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Millennials are Using these 3 Genius New Side Hustles to Make Rent this Month

We’ve all been there. The rent is due the day after tomorrow, and you spent your last dollar on Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream down at Walgreen’s. You didn’t even go to Harps. You could have saved 87 cents, but no. You sensed yourself spiraling down into desperation and ruin and you just decided to go with it, like a manatee drifting in with the tide to beach itself upon the sandy shores of economic ineptitude. You’re drowning, gasping for air in a current financial climate which doesn’t allow for frivolities like ice cream. The zeitgeist is rooting for you to choke on your fucking Phish Food and die, but even if you do, you’ll still have to make rent. Rent doesn’t just stop when you throw in the life-towel. What will you do? You literally don’t have any plasma left to sell, and the parking lot outside your apartment is already full of the nearly-homeless searching for coins amidst the wreckage of cigarette butts and gum wrappers. The half-melted blacktop is hot with hopelessness and human decay. It’s a jungle out there. Well, never fear. Even though you’re disgustingly irresponsible (did you really need to buy tampons this month?), we’ve still got your back. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of the 3 ways to make rent this month. Keep in mind that this is not simply a list of 3 ways to make rent this month. It is a list of THE 3 ways to make rent this month. Let’s face it: nobody wants to buy your outdated clothes on eBay. Your town isn’t full of rich nerds hoping to get their grubby hands on your childhood deck of Pokemon cards, even if you do have a holographic Mewtwo. You could have 879 garage sales, and you still wouldn’t manage to sell your grandmother’s vintage (re: dusty) 2001 Foot Spa. You are Bed, Bath, and Beyond broke. These are your only options, you financially incompetent manatee. If you’re not okay with them, you shouldn’t have been such a Chunky Monkey. 1. Prostitute Yourself We know what you’re thinking: I’m way too ugly to prostitute myself. If you were attractive, you wouldn’t be in this situation. Everyone knows that attractive people don’t have financial problems. You’re ugly. The good news is, there’s somebody way uglier out there, and there is a chance that that person will pay you to have sex with them. This might seem drastic at first. But think about it. All you have to do is have sex with a truly horrific random stranger, and all your problems could go away. You’ll still be poor, but your poverty is the direct result of your own mistakes anyway. The least you could do is fix the rent situation by yourself. Go on. This is America. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. We’ll be real with you. You may have to have sex with several people for money, because it’s highly unlikely that one dude will pay $900 so you can stay another month in your shitty north side studio apartment. That apartment isn’t even close to downtown. The most you’ll be able to get in this economy is $80 per lay. Be prepared to haggle. Get started ASAP. You only have two days. 2. Rob a Bank If you’re not prepared to sell your body, you’ll have to rob a bank to make rent this month. This may seem even more extreme, but your Etsy crafts aren’t going to cut it. Robbing a bank is the way to go, especially if you lack the bedroom skills necessary to hammer out an $80 session which will leave all parties satisfied. And let’s face it: You don’t have any bedroom skills. People who are good in bed don’t have financial problems. But you know who else never has financial problems? Bank robbers. Go ahead. Steal your rent money. If this terrifies you, you’re not alone. Everyone gets scared their first time. It’s only natural to be nervous. If you find yourself lacking motivation, picture the alternative: You’re late with the rent. The landlord comes in gestapo-style, hurling melted tubs of Phish Food at you, the pathetic missiles of your own destruction which only yesterday gave you that sweet and empty happiness which only instant gratification can bestow. Today, they will be your downfall. Unless you rob that bank so you can pay your landlord. Otherwise, he might come into your house while you sleep. It’s happened before. You only pay $900 a month for the flat, so what do you really expect? Total privacy? Don’t be a tool. Make the smart choice, and be quick about it. You only have two days. 3. Murder Your Landlord If you don’t feel comfortable with prostitution or bank robbery, murder is an attractive alternative. With murder, you’ll really get to stick it to the man — quite literally, as you’ll be doing your murdering with a knife. Your rent is due in two days, so there’s no time to plan a poisoning. Likewise, a gun is too loud. Plus, you don’t have one anyway, or you’d be able to sell it and pay your fucking rent, wouldn’t you? Everyone knows that people who own firearms don’t have financial problems. A knife it is. There’s one under the sink in the bathroom, remember? You keep it there because your landlord keeps coming in while you sleep to use the Foot Spa, and you know that, but hey — you get a great price. Especially for living right on a bus route. What do you have to complain about? Nothing, really. But that is your damn Foot Spa. Think about it: If you kill your landlord, you’ll go to prison. Prison is the end-all goal, because: 1) There is no rent 2) There is free food 3) Blankets galore Even though you’ll technically be moving house, you’ll be able to justify it to your parents with an offhand remark about gentrification. They’ll support your decision to go to prison, and you won’t have to worry about paying rent ever again. Think you’re too good of a person to commit murder? Well, have we got news for you. You aren’t a good person at all. Good people don’t have financial problems. You’re a budget buffoon, a lazy lump looking for a handout just like all the other schmucks who decided to buy groceries this month. Are you going to fail at life, languishing on the beach like the manatee you are, or will you Make That Rent? You literally have no other choice, so go ahead. Get your side hustle on.

https://medium.com/@desperatehouseslave/millennials-are-using-these-3-genius-new-side-hustles-to-make-rent-this-month-763b68594d17

['The Desperate Houseslave']

2019-06-17 17:37:01.534000+00:00

['Satire', 'Humor', 'Side Hustle', 'Finance', 'Humanity']

Three Top MeetMe Live Creators to be Panelists at Playlist Live

MeetMe Live, as part of The Meet Group, is a sponsor of the major, upcoming content Creator event, Playlist Live, and for the first time, three of its top streamers will be featured panelists! Playlist Live, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary at the Orlando World Center Marriott the weekend of February 28, is a three day festival dedicated to the amazing, talented social platform Creators from around the world, their supporters and followers, and anyone else who wants to join in on the fun. From concerts and panels, to meet & greets and Q&As, performances, and more, Playlist Live has something for everyone. On Friday, February 28 beginning at 3:45 p.m., “The Young Creators and Future of Digital” panel, featuring MeetMe Live and Playlist Live Creator, Jennah Leland, will discuss how young, independent content Creators are impacting the entertainment industry. Other panelists include representatives from Facebook, BBTV, Select Management Group, and Studio71. On Saturday, MeetMe Live Creator, Chris Casper, will be discussing how he balances his time between himself, his content, and his community, both online and off, as a speaker for the “Finding Your Place” panel, which begins at 4:40 p.m. Holly Snow, a MeetMe and Playlist Live Creator, will be a panelist for two separate events over the weekend. First, on Friday at 12:20 p.m., Holly will be joining other top Creators to discuss how they took the leap into content creation for the “Wait, Can I Do This?” panel. Then on Sunday at 2:40 p.m., Holly will be a featured panelist for “Doing It Live” where she will give tips and advice on how to build and connect with an audience and what goes into creating good content. Playlist Live is a major live video event recognizing top content Creators that builds relationships and establishes a sense of community. The Meet Group is proud to be a sponsor hosting the signature MeetMe Live pool party for the second year in a row on Saturday night — bringing people together in new and better ways is what we are all about, and we can’t wait to see you there!

https://medium.com/themeetgroup/three-top-meetme-live-creators-to-be-panelists-at-playlist-live-a6ab050ba10a

['Jen Burns']

2020-02-20 16:54:01.580000+00:00

['Videos', 'Creators', 'Live Streaming', 'Playlist', 'Live']

Broken Options

This is a new book by Dr. James Wood that was released in 2020. Enjoy! About “Broken Options” by Dr. James Wood In this science fiction thriller young and brilliant computer engineer Sam Chatham finds himself caught in a murderous competition to control the next stage in the evolution of the human race. Electronic technocrats intend to meld humans into networks controlled by computers. Geneticists aim to manipulate DNA to create superhumans who would never submit to computer dominance. A third faction, intent on resisting both technologies, is actively working to destroy them both. An impending presidential election provides strong motivation to elect a president who will support creative, futuristic science. Sam, who is young and free to travel, has been sent by his boss, the manager of a huge computer company, to influence others in that industry. As Sam learns more about the activities of all three factions, however, he begins to fashion a compromise where all three will contribute to a better future. As his ideas circulate, violence escalates. The individuals who passionately control their own interests are unwilling to agree to compromise. Beautiful ultra-killer, Victoria, intervenes at times to save Sam’s life. He falls in love with her but is bothered that he does not know who has hired her. He won’t find out until the end. The story shows a future we are now entering, and as Sam says in the novel, maybe we should think about where we are going. If you are interested, simply order it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Options-James-Wood/dp/B08BDWYJX7/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1608568514&sr=1-1

https://medium.com/@jameswoodbook/broken-options-20d75badd494

['Remembering James Wood']

2020-12-21 17:16:59.783000+00:00

['James Wood', 'Brand New Books', 'Broken Options', 'Books', 'Novel']

How to Act Around a Person with Depression

Things You Should Not Say to a Depressed Person There are specific phrases and statements you shouldn’t be saying to someone struggling with depression. This should be common sense, but depending on how educated you are on the topic, you may not be aware of the consequences these words carry. So, please sit down and take notes. “I don’t believe in depression.” It doesn’t matter if you believe it in or not — it exists anyway. Depression isn’t something people made up with; it’s a medical diagnosis and a legitimate illness. Your personal opinion on the topic doesn’t override the official position of the entire medical community worldwide. This is one of the worst statements you can come up with. Not everyone who’s depressed is entirely on good terms with their diagnosis, especially if this is a recent development in their medical history. They may be vulnerable, lost, scared, and confused. They are doing their best to cope and accept their situation, which means the absolute worst you could do is poke at them with a sharp stick. An individual who’s diagnosed with depression is experiencing what might be the worse hardship in their lives, and they might be coming to terms with their condition. Devaluing this condition can cause great harm. It doesn’t matter if you believe it in or not — it exists anyway. “You just need a hobby.” Photo by Dương Nhân from Pexels News flash: they now have a hobby — depression! This “hobby” might stay with them for a while, and it may also go away and come back at any point. Most likely, your friend has a ton of hobbies as it is. Another news flash: none of those hobbies prevented them from getting depressed in the first place. Please don’t mix up the treatment plan, such as more active social life and coping mechanisms, with the causes and nature of their illness. Imagine coming over to someone with a leg cast and telling them they need a hobby. A hobby won’t cure their broken limb. “It’s all in your head.” Thank you, Captain Obvious. Of course, it’s in their head. Guess what? It doesn’t make it any easier. And the broken leg is a part of your body — so what? Is that a cure? No, the cast is the cure, similar to a depression treatment plan. As Albus Dumbledore said in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” — J.K. Rowling. “You need to fill up your schedule and stop thinking about it.” While this is a sweet sentiment, filling up their schedule won’t fix the problem. It’s a way to self-distract and avoids their illness, not a solution. The more they attempt to pretend everything is all right, the worst it gets. There is a difference between planning social life to help with depression while receiving help and improving mental health, and pretending that everything is okay while making no progress. Furthermore, increasing the number of work hours can lead to exhaustion, burnout, and suicidal thoughts. South Korea is well-known to have a high number of suicides due to its citizens working more extended hours compared to other nations on the planet. According to Welcome to the Jungle, Koreans see 25 suicides per 100,000 citizens, and almost 20% of their population admits having 10 or more drinks every week trying to cope with stress. Don’t tell your friends to work harder and longer hours. It may harm them significantly. “I don’t believe in anti-depressants (or therapy, mindfulness).” Again, you don’t need to believe in anything — it exists, whether you like it or not. Anti-depressants are approved by medical specialists and scientists worldwide. Therapy has been a known strategy not only for those with depression but for anyone struggling with an issue. Mindfulness is a practice actively followed around the world. There is no need for you to believe or not believe. Your friend is following the plan their medical specialist provided him. If it requires them to take medication — they have to take medication. If there are no meds, but meditation and reflection journals are a part of it — they will have to do it. Unless you are a licensed specialist with a medical degree and many years of experience, keep your opinions to yourself. “But you seem so happy all the time!” Yes, it takes much effort to put on a facade of calmness and professionalism. It doesn’t mean that the depressed person isn’t slowly dying inside. You also won’t see them cry in the break room during lunch, but they still do it. If someone looks composed and well-put-together, it doesn’t change the fact they might be hanging by a thread. Most of us don’t want to affect others around us negatively. Unless you are a licensed specialist with a medical degree and many years of experience, keep your opinions to yourself. “Why are you depressed? You have everything!” It’s not a matter of having everything or having nothing. One’s possessions and accomplishments don’t dictate happiness and a healthy mental state. If someone who’s depressed drives a Tesla Model X and owns three condos, it doesn’t mean they are mentally healthy, happy, and in peace with themselves. Similarly to this, some people look at celebrities and expect them to be perpetually happy and well. However, a lot of famous people are admitting they have or had mental issues. They tell us about their struggles with mental health, which is an excellent example of how no one is safe from depression and other mental disorders. It’s phenomenal that celebrities are using their voices to discuss such important topics. Having everything doesn’t constitute being fine. People from less fortunate countries probably look at us and think we have everything; therefore, we must always be happy. This is not always the case. “Just snap out of it.” I can’t just snap out of it, Karen. There is no “snapping out” of depression in a matter of seconds. Approach this the same way you would approach a patient with a broken leg. Are you going to tell him the same thing? I imagine this dialogue: “Hey, man, just snap out of it!” “Um… My leg is broken, and I have a cast.” “It doesn’t matter. Snap out of it!” You understand how ridiculous this is. Mental illness requires proper treatment and often involves multiple doctors’ approval. It takes months or even years. So, please, don’t suggest anything that can be upsetting to your friend who has depression. It will only make them feel worse, if not worthless. “My friend, Kevin, dealt with his depression in a month, so can you.” I’m super happy for Kevin, but everyone is different. Every mental issue is unique, as well. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Even if two people have the same problem, they may have been treated differently. Maybe they have been taking different medications or taught different coping mechanisms. Something as small as work schedule can make a difference in one’s mental health, because depression can manifest earlier in the day for some people, and later for others. Even a slight variation in the diet can spark a change. Therefore, don’t mention any Kevins. You don’t know their precise diagnosis and mental state. “You need to try this [insert mushroom/vitamin/online class].” No, I don’t need to try the magical mushroom. If a doctor doesn’t approve a treatment, the patient with a mental problem should not be exploring it. Again, if something worked for one person, it doesn’t mean it will work for another one. There are thousands of people claiming online that they find a cure for depression, cancer — and a ton of other diseases. If the doctor doesn’t approve it, it’s not happening. “Your anti-depressants are making it worse. Try aromatherapy instead.” Thank you, Karen, but lavender oil won’t cure the depression. Orange oil won’t help either. While it’s nice to turn on the diffuser and spray the oils, this isn’t a treatment plan. Lavender does indeed calm you down, and sweet orange oil scent may distract you from spiralling down the negative thoughts rabbit hole. However, this is a temporary solution. Essential oils are not FDA-approved as an anti-depressant.

https://medium.com/the-ascent/how-to-act-around-a-person-with-depression-e89149b1e866

['Joanna Henderson']

2020-05-15 12:01:01.145000+00:00

['Mindfulness', 'Mental Illness', 'Psychology', 'Health', 'Mental Health']

I’ve written about the VICE show “While the Rest of Us Die” before, but the latest episode on…

I’ve written about the VICE show “While the Rest of Us Die” before, but the latest episode on America’s recent foreign wars was painful. I groaned several times while watching it. It’s painful because I remember writing articles condemning the war, and I talked to people who lost children in Iraq. I know families whose kids came back with PTSD. One of the soldiers interviewed bluntly said, “War is a racket.” He added that while he and his teammates were dying and losing limbs, some people were getting rich. Unfortunately, this scam has been going on for a long time.

https://medium.com/@mannyotiko1/ive-written-about-the-vice-show-while-the-rest-of-us-die-before-but-the-latest-episode-on-a564281a2480

['Manny Otiko']

2020-12-09 12:49:05.487000+00:00

['Republican Party', 'Iraq', 'War', 'Defense', 'Afghanistan']

My Community, My Duty!

As I told about the significance of serving the community by charity in my previous article, here I again want to discuss something about it. We live in a materialistic world, where there is an unequal distribution of life resources for almost every single person in every single community. This leads to the formation of so called elite, middle class or lower class. I am not to debate here in favor or against them, but all I care is that, being a human, we should care for ourselves and others too. We should try to solve problems and fix things around us, for our betterment. A picture portraying life style of elite, middle and lower class people There are less business opportunities for lower class people, due to lack of investment. I care for this and personally started thinking for its solution. Therefore, I came up with an idea of low but high successful rate and profit ratio solution. We mostly see a small moveable stall of fruits or vegetable, usually owned by food vendors, who sell them while moving through towns or by standing by-side on road, which does not require any sort of location investment and only a small investment of 10000–15000 PKR can lead them to grow. This business can even have a profit ratio of almost more than 50%. We can start this idea with or without return policies depending upon our services. A fruit stall This will provide a better earning for people, and will also help the community by giving them an easy access to buy fruits.

https://medium.com/@salman-uetlahore/my-community-my-duty-e238c431de24

['Muhammad Salman']

2020-12-26 03:20:09.158000+00:00

['Low', 'Budget', 'Business', 'Ideas', 'Social']

The Joe Biden outrage over ‘You Ain’t Black’ sounds suspicious

The Joe Biden outrage over ‘You Ain’t Black’ sounds suspicious Pay attention to who is complaining before you shun Joe Biden Show me a man over 70 who doesn’t have diarrhea of the mouth, and I’ll show you a young man who just hired Greg Cannom (Benjamin Button’s makeup artist). After the “You Ain’t Black” interview with Charlamagne Tha God — the same person who gushed over white women for years and called them “nubian white queens,” and told Amara La Negra that colorism in the Hispanic community may all be in her imagination — it’d be impossible not to notice all the outrage over presidential candidate Joe Biden’s comment. Photo credit: Laurentiu Robu/Pexels But the question that is not being asked enough is this: “Was Joe Biden wrong?” I’m struggling with this one. From 2015 and onward, I have never personally met an African-American person who canvassed for, vouched for or voted for the golf enthusiast in the White House. Not one. Not a family member. Not a friend. In my personal social circle, I don’t even have any white people around me who voted for Donald Trump and they’re far more vocal about why. (Full disclosure: I did have to ditch a few suspicious co-workers — all white — who probably voted for him and won’t admit it.) For African-American voters who are irate or just uncomfortable with the idea that the former Vice President Joe Biden is banking on the black vote, I get it. No one should feel so confident that someone who is anti-Trump must be willing to vote for the former Vice President. Whether you want to acknowledge that the 44th president endorsed him, he worked under his leadership for four years and they still maintain a brotherly relationship right now is totally on you. But I would strongly advise voters to pay attention to the theme of who is the most vocal against Joe Biden and constantly reminding black voters of the “You Ain’t Black” interview. It wreaks of the same social media (and news) desperation of “Hillary’s emails.” Before you start listening to what this newly outraged person has to say about Joe Biden, pay attention to these social media tips first. What year did this user join Twitter? If it wasn’t before 2016, and you don’t see much more than a flood of tweets about politics and politicians, pay attention to the theme. Check that user’s Twitter name with a few keywords: Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump. Joe Biden. Maxine Waters. Eric Holder. Kamala Harris. Mitch McConnell. You will more often than not find that the views of this user are deeply conservative. Check that user’s Twitter name against hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter #racialprofiling #racism. You will more often than not find that this user is all about blue life and thinks legitimate racial profiling is all a big misunderstanding, overreaction or “playing the race card.” Or, this person has never talked about racism — unless it benefits Trump. Check that user’s Twitter name to see what this person has to say about African-Americans before “You Ain’t Black.” There will be many cases in which it really is legitimate black folks who are very much for and of the culture. But there’s also an interesting (and higher) dismissal or no mention of black people and racism — until it’s related to voting for a Republican base. If the Twitter image looks like an African-American stock photo or just variations of the same photo over and over again, I’m willing to bet this is someone non-black who created a new account. Now this user is passionate about racism — for today anyway. Photo credit: Pixabay Look up the Bernie Bros. This is a group who is hell bent on pouting after their presidential candidate was no longer on the ballot. They are also likely to not vote at all or vote for Donald Trump again.

https://medium.com/i-do-see-color/the-joe-biden-outrage-over-you-aint-black-sounds-suspicious-1717c4e9f999

['Shamontiel L. Vaughn']

2020-05-28 03:08:36.197000+00:00

['Charlamagne Tha God', 'Joe Biden', 'Racism', 'Race', 'Election 2020']

The Beginner’s Guide to Acing SQL Interviews for Data Scientists

At most data science interviews, your SQL skill will be examined in some way. You must write some SQL queries in your technical interviews and many of them in your day-to-day job. It does not matter whether you work at a small or a big company, SQL programming is an important tool in your toolbox. You can use SQL programming to work with small and huge datasets especially with advanced query engines such as Spark SQL. Spark (an open-source unified analytics engine for large-scale data processing) has a module named Spark SQL (a distributed SQL query engine) that lets you manage SQL queries in big data efficiently. Databricks, one of the top growing enterprise software to manage data warehouses, has a user-friendly environment to set up Spark SQL engines. So be prepared to learn SQL programming soon in your career. A data science interview usually has three technical steps: SQL programming, ML development, and an onsite technical interview. The SQL programming and ML development steps are pretty standard these days. The onsite interview varies across different companies. In this article, I aim to help you ace the SQL programming interview. If you find this article useful, you can subscribe through the link below. This will help me to create high-quality content for you. The structure of this article is as follows: Let’s start. — What are the Basics of SQL Coding? You should learn the basics of SQL programming from any resource that you are comfortable with. I learned a lot from w3school website, and I highly recommend it check it out later. 1. SELECT The SELECT statement is used to extract data from a database as follows SELECT column1_name FROM table_name . You can also use * after SELECT if you want to extract everything in the database. The SELECT DISTINCT statement can be used to extract unique values. A column often contains many duplicate values, and sometimes you only need to extract the unique or distinct values. 2. WHERE The WHERE statement is used to filter records from a database as follows SELECT column1_name FROM table_name WHERE condition; It returns only those records that fulfill the condition written after that. You can use various operators in the condition such as: > , = , IN , LIKE , or BETWEEN . You can also combine several conditions with AND , OR , and NOT operators to narrow down the filter. 3. ORDER BY The ORDER BY statement is used to sort the result in ascending ASC or descending DESC order. By default, it sorts the records in ascending order though. You can try the following code to extract everything from a table ordered by column1_name and column2_name : SELECT * FROM table_name ORDER BY column1_name ASC, columne2_name DESC 4. COUNT The COUNT() function returns the number of rows that matches a specified criterion as follows: SELECT COUNT(column_name) FROM table_name WHERE condition; You can try other SQL functions, instead of COUNT , such as AVG or SUM to return the average value or the total sum of a numeric column. 5. GROUP BY The GROUP BY statement extracts rows that have the same values in a column and groups them into summary rows, like "find the number of students in each school". The GROUP BY statement is often used with aggregate functions such as COUNT() , MAX() , MIN() , SUM() , AVG() to group the results. You can check the code below. SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name WHERE condition GROUP BY column_name(s) ORDER BY column_name(s); There are more SQL commands that you can learn from w3school such as JOIN or CASE . A JOIN clause is used to combine rows from two or more tables, based on a related column between them. Or, the CASE statement goes through several conditions and returns a value when the first condition is met exactly similar to if-then-else statement in other programming languages. Photo by Olav Ahrens Røtne on Unsplash — A Simple Example of a SQL Problem The problem below is taken from Leetcode, a fantastic website where you can practice your coding skills. You can find many more problems on that website. Problem: We have a table named Activity that contains 4 fields from a series of gamers: palyer_id , device_id , event_date and games_played . Each row is a record of a player who logged in and played a number of games (possibly 0) before logging out on someday using the same device. Write an SQL query that reports the first login date for each player. Solution: As you can see, the solution uses commands that you learn above. SELECT player_id MIN(event_date) AS first_login FROM Activity GROUP BY player_id Photo by Anton Maksimov juvnsky on Unsplash — A Useful Technique: “Parametrized Query” When you must write a large number of similar queries, you can use a technique called “parameterized query”. This will help you write more efficient code and also show your expertise in programming. Here, I describe how to write parameterized SQL queries using Python. Let’s say you want to write a COUNT query that can be used with different fields and tables. In this case, you can save part 1 in the code below under, for example, count.txt . Then, you must parse (load and fill) the parameterized query in Python using part 2, the code coming right after. ------------------------------------------------------ # PART 1 (SQL) - PARAMETRIZED QUERY saved as count.txt ------------------------------------------------------ SELECT {var}, count({var}) as count FROM {table_name} GROUP BY {var} ORDER BY count DESC --------------------------------- # PART 2 (PYTHON) - QUERY PARSER --------------------------------- class Query: def __init__(self, table_name, var): self.table_name = table_name self.var = var self.parsed = None def parser(self): file_path_query = os.path.join(FILE_DIR, 'count.txt') with open(file_path_query, 'r') as file: template = file.read().replace(' ', ' ') self.parsed = template.format(table_name=self.table_name, var=self.var) — Last Words A SQL programming interview can be live or offline. If it is offline, you will be evaluated based on whether your code is executable or not. Otherwise, you will be evaluated based on the code quality in general and how well you can communicate. Let’s dig into each of them. Code Quality The interviewers will judge your code quality (and, certainly not you!) based on several angles. First, they want to see whether the code is executable without any syntax error. Then, they check whether your code is clean and concise. Third, the interviewer checks whether you considered edge cases. If you can not write clean code or consider edge cases in a timebox, make sure to be aware of the best practices and share them with your interviewer. In the end, they check whether your solution is optimized in terms of efficiency. For example, you could get the same result using one Join or using three Join. The former is more optimized. Communication In every interview, it is important to have effective communication with your interviewer. What does effective communication mean though? The first step in effective communication is to clearly share your thought process with your interviewer before diving into coding. Plus, you must be able to elaborate your reasoning for each choice of yours. I can not emphasize more how important is the power of sharing thought processes and elaboration on reasoning. I can work with a person whose code is not executable in the coding interview but can not work with whom fail on communication. Thanks for Reading! If you like this post and want to support me…

https://towardsdatascience.com/the-beginners-guide-to-acing-sql-interviews-for-data-scientists-30317d6692ec

['Pedram Ataee']

2021-09-13 22:23:08.478000+00:00

['Data', 'Sql', 'Data Science', 'Careers', 'Interview']

On Valuing Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)

A few days ago, I wrote about Ampleforth NFTs. Now that the latest Bankless podcast episode is out, we can expound on the rich content released to Bankless insiders a week ago. Kudos to the Bankless leadership for consistently putting out high quality content, and the community for invaluable participation. If you haven’t yet subscribed to Bankless, you’re missing out on intellectual yield you should be farming. Since 2018, Delphi Digital (another incredible resource) has been researching NFTs. Per their self-admission, this was motivated by the search for a high-profile fund in the crypto gaming sector. On 9/25/2020, Delphi made an investment worth $159,000 or 473.5 ETH into 5 Axies. Axies are digital pets that are collected, bred, and used for battle in the game Axie Infinity. Why? Rarity and Utility. Rarity: The Delphi Digital team recognizes this particular kind of Axie — the Mystic Axie — is ultra rare. The investment thesis behind owning “the only Bug and Reptile 3x Mystics as well as 1/3 of all 4x Mystics in existence,” as written in a recent report, appears to be rooted in scarcity value. Utility: Axies can be used in game for battling, breeding, developing, modifying, trading, etc. So long as there exists a market with participants, or a game with players, Axies will have demonstrable value — similar to rare video game items. However, there is an important difference: Because Axies are Non-Fungible Tokens living on the Ethereum blockchain, they are not restricted to in-game use cases. NFTs establish verifiable scarcity for digital assets, and immutable ownership over them. Screenshots do not. This means… NFTs can potentially be lent out for yield or borrowed against as collateral. Or exchanged on a marketplace, like trading cards from games such as Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! And so forth. Or (not) farmed: And because I’m not a sucker for cards and collectibles, that’s not what I’m doing. By not parking my capital in the form of $MEME into a smart contract, I am not “farming” pineapple credits to be redeemed for one or more of these NFT cards. I am not expecting or earning any trading fees in return, nor am I anticipating a growth in the value of $MEME. I am not purely in pursuit of this stamp of ownership that will forever be forged into the blockchain. Complete DeFi Degen. Full Autist*. Mode Engaged.

https://medium.com/@JagtapperMD/on-valuing-non-fungible-tokens-nfts-c02b6deec31f

['Pranav M Jagtap']

2020-10-01 18:23:05.536000+00:00

['Distributed Ledgers', 'Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Nft', 'Memes']

Binary Classification of Household Income in the Philippines

Introduction Hopefully, most of you out there in the United States have filled out the 2020 Census. I did, and it was a timely exercise while concurrently working with a set of household data sampling a nation’s population. The Philippine Statistics Authority runs a survey called the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) every three years to gather information on income, standards of living and expenditures of homes in all seventeen regions. The Philippines is the twelfth most populous country in the world and is one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies. There is a heavy reliance on agriculture, so populations are concentrated where there is good farmland; additionally, one-eighth of the national population lives in Manila, the capital. As I was looking to flex my modeling muscles by exploring a classification task, this was a great dataset with which to explore data and feature importance, due to the breadth and level of detail documented in the survey. The Dataset The dataset, composed of 41,544 rows, originally available from the Philippine Statistics Authority is available on Kaggle here, and I changed the target column (‘Total Household Income’) from a continuous variable to a binary variable, with 1 indicating that a family makes above the median. The median household income in this dataset is 164,079 PHP, with a mean of 247,555 PHP. The 59 feature columns in the form of object and integer datatypes are wide-ranging in their description of a typical Filipino household. The full set of survey questions within each category are even more granular and total 81 pages, documenting consumption and agricultural activity down to the number of eggs gathered and amount spent on jeepney fare. I have loosely grouped the 59 columns into four different types as below. Expenditures : e.g. rice, meat, alcohol, tobacco, transportation, communication and education (unit of time for food expenditure is a week, and a month for all others, to reduce memory bias) : e.g. rice, meat, alcohol, tobacco, transportation, communication and education (unit of time for food expenditure is a week, and a month for all others, to reduce memory bias) Household Descriptions : e.g. region, source of income, household head marital status, number of children, number of employed family members : e.g. region, source of income, household head marital status, number of children, number of employed family members Possessions : e.g. number of televisions, air-conditioners, vehicles, cell phones, and computers : e.g. number of televisions, air-conditioners, vehicles, cell phones, and computers Living Conditions: e.g. type of building/house, type of roof, toilet facilities, electricity, water supply source Libraries For data cleaning/exploration: pandas, NumPy For plotting: Matplotlib, seaborn, Scikit-plot, pydotplus, IPython For modeling: scikit-learn, XGBoost Exploratory Data Analysis During my exploration stage, my main goal was to ensure that I had a complete data-set of usable features, and to retain/transform object columns that have a visible relationship on the household income. As the dataset only has ~41K rows, I wanted to retain its length, and removed two object columns with missing data (Household Head Occupation and Household Head Class of Worker), which were each missing 7,536 values. To understand my approach with the remaining object columns, compare the countplots on the left. I dropped Household Head Sex as it did not seem to have a significant impact on Household Income, but took a different approach to Type of Walls, where there seemed to be a stronger correlation of Household Income and Type of Walls. Rather than create dummy variables for every unique value within Type of Walls, I created one binary column of Strong Walls, and one-hot encoded all values not Strong to 0. This process left me with 49 features of the initial dataset to start the modeling process. Modeling Of the methods that we have reviewed, I used the below models for a total of 8. I split my data into a 70/30 Train-Test Set to validate each model and added scores to a summary dataframe for each model based on the performance with the test data. The Logistic Regression model with Recursive Feature Elimination reduced my feature set from 49 to 40, the number of features that achieved the best F1 Score, and each successive model uses those 40 features. Logistic Regression (one vanilla, one with RFE) Decision Trees Random Forest (one vanilla, one with GridSearch) K-Nearest Neighbors XGBoost (one vanilla, one with GridSearch) The below summary illustrates the Recall, Precision, Accuracy and F1 Scores. I am not dealing with any class imbalance, and not looking to tune towards precision or recall specifically, but XGBoost with GridSearch just edged out my baseline XGBoost and Random Forest with GridSearch. Summary Table of Model Performance Interpreting Feature Selection One of the most satisfying parts of conducting a modeling exercise is being able to visualize feature importance. As XGBoost is an ensemble algorithm composed of weak learners(decision trees with limited depth), importance is given to the variables that enhance the performance of each iterative learner, and is returned as an average of importances of all decision trees within the model. We can see that within the top ten features below that expenditures significantly contribute to our target, although I was surprised to see Communication and Miscellaneous Goods and Services at the top of the list. I delved into the FIES summary documents to better understand what was asked in this survey question. Communication encompasses spend on internet including such methods as prepaid internet cards, personal telephones (both monthly service charges and the cost of a new cell phone or landline installation), and postal services. As the country continues to develop and modernize, it is worth continuing to explore how this spend category is a defining factor in a family’s ability to spend or earn income. Miscellaneous Goods and Services encompasses spend on personal care such as beauty products and services (including toiletries), personal effects not included in Clothing, Footwear and Other Wear (e.g. bags and jewelry), all types of insurance, retirement home spend, and any other services not mentioned in other categories. Most interestingly to me, financial services is also part of this category. As Filipinos overseas are one of the largest diasporas (around 12% of the population works abroad as of 2019), the scale of remittances sent to the Philippines is enormous. If any associated fees are included in this category, it would make sense that the impact of such a broad category that can encompass both luxury goods and financial services is correlated with a household’s income. Future Work There are many directions that can be taken with a dataset of this nature to further improve our model and our ability to interpret the results and features, and how they reflect on a modernizing, diverse Filipino society. For example, I could use this data and compare it with prior and later surveys to see how feature importances may have changed over time. Alternatively, a comparison between agricultural, tourist-heavy, or urban regions would also shed light on income disparity. As a number of continuous columns are similar in nature (such as the food expenditures and housing traits) there is also a potential for feature engineering to see whether simplifying in this way results in any changes to the model and feature importance ranking. An alternative way to create features might be to create a grade for living conditions that encompasses all related columns such as type of roof, walls, toilet facilities and water supply. Conclusion This data and the accompanying summary provide a wealth of areas for exploring methods of classification or linear regression, and deep insights can be gained on how Filipino families are spending and earning their income. I look forward to using this dataset for ongoing learning opportunities, and hope to share more about how the evolving economy in the Philippines can be visualized, expressed, and predicted. If you have any feedback on this post or would like to review my repo, please comment below. Sources “Family Income and Expenditure Survey 2015.” Philippine Statistics Authority, Jan. 2017, psa.gov.ph/sites/default/files/FIES 2015 Final Report.pdf. Web. 21 Apr. 2020. “Remittances from Filipinos Abroad Reach 2.9 Bln USD in August 2019.” Xinhua News Agency, 15 Oct. 2019, www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-10/15/c_138473763.htm. Web. 21 Apr. 2020. “The World Factbook: Philippines.” Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1 Feb. 2018 (updated 21 Apr. 2020), www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rp.html. Web. 21 Apr. 2020. “Asian Development Bank Member Fact Sheet: Philippines.” Asian Development Bank, July 2019, https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/27790/phi-2018.pdf. Web. 21 Apr. 2020. “Feature Importance and Feature Selection With XGBoost in Python”. Jason Brownlee. Machine Learning Mastery, 31 Aug. 2016, https://machinelearningmastery.com/feature-importance-and-feature-selection-with-xgboost-in-python/. Web. 21 Apr 2020.

https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/binary-classification-of-household-income-in-the-philippines-75faa7b60b69

['Kyle Aguilar']

2020-04-24 17:06:45.952000+00:00

['Machine Learning', 'Philippines', 'Xgboost', 'Data', 'Data Science']

organizations and other partners to make sure people who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19,

Asthe world awaits the results of COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, we need to invest now in systems to ensure equitable global vaccine delivery. Sixteen vaccine experts from the vaccine industry, academic and regulatory agencies interviewed… https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/comments/k0yoze/official_livestream_liverpool_vs_atalanta_live/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/comments/k0yp2g/official_livestream_atalanta_vs_liverpool_live/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/comments/k0yp3r/streamsofficial_liverpool_vs_atalanta_live/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/comments/k0yp76/officiallivestream_liverpool_vs_atalanta_live/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/comments/k0yp8v/uefastreamsreddit_liverpool_vs_atalanta_live/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/comments/k0ypba/uefastreamsreddit_atalanta_vs_liverpool_live/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/comments/k0ypbs/officialstreams_liverpool_vs_atalanta_live/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/comments/k0ypc7/officialredditliverpool_vs_atalanta_live/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/comments/k0ypeg/streamofficial_liverpool_vs_atalanta_live/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/comments/k0ypfw/officiallivestream_2020_liverpool_vs_atalanta/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/comments/k0yowu/streamofficial_atalanta_vs_liverpool_live/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RealMadridvsInterlive/comments/k0ysad/officiallivestream_inter_milan_vs_real_madrid/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RealMadridvsInterlive/comments/k0yscl/officiallivestream_inter_milan_vs_real_madrid/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RealMadridvsInterlive/comments/k0ysd9/officiallivestream_real_madrid_vs_inter_milan/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RealMadridvsInterlive/comments/k0ysgn/official_livestream_real_madrid_vs_inter_milan/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RealMadridvsInterlive/comments/k0yshm/officiallivestream_real_madrid_vs_inter_milan/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RealMadridvsInterlive/comments/k0yskq/streamofficial_2020real_madrid_vs_inter_milan/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RealMadridvsInterlive/comments/k0ys99/officiallivestream_real_madrid_vs_inter_milan/ A safe and effective vaccine is a critical tool for stopping the spread of COVID-19. While there are still things we don’t know about the COVID-19 vaccine, we do know that there is much we can do now to prepare, and we are not starting from scratch in Vermont. We will build on a strong existing primary care and medical home infrastructure, our experience with vaccine distribution in past public health crises, and valuable partnerships across the state with health care and community partners to help make sure all Vermonters have access to the vaccine. Putting Safety First The global push to find a vaccine for COVID-19 is unprecedented, but this urgency can not outweigh the importance of vaccine safety and efficacy. That is why we keep a close watch on the vaccine development process and put science above all else when it comes to distributing any vaccine in Vermont. Before it is given to anyone in Vermont, a vaccine must meet strict U.S. Food and Drug Administration safety standards and be recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)(link is external). All newly developed vaccines must also be monitored continuously for safety. Identifying Priority Groups Based on what we know now, it is likely that the initial supply of COVID-19 vaccine will be limited, and will be distributed to states in phases, with early vaccine going to certain groups of people. Those groups may include: people who provide direct care to others (for example, health care professionals) people who are critical to the COVID-19 response (for example, people who work at COVID-19 testing sites, people who process COVID-19 specimens at laboratories) people who are essential to maintaining a functional society (for example, first responders) older adults and people who have chronic illnesses and are at the highest risk for developing severe illness from COVID-19 We will look to recommendations from the National Academies(link is external) and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices(link is external), and gather input from organizations and partners across Vermont, to determine what these groups will be in Vermont. Ensuring Equitable Access When a COVID-19 vaccine is more widely available, we will work closely with the health care providers, pharmacies, and others who will provide the vaccine in Vermont, to ensure access across the state. We will also collaborate with community organizations and other partners to make sure people who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, including Black, Indigenous and people of color, have equitable access to the vaccine. Sharing Information with Vermonters We are committed to sharing ongoing updates with Vermonters as we make plans for vaccine distribution, and as we learn more about strategies at the national level. Below you will find our draft interim COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan for Vermont. For a quick look at the plan, read the executive summary. WRITTEN BY Follow

https://medium.com/@hadil16-c/asthe-world-awaits-the-results-of-covid-19-vaccine-clinical-trials-we-need-to-invest-now-in-3eb6cbe9fbc4

['Hadil C']

2020-11-25 19:28:24.737000+00:00

['Covid 19', 'Vacation', 'Technology', 'Life', 'Sports']

John Lewis Would Have Been A Strong Biden Supporter

John Lewis Would Have Been A Strong Biden Supporter Congressman John Lewis (Image is author’s) A giant working for civil rights One of the real heroes of the civil rights movement was Congressman John Lewis of Georgia. Unfortunately, Lewis died on July 17, 2020, of pancreatic cancer at the age of eighty. He had served as a U.S. Congressman for the state of Georgia since 1987. He was born and raised in Georgia where he had gone to segregated schools. He experienced severe racism throughout his younger years. When he was eighteen years old, he became inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his work on civil rights. After writing to Dr. King, Lewis became involved with Dr. King in the civil rights movement. Lewis was a member of the Freedom Riders. This group of twelve people, five Black, and seven White rode buses together throughout the south to challenge the lack or enforcing a ruling by the Supreme Court that segregated public bus rides were unconstitutional. They were regularly beaten and arrested. As a student at Fisk University, Lewis was on the front lines of the civil rights movement. He led demonstrations against racial segregation. He organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters. He participated with Dr. King at the March on Washington where he was the youngest speaker that day. Brutally beaten by the police in Montgomery, Alabama, along with Dr. King as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge from Selma, Mississippi, on March 7, 1965, Lewis was lucky to have lived. Lewis had his skull fractured as he was beaten severely by the police. The event became known as “Bloody Sunday.” Dr. King always advocated for peaceful, non-violent protests. The police had a different idea that day. Lewis attended a pilgrimage every year to honor those who marched that day in 1965. He was a key figure in the 50 year anniversary commemoration of the March in Selma. I had the privilege of attending that event as part of a group of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) who went from Washington, D.C. to join in the march to show our support for the fight for civil rights. These mostly young AAPI leaders are now diligently continuing the work for civil rights and equality. It was a great privilege to know Congressman John Lewis and to join him that day. AAPI Group at 50 Year Anniversary (Image is author’s) During a routine medical visit, it was discovered that Lewis had stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He made a statement at that time: “So I have decided to do what I know to do and do what I have always done: I am going to fight it and keep fighting for the Beloved Community. We still have many bridges to cross.” He worked hard until his death. Congressman John Lewis was a symbol of the civil rights movement and advocated for what he liked to call “good trouble” for more than 30 years while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. He considered the peaceful protests to bring attention to police brutality against black men after the killing of George Floyd as good trouble. He was known as the “Conscience of the U.S. Congress.” “He loved this country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that it might live up to its promise,” President Barack Obama said in a statement. “And through the decades, he not only gave all of himself to the cause of freedom and justice, but inspired generations that followed to try to live up to his example.” Lewis was often a critic of Donald Trump because he did not think Trump espoused the values of human decency and anti-racist goals which he deemed important. He was openly in opposition to many of Trump’s actions. Trump bullied Lewis and expressed disdain for him. If Lewis had lived, he would surely have been campaigning hard for President-elect Joe Biden. He knew President Obama and Joe Biden very well. He would also be trying to help get the two Democratic candidates elected to the U.S. Senate from Georgia. John Lewis was a tireless advocate for good and fair government. He fought against racism his whole life. [Source: Wikipedia]

https://medium.com/the-collector/john-lewis-would-have-been-a-strong-biden-supporter-928ec8e06315

['Floyd Mori']

2020-12-17 20:51:47.318000+00:00

['Elections', 'Politics', 'Congress', 'Racism', 'Civil Rights']

Encountering a Mystical Creature, Monster? — Short Story

Illustration by https://www.artstation.com/anooj Chairo’s dad always said there were strange, mystical creatures in the forest behind their house. He’d also said his real father was an elf. For the first time since she was a little girl, Chairo found herself believing her dad. She touched her very non-pointed ears absently as she peered out from behind the mossy boulder. At the strange, mystical creature before her. It lumbered slowly up the rough-hewn stone steps. Naked. Eerie white skin. Huge four fingered hands at the end of long, muscular arms. It was almost twice her height. What…the…freaking…f- her thoughts cut off as the creature stopped its slow accent and slowly swiveled its bald white head towards her. She pulled back behind the boulder, her heart thumping wildly. Chairo squeezed her eyes shut tightly before realizing that that was MUCH scarier than having them open. She peered around her at what was a completely normal forest just one minute before. Now she saw fluorescent fungi clinging to trees that were much bigger than she remembered. She jumped about a foot before scrambling back into a defensive stance, her head aching where a bunch of her hair had been yanked sharply. Crouched on top of the boulder was the white creature, it’s knobby knees jutting out to the side as it held a hunk of her straight black hair in its oversized hand. She rubbed her head before jerking her hands back into place in front of her. She knew instinctively that her guard would be useless against this giant creature, but it gave her focus, which helped her control her breathing and stop panicking. On the outside, at least. The creature had its head cocked as it seemed to study the hair. Then it opened a wide toothless mouth and ate it. Again, the guard went down as Chairo stepped back in surprise. Back into stance. Don’t be stupid Chairo, she chided herself. The air shimmered around the top of the giant stone and Chairo shuffled back a few steps, bumping into an unfamiliar tree. Dust or fog obscured the creature, then just as quickly disappeared. But it wasn’t the white, giant creature crouching on top of the boulder anymore. It was her. A copy of Chairo looked back at her, cocked her head, and smiled. Chairo vomited. Violently.

https://medium.com/@katandersson/encountering-a-mystical-creature-monster-short-story-38c22ea53b02

['Kat Andersson']

2020-12-06 03:48:07.257000+00:00

['Microfiction', 'Writer', 'Fantasy', 'Short Story', 'Short Fiction']

Web Scraper — Scrape Amazon book store without code

One journalist asked me how to scrape a book list from a search result of Amazon book store. They are not very familiar with coding. This time, I think it is a high time to explore some existing tools that could help journalism. The outcome is not bad, the journalist told me that now they have unlocked the skill sets and they can do a lot more using the tool — Web Scraper. More data-drive stories from them can be expected :) Here are the steps to show how to do it. (This shows only the steps of importing pre-defined scrapers. For create new scraper, may visit its official tutorial video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7fob_XVsbY ) Step 0: Install Web Scraper Chrome Extension in Google Chrome Open Google Chrome Go to https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/web-scraper-free-web-scra/jnhgnonknehpejjnehehllkliplmbmhn and install the extension. Install this extension to your Chrome browser Step 1: Open the Web Scrape panel Open a new browser tab Press “F12” to open the inspector There is a tab “Web Scraper” at the top of the inspector panel, usually is located at the last item (the most right one) Step 2: Import “Sitemap” “Sitemap” here means a scraper. Click “Create new sitemap” at the second row of the Inspector Click “Import Sitemap” Step 3: Get a pre-defined JSON files and import them Open the one for scraping listing JSON, paste the content into the text area blank under “Sitemap JSON” Fill the “Sitemap name” (Remarks: recommend to fill a distinct name, all sitemap names must be different) Click “Import Sitemap” Notes: There will be a warning message if the JSON is not valid. (e.g.: Does not copied completely) Paste the content of JSON file into the text box. Should be showing green color in the border of the text boxes. This JSON file is a valid one! It is going to scrape the book title, author and published date. Step 4: Ready to start scraping If import is successful, you will see this. Selector may need to be changed as the HTML of the Web page changes. But it can be done by clicking on browser. Click Sitemap <your name filled as sitemap name> Click “Scrape” to process Scrape!Scrape!Scrape! There are some options for scraping, use the default value should be fine. (Remarks: Amazon website may sometime issue Robot checking, when the scraping to too frequent.) Click “Start scraping” to start the scraping process. Use the default value is fine. It will pop up a new browser window, and do the scraping automatically. The computer is working for you and helps you to save your time. After looping all the pages, the window will be closed automatically. Step 5: Download the data as CSV file Click “Export data as CSV” Click “Download now!” It will start downloading: Done the scarper~

https://medium.com/@oktak/web-scraper-scrape-amazon-book-store-without-code-just-by-chrome-browser-c1c9944aca55

['O K.']

2020-12-11 01:25:19.948000+00:00

['Journalism', 'Tutorial', 'Web Scraping', 'No Code', 'Amazon Book Publishing']

Preparing technologists for public sector work through a remote, part-time program: TELI

Capitol dome from inside, looking up. Lansing, Michigan Preparing technologists for public sector work through a remote, part-time program: TELI Government is the scaling vector for social change. But we need trained people to reach positive outcomes. We prototyped a repeatable model. Dana Chisnell Follow Jan 27 · 10 min read The concept was simple: Prepare private sector technologists for working in the public sector or with public sector partners. But we needed to determine how practical the idea was, how to design an effective program, and how to measure its effectiveness. As we started to put the initiative together (with our partners at Aspen Tech Policy Hub and Tech Talent Project), we came to realize that it defied classification. It wasn’t exactly an executive program. It wasn’t really a fellowship. We’d created a cross-curriculum, extended workshop. It featured “classroom” lecture and interactive learning, guest speakers on specific topics, experiential learning through “field” projects done by small teams, weekly coaching and feedback for teams, large information sharing sessions with people inside and outside the program, and an intensive “capstone” project as a “final exam.” Eventually, we gave it a name: Tech Executive Leadership Initiative, or TELI for short. The U.S. government struggles to deliver services efficiently and effectively the way it works right now Project Redesign formed around the idea that government is the scaling vector for social change. But 3 problems prevent government from effectively serving the public and efficiently delivering public services: The U.S. government needs to modernize in a range of ways, including embracing 21st Century skills, methods, and tools. American technologists aren’t trained for government contexts, so they aren’t ready to help tackle complex social problems. Communities living the experience of poor government services have not been but should be centered in policy design, delivery, or government accountability. Federal government has focused on modernizing government through technology projects. It is true that many of the systems that underlie government services were designed and built decades ago. Some do need to be updated. Others need to be replaced. But the problem with delivering effective services to the public isn’t that the government relies on legacy technology. It’s that government relies on early 19th Century management and bureaucratic practices that treat policy implementation and service delivery like factory work. Improving outcomes for the public means making policy design and implementation people-centered At Project Redesign, we want to improve outcomes for the American public. We believe that the best way to do that is by making policy design and implementation more people-centered, multidisciplinary, agile, and modern. A program built through partnerships We partnered with the Tech Talent Project and the Aspen Institute Tech Policy Hub to create a new kind of training program for private sector technologists interested in moving to the public sector. TELI, our prototype program — a hybrid of approaches from Aspen Tech Policy Hub and Project Redesign that we delivered remotely, part time — gave the 3 partners a way to test some ideas. To truly modernize the federal government, we need new way of thinking, new processes, and new people. But there are not enough people who are trained and ready to be effective in the public sector. And while technologists in the private sector are at least familiar with the ideas in human-centered design (HCD) or design thinking, TELI was an experiment in which we tried to close some of the gaps by working through an educational and practical program with technologists who were excited about helping government better serve people. For people to make a successful transition from the private sector to public service, they need grounding in basics about how government works, how policy gets made, and what the tech landscape is for implementing public policy. We created a structure and format to meet participants where they were In structure, TELI echoed executive education programs in some ways. But with the pandemic, it wasn’t possible to meet together in person. So, that made it unnecessary to have day-long and week-long, full time program. Instead, participants kept their full time jobs and worked through TELI part time. Class time, team time, and check-ins all happened remotely. We formed cross-functional teams. The teams worked on projects that gave them a way to apply what they learned in the class time. [TELI syllabus] The curriculum and why we designed it that way As we reviewed what we learned from the people we interviewed in Spring 2020 and looked forward to thousands of new people joining government from the private sector, we identified topics that came out of the experiences our interviewees told us about. They fell into roughly two large categories: How policy and government work What service delivery looks like Key concepts we wanted to cover in TELI For people to make a successful transition from the private sector to public service, they need grounding in basics about how government works, how policy gets made, and what the tech landscape is for implementing public policy. While many participants were somewhat versed in HCD because the companies they worked for used some version of it for product development, TELI gave them an opportunity to apply similar methods and techniques to policy design and implementation. At Project Redesign, our priority was on these key concepts: 21st Century government services need modern approaches to policy making, technology, and design. There are well-defined practices that public servants can follow to reduce the difficulty of designing and delivering more human-centered services. Designing the right policy and tech implementation needs the deepest possible understanding of the problem as the public experiences it. Learning objectives If TELI was effective, in the first year in government, participants should be able to apply what they’ve learned to: Understand how government structures differ from industry Lead and manage stakeholders, peers, and direct reports without formal authority in high risk, highly political contexts Design, research, analyze, and execute policies in ambiguous, complex, and fast-paced environment Drive projects to successful delivery within entrenched bureaucracies and under-resourced partners with limited financial tools Communicate effectively via concise, accurate, accessible, and timely written materials Operationalize ethical, fiduciary, and legal responsibility to the American people Build a healthy culture of collaboration, learning, risk creation, direct feedback, and leadership development for public servants TELI leaders applied course content in team projects We tied the two courses together through projects where teams could apply what they learned. One was a project that stretched across the 8 weeks of the program based on a policy challenge. Teams learned the methods and techniques as they moved through the phases of their projects. Close to the end of the program, we formed new teams, who then went to work on a second project that they needed to deliver on at the end of 48 hours. With the second project, TELI leaders got to test what they’d learned across the program in a new challenge. COVID and other factors constrained the design of TELI There were a few constraints. In a perfect world — one without an ongoing pandemic — we might have created a different program. We might have made a program where the teams could be co-located, working together closer to full time. Even without everyone needing to self-isolate because of COVID, we contemplated a program that could include people who were only available part time. COVID was a forcing function on going fully remote. But going remote also gave us a chance to evaluate whether a fully remote fellowship program might be an effective option for future programs. As a prototype, TELI has been useful in helping us learn how similar future efforts might work. In addition to participants being remote, they were also all part-time, and distributed across time zones. Making the challenge projects realistic enough was a huge… challenge. First, we were outside government, with little or no access to officials in government who could be our stakeholders and experts. While we chose the challenge topics because we had ready access to some expertise within the teaching team and our immediate partners, that didn’t go far enough to answer important questions for the teams as they did their discovery research. The next iterations of a program like this one should be designed to have committed stakeholder/partners who have a big policy challenge, but who don’t have a solution in mind, yet. We had one more challenge: timing. We wanted to finish the program so we might have access to policy experts before the 2020 presidential election, because some of them might be unavailable when a potential transition would start. More importantly, Betsy Cooper, head of the Aspen Tech Policy Hub, would go out on a planned leave in the middle of September, and we needed to ensure that her topics were covered before that happened. We were squeezed from both ends on time. One other factor in timing was funding. As a tiny civic incubator, Project Redesign did not have a ready source of funding that would allow us to start the project without grants specifically for the project. Moving funders forward outside the typical grant making periods required attention that we found tough to make time for while designing and developing TELI, and working on other projects. Teams produced near-professional policy outputs Outputs from the project teams showed that It’s possible to begin to prepare people for government through a combination of experiential learning and guest lectures on targeted topics from people with government experience. Although some participants started out the program expressing frustration with the openness of the purposeful lack of direction in the challenge projects, all the teams came through that with pretty solid outputs. As one of the TELI participants said: Working through the initial frustration was key to learning how to be effective in a government context, and in particular understanding how to use the principles of HCD to distill problem statements from complex areas with many systems, experts and stakeholders. Participants went from knowing little about government and policy to delivering great work. The outputs from the projects were so good and so worthwhile that we published them on the Project Redesign website to open them up publicly as policy design or implementation proposals. You can read them here: Accelerating Naturalizations with Video Interviews Centralized Services for Unemployment ID Verification Federal Grants for State Digital Service Delivery Policy as Code The Next National Unemployment Crisis Cross-functional teams brought value to policy discovery and design The experience of working in cross-functional teams with little management direction was incredibly valuable. Leaders from the private sector aren’t used to working this way, and the projects gave them exposure and practical experience. The participants appreciated the different types of experience that their teammates brought to the challenge project and 48-hour project (such as having combinations of GC/CDO/CTO/CIO candidates). Participants got value of the program Participants seemed to enjoy the program generally, and gave TELI high ratings overall in the end-of-program and mid-program surveys. Participants got a lot out of hearing from guest speakers about their own experiences in government. Post-program, several individuals told us that they keep in touch with their teammates, and they’re looking forward to having a support network built on their relationships with TELI participants and instructors. At least one participant will go on to join the new administration as a senior advisor for delivery. Using agile, human-centered design approaches helped us improve throughout the program As a teaching team, we pivoted well to respond to participant feedback at mid-program and we responded quickly to leaders’ needs. Participants seemed to feel supported throughout. For example, based on feedback from the mid-term survey, we moved to less instruction about methods for human-centered design, and more about tech and leadership landscape. Where we felt HCD topics were important to include in the program but not important enough to spend class time, we moved them to videos that participants could watch on their own time. A success factor was instructors who had worked in government and had connections to experts As former government practitioners, the course instructors could speak from experience, rather than purely theoretically or teaching through case studies. Participants had access to instructors who could guide teams and help them focus, both through the process and on what was feasible. In addition, we could easily tap a network of formers who helped deliver content, or who teams interviewed for discovery research, or gave input and feedback on projects. Changes we would make for the next version The project outputs show that the participants did learn through the program. But we also learned several lessons that we would build into the next version of the program (should there be one). Tailor the curriculum. Develop class time, lectures, reading, and exercises to create optional courses for different types of leaders (CTO, CIO, CDO, GC), but keep a few core concepts to connect people to the overall program. This approach will make a more complex program with more moving parts, but we think future participants will get more out of what they do, and they may feel more in control of their time commitment. (The program description for TELI 2.0 reflects the shift in this direction, already.) Develop class time, lectures, reading, and exercises to create optional courses for different types of leaders (CTO, CIO, CDO, GC), but keep a few core concepts to connect people to the overall program. This approach will make a more complex program with more moving parts, but we think future participants will get more out of what they do, and they may feel more in control of their time commitment. (The program description for TELI 2.0 reflects the shift in this direction, already.) Eliminate the 48-hour exercise. By the time we did it, participants were exhausted. We also did it over a weekend, which meant that participants sacrificed time with family. Ready to move carefully and fix things It’s possible to begin to prepare people for government through a combination of experiential learning and guest lectures on targeted topics from people with government experience. From outside government, before they arrive at an agency. Although a dedicated, in-person program might have delivered even better results, running TELI as a part time, remote program did work to reach our goals of exposing folks to ideas and practices they need in government work. See the full syllabus and all of the readings for a taste of what the course was like (or do the readings yourself for a self-study!). The Aspen Institute Tech Policy Hub and the Tech Talent Project are about to kick off TELI 2.0 based on what the project partners and the teaching team learned in the prototype. Most of the participants in the program completed the 8 weeks even more revved up about public service than they were when they started. Was TELI enough to make a difference, to help new public servants be effective sooner? We’ll know in about a year.

https://medium.com/project-redesign/preparing-technologists-for-public-sector-work-through-a-remote-part-time-program-teli-85eea73a20dd

['Dana Chisnell']

2021-01-27 15:51:32.480000+00:00

['Govtech', 'Public Service', 'Service Delivery', 'Civictech']

Crowdhero x Discovery Music Records: Bring Out The Best OF Asia's Music Scene

Crowdhero x Discovery Music Records: Bring Out The Best OF Asia's Music Scene Crowdhero Aug 10·2 min read EDM (electronic dance music) has been and will be a popular demand for any major music festival events (…and fitness activities). Now for the very first time, these uptempo tunes will grow from nightclubs and dance floors to the NFT world. As a pioneer of Asian dance music DJ Flash Finger presented his own imprint of DISCOVERY: Music in 2013. He is also known as a talented music producer who has popular collabs with other artists. Starting as an electric guitar player in a band during his early career, Flash Finger later skillfully develops his EDM beats and climaxes with styles, juicy solos and melodies. DISCOVERY: Music also releases tracks with versatile sounding that fit the taste and style of labels from many countries in North America, Europe, and Asia markets. DJ Flash Finger (Source: 1001tracklists.com) Flash Finger launched DISCOVERY: Music to distribute his own music and also to support Asian music talents. In the early days, there were no dance music labels established by Asian DJ / Producers. Flash Finger launched DISCOVERY: Music Records to help promote Asia’s dance music and developed the dance music scene in Asia. Thanks to years of hard work, many releases by DISCOVERY: Music were supported by big artists in Europe and the United States. And the world knows more good music producers from Asia. Bring out to the next level As a mission to bring out the best of Asia and connect to the world’s audience, Discover Music Records has established connections with all the major online music distributors such as Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube Music, Deezer and Beatport… As the label moves forward, adding on new technology is part of the mission to grow and to gain more exposures and listeners. Thus, the NFT space is a new and interesting playground to experiment. Crowdhero is a good partner to help with these initiatives and crowdfund for upcoming artist’s projects including demo songs, music videos, tour plannings… Crowdhero is actively working on signing up more partnerships across creative genres and styles. So if you are running a community or a part of the field we are seeking for, from fashion, game designers, illustrators, photogs, writers, music producers, film makers… drop us a line at hello@crowdhero.co Stay tuned Telegram | Medium | Twitter | LinkedIn | Discord | Website |Facebook Buy our CRWD token here. Your first time purchase? See step by step how-to. More weekly updates are coming. Talk soon.

https://medium.com/@crowdhero/crowdhero-x-discovery-music-records-bring-out-the-best-of-asias-music-scene-57e5d36c51f

[]

2021-08-29 14:17:16.352000+00:00

['Nft', 'Crypto', 'Cryptocurrency']

Engineer’s Toy Box

I visited the Musée des Arts et Métiers when I returned to Paris in 2007 on a quest. Three years earlier, my son Rupert and I had discovered that there are 72 names displayed on the four sides of the Eiffel Tower. I recognized enough of them to guess that these were all scientists and engineers. Cauchy, Laplace, and Lagrange were mathematicians I had encountered in my engineering studies. Five more I recognized as physicists — Fresnel, Coulomb, Coriolis, Navier, and Foucault. Poisson had something to do with statistics, and Cuvier was a biologist. Why did Gustave Eiffel inscribe the names of these men on his tower? In 2004, it took me several months and a visit to the rare book room at the Carleton University library to identify them all. Today, of course, there is a Wikipedia page on the topic. Eiffel built his tower in 1889 to celebrate the centenary of the French Revolution. These men contributed to the advance of science and technology in France during that 100-year period. My quest to find out what motivated Eiffel to inscribed these names on his tower has taken me to the origins of the modern-day engineering profession. Through this quest I have discovered the story of “le Plan Mediterranean,” the French engineers’ campaign of peaceful conquest, and much more, which I share at Eiffel’s Paris — an Engineer’s Guide on Facebook and Medium.com. The 72 scientists and engineers named on the Eiffel Tower were leaders of a revolution that transformed Paris and created the modern world.

https://medium.com/eiffels-paris-an-engineers-guide/engineers-toy-box-62d9d52b9925

['William Nuttle']

2020-09-16 04:09:57.983000+00:00

['History Of Technology', 'Engineer', 'History Of Science', 'Engineering', 'Eiffel Tower']

How KeywordBin Gained 1100 Users in 7 days.

When KeywordBin started, they looked for traction, early users willing to test out their platform, provide some feedback, and hopefully upgrade to paid plans. Now it’s always easy to offer a free trial or 30-day access, but if no one cares or wants to use your product, then what’s the use. So how do you fix this problem and get users into your app and make them loyal customers? How to Get Your First 100 Users? The process is thought to be complicated and difficult; however, it’s fairly simple and can be broken down into these simple steps: Be sure your product solves a dire problem that users are looking for. Create a simple flow, core MVP, or product leading users to your solution. Find where your target audience hangs out online. This could be forums, Facebook groups, etc Create an irresistible offer, usually free access for 30 days in exchange for product feedback. Ask users who opt in to provide feedback in your private Facebook group. Offer those who participate in giving feedback an irresistible upgrade offer. Listen and implement feedback to retain and gain loyal brand ambassadors. These steps can be used for ANY business, not just SaaS or online products. The process above is identical if you have a Shopify store, software, ebook, SaaS, or even a service. These simple steps allow you to find the right audience and gain beta testers, users, additional feedback, and even create your loyal private community! But as we laid this out, it might sound super simple and easy to do; however, you realize how this process is riddled with complexity when you get to do it. Let’s break it down for you. Does Your Product Solve a problem? More times than not, people create elegant solutions to issues that don’t exist or are not large enough to be applicable. Usually, this is because founders are thinking too narrow and isolated, with limited domain knowledge or experience. Ask your self, does my solution: Save my customers time Save my customers cost Allow customers to solve their problem instantly Provide customers a way to jump the experience or domain knowledge gap they might have? Simplify operations, processes, or procedures. Apply to a large enough market that isn’t too broad to target? Provide a solution to a problem critical enough that customers will pay to have it solved today. If the answer is no to these, you might want to reevaluate the solution you are bringing to market. Not only will you have trouble finding traction and users, but you might also actually be wasting time, money, and resources. Want to learn more about how to do this the right way. We are sharing our framework that helps founders go from Idea to MVP. Sign up for the free email course to help you define your idea and get ready for onboarding users. How to Launch in a Saturated Market When KeywordBin was envisioned, many said that “it’s just another keyword tool” or “The market is too saturated, and you won’t get even 1o users”. So how do you launch in a saturated market? Well, it again comes down to the problem you are solving. For KeywordBin, the founder wanted to create a simplified keyword research experience that used suggestions directly from google based on users’ real live searches. While other tools were fixated on volume, KeywordBin would focus on search data suggestions provided by Google itself. What did this do differently? It gave users insights on what the next upcoming search term was as well as suggestions. To take this even further, KeywordBin was simplified to provide a single input keyword and return hundreds and sometimes even thousands of variations based on Google’s suggestions. Here is a small example below: Entering the keyword SaaS gives us 1276 suggestions generated by Google https://keywordbin.com keyword miner by keywordbin.com Now, this is what we call a unique approach to a long-existing problem users face. This also overlaps with the idea that we need to provide users with a simple defined core user flow and solution as founders. In this case, the simplicity is evident; enter a keyword and get hundreds of suggestions, organized in categories from questions, numbers, research, shopping, etc. In short, provide a unique approach to an existing solution and provide a simple UI/UX, in-fact so simple that maybe even a child could use it. Now, as your tool grows, you might feel the pains and KeywordBin has as well. As our products grow, we need to keep refining and providing better user experiences. How to Find Your First 100 Users Online. It’s easy to find where your target audience hangs out online, but it’s another thing to understand who your target audience is and where they are. Now data is key here, but what we are looking to do is create a filter, a means by which we will filter the data of millions of users to find our audience group. How you create this filter depends a lot on your goals and who you think your business should be targeting. I will use a simplified approach here, so we don’t go too deep into creating a customer persona. Here is a sample persona to give you an idea of how to think when creating these filters. customer persona example If you notice, this persona above highlights a few critical aspects. Job level Ability to make decisions Key demographic identifiers Challenges Solutions your product provides Once you have your customer persona, seriously hit up Facebook! Can I Find Beta Testers On Facebook? Absolutely! And in my opinion, there is no better place to find users. Facebook is riddled with hundreds of thousands, if not millions of groups catering to every niche you can think of. I don’t mean to say that you join these groups and spam your product. But enter the groups that are catered to your customer persona challenges. You find users who are dealing with the issues you are looking to solve, so connect with these users, start discussions, understand their problems, and offer your solution as a way for them to see if it meets their needs. Ideally, you would start this individually on a one-on-one basis, and going through 100–200 people does take time. Still, you make connections, build a customer network, and then ask the whole group to participate in your beta offer, you get tons of engagement. Here is an example below for KeywordBin where we had over 190 comments Here is an example of another offer. keywordbin offer This one has over 174 comments! Now we kept repeating this formula, and we had over 1100 users in a few days! We then proceeded to invite these users into our group to gain valuable feedback. Users began using the software and posting their feedback. At the same time, our team worked on fixing critical issues and creating a roadmap focused around user challenges and pain points other tools could not or were not addressing. The KeywordBin Community now has over 650+ members, and it’s continually growing! You can do this too for your startups all within a week or two! How Can I Convert Free Users to Paid Users? Converting free users to paid users is probably one of the most highly asked questions that I encounter when having discussions with startup founders. Think of your brand as an ad. What is your irresistible offer? I notice that many times founders provide offers but are they genuinely irresistible? 1.Treat your early adopters very well. These users are the ones that believed in you, your product and helped iron out the issues. You should add these users to an email list and tag them with VVIP, no, seriously. We ran an LTD for our product BacklinkSEO, and I wrote an excerpt which you can read on how to treat your customers. 2. Create trust by providing a solution Often, products don’t solve the problems users are facing, and while that user is still figuring out how to make this solution work for them. They get a pesky email asking them to upgrade. Now, this is because we, as founders, are not understanding our customer journey well enough. We have an automation setup that doesn’t work when needed and is based on time, not actions. So be sure to reach out to customers and find out if your solution is solving their problems and once you know it is, then and only then do you offer them an irresistible offer. 3. Create an offer users can’t refuse Creating an irresistible offer is probably easier said than done. But think about your costs, pricing, and what you can sustainably offer at a marginal profit. No, seriously, the goal here is to have these users become die-hard fans. Please give them a grandfathered price so low that it hurts them even to cancel. The offer should be so good they instead keep the plan than cancel it in fear of losing the fantastic deal they have. But do this strategically because once they are hooked, give them something more. Money! 4. Pay your users and pay them well! Wait. What? Pay your users? That’s right, make them your brand ambassadors give them a grandfathered affiliate rate of 30–40%, the highest in your industry. Ask them to write a blog about your business, possibly as a review, make a video, share your product with their clients, get a review on capterra. If you solve a pain point for them, they will bend over backward for you to help you! Where Are You In Your Journey? Be sure to share where you are on your journey, and feel free to reach out. I love hearing about founders taking ideas to the next level. If you think I can help you with your startup journey, don’t hesitate to let me know how! I hope this helped steer you, gave you some ideas and insights, and I hope you can replicate this 10–20x with your business!

https://medium.com/@abdulmukati/how-keywordbin-gained-1100-users-in-7-days-75d9437b43cf

['Abdul A Mukati']

2020-12-24 08:14:56.658000+00:00

['Growth', 'Case Study', 'SaaS']

2020. What a year.

2020. What a year. It was quite the year, for humans and robots alike. Over the course of 2020, the Kodiak Driver has seen a lot on the middle mile, from extreme weather and complicated construction to the occasional wannabe The Fast and the Furious stunt driver. To close out the year, we thought we’d share 10 tough scenarios the Kodiak Driver saw in 2020. 10. Aggressive driving Haven’t we all missed a turn? Before flooring it, remember you can always get on at the next entrance. 9. Construction zones Navigating construction is one of the toughest challenges for autonomous vehicles, as we explored in this post in August. Kodiak’s unique lightweight mapping solution allows our trucks to navigate ever-changing highways and the most complex construction. 8. Emergency vehicle on shoulder Moving over a lane for a vehicle on the shoulder is the safest thing to do. But it can be difficult to do safely in a crowded construction zone. Earlier this year we shared how we use simulation to train the Kodiak Driver using a vehicle on the shoulder as an example. Read about it here. 7. Bad weather Heavy rain challenges even the best drivers, human or robot. 6. A guy walks into… a lane A construction worker stepped in front of a Kodiak truck. No joke. This is a classic example of a case where our Safety Driver did the right thing by playing it safe and disengaging the vehicle. We can rely on simulation to test the Kodiak Driver’s capabilities in challenging scenarios like this one. 5. Forced merges Forced merges in heavy traffic are especially difficult for Class 8 trucks, which cannot speed up and slow down as quickly as passenger cars. 4. Driving without lane markings Self-driving vehicles use lane markings and other visual cues to place themselves in the world. But when those lane markings disappear, that doesn’t mean the Kodiak Driver can’t keep on truckin’. 3. Yet more aggressive driving We wouldn’t recommend cutting off a lane changing truck, but the Kodiak Driver handled it just fine. 2. House on a truck We passed a lot of houses in 2020, but this is the only house that passed us. 1. Too Fast, Too Furious And here it is, the craziest thing we saw all year: someone passed our truck on the shoulder, at night, going 93 mph. In this case, our Safety Driver followed protocol and disengaged the vehicle, but in re-simulation we saw the Kodiak Driver handle it just fine. 2020 has had more than its fair share of bumps in the road, but it was an incredible year of progress for Kodiak. We can’t wait to show how far we go in 2021! Happy holidays, and safe and sound journeys! Andreas Wendel, VP of Engineering

https://medium.com/kodiak-robotics/2020-what-a-year-8d6781101bfb

['Andreas Wendel']

2020-12-22 16:19:15.348000+00:00

['Autonomous Vehicles', 'Trucking', 'Self Driving Cars', 'Transportation', 'Self Driving Trucks']

Data science… without any data?!

Data science… without any data?! Why it’s important to hire data engineers early “What challenges are you tackling at the moment?” I asked. “Well,” the ex-academic said, “It looks like I’ve been hired as Chief Data Scientist… at a company that has no data.” “Human, the bowl is empty.” — Data Scientist. Image: SOURCE. I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. You’d think it would be obvious, but data science doesn’t make any sense without data. Alas, this is not an isolated incident. Data science doesn’t make any sense without data. So, let me go ahead and say what so many ambitious data scientists (and their would-be employers) really seem to need to hear. What is data engineering? If data science is the discipline of making data useful, then you can think of data engineering as the discipline of making data usable. Data engineers are the heroes who provide behind-the-scenes infrastructure support that makes machine logs and colossal data stores compatible with data science toolkits. If data science is the discipline of making data useful, then data engineering is the discipline of making data usable. Unlike data scientists, data engineers tend not to spend much time looking at data. Instead, they look at and work with the infrastructure that holds the data. Data scientists are the data-wranglers, while data engineers are the data-pipeline-wranglers. Data scientists are the data-wranglers, while data engineers are the data-pipeline-wranglers. What do data engineers do? Data engineering work comes in three main flavors: Enabling data storage (data warehouses) and delivery (data pipelines) at scale. Maintaining data flows that fuel enterprise operations. Supplying datasets to support data science. Data science is at the mercy of data engineering You can’t do data science if there’s no data. If you get hired to be head of data science in an organization where there’s no data and no data engineering, guess who’s going to be the data engineer…? You! Exactly. What’s so hard about data engineering? Grocery shopping is easy if you’re just cooking something for your own dinner, but large scale turns the trivial into the Herculean — how do you acquire, store, and process 20 tons of ice cream… without letting any of it melt? Similarly, “data engineering” is fairly easy when you’re downloading a little spreadsheet for your school project but dizzying when you’re handling data at petabyte scale. Scale makes it a sophisticated engineering discipline in its own right. Scale makes it a sophisticated engineering discipline in its own right. Unfortunately, knowing one of these disciplines in no way implies that you know anything about the other. Should you learn both disciplines? If you’ve just felt the urge to run off and study both disciplines, you might be a victim of the (stressful and self-defeating) belief that data professionals have to know the everything of data. The data universe is expanding rapidly — it’s time we started recognizing just how big this field is and that working in one part of it doesn’t automatically require us to be experts of all of it. I’d go so far as to say that it’s too big for even the most determined genius to swallow whole. Working in one part of the data universe doesn’t automatically require us to be experts of all of it. Instead of expecting data people to be able to do all of it, let’s start asking one another (and ourselves), “Which kind are you?” Let’s embrace working together instead of trying to go it alone. But isn’t this an incredible opportunity to learn? Maybe. It depends how much you love the discipline you already know. Data engineering and data science are different, so if you’re a data scientist who didn’t train for data engineering, you are going to have to start from scratch. Building your data engineering team could take years. This might be exactly the kind of fun you want — as long as you’re going in with open eyes. Building your data engineering team could take years. Sure, it’s nice to have an excuse to learn something new, but in all likelihood, your data science muscles will atrophy as a result. As an analogy, imagine you’re a translator who is fluent in Japanese and English. You’re offered a job called “translator” (so far, so good) but when you arrive at work, you discover that you were hired to translate from Mandarin to Swahili, neither of which you speak. It might be stimulating and rewarding to take the opportunity to become quadrilingual, but do be realistic about how efficiently you’ll be using your primary training (and how terrifying your first performance review may be). Who doesn’t love a good bad translation? Image: SOURCE. In other words, if a company doesn’t have any data or data engineers, then accepting a role as Chief Data Scientist means putting your data science career on hold for a few years in favor of a data engineering career — that you might not be qualified for — while you build a data engineering team. Eventually, you’ll gaze proudly at the team you’ve built and realize that it no longer makes sense for you to do the nitty-gritty yourself. By the time your team is ripe for those cool neural networks or fancy Bayesian inference that you did your PhD on, you have to sit back and watch someone else score the goal. Advice for data science leaders and those who love them Tip #1: Know what you’re getting into If you’re considering taking a job as a head of data science, your first question should always be, “Who is responsible for making sure my team has data?” If the answer is YOU, well, at least you’ll know what you’re signing up for. Before taking a data science job, always ask about the *who* of data engineering. Tip #2: Remember that you’re the customer Since data science is at the mercy of data, merely having data engineering colleagues might not be enough. You might face an uphill struggle if those colleagues fail to recognize you as a key customer for their work. It’s a bad sign if their attitude reminds you more of museum curators, preserving data for its own sake. Tip #3: See the bigger (organizational) picture While it’s true that you’re a key customer for data engineering, you’re probably not the only customer. Modern businesses use data to fuel operations, often in ways that can hum along nicely enough without your interference. When your contribution to the business is a nice-to-have (and not a matter of your company’s survival), it’s unwise to behave as if the world revolves around you and your team. A healthy balance is healthy. Tip #4: Insist on accountability Position yourself to have some influence over data engineering decisions. Before signing up for your new gig, consider negotiating for ways to hold your data engineering colleagues accountable for collaborating with you. If there are no repercussions to shutting you out, your organization is unlikely to thrive. Thanks for reading! Liked the author? If you’re keen to read more of my writing, most of the links in this article take you to my other musings. Can’t choose? Try this one:

https://towardsdatascience.com/data-science-without-any-data-6c1ae9509d92

['Cassie Kozyrkov']

2020-11-13 14:56:17.278000+00:00

['Data Science', 'Technology', 'Data Engineering', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Business']

Relationships validated between population health chronic indicators

Relationships validated between population health chronic indicators The ties among diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease Photo by v2osk on Unsplash In the last story, we started looking into a 15 year chronic disease dataset from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. The beginnings of the exploratory data analysis started with understanding the columns and rows of data and what was relevant for further analysis. In this post, we are going to dig deeper to understand these 400K rows and 17 categories of topics, which requires a bit of data wrangling of the dataframe into a format for pivot table summary and visualization. After looking at the previous df_new.head(), I don’t think we will use the following columns, which results in a smaller set of 15 columns: df_new = df_new.drop(columns=['YearEnd','LocationDesc','DataSource','DataValue','DataValueFootnoteSymbol','DatavalueFootnote','LowConfidenceLimit','HighConfidenceLimit','GeoLocation']) <class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'> RangeIndex: 403984 entries, 0 to 403983 Data columns (total 15 columns): YearStart 403984 non-null int64 LocationAbbr 403984 non-null object Topic 403984 non-null object Question 403984 non-null object DataValueUnit 374119 non-null object DataValueType 403984 non-null object DataValueAlt 273666 non-null float64 StratificationCategory1 403984 non-null object Stratification1 403984 non-null object LocationID 403984 non-null int64 TopicID 403984 non-null object QuestionID 403984 non-null object DataValueTypeID 403984 non-null object StratificationCategoryID1 403984 non-null object StratificationID1 403984 non-null object dtypes: float64(1), int64(2), object(12) Table 1: Summarizing by Topic, Question, and Value Using a pivot table (much like Excel), let’s summarize each Question and its related values. To inform each of the questions and values, we’ll create multiple indexes from the category of each question (Topic), the QuestionID, Question, the unit of the data (DataValueUnit), and the type of the data relevant to the stratifications later (DataValueType). Pandas Pivot_table requires numeric values, and defaults to averages (numpy.mean). Further, I’ve dropped columns LocationID and YearStart since I won’t be using these later, and rounded to two decimals for readability: df_QD = df_new.pivot_table(index=['Topic','QuestionID','Question','DataValueUnit','DataValueType'],columns=None,dropna=True) df_QD.drop(columns=['LocationID','YearStart']).round(2).head(25) Table 1. Pivot Table showing the Question and Values Table 2: Using Groupby with Stratification, Question, and Value Alternative to the pivot_table, I can create a similar summary table using groupby(). I want to show a bit more information on the stratification in the resulting dataframe. df_unittype_table1 = df_new.groupby(['Topic','QuestionID','Question','StratificationID1','Stratification1','DataValueUnit','DataValueType']).mean().round(2) df_unittype_table1.drop(columns=['YearStart','LocationID']) Table 2. Using groupby() to summarize stratification Table 3: Summarizing by Question and Location An interesting approach would showing the data by each state (LocationAbbr) with the data values. The following pivot table includes additional indexes that provide context to the numbers such as the unit and type. df_new_qloc = df_new.pivot_table(values='DataValueAlt',index=['Topic','QuestionID','Question','DataValueUnit','DataValueType'], columns='LocationAbbr',aggfunc='mean',dropna=True).round(2) Table 3. Pivot Table of Question and Location Visualizing Correlation Among All Indicators Now we’ve seen the tables present the data values by question, by stratification, and by location. That’s still a lot of information! Let’s understand what the question indicators say about itself. What are the relationships between each pair of question indicators? This is where visualization of the data will paint a picture to understand the overall relationships. Originally, I started out using the pivot_table from Table 3 but the axis labels were too long and difficult to read. Backing up slightly, we’re going to create a different pivot_table (df_new_qloc2) based on the new the column QuestionAbbr to take the first 37 characters of Question: df_new['QuestionAbbr'] = df_new['Question'].str[:37] df_new_qloc2 = df_new.pivot_table(values='DataValueAlt',index=['Topic','QuestionID','QuestionAbbr'], columns='LocationAbbr',aggfunc='mean',dropna=True).round(2) By transposing df_new_qloc2 pivot table, we’re ready to apply the correlation method .corr() and visualize the data. Using the code from the seaborn documentation, we can plot a correlation matrix heatmap. This visualizes each pair of indicators to understand where the positive correlation pairs reside. Since a correlation matrix yields duplicate views above and below the diagonal, we’ll mask the upper half of the heatmap for simplicity by creating an array of zeros using np.zeros_like() and returning the indices of the region above the diagonal using triu_indices_from(). Using matplotlib, we set a large figure size to allow zooming in on the jupyter notebook. The cmap sets the colormap for the figure (more options here). Lastly, sns.heatmap() renders the heatmap with the mask.

https://towardsdatascience.com/relationships-validated-between-population-health-chronic-indicators-b69e7a37369a

['Daniel Wu']

2019-05-13 01:54:06.570000+00:00

['Digital Health', 'Public Health', 'Data Science', 'In Depth Analysis', 'Python']

Naked Yoga

I was recently invited to a naked yoga class by a friend. I’ll be honest, I don’t love my body, so the prospect of doing naked yoga was daunting. So of course, I said yes. How could I not when at the simple thought of it, my pulse quickened? It made me feel uncomfortable, and thanks to my philosophy of ‘no fear,’ I had no choice. I’m not going to lie. It was weird at first being naked in front of my computer (Did I mention it was a video-virtual class? Yes, it was!). I only knew one the other people in the class. And I’m not sure if it’s worse that the class was filled with random people I never met or not. the class went well I got a nice workout, I got some stretching done, and at the end I was glad it was over. I thanked the instructor, and I signed off. It was later on that night that I realized I felt a little raw. Upon further reflection, I think part of my hesitation to do the naked yoga was more due to some personal history, than actually about being naked. I used to date a woman who was a yogi. I attended a couple of her classes when we were dating, but most of the yoga I did with her was in other teachers’ classes. I realize that I had done so much yoga with her, that the idea of going to yoga class brought up memories of her. After I realized this I give it some thought, and I thought about my ex. I’m actually looking forward to the next naked yoga class, and I hope that when I do it I won’t feel as uncomfortable as I did the last time. I think it’s fine to feel uncomfortable sometimes, as long as I know why am feeling uncomfortable. I certainly miss my ex-girlfriend and the joy that we shared when we were living together and dating, but instead of not wanting to do yoga because it reminded me of her, I’m going to try to enjoy yoga and enjoy that it reminds me of her. I think in general, I miss my ex partners and the things we used to do together. I’m certainly happier now than I’ve ever been in my life with my current partners, but that doesn’t mean that I need to turn off my emotions regarding my ex partners. I imagine that my exes miss certain parts of the relationship they shared with me as well, and I hope that they too are happier in their new lives without me. Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever hear from them again, and most the time I decide that I probably won’t. I’m okay with that, but I’ll always remember them when I do yoga, or take a rowboat onto a lake, or set up a tent in the living room.

https://medium.com/@mattorocks/naked-yoga-85a43484dfe7

[]

2020-12-16 17:36:29.156000+00:00

['Memories', 'Breakups', 'Yoga', 'Relationships']

Floating Pond Fountain — How To Choose The Right One

Homeowners can add a valuable “element” to their outdoor landscape. Are you one of those homeowners who are always ecstatic and open to ideas of decorating their homes and properties? This piece could belong to your interests! Read to know more. Floating Pond Fountain A tremendous and heartfelt pressure amounts to have a costly addition for home improvement, but at the same time, the budget relents. Have you been there for most of the time? To be honest, a Floating Pond Fountain would be an excellent investment if you can pull it off. Let’s say you can, then what? How to choose the right one? We’re here to help you with that in the following. Fountain of the right size People are under the impression that a pond fountain does what it does in all cases — aerate the pond. However, that’s not true. It truly depends on the size of the pond and therefore, would require a bottom aeration unit in bigger ponds. Economical options We raised the idea of Floating Pond Fountains because they are cheaper, efficient, and versatile. You can use the floating pond fountain for aerating different areas and it requires minimum efforts for installing the same. It’s fair enough to say that it is an economical option as compared to the fixed ones. Package choices We are delighted to say that you can order packages of floating pond fountains and get various things in the same kit. From LED lights to spray patterns, you can pick them all in a complete package and not bother buying individual units.

https://medium.com/@fountains2go/floating-pond-fountain-how-to-choose-the-right-one-4ffe13c8ff7a

[]

2019-03-18 09:28:34.354000+00:00

['Surface Aerators', 'Decorating', 'Fountain', 'Home', 'Home Improvement']

A beginner’s guide to networking in Docker

Bridge network The network with the name bridge is the default network a container is attached to by default. It is created from the bridge driver. A driver is like a template for the network with specific behavior and capability. A bridge driver creates an isolated pool of private IP addresses (a private subnet) on the host which usually starts with an IP address 172.X.X.X . We can inspect a network using $ docker inspect or more preferably $ docker network inspect <network> command. Let’s see the configuration of the network bridge network. $ docker network inspect The $ docker network inspect bridge command displays the configuration of the network with the name bridge . It shows that the name of the network is bridge ( Name field), it was created from the bridge driver ( Driver field) and its ID is 9a923c76f347 ( Id field). Let’s focus our attention on the IPAM (IP Address Management) section of the JSON above. It displays the Subnet and Gateway IP addresses. The Subnet field specifies the pool of IP addresses which in this case will start from 172.17.X.X except for the 172.17.0.1 which is the default gateway. Any containers that will be attached to this network will receive an IP address from this pool and will use the 172.17.0.1 address as a default gateway. 💡 The reason containers attached to this network will gain an IP address that starts from 172.17.X.X is that the subnet mask in CIDR notation is 16 represented by 172.17.0.0/16 value. This means, the first 16 bits of 172.17.0.0 are fixed while other 16 bits will be used for the IP pool of the subnet. To know more about subnetting, watch this video. If we take a look at the Containers property, it seems empty. That’s because we do not have a running container attached to this network. As we learned, when we create a container, the container will use this network by default. So let’s create a container from the thatisuday/express-example image. We will run this container in a non-detached mode and override the default node server.js command (defined by CMD instruction of the Dockerfile) with sh command to start a shell. $ docker run -it --init thatisuday/express-example sh $ docker run When we run the container, it will drop us into a shell of the container where we can access various Linux commands. The $ hostname -i displays the IP address of the machine (container) which is 172.17.0.2 . We can look at other network configurations of the container using $ ifconfig command. From the eth0 network interface of the container, we can also read the IP address as well as the subnet mask. The 255.255.0.0 IP address as a subnet mask translates to /16 CIDR notation. Therefore, we can confirm that the container is using an IP address from the 172.17.0.2/16 pool which belongs to the network with the name bridge . Let’s inspect the running container using the $ docker inspect or more preferably the $ docker container inspect <container> command to see the network configuration details of the container. We can list the running containers using $ docker ps command and our running containers ID is c81cc3b5f8aa . Then using $ docker container inspect command, we can see the .NetworkSettings value. Take a good look at Networks property. Not only it displays the IPAddress but also the network it is attached to which is bridge in this case with ID 9a923c76f347 . Now that we have a running container attached to the bridge network, we should be able to see the container in the Containers field of the JSON returned by the $ docker network inspect command. $ docker network inspect Once we exit from the container, it will no longer be attached to the network and Container field will be empty again. Let’s run another container but this time, we will manually attach it to a network. So let’s create a bridge network (using the bridge driver). To create a network we use the $ docker network create command. The --driver or -d flag sets the driver to be used which defaults to bridge if not provided. We can also control the subnet (IP pool) using the --subnet else Docker will configure it automatically. $ docker network create -d bridge mybridge $ docker network create In the example above, we have a network with the name mybridge from the bridge driver. Upon inspection, we can see that the subnet of this network is 172.19.0.0/16 which means any container that is attached to this network will get an IP address that starts with 172.19.X.X . Now let’s create another container from the thatisuday/express-example image but this time, let’s specify a network manually using the --network <network> or --net <network> flag with the $ docker run . $ docker run In the example above, we have asked Docker daemon to attach mybridge network to the container we are creating hence Docker has given the 172.19.0.2 IP address to the container from the mybridge IP pool. You can manually connect a container to a network using the $ docker network connect <network> <container> command. A container can join multiple networks and thus have multiple public IP addresses each per network. This way, a container can talk to multiple containers on different networks, thus consuming multiple services. Similarly, you can use the disconnect subcommand to do the opposite. You can remove user-defined networks using the $ docker network rm <network> command as long as no running containers are attached to the network. Benefits So what are the benefits of having a bridge network? A bridge network creates a private local network that a container can join and it is isolated from the containers connected to another bridge network. A container in the bridge network is like an isolated machine with its own public IP address that can be used by other containers in the same network and the host for communication. All ports of the container remain hidden from the host and the host would need to use http://<container-ip>:<port> URL for HTTP communication. However, the host can use the --publish or -p flag to bind a local port with a port of the container to make things simple. 💡 I am using Docker on macOS which runs the Docker engine inside a virtual machine. This does make things a little complicated but I have explained in this article how to gain access to the shell of this virtual machine. So whenever I mean host, I mean this virtual machine. (Docker Container) Let’s run the node server.js command inside the container we have started previously to start an HTTP server on port 8000 . Since the IP address this container is 172.19.0.2 , we should be able to access this server from the host using http://172.19.0.2:8080 URL. (Docker Host) As you can see, we got the response back from the HTTP server of the container with IP address 172.19.0.2 running on port 8000 . However, we can’t use the http://127.0.0.1:8000 or http://localhost:8000 URL since we haven’t mapped the local port of the host to the port 8000 of the container. However, if we use the -p 8000:8000 flag in the $ docker run command, we should be able to do that. (Docker Host) As we discussed, a container in a bridge network can’t communicate with a container from another bridge network. To be able to communicate, they should be on the same network. We can use $ docker network connect command to connect a running container with a network. In the example above, the first container was able to download the image from http://172.19.0.2:8080 URL because it is on the same network (mybridge) as the container serving the HTTP endpoint. However, the second container can’t use this endpoint since it’s on the default network (bridge). A bridge network constructs its own DNS (domain name system). The hostname of each container is mapped to its IP address by default hence you can use http://<hostname>:<port> to communicate with containers in the same bridge network. You can also use the --net-alias=<alias> flag with $ docker run command to add an entry in DNS to resolve the IP address of a container such that http://<alias>:<port> would work. (Docker Container One) In the example above, we have created a container that uses mybridge network and we have set host.one network alias to it. Let’s create another container (with or without an alias) and access the service of the first container using various available options. (Docker Container Two) As you can see from the results above, you can use either the IP address, hostname, or a network alias to access the containers attached to the same bridge network. This way, you don’t have to rely on the IP address or hostname of the container and you can freely use the network alias.

https://itnext.io/a-beginners-guide-to-networking-in-docker-ca5b822fb935

['Uday Hiwarale']

2020-12-17 19:08:46.971000+00:00

['Containers', 'Docker Networking', 'Docker', 'Programming', 'Networking']

A Peek into the Backend Test Automation @ Dream11

The Dream11 user experience is built on top of a micro service architecture which serves a unique and personalised experience for all 100M+ users. Our team extensively uses a Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) approach and BDD-based test framework for automating backend micro services. Backend is a piece of software that runs on remote machines called servers. It can be accessed through the internet/VPC via API. The backend is not meant to be used by humans directly, but rather by applications (frontend apps). Its purpose is to perform remote tasks which cannot be performed by the frontend apps. Backend Test Automation is a testing method that checks the backend of a software or web application. Since repeating the manual tests for the backend is a cumbersome process, our team has written additional code to reduce manual intervention and chances of human error. All the backend actions are done through different micro services. For instance, when a user logs in to the app, they interact with the user micro service and similarly there is a deposit micro service to take care of users depositing cash. These micro services are tested end-to-end before every release. Each micro service has its own independent releases. Owing to this, incorporating an integration test suite became vital and depending on the level of success, it is further shipped to production. We came across the following problem statements based on our previous experiences of introducing test automation at Dream11 and existing test frameworks: The framework should be able to run tests across multiple environments: At Dream11, we have multiple teams which provision multiple environments in terms of Feature, Integration and Load Testing, where heterogeneous workloads get provisioned from containers to VMs (EC2s). This provides flexibility for our product teams to iteratively build features with all the other dependent services onboarded and move forward with release cycles to ensure that all environments are functional. As they get provisioned through automation, it was difficult to validate each and every environment and identify functional gaps around them. It was a bare necessity that the automation tests should run across environments based on user input. This would mean endpoints for micro services or edge layers should be generated at run-time and not hard-coded in the system. Minimal or no data dependencies: Having the tests rely on certain data on the environment was not preferable. Data dependency would mean manual intervention for data creation before we run automation, which would defy the whole purpose of automation. Ease of maintenance and reusability: It should be convenient for any new member to write tests and contribute without any difficulty. The automation should be easy to maintain and debug and in addition, the functions, methods, or classes should be reusable Easy Onboarding: For members not familiar with BDD, it should be easy for them to adopt it. Easy for new members on the team to understand and get acquainted with the framework and start contributing almost immediately. Ease of adding new test cases: For every modification or new addition, there should not be the need to do a lot of rework. It should be a straight-forward method for even manual QA engineers to add test cases to the framework. The tests are primarily based on three criteria: context (a prerequisite given, like certain data-based values, event (API call) and possible outcomes. Solution: After a few incremental experiments, we finally built a framework that checked all boxes. The implementation used Java, TestNG, Cucumber along with a few additional custom utilities. An Android or an iOS app interacts with a backend service over http with JSON payload. For instance, on logging in, one might receive three values: Name, Age and Balance. Consider the following JSON response: When we test backend services, we test the responses that it returns, based on schemas and certain guidelines (API contracts). Schema for this JSON would look like: Understanding the JSON schema: The ‘ required’ attribute indicates the properties/objects/arrays that are a must have in the response. attribute indicates the properties/objects/arrays that are a must have in the response. The ‘ additional properties’ attribute tells us if additional keys/objects are acceptable. If this attribute is set to ‘ false’ , the schema check will not allow any additional keys in the response. attribute tells us if additional keys/objects are acceptable. If this attribute is set to ‘ , the schema check will not allow any additional keys in the response. The ‘type’ attribute indicates the data type of the key in JSON. In the example above, ‘Name’ is declared as “string”, ‘Age’ as “integer” and ‘Balance’ as “number”. This means that if the response is: { "Name": 123, "Age": 28.1, "Balance": "144.25"} all schema checks will fail since the name in response is not a string, age is not an integer and balance is a string. Apart from schema/contract checks, we also have a lot of functional and database level validations as a part of the test suites. To understand how this is orchestrated in our system, from wire-framing a new feature/enhancement to getting the tests to make it a part of regression suite, we have taken up the following process: If the API signature is unknown, a pending exception will be triggered. Thus, whenever a test is run, there will be a pending result as there is not adequate information to fill the criteria. But they can still prepare the basic framework of the test. Since there is a large influx of interaction with the backend, Test NG runner runs the tests in parallel for maximum output. While the test is running, it keeps shipping logs which the developer can refer to in case the test fails. These are auxiliary elements which can be used to deep dive into the issues. When the test is running, all data is recorded. Once the test run is complete, there will be 3 reports; in Jenkins, on slack and one on a dash-boarding tool called Grafana. Jenkins is where the tests run, so by default, it gets added there. Slack is to ensure that whoever the specific stakeholder is, they do not have to go back to Jenkins to know the details. They can simply get an alert on slack with the link to the test results. Grafana is where the trends are shown. These three sources can be used to analyse the results. If all test cases pass, then the feature is ready to be shipped and is taken live. If there is one aspect of the test that is failing, then the developer has to identify a fix, deploy it and run that Jenkins build again. Jenkins pipeline job used for test automation uses groovy script with multiple stages. Each stage in the pipeline script is used for performing certain tasks which is required pre/post/during test execution. The steps involved in triggering Jenkins Build eventually lead to test run management. The machine on which the test runs has a log archival logic. So, it will archive logs for, say, n-20 runs. Supposedly, if the 1000th test is running, then it will archive everything that is beyond 980 How does a developer debug a failing test? A failing test can be debugged using one of the 2 approaches: Viewing cucumber reports in Jenkins: Reports are embedded within each Jenkins job with details of steps that failed along with API details (endpoints, params, body, headers, etc) Viewing real time logs in Grafana using Loki: Logs can be accessed within Grafana using Loki. The logs provide details like: Curl request for failing tests Response received for failing steps Any additional info, debug, and error level logs in the test scripts. Test Results: Test results are attached within Jenkins job for each complete run for all behaviours using default cucumber reports. Below are a few samples: The output section within each behaviour can be expanded to view details for requests and responses. Trends for test runs are logged in InfluxDB for each test run and visualised using dashboards on Grafana. Furthermore, various rule-based alerts are configured using Grafana that publish test results and trends on Slack. Wrapping it up: It takes a great deal of effort and mechanism to put everything in place for users to seamlessly navigate the Dream11 application with smooth functioning backend automation. The failure and success of tests restores our faith in a tactful solution which caters to the customers and developers alike. The framework has helped the team to overcome all the challenges pertaining to environments and test data dependency. It has also enabled the teams to test the system efficiently and provide faster release sign offs with more confidence. If you are interested in solving complex problems, we are looking to hire talented SDET & Performance Engineers! Apply Now. Authored by : SDET team @ Dream11

https://blog.dream11engineering.com/a-peek-into-the-backend-test-automation-dream11-fef17d1c3448

[]

2021-07-06 05:19:55.219000+00:00

['Automation Testing', 'Dream11', 'Sdet']

Full Digital Promoting Methods for Leads Era

Electronic marketing providers are the most recent way of promoting. They offer a 360-degree perspective of your promoting sphere and will let you to make certain that you arrive at your targets. Digital Internet marketing is a difficult space, in which you need to take into account lots of components in order to realize success. This is exactly why it is important to rent an organization which has knowledge During this discipline and will let you plan your technique for lead generation. Considered one of An important components of electronic internet marketing is direct technology, Which explains why it demands mindful arranging and implementation. How to develop Tactics for Leads Era Electronic internet marketing companies absolutely are a style of assistance that usually provides a collection of digital promoting options, for example e mail advertising and marketing, social networking advertising and marketing, fork out-for every-click on advertising and marketing, and search engine optimization. An effective approach for direct technology is one which offers an ROI on the customer as well as company. The supplier need to manage to receive a return on their own investment decision by receiving the sought after level of gross sales or prospects from your consumer. The consumer requirements in order to get ample facts on which they are able to base their campaign conclusion-generating procedure. Recognize your prospects In the present electronic world, prospects are no longer content with a a single-way discussion. They wish to be Energetic individuals in the way your organization operates. To be able to fulfill their anticipations, you’ll want to determine your prospects and have an understanding of what they need from your business. The first step is understanding who your prospects are and their requires. Following that, make a dialogue with them by supplying them with what they need and wish from your company. For those who do this, they’re going to probable become a content purchaser who’ll go on to make use of your providers for some time simply because now they experience like Portion of the crew. Make a decision your price range Amongst the most important points to take into consideration When picking a firm on your marketing requires is just how much that you are willing to shell out. Advertising and marketing expert services can array anywhere from $25 for each hour for digital marketing providers to A great deal greater than that? You’ll find a few primary elements that have an affect on cost: time used on specified duties; what is going to be sent; and the amount of belongings the corporate has at its disposal. When it comes all the way down to it, you ought to compare apples with apples when evaluating what is going to be delivered and what number of belongings are used by distinct corporations as a way to get a real comparison of what can be done for your personal finances. Use ideal System As a company proprietor, you should constantly select the appropriate platform for lead generation. The digital advertising and marketing solutions that you end up picking to implement should be a perfect fit for your company and your requirements. You could make qualified prospects from social networking, e-mail advertising, search engine optimization, and all kinds of other sources. Just about every of such channels has pros and cons that you need to concentrate on before making any choices. 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Without the need of pinpointing your audience and concentrating on them, You can not promote your products and services effectively. The initial step to resolving this problem is being aware of who your client is. There are actually three differing kinds of folks that you could possibly need to promote to: Prepare your approach The very first thing you have to do is to determine what your promoting objectives are. Then You need to build a technique for achieving these aims. The advertising and marketing system ought to be perfectly-described and centered on the demands of the company. It needs to be feasible, achievable, and sustainable for long run improvement. Techniques must have a transparent concentrate on ROI, KPIs, and conversion premiums. For instance, putting together a Fb site with the target of rising Web-site website traffic over the following yr is just not sufficient if you do not know how it’ll transpire or if It can be realistic. A electronic advertising and marketing providers corporation will help you with this method by supplying superior-high quality electronic marketing options with stage-by-step Recommendations for execution at fair prices. Boost your advancement Electronic internet marketing products and services possess the possible that will help you mature your enterprise. Electronic promoting solutions are already in need in recent times with a big rise in usage and revenue. This has become a result of The point that individuals are more and more turning to digital channels for browsing, banking, and various expert services. It is also due to the increased Level of competition from traditional media retailers including Television set, print publications, and radio. This really is why it is vital for businesses to take a position in electronic internet marketing companies from a qualified organization like ours. We will Focus on tactics and campaigns that can assist you attain new audiences and attain more sales sales opportunities.

https://medium.com/@kiryatech/full-digital-promoting-methods-for-leads-era-b9eb486aee57

[]

2021-12-20 12:09:27.606000+00:00

['Facebook Marketing']

The Orbs PoS Universe Archetypes — High Level Introduction

The ideas in this post are simplified to make the model easier to understand. The following posts on the topic go into the specifics in a more precise and accurate way. Validators Validators play an essential role in the Orbs network. They operate the Orbs nodes, run the consensus algorithm, sign blocks and approve transactions for the decentralized apps. Validators should also provide assurances that they’re good actors and indeed follow the protocol. What skills are needed for being a good validator? Operating a node in a high throughput network like Orbs requires technical proficiency. The node should have high availability, it has to be fast, it has to be kept secure and updated. Running a node is a full-time profession. We want validators who are committed to this task and will develop the expertise needed for performing it well. Operating a node in a high throughput network like Orbs requires technical proficiency. The node should have high availability, it has to be fast, it has to be kept secure and updated. Running a node is a full-time profession. We want validators who are committed to this task and will develop the expertise needed for performing it well. What’s the incentive for being a validator? Validators are compensated for their service to the network since they do the heavy lifting of running the protocol and provide assurances for honesty. Part of the payment comes from fees, paid by apps for running their virtual chains. Another part comes from rewards given from the token reserve whose purpose is attracting quality validators in the early bootstrap years of the network. Validators are compensated for their service to the network since they do the heavy lifting of running the protocol and provide assurances for honesty. Part of the payment comes from fees, paid by apps for running their virtual chains. Another part comes from rewards given from the token reserve whose purpose is attracting quality validators in the early bootstrap years of the network. How many validators are needed? The network requires between several dozens to several hundreds of validators. The issue here is how to know whether a validator is good. Validators can abuse their position and cause damage to the network. One of the goals of the proof-of-stake model is making sure the best validators are selected. This voting process is based on stake because almost every other method is susceptible to manipulation. Optimizing the voting process If stake in the network is used for voting and electing validators, we can identify two main goals for optimizing this process: Have as much stake as possible participate. Electing validators is an important task. Since proof-of-stake models assume that the majority of stake in the network is honest, the more stake we get to participate, the harder it will be to manipulate the results and compromise the network. Encourage educated votes and proper due diligence. If we could get all stake to participate but every voter would just choose a result randomly, would this benefit the network? Of course not. Votes are only meaningful if the voter has taken the time to make an educated selection. It appears that these two goals are somewhat conflicting. Making an educated selection requires effort. The more effort we expect, the less participants we’ll find willing to make it. Pushing to increase the number of participants will naturally reduce the overall quality of participation. One of the interesting things the model tries to do is solve this conflict. Guardians If we want to increase the quality of votes, let’s try to characterize the ideal voter. We’ll call this voter a guardian because effort on their behalf — finding the best validators or rooting out problematic ones — is what’s essentially guarding the network and keeping it safe and secure. What skills are needed for being a good guardian? A good guardian can perform meaningful due diligence on a validator. This may require some technical proficiency like running an audit node to check who’s following the protocol or measure a node’s uptime. This may also require checking for reputation and trust by looking up company records for example. Due diligence has to be done continuously because voting is a frequent process. An elected validator that fails to perform must be taken out quickly. In addition, guardians are community leaders among stakeholders so ability to educate other stakeholders and increase overall participation is a valuable skill as well. A good guardian can perform meaningful due diligence on a validator. This may require some technical proficiency like running an audit node to check who’s following the protocol or measure a node’s uptime. This may also require checking for reputation and trust by looking up company records for example. Due diligence has to be done continuously because voting is a frequent process. An elected validator that fails to perform must be taken out quickly. In addition, guardians are community leaders among stakeholders so ability to educate other stakeholders and increase overall participation is a valuable skill as well. What’s the incentive for being a guardian? Guardians are expected to remain on guard and vote frequently. They are compensated for this service with token rewards from the reserve. Beyond this hard incentive, as leaders among stakeholders, guardians often hold significant stake providing a soft incentive for the network’s well being. Guardians are expected to remain on guard and vote frequently. They are compensated for this service with token rewards from the reserve. Beyond this hard incentive, as leaders among stakeholders, guardians often hold significant stake providing a soft incentive for the network’s well being. How many guardians are needed? The more guardians active in the network the better, but remember that we want them to be experts. Due to the amount of effort involved, it is reasonable to expect that at least in the early days of the network not many stakeholders will be committed enough to perform the task consistently. Creating experts is no easy task. Continuous monitoring and due diligence is a lot to expect from a random stakeholder. Statistics show that engagement starts low. What can we do if we want the majority of stake to participate? Delegators Delegators represent the silent majority, those on the opposite side of the engagement spectrum. To attract them to participate, we must reduce product friction to the absolute minimum and lower our requirements from them. Instead of frequent voting, we expect delegators the minimum of a single action — choosing a guardian to vote on their behalf. What skills are needed for being a good delegator? No special skills, anyone can do it. Delegators who want to do more will become guardians and will actively participate in the frequent voting. But delegators unwilling to do more can still participate. Delegation is a very simple and frictionless process, no special tools required. If you can operate a standard Ethereum wallet and use ERC20 tokens, you will be able to delegate. No special skills, anyone can do it. Delegators who want to do more will become guardians and will actively participate in the frequent voting. But delegators unwilling to do more can still participate. Delegation is a very simple and frictionless process, no special tools required. If you can operate a standard Ethereum wallet and use ERC20 tokens, you will be able to delegate. What’s the incentive for being a delegator? Every participation provides value to the network and no matter how small, still requires some effort. Therefore, delegators who go to the trouble of selecting a guardian will be given token rewards from the reserve. This reward is given only if their guardian actually votes on their behalf. This will encourage delegators to replace guardians which become inactive. The reward for delegators will naturally be lower than the reward for guardians in order to encourage the maximum level of participation. Every participation provides value to the network and no matter how small, still requires some effort. Therefore, delegators who go to the trouble of selecting a guardian will be given token rewards from the reserve. This reward is given only if their guardian actually votes on their behalf. This will encourage delegators to replace guardians which become inactive. The reward for delegators will naturally be lower than the reward for guardians in order to encourage the maximum level of participation. How many delegators are needed? As many as possible. If a stakeholder has a choice between not participating at all or becoming a delegator, we want them to become a delegator. How everything fits together Guardians are the representatives of stake. Every guardian must be active and is backed by delegators who chose them to vote on their behalf. Guardians vote using the stake they represent to choose the best validators. Validators do the heavy lifting of operating the network. In summary, delegators choose guardians, guardians choose validators. Parallels from a familiar world There’s not much new under the sun. Proof-of-stake is a form of governance. We can draw many parallels between it and delegative representative democracy, a system that has evolved for two millennia. Active participation in government is reserved for professionals, as it requires commitment and dedication. These professional politicians vote frequently on all matters of state and must be properly educated for the task. They are similar to guardians. They are chosen by the general public in infrequent low friction elections in attempt to drive participation by the general public to the maximum. The general public in this regard is similar to delegators. Jump into the Orbs Universe To get the full details about how the Orbs Universe PoS model works, jump on to the documentation.

https://medium.com/orbs-network/the-orbs-pos-universe-archetypes-high-level-introduction-6124d60da41

['Tal Kol']

2019-04-01 13:39:55.345000+00:00

['Development', 'Identity', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Proof Of Stake']

Python Speed Comparison: Square Root of the Sum of Squares?

On many occasions, an equation like this needs to be solved in your python code. There are many ways to go about it, and naturally some will be better than others, and of course it depends on the data you are working with. Let’s assume the typical case, where we have a 1D list of length n , and we need to sum the squares of each element in the list, then square root: In the code above, we defined a function rss() that takes a single list as it’s argument and outputs the square root of the sum of squares. Using a python decorator, @timer , we can time the execution of this function. I performed 1000 tests on lists containing 10,000 random floats in the range 0 -> 1 . We can see from the output at the bottom that on my pc the average time was just over 4 milliseconds. Not great, but at least the function itself uses only default python data types, and the sqrt function is from the built-in math library. Alternatively, you can do a very similar calculation using numpy functions: Based on this test, using a chain of numpy functions to do the work gives you a >5x speed increase. There is another function buried inside numpy.linalg that can provide yet more speed boosts; np.linalg.norm (https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.linalg.norm.html) This is almost 1.4x faster than the previous method, and 7.4x faster than the original method!

https://medium.com/@plankjames/python-speed-comparison-square-root-of-the-sum-of-squares-c187d78cd598

['James Plank']

2020-10-13 10:06:26.467000+00:00

['Python', 'Numpy', 'Linear Algebra']

How to Improve Your Postpartum Anxiety with an App. Today.

Postpartum Anxiety What I didn’t know at the time was there is a completely different set of screening questions - with completely different symptoms - for postpartum anxiety (PPA) vs. postpartum depression. Symptoms like racing thoughts, irrational fear of harm coming to your child — with kitchen knives (I had that one!), constant worrying, OCD tendencies, feeling restless, trouble sleeping and eating. The kind of thoughts you don’t want to admit to yourself — let alone another human. And, after taking to google, I discovered I had all twelve of those PPA symptoms. And that 10% of postpartum women experience anxiety. That finally explained why all I could think about, all day long, was, “When was my daughter going to breastfeed next?” and “When did that mean she would nap?” and “What time would I finally get to sleep?” It was the most debilitating and annoying tape that played in my head. All. Day. Long. In fact, I was so incapacitated, not having a history of anxiety or depression, I hired another doula to teach me how to get out of the house with my baby. Sounds like a first world problem, I know. But, without her help, I might not be here to share this story with you. She came every morning for a week and we went on small outings — to Target, the park, on a hike and, for my last day, on a boat ride in the marina. That felt like mommy graduation. You see, I did not have a village where I live. You know, the village that it takes to raise a child. My family is all far away. My best friends aren’t close by. And most of my friends either don’t have kids or they already had them a decade ago. That’s what happens when you wait until you’re in your 40s to have a baby. Although it’s super common these days. So, I needed to create my own village. I put a super honest post on Facebook asking for company. I said, “I don’t want to isolate. Please come visit me!” And I had friends, acquaintances, moms I knew, moms I didn’t know, and even perfect strangers coming over to help me feel less lonely. Don’t get me wrong. I did get help. In many ways. I got diagnosed by a psychiatrist. I got on Lexapro. I went to a PPA support group. But I needed more to get me through the day. (If you are experiencing PPA or any type of anxiety, please get professional help. Call your doctor.)

https://medium.com/in-fitness-and-in-health/how-to-improve-your-postpartum-anxiety-with-an-app-today-84536b05d86c

['Katie Grant']

2020-10-30 14:33:54.075000+00:00

['Mental Health', 'Health', 'Postpartum Anxiety', 'Parenting', 'Life']

Reimagining Technology and K-12 Education in 2020

For any teacher, parent, or student in America today, it has become clear that the world of K-12 education is encountering a reckoning. Teachers deciding between in-person instruction or online learning feel like they are rolling the dice on an uncertain future. Parents and students are concerned with the apathy and slowed progress that may accompany online learning. It is likely that whatever happens, no party will be completely satisfied with the outcome. As a high school English teacher transitioning into Flatiron School’s software engineering program, I have been reflecting on how technology can enhance and enrich — rather than simply duplicate — the in-person aspect of learning. Additionally, I believe that within the current crisis in education, there is an opportunity to reflect on the aspects of education that are ineffective and to reimagine how technology can help students learn in meaningful ways. Speaking from the perspective of a former teacher who transitioned to distance learning in April 2020, one of the aspects of in-person instruction I missed the most was interacting with students: the lively group discussions and the ability to quickly help individual students. I lost much of that when distance learning started. I was no longer able to see student faces if their videos were turned off, and it was more difficult to maintain a natural flow to a class discussion. Given the fact that many school systems are now reverting back to distance learning plans, it is important that they invest in creating a robust distance learning system with technology that not only recreates the best aspects of in-person learning, but also provides additional tools for teachers to craft lessons that meet student needs. Based on my reflections on distance learning, here are some areas for improvement or enhancement: Security On the first day of distance learning in April, many teachers and students in our school system had to endure security breaches that plagued their online classrooms. Since a teacher had one Blackboard Collaborate link for all five of their classes, anyone with the link could enter the class. This led to anonymous users logging in with inappropriate usernames and posting disruptive or offensive comments in the chat. The solution that the school system came up with was less than optimal. It required each teacher having to manually input each student’s name and school email address into Blackboard Collaborate. While this did ensure some level of security, it was not the most efficient solution, particularly for teachers who had over a hundred students to input into the system. Students could also still share their links with others. An improved system might link student’s Blackboard Collaborate accounts with their school accounts. In this way, a user would only be able to access the Blackboard Collaborate accounts if they logged in to the individual student’s network account. Data Collection One of the most important aspects of teaching is gathering data from students and tailoring instruction to students’ strengths and weaknesses. Technology has the capacity to quickly collect student data on assignments and provide very quick feedback for the teacher on students’ progress. An example of a website with data collection is NoRedInk.com. Students practice grammar skills and take subsequent quizzes. Teachers are able to quickly glance at the data and see who has mastered a concept and who needs improvement. Tools for Collaboration Collaboration among students is one of the crucial best practices in education. Technology can help to facilitate this collaboration even if students are not meeting in person. In addition to breakout rooms in Blackboard Collaborate or Zoom, there can also be other ways for students to learn by being in conversation with each other. Google Classroom allows for students to work together on a Google Doc, and there are apps where students can work together to annotate poetry or other texts (e.g. genius.com). How can technology creators translate essential classroom collaborative activities (debates, seminars, small group-work) into web applications? Automation of Time-Intensive Tasks Aside from teaching lessons, teachers perform many additional tasks outside the classroom, such as grading and lesson planning. The more that technology can reduce the burden of grading and assessing for teachers, the better they will be able to focus their attention on their students. For example, if a teacher were grading 120 papers and wanted to check for plagiarism among students, it would be an arduous and time-intensive task to find matching papers. Technology that checked for plagiarism among student submissions would free up time for teachers to devote their attention to more essential duties. Conclusion Going forward in the Flatiron School program, I am looking forward to reflecting on ways that technology can create a more seamless transition between in-person instruction to blended or distance learning.

https://medium.com/@chsohn15/reimagining-technology-and-k-12-education-in-2020-f6841ba0c208

['Christina Sohn']

2020-07-29 13:03:26.159000+00:00

['Education', 'Technology', 'Flatiron School']

Investors Should Pay Attention to these Four Traits of a Successful ICO

Investors Should Pay Attention to these Four Traits of a Successful ICO Spokkz Follow Aug 28, 2018 · 3 min read It is no secret that most ICO’s investments will end in money wasted. The President of XAPO recently said that, “90%+ of CoinMarketCap list will disappear eventually — might as well happen now.” The reason for this is simple; start-ups burn money and fail. This isn’t news, and it is time for ICO investors to wake up and take notice. There is a lot of great talent in the blockchain space. Here at Spuul, we know what it takes to create a winning platform. We have been delivering content to our subscribers for years, and now we want to take Over-The-Top (OTT) media delivery to the next level. Our SPOKKZ token is a winner, and these four reasons will help you to spot other great ideas in the ICO market. 1. A Great Platform Is the company you are investing in an idea more than a business? Great ideas usually make money, and our successful OTT platform is evidence of a well thought out idea that delivers results. Many of the new projects that are seeking funds via an ICO simply aren’t mature, and may not create the returns that new investors are looking for. 2. Clients That Are Ready to Use the Token There are a lot of dreamers out there. Thinking about a new platform is a lot harder than making it commercially viable. When you invest in an ICO, make sure there are real people who will use the token you are buying. At Spuul, we have spent years cultivating a waiting market for our new SPOKKZ token, and we are delivering incredible technology to both our investors and clients. 3. Amazing Talent Spuul will bring all of its skill to the SPOKKZ platform, and recently entered into a partnership with Ontology. Quality blockchain developers are in high demand, and the fact that Ontology decided to back SPOKKZ should demonstrate the desirability of what we are bringing to the market. If you want to invest in an ICO and make money, make sure the company you are backing will have industry-leading talent on its team. 4. New Ideas that Will Change Commerce Any successful business has to do one thing: make money! Cryptos have been a great place to be a speculator, but this isn’t a long-term business model. SPOKKZ isn’t going to be valuable just because it is a token, it will rise up because it is a great new idea that plugs into an existing business. Building on success is a lot easier than trying to start from scratch, and if you want to see real returns on your ICO investments, make sure you back companies that can actually offer you a real business plan that will get results. https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-falls-through-6-000-support-as-xapo-president-warns-of-altcoin-extinction-event

https://medium.com/spokkz/investors-should-pay-attention-to-these-four-traits-of-a-successful-ico-e5746f27daff

[]

2018-08-28 07:59:23.309000+00:00

['Investing', 'Spokkz', 'ICO', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency']

What if we don’t drink alcohol for a month?

What if we don’t drink alcohol for a month? what makes you feel incredibly healthy, saves you lots of money, gives you the best sleep you’ve ever had in your life, and can help your body run smoother than ever? If you answered quitting drinking, you’re exactly right! what happens to your body as soon as you put down the bottle. One Minute Later You should feel proud you’ve decided to make a commitment to your health! You should also start to feel bubbles of excitement about how good you’re going to feel in the next few days and weeks! FIRST 12 HOURS The First 12 Hours Ok, truth be told, the first day of not drinking will probably be the hardest. You’ll have to start breaking your normal routine of drinking at some point, and this will also be the day of identifying the triggers that make you want to drink. To help you out during this trying time it’s recommended that you try sticking to healthy foods even though you may crave sugar. This’ll help boost your mood while your body adjusts to this new normal. While your body is busy flushing the booze from your system you could start to feel a few effects of withdrawal coming on (depending on how heavy of a drinker you were). This part doesn’t feel great, but trust us, it’s worth it, keep going! 2 DAYS LATER Two Days Later Ok, now you’re starting to get the hang of it. If you want to know after 2 days just check out this link below. Link: https://bodyfittingmechanic.com/stop-alcohol-what-if-you-dont-drink-alcohol-for-a-month/

https://medium.com/@bodyfittingmechanic/what-if-we-dont-drink-alcohol-for-a-month-da4511db1afa

[]

2020-12-25 06:12:18.120000+00:00

['Whiskey', 'Drinking', 'Beer', 'Alcohol', 'Night']

Poker: Ranges Revealed. This blog discusses a fundamental…

This blog discusses a fundamental concept in poker, ranges. The term is bandied around a lot at a recreational poker table, occasionally even correctly. Typical adjectives that go along with the word ‘range’ include tight range, wide range, condensed range, polarised range, range advantage, linear range and balanced range. I’ll try to explain these terms, to help my own understanding of them in the game of Texas no limit holdem. A range of hands is the collection of starting cards a player may hold in any given spot, excluding all the combinations that were folded earlier. Given his or her actions in the hand to date, a good player will take their next action in a way that considers the full range of hands that they’re likely to have at that point, not just the 2 hidden cards they happen to hold. Similarly, the goal of hand reading is to put your opponent on a likely range of hands. Although Phil Helmuth (famous poker player) may talk about his white magic and ability to put his opponent on, say, Ace Jack suited, exactly, this is more of a parlour trick. Poker is a game of very incomplete information — trying to guess exactly what the other player has is a mugs game. While this may seem an obvious way of analysing the game, it’s probably only in the last 10 to 15 years that it’s become the universal approach. The thinking has progressed roughly as follows. The 1st level of sophistication, as a beginner today might think, is to base your betting decisions on the 2 cards you’re holding. “I am at the river and I have a terrible hand, so I check and give up”. The 2nd level of sophistication is to consider what your opponent is holding / thinking. “I am at the river and I have a terrible hand, but my opponent doesn’t know that and anyway they may have a weak hand too, so I bluff”. The opponent may then take this to the 3rd level and figure that you’re bluffing, so will call. You can take this to the 4th level, 5th level, and so on ad infinitum, and it essentially comes down your confidence that you can exploit your opponent’s ability to only take it to the nth level by going to the n+1th level yourself. And if you overestimate your opponent’s brilliance and go to the 11th level, while they only go to the 9th level, you still get it wrong! A computer solution side-steps all this guessing by playing in an unexploitable way; it could even announce its actions for its range, face-up, and would still be unexploitable. In the above river decision, for example, the game theory optimal play would value bet a portion of the range that is very strong, balancing this by bluffing with the perfect percentage of the range that gives the opponent just enough incentive to pay off the value bet. The opponent is financially indifferent to calling or folding to your bet. So thinking in terms of ranges is clearly useful if the players around the felt are doing sensible things, with ranges that reflect their position, the betting action, chip stacks, etc. There are 13 * 13 = 169 starting hands, for a total of 1326 combinations. Against a good player, you might be pretty confident for example that they’ll call your raise from late position or the blinds with the following range exclusively: The 2-card combinations that are highlighted are the ones that the player will call with, for example AJs (Ace Jack, both of the same suit). The greyed-out cells are either folded (e.g. 72o, the 7 and 2 of different suits) or raised (e.g. AA, the ‘pocket rockets’) and will not call your raise. This might be regarded as a tight range, as it only contains 22% of the possible 1326 combinations. It is also a condensed (or capped) range, as it has all the middling cards, excluding the best and worst possible holdings. Note that it has more suited than unsuited combinations, for the extra flush possibilities these offer. Despite this conservative tight play, the pre-flop raiser will tend to have the range advantage on the flop, meaning that if no more betting took place the raiser would be more likely to win the pot than the caller i.e. the raiser’s range has more equity on average. This is because by calling a bet you have the chance to win that bet plus what was already in the pot. You therefore have pot odds to call despite having less than 50% chance of winning. This gives the pre-flop raiser the incentive to make a high percentage of continuation bets (“c-bets”) on the flop, though this should by no means be taken as a rule. Note that while it’s important to play your range and not your actual holdings, that doesn’t literally mean that you bet every combination in your range exactly the same. That is not what a computer GTO solution looks like (see appendix). Occasionally in poker we have a showdown and you do unfortunately have to show your cards — your actual holding becomes relevant! The goal instead in range selection is to construct a balanced range, so that the hands that go into your checking range, calling range and raising range are all considered together. Done right, as you go to the next street your opponent can never be completely sure that you don’t hold a 3, say, or whether you have a strong or weak hand. The opposite of a tight range, a wide range, is what I tend to see in the game I play! The main criterion for selecting this range is slightly different too, namely the amount of whiskey consumed that night. This begs the question whether thinking in terms of ranges is even useful, if your opponents may still have any 2 cards when the flop comes. I think that your opponents can still be counted on to act somewhat rationally. If everyone limps in pre-flop they are less likely to hold the AA. You can’t be certain of this, of course, but nothing is certain in poker anyway. And if someone is limping their pocket AAs you have the consolation of knowing that this is a bad play in the long run, even if you lose a lot of money this hand because you didn’t expect it. Often you can narrow down a loose passive player’s range very accurately. If they 3-bet you pre-flop it probably means their range is AA, KK or QQ, and nothing else. Recreational players may not define their range much pre-flop; you can’t deduce much from their position and they want to see the flop with any 2 cards. However, they may often be less tricky post-flop. By the river you should be able to make some guesses as to the range they have. The opposite of a condensed range is a polarised range — a key poker concept, especially for river bets. A polarised range is either very strong or very weak. A condensed range (middling cards only) should be played passively by checking. Betting a condensed range doesn’t achieve anything: stronger opponents’ hands call and weaker hands fold. A polarised range on the other hand should be played aggressively: you can value bet the strong part of the range, while you get fold equity by bluffing with the weak part of the range. Earlier streets, the flop and turn, tend to be less polarised: the bottom of your range still has some equity, with 2 more cards still to come to improve, while the top of your range can still be outdrawn. Your range and betting strategy therefore tends to be more of a linear (or merged) range on the flop than on later streets, containing a mixture of strong, medium and weak hands. To sum up, this blog aimed to explain the terms tight range, wide range, condensed range, polarised range, range advantage, linear range and balanced range. I hope I sold that idea that ‘range’ is a useful way of thinking about poker strategy — even in low stakes poker! Appendix — how to read piosolver outputs If you thought the above calling range example of limited practical use for low stakes poker, you would be absolutely convinced of the uselessness of a computer piosolver output in all its glory — and I would agree. Even a professional player couldn’t memorise and apply a game theory optimal solution perfectly, and needs to apply heuristics (e.g. ‘generally bet big in this spot’) and approximations. As a mathematical object, however, I do find these outputs aesthetically pleasing. Here’s an example of one: Button raises pre-flop, you call in big blind. Flop comes Th 9c 5h. Pot is 9 chips. You check, button makes a bet of 6 chips. What do you do? [Source upswingpoker.com] The greyed out cells are combinations that are not in your range (because you folded or raised pre-flop). Unlike the simpler example we now have mixed strategies: A6o is only half greyed out because it was only called half of the time pre-flop. 73s is a green (call) 25% of the time and blue (fold) 75% of the time. Some of the recommended plays are fairly predictable: if you have 55 and the flop is T95 rainbow you have a set and should raise. (Technically you need to have a randomiser at the table with you and raise small 20% of the time and raise big 80% of the time. In practice you would raise big 100% of the time). This strong raise is carefully balanced out by bluff raises from hands that completely missed the board (e.g. A3s) so that the opponent has incentive to call. Across your entire range you would fold nearly 50% of the time, call with your single pairs like KTo, call or raise sometimes with your straight draws like J8s, and raise a lot with your two pairs and sets. My purpose in showing this was not to discuss why the computer might come to this solution in this spot, simply to show that it is possible to create a perfectly balanced set of actions, across multiple bet sizes. The strategy is unexploitable even if the opponent had a copy of this output to hand and so knew the computer’s strategy (though not the computer’s exact hole cards, obviously). I do find these outputs very interesting and clever, though I don’t think they’re that useful for low stakes poker and I don’t own a copy of piosolver. It is expensive for a start, $250 for the basic version (unlike chess computers, by contrast, which are essentially free). There’s a fair amount of set up required, to key in all the players’ ranges and allowable bet sizes, and they only really work for heads up pots, which don’t occur that often in my games.

https://medium.com/@mikefowlds/poker-blog-12-ranges-revealed-cf0c7ee11836

['Mike Fowlds']

2021-11-21 12:18:27.306000+00:00

['Poker', 'Poker Ranges', 'Poker Instruction']

How does EKS select subnets for Service LoadBalancers?

About this topic What information are included? Analyzing behavior of LoadBalancer type Service under EKS. How do I analyzing that via different approaches, i.e., black-box testing and code tracing. What information are not included? Basic of AWS EKS and ELB. If you’d like to know that, please refer to AWS official documents and samples. Otherwise, if you buy AWS Support plans, you could look for AWS BD/TAM/SA’s assistance, or you could also consider create a support cases for guidance(may be I’ll be the one provide you assistance in the case 🤣 ). Basic of K8s.If you’d like to know that, please consider refer to Kubernetes official document. Question definition Recently, I handled an interesting case about the behavior of LoadBalancer type Service under EKS: Why EKS could place Networker Load Balancer(NLB)/Classic Load Balancer(CLB) created by LoadBalancer type Service on subnets without tags? What is the question asking? To understand what question mentions, first of all, we need to know the purpose of Kubernetes(K8s) Service. Under the Kubernetes design, Service is one of the most common ways users could expose their containerized applications run in Pods to the internet. There are 2 types of Service could be defined for the purpose: NodePort : Exposes the Service on each Node's IP at a static port (the NodePort ). A ClusterIP Service, to which the NodePort Service routes, is automatically created. You'll be able to contact the NodePort Service, from outside the cluster, by requesting <NodeIP>:<NodePort> . : Exposes the Service on each Node's IP at a static port (the ). A Service, to which the Service routes, is automatically created. You'll be able to contact the Service, from outside the cluster, by requesting . LoadBalancer : Exposes the Service externally using a cloud provider's load balancer. NodePort and ClusterIP Services, to which the external load balancer routes, are automatically created. Typically, for users use cloud provider hosted Kubernetes solutions(e.g., AWS EKS, GCP GKE or Azure AKS), LoadBalancer type Service is the most commonly used one. In general, on cloud provider hosted environment, LoadBalancer type Service will construct load balancer solutions hosted by cloud providers, such as AWS ELB, GCP Network Load Balancing or Azure Load Balancer. Back to the question in the case, apparently, user is confused by the behavior of how load balancers(AWS NLB/CLB) created. As AWS official document mentions, ELBs will be created on subnets based on subnet tags: For internet-facing ELB, subnets with the tag, kubernetes.io/role/elb , are required. Internet-facing ELB will be placed on these subnets. , are required. Internet-facing ELB will be placed on these subnets. For internal ELB, subnets with the tag, kubernetes.io/role/internal-elb , are required. From the description above, it looks subnets with correct tag is required to created ELB. However, after testing, I could confirm the situation the customer mentions — without subnet tagging, subnets could still be used to create ELB. Though I could find the following description in an insignificant notation in a AWS knowledge center topic, which shows route table is also an important factor in subnet selection process, I still unable to verify how do the whole mechanism works: Note: If you don’t use the preceding tags, then Cloud Controller Manager determines if a subnet is public or private by examining the route table associated with that subnet. Unlike private subnets, public subnets use an internet gateway to get a direct route to the internet. But how could I verify that? Analyze Approach 1. Black-Box Testing To verify behavior of an unknown system, the most straightforward way is deploying it. Besides, to prevent unexpected side effects, doing verification on a newly created EKS cluster will be the most safest approach. My test steps are as below shows: Deploy a brand new EKS cluster with cluster definition below(using eksctl create cluster -f to deploy it, and default-key should be replaced with your EC2 key-pair) 2. Create NLB/CLB based on LoadBalancer type Service definition below: 3. Use different variable combinations: If you do the same test, then after verification, you would have the same finding as me: Actually, for each condition, you could also verify it as below: However, the question is, are the summary I make reliable? Are they really the truth? Analyze Approach 2. Tracing Source Code As the hosted K8s solution, if I’d like to track EKS control plane and Service controller’s behavior, in addition to back-boxing testing, tracing their source code will be more better choice — after all, code won’t tell lies. Thanks to power of open source today, if I’d like to trace code of an open source project, everything I need could be found on Google. For K8s control plane and Service controller, source code are stored in K8s GitHub repository. But it still took me bunch of time to find what I need. The reason is, I’m not familiar with structure of the project. For that reason, I spent most of time on using different keyword to search codes in the repository, such as “AWS”, “ELB” or “NLB”. Finally, I figured out how to find what I need under the project: kubernetes/staging/src/k8s.io/legacy-cloud-providers/ - For cloud provider specific component implementations, e.g. Controllers, could be found inthis repository. - For cloud provider specific component implementations, e.g. Controllers, could be found inthis repository. cloud-provider-aws repository — Though I don’t know when did the decision made, it looks currently, for cloud provider specific component implementations, source code are isolated from Kubernetes repository. Under the situation, each cloud provider maintains component implementations source code in their own repository under the Kubernetes project. For AWS specific component implementations, source code are store in this repository. Besides, from its go.mod file, I could confirm that it still refers to code store in kubernetes/staging/src/k8s.io/legacy-cloud-providers/ - just like the README.md of kubernetes/staging/src/k8s.io/legacy-cloud-providers/ mentions, "Out-of-tree cloud providers can consume packages in this repo to support legacy implementations of their Kubernetes cloud provider." After clarifying that, I could easily tracing the behavior of LoadBalancer type Service in kubernetes/staging/src/k8s.io/legacy-cloud-providers/ , and I summarize them as the psuedocode below: The ELB creation entrypoint is in the function, EnsureLoadBalancer . It searches subnets and performs ELB creation. And the main logic of subnet selection could be found in the function, findELBSubnets. The rest of details could be seen on the psuedocode above. Besides, because function/variable names above are defined according to the real function/variable name in source code, if you'd like to trace the actual codes in repository, you could use function/variable name and code link in comment to figure them out. In addition, the main difference between my findings and code are: All subnets with EKS subnet tag requirement, kubernetes.io/cluster/<cluster-name> , will be candidates. , will be candidates. Subnets satisfies route table and tag requirement will be selected, but the ones satisfies tag requirement have higher priority. If multiple subnets are selected for single AZ, the one with higher lexicographic order will be selected. It’s interesting, isn’t it? Though it’s really a tough work, I still love the progress of searching, testing, verifying and reading codes! Hope this article is helpful for you if you’re interested in this subject. If you have questions about it, or if you’d like to further discuss about EKS and ELB, please feel free to let me know. I’d love to talk about that with you.😎

https://medium.com/hallblazzar-%E9%96%8B%E7%99%BC%E8%80%85%E6%97%A5%E8%AA%8C/how-does-eks-select-subnets-for-service-loadbalancers-53de2a35e855

[]

2020-09-12 18:46:47.523000+00:00

['Kubernetes', 'Aws Eks', 'AWS', 'Elastic Load Balancer']

Coff-It-Up!

Coff-It-Up! Your #1 Specialty Coffee Specialists Photo by William Moreland on Unsplash Here at Coff-It-Up! Coffee, Inc. we specialize in a prodigious number of specialty roasts. We are looking to be as ubiquitous as your struggles to stay awake throughout the day! Our brand new locations on every other street corner — including inside office buildings, schools, sports arenas, opera houses, BBQ pits, your neighbor’s shed, Cousin Eddy’s bathroom, and in the passenger seat of your car — provide you with convenience and homeliness. We know you’ve got hoards of cash in those pockets and are unrestrainedly ecstatic to “coff-it-up” to us. Need an early morning wake-up brew? Or a post lunch pick-me-up? How about an after-work stamina-booster? Or an espresso for every waking minute of these godforsaken, interminable days? Whatever your situ, we got you! Getting fed up? About to pass out from the sheer exhaustion of existence? It’s time to Coff-It-Up! Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash Our menu offers the select specialties: Kaui Brew: A rich Hawaiian coffee that is actually 10% from Kaui, or maybe some other island (we’re not sure), while the remaining 90% is arabica from various mysterious and unknown sources. We’re not quite sure what arabica means, really. Texas Pecan Roast: Get that quintessential southwestern pecan flavor infused with a signature Coff-It-Up! coffee essence. Actually roasted in Maryland, it has nothing to do with Texas besides the name. But we know for sure there are definitely pecans in Texas! And we won’t judge if you say “pee-can”! Hazelnut Specialty: For those who want to taste hazelnut even if you have never even tried a hazelnut in the decades you’ve spent on this transitory planet, this is the right brew for you! We’re not sure what hazelnuts taste like either, but we’re pretty sure, judging by the smell when we roast it, that it tastes like popcorn. Our taste-testers can at-taste to that! Grab a brew of this liquified popcorn before binge watching Mandalorian all night in your everyday COVID pj’s. And if the liquidy buttery-corny flavor doesn’t agree with you, cough it up! Pumpkin Spice Lateness: That’s right folks, we don’t follow the seasonal trends the way we’re supposed to. We release our Pumpkin Spice brews as a sort of ironic New Year’s resolution. We’re puttin’ on the pounds with plenty of 1,000 calorie PS fare. In January, we release our Pumpkin Spice Lateness in the form of whipped-cream-topped frapps; whipped-cream-topped machs; whipped-cream-topped capps, and let’s not forget swirly, creamy-topped Pumpkin Spice Late-tays — all of which are sprinkled with, wait for it, the spice the Winter Gods stole from the Autumnal lesser-deities and then “coffed-up”™ on the small Matterhorn of your whipped topping! Time to dive into tardiness bliss, ya’ll. Other Specialties (everything at Coff-It-Up! is a specialty; don’t even @ us): Try our caffeine IV! We have trained nurses (who are also baristas!) to tap a vein and insert our IV of a house brew coffee drip. This way you can stay awake driving to work, working at work, driving home from work, thinking about work at home, and even while dreaming of work. (Actually, we can’t keep you awake while your sleeping — this is just not possible). Always remember, coffee is life (not work), so Coff-It-Up! jabronies! Caffeine-infused phone accessories: That’s right! Coff-It-Up! has designed two signature smart-phone accessories to prevent you from nodding off from obsessive scrolling and to keep you focused on content. Our caffeine-coated earphones are lab-tested and scientific-research approved. The microscopic coffee crystals infused on the earphones travel through the ear and up to your brain to keep you awake (maybe not fully!) to continue to mindlessly scan at pictures of people you knew in high school only superficially! Additionally, our new caffeinated screen protector, when touched by fingertips, releases pores of infinitesimal proportion that float toward the inhaling orifices of the user, keeping them alert and riveted, maybe even manic. Coffee Bread™: Another one of our signature specialties is our Coffee Bread™ (not to be confused with inferior coffee cake!) Since bread is pretty much in everything and you cannot go without it — unless you have sworn off it, which is hard to do (trust us, we’ve tried many, many times — the allure of all things carbs is too much!) — we have designed a bread that has so much caffeine, the consumer actually feels like running a marathon or reading Tolstoy right afterwards! Our Coffee Bread™ can be used in making toast (obvs); patty melts (are these still a thing?); sandwiches (boring); and garlic coffee bread (pairs well with our Italian Brew, which is actually roasted at the Venetian in Las Vegas). We even have Coffee Bread™ in dough form available for purchase, perfect for you pizza lovers! Coff-It-Up! all over that spicey meat-ah-ball! So come on down to our brand-spankin’ (literally) new locations and grab a brew today! Due to COVID, we’re offering a 95% discount to all first-time purchases (seriously we’re desperate right now). Forget your K-Cups, Coff-It-Up!

https://medium.com/the-haven/coff-it-up-a837fcf5b81c

['Nolan Yard']

2020-12-28 06:50:17.274000+00:00

['Coffee', 'Existentialism', 'Branding', 'Technology', 'Product']

The AKRO Tokenomics 101: Part II — the full scope of the AKRO token model

The AKRO Tokenomics 101: Part II — the full scope of the AKRO token model Akropolis Follow Jul 26, 2019 · 4 min read In the first part of our blogpost series, the AKRO tokenomics 101 we explained how AKRO would be used to validate blocks in the AKRO chain. Let us dig deeper in this second installment, and understand in full what AKRO can do within the AkroChain. The main goal of Akropolis is to deliver a product that will serve millions of people taking part in online and offline communities, such as DAOs, cooperatives, mutuals and savings groups. We are building a protocol layer for secure mutual financial cooperation, community-based savings, investments, and social security services. However, releasing good products is not only about the use-case: we have to make them scalable and interoperable with as many networks/protocols and digital assets as possible. The first version of Akropolis MVP and crypto-financial primitive C2FC were released in the Ethereum ecosystem. But, using Ethereum as a basic blockchain layer cannot provide the scalability and interoperability for our product. Despite all the advantages of Ethereum, we understand, that our Ethereum-based product releases can be used only on public testing of business logic by early adopters and active members of the Akropolis community. Therefore, a future milestone of our project is to have a domain-specific chain, the AkroChain — which we are building using the Substrate framework. Therefore, our AKRO token model design will evolve over time. As mentioned in the first installment, we need to ensure the security of the AkroChain by enabling dPoS consensus run by block validators. The number of validators is finite and any AKRO holder can contribute to the network security by token delegation. At the network launch, there will be 30 validators that are defined for every epoch (round). Each round will take approximately 30 minutes. The minimum stake for became a validator is 1,000,000 AKRO tokens. However, the node is not required to acquire 1,000,000 tokens — they can be pooled from the community by token delegation. When it comes to launching a node-candidate for validator positions, only 100,000 AKRO will be required as an initial stake. To incentivize validators, we have considered two possibilities: high inflation during the first years of the network operation or granting them other sources of rewards, besides minting new coins. Projects such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and many others are based on the inflationary model to attract miners. In our case, we don’t see the point to use this model and therefore we implemented an additional (albeit relatively low) fee into our product, besides the basic network commission for transactions: the “cost of service”. The cost of service is a special fee applied to selected operations in the Akropolis ecosystem. This fee is implemented with two goals: the first goal is to provide the necessary incentives to network validators based on additional income — which will increase with network growth. The second one is to motivate AFOs to take part in the network consensus as validators or delegators. Every AFO can compensate the charged fees by earning rewards from the validators’ work (or from tokens delegation). If the token stake of certain AFO is relatively large, it can even earn additional rewards for its members on the delegation, and not only compensate for the “cost of service” fee. As we consider AFO as the elementary unit of our network (or network host), it is important to make network consensus run by a large set of the internal actors rather than several “whale” token holders. The logic of community trust and governance mechanics: every AFO could use tokens, delegated to a validator as collateral for attracting loans. If the AFO doesn’t need financing, it can use tokens in the Community trust model and delegate “collateral” rights to another AFO, receiving the stability fee as a reward. The values of key network variables are defined by AKRO holders in the governance process. For the reference of the voting model, we used the MakerDAO approach. The principal governance mechanics remains the same. The proposed update of token design adds mechanics, related to the AkroChain consensus to the previously proposed features. The Consensus algorithm of the AkroChain The AkroChain will be launched as a public blockchain and operate based on dPOS consensus algorithm. The choice of building the AkroChain has as goal to make the voice of each AKRO holder valuable by granting the possibility to influence the decisions on validators selection by token delegation. The mechanics of dPOS is based on epochs (or rounds). For each round, a new set of validators is selected. The principal rules of our dPOS implementation are presented below: The set of validators in the network will be limited by a certain number. At the network launch, there will be 30 validators slots (30 top nodes sorted by the stake size); The minimal number of tokens, required to become validator is 1,000,000 AKRO. The node has to own 100,000 tokens while the remaining part can be attracted from community members (delegation); Each AKRO holder can delegate their tokens to a selected validator, receiving part of his reward. Validators charge maintenance fees for his services; If the node’s offline, failed the chain synchronization — no reward will be granted to it and it shall be dropped from the top-30 list; In the case of dishonest/fraudulent activity of a node, its stake will be slashed; The set of top-30 validators is defined for every round. Round time is set as 30 minutes. The values of all mentioned parameters such as a number of validators, maintenance fee, round time are initially defined by the development team. After the network launch, all parameters can be changed in the governance process by voting. At the moment, our team is working on the AkroChain implementation and relevant integrations into the ecosystem according to logic, mentioned above. Stay tuned, our fellow Akropolis community!

https://medium.com/akropolis/the-akro-tokenomics-101-part-ii-the-full-scope-of-the-akro-token-model-9f3e61871550

[]

2019-07-26 14:00:53.468000+00:00

['Akrochain', 'Akropolis', 'Updates', 'Tokenomics', 'Staking']

Under the Hood of an Event-Driven “Workflow As Code” Engine

In my previous article, I’ve described how code can be used to semantically describe workflows in a distributed environment. But I did not explain how it can be used to actually pilot those workflows. How a class — apparently written to run on a single thread — can orchestrate long-running workflows in a distributed environment where services fail from time to time? Example of a simple workflow that describes and orchestrates 3 tasks sequentially, each of which can be processed in distributed servers As there is no magic in computer science, a “workflow as code” engine (such as Infinitic) will need to be able to store the state of a workflow in a persistent storage and restart a workflow from where it failed/stopped. Even if an actual implementation is quite complex, the theory behind how to do this is actually simple. Let’s go through it, with the simple example of a workflow — described in the code above — containing 3 consecutive tasks: download an image from a url resize this image upload the resized image to a server Sequential Workflow Example This workflow can be processed using an event-driven architecture as follows: A client dispatches a RunWorkflow event (with parameters describing which workflow and which input parameters) event (with parameters describing which workflow and which input parameters) A WorkflowEngine service catches this event and runs the workflow code CropInamge.handle(imageUrl, size) . During this execution, the ImageUtil proxy stumbles upon a call of its method download(imageUrl) . As this task is not known yet, the processing of the workflow code is stopped here and a RunTask event (describing this task) is dispatched by the workflow engine. . During this execution, the proxy stumbles upon a call of its method . As this task is not known yet, the processing of the workflow code is stopped here and a event (describing this task) is dispatched by the workflow engine. An ImageUtil service catches this event, runs the task code ImageUtil.download(imageUrl) , and returns the serialized result within a TaskCompleted event , and returns the serialized result within a event A WorkflowEngine service catches this event and runs the the workflow code CropImage.handle(imageUrl, size) again. During this execution, the ImageUtil proxy stumbles upon a call of its method download(imageUrl) . This time, this task is known from the workflow history, so the proxy can return its output (after deserialization) and the processing of the workflow code can continue. Then the ImageUtil proxy stumbles upon a call of its method resize(image, size) . As this task is not known yet, the processing of the workflow code is stopped here and a RunTask event (describing this new task) is dispatched by the workflow engine. again. During this execution, the proxy stumbles upon a call of its method . This time, this task is known from the workflow history, so the proxy can return its output (after deserialization) and the processing of the workflow code can continue. Then the proxy stumbles upon a call of its method . As this task is not known yet, the processing of the workflow code is stopped here and a event (describing this new task) is dispatched by the workflow engine. And so on… up to the workflow completion. This process is illustrated below: For Infinitic, especially when used with Pulsar, the workflow engine and services will be consumers of Pulsar topics. Let’s derive a few conclusions from this architecture: The workflow process is not owned by a long-running thread running somewhere. It’s just composed of the history of exchanged messages; To be consistent, a workflow implementation needs to produce the same result when executed multiple times, so it excludes the use of any non-deterministic functions (such as random() or now() ) or any multithreading that would potentially modify command orders; or ) or any multithreading that would potentially modify command orders; The workers processing tasks are stateless, only the engine needs to store data related to the workflow’s history; Exchanged data are serialized/deserialized (using Avro in Infinitic case); Tasks can run in a different programming language than the one used for workflows. WorkflowTasks The engine above has 2 different roles: Receiving completion events from tasks processors, updating the workflow’s history accordingly and triggering tasks Running the workflow code to decide what to do next, based on current workflow history If we want to be able to write workflows in another programming language, only (2) has to re-written, so it appears a good idea to clearly separate those roles. It can be done by delegating (2) to some special tasks named “WorkflowTasks”: Now roles are clearer: we have on one side the workflow engine (maintaining the workflow history and triggering tasks / workflowTasks accordingly) — and on the other side, the stateless workers (running tasks / workflowTasks and sending back the output). To better grasp the temporal aspect of the workflow processing, we can use the representation below: Parallel Processing The sequential example is actually a bit too easy. Things are becoming significantly more complex when a workflow contains parallel processings, which occurs — for example — with asynchronous tasks or asynchronous branches. In such a situation, a TaskCompleted event could trigger a workflowTask while another one is running. This case is illustrated below: Incorrect implementation of a workflow engine triggering parallel workflowTasks This is problematic as it makes the state of the workflow not-well defined: the first WorkflowTask would decide to trigger TaskC, while the second one would decide to trigger TaskD. To be correct, all workflowTasks must be processed sequentially, and our workflow engine must buffer any event received while a workflowTask is ongoing. Once the workflowTask is completed, a new one is triggered, taking into account the previous ones and the buffered events. Correct behavior of a workflow engine making sure than workflowTasks are processed sequentially As you can see in this example, the processing 2 and 3 of the workflow engine must be aware of each other to handle the situation correctly. It can be difficult in a distributed environment if you run multiple instances of workflow engine to avoid a single point of failure. There are typically 2 ways to respect this constraint: By making sure that your storage avoids the read-modify-update anti-pattern (see for example https://www.2ndquadrant.com/en/blog/postgresql-anti-patterns-read-modify-write-cycles/) By making sure that all events for a workflow instance always reach the same workflow engine instance (for example with a key-shared subscription — https://pulsar.apache.org/docs/en/concepts-messaging/#key_shared) Error Management What happens when a task (or a workflowTask) fails? To make sure that each task is actually processed and managed properly, Infinitic adds an additional layer in charge of task management: instead of sending a task directly to the workers, the Workflow Engine will send it to a Task Engine in charge of guaranteeing that each task is managed up to its completion or its cancellation. The Task Engine: retry failed task based on a pre-defined retry strategy handles manual retry request manages timeouts Each Task / WorkflowTask is handled by a TaskEngine up to its completion or its cancellation Conclusions This article describes the general concepts and constraints behind a “workflow as code” event-driven workflow engine such as Infinitic, which is new pattern to orchestrate distributed tasks at scale. A lot of details are still to be described, like how to manage workflow properties. If you are interested to follow this development, please subscribe here, and do not hesitate to comment below :) Ps: I'm not a Kotlin expert, but it seems to me there are a lot of similarities between the algorithm presented in this article and the low-level implementation of coroutines. Maybe some day, the teams at JetBrains will look at this.

https://gillesbarbier.medium.com/under-the-hood-of-a-workflow-as-code-event-driven-engine-6107dab9b87c

['Gilles Barbier']

2020-11-16 09:05:58.192000+00:00

['Infinitic', 'Event Driven', 'Automation', 'Workflow', 'Orchestration']

Lessons from A Design Hackathon. This past weekend, I participated in my…

Lessons from A Design Hackathon This past weekend, I participated in the UX Result Hackathon, an online, fully-remote event, with three other designers. We chose the Leverege challenge, which involved developing the UX & UI of a mobile app that supported a smart IoT dog collar. I’m really proud of what we accomplished in just 15 hours, but there are definitely some things I’ll do differently the second time around. Here are some lessons that I learned from this experience that might help you prepare for your next Hackathon! Photo by Alice Dietrich on Unsplash 1. Prepare and understand the challenge Our team prepared for the Hackathon by meeting and discussing our strategy and design process ahead of time. This helped us get ready, and on the day of the Hackathon, we were able to start working right away. As with any other design project, you’ll usually have a brief, client, and possibly other stakeholders. Typically, you’ll have time to ask your client and stakeholders questions about the brief to understand their constraints and expectations better. Before the event, make sure you have a clear idea of the client's expectations regarding deliverables. I would recommend making a list of potential questions to ask the client and attend any information sessions the event provides. 2. Use your design superpowers With time and efficiency being the name of the game, it can help to identify the design ‘superpowers’ of each team member before the event. If one person is great at visual design, let them take the lead during the hi-fi mockups and prototypes. Someone else is great at research? Let them guide the survey and user interview design. This can help ensure that your team’s time and resources are being allocated most effectively. 3. Prioritize and don’t try to do everything! This is the biggest lesson that I learned during the Hackathon. The very limited timeframe of a Hackathon makes it impossible to do everything you’d like to. This is where setting a strict timeline can be a lifesaver. Ensure you have a clear idea of what you want to prioritize and how long you want to spend on each task. Once the time is up, move on to the next task no matter what. Easier said than done, but this will help you stay on track and make it to the finish line. 4. Leave ample time for presenting This might not be relevant for many in-person Hackathon events, but for remote events, you might need to record a video presentation of your project for the judges. Ensure you block out a significant amount of time to do this (at least an hour) to ensure that you can finish the presentation on time. 5. Things might go wrong but try not to panic Due to technical issues and other factors, our team ended up being late on submitting our project. We took full responsibility for this situation, sent an email to the organizer, and pushed through and finished our project. In the end, our submission was accepted. This was a tough situation, and we could have easily fallen into a state of panic. I was so proud of everyone on my team and our ability to stay calm and focus on our next move. 6. Have Fun! Overall, my first hackathon was an absolute blast. The challenge was fascinating, my teammates were wonderful to work with, and I was excited to put my design skills into practice. I look forward to sharing more about my Hackathon experience and our project in future posts. Have you ever participated in a Hackathon? If so, which one and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it?

https://medium.com/@stephanie-gnatek/lessons-from-my-first-design-hackathon-aa9e5842db7e

['Stephanie Gnatek']

2020-12-07 03:13:54.497000+00:00

['UX Design', 'Hackathons', 'Design', 'UI Design', 'First Hackathon']

Huawei nova 8 Pro 5G mobile price in bangladesh

Huawei nova 8 Pro 5G Modelnova 8 Pro 5G Network 2G NetworkGSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 — SIM 1 & SIM 2 CDMA 800 3G NetworkHSDPA 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100 4G Network1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 18, 19, 26, 34, 38, 39, 40, 41 5G Network1, 3, 28, 38, 41, 77, 78, 79, 80, 83, 84 SA/NSA SpeedHSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE-A, 5G GPRS/EDGEYes Launch Launch Date2020, December 23 StatusComing soon. Exp. release 2021, January 08 Body Body Dimensions163.3 x 74.1 x 7.9 mm (6.43 x 2.92 x 0.31 in) Body Weight184 g (6.49 oz) Network SIMDual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) Operating SystemAndroid 10, EMUI 11, no Google Play Services Display Display TypeOLED, 1B colors, HDR10, 120Hz Display Size6.72 inches, 110.9 cm2 (~91.7% screen-to-body ratio) Display Resolution1236 x 2676 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio Display MultitouchYes Display Density~439 PPI density Platform CPUOcta-core (1x2.58 GHz Cortex-A76 & 3x2.40 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4x1.84 GHz Cortex-A55) ChipsetKirin 985 5G (7 nm) GPUMali-G77 (8-core) Memory Memory Internal128GB, 256GB RAM8GB, 8GB UFS Card slotNo Camera Primary CameraQuad 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), PDAF 8 MP, f/2.4, 120˚, 17mm (ultrawide) 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth) 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro) Secondary CameraDual 16 MP, f/2.0, (wide) 32 MP, f/2.4, 100˚ (ultrawide) Camera FeaturesLED flash, panorama, HDR Video4K, 1080p, 720p@960fps, gyro-EIS Sound AudioVibration, MP3, WAV ringtones LoudspeakerYes 3.5mm JackNo FM RadioNo Connectivity WiFiWi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/a/6, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot Bluetooth5.2, A2DP, LE USBUSB Type-C 2.0, USB On-The-Go GPSYes, with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS, NavIC NFCYes Infrared portNo Features SensorsFingerprint (under display, optical), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass MessagingSMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, IM BrowserHTML5 JavaNo Battery Battery TypeLi-Po Battery Capacity4000 mAh, non-removable Battery Battery Charging Fast charging 66W, 60% in 15 min, 100% in 35 min Reverse charging 5W More Made inChina Body ColorsBlack, Blue, Green, White ModelsBRQ-AN00 Huawei nova 8 Pro 5G Huawei nova 8 Pro 5G price in Bangladesh is around 53,990 BDT, and it has the body dimensions of 163.3 x 74.1 x 7.9 mm (6.43 x 2.92 x 0.31 in) and 184 g (6.49 oz) weight. It has an OLED, 1B colors, HDR10, 120Hz, And the display size is 6.72 inches, 110.9 cm2 (~91.7% screen-to-body ratio), with a resolution of 1236 x 2676 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio. It is run with Android 10, EMUI 11, no Google Play Services. The Chipset of Huawei nova 8 Pro 5G is Kirin 985 5G (7 nm), with an internal memory of 128GB, 256GB, and 8GB, 8GB UFS Ram. The Primary camera of this phone is Quad 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), PDAF, and the secondary Dual 16 MP, f/2.0, (wide). It comes with a Li-Po 4000 mAh, non-removable battery. To know about Huawei mobile Showroom and Store Location, click here.

https://medium.com/@mdshamimhossian/huawei-nova-8-pro-5g-mobile-price-in-bangladesh-63ba34f42f34

['Md Shamim Hossian']

2020-12-23 17:59:07.028000+00:00

['Mobile', 'Mobile Apps', 'Mobile Marketing', 'Mobile App Development']

The Most In-Demand Tech Skills for Machine Learning Engineers

Machine learning engineer is a hip-sounding job title and people in the role are well compensated. According to one analysis , it was the the top emerging job on LinkedIn between 2012 and 2017. Indeed reported an average salary of $140,536 for machine learning engineers in the US as of June 26, 2020. Not too shabby. 😀 Let’s look at how machine learning engineers fit into the flow of data within an organization. Data Flow in Organizations Here’s a representation of how data flows through an organization. Created by Jeff Hale Data is generated, ingested, and stored in databases. The data might be modified to make it more usable through ETL, which stands for extract, transform, and load. Then the data can be used to make machine learning models, do inference, and create analyses. If the data is used in machine learning models, then those models might be served to the word through websites or APIs. That’s the path on the left. 📱 Alternatively, if the data was procured with the intent of establishing causality — often through experimentation — then statistical analysis can be performed and shared. 🔬 Finally, if the data is used in post-hoc analysis to glean insights, it will likely be fed into a report or presentation. 🖥 Let’s add the roles that often accompany the flow of data to our diagram. Data Roles Created by Jeff Hale The orange boxes represent the people who do the data things. 😀 Data engineers are responsible for making data pipelines. They create systems that ingest data, store it, and transform it into a useable form for data scientists and data analysts. 💻 are responsible for making data pipelines. They create systems that ingest data, store it, and transform it into a useable form for data scientists and data analysts. 💻 Data scientists create machine learning models to help drive decisions and create predictive tools. They might also do the experimentation and statistical inference used to draw causal conclusions. This second role is more of a traditional statistician’s role. 🧪 create machine learning models to help drive decisions and create predictive tools. They might also do the experimentation and statistical inference used to draw causal conclusions. This second role is more of a traditional statistician’s role. 🧪 Data analysts find insights in existing data and share that information with stakeholders. 📊 find insights in existing data and share that information with stakeholders. 📊 Machine learning engineers take the proof-of-concept machine learning models data scientists create and turn them into scalable, optimized, serve-able models for use in APIs and apps. 👩‍💻 There is often a good bit of overlap in the roles. 🙂 Notice that data scientists might focus more heavily on machine learning or statistical inference. This distinction is similar to one by Michael Hochster who differentiated between Type A and Type B data scientist. Type A data scientists do more of the static, statistical inference and analysis and Type B data scientists do more machine learning system building and software engineering. See Robert Chang’s excellent article for discussion. In a small organization, the data scientist might be more of a generalist and play all the roles shown in the diagram above. If the organization is young, the first need is to get the data pipeline in shape. Then comes analysis, reporting, and dashboarding of core metrics to drive business decisions. Consequently, a data engineer and a data analyst are often early hires. Machine learning engineers are often added later, as the data and data capabilities of the organization grow. If machine learning is the core competency of an organization, you’ll see more machine learning engineers sooner rather than later. 👍 Our focus in this article is on machine learning engineers, so let’s drill down on what they do. source: pixabay.com Machine Learning Engineer Skills How does the job of a machine learning engineer differ from that of a data scientist or data engineer? ⭐️ Machine learning engineers take the models data scientists have created that show predictive promise and turn them into code that performs well in production. ⭐️ Machine learning engineers need to write code that: predicts well is production ready and easy to understand runs fast and is memory efficient is sensitive to ethical considerations The first point requires understanding how to evaluate the performance of machine learning models. Machine learning engineers need to tune models and test different architectures to improve performance. As you’ll see in a moment, many employers are looking for skills with deep learning frameworks. Machine learning engineers write code for production, so they need to practice good software development practices. They need to be comfortable with version control, follow common code style rules, and document code well. They might deal with continuous integration, testing, and containerization. They might even deal with container orchestration for deployment — as you’ll see in a moment, Kubernetes and Docker show up in a decent number of job descriptions. Production code needs to be fast and efficient, so machine learning engineers should have a grounding in computer science and big data principles. There are a lot of ways to improve code efficiency and performance. I’ve drafted a rough outline on the topic, so follow me to make sure you don’t miss the finished guide. 😀 Finally, machine learning engineers need to understand how their models might negatively affect people. Check out Cathy O’Neil’s Weapons of Math Destruction for an introduction. Machine learning engineers have great power, and as the saying goes: with great power comes great responsibility. 🕷 Now let’s look at the specific technologies found in machine learning engineer job listings. Method I scraped information from SimplyHired and Monster to see which keywords appeared with “Machine Learning Engineer” in job listings in the United States. I used the Requests, Beautiful Soup, pandas, and Plotly Python libraries in my analysis. I used tech keywords gleaned from my analysis of data scientist, data engineer, and data analyst job listings. Indeed was not included because it occasionally returned no information for common terms and it sometimes returned wildly different counts for the baseline case with no keywords. LinkedIn was not searched because it previously locked me out of my account after scraping its site. ☹️ For Monster and SimplyHired, I calculated the percentage of total machine learning engineer listings that each keyword appeared in. Then I averaged those percentages for each keyword. Results Here’s a plot of technology terms that appeared in at least 15% of job listings on July 1, 2020. July 1, 2020 Let’s dive in! 😀 Most employers are looking for machine learning engineers to have Python skills. Python is found in 3 out of 4 job listings! 🐍 TensorFlow is the second most common technology, appearing in over 40% of all machine learning engineer listings. TensorFlow is an open source deep learning framework. Let’s look at other deep learning frameworks that showed up frequently. Keras was in 20% of listings. Keras is a high-level API for TensorFlow and is now tightly integrated with TensorFlow 2.0. Both were developed primarily at Google. PyTorch — the other major deep learning framework — is found in over a quarter of listings. It’s younger than TensorFlow but has been growing in usage. See my article exploring PyTorch and TensorFlow popularity here. Java appears in nearly a third of listings. Java is one of the most commonly used software development languages. However it isn’t taught for data science nearly as much as Python or R. Apache Spark is often used in big data applications. It supports many programming languages including Java, Python, R, and Scala. AWS is the most common cloud provider for machine learning engineers and is found in nearly 30% of listings. This isn’t surprising because it is the dominant cloud provider. Comparison with Other Terms Here’s a chart comparing the ten most common machine learning engineer terms with how common those terms are in data scientist and data engineering listings.

https://towardsdatascience.com/the-most-in-demand-tech-skills-for-machine-learning-engineers-7498754887d4

['Jeff Hale']

2020-07-06 13:51:09.277000+00:00

['Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Technology', 'Data', 'Data Science']

The WWII maneuver that achieved nothing and killed 225 men

The WWII maneuver that achieved nothing and killed 225 men Summer of 1943 on Kiska Island, located among the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. A force of Japanese land on the island and storm an American weather station, killing two and capturing eight Navy Officers. Soon after, 2,000 Japanese troops arrive in Kiska’s harbor. By Spring, the island is acquired by the Japanese forces. After the Japanese takeover of Kiska, war planners expected a tough fight when trying to take back the island. Plans were made to send in troops from the U.S. 7th Infantry Division, 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division and the 13th Infantry Brigade (Canada), and additionally an elite special forces unit of American and Canadian commandos. Upon storming the island, a Canadian soldier fired a shot at the American lines, mistaking the Americans for the Japanese. This sparked an exchange of friendly fire, killing twenty eight Americans and four Canadians. More men were lost due to booby traps and mines, killing an additional 171 men. The worst part was that there were no Japanese remaining on the island. The Japanese had evacuated the island two weeks before, as it was not defensible. Aerial photographs had shown that there was virtually no movement in the harbor and routine activities had diminished. This tragedy could have been prevented through further examination. The pointless assault of Kiska offers a valuable lesson on the dangers of unverified assumptions and the importance of cognitive analysis in contemporary joint operation planning. — Del C. Kostka The tragedic operation remains a reminder that decisions in war must be made with the utmost attention.

https://medium.com/@habiboi/the-wwii-maneuver-that-achieved-nothing-and-killed-225-men-49539f34439a

[]

2020-12-05 04:11:03.099000+00:00

['History', 'War', 'World War II', 'Operation Cottage', 'American History']

The Battle That Will Define Big Tech for Decades

The Battle That Will Define Big Tech for Decades Google’s antitrust case won’t reshape the industry. But it’s the start of something that might. Photo: VIEW press/Getty Images The Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Google got a lot of attention this week, and understandably so. It mirrors the landmark antitrust case against Microsoft two decades ago, which stands as the prototypical example of the U.S. government grappling with a big tech company’s power. But it is also, in many ways, a narrow case: It focuses exclusively on Google’s dominance of internet search and search ads, and rests on established laws and precedents. Even if successful, it’s unlikely to significantly curtail the massive reach or influence of Google’s trillion-dollar parent company, Alphabet. And it has nothing to say about other pressing issues raised by the culture and commercial ascendance of internet platforms, such as their personal data collection, digital surveillance, engagement algorithms, implicit biases, concentration of wealth and power, employment practices, or control over the flow of online information. I’ve already written in depth about the lawsuit itself, so for this week’s Pattern Matching, I thought it might be useful to step back and review the big picture of tech regulation, so as to better perceive the shape and scope of the single puzzle piece that is the Google antitrust case. When you start to realize how many other pieces there are, and how far they all are from coming together, it becomes clear that this will be a work in progress for not just years, but possibly decades to come. But its formative salvos may help to shape its course — and those are happening now. The Pattern The battle of Big Tech is just beginning. History tells us that trust-busting takes time. Federal antitrust law has its beginnings in the 1880s, when the rise of sprawling conglomerates such as Standard Oil sparked demand for protection of both consumers and independent businesses. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 laid the legal groundwork for federal intervention, and the first trustbusting era began in earnest with the 1904 breakup of Northern Securities, a railroad trust formed by the mergers of some of the companies largest lines. The 1914 Clayton Act broadened the scope of antitrust law, though the initial wave of American trustbusting subsided shortly afterward due to World War I. Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu’s 2018 book The Curse of Bigness lays out this history and its relevance to Big Tech today. (It is that original, 130-year-old Sherman Act that Google now stands accused of violating.) Federal antitrust law has its beginnings in the 1880s, when the rise of sprawling conglomerates such as Standard Oil sparked demand for protection of both consumers and independent businesses. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 laid the legal groundwork for federal intervention, and the first trustbusting era began in earnest with the 1904 breakup of Northern Securities, a railroad trust formed by the mergers of some of the companies largest lines. The 1914 Clayton Act broadened the scope of antitrust law, though the initial wave of American trustbusting subsided shortly afterward due to World War I. Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu’s 2018 book The Curse of Bigness lays out this history and its relevance to Big Tech today. (It is that original, 130-year-old Sherman Act that Google now stands accused of violating.) For all the DOJ’s efforts to keep it simple, the Google case will likely take years to resolve. The Microsoft case on which it was modeled started with an inquiry in 1992, began in earnest with a lawsuit filed in 1998, and it was finally settled in 2001. By that time, the tech sector looked very different than it had at the outset: The World Wide Web and consumer internet had exploded, sparking the tech boom that birthed Yahoo, Google, and Netscape, to name a few. The Microsoft case on which it was modeled started with an inquiry in 1992, began in earnest with a lawsuit filed in 1998, and it was finally settled in 2001. By that time, the tech sector looked very different than it had at the outset: The World Wide Web and consumer internet had exploded, sparking the tech boom that birthed Yahoo, Google, and Netscape, to name a few. That dynamism — the stunning rises and swift falls of tech startups in the consumer internet’s heady first two decades — is what helped to convince regulators to take it easy on internet companies for the past two decades, clearing the path for the companies we now know as Big Tech to corner huge swaths of the industry. In turn, the largest tech firms have managed to subdue that market dynamism from which they emerged . Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google built their empires on innovative, user-friendly products. But they’ve fortified those empires through acquisitions, network effects, lock-in tactics, and bottomless troves of cash and data that enable them to copy and overwhelm upstart rivals. . Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google built their empires on innovative, user-friendly products. But they’ve fortified those empires through acquisitions, network effects, lock-in tactics, and bottomless troves of cash and data that enable them to copy and overwhelm upstart rivals. Big Tech’s dominance today has reached a level with few historical parallels, but the trusts of the Gilded Age offer perhaps the closest analogy, in terms of concentration of economic power and control of distribution networks. Accordingly, any serious reckoning with Big Tech will require far more than an antitrust lawsuit or two. Rather, as legal scholars such as Lina Khan and Tim Wu have argued, it will require a fundamental shift in the government’s posture toward the industry, and either a wholesale reinterpretation of existing laws or a battery of new ones. We’re now in the early stages of such a process — though how successful it will be is an open question. Rather, as legal scholars such as Lina Khan and Tim Wu have argued, it will require a fundamental shift in the government’s posture toward the industry, and either a wholesale reinterpretation of existing laws or a battery of new ones. We’re now in the early stages of such a process — though how successful it will be is an open question. In the realm of antitrust enforcement, Google is the first shoe to drop, but it probably won’t be the last. The Federal Trade Commission is nearing a decision on whether to file a lawsuit against Facebook , the Washington Post’s Tony Romm reported on Thursday. That suggests the FTC’s staff believes it has grounds for a suit, but it will need approval from three of the agency’s five commissioners. Three of those are Republicans, including the Trump-appointed chair, Joseph Simons. While the contents of any such suit have been closely guarded, it seems likely they would focus on Facebook’s penchant for either acquiring or copying rivals to maintain its social networking dominance. Apple and Amazon are also facing possible federal antitrust probes, and all four tech giants are embroiled in various civil, state, and EU cases. , the Washington Post’s Tony Romm reported on Thursday. That suggests the FTC’s staff believes it has grounds for a suit, but it will need approval from three of the agency’s five commissioners. Three of those are Republicans, including the Trump-appointed chair, Joseph Simons. While the contents of any such suit have been closely guarded, it seems likely they would focus on Facebook’s penchant for either acquiring or copying rivals to maintain its social networking dominance. Apple and Amazon are also facing possible federal antitrust probes, and all four tech giants are embroiled in various civil, state, and EU cases. The enforcement of existing antitrust laws could constrain some of the more aggressive business practices, and might clear marginally more space for rivals to emerge in certain sectors. But any such rivals would still face a daunting disadvantage in competing with established titans, which own the fields on which the other tech companies play. Unless courts begin to take a much broader view of those laws and get far more aggressive in their remedies, Big Tech as we know it will not change. The recommendations of last month’s House antitrust report — including tough new standards for acquisitions, and “structural separations” that would prevent dominant tech companies from competing with third parties on the platforms they own — would go a long way, rewriting the rules of competition in digital markets. Yet even then, future platforms would be playing by many of the same rules and face the same incentives, likely leading to similar business models and practices. There’s no reason to think modern life would be substantially different if Bing became the default search engine on Safari, iPhone users could download Android apps, Snap gobbled some of Facebook’s market share, or Amazon was forced to spin off AmazonBasics. That’s why a full reckoning with tech’s power will require a wave of new laws, focusing not just on competition but on data privacy, surveillance, online speech, and labor relationships . Some of those are in the works, and a few are even on the books already at the state and municipal level, though with mixed results. . Some of those are in the works, and a few are even on the books already at the state and municipal level, though with mixed results. California has been an early leader, passing bellwether laws on data privacy and the relationship between employers and workers in the gig economy. Both, however have been a mess to implement, and both are the subject of referendums on the November ballot. Proposition 22 and 24 are an object lesson in the difficulty of getting legislation right, when it comes to the novel societal problems introduced by technology. If there’s an upside to the dearth of serious national legislation on these issues so far, it’s that the lessons learned from these state-level battles — and from the EU, for that matter — could be used to inform better-crafted federal laws. But regulating tech was never going to be easy, nor quickly accomplished. If there’s an upside to the dearth of serious national legislation on these issues so far, it’s that the lessons learned from these state-level battles — and from the EU, for that matter — could be used to inform better-crafted federal laws. But regulating tech was never going to be easy, nor quickly accomplished. One of the trickiest realms for regulation is online speech and content moderation. In a hyperpolarized era, both left and right can vividly see the problem with platforms such as Facebook, Google, and even Twitter controlling both what we can say and what we see. That has led to calls from both sides to amend or repeal Section 230, the statute that shields online platforms from liability for what their users post and how they moderate it. But their goals in doing so are opposite: Donald Trump wants the platforms to be sued for restricting users’ speech (for instance, when they fact-check his posts) while Joe Biden wants them held liable for propagating falsehoods (for instance, when they don’t fact-check Trump’s posts). In a hyperpolarized era, both left and right can vividly see the problem with platforms such as Facebook, Google, and even Twitter controlling both what we can say and what we see. That has led to calls from both sides to amend or repeal Section 230, the statute that shields online platforms from liability for what their users post and how they moderate it. But their goals in doing so are opposite: Donald Trump wants the platforms to be sued for restricting users’ speech (for instance, when they fact-check his posts) while Joe Biden wants them held liable for propagating falsehoods (for instance, when they don’t fact-check Trump’s posts). If there is any single policy change that has the potential to reshape the internet in one fell swoop, it would be repealing Section 230. But it’s doubtful the result would be to anyone’s liking. Perhaps recognizing that, actors on both sides are pushing more modest changes: Trump’s FCC is working on rulemaking that would presumably constrain certain types of moderation, while this week two Democratic representatives proposed a bill that would remove the shield specifically for algorithmic amplification of certain harmful content. Legal experts I’ve talked to view both proposals as misguided, opening up a Pandora’s Box of litigation that likely only the largest could afford to defend against. But it’s doubtful the result would be to anyone’s liking. Perhaps recognizing that, actors on both sides are pushing more modest changes: Trump’s FCC is working on rulemaking that would presumably constrain certain types of moderation, while this week two Democratic representatives proposed a bill that would remove the shield specifically for algorithmic amplification of certain harmful content. Legal experts I’ve talked to view both proposals as misguided, opening up a Pandora’s Box of litigation that likely only the largest could afford to defend against. In the meantime, Facebook this week announced that its long-in-the-works, semi-independent Oversight Board can begin hearing cases — though it won’t have time to play any meaningful role in the November election. As a solution to the problems of online speech, a panel of high-profile experts tasked with reviewing specific thorny cases one by one on a network of 2 billion people seems rather underwhelming. But Casey Newton in his Platformer newsletter makes a persuasive case that it’s, well, better than nothing. And I’d submit that online speech might be one realm in which poorly thought-out regulation has at least the potential to be, well, worse than nothing. — though it won’t have time to play any meaningful role in the November election. As a solution to the problems of online speech, a panel of high-profile experts tasked with reviewing specific thorny cases one by one on a network of 2 billion people seems rather underwhelming. But Casey Newton in his Platformer newsletter makes a persuasive case that it’s, well, better than nothing. And I’d submit that online speech might be one realm in which poorly thought-out regulation has at least the potential to be, well, worse than nothing. It is possible — difficult, but possible — to imagine a future in which a handful of tech giants do not rule everything around us. For years, it was mostly activists and academics making the case that it’s a future we have to fight for. Narrow though it may be, what the Google antitrust suit symbolizes is that the U.S. government has rejoined the fight at last. Undercurrents Under-the-radar trends, stories, and random anecdotes worth your time. A nonprofit newsroom is trying to audit Facebook and YouTube’s algorithms. The Markup, edited by former ProPublica investigative journalist and longtime thorn-in-Facebook’s-side Julia Angwin, said it has built a custom web browser that will collect data on users’ social feeds to build a profile of what news stories the social media platforms are amplifying. A statistically valid sample of 1,200 Americans will be paid to install it and share real-time data with the nonprofit, which promises to discard personally identifying information. But this week also brought a reminder that Facebook doesn’t always take kindly to researchers studying its platform without its permission: The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the company is trying to shut down an NYU research project that uses a browser extension to study the political ads that volunteers see. Facebook claims scraping data from its site is a violation of its terms of service. The Markup, edited by former ProPublica investigative journalist and longtime thorn-in-Facebook’s-side Julia Angwin, said it has built a custom web browser that will collect data on users’ social feeds to build a profile of what news stories the social media platforms are amplifying. A statistically valid sample of 1,200 Americans will be paid to install it and share real-time data with the nonprofit, which promises to discard personally identifying information. But this week also brought a reminder that Facebook doesn’t always take kindly to researchers studying its platform without its permission: The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the company is trying to shut down an NYU research project that uses a browser extension to study the political ads that volunteers see. Facebook claims scraping data from its site is a violation of its terms of service. Spotify has launched a radio-style daily morning show, TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez reported. The three-host show, called The Get-Up, “will combine news, pop culture, entertainment and music,” and will be released at 7 a.m. ET each weekday. Unlike a radio show, however, the music is personalized to each listener; the show is arranged in the form of a playlist; and you can download and listen to it anytime. What’s interesting here is not the show itself, but the vision it represents of radio’s possible future. Headline of the week Gig workers’ only chance to pee is apparently an app — Edward Ongweso, Jr., Motherboard Tweet of the week Idea of the week An “App Store”-like model for feed-ranking algorithms, so that users of platforms such as Facebook can choose their own. (While it’s possible this is not a novel idea, I found it interesting that the person casually proposing it here was a designer at Facebook.) — David Gillis, Facebook designer Colored Pencil Drawing of the Week

https://onezero.medium.com/the-battle-that-will-define-big-tech-for-decades-141f192b86d5

['Will Oremus']

2020-10-24 12:57:19.216000+00:00

['Technology', 'Politics', 'Google', 'Pattern Matching', 'Antitrust']

Virtualis: A tour agency to discover the bizarre social worlds of VRChat

During the pandemic, the virtual worlds of video games became the spaces where people could continue their social life by other means. Some players built a blocky version of their favorite local pub on Minecraft, others visited their friends’ islands on Animal Crossing, still others went to concerts on Fortnite. A smaller but equally ingenious group of players flocked to VRChat, the virtual reality social platform developed by Graham Gaylor and Jesse Joudrey. There, they created a galaxy of unusual social worlds (like Minecraft, also VRChat is based on user-generated content) including an accurate reconstruction of the infamous Four Seasons Total Landscaping’s car park, the suburban location where Trump held a comedic press conference in the final throes of his campaign. Oh, and they recreated it as a hangout for furries. Since its inception in 2014, VRChat, which supports most virtual reality headsets and it’s accessible also via PC, has become a bizarre online hangout rich in memes and controversies. In between NSFW content galore, episodes of racism and widespread trolling, Gaylor and Joudrey’s social platform has been routinely accused of being just another online toxic dump. However, if you know where to go, there are corners of VRChat that are teeming with creativity and humanity. They’re also fertile ground to speculate on concepts such as time and money in this age of extreme virtuality. But to make the most out of your virtual journey and avoid ending up in hostile territories plagued by trolls, you do need a seasoned tour guide. Even better if they’re two. Luckily, you can just visit Virtualis, the first tour agency in VRChat. Virtualis was created by Lydia Jessup and Matt Romein, two artists and researchers based in New York City, as a conceptual experiment in between art and technology. Jessup and Romein had been researching social VR as a medium for a while and were looking for a playful way to engage audiences with their ideas about human life on planet VRChat. In the end, they decided to create Virtualis to show visitors around and share their fascination for social virtual reality. The project was presented at IDFA DocLab 2020, the interactive and immersive media program of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam. We had the awesome opportunity to visit Jessup and Romein in their virtual office and talk with them about social VR and the history&culture of VRChat. You can watch the video on our YouTube channel:

https://medium.com/submarine-channel/virtualis-a-tour-agency-to-discover-the-bizarre-social-worlds-of-vrchat-dd6cb704a960

['Davide Banis']

2020-12-01 14:07:06.935000+00:00

['VR', 'Virtual Reality', 'Immersive Storytelling', 'Social Media', 'Vrchat']

Why We Need to Change How We Speak To and About Younger Generations

As one generation of people fulfills their lives, another is constantly rising behind them to follow in their footsteps. Even though the faces of the people inhabiting this earth change over time, the earth they live on remains constant. Just as the older generation has already experienced most of their lives, the younger generation is just beginning their journeys through existence here on this planet. The older generation’s responsibility is to encourage, uplift, and prepare the younger people to make the world a better place. According to journalist Luca J. Peterson, the younger generation seems to be progressing towards working with passion rather than working only for a paycheck. They tend to want to enjoy their work and find some sort of fulfillment in it. Many young people are driven by the dream of “changing the world around them,” causing a spike in global advocacy for change in areas such as international relations, environmentalism, and humanitarian efforts. The younger generation views life as an opportunity to make things better for themselves and the people around them. It is important to speak words of encouragement and support to young people who are striving for greatness — if they are continuously put down or criticized by people of the older generation, their efforts could become less concentrated on bettering the world and more focused on proving the older generation wrong. If the world constantly built up the people who were fighting for positive change in societies worldwide, there would be a lot more positive change to occur. We also need to change the way we talk about the younger generation. Many have called millennials and “Gen Z” the “generation of instant gratification” due to the rapid advancements in technology and communication we’ve seen in our time. These people are stereotyped as lazy, self-centered, and “soft.” Removing these stereotypes and encouraging the opposite behaviors in younger people can inspire them to continue striving for positive change in their lives and the world around them. If they are constantly put down and belittled, how can they be expected to fight for good? Changing how we talk to and about the younger generation is vital to ensuring that they are prepared, motivated, and supported enough to continue making the world a better place for themselves and the next generation to follow them. Why not be a part of such a positive movement?

https://medium.com/@jeffhorton1/why-we-need-to-change-how-we-speak-to-and-about-younger-generations-c1e2cbbbb52e

['Jeff Horton']

2020-12-11 17:43:35.907000+00:00

['Equity', 'Jeff Horton', 'Society', 'Generation Gap']

Creating Visualization for Influence in Power BI

Photo by Samuel Clara on Unsplash Data can be complex, which often results in multiple data types: character, binary, numerical, and more to describe a set of facts. Familiarity of dealing with repositories is an association. However, having a small amount of data in a spreadsheet and checking semantics to gauge response in slices is a viable way to analyze data with efficiency producing meaningful results. Once an analysis is completed on a small set, the same method can be applied at scale in a larger framework. Semantics: meaning of words, language. This is a common term in Artificial Intelligence for Natural Language Processing to describe the inference relationship of communication, typically speech. Slice: is a thin piece cut from a larger piece. Definitions often include that this term is only with food items. For our purposes, and in analytics, slice is not edible. It is data. Objective Show example of data mining with Power BI and output a hierarchy of results based on inference of data. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technique in Power BI, we will understand where heart failure if more likely to occur and by what amount showing geographical influence of a diagnosis projecting probability of health outcomes. Description of tools in Power BI Analytics for language processing like semantics, image detection, and integration with Azure Machine Learning recent additions. Visuals now include slicing for AI features to represent results in hierarchy within Power BI not requiring integration for analysis of locally stored low feature data. Power BI is an application from Microsoft that is a more powerful analysis tool than Excel and a unique portfolio of capabilities. Example This example uses a dataset of Medicare claims. The claims are analyzed to find where an event is most likely to occur. Within Power BI, go through data import for the claims file. Selecting the visualization tab on the left of the window, select “key influencers”. This will slice the data to find the most likely places of heart failure, or the places where heart failures are more common as reasoned by Medicare claims. The conclusion are the three states with highest rate of heart failure are Colorado (CO), Mississippi (MS), and New Hampshire (NH). This shows where this event is more common and likely to occur. The Finish This is a sample and solution can be changed to scale from the spreadsheet to linking database for big data analytics data to mine semantics for reliable outcomes. Try it and find slicing to be a great visual for telling a story with data. Data available at : https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/center-for-medicare-medicaid-services-cms-medicare-claims-data

https://medium.com/ai-in-plain-english/implementing-a-visualization-for-influence-in-power-bi-798642461572

['Sarah Mason']

2020-11-16 08:33:00.961000+00:00

['Probability', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'AI', 'Power Bi', 'Data Visualization']

What the F*ck does being a Teenager Mean? By Mimi

What even is being a teenager. Currently it’s a mix of glorified sexualization, putting others down, lifting other up, being sad, binge watching shows and CONSTANTLY being horny. (personal experience) Being horny 24/7 sucks because it feels like a routine, you take a break from it for what? A week? Then it’s back to being everyday again and getting turned on by the littlest things. Now as a female I cannot imagine what dudes must be feeling. They have something that visibly shows when they get in the mood and we women don’t. To add onto being horny a lot there is also the oversexualization or the glorified sexualization of everything. I’d like to start off by saying it’s not sexual unless you make it. Boobs are not sexual, ass is not sexual, dick’s are not sexual. Of course they can be used for pleasure, but on the other hand so can everything else. As a women who likes other women as well as liking men and other genders I have found that I’ve never found a woman's boobs sexual unless I liked them as more than friends. Same goes for men. Of course they can look good, but I don’t feel the need to think of them sexually and I hate oversexualizing. But as teens it’s almost culture to look as hot as you can… If they are not trying to seduce me, if they are not straight up saying I think you’re hot and I want to have sex with you then I’m not going to think of them that way. As I have also mentioned before I’m always horny. So if I, A bisexual female in the prime of my horniness can control my urges so can everyone else. *** When I was younger I use to watch high school musical and shit, it use to be so cool seeing these teens dressed up. Not the dancing or the drama, but the outfits. Unlike most people my age I didn’t go into high school having a shit ton of expectations. I knew I wasn’t going to make a shit ton of friends and I knew there was going to be drama with the ones I had, but what I really wanted was the outfits. The cool high heels, the dresses, the coats, the FASHION! But instead I got these crusty white boys pretending to be black. Now don’t get me wrong, I love all people and I will do whatever I can to help empower everyone. But as I am human I have… limitations so to speak. I cannot stand the white kids at my school (my school is in the lesser neighborhoods of my city) who try to pass as black. Of course I don’t know everyone's history and I can’t tell for sure who is and who isn’t black ( or just a P.O.C in general) just from looking at them but I can make an educated guess. They all wear the same clothes, accordion jeans that sink below their ass cheeks, zip up hoodies, tube tops, off brand Gucci, the “works”. Don’t even get me started on the skinny jeans. PLEASE DO NOT GET ME STARTED ON THE SKINNY JEANS! Again like I said before I am normally very supportive of what people feel comfortable and happy wearing, but they make this a whole personality trait. You know what I mean right? I promise I’m also not talking about the “Ghetto” clothes, that’s not what I mean, rich white girls do this too. I’m just saying you A: must have some real talent to work those skinny jeans and B: also must have some talent if you can turn those outfits into a personality trait. Not only did I think being a teenager and going into high school would be fashionable but I thought it meant more freedom and being one step closer to being an adult. I’m two years away from moving out and being all by myself in a new big city for college and I don’t even know how credit cards work. Shouldn’t that be a mandatory class or something we have to take in high school? I swear to the Gods I know nothing about being an adult. I don’t even get the chance to go out and pretend to be one for once. I have to stay inside and study all day. I mean currently we have a deadly global pandemic that has killed 1.3 million people but… I was so excited to be a teen and finally get to go to the mall and hangout with kids on the weekend. I wanted to sneak out and have fun. Maybe kiss a few different people too I don’t know. But even without the deadly pandemic that looms over all of our heads, I know for a fact I wouldn’t be aloud out of the house often to do any basic teenager things. I feel trapped. I feel like part of my teenage years were stolen, in a way they were… but I’m trying to think of it as a year of self rehabilitation. While my home life could have been a little better it wasn’t the worst it could possibly be. Maybe romanticizing the worst year of my life is the only way I can truly get through the rest of this. All I have to say for tonight, Good Night ladies, gentlemen, non-binary’s, neo pronouns users and everyone else I have not mentioned. XOXO, Mimi ❤

https://medium.com/@hiimmimiii/what-the-f-ck-does-being-a-teenager-mean-by-mimi-881a24010184

[]

2020-12-19 07:13:30.794000+00:00

['Teenagers', 'Covid', 'High School', 'Teen Years', 'Teenage Problems']

Earn more with Hivemapper through our Referral Program!

TL;DR Referring someone to become a Hivemapper Dashcam Contributor can earn you up to $500! Start referring today! We believe that it’s more fun to have people you know contribute to Hivemapper’s decentralized, global map. Whether you have a friend, family member, coworker, or anyone that you know that’s already driving around on any given day, they too can earn rewards through our Honey program. Now with our Referral Program, you and your referral can earn even more! ‌💡 How does it work? For every referral you make, you and your referral earn rewards*. For every milestone your referral makes, you and your referral earn more! (*See conditions below) ‌⚙️ What are the conditions?‌ First, you must have an account with us in order to participate in the Referral Program. Referrals must map within our current dashcam active markets Referrals must be on the Honey’s Tile Attribution program and contribute with the approved dashcams in order for both you and your referral to earn these rewards. Here’s a breakdown of our Referral Program:‌ 🐝 Grow the Hive: For every referral, you get $50 and your referral gets $50 Condition: Referral must drive at least 35km (unique) or collect 15050 total unique tiles in their first 30 days 🚀 Milestones Every time your referral hits one of the following milestones, you and your referral earn more! If your referral hits a milestone of 250km (unique) or collects 111,800 total unique tiles in their first 30 days , you and your referral will get $100 , you and your referral will get If your referral hits a milestone of 500km (unique) or collects 215,000 total unique tiles in their first 60 days , you and your referral will get $150 , you and your referral will get If your referral hits a milestone of 1,000km (unique) or collect 430,000 total unique tiles in their first 90 days, you and your referral will get $200 🧐 How do you track my referrals? In order to ensure you get credit for your referral, please send us your referral’s username (they can find this on the top right hand of their dashboard when they log in). From there, if/when they hit the milestones, we can make sure we pay you and referral the rewards you’ve accomplished. (they can find this on the top right hand of their dashboard when they log in). From there, if/when they hit the milestones, we can make sure we pay you and referral the rewards you’ve accomplished. Note: We understand that purchasing a dashcam to be a Network Contributor can be tough. We’ve set up a program where we can help with this. If you or your referral is interested, please send us an email at contributor-support@hivemapper.com.‌ We’re very excited to have you assist in growing our Network Contributors to help create a decentralized, global map!‌ Happy Mapping! 🗺

https://medium.com/@hivemapper/earn-more-with-hivemapper-through-our-referral-program-5e94f9732d6e

['Hivemapper Network']

2021-09-02 18:57:48.484000+00:00

['Hivemapper', 'Built With Hivemapper', 'Earn Money Online', 'Mapping', 'Referral Program']

Imposter Syndrome is Undead

Photo by Jodie Morgan on Unsplash Imposter Syndrome is undead but not alive. If something is alive, then it is possible to kill it. Imposter Syndrome is invincible and will never die, it will suck the life and motivation out of you like a hungry vampire that hasn’t fed in thousands of years. It thrives inside our minds and feeds off self-doubt as it consumes every bright spark of creativity. I haven’t written as much as I should have these past months. I wrote a funny, scary Halloween story whose performance got cancelled on account of stupid Atlanta weather. I take it as a personal insult when it rains on Halloween especially since it hasn’t rained on Halloween in ten years. Maybe I’ll find another home for the story where someone will keep it safe from storms and internet trolls. I haven’t written anything meaningful or challenged myself with any baking projects. It’s been a time of introspection and messages from the universe, if you will indulge me. I recently learned I have scoliosis and asthma that is exacerbated by my job. I need to quit my job but the only work I want to do is write. This is where Imposter Syndrome sunk its fangs into my heart. How dare I think anyone would read something created by me much less want to pay me for my work? My husband has taken over the kitchen. He is trying to make cheddar jalapeño biscuits from a mix for cheddar muffins. I told him it’s not going to work because the batter will not be as thick as the batter used to make biscuits and he’s going to wind up with cheddar jalapeño pancakes. He doesn’t care, he’s going to fly in the face of promised failure and make them because he wants to see what will happen. It’s a good lesson in defeating the voices that say you can’t do something, you’re not good enough, and you cannot make good art. The only way to quiet those screeching harpies although there is no way to silence them is to plunge ahead. Paint, write, and apply for that job you’re not qualified for or go back to school to learn for the sake of learning regardless of the clatter in your head. This will not vanquish Imposter Syndrome but may force it to rest in its coffin until called to rise again with the next dark sky. I am still wrestling with the desire to quit my job and live a happier and healthier life and the need to pay bills, have health insurance and care for my dogs. I spoke with my husband about how I felt inadequate and not worthy of being a paid writer. He shrugged and turned back to the painting he was working on, “If all you want to be is a hairdresser that’s fine but if you want to be a writer then you need to write.” Later that day, I received an acceptance email from a magazine. I submitted an essay to them that I thought would never be printed because it was weird and they probably received much better submissions than mine. They loved the piece and wanted to know how I wanted to receive payment. This did not drive a stake through the heart of Imposter Syndrome. I can still hear the whispers that the magazine made a mistake in accepting my work but those treacherous voices hiss and spit from the shadows as I bask in the temporary glow of hope that I could be a writer. In case you were wondering, I don’t think Red Lobster is going to hire my husband to make their Cheddar Bay biscuits but as cheddar jalapeño pancakes, they weren’t too bad.

https://medium.com/@lenore/imposter-syndrome-is-undead-9732dbbe2f46

['Jyll Thomas']

2019-11-10 17:59:14.506000+00:00

['Relationships', 'Acceptance', 'Writing Life', 'Baking', 'Imposter Syndrome']

Connascence —Part II: Types of connascence

Connascence of Name I want to start with the most desirable type of connascence — connascence of Name — and tell you why it is best of all the other types. Connascence of Name is when two components must agree on the name of something. In the example below Age is mentioned in the class Customer and is referenced later on line 8. If you’d want to change the property Age in line 3 into something else, you’d have to change the reference on line 8 (and also anywhere else) where it is referenced. Connascence of Name It’s easy to see why this type of connascence is the most desirable of all the other types. Modifying connascence of name is literally a no brainer. Modern IDEs can do it automatically for you. That’s why you should always strive for this kind of connascence. Because in this state the code is least coupled and easiest to change. Connascence of Type The next connascence is connascence of Type. It means that two components must agree on the type of something. In the example below the function sayHello takes a parameter and returns a string. But on line 10 you see that you pass in a number to our sayHello function. And usually you don’t want to mix different types with each other. Connascence of Type with close Locality In programming languages, e.g. JavaScript, that doesn’t support strong types, it’s easy to do it accidentally. Now you could say “Hey, I’m a Java or C++ developer. These kind of code wouldn’t even compile on my platform. Does it mean that connascence of Type doesn’t apply to people who write in a strong typed language?” Good question. Let’s see at the next example: Below we have another example for connascence of type. This time it’s a database call creating a Payment-table with a column Amount of type integer. In the code, however, we reference to them as a Payment class with the attribute Amount of type decimal. Connascence of Type with far way Locality You have to modify either the database or the part of your code in order for the whole system to be correct again. So, it happens with with strong typed languages as well. Connascence of Meaning Next in line is connascence of Meaning. It means that two components must agree on the interpretation of a value. Connascence of Meaning What does the value 123.45 actually represent? All you know is that it probably should represent money. But in what currency? Euro? Dollar? Yen? Potatoes? Sheep? Ok, the last two ones was a joke. But the point is: We don’t know. You probably have encountered that problem already, but called the “magical number” problem. This is also another cool thing about connascence: It gives existing problems a name and puts it into a context. Connascence of position The next connascence is connascence of position. This means that two components must be adjacent or occur in a particular order. The following example shows a function that takes 3 parameters. Calling this function means you have to put the arguments in a certain order. This function is a connascence of position with 3 degrees, because of the 3 parameters that must occur in the same order. Up till here you may think, connascence is only applicable to programming langues. This example, however, shows it is also applicable to HTML and CSS: The HTML code on the left shows a nested structure of a section that contains a header and content . The CSS code on the right shows that the text color of the first child of the section should be red. The HTML code is of connascence of position because the correct display of elements is dependent on the position of the HTML elements. Changing the position of the HTML elements, e.g. by switching the position of content and header , would result in a wrong display of elements. This example shows connascence can be applied not only to strong typed and loosely typed languages but also to mark up languages, like HTML and CSS as well. It basically covers frontend to backend. Connascence of Algorithm This connascence means that two components must agree on a particular algorithm in order to work correctly. Examples are encryption, e.g. SHA-2, SHA512, etc. If the sender changes it’s encryption algorithm, the receiver has also to change it’s decryption algorithm. Connascence of Execution Order You encounter connascence of Execution Order whenever the execution of two components is important for the code to deliver the correct result. Typical examples are locking and unlocking of resources. Or open and closing of a stream. It’s easy to see why the order of execution is important for the code to work correctly: You can only unlock or close after you have lock respectively open a resource. This kind of connascence is most prevalent in procedural programming languages but far less prevalent in functional languages. Connascence of Time Connascence of Timing is when two component must agree on the timing of execution. This usually happens with concurrent elements. The negative example would be race condition. Connascence of Value This means that several values have to change together for the code to work correctly. The following function returns the value 50 in line 72 and expects the same value in line 66 . Changing the value of the function also means changing the value in the assertion. Connascence of Identity Connascence of Identity means that two components have to reference the same entity. This happens when you obtain an object from a database in different parts of your code and want to update that object. The update must be in consistent once it is put back again in the database.

https://levelup.gitconnected.com/connascence-part-ii-types-of-connascence-35ce49f7c1b0

[]

2020-12-17 14:11:47.342000+00:00

['Code Quality', 'Frontend', 'Backend', 'Clean Code', 'Connascence']

Buy Now Pay Later or More?

With the arrival of Black Friday, are you ready to participate in the mad shopping frenzy? It’s time to swipe your cards. Australians love their credit cards, and it seems we’ve fallen head over heels for “buy now pay later” options like ZipPay and Afterpay. Buying something with no upfront payment required and no interest rates charged seems to be quite fascinating. But there are a few red flags that have highlighted potential issues with the delayed payment industry now. What is the actual impact of “buy now pay later” arrangements on consumers? Is it a good idea for us to buy now and pay later? Yes, it may be a good idea, but we should also be concerned about the costs. Missed payment fees Although many of the “buy now pay later” providers appear to be interest-free, “hidden costs”, such as late payment penalties, can also act as the interest on the loan. According to the customer research conducted by the ASIC, one in five “buy now pay later” users missed a payment in the last year. ASIC has also flagged that from 2016 to 2019, the percentage of “buy now pay later” transactions that incurred missed payment fees fluctuated between 9% and 15% each month. Although the percentage of transactions incurring missed payment fees is relatively stable, the growth of the user base in “buy now pay later” arrangements means the number of missed payment fees incurred continues to grow. In the 2018–19 financial year, missed payment fee revenue for all buy now pay later providers in our review totalled over $43 million, a growth of 38% compared to the previous financial year. Overcommitment Another real problem is that the “buy now pay later” arrangements give consumers an illusion that it is easier to spend money with options like ZipPay and Afterpay. To some extent, “buy now pay later” arrangements have induced users to increase their debts, even to the point where users cannot repay them. ASIC has flagged that with the help of the “buy now pay later” model, more than half of users are now spending more than they were previously spending. Other negative consequences Beyond missed or late payment fees or account-keeping fees as a result of “buy now pay later” arrangements, there are some other “buy now pay later” users experiencing negative consequences. Among these, excessive consumption and future wealth overdraw are main problems. ASIC has pointed that nearly half of users aged between 18 to 29 cut back on essential items to make repayments, and 15% of consumers had to take out an additional loan to make their “buy now pay later” payments on time. These consequences were more prevalent among consumers who used multiple buy now pay later arrangements Affected by the “buy now pay later” platform at the best time of wealth accumulation, the young generation have indulged in overconsumption and have overdrawn their future wealth. Conclusion In the contemporary economic environment, “buy now pay later” platforms are becoming more enticing and less regulated. The reason why ASIC supervised Afterpay was not to challenge the inherent financial system, but to protect those who take greater risks due to the cost of “buy now pay later” arrangements. What we should make sure is that the purpose of financial innovation is making the financial system serve people better, rather than becoming a tool to exploit investors and pass risks on to the financial market.

https://medium.com/@tanggram/buy-now-pay-later-or-more-723930650282

[]

2020-11-25 00:48:24.807000+00:00

['Debt', 'Wealth', 'Saving', 'Consumption']

I Keep Finding Confederate War Monuments Underneath My Bed

I don’t know how it happens. Days will go by, sometimes months, once even a whole year without incident. And then, one day, I wake up and there they are again: hundreds of Confederate war monuments, all crammed beneath my bed where the cat likes to hide and puke. I don’t know where they come from, or why they’ve chosen my bed to retreat to. But they always have, my whole life. I assumed this was normal, that from time to time, everyone woke up to find Confederate war monuments looking back at them from underneath their beds. I never thought to ask anyone else about their Confederate war monuments, or if they were the same as mine. I had all of the famous ones, and the rare ones too. They all had that sad stone look in their eyes. Most of them had mustaches and looked like criminals. The first time I found them, I was real little. I had cut my foot on a stray bayonet. My mom came in after she heard me wailing and said, “What’s the matter?” She looked down and saw all of the Confederate war monuments lying there and sighed. “Well alright, then,” she said, and proceeded to drag them each out by their ankles, thousands of pounds of stone and brass, and put them in the garbage can. The lid didn’t fit so they all sat there, looking back into my window. A few years later, I decided to use a bean bag for a bed. I was getting old enough to make my own decisions and it seemed safe: the Confederate war monuments hadn’t come back for years. But the first night I slept on it, they returned, cavalry swords in hand. The Confederate war monuments punctured my bean bag and its guts spilled into one big pile. They were buried under a mountain of tiny white pellets. You could only see the brims of their grey stone kepi hats. In the morning when my mom came in and saw the mess and the Confederate war monuments, she said, “That’s it, we’re getting you a futon.” Mom enlisted Dad to help with the Confederate war monument removal, back out to the garbage cans, and I ran the vacuum cleaner. It wasn’t a big deal. After, we all watched the Western channel together on TV. They started showing up more frequently after that, though, maybe once or twice a month. I was getting older, and so were my parents. They were tired of dragging the Confederate war monuments out of my room for me. They asked me to start taking some responsibility and take care of them myself. And so I did, when I remembered to. Sometimes I’d forget and the Confederate war monuments would get covered up in dirty underwear and the crumbs of old food. Before I moved out, they made me double check that I didn’t miss any under there. Now, they appear almost every day. Try as I might, I can’t keep up with their removal. Every morning, there are more and more. After the space beneath the bed was filled, they took to lining the closet, stacking up in the bathtub, commandeering the condiment door of the refrigerator. I even found some hiding in my bookcase, using big classic American literature texts as cover. No matter what I do, there are always more. Like bed bugs. The apartment has begun to be claimed entirely by Confederate war monuments. Cleaning is a lost cause. It’s a shame too: it’s my first apartment. All they do is drink sangria and listen to NASCAR on the radio real loud. None of them ever apologize. They stare at me relentlessly. I can’t tell what they are waiting for. But, to the losers go the statues, or so I’ve learned. I’ve gotten so goddamn tired of looking after Confederate war monuments that I sat them all down and had them fill out job applications. We fudge a little and don’t check the box for “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?” For special skills, they all write “Rebel-rousing.” They’ve been taken on immediately at Chick-fil-A. Everyone is thanking me for my participation, but really, it’s been my pleasure.

https://medium.com/slackjaw/i-keep-finding-confederate-war-monuments-underneath-my-bed-d2a6e3a293ec

['Avery Gregurich']

2020-07-08 16:06:00.915000+00:00

['Civil War', 'Humor', 'Writing', 'America', 'Satire']

MAKE YOURSELF HAPPY

Women are often the multitaskers of the family. We have to take care of kids, house, food, and husband. We have to remember everybody’s games and appointments. Women keep track of all the little, but oh-so-important things, it takes to make our individual worlds move. However, often we forget to take care of ourselves. Unfortunately, a think a lot of women feel that it is wrong or selfish to take care of our needs, to make ourselves happy. I had to do a lot of growing up to understand that if I don’t take care of myself, I really cannot take care of my family. We have to be in a good place in order to bring those who we care about to their good place in life. I hope that you, my reader, find that special something (or a lot of something) that restores your mental peace. Whether it is (don’t laugh) diffusing essential oils, or taking a break when there still 100 of unread work emails, or watching kids’ silly cartoons with them, find it, love it, and embrace it! Let’s not delay our own happiness to make sure every other chore or thing gets done! Life is short (sometimes too short), and we will be remembered not by the chores we did, but by the moments when we are happy or goofy, or whatever it is that lets our true self show. We will be remembered by the connections we make and relationships we forge, not by number of emails we answer, or by other chores we completed. Make every moment count and don’t delay your happiness! Love, KaSandra

https://medium.com/@wordsbykasandra/make-yourself-happy-fe0d580e30a4

['Kasandra The Writer']

2020-12-22 16:45:57.380000+00:00

['Moms', 'Momlife', 'Self Care', 'Self Love', 'Motherhood']

Best Baby Crappers | Best Baby Potty Seats Under 1000₹

Best Baby Crappers under 1000 Baby Potty Seat Under 1000 Best Baby potty seat under 1000 Baby stools and potty seat|crappers under 1000 Best Baby Crappers | Best Baby Potty Seats Under 1000₹ A potty or potty chair is a proportionately small chair or enclosure with an opening for seating very young children to “go potty.” It is a variant of the close stool which was used by adults before the widespread adoption of water flushed toilets. There are a variety of designs, some placed directly over the toilet called “Toilet Training Seats” so the egested fecal material drops directly into the toilet bowl thereby eliminating manual removal and disposal of the said waste from a receptacle beneath the hole which is often a bag or receptacle similar to a chamber pot. Potty chairs are used during potty training, a.k.a. toilet training. Potty Seat vs. Potty Chair A Potty Chair is a little training potty that sits by itself on the floor. Most of them have a removable basin that you can dump and clean.Unless you’re dealing with a kid over the age of three, I feel that the potty chair is less intimidating for little ones who are dwarfed by the size of an adult potty. The Potty Seat (below), on the other hand, is a seat that reduces the size of the adult seat to a smaller size such that your kiddo won’t fall into the potty. If you can get your little one to sit on the real potty, score! No transfer of waste is required, and it’s so much less cleanup. Just keep in mind, your toddler might be intimidated by the sheer height of the potty. You’ll also need a kid’s step stool, unless your toilet happens to be really low to the ground. Or you live at a preschool. Which kind to get? In my experience, toddlers less than two or 2 ¼ prefer a potty chair and kids over 2 ¼ or 2 ½ seem to be okay with going on the big potty. At the end of the day, try both and let him decide which is more comfortable. Generally speaking, a potty chair is the safest bet, but most people end up getting a potty seat (sometimes called a seat reducer) later on when the child becomes a little bigger and more confident. Best Potty Chairs under ₹1000 Here are our favourite potty chairs. You can also other potty chairs and crappers form other targets like amazon and flipkart. If your child regrets to seat on the adult potty seat because of its hardness and because of its big size. Try this baby seat which as cool design with a soft plastic cushioned seat which will be very useful for your baby. Product Description:- Cushioned potty seat. Easy to place on top of a standard-sized household toilet. Easy to use and portable & Excellent for use in public restrooms. Colorful with printed animated charracter. A wonderful gift for the mother on the go. Another best Baby potty seat under 1000. This comes with a back support for both boys and girls. This Sun baby potty trainer is suitable for both boys and girls comes equipped with a comfortable seat so that it is convenient for the baby to use it and does not cause any damage to the baby’s delicate skin. This potty trainer features higher side structure makes baby more comfortable safe and comes with a cover . The comfortable and ergonomic design of this potty trainer makes it convenient for the baby to use it. Product Description:- Easy for washing Has a comfortable anatomical seat Light and it easy to carry with smooth edges. Light weight & easy to clean Portable Life’s little stories bloom with coming of the little one in your life. It completes your life with many joys of parenthood. Make a splash with baby hygiene products from Luvlap. Because little ones deserve the greatest care, our products are specially made for your baby’s gentle skin. They are guaranteed to help you baby make a splash in comfort and security. At LuvLap, we endeavor to weave the little stories into our products with an emphasis on child safety and enrichment of features. So that your little one gets the comfort that’s next only to the warmth of your lap. Conceived with care and made using the latest marvels of science, all LuvLap products undergo multiple quality checks before they are dispatched to the stores. Product Description:- Certified as per European Standards : EN 71 Smooth Edged Comfortable seat with Back rest Inner detachable bowl with lid for easy removal and wash Easily attaches to adult toilet seat Easily detached for convenient storage Light weight and easy to Carry Contact_us on: [ 18001207897 ] Removable tray for easy cleaning.Perfect for kids of age group: 6–36 months. Made from 100% virgin plastic. 100% hygienic. Suitable for both boys and girls, this potty trainer seat is perfect for toilet training. You can easily teach your child to place the seat on the toilet and sit himself or herself down with ease. It greatly helps in developing good clean toilet habits in your child. Easy to clean, this potty trainer seat dries quickly. Compact and easy to carry around, you can take this seat on vacation to enable your child feel comfortable and safe on the toilet anywhere. This attractive potty seat can be conveniently hung anywhere to save space. Product Description:- Product dimensions :Total product = Length 36 cm x width 29 cm x 22.5 cm ,Sitting area = sitting height 15.5 cm x length 25 cm x width 29 cm Western toilet type baby potty seat Made from virgin plastic, 100% hygenic. Durable and light weight Removable tray for easy cleaning,Wide comfortable seating area Perfect for kids of age group: 6–48 months BABY POTTY TRAINING SEAT : A soft pad can take the stress out of toilet training. Curved double-sided Handrail handle, in case they feel scared to sit on the big potty. A wide step makes them could turn and sit by themselves. The width of the opening from side to side is 16 cm (6.3 inches), The length of the opening from front to back is 23 cm (9 inches). Designed for the little boys and girls who aspire to be like Mom and Dad during potty training time. Chose an appealing one, great for toddlers learning how to sit on the adult toilet. Product Description:- The anti-slip wide step and double handrails design make it safe and convenient for babies to go up and down the ladder Suitable for most kids, recommended age from 1 to 5 Years Old Suitable for V-shaped, U-shaped, O-shaped toilets, NOT for Square Shaped Universally applicable for 99% standard-sized toilets ranging in height from 14" to 16.1" Can be folded compactly behind the door when not use, save your bathroom more space Step Stools Whether getting up to the big potty or getting up to the sink for hand washing, you’re gonna need some step stools. You can use the same one for both if you don’t mind moving it around. I have step stools all around my house, such as in the kitchen and bedroom closet, so the kids can get things for themselves. Very handy. Note: If your child is pretty small (or your sink is rather tall), you may need one of the taller stools for hand washing. LSARIMO Kids Two Step Stool for Bathroom, Kitchen, Sink Use and Children Toilet Potty Training Stool with Fun Design The two-step stools are portable, stackable, and built to last with a reinforced plastic base that can hold up to 350 lbs. These versatile, multipurpose Lsarimo stools can be used everywhere in the house and will give your toddlers and children that extra boost they need for many years to come. Product Description:- WARRANTY — Product have 90 Day* Warranty Register Your Warranty within 15 Days of Purchase. Warranty Activation is Mandatory STRONG STRUCTURE — this 2 step stool is designed in such a way that it can hold maximum load without having any distortion in structure. It also has 4 anti slip grip pads with unique rubber at base and anti skid foot pads to have any kind of slipping and thus protect your kid from any injury. COMPACT SIZE — this step stool is really small in size so that it can be adjusted anywhere in your household arena. It is also light weight so that your child can also handle it with very ease. UNIQUE DESIGN — for your kids to have fun in their normal activities we have came up with unique creative idea and changed designed from normal to cartoon character. EASY TO CLEAN — it is easy to clean you just have to clean it with wet cotton cloth and dry it with another cotton cloth that’s it. It will regain its shine and kid will love to use it. Potty toilet stool” naturally raises your feet for a healthy & perfect potty. It is scientifically designed to give the posture and efficiency of natural squatting while using the modern day western toilet. Hotty potty helps align the rectum with the anal canal, resulting in a more natural elimination position. This position also helps to open colon while supporting the abdominal wall, allowing for natural pressure to assist in completely emptying the bowel. This makes a complete bowel emptying potty, Color: White Product Description:- It has anti- slip foot pads, which is safety used in bathroom It is feel different at first, but the body quickly adjusts and the new healthy way of eliminating quickly becomes second nature It is proven to improve colon health and will improve symptoms of hemorrhoids, constipation, and bloating Owing it, you’ll experience a more complete elimination and your bathroom visits will be much, much shorter EASY ELIMINATION & HEALTHY COLON: Normal seating position will choked your colon and make the release more difficult. When using our Squatting toilet stool, the colon is released by changing the angle from 90 degrees to 35 degrees. It allows you an easier and more effective elimination, and relieve you from constipation, hemorrhoids, bladder, IBS & Bowel disease etc. Our unique design includes anti-slip feet, which not only can prevent slips during use, but can also give you a foot massage. We also add anti-slip strips on the bottom of the squatting toilet stool, for a safer and more stable usage. FOLDABLE FOR EASY STORAGE AND TRANSPORTATION: When you need it, just pull it out and install your feet simply on the bathroom step stool and keep a healthy position. When not in use, it can be FOLDED UP for portable use and space saving. Product Description:- Our folding squatting toilet stool allows you an easier and more effective elimination, and relieve you from constipation, hemorrhoids, bladder, IBS & Bowel disease etc. Adopt a natural, squatted position for quick and easy relief, keeping the hygiene of a modern toilet and having the huge health benefits of a natural squat. Foldable designed toilet stool can save more space and easier storage. Our toilet foot-rest works with any standard toilet Our unique foot shaped anti-slip surface design to prevent slipping and also it has function for foot massage. Design of replaceable perfume box when you go to the toilet, you can also feel the fragrance in the air. Multipurpose use as a child step stool and great as a potty training aid Size: 41Cm Length X 25Cm Width X 17.5Cm Height Approx., With Plastic material, both hardness and flexibility. Adapt to all people, the elderly and children, pregnant women. The 2 step stools are so helpful for toddlers and kids — in the bathroom, home and kitchen — that owning 1 stool is not enough for most families. In order to provide you greater value per dollar spent, we priced our 2 pack as a limited time introductory deal! . two step stools uses our new upgraded slip resistant rubber feet to grip floors, can be used on different floorings such as tiles, woods, and laminates. Dual height step stool for children are lightweight allowing kids to carry the stool on their own. It is also stackable and built to last with a reinforced plastic that can hold up to 180 lbs. HELPS YOUR CHILD LEARN AND GROW: Keep your growing littles ones perfectly prepare for the future with this step stool! Great for potty training, the dual height design helps any child reach sinks and countertops to brush their teeth and wash their hands. Product Description:- GIVE YOUR CHILD INDEPENDENCE: They may be small, but toddlers are ready to take on the world! Give them the boost they need with our children’s step stool. From reaching the potty seat and brushing their teeth to helping out in the kitchen, kids will love being more independent. STYLISH, STURDY & VERSATILE : Young kids seem to grow faster than parents can keep up. But thanks to its dual height design, our step stool for toddlers accommodates different ages and heights! Made from lightweight plastic, and measuring 10.3" High x 12.7" Wide x 14" Deep, it’s easy to move yet can hold up to 150lbs. GREAT FOR POTTY TRAINING: When used in conjunction with our matching toilet training seat, our step stool makes potty training a breeze! Made of the same materials and featuring a neutral gray and white color palette, this set fits seamlessly into any bathroom’s décor. REFINED SAFETY IN EVERY DETAIL: We care about the safety of your tot just as much as you do! That’s why our kids’ step stool features a slip-resistant design that provides a secure surface on all floor types. It also has soft-grip steps, giving little feet the comfort and support they need. DURABLE AND LIGHTWEIGHT: The two step stools are portable, stackable, and built to last with a reinforced plastic base that can hold up to 190 lbs. These versatile, multipurpose stools can be used everywhere in the house and will give your toddlers and children that extra boost they need for many years to come. Conclusion Check out our other best selling products from below:- Top best products Author & Editor Has laoreet percipitur ad. Vide interesset in mei, no his legimus verterem. Et nostrum imperdiet appellantur usu, mnesarchum referrentur id vim.

https://medium.com/@aryanarchana96012/best-baby-crappers-best-baby-potty-seats-under-1000-75a9913de376

['Top Productions']

2020-07-04 09:48:54.201000+00:00

['Best', 'Blog', 'Children', 'Baby Products', 'SEO']

How This Anxious Introvert Handles Large Events

If you only kinda know me you might think I’m a confident extrovert, but if you reallyreally know me, it’s more clear: I’m an introvert, and one who gets slightly anxious during prolonged exposure to large groups. Introversion isn’t shyness and it’s not a like or dislike of people generally. For example, I really enjoy public speaking. Introversion is quintessentially “does being around other people give you energy or take energy away?” Introverts can be proverbial life of the party but then need time alone to recharge. My own introversion is compounded by low level anxiety in large group settings, especially when the social dynamics start to approximate high school — you know, groups of people, some of whom know each other and others who don’t. A bit of hierarchy and peacocking starting to play out, alcohol flowing (I don’t drink much). Over time, and in the interest of self-care, here’s how I’ve approached my own expectations and behaviors at events, especially day-long or multi-day conferences: A. Depth Not Breadth When Meeting New People at Conferences: The routine went like this — end up at a conference with 100+ amazing people. Assume that “doing a good job” meant meeting and impressing all of them. Then beat myself up when I retreated from this goal after shaking a bunch of hands and finding myself unfulfilled, exhausted. So I changed my definition of success. It’s fine if I end up seeing a bunch of people but, really, if I can have meaningful conversations with just five, 10, 15 people over the course of a day, that’s a win. B. When I Feel Ready to Ghost, Stay 30m Longer: Before I’d quietly slip away whenever I felt the first tingles of “uh I don’t want to be here anymore.” Now I recognize that impulse, honor it, exhale and see if I’m cool staying another 30 minutes. Once I do this check-in I’m totally ok bouncing after 30 if that’s still the way I’m feeling, but often I’ll end up hanging out much longer without even knowing it. C. Take 30–60 Minute Recharges: Look for points in the schedule where it’s ok for me to go take a walk, grab a coffee, take a shower or exercise. Things that put me in another headspace and recharge me. Yeah so it’s not that I wasn’t interested in your panel topic, it’s that I needed some Hunter time. D. Pull People Aside for 1:1s: As Joe Greenstein knows from an annual conference we both attend, I’m a big fan of catching up over a 1:1 walk, even offsite from the event. I find this technique especially good at evening events where instead of a loud noisy drinking circle, I’ll find someone I wanted to spend time with and we’ll find a location to just sit and chat for 20–30 minutes before releasing back into the frenzy. E. Don’t Go In the First Place: With Homebrew, Satya and I kind of ‘divide and conquer’ when it comes to events, and we’re more likely to both decide not to go to something versus “arguing” over who should attend a fancy event. When we do both attend the joke is that I’m good 6am to 4pm and he then takes over 5pm to 2am. Near 24/7 coverage! But the pressure that I might have felt 10–15 years ago to attend every conference is gone. And you know what, the types of early stage founders we tend to resonate with most substantially aren’t on the conference circuit either. So instead of taking that week-long international trip, I’m in SF putting sweat behind our investments or meeting founders back home. Investing is generally about being self-aware enough to run your own playbook and pushing yourself when you need to, but not being all things to all people. How about the other anxious introverts out there — what are your strategies for conferences and events? Suggestions from the Crowd: Get attendee lists in advance to identify folks you know who are attending or people with whom you have mutual friends/interests Asking people I know at the event to introduce me to people I don’t. Even if I only know 1 person at first, this lets me have many convos… Also use a buddy system — Bringing a guest puts me at ease and makes it easier to meet new people My Blog | Twitter | Snapchat | Medium | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

https://hunterwalk.medium.com/how-this-anxious-introvert-handles-large-events-fc80c7361179

['Hunter Walk']

2017-12-19 18:25:17.060000+00:00

['Tech', 'Events', 'Anxiety', 'Introvert', 'Technology']

When Industrial IoT Comes to the Office

When Industrial IoT Comes to the Office On the complexity of IoT in the seemingly straightforward scenario of determining whether a conference room is occupied. One cool aspect of being part of Favorite Medium is that we get to work with emerging technology, such as industrial IoT. We’ve had the opportunity to work on IoT in many spheres from security to energy grids to physical space analytics. Our IoT projects have spanned the gamut. Sometimes we’re just trying to make an ordinary task a touch easier, such as ordering lunch with a button. Other times, we’re changing the way that people manage a chronic health condition like diabetes via a medical device. With the Internet of Things, it feels like we’re entering a new era. Chips are getting smaller, more powerful, and less costly to produce. Likewise, the software networks, data storage, and computational power needed to enable devices to communicate are also becoming cheaper to build and maintain. It’s clear that the potential to transform the operations of many industries — and the way that we live — is vast. Today, we’re sharing about a project that takes place in a location that’s familiar to many: the office space. The Conference Room Conundrum The question posed to us was: How can we make the best use of space in an office? Our client was interested in finding out if conference rooms were being used well. With real estate at a premium, using space efficiently is essential. Yet figuring out the most productive office configuration has proved to be a vexing problem for facilities managers. They didn’t have meaningful data to help them make informed decisions. Were the number of rooms and the amount of people they could hold the right number for the space? What if there was a way to look and see which conference rooms were available at any given time? On its face, this seemed like a straightforward issue. As we dug into these questions, we found that they became increasingly complex. To determine whether or not a room was occupied, we outfitted them with PIR (passive infrared) sensors that could detect motion. We built an app that integrated the client’s existing calendaring system. One could search for a room in real time, generating a list of what was available at that moment. Not only that, but if you had booked a meeting and weren’t in the room at the appointed time, the system would ask if you were still planning on using the space. If you didn’t respond within 10 minutes, it would cancel the reservation, freeing the room up for someone else to use. Installing a sensor under the conference table Unexpected Challenges The sensors in each room connected to a gateway via Bluetooth. However, we found that wireless Bluetooth sensors can be unreliable in buildings with a large amount of structural steel or with very thick walls. These can disrupt a sensor’s Bluetooth connection to a gateway. The pilot space we were testing happened to be located in an older building that had been retrofitted with large steel beams. Thus, the sensors constantly lost connection to the gateways. We conducted a lot of complicated field testing just on the reliability of the sensors. We also found that motion sensors by themselves were not sufficient. Some people like to fidget, but others sit very still. And in the case of the latter, sensors could miss them. There were times when a room became unlocked even though people were in it because there were insufficient sensors placed throughout the room to detect very still people or low occupancy (for example, two people taking up a 10-person conference room). To truly determine if humans were in the room, it would be ideal to add sensors that tracked temperature too. Another challenge was human. People had concerns about their privacy and were nervous about their calendars interacting with the reservation system. Some people didn’t want to participate in the system at all. At other times, people removed sensors. (A good inventory management system to track devices was important for this project!) Ultimately, any system needs buy-in on the individual and organizational levels in order for it to succeed. Photo by Carlos Muza on Unsplash Data Engineering in Office Space Analytics The conference room efficiency idea was then expanded to the larger space. What if we could generate analytics for the entire office space and see how well (or not) it was being utilized? To do this, we had to carefully design where we placed sensors. Then we collected and stored data for several months. Sensors help capture data in a way that’s far more accurate (and cost effective) than humans with clipboards observing the space. One key thing we did was separate the raw sensor data from the aggregated space data. So much data was being generated, but not all of it was necessarily meaningful. Cleaning up the data was crucial, as it allowed us to converge on an aggregated data model that supported a wide variety of queries. (Garbage data = garbage insights.) Thus, we could develop a wide variety of visualizations very quickly. Because the data was “flexible” we could manipulate it in many ways to deliver insights. Our designers and facilities consultants used the data to make recommendations on reconfiguring spaces to optimize how employees actually use the space. For example: the data might show that phone booths were often occupied, particularly at certain times of the day, but that hot desks were not. So, from a facilities standpoint, removing some desks to create more room for phone banks would increase space efficiency. Takeaways IoT doesn’t mean that you can just slap sensors on something to make it smart and expect it to start generating data. Even with something as seemingly straightforward as room reservations, we found a level of complexity that isn’t in many traditional web- or app-based software projects. Not only do you have data-related software engineering, you have networking and physics. (When steel and Bluetooth collide!) You also need a good understanding of human behavior related to the objects in their sphere that are collecting data about them. And then you need to understand how to sort and clean that data for it to generate meaning. You must deal with all of this just to let people know that a conference room is open or to tell them how they are using the spaces in their office. No matter what the situation or industry, when we approach this kind of platform, we’ve learned that it’s important to understand the broad challenges, not just the software challenges. We may work in the digital realm — but whether it’s analyzing something as ordinary as office space or something as important as medical data that could potentially save lives — at the end of the day, our work is centered on making people’s lives a little better and a little easier.

https://medium.com/fm-stories/when-industrial-iot-comes-to-the-office-4ba746a2bcb

['Favorite Medium']

2019-06-11 01:20:36.817000+00:00

['IoT', 'Data Engineering', 'Proptech', 'Sensors', 'Data Science']

Making Everyone in a Team a Winner

Making Everyone in a Team a Winner Photo by Rawpixel on depositphotos Creating Healthy Competition Healthy differences in the workplace energize without distracting from productivity. They challenge the mentality that is satisfied with good enough, and prompt workers to strive to perform better and better. Promoting healthy competition You cannot just develop healthy competition by chance. You must identify and implement some specific ways of behaving that will stimulate the right sort of competition. To create healthy competition, you should: make opportunities available to everyone, distribute rewards evenly, use objective performance measures, and explore the following three factors. Opportunities Opportunities must be open to everyone. The chance to be promoted, to bid for work, or to implement ideas must not be restricted to a favored few. You must let it be known that challenges can come from anywhere and anyone in the organization and opportunities are not only for a select few individuals. If staff members just think that they only have to wait it out to get the next job, it breeds complacency. Making opportunities available to everyone creates a positive working environment because everyone is encouraged to progress, and discouraged from stagnating. Rewards Do not restrict rewards to winners. Let everyone know that if they are unsuccessful in some endeavor, that you will help them to be successful next time. For those who do not succeed, the recognition may encourage them to make more effort next time. Objective performance criteria Use objective criteria to define success. Reputation and status should not be significant. Objective criteria need to be fair and transparent. That way, everyone can be measured against the criteria, and all who meet those criteria will succeed. In recruitment matters, for example, the reasons for an appointment should be clear to everyone so that no one can make accusations of favoritism or unfair practices. Such accusations could damage staff morale, and discourage people from applying for vacant positions in the future Encouraging competition is a difficult situation in which you try to achieve several different things at the same time. By opening up opportunities and making the criteria for success visible, you can reward more staff members. Then staff members do not have to fight to succeed. Rules of Effective Arguments Democracy is one of the greatest forces for good in Western society. An integral part of this democratic tradition is debate, which is formalized argument and challenge. Democracy is based on the notion that when people argue, they learn from each other. Arguing your case and being challenged to justify your opinion is a positive force in business, as much as in any other part of life. Of course, too much can mean argument for argument’s sake. But not enough can result in the failure to express feelings, which often leads to a sudden overreaction. Effective arguments Effective arguments are energizing, and make both parties think, rethink, and justify their positions. If an argument is to be effective, then it needs to follow certain rules to ensure that it is rational. To be effective, arguments must be: Justifiable — this means using facts that can be verified, and not subjective opinions. Cigarettes cause cancer is a fact-based argument. John Wayne was a good actor is just opinion. Arguments based on opinions rather than facts can easily turn into personal disputes — personality clashes are usually very damaging forms of conflict and are difficult to resolve. — this means using facts that can be verified, and not subjective opinions. Cigarettes cause cancer is a fact-based argument. John Wayne was a good actor is just opinion. Arguments based on opinions rather than facts can easily turn into personal disputes — personality clashes are usually very damaging forms of conflict and are difficult to resolve. On the same terms — one person might argue that oranges are the best fruit, but your favorite vegetable might be peas. This argument will never be effective because each person is arguing about something different. To be effective, an argument needs to be on the same terms. — one person might argue that oranges are the best fruit, but your favorite vegetable might be peas. This argument will never be effective because each person is arguing about something different. To be effective, an argument needs to be on the same terms. Open-ended — effective arguments do not necessarily have to end in agreement; sometimes people cannot, or do not, agree with each other. Good arguments can end with both sides agreeing to differ, and accepting and honoring their differences. Although people will not always agree with each other, if arguments are based on facts and equal terms, then the outcomes can be positive because the debate can cause bad feelings between people to disappear and help individuals to move forward from a disagreement. Remember that arguments work best when people are rational. An argument must have a purpose — engaging in a dispute just for the sake of it wastes time, energy, and resources. Similarly, if an argument is to be effective, parties must be flexible and reasonable — it is useless to hold on to an untenable position out of stubbornness. Argument and challenge can often be disruptive and upset the status quo. But you can handle them effectively if you choose so that the arguments will be productive and energizing for your organization. Making Everyone a Winner When you think about conflict in the workplace, as in sport, the usual assumption is that if there is a winner, then there must also be a loser. But you can reconfigure conflict situations in a way that makes everyone involved a winner. Creating the right climate Operating a win-win approach entails cultivating the right climate in your workplace. The following are guidelines for creating this climate: express a spirit of cooperation, exercise a high degree of trust between other parties, anticipate synergy (that the shared solution will be better than an individual win). A win-win approach signals that the intention in the conflict is not to defeat the other side, but to collaborate to achieve a shared victory. Win-win solutions often come about because both parties realize that if they work together, they will gain. The parties also recognize that if they work against each other, often both sides lose. Once you have created this favorable climate, you are ready to tackle any issues that need to be resolved without fearing that the process will degenerate into destructive conflict. Handling conflict To promote win-win solutions to resolving conflict in the workplace, you need to apply three principles. Avoid the zero-sum approach — The zero-sum approach is one in which the rewards of any negotiation are entirely given to one party. You must aim for a better allocation of rewards so that all sides can gain from the solution. This may not result in actual equality, but it must be more equitable than the zero-sum idea. Achieving a degree of equality prevents resentment from creeping in — resentment tends to grow and can generate harmful conflict. Advocate flexible compromises — You need to be creative and flexible in identifying what you are trying to gain from the solution and where you can compromise. A vital starting point is knowing what your bottom line is, the point below which you will not go. Compromise can be applied in most situations. For example, if you find yourself in a position where you are contemplating laying some staff off, it may be worth consulting them to see if you can identify alternatives — it may turn out that several of them would like to switch to working part-time, meaning that you could avoid making full-time layoffs and thereby preserve high staff morale. Take a long-term perspective — One of the key principles of win-win approaches is that although in the short term you might not achieve all that you wanted to, in the long run, you will gain more by being cooperative. You always gain something, whereas, with an all-or-nothing approach, you might get nothing. By suggesting sensible compromises, all parties can find a measure of satisfaction. They can all see that, over time, they will benefit equally. When you promote win-win solutions, you will find that people enjoy the benefits of this flexible and reasonable approach to conflict. After a while, everyone will recognize it as the most effective way to operate.

https://medium.com/@sorin-dumitrascu/making-everyone-in-a-team-a-winner-79285afc19c6

['Sorin Dumitrascu']

2020-12-15 17:32:42.975000+00:00

['Teamwork', 'Leadership', 'Conflict Management', 'Management', 'Workplace']

Whatsapp Group Chat Analysis with Python

The present analysis is based in the article of Saiteja Kura : Whatsapp Group Chat Analysis using Python and Plotly Lot of people is using whatsapp, and most of the whatsapp user is in a chat group (toxic or not). Some of us ask ourselves questions like “Why this dude is in the group if never send a message” or “I’m for sure that today nobody will send a message”. Next steps are based in Saiteja Kura’s work with some modifications due the OS of the phone and convenience. Detailed process can be found there. Getting data & create data frame. First we need to export the group chat using the option export in the group options in the phone, the chat file is stored in a txt file and saved in data directory. Saved data must be parsed in order to be stored in a data frame, next the function that recognizes the date at start of the line that indicates that is a unique message, if yes the message is splitted in a Date, Time, Author and Message to be stored in a pandas Data Frame. In this case I needed to change some parts of code because the txt file is diferent on iOS. Anonymizing data. To protect privacy of the chat members we need to anonymizing the names, changing all names with LOTR characters. Here, some relevant data from the data frame created, result of df.info and df.head, this small set consts of 914 records that implies a similar number of messages. Group Wise Stats Let see some stats from the data frame, first thing is that we can count the media messages counting the occurrence of “<Media omitted>”. By using emoji library we can found the total of emojis, creating a emoji column we have a emoji for particular message, additionally we create a column to count all URLs in the messages using re library. The group messages has a 914 messages in total, thats because the exported chat has recently started, one interesting data is that are at least one emoji every two messages or an average of two messages by emoji. Next, we separate text messages from media messages in two data frames, messages_df only contain text messages. More Stats Let see more stats, we show the letter count for a message and word count for that message, More stats came from the emojis we already count the total emojis, and we have separate each, let get unique number of each one of them. with that information we can find the most used emoji in the group. With 68 occurences “🙏” is the most used emoji, follow by “😘” with 60 occurences, next we show emoji distribution in a pie chart. With the same library “Plotly”, we can show this chart individually. Word Cloud Word clouds (also known as text clouds or tag clouds) work in a simple way: the more a specific word appears in a source of textual data (such as a speech, blog post, or database), the bigger and bolder it appears in the word cloud. We created a word cloud for all messages. First join all messages in a large message. A stop word is a commonly used word (such as “the”, “a”, “an”, “in”) that a search engine has been programmed to ignore, both when indexing entries for searching and when retrieving them as the result of a search query. We use the word Cloud library including the list already included in the library. We set spanish set of words because the native language of the group. We add some more words to ommit some occurrences. And More Stats We can get the the messages behavior in time, group the messages by date. Day Distribution Using a radar chart, we show the distribution by day of week. Conclusion There’s a lot of information about all our day to day activities, we assume several things about that information but is great when you can probe your assumptions even more using tools like Plotly and Python, in my personal experience was great discover this tools, and see all that trends, charts and info and all we see here is just a star in the sky of data science. Thanks to Saiteja Kura for the original post, go there and see more interesting articles.

https://medium.com/mcd-unison/whatsapp-group-chat-analysis-with-python-ae21f326b32c

['Enrique Alvarado']

2020-10-31 01:43:42.131000+00:00

['Feature Engineering', 'Chart Analysis', 'Python', 'Plotly']

The Healthiest Fish To Eat

Although human beings have evolved over many centuries to become omnivores that can subsist on a vast array of foods, the ideal diet for health remains an area of hot debate. Scientific evidence has so far shunned the far extremes, for essential micronutrients are oftentimes only present in a subset of specific sources (e.g vitamin B12 in animal protein and folate in leafy green vegetables), and are kinder towards more balanced diets, such as the Mediterranean diet. Earlier this year, cardiologist James O’Keefe and colleagues published an interesting article on the pesco-Mediterranean diet in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. This diet, which some think could be the healthiest diet science has yet identified, is based on striking a healthy balance of plant foods (vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and olives), fish/seafood, along with moderate amounts of dairy and eggs. The evidence is strong for this particular diet. Multiple clinical trials and epidemiological studies have been performed, all of which nod at strong cardio-protective evidence. For the third consecutive year, the Mediterranean diet was ranked #1 for overall health by the U.S. News & World Report, which deploys a panel of 25 nationally recognised experts to give their verdicts on 35 of the most popular diets for their health benefits. The Mediterranean diet was described as nutritious, safe, relatively easy to follow, protective against cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and effective for weight loss. In crude terms, this diet is basically a vegetarian diet with a healthy ration of fish and other sea consumables. While an abundance of guidelines and articles are available on the vegetarian front — it’s a diet in of itself after all — the boundaries are less clear for their ocean-dwelling counterparts. It’s then vital to understand the importance of selecting the right fish, and how to best prepare them. Nutrients from fish Photo by Jeremy Stewart Fish are well-known for their rich Omega-3 constituents, which make up the lion’s share of its cardio-protective properties, able to significantly reduce cardiovascular disease risk. O’Keefe’s paper demonstrated that higher fish consumption has been associated with reduced heart failure risk and a reduction in the incidence of metabolic syndrome. The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that adults consume fish and/or seafood at least 3x per week, totally at least 8–10 oz (226–283 g) per week, preferable in place of other protein foods such as red meat, poultry, or eggs. Besides its high Omega-3 fatty acid content, aquatic animal food sources also provide an array of vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients, some of which are not readily accessible in vegetarian or vegan diets. Vitamin D for example is absorbed more readily in the gut with the presence of fatty fish, which can boost bone health and immunity. Furthermore, fish and seafood provide high-quality protein, which helps stimulate satiety and helps the building and maintenance of muscle and bone mass. Adverse neuro-cognitive development was not seen, even with the highest amount of fish or seafood consumption (>100oz/2.8kg per week) despite associated increases in mercury exposures — which runs contrary to common concerns. In fact, two systematic reviews demonstrated that fish and seafood consumption was associated with dose-dependent benefits to neuro-cognitive development that became significant at 4oz/week and climbed up from there. What is the best fish to eat? Do they matter at all? Photo by Colin Czerwinski O’Keefe, who is also a Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of the Charles and Barbara Dubok Cardio Health & Wellness Center at Saint Luke’s Mid American Heart Institute, says that despite evidence against mercury intoxication, it is prudent to choose low-mercury fish such as salmon, sardines, trout, herring, and anchovies, all of which are naturally high in Omega-3 fatty acids. Other seafood in the list include scallops, shrimp, lobsters, oysters, and clams — which granted, are not as high in Omega 3’s as their swim-capable counterparts, but remain low in mercury. Other sources advise to beware of fish with notoriously high levels of mercury, such as shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish, though they’re pretty uncommon to begin with. Additionally, canned sardines are thought to be more nutritious than fresh because you’re consuming the entire fish — bones and skins included — which contain healthy collagen and calcium. Consumer Reports suggest that both canned and fresh fish are good sources of protein and other important nutrients, one isn’t necessarily healthier than the other. A Harvard doctor echoed this sentiment, saying that canned fish is pretty much on par with fresh fish. Furthermore, the article advises us to choose fish packed in water (or brine) whenever possible since water and oil naturally don’t mix, locking the beneficial Omega-3s in the fish. When fish is packed in oil, some of the Omega-3 fats are lost when the oil is drained. One other thing to be careful with is sodium (or salt). The American Heart Association recommends no more than 2,300mg a day, and ideally less than 1,500mg for a healthy adult. While you can control the amount of salt that goes into your fresh fish, canned fish comes with a given amount of sodium. With this in mind, you should really be checking the nutrition labels on your canned fish (and every other product too, ideally). To get into specifics, health writer Nicole Davis came up with a list of 12 best fish to incorporate into your diet, which among others include Alaskan salmon, cod, herring, mahi-mahi, striped bass, wild Alaskan pollock, and arctic char. Another source commends albacore tuna, pacific sardines, rainbow trout, and freshwater Coho salmon. WebMD separates fish into several subcategories. Lean fish, such as tilapia, cod, and flounders pack a protein punch with fewer calories than their Omega-3 rich siblings such as salmon, herring, and sardines. Shrimp is excellent for its micronutrient content but its downside is low Omega-3s and high cholesterol profile. Dietician Brierly Wright advise against 12 different fish for a variety of reasons, including imported catfish, which are almost never inspected for filth, sharks for their high mercury and socioecological reasons, some subspecies of Atlantic cod and tuna due to conservation status, and especially wild caviar, because sturgeons are seriously about to disappear from the face of the earth. Wild-caught vs. Farm-raised Photo by Paul Einerhand As a general rule of thumb, wild-caught fish tend to be lower in saturated fats, while farm-raised tend to have more Omega-3s. However, it isn’t uncommon for the latter to be associated with cultivation under unsuitable and nefarious conditions. Professor Mary Ellen Camire of Food Science & Human Nutrition at the University of Maine’s School of Food and Agriculture explains that wild-caught fish are not very carbon-footprint friendly because traditional fishing has been implicated with a lot of sustainability issues. Aquacultures, a fancy term referring to farm fisheries, take care of sustainability by rearing their own produce. But not all of them are good. Though they intend well, some take up part of the animal’s would-be natural habitat. Shrimp farming, for example, is thought to be responsible for more than half of all mangrove loss. Fish feed also battles with sustainability because they are often made from ground-up fish, which again, needs to be fished. Some irresponsible companies also don’t treat fish waste properly, leading to water contamination that translates into your dinner. Farm-raised fish tend to have a little more fat in their diet, so they may be a little tender and softer. Wild-caught fish, on the other hand, tend to be leaner. Professor Camire says that regardless of how they are raised, some fish are better than no fish. Still, it’s imperative that we be leery of international farm-raised products because of different standards of care. “To give [the population] good-quality protein, we’re going to have to rely more on aquaculture,” says Prof Camire. “I think we’re going to be seeing a greater variety of farmed fish. And not to displace the fisherman on our coastlines, but the stocks are depleting and we can’t keep taking without replenishing. I think the seafood industry is going to change.” The healthiest way to prepare fish Photo by Caroline Attwood Registered dietician Ansley Hill in her article for Healthline says that although health professionals recommend people eat fish at least once or twice a week, the way you cook a fish can significantly change its nutritional composition — some arguably negating the healthful benefits potentially reaped from it. Grilling and broiling are two common methods that involve fire. There’s a slight difference between the two in terms of fire orientation, in which grilling involves fire from below and broiling involves fire from above. Both methods are fast ways to cook tasty fish without adding any fats, but they can form harmful cancer-inducing compounds, especially if charred. This risk is directly proportional to time spent under heat exposure, so shorter cooking time is better if you can’t help grilling. Marination can apparently also reduce the formation of these harmful compounds. Frying adds calories from oil, subjecting us to potentially unhealthy compounds such as Omega-6 fatty acids and reduce the healthful benefits of Omega-3s. Similarly, the high temperature in frying may additionally trigger the formation of carcinogenic compounds. Poaching and steaming do not add oil to the fish and cook them at a lower overall temperature compared to other methods, which preserve nutrients and minimises the formation of said harmful chemicals. If poaching under plain water sounds unappealing to you, I recommend you to soup it up with water seasoned with onion, garlic, and herbs. Keep the liquid at a simmer, do not let it boil to maintain a lower temperature. Baking causes less Omega-3 loss than frying and microwaving, and retains vitamin D better, though oil is usually part of the recipe. We recommend you use minimal amounts of a heat-stable, healthy oil like olive oil to keep the dish as healthy as possible. Microwaving is similar to baking because it cooks at a relatively lower temperature and can preserve some nutrients better than some other cooking methods. Sous vide is also an excellent alternative, given you are patient enough (since it takes hours to prepare!) and possess the necessary equipment. Lastly, eating the fish raw — such as in the case of sashimi — may completely remove harmful contaminants otherwise obtained from heat induction while keeping the essential nutrients unspoiled. Additionally, this practice can save time and preserve cultural traditions, though prudent care should be instilled in selecting your raw fish. To sum it up, sous vide, microwaving, baking, steaming, poaching, and even raw are all acceptable ways to prepare fish without adding too many unhealthy compounds and stripping them off the useful ones. Grilling and broiling should be okay in moderation, but as much as you possibly can, stay away from the deep fryer.

https://medium.com/beingwell/the-healthiest-fish-to-eat-102e2441c302

['Jonathan Adrian']

2020-11-09 12:33:31.013000+00:00

['Health', 'Nutrition', 'Food', 'Life', 'Diet']

7 Best e-Commerce Open Source CMS Platforms in 2018!

You know choosing the right e-commerce platform is essential for your business and this is a bit confusing as there are lots of eCommerce CMS platforms available in the world. To run your e-commerce shop you have to select the best and suitable eCommerce CMS for growing your business. So, let’s read out the best 7 eCommerce open source CMS platforms in 2018CLICK TO TWEET. Magento is undoubtedly the top leading platform for open commerce innovation in the eCommerce CMS world. Every year, Magento handles over $100 billion in gross merchandise volume. They have a massive marketplace stocked with website themes and useful applications. Magento was recently acquired by Adobe, the American software giant, for $1.68 billion. Adobe has a rather large developer base, active creative community, and a strong cloud infrastructure. Adobe’s resources will undoubtedly shape Magento. At present, it’s unclear how the partnership between the two companies will change e-commerce as a whole. All we know now is that Magento is bound to benefit. Though Magento is an open-source (free to use) you’ll have to pay for hosting, apps, and premium themes, but the use of the platform itself is completely free. PrestaShop is one of the most powerful and popular open-source e-commerce application mostly used in the European zone. This CMS has just been used by more than 270,000 e-Commerce stores run worldwide using PrestaShop technology. Their mission is to develop world-class eCommerce software through open source innovation. This is why anyone can download, install and set up PrestaShop for free. PrestaShop is on the 2016 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in Europe. The company also received the 2016 CMS Critic Award for Best eCommerce Software. They have a huge addons and theme based marketplace hosted in their site that selling premium modules and themes by them and third party agency too. You know WordPress is the leader of all CMS and this is why WooCommerce is one of the most powerful open-source eCommerce plugins, which enables a WordPress website into an E-commerce.WooCommerce has a lot of free themes and plugins which can make your e-commerce site more functional and active. Most important advantages of these plugins are they can enable various features to the basic WooCommerce software in a single click and most of these plugins are free for downloading and installation. WooCommerce extra product options are one such plugin that equips the product page of Woocommerce site with many additional features like collecting input fields, file upload option, date and time picker, color picker, price selector, location selector etc at an ease. Shopify is a Canadian e-commerce CMC company which is now one of the most growing eCommerce premium CMS. It is also the name of its proprietary e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. Shopify has been well received by tech website by CNET which said the platform is “clean, simple, and easy-to-use.” The company reported that it had more than 600,000 active Shopify stores using its platform as of August 2017 with total gross merchandise volume exceeding $63 billion worth of sales. Opencart is an online store management system, easy-to-use, powerful, Open Source platform that can manage multiple online stores from a single back-end. There are many professionally-written extensions available to customize the store to your needs. Currently, they have almost 317,000 live OpenCart sites. This CMS is absolutely free, no monthly fees, no catches; just an effective and customizable platform for your new e-commerce store. Simply install, choose your template, and add products and you’re ready to start accepting orders. An OpenCart store can be ready to take orders soon after installation. All you have to do is have it installed for you (any web hosts do it for free), select a template form the many free or low-cost template sites, and your product descriptions and photos, click a few settings, and you are ready to begin accepting orders. Our free Installation & Quick Start chapters show you how. So, OpenCart is perfect for e-commerce stores of any size, any industry, any budget.

https://medium.com/the-technews/7-best-e-commerce-open-source-cms-platforms-in-2018-604403d3a4f8

['Md. Nazrul Islam']

2018-09-06 13:31:13.998000+00:00

['Technews', 'Technology', 'Best Ecommerce Platform', 'Prestashop', 'Ecommerce']

How ‘A Christmas Story’ became the ultimate holiday movie

Ultimate Movie Year looks back into the past to highlight the best film that came out that weekend. Every week, “A Christmas Story” Released Nov. 18, 1983 Directed by Bob Clark Melancholy and cynicism have become two nearly essential elements in any holiday movie, so how exactly did “A Christmas Story” become the top modern classic without either? The modest family comedy about Ralph “Ralphie” Parker (Peter Billingsley), a young boy dreaming of a Red Ryder Carbine-Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle, continues to stand out in a sea of Christmas movies that multiple and reproduce faster than rabbits in heat. “A Christmas Story” is easily the most beloved holiday movie in the modern era, and its only peer is the Frank Capra classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” but while the latter is steeped in melancholy, the former covers itself with childhood nostalgia like a warm blanket on a cold winter night. Adapted from the book “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash” by Jean Shepherd (who narrates the film as an adult Ralphie), the film chronicles Ralphie’s childhood winter adventures in the suburbs of Chicago just before World War II. “A Christmas Story” lacks a traditional narrative, and instead uses its time with a series of vignettes involving the Parker family, loosely connected together by Ralphie’s desire to obtain his beloved Red Ryder air rifle. Ralphie lives with his younger brother Randy (Ian Petrella), his mother (Melinda Dillon), and his father, the Old Man (Darren McGavin), all of who portray their traditional roles in the family. The Old Man reads the paper and swears, Mom makes dinner, the little brother is a tag-along, etc. Throughout the movie, Ralphie plots various ways to convince the adults in his life, including his Mom, teacher, and department store Santa, to give him the Red Ryder, only to be met with the dismissive, “You’ll shoot your eye out.” One of the keys to the endurance of “A Christmas Story” in our culture is a child’s anxiety and fear over losing out on their favorite Christmas toy, an instantly relatable problem that crosses all demographics from age 9 to 99. Mixed in with Ralphie’s quest is several other vignettes depicting his childhood, including dealing with bullies, swearing in front of his parents, and being entranced by his favorite programs. There’s a surprising amount of “A Christmas Story” that has nothing to do with the holiday itself, as all of these stories mentioned above could have taken place at any point during the year. Including these stories within the movie does deepen the life experiences and situations involving a young boy, further connecting Ralphie to children watching the movie. While the story is set about 80 years ago now, the sketches of life devised by Shepherd remain timeless in nearly every instance. Upon its release, “A Christmas Story” had some modest success at the box office. It was only the top box office release once in its second week, a Thanksgiving weekend against weak competition like “Amityville 3-D,” which came out a few weeks after Halloween. Nonetheless, “A Christmas Story” grossed less than $20 million upon its initial release. A re-release in 1984 added little to its lifetime earnings. And yet, the film began drawing an audience during replays on cable. I recalled first seeing “A Christmas Story” on one of the premium film channels in my home in the mid-80s, at almost the same age as Ralphie was in the movie. Despite the more than 40 years difference, I found Ralphie to be immensely relatable as I walked to school in a snowy suburb of Buffalo, NY, getting into fights, and pining for my own “Red Rider,” the original release of the Optimus Prime figure from Transformers. Clearly, a lot of kids found Ralphie relatable. Many adults did too. The children who first encountered “A Christmas Story” upon its release are now parents, and the film has become a multi-generational favorite. Its power over us continues to echo and amplify as we age, given the movie’s conceit of an adult looking back on his childhood. Now I’m of a generation who watches “A Christmas Story” as a parent, finding common ground with the Old Man and Mom, but also still seeing myself in Ralphie as I recall the events of my own childhood 30 years ago, as I sit next to my daughters, enraptured by the dreams of a little boy. One movie that echoes over an entire lifetime. Replays of “A Christmas Story” moved to regular cable networks, including the ones owned by Turner Broadcasting. A decade after its original release, the film saw multiple airings on Turner stations around Christmas. By 1997, Turner station TNT began airing “A Christmas Story” again and again in a 24-hour marathon from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day. It’s still unheard of a network to devote an entire day to a single movie, and yet the marathon proved to be a massive success for the network as it has become an annual tradition that continues to this day. It’s easy to see why the movie would be so successful with the marathon, as the film’s “slice of life” structure allows viewers to simply leave the television on in the background while they celebrate the holiday, peeking in once in a while to catch their favorite scenes. It’s all sugary content and warm feelings too. The only other holiday movie that remains this beloved is “It’s a Wonderful Life.” It’s a movie that I only watched as an adult, and that’s probably best, as it’s also a story about a life that is at turns bittersweet and filled with regret. It’s a Christmas movie made by adults for adults, and we need the wisdom and knowledge that can only come from making countless decisions that alter the course of our lives. It is a gift, but a melancholy one. The gift of “A Christmas Story” is that it looks back to a time before we were forced to make so many decisions, to the only one that mattered: What we want for Christmas. Its lack of cynicism is refreshing and joyful, a film in which allows us to forget our troubles for a few hours and cleanse the palette of our souls. If you had any doubt, just look at the eyes of the Old Man when Ralphie unwraps his last present. He remembers his childhood fondly too. The Weekend: Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and box office activity begins to really pick up again as several high-profile studio releases drop weekly from now until Christmas. This particular weekend is notable for the debut of several films that went on to achieve massive success. This week saw the release of Disney Plus, and given its dominance at the box office this year, it’s hard to remember a time when the company wasn’t at the top of the entertainment industry. However, the studio had a series of failures in its famed animation division in the 80s up until the release of 1989’s “The Little Mermaid.” The surprise hit not only sold millions of tickets for Disney; it revitalized the division to become a powerhouse animation studio in the 90s. One year later came the story of another family during the Christmas season, except this one left the young son at the house. 1990’s “Home Alone” became a massive hit thanks to director Chris Columbus, writer John Hughes, and the charm of its young star Macaulay Culkin. Meanwhile, the James Bond franchise saw not one but two high profile debuts this weekend. Pierce Bronson suited up in the iconic tuxedo for the first time in 1995’s “Goldeneye,” which is generally regarded to be the best of the Bronson era and even spawned a hugely popular video game spinoff. Over a decade later, after Bronson’s time as Bond came to an end, Daniel Craig was handed the baton for 2006’s “Casino Royale,” which rebooted the entire franchise for the better. It’s my personal favorite of all the Bond films. Finally, one more franchise bowed for the first time this weekend in 2001. The highly anticipated “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” was released to the delight of millions of fans, becoming the first film to top $90 million in its opening weekend. Next Week: “Toy Story”

https://ultimatemovieyear.medium.com/mark-ciemcioch-how-a-christmas-story-became-the-ultimate-holiday-movie-7c2ed5a21b3a

['Mark Ciemcioch']

2020-03-26 02:14:51.592000+00:00

['Christmas', 'Film', 'A Christmas Story', 'Christmas Movies', 'Movies']

5 Helpful Resources That Will Transform the Way You Write

There are a number of online classes, articles, and books to read on writing, which is why it can be difficult to figure out where to begin. You want to improve your writing skills, but you feel intimidated by the amount of information there is, so you do what all sane humans do: you avoid it. To make it easier for you, I’ve compiled a list of five resources for writers of all levels who want to grow and tell better stories. There’s nothing on this list that I haven’t taken or read myself. These resources are actually the ones that were most helpful to me — even to this day. I’ve no doubt you’ll learn a thing (or thirty) from them yourself.

https://medium.com/the-brave-writer/5-helpful-resources-that-will-transform-the-way-you-write-61654336a680

['Itxy Lopez']

2020-12-26 13:02:14.428000+00:00

['Creativity', 'Writing Tips', '5 Tips', 'Books', 'Writing']

17 Reasons to Start a Podcast

17 Reasons to Start a Podcast In-podcast ad revenue is expected to hit $1 billion by 2021. Photo by Soundtrap on Unsplash Podcasts are hot now. I’m sure you heard that Joe Rogan got paid more than $100,000,000 by Spotify for the distribution rights of his podcast! I’m not telling you that you’ll get 9 digits for your podcast, but it’s inspiring nonetheless. Though podcasts are in no way new, in the last two years, streaming platforms have been transferring so much energy and attention into the podcasting space. So much so, that we may be entering a new era of media. In fact, I just got an email from Amazon announcing that they are about to start distributing podcasts! If you do it correctly and consistently, you can quickly increase your audience for your business. Don’t get it twisted though. Starting and maintaining a podcast will take hard work and planning. You shouldn’t start one unless you have figured out your differentiator. But if you’re ready to commit to the process, then keep reading…this article is for you. In 2020, digital content has seen a surge in viewership. Growth forecasts predict revenue of $659 million in 2020 for digital content, as a result of employees working from home, being on state-mandated social distancing, and by creators having to transition their content to the digital space. Reach people where they are by launching a podcast of your own. Here are 17 reasons to start a podcast in 2020. If this list doesn’t inspire you to start your pod, then I don’t know what will. Don’t know how to start a podcast? No worries. I have you covered. Here’s the why, what, and how to launch your own podcast today.

https://medium.com/inspirefirst/17-reasons-why-now-is-the-best-time-to-start-a-podcast-da1e0f84f0a8

['Christopher Luxe']

2020-08-12 17:12:35.970000+00:00

['Creativity', 'Technology', 'Marketing', 'Business', 'Podcast']

Supports from the government — overcome Covid-19 damages

Slowing tourisms, cancellation of events, empty restaurants… COVID-19 has been damaging economy and business activities. Small enterprises are striving to survive this situation, and the Japanese Government is trying to help. What does the Government offer with ¥1.6 trillion? There are two major players to help SMEs according to the direction from the Japanese Government. 1. Japan Federation of Credit Guarantee Corporations (信用保証協会) 2. Japan Finance Corporation (日本政策金融公庫) Japan Federation of Credit Guarantee Corporations (CGC) helps becoming a guarantor of the loan borrowers. If the borrowers cannot repay the amount that they took out, Japan Federation of Credit Guarantee Corporations takes responsibility on behalf of the borrowers, and pay the loan back to each financial institutions. Banks, credit unions, and financial institutions can easily offer loan programs to the borrowers because they have the insurance from Japan Federation of Credit Guarantee Corporation. Japan Finance Corporation (JFC) is a policy-based public financial institutions that helps SMEs. Most of the borrowers from Japan Finance Corporation are Small Enterprises. The average amount of loan is less than 30 million JPY (94% of all the borrowers). Out of the 94% borrowers, 51% borrows 5 million JPY. It assists SMEs having hard time taking out a loan from banks. ¥1.6 trillion is used for finance management for SMEs with cash flow problems under COVID-19 pandemic. What’s special about the COVID-19 related support? Japan Federation of Credit Guarantee Corporations taking risks Normally Japan Federation of Credit Guarantee Corporations (CGC) guarantee a part of the loan. Usually it covers 80% of the loan and leaves 20% to financial institutions (banks, credit unions, etc.) that actually make decision to offer the loan to the borrowers. Financial institutions still need to take a risk when the borrowers cannot pay back. Banks and Credit Unions may think reluctant to assist SMEs with cash flow problems. This time, Japan Federation of Credit Guarantee Corporations covers 100% — no risk for financial institutions. Japan Finance Corporation helps SMEs 7 days a week Japan Finance Corporation (JFC) always has consultation desks for SMEs, and they offer the service 7 days a week now. It has various kinds of loan programs for sole-proprietors and SMEs, and the interest rate for all programs are relatively cheaper than what the other financial institutions offer. Under this circumstance, the interest rate of loan programs that JFC offers reduced — 0.9% minus for all the programs. No guarantor, No collateral, and minus 0.9% interest rate for the next three years. For example, the average SMEs are supposed to pay 1.11% interest on top of the amount that they borrowed, but it reduced to 0.21% (1.11–0.9). Can I apply for it? The target applicants of this special financial support are those experienced the decline of sales. Sales in the last month reduced by more than 5% compared to the same month last year or 2 years ago If the business is very young (operating 3+ months but less than 1.1 years), the measurement will be 5% sales decrease compared to the average sales in the last three months the sales in December 2019 the sales from October 2019 to December 2019 And more Some industries such as tourism and restaurant are facing drastic decrease of sales, and the government is focusing its efforts on these industries by offering interest replenishment. Out of the loan borrowers, the below can get interest replenishment. Sole Proprietors (including freelancers) Small Enterprise (legal entity) — sales reduced by 15% Medium Enterprise — sales reduced by 20% The difference between Small Enterprise and Medium Enterprise is the number of the employees. For manufacturers, construction industries, transporters, the number is less than 20 people. For retailers or service industries, the number is less than 5 people. Some plus points for subsidy programs In addition to the loan programs, some subsidy programs assist SMEs with financial damage under COVID-19 outbreaks. Monozukuri Subsidy (read the detail on SUBSIDY TIME!) accepts the applicants to cover expenses that they paid before they get accepted from the subsidy office. The other programs are also offering the applicants with the damage to get higher points.

https://medium.com/@mihotanaka/supports-from-the-government-overcome-covid-19-damages-2bdb3e1ea2a2

['Miho Tanaka']

2020-03-15 06:31:30.761000+00:00

['Corona', 'Support', 'Government', 'Loans', 'Japan']

Virtual Scrolling and How It Can Enhance Your React Application’s Performance

Ever had to deal with a large dataset within your web application? Let’s say a call to your API returns thousands of items. You now want to render a scrollable list without pagination displaying each of those items. Rendering that many items would pollute the DOM and consume too much memory, thus degrading your app’s performance. Plus, remember, every time the DOM is updated, it needs to recalculate its layout based on any changes. How to fix this? Enter virtual scrolling. Virtual Scrolling The above scenario can be tackled using virtual scrolling. Virtual scrolling reduces the number of items being rendered into the DOM and the time it takes to repaint the document with new items. It does so by only showing users a certain portion of the data at a time. The rest of the data is virtualized using top and bottom padding elements that contain some height to allow for scrolling. Each time the user scrolls out of the visible content, the layout is rebuilt, new items are fetched and the padding and heights are recalculated. Let’s see this in action using react-window. React-window React-window is a handy package for use in React web applications. It reduces the amount of work and time that’s normally required when rendering an initial view. How does it do this? By efficiently rendering only the data that's needed. It renders only part of the data, enough to fill the viewport at any given moment. If we inspect the example component from their docs, we can see that despite scrolling down a long list of rows, the number of items in its parent div never changes. What does change is how far each one is positioned from the top. Thus, we only see the markup for what’s in the viewport. react-window rows The package isn’t limited to just a list component, by specifying the layout prop you can also achieve column layouts for your data. react-window columns The docs show a basic example of how to achieve the above by simply stating the number of rows/cols and then appending the word Column or Row to each index to form the inner HTML. How to pass your own data to the list component, however — for example, data fetched from an API — wasn’t immediately clear to me. So I’ll be covering how to do this in this article.

https://medium.com/swlh/virtual-scrolling-and-how-it-can-enhance-your-react-applications-performance-67526dfbbd26

['Natalie Mclaren']

2020-12-27 20:29:14.506000+00:00

['JavaScript', 'Programming', 'Performance', 'Web Development', 'React']

How Good Habits lead to Astonishing Results — Atomic Habits by James Clear

Atomic Habits by James Clear is a comprehensive guide on how leveraging good habits and incremental improvements can lead to substantial results over time. Do you often find it difficult to maintain consistency with good habits? When embarking on a new journey of building good habits like exercising every day, do you find yourself losing momentum after a couple of days? Do you begin to wonder if building good habits are really worth all the sweat and effort? Bear in mind that even though this article may answer all the question you ever had about habit-stacking, these answers are meaningless and I would even argue, useless unless you act upon them. The Power of Habits 1.01 ** 365 = 37.789 0.99 ** 365 = 0.03 James clearly (haha, no pun intended) outlines how tiny changes overtime amounts to extraordinary results. Improving by 1% every day will direct you to become 37% better than your current self in one year. In contrast, being 1% worse every day for a year leads you all the back to basically zero. This is what makes habits so potent. Good habits will transform your life for the better, similarly, bad habits will ruin your life. Perseverance is the Differentiator Why is it so easy for us to pick up on bad habits, but it’s so difficult for us to form good ones? The simple answer is that bad habits provide us with instant results, satisfying our instant gratification monkey while the results that stem from good habits are delayed. It’s easy for us to stick with bad habits such as smoking because it provides us with instant relief. We are all knowledgeable about the strong correlation between smoking and lung cancer, but people still choose to smoke because the negative effects oftentimes don’t appear until it’s too late to call quit. We think the results of our efforts are linear, but they are actually compounded exponentially. This means that there exists a period of time termed the valley of disappointment in which you never seem to experience any tangible results after putting in a substantial amount of effort. The Plateau of Latent Potential is the point in which your efforts finally translate into results and begins to surpass your expectations. It’s a common perception that progress, or the other way around, deterioration occurs linearly, but it actually compounds exponentially. We are frequently discouraged because our efforts don’t spontaneously translate into progress. The phenomenon called the valley of disappointment refers to the time frame in which we feel pretty discouraged to the point we want to give in to our circumstances because the results of our efforts are not yet evident. This is the root cause of why we give up, which is mainly because we don’t persist. It’s important to understand that success is not a short-term investment and that the full worth of your efforts usually doesn’t reveal itself until much later than anticipated. Once results reveal themselves which is the defining moment of success, you will understand that the real worth of your efforts is far beyond your imagination. As bystanders of other people’s success, we often see the bright side, such as fame, wealth, and power, but what we rarely see are the efforts and sleepless nights successful people have been through. We even like to coin other people’s success as “overnight success”. However, in reality, nothing substantial can be accumulated overnight. What we see is people’s defining moment in life, their breakthrough moments, and this makes us feel discouraged. With social media distracting us on a daily basis with the perfect scenario of about everything, it’s easy for us to forget that success doesn’t come overnight and that it’s not a true win unless we struggle a bit. Don’t give in and persists a little longer, your efforts will always pay off. The reason why some people fail is because they give in to the Plateau of Latent Potential. The real value of your efforts will not be undermined, believe that with perseverance and patience, your efforts will definitely pay off. You fail because of a faulty system If all entrepreneurs have the same goal of scaling their startup into a unicorn company, then why do most fail, while others succeed? “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” — James Clear The positive results of goal setting are only effective in the short run. The key to long-term results relies on a good system. Your goals are not the purpose of your life, but your system is your life. What happens after you finish the marathon, or snatched a 10-million-dollar deal? If you’re a goal-oriented person, you will most likely lose out on both motivation and momentum. Contrary, developing a good system and consistently follow through with it will result in improvements every day, leading to incredible results. Forget about motivating yourself through goal-setting, instead focus on building an actionable and effective system. For instance, an entrepreneur’s system is how they recruit talent, operate in an efficient manner, design products, market their products, and much more. As an entrepreneur, your main focus should be how you can develop a productive system geared specifically for your company. “Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves.” — James Clear With a functional system, you don’t need to set goals to be successful. The results will automatically reflect your system. The big question is HOW do we establish a good system? Your Identity is the Key to a Good System Your habits reflect your identity. Your habits are evidence of who you are. Your actions are, as James Clear puts it, a vote towards who you will become. If you don’t want to become the patient diagnosed with lung cancer, it’s probably wise to not smoke. If you’re a smoker looking to quit, you have to first change who you are. If you want to quit smoking, then you should present yourself as a non-smoker, not a smoker who is trying to quit. Let's say a friend walks up to you and ask if you want to smoke, you probably won’t be successful at rejecting them if you identify yourself as a smoker who is trying to quit, because this means that you are still a smoker. Opposingly, you will find yourself much more successful if you identify yourself as a non-smoker. Refining your identity is the most effective way to break bad habits and build good ones. Let’s use Jessica as an example, she is preparing for the upcoming marathon, but she is never able to push herself through the intense training. The solution for her would be to focus on refining her identity, then reinforcing her beliefs in her actions. It’s important for Jessica to understand that she trains vigorously because she is a runner. When she believes that she is indeed a runner, her actions would align with her beliefs which will help her push herself through training. Similarly, if you want to commit to a healthier lifestyle, it’s important to understand that you are a healthy person, not an unhealthy person how wants to be healthier. If you want to build a habit of studying every day, you have to believe that you study because you are an excellent student, not because you are not achieving your desired grades. It is extremely crucial to understand that your identity is not static, it is dynamic. To become the best version of yourself, you have to continuously adapt your identity based on your learning experiences throughout your life, whether this is through your own mistakes or others’ testimonies. Start Small by Building a Routine of Effortless Habits Nothing substantial can be accumulated in a short period of time. It is the accumulation of countless all-nighters that lead to success. Never think of life as a short-term investment, you have to play the long-term game if you want to be successful. The simple secret sauce to Warren Buffet’s success is that he only focuses on the long-term trajectory of his investment, he is never about the quick money. “If you aren’t thinking about owning a stock for 10 years, don’t even think about owning it for 10 minutes.” — Warren Buffet Forget about building your habits around short-term vision. Good habits are not about quick results like aiming to lose 30 pounds in 3 days, running a marathon after a week of training, finish writing a book in a week, and the list goes on and on. It’s important to start small and build habits that are almost effortless to commit to because this helps with maintaining momentum. If you start with ambitious habits, this soon accumulates into stress which causes you to lose out on momentum. The rule of thumb is to always make sure the new habits you are aiming towards takes less than 5 minutes to complete. For example, a 2-minute jog is an incredibly easy task that is super easy for us to commit. If you start jogging every day for a period of time, it will soon become second nature for you pop on your running shoes and start jogging. One day, you might find yourself running for 2 miles straight without even realizing so. Starting at 2 minutes per day will eventually take you to 2 miles per day. In contrast, you will easily end up back at 2 minutes per day if you started at 2 miles per day. “It doesn’t matter how successful or unsuccessful you are right now. What matters is whether your habits are putting you on the path towards success” — James Clear Leverage your Environment Think of your environment as the trigger point for your habits. If you have to work against the odds to commit to a certain habit, it would be extremely difficult to maintain momentum. For instance, I wanted to build a habit of drinking more water. The main reason why I don’t drink a lot of water traces back to my environment. If I’m situated in my room and I want to drink water, I have to walk downstairs to my kitchen to grab a cup of water. This probably makes me sound really lazy, but the friction involved in the process of getting a cup of water discouraged me to drink water 😅. To counteract my environment, I decided to place a large water bottle in my room. Accordingly, with a water bottle always beside me, I drank more water. This is just a simple example of how your environment affects your actions. If your environment can help you establish a routine of good habits, it can also help you break bad ones. For example, if you usually find yourself wasting food because you tend to fill your plate with more food than your stomach can handle, try using smaller plates next time. If you want to minimize your junk food consumption, try storing them on top of your fridge or somewhere that would require a ladder to reach. Your environment not only consists of the objects and furniture but also the people that surround you. Your family, friends, and community all play a key role in shaping who you are, which as discussed, influences your habits. Do you often find yourself mimicking the way your best-friend talks? Do you sometimes find yourself copying what you’re peers are doing so you don’t feel left out? Peer pressure is a prime example of how the people around you exert an influence on you. This is why it’s critical to identify toxic friends from supporting friends, and wisely choose who you are spending most of your time with. Integrate New Habits on top of Existing Habits Homogenizing your habits into everyday tasks that you don’t even realize are your habits, also known as habit stacking, is a great strategy which helps you maintain momentum. Linking your new habits to existing habits serves as a reminder for you to reinforce them. When you are just starting to adapt your life around a new habit, there are countless excuses we can come up with that causes us to forget about committing to it. The power of habit stacking is that it reduces the amount of planning that comes with building new habits. In essence, habit stacking simplifies the process to a simple routine which is connected to something you are already used to doing every day. For instance, if you walk your dog every day, try doing a one minute plank after your walk. If you brush your teeth every day, try flossing right after you brush. If you eat dinner every day, to avoid a mountain of dishes piling up, try washing your dishes right after you eat. If you drive to work every day, try to meditate for 1 minute before you get on the road. These simple additions to existing habits can amount to exponential growth when combined together. Don’t rely on Motivation The true driving force behind success is not motivation, but the ability to resist boredom. Motivation may be able to help you actualize your short-term vision, but it isn’t at all helpful in the long run. The key to success is the ability to persist and maintain momentum over the course of your entire life. Motivation may be effective at pushing you past the excuses life has for you, it doesn’t serve any significant purpose in the long run. It’s important to be talented as an athlete, but talent alone isn’t enough to differentiate successful athletes. It all boils down to the translation of their determination, which is their hard work. I always had this question for full-time athletes, how do they complete the same exact training routine every single day? There is no such thing as motivation that comes with completing the same old workout every day, it is the magical ability to resist boredom that gets you through. My Key Takeaways 1% improvements every day eventually lead to breakthroughs Don’t give just because there is little result Focus on long-term success It’s important to constantly refine your identity to become the best version of yourself Aim small and start by making your habits as effortless as possible Make your environment your friend, not your enemy Build new habits on top of existing ones Don’t let boredom slow you down Thanks for reading! Hope you found value in my article! Remember to leave a few claps and follow me on LinkedIn!

https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/how-good-habits-lead-to-astonishing-results-atomic-habits-by-james-clear-4c5fac3d505f

['Joey Mach']

2019-12-28 05:34:26.684000+00:00

['Success', 'Habit Building', 'Long Term Thinking', 'Improvements', 'Tiny Changes']

8 Things You Can Learn in 10 Minutes That Will 10x Your Productivity

8 Things You Can Learn in 10 Minutes That Will 10x Your Productivity There are two types of people in this world — those who get stuff done and those who can’t get anything done no matter what. Time is free but priceless. Chances are you have multiple responsibilities and things on your plate every day, but being “productive” is not the same as being “busy”. Adopt some of these habits in the next 10 minutes, and you’ll be more productive for the rest of your life. 1. How to prioritise You can’t achieve anything in life if you are not clear about exactly what you want. Having plans forces you (or at least it should) to do something. Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.” You have no chance of making it in life if you don’t have priorities. Priorities are things you have to get done in your personal life or at work. Successful and effective people know what to do when to do it and the tools they need to help them achieve their life goals. Knowing how to prioritize affects the success of your life and business. To prioritise better, identify your most important tasks (MIT’s), separate urgent from important ones, access the value of each task, order them by importance, and finally add the estimated time of completion anything on your must-do list. Make your to-do list short. Call it a “success list”, says Gary Keller, author “The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results”. Gary explains:

https://medium.com/kaizen-habits/habits-you-can-learn-in-10-minutes-that-will-make-you-more-productive-for-the-rest-of-your-life-b428015becfb

['Thomas Oppong']

2019-01-25 12:30:44.803000+00:00

['Self Improvement', 'Work', 'Personal Development', 'Creativity', 'Productivity']

Interview With Pete Hartigan, Managing Partner, Marketplace Funds

“Having been on both sides — an approach of “no surprises” helps create a productive work environment. Like any good relationships — the key is communication (proactively), & getting into business with people with the same values” Portfolio ventures that are going great need almost no support, and the ones that are in the bottom aren’t worth helping. Apart from the two extremes, how do you know how much effort, time, persistent to put in the ones that are somewhere in the middle? I started my business career in 1993, and spent about half as a venture capitalist (Boston & San Francisco) & half an as entrepreneur (unicorn, middle & zero), engaged with teams, investors & boards (member, observer, committee member, etc) at many stages & cultural styles over the years. What I have learned is that building a company is hard work. CEOs / Executive Teams / Boards / Investors need support at every stage to be honest — whether the company is doing well, having a challenge getting to market or somewhere in the middle. The key is “fit”. CEOs / Entrepreneurs get very frustrated with Investor / Board Members who create work that is a distraction. Investors get frustrated with CEOs / Teams when they don’t understand that their mandate is to make money for their LPs & if formally on the board they have a dual fiduciary (duty of care as a board fiduciary for all shareholders & to make money for their investors.) Having been on both sides — an approach of “no surprises” helps create a productive work environment. Like any good relationships — the key is communication (proactively), & getting into business with people with the same values, so that whether things work out or not, everyone feels they did the best they could along the journey together in service. Personally — I try to allocate my time where I can be of most assistance. That has evolved over the years, as I gained different types of experience. I try to customize for each CEO. That said, there are many styles to be a productive investor & it depends upon the CEO & board. How do you balance your time between (1) sourcing quality prospect ventures (2) doing due diligence for prospective investments and (3) helping current entrepreneurs? Which of these are you comfortable outsourcing to principals/analysts and which do you absolutely have to do yourself? In my first job back in 1993, we emulated TA’s proactive deal flow approach — initially created by Jackie Morby back in 1978. For me, she is historic for the venture industry. Many of us tried to emulate her proactive approach. From that lens, I am very open to building a team which generates deal flow if appropriate for your firm. As far as helping with portfolio management, I think the key is that she/he has high EQ and is optimized to adding material value for a CEO & minimizing being disruptive. This does not mean there are not constructive conflicts, if helpful for all involved; however, discussions are always best when both sides understand each other & there are “no surprises”, at least as much as possible on all sides. In general however, my view is to optimize “fit” for a team members roles to what they are naturally good at & how she/he wants to evolve her/his career. Many GPs are good investors but don’t master one of the core skills — adding value as a board member. What do you think are some tricks to a productive relationship with founders? What should the culture be for the board and CEO for a quality relationship? If an investor is truly not good at adding value as a board member, she/he should learn to become a fiduciary — possibly by being a board observer, formal training, or mentorship. I strongly do “not” believe in “tricks” with founders. In fact, I feel quite the opposite, especially have been on that side as well. I believe relationships between founders & investors are strongest with understanding & a feeling of care, even (especially) when the discussions are the tough ones. The culture for a CEO & Board for a quality relationship? I think there are a few primitives for all relationships — understanding, respectful conversations, open communication and availability. I guess it’s the golden rule of “treat others like you would like to be treated”. That said, in addition to the baseline primitives, my initial instinct is to nudge both investors & CEOs to be adaptable, good listeners, & find common ground. Nowadays, mental health is more present than ever, with things like burnout, stress, depression, among others. What do you think of external intervenients like executive coaches, both for a founder and for a VC partner? Do they usually add value? I serve on the board of a company focused on mental / behavior health. Technology enables “access” for help at near zero marginal cost, so from that standpoint I suppose it is ever more present. I think its a personal decision if someone wants to utilize an executive coach (or a therapist if clinical assistance is more appropriate). What I really believe is that both physical and mental health is important for all involved. If you are not fit, it would probably be best to remove yourself (in a manner without surprises), or adjust your role so that you feel comfortably physically / mentally. How do you solve important conflicts with CEOs, such as lack of alignment on exits, strategy, or just the CEO being in denial about things like performance? Does the resolution begin with a private conversation or with involving other board members in a decision? My personal view is the CEO is the CEO. If a board no longer trusts the CEO, then the board should professionally start a process (ideally with the CEO’s support) in a transition. If the board trusts the CEO, then what I try to do is optimize to each CEO in a manner custom to her / him. Sometimes that means staying out of her/his way, other times it means being proactive. Who is the right “messenger” depends on the CEO / Team / Board Members & what the topic is. If you have for example a Comp Committee, the Chair of the Comp Committee can be the voice for the committee most of the time, some with Audit / Risk Committee, Nominations/Governance, etc. If the committee Chair is doing a good job — super. Each CEO is different.Each company culture is different. Each board member & board culture is different. Once you establish a fiduciary baseline together, then how to get things done tends to be custom to those involved, leveraging helpful primitives like open communication, respect, understanding, etc. Each company culture is different. Each board member & board culture is different. Once you establish a fiduciary baseline together, then how to get things done tends to be custom to those involved, leveraging helpful primitives like open communication, respect, understanding, etc. When raising money from LPs, what is the thing you emphasize the most when “selling” the fund? Past returns? Team expertise (domain and/or entrepreneurial expertise)? Unique angle? The relationship with LPs is a relationship, so “fit” is key. LPs usually appreciate that you say what you are going to do & then do it (ie “no surprises” as the goal). They seem to appreciate regular and professional communication, so if things are going well or not, they are informed. Clearly everyone is happiest when everyone makes money at the level of risk-reward they were anticipating. However, in the moments where things don’t work out as well, an LP usually appreciates professional communication through the cycle of the relationship. LPs, GPs, Entrepreneurs — at the end of they day usually can sense “integrity” (level of integrity) — if each person tries to do the right thing, especially under moments of material stress, then business trust forms naturally over all of our careers, at whatever level each of us earn. Key Lessons from Pete

https://medium.com/@vascopatricio/interview-with-pete-hartigan-managing-partner-marketplace-funds-544ea7ad4fba

['Vasco Patrício']

2020-02-07 12:40:09.729000+00:00

['Venture Capital', 'Alternative Investments', 'Startups']

ONE MAN CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

ONE MAN CAN CHANGE THE WORLD “One man can change the world” by Big Sean is one of my favourite songs that has hit my playlist countless times, but I never realized the power behind it’s chorus (one man can change the world) until I came across a book named “A mirror to the Blind” an official biography of Abdul Sattar Edhi by Tehmina Durrani, a renowned writer and activist in Pakistan. Edhi’s name needs no introduction, in fact, the whole world knows him as a saint, philanthropist, and an activist who took to social injustice, welfare in a heavenly way. Edhi’s life is a glaring example of how small beginnings lead to greater achievements. From donating a paisa a day to single-handedly establishing one of the world’s greatest welfare organizations, from leaving the school in grade four to reading the greats like Lenin and Carl Marx to becoming a great intellectual himself, from a little lad nicknamed ‘Roti’ helping a wounded old citizen, to over 6000 volunteers working to provide 24 hours emergency services, from collecting donations for a second hand vehicle for ambulance service, to building world’s largest ambulance service comprising over 1800 ambulances stationed across Pakistan, he showed the world how humble beginnings lead us to great achievements. He wasn’t the son of a billionaire, but had a heart worth trillions. He didn’t wait to be rich to help the poor, rather started from whatever he got as his pocket money. The list of his achievements as a humanitarian and a philanthropist would take pages to cover, but his personal life was way simple than most of us. Just owned two pairs of clothes, never owned a house, never drove a vehicle other than ambulance and had the same pair of shoes for the last twenty years of his life. Yet he did wonders for the mankind. He truly lived up to his admireable titles “Father Teresa of Pakistan” and “The richest poor man”. Just start Project: I was in grade 3 when I started reading books, newspapers and columns. My mom would bring me short stories, books, children’s magazines from her school library. By the time I reached high school, I realized that I had a knack for writing. Whenever, I’d read a beautifully crafted piece of writing, or watch an ill-scripted tv commercial, than are abundant in our advertisement industry, I’d tell myself that this is where I belong, I’ve got what it takes to be a writer who can impact the world with his pen. I used to think about writing, learn about writing and then ‘procrastination’ would take over me and as it’s result I never happened to actually complete a writing project. Yes, I’m an introvert with a procrastination complex who used to think maybe I’m not ready yet, or maybe I need to learn and work on stylistics, syntax and lexicon, to get into the competitive world of content writing. ‘Khudi’ wasn’t ‘buland’ enough, and I had a severe lack of ‘Amal’. This January, the most beautiful thing of my educational life happened when I joined Amal academy for a career prep course in order to expand my skill arsenal. In the very beginning I learnt about the core principles of success and had a chance to read about the story of world renowned philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi(late) to understand how he used these principles of Amal, Khudi and self learning to build one of the greatest welfare organizations in the world. What I learnt from his story is that humble beginnings lead to the greatest achievements is you persist and stick to the goldens rules of ‘amal, Khudi and Self learning. And that’s what I’ve just started NOW. I’ll be writing, writing and writing that unfinished novel that I started and quit in the high school, those rap lyrics that I craft and forget, the articles and blogs about the things I’ve loved and wanted others to know about. I’ll sit down to pen, pad and keyboard, and I’ll bleed everyday. And by writing this blog, I have JUST STARTED. Setting goals: Incorporating the golden rules of Amal, Khudi and self learning to excel in the field of writing. Start writing with the immediate effect, without any further delay of waiting for the right time and skills to come. Working on developing writing skills along with writing. What I learnt here at amal that I can’t improve skills without actually putting myself into Amal to face the challenges and learn from experience. Khudi and Self learning: I feel extremely fortunate and thankful that I got a wonderful opportunity to start writing about my passion- that is writing itself. To put is simply, I have to write a blog about how I wanted to write blogs, articles and different stuff. In my first two sessions, I had an opportunity to deeply observe biography of a boy, who had to quit school in grade four, and later he turned out to be the world’s greatest humanitarian, philanthropist and intelectual. You surely have guessed who I am talking about- none other than Abdul Sattar Edhi. With no proper education, he still managed to touch the skies of excellence just because of his passions. From reading newspapers, magazines, writers like Karl Marx, Lenin any many others, to learning through what he was going through everyday, selling pencils to doing different jobs and volunteering himself for social welfare, he proved that If you are determined to your Khudi, no one can stop you from learning and leaning towards excellence. To put it in Edhi’s own words, “Education can be extracted from all things- No man is excluded from this divine source”

https://medium.com/@abdullah.linguist1/one-man-can-change-the-world-by-big-sean-is-one-of-my-favourite-songs-that-has-hit-my-playlist-792721801223

['Muhammad Abdullah']

2019-01-23 12:42:31.618000+00:00

['Edhi', 'Pakistan', 'One Man Army']

“Writing For Your Life” Newsletter: December 13, 2020

Presenting a plethora of articles as we inch towards a new year … Rod Serling in a publicity photo for “The Twilight Zone” I have elected to lead off this week’s e-newsletter with an image of Rod Serling, as our publication’s most commented-upon article for the period was introduced with this photo. “Why Write What You Know is the Most Harmful Piece of Writing Advice You Will Ever Receive” proved fairly controversial. Approximately 75% of our readers agreed wholeheartedly with the piece, while the other 25% were vociferous in their disapproval. You decide. I stand by my words, and the reasons are here.

https://medium.com/writing-for-your-life/writing-for-your-life-newsletter-december-13-2020-41d566acbbdb

['Joel Eisenberg']

2020-12-14 04:21:41.967000+00:00

['Writers On Medium', 'Newsletter', 'Ｍedium', 'Writing', 'Reading']

The Top 20 Most Featured Writers on Medium in June 2020 — An Analysis

The Top 20 Most Featured Writers on Medium in June 2020 — An Analysis Of all 485 of the stories featured by Medium in June 2020, these were the writers they were most sourced from. In this report, we will take a look at the top 10 writers that had their stories featured on Medium’s homepage the most in May, 2020. We will examine the formatting — word count, story length, and topics — used by the writers as well as engagement metrics, such as claps and responses. Who am I? I’m a software engineer who knows how to obtain, process, and report data efficiently. As a writer, I’ve set my eyes on Medium’s featured stories to help myself and other writers understand what Medium’s editorial team prioritizes. I will do my best to summarize my findings in a series of articles. You can follow me and the Writers Guild publication to stay alert. Before we get into the data, please take a second to clap for this story to let me know it’s valuable to you. I only want to continue reporting these stats if they are of great value to writers like you and me. 👏🏿👏🏾👏🏽👏🏼 👏🏻👏 Let’s explore the data on the most featured writers from June! #1. Robert Roy Britt There were ten stories written by Robert Roy Britt featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 2.06% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Robert Roy Britt were curated across ten topics, including Coronavirus, Society, and Science. The most frequent topic was Health, which appeared in nine stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Robert Roy Britt to feature on their homepage was 1,963. The minimum number of words was 550. The average number of words was 1,010. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 4 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 8 minutes, and the minimum was 2 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 9,523 claps across all the featured stories from Robert Roy Britt during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 1,750, the minimum was 245, and the average was 952. The applause came from 1,423 readers. The stories featured from Robert Roy Britt received an average of 11 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 23, and the minimum was three. #2. Dave Gershgorn There were nine stories written by Dave Gershgorn featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 1.86% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Dave Gershgorn were curated across twelve topics, including Artificial Intelligence, Race, and Privacy. The most frequent topic was Technology, which appeared in nine stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Dave Gershgorn to feature on their homepage was 2,677. The minimum number of words was 636. The average number of words was 1,100. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 4 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 11 minutes, and the minimum was 3 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 4,422 claps across all the featured stories from Dave Gershgorn during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 888, the minimum was 210, and the average was 491. The applause came from 747 readers. The stories featured from Dave Gershgorn received an average of 6 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 14, and the minimum was two. #3. Yasmin Tayag There were eight stories written by Yasmin Tayag featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 1.65% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Yasmin Tayag were curated across six topics, including Coronavirus, Health, and Society. The most frequent topic was Coronavirus, which appeared in eight stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Yasmin Tayag to feature on their homepage was 2,243. The minimum number of words was 455. The average number of words was 1,024. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 4 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 9 minutes, and the minimum was 2 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 5,927 claps across all the featured stories from Yasmin Tayag during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 2,539, the minimum was 96, and the average was 741. The applause came from 797 readers. The stories featured from Yasmin Tayag received an average of 10 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 22, and the minimum was two. #4. Sarah Emerson There were eight stories written by Sarah Emerson featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 1.65% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Sarah Emerson were curated across thirteen topics, including Digital Life, Media, and Business. The most frequent topic was Technology, which appeared in eight stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Sarah Emerson to feature on their homepage was 1,437. The minimum number of words was 798. The average number of words was 1,078. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 4 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 6 minutes, and the minimum was 3 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 5,165 claps across all the featured stories from Sarah Emerson during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 1,061, the minimum was 214, and the average was 646. The applause came from 498 readers. The stories featured from Sarah Emerson received an average of 10 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 25, and the minimum was two. #5. Emily Mullin There were seven stories written by Emily Mullin featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 1.44% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Emily Mullin were curated across nine topics, including Coronavirus, Science, and Health. The most frequent topic was Science, which appeared in five stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Emily Mullin to feature on their homepage was 2,207. The minimum number of words was 739. The average number of words was 1,086. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 4 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 9 minutes, and the minimum was 3 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 1,917 claps across all the featured stories from Emily Mullin during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 452, the minimum was 97, and the average was 274. The applause came from 272 readers. The stories featured from Emily Mullin received an average of 3 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 9, and the minimum was zero. #6. Tim Wise There were seven stories written by Tim Wise featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 1.44% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Tim Wise were curated across seven topics, including Society, Race, and History. The most frequent topic was Race, which appeared in seven stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Tim Wise to feature on their homepage was 2,625. The minimum number of words was 1,510. The average number of words was 1,895. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 7 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 10 minutes, and the minimum was 6 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 34,475 claps across all the featured stories from Tim Wise during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 14,710, the minimum was 1,436, and the average was 4,925. The applause came from 4,862 readers. The stories featured from Tim Wise received an average of 54 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 156, and the minimum was twenty-two. #7. Michael Arceneaux There were six stories written by Michael Arceneaux featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 1.24% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Michael Arceneaux were curated across ten topics, including Culture, Society, and Race. The most frequent topic was Race, which appeared in five stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Michael Arceneaux to feature on their homepage was 1,750. The minimum number of words was 984. The average number of words was 1,258. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 5 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 7 minutes, and the minimum was 4 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 12,589 claps across all the featured stories from Michael Arceneaux during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 4,449, the minimum was 158, and the average was 2,098. The applause came from 1,367 readers. The stories featured from Michael Arceneaux received an average of 19 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 34, and the minimum was three. #8. Will Oremus There were six stories written by Will Oremus featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 1.24% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Will Oremus were curated across nine topics, including Business, Social Media, and Technology. The most frequent topic was Technology, which appeared in six stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Will Oremus to feature on their homepage was 2,743. The minimum number of words was 1,513. The average number of words was 1,949. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 8 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 11 minutes, and the minimum was 6 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 3,486 claps across all the featured stories from Will Oremus during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 823, the minimum was 350, and the average was 581. The applause came from 429 readers. The stories featured from Will Oremus received an average of 5 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 8, and the minimum was one. #9. Markham Heid There were six stories written by Markham Heid featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 1.24% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Markham Heid were curated across four topics, including Coronavirus, Science, and Health. The most frequent topic was Coronavirus, which appeared in six stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Markham Heid to feature on their homepage was 1,660. The minimum number of words was 863. The average number of words was 1,129. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 4 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 6 minutes, and the minimum was 3 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 11,780 claps across all the featured stories from Markham Heid during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 5,502, the minimum was 349, and the average was 1,963. The applause came from 2,066 readers. The stories featured from Markham Heid received an average of 19 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 42, and the minimum was five. #10. Jessica Valenti There were five stories written by Jessica Valenti featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 1.03% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Jessica Valenti were curated across eight topics, including Politics, Women, and Justice. The most frequent topic was Politics, which appeared in five stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Jessica Valenti to feature on their homepage was 735. The minimum number of words was 606. The average number of words was 669. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 3 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 3 minutes, and the minimum was 2 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 22,960 claps across all the featured stories from Jessica Valenti during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 11,302, the minimum was 776, and the average was 4,592. The applause came from 2,458 readers. The stories featured from Jessica Valenti received an average of 44 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 88, and the minimum was eleven. #11. Andrea González-Ramírez There were five stories written by Andrea González-Ramírez featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 1.03% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Andrea González-Ramírez were curated across eight topics, including Politics, Women, and Justice. The most frequent topic was Politics, which appeared in four stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Andrea González-Ramírez to feature on their homepage was 7,183. The minimum number of words was 610. The average number of words was 2,305. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 9 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 28 minutes, and the minimum was 3 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 6,260 claps across all the featured stories from Andrea González-Ramírez during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 2,088, the minimum was 607, and the average was 1,252. The applause came from 639 readers. The stories featured from Andrea González-Ramírez received an average of 13 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 39, and the minimum was two. #12. Keren Landman, MD There were five stories written by Keren Landman, MD featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 1.03% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Keren Landman, MD were curated across six topics, including Coronavirus, Society, and Science. The most frequent topic was Coronavirus, which appeared in five stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Keren Landman, MD to feature on their homepage was 1,426. The minimum number of words was 745. The average number of words was 930. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 4 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 6 minutes, and the minimum was 3 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 10,862 claps across all the featured stories from Keren Landman, MD during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 9,578, the minimum was 223, and the average was 2,172. The applause came from 2,068 readers. The stories featured from Keren Landman, MD received an average of 40 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 164, and the minimum was four. #13. Rob Walker There were five stories written by Rob Walker featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 1.03% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Rob Walker were curated across nine topics, including Society, Business, and Technology. The most frequent topic was Business, which appeared in five stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Rob Walker to feature on their homepage was 3,778. The minimum number of words was 1,142. The average number of words was 2,124. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 8 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 15 minutes, and the minimum was 5 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 8,218 claps across all the featured stories from Rob Walker during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 4,004, the minimum was 524, and the average was 1,644. The applause came from 1,182 readers. The stories featured from Rob Walker received an average of 16 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 24, and the minimum was eight. #14. Drew Costley There were five stories written by Drew Costley featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 1.03% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Drew Costley were curated across eleven topics, including Culture, Society, and Race. The most frequent topic was Race, which appeared in five stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Drew Costley to feature on their homepage was 1,335. The minimum number of words was 906. The average number of words was 1,090. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 4 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 5 minutes, and the minimum was 4 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 7,310 claps across all the featured stories from Drew Costley during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 3,761, the minimum was 370, and the average was 1,462. The applause came from 711 readers. The stories featured from Drew Costley received an average of 12 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 23, and the minimum was three. #15. Alexandra Sifferlin There were four stories written by Alexandra Sifferlin featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 0.82% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Alexandra Sifferlin were curated across three topics, including Coronavirus, Science, and Health. The most frequent topic was Coronavirus, which appeared in four stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Alexandra Sifferlin to feature on their homepage was 835. The minimum number of words was 541. The average number of words was 664. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 3 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 3 minutes, and the minimum was 2 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 1,121 claps across all the featured stories from Alexandra Sifferlin during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 360, the minimum was 196, and the average was 280. The applause came from 151 readers. The stories featured from Alexandra Sifferlin received an average of 6 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 9, and the minimum was three. #16. Joshua Adams There were four stories written by Joshua Adams featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 0.82% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Joshua Adams were curated across eleven topics, including Artificial Intelligence, Race, and Film. The most frequent topic was Equality, which appeared in four stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Joshua Adams to feature on their homepage was 1,381. The minimum number of words was 985. The average number of words was 1,172. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 5 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 5 minutes, and the minimum was 4 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 2,270 claps across all the featured stories from Joshua Adams during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 1,374, the minimum was 189, and the average was 568. The applause came from 262 readers. The stories featured from Joshua Adams received an average of 7 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 9, and the minimum was four. #17. The Only Black Guy In the Office There were four stories written by The Only Black Guy In the Office featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 0.82% of all stories featured during June. The stories by The Only Black Guy In the Office were curated across nine topics, including Culture, Society, and Race. The most frequent topic was Race, which appeared in four stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from The Only Black Guy In the Office to feature on their homepage was 1,078. The minimum number of words was 912. The average number of words was 1,000. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 4 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 4 minutes, and the minimum was 4 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 13,623 claps across all the featured stories from The Only Black Guy In the Office during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 7,638, the minimum was 1,042, and the average was 3,406. The applause came from 1,752 readers. The stories featured from The Only Black Guy In the Office received an average of 29 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 58, and the minimum was sixteen. #18. Tirhakah Love There were four stories written by Tirhakah Love featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 0.82% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Tirhakah Love were curated across eleven topics, including Culture, Politics, and Race. The most frequent topic was Race, which appeared in four stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Tirhakah Love to feature on their homepage was 1,807. The minimum number of words was 885. The average number of words was 1,307. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 5 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 7 minutes, and the minimum was 4 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 3,705 claps across all the featured stories from Tirhakah Love during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 1,598, the minimum was 141, and the average was 926. The applause came from 330 readers. The stories featured from Tirhakah Love received an average of 6 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 10, and the minimum was one. #19. David Dennis, Jr. There were three stories written by David Dennis, Jr. featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 0.62% of all stories featured during June. The stories by David Dennis, Jr. were curated across eleven topics, including Culture, Politics, and Society. The most frequent topic was Race, which appeared in three stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from David Dennis, Jr. to feature on their homepage was 3,208. The minimum number of words was 1,122. The average number of words was 1,851. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 8 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 15 minutes, and the minimum was 4 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 6,546 claps across all the featured stories from David Dennis, Jr. during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 4,941, the minimum was 732, and the average was 2,182. The applause came from 799 readers. The stories featured from David Dennis, Jr. received an average of 16 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 32, and the minimum was five. #20. Angela Lashbrook There were three stories written by Angela Lashbrook featured by Medium in June, 2020. These stories accounted for 0.62% of all stories featured during June. The stories by Angela Lashbrook were curated across eight topics, including Digital Life, Culture, and Business. The most frequent topic was Technology, which appeared in three stories. Formatting The greatest number of words in a single story that Medium selected from Angela Lashbrook to feature on their homepage was 2,113. The minimum number of words was 1,583. The average number of words was 1,814. Those words summed up to an average reading time of 7 minutes. The maximum suggested reading time across these stories was 8 minutes, and the minimum was 6 minutes. Reader engagement There was a total of 1,593 claps across all the featured stories from Angela Lashbrook during June, 2020. The greatest number of claps for a single story was 911, the minimum was 232, and the average was 531. The applause came from 214 readers. The stories featured from Angela Lashbrook received an average of 6 responses. The maximum number of responses on a featured story was 13, and the minimum was zero. Honorable mentions — 50 Here are Medium featured stories from fifty other writers during June, 2020. I thought I’d mention the top 50 of those other featured writers. The stories from these writers accounted for about 17.94% of all featured stories in June. Let’s take a quick look at them. Thanks for reading Writers Guild — A Penname publication Share your stories on ManyStories.com to reach more readers. Auto-tweet your stories on repeat with Signal to increase engagement.

https://medium.com/writers-guild/the-top-20-most-featured-writers-on-medium-in-june-2020-an-analysis-5e66476115e1

['Lincoln W Daniel']

2020-07-30 03:54:22.499000+00:00

['Partner Program', 'Writing', 'Data Visualization', 'Curation', 'Writers']

Gene Marker PACS a Punch for Cervical Cancer Treatments

In cervical cancer, mutations in healthy cells cause cells to grow and multiply uncontrollably, invading surrounding tissues and spreading around the body. Infection by the human papillomavirus (HPV) and lifestyle factors are among the root causes of the disease. In 2020, nearly 14,000 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer and over 4,000 will die from it. Chemotherapy and radiation are standard clinical interventions for cervical cancer. However, the problem is that not every patient will respond favorably to these treatments. Until now, there is no way for physicians to distinguish which subset of patients will benefit from standard treatment strategies and which should opt for alternatives. Now, cancer experts from UCLA have identified a gene called PACS-1, which when expressed at high levels in cervical cancer tissues, points towards possible resistance to chemo treatment. The scientists were able to track the dynamics of the PACS-1 protein in cells derived from primary tumors and made an interesting discovery. When the PACS-1 protein translocated from the cell’s cytoplasm to the nucleus, this made the cell resistant to killing by cancer therapeutics. This occurred through the PACS-1-mediated suppression of the DNA damage response — an in-built safety mechanism in cells that repairs DNA to prevent the generation of deleterious mutations. The study, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, suggests that PACS-1 represents a viable diagnostic marker that could contribute to improved therapeutic strategies for patients with chemo-resistant cervical cancer. The authors suggest that treatments that suppress PACS-1 expression in combination with chemotherapeutics or immuno-oncology approaches might be the key to addressing these tumors which until now, have been deemed untreatable. Source: Journal of Biological Chemistry.

https://medium.com/the-reading-frame/gene-marker-pacs-a-punch-for-cervical-cancer-treatments-57dbdee3697

['Tara Fernandez']

2020-12-16 19:42:20.199000+00:00

['Cancer', 'Cell Biology', 'Biomarkers Market', 'Womens Health', 'Medicine']

Trump the Election Troll

An online troll attacks people to evoke emotional responses; activity that is considered online harassment. I’ve never taken trolling seriously; I’ve always shrugged it off and dismissed it. In observing Trump’s behavior since loosing the elections, I identify it as trolling. He uses Twitter to make false claims and to threaten other officials (the example below concerns the Georgia run-off, not Trump’s own loss): What a fool Governor @BrianKempGA of Georgia is. Could have been so easy, but now we have to do it the hard way. Demand this clown call a Special Session and open up signature verification, NOW. Otherwise, could be a bad day for two GREAT Senators on January 5th. 12:03 AM · Dec 14, 2020·Twitter for iPhone He lost the elections and has turned to trolling to evoke his following to be up in arms. Unfortunately, the effect of online trolling may lead to physical altercation and harm. Of course, beyond trolling the elections, Trump has his personal lawyer attempting a reversal of a democratic procedure. At the moment, I’m more concerned about the trolling and the continued divisiveness that his online and media trolling is having upon the nation. Unfortunately, I have not been able to merely dismiss Trump’s trolling as I do with other trolls. Yesterday morning an old friend and journalist txt’d me “did you see how trump is sending alternate electors to Congress? He is now full fledged working on a coup. No respect for our constitution or democracy.” Having woken up concerned that the final Electoral College count may not reflecting the states won by Biden — 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232 and worried that Biden’s win would not be certified, this txt increased my anxiety. In response to my anxious reply, she soon wrote “No. It will fail. But it’s just so disgusting.” So I relaxed, but I was feeling the effects of a troll and I was annoyed at being susceptible to Trumps trolling the 2020 Elections. Today, Mitch McConnell finally acknowledged Biden’s win and even congratulated Vice President Elect Kamala Harris which helps me put anxieties induced by Trump’s trolling further to rest. However, what is most worrying about Trump’s election trolling is the gathering of many hundred Trump supporters in DC this past Saturday. Watching the video of that gathering and the way these people applauded a helicopter that took Trump to the Army Navy Game reminded me of images of black and red clad Nicaraguans cheering Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. It is a confounding cult of personality. The last +4 years, I have been dumbfounded at the spell that this egomaniacal liar has upon a large number of U.S. citizens. I find him so disgusting and yet over 70 million people voted for him. And now his trolling activity only continues the divide in this country. I expect that Trump will be historicized amongst the most wretched presidents of this nation state, but meanwhile, I have be part of a country divided; division that could begin to calm if the trolling stopped. Some ten years ago when my ex-spouse was trolled by someone in the midwest (we are based in Brooklyn), because he felt that her research and creative work was his domain and was essentially jealous of all the attention she was getting, she felt threatened and forced us to set up an alarm system. This was an alarm system more commonly found in a home, not really necessary in a fifth floor apartment of a Brooklyn coop. However, his messages were so menacing that my arguing against the necessity of an alarm system was ignored. The alarm system was only a costly nuisance, but this is an example of the power that internet trolls can wield. This is nothing compared to when the troll is the president.

https://medium.com/@ricardo-miranda-zuniga/trump-the-election-troll-9698e3a6b3bf

['Ricardo Miranda Zuniga']

2020-12-15 21:59:56.185000+00:00

['Trolling', 'Electoral College', '2020 Presidential Race', 'Trump']

This Just In: Choice In Video Games

This Just In: Choice In Video Games Have video games lost their appeal? Last week I watched High Score on Netflix. It’s a six-part docuseries on the history of video games. For most of the episodes, it was a walk straight down Memory Lane. The first video game I remember playing is Duck Hunt on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Pulling the trigger on the plastic gun came with a very loud click, following a few milliseconds later by the screen flash. Then, after three shots, the dog would pop up and laugh at you. It was revolutionary. After that, I was hooked on video games. I’ve owned just about every video game console released in the last three decades and played everything from sports simulators to role-playing games. I enjoy any game with a good storyline. Over the last few years, my gaming considerably slowed ( unless you count playing Sudoku on my phone, which happens almost daily). I tend to play games three or four years after their release, once they are significantly cheaper and any downloadable content is included. Right now, I’m playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the third game in the latest Tomb Raider reboot. When I am running around, climbing cliffs, and exploring tombs the game is a lot of fun. However, there’s this whole other side of the game where the only option is ruthlessly killing people at every turn. This part of the game not only is not fun, but it makes no sense. The premise of the rebooted Tomb Raider series is centered on, of course, Lara Croft. In her early twenties, Lara is adventure-seeking and a bit reckless, trying to solve her deceased father’s life work: preventing an evil secret society (Trinity) from destroying the world. Throughout the course of the games, Lara goes from running away from bears to killing Trinity henchmen ( or zombie-like South American jungle-tribesmen) on sight and without mercy. Maybe my tastes have evolved, maybe it’s the pandemic and the ever-present death toll, but I don’t really want to finish Tomb Raider. And it’s not just this game ( which, aside from the killing actually has a compelling storyline), I don’t want to play any game where killing is the only way to move the story forward. I’ve been drawn lately back to No Man’s Sky, a game released in 2016 that has almost no real story. It’s essentially a game where you explore various galaxies, mine resources, and trade with other species. All while trying to survive hostile planetary climates. On the surface, the game appears boring. A few hours in, becoming an intergalactic trading mogul is incredibly satisfying. My issue isn’t about violence in games, which I don’t have a problem with as long as it makes sense in the context of the story. I guess what I’m looking for is a game where I actually have choices. No Man’s Sky provides those choices since you can practically do what you want. Avoid people? Never get into a fight? Just mine resources and build your habitat? All those choices are perfectly fine in the game. Tomb Raider provides zero choices. I’d prefer Lara have the choice to sneak past Trinity guards, avoiding conflict like any sane twenty-something in over her head would. Instead, the choices are removed and the only option is for Lara to become a ruthless serial killer. It’s just not fun. While there are games where your choices affect the outcome, they are rarely open-ended. The truth is, I’d love a version of Tomb Raider without the Trinity storyline. A game where Lara explores South American jungle ruins, collecting artifacts and clues to find the next one. When you complete Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s main story, you unlock all the “challenge tombs” which is essentially the game I want to play. I just don’t want to go through the Trinity mess and senseless killing to get there. One of the best games I’ve played in years is Horizon: Zero Dawn. You play as Aloy, one of the last humans in a world destroyed by technology. The majority of the conflict in the game comes from avoiding artificially intelligent dinosaurs. Plus, the story is fantastic. Horizon is Tomb Raider without the people and I am here for it. Unfortunately, games like Horizon are few and far between. With the next generation of consoles releasing later this year, I fear games will continue to leave players without choices, now with better graphics! Maybe someday the industry will evolve and players will have actual choices.

https://justincox.medium.com/this-just-in-choice-in-video-games-6784460baff4

['Justin Cox']

2020-09-15 13:46:01.160000+00:00

['Mental Health', 'Nonfiction', 'Life', 'Games', 'Entertainment']

The Gen Z Pyramid Scheme Sweeping Instagram

It happens fast and creates a huge sense of urgency, especially considering the announcements are posted ephemerally. The credibility of Venmo adds a sense of legitimacy to confused teens, which makes it dangerous for kids who might ordinarily think they’re aware of scams and how to avoid them. The app is instantaneous and public by default (though you can make any of your transactions private, and the actual monetary value is always private), so anyone scrolling through their Venmo feed will see a bunch of exciting looking payments back and forth, which may prompt some to jump in on the action for fear of missing out. It’s also essentially proving to kids that the process “works” because they’re seeing all their friends getting paid. Pyramid schemes are sketchy, but guys omg, this thing actually works, see? The trend has been picking up speed over the last few weeks. My colleague, Danielle and I, could only find examples on Instagram stories but it’s entirely possible that it’s spreading on Snapchat too and we just don’t have the right friends. So what’s the problem? Well, it’s illegal. And when the hype dies down, there will be a lot of disappointed buyers (in multiples of eight, lol) who collectively can’t find enough people to push them to the top of the pyramid. It also asks the question whether the thrill of playing the game will outweigh any losses to some players, which is scary in itself.

https://medium.com/startup-grind/the-gen-z-pyramid-scheme-sweeping-instagram-e6d53e0e2b46

['Julia Onken']

2018-03-23 22:31:45.849000+00:00

['Millennials', 'Social Media', 'Startup', 'Gen Z', 'Venmo']

Restaurants & Food–Serving Bars Across the Country are Now Allowed to Sell Cocktails for Takeout & Delivery, including Beer & Wine Locations

Restaurants & Food–Serving Bars Across the Country are Now Allowed to Sell Cocktails for Takeout & Delivery, including Beer & Wine Locations Somabar Mar 25, 2020·3 min read Many states across the country, including California, New York, and Texas, are now allowing all liquor licensed restaurants and food–serving bars to sell cocktails with takeout and delivery orders. These loosened restrictions are intended to help embattled food service providers during the COVID-19 shut down of dine-in operations, as dine-in customers accounted for the lion’s‒share of their revenues. With takeout/delivery becoming the new normal, many operators are taking a fresh look at their alcoholic beverage programs, with many being entirely unaware of how powerful a professional cocktail program can be for their business. And every liquor–serving location, whether general (full alcohol) licensed or beer & wine licensed, can now serve cocktails with their takeout and delivery food orders. Yes, you read that right. Even beer & wine–licensed restaurants can now serve the world’s most popular cocktails such as margaritas, cosmopolitans, and espresso martinis. But as you often get with cocktails, there is a twist. The best source of information for beer & wine licensees to launch a cocktail program is Somabar, the creator of the leading (and only commercially affordable) automated countertop bartending machine. Somabar perfected automated mixology, and has now applied their expertise and technology to the world of wine-safe alcohols ‒ powering the cocktail programs of a multitude of full liquor and beer & wine restaurants across the country. California takeout & delivery cocktails must have a secure lid or cap without a straw hole. According to Somabar, and as confirmed with California’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) and other states’ authorities, by using fermented spirits and other wine-license safe liquors, beer & wine licensees can legally craft cocktails that taste near-identical, and in some opinions far better than, traditional distilled liquor cocktails. And in California, for example, Vermouth (fortified wine flavored with various botanicals), Soju (a Korean neutral distilled spirit), and Sake (rice wine) may also be used legally by beer & wine licensees in cocktails. And what exactly are fermented spirits? “Fermented spirits are amazing, delicious and versatile alcohols,” offered Chris Hameetman, President of Somabar, “although the name may be unfamiliar, ‘fermented spirits’ are born from the same liquors we all know and love, yet the producers of fermented spirits simply bottle their product at the fermentation stage.” As an example to illustrate the above, Mr. Hameetman shared that Tequila is made by mashing and fermenting the agave plant and then distilling the resulting liquid to increase its alcohol by volume content (ABV) to around 40%. When making the fermented variant, the same process to make Tequila can be used, but the product is instead bottled at the fermentation stage, resulting in a lower ABV. Somabar recommends using 24% ABV fermented alcohols, as that is the maximum ABV California allows for beer & wine‒licensed cocktail ingredients. Other states have different laws with respect to the maximum ABV allowed for fermented‒spirit cocktails, so it is important that each beer & wine licensee understands the specifics of their state law before starting cocktail service. Somabar professional cocktail system In this time of great uncertainty and challenges, all businesses, and in particular those directly impacted by COVID-19 shut-downs such as restaurants and bars, must think of new and creative ways to help make ends meet. Thankfully, many states including California, New York, and Texas have offered a powerful tool by allowing cocktails for take-out and delivery, which, together with innovative, cost-reducing professional cocktail solutions like Somabar, may keep restaurants and its employees afloat in the unpredictable days and weeks to come.

https://medium.com/@somabar/restaurants-food-serving-bars-across-the-country-are-now-allowed-to-sell-cocktails-for-takeout-b24f842a950b

[]

2020-03-25 00:47:38.933000+00:00

['Cocktails', 'Delivery', 'Alcohol', 'Restaurant', 'Restaurant Business']

Third “Sex and the City” Movie Threatened

In this one, the first 40 minutes are just the ladies on a rooftop in Williamsburg, throwing rotten vegetables at the 20-somethings below. Then Miranda does a $12-million Kickstarter to fund her new boutique law firm. Charlotte fires her household staff. Samantha has sex with some men. Carrie, now single, writes a column for XO Jane and, whilst picking up her $45 check in the office, meets Lena Dunham and then goes home and hangs herself. Sounds good, can’t wait!

https://medium.com/the-awl/third-sex-and-the-city-movie-threatened-ed73df78065a

['Choire Sicha']

2016-05-13 19:53:30.929000+00:00

['Idk', 'Why Not', 'Movies']

It’s Not Good to Feel Alone: How to Beat Loneliness

The day we officialy became empty nesters I was caught off guard in the way loneliness enveloped me. I was drowning in sadness as I found myself wandering around the empty bedrooms remembering the funniest of details about raising our family. For years I had been looking forward to having them all leave home, and when it finally came I felt so alone. It’s normal to experience various levels of loneliness from time to time. For the lonely, the time around the holidays is often a trigger for this overpowering emotion, for others, major life changes or extreme stress can produce this emotional phenomenon. The sheer number of people who experience some form of loneliness is surprisingly high. For example, in the last 30 days, I have had several readers and friends share story after story all related to this intense emotion. One feels isolated because of her debilitating pain spanning the last two decades, another has watched all her friends get married and have children while she has yet to realize this blessing. Several are recently divorced and learning about a new kind of lonely, one young mom raising her little family has just moved to a new town without any friends. And my heart broke when I learned of a friend who lost a family member to suicide. Maybe you can see one of your friends in this group, or maybe it’s a reflection of you. The crazy thing about loneliness is its cyclical nature. We avoid talking about feeling lonely because we don’t know how to process the emotions which leads to further withdrawal and increased isolation. The one thing that stops the cycle is what helps the most. Sharing is one of the best forms of medicine when it comes to curing our loneliness. Loneliness Can Lead To… Besides being emotionally painful, loneliness can be at the root of many of our common ailments. Depression: A study by Tiikkainen and Heikkinen found lonely people to have more depressive symptoms, experiencing a lack of belonging in social interactions. The research also found depression and loneliness to perpetuate each other. Health: One of the more surprising effects is on our physical health. Social isolation and loneliness increase our chances of premature death. Lack of a reliable social connection is connected to poorer immunity, overall health, and wellbeing, making the lonely more susceptible to a variety of health issues. Physical Pain: The areas of the brain dealing with social exclusion also process physical pain. This scientific explanation brings a new meaning to the idea of a “broken heart.” If your dealing with chronic pain consider how connected you feel with other people. Could loneliness be at the root of your pain? Physically connecting with other people alters our cortisol or stress hormone levels, helps us maintain healthy eating and exercise routines while curbing negative behaviors like too much TV.” –Dr. Nasreen Khatri How to Beat Loneliness It’s important to remember it’s okay to be alone, but when your thoughts start playing games with your emotions it’s time to reign in the loneliness. The whole notion that it’s all in your head has some relevance when it comes to loneliness. Have you ever been in a crowd yet felt lonely? There is a difference between being alone and the actual emotion of loneliness. Our thoughts tend to create more of a problem than there actually is. Do a little mind work and try thinking of alternate perspectives to your situation. Don’t accept the first thoughts that come into your mind (No one likes me, I don’t have anything to offer, I’m a loser and an outcast) Then try some of these ideas on for size: Remember Circumstances are Neutral. Try to separate the difference between what you think are your feelings and what the actual circumstances are. Remember your feelings are not facts. Share your Feelings. Talk about what you feel with a friend, family member, or even within an online support group. Opening up and sharing what we feel not only will help you feel better but strength your relationships. Don’t let your brain talk you into thinking it’s not important or you don’t matter. There are people ready to listen and help. Search them out, let them in, and stop the cycle. Kindness Matters. Instead of waiting for some to help you, step outside of your comfort zone and help some else. Find a volunteer opportunity through your church or community. Read to the elderly, work at a food bank, take a meal into someone who is sick. Look and you’ll be surprised how much there is to do for others. Try out some new happy habits. There is a direct correlation between these tendencies and happiness. Small changes in behavior help us to intentionally manage our emotions. Take a class or start a new hobby. There are mental, social and physical benefits to learning something new. Look into a class about an interest you have, join a friend in a hobby she enjoys, or try something you’ve always wanted to try. It will help you feel better. I promise. Get a Weighted Blanket. This is an idea a couple of my friends have tried and it’s a fabulous idea. One friend has PTSD and the other has a husband who has been deployed overseas. Both use this blanket to help with loneliness. Studies have shown the weight of a blanket simulates being hugged and what could be better when you’re feeling lonely than to have a nice hug. They come in different weights and have various fabrics. Here are a couple of brands to look into. Takeaways Often when we feel lonely it is related to a lack of belonging. We don’t quite see where we fit into the world. In the absence of love and belonging, there is always suffering.” – Brené Brown Loneliness can be a painful and dark place. But you are important and have so much to offer! Don’t give up keep searching because I know you have a place in this world; you just need to find it. Try some of these ideas out see how it feels. I’d love to hear what helps you the most in the comments below. How do you beat loneliness, drop a comment in the space below? I’d love to hear from you!

https://lorilh-jackson.medium.com/its-not-good-to-feel-alone-how-to-beat-loneliness-cf530d559a16

['Lori Jackson']

2019-05-23 17:15:08.862000+00:00

['Life Lessons', 'Aloneness', 'Sadness', 'Mindset', 'Loneliness']

Taking Control

Photo by Luan Rezende from Pexels We all have those moments where we recognize the distinct sound of the heartbeat. For me, I remember an experience when hearing the very words “Junior year”. Only two words. But these words made my heart beat as though I was on a rollercoaster, at top of the track, waiting for the inevitable moment: the instant, unforgiving drop. I knew what was coming, and it was fear that made my stomach curl up: mixed emotions taking over my entire body. Just like any other student, I was determined, yet anxious. I knew that junior year is a defining part of one’s high school journey, especially in the eyes of college admissions officers. Questions among my peers like “How many APs are you taking?”, “What leadership roles do you have?”, and “How many volunteer hours have you completed?”, all added to the unspoken tension that eerily cropped up behind every incoming junior. It’s the feeling of being watched, and knowing that your actions really matter, that cultivate a sense of uneasiness and stress for many students. Fast forward to present day. I open my laptop, sit on my white desk, and attend my AP English Language Class via Zoom as usual — the new norm while coping in a global pandemic. I clicked on the link on the agenda, and it took me to Brian Doyle’s Joyas Voladoras. At first glance, I’ll admit that I wasn’t particularly interested. The general gist being that life, on a broad scale, is driven by the heart — literally, and emotionally. Doyle comments on the heart in relation to its function to sustain life in different organisms, whether that be hummingbirds, blue whales, or humans themselves. He contrasts the strong and continuously working aspect of a heart by characterizing it to be fragile. It too, can be swayed from “the shatter of glass… the memory of your father… the words I have something to tell you…”. From this, we are introduced to the idea that the heart is inclined with our emotions/thoughts as much as it is to the body’s functions. However, what really intrigued me was this particular quote: “Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime. You can spend them slowly, like a tortoise and live to be two hundred years old, or you can spend them fast, like a hummingbird, and live to be two years old.” When I first read this, I was genuinely surprised. I didn’t know that despite all organisms being different sizes and having unique lifestyles, they actually share a common trait that determines our lifespan. I also find it interesting how Doyle portrayed heartbeats to be something that you can physically exchange. It’s as though he were comparing it to money, or coupons, that we “spend” based on our decisions/ our choices to do so. What was said afterwards is when I became really hooked. I’ve always seen heartbeats as the very thing that leads our life — the determining factor that influences our everyday choices. After all, that’s what I learned in science class. This is why Doyle’s perspective of heartbeats disrupted my initial thoughts. He counters my previous mindset, actually saying the very opposite. He proposes that the choices we make hold a greater power, and our heartbeats are used to compensate for those decisions — as if they were to come second. Instead of viewing a heartbeat as a sign of life like I had prior to reading this article, Doyle makes it to be something that lets you have a life worth living — unrestricted, and solely dependent on what you choose. The roles are reversed, in that our choices are what lead us throughout life. By mentioning the differences between a hummingbird and a tortoise, Doyle emphasizes how different our lives can turn out to be based on our decisions. It demonstrates that despite having the same amount of heartbeats in their lifetimes, everyone goes at their own pace, in their own separate ways, and for their own benefits. This in turn altered my mindset on how to go about life, especially in terms of school, and thus, resonated with me. This brings me back to the little anecdote at the start. Like many students, I’m often stressed about my classes, the workload, and upcoming tests. However, I recognized some parallels between what was said in the quote and students during junior year. All of us students have access to the same resources and attend the same classes, similar to how every creature has the same number of heartbeats in their lifespan. In the same manner, it made me realize that as students, we should go at our own pace and take on different pathways throughout life, based on what is best suited for us as individuals. Just like said in the quote, tortoises go about their life slowly, which is why they can live to be two hundred years old. If they were as fast-paced, and energy-driven as hummingbirds, their lives would be different, and not necessarily best suited for them. This made me realize that fitting in a certain demographic when worrying about colleges and what occurs during junior year isn’t most important nor effective. We should take what we have, and use it to our advantage/ in favor of who we are as separate individuals. Most of all, I became reassured and less worried in regards to what is known to be a stressful time. I think that this was my major takeaway after reading Brian Doyle’s Joyas Voladoras, and shows how Doyle’s perspective had influenced a change in mine.

https://medium.com/@amoursthoughts/taking-control-3aaf0c727d33

['Gwynneth Amour Sumagaysay']

2021-03-22 01:33:47.537000+00:00

['Choices', 'Life', 'Academic', 'Heartbeat']

How Google Is Quietly Upending the Search Engine Landscape

Screenshot from Author’s iPad One. The answer to our quick question is one. Congratulations, you’re not the winner. Nobody is a winner. Except maybe Google, but the platform has been winning already. No news here. (The screenshot is from my iPad and represents roughly 50% of Google’s first page.) What can we see when we search the term podcasting? Paid advertisement Google’s Long dictionary Side snipped from Wikipedia (not Google’s content) People Also Ask section (definitely not Google’s content) Good luck getting any Google traffic for your next podcast. Google does everything in its power for users to never leave Hotel Google. Imagine Tech Willie Wonka that doesn’t have chocolate for you, but still keeps you locked in its factory; that’s Google right now. Let’s drop the satire, and explain what’s going on and why is Google not keen on letting traffic leave the platform. You can see for yourself why it doesn’t pay to count on grandpa Google to pay your student loans anymore. “41% of the first page of Google search results is taken up by Google products. “ — The Markup analysis The world of content marketing is changing. The revolution is here. We already have everything in place for the transition. Paid newsletter, content on-demand, and exclusive content ecosystems are already becoming the next avenue for content creators, especially writers. You can’t count on positioning your stuff on Google any longer. Google is still the biggest search engine platform on the planet. Ranking on the first page still brings tons of traffic. But the organic reach is contracting and it might suffocate your whole business. SEO is not a business strategy anymore.

https://medium.com/swlh/how-google-is-quietly-upending-the-search-engine-landscape-6c6dba4a20e3

['Toni Koraza']

2020-09-11 22:12:51.697000+00:00

['SEO', 'Content Marketing', 'Marketing', 'Content Strategy', 'Startup']

I’m A Coca-Cola Freestyle Machine, And I Really Miss Intimacy

I’m A Coca-Cola Freestyle Machine, And I Really Miss Intimacy A lament from your favorite futuristic soda fountain. Hi. Remember me? I’m the Coca-Cola Freestyle Machine at the back of your favorite AMC Theater, and man, I really missed having company. I took you for granted, baby. People are starting to trickle back in, but it doesn’t hold a candle to what we used to have. Without you, I’d rather be alone. At first, I thought, “Hey, this hiatus is some great me time.” I got to focus on some personal goals, like finding the right ratio for a mix of Vanilla Coke, Cherry Pibb, and Diet Barq’s (It was 2:3:1). Or, how to drop a chunk of ice into a forceful button-pusher’s cup, though they’re expecting it crushed. I even taught myself how to spray my stream to the tune of ‘Viva Las Vegas’ like the Fountains of Bellagio. I was looking forward to showing you. I can’t lie. It was nice to be away from the kids for a few months. Does that make me an asshole? I just loathed the predictability of it all — the repeated push of the Hi-C flavors, the grimy hands, the pieces of popcorn chucked at my screen. I gave so much and got so little in return. During Sonic the Hedgehog’s opening weekend, one tot climbed on top of me and jumped up and down until security coaxed him to the ground with some Milk Duds. It took me weeks to feel like myself again; I kept vibrating and short-circuiting from the memory of it. When I power down at night, I return to that last time we saw each other. You cut out early from work, exhausted from another week at a thankless job. Sprinting through the front doors, you made it just in time for the slightly cheaper matinee pricing. You were wearing your favorite green flannel, and I saw your face visibly relax when you were handed your usual at the concessions counter– Strawberry Sour Punch Straws, a small popcorn, and a medium sized cup. You walked that cup up to me, and I straightened to my rectangular best. I watched you take a sigh, gently pushing the button to quarter-fill the cup with ice, then choose a full pour of Diet Coke. After, you ambled away slowly, shaking your head as though something was amiss. That’s when you raced back and gave me the best ride of my life, baby. You dumped that liquified, Splenda BS down my drain and began pressing all my buttons — Minute Maid Mixed Berry, Seagram’s Ginger Ale Lime, Vitamin Water Tropical Punch, Dasani Cherry Lemon, Mellow Yellow Raspberry Twist. I had never seen someone work so quickly before, and with so much abandon. With so much joy! You were the alchemist, and I was your tool, as you fashioned the potion for a beautiful, fleeting love. You topped off your creation with Sprite Grape, the finishing touch, and took a sip that sent you to heaven. You patted me on my side, a gesture I hadn’t felt since my PurePour technology was installed in 2009. Then, I saw your green flannel disappear into Theater 3 for the next showing of The Gentleman, and I haven’t seen those elbow patches since. Instead of my selection screen, people are now using phone apps to pour into their cups. Peering from behind masks, they hastily select things like Red Powerade, no ice. It’s haunting. Such uncreative choices, and I don’t even get the benefit of a human touch. I met my true match in you — an artist. I’ve been hurt by creative types before, but the way you stick the landing splash-free? Astounding. Please just let me know we’ll dance our dance once again, even if it’s just for one more rendezvous. I only trust your hands, sweet enchanter. I await you desperately!

https://medium.com/slackjaw/im-a-coca-cola-freestyle-machine-and-i-really-miss-intimacy-7b5081dc6408

['Casey Rosario']

2020-09-23 16:52:25.589000+00:00

['Humor', 'Movies', 'Satire', 'Life', 'Food']

How to use my crypto signals channel by Alex Windsor

Most readers will be advanced at trading so you can skip this guide if that is the situation for you. For others who are recently beginning in the crypto trading market will be in need of some guidance. Which exchanges do we use? My signals channel is mainly focused on BitMex, Binance Futures & Bybit. How much should I invest into each signal? The risk management guidance is a maximum of 5% of your account. How much leverage should I use? The advised amount is always provided with each signal however 5x — 20x is the usual amount of leverage I use in each trade. Which target price should I sell at? This part is of course down to you and it’s important to monitor each signal and take note should the coin start to plateau then simply sell and take profit early at target 1 or target 2. How much ROI per month do your signals make? This of course changes on a month to month basis and even though there are many trades that reach 100%+ profits it’s only based on a small fraction of the total portfolio, so with that being said on a month to month basis my returns vary from 3% — 15%+ volatile markets and wide swings provide the latter higher level of return. Once I am VIP member what do I get? As a VIP member you will receive a number of guides and mentored lessons on managing risk, leverage and balancing your portfolio, depending on your subscription you will receive a minimum of 5–7 signals per week and with the maximum subscription you will receive 15–25 signals per week, 24hr trade support from myself is included and access to a number of expensive trading tools such as automated copytrade function. Are results provided? Attached to the bottom of this post you will find January and February trading results from my fund. How do I start? Of course you will need to own some bitcoin to open a trading account on the mentioned exchanges, after that you will need to contact me on the application telegram by searching the username @WindsorSignals

https://medium.com/@windsora808/how-to-use-my-crypto-signals-channel-by-alex-windsor-9be428ac66d7

['Alex Windsor']

2020-05-01 22:45:29.336000+00:00

['Binance', 'Binance Futures', 'Bybit', 'Bitmex', 'Cryptocurrency']

How To Be An Authentic Content Creator For Your Brand

Authenticity and Value Proposition. These are the two most important things when creating content for your brand. These are really the only things your target audience and especially your actual customers want to hear in your content. Every once in a while, I have the opportunity to sit down and talk in an interview. This clip is from one with Lady Lunch Club, a membership organization for Women in Nashville, Tennessee. I was asked what unique characteristics about women make them or can help them be good content creators and marketers for their brand. Regardless of your gender, the principles are the same: be a good listener, understand your value proposition (why your audience should choose you over your competitors) and deliver your message clearly, concisely and to the point. Don’t overthink your content, just think it over, then go with it. Paul Hickey, Founder / CEO / Lead Strategist at Data Driven Design, LLC and founder of The Voice Event, and The Voice Designer, has created and grown businesses via digital strategy and internet marketing for more than 15 years. His sweet spot is using analytics to design and build websites and grow the audience and revenue of businesses via SEO/Blogging, Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ads, Social Media Content Marketing, Email Marketing and most recently, Voice App Design and Development — Alexa Skills and Google Actions. The part that he’s most passionate about is quantifying next marketing actions based on real data.

https://medium.com/@datadrivendesignnashville/how-to-be-an-authentic-content-creator-for-your-brand-a5f7de6ea066

['Paul Hickey']

2020-12-10 10:30:55.806000+00:00

['Google', 'Content Marketing', 'Social Media', 'Social Media Marketing', 'Content Strategy']

Your truth my truth

Truth is a very complex subject and an important factor that motivates human life to survive in this universe. The book ‘My Gita’ by Devdutt Pattanaik was my Inspiration while writing this article and I am very grateful to the universe for blessing me with the opportunity to read this book. In today’s society where things are quite uncertain. Where people are busy in their own life as well as in finding their truth and constantly believing in it. It is important to understand that, there could be various versions, sides, and shades of the truth. It is equally important to understand that as humans we are blessed with only two eyes. No common individual can witness all the shades and parts of the truth. The book very beautifully explains that whenever you feel the necessity to find the universal version of the truth or as the book says, whenever the urge to find a fixed single objective truth grips you Remind yourself: Within infinite myths lies an eternal truth Who sees it all? Varuna has but a thousand eyes. Indra, a hundred You and I, only two This phrase completely changed my perspective of looking at things and understanding the message this book delivers. It certainly made me aware of the fact that as humans we are only exposed to bits and parts of the Truth. It is also important to understand that the world existed before us and will continue to exist after us. We are not here to change or control anything. But we are here to experience and seek wisdom from that experience. But unfortunately, in this world full of rush, insecurities, and restlessness caused because of this rush every individual believes there is only one truth. And the whole truth is accessible or could be experienced through the common Human’s sight. This human behavior of seeking a single objective truth makes them think that their personal version of the truth is the ultimate truth. If two individuals keep on trying to prove that their personal version of the truth is the ultimate truth. It gives rise to Vivaad (argument) this situation of Vivaad is often experienced in our daily life. But we should act wisely and should carry out samvaad (discussion). Samvaad happens when two individuals appreciate and acknowledge each other’s personal bits of truth and their viewpoints also at the same time expand their respective truths. The truth remains a question and a complex subject for an argument. But let us understand the importance of ‘Samvaad’ and seek the ‘Truth’ together while experiencing and going through this beautiful journey of life. ~Chirrayu.R

https://medium.com/@chirrayurasane/your-truth-my-truth-c524b6bdb33e

['Chirrayu Rasane']

2020-12-14 12:57:28.342000+00:00

['Society', 'Life', 'Truth', 'Philosophy', 'Books']

High forex reserves for India?

Forex reserves are external assets in the form of gold, SDRs (special drawing rights of the IMF) and foreign currency assets (capital inflows to the capital markets, FDI and external commercial borrowings) accumulated by India and controlled by the RBI. These assets serve many purposes but are most significantly held to ensure that a central government agency has backup funds if their national currency rapidly devalues. Due to the pandemic, in India the import had fallen drastically in contrast to the export which was accompanied by reduction in the dollar reserves. Thus, this led to depreciation of the Indian currency. To increase the reserves capital was raised by Reliance Industries and imports were lowered making India’s forex more than its debt. In my opinion, the increase in Forex provides India with a guard to deal with external shocks and makes it less vulnerable. This increase shows constancy in the economy. They also provide confidence to credit rating agencies and approaching foreign investors that external responsibilities of the country can always be met and that India has the ability to manage it’s balance of payments. Moreover, foreign currency reserves act as the first line of defence to address unanticipated contingencies that can occur suddenly

https://medium.com/@myrakapur22/high-forex-reserves-for-india-4e79e1e5ed44

['Myra Kapur']

2021-06-17 18:57:27.970000+00:00

['India', 'Forex']

How GPS Data Can Boost FinTech Security

Mobile-based fintech solutions are becoming the first port of call for many financial services, as people embrace the simplicity, cost-effectiveness and speed of mobile payments. However, digital fraud is rising as fast, if not faster, and thus fraud monitoring based on robust customer authentication have become as important as the services mCommerce has to offer customers. According to statistics released by Statista, the number of smartphone users worldwide has surpassed three billion and is forecast to grow by hundreds of millions of users over the next few years. China, India and the US have the highest number of smartphone users. Alongside the steep increase in the numbers of individuals using smartphone has been a rise in the proportion of users making orders via their mobiles and buying online. Research by Outerbox Design found that 79% of US mobile phone users had ordered by mobile and 10% of all retail sales were now conducted electronically (see graph below). Digital choice is also expanding exponentially. By the fourth quarter of 2019, the number of Android apps had exceeded 2.5 million, according to Statista figures, and Apple’s app store offered more than 1.8 million apps. In a white paper on evaluating fraud detection tools, One Span highlights the importance of adopting a layered, context-aware online security approach to fraud detection. It said anti-fraud weapons need to evolve alongside the evolution of fraud, which continues because it offers such huge potential profits for criminals. Source: Threatmark One Span says the fraud monitoring framework should dynamically trigger the most suitable authentication method for a given situation, according to its risk level. For example, if a certain transaction is evaluated as suspicious, due to unusual timing, location of the user or significantly larger amount than before, the security solution should be able to step up the authentication criteria instead of simply rejecting the transaction or putting it on hold for manual review. To keep pace with the growth in mCommerce and mobile banking solutions and to combat the ever-evolving incidences of fraud, the European Union has implemented the Payments Services Directive 2 (PSD2), which is strict regulation that governs electronic payment services. Although the regulation officially governs payment providers in the EU, many other countries have adopted the standards. The PSD2 regulations are bringing about major changes in digital security, requiring the use of what it defines as strong customer authentication (SCA) when customers are engaging in remote payment transactions. CAPS Open Framework, which is a market initiative that brings together multiple stakeholders who have a common interest in making the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) work safely, published a white paper the rising consumer preference mobile devices over alternative digital payment options will result in an increasing number of use cases in which mobile customer authentication will be required. It says that the mobile operators’ data points can be useful complementary information to increase security by leveraging contextual information available to mobile operators. For example, a service provider can check whether the user’s handset is in an unusual location and act on that information. The contextual information the paper refers to includes location-based authentication provided by Global Positioning System (GPS) information. GPS tracking is undoubtedly a reliable way of monitoring the movements of an individual because they usually have their phones on them and thus provides valuable data that can be used in fraud detection. Using mobile GPS data as an added level of security allows banks or other payment providers to use the geolocation information gained from the app to determine whether a transaction aligns with the location of the individual’s mobile. If not, it can act quickly in response to the possibility that a fraudulent transaction is underway. By establishing the geolocation of the client, it also enables the authentication of a customer’s identity to prevent impersonation and identity theft. Other uses include customization of services and content based on the information banks get from the geolocation of a customer. The location-based information also enables companies to use the information to comply with regulations in various jurisdictions, for instance, different regional copyright and financial regulations, as well as trade agreements. In an article titled, GPS: The Future of Authentication?, author Tracy Kitten notes that most smartphones, such as the iPhone, have built-in GPS tracking. “It’s a nice feature for the security of the phone itself, in case the phone gets left at the grocery checkout or someone lifts it when the owner is not looking,” she says. Gartner Research delved into the potential offered by mobile-enabled GPS as a security mechanism. The lead author of the report, Avivah Litan, concluded the only device you can count on to provide stronger authentication from location tracking is the cell phone. Gartner predicted that location or profile information derived from mobile devices eventually could be used to validate and detect fraud on 90% of mobile transactions. Kitten explained how location authentication of financial transactions would work: “When a user conducts a card transaction at an ATM or POS terminal, the location of the ATM or POS device would be compared with the location of the user’s mobile phone via GPS. So, if a card transaction is initiated at an ATM in Phoenix, but the GPS tracking says the cardholder’s phone is currently in Atlanta, the bank could flag the transaction as suspect.” Location tracking does raise privacy concerns. To deal with these, however, payment companies wanting to use this security measure can ask customers to opt-in to the added security layer. Banks and fintech payment providers who have incorporated location-based authentication based on a mobile phone’s GPS data include PayPal’s Venmo, Velmie, Temenos, MasterCard and Visa. Visa developed a Geolocation Services, which was an opt-in technology that integrated into the bank’s mobile apps and enabled the company to match the location of a card transaction with the location of the user’s phone. Velmie, a financial technology provider, is one of the few fintech solutions providers that has recognized the importance of using location-based security technology to protect customers making use of mobile payment solutions. As such, it has integrated mobile GPS data gathering into its white-label mobile wallets to safeguard customers from fraud and other security risks when making payment and other financial transactions via mobile wallets. The primary benefit of adding an additional contextual layer of location-based security to mobile phone-based financial services is the level of comfort it will give customers considering whether or not to make payments and transactions on their mobile phone.

https://medium.com/@velmie/how-gps-data-can-boost-fintech-security-2e69f8ac2ea

[]

2021-03-10 08:17:56.789000+00:00

['Payments', 'Fintech', 'Compliance', 'Psd2', 'Banking']

Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) in Python 3

I’m in the process of developing a crypto trading bot in Python. I want to create simulations to test various trading strategies on different markets and conditions to fine tune the bot. In order to do this I want to create an “Account” class object model to simulate a user account. So what is a Class or Model? At a basic level it is a template or blueprint for creating objects. Let’s start with a very basic example… I’m going to create a “blueprint” for creating “User” objects. I’m trying to keep this a simple as possible so not including any validation. Typically with an object you will have a “constructor”. This is the data included in the object as it is created. You will then have what is commonly referred to as “getter” or “setter” functions. “getters” are functions you can call on the object to retrieve data from an instantiated object and “setters” are functions you can use to set data in the instantiated object. By “instantiated”, I mean the object instance created by the object “blueprint”. The first step is we want to create a directory for our models. I just called mine “models”. In this directory we need to create an empty file called “__init__.py”. . |____models | |______init__.py The next step is to create the model. Please create a file called, “usermodel.py” in the “models” directory. . |____models | |____usermodel.py | |______init__.py The content of, “usermodel.py” is as follows. class User(): def __init__(self, name, age): self.name = name self.age = age def getName(self): return self.name def getAge(self): return self.age def setName(self, name): self.name = name def setAge(self, age): self.age = age Hopefully this is self explanatory so far. The, “__init__” is your “constructor” as mentioned above. The functions starting with “get” are your “getters” and the functions starting with “set” are the “setters”. You can call these functions what ever you like. I personally just like to keep my “getters” and “setters” together and try where possible to keep the function names descriptive. Really these are just functions and you can call them what ever you like and you can add more or less functions. It’s really up to you. Now create yourself another file called, “tutorial.py” in your project root with the following content. from models.usermodel import User user1 = User('User1New', 20) print (user1.getName()) print (user1.getAge()) user1.setName('User1Updated') user1.setAge(21) print (user1.getName()) print (user1.getAge()) user2 = User('User2New', 30) print (user2.getName()) print (user2.getAge()) This will return the following when you run it. User1New 20 User1Updated 21 User2New 30 The first line will look in the “models” directory for the “usermodel” script and import the “User” class model “blueprint”. You will see I created an object with the “name” set to “User1New” and the “age” set to 20 and stored it in the “user1” variable. I then used my two “getters” to retrieve the “name” and “age”. I then used my “setters” to update the “name” and “age” and the “getters” again to confirm the change. I then created another object with the “name” set to “User2New” and “age” set to 30 and stored it in the “user2” variable. You will notice that the two objects created from the “blueprint” class model are completely independent instances. It is probably worth briefly explaining “static” variables now as well. As you can see above each instantiated user object contains its own data and can be get and set individually. A “static” variable is a variable that is shared between all the objects created by the same class model “blueprint”. Update the, “usermodel.py” to include a “static” variable called “count”. class User(): count = 1 And update our “tutorial.py” with this. from models.usermodel import User user1 = User('User1', 20) print (User.count) User.count = User.count + 1 user2 = User('User2', 30) print (User.count) As you can see you can access the static variable by calling the class, “User”. 1 2 Both “user1” and “user2” variables created from the same “blueprint” are sharing the same “count” static variable. This is just a very brief example of what Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) is in Python 3. Hopefully it’s clear and you are following me so far. As I mentioned in the beginning I am creating an, “Account” class for my crypto trading bot. It’s a work in progress but it looks like this so far. from datetime import datetime class Account(): def __init__(self, user='anonymous'): self.balance = 0 self.user = user self.account = [] self.account.append([ datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"), 0, 'open', 0, 0 ]) def getAccount(self): return self.account def getBalance(self): return self.balance def getUser(self): return self.user def buy(self, quantity, price): if not isinstance(quantity, float) and not isinstance(quantity, int): raise TypeError('Quantity not numeric.') if not isinstance(price, float) and not isinstance(price, int): raise TypeError('Price not numeric.') if quantity <= 0: raise Exception('Insufficient quantity.') if price <= 0: raise Exception('Invalid price.') if (quantity * price) > self.balance: raise Exception('Insufficient funds.') self.balance = self.balance - (quantity * price) self.account.append([ datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"), quantity * price, 'buy', quantity, price ]) def deposit(self, amount): if not isinstance(amount, float) and not isinstance(amount, int): raise TypeError('Deposit amount not numeric.') if amount <= 0: raise Exception('Insufficient deposit.') self.balance = self.balance + amount self.account.append([datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"), amount, 'deposit']) def sell(self, quantity, price): if not isinstance(quantity, float) and not isinstance(quantity, int): raise TypeError('Quantity not numeric.') if not isinstance(price, float) and not isinstance(price, int): raise TypeError('Price not numeric.') if quantity <= 0: raise Exception('Insufficient quantity.') if price <= 0: raise Exception('Invalid price.') self.balance = self.balance + (quantity * price) self.account.append([ datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"), quantity * price, 'sell', quantity, price ]) def withdraw(self, amount): if not isinstance(amount, float) and not isinstance(amount, int): raise TypeError('Withdraw amount not numeric.') if amount <= 0: raise Exception('Insufficient withdraw.') if amount > self.balance: raise Exception('Insufficient funds.') self.balance = self.balance - amount self.account.append([datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"), -amount, 'withdraw']) The class has a constructor to identity the “user”, the user “balance” and an “account” list of all the transactions. I have four functions to simulate a “deposit”, “withdraw”, “buy” and “sell”. This should be all I need for now for the crypto bot simulations. You can try it out with this. from models.account import Account account = Account() print(account.getUser()) print(account.getBalance()) account.deposit(100) print(account.getBalance()) account.withdraw(5) print(account.getBalance()) print (account.getAccount()) account.buy(10, 1) account.sell(10, 1.5) print (account.getAccount()) print(account.getBalance()) With will print this. anonymous 0 100 95 [['2020-12-07 10:13:28', 0, 'open', 0, 0], ['2020-12-07 10:13:28', 100, 'deposit'], ['2020-12-07 10:13:28', -5, 'withdraw']] [['2020-12-07 10:13:28', 0, 'open', 0, 0], ['2020-12-07 10:13:28', 100, 'deposit'], ['2020-12-07 10:13:28', -5, 'withdraw'], ['2020-12-07 10:13:28', 10, 'buy', 10, 1], ['2020-12-07 10:13:28', 15.0, 'sell', 10, 1.5]] 100.0 The idea is to be able to run hundreds of simulations against different markets and conditions using various trading strategies. This “Account” object class will allow me to simulate users with an opening balance and all the activity. I will want to make sure that all my virtual user accounts have a positive balance before I start trading with real funds. This doesn’t include trading exchange fees yet. I will add that later but I didn’t want to over complicate the process now. I hope you learnt something from this tutorial and if you are interesting in the progress of this project of mine please remember to follow. I have created a Git repository for this project which you can find here. If you enjoyed reading this article and would like me to write on any other topics please let me know in the comments or email me directly.

https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/object-oriented-programming-oop-in-python-3-3e2d483ff759

['Michael Whittle']

2021-01-12 12:56:55.392000+00:00

['Python Object', 'Object Oriented', 'Object Model', 'Oop', 'Python3']

SaTT Smart Advertising Token Delivers On The Features Demanded By Gen Y (And Z)

SaTT Delivers On The Features Demanded By Millenials Finance and economics have been a difficult subject matter amongst baby boomers and their millennial offspring. After all, the current system inherited by millennials has not been fair to them. The global financial system today consists of a group of all-powerful, highly centralized, politically influenced, and innately corrupt banking cartels that have the ability to influence all aspects of monetary policy across all reaches of society. In the United States, for instance, the privately-run Federal Reserve has the power to create (and eliminate) an unlimited supply of US dollars on command, use money they create to purchase bonds and other financial instruments of their choosing and modify the federal interest rates that govern bank policies nationally. This results in a highly manipulated financial system filled with market bubbles and crashes, financial panics, inflation, shady loan practices (such as subprime mortgages), massive debt accumulation, bankruptcies, and bad credit, and most importantly results in no trust. Similar centralized banking practices are followed across the globe today, and millennials are not happy with the way in which this system has been set up unfairly against them. With governments now able to work with their central bank “vendors” to create money on command and manipulate all kinds of banking rules to promote specific large-scale economic results, the future feels less in control by the people and more in control by the elite banking class that are steering the economy in the ways they see fit. But with the birth and evolution of the internet, the banking cartels were unable to plan for or predict the variables of human intellect now unlocked by networking and sharing ideas and implementing new disruptive financial instruments. Millennials everywhere are now being set free as they are presented with effective new ways of rejecting the shackles of centrally controlled monetary policy, all with the revolution that is decentralized cryptocurrency. There continues to be exponential network expansion and technical advancement within the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. Millennials continue to invest into it and grasp the power-shifting opportunities it presents. Increasingly innovative and disruptive solutions are coming to market that give these consumers new kinds of financial leverage and incentives that were previously too cost-prohibitive or simply did not exist within the traditional market at all. Across industries, the utilization of decentralized DLTs (distributed ledger technologies, in particular blockchain technology which has underpinned the Bitcoin revolution) have been on the rise, offering more transparent, accessible and cost-effective solutions. In the advertising industry, one company has mindfully crafted what they feel is the perfect answer to this millennial generation’s need to have more control in an industry where fraud and inaccurate metrics, along with payment delays are widely prevalent. Smart Advertising Token (SaTT) is an ERC20 (Ethereum-powered) token that aims to solve a major problem in the traditional advertising model. It is governed on a decentralized platform, offers low fees for advertisers, and instant payments to content creators. This is quite a disruptive change to the boomer business model most commonly used by traditional and centralized advertising agencies. These traditional institutions have a cost-prohibitive market entry with required monthly billing for services provided, and their affiliated commission payments can take several months and lead to significant fees. Besides, a hack in a centralized network means that hackers can access all other accounts in the system. With the power of the SaTT smart contract, advertising transactions function within a framework of immutable rules and regulations. These contracts are governed by modules of autonomous beings secured by the Ethereum blockchain. With this functionality, trust and transparency is a guarantee. In the event of a malfunction of a module or oracle, the integrity of other advertisers’ ads is also preserved. SaTT’s decentralized platform means that there are no disruptions to a customer’s advertisements due to a bad actor targeting another customer. The SaTT smart contract is decentralized and distributed in its mechanics, whether it is in the creation of an ad builder, the display to make an ad directory, or using third-party oracles to provide accurate statistics. The decentralized feature of SaTT ensures that costs are cut down as middlemen are no longer necessary and transactions can be performed much faster. The Campaigns feature uses the SaTT smart contract to establish an immutable system of trust between the advertiser and the content creators, streamlining collaboration. Being able to transact with the SaTT token is of course central to the successful implementation of the SaTT platform. The SaTT token offers various utilities and incentives for both holding and using the SaTT token. To increase the adoption of the SaTT token, the company has installed the “PayBySaTT” function on their 50,000+ Store Facebook application and offers an SDK for third party developers so that many products and exclusive events are payable in SaTT. The SaTT Wallet allows users to store and transfer SaTT to their contacts. A popular question asked by folks within the crypto community is “When Moon,” or “when will cryptocurrency skyrocket in value?” This popular quote has been gamified by the SaTT team into their “When Moon?” dAPP. The game application aims “to skyrocket your token to the Moon!” The comprehensive set of services that SaTT has built around the needs of their industry is driving real change. SaTT offers customers transparent and immutable smart contracts, faster payments, and entirely trustless transactions. It is only in recent times that previously disenfranchised millennials are now given a platform and a vote for a better and more inclusive future. Watch out baby boomers, SaTT is giving millennials more options to help build that future! You can find out more about SaTT on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Telegram, BitcoinTalk, Medium, and Github. Source

https://medium.com/@yourprstrategist/satt-smart-advertising-token-delivers-on-the-features-demanded-by-gen-y-and-z-6f2b7319886c

[]

2020-12-23 08:39:18.437000+00:00

['Smartadvertisingtoken', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Satt', 'Crypto', 'Millennials']

Depending on which figures you choose to go with, between 4% and 16% of the World’s population…

Depending on which figures you choose to go with, between 4% and 16% of the World’s population have a ‘Cluster B’ personality disorder … half of them Narcissistic and/or (they’re frequently comorbid) or Antisocial (sociopathic/psychopathic). Whilst I admit that it’s a bit of an occupational hazard for me … and I‘m, therefore, likely to be prone to an inverse form of the narrator’s condition in Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men In A Boat … I’m convinced I see a lot more evidence of it than 16% — more like 25%- 75% (if you ask me, you’re pretty much all c*untryfolk). But there’s possibly more of them in the US than many other parts of the World too

https://medium.com/@whereangelsfeartotread/depending-on-which-figures-you-choose-to-go-with-between-4-and-16-of-the-worlds-population-7c52f898cfa4

['Where Angels Fear']

2020-12-21 22:05:07.439000+00:00

['Cinema', 'Film', 'Movie Review', 'Movies', 'Film Reviews']

D3.js — Data Visualization with Javascript for beginners

The power of the unaided mind is highly overrated… The real powers come from devising external aids that enhance cognitive abilities. — Donald Norman In many ways, D3.js (aka Data-Driven Documents — JavaScript) was a coding gateway drug for me. Last year, while still wholly unfamiliar with Javascript, I was able to use the library to make a interactive visualization with data from the Harry Ransom Center, where I was a graduate research assistant. D3.js produced beautiful results, gave me a great deal of control over design and display, and was frankly easier to make than a comparable diagram in Adobe Illustrator. I was hooked! Turning code into something pretty was a big thrill. Using that code to make a point at work feels like super success! ＼\ ٩( ᐛ )و /／ About D3.js D3.js is a javascript library written in 2011 by Michael Bostock with Vadim Ogievetsky, and Jeffrey Heer as members of the Stanford Vis Group. (Serious Academic Paper here) Bostock went on to be the editor of interactive graphics at the NYTimes and hosts the D3.js source code on his Github. The library can be used to make a huge range of interactive visualization types — really anything that you can imagine — and the dynamic effects have been repurposed for games and tarot card fortune telling. The basics are as follows: (adapted from the docs) D3 is a JavaScript Library embedded within an HTML webpage D3 uses pre-built JavaScript functions to select elements, create SVG objects, style them, or add transitions, dynamic effects or tooltips to them. These objects can also be widely styled using CSS. Large datasets can be easily bound to SVG objects using simple D3.js functions to generate rich text/graphic charts and diagrams. The data can be in various formats, most commonly JSON, comma-separated values (CSV) or tab-separated values (TSV). For n00bs, there is a gallery on Github of example code that can be easily adapted to your purposes, including both html/js and sample data. D3.js is also widely used by outlets like the Guardian and NY Times. From the Guardian UK http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/feb/12/state-of-the-union-reading-level Using D3 as a coding novice For this novice, the easiest plan of action was to select a template that would best represent my data. I went with the interactive heat map to compare the growth and development of collections at the two largest UT archives over time. Fixing up the Dataset I had an existing dataset of XML documents (encoded EAD finding aids — basically formulaic metadata describing the contents of an archival collection) from the two largest University of Texas Archvies — the Harry Ransom Center (where I was working) and the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. A colleague helped scrape data from Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO), a public website of UT collections info. Example of a single finding aid in EAD Here’s what the source data looked like: first as a finding aid on TARO, then as an XML doc. I wanted to group the collections to get a better sense of how UT was approaching its collecting — specifically was the University just obtaining the papers of famous individuals, were they more focused on records from organizations, or were they producing a lot of thematic collections usually assembled by another collector and donated en masse. XML file of a single finding aid. The scraper used key words from the XML tags (aided by a fair bit of hard-coded data normalization on my part), to sort the collections into three groups to illustrate trends in collecting at the respective institutions in the last 15 years. Records (collections belonging to organizations) (collections belonging to organizations) Papers (collections belonging to individuals or families) (collections belonging to individuals or families) Other (for thematic collections like Circus ephemera) The final result was a three-column tsv file with the group, year, and value (or number of collections). Putting it all together I used the Interactive HeatMap (which based on this example I found from Trulia) to display my TSV data. This is the basic import of data and layout code. I adapted the gridsize and legend element to fit my data, as well as selected some colors to encapsulate the range. Since I had a pretty diverse set of data (values from 1 or 0 to several hundred) I played around quite a bit with the scale of the data, as seen below. So, now feast your eyes on the final results! For more on D3 and dataviz generally I used DashingD3.js to learn all the basics of manipulating the data and elements of SVG necessary to build my first viz. I can’t recommend it more strongly to the newbie. The best place to learn basic D3.js is from the online tutorial DashingD3.js. Also, Mike Bostock has adapted his really insightful talk from Eyeo 2014 about the nature of visualization and algorithms into a blogpost or this video. He rocks a serious manbun while making sharp insights.

https://medium.com/the-data-experience/d3-js-data-visualization-with-javascript-for-beginners-8617e68eebc6

['Liz Lovero']

2019-10-04 14:54:12.350000+00:00

['D3', 'JavaScript', 'Data Visualization']

Is EOS the Ethereum killer?

Today at Consensus 2017 event held in NY Dan Larrimer announced his new project — EOS. Dan is known as the leader behind BitShares, Graphene and Steem technologies. You can see live stream recording of the announcement here. Why EOS? You need to scale to millions of users, but you can’t If you are going to build some DApp (decentralized application), then what options do you have today? Corda and Hyperledger Fabric are for private networks only and have limited smart contract support. RChain, Rootstock/RSK, have not yet been released or not production-ready. BitShares and Graphene have very good throughput, but limited smart contracts capabilities. Polkadot repo has not been updated in the last 6 month. NXT, Waves, Lisk, Tezos, Tauchain (you name it…) are not competitors… It seems that you are left only with Ethereum which has a very bad throughput and high transaction costs. Why not try to combine the scalability of Graphene and the power of Ethereum’s smart contracts together? Etherum will migrate from Proof-of-work to Proof-of-stake (scheduled at the end of 2017/beginning of 2018) so we have some time to build a new competitor. 2 months ago Dan Larrimer resigned from Steemit in order to (obviously) develop/promote his new tool. Welcome, the new Ethereum killer! I created Steem with a team of 2 developers working for 3 months EOS = blockchain + bots There’s not much technical information available currently. But EOS is not just about smart contracts + high scalability. It has a completely different design and vision compared to Ethereum. EOS uses Delegated Proof-of-Stake just like Graphene does. It uses Network Bandwidth Allocation system to effectively share the blockchain. It’s like time sharing. It’s like owning an instance on an Amazon web service that you can share In EOS the human-readable source code (the “bot”) is uploaded directly to the blockchain. As we know, the Ethereum smart contracts are binary data instead. If there’s a bug in your application — then community can freeze it and then deploy a fix. Very interesting! EOS is structured like a group of people and/or scripts (bots) that are exchanging messages between them. It could be thought of as an email system where every user or bot has an account The Account also known as the “Application” is a private JSON-formatted database easily accessible by any blockchain explorers. All the communications between apps have self-describing interfaces, and declarative permission scheme. This means that you have to describe what messages your app wants to receive and what it will send (probably). It allows to firewall applications from each other but still allows them to communicate. Unlike e-mail, the recipient and any accounts copied on the message have the ability to reject the message in which case the message will not be delivered to them EOS is designed to support communication not just internally, but externally too. So it should be possible to connect other blockchains to communicate with them. You can check what smart contracts look like in EOS here — https://steemit.com/eos/@eosio/implementing-a-hypothetical-currency-application-on-eos. This article was published by Dan 6 days ago (16th of May, 2017). Dan answers Q1. How do smart contracts work in parallel? Answer by Dan: “All the contracts are processed on the same chain, the messages are on the block chain, not the state. Every single account operates like its own chain, and supports interoperation between all other accounts without locking, so determinism is preserved” Q2. Are there any blockchains comparable to EOS? Answer by Dan: “No, this is an incremental improvement on Steem and Bitshares. It is the general case to those special cases. It builds on more than 4 years of continuous development and innovation from the Bitshare and Steem community”. Q3. Do you plan to run Steemit on top of EOS? Answer by Dan: “EOS can support applications like Bitshares or Steem. But it’s totally up to Steem team”. Q4. What about EOS token distribution? Answer by Dan: “We will send this information later in the mailing list”. Q5. What does EOS stand for? Ethereum On Steroids? Answer by Dan: “Hahaha, no” Conclusion Wow! Great product. Can’t wait to see and try it. We are going to be among the first EOS app developers. By the way, EOS logo is a geometric structure that forms a heart! The only bad thing is that they have Brock Pierce on board now. I think he is a junkie. Not good for the team. Sorry. Even the blockchain constitution won’t help. From the official EOS Telegram channel: “Now Brock Pierce is at the microphone. He seems a little hung over from the party he hosted last night”. Do you think EOS is the Ethereum killer? p.s. We are currently building the “Microcompany Tokenization Platform” here — https://web.thetta.io We need your help. Become a part of our team/community (+bounties and +rewards) and deliver great product together with us!

https://medium.com/chain-cloud-company-blog/is-eos-the-ethereum-killer-ad24277d8c9c

['Anthony Akentiev']

2018-02-03 09:44:06.503000+00:00

['Blockchain', 'Consensus', 'Ethereum', 'Bitshares', 'Steemit']

Startup Spotlight: VComply

VComply is a cloud SaaS that intertwines responsibility mapping with management of compliance & risk. Its governance suite offers the capability to let organizations manage policies, contracts, documents, compliance evidence etc. Read on to learn more on how VComply’s CEO, Harshvardhan Kariwal, manages his team and the advice he’d give every founder. — In a single sentence, what does VComply do? VComply helps businesses automate compliance & risk management. – How did VComply come to be? What was the problem you found and the ‘aha’ moment? When we were running another Edtech startup, our compliance function was outsourced to a corporate secretarial firm. We had little oversight on what was going on and as a result of that we missed an important regulatory compliance deadline & ended up having to pay a $4,000 penalty. That was it! That’s when we decided that there has to be a better way of managing compliance and VComply was born. — What sets VComply apart in the market? Simplicity- the ease of use of the product & the flexibility that it offers to customers is one of the biggest factors in VComply’s success. While the product is simple to use, it is robust enough to handle complex workflows and can cater to a variety of use cases. — Have you pursued funding and if so, what steps did you take? VComply has been funding by Accel Partners. — What KPIs are you tracking that you think will lead to revenue generation/growth? Monthly Recurring Revenue, Churn rate, NPS, CLTV (Customer lifetime value) are top of mind. The most important metric to track from a growth perspective is growth in MRR month over month. — How do you build and develop talent? We have implemented OKRs at the company which keeps our team focused and result-oriented. We have frequent one on one meetings with team members to identify the key challenges they are facing. A large part of our budget is earmarked for our in-company learning & development program. We have 2 days every month that are just dedicated to learning & trying out new ideas. — What’s been the biggest success for the team? While focusing on growth is extremely important for any Startup it should not come at the cost of unsustainable growth hacks. Over 90% start-ups fail because of this. For us at VComply, it is extremely important that we prioritize sustainable growth. What we mean by that is, that the business needs to be cashflow positive whilst having a steady and exponential revenue growth but a tight control over the burn-rate. — What are the biggest challenges for the team? The biggest challenges for us today is growing the team fast enough to meeting with the growing customer demand & ensuring that we continue to stay relevant & establish ourselves as thought leaders in the industry. — What milestone are you most proud of so far? Partnering and working with large enterprise customers and banks very early on & winning their trust and support for our product. — What advice would you give to other founders? While there are many exciting things you could be working on within your startup, it is extremely important that you focus on building the right team! The right team creates all the difference in the growth journey of your Startup & is the single most important factor underpinning its success.

https://medium.com/startup-grind/startup-spotlight-vcomply-5d52c9afd609

['The Startup Grind Team']

2020-06-03 18:25:22.281000+00:00

['Tech', 'Startup', 'Startup Lessons', 'SaaS', 'Startup Spotlight']

F37 Collet

Are you having any doubts about the f37 collet? Want to know the effective impacts involved in it? If yes, then have a look at this article to find out the benefits of using f37 collet. In general, a collet is a most effective type of chuck which can form a collar around the object or tool which is being held clamping in a most secured place. It can be most effectively useful for certain smaller items where standard chucks are unwieldy and inefficient. The collets can have various benefits at these sizes in a top-notch manner. Benefits of f37 collet: Though collets are having various narrow or wide clamping ranges, there are certain collets which consist of internal pads. These internal pads are replaceable and it is an added advantage of this product in a most effective manner. It is readily available for you in various sizes which can completely reduce the work holding cost to the next level. There is a lot of benefits involved in this kind of process when making use of this kind of process. Hence you have to be very sure while using these collets for your own process. Basically, the collet is accurate and secure; it is mainly because the grip of these collets can make the tool closer to the part which is being machined. Hence you have to take note of this kind of process. The standard chucks can able to project the tool beyond the chuck which can affect rigidity in a most advanced manner. In various secondary operations, the collet can grip around the parts periphery results in more rotational concentricity. This produces the most extraordinary rounded part which is possible with a certain jaw chuck. Effective process of f37 collet: This f37 collet is the perfect option to turn at top spindle RPMs which is being less effective than the jaw chuck. The centrifugal force of this collet mainly tends to lessen the clamping force on the jaw chuck but it will never affect the collet seriously. It is the added advantage of these factors in a top-notch manner. On the same basis, being less massive, the acceleration is very much faster for the collet. In this kind of process, the lathe spindle weight control will never be the best solution. Instead one can make use of the collet which is considered the most effective choice in a top-notch manner. The changeover time in this collet is most effectively reduced and it can be the better feature of this f37 collet. When compared to jaw chucks, this collet can take very little time to change without any issues. In this kind of process, time saving is considered to be the most effective while having more impacts. The collets are mainly useful for holding workpieces on the lathe which is having a standardized hole in the center. Here the long bar stock can effectively pass through in a most advanced manner. Source: https://pgcollets.info/

https://medium.com/@pgcollets1/f37-collet-514f413e65f5

['Manish Gupta']

2020-12-07 11:10:08.248000+00:00

['Cnc', 'F37 Collet', 'Tool Holder Fingers', 'Cnc Machine', 'Tools']

How a battle fought almost 1000 years ago can make you a better writer

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash ‘A cordial reception’ What images appear to you? Perhaps this phrase makes you think of murmured conversation, polite nods, canapés and pursed lips. How about: ‘A hearty welcome’ For me, I hear laughter and the warm crackle of a fire. Although the object of these sentences- ‘reception’ and ‘welcome’, are synonyms, they conjure different images and feelings. I took these examples from a book by Simeon Potter, who talks about an idea that the feelings these two words stir in us are the result of an event that that took place in the medieval period. For Potter, it gave English a curious depth and variety. The day that would eventually change the English language was October the 14th, 1066. Just over two weeks previously, an army under William, Duke of Normandy, landed on the English coast. This Norman invasion was timed with an attack launched by Viking forces in the north of England: the English King Harold had to defeat that army before marching his soldiers down to Hastings in the south. The language that Harold would have spoken to his soldiers was cragged and rough. It came from the Germanic family of languages, and its licks and burr could be heard even in the Danish north of England. On October the 14th, ‘The Battle of Hastings’ as it became known, saw one social order fall and another rise. Depending on accounts, the Saxon rein ended either when an arrow lodged itself in Harold’s eye, or when he was cut down by an errant Norman knight. As they picked over the dead, the victors talked to each other in Norman French: a language heavy with Latin. These soldiers would become the aristocracy of England, making their French the language of the powerful for centuries to come. The Norman aristocracy built a string of fortresses and castles across the English countryside as physical reminder of their power. In much the same way, their words layered themselves over the thick, mossy roots of Anglo-Saxon. Norman words were used to describe the powerful: ‘priest, ‘count’, ‘dame’, ‘duke’, and became used to describe the machinery of power: ‘money’, federal’, sovereignty’, ‘state’. Just as the invaders divided society, they also divided the language. Even today, words that we use are marked by the Norman victory. When you choose to use ‘reception’, you tug on a different string of meanings than if you were to choose ‘welcome’. In some ways, these Latin words still carry an aloof coldness. They tend to be abstract, lend themselves to corporate jargon and are still the words that we use to talk about the powerful. You can often tell which words are Anglo-Saxon. They are the words peasants, workers, children, families, soldiers, and common men and women have used for millennia. Words like ‘mirth’, ‘mother’, ‘raw’ and ‘stone’ have tumbled out of taverns, been flung at cheating husbands, and have been squealed by playing children. These words are sodden with meaning: somehow they feel warmer and more whole than Latin ones. The story of the Norman Invasion can tell us why some words impress us so much: why they form the skeleton of words used by politicians, scientists, and academics. Kind of like how shadows make the colours in a painting brighter, however, the smoothness of Latin can also make the Germanic Saxon seem richer and deeper. The language we use to speak and write with has a swathe of textures: their histories can tell us where they should be daubed, pasted or spread.

https://medium.com/swlh/deathly-and-lethal-wild-and-savage-611fae5edf98

['Tommy Boon']

2019-10-31 23:18:30.115000+00:00

['Poetry', 'Writing', 'Language', 'French', 'History']

Yom Kayfabe

As the Yamim Noraim wind to their conclusion and we approach Yom HaKippurim 5782, I’m thinking about kayfabe. Don’t dust off your old Hebrew-English dictionary looking for the word in there; you won’t find it. It’s a term of unclear linguistic origin that emerged from the world of traveling circuses, but it is most commonly associated with the art of professional wrestling. (That’s the one where muscular people portray aggressive characters who duel in choreographed fights with predetermined outcomes, not the one they do at the Olympics.) Kayfabe is not a specifically Jewish term. But perhaps it should be. “Kayfabe” rhymes with “Hey, Abe” (sorry, I can’t think of a better mnemonic) and, much in the manner of any number of crucial words in Judaism, you can translate kayfabe either narrowly or broadly. Narrowly, we might say it means “fiction.” But that’s like saying teshuva just means “turning around.” A more expansive definition is required if we are to truly understand this magnificent concept, and I would offer the following: kayfabe is a lie that people agree to believe in so as to achieve transcendence, but which falls apart upon any close inspection. In a functional sense, it’s typically used as a descriptor, i.e. “They’re just kayfabe brothers, they’re not actually related,” or “He’s not actually leaving that wrestling company, that speech was just kayfabe.” But it can also be a noun: to admit the truth is to “break kayfabe.” Breaking kayfabe is a tricky and dangerous enterprise. You know how you’re not supposed to wake up a sleepwalker, because the experience of waking up from somnambulation can be traumatic? It’s like that, insofar as people don’t particularly like it when you point out beyond a shadow of a doubt that what they believe is preposterous. Typically, they’ll just reject the information: despite countless exposés about wrestling’s fakeness throughout the 20th Century, its fans held fast to the lie that everything was on the level. Even now, a few decades after fans broadly accepted that wrestling is fixed, they throw themselves into any number of other falsities that wrestling executives concoct about company history, corporate responsibility, labor relations, and so on. So maybe it’s like if you tried to wake up a sleepwalker and they punched you in the face so they could keep going about their rounds. That’s not to say kayfabe is an inherently evil or harmful force. Any worthwhile, functioning society has to allow for kayfabe, whether in the realms of religion, politics, or any number of other arenas. Kayfabe can comfort. Kayfabe can astound. Kayfabe can inspire. Accepting kayfabe is submitting oneself to the improbable, even the impossible, so as to find a higher meaning than mere reality. If you watch a wrestling match and embrace kayfabe for that 20-minute stretch, if you really believe that it means something more than just underpaid grapplers trying to get through the workday, and if that belief leads you to appreciate beauty and be a better human, then zey gezunt. But if you lose yourself in kayfabe permanently, if you never reckon with the fact that the world is not always what it seems to be, if you let fantasy fully dictate your and others’ reality, well … I don’t think I have to point out the obvious contemporary examples for you to get my point. The Jewish community needs kayfabe, of course. We must allow for unique beliefs in and related to the divine, even if they seem patently stupid to others. We must allow for worldly dreams that seem as though they will never be realized, if we are to better ourselves and our community in times that crush our spirits. We must allow ourselves to hope for the miraculous. But we have tipped the balance too far. We believe too much that is not true. And so, I ask today: Who by fire? Who by water? Who by kayfabe? Let 5782 be a year in which we cut past the bullshit and do what wrestling folks call “shoots” — conversations or monologues that come straight from the neshama and plow right through all the comforting fictions. Aren’t we Jews supposed to be inheritors of the ethics of our nevi’im? And what good is a prophet if he won’t do a shoot? If you’ll forgive the unforgivable degree to which I currently sound like a youth pastor: Didn’t Yonah try to avoid cutting a shoot on the people of Nineveh? In the story we will read tomorrow, this reluctant prophet initially rejects his task, which is to tell the denizens of that city the truth of their wickedness and the truth of the One God. If Yonah had his way, kayfabe would have been maintained. Perhaps the Ninevans knew, on some level, that they were being wicked, but collectively chose to not think too hard about that notion. Are we not the same? Do we not require prophets to remind us of what is right in front of our eyes? Should we not desperately hope that we will hear, repent, and be spared, as the Ninevans are? And what should Yonah say to us, if he were here in our wicked world and took up his duty? What are the truths obscured by our Jewish kayfabe? Here are a few I’d text to him, with full permission for him to steal, uncredited: Climate change will almost certainly render the entirety of the Holy Land uninhabitable within the near future, which will make all our conversations about eternal Zionism and Palestinian liberation largely irrelevant! And practically nobody is planning with this in mind! The next US presidential election will probably be contested and very possibly lead to some kind of violent national conflict along roughly partisan lines! And many of the most active Jews in the community will very proudly be on the side of the white nationalists! Countless numbers of our people, even our rabbis, are willingly spreading both plague and pro-plague propaganda! They are not going to stop doubling down on words and actions that kill others! And all we offer in return is rebuke, not consequence! Many of our most powerful and devout leaders espouse heretical messianism! I shall not name names, but come on: are we really going to allow a Jewish world where countless thousands of ostensibly observant Jews believe they know the identity of Moshiach and/or the circumstances of his imminent appearance (or, in some folks’ eyes, re-appearance)? Did we learn nothing from Shabtai Tzvi? Virtually all American Jewish institutions have already lost the next generation of non-Orthodox Jews! They are overwhelmingly leftist and skeptical of Zionism! And every member group of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations has been mealy-mouthed, silent, or enthusiastic about the rise of fascism in America and Israel! That’s not even getting into the fact that most of these organizations have no clue how to talk to young queer people! And yet, here the Jews are, stuck in our ethical and epistemological kayfabes, our communal illusions about what the stakes are, who the good guys are, what the real impact is. Because the thing you have to remember about kayfabe is that, while the intentions of a wrestling match may be rooted in fiction, the damage done to the bodies and minds of the wrestlers is very non-fictional. So, too, are the outcomes of our communal folly. Suffering is part of life. But our self-delusions are making it far worse than it has to be. Tomorrow, as we beat our chests and beg God for forgiveness, let us remember that, to borrow a phrase, this isn’t kayfabe and we are completely unprepared. We must become prepared. I do not know exactly how this coming epoch of cataclysm will play out, but I do have some ideas as to how we might survive in spite of it. But we can’t discuss them if we’re not willing to break kayfabe and admit that our ways of doing things simply aren’t working. Honesty sucks, but I’m making a Yom Kippur resolution to shoot as much as I can in 5782. I hope you’ll do the same. The Zohar, that book of strategies for piercing the veil, tells us a story about life in the wake of the End of the World that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. The Flood has finally ended and Noah opens the door of the ark. Louis Ginzberg’s seminal Legends of the Jews eloquently summarizes the sacred text’s account of what ensued: When he stepped out from the ark into the open, he began to weep bitterly at sight of the enormous ravages wrought by the flood, and he said to God: “O Lord of the world! Thou art called the Merciful, and Thou shouldst have had mercy upon Thy creatures.” God answered, and said: “O thou foolish shepherd, now thou speakest to Me. Thou didst not so when I addressed kind words to thee, saying: ‘I saw thee as a righteous man and perfect in thy generation, and I will bring the flood upon the earth to destroy all flesh. Make an ark for thyself of gopher wood.’ Thus spake I to thee, telling thee all these circumstances, that thou mightest entreat mercy for the earth. But thou, as soon as thou didst hear that thou wouldst be rescued in the ark, thou didst not concern thyself about the ruin that would strike the earth. Thou didst but build an ark for thyself, in which thou wast saved. Now that the earth is wasted, thou openest thy mouth to supplicate and pray.” Perhaps Moshiach really is around the bend. Bimhera biyamenu, as they say. Great. I can’t live with that as my kayfabe. It would be a dereliction of my responsibility to live as though this world, terrible though it may be, will keep on going. And that’s my kayfabe, I suppose. I don’t believe in the Revolution or the Messiah, but I do believe in the Apocalypse. Not to be a Hellenist, but I’ve always been fond of that word: it means both “End of Days” and simply “unveiling.” So many veils are being ripped away right now, and, ultimately, that is a necessary trauma. But, you may be surprised to hear, I am not a pessimist, in the long run. My kayfabe is that there will be a world after the end of the world. We are living in a time of unimaginable crisis which is also a time of unimaginable opportunity. The old ways will fall. The old institutions will die. The old ideas won’t make sense anymore. Now is the time to prepare, to dream, to meet, and to plan for the next evolution of what it means to be a Child of Israel. Lest we forget, the fall of the Temple was not the end of Judaism. It was the beginning. The Hebrews have survived the Late Bronze Age Collapse, the Black Death, and several genocides, including the Shoah — is it so beyond the realm of possibility that Jews will continue to cling to Jewish civilization in defiance of entropy? Perhaps humanity is going to go extinct, but I choose to live my life as though there will be continuity. Real continuity, not the birthrate-oriented nonsense that the eugenicists talk about. I mean continuity of learning, of ritual, of story, both textual and metatextual. Maybe such belief is an illusion. But, to quote a sage: it’s still real to me, dammit. abrahamriesman.com

https://medium.com/@abrahamriesman/yom-kayfabe-879a87d29765

['Abraham Riesman']

2021-09-16 00:35:05.095000+00:00

['Yom Kippur', 'Apocalypse', 'Judaism', 'Climate Change', 'Wrestling']

The Video Scam

The other day I posted a quick comment on Linkedin regarding the new fad of auto start videos that follow you below the fold to the lower right and keep playing, some with auto-on audio and hard to find buttons to shut them off. I got some comments, particularly regarding the fact that advertisers “asked” for that kind of implementation. That may be the case but if they did, I don’t think they actually knew what they were asking for. These implementations are nothing but a ripoff. The advertiser is assured (supported, I am sure, with beautiful certified delivery numbers) that their ads are “seen” by humans, in full length, in view and in compliance with IAB / MRC specifications. But although the reported numbers show that this is awesome inventory worth paying for, I don’t think the case can be made that these ads create a positive connection between the brand and the advertiser. I would suggest quite the opposite. The advertisers are essentially fleeced since ultimately they do want to build brand connection. These units are specifically created to generate high priced video inventory. They are placed in ways that makes them hard to shut off in time to insure compliance. This help starving publishers pay the rent, but user experience is an afterthought. It would be nice to see some numbers from independent measurement companies to see the actual impact and if I were an advertiser spending money on this I would demand seeing the impact those ads actually deliver.

https://medium.com/digital-vault/the-video-scam-e4da822ed2c0

['Florian Kahlert']

2017-06-05 20:35:45.264000+00:00

['Metrics', 'Advertising', 'Videos', 'Online Marketing', 'Digital Marketing']

The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger

The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger I was inspired to read this book by my professor Pavan Soni. When I bought this book and saw its cover, my initial thought was that it would be a success story of Robert Iger (CEO of The Walt Disney company). When I started reading, I covered few initial chapters in an hour with a hot cup of steaming coffee in my other hand. Not sure, if it was the magic of coffee that made me so much engrossed or just the content of book. On further reading, I realized it’s not a usual career progression story of a person. Robert has given a detailed description about moving from one stage of his career to another, from the lowest ranks to the leadership roles and the CEO. There is so much to learn from it not only about business but also in terms of attitude towards life and work. Part A: A Common Man Life The first part illustrates the origins of his career, from part-time jobs to his real beginning at ABC, where he started moving towards the management ladder. He has also given certain insights about his personal life as a student, which makes us believe even more that we can Make it Big in life, no matter what. He also highlights how the habits we develop are important for right usage of time and lateral thinking, like an entry in the 5 AM club. As he says “It’s vital to create space in each day to let your thoughts wander beyond your immediate job responsibilities. I am certain I’d be less productive and less creative in my work if I didn’t also spend those first hours away from the emails and text messages and phone calls that require so much attention as the day goes on.” The journey of Robert from an ordinary boy to the CEO and Executive Chairman of The Walt Disney Company just tells each of us that we do not need to have a pre-developed skillset for being a leader. Leadership is an individual’s journey made of humility, listening and practicing. As he says “True authority and true leadership come from knowing who you are and not pretending to be anything else.” Part B: Leadership at its core As a person who led Disney’s acquisition of Pixar, Lucasfilm (all Star Wars work), Marvel and most of 21st Century Fox, Robert gives you working of a massive media company and shows how he thought upon by building on its strengths and shoring up its weaknesses. Robert Iger became the CEO of The Walt Disney company in 2005, during a difficult time. Competition was more intense then ever and technology was changing faster than any time in history. He realized at the start only that the decisions you make need not be safe always but should feel right to you for the people and self. As he says “Chronic indecision is not only inefficient and counterproductive, but it is deeply corrosive to morale.” Robert not only focused on developing the existing strengths of company, but also reshaped the overall strategy into 3 points as a vision for the organization: Recommit to concept that Quality matters. 2. Embrace technology instead of fighting it. 3. Think bigger, think Global and turn Disney into a stronger brand in international markets. As he says: “Don’t start negatively, and don’t start small. People will often focus on little details as a way of masking a lack of any clear, coherent, big thoughts. If you start petty, you seem petty.” His first big step towards the vision of organization was to buy the most successful animation company out there in market: Pixar, whose CEO and majority owner was Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. In 2006, finally, when the day of merger had come and half an hour before press release Steve informs Robert about his illness and says: “I am about to become your biggest shareholder and a member of your board, And I think I owe you the right, given this knowledge, to back out of the deal.” Robert decides to go through it, as his key focus was to accomplish the goal of reaffirming the centrality of Disney with animation. This shows how much CEO’s decisions are down to very human relationships. As he says“If you approach and engage people with respect and empathy, the seemingly impossible can become real.” 2 -3 years down the line, Disney re-established at the cutting edge of animation with the successes of movies like Ratatouille, The Incredibles, and Toy Story 3! Robert did not relax and settle down there. In 2009, Disney made the purchase of Marvel final for a little over $4 billion. Others critiqued this decision as the deal couldn’t include many important characters. Spider-Man, for example, was owned by Columbia Pictures. And Fox owned X-Men and The Incredible Hulk. Robert was smart and knew that the untold stories of characters in the Marvel Universe would be a hit. And he was right. In 2019, as the 20th movie in the franchise, Avengers: Endgame became the highest-grossing film of all time, making $2 billion. As he says “Don’t be in the business of playing it safe. Be in the business of creating possibilities of greatness” Robert had to make another tough decision in summer 2016 when Disney almost acquired Twitter. He had seen it as a distribution platform for content. He had also won the OK from the board, but then realized the significant issues in managing hate speech, fake profiles and in general a “freedom of expression” Twitter had that was not in tune with Disney’s culture, so he walked back from the deal. As he says “If something doesn’t feel right to you, then it’s probably not right for you” All this while Robert always took care of the reward system being in place for the employees as it is ultimately the people who make the business grow. This is an essential aspect to be taken care by executive leaders to keep the people motivated. As he says “If leaders don’t articulate their priorities clearly, then the people around them don’t know what their own priorities should be. Time and energy and capital get wasted.” After having focused on securing content with the acquisitions, Robert explains how he wanted to dramatically shift Disney to a new future based on technological innovation. He made a big bet with investing in BAMTech, using the company platform to launch a new subscription service, today called Diseny+. As he says “The decision to disrupt businesses that are fundamentally working but whose future is in question — intentionally taking on short-term losses in the hope of generating long-term growth — requires no small amount of courage.” What would this move mean for the current standard TV programs? Would it be their end? Robert sees it very pragmatically: investment would continue until profit would still exist, but future growth would come from somewhere else. Robert lives by the fact he learnt from his initial mentors here. As he says “Innovate or die, and there’s no innovation if you operate out of fear of the new or untested.” To conclude , a couple of examples that resonated with me include owning up to your mistakes — you can learn from them, and it can make others respect you more. As he says “Take responsibility of your own mistakes” My favorite — choosing Decency over Dollars something that was key to Robert’s success in achieving his personal and business goals. As he says “Integrity is everything” I highly recommend this book. It has a good balance of both personal and professional insights and experiences. A global corporate leader is a human being at the end of the day. Robert describes his grief when a little boy died tragically at one of Disney’s Orlando resorts, and his sadness when Steve Jobs shared with him that he was sick with cancer. It is an inspiring and valuable read for everyone who wants to advance in their career. If you want to learn what it takes to steer and change a traditional organization with an enormous cultural heritage, then this book is a must read for you.

https://medium.com/@shipra-chaturvedi/the-ride-of-a-lifetime-by-robert-iger-e5a5333b15b

['Shipra Chaturvedi']

2021-09-01 19:46:57.272000+00:00

['Business Strategy', 'Leadership Skills', 'Disney', 'Leadership', 'Business']

5 Ways To Be Less Wasteful For New Parents in 2020

When was the last time you honestly asked yourself — am I a wasteful person? How much waste have I created in the past month? The truth is, most of us don’t think about how much value we get from the things we use everyday — ESPECIALLY once parenting becomes your full time gig. If you’re getting ready for a new addition to the family, here are 5 tips on how to be less wasteful: 1. Re-use as much as possible Cloth Diapers: Diapers are one of the biggest culprits when it comes to creating waste for new parents. According to Babylist.com, newborns go through around 700 diapers in the first 3 months — and every single one ends up in a landfill. Reusable diapers are hands down the way to go. Babylist.com suggests having around 24 cloth diapers for newborns. We recommend buying quality cloth diapers to help contain those unforeseen natural disasters heading your way. Bumgenius is a good choice — the award winning cloth diaper company offers a 30 day guarantee on all their products at a great price point. Rent Baby Clothes: Why waste money buying when you can just rent? Newborns out grow 8 sizes within the first 2 years. That means a completely new wardrobe every 4 months on average. Evita Leto is a Brooklyn based start up giving parents the opportunity to rent brand name baby clothes for a fraction of the cost. After filling out a quick style profile, our team curates a custom order and sends clothes as the child continues to grow. It’s like Rent The Runway only for babies. 2. Inventory Check-list Try not to freak out about buying things until AFTER having the baby shower. Registries make it easier for new parents to plan what additional items they still need. Pro Tip: Make sure to invite YOUR ENTIRE WORK FAMILY to the baby shower ;) Also, avoid stocking up on anything with an expiration date such as formulas and other perishables. Remember, you’re having a baby — not preparing for a zombie apocalypse. 3. Maintenance We tend to only take care of high priced items such as cars or houses — but it’s usually the little things that end up being a huge problem in our landfills.

https://medium.com/the-green-new-parent/5-ways-to-be-less-wasteful-for-new-parents-in-2020-8815b87deaf0

['Walter Ruilova']

2020-06-11 16:30:29.111000+00:00

['Money Management', 'Baby Clothes', 'Sustainability', 'Parenting', 'Baby Products']

Your Holi-Do’s and Don’t Be a Dummy Instagram Guide

Your Holi-Do’s and Don’t Be a Dummy Instagram Guide For once, our sad food porn is just the ticket Daria Shevtsova for Pexels Look, I get it. You need to be seen. It is the holidays, the happiest, least bummy time EVER and unless you document the season on social media then truly, you are just the tree that landed in the forest and moldered away into oblivion. But it’s also a worldwide absolutely-not-the-flu pandemic with increasingly alarming daily stats and stories. So, to be responsible — and still follow through with your mantra (‘I Gram to Know I Am’) — consider the following suggestions. 1.) Fires — They are the lava lamp of the natural world. Think Burning Man bonfires without the chain mail bustier tops and Ecstasy. Better yet, posting a photo of your own little campfire or home hearth shows that you are both introspective and chill. You’re simply going to kick back and pass the Courvoisier until this is all over. Three million people on Instagram can’t be wrong. 2.) Food — Normally, people are unmoved by your DIY food porn. That sad little Eggo doesn’t look any sassier because you unloaded a carton full of strawberries and whipped cream on it and your homemade guacamole smacks of something that demands an SOS to the school janitor. But now? Bring on your phallic Yule Log cakes, breasty boiled potatoes, and simmering crockpot roasts. We want it all, bad. 3.) Nature — There has never been a better time to get your Ansel Adams on. You best believe that the meadow you aggressively filtered after your powerwalk is going to get a lot more love than your kids fist-bumping Plexiglass Santa. Because nature is delightfully uncontroversial. It also helps illustrate the point that you are following the rules. You are a rock. You are an island in the stream. You are the insignificant speck atop the mountain, and Clarendon drives that point home way better than Gingham or Moon ever could. 4.) Pets — You know who can be tangled up together, unmasked, looking adorable for the camera without an avalanche of condemnation right now? The litter of puppies your dog just had. This also goes for kittens and rabbits. But never gerbils. Being exposed to something that resembles a giant gummy worm — and might be eaten by its mom in a Darwinian game of musical chairs — is a little too much truth right now. But even if your pet is not procreating, they can still be grist for the mill. Pumpkin the Raccoon fell out of a tree and was adopted by a family who set her up with an account. Guess who had more than a million followers when she died? When life gives you lemurs, use them. 5.) The Hemsworth brothers — Luke, Chris, or Liam, it matters not. If there’s a choice between your house-full-of-people holiday gathering and any Hemsworth — please, for the love of all that is tender and good in the world, find a picture of Chris surfing, or Liam surfing, or Luke, surfing, and use that image instead. And if you come across a photo of them around a fire with their dogs and their s’mores, the silhouette of a beach cherry tree in the background? You have truly hit the motherload. Or what I like to call a Gram Grand Slam. Don’t fret that it’s not you. We certainly won’t.

https://medium.com/the-haven/your-holi-dos-and-don-t-be-a-dummy-instagram-guide-6304abc6b6d4

[]

2020-12-18 01:54:30.503000+00:00

['Food', 'Instagram', 'Social Media', 'Humor', 'Fire']

Coronavirus in Wikipedia by language — visualized

Wikipedia pageviews by language for Coronavirus Coronavirus in Wikipedia by language — visualized Check the Wikipedia pageviews for language to get deeper look into how the news has spread and trended around the world. First we’ll extract the data out of terabytes of Wikipedia pageviews to create a new dashboard. Stay until the end to see the secret for extremely configurable visualizations in Data Studio with Vega and Vega Lite. Some interesting trends you can quickly visualize: Coronavirus in Chinese started trending 9 days earlier than any other language. Japanese and Korean were the first languages to catch-up. Italian, Norwegian, and Persian had the strongest rebounds these last few days. Some interesting trends you can quickly visualize On the opening chart you can find the views per language for each language Coronavirus page. The next chart shows the same for the Wikipedia article following the current news: Wikipedia views per language for the topic 2019–20_Wuhan_coronavirus_outbreak. See opening picture for Coronavirus instead. Get all the Coronavirus page titles out of Wikidata in BigQuery: CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE `temp.wikidata_coronavirus` AS SELECT REGEXP_EXTRACT(site, '(..)wiki') language, encoded value FROM `bigquery-public-data.wikipedia.wikidata`, UNNEST(sitelinks) WHERE numeric_id = 290805 AND LENGTH(site)=6 # 1.9 sec elapsed, 9.7 MB processed Fix for Spanish, Dutch, Slovak renaming of pages: INSERT INTO `temp.wikidata_coronavirus` SELECT 'es', 'Orthocoronavirinae'; INSERT INTO `temp.wikidata_coronavirus` SELECT 'nl', 'Coronavirussen' INSERT INTO `temp.wikidata_coronavirus` SELECT 'sk', 'Coronavírus' Create a table for Data Studio: CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE `fh-bigquery.wikipedia_extracts.wikipedia_corona_views` AS WITH sumviews AS ( SELECT * REPLACE(IF(date=CURRENT_DATE(), views*24/hours_day, views) AS views) # last fractional day correction FROM ( SELECT SUM(views) views, SUBSTR(a.wiki, 0, 2) wiki, title, DATE(datehour) date, COUNT(DISTINCT datehour) hours_day FROM `bigquery-public-data.wikipedia.pageviews_20*` a JOIN `temp.wikidata_coronavirus` b ON ((a.title=b.value AND SUBSTR(a.wiki, 0, 2)=b.language)) WHERE DATE(a.datehour) > '2019-12-28' GROUP BY wiki, title, date ) ) SELECT *, (FORMAT('%s - %s', language, title)) wiki_title FROM ( SELECT * REPLACE((SELECT STRING_AGG(DISTINCT title ORDER BY title) FROM sumviews WHERE a.wiki=wiki) AS title) , (views)/ (MAX(views) OVER(PARTITION BY wiki)) ratio , (SELECT language FROM `wikipedia_extracts.wiki_langs` WHERE a.wiki=wiki ) language FROM sumviews a WHERE wiki IN (SELECT wiki FROM (SELECT wiki, SUM(views) FROM sumviews GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 2 DESC LIMIT 28 )) ) # (13.4 sec elapsed, 411.3 GB processed) Optimization to-do: Those 411.3 GB can be optimized heavily — especially if in an ongoing basis I just load the incremental hour of views, instead of re-processing the whole thing. Play with the results The full table with the results only has 1,239 rows, and you can find it on BigQuery with: SELECT * FROM `fh-bigquery.wikipedia_extracts.wikipedia_corona_views` New to BigQuery? Get started here. Data Studio You’ve seen charts like this: A typical Data Studio area chart But how cool is this? A Vega Lite visualization connected to BigQuery in Data Studio The secret: We can now use Vega & Vega lite charts in Data Studio. So with this community visualization, I just needed to provide Vega lite a configuration: A different attempt: Playing with Vega Lite in Data Studio Want more? Stay tuned for an interactive dashboard, and more updates. Please leave me your comments with any suggestions or corrections. Thanks: Denny Vrandečić, for Wikidata and last minute corrections to this post. Marc Cohen for building a reliable pipeline for Wikidata and Wikipedia data in BigQuery. More details soon. Coronavirus and Meetup RSVPs Oh, I’m also looking at how Meetup RSVPs around the world have been affected. Check this one out:

https://towardsdatascience.com/coronavirus-interest-inwikipedia-by-language-1b3e6562040d

['Felipe Hoffa']

2020-03-31 19:07:10.920000+00:00

['Bigquery', 'Visualization', 'Wikidata', 'Wikipedia', 'Data Science']

What we’re planning to do with our seed investment

We’re excited to announce today that we’ve closed a £330,000 investment raise, bringing together institutional and angel investors from the US, UK, and Australia. More than the money (no really), we’re chuffed about the calibre of investors who’ve decided to jump on board with us: from expert recruitment business leaders, to gender advocates, to social impact investors, to some of the world’s leading behavioural scientists. If we’d run our investors through an Applied recruitment process, we probably couldn’t have hoped for a more varied or impressive group of people. We’ve got the likes of Nesta Impact Investments, Carol Schwartz of the Trawalla Foundation, Public and six angel investors (including Adam Grant, Wharton School professor and bestselling author of Give and Take, Originals, and Option B, and James Callander and Adam Clements of recruitment consultancy, Freshminds). This follows some excellent support we’ve had from Nesta, BIT, and the Cabinet Office developing the product to date. The raise comes at a busy time for the team and will give us the space to really spread our wings. Applied’s now being used by over 1,000 people in 40 organisations in 5 continents. Since we launched, over 19,000 candidates have applied for over 700 jobs through the platform. These jobs range from the people who drive the forklifts in warehouses at Penguin Random House so we can get the books we need, to the people who write speeches for UK Government ministers, to designers who make beautiful products at Made by Many, to hungry grads and interns who make light work at L.E.K. Consulting and BCG’s Center for Public Impact. But money is just a means to an end Here’s a taster of a few of the things we want to use it to do: Expanding our reach within the US, UK and Australia, including through our partnership with Freshminds to radically improve testing tools for graduate and apprenticeship hiring. Most grads are put through automatic screeners that are woefully out of date: they don’t test any of the things you actually do on the day job and they don’t care if the end up inadvertently screening out more diverse candidates through poor design. We’re keen to shake that up. Most grads are put through automatic screeners that are woefully out of date: they don’t test any of the things you actually do on the day job and they don’t care if the end up inadvertently screening out more diverse candidates through poor design. We’re keen to shake that up. Continuing to experiment with empowering the candidate with feedback. We already give every candidate that isn’t successful for the job access to feedback. But we know we can do more. So we’re working with Adam Grant and his team of researchers at Wharton to A/B test all kinds of improvements to the feedback process. So it’ll be a big time for product development and growth for the team; which is partly why we’re hiring for a new Head of Growth and also for another exceptional full stack developer to join us in what is sure to be a wild ride. A note to our early adopters It’s not easy building products — you hit lots of dead ends and have to be OK knowing you don’t get things right the first time round (or even the second, sometimes!). But it’s made a kazillion times easier when you are lucky enough to have great partners in your clients and users. We’re one such lucky product team: our users have given us countless hours of their time providing feedback, breaking early versions of features, and helping us to constantly improve what we do. We wouldn’t be in this exhilarating point without you, so thanks. PS: Why did our investors invest, you ask? — In their own words Adam Grant — Author: Give and Take, Originals, and Option B; Wharton professor; NYT writer “If more companies used behavioral science, it would be much easier to identify and attract a diverse pool of talented people. Kate and her team at Applied have done brilliant work on how employers can pique the interest of applicants and neutralize the biases of recruiters, and I think they’re poised to have a big impact.” James Callander — MD, FreshMinds ‘It is rather rare in the recruitment world that you find such a healthy combination of a worthy social mission, great technology, and a stand out leadership team as the Behavioural Insights Team’s new spin-out Applied. Using cutting edge behavioural science, savvy design and a genuine desire to change outmoded recruiting methods. Not only will it reduce unconscious bias from recruitment processes but bring a much need enhanced user experience to corporate recruiting applicant tracking systems. I am very excited to be supporting them as they grow to the next stage of their development.’ David Halpern — CEO, Behavioural Insights Team “The solution to a policy problem isn’t always a new policy. Sometimes it’s a tool that organisations can use that enable them to make better, more efficient decisions. We are incredibly excited about the potential for Applied to do just that — by helping organisations to remove implicit bias from their hiring decisions” Carol Schwartz — Businesswoman, Philanthropist, Member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia, and Chair of the Trawalla Foundation “We are all unfortunately subject to the influence of unconscious bias. Applied enables organisations to undertake the recruitment and assessment of employees largely bias free. It’s very exciting software which takes advantage of the latest innovative technology, and most importantly, allows us to recruit from 100% of the talent pool.” Helen Gironi — Investment Director, Nesta Impact Investments (A £17.6 million impact investment fund supported by Big Society Capital, Omidyar Network and Nesta. The fund is run by Nesta Investment Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nesta) “There is a natural tendency to hire those who look good on paper and individuals without traditional qualifications, peer group support and industry experience can be filtered out of the candidate pool early on without being properly considered. Our due diligence confirmed that Applied’s robust and intelligent use of behavioural science sets it apart from the competition. We are really excited to have invested in Applied and believe that the platform will hugely benefit individuals by opening up job opportunities much more widely.” Read the full press release here! To find out more about Applied, pop us an email at: hello@beapplied.com. Kate Glazebrook is co-founder and CEO of Applied, a SaaS platform that increases hiring precision and reduces bias.

https://medium.com/finding-needles-in-haystacks/what-were-planning-to-do-with-our-seed-investment-90e615e58dd1

['Kate Glazebrook']

2018-09-27 19:48:12.464000+00:00

['Venture Capital', 'Recruitment', 'Diversity', 'Diversity In Tech']