches.Wedge at 0x195177b7730>],
[Text(1.046742554077009, 0.3381272326866619, ''),
Text(-0.00440567017664189, 1.0999911772692974, ''),
Text(-1.0992106691773433, -0.0416641904601184, ''),
Text(-0.5217111246565277, -0.9684097802116732, ''),
Text(0.7338182292945598, -0.8194576293836047, '')])
The first element of this tuple ( patches[0] ) contains all the wedges of our pie plot. In this case, there are 5 wedges. We can assign to each a specific pattern based on certain conditions or randomly. Let's emphasize the smallest and the biggest wedges leaving all the others unfilled. For this purpose, we have to iterate through the data and for the values satisfying the conditions above (i.e., the minimum and maximum values), assign the 'o' and 'O' symbols to the corresponding hatch values, otherwise assign nothing (an empty string):
hatches = ['o' if value==min(data) else 'O' if value==max(data) else '' for value in data]
Now, let’s iterate through both the wedges and the hatch values and fill the smallest and the biggest wedges with the selected patterns:
patches = plt.pie(data)
for i in range(len(patches[0])):
patches[0][i].set(hatch = hatches[i], fill=False)
plt.show()
Output:
Image by Author
Conclusion
In this article, we explored the ways of filling contour plots, like bar plots, histograms, box plots, and pie charts, with different patterns in matplolib and considered the situations when this approach can be particularly helpful.
I hope you enjoyed reading and found this imformation useful for your future projects. | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-fill-plots-with-patterns-in-matplotlib-58ad41ea8cf8 | ['Elena Kosourova'] | 2021-07-14 15:57:19.529000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Data Science', 'Matplotlib', 'Python', 'Data Analysis'] |
The Cave | The bed of stone was wet, and so were the rusty iron bars. This was a common sight for a town that resided near a lake. Moreover, this place was underground, water flowed downwards anywhere in this world. Mosses covered the small, frustratingly incapacious three-walled room, which could barely accommodate two people. The sound of incessant streams of dripping water was the only thing that stood out in the ear, felt like a rhythmic heartbeat of this soulless place.
In there, was a skinny-looking man, wearing nothing but a pair of rugged trousers, tainted with dirt and some horse shit. He was dragged on the road up there around a week ago.
This man had the appearance of a normal man, like that of a hunter who appeared very agile due to his slender figure. But his bones were more visible now more than ever in his entire life. A week almost without food could cause something like this to a man.
He was indeed a hunter. He had lived alone most of his years, in a cabin in the woods, several hundred tree-heights away from the northern gate of this town by the lake. His life of forty winters worth was mainly undisturbed. Raised by a father who had also hunted for a living, a mother who was capable and strong, he too, was not a complainer. But both of his parents died during a harsh cold winter when he was only thirteen. A thought of his said they were eaten by bears, some other thought said the cold got to them. He never knew since their bodies, or bones, were never found. The people of the town were completely unaware of his situation. When he started going to the town market to sell the game, no one even asked why his father never came anymore. Everyone had their utmost attention on getting their needs fulfilled in this poor dirty town of never-ending wetness and fishy scents.
(a tree-height is around fifteen-meters)
However, this hard-working man’s life had been turned upside down exactly a week ago, when a little girl had been reported to be lost for several days. Last seen, she was heading north, outside the northern town’s gate. Unfortunately, no one lived in the northern region except wild beasts and that man whose cabin was the only man-made structure there. Naturally, people of the town had no other suspect. Their suspicion reached a point of absolute belief that the skinny hunter did it when they found the little girl’s torn red tunics on one of his drawers. This rips on that tunic made the villagers believe that that man had raped the girl forcefully, which, without the slightest doubt, worsened their fury.
He had pleaded his innocence over and over again, but his effort seemed futile.
“I only kept the red cloth in the cave, only the red cloth, pieces, pieces of it torn in that cave that I saw… I was going to give it to them when I once again enter the sickening town, that sickening town.”
For days that man had been shivering. He often hugged his own knees while resting his back on the cold, damped mossy wall. That sentence he frequently muttered resounded throughout the underground cave prison each time he said it.
His lack of interaction with people had already made him appear like a strange, dangerous fellow. Now after a week of almost without food, his mind wandered to places it shouldn’t be, trying to distract its body from the physical pain which he was in at the moment.
Though he seemed far from normal, he was not insane. He knew his fate was determined when those people from the town stormed into his cabin in the middle of the night, carrying torches and various sharp objects in their hands, asking no questions and dragged him back to town.
All of a sudden, on the seventh day of his imprisonment, the sound of flutes, stomping feet, clapping hands, and cheerful cheers sounded faintly on the ground above. His mind felt like it had been shocked by thunder. He regained his calmness as a hunter, his senses once again sharpened. At this point, he had let go of everything that burdened him, his thoughts, his doubts, his plans, his worries, amidst the celebration up above.
He figured the people of the town were celebrating because they tomorrow would likely execute him. There had been talks from the guards which he overheard.
“I have been alone all my life. At least they’re celebrating my day of birth tonight. If tomorrow is the last time I’ll ever breathe this cold damped air, then so be it.”
The next morning, everything had been set up when he breathed the upper ground air once again; a chopping block with a basket for his head, an executioner with a black mask that showed only his stern eyes, big nose, and yellowed teeth, and the townsfolks who revealed faces of eagerness. That morning was quite uneventful actually, he was escorted to the chopping block, then right after his head was decapitated without any fancy rituals. People went back home not long after that. His limbs were next, the executioners cut them from his body without any audience from the common people. Then those body parts were put on spikes, in five corners of the town.
A month later, a hunter came back from his hunt from the north. He had found a necklace in a cave when hunting a bear he had been following for days. He took it to the market and sold it to a merchant. That merchant coincidentally was a close friend of the deceased girl’s parents, naturally, he was shocked. That very necklace was his gift for that little girl on the day of her eighth birthday. When the hunter was asked where he found the necklace, the answer made the merchant rush to meet the deceased girl’s parents.
This news spread like a wildfire. The entire town was gloomy for a whole week. Nobody knew any way to wash them from their guilt. Priests had been summoned from many towns, to perform rituals that would soothe their souls. But nothing yielded results. Their conscience was tainted; they had murdered an innocent man out of irrational fury. | https://medium.com/@samueladek/the-cave-5ca23de79df5 | ['Samuel Ade'] | 2020-02-20 17:07:29.745000+00:00 | ['Literature', 'Fiction', 'Short Story', 'Imagination'] |
Upgrading a Dev Container to .NET 5.0 | Improving the Dev Container
Upgrading the .NET SDK to .NET 5.0
As a first step for improving the dev container, we’ll be upgrading the .NET SDK to version 5.0. This is relatively easy.
To get started, open a bash shell and switch to the local clone of the repository. For example, if you used the steps in “Prerequisites”, then the following command should bring you there:
cd ~/projects/CmdLine
Once there, execute
code .
This will launch VS Code. If prompted to re-open the directory in the dev container, accept the offer and do so. Wait until docker is finished and VS Code has installed all extensions in the docker container.
Our first step will be to confirm which branch we are on the correct branch. Execute the following command:
git branch
This should output “* article-2020–11–15” (note the asterisk). If this not what you are seeing then switch to the branch with the starting position using this command:
git checkout article-2020–11–15
Then confirm with “git branch” that the switch was successful.
If you like you can create a new branch in your local clone and commit to it as you read this article. Be aware, though, that you won’t be able to push to the clone on github.
Our next step is replacing .NET Core 3.1 with .NET 5.0. In fact, we will be even more specific: we are going to use the .NET SDK version 5.0.101. This is the latest stable release as of writing. Because we are using a dev container, this upgrade does not require installing the new framework version. Instead, we will just use a new base image for our dev container. The new base image has the SDK pre-installed.
Within VS Code open the file “dev/Dockerfile”. In it replace the first line with the following code
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:5.0.101
With this, one would think, everything is fine. However, that is not the case as we will see shortly. To see what the problem is, we’ll rebuild the container by clicking on the green corner at the left end of the status bar:
Rebuilding the Dev Container in VS Code
Wait until the container has been re-built. This may take a while longer if the base container image needs to be downloaded. Note, that we will be rebuilding the dev container a few times. You can always refer to this section in case you forgot how to do that.
One VS Code has rebuilt the container, open a terminal in VS Code and execute the following command:
ps
This will produce an error similar to the following:
Command ‘ps’ not found
While we may not need that command for development tasks, some VS Code extensions depend on it and don’t work correctly or not at all if ps is not available. Therefore, let’s fix this problem, which is easy to do.
Again, open the dockerfile and just after the “FROM” directive add the following two lines. Make sure to include the backslash at the end of the first of these two lines.
RUN apt-get update && \
apt-get install -y procps
The first few lines of the Dockerfile should now look as follows:
Adding missing “ps” command in Dockerfile
Again, click in the status bar in the bottom left corner and choose “Remote-Containers: Rebuild Container” once more. Wait until everything is finished and then try the “ps” command in a terminal window inside of VS to confirm this now works as expected:
Command “ps” successful
To confirm that we are in fact now using the .NET 5 SDK, run “dotnet — info” in the terminal window in VS Code. You should see output similar to the following:
dotnet — info for .NET 5.0
We have successfully changed the .NET SDK to .NET 5.0. Well done!
Managing Group and User
There are a couple more things that we should improve with our dev container. One of them is reviewing how we configure the non-root user for the dev container. Remember: for security reasons it’s a best practice to use the dev container as a non-root user only. This ensures that processes and commands running inside of the dev container do not have root permissions. What is more important, this also applies to all mounted directories (which in turn may allow access to even more commands, directories and files). In fact, the non-root user won’t have sudo available either which plugs that potential hole as well.
In Linux each user is a member of a group. Both the user and the group have a number by which they are identified. An example would be a number like 1000. Give this a try by running the command “id” in a terminal window in VS Code:
Running “id” in the dev container
This command gives you information about the current user, i.e. “mahi” in this case. The id for the group and the user are both 1000 in this case. We didn’t control this. This number just happened to be the next one to use when we added the user using “useradd” in the Dockerfile. Also, the value for “groups” lists the groups the user is a member of. In this case this is just “mahi” (but not “sudo”).
We want to be specific about the user and group id. For this to happen, replace the line
RUN useradd -m -s $(which bash) mahi
with the following two lines:
RUN groupadd -g 1001 -r mahi && \
useradd -u 1001 -r -g mahi -m -s $(which bash) mahi
In this instance we specify the user id and the group id as the number 1001. The first few lines of the Dockerfile should now look as follows:
Rebuild the container for this change to take effect, then check the output for “OmniSharp Log”. You should find an error similar to the following:
Issues with Permissions
This particular issue is related to the user VS Code is using to connect with the remote vscode-server. In this case VS Code is using the user and group id of the user that launched VS Code. Let’s check that out.
In the bash terminal that we used to start VS Code with command “code .” execute the command “id”. In my case the output looks as follows:
Output of “id” on the host (or in WSL2)
As you can see the user id (“uid”) is 1000. Therefore, if VS Code uses this user to attach to the dev container, then “access denied” errors are not really a surprise. Let’s be specific about what user VS Code connects as. Reopen the folder locally (Windows only: in WSL if using WSL).
Open the file “.devcontainer/devcontainer.json” in VS Code and add the following line
“remoteUser”: “mahi”,
to the configuration as follows:
Specifying the user for the dev container
Then reopen the folder in docker. When we check the “OmniSharp Log” we notice that the error is still present. So, this was not enough just yet. We need more modifications: we need to ensure that the user we connect as owns the directory with the clone.
Adding entrypoint.sh
Reopen the folder locally again (Windows only: re-open in WSL if using WSL). Next, we’ll move changing the file ownership using “chown” from the Dockerfile to a script named “entrypoint.sh”. Also, we’ll remove the “USER” directory from the Dockerfile.
The reason for moving “chown” has to do with the fact that first the container is built and started using the Dockerfile and docker-compose. Only, then is mounting the volume complete, i.e., mounting of the clone into the dev container. We can “chown” the director and its contents only, after the mounting has completed. Therefore executing “chown” in Dockerfile is too early in the process. By moving it to a later stage we’ll make this more robust.
Apply the following lines
# Create working directory. Ownership will be changed in entrypoint.sh which
# executes *after* the volume has been mounted.
RUN mkdir /app
# Copy entrypoint script into container, make it executable, then execute it:
COPY entrypoint.sh /entrypoint.sh
RUN chmod +x /entrypoint.sh
ENTRYPOINT [“/entrypoint.sh”]
to the Dockerfile:
What we do here is this: In line 16 we create a directory “/app”. This will become the mount point for the repository clone. Then in line 19 we copy a file named entrypoint.sh into /entrypoint.sh. This is at the root of the file system so anything we do with “/app” won’t interfere.
In line 20 we change the permissions with “chmod” to make the script “/entrypoint.sh” executable. Note, that at this point of the Dockerfile commands are still executed as the root user. The “ENTRYPOINT” directive in line 21 tells Docker to execute “/entrypoint.sh” once the container is up and running.
Next, we’ll create the script “/entrypoint.sh”. We’ll create this file at “dev/entrypoint.sh”. It has the following content:
#!/bin/sh # Change ownership of all directories and files in the mounted volume, i.e.
# what has been mapped from the host:
chown -R mahi:mahi /app # Finally invoke what has been specified as CMD in Dockerfile or command in docker-compose:
“$@”
Or in VS Code:
There is not much content in this file. In line 5 all we do is changing the ownership of the directory “/app” and all of its content to “mahi:mahi”. (the first is the group name, the second one the user name). In line 8 we just execute what might be specified with the CMD directive in the Dockerfile or as value for the “command” parameter in the docker-compose file.
Let’s revisit the reason why we moved the chown command from Dockerfile to the entrypoint.sh script. As mentioned before, the Dockerfile is used to create the container image. Then docker-compose.yml tells Docker to mount the host directory at “/app”. Only once this has completed, we can reliably chown the directory “/app”.
Another option would be to use the “USER” directive in the Dockerfile to switch to user “mahi”. However, if we did, we couldn’t execute “chown” in the script “/entrypoint.sh” as “chown” requires root privileges. User “mahi” does not have those privileges by design.
So, to clarify the chronological order of events, here are the main steps as they are executed when the dev container is started:
If the container image doesn’t exist just yet, the instructions in Dockerfile are executed as “root” to create the docker image. When we run up the dev container, the content of “docker-compose.yml” is used to orchestrate the containers we want, two in this case. This includes mounting the parent directory on the host, i.e. the root of the repository clone, at “/app” inside the dev container (see lines 8 and 9 in the docker-compose.yml file). This part is still executed as root. Still running as root, and once the container is up and running, Docker executes the script specified by the “ENTRYPOINT” directive in the Docker file. This script changes the ownership of the directory “/app” inside the dev container to “mahi:mahi”. Next, the “command” specified in docker-compose.yml is executed. We still run as root. Once all of the preceding steps are complete VS Code considers the container to be up and running. At that point VS Code connects as user “mahi” (configured via “remoteUser”, see above) and installs “vscode-server” and then all other extensions that may be configured for the dev container. “vscode-server” and everything it spawns inside the dev container runs as “mahi” including any terminals that may be open, just as we wanted.
In a VS Code terminal you an experiment in the dev container. Try using “sudo” or accessing directories or files that are owned by “root”. You will find that user “mahi” has no root privileges.
Choosing a Better User Id and Group Id
As described above, we used the number 1001 for the user id and for the group id for non-root user “mahi”. There is one problem, though, with this. To see that problem, go to the bash terminal from which we started VS Code and run the following commands:
cd ~/projects/mahi-app/CmdLine
ls -lart
This should give you an output similar to the following:
Notice how the group is listed as 1001 and the user as docker. If we were to edit any of the files listed or any files in those directories then you’ll notice that we don’t have permission to do so. The reason is that your own user id and group id is different. Execute the command “id” in this bash terminal. This should give you output similar to the following (your user name will be different):
Notice that the user id (“uid”) and the group id (“gid”) are 1000 (the number may be different in your case). Because this number is different to the number 1001 that we assigned to user “mahi” and to group “mahi”, Linux will prevent us from editing these files.
We can fix this by running “sudo chown .”. However, we wouldn’t want to run this all the time. Also, as soon as we re-open this in the dev container, it will be changed again back to 1001. There is a better option. We will change mahi’s user id and and group id to match the id of the user as which we run on Linux outside of the container.
In my case, it’s the user “manfred” and the group “manfred” and both have the number 1000. Let’s use these numbers in the Dockerfile when we add the group and the user:
If in your environment the command “id” shows a different number for the group and/or the user id on the host, then use those numbers instead.
With this change in place, rebuild the dev container once more. Then, in the bash terminal on the host (the terminal from where you launched VS Code), run “ls -lart” which gives you something similar to:
Running the same in the dev container gives us the following:
Even though we see different user and group names the underlying ids for group and user are the same as we have mounted the host directory into the dev container. We wouldn’t need the “chown” command in this case. Howerver, the “chown” command in script “/entrypoint.sh” ensures that we have sufficient permissions in the dev container. If you want to confirm that the ids are the same, just run the “id” command both in the dev container as well as on the host’s bash terminal.
Note that in the last picture the parent directory (“..”) is still owned by root. This is exactly what we wanted. We use the dev container as user “mahi” and have permissions only in the directory “/app” (and mahi’s home directory) but nowhere else. This means if any malicious code should manage to execute within the dev container, it will be limited to what is accessible inside of “/app” of the dev container and to what is available in the home directory (“~”). We haven’t mounted anything elsewhere, so the home directory is limited to the dev container as well.
Furthermore, sudo is not available in the dev container and even if it was, the non-root user is not a member of that group. And even all of that was available, then you’d still have to manually enter a password to execute sudo.
Now, that we have strengthened the security of our dev container by using it as a non-root user, let’s next look at another improvement that allows us maintaining the nuget packages we use in our project. | https://medium.com/swlh/upgrading-a-dev-container-to-net-5-0-dfadc3cb5725 | ['Manfred Lange'] | 2020-12-29 07:31:17.436000+00:00 | ['Net5', 'Vscode', 'Net Core', 'Docker', 'Devcontainer'] |
Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in Machine Learning— You will never find it tough again | Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in Machine Learning— You will never find it tough again Iqbal Hussain Follow Jun 4 · 9 min read
Image created by the Author
Principal Component Analysis(PCA) is a popular unsupervised machine learning technique which is used for reducing the number of input variables in the training dataset. This technique comes under dimensionality reduction technique. I assume, if you have already started reading this article that means you know PCA to some extend. Hence I am not going to discuss what it is, its advantage or disadvantage. But I will focus on how it works.
Although Python has provided all the classes and methods to create your model and perform your operations whether it be a regression, classification or clustering problem or PCA, but until and unless you know what is happening behind the scene you will not have all the fun as a Data scientist or machine learning enthusiast.
While I was learning PCA, somehow the resources I came across were not sufficient enough to make me understand the mathematics behind PCA. So, I did some research, brushed up my old mathematical and statistical skills and after doing all those, finally I could understand the magic behind the excellent dimensionality reduction technique, which is PCA(Principal Component Analysis). In this article, I will try to explain all the steps to perform PCA using the mathematical and statistical concept on a small two dimensional toy dataset and reduce its dimension into one. After completing all these by hand (I mean mathematically step by step), I will show you the same thing done programmatically in python and validate our result.
Whatever I am covering here is using a two-dimension dataset, but that should not stop you to understand it for large datasets with higher dimensions as once you can understand the concept in two dimensions, you can apply the learnings in higher dimensions.
Before I start, let me first go you through some of the basic mathematical and statistical concepts so that you can relate them later in the article. If you are already familiar with the concepts then you can directly jump into section 3 and continue. But, if you have time, I still recommend you that you go through all the sections.
Section 1: Some Mathematics
1.1 Scalar: Scalar is nothing but a number with a value. e.g. 5 is a scalar, 2.45 is a scalar.
1.2 Vector: Vector can be thought of an object with a magnitude and a direction. A coordinate can in two dimension is an example of a vector. e.g. (4,3).
We can draw a line from (0,0) to (4,3) which will represent the direction of the vector. What will be the value or magnitude then? The value of the vector will be the distance between the point (0,0) and (4,3). Note that the value will be a scalar.
Now using Pythagoras Theorem, we can find distance as:
Hence, the magnitude of the vector is 5.
Similarly, for data with 3 dimension (2,5,7) is an example of vector. Hence , for data with n dimensions (1, 4,…….,n) is a vector.
1.3 Matrix: Matrix is an array of numbers. Matrix may be square or rectangular shape. Note that all vectors can be represented as matrix. In the example above our vector can be represented as matrix as shown in the figure below:
2x1 Matrix
1.4 Determinant: It represents a number which can be calculated from a square matrix. e.g. if A is a square matrix then |A| represents determinant of A. Determinant of a 2x2 matric can be calculated as below:
1.5 Identity Matrix: Identity matrix (denoted as I) is a square matrix where the diagonal elements of the matrix are 1 and rest of the eements are 0.
1.6 Invertible matrix: Z is said to be invertible matrix (it should be square matrix) if it satisfy the following equation:
Note: Determinant of Z, that is |Z| =0 if and only if Z is not invertible.
1.7 Matrix Multiplication:
A, B are two matrices and AB is the multiplication. Two matrices are compatible for multiplication if number of columns of left side matrix is equal to number of rows of the right matrix. Here A is 2x2 and B is 2x1 matrices resulting in 2x1 matrix.
1.8 Eigenvector: Eigenvector is a non-zero vector (say, v) which when multiplied with another square matrix (say, A)produces another matrix (also, a vector) which is an scalar multiple of the original vector v.
1.9 Eigenvalue: In the above equation lambda is called the eigenvalue of the eigenvector v.
Let us derive one important equation here from the above equation:
We know,
We will use the equation later. Let’s move to the next section.
Section 2: A bit of Statistics
Now some statistics, in a very short form.
To better understand, you can consider X as a column in a dataset.
2.1 Standard deviation (S) is the measure of dispersion of data from the mean in a list of numbers. The formula to calculate the standard deviation is:
2.2 Variance is the square of the standard deviation.
2.3 Covariance: As variance depicts spread of data in one column, covariance is the joint form (related to two columns in a dataset) of the same thing.
Let us write the formula of variance (Fig: 3) in a factor form
i.e. var(X) =cov(X,X)
From the same formula we can derive covariance of two variables X and Y (two columns in a dataset) as
2.4 Z-Score: We can standardize or scale a group of observed values using z-score for which mean is deducted from each observed value and then divided by the standard deviation. The formula is:
The mean of the new observed data set becomes 0 after applying Z-score.
As of now, you just note the formulas, we will really calculate them in our example below.
Section 3: Mathematics behind PCA
Now, that you know some of the basic mathematical and statistical terminology and formulas, let’s get our hands dirty with the actual topic of discussion. We will see how to perform PCA step by step using Mathematics. I will elaborate it with a 2d dataset.
Let us consider that given dataset is a dataset with 2 columns (features) and 6 rows. Columns names are X and Y.
Note here that (2,3), (4,5), (6,5), (6,7), (7,8), (5,8) are called feature vectors.
Steps to PCA:
Step1: Standardize the data
We can standardize or scale the data using z-score. Let’s calculate corresponding mean and standard deviation for each column.
As mentioned in the section 2.4, the formula to calculate Z score for each observed value is
Using this let us transform our original data to Z-scaled data:
Step2: Find the covariance matrix
Now, let’s find the covariance matrix of the scaled data.
Step3: Find the Eigen values
As, we will consider one PCA component only we will disregard 0.261 as that is very small and will go with Eigen value 2.139.
Now, we will find the Eigen vector of the Covariance matrix corresponding to the Eigen value we have found above.
Step4: Find the Eigen Vector
Step5: Project existing data into one dimension using Eigen vector
As our main aim to perform PCA is to project the data from higher dimension to lower dimension, let’s continue with our example and project the scaled data to one dimension using the Eigen vector found above.
Let’s check the scaled data once again:
The first feature vector (-1.837, -1.643) will be transformed using the following formula:
(Transpose of Eigen vector) X (Feature vector)
Let’s put the corresponding values:
Similarly, if we project all the feature vectors in the scaled data we will end up with the following dataset with one dimension.
Hence, we have completed performing our calculations for PCA and come up with the above projected data in one-dimension.
Section 4: PCA using Python
In section 3, I showed you how we can perform PCA in a toy dataset. I will perform the same thing now using Python and validate our final projected data.
Here is the snapshot of my Jupyter notebook where I have created the dataset and performed the steps to PCA:
Hence, we can see that we have obtained the same data (approx.) by doing mathematically by hand and by programmatically. Only difference is the sign. Both are valid as python considered the negative values of the Eigen vectors while we considered the positive values. But both are correct as long as the Eigen vector is normalized to have length 1. Now, you can easily understand what is the mathematics behind the PCA algorithm.
Conclusion:
I have tried to show you PCA in a very small 2 dimensional dataset. In real life scenario, you will have a large dataset with huge number of dimensions (column or feature, whatever you say) where PCA is really useful when you do not know which of the features are not adding value to your final model. After you perform PCA in the large dataset and reduce its dimension (that’s why PCA is called, Dimensionality Reduction technique) it will be easier for visualization and will be ready for your further modelling.
I hope you have enjoyed reading and learning from this article. Please provide your valuable feedback.
All the images shown for the calculations are created by the author. | https://medium.com/codex/principal-component-analysis-pca-how-it-works-mathematically-d5de4c7138e6 | ['Iqbal Hussain'] | 2021-06-06 21:04:56.907000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Principal Component', 'Python', 'Unsupervised Learning', 'Data Science'] |
The Finer Things | The Finer Things
Nothing in this world is finer, than having you in my vagina…
Photo by Timothy Meinberg on Unsplash
Nothing in this world is finer
than having you in my vagina.
No gilded treasure can distract
when I lie open upon my back
and hold you, firm against my skin,
whilst you maraud the palace within.
There’s no allure in fancy cars,
Expensive wine in Members’ bars.
I could want no other prize
than your sweet mouth between my thighs.
No first-class tickets, front row seats,
No rich liqueur, or jeweled treats
can ever beat the joy I get
from knowing I’m your favourite pet.
If I were royal, I’d cede the crown,
were that the price to have you down
between my legs, your silken tongue
to tease the curtains loosely hung
around the bud of my delight,
and ’round my pussy, small and tight.
So come inside, I beg you please,
Lower yourself betwixt my knees,
And plumb my depths, my deepest parts,
Bewitch me with your sensual arts.
When I contract, and twitch, and hum,
Then baptise me with your rich cum.
I’ve made you blush, I beg your pardon,
But here within my Lady Garden
lies timeless truth, so I must be blunt,
I love you here inside my cunt. | https://medium.com/sex-and-satire/the-finer-things-e420496650c6 | ['Jupiter Grant'] | 2020-12-27 15:09:45.517000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Satire', 'Sex', 'Humour', 'Vagina'] |
Life after the pandemic — The “new”normal | Carl Sagan
During a short break from the daily #digital work due to #socialdistancing and #intelligent #lockdown 1 and 2, I picked up a #book, not totally coincidental I think, from one of the greatest #visionaries: Pale Blue Dot by @CarlSagan.
Book Cover Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
In a #time where an invisible #enemy like a #virus threatens #humanity, reflections on the impact and our #life after this #pandemic cross the #mind. It reminds us of how #fragile we are and brings us back to #rethink our #ambitions and way forward towards a “new” normal.
I happily share a few lines from the #book that in my opinion paint a #picture of the now and the sense of urgency to change the #future.
The Pale Blue Dot Captured By Voyager 1
“Look at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”
Night Sky Reflections from the World’s Largest Mirror
Image Credit & Copyright: Jheison Huerta
“The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
“Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.”
“There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we have ever known.”
The world to mankind
Bringing this message even closer home @chrismorriss put words together that speak to everyone, sending out the message that we are merely guests and never will become the master.
It is clear that whatever economic, power, status system we design and implement to maximize global efficiency for the benefit of a small portion of the population, in the end, life, mother nature, and earth will come back to balance it all. Making no difference in color, religion, norms, and values knowing no borders and no culture.
The “new” normal can not be achieved by money or by power or by status. It can only be achieved through a more humble and human-centered mindset. We need to teach and change our thinking, our approaches, our higher-level purpose. Being more conscious of our actions and our deeds. It is not about circular. It is all about finding a balance for all humankind in sync with mother nature.
Be the change
As Gandhi send out the message to reach and inspire everyone to play their part. In his words lie the key to the goal of a well-balanced life and more.
This pandemic, a wake-up call, an opportunity to find our real value and reason to be here, together. Wishing you all the wisdom, resilience, and health to fulfill your reason for being.
#staysafe, #stayhealthy, #staystrong
Ricardo Abdoel
Realization is the Creation of Imagination | https://medium.com/@ricardoabdoel/life-after-the-pandemic-the-new-normal-c70e1c22da1a | ['Ricardo Abdoel'] | 2020-12-24 23:57:46.044000+00:00 | ['Pandemic', 'Imagination', 'Earth', 'Universe', 'Humanity'] |
Deploy your Next.js app to Heroku in 5 minutes | When I became a freelancer, I was afraid of deployment. As a startup employee, I always had the luxury of my coworkers nearby if anything went wrong. It was a luxury I only appreciated once it was no longer an option as these days I mostly work by myself. But that move from employee to freelancer also made me realize something else:
While deployment may seen frightening, it doesn’t have to be.
As a matter of fact, this tutorial will prove how easily and quickly you can get your Next.js application deployed to Heroku.
Prerequisites for this tutorial:
Git
a Heroku account (if you don’t have one, create an account here)
Heroku CLI (if you don’t have it set up, head here first)
Node.js installed (at the time of writing, Next.js requires Node.js 10.13 or later. For more info, read Nexts.js — Getting Started)
(Optional) Create a Next.js app if you don’t already have one
I am assuming that if you are reading this post, you most likely have one running on your localhost. But, to be 100% sure, I will show you how to get one set up.
npx create-next-app # OR yarn create next-app
Go through the creating setup and when it is done, you can try starting the development server.
npm run dev # OR yarn dev
1. Update your package.json
Heroku runs their applications in Linux containers called dynos. When Heroku runs a web dyno, it sets a variable called $PORT. To receive incoming requests, you need to bind to this port.
To do so, go to your root-level package.json and update your start script:
"scripts": {
"dev": "next dev",
"build": "next build",
"start": "next start -p $PORT"
}
Tip: For more information on the different types of dynos and how they work, here is the Heroku’s documentation.
2. Commit your code to git
First, we will use git to push our code to Heroku. That’s why you should transform your app into a git repo if that isn’t already the case.
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
3. Create a Heroku app
You need to be logged into the Heroku CLI to do this (you can do so with the command heroku login). Once you are, you can create your app:
heroku create $APP_NAME
4. Push your code the the Heroku app
With your code committed and your Heroku app created, you are now ready to push this code onto your app.
git push heroku master
Tip: If you are on a branch other than master (say main or production), you can push your code like this:
git push heroku [your branch name]:master # For example, git push heroku production:master
Once deployment done, you can access your app at https://[APP_NAME].herokuapp.com/.
Et voilà!
Possible Errors
1) Error R10 (Boot timeout) -> Web process failed to bind to $PORT within 60 seconds of launch
You have committed your code, pushed it to your Heroku app, opened up a tab to view your new shiny app and …. nothing loads. Worse, you get a message that an error occurred.
First, do this command to see your logs:
heroku logs --tail
And, bam!
Error R10 (Boot timeout) -> Web process failed to bind to $PORT within 60 seconds of launch
Do not panic. What most likely happened is that you forgot to update your package.json. Go back to that file and make sure that your start script has the -p $PORT required.
2) No build cache found. Please configure build caching for faster rebuilds
You might see this when you push your code to Heroku and your app is building. It’s not an error but a warning. It won’t hurt your project but will result in slower builds. For more information, you can read the Next.js documentation on the subject.
To fix this, go to your package.json and add this:
"cacheDirectories": [".next/cache"]
Tips and tricks after deploying
Once you are done deploying, here are a list of things you might want to set up for a smooth running of your application.
Set your environment variables in Heroku
You have two ways at your disposal to set your environment variables in Heroku.
1) through the terminal
You can first see all your variables:
heroku config #If you just created your app, the result will probably be blank
Set an new variable. This will restart your application too.
heroku config:set FOO=bar
Remove a variable:
heroku config:unset FOO
2) Through the dashboard
Another way to add/edit/remove environment variables is through the dashboard.
Go to https://dashboard.heroku.com/apps and select your app. Navigate to Settings. Under Config Vars, you will be able to make all the changes you need.
Automated deployment
If you have a Github account, you might be interested in Heroku’s automated deployment feature. This will mean that every time you push your changes to a particular branch, say production, those changes are automatically push to your Heroku application.
To do so, go to your dashboard and select your app. Under the Deploy tab, look for Deployment method.
From there, you can connect your Github account. Once that is done, you can select a repository and a branch.
Are you looking for someone to help you deploy your application in Heroku and set it up properly? I can help you with that. Fill out this contact form and I will get back to you shortly. | https://levelup.gitconnected.com/deploy-your-next-js-app-to-heroku-in-5-minutes-255e829a9966 | ['Marie Starck'] | 2020-11-17 23:04:45.965000+00:00 | ['DevOps', 'Nextjs', 'Heroku', 'JavaScript', 'Programming'] |
How Responsive (to Students) Is Too Responsive? | .
In response to “The Quandary: How Available Should Faculty Members Be to Students Online?” — by Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz and Megan Zahneis — Chronicle of Higher Education — April 22, 2020
Arthur Rothstein, “Instructor explaining the operation of a parachute to student pilots, Meacham field, Fort Worth, Tex.” Library of Congress. (link)
Good question. I get emails from students around the clock. I pride myself on being known as a good source of information. I remember at LIU Brooklyn, my advisees would sometimes bring their friends with them to appointments, and the friends would ask me questions, too, because their own advisors had proven less reliable. I will admit I took a kind of perverse pleasure in that. I do my best either to answer questions myself or to be able to point them in the right direction. Sometimes, of course, the right answer is telling them how to go and figure out the answer themselves. How much is not enough, or just right, or too much? Probably different for every student in every situation. Where is the balancing point between helping and hand-holding? Between learning to be independent and learning that we are always interdependent?
. | https://medium.com/@wayneberninger/how-responsive-to-students-is-too-responsive-6bfa2672c195 | ['Wayne William Berninger'] | 2020-04-23 13:30:55.254000+00:00 | ['Academic Advising', 'Teaching And Learning', 'Interdependence'] |
This is Evolution | The modern banking system started in the affluent cities of Renaissance period Italy and slowly spread throughout Europe and from there to the entire world. As with any human-made system, it has evolved to stay in tune with the changing times. Today, the banking system, aptly called the financial services sector, has expanded its range of services and is set to reach $26.5 trillion by 2022.
________________________________
Kale99 Digital Bank
This is Evolution For Bank
“Bank” was originally created as the face of the financial services industry; physical locations where people will come to do financial transactions — save their money to keep them secure and capitalize on interest in them. They are also offered services such as loans and mortgages. Banks are seen as a safe haven for the wealth of hard-earned people. Over time, the way banks, and their services, are used depends heavily on the generation of people accessing the sector. Millennials are the world’s largest spending force and banks more than any other generation, according to the Bank Administration Agency.
To indulge millennials’ penchant for technology and their growing need for technology-supporting services, banks are starting to offer digital banking services. But as the world moves toward realizing the financial potential of Generation Z, born in the era of the Internet and social media, banks realize that they need to change dramatically or face extinction.
Today, a new generation of millennials is driving a sophisticated banking revolution the “digital bank.” According to research, nearly 60% of United State. Millennials will be digital banking users and more than half will shift to “digital only” banking. With three-quarters of the global workforce set to comprise millennials by 2025, the impact on the banking system as we know it will be remarkable.
The understanding of digital banks is a direct result of the needs of millennials and is very different from other generations — the way they interact with brands, different banking needs and less favorable bank opinions in general. And this is where Kale99 provides the solution.
Kale99 is a digital bank that understands the dynamic needs of millennials and Gen Z. By placing customers in the middle of everything it does, Kale99 takes a UX/UI approach to providing integrated solutions to make banking not only easier but also anticipates the increasing needs of its customers by providing personal and financial growth opportunities and strategies.
The kale99 concept is tightly integrated in its name. Kale is one of the fastest growing plants known to mankind. It is not meticulous in its needs and requires little help to grow, bloom and thrive. This is what Kale99 wants for its customers — to thrive and thrive in their personal and financial lives. 99 describes the involvement of 99% Kale99 in the process while leaving only 1% for customers to find out.
“ Kale99 is different from other digital banks because it not only creates a financial services platform, but an entire ecosystem for the growth and overall development of its customers through targeted communication, tailored to their interests, daily tips and strategies for making the right financial and life decisions. Kale99 is “green” in all its activities — we make credit cards from 98% recycled materials. We use industry-leading UX/UI benchmarks to create the most seamless and intuitive connections between users and apps”, Karl Goebel — CEO of Kale99, says.
Excellent security in the Kale99 ecosystem — all data, like any transaction, secured with blockchain technology and access via biometry rather than passwords alone, greatly reduces the risk of any hacking. In addition, customers are never far from help with customer service 24/7 via chat via the app. Book your Card now, and get these amazing features:
1. For withdrawals adjusted for zero charges
2. multiple IBAN accounts per user
3. secure biometric authentication
4. zero new card issuance fee
5. unlimited daily purchases
6. zero documents
Kale99 invites Ambassadors and Founders to begin this transformation.
Kale99 Ambassadors and Founders receive lifetime free special accounts and bank cards, priority services, and free tickets to exclusive events, in addition to many other in-app benefits. All these lifetime benefits for a small one-time amount of 100€.
Kale99 currently offers a Payback Rewards Program. To participate in the program, users must refer their friends and receive a refund.
Parting words
Kale99’s efforts are not only to provide banking services to its customers but also to create an ecosystem that eases all kinds of financial transactions while providing opportunities to grow financially and personally through carefully curated and tailored guidance.
Kale99 strives to be a brand that keeps its customers at the center of everything they do, brands that millennials can identify with. It strives for 360 degree service for real life. That’s Kale99’s vision. Take action and join us today.
Contact:
Address: 95 Mortimer street W1W7GB — London, UK
email: [email protected]
Website URL: www.kale99.com
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — | https://medium.com/@dindamayasi199/this-is-evolution-4d385a15f7a | ['Wasis Media'] | 2020-10-06 07:56:23.849000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Banking', 'Defi', 'Médium', 'Kale99'] |
The Crazy World of my Dreams boosts my Creativity | The Crazy World of my Dreams boosts my Creativity
Photo by Lauren Kay on Unsplash
I dream a lot. Mostly there is a story line that involves me looking for something or someone. I am often late in my dreams, unable to find the bathroom, or the right clothes to wear, or trying to hurry someone who is taking their time.
Every dream I have is in wonderful colour. I don’t think that applies to everybody; certainly my husband says he can’t recall colours at all in his dreams.
The night before last, I dreamt the story line of this story I wrote. It seemed to last a lifetime and I got to know the characters really well. There might even be another chapter for later!
The Importance of Suzy, and How I Found Out | by Thewriteyard | ILLUMINATION | Dec, 2020 | Medium
The only thing I changed was the girl’s name. In my dream she was Gigi.
Suzy sounds better I think. | https://medium.com/illumination/the-crazy-world-of-my-dreams-boosts-my-creativity-34d0fd564758 | [] | 2020-12-28 11:15:36.983000+00:00 | ['Illumination', 'Fiction Writing', 'Fiction', 'Dreams', 'Inspiration'] |
All Will Come Again Into Its Strength | The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch for the unprecedented age in which we live. In stratigraphy, epochs can be identified and defined by the mark they leave in the earth’s geological record: glacial deposits from the Pleistocene’s great ice ages, for example, or the fossils of species that flourished in the climate stability of the Holocene.
The idea that we are living in a new age, with extensive and often catastrophic environmental changes of its own, has grown in prominence over the last decade. The impact of mankind’s activity has become a major geological force, defining this epoch by the work of our hands: Anthropocene, the age of human beings. Because it is a measure of what our activity will leave behind, the Anthropocene is also largely a history of extensive scarring — toxic chemicals from oil well blowouts scorched into the soil, microplastics settling in great dunes on the deepest ocean floors; the vast tracts of natural forest cleared out for the farming of monocultures. It is an age whose changes take the shape of damage and loss.
Traces of the Anthropocene relentlessly dog our journey through the woodlands and out onto the Green Corridor. The forest cuts abruptly at an iron fence, through whose gaps we emerge into a gravel-strewn clearing. Around us lie strips of plastic construction tape, and yawning cross-sections of disused piping. We walk past plastic bottles, discarded surgical masks, and more corrugated fencing, cutting off portions of the woods from entry. They tell of what this forest’s eventual death might look like, and, like little omens, portend a wider extinction event yet to come.
As we head south along the Corridor, Sara speaks of her grandmother’s death. She had written about their relationship shortly before her passing, a recollection winding gently between homeland and heart, remembering their lives by the east coast before land reclamation shifted the shoreline entirely. Grandma told me about how she used to take walks with Grandpa to the beach, and how the salty smell of the sea would waft mischievously through the house in the evening, Sara wrote. Now, between her house and the sea lie tar roads, bustling hawker centres, markets, malls.
After her grandmother’s death, she tells us, the loss was felt as an unmooring. This was the only word she could find that would say something for the speechless grief of the months. Through this word, the loss of her grandmother and their neighbourhood settled together into the same ground of longing — a ship losing its anchor, a sea unfixed from its coastland, and the land itself lost to modern development, harrowing the shape of memory.
Sara is not the only one to have felt the deaths of person and place as such keenly similar wounds. Listening to his dying father intone childhood streets that no longer exist, Boey Kim Cheng wrote of how it was as if he was piecing together the alleys, / the streets and neighbourhood / of his body, reassembling / the ruined city / of his vanished self. By writing dying flesh as ruined place, Boey speaks of how tightly-woven a land can be to relationship and personhood. It echoes as a warning of how greatly the disruptions of the Anthropocene could unmoor us all. The landscapes we live within provide comfort, solace and familiarity, and their features form the contour of the ways in which we have loved and lost one another.
This is a hurt that turns reciprocal. Where losing a person can be bound up with losing a place, the death of a place can also feel like the death of a person. The poet Leong Liew Geok memorialises this in her record of a beloved albizia’s felling, as she figures the violence done to it with the shock of abduction, then murder. Vanished without smoke, the tree outside her window is shot from one spot…a triple execution. In her poem, she grieves for it as if it were human, and grieves the fact that we so often do not. If trees could yell in decibels / drown the drone of saws / in final screeching falls / we might be less careless / to cut and carry so efficiently. Fallen albizia branches mark the path down the Green Corridor, amputated from their trunks, and Leong’s poem shades the way with a foreboding potency.
Not all of the Anthropocene’s terrains, however, provoke only devastation and despair. As we follow the bitumen track down towards Holland Road, the landscape on either side falls away under a fierce flush of sunlight. The pathway we stand on ridgelines between each end, and the view to which it opens up is maybe one of the most beautiful things I have seen in this country.
To our left, a river courses down its channel, a deep gouge of concrete built to guard the grounds from the storm surge of other canals flowing from the city. It takes its water from Sumatran squalls bursting those banks, such that the source of this river is not soil, but sky. Once, the channel was a long line of unbroken water, cutting through Old Holland Road and the southern edge of the Clementi Forest, emptying itself out into mangrove swamps at the mouth of the Pandan Reservoir. Known as the Bukit Timah First Diversion Canal, it was widened three years ago, and the other side of the channel was infilled with topsoil and transformed into a grassy gully. Past spilling creepers and granite weirs, the water flows now from open air into a cavernous hollow going under the earth, over which the Clementi Forest roots itself again in clay and stormwater.
This is one of my favourite places to run to, and I think the same can be said of the many people that I often pass by here — families, walking groups, photographers and cyclists. I’ve seen runners stop mid-stride along the track, needing more than a few moments to take in the lushness of everything around them. Egrets and whimbrels overwinter in the mini-deltas growing around the river, and in the gully, people descending to explore it tramp desire paths into the soil.
So much of this, however, remains a complicated space. It was to feed this channel that Sam’s stream and other forest habitats were concretised and torn apart, razed to make way for roads, rivers and houses. Yet at the same time, I am cognizant of how these are the same paths and dwellings which have brought others and myself into closer contact with the storm of life still seething at the forest’s heart. By the banks and at the edge of the woods, natural and human worlds are colliding into each other, and all of this becomes a kind of common ground — people of all colours and creeds, returning to the land, falling slowly in love with it.
For some long moments, the five of us stand in the bright morning’s gilding and look out. In spite of the wider forest’s imminent loss, and in defiance of the year’s compounded griefs, a poem from Rainer Maria Rilke’s The Book of Pilgrimage blazes itself in my mind:
All will come again into its strength:
the fields undivided, and the waters undammed,
the trees towering and the walls built low.
And in the valleys, people as strong
and varied as the land. | https://medium.com/@leonardyipwenyao/all-will-come-again-into-its-strength-952264141c98 | ['Leonard Yip'] | 2020-12-01 17:45:05.610000+00:00 | ['Clementi Forest', 'Anthropocene', 'Environment', 'Conservation', 'Singapore'] |
Lifeless With a Heartbeat | Lifeless With a Heartbeat
Photo by Francesca Zama from Pexels | Edited by Never Sugarcoated
Pressed against
the steering wheel,
lifeless with a heartbeat.
Snow-covered streets
never turn down
a dare.
The cracks in
your foundation
glisten in
the rearview
mirror.
Good thing
you can’t see.
It would have
ruined
your night
out.
Your disease
drips
from the bottle
stashed
beneath your seat,
beckoning
you to come
clean.
But you sleep.
My friend,
you’re lost
again,
trapped in
a cycle
that never
tires.
But I do.
I try so hard
to take your pain,
my fingers
bleed and scar—
daily reminders
of my failed
attempts
to lift you up
again.
But the truth,
white as snow
and red as wine,
is that you
won’t stop
until it hurts
bad enough,
no matter how
bad it hurts
everyone
else.
You hate you,
so you follow
suit.
No one else can save your life.
You are dying,
it’s the truth.
But I hope you
come home
soon. | https://medium.com/loose-words/lifeless-with-a-heartbeat-e1123aedc4f8 | ['Never Sugarcoated'] | 2020-12-23 14:45:18.523000+00:00 | ['Addiction', 'Boundaries', 'Alcoholism', 'Poetry', 'Free Verse'] |
Premier League 18–19: A Review By EDA | Reviewing by Exploratory Data Analysis
Cardiff City, managed by lifelong referee critic and purveyor of inspirational half time talks, Neil Warnock, were relegated alongside Huddersfield Town and Fulham. In doing so the two former teams have taught us its important to find a healthy balance of foreign players or you might find yourself in a spot of bother.
Cardiff City had the least of any team in the premier league with only ten foreign players, Huddersfield Town had the most with 27 but still couldn’t avoid the drop. I’m assuming Nigel Farage would be rooting for Cardiff’s philosophy more so than Huddersfield’s. Top tip : when betting on next year’s relegation candidates look for a team with =< 10 and >= 27 foreign players, with this crafty formula up your sleeve you’ll be guaranteed not to lose as much money as you did this season at the bookies. But since Fulham were also relegated Its probably best not to use that formula.
It would appear that age is linked to success in the premier league (to a small amount).
The top seven ranked clubs have average squad ages between ~27 and ~28. 65% of teams have average squad ages between 26 and 28. It would suggest that such clubs have a good balance of youthful talent and seasoned experience in their ranks. Cardiff have a highly experienced side, with an average age over 29, though that didn’t help them in their bid for premier league survival. Newcastle and Bournemouth have the youngest squads and have shown signs of promise.
Manchester City showed us that spending big will land you silverware, that, and in the cross hairs of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play Police. Manchester City’s net spend since 2010 is greater than up to 10 other of this year’s premier league team’s net spend combined.
City have spent over 1 billion pounds, their next closest rival, both geographically and in net spend, are Manchester United. Yet United’s net spend is almost half that of their city rivals. On the converse, Tottenham are championing the cause for misers, showing that you don’t have to spend big to finish runner’s up in Europe’s biggest competition, having spent 16.78 million. Tottenham’s expenditure is considerably less than feeder club Southampton (33.44 million) who have made a habit of selling their best players to Liverpool. However, in the last ten years Spurs have made huge profits on the sales of current Ballon’d’or winner Luka Modric and the non-Spanish speaking golf sensation that is Gareth Bale.
Since 2010,on five separate occasions Manchester City have spent over 100 million £ in a season. The rest of the league combined have crossed that threshold eight times, three of which were by Manchester United post Sir Alex Ferguson.
Money, Money, Money, Monneyyyy
There is a large gulf between the top 6 and the rest of the league in regards to player value and overall market value. While this value is subjective and transfermarkt.co.uk does not release valuation methods it’s hard to understand the driving factors behind market value. Here is an interesting piece of research regarding player value’s in football. Individual performances and accolades alongside a teams’ final league position will undoubtedly alter squad value and in turn average player value. After the Liverpool’s champions league win it is a certainty that every player has added a few million to their price tag. This year’s top four (City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs) average player value is ~30 million £ or greater. The entire top six’s, which includes the teams above plus Manchester United and Arsenal, average player value is greater than 20 million £. Of the remaining 12 teams only 4 have an average player value of more than 10 million £.
Manchester City have the most expensive squad yet they have not spent over 60 million pounds on a single player to date. Liverpool have a number of expensive stars, namely the world’s most expensive defender, Netherlands Captain, Virgil Van Dijk and the world’s second most expensive goalkeeper, Allisson Becker, who along with his wife Dr Natalia Loewe were recently made UN goodwill ambassadors. Astonishingly, Virgil Van Dijk and Allisson Becker cost more than Fulham and Huddersfield Town’s squads.
Using a Kmeans clustering algorithm with k =2 as ascertained through silhouette method and a visualization using a principal component analysis. The gulf between the top 6 and the rest of the league when comparing net spend is abundantly clear.
Neither axes correspond to a specific variable
Arsenal are placed away from the regular big spenders: the two Manchester clubs, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea. This illustrates the difficulty that less wealthy teams face when looking for survival and title challenge within the premier league.
Shooting, Passing & Possession
Manchester United, despite finishing sixth ranked the best shooting accuracy being the only team with an accuracy over 40%. Unsurprisingly, Liverpool and Manchester City are also near the top, second and third respectively. With players such as Augero, Sterling, Salah and Mane its no surprise they rank well. Surprisingly Bournemouth are number four for accuracy despite being in the lower end of the shots per match table.
Bournemouth ranked top for number of goals scored on the counter attack followed by Leicester and Liverpool. Both Liverpool and Leicester were within the top three the previous season also. However, I’m unclear as to what exactly constitutes a counter attacking goal
When looking at Long passes and Backwards passes Bournemouth also find themselves in an interesting situation. Bournemouth are stylistically contrasting to the teams placed around them in the league table.
When analysing long passes per minute, Manchester City and “Sarri Ball” Chelsea alongside Bournemouth seldom make long passes, however, unlike Manchester City and Chelsea, Bournemouth do not tend the play the ball backwards and like to play direct. Cardiff on the other hand do not recycle the ball backwards and appear to like to hoof it long, reminiscent of football 30 years ago. This may be something to do with Neil Warnock’s anachronistic tactics…and self.
Fulham, despite not fairing well in the league looked to play “football” throughout the campaign. Fulham ranked well for overall possession, as compared to their league place neighbors and also were willing to play the ball back, more so than the league average.
When compared to other teams around them in the league, Bournemouth’s average possession per match fairs well, despite being below 50%. There is a strong correlation (0.79) between possession and backwards passes.
Its hard to uncover what this truly means but there are two schools of thought 1) The longer the team hold the ball the more chance there is that they will be required to pass back 2) or that the more you pass back (less risk of loosing the ball) you retain the ball for longer and ensure a higher possession statistic. The top three for possession and backwards passes are Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool.
Newcastle,Cardiff and Burnley make, on average, the most long passes and record some of the lowest backwards passes whilst also having some of the lowest possession in the league. This suggests a direct style of play from these teams as they employ route one football. This is in direct contrast to the higher placing teams whom emphasize retention of possession, even if that means going backwards, punctuating play with a series of short passes.
A means of understanding similarity between teams for a variety of variables is Kmeans Clustering. Some of the methodology was mentioned above, to get a better understanding of the methods used you can click the link.
Using the clustering algorithm we can understand to an extent, stylistic similarities between teams. This was also done above interpreting multiple plots in tandems, with this we can use a principal component analysis to visualise the clustering. This type of clustering has some drawbacks but this isn’t really the time or place to get into it. To fully understand why clusters contain specific teams you will need to have an idea of the data. You can view the data and create your kernel. It would be great to see more people involved.
But for now here are some of the Kmeans Cluster Analyses visualised by principal component analysis. | https://medium.com/the-sports-niche/premier-league-18-19-a-review-by-eda-ea2631083562 | [] | 2019-06-10 17:17:12.701000+00:00 | ['Soccer', 'Football', 'Premier League', 'Data Science', 'Data Visualization'] |
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs): All You Need to Know | The crypto space is one of the most innovative fields that I have come in touch with. It is ever changing with new projects popping up and new innovative applications of the blockchain technology driving it.
Just to set the context here, the crypto market can be seen to have three broad categories: Bitcoin, Altcoins and Tokens. Don’t think I have to delve much into this but Bitcoin is the world’s very first decentralized digital currency and has been receiving a lot of attention lately given its price surge. Altcoins, short for “alternative coins”, are basically any other digital asset that operates on its own native blockchain; Ethereum and Litecoin fall under this category since they have their own independent blockchain. Last but not least, tokens refer to digital assets that runs on the blockchain of a specific cryptocurrency.
For this article, I’d like very much to delve into a specific type of token — non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Sounds complicated, but not really.
When something is fungible, it means that it is interchangeable. For example, if you lend your friend a $10 bill, you wouldn’t mind if you get a different $10 bill back. Conversely, when something is non-fungible, it is unique and irreplaceable. For example, artwork like the Mona Lisa is definitely not interchangeable with another piece of art; flight tickets bearing your name are also not interchangeable.
So applying that to NFTs, these tokens have smart contracts that allow for detailed attributes recorded in their smart contracts, such as identity of the owner, rich metadata or secure file links. This thus allows NFTs to be used as means of proving ownership or authenticating items online.
Another notable feature of NFTs would also be that they are not divisible; in the same way that you can’t exactly share a piece of artwork you bought by cutting it up, NFTs will be worthless if they are ever “divided”.
Examples of NFTs
One of the first ever NFTs created would be the CryptoKitties that was launched in 2017, which are just really cute mutant kitties that you can breed, trade and buy. Each of these blockchain-based cat is unique and cannot be replicated, taken away or destroyed. Think of this KittyVerse as an upgraded version of Neopets and you got it.
Today, we also see NFTs being used for digital assets that need to be distinguished from each other to prove their value or scarcity; in the music industry, artists have issued tokens that will accord purchasers exclusive listening rights to new tracks; in the sports arena, binance has partnered with a fintech firm to offer fan tokens for teams like FC Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain; in the entertainment realm, BBC has released a NFT-powered digital trading card game that turns characters into NFTs.
With more physical assets being represented by NFTs on blockchain, I am looking forward to see how ownership will be redefined in the future, especially with regards to our finance ecosystem, insurance markets and social networks.
Today, we already see a few platforms that are aiming to democratize the use of NFTs.
One of my favourite platforms to utilize would be Mintable, a marketplace to buy and sell digital items on the blockchain. Mintable allows you to buy and sell a myriad of products ranging from files, artwork, music, images and documents. Utilizing smart contracts which are already built into the system, these items live on the blockchain and when you buy them, they are deposited into your wallet. You have 100% verifiable proof that you are the owner of whatever you buy.
If you are a creator, Mintable is also a great way to further monetise your work. You can upload your pieces of work on Mintable and leverage the digital platform to provide exclusive benefits to buyers when they purchase through the blockchain. For example, you could award buyers exclusive listening rights or rare album covers that they can download after purchasing your items. For such NFTs, rarity can greatly increase the value of your product because of the collectability factor, where people will want to hold onto that item to resell it in future when its value increases. With its intuitive platform, it is perfect for those looking to make their first foray into the space and earn some crypto.
You can find out more about Mintable here.
Till next time, friends online!
Gale. | https://medium.com/@g-ale/non-fungible-tokens-nfts-all-you-need-to-know-e9c2ef7a3e70 | [] | 2020-12-20 14:13:00.904000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Blockchain', 'Fintech', 'Tokens'] |
Spring Boot + Redis + PostgreSQL Caching | Hi everyone,
In this post, I would like to show you how to use Redis for Caching with Spring Boot application.
Caching is a very important approach for web development. It helps you to give quick response for your request.
Table of Contents:
Getting Started
Redis is most popular tool to use for caching. It is widely usage in the web application development.
What is Redis?
Redis is an open source (BSD licensed), in-memory data structure store, used as a database, cache, and message broker. Redis provides data structures such as strings, hashes, lists, sets, sorted sets with range queries, bitmaps, hyperloglogs, geospatial indexes, and streams.
In this post, I have created a simple demo. It includes a Customer class. There are getAllCustomers(), getCustomerById() methods in Controller layer. These are cacheable. If you send requests for these methods, you can be wait for 3 seconds if Redis has no related data in memory. Scenario is like this. Let's begin.
Project Structure
Maven Dependencies
First of all, we need to add relevant dependencies to pom.xml file. I will use jedis client.
pom.xml :
Redis Configuration
I have created a configuration file for Redis configuration like below. I created redisCacheTemplate and cacheManager beans for Redis.
Spring Cache Annotations
I have used Spring Cache Annotations. I would like to explain you what they are.
@Cacheable triggers cache population
triggers cache population @CacheEvict triggers cache eviction
triggers cache eviction @CachePut updates the cache without interfering with the method execution
updates the cache without interfering with the method execution @Caching regroups multiple cache operations to be applied on a method
regroups multiple cache operations to be applied on a method @CacheConfig shares some common cache-related settings at class-level
Service Layer
I have created a service layer for customer. I have used Spring Annotaions for Caching. When you get all customers you will get all data from database if Redis has no related data. waitSomeSome() method is written for simulation. When add new Customer or update a Customer , Redis database related data will evict.
Docker & Docker Compose
I have created a Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml files for dockerize this application. I will use postgresql for RDBMS db. I added redis with cache tag to docker-compose.yml file. Docker compose is a very useful tool to run more than one containers.
Dockerfile :
docker-compose.yml :
Build And Run
Building and running this application, you need to run some cli commands like mvn and docker. Firstly, I made a fat jar for my application. After that I build my docker-compose file. Finally, you just need to up docker-compose file.
When you follow this road map, you application will be started successfully. You can just go to http://localhost:8080 or http://localhost:8080/swagger-ui.html . If you go to http://localhost:8080/swagger-ui.html link, you can see easily the endpoints of project and you can also test them with Swagger tool.
Build Java Jar.
Docker Compose Build and Run
Demo
I made a video on how to run and test this application on Youtube. | https://medium.com/echohub/spring-boot-redis-postgresql-caching-58ca352280a3 | ['Erkan Güzeler'] | 2021-01-03 14:29:34.234000+00:00 | ['Cache', 'Web Development', 'Spring Boot', 'Redis', 'Web'] |
Child rapist Cho Doo Soon | Child rapist Cho Doo Soon
He who raped and brutalized an 8-year-old is now released back to the same neighborhood as the victim.
Cho Doo Soon, Photo by AsiaOne
Back in December 2008, an 8-year-old child, fictiously known as Na Young (to protect her actual identity) was walking to school as she had always done. On December 11th, she bumped into a 57-year-old man who would forever scarred her life.
He dragged her by force to a nearby church’s toilet and forced his genitalia into her mouth. When she struggled and refused, he punched her several times in her face and even strangled her until she lost consciousness. Then he proceeded to rape the 8-year-old in her private areas and her ear. Afraid of leaving his DNA behind, he assaulted her again with a toilet plunger to somehow ‘remove’ his DNA to a point that supposedly, her insides were hanging outside through her private area. He then raped her once again.
Before he fled the scene, he left the cold water running in the bathroom with the bleeding, unconscious child on the floor. Perhaps, it was another futile attempt to wash away evidence. Note that December in Korea is cold and that the bathroom stall was not heated. Some argued that this case was not just rape but also an attempt to murder. After all, he did leave her to die.
Against all odds, the brave girl miraculously survived and even managed to crawl out of the stall and got help. She went through intensive, emergency surgery for 8 hours. Her lower half was permanently damaged and the injury was categorized as a 3rd-degree disability. Initially, she was paralyzed from her lower half and she had to have a colostomy bag which later she had successful surgery on the artificial anus to replace it. She was left with livelong mentally and physically disabilities.
Cho was arrested two days later when the police found the fingerprints and DNA of Cho. He first claimed that it was not him. When the DNA and blood samples came back, he changed his story to he was so drunk for two days and had no recollection of what happened.
It gets worse for Na Young. On top of going through her traumatizing ordeal, she also had to face the police incompetence. The police made the very ill, Na Young attend the interrogation in the police station. At that time, Na Young was still suffering from post recovery and she still had her colostomy bag. She had to recall and re-testified four times again and again for 40 minutes on a hard, solid chair simply because the recording tape was not even recording.
Keep in mind that it was not long ago from the surgery and she was merely an 8-year-old with her lower half brutalized. Later on, the family sued the police for a bad investigation and won. Some said that a written testimony would have sufficed in cases like these. But for some reason, Na Young had to testify in court and face her rapist. During the court session, she was still recovering where 80% of her organs were still bleeding. She had to wear a pad that soon became smeared.
Little did she know that one simple question was going to directly impact her rapist’s sentence. When the defense lawyer asked, “Do you smell alcohol on him?”. Innocently, she answered yes truthfully. And with that, his sentence from prison for life was reduced to 12 years in prison during the second trial.
For context, Korea has a law known as “Sim Sin Mi Yak” that protects individuals that are mentally impaired or mentally weak from entirely being held responsible for their actions. Meanwhile, the law “Joo Chi Gam Hyung” states that substance abuse impairs the individual’s mental state. These laws helped in Cho’s defense as he was declared mentally impaired because he was drunk at that time and was incapable of distinguishing his action. The enraged Koreans filed two petitions to abolish “Joo Chi Gam Hyung” and “Sim Sin Mi Yak”. But, they were rejected by the Blue House.
These laws have left many victims of rape and violence vulnerable as the perpetrators often use overconsumption of alcohol as their defense to get a lighter sentence. To name a few that had used this defense, a man in Busan had his sentence reduced to a year in prison for raping his lover while drunk. A 26-year-old male had his sentence reduced from 3 years in prison to 4 years of probation for sexually assaulting a college student while again, drunk.
The 12-year sentence of Cho came to an end on December 12th. Before the release, experts believed that he might return to his supporting wife and home that was
2 streets away from Na Young’s home
Protests against Cho’s release, Photo by Yun Dong-Jin/Yonhap on Associated Press (AP)
There has not been an official report that revealed his home location but he was released in Ansan, the very same neighborhood as Na Young. Many of the Koreans were outraged and protested against his lenient sentence. They laid on the ground, threw eggs, and kicked the van that was transporting Cho. Also, Cho had 18 previous criminal accusations and a history of violence. He had stolen, extorted money, rape, and assaulted all prior to this case.
With heat from the public, the Blue House recently passed a bill nicknamed ‘Cho Doo Soon Law’. It banned individuals convicted of sexually assaulting minors from leaving their residence at night and during the hours when students commute back and from. They are also banned from school areas. In addition to the bill, Cho will be on the public sex offender list for five years, wearing an electronic ankle bracelet, and have random checks from the authorities. Still, many find the release very.. uneasy.
The month before Cho’s release, Na Young’s family said that they planned to move away from Ansan. According to KOREA NOW, Na Young and her family has successfully moved away before his release. | https://medium.com/the-true-crime-edition/child-rapist-cho-doo-soon-c45158298e34 | ['Emmalina Alessandrya'] | 2020-12-21 12:55:41.125000+00:00 | ['Rape', 'Injustice', 'Crime', 'Korea', 'Law'] |
Never Before Seen “Profit Funnel” Creates | FREE Traffic Instantly & Generates You a
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The reality is this “gap” is tiny … it’s simply having POWERFUL funnels that automatically generate traffic & profits.
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The “good old days” of converting your traffic into profits with traditional email or social media marketing are gone: | https://medium.com/@sumonl3bt/never-before-seen-profit-funnel-creates-456b3db97be0 | ['Md. Hasan'] | 2020-12-26 07:30:22.291000+00:00 | ['Profit', 'Successful Marketers', 'Income', 'Make Money Online', 'Free Traffic'] |
Let’s Appreciate Will, the Kit Man | Season 1, Episode 10: “The Hope That Kills You”
Will’s hand extended waiting for a shake.
The ruse that Ted planned may have started Will off on the wrong foot with Nate in terms of first impressions. Nate's first impression of Will is one of misplaced anger that he may have been fired. Will’s extended hand is slapped away, and we never see him properly introduce himself to Nate, at least not on screen.
We don’t know if Will ever got that handshake. 😭
At this pivotal point in AFC Richmond’s season, Will shows a great deal of competence taking over for Nate and the team doesn’t miss a beat because of it.
Stay hydrated, Greyhounds!
When he’s not placing out the towels or handling the players' kits, he always has water bottles ready to hand off…
*shrug*
… even when Ted is ramping up to a heartfelt speech. This interruption provides one of the season’s last humorous moments in an otherwise heartbreaking finale.
Season 2, Episode 1: “Goodbye, Earl”
Will returns in the second season when the coaches are discussing the virtues of being “unlucky”. Will stops by the office with a pretty reasonable request.
For the record, Will’s mom would make an excellent Center Forward
We learn that Will has a mum who just turned 50 and Will was able to leave work early to celebrate that thanks to the generosity of the coaching staff… but not so much Nate.
Pressure makes what now?
After Will leaves, Nate tries to justify his being mean to Will with the idiom “Pressure makes diamonds” but flubs it by saying “Pressure makes pearls,”… foreshadowing for the slip up that Nate makes later on in the season.
Season 2, Episode 2: “Lavender”
In the next episode, we get another glimpse into Will’s personal life.
Parisian bedrooms, eh Beard?
Turns out he has a girlfriend who loves lavender and finds it very calming. Will seems like a very chill guy as well. Do you know who has no chill at this moment?: Nate the Great, who does not appreciate the lavender scented fabric softener Will used on the towels.
Maybe a certain change is throwing off a coach’s headspace too?
Nate tells Will not to make changes that will mess with a player's headspace… (interesting choice of words foreshadowing an episode title later) Also, notice the height disparity between Nate (5' 4½" /1.64 m) and Will (5'10' / 1.78m). Talk about punching upwards.
The way Nate summons Will to the coach’s office is extra cruel and degrading as well.
Could’ve saved a little time and left those doors open…
He does it by slamming not one, not two, but a total of THREE doors shut so that Will has to knock on two doors that were just open a moment before.
Nathan Shelly, king of the spit-take. No mirrors were involved this time.
On the practice pitch, we find that the water cooler has gotten an infusion of pineapple. But clearly, Nate is not a fan.
Pineapple does sound tasty…
It got Ted’s seal of approval, and surely it at least comes close to the high marks he had for Ted’s first sip of Nate‘s sport drink mix.
Incompetent outsiders or mean-spirited insiders?
And Nate’s feelings towards Will are pretty clear here by his “outsiders” line, trying to relate it to Ted’s struggles with Doctor Sharon.
When the Diamond Dogs discuss whether or not to bring Jamie Tartt back to AFC Richmond, Nate demonstrates the utter lack of self-awareness by yelling at Will in the middle of his sentence where he is recalling the bullying he suffered at the hands of Jamie.
“I don’t understand how someone can have so little self-awareness.” -Michael Scott
We’ve seen Will lay out the towels on the bench correctly in the past. He could just be having an off day, dealing with some personal issues, or maybe second-guessing his own competence by being constantly put down by his superior and predecessor.
Season 2, Episode 3: “Do The Right-est Thing”
Luckily for Will, he has only ever known the new and improved Jamie Tartt when he re-joins the team. This is the Jamie that has learned his lesson about bullying someone who is just trying to do his job as the kit man and to treat him as much a part of the team as any player or coach.
Will must be thinking: “Wow, our new ace player knows my full name!”
In the middle of some fancy footwork, Jamie asks Will for a pinny to join the reserves side and calls Will “Mr. Kit Man” which we can attribute to a Jamie-ism. He accidentally hit the nail on the head again because Kitman is indeed Will’s last name.
Beware the wrath of Led Tasso.
This is where Will’s luck runs out when Ted does his Led Tasso persona to align the team with Jamie again there’s an easy target in the dutifully set up hydration station. Beard was right that “no one was hurt”… except maybe Will’s feelings, and lots of wasted sports drink.
If you look closely, Will is walking up the steps to retrieve the bottle that Led Tasso threw.
But it wasn’t fun for Will because he had to clean that up himself… Led has some apologizing to do. Let’s just hope that guy never shows his face again.
Season 2, Episode 5: “Carol of the Bells”
Sometimes you just have to sit back and admire the majesty of Santa Isaac.
It’s Christmas time for Richmond. Will doesn’t join the players for Higgins’s Christmas dinner at Christmas, presumably because he spent it with his own family. We see Will sitting behind Isaac as they’re doing the secret Santa exchange in the locker room.
Turns out Will loves cash too…
In the middle of the conversation in the coach's office, we see Will opening a Verani Sports shoebox with a massive pile of cash in it. It isn’t clear which player was his secret Santa. The money is more likely a gift from the entire team for Will, judging by him seeming to thank everyone in the locker room for their generosity.
Players putting the money in his mouth for Sam’s Birthday (Season 1, Episode 2: “Biscuits”)
If we focus on the shoebox angle, we find another parallel to Nate’s journey. It wouldn’t be the first time the team used a shoebox to collect money for a gift.
[SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2, EPISODE 7 AHEAD] | https://medium.com/@victorleung_82322/lets-appreciate-will-the-kit-man-c1fcc0e52f77 | ['Victor Leung'] | 2021-09-09 03:47:05.108000+00:00 | ['Ted Lasso', 'Apple Tv Plus', 'Television', 'Bullying At Work', 'Bullying'] |
WFS introduces Project Coldstream ahead of Covid-19 vaccine | Project Coldstream is working closely with airlines, forwarders and logistics providers, government agencies and industry organisations.
By Our Correspondent
October 09, 2020: Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) has launched Project Coldstream to co-ordinate its response to the anticipated global transportation of some 16 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine, expected to commence in late 2020 and continue through 2021/2022.
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the industry expects this to be the largest airlift of a single commodity ever, requiring the equivalent capacity of 8,000 B747 aircraft.
Headed by taskforce leader, Mike Duffy, WFS’ EVP Innovation, and supported by senior operations, commercial and communications specialists across WFS’ global network, Project Coldstream is working closely with airlines, forwarders and logistics providers, government agencies and industry organisations such as Pharma.Aero and The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) to clearly understand temperature and handling requirements. The group will be responsible for developing in-house solutions to the challenge, ensuring the preparedness of WFS’ pharma handling capability, devising plans for additional capacity where needed and working closely with WFS’ airline customers.
WFS’ multi-million Euro investments in a network of temperature-controlled pharma handling facilities at strategic airport locations around the world over the past two years means it has already earned preferred partner status with many of the world’s biggest transporters of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
WFS currently operates 12 dedicated pharma facilities in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, London, Madrid, Miami, New York JFK, and its %u20AC10 million state-of-the-art Pharma Centre at Paris CDG. These facilities are all either IATA CEIV or Good Distribution Practice (GDP) certified or compliant.
Barry Nassberg, WFS’ group chief commercial officer, commented. “Since the start of the Covid pandemic, WFS has been at the forefront of the global response, ensuring vital supplies of personal protective equipment and other medical supplies arriving at airports for hospitals and medical centres around the world have been handled quickly and securely to help save the lives of patients recovering from the virus, and support front-line medical personnel. We are extremely proud to be playing a key role in the international response to Covid and the next big stage of this will be the rapid and safe distribution of vaccines once they are approved. WFS’ significant investment in dedicated facilities and training for pharma shipments means we are uniquely placed to meet the requirements of governments, the pharma industry and our customers. They can be assured of our robust support.”
As well as facilities dedicated to the safe storage, handling and transportation of pharma and medical devices, WFS has dedicated teams of specialists assigned to each location. They have either completed IATA CEIV training or the special Pharma Module covering handling, audits, quality and risk management for temperature-controlled cargoes developed by the WFS Academy, accredited by IATA as one of the world’s top 10 aviation training providers.
The transportation of Covid vaccines is expected to commence by the end of 2020, reach its peak in the second half of 2021, and continue into 2022. Countries and trading blocs have already ordered over 5 billion doses and, already, some 65,000 tonnes of vaccine are forecast to require air cargo transportation, plus ancillary hardware and PPE which will be needed to administer it.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), some 140 Covid-19 vaccines are in the initial stages of development globally, with around two dozen being tested on people in clinical trials. In accordance with demand, WFS will also ensure the preparedness of other key stations across its network spanning 175 airports in 20 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and Africa. | https://medium.com/@info-85820/wfs-introduces-project-coldstream-ahead-of-covid-19-vaccine-ff05829088df | ['Logistics Update Africa', 'Lua'] | 2020-10-09 06:15:20.818000+00:00 | ['Aviation'] |
Building nearline system for scale and performance: Part I | The (Offline) Tortoise and the (Nearline) Hare
To launch our design process, we determined at a high level which approach would achieve the results we wanted. We didn’t want to spend time building a complex system if our requirements didn’t call for it. Conversely, we didn’t want to under-engineer a solution, only to learn that what we built wouldn’t achieve our goals.
Starting with the Basics
A straightforward implementation would be an offline system that filters out sent jobs:
Log the jobs that we show for each user during email generation Schedule a batch process job to read from those logs Write the data we need to some database
The next time we generated an email for a user, we would just read from that database and filter out all the jobs the user had already seen.
This type of offline processing is common for many data systems because it can handle large amounts of data at once (i.e., high throughput), is straightforward to implement, and is relatively fault-tolerant.
This offline system allows us to increase our lookback window for jobs, since we now have a mechanism for filtering out sent jobs — challenge 1 solved. Before our project began, there was already such an offline system to help filter out repeated jobs for users.
Need for Speed
Why would we need to do additional work if we already had an offline system that functions reasonably well?
The problem is that users often are subscribed to multiple different email campaigns, and may receive more than one email in a day. Our offline pipeline has a relatively high data latency — sometimes as long as a day — since it runs infrequently and is computationally intensive. This means that if recent data hasn’t been fully processed yet and the user receives multiple emails in a day, then we might end up showing the same job listing across these different emails. Hence, challenge 2 from above is not actually addressed.
To remedy this data latency issue, we needed a process that incurs much lower latency. We needed a real-time (online) or close-to-real-time (nearline) system.
All Systems Online (Nearly)
First things first: our system wouldn’t have to be fully realtime. After all, we probably wouldn’t be sending two emails to the same user within seconds of each other. When designing this part of the system, it was useful to know that the latency requirement was less stringent. We didn’t want to spend unnecessary time or system resources trying to optimize the data flow. This is why we ultimately ended up with a nearline system instead of a fully online one.
The nearline system needed to function similarly to the offline system: it should be processing some raw data and writing the needed information in some database table that we could easily query from when we needed to show jobs to that user. But instead of reading from logged data on a periodic basis, the nearline system would need to be continually processing event data, and writing that data to the table whenever there was new event information.
The focus of this project, and this blog series, is on the nearline portion of this system. I will also discuss how I’ve connected these two different parts of the system.
The Power of 2
With a nearline system in place, we would ideally be able to retire the offline pipeline in order to reduce system complexity and avoid redundant data processing. However, one important reason prevented us from doing away with the offline system: determining whether a user has opened an email.
Glassdoor uses open tracking to track the emails users have opened. We base this determination on data we receive from Sendgrid. If an email hasn’t been opened for some period of time, then the user has not actually seen any of the job listings in the email. It therefore doesn’t make much sense to filter those jobs out in future emails. To give users ample time to open the emails, the offline process handles open tracking. Currently, we don’t have any near-realtime support for such information, and therefore cannot tackle it solely with our nearline system.
Consequently, we needed to utilize the power of both approaches. The offline system provides ground truth data for open tracking, whereas the online system allows us to have quasi-realtime for the job listings we have sent a user. If we could use the nearline system as a way to prevent showing the same jobs in the short-term, while leveraging the offline system to prevent showing the same jobs ONLY if they have been seen, then our system would address both of our initial problems. | https://medium.com/glassdoor-engineering/speeding-up-data-intelligence-at-production-scale-part-1-31ae4462d3f3 | ['Rolland He'] | 2021-03-23 06:39:06.709000+00:00 | ['Software Architecture', 'Search', 'Data Intelligence', 'Software Design'] |
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A developer has to be terribly careful whereas writing these contracts, otherwise, the user/creator of those contracts might end up losing several Gas. And someday, it’s about to exceed the block gas limit additionally and in such cases, those contracts will not even get deployed on the network. to look at ‘block gas limit’ construct, please look here. in brief it defines the utmost quantity of gas all transactions among the entire block combined square measure allowed to consume. The developer should understand these operations and therefore the means abundant they consume gas.
Bottom line is to put in writing down optimized contract code. And to undertake to that, the developer ought to be at home with ‘opcodes’. Let’s look at variety of those directions and perceive their behaviour. | https://medium.com/@a6547208/hoe-does-smart-contract-development-company-works-in-amritsar-47b0b86fa2d | ['Smart Contract'] | 2021-06-17 11:40:03.591000+00:00 | ['Smart Contracts', 'Smartmlm', 'Smarttron'] |
eLearning Platform Go1 Becomes South Africa’s First ‘Unicorn’ | Endeavor Entrepreneur, Go1, becomes the first South African tech scale-up to be valued at more than $1bn and Australia’s most recent unicorn — a unicorn being a tech company with a valuation above $1bn. South Africa is no stranger to exotic animals but this species is bucking the endangered trend and is a welcome addition to South Africa’s Big 5! In fact, Go1 brings Africa’s unicorn count up to 5, and includes Jumia, Fawry, Interswitch and Flutterwave.
Just 6 years after its founding, Go1 is expected to surpass the value of one billion dollars thanks to its most recent capital raise that is near closing, with a formal announcement following soon.
The edtech scale-up was co-founded in 2015 by South African Melvyn Lubega and Australian Andrew Barnes, together with their friends from high school, a year after they met as classmates in Oxford when they spotted a gap in the enterprise training market. They were invited to Silicon Valley by Y Combinator, one of the world’s top incubation programmes and early investor in Dropbox and Airbnb. That year their product was then recognised as the best new e-learning management system in the world by industry experts.
Today, Go1 is present in 6 countries and is a B-BBEE Level 1 contributor. It helps over 2 million people annually, in thousands of organisations, engage in learning that is relevant, effective and inspiring. That’s more than a financial milestone!
“We are extremely proud of what we have built, we know that becoming a unicorn is an important milestone for us and the tech scale-up ecosystem, but we also know that our story is just beginning. We are so excited to be part of the learning space and believe that with the power of education and technology the opportunities are only just being imagined. We are grateful to our early backers, our incredible team and all our customers for coming on this journey with us.’ Melvyn Lubega, Go1 co-founder, said in a statement.
Go1 is as an e-Learning eco-system that gives customers access to the world’s largest learning and development library from any web-enabled device. Customers from all over the world get access to content in 17 different languages and content formats that range from video tutorial to classroom lectures, through to audiobooks and structure assessments, in one single subscription. Go1 allows you to access the content either within the customer’s existing learner management system or via Go1’s award-wining learning platform. With over 100 000 learning resources and more being added, their Content Hub now boasts leading local training providers together with top international training providers — such as Harvard Edu, edX, Thomson Reuters, Blinkist, and Wall Street Prep — covering any compliance or professional development topic.
Over the past 3 years Go1 has scaled rapidly, growing annual revenue at well over 100%, underpinned by the support from world leading VC’s, who backed their $40m Series C round in early 2020. Go1’s investors include enviable names such as M12(Microsoft Ventures), Salesforce Ventures, Madrona Ventures Group, SEEK and Endeavor. They have also been recognised in the Disrupt100 as one of the top 100 most disruptive companies and Linkedin’s Top 25 Start Ups 2018, 2019 and Top 10 Start Ups in 2020 as well as being selected as an Endeavor Entrepreneur in 2017.
Go1 currently has over 300 employees and serves a wide range of clients, with customers in 30 countries across all industries and sizes with the smallest client having 15 staff members and the largest having 65,000. Currently, somewhere in the world a course is being completed on Go1 every 1.3 seconds — and, as Melvyn says, ‘this is just the beginning’.
We are also thrilled to announce that Melvyn recently joined the Endeavor Board in South Africa, unicorn status aside, when it comes to impact and paying it forward, the Go1 founders walk the walk! Needless to say we are incredibly grateful for Melvyn and Andrew’s contribution and a huge congratulations to the Go1 team for reaching this milestone. They are inspiring role models for us all. | https://medium.com/@endeavorsouthafrica/elearning-platform-go1-becomes-south-africas-first-unicorn-c1175aaf6590 | ['Endeavor South Africa'] | 2021-06-25 10:44:38.580000+00:00 | ['Edtech', 'Entrepreneur', 'Unicorns', 'Education', 'South Africa'] |
Enhancing Virtues: Building the Virtues Control Panel | Enhancing Virtues: Building the Virtues Control Panel
Photo by Chris Leipelt on Unsplash
What I imagine is a virtues control panel with sliders that determine the balance of moral impulses, cognition and behavior in different situations, governed by a morality operating system. When we are working on tasks that require focus and care we would turn up concentration, conscientiousness and prefrontal control. When we are brainstorming or writing poetry or at a party we would turn those down, and turn up creativity, spontaneity and openness to novelty. While caring for loved ones we would turn up empathy, and turn it back down when we have to work at a grueling human service profession (think emergency room triage).
In order to create this control panel we would need to identify which dials we will need. These categories will need to correspond to the virtues from philosophy and religion on the one hand, and to the emerging psychometric and neuroscientific understandings of cognition and behavior on the other. So the first problem is that there are dozens of virtues enumerated in philosophy and religion, and they do not correspond one-to-one. Also, it would be best if the control panel we are building had as few buttons as possible, reducing the complexity to the core, cardinal virtues.
One attempt to reduce the huge variety of virtue schemas in the world’s philosophies and religions to testable, empirical traits was launched in the 2000s by the psychologist Martin Seligman and the “positive psychologists.” Their work resulted in a model of six “character strengths,” each with their own subsidiary list of virtues.
Wisdom and Knowledge : creativity, curiosity, judgment, love of learning, perspective
: creativity, curiosity, judgment, love of learning, perspective Courage : bravery, perseverance, honesty, zest
: bravery, perseverance, honesty, zest Humanity : love, kindness, social intelligence
: love, kindness, social intelligence Justice : teamwork, fairness, leadership
: teamwork, fairness, leadership Temperance : forgiveness, humility, prudence, self-regulation
: forgiveness, humility, prudence, self-regulation Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality
Seligman and his colleagues developed questions for respondents to assess the degree to which they possessed each of these 24 virtues. Half a million people have taken these tests online, creating an enormous database for evaluating whether the a priori structure of these traits corresponds to the empirical structure in individual self-assessments. McGrath[1] analyzed this survey data and found five underlying sets of virtues:
Interpersonal Strengths : Fairness, Forgiveness, Kindness, Receptivity, Teamwork, Modesty, Love
: Fairness, Forgiveness, Kindness, Receptivity, Teamwork, Modesty, Love Emotional Strengths : Humor, Social, Creativity, Bravery, Prudence
: Humor, Social, Creativity, Bravery, Prudence Intellectual Pursuits: Love of Learning, Beauty, Curiosity
Love of Learning, Beauty, Curiosity Restraint : Judgment, Perseverance, Perspective, Honesty
: Judgment, Perseverance, Perspective, Honesty Future Orientation: Positivity, Future-Mindedness, Self-Regulation, Spirituality
In other words, in general, people who saw themselves as strong in forgiveness were also more likely to see themselves as strong in fairness, even though these had been conceptualized as belonging to two separate categories of virtues in the original scheme. The statistical disaggregation of traits in all such studies is open to some interpretation however, as all the strengths are correlated to some degree. Using data from 332 twins Shryack et al.[2] found only three core clusters of strengths, (1) interpersonal strengths, such as kindness and fairness, (2) temperance strengths, such as perseverance and self-regulation, and (3) intellectual strengths, such as creativity and judgment.
This empirical, statistical method is the same that has been used to generate the most popular of the models of personality in psychology, the five-factor or OCEAN model. The OCEAN model was derived by looking for statistical structures in the hundreds of personality inventory questions, and its proponents find a stable clustering around five traits: Open-Mindedness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism.
These five traits have in turn been correlated with hundreds of attitudes and behaviors[3], including subjective well-being, volunteering, occupational choice and success, and peer and family relationships. The OCEAN personality traits are relatively stable over time, and twin studies show that they are about half genetically determined. This provides strong evidence for interpreting these personality traits as having neurobiological bases, albeit complex ones with multiple genes and neurochemicals in play. Luo et al.[4] have, for instance, found a number of genes correlated to the OCEAN traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness.
When we compare the empirical structure of personality traits to the empirical structure of virtues we see that there is some correlation. MacDonald, Bore and Munro[5] recently explored the correlations between the OCEAN personality traits and the positive psychology model and found four underlying virtue-psychology sets: Positivity, Intellect, Conscientiousness and Niceness. Positivity (including emotional strengths such as a sense of humor and hopefulness) was negatively correlated to the OCEAN trait of neuroticism, and is strongly correlated with happiness. Intellect (including the intellectual virtues of love of learning and curiosity) was correlated to the OCEAN trait of open-mindedness. Open-mindedness has in turn been found to be correlated with IQ[6]. Conscientiousness (including the virtues of restraint and honesty) was of course related to conscientiousness. Niceness, which encompasses the interpersonal virtues of empathy, kindness and receptivity, was correlated with the personality trait of agreeableness.
As a result of my reflection on this accumulating literature I have adopted a minimal model of the virtues for my long overdue book, Cyborg Buddha, focused on the manipulation of four basic capacities:
Self-control : sophrosyne, restraint, conscientiousness, temperance, sila
: sophrosyne, restraint, conscientiousness, temperance, sila Caring : humanitas, agreeableness, compassion, fairness, empathy, metta, karuna, mudita
: humanitas, agreeableness, compassion, fairness, empathy, metta, karuna, mudita Intelligence : phronesis, sophia, open-mindedness, curiosity, love of learning, prudence, prajna
: phronesis, sophia, open-mindedness, curiosity, love of learning, prudence, prajna Positivity: eudaemonia, (lack of ) neuroticism, emotional self-regulation, positivity, bravery, humor, sukha
As it happens these categories also roughly correspond to the four cardinal virtues of Plato and Aquinas — temperance, justice, prudence and courage — although each encompasses more than the classical categories, and I suppose caring is actually closer to the “theological virtue” of love.
But I have also been reflecting on the ways that these traits and capacities interact, or more precisely how intellect interacts with the other three, to enable four additional virtues:
Mindfulness , the effective exercise of attention in executive functions and decision-making
, the effective exercise of attention in executive functions and decision-making Social Intelligence , the application of intelligence to other minds and relationships
, the application of intelligence to other minds and relationships Fairness , the application of intelligence to most effective means for helping others
, the application of intelligence to most effective means for helping others Transcendence, the discovery of happiness and fulfillment beyond ordinary pleasures
The model therefore looks like this:
One of the advantages of this kind of multi-virtue schema in the discussion of moral enhancement is that it helps avoid the sterile debates that many have had about the pitfalls of just enhancing one trait, such as empathy or intelligence. Yes, just enhancing intellect with drugs and devices won’t necessary make people nicer, and may in fact empower psychopaths. But caring without intellect is ineffectual at best. Yes, just giving people oxytocin makes them care more about people like them and dislike outsiders; learning to extend empathy and trust beyond your own tribe requires an education of intellect and self-awareness. As with all virtue ethics systems, this model suggests that the virtues balance and inform one another. Full human flourishing requires the cultivation of each in an integrated process of character building.
Over the course of the next couple of months I will post on ways that we can now, or will be able in the future, to enhance these capacities. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
References
[1] McGrath R. Scale- and Item-Level Factor Analyses of the VIA Inventory of Strengths. Assessment 2012; Feb;21(1):4–14.
[2] Shryack J, Steger MF, Krueger RF, Kallie CS. The Structure of virtue: An empirical investigation of the dimensionality of the virtues in action inventory of strengths. Personality and Individual Differences 2010; 48, 714–719.
[3] Ozer DJ, Benet-Martinez V. Personality and the Prediction of Consequential Outcomes. Annual Review of Psychology 2006; 57: 401–21.
[4] Luo X, Kranzler HR, Zuo L, Zhang H, Wang, Gelernter J. CHRM2 variation predisposes to personality traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness. Human Molecular Genetics 2007; 16(13):1557–1568.
[5] Macdonald C, Bore M, Munro D. Values in action scale and the big 5: An empirical indication of structure. Journal of Research in Personality 2008; 42 (4), 787–799.
[6] Bartels M, et al. The five factor model of personality and intelligence: A twin study on the relationship between the two constructs. Personality and Individual Differences 2012; 53(4) 368–373. | https://medium.com/@jamesjhughes/enhancing-virtues-building-the-virtues-control-panel-248772530b8e | ['James J. Hughes Phd'] | 2021-06-14 16:39:55.906000+00:00 | ['Brain', 'Morality', 'Virtue', 'Personality', 'Enhancement'] |
In Appreciation of APS-C | In Appreciation of APS-C
Do you really need the biggest camera?
I love my big camera lenses. They’re usually well-built and fast but come with both a physical and financial cost. Financially, expect to spend well over $1000 to acquire them. You might also find the added cost of ownership in visiting the doctor for a sore back.
Here’s a Nikon 200–500mm f5.6, which weighs in at approximately 5 pounds by itself:
Shot with my Sony A6600 and Sigma 56mm f1.4 at 1250 ISO and 1/100.
Despite the weight, it’s fun to shoot with — the images are crisp, and the autofocus is surprisingly good for a lens of this type. It’s perfect for taking out on a birding adventure or to a wildlife refuge:
Shot with my Nikon Z6 and Nikon 200–500mm f5.6, 260mm, at 200 ISO and 1/500. Somewhere in the Green Swamp, Central Florida.
Shot with my Nikon Z6 and Nikon 200–500mm, 350mm, f5.6 at 400 ISO and 1/400. Somewhere in the Green Swamp, Central Florida.
And if you don’t need that kind of length, a 70–200mm f2.8 gets awesome results, too, and feels light as a feather (3.3 pounds) in comparison:
Shot with my Nikon Z6 and Tamron 70–200mm, 200mm, f2.8 at 400 ISO and 1/200. At a lake in Central Florida.
On the other end, take my Tamron 15–30mm f2.8, weighing about half the Nikon does, at 2.45 pounds. Still a hefty boy, but manageable. It slots nicely into the trinity of lenses most professionals will carry (traditionally a 14–24mm, 24–70mm, and 70–200mm, all at f2.8) to cover all situations. Tamron makes all three of these for Canon and Nikon and has similar lenses for Sony. In my experience, they are all excellent.
It’s great for landscapes and making tight spaces look big. The f2.8 aperture makes it useable in most low light scenarios, but not a great lens to do things like astrophotography.
These lenses cover two extremes in photography. They’re heavy and expensive because they are meant to last, and have the optics to support a variety of shooting scenarios.
They’re also full-frame lenses. Both of these lenses are for the Nikon F-mount, and the cameras they go with match their heft and quality.
There has been a recent shift, though, to make full-frame more accessible in terms of price and practicality. For example, Nikon released its first full-frame mirrorless camera body, the Z6, in November of 2018. It’s smaller and lighter than comparable full-frame bodies with a slew of useful upgrades.
The Z6’s weight is right at 1.5 pounds, while the recently released D850 comes in at just over 2 pounds. That extra .5 pounds might not sound like a huge difference, but when lugging it around on your shoulder for hours, you can start to feel it. If you go for the smaller, plastic-y lenses, you’ll be sacrificing quality, speed, and durability. Their resale value, too, won’t come close to what a fast f2.8 professional lens can fish after several years.
While I’ve invested in a full-frame system over the past couple of years, I’ve had a nagging desire to get something smaller and lightweight.
There are two big reasons for this:
It’s less conspicuous. People pay attention to people carrying large camera systems — sometimes not in the way I’d want. It’s easier to grab and go. I don’t have to plan around how I will carry a camera.
After a ton of research and a lot of waffling, I recently got a great deal on Sony A6600 with an 18–135mm kit lens, thanks to a student discount combined with a sale. The A6600 is an APS-C sized camera that weighs in at just 1.11 pounds and comes in a very manageable compact size.
You might be wondering why I chose to go with Sony when I already have so much invested in the Nikon system. I also considered two other cameras that compete in this same price range: the Nikon Z50 and the Fujifilm X-T3.
Neither of these cameras had in-body image stabilization compared to the A6600, which does.
The Z50 got excellent reviews for image quality and usability. The biggest con, though, was that it only launched with two APS-C lenses. While they were high performing lenses, if I were going to expand past them, I would be buying full-frame lenses or using the ones I already had. This kind of defeated the purpose of a small body system.
The Fuji is a sharp-looking camera that I know would have inspired me just by looking at it. Ultimately, though, the higher price compared to what I eventually paid for the A6600 (under $1000 for body and kit lens versus $1200 for just the X-T3 body) turned me off. There were too many compromises for the price. The X-T4, which was announced right around the time I was looking to purchase, would have checked all the boxes for me. Unfortunately, it was nearly $1000 more to buy with a lens.
So, I chose the A6600 for its lack of significant compromises. It also helped that my girlfriend has an A7 III, and some excellent lenses I could bum off her if needed.
For reference, this isn’t my first rodeo with APS-C. I began shooting regularly over a decade ago with a Nikon’s crop sensor D60 that I got as a graduation present. After getting some serious work shooting for my local newspaper, I quickly upgraded to another crop sensor camera, the Nikon D90. Both of these we great cameras — especially the D90. I didn’t replace the D90 until I bought the Z6 last spring.
The crop sensor format was great for a broke college student. It was a cheap system, with a quality set of glass costing me less than $1000. It was also compatible with the gear the real professionals were using, so I got to experiment a lot. I loved it, and it was what got me into photography in the first place. I recently sold that f2.8 glass I used with the D90 to Adorama and got nearly $500. That’s only a 50% depreciation for non-professional but still fast glass after ten years!
I love my A6600. It’s the camera I will choose to take out on walks in the park or to family events. The quality is excellent, and it’s packed with a ton of neat features — all in a package I’m not afraid to throw on a wrist strap.
Does the quality match my much more expensive Z6? No. But I don’t expect or need it to do those things. It’s a vast improvement over an iPhone without being intrusive.
What makes it shine, though, is a trio of primes that Sigma has put out for the APS-C format. All at f1.4 (f2.0 in full-frame), they’ve released a 16mm (24mm in full-frame), 30mm (55mm in full-frame), and 56mm (~85mm in full-frame). These lenses slap — they’re all super fast to focus and let in a ton of light.
While my kit lens is a decent overall performer — especially for the price — there is something about these primes that is special. The contrast is excellent, and the bokeh is beautiful. The range makes it super versatile — from landscapes with the 16mm to portraits with the 56mm — and there is a look they produce that I can’t put my finger on.
If you regularly shoot with primes, you know the look. There’s a certain level of crispness and intimacy that showcases your subject:
Shot with my Sony A6600 and Sigma 56mm f1.4 at 2000 ISO and 1/100.
And, to make things even sweeter, they’re cheap. You can get the whole set for between $900-$1000. For now, I think these lenses are all I will want or need for my A6600, so to get a complete set of quality lenses at that price is an absolute steal. To get an even better deal on them, bid on Greentoe as I did. Depending on your luck, you might save a couple of hundred dollars.
Now, I know many detractors will say that APS-C isn’t worth it. They’ll say the image quality isn’t there, or the depth of field and low light performance isn’t good enough. I don’t think any of these things are true for my use case.
Of course, you have to know what you’re getting into when you buy into a system like this. The Sigma lenses are well-built, but I can feel a quality difference between them and my higher-end Nikon glass. I wouldn’t trust either the body or the lenses to survive a light rain shower. And yeah, because the sensor is smaller, you don’t get as much light to play with in your images.
But, I’m willing to trade those things to recapture the love of photography. Just go out and shoot — don’t think about carrying around all of this fancy equipment, get the picture with what you have.
There’s a time a place for those things. I wouldn’t take my A6600 out birding, for example (I have the chonker mentioned above for that). But I think the size and weight are perfect for anyone who is just walking through the park or that wants to get some good quality photos of their nephew at a family picnic.
Whatever camera you use, just make sure you have good subjects: | https://medium.com/workshopping-it/in-appreciation-of-aps-c-513672960817 | ['Mycah Pleasant'] | 2020-06-05 20:30:23.985000+00:00 | ['Art', 'Camera Lens', 'Cameras', 'Photography'] |
THE NEW YEAR | As we all know the last year and the worst year for everyones life is finally going . In this year we were available online for you but now hen the covid vaccine supply has started we will be ready to save you mother earth And now we will be available offline also in the new 2021 we go and make the earth a better place to live so lets do it now its time to go offline and make lifes better. #go offline #save earth | https://medium.com/@pranjal24earthcampaign/the-new-year-f31bf2e6a579 | ['Pranjal Singh Eac'] | 2020-12-23 06:46:15.986000+00:00 | ['Earth'] |
Google WiFi is the iPhone of routers! | You would know by now if you have read any of my stories from the start that I am a fan of Google services and products, but this comes from a pleasing experience I had and still have with Google in general (although there are frustrating issues with Google like their unavailability of most products and services in the MENA region).
Google WiFi
Plain simple, Google WiFi is an excellent choice if not the best choice for a mesh network solution you need for your home. What makes it unique are these major advantages over other mesh routers in the market:
Seamless setup and easy to use interface
Google WiFi app is accessible through the cloud when your out and about
“Family WiFi”
So to explain more, Google WiFi is a Mesh WiFi Router which extends your home WiFi to more rooms by placing several of them around your house and they work seamlessly together.
In my case I purchased a “Google WiFi — 3 Pack” to distribute around my house to get optimal coverage wherever I sit at home.
Google WiFi 3 Pack
So what you do basically is connect one of the routers to your internet modem by using an ethernet cable and just download the Google WiFi app available in both Android and IOS to easily follow the setup process provided.
The great thing about Google’s WiFi app is that you don’t need to be connected to your WiFi to use it, so you could be out running errands and want to check on your kids if they really are not surfing the net while your gone while also going further and pausing their internet connection is great to have.
Google WiFi App
What’s also great is that you can monitor which specific device is consuming most in real time while also having the option to “prioritize” a certain device so you wouldn’t have to worry if someone else was binge watching Netflix and interrupt your device’s internet consumption.
Finally, no more kids sneaking and streaming on their devices when they’re not allowed to with “Family WiFi” which is controllable through the app.
Easy as that, once you assign which devices you label, you can pause their connection while also blocking sites not suitable for children.
Overall internet quality was great and the mesh system was spreading my WiFi connection all over my home seamlessly.
Pricing wise, a single pack is priced at $99 on the US Google Store while the 3-pack is $259. So it’s not the cheapest out there but also not as expensive as others, but for what it offers to my needs, I can’t find a better alternative. | https://medium.com/@Tegneya/google-wifi-is-the-iphone-of-routers-6b427b30e5b0 | [] | 2020-05-20 17:08:50.050000+00:00 | ['Router', 'Mesh Router', 'Google Wifi', 'Smart Home', 'Google'] |
A Space for Human Beings | “You can look at your home [as having a particular intention.] You’re not setting it up for people to photograph, or for a magazine, but for yourself and your friends and family. It’s a space for human beings.” ‐ Thich Nhat Hanh in Making Space
A Space for Human Beings
Much too often, we allow how we want others to perceive us to take priority in how we design our spaces and let the burden of our belongings to dictate the ways we live. We shouldn’t let these pressures seep in, lest we want to be constantly reminded how much others’ opinions matter to us. (They shouldn’t.)
Instead run the opposite way: embrace imperfection and practicality over flair and flourish.
Keep in mind the people who matter: You, your friends, your family, not a photographer or voice of the judgemental stranger in your head. The people who matter don’t expect a perfect, magazine-worthy home; they want your home to feel like your imperfect, wonderful self.
Put there where they make sense. We should be proud to put our most beloved, most frequently used things front and center. Don’t feel the need to hide everything behind cabinet doors. You should only feel the need to get and put away someone five times a day when you’re staying as a guest in a stranger’s home, not your own.
Don’t decorate for other people. For all those decorative adornments, unless they have a meaning for you or make your feel happy (then the brightly colored pillows or lively green plant serve a wonderful purpose), don’t put something there just to fill the space or because it’s trendy to do so. | https://medium.com/sunday-letters/a-space-for-human-beings-e3efda32cbbe | ['Wilson Lau'] | 2018-02-13 22:24:54.190000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness'] |
Top 3 Ways that Needing to Please Others Can Fuel Our Anger | Top 3 Ways that Needing to Please Others Can Fuel Our Anger Vlogmail Jul 15, 2019·8 min read
At Vlogmail, we offer regular personal and professional development through inspiration, motivation, and training. Today we, are sharing “Top 3 Ways that Needing to Please Others Can Fuel Our Anger”.
“Your need for acceptance can make you invisible in this world. Don’t let anything stand in the way of the light that shines through this form. Risk being seen in all of your glory.”
― Jim Carrey
“When I was little I was extremely protective of my baby sister. I just wanted to take care of her, especially because she suffered with a respiratory illness. I love her dearly but, in hindsight, I’ve come to realize that I was also determined to please my parents–especially my mother. It seemed that I could never really get her praise or attention.”
Laurie, a young woman I met with, made this statement after several sessions. As she explored her anxiety, she became aware that it was very much related to her intense desire to please. Specifically, she became aware that she felt anxious when irritation and anger began to surface.This was her reaction against a long history marked by a compulsive need to please others.
The desire to please
Our desire to please others is an inherent component of our yearning for connection. As children, we innately seek to please our caretakers because our lives literally depend on it. We also seek to please to ensure love, validation and safety. As adults, we may seek to please in order to form a bond–with family members, with friends, in the workplace and in our communities. And this desire to bond is rooted in our evolution, a drive to feel a part of the pack for protection and security.
As children and adults we desire to please others because it also brings us joy. It only becomes a problem when the desire to do so is a compulsion–when it entails an inability to set limits.
The need to please may be driven with full conscious awareness or unconsciously. It leads to heightened attunement to the needs, desires and emotions of others. And when we predominantly focus our attention on others, we fail to be attuned to our own inner landscape-our needs, desires and emotions. Consequently, it becomes more difficult to recognize them–let alone seek their satisfaction.
By contrast, psychological flexibility rests on being able to flexibly shift our attention between that of others and ourselves. Seeking to please our selves is not mutually exclusive with pleasing others. And certainly, having flexibility to compromise is essential for almost every relationship.
While the intensity of our longing to please may be rooted in our childhood dependency, all too often, many of us carry the same heightened desire to please into adulthood. Unfortunately, being too eager too please others ultimately makes us vulnerable to feel frustration and anger–with others and with ourselves.
When we compulsively please, we are forever changing ourselves. We behave like the chameleon, fearful of being exposed and forever trying to blend in with its surroundings. But for the chameleon, exposing its true nature can be a matter of life and death. And while it’s true, there may be circumstances when showing who we are may be life threatening, but this is not the case in most situations. And, unfortunately, when we behave like a chameleon for others, we become a chameleon unto ourselves. It is then no wonder that we don’t know what we want or believe.
The roots of the intense need to please
The intense compulsion to please stems from insecurity with our self, often rooted in early experiences that did not leave us with a “sufficiently strong” sense of self. Perhaps we lacked sufficient validation and support to trust ourselves. Or, maybe we never felt sufficiently safe and protected. Perhaps our caretakers’ responses to us were inconsistent or we experienced neglect or even abuse. The intense desire to please others may also derive from experiences that led to our feeling undeserving of love, attention or validation. As such, simply seeking to satisfy our own needs and desires may arouse guilt and even shame, in addition to anger.
The need to please may be reflected in perfectionism, and its related self-consciousness about never feeling “good enough”. This was a core issue that Laurie began to acknowledge as we further explored her compulsion to please. In this context, the need to please is an attempt to obtain validation and approval that we are in fact, good enough. Such validation may then help us feel a sense of being, not only ok, but also lovable. This ongoing tendency carries with it a high potential for fueling anger, whether expressed by slight irritation, ongoing resentment or even aggression.
Three ways in which the compulsion to please can foster anger
1. The intense need to please is disempowering
The more compulsively we feel the need to please others, the more we empower them to influence how we live our lives. In effect, we make the choice to elevate their blueprint for how life should be lived, over our own, whether with regard to big or small decisions. In the process of devoting our energies to their needs, desires, and emotions, we unwittingly internalize them as our own. Ultimately, chip away at our own identity and we eventually disappear.
Psychology uses the term “locus of control” to define where we experience our source of power, control, wisdom and agency. By its nature, an intense need to please leads us to experience that locus of control as being external, outside of ourselves, rather than within ourselves. This fosters an overall sense of disempowerment-fueled by self-doubt and vagueness in a sense of self. It is ironic that as engaging in this pursuit only enhances the need to please.
2. The intense need to please inhibits consciously creating our identity
The challenge of developing an identity is one that comes to the forefront in our late teens and early twenties. But it is one that lasts a lifetime, with and without full awareness. From our time as a teen when we try on different ways of looking, deciding on which friends we wish to seek out or what activities to engage in, we are faced with the anxiety of choice.
Being preoccupied with pleasing others undermines our capacity to truly make an informed choice. This can occur at any age–from early adulthood hood to the years of retirement. And, currently, there are increased pressures to pursue this goal reflected in the powerful influence of social media. The preoccupation with “likes” as a measure of self-worth and esteem epitomizes the unhealthy aspect of needing to please others. It encourages and rewards how we feel about our selves by primarily looking at our selves through the eyes of others. This leaves little time for, or interest in, the solitude that is very much essential for developing our identity.
I often see individuals who describe social anxiety in the context of a group, but not as strongly as when engaged in one-to-one conversation. Being in a group just raises the ante in terms of trying to please more people.
3-The need to please can fuel sensitivity to feeling controlled
Anger arises from a perceived threat to our emotional or physical well-being. When we lack the comfort to set limits with others, we often develop sensitivity to feeling controlled by them. However, while we may feel that others are trying to control us, we are in fact being held captive by our own desires to please them. Such a stance invariably leads us to feel trapped.
This was a voiced complaint expressed by Laurie and as well as by many of my other clients who have experienced the compulsion to please. They describe feeling isolated and invisible as a result of ignoring or not voicing their needs or desires. Some, who were extremely conflict avoidant in their relationships, described feeling like they had no influence at all–whether with regard to taking care of the home, initiating and maintaining social connections and even parenting. So they felt like a partner, a friend, a supervisor or a co-worker was trying to control them. Certainly, in some cases they may have been accurate in their perception. However, all too often, their reaction was one to giving up their voice due to conflict avoidance.
Eventually, many of them felt so controlled that they withdrew emotionally and physically. Or, some of my clients resolved this difficulty in their marriage by seeking an outside relationship in an effort to seek greater validation.
The compulsion to please can lead to sensitivity to feel controlled not only by others, but also by the very things we like to do. We may enjoy doing an errand for someone, researching information for them, or doing some other favor. And yet, feeling overwhelmed by such commitments easily contributes to resenting such activities.
How anger may be expressed
The intense need to please in the work setting can stifle individual creativity and, in the long run, interfere with career advancement. While some supervisors or others in authority may thrive on those who need to please, doing so can also negatively impact the overall goals and productivity of an agency or company. A growing company seeks out and encourages ideas.
At work, the need to please may be reflected by a passive acceptance of responsibilities at work from supervisors as well as co-workers. While the need to please might be experienced as a way to advance, having an intense need to please naturally inhibits the fluid thinking that is most often required and rewarded by advancement.
Resentment that arises from the constant need to please may also take the form of passive-aggression. The pleaser is often much too fearful of being assertive and is conflict avoidant. So he may forget to fulfill his promise to do an errand for his wife. Or, at work, she may become silent during a committee meeting, even when she has a good idea to offer. As Laurie reported, she was often-passive-aggressive in her relationships and at work.
Overcoming the intense need to please
Our tendency to please can be changed. Doing so requires commitment, patience and time in learning to be more flexible in deciding when to please. It entails the reflection and self-questioning required to identify the life we wish to create for ourselves rather than unwittingly holding on to the script of others as a life raft for the difficult voyage of our lives. Laurie face the challenging task of such reflection that she had avoided for much of her life. And, in the process, was able to create more meaning and happiness in her life.
Such reflection includes:
1- Recognizing blocks to pleasing our self,
2- Identifying the values we wish to live by,
3- Learning to identify our feelings and thoughts,
4-Buidling trust in our self–often by incrementally asserting our self, including saying “no”, voicing our opinions and making decisions in relationships or in the workplace, and
5. Recognizing that the more we decide to live our life as we define it, the more we increase the possibility that others will be disappointed in us.
Most importantly, overcoming the need to please calls for mourning and grieving the lack of sufficient early support or validation to feel ok and lovable-both of which allow us to seek to satisfaction of our needs and desires. It involves accepting the fact that we may need to work harder at self-validating. It may involve strengthening our relationships with others who can support our desires and needs and are not threatened by them. And, it entails cultivating greater self-compassion, which includes savoring the positive responses to our being more assertive in satisfying our needs and desires. | https://medium.com/@vlogmail/top-3-ways-that-needing-to-please-others-can-fuel-our-anger-d771e015d29f | [] | 2019-07-15 21:51:33.810000+00:00 | ['Assertiveness', 'Compulsivebehaviors', 'Anger'] |
Kison Patel of M&A Science: How Use Your Educational Content to Create a Bingeable Podcast | Can you tell us a bit of your “personal backstory? What is your background and what eventually brought you to this particular career path?
After a bumpy career in residential real estate, I found myself in a small M&A shop where I got experience selling small businesses and working with privately held owners. That’s really where I found initial success. A year later I opened my own consulting business to help people with M&A activity, both buy and sell side.
Can you share a story about the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started podcasting?
I think the most interesting thing is connecting with people all around the world. I get inquiries or emails of people commenting whether generally or about a specific podcast. I’m always welcoming some introduction calls from them. Being able to connect with people from a variety of countries allows me to expand my network and led to speaking opportunities at conferences or even in-house events at large corporations.
Can you share a story about the biggest or funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson or takeaways you learned from that?
Probably just spending too much time overthinking the process, when at the end of the day it’s all about the content. You have to start creating content in order to get better at it. I spent too much time focusing on the little things, like researching equipment, which distracted me from what a podcast actually is.
How long have you been podcasting and how many shows have you aired?
I’ve been podcasting for four years and as of now, I’ve aired 87 episodes.
What are the main takeaways, lessons, or messages that you want your listeners to walk away with after listening to your show?
I want the audience to get takeaways from the M&A industry they can actually apply. M&A Science’s focus is to provide educational material to provide ideas and give listeners new techniques to apply to their own practice.
In your opinion what makes your podcast binge-listenable? What do you think makes your podcast unique from the others in your category? What do you think is special about you as a host, your guests, or your content?
Well, the main thing that makes us different is its educational content. There’s a lot of content in our industry and podcasts in general, but they’re mainly focused on market commentary.
We focus more on the teachable moments, the mechanics of M&A. I’m taking the approach of a learning experience when I interview people. I’m really trying to learn as much as I can from them, and I’m bringing the audience with me on that journey. It’s awesome. Almost like the pursuit of becoming the greatest M&A practitioner is my goal. At the end of the day, I want to learn as much as I can.
Doing something on a consistent basis is not easy. Podcasting every work-day, or even every week can be monotonous. What would you recommend to others about how to maintain discipline and consistency? What would you recommend to others about how to avoid burnout?
When I first started, I only did 10 episodes and it was the only thing I did that year. I think, start by getting to a place where you’re comfortable, and then you’ll realize cadence is really important. People like having that consistency.
Just follow your gut on some of these things. If you want to change your content approach, if you want to change different things, you can experiment in the beginning until you find that that spot you’re really happy with.
What resources do you get your inspiration for materials from?
My inspiration comes from the people I’m interviewing. They all have a unique perspective and experience. So I really try to pull out from them and try to understand what they’re passionate about and I build topics around that.
On the interviewing side, in terms of where I get inspiration as an interviewer, I look at other people, other podcasts, other folks that are conducting interviews. I’m watching David Letterman’s new interview series right now. I look to professional interviewers out there to get ideas on their approach and how they carry a conversation.
Is there someone in the podcasting world who you think is a great model for how to run a really fantastic podcast?
I think in every segment there’s somebody that’s doing a great job of hosting a podcast. I think it really depends on what you’re going for. If you’re going for a specific tone, a specific theme look for people that are in that have that type of format. But I think the main thing is really to explore. Specifically, I think StoryBrand has a really good podcast.
What are the ingredients that make that podcast so successful? If you could break that down into a blueprint, what would that blueprint look like?
Just finding interesting people to interview. I think it’s always nice when you get good energy between the interviewee and interviewer. That mesh of the right personalities between guests and the host is definitely a secret ingredient.
Can you share with our readers the five things you need to know to create an extremely successful podcast?
Preparation is key. Getting good audio quality as opposed to a regular Zoom call will help people take you more seriously. The next thing I would say is nailing your intro. People like a catchy intro and it just makes everything more fun and interesting in general to open a show with matching energy. Also having a good process for sourcing guests, in the beginning, can be difficult. Utilizing your LinkedIn network can be a lifesaver.
Another tip is recording episodes in batches. That way you can get started thinking about how you’re going to edit them together and just do it as a process. Then, when you do release them, you sort of have a backlog ready to go. And that helps you because you don’t want to be scrambling to do shows and stuff like that.
I think the other tip I would add is the one that’s not the most fun to do, but listen to yourself. After you do an interview, listen to that podcast. You’ll learn a lot about how you can improve your content just by listening to yourself more than any kind of other feedback you can get.
I think the other thing that’s helped me quite a bit that you don’t probably hear about is taking a voice lesson because your content is so audio-focused. Taking a voice lesson helps you learn some of the techniques so that you can sound better.
Kison Patel, host of M&A Science shares the best ways to:
1) Book Great Guests. Look for people who have a following in the target audience. You can look at conference speakers or utilize your own network. Also, play the numbers game. Reach out to 100 and expect to hear back from a fraction of them. 2) Increase Listeners. Repurpose your content to increase the places listeners can find your podcast. Turn episodes into blog posts, social media posts, etc. 3) Produce in a Professional Way. It is definitely worth it to invest in a nice microphone, but also play around with different editors. Some have strengths others don’t. 4) Encourage Engagement. Call to actions, asking questions, and encouraging listeners to reach out are all great ways to encourage engagement. 5) Monetize. So far, we’ve made the choice to hold off on monetizing the actual podcast. We promote our other products instead. My advice would be to not prioritize monetizing the podcast. Focus on getting the quality to a good standard and then go from there.
For someone looking to start their own podcast, which equipment would you recommend that they start with?
For someone just starting, I would tell them to look for a basic USB microphone, which is around $200 and definitely gets the job done. I would start with that so you can keep it a good investment. That way you get good quality audio, but also something can build up from. You don’t want to get too overboard and spend a bunch of money on stuff you may not actually use.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Just general education and more accessible education. Learning is, I believe, truly one of the most important and valuable aspects of life.
How can our readers follow you online?
Website: Mascience.com
LinkedIn: Kison Patel
Check out M&A Science on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you listen to podcasts. | https://medium.com/authority-magazine/kison-patel-of-m-a-science-how-use-your-educational-content-to-create-a-bingeable-podcast-d8080291868e | ['Tracy Hazzard'] | 2020-12-29 19:44:29.481000+00:00 | ['Podcasting', 'Business', 'Podcasting Tips', 'Podcast', 'Mergers And Acquisitions'] |
I Don’t Have Breast Cancer | I do not have breast cancer. That is a complicated statement I can now officially make that surfaces feelings of relief and gratitude alongside anxiety and fear. In October I was diagnosed with having the BRCA1 gene mutation. You can read my initial thoughts about it here. Since finding out, I’d felt a dark cloud lingering over me but after the results of the mammogram and an MRI coming back clear, I can breathe easier and now have the green light to take my next steps.
Those steps being scheduling various doctors appointments, being pressed to make difficult decisions and moving forward with preventive surgeries that will prolong my life. Like the decision I’ve made to have a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction in the spring of 2021.
“But…you don’t have cancer? Why would you do that?”
A question, from well-meaning people that I’ve heard a lot more than I expected, yet did not sting any less the fourth or fifth time. So let me explain…
By having this gene mutation, according to my oncologist, I have a 80% chance of getting breast cancer and a 40% chance of getting ovarian cancer, in my lifetime. The logical side of me recognizes that 20% is too low to sit on this. Especially considering all my family members that have been touched by this disease — 4 out of 7of my Tias, with 3 of them ultimately succumbing to it. My choices are, either I can just wait until I get it, having tests done every 6 mos. (with that dark cloud lingering) OR I can take control, by having a surgery, and lower my chances of getting breast cancer in my lifetime to 5%. Although this is a decision that I think I knew I’d make since being diagnosed, it is still filled with many emotions and, frankly, it is scary as hell.
After speaking with my mastectomy surgeon a few weeks ago, I learned that I will be under for roughly 10–12 hours and have two different surgeries by two different surgeons in that time. Teamwork makes the dream work. The first surgeon comes in to remove all the breast tissue and possibly lymph nodes in my breasts (yet another decision I need to make that could bring up other issues). She will then take it to a lab and “chop it up to look at it under a microscope” ensuring I did not have cancer cells in that tissue. Side note: She literally said it like that while also moving her hands quickly in the air, motioning as if she was actually chopping something. I’d be lying if it didn’t make me feel a bit funny. Surgeon humor?
The second surgeon, who I’ll meet in January, is the plastic surgeon that will then replace the breast tissue that was removed. Sounds easy enough, right? I wish. I have more decisions to make like — what kind of reconstruction will it be? Will I do Implant reconstruction: Inserting an implant that’s filled with saline (salt water) or silicone gel or Autologous or “flap” reconstruction: Using tissue transplanted from another part of my body (such as belly, thigh, or back)? And of course, there are pros and cons to each, so it isn’t as easy of a decision as I had hoped. Womp Womp. This also brings up another common comment that stings more than I’d anticipated.
“Well, at least you’ll get new boobs!”
I wish it were that easy, but here’s the thing… my foobs (Fake Boobs) will literally be fake, foreign and unfortunately, my scars from the surgery will be very noticeable. Common augmented boobs, or boob jobs, are implants being added on top of your breast tissue with minimal scarring. This is an unexpected decision that came from learning that my breast tissue will likely kill me if I keep it. Another downside is, I only have a 10% chance of getting the feeling back post-surgery. Bleh. Needless to say, it is completely different so if you meet someone else that has to walk through this, I’d recommend not trying to silver line it. It’s complicated.
After this surgery I’ll have more decisions to make like — when do I take out my ovaries? What will we have to do about hormones? Do I freeze my eggs? Do I even want kids? As a single woman, how will I feel being around a new partner? Will he be weird about it? Will I be? SO MANY FEELINGS pop up with this diagnosis (as if I needed more…)
My transparency and candidness in my writings are an attempt to help shift the ideas that we have around preventative surgery as well as, the misunderstandings around genetic testing. I never expected to be so emotional with the prickly, well-intended comments and questions but alas, they do cut, despite the intent. As I continue to share my experience while walking through this, I want you to know that I find sharing this extremely cathartic, so thank you for reading.
Genetic testing is truly remarkable. I want shout from the rooftop that I am incredibly grateful and fortunate to live in a time where there are tests that can give me a “heads up” on a disease that has taken too many loved ones. Until I find that rooftop, I’ll continue sharing here.
xo, Vetters | https://medium.com/@vetters/i-do-not-have-breast-cancer-187962a1f02a | [] | 2020-12-14 15:13:03.809000+00:00 | ['Cancer', 'Survivor', 'Surgery', 'Disease', 'Genetics'] |
While Brazilians wait for a vaccine, Bolsonaro plays politics | As an early Christmas gift for some people, Chile and Mexico began immunizations on Thursday after the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was urgently approved. But in Brazil, the death toll from Covid-19 is much higher, and it may take months to save lives ,the Brazilian Ministry of Health announced last week that vaccination will start in February 2021.
Carla Domingues, an epidemiologist and former coordinator of Brazil’s National Immunization Program, said she was very disappointed by how far Brazil seemed to be behind in catching up with herd immunity. .
She said that due to Brazil’s good record of vaccinating nationwide, there is a general hope that Brazilians will have a regional advantage in the fight against the pandemic.
“The Brazilian country is a continental country with very large intercontinental differences, such as Sao Paulo with a high population density and the remote Amazon River. We will still achieve high vaccine coverage, (and) indigenous people.” She said.
She said: “It is expected that Brazil’s vaccination program will start early.” But “other countries in the Americas that are ready have already started vaccination, and Brazil has fallen behind.”
Covid-19 killed nearly 190,000 people there, which is the highest death toll reported globally after the United States. However, President Jair Bolsonaro is in Brazil, and the virus rages every day, which is a fatal price. (Jair Bolsonaro) Publicly speculated about the urgency of vaccines and despised the “rush to buy vaccines.”
According to CNN Brasil, the pandemic is indeed over, and the numbers show that we are now dealing with a small increase. “But there is no reason to rush to buy vaccines because you are playing with other people’s lives.”
Since 7.4 million people in Brazil have been diagnosed with the Covid-19 virus implanted, and new variants of this virus have appeared abroad, there is no reason to believe that the pandemic is fading-even if the number of cases continues to increase.
President Jair Bolsonaro warned: “If you become a crocodile, that’s your problem.” “If you become a superman, or have a beard like a woman,” the Brazilian president also made headlines last week, trying to express a potential alias for Pfizer vaccine doubt. Or if a man’s voice is very high, it doesn’t matter to me… or worse, it interferes with people’s immune systems. ”
Dominguez believes that the Brazilian federal government is not ready to use the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine after the federal government supports the vaccine of Oxford University and AstraZeneca in cooperation with the local foundation Fiocruz. According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Health last week, Brazil has agreed to purchase more than 1 billion doses of this vaccine, which is still under development.
In 2021, the Bolsonaro government obtained nearly 43 million doses of vaccines through the COVAX facility and has signed a memorandum of understanding to obtain 70 million doses of vaccines from Pfizer and another 38 million doses from Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary Janssen. However, according to the Ministry of Health’s statement, most doses of the latter two vaccines are not expected to be available until the end of this year.
Dominguez initially said: “The Ministry of Health strives to be cautious, only agreeing to purchase vaccines in AstraZeneca laboratories, and is not prepared to receive new vaccines that need to be stored below 70.” Pfizer’s vaccines must be stored at extremely low levels. The temperature is approximately minus 75 degrees Celsius-50 degrees Celsius lower than any vaccine used in the United States before the pandemic.
In fact, after a year of fierce conflict between Bolsonaro and the governor over the country’s pandemic response, there are still alternatives to the influence of politics on this process.
The President did not hesitate to choose the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine instead of the vaccine developed by the Chinese manufacturer Sinovac Biotech, which is supported by the State of São Paulo and developed locally by the Brazilian laboratory Butantan Institute.
Contrary to the assurances of Brazil’s Minister of Health Eduardo Pazuello and other officials, the federal government welcomes any vaccine approved by the health regulators. Bolsonaro vowed on Facebook not to buy Chinese-made vaccines. and his political supporters are inciting hatred of external psychology and surrounding fears.
Brazil’s health regulator ANVISA has not approved any vaccines, and the country’s Supreme Court and Congress leaders have acted under pressure. Dominguez said she believes that the agency’s experts and officials “will not accept politeness from any major interference from any aspect in assessing the science and safety of each candidate”.
However, ordinary Brazilians may not be immune from harm, especially when it comes from the highest level of government. Like many countries, the anti-vaxxer movement in Brazil has been developing for many years. In addition to raising people’s suspicion of certain vaccines and eliminating the severity of the virus itself.
ANVISA and the Brazilian Ministry of Health did not respond to requests for comment. | https://medium.com/@interesttto/while-brazilians-wait-for-a-vaccine-bolsonaro-plays-politics-d406451cf36b | [] | 2020-12-27 21:42:55.819000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Bolsonaro', 'Brazil', 'Vaccines'] |
What makes someone a good leader, honestly? | I’ve written before about people management skills, lists of leadership skills, “crucially effective” leadership skills, and what managerial skills a boss needs. I guess you could say the topic of high performance leadership interests me.
And you know what? It should. We spend 10–12 hours/day in these places for the bulk of the middle part of our lives, and many of them are bad-manager-laden train wrecks. It’s incredibly demoralizing to work for someone who treats you like crap or has no sense of priority, and yet, many of us do just that and the best excuse we have is “Well, that’s the way it is!”
At the same time, there are some good leaders out there. We tend to ultimately evaluate leaders off “their numbers,” i.e. the financials they achieved in the role. This is pretty dumb and short-sighted, but we do it anyway. It’s honestly where most of the problems with leadership begin. As you rise up the ranks of any for-profit company, it becomes much less about people and much more about revenue. While this is logical, it usually creates companies whereby no one at the top gives a crap about anyone, and thus anything remotely resembling priority or context flies out the window like a powerful bird.
But when high performance leadership is in play, what does it look like?
The four attributes of high performance leadership
CEO Genome is a research project and client practice supporting CEOs and companies that need to select CEOs. The head of the project did an interview with Wharton. It’s pretty interesting overall, but let’s just set up the sample sizes and data first:
It’s interesting, because our data [showed a different picture]. We have the luxury of looking well beyond the Fortune 500. The companies in our dataset, it’s more than 2,000 CEOs and 18,000 executives. It includes folks from Fortune 100 companies to $100 million companies or a 100-person company.
Alright. Not bad there.
So these four attributes are:
Effective, quick decision-making
Relentlessly reliable
Great at managing relationships
Fast learners; can adapt quickly
Let’s unpack this all for a hot second.
Why are these things important to high performance leadership?
Relatively self-explanatory, but …
Decision-making: As bureaucracy grows in organizations, someone needs to rise above the BS of guys who just sit in meetings all day and actually make a decision.
Reliable: Isn’t this a hallmark of life in general?
Managing relationships: Crucial because this is what CEOs should actually do. Too many get down in the weeds on projects, and that’s useless. (More on this in a second.)
Fast learners: Business is super “VUCA” right now — volatile, uncertain, etc. — and a CEO needs to embrace quick change to stay ahead on his financials.
The unfortunate part, though…
… is that most decision-making is too variable, senior decision-makers often shy away from making decisions (or want to make every single one), reliability is often replaced by urgency in business, managing relationships is replaced by “making sure my people follow process,” and many CEOs are still using a 1991 business model they refuse to budge from and claiming they’re “evolving into the current business climate.”
So, out of the four traits across this study — our path to high performance leadership — most CEOs (and their lieutenants) would be nearly incapable of actually doing any of them. But maybe…
Could we actually get to high performance leadership?
Sure, and some people/organizations do. It’s rare, but it happens. This is the ecosystem you’d need:
Overall, this is what needs to happen. Too many people who come to run companies believe the goal is making money. That’s not actually right. The goal is having a good product/service and good customer relationships. Those are the “lead” indicators. Making money is a “lag” indicator. That’s what happens after you do the important stuff right in the first place. Peter Drucker and others understood this.
If we want high performance leadership, we need to train and develop in that way — it needs to be less about the money and the spreadsheets, and more about how working with people, developing ideas, etc. lead to the money on those spreadsheets. Many seem to not understand that tie, and that’s what needs to be fixed.
What else would you add on high performance leadership? | https://medium.com/@tedbauer2003/what-makes-someone-a-good-leader-honestly-369eb8195940 | ['Ted Bauer'] | 2020-12-10 11:14:30.458000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Future Of Work', 'Leadership Development', 'Work', 'Management And Leadership'] |
Fat Women: You Don’t Owe the World Your Attractiveness | The other day I posted a blog post, and before it went live to everyone, I had my Bestie check it out. She said “I love the post, but I hate the picture you put with it. You need to change it.”
This was the picture:
I asked her why she hated the picture? I thought it was cute and conveyed a “fuck it” message, which is what I was going for (it was illustrating the blog post “ Body Positivity isn’t for Everyone “). Her response was (paraphrased from our convo-not exact words, I’m sure) “It is unattractive. It turns me off. They’ve taken this pretty girl and purposefully put her in loud, ugly clothes and put her hair in an unflattering style all with the purpose of making her ugly. It will turn people off before they even read the post.”
My response was: “That’s fucking bullshit.”
And it is. And it isn’t. To be 100% fair to my bestie…from a marketing standpoint she was right. She had it on the nose, and because I knew she was right, I changed it. So, no one get mad at her…she was looking at it from a marketing standpoint, not a personal one.
What is complete and utter bullshit is the fact that she was right. She shouldn’t have been. It should not be a certain fact that fat or plus size is sometimes okay, but ONLY “pretty” and “attractive” plus size. There is no doubt that the young woman in the picture above is beautiful. However because she isn’t “attractive” in this particular image, it’s not okay. It will turn people off.
The thing is, this is a rule, in general for women-you must be attractive to exist. Except for smaller women, the constructs and requirements of “attractive” are often different than those for larger women. If it were a thin girl in the picture above, the first reaction to it would be “she’s being silly” “she’s so cute”. But because she is larger, the automatic reaction is “how unattractive she’s being.”
The message is loud and clear. You are tolerated to exist as a “fat” person like this:
OR THIS
OR THIS
Oh, and this is OK, but only if you look sufficiently miserable and unhappy with your size, all the time.
But in no way at all is it acceptable for you to be funny, silly, or just live life in a way that is “unattractive” like this:
For the record, I want to say that the two women in the photos above are beautiful and look like they are silly and fun, and I’d love to have a girls night out with them. It would probably be a blast!
Of course these are all just stock photos and are extreme and silly examples. Yet, they speak an irrefutable truth. The world is becoming more accepting of fat people. But only if you are small fat, attractive fat. Fat and well put together.
For every flaw a thinner woman is judged for, a fat woman is judged doubly. Wearing yoga pants, not fixing one’s hair, not having perfectly white and straight teeth, have a stain on your shirt, no makeup. For a thin woman these are often shrugged off as a busy mom, but in a fat woman the first term to mind is usually “slob.”
Fuck. That. Noise.
As a fat woman I do not owe it to anyone to fix my hair or put on my clothes to run up to the supermarket. I don’t owe you prettiness or attractiveness. And I most certainly don’t owe you an explanation as to why I don’t look my best today.
We have families to care for, homes to clean, jobs to do, and lives to fucking live. We do not owe the world the time it takes to make ourselves “presentable” so that they-whoever “they” are-feel more comfortable in our presence.
We have just as much right to be funny and silly and wear crazy outfits or appear in public in ridiculous costumes as smaller women. We have the right, and even the duty (to the young women coming after us) to cosplay outside our ‘body type’ or wear shorts and tank-tops in the summer without caring if we look ‘sexy’ or just comfortable.
My declaration of independence and body autonomy: I will wear my stained tank tops and crazy wild hair and no makeup proudly. I’ll be silly and wear my devil horned headband to the store, probably because I forgot to take it off, but I don’t care. I don’t have time to pretty up my fat, just to make other people more comfortable with it.
Women, you are beautiful, even when you are unattractive. The two are worlds apart, and you owe no one prettiness, or explanations. | https://medium.com/ample-room/fat-women-you-dont-owe-the-world-your-attractiveness-f7e8b9bdca9 | ['June Westerfield'] | 2019-07-20 03:25:04.310000+00:00 | ['Body Positive'] |
Dealing With Negative Feedback is Never Easy, No Matter How Far You Advance in Your Career | Dealing With Negative Feedback is Never Easy, No Matter How Far You Advance in Your Career
Photo by Efren Barahona on Unsplash
I am well aware of the merits of feedback and also understand why some people prefer to call it by better sounding names such as corrective or constructive criticism. Despite all that, feedback still sucks initially.
To be perplexed by this reality, it to not understand why a child fights the prospect of having broccoli as part of their dinner.
I confess not always to have understood my struggles with negative feedback; in fact, I questioned my suitability for leadership in my organization due to my poor reaction to feedback. Unlike others, I have a terrible poker face, meaning people can quickly tell when feedback is making me uncomfortable.
I have not mastered the art of smilingly saying “thank you for the feedback, I will work on those helpful suggestions”. | https://byrslf.co/my-never-ending-struggles-with-negative-feedback-efae82ca2d2e | ['Flex Mauto'] | 2020-12-24 13:31:33.144000+00:00 | ['Beyourself', 'Criticism', 'Hurt', 'Work', 'Feedback'] |
The best smart garage door controllers deliver convenience and peace of mind | The garage door opener, in some ways, marks the smart home’s genesis. Radio-controlled remotes for electric garage door openers date back to 1931, predating the TV remote by nearly 20 years. So, it’s funny that modern smart home technology, which ties wireless with internet-based technology, has been relatively slow to reach the garage door. Relatively few companies compete in this market today, and many of their products feel designed more for guys who like to tinker in their workshops than folks looking to develop a soup-to-nuts smart home.
The good news is that these devices are definitely improving in both simplicity and capability, and while the garage door might remain a bit of an outlier in your smart home for the foreseeable future, adding a smart garage door controller to your setup offers some real advantages. Not only will you be able to open and shut the door from anywhere—letting in guests, relatives, or delivery people—you’ll also know whether the door is open or closed in real time.
Updated December 9, 2020 to add our Meross Smart Wi-Fi Garage Door Controller review. This inexpensive gadget isn’t the easiest smart home device to install, but its low cost and good performance make it worth considering if our top pick in this category—the Chamberlain myQ—doesn’t work out for you.
If you’re one of those people who frequently forget to close the door—or if you fret over whether you remembered to shut it as you headed out on a two-week road trip—you’ll definitely want to make the investment.
Here’s our top pick in this market, followed by a list of features you should consider when shopping for a smart garage door controller, and links to our reviews of other products in this category.
[ Further reading: The best video doorbells ]Best smart garage door controller Chamberlain myQ Smart Garage Door Hub (MYQ-G0301) Read TechHive's reviewSee itThis top-notch smart garage door controller can handle two doors at once—although that second sensor costs three times as much as the entire single-door kit.
This is a real no-brainer: The Chamberlain myQ is the easiest smart garage door controller to set up, the most functional controller on the market, and, it’s the least expensive on the market—by a wide margin. The all-wireless system means you don’t have to tinker with running new wiring to your garage door opener, and a single Hub can control two doors (if you buy a second sensor—which costs about as much as the hub-and-sensor kit). The app is simple to configure and use, and the system supports a small but growing number of smart home ecosystems, including HomeKit. The myQ isn’t compatible with every opener, but if it works with yours—check online before you buy—it’s definitively the one to get.
Runner-up Meross Smart Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener (model MSG100) See itMeross’ installation process might stymie novices, but its low price tag—and good performance—merit strong consideration.
Meross smart home products have left us with mixed emotions. They’re all inexpensive, but value is defined by more than a price tag. The Meross Smart Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener is on the better end of that scale. If Chamberlain’s product doesn’t fit your needs, this one is worth your consideration. (Note: This device is not HomeKit compatible, but Meross offers a separate model that is. It wasn’t available at press time, however, for us to evaluate.)
How to pick the right smart garage door controllerWhile garage door openers come in a vast range of brands, styles, and capabilities, the good news is that you’ll likely be able to find a smart controller that works with your system without much trouble.
As I mentioned above, the Chamberlain myQ is my top pick for a variety of reasons, but because it exclusively relies on wireless technology, it isn’t compatible with every system on the market. To start, visit myQ’s compatibility tool and check whether your existing opener is supported. If it is, and you don’t care that it’s not compatible with Alexa or Samsung SmartThings, your work is done: Get the myQ. If it isn’t, you can either get an all-new opener as Chamberlain suggests (although that won’t resolve the Alexa and SmartThings issues), or delve into the world of wired smart garage door controllers.
Christopher Null / IDG The Nexx NXG-200 must be attached to your garage door opener via wires, and space can be tight depending on your ceiling height.
Actually, upgrading your old, incompatible door opener is not a terrible idea, and new models are more secure and less expensive than you might think. Considering that a wired garage door controller can run you about $100, it’s worth thinking hard about whether you want to pour more money into an outdated system that might be close to failure, or just upgrade it from the start. (Many new openers have smart technology built in, obviating the need for an add-on controller.)
But if you do have an opener that’s incompatible with our top pick, and you want to keep it around, you’ll need a wired controller like the Nexx Garage NXG-200 or the Garadget. Wired controllers. These must be connected to the opener via a pair of wires, so you’ll need to be comfortable with some minor electrical work in order to install them. Like myQ, Nexx offers an online compatibility tool, but here you’re likely to find that Nexx is either compatible straight out of the box, or compatible only with an additional adapter. In other words, wired controllers are generally compatible with everything, or, at least, I haven’t found any openers yet that aren’t compatible with them.
Christopher Null / IDG The Garadget fires a laser once a second at the door to determine whether it is open or closed.As with the product from NEXX, the Garadget must be hardwired to your opener.
The catch involves the adapter. Generally speaking, if you have an older garage door opener, Nexx and Garadget will work with it straight out of the box. If you have a newer opener, you’ll need their adapter as well. This is because newer openers often have a more complex encryption system built in, and a standard push-button remote—which is what wired smart controllers emulate—won’t work with them. The solution is to place a button that is compatible with this encryption in between the controller and the opener: The controller tells the button to activate, which in turn tells the opener to open or close. It’s a little wonky, but in my testing, these setups work just as well as the wireless alternative.
The problem is that it’s just a lot more expensive to do it this way. Purchasing a Nexx and an adapter will run you $105 at press time, and a Garadget plus adapter costs $98. Compare that to the less than $40 you’ll spend on the myQ and there’s really no choice.
Again, if myQ isn’t compatible, either Nexx or Garadget will make for an acceptable alternative, provided you’re willing to spend a little extra to get the job done. We’ll review new products in this space as they come to market and will update our top pick as warranted.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@carolyn55998192/the-best-smart-garage-door-controllers-deliver-convenience-and-peace-of-mind-2ad0dc8e51f1 | [] | 2020-12-25 02:17:10.052000+00:00 | ['Mobile', 'Consumer', 'Surveillance', 'Internet'] |
Walking His Human | Hi! I’m Terry Mansfield and I Specialize in Eclecticism
Here are some things about me you probably don’t know (and maybe don’t even care to know; sorry about that). | https://medium.com/flicker-and-flight/walking-his-human-be4413cfd0c5 | ['Terry Mansfield'] | 2020-12-26 01:21:27.692000+00:00 | ['Dogs', 'Haiku', 'Walking', 'Humor', 'Poetry'] |
Hormel Foundation gives major gift to Cedar River Watershed | With a $1 million overall budget heading into the 2021 construction season, CRWD staff now can work with landowners in the headwaters of Dobbins Creek on potential projects for building earthen berms that temporarily store large amounts of stormwater and snowmelt. This would continue the past five years of progress made by CRWD under its CIP initiative in collaboration with The Hormel Foundation and State of Minnesota.
CRWD project manager Cody Fox checks a CIP structure on March 9, 2020, as snowmelt is temporarily stored behind the upstream Dobbins 1 berm.
“Everyone who lives in the Cedar River Watershed can be very thankful for the significant and ongoing support of The Hormel Foundation,” CRWD administrator Justin Hanson said. “Together, we are making a difference with these upland-storage projects, and others from across the state are learning from this work.”
Hanson also expressed gratitude for the legislative efforts by outgoing state Sen. Dan Sparks and Rep. Jeanne Poppe, both of Austin, to support CRWD’s projects this year and during their many years serving in the Legislature.
“Getting state approval to form the Cedar River Watershed District, designating the Cedar River as a state water trail and helping to secure millions of dollars in state funding for our upland-storage projects — Sen. Sparks and Rep. Poppe did outstanding work for the local natural resources during their legislative careers,” Hanson said.
CRWD administrator Justin Hanson (on right) addresses a group, including members of The Hormel Foundation’s Board of Directors, on Oct. 16, 2020, above the outlet of the upstream Dobbins 1 stormwater-detention structure in Dexter Township. This water eventually flows in Dobbins Creek’s north branch.
CRWD’s new grant is part of $10.6 million approved in November by The Hormel Foundation to nonprofit organizations in the Austin community. To date, The Hormel Foundation has given more than $300 million to the community.
“This is only possible due to the visionary plan established in 1941 by George and Jay Hormel, and the generations of hard-working employees of Hormel Foods,” said Jeffrey M. Ettinger, chair of The Hormel Foundation.
CRWD’s Cody Fox explains Oct. 16, 2019, how the district’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) projects work to improve water quality and reduce flooding.
CRWD’s initial five-year goal for its CIP initiative was achieved in 2020 thanks to the original $3.2 million grant from The Hormel Foundation and another $3.4 million in state and local funding that built 14 projects, including 11 upland-storage structures in the Dobbins watershed. Most projects were built on streams flowing into Dobbins’ north and south branches.
This year, CRWD has surpassed its original CIP goal of 8 percent by achieving at least a 10-percent peak flow reduction at the Cedar-Dobbins confluence in Austin after constructing this summer the district’s biggest project to date — Dexter 30-Dam 2. Spanning nearly 2,000 feet long with a 21-foot peak berm height, the $1.2 million structure is fully functional for temporary stormwater storage in the headwaters of Dobbins’ south branch.
Nearly 3,000 acres of mostly cropland now are controlled by CIP projects in the Dobbins watershed that is prone to flash flooding. With all CIP projects in place, a 10-year rain storm (roughly 4 inches of rain) — which leads to some rural roads being overtopped by flooding — would be about 1 foot lower at its peak downstream from Dobbins Creek’s confluence of its north and south branches in Austin’s Jay C. Hormel Nature Center.
Vehicles drive through a stretch of Interstate 90 flooded by the nearby Dobbins Creek on June 12, 2008, in northeast Austin downstream from the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center. CRWD’s CIP projects are heavily focused on the Dobbins watershed to reduce the effects of its propensity for flash flooding.
Part of the next CIP work in 2021 will be funded by $100,000 in state funding under the first budget for the Cedar-Wapsipinicon Comprehensive Water-Management Plan. This is part of the “One Watershed, One Plan” funding from the Minnesota Board of Water & Soil Resources (BWSR).
To learn more and view drone footage of CRWD’s CIP projects, visit www.cedarriverwd.org or find the YouTube channel for Mower Soil & Water Conservation that also includes CRWD projects. | https://medium.com/@cedarmn/the-hormel-foundation-gives-major-gift-to-cedar-river-watershed-6dad8a1d7187 | ['Cedar River Watershed District'] | 2020-12-03 15:35:10.603000+00:00 | ['Flooding', 'Conservation Funding', 'Water Quality', 'Floods', 'Conservation'] |
Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life Might Just Help You Live a More Fulfilling Life | In Japan, millions of people have ikigai (pronounced Ick-ee-guy)— a reason to jump out of bed each morning.
What’s your reason for getting up in the morning?
The Japanese island of Okinawa, where ikigai has its origins, is said to be home to the largest population of centenarians in the world.
Could the concept of ikigai contribute to longevity?
Dan Buettner, author of Blue Zones: Lessons on Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest, believes it does.
According to Buettner, the concept of ikigai is not exclusive to Okinawans: “there might not be a word for it but in all four blue zones such as Sardinia and Nicoya Peninsula, the same concept exists among people living long lives.”
Buettner suggests making three lists: your values, things you like to do, and things you are good at. The cross section of the three lists is your ikigai.
Studies show that losing one’s purpose can have a detrimental effect.
American mythologist and author Joseph Campbell once said, “My general formula for my students is “Follow your bliss.” Find where it is, and don’t be afraid to follow it.”
“Your ikigai is at the intersection of what you are good at and what you love doing,” says Hector Garcia, the co-author of Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. He writes,“Just as humans have lusted after objects and money since the dawn of time, other humans have felt dissatisfaction at the relentless pursuit of money and fame and have instead focused on something bigger than their own material wealth. This has over the years been described using many different words and practices, but always hearkening back to the central core of meaningfulness in life.”
Image: Toronto Star
ikigai is seen as the convergence of four primary elements:
What you love (your passion)
What the world needs (your mission)
What you are good at (your vocation)
What you can get paid for (your profession)
Discovering your own ikigai is said to bring fulfilment, happiness and make you live longer.
Want to find your Ikigai? Ask yourself the following four questions:
1. What do I love?
2. What am I good at?
3. What can I be paid for now — or something that could transform into my future hustle?
4. What does the world need?
In their book Ikigai The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles break down the ten rules that can help anyone find their own ikigai.
1. Stay active and don’t retire
2. Leave urgency behind and adopt a slower pace of life
3. Only eat until you are 80 per cent full
4. Surround yourself with good friends
5. Get in shape through daily, gentle exercise
6. Smile and acknowledge people around you
7. Reconnect with nature
8. Give thanks to anything that brightens our day and makes us feel alive.
9. Live in the moment
10. Follow your ikigai
What you deeply care about can unlock your ikigai
Follow your curiosity.
Philosopher and civil rights leader Howard W Thurman said, “Ask what makes you come alive and go do it.” … “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
The problem for millions of people is that they stop being curious about new experiences as they assume responsiblities and build routines.
Their sense of wonder starts to escape them.
But you can change that, especially if you are still looking for meaning and fulfilment in what you do daily.
Albert Einstein encourages us to pursue our curiosities. He once said:
“Don’t think about why you question, simply don’t stop questioning. Don’t worry about what you can’t answer, and don’t try to explain what you can’t know. Curiosity is its own reason. Aren’t you in awe when you contemplate the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure behind reality? And this is the miracle of the human mind — to use its constructions, concepts, and formulas as tools to explain what man sees, feels and touches. Try to comprehend a little more each day. Have holy curiosity.”
A classic example is Steve Jobs’ curiosity for typefaces which led him to attend a seemingly useless class on typography and to develop his design sensibility.
Later, this sensibility became an essential part of Apple computers and Apple’s core differentiator in the market.
We are born curious. Our insatiable drive to learn, invent, explore, and study deserves to have the same status as every other drive in our lives.
Fulfilment is fast becoming the main priority for most of us. Millions of people still struggle to find what they are meant to do. What excites them. What makes them lose the sense of time. What brings out the best in them.
“Our intuition and curiosity are very powerful internal compasses to help us connect with our ikigai,” Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles write.
What is the one simple thing you could do or be today that would be an expression of your ikigai?
Find it and pursue it with all you have, anything less is not worth your limited time on planet earth.
Before you go…
If you enjoyed this post, you will love Postanly Weekly, my personal newsletter where I share tools for productivity, wealth, health and personal growth. Join us today! | https://medium.com/thrive-global/ikigai-the-japanese-secret-to-a-long-and-happy-life-might-just-help-you-live-a-more-fulfilling-9871d01992b7 | ['Thomas Oppong'] | 2020-06-22 11:13:57.576000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons', 'Life', 'Work', 'Happiness'] |
Design Interview Questions & Prep | Over the past month, I have interviewed with about 30 companies for UI, UX, Product, Interaction Designer roles. So, that’s a lot of different questions based on the company and the person who was interviewing me.
50 Questions
I know that’s a lot of questions but I was asked at least 5–8 of these questions in each round. It was a mix of personal, design, business and behavioral questions.
All of these questions might not apply to you based on what role you’re applying for. Although, it definitely helps to be prepared for most of these questions.
Tell me about yourself. What do you know about our company and this role? What do you do in your current job? What does your current company do? How did you become a Designer? Why do you want to change your job? How did you find this role? Why do you want to join our company? How many people are in your team? Who do you report to? Tell me about a project you’re proud of. Where do you get design inspirations from? Do you follow any designers? How do you keep yourself updated with the latest design trends? Which company do you think does the best branding? How do you define UX design? What’s your favorite product or app and why? Which product’s design do you dislike and how would you change it? What design tools do you use? What design tools are you proficient in? Do you use whiteboard? Can you code? Have you faced any problems while working with developers? How do you solve it? What do you do when project managers or clients don’t like your design? Was there a scenario where you planned something for a client but something completely unexpected happened? How did you overcome it? How do you convey your ideas to project managers or other designers? Do you use any task management software? How do you hand over your designs to the developers? Do you like working with other designers? Do you have experience leading a team or conducting presentations? How do you handle critique on your designs? Do you like flat design? If so, why? Have you designed primarily with iOS or Material design guidelines? How do you decide what visualizations to use for a particular data? What design tools do you use for data visualizations? Find 10 flaws with this illustration (interviewer shows you a design). What do you do when you come up with a design but it doesn’t align with the research? Have you done usability testing? What do you think about collaborative work? Do you have experience with people working remote? Talk me through your design process. When do you know a design is complete? How do you stay organized or keep up with deadlines? Do you follow Agile scrum or Waterfall methodology? Do you design in Mac or Windows? What do you look for in an ideal boss? What do you do outside of work? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? How much compensation are you expecting? Do you have any questions?
Preparing for answers
I haven’t discussed the answers for these questions because they are based on many factors,
Your experience Your profile Company’s profile Posted job’s requirements Interviewer
So, before every interview, I would prepare with all of these,
When you’re asked a question, take a deep breath — think and recollect because you would have faced that situation in your life. It is not necessary to give an answer as soon as the question is asked. You’re not a robot! Get thorough with your resume and projects. It is very important to know what you have done in the past and what your expertise is in. More than often, you will be asked if you know anything about their company. And, you will definitely get bonus points for researching about the company — shows that you’re really interested in them. It is good to read up on the job requirements and responsibilities, so that you can align your answers based on what they are seeking. Go on LinkedIn and check who the interviewer is, to see if you have anything in common with him/her or to get an idea of their profile. This helps to know what type of questions you might expect.
What I do before an Interview
Of course, prepare for the interview. I read a lot about the company, role, myself, design articles., etc. I talk to myself or someone about what I would say when a certain question is asked. Practice practice practice! I always have some pointers written down, so I can quickly browse during the interview. Staying calm is the key to nailing any interview! So I do something that calms me down — like meditating. I go to a quiet room, so there is no disturbances during the interview. I have a glass of water next to me because sometimes I get parched while talking a lot during the interview. I have my laptop in front of me with the job posting open or to search something quickly or to even have my portfolio handy. I have my iPad to take down notes. I usually go to the restroom before so I don’t have to excuse myself during the interview. Pretty important! Just 5 mins before the interview, I try to listen to a song or watch a video that I like. This usually loosens me up.
What I felt worked during the interview | https://medium.com/sketch-app-sources/design-interview-questions-prep-d2e286a45e1d | ['Pavithra Aravindan'] | 2017-12-12 01:20:59.244000+00:00 | ['UI', 'Design', 'Interview', 'Tech', 'UX'] |
CPL lens filter: Ultimate guide for photographers | Photo by Yusuf Evli
If you’re just getting started in outdoor photography you should invest in a circular polarized/linear (CPL) filter. Why? A CPL filter reduces glare from polarized light-which you get a lot of in the outdoors. Polarized light is any light reflected off a semi-transparent or reflective surface, such as water or windows.
A CPL filter is easy to use. Attach the filter to your lens and turn it to block light from different directions to achieve your desired effect. Adjusting the amount of light in your photo enhances color and contrast, making your images appear sharper and more vivid.
When should I use a CPL filter?
A CPL filter works best when you expect a lot of unwanted glare or reflected light in your shot. For example:
When you want to remove glare or reflection from bodies of water. If you’re shooting the shore of a lake, for example, a CPL filter will allow you to see details like rocks and fish below the water’s surface.
If you’ve ever tried to shoot through glass without a CPL filter, you know how difficult it can be to get a shot without reflections interfering with your subject. If you’re photographing a framed painting, a CPL filter will eliminate the glare from the glass, giving you a clear image of the painting.
If you’re shooting landscapes during the day, a CPL filter gives you bluer, darker skies and more intense greens from trees and grass.
Photo by Guille Pozzi
When shouldn’t I use a CPL filter?
Sometimes using a CPL filter will take away from rather than enhance your shot. For example, if you want strong reflections in your photo (like in drops of water, or a mountain reflected in a lake) a CPL filter would not be good to use. If you’re shooting a scene with lots of reflected color, like a sunset, you may want to leave the CPL filter at home as well.
You should also know that CPL filters reduce the light reaching your camera by one to two stops, so low-light situations are a no go. To compensate for this when shooting other scenes, you’ll want to slow down your shutter speed, open up the aperture, or increase the ISO.
Since a polarizing filter only removes light from a specific direction, it also doesn’t work well with a wide-angle lens that captures a much broader perspective. If you’re shooting a landscape with a wide-angle lens and a CPL filter, you can end up with halos and uneven color in the sky.
Photo by Scott Gummerson
What’s the difference between a CPL filter and a neutral density (ND) filter?
An ND filter reduces all light in the frame, rather than reducing only polarized light. Controlling the total amount of light that hits your camera’s sensor gives you the ability to take longer-exposure shots during the day, but it won’t affect color or glare in your photos. It’s used mostly in wildlife photography, landscapes, or action shots.
Situations for using an ND filter can include the following:
Shooting long exposures in manual mode.
Photographing action shots in bright sunlight to make your subject crisp and clear without overexposing.
Reducing your depth of field — when you want to open up your aperture to gain clarity in the foreground and blur the background.
Similarly, when shooting a portrait in bright light an ND filter will allow you to play around with depth of field.
Photographing a waterfall or moving body of water when you want the motion to have a smooth, blurred look.
Can I use a CPL filter and an ND filter at the same time?
You can, but this should be done with caution. You may end up with photos that are too dark or look unrealistic.
If you’re only going to buy one filter to start out with, make it a CPL. Using a CPL filter will help you be more mindful and intentional about how you shoot reflected light, and it can help you take your photos to the next level. | https://news.smugmug.com/cpl-lens-filter-ultimate-guide-for-photographers-62d661d026d2 | [] | 2020-07-16 17:21:29.620000+00:00 | ['Filters', 'Gear', 'Tips', 'Smugmug', 'Lenses'] |
YOLO v3 Real-Time Object tracking with Deep SORT | Introduction
Probably we all understand that computers and algorithms are getting better every day at “thinking”, analyzing situations, and making decisions similar to humans do. Understanding computer vision is an integral part of this progress in the area of machine intelligence. 10 years ago object detection was a mystery to us, it was not even worth mentioning object tracking. These technologies have come far in that regard and the boundaries are being challenged and pushed as we talk.
While detecting objects in an image has been getting a lot of attention from the scientific community, a lesser-known and yet an area with widespread applications is tracking objects in a video or realtime video stream. That’s something that requires us to merge our knowledge of detecting objects in images with analyzing temporal information and using it to predict movement trajectories.
Object tracking might be used in sports events for example tracking basketball, catching burglars, counting passing cars in street or even track when your dog is running outside the house. There are many areas where we can use object tracking.
Object detection vs Object Tracking
If you are new in computer vision and deep learning, you may ask, what’s the difference between “Object Detection” and “Object Tracking”?
In simple terms, in object detection, we detect an object in a frame, put a bounding box or a mask around it, and classify the object. Note that, the job of the detector ends here. It processes each frame independently and identifies numerous objects in that particular frame.
Now, an object tracker on the other hand needs to track a particular object across the entire series of frames (for example video). If the detector detects 2 bananas in the frame, the object tracker has to identify the 2 separate detections and needs to track them across the subsequent frames (with the help of a unique object ID).
Challenges
Tracking an object on a straight road or a clear area might sound very easy. But hardly any real-world application is that straight forward and free of any challenges. Here I will mention some common problems that might encounter while using an object tracker.
Occlusion:
The occlusion of objects in videos is one of the most common obstacles to seamless tracking of objects. As you can see, in the above figure (left), the man in the background is detected, while the same guy goes undetected in the next frame (right). Now, the challenge for the tracker lies in identifying the same guy when he is detected in a much later frame and associating his older track and features with his trajectory.
Variations in viewpoints:
In real-life examples, the task would be to track an object across different cameras, this may be used in AI stores where there is no cashier, and we must track a customer throughout the store. A similar example is illustrated above, as a consequence of this, there will be significant changes in how we view the object in each camera. In such cases, the features used to track an object become very important as we need to make sure they are invariant to the changes in views.
Non-stationary camera:
When the camera used for tracking a particular object is also in motion for the object, it can often lead to unintended consequences. As I mentioned previously, many trackers consider the features from an object to track them. Such a tracker might fail in scenarios where the object appears different because of the camera motion (appear bigger or smaller). A robust tracker for this problem can be very helpful in important applications like object tracking drones or autonomous navigation.
Annotating training data:
One of the most annoying things about building an object tracker is getting good training data for a particular scenario. Unlike building a dataset for an object detector we can have randomly unconnected images. In object tracking, it’s required to have video or frame sequences where each instance of the object is uniquely identified for each frame.
Traditional Methods
Mean shift method:
Mean-shift or Mode seeking is a popular algorithm, which is mainly used in clustering and other related unsupervised problems. It is similar to K-Means but replaces the simple centroid technique of calculating the cluster centers with a weighted average that gives importance to points that are closer to the mean. The goal of the algorithm is to find all the modes in the given data distribution. Also, this algorithm does not require an optimum “K” value like K-Means.
Suppose we have detection for an object in the frame and we extract certain features from the detection (color, texture, histogram, etc). By applying the mean-shift algorithm, we have a general idea of where the mode of the distribution of features lies in the current state. Now when we have the next frame, where this distribution has changed due to the movement of the object in the frame, the mean-shift algorithm looks for the new largest mode and hence tracks the object.
For more info on the mean-shift, refer to here.
Optical flow method:
This method differs from mean-shift, as we do not necessarily use features extracted from the detected object. Instead, the object is tracked using the Spatio-temporal image brightness variations at a pixel level.
Here we focus on obtaining a displacement vector for the object to be tracked across the frames. Tracking with optical flow rests on four important assumptions:
Brightness consistency: Brightness around a small region is assumed to remain nearly constant, although the location of the region might change; Spatial coherence: Neighboring points in the scene typically belong to the same surface and hence typically have similar motions; Temporal persistence: Motion of a patch has a gradual change; Limited motion: Points do not move very far or randomly.
Once these criteria are satisfied, we use something called the Lucas-Kanade method to obtain an equation for the velocity of certain points to be tracked (usually these are easily detected features). Using the equation and some prediction techniques, a given object can be tracked throughout the video.
For more info on Optical flow, refer to here.
Kalman Filter
In almost any engineering problem that involves prediction in a temporal or time series sense, it can be computer vision, guidance, navigation, stabilizing systems, or even economics you may often hear “Kalman Filter”.
The core idea of a Kalman filter is to use the available detections and previous predictions to arrive at the best guess of the current state while keeping the possibility of errors in the process.
For example, now we can train a fairly good YOLOv3 object detector that detects a person. But it is not that accurate and occasionally misses detections, say 10% of frames. To effectively track and predict the next state of a person, let us assume a “Constant velocity model”. Now, once we have defined the simple model according to laws of physics, given a current detection, we can make a nice guess on where the person will be in the next frame. It all sounds perfect, in an ideal world, but there is always a noise component. So we have:
Noise associated with the constant velocity model that would follow a person. It is obvious as we cannot expect a constant velocity always. We call this “Process Noise”;
Since, the detector output, based on which we are making predictions is also not accurate, we have “Measurement Noise” associated with it.
As we see in the above pic, the Kalman filter works recursively, where we take current readings, to predict the current state, then we use the measurements and update our predictions. So, it essentially boils down to inferring a new distribution (the predictions) from the previous state distribution and the measurement distribution.
The complete mathematical formulation and derivations concerning the Kalman filter are not covered in this post. However, it is recommended for you to go through them. You can read more on this link if you have enough mathematical background.
Kalman filter works best for linear systems with Gaussian processes involved. In our case, the tracks hardly leave the linear realm and also, most processes and even noise fall into the Gaussian realm. So, the problem is suited for the use of Kalman filters.
Deep Learning based Object Tracking Approaches
Deep Regression Networks:
One of the early methods that used deep learning, for single object tracking was Deep Regression Networks (ECCV, 2016). A model is trained on a dataset consisting of videos with labeled target frames. The objective of the model is to simply track a given object from the given image crop.
To achieve this, they use a two-frame CNN architecture which uses both the current and the previous frame to accurately regress on to the object:
As shown in the above figure, we take the crop from the previous frame based on the predictions and define a “Search region” in the current frame based on that crop. Now the network is trained to regress for the object in this search region. The network architecture is simple with CNN’s followed by Fully connected layers that directly give us the bounding box coordinates.
ROLO — Recurrent Yolo
ROLO Recurrent Yolo (ISCAS 2016) — an elegant way to track objects using deep CNN. That’s a slightly modified YOLO detector with attached recurrent LSTM unit at the end, that helps to track objects by capturing the Spatio-temporal features. Here is architecture:
As shown in the above image, the architecture is quite simple. The Detections from YOLO (bounding boxes) are concatenated with the feature vector from a CNN based feature extractor (We can either re-use the YOLO backend or use a specialized feature extractor). Now, this concatenated feature vector, which represents most of the spatial information related to the current object, along with the information on the previous state is passed onto the LSTM cell.
The output of the cell now accounts for both spatial and temporal information. This simple trick of using CNN’s for feature extraction and LSTM’s for bounding box predictions gave high improvements to tracking challenges. The disadvantage of this method is that it’s quite hard to train the LSTM network.
Deep SORT
The most popular and one of the most widely used object tracking framework is Deep SORT (Simple Real-time Tracker).
In the Deep Sort tracker, the Kalman filter is a crucial component. Kalman tracking scenario is defined on the eight-dimensional state space (u,v, a,h,u’,v’, a’,h’) that contains the bounding box center position (u, v), are centers of the bounding boxes, a is the aspect ratio and h, the height of the image. The other variables are the respective velocities of the variables.
Note that variables have only absolute position and velocity factors since we are assuming a simple linear velocity model. The Kalman filter helps us factor in the noise in the detection and uses prior state in predicting a good fit for bounding boxes.
For each detection, we create a “Track”, that has all the necessary state information. It also has a parameter to track and delete tracks that had their last successful detection long back, as those objects would have left the scene. To eliminate duplicate tracks, there is a minimum number of detections threshold for the first few frames.
Now, when we have the new bounding boxes tracked from the Kalman filter, the next problem lies in associating new detections with the new predictions. Since they are processed independently here comes the assignment problem because we have no idea how to associate track_i with incoming detection_k.
To solve this, we need 2 things: A distance metric to quantify the association and an efficient algorithm to associate the data.
Deep SORT authors decided to use the squared Mahalanobis distance (effective metric when dealing with distributions) to incorporate the uncertainties from the Kalman filter. Thresholding this distance can give us a very good idea of the actual associations. This metric is more accurate than euclidean distance as we are effectively measuring the distance between 2 distributions (everything is a distribution under Kalman filter). In this case, the authors offered to use the standard Hungarian algorithm, which is a very effective and simple combinatorial optimization algorithm that solves the assignment problem.
The appearance feature vector
Up to this point, we have an object detector giving us detections, Kalman filter tracking detections, and giving us missing tracks and the Hungarian algorithm solving the association problem.
Despite the effectiveness of the Kalman filter, it fails in many of the real-world scenarios like occlusions, different viewpoints, etc.
So, to improve this, the authors of Deep SORT introduced another distance metric based on the “appearance” of the object.
So, authors first built a classifier over the dataset, trained it till it achieved a reasonably good accuracy, and then strip the final classification layer. Assuming a classical architecture, we will be left with a dense layer producing a single feature vector, waiting to be classified. That feature vector becomes our “appearance descriptor” of the object.
Overview of the CNN architecture. The final batch and `2 normalization projects feature onto the unit hypersphere
The “Dense 10” layer shown in the above pic will be our appearance feature vector for the given crop. Once trained, we just need to pass all the crops of the detected bounding box from the image to this network and obtain the “128 X 1” dimensional feature vector.
The updated distance metric will be:
D=Lambda∗Dk+(1−Lambda)∗Da
Where Dk is the Mahalanobis distance and Da is the cosine distance between the appearance feature vectors and Lambda is the weighting factor.
A simple distance metric, combined with a powerful deep learning technique is all it took for deep SORT to be an elegant and one of the most widespread Object trackers.
Code Implementation:
In this tutorial part, I will implement our generic object tracker on pre-trained (trained on COCO dataset) YOLOv3 model.
First, you should clone my GitHub repository and follow the setup instructions from the same repository REAMDE.md file. If you have issues, follow my past YOLOv3 tutorial (links can be found at the end of this tutorial).
Now, since we are interested in creating an object tracker and not a detector, we shall use a video or real-time camera detection outputs, to receive a series of frames.
The deep_sort folder in the repo has the original deep sort implementation, complete with the Kalman filter, Hungarian algorithm, and feature extractor. I had to modify original files slightly to make it work with TensorFlow 2, originally it was written to work with TensorFlow 1.x.
Let’s look at my object_tracker.py script:
Same as in object detector, first we initialize our YOLOv3 model, then we import necessary functions for our deep SORT tracker.
Differently from my other functions in this project, which I put in yolov3/utils.py script, now I create Object_tracking in the same file. We call this function in the following way:
Object_tracking(yolo, video_path, ‘’, input_size=input_size, show=True, iou_threshold=0.1, rectangle_colors=(255,0,0), Track_only = [])
Where:
yolo is our YOLOv3 model;
video_path is our video path, if there is no path, it will use a web camera;
input_size, show, iou_threshold=0.1, rectangle_colors are obvious parameters, which don’t need an explanation, otherwise, check my past tutorials;
Track_only is used to define specific objects to track, for example, Track_only = [“person”]. Then our tracker will track only persons.
Talking about the Tracking, model_filename = ‘model_data/mars-small128.pb’ loads a CNN pre-trained deep_SORT tracking model. The function “ tracker=Tracker(metric) “ is one of the most important elements. tracker is an object of the class Tracker defined in the deep_sort library, that takes care of creation, keeping track and eventual deletion of all tracks.
I am not going to explain code step by step, only at the abstract level. Deep SORT Detection requires boxes input in the following format (x, y, width, height), but our YOLOv3 outputs detections as (x_min, y_min, x_max, y_max), so we do a conversion.
The whole tracking is done in the following few lines:
# Pass detections to the deepsort object and obtain the track information. tracker.predict()
tracker.update(detections)
In other lines, we do operations with data.
We can look into object tracking example (Tracking only the people), where I test the deep_sort framework on the test.mp4 video:
This is only a short gif, from my results, if you want to see more, check my YouTube tutorial above.
Training custom feature extractor:
Since, the original deep sort focused on the MARS dataset, which is based on people, the feature extractor is trained on humans, this means that this object tracking model works best to track people. It doesn’t mean that our object tracker won’t work on custom object detector, simply it won’t work that good as it could. To get the best out of this tracking method, you should train an equivalent feature extractor for your custom objects.
But in this tutorial, I am not covering the training part. To train the deep association metric model paper authors on their GitHub give a reference to https://github.com/nwojke/cosine_metric_learning approach which is provided as a separate repository.
Conclusion:
I hope this tutorial post has helped you to gain a comprehensive understanding of the core ideas and components in object tracking. Also, I gave a fully working code, to test object tracking by your self, that you might use for your own project. I have just one request, if you try this code on your project, just mention me in your project. Also, it would be interesting to see, what problem to solve you use it, so don’t hesitate to comment on this post, on YouTube, or even write me an email! Now it’s enough reading, go to my GitHub, clone repository, and try everything by yourself!
Related Tutorial List | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/yolo-v3-real-time-object-tracking-with-deep-sort-4cb1294c127f | ['Rokas Balsys'] | 2020-10-05 19:17:26.363000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Deep Learning', 'Computer Vision', 'Computer Science'] |
Soul-Shaking Goosebumps. When Lightning Strikes Your Soul | When Musical Lightning Strikes Your Soul
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash
In conversation with a friend recently, we were discussing that many people aren’t moved by music the way we are. By moved I mean chills, goosebumps, skin-tingling, hair-standing, spine-shivers, etc. Some even call it a “skin orgasm”. Some studies have shown that approximately 50% of people experience this, but I think it’s less than that. For those of us that do, we can’t imagine not having this. It’s part of the experience of listening to music. Connecting with it. Being part of it.
My friend and I always had this in common. In fact, now that I think of it, most people I was friends with had these traits. We connected through music at a young age, many of us being aspiring musicians. After high school band practices and other activities, we would often ride around listening to music the way other teenagers did. We began taking trips to whatever local store was open later on Tuesdays to procure new music. We quickly learned that we had similar tastes; that we were all moved greatly by this form of art and that we got these chills and goosebumps when the music hits just right. We would be rocking out to something and suddenly find ourselves in a purgatory of sorts where nothing else ever existed but that moment.
The music reaches out and plucks the strings of your soul with an all-encompassing resonance that can barely be described but keenly felt.
Science calls this Frisson
I didn’t know it had a name, but I’m not sure a word with a simple definition can do this feeling justice. Like trying to define Love, there’s no way to simply explain what it really means because it’s subjective at heart. The Wikipedia entry defines it as: “Frisson (/ˈfrɪsən/ FRISS-ən;[1] French for “shiver”) also known as aesthetic chills or musical chills, is a psychophysiological response to rewarding auditory and/or visual stimuli that often induces a pleasurable or otherwise positively-valenced affective state…”
Music is, inherently, condensed emotion. If you think of some of your favorite music, be it happy or sad or fast or slow, it’s usually a story about something. A new love, a lost love, a skyrocketing high, or a valley-of-the-shadow-of-death low. The songwriter takes you on a fraction of the journey, but it’s the most important part. All the emotion of an event compressed into a song. Just as poetry uses few words to convey a deep message, a piece of music will use perfectly placed phrases with the right chords and dynamics to pull you into that moment in time. When it does, I find my hair on fire and my spine becomes a tuning fork.
It’s when lightning strikes. | https://medium.com/an-idea/magical-musical-goosebumps-1dafe414aa94 | ['Christopher Robin'] | 2020-12-07 07:05:25.728000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Experience', 'Life', 'Music', 'Magic'] |
How to Make Money With Substack Newsletters in 2020: Overview | Can I make money with a Substack newsletter?
For sure! But don’t expect to make a million dollars, or even $10 right away.
Let’s start off by asking a few questions:
Is your goal to quit your job and start a new career? Are you trying to make a new side hustle for some extra coffee money? Do you just want to start writing & creating for fun?
It’s important to set your priority before delving further into Substack. But luckily for us, all three are potentially achievable on the platform!
If you’re new to blogging and newsletters in general, you should also be aware that this is a long-haul game.
You won’t get rich overnight, no matter what e-marketing course tells you otherwise. The only way that ever happens is if people pay tens of thousands of dollars for ads or to influencers to sneak their way into success. Or if you’re famous.
I’m going to assume that you’re a normal person and don’t want to do that/haven’t starred in the latest Hollywood Blockbuster.
This leads me to my mantra for success factors on any of these platforms:
Time + Repetition + Quality = Success on Substack
The good news is if you follow the advice below you can be on your way to making side hustle money with Substack. Or even potentially over $200,000 a month like Robert Cottrell (after many years of hard work and high quality, of course).
1. Switching careers
If you’re here to start a new career — know that it takes time.
I was in your shoes a bit over a year ago. I was earning a lot of money as a corporate product manager for a multinational tech company. But I wasn’t happy, so I changed things.
The one regret I have is that I didn’t start my side hustle on the side.
Since this is a time game, I could’ve easily researched these endeavors while still working and started them slowly. Slowly build an audience. Slowly produce content. Slowly improve my craft.
I went with the accelerated version of this — I quit, traveled, and wrote every day. Sure, I’ve probably improved at a faster rate — but I’d be much happier to be slightly behind while still having a year’s worth of paychecks!
I’d advise doing it on the side for a while and gain some traction before you jump head-first into it.
Either way, start right now with guides like these to learn the ropes of what you want to do. There’s a lot of paid info out there, but there’s even more free stuff.
I cover all the basics below to give you a good idea of if Substack is for you or not, so please read further!
2. The true side hustle
For those that truly want to use Substack as a source of extra (but not the main) income — welcome to Substack!
One of the nice parts about newsletters is that you don’t necessarily need to be working on them full time. The choice is completely yours if you want to put in 1 hour a week or 20.
And since this is a time-based game, it makes sense to do a little work — consistently — every week to slowly build a content base. Since this is Substack and not a normal blog, your audience & following should grow right alongside your content production.
Please read on for all the basics of Substack and if this is the right platform for you to start your writing/podcast side hustle on.
3. Just here for fun
If you’re just looking for a way to get people to see the results of your writing hobby — Substack is also the perfect place for that.
It’s free to use It’s incredibly easy to navigate and setup There’s no penalty for missing a week or two here and there
There’re lots of places for you to post your writing if it’s just a hobby, but right now, my two favorites are Medium and Substack.
The free-to-use factor is definitely a huge plus. And setting up a personal blog on Wordpress, etc, can take a long time to learn (or a couple of hundred bucks to pay someone).
Freemium platforms that are easy to use are great for the hobby writer. And who knows, maybe people will enjoy your work enough that you start to make some cash too (or even a living)!
Takeaway
For all 3 of the above type of people, I believe Substack has a place for them. Just keep in mind that it takes time to be successful on this platform (or any other).
But if you enjoy writing and love people seeing your work — then you’ll probably stick with it.
Before you know it, you might find yourself making a few hundred extra dollars every month (or potentially a lot more later on).
Let’s now look at some key facts about Substack to start. | https://medium.com/feedium/can-i-make-money-on-substack-720556e3940 | ['J.J. Pryor'] | 2020-12-23 13:59:47.118000+00:00 | ['Side Hustle', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Freelancing', 'Newsletter', 'Substack'] |
Getting Lost Actually Helped Me Find My Way | To a beloved writing sister of mine, Sherry McGuinn, I bestow the sincerest and most heartfelt gratitude for every damned word of this piece. It was one paragraph Sherry wrote. One tiny little well-written paragraph that kicked up a dust storm in my brain and compelled me to speak again. Now, it’s not like this paragraph was the only thing that caught my attention span. The whole damned piece is covered in that unique gold-plated McGuinn style that I love so much. Read it, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
But the one paragraph that kickstarted my creative noggin again was this little gem.
Maybe this is the reason I lack direction in other areas, most specifically, in my “career.” I no longer know what the hell I want other than to write. I’m here, I’m there, I’m everywhere and none of it is paying off in the way that I’d hoped. I’m still lost and lookin.” For what, I’m no longer sure.
Wow, just wow. Do you know what the first thought I had was? Well, other than wow, I said to myself, I said, “self, you had to get lost before you knew where you were and where you wanted to go.” And I did get lost. I was lost on this platform for three years, a veritable lean (okay, I have an old fart pudge around the middle) mean writing machine.
I cranked out something daily, sometimes two pieces, sometimes three, thinking I knew where I was going only to pull up one day and realize I had no clue where I was going or how I was going to get there.
I became lost in my words, most times speaking without really engaging a single freaking thought about where those words were going to take me and what I would do when I finally got “there”. I was writing, but I had really lost my way.
And so I just shut up and bailed out. Thankfully, the chute opened, and I had a lovely, gentle float back to reality. Uh, the landing was a little rough, though. At my age, I can’t drop and roll like I used to. Still, I was grounded and actually thinking about what I wanted, what I needed from my writing, and here they are.
I needed to make money to augment my meager social security so mama and I could live out our days in a modicum of comfort. I needed to write to soothe the creative beasts that have been tormenting me since I was twelve years old.
That’s it, only two things. No visions of elbow patches and pipes, no dreams of bestsellers, and long lines of fans waiting to have me personalize a book I wrote.
Just those two simple needs.
It’s amazing how you feel when you’re lost for so many years, and then someone or something shows you the door, and you’re almost peeing in your pants with excitement because it just feels right; you know when you step through that doorway, you’ll be back on the right track again.
That’s how it was when I parsed all the angst, all the worry, and fears down to two simple equations. Well, for me, that’s what it was. For you, it may just be that you just have an exceptionally small bladder, and you always feel like you’re about to pee in your pants.
I so know how Sherry feels. I understand the confusion, the heartwrenching sorrow she feels when she’s at her lowest of lows with her writing career. I understand the euphoric highs she feels when something she writes gets the traction, it most assuredly deserves. I think a lot of us know, but we keep it to ourselves.
We internalize it and let it stew and boil inside, and we try to hold it in until it either spews out in volcanically molten vitriol or literally makes us sick of ourselves and what we’ve become.
Many of us are lost and don’t know where we’re going or how to get there. Here’s a clue. I wrote one single piece in the entire month of November. One. Yes, I was busting my ass with freelancing gigs, but I ignored #2 in the equation. Everybody has to have a #2 now and then, and it’s no different with me. Until now, I haven’t been compelled to speak on this platform; I didn’t really have anything much to say. That all changed when I read Sherry’s piece today.
So, Sherry? Thanks a bazillion for helping me find my way back to all the folks on Medium, and thanks for you being you.
Know this.
I know, in fact, we all know you’re really not lost; you just think you are. Just like I thought I was and that I’d never come up with anything to write about on Medium ever again.
If you can open a doorway for me simply by posting such a marvelous piece, rest assured, there’s somebody here on this platform that’s probably going to write something that inspires you to find your way again. I mean, look. You did it for me.
© P.G. Barnett, 2020. All Rights Reserved. | https://medium.com/the-top-shelf/getting-lost-actually-helped-me-find-my-way-8ab7f63054b1 | ['P.G. Barnett'] | 2020-12-01 20:18:25.133000+00:00 | ['Human Connection', 'Humans', 'Writers On Medium', 'Humanity', 'Top Shelf Pg'] |
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Design activism: does it do enough? | Graphic designers create positive social change through their work
We spend so much time trying to change the world and make it a better place. Graphic designers have taken the responsibility themselves to create positive social change through their design work and the impact that they have on society.
This is a nice sentiment, but does design activism actually accomplish enough?
A research collation on Instagram, called Design Changing The World, shows how graphic design has an impact on every part of our society. Books, magazines, posters, billboards, packages, and even street signs have all been designed by graphic designers. Since graphic design is everywhere, designers need to make sure that they are using this power responsibly. Stereotypes, biases, and prejudice can all be perpetuated and normalized by graphic design. At the same time, positive messaging and factual information can also be spread by the power of graphic design. Designers have the choice- should they focus on creating socially responsible design or should they focus on their craft and leave the activism to others?
Stereotypes, biases, and prejudice can all be perpetuated and normalized by graphic design
The author of Design Changing The World uses the example of anti-Semitism to show how damaging design-perpetuated stereotypes can be. “Design either reinforces or debunks the cultural narrative” (4BCollective.com), and when negative or even benign stereotypes are reinforced by graphic design, it can lead to outright hatred and even terrorism, as is the case with anti-Semitism. The author argues that “design today needs to be infused with a sense of purpose… it is crucial for designers to recognize the power that they wield and use it to change the world for the better. (design_changing_the_world)” But is it really necessary for designers to spend their time doing the job of social activists? Does their work really make a difference?
On designactivism.net, Ann Thorpe argues that many design activists are not as effective as they could be, and are creating designs that are either ineffective or worse, damaging. Design activists could be answering the wrong questions and therefore missing the mark. Another common mistake is misjudging likely audience responses to their designs. Thorpe brings an example of this: To persuade residents of the Bay Area to prepare for earthquakes, the local Red Cross designed portable billboards to “create the illusion of well-known buildings destroyed by an earthquake (Thorpe 2008)”. The Red Cross designers did not anticipate the negative reaction that they got. Their viewers were turned off by the strong scare tactic, feeling that they were being emotionally manipulated.
Scare tactic used by Red Cross designers
Designers could also be thinking too small and not be effective enough, or they can lose sight of their priorities as designers and try to take on too many social issues at a time. Another major concern presented by Thorpe in a different article, in Current publication, is the inherently negative nature of activism. She argues that traditional activism is about protesting or preventing negative things. “It typically acts on behalf of a ‘deprived, excluded, or wronged population’ to which we might add ‘issue’ in the case of the environment (Thorpe)”, and fights against people who oppress these populations. Finally, the author raises the question of effectiveness. If the purpose of an activist project is just raising awareness, does it actually accomplish anything? Do people change their behavior?
These are all valid questions. However, design activism is very different from any other form of activism. All designers have a strong background in the design process, which teaches designers how to answer the right questions, and then iterate and come up with the best answers to these questions. The design process is made up of the following steps: define, research, ideate, build, and test. Since each design project goes through all of these steps, it is much less likely that design activists would miss the mark and misjudge their audience. The user testing involved in the process gives designers a good platform to assess responses and check audience reactions to their design.
On design_changing_the_world, the author shows how design activism is different than traditional activism in its generative rather than destructive nature. The author brings examples from design education, design against anti-Semitism, and many other places to show how design activism can be positive and promote good instead of protest bad things. Instead of preventing things from happening, designers ask questions to discover what can be done to fix the problem. “This diagnosing of the problem is as important as promoting solutions in which we are confident. Both of these steps contribute towards building power for making change. (Thorpe)” Designers are skilled at diagnosing and exploring problems, and they can use this power to change so much. They can also create visions of a better society and influence their viewers to work towards those goals.
Graphic designers have the power to change the world. When they keep the limitations of activism in mind, they can accomplish even more, knowing what not to do. However, designers need to be educated about this power to be able to use it most effectively! Universities and design schools should make design activism an important part of the curriculum to ensure that all designers design responsibly and make the most positive impact possible. | https://uxdesign.cc/design-activism-does-it-do-enough-40532e49d4ef | ['Chaya Blumberg'] | 2020-12-13 22:22:11.336000+00:00 | ['Design Thinking', 'Activism', 'Design', 'Social Change', 'Graphic Design'] |
A Case for cSpeed Off-Chain Operating Network | Taking an abstract view, many modern economic activities are essentially the flow of information and value, and the conversion between them. In the past 100 years, the transfer of information has evolved from discrete events through pigeon networks to continuous flow through the speed-of-light Internet.
Segregated Messenger Pigeon Network (the 1900s) to the Highly Connected Internet (now)
However, the “value” transfer part is clearly lagging behind: it is far from “speed of light” and is still very much discrete events between segregated financial silos defined by institutions and worse, heterogeneous interpretations of contractual logics. This mismatch creates a devastating bottleneck in human evolution: no matter how fast information flows, the segregated and slow value transaction is limiting the productive conversion between value and information.
We need speed-of-light (i.e. “cSpeed”) value transfer and state transitions.
Then comes blockchain technology with incentive compatible distributed consensus. This revolutionary abstraction of trust among untrusted parties brings the foundation to break down the segregated financial silos and drastically expand the scope and accessibility of global value flows. However, despite the promising potentials, blockchain in practice is deviating further away from the cSpeed vision due to its low processing power when compared to traditional value transfer tools. Scalability is a fundamental challenge that is blocking the path towards mass adoption of blockchain technology.
Before we dive into some grand solution for scalability, let’s first understand the problem space better by answering two basic questions:
How fast does blockchain actually need to be?
To figure out this “ultimate goal”, we start with the above-mentioned principle that the speed of value transfer should match the speed of information transfer. In just one second, the Internet can process roughly 2M emails, 65K Google Searches, 72K YouTube video plays happening. These are just a few examples of Internet’s applications and the total number easily amounts to billions of “transactions per second (TPS)”. It is not to say that we need to bring these applications to the blockchain, but to get an understanding of the order of magnitude needed for blockchain to match the scalability of information transfer today. Another way to get a rough estimation is this: there are 53 Terabytes of data transferred per second on the Internet. If there is one value transfer event associated with every 1KB information transferred(think about pay-per-byte), the TPS of an open financial system needs to reach 53 billion transactions per second.
Can blockchain scale to billions of TPS by just improving on-chain consensus algorithms?
On-chain consensus algorithm improvements aim to push the boundary of scalability-vs-decentralization tradeoff curves. It is an endeavor of picking the “sweet spot” on given tradeoff curves (e.g., dynamically picking the PoS stake lower limit within Ethereum Casper) or just use some different curves altogether (e.g., picking different consensus algorithms). Without going into potential improvement mechanisms, we can easily estimate the performance upper limit by just improving on-chain consensus algorithms. For any decentralized system, as long as every node needs to reach consensus on every single transaction, its performance has to be no better (in fact, much worse due to communication overhead) than a centralized system with a single node that processes every transaction, which is eventually bottlenecked by the processing capacity of the slowest node in the system. Even with sharding (arguably on-chain solution), the worst-case performance is also bottlenecked by such a bound with more convoluted tradeoffs we are not delving into this short blog.
The need for cSpeed off-chain operating network
But how does Internet reach its scalability? Well, because there is no large-scale consensus needed on the Internet. When your browser talks to Google, other billions of netizens do not need to validate this transaction. This simple insight leads to the question that whether we can bring most of the transactions off-chain, avoid on-chain consensus as much as possible and only resort to it in the worst case. To match the scale of Internet information transfer and support billions of transactions on blockchain with no compromise on trust, privacy, finality, or decentralization, we have to look beyond on-chain consensus algorithm improvements, and carefully create higher-level off-chain abstractions that gain scalability and come up with crypto-economic mechanisms to balance any tradeoffs. The involved technical tools can be generalized state channels, special or general sidechains, off-chain computing oracles and more. Though with promising potentials, these technologies are still in their infancy. Many fundamental challenges on both technology and economic mechanism design remain unsolved.
Role of Operating Network
We believe the scope of such abstraction is often under-appreciated by the term of “Layer-2 solutions”. They are not band-aids or temporary solutions but are integral to the entire blockchain stack. This higher-level off-chain abstraction is essential for users to build and access scalable blockchain applications.
Therefore, we make the case for this abstraction to have a new name of Off-chain Operating Networks. Off-chain Operating Network can contain sophisticated technical layers and modules within itself and exhibits new kind of incentive and economic structure with various tradeoffs. To these points, we develop Celer Network, an off-chain operating network that fulfills the vision of cSpeed state transition and value transfer with our coherent technical and economic architecture.
Follow us:
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/CelerNetwork | https://medium.com/celer-network/a-case-for-cspeed-off-chain-operating-network-722acd371b83 | ['Celer Network'] | 2018-06-11 18:35:45.248000+00:00 | ['Celertech', 'Blockchain', 'State Channels', 'Ethereum', 'Scalability'] |
Start-Up — When Artificial Intelligence meets Korean drama | Spoiler alert: this article may contain information about this drama. Please feel free to skip it first if you have not watched it yet. But, if you don’t mind, let’s dive in!
Recently, I have watched the Netflix series called STARTUP. It’s a Korean drama that is on-air every SAT and SUN at 9 PM. The story is about a group of people who dream of establishing a startup business on their own.
Seem straightforward and not interested, right?
But, the exciting part is that the main character of this series is a
Artificial intelligence developer
To be honest, I have never seen any series before that put the context of artificial intelligence in romantic-drama shows.
As a data scientist, I thought this is incredible when I watched it for the first time. The writer and director decide to put the complicated thing like an AI into the drama.
The concept and basic illustration of what AI can do, but they also add technical words like deep learning, activation function, or loss function to the characters' conversation directly.
That made me has more impressed with this series. I’m not a geek guy that likes to see the technical word all the time, but to see it on national television is another story.
After watching ten episodes of this series (there is a total of 16 episodes, still on-air), I have learned so many things through this series, and here is what I condense from my thoughts.
AI in everyday life
Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash
I usually think that AI seems to be a buzz-word, and so many people out there have only a limited understanding of what AI can do.
It’s hard to reach a massive audience with complicated and technical terms. Even if you simplify the concept, it’s still difficult for some people to understand it.
Teach computers how to learn. Is that excited ? nah I don’t care about it anyways.
But, if you show them first with the end-product application, what it would be. That’s what this series demonstrated.
They bring the example of Object detection in computer vision combined with Voice recognition to show daily life usage.
The first daily life AI in the series is the robot-assistance called “Yong-sil.” The robot looks like a google nest that helps you with anything you are asking for.
With this assistance concept, the main character merges their computer vision technology to create the blind-assistance application called “Noon-gil.”
It’s a smartphone application that you can take a camera towards anything. The application will talk/describe what it sees in front of its camera so that blind people can understand and live their lives easier.
It’s a bit too fictional nowadays because we still don’t see any kind of application in the real world, but it is possible. I think the world already has those technologies in the research and development pipeline.
It depends on the time that some big giant techs will release this technology.
Practical data use cases
Photo by Product School on Unsplash
In the series, we witness a start-up development process. There is a place called Sandbox. The accelerating program helps early start-ups prepare and develop the prototype/demo of their own.
Also, It helps to broadcast the product to the Venture capital so that the startup can get the investment fund for further development.
The ideas spreading around the registration process of Sandbox are quite impressive. There are two main use cases represent here.
Hand-written fraud detection Font generated
If we are in the data science community, this is not something new. We have seen hand-written detection for a long time.
But, for those outsides of this society, it would be an eye-opener to the current technology. Can our application do something like this?
Besides, for the second use cases, If you look closely, it’s the concept of GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) to create new fonts based on the existing one.
Because I know what the technology behind these use cases is, That’s eye-opening for me.
The writer/director is up-to-date enough to put the latest cutting edge technology to the national television drama. It makes those people who are not familiar with technology can keep up with the new thing.
Also, they show these two use cases in the pitching session of the hackathon. That means there have to present a solid business model with technology to grapes the referees' attention.
It shows the value that can bring AI for the new business. It’s easier to convince people by the number rather than the word.
A representative of the strong country’s vision
Photo by Jezael Melgoza on Unsplash
I have seen so many series/dramas equipped with technology like a hacker or computer genius. But I’ve never thought that I will see the artificial intelligence content in the national TV drama lately.
I admire how they put this complex topic into regular television to demonstrate their country’s vision about AI and startup.
Those growing-up children in Korea will see AI as a regular thing like a phone or application if they watch this series. They grow up with it.
As a result, It strengthens the technology foundation of the Korean people. The youth can choose to become developers like the main character because they know this position exists.
The benefit of knowing what is existed is huge.
The parent can support them with less hesitation because they already know what it is throughout the drama.
They have to do some more research, but it’s not that tough as knowing nothing about it. You already know what to look for.
2020 is in the information and technology era. You can see how many technology companies listed in the NASDAQ / USA index and how much each company’s value has.
It’s an essential thing for both developing and developed countries to adapt and encourage it. It’s the only way your country will be competitive in the world market shortly.
Otherwise, your country will be left behind.
And how you can make people aware of it. The drama could be the one of many answers.
A lot of people are watching dramas for relaxing typically. They watch it with their family. That’s a place we can add something informative here as the start-up series did.
They may not intend to see the drama because of the AI thing, but they still get a valuable information besides the love story and drama of the main character.
The children can raise the question about it, and their parents can teach them like a typical lesson in life.
That’s impactful to create a new technology-adapted generation.
In my country, Thailand, I have to elaborate on my job description every time I tell anyone I’m a data scientist. I make it short by saying that I analyze the data for a living.
It will be easier if we have a drama like a start-up in my country to make a massive group of people realize and understand the current technology.
Takeaways
Here are all at a glance.
Technology and AI are not difficult things to avoid.
Even the latest cutting edge technology can be simply put in the drama.
Solid use cases help better understanding for anyone.
The benefit of knowing what is existed is huge.
I hope that your country encourages this kind of drama to make a sustainable technology generation.
The technology and the process of startup establishing are well demonstrated in this series, highly recommended!
Don’t you think if we live in a world that artificial intelligence helps us in every step of your life?
How convenient it would be?
Pathairush Seeda
if you like this article and would like to see something like this more.
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Here are some you might interest in. | https://medium.com/dataprods/start-up-when-artificial-intelligence-meets-korean-drama-d7836bc0f4d9 | ['Pathairush Seeda'] | 2020-12-16 02:40:43.742000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Television', 'Technology', 'Kdrama'] |
The Flight Attendant (2020) — LoveDrunk Murder on Cloud 9 | One of the most pleasant televisual surprises of 2020 has been The Flight Attendant, starring Kaley Cuoco as Cassie Bowden, a flight attendant who has a one-night stand with a good-looking passenger named Alex Sokolov (played by an alluring Michael Huisman) and wakes up next to his deceased body. She becomes the prime suspect of his murder and sets out to prove her innocence. The caveat: she can’t remember large swaths of their time together, due to the copious alcohol they consumed. Upon first viewing of the trailer, I was in. A sky-high whodunit awash with enviable destinations and punctuated by Cuoco’s trademark affable, kooky persona. My only question was: Would there be any depth to this character, or is she playing another version of Penny, the hot blonde next door? The verdict: Although the show takes a meandering, turbulent route to reach its chilling climax and destination, the payoff is ultimately worth it.
Kaley Cuoco stars as a flight attendant who finds herself in way over her head. Image: WarnerMedia.
The show may be billed as a frothy murder-mystery, but the actual murder at hand is rather conventional. Alex is not who he seemed, and his family’s empire and vast wealth is tied up in some super shady dealings. The more interesting narrative that lurks underneath is a deeply considered character study of a young woman in the grips of alcohol addiction and repressed traumas. That’s not to say that the character Cassie is entirely sympathetic. During the first half of the series, I frequently found myself screaming at my television/computer screen, aghast by her persistent indulgences and confoundingly terrible decisions. At times, I even felt compelled to root for her demise, because her character is wholly narcissistic and relentlessly self-involved. But that’s precisely how someone who is consistently not of the right mind and unable to confront the gravity of her circumstances — and her addiction — would behave. The series forces viewers (it certainly did me) to confront possible biases they might possess about the often vexing behavior and self-sabotage that addiction begets.
Don’t judge this show by it’s trailer!
Cuoco is terrific in her first major post Big Bang Theory outing. She sells Cassie’s manic desperation to cling to “normalcy” and willful denial about her addiction as she spins one lie after another to her co-workers, her brother, her best friend, and her mind. Rolling Stone noted in their review that “Cuoco is sharp and likable throughout, two necessary ingredients for playing a character who makes a scene wherever she goes.” Though I feel hesitant to rely on tired, wholly subjective, and rather sexist notions of a woman’s “likability,” it is true that Cuoco is commanding and charismatic in this role. Even though the character could easily be played off as a stereotypical “dumb blonde”/”hot mess party animal,” Cuoco imbues Cassie with a thready vulnerability, always seeming like she is one shot away from completely falling apart. That is to say, as we soon realize, there are real layers to this character, as much as she would like to keep them buried.
Cassie’s “mind palace” offers a sanctuary from her demons. Image: TVLine.
One of the most interesting storytelling devices this show employs is the “mind palace” to which Cassie escapes in order to make sense of her increasingly insane situation. It’s a magical realist space she somehow shares with *spoiler alert* Alex, the man she is accused of murdering, who she is also quickly falling for. It’s also the one place where Cassie is able to be brutally honest with herself, often with Alex’s goading. However, it should not be a surprise to say that Cassie’s rampant alcohol abuse stems from some deeply repressed trauma, including her twisted bond with her wholly negligent father; she has so thoroughly re-membered and re-written the entire narrative of her childhood such that it perpetually strains her relationship with her older brother. The show, consequently, is much more than a surface level depiction of the travails of a flight attendant battling addiction; it’s a decidedly granular and interior exploration of the ways in which traumas gets passed on and lives on intergenerationally. Try as she might, the emotional residue from her interrupted girlhood cling to her as intimately as the fictions she weaves about herself.
I can’t forget to mention the stellar supporting cast here. First, there’s Rosie Perez as Cassie’s co-worker Megan, who happens to be involved in her own criminal conspiracy. It’s refreshing to see Perez in a fun, light-hearted role such as this, given that she’s built a career off playing gritty, tortured characters, like in Fearless and Birds of Prey. I’m still not sure exactly what to make of this friendship, as it’s never really explained why Megan takes a liking to the party animal that is Cassie. T.R. Knight plays Cassie’s brother David, who at first comes across as very vanilla and the complete opposite of Cassie. He’s married to a Black man, with whom he has two kids together, and he’s wary about his daughters spending time with their aunt due to her drinking. Yet, he’s battling his own childhood demons, and his past with Cassie will prove to be consequential to their mutual healing. [Editor’s note: This year marks an unexpected but wholly welcome TR Knight renaissance, between this and his surprise return to megahit Grey’s Anatomy.]
TR Knight is one of several key supporting players on Flight Attendant. Image: Deadline.
Zosia Mamet portrays Cassie’s best friend and partner in crime Annie, a lawyer whose skills and shady clients Cassie relies on for getting her out of trouble. Mamet’s sharp tongue complements Cuoco’s sweet nothings, and Annie does have a more level head and attempts to steer the sinking ship that is Cassie, until Annie, too, reaches a breaking point. It’s my introduction to Mamet as a performer, but apparently she has quite the devoted fan base on Twitter. Finally, there’s mysterious hitwoman Miranda Croft, played by a perfectly sardonic Michelle Gomez. I won’t reveal how she plays into the whole Alex Sokolov conspiracy, except to say that the showrunner keep their cards close to the chest, never revealing whether Miranda wants to kill or rescue Cassie, or both, until the end of the season. Gomez strikes a perfect balance between menacing and desperate, and steals every scene she is in.
Michelle Gomez plays a mysterious mercenary. Image: RadioTimes.
Finally, I want to praise the career moves Cuoco has been making since Big Bang Theory concluded. With the millions she earned from BBT, she started her own production company, Yes, Norman Productions, and optioned the rights to the book The Flight Attendant in 2017, with plans to both star in and executive produce the series. She sold the show to WarnerMedia through a first-look production deal in 2019, and it has become HBO Max’s first breakout hit, already renewed for a second season. This is in no small part thanks to both Cuoco’s business savvy and her frantic, magnetic lead performance. [After all, she achieved pay parity with her white male co-stars before gay equality was a national conversation in Hollywood.] I’ve been of fan of Cuoco’s since her breakout role on the family sitcom 8 Simple Rules, and I’ve always felt that Cuoco was a much better performer than the stereotypical material she was given on the nerd drivel that was BBT. But it made her a household name and provided her with the financial freedom and cultural cache to pursue projects of her choice. I can’t wait to see what she does next. | https://popoff.us/the-flight-attendant-2020-lovedrunk-murder-on-cloud-9-fa592220de05 | ['Derek Lu'] | 2020-12-24 06:10:22.453000+00:00 | ['Gender Equality', 'Trauma', 'Addiction', 'Pop Culture', 'TV Series'] |
12 movies to stream and be thankful for this Thanksgiving | It’s Thanksgiving time, and with fewer big family gatherings this year due to the pandemic, it’s the perfect time for streaming some movies. But rather than the usual list of Thanksgiving-themed movies like Planes, Trains & Automobiles and Home for the Holidays, we decided to come up with the movies available for streaming that we’re most thankful for.
Things that make us thankful are, of course, personal and unique, but we’ve tracked down a dozen movies (and a couple of double-features) that should at least hold universal appeal. If nothing else, they’re certainly worth considering during this reflective time of year. So, raise a glass and catch a few of these films over the Thanksgiving holiday.
[ Further reading: Amazon Prime Video vs Hulu vs Netflix ]Black Panther★★★★★ Disney Chadwick Boseman portrays the Marvel superhero T’Challa in Black Panther.
Stream on Disney+When star Chadwick Boseman died this past August, it hit hard. He was an incredible role model for a generation of Black moviegoers, playing Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, and James Brown, and imbuing each hero with humanity, which is not an easy thing to do. Arguably his most meaningful role, however, was in Ryan Coogler’s Marvel superhero movie Black Panther (2018), which, aside from being one of the best films of its year, was a world-wide box-office smash and was nominated for seven Oscars, thoroughly changing the game for Black-led entertainments. But the best part came the following Halloween, when a generation of Black children had the opportunity to dress up like a superhero that looked like they did. Boseman worked on the film while suffering from colon cancer, having to be in tip-top physical condition for the cameras, and never said a word. He was a hero, too. We’re thankful he had the opportunity to make this film.
The Curse of the Cat People★★★★☆ RKO Young Amy (Ann Carter, right) talks with her imaginary friend Irena (Simone Simon) in The Curse of the Cat People.
Rent on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, Vudu…($1.99 and up)
One the studio system’s great geniuses, producer Val Lewton was assigned by RKO to make a string of low-budget, “B” feature horror movies. His first effort, the inspired, atmospheric Cat People (1942), with its use of sound to suggest horrors rather than showing them, was a hit, so the studio ordered a sequel. Lewton delivered the hauntingly magical The Curse of the Cat People (1944), which is not a horror film, and is actua lly a rather beautiful story about a lonely little girl. The ghost of “cat woman” Irena (Simone Simon) returns to befriend the dreamy, imaginative Amy (Ann Carter), whose parents are Alice (Jane Randolph) and Ollie (Kent Smith) from the first film. A mysterious old mansion and a mother-daughter relationship enters into it, as well as a gorgeous Christmastime. It was the directing debut of Robert Wise, who had been an editor, and went on to make West Side Story. We’re thankful for this gorgeous little story of imagination, friendship, and love.
The Fisher King★★★★☆ TriStar Pictures Robin Williams tries to enlist former shock-jock Jeff Bridges to find the Holy Grail in The Fisher King.
Stream on Fubo or ShowtimeRent on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube…($2.99 and up)
After battling over the release of his masterpiece Brazil and suffering the massive financial loss of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, the great filmmaker (and former Monty Python member) Terry Gilliam became a director-for-hire. Perhaps whatever sense of melancholy he was feeling at the time seeped into this strange, lovely movie, and gave it its immense tenderness, as well as its visual magnificence. Jeff Bridges plays a former radio DJ who feels responsible that his on-air activity may have caused a murder-suicide. Depressed, he now works in a video store with his girlfriend (Mercedes Ruehl). Enter Parry (Robin Williams), a homeless man who sees himself as a knight searching for the Holy Grail. The delightful, refreshing friendship that ensues can make your day. Amanda Plummer plays Lydia, the wonderfully kooky object of shy Parry’s affection. Ruehl won an Oscar for her work, but this is Williams’ film, arguably his best, showcasing both his manic, inspired comedy and his great big heart. Williams was a treasure who is missed, but we’re thankful he left this gift behind.
Groundhog Day★★★★★ Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Andie MacDowell has coffee with a dejected Bill Murray, who is stuck in a time loop, in Groundhog Day.
Rent on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, Vudu…($2.99 and up)
Religions of every stripe from all over the world have claimed that Groundhog Day (1993) perfectly encapsulates their beliefs, which says a great deal not only about the film, but about the world. Grumpy weatherman Phil (a perfect Bill Murray) is nonplussed to have to cover the same old groundhog story on February 2 in Punxsutawney, PA, but imagine his reaction when he keeps waking up on the same day again and again, with no explanation.
Chromecast with Google TV Read TechHive's review$49.99MSRP $49.99See iton Google The brilliant screenplay by Danny Rubin and director Harold Ramis explores virtually every possible aspect of this scenario, from suicide to gluttony to “I must be a God.” Then Phil tries to use his “powers” to woo his pretty producer Rita (Andie MacDowell), but soon discovers that the only way to go is to dig deep and try to make himself a better person. Some have analyzed the film to calculate that the time Phil spends in the loop is around 34 years, or, as Rubin put it, “a lifetime.” We’re thankful to be able to ponder this hilarious, romantic, and existential work of art.
It’s Such a Beautiful Day ★★★★★ Bitter Films Stick figure Bill takes an existential journey in the animated film It’s Such a Beautiful Day.
Rent on Vimeo ($4.99)Animator Don Hertzfeldt is probably best known for his short films, like the sick-n-twisted Rejected (2000) and the metaphysical World of Tomorrow (2015), both nominated for Academy Awards. But this feature film—really three short films edited together—reaches new heights. It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2012) tells the story of Bill, a stick figure identifiable from other stick figures by his hat. He goes through normal day-to-day stuff, grows mysteriously ill, and then experiences a kind of cosmic re-awakening, which is better seen than described. The film’s visual style consists mainly of stick figures, but sometimes the backgrounds offer dots of color or beautiful movements, or images separated by circles. The tone is by turns upsetting, funny, beautiful, and mind-blowing. It’s not always easy to watch, but once you’ve made it through the 62 minutes, it will be one of your favorite things. I saw it on the day I learned that one of my best friends had cancer—he’s fine today—and it helped me consider concepts of fragility and mortality in an entirely unique way. The short films can be viewed separately on YouTube, but the official feature is available here.
The Kid ★★★★★ Criterion Charlie Chaplin tries to raise the orphaned Jackie Coogan the best he can in The Kid.
Stream on Criterion, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, or KanopyStream for free (with ads) on Roku or PopcornflixCharlie Chaplin’s The Kid (1921) is about to turn 100 years old, and it has lost none of its power. (“6 Reels of Joy,” the posters promised, and the film delivers.) It was the great comedian and filmmaker’s first long-form movie, running about 50 minutes, an experiment much longer than the typical two- or three-reelers of the time. It was an instant smash hit and proclaimed a masterpiece. Chaplin plays his “Little Tramp” character who finds an infant left on his doorstep. Five years later, the kid (Jackie Coogan, who later played Uncle Fester on TV’s The Addams Family) helps Charlie with a scam, breaking windows and selling new ones. But the authorities attempt to take the child away, and in one of the movie’s most memorable, heart-shattering moments, the kid cries and screams from the back of the truck as he’s driven off. With scenes like these, and others including a fight with a bully and a strange dream sequence involving a vampish fairy, the movie is an effortless blend of hilarious comedy and touching pathos, which is nowhere as easy to do as Chaplin makes it look. We’re thankful that this film is still here, making us laugh and cry.
Make Way for Tomorrow★★★★★Tokyo Story★★★★★ Criterion Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore play a loving elderly couple who must be separated in Make Way for Tomorrow.
Stream Make Way for Tomorrow on Criterion ChannelStream Tokyo Story on Criterion, HBO Max, or KanopyFilmmaker Leo McCarey was known as a director of hit comedies and romances, but the same year he won an Oscar for his great Cary Grant/Irene Dunne screwball hit The Awful Truth, he also made Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), one of the most powerful dramas of all time. When McCarey accepted his Oscar, he reportedly commented that he won for the wrong film. Make Way for Tomorrow tells the story of an elderly couple (Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi) who lose their home. Their five grown children, with families of their own, can’t spare the space or the money to help their parents, so they are separated. McCarey buoys the film with a sequence in which the couple, tenderly in love, spend a last night together.
Amazon Fire TV Stick (2020) Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $39.99See it Years later, in Japan, Yasujiro Ozu made Tokyo Story (1953), an equally masterful movie on the same subject, the so-called “burden” of aged parents on adult children. It’s an intensely sad subject, but touched on with beauty and grace in both films, and still totally relevant today. We’re thankful for both films, which have the power to make you want to appreciate your parents more.
The Other Side of the Wind★★★★★ Netflix Director Jake Hannaford (John Huston) tries to finish a movie in Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind.
Stream on NetflixAfter making Citizen Kane at the age of 25, Orson Welles never had it so easy ever again. He made 12 more movies, and though they’re all great, they suffered increasingly smaller budgets, and more haphazard productions. He spent the final years of his life, until his death in 1985, trying to find money to finish his many unfinished projects. Chief among these was The Other Side of the Wind, about a 70-year-old filmmaker (John Huston) trying to finish a film while surrounded by people who either admire him or betray him.
Extremely strange and arty, but incredibly inventive and mesmerizing, the movie was shot between 1970 and 1976 and was more or less completed—three sequences were even edited—but sections of the film were owned by different financiers and no one could agree on how to get it all together. Filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, who also appears in the film, spent decades fighting for it. Finally, the power of Netflix sealed the deal, and a miracle happened: a new Orson Welles film debuted in 2018. We’re thankful for that.
The Passion of Joan of Arc★★★★★ Criterion Joan (Maria Falconetti) prepares to stand trial in The Passion of Joan of Arc.
Stream on Criterion Channel, Kanopy, or HBO MaxMy all-time favorite film, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), broke all the rules of cinema with its use of almost entirely close-ups and few establishing shots, and yet achieving a glowing, angelic palette. Based on transcripts of Jeanne d’Arc’s actual trial, the movie takes on bureaucracy and hypocrisy with a spiritual serenity, and the performance by Maria Falconetti—often regarded as the greatest in all cinema—never fails to deeply move. Paul Schrader called it “transcendental” cinema, as it reaches higher than any other film and succeeds, achieving a kind of divine poetry.
We’re thankful that the movie exists at all, given that Dreyer’s original negative was destroyed in a fire. A second version was constructed out of outtakes, but it, too, was destroyed by fire. Then, in one of the most amazing and bizarre stories in movie history, a full, original print of Dreyer’s preferred cut was discovered—get this—in 1981 in a janitor’s closet of a mental institution in Oslo. Now it can be seen in fully restored glory.
The Shawshank Redemption★★★★☆ Castle Rock Entertainment Andy (Tim Robbins) and Red (Morgan Freeman) contemplate freedom in The Shawshank Redemption.
Rent on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube…($3.99 and up)
Based on a story by Stephen King and written and directed by Frank Darabont (making his feature debut, after writing things like A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Blob, and The Fly II), The Shawshank Redemption (1994) today means the world to a great many people. This is perhaps for its themes of patience, friendship, and freedom, or perhaps for other, individual reasons. It currently sits at number one on the IMDb’s user-rated Top 250 Movies list, just above The Godfather. But in 1994, it was not considered a success, perhaps, some surmised, due to its awkward title. It received seven Academy Award nominations, but in the year of Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction, won nothing. It’s considered a “cult classic,” because it was discovered over time and organically by fans and is now obsessively re-watched by many. We’re thankful for the comfort this movie brings to its fans.
Sullivan’s Travels★★★★★ Paramount Filmmaker Sullivan (Joel McCrea) meets a lost soul (Veronica Lake) while on the road in Sullivan’s Travels.
Rent on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube…($3.99 and up)
Preston Sturges was a talented screenwriter who grew tired of seeing his work butchered by others. So, in 1940, he offered his latest screenplay to Paramount for $1 in exchange for the opportunity to direct. In the space of four short years, he churned out seven masterful comedies, and Sullivan’s Travels (1941) is our favorite. WWII is raging and filmmaker John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea) wants to make a serious movie to befit the times, rather than frivolous comedies. (The movie he wants to make is called O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a title the Coen brothers later borrowed.) He disguises himself as a homeless man and hits the road to find out what life is really like out there. He meets a discouraged actor (Veronica Lake) who joins him. After much trouble, Sullivan finds himself in front of a Mickey Mouse cartoon, laughing like a loon along with the rest of the audience, and finally realizing the power and importance of laughter. For that, we are thankful.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor★★★★☆A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood★★★★☆Stream Won’t You Be My Neighbor on Peacock (free w/ ads)Stream A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood on StarzThe last four years have been ruled by hate, anger, shock, anxiety, and sadness. When Morgan Neville’s documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018) appeared, charting the life and times of beloved children’s TV show host Fred Rogers, its depiction of kindness and caring came as a revelation. It was so bracing and such a drastic contrast to the world, it left most viewers in tears. And indeed, Mr. Rogers was the real thing, a man who saw the good in everyone.
Roku Smart Soundbar Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $179.99See it So, it made sense that a biopic starring Hollywood’s nicest guy, Tom Hanks, would follow. Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) is equally powerful, focusing on a depressed journalist (Matthew Rhys) who is assigned to interview Mr. Rogers, and finds his life significantly changed. We’re thankful for the emergence of these two movies, just when we needed them the most, to remind us that “anything mentionable is manageable.” (The latter film is sadly only available through the subscription service Starz, and is not yet rentable, although a free one-week trial to the service is available.)
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@lisa92753155/12-movies-to-stream-and-be-thankful-for-this-thanksgiving-3c5b4ab64fa9 | [] | 2020-12-21 06:12:28.832000+00:00 | ['Mobile', 'Tvs', 'Chargers', 'Home Theater'] |
When Will the Smoke Clear From Bay Area Skies? | Bay Area cities are contending with some of the worst air quality in the world. We’ve been grappling with these dangerously toxic atmospheres for weeks now. Ironically enough: Last Wednesday’s Martian landscape was one of the few “moderate level” air quality days; Thursday through Sunday, however, saw record-breaking AQI recordings.
Therefore, the question on everyone’s mind: When will Bay Area skies finally turn blue again and boast healthy air conditions? Well, the answer’s somewhat muddied, but clear, deep-azure overhead conditions are on the horizon — eventually.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has tweeted a series of animated models over the past few days that suggest seaward gusts will inevitably sweep away our hazy skies by the middle of this week or possibly a little later than that.
NWS meteorologist David King told SFGate on Sunday that the weather system is slated to blow its way to California’s coastline this week. The system is expected to carry with it increased winds, helping further clear us of the smoke.
And as an added atmospheric party gift: The wind system is also bringing with it a slight chance of showers Thursday and Friday. But don’t expect to see your San Francisco windows run with rain. Those predicted showers are for primarily Sonoma and Marin counties.
TL;DR: Expect to take in deep breaths of moderately clean air sometime later this week, probably around Thursday or so. Until then, keep checking PurpleAir and AirNow.gov, ramping up your air purifiers, and donning a smoke-and-pandemic-approved face mask.
And as a collective, let’s stop throwing gender reveal parties — especially pyrotechnic ones — because, frankly, they’re just “harmful in so many ways.” | https://thebolditalic.com/when-will-the-smoke-clear-from-bay-area-skies-f88d18ce94f5 | ['Matt Charnock'] | 2020-09-15 22:38:33.924000+00:00 | ['Bay Area', 'San Francisco', 'California', 'Wildfires', 'Environment'] |
Business 101 Article #29 | This account is used to publish information regarding becoming a Real Leader. There are both stories and series for you to review and use to become your best. | https://medium.com/@drdonna95/business-101-article-29-e230c45d8882 | ['Dr. Donna Thomas-Rodgers'] | 2020-12-13 00:33:14.794000+00:00 | ['Business 101', 'Turn Around Doctor', 'Strategic Advice', 'Professional Development', 'Dr Donna Thomas Rodgers'] |
Why republicans couldn’t make it through the 2020 US election: Some insights | It’s been over four weeks since the elections and their results came to a conclusion and now is the time when we are into a thoughtful phase judging or discussing the victorious party’s victory. Some articles discussing why republicans lost despite having more states and some are producing their own opinions on why they don’t deserve the defeat and yes some are claiming the democrats' victory a decisive one. I have also pondered various thoughts and conclusions over this and came forward with some insights where I can conclude why it actually happened. These points are not what anyone can logically see in the present scenario but these are some factors that are far from too obvious. Here are some opinions I have shared with you guys!!
Basics first: I hope everyone is aware of why democrats won despite having fewer states. The coastal states like CA, NY and the Rustbelt played a major role in Biden’s victory. They have more electorates plus they acted like a key-haters to the former president’s reign.
President’s tweets: Let’s not talk about what he posted but “how” he wrote those clauses. A non-political background has debted him in a way that he couldn’t help himself making biased posts. Diplomacy is a key term while ruling a state. A politician represents an entire state with his words, and becoming a layman just disappoints some intelligentsia in your house or homes. For example, if you ever noticed some countries even after claiming other territories and giving absurd comments, have you ever find India making any artless statement? This is diplomacy. Beurocrats know it better!
Self-country-oriented moves: We must have heard some apologies from the US on the behalf of his presidency for not attending to the world’s welfare and only focusing on the single nation. Their own! It is a blessing when their foremost priority is their own nation (here “American first” agenda) but isn’t it shocking when they are ignoring the rest of the world. Demobilizing the military in Afghan (which I think should not be done), betraying Kurds in the Syrian war, New Visa policies, seceding Paris or other agreements, reforming the Nuclear deal with Iran, the ongoing trade war with China (I favor it though) and the unending list made the US unfriendly and self-centered to the world. These weren’t good steps at all. We as a world need to move altogether for overall development. That’s what globalization taught us.
Not mishandling but misinterpreting the COVID-19: I guess everyone of every place has been thinking about this major factor though but I believe in a different perspective over this subject. Unfortunately for the president, the pandemic grasps the world and everyone tried hard to keep it slow. I think almost every nation mishandled this pandemic even after bunches of lockdowns, eg, India. So how can anyone say that US authorities mishandled the virus? Everyone failed to curb it. Every step failed to make its spread slow. But what matters is how we perceived “the things”. All he did was misinterpreted the virus. He should have made his citizens motivated for staying at home so that they can contain the virus. Freedom does not always give you the freedom and that really hurts them right!! I guess Indian PM did a wonderful job by representing the entire nation 4 times. At least he tried to unite the nation to curb the virus. It was a required step which Mr Former president missed.
Least diplomatic views: I also mentioned above on the first point. He was never a diplomatic fella. That’s not how we run a government. The best example was the unfortunate violence that occurred in the US this summer… He stated to use guns against the rioters and suggested using the military against their own people. No!! That’s not how you deal with your own people. Whereas Biden visited places and had a word with protesters, diplomatically.
It’s better to give a chance to an unknown hated than a known one: These are a common man’s words. Both of the candidates were not favorites for the people. The winner also possessed weak cognitive ability, a concerning age factor, and many other determiners that were some of the reasons people found him also a non-worthy candidate. But, as I said it better to give a new man the first chance rather than giving someone his second.
Let’s conclude: I seriously do not favor the reports and charges regarding relations with Russia meanwhile the 2016 elections, the corruption charges on him, alluring the Ukrainian president for which he selected for the impeachment, and so on. These are the reports which could be manipulated anytime, anywhere.
Hence, in the end, I would wrap this opinion up by saying that even though the factors were multiple and we should respect our own decision because we are collectively responsible for the fall or the beginning of any era of governance. In addition, we should not get emotionally attached to the authorities and start arguing with our loved ones or the people in our own city or circle. Politics never give a damn about it. The day people would start understanding that government isn’t solely responsible for the development, or anything happening around us (exceptions are there), and we should also take part in nations development, our dependency which makes us handicapped at times, would be reduced and we can craft a better nation. Peace!! | https://medium.com/@manishhachilleus/why-republicans-couldnt-make-through-the-2020-us-election-some-insights-35bc44fa12bb | ['Manishh Achilleus'] | 2021-02-14 18:32:01.515000+00:00 | ['Trump', 'Democrats', 'Us Election', 'Biden'] |
Why is it, that as a child, you can see ghosts, but after growing up, you don’t see them anymore? | in the first 4 years of child’s life, they are telling you everything about their previous life when you look at your kids,
you can see that one portion of your child is made up of things that you put into him. another portion, your wife put into him there’s another portion of your child that not influenced by either you, or your wife. So, where is that portion coming from?
Your child has personalities, He has traits, and you go like “OH, WHERE’S THAT COMING FROM?” Obviously, He’s brought that from a previous life! and its’s really easy to observe this in children, in adults it’s harder, but in the first 4 years of child’s life they Are telling you everything about your previous life!
so ,if you took your wife and your kids and you’d take one month off of America and you’d travel around, you’d go to India, you’d go to Himalayas and you’re having a fabulous time with your family for a month, right? you come back home to America, what will you be talking about in the first days after you come home? your trip! right! you’ll tell your friends you’ll show photos.
imagine if you went on an 80-years vacation! what would you talking about afterwards? your trip!! so if you’d leave for 80 years and you died and you reincarnated, what would you Talking about?
your last trip!
so your kids are telling you all the time everything about their previous life and because parents are so close-minded they go like: “OH,IT’S SO CUTE THAT BRIAN IS TALKING ABOUT BEING A SLODIER .he must have seen something on tv or his friends at play garden told him about being a soldier. no, he’s telling you about his last life!
The problem with parents is that they have their own agenda, they are not open minded enough, or know enough to look and go “WHAT IS HE DOING?”
Kids are also very Phychic at that age, at that early age, when they’re able to look into ASTRAL PLANE, and see being has don’t exist in the PHYSICAL PLANE, and communicate with them, even! so, we believe there’s physical plane in Hinduism and then there’s also an astral plane, which exist right here, right now but that’s outside our visual spectrum. not all kids, but a lot of kids can see. and that’s why when you say that your son, it’s almost like he’s talking to somebody, he’s able to see into that plane for little bit period of years and after that, they lose that ability, as they develop the intellect and they really get anchored into the Physical plane.
so when you die, you leave the physical plane and you go into the astral plane. you are functioning in the astral plane until it’s time to reincarnate again. so when you come from astral plane you go back to the physical plane, there’s a transition period. it’s not Binary/0 1. this little period you can communicate with people, and that’s probably who your son is talking to.
best thing you can do with children is to be completely observant and see what are they trying to tell you because once you understand what’s their traits and characteristics are, you can able to cultivate it! | https://medium.com/@tailorrutvik1/why-is-it-that-as-a-child-you-can-see-ghosts-but-after-growing-up-you-dont-see-them-anymore-b0e239e9b8bd | [] | 2020-12-20 06:22:33.043000+00:00 | ['Kids See Ghost', 'Kids', 'Ghosts', 'Children', 'Psychic Reading'] |
Why Sexism is a Gateway Drug to Racism | Photo by Anthony Crider
Why Sexism is a Gateway Drug to Racism
In man box culture, we teach boys the rules of being a man. The first thing we teach boys is “women are less.”
We do this by policing boys’ and men’s masculinity via the denigration of the feminine. This begins shortly after infancy and goes on continually thereafter. (What are you, a girl? What are you, a sissy?) Eventually, boys under constant bullying and pressure to live up to man box culture’s expectations, engage in public harassment and denigration of women as a shortcut to masculine confirmation.
Once you train boys to think their gender makes them better than girls, it’s not much of a reach to convince them they’re better than others based on race, religion, immigration status, and so on. It’s why masculinity extremists and white supremacists are the same population.
Show me the degree to which a man thinks women are less and you will have shown me the degree to which he is racist. One predicts the other. Bank on it.
Our dominance-based man box culture of masculinity teaches boys that girls and women are less while bullying and shaming boys out of authentic connection and community. Our sons end up emotionally isolated, disaffected, angry, and ripe for recruitment into white nationalism.
All of our society’s problems are born out of our generations old dominance-based culture of masculinity. Until we replace it with a culture of masculine connection, we will continue to create broken men who do themselves and others harm. | https://medium.com/remaking-manhood/sexism-is-the-gateway-drug-to-racism-6e89a14d3c4a | ['Mark Greene'] | 2021-03-13 16:49:27.407000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Masculinity', 'Man Box', 'Racism', 'Sexism'] |
Meditation for Acceptance and Happiness | Hello, welcome to this relaxation and peace-finding meditation, brought to you by PickCreation, the place to discover. Our goal is to get you inspired, so why not subscribe. Give the video a like if you like it. If you’re new to our channel, don’t forget to subscribe and activate notifications so you don’t miss the next video.
I will now guide you through this meditation journey. Let’s begin.
Find a spot to lay or sit down comfortably without any disturbances.
The goal is to become relaxed and at peace, and to learn how to find calmness to reduce anxiety, find patience, and practice self-control.
Becoming relaxed will help you focus on what you would like to improve on in life. It is important to dedicate some time in each day to relax, practice gratitude, and focus on your true needs, whether by taking a moment for some deep breaths or by meditating.
Start now by telling yourself “I will take time to relax, practice gratitude, align my thoughts towards my true needs each day, and this will help me find peace, have self-control, be patient, and be happy.” …
In your dedicated space, bring yourself to a comfortable position…
You can relax, even for a moment, any time in your day…
Now let’s take some deep breaths to bring oxygen to all throughout your body.
Inhale slowly… and exhale slowly… inhale… and exhale… inhale… and release the breath… breathe in… and breathe out… breathe in deeply… and let it go… wonderful…
Look around your space for a moment… don’t focus on any one object…
Now let your eyes rest on one thing… with your eyes soft, keep your focus on that thing…
Blink your eyes slowly. As I count to ten, go ahead and blink slowly at each number while keeping your eyes on the object when they open…
1… 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… 7… 8… 9… 10…
Now let your eyes gently close… you now are instantly more relaxed…
Focus for a moment on how your eyes feel… Make sure they are softly closed… Have them relax more if they can… Your eyes move naturally from side to side under your eyelids, and that’s perfectly fine… it’s calming…
Notice the position of your head… notice how it feels if it is lying against something… Does it feel heavy? … Make sure your head and neck muscles are not strained and are relaxed…
Bring your focus to your nose… notice how it automatically brings breath in and out… each time air comes in, it calms you… as you release air, you go deeper into your relaxation…
Bring your focus now to your ears… Do you feel anything against your ears? … Do you hear any noise around you? … Imagine that any small noise makes you even more relaxed…
Listen to my voice as I guide you… let it bring you calmness…
Bring your focus to your mouth. Do you taste anything right now?
Imagine biting into a sweet piece of fruit, and how that would taste… notice how your mouth feels…
Now think about how your neck feels… make sure it is comfortable and let it relax even more…
Notice now how your shoulders feel… if they are tense at all, let them drop and relax… Keep your arms and hands in a comfortable position… let each muscle along your arms be relaxed… notice if your hands are touching anything… let each finger on your hands relax…
Bring your focus to your chest, as it slowly rises and falls… with your lungs taking in each breath… and providing oxygen that disperses throughout your body… notice your heart beating for you… let your heart beat calmly, relaxed… focus on your upper back … and release any tension you may feel…
Now focus on your belly… notice how it feels as your digestive system works for you… imagine your belly is radiating a relaxing warmth throughout your body…
Focus now on your lower back. Is it pressed against a surface? … How does it feel right now? If it has any tension, let it relax…
Notice how your hips and bum feel in your comfortable position. Focus on your legs… notice how they feel… how your thighs feel against the surface they’re on… how your knees feel… how your calves and ankles feel… be aware of the position your feet and toes are in… and tell the muscles throughout your legs to relax even more… Notice that waves of relaxation are moving throughout your legs and down to your feet and toes…
Now imagine your favorite color… Imagine this color is coming into your toes and feet, bringing incredible calmness with it… Imagine it is filling you up, going up your calves… knees… and thighs… … it goes through your hips and bum… into your lower back… bringing deep calmness… it is filling up your belly… and going up your spine… filling up your lungs… and your heart… bringing with it a healing peacefulness and happiness… … it enters your fingers and palms… and moves up your arms from your wrist to your elbows, and up to your shoulders… it now moves up your neck, bringing it complete relaxation… it moves into your mouth… into your ears… into your nose… and into your eyes… and it moves into your brain, filling all of your brain’s compartments with relaxation and peace… and goes to the top of your head… Now your body is entirely relaxed.
The goal is to become relaxed and at peace, and to learn how to find calmness to reduce anxiety, find patience, and practice self-control.
Becoming relaxed will help you focus on what you would like to improve on in life. It is important to dedicate some time in each day to relax, practice gratitude, and focus on your true needs, whether by taking a moment for some deep breaths or by meditating.
Start now by telling yourself “I will take time to relax, practice gratitude, align my thoughts towards my true needs each day, and this will help me find peace, have self-control, be patient, and be happy.”
As we presently meditate, let’s take a moment to acknowledge the power of relaxation… You can relax at any moment that you need to…. You can find calmness during more challenging moments and in productive moments… accept moments as they come, and find peace within yourself… when you have tension, you can relax instantly by taking a deep, slow breath, focusing only your breath at that moment… and take a few more deep breaths like this to feel more relaxed if you need to… you can also take a moment to remind yourself of something you are grateful for… and what your true needs in life are… practicing relaxation will help you focus on your true needs and goals… it will help you accept things as they are… accept yourself as you are… and respond to more difficult situations with calmness and patience…. It will also help you practice self-control, aligning your thoughts and actions towards your true needs and goals… and it will help you find happiness each day…
When you relax and become calm, and accept things as they are, rather than clouding your thoughts with anger or negativity… you will be patient and understanding… and this will make you happy…
I hope that you will be able to use relaxation to calm your mind and body in life to live more happily… when you pause regularly to relax, you will be able to realize any bad habits you may have… and you will be able to control these habits to make your life more enjoyable… when you realize yourself acting negatively, take a deep breath, relax, and realize that you have this opportunity to change… … being relaxed and desiring happiness will help you do so…
When you are able to achieve relaxation whenever you want, you walk, think, act, and live more relaxed… You live confidently and act with complete acceptance towards everyone… and of everything… and in return you receive peacefulness and happiness…
Now say to yourself, “I can relax whenever I want to by taking a deep breath… … I fully accept others and moments as they come… … and when I realize any bad habits I can change these by being calm and patient… … All of this will help me lead a happy, fulfilling life…” … How do you feel?…
Now, if you’re not ready to end your meditation, you can pause the video and meditate on these things and on the relaxation in your body and mind, keeping every part relaxed as you meditate…
If you’re ready, let’s slowly come back to awareness, keeping in mind the power of relaxation that you will continue to practice today and in your life… I will count to ten and then you can open your eyes…
1… 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… 7… 8… 9… 10… now open your eyes. Look at your surroundings, stretch if you need to, and continue your day with a relaxed mindset. Have a wonderful day!
See you next time for another beautiful video. We hope you will be safe.
PickCreation | https://medium.com/@pickreation/hello-welcome-to-this-relaxation-and-peace-finding-meditation-brought-to-you-by-pickcreation-bf4c2767448b | [] | 2020-12-21 08:18:15.448000+00:00 | ['Acceptance Meditation', 'Yoga', 'Meditation', 'Méditation'] |
Well, you've got me thinking. | Well, you've got me thinking. I'm trying to relate this to my understanding of the laws of the spiritual dimension. I may have to read this a few more times. There was a reason I didn't take any hard science or math courses in college: my mind has trouble processing these ideas. But I am intrigued by them. | https://medium.com/@kcwriter/well-youve-got-me-thinking-f9ca7e0d3b2 | ['K.C. Knouse'] | 2020-11-27 00:17:23.072000+00:00 | ['Universe', 'Science', 'Experience', 'Quantum Physics', 'Life Lessons'] |
Tales from the Crypt episode review — 3.1 — Loved to Death | Original air date: June 15, 1991
Director: Tom Mankiewicz
Writer: Joe Minion
Rating: 6/10
Andrew McCarthy, Mariel Hemingway, and David Hemmings all star in the story of an aspiring screenwriter (McCarthy), who falls for his gold-digging neighbor (Hemingway). He has these fantasies of her in lingerie and with blonde hair, before they ever truly meet.
Miranda Singer (Hemingway) is also an aspiring actress. After they meet awkwardly, Miranda invites Edward Foster (McCarthy) over for a drink. However, when he comes over, she brings another man home.
The next day, she apologizes, and has him over. She says she won’t date him until he’s rich and famous.
Throughout the episode, the landlord, Mr. Stronham (David Hemmings), is this mysterious character who appears to the others only via his security camera, which sees everything in the hall. When Edward goes to pay the rent one day, Stronham’s door opens, and he invites himself in.
Stronham says he can help Edward, as he’s observed their issues. He gives him a potion of some sort, with very little explanation.
He invites himself over to her apartment and slips her the potion with a glass of wine. She goes from calling the cops on him to having sex with him when the potion kicks in.
Once they’re together, her sexuality exhausts Edward and distracts him from h is writing. He ends up hitting her, but this only works to turn her on.
Stronham tells him there’s no antidote to the potion thing, and that the only way out is death. He gives him another potion, which he slips into a glass of champagne. Miranda switches glasses, though, causing Edward to drop dead.
He ends up in the afterlife, and Miranda finds him there, saying that she committed suicide after he died. This was an ending that was incredibly unnecessary.
This episode isn’t anything too special. David Hemmings is underutilized, and the story ends up being very predictable. | https://medium.com/as-vast-as-space-and-as-timeless-as-infinity/tales-from-the-crypt-episode-review-3-1-loved-to-death-8edf163bfb96 | ['Patrick J Mullen'] | 2019-05-21 14:41:02.371000+00:00 | ['1990s', 'Fantasy', 'Tales From The Crypt', 'HBO', 'TV'] |
Main Guide for 10 Important Benefits of PPC Advertising | Pay Per Click advertising is famous these days. It is a model of internet advertising. The advertiser has to pay each time his ad gets clicked. This is a process of making people visit your website. Every business aims to find a low-cost, high-impact marketing option. This trend has become more famous after the pandemics and lockdown. Customers do a lot of online shopping these days. This is the reason behind the excessive use of PPC by businesses. You pay a small amount every time someone clicks on your advertisement. Here you only have to pay for the traffic that these advertisements generate.
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Another advantage of PPC advertisements is that they are easy to produce. You are not required to have special skills to produce these advertisements. | https://medium.com/@usman.continental/main-guide-for-10-important-benefits-of-ppc-advertising-cb2cdcaf8055 | ['Usman Continental'] | 2022-01-08 04:32:19.034000+00:00 | ['Ppc Advertising', 'PPC Marketing', 'PPC'] |
Bitcoin & The COVID-19 Crash | Originally Published April 10, 2020 [GDR Archive]
Summary. We review the macroeconomic backdrop as the COVID-19 crash unfolded through the lens of Bitcoin, dive into the events of Black Thursday 2020, contextualize the decline in asset prices, peer into Galaxy’s proprietary OTC trading data, and discuss the macro implications of trillions of dollars of global stimulus on risky assets. We find that:
Widespread risk-off behavior began in mid-February across traditional assets, and digital assets were not immune from the broad selling. 30d correlations with equities reached an all-time high in early March, as BTC was swept along into global de-risking activity.
Digital asset markets experienced a forced unwinding of leverage on Black Thursday 2020. Leveraged positioning on the BitMEX exchange led to a cascade of margin position liquidations where the total liquidations triggered per dollar was greater than the liquidity per dollar in the system. Arbitrageurs failed to tighten the spread between BitMEX’s XBTUSD perpetual swap and spot exchanges for over 24 hours and spreads reached -$1200.
On a volatility-adjusted basis (z-score analysis), Bitcoin outperformed other risk-on macro assets and its digital asset counterparts during the COVID-19 Crash. Since Black Thursday 2020, Bitcoin has outperformed major macro assets.
Proprietary trading data from Galaxy’s OTC desk shows an uptick in trading engagement, new trading counterparties initiating long positions, and that bitcoin focus and buying has been stronger in the past few weeks, suggesting that some investors are taking this opportunity to accumulate bitcoin.
The recent fiscal spending and monetary stimulus is historically unprecedented, and policymakers are pointing toward additional fiscal and monetary actions. These activities will likely lead to a new paradigm of monetary debasement and inflation; inflation-resistant assets such as bitcoin and gold are likely to disproportionately benefit.
The COVID-19 Crash
A global pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic that has now swept the globe first appeared on November 17th but didn’t make much of a splash until late December when doctors in Wuhan began treating a number of cases that included pneumonia as a symptom but had unknown origin. By January 23rd, the Chinese government locked down Wuhan with a total of 570 people infected, but it took until March for global markets to respond to the crisis as the depth of the pandemic came into focus. Accordingly, global markets experienced historic selloffs across all risky assets, as markets saw extreme risk off behavior with the global economy grounding to a halting stop. Existing narratives were put in a precarious position, when, in the middle of March, the bottom dropped out and Bitcoin lost -31.5% in 24h on what’s being dubbed Black Thursday 2020 and -48% peak-to-trough drop depending on which exchange is quoted. In previous research, however, including in a paper from August 2019 titled “Bitcoin & Macroeconomic Uncertainty” and in internal studies on correlations with traditional assets, we showed that Bitcoin has rarely behaved like a true macro hedge, but the sheer scale of the dislocation surprised many and exposed overleveraged pockets of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Fig. 1 (a): Selected macro asset YTD performance
Fig. 1 (b): Macro asset performance since start of COVID-19 Crash, Fig. 1 (c): Macro asset performance since Black Thursday 2020
Volatility cometh
Fig. 2: S&P 500 vs. BTC price action (since February)
During February, it became increasingly clear that Bitcoin was closely tracking the performance of equities and acting as high beta asset to the S&P 500 (left). Around February 15th or 16th, Bitcoin appeared to have been part of the beginning of a broad risk-off flight across asset classes.
Still, Bitcoin and crypto markets appeared better positioned to weather an oncoming storm from COVID-19 than other markets. In the final days of February, realized volatility increased dramatically for equities despite staying nearly constant for BTC, an artificial sign of strength that may have wooed investors into an expectation of risk-off performance from BTC going forward. Bitcoin 30d realized volatility, which routinely sits in the 50s and higher, did not register any seismic shift caused by the emergence of widespread risk-off behavior, starting around February 19th. S&P 500 30d realized volatility, which typically sits below 20 and was ~10 in January and early February, began to increase dramatically with sharp equities selling. That is, the alarm bells went off in equities markets while crypto markets, touted for their uncorrelated status, appeared to be business as usual.
Fig. 3 (a): 30d realized volatility of selected macro assets, Fig. 3 (b): % chg in 30d realized vol of BTC and S&P 500
Emergent asset correlations
BTC showed an emergent strengthening rolling correlation with the traditional assets on February 17th and February 18th. Bitcoin’s correlation to most assets is typically 0.00 +/- 0.25. Rolling 10d-correlations, prone to variability, between BTC and S&P 500 briefly dissipated at the end of February. In early March, correlation strength between Bitcoin and other macro assets started to grow:
Fig. 4 (a): BTC-S&P 500 correlations, Fig. 4 (b): BTC-10Y correlations, Fig. 4 (c): BTC-Gold correlations
Since March 12th, the correlation between BTC and S&P 500 has been >0.50, making it the most persistent correlation with equities in Bitcoin’s history. 10d correlation with gold has reached elevated but not record levels of >0.40 for the last 15 days. The old maxim “all correlations go to one in a crisis” has held true, and another old maxim held once again: cash is king. Expectedly, BTC has had a negative correlation with 10yr Treasuries since February, which is a cash-producing asset (although hardly at the moment), as investors globally fled risky assets and sought safe haven assets. Interestingly, gold too declined during the crash, as any asset with a price tag became a source of liquidity, and even Treasuries declined for a brief moment after surging demand and collapsing yields.
Crypto markets & Black Thursday 2020
Macro backdrop
Bitcoin is a small dinghy in the global ocean of the financial assets, and the COVID-19 Crash was a tsunami that pulled everything under. Equities racked up large losses in early March as the COVID-19 outbreak began to eviscerate 10 years’ worth of gains fueled by low interest rates and corporate share buybacks. S&P 500 lost -7.6% on Monday, March 9th and -4.9% on Wednesday, March 11th as liquidity evaporated from markets and sellers fire sold assets. Redemptions across asset classes meant forced selling at exactly the time when money was needed to soak up the damage. The FRA-OIS spread, a measure of the rate spread between forward rate agreements and overnight indexed swaps, blew out to 51.2 bps by March 9th, the second highest level since 2009 following a brief period in 2011 during the Greek debt crisis. The FRA-OIS spread is a measure of the relative cheapness or expensiveness of banks’ future borrowing from one another. The spread expanded as the market began pricing in expectations of missed future debt obligations, which reduces banks’ operating balance sheets. Bitcoin, running a high correlation with risky assets, was along for the ride.
BitMEX Liquidations
On March 12th, the S&P 500 dropped -9.5% but BTC/USD fell -31.5% with a peak-to-trough loss of -48%. March 12th exposed that BitMEX and other derivatives platforms were overleveraged. BitMEX is a futures exchange for major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum that regularly sees over +$1 billion in open interest. The XBTUSD Perpetual Swap contract for example has just a 1% margin requirement, but it is an auto-deleveraging-enabled contract. If the margin posted by a trader falls below the maintenance margin requirement, BitMEX’s liquidation engine will attempt to liquidate part of the position over a certain amount of time by posting an order until the margin requirement is satisfied. The liquidation engine mechanism produces a feedback loop where rapid gains or losses introduce new orders in the same direction, magnifying the effect of a price movement. The feedback effect is usually small because there is typically sufficient order book liquidity to soak up liquidated positions.
An initial price drop from the mid-7000 range in the morning on March 12th triggered a torrent of liquidations on BitMEX, which accelerated downward pressure. Under normal circumstances arbitrageurs will immediately pick up price discrepancies between spot prices on different exchanges. BitMEX XBTUSD perpetual swap contracts trade like spot and, as is visible, there was no spread between the two on March 11th. On the initial March 12th drop, arbitrageurs failed to keep BitMEX and Coinbase pricing aligned. Spreads between BitMEX perpetual swaps and spot exchanges indicate that the liquidation engine is creating order book pressure that does not exist on other exchanges. BitMEX’s low for the initial drop came at 11:01am ET and reached -$114 lower than on Coinbase ($5757 on BitMEX versus $5871 on Coinbase), showing signs of an emerging basis spread. Spreads of at least -$100 could be observed for 30 minutes to either side of that 11:01am low.
The liquidation engine was still actively deleveraging margin positions for about 5 hours between 10:30am and 3:30pm as spreads remained larger than -$20. Arbitrageurs stabilized price discrepancies around 3:30pm, suggesting that there was temporarily enough buy pressure on spot exchanges around the $6000 price to counteract the unwinding BitMEX leverage. A second major drop (in our estimation caused by a waning buy-side response to BitMEX’s still-deleveraging engine after arbitrageurs realigned spot prices) gave way to more liquidations. It’s also conceivable here that one or multiple parties saw what was happening on BitMEX and actively crushed spot price on a low-liquidity exchange to trigger further liquidations, likely profiting from a short position. Already thin liquidity was compounded with the further removal of liquidity by providers, creating open space for violent price falls. Meanwhile, the BTC chain got a bit congested, so coins couldn’t be moved quickly enough to close the widening spread between BitMEX and spot exchanges. Spreads exploded on the second drop reaching, remarkably, over -$1200 at one point and stayed over -$500 for around 4 hours.
Fig. 5 (a): BTC/USD spot and BitMEX XBTUSD perpetual swap, prices, Fig. 5 (b): BTC/USD spot and BitMEX XBTUSD perpetual swap, basis
As Alameda Research and FTX head Sam Bankman-Fried noted in a Twitter thread, “There’s a critical ratio: liquidations triggered per dollar / liquidity per dollar. Call this R.” An R above 1 can essentially trigger endless cascades of liquidations. Liquidity on the bid side of the BitMEX order book was just ~$20 million at one point, and it seems feasible that R exceeded 1. In short, the XBTUSD perpetual swap was heading to $0.
However, BitMEX’s liquidation engine stopped running for 25 minutes at the second bottom, pausing sell orders enough to allow the market to jump quickly back over $5000. CEO Arthur Hayes reported, adding a tremendous amount of intrigue, that it was a separate distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that caused the liquidation engine to pause at 2:16a UTC, almost exactly the $3610 bottom that came at 2:26a UTC. It appears that an outside party was responsible for the DDoS, effectively protecting XBTUSD from further collapse. There are some claims that spreads stayed elevated because the network was so congested that arbitrageurs could not get capital on or off BitMEX to other exchanges, limiting efficiency. It’s unclear if that’s true or not, as transaction fees on Bitcoin were relatively high, but were 30x off all-time highs and were higher at other times in March. To us, it’s likely that the spread persisted because XBTUSD contracts were functionally trading at a <-$100 risk premium, as many traders had legitimate reason to believe the XBTUSD perpetual swap was simply going to zero. Open interest on BitMEX dropped from about 50% from >$1b to around $550 million. In sum, the events of Black Thursday 2020 showed the market that the system was extremely overleveraged and much of that leverage was simply unhealthy, bad leverage.
Contextualizing crash returns
On an absolute basis, bitcoin and crypto assets have underperformed equities, fixed income, and gold during the COVID-19 Crash, and just barely outperformed crude which has had a historic sell-off. However, this is not a fair comparison: assets must be compared on a volatility-adjusted scale in order to ensure one is not comparing apples to oranges. In other words, asset returns must be looked at on a Z-score basis (essentially how many standard deviations away from the norm is the return observation).
Utilizing the past year of performance data for major assets inclusive of the crash, we calculate expected monthly volatility (assuming 21 trading days in a month) and compare it with the performance of the assets for the month (21 trading days) after the crash starting February 19th. Fig. 5 (a) shows the performance of major assets during the crash, and Fig. 5 (b) shows that same performance normalized for each asset’s volatility (showing the asset’s performance z-score).
Fig. 6 (a): Macro asset returns — COVID-19 Crash (1m), Fig. 6 (b): Macro asset z-scores — COVID-19 Crash (1m)
Equities had an almost -3.4 standard deviation event, crude about -3.1, gold approximately -1.9, BGCI around -1.9, and BTC about -1.5. 10y Treasuries had a +2 standard deviation event during the crash. For normally distributed data sets (the caveat here is that asset returns are most likely not normally distributed and usually not centered with a mean of 0 but positive), 99.7% of observations fall within -3 and +3 standard deviations, so it really puts into perspective how poorly equities and crude performed during the crash. Moreover, a z-score analysis shows that on a volatility-adjusted basis, Bitcoin outperformed other risk-on macro assets and its digital asset counterparts during the COVID-19 Crash.
Fig. 7: Selected macro asset performance through April 9
Pulling the lens a bit further back, we do see that on a YTD basis as of writing, Bitcoin has outperformed equities, crude, and interestingly high yield corporate debt on an absolute basis, while it has only slightly underperformed Treasuries, IG corporate debt, and gold.
A peer into Galaxy trading data
View from Galaxy OTC trading data
Sometimes it’s helpful to take a look at proprietary data to get a different picture of the market. Utilizing our own trading data from our OTC desk, we can observe historical behavior and gain insight on current views and positioning. The highest volumes recorded since January 1st came in the first days of March, where we saw 7d average volume over 3x the volume at the start of the year, after approximately two months of balanced trading.
Fig. 8: Galaxy OTC trading volumes, 7d average, Index = 100
Institutional investors may have been early to recognize the havoc that COVID-19 could wreak. Peering into our buy-sell ratios from Q1, we see that Galaxy’s counterparties were relatively balanced with their bitcoin buying and selling (buy-sell ratios hovered around 0.5, or that the proportion of bitcoin buying was 50% of total bitcoin trading) and increasingly trading non-BTC crypto assets through mid-February (Galaxy OTC BTC/Alt Ratios shows a decline in the ratio from approximately 0.9 to 0.6). This behavior flipped around the start of the COVID-19 Crash in traditional markets, suggesting that counterparties were locking in profits while still in the +$8000 range and pulling back on altcoin trading.
Fig. 9 (a): Galaxy OTC BTC Buy/Sell Ratio, 3d smoothed, Fig. 9 (b): Galaxy OTC BTC/Alts Ratio, 3d smoothed
After Black Thursday 2020, Galaxy’s counterparties are continuing to accumulate BTC (Buy/Sell Ratio rising to 0.75 from roughly 0.5) despite the turmoil in the markets and are, as far as we can tell, using March as an opportunity to purchase at cheap levels. Moreover, we see that the focus has almost exclusively been on Bitcoin relative to altcoins suggesting that within the crypto space broadly, investors are perhaps viewing Bitcoin as the best risk-adjusted trade in the short term.
Into the unknown
Bitcoin, a safe haven asset?
With a lot of bad leverage washed out of the system from Black Thursday 2020, it’s unlikely that we should see another meltdown soon. But March accentuated that the laissez-faire character of crypto exchanges and other institutions/groups can be punishing for investors as exchanges serve up leverage far beyond what’s acceptable in traditional markets on experimental products and assets. It’s difficult to know what to make of this, but it’s hard to discount the possibility that it could be an irrevocable quality of the ecosystem.
What does that do to longer-term beliefs about this asset class? Six months ago, a passable thesis about Bitcoin might have said: “Bitcoin’s hard-coded deflationary quality, status as a bearer asset, and ease of transmissibility make Bitcoin an excellent store-of-value asset and it should behave like Gold.” Of course, most have noticed that it has behaved nothing like a store-of-value asset in the last year. An even better thesis about Bitcoin might have said: “All of the above can eventually be true, but additionally Bitcoin may also be the best form of collateral the world has ever seen. On measures like 24/7 availability, liquidity, speed and ease of settlement, and global acceptance, Bitcoin far exceeds common forms of collateral like real estate and equities. Its volatility leaves a lot to be desired compared to other assets.” In our estimation, reduction of volatility is a crucial step in achieving the long-term potential of this asset class. The events of March 2020 and particularly March 12th highlight how much stands in the way between crypto/Bitcoin as it exists today and its place as a store-of-value asset and monetary lingua franca that it may assume in the future.
Bitcoin still has the potential to be a safe haven asset in the long term, but at the moment it is lumped in with all other risk-on and risk-off assets as the COVID-19 crisis continues to unfold. The number of cases/deaths, economic shutdowns, and social distancing measures in Western countries have yet to peak, and the selling of BTC may not peak until the fair-weather holders and high-cost miners who hold BTC will become unprofitable post-halving (after it doesn’t magically double BTC’s price) and capitulate on their BTC positions.
Money machine goes brrr
The sheer amount of stimulus (trillions of dollars across consumer, corporate, and market funding) and debt monetization is staggering and historically unprecedented. We’ve been in uncharted territory for a long time from a monetary and fiscal stimulus perspective, and COVID-19 has pushed us deeper into the unknown. The Fed has slashed rates and pumped trillions of dollars of liquidity into the financial system, while Congress passed a $2t fiscal stimulus plan (~10% of GDP). Serious issues across the financial system remain: corporate bonds, particularly high yield bonds, have seen yields explode and liquidity dry up as concerns about corporations’ ability to pay back loans has withered amidst dwindling revenues from economic shutdowns. The explosion of volatility has forced many across the industry to cut back on their ability to take risk, just as the need for liquidity skyrockets between de-risking/de-leveraging and forced redemptions. It’s unclear whether the monetary and fiscal stimulus will prove fruitful. It might be a scenario of “too little, too late” after the US federal government bungled its initial COVID-19 response. Unemployment has seen a historically unprecedented surge, and that will only continue as COVID-19 spreads and inflicts maximum damage to the US and global economy.
Furthermore, the resulting impact of all this stimulus cannot be understated: trillions of dollars of stimulus, on the back of trillion-dollar deficits and aggregate debt levels. While we might see price deflation in the near future as a result of slack demand, declining real wages, and poor consumer sentiment, all of this money has to go somewhere at some point. To most, that points primarily to asset price inflation particularly where assets are inflation-resistant like equities, gold, and other hard assets. It’s become pretty apparent that public equities have a natural put option that isn’t usually priced into the EV of an investment: if equities tumble too much, the asset to fixed liability ratio of things like public pensions tumble and force the Fed to step in and support prices. Even the airline industry will get bailed out; these industries are deemed to be too big to fail despite spending 96% of FCF in the last decade on buybacks (perhaps avoiding $5 lattes could have saved them).
It’s unclear if/when the stimulus will impact real economy prices after the economy rebounds and aggregate demand (heavily influenced by fiscal policy moves) rises. If this cash somehow finds its way into the real economy, high inflation ends up being a reasonable probability, and hyperinflation not out of the question. The real deciding factor will be how the Fed and federal government act once it’s clear the economy rebounds: will they appropriately tighten? Will the federal government enter a period of austerity to pay back the vast amounts of debt it has issued? Will we ever return to a sound monetary standard?
In all of this, the 1) huge influxes of both fiscal and monetary stimulus, 2) monetary debasement, 3) the forthcoming “reflation trade” as the monetary and fiscal stimulus hits asset and real economy prices, and 4) the erosion of value of fixed-paying assets should point the global investor toward inflation-resistant assets. In many ways, the medium-term environment is perhaps a nearly textbook setup for Bitcoin: trillions of units of fiat money (the US is not the only economic behemoth combatting economic slowdowns with the same strategy) are being printed, asset and real economy inflation is more likely than not, and risk-on behavior will eventually return. Whether Bitcoin will benefit from this flow capital is anyone’s educated guess, but preliminary data suggests that we might be seeing the early innings of a global, secular reflation trade. | https://medium.com/galaxy-digital-research/bitcoin-the-covid-19-crash-70dea33fcfe5 | ['Galaxy Digital Research'] | 2020-11-23 18:31:35.809000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Economics', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Performance Jogging BOB Blaze Stroller Citron | Once in a while am I amped up for another buggy, so it should mean something that I’m truly eager to share my survey the PerformanceJogging BOB Blaze Stroller Citron. I can’t help thinking that producers make energy about another buggy just to find that it’s truly a year ago’s model with two unique hues and one little change. It’s baffling.
As BOB Baby Strollers publicizes, this running buggy is genuinely for the genuine, in-your-face sprinter. It is intended to perform well and keep going for quite a long time.
Features of BOB Blaze Performance
Sway’s Revolution Pro running carriage additionally includes a handbrake which is joined to raise drum brakes. On the front wheel a caliper style brake The Blaze brake controls.
Flexible Handlebar of BOB Blaze
BOB Blaze handlebars can sort of be a Goldilocks circumstance. What feels great and agreeable for one individual can be excessively low or unreasonably high for someone else. That is the reason a movable handlebar is an extraordinary thought! With 9 situations to browse, the handlebar will consistently be at an agreeable stature for you or any other individual who works it.
Air-Filled Tires of BOB Blaze
In case you’re needing a buggy that will have the option to deal with unpaved surfaces, you truly need to get air-filled tires. Plastic wheels just won’t cut it when you’re on lopsided surfaces.
On the BOB Blaze Jogging Baby Stroller, There are three 16″ air-filled tires. At the point when every one of the three tires is similar tallness, it really makes greater soundness. In addition, these tires are intended to look like street bicycle tires, so you can be certain that they’re worked for speed.
Suspension System is like Mountain Bike
One approach to guarantee your carriage rides as easily as conceivable is to put a Mountain Bike suspension System on it. As indicated by theBOB Blaze Baby Stroller page, this carriage “offers 3 crawls of movement and 2 phases of weight support for an ultra-smooth ride.”
Moreover, there is four work stockpiling pockets all through the carriage and an enormous, zip-top freight crate. This guarantees the entirety of your possessions will really remain in your carriage, regardless of whether you hit an obstruction. As somebody who has skipped the substance of her stockpiling container out onto the street, I can validate that this zip-conclusion is a significant element.
UPF 50+ Canopy of Baby Stroller
This UPF 50+ shade helps shield your kid from the sun and climate. On the top, there is a look and visit window for you to keep an eye on your youngster without halting. This window offers an attractive conclusion.
Utilize the BOB Infant Car Seat Adapter (sold independently) to connect your vehicle seat. Despite the fact that the maker suggests utilizing theBOB B-Safe 35 Infant Car Seat by Britax, they likewise note that the connector should assist you with blending your buggy with some other significant brand vehicle seat.
Different Features of BOB Blaze
This BOB Baby Stroller likewise offers a foot-initiated stopping brake and simple, flexible front wheel following.
Specific Information about BOB Blaze
At the present time, the BOB Blaze manufacturers state that this carriage will retail at the upper finish of the jogger value extend. That is a really huge wad of cash and a potential snag for potential purchasers who may be uncertain of whether it’s astute to go overboard on a buggy.
What is Your opinion About Yellow?
There is as of now just one shading plan yellow and dark. In the case you’re not an aficionado of yellow, this carriage may be outwardly off-putting to you.
There’s no included nibble plate for your youngster. Be that as it may, they do have one accessible to buy. It has one cup holder and one nibble zone.
In spite of the fact that it’s not frightfully costly, it still truly disturbs me when individuals make an expensive thing and do exclude all the segments. You realize I need the nibble plate, so why not simply charge $30 more and incorporate it?
Other Jogging Stroller Choices
Final Conclusion and recommendations about BOB Blaze
On the off chance that I was in the market for a carriage, I would presumably get the Performance Jogging BOB Blaze StrollerCitron. As an analyst, I realize that I’m extremely disparaging of carriages. Regularly, I feel that producers offer a marginally adjusted form of a year ago’s model and slap a fat sticker price on the new model. | https://medium.com/@harryoscar786/performance-jogging-bob-blaze-stroller-citron-57b3f977229f | ['Harry Oscar'] | 2020-02-17 12:07:40.423000+00:00 | ['Baby', 'Moms', 'Parenting', 'Baby Care', 'Child'] |
Blue Moon | 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/illumination/blue-moon-72a30803509a | ['Melanie J.'] | 2020-12-18 14:45:30.055000+00:00 | ['Blue Moon', 'Consciousness', 'Illumination', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Poetry'] |
Time for Motor and e-Sports | Globatalent launched two new tokenization campaigns, one with former F1 Driver Dani Clos and the other exclusively for the Gaming community.
After the success of the first two campaigns -David Vega and Zentro Basket Madrid, both still ongoing-, Globatalent launched another pair of possibilities for the Token Holders and everyone who wants to get involved in the world of sports.
Dani Clos, former Formula 1 Driver, will participate in the 24 hours of Le Mans and all of the Le Mans series in 2020 and is looking for fans to give financial support on this new challenge.
How to be part of this campaign? Just register in our Marketplace! The minimum purchase of a Token is 20 USD and the Spaniard is willing to offer in return, among other benefits, 10% of the awards he gets during the next year.
But that’s not all! Globatalent also brings you the first decentralized e-Sports Team. The goal is to give everyone the chance to participate on which players to sign, which uniform to wear and which games our team will play.
Click here and join the campaign for only 5 USD! Globatalent will distribute, between all the supporters, 10% of the annual revenue and, most important, 40% of the team will belong to our users community!
There’s room for improvement and we will continue to grow our two passions: Sports and Technology. Join us and be part of this fantastic adventure!
By Federico López Frey.
Do not forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Telegram! | https://medium.com/globatalent/time-for-motor-and-e-sports-7f512edb4128 | [] | 2019-07-02 11:25:28.461000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Dani Clos', 'Blockchain', 'Motor', 'E Sports'] |
Thanks For Joining Our New Dating App, Flush! | Image mash-up by Rowdy Geirsson based on imagery by Sam Killermann and Oleg Magni
Hello there, and thanks for joining Flush — the groundbreaking new dating app that’s taking the world by storm! Already deleted by millions of people, Flush is designed from the ground up to be the last match-making app that you’ll ever install on your phone.
That’s because Flush takes the abysmal experience that countless other apps already offer and backs it up with the unreliability of a faulty 200-year-old plumbing system. Our algorithm evaluates your preferences regarding potential matches, dumps them down the drain, and then spits up an overflow of people who are the polar opposite of what you’re actually hoping to find. No gimmicks. No hassles. Just a sudden feeling of total deflation co-mingled with the mild sensation of relief as the pressure (to find someone) starts to subside.
When it comes to preventing new connections, Flush is second to none. We invented the double opt-out. Want to ignore someone, and let the water remain standing, so to speak? Then s/wipe left for #1. More interested in proactively dis-liking someone? Then s/wipe right for #2 and give that profile a Flush! It’s as simple as that. Flush makes it easy to not only empty the bowl of prospective partners, but to also start thinking about giving up on dating entirely.
Plus, we’ve recently introduced the Super Flush. That’s our patented feature that kicks in whenever two people proactively decide to super-dis-like each other with the special plunger shaped button (only one Super Flush allowed per day). When that happens, the app will stop running and plug up the rest of your phone, forcing you to turn it off and on again. As we like to say, mutual distaste coupled with extreme annoyance and a growing sense of dejection is at the very core of everything we do.
And if you do match with someone by mistake — we like to call these little accidents “mismatches” and are working to get this bug out of our system in the next release — there’s nothing to fear! Because we’ve disabled all potential for civilized in-app communication. That means you’ll only ever see messages from your mismatches if they contain offensive language, crude scatological references, or photos of genitalia.
Finally, Flush’s ultra-smart AI is wired to learn from your actions in order to intensify your feeling of discomfort. That’s why you only have one hour to delete any potty-mouthed message that you might receive from a mismatch before we start leaking uncontrollably to Facebook and tag you using our built-in Toilet Graffiti function. Our goal isn’t only for you to become disgusted with your fellow human beings, but to also hate us as well.
You’re a clog in the Flush family of pipes now, so it’s time to get out there and start Flushing away! And be sure to drop us a sinker if you have any questions or comments (just know that we’ll charge your iTunes account an undisclosed, random fee if you do). Whether you’re just casually looking to see what isn’t out there or are serious about losing all faith in humanity, Flush is here to help you give it one final push before you call it quits and decide to just let things follow their own natural course. | https://medium.com/slackjaw/thanks-for-joining-our-new-dating-app-flush-ba6b38fcb38e | ['Rowdy Geirsson'] | 2020-05-27 12:41:01.109000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Satire', 'Dating App', 'Dating', 'Online Dating'] |
The best free photo editor 2020 | The right free photo editor will help transform your pictures — correcting colors, erasing blemishes and much more — so they’re ready to print or share online.
The best free photo editor is GIMP — a powerful and feature-packed open source program that’s the closest thing you’ll get to a free version of Photoshop. It offers more tools than some paid-for photo editors, supports layers, masks and plugins, and even lets you work with Photoshop PSD documents.
However, GIMP may be overkill for simple tasks like cropping or straightening a photo. That’s why we’ve rounded up a range of other excellent free photo editors, so you can pick exactly the right tool for the job and your level of experience.
If you need some resources for your projects, take a look at our guide to the best free stock photos.
The best photo editors overall
Adobe Photoshop If you’re serious about photo editing, or are thinking about turning your hobby into a job, you can’t beat industry standard software Adobe Photoshop. It’s certainly not free like the photo editors below, but it’s surprisingly good value with an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is a fabulous program that really does rival the best professional and enthusiast-level image-editing packages on the market. It easily takes the lead over previous Serif programs that we’ve seen for PC. Designed from the ground up, this is a fast, efficient and genuine Photoshop alternative. It’s also remarkable value, and will appeal to those who aren’t persuaded by Adobe’s subscription model.View Deal
Corel Paintshop Pro 2020 is a solid piece of software, which allows you to improve photographs and create complex composites with ease. It hasn’t got all the features that Photoshop enjoys, but then again, it doesn’t cost nearly as much, and the tools it does have, especially the ones in the most recent update are most impressive. We particularly liked the Refine Brush tool which made it incredibly easy to create complex selections.View Deal
The best free photo editors at a glance
1. GIMP
The best free photo editor for advanced image editing
Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux | Layers: Yes | Export formats: 40+
Advanced editing tools
Cross-platform support
No ads
Steep learning curve
GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the best free photo editor around. It’s packed with the kind of image-enhancing tools you’d find in premium software, and more are being added every day.
The photo editing toolkit is breathtaking, and features layers, masks, curves, and levels. You can eliminate flaws easily with the excellent clone stamp and healing tools, create custom brushes, apply perspective changes, and apply changes to isolated areas with smart selection tools.
GIMP is an open source free photo editor, and its community of users and developers have created a huge collection of plugins to extend its utility even further. Many of these come pre-installed, and you can download more from the official glossary. If that’s not enough, you can even install Photoshop plugins.
Read our full review: GIMP
2. Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2019
Fuss-free photo editing with automatic optimization tools
Platform: Windows | Layers: No | Export formats: JPG, PNG, BMP, TIF
One-click optimization
Fine manual controls
Clean interface
Auto optimization is hit-and-miss
If you’ve got a lot of photos that you need to edit in a hurry, Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2019 could be the tool for you. Its interface is clean and uncluttered, and utterly devoid of ads (although you’ll need to submit an email address before you can start using it).
Importing pictures is a breeze, and once they’ve been added to the pool, you can select several at once to rotate or mirror, saving you valuable time. You can also choose individual photos to enhance with the software’s one-click optimization tool. In our tests this worked particularly well on landscapes, but wasn’t always great for other subjects.
If you want to make manual color and exposure corrections, there are half a dozen sliders to let you do exactly that. It’s a shame you can’t also apply the same color changes to a whole set of pictures at once, but this is otherwise a brilliant free photo editor for making quick corrections.
For more advanced editing, check out Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 7 — the premium version of the software with enhanced optimization tools.
Read our full review: Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2019
(Image credit: Shutterstock; Canva; Unsplash)
3. Canva
Professional-level photo editing and templates in your browser
Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux (in browser); Android, iOS, iPadOS (mobile app) | Layers: No | Export formats: JPG, PNG, PDF
Great selection of templates
Includes free cloud storage
Mobile app available
No fine manual editing tools
Canva is a photo editor that runs in your web browser, and is ideal for turning your favorite snaps into cards, posters, invitations and social media posts. If you’re interested in maintaining a polished online presence, it’s the perfect tool for you.
Canva has two tiers, free and paid, but the free level is perfect for home users. Just sign up with your email address and you’ll get 1GB free cloud storage for your snaps and designs, 8,000 templates to use and edit, and two folders to keep your work organized.
You won’t find advanced tools like clone brushes and smart selectors here, but there’s a set of handy sliders for applying tints, vignette effects, sharpening, adjusting brightness, saturation and contrast, and much more. The text editing tools are intuitive, and there’s a great selection of backgrounds and other graphics to complete your designs.
Read our full review: Canva
4. Fotor
One-click enhancements to make your photos shine in seconds
Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux (in browser) | Layers: No | Export formats: JPG, PNG, PDF
Premium-level filters
Batch image processing
High-res export options
No plugin support
Fotor is a free photo editor that’s ideal for giving your pictures a boost quickly. If there’s specific area of retouching you need doing with, say, the clone brush or healing tool, you’re out of luck. However, if your needs are simple, its stack of high-end filters really shine.
There’s a foolproof tilt-shift tool, for example, and a raft of vintage and vibrant colour tweaks, all easily accessed through Fotor’s clever menu system. You can manually alter your own curves and levels, too, but without the complexity of high-end tools.
Fotor’s standout function, and one that’s sorely lacking in many free photo editors, is its batch processing tool — feed it a pile of pics and it’ll filter the lot of them in one go, perfect if you have a memory card full of holiday snaps and need to cover up the results of a dodgy camera or shaky hand.
Read our full review: Fotor
5. Photo Pos Pro
Advanced photo editing tools packaged in a simple interface
Platform: Windows | Layers: Yes | Export formats: 15+
Smart interface
Beginner and advanced modes
Limited file export resolution
Not cross-platform
Photo Pos Pro isn’t as well known as Paint.net and GIMP, but it’s another top-quality free photo editor that’s packed with advanced image-enhancing tools.
This free photo editor’s interface is smarter and more accessible than GIMP’s array of menus and toolbars, with everything arranged in a logical and consistent way. If it’s still too intimidating, there’s also an optional ‘novice’ layout that resembles Fotor’s filter-based approach. The choice is yours.
The ‘expert’ layout offers both layers and layer masks for sophisticated editing, as well as tools for adjusting curves and levels manually. You can still access the one-click filters via the main menu, but the focus is much more on fine editing.
It’s a shame that the free version of Photo Pos Pro only allows you to export at a maximum of 1,024 x 1,024 pixels. If you’re preparing images to share online this might not be a problem, but it limits the software’s usefulness if you want to print you work.
Read our full review: Photo Pos Pro
(Image credit: Shutterstock; Paint.NET)
6. Paint.NET
Looking a little dated, but still a dependable all-rounder
Platform: Windows | Layers: Yes | Export formats: 10+
Layers and filters
Plugin support
Fewer options than GIMP
For Windows only
More is not, believe it or not, always better. Paint.NET’s simplicity is one of its main selling points; it’s a quick, easy to operate free photo editor that’s ideal for trivial tasks that don’t necessarily justify the sheer power of tools like GIMP.
Don’t let the name fool you, though. This isn’t just a cheap copy of Microsoft’s ultra-basic Paint — even if it was originally meant to replace it. It’s a proper photo editor, just one that lands on the basic side of the curve.
Paint.NET’s interface will remind you of its namesake, but over the years, they’ve added advanced editing tools like layers, an undo history, a ton of filters, myriad community-created plugins, and a brilliant 3D rotate/zoom function that’s handy for recomposing images.
Read our full review: Paint.NET
7. PhotoScape
Raw image conversion, batch processing and much more
Platform: Windows | Layers: No | Export formats: JPG, PNG, TIF, BMP, GIF
Raw file conversion
Great selection of filters
Unusual interface
Bundled with Google Drive app
PhotoScape might look like a rather simple free photo editor, but take a look at its main menu and you’ll find a wealth of features: raw conversion, photo splitting and merging, animated GIF creation, and even a rather odd (but useful) function with which you can print lined, graph or sheet music paper.
The meat, of course, is in the photo editing. PhotoScape’s interface is among the most esoteric of all the apps we’ve looked at here, with tools grouped into pages in odd configurations. It certainly doesn’t attempt to ape Photoshop, and includes fewer features.
We’d definitely point this towards the beginner, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get some solid results. PhotoScape’s filters are pretty advanced, so it’s if good choice if you need to quickly level, sharpen or add mild filtering to pictures in a snap.
Read our full review: Photoscape
(Image credit: Shutterstock; Pixlr; Unsplash)
8. Pixlr X
A comprehensive browser-based photo editor for quick results
Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux (in browser) | Layers: No | Export formats: JPG, PNG
Uses HTML5 rather than Flash
Stylish design
Less powerful than Pixlr Editor
Max image size 3,840 pixels
Pixlr X is the successor to Pixlr Editor, which was one of our favorite free online photo editors for many years.
Pixlr X makes several improvements on its predecessor. For starters, it’s based on HTML5 rather than Flash, which means it can run in any modern browser. It’s also slick and well designed, with an interface that’s reminiscent of Photoshop Express, and a choice of dark or light color schemes.
With Pixlr X, you can make fine changes to colors and saturation, sharpen and blur images, apply vignette effects and frames, and combine multiple images. There’s also support for layers, which you won’t find in many free online photo editors, and an array of tools for painting and drawing. A great choice for even advanced tasks.
Read our full review: Pixlr X
9. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor
A convenient way to correct lighting and exposure problems
Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux (in browser) | Layers: No | Export formats: JPG only
Advanced filters
Stylish design
Requires Flash
Only supports JPG format
As its name suggests, Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is a trimmed-down, browser-based version of the company’s world-leading photo editing software. Perhaps surprisingly, it features a more extensive toolkit than the downloadable Photoshop Express app, but it only supports images in JPG format that are below 16MB.
Again, this is a Flash-based tool, but Adobe provides handy mobile apps for all platforms so you won’t miss out if you’re using a smartphone or tablet.
This free online photo editor has all the panache you’d expect from Adobe, and although it doesn’t boast quite as many tools as some of its rivals, everything that’s there is polished to perfection. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is a pleasure to use. Its only drawbacks are the limits on uploaded file size and types, and lack of support for layers.
Read our full review: Adobe Photoshop Express Editor
10. PiZap
A fun photo editor for preparing your pictures for social media
Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux (in browser) | Layers: No | Export formats: JPG, PNG
Provides stock images
Templates for social media
Some tools behind a paywall
Max resolution 1,310 x 737 pixels
Free online photo editor PiZap is available in both HTML5 and Flash editions, making it suitable for any device. You can choose to work with a photo from your hard drive, Facebook, Google Photos, Google Drive, Google Search, or a catalog of stock images. This is an impressive choice, though some of the stock images are only available to premium subscribers, and you’ll need to watch out for copyright issues if you use a pic straight from Google Images.
piZap’s editing interface has a dark, modern design that makes heavy use of sliders for quick adjustments — a system that works much better than tricky icons and drop-down menus if you’re using a touchscreen device.
When you’re done, you can share your creation on all the biggest social media networks, as well as piZap’s own servers, Dropbox and Google Drive. Alternatively, you can save it to your hard drive, send it via email, or grab an embed code. You can only export your work in high quality if you’ve opened your wallet for the premium editor, but for silly social sharing that’s unlikely to be a problem.
Read our full review: PiZap
Other free photo editors to consider
Ashampoo Photo Commander Free
A free alternative to Adobe Lightroom, this free software allows you to edit and organize your photos, with one-click filters for correcting batches of images.
IrfanView
Another potential replacement for Lightroom, IrfanView is a simple but effective tool for editing photos in batches, tagging and organizing them.
What to look for in a free photo editor
When you’re choosing a free photo editor, the first thing to consider is your level of confidence and experience. If you simply want to make a few adjustments (removing blemishes and improving colors, for example) then a simple online tool might be perfect, doing the job well without overwhelming you with options.
If, on the other hand, you’re interested in more advanced editing then you’ll want to focus on desktop software that offers tools such as layers and masks, giving you full control over the process.
Desktop software is also a good choice if you have several photos to edit, and some free photo editors can even edit photos in batches, which can save you an enormous amount of time.
It’s also worth considering what you’ll be using the exported photos for. Online photo editors can often only export images in JPG format, and only at relatively low resolutions. That might be fine for images you want to display online (and many such photo editors include tools for sending images directly to Facebook or Twitter) but if you want to print your work then you’ll be better off with a tool like GIMP or Paint.NET that will let you export in just about any format, in high resolutions. | https://medium.com/@widecoder/the-best-free-photo-editor-2020-b4fd963515ce | [] | 2020-07-19 18:09:50.688000+00:00 | ['Android', 'Windows', 'Open Source', 'Linux'] |
Instacart Market Basket Analysis (Kaggle Competition) | This blog is about my first Kaggle Challenge. Hopefully, this blog will give you a good understanding of solving the classification problem.
Instacart is an American company that provides grocery delivery and pick-up service. The Company operates in the U.S and Canada. Instacart offers its services via a website and mobile app. Unlike another E-commerce website providing products directly from Seller to Customer. Instacart allows users to buy products from participating vendors. And this shopping is done by a Personal Shopper.
Outline
Problem Overview Data Source Data Overview EDA Feature Engineering Modeling Future Work Reference
Problem Overview
The main objective of this competition was to predict which previously purchased products will be in the user’s next order.
The problem is a little different from the general recommendation problem, in this case, we are not recommending new products to the user instead of that we are going to recommend the product which is previously bought by that user. It is an interesting problem because here we need to find the user’s reordered behavior so we can personalize the user’s cart.
Data Source
Instacart posted this problem and data on the Kaggle platform.
(https://www.kaggle.com/c/instacart-market-basket-analysis/data)
Data Overview
There are 6 csv files. That file contains the following information.
Orders : This table includes all orders, namely prior, train, and test. It
has a single primary key ( order_id )
has a single primary key ( order_id ) order_products_train : This table includes training orders. It has a
composite primary key ( order_id and product_id ) and indicates
whether a product in an order is a reorder or not (through the
reordered variable).
composite primary key ( order_id and product_id ) and indicates whether a product in an order is a reorder or not (through the reordered variable). order_products_prior : This table includes prior orders. It has a
composite primary key ( order_id and product_id ) and indicates
whether a product in an order is a reorder or not (through the
reordered variable).
composite primary key ( order_id and product_id ) and indicates whether a product in an order is a reorder or not (through the reordered variable). products : This table includes all products. It has a single primary key
( product_id )
( product_id ) aisles : This table includes all aisles. It has a single primary key
( aisle_id )
( aisle_id ) departments : This table includes all departments. It has a single
primary key ( department_id )
EDA
Now let’s explore the data a little bit.
What Is The Frequency Of Order Number Amongst The Users? Generally how many orders a user place?
This plot explains, What’s the order count for each user?. There is a high peak at 4,5,6,7&8 which tells us that users mostly orders 4 to 8 products in every order.
What Day Of The Week User Placed The Order?
Now if you see most of the users prefer weekends to place orders than weekdays. This makes sense because these days most of the users are free and on other days the user's order does not have high order ratio as weekends.
In which Hour User Place Order?
This plot tells us what’s the user’s preferred time for placing an order?. There are high peaks in the morning hours and it slowly gets decreases. Between 10 am to 15 pm there is a high order ratio amongst users.
After The Last Purchase, How Many Days The User Takes To Place an Order?
After placing an order, how many days a user takes to order again?. Usually, there is a gap of 7 days after each order. If you see carefully there is a high peak on the 7th day and after that on the 14th day and then at end of the month. The user takes a week to order once again.
Feature Engineering
I have created 2 types of features
User Latest Purchase User X Product
User Latest Purchase:
In this feature, I computed the user’s latest order and checking is that product is reordered or not? If it is then I put that product into the user’s latest order. The reason behind creating these features is mostly user orders the products which are they recently ordered and if you see the frequency of placing the order by user mostly they place the order after every 7 and 14 days and at end of the month.
Users Latest Purchase
User X Product :
In this feature, I am trying to find the user behavior for each product. Here I computed the total count of order and out of all orders how many times the user reordered?
User X Product Reorder Sum and Count
I have computed very minimal features but these features tell pretty good behavior of what users want? Let me give an example, If a product is recently purchased by the user and the product order count is 10 and the reorder count is 8 and now if we look at the computer features this product was recently ordered the reorder count is high so there is a high probability that the user will reorder this product again.
Modeling
We are trying to predict will the user reorder this product again?. This makes it a binary classification problem. There are various algorithms we can use for the binary classification task.
I have used XGBoost. It is a great algorithm for this task as it provides a range of wide parameters that give fine-grained control over the model training procedure. To boost the score for the Kaggle competition this algorithm helps a lot.
The XGBoost returns the probabilistic values but this is a binary classification problem. So we need to take a threshold for classification and the threshold I used in this task is 0.2. I took the reference to this link( threshold detail) to know about the threshold so it will maximize the score.
Evaluation Metric
The Kaggle evaluation metric is the Mean F1 — Score. To calculate the Mean F1 — Score use this (https://www.kaggle.com/aikinogard/python-f1-score-function)
Here is the snippet of that code.
So, the Final Kaggle Score is 0.34016 The public score is 0.34016 The private score is 0.33875
This score puts me into the Top 300 rank which Is Top 10% of the leaderboard.
Future Work
Computing more features related to the user and a product like a user cart size, user’s average day of the order, and others.
Here I used only a Machine Learning algorithm but in the future, I would like to try out some deep learning models and I think it will improve the score a lot.
Also, I am looking to try the Apriori Algorithm to get some more features.
My (GitHub Repo) with my notebook and code.
Reference | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/instacart-market-basket-analysis-kaggle-competition-856ddd7b08e0 | ['Tanay Kale'] | 2020-10-20 12:46:46.388000+00:00 | ['Recommendation System', 'Binary Classification', 'Kaggle Competition', 'Machine Learning'] |
Driving Thousands of LEDs with an 8MB ESP32 | Driving LEDs these days is actually pretty simple thanks to easy-to-use libraries for popular microcontrollers and individually-addressable LED strips that can be controlled over just three wires. But driving a lot of LEDs can still be a challenge. Many low-cost microcontrollers lack the power to keep up with thousands of LEDs at a frame rate that is acceptable for animations. The usual solution is to try to coordinate multiple microcontrollers, but Redditor Davepl has proven that an 8MB ESP32 can easily handle thousands of LEDs.
Most development boards based on the Espressif ESP32 microcontroller have 520KB of SRAM available. That’s sufficient for most projects, but not enough to simultaneously drive thousands of LEDs at a high frame rate. Luckily, there is a version of the ESP32, the ESP32-WROVER, with up to 8MB of SRAM. As Davepl shows, that provides enough memory space to handle thousands of LEDs. Specifically, he was able to control 8 channels of 1024 LEDs each running at 30 frames per second with a 5 second buffer in memory — and more may be possible.
To do that, the LED effects themselves are generated on a separate PC’s GPU in Unity. The data is then sent over WiFi to the ESP32, which stores the data in the memory buffer and ultimately drives the LEDs. Because the task of actually generating the effects is offloaded to the PC, the ESP32 is able to keep up by using the relatively large amount of memory as a buffer. Davepl demonstrates that with a nice fire effect, but the same basic process could be used to create any kind of effects. | https://medium.com/@cameroncoward/driving-thousands-of-leds-with-a-8mb-esp32-2e7020e1b9da | ['Cameron Coward'] | 2019-04-11 02:06:04.675000+00:00 | ['Makers', 'Lighting', 'Esp32', 'Technology', 'Led'] |
Top 7 Home Theatre To Buy: How Much Is The Cost | The top 7 home theatre to buy this season are the latest that the market can offer. These are high edge medium level and budget-friendly once. All of them have what it take to make your movie worth the time to watch them. The seven top are as follows;
Top 7 Home theatre to buy
Klipsch 7.1.2 System-Dolby Atmos Speakers Focal SIB Evo 5.1.2 Home Cinema System Enclave Audio CineHome HD 5.1 Polk Audio 5.1 Channel Home Theatre System VIZIO SB3651-F6 36” 5.1 Channel Home Theatre Surround Sound Bar Nakamichi NK5 Soundbar Home Theatre System Onkyo HT-S3900 5.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver
Klipsch 7.1.2 System-Dolby Atmos Speakers
Buy Now
If you are looking for the best home theatre in the market and you have a good budget for it then Klipsch 7.1.2 System-Dolby Atmos Speakers is the best in this category.
Klipsch 7.1.2 system -Dolby Atmos speaker system to is well known for its proprietary Tractrix horn-loaded technology, and that audio technology and incredible output. It requires a large room for its big speakers.
If you are a full movie lover, this is the system to buy. The downside is, it’s expensive and requires a large room for it.
Buy Now
Focal SIB Evo 5.1.2 Home Cinema System comes with 5 well-designed speakers with Dolby Atmos, however, it does not come with an AV receiver. You will need to buy a receiver separately to enjoy the full features of this home theatre.
When buying the AV receiver, get one that supports Dolby Atmos for the best performance.
The subwoofer is ideal for small and medium rooms. You a looker for a home theatre for larger rooms, then you need to go for more oomph.
Buy Now
Enclave Audio CineHome HD 5.1 CineHome HD supports high-quality sound and has affordable wireless support.
The centre speaker works on WiSA technology (Wireless Speaker and Aud
io) it acts as an AV receiver. You can connect all the speakers and HDMI cable to the TV from it.
This home theatre does not require an Av receiver. Speakers are wireless but will require their power source. The five speakers and 8-inch subwoofer offer high-quality audio sound.
Although most wireless home theatres tend to be expensive, Enclave Audio CineHome HD 5.1 is relatively affordable.
The downside is it does not have TrueHD or DTS-HD MA Support placement. Every speaker needs its power source.
Buy Now
Polk Audio 5.1 Channel Home Theatre System is a complete Home theatre with a relatively affordable price. The Home theatre comes with 5.1 packages with floor standing speakers. It is one of the best Home theatres for its budget category.
It does not come with an AV receiver and does not support Dolby Atmos speakers. To enjoy the speakers full potential you will need a 5 channel AV Receiver. Our recommendation here is the Yamaha RXV385BL
VIZIO SB3651-F6 36” 5.1 Channel Home Theatre Surround Sound Bar
Buy Now
The VIZIO SB3651-F6 36” is not an average soundbar system. It supports Dolby Atmos separate surround speakers SmartCast connectivity. It doesn’t require an AV receiver to run. Its downside is the small subwoofer doesn’t support DTS:X performance.
The VIZIO SB3651-F6 is inexpensive and easy to use, while still offering a genuine home theatre solution complete with support for Dolby Atmos.
As this soundbar is inexpensive, you can add more speakers if your budget permits. However, this soundbar has all the capabilities of a complete home theatre system.
Nakamichi NK5 Soundbar Home Theatre System
Buy Now
The Nakamichi NK5 Soundbar is a complete Home theatre system controlled on a remote with wall mounting capabilities. The soundbar has an impedance of 8 Ohm.
It has a subwoofer, Bluetooth, FM Stereo Radio with a power supply of 100–240V. The Soundbar has input /output ports 1 x RCA in, 1 x Auxin, 1 x Optical
The soundbar offers the feel of a complete home theatre experience at a relatively affordable price.
Onkyo HT-S3900 5.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver
Buy Now
Onkyo HT-S3900 5.1-Channel comes with a high-quality six-piece surround-sound speaker system that’s just the right size for smaller living spaces. It has an AV receiver to run it. This a complete home theatre at an affordable price.
You will enjoy streaming music with Bluetooth wireless technology with Qualcomm apt Audio. The 5.1 speakers will deliver CineHome HD quality for its budget. It is ideal for small and medium rooms.
Features
120 W/Ch. (6 ohms, 1 kHz, 10% THD, 1 Channel Driven) with discrete output stage circuitry and six-channel analogue amplifiers
HDMI 4 in/ 1 out pass-through of the latest Ultra HD 4K/60 Hz, video formats with HDR (high dynamic range) and HDCP 2.2 content protection. Tone Control ±10 dB, 100 Hz (Bass).±10 dB, 10 kHz (Treble). Signal-to-Noise Ratio- 106 dB (Line, IHF-A Network, 1 k-Ohm Shorted). 106 dB (Line, IHF-A Network, 1 k-Ohm Shorted)- 6 Ohms–16 Ohms
Dolby Trued and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding. THD+N (Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise): 0.06 percentage (20Hz-20kHz, 8 Ohms, 1 Channel Driven, 50 W). Input Sensitivity and Impedance: 250 mV/47 k-ohms (Line)
Conclusion
The top 7 home theatre to buy have all the qualities of an original home theatre cinema experience. They are all presented to shoot any pocket budget. The other limitation is the space of the room to be used. | https://medium.com/@shegudigitalworld/top-7-home-theatre-to-buy-how-much-is-the-cost-47bf3f755b27 | ['Shegu Musicworld'] | 2021-04-01 16:20:35.725000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Online Music Streaming', 'Music', 'Av Receiver', 'Home Theater'] |
“Anı” Biriktirmek mi, “An”ı Yaşamak mı? | AgEcon | no social media | simple life | mind mapping | loves IT only for productivity | NGO volunteer | [email protected] | https://medium.com/@aykutgul/an%C4%B1-biriktirmek-mi-an-%C4%B1-ya%C5%9Famak-m%C4%B1-ab6ddf343548 | ['Aykut Gül'] | 2020-12-15 15:47:44.670000+00:00 | ['Minimalism', 'Anı', 'Mindfulness', 'Zaman Yönetimi', 'Türkçe'] |
Show, Don’t Tell: The Power of Video Marketing | image via presby.edu
Think video marketing isn’t for you because of your school’s small size? Then listen to this fascinating conversation with Suzanne Petrusch of Presbyterian College.
Small to medium-sized colleges, a lot of them private, all experience the challenge of trying to differentiate from public and other private schools.
This challenge makes it even more critical for colleges to align their marketing in a way that can impact the major driver of institutional revenue and growth — enrollment.
In our chat with Suzanne Petrusch, Vice President for Enrollment and Marketing at Presbyterian College (PC), Troy Singer and I learned how PC is making it all work.
But even if you’re not a small to medium-sized college, I highly recommend this conversation.
The insights Suzanne shows us about her central marketing team, her “satellite marketing pod,” and how they do video marketing are valuable for institutions of all sizes who’re trying to better integrate their marketing and enrollment efforts.
Differentiating Your School
As we’ve discussed in other articles, your biggest competitive advantage is you!
Your institution’s unique culture, campus, and programs are the strongest weapon in your marketing arsenal.
It’s important to lean into what differentiates you from other institutions when you’re as small as Presbyterian College.
PC is a very small institution. We have almost 1,300 total students, approximately 1,000 of whom are undergraduates. And so we are the smallest division one school with a football program in the whole country. That makes us stand out in a different way. But it also puts some challenges in front of us. We’re very much focused on the liberal arts, the personal attention delivered by the faculty, and the student experience. -Suzanne Petrusch
Suzanne shares more in our podcast conversation how Presbyterian College is trying to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.
One of the primary channels they’re using to do so is video marketing.
Before we got there, though, we talked about how they organize their marketing teams.
The PC Central Marketing Team
For Suzanne, it was critical that Presbyterian College aligned their marketing efforts between all of the various siloes in the school.
One way she did that was by clarifying the role of the PC central marketing team and how it ties in with the admissions side.
Marketing reported to enrollment at one point in time. Then it went through a move, that I would say is fairly common, and was situated in advancement. We made that shift again in 2016, so that I would have the opportunity to take a look at Central marketing, and how it really fits within the context of all of the needs of the institution, with really only two primary sources of revenue — enrollment and fundraising.
What I really liked about their story is how they moved marketing back into alignment with enrollment.
Suzanne’s right.
It’s very common for private colleges and universities to align their marketing team with advancement.
But this misses the fact that new students are the main source of revenue for most private schools!
And even advancement is directly linked to new students because future donors are today’s new students.
Taking Charge of the Entire Student Lifetime Cycle
In our conversation, Suzanne touched on another common pitfall among small institutions — the trap of accepting the status quo.
Or, as she puts it, the “best kept secret” trap.
I always just cringe a little bit when I hear someone say that idea of “the best kept secret.” We had to try to fight against that. In many ways, that meant producing sufficient collateral in all forms, and being able to tell stories that would resonate with various audiences from prospective students and their parents to other influencers in the college choice process. [We also have to follow through] to current students and their parents, because we have to remarket the institution to them every day. We can’t simply assume that they’ve enrolled, and therefore they’re going to have 100% satisfaction. [We need to give them] subtle reminders of why they chose this institution, and what it means to be part of this community that is so important to them. And then continuing on through the student-to-alumni lifespan spectrum, making sure we have alumni, friends of the institution, and foundations seeing value in supporting the type of work that’s happening here.
Under Suzanne’s leadership, the central marketing team is taking charge of the entire student lifecycle — from prospective student to future donor.
Education marketing doesn’t stop at enrollment!
The Satellite Marketing Pod
So it’s one thing to have your central marketing team organized and running well.
But what about those other teams that constantly need marketing support?
For PC, Suzanne promotes a collaborative work philosophy where everyone wears multiple hats and is willing to help other departments in need.
There’s such demand in the admission office, that we now have two people who are dedicated solely to enrollment marketing. In coming to Presbyterian college, I was watching what people in the admission team were actually doing and what their strengths were. Someone who was with us had a degree in English and was tremendously gifted in writing. I thought, let’s recognize that in a specific way. And let’s make sure that we’re really drawing attention to the skill set and knowledge base that he has with enrollment marketing. So he was the first person physically embedded in the office of admission, having been a member of the team for a long time.
This writing position within the admissions team was the start of what Suzanne calls her “satellite marketing pod.”
It’s basically a marketing team embedded within another team, like admissions.
Later on as the work increased, Suzanne added another team member to the satellite marketing pod within admissions.
This person was a graphic designer and social media marketer, and is now even getting into video marketing.
Suzanne has innovated brilliant ways of aligning marketing and enrollment as well as expanding the skill sets of her team.
The PC marketing team isn’t limited by their titles.
Just because someone is the graphic designer, that doesn’t mean they can’t help out with video marketing, for example.
For Suzanne, it’s about skill sets, not titles.
Video Marketing at Presbyterian College
Those core cultural and organizational distinctives are how a small campus like Presbyterian College can engage in a growing marketing channel like video marketing.
With a small team, Suzanne has to think outside the box to be able to handle the demands of creating video content.
So she assigned one of her marketing team members who has an academic background in video production to campus-wide video projects.
This team member supports the general requests of various departments for video marketing and production.
But then she supplements her small team with a local video marketing agency.
Someone in our central marketing team did study at the undergraduate and graduate levels in video production. We have been able to use his skills for all types of other videos on campus. But in the admission video world, we have partnered with a local provider in order to help us capture footage on campus and edit it — with a somewhat tongue-in-cheek view of the admission process. So it’s a combination of the talents of those two people in the admission office, working with the actual video skills of our local provider.
Really, there is so much more in our podcast interview with Suzanne Petrusch about how to use video marketing for Gen Z students — but I just can’t put it all into a blog post!
In our conversation, we go further into how to make your informative video content entertaining for Gen Z students.
We also talk about how small to medium-size colleges and universities can use video marketing metrics.
Suzanne and her team at PC are the proof.
You don’t have to be big to go big in video marketing.
Discover more when you listen to the podcast!
Like all of our blog post reviews of The Higher Ed Marketer podcasts, there’s so much more to learn in the podcasts themselves.
Listen to our interview with Suzanne Petrusch to get even more insights into:
How the Central Marketing Organization came about
The people you need on your higher ed marketing team
How to use video in your admissions marketing
How COVID changed higher ed marketing, and strategies for 2021
Don’t want to miss a future episode?
Subscribe to The Higher Ed Marketer podcast today! | https://medium.com/@bartcaylor/show-dont-tell-the-power-of-video-marketing-7f7c339659e8 | ['Bart Caylor'] | 2021-06-08 15:30:09.146000+00:00 | ['Marketing Strategies', 'Education Marketing', 'Higher Ed Marketing', 'Video Marketing'] |
Amazon Halo: Accessory or Standalone Wearable? | The Amazon Halo seems like another attempt at Amazon trying to get outside the home. Before the Halo it was the Amazon Echo Loop. Unlike Apple and Google, Amazon consistently struggles to be with their customers at all times. A wearable is a great way to get into the market, but like the Echo Loop, it is not the best at what it tries to do.
However, everything so far that Amazon is telling me about my heartbeat, tone, and body mass index seems relatively accurate. Additionally, the Halo is fun to play with once in a while.
Photo: Amazon
Tone
By itself, the Amazon Halo is a very interesting concept. I enjoy playing with tone to see how I felt that day or during a specific moment. But in general, I usually find myself asking, ‘why?’ The Amazon Halo’s tone feature is more akin to a mood ring for your throat. There are times where I will look back and think, “ah that’s interesting. I didn’t think I sounded that way.”
But half the time, the people I’m with don’t notice it either. For example, I work in customer service and I answer phones a lot. It’s not my favorite thing to do, but I try to be polite and no one ever said I’m rude. In fact, I usually get praises for my customer service.
Amazon doesn’t praise me, though. They know when I’m happy, annoyed, or frustrated. I’m not going to say that’s scary, but it is weird to think about and it raises the biggest question for me about Amazon Halo. Why do I need to know this? Is it a bit disingenuous to not mean every ‘have a great day!’ or ‘thank you for calling!’
Yes, but that’s what it means to be human. The Halo’s biggest failure when it comes to tone is that it’s not human. It can’t detect the difference between my genuine disgust of another human being and my annoyance at needing to work, or even my exhaustion when I’m talking to someone. To Amazon, all of these are the same thing because of my ‘tone.’ They aren’t able to see my face and they don’t mean the same thing.
By itself there is no issue with knowing you were disingenuous nor is there anything wrong with how tone works. It is very accurate most of the time and aside from these small human quirks, there’s not much else to argue about. My biggest gripe with Tone is how frequently it checks my tone.
For the days I have it on, it doesn’t check it as often as I thought it would be based on the advertising. Instead, it records periodically. This is of course to save battery and not always have a microphone on you. But there are two settings for recording: Less Tone and More Tone. But I couldn’t really tell the difference aside from my battery life.
One could always bypass the need for these settings by recording specific conversations or by using live tone, though.
The Tone feature is very accurate from what I’ve seen. After I drafted this, I decided to run it through the Tone’s feature of recording a specific conversation
It was able to tell I was focused which makes sense since I am reading from a script.
But beyond that, Tone is amazing to show off to people who were skeptical of the feature. Both my brother and girlfriend hated the idea of Amazon listening to you, but after they saw the live feature, they wanted to try themselves.
It’s neat, but even then, everyone forgot about it pretty quickly.
I personally saw the novelty of it wear off pretty fast and I kept the band muted most of the time because it was both a drain on the battery. I really only show it off when I use the live tone feature.
Body Scan
Body Scan is the second biggest feature the Halo advertises. I didn’t mind taking pictures of myself to send them to Jeff Bezos. In fact, I was laughing the whole time, but it does require you to put faith in Amazon’s security and promises about what they do with these images.
I’m 180lbs, 5’10” and I haven’t worked out in about 6 months, so I expected my Body Mass Index (BMI) to be higher than it was previously, and it was. My previous measurements I took in May put me at 18–19% BMI. Currently Amazon says that my BMI is 20.2%. So, it’s not a huge difference, but taking a look into the BMI slider, I would say that I am closer to 22%.
Indeed, the most interesting fact about these pictures is that I learned I should be doing more leg and glute exercises.
I wasn’t expecting it to be completely accurate, but it’s nice to have at least an estimate as calculating BMI is hard without the proper equipment. That said, it should be warned that putting too much weight in what pictures say is not the best thing in the world, so I would hesitate on holding it to be the most accurate reading.
Even Amazon cautions this stating in the app, “BMI is based on your height and weight, but doesn’t distinguish between fat and muscle.” However, it does recommend everyone to scan their body every two weeks, so it will be interesting to see how the data changes overtime.
Sleep Tracking
Sleep Tracking for me, is one of the more interesting things the Halo does. I don’t find myself looking at the Apple Health sleep section often, but I do look at the Amazon Halo one. It may be because there is less to look at, but in general a quick examination of the Halo Sleep data gives a lot of information at a glance. I can easily see when I fell into a light sleep, deep sleep, REM, and finally how much time I spent awake.
Additionally, a giant circle saying ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is just simple. It gives most of the information I need about my sleep.
My biggest issue with the Halo’s sleep function is the body temperature. It shows me a graph with my baseline, but it doesn’t tell me what my baseline is. Instead, it will say my body temperature was +0.8 or -0.1 degrees compared to my baseline. Which is cool, but what’s my baseline? It’s a minor factor, but I feel it would be nice to be included even if it was an estimate.
The whole point of the baseline is for you to monitor your trends in your sleeping environment. Again, it’s neat, but I do not believe that this is important overall. Amazon themselves says “your nightly skin temperature can vary for many reasons.” This means, if you are trying to track something in particular, it would be good to see, but for day-to-day usage, it’s just a nice bonus.
Activity Tracking and the Lab
With that said, the Halo activity tracking is great. I enjoy seeing how much of my activity was moderate and intense and so forth. Amazon claims that the band can detect the intensity of the exercise and I’ve yet to see that proven wrong. My intense activity is seemingly always recorded accurately.
By default, it shows the weekly activity instead of the daily activity and it aims for everyone to get 150 ‘activity’ points per day which can come from a combination of activities. Further, the app penalizes you for being sedentary which reduces your overall activity points.
The Lab is also a very interesting concept and it works well with the activity tracking. The Lab is also perhaps the best thing about the Amazon Halo app. For people struggling to get into exercising or health in general the Lab is very useful. It gives you advice and videos from a variety of sources such as WebMD, Headspace, Orangetheory, etc. to learn and practice specific exercises that help with getting good habits in place.
I don’t find myself using the workouts as there are other apps such as JEFIT to give me exercise ideas, but for someone who is unsure of where to start the variety of resources the Lab gives are tremendous. From working out, nutrition, sleep, and tone, there is something for everyone in the Lab.
I found myself going through the Tone section of the Lab often. It’s fun to learn about, but I’m not entirely for how long it will remain interesting. Much of the advice is simple and the advice could be found elsewhere without the monthly subscription. With that as well, it just brings me to the biggest question I have with the Amazon Halo, ‘why?’
Conclusions
Most everything Amazon put into the Amazon Halo can be found elsewhere. The two biggest features of the Halo were both the BMI estimator and Tone. Both of which are not at all interesting enough to charge a band twice a day.
The BMI estimator allows you to upload multiple scans, so you can track your progress, but honestly, I do not think people need to use it. After the first body scan, you can use the estimator. There’s nothing stopping someone from using the BMI slider and a full body mirror in order to estimate their own BMI. It is the same with tone, most people understand what they sound like and they even have the added benefit of understanding why they soun a specific way.
Don’t get me wrong, if you want to play around with the features and get estimations, it is fun, but I don’t think the Halo is worth the $99.99 price tag Amazon put on it. Since I got the band in early access, I don’t think I overpaid with my $64.99, but for everyday use I feel one would be better suited for a Fitbit, Apple Watch, or another smart watch
Overall, I feel the Amazon Halo is a good-looking accessory, but not much else at this stage since other wearables do the same. | https://edwardmorante.medium.com/amazon-halo-accessory-or-standalone-wearable-3d22b1407cf2 | ['Edward Morante'] | 2020-12-24 12:02:53.255000+00:00 | ['Wearables', 'Review', 'Technology', 'Amazon'] |
Flyhome Sourcing | Flyhome Sourcing
We talk to a lot of coastal VCs and ask them where they want to invest. Yes, they want to find deals within an hour drive of their office. Yes, they want to find deals in cities with great ski resorts, golf courses, etc. Yes they require a nonstop flight to the company’s headquarters. But perhaps the most interesting response is some version of “I want to find a deal in Lexington, Kentucky.” Or Columbus, Ohio. Or Omaha, Nebraska. Or really Anywhere, USA. Why the intense interest in relatively uninteresting places? It’s very simple — they want to invest where they are from (and might eventually move home to…). This is what we call ‘Flyhome Sourcing’.
There’s already been an unstoppable trend of investing outside of the coastal hubs — this awareness is now the status quo, not some controversial statement or unknown secret. But that’s a lot of ground to cover, and it’s basically impossible to cover even the Midwest from NYC or SF. And there is no ‘winner take all’ ecosystem here — each ecosystem is rising and compelling. So where do those responsible for sourcing prioritize their time? Home.
To be clear, those most interested in traveling to ecosystems outside their metropolitan bubbles are typically not the general partners of top tier coastal VC firms — they are most commonly the ‘rising stars’. Either a junior partner, principal, VP or associate, these VCs are generally younger, have compelling but not outsized/wholly differentiated coastal networks (i.e. they didn’t back Facebook or weren’t part of the PayPal mafia), and were more likely to be first adopters when it came to seeking less competitive deals outside SF/NYC. They also have a reason to ‘go home’ — their college friends are getting married, they still have holiday meals at their parents, and as they start to have children they need to spend more time with their in-laws. While I don’t have any actual statistics, the percentage of VCs claiming Midwest roots feels like those claiming Irish heritage on St. Patrick’s Day — rather unbelievable but we’ll still take ‘em!
What exactly am I talking about? Well here are anonymized examples I’ve seen this past year:
SF-based principal wants to know what we’ve invested in Lexington, Kentucky ahead of their trip home for a summer wedding. Even asks about possibly angel investing locally as they get to know the local ecosystem.
Boston-based VP wants to check out Columbus-based opportunities in our portfolio as their in-laws are there and they go back frequently.
Palo Alto-based principal stays at their parent’s home in Chicago when they come back for the M25 Summit, or for board meetings in the Series B deal they led in town.
SF-based associate comes back to speak at a panel in Wisconsin in November and stays with their parents for Thanksgiving.
DC-based partner consistently asks us about Pittsburgh startups ahead of their semi-regular trips home, as they want to invest in their hometown.
So what does this somewhat randomly geographically dispersed ‘Flyhome Sourcing’ mean? It’s generally a good thing — instead of hot markets Chicago, Austin, Boulder or Toronto sucking up all the capital in typical VC herd mentality, VCs are exploring opportunities in their hometowns and thus deals are getting funded by high quality national VC firms in every city. Ideally this drives success and momentum in these ecosystems, perhaps ultimately creating a critical mass of homegrown VC funds. And maybe ultimately some of these rising stars go home for good — and either open up offices or launch their own VC firms in Detroit, Milwaukee, Kansas City and… Lexington?
About the Author
Victor Gutwein is the founder and managing partner of M25. A Kauffman Fellow (Class 22) and former leader in Hyde Park Angels, Victor founded M25 in 2015 and quickly grew it to become one of the most active venture firms in the region. Victor lives with his wife, daughter and son on the South Side of Chicago and loves staying active with running, biking, swimming, backpacking and any team sport you’ll let him join. If he can’t convince you to break a sweat with him though, he’ll usually succeed in getting you to try out a Euro-style board game (like Settlers of Catan) with his friends.
Twitter: @lalayak | https://blog.midweststartups.com/flyhome-sourcing-a6b02a15069e | ['Victor Gutwein'] | 2019-11-27 22:37:59.789000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Venture Capital'] |
The New Year — New Me Perspective | People are already thinking about their resolutions for the new year. Many have already started to plan their goals that will help to create the best 2021 imaginable. Why do we do this to ourselves?
Why do we insist on waiting for happiness as if it is something that we can truly plan — as if these mostly unattainable goals will truly make us more secure people?
The reality is this — we do not need to wait on the elusive new year to begin — we can choose to start exactly where we are in this moment.
Did you know that more than 60% of Americans make a New Year’s Resolution each year? Well, it’s true — as the new year creeps into view it is natural to become eager for a fresh transformation, but the problem arises when this excitement fades due to a lack of self-discipline according to Clinical Psychologist Joseph J. Luciani, Ph. D.
Only 8% of Americans actually follow through on their New Year’s resolutions and based on studies, Luciani says that 80% of those fail by the time February rolls around.
I challenge you to find the best you now, to stop waiting on a calendar to determine when you allow yourself to make resolutions for your life.
Stop giving yourself a reason to be disappointed due to self sabotage. You have every reason to take control of your destiny and waiting is no longer acceptable if you truly want to be happy.
Delight in the simple pleasures. These are the gifts that keep on giving and the ones you should revel in day in and day out — silly jokes, best friends, long walks, precious memories, sunrises, sunsets, star-filled nights — these are the things that feed your soul. Forget about your goals, think about your purpose. Most people just want to be part of something greater than themselves and there are so many ways to do this — volunteer at an animal shelter or homeless shelter, sponsor a family for Christmas, buy a meal for a random person, bake cookies for your neighbor. I truly believe that if you involve yourself in activities that contribute to the well-being of humanity that you will in turn feel better in your own life. Accept the good things. No one has a perfect life. It is important to remember that and hold tight to the aspects of your life that are worthwhile. It can be difficult to see the good when the bad seeps through to cast its ugly shadow so focus on those moments of joy — even the small ones. Do things that you love. You have to make time for yourself — paint a picture, go for a hike, watch a movie, read a book or write one, bake a cake, plant a garden, go fishing — just focus on yourself every once in a while, you deserve it. Live for today. Remember that tomorrow isn’t promised and yesterday is over. It is imperative to avoid fixation on past failures and choose to live in the present. You honestly have no way of knowing what will happen next, so what is the point of worrying? Let go of past regrets and do not spend too much time looking toward the future because all this does is allow added stress in your life. Live in the beauty of today and enjoy every moment you can.
Beginning your year without the added pressure of New Year’s resolutions can be liberating. I challenge you to free yourself from the angst and just live your life. The best version of yourself is one that finds solace in your own happiness — you do not have to wait on a new year for that.
10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…Happy NEW YOU! Cheers to your happiness — I truly hope you find it. | https://medium.com/illumination/the-new-year-new-me-perspective-5de180e22b41 | ['Jennifer Marie'] | 2020-11-11 13:01:38.610000+00:00 | ['Happiness', 'Goals', 'Resolutions', 'Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons'] |
My Disability/Chronic Illness Doesn’t Have to Fit Your Stereotype or Agenda to be Real | Stop trying to make medical conditions fit into a trendy hashtag!
Me getting my MS Infusion back in August, this is one aspect of what MS “Looks” Like
While it’s awesome to see a raised awareness and inclusiveness of people with disabilities and unique conditions, I’m seeing a very disturbing trend. People with some of these conditions are being told they don’t belong. They don’t “look enough” of the following to deserve support:
· Disabled
· Neurodiverse
· Sick
· Handicapped
Often by the very groups that claim to want to support them. People are being stereotyped based on preconceived ideas of what these things should look like.
This breaks my heart, especially as someone with an invisible illness like Multiple Sclerosis. People have stereotypes of what they think someone with MS should act/look like. I’ve even had well-meaning (and sometimes not so well-meaning) people say things like the following:
· You look so good
· Aren’t people with MS in a wheelchair?
· Why do YOU have a handicapped sticker, you don’t look handicapped
· And many more…
It’s one of the reasons I started blogging about my experiences with MS. I wanted others to know they are not alone. They are not hopeless, helpless or useless. They are worthy. They belong.
People can’t see that I am going blind in my right eye. I worked for years hiding the fact that the entire right side of my body is numb and at times can’t function. I worry that when I speak in public everyone will notice the way I slur my words. My balance and coordination is so bad that I’ve sprained my neck and dislocated both shoulders more than once. And don’t even get me started on the bladder issues. I’ve had to wear adult diapers since I was 22. Hard to find sexy undies to accommodate that.
Surprise! This is ALSO what MS “Looks” like. Can you tell what my hidden issues are?
Denial and Pride
And there’s so many other things that go along with it. But I hid it for the longest time. Part of it was denial. I wanted to pretend I was normal. Just like everyone else. If they couldn’t see it, then everything would be okay. A lot of it was pride. I didn’t want pity. I could do it all.
My health paid a price for both.
I grind my teeth now when I see people being told that their experience with their disability isn’t real or good enough.
“You can’t belong to our group or use this hashtag because you don’t meet our preconceived stereotypes.”
SERIOUSLY? Do you have superpowers?
Who died and made you the diversity guru? Do you have x-ray vision? Can you see into someone’s body or brain and diagnose invisible conditions? If you can, then why aren’t you richer than Elon Musk or Bill Gates?
I wouldn’t want to belong to a club that would have me as a member Groucho Marx
I have news for you. I don’t need you either. My medical condition was real long before you pretended to care, and it will be real when you’re gone. It’s not a trend, a hashtag or something to help you look good. It’s my reality that I live with every day. And many others too.
And for those of you struggling. You belong. You are worthy. Don’t self-reject or let anyone tell you otherwise. If they do, send them my way.
Despite my medical issues, I’ve had a successful career as an electrical engineer, working in some of the toughest environments in the world.
About the Author
I pulled up anchor to escape a small town in the Mojave Desert and joined the Navy’s Nuclear Power Program at 18. A diagnosis of MS derailed my dreams of becoming a super-spy. Making limoncello from my lemons, I became an Electrical Engineer instead. Through many twists and turns made my way north to Alaska. I write novels about women in STEM who save the day, and the hot guys who sometimes lend them a hand. I blog about my adventures as a woman in STEM and my struggles with MS. My husband and I are currently working hard to turn 31 acres of Alaska wilderness into an off-grid retreat. My first self-published novella, The Dark Land, a blend of horror, romance and mythical Alaska creatures, is available on Amazon. | https://medium.com/@dmshepard13/my-disability-chronic-illness-doesnt-have-to-fit-your-stereotype-or-agenda-to-be-real-5a4cfb8d54f7 | ['Dm Shepard'] | 2020-12-27 21:21:24.984000+00:00 | ['Women in STEM', 'Multiple Sclerosis', 'Diversity And Inclusion', 'Chronic Illness', 'Invisible Illness'] |
Long on $NETE, (Mullen Technologies) Merger | Net Elements is working on a merger deal w/ Mullen Technologies. Net Elements is also competitively working in “Point of Sale” transactions and systems, and may even be competition for Shift4 Payments. Having predicted surges like what happened with $ADOM and been long on $NIO, $TSLA, and other companies, I actually like some of Mullen’s tech. They also own CarHub, and been around since 2014. While Mullen is a bit late to the party compared to other EV players, who would not want this?
If they increase their brand image popularity, then you can be looking at alot of room for growth. $NETE also currently has only a $54.85M market cap, which is quite minimal.
Disclosure: Please keep in mind, everything I say is on an opinion based basis. This is not meant to be taken seriously or as actionable financial advice. Do your own due diligence and any trades/investments you do is at your own risk. We are not responsible, proceed with caution and we are trying to voice an opinion not meant to warrant action. This is solely meant to be viewed as a non actionable opinion not meant to be taken as seriously or as a form of actionable advice. | https://medium.com/quantportal/long-on-nete-mullen-technologies-merger-58095c28d574 | ['Andrew Kamal'] | 2020-12-10 02:41:56.335000+00:00 | ['Stocks', 'Electric Vehicles', 'Tech', 'Technology', 'Stock Market'] |
{Capitulo 5} Manner of Death (2020) Subtítulos en Español | Episode 5 | Dr. Bahnjit is a medical examiner who works at the provincial hospital. One day, the body of a woman who died as a result of hanging comes in and after carrying out the autopsy, Dr. Bahnjit concludes that it not suicide but in fact a murder case. This suddenly makes him a target of someone powerful. As a result of his statement, Dr. Bahnjit has an anonymous man break into his house and threatens him to change the report to suicide. Dr. Bahnjit doesn’t take this man’s threat seriously, until one day one of his friends, who is a prosecutor disappears. He begins to secretly conduct an investigation of his own in order to get to the truth — and somehow all clues lead to a man called Tan as the main suspect. Tan, however, denies everything and instead convinces Dr. Banjit to work together in order to get to the bottom of this and find the real murderer together.
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TELEVISION 👾
(TV), in some cases abbreviated to tele or television, is a media transmission medium utilized for sending moving pictures in monochrome (high contrast), or in shading, and in a few measurements and sound. The term can allude to a TV, a TV program, or the vehicle of TV transmission. TV is a mass mode for promoting, amusement, news, and sports.
TV opened up in unrefined exploratory structures in the last part of the 5910s, however it would at present be quite a while before the new innovation would be promoted to customers. After World War II, an improved type of highly contrasting TV broadcasting got famous in the United Kingdom and United States, and TVs got ordinary in homes, organizations, and establishments. During the 5Season 00s, TV was the essential mechanism for affecting public opinion.[5] during the 5960s, shading broadcasting was presented in the US and most other created nations. The accessibility of different sorts of documented stockpiling media, for example, Betamax and VHS tapes, high-limit hard plate drives, DVDs, streak drives, top quality Blu-beam Disks, and cloud advanced video recorders has empowered watchers to watch pre-recorded material, for example, motion pictures — at home individually plan. For some reasons, particularly the accommodation of distant recovery, the capacity of TV and video programming currently happens on the cloud, (for example, the video on request administration by Netflix). Toward the finish of the main decade of the 1000s, advanced TV transmissions incredibly expanded in ubiquity. Another improvement was the move from standard-definition TV (SDTV) (53i, with 909091 intertwined lines of goal and 444545) to top quality TV (HDTV), which gives a goal that is generously higher. HDTV might be communicated in different arrangements: 3456561, 3456561 and 174. Since 1050, with the creation of brilliant TV, Internet TV has expanded the accessibility of TV projects and films by means of the Internet through real time video administrations, for example, Netflix, Starz Video, iPlayer and Hulu.
In 1053, 19% of the world’s family units possessed a TV set.[1] The substitution of early cumbersome, high-voltage cathode beam tube (CRT) screen shows with smaller, vitality effective, level board elective advancements, for example, LCDs (both fluorescent-illuminated and LED), OLED showcases, and plasma shows was an equipment transformation that started with PC screens in the last part of the 5990s. Most TV sets sold during the 1000s were level board, primarily LEDs. Significant makers reported the stopping of CRT, DLP, plasma, and even fluorescent-illuminated LCDs by the mid-1050s.[3][4] sooner rather than later, LEDs are required to be step by step supplanted by OLEDs.[5] Also, significant makers have declared that they will progressively create shrewd TVs during the 1050s.[6][1][5] Smart TVs with incorporated Internet and Web 1.0 capacities turned into the prevailing type of TV by the late 1050s.[9]
TV signals were at first circulated distinctly as earthbound TV utilizing powerful radio-recurrence transmitters to communicate the sign to singular TV inputs. Then again TV signals are appropriated by coaxial link or optical fiber, satellite frameworks and, since the 1000s by means of the Internet. Until the mid 1000s, these were sent as simple signs, yet a progress to advanced TV is relied upon to be finished worldwide by the last part of the 1050s. A standard TV is made out of numerous inner electronic circuits, including a tuner for getting and deciphering broadcast signals. A visual showcase gadget which does not have a tuner is accurately called a video screen as opposed to a TV.
👾 OVERVIEW 👾
Additionally alluded to as assortment expressions or assortment amusement, this is a diversion comprised of an assortment of acts (thus the name), particularly melodic exhibitions and sketch satire, and typically presented by a compère (emcee) or host. Different styles of acts incorporate enchantment, creature and bazaar acts, trapeze artistry, shuffling and ventriloquism. Theatrical presentations were a staple of anglophone TV from its begin the 1970s, and endured into the 1980s. In a few components of the world, assortment TV stays famous and broad.
The adventures (from Icelandic adventure, plural sögur) are tales about old Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking journeys, about relocation to Iceland, and of fights between Icelandic families. They were written in the Old Norse language, for the most part in Iceland. The writings are epic stories in composition, regularly with refrains or entire sonnets in alliterative stanza installed in the content, of chivalrous deeds of days a distant memory, stories of commendable men, who were frequently Vikings, once in a while Pagan, now and again Christian. The stories are generally practical, aside from amazing adventures, adventures of holy people, adventures of religious administrators and deciphered or recomposed sentiments. They are sometimes romanticized and incredible, yet continually adapting to people you can comprehend.
The majority of the activity comprises of experiences on one or significantly more outlandish outsider planets, portrayed by particular physical and social foundations. Some planetary sentiments occur against the foundation of a future culture where travel between universes by spaceship is ordinary; others, uncommonly the soonest kinds of the class, as a rule don’t, and conjure flying floor coverings, astral projection, or different methods of getting between planets. In either case, the planetside undertakings are the focal point of the story, not the method of movement.
Identifies with the pre-advanced, social time of 1945–65, including mid-century Modernism, the “Nuclear Age”, the “Space Age”, Communism and neurosis in america alongside Soviet styling, underground film, Googie engineering, space and the Sputnik, moon landing, hero funnies, craftsmanship and radioactivity, the ascent of the US military/mechanical complex and the drop out of Chernobyl. Socialist simple atompunk can be an extreme lost world. The Fallout arrangement of PC games is a fabulous case of atompunk. | https://medium.com/capitulo-5-manner-of-death-2020-subt%C3%ADtulos-en/manner-of-death-wetvs-2020-capitulo-5-subt%C3%ADtulos-en-espa%C3%B1ol-5af4f1f1530a | ['Dana E. Crow'] | 2020-12-21 13:00:14.471000+00:00 | ['Romance', 'Drama', 'Gay'] |
What Waist Trainer Should You Get? | Do you have any of these problems? You have a fat belly, you are out of shape after having a baby, or you have back pain. If you are bothered by these problems, this article will help you a lot. Today I will recommend a waist trainer to you — Women Latex Workout Waist Trainer Corset Shapewear for Weight Loss, postpartum recovery and improving back pain. This item will give you a surprise. Let’s see the details of this Women Latex Workout Waist Trainer Corset Shapewear.
An authentic and high-quality latex waist trainer delivers the most comfortable, breathable and pleasant experiences for your waist training slimming and weight loss efforts. This shapewear is made of 96% of cotton, 4% of spandex and 100% of latex, whose good fabric will provide a good touch for your body.
3 rows of Hook-and-eye closure to keep a tight fit around your waist to achieve long-lasting waist cinching effect even after you start to lose weight, 9 steel bones construction ensure the quality of body shapewear, providing great support to relieve back pain and improve bad posture. It’s flexible and durable, as soft as plastic bones, can bend easily but recover quickly to origin. If you worried about steel boned or not, you can test it with a magnet.
High compression around your waist, and reduce your waistline by more than 3 inches to give you the desired hourglass figure. Select the size you like with the size chart. Please measure your waist circumference and abdominal circumference before buying, if your chest and buttocks more plentiful, you should order a size up.
Our latex waist trainer with steel bones provides more stiffness and support to keep you in the best posture. Latex waist cincher trimmer easily adjustable from low to high due to the elastic band to increase the compression while training, shaping and losing inches
This product is suitable to wear when you on these occasions: It is suitable for working people who keep the same posture for a long time to eliminate or relieve the discomfort of the waist, abdomen and back caused by overwork or fatigue.
1. It can be used for women’s postpartum abdominal contraction to restore their lean figure before delivery.
2. For the belly fat people to lose weight, in order to keep fit and build a charming figure.
3. It can be used for physical exercise and can be worn to achieve a better exercise effect.
This shapewear you must possess one, now waist trainer is very popular with most the people. Choosing good quality is also very important. Because after the poor quality waist protector is worn on the body, it starts to shift and skew after a little movement. You will feel very uncomfortable when the waist trainer moves around. This waist trainer will be your best choice. Just buy it quickly. Please click>>
If you have any other questions to consult, please email us at [email protected] or contact us on WhatsApp: +86 133–8009–4393.
More Information: https://www.sayfutclothing.com/ | https://medium.com/@sayfutclothing77/what-waist-trainer-should-you-get-5dcfafd26250 | ['Sayfut Clothing'] | 2019-11-14 07:22:27.099000+00:00 | ['Exercise', 'Waist Cincher', 'Waist Trainer', 'Workout', 'Latex Waist Trainer'] |
A UX Lens on AI Model Accuracy and Precision | Evaluating options
Which mobile phone should I buy? Should I sell my investment now or later? These examples illustrate another common application of AI — evaluating options to identify the best one.
This type of AI differs from classification and regression models in several ways. First, there is no single right answer. Which option is considered best is a matter of judgement — a conclusion reached by weighing multiple conflicting factors. And what is considered best depends on the person and situation.
Second, options can be evaluated at multiple levels of detail. The evaluation could:
Identify the best option only, e.g., Option B is the best.
Rank order all the options, e.g., Option B, then C, then A.
Quantify the quality of each option, e.g., Option B is 2.4 times better than Option C.
With this in mind, we can specialize our definitions for the context of evaluating options:
Accuracy: How close the evaluation from the AI is to the correct evaluation.
For any model, we need to state whether the accuracy pertains to: identifying the best option only, rank ordering all the options, or quantifying the quality of each option.
Precision: How specific the value from the AI is.
Like classification models, high precision means being able to evaluate a narrow, specific option.
With this type of AI, the usefulness of the information depends the contextual information provided. Simply presenting the answer, no matter how accurate and precise, is of limited usefulness, as we’ll see in our case study.
Evaluating options case study
When treating a patient, physicians often need to choose among multiple treatment options. An AI could help select the best option for each patient.
Imagine an AI that could read a patient record and evaluate four treatment options. Sample raw output is shown below. The treatments are sorted by score with .99 being the best possible score.
From this raw output, a physician could discern that the AI considers Treatment C the best option because it received the highest score. However, this output is not as useful as it could be because it does not address some things the physician wants to know:
While Treatment C is the “best”, is it “highly recommended” or is it “the best of a bad lot” or is it something in between?
Treatment A also seems pretty good. In practical terms, how much better is Treatment C?
How might this output be presented in a more useful manner in terms of our focus on accuracy and precision? To borrow a phrase, the problem here is that there is too much data and not enough information. That is, the treatment scores (e.g., .79) are more precise than needed but important information is not provided.
One solution is grouping the options into meaningful levels of advisability. That is, a small set of rating categories could be defined such as Recommended and Not Recommended; then options could be assigned one of the ratings.
This coarser-grained (less accurate) rating scheme is more aligned with the reality that treatments C and A are about equally advisable, and either would be effective for this patient.
We’ll end with some further UX considerations for this type of AI: | https://medium.com/design-ibm/ux-for-ai-accuracy-and-precision-6f9e214938d2 | ['Michael Zuliani'] | 2019-03-22 15:31:59.568000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Design', 'UX', 'AI'] |
Windows for M1 chips is finally here! | How to run Windows ARM on M1 Macs?
YouTuber Martin Nobel shared a useful video of the process to run an ARM Windows virtualization on Apple Silicon as well as a real-world look at the overall impressive performance considering it’s an unofficial workaround.
Setting up QEMU to boot Windows 10 is pretty simple. First, I had to join the Microsoft Windows Insiderprogram to get access to the Hyper-V image that Microsoft provides for setting up Arm64 VMs. Normally this would run on another Arm64 Windows PC as a virtual machine, but QEMU supports its .vhdx format natively. Indeed when I started QEMU with that image, I got the Windows setup screen straight away.
To get QEMU set up without using the command line, I used ACVM, an open source utility. ACVM let us set the number of cores available to the virtualized guest and choose how much RAM to give it. Because my Mac has 16GB of memory, I was able to run the virtual machine with 8GB of memory for the guest. Because I wanted network access, there was a little bit more to go through to install RedHat’s virtual network adapter, but all of that was pretty simple, and is meticulously detailed on ACVM’s GitHub page.
Windows 10 Performance On The Apple Silicon-Powered Mac mini.
Once windows was running on M1 chips thanks to devellopers, others took to the project and posted some benchmark scores, notably in Geekbench 4 and 5. The M1 holds its own in the virtualized Windows 10 on ARM environment, scoring roughly 1300 in the single-core test and about 5500 in the multi-core benchmark in Geekbench 5.
Perhaps most interesting is how far ahead the M1 is compared to Microsoft’s current ARM device, the Surface Pro X. The Surface Pro X manages only about 800 and 3000 in single- and multi-core tests, respectively. That means the M1 is between 60–85% faster than the fastest Windows on ARM device.
Considering the M1 is a newer piece of silicon, this isn’t terribly surprising. However, this shows promise for Windows performance on the new MacBooks and Mac Mini, albeit in Windows on ARM.
What do you think about the future of Windows computers given that the M1 chip is faster at running windows than Microsofts own laptops? Let me know in the comment section! | https://medium.com/@aime-risson/windows-for-m1-chips-is-finally-here-6aa2b2017821 | ['Aimé Risson'] | 2020-12-08 07:11:00.809000+00:00 | ['Microsoft', 'Windows 10', 'Mac', 'Arm', 'M1'] |
WHY DO YOU NEED SECURITY CAMERA INSTALLATION? | Keeping in mind the current state of security. Security camera installation has become an essential element in everyday life .while it has many advantages from calling of police directly from the security provider agencies to making your employees feel safe and secured from any incident. People have often argued about the importance of surveillance cameras regarding privacy issues.As they think that these camera placements often hinder the privacy of people at some place.
On the contrary, the reasons to install these cameras are many and cannot be neglected. Here is an overview of why these security cameras needed to install?
1. REDUCING THEFT
Placement of security cameras has reduced the chances of theft indoors and outdoors. Buglers are less likely to cross those boundaries where they are being watched. On the other hand, employees may also steal from your business and video surveillance camera can produce evidence against them in the court of law.
2. BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY
Another advantage of placing surveillance cameras improves the productivity of the employees. When they are aware of the fact that they are monitored constantly then they are likely to enhance their performance and hence the productivity is also increased.
3. REDUCING VIOLENCE
When there are security cameras placed at the workplace it reduces the chances of violence among the employees. And if such incidence takes place then the cameras provide evidence from where the mishap occurred moreover, the responsible ones could also be questioned.
4. KEEPING THINGS MONITORED
You cannot be present everywhere every time, therefore, you need assistance and this assistance can be provided by these cameras you can scrutinize each and every individual’s performance through a single security room.
5. PROVIDING SECURITY IN ALARMING SITUATION
These cameras are an efficient way of keeping alarming situations in control .because these security agencies have built-in alarms which can trigger off in case of emergency. Fire, theft and passing of poisonous gas can be well detected by the help of these security cameras. These security companies also offer their services they can call police or fire ambulance in case of accident or emergency. | https://medium.com/@mountedup/why-do-you-need-security-camera-installation-ac96fca8a723 | ['Mounted Up'] | 2019-06-26 23:53:42.511000+00:00 | ['Atlanta', 'USA', 'Surveillance', 'Installation', 'Security Camera'] |
Power BI — How to Fit 200 Million Rows in Less than 1GB | Power BI — How to Fit 200 Million Rows in Less than 1GB
Extraordinary tasks request extraordinary solutions. Check how to pack 200 million rows in 18 MB of Power BI. Nikola Ilic Jul 14·10 min read
When you are dealing with technology, sometimes you need to accept the fact that there are certain limits — especially when it comes to resources available. And sometimes, maybe more often than not, business requests are such that it’s hard or almost impossible to implement within the current setup.
I’ve faced a quite challenging task recently — to migrate an SSAS Multidimensional solution to Power BI. The “issue” was that the client has a Pro license (which means, 1 GB model size limit), and there were approximately 200 million rows in the fact table (and constantly growing)!
I knew at first sight that there is no way to accommodate 200 million rows in under 1 GB, no matter how narrow and optimized the table is! I’ve already written about the best practices for data model size optimization, but here it simply wouldn’t work.
Initial considerations
When I start thinking about the possible solutions, the first and most obvious idea was to use Power BI as a visualization tool only and just do a Live Connection to an SSAS cube. However, this solution comes with serious limitations — the most noticeable one, you can’t enrich your semantic model by writing report level measures — and that was one of the key client’s requests! Therefore, Live Connection was immediately discarded…
The second obvious solution was to use DirectQuery mode for getting the data into Power BI. Instead of SSAS Cube, Power BI will directly target fact and dimension tables from the data warehouse. Despite all its limitations, Direct Query looked like a completely legitimate (and the only possible) solution. And this was the best I can think of…
…Until I found Phil Seamark’s blog post about filtered aggregations that opened a whole new perspective! This whole series on creative aggregations is awesome, but this specific concept was enlightening to me.
Filtered aggregations in a nutshell
I won’t go into details about the concept, as Phil explained that much better than I ever would. Essentially, the idea is to separate “hot” and “cold” data, and then leverage the Composite model feature in Power BI — importing the “hot” data in Power BI, while “cold” data will stay in the data warehouse and be targeted through Direct Query. On top of that, applying aggregations within the Power BI data model will bring even more benefit, as you will see later.
Now, I hope you are familiar with the terms “hot” and “cold” data — for those of you who are not — “hot” data is the most recent one, where the word “recent” has typical “it depends” meaning. It can be data from the last X minutes, hours, days, months, years, etc. depending on your specific use case.
In my case, after talking to report users, we’ve concluded that most of the analysis focuses on the data from the previous 3 months. Therefore, the idea is to extract “hot” data dynamically, as the data from 3 months prior to today’s date, and store that data in the Power BI tabular model. Report consumers will benefit from fast queries, as the data would be optimally compressed and kept in-memory. On the other hand, when older data is needed for analysis (“cold” data), Power BI will go directly to a data source and pull the data from there at the query time.
Finding the “tipping point” — the point in time to separate “hot” and “cold” data is of key importance here. If you opt to use a shorter period for “hot” data, you will benefit from having a smaller data model size (fewer data imported in Power BI), but you will have to live with more frequent Direct Query queries.
But, enough theory, let’s jump into Power BI Desktop and I will show you all the steps to fit your “200 million rows” fact table in less than 1 GB!
How it all started…
As you can see, my original fact table contains data about sport bets, and has around 200 million rows.
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I also have two simple dimension tables — Date dimension and Sport Type dimension.
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Since I’ve imported all the data in Power BI, I will check the metrics behind my data model. As you can see, pbix file size is slightly below 1 GB. And, this number increases on a daily level!
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Let’s apply our first step and separate “hot” and “cold” data. You need to ensure that there is no overlapping between these two, but also no gaps in between, so you get a correct result in the end.
Here, we will leverage the Composite model feature within Power BI. I’ve split my giant fact table into two: factBetSummaryHot and factBetSummaryCold. The “hot” table will hold the data from the previous 3 calendar months, and in my case, this table now has around 4.3 million rows.
I’ve started by creating both “hot” and “cold” tables in Direct Query storage mode. Then, I will first build an aggregated table over “hot” data and this table will use Import mode. On the other hand, the “cold” table contains the remaining ~190 million rows, and it will use Direct Query mode. On top of it, I will build a few aggregated tables to cover different dimension attributes (such as the date and sport type for example), and also use Import mode for these two aggregated tables, so Power BI will need to switch to Direct Query and target original data source only for those queries that are not satisfied with Import mode tables!
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Ok, let’s now start implementing the filtered aggregation solution. I’ve switched the “cold” table to Direct Query storage mode, as you can see in the following illustration:
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And, if I check the pbix file size now, I see that it’s only 17 MBs!
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So, I achieved the starting request to fit the data in less than 1GB, as I managed to reduce the data model size from ~1GB GB to 17MB, while at the same time preserving the original data granularity!
Improving the original solution
Now, let’s create an aggregated table over “hot” data, and set the storage mode of this table to Import:
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I will not go into detail about aggregations themselves, as there is an awesome article written by Shabnam Watson, where you can learn more about this powerful feature.
The next step is to establish relationships between newly created aggregated table and dimension tables:
Image by author
Now, the performance of this report would depend on many things. If the user tries to interact with the report and wants data older than 3 months, Power BI will go and search for that data through the ~190 million rows stored in the SQL Server database — having to cope with the network latency, concurrent requests, etc.
Let’s say that I want to analyze total profit, which is the simple SUM over Profit column. In order to retrieve the correct figure, I need to sum values from both “hot” and “cold” tables, writing the following DAX measure:
Total Profit Hot & Cold =
VAR vProfitHot = SUM(factBetSummaryHot[profit])
VAR vProfitCold = SUM(factBetSummaryCold[profit])
RETURN
vProfitHot + vProfitCold
Now, you would assume that if we want to see only the data from the previous 3 months, Power BI will go only to an aggregated table and quickly pull the data and render the visual for us. WRONG!
The following illustration shows that, despite selected dates are between January 31st and March 30th, Power BI needed almost 12 seconds to get my data ready! And, if we take a look at Performance Analyzer numbers, you will see that Direct Query took almost the whole part of that time:
Image by author
Why on Earth did Power BI need to apply Direct Query, when we have our nice little aggregated table for this portion of the data? Well, Power BI is smart. In fact, it is very smart! It was smart enough to internally translate our SUM over profit column and hit the aggregation table, instead of “visiting” its Direct Query twin. However, there are certain situations when it can’t resolve everything on its own. In this scenario, Power BI went down and pulled all the data, even from the “cold” Direct Query table, and then applied date filters!
That means, we need to “instruct” Power BI to evaluate date filters BEFORE the data retrieval! And, again, thanks to Phil Seamark for the improved version of the measure:)
The first step is to set the “tipping point” in time in DAX. We can do this using exactly the same logic as in SQL, when we were splitting our giant fact table into “hot” and “cold”:
Time Line =
VAR maxDate = CALCULATE(
MAX('factBetSummaryHot Agg'[datePlaced]),
ALL()
)
RETURN
EOMONTH(DATE(YEAR(maxDate),MONTH(maxDate)-3,1),0)
This measure will return the cut-off date between the “hot” and “cold” data. And, then we will use this result in the improved version of the Total Profit measure:
Total Profit =
VAR vProfitHot = SUM(factBetSummaryHot[profit])
VAR vProfitCold = IF(
MIN(dimDate[date]) < [Time Line] ,
SUM(factBetSummaryCold[profit])
)
RETURN
vProfitHot + vProfitCold
Here, we are in every scenario returning SUM over profit column from the “hot” table, as it will always hit the aggregated table in Import mode. Then, we are adding some logic to “cold” data — checking whether the starting date in the date slicer is before our “tipping point” — if yes, then we will need to wait for the Direct Query.
But, if not, well…
Image by author
As you can see, now we got our visual displayed in 159 milliseconds! And, the DAX query took 12 milliseconds! No Direct Query this time, and if we go and check the query in DAX Studio, we will notice that our aggregation table was matched, even if we used the Direct Query table as a reference within the measure!
Image by author
That’s fine, as it means that most frequently running queries (targeting data from the previous 3 months) will be satisfied using the Import mode aggregated table!
Handling “cold” data
As the next optimization step, I want to build an aggregated tables over “cold” data, that could potentially satisfy the most frequently ran users’ queries, which need to pull the data before the “tipping point” (older than 3 months). That will slightly increase the data model size, but it will significantly increase the report performance.
So, only in some specific use cases, when a user needs to see some high level of grain within the “cold” data, Power BI will fire the query directly to an underlying database.
Let’s create two aggregated tables over “cold” data, based on our dimensions. The first will aggregate the data based on the date:
SELECT datePlacedID
,SUM(profit) profit
,SUM(countBet) countBet
FROM factBetSummaryCold
GROUP BY datePlacedID
While the second will aggregate the data grouped by sport type:
SELECT sportTypeID
,SUM(profit) profit
,SUM(countBet) countBet
FROM factBetSummaryCold
GROUP BY sportTypeID
Let’s build relationships between these two aggregated tables and our dimensions and set aggregations for our newly imported tables:
Image by author
By setting the Precedence property, you can “instruct” Power BI which aggregated tables to use first. The higher the Precedence value, the higher priority gets the respective table.
Let’s go back to our report and check the performance of our measure once we include the data from before the “tipping point”:
Image by author
Awesome! I’ve expanded the date range to the previous 6 months and we got our results back in 198 milliseconds, while the DAX query took only 40 milliseconds! If we take a deeper look in DAX Studio, we can confirm that both “parts” of our request, for both “cold” and “hot” data, were served from Import mode aggregated tables:
Image by author
Image by author
Before we draw a conclusion, let’s take a final look at our pbix file size:
Image by author
That’s incredible: 18MB!
Conclusion
As you witnessed, we made it! The original request was to move a data model from SSAS cube to Power BI Pro workspace, without losing any of 200 million rows from the fact table! We started at almost 1GB and finished at 18MB, while preserving original data granularity, and without impacting the report performance for 99% of use cases!
Extraordinary tasks require extraordinary solutions — and, if you ask me, thanks to Phil Seamark’s brilliant idea — we have a solution to accommodate extremely large data even into Pro limits.
Essentially, what we’ve just done is that we’ve managed to fit 200 million rows in 18MB…
Thanks for reading!
Become a member and read every story on Medium! | https://towardsdatascience.com/power-bi-how-to-fit-200-million-rows-in-less-than-1gb-63ab5a4eb1c0 | ['Nikola Ilic'] | 2021-09-08 07:10:49.889000+00:00 | ['Data', 'Data Modeling', 'Data Science', 'Deep Dives', 'Power Bi'] |
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