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7 Tips for Maximizing your Earnings on BTCsurveys.com | Since I launched the BTCsurveys.com back in January, I’ve noticed that there definitely is a strategy for maximizing your earnings while taking surveys. The strategy can be boiled down to 7 main tips, which when applied together, may double or triple your survey earnings per hour worked.
TIP 1: Click “Show More”, and click it a few times.
By default, TheoremReach shows 8 surveys at a time, but you may have more available. Click “SHOW MORE” to reveal 8 more surveys, and then scroll down to click it again. Repeat this process a few times to list out all the available surveys.
TIP 2: Sort surveys by “Length” or “Reward” instead of the default “Best Match”
By default, your surveys are sorted by “Best Match,” although I’ve found it’s better to sort surveys by “Length” or “Reward.” To maximize your earnings, you want to first take surveys that are either extra short or extra high paying. These surveys also fill up faster, so you want to take short or high-paying surveys first because they’re more likely to disappear later.
TIP 3: If a survey has stars, you’re more likely to complete it.
Stars indicate a survey’s rating, which is given by other survey takers. If a survey has no stars, it’s either brand new, or no one has been able to complete it and rate it.
If you’re having no luck getting a full survey (you’re getting weeded out and only getting partial rewards), look for surveys with stars. You’ll have a higher chance of getting accepted to these.
Two Side Notes here
It’s still worth trying surveys with no stars — you will be able to complete some of them, and they can pay high.
On average, you should be accepted into 20–40% of the surveys you attempt. Part of the survey game is clicking through surveys that will later weed you out. It sucks, but it’s just a part of the survey match-making process.
TIP 4: It’s best to work several 15–30 minute bursts throughout the day vs. one 2-hour shift of taking surveys.
To make the most money, you want to maximize your hourly earn rate. You do this by taking either short surveys or high-paying surveys. Once you’ve been taking surveys for 30 minutes at once, you begin to run out of the high-quality surveys, and you’re left with long surveys that pay very little.
When I take surveys, I log on for only 15 or 30 minutes and take the best surveys available at the moment (as determined by length or reward). Then, I hop off for a couple hours so the list of surveys can reset. When I hop back on again, I have access once more to short, high-paying surveys.
TIP 5: Set a personal threshold for how much a survey should pay you vs. minutes the survey will take.
I only take surveys that pay more than 1,000 satoshis per minute, but your personal rate should be different from mine.
The picture below provides a good example. In this case, I would attempt the first 2 surveys but would ignore the third as it doesn’t pay enough to meet my personal rate.
The first pays 1,692 satoshis per minute, as 33,840 / 20 minutes = 1,692.
The second pays 2,428 satoshis per minute as 31,560 / 13 = 2,428.
The third pays 708 satoshis per minute as 7,080 / 10 = 708
When you have no surveys left that pay enough, it’s a good time to log off and check back in a couple of hours for new surveys.
Your personal rate should be different from mine. Maybe it’s 200 satoshis per minute or 500 satoshis per minute. You should set it based either on the rate that you’re happy working at or based on what allows you to take surveys for 30 minutes before you’re left with nothing but surveys that pay too little. Then, use this payout rate to judge all surveys in the future, deciding which to attempt and which to ignore.
TIP 6: Be honest with your answers. Don’t try to guess what the survey wants to hear.
Here’s a great example: I was attempting a survey that offered $2 for 4 minutes of my time. The survey was for a prominent jewelry company, and it first asked my gender. Many men might think “I should lie and put female as my gender” because they’d think the jewelry company would want to survey women.
I answered honestly and put “male,” and it turned out that the company wanted to survey men on their jewelry-buying habits, of which I have none. However, the reason they were probably paying so much — $2 for 4 minutes—was because they had a tough time finding men to take the survey.
So be honest, and you’ll experience weirdly-specific but high-paying surveys just like that every few days. Also, if you constantly lie on multiple surveys, your account can be banned, and we have to throw out all your survey responses. Then we don’t get paid, and we don’t have the money to pay you either.
TIP 7: Refer others to the site for 10% of their earnings.
Every user has their own referral link at https://btcsurveys.com/referrals/. When you share it with others and they register through your link, you will get 10% of their survey earnings for life. This can create a really nice stream of passive income that supplements your own survey-taking income.
Since you get paid when your referrals get paid, you want to focus on referring high-quality users who will stick with the site long-term. There’s nothing to gain from getting someone to register, but then they never take surveys. Encourage them to take surveys every day just like you, and maybe send them this guide as well. | https://medium.com/@tylermarx_52825/7-tips-for-maximizing-your-earnings-on-btcsurveys-com-ba53fd1e750d | ['Tyler Marx'] | 2020-04-23 22:53:31.504000+00:00 | ['Paid Surveys', 'Surveys', 'Paid Survey Sites', 'Online Earning'] |
Build Beautiful Documentation Websites with Docusaurus | A great documentation website says a lot about your software. It tells users how they can use the software. It tells developers what the software can do and how it is developed. In short, it is a must-have for developers.
But making detailed and excellent documentation websites takes too much time and effort, especially because we want to focus our attention on development instead of writing documentation.
In this article, I’d like to introduce Docusaurus by Facebook, an easy-to-use documentation site generator powered by React and uses Markdown to write docs.
Docusaurus: A Simple yet Elegant Solution
Docusaurus is an open-source project that allows you to write documentation as Markdown and gives you tons of flexibility to customize and create visually appealing documentation websites in no time!
1. Get Started
Create a new documentation site by running this command:
npx @docusaurus/init@latest latest [name] classic
Head to the root folder and run npm start . Your beautiful brand new site has been generated successfully.
The classic template will generate the following files in the root directory:
my-website
├── blog
│ ├── 2019-05-28-hola.md
│ ├── 2019-05-29-hello-world.md
│ └── 2020-05-30-welcome.md
├── docs
│ ├── doc1.md
│ ├── doc2.md
│ ├── doc3.md
│ └── mdx.md
├── src
│ ├── css
│ │ └── custom.css
│ └── pages
│ ├── styles.module.css
│ └── index.js
├── static
│ └── img
├── docusaurus.config.js
├── package.json
├── README.md
├── sidebars.js
└── yarn.lock
It might look quite intimidating for beginners so let's discuss how you can customize and create your own documentation website easily with this template.
2. Sidebar customization
You can easily customize the documentation sidebar for your own documentation.
The example sidebar looks like:
You can customize this sidebar by simply updating the values in sidebar.js , where the default sidebar is someSidebar .
module.exports = {
someSidebar: {
Docusaurus: ['doc1', 'doc2', 'doc3'],
Features: ['mdx'],
},
};
Docusaurus and Features refer to the dropdown categories in the sidebar while the array of strings (i.e. doc1, doc2, doc3, mdx) are the markdown documentations found in the docs folder of the site.
For example, if I change the category names and move "doc3" to the category below instead.
module.exports = {
someSidebar: {
Introduction: ["doc1", "doc2"],
About: [ "doc3", "mdx"],
},
};
Now the sidebar would look like:
3. Configuration
Changing the name and tagline of the template is probably the first thing to do when building your documentation website with Docusaurus.
You can configure anything for your needs under docusaurus.config.js
Here's a snippet on things you can customize:
title: 'My Site',
tagline: 'The tagline of my site',
url: 'https://your-docusaurus-test-site.com',
baseUrl: '/',
onBrokenLinks: 'throw',
favicon: 'img/favicon.ico',
organizationName: 'facebook', // Usually your GitHub org/user name.
projectName: 'docusaurus', // Usually your repo name.
You can also customize the navigation bar and footer links in this file. Let's see how we can customize the navigation bar next.
4. NavBar Customization
By default, the navbar displays the site name, link to Docs and link to Blog.
Let's say you want to create an About page and add the link to the page in the navbar. You can create an about.md file in the /pages directory.
All Markdown documents must have an id so in about.md , we can write specify its id and write a sample line :
---
id: about
---
## This is my About page.
Then, in docusaurus.config.js , simply add this page id in the navbar object, items array.
navbar: {
items: [
//...
{to: 'about', label: 'About', position: 'left'}, //add this line
//...
],
}
Now, the rendered site will have your About page in the navbar.
Endless Possibilities to Build Beautiful Documentation
Using Docusaurus, you can write your documentations and customize the template to your needs easily. Visit the documentation website for more information.
Some well-known documentation sites made with Docusaurus are Prettier, React Native and mailgo. Feel free to look at more to get inspiration on creating and designing your next documentation website.
Here is my documentation website for a project I made: victoria-lo.github.io/Gameo
Thanks for reading! I hope it has been a helpful read! If it is, don't forget to like and share the article. Till next time, cheers! | https://medium.com/swlh/build-beautiful-documentation-websites-with-docusaurus-cc51730ed932 | ['Victoria Lo'] | 2020-12-06 05:48:02.715000+00:00 | ['Documentation', 'Developer', 'React', 'Tutorial', 'Docusaurus'] |
2 CQRS Architectures that Every Software Architect Should Know | CQRS Architectures
Command Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS) architectures expand the concept of command-query division at the architectural level. But these architectures are not architectures of the whole software system. It is a design of just one part of the software and that part is called the Application Layer.
If you are looking for the architectures of the entire software system, follow the link to my article about Domain-Centric Architectures below.
CQRS suggests dividing the Application Layer into two sides, the commands side, and the queries side.
The queries side should be responsible and optimized for reading data. Queries are reading data from persistence and then map them into the presentation layer required form. Such forms are mostly identified as Data Transfer Objects (DTOs).
The commands side should be responsible and optimized for writing data. Commands are executing use-cases, changing the states of entities, and saving them into persistence.
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By separating read and write operations we increase the performance and support the Separation of Concerns principle in our systems.
There are three main types of CQRS architectures you can implement. | https://medium.com/@sa6150326/2-cqrs-architectures-that-every-software-architect-should-know-3094c1ad0f8d | [] | 2020-11-21 12:14:42.971000+00:00 | ['Domain Driven Design', 'Clean Code', 'Software', 'Domains', 'Edsger W. Dijkstra’s quotes about SoC'] |
Duties of a Chief Security Officer (CSO) | Trending
Photo Post
12 Mar, 2019
The post of Chief Security Officer is a versatile post and the duties vary from organization to organization. It all depends on what kind of Chief Security Officer are we talking about.
In big corporations, the main job of the CSO is to oversee and maintain all the security-related architecture of the corporation. Whether it is checking that all of the security personnel are doing their jobs perfectly or maintaining and protecting the sensitive information of the corporation and making sure that the systems of the corporation don’t get breached, its the job of the Chief Security Officer.
The lines between the Chief Security Officer and Chief Information Security Officer usually get blurred in big corporations. But we will focus on the duties of CSO according to our nation where the Private Security Sector is still a developing industry.
The main duties of the CSO in India mainly consist of maintaining and overlooking the physical security of the corporation or organization which hires Private Security.
Anyplace where there is a team of Private Security Guards working, one of them is assigned as the head of the Security Team. That person is called the Chief Security Officer. He or she will keep the Security Personnel working at the place in check. All the Security Guards working at the place have to follow the orders of their CSO.
Delving deeper into the duties of a Chief Security Officer:
Whenever someone hires a private security agency, and a team is selected to be assigned at the place for security, it is the CSO who will thoroughly examine the building’s infrastructure, all the entry, and exit points etcetera and will assign security guards to guard spots accordingly. After studying the schematics of the particular building or place to be protected, the CSO advises on how to place and where to place certain equipment like surveillance cameras, metal detectors, motion sensors, fire alarms etcetera. The CSO keeps the security personnel under him/her in check, whether they are in proper uniform if they are working and keeping watch at the spots assigned to them, if they are keeping themselves fit and attentive for work etcetera. The CSO does damage control in cases of emergencies and further sets a path to solve the problem. He or she acts as the general of an army who instructs the troops on how to tackle the situation and what is the best path to take. The CSO is the one controlling the communication on local radios and keeps on checking by using a radio. The CSO is the one who decides what action to take if any person is detained or put in a citizen’s arrest by any guard due to some disturbance or unallowed activity done by him/her. The CSO will contact the local government authorities in case of any mishappening occurs. The CSO, being completely knowledgeable of the building’s structure is the first one to converse with the local authorities when they arrive. The local authorities will gather all the information about the building and its structure before entering it in case of an emergency from the CSO.
These are some of the various important duties of a Chief Security Guard assigned to any place or person. And we have also observed that the duties have an air of importance to them that they can not be given to any new security guard who is green. These duties can only be fulfilled by a guard who at least has an experience of 5 years in the field and has an exemplary record of service. | https://medium.com/@info_60275/duties-of-a-chief-security-officer-cso-8d019073b51 | ['Security Troops'] | 2019-03-12 04:52:42.325000+00:00 | ['Bodyguard', 'Security Camera', 'Security', 'Security Agency In Jaipur'] |
Into The Blocks- Kyle Shaun Aquino | Into The Blocks- Kyle Shaun Aquino
Accelerating the growth of the Blockchain Developer ecosystem, one dApp at a time
Kyle Shaun Aquino
In the second installment of our series titled Into The Block where we interview Kyle Shaun Aquino, a fellow from Bridge Academy 2018 Cohort.
1. Hi Kyle, firstly, tell us about your experience at Bridge in one word?
Life-changer. Bridge Academy introduced me to a lot of experienced developers that I can connect to. Being in third-world country, having these important connections really is helpful and is a life-changer for me. It brought me a new perspective in how to enter in to this new industry.
2. Now, let’s talk about how things went about your project? What did you build during your three months here at Bridge? Did you perform to your expectations or you think you could have done better?
I developed a prototype for a decentralized cooperatives platform called Psycellium. Unfortunately, due to the time constraint and a lot of requirements in developing the platform, I have just developed mostly on the smart contract and not much on the user interface. Everything is a learning for me. Just to learn how to develop decentralized applications here at bridge is enough to reach my expectations though it also thought me when materializing a large idea it’s better to create the most fundamental module that will eventually grow into that original concept. In connection to Psycellium, I should’ve focused more on creating a multi-signature wallet.
3. How does the road look like going ahead for you? What are you planning to achieve in the next 6 months?
I will be graduating this April for my CS undergraduate studies, yay! Currently working on 3 platforms which includes Psycellium, Pravada (An Online Publishing Platform), and Cell-io (A Multisignature Wallet). I’m still not sure of where to go but blockchain tech is the path I’m planning to take.
4. How did you feel about the mentor support?
The mentoring support did help me focus and think about how to develop my ideas effectively. They provided a framework that I could work on which is great!
5. What’s that one thing you’d like to see change in the Blockchain Tech scenario?
I would like to see what made me interested in blockchain in general in the first place: The ability of this technology to enable globalization of processes and transaction for any fields. Basically, what I hope to see in the future is the democratization of services regardless of your status, gender, country or class
6. Which project do you think currently has the best team out there?
Well, there’s Consensys that helps developers in creating these decentralized applications.
7. If you were to invest $1M in crypto startup out there, which one would you choose and why?
If I were to invest in a crypto startup I would choose to partner with startups that focus on helping marginalized sectors that don’t really have access to usual financial services available to the public.
About Kyle Shaun Aquino
Kyle is a 19-year-old from Phillipines studying Computer Science at the Technological University of the Philippines — Manila.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyleaquino
Twitter: https://twitter.com/imkyleshaun | https://medium.com/the-spectrum/into-the-blocks-kyle-shaun-aquino-fbd396495377 | ['Ankit Kumar Singh'] | 2019-02-10 17:42:37.892000+00:00 | ['Consensys', 'Crypto', 'Ethereum', 'Blockchain', 'Bridge Academy'] |
How a German DIY Chain Discounted Itself Out of Existence | In 2003 a hardware chain commercial took Germany by storm. It only contained one simple sentence, dubbed by Bruce Willis’ voice actor.
“20% on everything — except pet food (tr.)”
A sale on everything? Wait, why not pet food? Is that Bruce Willis’ voice? People were instantly intrigued. The commercial fit perfectly into the stingy 2000s era of shopping. If you needed something and there was a place you could get it at a discount, that’s where you went. It became an easy choice. Praktiker’s sales were soaring. Other hardware stores could hardly keep up. They had proven themselves on a market that was lead by much bigger players. But this very commercial got the ball rolling for the company’s imminent end.
“Where the price sets the tone” (tr.), the slogan accompanying their new commercial, further solidified Praktiker’s goal. They wanted to be the place where people went to save on supplies.
At first, this seemed to work in their favor. Which became apparent when other chains decided to try and lure in people with discounted prices and sales as well. Just a few years later, in 2005, the hardware and DIY market was extremely saturated. Business consultants from Ernst & Young predicted that in 2015 only three of the 15 leading hardware store chains at the time would still exist. None of them wanted to be it, so the rivalry grew.
Sale prices began sinking so low, one of Praktiker’s employees got caught buying screwdrivers in a rival store because they were cheaper than in wholesale. A lot of the chains realized pretty quickly long-term profits on sales were too low to be worth the hassle, so they started to withdraw while Praktiker was still betting on those to help them persist. | https://medium.com/better-marketing/how-a-german-diy-chain-discounted-itself-out-of-existence-3087b71fa21c | ['Carine Ru'] | 2020-09-08 22:22:46.698000+00:00 | ['Discount', 'Marketing', 'Marketing Strategies', 'Failure Stories', 'Business'] |
A Business approach to Analysis of Data | A Business approach to Analysis of Data
What do you need to master Business Analytics and Decision Science?
There is a new buzz word in town these days. It is called Business Analytics. But what is it, and why is it important? Although every company and organization has a different meaning to what a Business Analyst does, but by university standards a business analytics course equips students with knowledge of data analysis and decision making for the business. I went through a lot of MOOCs and HarvardX courses to understand how a business analysis process is different from that of data analysis — and spoiler — it is not all that different. The only key difference is that a data analyst who can derive to decisions for his business from the analysis that is made is a business analyst. What I will do for you is, I will lay down all the major and minor details that a business analysis procedure follow and we will together build a better understanding of how data analysis done with the right goal in mind leads to successful outcomes. Let’s start with from the beginning of everything
Feasibility — Before diving deep into solving a problem, you need to have an extensive plan of the steps that are going to be followed to reach the decision. Most common blockers in this process will be the distribution of data sources and other requirements that are needed for the analysis. If you are lucky enough, then you might find all data sources in one place, say a data warehouse, in which case you need to extract all of the data from this source and perform your analysis. But in many cases, this might be distributed over web analytics data, BI reports, database servers and un-organized local data. It then becomes important to be able to find out whether this analysis is feasible or not. That is, the cost put in for this, will have a significant outcome or not. At the end of the day, both the timeline and the cost should justify the need for decision.
Information-Action Value Chain
Lets start with what a value chain is; it is a sequence of steps in any process where the end of every individual step adds a value to the overall system. Let us walkthrough how this chain is formed step-by-step:
First we start with data capturing and storing. In the real world when analyzing terabytes of data, the source of this data might not be a singular, and therefore we need to bring all data sources, data points and tools together. Generally, all this information is stored in a data warehouse. This is important as it saves a lot of time that will be spent in juggling through various files, folders and databases in the latter stages if all the information does not exist in one standardized location. Bringing the data together not only saves time, it is also useful in performing the initial steps of analysis: cleaning, establishing relationships, etc. Next in the value chain is extraction of data. Although, we have placed all of our data in a singular place, the location where data is stored will not have analysis capabilities every time. This step is important because it creates a path from the data source to the tool which is going to perform analysis operations, Relational Databases, like SQL Server Reporting Services (In DB analytics services), Python Data Libraries, etc. Next in the series comes the information that we would be concluding, the analysis itself. There are three major categories of data analytics that businesses tend to work with and I will walk through all of them briefly in the below sections.
Descriptive Analytics
How the environment works, or has historically been working. This information helps in understanding the system and therefore can help in developing insights on how to improve it. Descriptive Analytics can take the form of simple aggregations or cross tabulations of data, simple statistical measures like means, medians, and standard deviations. At times it can also be used with more sophisticated statistics like distributions, confidence intervals and test of hypotheses or advanced association or clustering algorithms. Take an example of a cellphone operator like Vodafone, a descriptive analytics scenario could be determining why customers are leaving a certain mobile data plan and switching to others.
Predictive Analytics
Predictions help in finding something that has not occurred yet but has a high probability of occurrence. It often uses advanced algorithms like linear or logistic regression, neural networks, simulation techniques and tree based algorithms like random forests to bring a conclusion. Considering the above example of why people cancelled a data plan, predictive analytics could be used on the historical data to find who could cancel in the future, or what factors lead to a plan cancellation. This information can further be used to take measures to stop these factors from coming up and hence lower the rate of drop in customers.
Prescriptive Analytics
This comes as the ending of the process and explicitly links the analysis to decision making by providing recommendations on what can be done from the analysis to reach a certain outcome. All the three are linked together as they form a lifecycle of analysis events. From the above set of examples imagine we already know from the predictions made, what customers are going to discontinue the cellular plans from Vodafone. Prescriptive analytics can be used to identify those customers from the predictions that can be reached out to, with an agenda of making them stop before they end the plan. This needs to be a targeted approach in order to maximize the return on investment.
University of Maryland describes Business Analytics as a collection of concepts like statistics for data operations and visualization of the data for communication
Analytical Tools and Technologies
Now that we are versed with the forms that analytics can take it now comes down to the tools that we could use to make the above happen.
Data Storage- Storage in the analysis phase can be put into 2 categories, one being the source where all of the data exists. The source mostly has a lot of data in tremendous details and we might not need all of it for analysis hence comes the second division where we move only the data that is required for analysis and leave the rest out. We have come across terms like OLTP (Online Transactional Processing) and OLAP (Online Analytical Processing). These are broad categories of what capacities data storage systems contain. Both these systems are optimized for their individual tasks. It is generally a bad idea to perform operations right in the place where raw data is stored.
Big Data and cloud are increasingly being called together, but both are not really the same. Cloud is more to do with the platform where the analysis occurs, and big data tools on the other hand are used to analyze large amounts of stored data, streaming data, etc. but yet both these technologies occur without each other.
This gives an overview of how the cloud infrastructure holds together all parts of the data analysis process. Each of the tools that exist on the infrastructure have a separate set of languages to work with.
Virtualization- When we mention storing data and making it available for analytics, we generally refer to what is called ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) which as a process extracts data from one location, transforms the data in some way, and then loads the data into a new location. The general notion of analyzing data is that it is stored in a location (generally a disc storage) and is accessed from there for analysis, often leaving the portion that is not required behind in the disc. This has to do with the cost of computing resources, since ETL is a very processing intensive operation it is recommended that it be done in the background, in memory. Although if both the data access and processing could happen in memory things would be extremely fast, but there is a reason why your computer storage is in Terabytes and memory in Gigabytes and that is because memory is extremely costly. This is a concept that is manipulated by data virtualization where the sources of data are distant but it is made to look like all the data is in one place for access to the users, from one common interface. This gives an advantage that data need not be stored in two separate locations, one for storage and one for analysis. But again, if there is a requirement of high ETL processing, virtualization will not do the trick and it is advised to use the general old-school approach.
Data Federation- With data federation, not only do we make it look like data is in one place, but we actually fit that data into a common integrated data model. We perform all the same transformations and establish all the same relationships among data entities that we would do in a physical database, but we do it all virtually. That is, without ever actually moving the data. Of course, this comes at the cost of even more complex processing that can result in slower performance when data is accessed or extracted. Both data virtualization and data federation are usually accomplished using specialized software applications that connect to a variety of different source systems. While they eliminate the need to move data using ETL processes, they still require development and maintenance to establish those connections and present a unified view of data to users. It is somewhat similar to what we do with code in GIT. Both virtualization and federation are great when the amount of data and processing required is not very big. As the complexity of operations increases, both gradually become inefficient.
In-Memory and In-Database are options that will speed up the analytical operations and give results faster than the above mentioned options, but also they come with a higher cost of operation and management. Finally, a Relational Database is the most popular storage and analysis service used in the industry. An RDBMS application is used to manage these databases and they operate in a row-and-column approach with a strictly defined schema. Maintaining a schema has its advantages of keeping data intact, performing normalization that eliminates redundancy by ensuring that we store unique data only once versus multiple times.
Tools of a Data Analyst
I will bring this discussion to an end with the most exciting conversation — the analyst’s toolbox. Data Analysis is an evolving process and so are the tools we use day to day, they evolve every day and will continue to expand as the quantity of data increases. I have grouped these in 6 broad categories that will be a go-to for any analysis process. Let us see each one of these with brief details.
Database Systems: Create, maintain and extract data. Databases are primarily used for keeping an updated score of where and how the data is stored and to keep all of it located together. This embarks the start of any analysis journey. Examples could be SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL or some NoSQL systems like MongoDB. These are the skills you would need to start your analytical journey. Standard Reporting: These were the first ever reporting tools created. Stable repetitive use of data is presented using standardized reports and is meant for business stake holders. Automating generation of these reports periodically (monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, etc.) is something that a data analyst needs to know because many reports do not need specific tasks but just need updating, as and when new data arrives. These could include Power BI, Excel and others, although all of these tools are now much more advanced and can perform various complex tasks other than standard reporting. Dashboarding: It is a superset of standard reporting where from a large set of reports, the most important and relevant ones are pulled out, put into a visualization and then collectively presented on a web page or to a stake holder. This emphasizes on a concept called summary statistics where not everything is shown, but the most important parts are shown in a way that all the information is conveyed. Tools for Dashboarding are Tableau, Adobe Analytics (Report Builder), etc. Data Visualization: While we may or may not spend time developing reports or dashboards, the idea of data visualization is squarely within the domain of the data analyst. Visualization is the process of arranging data in such a way that we can more easily see what’s going on and draw conclusions based on what we see. It hides the complex algorithms running behind the scenes and shows data visually for building generalized conclusions. Some important skills to gather here are libraries in Python and R like Pandas, Matplotlib, Seaborn, ggplot and some standalone tools like Tableau, Power BI, Excel. Data Exploration: Data exploration is an intelligent extension of the idea of data visualization. Data exploration tools seek to proactively guide the data analyst by automatically scanning data and providing cues or suggestions on what thing the data analyst might look at next. Statistical Modelling & Advanced Programming: The last class of tools we talk about are modelling and programming tools which are the backbone of a data scientist’s work. These tools are used to execute highly sophisticated analytical procedures on data, often using statistical techniques.
This image from University of Colorado, Boulder explains perfectly the landscape of tools that are used for the various portions of a data analysis lifecycle.
Understanding the above image will make the entire process extremely simple. On the horizontal are the subjects of analysis mentioned above and from this horizontal up are the tools used for each of the processes. As we go vertically up the ladder, the cost of the tools and its complexity increases. Also, some tools have a horizontal span of more than one aspect, this states that those given tools can perform all the horizontals that they cover. For example, Excel is capable of doing reporting tasks, dashboarding, visualization, exploration and modelling. Similarly Power BI and Tableau can be used for dashboarding, visualization and exploration.
Approaches and Options to Data Analysis
Based on what environment and methodology you use, there are various approaches an analyst can take to derive to decisions. I will be discussing a few important derivates here:
Intermediate File Approach- This method relies on a complete file being transferred from the data source to the analytical tools, where the analysis will occur. This is best suited for data that is static and will not change over time and where a one time analysis is required on a very large dataset, usually an offline data source.
This is a consideration where a file is exported from a data storage and moved to a tool that will perform the analysis and reporting
This approach will not be ideal for live streaming data or constantly evolving data since transferring files to analytical tools might overlay the operation execution time and hence delay the entire process.
Direct Connection Approach- Here the tool is directly integrated with the database management system using an API or an ODBC connection string. These connection strings basically create a route for the data to be fetched by the analytical service engine and hence as the data in the source refreshes, it would automatically reflect in the API. Therefore, it can be used for evolving data and reduces the step of an external file creation.
All integration services occur in the database system
Although, it would require a connection setup and extraction of data without the connection (offline analysis) will be difficult to execute.
Downstream Integration Approach- It is quite often the case in data analytics that the information we need is located in a bunch of different locations and formats. While it would be nice to have everything on one warehouse, it doesn’t always make sense to spend the time and energy to put everything there prior to analysis. Especially if we’re not entirely sure those sources will turn out to be important.
Integrations happen directly on the analysis tools — this is helpful when more than one data sources exist and the upstream data is in varied formats
In cases like this we form a broader set of API and ODBC connections to the tool which is going to perform the analysis and operate all of them concurrently. We then use additional functionality in the tool to integrate the data from sources and construct the required dataset for analysis. This of course requires a higher quality toolset and lot of code to get along. Take an example of a Python script which connects data from SQL, Excel and CSV files and then forms a new data frame to perform analysis.
The Final Cut
Data Analysis and Reporting is a never ending process just like any other development task. Requirements are created, then the product is delivered. But with time the requirements keep evolving and the product continues to improve. What I have mentioned in this entire article is an overview for someone who is recently moving into the data analysis space and wants to know how the business aspect of projects function. I hope this gives you a fair picture of how things look from a business perspective. I will continue to author more stories and articles in this series with an aim to equip all data aspirants to stay hand-in-hand with business. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/a-business-approach-to-analysis-of-data-c16ba7dd60bb | ['Rahulraj Singh'] | 2020-06-28 16:20:29.600000+00:00 | ['Analytics', 'Business', 'Strategy', 'Data Science', 'Storytelling'] |
One way to instantly make your week more meaningful | ✨ Tip: Build your schedule around your “core desired feelings.”
If someone asked you what you have going on this week, you’d probably rattle off all the things you have to do. But what about all the ways you want to feel? On Medium, Kristin Wong makes a case for building your plans around your “core desired feelings,” or CDFs, a concept created by author Danielle LaPorte. The practice ensures that you’re not just checking off a list of tasks, but also feeling fulfilled. One of Wong’s CDFs is “awe”: “I’ve made a big list of activities that conjure that feeling: observe the moon through my telescope, go on a hike, take a road trip to the sequoias,” she writes. Each week, she goes through her list of activities related to her CDFs and puts a few of them on her schedule.
Give it a try. If your CDF is “connection,” you might schedule an evening walk with a neighbor. If your CDF is “energy,” perhaps you can plan a couple HIIT sessions before work. If your CDF is “space,” you might set aside an hour or two to take a long walk or stare aimlessly out the window. When you’re intentional with your time, what you’ll ultimately feel is better.
📅 More from Forge on optimizing your calendar:
How to Use Your Calendar to Make Every Day Your Ideal Day
Read more >>
8 Ways to Get Fresh Starts on Your Calendar
Read more >>
A New Way to Schedule Your Workweek
Read more >> | https://forge.medium.com/one-way-to-instantly-make-your-week-more-meaningful-28bd6eb3b228 | ['Michelle Woo'] | 2021-05-20 11:02:10.828000+00:00 | ['Intentions', 'Feelings', 'Meaning', 'Calendar', 'Values'] |
Ashokalypse Now! (Part II) | Rejected for Melinda Gates
So that night, I wanted to chill with Nadia, maybe get some dinner and catch up, when she tells me she can’t have dinner with me, because she’s gonna have dinner with Melinda Gates. Melinda… Gates? Yes, wife of Tech Emperor Bill Gates. And I was like, “GREAT! What time should I be ready?” And then she said the words that still echo sharp pains from my ears to my throat: “Uh… you weren’t invited. Who said you were invited?”
It’s probably revenge for the time I met Elijah Wood, took a picture with him with my best friend John, and we forgot to tell Nadia about it (see figure 1-a, below). So to get even, I took on the jerk kid brother role (even though I’m older), and I asked her, “You’re gonna wear that to dinner with Melinda Gates?”
It’s amazing how easy a question can make someone feel self conscious.
After three or four outfit changes I let her know the first one was just fine. Hey we’re siblings — that’s what we do!
Paul, John, Elijah, and not Nadia
Sad Self-realizations
Last tuesday, a week before yesterday, only two of the boys showed up, Nathan “J” and Kamau. Kamau showed up high as a kite, and was loud, and pretty damn obnoxious. A few days before he said he was robbed and needed clothes, and so we gave him 3 outfits, and turns out that it was a lie. And Father Moses knew he was lying but gave him the clothes anyway. This time he showed up high, and was making noise about him needing this and that, and all this self pity crap, when Elly threw him out and said “come back when you’re sober” and Kamau got it. He understood.
They think they’re clever, and I’m learning how to outwit them. Although, at this point they can easily have one up on me, but still, I’m learning the game. And I’m learning, when you don’t give them what they ask for, they may cry, and accuse you of hating them, but ultimately, they respect you more.
The way I look at it, if you treat them like a begger, i.e. respond to their begging by rewarding them with money, you become the provider and you create a parasitic system, and you rob these guys from their manhood and self-respect. These guys give me as much as they believe I give them, and they have to know that. We eat together every week, if they need to see a doctor, we make it happen. Most of the guys are okay, but guys like Kamau, will try to guilt you into giving him your watch, and when you refuse, the response is something like this: “It’s your fault i’m on the street” and the next day it’s all hugs and smiles, and simple questions like “HOW ARE YOU BROTHER“. Wait, I thought I hated them! ;)
So after we watched the movie, Nathan says to me “You will give me your phone? You are American, you can buy another one.”
Was he serious?
I know in this culture, people are blunt, but, come on now. “Brother, you will give me your phone. It is a nice one.” and I was like thinking “there’s no way I’m giving this guy my phone. Firstly, it was a gift from a friend to let me use while i was here, and secondly, money doesn’t grow on trees!”
For a moment, I felt kinda wronged, you know? Nathan was the one I was growing to trust, he never asked for anything, he always held his own. He had his own business going but here he is pulling the same stuff. Then he’s like “May I make a phonecall to my sister.” To which i was like “Sure” He pulled out his phone, which was a nicer phone than the one I had. It just had no credit on it. So after he was done with the phonecall, he gave me the phone back and I said “No, keep the phone.” I wanted to see if he was serious.
And he was like “Brother, no! I can’t keep your phone. I was only joking. You think I could really take your phone? Brother, no. I could not. Here take it.” And gave me the phone back.
It’s hard work getting used to another culture. I’ve mastered American sarcasm, but Kenyan sarcasm is way different, it’s undetectable by someone like me. I realized that I maybe I can be as judgmental as the next guy. It was like my cover was blown, and maybe I don’t see the guy completely as my equal. It was a cold shower, as they say. My friend Ashok reassured me that it’s just about getting used to the culture here, and to not beat myself up about it. I learned something very important, and my dealings with the guys have been very different since then.
I’m trusting them more. I’m learning their ways and they’re learning mine. We’re developing some great relationships now. Especially between Nathan and I, somehow after that interaction, we came to an understanding of each other. For me it was an understanding that he wasn’t so different from me: sarcastic, likes to push buttons, just a person.And for him, I felt like he was seeing that I wasn’t so different from him. That I wasn’t just a guy with lighter skin with, a walking American stereotype, no! I wasn’t that much different from him. Just a person.
He didn’t expect me to give him the phone, and I didn’t expect him to refuse it. Turns out that we all have our judgements of each other.
Ever see the movie, Crash? | https://medium.com/master-of-some/ashokalypse-now-part-ii-b225bb043b0a | ['Paul Kist'] | 2018-09-18 03:49:43.126000+00:00 | ['Elijah Wood', 'Kenya', 'This Happened To Me', 'Equality', 'Melinda Gates'] |
Your Kids Will Use Bitcoin Before You Do. Here’s Why. | Your Kids Will Use Bitcoin Before You Do. Here’s Why.
Global adoption will take some time. But don’t doubt it’s coming.
“Oh, it’s another Bitcoin piece. Y’know that magic internet money that’s probably a scam” you think to yourself.
Well, it’s true that Bitcoin is sometimes described as ‘Magic Internet Money,’ a phrase that was initially coined (pun intended) by Andreas Antonopoulos a few years ago in one of his famous ‘Introduction to Bitcoin’ talks. However, trying to get Bitcoin to stand up as a scam under examination is extremely difficult for the best of all reasons.
It isn’t.
However, it’s not my job to convince you on that point, there’s plenty of really good, solid information out there if you want to find it. In the end, your perception of it is not really relevant to where this technology is going and, as we’ll see in a moment, will almost certainly contribute to your kids being earlier adopters than you.
New ideas can be adopted quickly, but new concepts often take longer. Further, the bigger the concept, the more resistance there is and the longer adoption takes.
The internet is a great example of this and often quoted because it’s a revolution that occurred in living memory. We’ve now forgotten the resistance that existed at the time, the negativity, the fears, the doom mongering. Sure, some of those things were — and are — a problem, but would we really undo our dependence on the World Wide Web because of those things now? Of course not.
However, the internet is not the only example. Cars are another good one. When they were first introduced they were seen as no more than a passing fad due to their expense and unreliability and horses were considered a far superior form of transport. The resistance was high, daft laws were passed by governments to limit their use and, for a while, the negativity towards them would seem to indicate they would never see adoption.
Well, I don’t know about you, but I took a car to work this morning. And I didn’t see a single horse on the road.
And of course, there are hundreds of other examples in modern history.
Electricity, television, the telephone and even computers all had resistance to adoption for varying reasons in ways that seem ridiculous now with the benefit of hindsight. But we humans never really learn from the past, and continue to deride and mock the new concepts while they creep in and change the world anyway. It’s normal and it’s probably nothing that a few million years of evolution won’t take care of in due course.
Interesting, money itself has gone through more revolutions over human history than probably anything else. This too, is normal. From barter, to common medium of exchange to gold, to paper notes, to digital bank accounts and global banking, the changes have been enormous.
Each of those changes, however, were difficult to implement at the time and took many years to become the ‘norm’.
Imagine, for example, if you were a merchant in the ninth century and, when you arrived in dock with your ship full of spices or silks to sell to wholesalers, you were asked to accept a piece of paper instead of the usual gold pieces you were expecting.
Accepting this new ‘promissory note’ would be a significant leap of faith. You are told that you can take it to central, state owned repository and exchange it for gold when you’re ready. It saves you carrying the gold itself. However, you only know gold, your father and his father only knew gold, and the people around you are skeptical and urging you not to take it. It could be a scam. Are you really going to hand over your entire cargo for a bit of paper? The early adopters were brave indeed.
I use this example because it really demonstrates how far we’ve come in terms of financial transactions and just how ground breaking this concept was at the time. We’re almost certainly at the same point now with Bitcoin.
However, this time our horizons have broadened. There is instant, global communication and thousand of people working on new systems and solutions every day. And there is another important change — our kids already use and understand internet money better than us adults do.
This is quite the revelation. Traditionally change has been driven by a small group of people, a centralized body or even a single, highly dedicated individual who has the ability to inspire and lead. Whichever it was, they’ve pretty much always been ‘adults’. This time, although the concept was created by adults, true global adoption is more likely to come from the generation that is currently at school even while I’m typing.
There’s two main reasons for this.
First, as adults doing our day to day ‘grown up’ things, we already have bank accounts, property, bonds, savings, equities and pension funds. It’s all in dollars, pounds or whatever currency we use and we understand it.
Well, mostly anyway.
What need do we have for another currency despite the obvious advantages that Bitcoin — and some other cryptocurrencies — offer? Of course, there are many reasons in truth, but this initial obstacle and natural resistance to a new concept is the very point. Why change? Like the merchants with their cargo, why move to promissory notes when we have gold pieces? We tend to stay with what we like and feel safe with don’t we? Especially as we get older.
This can be demonstrated with a simple example. Outdated financial instruments such as cheques are still in use primarily because the oldest generation doesn’t feel confident enough to learn about online banking. Any and all attempts thus far to stop their use completely has resulted in a backlash from that community. It’s not that they are not capable — in most cases they are — they simply lack the desire.
However, the second reason is much bigger and much more powerful. Kids in the western world already use digital currency in vast numbers every single day. Not only that, they use currencies that ONLY exist in digital format and cannot be transferred into physical form.
Those currencies are in-game currencies such as V-Bucks (Fortnite), Robux (Roblox) or simply (virtual) gold in a whole host of multiplayer online games.
These currencies can earned for completing tasks and missions in games or simply purchased in exchange for ‘real world’ (i.e. fiat) dollars. They have no physical presence, but they have perceived value because the community ascribes it based on market forces. This mirrors the real world where any object can be used as money if enough people believe it has value, like cigarettes in prison, or, on a bigger scale, any fiat currency that exists today.
Yes, in case you missed the news bulletins of the last fifty years, our paper money is backed by exactly … nothing. Nothing except the perceived value ascribed to it by the masses.
The fact that these virtual currencies are only good for the worlds they were created in is entirely irrelevant to the user. After all, they have already made the decision to be part of that world, whether or not you or I necessarily understand it, and that currency cannot be drawn, transferred or turned into real world counterparts in most cases.
It can, however, be sent instantly to anyone anywhere in the world without restriction or intervention. It can be traded for virtual goods with the same freedom. The ‘on’ and ‘off’ ramps are simply the fiat-for-virtual currency exchanges that are usually built into the game.
In other words, this is ‘practice Bitcoin.’ True, it’s only being used in a virtual world in this sense, but this sets a precedent for this generation who are faced with growing up a a time when a global financial crisis is now inevitable, whether they’re aware of it or not.
And when this generation grows up and takes charge, they will already understand the concept of instant, border-less, digital money and its advantages over the ‘old’ system as they will inevitably see it. And they will undoubtedly prefer it.
And for the rest of us, we’ll eventually have to come round to their way of thinking. I have no doubt the unfolding and spreading of this new concept of purely digital maths based currencies will, like the internet, be one to tell your grand kids about, probably around the time when you put a few Satoshi aside for their birthday presents.
“I was there before Bitcoin” you’ll say.
“Yeah, yeah, granddad” they’ll reply “and I bet you’ll be telling me next you had to drive your car yourself too.”
You did, actually. And you even bought it with real, paper cash you could hold in your hand.
But on second thoughts they’d probably never believe you on THAT part. | https://medium.com/original-crypto-guy/your-kids-will-use-bitcoin-before-you-do-heres-why-37487d6d7722 | ['Jason Deane'] | 2020-06-09 12:13:13.276000+00:00 | ['Future', 'Economy', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Money', 'Bitcoin'] |
Empathy is not lost, we need to awaken and strengthen it to neutralize the ego separating us | Question from the Internet:
“Is empathy being evolved out of humans so that each generation has less and less?”
No, empathy is not “being evolved out of Humans”. We still have the ability for empathy. On the other hand, Human evolution is the chronicle of the ever-growing, insatiable Human ego.
Thus our egotistic, individualistic, narcissistic tendencies have intensified through millennia until our own generation when we have completely separated from each other, we do not even want to build families any longer, as each person only wants to serve, fulfill, love themselves — mostly at the expense of others.
We have become completely self-obsessed, our upbringing, education, and especially the societal influence drives us only towards self-fulfillment, self-protection, individual pursuit of happiness. As a result — seemingly paradoxically — we are becoming increasingly frustrated, unhappy, empty, depressed, we consume more and more addictive substances and dive into the brainless, aimless “circus and bread” entertainment — but nothing helps.
It is because deep down we are social creatures, we need empathy, mutual support, mutually complementing cooperation in order to survive — like cells of the same body. By our individualistic, egotistic, narcissistic drive we are literally killing ourselves like cancer!
This is why now Human survival — our collective survival since we cannot survive without each other — depends on a very special educational method, which can help us strengthen that long-forgotten empathy, inclination towards mutual connections, “love of others” in us. Only when such a mutually generated, methodically acquired empathy, love, brotherhood becomes strong enough to neutralize, complement the raging, self-destructive ego can we survive.
We cannot suppress or erase the ego, that is our all-powerful driving force. But we can learn how to harness, channel, direct it together towards positive, constructive goals, purposes. | https://medium.com/@samechphoto/empathy-is-not-lost-we-need-to-awaken-and-strengthen-it-to-neutralize-the-ego-separating-us-3947b9aeacf4 | ['Zsolt Hermann'] | 2020-12-20 18:10:20.321000+00:00 | ['Survival', 'Empathy', 'Ego', 'Education', 'Humanity'] |
OTT Trends | “55.1 million people are expected to chop the cord by 2022.” — eMarketer
OTT streaming services are attracting 71% of internet users which makes it almost urgent to take a position in integrated video platforms for distributing and monetizing original and curated content. With a ballooning content production, the organization of content both on the users’ end and back-end system should be the priority.
Global Media And Entertainment Trends
“33% of people watch online videos on a Smart TV with video-enabled apps and 23% use a video game console.” — Statista
But Why Are People Moving To OTT?
According to a study by Telaria and Adobe, people retain traditional screens to stream their favorite live sports, events, and news. But with telecom services like Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint rolling out 5G internet plans in the US, video OTT platforms now have the bandwidth to deliver UHD streaming for these niches too.
The global trends are pointing the same way.
The Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Budget for 2020 proposed to allocate Rs 6,000 crore for the BharatNet program which will be a shot in the arm for broadband connectivity, especially in the rural areas. While India is keen to welcome 5G, the task before the policymakers are to ensure that the telecom infrastructure and related technologies support its divergent demography, economic conditions, and shifting market trends. In response to the favorable technology and investment climate, platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney-owned Hotstar, and Zee5 are making a beeline to the Indian OTT video audience.
Data consumption has seen a steep rise within the last three years as a mirrored image of cheaper Internet data costs, says Amitabh Kant, CEO of the policy think factory NITI Aayog.
Subscription Fatigue
Global OTT revenues are predicted to succeed in $129 billion by 2023. Despite SVOD being the general streaming services trend, it is building up to a saturation point leading to a new phase in the Internet lexicon — Subscription Fatigue. People have finite entertainment budgets and SVOD services are easy to cancel. These factors make it more prone to churn.
‘47% folks consumers say they’re frustrated by the growing number of subscriptions and services required to observe what they need .’ Deloitte survey.
The OTT viewing trends are, nevertheless, more promising to commercials than Television viewers. The OTT platforms themselves allow advertisers to better target their ads to specific demographics or types of consumers who are likely to be interested in their products or services.
Latest Applications
The first experience of VR and AR was in gaming and entertainment. But research shows that the development of enterprise extended reality (ER) solutions is growing fast. 65% of the companies surveyed said they are working on industrial applications.
AR is ready to ascertain a 38% annual growth in healthcare by 2025.
Applications in healthcare are expected to ascertain many use cases in 2020.
Virtual reality (VR) has is being adopted in treating patients with phobias and anxiety disorders. Combined with biosensors to monitor physiological reactions like heart rate and perspiration, therapists can understand how patients react to stressful situations in a safe, virtual environment.
VR is additionally utilized in helping people diagnosed with autism develop social and communication skills. Patients with visual or cognitive impairments can also be diagnosed and treated.
Augmented Reality is often employed by surgeons within the theater and in training to alert them to risks or hazards while they’re working.
Global Vs Local Competition
If you think that the lion’s share is going to be retained by global OTT content providers, you’re pleasantly off the mark!
Indian music streaming services app company, Gaana has used a hyperlocal approach and competitive pricing to offer stiff competition to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Amazon music service. It draws 152 million monthly users, completely half of Spotify’s worldwide market share.
Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and Hulu are already in a race for market share. But now they need to also compete with Bollywood powerhouses who are luring users with almost free offers.
Hotstar built its base by streaming cricket matches. The Los Gatos, a California-based firm is proposing a mobile-only service at but half the standard subscription rate, and increasing expenses on local content quicker than in any other market.
Conclusion
The OTT landscape goes to be during a churn with the introduction of 5G internet and therefore the vistas that it exposes. While sustainability and margins are the proverbial elephants within the room, innovative services are pushing media and entertainment trends in favor of OTT streaming platforms.
Despite the multiple services available within the market, the video streaming market still has the capacity to soak up viewership. Breaking into the scene with a new video OTT platform is not as difficult as you imagine. Explore the way to build an OTT platform customized to grow your own brand. | https://medium.com/@shivani-dua17/ott-trends-a0dabe4cc4e8 | ['Shivani Dua'] | 2020-12-18 02:28:06.204000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Trends', 'Content Writing', 'OTT', 'Content'] |
Don’t Settle for Being An Ally. Be a Partner. | Don’t Settle for Being An Ally. Be a Partner.
In Uplift and Empower, I praise the “partnership model” as a higher quality of help when compared to the paternalistic policies that have dominated poverty alleviation work in the past. Although I wrote about partnerships, I didn’t spend as much time discussing what it means to be a partner. In this article, I’m going to draw an important distinction between being an ally and being a partner; but before I do that, I’ll be unpacking the two extremes within attitudes about poverty: toxic positivity and the spectacle of suffering.
Dr. Samara Quintero and Dr. Jamie Long, both practicing clinical psychologists at the Psychology Group, define toxic positivity as, “the excessive and ineffective overgeneralization of a happy, optimistic state across all situations.” Positivity itself isn’t harmful, but its excess can be dangerous and silence people’s lived experiences. Within the context of poverty alleviation, toxic positivity can look like minimizing the narratives of individuals living in poverty in favor of optimistic soundbites, shaming people who highlight anything other than a hopeful perspective, or falsely representing numbers to encourage generosity and optimism.
Toxic positivity makes ignoring the harsh realities of poverty more convenient and popular because it favors individual comfort over acknowledgment. As Dr. Quintero and Dr. Long share in their article, “By disallowing the existence of certain feelings, we fall into a state of denial and repressed emotions.” Toxic positivity is not only harmful to the individuals that are suppressing their true emotions, it is also harmful to the people around them and the communities their work influences.
We need to be more honest with ourselves and ask this crucial question: Is framing everything around “hope” a distraction from the issues at hand? Beyond that, why do we feel so uncomfortable thinking about global problems? I noticed this over the summer when the Black Lives Matter movement went through a surge of popularity globally. Despite the amplification of black voices and experiences, many people were still in denial about the persistence of racism in 2020. This denial of racism can be paralleled with a denial of human experiences outside of one’s understanding. It’s a helpful insight into why some people hold tightly to the ideals of toxic positivity in the face of human suffering. To break out of this harmful mindset requires engaging with people facing these problems and getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. No one can create sustainable solutions solely based on assumptions.
However, only focusing on negativity is not a useful answer to toxic positivity. When Hannah Arendt, a German political theorist, wrote about the “politics of pity” she differentiated between the “sufferer” and the “observer.” The physical distance between the two, especially in the context of modern media, creates what she defines as the “spectacle of suffering.” Professor Charlie Beckett at the London School of Economics describes this spectacle succinctly: “unfortunate people are observed by those who do not share their suffering, who do not experience it directly and who, as such, may be regarded as fortunate people.” Those fortunate individuals observe all of the hardships but are often not in a position to fix the problems they see. This distance leads to the mindset that nothing can be done.
We need to be more honest with ourselves and ask this crucial question: Is framing everything around “hope” a distraction from the issues at hand? Beyond that, why do we feel so uncomfortable thinking about global problems?
Despite more people being able to see extreme poverty on social media, in advertisements, and more, commonly believed stereotypes about the attitudes and opinions of people living in poverty have persisted. Observation and understanding are very different. More often than not, focusing on the suffering of poverty as a source of spectacle does nothing but maintain stark divides between income levels. In reflecting on this idea, I recalled my own experiences being referred to as an example of the “diversity” within a club or program. For me, it was never an empowering position to be in. I felt used, and it made me doubt my self-worth. Those emotions are the reason why exercises like the “privilege walk” are being exposed as unhelpful for the underprivileged. I even shared an example of that in Uplift and Empower. I participated in the exercise during a leadership program, and my lasting memory came from those who were behind me — the underprivileged. Nothing about who I saw in the front — the privileged — was surprising.
People living in extreme poverty should not be used as pawns to make donors feel guilty or to “open people’s eyes” to the horrors of poverty. Those kinds of actions make donors feel superior to recipients. This suppresses the very individuals who should be uplifted. People living in extreme poverty have opinions, perspectives, and ideas that should be valued and front-and-center in conversations that lead to real change and real poverty eradication. No amount of research in a comfortable classroom can make up for the lived experience of a person who struggles to survive daily — a person who doesn’t have a supervisor to call when an environment doesn’t feel safe or another country to flee to when there is civil unrest.
People living in extreme poverty have opinions, perspectives, and ideas that should be valued and front-and-center in conversations that lead to real change and real poverty eradication.
By now, after seeing decades’ worth of photographs, videos, documentaries, and more centered on poverty, we know what injustice and inequality look like. Continuing to exploit people’s lived experiences only serves the “observers” and distracts from the much-needed work of uplifting and empowering individuals suffering in extreme poverty.
Rather than succumbing to the pitfalls of toxic positivity or the spectacle of suffering, Dr. Quintero and Dr. Long suggest that we “aim for balance and the acceptance of both good and bad emotions rather than all-or-nothing thinking.” We need to be more open and truthful about the authentic experiences people face at every income level. Erasing narratives is just as unhelpful as exploiting them.
Reshaping conversations about a more balanced view requires thinking critically about who the “observers” are and who the “sufferers” are. In Uplift and Empower, I spent the majority of my time writing about the “sufferers”, the 700 million (and counting) people who are living in extreme poverty daily. Now, I’m going to write about the “observers.”
In May 2020, Dr. Robtel Neajai Pailey wrote an article called, “De-centering the ‘White Gaze’ of Development.” Her writing delves into the narratives that commonly shape international development. She calls attention to her professional experiences researching and working within the international development space and how they made her realize that “Africans have thoroughly internalized the ‘white gaze’ of development.”
What is the white gaze of development? Dr. Pailey describes it within the paper as such:
As an example of this concept, she noted how her white colleagues of similar experience and rank were able to self-promote themselves in the same organizations she worked in because, “the levers of power over development — be it in policy making, practice or scholarship — are still mostly controlled and sustained by white people.” Within the context of race, the demarcation between “observers” and “sufferers” is even starker. Westen whiteness is seen as superior to anything considered “other.” Even the words we use to describe the world are centered around this white gaze (e.g. the West and the rest, developed vs. developing, etc.) and the hierarchy is clear — white and Western ideas, scholars, and solutions are always valued over the voices of those facing the problems. As Dr. Pailey writes,
“Until we can come up with a new lexicon that recognizes the dignity and humanity of people of colour in the so-called global North and South, development will always suffer from a ‘white gaze’ problem…Until the identities of those who shape and control development discourse, policy and practice diversify, development will always suffer from a ‘white gaze’ problem…Until white development workers and scholars confront how they benefit from the racial hierarchies that underpin this field, and actively work to upend their unearned privilege, development will always suffer from a ‘white gaze’ problem.”
To reshape the narrative around poverty alleviation and poverty as a whole, we need to change who holds the pen and tells the stories in the first place. Allowing toxic positivity to cloud our judgment is willful ignorance. To distance yourself from the discomfort of poverty is to deny yourself the ability to address it. Poverty and discomfort are synonymous. It’s harder to pinpoint the cause if you’re unwilling to acknowledge it in the first place. Essentially, if you only focus on the glass half full, and never acknowledge the empty part, you’ll never think to pick up a water jug and fill the glass.
To distance yourself from the discomfort of poverty is to deny yourself the ability to address it.
So, how does this context relate to allyship or partnership? To be an ally is to be an advocate and a supporter. As an ally, a person can be a voice for the voiceless and use their privilege as a tool to uplift the underprivileged. However, allies (in their positions of privilege) can more easily succumb to the extremes within attitudes about poverty. When your core role is one of support and amplification, rather than collaboration, there’s an inherent separation from the issues at hand. You’re constantly reacting based on observations.
Rather than settling for allyship, I propose that people aim to become partners. In the business world, partners are “two or more individuals who share management and profits.” In the context of poverty alleviation, partnership looks like giving as a form of exchange. For example: offering someone living in poverty a job rather than a handout or investing in someone’s business, education, and skills training rather than settling for surface-level help. A partner is more likely to understand and react to the rationale behind the behavior and decision-making of their partners because they have a closer relationship.
To provide quality help to someone requires stepping outside of yourself, your experiences, and your limited perspective and pushing yourself to be in the other person’s shoes. As an illustrative example, consider the act of someone’s hand touching a stove. An ally would understand the stimulus (the stove) that caused the reaction (moving a hand). Meanwhile, a partner would understand the rationale (the heat) that led to the decision. Partners have a vested interest in the success of the individuals they work with because they benefit when their partner does. It’s a more active form of help that requires a higher investment of time, money, and energy; but it’s the future of poverty alleviation.
I’m not alone in my belief that partnerships are the key to substantive change. In Dr. Pailey’s aforementioned paper, she calls attention to Derrick A. Bell’s critique of American school desegregation after the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, she summarizes his argument as follows:
What has worked to improve the lives of people of color in the US could, and likely will be, applicable in the world of poverty alleviation. Real change will only occur when the interests of the “observers” and “sufferers” are aligned. Handouts aren’t profitable. When handled and structured properly, hand-ups (or rather) partnerships can be.
Now that you have this information to work with, consider what’s happening in your community. Based on the resources available, what could the rationale be behind the factors that maintain poverty? From there, you can consider how to effectively support the subsections of your community that need the most help. This reflection can and likely will lead to uncomfortable conversations that could intersect with race, country of origin, and more. You can’t single-handedly fix every problem in your community, but you can ensure that the people in your communities that need support have clear pathways to access it.
So, how can you uplift and empower someone today? | https://medium.com/@daniellehawatarigha/dont-settle-for-being-an-ally-be-a-partner-6cf49978e6f7 | ['Danielle Hawa Tarigha'] | 2020-12-19 21:08:37.395000+00:00 | ['Poverty', 'Allyship', 'Social Justice', 'Justice', 'Social Change'] |
Q:What can you do to keep the momentum after a meeting? You’ve already taken the time to meet. Don’t waste it by letting the meeting fizzle out at the end. Document key decisions, next steps, and… | Q:What can you do to keep the momentum after a meeting? You’ve already taken the time to meet. Don’t waste it by letting the meeting fizzle out at the end.
Document key decisions, next steps, and owners
Document and confirm key decisions, next steps, and task owners BEFORE you end the meeting.
Assuming that everyone is aligned, without confirmation, increases the likelihood you’ll lose momentum after the meeting.
Communicate outcomes
What did you accomplish during the meeting?
Sharing outcomes will help maintain momentum while increasing transparency and accountability.
Key takeaway | https://medium.com/@always4wrd/q-what-can-you-do-to-keep-the-momentum-after-a-meeting-a35f0f5bd2b3 | ['Roman Grant'] | 2020-12-11 04:51:10.268000+00:00 | ['Facilitation', 'Meetings', 'Communication', 'Leadership', 'Collaboration'] |
Deep Learning Based Emotion Recognition with PyTorch and TensorFlow | Deep Learning Based Emotion Recognition with PyTorch and TensorFlow
In this tutorial we are going to learn how to train deep neural networks, such as recurrent neural networks (RNNs), for addressing a natural language task known as emotion recognition.
In this tutorial we are going to learn how to train deep neural networks, such as recurrent neural networks (RNNs), for addressing a natural language task known as emotion recognition. We will cover everything you need to know to get started with NLP using deep learning frameworks such as TensorFlow and PyTorch. We will cover the common best practices, functionalities, and steps you need to understand the basics of TensorFlow’s and PyTorch’s APIs to build powerful predictive models via the computation graph. In the process of building our models, we will compare PyTorch and TensorFlow to let the learner appreciate the strengths of each tool.
Below is a clip demonstrating what the notebooks contains:
TensorFlow version (Colab Notebook | GitHub)
PyTorch version (Colab Notebook | GitHub) | https://medium.com/dair-ai/deep-learning-based-emotion-recognition-with-pytorch-and-tensorflow-61e831f72234 | [] | 2018-10-18 12:08:53.399000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Technology', 'Innovation', 'Deep Learning', 'NLP'] |
My Song of Myself | Who am I? Who am I?
I know who I am. I am you.
I know who I am. I am the sum
of all the experiences in my life,
all the minutes wasted away
playing games to battle boredom;
the books I’ve read, movies I watched;
dinners I cooked or enjoyed or both;
all the kilometers run and walked and biked
and driven in cars and trains listening to music
or the radio, yes the radio, the radio;
poems written, jobs done;
all the times we spent together, you and I.
I am all that. That and more. The sum of all that
made me who I am today and will make me
who I am tomorrow and the day after
and after and after.
Who am I? I am you.
For however much all my experiences
and minutes wasted away and all that,
made me who I am today, I am who you
see in me, what you see in me, what you see
when you see me.
You make me who I am, at least to you,
and because of that, I am
who you think I am,
because you see me
as you see me and that makes
me who I am. You.
Who am I?
I am I.
And who are you? | https://medium.com/the-pom/my-song-of-myself-912c7e7572bc | ['Arjan Tupan'] | 2020-07-19 07:14:09.107000+00:00 | ['Pomprompt', 'Poetry', 'Identity', 'Self', 'Personal Growth'] |
Women in Tech, Quantum Entanglement, and Spotting the Next Nikola | DDIntel | Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash
DDIntel newsletter for the week of September 28
DDI Writer Highlights
To potentially be featured in DDI Intel and on Datadriveninvestor.com, please submit with this form.
By Rodrigo Marino
Times of crisis don’t make an extraordinary entrepreneur less capable, and a product does not lose its technical quality. Therefore, the main variable changing and consequently impacting the investments and valuations is the market.
By Luka Beverin
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew struck Florida and inflicted 27 billion dollars worth in damage. As a result of the destruction, numerous insurance companies dissolved and went bankrupt after having to pay out an unanticipated amount of money to policyholders.
By Norbert Biedrzycki
The earth is sick, and the causes of its disease lie in our choices, our myopia, and our lack of imagination.
By Robert Locke
We all express fear, anger, and laughter by using facial expressions and other body movements. But these experts have gone way further and tied body language to what we actually say and how we say it.
By Marina Alamanou
When two particles — such as atoms, photons, or electrons — are entangled, they experience an inexplicable link that is maintained even if the particles are on the opposite sides of the universe, a million light-years away.
By Jim Katzaman
We all have a mental boardroom, and usually, there’s a hidden bigot at the table. | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/women-in-tech-quantum-entanglement-and-spotting-the-next-nikola-ddintel-ea0ea6e88ad8 | ['Justin Chan'] | 2020-09-28 15:34:37.871000+00:00 | ['Fintech', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Business', 'Blockchain', 'Technology'] |
Factors to consider when choosing an IOS development company | IOS development company
Regardless of your company type, either you are an SME, start-up, or an enterprise-grade organization. Getting the right partner for your company can help you get the customer base that you are targeting effectively. This article will help identify and hire the right technology partner that will give you the best intuitive and smart solutions that will reinvent your digital experience.
These are some tips to hire the right Apple iOS Development company to bring success to your business.
Excellent and brilliant technical knowledge
When searching for a mobile app developer, it doesn’t matter if it is for iOS or Android, the development team must have that expert domain knowledge and the relevant experience that will bring the best out of your app idea. The developers need to know the iOS technologies, frameworks like Swift, Objective C, Cocoa framework, XCode. They should also know the development tools. The developers need to have a passion for their work. When you have a passionate team, they will go above and beyond to get you extraordinary results.
Reputation should be strong in the marketplace.
What is the company profile, what is its background? You need to look into some questions before making a choice and investing in an app developing company. You need to have a good look at the company. Some of the things that can help you figure out the reputation of a company include:
The size of their employees
The year it was founded
Their portfolio
Their location
You need to know the company’s information; this will give you a good idea of the kind of reputation they have. You can also check for their ratings and also see the reviews they have in different places. It is a good way of filtering which company is the best iOS developer.
Check: outsource iPhone development
They have a specialized team for iOS development.
When it comes to developing and certifying iOS apps, it is more expensive than Android. It goes the same for the developers. When looking for an app developer for your iOS, you need to inquire if they have a dedicated team dedicated to iOS development. It is because you need a company that can seamlessly handle your project. To make a better decision, you can decide to interview some of the members of the team. Another way to do this is by checking on the company’s portfolio to see the kind of work they have done on top of the development team. You need to check on other team members that include the developers, managers, designers, and testers. It is to ensure that you will get quality and your project will be delivered on time.
Check: hire iPhone app developer India
The development process is agile.
To have complete client satisfaction, many app development companies follow the agile methodology. During the development, the team allows any changes to the requirements even if it is in the late development stages. It is because they are trying to improve on the quality that the end product will be. Scrums happening daily will ensure that the tasks get a complete overview of the process of development. The best designs and architecture and design happen when communication gaps are eliminated.
Development quotes provided in advance
It is essential for a discussion on the cost of the iOS app development. All the details need to be given before the final contract is signed. Nowadays, many companies offer a cost calculator for apps, which provides you with an estimate of the cost. It is reliable, and it gives you an idea of the cost when you are talking to your team about your idea. What is needed is a few details on the requirements of your business. And in a couple of minutes, you will get a reliably estimated budget.
Check: app development cost in India
Use of the right tools
Many technologies, frameworks, and tools are usually used in the processing of developing apps. Objective C and Swift are the major programming languages used in app development. When looking for a reliable app developer for iOS, they need to be using the latest tools. They should also be able to update trends and beat their competition. When choosing what to use for your project, the company needs to guide you to choose the best technology. They should also ensure that your project gets great ROI results.
When choosing an iOS app developer, you can use these tips, but it is not fool-proof to ensure that your iOS developer will be splendid. But you can avoid some mistakes if you choose a better company to determine future success.
Mistakes that you need to avoid choosing a company to develop your iOS Application
The deciding parameter should not be the cost only.
Cost is a very important factor when choosing a company to develop your iOS app. However, it should not be the only factor that you use to choose the company that will develop the app for it. If you go for a less priced option, you can settle for an option that will give you a product that has bugs and fails to meet the need you want for your business or customers. Use your budget, but make sure you use it wisely to get better results.
Confidentiality Needs shouldn’t be forgotten.
For your development project, you should never underestimate the NDA and confidentiality power. If the company you are looking at is a bit hesitant about signing the Non-disclosure agreement, be reluctant to go for them. Having an NDA helps you protect the business ideas that you have. Additionally, for any project, documentation is necessary. This documentation includes everything that has been agreed on mutually. Having this documentation will also help in clarity on the cost implications of development. This documentation is also helpful if the need for modification of the process arises at the project’s second developmental stage.
Understand the importance of GDPR compliance
When you sign the general data protection regulation (GDPR), it improves the protection of data. The GDPR keeps the app development companies to be accountable. It also helps to have more consumer-friendly wording around the terms and conditions of privacy. When you have signed the GDPR, you have complete transparency of the company’s privacy policy. It means that you have significant measures that will protect the user’s data.
Conclusion
When you choose an IOS development company for your iOS app, your project’s success depends on the company you choose to build your app. The tips shared above ensure that you are more vigilant when looking for the right company. When Looking for that development agency for your app, pay attention to every detail to ensure that you have made the right decision in the end.
For more information about iOS development feel free to contact AalphaAlso check: Cost of hiring an iOS game developer | https://medium.com/@aalphaindia/factors-to-consider-when-choosing-an-ios-development-company-1fc9a4f59897 | ['Aalpha Information Systems India Pvt. Ltd.'] | 2021-01-25 07:32:12.436000+00:00 | ['Ios Development Company', 'iOS Apps', 'iOS App Development', 'Ios Development', 'Ios Development Services'] |
Morche ki Zabardasti Khamoshi | Morche ki Zabardasti Khamoshi
Understanding student protests in India and the role of universities in setting the foundations for democracy in conversation with Younus Nomani, a student at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, who was directly involved in a university protest
Younus points out that “The institutional means of complaint are of no use. For example, a complaint was filed against the HOD. The very next day he pointed out that he knows who complained and what was in that complaint. Wherever you go, whatever you do, it will all come under my table and you will suffer.”
Courtesy of Younus Nomani (https://instagram.com/aint_got_no_mani?igshid=14a9syidm6s2q)
A college is a place wherein people expect to create memories, form relationships, and garner diverse perspectives that define their experience and set precedents for their future. As a college student currently in that space and having studied in two different colleges, I have said or often heard my peers say ‘this place is horrible’. Usually, such complaints were backed by people calling for some sort of a protest, in confidence with their friends. A conversation that erupted out of frustration has now taken the shape of a protest.
A protest is a portrayal of anger, frustration, and support regarding the functioning or decisions taken by an organization or an individual. A peaceful protest is a symbol of democracy, wherein you question the authority of the college and make your demands heard. Students across India have taken to peaceful protests. In recent months students across India in various colleges have protested for their concerns regarding the institution, supporting their peers who were wronged and making their dissatisfaction heard.
Army Institute of Law, Mohali, has recently seen a wave of protests initiated by the students. On October 16th, 2019, the students went on a protest regarding the substandard functioning of the institute. The administration had not been responding to the pleas and grievances of the student community. Their demands included the right to contesting elections for student council, better teaching facility, a more transparent system, and also the redressal of accounts of sexism on campus.
According to an article published by Live Wire, the institute in its Student Code of Conduct states that the collective air of grievances by the students is not allowed. The protest lasted for four days until the students, due to pressure from the administration, had to halt their protest. The administration started sending out emails to the parents of the students who participated in the protest. The administration did not budge, the students felt helpless and hence the protest came to an end.
Delhi University, a collegiate of universities, over the span of two months has witnessed protests on various campuses. In Deen Dayal Upadhya College, the students gathered to protest against the lack of facilities provided: the Wi-Fi had been out of service since the commencement of the academic year, the drinking water had allegedly been the cause of people falling sick, and they had asked the administration to check into this but had received no response. The students were also fighting for their rights as residents of the college hostel to have extended curfews and library timings.
In some Universities, faculties have come out in support of their students. At Delhi University, the All India Students Association garnered the support of students and teachers regarding the syllabus row. According to an article by The Hindu, the students believed that a protest was mandatory to save the democratization of academia.
Jamia Millia Islamia students went on a strike on October 14th to stand in solidarity with students who were issued a notice on October 5th. The notice was against Israeli participation in an international conference called Global Health Zenith Confluence of 2019. While demonstrating a peaceful protest, the students were attacked, beaten up, and the parents received a call informing them about the ‘goon’-like behavior of their wards.
Younus Nomani, a student at Jamia Millia Islamia, states that the protests that had taken place earlier this year were to underscore the “illegitimate activities performed by the Head of the Department of Applied Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts.” He claims that the HOD’s behaviour is fascist in nature, with accusations including the sexual harassment of students, discrimination based on their backgrounds, unfair grading, threatening students, as well as surveillance abuse, are being levied against the HOD.
Protests across institutions are always shunned upon. Students are not allowed to express their concerns in this manner. The way these protests are handled by universities is quite surprising. This begs the question: what is a university meant to be? What is the place of a university in our society?
Universities are spaces where people from various fields are given opportunities to learn and understand the world around them. To do so, they need to provide them with tools that will help absorb the situation of society. The understanding of a political system by a student who may not hail from a political studies background would help them make an informed choice. No one is apolitical; politics play an important role in every college. Students need to understand their rights and how to get their demands met. The universities, in reality, do not provide a democratic system to the students. An authoritarian regime is established by the institutions whose objective is to shatter the cohesion of the students. They are afraid to lose control over the administration to the students. Often citing disciplinary actions, rules, and regulations, they claim that such actions will affect the reputation of the university.
The primary way to depoliticize students in college is to isolate them from one another, increase their workload, and create a sense of differentiation so that the students are suppressed and have no understanding of what is happening around them. There is a constant silencing of students and they are stopped from letting their voices and concerns be heard. What are the students to do? How are they supposed to tackle such situations?
Younus Nomani, who has taken part in the protests at Jamia, says, “In a democracy, it is very important to raise one’s voice, especially in educational institutions. Students in educational institutions do not love protests. There is no fun or joy in doing that. We do it because our helpless situations and unfair treatment lead to that. Admin very easily says that these protests are invoked or inspired by a political organization or any teacher for their personal benefit or motive, but they refuse to believe that it is their own negligence and ignorance because of which these situations come up.”
Courtesy of Younus Nomani (https://instagram.com/aint_got_no_mani?igshid=14a9syidm6s2q)
The administration needs to take responsibility and not threaten the students. In many colleges, the administration asks the students to file complaints and their concerns will be looked into. The process is a tedious one, often with no results or with further backlash.
Younus points out that “The institutional means of complaint are of no use. For example, a complaint was filed against the HOD. The very next day he pointed out that he knows who complained and what was in that complaint. Wherever you go, whatever you do, it will all come under my table and you will suffer. The institutional means of complaint are done to the ICC or the Registrar, but they have always been against the students in most of the cases. Like in our case we reached out to the Registrar who responded by asking us to forget all the mess happenings and look for a better tomorrow. The sexual harassment complainants were also marked as lairs and fake. They were told that they produced these stories for their personal good. These incidents are nothing of what the student face in educational institutes.”
In situations like these, how does one not protest? The colleges are so afraid of protests as they fear that they might lose control over the institution, and the name and publicity of the university may come under threat. Collective voices of students can challenge the working of the institution.
Younus states, “Colleges are against student protests because protests have the power to bring out the culprits into the light; they have the power to ask the administration to run in an effective and active way, and protests disturb the sleeping admin. Protests often lead to widespread media coverage, telling everyone how the college is behaving, which is exactly what they are scared of.”
How should these protests be handled by the universities? There is a need for the Vice-Chancellor or administration to come out and talk to the students. The system needs to be made more transparent. If the students choose to protest they should be allowed to do so. A peaceful protest is a democratic right, especially in a democratic country like India. Where we train the future of this political system, we need to allow them to express themselves in a peaceful manner. The constant suppression and dominance of authority are simply crumbling the political system we stand on. Private and public institutions both should be open to considering the students’ grievances and understanding that the students are the crux of the university and they have a right to demand basic necessities.
Institutions mould the future of a country, and it is their responsibility to help them grow. In a country like India that has a democratic system in place, universities are paradoxically dictatorial in nature. The idea of a peaceful protest makes the authorities uncomfortable as they believe that they will lose control of their system. Hence, they call parents, use violent means, send notices, and make their protests uncomfortable by shining the streetlights on the groups of students, never letting the students have a voice of their own. So, by curbing their right to protest, to question, to bring their fellow students to justice, are they really shaping the future of a democratic country? Are they fulfilling their role? And are they handling it the best way possible? | https://medium.com/thecontextmag/morche-ki-zabardasti-khamoshi-808bf95d75f | ['Shristi Chhajer'] | 2019-12-10 13:34:27.104000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'University', 'College', 'Democracy', 'Student Protest'] |
The Most Potent Antidote to Human Suffering | “True happiness is to enjoy the present without anxious dependance upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”
-Seneca
Life is struggle. Life is struggle cloaked as a game, it is cloaked as such in order to help us organize ourselves better. For humans strive more on structure less on abstraction. We come up with rules and laws, and stages and prizes in order to create a more manageable version of reality and forget the struggle that engulfs it. We become part of a perennial game of adaptation that attempts to aliviate that struggle. Throughout that game we encounter different players that try to tear our inner world apart while we battle into establish balance. For balance seems to be according to our senses the state we seek, the state we demand, the state we desire. Balance will always be the end goal for human kind. It is a long and perilous journey that oscillates between chaos and boredom. But it seems that we are on the right track to reach that state. The when is irrelevant. What is relevant though, is the how and the why.
What constitutes self-transcendence?
Self transcendence is the answer to every question you might seek that is connected to your search for inner purpose and balance. Self-transcendence is the core vision every human ought to have in order to explain his or her role in this world. Whether this is manifested via a religious approach, a spiritual approach or a materialist approach is not of importance.
The reality that is brought to the table by our ability to keep pushing the envelope of our systems and our desire to transcend our human condition is the gist of this idea. This is the reason why the personal development movement has been gaining so much steam over the years and keeps growing in an unprecedented way. The need for every human that walks this planet to escape the fragility of this existence and become a higher conscious being will never fall out of fashion because it is inexplicably bound to the core of our paradigm. Philosophers, thinker and spiritual leaders and every agent that strives to add another brick in the wall of self-transcendence is at the epicenter of this verity. That´s why we follow them, that´s why we admire them, that´s why we listen to them. This is one of the biggest truths that you will ever encounter and one you should examine with enormous care.
What constitutes prosaic views?
The ultimate version of a person is their ability to speak the truth. The truth mainly about themselves but also in a broader sense, the moral truth and the scientific truth. Morality and science are two terms that have been flirting dangerously with each other since the beginning of the scientific revolution, but never really succeeded in merging or evolving together. There are instances of hope throughout history which indicate that we will eventually find a way to create a universal moral framework, free from religion, that draws depth from scientific facts, but this framework is still in the making and it will probably take monumental events in order to be formulated. Throughout that process however we are able to discover glimpses of what such a framework should look like. We are all humans and our capacity to understand right from wrong, and moral from immoral is expressed by our ability to seek cooperation and justice from a very young age. Mainly through play. This gift so to speak allows us to build variations of play as we grow older and the rules embedded in the various “games” we create help us assemble a version of reality that is more manageable and more relevant towards our needs. The rules and the games are never perfect. They are just there to remind us that we need them and that we constantly have to adapt them and re-engineer them. This is the substrate of our evolution what allowed our species to survive and thrive. Unfortunately this idea is arcane and unknown for most people, either because of lack of proper education or because of a proclivity towards ignorance and a general rejection of truth. Most people will cling to a very trivial and often times dangerous interpretation of reality that will serve only their personal, short term needs. Since the ancient times people have been facing the ramifications of that situation and have been trying to come up with solutions to this daunting conundrum. Usually, a head on approach would result in friction and would create even more tension to the already capricious nature of our relationships. So the wises among us realize our limitations and proposed philosophies that would allow the thinking human to discover and intellectual solace. Stoicism is a philosophy so potent that it has withstood the test of time. And it has of late, become one of the most pertinent antidotes to the lack of control we experience while we attempt to enhance most aspects of our lives. In Senecas creations there is a clear attempt to empower the individual narrative through a belief in virtue, presence, patience and embrace of the human struggle as an inevitable and much-needed tenet of life. True happiness is to enjoy the present without anxious dependance upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not. What Stoic philosopher Seneca has told us makes us feel humbled and empowered at the same time. Take this simple but yet profound statement for instance. All cruelty springs from weakness. Weakness is dangerous because usually weakness can lead to cruelty. It is because of cruelty that we engage in unmoral and atrocious acts. It is because of weakness that we fail to establish an accepted set of rules in our relationships that can help them prosper. It is because of weakness that we fail to see our own weaknesses and stay trapped in a distorted version of reality that propels us towards misery and distress. Seneca could see through this cruelty and understand that weakness is the source of it. A strong character is only cruel when cruelty is inflicted upon them. Strength of character demands resilience towards weak views, an appreciation of life and a responsibility towards people who admire you, a constant fight to achieve self ownership. This is what Stoic philosopher Seneca fought for. Stoicism is not just the quotes you will find on the Internet nowadays. It is actually the most potent antidote to human suffering and a philosophy that, if understood deeply, can transform your life in monumental ways. There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things that are beyond the power of our will. Man is not worried by a real problem so much as his imagined anxiety about real problems.
“Philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for man, otherwise it would be admitting something that lies beyond its proper subject-matter. For as the material of the carpenter is wood, and that of the statuary bronze, so the subject-matter of the art of living is each person´s own life.” -Epictetus
One can easily see how Epictetus main concern was how to adopt an intellectual framework that will allow the individual to unshackle himself from the limits that our problematic relationships create. Epictetus was a firm believer of the fact that an individual can only be free if he frees himself from his limiting beliefs and also his addiction to the opinions of others. He was one of the first to see that there is a way to be in control, in so far as one can control only the things that are within his control. Opinions, perceptions, views, beliefs, stories, are all manifestations of how our mind adapt to the stimuli of the environment. Sometimes they are true and sometimes they are untrue. One can´t control the extent to which truth is being spoken by others. But one can certainly control the extent to which he speaks the truth and how one reacts and perceives the truths and untruths spoken by others.
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it: and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
“It is not death that man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
-Marcus Aurelius
Grasping the sincerity of these words by Marcus Aurelius will bring among us a subtle yet immense feeling of positivity encompassing his views and also one of the reasons his dictums have been more powerful than any other Stoic philosopher. There is enough ugliness and adversity in this world to make us feel demotivated in perpetuity. Choosing not to focus on the ugliness but on the beauty and not on the adversity but on the blessings. This was Marcus Aurelius tools for battling demotivation. Individuals can act in any way they find plausible, and this allows them to accrue benefits or to suffer the consequences depending on the circumstances. The responsibility that our actions necessitate is the only true weapon we can exploit in order to antagonize the nefariousness of the world around us. Marcus Aurelius realized the power of that weapon and that helped him become and exemplary emperor despite his weaknesses. This is why stoicism has the power to monumentally change your life, and start to introduce a new lens of reality where you can truly find happiness. | https://medium.com/@pacochavez0/the-most-potent-antidote-to-human-suffering-34526d0d6618 | ['Paco Chávez'] | 2020-12-16 17:35:09.551000+00:00 | ['Stoicism', 'Transcendence', 'Self Improvement', 'Happiness'] |
Now, More Than Ever: Supply Chain Security — Unpacking The CMMC With Katie Arrington And Yolanda Craig | It should be evident by now that Information security should be a core value to any organization — and even more so for those that interact with government entities — and furthermore for those that operate within the government defense space.
It’s easy to say. But even for those that want to honestly act on this objective, how can they make “this” actually happen?
Good question indeed. This is precisely the one we are going to try to answer in this podcast.
Organizations can meet the letter of the law, or regulation, or standard. Checkbox process — done.
They can bring it to the front of the process and perform a risk assessment. Scenario documentation — done.
But what about the middle bit where a lot of the critical thinking takes place and where the controls get defined; where the organization not only claims they “take security seriously” but can also prove it?
How does an organization bridge this gap in a way that actually addresses the risk throughout the government’s entire supply chain?
This is where the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) comes into play. And looking at the most recent events, evidently, not a moment too soon.
Now it is the time to go ahead and learn what the CMMC is.
From the CMMC site:
The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (OUSD(A&S)) recognizes that security is foundational to acquisition and should not be traded along with cost, schedule, and performance moving forward. The Department is committed to working with the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) sector to enhance the protection of controlled unclassified information (CUI) within the supply chain.
OUSD(A&S), working with DoD stakeholders, University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs), Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC), and industry, developed the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) framework.
The CMMC will review and combine various cybersecurity standards and best practices and map these controls and processes across several maturity levels that range from basic cyber hygiene to advanced. For a given CMMC level, the associated controls and processes, when implemented, will reduce risk against a specific set of cyber threats.
The CMMC effort builds upon existing regulation (DFARS 252.204–7012) that is based on trust by adding a verification component with respect to cybersecurity requirements.
The goal is for CMMC to be cost-effective and affordable for small businesses to implement at the lower CMMC levels.
Authorized and accredited CMMC Third Party Assessment Organizations (C3PAOs) will conduct assessments and issue CMMC certificates to Defense Industrial Base (DIB) companies at the appropriate level.
This text above provides a decent overview. But you likely have some questions. If you want to learn more about CMMC, DFARS, C3PAOs, and DIB; and, if you want to hear how CMMC and NIST connect together; and, if you want to hear how the CMMC can be leveraged to improve (and demonstrate) your organization’s cybersecurity posture, then this episode is for you.
I had the distinct honor of bringing together two industry leaders that know the CMMC inside and out: Katie Arrington, CISO A&S at United States Department of Defense responsible for bringing the CMMC to light; and Yolanda Craig, a former manager of Cyber Information Technology) at the US DoD and now helping government contractors be cyber-ready.
This happens to be a very timely discussion given the recent cyber revelations for the American government supply chain. I would encourage EVERY organization (not just those supplying the government with products and services) to listen to this episode.
Now, more than ever, we need supply chain security. Now, more than ever, knowledge is power. Grab some here and share with far and wide.
Guest(s)
Katie Arrington, CISO A&S at United States Department of Defense
Yolanda Craig, VP, Cyber Strategy, Everwatch Solutions | Former Manager (Cyber Information Technology), US DoD
This Episode’s Sponsors:
Nintex: https://itspm.ag/itspntweb
Imperva: https://itspm.ag/imperva277117988
RSA Security: https://itspm.ag/itsprsaweb
Resources
CMMC: https://www.acq.osd.mil/cmmc/index.html
CMMC Accreditation Body: https://www.cmmcab.org/
CMMC Assessment Guide: https://www.acq.osd.mil/cmmc/draft.html
To see and hear more Redefining Security content on ITSPmagazine, visit:
https://www.itspmagazine.com/redefining-security
Are you interested in sponsoring an ITSPmagazine Channel?
https://www.itspmagazine.com/podcast-series-sponsorships | https://medium.com/itspmagazine/now-more-than-ever-supply-chain-security-unpacking-the-cmmc-with-katie-arrington-and-yolanda-37c3547fb295 | ['Itspmagazine Podcast'] | 2020-12-21 15:57:02.838000+00:00 | ['Government', 'Hacking', 'Supply Chain', 'Cybersecurity', 'Technology'] |
Biden Won’t Get some information about a Tracker Test, Assistant Says | President-elect Joe Biden hasn’t settled on a choice on who to select as principal legal officer, yet won’t get some information about a test of his child Tracker, a representative said.
Jen Psaki, who’ll fill in as press secretary in the Biden White House, told “Fox News Sunday” that Biden’s thoughts are continuous, yet that he won’t get some information about the issue, either prior to making a pick or once a principal legal officer gets to work.
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“He won’t examine an examination of his child with any head legal officer up-and-comers — he won’t talk about it with anybody he is thinking about for the job, and he won’t examine it with a future principal legal officer,” Psaki said.
“It will be up to the domain of a future principal legal officer in his organization to decide how to deal with any examination,” she added.
Tracker Biden said recently that he’s confronting a government examination concerning his assessments after his unfamiliar professional interactions turned into a glimmer point in the 2020 official mission.
President Donald Trump has over and again requested investigations into Tracker Biden, and some conservative administrators, including Senate Legal executive Council Director Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have required the arrangement of a unique advice.
In a meeting with CBS late-night have Stephen Colbert on Thursday, Joe Biden said he accepted endeavors to utilize his child as a political club added up to “unfairness.”
“We have extraordinary trust in our child,” Biden said. “I’m not worried about any allegations that have been made against him, it’s utilized to get me. I believe it’s sort of unfairness yet — look, what will be will be.”
Cloud Weavers Biden Administration With Child Under Criminal Test
The tests incorporate one drove by the Delaware U.S. Lawyer’s office into whether Tracker Biden abused expense laws, and another by the U.S. Lawyer for the Western Region of Pennsylvania concerning his exercises in Ukraine and potential tax evasion, as per an individual acquainted with the issue who examined the delicate request on state of namelessness. In any event one of the tests has been continuous since 2018, a third individual said.
Principal legal officer is the remainder of the four most prominent bureau portfolios for Biden to grant. The progress has likewise yet to declare its picks for secretaries of business, work and schooling. “We have a couple of additional to go,” Psaki said. | https://medium.com/@daimon_55713/biden-wont-get-some-information-about-a-tracker-test-assistant-says-427caf22d8e2 | [] | 2020-12-20 15:40:40.984000+00:00 | ['Biden', 'Tracker', 'Information', 'Won'] |
How to Maintain a State of Creative ‘Flow’ | Josh Waitzkin, chess prodigy and author of The Art Of Learning, once described a conversation he had with skiing legend Billy Kidd, in which he asked Kidd about the three most important turns on a ski run:
… the three most important turns of the ski run are the last three before you get on the lift. And it’s a subtle point. That’s when the slope is leveled off, there’s less challenge. Most people are very sloppy. They’re taking the weight off the muscles they’ve been using. They have bad form. The problem with that is that on the lift ride up, they’re unconsciously internalizing bad body mechanics. As Billy points out, if your last three turns are precise, you’re internalizing precision on the lift ride up.
And so it goes with flow. When we walk away from our work drained, dazed, and confused, we internalize those feelings. That all-nighter where you worked until you literally couldn’t anymore? It may have yielded production, but the brain drain you felt when you walked away followed you back to your desk the next day.
The bitter gambler will always tell you the same story, “If it wasn’t for that last hand, I’d be rich!” But the gambler who laughs all the way home after doubling her money knows it’s because she walked away before her luck ran out.
Hemingway knew that flow wasn’t a ghost to be strangled to death on every chance encounter. He walked away from his typewriter while he still had gas in the tank and inspiration on his side.
Many artists and entrepreneurs think of beating their head against the wall in search of inspiration as a rite of passage. But Hemingway never allowed those feelings to enter his workspace. He walked away long before those feelings of brain drain could be internalized. This helped him return to his work knowing exactly where to start again.
I always worked until I had something done, and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day. —Ernest Hemingway
There is still a strong undercurrent in our society, particularly amongst entrepreneurs, that continues to celebrate and glamorize the grind. Just like with conversations around how much sleep is best to have each night, there is an unspoken competition around who can stay in the pressure cooker, working the longest and the hardest.
But anyone can learn how to outlast the others. The real discipline comes from walking away before you’re cooked. It takes a cool, Hemingway-like confidence to tell the muses, “We’ve worked enough today. I’m sure I’ll see you around tomorrow.”
So the question remains, for athletes, creatives, writers, producers, and thinkers alike: When you find your flow today, will you have the discipline to walk away before it’s all gone? | https://medium.com/s/story/how-to-master-the-flow-state-one-simple-yet-difficult-trick-56854fca9109 | ['Corey Mccomb'] | 2018-09-11 20:19:01.331000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Inspiration', 'Personal Development', 'Creativity', 'Productivity'] |
Deloitte’s Kwasi Mitchell: “Here are five ways that increased diversity can increase a company’s… | Thank you so much for joining us Kwasi! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
My journey — and identity — is so much more than someone who made principal after humbled beginnings. What my “backstory” is really centered on are the lessons my mother and grandmother instilled in me, not only through their words, but by their actions as well. My mother’s huge heart never found someone she didn’t want to help, and my grandmother was an activist and active member of the NAACP in the 1970s. The three areas they drove home were:
1. Focus on education, schooling betters one’s self.
2. Contribute to society, actively shape and make the world a better place.
3. Be grounded in a value system; there are fundamental things that are right and wrong. Work to ensure that you are transparent, fair, and equitable in how you treat people.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
The most seminal point in my career was when I realized I could ask leaders to be my career sponsors. I was a manager in Deloitte’s federal practice and was told to prepare for becoming a senior manager at an accelerated pace. This was completely unexpected and not something I was asking for. However, I took all the necessary steps, including preparing and presenting in front of a team of leaders. I later received the call that I was not going to be promoted. I was disappointed, but also felt I needed more information. I wanted to know what I needed to do over the next year to arrive at a different result. I had dinner with Dan Helfrich, who is now the Deloitte Consulting LLP CEO, and another senior partner. They gave me the feedback I needed and let me know I was on the right path. It was at this dinner that I spoke up and asked them to be my career sponsors and advocate for me if I delivered on what was being asked. This symbiotic relationship is what accelerated my career well beyond the promotion to senior manager.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Deloitte Consulting LLP is very complex, from the scope of services we offer to our geographic reach, but what makes the organization truly impressive is our ability to prioritize and drive diversity and inclusion efforts forward, despite our size and complexity. We understand diversity and inclusion is for everyone, by everyone. It’s a journey that must be a daily focus for our people and leadership team alike. That’s why we embed diversity and inclusion throughout the talent lifecycle — from recruitment to development programs to advancement, and beyond. We also take a forward-looking approach that includes strong programming, future leader succession planning, etc. to help transform our organization from the inside out.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
Yes. I have recently taken ownership of leading our pro bono and skills-based volunteering (SBV) efforts in addition to diversity and inclusion. We are beginning to explore how our practitioners can enhance their inclusive leadership skills while supporting nonprofits through pro bono and SBV. We know that connecting pro bono/SBV and inclusion is powerful — it can provide leadership development, recruiting, well-being, and retention opportunities. But we need to also deepen our understanding of how to link these activities, how to measure the impact, how the combination can advance careers, etc. It’s truly an exciting project that will lead to a more inclusive culture within our organization and beyond.
What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders to help their employees to thrive?
My best advice? Take a step back and look at the talent lifecycle holistically. It’s not simply about providing employees with the technical skills required to do their immediate jobs. It’s about fostering a culture where people can be bold in their thinking and are given the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from people — colleagues and leaders distinctly different then themselves — to grow both personally and professionally. This means being deliberate in establishing a work environment without preconceptions of who people are — a place where people can be their authentic selves and have a voice every day.
What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders about how to manage a large team?
I recommend leaders be authentic and vulnerable. Share with your teams what you do and do not know and set expectations for success. If you don’t tell them, they will assume you’ve read the tea leaves, are aware of the risks, and have a fully-baked plan of attack. However, if you share your authentic self with them, you create a culture of transparency where teams feel empowered to speak freely, raise issues, and prevent unnecessary silos.
Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line? (Please share a story or example for each.)
Clients are demanding diversity and inclusion. More and more of our clients want their teams to reflect society as a whole. If your business hasn’t experienced this yet, it’s coming, and it’s imperative to get ahead.
First, diversity and inclusion strengthen employee engagement. In fact, our research reveals that 70 percent of surveyed employees believed the bias they’ve felt, experienced, and/or witnessed has negatively impacted how engaged they feel at work1 and 39 percent of employees would leave their current organization for a more inclusive one2. When diversity and inclusion are a priority, employees become more engaged with each other, their leadership team, and the mission and values of their organization. This type of engagement helps create a positive and collaborative environment.
To build on that, diversity and inclusion can also improve productivity. Imagine waking up and having to drag yourself to a job where you don’t feel heard or included. It’s been reported that 61 percent of people surveyed felt they had to cover or downplay and identity at work3. It can be near impossible to find the motivation to work hard without a sense of belonging or camaraderie. Having that support system empowers employees to think outside the box, speak up, and take risks.
Something else to keep in mind is the value brought by the diversity of thought. Deloitte works with clients spanning industries, in differing geographical regions, and with varying priorities. Their needs are diverse in today’s complex marketplace. We’re working hard to help them navigate and capitalize on the opportunities presented by the Fourth Industrial Revolution with a diverse workforce that can offer a range of differing perspectives and solutions.
Internally, a wellspring of creativity and diversity of thought increases innovation by 20 percent2. It’s easy to get bogged down by the same old business practices or recycle the same old ideas. Diversity and inclusion can stop that cycle by providing differentiated backgrounds and viewpoints to challenge the orthodoxies preventing transformation progress. This will ultimately drive fruitful discussions and creative solutions, which may not come to light otherwise.
Lastly, diversity is the gift that keeps on giving. A diverse workforce can boost employee engagement, productivity, client service, and innovation — but it also helps attract the next generation of leaders. According to our research, 80 percent of respondents indicated inclusion is important when choosing an employer2. Diversity is powerful in the here and now, and it will also help secure future success if it’s woven into the culture and values of your organization.
2019 State of Inclusion Survey, Deloitte
Unleashing the Power of Inclusion: Attracting and engaging the evolving workforce, Deloitte, 2017
Uncovering Talent, Deloitte, 2019
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I strive to use my platform to make a meaningful impact through two lenses — individuals and organizations. For people, I believe it’s my responsibility to be empathetic and build trust. I work hard to do this by using my network and influence to help people inside and outside my company to succeed and obtain their goals and ambitions. For organizations, I lend my time and experience to nonprofits by participating on boards, helping at risk youth, and supporting women and underrepresented minorities with equality.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”?
My grandfather always said, “aspire to be better each day.” He would say if you’ve gone a week and you aren’t better than you were last week, then you’ve wasted a week. This was his approach to life. It is this view of self-growth and dedication that I have embraced and try to live by.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful toward who helped get you to where you are?
My first boss at my first job out of graduate school. He was amazing and supportive. Every day he would come by my office on his way in and give me a hard time about beating him to work. He would also stop on his way home to encourage me to shutdown and walk out with him. How he treated people was fascinating to me and inspired me to become a servant leader who recognizes the contributions of all members of my organization, despite role or level.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why?
There is not one person that I can name today. However, I’ve been thinking more and more about the concept of time. I’ve been looking at eastern religions that view time as a cycle versus linear. I find this interesting because it ties to my belief that there are always more opportunities to be better. So, if I could have breakfast or lunch with someone it would be a Buddhist or Hindu scholar, who could teach me more about eastern society and beliefs. | https://medium.com/authority-magazine/deloittes-kwasi-mitchell-here-are-five-ways-that-increased-diversity-can-increase-a-company-s-78d34ca4ef09 | ['Fotis Georgiadis'] | 2020-01-14 01:05:05.663000+00:00 | ['Social Impact', 'Diversity', 'Business'] |
Instructions to Build an E-Commerce Website From Scratch in 8 Easy Steps | The appalling beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic had brought about lockdowns and travel limitations that are being upheld worldwide to control the spread of the illness. Attributable to this, numerous individuals everywhere on the world have gotten less portable and doing their actual shopping to address their issues has gotten troublesome. Henceforth, shopping on the web has gotten well known worldwide over the overarching pandemic period and is relied upon to increment even after the pandemic is finished. It follows that numerous online business sites have been set up to profit by this developing pattern. Accordingly, the development of online business has exceeded that of the customary ‘blocks and cement’ organizations many occasions over as of late. Truth be told, a large number of these conventional organizations, even the more settled ones, need to take their organizations online to endure. Notwithstanding, numerous more modest ones face firm rivalry from online business organizations and those that were impractical had tragically shut down. The achievement of web based business organizations has been effective to the point that numerous people have begun selling internet utilizing online media stages, for example, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram or Tik Tok. Be that as it may, the more venturesome ones are hoping to plunge into internet business in a greater manner rather than simply utilizing the online media stage. On the whole, to begin a web based business, it’s important to fabricate an internet business site for a beginning. Luckily, there is an organized cycle in building a web based business site. In spite of the fact that a site engineer is regularly occupied with such an errand, having some pertinent information could likewise help you in building a site for your online business. Just follow these 8 simple strides to construct a web based business site without any preparation: 1. Choose the item specialty for your store At the point when you search the Internet, you would have gone over numerous web based business sites selling an assortment of items. In any case, there are additionally numerous comparative sites zeroing in on selling a particular line of items or administrations, for example, clothing, pet frill, design wears, shoes or travel bundles. Also, there are some other internet business sites that sell various items, for example, cell phones, cameras, home apparatuses, family things, sports and wellbeing things, lights, workstations, books, etc. The last is a comparative thing to a hypermarket where you can discover practically any stuff — and so on, they have it. For a beginning, it’s huge to settle on the specialty or kind of administrations you wish to sell or give on your site. In your choice, you need to discover the neighborhood interest for specific items identifying with the specialty or certain popularity administrations you are keen on. Be careful that purchasers would typically want to purchase items or acquire administrations from a neighborhood merchant whether on the web or disconnected. The nearby seller would typically give simple installment techniques, quicker conveyances, and quicker substitutions if there should be an occurrence of some unacceptable or faulty things. 2. Choose your plan of action As a planned internet business person, you should initially settle on your plan of action that best suits your need and spending plan. You can either sell your items exclusively on your online store, or you can sell your items on commercial centers like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and so forth In the event that you settle on the last mentioned, there is no requirement for you to construct your own site. You should simply to pursue a record and rundown your items at its commercial center and begin selling. You can likewise decide to sell your items on both the stages in equal. 3. Settle on a space name for your business In the event that you have chosen your plan of action to be an internet business online store just as having picked the specialty and the scope of items to sell or the kind of administrations you wish to give, you need to purchase an area name from any web facilitating organization, for example, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Hostgator, and so forth Ensure that the space’s hyperlink is “https” which guarantees information security over the organization. It’s desirable over pick an area name that is firmly identified with the item specialty or administrations you’ve picked. For example, on the off chance that you decide to sell just pet extras, get a space like ‘petaccessories.com’ or ‘petaccessories.net’ contingent upon which is accessible. The area name is likewise considered as your business name and should be anything but difficult to recollect by your intended interest group. A space gives a brand to your business and makes it simple for your crowd to connect it with one another. The facilitating of the space is effectively finished with the assistance of the web facilitating organization’s help group. 4. Pick a web based business stage There is a large number of web based business stages on the Internet these days, for example, Square Online, Weebly, Big Cartel, Constant Contact, BigCommerce, Wix, Shopify, Squarespace, WooCommerce, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. A few accompanies a free arrangement while a few accompanies a free preliminary yet for a restricted period. Pick one that best suits your spending plan and prerequisite. Likewise, you need to ensure that the stage you picked is streamlined for cell phone convenience to exploit the quickened development of cell phone use around the world. The online web based business stage can undoubtedly help you assemble your site in several straightforward advances. 5. Set-up your internet business store Your web based business site is your online store, and it needs a fitting topic to speak to your image. You need to set it up appropriately in order to guarantee that your potential clients will have a decent perusing experience as far as quick stacking speed, safeness, easy to use, and so forth Your site ought to contain precise subtleties on your items or administrations, quality pictures, great portrayals and costs just as alternatives for clients to leave surveys and star appraisals. This should be remembered for your item page for the survey of imminent clients with the goal that they purchase dependent on an educated choice and not to delude them into purchasing in any capacity. You should make your site and its pages eye-getting as it’s your brands’ portrayal to your online clients. In addition, you need to remember pages for your site regarding About Us, Contact Us, Return Policy, Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Shipping Information and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). These are significant to assemble trust with your clients where they will feel sure to part their cash in return for your items. 6. Set-up installment passage For your online store, you should have a couple of installment choices set up for your clients. Most web based business store developer stages as of now have capacities to permit you to effectively set up the installment entryway. The client ought to have choices to make installments by means of PayPal, Mastercard, check card, online wallets, Internet banking, and so forth 7. Secure your site by introducing a SSL declaration For all sites that move information on the web, particularly identifying with installment, you should guarantee that the organization association is ensured by a Secured Security Layer (SSL). The SSL endorsement keeps your site secure from site programmers and will assist with building trust among your clients. 8. Pick your delivery accomplice At the point when you begin selling items on your internet business site, you need to dispatch the items to your clients utilizing transporting organizations. You should pick those dependable ones that have great histories in satisfying shipments inside concurred spans and at the most minimal accessible delivery cost, so you can give your clients the best arrangement just as augment your benefit. The writing is on the wall, the 8 simple strides in building a web based business site without any preparation and begin selling your items or administrations on the web. | https://medium.com/@abeidfeisal2/instructions-to-build-an-e-commerce-website-from-scratch-in-8-easy-steps-7df1050f7069 | ['Feisal Abeid'] | 2020-12-24 20:22:55.863000+00:00 | ['E Commerce Business', 'Online Marketing', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Freelancing'] |
Merry Christmas America (Are We Dead Yet?) | A few years back, Xmas in Rome.
Yes, I’m writing on Christmas morning, but that’s not my choice, it’s sort of my duty. A long time ago when I was studying and writing at The Breadloaf Writer’s Conference, the novelist Tim O’Brien kindly took me under his wing, personally critiqued a short story of mine which was then called Portrait, and which later became the novel, When Shadows Come (a novel that was orphaned prior to its release from Thomas & Mercer when the editor jumped ship — something that happens a lot over there. But as usual, I digress).
In the middle of going over the story, sometimes line by line, he with red pencil in hand and trademark Boston Red Sox baseball cap on his head, lit cigarette between his lips, suddenly asked, “Hey you don’t happen to have any coke on you?”
I was sorely disappointed I didn’t.
In any case, when we were through he said…and I’ll never forget it…”One day, you’re going to be more famous than you are now. You will have fans, and they will expect a lot out of you. They will, in some cases, become more needy than your wives (yes, he used the plural), and you will need to put out for them. That means you will be writing on your birthday, when you are sick with the flu, when you are happy, and when you are depressed. You will be writing ON CHRISTMAS DAY, whether you like it or not.”
So there you have it, readers. It’s Christmas and I will spend my day or most of it anyway, working on novel edits. But let me say, Merry Christmas to you all. Some might find that offensive but I’m not woke, and shall forever remain asleep, metaphorically speaking, I guess. 2020 is about to come to an end and let’s hope the door slaps it on the ass on the way out.
I still recall standing inside a bar in Lake Placid last New Years Eve as a blizzard was blowing outside. I had a pool cue in hand, and was watching the wall mounted TV while my GF was beating me at pool. The report about a virus outbreak in China sent a chill down my spine. At that point it was still a small story in the grand scheme of things, but I recall saying half under my breath to said GF, “This is going to be bad. This is going to be very, very bad.” And bad it became.
I’m not fond of the Grateful Dead, and in fact, I hate their music (I prefer old punk rock), but I’m reminded of their song that goes What a Long Strange Trip it’s Been. It’s raining outside my window. I had planned on skiing today (sorry Tim), but the grass outside my writing studio looks like a putting green. There’s hardly any planes in the air and many fewer cars on the road. Carbon emissions are way down. Why isn’t it snowing AOC? But again, I digress.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, it doesn’t feel like Christmas. In fact, the whole year doesn’t feel like we’ve progressed, but if anything, regressed into this population of fenced in individuals who are slowly going insane with boredom, loneliness, financial ruin, and despair (BTW, my profound thanks to the US government for pulling through with stimulus for normal everyday folks who will visit the food lines today instead of enjoying a nice Xmas dinner. The US government is broken and you only have yourself to blame…You know precisely who you are. Enjoy your ice cream, Nancy. And Mitch, I hope you’re sipping only the best Kentucky bourbon today with a big fat cigar stuffed in your mouth. You both should be drawn and quartered in public…once more, I digress).
It almost feels like we’ve actually succumbed to the disease and simply don’t know it yet. Like a person who’s suddenly dropped dead and sort of hangs around for a while as a ghost. Or maybe we’re all in purgatory. Who knows? But then, election fraud was real, not that anybody cares. The rent is still due, and the price of chicken has doubled if not tripled in just just a few months. These things are reality.
So than, I can bitch and moan all I want, but on the other hand, I am thankful for my health, my relative youth, my publishers (Yet another notable outfit approached me the other day and said they would love a Zandri novel in their catalogue, God bless them…I remember when I couldn’t find a publisher to save my life. Now they come to me in some cases), my family, my kids, my mom, my life (which is blessed in every sense of the word), my God, my travels, my country (as busted up as it is), and what lies in store for the future. It’s got to be better than this. My hopes are that very, very soon, all us dead folk will be resurrected. | https://medium.com/@vincentzandricrimewriter/merry-christmas-america-are-we-dead-yet-49dba02156e3 | ['Vincent Zandri'] | 2020-12-25 14:53:46.415000+00:00 | ['Writing Life', 'Writing Tips', 'Writing Challenge', 'Writing', 'Writing Prompts'] |
This Is Why Social Media Is So Harmful | I thought I had greatly reduced my daily social media consumption.
But according to the screen time function of my iPhone, on average, I am still spending 26 minutes a day just on Instagram.
I know, for many people out there, it would be very little overall, but I still find it sad. 26 minutes for what? To see food, unrealistically attractive people, and memes?
I really should use less social media, and I think it’s a good idea for all of us. An exciting book about this topic is Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier.
Lanier’s book discusses the various reasons to delete your own social media accounts or change your own consumption.
This article offers some good reasons to think more critically about digital media. The book mentioned serves as a source for this.
In the end, you will find a few tips from me on how to I am effectively reducing my social media usage. | https://medium.com/@yidgidvdjhhkdkhdueyisyj/this-is-why-social-media-is-so-harmful-ec71e1fb5ea5 | ['Ueyisyj Yidgidvdjhhkdkhd'] | 2020-11-15 16:12:25.594000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Time Management', 'Social Media', 'Digital Life', 'Addiction'] |
WHAT IS NOT-SELF? | WHAT IS NOT-SELF?
One of the primary notions of the mind is that at the core of our being, there is an independent self sustaining entity that began when we were born here in this current lifetime. That I, (insert human name here), will then either live on after death or not. If I live on, I will go on to either a heaven or hell. I will only have the knowledge I have gained in this single life. And I will spend eternity in a finite location all based on whether I drank alcohol or not. Or the lights go out and the same blank-ness from before we were born consumes us yet again.
An independent self is a fallacy made by man to feel important.
The desire to look inside to learn more about your true self does not need to be a noble cause. If we better understand ourselves, we better understand others. When we look inside, we give ourselves the opportunity to see ourselves in others. When we see ourselves in others, we can better understand the motives of others. If we understand the motives of others, then we can better understand our emotions and what causes pain within ourselves and others. When we understand that others motives are usually based off of a series of events that made that specific choice the best choice for them. The same as us all. | https://medium.com/@drewdavidson22/what-is-not-self-268c5c5e351f | ['Drew Davidson'] | 2021-01-04 21:34:51.593000+00:00 | ['Consciousness', 'Mindfulness', 'Thoughts', 'Awareness', 'Mind'] |
This is the Real Reason You’re Attracted to Them | Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
In Les Misérables, Victor Hugo wrote,
“The power of a glance has been so much abused in love stories, that it has come to be disbelieved in. Few people dare now to say that two beings have fallen in love because they have looked at each other. Yet it is in this way that love begins, and in this way only.”
Yeah well, maybe that was totally true for Cosette and Marius.
And to be fair, he’s not far from the truth. But there’s something else to this.
It is definitely true that the notion of love at first sight has fallen into disrepute. No one falls in love just by looking at someone, right? It’s clearly either lust or infatuation.
Because how could you possibly feel so deeply for someone that you don’t even know?
It’s quite simple, actually.
But I disagree with Hugo that love begins solely because of a look. After all, we glance at people all the time in life. Why would a certain pair of human beings lock eyes and forever have their life trajectories changed?
How can two people who don’t know each other return each other’s affection “fully charged and all languishing with the stormy electricities of passion?”
And why is there also the phenomenon of one person pining over another but the other person fails to feel the same?
You like who you like because they have something you want.
When you get right down to it, it really is just that simple. But what is crucial is that you get in touch with what it is they have that you want.
Because if you don’t do this, you’ll do a bunch of stupid, time-wasting, unnecessary and damaging crap for someone that you shouldn’t be with, even though you’re attracted to them!
That’s the next thing. We think that just because we’re attracted to someone that means that we should be with them. I’ll tell you right now that that is perhaps the biggest lie when it comes to romance. It’s like a diseased needle we keep jabbing into our arms.
The worst part of this is that if you’ve had a couple of ill-fated romances in your day, you already know this. You are well-aware that there were people you liked that you had no business being with.
This is why it is tremendously important we ask ourselves why we like the person we like. It’ll save us a lot of time and can help us avoid heartache.
Here are some examples of how attraction can play out and why asking ourselves what the other person has that we want will help us.
1. You see this guy or girl with a great physique. You’re getting all hot and bothered and start fantasizing about having sex. They feel the same and are checking you out too.
You both have sex and it’s amazing. Now you’re thinking about a relationship in the same way you unconsciously and impulsively fantasized earlier.
If you stopped to ask yourself why you want to be with them, you may realize that it’s really only skin deep. You don’t really want them. You just wanted sex and are extrapolating your desire for more from someone who can’t meet those needs.
As a result, you keep the relationship casual.
Now, it’s definitely possible that they could be a great person that shares the same values as you, but for the examples I’m providing here, I’m using certain examples with specific outcomes.
So please don’t get upset when I give an example that could have a multiple of outcomes and only give a specific one.
2. You’re in high school and you’re fawning over the most popular guy or girl. Unfortunately, you’re a geek. You’re not popular at all, or perhaps you’re popular for all the wrong reasons.
If you asked yourself why you want the most popular guy or girl, you might realize that it’s not necessarily because they’re attractive or sporty or rich. It’s just because they’re popular.
You and your friends are social pariahs. And while you do love your friends, you wish you were celebrated and liked for who you are. This popular person has what you want, but you realize that there are other attractive people that you aren’t attracted to. Why is that? Well, it’s because they are a pariah too.
As a result of bringing this to your conscious awareness, you naturally drop your craving for a relationship with the popular boy or girl.
You learn to embrace your weirdness and because of that, you date someone who is just as weird as you but clearly more compatible.
Photo by JOSHUA COLEMAN on Unsplash
3. You meet someone and you feel absolutely nothing for them. Yeah, they’re not ugly but you just don’t feel anything. As a matter of fact, they have a loud personality that throws you off.
A few years pass and your brain convinces you that you should be more extroverted because you’ll get more opportunities.
Your brain isn’t exactly wrong, but it is not realizing that the opportunities an extrovert would attract to themselves are often not the same opportunities an introvert would want. But such is the nature of the mind.
So you feel bad about yourself for a while but then you run into that guy or girl from years ago that all of a sudden seems awesome. They’re loud personality is… attractive? Wow, how strange.
But if you were to stop and think about why you like them now, you’d realize that you like them because they’re more extroverted than you. They have what you want.
And if you asked why you didn’t like them earlier, you’d realize it’s because they were too much. They had something you didn’t want at all.
Then you put the pieces together and realize that you were hating on yourself for being too introverted.
If you embrace who you are and forgive yourself for thinking you had to be something you’re not, you’d save yourself the time of trying to be with someone you knew was incompatible with you from the beginning.
4. Your eyes lock with another’s and you feel something strong inside. They have pain behind their eyes and it is enticing. They really like you too.
The attraction is so strong that any nervousness you had with other people is completely obliterated. You think to yourself, “This person is special. They made me so much braver. This is something real.”
But by some miracle there was a gap in your drunken mind and you thought to ask yourself why you like this person so much.
They’re attractive, but there’s so many attractive people out there. What’s different about this person in particular?
There’s pain inside of them.
What’s more is that you also have pain inside of you. As a matter of fact, it’s the same pain.
But in this scenario, you don’t break it off. You continue the relationship. Actually, they seem super happy when you’re around so maybe it’s all in your head. You almost forget all about the initial sign that something was off.
What will happen is that you both will eventually trigger each other’s wounds unless and until you both heal. Otherwise you will grow to resent each other.
One person healing won’t be enough. But the person who heals their wound (which may have come from a prior romance or a parental relationship) will be the one to end the relationship once and for all.
It may be that you have to embrace or forgive someone from the past or embrace or forgive something about yourself. Whatever the case may be, the attraction and the overwhelming strength of it was due to past trauma.
Photo by whoislimos on Unsplash
5. You’re introduced to someone and you think they’re attractive. They think the same thing about you. You can see that they share similar values to you, so conversation is as easy as it could be when talking to a stranger.
Numbers are exchanged, meetups are arranged and eventually deeper feelings show up.
You ask yourself, “Why do I like them?”
Your answer is that they’re pretty cool. They like what you like and want what you want out of life. Of course, there are some differences but it’s not a threat to you or your relationship.
You have no reason to leave and neither do they.
As a result, you embark on a relationship. | https://medium.com/the-life-manual/this-is-the-real-reason-youre-attracted-to-them-9540c0543161 | ['Jason Henry'] | 2020-10-20 04:20:33.402000+00:00 | ['Sex', 'Life Lessons', 'Self Improvement', 'Dating', 'Relationships'] |
Many people don’t realize they’re hurting their dogs. Here are 7 tips to remember this summer | Playing in the summer sunshine with your dog is great fun, but there are a few simple precautions you can take to keep your dogs cool in the heat and protect them from heat-related problems.
By understanding how your dog copes with the warm temperatures and planning ahead you can avoid potentially dangerous situations.
How dogs cool off
Dogs cool down and regulate their body temperature by panting and sweating through their paws and nose. As a dog breathes in, air travels through their nasal passage and is cooled before it reaches the lungs.
When temperatures become warmer and more humid, a dog has a harder time cooling down. Your dog’s heart and lungs work harder as your dog breathes in and out quickly to reduce their body temperature. This is especially true in short-snouted dogs, who have a harder time cooling down because of their shorter nasal passages.
Here are a few safety tips when taking your dog out in warm weather.
Stay off Hot Pavement
One major thing that many dog owners overlook when it’s sunny out is their dog’s feet. Paw pads can be easily burned by hot pavement. Summer heat warms pavements just like a frying pan and if the pavement gets too hot it can burn your dog’s paws. Sand can also get very hot, so use the hand technique to check sandy surfaces too.
Press the back of your hand against the asphalt or concrete for 7 seconds to verify if it will be comfortable for your dog to walk on. If it’s too hot for your hand, it’s too hot for your dog’s paws. Avoid these surfaces during the day or consider putting protective booties or paw wax on your dog’s paws as added protection.
2. Prevent sunburn.
The ear tips, bridge of the nose, around the eyes and abdomen are all sensitive areas on a dog’s skin. These areas have thinner skin and are more exposed. So, if you plan to be out in the hot sun for a while, consider purchasing a sun protector
or high factor waterproof sunscreen MADE FOR DOGS and whenever possible rest in the shade. Also if you have a thin-haired dog and/or white dog you may need to take extra precautions as they tend to get sunburned more easily.
3. Groom shedding dogs and long-haired dogs.
Most dogs shed their coats at the beginning of summer, so daily grooming will help to remove unwanted hair and will make your dog more comfortable. For long-haired dogs, trimming their coat may also help with keeping them cooler in the summer months. Regularly grooming your dog’s fur will also give you extra time to check for ticks and fleas and to check their skin and paws are in good shape.
4. Keep away ticks and fleas.
Being outdoors is great, but wooded areas and long grasses also tend to be home for ticks and fleas. Vinegar is very helpful in keeping ticks and fleas away from your dog. Make a solution of one-part water and one-part vinegar and spray it directly onto your pet. Avoid spraying in the eyes as it may harm your dog.
5. Stay Hydrated.
Pack extra water for your dog on any excursion and make sure your dog’s water bowl is always filled and close by.
6. Avoid water with blue-green algae.
Unfortunately, a growing number of ponds, lakes and rivers have blooms of blue-green algae during warmer months. It’s important to monitor waterways for unusual algae blooms and be alert to local advisories and warning signs around waterways. It is better if you carry clean water with you for your dog and protect it from contaminated water.
7. Recognize the signs of heat exhaustion/heat stroke.
Dogs can succumb to heat stroke very quickly in warm and humid weather because the only way dogs release heat is by panting and sweating through the footpads and nose. Prevention is key. Avoid vigorous exercise on hot days, keep your dog hydrated and do not leave him/her alone outside or in a warm space (e.g. car). That said, if you notice any of these signs in your dog or someone else’s, they may be suffering heat stroke:
vigorous panting
dark red gums
dry gums
bloody vomiting or diarrhea
lying down and unwilling or can’t get up
staggering gait
collapse and/or loss of consciousness
thick saliva
seizures
If the dog is suffering heat stroke:
move the dog out of the heat
cool them off with a shower or tap water or place cool wet rags on their foot pads and head. Do NOT use ice-cold water — this can actually harm the dog further.
offer the dog water but don’t force him/her to drink.
call or visit the vet right away.
Note: Certain types of dogs are more sensitive to heat especially elderly dogs, overweight dogs and brachycephalic (short-nosed) breeds, like Pugs, Bulldogs, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Boxers and even Staffies. Take extreme precautions with these breeds during summer.
By taking a few simple precautions, you will help protect your dog and you will both have a lot more fun in the summer! | https://medium.com/@maazkhan96/many-people-dont-realize-they-re-hurting-their-dogs-here-are-7-tips-to-remember-this-summer-83cd8eec1b3f | ['Maaz Khan'] | 2020-04-20 17:33:59.019000+00:00 | ['Pets', 'Summer', 'Dog Care', 'Dogs', 'Dog Health Tips'] |
Deep dive into seaborn : color palettes | Color spaces
Before stepping into seaborn color palettes, let’s review what are the different color spaces we should know before going on:
the rgb space : a color is defined by a triplet of floating point value between 0 and 1, giving the proportion of red, blue and green. For example (0.1, 0.5, 0.9) would be mostly green, with some blue, and a little bit of red.
would be mostly green, with some blue, and a little bit of red. the hex space : a color is defined by 6 hex-characters #RRGGBB where RR (red), GG (green) and BB (blue) are hexadecimal integers between 00 and FF specifying the intensity of the color. You can see this space as another way of writing the rgb values.
where RR (red), GG (green) and BB (blue) are hexadecimal integers between 00 and FF specifying the intensity of the color. You can see this space as another way of writing the rgb values. the hls space : a color is defined by a triplet of floating point value between 0 and 1, where h maps the different colors, l maps the ligthness (how “bright” is is), and s maps the saturation (how vivid or washed out the color looks).
the husl space : a color is defined by a triplet of floating point value between 0 and 1, where h maps the different colors, l maps the ligthness (how “bright” is is), and s maps the saturation (how vivid or washed out the color looks).
Palette concept
In seaborn, a palette is simply a list of colors. Most of the time, we will handle colors in a rgb space, so a palette is simply a list of 3-uple of floating point values between 0 and 1. For example :
[(0.125, 0.4, 0.705882), (1.0, 0.498, 0.055), (0.17313, 0.6269, 0.1)]
is a palette of 3 colors.
So remember : a palette is a list of colors.
Note that the number of colors (the length of the list) can be any number.
Palettes in seaborn
Let’s import seaborn and load a dataset :
from IPython.display import display
import seaborn as sns
iris_df = sns.load_dataset("iris")
If you want to know more on datasets in seaborn, check out my previous article :
Seaborn uses the concept of palette to predefine the colors of the data you plot. We can see what is the default palette with sns.color_palette :
pal = sns.color_palette()
print(pal)
sns.palplot(pal) [(0.12156862745098039, 0.4666666666666667, 0.7058823529411765), (1.0, 0.4980392156862745, 0.054901960784313725), (0.17254901960784313, 0.6274509803921569, 0.17254901960784313), (0.8392156862745098, 0.15294117647058825, 0.1568627450980392), (0.5803921568627451, 0.403921568627451, 0.7411764705882353), (0.5490196078431373, 0.33725490196078434, 0.29411764705882354), (0.8901960784313725, 0.4666666666666667, 0.7607843137254902), (0.4980392156862745, 0.4980392156862745, 0.4980392156862745), (0.7372549019607844, 0.7411764705882353, 0.13333333333333333), (0.09019607843137255, 0.7450980392156863, 0.8117647058823529)]
Image by Author
There are 3 things we can notice :
calling print on a seaborn color palette will print the list of 3-uple rgb values
on a seaborn color palette will print the list of 3-uple rgb values you can see the palette using sns.palplot . Note that this can also be done with IPython.display.display(pal)
. Note that this can also be done with the default palette has 10 colors
In addition to the default palette, seaborn provides numerous predefined named palettes :
mpl_palette_named_palette = ['Accent', 'Accent_r', 'Blues', 'Blues_r', 'BrBG', 'BrBG_r', 'BuGn', 'BuGn_r', 'BuPu', 'BuPu_r', 'CMRmap', 'CMRmap_r', 'Dark2', 'Dark2_r', 'GnBu', 'GnBu_r', 'Greens', 'Greens_r', 'Greys', 'Greys_r', 'OrRd', 'OrRd_r', 'Oranges', 'Oranges_r', 'PRGn', 'PRGn_r', 'Paired', 'Paired_r', 'Pastel1', 'Pastel1_r', 'Pastel2', 'Pastel2_r', 'PiYG', 'PiYG_r', 'PuBu', 'PuBuGn', 'PuBuGn_r', 'PuBu_r', 'PuOr', 'PuOr_r', 'PuRd', 'PuRd_r', 'Purples', 'Purples_r', 'RdBu', 'RdBu_r', 'RdGy', 'RdGy_r', 'RdPu', 'RdPu_r', 'RdYlBu', 'RdYlBu_r', 'RdYlGn', 'RdYlGn_r', 'Reds', 'Reds_r', 'Set1', 'Set1_r', 'Set2', 'Set2_r', 'Set3', 'Set3_r', 'Spectral', 'Spectral_r', 'Wistia', 'Wistia_r', 'YlGn', 'YlGnBu', 'YlGnBu_r', 'YlGn_r', 'YlOrBr', 'YlOrBr_r', 'YlOrRd', 'YlOrRd_r', 'afmhot', 'afmhot_r', 'autumn', 'autumn_r', 'binary', 'binary_r', 'bone', 'bone_r', 'brg', 'brg_r', 'bwr', 'bwr_r', 'cividis', 'cividis_r', 'cool', 'cool_r', 'coolwarm', 'coolwarm_r', 'copper', 'copper_r', 'crest', 'crest_r', 'cubehelix', 'cubehelix_r', 'flag', 'flag_r', 'flare', 'flare_r', 'gist_earth', 'gist_earth_r', 'gist_gray', 'gist_gray_r', 'gist_heat', 'gist_heat_r', 'gist_ncar', 'gist_ncar_r', 'gist_rainbow', 'gist_rainbow_r', 'gist_stern', 'gist_stern_r', 'gist_yarg', 'gist_yarg_r', 'gnuplot', 'gnuplot2', 'gnuplot2_r', 'gnuplot_r', 'gray', 'gray_r', 'hot', 'hot_r', 'hsv', 'hsv_r', 'icefire', 'icefire_r', 'inferno', 'inferno_r', 'jet', 'jet_r', 'magma', 'magma_r', 'mako', 'mako_r', 'nipy_spectral', 'nipy_spectral_r', 'ocean', 'ocean_r', 'pink', 'pink_r', 'plasma', 'plasma_r', 'prism', 'prism_r', 'rainbow', 'rainbow_r', 'rocket', 'rocket_r', 'seismic', 'seismic_r', 'spring', 'spring_r', 'summer', 'summer_r', 'tab10', 'tab10_r', 'tab20', 'tab20_r', 'tab20b', 'tab20b_r', 'tab20c', 'tab20c_r', 'terrain', 'terrain_r', 'turbo', 'turbo_r', 'twilight', 'twilight_r', 'twilight_shifted', 'twilight_shifted_r', 'viridis', 'viridis_r', 'vlag', 'vlag_r', 'winter', 'winter_r']
sns_named_palettes = ['deep', 'muted', 'bright', 'pastel', 'dark', 'colorblind']
sns.palplot(sns.mpl_palette("Accent"))
Image by Author
We can use the sns.color_palette to introspect other palettes :
# named palette
pal = sns.color_palette("magma")
print(pal)
sns.palplot(pal) [(0.135053, 0.068391, 0.315), (0.372116, 0.092816, 0.499053), (0.594508, 0.175701, 0.501241), (0.828886, 0.262229, 0.430644), (0.973381, 0.46152, 0.361965), (0.997341, 0.733545, 0.505167)]
Image by Author
Notice that by default, the returned palette has length 6.
Remember when we said a color palette is a list of colors ?
Well, that’s not entirely true.
The object returned by sns.color_palette is not really a list of 3-uple :
pal = sns.color_palette("magma")
print(type(pal)) <class 'seaborn.palettes._ColorPalette'>
We don’t need to introspect further what this _ColorPalette object is (especially with the presence of _ meaning the user is not supposed to go this far). So it's not really a list of colors, but it behaves like it !
In addition, color palette can be used with another format : a matplotlib’s colormap. You can tell seaborn to return a matplotlib colormap object with as_cmap=True :
cmap = sns.color_palette("magma", as_cmap=True)
print(type(cmap)) <class 'matplotlib.colors.ListedColormap'>
Plotting with palettes
The very essence of color palettes is to give meaning to your plot. By default, seaborn will use the default palette we saw earlier :
sns.color_palette() sns.scatterplot(
data=iris_df,
x="sepal_length",
y="petal_length",
hue="species",
) <AxesSubplot:xlabel='sepal_length', ylabel='petal_length'>
Image by Author
Notice that the species feature has 3 possible values (setosa, versicolor, and virginica - the "type" of the iris flowers), hence the first 3 colors of the current palette are used.
In all seaborn plotting function, you can use a specific palette for this plot using the palette argument. For example, let's use the named palette "magma" :
# review what the palette looks like
sns.palplot(sns.color_palette("magma"))
Image by Author
sns.scatterplot(
data=iris_df,
x="sepal_length",
y="petal_length",
hue="species",
palette="magma",
) <AxesSubplot:xlabel='sepal_length', ylabel='petal_length'>
Image by Author
Notice that the 3 colors that were used in the plot are not the first 3 colors shown above : in the background seaborn creates a palette of 3 colors based on the magma palette, like this :
sns.palplot(sns.color_palette("magma", n_colors=3))
Image by Author
Set the default palette
Remember, by default, seaborn will use the default palette (unless told otherwise in the plot function call).
To set the default palette, use the sns.set_palette function :
sns.set_palette(
palette="magma",
n_colors=3,
)
Now we can plot the same scatter plot as previously, without using the palette argument :
sns.scatterplot(
data=iris_df,
x="sepal_length",
y="petal_length",
hue="species",
) <AxesSubplot:xlabel='sepal_length', ylabel='petal_length'>
Image by Author
Creating palette
There are many ways to create a palette. We will see the following :
based on a single color using sns.dark_palette and sns.ligth_palette
and based on a list of n colors using sns.blend_palette
based on hsl values using sns.hls_palette
based on husl values using sns.husl_palette
Create a palette from a list of colors
Let’s first create a list of colors :
rgb = [(0.15, 0.25, 0.35), (0.35, 0.55, 0.51), (0.5, 0.95, 0.34)]
We can then create a palette based on these colors using sns.blend_palette :
sns.palplot(sns.blend_palette(rgb))
sns.palplot(sns.blend_palette(rgb, n_colors=10))
Image by Author
Image by Author
Of course, we can use named colors as well :
# create a palette from named colors
sns.palplot(sns.blend_palette(["acid green", "adobe"], n_colors=4, input="xkcd"))
Image by Author
You can use the following syntax to create a blend palette with sns.color_palette :
sns.palplot(sns.color_palette("blend:#31B3F3,#987"))
Image by Author
Create a palette from a single color
Creating a palette from a single color can done in several ways :
color = (0.56, 0.87, 0.34)
We can create a light and dark palette from the rgb values :
sns.palplot(sns.light_palette(color))
sns.palplot(sns.dark_palette(color))
Image by Author
Image by Author
And from a hex code :
sns.palplot(sns.color_palette("light:#124683"))
sns.palplot(sns.color_palette("dark:#124683"))
Image by Author
Create a palette from rgb/hsl/husl values
Many other options are available :
sns.palplot(sns.cubehelix_palette())
sns.palplot(sns.cubehelix_palette(rot=0.2, hue=0.2))
sns.palplot(sns.diverging_palette(0, 189))
sns.palplot(sns.diverging_palette(h_neg=20, h_pos=245))
sns.palplot(sns.diverging_palette(h_neg=20, h_pos=245, l=75))
sns.palplot(sns.hls_palette(h=0.01, s=0.1, l=0.45))
sns.palplot(sns.husl_palette(h=0.1, s=0.5, l=0.45))
Image by Author
Named colors
Instead of using color codes, seaborn allows you to use “named” colors : a named color is simply a string name that maps to a rgb color. You can get a dict of named colors with sns.xkcd_rgb and sns.crayons .
# print(sns.xkcd_rgb)
# print(sns.crayons)
# not shown here to save space
We can then use the sns.crayon_palette and sns.xkcd_palette function to create a palette based on a list of named colors :
p = sns.crayon_palette(["Midnight Blue", "Maroon"])
print(p)
sns.palplot(p)
sns.palplot(sns.xkcd_palette(["acid green", "adobe"])) [(0.10196078431372549, 0.2823529411764706, 0.4627450980392157), (0.7843137254901961, 0.2196078431372549, 0.35294117647058826)]
Image by Author
Bonus : Palette widgets
If you are familiar with jupyter notebooks, seaborn provides simple widgets that wrap seaborn functions, to play around with color palettes :
Gif by author
Gif by author
Gif by author
Wrap up
In this article, we saw :
what is a color palette : basically, a list of colors
how to get the current default palette : with sns.color_palette()
how to define a new default palette : with sns.set_palette(palette="magma")
how to introspect a palette : use print(pal) to get the rgb color list, and sns.palplot(pal) to plot the palette
to get the rgb color list, and to plot the palette that there are many palettes available : used the predefined named palettes, or create your own based on a color with sns.light_palette and sns.dark_palette , based on a color list with sns.blend_palette , or with cubehelix_palette, sns.diverging_palette, sns.hls_palette, sns.husl_palette .
Thanks for reading. Cheers. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/deep-dive-into-seaborn-palettes-7b5fae5a258e | ['Yoann Mocquin'] | 2020-12-22 16:39:05.662000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Plot', 'Colors', 'Seaborn'] |
So What Is A Good Enough Idea Then? | So What Is A Good Enough Idea Then?
It is good to have ideas but a business needs good enough ideas to grow.
One of the questions I remember asking myself over and over during the initial time as a junior product manager was “So what is a good enough idea then?” There were so many times that my boss would tell me that “Ishita, these ideas are good but they won’t work for us.” Honestly, after hearing this a couple of times, I felt discouraged. However, because a good product manager is one who gladly accepts where they are going wrong and does whatever it takes to do things right the next time, I started thinking to myself about how I can actually bring good ideas to the table. After some time of brainstorming and researching, I came up with a checklist that I would now like to share. So let’s get to it!
1. It solves an actual user problem
Right off the bat, I can tell you that your idea will be given a big “NO” if it doesn’t solve your customers’ actual problems. I repeat “actual problems”. Of course, as a product manager, you are going to always try to make your customers’ lives easier. However, it can happen many times that you assume something to be a problem and work on it when in reality, it isn’t even bothering the customers. This is why it’s extremely important that you are constantly engaging with the customers to know what is working for them and where they feel that the product team can improve. There are several effective ways to do this and you can find them here.
2. You have done the market and competitor research
Just as important it is to listen to your customers, it is equally necessary to listen to the market and competitor trends as well. Every product that is in the market is made with the hope that it will survive and thrive in the competition. This is possible when you, as a product manager, are well aware of what is happening around the product. From carrying out analysis of external factors that can affect the business to keeping an eye on what your competitors are up to, this will allow you to see whether your ideas are good enough to compete and win.
One very classic example that I want to mention here is the story of Nokia. Once upon a time, Nokia as a brand was doing great. It was a top brand when it came to hardware quality. Their products were durable as well as robust. However, where Nokia went wrong is that they didn’t keep up with the trends in the software world. They felt that they could work on smartphones much later and still be very much loved. Clearly, this was a bad idea that resulted in what we know is history.
3. There is practicality in your idea
I won’t say that it all comes down to practicality for a product because a lot of the product innovations were once considered to be impractical. Having said that, a certain amount of feasibility should be present with the idea you have in mind for the product. The reason for this is that if you don’t have the resources, time, budget, expertise, and anything else you need to ship the idea with quality, that good idea will never be implemented. In other words, you will end up with a great idea on paper and that’s it.
Speaking about practicality, I want to talk briefly about my own experience. As I look back at the times when I would share ideas for product enhancement, I realize that half of the time they got rejected due to being impractical. The problem wasn’t that the idea didn’t have a chance to improve customer journey but the problem was delivering it in the given time and budget.
4. Alignment with business objectives
A quote that is coming to my mind right now is “Stop getting distracted by things that have nothing to do with your goals” (anonymous). I feel that this is something that can easily happen if the business objectives are not kept in mind when brainstorming for ways to enhance the product. As constant innovations continue to be the trend, it is possible to come up with a set of ideas that are incredible but unrelated to the core values of your product. So if it has ever happened that the ideas that you brought to the table were rejected by the management, this can possibly explain why.
I want to quickly discuss an example of an idea that is wonderful but not useful to the business. Let’s suppose that you are a product manager for a music app. In order to increase the revenue, you come up with the idea of having tie-ups with restaurants so that customers can get discounts. While this can work, remember that you and your team need to majorly focus on improving the music experience as this is the core value that your app offers.
5. It’s challenging but exciting
Last but not the least, one way to be confident that your idea is possibly going to get a green signal from the whole team is if the idea is challenging but exciting at the same time. Let’s be honest. It is pretty boring for anyone whether it is a designer, programmer, tester, or others if they are doing the same sort of work for every project. Correct me if I am wrong but during the time the team works, everyone hopes to enhance their skills by exploring the different approaches there may be in their respective job. That’s how one grows after all!
I know that I previously spoke of the need to consider practicality during the brainstorming phase. However, sometimes it is good to be in the uncomfortable zone because if things work out, it could mean the kind of success that will be remembered for years to come.
Wrap up
Somewhere I feel that ultimately it comes down to this- there are endless good ideas that you can implement to wow your customers and create more value for the business. However, you and your team can only work on so many at a time. This is why it is important that you are taking the time to identify the right ideas to work on. These don’t have to be many in number but they do need to help your product stand out more.
Before I go, I would like to share what I would say if someone asked me “So what is a good enough idea?” My response would be: “Well, a good enough idea is the one that has the potential to bring a significant difference in the lives of the customers and can be shipped with quality in time. After all, customers are going to love or not love what you deliver rather than just your ideas!”
If you have come this far into the article, firstly thank you! I would now love to know your thoughts on what makes an idea good enough. Do you agree with the ones above or do you have something else that you would like to say? Let me know in the comment section below! Cheers!
This post has been published on www.productschool.com communities. | https://medium.com/agileinsider/so-what-is-a-good-enough-idea-then-3862ae396f79 | ['Ishita Mehta'] | 2020-12-01 12:25:59.601000+00:00 | ['Customers', 'Good Ideas', 'Product', 'Product Management', 'Growth'] |
Why buying Vs. leasing a car shouldn’t be a question. | Photo by SCREEN POST
The main purpose of a car is transportation. It is on average the safest and the quickest way to go from point A to point B. It is also a reasonable way to reduce the amount of time wasted and the headaches caused by public transportation. No one likes a 1-hour commute with 2 buses and 3 metro stations, especially when they’re not always reliable.
That’s why buying a car can increase your quality of life. Having a personal vehicle on hand 24/7 helps with your productivity, social life, and professional opportunities. But in 90% of cases, getting a car will increase your monthly expenses. And that’s the number one argument for dealerships to encourage you to lease a car instead of buying it.
Leasing a car
Photo by Cytonn Photography
Leasing a car is simply renting it with an option to buy it for a predetermined amount at the end of the contract. It does, logically, make sense for the monthly payment to be less than loan repayment.
The most important disadvantage of a lease is that you’re not building any equity. All your monthly payments add zero dollars to your net worth if you don’t exercise your buying option. Some would argue that a portion of the payment can reduce your taxes if the car is used for business purposes. But for a majority of people that is not the case.
Another argument is comparing a car lease to an apartment lease. But then again, when you lease an apartment you can get out of your contract theoretically whenever you want if you need to, and apartment contracts are shorter. You can also use it however you like and even have a roommate who pays a portion of the monthly expenses.
Besides, there are a few separate caveats. The contract sets an annual mileage cap limiting the number of miles (around 10,000) that are included in your contract every year. If you exceed that number, your monthly payment increases, and once the overall limit is exceeded you will owe extra cash to the dealer at the end of the contract.
Another limitation is that you have to return the car in pristine condition. Any significant modifications would have to be reversed which may cost money.
Buying a car
Photo by Erik Mclean
On paper, getting a loan is more expensive. You have a down payment, the interest, and the principal to take into account. But a basic financial comparison isn’t right.
Buying a car means that you own the vehicle. Each payment builds up your equity, and by the end of the contract, you own 100% of it. No more payments to worry about nor end-of-lease fees. Leasing gives you two options: to return the car or to pay a lump sum to keep it. Most people resolve to return it and get a newer model, which means more monthly payments.
Also, the absence of a mileage limit opens more opportunities for new income streams. Ridesharing apps, like Uber and Lift, or delivery apps like Postmates and Instacart are perfect for that. You can find dozens of examples, on youtube, of people making $15 to $30 per hour, working less than 10 hours a week. The additional income could easily cover a large portion of the monthly payment. An option that is not possible with a leasing contract. | https://medium.com/@anasbettar/why-buying-vs-leasing-a-car-shouldnt-be-a-question-4d622d87ed8f | ['Anas Bettar'] | 2020-12-26 20:26:35.126000+00:00 | ['Money Management', 'Personal Finance', 'Buying A Car', 'Cars', 'Income'] |
First Steps in Time Series Analysis | From the point of time we came to know that data contains trends and we can extract knowledge from it, we started collecting it. In some instances, we try to generate trends from data where the time is not so large. Hence we do not find any trend concerning time.
But now, after decades of data collection, we can find at least some patterns with respect time and this is called a Time Series analysis.
What is a Time Series?
A series of observations recorded sequentially over a while i.e. a collection of observations recorded along with the timestamp is called a Time series.
Representation
Representation of Time series
The variable of interest can be univariate i.e. single variable or multivariate i.e. collection of variables.
The oldest Time Series
The solar cycle or solar magnetic activity cycle is a nearly periodic 11-year change in the sun’s activity measured in terms of variations in the number of observed sunspots on the solar surface hence around 400 years old. This observed data have been collected since the 17th century.
Dominant features in a Time Series
There are four major dominant features can be found in a time series
Time Trend Component:
It is the long term, smooth characteristics of a time series are called the time trend component. Seasonal Variation Component:
The patterns of change in a time series within a year which tends to repeat each year is called the seasonal component. Long term Cyclic Variation:
The rise and fall of a time series over periods longer than one year are called Long term cyclic variation. Irregular Variation:
It is the random stochastic component of a time series.
The first three trends are called the Deterministic Components hence can be determined by conventional methods, and the irregular component is called the Stochastic Component, which we need to estimate or fit a model.
We use various techniques like the Statistical Hypothesis testing approach for testing the existence of the components and estimation of significant components.
Decomposition of a Time Series
We use various methods to decompose a time series into a time trend, seasonal trend, and the stochastic trend. The decomposition look likes:
Decomposition of a time series; Source: otexts.com/
Trend Decomposition:
We use techniques like a simple moving average to smoothen the time series and obtain a time trend. For more complex and advanced time series we can use an extension of a weighted moving average or exponential moving average.
We can also use the least square fitting for generalizing the time trend as a single straight line or can use even more complex functions like quadratic or cubic to fit the data.
A: Simple Moving Average, B: Weighted Moving Average, C: Least square fitting
Seasonal Decomposition:
The estimation of the seasonal component depends on whether the trend is present or not. In the case the trend is present, we first estimate the trend (slow or fast-changing) and then seasonal factors are extracted from the de-trended times series.
Forms of Stationarity
Process Specification:
To describe a stochastic process completely, we must specify all the finite-dimensional distributions, i.e. the joint distribution of the random variables for any finite set of time points.
A simpler approach is to only specify the moments of the underlying random process i.e the mean and the variance of the time series.
Auto Covariance Function:
As the random variables comprising the system are usually not independent ie. they are observed sequentially over time. Hence, we must also specify their covariance to extract the time dependence structure.
ACF: Auto Covariance Function
Stationarity
It is defined as the statistical equilibrium of a time series over time. There are two types of stationarity
Strict Stationarity
Where the joint distribution function of any collection of random variables does not change with location shift. There is neither systematic change in mean nor variability. Analysis and modeling require the time series to be stationary. Weak or Covariance Stationarity
Where the mean and autocovariance functions do not depend on time points of reference.
Summing Up
This was a very fine overview of what a time series is? What are its components? What type of analysis are possible? and a brief introduction to 400 years old-time series.
This article gives more of a theoretical understanding rather than mathematical tools of analyzing a Time series. Accordingly, I would like to deliver a few more articles on the theoretical understanding of Time series and the fun maths behind it. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/first-steps-in-time-series-analysis-23410f5d5254 | ['Aayush Ostwal'] | 2020-09-14 12:30:25.167000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Deep Learning', 'AI', 'Time Series Analysis'] |
Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, and Snap Judgement Training — Play More Competitive Video Games! | Photo by Jason Strull on Unsplash
I tell you what, this is something that people often overlook and people tend to think that playing games are bad, turns out that there a lot of things that you guys overlook. Some of the great value in work like Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, and Snap Judgement is actually can be trained when you are playing a competitive game.
Look bear with me on this one, Competitive games are a perfect place to nurture those skills because it was unconsciously designed like that. People always thought that competitive games win by the person that actually good at it. The criteria of being good often translated by most of the Esport team in Indonesia as “Mechanically Good” means that this person knows how to play a certain role with several heroes and He/She actually good using it. Well, that’s not wrong, but they also overlooked that the team that wins is not the one that good, but most of the time because they can do certain objectives very efficiently.
Playing games competitively is always about objectives, what is our next objective, and how we secure it. No matter what game are you playing like DOTA2, League of Legends, PUBG, Mobile Legends, Free Fire, or even Monster Hunter: Worlds, is all about objectives. The question that you need to ask yourself is, How do you finish your objective quickly then move on to the next objective?
“Mechanically Gifted” vs “Creative Thinking”
So which one is better, Mechanically Gifted person but stupid or Not-too-good Mechanically but actually creative? Most of the time esport coaches say the first one is better than the other one. Competitive Games are basically hard to master, which if they can find a person that a mechanically gifted person they can mold them into a great player. People with Not-too-good mechanically but creative often overlooked and sometimes can be your winning ticket.
So what the hell I mean by that? I give you an example. So for the past 3 days, I’ve been pondering around and mostly feeling like shit with Monster Hunters: World. There’s this big dragon called Alatreon which seems that I can’t seem to kill it solo. Because I am competitive and I wanna kill this chonky dragon solo, I searched how to kill it in the most efficient ways, and came up with two videos. One with Switch Axe and Heavy Bow Gun.
To beat Alatreon unscathed, you have to punch your elemental damage in contrast to what element Alatreon has; if It has ice, you have to punch it with fire and vice versa before his ult kills everyone in the arena. This one guy kills it with a switch axe which IMO one of the hardest weapons in the game.
And this guy creatively thinks that if “I can punch enough raw damage Alatreon I might kill it before his ult”.
Both work and kill the damn dragon within 10 mins, now let me ask you a question, what is the objective? There are 2 objectives to kill this dragon, first pump your elemental damage and break his head twice. The first video shows how to complete it all, while the second one creatively says that those 2 objectives are irrelevant because as long as I can punch enough raw damage, this dragon is dead anyway. This is what we call “Cheese Strats”, a strategy out of the box that works well to an off-guard opponent.
By playing competitive games your mind is constantly evolving thinking about how the hell to complete the objectives efficiently. For example, playing League of Legends you played as a jungle, you usually do route a securing red and blue buffs and farm the jungle along the way. There will be times that you said that “ oh you know what, let's do route b, securing red, gank top and if lucky I still get blue buffs”, by doing so you already train your critical thinking. There is no right way to win competitive games ( a lot of wrong ways to win though), but it depends on how you complete your objective efficiently. Then what? You will start training route b and found yourself your own “unique route”. Iteratively playing and applying your theory will create the uniqueness of your strategy which came from your critical thinking in the first place, voila you unconsciously train to think critically while playing games.
The last one is snap judgment, a skill that people deemed that is not too important, but it is a very powerful skill to have. I read Malcolm Gladwell’s book about snap judgment and all I can say that Playing competitive games can help you nurture your Snap Judgement Skills. For me, snap judgment in-game are a priority objective. Sometimes when you playing games there are stacked objectives that needed to be done but you can clear them one by one because it's a fast-paced game and you need to decide quickly, which one I need to clear first. For example, you as DOTA 2 support on a winning lane, noticing on your maps that the enemy safe lane is empty and you can't decide where the hell their location. There are 2 objectives here as DOTA2 support; find out where the hell they are while keeping everybody safe farming. Let's say you do finding out the enemy first and because your lane is winning already, there is no point babysitting your carry anymore. You are on the way to enemy jungle warding when suddenly you see enemy support on the river presumably going mid, what will you do? let me be clear here the enemy support is presumably going mid not definitely. For me, this is my wake up call that my mid lane may be in imminent danger, so I will teleport mid to safeguard my midlaner and warn him that the gank are coming. In this situation, there is no right or wrong, but only it may be right. Maybe the enemy support is not ganking mid and I just wasted 5 mins of my time doing nothing and risking my safelaner to be ganked, or the mid actually in danger and I just save his ass and 5 mins worth of time for him to farm more items.
I have been playing games for 22 years since my first console Playstation was brought to my home when I was 3 and I love every second I played it. Grown-up but not so wiser me tasted what it feels like working in Esport environment and fell in love with it, the nerdy part of me read too many books and the critical part of me pinpoints what I love and what I read. I am no expert of this, but i can say that playing games subconsciously help you train those traits that you need in an office environment. | https://medium.com/@d-andaru-kusumo/critical-thinking-creative-thinking-and-snap-judgement-training-play-more-competitive-video-74a9f28e6ab8 | ['Dimas', 'Noto', 'Andaru Kusumo'] | 2020-11-23 08:43:19.210000+00:00 | ['Gaming', 'Snap Judgement', 'Critical Thinking', 'Creative Thinking', 'Video Games'] |
12 Fluent Design Elements to Add to Your App | 12 Fluent Design Elements to Add to Your App
A round-up of examples and sample code to experiment with dimension and movement
The Fluent Design System is all about incorporating light, depth, motion, material, and scale in user interfaces. Wanna make your app Fluent? Here’s a round-up of Fluent styles and controls found in first-party Windows apps, and how to implement them in your own UWP app.
NOTE: Fluent was released with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, so if you haven’t done so already, you’ll need to update your PC in order to see Fluent Design in first-party Windows apps and to build Fluent UWP apps.
Conscious controls
NavigationView is a conscious control
Conscious controls have layouts that adapt to different window sizes, which is essential for apps that scale across various devices and dimensions. To create conscious controls, you can code your own adaptive UI to optimize for different screen sizes, or you could use the NavigationView control (shown above), which automatically adjusts its layout based on the amount of screen space available.
How to implement in code: Adaptive UI tutorial, NavigationView control
2. Connected animation
Connected animation in the Tips app
Create cinematic experiences and add dimensionality to your UWP app by connecting transitions with motion! Here, the Tips app uses connected animation to show more information in a pop-up frame, but connected animations also work well for other elements, especially images, videos, and media.
How to implement in code: Connected animation
3. Parallax within an image
Parallax in the Photos app
Parallax moves different frames at different rates, creating a sense of depth with motion in a flat environment. Here, the Photos app uses parallax within a single image on a gallery page. While the effect might look complex, the ParallaxView control implements parallax with no extra effort required.
How to implement in code: ParallaxView control
4. Parallax in a frame
Parallax in the Weather app
The Weather app uses parallax in the whole frame, moving the top layer faster than the background image. The effect even makes the clouds appear like they’re slowly lifting!
How to implement in code: ParallaxView control
5. Pointer enter/exit effects
Zoom on hover in the Photos app
Add a tiny bit of motion to respond to user interaction, like how the Photos app slightly zooms in/out on photos on pointer enter/exit. Other responsive effects that work well with photos include spotlight, blur, exposure, and desaturation (see more in the Windows UI Dev Labs Sample Gallery).
How to implement in code: ScrollViewer Zoom, Pointer enter/exit effects
6. More detail on pointer enter/exit
Hover for details in the News and Weather apps
Similarly, you can use motion to reveal more content on pointer enter/exit, like the News and Weather apps, shown above.
How to implement in code: enable translation animation (see WindowsUIDevLabs example)
7. Reveal highlight on buttons
Reveal highlight on buttons in the People app
Light is a natural way to draw attention, so why not use light with focus states? Fluent Design captures the power of light with Reveal highlight, which outlines hidden borders to reveal objects. Controls like ListView, GridView, and NavigationView automatically use Reveal highlight for focus states on list items, and you can also enable Reveal for other controls, like Buttons and custom controls, as well.
How to implement in code: Reveal
8. Background acrylic
Acrylic in the Alarms & Clock app
Acrylic is a partially transparent material that helps establish visual hierarchy with light and depth. Here, the Alarms & Clock app uses an Acrylic background when the app is in focus and switches to an opaque background when the app is running in the background.
How to implement in code: Acrylic
9. In-app acrylic
In-app acrylic in the Mail app
You can also use Acrylic for components within your app to create visual distinctions while keeping the entire app in focus. The Mail app uses in-app acrylic for its navigation menu, creating a sense of depth within the app itself.
How to implement in code: Acrylic
10. System accent colors
System accent colors in the Calculator app
To personalize the experience of each user, you can incorporate their system accent color, which users select in the Windows personalization settings. The Calculator app uses the SystemAccentColor (here, it’s an orange color) to highlight mathematical operations buttons.
How to implement in code: Color=“{ThemeResource SystemAccentColor}”
11. Themes
Light and Dark themes in Settings
Users can select a light or dark theme in Settings, as shown above. You can automatically adjust the appearance of your app based on the user’s theme preferences by using SystemColors.
How to implement in code: Theme dependent brushes
12. Inking
Inking in the Edge browser
Scale your app into another dimension by adding Inking — my personal favorite Windows feature :) Inking can be found in a plethora of first party Windows apps, such as the Edge browser (shown above), Photos, Maps, Paint 3D, Sketchpad, and Sticky Notes.
How to implement in code: Inking
Other examples of Fluent
Not tired of Fluent yet? If you’d like to see examples of end-to-end apps featuring Fluent Design, check out these featured code samples, or get inspired by these 12 Fluent Design experiments.
To stay in-the-know with Microsoft Design, follow us on Dribbble, Twitter and Facebook, or join our Windows Insider program. And if you are interested in joining our team, head over to aka.ms/DesignCareers. | https://medium.com/microsoft-design/12-fluent-controls-to-add-to-your-uwp-app-4f2f0430a113 | ['Serena Zheng'] | 2019-08-27 16:11:56.127000+00:00 | ['Microsoft', 'Uwp Apps', 'UX', 'Windows 10', 'Fluent Design System'] |
WAZIHUB Info session at Dar Teknohama Business Incubator in Dar es Salaam | On Saturday 26th October 2019 DTBi had an info session where university students, graduates, tech startups met together for an introduction about WAZIHUB IoT Bootcamp and its objectives.
A total number of 45 university students, graduates and tech startups attended the session along side with 1 stakeholders on leadership.
The main agenda being an introduction to Internet of Things and create a general understanding of the topic by identifying challenges which could potentially be solved with the use of connected devices and analyze the strength of IoT solutions to the innovation ecosystem.
It is of high importance that people understand the role of IoT and capitalize on it to make tremendous changes in design thinking and the approach used to solve problems. | https://medium.com/waziup/wazihub-info-session-at-dar-teknohama-business-incubator-in-dar-es-salaam-1e8e0c71fa9e | ['Wazihub Iot'] | 2019-11-06 20:29:11.940000+00:00 | ['Bootcamp', 'Waziup', 'Innovation', 'Tanzania', 'IoT'] |
INFIDELITY FILES – Ifeanyi’s Story | INFIDELITY FILES – Ifeanyi’s Story
Part 1
“It’s another edition of ‘Talk to Me.’ If you’re a regular listener, you know that on this show, we push the envelope. If you’re listening for the first time, then I should tell you that we boldly discuss the topics other shows skirt around. It can get gritty on here and it may offend your sensibilities, but we drop it like it’s hot. I am Kike Akinnibosun your host. Welcome to the show!”
Kike tried to suppress her excitement. The last show with Ejindu had gone well. The audience call-in and messages had been awesome. Many disagreed with his position but like he said at the end, it was his life and he hadn’t come to seek counseling.
Today she had a husband and wife. It would be really hot if the chemistry between the couple would transmit. She already had a good feeling about them.
They were the second in the series of about 4 shows she hoped to run on infidelity in relationships. As usual their names were altered and their voices would be distorted. She was pumped up and hoped that hearing the story from both points of view would liven things up.
Kike continued her intro. “Just like on the last edition, my guests tonight will tell you their personal story and at the end, we will take your questions and comments.”
Music Intro and. . . . “Welcome Ifeanyi and Oluchi. It’s a pleasure to have you in the studio. You’re here to tell us your story/confession so please go right ahead.”
Ifeanyi looked to his wife. He held her hand tight and spoke to her “Ready Babe?
She looked at him and nodded. Then he began to speak.
“My name is Ifeanyi I’m here in the studio with my wife Oluchi. We are Igbo and have been married for 11 years. We have 3 adorable children. We are both professionals. I run a business in my field of expertise which I would rather not mention because it is a niche industry with few local players and going into further detail might blow my anonymity. A slight nervous laugh escaped from him at this point. My wife works for a multinational corporation.
When we got married we exchanged the usual vows and I’m sure I speak for both of us when I say how excited we were to begin our marital journey. I was sure that I would never look at another woman other than my wife. I knew she was literally my last bus-stop. At this point, Oluchi interjected. I have to tell you that we were so naïve. I actually believed that I would never find myself attracted to another man or be tempted by another man simply by having signed on the dotted lines and exchanged those vows. She laughed without humour, “Boy, was I wrong!” No one can give you a true picture of what happens in a marriage. Firstly because no 2 marriages are alike and secondly because no two people are alike. So while we may face similar challenges, our reactions, responses and outcomes will definitely vary.”
Ifeanyi took over. “So we began our lives and it’s been a good life on the whole. But life happened, familiarity bred contempt, the mystique disappeared in the mundaneness of life and we began to take each other for granted. Then Infidelity happened.”
At this point, Ifeanyi took a deep breath as he flashed back to the recent events in his life. It seemed like only yesterday. . .
One Year Ago
He shook his head and closed the page on his Twitter feed. Truth be told, he was getting tired of social media. It was such a misleading place. Who knew what to believe anymore? Couple goals and happy pictures everywhere; who was fooling whom? Ifeanyi put his phone down on the nightstand, shut his eyes and leaned back against the headboard. He felt unutterably weary. Almost 4 months and he still hadn’t come to grips with all that had happened.
He had stopped using his Face book and Instagram accounts because he was tired of brag posts and people posting pictures of perfect lives. God knew he didn’t envy anyone their perfect life. He had been part of #TeamPerfectLife once upon a time. He’d always loved taking photos. His queen Oluchi was pretty, curvaceous and photogenic to boot. Her body had filled out nicely after birthing and nursing their 3 children. She fit the description “thick” to a ‘T.’ They had twin sons and a daughter. His children were his pride and joy. He took pictures of himself and his family on the slightest pretext and he posted many. His Instagram was a photo collage of his life. He shared their many highs. Their lows were private matters to be kept out of the public eye.
He grimaced as he remembered the day he realized he was living a lie.
Real life was so different from movies. Movies gave you a hint when things were about to take a turn for the worse. The beat and tune of the background music changed; the lighting dimmed. You had some inkling that things were about to go awry. Real life wasn’t that kind.
It had been a Saturday evening. Oluchi and the maid were giving the kids a bath while he was in the living room watching an Arsenal V. Chelsea football match he could never forget it. Her phone was beside him on the couch and he felt it buzz. Idly he’d looked at it when it buzzed and froze when saw the banner of the Whatsapp message that dropped.
“I miss you Baby. Monday at the Oriental by 11. I can still taste you from yesterday.”
His blood had run cold. He was sure it was a wrong number. But how could it be when the sender was obviously a contact? He had never snooped into his wife’s phone and had always felt disdainful of men and women who snooped into their spouses phones. He and Oluchi had exchanged passwords early in their marriage in case of an emergency. He decided this qualified as one.
He clicked on the message and saw that it was a number she was engaged in an ongoing chat with. There were several other messages along the same lines. In addition, there were some casual conversations, affectionate chats and other more blatantly sexual messages. His blood ran cold. His own Oluchi was having an affair? No way. He loved her and he was sure she loved him. They had a good marriage. Yes, they had their disagreements; which married couple didn’t have differences of opinion from time to time. But this? No way. Ifeanyi was filled with bloodlust. He wanted to do something terrible to whomever this man was that dared to be so intimate with his wife. At the same time, he wished that he could unsee what he had seen and return to his previous state of blissful ignorance. He toyed with marking the message unread so that Oluchi wouldn’t know that he had read it. But why should he? He had nothing to hide.
His head felt like it had swelled to 10 times its size, shrunk and swelled repeatedly. He heard a loud ringing in his ears. His face felt hot and his hands were clammy and they began to shake uncontrollably. His skin felt tight. Ifeanyi wondered if it was possible to jump out of his own skin. Even as all these things were happening, he felt like he was outside his body observing things. He couldn’t stand being in the house. He got up on unsteady legs and walked out of the house. He didn’t know where he was going. He just walked and walked. The next time he came to, he realized that he was in front of the Law School at Victoria Island and he had no idea how he had got there. He had walked from his house in the Agungi area of Lekki. He was exhausted and considered calling a taxi to take him to a hotel. But he realized that he didn’t have his phone and he didn’t have his wallet either. He had little choice but to return home. As he trudged home wearily without any of the adrenaline which must have propelled him this far, he saw an Okada and hailed it. It took him home. When he got there, he asked the rider to wait while he went in to get some money to pay.
It was almost midnight. Oluchi was in the living room looking agitated. She jumped to her feet as soon as he walked in. He ignored her, took his wallet off the coffee table and walked out to pay the bike rider.
She was standing in the living room wringing her hands and looking nervous when he walked in again. He ignored her and went to the guest room. He was terrified of the rage he felt roiling within. He had always considered himself a man of temperance and self – restraint; yet in that moment, he understood why some men beat their wives. At the same time, he knew he didn’t have it in him to do that. Despite his rage, his overwhelming feeling was weariness laced with a sense of failure and resignation. If Oluchi could cheat on him, then anything was possible. Flashes of their lives went through his mind. He knew without a doubt that they were happy. Oluchi loved him. He would have sworn on a stack of bibles. So how? Why?
Ifeanyi was perplexed, it was dawning on him that until you were in a situation, you didn’t know how you would react to it. If someone had asked him what he would do if he found out his wife was having an affair, he would have answered unequivocally that he would shame her Jezebellian arse, disgrace her and kick her out. Oddly enough, now that he was in that situation, his most urgent desire was to ensure that no one else found out. He laughed sardonically at himself. He knew that he didn’t want to confront her. Confronting Oluchi would make it unavoidably real and he might have to listen to soul-destroying details of her affair. He also knew that for now at the very least, he wanted to maintain the facade of his life and preserve it. That might prove difficult if he listened to the details. He didn’t know why this was so important to him. But he was suddenly filled with dread that anyone should find out that Oluchi was cheating on him. He felt ashamed and guilty. As though he was the one who had failed. He couldn’t understand it.
He wasn’t a saint. But he’d refrained from doing anything to jeopardize his life. There was that time when he had chased that youth corper in his office and had been crazy to have her. He couldn’t remember how but he had come to his senses and it had fizzled out.
The other big risk he had taken was the time around the 10 year mark of their marriage when he had given in to temptation and reignited an affair with his ex-girlfriend from campus days. It had been so good with her those years ago on campus but after several of months of seeing her, he decided that it wasn’t for him. The sex was still spectacular but he realized that the risk of emotional involvement and her wanting more than he was willing or able to give wasn’t worth it. She had still been unmarried and that made him nervous. Since then, he had eschewed other women and focused his energies on his marriage. Now this? What was the point? | https://medium.com/@nwaoma007/infidelity-files-ifeanyis-story-5bf9cb44f88c | [] | 2020-04-23 18:45:59.434000+00:00 | ['Marital Relations', 'Infidelity', 'Love', 'Cheating', 'Nigerian Writing'] |
Fitness Trauma: when your patient can’t tell you where it hurts. | What follows is a letter I wrote to my physical therapist:
I cried through my last week’s session, performing exercises while swallowing mucous and choking back tears. I had to pause at one point to go the bathroom and cry freely, embarrassed, angry, frustrated. I left today’s session in tears too. I tried to tell you, I did, but you had two other patients you had to see and I couldn’t get the words out and the tears were already coming.
I’m coming to you for a pretty simple problem. Pain. My knee and shoulder hurts. I’ve got weak muscles, you’ve got exercises. You prescribe them, I do them, and my pain goes away. Healing is not linear, there will be ups and downs, but what is shaking me to the point of crying, breaking down, getting nervous to even go to my sessions?
Can we talk about fitness trauma? I googled it and there’s no one talking about this, so I made up the term. I’m talking about elementary school gym class when I cried “running” the mile, crippled by cramps in my abdomen from not breathing properly, not knowing how to run. I ended up walking, it took me 13 minutes, by far the slowest in the class. I never knew what to do in gym class, I never understood it. Later, as an adult, I felt overwhelmed going to a gym or fitness center. I don’t understand the machines, but more importantly I don’t understand my body.
I’m not connected to my body. For the longest time, I didn’t have a relationship with exercise. The effort felt torturous. I tried my hand at CrossFit, even joined a weight lifting gym. I still felt disconnected from my body, flopping around, performing moves without any understanding of how or why, desperately needing to be closely coached and monitored. I never gained that ownership, and ended up quitting all of it.
Finally, two years ago, I fell in love with hiking, and learned how to run. Last year I added an intense yoga practice to the mix. For the first time in my life I understood the relationship between effort and reward. I developed a neurochemical connection to movement. I unlocked my hiker and runner’s high, exertion of a level that made my brain and body sing. I ran three times a week, longer and longer runs. I topped out at 12 miles. I backpacked a 125 mile section of the Appalachian Trail, and 26 Adirondack high peaks. I found my bliss in this life.
Then, a knee injury, followed shortly after by a shoulder injury. My knee hurt so bad I couldn’t run, couldn’t stand, could barely be in any position comfortably. Soon enough, I found that both my knees hurt, my shoulder, my elbow, both my wrists, and my foot. I felt broken and at a complete loss. Without proper insurance coverage, unable to afford physical therapy, I went to my chiropractor for help. He did some functional tests and gave me exercises to strengthen my glutes, quads, and core, to which I applied myself like my life depended on it, which it did. I worked at my exercises relentlessly, daily, picking up short weekly runs again after two months off. This summer, I hiked the high peaks again and my knees felt stronger than ever. I finally felt I had turned the corner on this awful chapter in my life.
I attempted another Adirondack hike a few weeks later. It was night and day. My knees felt worse than they ever had. Pain with each step, and 13 miles left to get me out of the backcountry. No cell service, no choice. I hiked out. After that I doubled down on my exercises, hoping to fix the problem twice as hard and twice as fast.
What might seem intuitive to others, which muscles feel the effort in an exercise, is not to me. I often cannot tell what part of my body is feeling something. I have a history of abuse and trauma, and my family has a strong predisposition to psychosomatic complaints. We all know our bodies can manifest our emotions. Some get headaches, some stomach aches, some tension in the neck and shoulders. When I get stressed out, my throat hurts, and I feel as though I have a cold. If I get really stressed, sometimes I dissociate, and my body no longer feels like it is mine at all. I’ve worked through some of my trauma in EMDR therapy, and my psychosomatic responses are getting milder and milder the more of my abuse I unpack. But if I cry, I’m still sick for 4–5 days following. Maybe you are starting to see the complex set of factors some of your patients may be dealing with?
When you give me an exercise, if I can’t feel it, can’t trust my body, I turn to my mind. I overthink it. I finally understand that rows are a back/scapula exercise, but does that mean it’s two moves, with the arms doing the first part of the work, then the shoulder blades/back performing the second part? Where should my feet be? What angle should all the parts of my body be at, which muscles should I keep tight, which loose? How do I talk to those muscles to get them to do that? Tell me exactly what to do, and watch me, because I can’t feel if I’m doing it right. You’ll see me with my hands on my body often, checking to make sure my hips are level, my core is tight, my glutes are squeezing.
I am slowly moving into my body, learning to inhabit it, learning to be comfortable here. Maybe this disconnection contributed to my injuries. Pushing past subtle signals of discomfort and pain that I didn’t even notice, or didn’t think were important. It has taken me weeks or even months to feel certain muscles working in my body. I had no sense of my glutes, scapular muscles, or core muscles for the first six months of working with them. I’m trying to honor my body now, not push it past pain, take care of it, make it feel safe with me at the helm. But I also feel completely over-attuned to my knee sensations, overanalyzing every twinge. I am in a paradox — both disconnected and overinvolved.
So when I’m given too many cues on a complex movement like a deadlift, I get overwhelmed. Not enough cues, though, and I worry about getting injured. Am I going to hurt my back doing deadlifts wrong? The coach at the weightlifting gym I was at would sit at his desk and describe the moves, never getting up to show me. When I balked, scared to do it wrong, scared to hurt myself, he laughed at me. “It’s easy”, his laugh said, “why are you making this such a big deal?”. He made me feel stupid and ashamed. Fitness trauma. I’ve even considered going to physical therapy school myself, just to finally be able to understand my own body. Do I need to study it? Learn all the names of all the muscles? Or do I need to listen to it? Feel it? Start to trust myself and my body for the first time in my life at the age of 32?
I need you, in ways I don’t want to, but I do. I need to fix these injuries, to reclaim my life. I am so self-conscious of being the troublesome, difficult, unpleasant patient. I want you to want to work with me, to want to help me. I want to be easy and cheerful and compliant. This is what I’m struggling with, though, and I am hoping that if I tell you, honestly, perhaps you can have some empathy and compassion for me as I fumble to tell you that “this week, uh, my knee felt weird, kinda on the outside, it doesn’t feel twisted anymore you see but, um, it kinda hurts, well, maybe pain isn’t the right word, it’s just, I don’t know, it doesn’t matter, let’s just get on the elliptical.”
I’ll see you next session, I’m doing my best.
Anna | https://medium.com/@annatheka/fitness-trauma-when-your-patient-cant-tell-you-where-it-hurts-ebcc0e1f3df9 | ['Anna Ka'] | 2020-12-18 16:23:54.975000+00:00 | ['Trauma', 'Physical Therapy', 'Body', 'Trauma Informed', 'Pyschology'] |
MTA Demo Day, Maps in light of Pandemic, Call for Innovation | The FOAM team wishes everyone health and wellness during these uncertain times. Nevertheless, the hard-driving FOAM team is working vigorously towards Proof of Location and business goals from our respective homes.
The unfolding pandemic further highlights the FOAM Mission statement — to enable crowd-sourced mapping and decentralized location tools — as the world turns to reliable information sharing in order to sustain lives and operations. Last month, US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo claimed Beijing’s “inadequate information sharing” caused US handling of situation to be “behind in the curve”. As governments wrestle one another for info, we push harder and faster to develop consensus driven and decentralized information sharing tools that are available to all.
We hosted a community call on Thursday April 16 with guest demos from FOAM Gitcoin hackathon winners. We are excited to continue to open discussion around how innovative products built on FOAM products can serve the world’s new and coming needs. Check out the call here.
FOAM was honored to participate in the MTA Signaling Challenge Virtual Demo Day on April 2nd. FOAM and 16 other technological leaders presented plans to MTA officials to modernize New York City’s 115-year old subway signaling system. NYC subway officials recognize the heightened priority of subway innovation given the impacts of COVID-19. MTA Chief innovation officer describes “This public health crisis is a formidable challenge and we sincerely appreciate the hard work of Transit Innovation Partnership in helping MTA build the most innovative solutions on the market.” Foamspace was thrilled for an opportunity to demonstrate the proof of location technology to a wide array of the MTA’s officials and engineers.
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We have seen a jump in proprietary maps in recent weeks. Effective map products of all kinds are essential to navigating the spread of this pandemic. An interesting example of proprietary map is that of Baidu in China.
Baidu and Baidu Maps (the top search engine in China) has launched a dedicated page to demonstrate locations of confirmed COVID-19 cases. The page (shown below) shows locations between the user and the nearest confirmed infection. The product also displays recent locations visited by the latter.
While the Baidu map’s wide use of individual data is controversial the product highlights how map products can be helpful in managing the spread of the virus. Maybe a consensus-driven product using voluntary and altruistic information around tested positive individuals’ info is possible. China claims to have managed the crisis now and workers are back to work. How helpful is the Baidu map product in managing the spread of Covid? What other types of map products could be relevant?
In early March, Emergency Medical doctors took COVID-19 information sharing into their own hands by forming a community verified map that displayed updates of confirmed and suspicious cases. The altruistic initiative was largely inspired by a Facebook group of 21,000 contributing EM physician’s desire for effective industry collaboration. Similar to the FOAM map, the map depended upon independent contributors (in this case EM physicians) to post accurate points verifiable by consensus.
EM Physicians were asked to provide Hospital level info to support each Covid (point) submission. This is information which ER doctors have access through their hospital databases and creates a consensus mechanism for the map that also enhances the specificity and accuracy of each point.
The impetus behind the ER curated COVID-19 map reflects the FOAM mission statement: a community operation enabling transparent information flow. Information around infection rates — where and when — are critical for policymakers and civilians alike. FOAM Map team is empowered to see the rise of similar products serving the social good.
These Viral Coronavirus Cellphone Maps Send A Powerful Message: But Here’s The Problem.
The Forbes article raises concerns over the increase in cellphone data tracking. “There is now increasing coverage of the use of smartphones to track population movements as the behavioral changes required to fight the coronavirus pandemic take hold.”
TECTONIX/TWITTER
How Apple and Google are tackling their covid privacy problem.
MIT Technology Review published an opinion on Google and Apple’s efforts to create products that track the COVID-19 cases and issues of privacy and trust associated with it.
Covid 19 : People : : GPS Disruption : Technology.
There are lessons to be learned from Covid-19 and GPS Disruption @GPSBackup writes: “Both are Complex, difficult to understand, cascade through networks and systems — Severe economic damage — detection systems available, but not purchased and ready.”
FOAM Map is empowered to further serve the public good. Help us create effective map and information sharing products so the world can better deal with the crisis at hand. The FOAM Grants program is open to a wide range of ideas.
Example Projects :
Color coding scheme for POI’s that reflect business opening hours
Enhanced display of hospital/healthcare wait times
Visual map viewer of infection rates/spread
Apply for a Foam Grant or start by scheduling a brainstorming session.
In the meantime, stay well and safe. | https://blog.foam.space/mta-demo-day-maps-in-light-of-pandemic-call-for-innovation-73b5bcde27c2 | ['Jessica Salomon'] | 2020-05-05 18:01:09.590000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Covid 19 Crisis', 'Maps', 'Featured', 'Blockchain'] |
How to build the perfect Deep Learning Computer and save thousands of dollars | Updated 12/11/2019
Building your own Deep Learning Computer only takes a few hours. Assembly video is below.
Picking the 4 most important parts: CPU, GPU, Storage and Memory.
There are only 8 components to a build: GPU, CPU, Storage, Memory, CPU Cooler, Motherboard, Power, Case. The first 4 are the most important. When training, data flows from storage to memory to the GPU, while the CPU helps along the way (manipulates batches, etc). So, you want to make sure:
Your CPU can support all your GPUs
Your GPU is fast enough and can fit the model and data batch in memory
Memory is DDR4 and big enough to float most datasets uncompressed
Storage is M.2 PCIe and big enough
Make your computer expandable to 4 GPUs with the right CPU
It’s hard to know how many GPUs you’ll need because some models take 10s of hours to train (Vision CNNs, Natural Language Processing LSTMs, Capsule Auto Encoders, etc). So, one of the best ideas is to start with 1 or 2 GPUs and add more GPUs as you go along.
Each GPU requires at least 8x PCIe lanes (it’s 16x officially, but there’s data for which 8x is good enough if you’re not running cross-GPU experiments). You will need 4x PCIe lanes for the M.2 SSD (which plugs right in and is 5x faster than SATA3), and another 4x PCIe lanes for Gigabit ethernet. That’s a total of 40 PCIe lanes and will restrict your CPU choices quite a bit. Your CPU will dictate the motherboard you need. (For example: AMD Threadripper CPU = X399 chipset motherboard, Intel 7900X CPU = X299 chipset motherboard, etc).
You’ll want a CPU with 8+ cores / 16+ threads and 40+ PCIe lanes since this allows 4 experiments per GPU (16 experiments if you have 4 GPUs). Typically models take up at least a couple gigabytes of GPU memory so it’s rare you can run more than 4 experiments per GPU. Finally, make sure the PCIe lanes are actually getting routed to the expansion slots.
AMD CPUs offer better value than Intel
As of December 2019, AMD offers more performance for less money. AMD’s 1920X with 12 Cores/24 Threads/60 PCIe lanes is only $199! Intel’s 7900X with 10 Cores/20 Threads/44 PCIe lanes is $1000. Benchmarks show comparable performance, so AMD seems like a no-brainer. AMD’s second generation 2920x is only $400. (Disclosure: I’m long AMD stock.)
Your GPU needs to have enough memory and be fast enough
GPU memory works differently than computer RAM, so if you don’t have enough memory to fit your model you won’t be able to train (as opposed to train slowly). Once in a while I have a model that requires 10GB+ to run, so if in doubt, choose one with more memory.
Nvidia GPUs are easier to use than other platforms because they have the most community support for tools (Tensorflow, PyTorch, etc). Buy cards that have ‘blower style’ fans instead of the large double fans because if you have multiple GPUs you need to vent air outside of the box. (eg 1080 Ti Founder Edition, or 2080 Ti Asus Turbo)
Your choices are basically:
Super High-end: Titan RTX (24GB / 4608 Cores / 576 Tensor Cores / $2,500) You can only fit one of these on the bottom slot because Titans don’t use blower fans.
Titan RTX (24GB / 4608 Cores / 576 Tensor Cores / $2,500) You can only fit one of these on the bottom slot because Titans don’t use blower fans. High-end : 2080 Ti (11GB / 4352 Cores / 544 Tensor Cores /$1149), 1080 Ti (11GB / 3584 Cores / $500 used), 2080 Super (8GB / 3072 Cores / 384 Tensor Cores / $730)
: 2080 Ti (11GB / 4352 Cores / 544 Tensor Cores /$1149), 1080 Ti (11GB / 3584 Cores / $500 used), 2080 Super (8GB / 3072 Cores / 384 Tensor Cores / $730) Mid-tier : 2070 Super (8GB / 2560 Cores / 320 Tensor Cores / $530)
: 2070 Super (8GB / 2560 Cores / 320 Tensor Cores / $530) Low-end (Best Value) : 2060 Super (8GB / 2176 Cores / 272 Tensor Cores / $410)
: 2060 Super (8GB / 2176 Cores / 272 Tensor Cores / $410) GPU inventory is very limited, so you may have to hunt around for inventory
The Titan RTX is a monster card and ~55% faster than 1080 Ti on 32 bit training and 135% faster in half precision mode because of the additional Tensor Cores and extra memory which allows for much larger batch sizes. 2080 Ti is ~40% faster than 1080 Ti on 32 bit training and ~65% faster when used in half precision mode. From there, speed performance is linear to the number of CUDA cores so expect 1080 Ti to be ~40% faster than 1080 and 1080 to be 33% faster than 1070.
Storage and Memory need to be as fast as possible
Because you’ll be moving lots of data around from storage to memory then to the GPUs, you want that pipeline to be as fast as possible. Use M.2 SSD NVMe, which plugs right into the motherboard and DDR4 memory.
Important tradeoffs of my build and common pitfalls
Initial single-GPU build costs $3k and can expand to 4 GPUs later
Here is my parts list with updated pricing and inventory.
GPU: I picked the 1080 Ti intially because a 40% speed gain versus 1080 is significant when you’re talking about 10-hour train times, and the extra 3GB of memory is important when working with large models or increasing training speed with larger batch sizes. 1080 Tis are hard to find now, so check eBay. I later added a 2080 Ti and a Titan RTX in the bottom slot. As of 2020, the 2060 Super is the best value for a starter card.
CPU: AMD’s 1920X has 12 cores and 38MB cache and is $150 more expensive vs. 1900X’s 8 cores and 20 MB cache. Earmarking 2 cores / 4 threads per GPU and the fact I might want the machine to double as a staging server later, 1920X gives me a little more breathing room.
Storage: I used a single 1TB M.2 SSD, I don’t like having stuff on different drives and 500GB seems small considering datasets are often tens of gigabytes. I might add a super large spinning hard drive for ‘cold’ storage later.
Memory: Quad channel memory is used because 1920X runs faster with quad than dual channel memory. 4 x 16GB is chosen because maximum supported memory is 128GB so it’s an easy upgrade path without needing to remove chips later. 3000Mhz is the fastest memory compatible with the motherboard (it’s overclocked from base 2667Mhz).
Power Supply: 1600W P2 is enough to cover 4x250W GPUs + 180W CPU + 150W for everything else and a little bit of headroom for overclocking. You don’t want to max out your power supply because fans kick in like crazy when it’s running at high utilization.
Case: Lian-Li PC-O11AIR because I need a case with 8 expansion slots (most mid-tower cases have 7, which means you cannot fit 4 double-wide GPUs). Between this case and the Corsair Air, this case looks nicer and comes with dust filters.
Avoid these 7 Common Pitfalls
Run through this list to make sure your build checks out.
GPUs overheat my computer: Make sure you get the blower-style GPUs (The 2080 Ti version is called Turbo by Asus) because they vent out the back of the case. The ‘Overclock’ ‘OC’ type cards will have 2 large fans that blow into the computer, which will overheat. You also need a fan that delivers cold air directly onto the GPUs’ intake. You can fit one Titan RTX in the bottom slot if your case has a vent on the bottom like the O11AIR . Not enough PCIe lanes: You need at least 8x PCIe lanes / GPU (16x is better). If you have 4 GPUs, with a M.2 drive and Gigabyte ethernet, it’s 40 PCIe lanes at a minimum. My model doesn’t fit in my GPU memory: large Convolutional Networks and LSTMs use a lot of GPU memory, 8GB vs. 11GB is a big difference. Motherboard doesn’t fit 4 GPUs: Your motherboard needs to have slots for up to 4 GPUs and they must have space between them to use all 4. Best way is to check is a visual inspection on Google Images or search for people who have done it. Case doesn’t fit 4 GPUs: most mid tower-cases only have 7 expansion slots, so you will not be able to put a 4th double-wide GPU in the bottom slot. I’ve only found Lian Li and Corsair as options. Power Supply doesn’t have enough power / is too loud: You need to account for GPU (~250W each), CPU (~180W), Other (~150W, Motherboard, fans, etc). Overclocking draws a lot of power as well. Some power supplies are loud, read reviews online for quietness info. Typically the 80+ Platinum rated ones are quieter. My CPU cooler blocks the first GPU slot: Big air coolers such as Noctua sometimes will block the first GPU slot. Search for others who have used the combo.
A budget expandable Deep Learning Computer at $2k
Knowing all this, you can see how the following is a budget expandable Deep Learning Computer that costs $2k and is also expandable to 4 GPUs.
Budget computer before taxes, it’s still expandable to 4 GPUs. As of Jan, 2020, you can replace the 1070 with the 2060 Super for $410. Prices for components have dropped a lot, you can get 1900X for $160. 32GB RAM for $150. 1TB EVO for $200.
Save a thousand dollars as compared to buying
If you are considering buying a system instead of building one, you can get a 4x2080 Ti system from Exxact for $7,999, which is the best deal I’ve found. The 2x2080 Ti system goes for $5,899. Building your own 4 GPU system in 2020 is a total of $6,600: $3,000 + $500 (upgrade to 2080 Ti) + 3 x $1,200 (3 more 2080 Ti) - $500 (NVMe and RAM are cheaper in 2020). So that’s $1,400 (~20%) cheaper to build.
There are benefits to buying a pre-built though, such as a 3-year warranty, support, and pre-installed software. If you’re a busy individual or buying for academia/a company and want to simplify your life, it’s worth considering.
Exxact’s ready-to-run Deep Learning computers with 3 year warranties
Ordering and putting parts together
Design your build on PCPartPicker.com
PCPartPicker is very useful because it lets you select parts and tells you if there are incompatibilities, it also gives you the best price across several reputable sellers.
Bandh, Adorama, Newegg, and Amazon are all reputable resellers. If in doubt, check Reseller Ratings.
Putting parts together takes a few hours
Assembly breaks down into the following 4 steps: 1) Case prep 2) Motherboard prep 3) Mount Motherboard 4) Install Memory, GPU and wrap up.
Here is a short video of me assembling my computer:
Short video on the actual assembly
I also watched this build video for X399/Threadripper, you can probably find a similar video for your parts list.
Install software with online scripts and tutorials
If you follow tutorials, it’s relatively easy to get the stack up. If you don’t use tutorials or the wrong one, then it will be very frustrating!
I installed Ubuntu 16.04 and used this tutorial for the CUDA/CuDNN/Tensorflow install. I think there’s a prebuilt for Tensorflow now so you don’t have to compile it from scratch.
Expanding to more GPUs
I added a Titan RTX, a 2080 Ti, and another 1080 Ti and it was really straight forward. You will have to upgrade your Nvidia driver to nvidia-410 to run the 2080 Ti.
My Deep Learning computer with 4 GPUs — one Titan RTX, two 1080 Ti and one 2080 Ti. The Titan RTX must be mounted on the bottom because the fan is not blower style.
Benchmarking your Deep Learning Computer
Continue to the next post: Why your personal Deep Learning Computer can be faster than AWS to learn what drives Deep Learning Performance and how your computer will stack up against the cloud.
See new photos and updates: Follow me on Medium and Twitter!
FAQ
Why is expandability important in a Deep Learning Computer?
If you don’t know how much GPU power you’ll need, the best idea is to build a computer for Deep Learning with 1 GPU and add more GPUs as you go along.
Will you help me build one?
Happy to help with questions via comments / email. I also run the www.HomebrewAIClub.com, some of our members may be interested in helping.
How can I learn this stuff?
Stanford is giving away a lot of their CS curriculum. So look there. There are also great articles on more cutting edge research here.
What models can I train?
You can train any model provided you have data, GPUs are most useful for Deep Neural Nets such as CNNs, RNNs, LSTMs, GANs. Some examples w/ code & datasets are listed on my website thisisjeffchen.com.
Vision and photo enhancement is really good now, which makes the new iPhone 11 amazing.
More FAQ: is located at the bottom of the page here. | https://medium.com/the-mission/how-to-build-the-perfect-deep-learning-computer-and-save-thousands-of-dollars-9ec3b2eb4ce2 | ['Jeff Chen'] | 2020-02-26 13:13:15.008000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'Deep Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Startup'] |
Create a Custom Annotation for the Kubernetes ingress-nginx Controller | Testing the Annotation
In order to test the annotation, we can perform the following:
1. First, let’s add memory to Docker Desktop. Although you can run with less memory, 8GB is recommended.
2. Now we can install all the required applications to create the development environment.
I am using OSX, so I will install using Homebrew, but these tools can be installed on other operating systems by other means. Click on each link for an install guide.
3. Create a development cluster running your version of the ingress-nginx controller. This is done with a few simple commands.
$ cd ingress-nginx $ make clean $ make build
go: downloading k8s.io/klog v1.0.0
go: downloading k8s.io/apimachinery v0.18.5
... $ make dev-env
[dev-env] building image
...
Kubernetes cluster ready and ingress-nginx listening in localhost using ports 80 and 443
... $ kubectl get pods -n ingress-nginx
NAME READY STATUS
ingress-nginx-admission-create-mjqhb 0/1 Completed
ingress-nginx-admission-patch-krjg8 0/1 Completed
ingress-nginx-controller-6fcd5657-vql5g 1/1 Running
4. Create a Deployment, Service, and Ingress. This step is needed so that we can test our new ingress rule.
Deployment
Here we are deploying gcr.io/kubernetes-e2e-test-images/echoserver:2.1 just responds with information about the request. The application runs on port 8080.
$ echo "
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: meow
spec:
replicas: 2
selector:
matchLabels:
app: meow
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: meow
spec:
containers:
- name: meow
image: gcr.io/kubernetes-e2e-test-images/echoserver:2.1
ports:
- containerPort: 8080
" | kubectl apply -f - # wait a min for the deployment to be created
$ kubectl get deploy
NAME DESIRED CURRENT UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE
meow 2 2 2 2 # you should have 2 pods running
$ kubectl get pods
NAME READY STATUS
meow-5557bc7c54-cw2ck 1/1 Running
meow-5557bc7c54-kfzm5 1/1 Running
Service
This service allows other pods to access the application above via the Cluster-IP assigned.
$ echo "
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: meow-svc
spec:
ports:
- port: 80
targetPort: 8080
protocol: TCP
name: http
selector:
app: meow
" | kubectl apply -f - # wait a min for the service to be created
$ kubectl get svc
NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S)
meow-svc ClusterIP 10.107.78.24 <none> 80/TCP
Ingress
This ingress allows us to access the service meow-svc via the /meow path. Since we didn’t specify a host, then we can access it from the cluster. We will send a request, just to make sure it responds appropriately.
$ echo "
apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
name: meow-ingress
annotations:
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/nickname: \"crazzzzy-server\"
spec:
rules:
- http:
paths:
- path: /meow
backend:
serviceName: meow-svc
servicePort: 80
" | kubectl apply -f - $ kubectl get ing
NAME CLASS HOSTS ADDRESS PORTS AGE
meow-ingress <none> * 80 5s $ kubectl get pod -n ingress-nginx
NAME READY STATUS
ingress-nginx-admission-create-mjqhb 0/1 Completed
ingress-nginx-admission-patch-krjg8 0/1 Completed
ingress-nginx-controller-6fcd5657-vql5g 1/1 Running # Since we haven't exposed the ingress-controller, let's see if the routing is working from the pod
$ kubectl exec -it ingress-nginx-controller-6fcd5657-vql5g -n ingress-nginx -- curl 127.0.0.1/meow Hostname: meow-85d75dbf8d-lczd2
Pod Information:
-no pod information available-
Server values:
server_version=nginx: 1.12.2 - lua: 10010
Request Information:
client_address=10.244.0.6
method=GET
real path=/meow
query=
request_version=1.1
request_scheme=http
request_uri=http://127.0.0.1:8080/meow Request Headers:
accept=*/*
host=127.0.0.1
user-agent=curl/7.67.0
x-forwarded-for=127.0.0.1
x-forwarded-host=127.0.0.1
x-forwarded-port=80
x-forwarded-proto=http
x-real-ip=127.0.0.1
x-request-id=c183a12ae4aec14ea023b7e23d1e5246
x-scheme=http Request Body:
-no body in request-
5. Now let’s see if our changes propagated. We can do this by checking the ingress-nginx config file for changes.
$ kubectl exec -it ingress-nginx-controller-6fcd5657-vql5g -n ingress-nginx -- cat /etc/nginx/nginx.conf | grep crazzzzy-server -a5 -b5
7411- proxy_cache_path /tmp/nginx-cache-auth levels=1:2 keys_zone=auth_cache:10m max_size=128m inactive=30m use_temp_path=off;
7534-
7537- # Global filters
7556-
7559- ## start server _
7579: # crazzzzy-server
7599- server {
7610- server_name _ ;
7629-
7633- listen 80 default_server reuseport backlog=511 ;
7685- listen [::]:80 default_server reuseport backlog=511 ;
And there you have it, a working annotation! Now you can get started with creating annotations for all of the features available to nginx.
You can start by checking out which issues you would like to work on or by seeing what nginx directives have yet to be implemented. | https://medium.com/better-programming/creating-a-custom-annotation-for-the-kubernetes-ingress-nginx-controller-444e9d486192 | ['Fernando Diaz'] | 2020-08-20 18:06:27.350000+00:00 | ['Nginx', 'Programming', 'DevOps', 'Cloud Computing', 'Kubernetes'] |
Connecting Small Businesses with Their Community: Meet the Dashible App | Connecting Small Businesses with Their Community: Meet the Dashible App
Meet the Dashible app, a relatively new discount and deals app founded in the NYC area.
Dashible is a New York City based company that strives to connect local businesses with prospective customers and locals. Vendors can sign up with Dashible for free. People then download the app, also for free, where they have access to use deals around town. The intention is to showcase local businesses and provide a way for consumers and vendors to connect.
During the unprecedented times of 2020, the Dashible app has taken on a new role of importance in the community. Since many around the world are observing stay-at-home recommendations and organic foot-traffic has dissipated, vendors are looking to maximize their reach and discoverability online, on social media, and on apps such as Dashible.
Available on both the Apple App and Google Play store, Dashible provides a platform for locals to discover restaurants, boutiques, and services in their area directly from the comfort of their phone.
It’s perfect for discovering a new coffee shop in an area of the city you want to explore. Use the app to create an adventure outside of your normal walking route, to pick up a new type of food across town, and most importantly, to save money along the way.
A few examples of awesome discounts available on the app are:
10% off for first time customers at LashPower
[28 W 30th Suite # 304, Manhattan, NY 10001]
Manicure & Pedicure for $23 at Stone Spa & Nails
[3406 Broadway, Astoria, NY 11106]
10% off pick up & online orders at Sushi Star
[462 9th Ave, New York, NY 10018]
90 minutes of bottomless drinks during brunch for $25.95 at Calle Dao — Chelsea
[461 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011]
Free cocktail with any entree purchase at Cafe Nunez
[240 W 35th, New York, NY 10001]
$75 worth of merchandise for $50 at Aum Shanti Bookshop & Crystal Gallery
[230 E 14th St, New York, NY 10003]
The people behind Dashible also are active in creating a sense of community in the neighborhoods of NYC. By partnering with local businesses on events called Dash Drops, Dashible helps bring customers into businesses looking to grow their outreach. Dash Drops normally include a super awesome deal or freebie at participating vendors’ locations on the day of the event. A few examples of previous Dash Drops are:
Free hot milk tea at Squarrel Cafe
[572 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217]
Free baklava at Brooklyn Baklava
[42 4th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217]
25% off a lobster roll at BK Lobster Williamsburg for their grand opening
[340 Bedford Avenue (Bet. S 3rd & S 2nd) Brooklyn, NY 11211]
Download the Dashible app today and learn more here: https://linktr.ee/xplore_mktg | https://medium.com/@writewithkendra/connecting-small-businesses-with-their-community-meet-the-dashible-app-a003f4629c74 | ['Kendra Muecke'] | 2020-12-09 21:52:06.153000+00:00 | ['New York City', 'Marketing', 'Food And Drink', 'Apps', 'Savings Tips'] |
The First Date (Sort of) | “So, several bad relationships in the last few years?” Samar asked, grabbing a piece of bread from the generously stocked basket between them.
Afra nodded. “I had a policy of only dating men I hated.”
She took a big gulp of her Merlot and cleared her throat. “How about you?”
Samar held up his right index finger.
“I’ll wait,” Afra assumed it was a gesture.
Samar swallowed quickly. “No, I mean- I’ve only had one.”
“One what?”
“Relationship.”
Afra couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice. “You have only been in one relationship since we graduated? Samar that’s,” she quickly checked her math, “seven years.”
He nodded. “Yep.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. “How long did it last?”
The server approached their dimly lit table. Afra suddenly felt self-conscious about her dwindling glass of wine. Samar’s was still half-full.
“Can I get either of you a refill?” she beamed.
“Am I the only one who’s drinking?” Afra asked with a tinge of nervousness in her voice.
“That’s kind of the thing about losing so much weight. Alcohol hits you differently. Harder.” he responded. “You can top me off,” he said to the server. “But,” he turned his gaze to Afra, “I’m going to drink this slowly.”
“I’ll take a refill,” Afra smiled. Her eyes assessed the restaurant as her drink was poured. It was aesthetically pleasing. Dim lighting, lush greenery, and solid mahogany tables surrounded them.
Once they were alone again, he said, “We lasted a year.”
“I have many questions,” Afra responded.
“Actually, me too.”
She bit her lip. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to pollute this conversation with talk of exes.”
Samar sat back in his chair and smiled. “I’m okay with that.”
“This is a very nice restaurant.” It felt like an expensive place. Afra wondered if they were on a date. | https://medium.com/south-asian-persuasion/the-first-date-sort-of-51b5e3c6f923 | ['Rebeca Ansar'] | 2020-12-14 16:34:24.134000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Storytelling', 'Short Story', 'Short Fiction', 'Novel'] |
Don’t Write What You Know | Don’t Write What You Know
Two things happen when you dip your toe in uncharted waters. The first is you absorb new information. As a writer, this is useful. As a human, this is life.
The second is you create a ripple. New information might seem like it’s obvious to others, however, chances are there are a lot of people like you who are just as unaware.
By sharing new information, you spark interest in an uninformed someone else. This someone sparks interest in someone else who does the same for someone else and so forth.
In other words, writing what you know keeps the fire going. Writing what you learn kindles a new flame. | https://medium.com/60-second-spark/dont-write-what-you-know-e82421680325 | ['Declan Wilson'] | 2020-12-14 17:02:31.573000+00:00 | ['Knowledge', 'Art', 'Life', 'Self', 'Writing'] |
To my precious friend. | I have always wanted one. We were in the city and that too in a rental, so there was never a chance. There was enough space for just three people. That wasn’t the only reason. Circumstances didn’t allow us to have one nor there will be time to take care of it. But this all changed and a chance appeared this last year. We were back in the village. I was staying with my mother after my college for a brief period of time. We have our own place and most of them here had one. One for each home. The guardian angel — A dog.
It was around the month of July, a relative of mine had a dog that gave birth to five puppies. Two females and three males. As soon as the news reached my ears, I went up to see them all. Like many places here, people always giveaway the puppies to others who are interested in taking them as the mother wouldn’t take care after some time and they all end up stray. Another reason is that there is always one house that needs one, even though almost everyone has one. We didn’t have one either. This time all the conditions were favorable. Place-Check. Time to take care-Check. People to show love-Double check.
So, I rushed to the place and to the owner, who is also a relative, managed to distract the mother from the place and took her away. She wouldn’t leave them initially but after some time she left. The puppies were kept under a sheet of dry coconut tree leaves which was serving as a roof sitting upon very small concrete pillars. There was just enough gap for the mother and the puppies to come out and go inside. An average human can at most extend their hands through the gaps. The insides looked dark but also seemed like a small comfortable home. I could see two of them sleeping and three others slowly crawling outside. Each one of them was not more than the size of my inner palm. My eyes laid on one which appeared to be a light brown-biscuit color. It was not even walking but crawling slow and steady. Their legs were so small their tummies were touching the ground. There were all round and fluffy. Now, there is this belief here that the number of nails a puppy has, the louder it barks. Obviously, I didn’t care but that was one of the main eligibility criteria around here. I informed the person that I’ll come after a month and take the light brown-biscuit colored one. Mother milk-strong. I went back home and told them it had twenty nails.
It was almost a month. They would’ve been grown a little by now. At least that’s what I was expecting. I went again to see them. They were slightly bigger than my palm now. I took the one I chose to home. It was still crawling with its tummy a little higher than the ground. The ground clearance still needed work. I told my parents that I was going to return it back and take it after some time. I felt it was too soon to leave the mother. Half a month passed and the relative himself brought it our place. He told us that it keeps running and if it were to go somewhere it might get lost. This was the right time. That night, we welcomed the fourth member of our family.
From the next day onwards, the home had a feeling of a child’s presence. Much like for a child, there was a lot of time consumed for deciding a name. I was the deciding person, but at the same time, I wanted it to be easily pronounceable for the people there. After numerous possibilities of combinations, I settled for the name Yuuki meaning precious friend combining their kanji equivalents.
Mom doesn’t like puppies inside the house. I was taking Yuuki everywhere. I have seen a lot of memes that say the father is the one who says no to dogs but once they are brought home, it’s always the dad and the dog who becomes the close friends. I didn’t believe until I saw it. Days passed, Yuuki grew a little. There were two small incidents that took place shortly after. Every morning mom used to wake up early to do the outside work. Yuuki would always follow her wherever she goes. On one such early morning, mom closed the gates so that Yuuki wouldn’t come outside and when she came in, it went outside the gate. Unknowingly, she closed the gates but still knew that he was outside. After sometime when she got busy with work we forgot that he was not there anymore. Now, dogs always run somewhere but they come back home. Yuuki was two months old pup. He ran off somewhere. We searched for over half a day until the neighbor asked us if we wanted a puppy they found in their fields. They were not aware we had one already. Yuuki went on and slept in their fields. From that day onwards, mom used to say nothing when Yuuki sleeps inside the home. She was glad that he was still there. The second was totally on me. While Yuuki was sitting on my lap, he tried to jump off me and I didn’t stop him. The result was him landing on his weak legs and then his face hit the ground. He was yelping. I ran to him and held his limb to rub them softly. He was continuously yelping for a long time. That night I was so frustrated on myself for not being able to take care of him. From the next day onwards he was normal. Those were the possibly two big incidents that happened for us and him.
Months passed, I was back to the city for a few months. He had grown really well by then. We bought a collar for his color. I used to take him for walks. We would run to the ends of the road. He always goes after sniffing for cow dungs and it is a drag to pull him from that. Bad Yuuki. I used to sneak on him whenever he is sleeping. He would have no idea when I’m near him. But then when his instincts will finally kick in, he would slowly open his eyes and give his front paw to me which almost means like — “I’m sleeping hooman. Let’s play some other time. But I still like you, so here is my paw. Take hold of it.” As much as cliched it sounds, all my worries fade when I see and play with Yuuki. He is a hyperactive pup who runs first to take a taste of my fingers. And that is when he’s not sleeping. When he is disturbed during sleep, there is always the “play with my paw mode”. More time passed, we played a lot, ran together, ate together, had fun together.
It was the first week of 2020 and I had to leave for my job. I know I will be missing him. But there was no other way. It’s been almost over a month and a half by now. I used to hear him whenever I call my parents. He was as energetic as ever. I was planning to go back to see him after my first set of exams get over. It was only two weeks away. Silly how my parents used to ask me to come home once in a while and I would get excited thinking of meeting Yuuki more than my parents.
I was going to my classes, as usual, that morning (12/02) when I called my father. We were talking and then he said that Yuuki wasn’t feeling well. I asked him to brief. He explained to me that Yuuki wasn’t feeling well for the past two days and was vomiting blood. They didn’t know what happened but it was well the night before. But the problem started the next day. They called the doctor. Injections, IV, etc., were given and treated for the past two days. Before my father hung the call, he told these words — “polaikardhu kashtam dhaan” meaning “He might not live”. It was so sudden it felt very unreal. I told him to not worry about it. I was worried too but was more confident that nothing would happen to Yuuki. Later that night I was returning back to my hostel when my mom called. She said that she was calling from her new phone that I gifted her. I was glad. And then she went on to ask if I knew.
To which I replied, “yes, what is the current situation?”
“Yuuki is gone.”
I couldn’t believe what I just heard. I sat down right there on the footpath. I didn’t know what to say. She kept on speaking about the doctor, and it was some virus that affected Yuuki, or it was an ulcer. They buried him this morning. The more I listened the less it made sense.
After two restless days, he had milk that morning. Then mom took him outside where he started walking slowly and then he sat down to close his eyes. That was it.
The most frustrating part was that I couldn’t even correctly figure out what was the cause. There is this just one line they keep repeating — “Doctor said it was some virus”. Also, this happened just after I spoke to my father that morning. But then they didn’t say this to me till I returned back from my classes. I was living unaware for a day that Yuuki was already dead. They were worried about me. Dad cried. Mom cried. I, cannot cry. Not while they are. I am yet to talk to Dad. I sat there at the footpath for a few minutes. I came to my room to keep my bag and went outside again. I called my cousin and talked to him. I texted a friend and she called me back. We talked a lot. It helped in getting me distracted for the next two hours. But as soon as I hung up all the calls and went to my bed, it all came back. I was just two weeks away from meeting him. All that six months of togetherness, all of the memory I had of him, flashed before my eyes. I took my phone and scrolled through all his photos. I wanted to write. I wanted to write everything that came to my mind. Everything in mind was about Yuuki. Writing had always made me feel better. But ending this now isn’t making me feel any better. Closing my eyes anytime now is not giving me sleep but his face.
I saw everyone in my life until this point as a character to my story. Every being was a character study and every being has its own story. This is the story of the fourth member of our family, Yuuki. You will always be missed, but never forgotten.
A long good night from the now again youngest member of the family. Dad and mom miss you. | https://medium.com/@colorlesswinecup/to-my-precious-friend-b036f39a7082 | [] | 2020-04-03 09:40:16.121000+00:00 | ['Pet Love', 'Dogs', 'Sad', 'Pets', 'Family'] |
My Readlist Vol. 1 | I run a startup, pretty lean, as of date just 10 people, and it's our 3rd year. Alongside this journey, I always felt books are something that always helps you transform from what you are today to a better person consuming and conceiving the facts, knowledge, experiences of the author.
2 years back, and I had developed this practice of reading at least 2 books a month, though as of now staying back at home quarantined due to COVID-19 situation, I thought of writing this short article on a few books that I really found interesting and developed me personally in my business.
As of date while I am writing this article, I have finished reading 40 books, just to keep this article short and crisp, I haven’t added them in the list, I will publish more articles on the books related to biographies and/or cycling (something I follow as a hobby)
Following are 10 books (in a random sequence) with a brief on what I learnt from each of them, in case anyone wishes to get an insight or discuss on these books, feel free to leave a comment.
1. Hooked
Nice book to improve your customer engagement, especially if you are a product manager or you are trying to get into any domain that needs an understanding of customer or user engagement.
The book explains the entire model in 4 phases — Trigger, Action, Variable Reward, and Investment.
2. Zero to One
Either you are a founder of a startup or planning to start one, this can be a must-read for you. Starting with a simple concept to scale your business/idea either horizontally or vertically, latter part emphasizing on uniqueness and value proposition with a gist of economics.
3. The Lean Startup
Published in 2011, this book turned out to be the bible for startups, and it is indeed one of the best books I have read. The author argues that in order to build a great company, one must begin with the customers in the form of interviews and research discovery. Building an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and then testing and iterating quickly results in less waste and a better product-market fit. Ries also recommends using a process called the Five Whys, a technique designed to reach the core of an issue.
4. Extreme Productivity
A nice book to read if you got complaints regarding your time management. Book simply focuses on 3 interesting areas — improve productivity by managing your time and schedule, improve your reading, writing, and speaking skills, manage your team and boss.
5. Digital Selling
I started reading this book, when I wanted to peek into digital marketing fundamentals, but the book focuses on both traditional marketing fundamentals and their equivalent digital versions. A must-read for someone who is willing to start learning about digital marketing.
6. Sprint
The core idea is to help users understand how to solve big problems and test new ideas in just 5 days. This is essential for anyone who wants to understand how design thinking works with pure practical. It covers the below topics and essential and easy tools on how to accomplish them
How to make a map and choose a target, Sketching competing Solutions, How to decide on the best ideas, Building realistic prototypes Testing with target customers.
7. Remote
We recently started the remote culture, which I guess would be a common thing in IT startups post the current pandemic phase.
This book covers unique challenges and difficulties that can come across working remotely, but at a superficial level. This book emphasises more on remote as a culture, with a few tools and technologies that could be used to make the process more structured, being a simple and short book, I guess real-words cases are not covered in this book, I would rather say its more of an individualistic approach of the reader to implement the principles.
8. Startup Diaries
A book based on case studies or rather I would put them as interviews of 6 startups in India — One97, EKO, Coloseum Media, RedBus, The Loot, Yo!China. Personally I like reading about case studies, which attracted me towards this book, I believe a case study shares insight about a company's struggle, hard work, concluding it to either success or a failure.
9. Founders At work
30 interviews with tech business founders, and it's a great read.
The book distils fundamental concepts such as team building, creating a good product and founder’s perseverance.
10. Lost and Founder
The author describes his journey from an early idea to startup. Unfortunately, I think many of the lessons in this book can’t be taught via books. The book highlights the softer parts of running a tech startup — parts that are usually ignored as they fall behind more urgent tasks.
The book includes some very valuable perspectives on different kinds of investors and the pros and cons of a founder’s perspective. These may be valuable regardless of where you are in your founder journey — assuming you are on the brink of bringing in external capital or at least consider it. | https://medium.com/@rishioid/my-readlist-vol-1-2585531c4186 | ['Rishi Kolvekar'] | 2020-04-23 09:57:50.214000+00:00 | ['Book Review', 'Startup Lessons', 'Startup', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Books'] |
Security experts warn against borrowing USB chargers | Cybersecurity experts stated that using someone else charging cable might bring threats to your mobile devices. Attackers could exploit charging cables/cords to access sensitive information from the victim’s mobile.
According to security professionals, hackers could implant Malware into charging cords or cables to hack mobile devices. It’s believed that these kinds of attacks mostly occur in busy places like airports, railway stations, and other public places, where users rely on USB charging stations.
USB chargers can be turned into potential hacking devices by inserting a malicious chip that allegedly allows attackers to access a mobile’s data over open Wi-Fi networks. The surprising part here is the person who’s lending the charger might not be aware that his/her charger was infected.
Hackers are using sophisticated methods to break into mobile devices. Recently, security researchers revealed an ongoing Android malware campaign dubbed ViceLeaker that has been active since 2016. According to researchers from Kaspersky, a hacker group has been found targeting Israel citizens and other Middle East countries with surveillance malware named Triout.
The malware is designed to steal sensitive information, including call recordings, text messages, photos, videos, and location data without users’ knowledge. Apart from spying features, the malware also has backdoor capabilities, including upload, download, delete files, record surrounding, takeover camera, and the ability to make calls or send messages to specific numbers, according to researchers. The researchers said that attackers used Somali injection technique, that allows hackers to disassemble the code of an original application and add malicious code. | https://medium.com/@jerrywilliams838/security-experts-warn-against-borrowing-usb-chargers-63fd4f6fbbdb | ['Jerry Williams'] | 2019-09-05 07:16:02.917000+00:00 | ['USB', 'Virus', 'Cybersecurity', 'Security', 'Charger'] |
Algo Case Study | Designing a smart collar that transcends the relationship between you and your dog… in 5 days.
3D Render of collar created by Chloe Liang
The Team
Our team consisted of Chloe Liang, Jamaal Baki, and Joan Williams.
Context
Before my journey at the University of Washington’s MHCI+D program began, I had the opportunity to participate in a pre-autumn 5-day virtual sprint via Immersion Studio. During these 5 days, my team and I were immersed in content regarding: problem setting, research, ideation, prototyping, and presenting. It was an exciting start to a fun-filled year at UW!
Challenge
In our teams of 3, we were challenged to explore the idea of harmonious cohabitation. In specific, we were tasked to explore ways of using technology to think about harmonious cohabitation between human and nonhuman agents. It was up to us to decide who our users will be and to what end. However, one must be nonhuman.
“As designers are now faced with developing technology that exists within these complex socio-technical networks, new challenges have arisen that require a shift in thinking from traditional design practices that focus on human wellbeing, to more inclusive practices that emphasize a multiplicity of perspectives.” — Smith et al., 2017
As a team, we agreed that we wanted to focus on the pet to be our nonhuman agent. In addressing ambiguity about the relationship between pets and humans, we conducted formative research.
Formative Research
Primary Research
As a team, we conducted 4 unstructured interviews with people that owned pets and, in specific, dogs. These conversations helped our team gain familiarity with pet owners and their individual connections with their pets. We learned why they had a pet, how they interact with their pet, and what tools/technology they currently use with their pet.
Secondary Research
Through multiple literature reviews from scholarly articles found through the UW library, we learned a lot of useful information that represented the nonhuman agent in this scenario. In our primary research, we were only able to hear from the human, not the pet. Through secondary research, we were able to read and empathize with the pet’s perspective. Although, in a perfect world, we’d have our own conversation with the pet (lol).
Competitive Analysis
I shifted my focus toward a competitive analysis. I surfed through the web for current technology and products that foster a connection between pets and humans. I was able to find a few different products that included phone apps, location trackers, pet toys, etc.
We created an affinity diagram compiling all of our primary research, secondary research, and our competitive analysis.
Research Insights
After affinity diagraming our research findings, we synthesized our findings into 4 key insights.
Pets suffer from mental health issues such as anxiety
issues such as anxiety Pet owners must trust the safety and well-being of their pet
the safety and well-being of their pet Pet owners feel more like a pet parent than a pet owner
than a pet owner Pet owners want to translate their lifestyle to their pet
After discussing our research insights and drafting different versions of “how might we” statements, we decided we wanted to focus our ideation on:
How might we facilitate trust of the pet to caregivers?
Ideation
In response to our “how might we” statement, we drafted 30 sketches of potential design concepts. This was important so that we didn’t narrow our options. Through these sketches, we were able to discover new paths for our project.
Our 30 sketches affinity diagramed.
Through this, we were able to down-select to our 4 most feasible, viable, and desirable concepts. We conducted our down-selection by voting on our favorite sketches based on the previously listed criteria.
4 Down-Selected Concepts
These were our 4 down-selected concepts and the background behind them.
After group critiques of concepts with our fellow teams, we decided to follow through with a refined concept 1.
This was Algo, a smart collar for your dog.
We decided that this was the best choice moving forward based on the scope of our project. Had our project been longer than 5 days, we would’ve considered some of the other concepts further.
Prototyping
After settling on our ideation concept, it was time to start making it a reality. As a team, we brainstormed and curated a design response in the form of a video describing our product and its features.
Finally, we were able to convert our design response to a higher fidelity model in preparation for our final presentation on Day 5. Based on feedback given from our peers, we constantly iterated our design to best serve our users (dog & human).
3D model created by Chloe along with key physical features of the product.
A closer look at the specific design and hardware of the product.
Along with our physical component, we included a virtual experience via phone app’s UI. This app fostered the connection between the human and the pet.
Next Steps
I think we all aligned on the idea that if we had more time, there was so much more that we wanted to explore out of this project. This ranged from research, ideation, and prototyping. We truly believe that this would’ve been an impactful product in the real marketplace today.
Key Takeaways
Don’t jump to solutions
Not every iteration will be perfect
Embracing ambiguity
These were our 3 main takeaways from this project. It was amazing to see that we were capable of achieving such a feat in just 5 days. This was a huge learning experience.
Perfection is something that we all strive for, but we can’t let it consume us. In the real world of UX.. a design is never perfect. There is always an underrepresented user base and insights may change over time. It was important to realize that perfection always attainable and that’s completely okay.
Through this project, there were a lot of moments where we didn’t know what the exact requirements were. We didn’t know if what we had was good enough, or if we were doing too much. That ambiguity was scary at first, but through this project I now found comfort in it. Simply, I put my best foot forward in addressing ambiguity and rather embraced it. | https://medium.com/@jbaki052/algo-case-study-beb786aba623 | ['Jamaal Baki'] | 2020-11-20 19:09:43.976000+00:00 | ['UX Design', 'Prototyping', 'Design Sprint', 'Uw Mhcid', 'UX Research'] |
Deliberate Action | Deliberate Action
Image by Michelle Raponi from Pixabay
In business, as in many things in life, we want and need both to do things correctly and move fast. To do these seemingly opposing things requires an appropriate balance between thoughtful analysis and decisive action.
Analysis is critical. There is a saying in the US Navy SEALs: “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast”, meaning that when you need to move quickly, don’t rush. Take your time to do it right and then move on. You can’t hit a target if you don’t take time to aim. And having to do things again and again — because you are not doing them right — is not fast, no matter how quickly you are moving or how much energy you are expending.
It is all too easy for any of us to get up a full head of steam and start plowing through stuff quickly at the moment-by-moment level, but still end up not getting very far overall, because we are rushing, having to stop, rethink, redo, clean up, etc. At the end of the day, what actually matters is how quickly we are moving overall, not how busy we are moment-to-moment.
But, too much analysis becomes counter-productive. It keeps us from moving ahead with diminishing returns for our continued investigation. A common reason that we can fall into “analysis paralysis” and plan forever without actually taking any action is a fear of making the wrong decision. That fear is directly related to perceived consequences of getting it wrong. I would be absolutely paralyzed by fear at the thought of walking on a tightrope 100 feet above the ground. But I will gladly walk on one that is only 1 foot above the ground (and have frequently done so, since I own a slackline :)). The action is exactly the same in both cases, the but the consequences of failure are dramatically different.
The key to reducing the fear of failure and thus the risk of ‘analysis paralysis’ is to reduce the consequences of failure. And that is the heart of the Agile method. Agility at its heart is all about risk management. It’s about reducing risk so that you can move ahead quickly. The Agile method reduces risk by breaking work into very small chunks, executing one chunk at a time, testing, making sure that chunk is correct, learning, and moving onto the next piece, leveraging what you learned, and not being afraid to back up and do a chunk again if you find you went down the wrong path. Since work is implemented in small chunks and tested frequently, the wasted effort of a wrong decision is minimized. It has been shown that implementing things in small batches is more efficient than big batches.
This approach mirrors the Scientific Method: look at the facts, form a hypothesis, run an experiment, gather data, analyze the data, and adjust your hypothesis to fit your new observations and analysis. This is at the heart of what it means to be a learning organization: do something, measure results, analyze, learn, institutionalize new learnings into your process going forward, repeat.
I have worked with people who circle problems again and again, rather than solving those problems. It is the fear of being wrong that causes the endless circling. My suggestion is to walk around the problem once, look at it from all angles, but only once, then make a decision and dive in. Manage overall risk by keeping each step small, measure and collect feedback, objectively analyze the data, learn, and move on. If you make a mistake, just fix it, immediately. There is another aphorism I like: When in doubt, do something. If the evidence doesn’t lay out a clear path, just pick a path, try it out, and see what you learn. The act of doing will generate new evidence you can use.
There is also an element of practice makes perfect here. By breaking work up into small pieces and measuring/learning after each piece, we are effectively practicing to become better. I could never walk to the other end of the slack line without falling off if I don’t try again again, falling off many times in the process, until I develop the skill to stay on.
So keep moving ahead, but make sure you take time, with each move, to really consider what you are doing, do it carefully and excellently, so you don’t have to do it again, or worse, deal with damage control resulting from a poorly executed project. When you move smoothly, you get to put projects behind you confidently and move onto the next. I believe this practice of thoughtful consideration should be baked into how we operate. We take reasonable time to plan before we act, but we also consider continuously, as we act, to make sure we are doing the right thing all the time. A habit of thinking while acting also allows us to avoid that ‘analysis paralysis’. I think of this as moving at a ‘deliberate’ pace: not hesitating, not rushing, being continuously thoughtful and moving the ball forward.
I read years ago that the ultimate goal of Bushido, the Zen path of the warrior, is for thought and action to become one. It is in essence a practice of continuous mindful execution. | https://medium.com/scaling-peaks/deliberate-action-12027391491f | ['Philip Brittan'] | 2021-03-22 18:37:59.281000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Risk', 'Learning', 'Business', 'Agility'] |
Yelp is calling out racist businesses | Now that you’ve wiped the sarcasm dripping onto your keyboard, let’s continue. On Oct. 8, Yelp tweeted, “Today, we’re announcing a new consumer alert to stand against racism. In the last few months, we’ve seen that there is a clear need to warn consumers about businesses associated with egregious, racially-charged actions to help people make more informed spending decisions.”
Merriam Webster defines “racism” as “a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” While there are a distinct group of people (usually people of color) who have very strong opinions that minority groups “cannot be racist,” I’m not one of those people. (I understand the argument though.) My bigger issue is if Yelp’s goal is to point out discrimination based on race in any store or business, and a member immediately wants to wipe the program off his/her phone, that pretty much tells you what their state of mind is. At no point did the platform state, “egregious, racially-charged actions to [insert minority group here].” This is a free-for-all where everyone can weigh in.
It’s also a peculiar reason to be outraged, considering Elite Yelp members like me have been calling out racism, racial profiling and horrendous store experiences for years. If anything, Yelp is late to my review party because I’ve been warning people of everything from property managers to banks to retail stores to contractors.
If customers and businesses are more outraged about being called out for racism than handling actual racism in their stores, that saves me a lot of time to know where not to go. But somewhere in these outraged people’s heads, they truly believe that minority groups salivate at the opportunity to be racially profiled. They really think that we’re just happy as hell to point out how racism ruined our day.
I have a bone to pick with people who start sentences off with “Most people” because you don’t know most of the population. But this time I’m fairly confident I’m right. Most people of color — scratch that, no people of color — are smiling ear-to-ear and happy to call out people for disrespecting them based on melanin. No minority group that is often targeted — LGBQTI+ or African-American or Asian or Hispanic or Jewish, et cetera — is just waiting for the moment to be disrespected for something that they absolutely cannot control. So if we’re complaining about a business-to-consumer experience in your facility, trust me on this. We’re more outraged, disappointed, sad, frustrated, near tears and/or overwhelmed than you will ever be while reading a Yelp review. We had to live that experience over and over again. | https://medium.com/i-do-see-color/yelp-is-calling-out-racist-businesses-847f63ff4a24 | ['Shamontiel L. Vaughn'] | 2020-10-25 02:44:50.730000+00:00 | ['Yelp', 'Race', 'Business', 'Racism', 'Constructive Criticism'] |
Welcome Meha Shah to the Code for Canada team! | Meha has worked extensively on fellowship programs around the world, including collaborations with the New York City Department of Education and Teach for Pakistan.
We’re excited to start off 2019 by welcoming the newest member of the Code for Canada team: Meha Shah!
As Fellowship Program Lead, Meha will be overseeing multiple aspects of our fellowship program, including managing partnerships with government hosts and recruiting fellows for the program, starting with the upcoming 2019 cohort.
You can follow Meha on LinkedIn.
Meha has eight years of experience working on fellowship programs in the education and nonprofit space, focused on bringing diverse talent to schools that need them most and ensuring that students have access to a high-quality education. She previously worked at TNTP, collaborating with the New York City Department of Education on their Teaching Fellows program. Prior to that, she worked with Teach for Pakistan.
Meha also holds a MSc in Social Policy and Development from the London School of Economics and a BA in Economics from Queen’s University.
She is extremely interested in thinking about how strong systems can increase efficiencies and is very excited about the potential for technology to improve outcomes.
“I’m really excited to bring my experience with fellowship programs to the civic tech space,” Meha says. “I’m a big believer in solving challenges and working with government for public good.” | https://medium.com/code-for-canada/welcome-meha-shah-to-code-for-canada-71b6c01c8b82 | ['Jason Farra'] | 2019-01-12 00:06:10.753000+00:00 | ['How We Work', 'Civictech', 'Hiring', 'Code For Canada', 'Who We Are'] |
Binance Moves To Malta In Hopes Of Collaborating With Regulators | Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. I am not a financial advisor. What follows is my personal, subjective, biased opinion.
The News
Earlier today, Binance CEO Zhao ‘CZ’ Changpeng shared in an interview with Bloomberg that the company plans to open an office in Malta. The country wants to position itself as a leader in digital asset legislation and is thus progressing fast when it comes to regulating cryptocurrencies.
Since Binance hopes to add fiat-to-cryptocurrency trading pairs soon, the move rests in part upon negotiations with Maltese banks, which are required as partners to open up fiat deposits and withdrawals.
The Facts
Binance is less than a year old. Their ICO raised less than $15 million at the time (disclosure, I own some BNB to reduce fees when using the platform). Today, the company is valued at close to $1 billion. Originally founded in China, the company has moved several times, both its servers and office locations.
A week before the China ban back in September, they moved their servers to Korea and opened offices in Hong Kong. In October, they opened another office in Tokyo, Japan, and entered into talks with regulators about obtaining a trading license. Meanwhile, they established server redundancies in order to not falter under any single jurisdiction. From an interview with CZ in October:
“In response to China’s decisions, we are moving our IP’s from Hong Kong to an offshore location. Now we have our IPs registered in BVI (British Virgin Islands) and other locations. So we are registered in multiple locations and we have people in multiple locations. That way we will never be affected by one regulatory body.”
Meanwhile, CZ’s LinkedIn lists London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore as Binance locations. However, as per today’s news, the Japan office seems to be shut down or in the process thereof:
“The company had an office in Japan and was trying to get a license to operate, but decided to remove its staff to avoid a clash with local regulators, Zhao said. Japan’s Financial Services Agency issued a warning to the venue on Friday for operating without approval.”
This warning was leaked through Nikkei Asia, but later confirmed by CZ via Twitter:
Prompted for an update about talks with Hong Kong regulators, CZ reported the outcome was uncertain:
“Zhao said he was also continuing discussions with authorities in Hong Kong, but that the outcome of those talks was uncertain. Binance was among seven crypto exchanges to receive a warning letter in recent months from the Securities and Futures Commission telling firms not to trade digital assets defined as securities under Hong Kong law, a person familiar with the letter said.”
Meanwhile, Malta has a history of being forward-thinking when it comes to financial regulations. From Wikipedia:
“Malta has a financial regulator, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), with a strong business development mindset, and the country has been successful in attracting gaming businesses, aircraft and ship registration, credit-card issuing banking licenses and also fund administration. Service providers to these industries, including fiduciary and trustee business, are a core part of the growth strategy of the island. Malta has made strong headway in implementing EU Financial Services Directives including UCITs IV and soon AIFMD.”
They’ve held several public discussions about regulating cryptocurrencies since October 2017. In February, they put forward a proposal for the Malta Digital Innovation Authority, which is to give legal certainty in the realm of blockchain technology and virtual currencies. After three weeks of public feedback, they’re now in the process of establishing the authority:
“Step one deals with setting up the authority, step two deals with launching a Bill that will set out the regime for the registration of Technology Service Providers and the certification of Technology Arrangements. Lastly, step three will launch a Bill that will set out the framework for Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and the regulatory regime on to the provision of certain services in relation to virtual currencies.”
Quoting from the Bloomberg article, it seems CZ was invited to look at the bill mentioned in step two:
“Zhao said he had recently been invited by the Maltese government to review an upcoming bill that was favorable to crypto businesses.”
The Commentary
From my outside perspective, Binance seems to pursue only 1–2 major milestones at any given time. Once they lock in said milestone(s), they put in the infrastructure to maintain them, then move on to new targets.
At first, it was to build a crypto-to-crypto exchange with a simple user interface that even beginners can understand quickly. Then, it was to provide those users with liquidity by adding new quality projects regularly and engaging the community in their monthly coin voting. Next came scaling the platform with maximum security, which they achieved through regular infrastructure updates, pausing registrations, and communicating transparently in the process.
Now, two big goals lie ahead:
Enabling fiat-to-crypto deposits and withdrawals, which could exponentially multiply Binance’s liquidity and open their platform to new groups of target investors, like newcomers entering space, who want to get started with fiat purchases, but buy a wider variety of coins than for example Coinbase offers. Building a decentralized exchange, which could help take on more growth, provide a safer alternative to their centralized platform, and help onboard more new groups of investors still, like hardcore nerds, who avoid centralized exchanges altogether.
The Malta move might look one in a cat-and-mouse game Binance has been playing with regulators, but the company has been trying to work with regulators from the start. It just so happens that none of the talks with Asian countries — China, Japan, Hong Kong — have born fruit so far.
However, if anywhere, speed matters in crypto. For Binance to achieve its fiat-to-crypto exchangeability goal, it only makes sense for them to go where regulators are willing to cooperate. Quote CZ:
“We are very confident we can announce a banking partnership there soon.”
The country’s prime minister also welcomed the company via Twitter:
If the country continues to push forward and banks set up partnerships with the company, we could see fiat pairings within a few months, another important step towards mass adoption and availability of cryptocurrencies.
Keep it crypto,
Nik | https://medium.com/the-crypto-times/cat-mouse-binance-moves-to-malta-in-hopes-of-collaborating-with-regulators-4de0442688b2 | ['Niklas Göke'] | 2018-03-23 12:20:53.540000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Economics', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Finance'] |
Do windows device need ANTIVIRUS & which is best ? | How virus works ?
Virus can be any executable type of file. Type of executable file are .dat, .bat, .exe , .apk & many other types of script file. When virus breaches in your system then the command written in that to carry out a specific kind of task is executed. Thus causing damage to your system or compromising your privacy.
windows antivirus
Do we need ANTIVIRUS in windows? & Why ?
As we know windows contain many types of executable files like script, dat, exe, bat there are many more & they all are accessible to user as a administrator. As all files are accessible & not protected so yes we need antivirus unlike any android device. So any virus attack can access all your system files & other personal data & carry out their objectives easily.
Which antivirus is best for windows ?
If you are using genuine windows 8 or 10 then you don’t need any antivirus. Just check that you have enabled firewall & windows defender. If these things are enabled & regularly updated then no antivirus is needed. You are safe. You should also uninstall the preinstalled antivirus like McAfee mostly as it sometime crashes with defender and cause many type of malfunction in the system.
For legends ;)
If you are using any older version of window or a pirated windows then you will definitely need a third party antivirus. Let me tell you that free antivirus are even sometime more worse than virus itself. So if you are considering yourself a thug in tech world by using pirated, cracked or free software then you are wrong because here real thug is the company which is letting you to use these software. They collect valuable data from your system. The updates you are getting in free, pirated,or cracked are not actual update they just use your system to carry out different experiment with their beta version programs. Even through update a company can crash your system as they come to know about this.
pirated antivirus
So never ever update a free,cracked or a pirated software as it may do great damage. If you don’t update your antivirus then its definitions for identifying malware will not be updated. You need to always keep your antivirus updated because virus creators always use latest ways & they constantly change property of malware.
So I suggest to pay for trusted third party antivirus like QUICK HEAL, McAfee, KASPER SKY, NORTON as they all are old players & having huge collection of virus definition & great experience in this field. All of them are good. The best option is to purchase genuine windows to get great security without any third party apps. | https://medium.com/@AmartyaSingh/do-windows-device-need-antivirus-which-is-best-44b81647a495 | ['Amartya Singh'] | 2019-03-21 10:41:06.354000+00:00 | ['Antivirus', 'Windows', 'Security', 'Cyber', 'Cybersecurity'] |
74 Million Voters is Not Half the United States | 74 Million Voters is Not Half the United States
Stop saying it is.
Photo by Orlova Maria on Unsplash
Please stop saying half of the U.S. supports the wannabe dictator in the White House, who is currently trying to organize a coup.
The argument keeps being stated that “half” of Americans back Trump. While 74 million isn’t a number to be disregarded, it isn’t even close to half of the American population, not nearly half of eligible voters, and not even half of registered voters.
The number of registered voters in the United States is around 207 million. That’s only 81 percent of all eligible voters. Eligible voters are around 264,114,000. Of those approximately 207 million registered voters, only around 155 million voted. Half of that is 77 million.
Trumps 74 million votes aren’t even half of the number who voted, much less half of the registered voters, which is 103 million, and nowhere near half of the eligible voters, which is 132,057,000.
In fact, his 74 million is 58 million less than half the eligible voters. It’s 30 million less than half the registered voters. It’s 7 million less than the number of people who voted for Biden.
Is that clear as mud? Bottom line is, Trump didn’t win the support of half of the U.S. He didn’t even come close to half of registered voters, and certainly not half the eligible voters, and he was 7 million behind Biden in the actual vote. Biden received 4 million more than half of the counted votes.
If the election could really have been rigged, as Trump keeps insisting, why stop at the number of registered voters? Why not cast fraudulent ballots for all those eligible voters who weren’t registered? Why not fraudulently register them and cast votes for them? They didn’t go to the polls, so they would never know. And yet, hat didn’t happen. | https://medium.com/new-choices/74-million-voters-is-not-half-the-united-states-ff2ca0306e86 | ['Carol Lennox'] | 2020-12-29 17:34:09.762000+00:00 | ['Vote', 'Politics', 'Election 2020', 'Society', 'Democracy'] |
Game Day: Tales of a city girl | He was danger personified
A heartbreaker in true form
Player oozed from him
Any woman who fell for his charm
Knew she was doomed
Then he set his sights on me
The one girl that cared not
I knew he saw me as a conquest
A probable bet among friends
Around a card table, beer, and cigarettes
My alarm bells went off when he was near
A strong aura and sexual vibe emanated from him
Everyone could feel it
But his eyes were set on me
The guys sniggered and laughed
Watching the playout
The women gave evil stares and snide glances
As if exasperated that I wasn’t a’ playing
‘Get out of the way if you ain’t gaming’
Like spectators on a safari
Watching a hungry lion stalking its prey
They reminded me of spectators
In ancient Roman amphitheaters
Shouting with glee as lions tore people to shreds
Or gladiators fought to the death
With despicable weapons in ringed cages
To them, it was all a game
A game I was unwilling to play
With an opponent determined to win
I didn’t stand a chance and I knew it
In the death dance between lion and gazelle
The gazelle always falls
Better to exit the ring than be torn apart
Brave the jeers and accusations of cowardice and safety depart
© Imabong Faminu 2020 | https://medium.com/share-the-love/game-day-tales-of-a-city-girl-a1b930c9108 | ['Imλbөпg Fλmiпц'] | 2020-12-28 11:13:15.446000+00:00 | ['Love And Relationships', 'Short', 'Love', 'Relationships Love Dating', 'Prose Poem'] |
Z-Wave technology gets new long-range capabilities | The Z-Wave Alliance has announced a new specification for the Z-Wave wireless smart home protocol that can increase the range at which Z-Wave devices can operate by a factor of four, while increasing the number of devices that can coexist on a Z-Wave network by a factor of 10.
Updated December 17, 2020 to report that the Z-Wave Long Range (Z-Wave LR) specification is now available for product development by members of the Z-Wave Alliance. The Z-Wave certification program will include Z-Wave LR by March, 2020, anticipating product launches throughout the year. Existing devices powered by Z-Wave 700 chips will only need a firmware update to implement this new feature.
Z-Wave competes with Zigbee, Bluetooth, and to a lesser degree Wi-Fi in the smart home market and is widely used in everything from smart lighting controls to door locks and sensors. Already known for its very low power consumption, the Alliance says a new dynamic power control feature of the new Z-Wave LR spec will make the technology even better on that score—to the point a coin-cell battery will be able to power a device like a door/window sensor for as long as 10 years.
[ Further reading: A smart home guide for beginners ]Z-Wave technology uses lower-frequency radio spectrum than other wireless networking technologies—908.42MHz in North America, 868.42MHz in Europe—which enables its signals to pass through physical obstacles such as walls more easily. But the increased range Z-Wave LR delivers will make it possible for Z-Wave network traffic to travel even further, extending from the interior of the home into the garage, the yard, and even into outbuildings. And you won’t need to worry about running out of room on your Z-Wave network, because the new spec busts through the current practical limit of 232 nodes to enable more than 2,000 nodes on a single network (the Z-Wave Alliance’s December 17, 2020 announcement now says a single network can handle 4,000 nodes, and that field testing has demonstrated one-mile point-to-point, line-of-sight range).
Z-Wave Alliance The Z-Wave LR spec is backward compatible and interoperable with every previous generation of Z-Wave technology.
In a discussion with Z-Wave Alliance executive director Mitch Klein last week, Klein said these achievements were made possible in large measure by the increased memory available in the 700-series Z-Wave chips—the most recent generation—that began shipping in late 2018. The Z-Wave Alliance—which recently transitioned to non-profit status as an independent standards development organization—seeks to “make Z-Wave technology more attractive to the Internet of Things market,” according to Klein. “The Alliance is also looking to move Z-Wave technology into other vertical markets.” Chipmaker Silicon Labs’ decision to fully open Z-Wave technology to other manufacturers should also remove criticism that Z-Wave chips are only available from a single source.
The best news for current Z-Wave technology users is that Z-Wave LR is backward compatible and interoperable with any previously installed Z-Wave device. That’s not to say a Z-Wave sensor built with a pre-700-series Z-Wave chip will suddenly gain a 10-year battery life or deliver four times the range it did previously, but there won’t anything to stop you from keeping those devices on your network if they still meet your needs while adding new products that can deliver those new benefits. You will, however, need a controller powered by at least a Z-Wave 700-series chip to enjoy all the benefits of the new tech.
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/@darryl01840770/z-wave-technology-gets-new-long-range-capabilities-2583277f6131 | [] | 2020-12-18 18:17:39.440000+00:00 | ['Audio', 'Security Cameras', 'Chromecast', 'Home Theater'] |
Object-Oriented JavaScript — Observers and Tests | Photo by Kristijan Arsov on Unsplash
JavaScript is partly an object-oriented language.
To learn JavaScript, we got to learn the object-oriented parts of JavaScript.
In this article, we’ll look at some basic design patterns and tests.
Observer Pattern
The observer pattern is where we observe the changes from the one source by subscribing to an object and publish the changes to the observers that subscribed when there’re changes.
We can create an object that takes observers and publish changes to them by writing:
const observer = {
subscribers: [],
addSubscriber(callback) {
if (typeof callback === "function") {
this.subscribers.push(callback);
}
}, removeSubscriber(callback) {
const index = this.subscribers.findIndex(s => s === callback);
this.subscribes.splice(index, 1);
}, publish(obj) {
for (const sub of this.subscribers) {
if (typeof sub === 'function') {
sub(obj);
}
}
},
};
We create an observer object that takes callbacks.
callback is a function that we add to the subscribers array.
Also, we have the removeSubscriber array to remove a callback.
publish takes an object with something to publish and callbacks the callbacks in the this.subscribers array to publish the changes.
Then we can use it by writing:
const callback = (e) => console.log(e);
const callback2 = (e) => console.log(2, e);
observer.addSubscriber(callback);
observer.addSubscriber(callback2);
observer.publish('foo')
We created 2 callbacks and add them to the subscribers array with the addSubscriber method.
Then we call publish to call the callbacks, which log the changes.
We should see:
foo
2 "foo"
logged in the console log.
The observer pattern is good since there’s not much coupling between the callbacks and the observer object.
We just call the callback when there’s some information to send to them.
The callbacks know nothing about the observer .
Testing
Testing is an important part of writing JavaScript apps.
We can make our lives easier by writing tests that run automatically.
Not having enough tests is a bad idea.
With tests, we make sure that the existing code behaves as per our specifications.
And any new code changes didn’t break existing behavior defined by our spec.
With tests, we don’t have to test everything ourselves by hand.
Also, we won’t have to check everything ourselves again when we refactor.
If our changes make the tests fail, then we know there’s something wrong.
Unit Testing
Unit testing is what we have the most of.
They’re short and they run fast.
They test the output given some input.
And they should be self-explanatory, maintainable and readable.
They should also work the same way in any order.
Test-Driven Development
Test-driven development is used a lot recently,
The methodology workflow starts by writing some tests that fail.
And then we write code to make the tests pass.
Then we run the tests again to see if they pass.
And then we refactor our code and make sure our tests still pass.
Behavior Driven Development
Behavior-driven development is a methodology where we create tests to test how our code behaves.
We test with some inputs and check th outputs.
Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
Conclusion
We can create unit tests to test our code.
Also, the observer pattern lets us create loosely coupled code that communicates from the observer to another object. | https://medium.com/dev-genius/object-oriented-javascript-observers-and-tests-6a441706cb46 | ['John Au-Yeung'] | 2020-11-29 23:33:59.020000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Programming', 'Software Development', 'Web Development', 'JavaScript'] |
Why Is 1-on-1 Mentoring Effective in Data Science Learning? | The person on the left is the mentor while the one on the right is the mentee / protege
What is mentoring?
Mentoring is the professional relationship that involves the educational and professional guidance of an individual (aka mentee or protege) by another, more experienced and more knowledgeable professional (aka mentor). Mentoring is a commonplace phenomenon nowadays, especially in sophisticated lines of work, like data science.
What does Data Science learning involve?
Data science is a complex field and as such it requires methodical learning. This involves technical skills as well as business-related, and other material, all of which help someone develop the right mindset and the tools to apply it to real-world problems. Naturally, unless someone is particularly talented, this whole process of education in the data science discipline is quite challenging. After all, it’s a hands-on profession so a lot of practice is also required. This is one of the reasons why books and videos are insufficient in providing the education needed to become a (good) data scientist. Other educational strategies are better, but even those often have their gaps.
How does mentoring fit in all this?
Mentoring attempts to fill all the gaps an educational strategy has so that you can learn what it takes to become a good data scientist. On top of that, it clarifies concepts learned already and gives a sense of perspective to all the data science knowledge the mentee has. The mentor also offers useful feedback on various projects, including code-related matters, significantly speeding up learning. Mentoring can take place either on a one-on-one setting or a single mentor with several mentees at once (e.g. in the form of a workshop).
What does one-on-one mentoring entail?
One-on-one mentoring is the most common kind of mentoring and it is the one that yields the most benefit. It is, in essence, mentoring involving just a mentor and a mentee. It is not the same as tutoring though as the mentee makes an effort of her own to learn the material at hand, regardless of the mentor. The latter help cement the former’s understanding, while also providing recommendations about projects and other sources of learning.
The one-on-one mentoring can take place in person or, more commonly, over the internet, particularly through a VoIP system. The latter allows for screen-sharing and other useful features, making mentoring easier and more effective. Oftentimes, the sharing of material is involved, something that can save the mentee hours of work and tons of frustration.
Benefits of having a mentor
1. The mentor can serve as a professional role model. This way, a data science student can have a clear idea of what to aspire to. This can help her focus her efforts accordingly and be more effective in her career choices.
2. Individualized help enables people to learn more quickly. If it were as easy and simple as buying a book, data science authors would be rich. Also, even if a data science course can go a long way in helping a student learn the essential know-how, it is often not enough. Every student is unique and has unique needs. The individualized help a mentor offers can help address this matter.
3. A mentor can keep a student accountable and help him develop a sense of rhythm and professional standard. This make students work harder, smarter, and most importantly, with consistency. In a way, it is like an apprenticeship, something that has been proven to work for centuries, particularly in areas where hands-on work is required (e.g. in the work of an electrician). Data science may be more high-level than this kind of work, but it still has a lot to benefit from this sort of approach, so that the new generation of data scientists are not just knowledgeable but also practical.
4. A mentor can give a holistic view of the field more quickly. Learning the big picture is difficult on your own. This is particularly the case if you are new to learning and haven’t acquired enough work experience yet. Mentoring can help bring about this sense of perspective and down-to-earth attitude that is so much needed in our profession.
How you can put all of the above info into practice
Based on all this, it is clear that mentoring has an important role to play in data science education, especially today, when time is of the essence when it comes to technical learning. Fortunately, Bootrain has your back on all this. Among the various services offered by this data science education company is one-on-one mentoring. This can be either as part of an educational package (online course) or independently. This way, you can adapt this service to your individual needs and optimize your educational journey in the world of data science. | https://medium.com/bootrain-blog/why-is-one-on-one-mentoring-effective-in-data-science-learning-3b2368cc6642 | ['Zacharias Voulgaris'] | 2020-04-13 13:31:00.411000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Mentorship', 'Data Science', 'Bootcamp'] |
6. Dollar Cost Averaging | We have previously seen how markets are cyclic, and cryptocurrency more volatile than regular markets. Future swings are therefore likely to happen and it would then be prudent to ask ourselves how one can invest through these cycles in the most sustainable way. Welcome to Dollar Cost Averaging.
Dollar Cost Averaging means that the the practitioner invests in the assets the same number of dollars each month or quarter. In this way he buys more shares when the market is low than when it is high, and he is likely to end up with a satisfactory overall price for all his holdings. (Graham, p.29)
With an Investment Plan that uses Dollar Cost Averaging you will be happy to see gains in your capital when the market goes up. When the market goes down you can be happy for your future purchases to be cheaper. You can answer every market related question with “I don’t know and I don’t care”, relying on your investment plan to deliver the expected results on autopilot. (Graham, p. 131)
No one has yet discovered any other formula for investing which can be issued with so much confidence of ultimate success, regardless of what may happen to security prices, as DCA. (Graham, p.118)
Dollar Cost Averaging arises when you “average out” the price tag of your investments over time. The principle is very simple: by continuous purchases of your securities you make sure that you buy when the market is both low and high, and will over time give you an average price of a security.
The underlying principle of why DCA is such an integral part of an investment strategy is that it is statistically implausible to time the market. In a bull market everyone gains, but the people that invest the most in a bull market are also the ones that lose the most in a bear market, as retold by Graham:
The people who take the biggest gambled and make the biggest gains in a bull market are almost aways the ones who get hurt the worst in the bear market that inevitably follows (Graham, p. 525)
Investing through cycles
Malkiel shows a simple example which shows the value of DCA in a market which grows versus a volatile market.
We all know that an increasing market is great for the assets we have on our account. In the above table can wesee that when you are continuously buying and can wait until the market has gone up, a downturning market is good for your finances. Value at end is $6,048 in a volatile market vs $5,916 in a bull market. That is the power of Dollar Cost Averaging. A good market is good, and a bad market is good as long as you can hold the assets until they make a come back.
Another example of how DCA rewards the investor is made by Graham from the great depression.
Investing $10k around the height of the market in 1929 would have netted you $7,223, a loss of $2,777 the year 1939, ten years later.
Investing $100 every single month starting 1929 would have 1939 netted you $15,571. (Graham, 131)
Additionally, it limits your risk in a continuous bear market.
From the end of 99 through the end of 02, the S&P 500 stock fell relentlessly. But if you had opened an index fund account with a $3,000 dollar investment add added 100 dollars every month, your total outlay of $6,600 would have lost only 30.2%, much better than the 41.3% plunge. Better yet, your steady buying at lower prices would build the base for an explosive recovery when the market rebounds. (Graham, p.132)
Summary
If you believe in an asset in a long term perspective you should take into account that the market is cyclic and that you cannot time it. An investment strategy that deals with this best is DCA. Indeed, a bad market returns the DCA investor when it dips to momentary low prices. Provided the investor can hold the assets long enough to see returns. The recommendation is clear: Invest continuously, through the ups and through the downs. If you have made the decision to enter the space your best bet is to consistently put money into your investment strategy.
Next we discuss what the books think is a prudent target for What To Invest In | https://medium.com/consciouscrypto/6-the-inability-to-time-the-market-and-dollar-cost-averaging-29506f06d9fe | ['Carl-Arvid Ewerbring'] | 2018-08-02 06:39:46.148000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Crypto', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Finance'] |
CNC MACHINING IN PLASTIC INJECTION MOLD MAKING | The modern injection mold making shop operates under very tight deadlines, with ever-increasing complexity in the tooling requirements. More and more features are being designed into the finished plastic part that is produced by the injection mold, and these features often involve precision CNC machining.
Plastic is just about the 21st century’s most widely used materials. It is used for items of various kinds, styles, and measurements. Plastic can be used for ordinary things like bottles, bottle caps, storage containers, and furnishings. Additionally it is utilized in assorted businesses including manufacturing, retail, and aerospace. Aside from metal, there is absolutely no other material that has attained wider utilization through the years.
· china mold factory
· mold manufacturer china
· china mold maker
This material can be used because it is lightweight, and it can easily be cut and shaped. Diverse items can be done by means of plastics injection molding. Nowadays, computer numerical control or CNC routing services are common. There are plenty of ISO 9001 companies that provide this service for those who want to tailor-make plastic, wood, or metal items. However, the majority are concentrated on plastic as numerous businesses now need plastic parts and products in their process.
Each time a client wishes to have a plastic merchandise made, he needs to have the services of an ISO 9001-accredited firm that can do plastics injection molding. In this process, plastic is fed right into a piece of equipment where it is heated and dissolved. It is then fed into a molding cavity where it will cool and form the needed shape in line with customer descriptions. Materials including acrylic, HDPE, Kynar, and Radel are just of the plastic materials which they can use in this rapid injection molding process.
After the process, these plastic materials can be used in the healthcare, electronic products, and aviation businesses. To further improve the form of the items, each goes through a process called CNC routing of cutting, surfacing, and drilling. These techniques are all completed by CNC machining.
CNC routing is made easier by CNC machines because the cutting and surfacing of every plastic material can be performed by a machine. This method would be extremely tough to do by hand considering that the same accuracy won’t be achieved. It would also take days, sometimes weeks, for workers to create the items manually even if the company has several people doing this.
How does CNC machining works
CNC machining refers to any process that uses a CNC machine. This could be for routing, milling, drilling, or other types of work that is done with metal, wood or other materials. This is a manufacturing process that uses the automatic opportunity from the computer to create shapes or forms that must be precise.
Raw materials are used and they are put into a CNC machine that uses cutting tools to make these shapes. The CNC machining process involves computers that have at least one microprocessor and several units for storage. With CAD or CAM software systems added to CNC the computer can be programmed to produce the precise movements that are able to create the part.
In CNC machining the process is automated which saves the operator time and saves the business money. The operator is able to load the materials, program the machine and then the machine can work without attention when set up properly; the amount of time it is run without attention is also programmed in.
About JasonMould Industrial Company Limited
Jasonmould is a manufacturer of plastic molds- injection mold, die casting moulds, plastic blow molding, rotational molding, medical plastic injection molding, two shot plastic injection molding, insert molding, overmolding, metal injection molding, micro injection molding, powder injection molding, ceramic injection molding, liquid injection molding, husky injection molding, household mold, casting mold, die mold tool, custom molds, china moulds, rapid prototyping tooling, plastic prototyping tooling, punch press tooling, die and tooling for mobile/ cell phone parts, automotive parts, vacuum cleaners, rechargeable tools, telephones, copiers, computers, multimedia speakers, and many other electronic products and household appliances. And also a plastic product manufacturer- plastic parts, plastic water tank, plastic balls, plastic containers, plastic buckle, plastic anchor, plastic hanger, plastic spoon, plastic pipe fitting, plastic tumble, plastic tableware, plastic cups, plastic bottles, plastic tray, plastic cosmetic container, plastic case, plastic food container, plastic chairs, plastic caps, plastic cap closure, plastic tubes, plastic water pipes, plastic knobs, plastic tubing, plastic utility boxes, plastic racks and so on.
For more information visit here… https://www.jasonmolding.com/
free shipping coupon code: freeshipping on any order over 5000USD from jasonmolding.com
Contact:
Contact person: James Yuan
Company name: JasonMould Industrial Company Limited
Address: LongGang Village,LongXi Town,BoLuo County,HuiZhou City,GuangDong Province, China
Telephone: 86–752–6682869
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://www.jasonmolding.com | https://medium.com/@alvarad982stedk/cnc-machining-in-plastic-injection-mold-making-ed9d2e3dffb4 | ['Madhavachar Rangnekadr'] | 2019-06-18 11:47:51.107000+00:00 | ['Manufacturing'] |
Testing Rails Multiple Database Connections with CircleCI | Image by Erin Rhodes
If you have yet to read my colleague April’s excellent post about Pairing Heroku with AWS RDS, go ahead and do that then carry on with this post. 😎
As April mentioned, we are actively deprecating legacy code here at Guild and breaking applications and logic into more manageable and scalable microservices. Our team has taken on the responsibility of user data in what we call the User Profile Service. We wanted this data migration to be as seamless and non-disruptive as possible for end users as well as for other applications using our data. The approach we chose was to maintain dual copies of the data until we could be very sure that moving over to UPS would not break anyone else’s code. This meant that we kept the same user data in the old source of truth (the Guild monolith database), as well as in the new UPS database. We achieved this awkward state by taking advantage of multi-DB connections, which are made easier in Rails 6.
Setting up the connection for multiple databases in a Rails 6 application is well documented and we were able to get it up and running with minimal tweaks. However, one piece we had a hard time getting to work were our tests in our CI/CD pipeline utilizing CircleCI. So, let’s dive in and talk about how we figured that out.
Imagine an rspec test:
In the above example we are calling an UpdaterService and asserting that records in both databases are updated and saved. We don’t want our records to get out of sync, so we need each update to be reflected in both databases! Since we have successfully created the link between the databases, this should theoretically work. We defined a database base model class that links to our secondary database:
Then we linked our “old” model to it:
We have all of our external databases set up, so when we run our spec:
$ rspec spec/services/updater_spec.rb
Finished in 0.19529 seconds (files took 3.41 seconds to load)
1 example, 0 failures
Success! Our database is set up correctly and our tests pass locally. OK, let’s push to GitHub and create a PR.
CircleCI is not happy with this approach:
Failure/Error: establish_connection YAML.load(ERB.new(File.read(Rails.root.join(“config”, “secondary_database.yml”))).result)[Rails.env.to_s] ActiveRecord::NoDatabaseError: FATAL: database “secondary_database_test” does not exist
It doesn’t have any idea of the secondary database. So, what to do? We decided that the path of least resistance would be:
1. Add PostgreSQL Client to our CircleCI Build
2. Generate a mock database table that matched the attributes we cared about
3. Test against that
Step One
Let’s install PostgreSQL client on CircleCI so we can easily generate a fake database table:
Step Two
We can just generate a fake table that has the correct attributes we need to test against with some simple SQL.
$ touch test_db.sql $ vi test_db.sql
In this file we added a simple SQL snippet that creates a table that satisfies our testing needs!
Step Three
Putting it all together:
And that’s it! Now when CircleCI runs our tests, it can use this mock database in order to assert changes are reflected in the main database as well as the secondary database.
By utilizing Rails 6 Multi Database connections, we were able to unravel a complicated database migration into something more manageable, while creating limited disruption to our end users or to the other engineers within Guild. Since testing is an important facet of Guild’s engineering culture, it would have left a bit of a pit in our stomachs if we couldn’t test that our code was modifying both sources of data effectively in our CI/CD pipeline. We hope this article can help someone else too! | https://medium.com/extra-credit-by-guild/testing-rails-6-multiple-databases-connection-and-circleci-31d64b5b39df | ['Tyler Long'] | 2020-04-14 14:38:46.564000+00:00 | ['Rails 6', 'Multiple Database', 'Circleci'] |
Best media player for Windows | Image Source: Zerosuniverse
Media Players are the best way to Play any videos for better quality like its brightness, contrast, orientation, etc. and make more fantastic.
Over a period of time, the importance of media has grown at an exponential rate. We stream music and video almost every day with the increasing number of newer media formats, not all free media players are capable of running all popular file formats like MKV, FLV, AVI, MP4, MOV, etc.
Fortunately, there are media players that stand out, whether you need to play a variety of formats, tag and sort your libraries, or simply listen to your favorite audio files. Here are our top picks for the best media players for PC, Mac, and more!
1. VLC Media Player
When the Movies & TV app doesn’t play your content, the first free media player most Windows users will download is VLC Media Player. It remains one of the most well known and arguably best media players available for any platform, including Windows.
It’s rare that VLC won’t be able to play a media file, with exceptions for files that are encrypted or have been corrupted. It can play local media files, as well as handle internet live streams and broadcast content from other local sources like a digital TV receiver.
2.GOM Media Player
GOM Media Player, developed by Korea’s Gretech Corporation, features an attractive UI and laundry list of industrious utilities, handling everything from AAC to FLV, and offering a codec finder service that will locate and supply additional information on those not automatically supported by default.
The media player has three viewing modes (Normal, High-Quality, and TV Output), all of which cater to your machine’s capabilities, and your desired viewing mode.
The software is even adept at playing damaged, incomplete, locked, or partially downloaded files, giving it an astounding edge over some of its open-source competitors.
GOM is also notable for its updates, which have recently given the system the ability to play 360-degree VR video, and will hopefully continue adding more support into the future.
3. 5KPlayer
5KPlayer is one of the more comprehensive options for not just watching videos, but managing your entire video collection. The software allows you to add your entire computer video library, so you can select videos from within 5KPlayer rather than searching your hard drive. On top of that, you can stream videos right from Youtube and use Apple’s AirPlay to display videos across multiple devices.
The player supports just about every type of video format you’re likely to come across, including 360-degree and 8K videos. The settings for managing your audio and video playback are pretty versatile, although they don’t quite stack up against the controls you’ll find in VLC Media Player.
Source: 12 Best Media Players for windows | https://medium.com/zerosuniverse/best-media-player-for-windows-fd9b68b105e9 | ['Avinash Anshu'] | 2020-04-22 14:48:59.945000+00:00 | ['Windows', 'Zerosuniverse', 'VLC', 'Media Player', 'Media'] |
Alter is here to bring real privacy messaging & file sharing on Web 3.0 | Alter is the world’s first blockchain-based decentralized messaging service platform, built on Secret Network. Using a secure data integrity sharing model that provides privacy by design will be launching soon, following later along with its governance token.
Alter intends to be a privacy-preserving secure communication platform leveraging Secret Contracts on the Secret Network blockchain. From a simple send & receive messages with file attachments to a global network with built features of sending and receiving funds, acquiring NFTs, and more.
Alter will have a governance token that gives voting rights to users to vote on applications upgrades and enhancements, giving back control to the community for transparency and integrity. This token will have a limited supply to provide stable and democratic governance and maintain what’s important, which is privacy in communications. Users will keep the token within their integrated wallets, along with stablecoins and other assets built on the secret network. By using more Alter, the users will receive more tokens as a reward for active participation.
ALTER — new logo with $ALTER token
“Alter will play a key role in unlocking the full value of a decentralized future in Web 3.0 because privacy is not only a human right, but also an important utility. Without privacy, users are in danger of damaging their social life, finances, control of data, and control of identity (impersonation risk). Surveillance by centralized entities and a range of data harvesting applications compromise our data — allowing malicious entities to leverage this data to manipulate economics, culture, global relations, and even “truth” itself.”It is time to jump off the grid from the primary internet and make privacy manageable.
Says the founder Oskars Jepsis. He and his team believe that the best way to have a safer, more reliable digital experience is by maintaining a balance of access and control within the web allowing sensitive information to be safe and not manipulated or controlled by third parties. | https://medium.com/@altermail/alter-is-here-to-bring-real-privacy-messaging-file-sharing-on-web-3-0-b78e153748b2 | [] | 2021-10-31 14:35:23.027000+00:00 | ['Cybersecurity', 'Blockchain', 'Privacy', 'Messaging', 'Defi'] |
昭和時代高度經濟成長的象徵 360 度高樓旋轉餐廳 | in New York Behind the Masks | https://medium.com/@joelhu/%E6%98%AD%E5%92%8C%E6%99%82%E4%BB%A3%E9%AB%98%E5%BA%A6%E7%B6%93%E6%BF%9F%E6%88%90%E9%95%B7%E7%9A%84%E8%B1%A1%E5%BE%B5-360-%E5%BA%A6%E9%AB%98%E6%A8%93%E6%97%8B%E8%BD%89%E9%A4%90%E5%BB%B3-ffb169a41190 | ['Joel Fukuzawa'] | 2020-12-24 14:00:50.936000+00:00 | ['Japan', '日本', 'Business', '中文', 'Restaurant'] |
Be a Buddy not a Bully Bullying is a social menace. | Be a Buddy not a Bully
Bullying is a social menace. It is a stigma on the world.Bullying can be defined as an intentional aggressive behaviour that is repeated against a person who cannot readily defend himself or herself. According to a recent report from UNESCO,30% of the world students have been victims of bullying. Silence remains one of the major reasons for the global presence of bullying. It effects the victim as well as the bully ,however the effect varies. The presence
of bullying in the world creates a negative atmosphere hampering the growth and development of its citizens .
Bullying can be physical like kicking ,hitting, punching ; social like spreading rumours, isolating the person ; verbal like the use of abusive language , teasing on the basis of colour, caste ,race, religion and nationality .The facts and statistics show that bullying starts as early as in the primary schools. In most of the cases bullying is not reported. Here the tolerance ,the fear ,the confusion in the mind of the victim forbids him to speak about it .His silence serves as a weapon in the hand of the bully who perpetrates it further. The victim suffers with mental agony ,pain ,depression ,low performance ,lack of confidence, pessimism and in worst cases it may lead to drug addiction ,crime and suicides. Even the bully who seems to be enjoying all this develop the habit of being aggressive whenever he finds that somebody is weak to defend himself ; faces lifelong adjustment issues ;becomes misuser of power which makes him a misfit in the society. He would be often found breaking the rules; enjoying the activities that law forbids and would be always found threatening one or the other .In most of the cases bullies become drug addicts and develop the criminal tendencies .
The boom in the use of technology has increased the cases of cyberbullying. Bully sends nasty messages ,images ,videos on the social media accounts and threaten and harass the victim which proves traumatic. Children who have just entered into the world of social media are the most vulnerable targets. In case they are being bullied in the school, the bullying becomes a continuous process as the bully will further perpetrates his activities by using technology.
We all must unitedly stand against bullying to free the world from this menace. The first step will be the resolution that each and every person should make that he will always be a buddy and not a bully. All the people must be made aware about their rights to speak up against bullying and it must start at the school level. The schools must have an active anti bullying programme . The program must have representatives from the students ,teachers, parents, administrative and non administrative staff and the counselor. An atmosphere of mutual respect, trust and care must be created so that the victim is confident enough that he will be heard, his problem will be solved and there will be no repercussions. The awareness programs must include the tips on the setting of passwords ,use of safe search engines ,safe sites ,the details of the helplines ,the government departments and other agencies .
The major hurdle in removing bullying from the world is silence. And it is just not the silence of the victim but the silence of bystanders as well. People must be made aware that they need to stand against this social evil for themselves as well as for the society.
As most of the cases are not reported. So onus remains on the friends, parents, teachers and well wishers to notice any kind of withdrawl symptoms, depression ,anxiety or any other unusual behaviour and find out whether bullying is the reason behind it . The bullying cycle not only includes the bully and the victim but also the passive onlookers; the companions of the bully who saw their friend bullying others but did not stop him ; the bystanders ;the family members ,the friends, the teachers ,the relatives who convinced the victim that it is the part of life.
Don’t be the silent observers and make the bullying successful .Be supportive to the victim and help him to report it to the right channel. Your voice will give support to the victim and he will learn to raise his voice .He will develop the trust that his voice will be heard . Once the bullying case is confirmed it can be solved by counselling sessions of the bully as well as the victim. The identity of the victim as well as bully must be kept secret as the purpose is the correction of the behaviour with love , trust and care. Remember, together we can fight against bullying and make the world a safe and happy place. | https://medium.com/@pavneetkaursuri54/be-a-buddy-not-a-bully-bullying-is-a-social-menace-31478d01d293 | ['Literature Learners'] | 2020-12-26 13:50:30.869000+00:00 | ['Peace', 'Better Living', 'Social Change', 'Harmony'] |
Drug classification — on cAInvas. Training a deep learning model to… | Drug classification — on cAInvas
Training a deep learning model to prescribe a drug based on the patient’s data.
A prescription drug is one that requires a medical prescription to be dispensed by law. On the other hand, an over-the-counter drug is one that can be dispensed without a prescription.
When it comes to the prescription of drugs, doctors look into various attributes of patient-related data before coming to a conclusion. This can have consequences varying from the efficiency of the medicine in the patient’s body to side effects caused and incorrect prescriptions may in some cases lead to irrevocable effects in patients (including death).
To start with, can we train a deep learning model to prescribe medicines to patients based on their medical data? Read on to find out!
Implementation of the idea on cAInvas — here!
The dataset
The dataset is a CSV file with the features regarding a patient that affects drug prescriptions like age, sex, BP level, cholesterol, and sodium-potassium ratio and the corresponding drug prescribes in each case.
Preprocessing
Balancing the dataset
Looking into the classes and the spread of values among them in the dataset —
There are two ways to balance the dataset —
upsampling — resample the values to make their count equal to the class label with the higher count (here, 91).
downsampling — pick n samples from each class label where n = number of samples in class with least count (here, 16)
Here, we will be upsampling.
Dataset upsampling
The replace parameter of .sample() is set to True to indicate that samples can be repeated in each class to achieve the given count. The df_balanced data frame has 455 samples, 91 of each class.
Categorical variables
The ‘sex’ column does not define a range and thus is one-hot encoded while changing from a categorical attribute to a numerical attribute. This means if there are n unique values in the column, an array of length n is created for each where only the ith value is set to 1 with reference to an array that defines the indices of the column values in the array.
In many cases (mostly in the input columns), if there are n unique values, an array of length n-1 is created as the extra column can be redundant for identifying the column value from the encoded array. This is achieved by setting the drop_first parameter as True in the get_dummies() function as shown in the code cell below.
Since this column has only 2 unique values in the data frame, there will not be any difference between one-hot encoding and label encoding the column.
The values in the columns Cholesterol and BP represent range-kind values as seen by the values below.
These columns are label encoded instead of One-hot encoding, i.e, each value is replaced by a numeric value.
Since this is a classification problem, the output of the model which is now as an integer should be one-hot encoded.
Onehot encoding
Snapshot of the dfx data frame
Train-test split
Using an 80–10–10 ratio to split the data frame into train- validation- test sets. These are then divided into X and y (input and output) for further processing.
Train test split
The training set has 364 samples while the validation set has 45 and the test set has 46 samples.
Scaling the values
A peek into the snapshot of the dfx data frame makes it evident that the columns have values in different ranges. The min-max scaler can be used to scale the values between the minimum and maximum values defined (min-0, max-1 by default).
Minmax scalar
The MinMaxScaler function of the sklearn.preprocessing module is used. Logically, the training set is the only data we are allowed to see or work with while training the model while the other two are used to evaluate its performance, the MinMaxScaler object is fit on the train data and the fitted model is used to transform the data in all the three datasets.
The model
The model is a simple one consisting only of Dense layers.
Drug classification model
The model is compiled using the Cross-entropy loss function because the final layer of the model has the softmax activation function and the labels are one-hot encoded. The Adam optimizer is used and the accuracy of the model is tracked over epochs.
The EarlyStopping callback function monitors the validation loss and stops the training if it doesn’t decrease for 8 epochs continuously. The restore_best_weights parameter ensures that the model with the least validation loss is restored to the model variable.
The model is trained with a learning rate of 0.01 for 64 epochs but the model stops before that due to the callbacks.
The model achieved 100% accuracy on the test set.
In problems such as these, it is important to keep the accuracy extremely high (100%) as chances cannot be taken with a patient’s medication.
The metrics
The plot of accuracies
The plot of losses
Prediction
Let’s perform predictions on random test data samples —
Drug classification prediction
Find the implementation of the print_sample() function in the notebook link above!
Random tests sample prediction
deepC
deepC library, compiler, and inference framework are designed to enable and perform deep learning neural networks by focussing on features of small form-factor devices like micro-controllers, eFPGAs, CPUs, and other embedded devices like raspberry-pi, odroid, Arduino, SparkFun Edge, RISC-V, mobile phones, x86 and arm laptops among others.
Compiling the model using deepC —
Head over to the cAInvas platform (link to notebook given earlier) and check out the predictions by the .exe file!
Credits: Ayisha D | https://medium.com/ai-techsystems/drug-classification-on-cainvas-18e6471df32a | ['Ai Technology'] | 2020-12-23 08:24:09.082000+00:00 | ['Tinyml', 'Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'IoT', 'Deep Learning'] |
Indiana Jones & the Plot Hole of Doom | So there’s a fan theory floating around the past few years that Indiana Jones “doesn’t matter” to the story of my favorite movie of all time, Raiders of the Lost Ark. He’s in the plot, but he doesn’t drive the plot. And if you’ve studied the storyline of the movie as closely as I have, you know that Indy pretty much fails, screws up and gets thwarted the entire movie, right up to the very last scene. The only thing he does manage to do, is survive.
But I’d like to take it a step further than that. I’d like to argue that Indiana Jones surviving this adventure, changed the course of world history. And sadly, not in a good way.
It started with a Big Bang Theory episode in which a character sees Raiders for the first time. Her reaction: “Indiana Jones doesn’t matter to the outcome of the film.” She explains that if he wasn’t in the movie, the Nazis still would have ended up opening the Ark and melting, exploding, and generally turning into beef jerky in God’s flame-broiler of wrath.
That’s not exactly true, as others have already pointed out. Indiana possesses the Headpiece to the Staff of Ra, which has markings on both sides, while the Nazis have a replica Headpiece with markings on only one side. Which means, “They’re digging in the wrong place.” Without him, they would never have found the Ark at all, and my childhood nightmares wouldn’t have been populated with screeching Angels of Death.
Sorry Toht, you have one too many kadams.
Then again, if Indiana hadn’t shown up at Marion’s bar in Nepal, the Nazis would have gotten the actual Headpiece, built the Staff of Ra to the correct length, and found the Ark anyway.
But rewind the story a little further, to the beginning, and imagine that Prof. Jones never leaves the university, or worse, ends up squished under that boulder in South America. There’s nothing and no one to stop the Nazis from torturing Marion until she hands over the Headpiece, they find the Ark, and Yahweh kicks Nazi ass.
That’s all, folks? Not even close.
If Indiana Jones is killed, injured, captured, or never goes on the hunt for the Ark, the following chain of events would happen:
The Nazis get the Staff of Ra and dig up the Ark. Maybe someone along the way is killed by an asp, but no biggie, they’re Nazi goons.
They transport the Ark on the flying wing to the secret island. (No tough guys get churned into hamburger meat in a propeller blade. No show-stopping truck chases happen. No U-boat rides hanging on the periscope by a bullwhip.)
Belloq puts on a tallis, chants a Haftorah, and opens the Ark.
This DJ is off the hook.
Faces melt, heads explode, and laser beams shoot into and out of eyeballs.
What’s left is a barren chamber with the Ark glowing and purring proudly.
End of story, right?
Not quite, kemosabe.
Without Indy and Marion left alive after the Ark slams shut, there are no Americans to take the Ark back to Washington to be studied by top men.
Instead, worker Nazis on the secret island would eventually figure out that Belloq & Co. are missing, come to collect the Ark…
And deliver it to Adolf Hitler.
Hitler gathers his top Nazi brass to show off his latest acquisition.
He opens it up like it’s National Socialist Christmas.
And boom. Adolf, meet Adonai. Not your biggest fan.
Thus ending World War 2.
In 1936.
Long before the worst that’s to come.
Allow me to repeat.
If Indiana Jones doesn’t raid the Lost Ark, Hitler dies.
If Indiana gets killed at any point along the adventure, Hitler dies.
If Indiana gets a concussion and ends up in the hospital, Hitler dies.
But Indy didn’t do any of those things. He survived.
And the rest is history. | https://medium.com/applaudience/indiana-jones-the-plot-hole-of-doom-193a5397f73 | ['Glenn Sanders'] | 2015-11-03 06:39:51.313000+00:00 | ['Comedy', 'Storytelling', 'Movies'] |
CRAZYYYYY TRUMP! | Given Trump’s psychological profile, it was inevitable that when he felt the walls of reality close in on him — in 2020, it was the pandemic, the cratering economy, and his election defeat — he would detach himself even further from reality. It was predictable that the president would assert even more bizarre conspiracy theories. That he would become more enraged and embittered, more desperate and despondent, more consumed by his grievances. That he would go against past supplicants, like Attorney General Bill Barr and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, and become more aggressive toward his perceived enemies. That his wits would begin to turn, in the words of King Lear. That he would begin to lose his mind.
So he has. And, as a result, President Trump has become even more destabilizing and dangerous. | https://medium.com/@gabymartir/crazyyyyy-trump-ef55731127a4 | ['Gabriela Martinez'] | 2020-12-21 00:57:00.413000+00:00 | ['Election 2020', 'Trump', 'Crazy', 'Donald Trump', 'Russia'] |
The Last King of Ireland | What happened to the coronation stone of the O’Neills?
Tullyhogue
If you wish to see Tullyhogue Fort, be ready for a bit of a climb. From the parking lot, you follow a snaking path, marked by briskly modern printed signs, to the base of a round hill, ringed by graceful, swaying trees. It makes your heart pound to clamber up the side of that hill; schoolchildren scramble up it, led there by teachers keen to give a lesson about a chapter from the island’s distant past. Those are the most frequent visitors to Tullyhogue, the children.
For an outsider, an American, learning about it and finding out details requires persistence. Helen Allen, who capably manages media inquiries for the Department of Communities branch of the Northern Ireland government, provided help and a bit of advice: “There are multiple spellings of the site name, so you may need to use the versions ‘Tullaghoge,’ ‘Tullaghogue,’ ‘Tullyhoge,’ ‘Tullyhogue,’ and ‘Tullac óg,’ and there may be further variations too.” No matter the variations, I’ve learned the word is Middle Gaelic, a language spoken from roughly 900 A.D. to 1200 A.D., and it means something along the lines of “the Hill of the Young Warriors.”
The hill is in County Tyrone, near the picturesque city of Cookstown and forty-five miles west of Belfast. Once you’ve reached the top of Tullyhogue, there is no “fort.” There probably never was a wooden fort, at least not a wooden-planked one bristling against the frontier, Davy Crockett-style, that my American imagination conjures. Tullyhogue is best described as a raised platform of grass, about 100 feet in diameter, with trees encircling it.
On Tullyhogue many feel light and buoyed, taking in the view of eastern County Tyrone. This hill stands above the valley of the Balinderry River, with farms stretching toward low-lying craggy mountains. Villages rise in the landscape, and church towers too. There are bogs to be spotted, naturally, sprinkled in the springtime with white flowers nicknamed Bog Cotton.
It isn’t the view, though, that led to my obsession with Tullyhogue. It is its history — what took place atop this windswept hill. Knowing that history makes any sense of serenity experienced here incongruous, an insult to the dead.
What interests me most about Tullyhogue is an object, even though it hasn’t been here for centuries. Its name is Leac na Ri, a Gaelic phrase that translates to “the flagstone of the kings.” The origins of the Stone of Tullyhogue are misty, but the best estimate is that, beginning in the early 13th century, this was the place where a man, in a sacred Gaelic ceremony, “assumed the sovereignty over the men of Eire.”
From the 14th century until the beginning of the 17th, the family that assumed such sovereignty was that of O’Neill. In fact, the ceremony was intended to not only crown a king but to “make an O’Neill.” The family name was synonymous with ruler.
The O’Neills’ sphere of influence covered the north of Ireland; in other words, Ulster. Today Ulster is a vast province of more than 2 million people, made up of nine counties, six of them in Northern Ireland and three of them over the border in the Republic of Ireland.
Even in the 16th century, far less populated, it was a kingdom well worth fighting for. “My ancestors were kings of Ulster,” cried Shane O’Neill in 1572, outraged over English incursions. “And Ulster is mine and shall be mine.” Beginning in the 1570s,
English military commanders had been battling with both the Anglo-Irish lords and the Gaelic chieftains in the province of Munster, spreading across the south of Ireland. But the English veered away from the north of the island. It was the most Gaelic, its terrain the most forbidding.
The great Hugh O’Neill, Shane’s cousin, was the last member of the family to assume sovereignty of Ulster at Tullyhogue, in a coronation conducted in 1595. The ceremony itself is fascinating if frustrating in its essential mysteries. O’Neill would have undergone a bathing ritual beforehand.
He’d be handed a white rod, or wand, to signify the purity of his ascension. At the ceremony’s conclusion, whoever is chosen as the O’Neill, sitting on a stone chair — presumably the Leac na Ri — would be honored by having a shoe cast over his head, onto the hill. “The use of [the shoe] symbolized the hope that the new O’Neill would continue to walk in the footsteps of his predecessors,” wrote one historian.
Hugh O’Neill
The trail to Tullyhogue
I try to imagine what it would be like to stand on the top of this windy hill and bear witness to Hugh O’Neill. In the best-known portrait of him, one painted after his death, he wears armor and a graying beard, his face lined and his expression weary. Contemporaries said he had bright red hair. A crude picture exists of the Tullyhogue ceremony, helping to fill in the details of how O’Neill, then 45, would have appeared: Barefoot and bare-headed, he wore the fringed Irish mantle, a long loose cape of frieze cloth that extends below a man’s knees.
Archaeological digs in the last five years performed at Tullyhogue have yielded thrilling discoveries. According to the dating of objects found, it was a place of importance in the early medieval age. And so what happened that day was not only Gaelic but tantalizingly pagan and mystical in meaning, and yet 1595 was firmly planted in the early modern age.
In that same year, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was performed; the astronomer Johannes Kepler developed his theory of the geometrical basis of the universe; Sir Walter Ralegh reached eastern Venezuela, and a few months later Sir Francis Drake died off the coast of Puerto Rico.
Elizabeth I
O’Neill himself had been educated, in part, by Sir Henry Sidney, the English Lord Deputy of Ireland. When he wanted to refurbish his castle, O’Neill chose the best tapestries, plate, lace, and paintings to be found in London.
He was a man of profound contradictions. He married four times and was a devoted father, yet Hugh was vicious — he had murdered two of Shane’s sons — and deceptive. The Elizabeth chronicler William Camden wrote, “He was a strong man, able to endure labours, watching, and hard fare; he was industrious, active, valiant, affable, and apt to manager great affairs; of a high, dissembling, subtle and profound wit. Many deemed him born either for the great good or ill of his country.”
Whether he pursued the good or the ill for Ireland is entirely a matter of perspective.
Hugh O’Neill was not just the ruler of Ulster but the Earl of Tyrone. It was a title created by Henry VIII, the first English monarch to deem himself King of Ireland, and granted to first Shane and then to Hugh by Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth I. While all of the English papers refer to him as “Tyrone,” the title meant little to him in comparison to the O’Neill.
“To these people, the title of O’Neill means more than Cesear,” Camden wrote, a touch incredulous. It’s one of the many ironies of his life, for Hugh O’Neill was a rebel, described by his contemporaries, men who hated him, as an “arch-traitor” and “the Queen’s Worst Enemy.”
For years O’Neill sent out mixed signals from the North, and the English hoped he would not turn against them. But when he sat on the stone throne of Tullyhogue, embracing his ancestral title, they interpreted it — correctly — as a sign that he would rise. He was a Catholic determined to drive the Protestant English from Ulster if not all of Ireland.
It was O’Neill who led the Irish army that crushed the English in the Battle of Yellow Ford on August 14, 1598. It was the worst defeat suffered by an English army during not only the reign of Elizabeth I but any Tudor monarch. The English victory over the Spanish Armada is the lesson everyone learns; Yellow Ford, the triumph of the Irish, is barely acknowledged in most history texts. It is a cliché but one that cries out to be repeated: “History is written by the winners.”
After Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, took command of Queen Elizabeth’s army in 1601, the fortunes of war turned against the Irish. Hugh O’Neill, the last of the O’Neills to rule Ulster, knelt before Lord Mountjoy in April 1603 and surrendered, even vowing to renounce “the name and title of O’Neill.” He was, observers said, a man greatly aged by war. He was broken.
(An in-depth look at the war O’Neill waged against Elizabeth I’s commanders can be found in The Nine Years War, 1593–1603: O’Neill, Mountjoy and the Military Revolution, by James O’Neill.)
O’Neill, spared his life but rendered powerless, left Ireland for Rome in 1607 in what is known as the Flight of the Earls. With O’Neill and his allies gone, Ulster land was forfeit, confiscated for what is chillingly called “The Plantation of Ulster.” Half a million acres were colonized, the land taken from Irish families that lived there for centuries, and bestowed on English Protestants and also Scottish Presbyterians.
The sacred hill of Tullyhogue with its shattered stone was co-opted. The Anglican Church of Ireland took possession of the hill and its surroundings; no one paid much attention to it until the 1960s. An Anglican archbishop oversaw the occupation of the area by Protestant settlers after 1607.
Of course, these religious divisions had consequences no one could have foreseen. In the early 20th century, when the Republic of Ireland broke away, Northern Ireland had to be created as a separate entity, because the descendants of those 17th-century plantation owners insisted, on the threat of violence, that they remain subjects of the English Crown. Ulster will fight, they chanted in the hundreds of thousands.
O’Neill’s departure passed into myth, with some tracing the beginning of the Irish diaspora to that despairing flight. Before the Nine Years War, the Irish were not a people who emigrated. That changed. Some 10 million people are estimated to have left Ireland since 1700. New York City, where I live, has the largest number of Irish Americans of any city in the United States.
There’s debate over who wrote the song “Flight of Earls,” but folksinger Paddy Reilly made it famous in the 1970s:
I can hear the bells of Dublin/ in this lonely waiting room/ And the paperboys are singin’in the rain/Not too long before they take us/to the airport and the noise/To get on board a transatlantic plane/We’ve got nothin’ left to stay for/We had no more left to say/And there isn’t any work for us to do/So farewell ye boys and girls/Another bloody Flight of Earls
What may have done much to break the spirit of this bloody earl, Hugh O’Neill, took place one year before his formal surrender. In the late summer of 1602, an action was taken that few biographies of Elizabeth mention, and receives a sentence or two, at most, in histories of the Tudors.
Lord Mountjoy traveled with a party of Englishmen to Tullyhogue and he destroyed its stone of coronation, smashing it into small pieces. The English made sure there would never be another mystical ceremony honoring an Irish leader on the hill. Mountjoy’s men “brake downe the chaire wherein the Oneals were wont to be created, being of stone, planted in the open field.” The pieces were buried or made to otherwise disappear.
Standing on Tullyhogue, you definitely won’t see a throne for a Gaelic chieftain. There are stones scattered here and there. Says the helpful Helen Allen: “A number of stones may mark the site of the inauguration place of the O’Neill. The historical depiction of this as a chair may be a little misleading.
The actual inauguration place may have been the boulder itself, and the stones that were set around it to form a chair could well have been later additions to formalize the feature, perhaps even to make it more ‘throne-like’. In any case, it seems it the stones set around the boulder were the elements that were destroyed, and while I suspect we can probably identify the original boulder it is very difficult to prove that it is, in fact, the inauguration stone.”
After much research, I found the most in-depth description of what happened in 1602 in Tullyhogue in a seven-page article published in 1970 in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, “The Making of an O’Neill: A View of the Ceremony at Tullyhogue, Co. Tyrone.” Its author, Gerald Anthony Hayes McCoy, a leading Irish historian of his generation, gathered every bit of documentation. Through his writing, I was able to get an inkling of what happened.
Hopefully, there will be more research, and more archeological digs authorized, to deepen our knowledge of what it took to “make an O’Neill.” | https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/the-last-king-of-ireland-480589385c35 | ['Nancy Bilyeau'] | 2019-12-30 23:31:56.743000+00:00 | ['Irish History', 'Ireland', 'Rebellion', 'Elizabeth I', 'History'] |
THE END | Image from Jon Candy.
Think more about your senses and less about your feelings. A website might be a newish kind of book. It’s a nice space in a warehouse-y way. Different cities have different infrastructures. Weight of the decanter slowly warps the tabletop. Breakfast date. Coffee date. Surprise date. Nap date. Irritation at the book for not lying flat on its spine. Was it something about your shoes or did you pull a muscle. The new blanket on the couch made it hard to go to bed. Crossing the horizon of words you knew you’d say. Just make the print on the screen a little bigger. Keep the phone from reflecting in the window surface. Specific desolation of standing on a corner. Where will the Christmas tree go this year. Time to retrieve your hairbrush from the gym. My greatest ambition is to clean out the closet. Take a picture with your phone then hit the envelope icon. It’s not like you can’t connect these dots. A certain kind of weariness as if you’ve worn out your eyes. What do I have to read to understand your talk. Tools of a revolution. Who do you know. If you can hear my voice it means you’re awake too late. Life of the mind in a way I suppose. Always slipping into something less comfortable. Google Maps put the walk at 65 or 69 hours. One joke about print culture is one joke too many. Drowsiness of the BBC news. Complacency of the brunch hour. I forgot to shop before the book sold out all over town. How to think about friendship and liberal individualism. I numbered this one five but it comes after six. The email sent at 2:30am and way too long. I said I don’t really have anything to add. How weird is the default adjective for interpretive richness. Sea salt. Too much mustard but mostly pleasurable. Someone must have said we want prisons not colleges. Taking the subway shorter and shorter distances. Sound of cars makes clear it’s still raining. Where the social ends and the political begins. I promised to send pictures of the taxidermied fish. I indiscreetly used the word undersocialized. Funny little rush of recognizing the commonest allusion. Little whoops of a siren somewhere nearby. | https://medium.com/revolver-reader/the-end-955b18831a8c | ['Mc Hyland'] | 2015-11-17 14:08:08.634000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Poetry', 'Traveling'] |
Inviting The Changes at Scene & Heard | Inviting The Changes at Scene & Heard
August 17th 2018
Dear Sentients,
Following up on my last letter without ado, I would like to deliver the news about the changes that have been made at Scene & Heard.
We want to provide the best possible media platforms for our readership and contributors. To achieve this objective, in a cluttered world of print and digital media, we are faced with the challenge of not only standing-up but standing out. To keep standing and stand-out, we know we must offer a very unique reader experience.
Facing the challenge to achieve the objective of reaching farther and wider, we need to, and, are re-visiting and re-inventing the form of Scene & Heard.
The process of re-invention requires us to take a step back from the print scene for the immediate & foreseeable future. Nonetheless, we plan to re-introduce the print version, in it’s new form once we have solidified the re-invention, envisaging this to take anywhere fro 9–12 months. I will duly post the updates as we progress.
Standing in for the print version, is a digital version of the publication available for download and reading on screened devices.
In short, effective September 2018, we will continue to produce the publication as a scheduled digital publication (5 times a year), AND publish accepted work submitted to our online platforms on medium.com as well as on our SNH Tavern web page (snhjournal.com) on a roll-in basis.
To accelerate our online presence, a robust social media and online marketing plan is also being developed and will be rolled out methodically over the next 12 months starting with the SNH web site being given an over-haul to better accommodate and showcase our contributors and readers.
This is the way we aim to increase our readership and thus exposure to reach a far greater audience than what we are currently able to do through the print medium. | https://medium.com/the-scene-heard/inviting-the-changes-at-scene-heard-a47568f80006 | [] | 2018-08-17 21:27:17.198000+00:00 | ['Letters', 'Writing', 'Thesceneandheard', 'Art', 'News'] |
A Name Before Death | Image Credit: Amey Kandalgaonkar (http://ameykphotography.com)
Sometimes you just need to sit down. In front of a TV, in front of a computer, in a chair under the only light in your one-room apartment, where you sit doesn’t matter. That’s not the point. It’s what you think about when you sit.
Do you sit and think about death? Or is it your life’s failures — those that continually haunt you — who finally have a chance to speak to you, alone. Maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who can sit and think about nothing, and can recall no trauma.
For as different as we all are, whether you think negatively or positively, there is one thing that unifies us: we die. It’s a theme talked about over and over and over again in fiction and non-fiction and memoirs and poems and real-life and so on and so on.
Death was on Frank’s mind just before he slumped over, dead, in his recliner. He was 67. It was a massive coronary. If he’d only waited one more year, someone might have been there to care about him. His neighbor tried to look upset as paramedics wheeled Frank’s body away from his small home. They’d never met, even though they lived next to one another for three years.
That same neighbor, name of Martin, died 20 years later at the age of 53. He was checking his phone when a brick fell from construction scaffolding five stories up. It hit him square in the head, caving his skull and turning his brain into mush. He didn’t feel a thing.
Alicia, only a few feet away from Martin, couldn’t believe what just happened. She screamed, then she ran. An express bus, running unsurprisingly late, hit her as she sprinted across the street. Death, however, did not find her immediately. No, her family kept her on life support for six years while the reaper waited in the wings. Finally, a freshly-hired nurse decided to speed things along.
June, the aforementioned nurse, removed Alice from this world. She was the tenth person June had saved in two months. Now she found herself standing on top of the hospital staring death itself in the face. Twenty-four floors of hopelessness beneath her, and yet her mission ended after saving a mere ten of them. The roof’s access door slammed open. They screamed for her to put her hands above her head, to get on her knees. Instead she flew, like all angels, though her wings were clipped.
Elias, recently unemployed and alone in his suburban apartment, read about Alice on his computer. He was listening to the newest release by “Birthed By Demons”, his favorite electronic band, and didn’t hear the man enter his room. Didn’t see the gun pointed at his head, nor did he feel the bullet as it exited his left eye and entered the computer monitor.
Two cities away, a woman with no name gave birth to a daughter. She named her Kate, and the two of them would live a peaceful life together. Nothing bad befell them, and neither had a worry in the world. It was refreshing to see such a wonderful duo as they navigated the world.
Twenty-six years later, Kate sat down at her mother’s funeral and thought about death for the first time. | https://medium.com/the-junction/a-name-before-death-1f89cc04cb87 | ['Joshua Ehlers'] | 2019-06-24 17:59:29.530000+00:00 | ['Death', 'Short Story', 'Fiction', 'The Junction', 'Existentialism'] |
You Can’t Turn An Elephant On A Dime — Startup Blogpost | You Can’t Turn An Elephant On A Dime — Startup Blogpost
A Slice on Matthew Likens, President and CEO of GT Medical Technologies Emily Ahrens Follow Jul 22 · 5 min read
Matthew Likens would not consider himself an entrepreneur in his early life. Likens received his degree from Kent State University, and went to work at Johnson & Johnson shortly after. After a few years of work there, he transitioned to the Baxter Healthcare Corporation out of Chicago, where he would stay for 23 years. Though he enjoyed his time there, he always knew in the back of his mind that at some point, he wanted to build something where “there was nothing previously”. Likens loved the concept of intrapreneurship which occurs when large companies foster development from within, in ways like innovation groups, working to build new businesses utilizing existing company talent.
This always appealed to Likens but he understood that “you can’t turn an elephant on a dime”.
With corporations as large as Baxter and Johnson & Johnson, becoming the giants they are, oftentimes Likens noted, they can get “overrun” by processes. “The term is nimble, it’s not part of the vocabulary, it’s not a committee, it’s 16 people around a conference table nodding their heads in unison before any decisions are made. It only took me 23 years at Baxter to get tired of that, which is about the time I got a phone call about a senior position at a well-funded (they had raised $180 million) startup called GMP Companies. It was about the time I felt like I needed something new.”
Likens accepted the position, and went to work spending that $180 million. He shared that in retrospect, they probably raised “too much” money in the beginning which led to some mismanagement. “When you have that much money you tend not to manage it as frugally as required. Compared to if you’re dealing with scarcity, you tend to make trade-offs and decisions, you’re more scrupulous in the way you allocate your money.” Likens stayed with the company for roughly five years and though he was not CEO, he did learn a lot along the way. Mainly, everything not to do in a startup environment. To elaborate, Likens shared a piece of advice for entrepreneurs looking to avoid some of the mistakes he experienced at GMP Companies: portfolio management. With such a great deal of funding it’s important to practice portfolio management, don’t get caught up in pursuing too many things at once, but rather be “extremely selective” as to where you devote your resources and investments.
After his time with GMP, Likens needed a job. His children were in college, one starting and one just finishing. He was made aware of a role in Mesa, Arizona through an ex-Johnson & Johnson colleague. One thing led to another and Likens came on board as President and CEO of Ulthera, Inc. The ultrasound technology was marketed to plastic surgeons and dermatologists for firming, tightening and lifting the skin. Likens and his “tremendous team” guided the company for the next 5 years as it grew (post-FDA clearance) to almost $100 million in revenue and 230 employees. Ulthera’s confidential filing became public in January 2014, right as three larger companies became interested in acquiring them. They eventually sold for $600 million and Likens stayed on for two more years before retiring in July 2016.
Retirement was short-lived for Likens…stating he “never developed a lot of hobbies, apparently.” He purchased a custom set of golf clubs, but unfortunately, they did not help improve his golf game. Likens was only retired for 15 months before he was onto his next company. A friend of his who had been consulting for five brain tumor specialists all employed at Barrow Neurological Institute approached Likens. The team had put together an LLC for their development of a radiation implant.
GammaTile, as it was called, was developed as another option for patients with operable brain tumors. The current standard of care requires a treatment delay and up to 30 visits to a hospital or radiation center. “In standard therapy, the tumor is removed, and then the patient rests in the hospital to recover for a day or two. Then they go home to recover and wait for their surgical incisions to heal another 2–3 weeks. After that, the patient embarks on a course of external radiation therapy to address residual tumor cells, because it’s impossible for a neurosurgeon to get every last tumor cell out. If the surgeon is too aggressive, the surgery can effect eloquent, healthy tissue that remains and cause brain damage. Even after this arduous treatment regimen, over half of aggressive brain tumors recur, or come back, within a year.” The team from Barrow thought ‘well what if we come at it from the inside,’ taking the idea of brachytherapy and engineering the previous drawbacks of this type of therapy by embedding radiation sources in a bioresorbable carrier. By implanting the radiation you can start addressing the residual tumor cells immediately, while the carrier protects healthy tissue.
Likens, still frustrated with his golf game, knew he could bring the relevant experience in, sign a CDA, look at their clinical data and give them some advice regarding a licensing agreement they had received. Likens was “blown away by the quality of their data”, how much better the outcomes were with GammaTile Therapy versus conventional radiational therapy. Likens shared with the team he thought their best course of action would be to turn the LLC into a Delaware-based C Corp, raise funds and go to market. He signed on as CEO and that’s exactly what they did.
GammaTile has had two FDA clearances, the first for recurrent brain tumors in July 2018, and another for newly diagnosed malignant brain tumors in January 2020. The company has 31 employees and is in adopting hospitals. Likens is encouraged by what he sees in patients and says they are “doing absolutely superb.”
Founder Bio
Matthew Likens graduated from Kent State University and began his professional career with the Johnson & Johnson Corporation. He then spent more than twenty years in domestic and international sales, and marketing and general management roles at Baxter Healthcare Corporation. Following that, he was appointed as president and CEO of GT Medical Technologies, a company that develops and markets GammaTile(R) Therapy, with a purpose of improving the lives of patients with brain tumors. Connect with Likens on LinkedIn. | https://medium.com/startup-blogpost/you-cant-turn-an-elephant-on-a-dime-startup-blogpost-a520c2414f4 | ['Emily Ahrens'] | 2021-08-19 21:46:54.305000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Healthcare', 'Medical', 'Healthtech', 'Founder Stories'] |
I Love the Way Your Name Tastes | I Love the Way Your Name Tastes
A poem.
Photo by Mia Baker on Unsplash
When your name pops up on my phone,
I can’t help but stare at it.
I love the way it’s shaped.
Is that weird? I can’t help it.
I trace the top of your name with my eyes,
the subtle way it rises and falls.
I want to see what your message says but I can’t
get past your name.
I say it in my head and let it fall,
down into my mouth. It fits in there.
I can roll it around without wanting to swallow it.
I want your name to sit there. I want it to stay.
Will I ever hate your name? The way it looks,
the way it fits, the way it tastes?
The way it lives in my mouth,
ready to spring out in a moan or a whisper
at any moment. Will that change?
Will your name send chills through my body,
and drop rocks into my stomach,
leave them floating there,
unable to break them up into dust until
long after your name has passed.
It’s weird how the way we see words can change,
how we can hear a name that once made us smile,
and quickly feel like anything but.
Will that happen? Will we let it?
Your name has always tasted sweet
and I hope it stays that way. | https://medium.com/blueinsight/i-love-the-way-your-name-tastes-c754a62e9373 | ['Caitlin Jill Anders'] | 2020-12-17 06:26:07.784000+00:00 | ['Poetry On Medium', 'Poetry', 'Self', 'Love', 'Blue Insights'] |
Why You Shouldn’t Get The Conventional iPad Pro Setup | I decided to give Logitech Slim Folio a chance.
It was cheaper than the magic keyboard (about half the price) and it could fold the keyboard away when not in use. I did not take the trackpad version because the whole point of an iPad is the touch screen.
I wanted to love the slim folio but it was hard.
The issues with the Logitech Slim Folio
Image by Author
The case is heavy and bulky, a type of uncomfortable bulky. I understand that the cover is meant to protect the iPad but it is so thick and rough that looks like a binder from the ’90s. The typing experience felt great. However, the keywords were still in between. Even though I could fold the keyboard back when I was not using it, the keyboards would still touch with the back surface. Making it very uncomfortable. There the magnetic flap was always floating around in front of your screen. Ugly and distracting. Again — bad design.
So I returned the Logitech Folio. If you want good protection, good keyboard and do not mind the extra grams. Then I think Logitech Slim Folio is still a good alternative compared to the Magic Keyboard.
Logitech slim folio | Image by Author
My current set up
I went back to the classic foldable case (18€ or $25) and paired it up with a Logitech Multi Device Keyboard K280 for Mac ($39). So far I am very happy with my choice. I spent less than 60€ and have a light, flexible set up.
ESR Rebound Case for iPad Pro 11inch | Image by Author
The foldable case has a standard three-panel folding design which allows me to stand my iPad at multiple angles including reading and writing mode. The cover has a magnetic flap that wraps around my Apple Pencil. The flap attaches to the back when not in used.
The cover I got is very minimal and attached magnetically to the back of my iPad if you are looking for something that gives your iPad more protection but has similar functionality I heard the OtterBox 360 is quite good too.
Logitech Multi Device Keyboard K280 | Image by Author
My keyboard is small and light enough to carry around. The multi-device function allows me to use the keyboard for both my computer and my iPad.
If you do not need the multi-device function and want something lighter I recommend the Logitech Keys-To-Go (only 180g or 6.35oz) which I also have, it is very light and is rechargeable. | https://medium.com/macoclock/why-you-shouldnt-get-the-conventional-ipad-pro-setup-4b1dabd4a0e8 | ['Eva L.'] | 2020-12-22 07:34:46.761000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Setup', 'iPad Pro', 'Apple', 'iPad'] |
My Resignation and Resume for 2021 | I’ll keep this as brief as possible.
My legal name is Kenny Tran, and I use the name Kenneth Tran in my professional life. I was born on December 1st, 1988 Year of the Earth Dragon in the Southern Kingdom, Vietnam, where I am the seated ArchDuke of Vietnam itself through inheritance. My name at birth was Kha Trong Tran which translates to “First Sword Dragon Tyrant”.
I’m a real life superhero/RLSH and they call me… Dragon Lord, the first Green Lantern of Earth.
From an early age I excelled in everything I did and that trend has continued till now as I just finished my PhD in Digital Marketing at the age of 32 from Los Angeles University which I transferred to after Glasgow Caledonian in the UK and Penn State University. I have a master’s in Theology from Saint Luke’s, a master’s degree in growth hacking from Simplilearn, and a B.A. in economics from UCLA.
In elementary school, I graduated in 5th grade as Salutatorian in the OC, California and the top of my class in the GATE program pilot year. In middle school I was ranked in the 99th percentile (maximum possible score) in California’s Standford 9 standardized exam for Math, English, Science, and etc… In middle school I was also an official member of NET@Zone’s counter-strike clan.
In high school I got in some trouble as I was transferred to another high school in the OC during junior year for “gang affiliation”. The year after, at 16 years old I was the leader of Crimson Guild in Ragnarok Online, Iris Server, and held a castle from WoE. At 17 years old, I met a friend on the internet known simply as Karna, an SA goon squad leader and the source of the Karna botnet on SukiRO, a top 5 PvP server with an average CCU of 500 to 1k players at any given time, where he took control of the game servers and became the supreme admin. He made me the head GM with complete rule over all GMs.. and they called me… *crying…*… GM-Dash.. or simply Dash Bandit.
Years later I wrote a book that went viral, beyond best seller, called “Art of War 2, official sequel to Art of War 1 by Master Tzu” and I dedicated the book to my old friend.. Master Karna because I learned warfare through video games alone.
I was a nobody…
So today.. I will tell you all the truth..
My resume and career is ridiculous that even billionaires (Google: Kenneth Tran Forbes) back down.
I don’t care for those things… those titles.. those awards.. that power.
I just want to be known as the guy who learned war through video games alone and pioneered warfare itself from it. And what I became as a result of.. playing games with my younger brother McRustyJr (semi-pro Smash Bros player and Kira’s rival early in on…).. is that I became my childhood favorite superhero…
The Green Lantern of Earth.
That’s all I’ve done that I want to be known for and remembered as… not Space Force Ensign1, not DARPA agent of influence #Blossom, not CISA’s Director of the National Emergency Technology Guard, not the man who hacked Mensa, not the #1 ranked microinfluencer in 2017,.. but as..
Hi…
My name is Dragon Lord.. and I’m the first green lantern of Earth. I wrote the viral book, Art of War 2, which I learned from playing video games alone.
And though you may see me in tears as I write this… I assure you it is not because I’m shadow banned for disturbing people’s realities on Linkedin by making their accomplishments pale in comparison…
I’m crying because…
…in those days… way back then?…
We were superheroes… we really were..
We didn’t have any superpowers at the time that I know of…
We just had no.. I don’t know what it is or what to say..
But don’t remember me as an honors student or PhD…
Remember me as a guild leader leading a ragtag group of misfits in both iRO and SukiRO…
Misfits that I knew not in real life or the physical world.. but across worlds… Literally across worlds for we were worlds away..
..and we were friends.
So #ARISE… Karna or Carna.. whatever your name is nowadays.
I knight thee and invite thee…
To be Sir Karna and a friend of the Corps.. or member.. or whatever you prefer.
It doesn’t matter to me…
…because your top 5 Monk’s Asura Strike could never take down my top 5 Paladin’s Shield Reflect now could it?…
>;D
And in fact…
Karna…
What do you do all day anyways?… >:\
And on that note…
Iona!…
Where’s my ion canon?… >:|
And yes.. I will confirm the rumors… The FBI were in fact called in to catch Karna. The crime?.. He hacked SukiRO and purged all the GameMasters; installing his own regime with me as the head of the most corrupt team that I have ever been on.
And one of them was even my high school sweetheart/ex-gf… GM-Exigence!!… From none other than… SomethingAwful!!..
*crowd gasps.. o_o;*
Never before had I seen corruption on such a scale… even as I stand an old man today… nothing will ever beat that.. the way.. we just..
Well…
Put it this way…
Karna always refused to show his equips.
He literally never showed anyone what his equips were… he showed me though.. in the deep dark dungeons where he built a makeshift jail for those who felt dissent for his dictatorship.
I laughed when he showed me his equips… Keep in mind.. even the other GMs did not see most of what he wore to WoE and PvP on the daily.
I laughed because I was always better than him.
Sure he got me from time to time by eating Yggdrasil berries like they were made of crack on cookies or something.. literally just chomping down.. hitting the shortcut to the full heal HP AND HP like a spam button…
But the vast majority of our fights… that end up in skirmishes made everyone think it was Gutz fighting Griffith… literally that’s how it ended up because we were not in the same guild… certainly not after well.. its a long story but…
You should be ashamed of yourself Karna!
A GM??.. a man of the peoples??..
With instant cast??
Hmpf!
>:|
You must have taken a page out of senpai #Trump’s book or something.
*Walks away casually while trying to whistle to lighten the mood…*
>;D
Top 1 Paladin.
>;D…
*starts sweating profusely…* | https://medium.com/@vietdeadpool/my-resignation-and-resume-for-2021-30cc5231482c | ['Kenneth Tran'] | 2021-03-03 20:20:10.383000+00:00 | ['GamerGate', 'Trump Administration', 'Trump', 'FBI', 'Nsa'] |
Just a teaser of the demo site of the #ArtisTurba exchange | in Both Sides of the Table | https://medium.com/artisturba/just-a-teaser-of-the-demo-site-of-the-artisturba-exchange-880bca87b3b | ['Artis Turba'] | 2018-09-05 11:10:42.857000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Exchange', 'Blockchain', 'Altcoins'] |
“Happy Face” Film Review | Happy Face, directed by Alexandre Franchi from a story co-written with Terminal Venus’ Joelle Bourjolly, is a thought-provoking tale that approaches shallowness unlike any previous production. The French Canadian title Happy Face: La tyrannie de la beauté, noting the subject matter, feels a tad more appropriate.
Societal pressures, common in most countries, frequently influence the way persons look and behave, and think. An outward appearance, not always a reflection of an individual’s personality, can be misleading. Real monsters aren’t always readily apparent.
Image Credit: IMDb.com
Stan, played by newcomer Robin L’Houmeau, is a 19-year-old teenager that spends much of his time playing Dungeons & Dragons with friends. The teenager, when not immersing himself in the fantasy tabletop role-playing game, tires picking up girls in local bars.
Desperate to become less shallow, wrapping his face in bandages, Stan attends a hospital support group for disfigured people. Group attendees, after building a friendly relationship with their new-found friend, soon begin questioning Stan’s sincerity. Why is he is their midst?
Debbie Lynch-White, playing support group leader Vanessa, does an exceptional job. Vanessa, noting Lynch-White’s commitment to her character, feels genuine. There is an honesty to the actress’s performance, from the moment she first appears on screen, which many people will find comforting. | https://medium.com/harsh-light-news/happy-face-film-review-511f18730864 | ['Shain E. Thomas'] | 2020-12-17 02:41:35.336000+00:00 | ['Happy Face', 'Film Reviews', 'Drama', 'Thriller', 'Alexandre Franchi'] |
When workplace cultures collide | A cook finds himself lost at sea in the world of retail grocery
© the author
It was with some trepidation that I went to work in prepared foods for a high-end grocer that had recently opened its first New York City store. But the pay wasn’t bad and benefits were quite good. Employees were called team members and the handbook promised fair play, lots of opportunities and, most importantly for me, the potential for authentic teamwork.
They put me on the night shift.
Okay. Isn’t that teamwork? You show up on time, do what needs to be done, don’t complain and things will happen. Right? I cut lettuce for salads, scrubbed zucchinis, chopped peppers and rolled meatballs to sell in trays with bagged marinara and stale pastas for six months. When I contacted the prepared foods boss to suggest that my skills weren’t being utilized to the fullest — after all I had a culinary degree, food handling certificate and some decent fine dining restaurant experience under my belt — his reply was: I need bodies on nights.
So much for creating opportunities.
I finally escaped when the company opened a new location on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
This location didn’t have an overnight shift. Instead I worked the small Italian bistro-style restaurant tucked into the second floor. Naomi Watts and the guy who played Brother Mouzune in The Wire were customers. We prepped, made some of our own specials and, in general did the fine dining thing.
This was more like it.
Still, not all indicators were positive. After a few months we were ordered to feature “family-style” servings in addition to our regular menu. That is, of course, entrees, vegetables and other side dishes served in bowls with large spoons that would be passed around the table for each diner to take a share.
When was the last time a family of four decided to celebrate Mother’s Day by taking mom out to dinner in the supermarket?
In the time we offered the option, no one, not one single customer — not even the Von Trappe family — requested it. The serving bowls grew dusty and the big spoons rusted from disuse.
We were also required to offer vegetable crudites with a bacon vinaigrette, another dish no one wanted and never purchased.
Had the corporate potentates spent a bit of time on the ground with us they might have been spared the trouble of demanding menu items that no one wanted and never bought.
Teamwork. Right?
The company founder and CEO, noted for occasionally manning a cash register in store zero, spoke of “creating new paradigms” and “empowering team members to achieve their utmost”. The team member handbook echoed these sentiments, many of which sounded like they were plucked from John Naismith’s 80s best seller, Megatrends.
The reality was expressed in another, smaller book, also published by the company. Listed within were the names of the annual “Superstars” of various departments, along with brief biographies of their time with the company. With one exception, every person in a leadership position had been hired in a leadership position. So much for upward mobility. Many were quite young, too. In their mid-twenties to early thirties.
They’re real believers, my own team leader told me by way of preparation for an interview for a supervisor position in prepared foods. Those district and regional team leaders believed absolutely in the company’s exceptionalist narrative. Of course they did. They had very little work experience and hardly any basis for comparison.
I didn’t get the promotion.
My worse day on the job was when I glimpsed a co-worker’s evaluation that he left open on the countertop of our little restaurant. This is a guy I’d worked with doing fish and chips in Brooklyn a year or so before. He made the salads and plated desserts there. After landing at the market he told the bosses that he’d gone to same culinary school I did. I knew that was a lie, but so what, as long as he pulled his weight in the new gig? Only he didn’t. I’m heading out, he’d announce the moment we closed, leaving me to clean the kitchen solo. One day he showed me a letter from the city announcing a huge pending fine for dodging jury duty once too often. Unless he could provide an adequate excuse. Using my healthcare background, I created one for him. I broke the law, put my own ass on the line for his benefit. After that, wouldn’t he at least stay and lend a hand, which he was supposed to anyway?
Do I really have to say?
A key element of restaurant culture is that everyone goes home at the same time. Finish cleaning your station early, you lend a hand to the other cooks.
Finally, I complained to leadership and they clipped his early bird wings. Just a little. Much as I appreciated not closing shop by myself anymore, having to snitch on your co-workers to the bosses isn’t the best way to build team spirit. Couldn’t they at least open their eyes, see for themselves? Or were they also too much in a hurry to clock out and get home in time for Seinfeld?
So when I saw that in spite of everything, they thought he was the best thing since sliced pane Toscano, while my own evaluation and raise was months overdue, my spirits sagged.
I was in the wrong place. I was a cook working for retail grocers who still saw themselves as a plucky upstart taking on Big Grocery, failing to realize that they had become Big Grocery. The authentic team spirit that must have characterized their first few stores had become more lip service than reality.
It was cold comfort when, just a few weeks later, they discovered my co-worker with his fingers in the till and finally booted his ass out the door.
Robbing his colleagues of their time and labor was one thing, but touch the bottom line and you sir, are history.
Ultimate proof that hierarchy had replaced teamwork came when our section leader, who was essentially the guiding spirit of our little restaurant, was discovered to be roommates with another store employee. She was instructed to leave the store immediately and not return until she or the roommate had removed themselves from working in the same location. Fraternization is hierarchy’s oldest and deadliest enemy. Defaulting in favor of teamwork and team spirit, she might have been told to get it squared away as soon as possible. That she was ordered to leave the premises right away instead — and then demoted upon her return — was proof positive that the company valued hierarchy over teamwork.
A short while later a fall and pretty serious injury to my knee gave me the pretext to leave their employ.
It was, in many ways, a good company to work for. Pay and benefits were fairly generous, and most of the employees (ahem, team members) went extra lengths to provide the customer service for which the brand was renowned. But as the company expanded, team leaders focused more closely on their next promotion than in running their departments. Meanwhile you had kitchen supervisors scraping rotten meat off the surface of tubs of ground beef, saving money, sure, but leaving the stale meat below to create an inferior-tasting product.
That is not the way of cooks. | https://medium.com/@andrewkatz/when-workplace-cultures-collide-1698fd0bb1e2 | ['Andrew Katz'] | 2020-12-26 03:22:18.324000+00:00 | ['Retail', 'Grocery', 'Company Culture', 'Busines', 'Cooking'] |
Last minute nerves | Last minute nerves
I can’t deny it. I’m anxious
In less than a week’s time I’ll be on shared parental leave, not returning to work until July.
I’ve been looking forward to this since my wife and I first agreed we would share leave and full-time parenting responsibilities early in her pregnancy. The chance to spend quality time parenting (what I now know to be) my daughter is something that very few fathers, for various reasons, are able to take.
Good employer = good parental leave and pay policies
We’re really lucky in that respect. Whilst the laws around shared parental leave are now in place, it is not always easy in practice. I’ve had friends and colleagues who wanted to take it, but the terms on offer meant it didn’t make financial sense. It becomes a luxury not everyone can afford.
That’s not the case for us.
As a civil servant (albeit one on secondment at Waltham Forest) I’m eligible to share almost all of my wife’s leave, up to six months of it at full pay. The charity where my wife works gives staff up to six months of their leave at full pay. In both cases, this is a ‘top-up’ of statutory pay: legally a couple (or individual) can only claim statutory pay for nine months, so of the 12 months SPL split between us, my wife will be at full pay for six, and I will be at full pay for three. We will have three months unpaid.
It’s overly complicated, but this is as good as it gets in terms of a family SPL scenario. It’s a scenario we’re incredibly grateful for, and one which, if we’re to empower mothers to be able to return to work, promote active fathers, and tackle gender stereotypes, should surely be the norm.
Careering out of control?
So if not finance, why am I anxious?
Firstly, something that most mothers must worry about during every pregnancy: how will this impact on my career? What will four and a half months away from my job mean for me?
Does this feel harder as a father?
It shouldn’t of course, but I do wonder if the relative novelty of it, the perceived optionality of it makes it feel, if not harder, then different. As a Mum, there’s a cultural expectation that I’d be going off on leave for months; as a Dad, I worry people think I’m taking liberties rather than looking after my child.
There’s probably something unique about my situation too. I’ve spent over two years now at Waltham Forest, the last seven months of which have been some of the most rewarding of my life, working to reduce violence across the borough. An inspirational boss, passionate team and engaged lead member are hard to find.
My pride in the progress of the programme, the strength of the partnership, and the incredible relationships I’ve built over recent months makes it hard. I really enjoy (most of) my job.
It feel as little like I’m walking away.
No obvious signs
And it must look to others more like I’m walking away than it must look for a Mum-to-be. I do not have an increasingly protruding and back-breaking human in my stomach (though my Christmas-in-the-Midwest fuelled stomach is doing its best).
I do not have people worrying about my health, holding open doors, offering seats, and wondering if today will be the day they don’t see me again for many months.
And obviously, I am not about to go through the most unimaginable pain and physiological magic that my wife did.
So (a) the reason for my starting parental leave is different, based on choice not biological urgency, and (b) the nature of the build-up to the leave is different, with no obvious discomfort (other than occasional sleepless nights or vomit covered suits) to give the game away.
End of work, start of work.
Then there’s the work I’ve still got to get done. In the weeks preceding my paternity leave, around my daughter’s birth, I was careful to ensure I could leave at any point and it wouldn’t cause issues for my team. I also knew I’d be back shortly to solve anything that needed me (of course nothing did).
This time is different. Less than a week and I’m off. A few days to hand over the programme, hit a couple a milestones, tie off lots of loose ends. Lots to do, not much time left.
And then there’s the real work to come. By which I mean, the parenting.
Last weekend my wife went to a conference, putting me in sole charge of our daughter from 9 till 6.
It was one of the hardest nine hours of my life.
Some caveats: our daughter was recovering from illness, and particularly needy. I was recovering from illness and particularly grumpy. None of us had slept for the week. I needed to do a bit of work. The rugby was on. I was excited about impending Bowie karaoke that evening.
But the nine hours destroyed me.
Style, substance and sustainability
My parenting style to date has been high energy. Lots of singing and playing in an hour before work, an hour after work, and at weekends in bursts when with my wife.
This style is not sustainable for a full day as lead parent.
Baby shark cannot be sung all day.
I cannot bounce, dance, and laugh all day.
And even if I could — real parenting gets in the way: it is hard to go from the trauma-inducing sucking out of nose snot, to fun dad.
The nine hours were brutal.
Doing that, back to back, day after day, it struck me how much of a responsibility and role these four and a half months will be.
So, after months of excitement, as shared parental leave approaches, and in full acknowledgement of how lucky we are and how brilliant it will be, I admit to being anxious.
Anxious about the last few days of work, about how I will cope as lead parent, and about what it might mean for my career.
I wouldn’t change anything; it will be the best.
But my GP has diagnosed me with ‘mild hypertension’. | https://medium.com/shared-parental-life/last-minute-nerves-89560c4e2481 | ['Darryl Abelscroft'] | 2020-07-31 09:33:57.804000+00:00 | ['Fatherhood', 'Shared Parental Leave', 'Dads', 'Paternity Leave'] |
How to Work With Difficult People — The Controllers | Photo by pixpoetry on Unsplash
One of my strongest self-sabotaging behaviors is my need to control other people and the plan of what we’re doing together. It’s led me to be described as a difficult person. In the parlance of Shirzad Chamine’s Positive Intelligence framework, my saboteur is the Controller. The Positive Intelligence website describes the Controller as having an:
Anxiety-based need to take charge and control situations and people’s actions to one’s own will. High anxiety and impatience when that is not possible.
The Controller is the dark side of some of my strengths. I am decisive, driven, able to challenge myself & others to do the right thing, and action-oriented towards an outcome.
If you have Controllers who are difficult people in your life, or if you are one yourself, I’ve found three focus areas to be helpful. Each area discusses the strengths around being a decisive person while providing suggestions for how to deal with a difficult Controller in your life.
1. The Paradox of Product Design
There’s a symbiotic relationship between controllers and creation. As a designer, you are making a product where you need to envision all the details of how a person could use the product. You create the use cases, the flows, the interactions, and screens. When you’re designing for complex ecosystems, you think of best cases, edge cases, and worst case scenarios where there are bad actors in the system. You are the architect of this perfectly controlled system. Yet inevitably, there comes the moment where your product is first exposed to the people who use it. This may be in early user research, beta testing, or during the MVP release. When that happens, no matter how carefully controlled the system, you are always humbled and learn how people interpret your carefully controlled system in different unexpected ways. It’s no longer under your control and takes on a life of its own.
While the designer had to be the controller to architect this system and create a carefully constructed plan, she also has to hold a light attachment to the product experience so that she stays open and flexible to the inevitable and unexpected changes that will come.
For controllers like me, try to embrace this paradox. Do your best work with the goals, plans, and use cases. Celebrate your strengths of moving to action towards a product launch or goal. And at the same time, remind yourself to lightly hold your attachment to the goal. You also care about relationships, the team, feedback from users, and you have a strength of being able to see the possibilities arising from new and unexpected changes.
For people dealing with difficult controllers, acknowledge the controller’s strength, that there was value in the details of defining the goal. And there’s also the opportunity to re-visit it now things have changed with new inputs and new data. Holding both together, while paradoxical, can also be true.
2. Leadership: Take Charge vs Delegate
Controllers are often leaders of teams and companies. I coach many executives and they are where they are due to their strengths of confidence, decisiveness, challenge, and the ability to both see possibilities and actively move towards a goal.
Controllers naturally gravitate towards taking charge. Their need to control situations and people’s actions can have them take charge of everything—the entire forest and every single one of those individual trees. One implicit delegation style is to bark out orders and have the person follow the precise directions. I used to manage like that. I refer to it as the “command and control” style of management. As a creative director for a world-class design firm telling all the top brands what the future of their digital products should be, I had to “command and control” the vision, the story, and each precise narrative of the design. Short-term, this strategy often works. You reach the immediate goals, you hit the milestones, and make the client happy. But at what cost?
The first cost is your time and anxiety. When you are the controller and you do every single thing yourself, no one else is going to step up. Why bother, when the controller will simply re-do the work you’ve done. As a controller, you feel resentment that no one else is pulling their weight, and also some anxiety that you have to be the person who knows all the answers all the time. Bearing this burden can also take an unbelievable amount of time. There’s a correlation between controllers and workaholism. If this executive example doesn’t resonate, consider the example of a new mom. She takes charge at home—she knows the single right way how to swaddle the baby, change the diaper, pick the right clothes, breastfeed or bottle-feed, and nothing that dad or the other mom tries to do is ever right. Yup, I’ve been that controller too.
The second cost is long-term relationships. If you’re the all-business puppetmaster, barking orders and making sure that the goals are met, then you aren’t taking the necessary time to nurture and build your team’s diversity of opinion. You don’t know what each of their strengths and quirks are. You don’t know if they could have done one of those tasks way better than the way you told them to do it. You had fierce control and could make sure everything is perfect for the short-term, but that’s not sustainable for long-term relationships. You didn’t make time to hear everyone’s opinions and leave space open for debate. You didn’t take the time to understand each team member’s depth of knowledge and unique perspective that could bring a fresh look to the goal. You didn’t let each team member try things in his or her own way, and perhaps fail and learn to improve, or perhaps wonderfully succeed and bring that team member incredible pride in their progress.
For controllers like me, think about what you are gaining in the short-term and what the long-term cost is. Consider the personal cost of time and anxiety. Consider the cost of relationships.
For people dealing with difficult controllers, emphasize that you can help save time or anxiety by helping to bear some of the load. Have a clear conversation about the desired outcome and impact of the task, and not the exact details of how each step of the task should be done. Try to build a personal relationship with the controller by listening to what really matters for them.
A word on sexism
I’ve been female in corporate America and technology for 20+ years. Many of my clients are female. I’ve experienced and seen many instances of deliberate sexism and more examples of unconscious bias. We societally believe that strong, powerful women (controllers) are less likeable because we associate assertiveness and decisiveness with men and warmth and caring with women. I’m definitely oversimplifying the issue and you can read more about women’s unseen barriers, gender bias, and unconscious bias in many sources. Yet I want to acknowledge that this real, many of us encounter it, and it’s an additional burden for women who are controllers.
3. Range of Connection Styles
The decisive, get-things-done nature of controllers can mean that they prefer to connect with people in competition or challenge. In a conversation, controllers enjoy playing the role of devil’s advocate, often without letting the group know that that’s what they’re doing. Controllers will be direct and straightforward. Their connection style towards others is how they prefer to connect. Which only works out well for a group of controllers.
This connection style has a huge impact on other types of people. My partner is more of an intuitive person who feels his way through decisions and is highly in touch with his emotions. My connection style comes across as overly analytical, critical, and angry. It makes him feel scrutinized and shut-down. In a business setting, Controllers will be surrounded by people with all types of connection styles and in order to reach the business goals, will need to adapt and vary for a range of connection styles. The controller’s confidence and directness can sow doubt in others and destroy any confidence in their own opinion.
For an inclusive environment where everyone’s opinion is heard and valued, relationships should aim for interdependence. I provide this, and you provide that. Together, this diversity of opinion leads to a better long term outcome.
For controllers like me, adapt your connection style for the context of the conversation that you’re having. Especially in a 1–1 meeting but useful for all meetings, take the additional time to connect with the other person over something non-work related that you’re genuinely curious about. Recognize that your style may shut down other people and explicitly make space for dissenting or diverse opinions. If you are playing devil’s advocate, acknowledge that it’s the role you’re temporarily playing, as a way to assess risk to the project. Focus on the long-term relationship and the connection with people, in addition to the content of the meeting.
For people dealing with difficult controllers, try to focus on the content of their message and not the controversial or antagonistic delivery style. Listen for where you can find the 10% truth within what the controller is saying and build upon that kernel of truth. Explicitly ask the controller if they believe the position they’re stating, or if they’re doing a risk assessment or playing the role of devil’s advocate.
Bottom-Line
We all have controllers in life, whether it’s us or people around us. There are strengths to being decisive and action-oriented as well as areas of difficulty for others. Consider the paradox of product design, take charge leadership, and the range of connection styles you should attention to.
This is a continuation of the Difficult People series. For more, check out: | https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-work-with-difficult-people-the-controllers-f690d1aadfa3 | ['Tutti Taygerly'] | 2020-09-03 22:12:31.563000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Leadership', 'Design', 'UX', 'Life'] |
Time series forecasting (Part 1 of 3): Understanding the fundamentals | By Yasmin Bokobza and Siddharth Kumar
Forecasting has fascinated people for thousands of years, since the time of prophets, seers, and oracles in different cultures who tried to predict the future to influence or lead people. In modern times, the importance of forecasting has continued to grow because almost every business needs to predict the future to make better decisions and allocate resources more effectively. Today, machine learning is often used for forecasting because prediction models can utilize a large amount of data and uncover previously unnoticed correlations.
In the Microsoft Cloud+AI Customer Growth Analytics (CGA) team, we have encountered a range of data with varying characteristics that need business forecasts. Here are some examples:
Daily, weekly, or monthly observations, sometimes with less than a month of history
than a month of history Multiple types of seasonality
Missing observations or large outliers
Historical trend changes, for instance due to customer growth
Low latency constraints
To address these challenges, as well as others, we developed a generic machine learning–based time series forecasting algorithm called “Adaptive Univariate Time Series” (AUTS). This algorithm can be tuned easily, has low latency, and provides completely automated forecasts. In addition, AUTS deals well with outliers, historical trend changes, lack of historical data, and varying seasonality such as weekly, monthly, and so on.
In the CGA team, we use AUTS to anticipate customer needs based on how they use our services so we can allocate resources for the future, help qualify customers for the best pricing, deliver the most value for their investment, and so on. Customers can also use these tools themselves to understand their usage, gauge future usage scenarios, and help manage their cloud computing budgets.
In this first article of a three-part series about forecasting, we explore various forecasting methods and models, discuss the capabilities of the univariate forecast engine that we’ve developed, discusses details of our AUTS methodology — including how we deployed the model using Microsoft Azure — and provide guidance for you to consider in tackling your own business problems. In Part 2, we present our approach to algorithm selection by walking through the capabilities of the Univariate Forecast Engine that we developed, and we present how we enabled stakeholders, who are not necessarily data scientists, to move quickly on their time series problems and make high-quality forecasts. In Part 3, we discuss approaches to time series forecasting with an emphasis on what led us to develop the Adaptive Univariate Time Series (AUTS) algorithm for the forecasting tasks we have encountered, and delve into details of the AUTS methodology, including how we deployed the model using Microsoft Azure.
How to choose the right forecasting method
Time series forecasting operates in a well-defined problem space and expands across different domains. Producing high quality forecasts is not an easy problem, but businesses that do it well have advantages over those that don’t. (See Forecasting: Principle and Practice for more.) To deal with the challenges of producing business forecasts at scale, a useful forecasting procedure must possess the ability to be tuned easily, be relatively fast, and provide completely automated forecasts. In addition, such a forecasting procedure should handle with ease common features of business time series, such as seasonality across multiple periods, shifts in trend, and outliers.
To handle the increasing variety and complexity of forecasting problems, many forecasting techniques have been developed over the years. Each one has its special use, and so care must be taken to select the correct technique for a particular application. A deep understanding of the range of forecasting methods available increases the possibility that a specific application will bear fruit.
The selection of a method depends on many factors — the context of the forecast, the relevance and availability of historical data, the degree of accuracy desirable, the time period to be forecast, the cost and benefit of the forecast, and the time available for making the analysis. Here are four questions to ask to help you determine which forecasting method is best for your business:
1. Is historical data available? Because time series forecasting is quantitative, having data about the past is a must. The appropriate forecasting method depends largely on the type and amount of data available. Some methods, such as exponential smoothing or neural network, require more historical data than others.
2. What is the time series type — univariate or multivariate? The time series type depends on the type of data available or desired for use in the forecast. Understanding the time series type is important for choosing the forecasting method. There are two types of time series: 1) a univariate time series is one with a single forecast (dependent) variable and single explanatory (independent) variable, and 2) a multivariate time series is one with a single forecast (dependent) variable and more than one explanatory (independent) variable. After understanding the time series type, we can focus on the relevant forecasting methods.
3. What is the purpose of the forecast — how is it to be used? Defining the business problem to be solved requires an understanding of the way the forecasts will be used, who the stakeholders are, how the relevant market works, and the nature of the customer base. These factors, in turn, determine the accuracy and power required of the methods, and hence govern the selection. Methods vary in their costs, as well as in scope and accuracy. The level of toleration to inaccuracy must be determined so the forecaster can determine the trade-off of cost versus the value of accuracy in choosing a method. The more sophisticated forecasting models often produce results with a smaller error but the cost of implementing and maintaining them tends to be high. A decision on this trade-off must be reached between the choice of model and the cost, as shown in Figure 1 (from the article “How to Choose the Right Forecasting Technique”).
Figure 1: Cost of forecasting versus cost of inaccuracy (from “How to Choose the Right Forecasting Technique,” by John C. Chambers, Satinder K. Mullick, and Donald D. Smith, Harvard Business Review, July 1971)
4. What are the patterns of the time series? In order to fit the best forecasting method to our problem, we need to identify the time series patterns in the data and then choose a method that is able to capture the patterns properly. Time series patterns can be described in terms of three basic classes of components:
Trend: The long-term direction (increase or decrease) of a time series. Seasonal: The regular pattern of variability within certain time periods, such as a year. Irregular: The variability that is contained within a process that cannot be determined, caused by irregular and unpredictable changes in a time series.
There are common methods to decompose the time series, like Seasonal and Trend decomposition using Loess (STL), that help to extract these components and uncover the underlying patterns of the time series. You can find more information on decomposition methods in the Hyndman book listed as recommended reading at the end of the article.
Because time series forecasting is quantitative, we must make sure that it is reasonable to assume that some aspects of the past patterns will continue into the future. Figure 2 presents an example of time series decomposition from the data into the three components:
Figure 2: Example of time series decomposition from the data into the three components: trend, seasonal, and irregular
How can forecasting be made simpler?
Exploring and adjusting the historical data can often lead to a simpler forecasting task and more accurate results. As a result, it is important to first plot the data. This may help to identify whether there are consistent patterns, the existence of outliers, the strength of relationships among the variables available for analysis, and so on. These insights will help in preparing the data for forecasting and in choosing the appropriate preprocessing steps.
Optional pre-processing steps can be divided into three main actions:
Cutting historical data. In some cases, older data is less useful, such as due to structural changes in the system being forecast. In these cases we may choose to use only the most recent data. By reducing the amount of data to analyze, the entire process can be simplified. However, care should be taken to ensure that useful data is not thrown away unnecessarily. (See Forecasting: Principle and Practice for more information.) Making data adjustments. Certain data adjustments can simplify patterns in the historical data by removing known sources of variation or by making the pattern more consistent across the entire data set. Adjusting the historical data usually leads to more accurate forecasts. Examples include calendar adjustments, population adjustments, mathematical transformations, and more. You can find more information on data adjustments in the Hyndman book listed in the recommended reading list at the end of the article. Treating outliers. Outliers are observations that differ significantly from the majority of observations in the time series. Outliers, also known as discordant observations, introduce bias in the model parameter estimates and can strongly influence the prediction’s accuracy. In addition, the existence of outliers may complicate the forecasting task because there are forecasting methods that do not work well with outliers. They can be removed or replaced with an estimate that is more consistent with the majority of the data. But the approach to take depends on the source of the outliers, i.e., whether the outliers were accidentally caused, for example, by incorrect data entry, or whether they are truly unusual observations. This shows how becoming familiar with your data prior to performing an analysis is of vital importance. There are several widely used time series outlier-detection methods for removing global and local anomalies. The methods selected depend on the type of forecasting problem and the data itself. Below we provide recommended reading for outlier detection techniques in a time series context.
List of open-source Python packages for time series forecasting
There are multiple Python packages that implement various statistical methods and algorithms within the forecasting framework. There are a few popular R packages as well, such as Prophet by Facebook.
Below is a summary of a few popular open-source Python packages or toolboxes for performing forecasting and time series analysis. The table below summarizes supported models or methods by packages or GitHub links. Please be aware that summary statistics represent a snapshot from February 2020 that is expected to evolve over time.
We advise you to consider the recency and activeness of maintenance of the packages when choosing the most appropriate one for a given problem. Most of the toolkits are flexible and reusable for various contexts and scenarios, and data scientists will find them easy to pick up even with limited or no background in time series forecasting.
Conclusions
In this article, we reviewed the fundamentals of time series forecasting and summarized a few popular Python forecasting packages to get started with. Many packages are super handy for those new to forecasting.
The next article in this series provides guidance around algorithm selection for your own problem. We explore the capabilities of the univariate forecast engine that we have developed and use repeatedly for all our univariate prediction problems. This engine helps us evaluate the accuracy of new forecasting models and choose the most accurate ones. In addition, we describe how we use the engine to serve our stakeholders — who are not necessarily data scientists — so they can move quickly on their time series problems and make high-quality forecasts.
We would like to thank Casey Doyle for helping review the work.
Recommended reading
Forecasting: Principles and Practice by Rob Hyndman and George Athanasopoulos: https://otexts.com/fpp2/
A review on outlier detection in time series data: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2002.04236.pdf
Want to know more about how you can set up your Machine Learning projects for success? Read our recent article: | https://medium.com/data-science-at-microsoft/time-series-forecasting-part-1-of-3-understanding-the-fundamentals-13b52eda3e5 | ['Yasmin Bokobza'] | 2021-05-25 00:03:30.792000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Predictive Analytics', 'Forecasting', 'Time Series Forecasting', 'Azure'] |
‘Private Eyes’: S04.E07. “Under Par-essure” | Jason Priestley, further to playing Matt Shade, took on directorial responsibilities for this latest Private Eyes episode. Priestley’s Under Par-essure, with a story co-written by Aaron Bala and Sydney Calvert, was televised on Canada’s Global on Tuesday, 14 December 2020.
Hannah Whysner, a rising professional golfing talent, is stalked during a celebrity golf tournament. Angie and Shade, whilst the later participates in the tournament, tries to identify the culprit.
Curiously, as Shade competes in the tournament, romance blooms between the former ice-hockey player and actress Willow Maitland. Angie seeks out some much-needed fun.
Image Credit: IMDb.com
Further to series regular cast members Jason Priestley, Cindy Sampson, and Samantha Wan, Under Par-essure guest stars Amalia Williamson, Keshia Chante, Madison Cheeatow, Ayesha Mansur Gonsalves, Brad Everett, Cliff Saunders, Ted Whittall, and Elyse Levesque.
Showing up as themselves, noting the episode revolves around a story set at a celebrity golf tournament, Under Par-essure features Michelle Money, Scott McGillivray, Nick Nurse, and Mike Weir.
This latest episode, like previous instalments, sends us on a wild goose chase after a seriously deranged stalker that may or may not exist. Whilst all the evidence initially points to Hannah potentially being targetted by her brother, Colin Whysner, the truth reveals a more plausible explanation.
Screen Capture: Ted Whittall and Amalia Williamson as Donovan Crane and Hannah Whysner, respectively, in “Private Eyes”
Under Par-essure, with significant plot twists and misdirects, revolves more around Hannah’s branding than it does the golf itself. Hannah, after discovering her manager Donovan Crane had been using sweatshop labour to produce her merchandise, had decided to tank her own career.
Colin, Dr Morris, and Jenna Bowen, working together, were helping Hannah execute the plan. Crane, realising what Hannah had been doing, confronts the young golfer. Shade and Angie, after putting all the pieces together, ultimately saves the day.
Previously… | https://medium.com/harsh-light-news/private-eyes-s04-e07-under-par-essure-f2946cea23be | ['Shain E. Thomas'] | 2020-12-16 00:51:26.379000+00:00 | ['Canada', 'Private Eyes', 'Jason Priestley', 'Cindy Sampson', 'Television'] |
Skyminer: A New Backbone for a New Internet. | Skyminer: A New Backbone for a New Internet.
Be your own ISP. Earn Skycoin.
Meet Skyminer, a revolutionary device built to power the Sky platform and ecosystem. More than just a cryptocurrency miner, Skyminer is the backbone of the Sky ecosystem and a tool in the fight for internet freedom. When you run a Skyminer you provide the computing power, networking resources and storage capacity necessary for Skywire to function. Its straightforward setup instructions allow you to begin earning Skycoin and Coin Hours as soon as it is running. Skyminer brings back control to regular users, allowing anyone to participate by securing the Skywire network in an affordable and environmentally sustainable way.
The Problem with Mining
Cryptocurrency mining began a decade ago, starting out as an industry where anyone could participate by using their home computer. As crypto grew in popularity and more computing power became necessary, CPUs gave way to GPUs which were then replaced by application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Today, a financially viable mining operation may require a room full of dedicated equipment. A few large players with warehouses full of miners control vast chunks of their respective blockchain networks. This leads to centralization concerns and the risk of mining pools colluding to commit 51% attacks on the respective network that they are mining. Large scale mining operations and ASIC manufacturers also have a conflict of interest when it comes to promoting or discouraging forks that interfere with their mining protocol, as need to ensure that the hardware they’ve invested in stays relevant and profitable.
Holding the Sky Up
Skyminer serves as a set of nodes on a next generation network built on a protocol designed to solve all the problems with legacy consensus algorithms. Skycoin uses its own distributed consensus algorithm called Obelisk, which was engineered by early contributors to the Bitcoin and Ethereum projects. While other common algorithms like Proof-of-Work (PoW) consume vast amounts of electricity to solve cryptographic problems, Obelisk relies on web-of-trust dynamics to maintain the integrity of the network. Each node in the network is given an influence score based on the number of nodes it’s connected to and the density of its connections. This influence score is used to make network decisions. The result is a robust network which is more resilient to centralization and 51% attacks than other networks. Obelisk is more than just an alternative to Proof-of-Stake and Proof-of-Work, it renders them obsolete.
World Wide Web Woes
The internet itself suffers from ISP centralization, net neutrality violations, and censorship. Most of the developing world still suffers from lack of access to fast and reliable internet. Large ISPs serve as expensive access points that set rules which limit the bandwidth that users utilize and, in some cases, what uses can access. The developed world is more connected, but as usage of new technologies like autonomous vehicles, internet-of-things (IoT) and mobile augmented reality grow, so does consumption of bandwidth and the demand for quality of service. Centralized ISPs act as bottlenecks where data can be snooped and censored, service quality suffers, and deals can be cut favoring the bandwidth of large tech giants in violation of net neutrality. This was not the original vision for the internet, and Skyminer is the next evolution that aims to bring the internet to a freer, more decentralized, uncensored state.
From Connecting to the Internet to Becoming the Internet
Skyminer works as a hardware virtual private network, connecting through the current internet to provide Skycoin’s services via Skywire. The hardware consists of 8 Orange Pi computing boards, each with 100mb of bandwidth. For security, each Pi can provide its services in isolation so that if one is compromised it won’t affect the services of the others. By lending your excess and unused bandwidth, you’ll serve as one of the access points to a decentralized network. Skywire will bring about net neutrality and uncensored content sharing.
In addition, Skycoin has upgraded the communication protocol of the legacy internet. Currently, the internet uses Transmission Control Protocol (TCP/IP), a forty-year-old technology that is unsuitable for a large scale peer-to-peer mesh network deployment. Our answer to TCP/IP is Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) which delivers high scalability and speed with minimal data loss and low latency. MPLS means better performance for video calling, gaming, and file sharing with end-to-end encryption. The transition to a new internet will happen gradually as more nodes are activated and users begin connecting their internet devices to Skyminers. We are currently developing a short-range FCC-compliant antenna with a five kilometer range, and a long-range antenna that will let sparsely-populated communities to connect to a Skyminer up to fifteen kilometers away.
The Hardware — the current generation of Skyminer consists of:
• 8 CPU boards (Orange Pi Prime)
• 2 GB of RAM per board
• 4 CPU cores per board
• 32–256 GB of storage per board
• 64-bit Linux (Alpine Linux)
• Gigabit ethernet, 8+1 port switch
Skyminer comes as a kit with instructions provided for assembly and manual connection to Skywire. Skycoin is a platform with open-source roots and we keep our hardware open as well. Anyone can use our parts list to build their own custom nodes. Non-technical users can look forward to a future release of a true plug-and-play system.
Challenges Ahead
Following the Skywire testnet phases and limited initial release of Skyminers, we’re increasing our manufacturing capacity to meet our goal of producing 10,000 units per week in 2019. A number of hardware upgrades are planned for subsequent generations of Skyminers, including an LCD screen for displaying network information. Future generations of Skyminer will feature multi-terabyte storage arrays and specialized FPGA chips for fast decryption of high-volume traffic. We’re working hard with our suppliers in order to optimize our hardware while keeping it affordable and accessible for all.
Are You Ready to Hold Up the Skycoin Network?
Like Atlas, the Greek Titan tasked with holding up the celestial body, you can do your part to hold up the Skycoin network. By operating a Skyminer, you’ll be providing access to the new decentralized internet and can earn Skycoin and Coin Hours.
Click here https://www.skycoin.net/skyminer/ to learn more about the Skyminer hardware, view the gallery, and join the waiting list to receive your own official Skyminer. | https://medium.com/skycoin/skyminer-a-new-backbone-for-a-new-internet-c430ab216f6c | [] | 2018-12-27 11:08:30.195000+00:00 | ['Networking', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Net Neutrality', 'Bitcoin'] |
XYO Yellow Paper: Network Implementation and the Sharing of Binary Data! | In the XYO world, binary data will, naturally, be shared across the network. Before that information is sent and exchanged, however, different components need protocols on how they’ll talk to each other.
This Yellow Paper lays out these protocols in detail. So when Diviners and Sentinels and other elements “talk” to each other, they‘ll be able to communicate with perfect precision.
Here’s a quickie video intro on the Yellow Paper by the author himself, XYO Research and Data Scientist Erik Saberski:
Get the paper in full at the XYO Website. Happy reading! | https://medium.com/xyonetwork/xyo-yellow-paper-network-implementation-and-the-sharing-of-binary-data-797d2f0ac9a1 | ['Jenn Perez'] | 2018-08-24 23:57:53.527000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Data Science'] |
The Bible in Word Clouds | The Bible is the most read book ever in the world. It is thick and would require a lot of time to finish reading. Even many Christians I know have never finished reading the whole Bible.
But what if you can get an interactive overview of the Bible in a few clicks?
I wanted to use some of the skills I had recently learnt to give a broad picture of what the Bible is talking about. I am not a pastor nor a priest, and I am simply applying a simple statistical approach here.
To this end, I have created a dynamic interactive word cloud. It will display the top 50 words (bigger font size and darker shade signify more frequency) based on the filters you apply. The filters include Testament (Old or New), the Book Genre (e.g. Epistles, Gospel, etc), the Book itself, and the Chapters.
It enables us to quickly grasp the topic of a given chapter, book, the whole testament, or even the whole Bible itself. This might be useful when we want to study a book, as we can navigate through the chapters and get a grasp of the topics being talked about.
I am using the KJV Bible here.
New Testament vs Old Testament
We can easily get an overview of the topic based on our own filters. For example, we can see the difference between Old and New Testament in the snapshot below.
H ere, we can see that Old Testament talks a lot about Lord and Israel, while New Testament talks a lot about Jesus, God, Man, and Christ.
New Testament vs Old Testament | Image by Author
Getting an overview of a book
Do you ever wonder what a book of the Bible talks about? For example, I’ve kept a snapshot of the word cloud for the book of James.
We can easily see that it talks mainly about God, brethren, works, faith and man.
Word Cloud of the book of James | Image by Author
Navigating through the chapters of a book
Not only can we get an overview of the book, but we can also look at the chapters and see how the topics progress.
Here is a peek of the dashboard, demo for the book of James:
Word Cloud Dashboard | GIF by Author
Chapter 1: man, God, perfect, word Chapter 2: works, man, without, faith Chapter 3: tongue, fire, man, wisdom, body Chapter 4: God, law, evil Chapter 5: Lord, earth, brethren, patience, pray, one another
Dashboard — Try it yourself!
You may access the online dashboard here.
Feel free to access it, download, and explore it. Do share your interesting insights by commenting below!
Codes
For those who wants to take a closer look at the dataset and the codes, please proceed here.
Bonus: Material for Trivia Games
The dashboard also include some descriptive statistics based on number of words. Here, we can see the longest and shortest books, as well as the average number of words per chapter. As always, this is also filterable by Genre and Testament.
Statistics of the Bible | Image by Author
Finally, I hope this little project will be useful or at least provide some interesting insights. Feel free to comment, suggest or share interesting insights below! | https://medium.com/illumination/the-bible-in-word-clouds-6a7dc3bb38ab | ['Nathan Timothy Handoko'] | 2020-12-29 02:55:49.287000+00:00 | ['Dashboard', 'Bible', 'Bible Study', 'Word Cloud', 'Statistics'] |
キツネと種 | in In Fitness And In Health | https://medium.com/kotoba/%E3%82%AD%E3%83%84%E3%83%8D%E3%81%A8%E7%A8%AE-a3f74617df65 | [] | 2018-03-01 06:48:58.506000+00:00 | ['Japanese', 'Stories', '日本語', '日本', 'Japan'] |
5 Reasons Cishet Poly Folks Probably Shouldn’t Claim to Be Queer, Even Though Y’all Really Want To | It Erases Those of Us Who Actually Are Queer
Those of us who are both non-monogamous and queer find ourselves floating around in the background while you folks tend to get the attention. This is a serious problem. It’s not something intentional, we’re sure of it.
It’s just that, in efforts to make non-monogamy more palatable to the masses, it’s much easier to get the idea past filters if the participants are otherwise “normal”. Since media and entertainment work the way they do, it necessarily means that us queers end up with the short end of the stick. Even worse, when you are straight and cis, claiming that your polyamory is queer obfuscates the meaning. It makes people who are queer in every other way less visible. It centers, once again, heteropatriarchal values and experiences.
Being queer and poly is a vastly different experience than being straight and poly.
Did you not realize that our experiences even differ?
Well, keep this in mind…
Much of Cishet Non-Monogamy Has More in Common With Monogamy +
Most straight cis people lead fairly straightforward lives. Or at least, more recognizable lives. You don’t spend your lives fighting against the amatonormative current. Even if you do, there are still many things you’ll never experience as a cis straight person.
For this reason, many of you only have your normative history to draw on. Even if your polyamory is your orientation rather than your choice, your most likely approach often ends up like Frankin Veaux’s in The Game Changer. Years, or even decades of relationships built on the idea of monogamy plus one.
What do I mean by that exactly? Monogamy plus one is the reason the non-monogamous communities even have terms like hierarchy, secondary, tertiary, polyfidelity, etc and the reason particular non-monogamies like Relationship Anarchy, solo polyamory, relationship fluid, and others have appeared as a way to push back against it.
There even exists out there now a “Secondary’s Bill of Relationship Rights”!
I’m not saying that being a secondary or wanting a polyfidelitous relationship is wrong or worse, just that it took so much pain, anguish, jealousy, guilt, and mistakes to get to the point where the community is finally openly discussing how these attitudes can be abusive, divisive, and harmful.
Because much of straight, cis, well-off mono culture is built upon the amatonormative arm of abuse culture in general (more on that in a later post), straight cis people within poly communities tend to repeat the same mistakes, perpetuate the same imbalances, and tread the same ground as people who are monogamous.
But why would that bother queer poly people so much? It’s not like they invented the modern form of polyamory or anything. | https://medium.com/postmodern-woman/5-reasons-cishet-poly-folks-probably-shouldnt-claim-to-be-queer-even-though-y-all-really-want-to-975217b29cbc | ['Michon Neal'] | 2017-10-13 18:54:55.928000+00:00 | ['Queer', 'Relationships', 'Abuse Culture', 'Polyamory', 'Intersectionality'] |
“What unites us is bigger than what divides us” | Ramadan is a very special month of introspection for millions of Muslims around the world. It begins with the arrival of the crescent moon in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.
In this month, the main peculiarity is that they fast from sunrise to sunset; nobody eats anything, nobody smokes, and sexual intercourse is forbidden. According to their beliefs, this process helps to be aware of the spirituality and needs of the poor.
According to the Quran, the main reason for Ramadan’s fast is to achieve “taqwa” — fear of God. The purpose of fasting is to train Muslims to be humble, patient and spiritual.
For Muslims, Ramadan is a time of great solidarity. It is an extended time of the year when the “ummah” (community) completes to share sacrifices and celebration, they get together, families, friends, and neighbors to share the “Iftar” how its call the dinner to break the fast. Despite the difficulties of the past, it is a time of joy for most Muslims. For many, it is an opportunity to renew their faith, reunite with their families and renovate the devotion to God.
Nowadays content creators are known to skip almost every major holiday, but Ramadan has traditionally been an exception, probably because, as a month dedicated to fasting and self-denial, it represents the exact opposite of most marketing messages.
There is a campaign that I loved since the very first moment that appeared as an ad when I was watching some videos on YouTube; in 2018 Coca-Cola Company launched a very special campaign, a video standing by Muslim consumers during the Holy Month of Ramadan.
The video, shows a young Muslim woman in what looks like her daily routine, in a sunny morning, she is running trying to catch a bus, but she missed it, not having more options she decides to walk. Enduring a challenging day at the end she prepares to break the fast with two dates, with the discomfort of fasting, and having to put up with harsh gazes and outright mockery from other people on the street, she awaits the sunset, but suddenly behind her it appears another young lady in sport clothes buying a Coca-Cola, she orders one and when she sees the Muslim girl, she ordered two, she approached and offered the beverage, she seems upset when the Muslim girl accepted but doesn’t drink, until she realizes that she is fasting and decided to wait with her until the sunset, they smile to each other and share the drinks and the dates. The video ends with the message “What unites us is bigger than what divides us.”
This campaign shows racism, inner struggles, and devotion but in the end, it shows kindness and humanity, it also shows us how these unexpected moments have the power to enrich one’s everyday life.
Since it’s posting on Facebook, the video has garnered over 224k views, 4.7k shares, 3.8k reactions and 289 comments at the time of writing.
Check out the video ad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqw-ODqbGRo | https://medium.com/@amjadjorrz/what-unites-us-is-bigger-than-what-divides-us-ec4908521f61 | ['Amjad Jorrz'] | 2019-11-19 11:45:08.062000+00:00 | ['Ramadan', 'First Post', 'Marketing Campaign', 'Coca Cola', 'Campaign'] |
MS Excel — Use #PowerQuery to Compare Two Lists | A frequent task in business is to compare two lists of data.
Have a master customer, product, mailing list etc and need to compare it to another list to see what is missing and needs to be added? Typical scenarios…
Basic Power Query makes this easy!
Please don’t do this by hand. 😳
Common approaches include using Excel MATCH or VLOOKUP function (which generates errors which indicate items aren’t on one list).
However, power query makes those methods tedious by comparison!
Here are the steps to using Power Query:
1️⃣ Create a query from the MASTER list. “Connection Only” query.
2️⃣ Create a query from the comparison list. This is a “Connection Only” query as well.
3️⃣ Now, “compare” the 2 queries. This is done by MERGING the 2 queries and using an “Anti-join” relationship — so that just exceptions are listed.
Merge Two Queries to Generate Exception List — Right Anti-Join
Resulting Query is JUST Exceptions
4️⃣ Load it as a Table into Excel and you have your list! Want to see how this is done for real? | https://medium.com/lets-excel/ms-excel-use-powerquery-to-compare-two-lists-198d5f210f86 | ['Don Tomoff'] | 2019-03-24 13:53:42.408000+00:00 | ['How To', 'Excel', 'Twinztechtip', 'Productivity Hacks', 'Power Query'] |
Saving Ali’s Life Through Community Education Programmes | “Through this project I have taught many women with low — or no — literacy about cholera, diarrhea, natural breast feeding, pregnancy, and many aspects of maternal health. I feel like I’m having a positive impact in my society and that, if I die, my life had meaning.”
Navigating through cacti, thorns, and rainstorms on rugged roadways, Ola makes her way to the households of some of Yemen’s poorest people to help support women and children. Every day from 7 a.m. — 7 p.m. she treks from village to village to educate pregnant women and those with children under five on the importance of nutrition.
“Before I started this work, my life was at home, filled with chores and daily routines. This Cash for Nutrition programme has brought many positive changes to my life. I have greatly benefited from it and am able to help other people. Through this work I have been able to send both of my brothers to college.”
Ola is one of over 5,000 women health educators employed and trained in nutrition and hygiene for children and mothers. “I tell the mothers that with any amount of money you can have good nourishment and a diverse diet. I talk about kidney beans, bread, onions, and food supplements. To date, I have worked with nine pregnant women and 13 children who suffered from malnutrition; they have since fully recovered.”
Cash for Nutrition Programme
The spiking rate of malnutrition among children — in what’s already the world’s worst humanitarian crisis — reflects the full tenor of Yemen’s conflict. As of June 2020, twenty-five percent of Yemenis, including 2.1 million children and 1.2 million pregnant and lactating women, suffer from malnutrition.
Responding to this urgent and pervasive need, in 2015 the Social Fund for Development (SFD) began implementing a Cash for Nutrition programme that has since been incorporated into the Yemen Emergency Crisis Response Project (YECRP) — a United Nations Development Programme and World Bank partnership project. YECRP works with existing development institutions such as SFD to deliver short and long-term crisis response interventions.
Local women like Ola are employed as community health educators. Having at least a high school education, they receive basic training to provide monthly nutrition education sessions and to screen for malnutrition. Despite severe decreases in dietary diversity across Yemen due to the conflict, households that have participated in the programme have increased food purchases by at least 17 per cent and spent the majority of that money on non-staple foods with greater nutritional value, like vegetables, fruits, milk, and eggs. Through these efforts, over 175,000 pregnant and lactating women and nearly 176,000 children have received nutrition education and intervention.
Amnah is one of the mothers who worked with Ola after her son became sick, only 10 days after his father’s funeral. “Because I was overwhelmed with grief, I couldn’t feed him anything but sorrow. My child was suffering with diarrhea and vomiting. After the vomiting and diarrhea stopped, he lost a lot of weight and had a weak immune system,” Amnah recalls.
Luckily, Ola was already well known within the community and Amnah had some familiarity with the signs of malnutrition. After reaching out to Amnah, Ola took immediate action. Ola visited Amnah at home, assessed her son, and conferred with SFD and her manager.
Amnah explains that “I received enough money to travel with my son to the Bait Al-Taibi health center. Later that day they gave him nourishment and medicine. He was better the next day; this programme saved my child’s life.”
Research from the International Food Policy Research Institute indicates that cash transfer programmes providing homes with financial support to purchase food have succeeded in reducing conflict-driven, acute malnutrition in Yemen.
Since this health scare, Amnah regularly attends Ola’s classes on maternal nutrition and breast feeding, and now knows how to provide a better childhood for her sons and daughters. “I applied what I learned from [Ola] and gave him healthy food and fed him from my breast. I didn’t think Ali would survive.” | https://medium.com/@UNDPArabic/saving-alis-life-through-community-education-programmes-bb8ec9abb396 | ['البرنامج الإنمائي'] | 2020-11-23 10:07:22.322000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Yemen', 'Crisis'] |
What They Don’t Tell You About Working from Home | Many of us consider getting away from the workplace a vacation. The farther away, the better! So when we’re faced with a pandemic that requires us to work from home, it can initially seem like an enormous silver lining.
No more frustrating train commutes, waiting in line at Starbucks, or freezing to death in your office. No more long stares from your creepy coworker or awkward small talk with that colleague who’s about three generations away from you.
Most importantly, no more suits or pantyhose.
However, the challenges of working from home arise just as quickly as the novelty fades, and you find yourself itching for human companionship, the normalcy of your cubicle, and even the crappy coffee in the break room.
Change is hard, and productivity is even harder when you’re working from the place that’s supposed to be relaxing.
Here are the most common challenges in working from home and how to address them.
Inability to Focus
When you’re at home working, you enable your working mode, but you’re surrounded by triggers of other things you could be doing.
You can’t help but notice that lingering pile of laundry or pile of dusty photographs waiting to be framed and hung up.
It’s easy to ignore these things when you’re vegging after work, but when you’re working from home, it’s near impossible.
Next thing you know, you’re knee-deep reorganizing your closet rather than getting your work done.
Here’s What to Do:
Use the Pomodoro method. This approach to work entails working in 25- to 30-minute blasts of deep focus, called Pomodoros. Defining a set time in which to work is a great psychological trick to keep yourself on task. Tell yourself that you will work on the task at hand — and only that — for the entire Pomodoro. Then, you’ll get a 5-minute break!
In your 5-minute break, you can put the laundry away, check Facebook, hang a picture, whatever you need to do. When you come back to work, you’ll feel refreshed and ready to tackle the next Pomodoro.
Create a dedicated workspace. As great as it sounds to work from your couch in your PJs, it’s (gasp!) not conducive to your productivity. Once again, psychology is at play. Your brain strongly associates your physical environment with your mental state. Just like you associate that remote island location with rest and relaxation, you associate your office with work. And that means wearing proper clothing and being in a work environment.
You can approximate that at home by developing a dedicated work space. Don’t have a home office? Take over a corner of the dining table, set up a card table in the garage, whatever it takes to have a place where you can feel like you’ve gotten away from home.
Then, get ready for work just like you would if you were leaving the house. These rituals can help you get into the mindset to work. You can skip the suit and pantyhose, but at least change out of your PJs.
Loneliness
Who’d have ever imagined that you’d miss your annoying coworkers?
Turns out that we humans are very social creatures, which makes this pandemic extremely distressing.
Combine your general anxiety about Covid-19 with the shock of working from home, and you might face increased stress or even depression.
Here’s What to Do:
Keep in touch. A free platform like Slack or Brief can help you and your team keep in touch. If you were already using Slack, great! It’s a great way to keep in touch when working remotely.
When you’re at the workplace, you’re typically chatting with people who work nearby and saying hello in the hallways, and gossiping at the water cooler. All that goes away with remote work. Use Slack or your preferred messaging app to set up a daily check-in to help fill those gaps. You’ll feel less lonely, and therefore be more productive.
Avoid social media. I don’t advise hopping on Facebook every few minutes in any situation, but especially not when you’re working remotely. Research has suggested that checking social media can amplify the effects of loneliness, perhaps because you’re seeing content from outside your regular social circles. And now, bad news fills our feeds.
Prioritize conversations with family, friends, and coworkers, and set designated times to check social media. That has the bonus effect of promoting your productivity.
Overworking
Working from home can actually boost productivity by eliminating certain work-related stresses and distractions. Not to mention that you save time on your commute. However, as we discussed above, you might find yourself distracted by chores, home projects, or, yes, certain streaming services.
Assuming that you’ve followed the above steps, you might find yourself facing an unexpected challenge: working too hard and too long. It’s easier than you might think to pull longer hours when working remotely.
Unfortunately, that way leads to burnout, not to mention potential trouble with your boss. The limited ability to supervise hours is a major reason that many workplaces haven’t implemented remote work. With the virus making its round, their hand was forced. Make it easy on them by not incurring overtime or otherwise working over your normal hours.
Here’s What to Do:
Set working hours and stick to them, just like you were at work. It’s important to maintain normalcy in your routine. Imagine that you are psychologically “leaving the office,” even if that office is less than 50 feet away. Set a firm start and end time for yourself.
If you regularly pulled extra nights, that’s something to start fixing now that you work remotely. I recommend using your phone’s reminder app to tell you when to start and stop working hours. Go ahead and schedule a lunch break in addition to your Pomodoro breaks.
Then, shut off all work-related stuff. If possible, keep separate devices for work and personal projects. If that’s not an option, log out of your work email, Slack, and any other apps so that you’re not sucked back in. If you lack the willpower to shut off work stuff, use app-blocking software that kicks in certain times of day. I recommend RescueTime. | https://medium.com/big-top-business/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-working-from-home-69bf87e090b6 | ['Rachel Wayne'] | 2020-03-15 22:30:18.904000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Remote Working', 'Work Life Balance', 'Workplace', 'Remote Work'] |
More Than Just A House. We are sheltered all throughout the… | Photo from Pinterest
We are sheltered all throughout the course of our lives. From the nine months we spend inside the womb of our mothers, to the coffin where our body will lay until the worms have consumed our entire being. It is downright inconceivable knowing how we live and die confined in spaces within a solid shape of reflected consciousness in objects existing medially in the enclosed space of our very own universes.
Houses are what embodies our physicality. What we call home is a temporal personification of our existence evident in trinkets and whatnots, chattels and paraphernalia that swarm and permeate the sacred spaces where we perform our everyday rituals. These personal and individual dwellings become witnesses to our way of life, our habits and proclivity. The walls are the on-lookers and the audience, while the inhabitants are the performers in the dramatization of their customary and idiosyncratic essence of the daily life. Hallowed touches are exchanged between the surfaces of the skin, as well as fabricated and organic elements, where the act merges two energies creating a connection bounded by the inanimate and the conscious entities alike.
What we call home becomes the substantial domicile in the metaphysical space of reality and the world. Every nook and cranny of our house, its corners and hideaways, plays an important part in our role in the world, as it is a projection of our thoughts and communicates ourselves to the unrestricted and cornerless fraction of the great outdoors. It becomes a massive storage of memories and recollections, that every part of the house possesses an impalpable souvenir of what had taken place prior to what is commencing in the present, and with which we can habituate anytime.
The distinctive sensation of our homes gives us intense warmth and comfort, compared to other frameworks of a four-walled structures. It is where we feel most comfortable, and where we show our vulnerability. We coil into the depths of our homes whenever we anticipate the feeling of being shunned away from the external world, such as, the architectural geometry of a room metamorphoses into a solid space of solace and appeasement, rather than just mere shelter.
There is more to our houses than just trivial construction of materials put together to shelter our flesh. Architects design and build dwellings with the utmost attention to transform the structure into a home, convert the concrete and solidified spaces into something abstract that can exist intangibly in the phantom of our minds keeping us grounded and anchored to a material place where we resign oneself towards a familiar ease and consolation. The house starts to feel like a home the moment it is inhabited, and the inhabitant associate their minds together with the earthbound dwelling, fusing their energies into one familiar rhythm. The house, then, becomes our very own universe and the galaxy of thoughts and consciousness is centered around our sole being. “An architectural space frames, halts, strengthens and focuses our thoughts, and prevents them from getting lost. We can dream and sense our being outdoors, but we need the architectural geometry of a room to think clearly. The geometry of thought echoes the geometry of the room,” writes Pallasmaa in his book ‘Eyes of the Skin’.
Granted, in other words, our homes are what keeps us sane. | https://medium.com/@nicoleannbunao/more-than-just-ahouse-c3c473ce7e4b | ['Nicole Ann Bunao'] | 2020-12-21 11:50:03.684000+00:00 | ['Medium Writers', 'Home', 'Essay Writing', 'House', 'Architecture'] |
Performance Metrics in Machine Learning — Part 1: Classification | In Machine Learning it is key to be able to correctly evaluate the model being produced to guarantee that the predictions are accurately describing the intended phenomenon (disease prediction, future cost estimation, etc.).
However, there are so many different performance metrics that Data Scientists can use (Accuracy, Precision, Recall, etc.) that it is often overwhelming to choose which one to use.
Selecting the right metric for a specific model, however, is key to be able to measure the performance of the model objectively and in the right setting.
In this three-part post, I will explore the different metrics that every Data Scientist should know and master, to be able to apply the most appropriate metric to each task, starting by Classification.
Classification
Before delving into the performance metrics themselves, it is important to make sure some concepts are clearly understood as they are consistently used across most performance metrics.
True Value vs Predicted Value
When evaluating the performance of a classification model, two concepts are key, the real outcome (usually called ‘y’) and the predicted outcome (usually called ‘ŷ’).
For instance, a model can be trained to predict whether a person will develop a particular disease. In this case, it is trained with samples, e.g. a person’s data, containing predictive information, such as Age, Gender, etc. and each person is labelled with a flag stating whether the disease will develop or not. In this case, the label can be whether the disease will happen (y=1) or will not happen (y=0).
A Machine Learning model aims at making sure that every time a sample is presented to it, the predicted outcome corresponds to the true outcome. The more the model’s predictions are the same as the true values the higher is the performance of the model. There are many different ways of evaluating a model’s performance which are here mentioned, but in general, models make mistakes, lowering performance.
True Positive, True Negative, False Positive and False Negative
Each prediction from the model can be one of four types with regards to performance: True Positive, True Negative, False Positive or False Negative.
True Positive (TP) : A sample is predicted to be positive (ŷ=1, e.g. the person is predicted to develop the disease) and its label is actually positive (y=1, e.g. the person will actually develop the disease).
: A sample is (ŷ=1, e.g. the person is predicted to develop the disease) and its label is (y=1, e.g. the person will actually develop the disease). True Negative (TN) : A sample is predicted to be negative (ŷ=0, e.g. the person is predicted to not develop the disease) and its label is actually negative (y=0, e.g. the person will actually not develop the disease).
: A sample is (ŷ=0, e.g. the person is predicted to not develop the disease) and its label is (y=0, e.g. the person will actually not develop the disease). False Positive (FP) : A sample is predicted to be positive (ŷ=1, e.g. the person is predicted to develop the disease) and its label is actually negative (y=0, e.g. the person will actually not develop the disease). In this case, the sample is “falsely” predicted as positive.
: A sample is (ŷ=1, e.g. the person is predicted to develop the disease) and its label is (y=0, e.g. the person will actually not develop the disease). In this case, the sample is “falsely” predicted as positive. False Negative (FN): A sample is predicted to be negative (ŷ=0, e.g. the person is predicted to not develop the disease) and its label is actually positive (y=1, e.g. the person will actually develop the disease). In this case, the sample is “falsely” predicted as negative.
Even though the classes are usually labelled 1 and 0, these values are arbitrary and they can often be found labelled as 1 and -1, which is the reason why TP, TN, FP and FN are called “Positive” and “Negative”.
Remembering False Positive and False Negative meanings is usually relatively tricky and it is common for Data Scientists to have to stop for a second to think about the meaning of each to remember which one represents what.
An easy trick to remember the difference is focus first on the second part of the name (“Positive” or “Negative”). This relates to the prediction, basically saying “The sample is predicted to be Positive/Negative (belong to Class 1/0)…”. Then, we can look at the first part of the name to understand whether the prediction was correct or not (“True” or “False”). In this case, we are adding whether the prediction was correct or incorrect, and therefore if the sample was actually belonging to that Class.
E.g. False Positive: The sample is predicted to be Positive, but this is False/incorrect… as the sample is actually Negative.
Confusion Matrix
True Positive, True Negative, False Positive and False Negative are usually presented in a tabular format in the so-called Confusion Matrix, which is simply a table organising the four values.
Performance Metrics
Accuracy
Accuracy is the fraction of predictions our model got right out of all the predictions. This means that we sum the number of predictions correctly predicted as Positive (TP) or correctly predicted as Negative (TN) and divide it by all types of predictions, both correct (TP, TN) and incorrect (FP, FN).
Accuracy ranges between 0 and 1. These extreme cases correspond to completely missing the predictions or having always correct predictions. For instance, if our model is able to perfectly predict, the model will have no False Positives or False Negatives, making the numerator be equal to the denominator, bringing the Accuracy to 1.
Conversely, if our system is always off, incorrectly predicting each time, the number of True Positives and True Negatives will be zero, making the equation be zero divided by something positive, leading to an Accuracy equal to 0.
In real life, Accuracy technically ranges between 0.5 and 1, because if the Accuracy falls below 0.5, we can simply flip the predictions labels to obtain a better prediction.
Accuracy, however, is not a great metric, especially when the data is imbalanced. When there is a significant disparity between the number of positive and negative labels, Accuracy does not tell the full story. For instance, let’s consider an example where we have 100 samples, 95 of which labelled as belonging to Class 0, and 5 labelled as Class 1. In this case, a poorly built “dummy” model which always predicts Class 0, achieves a 95% Accuracy, which indicates a very strong model. However, this model is not really predictive and Accuracy is not the right performance metric to evaluate the power of this model. If we used only Accuracy to evaluate this model, we would end up providing stakeholders, and clients eventually, with a model that is not performant or predictive.
Precision
To overcome the limitations of Accuracy, Data Scientists usually use Precision, Recall and Specificity. Precision tells what proportion of positive predictions was actually correct. It achieves this by counting the samples correctly predicted as positive (TP) and dividing it by the total positive predictions, correct or incorrect (TP, FP).
Recall = Sensitivity = True Positive Rate = Hit Rate
Similarly to Precision, Recall aims at measuring what proportion of actual positives was identified correctly. It does so by dividing the correctly predicted positive samples (TP) by the total number of positives, either correctly predicted as positive or incorrectly predicted as negative (TP, FN).
Specificity = True Negative Rate = Selectivity
Symmetrically to Recall (also known as Sensitivity), Specificity aims at measuring what proportion of actual negatives was identified correctly. It does so by dividing the correctly predicted negative samples by the total number of negatives, either correctly predicted as negative or incorrectly predicted as positive (TN, FP).
Considering the example to show the shortcomings of Accuracy, if we use Precision, Recall and Specificity, we get:
Accuracy: 0.95
Recall: 0
By using additional performance metrics instead of Accuracy, we can better understand that a model predicting the majority class all the time is actually a low-performance model (Recall = 0) even though Accuracy is high (Accuracy = 0.95).
Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC)
As we’ve seen, one of the issues of Accuracy is that it can lead to overly inflated performance if the distribution of the classes is not very well balanced. AUC, which stands for “Area under the ROC Curve” (more about this later), measures the entire two-dimensional area underneath the entire ROC curve.
It is an aggregate measure of performance across all possible classification thresholds. Another way of interpreting AUC is as the probability that the model ranks a random positive sample higher than a random negative sample.
AUC is a great metric, especially when dealing with imbalanced classes, and is one of the most frequently used performance measures in classification, even though it can be used only in binary classification settings (i.e. not with more than 2 classes as target).
Some of the properties that make it a preferred metric are:
Scale-Invariance . AUC measures how well predictions are ranked, instead of their absolute values.
. AUC measures how well predictions are ranked, instead of their absolute values. Classification-Threshold-Invariance. AUC measures the quality of the model’s predictions regardless of what classification threshold is chosen.
F1 Score
The F1 score is a less known performance metric, indicating the harmonic mean of Precision and Recall. The highest value of an F1 Score is 1, indicating perfect Precision and Recall, and the lowest possible value is 0 if either the Precision or the Recall is zero.
Performance Charts
Additionally, performance measures can be not only communicated as single numbers but also as charts. Some common charts showing a Machine Learning Model’s performance are the ROC Curve and the Precision/Recall Curve.
ROC Curve (Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve)
A ROC curve is a graph showing the performance of a classification model at all classification thresholds. The chart’s y-axis is the True Positive Rate, while the x-axis is the False Positive Rate and the plot consists of the TPR and FPR values varying the threshold.
The worst-case scenario (random chance) consists of a 45 degrees diagonal line. The best-case scenario consists of an angled line, going vertically first and horizontally after.
Lowering the classification threshold, the model classifies more items as positive, increasing both False Positives and True Positives.
Precision/Recall Curve
Similarly to the ROC Curve, a Precision/Recall Curve plots performance over a y-axis showing Precision and an x-axis which is Recall. Each point is evaluated at different threshold values.
The best-case scenario is a flipped version of the ROC Curve’s best-case scenario, basically consisting of a horizontal line then becoming vertical. Differently, the worst-case scenario, random chance, is seen as a horizontal line at Precision = 0.5.
Impact of Choosing the Right Performance Metric
Choosing the right metric is key, especially in cases where False Positives and False Negatives do not have the same impact. Ideally, we would want to have a perfect prediction both in terms of False Positive and False Negative (both zero), but with Machine Learning models there is usually a tradeoff between detecting False Positives or False Negatives well.
For instance, if our model predicts whether a person has got a deadly disease, like cancer, it could be said that False Positives are more important. We want to make sure that if that person has the disease, we correctly flag them. We are less concerned if we accidentally misclassify a person as having the disease even though they didn’t have it.
Conversely, if our model predicts whether a person is innocent or not, it might be argued that False Negatives are more important. We want to make sure that no innocent person is incorrectly jailed.
Summary
Using the right performance metric for the right task is key to correctly evaluate models.
After having reviewed key concepts such as “True Value” and “Predicted Value”, TP/TN/FP/FN and Confusion Matrices, we digged into:
Performance Metrics
Accuracy
Precision
Recall
Specificity
AUC
F1 Score
Performance Charts | https://towardsdatascience.com/performance-metrics-in-machine-learning-part-1-classification-6c6b8d8a8c92 | ['Eugenio Zuccarelli'] | 2020-12-29 14:15:47.321000+00:00 | ['Classification', 'Machine Learning', 'Editors Pick', 'Data Science', 'Performance'] |
Hyperloop, o conceito de transporte de alta velocidade, está chegando à China | in In Fitness And In Health | https://medium.com/futuro-exponencial/hyperloop-o-conceito-de-transporte-de-alta-velocidade-est%C3%A1-chegando-%C3%A0-china-5aaf2939000 | ['Futuro Exponencial'] | 2018-07-25 02:30:29.942000+00:00 | ['Transportation', 'Future', 'Hyperloop'] |
[ Day 20 in the life of Naz at Hospital in England ] | Published 15/12/2020
Go checkout my other blogs if you haven’t read them:
Hi guys… it’s me.. Naz!!
So today wasn’t as good as the other days, I woke up in a bad mood and I felt really tired, even though I had like 8 hours of sleep. I think the medicine is starting to kick in now, they’ve also doubled the doses, so that’s probably why.
Today I had nurse ‘C’ and didn’t do much. I was still having all my feeds via the NG tube and only had ‘Starbucks Caffe-Latte’, 5 Pringles, Kinder Bueno and some olives. Probably about 400 kcal in total. I forgot to mention that I went downstairs to get it. It was like my third time using contactless on my phone — as a fourteen year old.. it was a big achievement. :)
So now, I switched to another nurse, don’t know the name.. but it’s probably going to be boring, as I don’t feel like doing anything, and my parents are probably going to get divorced, but there’s so little I can do.
I think today is the crappiest of the days I’ve been in hospital. I just feel kind of lost because my mom isn’t telling me anything because they think I’m not stable enough to hear it. It’s just making me more anxious not knowing.
I’m really furious, no ones telling me what’s going to happen next in hospital. I don’t even know when I’ll be discharged. It’s like I’ve lost control of my own life.
Anyways guys, I think I’m going to end it there, I’ll let you guys know what happens tomorrow.
All the best.
Naz | https://medium.com/@lifeofnaz/day-20-in-the-life-of-naz-at-hospital-in-england-28c2e55401f1 | [] | 2020-12-15 20:22:30.458000+00:00 | ['Hospital', 'Beginner', 'Ng Tube', 'Mental Health'] |
The Avantgarde Proposal for the next chapter of Melon | The Avantgarde Proposal for the next chapter of Melon Avantgarde Follow Sep 18, 2019 · 10 min read
Hello Avant-gardist financiers!
We are just back from DeFiSummit in London where we unveiled Avantgarde Finance and revealed (some of) the company’s future plans. The main news included details about a proposal we’ve made to the Melon Council. The proposal indicated our willingness to take on the lead developer role for the Melon protocol for the next few years by putting forward a three year roadmap for the future of asset management 3.0.
In fact, we hosted quite a memorable event in London on many levels! However, we’ll fill you in on that separately. Today, we wanted to focus on the proposal itself and gather community feedback whilst the Melon Council considers the proposal.
The Avantgarde team are composed partially of former Melonport team members who are passionate & hungry to continue making the Melon vision a reality. Melon is a blockchain-based protocol for people to manage their wealth and the wealth of others within a customisable and safe environment. The vision of Avantgarde is to create better every day experiences for aspiring investment managers and their investors, by giving them easy access to a new financial infrastructure using Melon and other supporting DeFi technologies. The proposing team have a proven track record of delivering things efficiently and reliably.
The following is a summary of our proposal put forward to Avantgarde Finance to take on the leadership role for Melon development over the next 3 years. The proposal has the following goals:
Increasing awareness around the protocol & its merits
Maximizing usage of the Melon protocol by increasing network attractiveness
Increasing and enhancing network effects around the protocol
In summary, Avantgarde believes it can do this by
Increased community building and management. The goal is to make sure that Melon Protocol is properly & accurately represented across the DeFi space and globally recognised as the on-chain asset management infrastructure of the future.
Improving of the materials available and the way they are distributed to an array of: educational bodies, community, developers and local representatives to facilitate engagement, interaction and involvement with the Melon Protocol in a more scalable fashion.
Continued technical improvements, integrations and user experience to the protocol with the goal of making it as easy-to use and useful as possible to managers
Finding and creating easy ways that users can interact with the protocol in a fun and compliant way initially whilst constantly doing the background work to find a regulatory framework which enables legally compliant Melon funds in their full capacity and potential.
Avantgarde Finance & Melon
Melon at its core, performs the functions across the entire value-chain of a fund; middle/back office, financial intermediaries (eg. custodian, fund administrator & transfer agent), accountants and so on. Other features in the Melon system (trading, price feed, margin trading, derivatives) are enabled by protocol-level integrations with other decentralised finance protocols. These protocol-level integrations make Melon unique. Melon is a protocol that natively and multilaterally connects/links/integrates all the DeFi protocols at a smart contract level. In doing so, the Melon protocol paves the way for a new form of asset management.
However, the Melon protocol is still in its infancy and is not ready for mass adoption. In order to enable a wider adoption of the Melon infrastructure, various friction points need to be addressed. The Avantgarde team offers to take on the mission of addressing some of the friction points experienced by users at a protocol level whilst also enabling a much easier UI.
The starting Avantgarde team is composed of a subset of the former Melonport team. Each individual played a critical part in delivering the Melon protocol through to the finish line within the promised time line which is unheard of in the industry. The team are now ready and hungry for the next challenge.
What will the proposal entail?
1. Community and ecosystem development
The organisation and underwriting of M2 and possible future events
Avantgarde Finance will take on the full underwriting and organisation of M2 in collaboration with MAMA including finding suitable location, content design, branding, marketing, content creation and execution. #NoSponsors #ContentOnly mantra will continue.
Ramping up of global Community Building & Management
Ramping up the building of a strong community of both users and developers as follows:
Community
Dialling up the Melon volume on a global scale — making sure we are present in all major conferences, DeFi meet-ups, research publications globally with proper and accurate representation
Providing improved content and eduction material (ELI5’s, video demos, documentation, etc)
Finding active local community members to assist with lead local communities and community-building efforts
University and education collaborations to bring Melon into the next generation of asset managers
Responding to user questions
Troubleshooting and engaging with issues users are having or suggestions they may have for future paths, iterations, integrations or improvement proposals
Enhancing collaborative PR efforts with other projects & high profile individuals
Developers
Engaging with developers and other projects to make sure they are aware of the Melon incentives available for building on Melon Protocol
Organising or collaborating on remote DeFi hackathons and providing developer support and workshops for these
Continuous update and improvement of documentation and online materials for developers to get involved
Continued lobbying on regulatory front
Continued engagement through MAMA and other bodies on regulatory efforts to help make On-Chain funds a reality within a legally compliant environment
Pushing forward efforts in a sandbox environment with goal to achieve at least one legally compatible environment for a Melon fund to operate
Continued writing and lobbying on why existing regulatory environment is a not only inappropriate but arguably dangerous for the future of on-chain asset management.
2. Technical proposal
Our team offers to take on the role of “lead developer” for the Melon protocol for a 3 years duration. This means that our teams will identify what needs to be done on Melon, research it and submit that work to the Melon Technical Council (MTC). The MTC would then decide if the Avantgarde dev team is the right team to implement or if there is another better suited team for the task at hand. The “lead developer” role does not mean that no other team can work on Melon; on the contrary, the more the better.
The main function of the lead developer role is to help the MTC identify, assess and prioritise features, integrations, improvements, and to make sure that there will be constant development on Melon over the next 3 years.
We present below an outline of the different areas of work we have identified so far for the next 3 years. We will spend a lot of time researching and assessing the below items, and implementing when/where it makes sense, always subject to the MTC approval.
Note: Note that the below listed items are subject to Melon Council DAO approval. Some of the items listed below are subject to further research and implementation being possible. All the protocol work done by Avantgarde Finance Ltd. will remain under the GPL license.
GENERAL PROTOCOL IMPROVEMENTS
Maintenance of the deployed protocol
Protocol bug fixes
Bug/issue investigation
Test suite improvements
Keeping contracts up to date with new solidity versions
Reassessing some current parts of the protocol, and improve where we can:
Management/performance fee model (see MIP #5 and #6).
Make orders handling: currently limited to one open order per asset + assets not coming back to the Vault have to be actively released by the manager
Investment process currently takes 2 steps: there might be ways to simplify it
Assessment and implementation of new features:
Upgradable funds across versions (currently funds cannot be migrated across versions).
Autonomous funds with Chronos (see MIP #4)
Mutable/Immutable risk engineering policies (see MIP #2)
Possibility to add/update/remove exchanges post fund deployment
Proxy voting features: should be possible to participate in various governance with the tokens that are held in Melon funds
Staking features: should be possible to stake assets that are in a fund to yield additional return
Development of new risk engineering policies in order to manage the risk added by the integration of new Defi products.
Research for more sophisticated risk engineering policies (ex: utilizing historical data), possibly leveraging zero knowledge proofs
Pricefeed enhancements/alternative: The pricefeed is the security critical part of the Melon protocol. Our Kyber pricefeed solution is currently satisfying, but we’ll research possible ways to make it more robust and failure-resistant, as well as adding new price sources (Uniswap). We will also research possible alternative pricefeed solutions: UMA protocol, Open Oracle System etc.
DEFI INTEGRATIONS
1. DEX’s
Ethfinex integration
Uniswap integration
Integrate as many 0x relayers as possible to the orderbook + 0x Mesh
Maker liquidity contract
Airswap
Idex
DutchX
2. Exploring a wider asset universe
Our team will assess independently each of the following asset type, and pending MTC approval for each, will proceed with integrating them to the Melon asset universe if required conditions are met. Each of the asset type will be assessed based on the overall financial and technical risk it adds to the protocol, integration feasibility while maintaining Melon’s core promises, and the existence of a reliable (ideally decentralized) on-chain price source for the asset.
Credit default swap: CDx
Augur/Gnosis: Shares in a prediction market
Set protocol
Tokenized real world assets (Neufund, Polymath, Harbor, Securitize)
Tokenized bonds/sukuks (ex from Jibril network)
ERC20 tracking baskets of business NFTs (Centrifuge)
3. Other DEFI products
Our team will assess independently each of the following products, based on financial and technical risk addition, integration feasibility while maintaining Melon’s core promises, as well as system maturity. Provided MTC approval, we will then proceed with implementation for the integrations that are sound:
INTEROPERABILITY
Research on how to allow the protocol to get access to assets on other chains: assessment on how to leverage the Polkadot framework to that end (through building a parachain? or joining a smart contract parachain?)
If the conclusion of the research are successful, and once the Polkadot framework is production ready, our team will consider leading the implementation.**
Research on other interoperability frameworks as they come up (ex: Cosmos)
ADOPTION CHALLENGES
1. Liquidity on DEXs
Explore possible integrations with decentralized dark pools: Republic protocol
Investigate whether or not there are feasible ways to integrate CEX without compromising the protocol core promises
2. Privacy/Transaction obfuscation
Research into how to offer privacy features to Melon funds: secret smart contracts, secret transactions, transaction obfuscation
Investigate and monitor new privacy enhancing frameworks: ZKVM, ZEXE
SECURITY
Avantgarde Finance will hire 2 independent auditors to conduct further audits on the codebase. We aim at having one of those auditors as a long-term ongoing security audit (pull requests, regular code reviews, etc).**
If funding permits, we will look to hire an in-house security professional. **
Reference specification of the protocol (may or may not be formal) to (i) ease future implementations on other platforms and (ii) discover possible issues with our model
Research: we will explore if and how formal verification methods can be applied.**
USER INTERFACES
Monitoring tool: our team will further develop the Melon Monitoring Tool, which is becoming a powerful fund explorer, making data around what is happening on the network easily accessible and inspectable by anyone.
Our team will also maintain the default frontend as new features arise, or will propose an alternative frontend with similar capabilities.
Given the fast-changing nature of this space, it is very difficult to forecast a precise timeline for everything we want to achieve. However, in the timeline below we have attempted to indicate a rough timeline which is of course subject to change. We will provide the Melon Council with quarterly updates on the status and progress including any barriers that we face along the way.
3. Financials
Avantgarde Finance Ltd. plans to organise funding independently of the MLN token it will obtain from the Melon Council. This arrangement is a signal of the confidence they have that they can continue to bring value to the protocol which can be transmitted to the token.
As a reward for the upfront risk borne by Avantgarde Finance Ltd., we propose a compensation over the course of 3 years, worth c. $2M at today’s MLN prices (equivalent to 180,000 MLN per year paid at various milestones). This is substantially below what we believe to be the real costs incurred for delivering the new proposed 3 year roadmap.
The MLN compensation is not to be seen as a direct financing mean, but rather as a reward providing the team with significant upside on the work our company will be doing for the Melon ecosystem. The vesting structure proposed below shows our long-term alignment and our beliefs in the future of MLN.
Importantly, the proposal we are making to the Melon Council offers to lock up 75% of the tokens for a range of 2 to 5 years.
The logic of this proposal can be rationalised as follows;
Future development and maintenance are dependent on the value of the token, and the value of the token is dependent on protocol usage.
In the early years of the Melon network, we expect user adoption to be slow as there is still work to be done on reducing frictions in the blockchain and protocol DAPP space. This could put short term pressure on the price of MLN if new supply comes into circulation through inflation without a substantial burn-rate (protocol usage) to balance out new supply.
In order to incentivise the medium term work that needs to be done for usage to increase, this work needs to be incentivised whilst ideally dampening the immediate circulating supply effect it would require.
The Avantgarde proposal provides a solution by removing supply from circulation and therefore re-shaping the supply curve such that it is substantially more convex in nature for the first 3 years. Short-medium term circulating token supply is removed through a vesting schedule which removes pressure from the network.
This allows time for UX and functionality improvements to take place which should spur on increased usage.
The proposed structure aims to align Avantgarde interest with the interests of the entire Melon Ecosystem (token holders, users & developers).
We look forward to hearing your feedback on this proposal and guidelines on what users would like to see as a first priority. | https://medium.com/enzymefinance/the-avantgarde-proposal-for-the-next-chapter-of-melon-cd41bfd0ead1 | [] | 2020-01-21 09:00:01.417000+00:00 | ['Dex', 'Fintech', 'Ethereum Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'Blockchain'] |
Do weight loss/Diet supplements really work? | “Do weight loss supplements really work,” this is a very popular question and I think people need to know the truth. (Weight supplements work by either decreasing your appetite or reducing your body’s ability to make fat, it does not actually destroy fat.)But back to answering the question, the answer is YES, some work even better than others, But it does not work in the way most people want it to. A lot of people expect the supplements to do all the weight loss work for them but you will never lose weight if you do this. Think about it like this, “If you take the supplements everyday but refuse to change your diet and exercise, every time the supplements reduce the fat you’ll just get it back the next time you eat a bad meal and skip exercising ,” see what I mean.
Good diet + exercise and if you want, weight supplements= quickest way to lose weight.
Also if you have bad metabolism weight loss supplements could be of great help with reducing fat in the your body.
Conclusion:
So yes diet supplements work and are a good way to reduce extra fat but for True success a change in diet and exercise is very necessary.
I know and understand that many people are nervous to change their diet and to exercise but Trust me it will be worth it. We all love that feeling of working and making progress and when we get our results we feel amazing to have accomplished this.
Tip: Buying weight loss supplements that are not approved by the FDA is not wise.
And If you would like my recommendations I would recommend using these, they are well known and tested before they were released:
Melticore
https://tinyurl.com/ykwpv923
Melticore is man-made but the Ingredients used are approved by the FDA.
2. Hormonal Harmony
https://tinyurl.com/kr4amt6v
This supplement is popular with women and is also a man-made supplement that is approved by the FDA.
3. African lean Belly
https://tinyurl.com/kfh6eh82
This one uses natural ingredients to reduce fat production.
>>Disclaimer this article contains links to an affiliate program that may give a commission to the content creator.<< | https://medium.com/@davidsultimates2/do-weight-loss-diet-supplements-really-work-d5102e53c544 | ['David Smith'] | 2021-07-06 04:04:30.856000+00:00 | ['Weight Loss Tips', 'Weight Loss', 'Weight Loss Supplements', 'Truth', 'Healthy Lifestyle'] |
A Brief History of CBD | The medicinal compound in cannabis called cannabidiol, or CBD for short, has become a wildly successful sector of the agricultural industry in recent years. Following the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp production for the purposes of making CBD became fully legal.
In just a few short years the CBD industry has gone from virtually nothing to a multi-billion-dollar global industry. Many people lack knowledge of the origins of CBD cultivation. Here is a brief overview of the history of CBD.
THE EARLY DAYS OF HEMP CULTIVATION
Many Americans are not aware of the foundational role that hemp played in the early days of the United States. Many of the Founding Fathers grew hemp on their plantations, and it was widely used for a number of commercial purposes.
THE RESEARCH OF WILLIAM B. O’SHAUGHNESSY
Although hemp was cultivated for a number of purposes, making medicine was not one of them until William B. O’Shaughnessy began to research the healing potential of the plant in the early 1800s. While studying hemp, the Irishman concluded that it had medicinal potential, notably as an anesthetic, or painkiller.
THE DISCOVERY OF CANNABINOIDS
Roughly a hundred years after the work of O’Shaughnessy, researchers in the UK discovered and documented the presence of compounds within the cannabis plant. Following this initial breakthrough, an American scientist two years later isolated both CBD and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the compound that produces the characteristic “high” of marijuana.
Although scientists had isolated and identified the various compounds in cannabis, due to the limitations of the time, they could not sort out which cannabinoids caused which effects, owing to the presence of more than 100 in the cannabis plant.
THE LEGITIMIZATION OF CANNABIS
Cannabis research, and interest in the medicinal use of various cannabinoids, took off in the late 90s when California became the first state to legalize marijuana for medicinal use. This was the “nose under the tent” that sparked a series of legislative efforts in multiple states to legitimize cannabis use — and the clinical study of its effects.
CHARLOTTE FIGI
No discussion of the modern era of CBD use could be complete without a mention of Charlotte Figi, a Colorado girl who suffered from a particularly debilitating form of epilepsy and who found relief from CBD — even before it was legal.
The path to CBD legitimization has been paved by brave scientists and advocates who persevered in bringing the plant’s medicinal value to light despite the social ostracization and legal consequences.
Originally published on Dr. Kayvan Haddadan’s website. | https://medium.com/@drkayvanhaddadan/a-brief-history-of-cbd-39ca43607aa4 | ['Dr. Kayvan Haddadan'] | 2020-09-23 17:10:21+00:00 | ['Kayvan Haddadan', 'Pain Management', 'Cbd', 'Doctors', 'Dr Kayvan Haddadan'] |
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