fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Kubernetes — Learn Init Container Pattern
By: Bhargav Bachina
Tags: Software Engineering, DevOps, Software Development, Docker, Kubernetes

Kubernetes — Learn Init Container Pattern

Understanding Init Container Pattern With an Example Project

Photo by Judson Moore on Unsplash

Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration engine for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. A pod is the basic building block of kubernetes application. Kubernetes manages pods instead of containers and pods encapsulate containers. A pod may contain one or more containers, storage, IP addresses, and, options that govern how containers should run inside the pod.

A pod that contains one container refers to a single container pod and it is the most common kubernetes use case. A pod that contains Multiple co-related containers refers to a multi-container pod. There are few patterns for multi-container pods on of them is the init container pattern. In this post, we will see this pattern in detail with an example project.

What are Init Containers

Other Patterns

Example Project

Test With Deployment Object

How to Configure Resource Limits

When should we use this pattern

Summary

Conclusion

What are Init Containers

Init Containers are the containers that should run and complete before the startup of the main container in the pod. It provides a separate lifecycle for the initialization so that it enables separation of concerns in the applications. For example, you need to install some specific software before you want to run your application you can do that installation part in the Init Container of the pod.

Init Container Pattern

If you look at the above diagram, you can define n number of containers for Init containers and your main container starts only after all the Init containers are terminated successfully. All the init Containers will be executed sequentially and if there is an error in the Init container the pod will be restarted which means all the Init containers are executed again. So, it's better to design your Init container as simple, quick, and Idompodent.
Artificial Intelligence: Synergy or Sinnery?
By: Michael Woronko
Tags: AI, Philosophy, Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Elon Musk

Will the advent of A.I. allow us to embark upon a complete overhaul of traditional labor structures?

This is a question that comes up less frequently than others and one that has an answer that is wholly dependent on whether or not we’d like to take an optimistic or pessimistic view.

In another way to phrase it — A.I. can be seen as the harbinger of an age where humankind can, for the most part, finally unshackle themselves from the toils of labor. Conversely, it can also be regarded — and is often regarded in this way — as an enormous threat to employment, set to disrupt almost every industry and cause massive scale job loss.

Assuming an optimistic perspective, it’s certainly an exciting proposition, one that would have to be supplemented with some measure of a universal basic income for everyone or some completely innovative way by which resources can be accumulated by members of society. While it seems wholly unfeasible to live in a world where humans need no longer work (again, for the most part) and can be set free to pursue their individual endeavors, it is nonetheless a tantalizing prospect.

Preparing for a world without work means grappling with the roles work plays in society, and finding potential substitutes. First and foremost, we rely on work to distribute purchasing power: to give us the dough to buy our bread. Eventually, in our distant Star Trek future, we might get rid of money and prices altogether, as soaring productivity allows society to provide people with all they need at near-zero cost. — Ryan Avent, The Guardian

Supposing one were to take a pessimistic perspective, the threat of soaring unemployment rates is all too real. We’ve already seen the loss of jobs brought about by automation in the workforce and A.I. poses the most menacing danger of all. The darkest of estimates come to show the loss of half of all current jobs to automation and A.I. — if this had even been remotely exaggerated, it certainly seems drastic enough to consider alternative systems of wage disbursement in its entirety.
Docker: my questions from the first day
By: Oliver K. Ernst
Tags: Coding, Development, Programming, Docker, AI

Images and Docker Hub

How do I see the actual docker file on Docker Hub?

Amazingly this isn’t a simple thing.

Docker Hub really just hosts the images, not the actual Dockerfile used to make them (assuming they were made from a Dockerfile). You can get lucky by heading to the page for the desired image on Docker Hub, and often you will find a link to a GitHub hosted Dockerfile.

You can also get some idea about the image if you head to Tags and click on the tag you want, and look at the image history.

Where is the actual image on my machine?

On your machine, run

docker info

and look for Docker Root Dir , like mine:

Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker

Liar! I went to that directory and it doesn’t exist!

Probably you are on a Mac like me. In that case, a virtual image is located at:

~/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/vms/0

This image is run behind the scenes with HyperKit to run Docker images. You can enter that image with:

screen ~/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/vms/0/tty

Then try the directory again

ls /var/lib/docker/

should do it! Press control k to exit.

Where on my machine can I see the actual Docker file that was used to create the image?

You are similarly out of luck! There’s some tricks floating around on how to search the logs for how the image was built to find the Dockerfile, but in general this is not shipped with the image when you do a
New research shows why anyone with high blood pressure — nearly half of U.S.
By: Robert Roy Britt
Tags: Blood Pressure, Hypertension, Health, Brain, High Blood Pressure

New research shows why anyone with high blood pressure — nearly half of U.S. adults — should seek to lower it. High blood pressure, or hypertension, can accelerate the decline in brain function, including memory, concentration and verbal skills, scientists report today in the journal Hypertension.

The cognitive decline occurs whether the hypertension starts early in life or much later.

“Effectively treating high blood pressure at any age in adulthood could reduce or prevent this acceleration,” says study author Sandhi Barreto, MD, professor of medicine at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil. “Collectively, the findings suggest hypertension needs to be prevented, diagnosed and effectively treated in adults of any age to preserve cognitive function.”

The findings add to evidence in a feature article I wrote last year defining hypertension and revealing the rising problem:
Where to begin with color in 3D?
By: Sarah Healy
Tags: Cinema 4d, Colors, Education, Design, Creativity

Where to begin with color in 3D?

Getting started with color in Cinema4D Lite.

Color, shape, and fun in C4D (created by Sarah Healy)

I can vividly remember opening 3D Studio Max for the first time.

It felt like I had suddenly been thrust the controls of the starship enterprise, with zero experience of actually navigating through space.

I can also remember hastily closing the software package, feeling defeated and retreating back the comfortable flatness of 2D space.

As a designer used to create one dimension suddenly having multiple viewports, three dimensions and camera to contend with is a wee bit overwhelming.

In the world of 3D, everything gets a little more complicated — even color.

Well, at least I did not find it very intuitive when learning3D.

Here is a starting point with color in Cinema 4D.
The Vantage Point of Stars
By: Christina M. Ward
Tags: Poetry, Environment, Climate Change, Society, Short Story

From a safe vantage point, far from

the walrus-death cliffs, the stars

hang smiling in the sky. The cosmos

between themselves and earth

is enough to swallow up their

years of smiling light. If I could

rise to that expanse could I forget

the plunging to rock? The blood

swept into the sea — the last heaving

breaths of walruses?

How lucky the stars for that vast space.

They do not have to leap from the sky or find

themselves shoved into spaces too small, too

restrictive, to do what it is that stars do; quietly

they still and twinkle and hold their spot

for eons, asking nothing. Walruses ask nothing

but a bit of ice or shore. Koalas, ablaze and climbing

trees, shrieking. They, too, only need a bit

of peace and branches of green. Sure, brush fires

are normal. Ice melting; normal. But not like this.

The Earth spinning and changing and moving

through time as time has asked it to do — forgive us our

interference, our human intrusion on the norm,

for we really think it is all about us, our needs,

our wants from this earth, our take, our taking.

When the seas rise up to meet our mistakes, what

cliffs, I ask, will we leap from? Will there be trees

for us to climb, as the flaming koalas? Will there be

a nice lady who will rip off her shirt and snuff out

the flames of our sins as they crawl up our legs or

will we simply keep running and hope the wind

will put them out? The stars won’t shine then.

They’ll wink their “I told you so’s,”

grateful to be stars and not koalas,

stars and not polar bears adrift on melting

ice-boats, their furs narrowing at the sides,

carcasses that breathe, until, they don’t.

A star paints its path across the sky,

one last, vast motion of hope, recipient

of wish, of prayer,

far-removed

hope-flung.
10 Extraordinary GitHub Repos for All Developers
By: Simon Holdorf
Tags: Creativity, JavaScript, Technology, Productivity, Programming

10 Extraordinary GitHub Repos for All Developers

Interview resources, build your own X, a list of great public APIs, and more

Photo by Vishnu R Nair on Unsplash

GitHub is the number one platform for sharing all kinds of technologies, frameworks, libraries, and collections of all sorts. But with the sheer mass also comes the problem to find the most useful repositories. So I have decided to curate this list of ten fantastic repositories that provide great value for all software engineers. All of them have a lot of GitHub stars, underlining their relevance, popularity, and usefulness.

Some of them will help you learn new things, some will help you build cool things, and all of them will help you to become better software engineers.
Everything you need to know about color
By: Monica Galvan
Tags: UI, Visual Design, Design, Creativity, UX

Color evokes emotion, sparks excitement, and grabs attention. Color can help draw your eye where you want it on anything from a poster or billboard to an email in your inbox.

Color can even influence your mood. Did you know the color psychology behind a red and yellow combination makes you hungry? It’s no wonder well-known fast-food chains like McDonald’s and KFC use red and yellow colors in their logos.

Color theory is a set of principles for creating harmonious color combinations. It’s a mixture of science and art. Understanding the fundamentals of color theory and where color comes from is important to know as a designer. Once you master it, you’ll know how to create the best color combinations for your graphic and web design projects.

If you don’t believe color has an impact on your design then take a look at this example. It’s the exact same illustration, the only difference is the colors. Which one is pleasing to look at and which makes your eyes want to explode?
How to create an irresistible offer
By: David Andrew Wiebe
Tags: Business, Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Product, Freelancing

Know Your Audience

Whether common sense or trite, I feel like I’m beating a dead horse whenever I bring this up. Which is why I sometimes glance over it.

But it must be said, because you’re not going to rack up sales with a tone-deaf offer. You must know who your offer is for.

You must know who your offer is for. (Click To Tweet)

It’s like if someone came to Music Entrepreneur HQ and pitched a guest post about the environment (oh wait, this actually happened!).

Sorry, though many musicians are environmentally conscious, trying to sell them your recycling services is going to prove an uphill battle.

What are musicians interested in? Growing their fan base. Getting listeners for their music. Bringing a crowd to their shows. And so on.

There might be an opportunity to sneak in some tips about reducing their carbon footprint in an offer that covers one or more of the topics just mentioned. But it would be best to assume no opportunity, because you want your content to be focused and targeted.

Who is interested in recycling services? That’s what you’d want to figure out before pitching your offer.

In like manner, if you wish to create an irresistible offer, you must know your audience and what their needs are. If you can, go and ask them now.
Let’s Go for a Walk
By: Yael Wolfe
Tags: Walking, Nature, Outdoors, Mental Health, Health

Let’s Go for a Walk

Why a daily walk is as important to me as brushing my teeth

Photo by Elijah Hail on Unsplash

I always wanted to be a runner. I grew up in Los Angeles, where there were a lot of runners in their tiny, 80s short-shorts and sweatbands. They looked so powerful and elegant.

One of the most exciting moments of my young life was sitting out one night with all the neighbors at the side of the road and watching an Olympian run by with the torch just before the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic games began. I still remember that figure flying by us so elegantly, torch held high, hardly breaking a sweat.

I wanna be like that, I thought.

But even as a child, I had issues with running. For one thing, I had serious asthma, perpetually aggravated by the thick layer of smog that covered the city in the 80s. I also had a lot of joint issues, despite my youth, and running caused my knees to ache unbearably within minutes.

I often defaulted to walking — less elegant, but far more enjoyable, I soon discovered, when my dad asked me to start joining him for his morning walks. I don’t remember us talking very much — I’ve always had a hard time finding things to talk about with my dad — and so we often walked in silence. I remember feeling safe out there in those early mornings, before anyone expected me to get dressed and organize my homework and do all the things I was supposed to do. There was a freedom out there: me, just walking around like there was nothing better to do.

I also remember being entranced by the sights we passed by. I loved looking at people’s yards — especially those who had done a lot of landscaping. I found the flowers so beautiful, and wondered what kinds of little passageways were behind the hedges. I loved looking at the trees and often stopped to touch their bark. And I was in heaven when we went down the street to the beautiful park near the freeway entrance that felt like a private little woodland filled with twisting pathways.
Yearly Review: Most Read Stories of 2020
By: Fab Giovanetti
Tags: Headlines, Business, Writing, Creativity, Writing Tips

Yearly Review: Most Read Stories of 2020

Focusing on business, productivity, and writing

As it’s natural, at this time of the year, to look back at some of the highlights that truly stand out, I thought I’d do the same for some of my top pieces on Medium.

I truly gave a lot of energy to this platform over the past year, and do not regret any of that.

For one, it has made me a better writer. It also challenged me to start new things (such as a new business, a few columns).

Overall, it also has taught me a lot about the fine balance between writing for myself and for the audience. Optimising my talents and strengths, whilst also keeping creativity and fun in the picture — such a hard one to balance.

I thought I’d look back at the 10 most successful pieces of 2020, and provide an honest opinion (and speculation) on what worked and why they got so much love (I am using a combination of reads and views).

One thing is for certain, I am looking to come back in 2021 with a more honest approach to what I can take on, and how much I can commit to the different things I am juggling.

Less is more, for real this time.

In this piece, I dive deep into some stats as well as using my intuition to provide some lessons for fellow writers.
How To Find Peace In The Eye Of The Stress Storm Around You
By: Erik Brown
Tags: Health, Philosophy, Mindfulness, Psychology, Self Improvement

We Can Get Away Without Going Away

“People try to get away from it all — to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You always wish that you could too. Which is idiotic: you can get away from it anytime you like. By going within. Nowhere you can go is more peaceful — more free of interruptions — than your own soul…An instant’s recollection and there it is: complete tranquility.” — Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations”, Gregory Hayes Translation

The words above are likely written in 180 AD, but the idea about “getting away” is often mouthed by a stressed worker in the present day. How many times have you wished you could get away? Ideas of a calm beach and umbrella drink may float in your daydreams. Likely ancient Romans did the same thing.

However, one thing the emperor couldn’t do was “get away” — his chaotic times and life allowed no time for a lavish vacation. As Donald Robertson explains in his book “How to Think Like A Roman Emperor”, Marcus dealt with nonstop stressful personal and job-related issues.

He lost 7 of his 13 children prematurely.

One of his friends attempted to dethrone him by armed rebellion and a letter from his own wife may have started the attempt.

The Antonine Plague ravaged the empire. It’s thought to have killed nearly 10% of Rome’s 75 million people at the time.

A “friendly” German tribe rebelled and attacked the empire, forcing Marcus to live most of his late and sickly life at Spartan-like battle camps.

Now, this is a stressful life. However, Marcus never turned into one of those horrific Roman tyrants you see portrayed in movies. So, how did he do it?

As Marcus himself points out in his journal, he found a way to get away into his own mind. The journal he carried, which became Meditations, was his get away. As he himself mentioned, it only took an instance to escape to “complete tranquility”.

While he didn’t leave a detailed explanation, the emperor shows he could escape his chaotic world without physically leaving. This is the ultimate discovery for us in the present day. We don’t have to jump on a plane and go somewhere to escape the ever-present stress. A peaceful get away and place for renewal is much closer than we can ever imagine.
3 Web Technologies Killed by Google
By: Louis Petrik
Tags: Web Framework, Software Development, Google, Web Development, Cloud Computing

AngularJS

AngularJS is perhaps the first relevant JavaScript framework to appear.

It was released by Google in 2010 — at a time when the most prominent JavaScript library was jQuery.

Instead of just a library like jQuery, AngularJS, also known as Angular 1, is a whole framework that brought the MVVM concept to the world of front-end development.

In 2016 the Angular, which we know today, was released.

According to Wappalyzer, many large websites still use AngularJS for their front-end — but support will be discontinued next year.

The technology behind AngularJS is simply outdated — because modern frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular all use a CLI by now.

This allows us to write code in, for example, React.js that would not work in a browser — in Reacts case; it is the JSX syntax that is converted by the CLI into classic JS & HTML for the production version.

AngularJS, on the other hand, reminds us very much of Vue.js when we use it without CLI. Instead of converting the code, we write for production; we write everything directly in our HTML and JS files.

So are the so-called directives, which we implement as HTML attributes:

data-ng-repeat: "item in items"

Without the JavaScript code provided by AngularJS, the browser could not do anything with these attributes — a classic example of client-side rendering. But the trend is more and more towards server-side-rendering and static pages where our JavaScript data structures are converted to HTML that can be rendered in the browser.

Where for Angular, there is the so-called Angular Universal to render a page on the server-side; for AngularJS, the possibility seems to be missing.

Working without a CLI and simply importing the library over a CDN and writing code like jQuery is not that complicated. Still, CLIs have become an integral part of the developer community — regardless of the framework or library, because it makes sense to have TypeScript, Linting, and transcompiling support. Without a CLI, however, this is virtually unthinkable.

As of December 2021, AngularJS will stop long term support.
When You Feel like You Can’t Live up to Your Own Writing
By: Max Frenzel
Tags: Personal Growth, Self, Creativity, Journaling, Writing

When You Feel like You Can’t Live up to Your Own Writing

Late night self-reflections of a writer on book deadline

A page from my journal that night.

I was rolling around in bed at 2 am. My mind was racing with outstanding tasks, unwritten paragraphs, and self-doubt.

Together with my co-author John Fitch I’m in the final stages of writing a book about the importance of Time Off. And we are on a rapidly approaching deadline to hand the draft over to our editor.

Many authors I talked to in the past told me that they are a mental mess in the days before handing off their manuscript, but I hoped I’d be immune to this. Especially given the topic we are writing about.

But there I was, unable to sleep because my mind couldn’t stop worrying about the book. And at a deeper layer, worrying about the worrying.

So I did the only thing I could think of at the moment to calm down my mind. I got up and put my thoughts to paper, writing the following words in my notebook to reassure myself of what I am doing.

It helped me a lot. Maybe if you are in a similar situation, it can help you too.
Product Seven
By: Daniel Soucek
Tags: Development, User Experience, Design, Software Development, Product Design

Product Seven

The seven steps necessary to produce a successful product.

Seven steps are necessary to properly execute a product. This process does not guarantee success. Other variables such as team/personnel, financials, time, and so on are other variables which must also be considered.

The first step is the idea. It is essential to move from mind to an available product as efficiently as possible. When an idea is new it has the most energy. This energy will fade over time and ultimately the idea will become obsolete. If action is not taken it allows opportunity for others to act. There is a thought that every idea is given to or held by at least two individuals. Be the one who acts. He who hesitates is lost.

The second step is design. Manifesting an idea into something tangible is design. Facilitation is key as to not extinguish the spark of the idea. Ideation is also essential and should be pushed to it’s breaking point. There is no repercussion for pushing an idea to impossibility. Once the limits have been pushed the design may comfortably be accepted within the confines of impossibility.

The third step is the (creative/technical) handoff. Now is the time for reality to ground the dreamer. A compromise between what is ideal and what is realistic must be made. This may require going back one or even two steps. This is not a failure and should not be frowned upon. It is extremely important not to move forward to the fourth step until both creative and technical parties have an aligned vision.

The fourth step is development. The technical team must be left alone and not interrupted during this phase. Every interruption is time lost. Enough time lost is a failed product. If clarification is needed address it immediately but do not interrupt the flow. If the third step was adequately performed the technical team can be allowed isolation. This is ideal.

The fifth step is testing. An unbiased third party must now examine the work of the (creative and technical) team as it stands. All observations and discoveries are welcomed in this stage. Resolve and reconcile everything that comes to light before moving forward.

The sixth step is production. The product must be consumable by the population. Production must move as the gears of a clock. Any hiccup must immediately be addressed. Reliability is a key aspect in efficient production.

The seventh step is available. The product must be presented to the population appropriately. If not immediately intuitive it must be explained eloquently. The product can and ultimately will die in this state. What is important is that the product has a successful life cycle before eventually dying. The integrity of the original idea must be retained. Do not milk the product to it’s dying breath. There is no honor in this. Instead start a new with an idea, and begin again.
iOS 14: Apple Finally Listened
By: Joe Mccormick
Tags: Design, Software Development, Business, iOS, Apple

What’s new in iOS 14?

The main changes that have been made to the upcoming version of iOS are ‘quality of life’ improvements that help reduce clutter, and give more information at a glance.

1. Widgets

For Android users, widgets have been useful feature for years. If you want to look at your reminders quickly, you can just unlock your phone and look at the reminder’s widget, rather than having to open the reminders app. If you want to see your shopping list, you can place a widget on your homepage so it’s easily accessible.

The lack of a proper widget system has been a flaw in iOS for years in my opinion. The closest thing we have had to Android’s widgets in previous years is the leftmost page on your home menu. All of the widgets look the same, and you have to scroll down if you want to find the widget for a specific app.

Image: Apple Newsroom.

iOS 14 brings widgets to a whole new level. The leftmost page on your home-screen has transformed into a tile-based menu where all the widgets are separated into smaller, but more accessible positions. The widgets stand out from one another, and can be dragged onto your home-screen, with the ability to position them in the space of any two-by-two area of app space.

You can also drag widgets on top of each other, giving you the option to scroll through widgets — a smart feature that will stop your home-screen from having too many widgets. This is known as ‘Smart Stack’. Apple have also implemented a feature that allows Smart Stacks to automatically scroll during certain times of day, based on your activity. For instance, you could wake up and find the Apple News widget is currently being displayed; but at 11am the widget has switched pages to the reminders option. In the evening, the widget may have updated to show you a summary of your exercise for the day, or perhaps a show you can watch.

The ‘Widget Gallery’ is a menu that can also be used to drag widgets onto your home-screen. The gallery gives the user the option to change the size of widgets to fit different areas of the home-screen. You could have a widget that is the size of a two-by-two area of apps, a two-by-four area, or even a four-by-four area of space. I am very much looking forward to seeing how widgets will make my iPhone a more simple, informative space for when I’m on the go.
10 Habits I Borrowed From Python That I Use in JavaScript (Part 2)
By: Patrick Da Silva
Tags: JavaScript, Software Development, Programming, React, Python

Read Your Code a Week From Now

Can you tell how it works at a glance? Sparse is better than dense. Readability counts.

One way to make your code very, very readable is to have lots of little parts with very clear functionality. This is known under the name of the single responsibility principle. If your code base is big, there’s going to be a lot of logic to write. So what is easier to work with? Lots of well-structured but small functionalities or a very big piece of code doing a lot of things? If you’ve learned anything from programming, you’ll know the first option is your friend.

The reason for that is that code is not written to be static forever. You want to add new features, modify some behavior, fix some bugs, test your code, change designs, etc. So having functionalities as isolated as possible makes it really easy to swap out the parts you don’t need or to figure out what to change for different parts with the desired behavior, given that the responsibilities are well-defined. Most important, it makes debugging a breeze because you can more easily pinpoint the culprit part of your code.

You can do this in Python by wrapping your data structures in classes and assigning them responsibilities that are the simplest to assign them to, and then give those classes the required methods to perform their tasks. In React, the same principle can apply. Break your big, bulky components into smaller parts and give those parts the job of rendering a specific part of the DOM. Or refactor logic so that a custom Hook deals with a specific part of the logic of a component (a specific subset of the state + memoized callbacks related to manipulate that state, for instance). This makes your component much easier to read, and if a task needs to be redesigned or performed differently, the reader knows exactly where to look.

A good example of a small building block like that would be to write a Hook that manages a boolean state, with three memoized callbacks to set the boolean to true , false , and to toggle the value, respectively. This is the useBoolean Hook I displayed in Part I! (I’m a big fan of it. I want more of those!)
Humans Are Awkward Creatures
By: Alexandra Walker-Jones
Tags: Culture, Psychology, Society, Human Behavior, Evolution

Anthropologists and sociologists have been studying the emotion — or feeling, rather — of awkwardness for quite some time, but, despite this, the majority of what the average person knows about it is often exclusively limited to their own personal experience.

For the most part, we’re all vastly familiar with what it’s like to feel awkward. We are experts at identifying it, and even more well practiced in trying to vehemently avoid it. Whether it stemmed directly from our own actions, or we were caught red-faced in an awkward moment we bear no personal responsibility for — it’s true we’ve encountered these scenarios for as long as we can retrospectively recall, after all.

Described as being the feeling that arises from situations where we our innate desire to be liked and accepted by others is threatened, awkwardness largely concerns a violation of perceived social norms.

Naturally, in circumstances where we have familiarity, there is protection against the occurrence of awkward moments because we are already aware of the accepted (and not accepted) parameters of the interactions. By examining our evolutionary relationship with the concept of awkwardness, it becomes a little bit clearer why it might have benefitted us to have this emotional response stick around over all these years.

Living in small communities and groups for the majority of human history, we would have been raised with the rules of the village as they were initially outlined to us, with no additional tasks other than to uphold them and fulfill our social roles within them. Because everyone would have been on the same page since birth, any sign of awkwardness, or a violation of these established social expectations, would signify a problem, or perhaps, the arrival of an outsider.

Awkwardness, then, evolved with us to become an indictor of emotional unfamiliarity, and the risk of rejection by the group. It stems from not adhering to, or perhaps, not being aware of to begin with, the norms that exist for any given situation.

The trouble with norms is that they’re not exactly set in stone — or even scrawled in pencil on a old receipt in the city hall, for that matter. They exist in every culture you can think of, but the difference in norms across and between them can be immense. Norms can differ even between the individuals within a particular community, with any one person viewing the ‘right’ way to conduct themselves in a situation completely contrastingly to the next.

It becomes clear to understand, now, why this is quite a lot to ask of a human being — not only are we somehow tasked with effortlessly assessing the social norms of any given interaction, but we’re also socially expected to live up to them.
Roundtable With US Regional Environment Officer, Jonathan Kelsey on Environmental Awareness.
By: Iccdi Africa
Tags: Climate Change, Environment, Health, Lagos, Knowledge

Moses Eboigbe was the first to speak. He highlighted the work ICCDI does and what has been achieved this year, covering training and sensitization of secondary school students of Minas Academy on proper waste management and climate change. He also mentioned the SDGs for Universities intervention currently driven by ICCDI across tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Again Ayibatonye further highlighted other initiatives of ICCDI such as the hashtag Climate Wednesday tweet chat, stating how ICCDI drive environmental advocacy on social media and thereby making it part of the social discussion.

Also speaking, Temitope Okunnu highlighted her organization’s activities in advocacy and upcycling of waste, how they reach out to schools and train kids on how to make products from waste. Although this is done at a small scale now, she said they hope to expand their reach as soon as they have the capacity to do so. Olawale Adebiyi of WeCyclers listed his organization’s achievement in recycling plastic waste and pet bottles in Lagos state. Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, General Manager of Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency (LASPARK) also highlighted their achievements in developing new parks and gardens in Lagos state and implementing waste segregation activities in such parks in partnership with recycling organizations such as WeCyclers. Dr. Dedeke Gabriel also spoke about Wildlife for Africa Conservation Initiative (WACI), how they sensitize and advocate for wildlife conservation in Nigeria using filmography i.e. production of documentaries on endangered species and the likes, and how they need partnership to increase capacity and the reach of their message.

Discussions then shifted to the economics and business of waste management. Isaiah Tuolienuo, the US Regional Environment Specialist for West and Central Africa asked, ‘what is the legal framework looking like for waste management in Nigeria? if there is a policy or specific law for waste management?’. Responding, Olawale Adebiyi mentioned the fact that there is currently a draft policy document on waste management that is not operational yet, but highlighted the fact that the draft document is nothing to write home about as it doesn’t address the pressing issues in the waste management industry now, insisting that the right consultations must be made and new inputs from industry experts added before the final document is published. Further probing of Olawale Adebiyi by Jonathan Kelsey about the presence of a waste exchange platform for collectors, recyclers and up-cyclers revealed that while there is no such platform now, there is an association of waste recyclers in Lagos state, although it hasn’t been formalized by law yet.
Visualization and Miracles
By: Olga Kouzina
Tags: Learning, Software Development, Creativity, Insights, Visualization

As it goes, we were doing an internal conference, and one of the speakers had no time to do a visual wrap-up for his presentation. So, he went with the slides that only had the portraits of the authors to whose work he was referring. The presentation was about the basics of lean, and the authors were Deming and Taylor. While everyone seemed to get bored with the listening, as there was no nice visual stuff such as the one we’d all become used to, I suddenly caught myself visualizing the talk of the boss and the worker in my head (it was in the presentation: the boss was intent on having his workers transport 47 tons of cast iron in one shift instead of 12 tons, or something of that nature).

This got me thinking that sometimes visualizations are doing a lip service to us. As we sit back comfortably, watching videos or live presentations with cute data and/or concept visuals, we are actually stifling our ability to create visualizations by ourselves! The picture is served to us, like a plate dish at a restaurant, so we make no use of the imagination “muscles”, and they get weak.

I’m not saying that everyone who watches animated drawings such as these ones is doomed to a life of zero creativity. My point is: we want to be watchful about keeping this balance — yes, again, it’s about a balance — between perceiving someone else’s visualizations — as well as visions — and creating our own. The power of our inner creator should not be shy about itself. As we watch others speak, and write, and sketch their stories , we might get all humble and subdued about what we are capable of bringing to the table. No influencer, no matter how many times “liked” they are, will draw a vision of our business, or of our product, or of some function of the app/software we’re working on. There’s always a time to look at someone’s visions/visualizations, and time to create our own. Each and every “how-to” about creativity includes this magic word called “vision”. Have you ever thought why any business starts with a vision? It’s exactly for this reason.

There’s a paradox: on one hand, the visual media is everywhere. Lots of visual channels deliver the dish to any, even to the laziest of the recipients. The problem is that the legions of those watching produces too few creators.

We’ve got 1 more month left in the year 2019. And one more week left before Thanksgiving. It’s this time of the year that we collectively allocate to miracles. So, I suggest that we devote this window to our creativity and to cleaning the debris of anything we don’t want or need any more, as we visualize:

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Related:

Visualization: Understated or Overrated?

My Favourite Ways to Visualize Ideas

The 18’s and the Thanks

Better The Devil That You Don’t Know

A Christmas Tale of a Software Developer and Santa
App Notifications If They Were Written By Classic Poets
By: Kyrie Gray
Tags: Apps, Poetry, Productivity, Technology, Humor

Once upon a midnight dreary, while you pondered, drunk and sleepy,

over many a quaint and creative course that Skillshare owned.

Eventually you signed up for an art class, no thought that you might fail to pass,

Or even take the time to amass, the hours needed to master the skill at last.

“I’ll finish it later,” you said to no one.

It waits in your queue, yet undone.
I Turned My Life Around Using These Keystone Habits
By: Jazz Parks
Tags: Life, Life Lessons, Self Improvement, Inspiration, Motivation

Exercise Regularly

Regular exercise is considered a keystone habit because of the results that come along with it. Better eating habits, lowered blood pressure, increased focus, and better sleep benefits from regular exercise.

Track Your Spending

Track your spending if you want to change your financial future. Tracking your spending is considered a keystone habit because it will influence how you look at money, and you’ll likely follow through on a budget.

Track Your Eating

Like tracking your spending, tracking your eating is also a considerable keystone habit to adopt because it will influence your eating choices.

Are you used to eating tons of fast food?

Track it, all of it, and then look back two, three weeks from now, and feel the disgust. Tracking your eating helps because it holds you accountable when it comes to poor eating choices.

Write In A Journal

Journaling is an excellent keystone habit because it lets you observe your life with a sense of clarity. Journaling is useful for tracking your priorities, thoughts, wants, and needs. Transparency is vital when it comes to self-improvement, and nothings more black and white than a journal.

Meditate

Meditation will help you develop keystone habits because it forces you to take a step back and observe your thoughts and actions. Meditation has helped me identify many unnecessary patterns that were holding me back. Now, I’m free to choose what habits suit me without mindlessly jabbing away at my goals.

Create a Daily Routine

Consistency is key! So why not start a morning routine? Having a routine is probably the best keystone habit you could have because it keeps you consistent with the things that matter most.

I’ve spent years working on developing a proper morning routine, generally consisting of brushing my teeth, sitting in silence, drinking some coffee, writing, and reviewing my journal.

Get Regular Sleep

Last but not least, get regular sleep! Everything else won’t matter if you can’t get at least your required six hours of sleep.

Try going to bed around the same time each night, and wake up around the same time each morning. Make sleep a routine, and soon it’ll become a significant keystone habit.
This is NOT collaboration
By: Michal Malewicz
Tags: UI, Collaboration, Figma, Design, UX

Clients making “changes”

We normally work in Sketch, but some projects are also being done in Figma, if the customer started them that way.

One of our clients recently requested the ability to edit the Figma file we created and we reluctantly complied. What happened next was a typical designer's nightmare.

First of all, they realised they can follow the cursor of our designer working in the file, so they logged in in the morning and followed his work for a couple of hours until I simply kicked them out of the file.

This is the micromanagement version of the boss standing behind you all day and making sure you only do work. Imagine a proverbial whip behind your back lashing at you each time you open Twitter or Instagram.

This is so awesome! We can see him working in real-time!

That particular client also didn’t know Figma well enough to actually work in it. The goal was so that they can update the copy on the landing pages themselves. Makes sense, right?

In reality, they mostly managed to accidentally move whole sections in and out of the Artboards and break things.

The best part of collaboration is when it’s off?

The quick solution was only to enable viewing of the file when we were done working on it. But this nightmare scenario is not that uncommon.

I asked around and that micromanagement technique of “looking at your every move” is frustrating designers all around.

There’s also the problem of potential chaos when many people work on the same set of screens, especially remotely. There’s absolutely no way this could work, given everyone is different and will push the design their own way.

Imagine Amy changing the background color for everyone to one that she likes.

How people really collaborate?

The way people are really using the collaboration features is in fact completely different. First of all, the best feature is having one “source of truth” file that’s always synced. In Sketch we used Dropbox for this, buy we had to always make sure the file was closed and saved by the other person before jumping in.

Obviously removing the out-of-sync issue is a great strength of good collaboration that should be highlighted. You are sure that the file is always up to date, even if the original author went on holiday or quit the company.

Someone can simply jump in and takeover. The entire design stays in sync at all times. No wonder Sketch is also introducing this, as to me this part is the most groundbreaking part of the entire “collaboration” thing.

A larger organization I spoke to, said they usually have up to five designers inside one project, but they are rarely even on the same page. And if they are each person gets assigned an artboard to fill with previously agreed design library components.

Without that library — again — it would cause chaos and confusion with everyone making something a little bit their own way — either deliberately or by forgetting some key guidelines. After all — we’re only human. People forget.
Long Short Term Memory Network Maths — Part 1
By: Vidisha Jitani
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Neural Networks, Data Science, Deep Learning

This is my fourth article in the series of learning basic maths behind neural networks. You can check out my previous articles here:

Coming to LSTM, this is the most daunting of all. Don’t believe me! Just have a look at it..

My heart just skipped a beat when I first saw it for the first time (in a bad way of course :P ). But, turns out it’s not that difficult to understand. As usual, I’ll try to explain it in simple words and will just focus on the intuition behind it.

Longer Sequence!

So, from the previous article, we developed the intuition that whenever we have a sequence, we go for RNNs. LSTM’s working is a bit different in the sense that it has a global state which is maintained among all the inputs. All the previous input’s context is basically transferred to future inputs by a global state. And because of this nature, it doesn’t suffer from vanishing and exploding gradient problems.
How to Build a Community Lending Library
By: Kimberly Forsythe
Tags: Lending Libraries, Green Living, Sustainability, Green Living Tips, Community

Photo by Daniel Funes Fuentes on Unsplash

Lending libraries are for more than just books…

You may have seen a lending library in your own neighborhood. You know, those cute little boxes stuffed full of books, free for the taking. Some communities are taking the idea a few steps further by pooling together by creating lending libraries for other items. Ever borrow a cup of sugar from a neighbor? Imagine that on a much larger scale.

Best Items to Use for Community Lending Libraries

The only limit to building a community lending library is your own imagination. The best items to lend are those that consume a lot of resources to own individually. A lot of resources are consumed when we take a quick trip to the store for a simple item. Some of these may include:

Gardening Equipment — Shears, Lawnmowers, Leaf-Blowers, Gloves. Why have 15 lawnmowers in the neighborhood?

Kitchen Equipment — Bread Machines, Blenders, Extra Dishes & Cutlery for Events. These items often sit in cupboards for long periods of time.

Car Maintenance Equipment — Ice Scrapers, Car Washing Tools, Vacuums. Why drive across town to the automated car wash?

Home Repair Equipment — Screwdrivers, Drills, Spackle, Glue. Sometimes, you need these tools for a few minutes to make minor repairs.

First-Aid & Medical Equipment — Wheelchairs, Crutches, First-Aid. This is especially helpful for senior living.

Non-Perishable Food — Canned & Dry Items. Save your neighbors a trip to the store for some simple items.

Forming a Community Lending Library Committee

There will need to be structure when forming a lending library of this magnitude. Think of it as a neighborhood watch for sustainability. Depending on the cost of the equipment and the group’s size, you may opt to have members sign agreements outlining circumstances where a damaged item will need to be replaced by the person who borrowed it.

You will also need to decide whether people will pay a small per-use fee or all-inclusive dues. Funds should be set aside to pay for the replacement, maintenance/repairs, or equipment upgrading. To maximize your community lending library’s success, funds should be deposited into a trust and interest-bearing savings account. In time, this will help ensure your library will stay well-maintained and even grow!