fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
My Brother Hates People Like Me
By: Cassius Corbin
Tags: Family, LGBTQ, Grief, Transgender, Identity

My Brother Hates People Like Me

I just wanted a big brother’s love

Photo by Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash

Jacob invited us to his baptism. A lifelong atheist, he recently turned to God and would be baptized in a church ceremony at the lake among a small group of other churchgoers.

Although not a Christian, I missed my brother. I wanted to show my support. We weren’t close. Our brother Jon’s recent death had driven us further apart, not together.

I missed Jon. I missed having a big brother. Someone to hug, to talk to. To laugh with. Jacob, the eldest of us four siblings, was my only brother left. I had to try.

Photo by kaleb tapp/Unsplash

The ceremony went as expected. My mother, sister, and I stood patiently and watched as the preacher dipped Jacob under the water. One by one, the other baptisms took place. Hands were shaken, words of encouragement spoken, and applause awarded.

A baptism symbolized new beginnings, I thought. This could be our new beginning — a start to a real, honest sibling relationship. One like I had with Jon. One I desperately wanted with Jacob. But it couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

We sat at a picnic table with him, his wife, and two daughters. Small talk commenced, nothing big. We talked about work, the weather, his church. We talked about Jon, how we missed him.

Everything felt good and right and normal. We were a family again. Jacob was my brother. For the first time in a long time since losing Jon, I could almost feel happy again.

Then Jacob asked, “Have y’all heard of that ‘I Am Jazz’ show?”

Here we go. I braced my self.

I had never watched “I Am Jazz,” but as a closeted trans man, I knew of the show. The series followed Jazz Jennings, a transgender teenage girl, and her and her family in their day-to-day lives. Jazz had been in the spotlight since her childhood years when interviewed in 2007 by Barbara Walters about her gender identity. She is someone I have always admired from afar. I envied her ability to be publicly herself while I remain hidden.

Jazz Jennings

Photo by Steven Pisano/Creative Commons

Mom and our sister had never heard of Jazz. Jacob explained the show. He mentioned his disgust.

A “boy” who dressed up and pretended to be a “girl”? He raved.

“I don’t let my girls watch it,” he said.

“Yeah, it’s kinda disgusting,” his older daughter said. She laughed. “I mean, I don’t even want to watch it. It’s so gross.”

My heart sank. Every chance I saw of being close to Jacob disappeared.

My hurt quickly turned to rage. I needed to defend Jazz, a girl I had never met but one I related to in a most personal way. In defending her, I knew I also was defending myself.

I tried to correct them. Every time they said he, I said she. He dismissed what transgender meant. I explained it. We were learning the difference in biological sex and gender identity in one of my courses at the university. I had the tools for discussion. I knew what to say.

But none of it mattered to him. Me, and all people like me, would always be “disgusting” to him. I gave up. He wasn’t worth my time.
PixelsMarket Cool Websites #17
By: Alex Ionescu
Tags: Web Design, Inspiration, Cool Websites

Once again we present you a round-up of beautiful and inspirational website designs.

This is a weekly series of articles we publish on Sunday and includes a selection of amazing website designs created by top designers. If you know a beautiful website, send it to us via the Submit Inspiration form.

Today we have for you a selection of these cool websites: Bacca, dwaiter, Heather Vandervecht, Iceberg Quest and Luke Jones.

Bacca

Hand-made wooden stands for laptops & instruments.

Visit website

dwaiter

We are an Interactive studio creating world-class digital experiences for all screen sizes to propel businesses forward in a connected global economy. We are located in Rochester, NY.

Visit website

Heather Vandervecht

Hi, I’m Heather! I’m a front end developer in Toronto passionate about UX, javascript, and space.

Visit website

Iceberg Quest

Iceberg Quest offers Newfoundland boat tours with icebergs, puffins and whales boat tours from St. John’s and Twillingate.

Visit website

Luke Jones

Online portfolio of Luke Jones, who specializes in product design and user research

Visit website
7 predicted UX trends for 2021
By: Ian Batterbee
Tags: Visual Design, UX, UI, User Experience, Technology

To say that 2020 was a rollercoaster ride is an understatement. While it was a year of pure chaos from a health, social, and political perspective, it was also a fast-paced 12 months of product, innovation, and experience.

With 2020 nearly behind us, let’s check out what the 7 predicted UX trends are for 2021.

1. Digital health is trending

As if we hadn’t heard enough of COVID-19, but the pandemic has been the instigator of new digital health opportunities including wearables, telemedicine, and artificial intelligence. And in 2021, we can expect these behaviours to continue to trend.

We have also seen some impressive self-monitoring applications being applied to wearables, providing instant data visualisations on steps, sleep, heart rate or blood pressure. These sophisticated functionalities empower users to take charge of their own health and inform them on how to make lifestyle changes.

The healthcare artificial intelligence software, hardware, and services market is predicted to surpass $34 billion worldwide by 2025 — source.

Telemedicine design concept by Rabi Islam

Telemedicine — the practice of doctors consulting patients virtually — increased significantly during the pandemic as people were encouraged to reduce their physical encounters. We can expect this type of remote interaction to continue to trend as health services look to distribute their skills and funds to the patients in most need.

Then there’s artificial intelligence. Precision medicine, genomics, drug discovery, and medical imaging will all be empowered by AI; take cancer treatments, for example, by using AI’s pattern recognition, doctors can prescribe personalised treatment plans tailored to a patient’s genetic makeup and lifestyle.
Minecraft Dungeons Review
By: Alex Rowe
Tags: Videogames, Gaming, Minecraft, Tech, Technology

Oddly, the game features no mining or crafting. Mining may not always have a place in the action RPG world, but crafting certainly does. I expected to build new weapons and armor throughout my short journey, but no. Instead, you’ll earn every item you use, either by finding it in a chest or random enemy drop, or by spending emeralds in your camp. The merchants in the main hub function a little too close to free-to-pay loot box mechanics in mobile games for my personal comfort. Instead of offering a selection of weapons and powerups to buy, they’ll offer you one blind item in exchange for an amount of your money. If you don’t like the item, you can break it down for a fraction of the emeralds you spent on it.

The prices for these blind items slowly increase as you advance in the game, and to be fair, the main missions offer plenty of loot such that you’ll never solely rely on the merchants to get the gear you’re after. Still, it seems like a system ripe for exploitation with microtransactions down the road. The game already has a $10 DLC pass available that includes a number of new cosmetic character options, and gets you two content packs coming in July and September. These will add a few extra stages to the game, which should help with its brevity at least.
The New View From Above. A photo-sharing platform for awesome…
By: Brendan Seibel
Tags: Aerial Photography, Drones, Instagram

A technology promising new vistas needs a new venue for people to share their photos. And so Dronestagram was born, launching in the spring of 2013.

Its founder, Eric Dupin, had followed the growth of UAVs, upgrading his radio controlled planes in 2012 to begin shooting pictures with an A.R.Drone, then a DJI Phantom. A year later he kicked off his drone news site Smartdrones, but still felt something was missing.
Santa Claus possibly killed in Kazakhstan crash?
By: Michael Lortz
Tags: Christmas, Travel, Kazakhstan, Holidays, Santa Claus

(Repost.)

According to reports, an unidentified flying object (UFO) was seen crashing into a Kazakhstan lake on Saturday, January 5th. One eyewitnesses, a local chief of a police, saw a “shining flying object” plunging into the Belaya River in the May district in the Pavlodar region. The police chief then reported it to “higher authorities”.

Unfortunately for Christmas fans around the world, the jolly gentleman known as St. Nicholas, or Santa Claus, may have been killed in the crash. With talk around the world that Santa Claus would better served if he moved his operations to Kazakhstan and the morning of January 6th being the 12th day of Christmas, it is only logical that Santa was in the area and that his sleigh made the hole in the ice. Of course, if this is true the Kazakhstan government would be and is possibly already in full denial mode. After spending countless dollars on festivals and naming a mountain after Mr. Claus, the last thing the Kazakhs would want is for Santa to be tragically killed in their country. Perhaps the denials have already started, as neither divers from the emergency situations department nor officers of the local sanitary and epidemic office claimed to find any evidence of a UFO.

My estimate is that Santa was returning from distributing gifts the day of January 5th and was scouting new production plant locations when his sleigh veered out of control and crashed into the Belaya River. Even if the Kazakhstan government fails to admit any evidence of the crash, I would still stand strong with my assumption. To those who would need to see the body to prove Santa’s demise, I pose this question, every year Santa delivers gifts around the world, why aren’t there any eyewitness reports? If no one sees him deliver gifts and he does, is it that large of a leap of faith to believe he died in a crash in a northeastern region of Kazakhstan?

So contrary to the claims of Kazakhstan ufologist Lyubov Rybalko, a UFO can indeed fall. Especially when misguided by eight tiny reindeer.

(h/t on the news of the crash: Kazakhstan Neweurasia.net. I alone am responsible for the theory on who or what it was that crashed.)
Always
By: Husam Machlovi
Tags: Poets Unlimited, Communication, Poetry, Poem, Listening

under the cold, cutting words

above the thoughts that separate you

across the ticking, chirping, honking

over the rolling wave of your breath

in the cool stillness of the air

below the softness of your skin

there is a kind hearted soul

always

listening
Metamorphosis
By: Rachel Brindell
Tags: Gender Identity, LGBTQ, Truth, Transgender, Authenticity

Metamorphosis

I experienced a frightening period when my egg cracked and I knew there was no staying inside my shell to protect me any longer from the unknown of gender transition and becoming who I was meant to be all along. I wrote this poem at a time when I didn’t know what my future would bring, early in transition. So now I send this out to all of you who are in that dark period before you break through into the light. There is hope, love and happiness awaiting so find the strength to battle for your own survival. It will be worth it in the end.

Photo by Erin Minuskin on Unsplash

I thought I was a boy, but that was not to be.

Things, I knew were just not right, hiding made me too blind to see.

I learned to stay inside myself, a lonesome kind of life.

Living inside a dark retreat, my soul was filled with pain and strife.

I could not go on like that, filled with torment and pain.

No sunny days were calling me, only the thunder and the rain.

I felt her welling up inside, looking out through my eyes.

She was escaping from the depths, no more covering up with lies.

Standing by the looking glass, reflection looks at me.

I can see her staring out, calming my wild sea.

Eyes wide as I glared inside, the window to my soul.

Understanding comesto me, my time is past and I must let go.

Sixty years of anguish and pain, wasted much of my time.

Deceived myself for all those years believing I was going to be fine.

I can’t do this alone; you know I need you there.

Desperation on my mind, it’s now myself I have to share.

I’m sorry that I hid from you for so many years.

I never meant to cause you pain nor have you shed so many tears.

There’s nothing more important now than my family.

I pray you all accept my fate and the person I am to be.

I can’t help who I am today, now that my mind can see.

The truth concealed for all my life from the world and from me.

Uncertainty is at my door, I’m so anxious and scared.

A little girl who needs to know, she’s not the only one who cared.

So I have to find the strength in me to stand up in the light.

Have to face my truth and find the way to avoid my endless night.

I must be strong now. I am reborn now.

Rachel is here.
I Wash My Hands
By: Davy Carren
Tags: Poetry, Covid 19

Photo by 莎莉 彭 on Unsplash

I wash my hands until they crack,

until they start bleeding.

Almost clean enough to touch.

Almost dirty enough to hold.

Fifty or so times a day, I

squirt soap on my wet palms

and rub.

Fingers interlaced,

(the man sitting in his window across the street in his undershirt takes a sip of beer)

left dorsum over right,

(the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins evolved to effectively target a molecular feature on the outside of human cells called ACE2, a receptor involved in regulating blood pressure)

thumbs between a fist,

both hands,

(blue jays jangling sweetly in the ficus branches)

palm to palm,

(the death toll in Italy stands at 5,500)

fingers interlocked,

rotational scrubbing backwards and forwards with clasped fingers in palm,

(all residents have been told to shelter in place, to only venture out for vital services)

and then rinsing well with water.
Lists
By: Ben Edwards
Tags: General

Here are some lists for this the 2nd day of March:

Top 5 Musical Items (I am listening to right now:)

Flaming Lips — Zaireeka (anyone have 3 extra CD players?) Marvin Gaye (and other Motown legends) Nick Drake (not just Pink Moon either) Anything with Gwen Stefani singing in it (Southside w/Moby, Everybody is a Star w/Fishbone, So Far Please w/Prince, Rise and Shine w/Poe, and a bunch of songs with Sublime) Looper

Top 5 Books (I am reading at this moment):

Top 7 Favorite things:

My wife Movies The web (yeah I’m back in love) Upcoming trip to Hawaii Sadie Spring (if it would only get here) Dinner with Friends Surprises

Top 4 Things I would like to do this summer:

Go camping Hang gliding Road Trips Get in shape

This list concept (stolen from High Fidelity, you could say) is going to be something I continue to do. I am not sure why, but I love making lists of favorites periodically. Upcoming: Favorite Movies of All-Time, Favorite Bands of All-Time, Favorite ways to spend $5, and more.
DLT M&A Weekly: March 10th, 2019
By: Eric F Risley
Tags: Coinbase, Distributed Ledgers, Cryptocurrency Investment, Cryptocurrency News, Mergers And Acquisitions

DLT M&A Weekly: March 10th, 2019

Distributed ledger technology mergers and acquisitions

No new DLT M&A transactions were announced this past week.

Today we’re taking a closer look at Coinbase’s strategic acquisition efforts over the past year or so. Coinbase is by far the most active DLT acquirer today, after recruiting Emilie Choi from LinkedIn in May 2018. Emilie leads corporate and business development as well as Coinbase’s venture effort.

Our assessment below highlights each acquisitions previous business, how it fits within Coinbase’s efforts and the strategic drivers of each acquisition. Much like Google and Facebook in their early days, many of Coinbase’s acquisitions are team and technology-driven transactions. Also notable, Coinbase has moved early and aggressively to build its regulatory compliance capabilities which are becoming increasingly important as the securities regulators’ influence is felt within the crypto asset marketplace.
Ash
By: D Abboh
Tags: Poetry, Lovestory, Life, Heartbreak, Storms

We were already thunder and lightning,

a terrifyingly — beautiful disruption to this Earth and sky.

We were the storm that never cleared.

Just as if we were locked inside this foolish fuckery — we waited in vain in our straw house full of flames, orchestrating our own heartbreak — knowing nobody ever made a home out of a burning building.

In this house party for two, soft hearts like the ones in you and me,

have a long history of making bad decisions —

dismissing the bitter whilst taken over by the sweetest flushes of love.

Falling up in love is just as breathtaking as the fall down.

Either way — there’s an explosion of emotions on a collision course,

a storm show of lights splattered across the sky together only to fall to Earth apart.

I think about this love all the time,

such a curious misadventure, a paradox of breathing and grieving

through the loss of vital parts of yourself.

But love has yet to ask me to think, it beds down in my soul demanding I feel everything and let it burn — whilst it does away with the affliction of logic.

After all, with our flames exposed to the wind,

what remained of the heaviness in our bones —

was swept away like fine ash.

But life dictates, the story continues.

Just like a long song — the bridge is not where it ends.

There is always an after-party after the party somewhere beyond the storm — where perhaps ‘the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!’
The Simplistic, Powerful Horror of Slender
By: Tim Engelke
Tags: Videogames, Gaming, Horror, Features, Culture

The Simplistic, Powerful Horror of Slender

How a simple horror game based on a popular creepypasta kicked off a broader franchise

Slender: The Eight Pages is a horror game that had a major influence. Not only was it the reason for the hype around the Slender Man figure himself, it also created the possibility for many other Slender Man games to come after it.

At first glance — it seems weird that a game, despite its simple graphics and functionality — has such an enormous impact on the scene.

But with a second glance, you can see that Slender: The Eight Pages got some crucial elements right, which is why it saw vast success.

Let’s dive deeper into the game and discover how it is able to create such a powerful horror experience.

Slender’s effective gameplay

Slender: The Eight Pages and its unofficial spinoff Slender Man’s Shadow, which added several maps to the game, are very much the same. I will simply refer to them all in this article as Slender.

Slender’s gameplay is simple. You find yourself in a place where you have to collect eight papers while the slender man tries to get you.

Maps

Most maps are designed in a seemingly haphazard way. Often there are narrow sections where you are forced to go without knowing what’s hidden there.

You always find yourself in the dark. It is hard to see anything that’s not in the light cone of your flashlight.

The bad sight combined with winding and narrow sections can easily make you lose the orientation.
Concluding the Project
By: Fsi Student Programs
Tags: Stanford, Fsi Students, Internships

About the author: Adrian Scheibler ’22 is an FSI Global Policy Intern with the European Council of Foreign Relations. He is currently an International Relations major at Stanford University.

This week has been my final one working with the European Council on Foreign Relations and I look back at the internship with pride at the work done and with pleasure at the connections I have made and time well spent.

The internship was full of new experiences and learning opportunities, both regarding the subject matter of the project and working from home. These brought new challenges and forced me to adjust my approach as I attempted to both learn from my superiors and contribute to the think tank; the team at ECFR was always very helpful and made the experience the best it could given the unusual circumstances this summer.

I have not yet counted the total number of maps created, but my estimate places it above 200. They cover topics as diverse as the trade of manufactured goods, foreign direct investment flows and stocks, and the patterns of tourism around the world. Each map divulges information about the leverage some countries exercise over others and the pressure points the global system faces — given the extensive globalization that has occurred in the past decades, these are extensive. I am excited to see where the project goes from here and will be keeping a lookout for a publication at some point.

I would like to extend my thanks to both ECFR and FSI for the confidence placed into me and for making this internship happen.
What changes will ICO face in Thailand: four experts to discuss legislative novelties at Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference
By: Lidiya Tsenenko
Tags: Bangkok, Conference, Bitcoin, Thailand, Blockchain

Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Thailand will feature a panel discussion: four blockchain experts will talk about ICO regulation in Thailand. They will focus on possible changes and laws related to ICOs, which could be adopted in 2018.

The discussion will involve three blockchain experts from Thailand and their colleague from Hong Kong. Experts specialize in various sectors and represents diverse companies, thus the discussion will introduce several views on the blockchain regulation issue.

Discussion participants

Sathapon Patanakua (Thailand), MD and Founder of SmartContract and BLOCK MD, a participant of Thai FinTech Association. He is an entrepreneur with extensive experience; a high-tech enthusiast and one of the early blockchain followers. Patanakua has cooperated with leading industry players in financial and healthcare services as well as policy makers in order to help promoting innovative ideas and technologies.

Dr. Jason Corbett (Thailand), Managing Partner of Silk Legal (a Bangkok-based law company). He is one of the leaders at International Blockchain Consulting Group; an advisor to ICOBox and other ICO projects. He also speaks at many events dedicated to fintech, blockchain, and IT regulation.

Edmund John Lowell (Hong Kong), an entrepreneur living and working in Asia since 2011. Currently, he leads user identification projects at SelfKey Foundation, a fund aimed at supporting new digital identification initiatives, and at KYC-Chain, a service based on distributed ledgers.

Alexi Lane (Thailand), Founder of EVEREX (Thailand). He is a fintech entrepreneur and an investor with over 15 years of experience in capital management. He has developed a blockchain-based microlending platform called Everex that collects and analyzes users’ data and creates appropriate financial offers for them.

A discussion start time and its moderator will be announced soon. Follow the information on the website of Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Thailand.
Decision Optimization Comes to the NCAA?
By: Eric Martens
Tags: Editorial, Basketball, Decision Optimization, Data Science, Watson Studio

As a long-time NBA fan, I’ve watched with great interest over the past decade as data science has completely reshaped my favorite game. The Houston Rockets ushered in basketball’s analytics era when they hired computer scientist and statistician Daryl Morey as General Manager in 2007. The Golden State Warriors made it official by using a fast-paced offense built around spacing and three-point shooting to win the 2015 title.

Despite following the NBA closely, I only watch college basketball during the March Madness tournament. The longer shot clock and the emphasis on legendary coaches and tradition gave me the impression that the sport has been slower to embrace decision optimization and analytics.

As a result, the game doesn’t seem to be moving toward the same exciting play style as the NBA.

Getting Started

Using a decision optimization approach, NBA coaching staffs and front offices found that the benefits of a three-point shot (an extra point on the scoreboard) over time, outweigh the relatively higher difficulty that comes with shooting from a greater distance. They’ve tilted the numbers in their favor by playing at a faster pace. The more possessions you have in a game, the more likely the optimal strategy will succeed.

Using the Sports Reference statistics, you can get a rough idea of how fast a team plays by dividing its total possessions (field goal attempts and turnovers) by the number of minutes played. The code to loop through the teams and generate stats is below:

If you plot the resulting data frame, you can see the pace of NBA games has steadily increased over the past decade:

Using a similar method, you can see that the percentage of shots teams take from three-point range increased as well:

Looking at NCAA Basketball

With the Sports Reference Python package and Watson Studio’s Python notebooks, I was able to analyze a decade’s worth of data for over 300 teams in just a few lines of code. The data even included a “pace” variable for the college teams that tracked the number of possessions over a 40-minute game. The pace of the college game has risen, particularly over the last five years:

Finally, the percentage of shots coming from behind the arc has risen:

So from my quick-and-dirty statistical analysis, it appears that the pace-and-space revolution did indeed come to the NCAA a few short years after it took over the NBA. I’m excited to watch the tournament games this year to see if what I’m seeing on the screen matches what’s in the numbers.

Try It Out

Find my Python notebook at my Github repository. Watson Studio Premium is a triple threat in AI — you get Decision Optimization, SPSS Modeler, and Hadoop Execution Engine, together in a great environment for collaborating on data science projects with cutting-edge tools. Are you interested in decision optimization? This project uses IBM Decision Optimization to create schedules for sports leagues. Finally, check out Robert Clark’s Python Sports Analytics Made Simple, a great starting point for using the Python code.
How to Do Text Search in MongoDB
By: Varun Bansal
Tags: Database, Mongodb, DevOps, Data Science, Programming

1. Create a Text Index

This is the first approach that you’ll find if you Google “full text search in mongo.” It’s the most efficient way to implement text search according to MongoDB’s documentation. As an example, consider the following data:

Now create the index because the index will make it happen!

> db.names.createIndex({ name: "text" })

Now try the following queries:

As you can see, if you search for Army , it brings all the documents that had the exact word Army or any known variation of that word in the names column. But it doesn’t work for Arm .

So, our text search is smart enough to match Armies when we search for Army but not dumb enough to partially match Arm with Army or Armies .

My product manager was hoping (or rather expecting) that if I searched for Arm , it would bring up the three results that came up when I searched for Army .

To solve this, I thought it would be a good idea to understand why the two documents did not match when I searched for Arm instead of Army .

Like I suspected, tokenisation! The text index breaks the data (in this case, Army Ants and Army of Ants ) by the white space into tokens. So Army Ants becomes [Army, Ants] and Army of Ants becomes [Army, of, Ants] . And when you search for Army , the word matches with one of the tokens in both documents, which is the reason why you see both documents in the results when you search for Army .

Note: I’m oversimplifying here. The actual process of tokenisation includes so much more (e.g. the stripping of insignificant words like of ).

So it seems like it would be next to impossible to satisfy our PM’s “hopes” with a text search. You might think we’ll have to venture into the world of autocompletes.
The Scribe
By: Wendy S. Bradfield
Tags: Change, Self, Poetry, Letting Go, Chosen Path

Leave this business of temple dancers

You are the scribe now

Order the words, make them dance and delight

Leave your offering at the temple where the pylons kiss the sky

Drink the blood of this new place, and you will know divinity

If you like this, you may want to check this out:

https://medium.com/flicker-and-flight/bow-and-surrender-badc9b5a573a
● Aesop: unclear biography, unwritten fables, timeless morals
By: Treathyl Fox
Tags: Life Lessons, Philosophy, Biography, Fables, Who Was Aesop

This post shares a link from fellow freelance writer Tolovaj — a magical writer who hails from Ljubljana, Slovenia. Tolovaj doesn’t just publish written material.

The man who pleased none.

(Image from Baby’s Own Aesop by Walter Crane)

♦ ♦

“Tolovaj publishes masterpieces!”

You can quote me on that. 💓

When you visit the articles, you become instantly mesmerized. The information is fascinating reading, but the layout and presentation of the images that complement the content is absolutely exquisite! The particular link below is to a mini-bio of the famous fabulist, whom we all know as Aesop, but whom we also don’t know very much about. (???) He didn’t even write down his fables!

To put it in Tolovaj’s words:

“Aesop was most popular fabulist in the world. He still is. But we don’t know much about him. Fortunately his fables are much more clear than his biography.”

After reading the article I was moved to remark:

Even though we don’t know much about his life, if Aesop’s fables are an indication of his character, he would definitely have been included in my circle of friends. :)

***

Aesop’s Fables for Children: Includes a Read-and-Listen CD (Dover Read and Listen)
Major upgrade on DApp development tools of Vite blockchain
By: Blackey Hou
Tags: Dapps, Vite, Announcements

Since the launch of the smart contract function of the Vite blockchain in January 2019, many community developers have been attracted to develop DApp on the Vite blockchain. At present, some DApps have been launched on the Vite network, and users can find them in Vite App.

In order to make it easier for community developers to deploy and debug smart-contract on the Vite chain, we have made a major upgrade to the development tool Soliditypp. The main contents are as follows:

One-click deployment of smart-contract

Multiple networks support

Debug UI upgrade

Preview of new Soliditypp:

Welcome to experience the new version of the development tool, there are more new features waiting to unlock, click the link to download.

Download Address:https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ViteLabs.soliditypp
Keep Knocking
By: Jack Burt
Tags: Truth, Philosophy, Art, Satire, Poetry

Photo by Author

Reality crossed its legs

Snapped back at me

I can’t show you the door

Not even the hinges

The codes

Find them all over you

Look closer fool

Always on the fringes

It’s bitter, I know

Realism comes with tinges

You can try

The info booth

Tell them I sent you

Jack said, you’d tell me the truth

Can’t be bothered though

They might not move

Wait for you to finish youth

Such is their nature,

Don’t talk to a sleuth
More great news: Edgeless (EDG) token will be also accepted as collateral
By: Hodl Finance
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Edgeless, Token

Since the day one, we are thinking of ways how to help every one of you to get the best out of your crypto.

We’re happy to announce today that we’re teaming up with Edgeless — First Fully Transparent Decentralized Casino!

“Edgeless was chosen as our partner because it is the only legally regulated blockchain-based casino in the world. EDG token is ranked as a top crypto token last year by Bloomberg!”, Vytautas Zabulis, Managing Director of HODL Finance says.

“EDG holders, similarly as any other crypto-asset holders, will be able to retain their crypto-assets while enjoying fast, secure and untaxed loans from HODL Finance at the same time”, Vytautas adds.

(continue reading below)

Edgeless + HODL Finance

What does it mean to our growing community of Hodlers? It means that in addition to the most popular cryptocurrencies, like BTC and ETH, our partner’s Edgeless token (EDG) will be also accepted as collateral to get USD / EUR loans from HODL Finance.

“Partnership with HODL Finance is beneficial to both parties. First of all, it provides additional liquidity to our current EDG holders that are granted new use opportunities of our great token. Second, it broadens HODL Finance clients base even more”, Tomas Drakšas, Co-Founder of Edgeless says.

V. Zabulis also added, that first partnership is just the beginning, more partnerships are underway. The company is planning to allow the use of EDG and other partner tokens on HODL Finance platform as early as autumn of 2018.

More information about our partner: https://www.edgeless.io

HODL Finance is the European digital lending company. HODL Finance issues loans backed by cryptocurrency and other digital assets. Founded by the shareholders of the peer-to-peer lending platform, Savy, HODL Finance now serves clients around the world.
Case Study: ML and NLP for real-time analytics
By: John Griffin
Tags: Machine Learning, Data Science, Social Media Marketing, NLP

Working with Parity we’ve been developing innovative social media analytics using big data, unsupervised ML and NLP.

Parity works with some of the UK’s biggest public and private sector organisations to unlock the value of their data. We worked as an R&D partner with them to develop an innovative new social media analytics product

The product builds on academic research techniques used to identify communities of interest on Twitter based on their conversations. The problem with the existing technique is that it doesn’t scale to the kind of complexity found in social networks — data on Twitter is massive and understanding conversations quickly becomes an exponential problem space.

Starting with an early proof of concept we iterated the product using big data technologies, machine learning and natural language processing to find and label social media content and communities. The solution uses these techniques to find communities, find what they’re talking about and label them meaningfully.

We used a novel approach to unsupervised machine learning in order to build and cluster graphs of social relationships, and algorithms like TF/IDF to extract natural language tags and summarise content. The technical approach makes use of open source technologies including Python, Apache Spark and Elasticsearch in order to scale horizontally in the cloud and handle terabytes of data.
FlutterDesktop and C
By: Aseem Wangoo
Tags: Dart, Flutter, C, Programming, Software Development

Call C library from FlutterDesktop MacOS

How to call c library from FlutterDesktop (MacOS)?Hmm….

All in one Flutter resource: https://flatteredwithflutter.com/flutterdesktop-and-c/

FlutterDesktop and C

Begin…

Level: Intermediate

Pre-Requisite: Install package FFI

This article assumes that the reader has knowledge about FFI. In case not, check this.

We will cover briefly about

Creating C Library Integrate C Library in Flutter MacOS Call from Flutter MacOS

Note: We won’t be explaining in-depth about Dart FFI as there are good articles dedicated to it.

FlutterDesktop and C

Creating C Library

Every complicated thing starts with a basic thing. Let’s create a simple C library (Hello World)

Introducing CMake and makefile

Creating a c library involves a bunch of commands, either you can use those or you can utilize CMake.

FlutterDesktop and C | CMake

As per the documentation

CMake is an extensible, open-source system that manages the build process in an operating system and in a compiler-independent manner.

Install CMake using

brew install cmake

CMake uses a text file named CMakeLists.txt, in the home directory of the software package, to specify the actions that are necessary to set up the software. The user begins the build process by moving to the home directory and typing

cmake .

CMake will carry out a configuration process, after which a traditional Makefile will be created in the home directory. The software process is then completed by typing
Learn Solidity: Smart Contract Creation and Inheritance
By: Wissal Haji
Tags: Solidity, Smart Contracts, Programming, Ethereum, Eth

Contract Creation

Contracts can be created via Ethereum transactions or from within Solidity contracts using the new keyword, which deploys a new instance of that contract and returns its address.

Let’s take a closer look at how this actually works by examining the example given in the Solidity documentation. I made the name variable public so we can examine its value and created an event to be able to read the return value of the createToken function (we’ll have another article for events):

This time, I’m going to use the Tuffle framework — you can get introduced to it by following the quick-start guide they’ve made.

First, we’re going to create a new project and initialize it by executing the following commands:

> mkdir token

> cd token

> truffle init

Open the project, and update the truffle-config.js file to use the network IP and port where you’ll deploy the contract and the version of Solidity compiler you’re using. In my case, I’m using Ganache to run the network.

Now we can create our contract in the contracts folder. After you copy and paste the code, you’ll need to create a migration file in the migrations folder to deploy the TokenCreator contract. Name it 2_deploy_token.js , and copy and paste the following code.

const TokenCreator = artifacts.require("TokenCreator"); module.exports = function (deployer) {

deployer.deploy(TokenCreator);

};

Go back now to the command line, and type truffle console to launch the Truffle console — where you can compile and deploy the contract:

What we’re going to do now is retrieve the instance of the TokenCreator that was deployed. We’re then going to call the createToken function twice and save the address of each newly created contract.

If you’re using Ganache, you can see two transactions representing a contract call added to the list of transactions, where the data field is set to the four bytes of the function selector and the arguments passed. If you’re wondering what really happened and how these contracts were created, then keep following with me.

As we know, contracts are just another type of account, so what really happened when we called the createToken function is the state database was updated to include the newly created account with the four variables that every account stores ( nonce , balance , storage_root , code_hash ) properly initialized.

If you go back now to the Truffle console, you can examine the logs of each transaction to get the address of each contract, and then you can call the name getter to verify that they’re indeed two separate entities.

More information about web3.js can be found here.
I’ll Have What I Want
By: Rebeca Ansar
Tags: Poetry, Equality, Feminism, Poem, Women

You keep the cape.

I do not want

it all.

I will not

run myself down

to a slow crawl

looking forward to

another tired day.

I will not work myself

to exhaustion

so I can prove that

I deserve equality.

I am not going to do

all the things

to convince the world

that I am capable of

doing things.

discernment should not

disqualify me.

how did men manage

to “have it all”

for generations?

the family, career

the idle time

to kick back in their socks

body supported by a soft give

did they plan every

meticulous detail

of their days?

the children who need caring

the career which needs focus

the spouse who must not be neglected

giving from the cracks of an empty fountain.

Please.

the plan’s not so opaque

having it all

serves us

the very least.
TGO Network on YouTube
Tags: Media, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, ICO, Research

For more content, visit our YouTube Channel.

Witness our glorious leader as he conducts ICO reviews, AMAs with project leads/CEOs and other zany content like Friday Night round-tables with the boys.
Lightroom Quick Tips — Why You Should Use Virtual Copies
By: Adam Karnacz
Tags: Education, Tutorials, Photography

Lightroom Quick Tips — Why You Should Use Virtual Copies

How to use the Lightroom Virtual Copy feature.

In this video I give you a quick tip about why you should be using Lightroom virtual copies.

Get a FREE trail of Adobe Lightroom — Click Here.

Adobe Lightroom is a power house of image editing and organising software. One of the key features is the non-destructive workflow. This is where the original image file is never adjusted. Lightroom simply creates a reference to that file, within the catalogue, and that is what you edit and see within Lightroom.

Sometimes though you might want to edit the image in a number of different ways. This could be a colour version, a black and white version or simply a re-visit to an image you have edited before. Thankfully, Lightroom provides this feature allowing virtual copies to be created. This is where Lightroom creates another reference file from the same original, and untouched, image file meaning you then have two versions of the same image within Lightroom that can be edited in different ways.

To create Lightroom virtual copies simply select the image you want to copy, right click and select ‘Create Virtual Copy’. To then edit a previously edited image from scratch — right click the newly created copy and under ‘Develop Settings’, click ‘Reset’.

Lightroom virtual copies are a powerful and simple feature that can easily be used in your Lightroom workflow.
ARK Announces Partnership with Hive — Exploring Solutions and More!
Tags: Crypto, Blockchain Technology, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Open Source

As we approach the launch of MarketSquare, we want to give our community an inside look at some of the partnerships we have formed. These strategic partnerships will not only help make MarketSquare the new homepage for the decentralized web but will also create inroads between ARK and other projects looking to build and collaborate together. Today we would like to introduce you to Hive.

Background on Hive

Hive is an innovative and forward-looking decentralized blockchain and ecosystem built on the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) protocol. It is the first highly scalable DPoS blockchain independent of a central authority that addresses the problems of mass adoption and versatility of use. It utilizes three-second zero-fee transactions and is designed to store vast amounts of content and to make it available for time-based monetization.

Learn more about Hive at: https://hive.io/

Hive strives to be the perfect real-estate for existing and new dApps and ventures to build on. Cross-platform and application integration is inherently simple and well-documented on Hive and its first and second layer of plugins allow for streamlined functionality without undue complexity. Additionally, Hive recognizes that transaction fees are often one of the largest challenges to facilitating development and flexibility of use on a blockchain. Instead of requiring transaction fees, Hive uses a novel stake-based Resource Credit mechanism to create a fee-less model.

Hive also aims to overcome mainstream adoption shortcomings in blockchain technology and content publishing by improving their accessibility. To earn without financial investment, individuals partake in a wide range of activities. Those include blogging, participating in discussions, curating others, playing games and more; their limits are only constrained by their own imagination.

Since its inception, the Hive has steadily grown as an ecosystem. A large array of dApps, APIs and front-ends contribute to general and straightforward accessibility of data, transactions and records, so that this existing diversity and utility ensure that the ecosystem is welcoming to content creators, consumers, investors and builders.

Just a few of the dapps, games, and tools available on Hive can be found here: http://hiveprojects.io/

ARK, Hive, and MarketSquare

When researching projects to partner with for MarketSquare, it was important to search for projects that focus on building, decentralization, and innovative use cases. We feel that the Hive fits this description perfectly and is looking forward to collaborating with them on MarketSquare.

As part of the partnership, ARK will be exploring possible integrations with the Hive blockchain for our suite of products.

As we add Hive to our growing list of MarketSquare partnerships, we are looking forward to sharing with you new developments regarding MarketSquare and our future partners.
Gmail Filters: Filter Emails that I am BCC’d on
By: Robert Merrill
Tags: Backupbrain, Advanced, Bcc

This morning, I needed to generate a Gmail search filter to catch emails that I am regularly BCC’d on. I receive a lot of email from this person and I did not want the filter to catch messages that are sent to me or where I am copied.

Thanks to Google and Dave Naffziger’s blog post on this more than six years ago, I easily had my filter running well in moments, not minutes, and I was off to the rest of my day.

From Dave:

To truly filter messages that are only received via bcc but that don’t have a special email address that they go to, you’ll need to do it this way: deliveredto:myemail@gmail.com AND -to:myemail@gmail.com AND -cc:myemail@gmail.com Enjoy!

This is a reason I blog, by the way, to keep things like this alive out there for others to find as well as a backup brain for myself the next time I need to know how to do this!
Nodehub — Action plan (Part 3)
By: Tc Mad
Tags: Nodehub, Bitcoin

The project is underway. The website design is finished and scripting is what remains. Bear in mind, the MVP for the platform is meant to be a barebones site more for marketing purposes than practical use.

Today, the focus will be on picking new masternode coins to add to the collection. Since we plan on holding for the long term (at least one year), the experience with DP show that 24hr volume should play a huge part in the vetting process. As with all angel investments, getting to know the team — if possible a phone call- will help build the tenacity to hodl through downturns.

This past week I’ve researched multiple coins including: Gobyte, Bulwark, Stipend, Apollon, Cropcoin, Ion and Polis. There were a couple of things I looked for: high volume, convincing team, sensible roadmap, affordable masternodes, clean website and decent exchange. As part of this research, I discovered cryptobrige and bridgecoin staking — this is appealing as I wonder what the interest is. One overarching notion guiding my investment choices in line with ‘selling the shovel’ mantra, is to invest in platforms that enable crypto thrive. This includes masternode hosting platforms and decentralized exchanges like gincoin and stakenet. At the moment, only Polis and Apollon MNs have been activated.

It seems that due to a high technical barrier to entry, there might be short term gains to be made investing in early masternode rewards coin despite the obvious risks. However the time required for setting up and active monitoring of masternodes is significant. This is where shared masternodes will be very useful as one could make small bets on projects early on.

Regarding MN management, there’s the debate between having the same allocation for all users where oganode acts as a hedge fund of sorts versus maintaining separate user balances for each coin. The former is logistically easier to manage and returns will be a function of manager skill. The latter would give more control to the users and each masternode setup will be seen as a new fundraising round.

The value proposition of targeting lower tier cryptocurrencies is that well-funded VCs are already invested in the expensive ones and it’s not exactly clear that risk-adjusted returns is proportional to masternode cost or marketcap for that matter. Overall, the thesis still remains that there is much of an upside to the crypto market and Oganode just maintains an allocation in a specific category of masternode coins.
Olive Palms
By: Stephen Schatzl
Tags: Art, Literatura, Poetry, Photography, Prose

Welcome to Lit Up -The Land of Little Tales. Here you can read and submit short stories, flash fiction, poetry - in brief, your own legend. We're starting little. But that's how all big stories begin.

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