fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Viola.AI wins Investors Award at d10e ICO Pitching Competition at Cayman Islands!
By: Christina Thung
Tags: Viola, ICO, Blockchain, Ethereum, Pitching

Selected as third winner for Investors Award out of 19 other ICOs, the world’s first Blockchain & A.I. driven marketplace from dating, courtship to marriage, Viola.AI celebrates the win at the biggest ICO Pitching Competition at Cayman Islands on 30 January 2018, organized by d10e, the leading conference on decentralization.

The judging of the pitching competiton is based on 5 criteria — (1) Business model & scalability, (2) Team, (3) Investor terms and liquidity, (4) Solution of the problem, (5) Token model/token and proceeds distribution. CEO and Co-Founder of Viola.AI, Violet Lim took the stage and delivered her pitch before a panel of judges from the Blockchain Investors Consortium.

Speaking after the win, Violet said, “I’m very humbled and honoured to pitch before the distinguished panel of judges who are well versed in blockchain and decentralisation, and winning their affirmation for and validation of our project!”

The 20 finalists at the Pitching Competition were selected and invited amongst hundreds of submissions to pitch live at Cayman Islands. By coming in 3rd place, Viola.AI will share the prize of $150,000 investment prize with the other 2 winners.

“Thank you for our amazing community for your support and encouragement! Also to Viola.AI Team for your passion, dedication and commitment! We will continue to work our hardest to make Viola.AI happen! I’m sharing this award together for everyone who believes they can change the world, one relationship at a time,” Violet concluded.

Viola.AI recently sold out its token pre-sale more than 5 days before its scheduled end date with 7.5 million tokens (not inclusive of bonus tokens) sold out and contributors from over 100 countries.
6 Tricks for Next-Level CRUDs
By: Joey Anuff
Tags: React Query, GraphQL, Cassandra, Nextjs, React Hook

NEXT.JS 10 // REACT-QUERY // AXIOS // DATASTAX DOCUMENT API

6 Tricks for Next-Level CRUDs

Cache more, fetch less with React Query

To follow along with this demo, initialize a free Cassandra database at DataStax, whose super-simple new Documents API we’ll be using for our backend. Make note of your username, password, cluster/database ID, region, and namespace. Init a new Next.js app and install these extra dependencies:

npm install axios axios-auth-refresh react-query react-query-devtools sass

I was looking for a clean, reusable React hooks-based approach for all my endpoints, something lighter than the full Apollo Client suite–maybe just a pattern or two, some smart but minimal approach to all my JSON traffic.

1. CACHE YOUR DATA WITH A REVALIDATION LIBRARY

React Query more than fit the bill: a low-carb request wrapper that follows the “stale-while-revalidate” approach to data fetching. Vercel’s similar SWR hook library also looked like a good option (Vercel being the creators of the Next.js framework) but React Query author Tanner Linsley’s polished docs and devtools made his library an almost irresistible choice.

2. SET YOUR DEFAULTS WITH AXIOS

Different APIs are finicky about different headers. Any day I can DRY up my boilerplate with some global defaults is a great day.

Those are my variables, get yours at DataStax.

3. REFRESH TOKENS WITH AXIOS-AUTH-REFRESH

Authentication panic is common, what’s really refreshing is accepting help, as I did when I installed this calming token authenticator.

Axios-auth-refresh boilerplate, except for ‘X-Cassandra-Token’ and the pause config.

The token in local storage is just for debugging.

4. PRE-LOAD YOUR QUERY CACHE (WITHOUT PRE-FETCHING)

My favorite React Query trick: instead of requesting data for every detail view, React Query builds a cache from your first paginated GET.

Load up the cache from your app’s first GET

5. EXPORT SELF-DESCRIPTIVE HOOKS

All our CRUD operations are now simple and exportable. React-Query lets us specify our cache policy during and after each query or mutation.

react-query’s useQuery and useMutation hooks

6. SYNC EVERYTHING WITH YOUR HOOKS

Our Items index now runs with just two hooks, an items query hook and an addItem mutation hook. Each comes with a full menu of lifecycle booleans.

The items hook fetches the data and sets the cache. The addItem hook invalidates them.

Changes on the detail page are reflected instantly–and reverted if they fail–using the Optimistic Update strategy.

The saveItem hook on each item’s dynamic route page uses Optimistic Updates.

With React Query’s devtools drawer open, we have perfect visibility into the state of our cache.
Quick Shout-Out: Frank’s, Asbury Park NJ
By: Mike Decastro
Tags: Pork Roll, Jersey Shore, New Jersey

Frank’s Deli & Restaurant.. needed a fix.

Taylor Ham Egg & Cheese, ‘locus classicus’ — The foodie move is to to ask for the Taylor ham to be browned well, but not well-done. Frank’s has a thicker-than-usual cut on the taylor ham.. which affords a far better textural experience and flavor profile, than thin cut. Getting it browned only adds to a heightened Taylor Ham ‘wow’.

The cheese is thicker cut as well. Melted and atop the fresh egg and taylor ham adds wonderful creamy-salt notes to the song.

Old-school keiser roll.. crusty on the outside, pulley on the inside, is a perfect transport vessel for all the magic. Ketchup is a glaring no-no as far as we’re concerned… As Jake Lomatta in the ‘Raging Bull would say, “you’re defeating the purpose”, and drowning out all the best flavors of a classic NJ favorite.

Like pizza and religion… we all have a favorite spot to celebrate Taylor Ham Egg and Cheese. Where’s yours?

http://franksdelinj.com
How to Enhance Your Windows Batch Files by Adding GUI
By: Shalitha Suranga
Tags: Programming, Powershell, Software Development, Technology, Windows

How to Enhance Your Windows Batch Files by Adding GUI

Let’s modernize your old-fashioned Windows batch files with the help of PowerShell and .NET

Photo by Bahman Adlou on Unsplash

We normally use Bash scripting on the Linux platform to perform various types of automation tasks. Similarly, we could write batch scripts on Windows. However, Microsoft introduced PowerShell scripting with the new versions of Windows by adding a way to use the modules of the .NET framework. PowerShell is having some advanced features such as object-based output, pipelines, and a lot of new commands compared to the old command prompt application. If you have several Bash scripts on Linux, commands such as zenity and notify-send can be used to modernize those scripts by adding graphical elements.

A few days ago, I was adding a new feature to Neutralinojs to display toast notifications on Windows. I had several options: implementing by using a library like WinToast, implementing from scratch, and achieving the same result by starting a process of PowerShell with a code-block. The third option was so quick, and the same concept can be applied to modernize old-fashioned Windows batch files too. If we write a batch file for a non-technical audience, it is always nice to use some GUI to enhance usability.
Essential HTML, CSS and JavaScript Tools and Libraries
By: Bradley Nice
Tags: HTML, Web Design, CSS, JavaScript, Web Development

Front-end development is tricky: it’s not difficult to learn, but it’s quite difficult to master. Luckily, developers and designers out there keep releasing useful tools and resources for all of us to learn, improve our skills and just get better at what we do.

So today I’ve gathered a list of time-saving, useful HTML, CSS and JavaScript resources for you. I hope that these tools will help you to improve your skills as well as your professional workflow.

HTML and CSS Tools
Do you think things will ever go back to normal?
Tags: Humor, Masks, Covid 19, Comics, Quarantine

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I make cartoons and t-shirts at www.dieselsweeties.com & @rstevens. Send me coffee beans.
One-Sided Memories
By: Ravyne Hawke
Tags: The Friday Fix, Microfiction, Dementia, Fiction, Alzheimers

She sat by his bedside, holding his hand. Memories flooded in from the decades they’d spent together — dances at the country bar were they first met, their wedding night, their work in Africa, their children’s birthday parties, dances, weddings, grandkids…

Mary’s mind remembered everything. Joshua’s mind had forgotten it all.

©2020 Lori Carlson. All Rights Reserved.
The Army of the Avocado
By: Moni Vazquez
Tags: Poetry, Blue Insights, Poetry On Medium, Short Story, War

Did you hear

one started a war?

Added pain and bullets

covering hills?

Now healthy avocados

grandmas defend;

field after field

mafia kills for them.

Worth too much money!

Take it from our people;

for American cash,

for American beauty.

I wrote this poem using the first word of every line in my short story describing The Army of the Avocado. You can find it HERE:
You Can’t Touch This
By: Ben Kay
Tags: 2020, Covid 19, Truth, Election 2020, Hope

A lot has changed. No one can deny that.

But in the midst of one of the most chaotic years in recent decades, I’d like to invite you to ask a simple question:

What hasn’t changed?

In a year unlike any other, what has remained the same? What’s true about you that no Pandemic or Presidential Candidate can shake?

I took the liberty to compile a brief list. It’s not exhaustive nor is it meant to be. But if anything, it’s reminded me of a few realities:

First, feelings are not facts. Just because I feel something doesn't mean it’s true. I’ve found this mantra to be a helpful counterbalance to the overwhelming chaos of this year. Feelings are good but facts will always be better. Why? Because facts are always true.

Second, regardless of what the rest of 2020 has in store — and I’m sure there’s more in store — there are still some things that are unshakable.

1: Love marches on. A few months into COVID, I facilitated the wedding ceremony for my younger brother and sister in law. It was an incredible reminder that love is an unstoppable force. 2020 never stood a chance.

2: Thanksgiving is the other big thing happening in November. True, there is that Election. But just a few weeks later, we get to eat turkey with the people who mean the most to us in this world. COVID or not, there is still a lot to be thankful for.

3: The Sun rose and set today. Like clockwork. I’m pretty sure it plans to tomorrow as well.

4: Oat Milk is worth the hype. My Italian Father who has taken half and half with his coffee for 40 years is now a believer. The Oat will win you over. Trust me.

5: Electricity and Running Water. Thank God.

6: Beer. Need I say more?

7: Season 4 of The Crown is the other other big thing happening in November. What’s better than turkey on Thanksgiving? Binging Season 4 of The Crown while eating Turkey on Thanksgiving.

8: The Internet. As the father of a one year old who’s obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, this one seemed self explanatory.

9: Coffee, coffee, coffee.

10: Good people are still doing good in the world. I work for a Homeless Service agency in South L.A. Every day I have a front row seat to people helping people. There’s a lot of darkness in the world but my coworkers remind me that no matter how dark it gets, the future is still bright.
Who Shined During the Solar Eclipse in Content Marketing?
Tags: Content Marketing, Influencers, Solar Eclipse, Influencer Marketing, Digital Marketing

Every street corner was packed at 2:40 p.m. on Monday in New York, full of people trying to get the perfect picture of the Solar Eclipse to post on social, because if you look through your phone then you don’t need those hard-to-get glasses, right?

Brands couldn’t resist seizing the opportunity either to use this major current event to drive social media engagement. The results were a combination of hilarity and eye-catching. For example, Netflix got sassy and Chiquita got a little strange.

Of course it was primetime for influencer marketing as well. Unless you are still wearing your Eclipse glasses, you’ve probably seen Krispy Kreme’s advertising for the solar eclipse, featuring a large chocolate donut eclipsing a glazed donut. One of the most engaging influencer posts about the eclipse was sponsored by Krispy Kreme and used former NBA player and TV analyst Shaq.

Total Reach: 27M

Most Popular Platform: Twitter

Average Engagement on Twitter: 1.7K

The Pebbles Cereal brand turned to Mommy Bloggers on Facebook. If you couldn’t get the infamous glasses, Pebbles had your back. Influential moms on social media showed their followers how to make the glasses using a box of Fruity Pebbles so that their eyes wouldn’t burn. Awww, moms do care!

Royal Caribbean went the route of finding an influencer interested in the topic at hand inviting influencer Vsauce2. He gave a talk and got to experience the eclipse from the cruise ship! He shared his excitement in the post below. (BTW — Did you know that Julius’s platform has over 700 influencers and celebrities with interest in Science and 40 with a more specific interest in Astronomy?)

Total Reach: 4M

Most Popular Platform: YouTube

Average Engagement on YouTube: 34.9K

Want to make sure you take advantage of the next social event for your influencer marketing campaign? See what’s coming up and what interest tags will help you find the right influencer on Julius:
How Miss Gen Z Taught Me to Love Christmas Again
By: I. Trudie Palmer
Tags: Spirituality, Life, Christmas, Inspiration, Meditation

How Miss Gen Z Taught Me to Love Christmas Again

Forget the rush, feel the love

Photo by Les Anderson on Unsplash

I write about life with my Gen Z daughter often. She challenges me every day to be a better parent, a better friend, a better person. Sometimes I remind her that I am the parent and other times I roll my eyes in angst and leave her to her bully pulpit. Remember, civilization, as we know it today was created on the day of our children’s birth, and supreme knowledge was bestowed on them alone. One of the things I give her full credit for though was teaching me to love Christmas all over again.

I grew up (and still live) on a small island in the Caribbean and Christmas was a time when great effort was put into, perhaps, forgetting the hardship of the earlier months. As soon as the calendar rang in December, there was a frenzy to get curtains (yes sir, you had to buy and hang new curtains every year, it was the rule) and floor mats, and new furniture — if that was in the budget. It was a time for sorrel and black cake and rice with pigeon peas and ham and rum. Persons laid their burdens down and enjoyed the merriment that the season brought.

As with everything, life happened and Christmas and its celebratory aspects lost their lustre, commercialization, they called it. The mad rush to buy and to have created more stress than anything else that one year I just checked out. I withdrew myself from the furor that surrounded the season. I was having no part of this madness.

This went on for years until the birth of my daughter. She was born in December, a beautiful baby that was to change my life forever. Call it fate or destiny but she developed an affinity for Christmas time, perhaps as a result of the gifts she received, but even as she grew and the presents became less, she always looked forward to that time of the year.

“I like Christmas because it just seems to bring out the best in people. They are happier, more loving and giving,” said Ms. Gen Z, one December.

Those words, I think, changed my outlook. I started looking at Christmas through her untainted eyes. Eyes that had not yet seen much of the sadness that life brings. Eyes that trusted and believed. Eyes filled with hope and love.

And even now that she is growing into a young adult, I still remember her words and I thanked her in my heart for helping me to look at the season through her eyes and not mine.
Distributed Neural Network Training In Pytorch
By: Nilesh Vijayrania
Tags: Distributeddataparallel, Deep Learning, Distributed Training, Distributed Computing, Pytorch

With several advancements in Deep Learning, complex networks such as giant transformer networks, wider and deeper Resnets, etc. have evolved which keeps a larger memory footprint. More often than not, while training these networks, deep learning practitioners need to use multiple GPUs to train them efficiently. In this post, I am going to walk you through, how distributed neural network training could be set up over a GPU cluster using PyTorch.

Photo by Nana Dua on Unsplash

Usually, distributed training comes into the picture in two use-cases.

Model Splitting across GPUs: When the model is so large that it cannot fit into a single GPU’s memory, you need to split parts of the model across different GPUs. Batch Splitting across GPUs.When the mini-batch is so large that it cannot fit into a single GPU’s memory, you need to split the mini-batch across different GPUs.

Model Splitting across GPUs:

Splitting the model across GPUs is straightforward and doesn’t require much code change. While setting up the network itself, parts of the model could be moved to specific GPUs. Afterwards while forward propagating the data through the network, the data needs to be moved to the corresponding GPU as well. Below is the PyTorch snippet doing the same.

Batch Splitting across GPUs:

There are 3 ways to split batch across GPUs.

Accumulating Gradients Using nn.DataParallel Using nn.DistributedDataParallel

Accumulating Gradients

The easiest way to split batches across GPUs is to accumulate gradients. Suppose, the batch size that we want to train with is 256, but only 32 batch size could fit into one GPU memory. We could perform 8(=256/32) gradient descend iterations without performing the optimization step and keep on adding the calculated gradients via loss.backward() step. Once we accumulate gradients of 256 data points, we perform the optimization step i.e. calling optimizer.step() . Below is the PyTorch snippet for implementing accumulating gradients.

Pros:

Doesn’t require multiple GPUs for large batch training. This method enables large batch training even with a single GPU.

Cons:

Takes significantly more time than training parallelly on multiple GPUs.

Using nn.DataParallel

If you have access to multiple GPUs, it would make sense to hand different batch splits to different GPUs, do gradient calculation on different GPUs, and then accumulate the gradients to perform gradient descend.
Barack Obama On Making Tough Decisions
By: Jada Gomez
Tags: Decision Making, Barack Obama, Barack Obama Quotes

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Momentum is a blog that captures and reflects the moment we find ourselves in, one where rampant anti-Black racism is leading to violence, trauma, protest, reflection, sorrow, and more. Momentum doesn’t look away when the news cycle shifts.
Theo Altenberg Paintings
By: Jon Armstrong
Tags: Artist, Abstract, Painting, Link, Art

Podcaster: Turning This Car Around @ttcashow. Photos & personal: blurbomat.com. @blurb on the socials. Check out my MoPho mag: medium.com/mobile-photography

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How Mobile Apps will Reinvent Healthcare Industry
Tags: Mobile Application, Health Technology, Mobile, App Development, Healthcare

With the advancements in the mobile app development sector, mobile apps are revamping all spheres of human lives. It’s changing the way we consume information, meet people, exchange ideas and consumer goods and services. The potential of maximising excellence in human health is yet unexplored. Considering the fact that there are more than 2 million apps for Android and iOS users, the genesis of mobile apps in healthcare is surely a big leap towards a healthier world.

Wearable Technology:

The boost in wearable technology and healthcare mobile apps over the recent years has helped doctors base their treatment on more accurate diagnosis unlike the confused symptoms rant provided by the hysteric patient. It allows doctors to connect better with their patients and helps patients play a more engaged role in their health.

Enhanced Efficiency in Medical Procedures:

Apps like Isabel Symptom checker empowers patients to gain more insight into their disease or symptoms and find potential causes of their disease and pace the consultation process. There are other apps emerging with advancing innovation that can help patients book appointments, connect to doctors in case of emergencies, set reminders for their pills, track their diagnosis and coordinate following measure to speed up their recovery process.

This Article is Originally Published here.
Collapsible Death
By: J.D. Harms
Tags: Image, Trouble, Poetry, Return, Struggles

Collapsible Death

A Poem

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

Right into the sequence of take one more breath

a heartbeat raised to pluck

the hand that holds the stethoscope

that wrenches the ear away from dark

triangular tunnels with a little light

but the fading that’s gone on

the heightenings the abandoned control

whatever slipped in the pool of morose visitors

the consequences of a death that rises

and falls again
Becoming a web developer in Finland — an immigrants perspective
By: Senta Jazz
Tags: Integrify, Immigrants, JavaScript, Programming, Finland

My name is Senad, I’m from Serbia, living in Finland and I’m a web developer now. But only a few months ago I wasn’t even sure if I could ever become one. So here’s how I did it.

It all started in the summer of 1989. I was 9 when I first got in touch with programming. Somehow I found a book in “Programming in Basic”. First, I copied all the code examples to my Commodore 64, not having an idea what they are for, because the book was in German. The last code example was playing some unknown short song. After a few hours I turned the code upside down but once I was done, it was playing ‘Smoke on the water intro’. I think that’s pretty much when I fell in love with programming. Back then, computers were not so popular, and programming languages were really different. I was already in high school when the internet started to grow rapidly, and programming started to gain on popularity.

Fast forward: I went through Mechanical Engineering studies at a University, got a job I wasn’t satisfied with, lost too much time searching for something meaningful to do… Long story short, I decided to move to Finland. As most of the immigrants, I started to struggle, not knowing the language, doing any job I could find. In the meantime I got married, my son was born… I was very happy, but there was a big piece missing — it was my career. Programming was always there as a hobby, so I decided to finally turn it into a career. I started attending an online programming school and after a year I had some knowledge in web development. I learned also about databases, servers, security and internet marketing. But still, I was always insecure in my knowledge, or even if I was learning the right stuff. I also had to work night shifts, so that didn’t help. Sometimes I was really worried about the future, and although my family was supportive, I knew I needed more help. I simply did not know where to seek for it.

Then, out of the blue, I saw a Facebook post about a program called Integrify. Shortly, it is an organisation that helps immigrants learn coding and landing a job. It sounded nice so I gave them a ring. They got me an interview date. When I got there, it was the first time in Finland when I actually felt like home. The guys were really nice and friendly and they understood my problems. I did a test and got accepted. Soon there I was, in Helsinki city center, a room full of people from all around the world, and we all shared one thing: love for coding. And it felt like home.

It is one thing to learn at home or at school, but this was completely different. We did lots of real world projects, working as a team and individually. Hours and hours of coding really made a difference. I also made contacts with people in the business, attended seminars and meet-ups. It was just the thing I needed to kickstart my career!
Have Scooter, Will Travel!
By: Jean Crawford Evans
Tags: Accessibility, Disability, Living, Fat, Activism

I’ve been feeling guilty about using the store carts when shopping with the hubby, but I simply can’t do a store without my muscles seizing up and screaming. If I am alone I have no problem as I am filling the basket on the cart with groceries.

Now, with my scooter, I can shop with hubby and leave the carts for others who need them. There have been times when we’ve gone to Costco and I’ve had to wait for a cart to free up. Now I don’t.

photo by author

I have the freedom to zip downtown to hit the Saturday Farmer’s Market and not have to take the car, find a parking space, and end up having to leave before I get halfway through because of the pain. Downtown is less than a mile from my house.

I can do roughly 17 miles on a charge, which means I can get just about anywhere in town I want to go. I will be getting a collapsing basket to mount on the back so I can load up my camera gear and whatnot and take off for a day of photography or go shopping by myself.

photo by author

I went with what is the company’s ‘Cadillac model,’ it has the features and durability I need and want. I have 3-speed modes. ECO for slow, EV for walking speed, and SPT for WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I clocked in at 8 mph on that one. I use that speed for crossing the street and occasionally when I have to use the road when there is no sidewalk or the sidewalk sucks so badly it ain’t funny.

We picked up a carrier for when we travel out of town or when I go shopping with the hubby. Last Friday we went down to Lewiston and back. Discovered a number of issues of having the carrier on the back of a Subaru Forester with a heavy scooter on it. There are a LOT of driveways and alleys we have to seriously avoid.

photo by author

Having the carrier also means if I run out of juice, the hubby can come to rescue me.
Countering extremism
By: Virtual Mosque
Tags: Home Office, Extremism, Countering

The Home Office minister for countering extremism attend a meeting this week to see what steps the Woking Borough Council has taken to counter extremism. Our President was invited to this meeting and in the video above we take a brief look at what happened.
This Math Problem Will Test Your Attentiveness To Detail
By: Kwame Afriyie Osei-Tutu
Tags: Problem Solving, Math, Logic, Mathematics, Mathematics Education

This Math Problem Will Test Your Attentiveness To Detail

Are positive numbers and their negative counterparts equal?

Photo by Lum3n from Pexels

I have a friend who occasionally brings math problems to me to solve. Once in a while, he would bring a piece of paper, sit beside me and begin to scribble a few lines of algebra that “prove” that 1=2 or that 0/0=3.

Knowing that I am a math enthusiast, he often wants to test me and show me through any means necessary that math is broken. But every time, it isn’t math that is broken, it is his math that is broken.

Most of the time, his so-called “proofs” employed a division by zero and that was the problem. However, the last time he brought me a “proof”, everything was different. I couldn’t see any division by zero shenanigans and everything looked correct. Yet, he had managed to prove that 1=-1. I began to freak out. Did he finally manage to do it? Is math really broken?

Here’s what he did:

1=√1=√(-1)(-1)=√(-1)√(-1)=(i)(i)=i²=-1

And by so doing, he managed to prove that 1=-1.

It turns out that he violated a math rule in order to make this happen. Before I reveal what it is and why it’s so important, I suggest you try and figure it out yourself.

The Problem with The proof

In a nutshell, the problem with what my friends wrote was the portion where he stated that √(-1)(-1)=√(-1)√(-1).

He thought he was obeying a rule about multiplying square roots of numbers when he actually wasn’t. He was trying to apply the formula √(a)(b)=√(a)√(b). It’s called the Product Rule for Radicals.

Here’s where attentiveness to detail is important. The product rule is guaranteed to work only when both values a and b are non-negative. When this rule is stated in math texts, there is a preamble that makes this clear. It is stated that “if a and b are non-negative real numbers” then √(a)(b)=√(a)√(b).

The rule isn’t guaranteed to work if both numbers are negative, and that’s exactly why my friend was able to find a case where the product rule “failed”. He hadn’t disproved the product rule, he just misapplied it.

In fact, if one isn’t aware of this, it is possible to use the same approach to prove that x=-x for any positive real number x(in other words, all positive numbers are equal to their negative counterparts). That’s exactly why a and b need to be suitably constrained to avoid math from breaking.

Leonhard Euler explored this concept in his 1770 book The Elements of Algebra.

What’s the Lesson here?

This particular math problem taught me a valuable lesson: it’s extremely important to pay attention to the preambles and hypotheses of rules, laws and theorems. The importance of this lesson cannot be overemphasized.

When pressure is placed on students, it can get really tempting to just memorize the formulas in the theorems and ignore the hypotheses. The danger is that such behaviour can come back to bite us when a friend brings us a proof that 1=-1.

The good news is that math isn’t broken…yet. It’s just our understanding and memory that might be.
La Santa Violencia
By: Lautaro N. Rubbi
Tags: Religion, War, Foreign Affairs, Violence, International Relations

Ph.D. and MG. in International Relations. Expert in International Security and War. Special interests in new technologies, productivity, and philosophy.

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How to Wean Yourself Off Smartphones and Social Media
Tags: Addiction, Technology, Mobile, Social Media, Apps

You probably can’t cut tech out of your life completely, but here are some tips to take back control.

By Rob Marvin

How often do you open your smartphone and find you’ve lost 30 minutes or perhaps hours of your day?

It’s all too easy to get lost in our screens as we tap from app to app and scroll through social feeds. In our hyper-connected world, cutting out tech altogether is unrealistic unless you’re ready to drop off the grid and move to a log cabin in the wilderness. What you can do is try consuming tech mindfully.

Whether you think you’re spending too much time on social media, feel like you’re becoming too attached to your smartphone, or are suffering from a more serious tech addiction, we could all stand to be a little less wired. Here are some tips to wean yourself off compulsive smartphone and social media habits, and how to regain control over how you consume technology.
Salt & Pepper Awarded as Top Developer by Clutch!
By: Salt Pepper
Tags: Clutch Awards, Development Company, Clutch, Tech, Technology

Salt & Pepper Awarded as Top Developer by Clutch! Salt&Pepper Follow Aug 28 · 2 min read

Salt & Pepper is a full-service software development company with an in-depth experience on the market and a dedication to build digital products that matter. We provide a complete range of services required for building great products: consulting services, business analysis, UI/UX design, web and mobile development, quality assurance, and maintenance.

Clutch is a B2B ratings and reviews platform that helps build your market presence. Their mission is to connect service providers and buyers through data and verified research. Central to their process is client reviews. In their unique process, analysts have spoken directly with many of our clients and learned more about the services we provided, as well as technological capabilities, results, and business acumen. With an overall 4.8 rating, we’ve seen strong results from Clutch’s extensive research process. We are excited to be named as a top developer in 2020!

Our clients’ participation made this award possible, and we want to thank them for their time and honest feedback. Below are excerpts from our most recent reviews:

“When we are having some problems in production, they are here to help as soon as possible.” –General Manager, Tickets Roll

“We had very high expectations for this project.” –CTO, FastOrder

“I found them very impressive, in terms of responsiveness, even though we were in different time zones.” –Founder & CEO, Cambridge Exercise Technology

Our CEO responds to the receipt of the award and how Clutch has been a prominent part in the company’s growth.

“Thanks to our team’s previous experience, we had a pretty good idea of what type of organization we wanted to build. We’ve always had the next step in mind, trying to put together a company structure and a way of working that can respond to tomorrow’s challenges, not today’s. Looking back I think this was a key point that helped us grow as a company. Even though we are constantly evolving and expanding, we are delighted to get all this recognition at this stage.” says CEO of Salt & Pepper, Cristin Iosif. Thank you for all the support!
The Week To Be In Crypto [03/04/2019]
By: Jonathan Tompkins
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Blockchain, Bitcoin

Check out my daily writing series exclusively on Cent: https://beta.cent.co/+sutrr3

Market Overview

Maybe its the extended bear market but it seems like some of the snippiness and salt is back int he community. I am largely gleaning this from cryptotwitter which may also have just gotten so distilled as people leave the space and stop interacting as much that people, like fish in a pond that is evaporating, are running into each other more. Two folks I follow pretty closely —Anthony Pompliano and Chris Burniske got into a tiff about legitimacy of twitter followers and traded some jabs on investment thesis. There are also countless examples of “chartists” getting into it about whether or not the bottom is in or if there is another leg down.

The funny thing about these types of fights — no one knows if Pomp or Burniske has the better investment strategy — and we wont know for another 10 years. No one know if the bottom is in or if we will go into the 2000s or lower. ALL of these people do agree though that bitcoin will eventually go up A LOT and that there is massive investment potential across the space.

What can the individual take from this? It isn’t helpful at all to take any sides or spend time caring about who is going to be proven “right” or “wrong” in these debates. Perhaps there are some different perspectives that get shaken out but largely they reduce to name calling and (since its over twitter) mis-interpretation of what each other are saying. One of the main things I have learned through the bull and bear runs over the past 2.5 years I have been in the space is that the most important perspective is your own and the most important way to approach your own perspective is to have “strong opinions held loosely”. It doesn’t matter if the bottom is in or not if you believe the price will eventually reach new highs, the ratio of time and effort it would take to “call the bottom” compared to the monetary gain from it is negligible and twitter clout doesn't pay the bills last I checked.

What I’m Buying

Nothing really new on the radar this week so heres about where I am right now portfolio targeting-wise

Core: BTC (In for the long term, maybe some range trading if feeling crazy)

Secondary: ETH, MKR, REN (some active in and out)

Moonshots: XOV, NIO (wait for 10x, sell on the way up to hopefully 50x+)

The key with moonshots is getting in at a low price. As stated before, anything with a sub 500k marketcap that has a committed team and enough money to stay afloat for another two years is worth looking at.

Recommended Media

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From the Slack

A collection of content from The Bitcoin Podcast slack group the past week

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The 15 Best Life Lessons I’ve Ever Learned
By: John Gorman
Tags: Life Lessons, John Gorman, Careers, Self Improvement, Relationships

Lesson №15: Life is jazz.

I went to Paris in August 2018. Actually, I went to 10 cities over the course of a month, but my first stop in Europe was Paris. I went on the trip with zero itinerary beyond a couple basic “must do”s in each city. I had a flight from New York to Paris, and then another one a few weeks later from London to Austin.

In short, I had a lot of flexibility. I budgeted 2–4 nights in each locale, and $5K for the whole excursion. I booked my hotels upon arriving in each place. That would make a ton of people anxious, but not me.

I boarded a red-eye from JFK to CDG, and sat next to a charming Argentine woman about my age. We talked the entire flight, aside from a couple hours of much-needed sleep. We rolled into downtown Paris together, and then decided we’d spend an evening out. At the recommendation of a friend in Portland who used to live in Paris, we went to one of the Momma joints in Montmartre for pasta, and then to Cafe H for jazz. (This is very on-brand for me.)

Turns out: Cafe H discontinued their jazz the week before, and so instead we sat outside a cafe across the street, sharing long stories — I know this is difficult to wrap your mind around, yet she can spin better, longer yarns than I can — and plentiful laughs under the Paris moonlight. If that sounds romantic, well … it was.

After we parted ways — I had eight more cities on the hit-list — we kept in touch, and she became one of the 22 people I mentioned above. We’ve had two more dinners since, in two different cities. Had I been inflexible in my itinerary, or rigid in my scheduling, it would’ve never went down the way it did. That evening was one of my favorite of what was also one of my favorite months roaming this rock. (August 21 — September 20, 2018 is matched only by February 26, 2019 — March 25, 2019; September 4, 2019 — October 3, 2019; February 15, 2020 — March 14, 2020.)

Many people divide folks into “Type-A” and “Type-B,” but I find that delineation to be less colorful and helpful than the way I’m about to divide people for you: There’s two types of people in this world — “pop” people and “jazz” people. Pop people are rigid, exacting and need every detail mapped out. They seek the familiar, the proven and the expected. By contrast, jazz people flexible, adventurous, fluid and plan in rough sketches rather than note-for-note compositions.

I’m a jazz person. Just give me a key, a style, a tempo, and I can work alchemy within those basic constraints. Life is constantly throwing constraints and curveballs at us, the easier you can adapt to them and play within the context of them, the more you’ll get out of it.

I think we could use more jazz players among us.
Stop Being Nice to People Forever
By: Daniel Esparza
Tags: Self Help, Self Improvement, Life Advice, Life Lessons, Kindness

As we made our way through our childhood and early adolescence it was only inevitable to have heard the phrase be nice an ungodly amount of times. This was typically said to us when we were being rude, aggressive, or downright malevolent to other children or adults. And if the adults in our life had any success in guiding our little socially untrained brains then we learned how to be nice. To this day we carry the lessons of being nice around with us in our everyday interactions. This should stop today. We ought to ditch nice and swap it out with kindness.

What's wrong with being nice?

We use the word nice to describe just about everything:

“Yeah, I've met her before shes nice.” “Wow, that's such a nice car. How much did does something like that set you back?” “He has such a nice house.” “Such nice weather we’re having.”

Notice that all of these things are physical? They're all in the outside world.

In essence, nice always remains on the outside.

Seneca

What do you mean by that?

Being nice is an act. It is not something that comes from within. You can be nice to someone by complimenting them, holding the door open for them or doing them a favor and on the outside others can observe and say “that was nice of you” or “you’re so nice.” While on the surface everything is fine and dandy you could be completely indifferent on the inside.

This can become dangerous. If we suppress what we really want to say or do just to be nice then we are hurting ourselves. Acting a different way on the surface while feeling the opposite inside is an act of violence towards yourself.

Being nice is fake. We are not behaving in a particular way because we want to but because we should. Because it is the norm.

We should strive to be kind instead.

The state of kindness

Kindness is a state that can be seen in acts, while niceness is nothing more than a superficial act. No doubt our ancestors were kind to each other before they were nice to each other.

“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.” — Seneca

Kindness radiates from within and can be seen in the way we treat ourselves and the people around us. While being nice is fake and motivated by acting how you think you should, kindness is a genuine and raw human state. So going forward let’s not be nice to people anymore, but instead adopt a state of kindness towards ourselves and our fellow humans. The world doesn't need any more nice people but it yearns for kindness to manifest across its surface.
Deep Inside
By: Anushka Choudhary
Tags: Poetry, Feelings, Hidden

Photo by Marcus Wallis on Unsplash

There are people who claim to know me,

yet they cannot see what lies inside me.

They see the smile and laughter

but no one dwells on the pain,

that engulfs my existence.

The eyes that reflect the turmoil inside,

are easily overlooked by all.

I often wonder is it even their fault,

or have I just been internalizing so much,

that I have become incapable of expressing.

Have I been wearing a mask for so long,

that when I remove it, no one recognizes my reality?

Or do they simply ignore the scars,

that shows up beneath the façade?

Are they so thrilled by the flawless disguise,

that they have willfully forgotten my unadorned face?

I often wonder that who is at fault,

who do I blame for the tears that soak my pillowcase?

I try to find responses to my unanswered queries,

but I fail despondently each day.

And continue to live in an endless cycle,

of repressed feelings, in the hope to escape one day.
How to set up a NEM wallet for FMT
By: Free Market Token
Tags: Crypto, Nem, Blockchain, Free Market Token, Bitcoin

This Guide provides step-by-step instructions to create a simple NEM wallet to store your FMT tokens.

Go to nem.io/downloads

2. Select your operating system. (Windows/Mac/Linux) Double click and download should start.

3. After download is complete, locate the file (usually in “Downloads” folder).

4. If the file is folder is “zipped”, right click (or control click on Mac) and extract file contents.

5. Once file is extracted, open folder.

6. Locate file “NEM NanoWallet (application or .exe) — Double click to open.

7. Click on “Sign up”

8. Click on “Simple Wallet”

It is recommended to disconnect from the internet at this point. It will help to protect you while creating your wallet and backing up your data.

9. Click “ready”

10. Select “Mainnet” from dropdown menu and click “Next”

11. Name your wallet then click “Next”

12. Create a password — make it strong and memorable. Confirm Password then Click “Next”

13. Click the “Start” button

14. Move cursor randomly around the page until you get to 100% then click “Next”

15. Click “Understood” (page not shown)

16. Download a backup of the wallet.

Note: It is a good idea to save a copy of the wallet file on an external hard drive, in the cloud or on a USB stick.

Once you have made a copy, click “I have my wallet file”

17. Click on “Show Private Key”

Security Note: It is recommended that you make 3 x copies of your private key. Make sure you keep your private keys in extremely safe place (eg. Safe / safety deposit box). Be sure to make clear distinction when writing b and

Also make sure you are not facing any cameras or have anyone untrusted nearby.

Once you have made a backup of your private keys click “I have my private key and password”.

18. Account safety Protocol — click “I agree”. (Page not shown)

Congratulations! You now have successfully set up a NEM wallet.

You can log into your account using by selecting your wallet name and entering your password. This works even without the internet connected.

Make sure to reconnect your internet if you want to connect to the blockchain

If you need help locating your Public NEM wallet address continue with the following steps:

1. Log into your Nem Nano Wallet by selecting your wallet and entering your password.

2. Click on “Account” (located up the top right of the page)

3. You will now see the address. (It is a string of 40 Numbers/letters and it starts with “N”)

You can copy this address by simply clicking on the copy button to the right of the address.
Moments of Light
By: Paul Mulliner
Tags: Self, Mindfulness, Life, Meditation, Poetry

We’re born,

like light from stars

blown into the wind

and given breath,

and always silent inside us,

the fluid, unwritten poetry

holding the Universe together,

a universal consciousness

becoming visible

as our own human hand,

like music becoming visible

as fractal patterns of light,

or a song unheard

by our ear,

transforming

into biochemistry.

And when moments of our life

seem like passing shadows

on a sunny day,

that linger only briefly

before clouds emerge,

or like swirling motions

in the surface of a river

appearing transiently

before being lost forever,

we can know we’re

like light from stars

becoming moments

of experience,

and memories

the Universe has,

of when it lived life

as a human being.

And though life

can sometimes seem

a lonely place,

every moment

is woven

into something inside all of us

that reveals itself

in the silence of our heart.

And deep within us

during every moment of our life,

is the silent song of the Universe.